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Havn Life to grow its partnership with the US-based veterans' organization by funding and supporting the launch of its Canadian counterpart.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / Havn Life Sciences Inc. (CSE:HAVN)(OTC PINK:HAVLF)(FSE:5NP) (the "Company" or "Havn Life") a biotechnology company pursuing standardized extraction of psychoactive compounds and the development of natural healthcare products, is pleased to announce that it is supporting the founding of a Canadian counterpart to Heroic Hearts ("Heroic Hearts Canada"). The Company will provide support and funding to help Heroic Hearts Canada promote education and research to support Canadian veterans.

Heroic Hearts is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization operating in the United States that connects military veterans who are struggling with mental health issues resulting from trauma to therapy options such as psychotherapy supported by ayahuasca, psilocybin and ketamine.

Heroic Hearts also provides professional counseling and support to veterans and is working to advance scientific research on the benefits of psychedelics through studies with the University of Georgia and the University of Colorado, Boulder.

With support and funding from Havn Life, Heroic Hearts will set up its Canadian counterpart in 2021, with the goal of obtaining charitable status in Canada. Heroic Hearts Canada will serve Canadian veterans through education and advocacy for increased access to psychedelic treatment options. Heroic Hearts Canada will also develop an observational study to explore the effects of psilocybin mushrooms on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The observational study is planned to begin in the summer of 2021 and will take place in a jurisdiction where psilocybin is not a controlled substance.

In December of 2020, Havn Life announced it would supply psychedelic compounds for an observational study run by Heroic Hearts in a jurisdiction where psilocybin is not a controlled substance. The observational study will investigate effects of psilocybin mushrooms on veterans suffering from PTSD, TBI and other mental health issues that are common among veterans. This research may help develop formulations that will be used in clinical trials to assess use of these compounds in recovery from PTSD, TBI and other trauma-related mental health conditions.

Two-thirds of Canadian military personnel with PTSD do not respond completely to the best available evidence-based therapies, according to a 2018 study that examined recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration of injured service members and veterans. Further, suicide risk is higher in Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veterans than the Canadian general population, found a "Life After Service" study published in 2016.

"Our continued collaboration with Heroic Hearts has the potential to make an extraordinary impact on the mental health and overall wellbeing of military veterans," said Tim Laidler, Havn Life Director.

"As a veteran working in the mental health field, I understand the challenge of managing day-to-day activities and mental health when returning to civilian life. I am hopeful for better outcomes for veterans managing PTSD and Havn Life is looking forward to working closely with veterans and others with military backgrounds."

"I am excited to live in a time where effective mental health options are finally on the horizon for the veteran community. Heroic Hearts Project is confident that psychedelics will lead this next revolution of care. We are happy to be working with great organizations like Havn Life to make this a reality. " said Jesse Gould, CEO of Heroic Hearts Project.

Havn Life encourages other organizations to support Heroic Hearts and Heroic Hearts Canada. Future donations going to Heroic Hearts Canada will directly fund education and research to support Canadian veterans.

Visit Heroic Hearts Project for more information and to donate to Heroic Hearts.

Futhermore, Havn Life announces the departure of Executive Vice President of Research & Development, Susan Chapelle. The Company thanks Miss Chapelle for her service and wishes her luck in future endeavors.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors

Tim Moore

Chief Executive Officer

About Havn Life Sciences Inc.

Havn Life Sciences is a biotechnology company on a mission to unlock human potential using evidence-informed research. The Company is focused on standardized, quality-controlled extraction of psychoactive compounds from plants and fungi, and the development of natural health care products from non-regulated compounds. Learn more at: havnlife.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

Investor Relations Contact

ir@havnlife.com

(604) 687-7130

Media Contact

savi@emergence-creative.com

(647) 896-8078

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future of the Company's business. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release

SOURCE: Havn Life Sciences Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624572/Havn-Life-to-Support-Canadian-Counterpart-of-Veterans-Organization-Heroic-Hearts
President Donald Trump is unlikely to issue pre-emptive pardons to his children and other close associates, despite weeks of internal battles amongst White House aides, sources with knowledge of the conversations confirm to ABC News.

The sources go on to say they do not expect President Trump to issue a pardon for himself.

The sources noted the conversations have been fluid and the president has been known to change his mind at times.

Trump has been encouraged by allies to issue pardons to his children and himself over fears of possible criminal investigations specifically after Trump's call with Georgia State officials regarding the 2020 election results and the rally held on the National Mall last week that incited a riot on Capitol Hill after Trump and members of his family spoke to the crowd.

The list of pardons the Trump administration is expected to issue in the final hours of Trump's presidency is growing smaller with sources saying the final list could amount to just more than 100.
Israel has been accused of racism by the Palestinian prime minister after excluding four million people living in the West Bank and Gaza from its Covid-19 vaccine drive.

During a press conference at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to vaccinate every citizen by the end of March.

Israel's Arab residents and the Palestinians of east Jerusalem will be included in the country's vaccination drive. Palestinians living in the West Bank, and those living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, will not be given a dose.

Officials will however travel into the West Bank to make the vaccine available for Jewish settlers.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who recently accused Israel of 'racism' for its refusal to vaccinate the citizens of the West Bank and Gaza, has not publicly requested vaccines.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured being given the vaccine on 9 January, pledged to vaccinate every citizen by the end of March. Palestinians living in the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem will not be included in the vaccination drive

Israel, which is leading the vaccine race with one in five people receiving an initial dose, argues that it is not responsible for inoculating citizens in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has previously said Israel will consider helping the territories once it has taken care of its own citizens.

Major human rights groups say Israel, which controls the territories' borders, is obligated to vaccinate Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza under international law.

With tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians working in Israel and its West Bank settlements, experts say Israel should share vaccines on ethical and practical grounds.

The Israel Prison Service said yesterday it would include the 4,400 Palestinian inmates currently imprisoned in its jails in its vaccination drive following calls from rights groups, Palestinian officials and Israel's attorney general.

A health worker collects swab samples from people to test for the coronavirus in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip last week. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, will not be given the coronavirus vaccine by Israel

According to the Palestinian Prisoner's Club, about 250 Palestinians in Israeli prisons have tested positive already for the coronavirus.

But the Jewish state faced harsh criticism when Public Security Minister Amir Ohana said Palestinian prisoners would be the last to get inoculated.

Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are living under varying degrees of Israeli control, are yet to receive any vaccinations.

Rights groups have also argued that Israel is obligated to fight the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics, as laid out in the Geneva Conventions.

Israel has previously argued that the Palestinian Authority (PA), who control the West Bank, are required to meet its citizens' healthcare needs under the terms of the Oslo Accords.

A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Clalit Health Services in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Hanina, in east Jerusalem last week

The interim peace agreement, signed in the 1990s by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), gave Palestinians a degree of self-rule.

The PA has accused Israel of 'ignoring its duties' and 'committing racial discrimination' against Palestinians.

Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, has argued that Israel is 'depriving' the citizens of the West Bank of their right to healthcare.

The PA has said it has signed contracts with four vaccine providers, including the maker's of Russia's Sputnik V.

The authority said it expects to have sufficient doses to vaccinate 70 per cent of the Palestinian population, in both the West Bank and Gaza, with doses expected by mid-March.

Israel expects to have vaccinated its entire population by the end of the same month.
When Mike Cooper was sworn in as St. Tammany Parish president a year ago, he thought his biggest challenge would be the budget hole he inherited after voters had rejected a pair sales tax renewals sought by his predecessor in three separate elections.

Little did he know what 2020 would bring.

From the coronavirus pandemic and initial shutdown in mid-March to a 500-year rain event in May that swamped parts of western St. Tammany and eight hurricanes that posed a potential threat to Southeast Louisiana and St. Tammany Parish, the new president had a year he says he'd prefer to forget.

Cooper, Covington's popular two-term mayor before moving to the bigger political stage, singled out coronavirus as the most unexpected event during his inaugural year in office.

"Nobody could expect that type of crisis," he said last week, looking back on his first year. "And then dealing with the effects of the pandemic on our businesses, on our non-profit and service organizations, our schools  the effect of what it had on our regular daily life, not to mention the health of our citizens."

Despite that, he points to accomplishments that include getting public works projects completed despite the pandemic and beginning work on an update to the parish's comprehensive land use plan.

Cooper, who defeated incumbent Pat Brister with 61% of the vote, didn't only face bad weather during his inaugural year. He's also experienced political turbulence.

Cooper ran on a platform of rebuilding public trust, pointing to the sales tax failures that Brister supported as evidence that confidence in government had eroded. He also addressed tensions between growth and the environment, promising to avoid development mistakes of the past.

But while Cooper's election brought a big change to the parish administration, the Parish Council saw minimal turnover and its members had been supporters of his opponent. Council Chairman Mike Lorino and then-Vice-Chairman Rykert Toledano were among a group of council members who made a political commercial for Brister.

"It put an edge in the relationship on both sides at the beginning," Cooper acknowledged.

As the year unfolded, Cooper and the Parish Council clashed on several issues, most notably the expansion of Medline, a Fortune 500 company that wanted to expand its existing footprint in St. Tammany with large new distribution center, despite opposition from nearby residents.

The Cooper administration denied a land-clearing permit in August, triggering a lawsuit by the land's owner, All State Financial. And although Cooper ultimately capitulated and agreed to issue the permit, Medline decided at year's end to instead build in Hammond, farther west on Interstate 12. Councilman Jerry Binder, who was elected vice chairman this month, called Medline the biggest "miss" of 2020 and said it is what he would most criticize about Cooper's first year.

"What I believe was and still is the toughest challenge for President Cooper is communication and the understanding that the council does not work for him, and he does not work for the council," Lorino added.

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Running parish government is very different from being mayor of Covington, Lorino said. "Then he was hit with the natural disasters, all of them unprecedented ... It just compounded his learning ability of how parish government works vs. a little municipality."

Cooper said he thinks coronavirus's grip on the parish  St. Tammany Parish has had more than 15,000 cases and at least 360 deaths  early in the first year interrupted efforts to build relationships and communication. But he defends the governing style he brought from his days as mayor.

"My governing philosophy remains the same as it was when I served a smaller constituency  I listen to citizens' needs and concerns and do my best to meet those needs and address those concerns to the greatest extent within my power."

While Cooper has taken his lumps from the council, his popularity with constituents doesn't seem to have waned. A parishwide poll that he commissioned in November  paid for with campaign funds  showed that he has a 50.3% favorable rating compared to 5.8% unfavorable, a 10-to-1 ration that is considered very good.

Respondents also rated growth issues as the most important facing the parish and agreed or strongly agreed that big business projects that might cause flooding or increase traffic should be stopped  even as they said there is a need for more economic development.

John Martin, an unsuccessful Parish Council candidate who campaigned on the need to rein in development in flood plains, said he thinks Cooper has a lot support in the community. "I think Mike has common sense and the people in mind," Martin said. "A lot of the opposition is from developers and people who are accustomed to the old way of doing things. That old way isn't working."

Margie Vicknair-Pray, conservation projects coordinator for the Sierra Club's Delta Chapter, said that the organization gave Cooper an award recently to recognize his environmental efforts. "He's the first parish president ever who actually listens to people, he did what he said in his campaign promises. He has a hard battle ahead of him. I wish we could have have gotten more people onto the council to support him."

While those issues were at the forefront in 2020, this year Cooper and the Parish Council will be grappling with the budget  including the $24 million gap left by the sales tax defeats, money the parish government had used to maintain the jail and courthouse and to meet state-mandated costs.

A revenue review committee appointed by Cooper and Parish Council leaders is now meeting to hash out a solution, but both the council and Cooper agree that a unified effort will be needed.

"The council realizes it, President Cooper realizes it, and we're all working together to have something to present to the citizens that's clear and transparent," Lorino said.

As for the political storms of 2020, Cooper and Lorino hope to leave those behind in the new year. Lorino says he believes Cooper is a good person who wants for the parish.

"We have philosophical differences, and together we are working to move forward to serve the citizens," Cooper said.
Britain must keep Covid under wraps during the vaccine roll-out or it risks allowing the virus to mutate and render the jabs useless, an expert has warned.

Dr Christina Pagel, a health and mathematics researcher based at University College London, said allowing the virus to continue to spreading could give the coronavirus more time to mutate in a way that would make vaccines stop working.

The UK is already on high alert for mutations and today closed its borders to anyone who has not tested negative within 72 hours of travelling, to stop evolved variants coming in.

But there is still a risk that people will slip through the checks and that outbreaks will start again inside the country in the spring  vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has suggested lockdown rules could start to be lifted as soon as March.

If the virus can keep circulating it will keep mutating and, the longer this goes on for, the more likely it is that a devastating mutation will emerge. Scientists fear the virus could learn to evade vaccines and natural immunity over time.

Britain's second wave was driven by a highly infectious variant that first emerged in Kent.

Laboratory researchers have also spotted dozens of cases of a South African variant across the UK and last week confirmed 11 samples had tested positive for one of two Brazilian variants.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has already admitted that the UK's current strategy of half-vaccinating people raises the risk of the virus mutating to become vaccine-resistant.

Dr Pagel claimed a combination of rapid vaccination and stringent 'suppression' of outbreaks should continue until the majority of people have been immunised.

The NHS's vaccine programme has made impressive progress so far, with more than half of over-80s inoculated already and a total of 3,857,266 given jabs by Saturday.

At least three major coronavirus variants have been spotted in Britain in recent months  from Kent, South Africa and Brazil  and they appear to be evolving to spread faster and to evade some parts of the immune system, although scientists do not yet think any have yet got so far as to slip past the vaccines completely

Dr Pagel, who is part of the Independent SAGE group, which has been highly critical of the Government's pandemic response, told The Times: 'We know that this virus does mutate and it mutates in ways that can potentially evade the vaccine.

'Once we start vaccinating, we really want to vaccinate everybody before it starts to have the opportunity to mutate because then youre much more protected...

'What you dont want is to get to September and suddenly youve got a new variant  whether we've imported it from somewhere else or weve grown our own variant  and then you've vaccinated 40million people and you have to start from scratch.

'I just can't imagine anything worse. So that's why I think you actually want to go for suppression now.'

Although the coronavirus is constantly mutating and there have been thousands of slightly different versions of it since the pandemic began, preventing major mutations is more important now because an end to the pandemic is in sight as vaccines are coming into use.

With Britain and other countries now so close to getting Covid under control with vaccination, it would be devastating for a radically different version of the virus to emerge and for those vaccines to stop working.

Dr Christina Pagel, a member of Independent SAGE and a researcher at University College London, said: 'What you dont want is to get to September and suddenly youve got a new variant... and you have to start from scratch'

Even though it is considered unlikely, it is possible that the virus will be able to change so much that the vaccines  which are developed to produce immunity which targets a specific part of the virus when it looks a specific way  won't work against them.

There is no sign that this has already happened but the virus only needs time to mutate  the more it circulates and the longer it is active for, the more mutations that emerge.

Viruses like the coronavirus mutate and change because of errors when they reproduce.

Each time the virus spreads it has to make copies of itself by forcing the body to read its genetic code and make a new version.

This happens so fast and so often that there are inevitably random errors and, although most of them make no difference, some can give the virus an advantage that makes it spread faster or for longer.

The viruses with these advantages tend to reproduce more successfully so pass on the mutations, allowing them to become widespread.

Dr Pagel warns that letting the virus spread too much during the vaccine roll-out will give it more opportunities to mutate.

Lockdown is set to be gradually lifted from March, minister says The brutal lockdown is on track to be loosened in England from the beginning of March amid rising hopes that target of vaccinating all adults by September could be beaten by months. Another five million people will be invited to receive a jab from today, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning - and he also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March. He said the restrictions could be taken away 'gradually' from 'two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts'. Mr Zahawi also insisted that second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case. The comments came as letters started going out to people in England in the next two priority groups. That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients. However, there are concerns about a postcode lottery for access, as when people get called will depend on local progress vaccinating the first categories - which varies widely across the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday that the nation was 'nearly on the home straight' as 50 per cent of all over-80s in England have been vaccinated. Some 140 a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds. Advertisement

Coronavirus cases in the UK have started tumbling in recent days as the effects of the third national lockdown set in.

There were 38,598 new positive tests confirmed yesterday, down from 54,940 the Sunday before.

And vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has suggested lockdown could start to be lifted soon after everyone over the age of 70 has been vaccinated  that phase of immunisations is starting today as it moves down from over-80s and NHS staff.

Mr Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: 'If we take the mid-February target, two weeks after that you get your protection, pretty much, for the Pfizer/BioNTech, three weeks for the Oxford/AstraZeneca, you are protected.

'One of the things we don't know yet, and the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam is on record as saying "look give me a couple of months and I'll tell you", is the impact of the vaccine on transmission rates i.e. on infecting people.

'So there are a number of caveats that stand in the way of us reopening the economy.

'It will be gradually, it will be probably through the tiered system but you're looking at that sort of period, two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts.'

He said there should be 'very clear evidence' by the second week in March that there had been a 'break in the correlation between infection rates and hospitalisation and obviously death'.

'But of course, there are a lot of unknowns, we don't know the impact on transmission of the vaccines yet,' he added.

As well as time and space giving the coronavirus opportunities to mutate, exposing it to people who have been half-vaccinated against it could allow it to evolve into a variant that is able to survive in the presence of a trained immune system.

Vaccines have been developed to create immune responses to specific parts of the virus  mostly on the spike proteins on its outer shell  and if these change too much they could become unrecognisable to the vaccine immunity.

Giving people half-doses of vaccines  which the UK is doing to stretch its limited supplies to cover more people  could expose the virus to low levels of the immune cells that are supposed to destroy it.

If this happens often and the viruses find they can get past the weak immune response, it could lead to a version of the virus that can keep spreading even in vaccinated people.

This is more likely under the current policy of giving people their vaccines 12 weeks apart rather than the recommended three weeks because more people will catch the virus between doses when they don't have full protection.

Professor Chris Whitty admitted this month: 'That is a real worry but quite a small real worry within the system.'

'The general view was the size of the increase of the risk is sufficiently small that, measured against this ability to double the number of people who actually are vaccinated, the public health arguments are really strongly for doing what we have decided to do.'

He added: 'Clearly, if we had infinite vaccine we might have taken different approaches, but we dont.

'At this point in time, for the next three to four months, the number of vaccines we have available is going to constrain our ability to get through the 25 to 30 million people we must do.

'Whilst this is such a fast-moving virus at this time, our view was very strongly, on the balance of risk, the benefits to the UK for us at this point in the epidemic were in favour of doing this.'

The coronavirus is expected to mutate eventually in a way that will make vaccines less effective, but scientists aren't yet sure when or how drastic this will be.

It could mean that people will be vaccinated every year, as with flu.

NHS England medical director, Professor Stephen Powis said that it was likely that there may need to be 'frequent, maybe annual' vaccination programmes to deal with new variants of Covid-19.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'The early signs are that the vaccines will be perfectly adequate for that new strain.

'Other strains of the virus will emerge  thats what happens with viruses, they mutate.

'Every year flu is a little bit different and we adapt our flu vaccines each year to cope with that.

'I think its perfectly possible that over time the Covid vaccine will need to be adapted from year to year to deal with new strains.

'The good news is that were using new technology with these new vaccines and that can be done very quickly.

'So yes it is likely that there may have to be frequent, maybe annual  like flu vaccine programmes, which will deal with these new variants, but its a bit too early to be absolutely sure yet.'
Nat Geo Wild will screen a Big Cat Week from January 25-31, with seven documentaries each night at 8.30pm.

The 2021 version marks the 10th Big Cat Week and highlights National Geographic Societys commitment to conservation through its Big Cats Initiative, which supports on-the-ground research and effort to help protect Big Cats and their habitats.

Big cats are facing big challenges. Leopards now occupy just 25-37 percent of their historic range, and six of the nine subspecies of leopard are now in significant trouble.

For many big cat populations, extinctions are imminent due to habitat loss, degradation and conflicts with humans.

The National Geographic Society has a long history of raising awareness of the plight of big cats and supporting impactful conservation efforts across the planet.

Its Big Cats Initiative partners with National Geographic Wild for its widely recognized Big Cat Week programming event. The annual programming event on National Geographic Wild displays the majesty and might of these animals.

Additionally, the programming works hand-in-hand to highlight the work the National Geographic Society is doing to protect big cats and their habitats through the Big Cat Initiative with Derek and Beverly Joubert.

Big Cat Week will begin on Monday January 25 at 8.30pm AEDT on National Geographic Wild, with Jade Eyed Leopard, from world-renowned big-cat filmmakers, National Geographic Explorers and co-founders of the Big Cat Initiative Beverly and Dereck Joubert and narrated by the Academy Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated actor Jeremy Irons (Watchmen, The Lion King).

The one-hour special transports viewers to an idyllic paradise, where for the first time ever, National Geographic cameras capture the story of a young leopard, Toto, during the critical first three years of her life.

Viewers follow this cub with deep aquamarine eyes  an exceptionally rare trait  and experience her challenges and triumphs firsthand as Toto learns the fundamental skills of survival and makes her passage to adulthood.

Jade Eyed Leopard (Monday, January 25, 8.30pm AEDT)

Her name is Toto, Swahili for small, with the most striking, bright, aquamarine eyes. She was born under a safari camp tent in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. JADE EYED LEOPARD, narrated by Emmy-nominated and Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons (Watchmen), reveals the first three years of Totos life as she learns the fundamental skills of survival and makes her passage to adulthood. World-renowned filmmakers, National Geographic Explorers and big cat conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert uncover Totos tale with stunning perspective  shot in pristine 4K and seldom-before-seen thermal night vision views.

Frozen Kingdom of the Snow Leopard (Tuesday, January 26, 8.30pm AEDT)

Shot over three years in Chinas Qhinghai Mountains and with never-before-seen footage, The Frozen Kingdom of the Snow Leopard tells the story of a devout female snow leopard who settles into an unfamiliar valley to give birth and raise her two cubs despite incredible odds.

Tiger Queen of Taru (Wednesday January 27, 8.30pm AEDT)

Filmed over six years, the story of Maya the tigress plays out in a tiger reserve in Tadoba, Central India. Here, Bengal tigers chase wild dogs, fight sloth bears and feud among themselves over bloodlines and territory in never-before seen footage. Maya writes her own rules when it comes to raising a litter, yet motherhood does not come easy. One thing is clear, Maya will do whatever it takes to secure her bloodline within the Kingdom of Taru.

Diary of a Teen Leopard (Thursday January 28, 8.30pm AEDT)

Pemba is a Mammas Boy! At two-years old, he should be independent, but hes still living at home! Like most teenagers, hes impatient and headstrong, which makes him bad at stalking and hunting, so Mom provides all their meals. But when Mom is injured Pemba is forced to grow up fast in order to survive! Can he sever those apron strings and face his fears to launch into adulthood?

A Leopards Legacy (Friday, January 29, 8.30pm AEDT)

A confident and powerful leopardess named Olimba, rules over an exceptionally large area along Zambias Luangwa river. She is a formidable hunter, a courageous ruler, and a devoted mother. Shes just given birth to two tiny cubs, and as she faces the challenging task of motherhood, its a constant battle to hunt successfully, to defend her prime territory, and to protect her cubs against her enemies. During their first few months, the cubs go from strength to strength, as Olimba introduces them to the world of a carnivore. But whenever she goes out hunting, she leaves them vulnerable. One day, Olimba discovers a nomadic male leopard near her cubs, and without hesitation, she attacks him. He makes a lucky escape, but when Olimba returns to the den, one of her cubs is gone. As she comes to terms with her loss, Olimba forges on as a devoted mother, and passes on all her knowledge to her blue-eyed boy, named Makumbi. When hes a year old and succeeds in hunting his own prey, Olimba parts ways with her son. But their final hostile encounter leaves the youngster vulnerable, with a dreadful eye injury. His resilience and fighting spirit see him through, and despite his blind eye, he turns into a strong-willed hunter.

Leopard & Hyena: Strange Alliance (Saturday, January 30, 8.30pm AEDT)

When Toni, a young male hyena is expelled from his clan, he forms an unexpected hunting partnership with Mahri, a female leopard. But predator enemies are waiting to drive a wedge between them. After an explosive attack from wild dogs, Toni must decide between returning to Mahri or joining a clan of his own.

Cecil: The Legacy of a King (Sunday January 31, 8.30pm AEDT)

This incredible special follows the life and legacy of one of the worlds most famous lions  Cecil. The ultimate big cat king, Cecil was a warrior, a father and a loyal brother. But his untimely death at the hands of an illegal hunt  spelled the end of his extraordinary reign; evoking feelings of fury and sadness to all who heard his tale across the globe. This special will look at the life of the lion behind the headlines, it will look at his pride before and after his death as well as how he came to be Africas ultimate king of the beasts.

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President-elect Joe Biden has signaled that he will move quickly to begin to reverse President Trumps odious approaches to immigration. Some of those actions will be easier than others, but his to-do list released over the weekend showed that he rightly has made a priority of treating people coming to the United States with policies that are both pragmatic and humane  a sharp contrast to Trumps hostile, divisive and counterproductive agenda.

Biden can use executive actions to undo some of the damage from the Trump years by overturning the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, lifting the threat of deportation over the Dreamers, who were brought to the country as young children, and ordering federal agencies to develop plans to reunite children who were separated from their families after crossing the border.

Reversal of those unduly cruel Trump-era policies was included in a memo of Bidens first-10-days plan circulated Saturday by incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and obtained by the New York Times and the Washington Post, among others. Obviously, the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout is a pressing focus of Bidens immediate plans  and rightly so. That will include extended relief from evictions and student loan payments and a mask mandate for federal buildings and interstate travel.

This nations long-avoided addressing of a broken immigration system is more of perennial crisis, and Bidens willingness to tackle it shows that he is willing to go beyond symbolism or simplistic but ultimately illusory promises like Trumps pledge to build a 1,000-mile wall along the border and make Mexico pay for it.

The presence of immigration reform on a priority list also suggests Bidens sincerity about his pledge to work across party lines to take on tough issues. He cant do it alone; it would require legislation from a Congress that is narrowly divided in partisan composition.

Just ask former President George W. Bush about the difficulty of reaching a consensus in far less strident times. In 2007, Bush and leading Democrats  including then-Sens. Joe Biden and Barack Obama  were backing a compromise that would have provided a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million residents, most from Latin America, who had entered the U.S. without authorization. It contained toughened border security and workplace measures along with a merit-based system for future Democrats.

But the Bush-backed package died in the U.S. Senate in June 2007, where it fell 14 votes short of the 60 required to advance to a final vote in the 100-member Senate.

A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldnt find common ground, Bush said at the time. It didnt work.

And it didnt work for his successor, Obama, who came into office promising to produce comprehensive immigration reform. He could not achieve his big goal, and ended up settling for piecemeal successes such as protecting Dreamers from deportation and eliminating large workplace raids and focusing enforcement on immigrants with criminal records.

Then Trump, who made vilification of immigrants a campaign staple, went in the opposition direction, putting undue stress on the millions of law-abiding immigrants who are contributing to our communities while living in the shadows, as well as the employers who depend on their labor.

The recent history of immigration policy has underscored the importance of legislation to provide a reality-based system that wont be subject to the whims of executive orders that swing between liberal and conservative depending on who is in the Oval Office.

Biden deserves credit for taking it on.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
As the United States braced for possible violence after the Capitol riot, Starbucks decided to close several New York city stores out of concern of potential protests.

Starbucks closed some of its store in New York for employees' and customers' safety

On Sunday, the company said in a statement, "Out of an abundance of caution and to keep employee and customer safety top of mind, local leaders made the decision to close selected stores in the Manhattan area due to potential protests happening today."

National Guard troops were assigned to Washington D.C. and state capitals to Albany, New York from Sacramento, California to brace with possible violence in the coming days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

Protests were being planned across the U.S.by Trump's supporters, law enforcement said. On January 6, after a rally, rioters attacked and ransacked the U.S. Capitol building that led to five people's deaths.

However, according to USA Today, protests appeared to be small, scattered, and quiet as of Sunday afternoon. There have been few, sometimes armed, demonstrators who appeared outside the statehouses in Michigan, South Carolina, and Ohio.

But as of Sunday afternoon, pro-Trump protests appeared to be scattered, small and quiet, with only a few, sometimes armed, demonstrators appearing outside statehouses in South Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio.

Read also: Inauguration Security: Police Apprehend Individuals Violating DC Security Protocol

When will Starbucks' stores in NY open?

According to Market Watch, Starbucks' spokesperson Jessica Conradson said the Manhattan branches are expected to reopen on Monday. The Seattle-based company explained that temporary closures are due to many people working in the stores living outside of Manhattan, and they might get stuck from getting home if there will be protests that will disrupt transit service.

Some darkened stores put signage saying they are temporarily closed. Although there were no major protests in the state on Sunday, public officials said there are no specific, credible threats to the city that would stem from the election or the violence in the U.S. Capitol. The NYPD ensured it increased security around particular government areas in New York as a precaution. At the state capitol in Alban, the place was quiet despite fears sparked due to warnings of armed protest.

Read also: Parler CEO John Matze and Family Receive Death Threats, Forced to Hide

New York capitol quiet after protest concerns

The environs surrounding the New York capital were quiet, though law enforcement radicalized Trump's supporters might arrive and continue to protest regarding the November's election results. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, media reporters and photographers spotted a few counter-protesters who came early Sunday outside the capitol steps.

The FBI Albany field office and Albany police, held a press conference to encourage people to stay away from the capitol as they received unspecific threats o violence planned in the area. Earlier, the FBI alerted Washington D.C., saying demonstrations were being planned at 50 state capitols between January 17 and the inauguration day.

Read also: New York's 'Miracle Baby' Bravely Survives COVID-19, Liver Transplant

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas have reportedly broken up after almost a year of dating.

The duo, who were first linked in early 2020, 'mutually and amicably' decided to go their separate ways, it was reported on Monday.

Several sources confirmed the split to People, with one insider revealing that Ana, 32, didn't want to be tied to Los Angeles, where Ben has to be based for his kids.

'Ben is no longer dating Ana,' the source told the publication. 'She broke it off. Their relationship was complicated. Ana doesn't want to be Los Angeles based and Ben obviously has to since his kids live in Los Angeles.'

It's over: Ben Affleck is no longer dating Ana de Armas after a nearly a year of dating after meeting on the set of Deep Water in November 2019. They are pictured here in May 2020

Another insider added that the split was mutual and 'completely amicable'.

They told the publication: 'They are in different points in their lives; there is deep love and respect there. Ben continues to want to work on himself. He has three jobs lined up and hes a solid father at home. They are both happy with where they are in their lives.'

Additionally, UsWeekly quotes a source who revealed: 'Ben and Ana were moving in different directions in their lives and stopped seeing eye to eye. The two couldnt work through their differences and have decided to end their relationship.'

The couple appeared to be getting more serious in recent months. Over the summer it was rumored that Ana, 32, had moved in to the Gone Girl star's Pacific Palisades home after putting her Venice, California property on the market.

'Ben is no longer dating Ana,' a source told People . 'She broke it off. Their relationship was complicated. Ana doesn't want to be Los Angeles based and Ben obviously has to since his kids live in Los Angeles.' The couple are seen here in July 2020

Solo: Ben, 48, is pictured here on January 9, walking his dog. The actor hasn't been pictured with Ana since November 2020

In August, she was spotted moving her things into Ben's property from her Venice home.

The Cuban born actress was even seen flashing a diamond ring on her hand as she joined Ben for some reshoots of their movie Deep Water in New Orleans in November.

But it seems the ring was simply a prop for the movie, as the actors play a married couple in the Adrian Lyne-directed psychological thriller.

The actors met on the set of same movie when production kicked off in November 2019.

They were then spotted on a romantic getaway to Ana's native Cuba in March 2020 before heading to Costa Rica and getting back to Los Angeles just before the lockdowns started.

The beginning: The couple were pictured on a romantic getaway to Ana's native Cuba in March 2020 before heading to Costa Rica and getting back to Los Angeles just before the lockdowns started

Happy: Ana made their relationship Instagram official in April when she shared snaps of the couple hanging out on her 32nd birthday

Engagement buzz: The Cuban born actress was seen flashing a diamond ring on her hand as she joined Ben for some reshoots of their movie Deep Water in New Orleans in November 2020. It was later revealed to be just a prop for the movie

They spent much of 2020 inseparable, enjoying walks in LA with their dogs and casual outings for coffee.

Ana made their relationship Instagram official in April when she shared snaps of the couple hanging out on her 32nd birthday.

During their relationship the actor introduced Ana to his three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner; Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11 and Samuel, eight.

Sources at the time told People: 'Ana seems to love being around his kids. Everyone has been getting along great. Ana is making an effort to get to know his kid.'

Supportive: The couple appeared to be getting more serious in recent months. Here Ben is seen visiting Ana on the set of a shoot in Malibu

Low key: They spent much of 2020 inseparable, enjoying walks in LA with their dogs and casual outings for coffee

Ben was previously married to Jennifer from 2005 to 2018 and they have a built a solid co-parenting relationship in recent years, with the actress also supporting Ben with his sobriety.

Before meeting Ana, Ben was in a relationship with SNL producer Lindsay Shookus from July 2017 to August 2018. They reunited in February the following year before ending things for good in April 2019.

The actor also dated model Shauna Sexton briefly in 2018.

In February 2020 the Good Will Hunting star talked about his desire to meet someone special.

'I would love to have a relationship that is deeply meaningful and one to which I could be deeply committed,' he said during a Good Morning America interview.

All smiles: Ana shared this photo of the couple in August

'Five years from now Ben Affleck is sober and happy and sees his kids three-and-a-half days a week and has made three or four movies that are interesting to him. I directed two [movies] that he is hopefully proud of and is in a healthy, stable, loving, committed relationship.'

The movie star has been open about his lifelong struggle with alcoholism and had been to rehab several times over the years. He completed his last stint at a treatment facility in October 2018 and wrote about it on social media.

'This week I completed a 40-day stay at a treatment center for alcohol addiction and remain in outpatient care,' the post read.

'Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle. Because of that, one is never really in or out of treatment. It is a full-time commitment. I am fighting for myself and my family.'

A year later he admitted to suffering a relapse when he was spotted, clearly intoxicated, falling over while leaving the UNICEF masquerade ball in LA.

'It was just a slip, Im not going to let it derail me.' he said at the time.
New Delhi: The farmer unions staging the sit in protest at Delhi remained firm on holding the tractor rally on January 26, Republic Day as scheduled and vowed to continue their stir till the three farm laws are revoked.

While addressing a joint press conference at the Singhu border, union leader Yogendra Yadav said, "We will carry out a tractor parade on Republic Day. The parade will be very peaceful,"he said, adding, "There will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade. The farmers will put up the national flag on their tractors," he said.

It was stressed that the aim of this proposed protest march, which will cover a distance of 50 km, was not to disrupt the Republic Day parade.

While, Agriculture Minister Tomar said that the farmer unions should give up their stubborn stand and sit for a clause by clause discussion with the Centre on Tuesday.

Except for the demand of repealing the laws, the government is ready to consider "seriously and with an open heart" other alternatives, Tomar said.

Also, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reached out to the protesting farer unions saying the Narendra Modi-led government is dedicated to the farmers. He assured that the three central farm laws would ensure a manifold hike in their earnings.

He stressed, that the Modi government had increased the budget for the farm sector and also the minimum support price (MSP) for various crops, he said at an event in Bagalkote district in Karnataka.

"I want to say that if there is any big priority of the Narendra Modi government it is to double the farmers' income," he said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will hear the various pleas related to the contentious farm laws on Monday. A three-judge bench of the SC is likely to take up the matter of recusal of Bhupendra Singh Maan from the four-member committee on farm laws. The committee will hold its first meeting on January 19.

The Supreme Court will also hear a petition by the Delhi Police seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march, claiming that it could lead to a law and order situation. Delhi Police has also reportedly put up posters of various terrorists, most of them Khalistanis, at various places across the national capital.

On January 12, the SC stayed the implementation of Centre's three farm laws till further orders.

On the other hand, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters in Nagpur that they will continue their agitation till the three farm laws are repealed.

"We are prepared to sit in protest till May 2024... Our demand is that the three laws be taken back and the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP," he said.

The shows that little has changed in the unions' stand on the issue of farm bills even as the protests on Delhi's borders continue for over 50 days.

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California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

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Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

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Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

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Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

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Were eager to use our extensive industry experience to enrich the softwares capabilities and provide even more value to our clients in coming years.

Seattle startup acquired by Univerus

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This acquisition is a wonderful win for everyone, said Brad Atchison, CEO of Univerus. Its a great opportunity for Energy Hippo to join a growing team and it better enables Univerus to serve our clients as trusted advisors on building systems, operations and energy efficiency. Importantly, this change will be valuable to Energy Hippo customers, who will benefit from Univerus size, resources and complimentary offerings.

Nitin Manchanda, CEO of Energy Hippo, said he is excited by the chance to integrate with the rest of the Univerus platform.

We see so many possibilities for our clients, Manchanda said. Were eager to use our extensive industry experience to enrich the softwares capabilities and provide even more value to our clients in coming years.

About Univerus

UNIVERUSs mission is to add amazing people to our team, and proven solutions to our ecosystem. Representing a family of innovative technology brands, including fieldGO, MAIS, C2Logix, Compliance Science and SmartGridCIS. UNIVERUSs centralized management approach means their suite of tech companies can focus on what they do best: providing customers with the best products in the marketplace.

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Energy Hippos enterprise energy management software (EEM Suite) has been one of the industry leaders for over 20 years. EEM Suite is an energy and financial software platform for end use customers that is secure, stable, and adaptable to different markets.
Domestic violence claimed 19 lives in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2020, the highest number in at least a decade, and more than quadrupled the previous year.

Advocates and law enforcement officials say the pandemic played a major role. Isolated at home with their abusers, victims struggled to survive in increasingly dangerous and volatile situations where violence became more frequent or escalated more quickly.

"It's been a bad year," said Mariah Wineski, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. What COVID did is create the perfect environment for domestic violence to flourish.

Misdemeanor cases for domestic violence were relatively steady  and officials suspect underreported  despite the much higher death toll.

It seemed this year that the level of violence committed against women has been much higher, said East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III. That is, the brutality of it has seemed to increase this year.

Domestic abuse made up close to half of the Baton Rouge Police Department's major assaults cases.

Red flags

The warnings started early.

Twahna Harris, who leads the domestic violence nonprofit, spent much of mid-March fielding calls from victims just trying to survive hour to hour, as public health guidance encouraged people to stay home and avoid potential exposure to the virus.

With the threat of a lockdown looming and the countless unknowns of the pandemic ahead, many victims could not see a path out of their abusers control as the world closed around them.

Domestic violence victims vulnerable as coronavirus causes isolation; help still available As self-isolation and quarantine measures go into effect across the state to halt the spread of the coronavirus, domestic violence advocates f

Harris, herself a survivor of abuse, sounded exhausted and hopeless as she explained back in March that all she could tell victims was to find a quiet place, like a bathroom or closet, to escape their abuser for a few minutes.

Its so hard...finding the words to say to them. I find it to be challenging in a time like this, she said, her voice breaking. Just letting them know that were with them.

Baton Rouge officials had seen a similar pattern of relationship and family violence in 2017 following the chaos and traumatic events of the previous year. Large-scale civil unrest after the death of Alton Sterling, a fatal police ambush and a catastrophic flood had brutalized the city, leaving many without security or stability.

That year saw 14 domestic violence homicides, Moore said. Financial strain, cramped living quarters, job uncertainty, limited outreach for victims and intense emotional fallout strained already-abusive relationships until they snapped. When the coronavirus emerged last year, officials feared it would create similar conditions.

Nine months later, the finalized numbers confirm those initial fears.

Pressure points

The death toll includes girlfriends, like 21-year-old Kinnedy Smith who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend; mothers, like 40-year-old Brenda Mullens, who was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend after she refused to let him in her home with her three children; law enforcement officials, like Lt. Glenn Hutto Jr., a Baton Rouge Police officer who died at the hands of a man who had just killed his girlfriend's stepfather; and toddlers, like two-year-old Azariah Thomas.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

As the pandemic dragged on, the stress and uncertainty of a tumultuous year ramped up existing tension. Children were pulled from classrooms to keep them safe and many primary breadwinners lost jobs, straining relationships already pulled taut.

According to Melanie Fields, a domestic violence prosecutor, disputes between an abuser and a victim that turn violent often involve allegations of cheating, usually originating with a cell phone. But 2020 had an added layer of stress.

For instance, when the first round of stimulus checks showed up, the fight over who the money belonged to and how it should be spent often resulted in violence, Fields said.

These breaking points played out in the end-of-year statistics provided by Moore's office.

Baton Rouges Family Court remained open even during the early lockdown, and applications for temporary restraining orders increased slightly  though Fields noted the uptick may have been steeper if victims didnt have to go right back home after filing for the order.

But even that slight increase is remarkable, according to Moore, because access to justice was tough to get in the initial days of the pandemic response.

While the tally of domestic violence misdemeanors was similar to 2019, Fields and Moore believe that a vast number were underreported because victims were stuck behind closed doors with their abusers, limiting their ability to contact authorities.

Were normally always underreported, Moore said, But I think this year youre going to find...that victims are still underreporting at a higher rate this year than any other year before because theyre with the abuser.

+4 24 hours of rising domestic violence in Baton Rouge: 'It's happening in the shadows' On Wednesday morning, a Zachary woman was discovered stabbed to death. Zachary Police arrested her boyfriend, who had a sprawling history of d

Violent crimes related to domestic violence, on the other hand, have increased significantly.

Fields said these are hard to ignore because someone usually ends up in the hospital. Baton Rouge Police Department's major assaults division reported that 309 out of 739 total cases were the result of domestic violence  approximately 42%.

Stopping the loss

Amid the rising violence found behind closed doors across the city, there are efforts underway to help.

In late October the Capital Area Family Justice Center opened, which serves as a one-stop shop for domestic violence victims to seek housing options and legal services. Weeks later, IRIS Domestic Violence Center opened a new, larger shelter serving East Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes.

At Moores office, his team has been working to implement their Stop the Loss initiative, which aims to identify known, chronic domestic violence offenders and intervene before tragedy strikes.

The process to pull together data and develop protocols has taken the better part of two years, but Moore said an earnest implementation has begun in recent months. Part of their model is to offer parallel services for both victims and the abusers as a way to address violence.

Its meant to...offer services for both the offenders and victims  unless the offender is so serious we have to just work on intense prosecution, Fields said. The design is to curb domestic violence as a whole, but most importantly to stop the loss of life.

For homeless domestic violence survivors, new funding will help find them a safe place to live In a year where domestic violence rates and deaths have spiked dramatically, a nonprofit that supports abuse survivors has found a way to find

Eventually, the coronavirus will begin to subside. Moore hopes that then things start to change.

When were able to open up more, [victims] will be able to go to safe refuges and friends and family, Moore said. Theyll talk to them like they cant talk to them now because theyre stuck at home with the abuser.
Analyst Argishti Kiviryan touched upon the court hearing on the case of alleged overthrow of constitutional order scheduled for tomorrow and posted the following on his Facebook page:

It is perfectly cynical to see a team that led Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to destruction and is leading Armenia and the future of the Armenian nation to destruction, continue to try Robert Kocharyan.

Before trying Robert Kocharyan, Pashinyan and his team must first and foremost try themselves for destroying a country that became an orderly country during the administration of Robert Kocharyan. In this situation, any decent person must not allow the trial that has turned into a comedy since it has nothing to do with the events that took place on March 1, 2008 and justice and is just the fruit of Nikols sick imagination. One doesnt have to support Robert Kocharyan in order to say NO to this trial. All one has to do is to be a CITIZEN who rejects Nikols manipulation tool.

Robert Kocharyan has done so much for the Armenian nation that he can expect the support of the Armenian nation, especially the healthy and sound Armenians. Be a citizen and say no to injustice and Nikols sick whims

Earlier, the committee set up for freedom for Robert Kocharyan invited citizens to a protest in front of the court in Shengavit district of Yerevan tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
Roughly 30 years ago, Boston Police Officer Jeremiah Hurley and his partner, Officer Francis Foley, went to Thomas L. Shays home on Eastbourne Street in Roslindale to investigate a suspicious object he had found on the crest of his driveway the day before.

The object, which had fallen from the underbelly of his 1986 Buick Century, was a bomb.

According to court records, the radio-activated devices explosive force came from two or three sticks of dynamite connected to a pair of electric blasting caps.

Among the components used in the construction of the bomb were duct tape, four AA batteries, five nine-volt batteries, various wires and a Futaba radio. All of the pieces of the explosives laid in a black wooden box, read documents filed in Boston federal court.

When Hurley and Foley, both members of the departments bomb squad, went to dismantle the device on Oct. 28, 1991, what transpired was tragic: The bomb detonated. The blast killed Hurley, a 23-year veteran of the department, and severely wounded Foley, leaving the officer maimed.

Hurley was 50 years old when he was killed in the line of duty. Three of his children - David, Leanne and Donald - have followed in their fathers footsteps. They now work as officers in the Boston Police Department, with 70-plus years of service under their belt collectively.

Following the explosion, a massive manhunt ensued involving federal, state and local law enforcement. Months later in June 1993, the investigation culminated with the return of a three-count indictment against Thomas A. Shay, Thomas L. Shays son, and Arthur Trenkler, a 30-year-old man who law enforcement alleged constructed the bomb.

Authorities fingered the blame for the fatal explosion on the younger Shay and Trenkler, arguing the two men plotted to kill the elder Shay to collect the insurance proceeds that would have resulted from his death.

The younger Shay was tried in the case first, convicted on counts of conspiracy and malicious destruction of property by means of explosives and sentenced to serve concurrent sentences of 188 and 60 months in prison, though his sentence was later reduced to just 144 months, or 12 years.

Trenkler was convicted for his involvement in the bombing in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison, though he has maintained his innocence for decades, claiming he did not know the younger Shay and that the theory underpinning his conviction does not make sense.

In 2011, he co-wrote a 570-age book in which he argued the case for his innocence. Its title: Perfectly Innocent - The Wrongful Conviction of Alfred Trenkler.

After serving 26 years in prison, Trenkler, now in his 60s, is seeking compassionate release, arguing he was unlawfully sentenced and that a severe heart condition puts him at increased risk of becoming life-threateningly ill from coronavirus.

His heart is so poorly functioning that it pumps only 20% of the blood out of his left ventricle, Nancy Gertner, Trenklers Boston-based attorney, wrote in her motion for compassionate release filed Friday. His conditions are irreversible and dangerous in the best of circumstances; they put him at grave risk of severe illness and death if he were to contract COVID-19.

United States Penitentiary Tucson, the federal prison in Arizona where Trenkler is housed, is experiencing an outbreak of the viral respiratory infection, which has already claimed the lives of eight prisoners and infected hundreds more, the lawyer argued in her motion.

Trenkler, who suffers from a complete heart block, already filed a request for compassionate release with the warden of USP Tucson. However, his motion was denied. The warden argued his health issues are currently well-controlled and will continued to be monitored, according to Gertner.

Within a month after the wardens response, though, Trenklers heart condition dramatically deteriorated, and he was subsequently hospitalized on two different occasions in June and July, the attorney noted.

At the same time, the numbers of COVID-19 cases at USP and around the state ramped up, leading Trenkler to file another request for release in November. He has yet to receive a response from the warden, according to the lawyers motion.

Even without COVID-19, Mr. Trenkler is essentially at the point of needing a heart transplant, Gertner wrote. There can be no doubt that Mr. Trenkler, should he contract COVID-19, faces a high likelihood of acute infection and death.

Along with pointing to Trenklers elevated health risks, Gertner in her motion for compassionate release also laid out alleged discrepancies in the 64-year-old mans case.

In 1993, prosecutors argued Trenkler, an electrical engineer, built the bomb that led to the Boston police officers death, noting he had constructed a similarly-fashioned device years prior in Quincy on the behest of a friend.

Trenkler was not convicted of any crime related to the incident, though, and the evidence was found by the U.S First Circuit of Appeals to be inadmissible, unreliable hearsay, according to Gertner. Still, the attorney said, the court ruled admitting the evidence in his initial trial was harmless.

According to the lawyers motion, critical to the courts finding was the testimony of David Lindholm, an inmate who claimed Trenkler admitted to making the bomb while the two men were incarcerated together.

Lindholm testified that he met Trenkler at the Plymouth House of Correction, where they spent four days jailed together in a holding cell in December 1992. He claimed the two prisoners had numerous conversations and gradually bonded. According to court records, Trenkler eventually admitted to building the Roslindale bomb.

The New England Innocence Project, a nonprofit that has also advocated for Trenklers release, has countered that Lindholm received a substantial sentence reduction immediately after Trenklers conviction and has since gone on to make a career as a government witness.

The organization also argued the younger Shays implication of Trenkler in the bombing went forward at trial, despite the fact that he had been diagnosed with pseudologica fantasica, a mental illness that can lead to pathological lying and delusions.

Virtually every piece of evidence originally supporting Trenklers conviction is no longer viable, the Innocence Project wrote in 2016. In short, the courts have failed to see the forest for the trees. Trenkler sits in federal prison despite the absence of any credible evidence that he actually committed the crime.

Shay, who was released from prison in 2002, has since recanted his statements and claimed to have been threatened by government attorneys. In a 2006 interview with The Patriot Ledger, Shay insisted Trenkler was innocent.

In 2007, Trenkler claimed in U.S. District Court he had been illegally sentenced to life imprisonment, arguing that because the jury had not directed the life sentence, it was an unlawful sentence.

The court agreed, vacated his original sentence and proceeded to re-sentence him to a shorter prison term. However, the federal Court of Appeals later reversed the decision.

After Shays re-sentencing, Trenkler argued, the disproportionate treatment of the two defendants could not be clearer.

Here, the illegality of Mr. Trenklers sentence, the disparity between his sentence and that of his co-defendant, and the profound questions about Mr. Trenklers guilt are extraordinary, compelling, and militate in favor of relief, the attorney argued.
New laws are to be introduced in Britain to protect historic statues from campaigners aiming to censor the country's past, British Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Jenrick announced he plans new laws to protect links to the past, and generations-old monuments should be "considered thoughtfully".

It followed the removal of a statue in Bristol of Edward Colston over his link to the slave trade and calls for street names linked to slave traders or Britain's colonial past to be changed.

The statue of Colston was dragged from its pedestal, rolled through city streets and thrown into the harbor at the height of Black Lives Matter campaigns.

Jenrick said statues at risk are not just those of figures who are seldom remembered, adding: "It is absurd and shameful that the statue of Winston Churchill should be questioned. Nor is Horatio Nelson safe from the revisionist purge."

Jenrick said: "I am changing the law to protect historic monuments and ensure we don't repeat the errors of previous generations. Proper process will now be required. Any decisions to remove these heritage assets will require planning permission and councils after consultation with the local community."

He is to lay his new laws before the British parliament Monday, he added.

Jenrick said: "There has been an attempt to impose a single, often negative narrative which not so much recalls our national story, as seeks to erase part of it."

The legislation would require planning permission for any changes and a minister would be given the final veto. It will be revealed in Parliament on Monday, the BBC reported.

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HMS Active, a Royal Navy frigate which survived active duty in the Falklands War, has met its end during a Pakistan navy drill.

The Type 21 frigate - decommissioned by the Royal Navy in 1994 and sold to Pakistan which renamed her the PNS Shah Jahan - was blown up in a training exercise on January 12.

Video released by the Pakistan Navy showed the ship being struck by a torpedo in the North Arabian Sea before splitting in half and disappearing beneath the waves.

'So sad,' one Twitter user wrote. 'Served on her from 89-91 and saw her in Bahrain in 2013. Great memories of my time onboard.'

HMS Active is a Type 21 frigate which was transferred to Pakistan in 1994 and renamed the PNS Shah Jahan. It was sunk during a live-fire Navy drill

HMS Active, a Royal Navy Type 21 frigate which was transferred to Pakistan in 1994 and recommissioned as the PNS Shah Jahan, was sunk on January 12 as part of a live-fire exercise

HMS Active was commissioned in July 1977 and went on to participate in the Falklands War, departing on May 10, 1982. File image of HMS Active above

The navy drill on January 12 saw the Pakistan Navy Fleet firing live weapons, with the frigate among the targets that were destroyed with anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.

Video of the military exercise shows a missile being launched by the Pakistani Navy fleet which flies across the North Arabian Sea.

It hits the frigate which subsequently breaks in half from the impact.

In a statement, the Pakistan Navy said: 'In an impressive fire power display, #PakNavy demonstrated combat readiness & War Fighting capabilities through Live Weapon Firing at North Arabian Sea.

'Missiles & Torpedoes launched from #PakNavy Submarines successfully engaged intended targets.'

The Navy Lookout tweeted: 'Pakistani Navy has destroyed PNS Shah Jahan during SINKEX in the Arabian sea.

In a statement, the Pakistan Navy said: 'In an impressive fire power display, #PakNavy demonstrated combat readiness & War Fighting capabilities through Live Weapon Firing at North Arabian Sea'

The ship was expended as a target by the Pakistan Navy in the North Arabian Sea earlier this month as part of a live-fire drill

HMS Active, a frigate which survived the Falklands War, has met its end during a Pakistan navy drill

'Type 21 frigate, ex-HMS Active transferred to Pakistan 1994.'

HMS Active was commissioned in July 1977 and went on to participate in the Falklands War, departing on May 10, 1982.

Following its service in the Falklands War, Active was decommission in September 1994.

It was sold to Pakistan the same month and renamed the Shah Jahan.
Airlines will need continuing access to emergency funding and government support for the foreseeable future as the sector struggles with heavy debt loads, according to PWC.

PWC's 2021 Aviation Industry Outlook, published today, says the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has permanently realigned the finances of airlines and many will be casualties of the crisis.

However, the report also says investors are ready to pick up bargains in distressed aviation deals for the first time in a decade.

The report notes that, in many cases, drastic surgery will be needed to right-size fleets, restructure business models and recapitalise airlines.

In order to survive and thrive in the post-Covid world, airlines will have to fundamentally re-think their fleets, their business models and their finances," said Dick Forsberg, author of the report and Senior Aviation Finance Consultant at PWC Ireland. "For most, a return to business as usual is not going to be a viable option.

Read More

He said airlines could not simply pick up where they left off last March, when the pandemic went global, because many markets may have become uneconomic to serve. He added that there were too many aircraft in the system for a market that is unlikely to quickly return to pre-pandemic passenger numbers of 4.5 billion.

These factors meant the finances of many airlines would not work in the new world. "The crippling debt burden that is building across much of the airline industry will require root and branch restructuring in order to bring long-term solvency and profitability," Mr Forsberg said

The International Air Transport Authority predicts that the airline industry will lose 98bn in 2020 and a further 32bn in 2021. Extensive government support, estimated to be at least 149bn to date, has played a major role in saving a number of weak carriers from collapse, but in doing so has created an unlevel playing field, the report noted.

On Friday, the High Court wound up an Irish-registered company within the Norwegian Air group. An examiner was appointed to the airline  which owes its creditors some 4.15bn  and several of its subsidiaries last month.

PWC said 2020 ended with 30pc of the global passenger airliner fleet  over 8,500 aircraft  inactive.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Aspen Valley Hospital clinical pharmacist Kelly Atkinson organizes the empty vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the command unit trailer set up next to the vaccination tent in the Benedict Music Tent parking lot in Aspen, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. To keep track of the empty vials, the pharmacists labeled them with individual numbers. Before the vaccine is diluted, the unused vial of vaccine looks identical to the vials after the doses have been taken out. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times via AP)

Comedy legend and veteran pantomime star Andy Gray has died aged 61, according to the BBC.

Gray was an audience favourite in festive shows, having appeared in Scottish pantos for decades. He also had a regular theatre double act with Grant Stott at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The performer was a firm fixture at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, though the venue sadly had to postpone its 2020 pantomime due to the pandemic. Gray had then been set to perform in a socially distanced show in Milton Keynes late in December, but that too was called off due to concerns over the rise in infections.

The Glasgow-born actor, who has also appeared in River City on screen, was described by co-star Gayle Telfer Stevens as a "national treasure". BBC Scotland has also issued a statement following the news, describing the man as "iconic".




The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia, is seen Feb. 20, 2007. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

NSW Aims for Full Tourism Rebound by 2024

More major events and tourism drawcards will call NSW home under a government strategy to transform the state into the largest tourism hotspot in the Asia-Pacific.

The strategy is a bid to repair the industry, battered by the coronavirus pandemic and projected to operate below pre-pandemic levels until 2024.

It plans to grow the states visitor economy to $65 billion by 2030, up from its pre-pandemic level of $43 billion.

If COVID-19 has shown us anything its that the visitor economy is everyones businessit accounts for almost 300,000 jobs and 110,000 businesses and is integral to our states economy, Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said in a statement on Jan. 18.

Once health advice allows, NSW will bounce back as a result of a $200 million a year investment to help get the tourism sector back on its feet.

The strategy would aid planning and investment in marketing, events, business support, regulations, training and tourism infrastructure, Ayres said.

Two key focuses are increasing regional NSWs stake in the industry and growing the NSW day-trip market.

A new brand for Sydney and NSW will also be developed.

Domestic travellers will be the primary target until it is safe for international travel to resume.

The strategy plans to return visitation to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

The NSW government is already charging ahead to create new tourism experiences and icons such as the new Sydney Fish Market, new sporting stadiums and cultural institutions and world-class walking tracks in regional NSW, Ayres said.

The NSW Tourism Industry Council praised the plan, including its focus on the day-trip market.

Developed against the backdrop of drought, bushfires, floods and COVID-19, the new strategy provides a clear sense of direction for those in the visitor economy who have been so badly impacted and will likely be the slowest to recover, executive manager Greg Binskin said in a statement.

Tiffanie Turnbull in Sydney
Biden Picks Warren Allies to Head Financial Sector Oversight Agencies, SEC, and CFPB

President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 18 announced six additional picks for top administration posts, including two progressive allies of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for positions in financial sector oversight, in a move that suggests more aggressive regulation of big business.

Biden has nominated a current member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Rohit Chopra, to serve as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency that is Warrens brainchild and that has often been the target of Republican criticism on grounds of executive overreach and tough regulatory posture.

Under President Donald Trump, CFPB directors have softened the agencys strict approach to financial institutions, while Democrats have called for a more muscular bureau to take on what they say are financial-industry excesses.

Chopra, an ally of Warren, helped launch the CFPB in 2011 and previously served as assistant director of the agency, where he led efforts on student loans. At the FTC, he pushed for aggressive remedies against lawbreaking companies, especially repeat offenders, and has worked to reverse the FTCs reliance on no-money, no-fault settlements, his FTC biography indicates.

A lawsuit was brought in 2019 alleging the CFPBs unconstitutionality, with dozens of House Republicans joining in an amicus brief (pdf) in which they argued that its leadership structure was an affront to the separation of powers and that allowing it would take a wrecking ball to one of the central pillars of our constitutional architecture.

In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the structure of the CFPB was unconstitutional as it violates the separation of powers, but stopped short of dismantling the agency. The agency may therefore continue to operate, but its director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the president at will, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion.

Biden on Jan. 18 also announced that he will be appointing Obama-era Wall Street regulator Gary Gensler to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Gensler, an 18-year Goldman Sachs veteran who joined the Treasury Department in 1997, was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2008, where he earned a reputation as an aggressive regulator. He helped reform the rules surrounding the $400 trillion swaps market as part of the Obama administrations overhaul of financial sector regulations in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

All of us that were involved at the time, and certainly myself, should have done more to protect the American public through aggressive regulation, Gensler said shortly before he became chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bidens incoming economic team has signaled that it will formulate economic policy around issues such as climate change, gender equality, and race, rather than solely around traditional indicators of performance, such as gross domestic product. One of Bidens proposals, which would fall under the remit of the SEC, would be to require publicly traded companies to disclose data on the racial and gender composition of their corporate boards to better aid shareholders and advocates in their call for a diverse and inclusive management structure.

Some conservatives have expressed reservation. Richard Morrison, a fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the former SEC chief has raised the alarm about a growing drumbeat for the Commission to impose reporting standards on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics.

That would be a mistake, Morrison wrote of proposals to include political causes in financial sector regulatory initiatives, and urged Gensler to avoid taking an aggressive stance in this regard.

I urge Mr. Gensler to focus on the Commissions core mission of protecting investors and facilitating capital formation, not on divisive initiatives like forcing companies to report on whether theyve supported a laundry list of political causes, Morrison wrote in a statement.

Its unclear how quickly the Senate will hold votes on Bidens picks. So far, hearings have been scheduled for four key officials on Jan. 19: retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary, Janet Yellen for the Treasury, Alejandro Mayorkas for Homeland Security, and Antony Blinken for the State Department.
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On the occasion of the 176th anniversary of the first arrival of Indian immigrant labourers to these shores, I intend to comment briefly, through a couple of letters to the press, on the current status of Indo-Trinidadians after their presence here for over a century and a half. They may be regarded as ethnic-focused, divisive and contentious, or may be deemed irrelevant and inconsequential in these times.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Marinette Landry Parkerson took her sons Damarion Barkin, 11, and Carveal Barkin, 9, to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr., monument in Washington, D.C., for the first time over Christmas break.

The family was on a trip for her mothers birthday, but the purpose of going there was for them to see the Martin Luther King, Jr., statue, Parkerson said, noting that King is the first non-president to have a monument at the National Mall.

His legacy is still moving forward, and hes still shattering glass ceilings no one ever expected him to shatter  even after his death, she noted.

Watching her sons going to that statue and wanting to read the Kings words reminded her of his quote, out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

"That resonated with me so much, looking at them standing there. I saw young activists that were going to continue the legacy of Dr. King in their own right," she said.

Following a summer of rallies and protests, including the "silent protest" Parkerson erected in the family's front yard following the death of George Floyd  a cemetery-like remembrance of Black Americans who lost their lives to violence  Damarion said the visit to the monument was "a really big experience. It was amazing being at that place."

Seeing the protests last summer, including that outside his own front door, "makes me respect (King) more  what he did for whites and Blacks. None of this would have happened without him," Damarion said.

Every year, Parkerson plans a major trip to historical museums.

I want them to learn. I want them to remember what Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., died for. He died for you. He died so you could ride a bus. He died so you could go to school. He died so you could sit down at a restaurant like everyone else, she said.

Carveal cried when we went to the Dr. King museum in Memphis, the city whre King was assassinated April 4, 1968, Parkerson remembers.

Given Kings advocacy for non-violence and unity, Carveal said he believes King would have forgiven the man who shot him.

Like Dr. King, we choose to find the good in everything, Parkerson said. And it isnt surprising to her that the part of Kings I Have a Dream speech that resonates most with her youngest son is, as Carveal recites, 'I have a dream that one day Black and white kids will go to school together and join hands.'"

That civil rights landmark is one which John Beard of Port Arthur remembers seeing as a child.

I remember Dr. Kings marches and some held locally; I remember talks of race riots, and Ive seen Jim Crow activities, he said, noting they didnt end with the 60s and civil rights advances.

Racism extended into his childrens lives, recalling a sporting event being cut short amid a slew of shouted racial slurs.

Its still in our society, in our books and culture, and we have to question our own ideas and motives. Am I having the right perspective? Beard said.

As the director of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, Beard has taken part in many marches, rallies, and protests for social and environmental change. And he said, like King, we have to participate in our communities to create change. Peace, non-violence and faith without works are dead. You have to engage and speak out against injustice whenever you see it.

I dont say activist, I say advocate, Beard added. Because you have to be a voice of what it takes to make those changes happen. We have to get everyone involved if we are going to be equitable and just.

Like King, Beard said acting out in mob herd mentality is detrimental to any cause for justice.

Its mud in your wings, he said. Youre never going to able to fly with that perniciousness holding you down A victim is someone down who did not get up. Im not a victim. Im getting up.

To those critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests, he said,  you cant tell us how to perceive our reality when youve never walked a mile in our shoes.

Much of America came to grips with the reality of racism with the Floyd protests last year.

And many of them are young and ready to venture down the path laid by leaders like King.

With all that has happened, a profound movement began. It gives our new generation a whole new perspective to stand for what is right, and Gen Z is doing it to the best of their ability, Parkerson said.

Nancy Smith, a young poet who turned her talents toward spoken word social activism, is among them.

Martin Luther King marched for civil rights, and now present day, it seems we are still doing the same, the 19-year-old said. We are marching and protesting to not be judged by our stance in politics, by our skin color, and even by our religion. Growing up, schools taught me that wed come far. They shielded our eyes as children to the unborn truth that racism is still alive and well in todays time.

Taylor Getwood is another of those on the journey. He was 17 last year when he organized rallies in Port Arthur after Floyds death.

Ive always appreciated Dr. King; and of course as the CEO of Port Arthur MLK Youth Organization, we taught his key principles and steps for keeping the legacy alive in our youth, Getwood said.

But taking a leadership position and putting himself potentially in harms way as King and other civil rights protesters have was a daunting reality.

I was very scared at the time. At 17, having to be the leader of a group ranging in ages from 9 to 60s and older, and to be the peacekeeper of everyone, I was concerned.

The highlight of last summers marches, he said, was when he asked an officer to address the crowd. He remembers the officer agreeing, asking the crowd what most they wanted to hear from him, and then, at their request, taking a knee with the marchers.

He calls all he met last summer during the rallies his brothers and sisters, because we were all walking together to make a change.

Getwood says the call to service is one he plans to pursue. I feel as though God put me here to serve the people and be the voice for the people, and to all I can make our communities and our schools better, he said.

I thank God for Black Lives Matter and all the activists, Parkerson said. How do we tackle the deeper institutional racism? We tackle it bit by bit to deconstruct it, by standing here and protesting and by saying its unfair that theres no equity.

I always tell (her childre) life is short and freedom aint free. You have to fight for it and call issues on the table, Parkerson said.

And the hardest thing is when your group is tired. And they are tired after the events of last summer, she said. But Im not tired. Im still ready to fight.

kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Select Starbucks locations in Manhattan were closed Sunday in anticipation of potential protests throughout the city, according to ABC News.

A Starbucks official told ABC News that local Starbucks locations chose to close out of an abundance of caution for staff and customer safety.

Stores remained open in other boroughs, including Staten Island.

Operations are expected to resume on Monday, according to ABC.

Despite the closures, there have been no protests in the city as of Sunday afternoon.

However, NYPD confirmed that there were protests planned for Sunday, according to FOX Business.

We have no indication that [the protests] are going to be large or disorderly, an NYPD spokesperson told FOX.

The NYPD is among one of many police forces around the nation that are using preventative measures in anticipation of protests leading up to the inauguration Wednesday.

NYPD told FOX that the force is assessing measures each day leading up to Wednesday.
Panaji, Jan 18 : Following the relocation of the IIT-Goa campus amid protests, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday announced that his government may soon appoint a committee to identify a new site for setting up of a campus for the elite technology institute.

Speaking to reporters in Margao town, located 35 km from Panaji, Sawant also said the committee would also contain officials from the Indian Institute of Technology and potential new sites would be discussed thoroughly to prevent any faux pas, like the one which occurred in Melaulim village in Sattari sub district.

"We have decided to relocate the IIT from Melaulim in Sattari. However, we have not decided where to shift it yet. The government may form a four to five member committee comprising of educationists, IIT officials and others for verification (of site). We do not want such a problem again," Sawant told reporters.

Goa was allotted an IIT in 2014 and the elite institute has been functioning since from a temporary campus shared by the Goa Engineering College in Farmagudi village, in South Goa.

Last year, the BJP-led coalition government had zeroed down on Melaulim in North Goa, as the site for the campus, after two other potential locations were shot down following popular protests.

However, local residents of Melaulim also erupted in protest against the proposed IIT campus, accusing the Goa government of trying to displace them from their ancestral land tracts. Last week, Sawant announced the relocation of the project from Melaulim, days after the protests turned violent.

Sawant now insists that despite the setback, the Goa government was firm on setting up an IIT in Goa.

"The government is serious about it. The committee will examine location options and the government will then take a final decision after giving it consideration," Sawant said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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LGBTQ professionals' pride in their science, technology, engineering, and math work is not reciprocated, say researchers.

These STEM professionals are more likely to experience career limitations, social exclusion and harassment, and devaluation of their scientific and technical knowledge than their non-LGBTQ peers, according to new University of Michigan research.

LGBTQ workers also report more health difficulties, as well as greater intentions to leave STEM disciplines and employment sectorspatterns not explained by differences in training, experience or work dedication.

In recent decades, greater efforts to diversify STEM fields have intensified to change the dynamics of white male-dominated professions. Previous studies documented the inequality based on race and gender, but U-M sociologist Erin Cech and colleague Tom Waidzunas of Temple University analyzed the experiences among LGBTQ professionals.

"The question of whether LGBTQ professionals encounter systemic disadvantages in STEM  is important not only for fully mapping the landscape of demographic inequality in STEM but for identifying places where STEM fails to live up to its meritocratic ideals," the researchers wrote.

Data came from STEM-related professional societies with some 25,000 members, including 1,000 individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Cech and Waidzunas examined potential inequalities by LGBTQ status along five dimensions: career opportunities, professional devaluation, social exclusion, health and wellness difficulties, and intentions to leave STEM.

LGBTQ professionals have fewer opportunities to develop their skills than non-LGBTQ peers and less access to resources they need to do their jobs well, the study indicated. In addition, if they feel threatened, they are less confident to whistleblow without fear of retaliation.

About 20% of LGBTQ professionals also said they feel devalued about their STEM expertise, despite having the same experience and education levels as their non-LGBTQ counterparts.

One-third of the respondents encounter social exclusion compared to 22% of their non-LGBTQ colleagues. About 30% of LGBTQ respondents experienced workplace harassment in the past year, the study showed.

Due to the negative work environment, some LGBTQ employees suffered health and wellness challenges within the past year. A few outcomes cited were stress, depression and insomnia.

Finally, 22% of LGBTQ professionals considered leaving STEM at least once in the last month compared with 15% for their counterparts. About 12% of LGBTQ respondents (vs. 8% of non-LGBTQ) planned to find a different career within the next five years, the study reported.

"We suspected we might find that LGBTQ professionals experienced marginalization among their colleagues, due to enduring biases toward LGBTQ-identifying people," said Cech, assistant professor of sociology. "What was striking was that these inequalities extended to how colleagues treated their scientific and technical contributions.

"These disadvantages not only impacted LGBTQ professionals' careers, but also affected them in deeply personal waysamplifying experiences of stress, insomnia, and other health problems."

The findings appear in the current issue of Science Advances.

Explore further Supportive communities and progressive politics can reduce suicide risk among LGBTQ girls

More information: E. A. Cech et al. Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances E. A. Cech et al. Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe0933
Under new ownership, Earth Fare a national organic and natural foods grocer intends to reopen its St. Johns County, Fla. store  roughly a year after declaring bankruptcy resulting in a nationwide liquidation including its three Jacksonville-area stores.

The store will ropen at the Shoppes of St. Johns Parkway in St. Johns in the second quarter of this year 2021, company officials with Earth Fare and commercial real estate owner and developer Sleiman Enterprises announced last Thursday. .

This is a growing area and desirable location with great demographics, so we are excited to call St. Johns home again, said Randy Talley, co-founder, chief sustainability officer, and director of leasing at Earth Fare, said in a news release.

This area wants a specialty healthy grocery store and we are happy to deliver the community an organic and natural foods grocery store, Talley said.

The reopening date hasnt been finalized, according to the company.

Earth Fare currently has 17 stores throughout the Eastern and Southeastern United States.

The 24,144 square-foot supermarket will anchor the shopping center  owned by Sleiman Enterprises  off County Road 210 West in northern St. Johns County, which is classified as one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation.

Other shopping center tenants either open or soon to open include Xtreme Wings, RaceTrac, Canopy Road Cafe, Ember & Iron and Hot Spot Power Yoga.

The resurrected Earth Fare is returning to 120 Shops Blvd. in the shopping center  the same location where it originally opened in October 2019.

In February 2020, all Earth Fare stores nationwide closed when the North Carolina-based company sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Both Jacksonville stores  11901 Atlantic Blvd. and 11700 San Jose Blvd.  were shuttered and subsequently sold at that time.

Southeastern Grocers Inc. expanded its grocery holdings in Florida by purchasing the San Jose Boulevard store and opened it as a Winn-Dixie on Veterans Day last year.

Now, the St. Johns store is coming back. It was unknown whether any other Northeast Florida Earth Fare stores would be revived.

By welcoming Earth Fare back to St. Johns, we are providing the community with a healthy choice in the market for groceries, which we believe is desperately needed in more communities across the country, Toney Sleiman, principal at Sleiman, said in the news release.

Earth Fare promises to provide communities, sometimes underserved, with healthy foods and locally sourced items. Its so important now to provide groceries and goods to sustain our communities and, ultimately, strengthen them, Sleiman also said.

Shoppers will find a revitalized Earth Fare when they walk in the grocery store doors.

You will find many of the same trusted brands and house-made specialties back in our store, and we are adding some new ones, said David Isinghood, chief operations officer at Earth Fare.

Headquartered in Ashville, N.C., Earth Fare was founded in 1975. Until filing for bankruptcy, the company boasted that it was one of the largest natural and organic food retailers in the country with 50 stores across 10 states: including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The company website currently lists 17 open stores and five more slated to open soon. However, the St. Johns store wasnt listed as of Friday. Neither were any Alabama locations.

After Earth Fare filed for bankruptcy, a group of investors including Talley, Dennis Hulsing, an Asheville, N.C. businessman, and Mike Cianciarulo, a past president of Earth Fare, resurrected the brand and began reopening stores, reported the Citizen-Times newspaper of Asheville, N.C.

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If anything has put the physical store to the test, 2020 sure didand it survived, irrevocably changed. Brick and mortar undoubtedly experienced an exponential acceleration of a transformation already well underway, increasingly operating in tandem with ecommerce to provide value-add services, opportunities for experiential engagement, and heightened speed & convenience, alongside safety.

To better the balance of peace of mind & efficiency while also offering greater personalization and flexibility, retailers are increasingly integrating specific tech-led operations and infrastructure into their physical store experiences, empowering shoppers and associates alike with mobile-activated opportunities and expanding access to services like in-store appointments and BOPIS.

Four Trends to Consider

In a recent research paper, PSFK explored just how leading retailers are tackling this transformationbelow, find four top strategies for marshaling the store as an operational advantage and CX differentiator.

Decentralized Point of Service  As physical stores adapt to accommodate new modes of shopping and operations, the fixed nature of transactionscheckout, returns, pick-up, order placement, etc.is giving way to a more fluid approach. Mobile and IoT technologies, coupled with more flexible layouts, now enable every aspect of the shopping experience, from try-on and testing to checkout and customer service, to happen anywhere onsite. Amazon Fresh grocery stores, for one, have implemented the Dash cart, which marshals computer vision in conjunction with sensor tech to recognize whats in shoppers' carts. When customers exit the store via a special Amazon Dash Cart lane, the order in their cart is automatically charged to the credit card associated with their Amazon account.

Interactive Showroom  As mobile becomes consumers preferred method for navigating daily life, companies are reimagining their stores to sync with branded apps and social platforms to create an enhanced shopping experience. Leveraging either in-store browsing modes that rely on location context to activate or interactive IoT-enabled sensors and displays, these environments unlock relevant product information and shopping features to guide customers throughout their journey. Next-gen NYC department store SHOWFIELDS has done so with its Magic Wand app, an experience that invites store customers to explore with phone in hand. Via their own phone, shoppers can scan tags to learn from scores of brands and artists, access narrated audio tours, purchase products and artwork, and much more.

Local Fulfillment Networks  Despite increased investment in regional distribution networks, brands and retailers are faced with customers who are increasingly reliant on retail partners to offer same-day or on-demand product deliverieswhether for essentials, such as food and medication or for need-right-now purchases such as camping gear or running shoes. By partnering with vendor-experts in community navigation, retailers are building out their nano fulfillment strategies to serve customers right when they need it. Parachute Home, DTC home & bedding company, has done so by collaborating with Postmates, on-demand delivery service provider, enabling same-hour delivery to locals as well as the opportunity to browse its Postmates in-app storefront, Shop.

Augmented Merchandising  While in-store browsing creates an opportunity to see, touch and try products, shoppers cant necessarily see how they fit and perform in multiple scenarios and settings. To overcome this, retailers are integrating digital media video, interactive displays and experiential tech like VR  into the product experience. Canada Goose has taken this immersive educational approach in its Toronto concept called The Journey. The inventory-free location is anchored around a series of experiential rooms where visitors can not only learn the story behind the brand's iconic parkas, but also put them to the test in a Cold Room complete with wind and snow. Customers can digitally purchase items from an on-the-floor associate and have them shipped to home.

This was just a selection of the trending strategies retailers are employing to harness newfound opportunities in brick and mortarfind out about how to access the full research paper on the new role of the store here.
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Despite the Capitol being on lockdown for his inauguration and an early push on the pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden plans to put forward a sweeping immigration proposal on his first day in office.

His plan would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million people estimated to be living in the country illegally  a sweeping turnaround from the posture of the outgoing administration.

People who first gained protected status under the Obama administration's DACA program would be on the shortest path to citizenship. Biden has said previously he will secure permanent protections for so-called 'DREAMers' who came here illegally as children.

But Biden will also face a possible crisis on the southern border at the beginning of his presidency, with thousands of would-be immigrants forming a caravan in the Honduras with the intention of making their way thought Mexico to claim asylum, and reaching the country's border with Guatemala.

A Biden official told NBC: 'The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight.

'[They] need to understand they're not going to be able to come into the United States immediately. There's help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey.'

President-elect Joe Biden will introduce sweeping legislation on Wednesday that would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally. Biden and his wife Jill Biden spoke during the We The People virtual concert on Sunday

Guatemalan soldiers and policemen form a human barricade to stop Honduran migrants walking on a highway near to Chiquimula, Guatemala, 17 January 2021

Clashes with security forces: Police in Guatemala clashed Monday with members of the migrant caravan who have made it ten miles across the country's border with Honduras

Violent scenes: Men in the caravan were involved in clashes with Guatemalan regular and paramilitary police

Blockade: Guatemalan security forces are trying to stop the caravan from getting further into the country's territory. The migrants are trying to make their way to the U.S. southern border

Stand-off: Thousands of Hondurans are currently just across the country's border with Guatemala and trying to reach the U.S.-Mexico border with Biden's administration warning them not to come

BIDEN'S DAY ONE EXECUTIVE ORDERS The Biden administration plans to sign a series of executive orders on Wednesday or soon after including: Mask mandate on federal properties and interstate planes and trains

End of the travel ban which initially affected Iran , Iraq , Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria , and Yemen when it was implemented in January 2017

Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord

Nationwide suspension of evictions and foreclosures until at least September Advertisement

But there was no indication that the caravan would stop Biden from unveiling sweeping immigration reform plans.

It was unclear Monday exactly when the announcement would take place, with his inauguration speech closely-held by aides.

The incoming White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is to hold a briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

Biden has also said he will take executive actions, separate from new legislation, to turn around the Trump administration's immigration posture  which included immigration bans on certain countries and efforts to end the DACA program that didn't prevail in the courts.

His most sweeping proposals would require action in Congress  which features a narrow House majority and en evenly divided Senate. Barack Obama took his executive actions on DACA after repeated failures of the Congress to produce bipartisan legislation.

Biden campaigned on his ability to work with Democrats as well as Republicans, and has been contacting GOP senators throughout the transition  even as Trump and the GOP fought the legitimacy of his election.

However the immigration issue is a hot one politically after four years where President Trump while in office railed against unfettered immigration, sought to impose a Muslim ban and then a multi-country immigration ban, tried to do away with DACA, and campaigned repeatedly on his ability to turn back immigrant caravans.

Biden's decision to immediately ask Congress to offer legal status to an estimated 11 million people in the country has surprised advocates given how the issue has long divided Democrats and Republicans, even within their own parties.

Biden will announce legislation his first day in office to provide a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States illegally, according to four people briefed on his plans.

DACA recipients are expected to be put on a fast-track for citizenship under the legislative proposal

Looming humanitarian crisis: Scenes like these suggest growing tensions on the Guatemalan-Honduran border

Honduran migrants travel on a police patrol to voluntarily return to Honduras, in Vado Hondo, Guatemala on January 17, 2021. - Guatemalan police fired tear gas Sunday to disperse thousands of Honduran migrants trying to make it to the United States on foot, with soldiers beating back a group trying to push through barricades, AFP journalists witnessed

Bidens incoming chief of staff Ron Klain said Saturday that Biden will send an immigration bill to Congress 'on his first day in office,' but did not provide specifics

The president-elect campaigned on a path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, but it was unclear how quickly he would move while wrestling with the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and other priorities. For advocates, memories were fresh of presidential candidate Barack Obama pledging an immigration bill his first year in office, in 2009, but not tackling the issue until his second term.

Biden's plan is the polar opposite of Donald Trump, whose successful 2016 presidential campaign rested in part on curbing or stopping illegal immigration.

'This really does represent a historic shift from Trumps anti-immigrant agenda that recognizes that all of the undocumented immigrants that are currently in the United States should be placed on a path to citizenship,' said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, who was briefed on the bill.

Some past proposals have included tough enforcement measures as an effort to secure GOP buy-in.

'This notion concerning immigration enforcement and giving Republicans everything they kept asking for  was flawed from the beginning,' Hincapie told the Lost Angeles Times.

If successful, the legislation would be the biggest move toward granting status to people in the country illegally since President Ronald Reagan bestowed amnesty on nearly 3 million people in 1986. Legislative efforts to overhaul immigration policy failed in 2007 and 2013.

President-elect Joe Biden departs the St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Ron Klain, Bidens incoming chief of staff, said Saturday that Biden will send an immigration bill to Congress 'on his first day in office.' He didnt elaborate and Bidens office declined to comment on specifics.

Advocates were briefed in recent days on the bill's broad outlines by Esther Olivarria, deputy director for immigration on the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Domingo Garcia, former president of the League of Latin American Citizens, said Biden told advocates on a call Thursday that Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate may delay consideration of the bill and that they shouldn't count on passage within 100 days.

'I was pleasantly surprised that they were going to take quick action because we got the same promises from Obama, who got elected in 08, and he totally failed,' Garcia said.

Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum and among those briefed Thursday night, said immigrants would be put on an eight-year path to citizenship. There would be a faster track for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields people from deportation who came to the country as young children, and Temporary Protected Status, which gives temporary status to hundreds of thousands of people from strife-torn countries, many from El Salvador.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris offered similar remarks in an interview with Univision that aired Tuesday, saying DACA and TPS recipients will 'automatically get green cards' while others would be on an eight-year path to citizenship.

More favorable attitudes toward immigration - especially among Democrats - may weigh in Biden's favor this time. A Gallup survey last year found that 34% of those polled favored more immigration, up from 21% in 2016 and higher than any time since it began asking the question in 1965. The survey found 77% felt immigration was good for the country on the whole, up slightly from 72% in 2016.

Noorani said the separation of more than 5,000 children from the parents at the border, which peaked in 2018, alienated voters from Trump's policies, particularly conservatives and evangelicals. He believes a constantly shifting outlook for DACA recipients also hurt Trump among people who felt he was using them as 'political pawns.'

'What was seared in their mind was family separation. They took it out on the Republican Party in 2018 and they took it out on Trump in 2020,' Noorani said. 'To put a really fine point on it, they want to end the cruelty of the Trump administration.'

It is impossible to know precisely how many people are in the country illegally. Pew Research Center estimates there were 10.5 million in 2017, down from an all-time high of 12.2 million in 2007.

The Homeland Security Department estimates there were 12 million people in the country illegally in 2015, nearly 80% of them for more than 10 years. More than half were Mexican.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:33:38|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's horticultural exporters and Kenya Airways on Monday signed an agreement to boost the country's exports by leveraging on its extensive international network.

The Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK), Kenya Flower Council (KFC), the Fresh Produce Consortium said in Nairobi that the deal will ensure that the national flag carrier is part and parcel of the horticulture supply chain.

"Kenya Airways currently handles between 18 and 20 percent of the country's fresh produce exports. We hope that through this agreement the figure can expand to 30 percent in the next year," Clement Tulezi, CEO, KFC told journalists in Nairobi.

"In order to grow the horticulture industry every partner must play its role," Tulezi added.

He noted that under the agreement, Kenya Airways commits to ensuring that there is an international market for Kenyan fresh produce that is not service by cargo service.

The Kenyan carrier will also provide an aircraft to airlift the product even if it is not on its initial list of destinations.

"We have already seen that over the COVID-19 pandemic period, Kenya Airways has appreciated the place of fresh produce in the country, and they are making a commitment to give us the best service," Tulezi observed.

Allan Kilavuka, Kenya Airways CEO said cargo currently accounts for between seven and ten percent of its revenues.

"We want to gradually grow the cargo business to 20 percent in the next five years," he said.

Kilavuka said that it contributes about four percent of the gross domestic product of the Kenyan economy through logistics by supporting farmers export their produce, facilitating tourism activities, training in aviation skills as well as direct and indirect employment. Enditem
UK PM moves to deepen expertise at elite summit

India is not a member of the G-7 bloc that comprises seven countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States --termed as seven of the largest advanced economies in the world, but the G-7 host nation can invite other nations as guests to the summit. (Representative Photo:AFP)

New Delhi: Currently battling a fresh wave of the raging coronavirus pandemic at home and hailing India as the pharmacy of the world, Britain on Sunday officially invited New Delhi to attend the G-7 summit to be hosted by it in Cornwall from June 11 to 13 this year. It had first been confirmed last month that British PM Boris Johnson had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the UK-hosted G-7. Mr Johnson will also now visit India before the G-7 summit.

India is not a member of the G-7 bloc that comprises seven countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States --termed as seven of the largest advanced economies in the world, but the G-7 host nation can invite other nations as guests to the summit. Australia and South Korea have also been invited to attend by Britain which launched a fresh condemnation on Sunday of Russias annexation of Crimea. This has made it clear that ties between the West and Russia will continue to remain strained, something that will worry New Delhi since Moscow has been its time-tested friend for decades.

The Cornwall summit is also likely to be the first in-person G-7 leaders meeting after Joe Biden takes charge as US President this week.

It may be recalled that Mr Modi had earlier attended the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, in August 2019 at the French governments invitation. Modi had also been invited by US President Donald Trump to attend the G-7 meeting that was to have been held in the United States last year but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Britain on Sunday said: The G-7  which is made up of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA and the EU -- is the only forum where the worlds most influential and open societies and advanced economies are brought together for close-knit discussions.

Hailing India on Sunday as the pharmacy of the world, Britain pointed out that India already supplies more than 50 per cent of the worlds vaccines, and (that) the UK and India have worked closely together throughout the pandemic, adding: Our Prime Ministers speak regularly and Prime Minister Johnson has said he will visit India ahead of the G-7.

In a statement, the British high commission in New Delhi said: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (has been) invited to attend G-7 as a guest. The summit will be held in English region of Cornwall from 11-13 June 2021. The UK will use the G7 presidency to unite leading democracies to help the world build back better from coronavirus and create a greener, more prosperous future. Australia and South Korea (have) also (been) invited as guest countries. Britain said the three nations had been invited to attend as guest countries to deepen the expertise and experience around the table.

The high commission added: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the first in-person G-7 summit in almost two years to ask leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to seize the opportunity to build back better from the coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous. It further said: Prime Ministers and Presidents from the worlds leading democracies will come together in the UK in June to address shared challenges, from beating coronavirus and tackling climate change, to ensuring that people everywhere can benefit from open trade, technological change and scientific discovery.

Britain also said: The (British) Prime Ministers ambition is to use the G-7 to intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. Between them the 10 leaders represent over 60 per cent of the people living in democracies around the world.

It may also be recalled the British PM had last month initially accepted Indias invite to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 but had announced cancellation of his visit earlier this month due to the pandemic and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading in Britain. Nevertheless, political ties between the two nations have strengthened enormously under Modi and Johnson. Last month, the foreign ministers of the two nations had held discussions in New Delhi on five broad themes -- connecting people, trade, defence and security, climate and health including the cooperation on the Covid vaccines, with both nations also agreeing on key elements of a 10-year India-UK roadmap.
Coronavirus. Credit: European Centers for Disease Control

Authorities in Brazil, hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, will roll out a nationwide vaccination campaign Monday, two days earlier than announced.

The accelerated push comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and mounting impatience in states including Sao Paulo, which has already launched its own inoculation drive.

Brazil's Anvisa regulatory agency on Sunday approved the Chinese CoronaVac jab as well as AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covishield.

A devastating second wave of coronavirus has been killing more than 1,000 people a day in the vast South American nation. Overall, nearly 210,000 people have died there.

Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria attended a ceremony Sunday shortly after the Anvisa announcement, where Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse, became the first person to receive a COVID-19 jab in Brazil.

Millions of doses shipped

"After hearing from the governors, we came to the conclusion that today we will distribute the vaccines to the states," and they "can begin to vaccinate" immediately, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Monday.

He made the announcement after meeting state leaders at Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo, from where 4.5 million doses of China's CoronaVac vaccine will be sent nationwide.

Health workers, people older than 75, residents of old age homes and indigenous populations will be the first to be vaccinated. Both the CoronaVac and the Covishield require two doses.

Rio de Janeiro, the hardest-hit state in the country, is expected to start doling out jabs from 5:00 pm local time (2000 GMT) in an area near the Christ the Redeemer statue that dominates the city.

Northern Amazonas state, which has been battling record deaths and burials as hospitals run out of beds and life-saving oxygen, should receive its first batch of vaccines late Monday and will start inoculating people on Tuesday morning, the government said.

Pazuello had initially said the government would start distributing vaccines to all 27 states on Monday for a national inoculation campaign to start Wednesday.

While many countries have already started vaccination drives, including some among its neighbors, Brazil, with its population of some 213 million, has lagged behind.

And CoronaVac has been dragged into a political standoff between far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly tried to discredit it, and Sao Paulo Governor Doria, a defender.

Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the virus and railed against lockdowns, face masks and other "hysteria," has come under renewed fire for his handling of the epidemic.

Sao Paulo already has six million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, which a Brazilian trial had found to be 50 percent effective in preventing coronavirus infection, and the health ministry announced this month it had signed a deal with the local Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, a major vaccine maker, to produce 100 million more.

Last week, Bolsonaro announced a commercial plane would be sent to India to collect two million doses of Covishield, produced there by the Serum Institute.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Prison chaplain ousted for warning against Islamic extremism in British prisons to get court hearing

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The case of a pastor banned from prison chaplaincy for 10 years will not proceed to judicial review but will be heard at a county court instead, the high court decided on Tuesday.

Pastor Paul Song, 51, a former detective, was banned from the chaplaincy after a 2018 whistleblowing interview with the Mail on Sunday in which he alleged that Islamic extremists had hijacked his chapel and Bible classes at HMP Brixton.

In the interview, he said inmates had taken over the prison's Christian chapel and praised the killers of murdered soldier Lee Rigby.

He described fearing for his safety after being assaulted and racially abused by Islamic inmates.

"Some openly spoke in the chapel in support of Islamic State [terrorist group]," he said.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Song brought a high court claim for judicial review against the secretary of state for justice over the decision to exclude him.

Judge Julian Goose said, however, that his case should be heard at county court where crucial and contested witness evidence can be heard.

Responding to the judgment, Song said he was determined to continue his fight for justice and reveal the truth about Islamic extremism in British prisons.

"I am looking forward to bringing it to the county court where the full extent of Islamic extremism at Brixton prison and the actions of the authorities which led to my removal will be exposed," he said.

"I was deeply shocked and hurt when I received the letter telling me that I would be banned for 10 years from doing what I have been called to do through my Christian faith.

"After 20 years of service supporting vulnerable inmates at HMP Brixton, I have been severely punished for exposing the truth.

"What has happened to me has set a dangerous precedent for anyone else who dares to tell the public about the growing domination of Islamic extremism in our prisons. I am determined to fight for justice."

Originally published at Christian Today
Neighbors brainstorm in crowded living rooms and band together at City Council meetings, even as the city sells more than 100 vacant lots, acquired through foreclosure, to the railroad company. As Cochran, who would go on to be convicted of public corruption in an unrelated matter, thanks Norfolk Southern for investing in my ward, activists charge that The Area, once vibrant, was gradually hollowed out as the railway acquired properties.
(Alliance News) - McKay Securities PLC on Monday said it has continued to make progress on the collection of rent for its financial year to date, which ends in March.

For the third quarter to the end of December, the South East and London-focused office property investor said it has received 86%, or 91% including the receipt of agreed monthly payments.

In its financial year to date, McKay has collected 91% of contracted rent, or 95% relating to the receipt of monthly and other deferred payments. Of the outstanding 5%, the group expects to collect a further 3% of rent.

"We continue to secure high levels of rent collection, benefiting from the close relationships built up through our direct in-house portfolio management," said Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins.

Shares in McKay Securities were up 0.9% at 200.00 pence on Monday in London.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Bogota: Scientists want Colombia to cull its "cocaine hippos" that roam the Magdalena river basin, breeding voraciously and causing an increasing menace.

Colombia's marshlands have been home to the giant mammals since they were illegally imported in the late '80s by the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Columbia's hippopotamus population is expected to rise to 1,500 without dramatic intervention. Credit:Reuters

When he was shot dead in 1993, the government took control of his extravagant estate, including his personal zoo.

Most of the animals were shipped away, but four hippos were left to fend for themselves in a pond, and now there are dozens living in the wild. Estimates put the total number between 80 and 100. Scientists forecast that will swell to almost 1500 by 2040.
New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday and discussed with her the situation prevailing with ongoing violence in Darjeeling.

During the telephonic conversation, the chief minister briefed the Union home minister about the steps taken by the state government to maintain law and order and restore normalcy in the hill district, official sources said.

Singh asked Banerjee to take all possible steps so that peace is restored in the picturesque hill station where people are protesting against "imposition" of Bengali in schools by making the language mandatory.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is in power in the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, has started an agitation demanding a separate state -- Gorkhaland.

Read more: Demand of Gorkhaland turns Darjeeling into battleground

On the boil for the past 10 days over a separate state demand, Darjeeling on Saturday witnessed widespread clashes between GJM activists and the police in which one person was killed and 35 security personnel were injured, including an India Reserve Battalion (IRB) officer seriously.

In Kolkata, Chief Minister Banerjee said, "What is happening today is a deep-rooted conspiracy. So many bombs and arms cannot be gathered in a day."

"I am ready to sacrifice my life, but I will not allow Bengal to be divided", she told reporters.

She claimed the GJM has connections with insurgent groups in the Northeast and some foreign countries. She, however, did not name any insurgent group or foreign country.

"There is a terrorist brain behind this hooliganism. We have got clues that they have connections with underground insurgent groups in the Northeast. There are some other countries also helping", Banerjee said.

Read more: Gorkhaland stir live: IRB personnel injured not dead

Army contingents were deployed to control the situation and they staged flag marches in several areas of the violence-hit hill district, where the indefinite shutdown to press for a separate Gorkhaland entered the third day.

The home ministry had on Friday put on hold sending additional paramilitary personnel to Darjeeling as no report on the ground situation had come from the West Bengal government.

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As members of the Texas State Teachers Association representing Laredo ISD teachers protested outside of the LISD boardroom, they received the news that rotations would be set in place this year.

Upon hearing the news, they cheered in victory.

According to LISD, the rotation will be in place as of Jan. 18 until Feb. 26, or the fourth six weeks. It will be a three-week rotation where each teacher will serve no more than 10 students at a time. Schedules will be reviewed weekly to determine campus and department instructional needs, LISD stated, and teachers would be required to be on-call.

LISD employees protesting outside of the boardroom had demanded that the district change the schedules to allow rotation, as United ISD had done. With Laredos hospitalization rate over 46%, Ernesto Davila, TSTA organizational development specialist, said that the employee rotation schedule would greatly mitigate the risk of COVID infections for LISD employees, some of whom have succumbed to the COVID-19 virus.

We are all one. An injury to one is an injury to all, Davila said.

As a result of limited bandwidth, UISD has had a three-week rotation for the past semester which Gloria Rendon, UISD deputy superintendent, believes has worked well to mitigate the risk of infections. TSTA represents approximately 3,000 members in Laredo, 1,500 members at LISD and UISD each.

Eduardo Villa Jr., LISD elementary teacher, said that over the past year he has been keeping himself at home to prevent infections and going to class to teach made that difficult. He prefers to teach on campus, but feels that too many people were locked inside the buildings with too much uncertainty regarding COVID safety guidelines.

By not knowing who had been exposed to the virus, whether they be the students, staff or faculty, he believes that rotations will minimize that exposure by reducing the number of people in each campus.

Prior to the rotation approval, Villa and his students would be stuck in a classroom from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. without leaving.

They dont go to the gym, they dont go to the library, they dont go to music, he said. They stay inside the classroom  all six, seven, eight hours  inside the classroom. They bring the food inside the classroom, they eat there, they show a little video with online exercising.

At the same time, teachers have to find a way to keep both on-campus and remote students attention.

The separation of students becomes more difficult for students and teachers, as younger students may get frustrated by all the restrictions and time in one spot.

They get bored, frustrated, theyre separated and cant move around; many have to stay in their desk so that they can be six-feet apart, they have to wear they mask all day, which little kids get tired of them, Villa said.

The frustration from younger children may ultimately affect teachers and their classmates, Villa said. After reaching their tipping point, some students may remove their masks and increase the potential of spreading.

Without the rotation, Villa believes that these specific cases could lead to more spreading as teachers who visit the student lounge may infect other teachers, which would lead to infection of students and their family.

Ultimately, he believes that the rotation schedule will be the safer option by removing close quarter gathering and still providing the same level of education. As of Jan. 14, there are over 1,500 elementary students participating in on-campus instruction. Reducing the number of teachers and staff on campus may provide a peace of mind to the more vulnerable staff members and relieve the tension on campus.

It minimizes the amount of exposure from other people, Villa said.

According to Gerardo Cruz, LISD assistant superintendent, approximately 8% to 10% of LISD students are attending in-person learning. In the district, the student-to-teacher ratios for elementary is 2.4, middle school is .6 and high school is .2 students per teacher.

The board also discussed having individual schedule plans for different sections such as special education staff and paraprofessionals to properly accommodate their work into the new schedule.

cocampo@lmtonline.com
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Izzy Judd has revealed she had to rush her son Kit to hospital after he reacted badly to his pre-school vaccine boosters.

The violinist, 36, took to Instagram on Friday to give fans an update on her three-year-old's health by sharing a picture with him from A&E as they waited to be seen.

Explaining what happened in the caption, Izzy admitted that being in hospital 'sent [her] anxiety flying' but she was grateful for the doctor who helped Kit and heaped praise on the NHS.

Hospital visit: Izzy Judd revealed on Friday she had to rush her son Kit to A&E after he reacted badly to his pre-school vaccine boosters as she praised the NHS for helping him

She wrote: 'Went to A&E tonight as Kit has had a reaction to his pre school boosters. Poor Kit has always been sensitive to his vaccines BUT thank goodness for vaccines!!

'Being in a hospital sent my anxiety flying, just cant bear to think of the scenes behind the wall of the childrens department (which was empty).

'Usually at this time of year were facing the back to back colds and bugs with the kids, it felt really weird giving Kit medicine today after so long.'

Izzy went on: 'Thank you as ever to @NHS and the kind doctor who took care of us tonight. We are so lucky, oh the worry when the little ones are poorly....'

Grateful: Explaining what happened in the caption, Izzy admitted that being in hospital 'sent [her] anxiety flying' but she was grateful for the doctor who helped Kit

Injury: Last month, the mother-of-two explained that the youngster caught his eyelid on a branch and also had to have a trip to the hospital

Last month, Izzy revealed that she'd taken her son to A&E for the second time in a week after he tripped and cut open his chin.

She shared an update with her fans on Instagram showing her little boy smiling as they took a selfie while waiting to be seen.

It came six days after the mother-of-two explained that the youngster caught his eyelid on a branch and also had to have a trip to the hospital.

Despite the unexpected hospital visit, Kit and Izzy appeared to be in good spirits as they waited to be seen with the toddler even managing a smile for the camera.

Ouch: Izzy explained what happened to her son and praised the NHS for all their help

'Very brave': Six days later, Izzy took her son to A&E after he tripped and cut open his chin

Izzy added that her little boy had been 'very brave' while having his chin looked at and shared a snap of his injury with some tape across it.

Six days earlier the pair were there to get Kit checked out following him hurting his eyelid at the park.

At the time, Izzy penned: 'On Friday morning I decided to keep Kit off nursery so we could have some time together.

'Unfortunately my plan didnt go too well after a game of hide and seek at the park went wrong and whilst trying to find me, Kit tripped and caught his eye lid on a branch sticking out of the ground... ouch!!

Oops: Izzy said her little boy was 'very brave' during the hospital visit and shared a snap of his injury (right) to Instagram Stories

'I took Kit to A&E and was reminded just how lucky we are to have the amazing doctors, nurses and staff @nhsenglandldn coming to our rescue and working through such challenging circumstances and regulations.'

Izzy has been sharing regular updates on her time in lockdown with her two children, four-year-old Lola and Kit, and has also spoken candidly about her fertility journey.

The violinist recently reflected on her miscarriage and her experiences with IVF in a new Channel 5 documentary detailing the tragedy of baby loss.

During the show, Izzy discussed the guilt and pain attached to her baby journey and also noted the 'importance' of the conversation.

Family: Izzy welcomed daughter Lola with McFly drummer Harry in 2016 after two rounds of In vitro fertilisation and went on to conceive son Kit naturally the following year

Sharing a clip from the show and a lengthy caption, Izzy, who shares her two children with husband of four years Harry, spoke of how miscarriages can be 'left unspoken', after losing her own baby after her first cycle of IVF in 2014.

Izzy welcomed daughter Lola with McFly drummer Harry in 2016 after two rounds of In vitro fertilisation and went on to conceive son Kit naturally the following year.

She suffers with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, a condition that affects a woman's oestrogen and progesterone levels causing cysts on the ovaries. She discovered that she had trouble conceiving shortly after marrying Harry back in 2012.

In the clip from the documentary, Izzy said: 'After the miscarriage, I wanted to escape me almost. What did I do wrong? Had I tempted fate by having IVF?

'Was I not meant to be a mum and now did I have a bigger problem in that not only could I not get pregnant but could I not carry babies?'

She then detailed the guilt she felt, saying: 'You cant help but feel responsibility, you think cant help but think what if i cant give harry a family what if I cant give his mum and dad grandchildren what if i cant give my mum and dad grandparents.'

Izzy added a caption alongside the clip reading: 'I am taking part in a very important conversation. Something that is still painful to talk about and understand. It is grief and yet so often left unspoken, an emptiness and loss suffered in silence.

'To anyone who has been through this physical and emotional pain, I hope listening to others talk about it will bring some comfort that you are not alone and thank you to Channel 5 for giving us the opportunity to share our stories.'

For support & information for those affected by miscarriage, ectopic or molar pregnancy call 01924 200799 or visit miscarriageassociation.org.uk
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 20:10:09|Editor: huaxia

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Students are seen on the way to school in Rawalpindi of Pakistan's Punjab province on Jan. 18, 2021. The Pakistani authorities on Monday started to reopen educational institutions in phases after they were closed due to the second wave of COVID-19 in the country. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
Sunday has been a fantastic day in the 70s and quite sunny for most. Willows even hit 80 degrees and Red Bluff broke their previous high temperature record of 76 degrees with 79 degrees. We'll cool off into the low-50s in the valley tonight with mostly clear skies, winds will pick up tonight.

A WIND ADVISORY is in effect for the valley and a HIGH WIND WARNING in part of the Sierra mountians (not the foothills) from Sunday night to Tuesday night. In the valley winds will be sustained at 25-35 mph from the north to east with wind gusts as high as 40-50 mph. Sierra mountain regions could see winds sustained 30-45 mph with winds gusting up to 75 mph in some locations. This will cause difficult driving conditions, especially for high profile vehicles. Downed powerlines and trees will also be possible. Keep loose yard objects and trash cans secure.

The strong winds are coming from a dry inside-slider low pressure system which will move south from canada into southern California to our east and south.

This dry, windy weather will not cause huge fire concerns in our region. It will, however, dry out fuels. With our below average rainfall and a dry forecast, fire danger could become a concern if we receive no significant rain by February.

We'll keep mostly sunny to sunny skies through Thursday with highs gradually cooling after Sunday. Sunday we'll see mid-70s for highs. Upper-60s on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is this Monday. Mid-60s for highs by Tuesday. Highs cooler in the mid-50s by Friday.

Showers will be possible Friday though I don't think the chance for significant rain is great.

Full sunshine returns by Saturday.

Another round of rain is possible by Sunday. Highs will be in the 50s Friday-Sunday.
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Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits Scholarship Contest Promotes Racial Equality Education in High Schools

Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits ("Southern Glazer's")-the world's pre-eminent distributor of beverage alcohol-today announced that its Southern Glazer's C.H.E.E.R.S. to Diversity Scholarship Contest is open for submissions until the end of March 2021. The contest is part of a broader initiative, working with leading social impact education innovator EVERFI, to fund diversity-themed online education courses for high school students during the 2020-2021 school year in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida, and Dallas and Collin Counties in Texas.

To be eligible to participate, students in participating counties must complete the 306: African American History and/or Diversity Foundations for High School courses offered through their high schools and then submit a short essay responding to one of three prompts that asks them to reflect on what they've learned and share how they can continue to support diversity in their own communities. Four student winners will be selected by a committee of judges from Southern Glazer's and each will be awarded a $2,500 student scholarship in the form of a Leaf 529 College Savings gift card. The teachers of the student winners will also receive a $250 DonorsChoose gift card to help fund a project of their choice. To learn more details about the contest and eligibility visit sgdiversity.everfi.com.

This initiative extends the mission of the Southern Glazer's internal C.H.E.E.R.S. to Diversity employee program to local communities by providing educational opportunities that empower individuals to reach their fullest potential. C.H.E.E.R.S. stands fr Connecting, Hardworking, Educating, Empowering, Respecting, and Serving.







The Company is also proud to share that new content is now available to supplement the 306: African American History course for a more up-to-date and comprehensive student experience. The new 306: Continuing the Journey course extends the lessons of the original 306: African American History course, teaching students about events in U.S. history from both before and after the Civil Rights Era that have shaped the experience of many Black people in the United States. This additional African American history curriculum celebrates exceptional achievements made by Black leaders, trailblazers, and communities, despite an undeniable context of racism, trauma, and dehumanization. Students will draw connections from past and present events to recognize and empathize with the ongoing challenges Black people continue to face in the United States.

Teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators in the available counties who are interested in implementing this program before the end of the school year should contact the following EVERFI Implementation Managers:

In Florida: Giovana Espejo at gespejo@everfi.com; and

In Texas: Stephanie Onyeador at sonyeador@everfi.com.

Southern Glazer's, through its The Youth Alcohol Awareness and Education Foundation, Inc., has also worked with EVERFI since 2017 to bring the AlcoholEdu for High School online curriculum to schools in parts of Florida, Texas, and now this school year, to New York.

About Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits

Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits is the world's pre-eminent distributor of beverage alcohol, and proud to be a multi-generational, family-owned company. The Company has operations in 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Southern Glazer's urges all retail customers and adult consumers to market, sell, serve, and enjoy its products responsibly. For more information visit www.southernglazers.com. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) and Instagram @sgwinespirits and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SouthernGlazers.

About EVERFI, Inc.

EVERFI is an international technology company driving social change through education to address the most challenging issues affecting society ranging from financial wellness to prescription drug safety to workplace conduct and other critical topics. Founded in 2008, EVERFI is fueled by its Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS (News - Alert) ) community engagement platform and has reached more than 41 million learners globally. Recognized as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2020, EVERFI powers community engagement in a sustained manner to empower individuals and organizations to make an impact within their communities. Some of America's leading CEOs and venture capital firms are EVERFI investors including Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Google (News - Alert) Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter founder Evan Williams, as well as Advance, Rethink Education, Rethink Impact, The Rise Fund, and TPG Growth. To learn more about EVERFI and how you can #answerthecall please visit everfi.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter @EVERFI

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005014/en/
The lead prosecutor for Donald Trump's second impeachment trial calls inciting the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol 'the most dangerous crime' ever committed by a president against the United States.

A Senate trial could begin as soon as this week, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president.

Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, did not say when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will send the single article of impeachment against Trump - for 'incitement of insurrection' - to the Senate, which will trigger the beginning of the trial.

But Raskin said 'it should be coming up soon' as Pelosi organizes the formal transfer.

The House voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday, one week after the violent insurrection that interrupted the official count of electoral votes, ransacked the Capitol and left Congress deeply shaken.

Before the mob overpowered police and entered the building, Trump told them to 'fight like hell' against the certification of Biden's election win.

Attack: Jamie Raskin will call Donald Trump's whipping-up of the MAGA mob 'the most dangerous crime' ever committed by a president

Words matter: The core of the Democrats' case will be what Trump said to his followers at The Ellipse before promising to march with them to the Capitol - then headed back to the White House himself

Defilement: Democrats want to move Republican senators who are persuadable on impeachment by appealing to their horror at what unfolded in the Capitol on January 6, such as this scene captured by veteran war correspondent, Luke Mogelson, of 'QAnon Shaman' Jake Angeli writing a note to Mike Pence in his Senate chair

Darkest day: Democrats will focus on the destruction the mob caused to try to secure a conviction, opening the way to Trump being banned from office

WHERE THE GOP SENATORS STAND To get a two-thirds majority of every voting senator Democrats need at least 17 Republicans, assuming all Democrats vote to convict. None of the 50-member GOP caucus has said they will vote to convict. Here are some of those in play. COULD VOTE TO CONVICT Mitt Romney (Utah) Voted to convict before and slammed Trump's actions after riot Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) Said Trump should quit over the riot. Already survived a primary defeat Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) Publicly OKed his caucus voting guilty and says he is genuinely undecided Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) Not running again and already condemned Trump's conduct Richard Burr (North Carolina) Not running and said Trump 'bears responsibility' Ben Sasse (Nebraska) Targeted before by Trump, slammed GOP leaders for violence already Susan Collins (Maine) Moderate who said when she acquitted first time Trump had 'learned a lesson' John Thune (South Dakota) Number two in the Senate caucus, already target of Trump demand for a primary Roy Blunt (Missouri) Called riot 'darkest stain' and 'unpardonable.' State GOP establishment is furious at Josh Hawley Richard Shelby (Alabama) At 86 considered unlikely to run again. Called riot 'dark day' Rob Portman (Ohio) Called attack 'assault on democracy.' Up in 2022, never a Trump loyalist UNCLEAR James Inhofe (Oklahoma) Apologized to black voters for planning to overturn election Chuck Grassley (Iowa) Oldest GOP senator at 87 and unclear if he plans to run again Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) Said Trump voters 'want my head off' for not overturning election Mike Lee (Utah) Legal conservative, represents state where Trump wasn't personally popular Thom Tillis (North Carolina) Not up for election until 2026 in purple state Marco Rubio (Florida) Up in 2022 and could face Ivanka; convicting her father might help Mike Braun (Indiana) Friend of Mike Pence, could be moved by calls for him to 'hang' LEANING TO NO John Cornyn (Texas) Not personally loyal to Trump but also called trial 'bad idea' Joni Ernst (Iowa) Says she doubts trial is constitutional but will listen to arguments FIRM NO Tom Cotton (Arkansas) Called trial unconstitutional Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) Says impeaching will destroy GOP Advertisement

'We're going to be able to tell the story of this attack on America and all of the events that led up to it,' Raskin said.

'This president set out to dismantle and overturn the election results from the 2020 presidential election. He was perfectly clear about that.'

The most emotive appeal Democrats are set to make will be to senators who were rushed from the chamber by a mob which stormed in and ransacked their desks.

Democrats will highlight claims that there were 'assassination squads' among the rioters, and point to chants of 'hang Mike Pence' and an attempt to get into Mitch McConnell's office as evidence.

Appealing to moderate Republicans' sense of personal risk on January 6 will, they hope, overcome their reluctance to get into a public confrontation with Trump and his supporters - albeit a former president stripped of his Twitter megaphone.

The main difficulty they face with Republicans who might be open to conviction is that they could face a primary run and even Trump campaigning against them.

Democrats and the incoming administration are facing the challenge of reckoning with the Capitol attack at the same time that Biden takes office and tries to move the country forward.

They say the Congress can do both, balancing a trial with confirmations of the new president's Cabinet and consideration of his legislative priorities.

Raskin said Congress cannot establish a precedent where 'we just want to let bygones be bygones' just because Trump has left office.

Yet it's clear that Democrats do not want the Senate trial to dominate Biden's opening days.

Pelosi on Friday said that Democrats intend to move quickly on Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID aid and economic recovery package to speed up vaccinations and send Americans relief, calling it 'matter of complete urgency.'

Ron Klain, Biden's incoming White House chief of staff, said he hopes Senate leaders, on a bipartisan basis, 'find a way to move forward on all of their responsibilities. This impeachment trial is one of them, but getting people into the government and getting action on coronavirus is another one of those responsibilities.'

It is unclear how many Senate Republicans - if any - would vote to convict Trump. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is telling his caucus that their decision on whether to convict the outgoing president will be a 'vote of conscience.'

His stance, first reported by Business Insider, means the GOP leadership team will not work to hold senators in line one way or the other.

McConnell is open to considering impeachment, but said he is undecided on how he would vote.

He continues to hold great sway in his party, even though convening the trial this week could be among his last acts as majority leader as Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate with the seating of two new Democratic senators from Georgia.

For Republican senators, the trial will be perhaps a final test of their loyalty to the defeated president and his legions of supporters in their states back home.

It will force a further reevaluation of their relationship with Trump, who lost not only the White House but majority control of the Senate, and a broader discussion about the future of the Republican Party as he leaves office.

Some GOP senators are already standing by Trump, despite their criticism of his behavior.

South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, one of the president's most loyal allies, said impeachment was a 'bad, rushed, emotional move' that puts the presidency at risk and will cause further division.

He said he hopes every Senate Republican rejects impeachment. 'Please do not justify and legitimize what the House did,' Graham said.

Rand Paul, of Kentucky, also spoke out against it while Tom Cotton, of Arkansas said it was not constitutionally valid to put a former president on trial.

A handful of Republican senators have suggested they will consider conviction. Two of them, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, have said he should resign.

Inside the chamber: Shocking new video taken inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot shows the moment a MAGA mob rifled through paperwork in the Senate chamber - a memory Democrats hope will motivate Republicans to convict Trump

In her hands: Nancy Pelosi has not said when she will transmit the article of impeachment which will force the beginning of the Senate trial

Murkowski said the House responded 'appropriately' with impeachment and she will consider the trial arguments.

No president has ever been convicted in the Senate, and it would take a two-thirds vote against Trump, a high hurdle.

But conviction is not out of the realm of possibility, especially as corporations and wealthy political donors distance themselves from Trump's brand of politics and the Republicans who stood by his attempts to overturn the election.

Trump is the only president to be twice impeached, and the first to be prosecuted as he leaves the White House, an ever-more-extraordinary end to his tenure.

A precedent set by the Senate in the 1800s established that a trial can proceed even after a federal official leaves office.

Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted last year to acquit.

Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in the 232-197 impeachment vote on Wednesday, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.

When his second trial does begin, House impeachment managers say they will be making the case that Trumps incendiary rhetoric hours before the attack on the Capitol was not isolated, but directly intended to interrupt the electoral count as part of his escalating campaign to overturn the November election.

A Capitol Police officer died from injuries suffered in the attack, and police shot and killed a woman. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.
(Natural News) No matter what Trump does or says, the Democrats continue to invert his words to make him out to be a racist, a criminal, and now, an insurrectionist. Former FBI official Andrew McCabe went on national television and claimed that Trumps video message calling for peace is actually coded language. Even though Trump is calling for peace and denouncing political violence, McCabe said that Trump is secretly calling for violence.

I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country, Trump said in a video message on the same day the Democrats in the House voted to impeach him for a second time. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag.

Trump has been calling for peace for over a year as Democrats praise the destruction of their cities by left-wing insurrectionists

President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned the violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. As a matter of consistency, Trump has condemned politically-motivated violence all year long and has called to restore law and order on multiple occasions where Democrats allowed it to continue on in their cities. Minneapolis, Kenosha, Portland, Seattle, Chicago and New York City are just a few cities where Trump has called for peace and law and order, yet the Democrats and the media continued to praise violence as peaceful protest. Across America, buildings were burned, streets seized, statues toppled, windows shattered, law enforcement attacked and businesses looted.

Now Trump is being accused of calling for violence as he is calling for peace yet again! The democrats are clinically insane, spouting gobbledygook and engaging in doublespeak.

President Trump is a master at coded language and the use of dog whistles. And there is no question that that statement included some of those same referenceshe sends a signal to his folks to fight on, McCabe said. The former FBI agent was fired by Trump after lying to investigators about the Obamagate spying scandal and the intelligence communitys plot to overthrow Donald Trump from office. Instead of standing with the President and his calls for peace, McCabe is trying to blame Trump for all the turmoil and all future acts of political violence.

There is an orchestrated plot to silence and convict Trump and his supporters long after 2020

Deranged House Democrats went a step further and impeached Trump for inciting insurrection at the Capitol, as a way to set precedent against any speech that challenges election fraud and other real world democrat crimes. After the second phony impeachment, the FBI has confirmed that the attack on the Capitol was planned several days in advance and included infiltration from Antifa and other left-wing groups that have got away with insurrection throughout 2020.

Not to mention, several Trump supporters were goaded into the Capitol building by the Capitol police themselves, who opened barriers so many different people could get through. Antifa insurrectionist, John Sullivan, was caught on video bragging how he posed as a Trump supporter, while breaking a window and letting Trump supporters into the Capitol behind him. Much of the insurrection was initiated by a select few, and Trump supporters must have been enraged after Capitol Police shot and killed a young woman. This orchestrated attack on Trump and his supporters has become all too obvious, especially with video evidence of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey detailing his plan to blame Donald Trump and tie his words and his supporters to real world violence so Twitter can then ban Trump and his supporters indefinitely from social media and banish them from other aspects of society.

Sources include:

TheGateWayPundit.com

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com

Telangana CS directs officials to complete paddy procurement within next 6-days 27 May 2021 | 9:33 PM Hyderabad, May 27 (NI) : Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Thursday directed the District collectors to expeditiously complete the paddy procurement exercise within next 6-days in view of the expected early arrival monsoon. see more..

Loans sanctioning to be expedited under YSR zero interest loans scheme: EG Collector 27 May 2021 | 9:11 PM Kakinada, May 27(UNI): East Godavari Collector D .Muralidhara Reddy has asked the bankers to expedite the sanctioning of YSR zero interest loans before the onset of khariff season to benefit the maximum number of farmers. see more..

Rs 40 lakhs penalty levied for mask violations in East Godavari 27 May 2021 | 9:08 PM Kakinada, May 27 (UNI): The district police in addition to creating awareness among the people on usage of masks while moving in public places , simultaneously levying penalties on those who violate the rules and moving without masks. see more..
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This Dr. Martin Luther King Day offers an opportunity to step back and reflect on an extraordinary past year in American historyone that lit up in neon lights the need to finally address the extreme, and deeply rooted, racial inequality in America, but that also leaves unclear whether or not our nation can find its way to address all our issues of structural and systemic racism.

2021 offers an opportunity to reflect on another anniversary. One hundred years ago this year, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander became the first Black Americanof any genderto receive a PhD in economics, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. To put Dr. Alexanders achievements into context, U.S. women received the right to vote in 1920 and, in 1921, white supremacists burned Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma to the ground.

 READ MORE: A new generation of black female economists revives a Philly lawyers legacy with the Sadie Collective

The Sadie Collective formed three years ago to address the dismal underrepresentation of Black women in economics and related fields. The Collective has been raising awareness of Alexanders life and work. As a community organizer and an economist, we are writing now to amplify the Collectives work and the work of Alexander to blend advocacy and policy analysis together, setting an example scholars should follow today.

While Alexander received her degree from a prestigious University and had the support of her teachers and mentors, racial and gender discrimination erected enormous barriers to her pursuit of a career as an economist. Not easily denied, Alexander instead became the first Black woman to graduate from Penn Law School, in 1927. She then became the first Black woman to pass the bar in Pennsylvania and to practice law in the state, working alongside her husband, Raymond Pace Alexander.*

As a lawyer, Alexander led fights against discrimination in Pennsylvania statute and legal cases. As an organizer and activist, she advocated for Black women to organizein the church and in clubsto magnify their impact. In speeches, she grounded her analytical perspective in history and in the structural discrimination faced by Black women.

Bucknell economist Nina Banks (2021 president of the U.S. association for Black economists) has documented that, despite membership in the so-called Black elite, Alexander did not ground her public arguments around the need for Black people to prove their moral or economic worth. Her speeches concretely and accessibly address how race, gender, and class oppressions come together in practice. Alexander also recognized the importance of policy. While Congress in 1938 deliberated excluded domestic and agricultural workersmost Black workersfrom the nations first minimum wage, Alexander pointed to the need for a minimum wage that would cover domestic service.

Martin Luther King, known best for his leadership in the civil rights movement and for the right to vote, shared with Alexander an understanding of structural inequality. In a speech leading up to the 1963 March on Washington, King spoke about the need for what today we could call reparations. Dr. King used the example of white farmers who across the span of U.S. history have received, through legislation and policy, support from land grant Universities, technical assistance from agricultural extension agents, actual land, and direct cash payments (through price supports) that Black farmers were excluded from receiving.

When we come to Washington in this campaign, King concluded, were coming to get our check. King likened the Black economic experience to an innocent prisoner freed after 35-40 years then told Now you are freeDont give him any bus fare to get to town, no money to buy any clothes, no money to get anything to eat. This is what happened to the Black man in this country.

 READ MORE: Forget the notion of MLK as Dreamer,' say activists. He was a radical, whose rhetoric is used today.

As the Biden administration staffs up, we see some reason for optimism that it will include people with an understanding of the need to directly address structural inequality based on race and genderas well as how these intersect with class. For example, Princeton economist Cecilia Rouse, if confirmed, would become the first Black head of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors. Rouse knows through experience how modest has been the progress of Black women in economics: five out of 1,197 doctoral degrees in economics in 2018 were Black women.

Dr. Alexander was denied a career in economics but that did not stop her from being a pioneer. Forced onto a different path, she like Dr. King still managed to offer those who heard her speakand future generationsa nuanced understanding of how a history of deep discrimination shapes our world.

On this Dr. Martin Luther King Day, let us focus on what they taught and reject a willful tendency to pretend structural inequality does not existin the discipline of economics and, more importantly, in the real world.

Kadida Kenner is the director of campaigns for the PA Budget and Policy Center. Stephen Herzenberg, PhD, is an economist and the executive director of the Keystone Center Research. They both write from Harrisburg.

*Editors note: This piece has been updated to give the correct full name of Sadie Alexanders husband.
Ferka and other Egyptian handmade weaving styles are now enlisted on UNESCOs list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent preservation.

Ferka and Kabaty (Coptic) are authentic hand-woven textiles that we have inherited from ancient Egypt. On their looms, our Egyptian ancestors created masterpieces that marked them as the best hand woven fabrics in the world.

Best found in Neqada village in Qena, and Akhmim village in Sohag, the Ferka uses fabric made of natural silk threads with stylised lines and geometrical shapes in dominant red, black, and yellow colours. Ferka fabric is usually divided into three sections, the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning and end are called ends, and the middle is the inside. Its back is called the background.

There are three types of Ferka:

The Sudanese Ferka, with its bright red and yellow shades, is produced on hand looms in Naqada and exported to Sudan. It has had an impact on Sudans folklore. Sudanese women wrap Ferka around their bodies at weddings and occasions as a symbol of blessing and good luck.

The Ferka made in Siwa and Matrouh, known as Siwan Melaya, has distinguishing blue and white colours. It is wrapped around womens stomachs as soon as they give birth. According to Siwan beliefs, Ferka wards the evil spirits off the mother and child.

The Ferka exported to the Hijaz, known as the Hijazi Melaya, is used in baby shower celebrations, and is associated with bringing a new life. It is also wrapped around the child after circumcision.

As for Kabaty textile, it leaned towards the white colour fabric that most ancient Egyptian royalties, like Queen Nefertiti, wore. It was the fabric from which the cover of the Muslim Holy Kabba was made and sent to Mecca every year.

The Kabaty fabric also reflected a lot of Christian heritage, with antique Coptic textiles featuring important decorative units of humans, animals, plants, and geometrical forms as symbols in Christian culture.

Such Christian motifs were usually spread on three different areas of the handmade fabric. The first represents the sky or a circle that represents the higher heavens; the central area contains the story of the subject to be portrayed and the third represents the ground with the number of people painted on.

Christian religious themes were obvious in this artwork, which depicted geometrical motifs, crosses, and excerpts from the bible and psalms, to the extent that some historians referred to them as wearing the bible on your body.

At the top of the drawing, there is a painting of Christ sitting and holding his cross, and at the ends of the cross are four animals that are both symbolic and mythological Coptic figures.

Kabaty art reflects traces of Greco-Roman and Hellenistic eras of Egyptian history. It is also clearly influenced by ancient Egyptian art. The portraits of the Virgin Mary breast feeding Christ is very similar to that of Isis breast feeding Horus.

The theme called the Eye of God, which is a famous Coptic theme, draws from ancient Egyptian mythology, denoting life within the pyramid.

They also built on the cosmic ancient Egyptian map in Dandara temple for example, where four ancient Egyptian deities uplift the globe. In Coptic motifs, its a similar concept, only the deities are replaced with four angels.

Arabs were familiar with ferka and they called it qabati textile or Coptic textile from Egypt.

After the Arabic conquest of Egypt, Arabs nationalised the textile industry in Egypt and it flourished throughout the ages, especially during the Fatimid era, where they established Dar Al-Taraz, which means the house of embroidery.

The cover of the Holy Kabba used to be embroidered in Tanis, Egypt.

During the Islamic era, the main centres for textiles in addition to Neqada were Debaq, Assiut, Ehnas, Al-Bahnasa, Tanis, Shata, Fayoum, Akhmiem, Tama, Demira, Touna, Ashmonien, Damietta, and Alexandria.

A copy of this article was published in Arabic in Al-Funun Al-Shabia Magazine.

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18 January 2021

For Mary Ann Gamboa, leading by example with the genuine desire to develop her team is the cornerstone of her tenured career. Before she immigrated to Canada in 1998, Mary Ann began her career in Manila, Philippines. Since her arrival in Toronto, Mary Ann has been determined to conquer the world of hospitality and inspire other newcomers to the country she now calls home.

Through delivering impactful strategies expertly executed in a highly competitive space, Mary Ann's determination to exceed benchmarks has carried her across several hospitality brand portfolios and integral roles within the industry. As such, Mary Ann has garnered several accolades along the way. In 2017, Gamboa was named one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World by the Filipina Women's Network. As well, in 2018, Mary Ann was awarded Best of the Best Sales/Catering Employee of the Year by InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and in 2019, the first woman to receive the General Manager Award at the InterContinental Toronto Centre for her outstanding achievement and contribution to the property.

A strong supporter and driver of diversity in the workplace, Mary Ann's positive leadership style and inclusive mindset promotes enthusiasm amongst her team and encourages exemplary innovation and ideation. Outside of her professional life, one of her major motivators is her child Miguel, and credits her parents and mentors, who helped instil core values that have guided her throughout her illustrious career.

Today, Mary Ann is considered a mentor to many, including students and young professionals looking to break the glass ceiling, just as she has.

Four Seasons Hotel Toronto is honoured to have the invaluable addition of Mary Ann Gamboa as Director of Marketing.
Human rights activist, co-founder of Legal Way NGO Ruben Melikyan calls on the Armenian authorities to start the vetting of state officials by vetting Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

A few days ago, former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan accused Mirzoyan of collaborating with the special services of Turkey and the National Security Service of Armenia.

In an interview with Hayeli Press Club, Melikyan stated that a written document (on willingness to collaborate with the National Security Service of Armenia-ed.) is attached to the document stating the charge, but the opposite side refutes this. As a citizen, I trust the document that has been presented. If this isnt the case, let Mirzoyan present the sample of his signature for comparison. If he doesnt, he directly confirms this. Specialists say officials collaborate with the National Security Service when they are forced, Melikyan said and called on the authorities to start vetting of state officials by vetting Ararat Mirzoyan.

Melikyan also said he would like to know why the National Security Service had to force Mirzoyan to collaborate and added that, according to the presented version of the document, the collaboration is very likely.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 17:48:09|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's mineral exports, excluding gold and silver, rose 27 percent in 2020, according to the Minerals Marketing Authority of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

Earnings from these exports totaled 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, well above the target of 1.86 billion dollars, The Herald newspaper reported on Monday, quoting MMCZ general manager Tongai Muzenda.

The better performance puts Zimbabwe in good stead to achieve a 12 billion U.S. dollar mining economy by 2023, Muzenda said.

The mining sector is Zimbabwe's largest foreign currency earner, accounting for 70 percent of the country's export receipts.

It is also one of the few sectors of the economy that has continued to operate unhindered during lockdown periods that have been imposed by the government since last March, when the country reported its first cases of COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem


New Delhi: In another case of adverse effect from Immunisation (AEFI), a 46-year-old ward boy from a district hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad died within 24 hours after receiving the coronavirus vaccine.

The ward boy, identified as Mahipal Singh, reportedly complained of breathlessness and unease in the chest after receiving a dose of Covishield, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India.

He (ward boy) was given the Covishield vaccine at about 12 PM on Saturday. A day later, he suffered pain in the chest with breathlessness. He had worked the night shift after vaccination and we dont think the death is due to any side effect of the vaccine. We are trying to verify the exact reason of his death, the chief medical officer (CMO) of the hospital was quoted as saying by Times of India.

Meanwhile, on Sunday the Centre said nearly 447 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported after day 1 of the vaccination drive in India. The Additional Secretary of the Union Health Ministry Manohar Agnani said out of the 447 adverse events following immunisation, only three required hospitalisations.

A total of 2,24,301 healthcare workers have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the inoculation drive against COVID-19 and said the two vaccines being deployed will ensure a "decisive victory" for India against the pandemic.

India has approved two vaccines -- Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford/AstraZeneca stable being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India -- for emergency use in the country.

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[January 18, 2021] Juniper Research: Mobile Roaming Subscribers to Reach 918 Million Globally by 2024; Recovering to Pre-pandemic Levels

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the number of international roaming subscribers dropped by 73% to 243 million globally in 2020; caused by travel restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It predicts that mobile roaming subscriber numbers will take until 2024 to exceed 2019 levels; reaching 918 million by 2024, as the travel industry embarks on a prolonged recovery from the long-term impacts of the pandemic. For more insights on Mobile Roaming, download our free whitepaper: Mobile Roaming: The Journey to Recovery. North America to Lead Roaming Recovery The new research, Mobile Roaming: Emerging Opportunities, Regional Analysis & Market Forecasts 2021-2025, predicts that operators in North America will be amongst the first to recover from the impacts of the pandemic on the roaming market. It found that the region will account for 23% of global roaming revenue by 2025, as border restrictions are lifted and demand for travel returns to normal levels.



The study also anticipates that North America's recovery will be aided by the region's early adoption of 5G services, with operators able to increase roaming revenue through the provision of advanced functionality to subscribers. In response, the research urges operators to focus on expanding 5G roaming agreements in 2021 to capitalise on this revenue growth in the future. Brexit Marks Uncertain Future for UK Roamers

The research forecasts that the UK will account for 11% of mobile roaming subscribers in Europe by 2025, increasing from 8% in 2020; showing that the revenue opportunity for operators is growing. It found accordingly that UK-based operators are now facing pressure to form individual bilateral agreements with operators in Europe to guarantee continued inclusive roaming for UK subscribers. Research author Scarlett Woodford noted: 'Any decisions by UK operators to reintroduce roaming changes would negatively affect customer satisfaction. Operators must approach changes to their roaming policies with caution, in order to avoid an increase in the number of silent roamers and accompanying lost revenue.' Whitepaper Download: https://www.juniperresearch.com/document-library/white-papers/mobile-roaming-the-journey-to-recovery Mobile Roaming market research: https://www.juniperresearch.com/researchstore/operators-providers/mobile-roaming-research-report Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210117005007/en/

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CAIROThe death toll from tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudans West Darfur province climbed to at least 83, including women and children, a doctors union and aid worker said, as sporadic violence continued Sunday.

The ruling sovereign council met Sunday and said security forces would be deployed to the area.

The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the people in the Krinding camp and other areas Saturday.

Among the dead was a U.S. citizen. Saeed Baraka, 36, from Atlanta, had arrived in Sudan less than two months ago to visit his family in Darfur, his wife, Safiya Mohammed, told The Associated Press over the phone.

The father of three children rushed to relieve a neighbor amid the clashes in the Jabal village in West Darfur, when he was shot in his head Saturday, his brother-in-law Juma Salih said.

Barakas wife said the U.S. embassy in Khartoum phoned her to offer condolences. The embassy did not return phone calls and emails from the AP seeking comment.

The violence led to local authorities imposing a round-the-clock curfew on the entire province. Besides the 83 killed, at least 160 others were wounded, according to Sudans doctors committee in West Darfur. It said there were troops among the wounded.

It said clashes subsided by midday on Sunday and the security situation started to improve.

The committee is part of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded a popular uprising that eventually led to the militarys ouster of longtime autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

The clashes pose a challenge to efforts by Sudans transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur, where most people live in camps for the displaced and refugees.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy and is being ruled by a joint military-civilian government.

That bout of violence came two weeks after the U.N. Security Council ended the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping forces mandate in the region. The UNAMID force, established in 2007, is expected to complete its withdrawal by June 30.

It also puts into question the transitional governments ability to stabilize the conflict-ravaged Darfur region.

Salah Saleh, a physician and former medical director at the main hospital in Genena, said clashes renewed Sunday morning at the Abu Zar camp for internally displaced people, south of the provincial capital.

He said most of the victims were shot dead, or suffered gunshot wounds.

Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said there were overnight attacks on Krinding. He shared footage showing properties burned to the ground, and wounded people on stretchers and in hospital beds.

Authorities in West Darfur imposed a curfew beginning Saturday that includes the closing of all markets and a ban on public gatherings. The central government in Khartoum also said Saturday a high-ranking delegation, chaired by the countrys top prosecutor, was heading to the province to help re-establish order.

A database by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, showed that inter-communal violence across Darfur region doubled in the second half of 2020, with at least 28 incidents compared to 15 between July and December 2019.

West Darfur province experienced a significant increase of violence last year, with half of the 40 incidents reported in the entire Darfur region, OCHA said Sunday.

By Samy Magdy






Position Objective: Contributes to the provision of high-quality, cost-effective healthcare as a provider of direct and indirect patient care and by effective of the health care team. Functions as a competent member of the health care team. Essentional Job Duties: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 1. Clinical Decision Making/Judgment Demonstrates clinical nursing knowledge and skill in the specialization of the unit.

Demonstrates the ability to apply the nursing process effectively in the care of culturally diverse patients and families. Demonstrates the ability to utilize all applicable laws, policies, standards, guidelines and evidence-based practice in the provision of patient/family care.

Organizes and reprioritizes patient care activities based on subtle and overt and/or environmental changes.

Consistently and thoroughly assesses patients to collect data and identify learning needs according to established standards and policies.

Utilizes a systematic, continuous and complete analysis of assessment data to develop individualized problem lists for assigned patients.

Develops and individualizes a plan of care for each patient in accordance with established standards, appropriate prioritization of problems/needs, and mutually agreed upon goals.

Efficiently implements the patient's plan of care in accordance with applicable standards, policies, procedures and guidelines.

Demonstrates proficiency in medication administration, pain management and other unit or initiative specific skills.

Continuously evaluates the effectiveness of the plan(s) of care, making revisions and recommendations based on analysis of patient responses to interventions. 2. Nurse-Patient Family Relationships Demonstrates the ability to assess the patient's/family's learning needs, readiness to learn, learning style, and presence of barriers to learning.

Demonstrates the ability to develop, implement and evaluate teaching plans for patient populations in unit specialty in accordance with applicable standards.

Demonstrates the ability to apply knowledge of growth and development across the life span to the care of patients.

Provides direct patient care to patients and families in a culturally, developmentally and ethically appropriate manner.

Plans of care address the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and learning needs of the patient/family. 3. Clinical Scholarship Participates in QI, CPI and risk management activities at the unit, department or organizational level.

Demonstrates the ability to effectively perform and improve all processes in order to achieve excellence with regard to AAMC's quality standards and benchmarks.

Supports the use of evidence based guidelines and organizational policies and procedures to promote safe patient care and a safe practice environment. 4. Clinical Leadership Participates in unit shared governance according to departmental standards.

Participates in the education and orientation of new staff.

Delegates patient care activities as appropriate; evaluates delegated activities for expected patient care outcomes.

Employs real time computer documentation when completing patient record. Educational/Experience Requirements: Graduate of an accredited school of nursing

Adherence to the credentialing requirements of AAMC as stated in the nursing bylaws. Required License/Certifications: Current licensure as a registered nurse by the Maryland Board of Nursing.

CPR - American Heart Association Healthcare Provider certification Working Conditions, Equipment, Physical Demands: There is a reasonable expectation that employees in this position will be exposed to blood-borne pathogens. Physical Demands - Medium work. Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 30 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects. The physical demands and work environment that have been described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The above job description is an overview of the functions and requirements for this position. This document is not intended to be an exhaustive list encompassing every duty and requirement of this position; your supervisor may assign other duties as deemed necessary.


Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Overcast with rain showers at times. Thunder possible. High 61F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

A few showers early with overcast skies late. Low 44F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence and his wife made their final official appearance together with a visit to Fort Drum, where they thanked the 10th Mountain Division and their families for their service.

Karen Pence became emotional as she told the troops she was honored to be there Sunday afternoon for their last trip as vice president and second lady of the United States.

The Pences thanked the sailors at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California on Saturday.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday asserted that he will defeat West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the state assembly election or quit politics. The remark came hours after CM Mamata Banerjee sprang a surprise and declared she will contest the West Bengal assembly election from Nandigram, the seat held by political heavyweight Adhikari.

READ | Mamata Banerjee to contest polls from Nandigram, former aide Suvendu Adhikari's turf

"Let Mamata Banerjee contest from Nandigram. Whoever contests from BJP, but I am giving it in writing, if I fail to defeat Mamata Banerjee by half lakh votes, I will quit politics," stated Adhikari, the former Trinamool Congress leader.

He further added, "She goes to Nandigram once in five years. She visits only during elections. On December 15, 2015, she visited Nandigram, she had announced my name as the candidate. I want to ask you? What have you done for the people of Nandigram? Those who were suffering, what have you done for them? Class 8 book mentions Singur but the mass killing of Nandigram finds no mention in books."

The TMC turncoat, however, said the final decision to field candidates will be taken by the BJP leadership after thorough discussion and not in an arbitrary way like in the ruling TMC. "If I am fielded by my party from Nandigram, I will defeat her by a margin of at least 50,000 votes or I will quit politics," he asserted.

Adhikari, however, said unlike the TMC, which is run "autocratically" by Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek, in BJP the candidates have decided after discussion and it was for the party to take a call on his candidature. "I don't know from where I will be fielded, whether I will be fielded," he said, addressing BJP workers after a three-km roadshow.

He said Banerjee remembers Nandigram only before elections and accused her of giving extension four times to an IPS officer involved in the Nandigram firing. CM Banerjee, Adhikari alleged, was playing with the sentiments of the people of Nandigram. "That will not work this time and her party will be democratically dumped into the Bay of Bengal."

Adhikari claimed not more than 30,000 people, mostly brought from other places, attended Banerjee's meeting at Tekhali in Nandigram on Monday.

While addressing a rally at the assembly constituency on Monday, Banerjee expressed her desire to contest the West Bengal Assembly election from Nandigram seat. Taking a dig at Suvendu Adhikari, who recently left TMC to join the BJP, Banerjee said it was "good some people have left the party". "Some are moving from here to there. They will be fought by our local leaders, don't worry, these guys were not there when the Trinamool Congress was formed. It is good some people have left," she said.

Expressing her support for farmers she said the BJP wants to rob the farmers. "Nandigram showed the way, today farmers in Punjab are agitating (against the farm laws). We are with the farmers...BJP must withdraw the three farm laws," she said.

In December 2020, TMC rebel leader Suvendu Adhikari tendered his resignation from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and joined the BJP. Adhikari was the sitting MLA of Nandigram constituency in Purba Medinipur district.
The Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, on Monday said that the controversial reactions to the New Year message of Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, are diversionary and nationally unhealthy.

Mr Soyinka, a professor, also warned that Nigerians must not succumb to the demands of irrational religionists who would demand a mile after getting an inch.

Agreement or disagreement with Mr Kukahs position is demonstration of a nations badge of maturity and should be read as a continuation of the provocative discourse, Mr Soyinka said in a statement.

The Nobel Laureate wondered why religion is being echoed as a legitimate extract from Mr Kukahs New Year address, adding that it is a deliberate, emotive displacement of a central concern.

Background

Mr Soyinka was reacting to the controversies surrounding a New Year homily by Mr Kukah earlier in the month.

The clergyman had in a message titled: A Nation in search of vindication, accused the Muhammadu Buhari administration of not living up to expectations of Nigerians due to the various economic and security challenges affecting the nation.

He said Mr Buhari was institutionalising northern hegemony against national interests.

In a reaction to Mr Kukahs sermon, top Islamic group, JNI, in a statement dated January 6, described the bishops sermon as irresponsible and seditious.

It said Mr Kukahs message was a prepared address considering the occasion and the audience, one cannot but agree that it was a calculated attempt to insult Islam which is typical of him. His veiled insinuation that Muslims have a pool of violence to draw from, is disgusting, disheartening, as well as condemnable.

Another Islamic group, the Ummah Movement, with headquarters at the National Islamic Centre (NIC), Zaria, said the failure of Mr Kukah to retract his statement early enough triggered its reaction, hence called for the immediate resignation of the Bishop from the Peace Committee, in view of his blatant anti-Muslim partisanship as displayed in his treasonable Christmas message.

Fortuitous Timing

But in his statement on Monday, Mr Soyinka said the timing of Mr Kukahs Christmas message and the ensuing attacks could not be more fortuitous, seeing that it comes at a time when a world powerful nation, still reeling from an unprecedented assault on her corporate definition, is now poised to set a symbolic seal on her commitment to the democratic ideal.

Mr Soyinka was making reference to the United States of America.

Let no one be in any doubt that some of the most extreme of the violent forces that recently assaulted her governance citadel are sprung from religious and quasi-religious affirmations, a condition that still enables many of them to be brainwashed into accepting literally, and uncritically, indeed as gospel truth, any pronouncement, however outrageous and improbable, that emerges from their leadership, the statement read.

As usual, we have not lacked, within our own distanced environment, advocates who, even till recently, claimed to have seen in their vision, the triumph of Gods own anointed in the electoral contest of that same United States. They have been specific in their prophesy that what was denied at the ballot box would be restored in the law courts.

And to set a divine seal on the matter, were not our streets in a part of this nation actually inundated by religious processions in support of the candidacy of their supposed Messiah, named Donald Trump? They had conferred on him the mantle of upholder of Christian values, endangered by satanic practices in, of all places, a nation designated as  Gods own Country!

Of course, not all such tendencies represent the true face of any professed religion, we need only remark that all religions are plagued by a lunatic fringe. In this nation we have learnt the painful way what such inbred loonies are capable of. Thus, extreme care, and historic awareness, should be taken in imputing any act or pronouncement as an attack on faith. At base, competitors for recognition as first line defenders of the ramparts of religiosity are often motivated by non-religious agenda, which is yet another reason for the exercise of restraint and collective responsibility.

The Nobel Laureate said it should not come as a surprise that a section of Nigerias Islamic community, not only claims to have found offence in Mr Kukahs New Year address. What is bothersome, he argued, is the embedded threat to storm his Capitol and eject him, simply for speaking in tongues. He added that any pluralistic society must emphatically declare such a response unacceptable.

On a personal note, he wrote, I have studied the transcript as reported in the media and found nothing in it that denigrates Islam but then, I must confess, I am not among the most religion besotted inhabitants of the globe.

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That, I have been told, disqualifies me from even commenting on the subject and, quite frankly, I wish that were indeed the case. Life would far less complicated. However, the reverse position does not seem to be adopted by such religionists in a spirit of equity. They do not hesitate to intervene; indeed some consider themselves divinely empowered to intervene, even dictate in secular life.

Mr Soyinka said because it is practiced by humans, religion is the business of everyone, especially when it is manipulated to instill fear, discord and separatism in social consciousness. He explained that the furore over Mr Kukahs statement offers Nigerians another instance of that domineering tendency, one whose consequences are guaranteed to spill over into the world of both believers and non-believers, unless checked and firmly contained. Nigerians must at least learn to nip extremist instigations in the bud, he warned.

One of the ironic features of religionists is, one is forced to conclude, a need to be offended. It is as if religion cannot exist unless it is nourished with the broth of offence.

This may be due to an inbuilt insecurity, a fear that even the ascribed absolutes of faith may be founded on nothing more than idealistic human projections, not grounded in anything durable or immutable. Hence the over prickliness, aggressiveness, sometimes even bullying tendencies and imperious posturing.

This leads to finding enemies where there are none. In certain social climates, it degenerates into inventing enmities in order to entrench theocratic power.

On El-Rufai

Mr Soyinka recollected that not long ago, the governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, came under blistering attack by the Christian community for allegedly insulting Jesus Christ.

He wrote: What did El-Rufai say exactly? Nothing new or startling. All he did was deploy a common, everyday figure of speech to describe an overwhelming challenge. Both the circumstances and his exact phrasing elude me right now, but all it amounted to was that even Jesus Christ would find a particular problem intractable. Or perhaps it was simply that even Jesus Christ, were to return to earth,would be subjected to the Nigerian national culture of calumny?

One or the other but, it hardly matters. What does matter was that instantly, there were demands from the ever-ready Onward Christian Soldiers  led by CAN leadership  for a withdrawal and apology.

To my intense disappointment  as I declared at the time  el Rufai obliged. A huge mistake. Again and again we have warned against succumbing to irrational demands of religionists, yet even the brutal lessons of past surrenders appear to exercise no traction on societys faculty of cause and effect, especially in that religious propensity for incremental demands. Surrender one inch, they demand a mile!

The Nobel Laureate also wondered why the adoption of BLACK FRIDAY to lure seasonal shopping addicts to Sale bonanzas drew solemn, sanctimonious flak from some religionists. He lamented that formal statement was issued, declaring this commonplace sale tactics an assault on the Islamic religion, since Friday happens to be its day of worship.

These are the depths of absurdity into which society is dragged by the coils of spurious purism. Until now, we have yet to learn of Boko Haram, ISWAP, al-Shabbab and other rabid islamists declaring a cessation from killings in honour of Holy Friday.

Again, one station that carried the broadcasts tamely withdrew its promotional campaign. Another piece of secular  that is, neutral- territory ignominiously surrendered. The tail continues to wag the dog.

Lest the point be missed or watered down, the escalation of such irrationality is very simply outlined. Christians, not to be outdone, will seize the next opportunity to remind the rest of the world how their own Holy Day, Sunday, must and must not be used in mundane transactions in the future. Next, the Seventh-Day Adventists will demand no-go areas for Saturdays. After that, the Hindus, the Sikhs, plus the thousand and one religions of the world cornering their own Holy Day, then week, then month until we are moved to reconstruct the present calendar entirely, abandon solar principles and rebuild temporal notation around some newly discovered power planet. Did that broadcasting station consider, for a moment, the preposterous dimensions of that sectarian demand before yielding ground to a ridiculous minority of extremists?

Mr Soyinka noted that of far weightier substance than any vaporous religiosity however, is the early mentioned civic condition of all occupiers of the nation, and their material and non-material entitlement as guaranteed by their enabling constitution. He added that when any individual or group, however lofty and privileged in its own self-regard, orders a citizen to quit his or her chosen place of habitation, then the very concept of nation being is nullified.

The obvious issue, to summarize, is  double standards. Lack of equitable dealing, he said.

Agreement or disagreement with Father Kukahs position is demonstration of a nations badge of maturity, and should be read, quite obviously, as a continuation of that nagging, provocative discourse. One fails to understand why religion is being sprung centre stage as a legitimate extract from that New Year address.

There is a deliberate, emotive displacement of a central concern. It is calculated avoidance, diversionary, and thus, nationally unhealthy. Humans should not attempt to play ostrich.
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ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The demand within the global bias tire market is a function of advancements in automobile engineering. The use of bias tires across a multitude of vehicles open organic pathways for growth and development for the vendors operating in this market. It is worthwhile to note that the relevance of bias tires in the domain of automobile engineering stems from the safety, performance enhancement, and durability offered by these tires. Moreover, these tires have found to perform better than radial tires in terms of various key aspects. Over the course of the next decade, the use of bias tire is slated to increase at a stellar pace across various parts of the world.

It is projected that the global bias tire market would grow at a CAGR of 4% over the forecast period ranging through 2020 to 2030. The total worth of the global bias tire market is set to touch US$ 9.2 Bn by the end of this forecast period. The relatively slow growth rate of the global bias tire market can be pegged to advancements in manufacturing of radial tires. Despite the tremendous utility and safety offered by bias tires, the popularity of radial tires has caused disruptions across the global bias tire market. However, the marketing is gradually gaining momentum as new opportunities for market expansion emerge across the automobile industry.

Download PDF Brochure  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=33521

Key Findings of Market Report

Cross-Marketing of Radial and Bias Tires

The use of radial tires over bias tires, or vice versa, has been a matter of contention and debate for several years. However, the narrative around their comparison has indeed helped in popularising both these products. Therefore, it is safe to state that the quest of radial and bias tire manufactures to outdo their competitors has played to the advantage of the overall market. The multiple layers used for manufacturing bias tire as against the single-layered radial tires has created humongous opportunities for growth within the global bias tire market. Therefore, it is safe to expect that the bias tire market would attract formidable investments from leading stakeholders in the times to follow.

Advancements in Automobile Engineering

The use of bias tire in the domain of heavy commercial vehicle manufacturing has boded well for the growth of the global market. Heavy vehicles include buses and tractors that are subjected to long and rough routes. Moreover, these vehicles usually have a long run, and are required to be inducted with leading technologies. Several engineers assert that the use of bias tires for heavy vehicle manufacturing has created new avenues for safety and durability within the automobile industry. Industrial vehicles are also equipped with bias tires, furthering the demand within the global market. Over the course of the next decade, the emergence of new-age heavy and light commercial vehicles would drive market growth and expansion.

Explore 370 pages of superlative research, current market scenario, and extensive geographical projections. Gain insights into the Bias Tire Market (Type: General Bias Tire and Bias Belted Tire; Vehicle Type: Passenger Vehicle, Light Commercial Vehicle, Heavy Commercial Vehicle, Construction & Mining Vehicle, Agriculture Tractor, and Industrial Vehicle; Tire Size: 20-22", 23-50", and >50"; and Sales Channel: OEM and Aftermarket) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2020-2030 at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bias-tire-market.html

Global Bias Tire Market: Growth Drivers

Safety, resilience, and utility offered by bias tires has brought them under the spotlight of attention for the leading automobile manufacturers.

The use bias tires in agricultural tractors is also bringing new growth opportunities to the fore of the industry.

Growing collaborations between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and entities in the automobile industry is slated to redefine the dynamics of market growth.

Analyze global bias tire market growth in 30+ countries including US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Benelux, Nordic, China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Request a sample of the study

Global Bias Tire Market: Key Competitors

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Continental AG

YOKOHAMA Rubber CO. Ltd.

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Automotive Suspension Spring Market  The global automotive suspension spring market is projected to reach US$ 25 Bn by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of ~5% during the forecast period. Rise in sale of passenger and commercial vehicles across the globe is likely to propel the automotive suspension spring market across the globe.

Agriculture Tire & Tire Cord Market  The global agriculture tire & tire cord market is projected to surpass US$ 14.9 Bn by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of ~5% during the forecast period, owing to rise in mechanization rate of farming and increase in use of tractors across the globe. Developing countries depend heavily on agriculture, and their growing populations are fueling the demand for high farm yield.

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Russia is a country of superlatives. Its energy sector is one of the most important in the world where the country shares the number one position interchangeably with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The story of Russian oil and gas goes back to the early days of the industry in the 19th century. This means that relentless exploration and production are required to maintain output. Rosneft's masterplan is the Vostok project that will become the backbone of Russia's oil industry. CEO Igor Sechin announced the implementation in November 2020 during a working meeting with President Putin.

In the early days, when Tsars ruled the Russian Empire, most of the oil was produced on the shores of the Caspian around the city of Baku in what is now Azerbaijan. As an integral part of the empire, the oil industry lay the foundations for the country's massive industrialization. Decades later, the industry's next step would become the development of the Volga-Ural basin in Western Siberia. The slow but steady depletion of the resources in the region necessitates visionary planning. Vostok could be the result.

Moving north also means more hardship and higher costs due to the arctic conditions and distance to major industrial and populated areas. However, the regions massive underdeveloped resources are a big promise for a country that is still highly dependent on revenues from fossil fuel sales. Russias share of the Arctic region contains approximately 7.3 billion tonnes of oil and 55 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Currently, fossil fuel sales are a third of total exports and provide almost half of the states budget.

The Vostok project is a massive undertaking that stretches across the Russian Arctic shores and covers several production areas such as the Vankor and Payakha clusters. Rosneft expects the operation to cost $170 billion over a decade that will employ 400,000 workers, create 15 new industrial towns, and build 800 km of new pipelines. Furthermore, harbors will need to be built including custom-built ships that can ensure access even during harsh winter seasons when the sea is covered with ice. The new Zvezda shipyard in Russia far east will construct at least 12 ice-class super oil tankers. The first ship of its kind was already delivered in June 2020. Related: U.S. Shale Is Gaining Influence Over Oil Markets

The announcement of the construction operations was done in the presence of President Putin due to the strong support of the Russian state. To kickstart the work, a massive incentive was needed. Companies asked and got a huge tax cut for the explicit purpose of developing the Arctic region. According to KPMG, the tax breaks could be worth 2.6 trillion rubles (or $41 billion) over the next 30 years. Therefore, CEO Sechin directed his words to President Putin in a televised meeting: it is with great pleasure that I inform you of the start of the practical implementation of the project.

The Vostok projects should already produce 30 million tonnes of oil by 2024 which rounds up to 600,000 barrels per day. This will need to increase to 50 million tonnes after the first phase, and 100 million tonnes after the second, which adds up to one million and two million barrels per day respectively.

Besides the obvious rewards for the Russian treasury, the massive construction activities are a boon to a large section of the domestic economy. Thousands of tonnes of steel are on order and 400,000 people will be employed, to name several economic benefits. Furthermore, new energy centers with a total capacity of 2,500 GW and 3,500 kilometers of power lines need to be constructed.

Therefore, the importance of this project cannot be underestimated. While most international oil companies have set their sights on developments in the renewables sector, Russia is doubling down on fossil fuels. While its certain that demand will decrease over time, oil and gas will remain an essential part of the global economy for decades to come. For this reason, Moscow and the Russian fossil fuel industry see enough reasons to spend billion to maintain a high level of production well into this century.

By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
WASHINGTON (AP)  The public wont see President Donald Trumps White House records for years, but theres growing concern the collection wont be complete, leaving a hole in the history of one of Americas most tumultuous presidencies.

Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House records workers to spend hours taping them back together.

They told him to stop doing it. He didnt want to stop, said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst. He said the first document he taped back together was a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about a government shutdown.

The president also confiscated an interpreters notes after Trump had a chat with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller. Top executive branch officials had to be reminded more than once not to conduct official business on private email or text messaging systems and to preserve it if they did.

And now, Trump's baseless claim of widespread voter fraud, which postponed for weeks an acknowledgement of President-elect Joe Biden's victory, is delaying the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concern about the integrity of the records.

Historians are likely to suffer from far more holes than has been the norm, said Richard Immerman at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In the Trump White House, "not only has record-keeping not been a priority, but we have multiple examples of it seeking to conceal or destroy that record.

Lack of a complete record might also hinder any ongoing investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in the state of New York.

But even with requests by lawmakers and lawsuits by government transparency groups, there is an acknowledgment that noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act carries little consequence for Trump.

In tossing out one suit last year, U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot micromanage the presidents day-to-day compliance.

The Presidential Records Act states that a president cannot destroy records until he seeks the advice of the national archivist and notifies Congress. But the law doesnt require him to heed the archivist's advice. It doesn't prevent the president from going ahead and destroying records.

Most presidential records today are electronic. Records experts estimate that automatic backup computer systems capture a vast majority of the records, but cannot capture records that a White House chooses not to create or log into those systems.

THE MOVE

Moving a presidents trail of paper and electronic records is a laborious task. President Barack Obama left about 30 million pages of paper documents and some 250 terabytes of electronic records, including the equivalent of about 1.5 billion pages of emails.

The records of past presidents are important because they can help a current president craft new policies and prevent mistakes from being repeated.

Presidential records tell our nations story from a unique perspective and are essential to an incoming administration in making informed decisions, said Lee White, director of the National Coalition for History. They are equally vital to historians."

When Trump lost the November election, records staffers were in position to transfer electronic records, pack up the paper ones and move them to the National Archives by Jan. 20, as required by law. But Trumps reluctance to concede has meant they will miss the deadline.

Necessary funding from the (White House) Office of Management and Budget was delayed for many weeks after the election, which has caused delays in arranging for the transfer of the Trump presidential records into the National Archives' custody, the National Archives said in a statement to The Associated Press. Even though the transfer of these records will not be completed until after Jan. 20, the National Archives will assume legal custody of them on Jan. 20 in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said Saturday that contesting the election did not cause the delay in getting the presidents records transferred to the archives and that guidance was available to staffers on how to pack up their materials.

One person familiar with the transition said guidance typically emailed to executive branch employees explaining how to turn in equipment and pack up their offices was sent out in December, but quickly rescinded because Trump insisted on contesting the election.

With little guidance, some staffers in the White House started quietly calling records workers to find out what to do.

Departing employees are instructed to create a list of folders in each box and make a spreadsheet to give the National Archives a way to track and retrieve the information for the incoming Biden team. The process gets more complex with classified material.

The Biden administration can request to see Trump records immediately, but the law says the public must wait five years before submitting Freedom of Information Act requests. Even then, Trump  like other presidents before him  is invoking specific restrictions to public access of his records for up to 12 years. Six restrictions outlined in the law include national security, confidential business information, confidential communications between the president and his advisers or among his advisers and personal information.

RECORD-KEEPING PRACTICES

Around Trump's first impeachment and on other sensitive issues, some normal workflow practices were bypassed, a second person familiar with the process said. Apparently worried about leaks, higher-ups and White House lawyers became more involved in deciding which materials were catalogued and scanned into White House computer networks where they are automatically saved, this person said.

The individuals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss inner workings at the White House, said that if uncatalogued materials ended up in an office safe, for instance, they would at least be temporarily preserved. But if they were never catalogued in the first place, staffers would not know they existed, making such materials untraceable.

White House staff quickly learned about Trump's disregard for documents as they witnessed him tearing them up and discarding them.

My director came up to me and said, You have to tape these together,' said Lartey, the former records analyst.

Lartey said someone in the White House chief of staff's office told the president that the documents were considered presidential records and needed to be preserved by law. Lartey said about 10 records staffers ended up on Scotch tape duty at different times, starting with Trumps first days in the White House through at least mid-2018.

Trump's staff also engaged in questionable practices by using private emails and messaging apps. Former White House counsel Don McGahn in February 2017 sent a memo that instructed employees not to use nonofficial text messaging apps or private email accounts. If they did, he said, they had to take screenshots of the material and copy it into official email accounts, which are preserved. He sent the memo back out in September 2017.

It's an open question to me about how serious or conscientious any of those people have been about moving them over, said Tom Blanton, who directs the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which was founded in 1985 to combat government secrecy.

Trump was criticized for confiscating the notes of an interpreter who was with him in 2017 when the president talked with Putin in Hamburg, Germany. Lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to obtain the notes of another interpreter who was with Trump in 2018 when he met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. It's unclear whether the two presidents talked about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Many people suspected the subject did come up because at a news conference afterward, Trump said he believed Putin when Putin denied Russian interference despite U.S. intelligence agencies finding the opposite.

Several weeks ago, the National Security Archive, two historical associations and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued to prevent the Trump White House from destroying any electronic communications or records sent or received on nonofficial accounts, such as personal email or WhatsApp.

They also alleged that the White House has already likely destroyed presidential materials.

The court refused to issue a temporary restraining order after government lawyers told the judge that they had instructed the White House to notify all employees to preserve all electronic communications in their original format until the suit was settled.

I believe we will find that theres going to be a huge hole in the historical record of this president because I think theres probably been serious noncompliance of the Presidential Records Act," said Anne Weismann, one of the lawyers representing the groups in their suit. "I dont think President Trump cares about his record and what it says. I think he probably cares, though, about what it might say about his criminal culpability.

Trump faces several legal challenges when he leaves the White House. There are two New York state inquiries into whether he misled tax authorities, banks or business partners. Also, two women alleging he sexually assaulted them are suing him.

DESTROYING OR SAVING HISTORY

Presidential records were considered a president's personal property until the Watergate scandal under President Richard Nixon prompted Congress in 1978 to pass the Presidential Records Act over worry that Nixon would destroy White House tape recordings that led to his resignation.

After that, presidential records were no longer considered personal property but the property of the American people  if they are preserved. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to require audits of White House record-keeping and compliance with the law.

The American public should not have to wait until a president has left office to learn of problems with that presidents record-keeping practices," Weismann said.
National Guards move towards the US Capitol as they prepare for Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty

Joe Biden aims to hit the ground running with a blizzard of executive orders on his first day in office.

Mr Biden plans to rejoin the Paris climate accord, end Donald Trumps travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries and order masks to be worn in federal buildings.

The orders will represent the opening salvo of a flurry of activity over the first 10 days of the Biden administration, aimed at rolling back many of the policies introduced by Donald Trump.

Mr Biden also intends to introduce legislation for a $1.9 trillion (1.6trn) relief package and immigration reform.

His ambitious programme was outlined in a memorandum circulated at the weekend by Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff.

During the campaign, President-elect Biden pledged to take immediate action to start addressing these crises and build back better, Mr Klain wrote.

As president, he will keep those promises and sign dozens of executive orders, presidential memoranda and directives to cabinet agencies in fulfilment of the promises he made.

The 78-year-old will assume office with the country reeling from the pandemic, which has claimed more than 395,000 lives and devastated the economy, with 7.3 million people looking for work. Millions more are struggling after having their working hours cut.

Tackling the pandemic and breathing life into the flagging economy will be top priorities for Mr Biden.

Read More

The day after the inauguration, Mr Klain wrote, the president will sign a number of executive actions to move aggressively to change the course of the Covid-19 crisis and safely reopen schools and businesses, including by taking action to mitigate spread through expanding testing, protecting workers, and establishing clear public health standards.

Mr Biden has pledged to turbo-charge the vaccination strategy, aiming to inoculate 100 million people in 100 days. The Trump administration has come under fire for the slow rollout of the inoculation programme, with states accusing the federal government of failing to deliver the quantities of vaccine promised.

Were inheriting a huge mess here, but we plan to fix it, Mr Klain told CNNs State of the Union.

Mr Biden will increase the supply of vaccine by invoking the Defence Production Act. He will ask Congress for $415bn in emergency spending to cover the cost of production, testing and inoculation centres.

This would be included in a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, including payments of $1,600 to every American. His chances of passing the measures have improved after Democrats won control of the Senate.

Mr Klain told CNN that Mr Biden, in his inaugural address to the nation, would deliver a message of moving this country forward. A message of unity. A message of getting things done. He added: I think there are people in both parties we can work with to move this agenda forward.

Kamala Harris, his vice-president, will have the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

On Thursday, Mr Biden would sign orders related to Covid-19 aimed at reopening schools and businesses and expanding virus testing, Mr Klain said.

Other actions would include extending the pause on student loan payments and actions to prevent evictions and foreclosures for those struggling during the crisis.

These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises, Mr Klain said in the memo.

President-elect Biden will take action  not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration  but also to start moving our country forward.

He admitted, however, that full achievement of Mr Bidens goals would require Congress to act,

Incoming presidents traditionally move swiftly to sign an array of executive actions on taking office.

Mr Trump did the same, but found many of his orders challenged and even rejected by courts. Mr Bidens orders are not expected to follow the same path.

Read More

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 11:10:17|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Three quarters of Australians have called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to censure a member of parliament over COVID-19 disinformation.

A poll published by the think tank Australia Institute on Monday found that 76 percent of Australians agreed that Morrison "has a responsibility to clearly and publicly criticize" members of his governing Liberal National Party coalition who spread misinformation about the pandemic.

It comes after government MP Craig Kelly shared posts on social media earlier in January likening mask mandates for children to child abuse.

"Forcing children to wear masks is causing massive physical & psychological harm - that can only be defined as child abuse," he wrote.

The poll found that disapproval of Kelly was strong across party lines with 77 percent of coalition voters agreeing that he should be censured.

In the wake of the post the peak body for Australian doctors, the Australian Medical Association (AMA), called on Morrison to publicly condemn Kelly and others who were "torching the foundation of community health and science."

"Hopefully we can get the leaders being very strong and clear in their advice and strong about supporting science," AMA Vice President Chris Moy said.

The Australia Institute also found that 56 percent of voters agreed that Morrison should criticize or condemn outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the capitol hill riots.

Morrison condemned participants in the riots for the "terribly distressing" scenes but has not addressed Trump's role. Enditem
As a boy with a bad stutter and a boundless imagination, Joey Biden ran the rooftops of Green Ridge garages with best friends Larry Orr and Tommy Bell. They scaled smoldering culm dumps and scurried across a sulfurous Lackawanna River on sewer pipes, accepting every dare Charlie Roth bet they wouldnt tempt.

Charlie never paid up, but Joey kept coming back. Charlie barked his bets from the ground, which he gravely warned his friends above was a swamp filled with alligators. Fall down and be eaten up. Never mind gravity. The real risk is losing your nerve while finding your balance.

If you fall, get up and keep coming back.

Charlie was the guy that fired my imagination ... the guy that fired my confidence like no other person in my life, then U.S. Sen. Joe Biden said as he delivered Roths eulogy in 2000 at St. Clares Church.

He could convince me that we could do anything.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday. As his inauguration neared, old friends, a political mandarin, a former Republican Pennsylvania governor and Bush cabinet secretary, a Black Scranton activist and the first woman mayor of his hometown mused on Bidens deep Scranton roots, the values he learned at his grandfathers kitchen table and the political triumphs and travails he survived while overcoming profound personal losses that tried his faith and tempered his will to live and lead.

All acknowledged that Bidens path to the White House was meandering and marked by missteps, but agreed he is the right leader to bind up the wounds of a nation that hasnt been this divided since the last time a Pennsylvania-born Democrat presided in the White House.

He is what he appears to be, Gayle Roth Gilman, 81, said, sitting across a dining room table from her sister, Aileen Roth, 71. Both wore face masks and praised Bidens leadership since the earliest days of the pandemic.

Hes honest. Hes decent. Hes human, so he doesnt have a halo over his head, but hes the real deal, Gilman said. We need him, especially with this virus, and he needs us.

The bond between the Roths and Bidens reaches back to the early 1940s. Bidens parents  the former Catherine Eugenia Jean Finnegan and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr.  met in the living room of the Roth home at 2305 N. Washington Ave.

The sisters, who live together, said the families remained close even after Bidens father moved his brood to Delaware in search of work when Joe Biden was about 10.

Joe and Charlie and Larry and Tommy were really like The Four Musketeers, Gilman remembered. They were into everything and always together. And even when (the Bidens) moved, they were back here almost every weekend. Joe moved to Delaware, but he kept coming back.

It was Charlie Roth who convinced Biden to run for Senate when his friend was considering a campaign for governor of Delaware. Roth believed before anyone else that a scrappy kid from Scranton could and would be the leader of the free world if he kept getting up and coming back.

We didnt know Joe left town because he was always coming back, Tom Bell said of his lifelong friend.

Bell, 77, said he and Biden were around three years old when they became friends. Their mothers were close and the neighborhood was a network of families who looked out for each other. A few Catholic school nuns bullied Biden over his stutter, but his friends never did, Bell said.

I dont remember a time when he didnt stutter, he said. He always stuttered, but you know, we didnt even think anything of it. It wasnt a big deal and we didnt judge him any differently.

Biden has been open about his stutter, and shares his coping strategies with other stutterers. Critics have used Bidens sometimes halting speech and his age, 78, to mock him as senile. People who have known him since childhood called that malarkey.

They talk about how hes demented and all this nonsense, Gilman said. I think when hes very tired, he stutters, or sometimes when hes searching for a word. He has ways of dealing with it.

Dealing with wounding limitations became a way of life for Biden, Bell said. He said he, Larry Orr and Charlie Roth grew up together, even after the Biden family moved to Delaware. Through soaring political wins and crushing personal losses, Biden always kept his best friends close, Bell said.

Biden was just 30 on Jan. 5, 1973, when he was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in a Delaware hospital ward. His young sons, Beau and Hunter, were recovering from a tragic car accident that killed their mother, Neilia, and infant sister, Naomi, just 18 days before. Devastated, Biden considered resigning to care for his boys, but was persuaded to stay on as the sixth-youngest senator in American history.

Biden was reelected to the Senate six times. Over 36 years, he built a reputation as a straight-talking, amiable policy wonk who could bring Democrats and Republicans together to make progress. He also drew scorn and derision as a gaffe machine and shameless opportunist with a tendency to stretch the truth when it suited his political ambitions.

Biden served on the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. He was forced to quit his first bid over charges of plagiarism for lifting lines from the speeches of an Irish politician and others. In 2008, Sen. Barack Obama won the nomination and picked Biden  whom he called a scrappy kid from Scranton  as his running mate.

Biden served two terms as Vice President and expected to retire from politics and continue advocating for a federal initiative to find a cure for cancer. Beau Biden, Attorney General of Delaware and an Iraq War veteran, died of brain cancer in May 2015. In a 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, Biden wrote that his oldest son made him promise not to leave politics.

With the support of wife and former Second Lady Jill Biden, Ed.D., daughter, Ashley, family and friends, Biden announced his candidacy in April 2019. He entered the contest for the Democratic nomination as the assumed front-runner, but ran behind most of the race until U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn mobilized Black voters in South Carolina.

The endorsement put the political winds at Bidens back. He won the nomination handily. The rest is history, despite protestations to the contrary. How did a scrappy kid from Scranton get elected President of the United States?

Flipping Pennsylvania was a keystone of Bidens decisive Electoral College and popular vote victory, said G. Terry Madonna, senior fellow in residence for political affairs at Millersville University and former director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College.

Overall, when he began to run, I said, Well this guy has enormous connections in this state, the veteran pollster said. Whether we were talking about a competitive primary or the general election. I saw all along that he would be tough to beat.

For decades, Biden was known as the third Senator from Pennsylvania.

Biden was also close with the Caseys, Scrantons first family of politics, Madonna said. The late Robert P. Casey Sr., former governor and a conservative Democrat was a longtime ally. His son, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, another Green Ridge native, backed Bidens 2020 run from the beginning.

Biden won the state because he cleaned up in the Philly suburbs, Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties and Delaware County, Madonna said. And, what he did in those counties was to get 100,000 votes more than Hillary (Clinton) got in 2016.

College-educated suburban women and millennials were a big factor, Madonna said.

College-educated women in particular are culturally liberal on abortion, gay rights and transgender issues, he said. No. 2, they are for gun control. No. 3, they want climate change legislation. And so, thats not something that Donald J. Trump offered.

The incumbent also refused to mount an organized federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, which polling revealed was the most important issue for Pennsylvania voters.

COVID-19 rated as the No. 1 issue in the state, the No. 1 problem in the state, Madonna said. And, the president... didnt take it as seriously as he should have.

Biden took the pandemic seriously from the start and is the right leader to bring an end to the crisis, said Tom Ridge, a Pennsylvania native, a former two-term Republican governor and the first Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.

Ridge contrasted Bidens willingness to tackle difficult problems with the weakness of President James Buchanan, the only other president from Pennsylvania. Born in a log cabin in Franklin County, the nations 15th president is widely regarded as one of the very worst. Historians blame Buchanans failure to bind up the nations political, cultural and racial divisions for hastening the Civil War.

History does not look too favorably upon James Buchanan, who ran the other way when the South was dismantling the Union, Ridge said. And here we have a man (Biden) who ran to the challenge. ... I dont know of another modern president that on the day he takes office will be confronted with such a significant series of complex domestic and international challenges.

Bidens history of reaching across political boundaries to accomplish the nations goals will go a long way with a Senate and Congress that long ago traded progress for partisanship, Ridge said. While President Obama trusted his vice president with a few big initiatives, Ridge said he erred in not using Biden to ease the gridlock that bogged down the rest of his agenda.

Hes old school, Ridge said of Biden. Hes been in government when personal relationships literally  and I use this word by design  trumped ideology. You were able to accomplish things by working hard and looking for common ground. He came from a generation where compromise was not a bad word, but in fact the only way you can get things done.

(Biden) can be as tough a partisan as anybody, but he and my friend John McCain were great friends. They differed wildly on some issues and worked together on others. They had a mutual respect based on character, integrity and love of country.

Along with a history of bipartisan progress, Ridge said Biden brings humility, grace and an abiding reverence for the office of the presidency.

Theres nothing flamboyant, ideological or off-putting about his personality, Ridge said. I think hes perceived as a decent, honorable man who has endured maybe the widest possible range of political and personal challenges. Think of the personal adversity that hes dealt with in his life, the political challenges that hes endured. And yet, he keeps coming back and continues to serve.

In taking the pandemic seriously and calling for a coordinated federal response from the beginning, Biden proved he can lead by example and steer the nation through the tough months ahead, Ridge said.

Strong leaders model the behavior they want from those who have entrusted them with the responsibility to lead, he said. They model the behavior they want everybody else to follow. A classic example was during the campaign. What candidate was wearing a mask? What candidate was social distancing? What candidate was being ridiculed by the other candidate for doing the right thing? (Biden) was unflappable. That kind of calm, thoughtful leadership  born of personal pain and political setbacks  makes him the right man at the right time.

President-elect Bidens inauguration and time in office are bound to burnish the image of the city of his birth. Scranton will have an extended turn in the international spotlight, and Glynis Johns is determined to see it shine beyond Green Ridge.

Id like to see him acknowledge the Black and brown community of his hometown, who did a lot to promote his candidacy and made sure people understood what was on the line and got them out to vote, the founder of Black Scranton Project said.

Johns, 27, a Scranton native working on a Ph.D. in African-American history, wants Biden to acknowledge that Blacks have lived and worked in Scranton since its founding, and deserve to feel as much ownership of the citys history as he does.

When (Biden) was growing up in Green Ridge, most of the citys Black and brown folks lived downtown, Johns said. Were from here, too, and it would be great to see our president acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of people in our city fighting the same injustices that weve seen nationally.

Johns chances of speaking with Biden may be helped by her recent work with Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti to promote diversity in the citys management and workforce. Cognetti worked on the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign and for the 2008-09 transition team. She served the administration in the Treasury Department from 2009 to 2012.

A lifelong Democrat, Cognetti ran and won as an independent after city Democratic leaders rejected her. Biden named her one of his 20 electors anyway, and called the mayor to thank her for helping him win Pennsylvania.

Cognetti said she was grateful for Bidens call, but not surprised.

Joe Biden is the kind of person who picks up the phone, the mayor said. He calls to congratulate, he calls to commiserate, he calls to offer help. He takes time to connect with people. When youre on the receiving end of one of those calls, you can tell he truly does enjoy engaging on a human level.

To have a reputation like that after decades in a career at the top of political hierarchy is meaningful. And, its meaningful for the country to have someone who understands what people really need assume the presidency in January. We have a lot of work to do to rediscover our common ground, and its going to take a genuine connector to lead that process.

COVID restrictions will deny Biden a traditional inauguration, but whatever shape the ceremony takes, Charlie Roths sisters will be watching together and celebrating the payoff of their late brothers biggest bet.

Jan. 20 is Charlies birthday, Gilman said. Charlie always said, Joe will be president someday. You just wait and see.
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Larry Parnass, investigations editor, joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and CommonWealth Magazine.

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The Standing Committee of the cash-strapped East Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday rejected the three new taxes, including a professional tax and a betterment tax, proposed in its annual to augment its revenue.

Additional Commissioner Alka R Sharma had presented the in December in which an education cess of five per cent of property tax had also been proposed.

The Standing Committee of the EDMC in a special meeting held on Monday rejected all hikes in taxes and levying of new taxes, the civic body said in a statement.

The EDMC always works for the welfare of people, it said.

The EDMC had earlier said a "professional tax at Rs 100 per month for those earning more than Rs 5 lakh a year; and Rs 200 per month for those earning more than Rs 10 lakh per month," had been proposed in the

A betterment tax (for enhancement of property value due to public infrastructure development) at 15 per cent of property tax had also been proposed.

A total revenue of Rs 50 crore was expected from these new taxes, it had 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.)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18) - With 21 affirmative votes, the Senate has approved on third and final reading the bill which aims to strengthen the country's anti-money laundering law.

Senate Bill No. 1945 introduces amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 in order to prevent the country from returning to the "gray list" or countries with weak policies against dirty money by the Paris-based global watchdog Financial Action Task Force.

The Philippines has until February this year to update the AMLA.

READ: PH sure to return to global money laundering watchlist if new law not passed by February  BSP chief

Among the salient features of the bill are the following:

-Real estate developers and brokers are now included in the list of covered persons when they engage in a single cash transaction

-Coverage of offshore gaming operators and their service providers

-Inclusion of the commission of tax crimes and violation of the Strategic Trade Management Act, which relates to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and its financing, as predicate offenses to money laundering

The measure also seeks to strengthen the functions of the Anti-Money Laundering Council such as:

-Enhancing its investigative powers through express powers of deputization, power to apply for search warrant, and power to obtain information on ultimate beneficial ownership

-Authorizing it to implement targeted financial sanctions on proliferation financing

-Authorizing it to preserve, manage, or dispose assets subject of asset preservation order and judgment forfeiture

-Prohibiting the issuance of injunctive relief against freeze orders and forfeiture proceedings under its jurisdiction

The chamber snubbed Malacanang's letter certifying it as urgent last December due to suggested provisions by the president, which the senators believed is not allowed.

A bicameral conference committee with the House of Representatives will be set after. The ratified version of the measure will be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his signature.
Deejai Barker was walking out of a Sydney shopping centre when she was approached by two officers who asked her why she wasn't wearing a mask, despite having an exemption

A single mum who filmed a fiery confrontation with officers over not wearing a mask to the shops has a history with police - as officers warn 'further action' may be taken against her.

Deejai Barker, 26, shared video of a confrontation she had with NSW Police officers out the front of a shopping centre on the Central Coast about midday on Wednesday.

The clip showed a furious Ms Barker telling NSW Police officers that she was exempt from wearing a mask because of a health condition.

A constable then sought to arrest Ms Barker and search her handbag for the exemption.

She erupted and the officer then admitted he had crossed the line, apologised and suggested that she complain to the local police station.

However, Daily Mail Australia can reveal the saga may not have ended in the car park of Bateau Bay Village shopping centre.

A NSW Police Force spokeswoman said 'inquiries into the incident remain ongoing and further action has not been ruled out.' And Wednesday was an unfortunate day for Ms Barker for separate police-related reasons.

Ms Barker filmed her encounter with the two male officers in the carpark of Bateau Bay shopping centre on the NSW Central Coast

In a remarkable coincidence, she was fined that same day by Wyong Local Court over a similar run in with officers last October, when she turned up to an ex-partner's home over a dispute.

A police statement of facts tendered in court accused Ms Barker of being 'hysterical', taunting officers and screaming at them 'get f***ed, I don't care, arrest me.'

Ms Barker was charged with two counts of resisting or hindering police during arrest, and one of offensive conduct in an enclosed space.

She did not show up at court, was convicted in her absence and fined $600 over the three offences.

That is triple the $200 penalty she could have been fined for failing to wear a mask without a lawful excuse.

Ms Barker's incident with police came about after a woman at Kmart had asked her earlier to wear a mask.

Ms Barker refused to show her exemption to the woman and continued shopping for about 40 minutes.

But she ran into officers as she left the centre with her children.

Ms Barker filmed her confrontation with two NSW Police officers over why she wasn't wearing a mask

The officers asked her why she wasn't complying with New South Wales' Covid mask mandate.

Under health guidelines, shoppers in the greater Sydney region - which includes the Central Coast and Illawarra regions - are required to wear masks in indoor areas, such as shopping centres, unless they have a medical exemption.

A fuming Ms Barker filmed the encounter.

'I walked out of the shop and you asked where's my mask, and I said I had an exemption,' Ms Barker told the two officers.

'You said "oh ok that's fine" and I walked off because I know my rights. And so what did you do? You followed me out of the shop.'

She then panned to the second officer: 'This one's just standing here not saying anything.'

The first police officer told Ms Barker he was placing her under arrest for breaching a public health order.

'And as part of that, I'm going to search your bag,' he told her.

The mother-of-two responded: 'No, you're not searching my bag.'

He told Ms Barker that refusal to comply with police is an 'offence on its own'.

'You can't search a person unless they're committing a crime. [Not] wearing a mask is not committing a crime. Mandatory and compulsory is not law,' she said, becoming increasingly angry.

The officer then reached towards Ms Barker's purse and said he was going to look at her ID.

A scuffle ensued as he tried to grab Ms Barker's handbag, all in front of her two young kids.

'Give me my purse!' she screamed. 'Do not touch my purse.'

The footage then cut out, before showing the police officer speaking on the phone with his sergeant for advice a short time later.

The footage then cut out, before showing the police officer speaking on the phone with his sergeant for advice a short time later

'I apologise. I'm providing you with my details, you can go to any local police station and make a complaint in writing,' the officer sheepishly told Ms Barker.

'What am I correct about?' the livid mother asked the officer.

'Not requiring to provide the ID or proof of exemption,' he responded.

Ms Barker was livid when she was confronted over failing to wear a mask

Ms Barker sarcastically thanked the officer, telling him: 'Your details is not freaking enough for doing what you just did in front of my kids and reaching into my bag and grabbing my wallet.'

The cop then handed her a copy of his name and station.

'You're more than welcome and encouraged to go and make a complaint,' he said.

'I should have known better and that's on me. Obviously you're no longer under arrest.'

Daily Mail Australia approached Ms Barker for comment, however she declined to answer questions until she could speak to a lawyer.

She told a broadcaster hours after the incident that, 'I'm pretty overwhelmed... I'm still in shock that it happened.'
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 18 : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come down heavily on Managing Director of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, Biju Prabhakar, and asked him not to issue public statements against officials and employees arbitrarily.

The IAS officer at the KSRTC helm will be meeting the trade union representatives on Monday and brief the Chief Minister after the meeting on the developments, sources in KSRTC told IANS.

Prabhakar last week in a press conference said that a section of officers and employees were not doing their duties properly and some of them have been indulging in turmeric and ginger farming while accepting huge salary from the corporation which is falling into deep debts.

The KSRTC managing director had also lashed out against the executive director of the corporation and said that this officer was responsible for misappropriation of huge funds from the organization. The officer, Sreekumar was transferred to Kochi immediately.

CITU leader and Member of Parliament Elamaram Kareem had come out against the KSRTC Managing Director and said that he should not speak on such matter in public.

The INTUC and BMS had also come out against Biju Prabhakar.

Prabhakar, it is learnt have communicated to the Chief minister that a section of employees are responsible for the crises faced by the corporation and that some officials who were working at the headquarters were responsible for scuttling all development plans to put the loss making body on track.

He said that even CNG buses were not used for plying as certain employees wanted to pilfer diesel from the vehicles.

The KSRTC is planning a subsidiary company SWIFT to fund the development of the corporation including purchases of buses.

The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) will be funding the formation of SWIFT and the required amount for the purchases of the buses. The unions are in collision course on this stating that this would lead to the KSRTC providing backdoor employment and to reduce the number of permanent workers.
As you know, federal and state employees will honor Dr. Martin Luther Kings birthday today (Monday) so it will be tomorrow (Tuesday) when the vaccination efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Hamilton County will really begin to ramp up. This week will also mark the start of Round Two for our First Responders, our medical providers, and others who were given their first doses of the vaccine three or four weeks ago.

Two types of vaccine are being given in Southeast Tennessee. The Pfizer vaccine was the first to arrive so those who received it were told to wait a prescribed 21 days before the second shot, or the other half of the vaccine, could be given. Others have been given the Moderna vaccine, universally believed to be equally as effective as the Pfizer brand. Moderna asked for a 28-day window before its follow-up dose is recommended.

At the same time, the Hamilton County Health Department is focusing on giving the first shot to everyone in the 75-and-up age group and, through an appointment service now available on the health department website, anyone who is eligible can get an appointment. (Yes, caregivers are encouraged to help those over 75 make an appointment, but only those who are over 75 can actually be inoculated.)

VERY IMPORTANT! No one is required by law to receive the vaccine. While every health-field official in the nation begs each of us (18 years and over) to be vaccinated as quickly as possible, there is no law or rule that keeps anyone from making their own decision, this in the name of every citizens rights, including freedom. Certain companies are requiring employees to get the vaccine, but there are no state or federal laws that dictate it.

There are a number of 75+ seniors in Hamilton County who do not have Internet access. These people, or their representatives/caretakers, are asked to call the Countys Emergency Management team at 

423-209-5399 -- Hamilton County Emergency Management Hotline

 where they will be assisted with a time and date, as well as which location. A certain number of each days doses are being specifically set aside to accommodate those with no Internet access.

* * *

THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE ANSWERS OUR QUESTIONS

The New England Journal of Medicine is one of the respected resources for health professionals around the world. Trust me, there are many articles that will swamp a lay person in the first paragraph, but the NEJM has just included a COVID 19 Vaccine Resource Center that answers questions we might ask that is tremendous.

Paul Sax, M.D., a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an infectious disease specialist, provides concise and engaging answers to clinicians questions about Covid-19 vaccination and to the questions and concerns patients will raise.

For example:

How long will the vaccines work? Are booster doses required?

Since the vaccines have been tested only since the summer of 2020, we do not have information about the durability of protection. Data from the phase 1 trial of the Moderna vaccine suggested that neutralizing antibodies persisted for nearly 4 months, with titers declining slightly over time. Given the absence of information on how long the vaccines will be protective, there is currently no specific recommendation for booster doses.

Do the vaccines prevent transmission of the virus to others?

Many commentaries on the results of the vaccine clinical trials cite a lack of information on asymptomatic infection as a limitation in our knowledge about the vaccines effectiveness. Indeed, this is a theoretical concern, since up to 40% of people who get infected with SARS-CoV-2 have no symptoms but may still transmit the virus to others.

Nonetheless, there are several good reasons to be optimistic about the vaccines effect on disease transmission. First, in the Moderna trial, participants underwent nasopharyngeal swab PCR testing at baseline and testing at week 4, when they returned for their second dose. Among those who were negative at baseline and without symptoms, 39 (0.3%) in the placebo group and 15 (0.1%) in the mRNA-1273 group had nasopharyngeal swabs that were positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR. These data suggest that even after one dose, the vaccine has a protective effect in preventing asymptomatic infection.

Second, findings from population-based studies now suggest that people without symptoms are less likely to transmit the virus to others. Third, it would be highly unlikely in biological terms for a vaccine to prevent disease and not also prevent infection. If there is an example of a vaccine in widespread clinical use that has this selective effect  prevents disease but not infection  I cant think of one!

Can the second dose be given later than 21 or 28 days and still be effective?

The goal of the first vaccine is to prime the immune response; the second boosts it. Although most participants in the trials received their second dose on or close to the scheduled time, there is no biological reason why receiving the second dose late would diminish the effectiveness of the vaccine, provided its received before too long an interval. In practice, the second dose should be given as soon as possible after the missed scheduled dose.

Do the vaccines prevent transmission of the virus to others?

(Excerpt) -- Many commentaries on the results of the vaccine clinical trials cite a lack of information on asymptomatic infection as a limitation in our knowledge about the vaccines effectiveness. Indeed, this is a theoretical concern, since up to 40% of people who get infected with SARS-CoV-2 have no symptoms but may still transmit the virus to others.

Nonetheless, there are several good reasons to be optimistic about the vaccines effect on disease transmission. First, in the Moderna trial,. opens in new tab, participants underwent nasopharyngeal swab PCR testing at baseline and testing at week 4, when they returned for their second dose. Among those who were negative at baseline and without symptoms, 39 (0.3%) in the placebo group and 15 (0.1%) in the mRNA-1273 group had nasopharyngeal swabs that were positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR. These data suggest that even after one dose, the vaccine has a protective effect in preventing asymptomatic infection.

Second, findings from population-based studies now suggest that people without symptoms are less likely to transmit the virus to others. Third, it would be highly unlikely in biological terms for a vaccine to prevent disease and not also prevent infection.

Until we know more, however, we should continue to emphasize to our patients that vaccination does not allow us to stop other important measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We need to continue social distancing, masking, avoiding crowded indoor settings, and regular hand washing.

Should acetaminophen (Tylenol) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as aspirin) be taken BEFORE the vaccination to prevent post-vaccination symptoms?

Although these drugs could decrease subjective side effects, theoretically they could also blunt immune response and make the vaccines less effective  hence they are not recommended before vaccination. They are useful, however, in diminishing side effects once they occur. Acetaminophen is preferred for pregnant women.

* * *

According to the State of Tennessee Department of Health on Sunday, there were 268 new cases reported statewide to give Tennessee 3,576 active cases.

Far better: according to the Johns Hopkins COVID 19 dashboard, it has now been 360 days since its debut and on Sunday the United States had 198,218 new cases over the past 24 hours and 3,286 deaths in the same time frame. Since the dashboard opened, less than a week this time a year ago, there have been 23,923,474  yes, thats millions  confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 397,494 Americans are dead since its arrival.

Globally  for keeps? 95,003,533 confirmed cases. 2,029,938 dead. Mind you: This in less than one year.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 17:12:29|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)

The spokesperson noted that certain anti-China U.S. politicians like Pompeo have continued their rampant interference in China's Hong Kong affairs and have adopted a practice of imposing so-called "sanctions," which only expose their sinister intentions to contain China under any pretext.

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese government spokesperson on Monday condemned the so-called U.S. sanctions imposed on officials of the central and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) governments, saying that it is time for U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to end his sanction tricks.

The spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council made the remarks after the U.S. Department of State imposed so-called sanctions following the detention of Benny Tai and others by the Hong Kong police for suspected violations of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR in accordance with the law.

Voicing strong opposition to the "sanctions," the spokesperson called the move a serious interference in China's internal affairs.

By blatantly organizing the so-called "primary election" or "referendum," Tai and others constituted a grave challenge to the constitutional order of the HKSAR, the spokesperson said.

Their actions are aimed at subversion and are suspected violations of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR and other laws of the city, the spokesperson said, adding that the police detention and investigation are carried out as required by law and to safeguard rule of law.

The spokesperson noted that certain anti-China U.S. politicians like Pompeo have continued their rampant interference in China's Hong Kong affairs and have adopted a practice of imposing so-called "sanctions," which only expose their sinister intentions to contain China under any pretext.

The so-called "sanctions" are merely cheap political tricks and will never shake the determination of the Chinese central government and the Chinese people in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interest or the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, the spokesperson added.

The implementation of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR has helped restore the city's social order at a remarkable pace, providing a solid guarantee to the legitimate rights and freedom of its residents, the spokesperson said, adding that nothing can stop Hong Kong from embracing peace and stability. 
A computer is pictured in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

FBI Probes Allegation That Woman Stole Laptop From Pelosis Office to Sell to Russia

The FBI is investigating whether a woman seen in House Speaker Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) office on Jan. 6 allegedly stole a computer or hard drive and had plans to sell it to Russia.

The claim was outlined in an affidavit filed in the case against Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who authorities said took part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

In the days following the breach, a witness called the FBIs tip line several times. The witness said he or she was a former romantic partner of Williams and saw Williams in video footage captured on Jan. 6.

The caller (W1) also claimed to have spoken to friends of Williams, who showed him or her a video of Williams taking a computer or hard drive from Pelosis office during the mayhem that day.

W1 stated that WILLIAMS intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russias foreign intelligence service, Special Agent Jonathan Lund wrote in the court filing.

According to W1, the transfer of the computer device to Russia fell through for unknown reasons and WILLIAMS still has the computer device or destroyed it. This matter remains under investigation.

Pelosis office didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Protesters gather near the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A spokesman for Pelosi confirmed last week that a laptop was stolen from her office during the breach of the Capitol. The computer was only used for presentations, spokesman Drew Hammill said.

At least one other laptop was stolen from congressional offices on Jan. 6. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said a computer was taken from his office.

U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin told reporters in a recent briefing that people were literally rifling through Pelosis office and stealing items, stealing materials, mail, and sometimes even personal mementos.

The new affidavit was signed by a judge on Jan. 17.

Officials say Williams, 22, apparently fled. According to law enforcement officers in Harrisburg, Williamss mother said her daughter packed a bag and left home, saying shed be gone for a couple of weeks.

Sometime after Jan. 6, Williams changed her phone number and deleted accounts on social media platforms, including Facebook, Reddit, and Parler.

Williams was charged with illegally entering the Capitol, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Williams didnt have an attorney listed as of Jan. 18.
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The Nigerian Air Force says it has lost one of its Special Forces personnel in a gun battle as troops of Operation Hadarin Daji neutralised 30 bandits at Maje Riverline near Yar-Katsina, Bungudu Local Government Area of Zamfara.

The Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF Headquarters, Ibikunle Daramola, who disclosed this in a statement, on Monday, in Abuja, added that the feat was achieved when the troops from Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) at Kekuwuje, Kwatarkwashi and Maru were mobilised.

Mr Daramola, an Air Vice Marshal, explained that the mobilisation was in response to reports that scores of bandits, along with a large number of rustled livestock, were spotted heading towards Kekuwuje Yar-Katsina Road.

He explained further that the troops intercepted and overpowered them with superior firepower in the ensuing gun battle.

The troops subsequently chased the bandits and cornered them at the Maje Riverline, neutralising 30 of them.

But unfortunately, one SF personnel, Aircraftman Sunday Enwa, who fought gallantly during the encounter, paid the supreme price, while three others, who sustained gunshot wounds during the operation, have been evacuated for medical treatment, Mr Daramola said.

The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar, on behalf of airmen, airwomen and the civilian staff of NAF, has commiserated with the family of the fallen hero and prays that God grant his soul peaceful repose.

Mr Abubakar also urged NAF personnel to remain resolute and continue to work assiduously, in synergy with sister services and other security agencies, to rid the North-West of all criminal elements.

(NAN)

Mamata Banerjee expands Bengal Cabinet, 43 TMC leaders sworn in as ministers: Full List here

All 77 BJP MLAs in Bengal to have central security cover

BJPs tally in West Bengal assembly down to 75

Stones pelted at BJP workers during roadshow in Kolkata

India

oi-Deepika S

Kolkata, Jan 18: Stones were pelted at BJP workers who were part of a rally attended by Union Minister Debasree Chaudhuri, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and Suvendu Adhikari in Kolkata earlier today.

The roadshow, which commenced at Tollygunge tram depot, was set to culminate at Rashbehari Avenue often referred to as the backyard of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

As the rally, led by state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and senior leader Suvendu Adhikari, proceeded toward Charu Market, miscreants threw bricks and stones at the entourage, injuring some of the saffron party activists.

Infuriated over the attack, BJP workers chased the miscreants, who by then had fled to nearby bylanes, the officer said.

West Bengal Elections 2021: BJP to hold Paribartan Yatras

The saffron camp activists then ransacked a few motorcycles and shops in the area.

A huge police contingent was rushed to the spot to control the incensed activists.

State minister Aroop Biswas has also reached the troubled area to take stock of the situation.

"Police permission was obtained for this rally but still few persons were seen pelting stones. But these tactics will not work because people of West Bengal are with us and they want a change," said Suvendu Adhikari reacting to the incident.

Elections to the 294-member state assembly are due in April-May.

The ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP have indulged in fierce battle as the state elections inch closer.
More evidence about the origin of the riot might even weaken the support Trump still commands among grassroots Republicans. Polls show that his public approval rating has slumped to the lowest point of his presidency: 29% in a Pew Research Center survey released Friday. Most of the erosion was among Republicans who say he bears at least some responsibility for the events at the Capitol. But 60% of Republicans still say they approve of the job hes doing, and 64% say they believe he won the November election.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 21:19:58|Editor: huaxia

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The newly-arrived Chinese medical team, including frontline doctors who have participated in China's fight against the COVID-19, will soon join their Ghanaian counterparts to help the country curb the spread of the pandemic.

ACCRA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The newly-arrived Chinese medical team, including frontline doctors who have participated in China's fight against the COVID-19, will soon join their Ghanaian counterparts to help the country curb the spread of the pandemic.



Zhuang Shaohui, chief of the Chinese medical team in Ghana, said on Sunday the team that includes 11 doctors in various specialties has been professionally trained on COVID-19 prevention and treatment in China for better serving local people.

The 10th batch Chinese medical team in Ghana is from the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, which was a designated hospital for COVID-19 patients in China.

This file photo shows China's medical supplies for 18 African countries arrive at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, capital of Ghana, on April 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Xu Zheng)

"In particular, three medical specialists of our team have been on the frontline to combat the pandemic in China, whose practical experience, I believe, will also work here in Ghana," Zhuang said.

"Once we start the work in the China-Ghana Friendship Hospital, we will do our best to share the relevant experiences with local doctors to help them better understand the route to curb the pandemic," Zhuang added.

China has dispatched 10 medical teams to Ghana in a bid to support the country's medical and healthcare services. Over years, the Chinese doctors have been devoted to serving local patients, which have been widely acclaimed by the country and its people.
The social media ban on outgoing US President has resulted in a massive 73 per cent drop in online misinformation about election fraud, a new report has revealed.

The research by the San Francisco-based analytics firm Zignal Labs found that conversations about election fraud dropped from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across several social media sites in the week after Trump was banned on on January 8.

Trump and his supporters have also lost accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Spotify, Shopify and other social media platforms.

According to The Washington Post, the findings highlight how falsehoods flow across social media sites.

Zignal found that the use of hashtags affiliated with the January 6 Capitol riot also dipped considerably.

"Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was widely deployed across Facebook, Instagram, and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 pe rcent. #HoldTheLine and the term 'March for Trump' also fell more than 95 per cent," the report said on Sunday.

Trump's ban was followed by removing more than 70,000 accounts affiliated with the QAnon ideology, which played a key role in Capitol chaos.

"Together, those actions will likely significantly reduce the amount of online misinformation in the near term," Kate Starbird, disinformation researcher at the University of Washington, was quoted as saying.

Banned on various social media platforms, Trump has been releasing tweet-like statements through the White House press office.

Trump considered opening an account on far-right conservative platform Parler but it has been off the grid after Amazon stopped its web hosting.

Amazon said it is "troubled" by repeated policy violations by Parler.

The company noted that it "cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others".

Google and Apple have removed Parler from their respective app stores after they found that Parler did not take stronger action to remove posts that sought "to incite ongoing violence" in the US.
For supply of refined lead

Gravita India has signed an annual agreement with Sorin Corporation, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc Co for supplying of approx 8,000 MT of refined lead to be executed in calendar year 2021, which at current lead prices would be an approximate contract value of Rs 125 crore.

Korea Zinc is a world's leading non-ferrous metal smelting company that has served as a foundation for the growth of the base metal industry in Korea. Established in 1974, it produces about 1.2 million tons out of various types of non-ferrous metals from zinc to lead, gold, silver, copper as well as rare materials such as indium. Sorin Corporation has its presence largely in South East Asian countries like Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Philippines and India.

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Emmar India Limited, previously known as Emaar MGF land Limited has issued a public notice, thereby cautioning common public, not to deal with MGF group regarding okhala land. NCLT proceedings are at advanced stage for this very piece of land and this is going to have direct bearing on Okhla land.

MGF Group, has an old history of forgery and fraud with many notorious scams, registered in its name. To name a few, Hyderabad land scam and VVIP chopper scam are just tip of this MGF iceberg. Status of this very Okhla land is also a living testimony of large scale fraudulent practices, adopted by MGF group. Emmar has a watertight case against MGF in NCLT regarding fraudulent siphoning of land parcel of approximately 4.8 acres in Okhla, Delhi.

As you would be aware, that Emaar India Limited (previously Emaar MGF) was a joint venture between Emaar properties PJSC, Dubai and MGF development Limited. After the change of control through an investigation, it was found that during the period when MGF group was in control of Emaar MGF, multiple unauthorised party related transactions were undertaken by the MGF group comprising MGF, Mr Shravan Gupta, Ms Shilpa Gupta and their associated/related entities or person.

Accordingly, a petition under Companies Act 2013 was filed at the National Company Law Tribunal, principal branch Delhi. This very NCLT proceedings are at advanced stage and hopefully big scale fraud conducted by MGF group will soon be exposed and substantiated in due course of law. Therefore we caution common public not to deal with MGF group, SSP Buildcon Private Limited, Mr Shravan Gupta, Ms Shilpa Gupta or any of their related/associated entities or persons with respect to this Okhla land.

In case anyone decides to proceed despite this notice, under Indian law the risk would be entirely to your account. This public notice has been issued jointly by Emaar properties PJSC, Emaar holding and Emmar India Limited (previously Emaar MGF land Limited).
A Sydney mother-of-two has died after she and her 10-year-old son were caught in a rip on NSW's Far South Coast.

Emergency services were called to Congo Beach, south of Moruya, about 4.30pm on Sunday after reports that a 50-year-old woman from Surry Hills and the boy were stuck in a rip.

Surfers who saw the pair in trouble from a nearby cliff took their surfboards and went into the water to help, a police spokeswoman said.

Police were told one of the surfers helped the pair back to shore and witnesses commenced CPR while a rescue helicopter was on the way.

NSW paramedics arrived shortly afterwards and took over CPR but the woman died a short time later.

From the earliest time in human history, society has determined that everything should be measurable and quantifiable. That way, we are able to determine somethings worth.

The obvious example is money. Money was created so that goods and services could be compared in value to ensure a fair trade. However, due to mans evil, money has now become an identifier of wealth, power and importance.

Many live a life consumed with this pursuit of wealth, placing it as their number one priority. However, this isnt about greed, its about an age-old foe: the comparison trap.

You see, the desire to compare and measure value extends to more than just money. Many, myself included, have also tried to derive a sense of worth by comparing ourselves to others.

Many find value in being the best sprinter in their age group, the best writer in their English class, the smartest kid in their family  the list goes on.

The Comparison Trap

The act of comparison has plagued me for as long as I can remember.

Ive spent my whole life comparing my academic achievements to my fellow peers. When I was number one, I deemed myself smart and successful. However, when I couldnt replicate my achievements the following year, I was suddenly left doubting whether I was intelligent at all.

There is nothing wrong with aspiring to be like a certain person. Having a role model can be a good sense of motivation and drive. But when that person becomes the standard to which we constantly measure ourselves to, it is destructive.

Our self-worth becomes volatile: were only as good as our recent achievements and were only good if were better.

In addition, if this is the driving force of our life, to be better than those around us, well then arrogance and pride are very natural products of it.

Now pride is, by far, the most devasting consequence of the comparison trap. Because, as articulated by C.S. Lewis: As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man always looks down on thing and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you (Mere Christianity).

We become consumed in glorifying self instead of glorifying The Creator. Offering earnest prayers that God will give us strength and motivation to achieve our goals, we are then surprised when everything falls apart as God wasnt willing to support our selfish ambition.

Thankfully, there is a way out.

Over the years, Ive made tremendous progress in this area of my life. There is so much freedom in embracing who God made you to be. Reminding myself of His truth helps me overcome this worldly desire to constantly measure myself up against others.

The Body of Christ

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ (1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12).

A member of my local church recently shared an analogy of a snowflake. I dont think I would be alone in saying that snowflakes are breathtakingly beautiful.

Uniquely shaped by the atmospheric pressure and temperature that surrounds it, no two snowflakes are the same. Each one, a delicate and distinct image of beauty.

We are all a little like those snowflakes. Shaped by the individual and unique societal pressures and context that surround us, we are each a delicate and distinct image of Gods beauty and goodness; all contributing to this body of Christ.

Our uniqueness makes it simply impossible to compare each part. Imagine deciding whether the hand was more valuable than the nose by testing each ones ability to smell?

Or, similarly, in the words of Dr. Seuss: If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it was stupid.

Furthermore, the most important, Godly and desirable traits on an individual: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 to 23). They cannot be measured, so how could you even go about comparing them? You tell me how you about go about measuring ones ability to love or to be kind or to be patient.

Evidently, there is a glaring flaw in the worlds way of deriving value through comparison.

It is these truths that have given me peace. Finding security and embracing who God has created me to be helps me combat that desire to measure up. There is so much more joy and satisfaction in partnering up with my fellow brothers and sisters for His glory, than there is in the lonely struggle to be better and best.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm number 139, verse 14).

Aint that the truth.
Mumbai, Jan 18 : Hoping to extend its 'territory' beyond Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena has announced it will sound the poll bugle soon in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections due in another three-four months.

The proclamation by party's Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut's was on expected lines and it will be their third foray into the West Bengal polls after 2016 (Assembly) and 2019 (General) where it notched a nil in terms of seats.

Previously, the Sena has contested different elections in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir in its ambition to command influence nationally.

Late on Sunday, Raut said: "After discussions with party chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena has decided to contest the WB assembly elections. We are reaching Kolkata soon,!!" and greeted 'Jai Hind' and in Bengali 'Joi Bangla'.

Raut's timing is significant -- just a week before January 23 -- the 124th birth anniversary of Bengal's great son Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and 95th birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder and 'Hindu HridaySamrat' the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

However, it is not clear yet whether the Sena will hitch onto one of the major political alignments being cobbled in West Bengal or prefer 'ekla cholo re' (go solo).

Current indications suggest it may attempt to spite its former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by gnawing away at its crucial 'Hindutva' votebanks.

Sena sources claim that the BJP has been making attempts to destabilize and dethrone constitutionally-elected governments in all opposition-ruled states, including Maharashtra and West Bengal, which goes contrary to the principles of the federal structure.

In November 2019, Thackeray took over as Maharashtra Chief Minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress -- a development from which the stunned BJP has yet to recover.

The BJP has launched a mission to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is virtually cornered akin to a Royal Bengal Tigress ahead of the poll battle.

Banerjee is expected to fight tooth-and-nail on various fronts -- the BJP on one hand and the Left Front-Congress combine on the other, punctuated by suspicious party-poopers like Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and local forces on the West Bengal pollscape.

Incidentally, ruling ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar has already said he would visit Kolkata soon to extend support to Banerjee's TMC -- as part of plans to build up a 'grand alliance' of national and state opposition parties before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress sources also do not rule out the possibility of a repeat of Maharashtra's MVA experiment in West Bengal if the state throws up a fractured mandate in the polls.

"The unthinkable happened in Maharashtra and it is working smoothly. Anything is possible... even in WB... MVA is a national example to make states strong," said a senior state leader guardedly, on the odds with three arch-rivals in West Bengal -- Congress, Left Front and Trinamool -- hugging each other to keep the BJP at bay.

Not leaving any stone unturned, the BJP is in hyper-aggressive mode to capture and tame West Bengal -- which has been a Communist fortress for nearly three decades before Banerjee conquered it 10 years ago.

Although Banerjee and Thackeray are understood to enjoy cordial relations, Pawar's entry into the poll-ring could change the permutations-combinations there, given his close rapport with top leaders across the political spectrum.

Thackeray-Banerjee met, grinned -- and probably jelled -- in Mumbai in November 2017 when the latter was here to invite top industrialists to join the West Bengal Global Investment Summit-2018, held in Kolkata.

While Sena remains tight-lipped for now on the number of seats it plans to contest, it is likely to throw the hat in the ring in around 60-odd constituencies in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly polls.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
ROME, JAN 18 - Premier Giuseppe Conte is set to appeal to the Lower House to keep his government alive on Monday after Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party triggered a crisis by pulling its support last week. The premier faces the first of two crunch confidence votes, with an even stiffer test coming in the Senate on Tuesday if his executive survives in the House on Monday. He is set to appeal to so-called 'constructor' lawmakers from outside the ruling coalition to vote for the government and stop it collapsing in the middle of the COVID-10 pandemic. The two senior partners in the ruling coalition, the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), have rejected the idea of patching things up with ex-premier Renzi. But the PD has kept the door open to individual IV lawmakers and two have said that they will break ranks from the centrist group. The centre-right opposition has called for snap elections, arguing that, even if the government survives the confidence votes, if will be too weak to effectively rule the country. Life Senator and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre said she will defy medical advice and will be in Rome to vote for the government, describing the crisis as "incomprehensible". (ANSA).
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None of these legal questions is frivolous, Justice Breyer wrote. What are courts to do when faced with legal questions of this kind? Are they simply to ignore them? Or are they, as in this case, to hurry up, hurry up? That is no solution.

Members of the courts conservative majority have expressed frustration with last-minute stay requests, saying they amount to litigation gamesmanship. The proper response to this maneuvering is to deny meritless requests expeditiously, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch, wrote in a concurring opinion in a case from Alabama in 2019.

There may have been another reason for moving quickly in the federal cases: Had the court issued even brief stays, there was good reason to think the Biden administration would have halted the executions.

Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University, said the court would pay a price for its failure to address the inmates claims. From a historical perspective, he said, the most significant damage caused by the courts recent performance in death penalty cases may be to its own institutional standing.

If Justice Breyer sounded rueful, it was because he had just a few years ago held out hope that the court would reconsider the constitutionality of capital punishment. He had set out his arguments in a major dissent in 2015, one that must have been on Justice Scalias mind when he made his comments a few months later.

Justice Breyer wrote in that 46-page dissent that he considered it highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishments. He said that death row exonerations were frequent, that death sentences were imposed arbitrarily and that the capital justice system was marred by racial discrimination.

Justice Breyer added that there was little reason to think that the death penalty deterred crime and that long delays between sentences and executions might themselves violate the Eighth Amendment. Most of the country did not use the death penalty, he said, and the United States was an international outlier in embracing it.
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Uttarakhand: In a first, US Nagar admin to promote biofloc fish farming technology

by Aakash Ahuja

January 18,2021 | Source: The Times of India

In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the state, the Udham Singh Nagar administration has introduced the biofloc farming technology to promote intensive aquaculture. The biofloc exhibition unit has been established in the district at a cost of Rs 7.5 lakh. Himanshu Khurana, chief development officer (CDO) of the district, said, Applying the biofloc technology, farmers can raise fish in artificial tanks in an area between 150-to-200 square metres. These tanks are connected with piped water supply. The system can be used to produce freshwater fish species such as tilapia, pangasius, common carp, and others. Organic waste in the tanks will be treated and converted into fish food by using helpful bacteria and carbon sources like molasses. The official added that the scheme will boost employment. According to officials, the biofloc technology can produce 3,000 kilograms of fish in just four small tanks of 150 square metres each. On the other hand, the traditional pond farming system needs an area of 4,000 square metres to produce a similar output in six months, Khurana said.



Currently, we have this facility at the Baur reservoir in Bazpur. We are planning to start a training centre at Gularbhoj fish farm for the officers of the department, who will further proliferate the scheme amid the district farmers. Also, there are two privately-owned biofloc units owned by progressive fish farmers in Khatima and Kashipur. We want people to come forward and leverage the benefit of this scheme. Under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), the Centre also provides a grant for this initiative, said the CDO. He added that the state government will provide necessary technical support for the biofloc-based farmers.



Himanshu Joshi, project director at the CDO office, said that the biofloc-based tanks can be installed on the terraces of buildings and also in backyards. A biofloc unit of two tanks will cost Rs 1.5 lakh. For a unit of six tanks, the cost is Rs 4 lakh. Meanwhile, divulging information regarding yet another significant development, CDO Khurana said that Pangasius fish has become very popular in the district due to its high demand. Till now, farmers have been importing the fingerlings from Andhra Pradesh. However, for the first time in the state, Rs 22.05 lakh has been provided to farmers for this purpose. Besides, four clusters have been selected by the fisheries department, providing direct livelihood to 104 families. Farmers in these clusters are being benefited with pond construction and duck shed construction in convergence with MGNREGA scheme and district plan.
Medical staff wearing full PPE treat a CCP virus patient in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward at Frimley Park Hospital in Frimley, England on May 22, 2020. (Photo by Steve Parsons/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Englands NHS in Most Precarious Position for 72 Years Says Its Chief

Englands National Health Service is struggling more amid the CCP virus pandemic than it has in its 72-year history, its Chief Executive Officer said on Sunday.

NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens told the BBCs Andrew Marr program that hospitals across the country continue to fill up with Covid-19 patients and staggeringly another person is admitted with symptoms every 30 seconds.

The facts are very clear and Im not going to sugar-coat them, he said. Hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure.

A doctor wearing protective equipment is seen unloading a patient outside St Thomas Hospital, in London, on April 7, 2020. (Peter Summers/Getty Images)

The problem is not only in hospitals in London and the southeast where a new variant of the virus originally proliferated, Stevens said, but also in regions like the East of England, the Midlands, and the Northwest, including Merseyside which he said is right back under the cosh.

To cope with demand, he said that critical care capacity had been expanded over the summer and was up to 5,600 beds from 3,700.

This was partly achieved, he said, by nurses making dynamic adjustments in real-time and increasing intensive care nurse-to-patient ratios from the normal one-to-one ratio to one-to-two and even one-to-three ratios as needed.

Asked if this had affected standards of care for CCP virus patients, Stevens said the pressure had been partly offset by many more patients being nursed in lower-intensity care beds, the successful use of drugs like dexamethasone and rheumatoid arthritis medications, and by hospitals near each other in London working more closely together to share the load.

Playing down concerns over critical care patients being moved to other regions due to capacity issues in their original hospital, Stevens said that this had only happened in a very small number of cases.

In a one-day snapshot of Jan. 16, he said it was likely that just nine out of a total of 5,000 CCP virus patients in critical care were moved on that day.

However, chair of the Patients Association Lucy Watson said transferring critical care patients was a worrying sign.

Moving intensive care patients long distances across country is a clear indicator that the NHS in London has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, she said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

We can only hope that lockdown measures will quickly start to ease pressure on the NHS, to enable it to provide the best care possible for all patients, she said.

Stevens predicted the pressure on hospitals and other NHS services like ambulances and mental health care that are among the the whole gamut of services it provides will increase rather than decrease over coming weeks.

He forecasted the increased pressure on services due to infections being still on the rise in the over 60s in some regions and despite the vaccination program having got off to a very strong start.

Asked if the NHS had ever been in a more precarious situation, he said it had not.

I think this is a unique event in our 72-year history, he said.

Its sort of become glib to talk about this as the worst pandemic in a century but thats correct. We have got three quarters more COVID inpatients now than we had in the April peak, he added.

The latest figures show that the daily rate for patients admitted to hospital with the disease peaked at 4,279 across the UK on Jan. 11, falling to 3,984 on Jan 14. This was against the previous highest daily rate of 3,565 on April 1 last year.

Meanwhile, the government announced on Monday that the vaccines against the virus are now being rolled out to those aged 70 and over, aiming to reach the whole group by the middle of next month

Now that more than half of all over-80s have had their jab, we can begin vaccinating the next most vulnerable groups, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement.

According to the government, vaccine supply is currently the limiting factor in the logistics of the rollout.

The logistics arm of the militarynormally responsible for maintaining supply chains in fast-changing war zoneshas been enlisted to help manage the rollout alongside the NHS.

Simon Veazey contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:03:16|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the country's proposed markets to be established along its borders with neighboring Afghanistan and Iran will boost trade, foster peace and check smuggling.

The establishment of these markets was of utmost importance for the prosperity of the people living in the tribal districts of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and border areas of southwest Balochistan province, Khan said during a high-level meeting here.

"The markets would contribute to local development and help the government address menace of smuggling and boost legal trade across the border," said the prime minister.

During the meeting, Khan was briefed on the draft of total 18 proposed border markets, and the progress made so far in negotiations with Iranian and Afghan officials.

The prime minister directed to fast-track efforts and formulate a comprehensive strategy for the establishment of border markets.

According to a proposal plan, 12 markets will be established along the Afghanistan border and six at border areas with Iran. Enditem
Another 36 migrants including women and children braved ice and snow warnings to make the latest crossing from France to the UK.

Border Force detained the group during the early hours on Saturday who battled the dangerous conditions in a small boat over the Channel.

They were brought into Dover Marina in Kent and escorted up the gangway to be processed by immigration enforcement.

Groups were seen huddling under light blue blankets for warmth as temperatures plummeted to 39F (4C).

As many as two children, who appeared to be under the age of 10, were hoisted out of the back of the Border Force cutter by an adult migrant.

Another 36 migrants, including women and children, were rescued from a boat on Saturday after battling the weather warnings for snow and ice. Pictured: Migrants arrive at the Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne, East Sussex on January 9, after a rescue operation was launched to save a boat 'in difficulty'

Officers then held their hand to help them around the mooring in the darkness.

French authorities also prevented 30 people, including seven children, from making the perilous 21-mile journey over the weekend.

This included a group of ten migrants - some severely hypothermic - spotted getting into difficulty off the port of Gravelines on Saturday by crew on the bridge of a DFDS ferry.

Coastal maritime surveillance boat Scarpe, of the maritime gendarmerie, rescued them and returned them to Dunkirk shortly after 6.30am.

An emergency operation was launched to rescue the group which included three people who appeared to need medical attention.

The French Navy's Dauphin helicopter was deployed to picked up a medical team and drop them off on one of the rescue ships.

The 30 migrants were returned to port where they were checked over by paramedics.

The latest migrant crossings mean 206 people have arrived on UK shores by small boat so far this year.

Saturday's group of migrants were detained by Border Force during the early hours on Saturday. Pictured: A person is helped ashore during a migrant rescue in East Sussex on January 9

Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'These are illegally facilitated crossings and migrants should been claiming asylum in the first safe country they reach.

'The Government continues to undertake substantial steps to tackle the unacceptable problem of illegal migration, including legislative changes so crossings of this nature are treated as inadmissible where migrants have travelled through a safe EU country.

'The Government will continue to seek to return those with no legal right to remain in the UK.'

The latest interception of migrants in a small boat comes as earlier this month Border Force stopped a boat ferrying up to 35 migrants towards Sussex coast.

Lifeboats rescued the migrants from a boat, believed to have been carrying children and five injured people.

At the Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne, East Sussex, migrants were pictured arriving, including children and 5 who were reportedly injured.

Emergency service teams - including lifeguards and police offers - were seen helping people ashore, including children wrapped in blankets being carried to safety.

Children are believed to be among those helped during the rescue both in East Sussex and off the coast of Gravelines, France. Pictured: A young migrant is carried by police officer during a rescue mission in East Sussex on January 9

The Home Office told the MailOnline that UK authorities dealt with six incidents involving 103 people on Saturday, January 9, while French authorities prevented three boats with 29 people on board entering UK waters.

In 2020, four times as many migrants made the dangerous crossing than in 2019, official figures show, with more than 8,400 making the dangerous crossing, up from 1,844 the previous year.

In response to the MailOnline's request for comment, Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives making a dangerous and illegally-facilitated crossing.

'The Government has taken substantial steps to tackle this unacceptable problem of illegal migration. These efforts have contributed to a 70% reduction in crossings since September on fair-weather days, by direct intervention on the French beaches. This means that we have been able to change the patterns of crossings that resulted in a surge of small boat activity 2018 and 2019.

'Post EU exit, this Government will work to fix the broken asylum system. Legislative changes to the law are being made to enable cases to be treated as inadmissible if they have travelled through a safe country. The Government will continue to seek to return those with no legal right to remain in the UK.'

Though Britain's new trade deal came into force on January 1, and new laws on asylum seekers along with it, the rules remain largely the same for those attempting the crossing.

Britain has said it will no longer accept asylum claims at sea, paving a way for those crossing The Channel to be returned to France.

But the UK will not be permitted to do that until an agreement with France is reached.

Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a new deal with France at the end of November, after 757 people crossed, in an attempt to prevent crossings from disembarking from their shores.

She pledged up to 28milllion to double patrols along a 90-mile stretch of French coastline to scupper people smuggling gangs - seen as one of the root causes of the issue.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has announced a broad discussion of the National Economic Strategy 2030 from January 22 to February 10 this year.

"From January 22 to February 10, the Cabinet of Ministers will hold a broad discussion of the National Economic Strategy 2030, which is being developed by a working group of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the platform of the Center for Economic Recovery," the government's press service said.

It is said that during the public events with participation of representatives of the government, the Verkhovna Rada and the President's Office, key ideas of the Strategy will be presented and ways to implement it will be discussed. The key goal of the event is to develop and submit to the Cabinet of Ministers a draft decision of the government on economic policy formation until 2030, to discuss priority activities in the Government Action Plan for 2021-2023 and a list of priority laws to be adopted by the Council over the next three years.

Topics of discussion during the planned meetings: investment attractiveness, capital markets and macroeconomic stability; support for the creative and hospitality industries; business culture development and regulatory policy; development of the energy sector, mining industries and effective environmental protection; industry, transport and infrastructure; international economic policy and trade (Export Credit Agency) Digital Economy and Information and Computer Technologies; management of state and communal property; reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine; agricultural sector development.

"The national economic strategy is the main vectors on which Ukraine's economy will develop in the next ten years: incentives for industry, agriculture, mining, IT and R&D, infrastructure and domestic transport, energy sector. The process of creating NES-2030 was unprecedentedly open and transparent. About 400 specialists from various fields worked on the document - both business and well-known think tanks, non-governmental organizations, government agencies," the statement said.




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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 35F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 35F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.
An extremely rare example of England's 'first ever gold coin' is expected to sell for over 700,000.

The Henry III coin was struck in about 1257 by William of Gloucester with gold imported from North Africa.

It displays the portrait of the bearded and crowned King clenching a sceptre on the front, with his name marked around the edge.

The front of an extremely rare example of England's 'first ever gold coin' which dates back to the 13th century and the reign of Henry III. It is expected to sell for over 700,000 at auction

Britain's history of using coins as currency Coins have been used as a form of currency in Britain since the second century BC as a result of trade between the Celtic tribes in Britain and Gaul. When the Romans began its subjugation of Britain in 43AD, Celtic coinage came to an end and Roman coins were used, mostly imported from the continent. In 973 AD, Edgar became the first king of a United England and every new coin in England was issued in his name at one of around seventy mints active in the country. From 1247, Henry III introduced the 'long cross' design, as seen on the reverse of this coin, in a bid to discourage 'clipping' - shaving the edges of coins without it being noticeable. In order to achieve this, he instituted a great recoinage and melted down huge quantities of the old 'shortcross' designs on pennies dating back to Anglo-Saxon times so that they could be reminted. Source: Chards Advertisement

There is a long cross, roses and pellets on the reverse.

The coin has been said by numismatists - coin experts - to show the first 'true' portrait of an English King.

It was minted at twice the weight of a silver penny and valued at 20 pence, which equates to about 60 in today's money.

However, most were melted down after falling out of circulation following Henry III's death, as the weight of gold was worth more than the value of the currency.

There are now just seven known surviving examples - the others are in the British Museum in London, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and private collections.

The coin, which is just under an inch in diameter, is going under the hammer with Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, Texas.

It has been consigned by an American private collector who has owned it for 25 years.

Cristiano Bierrenbach, specialist at Heritage, said: 'The gold pennies of Henry III represent a fascinating period in medieval numismatics when gold was beginning to trickle back into European commerce after a dearth of nearly 500 years.

'Henry III ordered the creation of a gold coin for his kingdom to be struck at twice the weight of a silver penny and valued at 20 pence.

'It has a wonderful portrait of him and is in incredible condition - you would never think it was 800 years old.

'This coin is of the utmost rarity, and one of the most fabled coins in all of British numismatics.

Pictured: The rare coin's reverse side features a 'long cross' and four five-petalled roses as well as the mark of King Henry III's goldsmith, William of Gloucester, around the coin's edge

'We have been able to locate only seven pieces remaining of this issue, with this likely being the finest known.

'We believe it is on course to sell for $1million (730,000).'

Henry III was king of England from 1216 until his death in 1272.

In the 1240s and 50s he demanded that all payments be made in gold to build up treasures for major overseas projects.

The timed auction ends on Thursday.
Mayfield Woman Charged with DUI

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MAYFIELD - A Mayfield woman was charged Thursday with DUI.The Mayfield Police Department says they were contacted by the McCracken County Sheriff's Department about a possible drunk driver.Officers located the vehicle and a traffic stop was conducted.Field sobriety tests determined that 49-year-old Melissa Clark was under the influence.Clark was arrested and taken to the Graves County Jail, charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence (aggravating circumstances), second degree wanton endangerment due to children being in the vehicle, and no tail lamps.
Press Release

January 18, 2021 Privilege Speech on the National Vaccination Program

by Senator Panfilo M. Lacson

Jan. 18, 2021 More at: https://pinglacson.net/2021/01/18/privilege-speech-on-the-national-vaccination-program/ Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I rise before you on a matter of collective and personal privilege. Looking back to last week's Committee of the Whole 2-day hearings, I couldn't help but think that we've been had. Instead of having the information needed to aid us in our legislative work mainly because some people in the panel of our resource persons who are in charge of the vaccine program were not forthright and honest in their responses to the questions raised by the members of this august chamber. Nevertheless, we find comfort from the wise words of Winston Churchill, who said and I quote: "Truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is." At the center of the firestorm that had almost consumed the two-day long hearings and had consumed us the most was the Sinovac vaccine for a number of reasons. First, it was the best- and the worst-defended among at least seven brands of vaccines that the Philippine government has put on the table for consideration. Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, particularly, were in chorus in claiming that we already secured Sinovac supply of 25 million doses. They claimed that we "sealed the deal" and have a "locked-in agreement" with Sinovac, and an initial 50,000 doses are already available for our vaccine delivery by February 20 onwards. Then, in a seemingly coordinated communication strategy, Presidential Spokesman Sec. Harry Roque was announcing in a press conference that Sinovac vaccines was the ONLY vaccine available from February to June, and Filipinos cannot be "choosy" as in - take Sinovac or wait until after June this year to be inoculated. When the Senate hearings raised more questions than answers about Sinovac, our officials were both tongue-tied and stuttering, leaving us with a string of flip-flopping pronouncements. The Mysterious Price of Sinovac Vaccines Mr. President, I could not understand for the life of me why we are being kept in the dark when it comes to our price negotiations with Sinovac, while our neighboring countries could not be more transparent about it. Sure, our chief implementers have been invoking the Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement. But what gives? In a statement released on October 14, 2020, by Indonesia's state-owned pharmaceutical company named PT Biopharma, it was confirmed by no less than the company's President/Director, Honesti Basyir, that they have sealed the deal with Sinovac Biotech at around 200,000 Indonesian Rupiah (US$13.57) or P683.30 per Sinovac dosage once it becomes available. Even the Thailand government has been transparent in its negotiations with vaccine developers. Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced last week that their government is acquiring two million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Sinovac. Based on the infographics posted by the Bangkok Post, which had gone viral hours after it was released, we see that Thailand was able to procure the Sinovac at $5 or P240 (P48:US$1) per dose. Sec. Galvez, in his interview just this morning with ANC, quoted a Thai mayor who stated that they are "ready to spend 100 million baht to buy vaccines for 70,000 residents, if they receive permission to do so." He said that from these figures, Thailand's acquisition of of the vaccine per dose would be $23.47. We pulled out the article to fact-check the validity of Sec. Galvez's figures. Unfortunately, somebody must advise him to re-read and review the article carefully, to see that the mayor of Nakhon Yala was not referring to any particular brand of vaccine, much less Sinovac. Going back to my previous point Mr. President, Indonesia and Thailand were able to acquire the Sinovac at P683.30 and P240 per dose, respectively. Will somebody explain the P1,814.75 per dose price of Sinovac vaccine, or P3,629 provided by the Department of Health to the Senate Committee on Finance during our budget deliberations late last year? Easily, I am reminded of an old story of how corruption is committed in three Southeast Asian countries - UNDER the table; ON the table; INCLUDING the table. Secretary Galvez, in an attempt to appease the public, stated in a television interview that the cost of the Sinovac, when purchased through the COVAX facility, will decrease by as much as 300%. I still have not heard how the 300% reduction is a mathematical probability, Mr. President, in the vaccine procurement without China or Sinovac Biotech Ltd. for that matter, giving us a rebate equivalent to 200%. It's been days of prodding but still, no clarification whatsoever has been made. It has been days since I had my good night's sleep. At any rate, it appears that our initial locked-in agreement with Sinovac comprising 25 million doses will not be covered by the ludicrous 300% mark-down. As discussed during the hearings, the COVAX facility only has an agreement for early roll-out in February with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine of a limited quantity. COVAX has also secured agreements for AstraZeneca and Moderna, and signed agreements for Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-GSK. There was no mention of Sinovac. When I asked Sec. Galvez a direct question on whether or not Sinovac is part of the COVAX program, his answer was - "nag-a-apply pa lang." Then during our second hearing last Friday, WHO representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe disclosed that under the WHO program, low- and medium-income countries are actually recipients of free vaccines through the COVAX facility, and in fact, the Philippines has an allocation of 44 million doses of anti-COVID19 vaccines. As I was observing our resource persons from where I sat right in this hall, I didn't notice any glow in their eyes or at least an expression of pleasant surprise in their faces, which should have been the case for a normal person after hearing such a wonderful piece of information. 44 million doses! My God, Philippines, my beloved Philippines - at P1,200 per dose as the estimated average cost made by the Department of Finance for purposes of transacting loan agreements with the World bank and the Asian Development Bank, this would translate into P52.8 billion worth of free vaccines! Isn't that wonderful, Mr. President? Yesterday, in another interview, Spokesperson Harry Roque dismissed the initially-released P3,600 price for two dosages of Sinovac as "fake news." His exact words were: "Ang aking i-a-assure po sa inyo, fake news po 'yung kumakalat na P3,600 daw ang singil ng China. Ang ating presyo, bagama't hindi pa maaaring ianunsyo kung ano po talaga ang presyo ng Sinovac, ay hindi po nagkakalayo o hindi po lalayo sa presyo ng Indonesia na sa bandang P650 kada turok." Early this morning, in his interview, Sec. Galvez clarified that the P3,629 price circulating on social media is that of Sinopharm and not Sinovac. However, we must take note that Senator Angara stated for the record last Friday that the vaccine prices released by his office late last year, which included the Sinovac price, and now going viral on social media, were furnished by the Department of Health to the Senate Committee on Finance during the 2021 budget deliberations. We dare ask: Are Secretary Roque and Secretary Galvez saying that Secretary Duque was the peddler of that fake news? Imagine this, Mr. President. Marahil kung sakaling hindi natalakay sa pagdinig ng Senado ang kontrobersya ng Sinovac, at assuming natuloy ang original na presyong P3,629 or $38 kada dalawang bakuna o P1,814 equivalent to $19 kada turok, kontra $5 sa Thailand, easily the price difference of 25 million doses would fetch US$350 million or P16.8 billion. That being said, I am not prepared to accuse anyone in particular of corruption. Rather, it defies logic to suspect at least an attempt to overprice the vaccine. Again, when there is an attempt at overpricing, isn't it also logical to think na may kikita ng limpak-limpak na salapi? When the Pfizer issue came about, we asked: "Who dropped the ball?" We haven't even gotten a clear answer, Mr. President. And now, on the Sinovac vaccine, we ask, "Who dropped the price?" Mr. President, in any case, if indeed it is true that the government was able to bring down the cost from P3,600 for two doses of Sinovac Biotech vaccine named CoronaVac or P1,800 per dose to P650 per dose, or at least 60% than the previous DOH figures, well and good. We can say that the Senate, through the Committee of the Whole hearings triggered by Sen. Kiko Pangilinan's Senate resolution has done its fair share in protecting the public coffers and saving our people billions of pesos in the national vaccination program. Not to mention that this is also attributed to the collective effort of our netizens to demand transparency from our chief implementers on our government's negotiations with the controversial Sinovac Biotech Ltd. No Approval from Stringent Regulatory Agencies Mr. President, true to their tactic, "If you cannot convince them, confuse them," our vaccine program officials brought more confusion and bewilderment in their rush to procure Sinovac. Unluckily for them, we do not get confused easily. Notwithstanding the lack of Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Sinovac in the Philippines, Secretary Galvez was positive that we will have a roll-out of the vaccine next month and onwards. In his words, as if speaking on behalf of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), "Iyong EUA po ng Sinovac, ma a-approve po before February 20. Maganda ang arrangement natin kasi may darating kada buwan." We know for a fact that stringent conditions have to be complied with before the FDA issues an EUA for a COVID-19 vaccine. This is a condition sine qua non to the use of any vaccine in the Philippines. Needless to say, the assurance made by Secretary Galvez that Sinovac will be approved before its supposed roll-out somehow sends an impression of undue preference for the Sinovac over other available vaccines. It also poses the question: are we not preempting the independent evaluation of the FDA with such pronouncement from the Chief of the National Vaccine Program? On top of this, FDA also claimed that they have not yet started their assessment of the Sinovac application since the results of its Phase III clinical trials have yet to be released. With no FDA approval from any stringent regulatory authorities and no results of Phase III trials for EUA approval in this country, why do our officials keep on blowing their horns about Sinovac? When pressed further, Secretary Galvez averred that they have no obligation to buy from Sinovac until they meet certain conditions. Even our path of procurement raises eyebrows, Mr. President. In a pronouncement made by the President, he said that government-to-government transactions will be better than dealing with private pharmaceutical companies because it will lessen the possibility of entering into anomalous deals. In an interview of Secretary Galvez, he was also quoted saying, "Ang Sinovac ay G to G lang ang arrangement." Mr. President, will somebody explain why our vaccine czar claims that in procuring Sinovac, we only follow government-to-government transaction, yet in his testimony last Friday, upon questioning by the minority leader, Franklin Drilon, he contradicted himself once more in saying that they are dealing with a certain "Helen Yang," who is an executive of a private firm, Sinovac Biotech Ltd. based in Hong Kong? A quick Google search on Ms. Helen G. Yang shows that she used to be the Manager for International Business Development at Sinovac Biotech Ltd., and is presently the Investor Relations Contact of this Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company. Sinovac Efficacy based on Clinical Trials Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, scientists and experts have been trumpeting the importance of Phase III clinical trials in evaluating the human health outcomes of any new test or treatment. When it comes to developing a new vaccine, this is the stage where tests are conducted on larger populations, and in different countries and regions to evaluate its safety and efficacy. Over the past weeks, our people, in various platforms, have been demanding answers on why we are selecting a vaccine with a higher price but with relatively lower efficacy rates or with lower number of individuals tested in trials when compared to other available vaccines. Last hearing, Mr. President, I raised the question on the calculation of the efficacy rate of Sinovac in the clinical trials conducted by Sao Paulo's Butatan biomedical center in Brazil. Using the formula on efficacy rate of vaccine by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is measured by calculating the risk of disease among vaccinated and unvaccinated persons or placebo group, and determining the percentage reduction in risk of disease among vaccinated persons relative to unvaccinated persons. Simply put, efficacy rate is equal to one (1) minus the relative risk or risk ratio (RR). It appears using the CDC formula that the efficacy rate of 50.4% actually represent the risk ratio, and the more accurate and complete calculation of efficacy rate is 49.58%, well below the acceptable threshold set by WHO. FDA Director General Eric Domingo and Philippine Medical Association Representative Dr. Lulu Bravo both agreed that this is the standard formula of calculating the efficacy rate. Anyway, I better leave the matter to our experts for scrutiny and analysis while we await the results of Phase 3 of the trials. Early on in his administration, President Duterte claimed that he would not follow the government's "lowest bid" rule in awarding contracts for government as this usually results in substandard equipment, projects, and services, and leads to corruption. I agree with him fully in this regard, Mr. President. But with a caveat: that quality must be an indispensable consideration. Relative to the procurement of vaccines, it must be pointed out that in terms of cost and quality, Sinovac ranks as the second most expensive vaccine with its efficacy rate falling among the lowest tiers compared to others. Thus, the issue with Sinovac is not just a matter of price, but more importantly, that of efficacy. We face a serious dilemma not only in sourcing vaccines, but most importantly, in winning public trust and confidence. With a recent poll showing that only 25% of Filipinos are willing to be vaccinated, while 28% won't get the vaccine and 47% are undecided, there is much to do in advancing our agenda. We should start with transparency, openness, and competence for the best interest of our people. They have the right to be informed of their options - to choose, or to refuse. They deserve no less. Mr. President, surviving the coronavirus is an immense challenge as it is. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unfortunate that so much of our people's energy have been wasted on unneeded and demoralizing matters, such as the issues on incompetence, greed, and corruption, among others. With all due respect to our distinguished colleague, the honorable Grace Poe and her mom, Ms. Susan Roces - let me propose to amend a famous statement she made a few years ago, thus: Ang 'incompetent' ay bunsong kapatid ng sinungaling at magnanakaw. Mr. President, allow me to share a portion from this representation and Sen. Ronald de la Rosa's back-and-forth gentleman-to-gentleman, or Cavalier-to-Cavalier chat, if I may, with Sec. Galvez yesterday. The long and short of it is that it was suggested that we proceed to the holding of an executive session as proposed by the majority leader, Migz Zubiri, in order for us to be able to get the responses to our unanswered questions during the two public hearings. In sum, Sec. Galvez agreed to reveal the prices of the vaccines, among others, under certain conditions, which of course I will leave to the Senate President and this august body to decide. Lastly, let me end this privilege speech with a portion of an article written by one of World Bank's known executives, Mr. Ferid Belhaj. He said and I quote: "Tragedies -- whether natural or man-made -- have a tendency to bring people together." Lest we forget that: "human solidarity will be our most powerful defense against human suffering." Thank you, Mr. President.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 12:46:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday unveiled regulations on lunar sample management, encouraging international cooperation on studying the samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 probe.

Released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the regulations cover general principles for preserving, managing, using, borrowing and returning the lunar samples, as well as information release and research results management of the samples.

According to the regulations, the lunar samples will be generally used for four purposes, namely permanent storage, backup permanent storage, research and public welfare.

The Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner, was launched on Nov. 24, 2020. The return capsule landed in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Dec. 17, retrieving about 1,731 grams of moon samples. Enditem
A grandmother has been caught on camera repeatedly throwing what appeared to be her bogey and phlegm onto lift doors in China.

Security camera footage shows the elderly woman spitting something in her hand before purposely tossing the white mucus towards the elevator doors.

The revolting incident comes at a time when China has seen a surge of infections in the northeast while reporting more than 100 new COVID-19 cases for the sixth consecutive day on Monday.

Security camera footage shows the elderly woman spitting something in her hand before purposely tossing the white mucus towards the elevator doors in Sichuan, southwest China

The scene was spotted on Friday at a residential complex in Leshan, south-western China's Sichuan Province, according to reports.

In a video widely circulated on Chinese social media, the silver-haired woman is seen entering the lift by herself.

As the machine started moving, the resident spewed out something, appearing to be clots of bogey and phlegm, in her hand before throwing it onto the lift doors.

After a few attempts, she continued the revolting act by directly spitting on the machine's interior.

The pensioner then looked around, seemingly checking if there are any cameras installed.

The Friday incident sparked particular concerns among local residents and netizens as the coronavirus can be passed on from person to person via a sneeze or cough

The incident sparked particular concerns among local residents and netizens as the coronavirus can be passed on from person to person via a sneeze or cough.

One of such online comments read: 'She is evil and should be detained for spreading the virus.'

It remains unclear why she carried out the vandalisation but the local management staff concluded it as a result of 'individual behaviours' while speaking to reporters.

'We have informed her family who educated her [about her behaviours],' said an anonymous worker from the residential compound's management office.

The lift had been disinfected following the Friday incident, the management team added.

The news comes at a time when China is bracing a new wave of coronavirus infections in recent weeks.

Nearly three million people were put under lockdown in China Monday after a surge in coronavirus cases linked to an infected salesman who had travelled around the country (file)

Nearly three million people were put under lockdown in China Monday after a surge in coronavirus cases linked to an infected salesman who had travelled around the country's northeast.

The individual, known by his surname Lin, has been dubbed a COVID-19 'super-spreader' by Chinese media after he is linked to 102 patients in three cities.

More than 19million people across China's northeast are now barred from leaving their homes, and in some cases can only apply for permission to go grocery shopping once every three days.

Authorities have traced over a hundred infections in Jilin province to an asymptomatic travelling salesman from neighbouring Heilongjiang, where authorities last week declared a state of emergency.
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LM (Long March) 8, the latest version of the Chinese Long March series of satellite launchers, had its first launch on December 22 2020, and it was a success. The 356-ton rocket put five satellites into SSO (Sun-synchronous orbit), which is about 700 kilometers high. SSO means the orbit keeps the satellite constantly in sunlight, which is optimal for photographic satellites. SSO can be as high as 800 kilometers.

LM 8 is considered a medium-lift launcher because it can carry up to 4.5 tons into an SSO. Previously China did not have a launcher built mainly for SSO launches of payloads of 3 to 4.5 tons. Larger and more expensive LM models had to be used for large loads while smaller LM models could put small payloads into SSO. There is more demand for a LM model that specializes in SSO.

The Long March series has always been China's main satellite launcher and that is largely because it is based on older Russian designs. That means it is simple, cheap and reliable. This has made China a major player in the satellite launching business where minimum levels of reliability are mandatory. China can handle the mandatory requirements and competes on price.

The U.S. Space Shuttle was retired because it was the most expensive way to get stuff into orbit. Satellites sent up via the Space Shuttle cost $25 million a ton put in orbit. The Russians and Chinese will do it for under $10 million a ton, though insurance can more than double that cost if there have been a number of recent failures with Russian and Chinese boosters. The Space Shuttle failure rate was two percent, which was similar to most Western satellite launchers. This keeps more reliable American and European boosters in business.

The price competition from the United States has become more intense because the Americans have developed and are increasingly using the SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) launcher technology. The SpaceX reusable rockets, which repeatedly returned to earth and landed intact under their own power, have fundamentally changed the launcher business because these rockets are refurbished and used again and again. This saves a lot of money.

SpaceX is a commercial firm that was founded in 2002 with the goal of breaking into a market controlled by long-time suppliers. By 2002 these veteran firms had formed a legal cartel that monopolized satellite launch services for the U.S. government. After 2006 all this business was to have gone to a government-approved monopoly called the ULA (United Launch Alliance) which is composed of Lockheed Martin (using Atlas 5 rockets) and Boeing (Delta 4). These two firms have dominated U.S. space launches for over half a century and in 2006 they monopolized it. These launchers were similar to the Chinese Long March and Soyuz launchers.

Despite that monopoly by 2012 SpaceX obtained its first contract to launch U.S. military cargo into space. SpaceX had earlier obtained a NASA contract which included 12 deliveries to the International Space Station (at $134 million each). What made all this so noteworthy is that SpaceX is the first privately owned space transportation company. SpaceX developed its own launch rockets without any government help. SpaceX also developed the Dragon space vehicle, for delivering personnel and supplies to the International Space Station.

Suddenly it was obvious that SpaceX rockets were a lot cheaper and as reliable as older American launchers. The ULA, as well as European, Russian and Chinese space launcher operations, had to adapt to avoid losing all their commercial, and some of their military, business. China says it will match the SpaceX tech but so far there has been no visible progress in that area. Despite all that, since 2018 China has developed more capability to put satellites into orbit than anyone else. That edge is also deceptive because the Americans, and other Western satellite manufacturers, are switching to a new satellite tech that employs more smaller satellites to do the work of larger ones. While the SpaceX family of launchers can also put conventional large satellites into orbit, SpaceX is specializing in putting lots more smaller satellites up there with each launch. China has a good record in using older launcher designs, but now new American tech is forcing China to adapt or to lose a lot of their foreign launch customers and pay more to launch their own satellites.

China thought they were safe using an old, proven and increasingly reliable tech. Their Long March type rockets have been in use since 1970 and, by late 2020 have been used for 352 launches with 95 percent successful. The five percent failure rate is used to determine what satellite owners pay for insurance on their multi-million-dollar satellites. One thing the insurance does not cover is the lost time. The satellite owner has to spend several years building a replacement satellite and that delay often causes other losses because the lost satellite has not been delivering services customers expected to be available. This explains the need for a lower failure rate. China offers lower prices for its launches and that may help with the insurance costs but it does nothing for customer problems with replacing their satellite and placating disappointed customers.

China has yet to fully explain the delays and failures encountered in developing the latest Long March 5 rocket, which is supposed to be cheaper and more reliable. So far, the Long March 5 is neither. Long March rockets are mainly used for commercial launches and that is big business that China is seeking to dominate long-term.

The predecessor of LM 5 is Long March 4C, which has been in service since 2006 and has a failure rate of over five percent. The Long March 5s were initially developed for carrying the heaviest loads; 25 tons low orbit or 14 tons high orbit. The Long March 5 is the heaviest launcher (at 867 tons) China has and made its first flight in 2016. Since then, it has launched five times and had one failure. It is unclear if that one failure was caused by a fundamental flaw in the rocket design. That has slowed down the use of Long March 5. This is a problem because Long March is the only rocket that can lift certain cargoes, like portions of the new Chinese space station or major space missions, like the upcoming second Chinese mission to put robot exploration vehicles on the moon.

While the Russians are also having problems with their satellite launchers, thats because the Russian government has less money to invest in its space program or satellite launchers in general. In addition, Russia has been losing skilled personnel, from manufacturing workers to rocket scientists, since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. In the same time period China has been increasing the quantity and quality of personnel as its space and satellite launcher programs grew enormously. China also pays better, for the same skills, than Russia. Whatever problems China is having with the Long March, they are much better able to deal with than the Russians who suffer from a growing list of failures in that area and defense manufacturing in general.

The Long March 3 and 4 have been doing most of the Chinese commercial launches since the 1980s. Currently the largest Long March 3 model weighs over 400 tons and can put 12 tons in low earth orbit and 5.5 tons in a high one (geostationary transfer orbit). The Chinese took their time to perfect Long March, requiring 28 years to make the first fifty launches, and nine years for the next fifty. So far, Long March has carried out over 330 successful launches.

While military satellites get more media attention, the real business of space, and where the Chinese put most of their efforts, is in commercial satellites. The Chinese have noted that since the 1980s space satellites have gone from big business to huge business. By 2012 there were about 2,000 active satellites in orbit, and nearly half of them were American. The number of satellites has been going down a bit since then because individual satellites last longer and can do more. It is expected that the number of satellites will now start to rise rapidly because of the popularity of mini-satellites (under 100 kg/220 pounds). Some of these mini-sats are much smaller (under ten kg) and still useful. In some cases, dozens of mini-sats are put into orbit by one launcher.

Since 2001 satellite industry revenues more than doubled, and are now nearly $300 billion a year. The cost of the satellites is less than ten percent of annual satellite revenues. About four percent of the money comes from launching all those satellites and 36 percent of those launches are military. The U.S. has about a third of the launch business, mainly because of the requirement that U.S. classified satellites be launched by American rockets. About half the satellite launches (and two-thirds of the satellites) were for communications, which generates the most income (mostly for TV, followed by data). The U.S. remains the major manufacturer of commercial satellites, with over half of the market. China sees opportunity in all this and has come a long way in a short time to take advantage of it. Russia and the United States have both been using retired ICBMs as cheap satellite launchers, and that started with older liquid fuel models. China does not have many older liquid fuel ICBMs and has concentrated on developing more reliable and cheaper solid fuel rockets. This is paying off. Moreover, China will sell launch service to just about anyone who can pay, no questions asked.

Space satellites are a relatively new thing. In 1957 the Russian Sputnik was the first satellite ever put in orbit. The U.S. followed in 1958. Since then, ten other nations have done the same. France launched its first satellite in 1965, Japan and China in 1970, Britain in 1971 and India in 1980. Israel launched its first satellite in 1988. Ukraine did so in 1995. Iran claims to have put a satellite in orbit, but there is no conclusive proof. North Korea put a dead (non-responsive) satellite up in December 2012 and South Korea followed with a successful launch of a very active satellite a month later.

In 2015 China predicted that it would be launching 30 satellites a year and accounting for over a quarter of the worldwide launch capability. That prediction proved to be quite accurate. All this momentum has been the result of three decades of effort and an enormous spurt of activity since 2010. In the two decades after 1990 China carried out 30 commercial satellite launches, putting 36 satellites in orbit. Now China puts that many satellites up in about a year.

In late 2015 China successfully began testing another new Long March model; LM 6. This version is optimized for putting multiple small satellites in orbit on the same mission and on short notice. The test launch put twenty small scientific satellites into orbit. LM 6 is a 103-ton liquid fueled rocket that can put a ton of payload into a 700 kilometers high orbit. LM 6 can operate from a standard satellite launch facility or from a TEL (transporter erector launcher) vehicle (which is basically a slightly larger trailer similar to those used for hauling tanks). LM 6 was also designed to be made ready for launch quickly (six days or so) giving it a military capability. That means, if China has to get a surveillance or communications satellite in orbit quickly, LM 6 is the solution. But since 2015 the Long March 6 has launched only four times and the unexpected success of SpaceX has caused China to reconsider the usefulness of LM 6. At the same time China is also developing small surveillance and communications satellites for rapid use for emergency launches. This gives China experience in developing cheaper, smaller satellites, which are more the future that anyone expected.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
750 killed at Ethiopian Orthodox church said to contain Ark of the Covenant: report

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Around 750 people were killed in an attack on an Orthodox church, which is said to contain the Ark of the Covenant described in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, in northern Ethiopias war-torn Tigray region  home to thousands of churches and monasteries  according to reports.

Hundreds of people hiding in Maryam Tsiyon Church in Aksum amid an armed conflict were brought out and shot to death, and local residents believe the aim was to take the Ark of Covenant to Addis Ababa, the Belgium-based nonprofit European External Programme with Africa reported in The Telegraph.

"The government and the Eritreans want to wipe out the Tigrayan culture. They think theyre better than rest of the people in the country. The looting is about destroying and removing the cultural presence of Tigray, Gervers explained.

Former BBC World Service Africa editor and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Martin Plaut, said that those who escaped the Aksum massacre had reported that the attack began after Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia approached the church, the U.K.s Church Times reported.

People were worried about the safety of the Ark, and when they heard troops were approaching feared they had come to steal it. All those inside the cathedral were forced out into the square, Plaut was quoted as saying.

About 1,000 people were believed to be in the church complex at the time of the attack. The EEPA said the massacre was carried out by Ethiopian federal troops and allied Amhara militia that are fighting the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front.

The church and and the Ark have likely not been damaged, Plaut added.

The fighting began in Tigray since Nov. 4 when the regions ruling political party Tigray Peoples Liberation Front captured the Northern Command army base in the regional capital Mekelle as part of an uprising, after which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive. Abiy claimed on Nov. 28 that the Ethiopian National Defense Force had regained full command of Mekelle.

However, humanitarian workers say the fighting continues.
Members of the No Border Wall Coalition gathered Sunday on a busy corner near Laredo Medical Center to underscore the disparity of the federal governments investment in the border wall in Laredo while the city suffers from the surging pandemic.

The government has awarded four contracts to build 71 miles of the border wall system in Webb and Zapata counties, for a total cost of $1.05 billion, or about $14.8 million per mile.

Since two doses of the Pfizer vaccine costs the government $40, the coalition calculated that for the equivalent cost of one mile of border wall in Laredo, over 360,000 people  the entirety of Webb County  could get fully vaccinated. The Moderna vaccine is more expensive, around $70 for two doses.

Protesters held signs that said health care not walls and one foot of wall could pay for 70 vaccines. The event was held in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.

His legacy, his fight for civil rights and equality lives on today, loud and clear within all of us, said Tricia Cortez, co-founder of the No Border Wall Coalition. ... We must connect the dots between the violence and insurrection weve seen in Washington D.C. and the injustices and the racism that is inherent with the border wall, and couple that with everything we are witnessing from this COVID pandemic.

Tannya Benavides, an organizer for the coalition, recited an aphorism often attributed to King, that budgets are moral documents.

It is imperative that we recognize and call out this wasteful use of allocated funds to the border wall, which instead should be invested in our community, she said.

Dr. Carlos Cigarroa, a Laredo cardiologist, spoke about the federal governments inadequate response to the pandemic. There has been too little funding, too little personal protective equipment and too little coordination with local public health agencies, he said. He has witnessed patients gasping for air, and the suffering of their families.

And yet, today, Customs and Border Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers continue to work on the border wall in Laredo and surrounding communities along the Rio Grande. Despite the pandemic they continue to waste important federal dollars on equipment, on staging, on bulldozing, and on materials, he said.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
(UPDATE: Michigan State Police trooper, 2 others injured in head-on crash in Battle Creek)

BATTLE CREEK, MI -- Police are investigating a traffic crash involving a Michigan State Police trooper and a civilian in Calhoun County.

At approximately 10 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, a MSP trooper was headed west on West Columbia Avenue, near Stevens Road in Battle Creek, when a black vehicle crossed the centerline and hit the patrol car head-on.

The trooper as well as the two occupants of the other vehicle suffered severe, but non-life threatening injuries. All three parties were transported to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, per an MSP news release.

The at-fault driver is suspected of operating while impaired by a controlled substance, according to police. The investigation is still ongoing.

The Calhoun County Sheriffs Department, Battle Creek Police Department, LifeCare, EMS Battle Creek Fire Department and Buds Towing assisted with the incident.

Related news:

Battle Creek man, 28, dies in crash

Kalamazoo SWAT team arrests two after 6-hour standoff
The heartbroken mother of a mentally ill man who pushed a passenger onto the subway tracks in New York City has revealed that her son wasn't getting his medication due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malik Jackson, 35, was captured on video shoving and hitting an unidentified New Yorker and good Samaritan, Tyler Horrell, at the 2 and 3 train station at 110th Street and Central Park North just before 4pm on Saturday.

Moments after launching the attack, Jackson fell onto the electric third rail and died at the scene after being electrocuted.

It has since been revealed that Jackson suffered from schizophrenia. His grieving mother, Ethel Trammell, told the New York Daily News that Jackson was diagnosed with the disorder at the age of 17.

Trammell said her son was a kind person when he took his prescribed medication, but he hadn't be able to get it due to the pandemic.

'He has a mental disability and that's the issue. My son is not like that, but because he hasn't had medication in a long time, that's probably why he was acting like that,' she said.

Scroll down for video

Ethel Trammell (left), the heartbroken mother of a mentally ill man who pushed a passenger onto the subway tracks in New York City has revealed that her son, Malik Jackson (right), wasn't getting his medication due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Trammell said her son (left and right) was a kind person when he took his prescribed medication, but he hadn't be able to get it due to the pandemic. 'He has a mental disability and that's the issue. My son is not like that,' she said

'My son would never hurt nobody,' Trammell said of her son (pictured with his two nieces)

'My son would never hurt nobody,' Trammell added.

His mother told the Daily News that Jackson lived at the Cambridge Hotel, a homeless shelter on West 110th Street.

While there he would normally receive outpatient services and a periodic injection, but due to COVID-19 'he just wasn't going like he should', his mother said.

'Now, with COVID, it's different, and somebody with a mental illness doesn't believe they have a mental illness,' Trammell said.

Trammell told the Daily News that before the pandemic her son would receive regular visits from a nurse or mental health professionals to make sure he was taking his medications.

'He was a good guy with a big heart, and the video, and what happened in that subway is not how my son is,' she said.

'Without the medication, he just wasnt stable. I feel really bad about the person, because that had to be really frightening for him too,' Trammell added.

Trammell, who last spoke to her son on January 4, told the Daily News: 'Ive never seen my son like that, ever. My son was a good son.'

On Saturday, Jackson was completely naked when he was captured on video wandering around the train station.

Witnessed told the Daily News that Jackson had been going up to people in the station and dancing near them.

The heartbroken mother of a mentally ill man who pushed a passenger onto the subway tracks in New York City has revealed that her son, Malik Jackson, wasn't getting his medication due to the COVID-19 pandemic

A good Samaritan (left and right) was seen jumping onto the tracks to help the victim before Jackson started attacking him. During their scuffle the man is seen falling onto the third rail (right)

A witness said the man went up to another New Yorker who 'felt disrespected, so he squared up like he was going to fight the naked man'.

That's when the alleged attacker started pummeling the victim before shoving him off the platform.

Good Samaritan, Tyler Horrell, who witnessed the incident then jumped onto the platform to help the victim.

That's when the alleged attacker also jumped off the platform and onto the track bed and began hitting Horrell.

Video of the incident shows a No. 3 train halt just in time as the two men threw punches.

During the scuffle on the tracks, Jackson's shoulder made contact with the third rail.

A witness told the Daily News that Horrell had punched Jackson, causing him to fall onto the rail.

'It was a heavy punch,' the witness said. 'That's when the naked man fell.'

The third rail holds 625 volts of electricity and is enough to kill a person instantly.

Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. Horrell and the victim were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for minor injuries. New York City police said no one was charged in the incident.

During the scuffle on the tracks, the naked man made contact with the third rail and electrocuted himself. First responders are seen wheeling his body out of the train station

The third rail carries 625 volts of electricity, which is enough to instantly kill anyone. He was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. First responders are seen putting the man's body in the back of an ambulance

New York City police said no one was charged in the incident. Authorities are seen cordoning off the entrance to the train station on Saturday

On Sunday, Horrell was identified by the New York Post as the 55-year-old good Samaritan who helped save the victim.

Horrell explained that he could see the victim on the track but 'didn't think the train was going to be able to stop'.

'I jumped down and tried to pick him up,' he said. 'In the course of trying to pick him up, the naked guy appeared, squatting on the platform, looking at me. I said, 'Go on, man. Get out of here!' I didn't expect him to jump at me.'

Horrell told the Post that the attacker 'didn't say anything'.

'He just tried to swing at me. I took a swing at him. He was on drugs or something. There's a lot of drug use down in that subway,' Horrell said.

'When he leaped at me, we both went to the ground,' Horrell said. 'He didn't even make a sound when he hit the rail. He didn't make a sound the whole time.'

Horrell said that he thinks he had seen the attacker 'numerous times walking along the double yellow lines in the middle of 110th Street'.
Reserved, determined, and meticulous, Gervais Koffi Djondo is one of the leading lights of African success and of economic pan-Africanism. To ensure that his contribution to Africa is brought to the attention of the next generation, Gervais Koffi Djondo tells his story to the historian Elikia MBokolo. This portrayal starts with the tale of a young man from Whydah, the symbolic metropolis of Africas destiny, and his first steps as a tenacious entrepreneur inspired by his parents. It continues with Djondos journey from the inception of the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce & Industry, which he chaired from 1978 to 1984, to setting up the largest private pan-African bank, Ecobank, as well as ASKY Airlines, both of which have become beacons of business in Africa. Ecobank has won the Best African Bank award several times, while Asky Airlines was named Best African Company of the Year by the Africa CEO Forum in 2014.

Africa First is a tightly packed and thoroughly documented work which aims to show how bringing together African States into larger groupings, joining forces to develop inter-African trade, fosters success and garners respect. The book invites young people in search of role models to take inspiration from President Djondos ideas and from his abundant experience in order to build Africas future.

The Centre on Monday said that the government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security. Reacting to reports of China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that India "takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity".

An MEA official said, "We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India." The official added that China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years.

"In response, our government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much-needed connectivity to the local population along the border. The government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh," added the official.

"Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," stated the official.

This development comes on the heels of the White House on January 14 releasing a declassified document asserting that India has the capacity to counter border provocations by China. The document, which runs into 10 pages, was recently declassified in part by US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.

The document said, "India maintains the capacity to counter border provocations by China," adding "India remains preeminent in South Asia and takes the leading role in maintaining Indian Ocean security, increases engagement with Southeast Asia, and expands its economic, defence, and diplomatic cooperation with other US allies and partners in the region." "A strong India, in cooperation with like-minded countries, would act as a counterbalance to China," it further added.

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Dotted throughout San Antonios urban core are historic little structures called shotgun houses that provide affordable, energy-efficient shelter.

Theyre part of the citys heritage, typically tethered to working-class families through deep personal connections.

Now a $250,000 pilot program will explore ways to best rehabilitate and maintain hundreds of these houses as part of a solution to the 21st century, pandemic-era economic recovery.

In coordination with the University of Texas at San Antonio, construction experts and craftsmen, the citys program will start by rehabilitating three houses on the near West Side, seeking to save the structures and possibly creating a viable career path for displaced workers.

The vision may require the creation of a special subset of building code standards and property tax considerations to keep the houses affordable for owners and tenants, City Council members said last week.

On ExpressNews.com: Rinconcito de Esperanza to be name a West Side historic district

Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales, who initiated the program in her West Side District 5, said it began nearly eight years ago.

A woman from District 1 whom Gonzales had known for years was forced to move in with a relative because her house was razed after it deteriorated beyond compliance with city building codes.

We really didnt have any options for her, and we ended up demolishing her home. It was by all accounts not livable. She told me many times, I know I cant live there, but I raised 10 children there, recalled Gonzales, who leads the Planning and Land Development Committee.

The woman had shown the councilwoman handwritten receipts proving shed paid $12,000 for the house, Gonzales said during a virtual meeting of the committee last week.

I hope that we can expand on this (program) and help more people, and not put any more people in that situation, the councilwoman said.

Shotgun houses were so named because of their narrow, linear form. They were popular in warm climates in the 1800s and early 1900s. But many of them have been demolished.

In San Antonio, the structures that remain include one with a connection to the Alamo. That house, which dates to around 1890, is believed to have been built by Alejo Perez Jr., who as a baby, less than a year old, survived the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.

Perez was the son of Juana Navarro Alsbury, who nursed an ailing Jim Bowie during the siege. He grew up in San Antonio, became a policeman and is thought to have been the last survivor of the battle when he died in 1918.

The oldest known shotgun house in San Antonio was built in 1877, the citys Office of Historic Preservation says.

In recent years, the city has come to recognize the houses as historic  with prodding from preservation activists. In 2013, it approved a local landmark designation for a row of five of them in the 1100 block of Guadalupe Street.

Besides being considered cultural heritage assets, shotgun houses are existing affordable housing stock that is in greater demand and harder to find. They usually cover less than 1,000 square feet and often less than 400 square feet.

An analysis of nearly 5,000 structural demolitions in the city from 2003 to 2019 indicated District 5 had the most at 1,088, or 22 percent, closely followed by Districts 1 and 2.

Shanon Miller, director of the citys Office of Historic Preservation, said the department has seen more permit requests in recent years from people wanting to build mini-houses in old neighborhoods.

Because tiny houses are cool now. And were like, We already have these. Theyre called shotguns, Miller told the committee.

Working with nonprofits, contractors, artisans and UTSAs School of Construction Science and Management, the pilot program seeks to rehabilitate three houses, including one thats vacant. This would be done as a model for what could occur in other parts of the city, through creation of how-to guides for contractors, nonprofits and financial institutions to repair and maintain small houses.

The program will have a student training opportunity in February, with a master craftsman rehabbing wood windows on one of the houses. It has targeted a May timeline for completion of the rehabilitation work to all three homes.

We want to look at best practices to retain existing affordable housing stock, and housing stock that is currently affordable so that it remains affordable, said Veronica Soto, the citys director of neighborhood and housing services.

Celia Mendoza, a local architect, has owned a 700-square-foot double shotgun rental unit near San Antonio College for nearly 20 years. It has no driveway or hallway, is cooled with ceiling fans and a window unit and is warmed with space heaters.

Its an efficient, modest dwelling, ideal for college students and people in the service industry, Mendoza said.

Despite the challenges of maintaining a small house and paying ever increasing property taxes, she said the citys attempt to preserve affordable housing is a great move.

Right now, whats happening is there are quite a few developers that are looking for modest homes like these to demolish and do higher-density housing for a lot more money, Mendoza said. Its a really tough balance, but Im very interested in maintaining affordable housing because its a great neighborhood.

Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan said the program could spur opportunities for small minority contractors and help reduce homelessness. Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said it offers a combination of so many things that we need in the city.

On ExpressNews.com: National group calls San Antonios Alazan-Apache an endangered historic site

Councilman John Courage raised concerns about rehabilitation standards and costs, particularly if the city mandates the historic structures be brought to current codes for plumbing and electricity.

Councilman Roberto Trevino said the program is promising, but he similarly cautioned that it could inadvertently create a valuation that is just not sustainable, or long term cannot be attainable by those who would be living in these properties.

Trevino said a citywide expansion of the program would need to be coordinated with an appeal to the Bexar Appraisal District not to spike values based on maintenance of historic houses.

He recommended creation of a subsection of the building codes that provides flexibility on plumbing and electrical upgrades in older houses.

Miller said the city could expand its tax incentives for work done to save the small, old homes. Lessons learned from the program hopefully will provide solutions to the harsh realities that have resulted in the destruction of thousands of houses, she said.

All those things that you raised just really underscore what were trying to do with the pilot program, to really look at those issues related to costs, Miller told Courage.

shuddleston@express-news.net

A timeline of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project:

July 2008: TC Energy Corp. (TSX: TRP)  then called TransCanada Corp.  and ConocoPhillips, joint owners of the Keystone Pipeline, propose a major extension to the network. The expansion, dubbed Keystone XL, would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of oilsands bitumen from Alberta to Texas.

2009: As the U.S. State Department wades through comments based on an environmental assessment of the project, TransCanada starts visiting landowners potentially affected by the pipeline. Opposition emerges in Nebraska.

June 2009: TransCanada announces it will buy ConocoPhillips's stake in Keystone.

March 2010: The National Energy Board approves TransCanadas application for Keystone XL, though the OK comes with 22 conditions regarding safety, environmental protection and landowner rights.

April 2010: The U.S. State Department releases a draft environmental impact statement saying Keystone XL would have a limited effect on the environment.

June-July 2010: Opposition to Keystone XL begins mounting in the United States. Legislators write to then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton calling for greater environmental oversight; scientists begin speaking out against the project; and the Environmental Protection Agency questions the need for the pipeline extension.

July 2010: The State Department extends its review of Keystone, saying federal agencies need more time to weigh in before a final environmental impact assessment can be released.

March 2011: The State Department announces a further delay in its environmental assessment.

Aug. 26, 2011: The State Department releases its final environmental assessment, which reiterates that the pipeline would have a limited environmental impact.

August-September 2011: Protesters stage a two-week campaign of civil disobedience at the White House to speak out against Keystone XL. Police arrest approximately 1,000 people, including actors Margot Kidder and Daryl Hannah as well as Canadian activist Naomi Klein.

Sept. 26, 2011: At a demonstration on Parliament Hill, police arrest 117 of 400 protesters.

Nov. 10, 2011: The State Department says TransCanada must reroute Keystone XL to avoid an ecologically sensitive region of Nebraska.

Nov. 14, 2011: TransCanada agrees to reroute the line.

December 2011: U.S. legislators pass a bill with a provision saying President Barack Obama must make a decision on the pipelines future in the next 60 days.

Jan. 18, 2012: Obama rejects Keystone, saying the timeline imposed by the December bill did not leave enough time to review the new route. Obama said TransCanada was free to submit another application.

Feb. 27, 2012: TransCanada says it will build the southern leg of Keystone XL, from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast, as a separate project with a price tag of $2.3 billion. This is not subject to presidential permission, since it did not cross an international border.

April 18, 2012: TransCanada submits a new route to officials in Nebraska for approval.

May 4, 2012: TransCanada files a new application with the State Department for the northern part of Keystone XL.

Jan. 22, 2013: Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approves TransCanadas proposed new route for Keystone XL, sending the project back to the State Department for review.

January 2013: Pipeline opponents file a lawsuit against the Nebraska government claiming the state law used to review the new route is unconstitutional.

Jan. 31, 2014: The State Department says in a report that Keystone XL would produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than transporting oil to the Gulf of Mexico by rail.

Feb. 19, 2014: A Nebraska judge rules that the law that allowed the governor to approve Keystone XL over the objections of landowners was unconstitutional. Nebraska said it would appeal.

April 18, 2014: The State Department suspends the regulatory process indefinitely, citing uncertainty about the court case in Nebraska.

Nov. 4, 2014: TransCanada says the costs of Keystone XL have grown to US$8 billion from US$5.4 billion.

November-December 2014: Midterm elections turn control of the U.S. Congress over to Republicans, who say theyll make acceptance of Keystone XL a top priority. But Obama adopts an increasingly negative tone.

Jan. 9, 2015: At the Nebraska Supreme Court, by the narrowest of margins, a panel of seven judges strikes down the lower-court decision.

Jan. 29, 2015: The U.S. Senate approves a bill to build Keystone XL, but the White House says Obama would veto it.

Feb. 24, 2015: Obama vetoes the bill.

June 30, 2015: TransCanada writes to then-secretary of state John Kerry and other U.S. officials saying the State Department should include recent climate change policy announcements by the Alberta and federal governments in its review of Keystone XL.

Nov. 2, 2015: TransCanada asks the U.S. government to temporarily suspend its application.

Nov. 4, 2015: The U.S. government rejects that request.

Nov. 6, 2015: The Obama administration rejects TransCanadas application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada CEO Russ Girling says he is disappointed, but continues to believe the project is in the best interests of both Canada and the U.S.

Jan. 6, 2016: TransCanada files notice to launch a claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, alleging the U.S. government breached its legal commitments under NAFTA. The company also files a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in Texas arguing that Obama exceeded his powers by denying construction of the project.

May 26, 2016: Republican presidential contender Donald Trump says he would approve Keystone XL if elected, a pledge he repeats several times during the campaign.

Nov. 8, 2016: Trump is elected president.

Jan. 24, 2017: Trump signs an executive order that he says approves Keystone XL, but suggests the United States intends to renegotiate the terms of the project. He also signs an order requiring American pipelines to be built with U.S. steel.

Nov. 9, 2018: A U.S. federal judge blocks the pipeline's construction to allow more time to study the potential environmental impact.

March 29, 2019: Trump issues a new presidential permit in an effort to speed up development of the pipeline

May 3, 2019: TransCanada changes its name to TC Energy.

March 31, 2020: Alberta agrees to invest $1.5 billion in Keystone XL, followed by a $6 billion loan guarantee in 2021.

April 7, 2020: Construction begins, despite calls from Indigenous groups and environmentalists to pause their efforts.

May 18, 2020: Joe Biden, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, vows to scrap Keystone XL if elected, but doesn't set out a timeline for doing so.

Nov. 3, 2020: Biden is elected president.

Jan. 17, 2021: Transition documents show Biden plans to cancel Keystone XL on the first day of his presidency.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2021.
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The detention of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny by law enforcement as he arrived in Moscow following his return from Germany after recovering from being poisoned has sparked immediate outrage and criticism of the Kremlin.

Navalny arrived in the evening on January 17 in Moscow from Germany, where he was being treated after being poisoned in Russia last August, and was promptly detained by law enforcement authorities at the airport.

Anger over the move came almost as quickly.

European Council President Charles Michel called the apprehension of the 44-year-old Kremlin critic "unacceptable" and demanded his immediate release.



"The detainment of Alexei Navalny upon arrival in Moscow is unacceptable," Michel, who coordinates EU governments in Brussels, said in a tweet. "I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him."

Navalny, who Amnesty International called on January 17 a prisoner of conscience, was poisoned last summer by what tests at Western laboratories showed was a Novichok nerve agent. He was flown to Germany for emergency medical care after being poisoned in Siberia.

Navalny, who has been jailed numerous times in Russia for organizing and leading anti-government protests, blames the poisoning on the Russian authorities. Moscow denies any involvement.

The poisoning, which was similar to the near-fatal attack on Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury, drew wide international attention, as did Navalny's planned return after Russia's prison authority warned that Navalny could be jailed for 3 1/2 years for allegedly flouting the terms of a suspended prison sentence.

In a joint statement upon the news of Navalny's detention, the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia -- all former Soviet republics -- issued a call for the "imposition of restrictive measures" against Moscow.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis added in a tweet that the detention of Navalny by the Russian authorities is completely unacceptable. We demand his immediate release."

"[The] EU should act swiftly and if he is not released, we need to consider imposition of restrictive measures in response to this blatant act, he added.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also called on Twitter for "a swift and unequivocal response at the EU level" if Navalny is not released.

In the United States, the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden also called for Navalny's immediate release and that "the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable."

"The Kremlins attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard," Jake Sullivan, Biden's incoming national-security adviser, said in a tweet.

With reporting by Current Time and RFE/RLs Russian Service
Steven Dillingham resigned on Monday as director of the Census Bureau, bringing an early end to a tumultuous tenure that culminated this month in charges that he had allowed politics to override policy at the nations premier statistical agency.

Mr. Dillingham notified the White House that he would leave the agency on Wednesday, when the new Biden administration takes control of the federal government. Under federal law, his term as director had been scheduled to end in December 2021.

Mr. Dillingham, who took over the agency in January 2019 after being nominated for the post by President Trump, cast himself as a seasoned statistical expert who was committed to upholding the Census Bureaus historically nonpartisan work. He had earlier run two other federal statistical agencies and held a range of other federal positions, from the Peace Corps to the Office of Personnel Management.

But while his principal task was to oversee the 2020 census, even that work was often overshadowed by the Trump administrations yearslong effort to use the bureaus population tallies to change the rules for reapportioning the House of Representatives and drawing political districts nationwide, largely to the benefit of Republicans.
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The supporting role being played by a former president, Goodluck Jonathan, towards reviving the stalled constitutional review process in The Gambia has begun to bear fruits, an official has said.

A statement, on Monday, from Adebayo Olukoshi, boss of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the agency that provides the main technical backup to the mission, said political parties and parliamentarians are determined to cooperate and resolve the challenges standing in the way of adopting a new constitution for the people of The Gambia.

Mr Jonathan who was invited to The Gambia last December returned to Banjul in the first week of January to continue to facilitate the consultations for advancing the interparty dialogue towards garnering the required parliamentary support for a draft constitution meant to give the people of the country a new republic.

The release noted that Mr Jonathans intervention has succeeded in producing the trade-offs among the stakeholders that made it possible for them to agree on many of the points debated and how to move the process forward.

He added that the concessions provide a strong foundation on which to build further in order to give the people of The Gambia the constitutional framework they deserve for advancing their democratic aspirations, adding that next steps towards this the desired outcome will be pursued over the coming days and weeks.

The former president is said to have been able to inspire the kind of confidence and trust that created the atmosphere for the Government, political party leaders, parliamentarians, civil society leaders and other stakeholders in The Gambia to return to the negotiating table and reconsider the draft constitution.

Mr Olukoshi said: His Excellency former President Jonathan saluted the unalloyed commitment displayed by the political leaders who took an active part in the discussions in striving to unlock obstacles towards the adoption of a new national constitution for The Gambia.

He (Jonathan) welcomed the show of political will that was in evidence during the discussions, including openness to dialogue, the embrace of a spirit of compromise, and the display of a high sense of personal leadership.

During the course of his visit, as with the previous one in December 2020, Mr Jonathan held meetings, both bilateral and in various plenary sessions, with key political leaders and a cross-section of Gambian civil society, including faith leaders.

He also had a private working discussion with President Adama Barrow and an interactive session with some of the development partners of The Gambia.

Giving further details on the mission, the statement said: Over the period from 07 to 11 January 2021, and in continuation of an invited mission that was launched in mid- December 2020, His Excellency Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was in The Gambia to meet with the leaders of political parties and other stakeholders as part of ongoing efforts to advance the countrys constitutional reform process. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) provided the main technical backup to the mission while the Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Republic of Gambia assisted with facilitation services.
A Chinese railway worker has fogged safety goggles as he waits to check the temperature of arriving passengers at a train station in Beijing, on Jan. 31, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Year After Severe Wuhan Outbreak, China Promotes Propaganda Film Praising Authorities

News Analysis

Roughly a year after the CCP virus spread across China, the Chinese regime recently began a propaganda blitz to portray the outbreak in Wuhanground zero of the epidemicas a story of triumph over adversity.

A joint production between state-run and private media companies, the movie Days and Nights in Wuhan was created under the direction of the Zhejiang Province film bureau, and will be screened in cinemas across the country on Jan. 22.

Chinese media reports say the film will deliver positive energy about the outbreak, featuring segments about government officials visiting patients, medical staff on the front lines of the outbreak, and people expressing thanks to local officials.

The films director, Cao Jinling, told state broadcaster CCTV in a Jan. 12 interview that she wanted to show how people resign themselves to adversity, and how important it was to not complain about anything but just accept whats happened and try to survive.

Screenshot of the trailer for the film, Days and Nights in Wuhan. (Screenshot/YouTube)

The film doesnt take on how authorities covered up the initial outbreakonly confirming the existence of an outbreak at a time when online posts from whistleblower doctors were going viral, nor does it explore whether Wuhan authorities response was sufficient to contain the outbreak.

The Epoch Times has previously reported that early in 2020, local hospitals were overwhelmed as they turned away COVID-19 patients in need of treatment, medical staff ran out of medical supplies, and funeral homes were inundated with dead bodies.

While the movie seeks to portray positive stories, several scenes demonstrate the harsh reality of living amid the pandemic.

For example, one male patient in his 70s who survived COVID-19 was only able to communicate with his grandson through audio messages.

An elderly COVID-19 patient listens to a voice recording from his grandson in Wuhan, China, in early 2020. (Screenshot/YouTube)

Another scene involves a young woman whose mother died of COVID-19. The woman wasnt able to visit her mother in the hospital during the treatment. After her mothers death, when the woman went to the hospital to pick up her mothers cremated ashes, a nurse returned a jade bracelet that was one of the few reminders of her loved one.

The womans grandfather also contracted COVID-19. When she asked the nurse about her grandfathers condition, the nurse was so overwhelmed with emotion that she didnt reply.

A nurse meets with a young woman whose mother died of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in early 2020. (Screenshot/YouTube)

The Chinese regime also is promoting other propaganda efforts to people, such as an art exhibition at the China National Museum about the fight against COVID-19. It opened to the public on Aug. 1, 2020.

According to the museums website, the exhibit encompasses about 200 art pieces, including paintings, sculptures, and calligraphy, that represent the great spirit of fighting the epidemic. It also demonstrates that the central government led by Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping helped the Chinese people to defeat the virus.

In Wuhan, the Revolutionary Museum presented a series of sculptures made of wheat and rice floura traditional Chinese technique. The sculptures represent how authorities fought the epidemic.

Chen Wei (L), a Chinese army general who led a team working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine, salutes after she received an award from Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the end of a ceremony to honor people who fought against the pandemic, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Sept. 8, 2020. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, authorities continue to censor information about the virus outbreak as several regions of the country are experiencing a resurgence.

The keywords Wuhan Anniversary are banned online.

Recently, several Chinese netizens were fined and detained after they posted pandemic-related information on social media that doesnt align with the official narrative of successful containment.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 12, 2021. (Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Roe v. Wade a Constitutionally Flawed Ruling, Trump Says

President Donald Trump on Jan. 17 called the landmark Supreme Court decision that dramatically expanded access to abortion constitutionally flawed and noted that its led to the termination of tens of millions of unborn babies.

This month, we mark nearly 50 years since the United States Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision. This constitutionally flawed ruling overturned State laws that banned abortion, and has resulted in the loss of more than 50 million innocent lives, Trump said in a proclamation.

But strong mothers, courageous students, and incredible community members and people of faith are leading a powerful movement to awaken Americas conscience and restore the belief that every life is worthy of respect, protection, and care. Because of the devotion of countless pro-life pioneers, the call for every person to recognize the sanctity of life is resounding more loudly in America than ever before. Over the last decade, the rate of abortions has steadily decreased, and today, more than three out of every four Americans support restrictions on abortion.

Public polling shows most Americans back restrictions on abortion in the second and third trimesters, amid attempts by some lawmakers to make abortion up until birth legal for all pregnant women.

Roe v. Wade was a case brought by a Texas woman against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County. She said Texas laws making abortion largely illegal violated her constitutional rights.

In a 72 decision in 1973, justices said the Texas laws were unconstitutional.

The Court today has thoroughly demonstrated that these state interests cannot constitutionally support the broad abridgment of personal liberty, wrote Justice Potter Stewart, an Eisenhower nominee.

In a dissent, Nixon-nominee Justice William Rehnquist said the ruling meant that a State may impose virtually no restriction on the performance of abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy.

In deciding such a hypothetical lawsuit, the Court departs from the longstanding admonition that it should never formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied, he said, accusing colleagues of eschewing the history of the 14th Amendment in its reliance on the compelling state interest test.

Since the decision, restrictions on abortions during the first trimester have been repeatedly struck down, including laws against selecting against fetuses with Down syndrome or ones of a certain gender.

Trump has said before that he opposes Roe v. Wade, but told a town hall last year that he never spoke of it with the two judges he had nominated to the nations highest court. President-elect Joe Biden, on the other hand, has championed Roe v. Wade, telling people on the campaign trail that he would work to enshrine the Supreme Court ruling as a law.

Trumps proclamation was for the National Sanctity of Human Life Day. In it, he also said: As a Nation, restoring a culture of respect for the sacredness of life is fundamental to solving our countrys most pressing problems. When each person is treated as a beloved child of God, individuals can reach their full potential, communities will flourish, and America will be a place of even greater hope and freedom. That is why it was my profound privilege to be the first President in history to attend the March for Life, and it is what motives my actions to improve our Nations adoption and foster care system, secure more funding for Down syndrome research, and expand health services for single mothers.
The court finds these facts and circumstances quite shocking for the alleged period of time that this occurred, the judge said. Being in a secured part of the airport under a fake ID badge allegedly, based upon the need for airports to be absolutely secure so that people feel safe to travel, I do find those alleged actions do make him a danger to the community.
Reacting to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's verbal attack on Republic Media Network chief Arnab Goswami on Monday, BJP Spokesperson R P Singh said that 'Balakot strike was in the offing' since PM Modi's speech on February 16, 2019 - assuring to avenge the sacrifice for Pulwama attack. Singh said that any nationalist will be attacked by Imran Khand and that any journalist - including Arnab - will be targetted for their nationalist stance. Justifying that a journalist can make a pre-emptive guess regarding retaliation after the PM's speech, RP Singh condemned people in India echoing Imran Khan's opinion on the issue.

Placards of PM Modi & other leaders raised in Pakistan's Sindh as 'Sindhudesh' demand back

BJP: 'Balakot was in the offing'

" I am shocked at that the ignorance level of Pakistan Prime Minister. On February 16, PM Modi said that the sacrifice of the soldiers will not be wasted. (Plays PM Modi's speech) This (PM's speech) is in the public domain. Balakot was always in the offing, while we did not know how it will shape up. He (PM Modi) said in public that Pulwama will be avenged by the Army. As a journalist one can pre-empt - nothing wrong in this," he said.

He added, "He (Imran Khan) is not talking about Pulwama - how his Army General was shaking. For Imran Khan, this is a way to wriggle out of this problem, as an alibi. Imran khan faced a lot of heat because of Balakot. His leader Fawad is on record on Pulwama while his Opposition is on record on Abhinandan. The problem here is that people here are also supporting him. Those who questioned Balakot are supporting him. Any nationalist person who opposes Imran will be targetted by him - so is Arnab Goswami."

Arnab Goswami responds to Imran Khan; shreds open calibration to push Pakistan's narrative

Imran Khan attacks Republic

On Monday, Pakistan PM Imran Khan hit out alleging that The Indian Government under Prime Minister Modi used the Balakot airstrike for electoral gains. Attacking Arnab, Khan claimed that the Modi government has turned India into a "rogue state" - with an 'unholy nexus between media and govt'. Slamming Imran Khan & the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, Arnab said that was nothing false-flag about Balakot, as Imran Khan himself has admitted it. Arnab has expressed his shock on the calibration between Congress and anti-Republic media with Pakistan's narrative.

Pakistan admits to Pulwama attack in Assembly; term it 'Imran Khans great achievement'

He issued a statement, "Imran Khan is on the edge, because he cannot handle the truth. He's looking shaky, and expects his apologists in India to come to his rescue. I am horrified that anti-Republic channel have joined hands with ISI, people of India will never forgive them. What has become obvious now is a Pakistan hand in the conspiracy against Republic."

Quivering Bajwa,FM Qureshi said Release Abhinandan or India will attack:Pak Oppn recalls
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to be able to view my bald spot up close and detailed. I took multiple camera shots but couldn't really see clearly the attributes of the bald spot," said an inventor from Temple, Texas. "So, I created the MIRROR IMAGE."

The invention fulfills the need for a proposed digital smart mirror having various capabilities related to digital video recording and playback for the state-of-the-art digital device consumer. It provides multiple uses for personal care, military training, wardrobe cataloging, social media sharing, and content practice session usage. The device allows one to understand one's body language in various presentation, acting, singing, or other personal performance situations. Additionally, it would be easy to use and install.

The original design was submitted to the Austin sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 19-AUP-1156, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com



The action scenes are big, brash and plentiful in Outside the Wire, a sci-fi thriller serving as a star vehicle for leading man Anthony Mackie, also a co-producer. It landed on Netflix this weekend.

But sci-fi and military movie cliches abound in the film, which leans far too heavily on ideas that have been better executed in other movies.

There are Eastern European baddies and robotic soldiers and missing nuclear codes  even a truth serum, for the love of God while soldiers go AWOL and people shout things like thats classified information!

Its lazy storytelling, but in his defence the always charismatic Mackie and his supporting cast lean in to the B-movie, over-the-top spirit of the film.

Set in 2036, a violent civil war has erupted in Eastern Europe. US troops are stationed as peacemakers on this lawless frontier.

The frontier is controlled by a ruthless criminal warlord named Viktor Koval (Borgens Pilou Asbaek), a mysterious character that few people have seen. To combat his growing power, the Pentagon has deployed robotic soldiers named Gumps to active duty for the first time.

Following a dramatic shootout at the beginning of the film, an entire Gump unit is wiped out and several men are trapped.

Its clear following the events of this attack that there is conflict between the humans and their counterparts that control the Gumps.

After disobeying a direct order that leads to the death of two men, Gump pilot Harp (Idris) is sent to the front line for an empathy check.

There, he comes under the authority of Anthony Mackies captain Leo, an AI prototype with a quick wit and a sharp tongue.

Koval is fighting to make the Ukraine part of Russia, and also has the nickname the terror of the Balkans.

He also has control over a significant number of Russian nuclear weapons.

Leo is going behind enemy lines to deliver badly needed medical supplies to a local nurse (Beecham) and he needs a great shot as an ally.

The movie cant be accused of lacking plot  in fact theres too much of it as the film leans in to exposition, twists and turns to try to paper over the fact weve seen all this before.

Its all serviceable enough, and action fans will get their kicks, but youd expect more given the cast involved.

The stars: Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris, Pilou Asbaek, Emily Beecham.

The Story: In the near future, a drone pilot sent into a war zone is paired with a top-secret android officer on a mission to stop a nuclear attack.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a media conference at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in made clear Monday that it is premature to talk about granting special pardons to two convicted former presidents -- Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.



"I think now is not the (right) time to talk about pardons (for them)," he said, breaking his silence on the politically sensitive issue.



He was speaking during his unprecedented online New Year's press conference.



"The imprisonment of the two former presidents is a very unfortunate incident nationally," he said.



Moon noted, however, that the court trial procedures have just finished and national consensus is a prerequisite for any possible future discussions on the matter.



Last week, South Korea's Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison term for the impeached former President Park over bribery and embezzlement. Lee was earlier sentenced to 17 years in jail for similar charges.



As corruption and other wrongdoing by the two have been confirmed to be true, "there has been enormous national damage, and the pain and wounds that the people have suffered are very big," Moon said.



Furthermore, he pointed out, the two are denying their past misconduct and refusing to accept the court rulings.



The move to give Park and Lee special pardons will not be accepted by the people's "common sense and I can't accept those either," Moon said.



Speculation has been rampant on the possibility of Moon considering granting amnesties to the former conservative presidents since he announced a plan to place a top policy priority in 2021 on "inclusive recovery" from the coronavirus crisis. The leader of the ruling Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yon, also told reporters he would ask the president to give them pardons to help promote national unity.



Moon said he was referring to the urgency of addressing the problem of widening social and economic gaps in the midst of the drawn-out COVID-19 crisis.



He dismissed the view that South Korea is lagging behind many other nations in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines.



He said inoculation will begin next month and that the first-phase vaccination program is expected to end by September.



"Herd immunity will be formed by then, in general," and once the second round of shots is done in the fourth quarter of this year, herd immunity will be achieved "almost completely" by November at the latest, Moon added.



The president assured the public of the safety of the vaccines to be introduced under contracts with foreign drug firms, saying local health authorities have prudently reviewed it.



He reaffirmed a decision to offer free-of-charge vaccine shots to all South Koreans in stages and pledged "adequate compensation" by the government for serious side or adverse effects from the scheduled shots.













Moon said it is too early to discuss another batch of emergency relief money handouts, which requires supplementary budgets and state bond issuance.



On growing concerns about rising housing prices, Moon said the government plans to expand housing supply on a scale "well beyond market expectation."



He admitted that his administration's efforts to stabilize the real estate market have not been successful. He cited bigger-than-expected demand due to the increase in the number of households, largely smaller ones.



The land ministry plans to provide details before long on a specific scheme to expand home supply especially in Seoul and nearby areas, according to Moon.



He also clarified his position on another politically fraught matter: disputes over the foiled attempt to take disciplinary action against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. Many of Moon's supporters regard Yoon as having violated his "political neutrality" obligation in a bid to block the president's drive to reform the prosecution service.



Yoon has not declared any intention in public to join the political circles, but multiple opinion polls show that he is the favorite to become a presidential candidate for the opposition bloc.



In a nutshell, Moon said, "I would like to say that he's a prosecutor general of the Moon Jae-in government. I don't think he's serving at the post with politics or a related plan in mind."



On North Korea, Moon said he believes the North's leader has the "will for peace, dialogue and denuclearization."



What North Korea wants is to win a "surefire security guarantee and normalize relations with the U.S.," he said.



Although the two Koreas have an agreement on Kim's reciprocal visit to the South, its time and format can be flexible, the president added.



"I don't think we need to stick to his reciprocal visit first. I am willing to meet him anytime and anywhere," Moon said.



The upcoming launch of the Joe Biden administration, which would not put the North Korea issue on the back burner, is expected to serve as a chance for a fresh start in both Pyongyang-Washington relations and inter-Korean ties, he said.

He proposed that the Biden team will inherit the 2018 Singapore summit deal signed between Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong-un.



"The Singapore Declaration achieved under the Trump administration was a very important declaration in terms of denuclearization and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," he said.



He said he will seek early summit talks with Biden to ensure that the allies stay on the same page in the tumultuous peace process.



Regarding the Seoul-Tokyo stand-offs over shared history, he drew a line between longstanding disputes over shared history and a push for the development of a forward-looking relationship.



He then proposed that the two sides deal "separately" with such pending problems as bilateral export curbs in place, forced labor damages and compensation for those who served as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II.



Moon mentioned the latest South Korean court ruling ordering Japan to pay compensation to a dozen "comfort women."



He emphasized the importance of Seoul's relationship with Beijing and expressed hope that President Xi Jinping will travel to South Korea as soon as the coronavirus situation is brought under control. (Yonhap)
While benchmark indices scaled fresh record highs in the last week, high volatility and weak global cues dented the sentiment on Friday, leading to a massive selloff in stocks. However, both Sensex and Nifty managed to gain around half a per cent for the week.

As indices look set to kick off the trading this week, Q3 earnings and global cues will likely guide the market, meanwhile, volatility could stay high in the run-up to Union Budget.

Traders will react to the HDFC Bank Q3 numbers that came out on Saturday wherein the lender posted an over 18 per cent jump in December quarter profit. Besides that, around 193 companies are set to announce their quarterly numbers this week, including a number of prominent large- and mid-caps firms such as -- Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, YES Bank, Mindtree, Asian Paints, JSW Steel, SBI Life Insurance, Biocon, Bandhan Bank and Ultratech Cement to name a few.

Meanwhile, on the global front, US President-elect Joe Biden will take office on Wednesday, January 20. Biden had last week unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that will come up for a vote in the Senate, wherein he would need Republican support to have it cleared. Any development on that front would be closely monitored by investors.

That apart, market participants will also keep tracking latest developments and trends on the Covid-19 pandemic front, especially the pace of the vaccine rollout programme that kicked off on January 16 in the country and for signs of any adverse reactions from the vaccine.

Moreover, movement in crude oil prices, rupee and FII inflows will also be monitored.

Lastly, there will be no dearth of action in the primary too as two IPOs, namely - IRFC and Indigo Paints - are slated to open for subscription on January 18 and January 20, respectively. IRFC's IPO is priced at Rs 25-26 a share. Its nearly risk-free model positions the IPO as a safe bet for investors, analyst believe.

And now, let's take a look at the trade setup for today

Asian share retreated from highs on Monday as disappointing on US consumer spending tempered risk sentiment ahead of a closely-watched reading on the health of the Chinese economy.

MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.3% having hit a string of record peaks in recent weeks. Japans Nikkei slipped 1% and away from a 30-year high. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, though Wall Street will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Tracking weakness in Asian peers, Indian too looked set for a tepid start. SGX Nifty futures traded 45 points down at 7.35 am.

On the stock-specific front, Mindtree, IndiaMart, Rallis India and 18 other companies will release their Q3 numbers today.

Wipro has been chosen as the strategic technology services partner by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

SAIL's retail portion of the OFS was subscribed 5.22 times on Friday. Investors bid for nearly 12.5 crore shares as compared to the 5.16 crore shares on offer.

DHFL said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) has approved the resolution plan submitted by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited, a Piramal Group company.
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will wait for a recommendation from his intelligence advisers on whether to share classified information with President Donald Trump after the Republican leaves office, Biden's top aide said on Sunday.

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, made the comment after former principal deputy director of national intelligence, Sue Gordon, wrote an op-ed arguing against sharing such information with Trump once he has left the presidency.

'With this simple act  which is solely the new president's prerogative  Joe Biden can mitigate one aspect of the potential national security risk posed by Donald Trump, private citizen,' Gordon said in a Washington Post piece headlined 'A former president Trump won't 'need to know.' Cut off his intelligence.'

President-elect Biden is to consult with intelligence advisers on whether to provide President Trump with daily intelligence briefings

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, pictured made the comment after former principal deputy director of national intelligence, Sue Gordon, wrote an op-ed arguing against sharing such information with Trump once he has left the presidency

'Either way, before Trump departs, the intelligence officials should have the conversation  as they do with all outgoing presidents  about the risks every president faces simply because of what he has already seen or told. He leaves office with knowledge of some of our most precious intelligence assets in his head.

'They need to stay there. And all exiting presidents need to be reminded of that,' Gordon wrote.

Asked about Gordon's recommendation, Klain told CNN's 'State of the Union' program that Biden would want to hear from his own intelligence professionals before making any decision.

'We'll certainly look for a recommendation from the intelligence professionals in the Biden administration ... and we will act on that recommendation,' he said.

A former principal deputy director of national intelligence suggested Trump could be 'vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent'. Trump is pictured with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in 2018

Gordon, who resigned in 2019, said any former president was a foreign intelligence target but Trump 'might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent,' citing, among other things, his business interests abroad.

'It is not clear that he understands the tradecraft to which he has been exposed, the reasons the knowledge he has acquired must be protected from disclosure, or the intentions and capabilities of adversaries,' she wrote.

'Trump has significant business entanglements that involve foreign entities. Many of these current business relationships are in parts of the world that are vulnerable to intelligence services from other nation-states. And it is not clear that he understands the tradecraft to which he has been exposed, the reasons the knowledge he has acquired must be protected from disclosure, or the intentions and capabilities of adversaries and competitors who will use any means to advance their interests at the expense of ours,' she added.

Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was more blunt, telling CBS Face The Nation program, 'I don't think he can be trusted with it.'

'Donald Trump should never receive another intelligence briefing  not now, and not in the future. He cannot be trusted and has done enough damage to our country already. Trump remains a security threat, and will continue to be a security threat long after he leaves office,' he said.
The Cape Verde government has explained its unwillingness to comply with the ECOWAS ruling on the detained Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab.

PREMIUM TIMES has been following closely and reporting the legal and diplomatic contests between the United States of America and Venezuela governments since Mr Saab, a frontman of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, was arrested in Cape Verde in June 2020, at the request of Interpol for alleged financial crimes.

His arrest has not only dragged West Africa into the discussion, it has once again questioned the influence of ECOWAS and its other arms on its member nations.

On the ground of Mr Saabs deteriorating health and status as a diplomat, Femi Falana-led legal team approached the ECOWAS court to halt the formers extradition to the U.S, a request that was granted but yet to be respected by the Cabo Verde, one of the beneficiaries of the organization, till date.

Aside from the organizations court ruling that Mr Maduros frontman be placed on house arrest and allowed to seek medical attention under the authoritys supervision, it also ruled that all extradition proceedings be suspended until its main hearing, scheduled for February 4, in Abuja.

Having lost at the Cabo Verdes Tribunal and Appeal courts, the defendant has appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court, while the ECOWAS ruling continues to be treated with disregard.

Why we wont obey ECOWAS ruling  Cape Verde

In the pursuant of Mr Saabs denied human rights, situated within the existing legal and diplomatic realities, Mr Falana and former Spanish Chief Justice, Baltasar Garson, other prominent lawyers across three continents, wrote to the Cabo Verde President last week.

In the letter sent to this newspaper, the lawyers alleged the Cape Verde authority of collaborating with the U.S in breaching international laws by denying the ruling of ECOWAS on the subject.

However, an exclusive document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES from the office of the Attorney General of Barlavento Circuit, highlighted why the Cabo Verde government has been reluctant in obeying the organisations court ruling.

While available documents prove otherwise, the office said the country is not in agreement with the body on the supplementary protocol on the ECOWAS court that empowers the code to entertain human right ramifications.

Without prejudice to affirming that we are not aware of any notification made to the Government, Supreme Court of Justice, Court of Appeal and Attorney Generals Office about such a decision, which, as is known, has to be done through the proper diplomatic channels and with the required legal formalities, we can say in advance that such a decision does not bind the national courts.

As a matter of fact, it can be said that since the Treaty of Lagos, what was envisaged was an ECOWAS economic organization, there is nothing stipulating about the jurisdiction of the Court of this African Organization, nor is any reference made to Justice.

It is not possible to intend such a provision to be applied in our country, when we have never accepted it in our national legal system, through the mechanisms provided for this, since it is a decision not applicable in the legal system of Cape Verde, where, as is known, the ECOWAS Court is not part of the Hierarchy of the Courts, where the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Justice are at the apex (art. 214, paragraphy I and a), 215 and 216, CRCV), an excerpt from the the office argued, insisting that the ECOWAS ruling undermined its domestic legal standards.

The Cape Verde Attorney General, Luis Landim, had argued in an interview late last December that the country has not ratified the protocol that gave jurisdiction to the ECOWAS court in matters of human rights.

In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Falana dismissed the Mr Landim argument saying the supplementary protocol came into effect on the 19th of January, 2005, when it was signed by 14 out of the 15 member states of the ECOWAS. Article 11 of the protocol provides that once it is signed by 9 member states it shall come into provision of force. In this instance, it was signed by 14.

That meeting was attended by the then Prime Minister of Cape Verde. The meeting took place in Accra, Ghana. He was there, but towards the tail end, he had to rush home to attend to an emergency. Hence, he didnt sign the supplementary protocol, but there has been no rejection of the protocol by Cape Verde, the Nigerian human rights lawyer said.

PREMIUM TIMES has a copy of the said meeting and all decisions taken.

While the tripartite case of Mr Saab continues to linger in ECOWAS, Cape Verde and the U.S, the argument for the denial of his human rights vis-a-vis his status as a diplomat has continued to raise questions.

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Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy said CEOs were looking beyond the disruptions of Brexit and Covid-19. Photo: Conor O'Riordan

Start-up activity has remained resilient through the Covid-19 downturn despite a poor second-quarter, according to figures compiled by credit risk analyst CRIFVision-net.

New company registrations fell just 4pc in 2020, to the lowest level since 2016. Nearly 22,000 companies registered for the first time last year, compared to slightly more than 21,000 in 2016.

Start-ups hit a low point in April, when the economic impact of the pandemic was strongest, before rebounding in the second half of the year.

The figures reveal that despite the Covid-19 economic downturn, start-ups have remained more resilient when compared to the 2008 recession when figures decreased 22pc year-on-year.

The final quarter of the year proved particularly strong, with an increase of 20pc in new registrations compared to Q3. In total, 6,583 new companies were registered in Q4, a 23pc increase over the same period in 2019, suggesting a strong recovery in activity this year.

Insolvencies for 2020 were down 10.7pc compared to 2019, with 570 for the year. CRIFVision-net attributed this decrease to the prolonged closure of courts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Separately, a survey by business employers group Ibec found nearly two-thirds of chief executives believe Covid will permanently alter their business models.

Almost three-quarters of respondents cited the impact of Covid on collaboration and innovation as a challenge for their business, while a similar proportion (72pc) cited the challenge presented by returning to the office following the pandemic as critical to their business.

Unsurprisingly, the top area of focus for chief executives for the next three years will be increased investment in technology to support business changes.

While Covid dominates the CEO agenda right now, many business leaders are looking ahead to other key issues such as new products, succession planning and workplace inclusivity.

Nearly four out of five CEOs said finding employees with the right mix of skills would be a key challenge for their businesses in the coming years.

In 2021, Irish business will have to deal with a much-altered landscape as the new post-Brexit reality continues to take shape and Covid disruptions endure, said Ibec chief Danny McCoy. The findings show that despite these challenges, CEOs are looking beyond this disruptive period.
Hologram Registration Boards to ensure safety of fishermen in Kerala, India

January 18,2021 | Source: ENS

In an effort to ensure the safety of seafaring fishermen, Kerala is installing high-security registration boards on fishing boats, for the first time in the world. The project is being implemented by the State Fisheries Department for the complete protection and remote monitoring of boats. In the first phase, hologram registration boards will be installed on 300 boats, said fisheries department in a release.



Such boards have already been installed to about 100 boats in Neendakara, Munambam and Kochi fishing harbours. 1,500 boats will be covered in the second phase, and in the third phase, about 4,000 fishing boats across the State will be installed with the hologram registration boards. These boards are installed at a subsidised rate, with the technical assistance from CDiT.



The high-security registration board with GPS / GPRS networking is a system that helps in locating and identifying deep-sea fishing boats. It is made of materials that are not damaged by saltwater in the sea. It has holographic and laser systems to detect fake registrations. A hologram board is attached on the top of the boat's wheelhouse for better identification and communication. This ensures a clear view of 360 degrees. This also avoids damage to the registration board due to direct contact with saltwater and collisions between boats, said officials.



Its square pyramidal structure of the high-security registration board can withstand the rough climate and strong winds in rough seas. The hologram is attached to all four corners of the board. It is also helpful for security agencies as crime and smuggling using boats can be prevented. Foreign ships and boats entering our territory for illegal fishing pose a threat to the security of the country itself. The high-security registration board for boats with GPS / GPRS networking has been developed taking into account all the threats at sea.



Fishing vessels usually stay in the deep sea areas with GPRS connectivity zone for 10-15 days. Due to the lack of a communication network there, the centralised monitoring system is unable to track their activities in the deep sea. In this case, enforcement agencies such as the Coast Guard, Coastal Police and Navy can monitor fishing boats using government-approved registration numbers only.



Authorities will be able to identify and investigate any unregistered fishing boats and those displaying fake registration numbers if they carry out any illegal activities at the national maritime border. The bogus number can be identified quickly as the registration number and serial number can be verified using a satellite-based communication device, said the release.

 newindianexpress.com 2021

Theme(s): Others.
So long ago  before the national holiday we observe today, before the monument in his honor was installed near the National Mall  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he was getting too much of the credit for the civil rights movement.

He had a point. In their dedication and bravery, Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, John Lewis, and other giants of that era arguably were everything he was, minus the smooth eloquence. Yet perhaps most amazing of all were the thousands of ordinary people who joined his marches, where they were cursed, jeered, and physically attacked. Their own greatness  proven in their unearthly patience and refusal to respond to violence with violence  could be said to be equal to King's.

There was one exception  King's final march.

King's rhetoric could be fiery at times, as befitting a leader railing against injustices such as those endured by the black sanitation workers in Memphis, men stuck in society's lowest rung, struggling at poverty-level wages in a dangerous job in which two had recently been killed.

An account of the march recalled that in a speech in Memphis 10 days earlier,

... King based part of his speech on the New Testament parable of Dives (pronounced DYE-veez) and Lazarus. King's point was that white Memphians were willfully indifferent to the suffering of the city's black working poor. One day these whites would suffer for their blindness, he warned. To get middle-class white people in Memphis to see their working poor neighbors, King told his Mason Temple audience to "escalate the struggle a bit." King called for a general work stoppage[.]

During the March 28 march he led down Beale Street,

a number of young African Americans began breaking storefront windows[.] ... [P]olice attacked with tear gas and clubs. Peaceful marchers were caught up in the same violence as youthful looters. One teenager, a suspected looter, was shot to death. Dozens of protesters were injured and nearly 300 black people arrested. Stores in the black section of town got looted and burned[.] ... He felt great guilt, as King was wont to do, that somehow he had failed, that it was his fault, that he had let the movement down, [historian Michael] Honey says. He knew also that the FBI and the news media would go on the attack against him[.]

As happened in the Capitol riot that coincided with Trump's final rally on January 6, outside agitators reportedly played a role in the sabotage of King's final demonstration. The violent criminality in Memphis was at first attributed to the Invaders, a group of young activists. But was there more to the story? In his book Orders to Kill, King colleague William Pepper wrote:

This group of twenty or so black men and women developed a series of programs designed to address local needs by providing services where none had previously existed[.] ... They were infiltrated by intelligence operatives and subjected to surveillance out of all proportion to any threat they might have posed to the Memphis power structure.

Pepper learned from one of his sources that the Invaders "were infiltrated by a black undercover cop who was an agent provocateur for violence and illegal activity[.]" According to senior Invader leader Dr. Coby Smith, their own investigation "established the presence in the area that day of a number of cars with Illinois license plates and a number of youths who weren't known to any of the Invaders[.]"

After their final, disastrous marches, it appears that both King and Trump were successfully "riot-shamed," with Trump displaying signs of the same guilt King reportedly felt. Trump's quick abandonment of his electoral challenge looked like the behavior of a leader who felt he'd done something wrong (or was it simply a realistic acknowledgment that his challenge was over, killed by a handful of "patriots" and leftist radicals who were glad to assist them in their deadly rampage?).

The events of Memphis in 1968 and Washington in 2021 are reminders that highly charged protests  no matter how nonviolent and righteous  are like live grenades; and the higher the stakes, the more dangerous.

When King and his colleagues addressed the 1963 March on Washington, President Kennedy  who supported their cause, and was mere blocks away  did not dare join them, reportedly out of concern that any violence that might break out would be used to tarnish him and destroy his re-election chances.

Trump, who wished to acknowledge and encourage the multitude who showed up to support him on a cold day, could be said to have gambled and lost. As Geoffrey P. Hunt depicted it, he walked into a trap. His many successes in four years attest to meticulous planning and sound, balanced judgment, yet there are times he seems reckless in word and deed. The world's most famous person remains an enigma.

Among other striking similarities between King and Trump: Both were targeted by corrupt, high-ranking officials determined to destroy them. King was obsessively surveilled and sabotaged by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and allegations of a similar Spygate/Obamagate targeting of Trump are under investigation. The media assisted in the war on both leaders; in the case of King, a number of journalists obediently reported smears fed to them by the FBI.

Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize yet defamed as a fascist. King was awarded the prize in 1964 for his efforts to see America's founding principles fully applied, yet he was defamed as a communist (despite condemning communism as depersonalizing, freedom-crushing totalitarianism and insisting that no true Christian could be a communist).

The analogies don't end there. The tens of millions of us feeling cheated out of our votes by a fraud-ridden election, and at risk of giving in to anger and despair, were preceded by others in similar and worse situations, whose example can help light our way. Among them were the disenfranchised black Americans King spoke for in his "Give Us the Ballot" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1957, where he emphasized:

We need a leadership that is calm and yet positive. This is no day for the rabble-rouser, whether he be Negro or white. We must realize that we are grappling with the most weighty social problem of this nation, and in grappling with such a complex problem there is no place for misguided emotionalism. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never become bitter. ... Stand up for justice. Sometimes it gets hard, but it is always difficult to get out of Egypt, for the Red Sea always stands before you with discouraging dimensions. And even after you've crossed the Red Sea, you have to move through a wilderness with prodigious hilltops of evil and gigantic mountains of opposition. But I say to you this afternoon: keep moving[.]

King's 1957 speech serves as a wise motivational blueprint for moving forward, acknowledging there is no quick, simple solution to the kinds of challenges that now trouble us yet reminding us we can surmount overwhelming odds as others have done, and that trusting in God's strength is essential.

Image: Minnesota Historical Society via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Reeling from the attack on the Capitol, Joe Biden and other politicians have insisted that the violence does not represent who we are as a nation, pledging to bring the country together under shared ideals and to reject Trumps divisiveness once and for all.

But writing last week in The Undefeated, the critic Soraya Nadia McDonald took issue with the president-elects insistence that the countrys true identity had nothing to do with what happened on Jan. 6. Ive long found these sorts of proclamations baffling, because if one is honest about the history of the United States, it prominently features white violence, terrorism and revanchism, particularly toward Black people, Indigenous people and women, McDonald wrote.

This calls up Kings own words about Americas commitment to mythmaking. Its not just extremists and self-proclaimed white supremacists who engage in this practice, the civil rights leader said.

Negroes have proceeded from a premise that equality means what it says, and they have taken white Americans at their word when they talked of it as an objective, King wrote in his 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? White Americans, however, often think of equality as a loose expression for improvement, King wrote. When it comes to the gap between Black and white prosperity, white America seeks only to make it less painful and less obvious but in most respects to retain it.

Certainly, Biden often speaks in concrete terms about his expansive plans to invest in Black wealth generation, overhauling the criminal justice system and combating environmental racism. He and Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, have in fact been more willing than arguably any other presidential ticket in history to speak explicitly about their plans to address systemic inequality, from an economic and a social perspective.

But along the way, they will also have to confront Americas addiction to its oldest myths  and the ways that its newest technologies keep them alive and evolving.

In the days since Jan. 6, right-wing broadcasters and social media voices have begun to push a false narrative of what happened at the Capitol, blaming the riot on left-wing groups and Black Lives Matter activists. Of course, no evidence of this has emerged, and the intruders had zealously made clear their intentions to overturn the result of the presidential election.
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Tesla & other electric cars challenge the dominance of German luxury brands



China is the largest market for luxury cars in the world. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz sold the most number of luxury cars in the country followed by BMW. However, these brands are now facing a challenge from luxury electric carmakers such as Tesla.







Quote: Tesla, Nio Inc. and Li Auto Inc. emerged as forces to be reckoned with in China, where BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen AGs Audi have long controlled more than 60% of the luxury segment. The market was a source of growth for the Germans last year, though they still gave up some of their share to the electric upstarts.



The historically untouchable German brands have begun ceding market share to Tesla and other luxury EV specialists, Alexander Potter, a Piper Sandler & Co. analyst, wrote in a report. He predicts the trend will only get worse for BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Bottom line: whenever Tesla opens a store in a new city, the Germans lose share... and theres still lots of headroom for opening new stores.



BMW leads Mercedes-Benz when it comes to electric cars. The former sold almost 193,000 EVs in 2020 compared to the latter's 160,000. Audi lies a distant third with 47,000 units of the e-Tron SUV delivered.



To face the challenge posed by luxury electric carmakers, the German manufacturers have started offering electric cars of their own. The companies realise that they need to increase the number of electric models they have n their portfolio. By 2023, BMW plans to increase its number of electric offering to 25. Mercedes-Benz has 4 new battery-powered vehicles lined up for launched this year. The EQA will be the first of the new offerings.



Source - German marques have long ruled the luxury car market all over the world. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have been dominant players in almost all of the major markets. Worldwide, Mercedes-Benz has been the highest selling luxury car brand for 5 years on the trot.China is the largest market for luxury cars in the world. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz sold the most number of luxury cars in the country followed by BMW. However, these brands are now facing a challenge from luxury electric carmakers such as Tesla.Earlier this year, Tesla had reported that compared to 2019, its deliveries increased by 36% . This was despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.BMW leads Mercedes-Benz when it comes to electric cars. The former sold almost 193,000 EVs in 2020 compared to the latter's 160,000. Audi lies a distant third with 47,000 units of the e-Tron SUV delivered.To face the challenge posed by luxury electric carmakers, the German manufacturers have started offering electric cars of their own. The companies realise that they need to increase the number of electric models they have n their portfolio. By 2023, BMW plans to increase its number of electric offering to 25. Mercedes-Benz has 4 new battery-powered vehicles lined up for launched this year. The EQA will be the first of the new offerings.Source - Bloomberg
Tokyo, Jan 18 : The number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients with serious symptoms in Japan has topped 970, marking a record high since the onset of the pandemic in the country, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the number of patients recuperating at home reached 30,208 this week, Xinhua news agency quoted the Health Ministry as saying on Sunday.

The number of homebound patients as of January 13 was 1.7 times that of the previous week amid a third wave of the pandemic across the country.

On Sunday, 5,759 new Covid-19 cases and 49 deaths were reported across Japan, which increased the country's overall infection tally and fatalities to 330,683 and 4,304, respectively.

Tokyo confirmed an additional 1,592 infections with five new deaths, the metropolitan government said.

Currently, 19 prefectures have reached the bed occupancy situation at Stage 4, the worst level on the government's four-level scale, up eight from last week.

Tokyo has the highest number of homebound patients of 8,518, up over 3,000 compared to a week earlier.

The situation poses a challenging task to health authorities in terms of keeping a check on homebound patients in case a sudden deterioration in their conditions occurs, according to local media reports.
Gardai have seized more than 1 million in cash during searches of two premises in Dublin earlier today.

The money was discovered by officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), assisted by the Garda Dog Unit, in an operation targeting the suspected criminal activities of an organised crime group.

A garda spokesman said the two premises - in North Dublin and Dublin city centre - were searched in the course of the operation and a number of vehicles were seized.

He said: "In the course of a search of one vehicle, a concealment of cash was discovered. The vehicle and its content remain subject of examination. However, the amount seized is believed to exceed 1 million.



"Investigations are continuing."

Assistant Commissioner John ODriscoll, head of Organised and Serious Crime, has said: "We continue to target those causing most harm in our community.

"This seizure of a significant quantity of cash will, we believe, contribute to the disruption and potential ultimate dismantling of particular organised crime groups that we continue to target, building on earlier success achieved, in recent years.

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In another search operation undertaken over this weekend, GNDOCB seized cash to a value of 117,000 along with one vehicle and a Rolex watch. A man in his 30s was arrested and remains detained at Coolock Garda Station.

A garda spokesman said the seizure in Coolock came as a result of an investigation into suspected organised crime gangs operating in Dublin.

"On 16th January 2021, in the course of ongoing investigations targeting persons suspected to be involved in organised crime, the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) supported by the Garda Dog Unit conducted a search at an address in the Coolock area of Dublin.

"In the course of this search, cash to a value of 117,000 was located and seized, along with one vehicle and a Rolex watch.

"One male, aged 35 years, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in money laundering related offence, contrary to the provisions of section 7, Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010.

"He is currently detained under Section 4 of Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at Coolock Garda Station."
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Jennifer Lopez is known for her world-class figure.

And the multi-hyphenate was happy to show off her gym-honed body during her vacation to Turks And Caicos last week.

J. Lo, 51, looked white hot as she slipped into a skimpy ivory bikini that put her famous backside and chiseled abs front-and-center.

Sizzling: Jennifer Lopez looked white hot while donning a skimpy ivory bathing suit during a beach day in Turks And Caicos last week

Lots of leg: The star's skimpy suit was hiked high on her hips to offer up a generous look of her toned, tan legs and derriere

The star's skimpy suit was hiked high on her hips to offer up a generous look of her toned, tan legs and derriere. And the Hustlers actress made sure every angle of her body looked perfect, seen carefully adjusting her barely-there look.

But the sex appeal didn't stop there, as the Bronx-born beauty teased her cleavage in a tiny triangle top with ties on the shoulders.

She dressed her beach look up with a pair of white sunglasses, matching bangles and giant hoop earrings, but went low-key with her beauty look, opting for a makeup-free glow.

After soaking in the sun for a few hours, Jennifer was seen gathering a few essentials near the lounge chair where she'd set up for the day.

Still sexy: Amping up the sex appeal, the Bronx-born beauty teased her cleavage in a tiny triangle top with ties on the shoulders

Perfectionist: The Hustlers actress made sure every angle of her body looked perfect, seen carefully adjusting her barely-there look

Sipping pretty: The Maid In Manhattan star - a known-teetotaler - also carried one of her iconic bedazzled coffee cups, likely keeping hydrated with H20 instead of indulging in any Pina coladas

Skin is in: The star turned heads as she knelt down to grab her hat

There, she picked up a straw sun hat and snagged her iPhone, quickly scanning her screen to make sure she didn't miss any urgent messages.

The Maid In Manhattan star - a known-teetotaler - also carried one of her iconic bedazzled coffee cups, likely keeping hydrated with H20 instead of indulging in any Pina coladas.

Then, she tossed on a short crocheted frock and popped on her hat before taking a stroll with a friend. As she turned around and walked up the stairs, her dress revealed hints of her thong-clad behind.

Attention to detail: She dressed her beach look up with a pair of white sunglasses, matching bangles and giant hoop earrings, but went low-key with her beauty look, opting for a makeup-free glow

It's a wrap! She covered up with a pink towel before putting on a flirty cover-up

Covered up: She tossed on a short crochet dress and popped on her hat before taking a stroll with a friend

The snaps come after Jennifer defended herself against a troll accusing her of having 'tons of Botox.'

The two-time Grammy nominee, 51, urged the person in question to 'try spending your time being more positive' and said 'don't spend time trying to bring others down.'

The war of words came after J-Lo flaunted her smooth complexion on Instagram on Friday to promote skincare company JLo Beauty, which launched on January 1 after three years of development.

Paling around: Jennifer took a quick break from lounging to stroll with a pal

Back in action: Underneath Lopez's dress, a thong could be seen covering her world-renowned bum

Many commenters, including Instagram user @suekimstagram, promptly accused the 51-year-old pop diva of having 'tons of Botox.'

'LOL thats just my face! For the 500 millionth time, I have never done Botox or any injectables or surgery!' Jennifer - who boasts 258.9M social media followers - clapped back.

'Get you some JLO BEAUTY and feel beautiful in your own skin! And here is another JLO Beauty secret: try spending your time being more positive, kind and uplifting of others.

'Don't spend your time trying to bring others down that will keep you youthful and beautiful too! Sending you love. #beautyfromtheinsideout #beautyhasnoexpirationdate.'

Promotion: The two-time Grammy nominee was accused of having 'tons of Botox' after she flaunted her shiny, unwrinkled complexion on Friday to promote skincare company JLo Beauty, which launched January 1 after three years of development

'Brows and forehead don't move at all': Many commenters, including Instagram user @suekimstagram, promptly accused the 51-year-old pop diva of having 'tons of Botox'
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Godrej Fund Management (GFM), the real estate private equity arm of the Godrej Group, has announced the first close of its $500 million office development platform GBTC II in partnership with Netherlands-based APG Asset Management N.V. (APG), the cornerstone investor in the platform.

Under this programme, GFM will have the ability to develop Class-A office assets that will be valued in excess of $1.5 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) on completion and the total value of office assets including those from previous funds will take the portfolio value on completion to over $3 billion (Rs 22,000 crore). GFM has fully invested the previously raised capital under GBTC I and Godrej Office Fund I.

GBTC is a 'club-style' office investment strategy that invests in developing world class office buildings in prime locations across the leading office markets in India. The platform currently has a strong investment pipeline and aims to deploy the newly raised capital within 12 months.

This is the third India focused office venture and fifth overall, sponsored by GFM.

Karan Bolaria, Managing Director & CEO, Godrej Fund Management, said, "We are pleased to partner with APG on our second build to core platform. Our Group has strong conviction in India's premium office sector and we believe the current dislocation in markets provides attractive capital deployment opportunities. The addition of this platform brings significant scale to our overall strategy and will open up strategic avenues for value maximisation in the future." Graeme Torre, Managing Director, APG Asset Management Asia, said, "We are looking forward to another successful partnership with Godrej. The build-to-core strategy for Indian offices aligns very well with our broader investment aspirations for our pension fund clients and our desire to invest alongside partners who offer best-in-class execution capabilities."
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Management will Highlight Recent Corporate Milestones and Growth Metrics

CSE: VYGR

OTCQB: VYGVF

Borse Frankfurt: UCD2

NEW YORK, Jan 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Voyager Digital Ltd. ("Voyager" or the "Company") (CSE: VYGR) (OTCQB: VYGVF) (FRA: UCD2), a publicly-traded, licensed crypto-asset broker that provides investors with a turnkey solution to trade crypto assets, today announced that its CEO and Co-founder, Steve Ehrlich, will present and be available to meet with investors at the following upcoming investor conferences this week:

Date Presentation Time (EST) Registration Link





Noble Capital Markets Seventeenth Annual Small & Microcap Investor Conference





Jan. 20 3:00pm Register





SIngular Research Webinar





Jan. 21 12:00pm Register

"Voyager is experiencing significant growth in 2021 and we look forward to presenting on the exciting growth metrics achieved in 2021 to date, including our assets under management (AUM) crossing the USD$500 million threshold, exceeding USD$1billion of trading volume on our platform, with over half coming in January, and net daily deposits onto our platform exceeding USD$6million, per day in January 2021" said Steve Ehrlich, Co-founder and CEO of Voyager. "With daily trades in January 2021 exceeding 3x the December average we expect to exceed USD$5mm of revenue for the month of January, 2021. During 2021, Voyager intends to enter new markets and will bring new financial products to our user-friendly platform and our growing, loyal community. Voyager is becoming the agency broker of choice for digital assets."

In addition to the above events Voyager is scheduled to present at the following additional events:

Date Format Information Link





A.G.P. Virtual Emerging Growth Technology Conference





Feb. 4 1x1s Information





LD Micro " Zooming With LD" Roadshow





Mar. 3 TBD Information

If you are an investor and would like to attend the Company's presentation, please click on the above links to register for each individual conference.

For more information on Voyager Digital, please visit https://www.investvoyager.com . The Voyager app is available for Android and iPhone .

About Voyager Digital Ltd.

Voyager Digital Ltd. is a crypto-asset broker that provides retail and institutional investors with a turnkey solution to trade crypto assets. Voyager offers customers best execution and safe custody on a wide choice of popular crypto-assets. Voyager was founded by established Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who teamed to bring a better, more transparent, and cost-efficient alternative for trading crypto-assets to the marketplace. Please visit us at https://www.investvoyager.com for more information and to review the latest Corporate Presentation.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Certain information in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements regarding future growth and performance of the business, momentum in the businesses, future adoption of digital assets, and the Company's anticipated results may constitute forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements), which can be identified by the use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate," "intend," "continue" or "believe" (or the negatives) or other similar variations. Because of various risks and uncertainties, including those referenced below, actual events or results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are subject to the risk that the global economy, industry or the Company's businesses and investments do not perform as anticipated, that revenue or expenses estimates may not be met or may be materially less or more than those anticipated, that trading momentum does not continue or the demand for trading solutions declines, customer acquisition does not increase as planned, product and international expansion do not occur as planned and those other risks contained in the Company's public filings, including in its Management Discussion and Analysis and its Annual Information Form (AIF). Factors that could cause actual results of the Company and its businesses to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, a decline in the digital asset market or general economic conditions; the failure or delay in the adoption of digital assets and the blockchain ecosystem by institutions; a delay or failure in developing infrastructure for the trading businesses or achieving mandates and gaining traction; failure to grow assets under management, an adverse development with respect to an issuer or party to the transaction or failure to obtain a required regulatory approval. In connection with the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made assumptions that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business and that current trends in respect of digital assets continue. Forward-looking statements, past and present performance and trends are not guarantees of future performance, accordingly, you should not put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, past performance or current trends. Information identifying assumptions, risks and uncertainties relating to the Company are contained in its filings with the Canadian securities regulators available at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements in this press release are applicable only as of the date of this release or as of the date specified in the relevant forward-looking statement and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Readers are cautioned that past performance is not indicative of future performance and current trends in the business and demand for digital assets may not continue and readers should not put undue reliance on past performance and current trends. All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

SOURCE Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd.
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny said a hearing he faced at a police station on January 18 was a mockery of justice and called for street protests, as Western leaders demanded his release. Navalny was detained the previous evening at a Moscow airport after returning from Germany. He was being treated in Berlin after being nearly killed with a military-grade poison in an attack that an investigation showed was carried out by Russian security service officers.
We interrupt this tawdry news cycle for a hallelujah moment:

They have finally secured the funds needed to replace that swiveling, creaking disaster from the Taft Administration known as the Portal Bridge, the 110-year-old old rail link that is neither portal nor bridge when it gets stuck in the open position  which, as 200,000 daily riders on NJ Transit know, happens often enough to make their Manhattan commute a soul-crushing experience.

The swing-style contraption spanning the Hackensack River will be replaced with a fixed, high-level, $1.8 billion span, and NJ Transit will soon solicit bids for what should be a 5-year construction. It will convert a classic choke point into a modern link that will keep the Northeast Corridor  and the regional economy  humming faster than 1910 bridge technology had allowed.

This represents the first step in our generations magnum opus, the Gateway Project  which is really eight projects, the main feature being a new, two-track Hudson River tunnel.

But it isnt hyperbolic to suggest that once the shovels pierce the ground, it could mark the rebirth of a golden age of infrastructure, a long-delayed restoration of the American foundation, with the blessing of a rail-friendly president.

I think were at a turning point for multiple reasons, said Amtrak chairman Tony Coscia, whose agency will maintain the new Portal. First, turning points are often caused by breaking points  you get to where you have to fix something because its so broken that you cant look the other way anymore. Then theres a consensus about the value of infrastructure.

And then theres the view that the pandemic has created enough economic dislocation that investment is a powerful stimulus, as it has been since the days of FDR.

The mighty Regional Plan Association agrees that this Portal piece clears a path for more to come. When you clear the last hurdle on a project like Portal, and add optimism about a new federal agenda to a murderers row of great projects in our region lined up to bat, its fair to talk about the breaking of a logjam thats blocked progress for years.

Indeed, the realization of Portal is also a lesson in government, and why its important to elect competent people who keep the faith when they are forced to play the long game.

New Jerseys congressional delegation deserves much of the credit for keeping Gateway alive and refusing to yield to ceaseless obstruction from the Trump Administration.

In the darkest times, Sen. Bob Menendez pushed the project as ranking member of the Senate Transit Subcommittee, and with Sen. Cory Booker and new voices in the House  such as Reps. Tom Malinowski, Mikie Sherrill, and Josh Gottheimer  Gateway never stopped being the most important infrastructure project in the country.

Now its on to construction for the new Portal Bridge! We overcame much resistance to make this happen. A new Hudson River tunnel will be next, with the Congress and the President working in partnership. https://t.co/mmE5nNJX2U  Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) January 14, 2021

They worked collaboratively, built bipartisan support, and used leverage to overcome roadblocks and cull enough votes to ensure there was enough funding in the federal budget to keep the project alive.

Even with Gov. Murphy dropping $811 million on the table for the Portal piece, it was a herculean task because of the hostility from the White House.

But they had the requisite persistence. Now imagine what can be done with a cooperative executive branch.

Coscia allows himself to dream big: He envisions a more aggressive pursuit of an environmental impact study for the tunnel, a better rating from the federal funding program known as New Starts, and he anticipates the four stakeholders  New Jersey, New York, Amtrak and the Feds  to have honest dialogue about splitting costs.

And then, he said, theres no reason why we cant see a full-funding grant agreement over the course of 2021.

The country is facing a long-term restoration. It might as well start with the countrys most important project.

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Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.
B. G., Opalesque Geneva:

We revisit some of the original Corona Fighters - hedge funds and alternative asset managers who successfully protected assets and outperformed the markets in early 2020 - and see how they did at the end of the year.

The Canadian multi-strategy fund

The Auspice Diversified Fund added 6.73% to cap 2020 performance up 18.46%. Notably, the fund not only outperformed most global equity benchmarks, it did with negative correlation, -0.41% to the S&P500 which was up 18.00% - illustrative of both the protective and absolute return benefits.

"We anticipate the 2021 environment could be ideal for both of these elements as stock markets and volatility remain high," said the managers. "The outperformance to the benchmark BTOP50 CTA index closed over 13%."

The fund, which is Canada-based Auspice's flagship, is a multi-strategy liquid alternative strategy that invests in a broad spectrum of global financial and commodity markets. Using a disciplined rules-based investment process, and drawing from the Auspice eBeta Building Blocks, the strategy aims to capture dominant trends long and short, agnostic to market direction and popular consensus. It featured in Corona Fighters Report 2.

The Australian long/short equity fund

The ......................

To view our full article Click here
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Former head of the New York state Democratic party John Sullivan, 73, is among the snowbirds who have received the vaccine in Florida because of the different ways states have been prioritizing groups eligible to receive the shots first

A former head of the New York state Democratic party who worked for Gov Andrew Cuomo has had his COVID-19 vaccination in Florida because he likely wouldn't have received the shot by now in his native state.

John Sullivan, 73, is among the snowbirds who have received the vaccine in Florida because of the different ways states have been prioritizing groups eligible to receive the shots first.

Sullivan, who was co-chairman of the state Democratic party in the 1990s, received his first dose last week and is scheduled to receive his second shot on February 3.

'I got the vaccine down here. I probably wouldn't have gotten it by now in New York,' he told the New York Post.

He is still a legal New York resident but has been renting an apartment in St Petersburg, Florida since October.

In addition to working for Cuomo, Sullivan has also worked for two other Democratic governors: David Paterson and Eliot Spitzer.

Florida's Republican Gov, Ron DeSantis, has been prioritizing those aged over 65 since the vaccine rollout began across the state in mid-December. The Florida Department of Health has no residency requirement for people to receive the vaccine, which means anyone currently eligible can receive a shot.

Seniors were not eligible in the first phase of New York's vaccine rollout because the state was prioritizing healthcare workers.

Gov Cuomo only expanded New York's vaccine priority eligibility last week, meaning those over 65 can now be vaccinated in the state.

Florida's Republican Gov, Ron DeSantis, has been prioritizing those aged over 65 since the vaccine rollout began across the state in mid-December. Seniors have been lining up across Florida to receive their vaccines

Florida's Republican Gov, Ron DeSantis (left), has been prioritizing those aged over 65 since the vaccine rollout began across the state in mid-December. Seniors were not eligible in the first phase of New York's vaccine rollout because Gov Andrew Cuomo (right) was prioritizing healthcare workers

'I think Florida is a leader in the nation in vaccinating seniors,' Sullivan said.

'For as much as I disagree with Gov. DeSantis on other things, allowing senior citizens to get the vaccine right away was the right decision. He was right on. Who's dying out there? The people 65 and over.

'Cuomo's call to vaccinate seniors came a week later. You know how many people could have been inoculated in a week?

'Healthcare workers should be a priority to get the vaccine. But are they a priority over the most vulnerable senior population? Probably not.'

Even after expanding the eligibility, Cuomo has warned that eligible New Yorkers could be waiting weeks to receive their first shot because there isn't enough supply to keep up with demand.

Several mass vaccination sites set up by the state have already said all appointments are full through April.

Cuomo is blaming the supply problems on the federal government. He said the state's vaccine shipment in the coming week has been cut by 50,000 doses to 250,000.

The state says it has administered 772,399 of the 934,925 doses - or 83 percent - received from the federal government.

Currently there are 7 million New York residents eligible for inoculations.

'The problem all along has been a lack of allocation from Washington, and now that we've expanded the population of those eligible, the federal government continues to fail to meet the demand,' Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the state, said in a statement.

In Florida, there have been increased reports of tourists and day-trippers traveling to the state just to receive the vaccine.

There are also reports of wealthy New Yorkers flying down in order to cut the line and be vaccinated.

Gov DeSantis, however, has dismissed those reports saying they are just snowbirds returning to their second homes and that they could infect others if they aren't vaccinated.

'It's not like they're just vacationing for two weeks... They have relationships with doctors. They get medical care in Florida... So that's a little bit different than somebody that's just doing tourism,' DeSantis has said.

It has led to criticism from some who say the vaccine doses should be reserved only for permanent residents.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said last week that he wants to implement a 'Miami First' policy.

He has requested that the city takes all 'legal steps necessary' to give vaccines to elderly and vulnerable populations first and prevent non-residents from receiving the shots.

Florida's Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said last week he is against any residency requirements.

'You can't do that,' Moskowitz said.

'We got a dozen-plus fiscally constrained counties. People are going to have to cross county lines. We have transient populations here in the state. We can't do that sort of stuff. It will have major implications down the road.'
Beaver Dam, WI (53916)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low 37F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low 37F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
For more than a decade, Aleksei Navalny has been one of President Vladimir Putins most outspoken and influential critics in Russia, investigating high-level corruption, organizing protests, and traveling across the country to back opposition candidates in regional elections and nurture his network of political activists.

Navalnys arrest has failed to rouse the population as a whole."

Authorities have responded with a campaign of near-constant harassment, jailing the Kremlin critic almost a dozen times since 2011, repeatedly raiding the offices of his Anti-Corruption Foundation, and -- Navalny asserts -- staging an attempted assassination by means of poisoning that led to his extended convalescence in Germany since August.

When he announced he would return to Russia on January 17, authorities made clear their intention to jail the Kremlin critic. That evening, Navalny was detained at the airport after arrival and taken to a police station outside Moscow, where he appeared before an improvised courtroom and a state prosecutor asked the judge to jail him pending a separate hearing on whether he violated the terms of his earlier parole.

But striking footage from the previous evening continued to circulate online, showing riot police dispersing and detaining Navalny supporters as they awaited his expected arrival at Moscows Vnukovo airport, and cars being blocked from exiting the area once news emerged that his flight was being rerouted to another airport, Sheremetyevo.

[The Kremlin] fears the man with no name.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in the August poisoning --despite evidence from open-source investigations that it was carried out by the Federal Security Service (FSB) -- and has gone out of its way to downplay Navalny's significance as a politician, with Putin calling him the Berlin patient and the man in question to avoid even uttering his name. But the scenes sparked by Navalnys repatriation, analysts say, expose the very real challenge he presents for the Kremlin and the reasons why authorities have moved so fast to jail him.

The Kremlin has shown that for all its pretense of disinterest, it fears the man with no name, Russia expert Mark Galeotti wrote in a column.

Navalny has made a name for himself despite facing what is arguably the Russian states most powerful political weapon: a network of state-controlled TV channels that are well-funded, often take cues directly from the Kremlin, and have baselessly painted him as a Western agent. A September poll by the independent Levada Center found that a majority of Russians see his poisoning as a publicity stunt, with only 15 percent blaming the Kremlin, despite the evidence of its complicity.

Nevertheless, millions have watched his video investigations alleging corruption among associates of Putin, and thousands across the country have heeded his call to attend anti-government protests several times in recent years. But after his poisoning, few Russians took to the streets in protest. And restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic and an accelerating clampdown on dissent in Russia have contributed to a widespread sense, surveys show, that demonstrating against injustice is too often a futile activity.

Navalnys arrest has failed to rouse the population as a whole, wrote political analyst Vladislav Inozemtsev. Thats sad, but you cant ignore it.

On January 18, at Navalnys hearing outside Moscow, the judge overseeing proceedings inside the police station holding the opposition leader returned after more than 45 minutes to deliver her ruling. She ordered Navalny jailed for 30 days, long past an expected February 2 hearing regarding his alleged parole violation. Lawyers say the outcome of that process could be a 3 1/2 -year prison sentence, and Navalny could be hit with additional charges that carry a sentence of up to 10 years.

Before being led away, Navalny addressed Russians with a call for mass protests across the country on January 23 -- throwing down the gauntlet both to a Kremlin reluctant to acknowledge his influence and to a population that he hopes will brave the winter cold, and a likely police crackdown, to demand his freedom.

Dont be scared, Navalny said in a video posted from the makeshift courtroom, sitting against the backdrop of a folded Russian flag. Take to the streets.

Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
After Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope's statement earlier on the cancellation of Covid-19 vaccination drive till Monday, he has now said that the second session would be conducted on Tuesday, the Times of India reported. The MVA government has issued a clarification saying the exercise was not planned for Sunday and Monday, and "thus there was no question of a cancellation".

He added it was likely that all four sessions allowed in a week would be wrapped up in four straight days.

Tope had cited technical glitches in Co-WIN application for the cancellation. The mobile application has been created by the Centre for managing registration for the inoculation. The nationwide vaccine drive against coronavirus began on January 16 for three crore people on priority.

"No Covid vaccination sessions were planned on Sunday the 17th or Monday the 18th of January. So question of cancellation does not arise. Covid Vaccination sessions will be organized in the next week as per GOI (government of India) guidelines," the Maharashtra government had said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had in its earlier statement said that while implementing the Covid-19 vaccination drive, technical problems were noticed in the Co-WIN app.

"Efforts are being made by the central government to address the problem. A digital registration is mandatory when vaccinating the jabs. The government had allowed offline registration today due to a technical problem. However, the government has directed that all further entries be made through the app. In view of this, Covid-19 vaccination has been postponed for two days in Mumbai on Sunday (January 17) and Monday (January 18). Vaccination will resume as soon as the Co-WIN app resumes," the civic body had said.

Tope had told PTI that "not just in Maharashtra, everywhere in the country this app created problems in the execution of vaccination drive".

"We have decided to suspend the vaccination for the next two days. On January 8, when dry run was conducted, and again today I specifically pointed out problems with the Co-Win app and Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said he will look into it," the minister reportedly said.

On the first day of the drive, of 4,000 healthcare workers scheduled for vaccination at nine centres in the city, only 1,926 were administered the jab, BMC data showed. The highest 289 healthcare workers were given vaccines at Rajawadi hospital, followed by 266 at Bhabha hospital, and 262 at Cooper hospital which was also part of the nationwide live launch of the drive by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In her four decades long political career, Banerjee has witnessed many ups and downs. Born in the year 1955, in Kolkata, Mamata started participating in political activities at the young age of 15. She lost her father at a young age and belonged to a lower middle-class family. However, she did not let any of it come in the way of her education and earned a degree in law as well as education studies. Besides, Mamata also developed her oratory and is known for her fiery speeches. (Image: Reuters)

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on January 18 announced that she will contest the upcoming assembly polls from the Nandigram constituency, apart from her Bhawanipore seat.

The announcement assumes significance as the Nandigram seat was represented by Trinamool Congress rebel Suvendu Adhikari, who crossed over to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) last year.



I will contest from Nandigram Assembly. If possible I will contest from both Bhawanipur and Nandigram: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, in Nandigram#WestBengalElection2021 pic.twitter.com/y6F5bNTH9v

 ANI (@ANI) January 18, 2021

"I will contest from Nandigram assembly seat. If possible I will contest from both Bhawanipore and Nandigram," news agency ANI quoted Mamata Banerjee saying a public meeting in Nandigram.

While Mamata currently represents the Bhawanipore seat, Adhikari, won from Nandigram in East Midnapore district in 2016 as a Trinamool Congress candidate

Read | Why Suvendu Adhikari, who quit TMC and will likely join BJP, matters in West Bengal politics

I am an MLA from Bhawanipore. But, I will contest from Nandigram seat too? Banerjee said during a rally.

Mamata had campaigned for farmers' land in Nandigram which propelled her to power in the state in 2011 assembly polls. Her return to Nandigram is a direct challenge to Suvendu , who led an exodus of Trinamool leaders to the BJP .

Suvendu Adhikari had joined BJP during Amit Shah's Midnapore rally on December 19.

Also read | Mamata Banerjee sidelined other leaders to secure nephews future in politics: Suvendu Adhikari

The elections to the 294-member West Bengal member assembly is scheduled in April-May 2021.
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Mr. Simon Assum-Ahensah, the Headmaster of Rombless Academy Primary School in the Sunyani Municipality on Monday said the school has prioritised social distancing as an effective remedy to contain the spread of the COVID-19.



He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Kuotokrom, a community in the Municipality that the school was religiously complying with all health and safety protocols, including wearing of nose masks, as well as hand washing with soap under running by pupils and teachers.



We also check the body temperatures of teachers and pupils before they are allowed to enter the classrooms, he added.



Mr. Assum-Ahensah expressed appreciation to parents for the high school enrolment, and assured of the safety of their children while in the school environment.



He also praised parents for providing their children with nose masks and hand sanitizers to protect them from a possible contraction of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Mr. Assum-Ahensah said the number of kindergarten pupils registered for my first day at school was high and advised parents to visit the school regularly to know the academic performance of their children.



Mrs. Beatrice Fosuah, the Proprietress of the school, commended parents for preparing their children to resume school and assured them that all necessary measures had been put in place to prevent any outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in the school.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Lindsey Graham Urges Chuck Schumer to Dismiss Trump Impeachment

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is urging Senate Democrat Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to not proceed with an impeachment trial for President Donald Trump, arguing it would be a gratuitous effort that would further divide the country.

In a letter to Schumer, the South Carolina senator said the impeachment power should only be used to protect the nation from harm from an incumbent president and not to vindicate political grievances after a president has left office.

Trump is scheduled to leave office on Jan. 20 and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he has no plans to call Senate back to session early to begin an impeachment trial.

The Democrat-controlled House on Jan. 13 voted 232197 to impeach Trump on a single article of impeachment, alleging that the president incited an insurrection that caused the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6. The impeachment was completed in a single seven-hour session and has been criticized by Republicans for its expediency and lack of due process.

It cannot be that the Framers intended to empower Congress to disqualify any former officer it would like, whenever it would like, and with no investigation. And of course, they did not, Graham wrote. The two constitutional remedies for impeachment are available only when an official has been impeached by the constitutional impeachment process set forth in the Constitution.

The disqualification remedy is available for a constitutionally impeached official as an additional option to the Congress. It is not itself support for an unconstitutional impeachment, he added.

The two provisions of the U.S. Constitution Graham referred to include Article II, Section 4, which states: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

The second provision Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, states: Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.

Graham argues that a trial of a former president would not be a constitutional move by the Senate.

If a Senate trial is not constitutional, then the remedy is unavailable to of disqualification the Congress as a punishment for the unconstitutionally impeached president, he argued.

He said the Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate, adding that a failure to do so would delay indefinitely the heading of the United States.

Our obligation to the People we represent is clear. History will judge us harshly, as it should, if we do not rise to the occasion of this historic moment in our history, he wrote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to provide details on when Democrats plan to send the article of impeachment to the Senate.

Theyre now working on taking this to trial, and when theyyoull be the first to know when we announce that were going over there, Pelosi told reporters in Washington on Friday.

Schumer previously vowed in a statement after the impeachment vote that a trial for Trump will proceed and that the Senate will hold a vote to bar Trump from running for president again. He will soon take over as the upper houses majority leader after Democrats won both Georgia Senate runoffs this month.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  A memory care facility operated by Home of the Good Shepherd has seen dozens of COVID-19 cases among residents and staff since the beginning of the year, according to daily and weekly emails from the administrator of the property at 390 Church St. to residents' family members.

This stands in contrast to information Home of Good CEO Denise Cote provided to the Times Union last week when she said there were "zero" cases in Saratoga Springs at the Home of the Good Shepherd.

Sandra Redding, the administrator for the memory care unit, wrote in a Jan. 9 email to families informing them that 28 out of the 42 residents, or two thirds, at the home had tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the year. She also noted that 12 staff members had tested positive.

The staff that remain working are being wonderful, Redding wrote to patients' family members on Jan. 9.They are caring superbly for all residents to get them better. They continue to keep positive attitudes and try to bring a little joy to everyone.

When asked about the discrepancy between information told to the Times Union and Redding's email, Cote explained Friday that Good Shepherd runs two facilities in Saratoga Springs at its Church Street campus, one for assisted living at 400 Church St. and the memory care residence at 390 Church St. She said she was speaking about the assisted living facility when she said on Jan. 11 that there were no positive COVID-19 cases among residents.

She also said that on Tuesday eight residents at the assisted living facility tested positive for COVID-19 after a staff member had tested positive on Jan. 6. That was the first known case at the 400 Church St. assisted living property, which houses 96 residents, she said.

Redding's email also referred to four deaths at the memory care unit, but Cote said she doesn't know if they are COVID-related. In addition to the deaths, in a Jan. 14 email Redding reported that 11 memory residents were in the hospital and that some staff were returning to work after testing negative.

Redding also explained, in a separate email, that those who could get the vaccine received their first dose on Jan. 8. A second dose will be administered on Jan. 29. Those who were unable to get the first dose of the vaccine will be able to get it on Jan. 27.

I know this is extremely difficult, but please try to stay positive with me, and let's all keep hoping this passes soon, Redding wrote to families on Thursday.

Cote said the Home of the Good Shepherd has been doing a good job of keeping COVID at bay and that the Home of the Good Shepherd is "the best."

"At Home of the Good Shepherd, protecting our most vulnerable elders and the staff who care for them is our No. 1 priority," she said. "We continue to follow the very stringent infection control and safety measures and are testing all staff weekly as required by the state Department of Health."

Gary Slavin, whose interest in good stories was spurred into creation by the stories of his Uncle who was in the CIA, has completed his new book Four Pebbles on a Bench": a riveting tale where George Price is a retired detective who lives in a quiet, wealthy Long Island community, where the residents jog around the community park to stay in shape. Georges instincts are piqued one morning when a beautiful dark-haired woman quickly gets out of her brand-new black Range Rover, picks up four pebbles, places them on the bench in front of her car, and then quickly walks away.

Slavin writes, "(I) went to work in the insurance and investment industry where (I) helped (my) clients by protecting them and their family from lifes what ifs. (I) guided them through and successfully turned their goals into reality. After thirty years of growing (my) insurance and investment practice into a very successful business, (I) took a break from (my) work to write (my) first book. The inspiration for (my) book was the drug drop (I) witnessed as (I) jogged around a local park. (My) characters are defined by the twists and turns of (my) own life and the stories (I have) heard from (my)clients on what made them a success.

Published by Page Publishing, Gary Slavin's gripping work delves into how as the woman George Price spots in the park leaves, she is arrested by police for a hit-and-run. According to police, she was high on drugs and hit a child on a bike.

Georges detective talents are sent into overdrive when the local news station reported that an older woman died of a drug overdose. As the picture flashed on the TV screen, George recognized her from the community park. Every morning, she jogged like he did around the park; it didnt make sense that she would take her own life. Thats when he reached out to a fellow retired detective, Neil Vincent, to get to the bottom of this. In trying to figure out who really killed the woman, Neil and George uncover a drug ring, a drug cartel, the MS-13, and the involvement of the Chinese state secret police and a corrupt FBI agent.

Readers who wish to experience this thrilling book can purchase Four Pebbles on a Bench" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Lysander, N.Y.  The man called 911 on Monday morning with a confession and a threat.

He claimed hed just killed his dad inside his familys Radisson home. And he told dispatchers his mom was next.

Responders seemed suspicious from the start: The caller claimed he was at a home on Oak Brook Road in Lysanders Radisson community. But the call had been made from a blocked, out-of-area number, a dispatcher said in police scanner dispatches.

This might be a swatting call, a dispatcher said.

The Onondaga County Sheriffs Office soon discovered her hunch was right.

Deputies determined it was a swatting call  a serious prank aimed at drawing a large force of heavily armed officers to the home of the pranksters chosen victim, said Sgt. Jon Seeber, sheriffs office spokesman.

READ MORE: CNY swatting call: Man told police he shot mom, planned to kill kids. It was all a hoax

The sheriffs office responded to the Oak Brook Road home at 9:12 a.m. After speaking to the homeowner on the phone and in person, deputies confirmed the man was OK and the call was a hoax, Seeber said.

The swatting prank remains under investigation.

The hoax in Radisson ended peacefully. But in some cases, swatting calls have had tragic consequences.

A California man called in a fake hostage threat to police in Kansas in 2017. The caller claimed he was holding people hostage at gunpoint inside a Wichita home. When the man targeted by the swatter answered his door, he was shot to death by the police who had surrounded his home, according to The Washington Post.

Swatting pranksters are typically trying to frighten and harass their targeted victims, Seeber said.

The hoax in Lysander marked the second swatting call in Central New York in the past month.

A man called Utica police on Dec. 29 and confessed hed shot his mother and planned to kill his three kid sisters. He also claimed he had a pipe bomb.

The New York State Police responded to the Herkimer County address given by the caller, bringing a bomb squad, a SWAT team and crisis negotiators. The homeowner  a 77-year-old woman  confirmed she lived alone and was in good health.

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.
Early in the pandemic, many health experts  in the U.S. and around the world  decided that the public could not be trusted to hear the truth about masks. Instead, the experts spread a misleading message, discouraging the use of masks.

Their motivation was mostly good. It sprung from a concern that people would rush to buy high-grade medical masks, leaving too few for doctors and nurses. The experts were also unsure how much ordinary masks would help.

But the message was still a mistake.

It confused people. (If masks werent effective, why did doctors and nurses need them?) It delayed the widespread use of masks (even though there was good reason to believe they could help). And it damaged the credibility of public health experts.

When people feel as though they may not be getting the full truth from the authorities, snake-oil sellers and price gougers have an easier time, the sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote early last year.
BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain



and Bihar minister Mukesh Sahani on Monday filed their nomination papers for by-elections to two seats of the state legislative council.

Hussain, one of the party's spokespersons, and Sahani, who heads NDA constituent Vikassheel Insaan Party, were accompanied by a host of leaders of the ruling coalition including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy CMs Tarkishor Prasad and Renu Devi, and state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal.

Polling is scheduled for January 28 though with no other candidate in the fray, the duo is likely to be declared elected unopposed on January 21, which is the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers.

While Hussain has filed nomination for the seat vacated by former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, now a Rajya Sabha member, Sahani is seeking election from the berth vacated by former minister Binod Narayan Jha, who has been elected to the assembly.

When asked by journalists about the probability of his induction in the state cabinet headed by Nitish Kumar, Hussain quipped, "I have to work with him in any case. He is heading the NDA team in Bihar. I have worked with him in the past. I was Union Minister of State for Food Processing and the department was later merged with agriculture which he was handling back then."



Kumar, who stood beside Hussain during the interaction with the media, laughed heartily.

Hussain also said "it is wrong to say that I have returned to state politics. There is no question of returning since I never left Bihar. Even when I had ceased to be an MP, I stayed very much here".

Hussain had made his electoral debut in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls when, at a young age of 31, he caught attention by virtue of wresting Kishanganj seat from RJD's Mohd



Taslimuddin enjoyed tremendous popularity in the area and was known for using strong-arm tactics in politics.

The feat earned Hussain a berth in the Union council of ministers though he lost the seat to Talimuddin in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls which also saw the BJP-led NDA lose power at the Centre.

Two years later, he was back as the MP from Bhagalpur which was vacated by Sushil Kumar Modi who became the Deputy CM in 2005. Hussain retained Bhagalpur in 2009 but lost it five years later and the seat went to the JD(U) in the subsequent general election.

Modi, whom Hussain had succeeded as the Bhagalpur MP and will likely do so again in the legislative council, said about the development "I welcome Syed Shahnawaz Hussain's entry into the state legislature. His greater involvement here will strengthen the party, especially in the Seemanchal region".

Seemanchal comprises densely-populated, Muslim- dominated districts like Kishanganj, Araria and Katihar in the state's north-east. The BJP has sought to make serious inroads in the area with emphasis on issues like illegal immigration from Bangladesh.

The area lies in the vicinity of West Bengal where the BJP has high stakes in the assembly polls in a few months.

Politics in Seemanchal has of late got highly polarised with Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM making an entry and winning five seats in the assembly polls held recently.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A LITTLE bit of history was made in Limerick this morning as a meeting of the local authority was held virtually.

Following the return to Level 5 restrictions in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19, metropolitan council members today dialled into the meeting from their computers at home, instead of going to County Hall in Dooradoyle.

Twenty of the 21 elected representatives for the district were present, and district leader Cllr Sarah Kiely, who chaired the meeting, thanked those who took part.

Im very pleased with how it went, and Id like to thank my fellow councillors who were very co-operative and did row in with any direction given by the executive and me as Cathaoirleach. We had two choices  we could have deferred the meeting and hope the February meeting took place in person, but we need to show leadership. I felt as metropolitan leader, it was the right thing to do, she added.

Today we make history, The Metropolitan District of Limerick City will hold its meeting virtually for the first time... Posted by Sarah Kiely on Monday, 18 January 2021

Although some strategic policy committee meetings have moved to take place virtually, this was the first time a full-scale metropolitan district meeting had taken place in this manner.

Snap!! @sarahleekiely did a great job on what was a historic first virtual metro meeting! pic.twitter.com/AxqCGQbbjf  Cllr Elisa O'Donovan (@elisaodonovan) January 18, 2021

Next Monday, its anticipated the full council meeting would follow this format.

Up to now, metropolitan meetings had taken place at County Hall, rather than City Hall in a bid to allow for social distancing. And full 40-member meetings had taken place at the Limerick Racecourse, rather than in Dooradoyle for the same reasons.

The holding of the virtual meeting was allowed after Local Government Minister Darragh OBrien allowed permission for this in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In what must be a world first, Finding Alice (ITV) premieres in the same week as a programme called Losing Alice on Apple TV+. What a wind-up. Nobody likes to feel unoriginal. You spend all that time picking the perfectly original name for your child  possibly not Alice  then turn up at nursery to discover another parent has had the same idea.

Except it wasnt an original title in the first place. IMDb tells us there was a bad 2018 indie of the same name. Before that there was Still Alice, A Town Called Alice, Alice in Wonderland etc etc.

Anyway, ITVs six-part drama reunites Keeley Hawes with the writer Simon Nye after their collaboration on The Durrells, a series that has somehow run for four series. Hawes plays Alice Dillon, whose life disintegrates after the shock death of her husband, Harry (Jason Merrells). With their teenage daughter, Charlotte (Isabella Pappas), theyve just moved into their new home, designed by him, a Grand Designs nightmare of concrete and gadgets where nobody can find the fridge or work out how to flush the loo.

Alice is brushing her teeth, Harry goes downstairs and woomph, dead. Perhaps they should have had bannisters on the stairs. By all appearances, he was a solid guy  rich, respected, creative  but over the next six hours well learn he wasnt all he seemed. His death causes a pile-up of debts, mystery colleagues and family secrets, one after the other.

On the basis of this first episode, its difficult to know what to make of Finding Alice, because it doesnt seem to know what to make of itself. Although its billed as a drama and follows many of the conventions of the bereavement form  alcohol, sad string music, suspicious policemen  there are so many gags that it verges on not just comedy but farce. The running joke about the non-functioning smart house grows old after 30 seconds but comes up again and again regardless, as if trying to tunnel through to the other side.

Alice seems distraught about the death of her husband one minute, but then has to contend with near-pantomime moments the next. Her parents Roger and Sarah, played by Nigel Havers and Joanna Lumley, arrive out of the blue, blue-bloods in contrast to Harrys parents, Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham). A mix-up in the morgue leads Alice to inspect the wrong body but introduces her to a kind assistant, Nathan (Rhashan Stone).

This script stretches even Hawess versatility. Shes required to quick-switch between distressed, wry, exasperated, shocked, warm, baffled and angry. Pappas has an easier time of it, as Charlottes role is a more straightforward voice of reason amid the cascading revelations. The senior roles are mostly one-note, and dont give the actors much chance, charming as it always is to see Lumley.

It seems likely that Alice will eventually find herself, or something like it, although who knows: maybe her name isnt Alice. Less clear is whether Finding Alice will find itself.
The Daily Beast

REUTERSThe last time an America First MAGA rally was held in Georgia, Republicans lost two U.S. Senate seats, and America lost what might end up being around $6 trillion. The Matt Gaetz-Marjorie Taylor-Greene show on Thursday night probably wont cost us as much. Just some time with our familyand our dignity.The event opened with Rep. Jody Hice, who is running a primary against Republican Brad Rafensperger for Georgia Secretary of State. The crowd changed Lock Him Up, which was directed at Raffensperger, whose decision to follow the rule of law (though hes wobbling now while running for reelection) obviously put him on the wrong side of the mob. With a warm up act like that, theres no need for an announcer to say, Lets get ready to rumble! The sentiment is implicit.Gaetz hit the stage first, throwing out a bunch of populist, demagogic rhetoric (forever wars, socialism, rebuild America, worlds policeman, deep state) and pandering (gun control just means we have a steady aim!). He took shots at the Bushes and the McCains and the Romneys and James Comey and Anthony Faucci. He observed that Paul Ryan was giving a speech in California, and added that after Ryan ran for vice president, the party literally needed an autopsy. The upshot? This is Donald Trumps party and Im a Donald Trump Republican, Gaetz declared. One thing he didnt talk about was his wingman Joel Greenbergs guilty pleas for crime including paying a 17-year-old to have sex with both of them (which Gaetz has previously denied).The Sickening History of Marjorie Taylor Greenes HometownNot to be upstaged, Greene entered the room in a humvee, before making her way on stage, grinning from ear to ear. But her smile belied the populist anger apparently bubbling up inside her. She called out the Democrats who tear down monuments. You better bet were gonna protect Stone Mountains monument, she said of Americas largest monument to the Confederacy. She feigned the Mexican accent of a supposed cartel leader talking about how much he loved Joe Biden, who she said wants a woke military. She also called the Squad the Jihad Squad and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, OCrazyo-Cortez. Really classy stuff. You see, shes not a politician. Shes just like you. If youre a jerk like that, at least.So why is this happening? First, of course, for attention. Im writing about this, and so are lots of others and, for this crew and especially Greene whos already been booted from her House committees so has nothing left, but PR like this is its own reward. Indeed, Gaetz referred to Thursdays rally as the greatest political show on earth.Even during the good old days, conservative politics was probably half Bill Buckley and half P.T. Barnum. We were business up front and party in the back (okay, maybe we didnt party quite as hardy as Gaetzwho my Beast colleagues report snorted coke with a model with a no-show government job at a GOP Trump Defender gala in Orlandoand Greene, but you get the point). Today, the entertainment wing has almost completely supplanted the governing wing.As Gaetz told Vanity Fair a while back, If you arent making news, you arent governing. And Gaetz is ok right now with any news that isnt about allegations involving sex trafficking a minor. Hes flooding the zone (also with headlines about how hes flirting with a 2024 presidential bid if Trump doesnt run) which is a great PR strategy, assuming, you know, he doesnt get indicted.There are other reasons, including the theory that, in todays world, hunkering down and laying low is seen as either a tacit admission of guiltor proof you take the whole thing seriously. Im not sure which one would be more detrimental to Gaetzs brand, but hes avoiding both like the plague.Youve heard of the big lie, well this is the big tour. Gaetzs frantic activity is either a sign of innocence or shamelessness. My moneys on the latter, but who knows? And thats the point. He may also reason that the fact that hes on stage with a prominent female may also, psychologically, lend some cover.Speaking of Greene, she has been embroiled in something of her own scandal, having compared the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to Jews being forced to wear golden stars in Nazi, Germany. Once upon a time, these sort of Holocaust comparisons would have spelled the end of a political career, but in todays Republican Party, its a feature, not a bug. Greene, having embraced other crazy theories, was able to haul in over $3 million during the first quarter of the year, after all. Sure, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned it in a tweet, but that is probably as severe as the punishment gets. Greene doesnt need to hit the hustings to change the subject from her scandal, shes doing it for the fun of it. To revel in it.Im a Rational Jewish Person. Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Nuts.Thats not to say there isnt some danger to this. Gaetz and Greene might not intend this and Trump may not realize it but this is the first salvo of what could be a threat to his death grip on the party. Thats because this tour is evidence that anyoneeven two lowly House memberscan co-opt Trumps message, steal his delivery mechanism, and take their show on the road. (Sure, they have played some home games in Florida and Georgia, but they also took their horse and pony show to Arizonaand dont forget Gaetzs trip to troll Liz Cheney in Wyoming).Now, this crowd was minusculeeven compared to the sparsely attended rally Trump held a year ago in Oklahoma. Still, the event encroaches on an innovation that Trump had essentially monopolized for the last five or so years. Trump didnt invent the idea of holding rallies, of course, but he took them to a new level. They werent just for campaigns, they were for governing. Moreover, you didnt need an invitation to speak; you could just throw your own event.Not everyone can pack a stadium, of course, but thats the beauty of teaming up. Gaetz and Greene might not be the Rolling Stones packing stadiums, but maybe they are Styx and Collective Soul doing an arena joint tour.What Im saying is that, over time, Trump is in danger of having what happened to Sarah Palin happen to him. At one point, Palin was the only game in town. She was the hot commodity. But once she left her position as governor of Alaska, she became irrelevant. It took a couple of years, but a generation of younger, more relevant, imitators supplanted her. Now, Trump is a better marketer than Palin and he was, after all, the president. Still, you can see why he has to at least feign a 2024 runand why he has already announced he will be doing more of his own rallies.Gaetz and Greene clearly arent there yet, as the livestream I was watching actually cut off just before the duo came back out to perform a sort of curtain call. The livestream instead switched to something called (Im not making this up), The Right View With Lara Trump.In a more healthy Republican Party, Gaetz would be drummed out of power because of his indiscretions, and Greene would never get within a mile of Capitol Hill. Trump helped create the circumstances where they would flourish. Even if he is ultimately replaced, he has succeeded in creating a generation of Republicans who share his penchant for self-promotion, his preference for populist politics, and, well, his family values.The Matt Gaetz-Marjorie Taylor Greene event was one-third tent revival, one-third rock concert, and one-third circusand it was all a freak show. This is all to say it was a rollicking success in todays Republican Party. Expect other MAGA-types to start replicating this idea. The devil(s) went down to Georgia.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Photos of a giant bladder stone that a young woman recently had surgically removed have doing the rounds on Vietnamese social media.

Several Vietnamese media outlets have been reporting on the case of a 34-year-old woman who showed up at the emergency room of Phu Binh General Hospital, in Thay Nguyen, complaining of severe pain in her abdomen. After running some tests, a CT scan revealed that the woman had a massive, round mass in her abdomen. She was scheduled for emergency surgery, and a stone over 10-cm-long and weighing 400 grams was extracted from her bladder.

The news reports dont offer too much information about this case, but photos include a CT scan, as well as a medical nurse posing with the giant stone. It was obviously quite a rare sight at the hospital

According to a 2014 case report in the Turkish Journal of Urology, giant vesical calculi weighing more than 100 gm are rare, with fewer than 85 cases reported in English over the years involving a stone over 100 grams. If confirmed, this 400-gram- stone definitely qualifies as a medical oddity.

This is far from the largest bladder stone ever recorded. Back in 2016, Chinese doctors reported the case of a 54-year-old man who had a massive 1,048-gram pelvic stone in his bladder. And that was only the largest bladder stone ever recorded in China.

Photos of the 34-year-old womans 400-gram bladder stone went viral in Vietnam over the last couple of days, with most users expressing their disbelief about the womans threshold for pain.

I only had a little sand , but I was in excruciating pain. How was this person able to endure the pain caused by this thing? one person asked. Others wondered how she didnt feel any pain before the stone got this large.

The reason why some peoples bodies tend to produce this type of unusual mineral deposits is yet unknown.
Grass Valley is currently embarked upon a business transformation which includes a number of key steps in three core areas: creating centres of excellence, optimising manufacturing efficiency and rationalising real estate. The new initiative follows a review of the business, which identified growing demand for cloud and software-based technology among its customers.

Our industry is changing, and digital transformation is upon us. At Grass Valley, weve listened to our customers and believe we must reimagine our business to remain their partner of choice as they navigate the dynamic marketplace and meet their evolving needs," explained Grass Valley CEO and president of Tim Shoulders. "To be the industry-leading, cloud-first solutions provider, we have created a bold plan that enables us to continue supporting our customers wherever they are based and whatever products and services they rely on.

As part of the plan, the company will open a new Grass Valley Center of Excellence in Krakow and expand its existing team in Kuala Lumpur, to operate alongside its existing Center of Excellence in Montreal.

To optimise manufacturing efficiency, Grass Valley will consolidate hardware manufacturing capabilities across its product portfolio. The company says that it will also improve business efficiency by streamlining and reducing the overall number of facilities it operates, keeping customer-facing resources close to where its customers work and live, and enabling its teams to work remotely. The transformation of labour and real estate has begun and is expected to be complete by the end of 2022.

A billionaire stakeholder and Scotland's richest man has won the right to make a legal challenge against a spaceport near his Highland estates after he spent 1.4m on a rival space project on the Shetland Islands.

Lawyers for billionaire retail tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen have been granted a court hearing in a bid to overturn a decision to grant planning approval for the Sutherland Space Hub.

The businessman objected to the development on environmental grounds and later announced he had invested more than 1.4 million in a rival spaceport on Shetland.

The 48-year-old owns more than 200,000 acres of land in the Highlands.

Scotland's richest man, Anders Holch Povlsen, pictured with his wife Anne, has won the chance to appeal plans for a spaceport in the Scottish Highlands, where he owns more than 200,000 acres of land

Mr Povlsen's company Wildland Limited lodged a petition for judicial review against Highland Council's decision to give the spaceport the go-ahead

Approval was initially granted in June last year for Space Hub Sutherland, which is set to cost around 17.9m.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) hoped to build the satellite launch site on peatland on the Moine Peninsula near Tongue in the Scottish Highlands.

In 2019 Mr Povlsen's children Alfred, five, Agnes, 12, and Alma, 15, were killed in a terror attack in Sri Lanka that left 253 people dead. Their youngest daughter, Astrid, survived the attack.

Together with his wife Anne Holch Povlsen, the billionaire took out adverts in two regional newspapers to show their 'deepest appreciation' to those who expressed condolences after their two children.

The billionaire's objections to the Highlands space project are now set to be heard, after the Court of Session in Edinburgh has now ruled a review of the decision can proceed and a one-day hearing has been set for April 1.

Approval was initially granted in June last year for Space Hub Sutherland, which is set to cost around 17.9m. Once operating, developers hope it will conduct the UK's first vertical, orbital rocket launch in the early 2020s - but more than 400 people have objected to the site

Orbex, the UK-based space launch company,was set to fly out of the space hub. But the site's future hangs in the balance, with a review set to take place on April 1

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) project at A'Mhoine, near Tongue in Sutherland, is expected to create more than 200 jobs as satellites are launched from the station.

Highland Council received 457 objections and 118 representations in support of HIE's planning application for Britain's first vertical launch spaceport.

The impact on the environment, including the Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Special Protection Area, and risk to human health were among the reasons for objections.

How a fly-fishing trip ended with 200,000 acres of Scottish land Anders Povlsen fell in love with Scotland during a fly-fishing trip to the Highlands in the 1980s. Growing up to become a billionaire retail tycoon, the Dane has amassed thousands of acres land across the country, spanning across 11 estates. Mr Povlsen has amassed more than 200,000 acres of land across Scotland He began building the portolio in the autumn of 2006, with the 7.9 million acquisition of Glenfeshie, a 42,000-acre patch of the Cairngorms National Park. Two years later, he spent another 15.5 million acquiring the 23,000-acre Braeroy estate near Fort William, nearby Tulloch, and Lynaberack in the Cairngorms. Four estates were added between 2011 and 2015, and another three in 2016. As of 2018 his landholdings covered an area half the size of Worcestershire. Advertisement

The local authority approved the plans in June and referred their decision to the Scottish government for scrutiny.

In August, Scottish ministers said the plans did not require a decision at national level and should be dealt with by Highland Council.

Wildland's judicial review petition passed the permission stage which means the court ruled the company had demonstrated a 'sufficient interest' in the subject of the application and the challenge has 'a real prospect of success'.

The firm said they had concerns over the spaceport's impact on 'environmentally vulnerable protected areas'.

They described the decision to grant approval as 'flawed' and said the council 'did not have access to sufficiently detailed or rigorous impact assessments on key aspects of the proposal to approve the application in the way it did.'

In November it was revealed that Wildland's sister company Wild Ventures Limited has secured a 'a significant minority investment' of 1.43 million in the Shetland site on the island of Unst.

The firm said they looked at all the prospective Scottish spaceport sites and they believe that the Shetland location combined with its business model affords the best chance for sustainable success for Scotland and the UK.

Danish businessman Mr Povlsen is Scotland's largest private landowner.

The 48-year-old, who runs clothing empire Bestseller and has a stake in the fashion retailer Asos, is worth an estimated 4.73billion.

He first visited the Highlands on an angling holiday with his parents in the 1980s and have since bought up huge swathes of the Scottish countryside.

A spokesman for Wildland Limited said: 'Wildland welcomes the Court's decision to give permission to proceed with the review of the Highland Council's grant of planning permission in the months ahead.'

A Highland Council spokeswoman said: 'We are unable to provide any comment during the judicial review process.'
WASHINGTON: Members of President Donald Trumps failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the presidents grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the Save America Rally on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trumps 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be on site during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

The riot at the Capitol, incited by Trumps comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. The president told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

A week after the rally, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice. But the political and legal fallout may stretch well beyond Trump, who will exit the White House on Wednesday before Democrat Joe Biden takes the oath of office. Trump had refused for nearly two months to accept his loss in the 2020 election to the former vice president.

Women for America First, which applied for and received the Park Service permit, did not not respond to messages seeking comment about how the event was financed and about the Trump campaigns involvement. The rally drew tens of thousands of people.

In a statement, the presidents reelection campaign said it did not organize, operate or finance the event. No campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally, according to the statement. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.

At least one was working for the Trump campaign this month. Megan Powers was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event, and her LinkedIn profile says she was the Trump campaigns director of operations into January 2021. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The APs review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles and removed tweets that referenced the rally. Two blocked a reporter who asked questions.

Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is named as a VIP Advisor on an attachment to the permit that Women for America First provided to the agency. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. During the campaign, she was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the presidents reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to organize credentials for VIP attendees, according to Kimberly Fletcher, the president of one of those groups, Moms for America.

Wren retweeted messages about the event ahead of time, but a cache of her account on Google shows at least eight of those tweets disappeared from her timeline. She apparently removed some herself, and others were sent from accounts that Twitter suspended.

One of the messages Wren retweeted was from Stop the Steal, another group identified as a rally participant on a website promoting the event. The Jan. 2 message thanked Republican senators who said they would vote to overturn Bidens election victory, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas. She also retweeted a Jan. 1 message from the president promoting the event, as well as promotional messages from one of the presidents son, Eric Trump, and Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist and a spokesperson for Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Wren did not return messages seeking comment, and locked her Twitter account after the AP reached out to her last Monday to ask her about her involvement in the Trump rally and the tweets she had removed. Several days later, she blocked the AP reporter.

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the VIP Lead. She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trumps reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on November 13.

Maggie Mulvaney had taken down her Twitter account as of last Monday, although it reappeared after the AP asked her about the accounts removal.

Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on Jan. 6, including one from the president that urged support for the Capitol Police. Trumps Twitter account has been suspended, but the message could be seen in a cache of her Twitter account captured by Google. She also retweeted a message from her uncle, urging Trump to address the nation.

Maggie Mulvaney did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The insurrection at the Capitol prompted Mick Mulvaney to quit his position as Trumps special envoy to Northern Ireland. He told CNBC a day after the assault that remaining in the post would prompt people to say Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government.

The leaders of Women for America First arent new to politics.

Amy Kremer, listed as the groups president on records filed with Virginias state corporation commission, is one of the founding mothers of the modern day tea party movement, according to her website. Her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is the organizations treasurer, according to the records.

The IRS granted Women for America First tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization a year ago, with the exemption retroactive to February 2019. The AP requested that the group provide any tax records it may have filed since then, but received no response.

In a statement issued the same day rioters attacked the Capitol, Amy Kremer denounced the assault and said it was instigated after the rally by a handful of bad actors, while seeming to blame Democrats and news organizations for the riot.

Unfortunately, for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool, she said. They were wrong. It is not.

The AP Press reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 unrest or who, going maskless during the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee.

The review found the crowd was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, off-duty police, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals.

Videos posted on social media in the days following the Capitol attack shows that thousands of people stormed the Capitol. A Capitol Police officer died after he was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher as rioters descended on the building and many other officers were injured. A woman from California was shot to death by Capitol Police and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos.

Trumps incendiary remarks at the Jan. 6 rally culminated a two-day series of events in Washington, organized by a coalition of the presidents supporters who echoed his baseless accusations that the election had been stolen from him. A website, MarchtoSaveAmerica.com, sprung up to promote the pro-Trump events and alerted followers, At 1 PM, we protest at US Capitol. The website has been deactivated.

Another website, TrumpMarch.com shows a fist-raised Trump pictured on the front of a red, white and blue tour bus emblazoned with the words, Powered by Women for America First. The logo for the bedding company My Pillow is also prominent. Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow, is an ardent Trump supporter whos falsely claimed Trump didnt lose the election to Biden and will serve another four-year term as president.

To demand transparency & protect election integrity, the web page reads. Details of the DC PROTEST will be coming soon, it adds, and also lists a series of bus stops between Dec. 27 and Jan. 6 where Trump backers can Join the caravan or show your support.

Kimberly Fletcher, the Moms for America president, said she wasnt aware the Trump campaign had a role in the rally at the Ellipse until around New Years Day. While she didnt work directly with the campaign, Fletcher did notice a shift in who was involved in the rally and who would be speaking.

When I got there and I saw the size of the stage and everything, Im like, Wow, we couldnt possibly have afforded that, she said. It was a big stage. It was a very professional stage. I dont know who was in the background or who put it together or anything.

In addition to the large stage. the rally on the Ellipse featured a sophisticated sound system and at least three Jumbotron-style screens projecting the presidents image to the crowd. Videos posted online show Trump and his family in a nearby private tent watching the rally on several monitors as music blared in the background.

Moms for America held a more modest Save the Republic rally on Jan. 5 near the U.S. Capitol, an event that drew about 500 people and cost between $13,000 to $14,000, according to Fletcher.

Justin Caporale is listed on the Women for America First paperwork as the events project manager. Hes identified as a partner with Event Strategies Inc., a management and production company. Caporale, formerly a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, was on the Trump campaign payroll for most of 2020, according to the FEC records, and he most recently was being paid $7,500 every two weeks. Caporale didnt respond to requests for comment.

Tim Unes, the founder and president of Event Strategies, was the stage manager for the Jan. 6 rally, according to the permit paperwork. Unes has longstanding ties to Trump, a connection he highlights on his companys website. Trumps presidential campaign paid Event Strategies $1.3 million in 2020 for audio visual services, according to the campaign finance records. The company declined to comment for this story.

Another person with close ties to the Trump administration, Hannah Salem, was the rallys operations manager for logistics and communications, according to the permit paperwork. In 2017, she took a hiatus from the consulting firm she founded and spent three years as senior White House press aide, executing the media strategy for President Trumps most high-profile events, according to her company bio and LinkedIn profile.

Last month, within minutes of an AP reporter sending her a LinkedIn message asking about her involvement in and understanding of what happened on Jan. 6, Salem blocked the reporter and did not respond to questions.

___

Smith reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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The parents of south Armagh man Paul Quinn say they hope a fresh garda probe into their sons brutal murder almost 14 years ago will lead to justice.

The 21-year-old, from Cullyhanna, was beaten to death by a gang of around a dozen men in a farm shed across the border near Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, in October 2007.

His family blame members of the IRA, but Sinn Fein has long denied republican involvement.

Now those behind the killing are at the centre of a new inquiry.

The Irish Sun newspaper reported that around 200 exhibits seized in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, are being re-examined for traces of DNA.

These include clothing from some of the suspects and a vehicle.

A dedicated scientist from Forensic Science Ireland is now working on the case, using the latest DNA technology.

Once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, gardai say they plan to re-interview suspects and those who have made statements about the murder.

The PSNI is also set to examine items they have seized over the years.

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Mr Quinns parents, Breege and Stephen, who met with gardai about the case earlier this month, have welcomed the new quest to uncover DNA.

Mr Quinn told reporters yesterday: We had a meeting with the gardai recently. They have always remained determined to bring those who killed Paul to justice so this new development with the DNA is a welcome step forward.

That sort of technology wasnt available 14 years ago when Paul was murdered.

Mr Quinn added: Since Im looking at the people who killed my son every time I leave the house,

I hope it means we will finally see those cowards brought to justice. They committed a barbaric act on a defenceless young man with his whole life in front of him.

Meanwhile Breege Quinn has again appealed to Sinn Fein Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy to state categorically that her son was not a criminal.

Weeks after the murder, he branded Paul a smuggler and a criminal, and insisted that the IRA was not responsible for the brutal killing.

Years later, Mr Murphy denied that he had accused Paul of being a criminal but he was forced to admit he had done so after the BBC tape of his interview was unearthed last February during the general election campaign..

While Mr Murphy apologised to the Quinns, he has refused their request to unambiguously state that Paul was not a criminal.

Mrs Quinn said: He needs to say my son was not a criminal in a public forum.

The re-examination comes after a review by the Serious Crime Review Team was completed in late 2019.

Over the last 13 years, detectives have followed 1,900 lines of inquiry, made 20 arrests and taken over 700 statements.

Gardai also believe the gang who abducted and killed Paul spent weeks planning the attack.

Supt Gary Walsh, who is running the new probe, added: The answer to this appalling crime lies in the area and its never too late for people to do the decent thing and to tell us what they know.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
A total of five local charitable causes have become the latest beneficiaries of Aldis Community Grants programme, with each charity receiving a 500 grant from the Aldi store teams in County Kilkenny.

The 500 grants were presented to Graignamanagh Elderly Association Limited, Loughboy Area Resource Centre (LARC) Childcare, Amber Womens Refuge, Bunscoil McAuley Rice in Callan and Waterford Womens Centre.

Aldis Community Grants programme helps fund local charities and organisations that contribute vital work and services in their local communities. Each local charity supported is chosen by Aldi employees, enabling them to help the local good causes they are passionate about. The programme has contributed to 750 local projects to date, donating over 375,000 since 2016.

We are very proud to have been able to contribute to supporting local charities across the country through the Aldi Community Grants programme and were pleased to see the impact of our donation in the local communities for County Kilkenny, said John Curtin, Group Buying Director, Aldi Ireland.

The Community Grants programme is one example of how Aldi is committed to investing and partnering with local communities and charities across Ireland and we look forward to continuing this engagement into 2021.

Operating five stores in County Kilkenny, Aldi is deeply involved in the local community. To date throughout Ireland, Aldi has donated a total of 2.6m worth of meals to FoodCloud, over 20,000 in vouchers to Barnardos for vulnerable families (since a partnership launch in October 2020) and 375,000 to the Community Grants programme since 2016.
Smart motorways 'present an ongoing risk of future deaths', a coroner has concluded, following an inquest into the deaths of two men on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder.

Sheffield coroner David Urpeth said the primary cause of death of Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on the M1 in South Yorkshire in June 2019 was the careless driving of lorry driver Prezemyslaw Szuba.

Szuba, 40, ploughed into their vehicles as they stood stationary in lane one following a minor shunt.

But, recording a conclusion of unlawful killing, Mr Urpeth said: 'I find, as a finding of fact, it is clear a lack of hard shoulder contributed to this tragedy.'

Sheffield coroner David Urpeth said the primary cause of death of Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on the M1 in South Yorkshire (pictured, the aftermath of the scene) in June 2019 was the careless driving of lorry driver Prezemyslaw Szuba

Jason Mercer (left, with his wife Claire), 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu (right), 22, died when a lorry ploughed into their stationary vehicles on the M1 near Sheffield on June 7, 2019

Eight-year-old Dev Naran (pictured with his mother Meera Naran) was killed on the M6 in Birmingham in 2018 after his family's car became stranded on a hard shoulder being used as a live lane

Prezemyslaw Zbigniew Szuba, 40, (left) admitted two counts of causing death by driving without due care and attention over the incident near Sheffield on June 7, 2019. Right: Mr Mercer

Others who have been killed include grandmother Nargis Begum, 62, (pictured) who died after her broken down car was hit on the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2018

Mr Mercer's widow Claire, who is a vocal campaigner against smart motorways, cried when the coroner gave his decision.

'Somebody has listened and finally taken steps to address the use of these death trap roads,' said the 43-year-old after the inquest.

'We have taken a first step today to protecting the lives of others.'

Thirty-eight people have been killed on smart motorways over a five-year period, the BBC reported last year.

Others who have been killed include grandmother Nargis Begum, 62, who died after her broken down car was hit on the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2018.

Mrs Begum was being driven by husband Mohammed Bashir, 67. They left their Nissan Qashqai to wait for help but another car hit the vehicle, sending it into her.

Eight-year-old Dev Naran was killed on the M6 in Birmingham in 2018 after his family's car became stranded on a hard shoulder being used as a live lane.

At the inquest into the youngster's death, coroner Emma Brown expressed concerns about the 'risk to life from the loss of the hard shoulder'.

Following yesterday's inquest into Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu's deaths, Mrs Mercer's solicitor called for plans for any more of the roads - which lack hard shoulders - to be put on hold until a public inquiry is held.

The coroner said he will be writing to Highways England and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps recommending a review of smart motorways.

He told an inquest at Sheffield town hall: 'I believe that smart motorways, as things currently stand, present an ongoing risk of future deaths.'

Szuba was jailed for 10 months in October last year after admitting causing the deaths of Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu by careless driving.

Mr Mercer, a contracts manager from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, had just joined the northbound carriageway at junction 34 at around 8.15am when he caused a minor collision with Mr Murgeanu's delivery van.

Instead of driving to the nearest 'refuge' area a mile on, both drivers stopped on the inside lane. This decision was described as 'unwise but understandable' by the coroner at Sheffield Town Hall.

The van was parked behind the car with its hazard lights on.

The pair exchanged details and were standing between the two vehicles  rather than safely behind the crash barrier  when a lorry smashed into the van, killing both men instantly.

Awful toll of roads where drivers who break down have no escape NARGIS BEGUM The grandmother, 62, died after her broken down car was hit on the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2018. Mrs Begum was being driven by husband Mohammed Bashir, 67. They left their Nissan Qashqai to wait for help but another car hit the vehicle, sending it into her. A pre-inquest review hearing in December was told that warning signs on the motorway had not been activated in time to stop drivers entering the lane where the couple had broken down. A coroner is considering referring Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service in what would be a landmark case. DEV NARAN The eight-year-old was killed on the M6 in Birmingham in 2018 after his family's car became stranded on a hard shoulder being used as a live lane. At the inquest into the youngster's death, coroner Emma Brown expressed concerns about the 'risk to life from the loss of the hard shoulder'. After the inquest his mother Meera, from Leicester, said that without changes, she believes smart motorways 'still continue to pose threats to lives on a daily basis'. SEVIM AND AYSE USTUN Sevim Ustun, 49, and mother-in-law Ayse Ustun, 68, died after their family car broke down on the M25 in Essex in 2018 and was struck by a lorry. Overhead gantry signs did not close the lane or warn of a broken down vehicle. A ten-year-old girl also suffered life-changing injuries. Police were urged to prosecute Highways England for corporate manslaughter. DEREK JACOBS The retired engineer, 83, was killed after pulling up when his car had tyre problems on the M1 in north Derbyshire in 2019. His Volkswagen Crafter van came to a halt in the first lane of the motorway, formerly the hard shoulder. It was hit by a Ford Ka, which was then struck by a coach. His widow Sally said: 'If there had been a hard shoulder, my husband would still be alive.' Advertisement

Answering questions over the phone from prison yesterday, Szuba told the hearing he accepted he was driving without paying proper attention, telling a coroner: 'I have already accepted that at my trial.'

But he told the inquest: 'If there had been a hard shoulder on this bit of motorway, the collision would have been avoidable.

'I would have driven past these two cars as it would be safer and they would have been able to come home safely and I would be able to come back home.'

Almost six minutes passed from the two cars parking on the inside lane to the HGV hitting them at 56mph.

During that time dozens of vehicles went by the blockage safely but no warning signs were displayed on overhead gantries because Highways England was not aware of the accident.

Szuba told the inquest at Sheffield Town Hall he had only three to five seconds to react, and asked if he would have avoided the crash if he had been paying attention, he said: 'It's difficult to say after everything now.'

He also confirmed that he had no specific training in driving on a smart motorway.

The inquest looked at safety failures on the day of the tragedy. A sensor system to detect traffic problems, known as Midas, would not have worked because passing vehicles did not slow down.

There was also a flaw in the system for human monitoring of cameras in a regional control centre.

Max Brown, head of road design for Highways England, said operators monitored a bank of screens but this was 'not their primary purpose'.

He also said the point of impact was out of shot of the nearest camera.

No one passing the two cars phoned the police or rang 999 and Highways England found out only when called by the fire brigade.

Smart motorways are controversial because cars that break down can be marooned in fast-moving traffic. They have refuge areas where drivers can stop every mile or so.

There are around 500 miles of them in England, including sections of the M1, M4, M5, M6, M25 and M62.

Mr Brown said analysis of nine smart motorway schemes revealed there had been an 18 per cent improvement in the 'casualty rate'  although the stretch of the M1 where the tragedy happened was one of two hotspots where safety had deteriorated.

He said an improved, radar-based, stopped-vehicle detection system, designed to identify stationary vehicles, was being rolled out but was 'not 100 per cent guaranteed' to spot problems.

In his ruling, the coroner said there had not been enough education around the use of smart motorways. He said he would send a 'preventing future deaths report' to Highways England and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

'I believe that smart motorways as things currently stand present an ongoing risk of future deaths,' he told the inquest.

He said his report would highlight the 'obvious' risk posed by the lack of a hard shoulder, the importance of better driver awareness and the need to identify stationary vehicles.

He also said 'a wider review or inquiry into smart motorways would be beneficial'.

Sergeant Mark Brady, who oversees major collision investigations for South Yorkshire Police, told the hearing: 'Had there been a hard shoulder, had Jason and Alexandru pulled on to the hard shoulder, my opinion is that Mr Szuba would have driven clean past them.'

But Sgt Brady accepted that the primary cause of the crash was Szuba's inattention to the road.

Mr Mercer's wife Claire, who has been a prominent campaigner against smart motorways since her husband's death, watched proceedings in court with her legal team.

Sheffield coroner David Urpeth said the primary cause of death of Jason Mercer (pictured with his wife Claire), 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on the M1 in South Yorkshire in June 2019 was the careless driving of lorry driver Prezemyslaw Szuba

There are currently more than 20 sections of 'smart motorways' on seven different motorways

Nicholas Lyes, the RAC's head of roads policy, said 'precious little progress' had been made in fitting stopped-vehicle detection technology and urged Highways England to build more refuge areas.

A spokesman for the agency said it was already considering many of the points raised at the inquest in a plan published in March last year. The spokesman added: 'We are determined to do all we can to make our roads as safe as possible.

'We will carefully consider any further comments raised by the coroner once we receive the report.'
COVID-19 pandemic is affecting millions of lives all over the world. It doesn't seem to stop amid extreme lockdowns and limitations.

Every day, scientists and researchers are learning further information about it to make battling the virus simpler.

In a pan-India serosurvey by the Council of Science and Industrial Research in its nearly 40 institutes, smokers and especially vegetarians were found to have lower seropositivity, suggesting that they may lower the risk of coronavirus infection.

The survey was carried out through nearly 40 CSIR institutes. It also revealed that individuals with blood type 'O' are less susceptible to the virus. However, 'B' and 'AB' are at an increased risk of COVID-19 contracting.

To determine the existence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research or CSIR took samples from 10,427 adult individuals working in its laboratories or institutions and their family members for its analysis, based on voluntary participation.

After three months, a follow-up on 346 seropositive individuals among the samples showed 'stable' to 'higher' antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2. Still, decreasing plasma activity for virus neutralization, said Shantanu Sengupta, senior IGIB scientist and one of the paper's co-authors.

Repeated 6-month sampling of 35 individuals showed decreasing levels of antibodies while the neutralizing antibody remained stable compared to 3 months.

However, both the usual antibody and the neutralizing antibody, he said, were far higher than the necessary threshold.

The paper also cites two studies in France and related studies in Italy, New York, and China that have recorded lower infection rates among smokers.

In July last year, the Union Ministry of Health reported that smokers were more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 because smoking increased the risk of transmission of the virus from hand to mouth and cautioned that smoking tobacco products could increase the severity of respiratory infections and make people susceptible to coronavirus.

However, the report indicated that smokers are less likely to be HIV positive and that smoking could be protective despite COVID-19 being a respiratory disease.

The Ministry said experts confirmed in its 'COVID-19 Pandemic and Tobacco Use in India' paper that smokers on the other hand are more adaptive to severe symptoms or die from COVID-19. It primarily targeted the lungs and cautioned against any such drugs being used.

Smokers are likely to be more prone to COVID-19, it warned, as the act of smoking suggests that fingers (and probably infected cigarettes) are in contact with lips, raising the risk of hand-to-mouth transmission of the virus.

The CSIR has some 40 institutes spanning the country's length and width, which specializes in various fields. The IGIB and its sister Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology have been at the forefront of coronavirus genome sequencing.

READ MORE: Man With Unauthorized Inauguration Credentials and Loaded Handgun Arrested by US Capitol Police

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Health reported 4,312 new coronavirus cases Monday, to a total of 831,066 cases.

The state reported 81 deaths, reaching 10,281 total deaths. On Sunday, Ohio reported 5,247 new cases and 65 deaths. Mondays new number of cases were below the 21-day rolling average of 7,430 cases. The deaths were at the 21-day rolling average of 81.

Ohio uses the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions definition of a case, including people diagnosed with generic PCR or antigen tests or those diagnosed in a clinical setting.

Between 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday, 9,386 vaccine doses were given, bringing the total to 444,524, or 3.80% of the population. Cuyahoga County has given 50,013 vaccine doses, or 4.05% of the population.

The world has recorded over 95 million cases and more than two million deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country has reported nearly 24 million cases and nearly 400,000 deaths.
San Francisco, Jan 18 : The social media ban on outgoing US President Donald Trump has resulted in a massive 73 per cent drop in online misinformation about election fraud, a new report has revealed.

The research by the San Francisco-based analytics firm Zignal Labs found that conversations about election fraud dropped from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across several social media sites in the week after Trump was banned on Twitter on January 8.

Trump and his supporters have also lost accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Spotify, Shopify and other social media platforms.

According to The Washington Post, the findings highlight how falsehoods flow across social media sites.

Zignal found that the use of hashtags affiliated with the January 6 Capitol riot also dipped considerably.

"Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was widely deployed across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 pe rcent. #HoldTheLine and the term 'March for Trump' also fell more than 95 per cent," the report said on Sunday.

Trump's ban was followed by Twitter removing more than 70,000 accounts affiliated with the QAnon ideology, which played a key role in Capitol chaos.

"Together, those actions will likely significantly reduce the amount of online misinformation in the near term," Kate Starbird, disinformation researcher at the University of Washington, was quoted as saying.

Banned on various social media platforms, Trump has been releasing tweet-like statements through the White House press office.

Trump considered opening an account on far-right conservative platform Parler but it has been off the grid after Amazon stopped its web hosting.

Amazon said it is "troubled" by repeated policy violations by Parler.

The company noted that it "cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others".

Google and Apple have removed Parler from their respective app stores after they found that Parler did not take stronger action to remove posts that sought "to incite ongoing violence" in the US.
In this Jan. 12, 2021 photo provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, National Guard members assisting with processing COVID-19 deaths, placing them into temporary storage at the medical examiner-coroner's office in Los Angeles. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths is rising in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and on Monday, Jan 18, 2021, the U.S. was approaching 398,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, by far the highest of any country in the world. (Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP, File)

Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold.

As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants are spreading.

Referring to new versions detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, Cuomo said: "Stop those people from coming here.... Why are you allowing people to fly into this country and then it's too late?"

The U.S. government has already curbed travel from some of the places where the new variants are spreadingsuch as Britain and Braziland recently it announced that it would require proof of a negative COVID-19 test for anyone flying into the country.

But the new variant seen in Britain is already spreading in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection has warned that it will probably become the dominant version in the country by March. The CDC said the variant is about 50% more contagious than the virus that is causing the bulk of cases in the U.S.

While the variant does not cause more severe illness, it can cause more hospitalizations and deaths simply because it spreads more easily. In Britain, it has aggravated a severe outbreak that has swamped hospitals, and it has been blamed for sharp leaps in cases in some other European countries.

Educator John Cormier of Norwich, Conn., receives a shot from LPN Lizmary Reyes, right, on opening day of the Connecticut's largest COVID-19 Vaccination Drive-Through Clinic Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in East Hartford, Conn. The former Pratt & Whitney Runway has been converted into a ten-lane, drive-through COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Clinic, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being administered by Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC). Vaccinations are by appointment only to eligible individuals in Phase 1a and 1b through Connecticut's 211 system or the CDC's Vaccine Administration Management System. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

As things stand, many U.S. states are already under tremendous strain. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths is rising in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and on Monday the U.S. death toll surpassed 398,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins Universityby far the highest recorded death toll of any country in the world.

Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, said cases have proliferated in part because of gatherings for Christmas and New Yearand compounded previous surges from Thanksgiving and the return of students to schools and universities in the fall.

The pace of any further spread will depend on whether those who did gather with family and friends quarantined afterward or went back to school or work in person, she said.

One of the states hardest hit during the recent surge is Arizona, where the rolling average has risen over the past two weeks from about 90 deaths per day to about 160 per day on Jan. 17.

"It's kind of hard to imagine it getting a lot faster than it is right now, because it is transmitting really fast right now," said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, director of the Biodesign Institute research center at Arizona State University. "But there is some evidence that Thanksgiving didn't help things."

In this Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. file photo, Norton, Mass. police salute as a hearse carrying colleague Det. Sgt. Stephen Desfosses briefly stops in front of the police station. Desfosses, 52, a local police officer for 32 years, died of the coronavirus Wednesday in Boston with members of his family by his side, Police Chief Brian Clark said in a statement. Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

Rural Yuma Countyknown as the winter lettuce capital of the U.S.is now one of the state's hot spots. Exhausted nurses there are now regularly sending COVID-19 patients on a long helicopter ride to hospitals in Phoenix when they don't have enough staff. The county has lagged on coronavirus testing in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods and just ran out of vaccines.

But some support is coming from military nurses and a new wave of free tests for farmworkers and the elderly in Yuma County.

Amid the rise in cases, a vast effort is underway to get Americans vaccinatedwhat Cuomo called "a footrace" between the vaccination rate and the infection rate. But the campaign is off to an uneven start. According to the latest federal data, about 31.2 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, but only about 10.6 million people have received at least one dose.

In some cases, vaccine supplies thus far do not meet demand. More than 172,000 people in Missouri's St. Louis County have registered for the vaccine, but the local health department so far has only received 975 doses, said County Executive Sam Page.

In California, the most populous state, counties are pleading for more vaccine as the state tries to reduce a high rate of infection that has led to record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

Vehicles arrive on opening day of Connecticut's largest COVID-19 Vaccination Drive-Through Clinic Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in East Hartford, Conn. The former Pratt & Whitney Runway has been converted into a ten-lane, drive-through COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Clinic, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being administered by Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC). Vaccinations are by appointment only to eligible individuals in Phase 1a and 1b through Connecticut's 211 system or the CDC's Vaccine Administration Management System. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Although the state last week said anyone age 65 and older can start receiving the vaccine, Los Angeles County and some others have said they don't have enough to immunize so many people. They are concentrating on protecting health care workers and the most vulnerable elderly in care homes first.

On Monday, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District sent a letter asking for state and county authorization to provide vaccinations at schools for staff, local community membersand for students once a vaccine for children has been approved.

The death rate from COVID-19 in Los Angeles Countyan epicenter of the U.S. pandemicworks out to about one person every six minutes. On Sunday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District suspended some pollution-control limits on the number of cremations for at least 10 days in order to deal with a backlog of bodies at hospitals and funeral homes.

In other areas of the country, officials are working to ensure that people take the vaccine once they're offered it amid concerns that many people are hesitant. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, in a livestreamed event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, received a shot, and urged other Marylanders to do likewise.

"We're all looking forward to the day we can take off and throw away our masks," Hogan said. "The only way we are going to return to a sense of normalcy is by these COVID-19 vaccines."

A sign indicates where to drive if an adverse reaction to the vaccination occurs on opening day of the Connecticut's largest COVID-19 Vaccination Drive-Through Clinic Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in East Hartford, Conn. The former Pratt & Whitney Runway has been converted into a ten-lane, drive-through COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Clinic, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being administered by Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC). Vaccinations are by appointment only to eligible individuals in Phase 1a and 1b through Connecticut's 211 system or the CDC's Vaccine Administration Management System. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

But challenges to the vaccine campaign are surfacing worldwide.

The World Health Organization chief on Monday lambasted drugmakers' profits and vaccine inequalities, saying it's "not right" that younger, healthier adults in some wealthy countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people or health care workers in poorer countries.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented that one country received a mere 25 doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.

"Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income countrynot 25 million, not 25,000just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure," Tedros said. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokeswoman identified it as Guinea.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WASHINGTON - Even before he won the White House, Joe Biden had been unsparing in his criticism of Silicon Valley, practically pleading with Facebook in June to stop President Donald Trump from publishing "wild claims."

"Anything less," the Biden campaign said in an open letter, "will render Facebook a tool of misinformation that corrodes our democracy."

Seven months later, rioters descended on the U.S. Capitol, stormed the House and the Senate, and sought to overturn Biden's victory - mounting a deadly, failed insurrection that illustrated the corrosive power of Trump's false online screeds.

The aftermath of that attack now sets the stage for a political reckoning between Washington and Silicon Valley, as long-simmering frustrations with Facebook, Google, Twitter and their digital peers threaten to unleash the most aggressive regulatory assault against the tech industry in its history. On the eve of his inauguration, Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress are pledging to take aim at the country's largest social media platforms out of concern that they imperil the very fabric of American democracy - and the billions of people who use these digital services every day.

"The Biden administration knows we need to update our technology regulations for the 21st century," said Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who has long called for wide-ranging reform.

Democratic leaders for years have proposed a bevy of new legislation to shrink Silicon Valley's corporate footprint, restrict its insatiable appetite for data and stop the spread of falsehoods online. But the party's calls for regulation have grown more urgent in the days since Biden won the presidency, his party took control of the House and the Senate, and Trump and his allies further exposed the risks of a largely unregulated web.

In the face of past scrutiny, Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley giants have muscled up politically. Internet companies together spent more than $59 million in lobbying over the first nine months of 2020, according to an analysis of the most recent federal disclosures by the Center for Responsive Politics. Many are now bracing for another fresh battle in Washington, as they seek to stave off new efforts by Congress and the White House that might severely restrict the way they do business. Some, including Facebook, are scrambling to hire more Democrats after staffing up on Republican lobbyists during the Trump years.

"I think for the Internet industry, in particular, it's going to be tough sledding for the next two years at least," predicted Rob Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that counts companies including Google and Microsoft on its board.

Spokespeople for Biden's transition team declined to comment. Facebook declined to comment.

The regulatory siege looming over Silicon Valley reflects Democrats' deep-seated frustration with an industry that the party thinks has not atoned for its many mistakes since the 2016 presidential election. In that race, Facebook, Google and Twitter were turned into agents of the Russian government, as the Kremlin spread disinformation on social media sites in an attempt to sow discord and send Trump to the White House. And it exposed major privacy risks across the tech sector, especially at Facebook, which had to pay a record-setting $5 billion penalty for mishandling millions of users' personal information.

The wave of scandals and missteps resulted in once-unfathomable scrutiny in Washington for Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter, whose executives were called to the Capitol to testify about their business practices repeatedly during Trump's four years in office. Trump, however, played a minimal role in many of those debates about antitrust, privacy and election security, choosing instead to pursue policies that aimed to punish Silicon Valley over unproven allegations that it censored conservatives online.

(Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Facebook and its peers responded by instituting significant changes to their businesses, including new efforts to invest in artificial intelligence and hire thousands of workers to police their platforms for abuse. Facebook also created entire internal teams to respond to the government's growing belief that it had acted anti-competitively.

The industry's efforts ultimately helped shield the 2020 presidential race from major foreign interference, but it was not without incident - as Trump and his online surrogates adopted the same tactics to stoke divisions and spread falsehoods that Russian provocateurs deployed so capably four years earlier. On Facebook, for example, the Trump campaign and its allies repeatedly purchased ads that spread conspiracy theories about Biden's son.

Incensed, Biden and his campaign spent months imploring Facebook to crack down. Democrats attacked the company repeatedly for allowing Republicans to spread falsehoods online without submitting the ads to fact checking. Even after the company tweaked its ad systems, Facebook did not follow all of Democrats' demands, leaving Biden to pledge to take regulatory aim at the tech industry if he won the election.

With that victory in hand, Biden and his aides have sought to lay the early groundwork for an administration that can meet its past promises. The team has signaled an interest in rethinking Section 230, long considered Silicon Valley's legal Holy Grail. The decades-old law spares a wide array of sites and services, including newspapers and social networks, from being held liable for the content posted by their users. The president-elect and his allies, however, contend that the law also has essentially allowed large technology companies to skirt accountability for their actions.

Biden at one point called on Congress during the campaign to repeal the law in full. Not even a month after his election, one of Biden's top new advisers signaled at an event at Georgetown Law that the incoming administration isn't backing down on its plans. Bruce Reed, the White House's incoming deputy chief of staff, stressed publicly that it is "long past time to hold social media companies accountable for what's published" on their sites and services.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored a Senate bill to revise Section 230, said he has spoken "extensively" with the Biden transition team about revisiting the rules and adopting "other steps to force greater responsibility on these big tech companies." Those conversations transpired in the weeks before rioters acting on Trump's viral online falsehoods stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving five dead - a tragedy that Blumenthal said could further embolden the White House and Congress to act.

"I think the new Congress and new administration will share a very intense focus on reform," he said.

Facebook, in particular, has signaled that it is open to regulation: Its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, told lawmakers in 2020 that he even supports changes to Section 230 - although people familiar with the company's thinking say they recognize that Congress may be hamstrung by the complexities of regulating political and hate speech. But the tech giant still faces a formidable political challenges in a Democrat-dominant Washington, a political reality that perhaps prompted the company to take once-unfathomable disciplinary action to ban Trump earlier this month.

"I think we're looking at all the options here," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., faulting Facebook and others for "opportunistic" moves to punish Trump online "two weeks before the next administration is going to come in."

"I think there have been plenty of hints that we, Democrats and Republicans and the next administration, are going to take very seriously the unregulated power of social media companies," she added.

"For a while, the tech industry took Democrats for granted," said Nu Wexler, a former Facebook, Twitter and Google communications official. "Now they confront a new political reality. Tech will still be in the crosshairs. But it will be for more substantive things like privacy, data collection and competition."

Facebook made an effort to hire and elevate conservatives at its Washington office over the past few years, to try to curry favor with the Trump administration. The company until last week - the day after Democrats regained control of Congress - had rarely sanctioned Trump, part of a strategy that sought to appease conservatives. Now, Facebook is shifting course and reevaluating its strategy, said people familiar with the company's thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Facebook was one of the first major companies to freeze political donations to Republicans. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg may play a larger role again, as she did during the Obama administration, two of the people said. Biden also has a longtime personal relationship with Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs and communications, who was Britain's deputy prime minister during the Obama years. Clegg was essentially Biden's counterpart, and Biden once appeared on Clegg's podcast.

Although the Biden team has ties to big tech, outreach has been fairly limited, particularly when it comes to sharing concrete plans with the companies, two of the people say. That compares to Trump, for example, who invited tech executives to New York for a meeting before his inauguration. President Barack Obama also made early outreach during his administration.

But the expectation overall is that Biden will pick people who will be more aggressive going after tech.

The incoming Biden administration already counts some of Silicon Valley's most effective critics among its ranks. Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, played instrumental roles in challenging Facebook, Google and Twitter - and are set to assume leadership roles at the Justice Department. In their current roles, Gupta and Clarke successfully pressured social media companies to take down harmful, false content, including posts, photos and videos that discouraged people from voting. They also waged landmark legal cases charging algorithmic discrimination and bias.

"These hires are a good indication that the Biden administration is going to take tech seriously," said Peter Romer-Friedman, a civil rights lawyer who has sued Facebook and worked with Gupta and Clarke's organizations. "The last four years have shown Democratic leaders to be very skeptical of tech, which is very different from the Obama administration."

The incoming administration has not yet settled on its selections for other senior government positions overseeing the tech industry. That includes openings at the nation's top competition enforcement agencies, a critical set of picks at a time when the government is suing Facebook and Google for violating federal antitrust laws. As Biden's government prepares to inherit those cases, Democrats said they had encouraged the incoming administration to pick tough watchdogs in a bid to reverse the deregulatory streak of Democratic and Republican governments past.

"I expect fairly strong antitrust enforcement from the administration," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose Bay Area district includes tech companies such as Apple.

On Capitol Hill, many congressional Democrats promised to forge ahead with their long-sought plans to bring Silicon Valley to heel now that they will have a supportive ally in the White House. The party's one-vote margin in the Senate may be slim, but they think their frustration with Facebook, Google and Twitter is likely to be bipartisan.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden pledged to advance new regulations around artificial intelligence to ensure that powerful, behind-the-scenes algorithms don't exhibit bias on the basis of race or gender. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said he plans to try to revive his bill tackling online privacy. And New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the leader of the tech-focused House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he intends to hold "online platforms accountable for the disinformation and misinformation that threatens our Republic." That includes an investigation that will touch on the role social media sites played in stoking the Capitol riot, he said in an interview.

"We can actually work on these issues rather than use them as a talking point to hit each other over the head," Schatz said about the political push to come. "The silver lining about the last four years, from a tech policy standpoint, is that there's been a lot of thoughtful work. . . . We have no shortage of good ideas."

The EU needs to display common sense over the Northern Ireland protocol, Edwin Poots said (Liam McBurney/PA).

Processed goods like jelly or gravy could be unavailable in Northern Ireland at the end of the protocol grace period, Stormonts agriculture minister said.

Edwin Poots acknowledged the country had plenty of homegrown beef and potatoes but warned Northern Ireland Assembly members trimmings like Bisto or trifle could be missing from traditional Sunday dinners.

A soft-touch three-month period has been negotiated with the EU for regulating supermarket goods transported from the rest of the UK following the end of the transition period.

Expand Close Edwin Poots warned of a threat to processed goods like jelly or gravy once the grace period for supermarkets end (Liam McBurney/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Edwin Poots warned of a threat to processed goods like jelly or gravy once the grace period for supermarkets end (Liam McBurney/PA)

The DUP minister said: We do not need these barriers.

We need common sense, particularly from the EU.

We need a message going out from all of our companies that we do not need barriers which are going to put costs on.

The Stormont minister also stood by his claim that school and hospital supplies could be affected once the grace period ends.

Some supermarket shelves were depleted this month as suppliers grappled with new rules surrounding sending goods from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland.

The protocol means Northern Ireland follows the EUs rules on matters like animal product standards and creates extra paperwork on goods travelling from Great Britain.

We do not want Northern Ireland's manufacturers to be uncompetitive in their marketplace, nor do we want Northern Ireland's manufacturers to feel that they have to move to Great Britain in order to continue their manufacturing process Diane Dodds

Economy Minister Diane Dodds said Northern Ireland remained an integral part of the UKs internal market, with equal access to the other nations.

She warned of the impact on products like steel, which could face tariffs of up to 25%.

It is deemed by the EU to be at risk of entering the Single Market when arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Expand Close Brexit-related jelly shortages mean some may miss out on trifles, it was suggested (Geoff Kirby/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Brexit-related jelly shortages mean some may miss out on trifles, it was suggested (Geoff Kirby/PA)

Mrs Dodds said she held talks with Cabinet Minister Michael Gove on Friday.

I am encouraged that, following our representations, the Government know that this is a huge issue for Northern Ireland and we need to see a resolution.

She envisaged a statement coming from the Government in the coming days on the issue.

We do not want Northern Irelands manufacturers to be uncompetitive in their marketplace, nor do we want Northern Irelands manufacturers to feel that they have to move to Great Britain in order to continue their manufacturing process.

This is a serious issue for manufacturing in Northern Ireland.

The Government has promised a solution.

Northern Irelands economy minister also called for the chaos at the port of Dublin to be sorted out since many goods made their way into Northern Ireland using that route.

She told the Assembly: I would encourage this house and the parties in this house to ensure that our Government hears loud and clear that we need long-term solutions in relation to export health certificates, in relation to the issue of chilled foods and, indeed, the importance of our own internal UK internal market cannot be overstated.


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Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
The appellate court of South Korea has officially announced that Lee Jae-yong, heir of Samsung and son of deceased company chairman, has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. The verdict comes after a three-year-long trial over allegations that the man tried to bribe a person from the Presidents office.

Lee Jae-yong, heir and CEO of Samsung Electronics

Everything began back in 2017, when Lee offered KRW 30 billion (about $27.6 million) to Choi Seo-won, an associate to the former President of South Korea, to help a merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, allowing Lee to succeed his father and take control of Samsung Electronics, a company founded by his grandfather.

A lengthy process was followed by a year in prison and a retrial at the Supreme Court of South Korea. The former Samsung chairman deceased in October 2020, leaving behind the top position vacant and inheritance of $21 billion.

The imprisonment of Lee Jae-yong is likely to reflect in the company's overall performance while other senior executives are trying to find an official to run the company efficiently and keep it at the top.

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Terror module that received arms dropped off by Pakistan drones busted

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: The security forces have busted a terrorist module by arresting two Valley based terror operatives. A huge cache of arms and ammunition have also been recovered from their possession.

Initial investigation revealed that two terror operatives-Umar Ahmed Malik and Suhail Ahmed Malik were working on a terror plot with their Pakistan based handler Aqib. They had travelled to the International Border and received arms and ammunition that were dropped off with the help of drones.

The forces have recovered AK-74 (02), Pistol (1), Grenades (16). Ak-Magazines (09), Live Bullets (269) Pistol and Magazines (02). Further investigations are on.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 17:14 [IST]
The following transcript is from Dr. Martin Luther Kings public speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.

It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

March 1965: Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) leads the Alabama Civil Rights march, flanked by supporters. Next to him is fellow campaigner Ralph Abernathy (1926 - 1990). (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images) Getty

So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense, we have come to our nations capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

A rally by civil rights activists Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. at a church in Birmingham, Alabama, October 14, 1963. (Photo by Frank Rockstroh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Getty

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of Gods children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negros legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., talking to reporters during a Portland press conference in 1961, said he could see a truly integrated society within 40 years "if we work at it." (The Oregonian)Oregonian

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, When will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negros basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating For Whites Only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

March 24, 1965: Carrying airbeds, a group of marchers in the Alabama civil rights march which was led by Martin Luther King. (Photo by William Lovelace/Getty Images) Getty

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

The clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther KIng (C) and other Black and white civil right leaders march 28 August 1963 on the Mall in Washington DC during the "March on Washington". King said the march was "the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of the United States." Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history. (Photo: OFF/AFP via Getty Images) Getty

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of Gods children will be able to sing with a new meaning,

President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with civil rights leaders after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King April 5, 1968 at the White House. (Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers) - . GettyGetty

My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, Black men, and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Kevin Omolo, 44, is the head of technical services at SGA Security Kenya, Ltd. The computer science guru holds a Masters in Computing Technology from the University of Nairobi and is currently pursuing a PhD in computer science at the same institution.

He spoke to Sunday Nation about his career path.

Briefly tell us about yourself

I am the current head of technical services at SGA Security Kenya Limited. In this role, I steer the technology department with the design and implementation of electronic security solutions. I work closely with the commercial team in responding to security bids as well as coordinate the day-to-day running of the technology department.

Tell us about your childhood and family life

I am the firstborn in a family of six siblings composed of four brothers and two sisters. I grew up mostly with my mother, who is a Christian. We later moved to join our dad, who is a Muslim.

Back in the 1980s, he was working in Nairobi. We lived in Nairobis Eastleigh Section 3 for the entire period of primary, secondary school, college education and at least eight years into my marriage life.

I am married with three children  two sons and a daughter. Our first-born son is currently in form one while the last-born son is in grade one.

Your educational background

My primary school education was split between Kodhoch Primary School in Homa bay County and Morrison Primary School in Nairobi where I sat my KCPE. I later joined Oriwo Secondary School in Homa Bay County and did my KCSE.

Thereafter I joined the Kenya School of Monetary Studies to pursue Computer Studies and I graduated with a Higher Diploma. In 2005, I joined Kenya Polytechnic College, now Technical University of Kenya, for a three-year course in Electronics Engineering, graduating with a credit pass.

Within the same institution, I enrolled for a certificate course in Geographical Information System (GIS). In 2013, enrolled at Kenyatta University for a BSC degree in Information Technology. Later I enrolled for a Masters Degree in Computing Technology at the University of Nairobi. Im currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Nairobi hoping to clear in 2024.

Share with us your career journey

I started off in the year 2000 as a tutor in various computer colleges in Eastleigh estate, mainly teaching computer programming, something that I loved to do while at the college. In 2001, my security industry career began with a job at Wells Fargo Ltd where I was employed as a computer technician. I wrote numerous computer applications for management decision support, which exposed me to the highest level of company management, interacting with them while defining requirements for computer programs and testing them after completion to ensure that all requirements and final products captured strategic level management requirements before finally deploying them to users.

During this period, I also designed and implemented several computer networks (LANs) in the branch network; since that was also the period that Wells Fargo was expanding its branch network in Kenya. Wells Fargo had a vehicle tracking division that I got a chance to join having showed interest around the year 2005 when one of its managers left the company. I doubled in this role in acting capacity before being promoted to the head tracking personnel in the same year, a position I held until I left in early 2008 to join KK Security.

At KK Security, I joined the technology department as a Projects Engineer having just graduated from Kenya Polytechnic. I mainly led technicians in implementing electronic security projects and liaising with vendors/suppliers to undertake bench testing works for new products as well as support during setup and deployment.

While at KK Security we implemented several UN sponsored projects that gave me chance to travel to countries like Somalia and Somaliland. I left KK Security in 2018 to join SGA K. Ltd where I currently the head of technology services.

What do you remember most about your career journey?

Around year 2004 while at Wells Fargo, I became friends with one of my colleagues who oversaw installation at the tracking department. He encouraged and challenged me to join him at the department because he noted that I was a quick leaner even though I did not have formal college training in electronics.

I did not shy away from that challenge; therefore, he would call me to join his team for most installations. This I did until I was confident with the tracking installations. He then could leave me to stand in for him at the section while he took his leave of duty. Kevin the technician was immediately born.

Realising the role that I was now headed for, I decided to enroll at the Kenya Polytechnic for certificate course in electronics. At the time, certificate in electronics was offered in stages, that moved from stage one to the highest stage three. Stage three was equivalent to Diploma in electronics and one would be allowed to join higher diploma course in electronic engineering, for KNEC examination. My eyes and target were set for the higher diploma certificate.

However, for one to join higher diploma class from the certificate route, there was a tough requirement that one had to score credit pass at the final stage of the electronic certificate course which was not an easy thing going by the history in the course.

This did not deter my urge to study electronics at the higher diploma level. I sat for my stage three and scored a credit pass as was the requirement to study higher diploma course in electronic engineering. As fate would have it, the college was changed to constituent college of University of Nairobi. This development changed everything including the courses offered at the institution.

Immediately, the college stopped offering higher diploma course, replacing it with degree courses with requirements that my qualification at the time could not match neither were they allowing for bridging to join degree course as the institution was also transitioning into a university.

This temporarily stopped my upward trajectory as I was now confused on the next course of action. I got consolation in the stage three certificate combined with the higher diploma certificate course in computer studies.

How have you progressed over the years career-wise?

I started off as a computer technician, then after several years of work, progressed to be an installation supervisor. Then to a project manager before finally rising to full departmental management position.

What has been a key driver of your growth? Lessons learnt, celebrations and failures. Attitudes, habits, principles etc.

In this career journey, the key driver has been self-belief and determination to achieve higher goals coupled with a go-getter attitude. I keenly follow the saying posted by the late Starehe Boys founder and director that Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them true.

The lessons learnt in my path of growth is that upward movement is very painful many times, but the rewards are equally fatty. And that when failures occur in the path of growth, it should serve to open an alternative route to the same destination and not a pitfall to growth. Failure is defined in life as a negative outcome of life lessons that is meant to show us that success may not be attained to the level expected hence the coining of the word failure.

It is part to life that comes as an outcome of failing to anticipate a negative occurrence from a decision made and not a limitation of the human ability. Therefore, my principle in growth is that failure is a possible outcome of a decision made without considering all the requirement to attain a particular set objective which should be considered while making similar decisions in future.

Who are the people or relationships that you can single out that were useful in your career growth and how did they influence your trajectory?

My late uncle was very key in influencing my carrier growth because he never believed in anyone saying that he has achieved a maximum in life. He always said that life and achievement is never filled and compared it to stacks heading to heaven that may never reach its maximum point in stacking.

Therefore, to him growth was always had an empty end that should always be filled through continuous academic learning and being ready to tackle new challenges in carrier path.

This, he always, said should be achieved by attempting new challenges either through new responsibilities at work or total change of employment if new challenges would be found through that.

My former colleague at work also had a notable contribution to my career growth when he challenged me that people do only do what they studied at the college level and that some changes in carrier path may requires academic patching once one taste their realities.

After that, requirements to talk such challenges becomes clear and the strategies to handle them becomes visible as opposed to the vice versa.

Key decisions you might have taken along your career?

Top of the key decision that have changed my career growth was the need to acquire a B.Sc. degree in information technology. It has become a basic requirement in any front in the Kenyan market. It is foundational requirement that would open the doors to handling more challenging roles in the society. We are currently leaving in a society that attached life achievement by the level of education one has attained.

The other key decision that has helped in my career growth is the realization that one can achieve higher education level even in marriage life. Most of my academic growth has been achieve while in marriage and with family.

Your current role and scope of role?

I head the technical services department at the company. The scope of the role encompasses design, setup, and implementation of all electronic security solutions. This includes managing all the human and vehicular resources in the department. This role also includes research and development of new solution offering in the organizational product offering.

What would you tell your younger self?

That never tire to achieve the highest level of academic excellence because it is the key that the current society see before they are ready to trust ones ability in delivering results in any field. That courage is a factor of success that does not see failure as a limitation but rather a failure to consider a position requirement for action in a decision.

What would you advise the youth in Kenya and Africa today?

That the world shall be fully digital with the advent of internet of things (IoT) and 5G, they should be prepared with the required training in computer science to remain relevant. Computer science and electrical electronic studies should be the main courses of tomorrow.

Future plans?

Complete my ongoing Computer Science PHD with interests in Cyber Security and Computer Forensics from University of Nairobi and be thought leader in information security with emphasis in computer security.
Novis has this month entered UK market

Novish, the fledgling Dutch supplier of plant-based seafood, has announced more investment into the business.

The Breda-based company has received backing from restaurant group QSR Platform SCA, which will use its investment to offer plant-based seafood to its diners.

Maiko Van Der Meer, the former chief executive of seafood processor Klaas Puul and chief commercial officer of Dutch meat giant Vion Food Group, is one of the co-founders of Novish, which was set up in 2019.

Van Der Meer told just-food QSRP had attained a "minority stake, less than 25%" in Novish, with the rest of the firm's shares held by him and his two fellow co-founders, Katja Busser and Paul den Dulk. The exact terms of QSRP's investment were not disclosed but Van Der Meer said Novish had raised "more than EUR1m (US$1.2m), which keeps us going for well over a year".

Busser is a former business development and R&D manager at Dutch baker Royal Smilde. Den Dulk spent four years up to 2019 working in innovation for plant-based meat brand LikeMeat. His career also includes spells at Sara Lee and Heinz.

Earlier this month, Novish entered the UK market, announcing a listing through online grocer Ocado.

Novish's product range consists of coated products such as bites, fillets and sticks. The company recently added tuna flakes to its portfolio.

QSRP operates foodservice chains including Burger King, Quick and Nordsee & Go! Fish. The business runs 1,000 restaurants across seven countries. It was set up by backer and private-equity firm Kharis Capital in 2018. Founded in 2015, Luxembourg-based Kharis Capital's first transaction was for the rights to be master franchisor of Burger King in Poland, Italy, Greece and Romania. In 2016, Kharis acquired the evergreen rights for Quick in Belgium and Luxembourg. The fund snapped up German seafood brand and restaurant chain Nordsee in 2018.
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(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum on Monday discussed cooperation in combating the spread of the coronavirus, among other issues, during phone talks, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

"During the talks, [the sides] discussed the further strengthening of the traditionally friendly Russian-Algerian relations, including cooperation in combating the spread of the new coronavirus infection," the ministry said in a press release.

The ministry added that the talks were initiated by the Algerian side.

On January 10, Algeria became the first African nation to register the Russian made Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Earlier on Monday, Jamal Furar, the spokesperson of the Coronavirus Monitoring and Follow-up Committee said that the country expected to receive about 500,000 doses of the Russian vaccine this month.
File photo of Uzra Zeya, former Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, speaking on the annual Human Rights Report Feb. 27, 2014 at the State Department in Washington, DC. The Indian American diplomat tweeted Jan. 16, "Thank you, President-elect Biden for centering democracy and human rights in US foreign policy. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
BTselem, one of Israels foremost human rights organisations, has issued a report stating that Israel is not a democracy but an apartheid regime that enforces Jewish supremacy over the Palestinians in all the land it controls.

It confirms not only what critics of Israels brutal suppression of the Palestinians have long been saying, but also the historic bankruptcy and reactionary culmination of the Zionist project and all such nationalist programs.

In the 1967 War, Israel seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem, previously under Jordanian rule, and Gaza, previously administered by Egypt and under blockade by Israel since 2007. Collectively they are home to more than five million Palestinians.

A Palestinian boy inspects the damage in his family home following Israeli airstrikes in Buriej refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Within Israel, there are approximately 2 million citizens of Palestinian origin, one fifth of the total population, meaning that Palestinians form around half of the population in the lands controlled by Israel. These four Palestinian groups have different rights from each other that are all inferior to those of Jewish Israelis living in the same areas (except for Gaza where there are no Israeli settlements).

As BTselem points out, the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one groupJewsover anotherPalestinians.

BTselems report, A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid, argues, By geographically, demographically and physically engineering space, the regime enables Jews to live in a contiguous area with full rights, including self-determination, while Palestinians live in separate units and enjoy fewer rights. This qualifies as an apartheid regime, although Israel is commonly viewed as a democracy upholding a temporary occupation.

Apartheid is deemed a crime under international law. In 1973, the United Nations General Assembly called for the ratification of The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined as inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime. Neither Israel nor its chief backer the US signed up to the Rome Statute.

Hagai El-Ad, BTselems executive director, said, Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it. It is one regime between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid.

BTselem is not alone it its view. Israeli human rights groups, leftist groups, the so-called peace camp, the Meretz Party and politicians, including President Reuven Rivlin and former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, have for some time been warning that while there was not yet apartheid in Israel, it was on a slippery slope. More than a few politicians argued that without a two-state solution, Israel would become an apartheid state.

Last summer, Yesh Din (There is a Law), another Israeli human rights group, published a legal opinion arguing that Israel operated apartheid in the West Bank.

BTselem goes much further and includes Israel itself within the apartheid regime, pointing to two recent developments. The first, Israels openly racist Nation State Law enshrines the principle of Jewish supremacy as the legal foundation of the state. It includes Jews not just in Israel but throughout the diaspora who have automatic right to immigration and citizenship, although Israel denies the right of return to Palestinians who fled or were driven out of their homes in the 1948-49 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. Furthermore, it proclaims Jerusalem complete and united as Israels capital.

The Nation State Law actively promotes the Judaicisation of the occupied territories and the expansion of the settlements, stipulating that the State considers the development of Jewish settlements a national value and will take action to encourage and promote the establishment and reinforcement of such settlements.

It sanctions the exclusion of Arabs from exclusively Jewish communities, demotes Arabic from its position as an official state language and gives official and exclusive standing to Jewish symbols, including declaring Hatikva the national anthem. It prevents Palestinians from getting Israeli citizenship by marrying Israelis and future asylum seekers from entering Israel. The law thus provides the framework for an apartheid state that ends any commitment to equality and openly aligns the state with the brutal oppression of an entire people, the Palestinians.

While there was widespread opposition to the Nation State Law among Jews within Israel and without, it could find no expression in the Knesset due to the cowardice and complicity of the opposition Labour Party.

Secondly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing coalition government has repeatedly declared its plans for the annexation of parts of the West Bank. While these plans have been put on hold in the wake of the normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, there is no mistaking the governments intentions that have the support of the ultra-nationalist and religious parties. Thus, Israel intends to extend its rule over the Palestinians and make a Palestinian state completely impossible.

Israel already controls many aspects of life, including the population registry, land allocation, voter rolls, and the right or denial to travel within, or enter or exit any part of the area.

Implicit in BTselems acknowledgement that Israel is an apartheid state is that the two-state solution is dead, following Trumps farcical peace plan, announced in January last year, that supported Netanyahus plans to annex parts of the West Bank where nearly 500,000 Israeli settlers live. The Abraham Accords, to which several Arab stateswith the nod from Saudi Arabiahave signed up, is the official death certificate for the Arab Initiative. The Arab Initiative was launched by Riyadh in 2002 and endorsed by the Arab League, and made normalization of relations with Israel conditional upon a full withdrawal from the occupied territories, a just settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

That an Israeli organization has called Israel an apartheid state and a regime of Jewish supremacy exposes the fraudulent claim of the Israel lobby in Europe and the US, based upon the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, that equates criticism of Israeli government policy, including its racist policies towards the Palestinians, with anti-Semitism.

The open turn to apartheid policies is the product of two major factors. First, the acute political and economic crisis of the Zionist state, one of the most unequal in the developed world. Second, the logic of the Zionist project that sought the establishment of a Jewish state as a safe haven for a people who had been cruelly persecuted. Such a state could only be achieved through the violent dispossession of the indigenous Arab population, with the horrors of the Holocaust used to justify the oppression of another people.

The new upsurge of the international working class against social inequality, repression and social injustice points the way forward for the masses of Jewish and Arab workers alike in the form of a united struggle to overthrow and replace the Zionist state and the various Arab bourgeois regimes and forge the United Socialist States of the Middle East.

This is the perspective fought for by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). It is vital that sections of the ICFI are built in Israel and across the Middle East to provide the leadership necessary to conduct this struggle.
About 1.25 lakh candidates on Monday emerged victorious in the elections held in last week, the outcome which the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) claimed a "huge win" while the opposition said it had come out stronger.

Though the village panchayat elections are not fought on party symbols, panels are fielded by political parties or local leaders.

Leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) claimed that the MVA comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress has scored a big win in the polls, counting for which was held on Monday.

On the other hand, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the has emerged as the single largest party in these elections.

Polling for elections to 12,711 gram panchayats was held in 34 of the total 36 districts on January 15.

Polling was held for 1,25,709 seats, for which 2,14,880 candidates were in the fray.

Of the total 2,41,598 candidates who were in the race post scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations, 26,718 candidates faced no rivals, so they would be declared elected unopposed, the state Election Commission had said.

Elections to 14,234 gram panchayats were announced on December 11 last year, but in some local governing bodies elections were held completely or partially unopposed.

Later, the elections got delayed mainly because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Gram Panchayats are considered the third tier of governance. Elections for them are not held on party lines or using party symbols. Candidates are allotted election symbols from a list of free symbols.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, senior NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said, "As per inputs, the results of elections are good and are in favour of the MVA. Party workers of the Congress, Sena and NCP have clinched the victory. In most of these places, the Congress, NCP and Sena retained seats in their respective strongholds. I congratulate all these members for this success".

Pawar also said the overall (political) picture in seems to be changing post the results of Legislative Council elections held last year, in which the had suffered a setback.

Another senior NCP leader and state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said in Nashik that the MVA has achieved a "huge success" in the elections as per trends and results.

Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat claimed that 80 per cent of the seats in Gram Panchayats that went to polls were won by the constituents of the MVA.

"The MVA alliance has won 80 per cent villages in this elections while Congress alone has won 4,000 gram panchayats. This is a strong message to the BJP and its style of working," he said.

However, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, said, "As MVA parties have come together, we got a lot of space to expand. The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the Gram Panchayat polls".

"Following a natural calamity, this MVA government has failed to resolve woes of the people. The poll outcome is a strong message to the state government," the former chief minister said.
Muzaffarnagar:

A man and his sister-in-law were arrested on the charge of cow slaughter after police raided their home in neighbouring Shamli district and allegedly recovered beef.



Police said the raid was carried out on Friday after a complaint was received from some villagers that a cow was slaughtered in the household at Bunta village in Garhi Pukhta police station area.



Cow hide and slaughter tools were also seized from the house, Garhi Pukhta police station SHO Sunil Dutt said. The arrested were Mubarik (30) and Reshma (27).



Tension mounted in the area after the incident, prompting authorities to deploy policemen. In a separate case, police raided a house in Banat town of Shamli and seized buffalo meat on Friday.



A case was registered against two persons, police said, adding that they were on the run.

ALSO READ | Manipur: Three UTLA militants arrested in Jiribam district

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The Karnataka Tourism Infrastructure Limited (KTIL) has called for applications from qualified and experienced candidates for filling Thirty-Eight (38) vacancies to the post of District Tourism Consultants, PPP Specialist, Heritage Advisor and HR Officer in KTIL through direct recruitment to be posted across Karnataka in India on a fulltime basis. The offline application process towards the same started on January 15, 2021 and closes on January 31, 2021.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts District Tourism Consultants, PPP Specialist, Heritage Advisor and HR Officer in KTIL Organisation Karnataka Tourism Infrastructure Limited (KTIL) Educational Qualification MBA/Masters Degree in Travel/Tourism/Hospitality with minimum 55% marks (aggregate); MBA/PGDM in Finance; B.E/B.Tech in Civil/B.Arch Engineering; Masters in Tourism Administration (MTA) with minimum 60% marks (aggregate) Experience Three to five years of experience in the concerned area Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Desirable Job Location Karnataka Salary Scale In the range of Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 per month as per the post Industry Tourism Infrastructure Application Start Date January 15, 2021 Application End Date January 31, 2021

KTIL Recruitment 2021: Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021 must fall in the age group between 21 to 50 years of age as on January 15, 2021 with relaxation (upper age limit) for reserved categories as specified in the KTIL Recruitment 2021 Notification.

For details regarding application fee for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021, refer to the official KTIL Recruitment Notification 2021 given at the end of article.

Also Read: India Government Mint Recruitment 2021 For 54 Supervisor, Technicians And Assistants. Apply Before February 19

KTIL Recruitment 2021: Eligibility Criteria

Candidates applying for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021 must possess an MBA/Master's Degree in Travel/Tourism/Hospitality with minimum 55% marks (aggregate); MBA/PGDM in Finance; B.E/B.Tech in Civil/B.Arch Engineering; Masters in Tourism Administration (MTA) with minimum 60% marks (aggregate) from a AICTE/UGC recognised University/Institution with three to five years of experience in the concerned area with desirable skills as detailed in the KTIL Notification 2021.

KTIL Recruitment 2021: Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021 will be done through Shortlisting, Interview and Document Verification as mentioned in the KTIL Recruitment 2021 Notification.

Candidates shortlisted for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021 will be paid emolument in the range of Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 per month as per the post.

Also Read: Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 For 26 Officers Under 10+2 (BTech) Cadet Entry Scheme (Permanent Commission)

KTIL Recruitment 2021: How To Apply

Candidates applying for KTIL Jobs 2021 through KTIL Recruitment 2021 must fill the application form attached with the KTIL Recruitment 2021 Notification and e-mail the same along with relevant supporting documents to ktilrecruitment@gmail.com on or before January 31, 2021.

Download KTIL Recruitment 2021 Notification PDF for District Tourism Consultants, PPP Specialist, Heritage Advisor and HR Officer posts
Mobility analysts, urban planners and AI companies bill widespread lidar as a building block for future urban societies, where autonomous vehicles, smart homes and infrastructure work together to create "smart" cities.

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a sensing method that enables devices to glean what an object is based on its shape. In theory, when deployed on traffic lights, in parking lots and on enough vehicles, the technology could help contextualise what's happening outside so cities can better manage energy and security. It could also manage traffic congestion.

Seoul Robotics has launched a new product to equip urban cities with 3D vision. Credit:Seoul Robotics

The tech has been around since at least the 1970s. However, it was considered too expensive and complicated for companies in a broad range of industries to utilise. That is until now, according to HanBin Lee, founder of South Korea-based Seoul Robotics, a computer vision company.

Prices have come down so much that the tech is found in the latest model iPhones. It's how robot vacuums see what's around your home. It's at the centre of several thought-provoking product announcements to come out of this year's CES, a large, global tech conference that took place last week.
MTN Ghana has awarded 550 Agents and Merchants in the South-West Region for their sacrifices and invaluable contributions to the growth of MTN.

The prizes range from a Nissan vehicle to mobile phones and plaques.



An Agent at the Modern Action Ventures at Nkroful Junction, Madam Rita Kwaku was adjudged the Winner of the 2020 MTN Awards and received a Nissan vehicle for her loyalty and dedicated services to MTN.



The first runner-up awardee received a motorbike and a cheque for GHc10,000 while the second runner-up got a motorbike and a cheque for GHc 5,000.



All the 300 Agents and 250 Merchants received priceless awards ranging from motorbikes, flat screen TV sets, tablets, phones and plaques.



In an address, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mobile Money Limited at MTN, Mr. Eli Hini expected the year would be more business friendly than 2020, which was plagued by COVID-19 pandemic.



He said the award scheme, which has been in existence since 2014 to honour excellence, would be sustained in the coming years.



Mr Hini lauded the agents and the merchants for their perseverance to provide services to customers during the COVID-19 lockdown period.



The CEO said MTN acknowledged the efforts of its Agents and Merchants who continued to provide loyal services to customers.



He warned those, who had formed a clique with customers to earn commission through fraudulent means, adding that such a behaviour had dire consequences for the business.



Mr Hini disclosed that some Agents and Merchants, who collaborated with fraudsters to dupe customers had lost their jobs.



As part of measures to weed out fraudsters, MTN Identity (ID) cards would be made available to them.



Mr Hini advised customers not to disclose their Personal Identification Number (PIN) to any Agent or Merchant nor hand over their handsets to them for any transactions and also to avoid entertaining phone call transactions.



The South West Regional Manager, Mr. Ben Nyarko acknowledged the significant milestone chalked by MTN Momo in 2020 and reiterated the need to celebrate the lives and services of Momo agents and Merchants for their contribution to the growth of MTN.





Source: GNA









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A woman's claim of being stopped from boarding her Virgin Australia flight as the pilot said that her outfit was showing too much skin has led to outrage among social media users. The woman said that she felt embarrassed and humiliated after the incident.

23-year-old Catherine Bampton was at Adelaide Airport heading to her home in Gold Coast on Wednesday where she was approached by an airline staff member to inform her she wont be permitted to board her flight VA1447 because the pilot believed her outfit was too revealing.

In conversation with News.com.au, Catherine said that she was in so much shock and confused because her clothes werent revealing. She added that she was publically embarrassed as the female staff member told her off in front of everyone.

Dressed in a high-necked halter top, high-waisted trousers and white trainers, Catherine was asked if she had another top to put on, so she had to wear a jacket before boarding.

Catherine said that other passengers who were waiting to board the plane were sitting there watching and staring in shock with their mouths open. After she boarded her flight, Catherine asked the crew member what was wrong with her attire to which the staff member replied and said that the pilot doesnt like people showing too much skin.

Catherine further asked them if one couldnt show their arms or back but she claims the staff member didnt know how to respond to her question.

The university student has demanded an apology from the pilot and submitted a formal complaint to the airline as she wants them to be aware of the situation.

Virgin Australia has confirmed that the staff approached Catherine in the gate lounge regarding the bikini-style top being worn at the time. Catherine states that she doesnt want them to do it to other people and that they shouldnt be allowed to do that.
On January 20, she plans to visit eastern Ukraine, if the security situation allows, to see first-hand the situation in conflict-affected areas.

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Sweden's Minster for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde will visit Ukraine this week for meetings with high-level Ukrainian officials and travel to the east of the country.

Linde will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on January 19. The talks will focus on the crisis in and around Ukraine, and on strengthening the co-operation between the OSCE and Ukraine, the OSCE said on its website on January 18, 2021.

Read alsoTerritorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected, including Crimea  OSCE chair-in-officeLinde will also meet with staff members from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine. She will also meet with civil society representatives.

"On January 20, she plans to visit eastern Ukraine, if the security situation allows, to see first-hand the situation in conflict-affected areas," reads the report.

Other related news reports

Reporting by UNIAN
CREMONA, JAN 18 - A 38-year-old Ivorian man who killed his two-year-old daughter in 2019 on Monday got life imprisonment. Kouao Jacob Danho was found guilty of stabbing Gloria to death in order to get back at his ex-wife for leaving him, a Cremona court ruled. Gloria was murdered in the man's flat as a way of making her mother Isabelle suffer, the court found. Danho was found guilty of murder, but not premeditation. The murder took place on June 22 2019. The couple split up shortly after Gloria was born. (ANSA).

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The recent increase in the numbers of attacks on the media from some elites, overzealous officers, and fraction of the public shows that Nigeria is seriously at war with itself and needs a special therapy inorder to recuperate from the wound occasioned by this ignominious display and regain her rightful position in the comity of nation.

On 6th January, 2021, three photo journalists with PUNCH, Leadership and Sun newspapers were assaulted while carring out their duty by the officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps stationed at the headquarters of the National Identity Management Commission in Abuja. The security officers grabbed their cameras and deleted all the pictures after damaging the camera of one of the journalists.

This occurred months after a Former Minister, Mr Fani-Kayode, was seen in a viral video abruptly leaving a briefing at Calabar, after pouring invective on a reporter, Eyo Charles of Daily Trust newspaper, who asked him question on the person bankrolling his tour to States across the country. Though, the former Minister later appologized for this urgly incident but the display depict the nature and character of most of Nigerian elites.

In Nigeria, media is seen as a means of projecting the view of the elite alone. Anytime, the media does the opposite it is tagged different names despite the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Constitution.

For instance, the section 39 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, stipulates that: every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.

Specifically, section 22, states that The press, radio, television and other agencies of mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter (i.e. Chapter 2 of the Constitution) and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.

From these sections, it's obvious that the media is the oxygen of democracy. Any attempt to silence it, is like sending a poisoned arrow to the soul of a Nation. That is why, the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, described the mass media as a more important arm of the society than the government itself. Were it left for me to choose whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I shall not hesitate to choose the latter,

Despite this crucial role, the press in Nigeria still faces insults, embarrassments, harassments, beatings and even death, in the process of gathering information and sometimes threat from the government or it officials after dissemination.

On 11 October, a Daily Trust reporter Gimba Kakanda was roughed up inside a police station in Abuja, the capital, after being arrested. While in January 2019, security agents from the Nigerian Army, SSS and police raided the offices of the firm across the country, seized their media tools and forced staff to go into hiding.

Also, Ebuka Onyeji, a reporter with the Premium Times online newspaper, was attacked by five police officers while performing his duty at Abuja on October 5. In the same manner, the police attacked Arise Television camera operator Francis Ogbonna and reporter Ferdinand Duruoha in Abuja.

Similar thing happened on October 12, when a group of protesters in Lagos State, hit Television Continental presenter Theophilus Elamah in the chest and forced him and the cameraman he was working with, Julius Idowu, to leave the protest area. The same is the narrative of Oluwatoyin Yusuf, a journalist with the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) who was attacked by unidentified men at Osogbo on 17th October.

Repeatedly on October 24, a police officer hit Akpokona Omafuaire, a senior photojournalist with the Vanguard newspaper, on his way to the Nigeria Union of Journalists headquarters in Warri, Delta State.

The Nation Newspaper office was not left out in the rage against media houses by unidentified people across the country on 21st October. Emmanuel Adeyemi, a correspondent with The Sun newspaper, was shot by unidentified people on his way to the NUJ office in Lokoja on 26 October.

Other reporters that faced this urgly side of their profession are Luka Biniyat, the Vanguard newspaper Kaduna correspondent, Dipo Awojobi who was arrested over an alleged defamatory article about a Nigerian politician, among others.

Infact, the surge in the arrests of bloggers and journalists under suspicion of cyberstalking by the government and their officials show clearly that the nation's democracy is on a dangerous trajectory. No wonder, the country is ranked 115th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

In October, the Federal Government through the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) sanctioned prominent television stations such as Africa Independent Television, AIT, Arise TV and Channels for what it called, a gross violation of the broadcast code, top of which is the use of unverifiable online video footages on the social media.

Though, usage of unverified material is a condemnable act and must not be encouraged in the fourth estate of the realm but the circumstances that surrounded the action of the regulative body shows that there is something more to the sanction than the pronounced claim and that is why most of the methods that worked in the advance countries failed to work in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, institutions are built around personality. This makes it very easy for those in power to use them for their ulterior motive just as the NBC was used during the Endsars protest to instill fear in the minds of most of the prominent media houses in order to suppress the voice of the masses.

The nation's democracy is degenerating to a draconian system because of the threat pose by the elites, and overzealous officers to the freedom of expression. As a result, the nation continues to experience different forms of war, ranging from verbal threat and other demonstrations that serve as a poisoned streal to her soul.

In searching for the best therapy to heal this wound, the media needs to be immuned from all forms of threat hindering the free flow of adequate and accurate information so that the people can enjoy the dividends of democracy like the way it is being done in the advanced countries.

Femi Oluwasanmi,

Ibafo,

Ogun State.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala is projected to get the highest share of votes in the coming Assembly polls in Kerala scheduled later this year, as per the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.

The survey included 6,000 respondents covering all the 140 Assembly constituencies in Kerala.

As per the syrvey, the LDF is projected to get 42.6 per cent of votes, lower by 1.9 per cent as compared to the previous Assembly polls.

The survey suggested that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is projected to receive the second highest vote share at 34.6 per cent in the upcoming Assembly polls, a dip of 4.2 per cent as compared to the previous Assembly elections.

The BJP, which had received 14.9 per cent of votes in the 2016 Assembly polls, is projected to get 15.3 per cent votes, a gain of 0.4 per cent.

According to the survey, others parties will get 8.5 per cent of votes, a gain of 5.7 per cent as compared to the previous polls.

The survey suggested that the LDF alliance will secure the highest number of seats at 85 in the coming Assembly, six less than the 91 it managed in 2016.

The UDF alliance, which had secured 47 seats in 2016, is projected win 53 seats this time. The BJP alliance is projected to win one seat, same as its 2016 tally.
Mohammad Ezzat Khattab has put himself forward as a candidate for the 2021 presidential elections, amid confusion about the position of the opposition writes North Press.

Syrian opposition activists and pro-government pages on the Internet shared a photo of a new Syrian presidential candidate.

The next presidential elections in Syria are scheduled to be held between Apr. 16  May 16, 2021.

The emergence of the candidate has begged questions about the position of the Syrian opposition, which has been busy publishing opinion polls and awaiting their results, in reference to what the oppositions Syrian Negotiations Committee (SNC) has been doing.

According to the details, the candidate is Mohammad Ezzat Khattab, Secretary-General of the Syria for All party. The latter is calling for a special conference in the Belgian capital of Brussels soon, under the auspices of the European Union.

Khattab, born in Damascus in 1969, holds a doctorate in political science from Damascus University and has been the head of the Syria for All party since it was founded in 2009.

Khattab resided in Switzerland for several years before the outbreak of the Syrian war, before heading to France to settle there in 2012 and begin his career in economics and politics, according to informed sources.

The Syrian government has not released any information about potential candidates or those who would like to run for the upcoming presidential elections. The latest news, however, was related to Russias decision to accept President Bashar al-Assad nominating himself for a third presidential term.

Syrian opposition sources indicated that, the Syrian opposition is busy publishing opinion polls, data, and statements on Facebook, without any serious action regarding the upcoming presidential elections and Assads candidacy prior to any political solution.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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Private sector lender, RBL Bank on Monday said its Board of Directors has approved the re-appointment of Vishwavir Ahuja as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank for a period of three years, with effect from June 30, 2021 to June 29, 2024.

This is based on the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee, the bank said in a notification to exchanges.

Subsequently, the bank has recommended the re-appointment of Ahuja to the Reserve Bank of India for the regulator's approval, it said. Ahuja has been the Managing Director and CEO of RBL Bank since June 30, 2010.

Ahuja is a seasoned banker with over 38 years of experience and expertise in banking, economics, finance, risk management, HR and business management. Prior to joining RBL Bank, Ahuja was the Managing Director and CEO of Bank of America, India from 2001 to 2009.
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In an important, probing article, David French claimed that, A violent Christian insurrection invaded and occupied the Capitol (his emphasis). Is there truth to this serious charge?

He wrote, Why do I say this was a Christian insurrection? Because so very many of the protesters told us they were Christian, as loudly and clearly as they could.

He notes that there was a giant wooden cross outside the Capitol and adds that Jesus saves signs and other Christian signs were sprinkled through the crowd. I watched a man carry a Christian flag into an evacuated legislative chamber.

One of his colleagues pointed out that Christian music was blaring from the loudspeakers late in the afternoon of the takeover. And dont forget, he wrote, this attack occurred days after the so-called Jericho March, an event explicitly filled with Christian-nationalist rhetoric so unhinged that I warned on December 13 that it embodied a form of fanaticism that can lead to deadly violence.

French also points to some of the lies that helped fuel the fires of the storming of the Capitol, including: America will end if Trump loses; and, The fate of the church is at stake if Joe Biden wins.

Yet, as much as I agree with many of the concerns French raises, the article still paints a misleading picture. The fact that Christian music was playing at the big rally does not mean that the violent attackers were Christians themselves  not, at least, in any true sense of the word.

I believe that this will be confirmed in the days to come, as virtually all of those arrested will be identified as members of white supremacist, white nationalist type groups. Not all, but virtually all.

The reason I say this is precisely because I share many of the concerns raised by French in terms of some very real problems in the evangelical church today, especially in our white evangelical circles.

As my readers know all too well (for some of them, to the point of ad nauseam), I too have raised concerns about Christian looking to Trump as some kind of political messiah. I have raised concerns about an unhealthy Christian nationalism and about confusing America with the kingdom of God. And, in the immediate aftermath of the Jericho March, I drew attention to the dangerous military rhetoric that at least one speaker used in the rally, not to mention the theological errors that colored much of the rally itself.

I also hold President Trump responsible for years of dangerous rhetoric that helped fuel the fires of hatred and mistrust that exploded in our nations Capitol. (For the record, I do not believe he should have been impeached once, let alone twice.)

But as an evangelical leader who is good friends with quite a few prominent, evangelical Trump supporters, and as one who lives in the midst of the evangelical movement, I know for a fact that these leaders and believers were appalled and shocked at what took place that fateful day.

One caller to my radio show told our listeners that he felt led by God to be at the event and to stand in front of the Capitol, starting at 9:00 AM. All that day, in the freezing cold, he held up a flag saying, We need You Lord.

And he said that, for hours, as the handful of people there turned into tens and then hundreds, then thousands, the atmosphere was peaceful and prayerful. It was only when a bus arrived at 12:30 PM with a new group of people that things shifted, as they began to challenge the police and call for an attack.

He was convinced that they were Antifa plants, but lets say that they were actually white nationalist Trump supporters. Either way, the point is they were the ones who provoked the violence, not the thousands who were there to pray. (He was actually positioned at the very point where the fence was breached, so his perspective was invaluable.)

Other friends of mine who were there were beyond mortified by the events of the day. Every Christian leader I know was appalled.

This is not who we are. These are not the values to which we adhere. In that sense, this was not a Christian insurrection.

Do I believe many of these same Christians have become caught up in a partisan political spirit. Absolutely.

Do I believe they should have been grieved at the unwise, if not incendiary, remarks of Rudy Guliani and Donald Trump, Jr. at the rally? Certainly.

Do I believe that, for many, there was an unhealthy mingling of patriotism with the worship of Jesus? Without a doubt.

Do I believe that many of these committed Christians had been misled by lies and exaggerations, including those of QAnon? Yes again.

Do I believe that this should be a time of great soul searching for those evangelical Christians who tethered their hopes to a man? Once more, yes.

Thats why I say that I share many of the concerns French raised and why I encouraged some of my friends and colleagues to read his article. Thats also why, as I mentioned in my most recent article, I have always respected Christian Never Trumpers (who sat out elections rather than voted Republican or Democrat), even if I did not join in their ranks.

But once more, thats where I make the important distinction between the serious, Jesus followers who were in D.C. to pray for a righteous outcome to the election and those who came ready to do battle. (For my relevant Twitter poll, see here. Over 79 percent of those polled did not know a single Christian who approved of the violent attack.)

If you think Im being too naive (which, at times, I certainly can be), take a few minutes to research where the pre-rally, violent chatter came from online. Was it from solid evangelical sites, where the Word of God is honored and Jesus is preached? Or was it from rightwing extremist websites? The latter may profess to be Christian, but they have little to connect them to the Christian faith.

As the Washington Postobserved, The planning for Wednesdays assault on the U.S. Capitol happened largely in plain view, with chatters in far-right forums explicitly discussing how to storm the building, handcuff lawmakers with zip ties and disrupt the certification of Joe Bidens election  in what they portrayed as responding to orders from President Trump.

I agree that this is certainly a time for housecleaning in our evangelical camp. And just as Trump has helped to expose the radicality of the left, the bias of the media, and the tyranny of Big Tech, he has also helped to expose the hypocrisy and compromise of the church.

But thats why we must be circumspect in our diagnosis if we want to help address and correct these problems. Otherwise, if we paint with too broad a brush or speak in too general terms, many will say in response, Sorry, but that does not apply to me.

The fact is that you and I did not storm the Capitol on January 6th and engage in violent acts against the police while threatening the lives of our elected officials. In that regard, this was absolutely not a Christian insurrection.
Barn destroyed by Wednesday morning fire

Fire destroyed a barn about five miles southeast of Watertown Wednesday, according to a report from Watertown Fire Rescue.
Indianapolis, IN (46208)

Today

Thunderstorms in the morning followed by occasional showers in the afternoon. Morning high of 68F with temps falling to near 55. WSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 44F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
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MILAN, JAN 18 - A doctor and former ward chief at one of Milan's top hospitals on Monday got six and a half years in jail for corruption. Norberto Confalonieri was convicted of illegally sponsoring prosthetic equipment in exchange for money. He was acquitted of injuring two patients. The surgeon was arrested in March 2017 for allegedly breaking a 91-year-old woman's femur so as to try out a "bikini-style" operation to "train myself", according to a wiretap. But Confalonieri, orthopaedics chief at the Gaetano Pini Hospital, was cleared of bodily harm while being found guilty of bid-rigging and corruption. According to the incriminating wiretap which was found to be insufficient evidence, Confalonieri said of the woman "I didn't put stitches in, I put in a zip so I can open her up again". The alleged 'training operation' on the elderly woman gained headlines in Italy. (ANSA).
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

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Matthew Lewiss face is everywhere.

On the wall to his right, grinning on a poster for the 2012 West End revival of Our Boys, a play by Jonathan Lewis. In the alcove behind him, arms crossed and stony-faced in a group shot for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And in front of his laptop camera, eyes widening beneath his gray flat cap and dark brown hair as he explains the seemingly self-promoting background.

Its not my house! the 31-year-old actor said. He and his wife were paying a Christmas Eve visit to his parents in Leeds, the Yorkshire city 200 miles north of London where he was born, he explained (after quarantining for five days and testing negative for the coronavirus). But hed overlooked the fact that their homes study is, well, a shrine to him.

Theyre very proud, he said, as though wishing for nothing more than an Invisibility Cloak.

But bashfulness is no longer necessary for the man who for a decade played the fumbling, stammering Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films. Last year, hed spent time in the nearby Yorkshire Dales, not far from Leeds, filming his role as Hugh Hulton, a wealthy landowner and rival suitor to the veterinarian James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) for the affections of a farmers daughter, Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), in the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, the Masterpiece series that began airing Sunday nights on PBS this month.

The seven-episode series, which is based on James Alfred Wights beloved books inspired by his adventures as a young veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire, was a surprise hit when it premiered in Britain this fall. Celebrated as an emotional balm for pandemic-weary viewers, it became Channel 5s highest-rated show since 2016, and has been renewed for a second season.
Zain Bahrain, a leading telecoms operator in the kingdom, in collaboration with Ericsson, a world-leading provider of communications technology, today announced the successful completion of trials of Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology to support Bahrain in achieving National Telecommunication Plan (NTP) - 5 Machine to Machine (M2M) aspirations.

The trial that started in Bahrain in early August with Ericsson highlights Zains capability on NB-IoT and the companys continuous investment to enhance its network by introducing and showcasing the massive potential the latest technologies will have in the kingdom, said a statement.

NB-IoT is based on the 3GPP cellular standard and is designed to be a low-power, low-cost, high-penetration solution to enable low-bandwidth communications as part of the Internet of Things, using a very narrow band of low-frequency spectrum. NB-IoT has an excellent range and object penetration capabilities making it perfect for remote monitoring of static or limited movement installations where data transmissions are small. Once deployed in Bahrain, the technology is expected to help accelerate the proliferation of IoT devices and develop the IoT ecosystem, the advantages of which include coverage, long battery life, and cost-effective solutions to enterprises, it said.

Commenting on the successful completion of the NB-IoT trial, Ali Al-Yaham, Director Technology at Zain Bahrain, said: NB-IoT is the main pillar to enable IoT & M2M in a massive scale. Zain Bahrains successful trial with Ericsson shows that NB-IoT has everything that is needed to become the new, interoperable standard in the machine-to-machine (M2M) communication sector. NB-IoT is expected to become an integral part of 5G, addressing the significant demand for low-speed, low-bandwidth connections for massive machine to machine communication. At Zain Bahrain, it is our continuous effort and commitment to enhance peoples livelihood by bringing in innovative solutions and applications. We have made investments to improve mobile, fixed and international services with special focus on coverage enhancement where data connectivity can be achieved in locations that other technologies fail to reach. The trial is also a testament to provide the citizens & businesses of Bahrain with a superior telecommunications experience.

Earlier this year, Zain Bahrain and Ericsson had rolled out 5G commercial services in the kingdom. Zain Bahrain has continuously focused on investing in innovation and on next-generation technologies and services to enhance the network, through providing a full range of telecom services to their B2B clients, which include local and international connectivity, high-speed internet access, fixed voice & PABX, as well as mobility solutions, it said.  TradeArabia News Service
The 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which was due in November 2020, is underway after a fair bit of uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The 8-day festival, which happens to be Asias oldest, is being held by the banks of the river Mandovi, in Goa.

Even though there werent many big releases internationally in 2020, IFFI has managed to string together 220 odd films, both old and new, under various sections. There is no film with the reputation of Parasite (2019), Shoplifters (2018), or Cold War (2018) to look forward to, but here are 12 films to look out for at IFFI this year.

Suk Suk  Hong Kong director Ray Yeung explores the sexuality of two gay men in their 70s in this sensitively told story. Having struggled with their identity for most of their lives, they also have their families to deal with, in the twilight of their lives.

180 Degree Rule - What good is an international film festival without an Iranian film? The story of a school teacher who seeks her husbands permission to attend a wedding in another city has made waves in the festival circuit.

Berlin Alexanderplatz  As Hitchcock said, the length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder; this 3-hour film doesnt quite conform to the great director's advice but this 2020 adaptation of Alfred Doblin's 1929 cult novel still sounds exciting. It is set in the modern-day, and involves an African immigrant. The great German auteur, Rainer Werner Fassbinder had adapted it as a miniseries in 1980.

The Man Who Sold His Skin  The film stars Monica Belluci and is directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, who made Beauty and the Dogs (2017)  that is a good enough reason to look forward to this film. Not forgetting the fact that it won a couple of awards at the Venice festival.

Spring Blossom - The story of a young girl involved with an older man may sound familiar but Suzanne Lindons film has been well received in the festival circuit. And though her father Vincent Lindon as a well-known actor, you still have to wrap your head around the fact that the director was born in the 21st century.

A Common Crime  You dont get to see too many thrillers at a festival, that too one that also has a social commentary. This Argentinian film has death, guilt, and a haunting - how exciting.

New Order  Winner of the Silver Lion at Venice last year, this Mexican film highlights inequality and the class divide in a rather no-holds-barred manner. The Hollywood Reporter called it terrifyingly riveting.

Holy Rights - This documentary in the non-feature section of the Indian Panorama came highly recommended by a filmmaker who was on the jury. Farha Khatuns previous films dealt with the issue of gender; this one is about patriarchy and the oppression of women under the guise of religion

Karkhanisanchi Waari - Mangesh Joshis previous film Lathe Joshi (2018) was an absolute treat and that is the primary reason I am excited about his new film  it revolves around a family on a trip to Pandharpur, after a death in the family.

Farewell Amour  A nominee for the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year, this film is about an Angolan family reuniting in New York after almost two decades.

Apples  With the backdrop of a pandemic where amnesia seems to be the order of the day, Apples has received rave reviews, has travelled to several festivals and picked up more than a handful of awards.

Night of the Kings  Ivorian director Phillipe Lacotes film is set in an Abidjan prison and involves a ritual of story-telling, a dash of magical realism, and more. Given that cinema from that region is hugely under-represented, this promises to be an interesting watch.
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New Delhi:

The internal conflict inside Aam Aadmi Party once again came to the fore with pasting of posters against party leader Kumar Vishwas in front of the party office in New Delhi.

Some anonymous people pasted poster on the walls of AAP office which demanded expulsion of Kumar Vishwas from the party. The poster read that Vishwas is a friend of BJP and instead of being a poet, he is a traitor. The poster also demanded explusion of Kumar Vishwas from the party.

The poster came at a time when party leader Dilip Pandey had accused Kumar Vishwas of working in interest of BJP just few days back.

The poster also thanked Dilip Pandey for exposing Kumar Vishwas. Dilip Pandey had on Monday questioned Vishwas on twitter by saying that he attacks congressmen but why is he silent against Vasundhra in Rajasthan.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal attends iftar with suspended AAP member Amanatullah, snubs Kumar Vishwas

Also read: AAP's fresh crisis: Kejriwal's aide Dilip Pandey attacks Kumar Vishwas for being soft on BJP, gets slammed by Kapil Mishra



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The on Monday said the Trinamool Congress is fearing that the ground beneath its feet is fast slipping away which is why Chief Minister has "suddenly announced" that she will contest the upcoming assembly poll from Nandigram.

Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district had witnessed massive public protest against "forcible" land acquisition by the then Left Front government, for creation of a special economic zone, that propelled her to power in 2011.

"It appears that Chief Minister has sensed defeat in Bhawanipore. She has therefore suddenly announced hat she will contest from Nandigram. But she will be defeated there as well. The TMC will be defeated everywhere," state president Dilip Ghosh said.

In the last election, Banerjee had contested from Bhawanipur in south Kolkata, while Nandigram was the home turf of poitical heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, who recently quit the TMC and joined the

Addressing a rally in Nandigram earlier in the day, Banerjee said, "If possible, I will contest from both Bhawanipore and Nandigram. In case I am unable to contest from Bhawanipore, someone else will."



Asked if Suvendu Adhikari would be the BJP candidate from Bhawanipore seat, Ghosh told reporters during a road show, "it is for our party to decide which candidate will be fielded from which constituency".

Assembly elections are likely in the state in April- May.

Referring to the incident in which BJP activists were pelted with stones near Charu Market area in Tollygunje when they were conducting a roadshow, Ghosh said, "the TMC only understands the politics of 'hamla aar mamla' (attacks and instituting cases) against its political opponents".

Speaking to journalists, Adhikari said, "the TMC is scared after seeing the large turnout in this rally. Five people emerged from a lane and started hurling stones. The more they indulge in such activities, the more they will lose people's support and their seats will gradually come down".

Adhikari also claimed that mostly people from seven districts and very few locals had attended Banerjee's public meeting at Nandigram during the day.

Ghosh, Adhikari, Union minister Debasree Choudhury and Bharati Ghosh were in the flower bedecked truck which was accompanied by party workers shouting 'Jai Sri Ram'.

The truck had not reached the spot when bricks and stones were hurled at the BJP activists.
At least 232 people died of a drug overdose last year in East Baton Rouge Parish  almost twice the 127 fatal overdoses in 2019, which was the previous record.

That's also more than twice the parishwide number of murders recorded by law enforcement in 2020, a statistic that similarly broke records.

While the tragic events of 2020 unfolded, headlines often focused on the skyrocketing homicide rate and coronavirus death toll, which together left hundreds of Baton Rouge families grieving. But local officials are sounding the alarm bells over this third source of unprecedented loss.

"Homicide rates get all the media attention, but these overdose deaths have taken us by storm," East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III said during a virtual townhall meeting on overdose deaths Thursday night. "This is something we really need to take a look at.  Our work is ahead of us."

+8 Baton Rouge's most murderous year on record: How gun violence surged amid pandemic Debra Ross was headed to her first Bible study of 2020 when she stopped home to change clothes and found herself walking into a nightmare: Her

The vast majority of the deaths were from opioids, many involving the potent synthetic drug fentanyl.

LSU researchers recorded the 232 deaths according to preliminary information from the parish coroner's office, which will release its final report in the coming weeks. The total is expected to increase thanks to pending results from toxicology tests that may confirm whether other recent deaths were overdoses.

"Nearly doubling is frightening," the coroner, Dr. Beau Clark, said in a recent interview. "The whole world stopped talking about the opioid epidemic and only talked about the COVID pandemic."

Clark said his office is used to recording slight increases in recent years, but 2020 totally changed the landscape.

Death toll from coronavirus breaks 500 in East Baton Rouge Parish COVID-19 has killed 503 people in East Baton Rouge Parish since the coronavirus pandemic first hit the state in March, new state health data say.

Nationwide statistics show 81,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12 months preceding May 2020. That was the highest number ever recorded during a single year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  and the data collection ended just two months into the coronavirus pandemic.

CDC Director Robert Redfield has pointed to fallout from the pandemic, which left many people jobless, lonely and stressed. Coronavirus restrictions also disrupted the local drug trade, according to local officials, and temporarily closed some treatment programs and other support services. On top of that, people were more isolated and maybe more likely to use drugs alone, leaving them with no one to call 911 if they became unresponsive.

"We need to take care of people suffering from unintended consequences" of the pandemic response, Redfield said in a statement last month.

Experts also point out that people who have been clean for a while are at higher risk of overdosing if they relapse, because their tolerance has dropped. That can lead to unforeseen tragic consequences.

The East Baton Rouge data show a pronounced increase in overdose deaths during the spring and early summer months, when the coronavirus restrictions were tightest. The monthly totals have since fallen slightly, though figures for most months remain significantly higher compared to recent years.

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"We have no time to waste," said Tonja Myles, a local advocate for people facing mental illness and substance abuse who organized the Thursday discussion. "Every day that we do nothing, someone loses their life."

Myles, an ordained minister whose faith often informs her mentoring work, said she's tired of burying people who lose their lives to drugs.

+2 A 'perfect storm': Overdose deaths in East Baton Rouge spike dramatically amid coronavirus At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, no one knew if drug overdose deaths would increase or decrease.

State health officials are focusing on three main initiatives to address the problem, said Karen Stubbs, assistant secretary of the state Office of Behavioral Health. The first involves widespread distribution of naloxone, or Narcan, the drug that reverses opioid overdoses, which anyone can get at the pharmacy without a prescription. She said officials are working with businesses, churches and individual families, encouraging them all to keep Narcan on hand.

State officials are also focusing on medication assisted treatment  often involving less addictive drugs such as Suboxone or methadone to wean people off opioids  and expanded telehealth services, which allow patients to consult virtually with medical professionals during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, at the local level, Capital Area Human Services is ramping up outreach efforts, hoping to connect with drug users and let them know about the treatment services that are available when they're ready to get help.

Just weeks before Louisiana discovered its first coronavirus cases back in March 2020, the agency unveiled a repurposed ambulance that would carry a mobile outreach team across the region. The team delivers a range of services and supplies, including addiction counseling, testing for infectious diseases, overdose reversal drugs and clean needles.

Local prosecutors are also looking to hold drug dealers accountable while helping drug users get into treatment, Moore said. The district attorney's office is working with LSU researchers to collect and analyze data on opioid use through a federal grant program that started in 2018.

In three of the fatal overdose deaths last year, law enforcement arrested people accused of providing the lethal drugs. Such arrests are allowed under an obscure stipulation in the state's second-degree murder statute. One person has been indicted, while two others were released after a grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict them. A fourth suspect is awaiting an indictment decision.

Murder charges in drug overdose deaths are rare in Louisiana; police, prosecutors explain why The afternoon of July 24, Baton Rouge police officers arrived at the Red Roof Inn, where they discovered an unresponsive 40-year-old woman who

Focusing on public education efforts is another top priority, especially after the carnage of 2020, because "a lot of people don't understand opioids or don't think addiction can happen to them," said Capital Area Executive Director Jan Laughinghouse.

She said those education efforts should also inform people on the benefits of medication assisted treatment, which carries some stigma when compared to more traditional programs that require abstinence. Laughinghouse noted the importance of administering the medication in conjunction with counseling and other support services.

She said the general public should be more compassionate toward people facing addiction.

"Addiction is a brain disease, folks. When someone has an opioid abuse disorder, they have a hijacked brain," she said. "It has absolutely nothing to do with how nice you are, how smart you are, how strong you are, how well-bred you are  it is a great equalizer."

Advocate staff writer Jackie DeRobertis contributed to this report.
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
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Uttar Pradesh on Monday recorded four COVID-19 fatalities, the lowest in over six months, which took the death toll to 8,580 while 379 fresh infections pushed the caseload to 5,96,904, officials said.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 8,631, they said.

Four deaths, the lowest in the past six-seven months, were reported in the state the previous day and 622 people were discharged, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters here.

"There are 8,631 active cases in the state and the total number of recoveries has risen to 5,79,693. Of the active cases, 2,948 are in home isolation, 823 are undergoing treatment in private hospitals and the rest are in government hospitals," he added.

So far, over 2.63 crore samples have been tested for COVID-19, including more than 1.10 lakh on Sunday, Prasad 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.)
Washington  U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says President-elect Joe Bidens administration is interested in prioritizing a $2 billion project to transform Interstate 81 in Syracuse and the neighborhoods surrounding the highway.

Schumer, D-N.Y., the incoming Senate majority leader, said he discussed I-81 in a private meeting with Pete Buttigieg, Bidens nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, and told him its one of his top priorities for New York state.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., liked the idea of tearing down the elevated highway and replacing it with a street-level boulevard that could help uplift historic Black neighborhoods in Syracuse, Schumer said.

He was very interested when I talked to him about I-81, Schumer told syracuse.com in an interview Sunday.

Buttigieg has said he will support funding projects to tear down interstate highways that divided and harmed minority communities in cities across the country.

In the Biden-Harris administration, we will make righting these wrongs an imperative, Buttigieg wrote in a tweet in late December.

Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president Wednesday, giving Democrats control of the White House and Congress.

Schumer will preside over a U.S. Senate thats split 50-50, but hell have majority control because the vice president (Kamala Harris) can break tie votes.

Schumer, 70, will become the first New Yorker in history to serve as Senate majority leader, effectively setting the agenda for the chamber.

He told syracuse.com that he will use that power to help boost Central New York, starting with the Interstate 81 project that has been more than a decade in the making.

We have a lot of opportunity, Schumer said. Now that Im majority leader, Ill have a little more clout, and Ill use it for Central New York.

Schumer said one of the first initiatives of the new Congress and administration will be a massive infrastructure bill that would secure funding for Interstate 81 in Syracuse.

The federal government has traditionally paid 90% of the costs for interstate highway projects, but the funding is far from guaranteed. The federal government has spent trillions responding to the coronavirus pandemic, which could lead to cutbacks on discretionary projects.

Schumer said hes committed to making sure that New York state has enough money to tear down the elevated portion of I-81 and build a street-level community grid.

As Ive always said, when the community comes together on a decision, my job is to deliver a maximum amount of help, he said. So, how can I do that as majority leader? First, Im going to push for a big bold infrastructure package, a $1 trillion package.

He said the infrastructure bill would prioritize communities of color that were disproportionately harmed by projects like I-81 in the first place.

The infrastructure bill would include money for cities to bring high-speed internet to poor, underserved communities, build affordable housing, and replace century-old water pipes, like those in Syracuse that deliver water from Skaneateles Lake.

Every home should have high-speed internet, Schumer said. In Syracuse, one out of four homes doesnt have internet. How are these kids going to learn? How is the whole family going to get plugged into the world without it?

Schumer said hell also work with the Biden administration to restore hiring rules  rescinded by President Donald Trump  that would give hiring priority to local residents on big infrastructure projects like I-81.

The senator said he spoke with Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, who has advocated for the hiring rule and written a letter to Buttigieg.

Schumer said his first priority with the incoming Biden administration will be to pass a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.

Most of the money, about $1 trillion, would be set aside for aid to families in the form of a new round of stimulus checks of an additional $1,400 per adult.

The relief package would also provide $350 billion in direct aid to cash-strapped state and local governments, helping Syracuse and Onondaga County avert additional layoffs and service cuts, Schumer said.

I want to make sure that counties like Onondaga are taken care of, cities like Syracuse, and suburban towns and villages, he said. And that formula, which I helped put together, has half the money go to the state and the other half go directly to localities.

The aid formula would provide up to $240 million to Syracuse and $170 million to Onondaga County in 2021.

Schumer said he also wants the bill to include aid for local restaurant owners whose businesses are in danger of closing because of the pandemic.

One other early priority for Schumer and Biden is to undo some changes from the 2017 tax law passed by Republicans in Congress and signed into law by Trump.

Schumer said hell focus on eliminating the $10,000 cap that limits the amount of state and local taxes that taxpayers can deduct from their federal tax returns.

Before the law passed, 70,800 households in Onondaga County had an average deduction of $14,100 in state and local taxes, he said.

Schumer said the cap disproportionately harmed residents in high-tax states like New York that pay more to the federal government than they receive back in federal aid.

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Rottgen, also a centrist, was eliminated in the first round of voting. The party's 1,000 delegates, who voted in a virtual conference, then gave Laschet his win in a runoff that saw him beat Merz by 55 votes.

A longtime Merkel loyalist -- some see Laschet as the male version of her -- he said during the campaign that a change of direction for the party would "send exactly the wrong signal," as he touted himself as the continuity candidate in a contest that saw him pitched against corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz, a far more conservative figure and Merkel critic, and Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the Bundestag's foreign affairs panel.

Laschet, 59, now replaces as chair of the party Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defense secretary whom Merkel had been grooming as her successor. Kramp-Karrenbauer largely failed to assert her authority over the party and announced her resignation in February after blaming Merkel for not being supportive enough.

Laschet's win puts him in position to succeed Merkel when the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, decide in March who should become the center-right bloc's candidate for chancellor in national elections. The CDU has led Germany's federal government for 52 of the past 72 years.

Germany's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) Saturday chose Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, as their new leader. The pick suggests the party favors continuing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's middle-of-the-road policies when she steps down in September after 16 years in office.

 'Stick Together'

"I want to do everything so that we can stick together through this year," he told his CDU colleagues after his win. "And then make sure that the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the [CDU/CSU] union."

For months, Laschet, who's pro-immigrant, was Merkel's preferred candidate. He defended her during the 2015 refugee crisis. But their relations turned frosty earlier this year when he pressed for an early relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, forcing him to scramble to repair the political damage he sustained inside and outside the CDU.

During his campaign he repeatedly stressed the importance of continuing with Merkel's overall approach of expanding the CDU's voter base, dismissing suggestions the party needs to be fearful of conservative voters defecting to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. "We will only win if we remain strong in the center of society," Laschet said Saturday, emphasizing the dangers of perpetuating political polarization.

Party leaders across the political spectrum joined Merkel in speedily offering congratulations. So, too, did Laschet's rivals, Merz and Rottgen. "Now there is no competition within the CDU anymore but with others," Rottgen said, adding that now is the time to "build a team with team spirit." Merz thanked party members for "good cooperation over the past 10 months," admitting he had not made life easy for Kramp-Karrenbauer. "It's going to be an enormously trying time for all of us now over the next few weeks and months," Merz said.

 Some Critics

Other German politicians were not so favorable. AfD's Jorg Meuthen said the result was "bad news for Germany" because Laschet's selection would see a continuation of Merkel's centrist policies.

The co-leader of the left-wing Die Linke, Katja Kipping, said Laschet's victory didn't mean he would become the CDU's chancellor candidate, adding: "No matter who wins the race for the CDU candidate for chancellor, the CDU will not be ready to set the course to get us out of the crisis in a fair manner."

Laschet's speech Saturday in the run-up to voting attracted a positive response from many German commentators.

Staunchly pro-EU, Laschet served as a European parliamentarian from 1999 until 2005 in Brussels, where he focused on foreign affairs. He has, however, disagreed with Merkel over the pace of European integration, and faulted the chancellor for not embracing French President Emmanuel Macron's push for deeper and speedier political union. "The French president is making proposals, but we are taking too long to respond," he said last year.

 Russia, China

The new CDU chair has also urged the West against demonizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and wants Germany to develop deeper economic ties with China. Last year, he criticized Washington and London for excluding Chinese telecommunications group Huawei from a role in developing Europes 5G wireless network.

"The consequences of exclusion would be a delay in deploying this technology," he said. "That can't be our goal. As an export-oriented country we have a large interest in free trade. German business lives from international exports, also those to China."

An aide to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said he predicted the incoming administration could clash with Laschet on Russia and China if he's elected chancellor. "Laschet favors a less confrontational approach to Moscow and Beijing," said the aide, who asked not to be identified.

But, the Biden aide noted, Laschet favors maintaining very close transatlantic relations. "The U.S. is our most significant partner outside the European Union," Laschet said in 2019. "It is the world's leading technology nation, and it is of critical importance to security in Europe."

Laschet did, however, prompt anger in 2014 in Washington and was accused of trading in conspiracy theories when he criticized the Obama administration for its support of rebels in Syria, tweeting to then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: "You supported ISIS and Al-Nusra against President Assad in Syria. And they are financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia."

Analysts are divided on whether the CDU can win the September election under Laschet's leadership. "While Laschet has convinced a majority of delegates at the party congress, it's questionable whether this message of pragmatism and continuity will be enough to win national elections," tweeted Ulrich Speck, senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin. "And more important: whether it will be enough to make sure that Germany's success story continues."

But Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College, University of London, said Laschet is a gifted politician. "Often underestimated, he's smarter, more skillful, and tenacious than people think," he tweeted.






Haiti - FLASH : Contaminated Haitian travelers from Port-au-Prince disembark in Montreal





Quebec is worried to see that travelers returning to Canada, from several countries (Mexico, Cuba, United States and France, etc...) that have been exposed to the coronavirus or are infected. Just like passengers on two Air Transat flights that arrived in Montreal on January 10 and 13, 2021 from Port-au-Prince.



It should be noted that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which analyzes Covid cases on board airplanes, considers that a row on a flight is affected "[...] it is three rows in the front and to the back of a row in which was a Covid-19 case. In the case of flights from Haiti, PHAC considered all rows to be at risk :



Air Transat, TS663, from Port-au-Prince to Montreal, January 10, all rows

Air Transat, TS665, from Port-au-Prince to Montreal, January 13, all rows."



However, the number of carrying or contaminated passengers in these planes is unknown.



Let's recall that passengers from Haiti to Canada were exempted from presenting a negative Covid-19 test result until January 21 due to the lack of capacity or availability of tests in Haiti.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Astronomers have discovered a unique 'super-puff' planet that's as big as Jupiter, but one tenth as heavy.

The planet, called WASP-107b is believed to be one of the least dense exoplanets ever discovered, earning it the nicknames of a 'super-puff' or 'cotton-candy' planet.

Researchers say the findings have 'big implications' for what we understand about how giant planets form and grow.

WASP-107b is very close to its star, WASP-107, with estimates suggesting the planet is over 16 times to its star than the Earth is to the Sun

WHAT IS WASP-107B? WASP-107b is believed to be one of the least dense exoplanets, earning it the nicknames a 'super-puff' and 'cotton-candy' planet. It lies around 212 light years away from Earth, in the Virgo constellation, and is very close to its star, WASP-107, with estimates suggesting the planet is over 16 times to its star than the Earth is to the Sun. Estimates suggest that the planet is around the same size as Jupiter, but is around one tenth as heavy. This extremely low density indicates that the planet must have a solid core of no more than four times the mass of Earth, according to the researchers. This suggests that more than 85 per cent of its mass lies in the thick layer of gas that surrounds its core. Advertisement

WASP-107b lies around 212 light years from Earth, in the Virgo constellation.

Estimates suggest the planet is over 16 times closer to its star, WASP-107, than the Earth is to the Sun.

Using observations obtained by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, researchers from the University of Montreal have been able to determine the planet's size and density.

Their results suggest that WASP-107b is around the same size as Jupiter, but is around one tenth as heavy.

This extremely low density indicates that the planet must have a solid core of no more than four times the mass of Earth, according to the researchers.

This suggests that more than 85 per cent of its mass lies in the thick layer of gas that surrounds its core.

Caroline Piaulet, a PhD student at the University of Montreal, and lead author of the study, said: 'We had a lot of questions about WASP-107b. How could a planet of such low density form?

'And how did it keep its huge layer of gas from escaping, especially given the planet's close proximity to its star?

'This motivated us to do a thorough analysis to determine its formation history.'

Most gas giant planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, have a solid core at least 10 times more massive than Earth.

Estimates suggest that the planet is around the same size as Jupiter, but is around 10 times lighter

However, WASP-107b has a much less massive core, leading the researchers to question how the planet was able to cross the critical threshold necessary to build up and retain its gas envelope.

Professor Eve Lee, a world-renowned expert on super-puff planets, has several theories.

'For WASP-107b, the most plausible scenario is that the planet formed far away from the star, where the gas in the disc is cold enough that gas accretion can occur very quickly,' she said.

'The planet was later able to migrate to its current position, either through interactions with the disc or with other planets in the system.'

Surprisingly, previous data from Nasa's Hubble spacecraft suggests WASP-107b contains very little methane.

Ms Piaulet said: 'That's strange, because for this type of planet, methane should be abundant. We're now reanalysing Hubble's observations with the new mass of the planet to see how it will affect the results, and to examine what mechanisms might explain the destruction of methane.'

WASP-107b is around the same size as Jupiter (pictured), but is 10 times lighter than the gas giant

The observations also revealed that WASP-107b isn't alone in orbiting the star WASP-107 - it's joined by another planet, called WASP-107c.

WASP-107c has a mass of about one-third of that of Jupiter, and is much further away from its central star than WASP-107b, taking three years to complete one orbit, as opposed to just 5.7 days.

Interestingly, the eccentricity of this second planet is high, meaning its trajectory is more oval than circular.

Ms Piaulet explained: 'WASP-107c has in some respects kept the memory of what happened in its system.

'Its great eccentricity hints at a rather chaotic past, with interactions between the planets which could have led to significant displacements, like the one suspected for WASP-107b.'

The team hopes the findings will shed light on the different mechanisms of planet formation throughout the universe.

Ms Piaulet added: 'Exoplanets like WASP-107b that have no analogue in our Solar System allow us to better understand the mechanisms of planet formation in general and the resulting variety of exoplanets. It motivates us to study them in great detail.'
If you havent figured it out, I enjoy quotes by great people. This week I again use a quote by Albert Einstein; he said The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

Simply put, we need to alter our traditional thinking to enact and facilitate change within our community.

After a year like 2020, which impacted so many small businesses and communities, it is important that we remind ourselves of the true value small business brings to our community. Analyst Nick Rokke, of the Palm Beach Daily, recently indicated some great small business facts. Small businesses make up 99.7% of U.S. firms. They employ 49% of all Americans and create 64% of all new jobs. Let those figures sink in!

Prior to COVID striking our communities and country, the fact that the business environment was generally robust in many communities throughout the country should come as no surprise. COVID changed that dynamic overnight. Even communities that have incorporated many of the proven tactics such as micro-TIFs, favorable tax rates, fewer regulations, city commitment, and other initiatives to assist small businesses, struggled to survive.

As Rokke also points out, with fewer regulations, businesses can more accurately predict the future allowing them to take on more employees or even expand. With competitive tax rates allowing businesses to keep more of their profits you have the ingredients of a strong small-medium business inducing environment. Micro-TIFs provide targeted funds for targeted areas of your community. City commitment instills confidence and support.

Why do I bring up the above information? Now is the time for every community in America to shine their light inward and determine if their community is doing everything possible to support and build their future through their small business base.

Is your community taking this time to double down on their efforts to assure small business growth? If not, now is the time to spring into action and create the atmosphere of innovation, change, entrepreneurship, collaboration and synergies.

There can be many reasons why this may not be occurring in your community. It may be regional headwinds not seen in other portions of the country, such as being tied to oil prices. It may be local and state taxes coupled with regulation, such as we see in states like Illinois, New Jersey or California that stifle growth. It might be a soft labor market where open positions may be hard to fill. The list of economic reasons is practically endless.

In spite of the reasons above and many others that we can add to the list, each community must take their future in their own hands. Be the future you wish to see. If taxes are too high, offer tax incentives. If regulations are stifling, reduce regulations making start-ups easy and painless. If you havent taken advantage of micro-TIFs, look into it and see if that fits your community. You might be surprised (we will have a column in the near future on micro-TIFs). If you have a tight labor market, provide tax incentives for hiring locals in lieu of out-of-town employees. For every issue, there tends to be an excuse. Dont dwell on excuses, look for solutions to overcome your issues through creativity, innovative and be willing to invest in local people.

Many communities invest major dollars in courting national businesses, not that this is all bad. Evaluate the long-term impact of those dollars on your community. In most cases, the long-term impact is much worse than we can imagine or realize. Not to mention, when times get tough, national chains know no loyalty and will leave.

Most importantly, while investing in small business, simultaneously, invest in your current downtown and the surrounding area. National statistics indicate those dollars bring the highest return to your community. When downtowns are left to deteriorate, you can plan on other parts of the community soon following. You wont see it overnight; it will be like a cancer or degenerative process that slowly infects the body until it is too weak to battle back. I have yet to see a rebuilt and vibrant downtown that hasnt positively impacted the entire community.

Our downtowns are treasures, the links between the past, present and future. They are what drives small business growth throughout the entire community. They are what connects the young, middle age and the mature. They are the future for those communities seeking answers to a better tomorrow.

John A. Newby is author of the Building Main Street, Not Wall Street column; contact him at john@360MediaAlliance.net.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 19:47:43|Editor: huaxia

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SHIJIAZHUANG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Waiting for nucleic acid tests in their community's underground parking, Suleidis Sanabria Acosta and her husband still felt warm, despite the low outdoor temperature.

"It warms my heart to see what the medics and community workers do for us in cold weather," said Sanabria, who lives in Shijiazhuang with her husband, Jesus Guanche Perez, and her children.

Working for Hebei International Studies University, the Cuban couple has lived in the capital city of north China's Hebei Province since 2018. They are under home quarantine after two rounds of nucleic acid tests, following control measures due to recent local coronavirus infections.

"I am impressed by China's speed and solidarity in fighting COVID-19," Sanabria told Xinhua.

To cope with the COVID-19 resurgence, the city required all residents to stay home for two weeks to curb the spread since Jan. 6 and started two rounds of citywide nucleic acid testing.

With an 11 million population, Shijiazhuang took three days for the first round of tests and two days for the second round.

"This is the best example of China's race against the virus," said Sanabria. She added that it is incredible to finish the test in two days, as Shijiazhuang has a population size about the same as Cuba's.

A few days after the first round of citywide testing, Sanabria underwent her second test in her room, impressed again by Chinese medics' efforts of floor-by-floor, door-to-door sampling.

"Experiencing the process, I know what China can do," she said.

She continued that what moved her most was the solidarity of the Chinese people in the face of difficulties and the selfless efforts of medical personnel and community volunteers.

Though the couple had adapted to home quarantine, their relatives and friends in Cuba still worried about them.

"My Cuban relatives and friends are very concerned about the situation in Shijiazhuang. I told them that we are safe and were able to get a timely supply of daily necessities, including food and water," she said.

During home quarantine, Sanabria and Guanche purchased daily necessities online.

"Instead of shopping out of the community, we can buy all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and bread with my mobile phone at home. When it arrives, community workers will call, and we can pick it up downstairs," she said. She added that online purchasing and contactless delivery are safe and convenient for residents.

Sanabria and her family also fell in love with her home-made Chinese food during home quarantine, especially her specialties, beef "baozi" (stuffed bun) and fried rice with egg, which are her two kids' favorites.

She even developed a unique recipe. Her husband named it 'Sulei's (her Chinese name) fried minced meat.'

"It includes pork stuffing, onions, raisins, fried potatoes, and some other secret ingredients I can't tell you," she said with a smile.

Besides enjoying happy family time, Sanabria also gave students online lectures during home-quarantine.

She bought a 75-inch TV set to display slides last year.

"Sulei has a strong sense of responsibility for her students. She bought not only a massive TV set but also two whiteboards for teaching online," said Yang Zhen, deputy head of Hebei International Studies University.

The Cuban couple is quite confident in Shijiazhuang's measures regarding COVID-19 control and prevention.

"China's COVID-19 control and prevention measures are effective and valuable," said Guanche. They have translated China's anti-epidemic experience into different languages to promote it.

"Now that the coronavirus has hit many countries and regions around the world, including Cuba, we hope to share China's effective methods with more people," he said. Enditem
Six horses, a dog and a cat were killed when arsonists burnt down a stud farm, leaving a devastated owner heartbroken.

The owner of Kaybin Stud Farm, based near Lewes in East Sussex, said 'my heart is in a million pieces,' following the blaze at around 6am on Saturday.

Barbara Joyce, 69, says she is baffled over why someone would hurt her beloved animals, saying: 'I feel as though someone lined up my children and set them on fire and I watched.'

Fire tore through Kaybin Stud Farm, near Lewes, on Saturday morning, leaving six horses, a dog and a cat all dead

Owner Barbara Joyce said it felt as though someone had set her children on fire after the devastating blaze at the weekend. Pluto the horse and Tatiana the cat both died in the blaze

She added: 'What could I have ever done to anyone? I have never hurt anyone.

'Why would anyone burn my horses to death? My old dog and my cat died in the fire as well.

'The barn was just a shell and there were smouldering bodies around.

'They were my babies. They would see me coming through in the middle of the barn and come to see if I had got them a snack.

Ms Joyce said her barn was a 'shell' and she arrived to see 'smouldering bodies' around. Pug cross Dolly, 14, died in the blaze

'We're just in pieces. Why would anyone do that? I don't know how someone could consciously set alight a barn full of horses. We are just reeling from it. My heart is in a million pieces.'

Two men have been arrested following Saturday's fire.

Ms Joyce explained how she has over 20 horses, many of them rescued. But the ones she kept in the barn were either competition winners - worth thousands of pounds - or traumatised animals that needed extra care.

All the horses in the barn died as the structure was also destroyed by the fire.

She added: 'These weren't just any ordinary horses, these were our special horses.

'The ones that were in there were the ones that either needed special attention or were for the show season.

'One was a young eight-months-old colt. What a beautiful boy, he used to lie in the stable with my granddaughter. He was going to be our future stud stallion. He was an Irish draught called Pluto.'

She said the other horses, were called Khwami, Rascal, Crystal, Pete, and Warwick - who bagged three prizes at shows last year and was worth around 15,000.

A 14-year-old pug cross, Dolly, and a tabby cat, called Tatiana, also died in the fire.

Competition-winning horses and others that were left traumatised by previous owners were being kept at the barn before the fire on saturday

Eight-month-old colt and 'future stud stallion,' Pluto was killed in the fire. Ms Joyce said he used to lie in the stable with her granddaughter

Pete the horse was one of six to die, with the others named Pluto, Khwami, Rascal, Crystal and Warwick

Police are treating the fire as suspicious and have arrested two men, aged 40 and 24, on suspicion of arson.

The suspects have both been released on conditional bail until February 13 while enquiries continue.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: 'Two men have been arrested after a fire at a barn in Lewes.

A barn where the six horses were kept was totally destroyed by Saturday's fire, with the owner saying her 'heart is in a million pieces'

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of arson following Saturday's fire. They have been bailed until February 13 pending further enquiries

'Police were called shortly before 6am on Saturday to reports of a fire at a barn in the Rodmell area of Lewes.

'No persons were injured, but six horses tragically died in the fire.

'The fire is being treated as suspicious and two men, aged 40 and 24, have been arrested on suspicion of arson.

'They have both been released on conditional bail until February 13 while enquiries continue.'
The memo was from Sara Goldrick-Rab, a high-profile education-policy professor at Temple University.

Conditions had reached a breaking point with Gregory M. Anderson, dean of Temples college of education and human development, she wrote to the universitys provost in August 2019. In a six-page memo, Goldrick-Rab complained about hostile behavior by Anderson and asked that she and the center she runs be transferred to another college within the university.

Anderson once stood over her and yelled for 14 minutes, she wrote, despite her repeatedly asking him to stop. When she told him she wanted a transfer, he allegedly responded: Youre not going anywhere. You cant  I own you.

Goldrick-Rabs request for a transfer was ultimately granted.

Asked this month about the memo, obtained by The Inquirer, she declined to comment. But her complaints werent unique. About half of the 70 full-time faculty in July signed a letter in which they raised issues about the deans leadership, saying faculty were deeply concerned about faculty members loss of voice in our own college, and about a growing climate of fear, mistrust, and intimidation.

 READ MORE: Faculty, alumni criticize Temple's decision to end its master's in urban education

Temple has since hired the Stradley Ronon law firm to probe the complaints, The Inquirer has learned.

In a statement, Temple acknowledged the review and said such a step is typical when complaints or inquiries are received. We take all concerns seriously, said spokesperson Ray Betzner.

Three years ago, the university employed the Jones Day law firm to probe the business school after false data were submitted to U.S. News & World Report, which ranks schools. The investigation led to the 2018 ouster of dean Moshe Porat. (He is now suing the university, claiming it unfairly blamed him.)

Temple would not describe the scope of the education college review. A faculty member interviewed by the lawyers said they indicated they were looking at the culture and climate of the college, the decisions around program changes, and whether there were questionable ethical decisions.

In a statement, Anderson said he is cooperating with the review.

As a Black academic whose research focuses on access and equity, I am particularly committed to accountability, he said. University deans must make difficult, and sometimes unpopular, decisions each day. I believe once the process has concluded, the facts will show that all my decisions adhere to university policies and contractual obligations.

 READ MORE: Temple to pay $700,000 to settle U.S. Dept of Education claims over business school rankings scandal

Anderson, who has spoken of his parents leaving South Africa because of apartheid, earned a bachelors degree from the University of Toronto in 1989 and a doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York. He has taught at Columbia University and worked as a program officer at the Ford Foundation. At the University of Denver, he led the education college for about four years until leaving in 2013 for Temple.

In interviews with The Inquirer, 10 current or former Temple faculty members say that, since arriving, Anderson has transferred faculty to departments in which they didnt have expertise and targeted those who were critical of his leadership and tried to force them out. Anderson lost his temper and verbally berated employees at meetings, they said, and created a hostile work environment where employees, especially junior faculty, were fearful to speak their minds.

I found working with him early on was untenable, said Will J. Jordan, an associate professor of urban education and a 16-year employee at Temple who said he has not spoken in person to Anderson in two years. I stepped off any committee that put me in contact with him.

Aneta Pavlenko, a tenured professor of applied linguistics, resigned in December 2016 after she said the dean unfairly attempted to increase her course load and assign her to classes she wasnt qualified to teach. The move, she contended, was part of retaliation after she shared an email with graduate students in 2014 about a plan to discontinue all graduate assistantships for doctoral students. She said a program coordinator position and other responsibilities also were taken from her.

I became a target of  increasingly hostile treatment by the college administration, she wrote in a complaint to Temples human resources unit.

 READ MORE: Former Temple art school campus new buyer appears to be religious group with ties to college snagged in embezzlement scheme

The university rejected her complaint as being without merit, according to a copy of the response, and said the dean had the right to set faculty workload requirements.

I lost everything when I made the decision to leave, said Pavlenko, now a research professor for the University of Oslo in Norway. I lost tenure. Ive lost health care. The only thing I gained was my freedom.

And it was worth it, she said.

Other longtime female faculty members also have exited the education college, including Tricia S. Jones, former president of Temples faculty senate, who went to Temples College of Media and Communication in 2015. Jones, as well as Goldrick-Rab, signed the July 9 letter from faculty. Jones declined comment.

Peshe Kuriloff, a professor of practice, left the university in 2019 after 14 years. Several colleagues said she was forced out. Kuriloff said a dispute she had with the college was resolved and she signed a confidentiality agreement that precluded her from discussing details. I was sad to leave and wished that things could have gone differently, she said.

Another senior faculty member said hazing, bullying and intimidation of junior, non-tenure and women faculty are regretfully commonplace in the college under Anderson. That person, like most who spoke with The Inquirer, said they had shared the concerns with Stradley Ronon lawyers, but requested that their names not be published because they feared retribution on campus. The faculty member also worried that some of the deans decisions have put the college at risk of being unable to deliver courses that students need to complete their degrees on time.

The college last year eliminated its masters in urban education, which led to an outcry from some faculty who said the move resulted in less emphasis on the topic. The loss of the masters, part of a larger reorganization that involved about two dozen changes in the college, was cited in the faculty letter.

 READ MORE: Temple prof donates $100,000 prize to help struggling students

The university argued that the restructuring infused urban education offerings across departments and programs, broadening access to those perspectives.

Faculty said they repeatedly took complaints to senior university leadership, including when Anderson got his five-year review, and were ignored.

Goldrick-Rab, a national voice on hunger, homelessness, and financial barriers to college that students face, came to Temple in 2016 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was recruited by Anderson, but the relationship soured. The dean, she said in her memo, failed to provide promised space, funding, and staffing for her Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, and in some cases sabotaged the centers quest to get funding and other support.

Our efforts to work with [the education college] for the last three years have left me and my team demoralized and exhausted, she wrote.

Last summer, she and her center were moved to the School of Medicine.
In brief: Nvidia is quietly preparing a new graphics card, but its not the elusive RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3050its the Pascal-based GT 1010. Almost five years have passed since the architecture used in 10-series cards such as the GTX 1080 launched, and team green is still squeezing life out of the Maxwell successor.

The GT 1010 was first reported by YouTube channel Dapz after a user spotted it on a driver download page. An Nvidia rep confirmed the cards existence, adding that it had not yet been released.

Youre not going to be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on this product. Based on the 14nm Pascal GP108 GPU found in the GT 1030, a third of that cards 384 CUDA cores have been disabled in the GT 1010 (256 cores).

As per TechPowerUP, the GT 1010 also features 2GB of GDDR5 with a 64-bit memory interface and 41.1 GB/s bandwidth. The GT 1030, for comparison, comes in both GDDR5 and DDR4 versions. Power-wise, it has a TDP of 30W and a suggested PSU wattage of 200W.

The GT 1010 is more of a display card designed for home theatre PCs, home servers, etc., and looks to be replacing the older Kepler-based GT 710. No word on a MSRP or when it will be releasedor if its OEM systems-onlybut at least the GT 1010 should be one of the few Nvidia cards in stock.

We recently heard that Nvidia is considering new crypto-mining specific graphics cards. Restarting the CMP line could alleviate the current shortages, which are exacerbated by the rising price of crypto and miners building multi-GPU rigs.

Marshall County Deputies Arrest Three

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MARSHALL COUNTY - The Marshall County Sheriff's Office arrested three people in three separate incidents.Deputies were called to an apartment complex in Fairdealing after noise complaints. They spoke with Carl Ritter of Benton, who was found to be in possession of illegal drugs.Ritter was charged with first degree possession of controlled substance-methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.Deputies were also called to a home about a possible burglary, but arrived to find two people that appeared to be in an altercation.When deputies made contact, Marteus Holbrook of Grand Rivers fled out the back door, but was quickly captured.Holbrook was charged with fleeing and evading police, and already had three other active arrest warrants.Later, deputies were dispatched to a vehicle in a ditch on Oak Level Road.The driver gave a false name, but was identified as Christopher Rowell of Paducah.Rowell was a wanted person who was found to be in possession of a large quantity of illegal drugs.He was arrested and charged with first degree trafficking in controlled substance greater than two grams-methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, giving officer false identifying information, as well as several traffic charges.
The pandemic has seriously affected many business fields, including retail. However, many retailers have maintained stable incomes thanks to their ability to adapt to new circumstances.

Coronavirus-shaped hamburger

The following are just a few examples of retailers' creativity:

Plastic shield prevents spread of virus

To keep a good distance to ensure safety, the owner of a grocery on Hong Mai street in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi in early 2020 created a plastic wall to restrict direct contact with customers.

The wall was made of see-through hard plastic sheets with a running track below which allowed the owner to move the wall. All the transactions between the seller and customers were made across the wall.

Fishing rod for coffee delivery

Instead of giving coffee to customers by hand, a coffee shop in district 1, HCM City, did so with the support of a fishing rod. Customers were asked to stand in a place designed for them. The distance from the spot to where the deliverymen stood was 2 meters.

Money was given with the support of the fishing rod. Staff of the coffee shop hung a plastic bag at the top of the fishing rod and asked customers to put money into it.

Though the new method took sellers and buyers more time to complete transactions, the idea was applauded by customers. The method was also used by many other shops.

Using pulleys to sell pho

In April 2020, a shop in Tan Phu district, HCM City, caught special attention from the public when using a pulley system to deliver pho to the hands of customers without close contact.

The 3.5 meter-long pulley held a tray attached to the wheels moving on the door frame. A plastic basket is placed on the pulley, where bowls of pho were put. The basket was also where customers placed money.

Eatery uses flycam to deliver banh my

In an effort to restrict direct contact, Duc Son, the owner of an eatery in Hanoi, used a flycam to deliver food on the grounds of the restaurant. Son was fascinated by flycams, so he decided to use one at the family-run restaurant.

Serving clients at home, barbers earn big money

As many hair salons had to shut down during the lockdown in April 2020, barber services at home became popular.

A barber revealed that he earned no less than VND3 million a day and was completely safe during the pandemic.

Coronavirus-shaped hamburger sells well

The owner of a pizza shop in Hanoi in March 2020 marketed original coronavirus-shaped hamburgers.

He said he wanted to create a positive, funny item during the pandemic days. Each hamburger sold for VND85,000.

Bao Anh

Japanese, Thai retailers compete in $200 billion retail market After the lockdown this year, shopping malls began to be busy again in the 'new normal' situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On January 16, India launched the worlds largest vaccination drive with the Union Health Ministry providing data of over 1.9 lakh people who had received the first shots of the vaccine. On Day 2, the total number of people who have gotten inoculated so far has reached 2,24,301, with 447 beneficiaries suffering from AEFI.

On January 16, India launched the worlds largest vaccination drive. By the evening, the Union Health Ministry provided data of over 1.9 lakh people who had received the first shots of the vaccine. The first day of Covid-19 vaccination in India saw 1,91,181 people take the shot, as compared to a target of inoculating three lakh people, as said by the government. The reason for the shortfall in the total number of people vaccinated was because, receiving the vaccination is completely voluntary.

On Day 2 of the inoculation drive, the Union Health Ministry reported that, a total of 17,072 beneficiaries received the Covid-19 vaccination in 553 sessions, over six states. With this, the total number of people who have gotten inoculated so far has reached 2,24,301. The Health Ministry said that the drop in the number of states carrying out vaccination today was part of a usual strategy to avoid clashes with immunization schedules for other illnesses.

Among the beneficiaries, 447 people are reportedly suffering from AEFI (adverse event following immunization) on both days. However, only three of the cases required hospitalization. Two of these three have been discharged after treatment, while the third was under observation at the AIIMS in Rishikesh. As defined by WHO, AEFI is any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization and does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine.

Also read: Tandav row: Should Indias OTT space be reduced to cliches?

Serum Institute of India produced Covishield was supplied to all States/UTs, whereas Bharat Biotechs Covaxin was supplied to 12 States. On the first day, a total of 3,351 sessions were held across the country with both the vaccines, and 16,755 vaccinators were involved in organizing COVID-19 vaccination sessions. Covishield and Covaxin were given to doctors, nurses, other health staff directly linked to fighting the pandemic.

The Centre decided which Covid-19 vaccine went where, people cannot choose which of the two vaccines they want. When launching the drive on Saturday, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi asked the citizens to not fall for propaganda or pay any heed to the rumors amid the Covaxin controversy, which was granted authorization while it was still in the clinical trial phase.

The state-wise data from Day 1 of the vaccination drive is as follows:

Total Target : 3 lakh Achieved : 1.91 lakh

Maharashtra  Target: 28,000 Achieved: 18,328

Gujarat  Target: 16,000 Achieved: 10,500

Delhi  Target: 8,100 Achieved: 4,319

Uttar Pradesh  Target: 31,700 Achieved: 21,291

Bihar  Target: 30,000 Achieved: 18,169

West Bengal  Target: 1,800 Achieved: 9,730

Tamil Nadu  Target: 16,600 Achieved: 2,945

Assam  Target: 6,499 Achieved: 3,528

Rajasthan  Target: 16,700 Achieved: 9,279

Karnataka  Target: 24,300 Achieved: 13,594

Telangana  Target: 13,900 Achieved: 4,200

Andhra Pradesh  Target: 33,200 Achieved: 18,412

Kerala  Target: 13,330 Achieved: 8,062

Madhya Pradesh  Target: 15,000 Achieved: 9,219

Punjab  Target: 5,900 Achieved: 1,319

Also read: US retains Foreign Terrorist designation of Pak-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba
Melania Trump will depart from the White House this week at the most unpopular point of her tenure as the nations first lady, according to a new CNN poll, following the deadly mob attacks on the US Capitol in support of her husband.

Ms Trump has a 42 per cent favourability rating nationwide, the lowest rating she received since the poll began in 2016, while her unfavourability rating has continued to climb to 47 per cent.

The first lady recently received criticism for her response to the violent attacks on the Capitol, in which she decried salacious gossip she claimed to have endured as the country was still in shock following the deadly riots.

I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me, the statement read in part, from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.

The statement was slammed as tone deaf by her critics, who said she appeared more focused on a feud with her ex-friend and aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, than on the state of the country.

Ms Wolkoff published a rare rebuke of the first lady from a former loyal adviser in an Op-Ed for the Daily Beast that called the riots at the Capitol shocking, awful, disheartening and shameful.

Some critics also questioned why there were typos in the initial White House release of Ms Trumps statement, as well as the decision to name United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died as a result of his injuries sustained by the mob, alongside those who died while breaching the building.

As CNN reported, Ms Trump enjoyed her highest favourability ratings back in 2018 when she attended the funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush without her husband.

Melania Trump faces outcry over her comments about personal attacks she faced following deadly Capitol mob First lady says she was disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week  then goes on to decry salacious gossip she endured in recent days

Ms Trump was photographed alongside former presidents and other first ladies, drawing stark comparisons to President Donald Trump, who did not attend the funeral.

But she has also faced similar disapproval throughout her tenure, especially when she visited Africa in December of 2018.

Her favourability ratings reportedly plunged by double digits during the solo trip, in which she was criticised for wearing a colonial-style pith helmet.

Mr Trump is also leaving the White House at the lowest approval of his tenure, according to CNN, with just 34 percent of support as a majority of Americans (54 percent) say he should be removed from office before Inauguration Day.
The number of executions in Saudi Arabia fell dramatically last year after the kingdom stopped carrying out the death penalty for non-violent drug-related crimes.

The Saudi government's Human Rights Commission (HRC) said Monday it documented 27 executions in 2020. That's compared to an all-time high of 184 executions the year before as documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The change represents an 85 per cent reduction in the number of people put to death last year, compared to 2019.

'The sharp decrease was brought about in part by a moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offences,' the Saudi rights commission said.

While it's not clear who ordered judges to cut down on executions, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's pledged in 2018 to minimise the use of the death penalty as part of sweeping social reforms to modernise the country.

Bangladeshi members of an organisation called Magic Movement stage a mock execution in protest of the beheading of eight Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia, in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2011

When asked by The Associated Press, the commission said the new law ordering a stop to such executions came into effect sometime last year. The new directive for judges does not appear to have been published publicly and it was not immediately clear whether the law was changed by royal decree, as is typically the case.

For years, the kingdom's high rate of executions was in large part due to the number of people executed for non-lethal offences, which judges had wide discretion to rule on, particularly for drug-related crimes.

Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia third in the world for the highest number of executions in 2019, after China where the number of executions is believed to be in the thousands, and Iran.

Among those put to death that year by Saudi Arabia were 32 minority Shiites convicted on terrorism charges related to their participation in anti-government protests and clashes with police.

While some crimes, such as premeditated murder, can carry fixed punishments under the Saudi interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, drug-related offences are considered 'ta'zir,' meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is defined in Islam. Discretionary judgments for 'ta'zir' crimes led to arbitrary rulings with contentious outcomes.

The kingdom has long been criticised by independent rights groups for applying the death sentence for non-violent crimes related to drug trafficking. Many of those executed for such crimes were often poor Yemenis or low-level drug smugglers of South Asia descent, with the latter having little to no knowledge of Arabic and unable to understand or read the charges against them in court.

Saudi Arabia carries out executions mainly by beheading and sometimes in public. The kingdom had argued that public executions and those of drug traffickers serve as a deterrent to combat crime.

'The moratorium on drug-related offences means the kingdom is giving more non-violent criminals a second chance,' the president of the government's Human Rights Commission, Awwad Alawwad, said.

In a statement obtained by the AP, he said the change represents a sign the Saudi justice system is focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention rather than solely on punishment.

According to Human Rights Watch, there were just five executions for drug-related crimes last year in Saudi Arabia, all in January 2020.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Saudi Royal Palace in Riyadh in 2019

Human Rights Watch Deputy Middle East Director Adam Coogle said the decrease in executions is a positive sign, but that the Saudi authorities must also address 'the country's horribly unfair and biased criminal justice system that hands down these sentences.'

'As authorities announce reforms, Saudi prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty for high-profile detainees for nothing more than their peaceful ideas and political affiliations,' he said. 'Saudi Arabia must immediately end all executions and death sentences for non-violent crimes.'

The AP previously reported that Saudi Arabia last year also ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors. They would instead serve prison terms of up to 10 years in juvenile detention centres.

The decree also ordered judges to end the controversial practice of public flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service.

Despite the order to halt executions for crimes committed by minors, five people sentenced to death as juveniles are yet to have their sentences revoked nine months later, according to two rights groups.

One of the five has appealed and eight face charges that could result in execution, said the groups, who follow the cases closely.

Ali al-Nimr and Dawood al-Marhoun were 17 when they were detained in 2012 on charges related to participating in widespread protests in the Shi'ite-majority Eastern Province. Abdullah al-Zaher was 15 when he was arrested.

The three, who are among the five juvenile offenders whose death penalties have yet to be revoked, were sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court and faced beheading, although the public prosecutor ordered a review of their sentences in August.

The CIC said the royal decree would be applied to their cases.

Their lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a case watched closely by the rights groups, 18-year-old Mohammad al-Faraj was facing the death penalty even though he was 15 at the time of his arrest in 2017 for charges including participating in protests and attending related funerals, one when he was aged nine.

Ahead of his next hearing scheduled for Jan. 18, a source close to one of the defendants in Faraj's case said the demand for a 'houdoud' death sentence had recently been withdrawn and prosecutors were instead seeking the harshest punishment under 'ta'zeer'.

The CIC said the royal decree would apply retroactively to Faraj's case. ESOHR expressed concern that without a published decree, the risk of capital punishment cannot be ruled out.

ESOHR said Faraj was only granted a state-appointed lawyer in October, was not brought to court and was tortured in detention, allegations the CIC denied.

Since the start of the pandemic, Faraj has been allowed one weekly 15-minute call to his parents, with in-person visits cancelled, a source close to the family said.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the specifics of his case.

The order did not specify a timeline for phasing out executions for minors, but in October, in response to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), officials said the decree had come into force immediately upon announcement.

The decree was never carried on state media nor published in the official gazette as would be normal practice.

In December, state news agency SPA published a list of prominent 'events' of 2020 featuring several royal decrees, but the death penalty order was not included.

Organisations including anti-death penalty group Reprieve, HRW and the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) as well as a group of U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns that loopholes in Saudi law could still allow judges to impose the death sentence on juvenile offenders.

The government's Centre for International Communications (CIC) dismissed the concerns, telling Reuters that the royal decree would be applied retroactively to all cases where an individual was sentenced to death for offences committed under the age of 18.

'The Royal Order issued in March 2020 was put into effect immediately upon its issuance and was circulated to the relevant authorities for instant implementation,' the CIC said in an emailed statement.

Saudi Arabia, whose human rights record came under global scrutiny after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, is one of the world's top executioners after Iran and China, rights groups say.

Its de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known internationally as MbS, enjoyed strong support from U.S. President Donald Trump.

But President-elect Joe Biden, who takes over in the White House later this week, has described the kingdom as a 'pariah' for its rights record and said he would take a tougher line.

Six U.S. senators wrote to the Saudi embassy in the United States in October urging the kingdom to review all ongoing death penalty cases to identify individuals convicted for crimes committed when they were children, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

One of the signatories, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, told Reuters in December that if the kingdom were to follow through on the execution of juvenile offenders, 'it would make it even harder for Saudi Arabia to return to the kind of relationships that it wants with the United States.'

He added that Biden would be looking at the kingdom's human rights policies 'very differently to Trump'.

Biden officials declined to comment for this article, but referred Reuters to an earlier statement saying the new administration would reassess U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia.
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WASHINGTON  Chuck Weathers was waiting Monday morning on a bus in Columbia Heights, a residential neighborhood of shops and quaint homes about four miles north of the Capitol.

It was cold, the bus was nowhere in sight and Mr. Weathers was annoyed.

We didnt do a damn thing, he said, referring to the people of Washington. But now its our problem.

The problem he was confronting was the simple act of moving around the nations capital, which seemed to be getting increasingly difficult as the city shored itself up against potential violence for the inauguration on Wednesday of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Thousands of troops have poured into the capital, where armored military trucks are parked in the middle of streets to block traffic and subway stations and roads are closed.

Downtown Washington is locked down, boarded up and on guard for the ushering in of the new leader in hopes of preventing a scene like the one that played out to the nations horror on Jan. 6 as a mob stormed the Capitol.
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Luxembourg fire crews extinguished two fires that broke out on Sunday evening.

Rescue crews put out two fires on Sunday night.

At 7.34 pm a fire brigade was called out to Bofferdange to deal with a fire in a rubbish bin.

Firefighters from Lorentzweiler and Lintgen, as well as an ambulance from Lintgen were on scene. No injuries were reported.

A little under two hours later, at 9.30 pm, the Sanem-Differdange fire department headed to l'avenue Charlotte, where residents were surprised by a fryer that had caught alight. Again, no one was injured in the incident.
In the meantime, he stressed, the disputed territory will be protected by Russian peacekeeping forces deployed there after a Moscow-brokered agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10.

Precisely because the problem of the status is so thorny it was decided by the three leaders [of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia] to circumvent and leave it to the future, Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow. The [Russian, U.S. and French] co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group must deal with this as well. They have resumed their contacts with the parties and are going to visit the region again.

He suggested that the return to normality and confidence-building measures in the conflict zone will eventually facilitate an agreement on the main sticking point.

Speaking after his talks with Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that Karabakhs status is among many issues that have yet to be settled by the conflicting sides. Yerevan maintains that Karabakhs population must be able to exercise its right to self-determination in line peace proposals made by the Russian, U.S. and French mediators.

By contrast, Aliyev again said after the Moscow talks that the six-week war, which resulted in sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains, essentially resolved the long-running conflict.

Earlier this month, Aliyev demanded that Armenian officials stop visiting Karabakh without Bakus permission. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazians recent trip to Stepanakert violated the ceasefire agreement.

Yerevan rejected those claims as completely baseless. Lavrov also dismissed them, arguing that the agreement brokered by Putin provides for a land corridor between Armenia and Karabakh, which is also guarded by the Russian peacekeepers.

If we agree  that there must be a link between the Armenians of Karabakh and Armenia then I see no reason why contacts carried out at that level should be hampered, he said. Armenian officials are involved in the provision of humanitarian assistance to Karabakh which does not cause negative emotions in Baku.

Lavrov stressed at the same time that Armenian leaders should avoid making emotional statements when visiting Karabakh. He chided them for making such statements before the war.
A baby giraffe recently arrived into the world at Nashville Zoo, notwithstanding delivery complications. However, its first-time mother reportedly stepped on it by accident. The newborn giraffe, whose name the zoo did not reveal, eventually died.

Newborn Giraffe Dies After Being Stepped on by Mother

The Nashville Zoo is grieving the loss of the newborn giraffe anticipated by people across the globe.

The zoo stated that the calf died briefly after its birth after being stepped on by Nasha, her mother giraffe.

After declaring the birth, zookeepers noticed the calf was in agitation. A few moments afterward, they announced the dire loss, reported CNN.

According to the Nashville zoo, "We are heartbroken to announce that Nasha's calf died shortly after our birth announcement earlier today after the calf was accidentally stepped on by her mother. Our animal care team quickly intervened but were unsuccessful at saving the calf. An initial necropsy showed trauma to the neck but further testing will follow to determine if there were any underlying causes for the newborn's death. Thank you all for your support over the past few weeks and especially during this tough time."

Numerous people reportedly witnessed the calf's birth live-streamed on WKRN and the zoo's page called "Baby Boom."

According to Rick Schwartz, Nashville Zoo's president, and CEO, in a blog post, "We are devastated over the loss of Nasha's calf. Our staff has worked tirelessly to make sure this calf was given the best possible care." They reportedly moved from fear of a stillborn to joy of revival and then to agony, reported The Charlotte Observer.

Also Read: National Zoo Reveals Name of Giant Panda Cub Based on His Birth

Nasha was not developing adequately with her delivery. Thus, medical intervention was required. With the aid of Dr. Matthew DeLisle from Tennessee Equine Hospital, the veterinary of the Tennessee zoo team successfully delivered the newborn.



According to Dr. Heather Schwartz, Nashville Zoo's Director of Veterinary Medicine, when they moved the newborn to be with her mother and when the two bonded, Nasha may have inadvertently injured her newborn. The giraffe keepers noticed the calf was reeling from the pain. The animal care team had to cooperate but was not successful in saving the newborn's life, reported KRON 4.

Previously, zookeepers remarked they had transferred the baby giraffe to be with her mother and that the pair had been bonding. During this time, the mother giraffe may have injured her calf.

The mother is a Masai giraffe that was formerly the most populous variant of the species. Today, it numbers an estimated 35,000, which is a stark contrast from 71,000 three decades ago.

This time, the newborn giraffe could not be saved. The zoo said initial necropsy displayed trauma to the neck. Further testing will follow to check if there were underlying causes for the baby giraffe's death.

The zoo said Nasha is doing well, and giraffe keepers will be giving a large amount of comfort and care for the following days.

Birth complications had resulted in the zoo taking down the live feed amid the birthing process as thousands watched.

Related Article: Baby Giraffe Born To Dublin Zoo Is About As Sweet As He Can Be (PHOTOS)

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Loews Hotels has cancelled a fundraiser that Sen. Josh Hawley was scheduled to hold at the chains Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando. The reason? Hawleys bid to contest the electoral colleges count.

Loews stated:

We are horrified and opposed to the events at the Capitol and all who supported and incited the actions. In light of those events and for the safety of our guests and team members, we have informed the host of the Feb. fundraiser that it will no longer be held at Loews Hotels.

Hawley supported a challenge to certain electors, a challenge similar to ones Democrats have made in the past. He did not support the violence that occurred. Nor did he incite it by taking the position he did regarding the election  any more than a person who advocates a BLM agenda incites violence by Black protesters who favor that agenda.

I disagreed with Sen. Hawleys position on challenging the electoral count for the reasons stated by Sen Tom Cotton. However, denying Hawley access to a hotel because of the position he took is unacceptable. It is an attack on the right freely to advocate positions as one sees fit.

Any American with a decent regard for free speech and free debate should boycott Loews Hotels. Certainly, any conservative should.

Conservatives have reached the point where we have to counter the cancel culture, and the corporations that are part of it, with cancellations or our own. We have the economic power to do so.

A boycott of Loews is a good place to start (or to continue). Loews properties are identified here.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 03:49:35|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi leading parliamentary bloc of al-Fatih Coalition confirmed on Monday that it would not retreat from demanding the Iraqi government to implement the parliament decision to withdraw foreign forces from the Iraqi soil, a local media reported.

The insistence of al-Fatih bloc, headed by Hadi al-Ameri, came because "the decision of ending the presence of foreign forces from Iraq was already passed in the Iraqi parliament and approved by the government of resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi," spokesman of al-Fatih (Conquest) Coalition, Ahmed al-Asadi, told the Iraqi NINA news agency.

Al-Asadi said that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi included the implementation of the decision to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in his political program when he assumed the post.

On Jan. 5, 2020, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport which killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

A few thousand U.S. troops are leading international coalition forces tasked with helping the Iraqi security forces in the fight against the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants by carrying out airstrikes against their positions in Iraq and Syria as well as providing military equipment and training to Iraqi forces. Enditem
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The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has announced an additional 10.68 million for the voluntary hospice sector in Ireland from this year onwards.

The 10.68 million in recurring annual funding will help to address the core funding shortfall which has contributed to ongoing financial challenges of the sector.

The funding will benefit the hospices which make up the Voluntary Hospice Group, including Marymount Hospice in Cork.

It aims to respond to the rising demand for high quality, accessible, palliative and end of life care which has been seen over the past two decades.

In announcing the funding, Minister Donnelly commended Irelands dedicated voluntary hospice sector.

Ireland is fortunate to have a dedicated voluntary hospice sector, who have worked tirelessly down through the years, in partnership with local communities, to expand the network of hospice services around the country," he said.

The recurring nature of the 10.68m allocation reflects a long term commitment by Government to this vital service and my own views of the value and unique role that voluntary hospices play and will continue to play in Irish society.

The additional funding is designed to take account of the potential impact of the loss of fundraising income during the public health emergency, but most importantly, ensures when such activity gets back on track it can be used to enhance and improve services, rather than fund core services.

Our Ladys Hospice and Care Services in Harolds Cross, Blackrock and Wicklow, St Francis Hospice in Raheny and Blanchardstown, Milford Care Centre in Limerick, North West Hospice in Sligo and Galway Hospice will also receive the recurring annual funding from this year.
Ben & Jerry's has launched a range of snackable dough chunks - without ice cream - so cookie lovers and brownie fans don't have to go digging through a tub of dessert looking for their favourite bits.

The bags of 'snackable chunks' come in two flavours, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Half Baked Chunks - a mixture of chocolate chip cookie dough and fudge brownies.

A spokesperson for the company said no spoon is needed now that Ben and Jerry's has 'officially freed the chunks'.

Ben & Jerry's have launched a range of snackable dough chunks - without ice cream - so cookie lovers and brownie fans don't have to go digging through a tub of dessert looking for their favourite bits

Ben & Jerrys Cookie Dough Chunks are available in 180g and 227g pouches in select Ben & Jerrys Scoop Stores now.

The limited time offering is only available at select stores until stock sells out.

Ben & Jerry's have been using raw cookie dough in their ice cream since long before the 'global cookie dough phenomenon'.

Ben & Jerrys Cookie Dough Chunks are available in 180g and 227g pouches in select Ben & Jerrys Scoop Stores now

WHERE CAN I BUY THESE SNACKABLE DOUGH CHUNKS? WESTERN AUSTRALIA Ben & Jerrys Hillarys Ben & Jerrys Joondalup Ben & Jerrys Fremantle Ben & Jerrys Northbridge VICTORIA Ben & Jerrys Flinders Lane Ben & Jerrys Burwood Brickworks Ben & Jerrys St Kilda QUEENSLAND Ben & Jerrys Mooloolaba Ben & Jerrys Noosa Ben & Jerrys Surfers Paradise Ben & Jerrys Pacific Fair NEW SOUTH WALES Ben & Jerrys Manly Ben & Jerrys Bondi Ben & Jerrys Chatswood Advertisement

'In 1984, Ben & Jerrys became the first ice cream company to drop big chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough into a batch of ice cream,' a spokesperson said.

The new 'chunks only' bags comes after a strong demand from the Australian public.

They have already been released in the US, UK and Europe stores - seeing instant success.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrains decision to ease travel restrictions from Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of Bahrain through the King Fahd Causeway took effect yesterday.

People arriving in Bahrain from Saudi Arabia via the causeway will no longer face a mandatory PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test for COVID-19.

This was the recommendation made last week by the National Medical Taskforce to Combat COVID-19, headed by Supreme Council of Health Chairman Lieutenant-General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, and was approved by the Government Executive Committee.

However, all who wish to enter the country will need to provide proof of a negative result from a PCR test carried out at accredited Bahraini or Saudi laboratories within 72 hours of arrival.

An original PCR certificate or a test result displayed through a mobile app such as the BeAware app, Tatamman, Sehhaty and Alhusen, or one of the official smartphone applications in Saudi Arabia will be accepted.

Bahraini authorities also stressed the importance of all visitors adhering to precautionary health measures while in the country to prevent the spread of the virus.

Travellers from both countries have welcomed the opening of the causeway to travel to both countries.

Indeed, it is a positive development during this time of the pandemic.

With Bahrain waiving the mandatory PCR test will mean enhancing business, reviving trade and tourism, and adding billions of dollars to Bahrain and Saudi economies.

Following the lifting of travel restrictions, thousands of visitors are expected to travel, leading to an anticipated rebound for both Kingdoms tourism and hospitality sector.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have long-standing tourism and trade ties, with trade between two countries growing by 43 per cent up to the third quarter of 2020.

Prior to the pandemic, Bahrain has welcomed around 11 million tourists with over 88 per cent coming through the causeway.

The causeway is 25 kilometres in length, with the Saudi portion beginning at Al Aziziyyah, located south of Al Khobar city, and the Bahrain portion beginning right from Al Jasra, west of Manama.

The number of visitors from Saudi Arabia is set to gradually go back to normal levels following the announcement to open the entry ports and is expected to add around $2.9 billion to Bahrains economy this year based on average tourist spending in 2019.

According to the King Fahad Causeway Authority website, January 2020 registered the highest number of users in a single month, with 3,095,963 passengers moving through, or around 99,870 per day. This represented an increase of 22.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.

King Fahad Causeway is one of the largest construction achievements in the region.

Opening in 1986, it has played a prominent role in the region and helped to strengthen relations between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Today it is one of the busiest land border crossings in the Middle East with an estimated 390 million passengers having used the bridge since its opening.

In spite of the global spread of coronavirus, the commercial shipping of necessary goods across King Fahd Causeway has continued.

Bahrain Customs have recently announced installing high-tech artificial intelligence scanners on the bridge, automating data collection and allowing shipment inspections to take place before reaching the border.

Saudi Arabia is reopening travel via air, land and sea from March 31, 2021, according to the countrys Ministry of the Interior.
There have been 180 alleged slavery and trafficking victims placed in direct provision over the last five years, despite major international criticism of how Ireland fails to offer appropriate accommodation to survivors.

Immigrant rights groups have warned that traumatised rape victims who have endured horrific ordeals are being put in inappropriate direct provision centres with no privacy and no support.

Figures released to the Irish Independent reveal that dozens of potentially vulnerable victims have been placed in accommodation for asylum seekers between 2015 and 2019.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation reveal that in 2019, 44 alleged victims of trafficking or slavery were placed in direct provision.

This was almost double the year before. In 2018, 23 alleged victims were placed in such accommodation centres, while in 2017 the figure was 27. In 2016, 37 alleged victims were placed in direct provision. 2015 had the highest number for each of the last five years, with 49 alleged victims placed in the system.

Direct provision has been repeatedly described as not fit for purpose, and the Government has vowed to phase it out and replace it with a new system.

The US State Department has repeatedly criticised Irelands treatment of trafficking victims, and has downgraded the State for each of the last two years as part of its Trafficking in Persons report.

In its report for 2020, the State Department specifically criticised Ireland for leaving trafficking victims in direct provision for years and called on Ireland to offer specialised accommodation for trafficking victims.

The report said that direct provision had inadequate privacy, was unsuitable and potentially unsafe for traumatised victims, could expose them to greater exploitation, and undermined victim recovery.

"Experts also noted a lack of specialised services in the centers for all victims, but especially for female victims who had been traumatised due to psychological, physical, or sexual violence.

A spokesperson for the US State Department told the Irish Independent that the provision of safe and appropriate housing is an internationally accepted priority need and best practice for victims of trafficking.

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By the Governments own conclusions in a 2019 report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality, the direct provision system is flawed and not fit for the purpose, a spokesperson for the US State Department said.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has collected testimony from trafficking survivors who were placed in direct provision.

It cited the case of Grace, a trafficking survivor who lived in direct provision while heavily pregnant and at the time of the birth of her daughter.

She arrived in Ireland in 2010 after escaping her traffickers in Spain, and said it had been very difficult living in direct provision with her baby.

A spokesman for the council said it firmly believed that direct provision was not an appropriate place for trafficking victims, especially those who had suffered sexual exploitation.

Many of the women survivors we work with have endured horrific ordeals and are, in most cases, recovering from multiple instances of rape and the trauma associated with repeated gender-based violence, he said.

Direct provision centres are not suitable to support a womans recovery. They do not have appropriate support services, women share rooms with strangers, and the centres are mixed gender. Privacy is impossible. Autonomy is difficult if not impossible.

It said human-trafficking survivors should initially be given sheltered accommodation from approved housing bodies with appropriate trauma and recovery supports provided for by wrap-around services. They should then be assisted to move on to independent accommodation.

Last August, the Department of Justice said it planned to set up specific accommodation for trafficking victims in the east of the country. At the moment, it is not clear when the new unit will be opened.

The International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) said that all potential victims of trafficking who were accommodated in direct provision were referred through the gardai, who are tasked with investigating claims of trafficking or slavery.

IPAS have no role in these investigations  [our] role is to accommodate the people referred to them and to provide for their daily needs.

"The HSE anti-human-trafficking team works in conjunction with IPAS to provide additional support services, linking them with medical and counselling services, assisting them through the legal process and accompanying them to court appearances, enrolling them to education and employment training and assisting them return home to their countries of origin if the victims so choose, said the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, which is responsible for direct provision.
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With over 100,000 patients currently enrolled in the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program, the state Legislature must guarantee that patient protections remain a top priority during the 2021 legislative session.

With an increased public willingness to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes and a political desire for increased tax revenue, the decision to legalize recreational cannabis must not occur in a political vacuum nor a mad dash for cash during a pandemic causing undue economic and societal hardships.

Ive been at the forefront of New Mexicos medical cannabis debate for two decades, first, as an activist advocating legalization for medicinal purposes. Secondly, as the founder and president of R. Greenleaf Organics, one of the states top medical cannabis providers.

Serving thousands of patients annually, weve grown to employ over 150 New Mexicans and serve patients at eight clinics located in Albuquerque, Roswell, Las Cruces and Grants. Our mission remains to provide high-quality, safe cannabis medicine for New Mexicos most vulnerable patients.

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................................................................

The proposed Cannabis Wellness Bill is a responsible alternative to the legalization of recreational cannabis. This approach safeguards our medical cannabis program by expanding a system that is already functional but does so in a measured way. It will also immediately generate new tax revenue without additional, excessive and costly bureaucracy.

While neighboring states rush to legalize, New Mexico faces significant and unique drug abuse and addiction challenges. Its essential to recognize that whats right for other states may not be suitable for our communities.

The Cannabis Wellness Bill maintains a working registry program that gives law enforcement access to closely monitor sales. A robust registry will significantly curtail illegal diversion and underage use.

The state will also see considerable savings over other bills that call for creating departments, procedures and additional regulations. With the Cannabis Wellness Bill, all of the necessary infrastructure currently exists and is operational.

So expansion will mostly depend on increasing plant limits to maintain adequate product inventories to meet increased demand.

The Cannabis Wellness Bill would split the current medical cannabis program into two different classes  one for existing patients with qualifying conditions and a doctors recommendation and a second class for all New Mexican citizens to register, purchase and use cannabis responsibly for general wellness.

The original medical class would pay no tax on purchases. In contrast, the new general wellness patients would pay taxes between 15% and 20% with some restrictions to maintain safety, quality and quantity of available medicine.

The Cannabis Wellness Bill generates fees for participation in the program. Taxes on wellness sales would eventually equal those projected for recreational  which we estimate between $300 and $500 million in total revenue by 2022.

The New Mexico Legislature promised patients access to medicine 12 years ago when they committed to building and maintaining a medical cannabis program. Now, impending legalization, political deals and an insatiable appetite for new revenue may restrict access to medicine at a time of peak patient demand.

Patient protections must outweigh the desire for the legalization of recreational use and wishful revenue projections. Now is the time to renew our commitment to the medical cannabis program by supporting a Wellness Bill that streamlines access, increases tax revenue and protects patients responsibly.

As a company and industry, weve demonstrated a dependable approach to providing New Mexicans with safe, reliable and regulated medicine for the past decade. Lets continue to live up to the promise by supporting a Cannabis Wellness Bill that will always put our patients ahead of profits.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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The death toll from the armed militias attack in El Geneina, capital city of Sudans West Darfur State, jumped to 83, and the injured to 160, at a time when the Sudanese authorities decided to send security reinforcements to the area.

The death toll from the bloody events in El Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur State, has climbed to 83 and the injured to 160 since Saturday, said the Doctors Committee of West Darfur State in a statement Sunday.

In the meantime, Sudans Security and Defense Council on Sunday decided to send security reinforcements to West Darfur to protect the citizens and vital utilities there, according to a statement by Sudans Sovereign Council.

The council, chaired by the Chairman of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the violent events which took place in El Geneina on Saturday, the statement noted.

The council, which brings in its membership representatives from the sovereign council, the cabinet and the security bodies, also decided to form a higher committee to investigate into El Geneina events, determine the root-causes of the problem and submit recommendations about it, bring the outlaws to trial and hold the perpetrators accountable, it added.

On Saturday, local authorities in West Darfur imposed a curfew in the wake of the incidents.

West Darfur States Governor Mohamed Abdalla Al Doma decided to designate the regular forces to end the violence started by a fight between two citizens in El Geneina, in which one of them was killed.

(Xinhua/NAN)
Sunday, January 17, 2021

The Washington state legislature convened on Monday January 11th behind fences manned by the Washington National Guard. Due to covid19 many legislators are working remotely and constituents have new tools to engage them from across the state. Please look at them here: ttps://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Documents/2020/Accessing%20the%20Legislature%20remotely.pdf That document; Accessing the Legislature Remotely; explains the process, tells how to watch, how to participate, how to track legislation and how to contact legislators. Important information in a year thats going to be extremely busy for your gun rights.

Starting right off there are ten bills filed, please focus on these first two right now:

Assault Weapons SB 5217- https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?Year=2021&BillNumber=5217

And Magazines

HB1164- https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?Year=2021&BillNumber=1164

& SB5078- https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?Year=2021&BillNumber=5078

For those following along, youll recognize these as bills Attorney General Bob Ferguson has submitted before. Each of those links is the Bill Page for the bill. At each bill page theres a Comment on this bill link on the upper right. And down under Available Documents is a link for the Original Bill which has all the details including who its sponsors are, when it was filed and what committee (if any) its referred to.

Once a bill is in committee that committees chair has the power to give it a hearing and then call for the committee to vote it to the floor for wider action. Bills are filed, referred to committee, or on the floor. At each point we have the ability to give input and steer our public servants to change or vote against. As the Democrats have a majority in both the House and Senate, they have selected the committee Chairs. And as these bills have the support of A.G. Ferguson and of Gov. Inslee they will certainly get attention, we have to be sure a good portion of that comes from people on the side of Liberty.



It is vital that everyone who supports our Right to Keep and Bear Arms involve themselves in the process and tell their public servants the importance of not passing any gun control.

And, because the process is entirely remote, there are no early morning drives to Olympia just a need to methodically and professionally engage and communicate to our elected representatives. So please go to the bill pages for the Assault Weapons ban and the ban on Standard magazines, check out the bills and make your voice heard on the comment link. Be courteous, thoughtful and represent your rights. Follow up to committee as well as other bills and tools will be in next weeks alert. If there are questions I can answer for you, or for a copy of this in email please email boyd@liberty.seanet.com.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 41F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
People visit the consumer goods exhibition area during the third China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 10, 2020. [Xinhua/Li Renzi]

'

 Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

 The vision has gradually transformed into a consensus shared by countries around the world amid growing global challenges.

 As a firm proponent and practitioner of multilateralism, China has all along taken concrete actions to turn the vision into reality via win-win cooperation.

BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua)  Pulling together to build a community with shared future for mankind, a historic and philosophical concept presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has gradually transformed into a consensus amid growing challenges worldwide.

Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Xi called for building such a community while expounding his vision of humanity's future.

The Chinese leader championed a world of lasting peace, common security for all and common prosperity, as well as an open, inclusive, and clean world. His vision was applauded more than 30 times by the audience in his 47-minute speech.

Four years on, in the shadow of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, with worldwide political and socio-economic challenges, Xi's concept has proven to be "the only future for humanity on this planet," as Peter Thomson, president of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, said.

A China-Europe freight train carrying medical supplies bound for Madrid of Spain departs from the city of Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 5, 2020. [Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua]

The Answer

The novel coronavirus has infected close to 100 million people across the globe, taking over 2 million lives. The pandemic has not only exerted extreme pressure on public health systems worldwide, but also disrupted the normal political and economic order.

Amid the global crisis, hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism loom over the world, which further threatens a post-pandemic future for humankind.

To unite or to separate? To open up or to exclude? To cooperate or to confront? The world is in a historic crossroads.

In his speech delivered at the Palace of Nations on Jan. 18, 2017, Xi listed such priorities as partnership, security, growth and inter-civilization exchanges in building a community of a shared future for humankind.

Roy Van Den Hurk (1st L), general manager of product with New Zealand dairy company TheLand, attends a cooperation signing ceremony during the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 5, 2020. [Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe]

Since 2013, when the Chinese president first presented the concept during a visit to Russia, Xi has enriched the concept to include building a shared future with neighboring countries, with Asia-Pacific partners, with African countries, with Latin American countries, and building a maritime shared future, as well as a shared future in cyberspace.

With the pandemic still raging, Xi put forward the proposal of jointly building a community of common health for humankind, calling for active engagement in jointly battling the pandemic and enhancing global public health governance.

China has initiated the largest global humanitarian efforts in its history, providing anti-epidemic aid to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations, and sending 36 medical expert teams to 34 countries.

"Coronavirus is a global crisis that no country is immune from. It has proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice to win the battle," said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

Staff members of enterprises of the Republic of Korea wait to check in for a flight to Tianjin, China, at Incheon International Airport, the Republic of Korea, May 10, 2020. [NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua]

"China's commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind is one of the most beautiful philosophical concepts, and a magnificent Chinese initiative for the peace and well-being of peoples in history of humanity," said Pierre Picquart, a French expert on China at the University of Paris VIII.

Concrete Action

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the world economy and added to its instability and uncertainty, China took innovative approaches to establish "fast tracks" and "green lanes" to ensure a smooth flow of personnel and goods and keep industrial and supply chains stable and open.

With containment protocols in place, China hosted a series of global trade events as scheduled including the 2020 China International Fair For Trade in Services in Beijing, the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, and the 17th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, among others.

"This demonstrated China's sincere desire to share its market opportunities with the world to tide over difficulties," said Chen Fengying, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Photo taken on Nov. 28, 2020 shows a Pakistani exhibition area of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo at Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. [Xinhua/Lu Boan]

The CIIE provided growth opportunities for Roy van den Hurk, a New Zealand dairy company manager.

Joining the over 3,600 companies from over 150 countries and regions, it was the third consecutive year for Hurk's company Theland to participate in the CIIE, with the previous two resulting in increased product sales.

"I felt completely safe while at CIIE, and in fact I feel completely safe in Shanghai as well," said Hurk. "We are also very confident of the China market for many years to come." The company has already signed a three-year long-term participation memorandum with the organizers to secure a booth place at the next CIIE.

In his Geneva speech, Xi welcomed other countries "aboard the fast train of China's development." The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an important platform proposed by Xi in 2013, has been part of that drive.

Workers walk on a continuous beam at the construction site of the China-built Jakarta-Bandung high-speed-railway in Bekasi, West Java province, Indonesia, Aug. 15, 2020. [Xinhua/Zulkarnain]

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, BRI cooperation continues to bear fruit. In the first eight months of 2020, China's trade with Belt and Road partners reached 5.86 trillion yuan (about 896 billion U.S. dollars), and Chinese companies increased their non-financial direct investment in partner countries by more than 30 percent year on year.

The China-Europe freight train service network, a land transportation artery like a modern railway version of camel caravans across Eurasia, saw 10,180 trips made as of Nov. 5, 2020. Nearly 8 million parcels of medical supplies have been delivered via the network last year.

For Pakistani President Arif Alvi, the BRI has profoundly interpreted the true meaning of cooperation, peace and development and reflected the universal aspirations of people around the world.

New Possibility

No country in the world can enjoy absolute security while others remain in turmoil, Xi said at the Palace of Nations.

Visitors try a virtual reality (VR) product in the cultural services exhibition area of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2020. [Xinhua/Ju Huanzong]

Xi delivered speeches at a series of United Nations high-level meetings marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the 193-nation body.

The Chinese president called on all countries to abandon a zero-sum mentality and promote universal security, in line with his Geneva speech.

Green and low-carbon development and a coexistence between humanity and nature has long been a part of Xi's global vision.

China has announced that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. China has also pledged to lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 15, 2020 shows a solar thermal electricity project in Gonghe County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Hainan in northwest China's Qinghai Province. [Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang]

China has not only made achievements in its own green development, but also shared its experience with other countries, said Nasser Bouchiba, president of the Africa-China Cooperation Association for Development in Morocco.

"A just cause should be pursued for the common good," Xi has quoted this Chinese proverb in many speeches. Traditional Chinese culture advocates "harmony in diversity" and upholds "the beauty of each civilization," which has become a gene deeply rooted in the vision of building a shared future for humankind.

However, major changes unseen in a century have given rise to profound changes in the international order. Some countries started to advocate the fallacy of a "clash of civilizations," "racial superiority" and "putting one's own country first" in an attempt to foster prejudice, estrangement and hatred.

Over the past four years, Xi has pointed out on many international occasions that diversity of human civilizations not only defines our world, but also drives humanity's progress. Civilizations are enriched by exchanges and mutual learning. "Only through mutual respect, mutual learning and harmonious coexistence can the world maintain its diversity and thrive," Xi said.

Martin Jacques, a senior fellow of politics and international studies at Cambridge University, said China has carried out unprecedented work at home and abroad and offered "a new possibility" to the world.

Xinhua correspondents Han Mo, Chen Shan, Jin Zheng in Beijing also contributed to the story.

(Source: Xinhua)
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
This week: Pitkin Countys front line workers are eligible for the COVID19 vaccine, but can your employer require you to get vaccinated? Also a look at the two back-to-back worldwide ski events Aspen is hosting beginning March 10. Host Alycin Bektesh is joined by Madeleine Osberger, Erica 
Agitating farmers plan to hold tractor rally on R-Day

Agitating farmer unions on Sunday remained firm on holding a tractor rally on Republic Day and vowed to continue their stir till the Agri laws are repealed, even as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged them to discuss alternatives to scrapping the legislation at the next meeting scheduled for January 19. "We are prepared to sit in protest till May 2024... Our demand is that the three laws be taken back and the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP," Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters in Nagpur.

Read: Farmers' R-Day Tractor March Plan In SC; Prepared For Stir Till May 2024, Says BKU Leader

India's COVID-19 tally

India reported 13,788 new COVID-19 cases, 14,457 discharges and 145 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. Vaccination drive begins across 3350 centres. India vaccinated over 17,000 people on Day 2. Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan took 'Covaxin' shot in Trichy, earlier yesterday.

Read: Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India's Tally At 1,05,71,773; 17,072 People Inoculated On Day 2

UP minister calls Mamata Banerjee 'terrorist'

On Sunday, an Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister has alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is working at the behest of Bangladesh. The UP minister, Anand Swaroop Shukla, said that Mamata Banerjee is not interested in Indians and she doesn't care about the citizens of this country. He also said that the Bengal CM has turned into "Bangladeshi" and is an "Islamic terrorist." Claiming that only Rohingya Muslims support Mamata, Shukla also asserted that BJP will win 200 seats in Bengal.

Read: Mamata Banerjee 'terrorist' Working For Bangladesh, Greatest Threat To Nation: UP Minister

Congress, Left to finalise seat-sharing by end of Jan

Asserting that they will jointly fight against the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Left Front and the Congress on Sunday said that their seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming state assembly elections will be finalised by the end of January. Congress state chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that his party and the Left Front will hold further parleys to finalise the nitty-gritties of the deal.

Read: In Poll-bound Bengal, Congress & Left To Finalise 'cordial' Seat-sharing By End Of January

Former Homeland Secy calls Trump an experiment

Former Secretary of Homeland Jeh Johnson on Sunday said that he hopes the citizens of the country will soon realise that Donald Trump's presidency was a "failed experiment." Johnson said that he thinks history will not remember Trump's presidency and "those who supported it kindly" even if the Senate decides not to convict Trump of inciting the Capitol riots earlier this month. Speaking further, Johnson said that 4 years ago, the United States engaged in a very dangerous experiment by electing someone who was utterly unqualified for office, who has no moral or legal compass, and frankly had impulses towards fascism and autocracy. Johnson further said, "My hope is that as time passes Americans will realise this was a failed experiment and we should never try it again."

Read: Former Homeland Secy Calls Trump A Failed Experiment, Says 'history Will Not Remember Him'
AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE: Phil Mattingly, Senior White House Correspondent, CNN, tells TV Tonight about the mood in Washington D.C. and what to expect from Inauguration Day.

This takes place at noon Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday 20 January in the U.S. (4am AEDT Thursday 21 January in Australia).

What is the mood in Washington ahead of the big day?

PM: Its unlike anything Ive ever seen. This will be my fourth inauguration, and the prior three were celebrations; hundreds of thousands of people arriving, street vendors on every corner selling merchandise tied to the incoming president. Its always been more of a celebration than anything else.

This is the opposite of that. There is significant trepidation about whats coming, major security concerns, and the areas around the White House and Capitol are locked down to a degree Ive simply never seen before. Obviously, this is a result of a combination of things  what occurred on 6 January, and law enforcement continuing to see significant threats in the days leading up to inauguration. But its still jarring to witness.

Phil Mattingly, CNN.

What security arrangements are in place?

PM: Downtown Washington is essentially shut down. There is massive fencing that makes up security perimeters around the White House and Capitol that are far larger, and far more intensive, than any Ive ever seen. And to be completely clear: inaugurations are always heavily, heavily secured events. The current outlay makes those efforts seem very, very small.

In the Capitol currently there are roughly 20,000 members of the National Guard taking shifts around the perimeter. When they arent on watch, they are quite literally sleeping on the floors in the basement of the Capitol Building.

Notably, it is a National Special Security Event. An inauguration always is (as are events like the Super Bowl), but what that means is that the full weight of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence capabilities are deployed. This means heavy police presence, police dogs, sharp shooters, flight restrictions around the city, WMD units throughout. This, in and of itself, isnt rare for inauguration  its always the case; whats different is the massive reach of the security perimeters and, of course, the huge military presence throughout the city.

What are Joe Bidens main challenges as he begins his presidency?

PM: The list is long. The Biden team will tell you the most significant is the pandemic, both on the public health and economic fronts. The President-elect just laid out his $1.9 trillion economic recovery plan, which Congress will have to begin work on shortly after the inauguration. Bidens team has also started to lay out its plans on vaccine production and distribution and what it plans to implement (or advise) on the public health front as Covid hits inarguably its worst stage since its arrival.

There are also huge foreign policy challenges. Whether its Iran, or China, or the still-deployed U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, there are massive issues on his teams plate from the moment they walk in the door. Some of those issues are driven by fundamental policy differences with the outgoing administration. Some are driven by world events that continue to transpire and, in some cases, devolve, on a seemingly weekly basis. Whatever the reason, Biden will major foreign policy challenges to address in his opening days.

What else can we expect on the day?

PM: The day itself will be different from any inauguration weve ever seen. Obviously, the security threats have changed things  there wont be spectators on the National Mall, for example. And obviously Covid has changed things. Bidens team has made clear this will be much more of a scaled back and virtual event than what is traditionally held.

But you also have to factor in the outgoing president will not attend the inauguration. Thats obviously a huge shift in precedent  a precedent that symbolizes the peaceful transfer of power. It will be the first time a sitting president has boycotted the ceremony since 1869.

All that said, traditions remain. There will be a swearing in ceremony held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, as is always the case. Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Biden shortly before noon. Biden will give his inaugural address. Former Presidents and First Ladies George W. and Laura Bush, Barack and Michell Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton have said they will attend, as is custom.

At least two big celebrities will participate in the swearing in  Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem and Jennifer Lopez will give a musical performance. Afterwards there will be a virtual parade  a major shift from past live parades. There will be some kind of review of troops, which is also the norm.

CNN International will have live coverage throughout the day and on CNN.com.

Related
Restaurants in Region 2, which includes Peoria and Bloomington, will be allowed to resume indoor service at 25% capacity, or 25 people, whichever is less, according to the states public health department. Reservations are limited to two hours max, and parties are capped at four people; the health department recommends dining only with members of the same household.
Political efforts to hammer home the threat to the NHS causes by the deadly new wave of coronavirus appear to be working, a new poll suggests today.

Confidence in the NHS's ability to cope with the worst ravages of the pandemic has fallen to its lowest level since it began last March, Ipsos MORI found.

While 60 per cent of the public are still very or fairly confident the health service can deal with the additional pressure, that figure is down 12 points from November.

Some 35 per cent of the 1,065 people surveyed online were not confident the NHS could cope, up 11 points over the same period.

It comes in the third week of the latest lockdown, which has seen ministers and medics hammer home the threat to the NHS in a bid to make people stay at home as much as possible.

Ben Page, the chief executive of Ipsos MORI, said: 'Public confidence in the NHS has fallen to its lowest point in the Pandemic, driven by media coverage of hospitals under pressure.

'In one sense this may be helpful in encouraging the public to maintain social distancing, but the challenge will be rebuilding it after the pandemic when waiting lists will likely be at record levels.'

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the September target for covering all adults in a round of interviews this morning

However, crucually, the poll was conducted Between January 8 and 11, before good news about the UK's vaccine efforts began to break.

This morning a senior minister suggested the brutal lockdown is on track to be loosened in England from the beginning of March amid rising hopes that target of vaccinating all adults by September could be beaten by months.

Another five million people will be invited to receive a jab from today, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning - and he also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March.

He said the restrictions could be taken away 'gradually' from 'two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts'.

Mr Zahawi also insisted that second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case.

The comments came as letters started going out to people in England in the next two priority groups.

That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients.

However, there are concerns about a postcode lottery for access, as when people get called will depend on local progress vaccinating the first categories, which varies widely across the country.

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey complained this morning that in her constituency some individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly.

'Vaccinations started well in Suffolk Coastal in the last few days, but something isn't quite right as in some places, patients aged 70+ are being contacted for vaccination ahead of 80+/90+ year olds,' she tweeted. 'Am following up with local NHS.'

In London vaccinations have been trailing behind the rest of the country, with Tory MPs voicing alarm that the supplies were being based on take-up of the flu vaccine last winter.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday that the nation was 'nearly on the home straight' as 50 per cent of all over-80s in England have been vaccinated.

Some 140 a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds.
The Trump administration last week notified some Huawei suppliers that it is revoking their licenses to sell to the Chinese tech giant and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications equipment maker, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The action against Huawei Technologies - likely the last under Republican President Donald Trump's administration - is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world's largest telecommunications equipment company, which it says is a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.

The notices came amid a flurry of U.S. actions against China in the final days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.

A Commerce Department spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.

In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday the Commerce Department had issued "intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license." Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was more than one revocation.

The email said the actions spanned a "broad range" of products in the semiconductor industry and asked companies whether they had received notices.

The email noted that companies had been waiting "many months" for licensing decisions and with less than a week left in the administration, dealing with it was a challenge.

A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the January 6 fascist coup attempted by Donald Trump in Washington and amid growing, public threats of a Francoite coup in Spain, the fascist Vox party is increasingly dictating terms to Spains Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government.

COVID-19 is running rampant across Europe, with record number of infections and daily deaths mounting to several thousand per day. Yet when Vox denounced a shelter-at-home policy needed to halt the pandemic, the PSOE-Podemos government immediately accepted.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (PSOE), second left, walks next to Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, second right, and First Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo, left, at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 14 2020. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

On Friday, Vox leader Santiago Abascal intervened in a party-sponsored event titled The Future of Patriotism in the US and Spain in Barcelona. Other far-right attendees included Georgia Meloni, of Fratelli dItalia; far-right Chilean politician Jose Antonio Kas; and US Republican operatives Ted Bromund of the Heritage Foundation think tank and Grover Norquist. The latter is the brother of David Norquist, appointed acting secretary of defense by the incoming Biden administration as a sign of unity between the Democratic Party and its Republican colleagues after Trumps coup.

Abascal denounced Twitter for closing Trumps account during his coup attempt. The Vox leader said it was the result of hatred, which shows the fear of the globalists, of the left, who have perceived that the future does not belong to them, it belongs to the patriots. He concluded with a call for the fascists and far-right extremists to work together, coordinated and united against the left, that is to say, against the working class.

Shortly before the meeting, Abascal reacted publicly to news that Spains conservative Popular Party (PP) may change its opposition to a state of alarm to implement a shelter-at-home policy. He made clear there could be no attempt to change health policy: Spain must protect itself, but Spain cannot stop. They have no right to arrest Spaniards in their homes condemning them to their ruin. For many months they have not been allowed to work, or their rights are being restricted.

Hours after Abascals intervention, Fernando Simon, director of the Centre for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, made clear, as he has done for a number of weeks now, that the PSOE-Podemos government will not reverse to shelter-at-home. Simon said: The option of home confinement, as always, is there. But it does not seem, right now, necessary. We will see in the future. The control measures implemented are very similar to that of France or Germany.

He falsely claimed that the limited measures adopted by regional governments across Spain, like shutting down bars and restaurants while allowing non-essential work and children back to school, will not have the name of confinement, but the set of measures has a very similar effect.

The following morning, as if to further reassure the fascists, Health Minister Salvador Illa said in a press conference: At the moment, we do not contemplate any home confinement. We dominated the second wave without home confinement. We will defeat this third wave through co-governance and the current state of alarm, which works. He added, We are in the third wave, we are reporting very worrying figures, but we want to remind everyone that we have the knowledge, the experience and we know how to bend this curve.

Spains PSOE-Podemos government is lying. One cannot define the current state of the pandemic as a third wave when the second onewhich itself was only the resurgence of the virus after the premature ending of lockdown measures in the springwas never brought under control. The virus is running rampant throughout Spain, and ICUs throughout the country face collapse.

Last Monday, Spain reported 61,422 new coronavirus cases, the highest weekend figure so far. By the middle of the week, on Wednesday, the number of new coronavirus infections reported was 38,869 in 24 hours. This was the worst seen so far in the pandemic until Friday, when Spain reported 40,197 new infections. The number of excess deaths above the historical norma better indication of deaths caused by the pandemicnow stand over 84,000.

The reaction of the government confirms the warning that it does not represent a progressive faction of the capitalist establishment. The working class cannot pressure the left populists in Podemos and trade unions to obtain a less callous and repressive policy, or a scientifically-based approach to combat the virus. These forces are becoming the main instrument through which the increasingly fascistic ruling establishment implements its policy.

It confirms the warnings of the International Committee of the Fourth International: If the control of the virus is left in the hands of the capitalist governments in Europe, the result will be hundreds of thousands of further unnecessary deaths. Capitalist elites in country after country have rejected any response to the pandemic that conflicts with corporate profit interests and the drive for the accumulation of private wealth.

The EU bailout, co-managed with Podemos and union representatives, transferring 140 billion to corporations and banks is being paid with the thousands of infections and deaths in herd immunity policy, pension and labour reforms, and brutal police-state repression to suppress social opposition.

Meanwhile, Podemos is intervening to cover up advanced coup plans of Vox and sections of the army. For over a year, these forces plotted to impose a dictatorship under the guise of a national PSOE-PP-Vox unity government.

Voxs attacks on the PP for considering shelter-at-home policy, reveals the class interests underlying this policy. Just days after retired Lieutenant General Emilio Perez Alaman wrote to the Minister of Defence on the same day Trump launched his coup, demanding it change the course of the government, a PP internal debate emerged whether to align themselves with the fascist campaign.

It is also an exposure of both the social-democratic PSOE and the left populist Podemos, and its allies across Europe, that Vox is intervening not to shift the policy of the PSOE and Podemos, but to ensure that there be no change to the murderous policies that they are already implementing.

The debate takes place amid rising working class opposition to the PSOE-Podemos governments herd immunity policy and a growing class gulf separating the workers from the capitalist class. Nearly 60 percent of Spaniards believe the government should have taken stricter measures to control the virus, according to a survey conducted in early December by the state-funded Centre for Sociological Research (CIS).

It reflects a gulf between the policy of death and profits and the police of saving lives and socialism. The capitalist policy must be countered by the unified struggle of the working class across Europe. Schools and non-essential workplaces must be closed, with living wages provided to everyone, and full compensation provided to small businesses.

In opposition to the dead-end policy of pressuring the trade unions to fight, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its Socialist Equality Party sections call for the formation of independent rank-and-file committees in schools and workplaces, for the organization of a general strike to enforce a scientific response to the pandemic.
If you wanna shake it in the mud at the Fair Grounds, hug sweaty strangers, dance your face off in a packed neighborhood dive bar or pass around that gallon of daiquiri with a bunch of strangers, you need the vaccine, ya HERD?

Herd immunity is the key to beating the COVID-19 pandemic and getting our festivals and celebrations back  meaning that around 70% of the population either needs the vaccine or immunity in the form of antibodies. But while that may sound simple, its far from it.

According to Charles Stoecker, an associate professor at Tulane University and a health economist who researches vaccine policy, Herd immunity is a patchwork quilt. That 70% number refers to the community youre in  even during different points of the day. You go to the grocery store, classrooms, a whole crowd of people to listen to music, you want to see 70% [immunized] there.

And that also applies to tourists. New Orleans is built on the tourism economy, Stoecker says. We depend on our own protective measures, but also from those who come to visit.

The phased vaccine roll-out has so far been much slower than state and local officials had hoped.

As of press time Jan. 15, Louisiana is in Phase 1B, Tier 1 of vaccine distribution, prioritizing those over 70, health care workers, first responders, and those working or living in long-term care facilities and nursing homes.

But leaders expect to move into Tier 2 possibly as soon as early February, which would encompass school workers; essential government and postal workers; shelter staff; grocery store employees; and military, security and correctional staff.

So far, the demand for the vaccine has outstripped the supply, but Stoecker, who has advised both the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization on previous vaccine policies, is optimistic that it will pick up for a few reasons.

For one, the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden has said vaccinations will be a top priority. Biden has promised to get 100 million doses into the arms of Americans within the first 100 days of his term. If he fulfills this, notes Stoecker, that would immunize roughly a third of the American populace. Combined with the millions of people who have already survived the virus and have the antibodies to ward off new infections, that could put us well on the way, toward herd immunity, he says.

On Jan. 13, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the citys health director, acknowledged at a virtual town hall that the logistics have been challenging, and Gov. John Bel Edwards has expressed a similar sentiment in recent weeks. Stoecker agrees but believes things will ramp up as we work out kinks in distribution, noting that local pharmacies and hospitals have just begun the process in recent weeks, and theres a learning curve for figuring out efficient distribution.

Another important aspect that experts are working on is outreach to vulnerable or skeptical communities to reassure them the vaccine is safe and effective.

Coronavirus vaccine plans underway for New Orleans schools; officials caution of 'fluid' situation Health officials and NOLA Public Schools have announced a tentative COVID-19 vaccination plan for faculty and staff at K-12 schools and daycar

They are not only battling widespread disinformation campaigns from conspiracy theorists and politicians alike whose falsehoods have confused the public, but they are also working to assuage understandable mistrust based off previous atrocities.

We have minority populations that have well-founded mistrust of the medical establishment, says Stoecker. Everyone talks about Tuskegee, and that needs to be acknowledged and worked around.

Above all, Stoecker says, my job is to figure out if a vaccine is worth it. I run the numbers, what the cost is, what the benefits are. [The Covid vaccine] is obviously worth it. This will allow us to get back to being a really vibrant city.

+3 When will New Orleans have festivals? Normally in mid-January New Orleanians are happily stuffing their faces with King Cake, building up a protective layer of sugary goodness for 

+5 New Orleans grapples with a muted 2021 Drummer Boyanna Trayanova has been keeping up a steady live-stream for most of the last 10 months, going live on Facebook about once a week fo
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COVID-19 Vaccine Town Halls

COVID-19 Vaccine Town Halls

The State of Michigan is hosting a series of virtual town halls about the COVID-19 vaccine through Facebook Live on the MDHHS Facebook page. Residents will have the opportunity to hear about the safety, efficacy, and importance of the COVID-19 vaccine for safely opening Michigan.

Any questions that cannot be answered during the town halls due to time constraints, will be reviewed and added to the State of Michigan COVID-19 vaccine frequently asked questions.

Upcoming Town Halls

Parent-Focused Town Hall - June 17 at 4 p.m.

Young Adults Town Hall - July 22 at 4 p.m.

Previous Town Halls

May 19, 2021 - Town Hall for Local Government Leaders

COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall for Older Adults Recognizing that residents have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, Michigan is hosting the next in a series of community town halls. The March event will focus on older adults as the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age. Ahead of the discussion, residents are encouraged to submit questions at https://forms.gle/fnwKNMZUMej7N69h6. Any questions that cannot be answered due to time constraints will be reviewed and added to Michigan's COVID-19 vaccine FAQ at Michigan.gov/COVIDVaccine. Posted by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, March 25, 2021

May 18, 2021 - Town Hall for Middle Eastern and North African Communities

May 6, 2021 - Town Hall for People with Disabilities

April 14, 2021 - First Ladies Community Town Hall

March 25, 2021 - Older Adults

COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall for Older Adults Recognizing that residents have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, Michigan is hosting the next in a series of community town halls. The March event will focus on older adults as the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age. Ahead of the discussion, residents are encouraged to submit questions at https://forms.gle/fnwKNMZUMej7N69h6. Any questions that cannot be answered due to time constraints will be reviewed and added to Michigan's COVID-19 vaccine FAQ at Michigan.gov/COVIDVaccine. Posted by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, March 25, 2021

February 25, 2021 - Communities of Color

COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall for Communities of Color Join us for our second COVID-19 vaccine town hall, this time addressing questions within communities of color. Speakers include Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Dr. Lynn Smitherman, N. Charles Anderson with the Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan, Reverend Wendell Anthony with the Detroit NAACP, Eva A. Garza Dewaelsche with SER Metro-Detroit, Jobs for Progress, Inc., Dr. Zafer I. Obeid with the Arab American & Chaldean Council, Dr. Terry Samuels with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Dr. Bobby Mukkamala with the Michigan State Medical Society and American Medical Association. Ahead of the discussion, attendees are encouraged to submit their questions for the town hall about the COVID-19 vaccine at https://forms.gle/jnmZksqkzY6HcFAq7. Any questions that cannot be answered during the town halls due to time constraints, will be reviewed and added to the State of Michigan COVID-19 vaccine frequently asked questions. Posted by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, February 25, 2021

January 21, 2021 - Faith-Based Community
Photo: The Canadian Press

Unifor members have voted to approve General Motors Canada's plan to invest $1 billion in an electric vehicle plant in southern Ontario.

The national union's 1,900 Local 88 members voted online Sunday on a tentative deal with the automaker to transform GM's CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont., into a hub for producing electric commercial delivery vans.

The union says about 91 per cent of worker votes were in favour of the deal, and that work will begin immediately to ready the plant to begin van production in November.

The industry has been hit hard over the last decade as automakers cut jobs in the province and production work flowed to the U.S. and Mexico.

Unifor has spent much of the last year striking deals with GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler that will pump $6 billion into Canada's auto manufacturing industry.

With the Ingersoll plant wrapping up Chevrolet Equinox production in 2023, the plan also comes as GM is trying to transform its business to focus more on electric vehicles.
Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer's embarrassing spelling mistakes have been revealed in court as he tries to represent himself to get out of prison.

The disgraced property developer has been behind bars since his bail was revoked in November after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice and making a false statement on oath.

The 34-year-old launched a bid to strike a deal with police over a restraining order taken out for his now ex-girlfriend Missy Tysoe.

Mehajer on Monday appeared in the District Court for a bail application. He apologised for several spelling errors in his written submissions which he wrote from his Silverwater remand jail cell.

Mehajer on Monday appeared in the District Court for a bail application, where he apologised for several spelling errors in his written submissions made from his Silverwater remand jail cell

Ms Tysoe has since taken to Instagram to post a series of scantily-clad bikini shots, seemingly unfazed by her ex-boyfriend's legal troubles

He told Judge Mark Buscombe he didn't manage to get a lawyer for the hearing after his government-funded Legal Aid came to an end last year.

'I tried my very best to seek representation for today but I was unsuccessful. I don't have the expertise to represent myself like a lawyer can,' he said, according to news.com.au.

'As you can see in the submissions there are many typographical errors  it's just very, very juvenile.'

His error-ridden submissions included accusations that Judge Peter Zahra acted with bias, claiming he would be appealing his convictions.

'It is submitted that His Honour used his position of power to ask the accused over 200 questions while he was under oath giving evidence. The number of questions was unquestionably far-fetched, unwarranted and intimidating for the accused. His Honour took control over the entire cross-examination,' Mehajer wrote.

Mehajer wrote that he became 'visibly exhausted and intimidated' by Mr Zahra's line of questioning, which he claims bordered on 'harassment'.

Crown prosecutor Tony McCarthy accused Mehajer of 'dragging things out' and said the likelihood of him winning on appeal were slim.

A sentence date was listed for February 12.

Meanwhile, Ms Tysoe appears to have moved on with her life after alleging Mehajer tried to call her from prison to have her restraining order dropped.

The disgraced property developer told Judge Mark Buscombe he didn't manage to get a lawyer for the hearing after his government-funded Legal Aid came to an end last year

The restraining order relates to a series of alleged incidents currently under police investigation, including an alleged assault in October that ended with the 31-year-old seeking medical attention.

Daily Mail Australia understands prosecutors will allege Mehajer breached the order by attempting to call Ms Tysoe from Silverwater jail to ask her to drop the AVO.

Under the terms of the restraining order currently in force, Mehajer is banned from contacting Ms Tysoe whatsoever except via lawyer and from possessing any firearms or prohibited weapons.

Ms Tysoe has since taken to Instagram to post a series of scantily-clad bikini shots, seemingly unfazed by her ex-boyfriend's legal troubles.

'I have no need for revenge. I am no longer yours, and that is punishment enough,' she captioned a recent photo of herself in red lingerie.
Normally in mid-January New Orleanians are happily stuffing their faces with King Cake, building up a protective layer of sugary goodness for Carnival as they peruse the freshly released lineup for that years Jazz Fest.

Like that undersized nutria eyeing its shadow for folks up north, the annual release of the Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest lineups give us a glimpse of the coming spring even before the first Carnival parades start. Even too-cool-for-school hipsters who scoff at the idea of rubbing elbows with Jazz Fest Dads at the track look forward to these releases.

But COVID-19 has thrown even these small traditions into chaos. City officials have put New Orleans back into a near lockdown as a major spike in cases hits the United States. Barrooms are closed, live music is essentially banned and there will be no parades this year. Rather than looking for festival lineups, were reading tea leaves, trying to divine whether there will even be a festival season.

It all has locals wondering when or if theyll socialize at outdoor events again.

There is some good news. While French Quarter Fest hasnt announced a lineup, its staked out dates from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, and organizers say they hope theyll be able to put on a full-on festival. They hope improvements in the coronavirus situation will allow attendees to spread out and enjoy live music on the events normal array of more than 20 stages and vendors throughout the quarter.

Vaccinations were giving us a lot of hope and optimism, CEO Emily Madero says. For the last six months, weve been going along a dual planning track so we could be ready to produce events as soon as it was possible. We hadnt ruled out April, and at this point, I think we know April isnt going to be possible, so were shifting to our fall dates. Based on conversations with public health officials and the city and peer organizations nationally, no one knows exactly what the future holds, but theres a lot of confidence that well be in a safer environment.

While Jazz Fest has not officially announced plans, several news organizations reported last week that it will be postponed from April and May to October. Meanwhile, its owner, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, is making plans for some of its free festivals. The Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival will not happen again until March 2022. The fate of the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, normally slated for October, is not yet determined, says Kia Robinson, the foundations director of programming and communications. But she does expect its combined Treme Creole Gumbo Festival and Congo Square Rhythms Festival to be in Louis Armstrong Park in November, possibly with a larger footprint in the park and with other safety precautions, such as staggering entrance times. The lack of steady progress controlling the coronavirus has made planning difficult.

It feels like were starting over every month, Robinson says.

From there, things get murkier. Other major music festivals have previously announced dates but declined to discuss planning. BUKU Music + Art Project wont return until 2022, but it has announced a smaller event for October. In April 2020, Voodoo Music + Art Experience announced its next festival would be in October but has offered no update since.

New Orleans Film Festival organizers say it will be back in November, and theyre dealing more with format changes. To hold a 2020 event, it switched to a hybrid of online and outdoor screenings. More than 3,000 attendees watched movies at the Broadside and two temporary screening sites on the Lafitte Greenway. Though overall viewership was down, feedback was good on both fronts, says New Orleans Film Society Executive Director Fallon Young. People watched slates of short films at all hours online, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for outdoor screenings. But the costs of setting up outdoor screenings, including an LED lit screen for daytime movies, was expensive and may not be easy to reproduce once pandemic concerns abate, she says.

Planning on working on a tighter budget has Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo working on a smaller event on its normal dates, the third weekend in May. Normally it presents a mix of local bands on three stages along Bayou St. John, but it may move to an established venue, such as the Broadside or Tucks Funky Uncle, to save on costs. Festival founder Jared Zeller says hes fortunate to have grant support from the Jazz & Heritage Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, but he must use the NEA funds by June 1, or lose them.

Like a lot of the smaller festival organizers, Zeller isnt sure he can afford another lost season. Last year, we lost four to five months of planning, staff salaries and expenses when the event was canceled, he says. We dont have the capacity to reinvent ourselves every year.

Missing another spring is a huge challenge to Hogs for the Cause, the barbecue festival that raises funds for families with children being treated for pediatric brain cancer. The festival was two weeks from its March 2020 event when it decided to pull the plug. It was already loading in equipment on the grounds of the UNO Lakefront Arena for 90 barbecue teams and three music stages, but organizers realized the pandemic would likely intervene before the March 27 opening day.

Festival co-founder Becker Hall says theyve ruled out holding an event in the first half of 2021, and its unclear whether theyll be able to do so even in the second half of the year. Theres competition for available weekend dates later in the year, and organizers want to be careful about the risk of an event being disrupted by a hurricane or other unforeseen event. While a full-scale Hogs might not be possible, a smaller-scale event might be easier to organize in a shorter time frame.

In todays world, you dont need nine months (to plan), Hall says. You dont have musicians traveling around as much. You dont have vendors all over the place. You dont have stages in different places that need to be hauled in. Putting something together quicker is easier.

But Hall remains worried and says he doesnt know if the nonprofit organization will survive if it misses another year. Last year was devastating, Hall says. Two years? I dont know if we can overcome it, unfortunately. Its crippling.

+5 New Orleans grapples with a muted 2021 Drummer Boyanna Trayanova has been keeping up a steady live-stream for most of the last 10 months, going live on Facebook about once a week fo
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A Belfast lorry driver is "physically and mentally" exhausted after leaving hospital where he was treated for injuries caused when a wheelie bin filled with rocks was hurled from an overpass onto his cab.

Doctors say Fra McCaffrey may need further plastic surgery on his face.

"He's improved massively since getting out of hospital four days ago but his eyesight is still not there and the doctors are not hopeful that it will return to full capacity," said his son Dan.

"When they say full capacity, they mean - best case scenario - 30% in his right eye. Worst case is that he won't have any sight in his eye."

The 56-year-old is still trying to understand what happened when the bin was thrown at his lorry as he drove under the Ballyboley overpass outside Larne at around 10.30pm on January 8.

He has had two operations to remove shattered windscreen glass and has been told he will never drive a lorry again.

He visited the scene of the incident on Saturday, where he was working his night shift delivering a consignment to the Royal Mail office in Larne.

"He wanted to see it and see if he can remember anything specific about the day or about the event," said Dan.

"He's strong-minded but he's physically and mentally upset and exhausted from it and he doesn't have any clear answers."

While Mr McCaffrey has memories, he didn't see anyone involved when one of the large rocks from the bin struck him.

He can remember blood dripping from his face after the incident.

"When he got hit initially he was blind in both eyes, he couldn't see at all," said his son.

"He said he almost stood on the brake to get the vehicle stopped and he was very, very rigid holding on to the steering wheel."

A PSNI investigation is ongoing.

Dan said the family were still "upset and angry" over what happened.

"The moment when I brought my dad down on Saturday, I felt disgust," he added.

"I was thinking, how do these people throw the bin off and watch my dad stop and struggle and fall when he gets out of the van because he can't see?

"Are they watching that or are they long gone? It's that feeling of such anger and frustration."

Mr McCaffrey will visit hospital again in a week's time for further assessment of his injuries. "He had plastic surgery that needs to be checked out and we've been told that won't just be a one-time occurrence and he may need more surgery," Dan added.

The family are trying to keep Mr McCaffrey's spirits up, and he has received many calls and messages from well-wishers.

Dan said he thinks his father should speak to someone to help him process the incident. "I'm trying to prepare my dad for the fact he may need counselling when everything quietens down," he said.

The PSNI has asked anyone who noticed any suspicious activity in the area of the overpass or who captured dash-cam footage of the incident on the evening of January 8 to contact officers on the 101 number, quoting reference number 1944 08/01/21.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

San Francisco, Jan 18 : Robert Dorsey, an San Francisco Bay Area-based chef who is catering the dinner on US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' Inauguration Day, has incorporated the latter's favourite dish as part of the entree.

Dorsey is serving Harris' favourite dish, the seafood gumbo, which is a soup that primarily consists a strongly-flavoured stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, along with celery, bell peppers and onions.

Gumbo is the official state cuisine of Louisiana.

According to the chef, he and the Vice President-elect attended the Thousand Oaks Elementary school in Berkeley and had the same first grade teacher, Frances Wilson, ABC7 News reported on Sunday.

"I had Mrs. Wilson for the first and second grade so I had the luxury of having her two years," Dorsey, also the owner of Robert Dorsey Catering and Events, was quoted as saying in the ABC7 News report.

"It wasn't until five or six years ago that I realised that Vice President-elect also had Mrs. Wilson as a teacher. Prior to learning this, Mrs. Wilson had been one of the instrumental individuals of my life.

"She was one of the first individuals that gave me hope and gave me life," he added.

Besides their teacher, Dorsey said that he and Harris also shared another common interest, their love for gumbo.

"That is what sparked me to put that on the Inauguration Day menu," said Dorsey.

"The fact that, being in Berkeley and coming from the melting pot at Thousand Oaks, where we came from, was really fitting. The true connection is our love affair with gumbo," the ABC7 News further quoted the chef as saying.

The Inauguration Day Dinner includes an appetizer, panko crusted crab cakes with organic coastal greens and Cajun remoulade.

While the main dish is the seafood gumbo, for dessert there is banana raisin bread pudding with bourbon caramel.

Dorsey also said that he will provide his community with a delicious meal to celebrate the new administration.

"We are making it available the day before, so folks have time to prepare and watch the Inauguration and enjoy some dinner," said Dorsey.

"I want to kick it off with some gumbo. We will be standing proud on the Inauguration Day. I am going to sit down and enjoy a pot of gumbo. I am going to bask in this moment and share this moment with my family and my community." Biden and Harris will be inaugurated on Wednesday.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, known for his famed candy desk of sweets in the Senate, now is sharing his supply with those protecting the Capitol building.

Toomeys staff put together more than 150 care packages filled with candy and hand-delivered them this past Friday to members of the National Guard. The troops were deployed to Washington, D.C. following the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

Toomey, R-PA, in 2015 began stocking the candy desk in the back row of the Republican side of the chamber for those in need of a sugary treat while debating key legislation proposals, said Steve Kelly, Toomeys communications director. Pennsylvanias numerous candy makers, including The Hershey Company, Bethlehem-based Just Born Confections, and West Reading-based R.M. Palmer Company, have sent down products to be featured over the years.

The senator wanted to express his gratitude to members of the National Guard, including members from Pennsylvania, with the care packages, Kelly told lehighvalleylive.com Sunday.

The storming of the United States Capitol on Jan. 6 were riots against the United States Congress carried out by a mob of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. In the end, the riot led to the evacuation and lockdown of the Capitol, as well as five deaths.

Things were quiet at the state Capitol Sunday as state capitals around the United States heightened security after the FBI warned there are calls for armed protests at state capitals and in Washington, D.C. ahead of President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration Wednesday.

Security reportedly remains extremely tight in Washington, D.C. with parking restrictions, several road closures and numerous barriers. Federal and local officials are discouraging people from traveling to the nations capital the inauguration or for any other nonessential business, according to The Washington Post.

The number of National Guard troops coming to Washington to assist with security has so far grown to about 21,000, Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at a briefing this past Thursday. Officials have said the number could grow as law enforcement agencies review the ongoing threats.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Chronicle

One person was killed and another was seriously injured after a shooting in Pittsburg early Sunday morning, authorities said.

Just before 1:30 a.m., police were patrolling the area around Harbor Street and Garcia Avenue when they heard several gunshots, authorities said. They responded to the 500 block of Garcia Avenue, where they saw a large gathering of about 100 people, with several people and vehicles fleeing the area.
With any vaccine, different people will experience side effects differently. Credit: Shutterstock

Reports of about 30 deaths among elderly nursing home residents who received the Pfizer vaccine have made international headlines.

With Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) expected to approve the vaccine imminently and the roll out set to begin next month, this development might seem like cause for concern around the safety of the vaccine.

But there are a few reasons it shouldn't be.

What we know

We haven't seen this issue reported in any other countries which are rolling out the Pfizer vaccine.

Norway has reported about 45,000 people around the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far. Their vaccine program has mostly focused on residents in nursing homes.

In other countries, there may be more of a focus on frontline health-care workers in the first instance. So if there is any association between deaths in the elderly and this vaccine, it may not be apparent as yet.

It also depends on surveillance. Norway may have an especially rapid surveillance and reporting system in place, efficiently tracking everyone who has been vaccinated and quickly reporting any adverse outcomes.

We would expect surveillance reporting from other countries with an active vaccination program soon, increasing data critical to building a more accurate picture of vaccine safety across different populations.

Norway's reports will sensitize other countries to monitoring vaccine recipients closely, particularly those in nursing homes who are older and vulnerable. We may see further reports on this coming through in coming weeks from other countries.

But we also may not. We have limited information regarding these cases in Norway. The people reported to have died were elderly and very frail. Many had significant underlying health conditions common in the very old, and may have been nearing the end of their lives independent of the vaccine.

Though they are under investigation, it's important to note the deaths have not been linked conclusively to complications from the vaccine. Meanwhile, Australian experts have called for calm.

Vaccines and the elderly

In the recent history of vaccines, we haven't seen any trends showing deaths in elderly people following vaccination. For example, there's no evidence the annual influenza vaccine has been associated with deaths in older peopleor people of any age.

It's important to note though, that in making a comparison with the flu shot or another vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19, we're comparing apples and oranges.

The Pfizer vaccine is based on mRNA technology, which is completely new in a human vaccine. This technology introduces part of the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA). This instructs your cells to make part of the virus which stimulates an immune response that inhibits infection and protects against disease.

All vaccines are designed to generate an immune responsealbeit in different waysto prepare our bodies to fight the virus if and when we encounter it.

Creating an immune response leads to inflammation in the body. Some people will experience no side effects from a vaccine, but the inflammation can manifest in different ways in different people and between different vaccines. This may mean a reaction at the site of the injection, or fatigue, or feeling unwell.

The deaths in Norway were reportedly associated with fever, nausea and diarrhea, which, while at the severe end of the spectrum of vaccine side effects, would be tolerable for the vast majority of people.

How different people will respond to the mRNA is what we're starting to understand now. It's possible this vaccine will have more serious effects in older, vulnerable people where the initial inflammatory response could be overwhelming.

But it's still too early to draw any conclusions.

Side effects show a vaccine is generating an immune response

Vaccines need to generate an immune response in order to work, and side effects are a byproduct of our bodies mounting an immune response.

While the deaths are sad, they shouldn't be cause for alarm. This actually tells us the vaccine is stimulating an immune response. For most people that response will be entirely tolerable and lead to development of immune memory that protects you from severe COVID-19.

The big challenge for any vaccine is generating enough of an immune response so you're protected from the disease in question, but not too much that you experience serious adverse effects. Where this line in the sand exists will vary across different people, but the oldest and frailest vaccine recipients are likely to be most at risk of severe, potentially life-threatening reactions.

So for those who may be more susceptible, we may want to be a little more cautious. In approving the Pfizer vaccine, the TGA may consider advising against this particular vaccine for people who are very elderly and frail, particularly those who have other conditions and are potentially nearing the end of their lives.

Ideally, the vaccine should be considered on a case-by-case basis for this group, carefully weighing up the risks and benefits in each situation, based on the best available data.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Collision Leaves Mayfield Man Facing DUI Charges

By West Kentucky Star Staff

GRAVES COUNTY - A two-vehicle crash in Graves County Sunday night left a Mayfield man facing DUI charges.

The collision happened around 6:30 pm on US 45 South, near Pryorsburg.

The Graves County Sheriff's Office said 53-year-old Kip Myers was driving his pickup truck, hauling wood on a trailer. Deputies said Myers backed out of a driveway and failed to keep the vehicle in the southbound lane.

A vehicle driven by Walter Doering was traveling north on US 45 South and struck Myers trailer in the northbound lane.

The investigation determined that Myers was under the influence and he was placed under arrest. Myers was lodged in the Graves County Jail on charges of operating a motor vehicle under the influence 2nd offense, possession of an open alcoholic beverage container in a motor vehicle and several traffic related offenses.

Deputies did not say if there were any injuries in the collision.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 18:43:22|Editor: huaxia

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STOCKHOLM, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Sweden logged 361 COVID-19 cases at workplaces last week, the highest weekly number since the pandemic broke out, according to the Swedish Work Environment Authority's statistics on Monday.

Swedish Television (SVT) quoted Ulrika Scholander, section manager at the Swedish Work Environment Authority, as saying on Monday that the situation is "worrying."

She said that week 52, or December 21 to 27, saw the highest weekly cases of 283 in 2020.

While the virus keeps spreading in a wider society, Scholander also believes that increased testing contributes as "more people can now discover if they actually have COVID-19."

In Sweden, employers are obliged to report if staff have been exposed to or harmed by the virus at work. Recently, attention has been drawn to several cases in which staff ignored the rules and came to work despite having symptoms, which, among other things, led to dismissal, SVT reported.

"In such cases, we look at whether employers have had functioning and sufficient routines to prevent the spread of infection, but if an employee actively chooses not to follow the routines, the employer has not breached work environment responsibility, and then it will rather be a criminal investigation for the police," Scholander told SVT.

According to the authority, due to the spread of the coronavirus, many have been recommended to work from home, while others need to work in the healthcare sector and other services essential to society. But employers are responsible for systematically investigating and preventing health and safety risks at workplaces.

The latest statistics published by the Swedish Public Health Agency showed that until Friday a total of 523,486 people in the country have been infected with COVID-19, and 10,323 people have died of the disease.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccinations are underway in Sweden and some other countries.

Meanwhile, 236 candidate vaccines are being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by WHO on Jan. 12. Enditem
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Entering the White House at the height of a global pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden's administration plans to respond by ramping up and simplifying the vaccination process, tackling equity issues, and, above all, following the science, according to two members of Biden's COVID-19 task force.

"From vaccines to therapeutics, to diagnostics, to other public health recommendations, everything is going to be informed by the science," said task force member and infectious disease specialist Celine Gounder during a webcast hosted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on Thursday.

Gounder, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at NYU who earned a Master of Science degree from the Bloomberg School in 2000, pointed to the administration's plan to release every available dose of the coronavirus vaccine, rather than keeping second doses on reserve. "We want to accelerate the pace at which vaccination is going," she said.

That decision, Gounder said, is based on knowledge of vaccine supply levelsand does not imply that individuals should skip or reschedule their second doses, which are expected to be available on time.

"We are confident, based on the information that's been shared with us, that we're not really going to have issues with supply to meet second dosesbarring some major manufacturing snafu," she said.

Gounder was joined Thursday by Global Health Council Director Loyce Pace, a fellow member of Biden's COVID-19 task force and a 2005 graduate of the Bloomberg School, where she received her Master of Public Health degree.

Moderator Brian Simpsonalso a Bloomberg School alumnus and editor of its Global Health NOW publicationpointed to the steep challenges the Biden administration inherits with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is now responsible for the deaths of more than 380,000 Americans and has resulted in more than 23 million confirmed cases nationwide.

Credit: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

To begin flattening the curve of transmission, Biden has pledged to deliver 100 million vaccinations within his first 100 days in office. "If we allow the same death toll to continue over the next hundred days, our overall death toll will more than double," Gounder said. "And that is simply not acceptable."

But vaccine rollout has been hampered to date by confusion, the experts acknowledged. The new administration and its pandemic task force must clarify and simplify processes related to vaccine distribution. Pace said Biden would prioritize providing funding to states to "develop the critical infrastructure they require to be much more regimented, orderly, and clear with their own communities on how to receive a vaccine and when."

Despite the good intentions of entities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Physicians, their vaccine guidance has been "very hard to operationalize on the ground," Gounder said.

"We essentially need to make things simpler," she said, "whether that is simplifying the supply chain  or simplifying the tiers of who is eligible for vaccination."

And the need is urgent, Pace said. New COVID-19 variants have been identified in the U.S., including the highly transmissible B117 variant first detected in the United Kingdom. "We recognize that the U.S. is hardly doing enough to track these variants," she said. "So the [task force] has absolutely recommended a greater focus on genomics surveillance to understand what these variants are and where they exist."

The good news is that the vaccines now available in the U.S. are believed to defend against the new variants"as far as we know right now," Pace said.

Pace said she and others are encouraged by the appointment of Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale associate professor, physician, and researcher known for studying racial disparities in health, as head of a pandemic task force focused on equity challenges.

"I think that signals [the administration's] focus on this issue of the vaccine really hitting people in different ways," she said.

Explore further COVID-19 vaccine recommended for all Americans over 65


An 'ordinance' shop owner that promotes the sale of Nazi collectables is refusing to halt the sale of what Jewish leaders have described 'tools of the devil'.

Robinson Ordinance has sold a collection of authentic Nazi items for the past three years from its Morpeth shop - north west of Newcastle in New South Wales.

Authentic knives used by Nazi soldiers are among a king's ransom of collectables on sale at the shop.

Robinson Ordinance has been condemned by Jewish leaders for selling Nazi memorabilia

A Nazi dagger on sale at the shop for $2300

Nazi flags and badges are among items on sale at Robinson Ordinance

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich, who has been spearheading a nation-wide campaign to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia, condemned the sale of the items.

'Enough is enough. This is not Nazi Germany, and it is perverse for hate and death to have a price tag,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

'The showcase of these tools of the devil, the proceeds of crime, would make all Hitler worshippers smile.'

Under Australian laws it is not illegal to sell Nazi collectables.

Shop owner Matt Robinson, who was banned from Facebook for 30 days last year after posting sales images of Swastika flags, claimed neo-Nazis were not buying the items.

'I don't want to offend anybody ... I don't sell this stuff to spread hate. Neo-Nazis don't buy it - they can't afford it,' he said.

'Most of my collectors are in their 60s, 70s and 80s and typically served with German soldiers - not Nazis - and a lot of them are collectors.'

Mr Robinson said while he understood the sale of the items could be upsetting to some, he would continue to sell them.

'It is history. I also sell Japanese WW2 items which are extremely popular as well. As Australians, technically we probably should be more offended by that than anything with a Swastika on it,' he said.

Mr Robinson claimed the sale of the items had nothing to do with glorifying the Nazi holocaust, which claimed the lives of some six million Jews between 1941 and 1945.

'I don't sell it to glorify it. I don't believe in it or anything to do with Nazism. The whole thing just appals me, but in terms of militaria it's extremely desired, collectable and it's just the nature of (the business),' he said.

Mr Robinson claimed his shop was among three others in the direct vicinity selling Nazi items.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich has called for a ban on the sale of Nazi collectables

German helmets and portraits of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler are all up for grabs at the shop

A copy of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' retails for $350

Nazi Memorabilia On Sale For $10,000 Robinson Ordinance shop owner Matt Robinson says collectors can pay up to $10,000 for Nazi collectables. 'The rarity on some of the blades can be up to $10,000,' he said. Such a blade was once used by the Nazi 'technical department'. 'That's a $10,000 blade if you can find it. If you're lucky enough to even get one,' Mr Robinson said. A nickel silver 'Blood and Silver' pole top currently on sale at Robinson Ordinance is going for $3000. Up to four dealers utilise the shop's display cabinet to sell the Nazi items. 'So those items aren't just mine,' Mr Robinson said. Advertisement

Dr Abramovich claimed businesses such as Mr Robinson's was 'playing right into the hands of neo-Nazis'.

'We can and should do better. Even the pursuit of profits must have its limits, and this outrageously obscene phenomenon is wrong on so many counts and tears to shreds our shared values,' he said.

'Offering these grisly materials for sale desecrates the memory of the six million Jews and millions of others who were murdered, as well as degrading the glorious legacy of the valiant diggers who died to defeat Hitlers machinery of extermination.'

Dr Abramovich claimed the sale of such items had a direct connection with the atrocity in Christchurch which saw Brenton Tarrant murder 51 people after storming the Al Noor Mosque in 2019.

'White-supremacists are fuelled and driven to acts of violence by this type of memorabilia,' he said.

'To allow "Final Solutionists" and bigots, whose ideology mirrors those of an evil regime, to buy such items is morally wrong and crosses all red lines.

'The time for talking is over. Now is the time to act. This grisly trade has to stop, and we once again urge all state governments to immediately stamp out the hawking of such paraphernalia by banning it.'

Facebook banned RObinson Ordinance for 30 days after discovering Nazi images on the shop's site

Matt Robinson claims German war items are highly prized by collectors due to the quality in their craftsmanship

Mr Robinson said he was prepared to have a discussion with Dr Abramovich if he was willing to listen to his explanation.

'What he's suggesting is so far away from where I sit ... I don't sell it to people who are hateful,' he said.

'It's ridiculous, most of them are military collectors and they understand what it is. I've never sold it to anyone that has remotely represented or acted in a way that would suggest that he was going to go out on the street, or use this for any kind of hate.'
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The rally will be very peaceful and there will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade, says Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav

At the Singhu border, where the farmers have been protesting for over 50 days, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said the farmers will hold the rally and hoist the tricolour on their tractors on Outer Ring Road on Republic Day. (Photo:PTI)

New Delhi: The farmers unions protesting against the Centres agricultural reform laws on Sunday decided to go ahead with their proposed tractor parade in the national capital on Republic Day. The decision by the unions has come just a day before the Supreme Court will hear the Centres petition seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor rally or any other kind of protest that seeks to disrupt the celebrations on January 26.

At the Singhu border, where the farmers have been protesting for over 50 days, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said the farmers will hold the rally and hoist the tricolour on their tractors on Outer Ring Road on Republic Day. He said the rally will be very peaceful and there will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade.

Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (Haryana) convener Mandip Nathwan, however, dispelled rumours that the protesters would unfurl the tricolour at Red Fort and that the tractors and tanks will roll together on Republic Day. Its being said farmers will unfurl tricolour at Red Fort and tractors and tanks would roll together (on January 26). No such programme has been finalised by the morcha. Such statements are not in the interests of farmers, he said.

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said most farmers are in favour of the new laws and the government will hold the next round of discussions with them on Tuesday, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) general secretary Hannan Mollah accused the Central government of dragging things in a bid to tire out the farmers. He also called it a conspiracy by the government. Mr Mollah said: For almost two months, we are suffering and dying in cold weather. The government is giving us tarikh pe tarik' and are dragging things out so that we get tired and leave the place. This is their conspiracy.

Farmers leader Darshan Pal Singh accused the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of filing cases against those who were part of the protest or supporting it. All the farmers unions condemn this, he said, referring to the NIA summons reportedly issued to a farmers union leader in a case related to the banned Sikhs For Justice outfit.

So far, the government and the farmers unions have failed to resolve the impasse during their nine rounds of negotiations. The agriculture minister, however, claimed that most farmers and experts were in favour of the new farm laws. He said: After the Supreme Courts order, the laws cant be implemented Now we expect the farmers to discuss the laws clause-wise on January 19 and tell the government what they want other than the repeal of the laws.

The government, Mr Tomar said, had sent a proposal to the farmers in which we agreed to address their apprehensions regarding mandis, traders registration and other things. He added: The government had also agreed to discuss the laws on stubble burning and electricity but the farmers unions only want repeal of the laws. The government had earlier agreed to withdraw the penal provisions in the stubble burning ordinance and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2019.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde will hear the Centres application on Monday, along with pleas raising the issue of farmers protesting at Delhis borders. The Central government, in an application filed through the Delhi police, has said any proposed rally or protest, which seeks to disrupt and disturb the Republic Day celebrations will cause an embarrassment to the nation.

The Supreme Court had on January 12 stayed the implementation of the contentious new farm laws till further orders and constituted a four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and the farmers' unions protesting at Delhis borders. Days after the courts order, Bhupinder Singh Mann, Bhartiya Kisan Union president and member of the All India Kisan Coordination Committee, who was part of the court-formed committee, had recused himself from the expert panel.
STORY LINK Pound to Australian Dollar Exchange Rate Holds Steady as London Trials 24/7 Covid-19 Vaccination Centres

Sterling Struggles as Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Issues Dampen UK Market Mood

Australian Dollar Struggles Despite Improving Outlook for Chinese Economy

Pound to Australian Dollar Forecast: Australian Consumer Confidence Data in Focus

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The Pound to Australian Dollar (AUD) exchange rate held steady today, with the pairing currently trading around AU$1.76.Sterling struggled to rise against the Aussie today despite news that London would begin trialling 24/7 Covid-19 vaccination centres.However, GBP has been limited by growing fears of a slump in Covid-19 vaccine supplies, which could threaten Downing Streets goal of vaccinating many of the vulnerable by mid-February.UK Vaccine Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, commented:We now have built a deployment infrastructure that can deploy as much vaccine as it comes through. And so its the vaccine supply  which remains lumpy, it remains challenging, you may have read over the weekend probably some of the challenges around Pfizer and of course Oxford/AstraZeneca  but Im confident we can meet our target mid-Feb, [for] those top four cohorts.In UK economic news, today saw the publication of the Rightmove House Price Index for January, which fell below forecasts by -0.9%.Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data, commented:As we enter the new year and a new lockdown, the housing market remains open but is focused on the imminent end of the stamp duty holiday and on the challenges of the pandemic.The Australian Dollar suffered today despite upbeat Chinese economic data, which pointed to a strong economic recovery in the final quarter of 2020.With China being Australias largest trading partner, this has boosted confidence in the risk-sensitive Aussie.However, with China  the worlds second-largest economy  suffering from a spike in Covid-19 infections, AUD investors are worried that its economy is not yet out of the woods.Today also saw news that Australia is unlikely to open its borders this year even if most of its population is vaccinated.As a result, this has dampened confidence in the Australian economy, which could suffer further setbacks in the months ahead.Australian Dollar traders are awaiting tomorrows release of Januarys Australian Westpac Consumer Confidence data.Any signs that the outlook for Australias economy is improving would boost the Aussie.Furthermore, if Chinas economic outlook continues to improve, we will see demand for the risk-sensitive Australian Dollar continue to head higher.Pound investors will be monitoring the UKs Covid-19 developments this week.If the UK Governments and NHS coronavirus vaccine programme appears to be on course to vaccinating many vulnerable people by mid-February or March, then Sterling will rise.The GBP/AUD exchange rate could edge higher this week, however, if risk sentiment worsens on growing global Covid-19 infection rates.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

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High school students Jake and Zoey Cutter created a project to distribute care packages to the homeless in Laguna Beach, Calif. (Courtesy of Jake and Zoey Cutter)

Laguna Beach Teens Create Care Packages for the Homeless

When high school students Zoey and Jake Cutter in Laguna Beach, California, asked their mother what she wanted for Christmas, they got an unexpected answer: She suggested they start a project to help others for the holidays.

I said that would be the biggest Christmas present I would ever have, their mother, Stefanie Shelly, told The Epoch Times. That would fulfill my wish.

The challenge sparked an instant memory in Zoeys mindan image that had troubled her for some timeand inspired a project she launched with her brother to hand out items to those most in need.

About two years ago, she had passed by a homeless woman who frequently stayed on a bench outside the Laguna Beach Library. What caught Zoeys eye was the fact that the woman was eating a raw hot dog out of a package.

It was sad to see that, especially in the winter months, Zoey, 16, told The Epoch Times. This moment stuck with me as I went home and was able to enjoy a hot homemade meal, while this woman was out in the chilly weather eating cold, raw food. It hurt me that I just passed by and didnt even stop to buy her a slice of pizza.

Items are assembled before being placed in care packages for the homeless in Laguna Beach, Calif. (Courtesy of Zoey and Jake Cutter)

Acts of Kindness

Over time, Zoey was inspired by her mothers generosity to the homeless in Laguna Beachoffering $5 here, $20 there. Shelly said it wasnt uncommon for Zoey to call her and ask for extra lunch money because she had spent hers buying food for someone in need.

Homelessness has always been a problem in Laguna Beach, ever since I could remember, Zoey said. Especially during this winter with COVID-19. I began to see more and more homeless, even women and children.

Zoey said that following in her mothers footsteps inspired her and her brother, 17-year-old Jake, to embark on the project they launched, weeks before the holiday.

Shelly was skeptical at first.

I didnt think they could do it [with only] practically two and a half weeks left before Christmas, she said.

But she encouraged the pair to start by raising money from friends and family.

Our friends and family were very supportive of this project, Jake told The Epoch Times. They were very generous, and helped us raise enough money to make 30 care packages, even during a pandemic when many people are struggling financially and medically.

Care packages filled with items for the homeless line the floor of Zoey and Jake Cutters home in Laguna Beach, Calif. (Courtesy of Zoey and Jake Cutter)

Care Package Project

After reaching out to 40 students, the Cutter siblings raised $800a figure matched by uncles, aunts, and cousins who were impressed by the rapid progress they made.

Our family  was quick to donate and happy to help our cause, Zoey said. We are all very close.

Two days before Christmas, the Cutters and two of their friends handed out the care packages, which included a wealth of necessities: blankets that double as pillows or jackets, masks, ponchos, hygiene kits, antibacterial wipes, tissues, water bottles, and snacks.

In a surprising twist, the homeless woman who had been seared in Zoeys memory was the first care package recipient.

I am a bit shy, so I did not say much and we exchanged smiles, Zoey said.

The woman, who was accompanied by her husband, said they were especially grateful for the beef jerkyher favorite snackthat was included in the bag.

The interactions with the homeless were all super positive and kind, Zoey said.

She said one man asked if she was associated with a church or whether she was just spreading kindness. The exchange ended with him praying for the safety of her and her companions.

A Chain of Generosity

Zoey and Jake say they plan to make holiday care packages an annual endeavor. Meanwhile, they are brainstorming other charity projects for the future.

I do believe what one puts out into the world will come back to you, Zoey said. So by spreading happiness and help in times of need, I hope that one day if I am ever struggling, I will be shown the same.

For her, these efforts kick-start a chain of generosity and positivity in the world.

If you choose to stop instead of passing by, you might even be the one person out of hundreds who chose to stop and help, and that is an amazing thing, she said.

Everything counts, Jake added. Whether it is giving a homeless person food, getting to know a homeless person, or making care packages  anything you do will make an impact on someones life. Even the little things can make great changes.
Canoe conman John Darwin who was jailed with his first wife for faking his own death in a 679,000 insurance scam is now being bankrolled by his second spouse in the Philippines.

John Darwin, 70, vanished off the coast of Durham in 2002 after appearing to be lost at sea while out canoeing.

He then spent the next five years travelling between Panama and a bedsit near his home in Seaton Carew, County Durham - only for a neighbour to grow suspicious after hearing his ex-wife Anne speaking to him over the phone.

Darwin resurfaced at a London police station in 2007, a year after a photo of him and his wife Anne in a Panamanian estate agents surfaced online.

Now the former teacher has settled into a new life in the Philippines with new wife Mercy May, who at 47 is 23 years his junior.

John Darwin, 70, moved to the Philippines and married Mercy May, 47, several years after he was released from prison for faking his own death as part of a 679,000 insurance con

The couple married in 2015 after striking up a romance online.

Former teacher Darwin receives a state pension of around 134 a week, while his wife, a mother-of-three, sub-lets a clothing stall and owns another shop.

She told The Mirror: 'I have a new business. I've had it for three years now. Boom. Making money.'

In March 2002, the former prison officer paddled out to sea in a canoe at Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, before ditching the vessel to give the impression that he drowned.

The following year he was declared dead, but was, in fact, holed up in a flat adjoining Anne's house.

Darwin and his wife Anne were both jailed after he faked his own death to pocket insurance money, which they used to travel around the world and buy properties in Panama

He and his partner in crime ex-wife Anne, who both hid the news from their two sons, used the money to travel around the world and buy several properties in Panama, which he used as a base.

Despite being presumed dead, a photograph of Darwin was pictured at a Panamanian estate agents with his wife in 2006.

After a change in the country's visa laws, he decided to return to the UK in 2007.

In January 2007 he arrived at a London police station, declaring 'I think I'm a missing person,' before pretending to have amnesia.

The former prison officer paddled out to sea in a canoe at Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, before ditching the vessel to give the impression that he drowned

Mercy May is said to be bankrolling Darwin as she sub-lets a market stall and runs another shop in Manilla, while the conman lives off his British state pension

They were both convicted of fraud in July 2008.

John was ordered to serve six years and three months in prison while his wife, who police described as a compulsive liar, got six years and six months.

He moved to Manila after serving his sentence.

In 2016 his wife Anne wrote a book about the scandal, revealing she been disowned by their two sons.

Writing in Out of my Depth, the so-called 'Canoe Wife,' wrote: 'Why did I do it? That is the question I still ask myself today. Why, when I got home, did I make that phone call to the police?

'I was never motivated by money. That wasnt the reason. Incredible though it may sound, the only reason I had was my loyalty to John.'
Orthodox Christians are preparing for the feast of Epiphany which marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas and is one of the biggest holidays in the Christian world.

Each year believers take part in an Epiphany ritual where they submerge themselves in freezing water to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.

Preparations began on the eve of the Epiphany, with a church service in Moscow on Monday conducted by Patriarch Kirill.

Swimming areas were being dug out of icy ponds and lakes, and in the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, divers cleaned rivers and water reservoirs of litter and debris to enable people to swim safely.

Preparations were also underway in Tajikistan, where soldiers at the Russian military base in Dushanbe prepared a covered basin for the Epiphany's ceremony.

Not all Orthodox Christian churches celebrate Epiphany on the same day.

Orthodox Churches in Russia, Ukraine and Serbia follow the Julian calendar, according to which Epiphany is celebrated on January 19, as their Christmas falls on January 7.

Orthodox Christian churches in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania celebrated the feast on January 6.

Some Western Christian churches celebrate the religious holiday of Epiphany as Three Kings Day, which marks the visit of the Magi, or three wise men, to the baby Jesus, and closes out the Christmas season.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
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Fifteen Scottish sea food truckers who drove to London to protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that has prevented them exporting to the European Union were fined today by police for making 'unnecessary journeys'.

The shellfish export truck drivers were stopped by officers during the demonstration and given fixed penalty notices because they were deemed in breach of rules surrounding England's third national lockdown.

More than 20 shellfish trucks were parked on roads near 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament today with fishermen having vowed to dump tons of rotten fish on the Prime Minister's doorstep in protest.

Trucks with slogans such as 'Brexit carnage' and 'incompetent government destroying shellfish industry' were parked just yards away from Boris Johnson's office  but the protest ended with those involved being fined. Fisheries from the likes of Bridlington in East Yorkshire and Brixham in Devon were also involved in today's protest.

Scotland Yard told MailOnline today that a number of lorries were stopped and 15 people, who were either drivers or passengers in those vehicles, have been reported via fixed penalty notices for coronavirus-related offences.

Those breaching Covid-19 rules in England are fined 200 for the first offence, lowered to 100 if paid within 14 days. Detectives added that they had an 'appropriate policing plan' in place for today's demonstration.

Many Scottish fishermen have found European buyers rejecting stocks this month after the introduction of catch certificates, health checks and customs declarations added lengthy delays to their delivery times.

Exports of fresh fish and seafood have been severely disrupted by delays since the UK's transition period ended on December 31, with some Scottish fishermen landing their catch in Denmark to avoid the bureaucratic system.

A police officer checks the cab of a driver working in the shellfish industry who brought his truck to London to protest today

Police inspect the truck of a driver protesting against post-Brexit red tape in the fishing industry in London this morning

Police officers talk to a driver working in the shellfish industry who brought his truck to London for the protest this morning

Police speak to Scottish shellfish export truck drivers as they are stopped during their demonstration in London today

Police speak to a shellfish export truck driver in London today during the protest over Brexit-related red tape

Gary Hodgson, a director of Venture Seafoods, which exports live and processed crabs and lobsters to the EU and which has trucks parked near Downing Street, said: 'We strongly feel the system could potentially collapse.

'Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs to be honest with us, with himself and with the British public about the problems for the industry.'

Fisherman, 64, who spent 1million on new boat can no longer sell his catch A Scottish fisherman who spent 1million on a new boat can no longer sell his catch because it has been stuck in transit due to Brexit delays. Alistair Roberts, 64, spent two years having the trawler built to add to his River Clyde fleet, which catches langoustines and prawns to sell in Europe. But three weeks after the vessel went to sea, export hold-ups caused by Brexit regulations meant he could not get his produce out of the UK. Stuck in transit: Alistair Roberts spent 1million on a new boat but can't get catch out of UK due to delays The exports of fish and shellfish have been stuck in transit for weeks and had gone rotten by the time they arrived on the continent. Now Mr Roberts, who owns Brora Fishing Company which operates from Greenock, Renfrewshire, has backed industry calls for a six-month grace period to allow firms to get used to the new requirements. He said: 'We can't get stock out of the country. Our boat was the first built on the Clyde for 18 years and is insured for 1million, about as much as it cost to build. Mr Roberts owns Brora Fishing Company which operates from Greenock, Renfrewshire 'Normally our stock would come off the boat fresh and be in France within 24 hours. But this week alone our prices have gone down 20 per cent because our processor is now having to freeze the stock because they can't export it.' The delays have been caused by fishermen needing catch certificates and export health certificates. The new paperwork is taking longer than expected to be processed. Mr Roberts added: 'The procedure at the hubs should take 45 minutes but it is taking up to five hours to clear one lorry. I have a crew of nine men who are all self-employed. 'Fishermen get paid wages depending on their share of the catch and if we are not fishing, then no one gets any money.' First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called the delays 'shameful and disgraceful' and accused the UK Government of failing to resolve the issue. Last week, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation wrote a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson pleading for more support. In response, the UK Government said it gave the Scottish Government 200million to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition and is looking at ways to help those affected by what Mr Johnson called 'temporary issues'. Advertisement

Mr Hodgson said he had cancelled several lorries since December due to the onerous red tape involved with exporting to the EU. He said one operator needed 400 pages of export papers last week to board a ferry to the EU.

Britain, which has now completed its Brexit journey, harvests vast quantities of langoustines, scallops, oysters, lobsters and mussels from sea fisheries along its coast which are rushed by truck to EU destinations.

Under a deal reached last month, British trade with the EU remains free of tariffs and quotas on goods, but fish exporters say their businesses are now threatened by a host of often conflicting demands for documents to export to the EU.

A UK Government spokesman did not immediately comment.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Police are aware of a protest in Westminster today relating to the UK fishing industry - an appropriate policing plan is in place.

'We would remind those involved that London remains in Tier Four for Covid restrictions and anyone breaching the regulation will be reported.

He added: 'No arrests, but a number of lorries have been stopped and 15 people, who were either drivers or passengers in those vehicles, have been reported via fixed penalty notices for Covid-related offences.'

Those involved in the protest said the Government needed to understand the severity of the problems they face and the impact on coastal communities. They want a more workable system and say there is a shortage of customs agents on both sides of the Channel.

Mr Hodgson said: 'Many fishing communities did vote to leave but I don't think anyone who did anticipated being constrained by documentation and restrictions that have now been thrust upon us.

'We need to bring the country together now and find workable solutions to limit the damage to the economy and to protect jobs.'

And Allan Miller, owner of AM Shellfish in Aberdeen, Scotland, who was parked up in his truck in London, said: 'It's not just possible to work with their new rules, between costs, timing, paperwork, it's just not possible.'

Mr Miller delivers brown crab, lobster and prawns to the EU but the red tape means live shellfish is getting to market much later - and thus getting lower prices. 'They'll buy it but if the stuff is weaker they'll pay less for it,' he said.

Mr Miller criticised Mr Johnson's Brexit trade deal, saying delivery times had doubled to at least 48 hours from 24 hours. He said the situation with live shellfish deliveries, with vets checking the loads, was 'crazy'.

'I used to be able to load on Sunday, be on the ferry Monday morning and my first drop would be Monday night, so 24 hours from finishing loading to the first customer. Now you're talking 48 hours to 50 hours. It's crazy,' he said.

A spokesman from DR Collin & Son, who were taking part in the protest, said: 'We have been asked to take part in a peaceful protest with another 20-plus Shellfish Exporters from around the whole of the UK in connection with the current difficulties that the seafood industry is facing due to the new Brexit regulations.

'The industry is being tied in knots with paperwork requirements which would be easy enough to navigate, given that companies have put in the time and training in order to have all the relevant procedures in place for 1st January 2021.

'However, all the training is going to waste as the technology is outdated and cannot cope with the demands being placed on it - which in turn is resulting in no produce being able to leave the UK.

'These are not 'teething issues' as reported by the Government and the consequences of these problems will be catastrophic on the lives of fishermen, fishing towns and the shellfish industry as a whole.

'Action needs to be taken urgently to allow the procedures to be realigned in a manner which reflects the time restraints faced in the export of live shellfish to Europe.

'We are trying to adapt our business together with our customers with a view to come into line with the new regulations, however, no-one is listening to our industry.'

Alasdair Hughson, Scottish Creel Fisherman's Federation chairman, said: 'It is inevitable that the UK Shellfish industry would want to make its voice heard loud and clear on this matter.

'After the year that all of these businesses have had, struggling to survive against the odds, now faced with this situation, to now find themselves being blamed for not completing forms correctly when they are all just trying to follow Government guidelines which are unclear and changing all of the time.

'If this debacle does not improve very soon we are looking at many established businesses coming to the end of the line. With the knock on effects for all who depend on them, including the hundreds of small fishing businesses in extremely fragile communities around our coasts who rely on these trucks to turn up day after day, week after week, to get their catch to market.

The drivers who had travelled to the capital from Scotland were stopped by police during their protest in Westminster today

Police speak to shellfish export truck drivers as they are stopped after travelling to London for the protest today

Police speak to a shellfish export truck driver who is among those protesting Brexit-related red tape in London today

Lorries belonging to Scottish seafood suppliers parked up opposite Downing Street and Whitehall in a protest today

Police officers speak to shellfish export truck drivers who have been taking part in a protest in Westminster today

Lorries belonging to Scottish seafood suppliers parked up opposite Downing Street and Whitehall in Westminster today

'From seabed to plate, this is not an easy business. People put their heart and soul into making it work, with ridiculously long hours. The blood, sweat and tears poured into their operations.

'What else can they do but fight to make their voices heard. We need Government and civil service to step up to the plate like never before and do whatever they can to help this industry survive and get through this so that we can all benefit when things improve.

'All we want to do is roll up our sleeves and get to work supporting our communities. We don't have all the answers but they are out there and we need to find them.'

It comes as industry leaders warned Scotland's seafood sector is now in a 'precarious state' with firms just days away from bankruptcy.

As UK ministers continued to put Brexit chaos down to 'teething problems' yesterday, they were warned businesses have 'no resilience left' after being forced to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the UK's departure from the EU.

Seafood companies have warned they are days away from collapsing without an urgent injection of emergency cash  as fishermen have been forced to make 72-hour round-trip journeys to Denmark to sell their catch.

Lorries from Scottish seafood companies drive past the Houses of Parliament in a protest action by fishermen this morning

Lorry drivers are protesting in Westminster this morning at the situation faced by the UK fishing industry following Brexit

Lorries of Scottish seafood company D.R. Collin & Son Ltd are seen on a street in London during their protest this morning

A police officer walks past lorries belonging to Scottish seafood suppliers which parked up opposite Downing Street today

Lorries from Scottish seafood companies outside the Houses of Parliament during the protest action in London this morning

Police officers inspect the truck of a driver working in the shellfish industry who brought his vehicle to London this morning

The crisis has led to the industry losing around 1million a day. Yesterday, Seafood Scotland chief executive Donna Fordyce said: 'If this cannot be quickly resolved, we will see companies closing, we will see some of the fleet going out of business. They have already had the pandemic to deal with. They have had all the markets closing or vastly reducing.

'They have been trying to deal with Covid within the factories, working under new settings, with reduced productivity as a result of social distancing, and then the border delays or closure over Christmas, which is peak time, particularly for shellfish companies.

'They're in a very precarious state. There's no resilience left. Whatever reserves they had have been eaten away.'

However, UK ministers are expected to unveil a package of compensation for the struggling seafood sector this week  with officials insisting discussions across Whitehall are continuing.

A source told the Scottish Daily Mail officials hope to have a package of measures within days to help the entire sector, including fishermen and processors.

But it came as fishermen said customs procedures have led to delays in getting seafood from Scotland to Europe, with firms forced to tie up their boats and force workers to stay on land.

Lorries belonging to Scottish seafood suppliers parked up opposite Downing Street and Whitehall in Westminster today

Lorries of Scottish seafood company D.R. Collin & Son Ltd are seen on a street in London during their protest this morning

A truck drives past Downing Street with a message that reads 'Incompentent government destroying shellfish industry' today

A lorry drives past the Houses of Parliament this morning during a protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy

A lorry drives past the Houses of Parliament today in a protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that hinders exports to the EU

Lorry drivers from Scottish seafood suppliers are protesting today about the situation faced by the UK fishing industry

Experts have warned of particular issues with groupage, which is when smaller deliveries are batched together by hauliers.

Boris Johnson holds talks with businesses on post-Brexit competitiveness Boris Johnson is holding talks with business leaders on today to look at making the UK more competitive post-Brexit, and better able to deal with the economic aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. The Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are launching the new Business Council, with 30 members representing a wide spectrum of the British economy, including finance, science and technology, retail and hospitality. Government sources steered away from the idea the committee was intended to find ways to turn the UK into the 'Singapore of the Atlantic' with lower standards in order to better compete with the EU. A Government source said: 'This is not about reducing workers' rights. But unnecessary burdens are a different matter, and a balance has to be struck.' The Prime Minister was using the first meeting of the group to update business leaders on the latest coronavirus situation and plans to rebuild the economy in the wake of the health crisis. The committee will examine ways of maintaining the UK's position as a 'science superpower' and how to 'kickstart' the economy once the worst of the Covid pandemic has passed, the Government said. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will also attend the initial virtual meeting of the group. Mr Johnson has admitted the UK faces a 'huge economic challenge' in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister said he wants the new forum to be a space for 'frank feedback' from business on recovery plans. The Business Council is set to meet every three months, but special sessions may be held if necessary. Members, who serve on the committee for 12 months, include: British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle, BP chief executive Bernard Looney, BT chief executive Philip Jansen, group chairman of HSBC Mark Tucker, Lord Deighton, chairman of Heathrow Airport Holdings, Thierry Bollore, Jaguar Land Rover chief executive, and Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy. Advertisement

Mrs Fordyce told Scotland on Sunday: '[Logistics company] DFDS gave me an example. They had a lorry packed and all the paperwork was there, but there was a discrepancy of one-and-a-half kilos between the weight of what was on the lorry and what it said on the manifest.

'So they had to haul every single good off the lorry to find out where that one-and-a-half kilo error had been made.'

Last week, Boris Johnson pledged to provide compensation for the seafood sector amid fears over the Brexit chaos.

He told MPs that ministers and officials would work together to ensure emergency funding was provided to firms  but this has yet to be announced.

The Prime Minister is under considerable pressure from the industry and his own party  with officials working across Whitehall departments and insisting they are hoping to announce a compensation deal this week.

But yesterday Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab referred to the issue which is on the verge of crippling Scotland's seafood sector as a 'teething problem'.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, he said: 'Of course we've always said as we leave the transition period and with a deal  and even more if we hadn't done a deal  there would be some teething problems.

'We're very focused on working with all the different sectors, including the fishing industry, to resolve any of these teething problems, and as I said, there's 100million worth of investment going into the UK fishing sector so that these really important opportunities can be grasped.'

William Calder, the director of Scrabster Seafood, lost tens of thousands of pounds on a shipment and has raised concerns over the handling of the crisis. He said: 'You still have MPs in Parliament coming out with farcical nonsense.

'You have George Eustice saying prices are traditionally low in January. But a year ago, ling was making 179 a box and coley 170 a box and today they are making 40 a box.

'The problem is, unless people do a wee bit of research themselves, they will take what he says as a fact. They will say: 'What are these fishermen moaning about? Prices are always low this time of year'.'

The Scottish Government has urged the UK Government to immediately announce a compensation package.

Rural Economy secretary Fergus Ewing said: 'World class food is being unnecessarily wasted. Family businesses are failing. It is imperative that the UK Government acts, and acts now, to provide adequate support to these businesses.

'I've met with the sector multiple times this week to hear their concerns and work out what we can do to alleviate these issues.

'Following on from our most recent meeting I urge the UK Government to take action and compensate businesses, streamline processes and seek a grace period with the EU.'

TED BROCKLEBANK: Fishing needs a czar to keep the fleet afloat

TED BROCKLEBANK is a former Tory fisheries spokesman

Last week's scenes of fresh fish being dumped or given away because of customs restrictions at Channel ports were as disgraceful as they were predictable. A Conservative government had again failed an iconic British industry.

And since the Scottish fleet accounts for some 64 per cent of the UK catch, the Tories were seen to have failed Scottish fishermen and processors in particular.

The Brexit cliffhanger at the end of last year was never about whether the Tories would betray our fishermen. That was a given. What it was about was the scale of the betrayal. Not about whether our negotiators would concede to the demands of the French, Spanish, Danes and Irish, more about how these defeats could be spun as victories.

The Prime Minister, at his blustering best on Christmas Eve, declared we had 'taken back control of our coastal waters  and regained sovereignty'. Taking back control in Boris-speak meant allowing EU fleets to continue to catch 50 per cent instead of 75 per cent of the fish from UK waters for a transition period of five-and-a-half years. Worse still, at the end of the transition period, if the UK tries to further restrict access to European vessels, we face punitive EU tariffs. This was regaining control?

Fishermen and processors alike had been realistic about the UK being forced to give ground in the Brexit talks.

Clearly an industry that accounted for less than 1 per cent of the UK's gross national product couldn't be allowed to get in the way of a multi-billion-pound trade agreement or a PM hell-bent on getting the deal in time for Christmas.

But there were grounds for optimism. The Tories under Ted Heath had signed Britain up to the disastrous Common Fisheries Policy, then under David Cameron had reversed the Scottish-led policy to negotiate withdrawal from the CFP. Surely there would not be a third sell-out. After all, Michael Gove, a key figure in the negotiations, was the adopted son of an Aberdeen fish merchant, driven out of business by lack of fish under CFP catch quotas.

But, incredibly, what regaining control of our coastal waters meant was reducing, not increasing, Scottish catching quotas for no fewer than eight demersal species. An outraged letter from the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations to Boris Johnson declared: 'It is not that in the end that you were forced to concede in the face of an intransigent and powerful opponent that has caused such fury across our industry, it is that you have tried to present the agreement as a success which it is patently not'.

And only a fortnight into the new trading regime, it transpires that there were no firm plans to ensure that high-value scallops, langoustines, crabs and lobsters, mainly from Scotland, wouldn't be left rotting at the quayside because of red tape.

A vaunted 100million government package for the industry  derisory when you consider that a new purser trawler costs more than 50million  has yet to be confirmed. Once again the Government's inflated promises have failed to address the problem that fishermen and processors are facing  not ruin further down the road, but ruin now.

Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland, is sensibly demanding a grace period of six months to allow all sides in this shambles to allow the electronic systems that process the paperwork for seafood exports to be brought up to speed.

So who is going to get a grip of the situation?

Douglas Ross has made much of being his own man as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. As MP for Moray, with its long fishing heritage, he has been vociferous in pressing the Government to take urgent action.

Yet it seems that he, Ruth Davidson and Alister Jack have failed to convince Mr Johnson of the disastrous political implications of this latest betrayal of the industry. Has the PM forgotten the price previous Tory administrations were made to pay for earlier perceived betrayals? Replaced in all their coastal constituencies by the SNP in 1987, Conservatives were wiped out in Scotland ten years later.

There is little doubt that the prospect of leaving the CFP after the Brexit referendum resulted in the Scottish Tory Westminster revival, when fishing and farming voters united to turf Alex Salmond out of his Gordon constituency in 2017. Polling suggests the SNP could have a majority of 13 at May's Holyrood election, and the Tories risk losing several of the coastal seats they fought so hard to win.

But it's still not too late for the Tories to regain the traditional support of fisher folk if they back up their bluster with hard cash and a far-sighted plan for restructuring the industry. The fleet needs rebuilding and it cannot be done without serious government support.

What's needed is a Fisheries Czar. I suggest somebody gets on the phone to Sir Ian Wood. Grandson of a skipper from Aberdeen's Torry and retired from running his international oil service company, there's nobody better qualified to help the UK exploit the new fisheries opportunities this Tory government seems determined to throw away. In the process, Sir Ian might just save the Union.

Ted Brocklebank was Tory fisheries spokesman in the Scottish parliament in 2003-7. He resigned from the role after David Cameron changed the party's stance on renegotiating the CFP.
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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
At the first stage, 367,000 Ukrainians are to be vaccinated.

Vaccination against the COVID-19 coronavirus disease is to start in Ukraine in the middle of February 2021.

This was announced by Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov at a meeting with members of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, according to MP Andriy Gerus.

Read alsoZelensky asks Merkel to assist in supplying COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine

Stepanov said that Ukraine would have 910,000 doses of vaccines, including 210,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine via the COVAX Facility, a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual COVID-19 vaccines, Gerus said on Telegram on January 17.

At the first stage, 367,000 Ukrainians are to be vaccinated, among them are healthcare workers, elderly people in specialized institutions, military personnel in the Joint Forces Operation zone in Donbas. The second stage is scheduled for the end of March and the vaccination will involve 2.5 million Ukrainians.

According to Stepanov, the government is currently negotiating vaccine supplies with four manufacturers.

COVID-19 vaccine for Ukraine

In February-March 2021, Ukraine expects the delivery of a vaccine against COVID-19.

The first batch of a vaccine via the COVAX Facility will include 8 million doses, which will be enough to vaccinate 4 million people (two shots per person required). First to get vaccinated will be healthcare workers, the elderly, and seriously ill patients.

On December 24, 2020, Health Minister Stepanov said that his ministry was working out a plan to increase the COVAX vaccine quota from 8 million to 16 million doses.

On December 30, Ukraine signed a contract with China's Sinovac for the supply of 1.9 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 170 experimental vaccines are currently at the stage of preclinical trials, 65 are undergoing clinical trials, of which 15 are the third, last stage.

Reporting by UNIAN
A driver was killed Sunday afternoon after his car struck a concrete barrier along the interstate in Denville Township, according to authorities.

A Honda Accord hit the median barrier near mile marker 39.8 while eastbound on I-80 in Morris County, New Jersey State Police said Sunday. The driver, who police did not identify, suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash, which closed two lanes on the interstate closed for about two hours, police said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com.
Conceived during the early stages of the pandemic, and made possible by the support of De Beers Group, Ten/Ten was specifically created to promote diamonds from Botswana, a country whose economy relies largely on diamond revenues, and also as a way to increase visibility of designers. The ten designers each have their own jewelry brand and were chosen for their unique and distinct points of view. The Ten/Ten collaborators are Catherine Sarr of ALMASIKA, Aurora Lopez Mejia, Bea Bongiasca, Lauren Harwell Godfrey of Harwell Godfrey, Lola Oladunjoye of Lola Fenhirst, Marla Aaron, Michelle Fantaci, Natasha Tsimmerman of Platt Boutique Jewelry, Pamela Love and Wing Yau of WWAKE.

"Diamonds are the ultimate symbol of love and commitment and we are thrilled to be supporting an initiative that brings together such an incredibly talented group of designers, each reinterpreting the iconic diamond engagement ring using diamonds from Botswana. In Blue Nile we found the ideal partner to reach a broad audience and offer many consumers the opportunity to own these unique designs," said Stephen Lussier, Executive Vice President of Consumer Markets for De Beers Group.

"The Ten/Ten Collection is a first of its kind for Blue Nile, and we're excited to partner with 10 remarkable, independent designers, to offer a reinvented, fresh and modern take on the traditional diamond engagement ring," said Sean Kell, CEO of Blue Nile. "One enduring truth is that now, as much as ever, people want to express commitment to loved ones; and customers are not only looking for a beautiful diamond and good value, but also increasingly something distinctive, a 'one of a kind' ring that reflects their personal style. Collections like Ten/Ten prove that it's possible to find handcrafted and exquisite fine jewelry at an incredible value."

A look book with complete descriptions and pricing can be accessed here.

The collection is being sold exclusively by Blue Nile and the company's website highlights the program on a dedicated landing page that spotlights each of the ten designers and their inspirations, as well as shares details on the diamond origin story and Botswana. The Ten/Ten project is being promoted in conjunction with Blue Nile through a comprehensive, cross-platform marketing campaign that includes traditional print and digital advertising, native content collaborations across a variety of online platforms, as well as social media activations, including an IGTV series of live conversations with the designers hosted by a variety of engaging talent that will air throughout the month.

For additional information please contact:

Battalion

Jim Kloiber: [email protected] / +1 212 488 1085

Mara Viggiano: [email protected] / +1 917 519 3460

SOURCE De Beers Group
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 19:04:04|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday unveiled regulations on lunar sample management, encouraging international cooperation on studying the samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 probe.

Released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the regulations cover general principles for preserving, managing, using, borrowing and returning the lunar samples, as well as information release and research results management of the samples.

According to the regulations, the lunar samples will be generally used for four purposes, namely permanent storage, backup permanent storage, research and public welfare.

The Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on Nov. 24, 2020. The return capsule landed in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Dec. 17, retrieving about 1,731 grams of lunar samples.

China encourages international joint research in space science based on the lunar samples to support science results sharing, said Zhang Kejian, head of the CNSA, noting that the management and usage of the samples would comply with relevant international conventions.

Diplomats and representatives from France, Russia, the European Union, Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization and other countries and international organizations were invited to visit the lunar sample storage and processing facilities in the National Astronomical Observatories of China under the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Monday.

The CNSA also awarded commemorative plates to the international cooperators including the Argentine National Space Activities Commission, European Space Agency, Namibia Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, and Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, to thank them for their collaboration during the Chang'e-5 mission.

Based on the principle of equality and mutual benefit, peaceful utilization and win-win cooperation, the CNSA has actively carried out international cooperation in lunar exploration, Mars exploration, satellite projects and launch services to promote the common progress and long-term sustainable development of the space industry, Zhang said.

"We are still in the pre-processing stage of the lunar samples, including sample unsealing, preparation and the establishment of archives," said Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of CNSA.

About 80 percent of the lunar samples will be used for scientific research, and 20 percent will be preserved for better and more advanced scientific research methods and conditions in the future. This also constitutes protection of the heritage of human civilization, Pei added.

China's future lunar and interplanetary exploration missions will be more open, and cooperation among countries will be further encouraged, Pei said.

The success of the Chang'e-5 mission is not only the achievement of China but also the pride of the members of the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), said Yu Qi, secretary general of the organization.

APSCO will organize scientists from the members of the organization to participate in the research teams of China and other countries. The lunar samples retrieved by Chang'e-5 will bring more opportunities for developing countries to study the moon, which is also a contribution to the progress of world science and technology, Yu said.

Robert Paluch, representative of the European Space Agency, also space counselor of France in China, said scientists from Europe will be involved in the lunar sample research and are looking forward to cooperating with China in following space missions. Enditem
Barn destroyed by Wednesday morning fire

Fire destroyed a barn about five miles southeast of Watertown Wednesday, according to a report from Watertown Fire Rescue.

MLK Jr. Unity program celebrates African American businesses, schools

Odell Suber Jr. performs in the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity celebration.

Introduced by United Breakfast Chair Shirley Davidson, the program features opening and closing gospel songs by Odell D. Suber Jr., and sketches by Ronnie Pepper, who shared brief history sketches of important African-American businesses and institutions during "separate but equal" segregation. The video was made in a partnership with the Community Foundation of Henderson County.

Pepper's tour included the James Pilgrim Funeral Home, 836 Third Ave. West; the Landina Guest House, at 17 First Avenue West, which was listed in the "Green Book" African-American travelers used to find overnight lodging; the African-American section of Oakdale Cemetery; the site of the old Sixth Avenue School, which opened in 1916 and served all grades of African-American students (later replaced by the Ninth Avenue School, which served black children from three counties); the site of Buster Robinson's cab stand, first in the Green Meadows community and later on Whitted Street at Seventh Avenue West; the grill run by Estelle and Sylvester, which sold Jack cookies (2 for a penny), served chicken boxes and hot dogs and played Ray Charles on the jukebox; the more than 150-year-old Mud Creek Missionary Baptist Church on Mine Gap Road and the Mud Creek Association, where migrants received education, vaccinations and health care; the Saint Paul's Episcopal Church cemetery, where black people are buried along with white people; and apple orchards in Edneyville.

"You had black people that owned orchards and farms," Pepper said. "They don't realize how spread out our (people in the) community of color are. Even though you don't see us, we're there. Just like in the history books, we're between the pages, present and working hard."

To close the 24-minute program, Terry Young read select quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. including this year's theme, "The time is always right to do what is right."

The MLK Day of Service also announced plans for this year. Several youth groups will host a short Zoom opening program honoring Dr. Kings legacy. Then, as in past years, they will gather safely with each other or their families to bag family meals of rice and beans for the clients of The Storehouse, 1049 Spartanburg Highway. The bagged meals will be delivered to the Storehouse.

Everyone is also invited to drive by the Storehouse between 1:30 and 3 p.m. to drop off non-perishable food or money to help provide food to members of our community who have been particularly affected by the coronavirus and the accompanying financial distress. Food can also be dropped off at the entrance to the St. James Parish Hall from 1 to 2 p.m.




A Washington nonprofit group sued Apple in federal court Sunday, demanding that it remove Telegram, a chat and social media app, from its app store for not cracking down on violent, extremist conversation in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The suit amounts to a pressure tactic to get Apple to act against Telegram as it already has against Parler, a social media site that swelled with calls for violence and insurrection before the Capitol siege, according to researchers. Apple and Google have booted Parler from their app stores because of its lax moderation policies, and Amazon Web Services withdrew support as well, disabling Parler last week on the same grounds. Telegram offers public groups that anyone with the app can join and closed, private chat rooms.

The Coalition for a Safer Web, a nonpartisan group that advocates for technologies and policies to remove extremist content from social media, filed the suit The coalition's president, Marc Ginsberg, is a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco. It complained about Telegram's role in hosting white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other hateful content, and argued in the lawsuit that such content puts Telegram in violation of Apple's terms of service for its App Store.

A similar suit is planned against Google, said the coalition's attorney Keith Altman.

"Telegram stands out by itself as the superspreader [of hateful speech], even compared to Parler," Ginsberg said in an interview.

Ginsberg, who is Jewish, says in the suit that Telegram's anti-Semitic content puts him in peril and that his ownership of an iPhone gives him standing to sue Apple in federal court to require that the company enforce its terms of service barring hate speech and incitement to violence on apps carried by the App Store.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the California business code, and it seeks unspecified compensatory damages and an injunction requiring Apple to remove Telegram from its App Store.

Apple spokesman Fred Sainz did not immediately respond to a request for comment; neither did Mike Ravdonikas, a spokesman for Telegram.

The siege of the Capitol was widely discussed and instigated on social media and messaging apps, including Parler and Telegram. Supporters of President Donald Trump also celebrated the attack as it happened and called for more in the days leading to Wednesday's inauguration. Suing Apple gives the coalition a way to seek action against Telegram, which, as a service based overseas, may be difficult to reach from U.S. courts.

Telegram, which says it operates from Dubai, was developed by Russian Internet entrepreneur Pavel Durov. The app is popular with people who want to keep their communications shielded from autocratic regimes and others seeking online privacy. Durov has clashed with the Russian government over censorship and encryption.

Telegram also has a reputation for being the go-to app of terrorism and hate groups. For years, it was used by Islamic State militants to communicate and spread propaganda, until European police worked with Telegram to take down accounts associated with the group in 2019.

The company has resisted calls to do the same for right-wing accounts that post racist and anti-Semitic messages. Telegram took down some prominent public groups that were calling for violence, but many other feeds remain active on the service. Some police officials have said the migration from Parler to Telegram has made it harder for them to monitor extremists and prepare for potential attacks.

The prospects for the suit's success are unclear. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives online platforms broad immunity from responsibility for most of the content that they host.

Daphne Keller, who researches platform regulation at Stanford University's law school, called the lawsuit a long shot, but an interesting one. She said it bears similarity to suits that seek to force platforms to reverse their decisions to remove apps and social media accounts. "This flips the script," she said, by seeking to force Apple to remove an app.

But the lawsuit may face insurmountable barriers because Apple's terms of service are broad, giving the company leeway on how it treats apps, she said. Aside from Section 230, Apple's decision to keep Telegram on its platform is protected by the company's right to free speech.

Apple does not require apps such as Telegram rid their service of inappropriate content. Rather, they must have a "method for filtering" it out and a way for users to report it. They also must provide contact information and have the ability to block "abusive" users from the service.

Apple is vague about the methods of content moderation that are required. In the past, Apple has allowed apps to exist even when their customers complained about content. In 2019, when The Washington Post found reports of unwanted sexual content, racism and bullying on chat apps - some of them used by children - Apple allowed the apps to remain on the store because, it said, they used content moderation and other safeguards.

When Apple removed Parler from the App Store, it said in a letter provided to The Post that Parler's content moderation policies were not good enough. "While there is no perfect system to prevent all dangerous or hateful user content, apps are required to have robust content moderation plans in place to proactively and effectively address these issues," Apple told Parler.

Google also removed Parler from its app store, saying it had warned Parler about its lax moderation before making the decision to suspend it.

Ginsberg sent a letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook in July, calling on him to address white-nationalist, anti-Semitic and violent speech on Telegram and to "hold TELEGRAM's financial feet to the fire."

He wrote, "Because of the increasing prevalence of Russian and Eastern-European anti-Semitic extremist neo-Nazi groups utilizing TELEGRAM, CSW commenced an in-depth research investigation earlier this year into its role. Our research revealed serious instances whereby TELEGRAM's end-to-end encryption service was enabling."

Ginsberg said he got no reply to the letter.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 07:07:28|Editor: huaxia

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SAO PAULO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian nurse Monica Calazans, 54, became the first Brazilian to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus on Sunday after Brazilian health authorities approved the emergency use of the vaccines.

Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) unanimously approved on Sunday the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, as well as the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine against COVID-19.

Calazans received a dose of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Sinovac in a ceremony chaired by Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria.

"Thank you very much. I am excited," Calazans told reporters with tears in her eyes after receiving the vaccine.

The Brazilian nurse works at the Emilio Ribas Institute of Infectious Diseases in Sao Paulo.

Brazil is second in the world in the number of deaths from COVID-19, with 209,296 deaths as of Saturday, and third in the world in the number of cases, with more than 8.4 million infections reported. Enditem
Israels immunisation plan is moving quickly, and is expected to be completed by March. In Palestine, the choice of vaccine has yet to be made. For Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, this might be good for his re-election prospects. For Adel Misk, a Palestinian doctor, the campaign should have been worked out together, without dividing Israelis from Palestinians. Israeli activist sees health and moral issues related; Israelis are responsible for what happens, she says.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  Israel is carrying out a mass immunisation programme with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. So far, two million people have been treated; however, Palestinians have been excluded.

That hasnt gone down well with Adel Misk, a Palestinian neurologist and activist. Speaking to AsiaNews, he said that the vaccine should be for everyone because after all we live in the same place; this first phase of immunisation should have been worked out together, without dividing Israelis from Palestinians.

Misk bemoans the fact that Palestinians have been excluded. At present, they dont even know which product to aim for: the Chinese one, the Russian one, the American one, even if negotiations have started with Moscow, whose vaccine is less expensive and easier to manage than the US product.

The Palestinian doctor is also a spokesperson for The Parents Circle, an association that brings together about 250 Israelis and 250 Palestinians, all family members of victims of the conflict.

He works at a Jerusalem hospital and has already received the second dose of Pfizer vaccine eight days ago. We live within a few kilometers, and I find it unfair that in a territory so small in size there are these substantial differences, he said.

A few days ago I was in Bethlehem, and everyone asked me about the vaccine, which I gladly took without any particular side effects. I am the first to recommend it to all my patients.

However, there is a clear feeling of discrimination; it seems that we come from another planet than our medical colleagues who work in Palestinian territory. It would have been better to worry about everyone. The Palestinians are left with no choice but to try to protect themselves with closures and lockdowns .

The substantial gap between Israel and Palestine is visible in everyday life, as noted by two Palestinians from metro Jerusalem, one of whom has an Israeli ID.

The two friends, Mahmoud Oudeh and Anan abu Aishe, spoke to CNN. Together, they run a butcher's shop, but since Anan has Israeli ID papers, he could soon get the anti-COVID vaccine, whilst his business partner cannot.

As a token of solidarity, Anan has decided not to get vaccinated to denounce the unfair treatment of the 4.5 million people living in the West Bank and Gaza.

By the end of next March, Israels immunisation campaign should be over, whilst in Palestine no decision has yet been taken as to the type of vaccine to use.

Even the United Nations finds the situation unacceptable. The Israeli government has rejected the criticism, stressing that, according to the Oslo Accords, the responsibility for the health of all Palestinians under Palestinian civil administration falls on the Palestinian Authority.

However, critics note that Israel, as the occupying power has duties laid out under the Geneva Conventions, which the Accords do not cover.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Hana Bendcowsky, an Israeli expert in interfaith dialogue and programme director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations and is a member of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, underlines two aspects.

First, There is the medical question according to which it would be preferable to contribute to the vaccination of a people who live next to us, with whom there are numerous daily exchanges; people who also work in the settlements. hence, the Palestinians should also benefit from the vaccination plan.

Then there is the moral question that we, as Israelis, are responsible for what happens and we cannot think that it is not our problem.

The vaccination plans success is also due to an efficient private health coverage service developed in recent years in an effective manner and which has contributed to the supply, storage and administration of the vaccine to people who pay taxes and benefit from assistance that has now proven crucial.

I thought there would have been greater resistance to the vaccine, she said, but apart from a few cases among ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs, who harbour a certain amount of mistrust towards this government, everyone is happy to be vaccinated.

At the same time, she noted that this mass campaign could play in Netanyahu's favour ahead of the March elections, the fourth round of voting in less than two years.
A man over the age of 65 in California who was technically eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine was denied the shot despite making an appointment and waiting in a long line due to confusing vaccine guidelines.

On Monday, University of Chicago Booth Business School professor Brad Shapiro shared a Twitter thread highlighting how disorganized nation's vaccine rollout is.

He shared the story of his friend Todd who is over 65 and lives in Caliafornia who saw Gov. Gavin Newsom announce on TV that above that age are now eligible for the vaccine.

The state opened up the vaccine to people aged 65 and over on January 13, at a time when vaccines were already limited.

On Monday a University of Chicago Booth Business School professor named Brad Shapiro posted a harrowing Twitter thread sharing the story of how his friend Todd, who is over the age of 65, couldn't get vaccinated despite being eligibile in California due to confusing guidelines

Excited, Todd made an appointment at a mass vaccination site, but when he arrived he was shunted back and forth between different workers confused over whether he was eligible or not.

The Twitter thread was shared by Brad Shapiro, a Professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

'Upon arrival, Todd checks in and is asked for his health care worker ID. He's not a health care worker. He says "The Governor got on TV and said >65 was eligible. And the website allowed me to make an appointment" Check-in worker says "NO" and puts a large X on his windshield,' Shapiro wrote.

However, there was no way to drive out of the line so Todd had to continue on.

'As he goes through the line, he keeps arguing. Shows the article on his phone. Re-iterates that he was allowed to make an appointment,' Shapiro said.

Eventually the director of the vaccination site agrees with him and they prepare a dose and they gave Todd an appointment.

The decision to vaccinate Todd outraged a worker who 'says if he gets a vaccine, shes calling the police. She wont be silent while someone tries to "jump the line."'

'Knowing if the police come, vaccines will be disrupted for the rest of the day, the director relents. Todd leaves unvaccinated,' Shapiro wrote.

'Unclear if that dose was administered at all or trashed. Moral of the story: SIGH. We are self owning in so many ways,' he added.

Part of the blame can be cast on confusing guidelines handed down across the state.

While Newsom said anyone 65 and up is eligible for the vaccine, not all counties have opened up vaccinations to that age group.

Orange County was one of the first to do so, but overwhelmed LA County said last week they could not because they were still scrambling to inoculate health care workers and in longterm care facilities.

A view of California's vaccination tiers above. Some counties have already started to vaccinate those 65 and up but others say they can't start to until they vaccinate everyone in tier 1A

A COVID-19 vaccine is administered at a site for health care workers at Ritchie Valens Recreation Center in Pacoima, California on Wednesday

People cheer after getting a vaccine at the Disneyland Resort serving as a Super POD (Point Of Dispensing) COVID-19 mass vaccination site Wednesday in Anaheim, California

Governor Gavin Newsom addresses a news conference held at the launch of mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday

LA county is so desperate for help on Saturday the county Department of Public Health issued a call for licensed healthcare workers to volunteer to vaccinate other healthcare workers during na unpaid 10-hour shift at five mass distribution sites.

The County says that once all healthcare workers receive the first dose of the vaccine in the next two weeks, then they can move onto the next phase and include those 65 and up.

San Diego County also struggled with confusion due to the changed eligibility criteria.

In that county, vaccinations for those 65 and up started on Wednesday but were quickly halted because facilities didnt have enough vaccines to give out.

'Theres a ton of confusion. Patients dont know what they should be doing,' Dr. Linh Lee, the director of pharmacy, health and wellness at Ralphs in San Diego, said to the Los Angeles Times.
HANNOVER, Germany, January 18, 2021 / B3C newswire / -- People with glaucoma and eye doctors face a dilemma. On one hand, patients with glaucoma are at high risk of losing their eyesight if their disease progresses undetected and essential therapy adjustments are delayed. On the other hand, these typically elderly, vulnerable individuals are often hampered in seeing their doctor for office visits, particularly during a lockdown.

Clinical study: telehealth glaucoma care

Glaucoma specialists and patients welcome the results of the clinical study published in Ophthalmology Glaucoma (1)  they show how Implandatas EYEMATE system is transforming glaucoma treatment. During a lockdown period, eye specialists remotely monitored the intraocular pressure of their patients. Based on data generated by the EYEMATE system, doctors changed the therapy of 29% of their patients without requiring an office visit  thus reducing the risk of vision loss and keeping them safe during the lockdown.

What this means for people with glaucoma

Undetected disease progression is a big risk. Glaucoma gradually robs people of their vision. Continual, remote monitoring of glaucoma patients allows early therapy adjustment as needed, even when glaucoma patients are unable to visit their eye doctor. Thus, EYEMATE enables patients and their eye doctors to be informed in real-time of disease progression, which means the therapy can be adjusted without delay  before eyesight is permanently lost.

What glaucoma experts say

Kaweh Mansouri, M.D., lead investigator of the study, ophthalmologist at Clinique de Montchoisi Lausanne/Switzerland and Professor at the Department of Ophthalmology at University of Colorado, explains: Our study shows that unnecessary clinic visits can be avoided by remote glaucoma monitoring. This is particularly important during the current pandemic for elderly patients who are at highest risk for COVID-19 complications.

Robert N. Weinreb, M.D., Chair and Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at University of California, San Diego adds: The study findings help us envisage a future for tele-ophthalmology in glaucoma management far beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote patient monitoring and management significantly enhance existing glaucoma diagnostics, and allows a more rational application of existing and future vision-saving therapies.

For high resolution please click the image.

About Glaucoma  the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide

80 million people with the chronic eye disease glaucoma suffer the risk of losing vision, eventually going blind. Current practice (typically 4 office visits/year) is insufficient to prevent vision loss for many patients. Glaucoma status between visits is unknown. Though doctors have a wealth of treatment options, delayed detection of disease progression delays therapy adjustment and results in further vision loss.

About the EYEMATE System

EYEMATE is the only CE-marked, clinically-validated system for continual, remote monitoring and management of glaucoma patient care. Implandatas proprietary biosensors and cloud-based, AI-system alert patients and their eye doctor in real-time of uncontrolled glaucoma, enabling real-time therapy adjustment to prevent vision loss.

About Implandata Ophthalmic Products

Implandata, based in Germany/USA, is a digital health company dedicated to helping people with glaucoma to lead a full life  without going blind. Breakthroughs in biosensing, telemetry and data analytics led to the EYEMATE system. The CE-marked EYEMATE system is in use at leading eye centers in Europe. In the USA, Implandata has started the FDA regulatory process.

Contact

Implandata Ophthalmic Products

Max Ostermeier, CEO

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.implandata.com

Keywords: Glaucoma; Intraocular Pressures; Pressure, Intraocular; Monitoring, Physiological; Eye Diseases; Patient Monitoring; Digital Health; Biosensors; AI, Deep Learning; Ophthalmology; Remote Monitoring; Telemedicine

(1) Mansouri K, Kersten-Gomez I, Hoffmann EM, et al. Intraocular Pressure Telemetry for Managing Glaucoma During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ophthalmology. Glaucoma. 2020 Dec. DOI: 10.1016/j.ogla.2020.12.008.

Published by B3C newswire


Radio hams comment on the draft BNetzA plans for 2021

Germany's amateur radio round table (RTA) has commented in a letter on the Federal Network Agency BNetzA draft plan for the year 2021

A translation of the DARC post reads:

In terms of content, the RTA comments on topics such as consumer protection, European regulation, market regulation, frequency regulation, digitization of amateur radio administration, standardization and market surveillance.



For example, when it comes to consumer protection, the RTA wants a clearer statement with regard to imports of non-EU-compliant products, especially to Germany.



On the subject of digitization in the amateur radio administration, the RTA thanks the BNetzA for selecting the amateur radio service as one of the first test objects in the administration. In December 2019, the RTA responded to a request to name test users.



On the topic of international and European frequency regulation in 2021, the RTA welcomes frequencies in the Telecommunications Act (TKG), as postulated, as a scarce resource worth protecting.



Source DARC https://darc.de/
As police officers and National Guard troops stood ready for protesters Sunday, California's state Capitol remained quiet.

With a chain link fence erected around the Capitol building, Sacramento was prepared after warnings of armed violence ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's Wednesday inauguration. But only a handful of demonstrators showed up by Sunday afternoon.

The Sacramento Bee reported that the small showing included an Eagle Scout holding a U.S. flag and two Biden supporters waving signs for the president-elect and "alternately being cheered or jeered by passing motorists."

Andri Tambunan/Special to SFGATE

Security was stepped up in Sacramento and across the country in recent days after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings. The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when far-right Trump supporters, galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen from him, overran the police and bashed their way into the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

The attack left a Capitol police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested over the insurrection.

Dozens of courts, election officials and Trumps own attorney general have all said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the presidential race.

On Sunday, some statehouses were surrounded by new security fences, their windows were boarded up, and extra officers were on patrol. Legislatures generally were not in session over the weekend.

Most state capitol buildings were quiet with only small groups of right-wing protesters gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses.

Andri Tambunan/Special to SFGATE

The roughly 20 protesters who showed up at Michigans Capitol, including some who were armed, were significantly outnumbered by law enforcement officers and members of the media.

At the Ohio Statehouse, about two dozen people, including several carrying long guns, protested outside under the watchful eyes of state troopers before dispersing as it began to snow.

The California Highway Patrol denied permits due to the risk of violence, but there was concern protesters would show up anyway.

"State workers have been asked to work remotely and stay away from state buildings in downtown through Thursday," reported KCRA. "And city leaders are urging the public to avoid the city center if possible."

The heavy law enforcement in Sacramento will continue through Inauguration Day.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
MOSCOW, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A special Aerolineas Argentinas flight picked up Argentina's second shipment of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine on January 15th at Sheremetyevo International Airport and returned to Buenos Aires.

The shipment of 300,000 doses of the world's first coronavirus vaccine follows a previous shipment of 300,000 doses shipped to Argentina on December 24. More than 200,000 people have been vaccinated in Argentina with the Sputnik V vaccine.

The round-trip flight will take 40 hours in total, including time on the ground in Moscow, and has a crew of 20, including technical experts who are ensuring proper in-flight control and handling of the vaccine.

Argentina is the first country in Latin America to authorize the use of Sputnik V vaccine.

Transportation of Sputnik V requires special attention throughout the supply chain and must adhere to strict temperature requirements at all stages of transportation. It must be maintained at ultra-low temperatures and be held in specialized thermal containers and ice packs.

Moscow Cargo, Sheremetyevo's cargo handler, met or exceeded all temperature, handling and storage requirements until the vaccine shipment was loaded onto the aircraft. Moscow Cargo has extensive experience in handling pharmaceuticals, including vaccines.

The Moscow Cargo terminal has 26 independent storage areas for cargoes classified as TTSP, or time & temperature sensitive products. All have individually adjustable temperature controls to maintain conditions from -20 to +25 C, as well as 60 thermocells in the automated PCHS (Pallet / Container Handling System) for storing unit load devices (ULDs) holding temperature-sensitive cargo.

SOURCE Sheremetyevo International Airport
Otero County Commission Chairman and Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin rides his horse on 5th avenue on May 1, 2020, in New York City. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

Cowboys for Trump Founder Charged in Connection to US Capitol Breach

The founder of the organization Cowboys for Trump has been arrested and charged for his alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol breach, the Justice Department (DOJ) said on Jan. 17.

Couy Griffin, who is a county commissioner in New Mexico, told FBI special agents during an interview on Jan. 11 that he had traveled to the nations capital on Jan. 6 with another person to participate in a protest over election integrity.

When Griffin arrived at the U.S. Capitol, he noticed a large crowd forming around the barricade and that he was caught up in that crowd, which pushed its way through the barricades and into a restricted area, he told agents, according to an affidavit by a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department detective.

Griffin said he and his friend didnt enter the U.S. Capitol building at any time and remained on the steps outside the building during the breach. During that time, he led a group of protesters in prayer using a bullhorn outside the Capitol, but up where the president is inaugurated at. Videos of the incident and other open-source materials corroborated Griffins statements, according to the affidavit.

He said that the police never asked him to leave the area, and he and his friend exited the U.S. Capitol grounds peacefully.

Griffin also spoke about his intention to return to Washington to protest President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration to the FBI special agent as well as during a council meeting in Otero County, New Mexico, on Jan. 14.

I am going to leave either tonight or tomorrow. Ive got a .357 Henry big boy rifle  that I got in the trunk of my car, and Ive got a .357 single action revolver  that I will have underneath the front seat on my right side. And I will embrace my Second Amendment, I will keep my right to bear arms, Griffin allegedly said in the meeting, according to the affidavit (pdf).

My vehicle is an extension of my home in regard to the constitution law, and I have a right to have those firearms in my car.

He had previously indicated his intention to return to Washington on his Facebook page, the detective said. The Epoch Times late on Jan. 17 reviewed the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page, which showed several photos by a member of the group who appeared to have traveled to Washington. It is unclear whether the photos and posts were authored by Griffin. The page was later removed.

The Cowboys for Trump Facebook group didnt respond to a request for comment about the allegations by press time.

Griffin was arrested on Jan. 17 in Washington and charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry, the DOJ said.

This comes several days after the federal authorities arrested and charged former BuzzFeed employee Anthime Joseph Gionet, known as Baked Alaska, after he filmed himself participating in the U.S. Capitol breach.

Authorities cited a 27-minute long live stream of the Jan. 6 incident in which Gionet entered several offices and confronted law enforcement officers inside the building, an affidavit alleged.

He was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 13 released another video to condemn the Capitol attack as well as the violence and lawlessness unleashed by rioters and some protesters on Jan. 6.

I want to be very clear, I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement, he told the country.

Making America Great Again has always been about defending the rule of law, supporting the men and women of law enforcement, and upholding our nations most sacred traditions and values. Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans.

If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement. You are attacking it, and you are attacking our country.
Miners Cut Open Rock and Discover Stunning Heart-Shaped Purple Geode Inside

Nature has a way of playing tricks on our minds. So molded are we by objective scientific thought and the materialism of modern life, an occasional accident in nature may tell us that theres more to all of this than can be measured.

A rare species of orchid or the shape of a cloud might mimic things from our imaginations, as if nature were winking at us and whispering from the other side, That was no accident.

And there are geodesthose amethyst crystal formations found inside rocks, which geologists like to display on their desks and are found in souvenir shops. What do you suppose nature meant when she formed a perfectly heart-shaped geode found by a team of miners in Uruguay?

One such rare rock was discovered by the workers of Uruguay Minerals, and it has had the internet buzzing.

Miners in Artigas uncovered an unlikely amethyst geode, which when they cut it open was found to have formed into a perfect heart shape.

Not only was the discovery itself shocking, but it gave the miners encouragement considering theyd been struggling with starting up the excavation.

We were opening the mine to work normally, but the land was difficult to work, Marcos Lorenzelli with Uruguay Minerals said in an interview with My Modern Met on Jan. 5. Our employees said, We have to find something really nice due to the hard work we are doing.

Their hard work paid off; they found something more than nice, but also exceedingly rare.

After two or three hours, they moved a basalt rock and with the excavator machine, opened a heart-shaped amethyst geodewhat a treasure! Lorenzelli told Bored Panda.

Pictures of the unique geode and its remarkable shape went viral on sites like Reddit and Facebook.

Reddit users joked that the rock would make the perfect romantic gift.

Thats the most beautiful engagement photo Ive ever seen, wrote one user.

I mean you gotta give it to them, that some good foresight to plan out an engagement 90 million years in advance, wrote another.

Facebook users were a little more serious, leaving incredulous comments such as How did it do that? That cant be natural, and more encouraging comments like All we need is love.

The amethyst heart is for sale on the companys website, where it has been dubbed The New Treasure. Anyone interested in owning the purple heart-shaped geode can purchase it there, or shoppers can purchase smaller, more affordable versions on sites like Etsy.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired Newsletter here: TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
A 14-year-old boy appeared in court this afternoon accused of murdering a 12-year-old schoolboy who was found stabbed to death.

The teenager is alleged to have murdered Roberts Buncis who was found dead on common land at Fishtoft, near the town of Boston, Lincolnshire on the morning of Saturday, December 12.

The boy attended todays hearing at Lincoln Crown Court remotely by video link from the secure accommodation unit where he is being held on remand.

He wore a white tee-shirt with the word Adidas on the front as he sat on a settee next to his defence barrister Tara McCarthy. Both of them wore protective visors.

The boy spoke only to confirm his identity during the 14 minute hearing.

Robert Buncis, 12, (pictured) was found dead on common land at Fishtoft, near the town of Boston, Lincolnshire on December 12

A 14-year-old boy appeared in court this afternoon accused of murdering the schoolboy. Pictured: Roberts Buncis with his father Edgars

No charge was put to him and the matter was adjourned for a further case management hearing to be held on 6 April.

Judge John Pini QC remanded the defendant to the secure accommodation unit. The judge previously set down a trial date to commence on 21 June. The hearing is expected to last two weeks.

An order has been imposed under section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act of 1999 preventing publication of the identity of the accused boy.

An inquest opening was told that Roberts died as a result of stab wounds to his neck, chest and abdomen.

Roberts, who died just two days before his 13th birthday, was a student at Haven High School in Boston.

He lived with his dad Edgars less than a mile from where his body was found.

Roberts lived with his single father Edgars (pictured) less than a mile away from where his body was found

In a statement issued through Lincolnshire Police in December, he said: 'I am comforted by the community support that has been shown and I understand that friends want to show their support by getting together on Saturday.

'I will not be attending, I will remember Roberts in private and celebrate his life at his funeral.

'Please remember Roberts with flowers and a smile. Be safe and please do not do anything stupid. I want you to continue with your lives and do the things that Roberts can no longer do.

'I do not want any other family to go through what I have, please do not make me more sad.'

The grieving father added: 'Do not judge before we know the truth, let the police do their investigation.

'I do not judge the family of the boy involved, I am not God, for this we have court.'

Lincolnshire Police said it was aware of social media posts that have been circulated which are not representative of the victim's father's views.

Chief Inspector James Trafford said: 'Our hearts go out to Roberts's loved ones and everyone who knew him.

A general view of Fishtoft, Lincolnshire where the body of Roberts Buncis was found in December

Flowers left at the scene where police searched undergrowth in Fishtoft, Boston, in December

'While we understand that the community is grieving the loss of Roberts we would like to strongly remind people that we are in a pandemic and Tier 3 Covid restrictions apply.

'The safest way for those who want to pay their respects to Roberts is to do so in private while following the rules. Under Tier 3 rules we are unable to gather in outdoor settings in groups of more than six.'

Cllr Paul Skinner, leader of Boston Borough Council, said: 'Our thoughts are with the family at this time. The death of Roberts has had a huge impact on the community. People will want to pay their respects to Roberts, that is only natural but please respect the family wishes.

'The best way to keep safe is to pay your respects in the privacy of your own home.'

The 14-year-old boy appeared before the Recorder of Lincoln, Judge John Pini QC, on Monday.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, will next appear in court on January 11.


Love Island stars who have jetted to Dubai amid the coronavirus pandemic have reportedly lost thousands of Instagram fans.

Dozens of reality TV personalities have swapped the UK's third lockdown for some sun in the UAE, sharing regular updates from their lavish 'work trips' to social media.

It is now thought fed-up Brits have hit back by unfollowing the stars accounts with Anton Danyluk, 25, and Laura Anderson, 31, dropping a combined 26,000, reports The Sun.

Hitting back: Love Island stars who have jetted to Dubai amid the coronavirus pandemic have reportedly lost thousands of Instagram fans (Laura Anderson pictured)

Anton, who is thought to have lost 14,000 followers, shared that he was heading to Dubai on December 10 and has since posted glimpses of his impressive hotel views and dips in the pool with his 1m fans.

While Laura Anderson, who has reportedly dropped a sizeable 12,000 followers, sparked a backlash when she said it was 'really hard' to be an influencer following unimpressed comments on her Dubai snaps.

The beauty, who used to live in Dubai, has been in the reality star-flooded city since before New Year's and asked her 1.4m fans not to comment on posts 'if they don't have anything nice to say'.

Oh dear: Anton, who is thought to have lost 14,000 followers, shared that he was heading to Dubai on December 10 (pictured in the reality star hotspot)

Others thought to have taken a hit in the Instagram numbers include Kaz Crossley, 27, who has reportedly lost 7,000 followers since touching down in the city.

While Gabby Allen is thought to have lost 2,000 and Josh Ritchie 8,000. TOWIE star James Lock, who is in Dubai with his girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou is also said to have seen 1,000 people disappear from his followers.

As well as Love Island alum, Made In Chelsea's Spencer Matthews reportedly lost 4,000 fans after his trip to Barbados with wife Vouge Williams, who is thought to have seen 1,500 leave her own account.

MailOnline has contacted the reality star's representatives for a comment.

Falling: Others thought to have taken a hit in the Instagram numbers include Kaz Crossley, 27, who has reportedly lost 7,000 followers since touching down in the city (pictured in Dubai)

Over recent weeks, reality stars have seen a growing furore from the public as their Dubai trips as Brits back at home are in a nationwide lockdown.

Many have travelled abroad under the ruse that their trips are 'for work,' sparking backlash from fans who have been holed up in lockdown amid the pandemic.

Olivia Attwood, who found fame on Love Island, had suggested that unimpressed fans unfollow the stars abroad after she lashed out at them last week.

The beauty told people to stop trolling influencers following her own rant, instead suggesting they take a less vocal approach and simply unfollow the stars.

As such, she revealed in an interview with Grazia that the way to fight back is not to plaster stars' posts with negative comments, as it still counts as interaction.

Work trip: Gabby previously told her fans that she and boyfriend Brandon Myers are in Dubai as his business is based in the city. She has reported dropped 2,000 followers

Soaking it up: Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry is also currently in Dubai and sharing bikini updates

Smitten: James Lock and his girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou looked happier than ever as they posed for a recent snap while lapping up the sunshine in Dubai last week

She explained: 'The way to hurt people is silence because actually, when you are commenting on someone's photo, even if it's a bad negative comment, you're still drumming up interaction on that post.

''[I}f you're going to send out to a brand that 5000 people have unfollowed you this week, it doesn't look good, does it? So yeah, it makes a big difference.'

Fellow Love Islander Laura Anderson, who is currently in Dubai, recently attracted a mixed reaction when she offered to give fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at her working day, so they could see how 'hard' it is to be an influencer.

Without naming names, Olivia branded the idea that such a conversation would be raised now is 'unbelievably tone-deaf', particularly 'when your hard day is creating content that might get nasty comments and someone else's hard day is a 12 hour shift, zipping up body bags at the end of it'.

Smart: Olivia Attwood, who found fame on Love Island, had suggested that unimpressed fans unfollow the stars abroad after she lashed out at them last week (pictured in Manchester)

On Tuesday, Olivia took to her Instagram Stories from her Manchester home to criticise her reality star and influencer pals, who remain in Dubai, for claiming they are 'working abroad' amid the coronavirus crisis.

Addressing the furore over her comments on Wednesday, Olivia insisted that she doesn't want to encourage any 'hurtful behaviour' and told any of her angry followers to instead 'unfollow' people.

Filming a make-up tutorial, the former TOWIE star said: 'What I will quickly say is that after yesterday's rantings, my phone, I mean it literally nearly blew up in my hand.

'So I think... even though I was rambling, I think what I said is probably what a lot of people are thinking or feeling. Well, that's what people have said to me anyway. But I've said it now.

'One thing I will say today, I don't want to encourage any hateful behaviour. Don't write strangers on the Internet mean messages.

'Yes, they might do something that annoys you. Yes, they might be looking stupid but ultimately that's going to be their own downfall.

'So you don't need to write them a hurtful message, just unfollow, don't look. Everyone is fighting something we don't know about.'

Olivia added that she is following her own advice as she is going to unfollow and mute any influencers annoying her. She didn't name any specific accounts.

Olivia's video came as it was revealed that travellers returning to the UK from the UAE will have to quarantine following a 52 per cent surge in the number of COVID -19 cases there - an undoubted shock for the influencer-packed city.
BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's local business news from the past week.

-- ONLINE RETAIL SALES

Zhejiang Province, an e-commerce heartland and foreign trade hub in east China, reported a robust increase in both online retail sales and cross-border e-commerce trade last year.

The online retail sales of the province in 2020 exceeded 2.26 trillion yuan (about 350 billion U.S. dollars), up 14.3 percent from the previous year, data from the provincial department of commerce showed.

-- RECORD CARGO VOLUME

The import and export goods volume via Erenhot, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, rose 13.5 percent from the previous year to more than 17 million tonnes in 2020, according to the port's customs.

In 2020, around 14.7 million tonnes of goods were imported via the port, up 11.9 percent in volume, while exports weighing about 2.44 million tonnes increased by 24.3 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

-- RECORD FDI

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Shanghai hit a record high in 2020 despite the COVID-19 epidemic, according to data from the municipal government.

The actual use of FDI in Shanghai topped 20.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 6.2 percent year on year.

-- CHINA-EUROPE FREIGHT TRAIN

A total of 1,273 China-Europe cargo train trips from or to east China's Jiangsu Province were made in 2020, a rise of 36.4 percent compared with the previous year, Nanjing customs said Friday.

The trains carried cargo worth 12.31 billion yuan, surging 53.8 percent from 2019, said Zhang Yaping, deputy head of the customs.

-- AUTO JOINT VENTURE

Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) and Foxconn Technology Group (Foxconn) have signed a strategic cooperative agreement to establish a joint venture company providing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) production and comprehensive customized consulting services.

-- FOREIGN INVESTMENT

With free trade port policies helping woo investors, China's southern island province of Hainan reported strong foreign investment growth last year.

Preliminary statistics showed that the actual use of foreign investment in Hainan totaled about 3 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, doubling the figure for 2019, according to the provincial department of commerce on Wednesday.

-- PROTOTYPE TRAIN

A prototype train using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev technology was rolled out on Wednesday in southwest China's city of Chengdu.

The domestically developed maglev train boasts a designed speed of 620 kph, according to Southwest Jiaotong University, one of the train's designers.

-- CAR EXPORTS

Chinese automaker Chery Holdings Co., Ltd. reported year-on-year vehicles export growth of 18.7 percent in 2020, with overseas sales of vehicles hitting 114,000 units.

Chery sold a total of 730,000 vehicles in 2020, slightly lower than the 745,000 units in 2019.

-- LIQUOR SALES GROWTH

China's leading liquor producer Wuliangye Yibin Co., Ltd. posted an estimated year-on-year revenue increase of 14 percent to reach 57.2 billion yuan (about 8.76 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020.

The company's net profit attributable to its shareholders rose to about 19.9 billion yuan, also up around 14 percent year on year, according to the company's annual report on major performance data.
Mandeville police officers and other hourly city employees will have $7 per hour added to their pay if they are required to report for work during a public health emergency.

During the Jan. 14 City Council meeting, members unanimously approved a pair of ordinances that amend personnel policies to include the extra pay in cases where the mayor declares a public health emergency.

The hourly emergency pay hike applies only to employees and officers who must report for work and excludes those who can work from home during emergencies, such as the lockdowns that occurred last year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a way to be proactive in case this ever happens again, Council Chairman Rick Danielson said.

City officials said Mandeville has a similar pay plan in place for hurricanes and other natural disasters where employees put themselves at risk to serve the public, but it does not cover health emergencies.

The citys Civil Service Board approved the personnel policy amendments at its Dec. 9 meeting.

The City Council meeting was held via Zoom because of the recent spike in virus case. As of Jan. 13, Mandeville City Hall is open by appointment only, although city employees will continue to report to work daily, Mayor Clay Madden said.

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I feel this is in the best interest of our employees and residents, said Madden, who tested positive for COCID-19 in December, along with Police Chief Gerald Sticker.

Citizens who need to do business at City Hall should call in advance to make an appointment, officials said.

In addition to the City Hall restriction, all events at the Mandeville Community Center are canceled until further notice.

The councils next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 28, and Danielson said the city will make a decision later as to whether or not it will be virtual.

In other action, the council approved a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission to launch a landscaping project for the Monroe Street underpass at Causeway Boulevard. The exact cost and other details of the project are being formulated.

The council also reappointed incumbent Lee Frederick to another term on the citys Parks and Parkways Commission.

He lived and died in a time of tumult and a racial awakening, so perhaps it is no surprise that the 35th national celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday has particular resonance amid one of the most traumatic seasons in memory: A raging pandemic. Protest and civil unrest after the killing of Black people by the police. A momentous election. And an insurrection.

Even the title of his final book  Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?  seems ripped from todays headline.

I think its still an unanswered question, said Clayborne Carson, a history professor at Stanford University, referring to the title of Kings book.

I think the most important word in that question is we  who are we, and until you figure that out, its very hard to tell where we are going, said Carson, who is also the founder and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which is publishing a collection of Kings papers.

Amid the change and upheaval, the words of King, both those celebrated and the less familiar, feel more urgent then perhaps ever before, both as a guide and a warning. From oft-quoted speeches to the words he never had a chance to deliver before his assassination, King talked about his vision of a just world, about the power of peaceful protests, and about disruption as the language of the unseen and the unheard.

We asked Carson and others from across the country to choose words from King and reflect on how they resonate today. Heres what they had to say.



Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that weve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. Weve got to see it through.

 from the last speech given by King, on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, the day before he was assassinated.

The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a chairman of the Poor Peoples Campaign, said Kings words spoke to the daunting challenge that civil rights leaders faced helping the poor and marginalized. He drew a parallel to todays challenges of systemic racism, ecological devastation and a lack of access to health care.

The election of a Democratic president, he said, is no reason to slow down.

Its not enough to have an election and put new people into office, Barber said. We must push and continue to push for the kind of public policy that really establishes justice.

We really must now go about the business of lifting up those who are poor and those without health care, he added. Thats the only way we can heal the nation  we have to heal the body.



The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

 from Kings speech at the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968.

Connie Field said Kings quote had guided much of her work as an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Dr. King presented a vision of an equal, multiracial society, she said. He presented a vision of economic equality. And he presented a vision of a political struggle thats nonviolent. Those are three things that we can all try to live by and strive for today.

She added: Whats going on in the United States, what we witnessed on Jan. 6, all has to do with a backlash to the fact that our world is changing. Its going on here in America; its going on in Europe. Were becoming a more intertwined world, a more multicultural world. Thats the trajectory of history, and theres no going back on that. That quote completely underscores everything Im talking about  a just world is an equal world, equal no matter what our race is.



Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

 from Kings I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

Bernard Lafayette, 80, recalled the words from the I Have a Dream speech as a reminder that the turmoil the country is witnessing today is not the way things have to be, and its not something we have to accept, but should be understood as another step on the long journey that King described, with each shift connected to the events that precede it.

The violence at the Capitol, he said, reflected the fear from some members of our society that they were losing political power.

You have to ask the question, What are these people afraid of? Well, they are afraid they would lose power, they would lose control and the election in Georgia exacerbated that, he said. These fears that are being perpetrated, theyre really false fears, because no one is going to take anything away from them.



I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.

 from King speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated.

Rutha Mae Harris, 80, of Albany, Georgia, said she believed Kings speeches often warned of the kind of conflict that unfolded in Washington on Jan. 6. Harris, who marched with King during the Civil Rights era, recalled, in particular, the famous speech he gave in Memphis a day before he was killed.

With the rhetoric of Trump, I myself knew that something would happen, she said. This had been building up for four years. She said King was a man of vision, but that vision captured the darkness as well as the light. She noted, He said, I might not get there with you, and, of course, you can read in between the lines.



Why America May Go To Hell

 title of a sermon that King had planned to deliver at his church on Sunday, April 7, 1968.

For the Rev. Amos C. Brown, the pastor of Third Baptist Church, a historically Black church in San Francisco founded in 1852, the words of King that come to mind this year are the ones he never had a chance to speak.

When he was assassinated, King had been planning to give a sermon, he said, called Why America May Go to Hell. In the sermon, King planned to warn that the country needed to use its vast resources to end poverty, and to offer all of Gods children the necessities of life.

The hell that King stood against is still deeply embedded in America today, said Brown, who is attending the inauguration as a guest of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (who attends his church).

We are about to fall over the precipice into, figuratively speaking, hell in this nation  sure, we ought to be concerned about whats going on now, he said, referring to the attack on the Capitol. But people are just now beginning to experience what Black folk have gone through since the Atlantic slave trade began. Hell.



We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

 from Kings speech in St. Louis on March 22, 1964.

For Antwan T. Lang, a member of the Chatham County Board of Elections in Savannah, Georgia, Kings words meant we cannot be afraid to learn from one another and understand our differences and similarities.

My hope is that one day white America will understand that we harvest no hate, but we want to be seen not as a Black man, Black entrepreneur, Black superintendent, Black doctor, Black lawyer, Black teacher, Black insurance agent, Black funeral director, but as a human being wanting to freely be ourselves without having to walk on eggshells in fear of becoming a statistic, he said.

It is clear to me that our protest and our plea to America is that we want to be free, to simply be a human being with real feelings, emotions, dreams and goals, Lang said, to be able to live long enough to accomplish those goals, dreams and ambitions.



Oh no, Brother Gray. This is no ploy at all. If we are to succeed, I am now convinced that an absolutely nonviolent method must be ours amid the vast hostilities we face.

 Kings response in 1955 to a suggestion that his nonviolence tactics were for attention.

Fred D. Gray was the lawyer who represented Rosa Parks, King and the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, the event that inaugurated the 20th century civil rights movement. The quote, found in Grays account of that battle, Bus Ride to Justice, was Kings response to a suggestion that his commitment to nonviolence was a ploy to gain attention in the press.

I became a lawyer so I could use the law for the purpose of destroying every act of segregation that I could find, Gray said. There were other people whose roles were to make speeches, and others who demonstrated, but you had to put it all together and do it in a nonviolent fashion.

Regarding the protests over the past year against killings of unarmed African Americans by police officers, Gray said: I think were going to have to go back to what Martin said about nonviolence and social change. All the things that King did, all the things we did in the Montgomery bus boycott were to get rid of racism and inequality. We were able to do a little bit, but not do it all.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Police: Woman Stole Pants from Dollar General

By West Kentucky Star Staff

METROPOLIS - A Symsonia woman was arrested Friday on a theft charge after a report of shoplifting at a Metropolis store.The Metropolis Police Department says an employee at Dollar General told officers a woman took a pair of pants from a clothes rack on display outside the store and put them inside her vehicle without paying.Officers said they arrived on the scene and learned the woman, 24-year-old Davanna Perkins, still had not paid for the pants.Perkins was arrested and charged with retail theft.

rice exporters are not able to procure sufficient quantity before the ships arrive and this delays handling of the cargo.  DC Image

KAKINADA: A fresh controversy has erupted over the possible diversion of rice cargo, traditionally meant for the anchorage port, to Kakinada Deep Water Port (DWP). AP Maritime Board is proposing to allow handling of surplus rice cargo

at the new port, reserving cargo sufficient for seven ships to the anchorage port.

This proposal was placed before steel barge owners, port workers, carry and forward agents and others in shipping trade. There is stiff opposition from workers and steel barge owners who argue that if the traditional rice cargo is also handled in the DWP, the anchorage port will be left with no cargo and it will be closed gradually.

At present, the only major cargo of rice is being handled at anchorage port for exporting purposes. According to sources, the state government had given an assurance in the 1990s that there would not be any diversion of cargo from the old port, but several traditional cargoes like fertilizers and others have already diverted to the deep water port.

Thousands of workers and steel barge owners are dependent on the anchorage port.

If the rice cargo is handled at DWP, gradually the entire lot may be diverted to DWP and the old port faces threat of closure, said the Steel Barge Owners Association President Bandana Hari.

He said that officials say that the surplus cargo will be handled at DWP and earlier also they had similarly convinced workers but all traditional cargo has been diverted to DWP.

He said that when there was no cargo at anchorage port, the officials could not allot some cargo from DWP to the old port to help the workers. Now, why they should sacrifice surplus rice cargo, he asked.

He also said that rice exporters are not able to procure sufficient quantity before the ships arrive and this delays handling of the cargo. A decision would be taken up in the general body meeting to be held on Monday.

Rice Exporters Association president B.V. Krishna Rao (Velpuri Srinivas) said that nearly 20 ships have been waiting for handling of rice cargo and the anchorage port is sufficient for only seven ships. He said that exporters have to pay demurrage charges. If the rice cargo is allowed at DWP, the waiting period can be saved. Some exporters are already diverting their cargo to other ports, he said.

The AP Maritime Board CEO N.P. Ramakrishna Reddy said that port workers and steel barge owners need not worry as their interests would be protected. He said that a committee would be constituted to monitor cargo handling process regularly. He said that the Union Ministry of Commerce has asked the state government about delay in port operations.

Accordingly a meeting was convened with the shipping trade fraternity on the need to increase the efficiency of Kakinada ports. He said that the cargo for seven ships will continuously handle the cargo at the anchorage port and only the excess cargo will be handled in the deep water port.
With any type of rise in incidents  we saw a number of them in the suburbs over the past weekend  our message to anybody is just to be aware of your surroundings, Lewbel said. We are working with our regional law enforcement partners to see if there is any potential connection, but all of these cases are still very new. Theyre still very early on in the investigative process so were trying to kind of piece together exactly all the different circumstances.
The five-month-old interim government has a new problem; the recent loss of Soumaila Cisse, the popular and long-time opposition politician favored to win the next presidential election in 2022. The 71-year-old Cisse died from covid19 in late December. Now the interim Mali government has to take a closer look at other possible winners of the 2022 election.

The August 2020 coup ejected a corrupt president but failed to establish a military government. Instead, the CNT (National Transitional Council), an interim (temporary) government was organized, at the insistence of local politicians and major foreign aid donors. The CNT has until March 2022 to organize new elections and disappear. The CNT is composed of 121 members generally agreed to represent the Mali population and institutions. The CNT elected a president and vice-president who are both army colonels who were not part of the coup. The CNT serves as a temporary legislative group to determine and approve measures required to maintain order and organize new the 2022 elections. Without Cisse it is unclear who is now most likely to win the 2022 presidential election.

The CNT was preceded by the populist J5M (June 5Movement) that carried out months of demonstrations in the capital and made the coup possible by forcing a corrupt president out. J5M criticized the composition of the 121 member CNT because of the 22 army officers on it, in addition to some shady civilians. Most of the CNT members are less suspect and do represent a wide spectrum of groups. Nevertheless, J5M declared a boycott against the CNT and refused to cooperate with it. J5M represents civilians who seek a less corrupt and more effective government and do not see a military dictatorship making a difference.

The main leader of J5M is Moslem cleric Mahmoud Dicko. He has been the de-facto spokesman for J5M and managed to maintain that position. Dicko is a popular senior imam (Moslem cleric) who studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and came to be chairman of Malis High Islamic Council. Despite (or because of) his education in Saudi religious schools, which stress the need for Islamic law, Dicko openly backs a secular government, but one run by honest (or a lot more honest than now) politicians and officials. Imams like Dicko are one reason Islamic terrorist beliefs have not spread to the majority of Malians, most (95 percent) of them Moslem. Many foreign students in Saudi religious schools note that for all its piety Saudi Arabia is very corrupt as are most other Arab oil states. There were some exceptions but without all that oil wealth many Arab governments would be undergoing the same political pain Mali is suffering.

Many Mali politicians and economic leaders dont trust Dicko, feeling that he must be in touch with Islamic terror group leaders and actually willing to try a religious government. Dicko has never expressed support for that and more and more Malians are believing him rather than less popular and trusted politicians and other prominent Malians.

Its not just J5M that demands a more effective government. Many nations threatened to impose sanctions after the August coup if the coup leaders did not organize elections and a new democratic government. That led to the interim government and CNT and subsequent decisions leading to elections.

The August 2020 coup was the second one since 2012 and the third since Mali became independent in 1960. The 2020 coup got the same hostile reaction from the neighbors, international organizations and Western supporters as did the 2012 one. The prompt installation of the temporary government, with 21 of 25 ministries led by civilians, is an attempt to get local and international sanctions lifted.

So far, the UN sanctions remain in place, at least until August 2021. Lifting some of the sanctions depends on progress the CNT makes. The interim government is acceptable as long as it is temporary. The sanctions have disrupted trade and been a bonanza for smugglers. Islamic terrorist groups control a lot of the smuggling so as long as the sanctions remain in force the Islamic terrorists make more money.

The March 2012 coup was triggered by the lack of financial and political support for troops stationed in the thinly populated north, which was being taken over by a Tuareg rebellion led by Islamic terrorist groups. Elections were held in 2013, after a French-led force advanced into the north in January and quickly defeated the Taureg rebels and their Islamic terrorist allies. Now it is 2021 and the Taureg tribes are still waiting for the government to deliver the economic aid promised when the Tauregs agreed to a peace deal. The Islamic terrorist groups are still up there and have spread to central Mali, partly to support their smuggling operations (drugs and people) that finance the terror groups. The corruption and mismanagement are still prominent and the target of growing popular anger. Despite all the peacekeepers and counterterror forces, there will be no peace until a competent and a lot less corrupt government is installed.

Since 2013 the Mali military has been rebuilt, a task carried out largely by French trainers and advisors. Currently the army has about 7,000 troops. Another 800 personnel serve in the air force and riverine navy. There are also nearly 5,000 paramilitary troops, including the 2,000-man Republican Guard stationed in the capital to protect government officials and facilities. Most of the paramilitary personnel act as national police and serve throughout the country. Overall, the rebuilt army is a more effective force than it was in 2012. Mali troops are still considered the least effective in the region. The 2020 army has a few units that are first-rate and these often operate with the French counterterrorism forces. These elite Mali troops account for less than ten percent of the army.

Meanwhile Life Goes On

Most of Mali is peaceful and keeping the economy growing, in spite of the corrupt politicians that hamper faster growth and more foreign investment. The peacekeepers are needed to deal with t he thinly populated northern two-thirds of the country, which has a population of less than three million. That is about 16 percent of the population and about five percent of the GDP. The north was very poor in the best of times, and several years of Islamic terrorist violence halted tourism, a major source of income, especially in the three major cities up there, and the movement of many goods. The north is something of a political mistake. The Tuareg majority in the far north are more Arab than African and the peace deal with them was stalled for over a year because the black majority in the south did not want to even consider granting as much autonomy as the Tuaregs demanded. The two groups have always been at odds but were only united in the same country by the colonial French during 70 years of occupation. Like most African countries, dividing the nation is not an acceptable option and the colonial borders are considered sacrosanct. The French colonial government was established in 1892 and it was far more popular in the south than the north. Since independence in 1960 nearly all Mali politicians and business leaders have been pro-French and often educated in French universities. That was less the case in the north.

Death Trap

Mali remains the most dangerous assignment for UN peacekeepers. Since 2013 the 13,000 Mali peacekeepers have suffered 231 combat deaths. That translates to about 200 dead per 100,000 troops per year (a standard measure of such things) for the peacekeepers in Mali. This is largely because most of the peacekeepers are stationed in northern Mali, where most of these deaths occur. There was lots of violence up there since (and before) the peacekeepers arrived in early 2013. The peacekeepers are mainly African and the death rate has fluctuated from year, going as low as 130 per 100,000 per year. Since 2018 a lot of the violence has moved south to central Mali and the three-border area where the Mali army and tribal militias take most of the casualties.

While being a peacekeeper remains a dangerous job, its still less dangerous than places like Afghanistan, where in 2013 the rate was 200 per 100,000 for all foreign troops there. That was down from the peak 587 per 100,000 in 2010, which was about what it was during the peak years in Iraq (2004-7). The action in Mali is less intense than in pre-2014 Afghanistan or pre-2011 Iraq but is more than double the rate for peacekeepers worldwide. Total Mali peacekeeper casualties since mid-2013 are about 500 dead and wounded and losses but have been much heavier among the Islamic terrorists.

The 5,100 troops of French counterterrorism forces are separate from the Mali peacekeepers because the French force deals with Islamic terrorism throughout the region. Since 2013 the French forces has suffered 50 dead. That is largely because the French troops are an offensive force that does not do a lot of patrolling and concentrates on finding and destroying Islamic terrorists wherever they are active. There is less popular support in France for the French counterterror effort in and around Mali and the French are trying to get other nations to replace the French force or at least a portion of it.

January 15, 2021: In the north (near Kidal) a peacekeeper was killed by a roadside bomb and another peacekeeper was wounded. The peacekeepers were escorting a supply convoy, which has become a common practice in the north because Islamic terrorists have increasingly attacked road traffic or demanded bribes for safe passage.

January 13, 2021: In the north (near Timbuktu) four peacekeepers were killed by a roadside bomb and six were wounded. The peacekeepers were escorting a supply convoy

January 8, 2021: In the northeast (south of Gao) in the three-borders (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) area, six French soldiers were wounded by a suicide bomber. This area, where the three borders meet, has long been known for the presence of Islamic terrorist camps and bases.

January 3, 2021: In the north (east of Timbuktu) French forces made two attacks on Islamic terrorists, killing fifteen in one attack and two in another. At least four were captured by ground forces. Later there were reports that twenty civilians at a wedding in the area were killed by an armed helicopter. France pointed out that they had not used armed helicopters in the area that day, only UAVs and warplanes armed with guided missiles and bombs. Several days later French and local soldiers visited the scene of the alleged attack and could find no evidence of an air strike.

January 2, 2021: In the northwest (Menaka) two French soldiers were killed and one wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle. JNIM (Al Qaeda) took credit for this attack. JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems) is the largest Islamic terror group in Mali. This is an al Qaeda coalition formed in early 2017 to consolidate the many separate Islamic terror groups in Mali. In part this was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members like AQIM, Ansar Dine, FLM and several other smaller groups. Another reason for the merger was to make it easier to pool resources, especially information and practical advice, and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the region. This reduces friction and destructive feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences.

December 28, 2020: In central Mali (Mopti) three French soldiers died when their armored vehicles hit an improvised mine.

December 27, 2020: Across the northern border in Algeria ( Jijel Province, 365 kilometers east of the capital) army investigators seized $100,000 that was part of $10 million ransom paid in Mali to get four hostages released. The money was held by known Islamic terrorist supporters. When Algerian officials found out about the large ransom, they warned that it would mean more terrorist activity in Algeria and that happened. Jijel province has long been the scene of Islamic terrorist activity.

December 25, 2020: Soumaila Cisse, one of the four captives (three of them foreigners) freed by Islamic terrorist kidnappers in early October 2020, died in Paris. He had contracted covid19. Cisse has long been the most prominent opposition politician in Mali and was campaigning in northern Mali in March 2020 when Islamic terrorists kidnapped him and demanded ransom. Cisse had been the runner-up in the last three presidential elections and was expected to win in 2022 when the post-coup democracy is restored via national elections.
Motherson Sumi Systems Ltd, one of the countrys biggest automotive component manufacturers, on Monday announced acquisition of 75% stake in two Turkish automotive parts manufacturing companies, Plast Met Plastik Metal Sanayi lmalat ve Ticaret Anonim $irketi.(PM-Bursa) and Plast Met Kahp Sanayi lmalat ve Ticaret Anonim $irketi (PM-Istanbul).

Together these two entities are also known as the Plas Met Group, founded by Turkish entrepreneur Erol Senol, who will own the residual 25% stake in the companies. Motherson will invest in these companies through its subsidiary Samvardhana Motherson Automotive Systems Group BV.

Through the recent acquisition, the Noida-based company will gain a toehold in Turkeys domestic market and will also be able to serve its European customers better as Plas Met is engaged in manufacturing of injection moulded parts, sub-assemblies for mirrors, trim modules and lighting systems. The group also has capabilities of manufacturing high-end injection moulding tools that cater to customers in Turkey and other global markets.

This acquisition will mark SMR and Motherson groups entry into Turkey. Turkey is a strategic growth market for the Motherson group, with annual passenger vehicle production of 1.4mn units and a long-term growth potential. Entry into Turkey is consistent with the geographic expansion opportunities highlighted in the recent Vision 2025 presentation," the company said.

The transaction will also enhance Motherson groups tooling capabilities and complement its existing manufacturing footprint. Turkey is likely to play a key role as a competitive sourcing hub and as a platform to serve the groups customers in the European region, the company noted.

This acquisition marks another step towards the growth and diversification of Vision Systems vertical and the group overall. This is the 25th acquisition by Motherson Group and we will continue to work towards serving our customers with more products and service offerings globally. Turkey will be the 42nd country in Mothersons global operations, which is in line with our philosophy of 3CX10," said Vivek Chand Sehgal, chairman, Motherson Sumi.

Plast Met and Motherson are aligned in their business objectives and philosophy. Together with the global know-how of Motherson Group and local expertise of Plast Met group, I am confident that the alliance will enhance value to our customers," Erol Senol said.

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Court Discusses Vaccine Rollout, Approves Contract For Pct. 3 Barn The Hill County Commissioners Court discussed issues with the state's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, approved a contract for the construction of a new Precinct 3 barn in Penelope and voted on other county business in a regular meeting held Tuesday, January 12.



County Judge Justin Lewis expressed his frustration with the state regarding the availability of accurate COVID-19 data and vaccine availability.



Smaller counties without their own public health districts must rely on the Department of State Health Services to operate as their health district, and Lewis said that there have been problems getting up-to-date numbers from the state.



For instance, the judge said that as of last Monday, the state was showing 19 active COVID-19 cases in Hill County. However, local testing data showed that 68 people had tested positive since January 1.



Lewis said that while it is good news that we are seeing vaccines in our area, the county has requested but still has not received good information about who can sign up for vaccines and where that can be done.



He added that in a recent discussion with State Representative Cody Harris, he learned that the state has been giving some information that counties have requested to state representatives that is not coming down to the county level. "It's a fight for information for rural Texans that are getting left behind," Lewis said. "I will continue to fight to get that information."



The judge said that he would release information about the vaccine as he receives it. He said that those interested can begin by contacting their doctors and pharmacies to get on waiting lists. Another option is the large hubs that the state has announced, such as those in McLennan and Tarrant counties, although those deliveries have been limited so far.



"We continue to push for information and try to get information," Lewis said. "We're not second-class citizens just because we don't live in the metroplex. We need to be taken care of here as well."



The judge said that several Hill County providers have already been approved to receive vaccines from the state, and others are listed as pending approval. "Your local pharmacies are doing everything they can," Lewis said.



It was reported that 13 individuals were hospitalized in Hill County with COVID-19 at the beginning of last week, and the area's hospitalization rate was still hovering around 30%. Lewis said that Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Hemrick has put in a request to the state for more personnel at the hospital.



"Because of the high population in the hospital, and because COVID is so rampant in our community, it also affects our frontline workers," Lewis said. "We made a request to help them get more personnel."



"I don't tell you that to alarm you," Lewis said. "I tell you that so you know this is a real thing and it's going to be a problem for a couple of months."



In other business, the court moved forward with the construction project in Precinct 3 by approving a contract with Rawhide Partners, LLC.



In December, commissioners accepted a bid from the company to construct the new 9,000 square-foot maintenance barn at the intersection of HCR 3242 and Farm Road 308. Rawhide Partners was the lowest of six bidders at $567,078.



Commissioners also approved the first payment to Rawhide Partners in the amount of $137,000 to purchase initial construction materials.



The barn is scheduled to be completed by the first of June and is expected to serve the county for many years and replace the current facility, which commissioners pointed out is a safety hazard.



The court also announced the opening of the process to appoint members to the Emergency Services District (ESD) 1 and 2 Boards of Commissioners. Anyone interested in serving on the ESD 1 board, which provides fire service, or the ESD 2 board, which provides emergency medical services, is invited to submit a resume to the county for review.



Commissioners are expected to make appointments to the boards later this month.



The reappointment of Susan Swilling as county auditor was observed and recorded by the court. District Judge Lee Harris appointed Swilling to another two-year term as auditor effective January 1.



The court approved submittal of a grant application for the Hill County Juvenile Resource Officer program and the Juvenile Case Manager Truancy Prevention Program.



Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Tina Lincoln told commissioners that approval of the grant will allow Hill County to secure funding to continue its efforts and fill a juvenile case manager position.



The objective of the program is to reduce truancy and dropouts in Hill County Schools. In 2016, a truancy court was created through a collective effort by the Juvenile Board of Hill County, County Attorney David Holmes' office, the Juvenile Probation Department and Justice of the Peace Shane Brassell.



This school year, Lincoln said that there have already been 320 referrals to the program.



It was announced that Hill County Extension Agent Karen Jungman will be retiring effective January 31. County Judge Justin Lewis read a letter to the court in which she said it had been a pleasure to work with the county. Lewis recognized her many contributions to the county and expressed appreciation for her efforts.


WASHINGTON - Even before he won the White House, Joe Biden had been unsparing in his criticism of Silicon Valley, practically pleading with Facebook in June to stop President Donald Trump from publishing "wild claims."

"Anything less," the Biden campaign said in an open letter, "will render Facebook a tool of misinformation that corrodes our democracy."

Seven months later, rioters descended on the U.S. Capitol, stormed the House and the Senate, and sought to overturn Biden's victory - mounting a deadly, failed insurrection that illustrated the corrosive power of Trump's false online screeds.

The aftermath of that attack now sets the stage for a political reckoning between Washington and Silicon Valley, as long-simmering frustrations with Facebook, Google, Twitter and their digital peers threaten to unleash the most aggressive regulatory assault against the tech industry in its history. On the eve of his inauguration, Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress are pledging to take aim at the country's largest social media platforms out of concern that they imperil the very fabric of American democracy - and the billions of people who use these digital services every day.

"The Biden administration knows we need to update our technology regulations for the 21st century," said Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who has long called for wide-ranging reform.

Democratic leaders for years have proposed a bevy of new legislation to shrink Silicon Valley's corporate footprint, restrict its insatiable appetite for data and stop the spread of falsehoods online. But the party's calls for regulation have grown more urgent in the days since Biden won the presidency, his party took control of the House and the Senate, and Trump and his allies further exposed the risks of a largely unregulated web.

In the face of past scrutiny, Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley giants have muscled up politically. Internet companies together spent more than $59 million in lobbying over the first nine months of 2020, according to an analysis of the most recent federal disclosures by the Center for Responsive Politics. Many are now bracing for another fresh battle in Washington, as they seek to stave off new efforts by Congress and the White House that might severely restrict the way they do business. Some, including Facebook, are scrambling to hire more Democrats after staffing up on Republican lobbyists during the Trump years.

"I think for the Internet industry, in particular, it's going to be tough sledding for the next two years at least," predicted Rob Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that counts companies including Google and Microsoft on its board.

Spokespeople for Biden's transition team declined to comment. Facebook declined to comment.

The regulatory siege looming over Silicon Valley reflects Democrats' deep-seated frustration with an industry that the party thinks has not atoned for its many mistakes since the 2016 presidential election. In that race, Facebook, Google and Twitter were turned into agents of the Russian government, as the Kremlin spread disinformation on social media sites in an attempt to sow discord and send Trump to the White House. And it exposed major privacy risks across the tech sector, especially at Facebook, which had to pay a record-setting $5 billion penalty for mishandling millions of users' personal information.

The wave of scandals and missteps resulted in once-unfathomable scrutiny in Washington for Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter, whose executives were called to the Capitol to testify about their business practices repeatedly during Trump's four years in office. Trump, however, played a minimal role in many of those debates about antitrust, privacy and election security, choosing instead to pursue policies that aimed to punish Silicon Valley over unproven allegations that it censored conservatives online.

(Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Facebook and its peers responded by instituting significant changes to their businesses, including new efforts to invest in artificial intelligence and hire thousands of workers to police their platforms for abuse. Facebook also created entire internal teams to respond to the government's growing belief that it had acted anti-competitively.

The industry's efforts ultimately helped shield the 2020 presidential race from major foreign interference, but it was not without incident - as Trump and his online surrogates adopted the same tactics to stoke divisions and spread falsehoods that Russian provocateurs deployed so capably four years earlier. On Facebook, for example, the Trump campaign and its allies repeatedly purchased ads that spread conspiracy theories about Biden's son.

Incensed, Biden and his campaign spent months imploring Facebook to crack down. Democrats attacked the company repeatedly for allowing Republicans to spread falsehoods online without submitting the ads to fact checking. Even after the company tweaked its ad systems, Facebook did not follow all of Democrats' demands, leaving Biden to pledge to take regulatory aim at the tech industry if he won the election.

With that victory in hand, Biden and his aides have sought to lay the early groundwork for an administration that can meet its past promises. The team has signaled an interest in rethinking Section 230, long considered Silicon Valley's legal Holy Grail. The decades-old law spares a wide array of sites and services, including newspapers and social networks, from being held liable for the content posted by their users. The president-elect and his allies, however, contend that the law also has essentially allowed large technology companies to skirt accountability for their actions.

Biden at one point called on Congress during the campaign to repeal the law in full. Not even a month after his election, one of Biden's top new advisers signaled at an event at Georgetown Law that the incoming administration isn't backing down on its plans. Bruce Reed, the White House's incoming deputy chief of staff, stressed publicly that it is "long past time to hold social media companies accountable for what's published" on their sites and services.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored a Senate bill to revise Section 230, said he has spoken "extensively" with the Biden transition team about revisiting the rules and adopting "other steps to force greater responsibility on these big tech companies." Those conversations transpired in the weeks before rioters acting on Trump's viral online falsehoods stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving five dead - a tragedy that Blumenthal said could further embolden the White House and Congress to act.

"I think the new Congress and new administration will share a very intense focus on reform," he said.

Facebook, in particular, has signaled that it is open to regulation: Its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, told lawmakers in 2020 that he even supports changes to Section 230 - although people familiar with the company's thinking say they recognize that Congress may be hamstrung by the complexities of regulating political and hate speech. But the tech giant still faces a formidable political challenges in a Democrat-dominant Washington, a political reality that perhaps prompted the company to take once-unfathomable disciplinary action to ban Trump earlier this month.

"I think we're looking at all the options here," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., faulting Facebook and others for "opportunistic" moves to punish Trump online "two weeks before the next administration is going to come in."

"I think there have been plenty of hints that we, Democrats and Republicans and the next administration, are going to take very seriously the unregulated power of social media companies," she added.

"For a while, the tech industry took Democrats for granted," said Nu Wexler, a former Facebook, Twitter and Google communications official. "Now they confront a new political reality. Tech will still be in the crosshairs. But it will be for more substantive things like privacy, data collection and competition."

Facebook made an effort to hire and elevate conservatives at its Washington office over the past few years, to try to curry favor with the Trump administration. The company until last week - the day after Democrats regained control of Congress - had rarely sanctioned Trump, part of a strategy that sought to appease conservatives. Now, Facebook is shifting course and reevaluating its strategy, said people familiar with the company's thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Facebook was one of the first major companies to freeze political donations to Republicans. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg may play a larger role again, as she did during the Obama administration, two of the people said. Biden also has a longtime personal relationship with Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs and communications, who was Britain's deputy prime minister during the Obama years. Clegg was essentially Biden's counterpart, and Biden once appeared on Clegg's podcast.

Although the Biden team has ties to big tech, outreach has been fairly limited, particularly when it comes to sharing concrete plans with the companies, two of the people say. That compares to Trump, for example, who invited tech executives to New York for a meeting before his inauguration. President Barack Obama also made early outreach during his administration.

But the expectation overall is that Biden will pick people who will be more aggressive going after tech.

The incoming Biden administration already counts some of Silicon Valley's most effective critics among its ranks. Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, played instrumental roles in challenging Facebook, Google and Twitter - and are set to assume leadership roles at the Justice Department. In their current roles, Gupta and Clarke successfully pressured social media companies to take down harmful, false content, including posts, photos and videos that discouraged people from voting. They also waged landmark legal cases charging algorithmic discrimination and bias.

"These hires are a good indication that the Biden administration is going to take tech seriously," said Peter Romer-Friedman, a civil rights lawyer who has sued Facebook and worked with Gupta and Clarke's organizations. "The last four years have shown Democratic leaders to be very skeptical of tech, which is very different from the Obama administration."

The incoming administration has not yet settled on its selections for other senior government positions overseeing the tech industry. That includes openings at the nation's top competition enforcement agencies, a critical set of picks at a time when the government is suing Facebook and Google for violating federal antitrust laws. As Biden's government prepares to inherit those cases, Democrats said they had encouraged the incoming administration to pick tough watchdogs in a bid to reverse the deregulatory streak of Democratic and Republican governments past.

"I expect fairly strong antitrust enforcement from the administration," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose Bay Area district includes tech companies such as Apple.

On Capitol Hill, many congressional Democrats promised to forge ahead with their long-sought plans to bring Silicon Valley to heel now that they will have a supportive ally in the White House. The party's one-vote margin in the Senate may be slim, but they think their frustration with Facebook, Google and Twitter is likely to be bipartisan.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden pledged to advance new regulations around artificial intelligence to ensure that powerful, behind-the-scenes algorithms don't exhibit bias on the basis of race or gender. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said he plans to try to revive his bill tackling online privacy. And New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the leader of the tech-focused House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he intends to hold "online platforms accountable for the disinformation and misinformation that threatens our Republic." That includes an investigation that will touch on the role social media sites played in stoking the Capitol riot, he said in an interview.

"We can actually work on these issues rather than use them as a talking point to hit each other over the head," Schatz said about the political push to come. "The silver lining about the last four years, from a tech policy standpoint, is that there's been a lot of thoughtful work. . . . We have no shortage of good ideas."
He lived and died in a time of tumult and a racial awakening, so perhaps it is no surprise that the 35th national celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday has particular resonance amid one of the most traumatic seasons in memory: A raging pandemic. Protest and civil unrest after the killing of Black people by the police. A momentous election. And an insurrection.

Even the title of his final book  Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?  seems ripped from todays headlines.

I think its still an unanswered question, said Clayborne Carson, a history professor at Stanford University, referring to the title of Dr. Kings book.

I think the most important word in that question is we  who are we, and until you figure that out, its very hard to tell where we are going, said Dr. Carson, who is also the founder and director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which is publishing a collection of Dr. Kings papers.
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Looking at swimwear being policed in the 50s, you might think weve come a long way as a society.

Case in point? The following Instagram image, posted in October 2020, showing, A police officer issuing a woman a ticket for wearing a bikini on a beach at Rimini, Italy, in 1957, according to the caption.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by 80sradical  (@80sradical)

At the time, poster of the image, @80sradical claims, Italy prohibited the revealing bathing suit; it was too immodest to be worn in public.

Comments from followers skewered this close-minded attitude.

Im gonna tell my kids that was Aphrodite and the mortal man is asking for her autograph. What a bunch a nuns. Im from Rimini and had no idea they issued tickets for something like that on our beaches. Quite the opposite these days!

However, recent news regarding women being told to cover up suggests we havent progressed as far as we like to think.

From Catherine Bampton reportedly being told to change before her Virgin Australia flight this week to Bondi based fitness instructor Martina Corradi being asked to leave a restaurant in December 2020 after an outfit complaint, its not as if 2020 Australia is light years ahead of 1957 Italy.

These are private companies, granted, with the beach arguably being a different context. But even when it comes to bikinis, society still scrutinises. As another commenter pointed out, I hope shes alive somewhere to see how far weve comekind of.

DMARGE spoked to Jordan Hartley, whose string bikini recently sparked debate over how womens bodies are policed by others, to ask what her experience has been. The Newcastle-based chef told DMARGE: My experience is different on every platform, I have a lot of female support on Instagram which I am really grateful for. However, I do receive a lot of hate on platforms like TikTok for my clothing choices. Generally, I would say they feel safe to [comment] whatever they feel like purely because they are behind a keyboard.

I 100% believe we have changed since [the 1980s], however the world is ever evolving and all of us have a lot more to learn.

Is society becoming more open minded though? Yes, I believe so, in life we are always going to come up against criticism or hate. We will always rub someone the wrong way and that is ok. It is up to people like myself who have the courage to speak up for other women and men to use our voices and continue to be confident in our clothing choices.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by 80sradical  (@80sradical)

On different standards for dress codes in different places, Hartley said: I believe this comes down to respect. When I run my meal prep company I show up to work in chef clothes, when I run my software company I go into meetings dressed accordingly and when I run my OnlyFans account I wear a bikini. I dress according to what is respectful and if it is an online platform that I am sharing on, its my platform which I can post whatever I feel comfortable with.

[Here in Australia] we are lucky enough to be able to walk around barefooted with swimmers on and people wouldnt look twice. This may not be for everyone however it is the culture that I personally have been brought up in and one that I love.

I am not sure I can answer for other generations; everyone is different and entitled to their own opinions. However, this does not mean their opinions need to come across in a nasty, harassing or bullying way. I am of the belief, If you dont have anything nice to say, dont say it at all.'

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MIDDLETOWN  The committee charged with updating the city charter recently narrowed a list of ideas it will examine over the course of the next few months.

These suggestions were gleaned from the public, Middletown Charter Revision Commission members and former and current city officials since the process began last year. We made a lot of progress, though nothing has been decided, Chairman Robert Blanchard said Friday.

Members voted to move along the proposal to do away with the treasurer post, which carries a $4,000 stipend, because that function could be performed by other departments, Blanchard said, and doing so would eliminate redundancy.

Increasing the number of council members from 12 to as many as 15, creating wards for each, and changing the process of creating the annual budget also were advanced at Wednesdays two-hour meeting.

On the budget process, amendments have been proposed on the fly, close to the final vote, not giving leaders enough time to consider each one, Blanchard said. It kind of feels fast and loose, he said. The mayor must present his annual spending package by May 15.

The group will be tasked with determining whether to create a budget process by which changes are proposed, voted on by the council and then public input considered, he said, in an effort to increase transparency.

Some other ideas have been floated, including consolidation of fire departments, but that is not feasible due to state statute, Blanchard said.

The issue of what constitutes a majority vote by the Planning and Zoning Commission has been talked about for years, most recently when a methadone clinic and treatment center asked for a zoning variance to open a location on Washington Street. City charter states a super majority, the votes of five of seven members, is required to pass measures.

The application, filed by Root Center for Advanced Recovery, was rejected in October after several public hearings which drew interest from many residents, business owners, patients and others.

In early November, Root Center attorneys filed suit against the city, claiming the commissions rejection was, in fact, an approval. In a 19-page complaint, lawyers argued it is an erroneous assumption that five affirmative votes are required for any commission action. In it, the lawyer said, the 4-3 vote was, in fact, an approval, because the charter and bylaw provisions mandating five affirmative votes are contrary to state law (specifically) General Statutes 8-3(b).

Our charter requires five of seven PZC members to take affirmative action on any matter. That is unusual in the state. Most cities have a simple majority vote, said City Counsel Brig Smith, according to the video.

The issue is, are we allowed under the planning and zoning act, to set a five-vote-versus-four-vote requirement? Smith told committee members. The (opposing) argument is, because this portion of the act speaks to this requirement, and says majority, it must mean majority, not a super majority, Smith said.

Charter revision ideas also touch on elections and terms of elected positions.

When the city increased Common Council and mayoral term limits from two years to four in 2015, the change resulted in off-cycle elections in which half of the Board of Education and half of the Planning & Zoning Commission are the only offices on the ballot, former mayor and common councilman Sebastian Giuliano said in a letter to the panel.

Several committee members and others have expressed similar thoughts.

Giuliano suggested either the mayoral or the council term should be placed on different four-year cycles. This will accomplish three things, he wrote. First, it will increase voter turnout in the off-cycle election years; second, it will remove the chilling effect the current system has on council members considering running for mayor; and, third, it will increase the accountability of those respective offices.

The change would generate more interest and turnout in midterm elections, Giuliano and others have said.

It has also been suggested Common Council meetings be led by an elected presiding officer other than the mayor, who does so now. That move would help separate the legislative and executive branches of government, Blanchard said.

The charter panel must make its final recommendations in May. The committee will meet Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. on WebEx. Public input is welcomed at all meetings.

To view the video, visit the City of Middletown, Connecticut Government Facebook page. The agenda will be posted closer to that date at middletownct.gov.
(by Lorenzo Trombetta)

Immersed for the first time in a nearly total lockdown, with a generalized curfew imposed 24 hours a day, Lebanon is slowly sinking into its worst economic crisis in 30 years.

The desperation of the most vulnerable classes is palpable and many have been forced to quickly forget the trauma of the double, devastating explosion at the port of Beirut last August 4.

Over half of the population is living below the poverty threshold, in particular in outlying and rural areas. And hundreds of thousands of families can't afford more than one warm meal a day.

The pandemic hit the country as it was grappling with the disastrous consequences of an economic crisis. The crisis began in the fall of 2019 and it was formalized last March with the announcement of the State's financial default. This has devastated the poor healthcare facilities of a country as large as Italy's Abruzzo region, where basic services are mainly private.

The Lebanese lira in a year lost almost 80% of its value compared to the US dollar, a currency to which it has been linked since the second half of the 1990s. In a Lebanon which has been for years without a new government, as it awaits for various political-confessional leaders to reach an agreement in light of the upcoming swearing in of US President Joe Biden, there are actually three parallel exchange rates: one of the Central Bank, the least advantageous for consumers and investors; one adopted by banks, accused by many of being responsible for the country's bankruptcy; and the real one, called by some the ''black exchange rate'' because it is not officially recognized but it is actually used for commercial transactions affecting common citizens.

Although bread and other foods considered essential are still funded by the State, the price of essential goods has doubled in the best of cases. But in the majority of instances, it has increased four of five times prices prior to October 2019.

As prices increased, unemployment also climbed in the private sector and especially for undeclared labor. Job opportunities decreased, also due to the closure of shops, hotels and restaurants in a context of growing domestic instability.

Anti-government protests began in the fall of 2019 and continued intermittently until a few weeks ago. The global effects of the pandemic further stifled Lebanon's economy also because it was not based on internal agricultural and industrial production but rather on the provision of bank services and on the profit of investments, mainly in the construction and estate sectors. This type of economy, which created an investment bubble and massive debts for years, was not strong enough to deal with financial collapse, domestic tensions and international events.

The war in neighboring Syria, the currency crisis in Syria as well as in Turkey, financial sanctions imposed by the United States as a measure against Iran and Lebanese and Syrian institutional members, did not only give Lebanon the burden of managing over one million Syrian refugees on its territory.

Syrians have been stranded without rights in the most vulnerable areas of the country since 2011. They also accentuated the regional economic stalemate and the interruption of commercial trade in the area.

The new total lockdown imposed for the first time last February is not scheduled to end at least until January 25, although an extension is under consideration.

Lebanon currently has an infection rate of 17.6% with 237,000 positive cases so far ascertained and 1,781 deaths caused by Covid.

Experts say that the death toll is underestimated due to the difficulty of diagnosis in areas that have poor healthcare services. Local authorities have been asking for weeks to increase the small number of intensive care beds, which are nearly full.

In this context, the lockdown has been imposed also to operators of nongovernmental organizations, local and foreign, as well as to charities. Many families and individuals have not been receiving for days the aid they need to survive. And social unrest, in a context of strong confessional and political polarization, with tensions between the United States, Israel, Hezbollah and Iran in the background, is increasing every day.
Expo Dubai: Sustainability pavilion opens Rotating trees with solar panels and recycled water

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, JANUARY 18 - The Sustainability pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai will open this month. It is one of the first great insights into the Dubai Expo which will start in its entirety on October 1 after it was postponed last year due to Covid-19.



The Sustainability pavilion, the newspaper The National explains, showcases contemporary eco-friendly attractions.



Sustainability is one of the expo's three sub-themes and vies to raise awareness on human impact on the environment, the newspaper reported. The pavilion, called 'Terra', or planet earth, is operated from solar energy through 1,055 solar panels.



It covers 6,300 square meters of the expo site and is provided with recycled water. The panels are huge ''energy trees'' that move following the light of the sun: it has been calculated that in a year they will produce electricity that would be sufficient for an electrical car to cover the distance between the earth and Mars.



''The choice is to recognize sustainability and environmental issues as a priority for humanity'', Marjan Faraidooni, chief experience officer at the expo, told news outlets during a visit to the pavilion prior to its opening. ''We have the responsibility to transfer these priorities to the public and so we hope that everyone is personally inspired in their choices and their impact on the environment''.



The pavilion includes an underground forest and ocean, which are both interactive, that show the negative impact of humans on the planet, indicating to visitors the human consumption of meat, paper, cosmetics and how all this leads to climate change.



There are many experiences for visitors inside, like games that are useful to raise awareness on the issue. At the end of the Expo, the Sustainability Pavilion will be transformed into a scientific learning center for children. (ANSA).




There's a petition on Change.org that calls for Guam senators to make releasing balloons illegal.

Tina Erickson, a former member and vice president of the Guam Community College ecoWarriors, said she started the petition after seeing people posting on Facebook searching for places to purchase rosary balloons to release into the air at the end of funerals.

"It just saddened me that many people do not think it through at what that really entails," she said.

Across the nation there's a growing effort to discourage people from using helium-filled balloons, which offer a beautiful sight when floating up to the heavens, but become litter or worse when they descend back to earth.

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, more states are considering banning planned releases of balloons following the actions of coastal communities such as Ocean City, Maryland, and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Helium balloons and their strings and ties often end up ensnaring birds or aquatic wildlife, or get swallowed when the animals mistake the latex or foil for food.

A fellow alumnus of ecoWarriors, Roque Rosario said he's been involved in multiple coastal cleanups around the island and he's seen balloons and their strings wash up on shore as litter. As an islander, he's concerned about the litter that could have been swallowed by marine animals, such as Guam's beloved turtles.

Rosario said he encourages residents to sign the petition and to get involved in the discussion of protecting Guam's environment for future generations.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 434 signatures. The goal is to get 500 signatures.

However, Erickson said she hopes to get as many signatures as possible with the intention of providing the petition to the Legislature and reviving Bill 161-35.

Sen. Sabina Perez introduced the legislation in 2019 during the 35th Guam Legislature but it was never given a public hearing.

"The passing of this bill would merely be an alteration to the wording of the current Guam law on littering," she said.

Erickson noted that Guam lawmakers passed a bill making the release of paper lanterns illegal.

"Why shouldn't we include balloons?" she asked.

She said a bill typically dies after it is not acted upon within a legislative term.

"So, my hope is to get (the bill) back onto the floor during this term and show the Legislature that many people do care about this and only want what is right for our island, our home," she stated.

Out of sight

Erickson said she understands that many people purchase balloons for various celebrations or to honor loved ones who have died.

"It gives them a sense of immediate fulfillment to release them in honor of their loved ones, not realizing that it eventually ends up as litter back on earth potentially killing off our wildlife," she stated.

She said balloons that are labeled as biodegradable aren't as environmentally friendly as they are purported to be because "they do not decompose at a rate quicker than wildlife can consume them."

"This litter can last for as long as about six years, wreaking havoc on the wildlife and creating a burden on island residents who have to clean up after the litterers, not to mention our tourists who view this rubbish, leaving a bad taste in their mouth," she added.

Bubbles and doves

Erickson said there are some environmentally gentler options for residents to honor loved ones.

"There are many other ways, just as beautiful, to do so without littering and harming or killing off the wildlife which also leads to ruining our ecosystems," she said.

Here are some ideas she offered:

 Paint/decorate and plant a coconut tree in honor of your loved one. This honors a life and also helps to repopulate the island with coconut trees, which have been dwindling in number due to the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle.

 Releasing doves is beautiful and allows the birds to roam free for a bit before eventually flying home.

 Blow bubbles or decorate homemade kites and fly them. Fun and very honorable.

 Decorate a banner, which can be attached to your vehicle during the funeral motorcade. Fly it during the funeral and recycle afterward.

'We will all benefit'

Erickson encouraged island residents to "please think about the greater picture and what you would like to leave to our future generations."

"Littering is illegal; it is wrong morally and ethically. Releasing balloons is no different, it is still littering and should be treated the same," she said.

"Guam currently has a law on littering, we just need more enforcement of this law, and we need to alter the wording of this law to incorporate 'delayed littering,' which is what releasing balloons into the air essentially is. I urge you to respect the land, the sea and everything in between. Let's do better for our environment. Change, even small, creates huge positive impacts for everyone involved  we are all connected, we will all benefit."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked Pfizer if he can buy COVID-19 vaccines directly from the drug manufacturer to speed up the vaccination process because the US government is not providing enough supply.

Cuomo wrote to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday with his request after slamming the Trump administration for not increasing the supply of vaccine doses New York is receiving despite increasing the number of people now eligible.

So far, New York has used up just over one million of the 1.8 million doses the state has been allocated.

There are currently 7 million New Yorkers eligible for the vaccine after the federal government expanded the criteria to include those aged over 65.

In his letter to Pfizer, Cuomo asked if he could bypass the federal government and buy direct from the manufacturer because they weren't part of Operation Warp Speed.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday with his request after slamming the Trump administration for not increasing the supply of vaccine doses New York is receiving despite increasing the number of people now eligible.

'The company's decision to opt out of Operation Warp Speed, which the Biden administration plans to overhaul, puts it in a unique situation that could help us save lives right here in New York,' Cuomo wrote.

Pfizer has not yet commented on Cuomo's request.

Cuomo admitted that he hadn't yet worked out how the state would pay for the extra doses.

The cost per dose for the Pfizer vaccine is about $19.50.

No other state buys the vaccine directly from the manufacturer.

'My job is to pursue every avenue,' Cuomo said.

Cuomo said that the federal government has actually been decreasing the number of doses New York receives after increasing the priority groups.

He said New York is only receiving 250,000 doses from the government this week, which is down by 50,000 from previous weeks.

'A stresser on this entire situation... is the federal government increased eligibility but never increased the supply,' Cuomo said.

He estimated that it will take seven months to vaccinate the 7 million New Yorkers currently eligible based on the supply.

'Seven months is a lifetime,' Cuomo said.

So far, New York has used up just over one million of the 1.8 million doses the state has been allocated. There are currently 7 million New Yorkers eligible for the vaccine. Pictured above is a vaccination site in New York City

Cuomo said that the federal government has actually been decreasing the number of doses New York receives after increasing the priority groups

Cuomo said the state is 'in a footrace' between the vaccination rate and the infection rate. He said they have been ramping up infections but the federal government has been keeping up with supply

'They must increase the supply. Approve Johnson&Johnson. Buy more Pfizer, buy Moderna,' Cuomo said of the government.

Cuomo said that 100 percent of the state's nursing home residents had now been vaccinated but only 62 percent of healthcare workers.

Both groups were in the initial phase of vaccines.

Gov Cuomo only expanded New York's vaccine priority eligibility last week, meaning those over 65 can now be vaccinated in the state.

He said eight additional mass vaccine sites would be opening across the state this week.

Cuomo said the state is 'in a footrace' between the vaccination rate and the infection rate.

He said federal authorities needed to improve their efforts to get vaccine doses distributed swiftly.

The test positivity rate on Sunday in New York was at 6.54 percent, which is down considerably since early January in the wake of the holidays

There are currently 8,868 people in hospitals being treated for COVID statewide and there were 153 fatalities on Sunday

New York's test positivity rate has declined following the holiday season.

Cuomo warned, however, that the threat of the UK variant posed a risk to the infection rate and hospitals.

He pleaded on Monday with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants are spreading.

Referring to new versions detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, Cuomo said: 'Stop those people from coming here.... Why are you allowing people to fly into this country and then it's too late?'

The test positivity rate on Sunday in New York was at 6.54 percent, which is down considerably since early January in the wake of the holidays.

There are currently 8,868 people in hospitals being treated for COVID statewide and the rate of increase in the number of hospitalizations is currently the lowest it has been since October.

There were 153 fatalities on Sunday.
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
Moon should face truth in dealing with North Korea



President Moon Jae-in failed to present any new policies or overtures at his New Year press conference Monday, only repeating what he had previously stated or had in mind. This failure was especially evident in foreign affairs and security issues. He only expressed his willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un any time at any place.



"Kim's possible return visit to Seoul is what we have already agreed on," Moon said during the conference held both online and offline for the first time due to the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic. The President also said he believes Kim has a "stern determination" toward denuclearization. "The North wants the U.S. to guarantee the security of its regime and normalize ties with it." But Moon's remarks are directly at odds with Kim's recent statement that he would build up his country's nuclear capabilities, putting a first priority on military power.



Moon is still focused on peace on the peninsula, reconfirming his previous stance. Worse still, he seems to have underestimated the imminent threats from the North. Moon needs to face the truth squarely given Pyongyang's recent flexing of its muscles and boasting of its military strength, thus heightening tension.



In the eighth congress of its Workers' Party last week, the North vowed to push through military buildup plans. In a military parade Thursday, the North showcased up-to-date tactical and strategic weapons such as submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and the KN-23, a ballistic missile with less than 600km range and so presumably designed to deliver tactical nuclear weapons.



The North's modernized weaponry is a show of force ahead of the incoming Joe Biden administration's inauguration set for Jan. 20. The display of the KN-23, in particular, has drawn extra attention as it could be used against the South as leverage in future negotiations with the U.S.



Concern is growing in the U.S. over the North's nuclear threat. According to a survey conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a nonpartisan organization, 550 government officials and foreign policy experts cited North Korea's nuclear weapons as the year's biggest security threat to America.



Moon's policymakers deserve criticism for their seemingly "naive" attitude toward the North. For instance, Rep. Yoon Kun-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Chairman Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong, who earlier denounced the South Korean authorities as "top idiots," made the disparaging remarks in a bolder bid to induce dialogue.



Jeong Se-hyun, vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council, also invited criticism by interpreting Kim Jong-un's statement of "strength-for-strength and goodwill-for-goodwill" as an appeal for support.



What is most urgent for Moon is to properly coordinate policy toward North Korea in close consultation with the Biden administration. Biden has recently nominated relatively "hawkish'' figures for posts in charge of Korean Peninsula issues, including Wendy Sherman as deputy secretary of state and David Cohen as CIA deputy head. The Moon administration should mobilize all possible diplomatic channels to grasp what the Biden administration will put weight on.


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Since last March, The National Federation of Independent Business has been conducting regular COVID-19 surveys of its members to assess the impact of the public health crisis on small business operations.

The most concerning finding is that one in four small-business owners reports that they will have to permanently close their doors in the next six months, if current economic conditions dont improve.

Small business is the backbone of our economy and the road to recovery runs through Main Street. NFIB is asking the Legislature to support the following economic recovery proposals.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip



................................................................

Regulatory Restraint:

Given the uncertain environment, frequent rulemakings need to be curtailed so that businesses can focus on staying viable. NFIB recommends legislation that would only allow rulemakings to proceed under an executive order should the governor find that such proposed rule changes aid in economic recovery.

Regulatory Flexibility: Small businesses need to be able to explore new ways of operating. Government should encourage such innovation, not block it. NFIB recommends amending the State Rules Act to require all state agencies to provide for exemptions and variances from such rules, so businesses can have the flexibility to pivot and thrive in unique times.

Regulatory Predictability: Government needs to ensure as much predictability as possible for small businesses. NFIB recommends legislation that ensures the uniformity of regulations, wage, and benefit mandates across the state as a mechanism to avoid a regulatory patchwork that could impede economic recovery.

Regulatory Time Frames: The administrative process should not be an obstacle to economic recovery, but rather a checkpoint in which decisions are administered and issued within reasonable time frames. NFIB recommends requiring agencies to establish reasonable time frames for issuing licenses and permits, conducting adjudicatory proceedings and inspections, and pursuing administration sanctions. Failure to establish and adhere to the time frames should result in penalties for the agencies, and in some cases trigger judicial avenues to seek relief.

Unemployment Insurance: New Mexicos Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is entirely funded by a payroll tax on employers. Due to the impact of COVID-19, however, thousands of individuals were laid off through no fault of the business, nor their own. Small businesses are at risk of experiencing skyrocketing rates if the solvency of the UI Trust Fund is not addressed. NFIB recommends restoring solvency to the UI Trust Fund through mechanisms that protect small businesses from skyrocketing UI tax rates.

State Fees: Many small businesses paid fees (alcohol license fees, state park concessionaire fees, etc.) to the state. However, public health orders that severely limited or completely prohibited operations curtailed many businesses from utilizing the license or benefit of the fee. NFIB recommends that all state agencies refund fees paid by businesses whose operations were impacted and restricted by the public health orders.

Liability Protections: An NFIB survey revealed that nearly 70% of small business owners are concerned about liability claims increases. NFIB recommends protecting fragile businesses from frivolous lawsuits that try to exploit the pandemic for financial gain. To ensure economic recovery, businesses need the assurance that when giving their best efforts to protect employees and their customers, that they in turn will be protected from frivolous lawsuits.

Financial Support: According to tracktherecovery.org, as of Dec. 9, 2020, total small business revenue in New Mexico decreased by 43.5% compared to January 2020. Additionally, almost half of small business owners do not expect business conditions to improve to normal levels until at least 2022. New Mexico needs to prioritize financial relief to assist small businesses. Despite the states anti-donation clause, the Legislature needs to push the envelope to develop innovative mechanisms to support struggling businesses.

Lawmakers have a special obligation to ensure that public policies help spur economic growth by considering the unique perspective of those who own and operate a small business in New Mexico.

The executives desk is a guest column providing advice, commentary or information about resources available to the business community in New Mexico.
Slamming the Internation Airlines (PIA) for its "irresponsible attitude and maladministration", the Civil Authority (CAA) said that the seemed to be "unaware of civil leasing laws".

Citing sources, Geo News reported that the CAA has expressed its displeasure with PIA's "irresponsible attitude and maladministration as it seems to be unaware of civil leasing laws".

"When knew that Boeing-777 was involved in a court case, why did it allow the aircraft to fly abroad?" the CAA asked.

"Was not aware of the fact that violating civil aviation laws will embarrass the country?" it added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that the PIA officials will appear before a court in the United Kingdom on January 22 and a Malaysian court on January 24 after failing to pay the lease of an aircraft on time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a media briefing in Rawalpindi on Saturday, the Minister claimed that the Malaysian court had issued an order without listening to any arguments by the national carrier, and blamed the previous Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government for acquiring two aircraft on an expensive lease, reported Geo News.

A PIA aircraft was held back by a local court in Malaysia on Friday due to a legal dispute between the airline and another party.

On Twitter, Pakistan's national carrier said: "A PIA aircraft has been held back by a local court in Malaysia taking one-sided decision pertaining to a legal dispute between PIA and another party pending in a UK court. The passengers are being looked after and alternate arrangements for their travel have been finalized."

Geo News mentioned that the PIA plane was taken on lease from a Vietnamese company in 2015.

A PIA spokesperson has said that the airline's counsel is already presented in Kuala Lampur and has been provided all relevant documents.

The passengers of the seized aircraft arrived in via Dubai on Sunday.

(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.)
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has submitted a bill for the Parliaments discussion which proposes to create a new anti-corruption agency, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan said at the Parliaments session.

The bill package proposes to create a new investigative body  an Anti-Corruption Committee, the main jurisdiction of which will be to organize and conduct inter-court criminal proceedings over alleged corruption crimes, he said.

Appointments to the Committee, including that of the executives, will be carried out as a result of an open competition.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

The Environmental Sustainability Taskforce of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) last Monday strayed into a duly registered mining site and confiscated excavators and several other items.



The Taskforce, which is charged to save the forest from illegal mining operations was said to be officially bound for parts of the Western Region, but managed to invade the concession of Kingsperp Mining Limited in an unauthorized operation.



A Director of the Mining firm, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told the Ghana News Agency that, the Taskforce which arrived at the mining site in a vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, took away 10 excavators, including CAT 349EL, CAT 345DL, CAT336DL, CAT330DL, SANY 365, SANY 335, SANY 335 and three LIUGONG 936.



The team, which mistook the activities of the Kingsperp Mining Limited in its concession at Aboaboso area in the Oda River Forest Reserve in the Amansie West and Amansie Central districts of the Ashanti Region as illegal, also seized four pieces of pump action gun, 30 grams of gold, GH3,800.00, one phone, ID cards, two pieces of satellite phones, a motorola radio and 10 pieces of headlights from the workers at the site.



Other items confiscated by the Taskforce included eight pump action guns the security men use for protection, 12 mobile phones from the security personnel and about 15,000 litres of diesel, two Toyota Hilux pick-up vehicles and Land Cruiser trooper.



The confiscated excavators and the other items have been dumped at the premises of the Ghana Heavy Equipment Limited in Kumasi for the owners to come and pay a fine to retrieve their items.



Meanwhile, investigations by the GNA, which have been corroborated by authorization documents, fees and charges paid and others, copies of which are available to the GNA, revealed that Kingsperp Mining Limited has a mining lease agreement between the Government of Ghana since April 30, 2020 and duly granted by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.



The gold mining rights expires on April 29, 2030.



The mining company has since paid mining fees including US$84,400.00 as annual mineral right quoted by the Minerals Commission for the 28.35 square kilometres of 135 blocks concession in the Aboaboso area in the Oda River Forest Reserve in the Amansie West and Central Districts of the Ashanti Region.



The company has also duly paid various fees to the government and has the permit of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) since February 14, 2020, to do prospecting which activity expires on February 13, 2022.



The Forestry Commission (FC) has also since May 19, 2020, notified the Ashanti Regional Manager and the District Manager of the Forest Services Division in Kumasi and Bekwai respectively, about the gold mining rights of Messrs Kingsperp Mining Limited in the Oda River Forest Reserve for a period of ten years.

Source: GNA









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Delhi school After being closed for nearly 10 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools in Delhi are set to reopen from today for students of Classes 10 and 12. However, parents are still in a quandary whether to allow their wards to attend. The Delhi government has decided to reopen schools, shut since the first 21 day nationwide lockdown was imposed in March, 2020, in the view of the upcoming CBSE board exams. Schools that reopen will have to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) issued in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing, compulsory mask wearing and sanitisation and others. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in a tweet on Sunday, said: "Had a review meeting with senior Education Dept officials. Everyone is excited and a little nervous at having Class 10& 12 students back in schools from tmrw for practical/counselling. All preparations-sanitizers, masks, social distancing measures- are in place. Good luck to all!" The Directorate of Education has made it clear that students can come to school only if their parents allow it, and the school administration cannot compel physical attendance of their students. However, parents spoke to IANS were not sure if they would send their children to schools from Monday onwards. "It's not only me but most parents have made a unanimous consent not to send their children to school in this situation. As we all are aware that Covid-19 is still with us and our children can get affected. I can't say all parents have the same thought but, yes, all are concerned about safety of their children," said the mother of a Class 12 student in the Andhra Education Society School, ITO. Sources told IANS that the schools administrations in Delhi have sought parents' consent through an 'NOC for offline classes'. A letter issued by Preet Public School in Preet Vihar read: "As per the order of Delhi government, the school may start the offline classes for practical, doubt session, assignment activities related to CBSE examination 2021. The school will follow the SOP guidelines in respect of Covid-19 issued by MHA, Govt. of India." In the letter, parents have been asked to submit their consent in writing. Parents have to ensure that their children will wear face masks, carry hand sanitiser and maintain social distancing. Parents also have to ensure that there is no history of Covid-19 infection in their families. "It has been over a week since we (parents) have been debating whether to send our children to school or not. See, practical classes are very important in view of exams preparation. If I talk about my own daughter, who is in Class 10, she has completed almost all the syllabus but practical classes are also important. I know, it is about the future of my daughter but, I would wait at least one week to see if school is fully safe from Covid-19," said a mother of a Preet Public School student. The Directorate of Education had earlier made it clear that physical attendance is not compulsory and students will attend schools only with the consent of parents. It had also said that only schools outside the containment zones will be allowed to reopen and teachers and school staff living in such areas will not be allowed to attend schools. Schools have also been directed not to hold assemblies and physical outdoor activities.




Alberta Premier Jason Kenney holds a press conference in Edmonton on March 20, 2020. Kenneys government is planning to introduce MLA recall legislation this spring. (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson)

Alberta Recall Law in the Works Following MLA Controversies

Dissatisfied citizens in Alberta will soon be able to remove their legislators from elected office, something one advocate believes is also necessary in other Canadian jurisdictions.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced in early January that MLA recall legislation will be introduced in the spring.

This came after Kenney removed MLA Pat Rehn from the United Conservative Party (UCP) caucus for travelling abroad over the holidays, as well as for ignoring calls from me, UCP caucus leadership, and his constituents to be more present in his constituency of Lesser Slave Lake.

This whole story shows why we need recall legislation that works for Albertans and for the rest of Canada, so it can let us hold politicians accountable, says Franco Terrazzano, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Terrazzano said voters should have the right to remove politicians like Rehn from office entirely.

It all boils down to a very important principle, and that is that the people are the boss of politicians, he said in an interview. We should be able to fire politicians when they misbehave.

Rehn vacationed in Mexico during the Christmas holidays, flouting non-essential travel recommendations. Soon after he returned, the Lesser Slave Lake town council asked for his resignation in an open letter, complaining that he has failed to properly represent the region spends little time there.

British Columbia passed recall legislation in 1995 whereby voters can recall an MLA and force a byelection if more than 40 percent of a ridings eligible voters sign a recall petition within 60 days of the petition being issued. Since then, B.C.s chief electoral officer has approved 26 recall petitions, but Elections BC only received six for verification. Of those, five didnt have enough signatures and one was halted because the MLA resigned during the verification process.

The UCP promised recall legislation in its 2019 election campaign. In a report published in November 2020, a committee of Alberta MLAs recommended enacting legislation that would allow voters to recall an MLA should at least 40 percent of registered electors in the MLAs electoral division sign a recall petition within 90 days of the petition being issued.

 Key Accountability Tool 

Terrazzano says recall is a key accountability tool but wants the signature threshold set at 25 percent.

We need recall legislation thats more than just window dressing. We need recall legislation where the requirements to hold a byelection arent too onerous, he said.

The threshold was much higher when Alberta Premier William Aberhart introduced recall legislation in the province in 1935. Ironically, he became the legislations first target in 1937, as the required two-thirds of his voting constituents in Okotoks-High River signed a recall petition. His Social Credit government retroactively repealed the recall legislation, and in 1940 Aberhart ran in Calgary instead and won his seat.

Barry Cooper, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, has a somewhat personal connection with the historic event.

A family friend of my dads generation was instrumental in [repealing the legislation]. And when I was a kid, this was the sort of thing that people talked about all the time, about how you cant really trust politicians, Cooper said in an interview.

Cooper calls recall legislation a concession to diffuse a general discontent with political decisions.

He said a backlash against pandemic measures could inspire renewed interest in recall legislation elsewhere in Canada.

I doubt that under normal circumstances people would be discussing it. It is generally associated with populism, but it really becomes important to the electorate when theyre very dissatisfied with basically bad political decisions and I think thats probably whats going on now.

Rehn, who will now sit as an independent, was one of six UCP MLAs who travelled abroad over the holidays. The resulting controversy led to the resignation of Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard and Kenneys chief of staff Jamie Huckabay. The other four MLAs were demoted. Saskatchewan Highways Minister Joe Hargrave and Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips also resigned following travel scandals.

Tom Flanagan, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary, said bringing in recall legislation helps Kenney address the travel scandal.

Enacting it would be a way of responding to the furor over his travelling caucus members. Thats the kind of thing that gets people aroused and saying, wed like to get that bum out of there, Flanagan said.

But the legislation will be made so difficult to use that in practice it probably wont be, he adds. So thats what you call a statesmanlike compromiseit will serve a political purpose at the time.

He says the party discipline involved in parliamentary democracy makes recall less necessary and less appropriate than it would be in other systems.

At the local level you can make an argument for recall, but at the provincial and federal levels I think it runs contrary to the way that a parliamentary government operates.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Patient readers, since I was derelict on Friday, here is a skeleton Water Cooler to make up for it. To explain my confusion a little further, I have a schedule that spans not only time zones but the International Dateline, because I have friends on the other side of the world. Hence, concepts like day of the week are a little hazy for me, and I tend to think more in counts, as in Now I have done five Water Coolers, so I am done. But as readers know, my counting skills are weak, and so occasionally, as last Friday, I slip a cog, as I think has happened once before. I also want to keep this light because I must finish a ginormous post on class composition of the Capitol Hill rioters. Talk amongst yourselves! lambert

Bird Song of the Day

#COVID19

At reader request, Ive added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site.

I feel Im engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching, because I dont think the peak is coming in the next days, or even weeks. Is the virus gathering itself for another leap?

Vaccination by region:

The South is the national champion for vaccination, but all regions have levelled off. I suppose an appointment is hard to get over a three-day weekend?

Case count by United States region:

An enormous drop, which I can only assume is a data issue due to the three-day weekend. But holy moley, the drop is as big as for Christmas!

Big states (New York, Florida, Texas, California):

California seems to have flattened out. Texas does celebrate Martin Luther King Day.

Test positivity:

Another enormous drop.

Nowhere near 3%, anywhere.

Hospitalization:

Another enormous drop. Hospitalization is discretionary; they may also be reducing their admissions rate  relative to cases we cannot see in this data!  to preserve future capacity; or because hospitals have figured out how to send people home.

Case fatality rate (plus deaths):

Fatality rate looking a little better, though still not as good as two months ago.

* * *

And speaking of our new-found love for the FBI:

"Anti-war protesters and civil rights leaders were added to Hoover's listThese people were enemies of the state, and in particular MLK was an enemy of the state. And Hoover aimed to watch over them." As you root for and help the FBI, guess who its DC HQ is still named after? pic.twitter.com/dtpjwvjhVp  Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 18, 2021

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Todays plant (CK):

CK writes: These enormous fungi appeared along our front path this year. The smaller of the two is rather camouflaged by all the fallen leaves of the same color.

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the recently concluded and  thank you!  successful annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:









Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
Dharamsala:

The police on Friday said that a student of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Kangra, was arrested for allegedly hacking the college website and tampering with mark sheets.

The student, a native of Muzzafarpur in Bihar, was arrested on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and different sections of the IT Act, said Surinder Kumar, the deputy superintendent of police, Kangra.

The director of NIFT had reported to the police that someone hacked the official website of the institute and uploaded the result.

The college administration also found that several mark-sheets had been tampered with, Superintendent of Police, Dharamsala, S Gandhi said.

On this complaint a case was registered under various sections, including the IT act, Gandhi said.

During probe it was found that the accused, a student of fashion designing semester VIII, hacked the NIFTs official website and increased marks in his own mark-sheet and also of other students, the SP said.

This (the changes) were also found in his laptop history, Gandhi added.

Also read: Student arrested for Facebook post against Azam Khan gets bail

Also read: Indian-origin student arrested in US for intimidation



For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.

Angela Merkel got her long goodbye off to a good start when her Christian Democrat delegates picked her preferred candidate to take over the party leadership. Merkels very unsubtle hint that she backed Armin Laschet for the CDU leadership was a big help to him winning through in a contest where he was the underdog.

But now there are two more bridges to be crossed before the 59-year-old premier of the North Rhine Westphalia region gets to replace Merkel as German chancellor next September.

First is the party leadership does not guarantee him the lead election role as putative chancellor; second is the little matter of winning the election itself which is due on Sunday, September 26.

The exit of Merkel, an EU anchor in a sea of crises over her four terms leading Germany for a total of 16 years, is not the only potential international political change which will affect Ireland in 2021.

The country is facing its first year without its key traditional EU ally, the UK, and along with changes in Germany there are questions about what will happen in France and the Netherlands, as well as developments in the UK.

Political observers in Germany believe Laschet should move quickly to effectively glue his name on the potential chancellor role in the forthcoming elections. Despite his win there is still speculation the party may deem the Bavarian premier Markus Soeder or the health minister Jens Spahn a better vote-getter in leading the election quest for power.

Read More

Smart money is on the Christian Democrats, who have led German governments for 50 of the last 70 years, winning again next September and possibly forming a coalition with the Green Party which is also once more on the rise. Laschet offers continuity with the Merkel era of conservative stability.

He backed his chancellor through thick and thin, most notably in the 2015 migration crisis which saw one million immigrants controversially flock into the country. From Brussels, Laschet is seen as offering more of the same on the EU front.

Merkel was deemed too slow and conservative during the Euro crisis. But through her, Germanys commitment to the EU was unquestioned and her decision to back French President Emmanuel Macron was crucial for plans for the EU to borrow in its own right for the first time to fund a Covid-19 economic recovery.

Without the Franco-German backing she has enjoyed through her first year in office, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would be a much diminished figure.

Its thanks to Paris and Berlin she has secured a record 1.7trn budget for the coming seven years and that has been a boon for smaller states like Ireland.

Laschet comes from the city of Aachen, once known as Aix-la-Chapelle in both French and English usage.

It is close to the borders with the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and was home to Charlemagne and the other Holy Roman Emperors, so there can be no doubting his EU commitment. But the other imponderable looming on the horizon is the fate of his would-be EU top-table partner, Macron.

This is Macrons last full year in office and he has had a torrid time in office of late. The Covid-19 virus hit France hard and at present the government is struggling with a very sluggish vaccination roll-out.

All eyes will be on regional elections which may be held in June, virus permitting. His La Republique En Marche party was only founded in 2017 on the eve of the presidential election which he won well.

Now he faces an uncertain fate in his attempt to retain the presidency in elections due in April and May 2022.

His electoral failure would be a loss to Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail who have worked hard and with success in building an EU alliance with Macrons grouping in Brussels.

However Germany and France are not the only EU states with elections worth keeping an eye on this year. On March 17, Dutch voters are due to vote to choose a new government.

The rise of the hard right may have peaked in the Netherlands but things have been complicated by the resignation of the entire government in The Hague last week in a scandal over child benefit

payments.

This was caused by wrongful accusations of fiddling the benefit system against thousands of families who were forced to repay money and/or had benefits stopped or docked.

The polls suggest that Prime Minister Mark Rutte will win in March but there is a long campaign ahead.

The Netherlands is an important ally of Ireland in forthcoming EU debates about company taxation.

The country was loyal to Ireland throughout the Brexit machinations while also striking a moderate tone towards the UK as a major trading partner, something which was also helpful.

Across the water, watch the date of

May 5 for assembly elections in both Wales and Scotland. In a post-Brexit era these home rule parliaments will become more important to Ireland as they seek to frame their own unique relationships with this country.

A big win by the Scottish National Party will push on the prospect of another Scottish independence referendum, which would in turn have big knock-on implications for Northern Ireland.

The next day there will be local council elections and contests for eight directly elected mayors including London. London will be personal to Boris Johnson as he held that post for two terms.

Both of these votes will be something of a Boris referendum and could presage the start of changes in the British political system. Now that always has implications for Ireland.
Monday will be the first upcoming asynchronous day at UISD. It is the first of four that will span across the upcoming months of the 2020-21 school year and give teachers and students the opportunity to catch up on late work and plan lessons accordingly.

The days approved by the Texas Education Agency will allow teachers to prepare their course work with an emphasis on helping students that may have struggled in class this week. According to UISD, the following asynchronous days will be on Feb. 12, April 23 and May 21.

The day can be used by students to turn in late work, review a lesson they were struggling on or continue working on their current course work. For teachers, the next four days will allow them time to upload lessons, plan future lessons, catch up on grading and more, UISD Deputy Superintendent Gloria Rendon said.

Its not a free day, Rendon said. Its not an off day for any student. It is still a day of learning, its a day of instruction for our community students.

As school districts move into the next six weeks, the asynchronous day will also provide teachers an opportunity to catch up on grading and identifying areas where students may need additional help. However, Rendon said it is still a work day and they expect both teachers and students to take full advantage of the day.

Parents can also take advantage of the day by calling their childs teacher and asking for more information regarding grades and concerns, Rendon said.

Throughout a difficult 2020, teachers continued to learn along with their students in navigating a new teaching platform. With a rotation schedule that pulls some teachers to a remote environment, the asynchronous day may be the breather they need to refocus.

Griselda Jimenez, UISD Nye Elementary teacher, said that while the addition of a remote component to her teaching has greatly improved her usage of technology, the following asynchronous days will be a good day to speak with parents and plan the next six weeks.

We are grateful for all the efforts put out by parents in guiding their children at home with online learning, Jimenez said. We realize they too have had to learn a whole new level of technology along with teachers.

She encourages students across the district to make use of the day to catch up on their work and ask for help. With a new six weeks around the corner, teachers will now have one full weekday to rebuild or improve their foundation, the same one they have worked on for the past school year.

Throughout the last six weeks, Jimenez said that students and parents have been cooperative and have adjusted to the overall situation. To complement their adjustments, teachers have added more hours to their work schedules that include additional training, expanded preparations and additional communication.

I definitely learned more this past school year than I have in my past 19 years of teaching, Jimenez said about learning to use the new software.

According to Rendon, a teachers day does not end when the bell rings. As with other UISD employees, the work continues past the time that the students log off. Whether its by checking the course work, grading or contacting parents, teachers normally see an all-day schedule, Rendon said.

I have to commend our teachers and our nurse staff; grab and go meals continue, our Wi-Fi buses are running, our meal buses are in operation, Rendon said. Its just been a lot of adjustments; it has been a lot of patience and a lot of heavy deep breaths as we catch up.

However, across the district, Rendon said that there have been concerning situations regarding young high school students. In some cases, these students have shifted focus on working to support their families through the pandemic, possibly leaving their schoolwork unattended.

As much as possible, we want all of our students to still meet graduation requirements and to have a year of learning, even though its a different type of year of learning, Rendon said. We know there are extenuating circumstances, but I would just say to call your school, counselor, how can we work with you to allow some flexibility.

She reminds students that on asynchronous instruction days, they will have the opportunity to turn in their classwork up until midnight on Monday. This may give a better window for those students caught working throughout the day.

All Texas districts are allowed to apply for the asynchronous instruction waiver by the TEA. The waiver is good for 2,100 minutes of asynchronous instruction throughout the school year.

cocampo@lmtonline.com
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Karnataka Maharashtra Border Dispute: BSY lashes out at Thackeray

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bengaluru, Jan 18: Protests have broken out at the Belgavi border after the Maharashtra government said it wants the Marathi speaking land back from Karnataka.

Karnataka Chief Minister, B S Yediyurappa condemned the statements in this regard and said that the demand is against the Constitution of India.

Karnataka Minister S Suresh Kumar on Sunday termed as "sheer political one upmanship," Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray''s statement raking up the border issue between the two states and advised him to concentrate on preventing COVID and developmental activities.

Will incorporate 'Karnataka-occupied areas' into Maharashtra: Uddhav

The state''s Primary and Secondary Education Minister said that the border issue was already well settled. "The Chief Minister of Maharashtra should concentrate on preventing COVID, on developmental activities and other things. He need not go back to things already well settled. I think it is only to whip up passions and whipping up passions will not pay dividends these days," Kumar told PTI.

Noting that people now want reforms and development, he said, Thackeray should be advised to concentrate on governance and relationship with his alliance partners. "....it (border issue) is a well settled thing, nobody can reopen this issue. This is sheer political one-upmanship," he added.

Thackeray earlier on Sunday had said that his government is committed towards incorporating into the state the areas of Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority.

"Bringing Karnataka-occupied Marathi-speaking and cultural areas in Maharashtra will be the true tribute to those who accepted martyrdom in the boundary battle. We are united and committed towards it. Respects to the martyrs with this promise," the Maharashtra CMO tweeted. Maharashtra claims Belagavi and some other areas, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently in Karnataka, on linguistic grounds, contending that the majority of population in these areas is Marathi-speaking.

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, a regional organisation fighting for the merger of Belagavi and some other border areas with Maharashtra, observes January 17 as ''martyrs'' day'' for those who laid down their lives for the cause in 1956. On its part, as an assertion that Belagavi is an integral part of the state, Karnataka has built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat in Bengaluru, where the legislature session is held once a year.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 12:21 [IST]
(ISRAEL21c) For such a small country, Israel sure boasts a huge number of ancient mosaics  some 7,000 of them, to be precise.

And those are just the ones that have been discovered and registered, with new archaeological digs or happy accidents regularly unearthing more ancient treasures.

The art of mosaics arrived in the Land of Israel from Rome around the time of Herod the Great 2,000 years ago. They were continuously created here through the 11th century, leaving us with documentation of Roman, Byzantine and early Arab culture in the area.

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Mosaics have an artistic component that tells of life during a certain period, about the mythology of the time, and theres also a very strong element of aesthetics, explains Jacques Neguer, the head of the Israel Antiquities Authoritys art conservation department.

In addition, theres also the information that appears in the inscriptions, he says. For example, the mosaic discovered at Megiddo Prison is probably the floor of the earliest church to have been found in the world and is a very rich source of information, both technological and artistic, as well as relaying information about the way people lived in that time period.

The Megiddo mosaic bears many inscriptions, including the name of a lady who dedicated the altar to Jesus Christ, one of the earliest mentions of the name. The mosaic also features geometric shapes and a medallion with fish swimming at its center.

How old is it?

Neguer explains that the mosaics of the Land of Israel were influenced by the cultures surrounding it and the art coming from Egypt, Rome and Byzantium. Distinct styles emerged in different locations across the land.

Despite this great variety, many of the mosaics shared similar qualities, patterns and styles over the centuries  so much so that in many cases its not possible to date the mosaics based only on the artwork. Archeologists must make use of the surrounding digs and inscriptions to determine their age.

There are many mosaics with geometrical patterns that get repeated for hundreds of years. You can recognize the same style of mosaic that moves on from a synagogue to a church and then to a public building. Its the same sort of composition that transfers to different buildings, Neguer says.

This repetition and transfer of style makes sense, he notes, since mosaic artistry was probably a profession passed down generations in a family.

Being a mosaic artist paid pretty well: in Roman times, a mosaic team manager earned 150 dinars a day, while a carpenter on a Roman navy ship earned only 60. The price of a chicken at the time was 30 dinars.

They made a lot of money. They were free men and not slaves and their status in society was quite high, Neguer says.

But you have to take into account that making mosaics was very hard work. It included creating the materials, building the necessary infrastructure, cutting the stones, making a scale project and then the mosaic on site. By the end of the day your back would hurt.

Another 200 years?

Fast forward 2,000 years, and the workload is now focused on preserving the endeavors of those ancient artisans.

Neguer notes that the mosaics that have been uncovered in Israel will probably last another 200 or so years until being ruined by wear and tear. Somewhat surprisingly, thats not the end of the world as far as hes concerned.

First of all, you dont preserve material, you preserve values, he explains. The conservation of the mosaics preserves the values and information that constitutes the mosaic and its archeological context.

Originally, the mosaics condition began to deteriorate once they were put into use, for example as floors of buildings that were continuously stepped on and eroded. That ancient condition was preserved for as long as they were covered in earth. The real deterioration begins the moment they are discovered and exposed to people, climate change, vandalism, pesticides and natural erosion.

Neguer says, Neglect is something thats very typical to digs across the word. The right thing to do is to cover the mosaics inside the earth once again after the digs.

Endangered by time

Back in 1994, Neguer and the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out a survey on 100 sites out of the 7,000 (encompassing around 30,000 square meters of mosaics) and determined that over 50 percent of them were in danger.

Conservation efforts since then have reduced that number to around 35%, with an additional 35% determined to be in good condition and the remaining 30% in moderate condition.

Weve worked very hard, for some 25 years, to reach this stage, Neguer says.

The 50 or so mosaics that are situated in national parks are being looked after and enjoy maintenance and conservation work. The less famous mosaics and the ones in moderate condition can very quickly take a turn for the worse if theyre not cared for.

There are less budgets for saving sites that have mosaics but that arent in tourist areas. Nobodys interested in them, he laments.

And while work is being carried out to preserve and even save sites of this kind, it requires continuous conservation work, maintenance and recovering in earth.

The key for conservation is maintenance, its not only a one-time job, he says. You need to take care the whole time.

Having worked on countless mosaics throughout the country, Neguer has a personal favorite. Situated in Caesarea, its called the golden table or the golden panel.

The D-shaped mosaic did not serve as a mosaic floor but rather as an ornate tabletop. Its little squares and rectangles are made of thin layers of gold sandwiched between two layers of glass.

According to the experts, the glass-and-gold tabletop survived a fire that burned down the wooden table that it decorated. It was discovered lying face down on a mosaic floor at the villa.

Its not a big mosaic, just one meter by one meter, but its of such high quality. Theres simply nothing like it in the world. I enjoy being able to visit it at the Israel Museum, he says.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 01/17/2021



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report features spoilers about Brandon and Julia and if the couple is still together and living in America.]

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Did Brandon and Julia break up or is the couple 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.

couple Brandon Gibbs and Julia Trubkina believe they have set a wedding date on Season 8 of , but did they actually go through with the wedding? What do spoilers reveal about Brandon and Julia's relationship and if they are still together and happy?Brandon, a 27-year-old pest-control technician who helps to run his parents' farm in Dinwiddie, VA, and Julia, a 26-year-old go-go club dancer from Krasnodar City, Russia, are currently starring on the TLC's new season of .Brandon had never been in a serious relationship before meeting Julia, who also competes in beauty pageants and bodybuilding competitions.Brandon said he fell in love with Julia at first sight when they initially videchatted because she was "the most beautiful" girl he ever saw and he couldn't stop thinking about her."My first message to her was, 'You look like my future wife,' and that was six hours after meeting her on video chat," Brandon revealed."From that point, we were on the phone every possible second we could be. After a few weeks, I flew over there to ask her to be my girlfriend."The couple then applied for a Tourist Visa so Julia could visit him in the United States, but once the consulate learned Brandon was her boyfriend, she was told to apply for a K-1 visa instead.Since Brandon couldn't stand the thought of living without Julia, after only five months of a long-distance relationship, he invited her to join him in Iceland -- and that's where he proposed marriage to her.The couple then traveled to France where both of their families met for the first time."At first, my parents [Ron and Betty] weren't sure about Julia. They weren't sure if she wanted a Green Card or money," Brandon said.Brandon told Julia over videochat they needed to live with his parents to save some money because he had burned through their savings from the trips they had taken as well as the K-1 visa process. Brandon said he had spent almost $10,000 in seven months.Julia also wouldn't be able to get a job in the United States for a while, so Brandon knew he had to support her.Julia worried about living with Brandon's parents for too long, but he promised they'd leave at some point and not stay forever."My mother can be overbearing, which is why I kind of think they will butt heads and clash," Brandon explained in a confessional.Betty was apparently concerned about Julia's career as a dancer, saying she hoped she was never a prostitute, stripper or call-girl. Betty also hoped Julia, a city girl, could embrace living on a farm and help out with chores that needed to be done."This is probably the first time in a relationship I've been this vulnerable," Brandon shared. "I don't know how sure I am that we're meant to be together, but I know how sure I am that I want to be with her."Brandon, however, had yet to tell Julia they were going to sleep in separate bedrooms while staying in his parents' house, and Betty was pushing Brandon to get Julia on birth control to prevent a surprise pregnancy even though Julia had been against the idea all along.Julia explained that while she didn't want to welcome children for another two or three years, she never had an accident before with her serious ex-boyfriend.Brandon admitted Julia -- whom he dubbed "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" -- has the tendency to have mood swings, so he hoped everything would go perfectly upon her arrival.Once at the airport, Julia ran into Brandon's arms and she called Brandon "perfect." She appeared ecstatic to be reunited with her long-distant love."I'm going to take a Green Card and stay here! Just joking," Julia told the cameras.Although Julia was happy to be with Brandon, Betty came across overbearing with her talk of birth control and keeping the couple in separate rooms during the 90 days of Julia's K-1 visa.Julia said she was ready to "explode" and that conversation was just too much for her."If I try fixing the situation, we have fighting with his parents 100 percent. Him lie [to] me... We don't marry if [he starts lying] to me more, more and more," Julia told the cameras.Julia went to bed angry her first night in America, and Brandon apparently didn't get lucky.But during Julia's first day in America, she had a nice time taking in "all the sights" -- a day Brandon's mother had completely planned out.Julia wished she and Brandon had more "romantic" time together, and Brandon wished he had been more honest and upfront with Julia about their living situation ahead of time."I know, but I think we have problems with each other," Julia told Brandon. "So if we leave, we have problems with money and we have fighting. If we not leave, we'll have a problem with your mother and we'll have fighting."Julia was also shocked to hear Brandon had spent all of his money and had none left for their future together.Julia said she didn't want to repeat her mistakes given she didn't get along with her ex's parents when they all lived together in Russia."I can't control my mother. I can't control how they will interact. They both have really strong personalities, and I just feel like they're going to clash," Brandon lamented in a confessional.Julia wanted to be No. 1 in Brandon's life as well as his top priority, and Julia demanded that Brandon fix the situation or else.Brandon and Julia then packed up their belongings and headed to the farm in Virginia.Julia learned how to feed the horses and the chickens, and Brandon said Julia had "an awesome reaction" to the farm. Brandon said Julia's positive attitude made him feel "80 percent sure" they'd make it as a couple.Julia said she likes animals a lot and enjoys petting them, but at the same time, she noted she wasn't ready to take care of them.Julia was also a little bothered by Brandon's mother essentially barking orders at her to do things, because Julia told the cameras she didn't envision her job being at the farm."I don't know what I love more. I love Brandon but I love a nice life. I need to make [a] choice. I give it one month. If after one month, if I don't love this place, I say him, 'We need to go.' And we live in city. If we live in city, fine," Julia explained.Julia said she didn't feel comfortable and struggled to understand the English language. She also told Betty and Ron that she was afraid to sleep alone -- but they still didn't change their minds about the living arrangement.With 88 days to wed, Brandon had to go to work and said Julia would be on the farm by herself all day since his parents also have day-jobs and needed to go to work.Julia wasn't happy about sleeping in a separate room from Brandon, but she apparently snuck into his room the previous night for a little alone time.When Julia got out of bed, she retrieved eggs from the chickens, and Brandon's family friend was there to help and told Julia that she needed to wake up at 7AM to feed all the animals.Julia said she hates waking up early since she's a night-person and was used to staying up until 6AM sometimes as a go-go dancer. Julia slept until noon at Brandon's home, and she didn't exactly love the farm chores. Julia, in fact, was afraid of the pigs."I don't want this. This is not the life [of] my dreams. Brandon say we need to stay here before we marry, but I say to him, 'No, Brandon, this is not going to work.' I need to leave," Julia vented in a confessional.When Brandon got home from work, Julia said he didn't hug or kiss her. She said it was like Brandon had forgotten about her already.When Julia sat down with Brandon, she said she hated living on the farm and would no longer take care of the pigs. Julia already thought about going home, and Brandon thought she was being ridiculous because she had only spent one day at his parents' home."I wish she would see this as an opportunity and just give life on the farm a chance," Brandon told the cameras.Julia at least wanted to spend some alone time with Brandon that night, but Brandon brought Julia to meet his grandparents, who were very excited to see Julia and get to know her.Brandon and Julia announced at the dinner with Brandon's parents and grandparents that they planned to get married on May 9, which Betty pointed out was Mother's Day weekend. Brandon's father agreed May 9 would be "a terrible wedding day."Brandon liked choosing a date that made Julia happy, even though Betty wasn't happy about it. Ron pushed for May 2, but Julia wanted May 9 because Brandon first contacted her with a sweet message on the ninth of a different month.Julia stood her ground because May 9 was what she wanted, and Brandon defended her and stood up for her much to his family's dismay.Julia took to Instagram in mid-January and dropped major hints she and Brandon remain a couple.On January 12, Julia posted a sweet selfie of the couple."Just cute photo #90dayfiance#Brandonandjulia," Julia wrote alongside the picture with a blowing-kiss emoticon.Several days earlier, Julia uploaded a photo of Brandon giving her a piggyback ride."It seems to me that this week we will not be in the episode. a little positive to you all #90dayfiance #90dayfiance8 #Brandonandjulia," Julia captioned the photo, adding three kissing emoticons.Julia also conducted a recent Q&A with her followers on Instagram Stories and dropped additional hints that suggest she is still with Brandon and living in the United States."Everything is pretty nice," Julia said of her current life. "It's pretty in my life. I've never had, like, an easy life," Julia said. "I all the time chose a hard life."Julia said her English "is much better than before," probably because she's around English-speaking people all the time."I try to learn everything but it's so hard for me," Julia added.When asked whether she likes living in Virginia, Julia responded, "I guess you'll watch the episode to see how I'm enjoying it."When an Instagram user called Julia and Brandon "the cutest couple," Julia replied, "Thank you so much."Julia also revealed she currently has a great relationship with Brandon's parents, although there is tension between them on the currently-airing season of .A fan asked how Julia essentially puts up with her "parents-in-law," and Julia responded, "I love my parents a lot because my parents want what is best for me. If I could choose other parents I would never choose other parents because my parents are the best and I love them a lot."Julia also said she hopes she can "start working" soon and put her degree in design to good use in either apartments or homes.As far as her favorite experience in the United States goes, Julia revealed, "I like people in America because everyone smiles and everyone tries to help. You never ask for help but people try. This is so cool."When asked whether she likes Russia or America better, Julia said there are some things she likes better in Russia and other things she likes better in the United States.She noted the countries are just "different." For example, Julia said she cannot drive yet in America while she has her license back in Russia.Julia shared excitement, however, when someone mentioned all the states she can travel to in the United States. Julia said she'd love to visit New York especially.Julia told her followers it was "hard to leave [her] house and family" in Russia, but she added, "My parents understand this."But Julia played coy when asked direct questions about whether she married Brandon and is still in the United States and living with Brandon's parents.Julia admitted she doesn't want to "get in trouble" by breaking her NDA contract with TLC.When one fan wrote that it seems like she married Brandon, Julia replied, "I don't know!"And she explained to fans, "I can't say where I stay right now or what I do right now."But Julia did admit her favorite thing about Brandon is that "he is so cute." Julia beamed when talking about Brandon, so it appears unlikely that they've broken up.Julia also appeared to spend Christmas in America, as she posted a photo of herself posing next to a giant Christmas tree decorated in gold ornaments inside of a store."I know how important Christmas is in America! it is a sweet and family holiday when all dreams come true," Julia captioned the photo."in Russia the New Year is more important on December 31st. I wish everyone that wishes come true, love and be loved! #90dayfiance #90dayfiance8 #Brandonandjulia."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
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New Delhi, Jan 18: The Standing Committee of the cash-strapped East Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday rejected the three new taxes, including a professional tax and a betterment tax, proposed in its annual budget to augment its revenue. Additional Commissioner Alka R Sharma had presented the budget in December in which an education cess of five per cent of property tax had also been proposed.

The Standing Committee of the EDMC in a special meeting held on Monday rejected all hikes in taxes and levying of new taxes, the civic body said in a statement. The EDMC always works for the welfare of people, it said.

The EDMC had earlier said a professional tax at Rs 100 per month for those earning more than Rs 5 lakh a year; and Rs 200 per month for those earning more than Rs 10 lakh per month," had been proposed in the budget. A betterment tax (for enhancement of property value due to public infrastructure development) at 15 per cent of property tax had also been proposed.

A total revenue of Rs 50 crore was expected from these new taxes, it had said.
Frogs living near noisy waterfalls in South America wave to attract mates, a new study reveals.

In field studies, a US expert studied the glass frog (Sachatamia orejuela), which is found on slippery rocky surfaces near the water.

Video footage reveals a male specimen showing off with a casual flap of the hand, a wave of its foot and a friendly nod of the head in the hope of being noticed.

S. orejuela is one of a few species around the world that have evolved visual communication to be noticed amid the background noise generated by rushing water in its natural habitat.

These cues let potential mates be noticed when their calls are drowned out by the noise, ensuring reproduction and species survival.

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To increase conspicuousness and counter the background noise generated by rushing water, a few frog species around the world have evolved visual communication. Pictured, a glass frog. The species is named for its semi-transparent skin

THE GLASS FROG Glass frogs are frogs of the amphibian family Centrolenidae. They live in the humid mountain forests of Central and South America. The rainforests are called cloud forests because the area is almost always covered in clouds. Glass frogs are mostly active at night, which makes them very difficult to spot for predators. During the breeding season they live along rivers and streams where they lay their eggs on leaves that overhang the water. The bodies of glass frogs are bright green on their backs, while their abdominal skin is translucent. This means that the animal's heart, liver and gastrointestinal tract are visible. The first glass frog was discovered in 1872. They are thought to have originated in South America before spreading into Central America. Glass frogs are generally small, ranging from an inch to three inches in length (2.5cm to 7.5cm). They may look similar to tree frogs, but their eyes face forward, instead of sideways. The frogs are mostly arboreal, meaning that they live in trees and can be found along rivers and streams during the breeding season. Advertisement

This new study marks the first time a member of the glass frog family (Centrolenidae) has been observed using visual communication in this manner.

'A handful of other frog species around the world use visual signalling, in addition to high-pitched calls, to communicate in really loud environments,' said conservation ecologist Rebecca Brunner at the University of California, Berkeley.

'This is a really exhilarating discovery because it's a perfect example of how an environment's soundscape can influence the species that live there.

'What's interesting is that these species are not closely related to each other, which means that these behaviours likely evolved independently, but in response to similar environments  a concept called convergent evolution.'

Sachatamia orejuela glass frogs are native to the rainforests of Ecuador and Colombia in South America.

They are almost exclusively found on rocks and boulders within the spray zones of waterfalls, where rushing water and slippery surfaces offer some protection against predators such as snakes, mammals and birds.

Their characteristic green-grey colour and semi-transparent skin, which give them their common name, also make them nearly impossible to spot.

'Glass frogs are difficult to find and collect, due not only to their small size and colour, but also because of the extreme areas they sometimes inhabit,' Spanish wildlife photographer Nic Reusens previously said.

'Glass frogs are often found along streams that are nearly impossible to walk along, let alone collect specimens.'

The problem with this for scientists is little information has been gathered about this species' mating and breeding behaviour and it remains 'poorly studied', according to Brunner.

Until now, long-distance visual signalling has not been recorded for any species in the glassfrog family (Centrolenidae).

Brunner, who studies the bioacoustics of different ecological environments, was recording the call of a S. orejuela in an Ecuadorean rainforest stream pre-pandemic when she first observed this visual signalling behaviour.

Although most male frogs call to attract females, vocalisations alone can be ineffective long-range signals in certain environments. Rebecca Brunner discovered that Sachatamia orejuela uses both high-pitched calls and visual signalling - in the form of hand-waving, foot-waving and head-bobbing - to communicate near loud waterfalls

As soon as she saw the frog repeatedly raising its front and back legs, Brunner climbed a slippery rock face and balanced on one foot.

'I was already over the moon because I had finally found a calling male after months of searching,' she said.

'Before our publication, there was no official record of this species' call, and basic information like that is really important for conservation.

'But then I saw it start doing these little waves, and I knew that I was observing something even more special.'

While she filmed, the frog continued to wave its hands and feet and bob its head.

She also observed another male S. orejuela a few metres away performing the same actions.

Brunner also documented the species' impressive vocal call that it uses to advertise its availability.

The frequency of the call is higher than perhaps any other glassfrog species, likely an evolutionary response to the 'disruptive acoustic space' that it finds itself in.

Brunners colleague captured a photo of her climbing a slippery rock face to film the glass frog in Ecuador

'We've found that Sachatamia orejuela has an extremely high-pitched call, which helps it communicate above the lower-pitched white noise of waterfalls,' said Brunner, who authored her findings with Juan M. Guayasamin from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.

Though the current pandemic has put a pause on Brunner's fieldwork, she hopes to return to Ecuador soon to continue her research.

'One of the best things about fieldwork is that nature is always full of surprises -- you never know what discoveries you may happen upon,' Brunner said.

'I hope our findings can serve as a reminder that we share this planet with incredible biodiversity.

'Conserving ecosystems that support species like Sachatamia orejuela is important not only for our well-being, but also for our sense of wonder.'

The study has been published in the journal Behaviour.
Johnnie Moore: Biden, conservatives have much in common on international religious freedom Moore is optimistic after meeting with Biden team

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President-elect Joe Biden and his upcoming administration have similar priorities with conservative evangelicals on international religious freedom policy, Johnnie Moore, who served as an informal evangelical adviser to the Trump administration, told The Christian Post on Friday.

Moore, an evangelical public relations executive who also serves on the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, announced on Twitter that he had met with members of the Biden administrations transmission team and believes that religious freedom can be kept bipartisan.

Although he was unable to share the details of this conversation, which happened virtually, he did express a level of optimism.

Both Democrats and Republicans tend to support the cause of international religious freedom, he said. Often, the sort of language Trump administration leaders and Biden appointees use to talk about international religious freedom in countries like China or Myanmar sounds exactly the same.

If you didnt know who said them, you couldnt guess, said Moore. International religious freedom is an antidote to the complicated time were living in. It can be the antidote to our polarization.

Moore, who also serves as the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, said that the Trump administration has done excellent work on upholding religious liberty abroad.

The administration created an annual State Department ministerial that twice invited leaders from around the world to discuss religious freedom in Washington, D.C., created a permanent special adviser to the president on religious freedom issues, freed an imprisoned missionary in Turkey and met with people persecuted for their faith around the world.

However, political divisions in the U.S. have grown so intense that the Biden administration may avoid continuing even excellent Trump policies, he fears. Bidens representatives didnt tell Moore if they would continue hosting the ministerial.

My number one concern is that we are in a hyper-politicized moment where the Biden-Harris administration will miss the achievements of the Trump administration," Moore said. "That could happen for various reasons. Im trying to do my part to make sure they build on them."

Although the Biden administration has made calls for unity after winning the election, it has not taken action to work with evangelical or conservative leaders who supported Trump, Moore believes.

To successfully lead a bipartisan effort to promote religious liberty, Biden must join allies outside his own party.

"We havent seen anything, frankly, but talk, he said. I dont know a single conservative evangelical in the country that [Bidens transition team] has substantively engaged with on a single issue.

The Biden administration faces a rapidly changing world. Moore said it feels like eight years of change happened during Trumps four-year presidency. The change comes from both Trump's reshaping of American priorities and from the rise of China as another global power.

The U.S. should take a similar approach to China as it once took with the Soviet Union, the religious freedom activist said.

President Xi Jinpings actions resemble those of late Chinese dictator Chairman Mao Zedong more than they resemble the actions of the nations recent presidents. Todays China combines the power of modern surveillance with communist propaganda. It holds global ambitions to extend its power and authoritarian system using diplomatic influence.

Often, supposedly neutral organizations like the U.N. fall under the influence of dictators and authoritarians in China and elsewhere, he said.

The Chinese have worked to control or influence [international organizations], said Moore. My concern is the U.S. should absolutely take a multilateral approach to these issues but I would hate to see the Biden-Harris administration fall into the arms of the multilateral system.

A judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Inyang Ekwo, on Monday ordered the Chief Judge of the court to return the case file of a former Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, to the judge that was handling the N1.9 billion fraud case before it was withdrawn from him in 2019.

The immediate-past chief judge of the court, Adamu Abdu-Kafarati, had in June 2019 withdrawn the case from Yellim Bogoro and reassigned it to Aliyu Bappa.

Both judges sit at the division of the court in Minna, the Niger State capital.

Mr Abdu-Kafaratis decision to reassign the case was based on a petition by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking for the transfer of the case from Mr Bogoro, even though the agency had as of then presented 10 prosecution witnesses before the judge.

Mr Aliyu filed a suit before Mr Ekwo to challenge the decision of the then Chief Judge.

Judgement

Delivering judgment on Monday, Mr Ekwo ruled that Mr Abdu-Kafarati acted in breach of Section 98(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 when he re-assigned the case.

This he said was odd after EFCC had called 10 witnesses in the matter and tendered many documents as exhibits.

Mr Ekwo held that the judge acted beyond his administrative powers.

He ruled, This case is not predicated on the administrative power of the Chief Judge under the rules of this court.

This is a statutory matter whereby the provisions of the law, the power of the Chief Judge to transfer a case, is curtailed.

Where power is curtailed by statute and it is exceeded, review of such act by certiorari becomes inevitable.

It is my opinion that order certiorari must be made in this circumstance where evidence has clearly demonstrated that a quasi-judicial function of a Chief Judge has been exercised in excess of statutory authority, and I so hold.

As it is, I find merit in the case of the plaintiff and I enter judgment.

He said, the purported transfer or re-assignment of the charge to Justice Bappa to commence de-novo (afresh), is ultra vires the powers of the Chief Judge and therefore null and void.

He said the EFCCs February 21, 2019 petition submitted to the Chief Judge, failed to meet the requirement of Section 98(3) and 98(4) of the ACJA, 2015, as a basis for justifying the transfer of the criminal case with Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/71/2017, from Justice Yellim Bogoro to Justice Aliyu Bappa.

Order

He then ordered the current Chief Judge, John Tsoho, to recall the case file from Mr Bappa and return it to Mr Bogoro to continue and conclude the case.

He also issued an order directing Justice Bogoro to complete the trial, having heard 10 prosecution witnesses.

Mr Abdu-Kafarati reassigned the case to another judge in June 2019 which was barely one month to the end of his tenure as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.

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He handed over to the incumbent Chief Judge of the Court, Mr Tsoho, on July 26, 2019.

Background

The EFCC is prosecuting the ex-governor of Niger State alongside his then Chief of Staff and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Umar Gado Nasko, on eight counts of money laundering.

The agency accused the defendants of diverting about N1.9 billion released to the state government by the Federal Government in 2014.

The defendants were initially arraigned in 2017 before Nnamdi Dimgba of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

Following a request by Mr Aliyu, the judge ordered the transfer of the case to the Minna Division, which was adjourned to have the territorial jurisdiction to hear the case.

The case was assigned to Mr Bogoro in Minna and the defendants were re-arraigned before the new judge on November 16, 2017.

The prosecution had called 10 witnesses and tendered exhibits when the then Chief Judge of the court then withdrew the case file from Mr Bogoro in June 2019.
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New Delhi, Jan 18 : The avian flu outbreak in India could pare poultry sales by a third this month, but if the history of upward price correction after every avian flu outbreak is any indication, the industry will bounce back in quick time with profitability intact for the full fiscal, rating agency Crisil said on Monday.

The outcome is based on an analysis of 87 Crisil rated poultry companies, which comprise 30 per cent of the industry's revenue.

Avian flu has been confirmed in as many as 10 states since the first incident was reported in Kerala in the first half of December 2020. Such outbreaks have been witnessed year after year due to carrier migratory wild birds crossing into the country. However, the outbreaks in organised poultry farms have been rare.

The flu has chopped around 30 per cent off broiler chicken volume, bringing down daily chicken demand in the country from 100 lakh kg in December 2020 to an estimated 70 lakh kg in January 2021.

Additionally, wholesale prices of broiler chicken have crashed 20-30 per cent from Rs 105-Rs 110 per kg in December to Rs 80 per kg.

Given this, overall revenue could decline 30-40 per cent in January 2021 due to a fall in realisations and volume, the Crisil analysis pointed out.

It noted that as wholesale prices usually correct sharply following such outbreaks, the fall in prices tends to be temporary.

Notably, wholesale prices of broiler chicken had crashed to a low of Rs 50 per kg in March 2020 from Rs 90 per kg in January 2020 due to apprehensions of Covid-19 spreading through poultry.

However, wholesale prices surged back to Rs 90-Rs 100 per kg in the subsequent quarter, shaking off the blues. Prices could well reach Rs 90-Rs 100 per kg soon this time around, too, the rating agency said.

According to Dinesh Jain, Director, Crisil Ratings Ltd, "The impact of the current avian flu outbreak on the poultry industry will depend on its intensity and duration. In recent past, the impact of such outbreaks has been temporary due to swift implementation of testing, culling and containment protocols by the authorities. Fears against chicken consumption do not last for more than a few weeks as the infection rate abates. We, therefore, believe Crisil's earlier estimate of 200 bps increase in operating margin to 7-7.5 per cent this fiscal will hold despite the outbreak." The poultry industry has made attractive profits operating margin of 8 per cent compared with 5.5 per cent on average historically in the two quarters following lifting of the pandemic-led lockdowns in May and June, supported by higher sales realisations and prevalence of low poultry feed prices. High profitability of preceding quarters and likely price recovery post the current outbreak is expected to support improved operating margins of 7-7.5 per cent for the industry in the current fiscal.

Further, the government's compensation for culling birds is resulting in quicker loss absorption by poultry farmers. Notably, despite four avian flu incidents in the past two years, operating margins of poultry farmers have remained stable in the range of 5-6 per cent over fiscals 2017-2020.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Over $13 Million "Missing" From South Korean Casino

January 18 2021 Will Shillibier

Earlier this month, the operators of Landing Casino in Jeju, South Korea reported to its investors over $13 million was missing.

Landing Casino is the second-largest casino in the country, and has hosted major poker festivals such as the Triton Super High Roller Series and the PokerStars Red Dragon.

And although authorities have discovered almost $11 million in cash on Jeju island, it remains to be seen whether this is part of the original amount, and how exactly this money was stolen.

Prime Suspect

In a statement to investors, executive director of Landing International Development Ltd. Wong Hoi Po said police had been asked to track down a female Malaysian employee who was responsible for the cash. The employee has apparently been on holiday since the end of last year.

According to police, the surveillance footage of the theft had been erased, but they were continuing to track the whereabouts of the cash.

A total of 14.56 billion had been taken away over a period of seven to eight months.

The Korea Times reported that the casino had allegedly not noticed the theft, due to the large amount of cash already stored within the safe.

Jeju has hosted many high-profile poker festivals including the Triton Super High Roller Series

Money Discovered

The latest developments came on Friday when authorities announced they had recovered 12bn (US$10.9m) in cash from two locations.

According to reports, 8.15m was recovered from the Jeju casino's VIP room safe, and about 4bn had been found in a place where the female suspect used to live.

Police have also said that the recovered money is in new 50,000-won bills, raising the question that the suspect may have had accomplices.

Heist Accomplices

If all lost cash were 50,000-won bills, the entire haul would have comprised of almost 300,000 individual notes and weigh more than 280 kilograms, requiring significant effort to transport.

Gambling Insider reported that both the woman in question and one of her accomplices (a Chinese national) were said to be overseas, while a third suspect remains in South Korea.

With no clear leads on the investigation, police said they are leaving "all possibilities open" as to the whereabouts of the remaining cash. One thing working in their favour is that the transportation of the cash out of the country via airports or seaports would be increasingly difficult, considering current coronavirus restrictions.
WASHINGTON - Workers had just fenced off all of Capitol Hill - not just the congressional complex but Mayor Muriel Bowser's Capitol Hill: the wide plaza that locals bike across on sunny days and the gentle hill where they take their children to sled in the snow.

Bowser looked at her city's geographical and symbolic heart, transformed into a militarized zone. Then, she laced her hands together, pivoted toward a group of 50 National Guard troops in her high-heeled boots - and made a pitch, of all things, for their tourism.

"I know you probably won't have a lot of time to enjoy our beautiful city," she said to the volunteers from Virginia who had left their homes and families to protect the nation's capital from insurrectionists, catching sleep on its cold marble floors. "When you come back, please be sure to do exactly that."

Since the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, and throughout an unprecedented military clampdown to prevent further violence at President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Bowser has popped up everywhere.

She held two news conferences in the hours during and after the riot, while federal authorities answered no questions from the reporters. In the following days, with near-silence from Trump administration about the attack, Bowser spoke authoritatively to a nation hungry for information and reassurance.

The 48-year-old Democrat has stayed on message, just as she did when addressing the National Guard troops - using the unfolding national crisis to make the case for the city of Washington, her native home.

Bowser, first elected in 2014,has been in the national spotlight before, most recently in late spring. She abandoned her years-long reluctance to speak strongly against President Donald Trump, whose cooperation she believed she needed, to criticize his response to the protests over the death of George Floyd.

The tangle quickly escalated far beyond the personal barbs they both fired on Twitter. Four days after federal law enforcement used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from the street so Trump could pose for a photo, the city awoke to find that Bowser had ordered "Black Lives Matter" painted in enormous yellow letters yards from where the president had stood.

Photographs of Bowser's taunting brainchild circulated around the world.

Now, the cameras are trained on Bowser again. From "Good Morning America" to "Face the Nation" to "60 Minutes," she has been interviewed by almost every national network over the past two weeks. A few of her regular news conferences, ordinarily streamed only on the local government-access cable station, have gone live coast-to-coast.

"Certainly this time last year we didn't expect to be in this situation. Even last week, we didn't expect to be," Bowser said at one of those briefings Wednesday, her third in three days.

Anthony Williams, who was mayor of Washington during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said he has been glued to Bowser's appearances. "She's done a great job of stepping up and showing national leadership, notwithstanding the fact she isn't given the respect as the governor of a state," Williams said. "Yet she has state responsibilities. On top of that, she has national responsibilities."

For most inaugurations, the public role of the District of Columbia mayor is to roll out the welcome mat for hundreds of thousands of tourists, then watch the parade from a reviewing stand outside the Wilson Building, D.C.'s city hall.

Not this year. When it became clear that the U.S. Secret Service would attempt to shut down a large swath of the city because of the seriousness of the threat of right-wing violence on Inauguration Day, it was Bowser - not Trump or Biden - who made the announcement.

It was Bowser who told Americans in stark terms not to travel to town for inaugural events. People across the 50 states heard her words and canceled their plane tickets.

"If you take the preparation we did in 2009 and preparations she has to do now in 2021, the degree of difficulty which she's operating under is at least tenfold, maybe twentyfold," said former mayor Adrian Fenty, an early political mentor of Bowser's. He was mayor when Barack Obama's first inauguration brought unprecedented crowds and threats to the incoming president's safety.

Bowser's chief of staff, John Falcicchio, said that the mayor has spoken with Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since Jan. 6, and that Bowser's stay-home announcement was a message the Biden team wanted to send.

"Mayor Bowser has been solely focused on how to keep people away from D.C.," Falcicchio said, noting that the circumstances have called for a complete reversal of Bowser's ordinary demeanor. "She travels the world trying to get people to come to Washington, D.C., to see all the great things that we have."

For support, Falcicchio said, Bowser has leaned on a network of Black Democratic mayors across the country, a group that includes San Francisco's London Breed, Atlanta's Keisha Lance Bottoms and Chicago's Lori Lightfoot.

"Especially in the last year, African American women mayors have come to the forefront of the American political dialogue," he said. "There's a collection of women who have stepped forward and assumed that mantle."

The shutdown of the monumental core was Bowser's latest somber announcement in a year full of them as she has wielded her executive authority to close businesses to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus and impose curfews after sporadic rioting during Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

"We've seen this year, we've had to do some extraordinary things to keep people safe," she said last week.

Bowser said she considers communicating with D.C. residents her "first responsibility," but the invitations to speak to the rest of the country have allowed her to help shape the inaugural plan.

"I do feel a responsibility to also communicate directly with the American people," she said. "I'm using my power as the mayor of the best city in the world to convene people."

Starting hours after the attack on the Capitol, Bowser has steered almost every conversation to her pitch for D.C. statehood. Again and again, she noted that the building ultimately was secured by police officers from a city whose residents do not have voting representation in Congress.

While the images of chaos and military preparations being beamed around the world may not cast the nation's capital in the most positive light, statehood advocates are hoping Bowser's decision to fill what seemed like a national leadership void has educated millions about the cause.

"In times of great concern, you need leadership, and we're not getting that at the federal level. The mayor is stepping up," said Josh Burch, the founder of Neighbors United for D.C. Statehood. "And when she uses those moments to teach about our status and why statehood isn't just important for us, but important for them, she's doing a great of seizing the opportunity that's given to her."

Fenty said he is hearing from acquaintances across the country who have seen Bowser on television - and in at least one case, is suddenly interested in D.C. statehood.

He reflected on his own experience in the days leading up to Obama's 2009 inauguration. The mayor and the incoming president met up 10 days before the swearing-in. They got into a car headed north, out of downtown and through some residential neighborhoods. Fenty did not know the destination.

Obama, it turned out, wanted to stop at Ben's Chili Bowl, a famed neighborhood eatery. Falcicchio, who was an aide to Fenty at the time, remembers crowds cheering as if the Beatles had stopped by.

Bowser took her own car ride through Washington in the lead-up to this inauguration.

After midnight on the night of the attack on the Capitol, she and acting D.C. police chief Robert Contee circled the city to assess the state of affairs.

At the Capitol, they stopped to thank Inspector Robert Glover, the D.C. officer who had been the commander on the scene. Bowser told Glover that people would remember what he had done that day.

Then, they drove on and looked out at what the day had wrought, riding mostly in silence.

The gangs are using these vehicles because they feel they cant be traced, South Chicago District Capt. Michael Murphy told the Tribune in early January. Murphys patrol district saw carjackings jump in 2020 to 97 from 36 the year before. They can do their crimes, whether it be shootings or whatever it is, and then dump the car.
I will tell it again today, I will tell it again tomorrow, I will tell it again until no other woman in the city of Chicago is ever treated that way again, she said.
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(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 18 - Italy has started administering the second doses of the COVID-19 vaccination to health workers who were the first to get it in the campaign that started on December 27.

The vaccination campaign in Italy and elsewhere in Europe has been hit by Pfizer announcing that it is reducing supplies for one week.

Italy is set to get around 165,000 fewer does than expected.

As a result, all but six Italian regions, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Marche, Molise, Umbria and Valle d'Aosta, have had their vaccination allocations cut. (ANSA).


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Giving thanks. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent a special treat to the staff of a local Los Angeles charity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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Wed like to send a huge thank you to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with Archewell Foundation, for fueling the volunteers of our LA Service Platoon with lunch yesterday, so they can continue their hard work at the Compton VFW and help those living in the Compton community! an Instagram post from The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization working to empower veterans, read on Sunday, January 17. Were truly honored to have their support!

Courtesy of The Mission Continues/Instagram

The post featured a letter from Harry, 36, and the former Suits star, 39, who had lunch delivered to the hardworking volunteers. In honor of this day of service, and in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all that he stood for, we want to send our thanks and gratitude to the team at The Mission Continues, the note read. Were so proud of all the work youre doing to support your community and hope you enjoy this small token of our appreciation. Thank you for your service  today and every day. We look forward to joining you soon! Stay safe and keep up the good work.

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The couple relocated to Los Angeles with their 20-month-old son, Archie, in the wake of their January 2020 step down from their senior royal duties. When they settled into their new community, Harry and Meghan made a dedicated effort to give back amid the COVID-19 crisis. Harry and Meghans No. 1 priority right now is helping those affected by the virus, especially the vulnerable, a source told Us Weekly exclusively in April 2020 after the pair were seen volunteering with Project Angel Food.

After spending a few months in Los Angeles, the family of three moved to the Montecito neighborhood of Santa Barbara, California. They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbors, as well as for them as a family, their rep said in statement in August 2020.

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Stepping back from the royal family gave Harry and Meghan more freedom to explore their passions, including their new Archewell foundation and Archewell Audio podcast, which launched during the holiday season. However, their transition out of royal life hasnt been a breeze.

In November 2020, Meghan revealed in an essay for The New York Times that shed suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage several months earlier. At the time, a source told Us that the royal family felt great sadness for the duos devastating loss and that Prince Charles was supporting Harry and Meghan during their time of grief.

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Despite their whirlwind ups and downs, the pair are looking forward to the new year as a stronger couple and are closer than theyve ever been after facing their toughest moments together.

Harry doesnt have any regrets about leaving the royal family whatsoever and is really happy in Montecito, a source explained earlier this month. He and Meghan are enjoying their new life in California  being a normal family and having the freedom to make their own decisions without anyone watching over them.
THUMBS UP

Mia X,

the hip-hop legend and chef, continued her birthday tradition of feeding New Orleans hungry last week when she donated a truckload of food to Ozanam Inn, according to WDSU-TV. Every year, Mia X celebrates her birthday by cooking and feeding the community. The tradition has grown to serve 500 people. Due to the pandemic, she had to tweak her plans this year by delivering items to the long-running homeless shelter on Camp Street. Top Box Foods also matched her donation.

THUMBS UP

New Orleans Jazz Museum

is partnering with the New Orleans Jazz Historical Park to develop a series of virtual field trips that will be available to teachers and students across the country. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana State Museum last week announced a $30,000 grant from the National Park Foundation to fund the program. Those digital field trips, called New Orleans Cultural & Musical Connections, will be available in the spring for grades 4-8.

THUMBS DOWN

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry

declined to join 46 other states attorneys general in signing a letter denouncing the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Instead, Landry wrote a letter tepidly condemning the violence  and criticizing Democrats for what he feels wasnt a proper reaction to property damage during 2020s protests against white supremacy and police brutality. Rather than explicitly condemn the attempt to overturn the presidential election results  actions that led to five deaths  Landry urged Americans to come together and strongly decry all political violence.

+4 In the kitchen or on the mic, trifle with Mia X at your own risk Rice is a serious business for Mia Young. Wrapped in her crisp white chef jacket, Young is a whirlwind in the compact kitchen of Tigers Creol
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Amusing photos that capture the camaraderie between World War Two soldiers away from the heat of battle have come to light 80 years later.

The charming album was put together by an unknown member of the Rifle Brigade Service and covers his battalion's training in Britain and operations in the Middle East and Italy.

The images capture light-hearted moments away from the front-line with the comradeship in the group clear to see.

One humorous snap shows a soldier giving another a fireman's carry in a way that makes it look like he's holding his head.

Another is of a balancing competition where the participant tries to pour liquid into a bowl while perched on a plinth on one leg.

The men pretend to go into battle in another comedic scene and joyous moments are photographed at a Christmas party.

Three young soldiers from the Rifle Brigade Service pretend to go into battle in a comedic scene, with one appearing to make a bow and arrow out of his gun

The images capture light-hearted moments away from the front-line with the comradeship in the group clear to see - from the soldiers holding balancing competitions to celebrating Christmas together

The group of soldiers smile at the camera as they spend time away from the heat of battle in Italy in 1943

One humorous snap shows a soldier giving another a fireman's carry in a way that makes it look like he's holding his head

The charming album was put together by an unknown member of the Rifle Brigade Service and covers his battalion's training in Britain and operations in the Middle East and Italy. Pictured: The smiling soldiers pose for the camera and their friendship is clear to see

A picture shows a solder named only as 'Frank' in the caption, wearing headphones and carrying communications equipment whilst in the Middle East in 1942

From the captions it seems the battalion did their training in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 1941 and were based in Syria in 1943.

One image, of the men cooking together outside, has been captioned 'PoW camp', suggesting the soldiers spent time in captivity in North Africa before being liberated during the Allied advance. Another possibility is that it was a British camp for German PoWs.

The soldier who created the album of stunning photos spent the final months of the war in Greece, with details of his post-war life a mystery.

The photo album has now emerged for sale from a military collector with auctioneers Lockdales, of Martlesham, Suffolk.

A group of soldiers cook together outside - the image has been captioned 'PoW camp', suggesting the soldiers spent time in captivity in North Africa before being liberated during the Allied advance. Another possibility is that it was a British camp for German PoWs.

A group of young soldiers smile as they have their picture taken while they spend some time away from the heat of the battle

The soldiers from the Rifle Brigade Service smile for the camera at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, England, in 1941 where they did their training

A soldier is pictured looking fondly at a black and white puppy in Syria in 1943 while they stand next to a military vehicle

The photo album has now emerged for sale from a military collector with auctioneers Lockdales, of Martlesham, Suffolk. Pictured: A group of men pose for a picture on a military base in Syria in 1943

Lockdales specialist Chris Elmy hopes someone might be able to recognise an ancestor in the photos to shed more light on them.

He said: 'This album has come to us from one of our regular vendors - a roving trader who under the current circumstances must have dug this out of storage.

'It most likely turned up at a boot sale or similar, without family provenance, but some of the images are clear enough that someone out there might recognise faces.

'It's a fun little album and must have been of great sentimental value to somebody.

'The PoW camp photos were possibly taken at a British camp for German prisoners, as his war career continued through Egypt in 1942, Beirut and Syria in 1943, Italy in 1944 and Greece 1945, although it might be possible he was taken prisoner by the Germans in North Africa, and liberated during the advance.'

The sale of the album, which is expected to fetch 50, takes place on January 23.
The Democratic state senator representing Selma has announced she will sponsor a bill that would give the areas local legislative delegation the authority to consider whether to rename the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in the upcoming session.

Alabama State Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier announced the move today. Last year, the drive to rename the bridge after the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis took on a new resonance. Lewis, who died in July, helped lead marches in 1965 and was beaten and injured along with other marchers by Alabama State Troopers. Lewis casket took one last trip over the bridge on a horse-drawn carriage.

Sanders-Fortier said her bill would allow local residents to consider the question of renaming the bridge, built in 1940, or whether the scene of the March 7, 1965 Bloody Sunday civil rights march would retain its historic name - that of an Alabama U.S. senator and former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

This proposed legislation on how to handle the name is a way to honor the local people of Selma who cross the bridge every day and it gives us time to seek the will of God, not just for the Bridge, but for our collective healing. Sanders-Fortier said in a statement. I believe that we must create new ways of dealing with differing opinions in order for our nation to move forward. We want to model that right here in Selma, AL, where Dr. (Martin Luther) King worked for the very same thing.

There have been previous efforts to rename the bridge, with some Selma residents opposing the efforts. In 2015, an effort to rename the bridge the Journey for Freedom Bridge got more than 180,000 petition signatures and a resolution passed the Alabama senate. The resolution never made it out of a House committee for a vote, so it died at the end of the legislative session.

Lewis himself, in a 2015 editorial coauthored with U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, opposed renaming the bridge.

We can no more rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge than we can erase this nations history of racial intolerance and gender bias, Lewis and Sewell wrote.

Changing the name of the Bridge would compromise the historical integrity of the voting rights movement. We must tell our story fully rather than hide the chapters we wish did not exist for without adversity there can be no redemption.

Last year, however, Sewell said she supported renaming the bridge.

Sanders-Fortier said the bill will help create healing processes that encourage reconciliation in our conversations around changing the name of the Bridge.
Did white evangelical support for Trump drop in the 2020 election?

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Bill Werts grew up in rural north central Pennsylvania and always identified as an evangelical conservative. He listened to conservative radio talk shows, emulated Christian conservative politicians like Mike Pence and even participated in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. five times.

After supporting staunch conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primary, the 46-year-old held reservations about voting for President Donald Trump in that years general election considering his background, past indiscretions and what he considered to be a racist base the thrice-married real estate mogul tried to win over.

But after hearing prominent conservative leaders voice their support for Trump over then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and seeing Trump pick Pence to be his running mate, Werts reluctantly bought in.

When Trump won the nomination, I obviously had my questions and I was determined not to vote for him. Then he nominated Mike Pence as his running mate. I thought, maybe just possibly, I am the one that is wrong, Werts, a manufacturing supervisor, told The Christian Post in a phone interview.

Franklin Graham is telling me I am wrong. [Pat] Robertson is telling me that I am wrong. Jerry Fallwell is telling me that I am wrong. Maybe I am the one that is wrong. With all reservations, I ended up voting for Trump.

But four years later, Werts is not the same person politically. While witnessing the early days of the Trump presidency, Werts political views began to shift to the left. He switched parties in 2018. In 2020, he cast his vote for former Vice President Joe Biden as the Democrat picked up the key battleground state by less than 100,000 votes on his way to an eventual election victory.

Network exit polls seem to suggest that Werts may have been part of a small percentage of white evangelicals who voted for Trump in 2016 but did not vote for him in 2020.

Werts said he believes many evangelical conservatives who also did not vote for Trump this time around may have voted for other Republicans in down-ballot races. But he assured that he voted Democratic in the majority of the races on his ballot.

The straw that broke the camels back for him was media coverage of how migrant children were being detained in cages (built during the Obama administration) at the southern border, which also drew responses from evangelical leaders at the time and much uproar from the left.

But I still had my conservative leanings and still had my conservative roots and I also felt I couldnt support Democrats, he explained. I guess you could say I was looking for reasons to support Democrats for the past two years. The hardest bridge for me to cross was on abortion.

In 2018, Werts participated in a protest at a local courthouse over the Trump administrations immigration policies, where he was connected with the progressive organization in his county called Voices of Westmoreland.

From there, he was influenced by more progressive thoughts and reading materials. Eventually, he spoke at a progressive Christian rally in Pittsburgh organized by the evangelical left grassroots organization Vote Common Good, which held dozens of anti-Trump rallies across the country in 2020.

Where he lives in Westmoreland County, Werts said that the vote for Trump in 2020 actually improved from 2016.

Evangelicals that were leaving Trump were in more diverse areas, Werts stated.

In the suburbs of Detroit, Ronald Hawthorne, a 51-year-old machinist, is a former Trump voter who participated in Vote Common Good rallies in Michigan. He even helped organize a rally of his own in Warren.

Hawthorne said he didnt like the way Trump interacted with people, demonized media, and especially disliked how divisive the president was during the pandemic lockdowns and George Floyd protests and riots.

The way he has divided our country is just unbelievable and really disturbs me, Hawthorne told CP. At times, it messes with our spirit.

From 2016 to 2020, the network exit polls suggest a small 4% decline in the white evangelical vote for Trump, leaving leading Christian conservatives to question the accuracy of exit polls.

Meanwhile, some progressive activists have argued that this small drop in the white evangelical vote as seen in the election poll may have been what cost Trump the election.

Yet, other polling has suggested that Trumps support among white evangelicals may not have dropped considerably, if at all, and some results even suggest that a larger number of conservative Christians turned out to vote for Trump in 2020.

Conservative grassroots activists have criticized the exit polling data for not reflecting the large percentages of white evangelicals who voted for Trump in conservative states and contended that exit polls show an increase in the percentage that evangelical voters comprised of the total electorate in 2020.

Is exit polling data reliable?

The 2020 network exit polling data is conducted by Edison Research for The National Election Pool (ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC). Over 100,000 respondents were interviewed at polling locations nationwide or by phone. The data is based on a sample of 15,590.

According to ABCs analysis of the exit polls, the data for the white evangelical self-identification question is based on answers from 3,722 respondents.

According to the polling, Trumps support among white evangelical and born-again Christians  one of his key voting blocs  dropped from 80% in the 2016 exit poll to 76% in 2020.

Additionally, the network exit poll suggests that white evangelical support for the Democratic candidate  Biden  increased to 24% from the 16% of white evangelical voters surveyed in the 2016 exit poll who said they voted for then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The exit polling result comes as there were concerted efforts from progressive Christian grassroots groups and millions of advertising dollars spent by anti-Trump Republican groups to urge faith-based voters not to vote for Trump.

But other available polling data suggests that there may have not been a decline in the percentage of white evangelicals who voted for Trump.

Another wide-ranging election survey, the AP VoteCast, found that 81% of white evangelical likely voters voted for Trump in 2020, while 18% voted for Biden. That result is more in line with the results of the 2016 national exit poll. The AP VoteCast includes interviews with 110,485 likely voters and is adjusted to reflect preliminary vote totals with a margin of error of 0.4 percentage points.

A Pew Research Center survey from August 2018 of over 3,000 validated 2016 voters shows that only about 77% of white evangelical voters voted for Trump and 16% for Clinton. Even at 77% or 76%, Trumps support among white evangelicals nearly mirrors the percentage of the vote the demographic has given to Republican candidates in past presidential elections.

In 2012, exit polls showed 78% of white evangelicals voted for then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney and 21% supported President Barack Obama.

In 2004, exit polls showed the same percentages (78% and 21%) of white evangelical voters voted for President George Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Over the years, many have questioned the accuracy of exit polling data. Some have warned that exit polls can be misleading as there has been a push more toward cell phone interviews.

Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who co-founded and contributes to the blog Religion in Public, warned that there is an issue with exit polling, such as the fact that they use self-identification to identify religious demographics.

This means that this sample includes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Buddhists who tell pollsters they are born-again, Burge contended.

But he thinks the exit polls tell a consistent message when it comes to the white evangelical vote.

I've seen several [figures] that all pegs vote share to about 76-77%. That's pretty much in line with what high-quality surveys told us a few months after the election, Burge earlier told CP. [Trump] won 77.4% of white evangelicals, according to the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

Tony Perkins, president of the national Christian conservative lobbying group Family Research Council, does not think exit polls should be relied on to determine evangelical voting behavior.

"First off, they dont know the definition of [evangelicals]," Perkins said. "Also, they are relying on self-described evangelicals. Quite frankly, in this environment where the media is hostile toward evangelicals, do you think people are going to say they are evangelicals? Anymore, polls are very, very suspect, especially when it comes to the evangelical community. What we are finding is that people dont respond to pollsters. People know the underlying hostility so they just avoid them or tell them what they think what they want to hear."

The national Christian conservative grassroots organization Faith & Freedom Coalition, which spent over $40 million in the 2020 election cycle, sponsored its own election-day poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies.

The poll featured a sample size of 800 respondents with a 3.46 percentage-point margin of error. That poll found that about 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2020 and that the white evangelical vote for the Democratic candidate declined to 14%.

In 2016, the same poll found that Trump received 81% of the white evangelical vote and Clinton received 18%.

Minnesota Pastor Doug Pagitt, a progressive activist who led over 90 grassroots Vote Common Good rallies in 41 states urging Christians to not vote for Trump, said he believes the 76% figure found by the network exit polls.

Some people are debating the polling numbers. I dont know if I believe the polls as much as I used to but I do think those are accurate, he told CP. There is a segment of the evangelical population  we believed it was 5% to 10%  for an off-ramp from Donald Trump.

According to the exit polls, Biden also gained slightly more support from Catholics and nonevangelical Protestants than Clinton in 2016.

For Catholics, exit polling suggests that 52% voted for Biden, a 6-percentage point increase over the 46% of Catholics voters who said they voted for Clinton in 2016 exit polls.

The percentage of nonevangelical Protestants who voted for Biden increased from 36% to 39%.

From my perspective, the bigger shift came not in evangelicals but actually in Catholics, mass-attending Catholics, Faith & Freedom Coalition Executive Director Tim Head told CP. I think for those that are actually trying to look for distinctions between 2020 and 2016, it is actually the Catholic vote that changed some. I think you have a couple of variables that factored in that.

Pagitt, who also heads the holistic missional Christian community Solomons Porch in Minneapolis, said Vote Common Goods $2 million campaign effort focused much of its attention to areas where there is significant white Catholic and evangelical voting populations.

We wanted to see what happened in those counties because we want to see some impact in certain locations, Pagitt said. Evangelicals are not evenly spread all over the country. They tend to pocket and they tend to pool.
The Russian side of the Russian-Turkish commission monitoring the implementation of the Syrian truce has registered 16 ceasefire violations in Syria over the past 24 hours, while the Turkish side has registered two truce breaches, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) The Russian side of the Russian-Turkish commission monitoring the implementation of the Syrian truce has registered 16 ceasefire violations in Syria over the past 24 hours, while the Turkish side has registered two truce breaches, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

"The Russian part of the representative office of the joint Russian-Turkish Commission for consideration of issues related to violations of the cessation of hostilities has recorded 16 cases of opening fire (15 of them according to the Syrian side) in provinces: Idlib - 8, Latakia -5, Hama - 1, Aleppo - 2. The Turkish part of the representative office has recorded two incidents of opening fire (the Russian part of the representative office has confirmed - 0)," the ministry said in its daily bulletin.

The ministry noted that the Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring in Syria carried out four humanitarian operations in the past 24 hours, delivering 500 food kits to residents of the Damascus and Latakia provinces, and 500 kits to residents of Idlib and Deir-ez-Zur provinces.

At the same time, 82 Syrian refugees, including 25 women and 42 children, have returned from Lebanon over the past day through the Jaydet-Yabus and Talkalakh checkpoints, the defense ministry said in a separate bulletin.

Engineering troops from the Syrian armed forces demined 2.1 hectares (5.1 acres) of territory in the provinces of Damascus and Daraa in the past day, the ministry added. They discovered and defused 10 explosive devices, including one improvised explosive device.

A man asked police to arrest him and then proceeded to throw chairs and a DVD player at officers when they entered his property, Derry Magistrates Court has heard.

Emmet Gillen, 38, of Clon Elagh appeared in court for breaching bail on Sunday, January 17.

The defendant is originally charged with communicating false information to the PSNI to make it believe that a bomb was going to explode at Strand Road Police Station on January 11.

He is further charged with improper use of public electronic communications on the same date.

The court heard that on Sunday the defendant rang the police to inform them that hed been drinking all day and night and wished to be arrested.

When police attended Gillen refused to come down stairs then proceeded to throw chairs and a DVD player at officers.

The 38-year-old was subsequently arrested for a breach of bail in relation to the consumption of alcohol.

No charges were brought for throwing the items.

A police officer said the defendant attended Derry Magistrates Court on January 14 when he was released on bail.

Gillen was returned to court the following day for breaching bail conditions.

The PSNI officer said that following his release on January 15 the defendant lasted two days before breaching again at the weekend.

The court was told that Gillen has 42 previous convictions and all of his offending is linked to alcohol.

Deputy District Judge McStay described his record as terrible, adding that on this occasion he contacted the authorities then didnt cooperate.

Referring to Gillens previous offending, he said that past assaults on police would have to be taken into consideration given his reaction when police entered his property.

Defence solicitor Paddy MacDermott said his client doesnt face any new charges.

He added that it was very unusual for someone to draw attention to a breach of bail but accepted it was the second breach in a very short period of time.

Requesting bail, Mr MacDermott said a full file is nowhere near ready.

The solicitor said that Gillen made the hoax bomb call under duress from a paramilitary organisation.

No attempt was made to hide the fact the call was made on his phone, he explained.

Judge McStay said that while the risks were manageable, they were not without great difficulty.

He was not satisfied that Gillen could be released safely and advised the defendant to reflect on his issues with alcohol.

Gillen was remanded into custody and will appear before the court again on February 11.
US experts have developed a new electric car battery that charges in just 10 minutes and lasts for 250 miles on a single charge.

The EV batteries are made from lithium iron phosphate, which is known for its 'unsurpassed safety', and can quickly heat up and cool down  key to rapid charging and a long life.

They quickly heat up to 140F for charge and discharge and then cool down when the battery is not being used.

The system could tackle 'range anxiety'  drivers' fears that they don't have sufficient charge on their electric vehicle (EV) to get them to their destination.

Researchers say their battery should last more that 2 million miles in a lifetime and would be 'a well-rounded powertrain for mass-market EVs' if commercialised.

A thermally modulated battery for mass-market electric vehicles without range anxiety and with unsurpassed safety, low cost, and containing no cobalt, is being developed by a team of Penn State engineers.

'There is no more range anxiety and this battery is affordable,' said Chao-Yang Wang at Penn State University in the US.

'The very fast charge allows us to downsize the battery without incurring range anxiety.'

According to Wang, these batteries can produce a large amount of power upon heating  40 kilowatt hours and 300 kilowatts of power.

An EV with this battery could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in three seconds and would drive like a Porsche, he said.

'We developed a pretty clever battery for mass-market electric vehicles with cost parity with combustion engine vehicles,' said Wang.

'This is how we are going to change the environment and not contribute to just the luxury cars. Let everyone afford electric vehicles.'

Batteries have three main components  the anode, cathode and electrolyte.

The electrolyte is typically a chemical that separates the anode and cathode and moves the flow of electrical charge between the two.

The battery uses a self-heating approach previously developed in Wang's center. Pictured, EV car battery (stock image)

Because lithium is a highly-reactive element it stores a large amount of energy.

Lithium-ion batteries use a liquid electrolyte  a flammable, carbon-based liquid.

But this liquid electrolyte is often flammable and has been blamed for lithium ion batteries bursting into flames when overheated, for example.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, a type of lithium ion battery, are an alternative.

They use lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) as the cathode material, are already used in EVs and are renowned for safety.

This new battery is also lithium iron phosphate but is described as a 'thermally modulated LFP'.

It uses a self-heating approach previously developed in Wang's lab, the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State.

The self-heating battery uses a thin nickel foil with one end attached to the negative terminal and the other extending outside the cell to create a third terminal.

Once electrons flow it rapidly heats up the nickel foil through resistance heating and warm the inside of the battery.

Once the battery's internal temperature is 140F, the switch opens and the battery is ready for rapid charge or discharge.

The key to long-life and rapid recharging is the battery's ability to quickly heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, for charge and discharge, and then cool down when the battery is not working

Wang's team have also used low-cost materials for the battery's cathode and anode and a safe, low-voltage electrolyte.

The cathode is thermally stable lithium iron phosphate, which does not contain any of the expensive and critical materials like cobalt.

While the anode is made of very large particle graphite, a safe, light and inexpensive material.

Because of the self-heating, the researchers said they do not have to worry about uneven deposition of lithium on the anode, which can cause lithium spikes that are dangerous.

'This battery has reduced weight, volume and cost,' said Wang, who authored a paper on the findings that's been published in Nature Energy.

'I am very happy that we finally found a battery that will benefit the mainstream consumer mass market.'

Range anxiety is considered a major barrier to large scale adoption of all-electric vehicles  something the UK government wants to see in the next 10 years.

It's banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030, in a bid to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and achieve the government's net zero emissions target by 2050.

Britain's first electric car forecourt opened near Braintree, Essex, in December, with the capacity to recharge the batteries of 36 plug-in cars simultaneously

The petrol/diesel ban means the UK needs new and efficient charging methods fast to complement more EV charging ports around the country.

In December, Britain's first forecourt only for EVs opened in Braintree, Essex, giving drivers the chance to charge their vehicles.

The service station features 36 EV charges and shops including a WHSmith, a Post Office, a gym and a wellness area for visitors to practice yoga for drivers to enjoy while their EVs are being charged.

The EV forecourt is the first of a 1 billion nationwide network of 100 electric forecourts planned over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the city of Coventry is working on a Scalextric-style system of wireless charging, which will potentially recharge EVs while they're in motion.
Ukraine may be interesting to Elon Musk  Zelensky's office

The official says Musk's visit to Ukraine is quite possible.

Reporting by UNIAN

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has stated that the decision of the Russian Federation to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty is aimed at destroying the European security architecture and international arms control regimes.

The Ministry underscores that Russia was grossly violating the Open Skies Treaty in 2009-2020, in particular by reducing its scope due to the occupation of parts of Ukraine and Georgia.

"We consider this decision as another example of Russia's pursuance of the foreign policy aimed at destroying the European security architecture and international arms control regimes, undermining fundamental norms and principles of international law," reads the Foreign Ministrys comment.

Ukrainian diplomats stressed that the Open Skies Treaty remains an important legally binding international arms control agreement that ensures transparency between member states through observation flights over each other's territories.

On January 15, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced the beginning of the procedure for Russia's withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty.

The Open Skies Treaty was signed on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki (Finland) by 27 CSCE participating states (OSCE since 1995). The treaty entered into force on January 1, 2002. Its current members are 33 countries: Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, Greece, Georgia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Ukraine, France, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Croatia.

The agreement establishes the open skies regime - member states can conduct observation flights over each other's territory to control and monitor military activities, crisis situations, etc.

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Covid-19 has swept across the globe since its initial outbreak in China in late 2019, yet there are still a handful of nations that have not recorded a single case of the virus.

There have been over 95 million cases of the highly infectious virus recorded worldwide and it has been detected on every continent including Antarctica, yet 10 nations have managed to remain virus free.

The majority of countries that have managed to escape the pandemic are remote island nations, many located in the Pacific, including Tuvalu, Palau and the Cook Islands.

There have been over 95 million cases of the highly infectious virus recorded worldwide and it has been detected on every continent including Antarctica, yet 10 nations have managed to remain virus free

All of the nations were quick to act after the pandemic hit, with stringent measures including border closures and mandatory quarantine periods for new arrivals introduced. Despite having no reported cases, the island of Tonga introduced a night time curfew from midnight to 5am.

Tokelau, a New Zealand dependency, and the British territory of Pitcairn Island are both inaccessible by aviation due to their remote locations, and both have remained free from Covid-19.

In November 2020, Samoa, which had for the previous 11 months managed to steer clear of the virus, reported its first coronavirus case which was imported from Australia.

The positive case was detected in a 70-year-old Samoan citizen who travelled to Apia from Melbourne.

In nearby American Samoa, health officials reported three people on board a container ship had tested positive for the virus.

Turkmenistan and North Korea have declared themselves coronavirus-free, although doubt has been cast on the legitimacy of this.

With a population of five million, Turkmenistan is located in central Asia and is bordered by Iran which has been ravaged by the pandemic, and leaked reports claim there has been evidence of the virus there too.

Foreign analysts believe that Covid-19 could have spread to North Korea by March last year.

1. Tuvalu

Tuvalu, a group of nine islands in the South Pacific, is situated between Hawaii and Australia and has a population of 11,646.

The island country was quick to shut its borders at the beginning of the pandemic to all foreigners and introduced a mandatory quarantine period.

The nation, which has an area of just 10 sq miles in total, has reported zero Covid-19 cases.

Tuvalu. along with Tonga, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau and the Cook Islands, are projected to receive supplies of a Covid-19 vaccine later this year.

It comes after New Zealand set aside $75 million to roll out the vaccine in the Pacific island nations with which it has a political or economic partnership.

Tuvalu, a group of nine islands in the South Pacific, is situated between Hawaii and Australia and has a population of 11,646

2. Tonga

Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited.

It is one of the more densely population nations in the Pacific with a population of 104,494.

The Polynesian kingdom has not reported a single Covid-19 case since the start of the pandemic.

Tongan borders are closed for entry to all foreign nationals, except if authorisation has been granted by the relevant government authority, and the Kingdom introduced a national night time curfew from midnight to 5am.

Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited

3. Tokelau

Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, has an estimated population of just 1,411.

Proving the territory's remoteness, it cannot be accessed by aviation but only by boat, usually from Samoa in a trip that can take around 24 hours.

With just one hospital to serve the entire territory, it is no surprise that Tokelau has been keen to keep the virus at bay - and has so far successfully recorded zero cases.

Border restrictions were quickly introduced to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to the island, and all passengers have to go through a health screening in Samoa before travelling over.

Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, has an estimated population of just 1,411

4. Saint Helena

Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory and remote tropical volcanic island located in the South Atlantic Ocean.

It's known as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile and death, as commemorated by a now-empty tomb.

Saint Helena remains Covid-19 free and has implemented strict rules for those who arrive to the island.

It requires those arriving by air to be taken on a minibus provided by the local authorities to a government quarantine facility where they spend 14 days. They are tested for the virus on arrival and at the end of the quarantine period.

Any breach of quarantine results in a fine of up to 5,000.

Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory and remote tropical volcanic island located in the South Atlantic Ocean

5. Pitcairn Islands

The Pitcairn Islands is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean.

The territory is just two miles long and one mile wide.

With a population of only 50 people, the Pitcairn Islands has declared itself Covid-19 free since the beginning of the pandemic.

Those who live there are the descendants of those who arrived on the island on board the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty in 1789.

The small territory has said that travel restrictions will remain in place until at least March 2022.

The Pitcairn Islands is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean

6. Cook Islands

The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands that make up a self-governing country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand.

The islands, with a population of 17,459, have remained coronavirus free after closing its borders to the rest of the world.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Cook Island Prime Minister Mark Brown recently announced a travel bubble between the two countries, launching on January 21.

'Following confirmation of the Cook Islands' Covid free status and the implementation of strict health and border protocols, we are now in the position to resume quarantine-free travel for passengers from the Cook Islands into New Zealand,' Arden said in a recent statement.

The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands that make up a self-governing country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand

7. Kiribati

Kiribati is an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean.

It has a permanent population of just over 110,000, more than half of whom live on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba.

The country acted fast to control the spread of the virus, shutting off all non-essential travel by mid-March and implementing a 14-day quarantine period.

Kiribati is an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean

8. Nauru

Nauru, located in Micronesia, is the third-smallest country in the world with a population of 12,700. It is known for holding Australia's off-shore immigration detention centre.

The country implemented very tight Covid-19 restrictions early on in the pandemic and has kept up efforts to monitor for the virus.

The government has declared a national emergency as a preventive measure despite recording no cases of the virus, and suspended all but one weekly flight to the country.

It also introduced a 14-day quarantine for all arrivals.

Nauru, located in Micronesia, is the third-smallest country in the world with a population of 12,700

9. Niue

Niue, a coral island in the South Pacific, is one-sixth the size of greater London. It is a self-governing state in 'free association' with New Zealand.

While 1,700 Niuens live on the island, more than 30,000  more than 95% of the its people - live in New Zealand, where they have citizenship rights.

Niue implemented tough travel restrictions at the start of the pandemic which are now beginning to ease, with the government recently agreeing to increase the number of passengers arriving from New Zealand.

Niue, a coral island in the South Pacific, is one-sixth the size of greater London. It is a self-governing state in 'free association' with New Zealand

10. Palau

Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, has a population of around 18,000.

The nation recently received its first vaccine shipment from US pharmaceutical company Moderna.

Palauan officials had aimed to have the entire country vaccinated by April, but they say that date will 'probably be extended' due to a hold-up in the distribution of doses.

To date, Palau has not recorded a single coronavirus case or virus-related death.
In the interview with Vietnam News Agency, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung reflects on the work and challenges the Government has faced in the past five years ahead the National Party Conference

as his current Government term comes to an end.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung.  VNA/VNS Photo

Could you share with us the challenging times Government, and the Government Office, have had to deal with in the term?

This Government term faced a lot of major issues.

On April 23, 2016, very early in the term, during a flight to Dien Bien Province in northern Vietnam, the Prime Minister first heard the report about the mass fish deaths in Ha Tinh in the Formosa marine environment incident.

In recent years, natural inclement conditions have also occurred  repeated salt intrusion in the Mekong Delta, biting cold spells in the northern region, droughts in Central Highlands and floods in central region  at levels unseen before. And in 2020, the big thing is the COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan, China. World Health Organisation (WHO)s recommendation before the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday that year was still that the disease is not transmissible between humans, but we, the Government Office, didnt think the same and immediately reported to the leadership for responses.

We thought that if the disease was not dangerous then why did the Chinese Politburo have an emergency meeting at the first day of the Lunar New Year, why was Wuhan was put under a strict lockdown and five million residents  likely well-informed and economically well-off  had to flee the lockdown order knowing what was coming, and why did the number of infections reach such a large number in such short time?

We urged the Prime Minister to defy the WHO recommendations, evidence in the Directive 05 on prevention and control of acute pneumonia disease caused by novel strain of coronavirus issued on January 28.

The Government had subsequently issued unprecedented instructions like fighting the pandemic like fighting the enemy, and the whole armed forces and the people must engage in the fight against the disease, and then a whole range of measures including closing off the air border, shutting down land border routes, grounding flights to and from China, Japan, South Korea, the US, and Europe. The most drastic measure, of course, was the hard nationwide lockdown provided in the Directive 15 in April, 2020. These were all difficult measures that had never been done before.

If we had purely followed WHO recommendations in the early days of 2020, its hard to imagine what the situation in Vietnam would be like right now.

Without the armed forces and the health staff working tirelessly day and night, we couldnt have possibly succeeded in the fight against COVID-19. Without a political system like what we have in Vietnam, without the public buy-in, it would not have been possible.

You used to say that in building e-Government, the most important thing is to dare to forego interests. So by now, have our civil workers given up the interests to be fully committed to this public cause?

Moves like cutting back administrative procedures and business condition requirements, or moving towards electronic documents instead of paper-based administration, faced huge barriers because they rattle the ossified vested interests of many individuals and organisations. Pursuing transparency means we have to strip off these sorts of vested interests towards serving the common good.

For example, we need to process about 12 million import-export documents each year, and only 0.06 per cent of them have errors that need to be rectified, but all the papers and procedures still have to be done and many fees still have to be paid to complete these documents. Such a huge waste for the people and businesses.

When public administrative procedures are digitised, every citizen would only need a single account that they can log in to various ministries portals to carry out the paper work instead of having to directly go to a public administrative centre, which help to cut down time, effort, and fees  both formal and informal ones. And most importantly, the procedures done online are all transparent and minimise the risks for petty corruption.

I can say for certain that a very large number of vested interests have been abolished. The Government is held accountable by the public, the businesses and the media.

One of the missions of the Government Office is to assess proposed projects  a task that has a lot to do with interests of ministries and sectors. Are you, and others at the Government, under a lot of pressure?

Pressure is a matter-of-fact thing. The Governments leader has on many occasions called for transparency and elimination of petty corruption at all levels  so thats the order and it has to be observed, meaning that not just the Government Office but all ministries and local authorities will have to be part of the efforts to reform. Id say that the pressure has been reduced quite a lot compared to the beginning of the term, now that the efforts to reform have been more widespread.

Theres no room for individualistic opportunism or vested interests in the common efforts towards a strong, prosperous Vietnam. And thats not to mention the supervision role of the press and the public, the old mindset of maintaining vested interests would gradually wither.

Those who issued documents, regulations and policies that people and businesses consider to be creating barriers for them or just to benefit the ministries and agencies in charge, then the leaders of those ministries and agencies will have to answer in front of the Government.

It must not be easy to balance the interests of the State, the ministries and agencies, the people, and businesses?

All policies need to balance the interests of all parties involved.

The Government Office is not under the influence of any other ministry, we only take instructions from the Government and the Prime Minister. We have to always be loyal and honest. If we encounter barriers or issues, we report them at Cabinet meetings, with independent critical reviews or reports. If we fail to do that, then our mission is not fulfilled. So in every issue or case, we have to deliberate very carefully, listening to the press or feedback from concerning associations, among others.

Maybe there were points when we have to compromise, but this is not to benefit a certain ministry because they got a hold over it anything. We only do things that are allowed by the law.

As the Minister, Chairman of the Government, and spokesperson for the Government, what do you wish to the public to remember you for, a minister of the people, a minister of action or reforms, or something else?

We at the Government Office are merely helpers who would do the tasks and missions we are entrusted with. I dont think I have image. We are loyal to the country, and work towards a Government that serves the people and businesses. If people and businesses are satisfied, then we can also be satisfied that we have done meaningful contributions to the country.

With your term coming an end soon, what are your lingering concerns? Are you satisfied with what you have done?

Since the beginning of the term, we were determined to build Government Office into a professional, modern agency that would make use of smart governance. This idea has been propagated to all officials, civil servants and employees in all tasks.

Thanks to everyones efforts, the agency has seen drastic improvements, every process from performance evaluation to training, recruitment, personnel planning and appointment are all done in a transparent manner.

The work we do at the Government Office only contributed a small part to the successes of the Government. We still need to try harder, in professional capacity, as well as moral and ideological aspects.

In this fast-changing world, without innovation and reforms, we cannot fulfil our duty to advise the Government.

At the Government Office, one must complete work before leaving the workplace, a working day is not defined by a strict eight-hour schedule.

In the new year, we expect the media to continue accompanying the Government and the Government Office to create two-way information channels. We are the helpers, but what the Government and the Prime Minister have done, we have to communicate them to the public via the reach of the mass media. VNS

New e-government platform introduced The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has introduced the Flex Digital platform, a comprehensive solution to develop e-government in all fields on the basis of its components facilitating important activities
Two family members of staff at the Rotunda Hospital received Covid-19 vaccines which it says would have been wasted otherwise.

It comes after a similar controversy at the Coombe Hospital, where 16 family members of staff at the maternity hospital received the Coronavirus vaccine.

A total of 37 people received the vaccine from remnants of vials delivered to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin which were intended for its staff.

These remnants would have expired within a number of hours, if not used, and would have been discarded Rotunda Hospital

In a statement on Monday, the Rotunda Hospital said it received 93 vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday, January 6.

Each vial contains six doses, and the statement said every one of these six doses were administered to staff working at the Rotunda.

However, excess doses of the vaccine left in the vials were subsequently administered to the community.

Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened Health Minister Stephen Donnelly

The statement said: These remnants would have expired within a number of hours, if not used, and would have been discarded.

Rather than wasting any vaccine whatsoever, and following immediate discussion with leadership at the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC), the Rotunda requested expressions of interest from the local community, who could attend the hospital within an hour, prior to expiry of these vaccines, and who would be willing to accept these unapproved vaccine remnants.

Thirty-seven people, including local GPs and members of other vulnerable groups, agreed to attend and to avail of the non-approved vaccine remnants.

The Rotunda is of the view, and is supported by NIAC, that this was the morally correct thing to do and a wholly appropriate response in the setting of a pandemic, such that no vaccine was wasted and the maximum good was achieved.

It is understood that two family members of staff at the hospital were among those in the vulnerable groups who received the excess doses.

The statement added: It must be noted that even if Rotunda staff could attend at short notice to receive the vaccine remnants, the hospital was not approved to administer it to them.

Expand Close Each vial contains six doses (Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland/PA) / Facebook

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Equally, the 37 non-Rotunda personnel who received the vaccines did so in the full knowledge they were receiving a non-approved vaccine remnant.

Earlier on Monday, health minister Stephen Donnelly asked bosses at the Coombe hospital in Dublin for a full account, after it emerged that Covid-19 vaccinations were given to family members of staff.

The relatives of employees at the south Dublin hospital were vaccinated with doses left over from a batch.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said 16 doses of the vaccine were left after 1,100 frontline workers, including GPs and community health staff, were vaccinated.

The hospital said that of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 and the other seven were of varying ages.

The hospital said the doses would have been thrown out if they had not been administered.

Mr Donnelly said he will speak to the chairman of the Coombe Hospital board about the matter.

In a statement on Monday morning, Mr Donnelly said: Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened.

Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets out a priority list for vaccination  and thats currently for frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long-term residential care facilities.

It does not include family members of healthcare workers.

The HSE said standby lists of healthcare workers available at short notice are in place to ensure doses of Covid-19 vaccines that are about to expire are used.

The protocol was put in place on January 12 after excess doses were given to family of staff members at the Coombe and the Rotunda.

Vida Hamilton, national clinical adviser for acute hospitals at the HSE, said: Planners are now advised to have a list of 120 healthcare workers on standby so that if there should there be are any additional doses left over, or for some unanticipated reason a clinician was unable to attend, that they would have a list of personnel that they can pull in at short notice to receive those excess doses.

That protocol wasnt in place at time of incidences. It arose out of the learnings from the first week of the rollout of the vaccine programme.

The HSE guidance says: Centres should consider establishing standby lists of other healthcare workers (provisional vaccine allocation group 4) who are available at short notice and are randomly selected from the lists for vaccination if for any reason frontline healthcare workers are not available and the alternative is that vaccine dose expires.

The HSE said 77,300 doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered as of January 13. Since then it said it had accelerated deployment giving 25,000 vaccines in 186 long-term care facilities and 15,407 to frontline health care workers in the last week.

#StayHome



aThe situation in our hospitals is stark. We are seeing people of all ages being admitted to hospital and being taken into intensive care units."@CMOIreland #COVID19  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) January 17, 2021

The master of the Coombe hospital, Professor Michael OConnell, said the decision was made to ensure that not a single reconstituted vaccine was wasted.

He added: Had they not been used, they would have been discarded.

I was keenly aware of that and, throughout the evening and from 9.30pm onward, I personally made every effort to prioritise and identify additional frontline workers and followed all measures available to me at the time.

In hindsight, as master, I deeply regret that family members of employees were vaccinated and for that I wholeheartedly apologise.

It came as some 1,800 GPs, practice nurses and other healthcare staff received Moderna jabs at mass vaccination centres in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise.
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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
A new study looked at the role of androgens - commonly thought of as male sex hormones and found at lower levels in women - as a potential treatment for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

While endocrine therapy is standard-of-care for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, resistance to these drugs are the major cause of breast cancer mortality.Professor Wayne Tilley, Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories, and Associate Professor Theresa Hickey, Head of the Breast Cancer Group, who led the study say the need for alternative treatment strategies has renewed interest in androgen therapy for breast cancer.However, previous studies had produced conflicting evidence on how best to therapeutically target the androgen receptor for treatment of breast cancer, which caused widespread confusion and hampered clinical application.Using cell-line and patient-derived models, a global team, including researchers at the University of Adelaide and the Garvan Institute, demonstrated that androgen receptor activation by natural androgen or a new androgenic drug had potent anti-tumour activity in all estrogen receptor positive breast cancers, even those resistant to current standard-of-care treatments. In contrast, androgen receptor inhibitors had no effect."This work has immediate implications for women with metastatic estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, including those resistant to current forms of endocrine therapy,'' said Associate Professor Theresa Hickey.Professor Tilley added: "We provide compelling new experimental evidence that androgen receptor stimulating drugs can be more effective than existing (e.g. Tamoxifen) or new (e.g. Palbociclib) standard-of-care treatments and, in the case of the latter, can be combined to enhance growth inhibition. Moreover, currently available selective androgen receptor activating agents lack the undesirable side effects of natural androgens, and can confer benefits in women including promotion of bone, muscle and mental health.Associate Professor Elgene Lim, a breast oncologist and Head of the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Lab at the Garvan Institute, said: "The new insights from this study should clarify the widespread confusion over the role of the androgen receptor in estrogen receptor driven breast cancer. Given the efficacy of this treatment strategy at multiple stages of disease in our study, we hope to translate these findings into clinical trials as a new class of endocrine therapy for breast cancer."Dr Stephen Birrell, a breast cancer specialist and pioneer in androgens and women's health who was part of the Adelaide based team, pointed out that this seminal finding has application beyond the treatment of breast cancer, including breast cancer prevention and treatment of other disorders also driven by estrogen. Chloe Marshall, 33, has a breast cancer recurrence while pregnant with her second child. She said that endocrine therapy has terrible side effects and there was an urgent need for better options to prevent and treat breast cancer recurrence."I was diagnosed with a hormone positive breast cancer in July 2017 and subsequently found out I carried the BRACA gene,'' she said."I underwent a double mastectomy and neo adjuvant chemotherapy followed by two years of hormone suppressive treatment. The hormone suppressive treatment that I experienced was one of the hardest parts of having cancer. The impact it has on your mind/life/body is incredibly challenging."Now, three years later, I find myself with a recurrent cancer while 25 weeks pregnant. The thought of having hormone suppressive treatment for a further five to ten years is overwhelming."I think this study will help patients like myself have hope that there is another answer to life after the cancer diagnosis."Source: Eurekalert

Almo Man Arrested After Foot Pursuit

By West Kentucky Star Staff

CALLOWAY COUNTY - An Almo man was arrested Friday night following a foot pursuit in Calloway County.According to the Calloway County Sheriff's Department, a deputy went to a home on Radio Road in an attempt to locate 45-year-old Tracy Pritchett, who had an active warrant for failure to appear.The deputy saw Pritchett outside the home, and he attempted to flee on foot, but was taken into custody a short time later.Packages of suspected methamphetamine, along with drug paraphernalia, were allegedly located after Pritchett was captured.Pritchett was taken to the Calloway County Jail on charges of second degree fleeing or evading police, first degree trafficking-controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and on a bench warrant for failure to appear.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High around 50F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 41F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris TD has today launched a new online portal for people seeking to upskill or retrain.

The online portal  www.gov.ie/therightcourse - is a one stop shop for businesses, employees or unemployed persons and outlines the third level options available to them.

This can be a short part-time course, a course for an individual in employment or an option to return to third level.

Speaking today, Minister Harris said: There are so many options out there for people but the system is complex and can overburden some people.

This online portal offers people a clear picture of what is on offer, how they can access it and the supports available to people also.

Ireland is a small country. We cannot afford to have untapped talent and we cannot leave any person locked out of society because of a lack of skills.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to confront many of the skills shortages we have. We must ensure our people have access to the skills they need

to succeed in life; and Irish business has the people with the skills they need to grow. This is also critical to securing our recovery and ensuring Irelands people share in that recovery.

The one-stop shop outlines the further education and training places, the courses in higher education on offer, and information for those on a social welfare payment.

Business owners are also encouraged to explore the range of upskilling options available from Skillnet Ireland including enterprise-led business supports, targeted upskilling opportunities for employees in businesses, free online training programmes and virtual job placements.

Minister Harris added: If you are unemployed temporarily as a result of Covid-19, now could be the time to do a short course. You can still retain your social welfare payments while undertaking the course.

Or if you are in employment but want to improve your skillset, there are options available to you too.

This new portal will be a valuable tool to help each person identify the most suitable upskilling option for themselves and their teams. It will be great at showcasing the diversity of upskilling supports available from formal accredited programmes, apprenticeships to practical work-based learning from all of the agencies.

It is never too late to learn something new and now is the perfect time to start.

Minister of State for Skills and Further Education Niall Collins TD said: We have so much on offer but it can be a very difficult system to navigate.

This website outlines all of your options  apprenticeship, traineeship, a short course, a degree, a Masters. And it offers supports for businesses too.

So, please log onto www.gov.ie/therightcourse.

Log onto www.gov.ie/therightcourse.ie for further details.

Notes to Editors:

Reminder: Minister Harris will be available to media at 12.15 in Government Buildings today.
Police hunt for mall bombers

THAILAND: Police will issue warrants for the arrest of two suspects who threw a bomb at anti-government demonstrators outside a shopping mall on Rama IV Road on Saturday (Jan 16), a senior police officer at the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) said.

policeSafetyviolence

By Bangkok Post

Monday 18 January 2021, 10:15AM

A protester kneels in front of a heap of stationery and bamboo canes during a Bad Student demonstration outside the Ministry of Education in Bangkok on Saturday. Photo: AFP.

Pol Maj Gen Piya Tawichai, deputy commissioner of the MPB, said an initial check found two suspects riding on a motorcycle on the Thai-Japanese Bridge threw a ping-pong bomb down on a group of anti-government demonstrators outside Chamchuri Square.

Four people suffered minor injuries in the explosion, not long after demonstrators started leaving nearby Samyan Mitrtown, where they had rallied after being dispersed from Victory Monument.

The blast happened hours after members of the Free Guards group gathered at Victory Monument to demand the release of two of their members who were arrested earlier.

The bomb was similar to the one used at a previous rally at Ratchayothin intersection. This type of bomb is also commonly used during fights between rival vocational college students, Pol Maj Gen Piya said.

Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Yingyos Thepchamnong said that on Saturday members of the anti-government group gathered at the Phaya Thai island around the Victory Monument, Soi Chula 4 on Phaya Thai Road, and Samyan intersection, violating the emergency decree and the Disease Control Act.

Six were arrested and identified as Baiboon Thaipanich, 20, Panupong Pongthanu 20, Sathaporn Warawongwanich, 27, Apisit Chanakorn, 40, Krisana Sara, 49, and Charunee Saplaeng, 52.

Also on Saturday, activists clashed with police near Victory Monument after they invited people to write on three 112m-long blank banners about how they feel about the governments performance and the lese majeste law.

Dozens of people calling themselves the Free Guards staged the activity at the Phaya Thai island near the monument just before noon. Several passers-by reportedly took up the offer and wrote on the banners.

But shortly after, police reached the scene, backed by a fully equipped mob-control team who encircled the outer area and moved in.

Among messages to the government were: Thai education needs to be improved, Stop harassing people, A failed government, a divisive society and COVID-19 is an excuse.

Police warned them the activity was in violation of the COVID-19 emergency decree, with penalties up to two years in prison and/or a fine of up to B40,000.

It also breached the Disease Control Act with one year in jail and a fine of up to B100,000, they said.

Meanwhile, the Bad Students group of pro-democracy students seeking education reform held a demonstration to mark Teachers Day, gathering in front of the Education Ministry on Ratchadamnoen Avenue. Five were arrested by police before being released.

Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a protest co-leader of the anti-government Ratsadon group wrote on Facebook yesterday that the rally at Samyan had nothing to do with the group.
Rebranding

18 January 2021

Scholar Hotel Group, a leader in the hospitality industry specializing in hotels on or near college campuses, proudly announces the opening of its newest property in State College, Pa., on Jan. 15, 2021. Located in the heart of downtown and one block from The Pennsylvania State University, Scholar Hotel State College feature's 72 extended-stay guest rooms, 1,250 square feet of meeting space, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a lobby marketplace. Scholar Hotel State College joins Tapestry Collection, one of Hilton's 18 market-leading brands and part of the award-winning Hilton Honors guest loyalty program.

Scholar Hotel State College is located at 205 East Beaver Avenue in the historic Glennland Building. The Glennland Building, built in 1933, is on the National Register of Historic Places and, when originally constructed, contained the first and only indoor pool in Central Pennsylvania. The history of the building is honored throughout the interiors of the Scholar Hotel's lobby.

Scholar Hotel Group acquired the historic Glennland Building in 2019 and, after extensive renovations, the newly purposed property has been designed for both overnight guests and those with extended-stay hotel needs. It features guest rooms with plush bedding, free wireless high-speed internet and a large work area. Each guest room contains a kitchen with refrigerator, dishwasher, cooktop or oven, microwave and spacious cabinets.

In addition, Scholar Hotel State College features Social Food + Drink, offering a full-service bar with a variety of specialty cocktails and a small plate menu. Social Food + Drink, located at the corner of Beaver Avenue and Pugh streets, is expected to open during the first quarter of 2021.

Guests visiting Scholar Hotel State College enjoy peace of mind from check-in to check-out with Hilton's new program, Hilton CleanStay, to enjoy an even safer and cleaner stay. New procedures include contactless digital check-in and a Hilton CleanStay room seal to indicate that the room has not been entered since being thoroughly cleaned.

ISTANBUL - Facebook announced Monday it has begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey to comply with a controversial law governing social media companies.

ISTANBUL - Facebook announced Monday it has begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey to comply with a controversial law governing social media companies.

The law, which passed in July, requires social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to maintain representatives in Turkey to deal with complaints about content on their platforms. Companies refusing to designate an official representative are subject to fines, advertising bans and bandwidth reductions that would make their networks too slow to use.

"This decision does not change Facebooks Community Standards, nor the global process for reviewing government requests, and we will withdraw the representative if we face pressure on either," Facebook said in its statement.

According to the law, the local representative of social media companies would be tasked with responding to individual requests to take down content violating privacy and personal rights within 48 hours or to provide grounds for rejection. The company would be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.

The law also requires social media data to be stored in Turkey, raising concerns in a country where the government has a track record of clamping down on free speech.

Turkish authorities fined the social media giant at least 40 million Turkish lira ($5.3 million) last year for not complying with the request to assign a representative. Advertising bans for companies that have not complied are set to begin Tuesday.

Facebook will join LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion and the Russian social media site VKontakte in setting up legal entities in Turkey.

Rights groups have said the decision by international tech companies to bow to Turkish pressure and appoint representatives would lead to censorship and violations of the right to privacy and access to information. The Freedom of Expression Association says more than 450,000 domains and 42,000 tweets have been blocked in Turkey as of October.

Amnesty Internationals Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum tweeted that the law undermines freedom of expression online in a country where independent media are already curtailed.

The consequences of compliance for human rights are huge: companies would not be able to resist arbitrary blocking/banning requests, would be compelled to provide user data, she said.

Facebook said, We remain committed to the Turkish community and maintaining free expression and other human rights in Turkey.

Last week, Turkey's antitrust board launched a probe against messaging application WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook Inc. for its new usage terms. The new terms, which were later postponed by the company, unleashed privacy concerns and prompted Turkish users to switch to other messaging apps.



Kelvin K. Chan contributed from London.
Gaurav Singh, a 28-year-old Pune resident, the second officer on a commercial cargo ship, has not stepped a foot on land for nearly 15 months. Every morning, he flips through news articles online in hope of finding some news. He calls home; his parents try to give him solace. But as night draws closer, his thoughts turn to the same unanswered questions. When could he return home? When would he get to see his mother again? Will he ever be able to get out of this steel box? Gaurav's hopes have now started to dwindle.

Gaurav is one of 16 Indian origin men who are part of the MV Anastasia crew, which has been stranded in Chinese waters from August 3, 2020 due to China's decision to ban coal exports from Australia. What was supposed to be a week-long halt has stretched on to nearly five months with Chinese authorities reportedly denying the ship - carrying Australian coal - permission to offload their cargo in China.

"Our medicines have run out and we are so hopeless, some of us are on the verge of killing ourselves," Gaurav tells News18 over the phone. "I don't know how long some of us can take this ordeal."

Ghosts in a steel box

Having been a sailor for eleven years, Gaurav is used to spending long hours at the sea and is well accustomed to the sailor life. The past few months, however, have been nothing like any he has experienced before.

Not having set foot on shore for over a year when they were allowed their last shore leaves, many on the ship have started to "lose their minds now", the sailor says.

"One of the crew tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists a few months ago. His entire family including his wife, two children, and elderly parents had tested positive for coronavirus," Gaurav recalls. Gaurav and other members of the crew had managed to save man in just the nick of time.

Yet another member of the crew on board for nearly two years lost his mother in 2020 but was not allowed to return to India, even after Chinese authorities were informed that he was needed for performing the last rites. The sailor's mother was ultimately cremated by strangers.

Describing the endless nightmare, Gaurav says, "We are like ghosts trapped in a steel box. Most of the crew remains locked in their cabins all day, coming out only for meals while imagining the worst possible scenarios for the rest of the time."

At least 12 of the 18-member crew on board (which includes a Philippine sailor and a Russian) are in severe need of medical treatment, both for mental health issues as well as physical problems arising out of lack of movement.

Anastasia isn't the only ship stranded in Chinese waters. About 30 nautical miles from Caofeidian where Gaurav and his crew members are anchored, the MV Declan Duff with an all-Indian crew of 20 sailors has been sitting in the anchorage area of Jingpang in Hubei province from July 23.

In the past few days, while MV Anastasia and another docked ship - MV Jag Anand - had been leading a public campaign for their release by approaching the media to mount pressure on the Indian government to back their release with China, the crew members of MV Declan Duff were silently waiting and watching.

On January 10, 2021, MV Jag Anand owned by Great Eastern Shipping Company that carried 23 crew members and had been docked in Jinpang since June, was released for crew change to Japan. The move came after the Indian government earlier in the month said stated in the media that it was making diplomatic efforts with China to release the ships.

Once the ship departed, the Wallem Shipping Management Company-owned Declan Duff's crew - which was anchored just about three miles from Jag Anand - began to lose heart.

"All this time we had hoped the media attention whipped up the 39 Indians stuck on Jag Anand and Anastasia would also help in our release," Arihant Shukla from the Crew of Declan Duff tells News18. "Watching her leave was devastating because now we knew that we had been left behind. We are Indian too. What about us?"

Why have the ships been halted?

According to sailors who spoke to News18, the exact reason for China's refusal to allow crew-change in Chinese waters or allow the ships to pass through customs and offload their cargo, even before the coal blockade was finalised in December, remains unclear.

Asserting that Beijing "never denied any vessel departure", China has previously said that the "real" reason for Indian sailors stranded near its shores is that the "freight forwarder doesn't want to adjust plans due to commercial interests".

The Chinese have cited Covid-19 restrictions to deny crew-change to the sailors. But since most of the crews had not stepped foot on land for months, many onboard questioned the sincerity of the reason given for their delay.

The timing of some of the ships' anchorage coincides with China's worsening diplomatic relations with India in June last year, culminating in the Galwan Valley violence in which twenty Indian soldiers lost their lives.

China's refusal to allow the unloading of Australian coal is also in line with the months of vague restrictions on imports and shipping that China was employing - causing in the stranding of ships - amid its growing tiff with Australia. Inspired, as per an analysis by the New York Times, to protect its internal mercantile economy, critics have also claimed that the move by China to block Australian imports was a way to punish the country for calling for an inquiry against China's role in the coronavirus outbreak and its handling.

However, it's important to note that t isn't just Chinese authorities that play a role in the release of the sailors. The companies that own the cargo vessels, as well as the freight forwarders or charters whose cargo is being moved-- are equally responsible.

Stuck at sea for 17 months now, Arihant thinks it's high time that companies and charters, as well as the governments of both India and China, should do something about it.

The Mumbai resident who is the father to a four-year-old toddler missed the child's birthday but insists he has it better than another sailor whose child was born in his absence and has now become 15-months-old. Or another, whose daughter is set to get married in February, and the thought of missing is unbearable to him.

Hope in despair

The decision to allow the crew members of Jag Mohan to return to India via Tokyo had brought hopes for some that the rest of the ships too may now be released. But keeping up morale is harder than it sounds when one is stuck without hope, Gaurav back in Anastasia tells News18 over a call.

In the past three weeks, the crew was finally contacted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following some media reports and an online petition led by Gaurav's brother-in-law Shivraj G on Change.org demanding the Indian government to put pressure on Beijing and also on all the private players involved. MV Anastasia is owned by MSE while Declan Duff is owned by Wallem Ship Management Company.

"All we are asking for is a date of release. So that we can find some hope in despair," Gaurav sighs.

Meanwhile, back in India, Arihant's 4-year-old child grows older without a father while the family of Gaurav in Pune endlessly awaits the return of their boy.

"Some days, I don't know how to go on. I put on a brave face for him on the phone and tell him it will be okay. But his hopelessness breaks me," Gaurav's mother Savitri Singh breaks down while speaking to News18 over the phone. She has never stayed away from her youngest boy for so long and fears for his mental health, owing to the extraordinary conditions he is in.

"He likes to eat sambhar a lot. And only likes dal and sabzi that I make at home. He tells me that they feed him well there. I'm thankful that at least he isn't going hungry," she says by way of consoling herself. After all, consolations are all she can offer to herself and to her son, she says.

*Name changed.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 06:11:07|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Bandits killed five people including an 80-year-old woman in separate attacks in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna on Sunday, an official said.

The elderly woman was hit by a bullet and died instantly as the bandits raided several homes in Sharu village of the Igabi local government area in Kaduna, said Samuel Aruwan, the state's commissioner for internal security and home affairs.

Aruwan said the ward head of Konti village in the Chikun local government area of the state, and two others, were also killed in another attack the same day.

In the Giwa local government area of the state, some other bandits barricaded a major road and opened fire on passengers plying the road.

One unidentified woman was killed, and three other people were injured in that particular attack, the official said.

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of the state expressed sadness over the attacks and condoled with the families of the deceased.

The governor also urged security agencies to ensure a diligent investigation into what he described as "disturbing incidents." Enditem
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / CANEX Metals Inc. ("CANEX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has signed a reverse circulation drill contract with a major international drilling company to drill a minimum of 1829 metres (6000 feet) at the Companies Gold Range Project in Arizona.

Drilling is scheduled to start at the end of this week and will include up to 30 drill holes testing multiple priority targets. Drilling will initially focus on confirming and expanding the recently discovered zone of bulk tonnage style mineralization at the Eldorado Zone. This zone is highlighted by drill hole GR20-9 which intersected 27.3 metres grading 0.9 g/t gold starting at surface (previously released see November 2, 2020 news release). The Company anticipates up to 15 short holes in this zone to confirm and expand the near-surface bulk tonnage discovery.

The recently optioned Excelsior Mine which has seen considerable historic underground and more recent open pit production will be drill tested during the upcoming program. The target at Excelsior is very similar to Eldorado and contains a shallow dipping high grade vein, 0.5 to 2 meters wide, that has returned grades from limited chip sampling ranging from 3.8 g/t gold over 1 metre to 45.4 g/t gold over 0.5 metre. Surrounding this high-grade vein is a halo of quartz veinlets and altered and mineralized intrusive dikes that have returned grades ranging from 0.7 g/t gold over 1 metre to 20.9 g/t gold over 0.3 metres. Approximately 10 drill holes are planned at Excelsior to test the high-grade vein and the surrounding bulk tonnage halo.

Drilling is also being planned for the Central Zone and historic Lillian Mine area where CANEX has defined a gold in soil anomaly almost 1 kilometre long and which likely extends onto the Lillian Mine area, which has not yet been soil sampled. Drilling in this area will target a series of sub parallel veins within a 100 metre wide corridor that have returned strong gold values including 11.2 g/t gold over 1 metre, 8.8 g/t gold over 0.3 metres, and 7.4 g/t gold over 0.2 meters.

For further information on the upcoming drill program please see an updated corporate presentation on the Companies website at www.canexmetals.ca.

Figure 1. Map showing the Gold Range Property, the Excelsior Mine Property under option, and the main areas of focus for the upcoming January 2021 drill program.

About the Gold Range Property

The Gold Range Property is located in Northern Arizona within an underexplored belt containing historic load and placer gold production. CANEX has identified widespread gold mineralization within a 3 kilometre by 5 kilometre area including two gold-in-soil anomalies that are up to a kilometre in scale.

Figure 2. Left, cross section A-A' illustrating the recently discovered bulk tonnage gold target identified in holes GR20-8 and 9. Right drill hole location map showing the location of cross section A-A'.

Drilling in August and September 2021 identified near surface bulk tonnage gold potential at the Eldorado Zone with Hole GR20-9 returning 0.9 g/t gold over 27.3 metres including 5.9 g/t gold over 1.5 metres. Hole GR20-8 drilled from the same pad as GR20-9 returned 0.5 g/t gold over 24.4 metres starting from surface. The new discovery correlates with a strong gold in soil anomaly and sheeted quartz veinlets and stockworks within metamorphic rocks.

Photographs from the Gold Range Project. Left, view looking east showing the new bulk tonnage target zone at Gold Range. Right, outcrop at top of mineralized ridge containing quartz veined granodiorite gneiss where chip samples returned 2.7 g/t gold over 4 metres.

The Company remains focused on confirming and expanding the new discovery through continued exploration and drilling. Please visit our website at www.canexmetals.ca for additional information.

Dr. Shane Ebert P.Geo., is the Qualified Person for CANEX Metals and has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

"Shane Ebert"

Shane Ebert,

President/Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Except for the historical and present factual information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release, including words such as "expects", "projects", "plans", "anticipates" and similar expressions, are forward-looking information that represents management of CANEX Metals Inc. internal projections, expectations or beliefs concerning, among other things, future operating results and various components thereof or the economic performance of CANEX. The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause CANEX's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, those described in CANEX's filings with the Canadian securities authorities. Accordingly, holders of CANEX shares and potential investors are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted. CANEX disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements.

For Further Information Contact:

Shane Ebert at 1.250.964.2699 or

Jean Pierre Jutras at 1.403.233.2636

Web: http://www.canexmetals.ca

SOURCE: CANEX Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624600/Canex-Signs-Drill-Contract-for-the-Gold-Range-Project-Arizona-Drilling-to-Commence-Shortly
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Algiers, 18 January 2020 (SPS)  Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sabri Boukadoum made last week a tour to Africa in which a great convergence of views and positions was noted with the African leaders concerning the different regional and international issues of common interest, notably on the role of the African Union (AU) in the political settlement of the conflict of Western Sahara.



After South Africa, Lesotho and Angola, Boukadoum visited Kenya as a prelude to the 34th AU Summit that will be held in February.



The Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in the Sahel, Libya, Central Africa, Congo and Central African Republic, as well as the growing terrorism threat in the continent were at the heart of the discussions. The latest developments in Western Sahara were also the main focus of the discussions between the Algerian Foreign minister and his African interlocutors.



The minister, who started his tour in Pretoria, was received by South African Cyril Ramaphosa to whom he expressed the firm commitment of President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune to the strengthening of the strategic partnership between the two countries and his commitment to giving a fresh impetus to the bilateral cooperation.



For his part, Ramaphosa expressed his willingness to work with his brother Abdelamdjid Tebboune to develop the bilateral cooperation in its political, security, economic and cultural dimensions for an optimal exploitation of the opportunities offered on both sides.



Boukadoum and his South-African counterpart Naledi Pandor stressed the strategic importance of the bi-national commission as a structured bilateral mechanism to coordinate and form a bilateral cooperation and a partnership between the two countries.



Concerning the Sahrawi issue, the two sides underlined that they are seriously concerned by the escalation of the military tensions in the occupied territories and reaffirmed their position which consists in reaching a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution which ensures the self-determination of Western Saharas people.



In this respect, Boukadoum and Pandor expressed their full support to the immediate appointment by UN Secretary General of his personal envoy for Western Sahara.



In Lesotho, Boukadoum was received by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Matsepo Ramakoae where they stressed the need to finalize the legal framework and give a new boost to the contacts at all levels in view of the holding of the inaugural session of the Joint Committee.



Concerning the conflict in Western Sahara, the two sides underlined the necessity for AU and UN to work together to launch a real political process enabling the completion of the decolonization process.



In Angola, Boukadaoum held a working meeting with his counterpart Antonio Tete where theur assess the bilateral cooperation and prospects of its development. They also discussed poltical, peace and security issues in Africa, notably the situations in Libya, Malia and Western Sahara.



With his Kenyan counterpart Raychelle Omamo, the minister broached the bilateral relations as well as the main tense areas in the African continent.



Concerning regional and international issues, the two ministers underlined with satisfaction the convergence of their positions favoring the respect of the principles of the international law and the peaceful settlement of crises and conflicts. (SPS)



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President Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that he will perform better in his second term as President to meet the expectations of Ghanaians.



President Akufo-Addo was handed a second term in office after winning the 2020 general elections held on December 7, 2020.



The NPP flagbearer accumulated 6,730,587 votes (51.3%) whiles competitor and flagbearer of the NDC John Dramani Mahama amassed 6,213,182 (47.3%).



He was sworn in as president of Ghana for the second term by the Chief Justice Anim Yeboah on January 7, 2021.



Addressing Ghanaians for the very first time after he was a sworn-in ceremony, President Akufo-Addo in his 22nd nationwide address measures put in place in the fight against the devastating coronavirus said,



Before I start, let me use this opportunity to thank you all and Almighty God for enabling me to swear, for the second time, the oath of office as President of the Republic. The ceremony took place after I last spoke to you. I promise I will do my very best to live up to your expectations.

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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YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The status of Nagorno Karabakh is not mentioned in the 2020 November 9 trilateral statement and it has been left for solving in the future, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference.

The territory where the peacekeeping mission is deployed is the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping contingent. We are proceeding from this in our contacts with Yerevan and Baku. Now, the details on organizing transport communication and humanitarian assistance are being developed, Lavrov said.

The Russian FM said that there are contradictions about the status in Yerevan and Baku and due to these contradictions the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have decided to set aside this issue for now and resolve it in the future.

Lavrov said that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs also have to work over this issue and that they are already in contacts with the sides and are planning to visit the region. Lavrov says the sooner Yerevan and Bakus assurances on the willingness to resolve daily life between ethnic and religious communities are solved the sooner the NK status issue will be solved.

Lavrov called the proposal voiced by some on including Karabakh as some sort of a federal subject of Russia exotic, and he once again stressed that the independence of Nagorno Karabakh isnt even recognized by Armenia itself.

We dont have such intention, we proceed from the point of view that such issues should be resolved between Armenia and Azerbaijan for preserving security in the region.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
As of today, this is the tenth consecutive year the company has been named for MVP Status by one of the industrys most prestigious trade associations.

Award recipients must satisfy a rigorous set of criteria with less than 10% of the associations membership earning the award. To become a 2021 MVP, Wisconsin Lift Truck had successfully demonstrated a commitment to business excellence, professionalism, and good stewardship.

For members to qualify for the annual MVP award, they must provide evidence of their dedication to their partners in business. These partners include customers, employees, and suppliers. Additionally, they are to meet the following criteria:



Industry Advocacy

Customer Service & Safety Practices

Business Networking

Continuing Education

Business Best Practices

We are proud to receive MHEDAs Most Valued Partner Award. We exist to provide superior value to our customers. We can only accomplish this goal through maintaining excellent supplier relationships and a motivated and educated workforce. MHEDA is a big part of our engagement and training in the industry, explains Jerry Weidmann, President of Wolter Group LLC.

About Wolter Group LLC: A family-owned and operated group of companies consisting of Wisconsin Lift Truck Corp., Illinois Material Handling, Kensar Equipment Company, Bohnert Equipment Company, AD Lift Truck, Fleet Services, Wolter Power Systems, and Ellis Systems. Through these businesses, the Wolter Group provides parts, rentals, service, and training as well as new and used sales of forklifts, aerial lifts, railcar movers, industrial cleaning equipment, engines & generators, pallet rack systems, automation & robotics as well as fleet management services. The Wolter Group has a highly trained staff of over 490 employees who take pride in delivering superior service to over 20,000 customers.

Visit: woltergroupllc.com or contact the Chief Marketing Officer, kristin.lelewicz@woltergroupllc.com
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Police detained top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Sunday when he flew back to Russia months after barely surviving a poisoning attack, prompting a new wave of Western condemnation.

Navalny was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport less than an hour after he flew in from Germany, where he had been recovering from the poisoning with a nerve agent he says was ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

The United States, the European Union, several EU governments, Canada and a senior aide to US President-elect Joe Biden immediately called for his release, with some in the EU urging new sanctions against Moscow.

Rights groups joined the calls, with Amnesty International saying Navalny had become a prisoner of conscience and accusing Russian authorities of waging "a relentless campaign" to silence him.

European Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter that Navalny's detention was "unacceptable", while the French foreign ministry said the arrest caused "very strong concern".

"Mr Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable," Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added that America "strongly condemns" the arrest, noting with "grave concern" that Navalny's detention was the latest attempt to silence voices critical of Russia's government.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hit back in a Facebook post, telling foreign leaders to "respect international law" and "deal with the problems in your own country".

Navalny, 44, was met by uniformed police at passport control after his Berlin flight touched down in Moscow, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

He embraced his wife Yulia who was travelling with him and was led away, with aides later saying he was being held at police station near the airport.

"Alexei was detained without the reason being explained," Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova told AFP at the airport, saying she had been refused the right to accompany him.

"Everything that is happening now is against the law."

Russia's FSIN prison service said in a statement that it had detained Navalny for "multiple violations" of a 2014 suspended sentence for fraud, adding that "he will be held in custody" until a court ruling.

The FSIN said it had previously warned Navalny he would be arrested for failing to meet probation conditions while in Germany, including that he check in with the service twice a month.

Speaking to journalists at Sheremetyevo before his detention, Navalny said he did not fear being arrested. "I am not afraid... because I know that I'm in the right, I know that the criminal cases against me are fabricated," Navalny said, standing in front of a picture of the Kremlin in the terminal.

His plane landed at Sheremetyevo after a dramatic last-minute diversion from another Moscow airport, Vnukovo, where several hundred of his supporters and media were waiting.

Several of his associates were taken into custody at the airport while the plane was in the air, including prominent Moscow activist Lyubov Sobol and other top aides.

OVD Info, which monitors detentions at political protests in Russia, said at least 55 people had been detained at the airport, which had banned mass events because of coronavirus restrictions.

Sobol and others later said they were released and were facing administrative charges.

Dozens of police in riot gear with black helmets and batons had deployed at the airport. "I had to come to support him, to show him that he is not alone," Saint Petersburg artist Tanya Shchukina told AFP.

Navalny fell violently ill on a flight over Siberia in August and was flown to Berlin in an induced coma. Western experts concluded he was poisoned with Soviet-designed nerve toxin Novichok.

The Kremlin denies any involvement and Russian investigators said there were no grounds to launch a probe.

Navalny may now face criminal charges under a probe launched late last year by Russian investigators who say he misappropriated over $4 million worth of donations.

Navalny has been the symbol of Russia's protest movement for a decade, after rising to prominence as an anti-corruption blogger and leading anti-government street rallies.

He publishes YouTube investigations into the wealth of Russia's political elites. Some of the videos garner millions of views, making the activist's team a target of lawsuits, police raids and jail stints.

The Kremlin opponent has never held elected office.

He came second in a 2013 vote for mayor of Moscow but was barred from standing against Putin in the 2018 presidential elections.

His allies are also frequently prevented from running for election.

His team has been gearing up to challenge the ruling United Russia party in elections to the lower house State Duma due in September.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High near 50F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 41F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
The best friend of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson - the woman Phil Spector was convicted of shooting dead almost 18 years ago - believes the music producer could be innocent of the heinous crime.

In a bombshell interview Punkin Laughlin, who was the key witness for the defense at Spector's first trial which ended with a hung jury, maintains that Clarkson was in a 'fragile' and 'suicidal' state in the days before her death.

And repeating what she told a Los Angeles jury in 2007, she told DailyMail.com: 'Two days before she died Lana called me and was crying her eyes out for an hour. She said, 'I'm going to get a f**king gun and blow my f**king brains out. I don't want to live anymore. And two days later she's dead with a gunshot wound to the mouth.'

In court proceedings former club promoter Laughlin, known to friends as Punkin Pie, was recorded as saying Clarkson said: 'I don't want to live anymore. I don't want to live in this town. I want to end it. Pie I can't take any moreI'm done, done, done.'

Laughlin added: 'So even after all these years, I believe Lana put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger. I really do. I have taken a lot of flack for this view, but all I have ever wanted is to get to the truth of what happened to my best friend.

'I knew her better than anyone and she was fragile and depressed and close to the edge when she died. I love her. She's my best friend, but I wanted to get to the truth.'

Punkin Laughlin, the best friend of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson - the woman Phil Spector was convicted of shooting dead almost 18 years ago - believes he could be innocent of the heinous crime. Pictured: Laughlin and Clarkson celebrating the New Year in 2002

Spector (pictured in 2009) died from COVID-19 related complications on Saturday at the age of 81 He was serving a 19 years-to-life sentence for the 2003 murder of Lana Clarkson

In a bombshell interview Laughlin (pictured), who was the key witness for the defense at Spector's first trial which ended with a hung jury, maintains that Clarkson was in a 'fragile' and 'suicidal' state in the days before her death

Other witnesses also reported that Clarkson was despondent about her financial troubles, career difficulties, and lack of a stable relationship.

After the 2007 mistrial Spector was released on $1 million bail and retried for murder in the second degree the following year.

But this time Laughlin, who had been key to the defense's case that Clarkson's death was an accidental suicide, didn't take the stand.

Emotionally battered and her reputation in tatters after being eviscerated by the media, Laughlin decided she couldn't face giving evidence.

'I went to the lawyer's office and I just fell on the floor crying. And I said, 'I can't do it, I won't take that stand again'.

'And they said, well, we're not going to do it to you Pie because we've seen what this case has done to you, it's ruined your life.'

The case went to the jury in March, 2009, and after 18 days of deliberation, on April 13, the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Spector was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

After serving 12 years of his sentence Spector died in prison from COVID-19 related complications at the age of 81 last Saturday.

Laughlin says she never met Spector, never had any sympathy for him and didn't much like him, but she was desperate to get to the truth behind her best friend's death.

In court proceedings former club promoter Laughlin, known to friends as Punkin Pie, was recorded as saying Clarkson said: 'I don't want to live anymore. I don't want to live in this town. I want to end it. Pie I can't take any moreI'm done, done, done'

Other witnesses also reported that Clarkson (right with a friend) was despondent about her financial troubles, career difficulties, and lack of a stable relationship

Laughlin says initially, on the advice of Clarkson's lawyer, she kept quiet about the suicidal phone call. But when called to the stand she knew she had to tell the whole truth. Pictured: Clarkson on a promo poster

'I was subpoenaed to tell the truth and I had grown up with Perry, Mason, I thought that's what we do - you tell the truth and then the truth gets found.

'When I heard Lana had died, honestly the first thing I thought of was that she slipped and hit her head doing the splits over somebody in a hot tub, that was kind of her calling card.

'But I was petrified because of what she had told me two days before. So I was like, 'Oh God, did she do this, what's happened?'

Laughlin says initially, on the advice of Clarkson's lawyer, she kept quiet about the suicidal phone call.

But when called to the stand she knew she had to tell the whole truth.

And for Laughlin she believes Clarkson was capable of taking her own life because she was in such a fragile state of mind.

'She had problems with her finances, she couldn't find money to pay the rent, she was an actress and she'd broken her wrist the year before, and she couldn't work anymore,' she said.

'All the men had dried up that paid her way and she took the job at the House of Blues.'

Spector had met Clarkson at the famous Sunset Strip music venue that night, February 3, 2003.

Laughlin says her friend, who was the Green Room Manager, had been impressed when the iconic producer left a waitress a $500 tip and they struck up a conversation.

At the end of the night statuesque blond Clarkson left with 5ft 4' Spector and went to his huge nine-bed, 33-room Alhambra estate called the Pyrenees Castle.

After the 2007 mistrial Spector was released on $1 million bail and retried for murder in the second degree the following year. Spector in mugshots in 2017 (left) and 2019 (right)

The record producer was the creator of pop's 'wall of sound'

Laughlin says her friend, who was the Green Room Manager, had been impressed when the iconic producer left a waitress a $500 tip and they struck up a conversation. At the end of the night statuesque blond Clarkson left with 5ft 4' Spector and went to his huge nine-bed, 33-room Alhambra estate called the Pyrenees Castle (pictured)

'She was so fragile, so depressed and liked to party. She drank champagne, tequila, brandy and snorted cocaine,' said Laughlin.

'She could get very aggressive and demonstrative and maybe he (Spector) didn't like that.'

Laughlin speculates that Spector - who was known for his vicious, vindictive personality - could have turned on Clarkson, degraded her and pushed her over the edge.

She added: 'Maybe he turned on her and the whole situation turned weird. I think she killed herself because of what he said to her. If he degraded her she could not have taken it another minute.

'And the problem with Lana is she's an Aries. She wouldn't have taken it. And if he degraded her, it would snap her like a twig.

'I didn't know him, only by reputation. I had heard the stories, like he had a Napoleon complex and that he'd like to wave guns around to show that he was the big man, but could he pull the trigger and shoot someone in the head?'

Laughlin's lone voice in defense of Spector has come under intense criticism over the years.

She was subject to frenzied attacks in the media during the two trials with claims she was paid off by Spector with a suitcase full of cash.

While the exact circumstances of Clarkson's death remain shrouded in mystery (Spector never took the stand to give his version of events), the music producer's second trial did prove conclusive, however.

The proceedings were dominated by one phrase: 'I think I killed someone.'

The record producer and creator of pop's 'wall of sound' was said to have uttered those words as he left his home in the early hours and spoke to his Brazilian chauffeur, Adriano de Souza.

During the trial Spector's lawyers claimed the shooting happened when Clarkson 'kissed the gun'. But the jury heard from several women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in the past when they had spurned his advances

Also the court heard how Clarkson (pictured) had bought multiple pairs of shoes in the days before her death, hardly the actions of someone with suicidal thoughts

Behind him lay the bloodied body of 40-year-old Clarkson, slumped in a fake Louis XIV chair.

During the trial Spector's lawyers claimed the shooting happened when Clarkson 'kissed the gun'.

But the jury heard from several women who claimed Spector had threatened them with guns in the past when they had spurned his advances.

Also the court heard how Clarkson had bought multiple pairs of shoes in the days before her death, hardly the actions of someone with suicidal thoughts.

According to expert testimony people rarely kill themselves on the spur of the moment, and almost never at the home of a stranger.

Laughlin said: 'I don't think it was suicide in the way they made it sound. I think it was a knee jerk reaction to the culmination of her life. And then that night it was lighter fluid and a match. She was just so depressed, she was at the end of her tether. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.'

The retired club promoter, 64, who lives in Redondo Beach, California, is currently writing a book chronicling her colorful life-story on Hollywood's music and club scene, including her connection to the Spector case.

She said she was as shocked as anyone to hear of Spector's death over the weekend.

'I'm floored because I've wanted to talk to him all these years,' she said.

'I wanted to know the truth. And I'm probably the only one that wanted to know the truth. Lana was my best friend for 10 years, the love of my life and she was the reason I had to testify for the defense, but now we may never know what happened for sure.'
New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Saturday claimed that the Centre had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying it would not implement the M S Swaminathan Commission report and added that by doing so, it had backstabbed the farmers.

Hitting out at the BJP-led central government, he said while it favoured waiving the loans of corporates, it was reluctant to do so when it came to the farmers.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief also demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss the farmers issues.

The farmers are in a deep crisis. It is extremely distressing that they are being fired at and forced to dump their produce on the streets.

What kind of development is this? When the farmers protest peacefully, they face bullets, he said while addressing a national convention of his party on farmers.

AAPs state convenors and in-charges were present on the occasion. Farmer leaders Rampal Jat (Rajasthan), Satnam Singh and Gurnam Singh (Punjab) and Raghunath Patil (Maharashtra) also attended the event.

The convention comes at a time when the party is looking to strengthen its base in rural India.

The BJP won elections by promising to implement the Swaminathan Commission report, but it has now backstabbed the farmers.

I have learnt that the government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying it does not want to implement the report, claimed Kejriwal.

He said the Congress was defeated in the last Lok Sabha election as the party had resorted to tactics similar to those of the BJP-led government.

Today, neither the soldiers nor the farmers are happy. The BJP came to power riding on the slogan of jai jawan jai kisan, but it has let down both. Every farmer should be made aware of this, said the AAP leader.

He also demanded an FIR against the police personnel who opened fire at the farmers at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

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Anas al-Abdah has called for the political process to be expedited and based on the demands of the Syrian people writes Zaman Al-Wasl.

The head of the Syrian oppositions Negotiation Commission said Wednesday, the economic hardships and the lack of security must drive the international community, allies and the UN to accelerate the political process forward and implement Resolution 2254 in a swift and effective manner.

Anas al-Abdah insisted on the Commissions adherence to the implementation of international resolutions, with the Geneva Declaration and Resolution 2254 at the forefront, in order to achieve a real political transition based on the demands of the Syrian people for freedom, dignity, and democracy.

The commission is open to working in coordination with the Syrian Constitutional Committee, whose slow progress, according to him, may affect the political process, he added.

According to Abdah, the commission is prioritizing the detainees file in all its meetings and activities, considering the necessity of addressing the issue as non-negotiable in order to release the people wrongfully detained in Bashar al-Assads prisons and to reveal the fate of those who were forcibly disappeared by his regime.

Abdah said the UN team on Syrian affairs should have a new and effective action plan, to avoid the dead end that the team of former UN Envoy Staffan De Mistura reached.

The head of the negotiation commission has also accused the Syrian regime of facilitating the entry of more than 500 Islamic State militants into southern Daraa province without revealing further details.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on May 18, 2020. (Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News Pool)

Texas Leading the Way in COVID-19 Vaccines Administered in US: Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the Lone Star State is leading the nation in vaccine administration after it became the first state to vaccinate a million residents against the CCP virus.

Abbott hailed Texass efforts to distribute and administer the vaccine amid a nationwide rollout that has been slower than expected.

Texas is leading the way for our nation once again, Abbott said in a statement on Jan. 14. This is the biggest vaccination effort we have ever undertaken, and it would not be possible without the dedication and tireless efforts of our healthcare workers. We still have a long road ahead of us, but Texans continue to prove that we are up to this challenge.

Health officials said last year they projected 20 million Americans getting vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2020, but that number ended up being under 4 million. Around 31.2 million doses of Pfizers and Modernas two-dose vaccines have been distributed in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while just under 12.3 million doses have been administered as of Jan. 18.

Texas, with a population of some 29 million, has distributed just over 2 million doses and administered just under 1.2 million, as of Jan. 18, the CDC stated. California, with 39.5 million people, has distributed more than 3.5 million doses and administered just under 1.1 million.

Were showing the country how to get this done, Abbott told Breitbart News in an interview on Jan. 16, in which he stressed the voluntary nature of inoculations in Texas.

But the first thing I want to convey to your audience a standard we have in the state of Texas is when it comes to vaccines: they are always voluntary, never forced or required. People have a choice in Texas whether they want to take a vaccine or not, Abbott told the outlet.

It comes as the slow pace of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration has frustrated many Americans at a time when the pandemic death toll has continued to rise. Nearly 400,000 Americans have reportedly died due to the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, according to a Johns Hopkins tally.

At the end of December 2020, Texas health authorities expanded eligibility criteria to get more shots in the arms of Texans willing to get inoculated.

For those who do want to take a vaccine, we have created a very robust system to make sure we are getting this out as quickly as possible, Abbott told Breitbart News.

One thing that we did where we led the nation is we were the first to pivot to ensuring that anybody aged 65 and older would be able to get access to the vaccine.

Scattered shortages of COVID-19 vaccines were noted in some states on Jan. 16 under pressure from growing demand, as previously inoculated Americans returned for their required second shots and millions of newly eligible people scrambled to get their first.

Signs of vaccine supply strains appeared in Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, and Vermont.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Nearly three million people were put under lockdown in China Monday after a surge in coronavirus cases linked to a travelling salesman in the country's northeast.

While China has largely brought the virus under control, a sharp rise in cases in the past few weeks has prompted fresh lockdowns, travel restrictions and multiple rounds of mass testing.

Monday saw three million residents of two cities in northeastern Jilin province placed under new measures, as China reported 109 new infections.

More than 19 million people across China's northeast are now barred from leaving their homes, and in some cases can only apply for permission to go grocery shopping once every three days.

Authorities have traced over a hundred infections in Jilin province to an asymptomatic travelling salesman from neighbouring Heilongjiang, where authorities last week declared a state of emergency.

The salesman had travelled to two different cities, now locked-down, and given healthcare workshops to middle-aged and elderly residents, according to local officials.

An investigation has been launched into the health care centres that hosted the workshops to determine whether their operations constitute illegal business activities.

Health care workshops which sometimes market products claiming to boost "longevity" have been accused of preying on vulnerable groups in China, particularly the elderly.

The People's Daily, a state-run newspaper, ran a commentary on Monday lambasting the workshops as "risking lives for money, under the guise of caring about the health of the elderly".

Lockdowns were also extended across other areas of China's northeast over the weekend, including one district of Harbin, currently hosting a popular ice sculpture festival that is usually a big draw for tourists.

But local authorities partially lifted lockdowns in two cities in Hebei province outside Beijingwhich has accounted for the majority of cases in recent weeksthough some 12.5 million are still being told to stay home.

Over 20,000 residents of villages in the area have been sent into quarantine in a centralized location, state media reported last week.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP

A senior official at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday said that North India will continue to reel under the grip of an intense cold wave for few more days even as the dense fog will lift by Tuesday.

Speaking to news agency ANI, RK Jenamani, the senior scientist, IMD, said that the warning for the cold wave in North India has been extended till 22 January.

However, RK Jenamani said that the dense fog spread across northern plains in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will begin lifting from Tuesday.

A few days back, the weather bureau had issued a cold wave warning for 13-15 January and then extended it till 18 January.

Delhi's minimum temperature rose to 9 degrees Celsius, two notches more than normal, on Monday due to partly cloudy weather and prevailing easterly winds, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 17 degrees Celsius.

On Sunday, the temperature dropped below the 5 degrees Celsius-mark at some places in North India and dense fog enveloped several areas.

A cold day is when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius below normal.

An IMD official said easterly winds are blowing in the national capital, which are not as cold as northwesterly coming in from the snow-clad western Himalayas.

The minimum temperature also rose slightly at many places in Punjab and Haryana on Monday, providing respite to the people from biting cold weather conditions.

With agency inputs

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LATEST Jan. 19 6:15 a.m. At least two other counties in the Bay Area, KGO-TV first reported, have received doses from the lot of Moderna vaccines California's leading epidemiologist advised against using for the time being.

Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Marin Counties all received the doses. Marin, however, is the only county to have distributed all of them. It has not reported any adverse affects. Contra Costa has dispensed 600 vaccines, while Santa Clara has used none.

Jan. 18, 2 p.m. San Francisco's COVID Command Center confirmed to SFGATE that the city received 8,000 doses from a lot of Moderna vaccines, which were distributed to the likes of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Laguna Honda and are suspected in several possible allergic reactions in San Diego.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health did not report any negative reactions to the vaccines distributed and stopped using the doses out of "an abundance of caution," a representative told SFGATE via email. The city, however, has "not received any replacement doses."

The official added, "This will have an impact on The Citys ability to complete scheduled appointments this week. This setback comes at a time when vaccine is scarce and when SFDPH allocation from the state arriving this week is only 1,775."

Jan. 18, 12:30 p.m. California's leading epidemiologist is warning health departments across the state to stop dispensing a single lot of the Moderna vaccine "out of an extreme abundance of caution" after fewer than 10 people at one vaccine distribution site experienced a possible allergic reaction.

"A higher-than-usual number of possible allergic reactions were reported with a specific lot of Moderna vaccine administered at one community vaccination clinic," said Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, in a statement Sunday. "Fewer than 10 individuals required medical attention over the span of 24 hours."

The reactions were reported last week at Petco Park in San Diego, one of the "super" vaccination sites expected to immunize up to 5,000 people daily, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Diana Cannizzo, a medical worker affected by the shot, told KNSD-TV in San Diego that she experienced neck pain and tongue numbness shortly after getting the vaccine, but did not want her experience to negatively shape people's views on COVID-19 vaccination.

Anaphylaxis is extremely uncommon with the COVID-19 vaccines. Typically, only one in 100,000 people are expected to have "adverse reactions," the state Department of Public Health said in the statement. With this lot alone, with more than 330,000 doses distributed to health care providers, no other signs of allergic reactions or other negative side effects have been reported.

A representative from San Francisco's COVID Command Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.

Per KPIX-TV, Alameda County is already halting the use of this lot.

According to Northeastern University, reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine are "unpleasant but harmless" in most cases. It is also likely, Northeastern pharmacist Todd Brown said in a report, that individuals who experience anaphylaxis with this vaccine have a history of allergic reactions with other common vaccines.

In the meantime, Pan said, providers should limit their use of Moderna vaccines from the 041L20A lot until a joint investigation by state and federal officials, along with Moderna, has concluded.
The Brazilian government will not prevent Huawei from competing in 5G auction which is due to be held in June, a potential blow to US government efforts in restricting the manufacturer.

Reuters cited local newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, which was told by a government source saying the government will not restrict the Chinese vendor from aiding in 5G deployments. This is due to the financial burdens for operators that can potentially run into billions of dollars, coupled with US President Donald Trump departing from the White House.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was a massive ally to Donald Trump whose administration pushed financial programmes and initiatives, to sway Brazilian operators from buying gear off Huawei. But with President-elect Joe Biden poised to take power in a few days, Bolsonaro was forced to backtrack on his view that Huawei shares private data with the Chinese government.

Brazilian operators were reportedly against Huawei being banned from auctions, with all operators snubbing an invitation from US undersecretary of state for economic growth and the environment Keith Krach, an effort to rally support.

Hamilton Mourao, the Brazilian vice president was also reportedly against snubbing the Asian vendor. Estado de S. Paulo reported the vice president said companies able to prove their credentials in maintaining Brazils national sovereignty and data protection will be allowing to supply 5G equipment.
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Americans were shocked by the assault on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6th, ostensibly by Trump supporters.

The US Capitol Police Chief, who has since resigned, stated: The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D. C.

Pat Buchanan noted: What Americans watched was a mob occupation and desecration of the temple of the American Republic. And the event will be forever exploited to discredit not only Trump but the movement he led and the achievements of his presidency. He will be demonized as no one else in our history since Richard Nixon or Joe McCarthy.

The fallout from last Wednesday will likely continue for a long time. The pitchfork brigade that frightened those in the Capitol for a few hours will likely become the face of conservatives on direct mail pieces of the Southern Poverty Law Center and their ilk.

But those inside the Capitol were not typical of the vast majority of conservatives, including those who attended the D.C. meeting. Pastor and columnist Larry Tomczak was there.

For wnd.com (1/6/21) he writes: The diverse crowd was overwhelmingly respectful but righteously angry. The gathered multitudes were a far cry from the boisterous, violent and destructive protests of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and far-left extremists.

How are we to process all this? Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, commented on the attack: Americans must always reject the resort to violence in pursuit of political goals. It is literally un-American to engage in, or resort to, violent disregard of the law. This is not a question of conservative vs. liberal or Democrat vs. Republican. This is right vs. wrong.

One now-repentant participant inside the Capitol is quoted in the New York Post (1/8/21): My decision to enter the Capitol was wrong, and I am deeply regretful to have done so. Without qualification and as a peaceful and law-abiding citizen, I condemn the violence and destruction that took place in Washington.

But, of course, if hes looking for forgiveness from the left, he will not find it. There is no redemption from the left.

Part of the story that is so difficult to stomach is the double standard  the way the media treats protesters on the right versus those on the left.

Tristan Justice of The Federalist.com notes that in the last year there were 28 times that media and Democrats excused or endorsed violence committed by left-wing activists. He points out: Democrats and their allies in the media are ready to condemn riots now that the turmoil has shifted to fit their narrative.

Justice adds, Incoming Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged her supporters last summer to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which provided bail money to the militant anarchists facing charges for setting fire to Minneapolis.

Looting and stealing and killing and violence for months was called mostly peaceful protests. Some of the reporters saying these riots were mostly peaceful protests had burning buildings behind them. They were reminiscent of Baghdad Bob, spokesman for Saddam Hussein in 2003, who would report that his forces were winning while the viewer could see the exact opposite behind Bob.

For months, we saw looting and unprecedented destruction of peoples livelihoods. Many of the people financially hurt were the working poor, including minorities, whose businesses and dreams went up in smoke.

America is all about the rule of law. The creation of the U.S. Constitution was in response to a riotous situation.

Some commentators note that the frustrated Capitol protesters did not go as far as trying to spark an insurrection. But, interestingly, the Constitution came about because of a true insurrection. It was called Shayss Rebellion (1786).

In her 1986 book on the creation of the Constitution, Miracle at Philadelphia, author Catherine Drinker Bowen says, Desperate farmers, ruinously taxed  by Boston, they said  and seeing their cattle and their land distrained by the bailiffs, had risen in revolt. With staves and pitchforks they had marched on county courthouses after the best Revolutionary technique, frightening sound-money men out of their wits and rousing General Washington to express disgust and anger that a country which had won a difficult war was not able to keep order in peacetime.

Response to this ultimately led to the creation of the Constitution  something good out of the ashes of calamity.

Meanwhile, Americas need to repent and return to God could not be clearer. One of the worst potential outcomes would be to encourage more Christian apathy on politics. It is never a good time to quit doing the right thing, even after major setbacks. After all, as Calvin Coolidge said, If good men dont hold office, bad men will.
Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy (L) accompanied by Gen. James McConville, Chief of Staff of the Army (R) speaks during a briefing on an investigation into Fort Hood, Texas at the Pentagon, in Washington, on Dec. 8, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

Army Secretary Says Commanders on Lookout for Potential Insider Threats Ahead of Inauguration Day

U.S. Army commanders are on the lookout for any potential insider threats ahead of inauguration day, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said in a recent interview.

McCarthy told The Associated Press on Sunday that defense officials are keeping an eye out for threats from within their ranks. But so far, he and other leaders have not seen any evidence of such threats, and the vetting of National Guard troops in Washington has not flagged any problems.

Were continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation, McCarthy told the news wire. He added that National Guard members are also receiving training on how to identify potential insider threats.

Potential insider threats have been a consideration for law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

According to the report, the FBI is currently conducting the vetting of National Guard members, who are coming to Washington to support operations for Jan. 20.

The FBI press office referred The Epoch Times to the U.S. Secret Service when asked questions about the vetting. The U.S. Secret Service is coordinating the security efforts for inauguration day.

A U.S. Secret Service spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that: In order to maintain critical operational security surrounding the 59th Presidential Inauguration, the U.S. Secret Service and our law enforcement partners will not be commenting on the means and methods used to conduct the agency mission, inclusive of protective intelligence matters.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense and the National Guard Bureau did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times request for comment.

Up to 25,000 National Guard members from across the country will be stationed in the city next week, the U.S. Army previously confirmed.

National Guardsmen were given the authorization to be armed on Jan. 12 in order to support law enforcement in the Capitol and the city, according to a statement by the D.C. National Guard. The authorization came after a request by federal authorities. Troops have been on 24-hour watch in the U.S. Capitol, and off-duty troops have been photographed sleeping in building hallways.

National Guard troops near the Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 15, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The increased number of National Guard members will be there to supplement the already ramped-up forces from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Capitol Police, and D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department.

The National Guard has a long and proud history of inauguration support, Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said during an inauguration security briefing with Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 14. The forefathers of todays National Guard were present for the inauguration of George Washington, and we have been part of every inauguration since.

The nations capital is seeing increased security put in place ahead of President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration, rendering it one of the most unusual inaugurations in history.

Security around the Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 15, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Extra security barriers block the roads at F and 14th streets in Washington on Jan. 15, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The south side of the White House in Washington on Jan. 15, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Videos by reporters, workers, and residents in the area show street closures, workers putting up miles of barricades and fencing with coiled barbed wire, shops and offices being boarded up, and an increased military presence. Military vehicles can be seen parked on downtown streets, and armed guards are checking identification for people leaving and entering the city.

Meanwhile, the city has already seen a number of streets closures with more to follow leading up to Jan. 20.

FBI Director Christopher Wray previously said theyre tracking an extensive amount of concerning online chatter about potential threats to the inauguration, including armed protests, potential threats linked to the Capitol breach, and other types of potential threats.

This comes amid concerns that the civil unrest and violence observed on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol may repeat next week.
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Plain clothes officers dressed as tradies have been pictured pulling over drivers allegedly flouting the law.

Images showed a man wearing an orange T-shirt standing at a car window with what looked like a gun in the western Sydney suburb of Jamisontown in New South Wales last Thursday.

The man appeared to have been driving a car with red and blue flashing lights on its rear windshield, as locals speculated he was an undercover police officer.

Sydney residents were shocked to see what looked like a police officer dressed up as a tradesperson pull over a driver last week. Pictured: A man wearing a tradie uniform talking to someone inside a red car with a P-plate

It looked like the man had a gun in his holster as he spoke to people through cars in the western Sydney suburb of Jamisontown in New South Wales last Thursday. Pictured: The man was wearing a high-vis orange shirt and cap

Photos of the encounter were shared to Facebook captioned 'Police dressed as tradies... You've been warned... Jamisontown NSW.'

The post has been shared thousands of times.

One person commented on the post and claimed to be a driver who was pulled over by the man, and said they were let off with a warning by a police officer.

Some people said they would feel nervous pulling over for someone in a trade-person's uniform.

'I would honestly never stop for anyone in this kind of appearance. You could be giving your personal information to anyone,' commented one.

'Did they have a badge? That is just purely low and dodgy.'

Another listed ways such a practice could be taken advantage of by criminals.

'If he collected their licence and walked back to his car to take a photo of the licence that's a way to do identify theft,' the person wrote.

'If he told the driver their car [isn't] registered ... This just encourages car theft with the car unattended.'

New South Wales police declined to comment.
Chandigarh:

The central government has declined permission to a Sikh delegation to visit Pakistan on the occasion of death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, an official of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) said on Saturday.



The Centre has declined permission due to security reasons, SGPC secretary Harcharan Singh told PTI over the phone.



He, however, said that the Centre had told the SGPC that if anyone wants to visit Pakistan then the Sikh religious body should give an undertaking that he or she is going on its own risk.



We are yet to decide on it (whether to send the delegation), he said.



A 251-member Sikh delegation is scheduled to go to Pakistan from June 21 to 29. The SGPC, the Sikh religious body, is facilitating the trip.



Another delegation, which was to visit Pakistan last month for the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev, was also denied visas due to the alleged lack of clearance from the Centre.

Suggested read: Pakistan welcomes Russias intention to mediate in resolving issues with India: Nafees Zakaria

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Using the 14th Amendment, section 3 needs Manchin to go along with all the DEMS. They want to use the Amendment to kick Republicans Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz out for contesting the electoral certificate in contested states.

The dissent of the two Republicans who contested the electoral college faces repercussions in privileges guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

But the DEMS are not all unanimous, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is the only vote to use or misuse the 14th Amendment. He told PBS "Firing Line" that Congress must consider the 14th Section 3 as a means to expel Hawley and Cruz. DEMS wanted the two GOP members to desist, but both went ahead in objecting to Congress's electoral votes, reported The Daily Wire.

Manchin directed his statements at Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), who objected on January 6 to several states' results during the Joint Session. Before him, the position was taken by the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

He discussed things on Firing, and he was asked to point black is the 14th applicable to the exercise of the honorable senators as part of constitutional rights. He added he considered it as a possible outcome, and Sen. Cruz must be expecting it.

Adding and emphasizing it is a consideration that should be weighed carefully. (Ted Cruz) knows that, and is easy to get along with, said the Democrat. Furthermore, his (Cruz) actions were not in our responsibilities or our privileges.

Also read: According to US Attorney, No Direct Evidence of Plot to Kidnap, Kill Lawmakers

According to the 14th Amendment, section 3 allows the expulsion of any members of the Upper and Lower house if they act in an insurrection or rebellion against the [United States]. Another is if they are guilty of giving aid or comfort to enemies, said Democrat Joe Manchin

If there is a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress, the member is expelled. It will not be easy to do that. DEMS are trying to use the section not as intended nor the process recommended for its application.

DEMS attempted to accuse the GOP senators of inciting the incident on January 6, which is yet to be proven. Both senators were the first to stand in line to contest electoral votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania with electoral fraud. These states took votes away or added them to the declared winner.

The senators were one of the most receptive and believed in Trump's crusade to correct the widespread fraud in 2020. The DEMS alleges that their claims spurred the unrest, but there was more than them. They were singled out, and the DEMS were vocal about it.

DEMS forgot when Trump won over Hillary Clinton. The same things were done in elections in 2000, 2004, and 2016. But, they did not pull punches in the four years of the Trump presidency.

Immediately, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), mentioned the 14th a week ago but not keen to use it. Instead, she used it as a means to go after any lawmaker who, in the DEMS book, caused the incident-even suggesting to file criminal charges in a speech last Friday against them.

According to Alan Dershowitz's opinion in an Epoch Times article, any congressman or senator is immune to suit while in office.

If the Democrat Joe Manchin is convinced to use the 14th Amendment Section 3, this will be used against anyone who disagrees.

Related article: Harvard Professor Says Democrats Violated the Constitution Six Times During Impeachment Process

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India is the 3rd largest start-up hub in the world with about 50,000 start-ups in 2018; around 8,900-9,300 of these are technology-led start-ups and 1,300 new tech start-ups were born in 2019 alone, implying there are 2-3 tech start-ups born every day. A decade ago, Unicorn valuations were almost unheard of, but today we have 22 Unicorns.

In conversation with Adgully, Vivek Bhargava, Head, dentsu Performance Group, envisions a future where the 22 Unicorns created out of India become 100 then that means 10,000 $100 million companies are going to be created and probably lakhs of $10 million dollar companies are going to be created.

Bhargava is speaking at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) India Digital Summit to be held on January 19 and 20. Watch him and other speakers address key digital initiatives that will cover policies, business, investment, advertising, digital commerce, the start-up ecosystem, emerging tech, eSports and other digital trends.

What are the needs of Indian SMEs from a policy and infrastructure perspective?

We put a lot of emphasis on the ease of doing business in terms of start-ups. There are enough people who can help you set up your start-up and the Government has provided a lot of benefits. Setting up a company that was there 10 years ago compared to what it is today is much easier today. I look at the policy infrastructure to address the fundamental problems that SMEs have and let me give you some examples.

Digital is the age we are living in and almost all SMEs have realised that they need to go digital. But in terms of infrastructure, what do they have access to that allows them to go digital? Lets say there was a digital marketing tool, hosting space, or ability to send an email, SMS, WhatsApp as the first point of call. Can the Government fund Rs 10,000 worth of email, SMS, WhatsApp? I work closely with Netcore and we would be happy to provide this service to millions of SMEs. There are 53 million SMEs in the country and everyone would receive Rs 10,000 for free. Once they get the first few customers via messaging, they learn how to use the platform effectively. There is no education platform for SMEs where they can learn digital marketing, CRM, and the basics of doing business in a digital age.

In policy infrastructure, a lot of people focus on infrastructure that they understand. But today, to be a successful business you must learn digital and there is no platform available to them to learn digital.

There are courses on entrepreneurship offered by a lot of reputed universities like Harvard and Columbia. Can we convert them to regional languages, take Harvard license to India and give it free? That would be policy instead of creating a Rs 10,000 crore fund where nobody knows how it would reach SMEs.

The policy should be a multiplier, a lever in making SMEs 10X or 100X.

How to foster competition within the digital ecosystem so that SME brands have a fighting chance against the larger platforms?

Every single large company was a small company at one point in time. If small companies crib that large companies are not helping them survive, thats not going to help. Every company needs to find a niche and within that niche become the best in the world.

Today, a lot of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies in India are able to go global. Anybody in the world can use them. But to subscribe to their services you need to register using a One-Time-Password (OTP). The clients in the USA and Europe had never heard of OTP. If you asked them to enter an OTP to subscribe to my service, you lose a customer. Do they crib about clients not knowing about OTP or pivot their subscription model?

Ive been buying my electronics from this small vendor in Tardeo, called Radiant Electronics. He gives me a phone a few days before it comes on Flipkart or Amazon, he delivers it to my house and if it has a defect, he takes it back. He may leave the device on Saturday and come and collect his money on Monday. The fact of the matter is that he is an SME catering to customers who may not buy large electronics from Amazon. So, he can compete with Amazon for 100 million customers or he can compete for 1,000 customers.

Every SME will have to find an area where they can innovate. Innovation can happen in three areas  resources, where resources can be talent, technology, capital; processes/ culture, where the kind of an SME can have they can provide service which is 10X compared to a larger company; innovation in your profit formula and business model. Lastly, I think SMEs have a huge play in hyperlocal. The large companies can never compete with SMEs in the hyperlocal area. SMEs have to find niche areas where they can be the best in the world and then they can become a large organisation. There are even small companies that are world-class.

What are some of the SME brands that you admire and why?

Speaking on the brands that are very large and built from scratch, Mamaearth and Epigamia are two such brands that I admire. But Ive invested in about 20 companies that are in the B2C consumer branding space. A friend of mine who was at Shine.com started this company called Anveya; which is into cold-pressed oils for hair growth and he has done well for himself. I wish I had invested more in that company. Ive also invested in this company called Sarva Yoga, which is trying to build a global world-class brand out of India. Sarvesh Shashi is an awesome entrepreneur and very passionate about the cause. One of my very close friends is this guy called Rizwan Amlani, brother of Riyaz Amlani of Socials, who is building a very interesting coffee brand called Dope. I love their coffee and am a passionate coffee connoisseur. A person from Dentsu Webchutney quit and founded a company called Everpret, which makes workbags.

If the 22 Unicorns created out of India become 100, then that means 10,000 $100 million companies are going to be created and probably lakhs of $10 million dollar companies are going to be created.

Register for IAMAI India Digital Summit here.
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MBABANE - Inyandzaleyo!

This is what residents of KaLuhleko are saying following the increasing number of people who have been dying due to COVID-19 related illnesses.

Inyandzaleyo is a siSwati way of crying out for help. KaLuhleko is an area situated a few metres from Bhunya. It is divided into zones.

According to the residents, five to 10 people, who died of COVID-19-related illnesses, were buried every week, that is from Monday to Sunday.

They said the last burial was yesterday, yet there was another reported COVID-19-related death.

The residents suspected that the virus was spread due to the manner in which they conveyed their condolences to the bereaved families.

EmaSwati convey their condolences through gathering at the bereaved homestead. This process is known as kulila. Some people join the bereaved family in the mourning house pending burial and this is known as kufukama.

Practices

Worth noting is that the Acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, has warned the nation against practices such as kufukama during the pandemic. Masuku shared the same sentiments with Manzini Regional Administrator Chief Gija, who warned emaSwati against such practices during the first wave of the virus.

The residents also suspected that the virus was spread through their conduct. The affected area is very small. It comprises three zones. We are densely populated yet there are many activities taking place. There are many drinking spots and tenants who are employed at the nearby companies.

Activities have never been affected by the partial lockdown since most people are employed by the neighbouring companies, said concerned residents.

The residents appealed to the Ministry of Health to at least declare the place as a hot spot for COVID-19, so that it could be given the necessary attention. They believed that the situation might be better if the ministry was to consider mass testing for all the residents.

Bucopho of the area Muzi Maseko confirmed knowledge of the matter. He stated that he personally engaged the Ministry of Health over the issue.

The ministry advised me to collect data of all people who died of COVID-19-related illnesses. They told me to also collect data of all relatives of people who died from COVID-19 related illnesses, he said.

However, Maseko stated that the door-to-door visits were dangerous as he was likely to contract or spread the virus. We have seen government initiating testing centres around the capital city. We wish such an initiative could also come to us so that the virus could be detected early and managed as early as possible Maseko said.

He said the unfortunate thing was that innocent people, who hardly travelled, were the ones who died from the virus. Maseko stated the nearest police had been made aware of the matter.

When informed about the concerns, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said the ministry considered the data before it could declare a place a hot spot for COVID-19.

Dr Magagula said all regions were monitored through data. He said the residents of the area would receive the necessary attention based on the data.

He also mentioned that testing centres depended on resources.

Testing centres are determined by resources and its a process, he said.

Dr Magagula urged the residents of the area to adhere to the precautions which included washing of hands with clean running water and soap, sanitising, maintaining social distancing and wearing of masks.

He also warned the residents against sharing alcohol.
 Flash

Six security members and a civilian were killed on Sunday in a bomb explosion in the west of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, local security and a medic said.

The blast took place in a village located some 100 km west of Mosul when the security members were trying to defuse a bomb believed to have been left behind by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group while they were in control of the area before 2017, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Jaafar Muhsin, a doctor in the main hospital in the town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, told Xinhua that the hospital received the bodies of five soldiers, an officer, and a civilian, adding two other soldiers were wounded.

The security situation in Iraq has been improved since Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017.

However, sporadic deadly incidents still occur in the war-ravaged country as IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
As the world still grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day -- which often sees coworkers and other groups getting together to donate time and service in honor of the civil rights leader -- will be different this year.

With social distancing guidelines in place, many organizations have opted for virtual commemoration. However, some are still holding smaller in-person events.

Some schools and aftercare youth centers that meet in-person will hold limited programs.

For example, the Martin Luther King Jr., Youth Center in Bridgewater held a celebration Friday for its students.

We usually hold a small concert, but being in a pandemic, we had everybody do an assignment on Martin Luther King, said Executive Director, Rajni Chopra.

The Center focused on some of Kings most famous speeches.

Here are some ways you and your family can celebrate in New Jersey in an unconventional year.

Newark Musuem of Arts MLK Day Celebration: Breaking Down Barriers - This virtual event includes a full-day of events, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, ranging from art workshops to live performances celebrating the evolution of African-American music. The events theme, Breaking Down Barriers, focuses on the strides Black women have made, highlighting Kamala Harris historic Vice Presidential bid. Newark Museum of Art will host more events later in the week.

Happening this month (!!) Community Day: MLK Jr. Day Celebration--Breaking Down Barriers (Jan. 18th) Virtual... Posted by The Newark Museum of Art on Thursday, January 7, 2021

Jersey Cares: Day of Service - Jersey Cares, a collection of community-focused groups, will host virtual and in-person service events Monday, according to its website. Volunteers looking for virtual events can create greeting cards with inspirational quotes for teachers, seniors and first responders; make coronavirus safety signs to be posted in schools, and/or participate in a virtual walk. In-person events include an effort to help revitalize Branch Brook Park in Newark and coat sorting for the agencys annual coat drive.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Virtual Memorial Breakfast, 50th Anniversary - An MLK Day tradition hosted by the YMCA Newark from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday, which dates back half a century. This years virtual event will feature keynote speaker Pastor Ronald Slaughter of St. James African Methodist Church.

MLK Virtual Youth Conference - This event geared toward teenagers is hosted by the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission. The conference, held Monday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., aims to help youth discover their talents and explore opportunities for success through workshops, networking sessions and more.

Stockton Universitys Annual MLK Day of Service -- Stockton Universitys day of service is scheduled for January 30 and in-person events are only open to students and staff, due to the pandemic. The events website has a section where people can sign up for specific service projects.

Literacy New Jersey MLK Day Celebration(s) - Literacy New Jersey, an organization that helps teach adults to read, write and communicate more effectively will hold MLK Day celebrations on multiple days and several locations throughout the month. The virtual events can be found on the organizations calendar.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Tennyson Donyea may be reached at tcoleman@njadvancemedia.com.
Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Chu Ngoc Anh (right) meets with General Director of Samsung Vietnam Choi Joo Ho on January 15. (Photo: hanoi.gov.vn)

Hanoi - Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Chu Ngoc Anh suggested Samsung provide the city with technical support in developing smart city and smart transport and promoting digital transformation.He made the suggestion during a January 14 meeting with the General Director of Samsung Vietnam, Choi Joo Ho, who paid a courtesy call to report on the Republic of Korea (RoK) companys projects in Hanoi.Choi said that work on Samsungs Research & Development (R&D) Centre in Hanoi started last March and is on schedule, with 23 percent completed.Once opened, the centre will employ about 3,000 tech engineers primarily responsible for developing software, the 5G network, artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data, he said, adding that this will contribute to economic growth in Hanoi and Vietnam at large.Samsung Vietnam is committed to strictly complying with local regulations and ensuring workplace safety. He also asked for continued support from local authorities so the R&D centre will be finished by the end of 2022, as planned.Anh pledged to create all possible conditions for Samsung to speed up progress and quickly put the centre into operation.As Hanoi aims to stay ahead of other cities and provinces in science-technology and innovation and become more competitive regionally, the chairman said he expects Samsung to share its tech solutions in multiple areas, including 5G and Big Data, to support the capital in smart city and smart transport efforts and accelerate digital transformation.Samsung Electronics Vietnams 16-storey R&D Centre, its largest in Southeast Asia, will cover a total area of over 11,600 ha in the new town of Tay Ho Tay in Hanois west.This is the first time Samsung Electronics has built its own centre for R&D activities overseas. It is also the largest R&D centre among FDI companies in Vietnam.It is estimated to cost about 220 million USD.

The University of Technology Sydney has ordered thousands of masks for students to wear on campus this year as students increasingly get the option of attending more classes.

The university sent the students an email informing them they may be required to wear the masks when they return in March.

Many people have become accustomed to wearing masks, including on public transport. Credit:James Brickwood

The University of Sydney will not require students to wear masks in line with NSW Health guidelines.

UTS deputy vice-chancellor (Education and Students) Shirley Alexander said students had expressed a strong desire to come back and many people had become accustomed to wearing masks, including on public transport.
Thousands of cartons of free range eggs are being donated to food banks by a farm which has seen a drop in demand due to the pandemic.

Egg producer St Ewe launched the Shell Out To Help Out campaign to support local communities as the Covid crisis has caused 'business to drop'.

For each tray sold at their current reduced price, the farm is donating 1 carton of eggs to food banks across Cornwall.

St Ewe says it is trying to help ease the 'growing food poverty issue exacerbated by the relentless Covid-19 pandemic'.

"Just like many small businesses, we have seen over half of our business drop off due to the pandemic, with half of our customers being in the hospitality and food service sector.

"Unfortunately, you cant furlough a hen and our girls keep producing nutritious eggs, with no home to go to," said Bex Tonks, CEO of St Ewe.

St Ewe, along with other egg producers in the UK, face the reality of having to throw away perfectly edible eggs due to a drop in demand as lockdown restrictions bite.

It is here that the idea for the Shell Out To Help Out campaign came about, to reduce food waste and supply eggs to those that need it most.

As we are all getting used to the lock down way of life, it feels that the poultry farming industry has been hit particularly hard by this most recent one," Ms Tonks said.

"Timing is everything, and the lead up to Christmas which had its usual buzz was followed by the plummet that falls in between Christmas and New Year; this year it has been faster and harder than ever.

"Combined with the third lockdown, uncertainty of Brexit and an increase in poultry feed prices, this cruel timing has left many poultry businesses in a dismal position."

St Ewe has partnered with local charities to help spread the word, including CHAOS (Feed Cornwall), FareShare SW, The Hive and Newquay Orchard.

The farm has also recruited chefs such as Guy Owen of the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock and the Rick Stein Group to volunteer to sell eggs in their local communities.

CHAOS has been given some 20,000 of the eggs to distribute via its community larders and the team are keen to encourage key workers to take advantage of the scheme.

We are incredibly grateful to St Ewe eggs for their generosity which will help hundreds of people across Cornwall, said CHAOS Managing Director, Babs Rounsevell.

We know just how hard critical workers are working to protect all of us at this time and we would particularly like to invite them to come and collect some of these eggs.
Nano Trun Provides Businesses with nickel (II) oxide at Exceptionally Affordable Rates

Luoyang City, China - Nano Trun is pleased to announce they are providing companies with a wide selection of nanomaterials, including nickel (II) oxide, at highly affordable rates. The company is one of the most cost-effective nanoparticles and nanotechnology distributors in the world.

Based in China, Nano Trun is one of the leading nano-technology development and product applications manufacturers in the world. The company has successfully developed a series of nickel (II) oxide that is high in purity and fully functional.

Our innovative high-performance materials are widely used in all aspects of daily life, including but not limited to automobiles, electrical, electronic, information technology, petrochemical, petroleum, ceramics, paint, metallurgy, solar energy and catalysis. states Amy Gao.

Nano Trun is committed to technology development, applications of nanotechnology, and new material industries. The company has professional experience in nanotechnology research and development, including the application of materials.

Nano Trun technology provides solutions across the various processes and steps of laboratories and industries. The company endeavors to achieve the success of its customers and to honor their commitments by upholding their exceptional credibility.

"Our professional working team provides the perfect solutions to help increase efficiency in various industries," says one of Nano Trun managers. "Additionally, these solutions create value, enable companies to easily deal with various challenges they face, and save money while doing so."

As a leading expert of nano-technology development and product application in their field for many years, Nano Trun exports a large array of materials, including nickel (II) oxide which can be exported anywhere in the world.

Some of the nanomaterials they provide include:

Nanotechnology

Nanoparticles

3D printing metal

Metal prints

Aluminum oxide

Boron nitride

Advanced technology

And so much more.

For more information about Nano Trun, or to place an order, please visit the company website nanotrun.com.

Email: sales1@nanotrun.com

A huge 250,000 voters turnout was witnessed in the early balloting for Portugal's presidential election scheduled for January 24, ANI reported, citing Portugals Ministry of Internal Administration. I see the enthusiasm in those almost 250,000 Portuguese who registered for early voting, minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita said. He added, It means that, in very difficult times, in times when we focus on combating the pandemic, we also have to affirm the values of democracy. The massive turnout comes amid Portugals governments orders for countrywide lockdown imposed last week due to a record-breaking surge in coronavirus infections.

As many as seven candidates including incumbent President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa are contesting in the upcoming Sundays polls. Portugal temporarily lifted the national lockdown and travel restrictions for early voting day and the election day. In an advisory, however, the Portuguese government cautioned the citizens against assembly in a large gathering outside the polling booths and adhere to social distancing. The elderly citizens that fell under the high-risk groups, home care residents, and those that were confined to isolation due to contact with COVID-19 positive patients were advised to cast a paper ballot which would be collected by the health officials.

[Incumbent President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is widely expected to win. Credit: Twitter/@electo_mania]

Read: Twitter Suspends US Congresswoman Over Election Fraud Claims

Read: Uganda Election Commission Declares Incumbent Yoweri Museveni 'winner'

Porto Moniz had 'fewest' voter registrations

With 33,364 votes, Lisbon witnessed record-breaking turnout, followed by Porto, with 13,280, and Coimbra, with 9,201, the countrys Ministry of Internal Affairs told local broadcaster Portugal Resident. The municipality of Porto Moniz, in Madeira, recorded the fewest registrations with only 8 voter turnout. Northeast, Sao Miguel, in the Azores witnessed 9 voters, meanwhile Barrancos, district of Beja, recorded only 14 voter registrations.

Citizens were asked to sign up for the early polls a week ahead of the scheduled date and were asked to carry their own pens and sanitise hands before and after the use of the public electoral equipments. The total number of voter registration quadrupled compared with the 2019 parliamentary elections when 56,287 citizens registered to vote. Reports project the incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousas win and predict his second term. The leader recently recovered from the COVID-19 infection and was administered with 2 negative tests last week.

Read: Ugandan Election Results Counted Amid Tight Security

Read: Palestine President Mahmud Abbas Announces First National Elections In 15 Years
JOB OPPORTUNITY

DRC MECC/21.002

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist

About Us

We are International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI), a global consulting firm working some of the most complex and impactful development problems worldwide. We work on programs that help government agencies, private companies and donors improve the lives of others. At IBTCI you will be part of an inclusive team that provides expert solutions and advice to understand and address critical problems while giving you opportunities to succeed and grow.

Job Title: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist

Department/Location: Goma, DRC

Reports To: Deputy Chief of Party

Type: Regular Full-Time

Classification: Exempt level position

Overview:

IBTCI is pursuing a United States Agency for International Development-funded opportunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The opportunity, Mission Strategic Support Program (MSSP), will provide support to the USAID Regional Mission based in DRC, encompassing the DRC, the Republic of Congo (RoC) and the Central African Republic (CAR). The support will include technical and advisory services in planning, designing, conducting, disseminating, and learning from monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the Missions portfolios in order to measure progress towards its development objectives and improve the achievement and sustainability of the Missions development outcomes. MSSP will provide services to strengthen the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) capabilities of USAID/DRC staff, targeted local partners, and the Government of DRC. The Mission is developing this contract to improve upon and provide additional implementation support to the Country Development and Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and USAIDs regional strategic frameworks through an enhanced MEL system.

To support this opportunity, IBTCI is seeking a qualified Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist. This is a full time position based in Goma/DRC. The MEL Specialist will facilitate, manage and ensure the quality of several activities, including Data Quality Assessments (DQAs), Third Party Monitoring (TPM), site visits, and IP training. The MEL Specialist will report to the Deputy Chief of Party. Applicants must have strong English and French speaking and writing skills.

This position is contingent upon award.

Responsibilities

Essential Duties/Tasks and Responsibilities:

Lead technical assistance related to monitoring and evaluation systems, performance management, theories of change and M&E Plans;

Support the development of M&E Plans for IPs through on-going and hands-on technical assistance to IP M&E and management teams, in close coordination with the donor. This support will be in program areas such as democracy and governance, stabilization, agriculture and economic growth, education/human capacity development/youth;

Support the DCOP in the design and/or review of monitoring, evaluation, operational research, and MEL capacity building approaches and tools;

Coordinate and lead ongoing and user-friendly analysis and presentations of IP results.

Conduct analyses of primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative research and prepare relevant presentations;

Monitor the quality of data collected by MSSP;

Assist in developing and planning evaluations and assessments;

Contribute to or review reports related to monitoring, evaluations, assessments, and other studies;

Review MEL frameworks of USAID/DRC implementing partners;

Support the DCOP in the development of USAID/DRCs Performance Management Plan;

Lead or support data quality assessments;

Provide oversight of all verification activities in the field, conducted through DRC Third Party Monitoring agents, to ensure their timely and professional deployment of verifications, as well as the analysis of findings.

Conduct site visits as directed by the DCOP;

Provide quality control and oversight of subcontractors performing site visits to ensure proper protocol is followed and data is up to USAID/DRC standards.

Support the development of content, organization of logistics, and implementation of learning events/trainings in Kinshasa, Goma, and elsewhere in the region for USAID Implementing Partners; and

Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

Approximately seven (7) years of experience in program management and contract compliance

Strong organizational skills, analytical capabilities, able to work in a fast-paced environment, demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks

Excellent verbal and written communications skills in English and French

Familiarity with standard/office IT applications including program management software.

Demonstrated previous involvement in research or monitoring and evaluation projects

Demonstrated ability to produce and edit reports and technical documents

Education: A bachelors degree required, advanced degree preferred.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Demonstrated skills in working collaboratively with others to create and maintain a team environment and culture

Familiarity with financial systems and administrative procedures, ideally with USAID or USG

Working Environment: Work is typically performed in an office environment.

Physical Requirements: This is largely a sedentary position that requires the ability to speak, hear, see, and lift small objects up to 20 lbs.

Supervisory Responsibility: This position does not have supervisory responsibilities.

Travel: International travel may be required and may include travel to fragile and/or conflict-prone zones. Provincial DRC is anticipated.

How to Apply

Please apply for this job online at https://careers-ibtci.icims.com/jobs/2812/job?mobile=false&width=960&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false&jan1offset=60&jun1offset=120 and please send a copy of updated CV along with 3 contact persons in pdf or Word format to meccrecruitment@gmail.comby the deadline of January 30th, 2021 Kinshasa Time.

About the Organization:

IBTCI has been in business since 1987. We specialize in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning (MERL), Institutional Support (IS), Financial & Risk Management (FRM), Supply Chain Management & Procurement (SCMP); Social & Behavior Change (SBC) and Capacity Building. We provide these services across many sectors including, but not limited to, agriculture, resilience & food security, conflict & crisis, democracy & governance, economic growth & trade, education, energy & Infrastructure, environment & climate change, global health & WASH and humanitarian and disaster assistance. At IBTCI, our colleagues are encouraged to collaborate and be part of the solution while getting the tools and guidance needed to grow and support our clients' missions.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Travel: In-country/provincial travel may be required and may include travel to fragile or conflict prone zones.

Please note this statement of work is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

IBTCI is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all persons without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, or any other classification protected by applicable anti-discrimination laws. We prohibit and do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment. We are an E-Verify Employer. VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

If you are an applicant with a disability that requires a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability, or unable to use the online application system and need an alternative method for applying, you may contact Human Resources at 703-749-0100.
Deborah L. Rhode, a law professor who transformed the field of legal ethics from little more than a crib sheet for passing the bar exam into an empirically rich, morally rigorous investigation into how lawyers should serve the public, died on Jan. 8 at her home in Stanford, Calif. She was 68.

Her husband, Ralph Cavanagh, confirmed her death but said the cause had not yet been determined.

With 30 books and some 200 law review articles to her name, Professor Rhode, who spent over four decades teaching at Stanford, was by far the most-cited scholar in legal ethics, with a work ethic that astounded even her hard-charging colleagues.

She was done with all her chapters before I started mine, said David J. Luban, a law professor at Georgetown and one of her co-authors on Legal Ethics, a casebook now in its eighth edition.

To Professor Rhode, the core issues in legal ethics were not about bar association rules, but the politics and interests behind those rules, especially those that limited who could practice law and how lawyers should go about providing services to people who could not afford them.
Its been two years since investigative journalist Ahmed Suales life was callously snuffed out by suspected assassins. The police have since been on the tails of his killers much to no avail yet.



While the nation awaits closure on the gruesome murder in the national capital, the Ghana Journalists Association, the Media Foundation for West Africa and Tiger Eye, the company Suale worked for until his killing, are partnering to gather journalists in Ghana at a forum on Monday to deliberate on threats and attacks against journalists.



The forum by the media partners will also commemorate the slaying of Ahmed Suale, invitation to which event signed by Affail Monney, President of the Ghana Journalists Association, also expresses concern about increasing levels of election-related threats.



The forum to be held at the Ghana International Press Centre kicks off at 9:30 am and will discuss measures to stem the tide of attacks on journalists and push for justice over the assassination of Ahmed Suale.



Ahmed-Hussein Suale was shot at multiple times by two unidentified men on motorbikes on January 16, 2019 while he was driving in his car out of the alley that led to his family residence at Madina.

Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Hyundai Motor has signed an agreement with the Guangzhou Development District to establish a new company focused on the production and sale of hydrogen fuel cell power systems for vehicles.

The new company, to be called Hyundai Motor Company HTWO (Guangzhou), will be the automaker's first overseas hydrogen fuel cell production and sales company. Hyundai will also become the first global automaker to establish a hydrogen fuel cell production base in China.

Hyundai will control 100% of the equity in the new company and construction of a manufacturing plant in Guangzhou is scheduled to begin at the end of February 2021.

The facility is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2022 with an initial capacity 6,500 hydrogen fuel cell systems annually  mainly for the redesigned Nexo passenger car.

Hyundai aims to produce up to 700,000 hydrogen fuel-cell systems a year globally by 2030.

The battle against COVID-19 can be considered a war. To prevail, expertise in logistics is necessary. One could consider the vials of vaccine like bullets in a conventional war. I am pleased that our military is participating in this effort.

Having said that, I would suggest that Amazon has the ability, second to none, to place items in the hands of those needing them efficiently. Furthermore, it operates internationally. If Jeff Bezos and his organization were to take charge of this task, it would yield amazing results.

If Bezos were to do this at the expense of his company, it would be a fantastic act of altruism never before seen. I hope that this suggestion will somehow be brought to his attention.

Terry Ramseyer, Half Moon Bay

Evaluating educators

Regarding the discussion about schools returning to in-person learning: There are two issues.

I realize that it is problematic for secondary schools to return to in-person learning with hundreds of students milling around. But it is inexcusable that elementary schools were not back for in-person learning on Sept. 1.

What if hospital workers, first responders and grocery store workers refused to work until there was no risk? All have far greater risk of catching the virus than elementary school teachers; grocery store workers, for example, share the same indoor air as hundreds of shoppers each day.

The other issue is that the teachers who were highly effective and went above and beyond previously are the ones who, in our distance-learning environment, get up two hours early, dress professionally and still go above and beyond.

But, sadly, there are those who did the bare minimum before and are doing even less now. Thats why  to fix one facet of the systemic racism we have seen, we need comprehensive reform of tenured teacher evaluation, compensation and dismissal policies so that highly effective teachers get the esteem and pay they deserve, while the others get appropriate and effective corrective action or dismissal.

Mark Perkins, Castro Valley

Ask for forgiveness

It has been reported that President Trump is having difficulty assembling a team of lawyers to defend him in the Senate impeachment trial. I offer the following (free) legal advice that is very probably to lead to his acquittal in the Senate and the beginning of the healing this country so desperately needs. The president should write to the Senate immediately and state: I have done wrong while president of the United States.

I am truly sorry for my transgressions and the harm I have caused. I ask for your forgiveness and that of the people of the United States.

Perhaps such a statement would allow us to move forward to address the challenges that confront the U.S. and the entire planet.

Tom Kelly, Berkeley

Hypocritical GOP

Funny how things changed for President Trump cultists as things went south. They suddenly cried for unity after trying to overturn a fair and free election for two months.

They demanded process for the second Trump impeachment, after refusing to allow witnesses at the first. They wanted law and order, then they stormed the Capitol.

They claimed blue lives matter, then they attacked law enforcement officers and killed a policeman. Hypocrisy, anyone?

Gary Cavalli, Danville

Focus on climate change

Regarding McCarthys rebuke may signal split in party (Front Page, Jan. 14): Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), is quoted in support of President Trump, for, among other reasons, not shackling us with the religion of climate change and one-sided Paris accords. Im glad he brought that up. Its about time we got back to focusing on our climate change emergency.

Part of that is working to rid society of the suicidal notion that science is an article of faith. Religion? Climate change is not dogma.

It is a natural phenomenon that has been well measured. Working to understand the observations of the global community of scientists has nothing to do with belief.

LaMalfa insists that we abandon objective inquiry and instead worship with him under a dam on the verge of collapse. Language matters.

Marilyn Bancel, San Francisco

Disservice to country

After 40 years in the fire service, Ive come to accept that all individuals in public safety need to be held to a higher standard.

The policemen, firefighters and active and retired servicemen that were part of the attack on our Capitol need to be punished and removed from service.

Their jobs were to protect and defend citizens, but these individuals came to the capitol from places all over the U.S. and chose to do just the opposite.

Those few brought dishonor to both the U.S. and all individuals who chose to be public safety employees.

If you have read about these people and their part in the attack on the Capitol, do not assume they represent the millions of fine individuals who work to protect you and your family in public safety.
HIGHLIGHTS

First rig arrived on site on 13 January and is now drilling

First target of 2021 drill season is the newly identified footwall conductors

Numerous untested conductors from the 2020 EM campaign to be drilled in priority

FLEM underway covering 3km of potential strike extent of two trends (main mine trend and new hangingwall trend) with 2.13g/t Au rock chip sample at surface and 1m at 6.3g/t Au in an isolated shallow historical drillhole

Additional VTEM targets 1km in the hangingwall of the mine trend potentially linked to an untested additional conductive trend

2020 drilling assays expected in coming weeks

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Benz Mining Corp. (TSXV: BZ) (ASX: BNZ) (the Company or Benz) is pleased to announce that its planned 50,000m diamond drilling campaign has started at the Eastmain Gold Project. The first hole being drilled targets the conductors recently identified 200m in the footwall of the Eastmain mine mineralization. A crew of geophysicists has mobilised to site and FLEM surveys have commenced.





Figure 1: Drill rig at Eastmain (note the first hole, EM21-143, is located 100m from the Eastmain camp)

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1818/72238_595677391421ba88_001full.jpg





3km of strike to be tested by FLEM

The 2021 FLEM program has commenced at the Target East area. Target East has historical outcrop sampling of 2.13g/t Au in rock.

In this area, three distinct groups of VTEM anomalies underline the potential presence of three conductive trends - the mine trend, the 2020 hanging-wall trend and a potential new conductive zone 1km in the hangingwall of the mine trend.

Current Surface EM survey area





Figure 2: Map view with location of current FLEM survey, simplified geology and VTEM anomalies



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1818/72238_benzfig2enhanced.jpg

CEO, Xavier Braud, commented:

"We are delighted to have the whole team back working on site. The strict Covid19 management plan we implemented last year allowed us to resume work and we have to acknowledge the dedication of our exploration team. The first holes of 2021 are targeting conductors identified during last year's EM campaign whilst the geophysics crew on site will expand the footprint of the EM surveys to the southeast of the Project. We have enough undrilled conductors from the 2020 EM campaign to provide targets for the first three months of drilling. In the meantime, we will be running an intensive EM survey to generate additional targets in a system which already has the hallmarks of a large mineral system."





Figure 3: Schematic cross section with all EM conductors, 2020 drilling highlighting the new footwall conductors, potentially third newly identified trend in the footwall of the Eastmain mine

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1818/72238_595677391421ba88_005full.jpg

The Eastmain Gold Project, situated on the Upper Eastmain Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada, currently hosts a NI 43-101 and JORC (2012) compliant resource of 376,000oz at 7.9gpt gold (Indicated: 236,500oz at 8.2gtp gold, Inferred: 139,300oz at 7.5gtp gold). The existing gold mineralization is associated with 15-20% semi-massive to massive pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite in highly deformed and altered rocks making it amenable to detection using electromagnetic techniques. Multiple gold occurrences have been identified by previous explorers over a 10km long zone along strike from the Eastmain Mine with very limited but highly encouraging testing outside the existing resource area.

This press release was prepared under supervision and approved by Dr. Danielle Giovenazzo, P.Geo, acting as Benz's qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Benz Mining Corp.

Benz Mining Corp. brings together an experienced team of geoscientists and finance professionals with a focused strategy to acquire and develop mineral projects with an emphasis on safe, low risk jurisdictions favourable to mining development. Benz is earning a 100% interest in the former producing high grade Eastmain gold mine, Ruby Hill West and Ruby Hill East projects in Quebec.

The Eastmain Gold Project is situated within the Upper Eastmain Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada and currently hosts a NI 43-101 and JORC (2012) compliant resource of 376,000oz at 7.9gpt gold. The existing gold mineralization is associated with 15-20% semi-massive to massive pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite making it amenable to detection by electromagnetics. Several gold mineralization occurrences have been identified by previous explorers over a 10km long zone along strike from the Eastmain Mine with very limited testing outside the existing resource area.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benz Mining Corp.

Xavier Braud, CEO

For more information please contact:Paul Fowler

Head of Corporate Development (Canada)

Benz Mining Corp.

Telephone: +1 416 356 8165

Email: info@benzmining.com

Xavier Braud

CEO, Head of Corporate Development (Aus)

Benz Mining Corp.

Telephone +61 423 237 659

Email: info@benzmining.com

Forward-Looking Information: Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events and that the Company obtains regulatory approval. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, that occurrences such as those referred to above are realized and result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, and delays in regulatory approval, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company as set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure filings filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Competent Person's Statements: The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on and fairly represents information and supporting information compiled by Mr Xavier Braud, who is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG membership ID:6963). Mr Braud is a consultant to the Company and has sufficient experience in the style of mineralization and type of deposits under consideration and qualifies as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Braud holds securities in Benz Mining Corp and consents to the inclusion of all technical statements based on his information in the form and context in which they appear.

The information in this announcement that relates to the Inferred Mineral Resource and exploration results was first reported under the JORC Code by the Company in its prospectus released to the ASX on 21 December 2020 and in the announcement dated 13 January 2021. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original market announcements and confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person's findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72238
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Phil Spector, the infamous ex-producer who murdered an actress, has passed away.

The New York Times confirmed that Spector died at the age of 81 on Saturday. The news outlet further said that the daughter of the "Wall of Sound" producer, Nicole Audrey Spector, revealed that he suffered from COVID-19-related complications.

According to Nicole, she visited her father at San Joaquin General Hospital near Modesto, California one day before his death.

During that time, Spector was reportedly unconscious and seemed to be suffering.

"He was not alone. He died with love and dignity," she told the publication, adding that she was with him when he succumbed.

Meanwhile, the news has also been confirmed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation through a statement.

Previously, the authorities said that Spector died of natural causes and that the official and final cause of death was yet to be known.

"His official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office," the statement read, per People.

Prior to his death, Spector made several headlines--from how he became a great producer to becoming a convicted murderer.

Phil Spector's Songs Gained People's Approval

Spector found his love for music when he was still in high school. During that time, he already produced his first big hit, "To Know Him Is To Love Him."

For six years from 1960 to 1965, Spector successfully broke records by securing 24 records in the Top 40 of any charts.

Some of his hit creations include "Unchained Melody," "You're My Soul and Inspiration," "He's a Rebel," "You Lost That Lovin' Feeling," and "Be My Baby," among others.

Aside from working with The Righteous Brothers and The Crystals, Spector famously worked with The Beatles and John Lennon.

Among his works with the A-listers were The Beatles' "Let It Be" album. He produced the songs of the group's final album, including the title track and "The Long and Winding Road."

Meanwhile, he also produced Lennon's solo tracks like "Instant Karma" and "Imagine."

Spector's Wall of Sound

Throughout his career days, he never stopped searching for new music and technique.

He discovered his greatest creation, the "Wall of Sound," in a tunnel around Hollywood Blvd.

The technique includes a roaring effect which he eventually called a "Wagnerian approach" to rock and roll music.

Mastermind Behind Lana Clarkson's Death

Phil Spector's music empire crumbled down when he was charged with second-degree murder.

In 2003, he reportedly met Lana Clarkson and took her home after a night out. The Los Angeles Police found the nightclub hostess in a chair inside his Alhambra mansion, who died after suffering from a bullet wound to her head.

On November 20 of the same year, he was charged with her murder. In 2009, he began serving his 19-year prison sentence.

READ MORE: 'Outside the Wire' Netflix Reviews: What Critics Say About Anthony Mackie's Android Movie

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles
SHANGHAI, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 19, the iResearch Services, a firm of data research, released the White Paper on Insights into the Chinese Aesthetic Medicine Industry in 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"). According to the document, China's aesthetic medicine market size reached 176.9 billion yuan in 2019 with a slow rate of growth, compared with the numbers collected in 2013 to 2017 that are periods with booming demands for cosmetic procedures.

All kinds of data suggest that, new directions of adjustment and points of focus have emerged on both sides of the supply and demand with gradual expansion of the industry in recent years; under the current complicated economic landscape after COVID-19 pandemic, the aesthetic medicine industry has entered a new stage of development and triggered an in-depth reflection and deliberation.

It is highly likely most ineligible businesses of aesthetic medicine will be knocked out in the phase of adjustment.

The White Paper pointed out that, in addition to factors such as reduced profitability and unbalanced supply and demand faced by various kinds of enterprises in this field, the main reasons for the slowdown in market growth include the chaotic and counterfeit qualifications of firms and doctors engaged in the aesthetic medicine, as well as frequent accidents of cosmetic procedures that result in the wait-and-see attitudes of consumers. In this report, there are several jaw-dropping numbers: At present, businesses and surgeons with legitimate certificates account for only 14% and 28% of the industry respectively, while the rate of certified injections commercially available in the market just reaches 33.3%.

Confronted with the current chaos in the industry, the government and the industry have enacted a series of crackdown measures. In April, eight departments including the National Health Commission jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Comprehensive Supervision and Enforcement of Aesthetic Medicine Industry. On May 21, the health.people.cn held a seminar on the self-discipline and standardization of Chinese aesthetic medicine industry under the initiative of "Healthy Chinese" in response to the call of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NPC and CPPCC). At the seminar, the Chinese Association of Plastics and Aesthetics and the SoYoung.com called on the self-discipline of the industry in China.

Under the dual impact of the epidemic and the industry adjustment, it is highly probable that the unqualified and undifferentiated institutions of aesthetic medicine will be knocked out. Those businesses that stood the test can not only establish an all-around standard and system of risk control with medical care as the essence, but also possess the customer needs-oriented product offerings with commerce at the core, and ultimately realizing the transformation of crisis into opportunities and the sustainable development.

ZhenMeiHui has created a "closed-loop" business model of aesthetic medicine and assured customers with safety measures in multiple fronts.

A truly healthy industry of aesthetic medicine should first and foremost ensure the safety of consumers. However, according to statistics from the Chinese Association of Plastics and Aesthetics, on average over 20,000 complaint records of disfigurement are caused by cosmetic procedures annually. Such a massive amount of negative information has brought irreparable losses to the reputation of the entire industry. The White Paper analyzes the hidden dangers in the industry, and finds that major problems are concentrated in the following areas: 1). Unqualified doctors. The unlicensed practice of ineligible doctors frequently turned the "journeys of acquiring a pretty look" to "adventures." 2). Inundation of fake and inferior medicines. The counterfeit botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid used in the cosmetic procedures, among others, jeopardize the safety and health of consumers at all times; 3). Abnormal sales increase under the marketing orientation. In the face of high costs of customer acquisition and retention, some enterprises in this field often guided each accessible user to purchase cosmetic procedures that exceed their actual needs. Such foul acts have also contributed to the ever younger recipients of cosmetic procedures in recent years.

It can be concluded from the aforesaid three points, rising costs in various links such as human resources, products and operating costs under the conventional business model is the deep-seated cause of frequent chaos. Therefore, business model innovation is a fundamental approach to truly solve safety issues.

The ZhenMeiHui Speciality noted in the industry for its absence of customer complaints, has now achieved the innovation of a closed-loop business model. As a franchised speciality brand of premium medical care and rejuvenation owned by the Shanghai Oubang Medical Group, a well-known enterprise of aesthetic medicine driven by technology, ZhenMeiHui has attracted wide attention with a mix of genuinely advanced technologies and products. Its senior experts have been focused on the creation of effective and professional technologies for over two decades and have constantly updated them. This brand has applied for and obtained 15 national patents, including the proprietary "Oubang ZhenMeiHui Nutritional Compound Solution," and "Oubang ZhenMeiHui Syringe" that have been put into use. The ZhenMeiHui Speciality has been well received in the market and become a reliable choice among users thanks to the unified and transparent prices and the complete closed-loop supply of these products. As one of the few businesses of aesthetic medicine that owns the core technologies, specialist training regime, independent products, and chain hospitals concurrently, ZhenMeiHui stands at the forefront of the industry.

The rejuvenation procedure has become a new growth point for the industry of aesthetic medicine.

In addition to the compelling safety issues, the data in this report also reveal a new Industry trend: Around 70% of users of aesthetic medicine have purchased skin care procedures, many of which are rejuvenation.

Since the consumers' demand for rejuvenation surged 92.64% last year, the "anti-aging" concept has been sought after by the industry. A growing number of medium and high-end cosmetic brands have entered the anti-aging field, and launched a series of products against the senile and presenile signs. A large number of institutions have also introduced the rejuvenation procedures such as the Thermage that has become the first choice for those in pursuit for a fairer and younger look. From the perspective of development trends, the rejuvenation procedure is likely to replace the plastic surgery or injections and to become the mainstream of the industry in the future. Meanwhile how to achieve the plastic surgery-like effect with the anti-aging procedure has become a crucial topic.

In the face of consumers' growing demands for rejuvenation, Maggie Cui, the founder of ZhenMeiHui brand, believes that, "Anti-aging is not just about rendering a younger skin, but finding a rational approach of aesthetics that is consistent with customers' actual condition and can ensure their safety as well."

The team of doctors led by the president Cui discovered after years of research that, by stimulating the body's self-healing strength, human beings are able to effectively prevail over a variety of diseases, and the self-healing strength is a powerful weapon against aging. With the joint efforts of the team, the ZhenMeiHui Minimally Invasive and Self-healing Technology came into being. Since the development of the brand, the technology has been updated four times and has helped many consumers in pursuit of prettier looks address aging issues such as wrinkles, lines, as well as skin depressions, looseness, and prolapse in a more secure and rapid manner.

With the ZhenMeiHui Minimally Invasive and Self-healing Rejuvenation Technology, the population aged 60 or older may stand a good chance of retaining a young and fair look, which might not be a day dream.

As Warren Buffett once said, "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked." As the bubbles in the once highly-touted market of aesthetic medicine burst, the crux lies in how to stand out with the rational approach and the proven strength.

Since quite a few people rely on the industry of aesthetic medicine to materialize their expectation for a fairer and younger look, it is important to emphasize the "medical nature" of the industry all the time and to properly address the unique requirements of each consumer. We believe that after a short period of adjustment, more benevolent brands focused on technologies like ZhenMeiHui will emerge and a more sound industrial ecology of development will gradually take shape.

SOURCE Shanghai Oubang medical
British Ports Association: Govt. must act immediately on seafood exports

January 18,2021 | Source: Hellenic Shipping News

The British Ports Association has written to Ministers about the continuing issues affecting seafood exports to the EU. At an urgent meeting of 20 fishing ports from across the UK on Friday, numerous serious issues were raised with new processes that are affecting landings and undermining the fisheries sector.



Issues exporting seafood to the EU are affecting UK fishing ports competitiveness and must be addressed immediately. The BPA has joined calls for compensation for those negatively affected. Many ports have reported that boats usually landing into their harbours are either tied up or landing elsewhere, directly into the EU. The BPA is alarmed that this may become a longer term trend, with red tape permanently compromising competitiveness.



Those boats that are landing into the UK are finding that prices have collapsed for product heading to export markets amid concerns about its ability to get there on time. Fishing ports typically charge an ad valorem fee on landings to fund infrastructure and services that is foundational to the industry. Among the issues raised by ports so far are:

The administrative burden on seafood exports to the EU has meant that some have stopped altogether, hopefully for the short term. Even exporters that have their paperwork in order can face issues if their seafood is grouped with others who have even minor errors in their forms. This has a bigger impact on smaller businesses who cannot fill or afford entire lorries and rely on groupage.

The extremely strict application of rules  some of which existed before the end of the transition  by authorities including:

Complex, confusing, and constantly changing requirements from UK and EU authorities and the lack of an adjustment period to a border operating model that was still being rolled out the day before the end of the transition period. Guidance from UK government for exporters is inadequate and ports have been unable to get answers or contact officials or get satisfactory answers.



Ports have reported that exporters have found that catch certificates do not have the full list of species or export criteria listed, meaning that some are held at EU customs posts. EU countries are enforcing existing rules and imposing new ones, such as a requirement that seafood be packed in polystyrene boxes instead of the usual plastic, adding significant costs and presenting a barrier that would likely end direct landings into some UK ports.

 2021 Copyright Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade.
Jordan is host to a growing number of ICT companies and has emerged as a technology start-up hub for the Middle East. This has been made possible due to a focus on ICT education and a regulatory environment supportive of ICT investment.

During the global Covid-19 outbreak, the start-up sector has been further encouraged to develop solutions to combat the crisis.

Jordan has also made great progress in the digital financial services area, with support from the Central Bank of Jordan. To encourage further digital development; the government recently created a Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.

High-speed, reliable, and comprehensive telecoms infrastructure is important for underpinning Jordans digital economy goals. The country already has a highly developed mobile sector, led by three major regional players, and has an extensive LTE network infrastructure.

The launch of LTE services quickly led to substantial growth in data revenue for the MNOs, which continue to expand their data offerings as a key focus area moving forward. The industry is also preparing itself for the next wave of developments relating to 5G and IoT/M2M.

Jordan is working towards improving its fixed broadband infrastructure, as its current penetration levels are still comparatively low. A national fibre-based broadband network is being deployed, however the majority of subscribers still utilise DSL services.

BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020 is having a significant impact on production and supply chains all around the world. During this time, the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device and ICT equipment production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to source necessary equipment or manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may also be postponed or slowed down in some countries.

On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services is likely to be impacted by large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. It is largely unknown what the long-term impacts will be as the crisis develops. However, though challenging to predict and interpret, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report.

In addition, the report covers the responses of the telecom operators, as well as government agencies and regulators, as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.

This BuddeComm report provides statistics and analysis on the key sectors of Jordans telecom market, presenting an overview of the regulatory environment, the fixed network operators and services, telecom infrastructure, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure, supported by statistics. The report includes a range of subscriber forecasts.

Key developments:

MVNOs struggle in a competitive mobile market dominated by three major regional players;

Google announces plans to build the Blue-Raman submarine cable linking Italy to India, with an interchange at Aqaba;

Telecom regulator issues guidance for setting up an IXP in Jordan;

Fast take-up of LTE bring penetration rate to over 90%;

Umniah and JEPCO partner to deploy fibre-broadband networks;

Report update includes the regulator's the regulator's 2019 annual report, market data to June 2020, operator data to Q3 2020, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on the telecoms sector, recent market developments

Get a Full Copy of this Report

Developing Telecoms market report summaries are produced in partnership with BuddeCom, the worlds largest continually updated online telecommunications research service.

The above article is a summary of the following BuddeCom report:

Report title: Jordan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Edition: November 2020

Lead Analyst: Sebastien De Rosbo

Number of pages: 89

Companies mentioned in this report: Orange Jordan, Zain Jordan, Batelco/Umniah

Single User PDF Licence Price: US$750

For more information or to purchase a copy of the full report please use the following link: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Jordan-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?r=83
Pro-life activists participate in a rally at the National Mall prior to the 2018 March for Life in Washington on Jan. 19, 2018. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Annual March for Life Will Go Virtual This Year

The annual March for Life demonstration in Washington will not be held in person this year due to the CCP virus pandemic and security restrictions placed around the city, the events organizer said.

The protection of all of those who participate in the annual March, as well as the many law enforcement personnel and others who work tirelessly each year to ensure a safe and peaceful event, is a top priority of the March for Life, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said on Jan. 15 in a statement.

In light of the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic which may be peaking, and in view of the heightened pressures that law enforcement officers and others are currently facing in and around the Capitol, this years March for Life will look different, Mancini continued, asking all participants to stay home and join an online event instead.

Mancini said a small group of pro-life leaders representing their supporters from across the nation will be marching in Washington on Jan. 29, and the event will be live-streamed. She added she looks forward to holding the event in-person next year.

The March has been held every year in the nations capital since 1974, the year after the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. A National Prayer Vigil for Life is traditionally held the night before the demonstration at Washingtons Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

President Donald Trump speaks at the 47th March For Life rally on the National Mall, in Washington, on Jan. 24, 2020. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Last year, President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to speak at the march in person. Presidents Ronald Reagan, in 1987, and George W. Bush, in 2008, addressed the attendees over the phone.

It is my profound honor to be the first president in history to attend the March for Life! Trump told a crowd of tens of thousands of pro-life activists on Jan. 24, 2020. Were here for a very simple reasonto defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.

Trump highlighted measures his administration has taken against abortion, including the restoration of whats known as the Mexico City policy, which blocks foreign non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortion from receiving U.S. federal aid. The Health Department also reinterpreted the rules for Title X reproductive health services funds so that abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood could no longer draw from those funds.

We look forward to all of the blessings that will come from the beauty, talent, purpose, nobility, and grace of every American child, Trump said.
-- Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

-- The vision has gradually transformed into a consensus shared by countries around the world amid growing global challenges.

-- As a firm proponent and practitioner of multilateralism, China has all along taken concrete actions to turn the vision into reality via win-win cooperation.

by Xinhua writers Luo Jun, Li Jun

BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Pulling together to build a community with shared future for mankind, a historic and philosophical concept presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has gradually transformed into a consensus amid growing challenges worldwide.

Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Xi called for building such a community while expounding his vision of humanity's future.

The Chinese leader championed a world of lasting peace, common security for all and common prosperity, as well as an open, inclusive, and clean world. His vision was applauded more than 30 times by the audience in his 47-minute speech.

Four years on, in the shadow of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, with worldwide political and socio-economic challenges, Xi's concept has proven to be "the only future for humanity on this planet," as Peter Thomson, president of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, said.

THE ANSWER

The novel coronavirus has infected close to 100 million people across the globe, taking over 2 million lives. The pandemic has not only exerted extreme pressure on public health systems worldwide, but also disrupted the normal political and economic order.

Amid the global crisis, hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism loom over the world, which further threatens a post-pandemic future for humankind.

To unite or to separate? To open up or to exclude? To cooperate or to confront? The world is in a historic crossroads.

In his speech delivered at the Palace of Nations on Jan. 18, 2017, Xi listed such priorities as partnership, security, growth and inter-civilization exchanges in building a community of a shared future for humankind.

Since 2013, when the Chinese president first presented the concept during a visit to Russia, Xi has enriched the concept to include building a shared future with neighboring countries, with Asia-Pacific partners, with African countries, with Latin American countries, and building a maritime shared future, as well as a shared future in cyberspace.

With the pandemic still raging, Xi put forward the proposal of jointly building a community of common health for humankind, calling for active engagement in jointly battling the pandemic and enhancing global public health governance.

China has initiated the largest global humanitarian efforts in its history, providing anti-epidemic aid to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations, and sending 36 medical expert teams to 34 countries.

"Coronavirus is a global crisis that no country is immune from. It has proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice to win the battle," said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

"China's commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind is one of the most beautiful philosophical concepts, and a magnificent Chinese initiative for the peace and well-being of peoples in history of humanity," said Pierre Picquart, a French expert on China at the University of Paris VIII.

CONCRETE ACTION

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the world economy and added to its instability and uncertainty, China took innovative approaches to establish "fast tracks" and "green lanes" to ensure a smooth flow of personnel and goods and keep industrial and supply chains stable and open.

With containment protocols in place, China hosted a series of global trade events as scheduled including the 2020 China International Fair For Trade in Services in Beijing, the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, and the 17th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, among others.

"This demonstrated China's sincere desire to share its market opportunities with the world to tide over difficulties," said Chen Fengying, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

The CIIE provided growth opportunities for Roy van den Hurk, a New Zealand dairy company manager.

Joining the over 3,600 companies from over 150 countries and regions, it was the third consecutive year for Hurk's company Theland to participate in the CIIE, with the previous two resulting in increased product sales.

"I felt completely safe while at CIIE, and in fact I feel completely safe in Shanghai as well," said Hurk. "We are also very confident of the China market for many years to come." The company has already signed a three-year long-term participation memorandum with the organizers to secure a booth place at the next CIIE.

In his Geneva speech, Xi welcomed other countries "aboard the fast train of China's development." The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an important platform proposed by Xi in 2013, has been part of that drive.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, BRI cooperation continues to bear fruit. In the first eight months of 2020, China's trade with Belt and Road partners reached 5.86 trillion yuan (about 896 billion U.S. dollars), and Chinese companies increased their non-financial direct investment in partner countries by more than 30 percent year on year.

The China-Europe freight train service network, a land transportation artery like a modern railway version of camel caravans across Eurasia, saw 10,180 trips made as of Nov. 5, 2020. Nearly 8 million parcels of medical supplies have been delivered via the network last year.

For Pakistani President Arif Alvi, the BRI has profoundly interpreted the true meaning of cooperation, peace and development and reflected the universal aspirations of people around the world.

NEW POSSIBILITY

No country in the world can enjoy absolute security while others remain in turmoil, Xi said at the Palace of Nations.

Xi delivered speeches at a series of United Nations high-level meetings marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the 193-nation body.

The Chinese president called on all countries to abandon a zero-sum mentality and promote universal security, in line with his Geneva speech.

Green and low-carbon development and a coexistence between humanity and nature has long been a part of Xi's global vision.

China has announced that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. China has also pledged to lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

China has not only made achievements in its own green development, but also shared its experience with other countries, said Nasser Bouchiba, president of the Africa-China Cooperation Association for Development in Morocco.

"A just cause should be pursued for the common good," Xi has quoted this Chinese proverb in many speeches. Traditional Chinese culture advocates "harmony in diversity" and upholds "the beauty of each civilization," which has become a gene deeply rooted in the vision of building a shared future for humankind.

However, major changes unseen in a century have given rise to profound changes in the international order. Some countries started to advocate the fallacy of a "clash of civilizations," "racial superiority" and "putting one's own country first" in an attempt to foster prejudice, estrangement and hatred.

Over the past four years, Xi has pointed out on many international occasions that diversity of human civilizations not only defines our world, but also drives humanity's progress. Civilizations are enriched by exchanges and mutual learning. "Only through mutual respect, mutual learning and harmonious coexistence can the world maintain its diversity and thrive," Xi said.

Martin Jacques, a senior fellow of politics and international studies at Cambridge University, said China has carried out unprecedented work at home and abroad and offered "a new possibility" to the world.
Thirty-three people who died after getting a Covid-19 vaccine in Norway were all over 75, seriously ill and there is no evidence of a 'direct link' between the jab and their deaths, health officials have said.

Norway's medicine agency sought to reassure people on Monday after reports at the weekend showed a number of elderly people had died after getting the Pfizer jab.

'All of these patients have had serious underlying illnesses,' the agency's medical director Steinar Madsen told Bloomberg, adding that they were all 75 or over.

'Clearly Covid is far more dangerous to most patients than vaccination. We are not alarmed.'

Thirty-three people who died after getting a Covid-19 vaccine in Norway were all seriously ill already and there is no evidence of a direct link to the jab, officials have said [Stock image]

Madsen acknowledged that the mild side effects of the vaccine could theoretically 'tip the patients into a more serious course' of an illness they already had.

And health officials said it would now be up to doctors to decide whether elderly and already-ill patients would benefit from having the jab.

But officials also pointed out that an average of 400 people die every week in nursing and care facilities in Norway, with Madsen adding that the reported deaths made up around 1 in 1,000 of the people vaccinated at care homes.

All deaths within the first few days of receiving a vaccine are assessed, the Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a statement.

Reported side effects of the Pfizer vaccine in Norway include fatigue, nausea, dizziness and muscle pain.

On Friday, the Norwegian Medicines Agency reported that of the fatalities, 13 had been autopsied and showed signs of suffering such side effects.

Norwegian officials now say that medical workers should consider with each patient 'whether the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of eventual side effects'.

Norway's medicine agency said it was unsurprising that some of the frail and elderly people who were first to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would have died around the same time by chance. Pictured: Svein Andersen, 67, was the first person in Norway to receive the vaccine on December 27 at the Ellingsrud home care home [File photo]

Large studies on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine did not include patients with unstable or acute illness - and included few participants over 85 years of age, the Norwegian Medicines Agency's statement read.

Overall, Norway has seen 58,651 cases and reported 517 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

Across the world, officials expect deaths and other severe side effects to be reported after any mass vaccination campaign given the huge numbers of people involved.

But determining whether or not the vaccine caused deaths can be very challenging and requires that all other potential causes be ruled out first.

The United Kingdom and the United States have also reported a number of cases of side effects that had fatal consequences.

The European Medicines Agency said on Friday that it would receive and consider monthly safety reports from companies authorised to sell vaccines, starting in January with the Pfizer jab.
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The Union Budget will be presented against the backdrop of the economy in recession due to COVID-19

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget 2021 on 1 February under exceptional circumstances. The economy is still reeling from the effects of COVID-19 . The budget comes against the backdrop of recession with growth in two consecutive quarters in the red.

There will be many things different in this years Budget compared to previous years. Here are a few of them.

Paperless Budget

Since Independence, this is the first time that the Union Budget will not be printed, due to COVID-19 pandemic. Every year the Union Budget is printed in the finance ministry's in-house press and involves 100 employees who stay together for a fortnight till the papers are printed, sealed and delivered..

However, sources have said that due to rising cases of COVID-19 , the government will not print hard copies, and instead, send soft copies.

In two parts

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on 1 February. The first session of Budget in the Parliament will start in January and go on toll 15 February. The second session will take place between 8 March and 8 April.

No Halwa cermony

There will be no halwa (semolina-based sweet dish) ceremony in Union Budget 2021, which traditionally takes place before the printing of papers. The ceremony is usually attended by all people involved in the process of making the Budget and marks the beginning of printing. The Indian sweet dish is prepared in big woks and served to the entire staff.

No bahi khata, no trucks

This time around, since the Budget has gone paperless, there will be no trucks loaded with Budget papers, which is a familiar sight at Parliament on Budget Day. Furthermore, there will be no need for a bahi khata to carry the budget papers unlike other years. Last year, Sitharaman had dropped the leather briefcase in favour of a traditional bahi khata.

Different seating arrangements amid social distancing norms

Since the COVID-19 protocol is still in place, it is likely that there will be different safety measures in place, including strict physical distancing norms. For the first time ever, Members of Parliament might be seated in three different places  the Rajya Sabha chamber, the Lok Sabha chamber, and the central hall for President Ram Nath Kovind's address at the beginning of the session.
How Omegle, Clubhouse and Telegram are taking over social media

Omegle

Global Social Volume (blue) vs Social Reach (green) on Omegle between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Global Heat Map of Omegle Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Cancer patient, which refers to this Reddit discussion on a livestreamer berating a cancer patient on Omegle

LSD trip, which refers to another Reddit discussion regarding Omegle strangers ending up at a McDonalds after taking hallucinogenic drugs.

Questions or concerns, which refers to some online users general feelings towards the platform

Global Trending Themes on Omegle Social Media Mentions from 1 December 2020 to 31 December 2020 click to enlarge

Global Sentiment Analysis on Omegle Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Clubhouse

Global Social Volume (blue) vs Social Reach (green) on Clubhouse Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and January 2021 click to enlarge

Global Heat Map on Clubhouse Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Clubhouse room, which refers to different rooms in the app that users can enter, by invitation only, to participate in discussions.

Biggest social media tool and misinformation, which refers to this tweet by @DomoWarren regarding the apps potential to be misleading.

Invite and phone, which refers to the ways in which you can access the platform.

Global Media Exposure on Omegle (blue) and Clubhouse (green) Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Global Sentiment Analysis on Clubhouse Social Media Mentions between 12 January 2020 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Telegram

Global Social Volume (blue) vs Social Reach (green) on Telegram Social Media Mentions between 1 January 2020 and 12 January 2020 click to enlarge

Global Media Exposure on WhatsApp Mentions (blue) vs Telegram Mentions (green) between 1 January 2021 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Global Sentiment Analysis on Telegram Social Media Mentions between 1 January 2021 and 12 January 2021 click to enlarge

Move over Facebook and WhatsApp; there are new social networks on the block and they have been taking the world by storm. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, new social media platforms have been welcomed with open arms by online users, in a search for new and meaningful ways to connect differently to usual social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.Although Omegle, Clubhouse and Telegram existed long before the pandemic, 2020 saw these platforms boom among Gen Z and millennials across the globe. Meltwater, the leading media monitoring and social analytics company, tracked and analysed social media data to take a look at how these new social networks are outshining the old in the age of uncertainty.Launched in March 2009, Omegle is a free online chat website that randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions, with conversations taking place anonymously.During the course of 2020, there were three key moments where social media mentions on Omegle peaked worldwide.The first was in April 2020, where the data recorded just over 40,000 social media mentions on Omegle. This was due to high interest in a woman, dubbed Crazy Cat Lady, and her animal abuse videos. Other mentions include users on Reddit asking for peoples experience of the platform as lockdown restrictions were implemented around the same time.In July 2020, the data recorded more than 45,000 social media mentions on Omegle. Mentions around this time include one social user going viral for meeting American beauty YouTuber and influencer, James Charles, as well as users beginning to share their experiences on the platform - both good and bad.December 2020 saw the highest number of mentions related to Omegle, with just over 56,000 social media mentions and reaching 252 million people. One Reddit discussion highlighted how Omegle is primarily being used by Gen Zs while most online users shared YouTube video content that looked back on their Omegle experience throughout 2020.The majority of Omegle social media mentions are coming from the United States of America (USA), followed by Brazil and the Philippines to round up the top three countries mentioning Omegle the most.Reasons for the mentions surrounding the social network within these three countries range from users in the Philippines using Omegle to find love similarly to Tinder , to users in Brazil finding the platform a great way to meet new people . In the USA, mentions on Omegle from users include how President Donald Trump has been banned from the platform (although this was never officially verified or confirmed), while other users are warning against the use of the platform (particularly around the dangers of actually talking to strangers).Since global mentions on Omegle peaked the most during December 2020, some of the trending themes to emerge during this period include:While Omegle isnt a new social networking platform, it certainly gained much attention from online users looking for new ways to connect with others during the pandemic. However, despite its growing popularity, not everyone is onboard with using Omegle.Given the great concern around the dangers of using the chat website, this could be one of the reasons why feelings towards Omegle are negative. The sexually crude and predatory nature of the social network is also a reason why online users are not a fan of it.However, the 15.6% of social media users that like Omegle feel this way because of how it has been helpful in socialising and meeting new people, as well as maintaining their social skills during the pandemic, as this Twitter user described Launched in 2016, Clubhouse is a new social networking platform that is based on voice, and allows users from around the world to come together to talk, listen and learn from one another in real-time.In contrast to both social volume and social reach for Omegle, mentions on Clubhouse have garnered a consistent social reach of over one billion people worldwide since April 2020, with the highest global reach being just under three billion people in August 2020. During this time, the data recorded 165,000 social media mentions on Clubhouse, as the app began to gain popularity among high profile individuals.By December 2020, the data recorded the highest number of Clubhouse mentions - 221,000 - as most online users had become familiar with the app and were now taking a bigger interest in how the social networking platform worked.The majority of Clubhouse social media mentions came from the USA (26.2%), followed by the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Nigeria and India, making these the top five countries to be mentioning the app the most on social media.Overall, mentions on Clubhouse from the USA have been related to sharing, which high profile celebrities or influencers were hosting discussions on various rooms, and social media was used to either advertise the room or encourage people to get invites to join discussions. The data also showed similar tweets from users in the UK doing the same.In Canada, most users are still trying to understand how the app works and use social media to query this, while in Nigeria, online users like the interactive discussions that take place on the platform. In India, online users have shown interest in Clubhouses potential to replace other audio-based apps, and become a leading app this year.Taking a closer look at the high social volume of Clubhouse mentions during December 2020, some of the trending themes included:Another interesting contrast to Omegle is that Clubhouse has had more global social media mentions during 2020, as compared to the one-on-one, strangers only social network. Despite some users not being too fond of the exclusivity that comes with Clubhouse - such as needing an invite to access discussions, or that it is a mobile only platform - the data indicates that in general, users favour Clubhouse more for the variety of discussions people can have on a number of topics, and to do so with high profile individuals. Meeting more people in Clubhouse rooms also emerged as a reason why the app has been receiving mentions. And positive ones at that.While the majority of users remain undecided about their feelings towards Clubhouse, 18.5% of social media users do like the app and enjoy the discussions they have been able to participate in thus far. At least 13.8% of social media users arent so fond of the app due to how one accesses the platform exclusively as one Twitter user mentioned . Social media users also arent fans of the platform because of the misinformation the app spreads.Telegram is also not a stranger to the online world, as the app has been around since 2013. However, after WhatsApp recently made the announcement regarding its new privacy policy on 4 January 2021, many people took to social media to share how they would consider switching to Telegram instead.Since the start of January 2020, there have been over one million social media mentions on Telegram, and these mentions have been increasing, with the most significant increase occurring on 4 January 2020.On this day, the social volume of Telegram mentions increased by 34% and the social reach increased by 39%. This was the day that WhatsApp announced their policy changes, and the data recorded more than 72,000 global social Telegram mentions, which had a global social reach of 1.9 billion people.WhatsApp, on the other hand, has been mentioned over three million times on social media, in relation to its new privacy policy. These mentions saw an increase on 4 January 2020 where the data recorded more than 250,000 social media mentions on the day. As the graph indicates below, these mentions on WhatsApp had some impact on the Telegram mentions recorded on the same day.While 79.1% of all Telegram mentions were neutral in sentiment, this was primarily due to natural language processing attributing a Neutral sentiment score to social media mentions in different languages and using a number of emojis. However, from what the data could provide a sentiment analysis on, 10.6% of online users feel positive towards Telegram while 10.3% of online users feel negative.Those who like Telegram prefer it for its enhanced security, as well as having surpassed 500 million active users on the platform. The negative sentiment is attributed to mentions surrounding tech giant, Apple, potentially muting the app on their devices, as well as the data picking up on Telegram mentions that included the keywords WhatsApp, hate, leaving or migrating.While none of these social networking platforms are new in their creation, they certainly are the new platforms that people have taken a keen interest in as a way of connecting with other people as the pandemic continues to restrict physical interaction.Time will tell just how these apps will continue to grow throughout 2021 but perhaps it is safe to say that these new social networking platforms have the potential to take over as the new social networks.If you want to get insights like these to monitor trending topics in news and social media about your brand, business, industry or competitors, you can contact the Meltwater Team here Meltwater is a leading global provider of social and media intelligence. By examining millions of posts each day from social media platforms, blogs and news sites, Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insight from the outside. Meltwater was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 50 offices across six continents. The company has 1,700 employees and 28,000 corporate customers, including industry leaders in several sectors.For more information visit meltwater.com
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has awarded an AED150,000 ($40,844.11) grant to three proposals put forth by Abu Dhabi University (ADU) Electrical, Computer, and Mechanical Engineering students.

The grant will support the winning proposals to build drones and robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI), in preparation for EGAs third edition of the AI Robot competition, according to the university.

This follows ADUs announcement of its students winning first and second place in the last EGA 2020 edition of the AI Robot competition, which challenged students from UAE universities and higher education institutes to design and build industrial robots to be used at EGAs aluminium smelters.

In the third instalment of the competition, ADUs students proposed intelligent systems are set to solve challenging industrial problems under extreme conditions and provide EGA with autonomous measurements of carbon baking furnaces.

Dr. Hamdi Sheibani, Dean of the College of Engineering at ADU, said: "I am filled with pride for our talented students and their accomplishments, maintaining success in the EGA AI Robot competition for two editions in a row. We are dedicated to providing a vibrant learning culture for our students and equipping them with advanced skills and expertise to give them a competitive edge complete with leadership opportunities."

Prof. Mohammed Ghazal, Professor and Chair of the Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Department at ADU, added: "We are committed to preparing our students to be leading independent thinkers, problem-solvers, and innovators in engineering, and providing them with a high-quality education, applied research, purpose-built academic facilities and state-of-the-art laboratories. We would like to thank the EGA for this opportunity, and I wish our students all the best in the third iteration of the competition."

Abdalla Al Zarouni, Vice President of Technology Development and Transfer at EGA, said, "The EGA Al Robot competitions provide an ideal platform for the brightest young engineering minds in the country to meaningfully contribute to the UAEs industries which are a vital part of our economy."

ADUs winning team was made up of Maha Yaghi, Tasnim Basmaji, Abdullah Rashed and Marah Al-Halabi, as part of the Electrical Engineering team, as well as the Computer Engineering team, Omar Marwan Elayyan, Hisham A. Ghazal, Mohammed Redha, and Yazeed Eldigair, both supervised by Prof. Mohammed Ghazal and Prof. Luay Fraiwan, Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

The Mechanical Engineering team of Abdelrahman Mohamed Abduldaim, Ahmed Elkhawad Abdelrahman, Abdelrahman Hosny Gomma, and Aghyad Belal Al Tahhan was supervised by Dr. Mohammad Al-Khedher, Associate Professor and Chair of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at ADU.

The projects will be evaluated internally by ADUs College of Engineering faculty members before being submitted to the competition during the 2021 spring semester.TradeArabia News Service
As the anniversary of the first COVID-19 death in the U.S. approaches, the nation is on track to surpass the total U.S. military death toll in the four years of World War II, a stark indicator of the pandemic's cost.

"This week the U.S. will reach two terrible milestones," Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, said on Twitter Sunday.

The nation is on track this week to hit 25 million coronavirus cases reported and more than 400,000 deaths, according to current estimates. The Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs have put the total number of combat and non-combat deaths in WWII at 405,399.

Read Next: Army IDs 1st Armored Division Staff Sergeant Found Dead at Fort Bliss Home

The number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. passed 397,000 Sunday, with daily deaths averaging more than 3,000 and sometimes reaching 4,000 in the latest surge of cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The current rate of coronavirus deaths means that the total could surpass the WWII death toll by the time President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office at noon Wednesday.

Biden has repeatedly expressed alarm over the surge in cases and has set the goal for his administration of achieving 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has agreed to become Biden's chief medical advisor, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that "the issue of getting 100 million doses in the first 100 days is absolutely a doable thing."

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also said that he had spoken as recently as Sunday morning with Army Gen. Gus Perna, former head of U.S. Army Materiel Command and now chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, about speeding up the delivery of vaccine doses.

In a statement Saturday, acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said that "816,900 additional vaccines were distributed to the American people on Friday, bringing the total number of vaccine doses distributed to 30,303,375."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: The Militarys Coronavirus Cases: The Latest Rundown
Paducah Woman faces DUI, Drug, Traffic Charges

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MCCRACKEN COUNTY - A Paducah woman was charged Saturday on DUI, drug, and traffic offenses following a traffic stop.The McCracken County Sheriff's Department reports that a deputy conducted a traffic stop at 11:23 am at the intersection of Valley Street and Benton Road.The driver, 40-year-old Crystal Ross, reportedly provided deputies with false identifying information due to her drivers license being suspended.Ross was also suspected of being under the influence of a substance, causing impairment while operating the vehicle.A search of her person and vehicle allegedly revealed a controlled substance medication not prescribed to Ross, methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia.Ross was placed under arrest and taken to the McCracken Regional Jail on charges of first offense DUI, giving an officer false identifying information, and several drug and traffic offenses.
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There are now two wild pumas stalking the Welsh countryside, says a big cat expert after seven farmer's sheep were killed amid a series of mysterious sightings.

Frank Tunbridge, 73, believes two pumas are to blame for the death of the sheep after examination of the corpses revealed they were 'clinically' killed - unlike a random dog attack.

It comes after a 'labrador-sized' cat dubbed the 'Puma of Pontybodkin' was reported walking along a road on New Year's Eve just days after a similar animal dashed across a field.

There have been a series of reports made to the Puma Watch North Wales group since November - with apparent sightings across the area.

Frank Tunbridge (pictured), 73, believes two pumas are to blame for the death of the sheep after examination of the corpses revealed they were 'clinically' killed - unlike a random dog attack

The latest witness described the elusive beast as 'a large cat roughly the size of a Labrador' and reported seeing it along the a busy A-road near Talacre, Flintshire.

A farmer got in touch with Mr Tunbridge for his expert opinion after finding seven sheep slaughtered in his field in Snowdonia.

Other farmers in the area have also raised concerns over the way livestock had been killed, and whether it is evidence of a larger predator.

There have been a series of reports made to the Puma Watch North Wales group since November - with apparent sightings across the area. Pictured: Paw prints found in Rhiwlas, Bangor last year

Mr Tunbridge said: 'A large number of sheep around five weeks ago were killed, and I think there are two pumas operating in the area.

'I have since set up two cameras down there. Glimpses of the animals have been very scant.

'However, the mode of how the sheep were killed is unlike that of what a dogs will do.

'Big cats are silent, stealthy, clinical and kill with a bite to their prey's neck. They are clean and efficient unlike the messy approach of dogs.

'The amount of sheep killed points to one or two large animals being responsible.

'A landowner, another farmer and an early morning dog walker have also encountered what they described as a ''puma'' in the area.'

A 'labrador-sized' cat dubbed the 'Puma of Pontybodkin' was reported walking along a road on New Year's Eve just days after a similar animal dashed across a field

Big claw marks have also been discovered - up to six feet above the ground - on trees which big cats are thought to do to sharpen their claws and warn off other predators.

Mr Tunbridge believes many big cats were released into the wild in the UK during and after the Dangerous Animals Act which was introduced in 1976.

He said: 'It is easy to imagine big cats living and breeding in this area and as the name suggests, mountain lions are more at home on higher terrain.

Puma Watch North Wales have received sightings as far away as Snowdonia and Flintshire. Left: A possible puma sighting in Corwen, Denbighshire. Right: Paw prints found in Meliden, Prestatyn

'They would be at home in the wide reaches of Snowdonia.

'As deer are not that abundant there as they are of other areas of the UK, the amount of sheep instead will be easy prey. A sort of takeaway meal for the animal.

'The area they frequent is vast, and they will move districts because their presence has been noted.

'I find this a fascinating subject which most of the general public can not accept big cats living in the wild in the UK.

'If you are in the right place at the right time and spot a big cat, it is something you will never forget.'
I read Congressman Scott Perrys statement of January 9th condemning the violence at the Capitol with interest and then, alarm. That he condemned the violence is a good thing, but it falls well short of what is required.

He first establishes a false equivalence with the demonstrations over the summer in response to police actions involving black Americans. There is a quantum difference between the circumstances and context. One is part of a movement for achieving equality under the law and basic civil rights. The other is an attempt to subvert the will of the people and an attack on the Constitution and our Democracy itself.

Perry has also addressed only part of the problem, the radicalized, right wing racist thugs that actually organized, planned and executed the attack on the Capitol. He has neglected to condemn the lies that the president and he and his fellow travelers promulgated since the election, that gave encouragement to and political cover for the actions of the insurrectionists. His statement still argues that constitutional violations occurred in Pennsylvanias electoral process with no basis in fact. This is nothing more than an opinion based on false premises. And this in an electoral process that gave him his own victory and another term in Congress.

Finally, he has failed to condemn the presidents actions or accept his own responsibility or even consider the possibility that the presidents and his own words and actions could somehow have contributed to the events of Jan. 6. This is what needs to be condemned. The words matter. How they are interpreted and by whom, matters. What they do based on those words really matters.

In short, in language I am sure Brigadier General Perry would understand, this statement is unsatisfactory. It falls well short of the enlightened understanding necessary to help shepherd the country through its current crisis.

Colonel James F. Holcomb, USA, (Retired), Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Washington: White House officials are planning a short, subdued farewell ceremony for Donald Trump as he leaves Washington on Wednesday morning for the last time as President, according to a copy of the invitation seen by Bloomberg News.

The event is scheduled for 8am Washington, DC, local time at Joint Base Andrews just outside the nations capital, where the outgoing President will make his departure aboard Air Force One for Florida. Invitations have been circulated to supporters, including former administration officials and other backers, asking them to arrive by 7.15am.

Donald and Melania Trump on New Year's Eve. They will leave the White House at 8am on Inauguration Day. Credit:AP

Trump has decided to skip the January 20 inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden, at the Capitol, becoming the first sitting US president in more than a century to choose not to attend the regular exchange of power. Trump will instead be at his Mar-a-Lago resort as the incoming president is sworn in at noon that day.

At this point Trump is opting not to issue a pardon for himself as he prepares an expansive list of more than 100 pardons and commutations for release the day before Inauguration, a source familiar with the effort said.
Escaping to sunny skies, warm temperatures and blue waters is a frustratingly distant dream for anyone enduring lockdown in Britain.

But this is how businesswoman Karren Brady's daughter Sophia Peschisolido has been spending the past month  soaking up the winter sun in Dubai.

The 24-year-old has shared scores of pictures of herself wearing bikinis in the Middle Eastern holiday hotspot.

Living the dream: This is how businesswoman Karren Brady's daughter Sophia Peschisolido has been spending the past month  soaking up the winter sun in Dubai

Many of the photos are adverts for fashion brands including PrettyLittleThing and Boux Avenue which pay 'influencers' such as Miss Peschisolido for posts.

She was one of a number of social media and reality stars to flock to Dubai before the third lockdown began. Trips for work purposes were within the rules.

Tory peer Baroness Brady, 51, was also in Dubai last month, with her daughter.

She told the Daily Mail she had travelled there for business, leaving Britain on December 18 and returning 'shortly afterwards'.

Sun-kissed: The 24-year-old has shared scores of pictures of herself wearing bikinis in the Middle Eastern holiday hotspot

She said that 'no rules have been breached, by me or any member of my family'.

One picture Miss Peschisolido put on Instagram from last month shows her walking up the stairs at luxury restaurant Bagatelle Dubai with the caption: 'Mum getting the angles in lol.'

Although it was uploaded on Christmas Eve, Baroness Brady explained that 'bears no relation to the dates I was in Dubai or the date the pictures was taken'.

After Dubai was added to the travel corridor list in November, it became a playground for influencers keen to escape restrictions at home and seek out photo opportunities for their sponsorship deals.

Many have faced a backlash for posting pictures of themselves sunbathing and enjoying nights out while Covid cases in the UK soared and people faced more and more curbs on their lives.

Work: Tory peer Baroness Brady, 51, (pictured receiving a CBE with Sophia in March 2014) was also in Dubai last month, with her daughter. She said that she had travelled there for business

Miss Peschisolido has been in Dubai since at least December 22, although there is no suggestion she broke Tier Four rules to fly out. She did not respond for requests for comment yesterday.

In November Baroness Brady wrote an article for The Sun urging readers to be 'sensible' with regards to visiting family members amid the pandemic.

The multi-millionairess, who took her seat in the House of Lords in 2014, wrote: 'This virus doesn't know it's Christmas. It won't take a week off just so we can get together with our various beloveds.'

Last night she told Mail: 'I went to Dubai for business on the 18th and returned shortly afterwards, my children did not travel with me.

Sizzling: Sophia was one of a number of social media and reality stars to flock to Dubai before the third lockdown began. Trips for work purposes were within the rules

'I have not breached any Government restrictions, to suggest otherwise would be totally incorrect.'

Under the current national lockdown, people are banned from going on holiday and can travel internationally only for work or other legally permitted reasons.

The United Arab Emirates was removed from the UK's travel corridor list last Tuesday, just days ahead of the decision to close all corridors amid fears of new strains of the virus.

All travellers returning to the UK now need proof of a negative test and must quarantine for ten days, unless they test negative again after five days.
After 4 years of Democrats claiming Trumps election was illegitimate based on a phony charge of Russian collusion, suddenly, questioning a presidential election is taboo. The Democrat Media Complex obviously think that the public either shares a metastasizing case of TDS, or else has no medium-term memory.

Despite the absurdity of persecuting people for the First Amendment right to express doubts, it is not just Democrats who are warning Republicans to shut up and get with the program. Pam Key of Breitbart:

Republican strategist Karl Rove said on this weeks broadcast of Fox News Sunday that President Donald Trump will be convicted in the Senate with Republicans voting for impeachment if his defense is there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Strictly speaking, thats a prediction, not a threat. But Rove, with all his baggage, speaks for a notable segment of the GOP establishment. If his second impeachment ever comes to trial in the Senate, Trump does have plenty of other grounds for defense on the basis of his speech containing no incitement as defined by legal precedent, on the basis that reportedly the FBI has evidence of advance planning and warned of violence, negating the notion that the felonious demonstrators were motivated by his words, and on the on-the-record words of many Democrats that were far more inciteful of violence (of the BLM and Antifa sort) than anything he said.

Firebrand House radical Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants Senators Hawley and Cruz to either resign or be expelled from the Senate, something highly unlikely to come to pass, but laying down a marker for future reference. Her House colleague Cori Bush wants to expel members of her own legislative body:

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., introduced a resolution with 47 co-sponsors that directs the chambers Ethics Committee review of all 39 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results for possible censure or expulsion.

Such an action coming to the floor of the House would depend on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who also has the power to determine whether or not a Senate impeachment trial of President (or ex-President) Trump takes place, depending on when or whether she delivers the article of impeachment to the Senate.

In academia, which has been gripped by Trump hatred even more than Congressional Democrats, a notable legal scholar has been fired for acting as defense counsel (a constitutionally guaranteed right) for President Trump and speaking at the January 6 rally on the Mall (also a constitutional right). Matthew Vadum in The Epoch Times:

A lawyer who represented the Trump campaign in a legal challenge to the Pennsylvania election results was forced out of his post last week as a law professor at Chapman University in California for representing President Donald Trump as a client. But what especially earned the ire of left-wing activists at the famous conservative legal scholars school was that John C. Eastman spoke alongside the president at the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally in Washington. Violence began at the U.S. Capitol during certification of the presidential election results while the rally was still going on at the other end of the Washington Mall. There is no evidence that Eastman, or Trump, did anything unlawful by speaking at the rally. Nevertheless, Chapman University President Daniele Struppa promptly denounced Eastman for engaging in constitutionally protected free speech. Struppa accused Eastman in a Jan. 8 statement of playing a role in the tragic events in Washington, D.C., that jeopardized our democracy. Eastmans actions are in direct opposition to the values and beliefs of our institution. He has now put Chapman in the position of being publicly disparaged for the actions of a single faculty member, and for what many call my failure to punish and fire him, Struppa wrote.

President Strupa sounds like he thinks he is defending his university as he invokes a career death penalty on the basis of free speech. His subsequent remarks add to the impression:

Struppa also said, This week has also demonstrated that this country has a great deal of work to do for social justice and equity.

I dont know if Professor Eastman had tenure, but suddenly that concept does not seem to apply to conservatives after decades of leftists and outright communists being protected by it in higher and secondary education.

Meanwhile, Representative Elise Stefanik, a Harvard graduate, has been removed from the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics there, for claiming electoral fraud, and thereby supposedly bearing responsibility for the Capitol incursion.

Douglas Elmendorf, Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, explained why he removed Stefanik in a letter released on Tuesday. "Rather, in my assessment, Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November's presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect," Elmendorf wrote. "Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country's leaders are chosen."

As she has pointed out, this leaves the Institute solely in the hands of Democrats, as she was the sole Republican on the board. This violates the bipartisan tradition of that Institute as a body that could be trusted by both sides of the aisle. And it amplifies an atmosphere of fear:

"As a conservative Republican, it is a rite of passage and badge of honor to join the long line of leaders who have been boycotted, protested, and canceled by colleges and universities across America," Stefanik wrote. "The decision by Harvard's administration to cower and cave to the woke Left will continue to erode diversity of thought, public discourse, and ultimately the student experience. The Ivory Tower's march toward a monoculture of like-minded, intolerant liberal views demonstrates the sneering disdain for everyday Americans and will instill a culture of fear for students who will understand that a conservative viewpoint will not be tolerated and will be silenced."

But even worse, a petition started by students at Harvard has reportedly even gained some faculty support for revoking the degrees of graduates who supported President Trumps claims of fraud. Fox Business reports:

Harvard University students are now circulating a petition that calls for revoking degrees from Trump supporters and aides who attended the elite Ivy League institution, FOX Business has learned. The reason cited, according to a copy of the petition reviewed by FOX Business, is that supporters of President Trump were involved in spreading the disinformation and mistrust that led to last weeks deadly riot at the United States Capitol Building. The petition is entitled, Revoke their Degrees, and was circulated by four students who attend Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, FOX Business has confirmed. It calls on the university to be Prepared to take a stand for representative democracy and against violent white supremacy, by specifically revoking degrees of three Harvard graduates who are supporters of the president: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX).

This is the credentialized version of Stalins practice of airbrushing purged officials out of pictures. If I correctly recall the graduation ceremony rhetoric, it means expelling the graduates from the company of educated men and women.

Madness is afoot.

Photo credit: YouTube screengrab (cropped) via Wikipedia CC BY 3.0 license
New Zealand Central Bank Cyber Attack

The Reserve Bank New Zealand has reported that it suffered a "malicious and illegal breach of one of its third-party data sharing application systems used by the bank and apologised to customers for some problems that the cyber attack caused, ordering an immediate independent investigation. "We are working closely with domestic and international cyber security experts and other relevant authorities as part of our investigation and response to this malicious attack," Governor Adrian Orr said in a statement issued on January 15th.

It is unclear when the breach took place, who was responsible, and in what country the file-sharing service is based. It will take time to understand the full implications of the breach, according to the bank.

In addition to the forensic cyber investigation currently underway, we have appointed an independent third party to undertake a comprehensive general review of this incident. We will be as transparent and clear as possible as this progresses, and will release the reviews terms of reference shortly... The nature and extent of information that has been potentially accessed is still being determined, but it may include some commercially and personally sensitive information," the Bank said.



A detailed forensic cyber investigation is underway and the Bank is working directly with affected stakeholders whose information may have been breached. In its 2019 Financial Stability report, the RBNZ warned that cyber attacks were on the rise in New Zealand and that "More extreme events have a low probability but are still plausible.

Several other major organisations in New Zealand have been attacked in the past year, notably including the New Zealand Stock Exchange which was targeted by sustained distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks which halted trading for almost a week. In February of last year the RBNZ reported that the expected cost of cyber incidents for the banking and insurance industry was between NZD80m ($58m) and NZD140m per year.

In its latest report, the New Zealand government agency CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) said cyber attacks in the country had increased 33% year-on-year.

RBNZ: Bloomberg: DW: NBC: Yahoo: StraitsTimes:

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North Korean Hackers Specialise In Financial Theft:

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde will be in Ukraine on a working visit on January 19-20, in particular, together with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, she will visit the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone in Donbas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.

"It is Ukraine that will become the first country that Ann Linde will visit as chairing the OSCE, which emphasizes the priority of our state on the OSCE agenda in 2021. As part of the visit, Linde will hold talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said on Monday.

As noted, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine will discuss a number of topics, including the security situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea, efforts to peacefully resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and support for the OSCE.

"The ministers will pay special attention to topical issues of bilateral Ukrainian-Swedish relations, further increase in trade and investment between the two countries, cooperation between Ukraine and Sweden in international organizations," the Foreign Ministry said.

The incumbent OSCE Chairwoman-in-Office will also visit, together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the area of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas, where she will personally get acquainted with the activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the consequences of the Russian Federation's armed aggression against Ukraine.

At 12.30 on January 19, Kuleba and Linde will hold a joint press conference.

As reported, Sweden began its annual presidency in the OSCE on January 1, 2021.
UK-headquartered business financial platform Tide on Monday announced its first plans for a test launch in India in the first quarter of 2021, followed by a wider rollout later in the year, as part of its expansion plans.

The company, providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said its platform model is ripe for expansion as the basic needs of small businesses are universal.

The company said it selected India as its first market due to the considerable commercial opportunities available and has a long-term ambition to operate in markets accounting for 25 per cent of global SMEs.

India was selected as our first market outside the UK due to its vast population, and the entrepreneurial spirit that is so prevalent in the country. As an aspiring global business financial platform operating in the largest market is a must," said Tide CEO Oliver Prill.

"As a company, we already know India well and we are confident that Tide can adapt to make business banking better for Indian SMEs. With investment and the expertise Tide already has in the country, we can help underserved SMEs thrive, he said.

With over 63 million SMEs in India nearly one in 10 of all SMEs in the world the company feels these "digitally-savvy companies" that are vital to the Indian economy are underserved by the banks. Therefore, the company chose India, where has been thriving due to the combination of the government's digitisation efforts and high smartphone penetration.

Gurjodhpal Singh, formerly of India's leading Payment Service Provider PayU and said to have considerable experience in supporting Indian SMEs over many years, will lead the company's business in India.

Starting with an Alpha test product, based on its global technology stack, Tide India is set to go live in the first quarter of 2021. The company already operates a technology centre in Hyderabad and has a team approaching 100 people, predominantly software developers, working in the country.

Singh will work to expand this team to deliver the launch, supported by company CEO Prill and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Guy Duncan.

The company said it will adapt the structure of its senior leadership to accommodate this international expansion and Laurence Krieger, currently Chief Operating and Product Officer, will be stepping into the role of UK CEO.

"The UK market will remain a key focus for Tide, with a dedicated team building Tide India. As well as beginning our international journey, we expect 2021 to be another year of significant growth, Prill said.

He said the company's move into India is another step in its global strategy and builds on an established position.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the company claims continued strong growth because it has remained fully open for business, with its digital-only experience attractive to customers.

With almost 300,000 members, processing 10 billion pounds in transactions, the company claims to have over 5 per cent of the UK business banking market.

The Tide business financial platform offers business accounts and related banking services, as also a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions, such as full integration with accounting systems.

It claims that all solutions are designed with SMEs in mind, using advanced technology. Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, the company also has plans to embark on Series C fundraising in 2021.

(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.)
New Delhi [India], January 18 (ANI/NewsVoir): Bullmen Realty, one of the leading Noida headquartered real estate consultancies organizes 2021's first physical realty expo series in the month of January to showcase properties of around 20 developers. The first phase of expo was held on 17th January, 2021 at Hotel Radisson, Sector 18, Noida, and will continue to second phase at DoubleTree by Hilton in Gurugram on 24th January, 2021. The expo series will be culminated on 31st January, 2021 at Radisson, Sector 18, Noida. The organizing team is expecting a turnaround of 3000 visitors during the entire course of property expo series and close up to 500 bookings.

Some of the renowned developers from Noida who participated in this Property Expo were Bhutani, Samridhi, Gulshan, ATS Homekraft, Ace, Tata, Civitech, M3M, Birla Homes, Hero Homes, Adani, Spectrum, Krisumi Corporation, Supertech and Prestige. Adding on to this leading real estate players from Gurugram such as M3M, Krisumi, Hero homes, Paras, Birla Navya, AMB, Shapoorji Pallonji, Adani, DLF & Signature Global will be showcasing their state of art projects in the Gurugram expo. A wide range of futuristic commercial and residential projects will be presented to attract investors and buyers. Each of the property displayed at expo is a mark of excellence in infrastructure and quality. Bullmen Realty Expo is presenting the buyers and investors a golden opportunity to invest in North India's largest property market along with saving 20 lakhs.

Kapil Kapur, Director, Sales, Strategy & Business Development, Bullmen Realty, said, "With Property Expo we are trying to abridge the gap between genuine customers, and developers by bringing them under one roof. We have leading names of NCR realty market collaborating with us for this event. Buyers will have a wide range of options, to choose from and also utilize the discount offer being provided. Our property expo is one of the first in 2021 for NCR based properties, hence good turn around is expected."

The Property expo showcased residential/commercial properties starting from the range of 15 lakhs and going up to 10 crores. The commercial projects displayed also offered flexible leasing options. Adding on to the importance of property expos, Ankush Jain, Managing Director, Bullmen Realty said, "Such events give the buyers and potential investors a clear picture of the market, we are glad to be hosting one of the first physical expos in NCR post lockdown. The real estate is currently brimming with investment opportunities and promises great future returns. We are looking forward to evolve our strategies and doing business in this new normal."

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

RJD leader on



Monday met Governor Phagu Chauhan and handed over a memorandum highlighting the alleged deterioration in the state's law and order situation.

Yadav, leader of the opposition in the state assembly, visited the Raj Bhavan heading a delegation of senior RJD leaders.

"The governor took a serious note of the points made by us in the memorandum and gave the assurance of his intervention," Yadav later told reporters.

In the two-page memorandum, the former deputy chief minister alleged that as per the NCRB figures, the number of cognisable offences reported in the state grew more than two- fold between 2005, when Nitish Kumar took over as the chief minister, and 2019.

He also highlighted the failure of the police in nabbing those involved in the murder of Rupesh Kumar Singh, a well-connected airline official who was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Patna last week.

"We reiterate that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has become tired and helpless and incapable of handling his responsibilities. He holds the Home portfolio and knows it well enough that his claims of rule of law are hollow," Yadav 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.)
Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia sit on the plane on a flight to Moscow (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

The Foreign Secretary has told Russia to immediately release Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was detained in Moscow.

Mr Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on Sunday after spending five months in Germany recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on Moscow.

Cabinet minister Dominic Raab tweeted: It is appalling that Alexey Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released.

It is appalling that Alexey Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released.



Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.  Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) January 18, 2021

Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.

Mr Navalnys detention has been condemned by governments around the world, with the European Union, Germany and the US all speaking out about the arrest.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he was deeply troubled by Mr Navalnys arrest, while adding a veiled criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents, he said.

Expand Close Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (Aaron Chown/PA) PA / Facebook

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Prior to Mr Navalnys arrival at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport, Russias prisons service said the 44-year-old has violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

Officials said he would be held in custody until a court rules on his case.

Tom Tugendhat, the foreign affairs select committee chairman, said Russias justification of Mr Navalnys arrest was designed to deceive.

Navalny missed probation hearings because he was recovering after the same Putin officials who ordered his arrest tried to murder him, the Conservative MP tweeted.

If he gets beaten up and there are marks on the weapons, theyll charge him with damaging Government property.

Deeply troubled by Russia's decision to arrest Aleksey Navalny. Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 18, 2021

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: Alexei Navalny was the victim of a cowardly chemical weapons attack. He has shown great courage in returning to his homeland.

His detention is unjustifiable and an insult to the Russian people. He must be released immediately and his attackers brought to justice.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Catherine West called for a co-ordinated response from the UK Government, the European Union and the incoming Joe Biden administration in the US.

SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald was equally forceful in his condemnation of Mr Navalnys arrest.

He wrote on Twitter: Having failed to crush Navalnys bravery with poison the Russian government will now try, and fail, by putting him in prison.

The free world must stand in unison in calling for his release. Those who continue to shill for Putins various outlets must surely feel shame tonight.

Defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood called Mr Navalnys decision to return to Russia incredibly brave, in a sentiment echoed by veterans minister Johnny Mercer.

Mr Ellwood said: Poisoned by the FSB yet he chooses to return to Russia and has now been arrested.

Incredibly brave stand by Navalny in the name of democracy as we head towards Russian parliamentary elections.
On the eve of the tenth round of



talks between the and agitating farmers, Union Agriculture Minister on Monday said the stalemate continues as farmer unions are not discussing the provisions they find problematic and appealed to them to discuss "options" which could resolve the "problem".

Speaking to reporters here, Tomar said the government has been discussing the issue of the three new agri laws with agitating farmers with an "open mind".

"We are willing to discuss the issues concerning the three laws with an open mind, but they (farmer unions) are not discussing the provisions (in the legislations) that are problematic, and therefore the stalemate continues," he said.

The tenth round of talks between the and 41 protesting farmers' unions is scheduled for Tuesday at 12 noon at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

Separately, a Supreme Court-appointed panel to resolve the crisis is also scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.

The previous rounds of talks between the government and farmers have failed to reach any concrete results, as protesting unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the new laws, but the government has refused to do so.

"Tomorrow (Tuesday), we are meeting again and I am hopeful that if they (farm unions) discuss options then it will lead to the solution of the problem," Tomar said.

"Nine rounds of discussions have taken place so far with the agitating farmer unions. I have always been telling them to discuss those provisions which are problematic for cultivators," he said.

Tomar said the Central government has always been ready for talks and to amend those provisions with an open mind, and is doing so also.

"But unions are unable to discuss these provisions which have resulted in the stalemate," Tomar said.

The agriculture minister also listed out various measures taken by the Narendra Modi government for the welfare of farmers, including "giving away Rs 75,000 crore every year in the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi".

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammann Nidhi is an initiative by the Government of India in which all farmers will get up to Rs 6,000 per year as minimum income support.

When asked about the Congress staging a protest on the issue of agriculture laws in his Lok Sabha constituency Morena in Madhya Pradesh, Tomar said, the Congress had no right to talk about farmers, "as that party is responsible for the current plight of agriculturists".

He said the Congress had promised agri reforms in its manifesto for the 2019 elections.

"Now, the Congress should first go before the media to announce roll back of its promises mentioned in the poll manifesto. After the Congress does so, then only it will have the right to talk on these farm laws," the BJP leader said.

Asked about the tractor rally announced by farmers on Republic Day, Tomar said farmers are also responsible to ensure they will not do anything that will hurt the Republic Day's traditions and fervor, "as the country got Independence after making a lot of sacrifices".

"I am sure that farmers will rethink their proposed agitation on that day," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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The Acting US Secretary of Defense said on Monday there was no intelligence to indicate an insider threat to Joe Biden's inauguration but that troops were still being vetted before the event.

Christopher C. Miller said in a statement released by the Defense Department on Monday afternoon: 'As is normal for military support to large security events, the Department will vet National Guardsmen who are in Washington, D.C.

'While we have no intelligence indicating an insider threat, we are leaving no stone unturned in securing the capital.

'This type of vetting often takes place by law enforcement for significant security events. However, in this case the scope of military participation is unique.'

His comments contradict remarks given on Sunday by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who has told commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the inauguration approaches.

Some 25,000 National Guardsmen are being brought to DC to protect the event. It comes as more and more people - including law enforcement officers and military personnel - are arrested over the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

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National Guard troops near the fence line around the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, USA, 18 January 2021

Members of the US National Guard leave the US Capitol to take positions outside after an "external security threat" prior to a dress rehearsal for the 59th inaugural ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, at the US Capitol on January 18, 2021 in Washington, DC

Members of the National Guard cross a street in Washington, DC on January 18, 2021, as security has been tightened ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden as the next US president

Preparations take place before a rehearsal for President-elect Joe Biden's Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

Earlier on Monday, a rehearsal for the inauguration had to be called off and everyone in attendance evacuated earlier in the day due to an 'external security threat' that turned out to be a fire started by a homeless woman under a nearby bridge.

Acting US Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said on Monday there was 'no intelligence' of a threat

Military personnel and staffers ran from the temporary seating on the Capitol Building's West Front while an evacuation warning played in the background shortly after an 'explosion' was heard at around 10.30am.

As they panicked and ran for cover, plumes of smoke rose above the Capitol Building, where thousands of armed protesters staged an attempted coup on January 6.

Journalists at the scene reported being told of an 'external security threat' and people working in the Capitol Complex were told to stay away from windows and doors.

Less than an hour later, the fire department revealed that the chaos was caused by a homeless woman who unwittingly caused an explosion by using propane gas in her tent.

It caused a huge fire beneath a freeway on H Street South East, which is a stone's throw from the Capitol, and was the source of the black smoke that had terrified people on the hill.

The scare comes amid growing fears of an insider attack on the Biden inauguration while the nation still reels from the Capitol Building riot on January 6. Pentagon officials are concerned that an insider attack may be in the works.

All 25,000 of the National Guardsmen who will be there to protect the event are being vetted by the FBI.

The evacuation was first reported shortly after 10.40am.

'Overhead announcement to those of us in Inauguration rehearsals just now at the Capitol saying theres an external security threat, no entry or exit, stay away from exterior windows & doors, if outside to seek cover,' one journalist at the scene tweeted.

A ceremonial honor guard marches past the White House as they rehearse for the President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in Washington

Military Band members dressed in costumes rehearse near the U.S. Capitol Hill, ahead of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2021

The inauguration ceremony of President-elect Joe Biden is rehearsed in front of the White House in Washington, U.S. January 18, 2021

Military Band members dressed in 18th century costumes rehearse near the U.S. Capitol Hill, ahead of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration

Military personnel waiting to be told it is safe to return to the West front at the Capitol Building on Monday morning

People after evacuating the West front of the Capitol on Monday morning

People evacuate from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol during a rehearsal the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

US military during a rehearsal for President-elect Joe Biden's Presidential Inauguration in US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, 18 January 2021

People evacuate from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol during a rehearsal the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

Smoke started rising behind the Capitol building on Monday morning which made people rehearsing the inauguration panic

This is where the fire originated - beneath a bridge behind the US Capitol Building

Members of the military band evacuate from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol due to a security threat

People evacuate from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after a security threat during a rehearsal the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

Members of the military shelter in place at the U.S. Capitol after a dress rehearsal for the 59th inaugural ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

The fire was started by a homeless woman who was using propane inside her tent. It caused an 'explosion' that was heard in the area. She was not seriously injured

Huge plumes of smoke coming from beneath the freeway by-pass on Monday morning

The fire department tweeted less than an hour later: '#DCsBravest responded to an outside fire in the 100 block of H St SE that has been extinguished.

'There were no injuries. This accounts for smoke that many have seen.

'Update outside fire 100 block of H St SE. Fire involved a homeless tent beneath freeway. #DCsBravest quickly extinguished fire.

'Occupant indicated she was using propane, which may explain report of explosion . 1 individual with non life threatening injury.'

They did not specify what she was using the propane for. The woman did not want to be taken to the hospital.

Capitol police said in a statement that the incident had been 'contained' by that the area was still on lockdown.

'The Capitol Complex is currently in lockdown. All personnel are advised to stay indoors and away from windows and doors.'

The security for Wednesday's event will be on a larger scale than any other in recent history.

Over the weekend, the Capitol Police were heard practicing their emergency notification system over a loud speaker.

The warning said: 'This is a test of the US Capitol Police audible emergency notification system.'

Some 25,000 armed National Guardsmen will be in Washington DC for it. Many are already there and have been since the immediate aftermath of the January 6 MAGA mob riot.

But defense officials say they are now fearful of an insider attack that could threaten the event. All of the troops who will be in Washington to protect the event have to be vetted first by the FBI.

One Army reservist with 'secret' security clearance has already been arrested for his alleged part in the Capitol siege earlier this month.

City workers clean up the scene at Homeless encampment 100 H St SE where a fire earlier today sparked security concerns that saw the inauguration rehearsal evacuated

It's unclear how many people were living in the encampment. No one was seriously hurt despite the huge flames

City workers are shown cleaning up the debris of the fire on Monday morning

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 30, of New Jersey was described in court papers as an 'avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer' who allegedly 'encouraged' other violent rioters before being charged Friday.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press on Sunday that officials are conscious of the potential inauguration threat, and warned commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the inauguration approaches.

So far, however, he and other leaders say they have seen no evidence of any threats, and officials said the vetting hadn't flagged any issues.

'Were continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,' McCarthy said in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesdays inauguration.

DC is already on high alert with road blocks and a 'ring of steel' of security ahead of Wednesday's inauguration

Members of the military waiting inside the Capitol after evacuating the West front on Monday

US Capitol Police lead members of the news media to a secure area after the US Capitol went into lockdown due to a 'security threat', in Washington, DC

Tough security measures are being put in place across Washington DC ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration, including bringing in at least 10,000 National Guard troops, erecting new anti-climb fences around the Capitol and White House and the closure of national monuments

People walk past during a dress rehearsal for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2021 after the explosion scare

Preparations take place for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021

Two armed National Guardsmen are shown protecting the Capitol building on Sunday

Police officers and Secret Service agents stand guard at a check point near the Capitol ahead of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration

National Guard troops load up weapons at the Nation's Capital ahead of the upcoming inauguration for President Joe Biden

National Guard members take a staircase toward the U.S. Capitol building before a rehearsal for President-elect Joe Biden's Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. There are now fears of an inside plot to sabotage the event

He said Guard members are also getting training on how to identify potential insider threats.

Hale-Cusanelli, the arrested army reservist with 'secret' security clearance, is alleged to have told other rioters to 'advance'.

He now faces charges including knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, The New York Post reports.

The FBI has released photos of seven MAGA mob rioters wanted for beating and tasing a police officer as they screamed 'kill him with his own gun' during the Capitol siege.

DC Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone, 40, suffered a mild heart attack after being attacked during the violent January 6 siege at the US Capitol.

Fanone, who is a father-of-four, was among the officers who were overpowered and beaten while trying to stop the rioters from storming the building.

The FBI Washington Field Office has released images of the seven suspects they say were involved in the assault on Fanone.

The photos are from images and footage that were taken of the violence scenes at the Capitol.

Authorities are now seeking the public's help in identifying those suspects.

Less than two weeks ago, 15,000 armed protesters stormed the Capitol in an attempted coup while congress was certifying the election result

The FBI has released photos of seven MAGA mob rioters wanted for beating and tasering DC Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone as they screamed 'kill him with his own gun' during the January 6 siege

In a press conference last week, Fanone described being attacked by the mob and said rioters had tried to grab his gun and yelled: 'Kill him with his own gun'.

Riley June Williams, of Harrisburg, was charged Sunday with entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct after she was videoed rioting inside the Capitol last week. She is now being investigated by the FBI

'It looked like a medieval battle scene,' Fanone, who rushed to the Capitol after hearing an urgent call for back-up on the radio, said

He was among the officers who tried to defend the West Terrace.

At the time, Fanone and his colleagues were unaware that protesters had already breached the Capitol and were inside.

He recalled being dragged away from the doors to the Capitol by rioters.

Photographs from the scene showed him screaming as he tried to fight them off.

Fanone said that he and his colleagues had mace sprayed in their faces, had their batons stolen and were then beaten with them.

'We were getting chemical irritants sprayed,' he said.

'They had pipes and different metal objects, batons, some of which I think they had taken from law enforcement personnel. They had been striking us with those.'

He said it was impossible to fight the crowd.

Fanone said some of the rioters tried to grab his gun and he feared they were going to shoot him. He said he believes he was only spared because he pleaded with rioters not to kill him for the sake of his children.

It came as a fugitive Pennsylvania worker was investigated for 'stealing' Nancy Pelosi's laptop.

In video footage captured by British broadcaster ITV, Williams can be seen inside the Capitol, wearing a green T-shirt and brown trench coat, holding a zebra-print bag

Williams is seen highlighted in the above image in a demonstration outside the Capitol on January 6

Riley June Williams, 22, of Harrisburg, was charged Sunday with entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct after she was filmed rioting inside the Capitol on January 6.

A court affidavit outlining Williams' alleged crimes suggests that she could soon face much more serious charges.

In the affidavit, FBI Agent John Lund said that a former romantic partner of Williams  identified only as W1  had also come forward to tell the bureau she had stolen either a laptop or hard drive from Pelosi's office during the insurrection.

The witness told investigators that friends of Williams had played them a video that showed her stealing the device.

They further claimed that Williams, a care worker, then 'intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service.'

However, according to the witness the plan fell through for unknown reasons and Williams is either still in possession of the device or has since destroyed it.

The FBI said the matter remains under investigation as agents work to verify W1's allegations. For now, Williams is just facing charges of entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.

Williams is believed to be still on the run from police after having allegedly fled from her home when a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
I have a dream. Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated as a champion for civil rights. But today, I want you to think about a different part of my dads legacy. Something that you may not know, but its more relevant today than ever  his fight against poverty and income inequality. But if a man doesnt have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty, and the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. When my father was shot in 1968 in Memphis, he was crusading for higher wages for black sanitation workers. Their work conditions were abysmal  low pay, no sick leave, and many were on welfare. In a speech to the workers, Dad said the issue is injustice. The issue is the   Refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants. Today my dad is revered. But in 1968, he was deeply unpopular. Two-thirds of Americans disapproved of him. Oh, Ive been hit so many times Im immune to it. The F.B.I. said he was a Communist. But he kept protesting anyway. I traveled with him as a kid throughout Georgia in preparation for the Poor Peoples Campaign. The idea was to rally people to Washington to press the federal government to provide jobs and income for the poor. This was his other dream but he did not live to see it come to fruition. I think if my father saw the issues of poverty and income inequality that exist today, he would be greatly disappointed. Back then, 25 million people were living in poverty. But today, its close to 40 million, and some say its much higher, while billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the working class. Americans who teach our kids, deliver our food, drive our buses are struggling. It is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. If we really want to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the principles that my father stood for, our whole government needs to step up, from creating a cabinet position focused on fighting poverty to passing a universal basic income. Theres nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. And the real question is whether we have the will.
Californian Man Allegedly Lived in Security Zone at OHare Airport for 3 Months

A man from California allegedly lived in a secured area in the security zone of OHare International Airport in Chicago for 3 months undetected before his arrest Saturday, said state attorneys.

Aditya Singh, 36, from a Los Angeles suburb, was charged with felony criminal trespass in a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Two United Airlines employees ran into Singh and requested his ID on Saturday afternoon. Singh showed them an airport ID badge from an operations manager that had been reported missing on Oct. 26. The employees then called 911 and the police came and arrested Singh, according to Assistant States Attorney Kathleen Hagerty.

Aditya Singh allegedly hid out for three months in a secured area of OHare International Airport. (Chicago Police Department)

After a prosecutor detailed the allegations in bond court on Sunday, Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz asked, So if I understand you correctly, youre telling me that an unauthorized, nonemployee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the OHare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected? I want to understand you correctly, per Chicago Tribune.

Prosecutors said Singh arrived at OHare on Oct. 19 on a flight from Los Angeles and allegedly has lived in the airports security zone undetected ever since.

Hagerty told the judge that Singh claimed to be scared to go home due to COVID and that passengers were giving him food.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Singh lives with roommates in Orange County, California, has a clean record, a masters degree, and is unemployed. Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood said although the incident is abnormal the charge is so far nonviolent. What led Singh to Chicago and if he has any connection to Chicago remains unknown.

Judge Ortiz set the bail to $1,000 and a condition of prohibiting Singh from entering the airport, and set his first court date for Jan. 27.

Airport security breaches happen occasionally. Marilyn Hartman, a 68-year-old Chicago woman, snuck into the OHare International Airport in 2018 but failed to board on a flight to Longdons Heathrow Airport.

There have also been many airport dwellers in recent past years. Former CIA contractor Edward Snowden lived in Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, for over 30 days. However, Singhs incident is rather distinct because it involved a security breach.
DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IBAT College Dublin, Ireland's leading enterprise-focused third level institution today announced that its Level 7 Bachelor of Business programme has attained accreditation by QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland)  expanding the institution's higher education portfolio.

IBAT's Bachelor of Business is a three-year, full-time programme aimed at providing students with a challenging business degree that focuses on transversal and cross-sectoral skills that are relevant in navigating today's business operating landscape.

Key module topics within the programme include management and organisation, finance, human resources, law and governance, ICT and economics. The programme structure and content was designed and developed following close consultation with various stakeholders. This includes industry partners within IBAT's Business Advisory Group which comprises of INTEL, Allied Irish Banks, Dublin City University and MDO Management Company among others. The other stakeholders involved included recruiters for employability perspectives and students for assessment and workload perspectives.

Graduates from the programme will be able to apply for one-year add-on honours bachelor degree programmes such as the BA Honours in Business at IBAT.

Commenting on the QQI accreditation, Joe Gorey, Principal at IBAT College Dublin, said: "We are very proud of attaining QQI accreditation for our Level 7 Bachelor of Business programme. This is testament of the on-going efforts of our academic staff and the high standards of academic excellence being provided to local and international students."

"The QQI accreditation also affirms the quality of our business programmes. Students are assured to being provided with the relevant skills and knowledge to become business leaders of the future. At IBAT, we offer a great learning environment that is supportive of every learner's needs. We look forward to welcoming students to our Bachelor of Business programme."

For more information on IBAT's Level 7 Bachelor of Business programme, please visit https://www.ibat.ie/ or contact the Admissions Office on +353 1 807 5055.

About IBAT College Dublin

IBAT College Dublin offers a blend of quality undergraduate, postgraduate, English language courses and professional education within a state-of-the-art learning environment in a range of subject areas including business, accounting, ICT and management.

Courses at IBAT College Dublin are designed to reflect the demands of Irish and international students, with up-to-date syllabus reflecting the rapidly changing economy and flexible study options to suit the needs of today's students. IBAT College Dublin also operates an English Language School, offering general English and Cambridge exam preparation courses to students from all over the world.

About QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland)

QQI is an independent state agency responsible for promoting quality and accountability in education and training services in Ireland. It is the awarding body for third-level education institutions outside the university sector and was established in 2012 by the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012.

SOURCE IBAT College Dublin
A former bodybuilding champion who battered his fiancee to death on their wedding day because she decided to call off the marriage still refuses to accept responsibility for his crime.

Jilted groom Paul Stockman (63) was back in court last week for an indecency offence after completing his sentence for causing Patricia Bardon's death.

He launched a vicious attack on Patricia leaving her fatally wounded on the bathroom floor of their Belfast home in 2010.

Blood was pouring from the mum-of-two's head but Stockman left her to die rather than call an ambulance on the day they were to be married which was also Patricia's birthday.

The monster was jailed for six years in 2011 following a trial and initially claimed Patricia had sustained her injuries after falling off the toilet.

Expand Close Patricia Bardon's body was found at the south Belfast home she shared with the accused last Monday  which was also her 51st birthday / Facebook

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Whatsapp Patricia Bardon's body was found at the south Belfast home she shared with the accused last Monday  which was also her 51st birthday

Since being released Stockman has been living at supported accommodation in north Belfast and pleaded guilty to public indecency at Belfast Magistrates Court last week after being caught urinating on the Shore Road in October.

The former Mr Northern Ireland was ordered to pay 90 for the offence and when later approached by Sunday Life about the matter and asked if he wished apologise to the bereaved family of Patricia Bardon, he said, "No comment".

Expand Close Paul Stockman (53) arrive at Belfast Magistrates Court charged with the murder of fiancee Patricia Bardon / Facebook

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Whatsapp Paul Stockman (53) arrive at Belfast Magistrates Court charged with the murder of fiancee Patricia Bardon

He also told our man: "I didn't kill that woman, she died of manslaughter, she choked on her own blood. I'd prefer to leave this.

"This is totally weird, so what? What does that have to do with my situation right now and my general day-to-day life?

"I'd prefer if you would just disappear and leave me alone."

During his trial in 2011 Belfast Crown Court heard furious thug Stockman bashed helpless Patricia's head off the bathroom floor of their south Belfast apartment, leaving her with a broken neck and fatal head and facial injuries.

At the time of the attack on August 23, 2010, callous Stockman was on bail for a previous assault in which he beat Ms Bardon senseless. He had a history of violence against her. The day she was killed was also her 51st birthday.

The lovers, who were both alcoholics, lived in a ground floor flat in Elm Court in the Donegall Pass area of south Belfast.

During Stockman's trial a prosecution lawyer said the pair were due to be married later that day but Patricia got cold feet about the wedding.

She told Stockman that she did not want to go through with the wedding because of his woman-beating ways and he flew into a rage, grabbed his helpless fiancee and smashed her head off the hard bathroom floor.

As Patricia lay in a pool of blood Stockman picked her up and carried her into the bedroom but instead of calling an ambulance he left her to die on the bed.

Later that day neighbour Joan Clarke saw Stockman in an agitated state and the evil brute told her Patricia had fallen off the toilet and hit her head.

Ms Clarke phoned an ambulance but by then it was too late and the mum-of-two was dead.

When police arrived at the scene scheming Stockman continued to spin his web of lies, claiming Patricia had fell and injured her head before refusing medical treatment.

The bully claimed he wanted to phone an ambulance but she told him "no".

Detectives, who knew the strapping thug had a history of domestic violence and had been convicted of beating up Patricia on previous occasions, were not fooled by his lies.

The full extent of Stockman's wicked misogyny were laid bare during his trial. In May 2008 Patricia twice had to be taken to hospital after being beaten to a pulp by Stockman.

Prosecutors revealed the bodybuilder left Patricia with extensive bruising down her back after shoving her against a wall in November 2008.

Later the same year he battered her senseless on Christmas Day, an attack for which he was sentenced to 18 months probation.

In February 2009 he breached his probation order when he was convicted of aggravated assault on a male child and in June of the same year was found guilty of another assault.

Belfast Crown Court also heard police had investigated further domestic violence incidents for which Stockman had not been charged because terrified Patricia refused to make statements to police.

When the pair were living in Wales in 2007 cops were called to their home on two occasions after reports from concerned neighbours, Patricia being found with a huge black eye on the second visit.

Stockman initially denied killing Patricia but later entered a guilty plea to manslaughter during his 2011 trial.

What his victim did not know is that Stockman would have become a bigamist had she gone through with the nuptials at Belfast's City Hall in August 2010.

Once-hulking brute Stockman was still legally wed to then wife Karen Stockman at the time who like him is a former bodybuilding champion.

The once golden couple of the bodybuilding scene split up more than 20 years ago and east Belfast woman Karen later moved abroad.
Dealing with Sri Lankas foreign debt settlements remains the most critical priority for now. Despite sovereign credit rating downgrades, the government remains confident of meeting all repayments without resorting to a conditional arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.

by Dushni Weerakoon

The unprecedented disruptions of COVID-19 are causing a geopolitical reset  and as the global order is redrawn, small emerging market economies like Sri Lanka are vulnerable to the fallout. Sri Lanka straddles vital shipping routes and is at the centre of diplomatic spats between China and the United States, who called on Sri Lanka to make difficult but necessary choices over its growing economic and political ties to China.

In December 2020, a US grant offer of US$480 million under its Millennium Challenge Corporation was withdrawn and any further assistance under the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act has been made conditional on Sri Lanka containing Chinas influence. China in turn denounced what it considers as US pressure on countries to pick sides. The challenges are many for Sri Lankas newly elected government to sidestep global rivalries and maintain its stated stance of a neutral foreign policy.

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic is not helping. Sri Lankas economy was already weak, weighed down by persistently low growth averaging under 3 per cent, high public debt nearing 90 per cent of GDP and large fiscal deficits of near 7 per cent of GDP at the end of 2019. With foreign debt settlements averaging US$4 billion per year due in 20202023  primarily in the form of international sovereign bonds  Sri Lankas ability to implement fiscal and monetary stimulus, without generating further macroeconomic imbalances, is severely constrained.

Sri Lanka had early success in battling COVID-19, recording only 3000 cases and 11 deaths by the end of September 2020. This helped to revive economic activities. But a second and more severe wave of infections has seen those numbers spike sharply to over 43,000 infections and 204 deaths as the year drew to an end.

Dealing with Sri Lankas foreign debt settlements remains the most critical priority for now. Despite sovereign credit rating downgrades, the government remains confident of meeting all repayments without resorting to a conditional arrangement with the International Monetary Fund. This is in keeping with the governments stated intentions of moving away from foreign loans to foreign investment, with the latter already earmarked to raise an estimated US$2.5 billion in 2021. For Sri Lankas debt-burdened economy, the strategy makes good sense. Yet it will also pose fresh challenges in dealing with rivalries closer to home, such as that between China and India.

While the Chinese debt trap narrative can be disabused, China does remain Sri Lankas largest bilateral creditor, owning 9.6 per cent of total outstanding foreign debt at the end of 2019. Indias share is a much smaller 2.4 per cent. Sri Lanka made an early appeal to both countries to provide debt relief and hard currency to shore up its foreign exchange reserves. China and India responded swiftly and positively  China granted a US$500 million loan top up and India provided a US$400 million swap arrangement. Sri Lanka is reportedly seeking an additional US$2.5 billion swap funding from both.

Such assistance will not be devoid of China and Indias competing interests. Sri Lanka will have to look at its past missteps in balancing their regional interests and avoid a repeat. Indeed, Chinas pervading presence and Indias response to it is acknowledged by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa himself as a key factor behind his unexpected presidential election defeat in 2015.

This time around, Sri Lanka is emphasising an Asia-centric outlook in its political, economic and strategic positioning. Tellingly, it also assures an India first strategic and security policy within this realignment. How it will work in the harsh light of Sri Lankas economic reality is yet to be determined.

For now, Chinese investments into Sri Lanka are speeding ahead. The China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) that built the Colombo Port City signed its first US$1 billion agreement in December 2020. This was on the back of approval to set up a US$300 million Chinese tire factory in close proximity to the Hambantota Port. At the same time, a decision on whether India will be allowed to operate a terminal at the Port of Colombo that the previous government had agreed to is still pending, despite a recent high level visit by the External Affairs Minister.

Balancing these tensions and trade-offs will test Sri Lankas political and diplomatic skills. Fresh hostilities between China and India on renewed border conflicts, Indias decision to withdraw from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations  which China played a leading role in  and rising battles over technology all point to a hardening geopolitical stand-off. In this environment of escalating big power rivalries and unrelenting pressure on the economy from COVID-19, 2021 promises to be yet another testing year for Sri Lanka. This is particularly so as the global economy and international power relations are being reset in fundamental ways.

Dushni Weerakoon is the Executive Director and Head of Macroeconomic Policy Research at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka. This article is part of an East Asia Forum special feature series on 2020 in review and the year ahead.
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This is the heartwarming moment a rare monkey enjoys a bath after being born in captivity.

Footage shows zoo keepers at Philadelphia Zoo clean and feed the Francois' langur monkey named Quy Bau, which means 'precious' in Vietnamese, after she was ignored by her mother Mei Mei.

The one-month-old, who is the first of her species to be bred at the zoo, has now bonded with her mother and father Chester.

The rare monkey enjoys a bath from staff at Philadelphia Zoo after being born in captivity

Zoo keepers wrap the monkey in a towel and dry her off after she was ignored by her mother

During a clip shared by the zoo, the small animal clings onto a zoo keeper's hand as they dip her into the water.

The young creature is then wrapped in a warm blanket and fed before joining her parents.

Sharing the arrival of the new monkey the zoo posted on Facebook: 'We're so excited to introduce the newest member of our Zoo family - a baby Francois' langur.

'This little girl was born on December 13 to first time mum and dad Mei Mei and Chester.

'This is the first birth of this species at the Zoo.'

The monkey named Quy Bau, which means 'precious' in Vietnamese, is fed by staff at the zoo

The zoo later confirmed that the monkey has now bonded with her mother Mei Mei

The post continued: 'When she was first born, our team noticed Mei Mei wasn't attending to her, which isn't uncommon for first time moms.

'So our vet staff took the baby to the animal hospital for a warming bath and some food.

'Since then, she and mum have bonded and the entire family is doing great.

'We've named her Quy Bau - pronounced Qwee-bow -which means 'precious' in Vietnamese.'
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Today, social media has become an integral part of the lives of many. Whether it is to share images of the trip they are taking, communicating with friends and family or just keeping up to date with whats happening in peoples lives, many Indians are obsessed with social media.

Rawpixel

Another use of social media accounts these days is to complain about any product or service on the companys Twitter or other social media platform. Whether its tagging the local police, or a bank or an e-commerce company, getting a solution to a problem was never so simple.

However, Delhi Police has issued a warning for people who often complain about stuff on social media with the companies, as fraudsters and scammers are known to impersonate as customer care representatives to obtain personal information that can put the users life and finances at risk.

Delhi Polices Cybercrime division made this notification through their Twitter handle where they reveal the case of an individual who lost bitcoins worth Rs 9 lakh while being negligent about his private data, Recently, a Crypto Wallet User shared his grievance on Twitter. He was reverted back by a fake Twitter handle that claimed to be the Customer Care handle of that Wallet. The User ended up sharing his credentials which led to loss of BTCs worth  9 Lakh.

Twitter

In the next tweet, they have offered a series of tips to seek grievance redressal as well as how to stay safe from scammers. It asks users to skip social media and instead try reaching out to the company using their customer care email ID or phone number.

Additionally, it also warns that No genuine Bank/Wallet/Airline will ask for your financial credentials to initiate a refund, so never share these details. Additionally, it warns to never share bank PINs, OTPs or passwords with anyone.
Germans who refuse to quarantine after being exposed to Covid will be held in detention centres under new rules prepared by regional authorities.

The eastern state of Saxony has confirmed plans to hold quarantine-flouters in a fenced-off section of a refugee camp set to be build next week.

The regional state claimed that the facility will only be used for people who have repeatedly flouted lockdown rules around self-isolation.

Baden-Wurttemberg in south-west Germany will use two hospital rooms to detain repeat offenders, who will be guarded by police.

In Brandenburg, authorities will detain a section of a refugees centre, while Schleswig-Holstein will use an area within a juvenile detention centre.

Legal experts told Die Welt that state governments have powers to detain people for breaching quarantine rules under the Disease Protection Act, passed by the German Bundestag last March and renewed in November.

The plan has been widely criticised, with AfD MP Joana Cotar accused the Saxony government of 'reading too much Orwell'.

German authorities have come under fire for their management of the pandemic, with proposals to impose national vaccine mandates in a bid to control the virus branded 'social dynamite' by opposition figures.

It comes as Chancellor Angela Merkel considers imposing a 'mega-lockdown' and suspending public transport after sparking a public backlash in the UK by calling 'mutant' Covid the 'British virus'.

Chancellor Angela Merkel considers imposing a 'mega-lockdown' and suspending public transport after sparking a public backlash in the UK by calling 'mutant' Covid the 'British virus'

The eastern state of Saxony has confirmed plans to hold quarantine-flouters in a fenced-off section of a refugee camp set to be build next week

Nurses tend to Covid patients in the Covid intensive care unit at Leipzig university hospital

Pictured: A graph comparing the 7-day average deaths per million people in the UK, Germany and France. While the UK in particular is seeing similar numbers to that of the first wave, Germany is seeing far higher numbers than in the Spring during the second wave. Germany's Robert Koch Institute said a record 1,244 deaths were confirmed on Thursday

Mass-selling newspaper Bild reported Ms Merkel wants to effectively shut down the country almost totally, amid a general fear of the fast=spreading variant of coronavirus first detected in southern England.

Countries in Europe are bracing themselves for the impact of the new variant of Covid-19, which has caused daily cases to drastically increase in the UK, driving up the number of hospitalisations, and ultimately deaths.

In neighbouring France, the government is expected to announce new restrictions on Thursday, also amid fears of the UK variant, but unlike some of its neighbours a full lockdown appears off the agenda for now.

Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of the scientific council advising the government on the epidemic, told France Info radio on Wednesday that the UK variant accounted for an estimated 1 percent of new Covid-19 infections.

This, he said, was not enough to justify closing schools in the country, saying 'We think English data on the variant are not definitive enough to lead us to recommend the closing of schools in France.'

While the new variant is yet to become widespread in Germany, experts are concerned that their current coronavirus measures are not strict enough, especially given the new strain is seemingly more contagious than that of the first wave.

Pictured: A graph comparing the 7-day average cases per million people in the UK, Germany and France. The UK saw a spike in cases as the new Covid-19 variant spread

The head of Germany's country's disease control agency claimed that Germany has too many loopholes in its coronavirus lockdown rules, and said he believed that people were travelling more than in the first lockdown.

Lothar Wieler, president of the Institute, said data indicated people in Germany are travelling more than during the first phase of the pandemic in spring, contributing to the virus' spread.

German authorities have imposed restrictions on social contacts, largely closed schools and limited travel for those in areas with high infection rates, but the rules aren't uniformly enforced across the country's 16 states.

'To me, these measures we're now taking aren't a complete lockdown,' said Wieler. 'There are still too many exceptions and they aren't being strictly implemented.'

Officials are considering tougher restrictions to curb the continued rise in infections.

The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 23.36 per 100,000 people on Dec. 30 to 26.03 per 100,000 people on January 13.

Pictured: A view of an empty square at the shopping street 'Zeil' in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on January 14. Germany recorded a 24-hour record of 1,244 coronavirus deaths on Thursday as experts warned lockdown will have to get tougher to combat the mutant UK strain

While Germany's total deaths per capita since the pandemic began remain far lower than many of its European neighbours, its daily per capita mortality since mid-December has often exceeded that of the United States.

Germany's daily death toll currently equates to about 15 deaths per million people, versus a 13 U.S. deaths per one million.

France on Wednesday recorded around 23,000 new cases of Covid-19, around half the number detected in Britain on the same day but still far above the 5,000 figure the government had been aiming for by mid-December.

Among the measures floated to try to avert a much-feared third wave of infections amid an uptick in cases linked to the British variant include expanding a 6:00 pm curfew in place in parts of the east to a national level.

Most of France is still subject to an 8:00 pm curfew imposed in mid-December when a second national lockdown was lifted.

Bringing it forward by two hours would stall the 'apero effect', said the leader of President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move party, Stanislas Guerini, referring to the French tradition of meeting up for a pre-dinner aperitif.

France is warily eyeing the spread across its territory of a new variant of the virus discovered in Britain, which is believed to be highly contagious.

A COVID-19 rapid test center tent is set up in front of a pharmacy in Paris, January 14, 2021. France on Wednesday recorded around 23,000 new cases of Covid-19

An estate agents' letting sign board stands in front of a vacant shop for rent in the city centre, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Paris, France January 14

On Thursday, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced plans for mass testing of schoolchildren and teachers following preliminary findings that the new variant spreads more easily among children than previous strains.

'We have established a protocol that aims to test up to a million children and teachers per month,' he said, adding that children as young as six could be tested.

Veran said that, unlike Britain, France had no plans to close schools 'at this stage' but said the government might reconsider if the share of infections caused by the mutated strain grew.

On Tuesday, he told a Senate commission that the new variant accounted for about 1 percent of infections.

Speculation had been swirling that France was preparing to follow the example of Austria, Britain, Israel and Portugal among other countries in imposing a third nationwide lockdown.

But several government sources told AFP there were no such plans afoot for now.

Germany's Wieler pointed to the sharp spike in infections recently seen in Ireland as an example of how quickly the outbreak can escalate again if rules are relaxed, especially given the new seemingly more contagious variant of the virus circulating there and in neighbouring Britain.

Lothar H. Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's main institute for the prevention of infectious diseases (pictured) said Germany has too many loopholes in its coronavirus lockdown rules, and that he believed people were travelling more than in Spring

All infections with the variants so far confirmed in Germany involved people who had travelled outside the country, said Wieler.

'We need to be very careful, especially of the British mutation of this virus,' Ralph Brinkhaus, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's bloc, told broadcaster n-tv. 'So we don't yet know what further measures will be necessary in coming weeks.'

To ease the strain on working families having to look after school-age children and discourage them from using emergency care facilities, parliament passed a bill Thursday doubling the amount of paid parental leave to 40 days for 2021.

Public health insurances will pay out up to 112.88 euros ($137) a day to parents if they stay home to care for children under 12 who couldn't go to school because of the pandemic.

Germany initially managed the pandemic better than its neighbours with a strict lockdown last spring, but it has seen a sharp rise in cases and deaths in recent months, with the RKI saying people were not taking the virus seriously enough.

RKI president Lothar Wieler said on Thursday restrictions were not being implemented as consistently as they were during the first wave and said more people should work from home, adding that the current lockdown needed to be tightened further.

Germany introduced a partial lockdown in November that kept shops and schools open, but it tightened the rules in mid-December, closing non-essential stores, and children have not returned to classrooms since the Christmas holidays.

Employees store coffins, some marked with 'infection risk' as others have 'corona' scrawled in chalk, in the mourning hall of the crematorium in Meissen, eastern Germany, on January 13

A pedestrian in Paris wearing a protective face mask walks past the 'Cafe Francais', closed during business hours as part of restrictive measures set to tackle the surging number of coronavirus disease cases in France

Hospitals in 10 out of Germany's 16 states are facing bottlenecks as 85% of the beds in their intensive care units were occupied by coronavirus patients, Wieler said.

A meeting of regional leaders planned for Jan. 25 to discuss whether to extend the lockdown into February should be brought forward, said Winfried Kretschmann, the premier of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to speak to ministers on Thursday about ramping up production of vaccines.

So far only about 1% of the German population has been vaccinated, or 842,455 people, the RKI reported.

Wieler said wearing heavy duty respirator masks, also known as FFP2, could help protect against 94% of particles, but only if worn correctly. The state of Bavaria has made FFP2 masks compulsory on public transport and in shops from Monday.

Germany has so far recorded 16 cases of people with a fast-spreading strain of the virus first detected in Britain and four with the strain from South Africa, Wieler said, although he admitted gene sequencing of samples was not being done broadly.

Wieler urged people who were offered a COVID-19 vaccination to accept it to relieve the strain on hospitals and said people should stick to social distance and hygiene rules.

'At the end of the year we will have this pandemic under control,' Wieler said. Enough vaccines would then be available to inoculate the entire population, he said.

In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday that he was happy to see that citizens were becoming more accepting of the country's vaccination programme.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex leaves after attending the weekly cabinet meeting at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on January 13, 2021. Castex said that he was happy to see that citizens were becoming more accepting of the country's vaccination programme

The French are among the most sceptical in the world towards vaccinations, according to France24.

'I'm happy to see that the vaccination programme is being more widely accepted  it is excellent news for our country,' he said while visiting a vaccination facility in the east of France.

France has promised to expand its vaccination programme after being criticised for its slow progress. With Israel setting the example, administering 23.66 vaccines people per 100 people, the UK is fourth, with 4.52 per 100 people.

Germany is further down the list, with 0.9 vaccinations per 100 people. France, meanwhile, is not in the top 17 countries in the world, with 0.38.

The president of the scientific council set up to advise the government on the pandemic, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, said France was 'in a sort of race' to get the most vulnerable citizens vaccinated before the new variant made further inroads.

France has promised to expand its vaccination programme after being criticised for its slow progress. With Israel setting the example, administering 23.66 vaccines people per 100 people, the UK is fourth, with 4.52 per 100 people. Germany is further down the list, with 0.9 vaccinations per 100 people. France is not in the top 17 countries in the world, with 0.38

After an excruciatingly slow start to the vaccination drive in late December, for which Macron's government drew widespread condemnation, the pace of inoculations has picked up.

So far 247,000 people have received the first jab, a number set to rise sharply in the coming days as the vaccines are rolled out to all people aged over 75 starting on Monday.

Until now, the campaign was focused on people in care homes as well as health workers, firefighters and domestic workers aged over 50.

The government had rejected accusations of being a vaccine laggard, saying high levels of resistance to the jabs in France required a cautious approach.

Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in the northeastern city of Metz on Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex noted with satisfaction that vaccine scepticism was starting to decline.

He predicted a 'stampede' for the injections among over-75s. 'Things are falling into place but people will have to be patient,' he said.
Tennessee Principal Placed on Leave After Criticizing Big Tech Censorship

The principal of a Tennessee high school has been placed on paid administrative leave after making comments about free speech to students during a virtual announcement.

Barton Thorne, who is in his fourth year leading Cordova High School in Shelby County, reportedly said during a nine-minute morning announcement that free speech is being threatened by the actions of privately held tech companies, the Commercial Appeal reported. He was addressing his students after President Donald Trump was suspended from several big tech platforms in the wake of violence that erupted on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have all banned Trump, alleging he incited the violence at the Capitol. Its currently still unclear who instigated the breach.

Audio obtained by the WREG-TV allegedly reveals Thorne addressing recent moves by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Apple and their decision as private companies to filter and to decide what you hear and know about.

Because there have been times even in American history where a small group of people decided what you could hear. You think about McCarthyism, he said, according to the network. If you dont know about that, you can Google that or talk to your social studies teacher.

The principal stressed, however, that his speech wasnt in support of Trump, or the recently deplatformed social media app Parler, but solely about freedom of speech. He was also critical of the riot in the Capitol.

That was ignorance at the highest level, he said in response to the U.S. Capitol incident. I dont know of too many people that are going to be OK with what happened. I dont care what side you agree with, we dont practice sedition, we dont attack our legislature.

Social media application logo from Parler is displayed on a smartphone with its website in the background, in a file photo. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Board member Sheleah Harris, whose district includes Cordova High School, commented on the principals suspension, saying the allegations are extremely unfortunate and do not reflect the true value of the school.

With the horrific events from last week at our U.S. Capitol, we have to ensure our children, teachers, and school staff remain in a consistent environment that promotes safety, cultural sensitivity, and represents the highest level of excellence, Harris said in a statement.

As leaders, we must be intentional about creating spaces for our students to discuss and process events that take place in our country and community.

Trump took to Twitter following the outbreak of violence to call on protesters to go home in peace. He denounced the violence as a heinous attack that defiled the seat of American democracy on Jan. 7.

Supporters of President Donald Trump fight with riot police outside the Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Twitter first placed restrictions on a video the president posted, before temporarily suspending his account, an action followed closely by Facebook. Twitter two days later permanently suspended Trumps account over two posts it cited as having violated its policies.

A large number of pro-Trump accounts were also deleted by Twitter and Facebook.

Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report.

From NTD News
PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Hydrogen Aircraft Market by Passenger Capacity (Less than 100, 100-200, and More than 200), Range (Short Haul, Medium Haul, and Long Haul), and Application (Passenger Aircraft and Cargo Aircraft): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20302040." According to the report, the global hydrogen aircraft industry is estimated at $27.68 billion in 2030 and is anticipated to hit $174.02 billion by 2040, registering a CAGR of 20.20% from 2030 to 2040.

Download Report Sample (255 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/9108

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Rising air passenger traffic across the globe, high suitability of hydrogen as aviation fuel, and reduced GHG emissions fuel the growth of the global hydrogen aircraft market. On the other hand, high costs associated with the production & handling of hydrogen and huge investments required for the approval and certification of hydrogen based aircrafts impede the growth to certain extent. However, proactive government initiatives toward hydrogen powered aircrafts and growth in infrastructural development for hydrogen across the globe are projected to pave the way for lucrative opportunities in the industry.

COVID-19 scenario-

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to worldwide lockdown and this, in turn, affected the manufacturing facilities of hydrogen aircrafts to a significant extent.

Also, the pandemic happened to force the governments across the globe to put more emphasis on medical services, due to which, the countries are directing most of the capital in the healthcare industry which is bowling over the investments in the hydrogen aircraft sector.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Hydrogen Aircraft Market Request Here!

The less than 100 segment to dominate by 2040-

Based on passenger capacity, the less than 100 segment is expected to contribute to more than three-fourths of the global hydrogen aircraft market share in 2030, and would lead the trail by 2040. Initially the hydrogen aircrafts can occupy less than 100 passengers. This factor drives the segment growth. The 101-200 segment, on the other hand, would manifest the fastest CAGR of 22.30% during the forecast period, owing to higher feasibility and ROI associated with more number of passengers, in regards with the available hydrogen aircraft technologies.

The short haul segment to maintain the dominant share-

Based on range, the short haul segment is anticipated to account for nearly half of the global hydrogen aircraft market revenue in 2030, and would rule the roost by the end of 2040, due to the fact that they are the simplest in design and first-enters in the hydrogen aircraft market space. Simultaneously, the medium haul segment would exhibit the fastest CAGR of 21.10% by 2040, owing to the increasing demand and viability for medium haul flights.

Interested to Procure The Data? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/9108

Europe, followed by North America, is expected to garner the major share in 2030 

Based on geography, Europe, followed by North America, is expected to garner the major share in 2030, holding more than half of the global hydrogen aircraft market. This is because the major countries in the region such as UK, Germany, France, and Spain have invested extensively to shove the development for hydrogen-fuelled aircraft. The market across Asia-Pacific, however, would register the fastest CAGR of 22.80% throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to the fact that China and Japan are one of the biggest manufacturing hubs across the world.

Key players in the industry-

AeroDelft

AEROVIRONMENT, INC.

Airbus S.A.S.

Alaka'i Technologies

HES Energy Systems

Pipistrel d.o.o

PJSC Tupolev

The Boeing Company

Urban Aeronautics Ltd

ZeroAvia, Inc.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/9108

Similar Reports We Have Hydrogen as a Fuel Technology:

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market by Vehicle Type (Passenger Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle) and Technology (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192027.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Train Market by Application (Passenger Train and Freight Train) and Technology (Proton Membrane Exchange, Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212027.

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About Allied Market Research

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Nidaa al-Shanty, a young Palestinian woman from the Gaza Strip, likes to perform Chinese quilling art to create decorative designs to present them as gifts to her family members and friends.

"I started this unique art one year ago when I saw some Chinese artists making attractive quilled portraits by using colored papers on Facebook," the 24-year-old young woman told Xinhua while quilling papers to shape her new design.

In the beginning, al-Shanty said she resorted to this kind of art as a way to get rid of the negative energy that she was suffering from when she became unemployed soon after her graduation.

"I learned it because it teaches me to pay attention to the smallest details when making each portrait," she said.

"Later, I found myself falling in love with this rare art," said al-Shanty, who has a degree in sociology, adding that she felt proud of herself when all people, who received her gifts, praised her.

She said that her portraits could help bring positive energy into the houses."At that moment, I decided to invest my energy and my experience into this new hobby to create a new method that would help people, especially children, to get rid of their negative energy."

"We live in the most impoverished area, which has been suffering from complicated economic and political situations," she said, adding that "the consequences of the unstable life negatively affected the psychological state of people here."

In a bid to achieve what she is looking for, the young woman has produced dozens of quilled portraits and established her first-ever exhibition in the Gaza Strip to show her work to other people.

She believes that the most essential thing needed by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is to get rid of psychological pressure by investing in their various talents.

The Gazans have been living under a tight Israeli blockade since 2007, when Hamas seized control over the Strip.

Since then, the Israeli blockade, as well as the ongoing Palestinian internal divisions, had led to the deterioration of the humanitarian conditions and contributed to the dire economic situation of the enclave's young population.

Furthermore, the spread of the novel coronavirus in the coastal enclave and its consequences have negatively affected the psychological state of local residents.

"I think that the situation will not change soon. So, we should help ourselves to overcome those harmful circumstances by our own methods," al-Shanty said.

"I will take my first step and sell my portraits to invest the money in teaching the needy women and children how they can get rid of their negative mood by producing beautiful things and earn money," she said.
A frozen message in a bottle washed up on the shore in Norway 16 years after a couple from Shetland tossed it into the sea during a sailing trip.

Helene Hundeide, from Maly, was walking in nearby Vombaneset on Saturday when she made the startling discovery.

The 24-year-old was looking for a place to set up her hammock and make a fire when she spotted the frozen bottle.

Inside she found a message posted on August 7, 2004 by Peter and Susan Henry from Noonsbrough.

The message said the couple were on the yacht Vega, heading home after 10 days sailing around Unst - and asked anyone who found the note to get in touch.

Helene Hundeide, from Maly, was walking in nearby Vombaneset on Saturday when she made the startling discovery

Inside she found a message posted on August 7, 2004 by Peter and Susan Henry from Noonsbrough

'It was very exciting,' said Ms Hundeide. 'I have never found a bottle mail before, and that it would be as old as 16 years - wow!

'That was absolutely incredible.'

Ms Hundeide, who maintains power lines, tried to contact the couple via the email address listed on the note but found it was out of use.

She then posted the photo on a local Facebook group and it was shared on the Stories n Photos o Maritime Shetland page, where several people recognised its senders.

A frozen message in a bottle washed up on the shore in Norway 16 years after a couple from Shetland tossed it into the sea during a sailing trip

'It was very exciting,' said Ms Hundeide. 'I have never found a bottle mail before, and that it would be as old as 16 years - wow!'

The story was also picked up by the Fjordenes Tidende newspaper in Maly.

With the help of Facebook users, Ms Hundeide was able to contact Mr Henry within an hour.

'He was surprised that the bottle post had been found after so many years,' said Ms Hundeide.

Ms Hundeide has also spoken to Mrs Henry and says they're both 'very nice people' whom she hopes to visit in Noonsbrough when the pandemic is over.

'It looks like a beautiful place,' she said. 'I love to travel, so that's the next destination I will visit.'

In the meantime, Ms Hundeide says she plans to frame the message. 'It is in good condition, so this is a memory for life,' she added.
Javicia Leslie made her debut as the new star of Batwoman on the CW show's Season 2 premiere on Sunday night.

As Ryan Walker, she played an ex-con with a martial arts background and a tough childhood, seeking vengeance on the Alice in Wonderland gang after it killed someone she loved.

Her emergence as the show's new superhero happened after she found Batwoman's suit at the site of a plane crash in which Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) was thought to have died.

New Batwoman: Javicia Leslie made her debut as the new star of Batwoman on the CW show's Season 2 premiere on Sunday night

Superhero: Her emergence as the show's new superhero happened after she found Batwoman's suit at the site of a plane crash in which Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) was thought to have died

'Oh my God,' she said as she lifted it from the wreckage, recognizing what it was.

As the police swarmed the scene looking for Kate, Ryan literally stepped into her predecessor's suit, staring at herself in a bathroom mirror.

'Never again,' she vowed, recalling what she'd been through. 'Time to be powerful.'

Suit: 'Oh my God,' she said as she lifted it from the wreckage, recognizing what it was

New Batwoman: As the police swarmed the scene looking for Kate, Ryan literally stepped into her predecessor's suit, staring at herself in a bathroom mirror

Powerful: 'Never again,' she vowed, recalling what she'd been through. 'Time to be powerful'

As the episode opened, Ryan was sleeping in a van by the water and dreaming of the time she moved her adoptive mother into their new apartment.

Ryan felt the woman had saved her from the bad road she was going down in her youth.

Both of her parents had died, and she had grown up in group homes, becoming a teen runaway, and eventually serving 18 months in prison after being wrongly convicted of drug possession.

Van: As the episode opened, Ryan was sleeping in a van by the water and dreaming of the time she moved her adoptive mother into their new apartment

Saved: Ryan felt the woman had saved her from the bad road she was going down in her youth

As she carried plants into her mom's new apartment, the woman joked that 'Your little girlfriends will have an easier time sneaking in and out now,' which embarrassed Ryan.

The line suggested that Ryan, like Kate before her, may be a gay or bisexual character.

Suddenly, Ryan awoke from her dream to the sound of something outside, and witnessed a jet crash in parts all around her.

Flashback: As she carried plants into her mom's new apartment, the woman joked that 'Your little girlfriends will have an easier time sneaking in and out now,' which embarrassed Ryan

Wreckage: Suddenly, Ryan awoke from her dream to the sound of something outside, and witnessed a jet crash in parts all around her

As Ryan performed chest compressions on one of the passengers whose body had been flung from the plane, she flashed back to a memory of doing the same to her adoptive mother.

It would later turn out that right after they entered the new apartment, the woman and their new landlord were killed by members of the Alice in Wonderland gang.

Run by Alice (Rachel Skarsten), Kate's evil twin, they then beat Ryan mercilessly, too.

Flashback: Passenger: As Ryan performed chest compressions on one of the passengers whose body had been flung from the plane, she flashed back to a memory of doing the same to her adoptive mother

Alice's gang: Run by Alice (Rachel Skarsten), Kate's evil twin, they then beat Ryan mercilessly, too

As Ryan was struggling with what she had witnessed, Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang) and Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) were desperately trying to locate Kate, only to hear about the crash.

Luke then suggested they could find Kate by the nanotechnology in her super suit alone.

Kate's father Colonel Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) raced to the scene, as Alice watched from afar, clenching her fists.

Locate: As Ryan was struggling with what she had witnessed, Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang) and Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) were desperately trying to locate Kate, only to hear about the crash

Father: Kate's father Colonel Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) raced to the scene, as Alice watched from afar, clenching her fists

Tommy Elliott (Gabriel Mann) showed up to see Luke looking just like Bruce Wayne, thanks to work done by Alice on changing his face and figure.

Bruce told Luke that he hadn't called him sooner because he always had people after him, and he wanted to protect him and others he cared about.

Luke revealed that Kate had flown to National City to ask Kara Danvers if they could destroy a piece of Kryptonite before it got into the wrong hands.

Fake Bruce: Tommy Elliott (Gabriel Mann) showed up to see Luke looking just like Bruce Wayne, thanks to work done by Alice on changing his face and figure

Cared: Bruce told Luke that he hadn't called him sooner because he always had people after him, and he wanted to protect him and others he cared about

Kryptonite: Luke revealed that Kate had flown to National City to ask Kara Danvers if they could destroy a piece of Kryptonite before it got into the wrong hands

Bruce volunteered to hold onto the kryptonite that Luke gave him, and promised to find Kate.

Back near the crash site, Ryan tried on the suit and then jumped some criminals in an alley, who shot at her as she whipped up above their heads and joked, 'Didn't think that through.'

She soon discovered that the suit had other perks: 'I'm bulletproof, bitches!' she cried.

Think: Back near the crash site, Ryan tried on the suit and then jumped some criminals in an alley, who shot at her as she whipped up above their heads and joked, 'Didn't think that through'

As Ryan kicked the guys around, she lifted her arm menacingly and placed her finger over a button on the suit.

'I have no idea what this button does,' she threatened. 'You wanna figure it out together, or you wanna help?'

Alice visited Tommy at Wayne Manor, where she revealed the depths of her evil plan.

Suit: As Ryan kicked the guys around, she lifted her arm menacingly and placed her finger over a button on the suit

Evil plan: Alice visited Tommy at Wayne Manor, where she revealed the depths of her evil plan

She had wanted to pass the kryptonite to Colonel Kane and trigger a face-off with Batwoman, whom he hated and would hopefully kill before discovering she was his daughter.

'Alas, mechanical failure,' she said, complaining about the plane crash.

In the background, a woman that Tommy had slept with emerged at the top of the stairs, and Alice threw a knife into her throat, for no particular reason.

Plan: She had wanted to pass the kryptonite to Colonel Kane and trigger a face-off with Batwoman, whom he hated and would hopefully kill before discovering she was his daughter

Failure: 'Alas, mechanical failure,' she said, complaining about the plane crash

No reason: In the background, a woman that Tommy had slept with emerged at the top of the stairs, and Alice threw a knife into her throat, for no particular reason

Mary and Luke tracked the Batsuit to a tunnel and found Ryan, who refused to give the suit back, saying, 'I'm not done with it yet.'

Luke protested, 'You don't know the first thing about Kate Kane. And you sure as hell don't know anything about that symbol.'

'Trust me,' Ryan replied. 'I know I'm not a symbol. Or a name. Or a legacy.'

Not yet: Mary and Luke tracked the Batsuit to a tunnel and found Ryan, who refused to give the suit back, saying, 'I'm not done with it yet'

Don't know: Luke protested, 'You don't know the first thing about Kate Kane. And you sure as hell don't know anything about that symbol'

No symbol: 'Trust me,' Ryan replied. 'I know I'm not a symbol. Or a name. Or a legacy'

'Exactly,' Mary said. 'So why do you think you're worthy of wearing it?'

'Because I'm a number,' Ryan told her. 'I am the 327th baby of a Black woman who died during childbirth that year. I'm a $20-a-day check to a group home. I'm inmate 4075 serving 18 months for a crime I didn't commit. But I can live with all those numbers, because to the mama who adopted me, I was her number one.'

'It turns out she's just one of a quarter-million murders in this country who have not seen justice,' Ryan went on. 'And that is a number I can't live with. So you can have this damn suit back when her killer is dead.'

Worthy: 'Exactly,' Mary said. 'So why do you think you're worthy of wearing it?'

Number: 'Because I'm a number,' Ryan told her. 'I am the 327th baby of a Black woman who died during childbirth that year. I'm a $20-a-day check to a group home. I'm inmate 4075 serving 18 months for a crime I didn't commit. But I can live with all those numbers, because to the mama who adopted me, I was her number one.

She shot upward and pulled herself out of the scene.

Tommy-as-Bruce then stopped by Colonel Kane's office to tell him that Alice had been squatting at Wayne Manor, adding 'You didn't hear it from me.'

He ran into Julia Pennyworth (Christina Wolfe), who asked him if he'd 'rung the Eagle,' using the nickname Bruce had given her father Alfred.

Julia: He ran into Julia Pennyworth (Christina Wolfe), who asked him if he'd 'rung the Eagle,' using the nickname Bruce had given her father Alfred

When Tommy appeared not to know who that was, she lied and said, 'He's in Glasgow. Same little cottage in the woods.'

'I'll buzz him ASAP,' Tommy said as Julia realized he wasn't Bruce.

In hiding, Ryan read about Kate and learned she had been dishonorably discharged from her academy before graduation because she didn't want to fight for an institution that saw her 'sexual orientation as the enemy.'

ASAP: When Tommy appeared not to know who that was, she lied and said, 'He's in Glasgow. Same little cottage in the woods'

Hiding: In hiding, Ryan read about Kate and learned she had been dishonorably discharged from her academy before graduation because she didn't want to fight for an institution that saw her 'sexual orientation as the enemy'

'Ok, that's kind of bada**,' Ryan admitted, softening further when she read that Kate had donated millions to inner-city housing projects, and opened a gay bar.

While she read, Mary researched Ryan and realized she had been dealt a bad hand in life until her adoptive mom came along.

'Her mom died in her arms,' Mary told Luke. 'She wants justice.'

Gay bar: 'Ok, that's kind of bada**,' Ryan admitted, softening further when she read that Kate had donated millions to inner-city housing projects, and opened a gay bar

Bad hand: While she read, Mary researched Ryan and realized she had been dealt a bad hand in life until her adoptive mom came along

In her van, Ryan turned on the Batsuit's GPS and whispered, 'Come get your suit back.'

Julia quickly ran prints she found on a glass Tommy had used and told the gang that 'Bruce' was not who they thought he was.

In fact, he was Tommy Elliott, a man who was obsessed with Bruce, who'd last been seen being carried in a body bag out of Arkham.

GPS: In her van, Ryan turned on the Batsuit's GPS and whispered, 'Come get your suit back'

Prints: Julia quickly ran prints she found on a glass Tommy had used and told the gang that 'Bruce' was not who they thought he was

Luke and Mary barely caught Tommy driving away in the Batmobile to go after Ryan.

At the same time, Colonel Kane entered Wayne Manor to find Alice playing piano, and he urged her to help him find Kate, which enraged her.

'Kate Kane is Batwoman!' Alice cried.

Batmobile: Luke and Mary barely caught Tommy driving away in the Batmobile to go after Ryan

Piano: At the same time, Colonel Kane entered Wayne Manor to find Alice playing piano, and he urged her to help him find Kate, which enraged her

Batwoman: 'Kate Kane is Batwoman!' Alice cried

'And I'm the Joker,' Colonel Kane said. 'Arkham's waiting.'

'Use your brain, commander,' Alice pressed. 'A lesbian superhero who could have killed me a dozen times but didn't? Hmmm. Wonder who that could be.'

She taunted him, telling him that he'd wanted Batwoman dead and always rejected Kate, wasting his last moments with her by pointing a gun at her.

Dead: She taunted him, telling him that he'd wanted Batwoman dead and always rejected Kate, wasting his last moments with her by pointing a gun at her

It was enough to unnerve the Colonel, and Alice took the gun from him and walked away, challenging him to light up the Bat signal and see if anyone came.

Elsewhere, Luke warned Ryan that Tommy was coming for her, and she raced him in her van.

Tommy fired flames at Ryan's van just as Luke hacked his Batmobile, and shut it down.

Alice: It was enough to unnerve the Colonel, and Alice took the gun from him and walked away, challenging him to light up the Bat signal and see if anyone came

Tommy then stalked over to the van, shooting at Ryan with a Kryptonite bullet and rupturing her suit.

When Tommy grabbed one of her adoptive mother's plants to use it as a weapon against her, Ryan punched him so hard it destroyed his 'new' face.

Later she brought the suit back to Luke and Mary, saying, 'It's not bulletproof, FYI,' and throwing Tommy's chunk of Kryptonite at Luke.

Kryptonite: Tommy then stalked over to the van, shooting at Ryan with a Kryptonite bullet and rupturing her suit

Vase: When Tommy grabbed one of her adoptive mother's plants to use it as a weapon against her, Ryan punched him so hard it destroyed his 'new' face

Not bulletproof: Later she brought the suit back to Luke and Mary, saying, 'It's not bulletproof, FYI,' and throwing Tommy's chunk of Kryptonite at Luke

Mary ran after Ryan as she left, asking her, 'What about your mom?'

'That suit, it's bigger than me,' Ryan said. 'It's one thing to put it on, and it's another thing to wear it. Like you said, Kate was a hero. I'm not.'

Julia and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) mourned the loss of Kate, and Julia handed Sophie an note that Kate had left her.

'Hey Sophie,' it read. 'If you're reading this, it means I'm not here to tell you this in person. I'm Batwoman. Though part of me thinks you always knew, even when I did a damn good job of convincing you otherwise. I'm telling you this because I know you'll figure it out eventually, and I want you to know that lying to you was the hardest thing I've ever done. But I lied because I love you, because I wanted to protect you, and because I was scared that you would push me away. So that's the truth. I hope you think I did a good job for our city. And I hope you'll always remember me.'

No hero: 'That suit, it's bigger than me,' Ryan said. 'It's one thing to put it on, and it's another thing to wear it. Like you said, Kate was a hero. I'm not'

Letter: Julia and Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy) mourned the loss of Kate, and Julia handed Sophie an note that Kate had left her

Remember: 'Hey Sophie,' it read. 'If you're reading this, it means I'm not here to tell you this in person. I'm Batwoman. Though part of me thinks you always knew, even when I did a damn good job of convincing you otherwise. I'm telling you this because I know you'll figure it out eventually, and I want you to know that lying to you was the hardest thing I've ever done. But I lied because I love you, because I wanted to protect you, and because I was scared that you would push me away. So that's the truth. I hope you think I did a good job for our city. And I hope you'll always remember me.

As the show closed, a paper airplane made up of the newspaper with the headline 'Whatever happened to Kate Kane' sailed into a dark tunnel and landed before Alice's feet.

'Consider us even,' it said on the back, and was signed by underworld figure Safiyah.

Alice grinned and lay down next to the corpse of her 'dead brother,' Johnny Cartwright (Sam Littlefield) and put his arm around her.

Even: 'Consider us even,' it said on the back, and was signed by underworld figure Safiyah

Dead brother: Alice grinned and lay down next to the corpse of her 'dead brother,' Johnny Cartwright (Sam Littlefield) and put his arm around her

'It was Safiyah who ruined everything, and now I'm going to ruin her,' Alice said. 'There's a war coming to Gotham, and now there's no Batwoman to stop it.'

Ryan sat on the roof of her vehicle as the Bat signal was lit, and made a promise to her mother that she would try to do right.

Suddenly her bullet wound pulsed with a green Kryptonite light.

'What the he** was that?' she wondered.

Batwoman returns next week on The CW.

Promise: Ryan sat on the roof of her vehicle as the Bat signal was lit, and made a promise to her mother that she would try to do right
Many things about life changed in 2020, including how we get around. The significant reduction in car use during the pandemic provided us a glimpse of what our region could be if we dedicated more street space to people walking, biking, and using public transit. We saw how crucial our regions transit and the Divvy bike-sharing program are for essential workers who needed to travel to work safely, day in and day out, despite bus and train capacity restrictions and service that is often slow.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 04:33:24|Editor: huaxia

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People visit a local market in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Jan. 17, 2021. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)

by Sanaa Kamal

RAMALLAH/GAZA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Jihad Qindah, from the West Bank city of Ramallah, breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that the legislative elections will be held on May 22.

The 35-year-old young man, who was elected to the Fatah party in 2006, said that the upcoming elections will present him a golden opportunity to choose representatives who would achieve goals and fulfill Palestinians' dreams.

Mariam Kurdiya, another Palestinian from the city of Ramallah, told Xinhua that the internal division of Palestine has destroyed the existence of the Palestinian issue, not only in the regional area but also globally.

"Now it is time to regain our roles in building our country, and restoring the trust and respect into the Palestinian cause," the young woman said.

She added that the young generation represents a high percentage of the Palestinian people, which means that they can change the current reality, either politically or economically.

"All of us know that the new generation has become more aware of political, economic, and social situations. They can determine their future as they wish," she added.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Abu Daher, from Deir al-Balah located in the center of the Gaza Strip, hopes that the elections will be held as planned, because "Palestinians need new representatives who would solve their economic crisis."

"For 15 years, the unemployment rate has gone up and that pushes thousands of young Palestinians to immigrate and try their luck abroad," he said, adding that the new representatives would hopefully help those people to overcome their ongoing economic crisis.

"Only once we have a stable life, we will be able to think about how we should deal with Israel and its annexation plans based on the international law," he explained.

Nevertheless, Abu Daher is betting on the awareness of young Palestinians to take their first step to change the painful reality in Gaza by participating in the upcoming elections.

However, Abdul Rahman al-Away, in his 20s, is not optimistic towards holding elections. He believes that neither Hamas nor Fatah will accept the elections' results, which means that they would return to the military fighting to keep their power on the ground.

"It is very important to strategically build on the younger generation that has not experienced infighting and division to formulate a popular awareness based on joint action," Hussam al-Dajani, a Gaza-based analyst, told Xinhua.

He said that the Palestinian elections should be based on the principle of participation, not victory, in order to create a new generation that believes in democracy, equality and human rights.

For his part, Hani al-Masri, a West Bank-based analyst, told Xinhua that many obstacles challenge the electoral process.

"We should be aware that Israel would ban the elections in East Jerusalem, which will negatively affect the results of elections," he said, adding that the Palestinians should find alternative solutions for obstacles.

On Friday evening, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree setting specific dates for holding the legislative and presidential elections, in addition to a vote into the Palestinian National Council.

Under the decree, legislative elections will be held on May 22, presidential elections on July 31, and the Palestinian National Council elections on Aug. 31.

The last legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories in late 2006 when the Hamas movement, now ruler of Gaza, won a majority. Abbas was elected as the president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.
The Santa Fe New Mexican (TNS)

Jan. 18The FBI arrested Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

The leader of Cowboys for Trump is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority following his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.

According to a criminal complaint, the FBI reviewed since-removed videos on Griffins Facebook page in which he explains his involvement in the mob and his plans to return armed on inauguration day. In an interview with agents, Griffin, 47, said he planned to attend the inauguration with no option thats off the table for the sake of freedom, according to the complaint.

On Sunday, state Attorney General Hector Balderas sent a letter to Griffin demanding his resignation from the county commission.

An elected office is a public trust, and no official should use it to encourage violence and attack Americans, Balderas wrote in the letter.

#Breaking: A source tells @ABC News that "Cowboys for Trump" leader and Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was arrested by the FBI in D.C. on Sunday afternoon. #nmpol https://t.co/RBgNalWh5l pic.twitter.com/cHQxFeHoMn  Kate Bieri (@KateBieri) January 17, 2021
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AZTEC  Farmington resident Jason Sandel hopes his new role as the chairman of the Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiatives board of directors will help promote San Juan Basin natural gas as the initiative seeks to market natural gas to a wider range of customers.

The Western States and Tribal Nations is an organization that is dedicated to export of Rocky Mountain natural gas and to be the chairman of the organization really makes sure that the San Juan Basin specifically has a good, strong voice inside of the organization, Sandel said.

He said that strong voice will help the natural gas producers especially in the San Juan Basin as the organization looks to export product to Asia.

Sandel was selected as the chairman of the inaugural board of directors earlier this month, slightly more than a year after New Mexico joined the initiative.

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Since prices remain very, very low in the United States, its a very difficult market, Sandel said. So looking for alternative uses for natural gas and exports will then improve demand which will then improve the price for the commodity, which will then improve activity levels here in the San Juan and across the Rocky Mountains.

As chairman, Sandel said he will prioritize finding customers and off-take points for Rocky Mountain natural gas. He said that involves working with companies that are likely to export and getting them to be aware of the tremendous resources that are available from Rocky Mountain natural gas.

The board consists of representatives appointed by the governing agencies that signed the foundational memorandum of understanding. These agencies include New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, the Ute Indian Tribes, several counties in western Colorado and the state of Baja California in Mexico.

Sandel has long been an advocate for the San Juan Basin. He is the executive vice president of the Aztec Well family of companies and is no stranger to public service. Sandel served two terms on the Farmington City Council and has served on several committees in the state including the Methane Advisory Panel and the New Mexico Economic Recovery Council that was created in 2020.

Sandel also serves as a convener for the Energy Transition Act committee.

New Mexico joined the initiative in November 2019 and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department appointed Sandel as the states representative. Sandel said he was not surprised when he was chosen to represent New Mexico because he had spoken to the governor and urged her to have the state join the organization. However, he did not anticipate that a year later he would be selected as the chairman of the board.

To be selected as their chairman was a surprise to me and a tremendous honor, Sandel said.

Hannah Grover covers government for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4652 or via email at hgrover@daily-times.com.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Jason Sandel named chairman of Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiative

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Bir Lahlou (Liberated territories), 17 January 2020 (SPS) - The Moroccan occupier is promoting fictitious victories in Western Sahara to absorb the anger of the Moroccan people who reject the normalization with the Zionist entity, and cover the significant losses inflicted on its army, Minister of Information, Spokesman of the Sahrawi Government Hamada Salma Daf affirmed on Saturday.



In a statement to APS, Hamada Salma underlined that the Moroccan system is on the edge of the abyss because of the Moroccan peoples rejection of the normalization agreement with the Zionist entity, leading the Makhzen to promote fictitious victories by using disinformation.



In this respect, the Sahrawi official wondered if the Moroccan violation of the ceasefire agreement on 13 November 2020, in the region of El Guerguerat and the construction of a wall encircled by mines is really a military victory, as reported by Morocco, and if the attack against defenseless Sahrawi civilians, by flouting the international legitimacy is a victory or a new crime in the register of the continuous violations of the Sahrawi peoples rights.



Promoting the opening of new consulates in the occupied Sahrawi cities as a diplomatic victory is a big deception to which the Makhzens media outlets and some French media spokespersons want to give an exaggerated importance, emphasized the Sahrawi official, pointing out that the opening of diplomatic representations in the occupied Sahrawi cities, or the alleged recognition of Moroccos sovereignty over the Sahrawi territories wont change the legal nature of the conflict in the region. (SPS)



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US, EU and the UK have toughened their stance, pressurising the Russian government to release the detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny on January 17. Navalny was nabbed from the airport terminal 'immediately' on his return to Moscow. European countries, British diplomats and the United States' key political representatives called Kremlin critics detention 'appalling' and 'unacceptable' demanding that the 44-year-old, who recovered at a military hospital in Germany from Novichok toxin agent, must be set free. Russias Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said the anti-corruption campaigner had breached parole terms of a suspended sentence from the 2014 embezzlement conviction and will be for up to 3.5 years.

Lithuanias foreign ministry fired a tweet, stating that the European countries will immediately raise issues concerning the EUs possible response to the detention and persecution of Navalny, and new sanctions" against Russia. "It seems that Navalny, who dared to challenge the government, has made another most unfortunate mistake. He has survived," Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

Head of the legal department of Navalny's anti-corruption organisation FBK, Vyacheslav Gimadi, said: "A de facto emergency court-tribunal was created at the Department of Internal Affairs. Outside the court, outside the procedure, an unforeseen measure". The firm added that it was an attempt by Putin's ruling party to overthrow Navalny from campaigning ahead of critical parliamentary elections scheduled for September. President of the European Council, Charles Michel, tweeted that the "detainment of Alexey Navalny is unacceptable".

#Zakharova: I would like to say the following to @jakejsullivan & other foreign public figures who are rushing to post comments: Have respect for international law, do not interfere with national law of sovereign countries, deal with your domestic problems https://t.co/O88DnqqWSl https://t.co/cDjZD995as pic.twitter.com/rGmu0AEwOb  MFA Russia  (@mfa_russia) January 17, 2021

 Press-Release of the Moscow Directorate of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service.@FSIN_Russia has registered multiple violations of the probation terms by Mr. Alexey Navalny during the year 2020.



https://t.co/K1oeUuYroV pic.twitter.com/O3Uhqla1Vq  MFA Russia  (@mfa_russia) January 17, 2021

Read: Navalny's Arrest Adds To Tension Between Russia And The West

Read: Mike Pompeo Condemns Navalny Arrest, Says 'US Deeply Troubled By Russia's Decision'

Discussion on 'possible sanctions'

Germany's Foreign minister, Heiko Maas, echoed the calls for Navalny's release saying: "Its completely incomprehensible that he was arrested immediately after his arrival by the Russian authorities. Russia is, through its own constitution and through its international obligations bound to the principle of the rule of law and the protection of civil rights. These principles must of course apply to Alexei Navalny, too. He should be released immediately". UK's foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, meanwhile, warned Russia to free the detained Kremlin critic, renewing his concerns about Russia's alleged use of Soviet-era nerve agent against Navalny as he tweeted, "Rather than persecuting Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil."

EU leaders had sanctioned at least six Russian officials, allegedly for Russia's use of chemical weaponry to attack Navalny on board a flight during his campaign visit to Siberia. Mateusz Morawiecki, Polands prime minister condemned Navalny's arrest saying: A quick and unequivocal response at EU level is essential. Respecting citizens rights is the basis of democracy". Meanwhile, Tomas Petricek, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, accused Russia of "violating international human rights laws" as he threatened that he would propose a discussion on possible sanctions at a meeting of EU ministers.

Read: Kremlin Critic Navalny Leaves Germany For Russia

Read: Russia's New Reusable Carrier Rocket Engine Will Have Capacity For 50 Flights: Roscosmos
Professor Tiernan and the Ambassador of Ireland to New Zealand, His Excellency Peter Ryan. Credit: University of Otago

In addition to containing many firsts, new research from the University of Otago's Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies provides comprehensive insights into the identity of Irish people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Completed by Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies Professor Sonja Tiernan, the report Irish in Aotearoa: Mapping the Irish community and people of Irish heritage in New Zealand is the first Irish citizen mapping project to cover an entire country. It is also the first contemporary research to examine both the Irish population, and people of Irish heritage in Aotearoa.

The report was commissioned by the recently established Embassy of Ireland, New Zealand, and funded by Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland.

The Ambassador of Ireland to New Zealand, His Excellency Peter Ryan, says the report's findings will help guide and influence the work of the Embassy of Ireland as it "deepens and broadens its reach across New Zealand.

"We thought it very timely, following on the visit of President Higgins in 2017 and the setting-up of our respective Embassies in Wellington and Dublin in 2018, to look in greater detail than ever before at our community.

"The findings of this historic report reflect the extraordinary reach and diversity of our community and we are already working on a number of initiatives to enhance our work under the headings of Community, Commerce and Culture."

Professor Tiernan says while Aotearoa has strong historical ties with Ireland, its recent relationship is dynamic, and based on reciprocal trade and migration opportunities.

"The relationship is burgeoning, and it is vital we build better understandings of what's driving this, while factoring in historical connections forged by earlier migrations. Our two countries already have a developing trade network so, beyond providing a more accurate demographic picture, the results may also have an impact on business connections."

Tiernan says the report's findings, which are highly accessible and feature interactive maps and graphs, will help shape the political and cultural and commercial activities of the Embassy's Team Ireland. They may also be a useful reference for members of the broader Friends of Ireland groups nationwide.

Based on analysis of census data, Statistics New Zealand reports and online survey responses from 1,536 respondents, the report shows Irish immigrants moving to New Zealand and staying long term has steadily increased over the last four census returns, from 2001.

Where Irish immigrants live largely depends on economic factors; the number of skilled Irish immigrants moving to areas such as the Canterbury region since the 2011 earthquakes, for instance, has more than doubled since 2006 (to 2,553).

The total Irish ethnic population in 2018 was 17,817, equating to 0.38 percent of New Zealand's population, with an even balance of Irish men (8,952) and women (8,865).

Irish predominantly occupy professional roles; 71 percent of women hold professional posts (as opposed to the national average of 27 percent of women) and 44 percent of Irish men are in this category (as opposed to the national average of 19 percent). Most surprisingly, no Irish women are recorded within the skilled category as technicians or trade workers, a sector in which 24 percent of Irish men are employed.

Irish immigrants, and especially Irish women, are paid considerably more on an annual basis than the national average. The age range of the Irish ethnic group is predominantly young; 38 percent of all those of Irish ethnicity are aged between 25 and 44 years.

The survey also provides the most detailed information gathered to date on New Zealanders of Irish heritage and affiliation, gathering details of 2,932 people who listed links to all Ireland's 32 counties.

"Due to the high number of Irish among the early New Zealand settlers, it is estimated that approximately one in every six people in New Zealand has Irish heritage, but these figures have yet to be confirmed by statistics. A question on whether respondents would like to share their stories about Irish links received an overwhelming response, prompting the Embassy of Ireland to plan a project to share these stories broadly," Tiernan says.

The report is also the first to seek input from 23 Irish organizationsbroadly defined as any group, society or association based on or around an Irish intereston their geographical distribution, membership, interest and goals. Promoting Ireland and supporting people emerged as missions common to most.

It also has a foreword by Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, and has what is believed to be the first translation of one of Ireland's most important documentsthe Proclamation published in Easter 1916into te reo Maori.

Explore further Irish America more distant from its cultural roots, study finds

More information: The full report can be viewed at: The full report can be viewed at: www.friendsofireland.co.nz/survey
The suppression of intel about Chinese interference in the 2020 US Election was intentional. CIA and levels of government against the current administration was responsible for it.

During the 2020 electoral, allegation of Chinese manipulation was shut down when Russian intervention claims are alleged with support in some government sectors.

According to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe, who assessed it, China, not Russia, who dipped their fingers into the US elections, in a letter to a DEMS majority congress, reported NTD.

The letter addressed by the DNI Director to the lower house did not mince any words. Indicating the Central Intelligence Agency played politics when it intentionally pressures analysts to pull support on Chinese spying.

In a report by Intelligence Community Analytic Ombudsman Barry Zulauf, Ratcliffe pointed out that some analysts refrained from punctuating China's sabotage of free elections. Prompted by the vehement opposition of the communists in Beijing, Donald Trump weaponized US policies for American gain.

Previously China has made inroads like the alleged activities of a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, who operated at the behest of the CCP.

One of the reasons for the Intelligence agencies' actions is their unilateral dislike of President Trump.

The Washington Examiner published Ratcliffe's letter with the ombudsman report on Jan. 17, after issuing original documents ten days later. Outlets like the Epoch Times reached out to the ODNI for authentication of said documents. The CIA's involvement in keeping a lid on the 2020 US Election is dubious.

Also read: Democrats Attack Trump Intel Chief Decision to Protect Election Security Raised Subpoena Option

Stated by the DNI Director, all sources of information (alleged Chinese meddling) were examined and verified without any political pressure to determine the ODNI's judgment. The People's Republic of China actively meddled in US affairs to negate a possible outcome.

Zulauf's report was sent to Congress on Jan. 7 with an intelligence community assessment of interference that gave intel recommendations about recent elections. Zulauf cited that analysts that looked over Russian and Chinese activity weren't using a unified standard for recommendations.

Even if the evidence pointed to China, scant indicators that Russian was less active given more weight. They avoided pinning China for suspicious activities.

Analysts, according to Zulauf, sought to avoid labeling Chinese actions as meddling or influencing. One reason alleged is these analysts did not want to pin the CCP because they preferred to undercut the administration and its policies. This should not have been the case, but those concerned chose to ignore the president's anti-China policy.

Ratcliffe or the Ombudsman has not fully explained some clarification about how far Beijing interfered. An interview request for Zuluaf was turned to the ODNI, which hasn't answered back yet.

Overall, the analytic ombudsman's report examines the politicized nature of Russia, but mostly Chinese meddling.

Zulauf said that any political agenda do not color both the intelligent community leaders and analysts. It is the agency affiliations and the opposition of DEMS to the Trump administration. Without it, the reports would be more unified.

Analysts assessing Russia as the culprit for the 2020 US Election complained the intelligence community management was not confident of the report. Feared government clients might view the actions of the CIA as suppressive and politically biased.

Related article: Director of National Intelligence says that Beijing a Threat to US, Free World Since 1941

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 16:06:28|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export of the information and communications technology (ICT) products grew last year as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for tech products, a government report showed Monday.

The ICT export went up 3.8 percent over the year to 183.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the third-highest yearly figure in the country's history.

Import in the ICT sector stood at 112.6 billion dollars last year, sending the ICT trade surplus to 71.0 billion dollars.

The ICT product shipment reduced 2.8 percent in the first half, but it rebounded in the second half as demand rose for tech products amid the COVID-19 pandemic that led people to work from home and attend online classes.

Semiconductor export rose 5.4 percent to 100.25 billion dollars in 2020, and shipment for computers and peripherals jumped 53.1 percent to 13.91 billion dollars.

Display panel shipment retreated 5.1 percent to 20.72 billion dollars, and mobile phone export declined 6.0 percent to 11.27 billion dollars.

The ICT export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, amounted to 86.88 billion dollars. Shipments to the United States and the European Union (EU) reached 22.13 billion dollars and 11.25 billion dollars each.

The ICT import from China came to 47.29 billion dollars last year. Imports from Japan and the United States stood at 10.42 billion dollars and 8.02 billion dollars respectively. Enditem
Bahrain's Economic Development Board (EDB) exceeded its target by helping bring in BD333 million ($885 million) of foreign direct investments to the kingdom in 2020, it has been revealed at an EDB board meeting.

The meeting, held remotely, was chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Economic Development Board (EDB), said a Bahrain News Agency report.

HRH noted that Bahraini citizens will continue to remain at the heart of all development plans and praised the EDBs success in attracting direct investments during 2020, while emphasising the importance of advancing these efforts, in line with the kingdoms ambitious development plans.

During the meeting, HRH Prince Salman stressed the importance of economic diversification efforts as a means to further enhance the sustainability of the national economy and help capitalise on the kingdom's economic resilience. This economic resilience, as well as other national competencies, has allowed the kingdom to navigate its way through a variety of global challenges, he noted.

HRH added that the unprecedented economic stimulus package, launched following directives from HM the King to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, played a crucial role in enhancing recovery efforts and continuing positive growth for various vital economic sectors.

He also indicated that Bahrain has taken careful and balanced steps to manage the impact of Covid-19 on the community and the economy. Precautionary and preventative measures founded on community awareness and cooperation, and continuing to allow movement for living necessities and commercial and economic activities and maintaining open borders for travellers, has managed to have a clear impact on reducing Covid-19 repercussions on all levels.

HRH emphasised that the kingdom will continue to achieve its desired goals with the collective spirit of Team Bahrain and its members, and will continue to implement wide-ranging economic strategies and attract direct investment in developing the national economy. This will in turn enable the private sector to play a greater role in economic growth, create further job opportunities for citizens and enhance the kingdom's economic and investment position both regionally and globally.

The investment attracted last year is expected to create more than 4,300 jobs over the next three years, said Khalid Ebrahim Humaidan, Chief Executive of the Bahrain EDB.

Humaidan further highlighted the continuous growth of accumulated investments in the Kingdom over the past 10 years, the stock of which saw a growth of around $1 billion annually.

He also highlighted a number of prominent local, regional, and international investments in the kingdom, including from GCC, European, and Asian companies. These companies invested in a number of major sectors including financial services, manufacturing, logistics and retail services, education, healthcare services, real estates, tourism, and ICT.

According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the size of accumulated direct investments compared to the kingdoms GDP in 2019 was around 78%, double the world average of 42%, he said.
Indian scientists and health warriors have risen to the occasion and the vaccines being developed and manufactured in India will help our people as well as humanity at large in escaping from the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a message to Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih on Monday. He conveyed this to Solih on Twitter while responding to the latter's congratulatory message over India's "landmark programme" to vaccinate Indian population against COVID-19.

"Congratulations to PM @narendramodi and the Indian government for its landmark programme to vaccinate India's population against COVID-19," Solih tweeted on Sunday. "I'm highly confident that you'll be successful in this endeavour and that we are finally seeing an end to the COVID-19 scourge," he said.

Responding to Solih's message, Prime Minister Modi tweeted Monday, "Thank you, President @ibusolih. Our scientists and health-warriors have risen to the occasion." "The vaccines being developed and manufactured in India will help our people as well as humanity at large in escaping from the pandemic," Modi said. Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering and Sri Lankan premier Mahinda Rajapaksa had also congratulated Modi earlier for the landmark launch of the world's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive, hoping it would mitigate the sufferings endured by the people due to the pandemic.

Modi on Saturday launched the vaccination drive with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs, showing the light at the end of a 10-month tunnel that upended millions of lives and livelihoods.
We can better cope with others negative emotions by strengthening our own compassion skills.(fizkes/Shutterstock)

When Empathy Hurts, Compassion Can Heal

A new study shows compassion training can help us cope with other peoples' distress

Empathy can be painful.

Or so suggests a growing body of neuroscientific research. When we witness suffering and distress in others, our natural tendency to empathize can bring us vicarious pain.

Is there a better way of approaching distress in other people? A recent study , published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, suggests that we can better cope with others negative emotions by strengthening our own compassion skills, which the researchers define as feeling concern for anothers suffering and desiring to enhance that individuals welfare.

Empathy is really important for understanding others emotions very deeply, but there is a downside of empathy when it comes to the suffering of others, says Olga Klimecki, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany and the lead author of the study. When we share the suffering of others too much, our negative emotions increase. It carries the danger of an emotional burnout.

The research team sent study participants to a one-day loving-kindness meditation class, which utilized techniques and philosophies from Eastern contemplative traditions. Participants, none of whom had prior meditation experience, practiced extending feelings of warmth and care toward themselves, a close person, a neutral person, a person in difficulty, and complete strangers, as a way of developing their compassion skills.

Both before and after the training, participants were shown videos of people in distress (e.g., crying after their home was flooded). Following exposure to each video, the researchers measured the subjects emotional responses through a survey. Their brain activity was also recorded using an fMRI machine, a device that tracks real-time blood-flow in the brain, thereby enabling the scientists to see what brain areas were active in response to viewing the videos.

They found that the compassion training led participants to experience significantly more positive emotion when viewing the distressing videos. In other words, they seemed better able to cope with distress than they did before the trainingand they coped better than a control group that did not receive the compassion training.

Through compassion training, we can increase our resilience and approach stressful situations with more positive affect, says Klimecki.

The positive emotional approach was accompanied by a change in brain activation pattern: Before the training, participants showed activity in an empathic network associated with pain perception and unpleasantness; after the training, activity shifted to a compassionate network that has been associated with love and affiliation.

Their new brain-activation patterns more closely resembled those of an expert who had meditated every day on compassion for more than 35 years, whose brain was scanned by the researchers to provide a point of comparison. This result suggests that the training brought about fundamental changes in the ways their brains processed distressing scenes, strengthening the parts that try to alleviate sufferingan example of neuroplasticity, when the brain physically evolves in response to experience.

Negative emotions did not disappear after the loving-kindness training; its just that the participants were less likely to feel distressed themselves. According to Klimecki and her colleagues, this suggests that the training allowed participants to stay in touch with the negative emotion from a calmer mindset. Compassion is a good antidote, says Klimecki. It allows us to connect to others suffering, without being too distressed.

The main takeaway is that we can shape our own emotional reactions, and can alter the way we feel and respond to certain situations. In other words, says Klimecki, Our emotions are not set in stone.

So is taking a compassion course like the one offered through this study the only way to build compassion? No. Research suggests you can cultivate a compassionate mindset through encouraging cooperation, practicing mindfulness, refraining from placing blame on others, acting against inequality, and being receptive to others feelings without adopting those feelings as your own.

Adam Hoffman is a Greater Good editorial assistant. This article was originally published on Greater Good online magazine.
Vladimir Putin is embracing a new brazenness. It was always obvious that he was directing the years-long series of assassinations and disappearances of his opponents. But he at least tried to feign innocence.

By killing people with radioactive isotopes and nerve agents, he was using methods that might go undetected in most circumstances. And even when the covert instrument of assassination was discovered, Putin always denied any involvement by the Russian state.

Is democracy in decline? Credit:Dyson

It wasnt convincing, of course  you cant buy the Russian militarys home-grown nerve agents of the Novichok variety at the local chemists, or even on the dark web. But Putin always protested his innocence. It was important to him to keep up a facade of deniability, no matter how thin.

His spokespeople denied any state involvement again when the hero of Russias opposition movement, the charismatic Alexei Navalny, was suddenly taken gravely ill on a flight in August 2020, suspected poisoned. The doctors in the Russian city of Omsk diagnosed the problem as low blood sugars, which supposedly triggered a metabolic disorder.
Consultations with dermatologist Dr Shawana Vali involve a face-to-face approach that might seem to put both her and her patient at risk of Covid-19.

Ill almost always start with an examination of the patients face and skin, which means standing very close to someone who is unmasked for half an hour or more, says Dr Vali, co-founder of the LMS Wellness in Chelsea.

Its now known that the virus behind Covid-19 is almost entirely airborne.

Normal breathing alone can produce thousands of virus-laden aerosols  the volumes are even larger if you shout, cough or sneeze.

Consultations with dermatologist Dr Shawana Vali involve a face-to-face approach that might seem to put both her and her patient at risk of Covid-19

And if let undisturbed  for instance, in an unventilated space  aerosols can float in the air for up to ten hours, says Valerie Edwards-Jones, a microbiologist and an emeritus professor at the School of Healthcare Science at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Yet the team at LMS Wellness has remained at work  lockdowns permitting  with no more protection than the average person wears to a supermarket.

Except for one thing  the face masks they use, set to be the next big thing in personal protection, are coated with a virucidal (virus-killing) agent, titanium dioxide, which has been shown by laboratory tests at the University of Cambridge to effectively inhibit infection by Covid-19 for up to 120 days.

This is according to tests carried out by virologist, Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the university.

Professor Gupta was named in the TIME 100 most influential people last year for his work on a cure for HIV using a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor.

In December 2020, he hit the headlines again when he led the team that identified the highly infectious new strain of Covid that emerged in Kent.

In an exclusive interview with Good Health, Professor Gupta says: With the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, we need more than ever innovative protection. Most important is deactivation of the virus on a mask so that it cannot be transmitted by touch.

Anti-viral protection has traditionally worked on the assumption that infections such as flu are spread by large, even visible droplets that shoot through the air on coughs and sneezes, landing on surfaces  so wiping surfaces and washing hands have been vital.

But however flimsy they are, masks have become key, shown to reduce the spread of viruses by blocking the spread of respiratory droplets. A study of simulated coughing, for instance, found that even a stitched cloth mask reduced the jet distance in all directions from 8 ft to 2.5 in.

For most masks to be effective, they need to be worn by everyone  and in the case of cloth masks, made of three layers, according to the latest advice from the World Health Organisation.

Single-use masks include the popular, three-layer surgical version, which has a middle layer with a very fine weave said to block 85 per cent of particles. They are cheap (under 20 for a pack of 50) but, like cloth masks, they dont protect the wearer.

More effective are N95 masks (also known as KN94, FFP2 or respirators, these cost around 20 for ten). They filter 95 per cent of large and small airborne particles and are widely used in hospitals.

Providing even greater protection, and also widely used in hospitals, are FFP3 fine dust masks (costing around 70 for six). They block a minimum of 99 per cent of very fine particles such as asbestos and Covid-bearing aerosols.

A downside, however, is the comfort factor. N95 masks need to be tight-fitting to be effective. And even FFP3 masks, which come in different types, sizes and models, dont necessarily fit everyone.

Single-use masks include the popular, three-layer surgical version, which has a middle layer with a very fine weave said to block 85 per cent of particles. They are cheap (under 20 for a pack of 50) but, like cloth masks, they dont protect the wearer

An unpublished survey by Addenbrookes Hospital and the University of Cambridge, and supported by the Royal College of Surgeons, found that one in four doctors feels unsafe with the protective masks currently provided.

'The concern is for people for whom the FFP3 mask does not fit as well as it should, as any protection from airborne viruses, such as COVID-19, could be compromised,' Dr Ambika Chadha, a maxillofacial surgery trainee at Addenbrookes, told Good Health.

Further, single-use masks present a major pollution problem on disposal. And masks can also spread disease if not placed in special bins and handled appropriately, according to Professor Laszlo Forro, a researcher at the Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

The latest innovations are masks that dont simply act as a barrier, but destroy pathogens.

Some reusable masks are anti-microbial, consisting of two or three layers with an inner-layer infused with a coating made from silver or copper  this is said to attack viruses and bacteria that land on the mask. (A company set up by Professor Edwards-Jones now sells three-layer masks with a silver impregnated lining at a cost of three for 20.)

But perhaps an even more promising breakthrough, say experts, centres on titanium dioxide (Ti02).

Ti02 has proven virucidal properties and is a widely used chemical  for instance, in dental implants.

In August, a study from EPFL in Switzerland confirmed that masks with the coating can kill germs and be reused up to 1,000 times.

Now a London-based company has launched one of the first products with this molecular technology to reach the market: the Invisi Smart mask.

Whats new, explains Jeremy Ramsden, an honorary professor of nanotechnology at the University of Buckingham, is not the basic material, titanium dioxide. Thats been used for years in industry.

The real innovation is getting it to stick without inactivating it.

The Invisi Smart mask looks and feels like an ordinary surgical mask. But laboratory tests by Professor Gupta at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases, a department within the University of Cambridge, suggest it is hardly ordinary.

The tests, which were funded by Invisi Smart Technology (the only financial link that Professor Gupta has with the company), came out in November on the Covid-19 preprint server, bioRxiv, a website scientists use to quickly share developments before theyve been peer-reviewed. So far, the tests have involved SmartShield, the manufacturers Ti02-infused coating for surfaces which was applied by a spray gun to surfaces in volunteer clinics (it is claimed the protection will last up to five years on surfaces.)

The as-yet unpublished laboratory tests also showed it destroyed an artificial version of the virus that causes Covid-19, says Professor Gupta.

With the four-ply reusable face mask, the Ti02 is contained in an inner layer  the mask can be washed to remove surface dirt, with the protection lasting at least 30 days (each mask costs 7.19. There is another version which lasts five days, costing 4.75 each). One problem is that to make them cost-effective, the virucidal masks need to be re-used for a significant period of time.

That will require a culture change as doctors and nurses are so used to one-use only masks, says Dr Chadha, who wears a Invisi Smart mask outside the hospital but not so far during clinical duties as its not been approved for NHS use.

Dr Alkesh Patel, a dentist at Maison Smile in Edgware Road in London, whose practice took part in the trial, adds: Staff members are still automatically throwing their Invisi mask away each day.

For further information: Silver-lined masks, everyCloudSP.com; Invisi Smart Masks and SmartShield, invisismart.com
Q: The intersection of State Route 203, Columbia County Route 32 and Bunker Hill Road in North Chatham has recently been redesigned to accommodate the new Empire State Rail Trail. Unfortunately, not all aspects of the redesign are improvements. Vehicles traveling south on 203 making a right turn onto County 32 West are very difficult for vehicles stopped at the end of Bunker Hill Road to see approaching. Vehicles traveling south on Bunker Hill Road wishing to continue south on Route 203 must make a left turn onto Route 32 very close to the intersection with Route 203, and then a right onto 203. Vehicles entering Route 32 west from 203 southbound previously had a stop sign where Bunker Hill Road ended. This stop has been eliminated.

Now, vehicles from Bunker Hill Road must make this left hoping no vehicles come speeding, unseen, around that corner, which is really more like a sharp curve than an actual corner and allows vehicles to come around at a greater speed. This has created a rather dangerous situation. Replacing the stop sign on County 32 west at the end of Bunker Hill Road would greatly improve the safety of this intersection.

Also, as an aside, there are two sets of signs noting the junction of County Route 32 when one is traveling north on State Route 203. The first set of signs correctly identifies 32 west as a left turn and 32 east to bear right. The second set of signs incorrectly indicate 32 east as the left turn and 32 west to bear right.

Karen Rosen, Chatham Center

A: That stop sign was removed because it is no longer applicable to the new traffic flow pattern, said Andy Beers, director of the Empire State Trail.

The East and West signs have also been fixed, he said.

The Hudson River Valley Greenway, a state agency, redesigned that intersection during the construction of the 36-mile Albany-Hudson Electric Trail. The AHET forms part of the Empire State Trail in Rensselaer and Columbia counties.

The Greenway made a number of improvements to enhance safety where the trail passes through North Chatham, Beers said, including reducing speed limits, installing traffic calming measures, widening road shoulders and installing two crosswalks with flashing beacon signals.

The agency also changed the intersection to a T shape from its previous triangular shape. It is this change that allowed the elimination of the stop sign, Beers said.

The Greenway engineering team has reviewed the traffic usage and confirmed the intersection safety features are functioning as designed, and the intersection conforms with state and federal design guidelines, he added.

Safety rating: New York was among eight states and the District of Columbia that received a green, or good, rating from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a group lobbying for the adoption of laws, policies and programs that make roads safer.

New Yorks new seat belt law requiring all passengers to wear seat belts is responsible for the states improvement from green to yellow.

The state sees $15.2 billion in annual economic cost due to crashes, according to a report from the advocacy group, which consists of consumer, medical, public health, law enforcement and safety groups as well as insurance companies and agents. The annual economic cost nationwide is $242 billion.

To improve safety further, Advocates says, the state should pass a booster seat law. The group also recommends that it change the graduated driver licensing program so that young drivers cannot receive an unrestricted license until they are 18 even if theyve taken a drivers education course, and institute a cell phone restriction.

Thirty states received a yellow rating, meaning that improvement is needed. Twelve earned a red rating, meaning that they lag dangerously behind in the adoption of Advocates recommended laws, according to a press release.

South Dakota earned most improved for enacting an all-driver texting ban and updating its graduated driver licensing program, but is still on the red list.

Have a question about transportation in the Capital Region? Email gettingthere@timesunion.com and include your name, town and phone number or tweet @abigail_rubel.
Conductor Ion Marin received the distinction of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic, according to the press office of the National Chamber Choir "Madrigal - Marin Constantin," quoting the French Ministry of Culture.

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Monday, the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of the most important ministerial decorations of France, will be awarded to the famous Romanian musician for "contribution and commitment in the service of culture," as mentioned in the official letter sent by the French Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin.

In his exceptional career of almost 40 years, Ion Marin has also distinguished himself as an important promoter of French culture, Francophonie, and universal European values.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A coalition of environmental groups sued Thursday to stop the federal government turning over its control of wetlands construction permitting to Florida's Department of Environmental Protection.

"Florida's record of wetlands protection is already abysmal, and now is not the time for the federal government to turn over a massive Clean Water Act program to a state with a shrinking budget," said Bonnie Malloy, an attorney representing seven groups including the St. Johns Riverkeeper.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed an agreement last month that made Florida only the third state in the country, after New Jersey and Michigan, to handle applications for what are called 404 permits, after the section of the federal Clean Water Act where they're described.

But the lawsuit contends the government didn't follow its own laws when handoff happened, and it asks a federal judge in Washington to issue an injunction blocking the change.

"Defendants' actions threaten to open the floodgates for other states to seek assumption without requiring that those programs meet federal standards," Malloy and other attorneys from the activist law firm Earthjustice argue in the suit.

Permitting has been handled until now by the U.S. Amy Corps of Engineers.

The suit says letting last month's decision stand would imperil the health of waterways around the country, as well as animals and plants in them that are supposed to be protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The lawyers argue EPA, the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which reviews wetland permit impacts on endangered species, acted without meeting requirements of the federal government's Administrative Procedure Act, which sets rules for things like public comment periods.

They say, for example, that Florida's application to take over wetland permitting wasn't complete because it depended on a Fish and Wildlife finding about the handoff, called a biological opinion, that hadn't been written when the application was filed.

The suit says the opinion was completed about two weeks after the public comment period for Florida's application had ended, so there was no way people could review it or raise any points that might have affected the handoff decision.

The Corps still handles wetlands permitting on some waterways. But the lawsuit argues Florida's application didn't adequately identify which waterways the state would take over, making meaningful public comment impossible.

Wheeler said in December that the areas the Corps would handle had been worked out in a memo of understanding with the state.

An EPA spokesperson declined to comment Thursday because the case is pending.

A Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said state lawyers are reviewing the suit, although only federal officials are named as defendants.

The lawyers also argued Florida hadn't met a legal requirement for taking over wetland permitting because it didn't identify funding to handle the work.

State officials had said the Department of Environmental Protection could take over permitting using the funds they're already budgeted for other work, but the lawsuit says the application didn't show that the agency has the legal authority to shift money from other tasks to handling wetlands permits.

Besides the Riverkeeper organization, the 51-page lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defender of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Miami Waterkeeper organization.

The groups suing worried state official would be too lenient in permitting and cast their suit as a step to save the state's environment.

"The toxic algae blooms that now plague Florida are a direct result of the state's decades-long failure to protect our waterways," said Jason Totoiu, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity.

"Now the state wants to make it even easier to dredge and fill wetlands that help filter these pollutants from entering our lakes, estuaries, and springs," he said.

A stack of summonses for federal official were issued Thursday and U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss issued standing orders guiding how lawyers handle the case, but there was no immediate action in the case.

Explore further Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

2021 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A man has been charged in connection to the seizure of over 117,000 in cash.

The 35-year-old man was first arrested on Saturday due to suspicion of involvement in a money laundering offence.

Along with the cash, gardai also seized a Rolex watch and one vehicle during a search of the premises in Coolock, north Dublin.

The man was detained at Coolock Garda Station, and is now due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice (Court 4) today at 10:30am.

Following the bust, a garda spokesman said the seizure came as a result of an investigation into suspected organised crime gangs operating in Dublin.

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They said: On 16th January 2021, in the course of ongoing investigations targeting persons suspected to be involved in organised crime, the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) supported by the Garda Dog Unit conducted a search at an address in the Coolock area of Dublin.

One male, aged 35 years, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in money laundering related offence, contrary to the provisions of section 7, Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010, he said.

He is currently detained under Section 4 of Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at Coolock Garda Station.

Speaking yesterday Assistant Commissioner John ODriscoll, head of Organised and Serious Crime, said: "We continue to target those causing most harm in our community.
KIMT-TV 3 NEWS  Political leaders are honoring civil rights legend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa):

Today, we honor the incredible life and enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King awoken the conscience of America to stand against racial injustice and gave voice to those who had long been denied the promises of America simply because of the color of their skin.

He did so through peaceful protests and eloquent words that spoke to the very soul of America, reminding us who we are and who we must continue to strive to become.

Like the sound of freedom ringing from every mountainside, Dr. Kings words continue to echo through history growing louder each day.

With fresh wounds from injustice, we need no further reminders as to why our shared destiny as a nation and the preservation of freedom for all is entirely dependent upon fulfilling Dr. Kings dream.

Lets join together and honor Dr. Kings life and mission of achieving equality and justice for all.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota):

I can think of few times in our nations history when taking a moment to mark this day and remember the lessons of Dr. King has been more important. Our country is reeling from the events of January 6, in which a violent mob stormed the Capitol in an effort to strike at the very heart of our democracy. But there is reason to be hopeful. In the end, our democracy prevailed. We went back at 3 a.m. and finished our jobs. No mob will bring down the U.S. government."

On January 20, we will not only witness the swearing in of President-elect Joe Biden, but also Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will become the first African American, first Asian American, and first woman Vice President in U.S. history. And that same week, Reverend Warnockthe Pastor of Dr. Kings former congregation at the Ebenezer Baptist Churchwill become Georgias first Black senator."

As Dr. King once said, Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable...Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle. The path to progress nearly always includes struggle. Now is the time for us to collectively raise our voices and make change, channeling Dr. Kings passion, perseverance, and hope as we write the next chapter of our countrys story.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel:

"Today, we join the millions around the world honoring the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This great American was a towering figure of peace, service, justice, and courage. Now more than ever, we should strive to follow in his footsteps of peacefully coming together around a common American goal of freedom and opportunity for all.
Who will be the next CM of Assam? Sarbananda Sonowal or Himanta Biswa Sarma?

EC officials to visit poll bound Assam today

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora along with Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar will visit Assam and West Bengal beginning Monday to take stock of preparations for assembly polls to be held in the next few months.

The commission would reach Guwahati on Monday evening and leave for Kolkata on January 20 evening according to the programme decided last week, official sources said.

Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain was in West Bengal last week to meet officials. This was Jain''s second visit to West Bengal.

Assam Elections 2021: AJP urged by Raijor Dal to take alliance forward

Another EC official was in Assam to take stock of the situation there. They had briefed the commission about their visits to the two states on Friday.

It is usual for the commission to visit poll-bound states before announcing the schedule of Assembly elections. But it had visited Bihar after announcing the dates for the recently concluded elections.

The terms of the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry are coming to an end on different dates in May and June this year. The Assembly elections are likely to take place sometime in April and May.

The Election Commission had last week discussed with Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla the availability and requirement of central security forces for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

The meeting held at the EC headquarters here was "primarily to discuss requirement vis-a -vis availability of central armed police forces, and related matters, for the upcoming assembly elections to the states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry," the poll panel had said.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 10:52 [IST]

Over the past two-and-a-half years, various courts of Armenia have investigated and are investigating a dozen cases linked to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans newly appointed chief of staff Arsen Torosyan, who is one of the most scandalous officials of Pashinyans team. The former health minister is a respondent under four civil cases, a plaintiff under 4 cases and a witness under 2 other cases.

In particular, ever since Torosyan assumed the office of health minister, he has been sued for publicly defaming and offending by former director of Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center Ara Minasyan, former health minister and Rector of Yerevan State Medical University Armen Muradyan, President of the Armenian National Health Council CSO Gevorg Grigoryan and Head of the Laboratory Diagnosis Unit of the Scientific Center of Radiation Medicine and Burns at the Ministry of Health Davit Grigoryan.

While serving as health minister, Torosyan sued former member of the Council of Elders of Yerevan Marina Khachatryan, former director of Masis Medical Center Nune Avanesyan, political technologist Karen Kocharyan and Facebook user Sergey Chamanyan.

Torosyan demands that Chamanyan publicly apologizes and refutes factual data that are considered slander. The former minister also has the status of witness under the case of director of the Republican Maternity Hospital and the case of former head of the State Supervision Service Davit Sanasaryan who is charged with abuse of official powers. Thus, Torosyan still doesnt have the procedural status of a victim, suspect, accused or defendant.
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China has built a 100-home village in disputed Indian territory that Beijing claims is theirs amid rising tensions between the two countries, according to satellite images released by Indian media.

The images, taken on November 1 last year, appear to show a development of 101 homes in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh at a location 2.8 miles inside Indian territory.

Images from just over a year ago show the area without any construction taking place, meaning the site was developed within the past 12 months.

The village is located on the banks of the River Tsari Chu in the Upper Subansiri district, an area claimed by both Delhi and Beijing, which has been the site of armed conflict in previous years.

China has not acknowledged construction of the village. India's Foreign Ministry did not dispute the content of the images when presented with them by researchers.

The images were released today, days after Chinese and Indian tanks faced off hundreds of yards from each other at a disputed Himalayan border post.

A locator map shows the Chinese village, 2.8 miles inside Indian territory

A satellite image shows the newly built Chinese village at a location 2.8 miles inside Indian territory in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh

Similar images from August 2019 do not show any construction activity, meaning the village was built within the last year

On Friday, an image shared on Chinese social media site Weibo showed armoured vehicles lined up against each other beside encampments along the 2,000-mile border where last year grisly hand-to-hand combat left 20 Indian soldiers dead.

Regarding the new village in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Foreign Ministry said: 'We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India. China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years.'

'Our Government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much needed connectivity to the local population along the border.'

In October, China claimed it was India who was developing infrastructure along the border, and accused them of stepping up their military deployments.

According to NDTV, there are no signs of Indian settlements near the new Chinese village.

The village has been built close to what experts believe is a Chinese forward military post. The revelation comes days after Indian and Chinese tanks faced off elsewhere on the Himalayan border

In the same month the satellite images were taken, an Indian MP from the region, Tapir Gao, warned parliament of Chinese incursions in his state.

'Construction is still going on. China has entered more than 60-70 kms (37-43 miles) inside the upper Subansiri district if you follow the path along the river. They are constructing a road along the river known locally as the Lensi as it flows in the direction of the Subansiri river,' he said.

Today, Gao said Beijing has also begun the construction of a new double-lane road, according to NDTV.

The Foreign Ministry did not disclose whether the new construction had been raised with Beijing.

NDTV reported the village has been built close to a structure believed by military analysts to be a Chinese military post.

The military post has also been extensively built up, according to experts. Both China and India have accused each other of stepping up building projects along the border

New Delhi observes the McMahon Line, a demarcation between Tibet and India's northeast, which it believes marks the boundary between India and China. Beijing disputes this line.

Following the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the foes agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to separate Indian and Chinese territory.

Claude Arpi, an expert in India-China relations, told NDTV that the village is 'well south of the McMahon Line'.

He said the village's construction 'is an extraordinarily serious issue as it has many other implications elsewhere on the boundary.'

Both countries have previously agreed to 'safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas' and to 'work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas'.

In 1959, after a military incident near the Tsari Chu river, Delhi complained to Beijing about soldiers firing without warning on an Indian forward post.

'Its [China's] encroachment on an area that clearly falls within India underscores the stealth and speed with which it is redrawing facts on the ground, with little regard for the geopolitical fallout,' said strategic affairs expert Dr Brahma Chellaney.

Since June's clash, the first deadly fighting in 45 years, India and China have heavily fortified their positions on either side of India's Ladakh region and deployed thousands of troops.

The photograph was first shared on Chinese social media site Weibo by a 'military blogger' and the story has since been picked up by pro-Beijing news sites which boast of the prowess of their Type-15 tanks

Since June's clash, the first deadly fighting in 45 years, India and China have heavily fortified their positions on either side of India's Ladakh region

On Monday, the Times of India reported that the Chinese had moved around 10,000 troops held in reserve up to LAC.

There are up to 35 Chinese tanks close to outposts captured by the Indian army in late August. It is not clear how many tanks the Indians have in reply.

Last year's Galwan Valley battle led to boycotts of Chinese goods and furious protests on the streets of Indian capital New Delhi.

In November, the two sides began formulating a disengagement plan to withdraw troops and establish no-patrol zones, but the talks appear to have fallen through.

The deaths of the soldiers are still bitterly felt by the Indian troops and they were remembered again on Friday during Army Day 2021 in Delhi.

General Manoj Mukund Naravane lauded the 'supreme sacrifice' of the Galwan Valley 'bravehearts.'

He said that the army 'took swift action during the India-China LAC standoff' to protect the border and a 'befitting response' was given to the Beijing 'conspiracy' to shift the frontier.

'We are committed to finding the resolution of our disputes through discussions and political efforts but no one should test out patience,' the general said.

Between April and May last year, the Indians claim that the Chinese deployed nearly 50,000 troops close to the boundary, as well as heavy artillery and the infrastructure to support its men.

Earlier this week, Beijing propaganda mouthpiece China.com published an article which proudly boasted of the superiority of the Chinese Type 15 tanks against India's T-17 and T-90s.

It said: 'India has been operating on the western border for many years and has many practices in the use of tanks and armoured vehicles.

'However, the PLA (People's Liberation Army) was able to quickly form an advantage in the number of tanks at specific locations, and the level of equipment and technology was immediately superior.'

Last Friday, a Chinese solider was arrested by Indian forces after he allegedly strayed over the border.

'The PLA soldier is being dealt with as per laid down procedures, and circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC are being investigated,' a statement from the Indian Army said.

The PLA claimed the soldier went missing in 'the darkness and complicated terrain' and insisted India was informed.

'India should strictly abide by the relevant agreements between the two countries, and promptly transfer the missing person to China, to help with cooling and de-escalating the China-Indian border situation,' the military newspaper added.

Another Chinese soldier was briefly held by Indian forces in the same region in October.

In June, the Indian army accused the Chinese of using clubs fashioned with barbed wire and nails to beat their troops. The Galwan Valley clash left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead

Prior to June's deadly skirmish, footage was leaked which purported to show an Indian forces battering a PLA soldier in May

Tensions flared between China and India last June when a clash along the disputed Himalayan border led to the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers.

In the following months, the nuclear-armed neighbours deployed tens of thousands of soldiers across India's Ladakh region and China's Tibetan plateau.

India and China inherited their territorial disputes from the period of British colonial rule.

Three years after India's independence in 1947 and a year after the communists came to power in China, the new government in Beijing began strongly asserting its claims and repudiating earlier treaties it says were signed under duress, but which India says are fixed.

Beijing's approach has strengthened under Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades who has sworn not to surrender even an inch of territory.

In the 1950s, China started building a strategic road on the uninhabited Aksai Chin Plateau to connect its restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

India objected and claimed Aksai Chin as part of Ladakh, itself belonging to the former principality of Kashmir now divided between India and Pakistan.

Relations were further strained after India allowed Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to establish a self-declared government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala after he fled his homeland in 1959 during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

The differences led to a bitter month-long war in 1962. Firefights broke out again in 1967 and 1975, leading to more deaths on both sides.

They've since adopted protocols, including an agreement not to use firearms, but those protocols have fractured in this year's clashes.

Prabhjot Singh, son of Satnam Singh, an Indian soldier who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region, reacts next to the coffin of his father during his funeral ceremony in Bhojraj village in Gurdaspur, Punjab India, on June 18, 2020

Indians burn images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bhopal on June 16 after news of the violence at the border broke

China, in the meantime, began cementing its relations with India's arch-rival Pakistan and backing it on the issue of Kashmir.

The fiercely contested LAC separates Chinese and Indian held territories from Ladakh in the west to India's eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. It is broken in parts where the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan border China.

According to India, the de facto border is 2,167 miles long, although China promotes a considerably shorter figure.

As its name suggests, it divides the areas of physical control rather than territorial claims.

In all, China claims some 35,000 square miles of territory in India's northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh with its mainly Buddhist population.

India says China occupies 15,000 square miles of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau, which India considers part of Ladakh, where the current face-off is happening.
Last Friday was the first anniversary of the signing of the "phase one" trade deal with Beijing that paused the Trump administrations trade war with China. Twelve months on, it is obvious that, contrary to Donald Trumps conviction, trade wars are neither good nor easy to win.

Trump will end his presidency having presided over the three largest US trade deficits in history even as China recorded a record monthly trade surplus in December and, amid a global pandemic, its second-highest annual surplus.

US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. The Trump administrations China policies were probably the most antagonistic of any US presidency since the height of the Cold War in the 1960s. Credit:AP

Trade data released late last week showed Chinas overall surplus rose 27 per cent to $US535 billion ($696 billion) in 2020, the highest since 2015. The December surplus, powered by an 18 per cent increase in exports, was a record $US78 billion. The $US317 billion full-year surplus with the US was 7 per cent higher than in 2019.

Earlier this month US trade data showed its overall trade deficit for the first 11 months of the year had grown 13.9 per cent over the same period of 2019, to $US605 billion, with analysts forecasting a deficit of close to $US900 billion for the full year when those numbers are released next month. The US trade deficit in November was the highest in 14 years.
Majority of pupils and students in the Adaklu Kodzobi Circuit of the Adaklu district have resumed school on Monday but without the essential tool of nose masks.



The expected nose masks from the government is yet to arrive leaving the students to their fate on re-opening day.



A visit by the Ghana News Agency showed many students and their teachers not wearing masks to protect themselves against the vagaries of the pandemic.



Mr. Edward Dzidza, Head teacher of Adaklu Kodzobi D/A Basic Schools told the GNA that they could not turn the pupils away though they failed to wear masks.



He said apart from the fumigation of the school, the promise by the Adaklu District Directorate of Education to provide them with nose masks for use by both teachers and pupils did not materialise.



The Head teacher, therefore, appealed to parents and guardians to provide their wards with nose masks while they await the allocation from the government.



Mr. Selorm Prince Kpenu, Head teachers of Adaklu Have D/A Junior High School said but for a few of the form two students, all the others came to the school without nose masks.



He said they only had four rolls of tissue and a gallon of liquid soap but was hopeful that government would fulfil its promise of providing all Schools with nose masks and other safety items.



The story was the same at Adaklu Dzakpo and Adaklu Vodze D/A Basic Schools.



A teacher who spoke to the GNA on strict condition of anonymity said the likelihood of both teachers and students contracting the COVID-19 was very high since "we all travel from different locations before converging at the school."



Students and pupils were seen cleaning, scrubbing the floors of the classrooms and desks for academic work to start.

Source: GNA









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The forecaster has issued a Status Yellow rain warning for Connacht, Longford, Louth, Westmeath, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan on Monday and Tuesday.

Heavy rain will lead to accumulations of 30 to 50mm, with higher accumulations in mountainous areas. This will bring a risk of some river and localised flooding warns the forecaster.

While the warning covers eleven counties, the forecaster says the rain will set in on Monday night and Tuesday will be a very wet day nationwide with heavy spells of rain, possibly turning wintry at times in the north.

Beyond that Met Eireann says it will be unsettled for the rest of the week and turning colder with some wintry falls possible.

It is expected to get colder from Tuesday night with snow expected as wintry showers feature on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Mean air temperatures are expected to be a degree or two below average for the coming week as a cold polar airmass moves over the country from midweek, with average air temperatures generally of 2 to 4 degrees. A risk of sharper frosts at night increases from midweek, as a cold northerly airflow becomes established, said the forecasters farming forecast.

Met Eireann National Forecast issued at 4pm Sunday, January 17.

MONDAY Some sunny intervals in the north and east tomorrow morning, but becoming overcast and misty as the day goes on with scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle. Rain will become more widespread during the evening. Highest afternoon temperatures ranging from 5 degrees in the north to 10 degrees in the south, with light south to southwest breezes.

A wet and misty night with some heavy falls of rain. Minimum temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees, coldest in Ulster. Winds will be light and variable for much of the night, before increasing moderate to fresh southwesterly over the southern half of the country towards morning.

TUESDAY: A very wet day nationwide with heavy spells of rain, possibly turning wintry at times in the north. Spot flooding is likely with low cloud and mist too. Rather cold across the northern half of the country with highest temperatures ranging 4 to 8 degrees Celsius, in light variable breezes. Less cold across the southern half of Ireland with highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees Celsius. in moderate to fresh southwest breezes.

Scattered outbreaks of rain after dark with localised wintry falls. Frost and ice will set in too, especially across the northern half of Ireland. Lowest temperatures of -2 to + 5 degrees Celsius (north to south), in light to moderate north to northeast breezes.

WEDNESDAY: Outbreaks of rain, possibly turning to sleet and snow at times, in moderate northeast winds. Cold, with highest temperatures of only 2 to 4 degrees Celsius generally, but ranging 4 to 6 degrees Celsius across southern counties.

THURSDAY and FRIDAY:

Cold with sunny spells and scattered showers, some wintry. There will be an added wind chill factor by day with frost and possible ice developing after dark.
On Monday, January 18, Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering informed that the Indian government has announced about providing COVID-19 vaccines for free to Bhutanese people. He added, "If we have to procure vaccines then His Majesty has said he would even provide from his personal resources."

Read: Ravi Shastri Lauded By Michael Vaughan For India's Success, Both Trolled By Fans Online

Bhutan to get vaccines from India

"If we have to buy the vaccines then we may spend $6 million. His Majesty was informed by the GoI (Government of India) that they value the old ties with Bhutan and will help Bhutan. We have told GoI that we plan to vaccinate the whole eligible population in one go and they said they understand," said Tshering.

The Bhutan Prime Minister also said that the Himalayan nation was likely to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India. Recently, Tshering took to Twitter and congratulated PM Modi for the vaccine drive launch and expressed hope that "it comes as an answer to pacify all the sufferings" endured by everyone.

Read: Pakistan Okays India-manufactured AstraZeneca's Coronavirus Vaccine For 'emergency Use'

PM Narendra Modi launched India's COVID-19 vaccination drive via video conferencing on Saturday and got emotional while talking about hardships faced by healthcare workers. The PM said, "With self-confidence and self-reliance, we fought with the virus. The pledge that we will not let our confidence down in this battle is shown by every Indian,"

PM Modi said. "Today when we take a look at the last year, we realise that we have learnt a lot as a person, a family and as a nation. Today, when we start our vaccination drive, I want to remember those days when everyone wanted to do something but were not able to find a way due to coronavirus.

Read: I&B Ministry Summons Amazon India Officials Over Controversy Around Web Series 'Tandav'

Also Read: Republic News Release: Arnab Goswami Responds To Pakistan PM Imran Khan's Statement On Him

(Image Credits: AP/ANI)
Amaravati, Jan 18 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday directed officials to accord top priority to maintain clean toilets in government schools.

In a review meeting, Reddy said many students could not attend school because of the poor maintenance of toilets or absence of hygeine at all.

The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to take up repairs as soon as possible, including solving plumbing and sanitary issues and prepare standard operating procedures (SoPs) for maintaining the school toilets.

"Maintenance of toilets should be best in future awareness", he said.

Reddy said the state government brought revolutionary changes in government schools with schemes such as Nadu - Nedu, Goru Mudda, Amma Vodi, English medium and Vidya Kanuka among others.

Likewise, a toilet fund of Rs 445 crore has also been brought by the government to ensure healthy and hygienic sanitation practices in government schools.

The Chief Minister said that the conventional assumption of government schools lacking basic amenities underwent a sea change in 2020.

School Education Principal Secretary Buditi Raj Sekhar, Municipal and Urban Development Secretary Y. Srilakshmi, Tribal Welfare Secretary Kanthilal Dande, School Education Commissioner V. Chinaveerabhadrudu among others attended the review meeting.
Many people in the throes of opioid addiction are struggling to live another day without facing the pain of withdrawal. Their top priority is finding another fix, which often means sacrificing their health and safety.

That's why Baton Rouge officials are bringing addiction services where they're needed most. Local leaders hosted an open house Monday to unveil a repurposed ambulance that will enable the Capital Area Human Services opioid mobile outreach team to travel across the region delivering a range of services and supplies, including addiction counseling, testing for infectious diseases, overdose reversal drugs and clean needles.

Those are all services the agency is already providing, but the mobility is a change. The outreach team is part of a bigger push from the region's largest government-funded provider of mental health and addiction services to address the local impacts of the nationwide opioid crisis. It's one of several recommendations detailed in a 2018 report outlining proposed response efforts to the crisis in and around Baton Rouge.

The ultimate goal is to save lives and help people get clean, said Capital Area Executive Director Jan Kasofsky.

"You have to be alive before you can make the decision to get help," she said. "That's what we're trying to do  first prevent overdose and death, then connect people with services."

It was just last year when Capital Area Human Services started providing medication-assisted treatment options for people addicted to opioids. The options now include Vivitrol, which is an injection drug that blocks the opioid receptors in the brain and lasts about a month, and Suboxone. That recent development marks a shift from the increasingly outdated abstinence-only models of treatment that have been proven less effective in some cases.

"We need to embrace harm reduction," Kasofsky said, emphasizing the complexities associated with the opioid crisis that have highlighted the challenges and failures of an approach focused on preaching abstinence alone.

+6 New support group for people who have lost loved ones to drugs starts this week in Baton Rouge After losing her son to drugs in 2015, Gwen Knox experienced a unique kind of grief. She felt some sense of relief that her son was no longer 

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The mobile team's new repurposed ambulance, which was purchased using federal grant funds, will travel to areas across the region that have been identified through overdose data as "hot spots" for opioid use, officials said. It will start making rounds in the coming weeks, meeting people where they are.

Jan Laughinghouse, Capital Area's director of addiction recovery services who will become interim executive director after Kasofsky steps down later this month, said for people struggling with addiction, a lack of reliable transportation can be enough to deter them from seeking help. Laughinghouse said the mobile unit includes a paramedic working alongside counselors and other providers.

The number of fatal opioid overdoses has grown rapidly over the past several years both in Louisiana and across the country  including an almost five-fold increase from 2012 to 2019 in East Baton Rouge alone, according to preliminary data from the parish coroner's office.

The East Baton Rouge Metro Council rewrote a parish ordinance in 2017 to allow needle and syringe exchanges that would "prevent and reduce the transmission of communicable diseases." That came after Louisiana legislators passed a bill tweaking the language in state law and allowing local governments to regulate such programs, which have gained support nationwide in recent years despite some critics claiming they could enable drug users.

+6 Clean needle, syringe exchange programs now allowed under Baton Rouge law Baton Rouge local government leaders took a step Wednesday they hope will reduce the city's alarming rates of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other di

East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome pledged her support of the new program, which she said will improve access to life-saving services.

"What you see here with this mobile unit is what I call a smart approach to addressing a very serious issue," Broome said during Monday's open house. "This is taking us one step closer to Baton Rouge becoming a safe, hopeful and healthy community for everyone."
A troubled 20-year-old who flew into a rage when he couldn't find his motorbike and went on a deadly rampage, killing his grandmother and a retired police officer, was suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia at the time, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.

Murray Deakin, now 22, stands charged with two counts of murder and the attempted murder of his grandfather, as a judge-alone trial commenced in Sydney on Monday.

Murray Deakin's June 2018 rampage in Bega left his grandmother and a retired police officer dead. Credit:Nine News

Agreed facts tendered on the first day of his trial reveal Mr Deakin used a pen knife to stab his grandparents, Thomas and Gail Winner, on the afternoon of June 1, 2018, after Mr Winner moved Mr Deakin's motorbike from the driveway of the couple's Bega home to the garage.

As passers-by rushed to help his dying grandmother around 3.30pm, Mr Deakin took her car and fled. In the following hour, police would start and terminate two high-speed chases before his erratic driving caught the attention of retired police officer Mick Horne.
President Donald Trump speaks after touring a section of the border wall in Alamo, Texas, on Jan. 12, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Extends Border Emergency Until February 2022

President Donald Trump extended the national border emergency until February 2022 as a number of Central American migrants appear to be heading to the U.S.Mexico border area via caravans.

Trump said in an announcement on Jan. 16, The ongoing border security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border of the United States continues to threaten our national security, including by exacerbating the effect of the pandemic caused by COVID-19  but further action is needed to address the humanitarian crisis and to control unlawful migration and the flow of narcotics and criminals across the southern border of the United States.

The extension continues the emergency that Trump declared in February 2019 to overcome opposition to the construction of the border wall and immigration reforms.

Making note of that declaration, Trump said that the emergency must continue in effect beyond February 15, 2021, adding, I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9844 concerning the southern border of the United States.

In 2015 and 2016, Trump campaigned on building a wall along the U.S.Mexico border. His administration, so far, has constructed more than 450 miles worth.

Migrants hoping to reach the U.S. border walk alongside a highway in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on Jan. 16, 2021. (Sandra Sebastian/AP Photo)

On Jan. 18, as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants headed toward the U.S. border called on President-elect Joe Biden to honor his commitments to asylum-seekers and migrants. Biden in January said he would eliminate President Trumps decision to limit asylum and end the program that sees asylum-seekers remain in Mexico while waiting for their claims to be adjudicated.

Video footage and photos show a caravan from Honduras breaking through the Guatemala border en route to the United States.

Joe Biden promised amnesty throughout his campaign. A surge of migrants headed to our border is entirely predictable, and its a public health catastrophe, said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), making note of fears that the migrants could spread COVID-19.

The senators warnings were echoed by Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan, who wrote on Twitter Jan. 16: While a migrant caravan attempts to reach Mexico & the US led by irresponsible coordinators, our countries have had a combined 25 million COVID-19 cases & 500,000 deathsand infections are surging! COVID is a silent killer & the number of migrants falling ill will only increase.

Meanwhile, on Jan. 18, an anonymous Biden transition official told news outlets that the migrants should stay put. Those migrants, according to the anonymous source, need to understand theyre not going to be able to come into the United States immediately and added that now is not the time to make the journey.

Bidens transition team didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Longford has been allocated 122,745 in funding for seven local projects under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme.

The scheme provides funding for the development, promotion and maintenance of outdoor amenities such as trails, walkways, cycleways and blueways.

The funding announced on Monday, under Measure 1 of the Scheme, will support small-scale local projects with funding of up to 20,000 each.

It is being announced in partnership with Failte Ireland, who are co-funding the projects with the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD explained that further announcements in respect of medium and large scale projects under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme, with funding of up to 200,000 and 500,000 respectively for each project, will be made at a later stage.

Minister Humphreys added, The past year has demonstrated more than ever the importance of outdoor amenities for our physical and mental wellbeing. I am delighted to support the continued development and enhancement of outdoor recreation infrastructure through the allocation of almost 3.2 million for 173 projects across the country, with a particular focus on rural areas. These facilities will represent a tremendous long-term asset for rural communities and visitors alike into the future.

The funding allocation for Longford was welcomed by local Oireachtas representatives, Fianna Fail TD Joe Deputy and Fine Gael Senator Micheal Carrigy.
There were a record 249 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Laredo as of Sunday afternoon, an unprecedented situation for Laredos health care infrastructure.

Laredo Health Authority Dr. Victor Trevino issued a statement on Saturday evening warning that it would be a difficult night in the hospitals due to this surge of severe cases. Both Laredo Medical Center and Doctors Hospital initiated a diversion plan, having a combined 36 COVID-19 patients in the emergency rooms. The patients were moved to Laredo Specialty Hospital and other standalone emergency rooms in the city.

We plead with the community to stay home and limit activity to emergency purposes, Trevino said.

Of the 249 hospitalized, 81 patients are in intensive care. The city reported that of all the staffed hospital beds in the city, COVID-19 patients occupy 45.9% of them.

The City of Laredo sent out their second emergency text message in a week to make the public aware of the situation at the hospitals. Emergency Management Coordinator and Laredo Fire Chief Guillermo Heard was also working Sunday to divert patients to other hospitals outside of the city, as needed.

The City of Laredo is in a critical situation, therefore, we are asking the community to please stay home unless it is absolutely necessary, a spokesperson for the city wrote in a statement. Think about how important your next outing or visit is, and lets start making better decisions to stop the spread of the virus.

With 177 new cases confirmed on Sunday, there are now 1,731 active COVID-19 cases in Laredo. This number dropped off slightly Sunday following a 10-day stretch where well over 6,000 new cases were confirmed. This period has brought up Webb Countys cumulative positivity rate from 13.9% 10 days ago to 14.8% on Sunday.

Of the 233,396 tests that have been administered in Webb County since last March, 34,499 have been positive. In the last seven days, 21.1% of tests administered have come back positive.

No new deaths were announced Sunday; the COVID-19 death toll in Webb County remains 563.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
The Government of Ukraine and NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy are actively consulting with the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on measures of state regulation in the gas market and are confident in the success of these negotiations, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told Interfax-Ukraine. "Surely, they [the IMF mission] will await the release of the final document to make sure that we are really returning to tariff regulation. I am sure that the IMF mission will finish its work in Ukraine, and we will move on with them as planned," he said.

The prime minister said restriction of the gas price for the population at UAH 6.99 per cubic meter is introduced temporarily, for two months, due to the existing imbalances in the market, but it is not a return to the regime of special obligations, which Ukraine refused under the current Stand-By Arrangement of cooperation with the IMF.

Shmyhal said the Fund is also discussing the transition from a monthly contract for the supply of gas to an annual one, as a default contract, as household consumers are used to a fixed tariff. "These arguments are also accepted by the Fund. Naftogaz also spoke with them and assured that no special duties are being imposed, and we do not use non-market mechanisms. Therefore, I consider our cooperation to be absolutely constructive," the prime minister said.

As reported, the mission of the IMF European Department has been working in Ukraine since January 11 on the first revision of Stand-By Arrangement.
Ryan Reynolds has carried on a playful feud with Hugh Jackman over the years.

But the Golden Globe nominee appears have to made an even worse nemesis out of another Hollywood icon.

He feuded with 'seething demon' Betty White in a hilarious behind-the-scenes clip from their 2009 movie The Proposal, which he posted Sunday to his Instagram Story, wishing the comedy legend a happy 99th birthday.

Hollywood feud: Ryan Reynolds feuded with 'seething demon' Betty White in a hilarious behind-the-scenes clip from their 2009 movie The Proposal, which he posted Sunday to his Instagram Story, wishing the comedy legend a happy 99th birthday

Paying tribute: The 44-year-old wrote: 'We made this 12 years ago. Betty turns 99 today. But she is [100 emoji] the funniest person on the planet'

The 44-year-old wrote: 'We made this 12 years ago. Betty turns 99 today. But she is [100 emoji] the funniest person on the planet.'

He appears with co-star Sandra Bullock, 56, at the beginning of the clip, as they film a behind-the-scenes segment, which is interrupted by White.

'What is Betty doing here? She's got an issue with me,' he tells Bullock, who asked: 'What is your problem with Betty? She's like the nicest person on the planet.'

Bullock then returns to set, as White joins Reynolds, whose name she seems to have forgotten, before telling him: 'Get me a cup of coffee.'

Leading lady: He appears with co-star Sandra Bullock, 56, at the beginning of the clip, as they film a behind-the-scenes segment, which is interrupted by White

Nicest person: 'What is Betty doing here? She's got an issue with me,' he tells Bullock, who asked: 'What is your problem with Betty? She's like the nicest person on the planet'

What's his name? Bullock then returns to set, as White joins Reynolds, whose name she seems to have forgotten, before telling him: 'Get me a cup of coffee'

Terrible assistant: 'We've been working together for weeks, months actually,' he tells her, to which she responds: 'And you've been a terrible assistant that whole time'

Dark side: Reynolds tries to jog her memory, but she interrupts: 'When Betty White says she wants a cup of coffee, you get her a f***ing cup of coffee! You ab-crunching jacka**'

Suck it! He reaches his boiling point, as he snaps: 'You seem like an adorable, sweet old lady on the outside, but on the inside, you're like this seething demon. You hear me? Why don't you suck a hot c***? That's right everybody, I told Betty White to go such a hot c***!'

The finger: Bullock returns, coming to White's rescue, who runs over to the Miss Congeniality star, while discreetly giving Reynolds the finger

'We've been working together for weeks, months actually,' he tells her, to which she responds: 'And you've been a terrible assistant that whole time.'

Reynolds tries to jog her memory, but she interrupts: 'When Betty White says she wants a cup of coffee, you get her a f***ing cup of coffee! You ab-crunching jacka**.'

He reaches his boiling point, as he snaps: 'You seem like an adorable, sweet old lady on the outside, but on the inside, you're like this seething demon. You hear me? Why don't you suck a hot c***? That's right everybody, I told Betty White to go such a hot c***!'

Bullock returns, coming to White's rescue, who runs over to the Miss Congeniality star, while discreetly giving Reynolds the finger.

White played Reynolds' grandmother in the 2009 romantic comedy about a high-profile book editor (Bullock) who decides to marry her assistant (Reynolds) so she doesn't get deported to Canada.

50 years later: The birthday girl took to Instagram with another throwback, as she celebrated the milestone with the re-release of her 1971 animal-friendly talk show The Pet Set

Feeding time: White fed a baby elephant with fellow comedienne Carol Burnett, 87, in one segment

Man's best friend: In another clip, the late Burt Reynolds introduced her to his dog

The birthday girl took to Instagram with another throwback, as she celebrated the milestone with the re-release of her 1971 animal-friendly talk show The Pet Set.

She wrote: 'Would you believe it?! It's my 99th birthday which means I can stay up as late as I want without asking. I am also very pleased to let you know about the re-release of my long-lost series after fifty years! I am just so proud of the Pet Set. I hope everyone is well and staying safe. We will get through this.'

White fed a baby elephant with fellow comedienne Carol Burnett, 87, in one segment, before the late Burt Reynolds introduced her to his dog.

Other celebrity guests on the show included Mary Tyler Moore, Shirley Jones, Paul Lynde and Vincent Price.

The Golden Girls star has received an outpouring of love from friends and fans, as Melissa Joan Hart, Valerie Bertinelli, George Takei and more paid tribute to the legend on her milestone birthday.

The Golden Girls is available to stream on Stan in Australia

Birthday girl: The Golden Girls star has received an outpouring of love from friends and fans for her 99th
The Junta de Andalucias vice-president, Juan Marin, has announced that new coronavirus control measures will be announced on Friday "if the situation is not contained" during an interview on Canal Sur this Monday.

Marin said that after Friday's meeting of the regional governments committee of experts "the decisions that have to be made" will be taken to combat the third wave of the pandemic.

The vice-president of the Junta has once proposed home confinement "as the solution" to the current situation of the pandemic  a measure that the regional government has already requested from Madrid.

"We calculate that the downward curve will begin in the first half of February," he estimated.

But he said that the closure of certain activities could be ordered "depending on how the Covid is responding" once the committee of experts review the situation on Friday.

"The results of the latest measures will not be fully seen until after 14 or 21 days, but if the situation this week is not contained, there will be new measures on Friday," said Marin.

Curfew

Asked about the decision of Castilla y Leon to bring the curfew to 8pm, a measures that Andalucia has requested from the central government, the vice-president of the Junta showed his support for this "brave" measure, but has warned of that Andalucia is not going to impose it because "there are legal limits."

"There is a national decree in force until 9 May and the regions have limitations on their powers to move it, but we have formally requested it from the Government."

Tourism impact

Regarding the situation that the tourism sector is suffering, Marin said he still expects that in 2021 the region will welcome 22 million tourists, almost double the number in 2020 when it fell to 13 million compared to 32 million in 2019.
Russia is ready for a dialogue based of mutual respect with the U.S. new administration but doesnt expect a swift improvement in relations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

"We dont anticipate any dramatic improvement. We dont anticipate any improvement in principle because people are the same and they stick to their points of view. We dont anticipate any dramatic improvement in principle. We are open for a normal dialogue based of mutual respect," she said in an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel when asked about the prospects of bilateral relations after Democratic President Joe Biden takes office.

"The situation around the American elections, around what is going on there, has reflected everything - all the problems of the Western world," TASS cited her as saying.

According to Zakharova, Western nations are seeking to use pressure on Russia in a bid to conceal their internal contradictions. "Sanction under the pretext of alleged Novichoks, never-stopping pressure and allegations that our Nord Streams are not the right stream, <> and blacklists, and so on - all of that is a disguise, a myth, a chimera used to hide the crisis of their own system," the diplomat said.

Bidens inauguration is scheduled for January 20.
The Central Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has destroyed 2.3 tonnes of unwholesome products worth GH214,000.



The products include drugs, food, cosmetics, household chemical substances and mechanical devices.



Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Cape Coast, Mr John Odai-Tettey, the Regional Head of the Authority, said the move was part of measures to help protect the health and safety of consumers.



The items were seized through regular post-market surveillance (PMS) activities in warehouses, pharmacies, supermarkets and voluntary donation of expired products from June to December 2020.



Mr Odai-Tettey pledged the FDA's resolve to intensify its market surveillance and inspections to drastically reduce the illegal peddling or sale of unregulated items to safeguard the health of consumers.



He said education and sensitisation for stakeholders was on-going to encourage the operators to surrender their unwholesome products to the FDA for safe disposal.



The Regional FDA Boss entreated sales points, distributors, warehouse operators, among others to surrender the unwholesome products to the FDA for safe disposal as failure to do so could cause unnecessary harm to consumers and they could face prosecution.



He urged consumers to look out for expiry dates of products and their physical appearance to be sure they were not blotted, rusty, or heavily dented before buying them.



Consumers should also be wary of unscrupulous persons who might want to deface products by wrapping-off best before or expiry dates.



"It is not a problem if someone reduces the cost of the product but one needs to thoroughly examine it to make sure it is in English Language and product validity is intact," he advised.



Mr Odai-Tettey encouraged consumers to inform the FDA when they see expired or unwholesome products being displayed for sale.

Source: GNA









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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The action - likely the last against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump - is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, which it says is a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

The notices came amid a flurry of U.S. efforts against China in the final days of Trump's administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.

An Intel Corp spokesman had no immediate comment, and a Commerce Department spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.

In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday the Commerce Department had issued "intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license." Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was more than one revocation. One of the sources said eight licenses were yanked from four companies.

Japanese flash memory chip maker Kioxia Corp had at least one license revoked, two of the sources said. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corp, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The semiconductor association's email said the actions spanned a "broad range" of products in the semiconductor industry and asked companies whether they had received notices.

The email noted that companies had been waiting "many months" for licensing decisions, and with less than a week left in the administration, dealing with the denials was a challenge.

A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Companies that received the "intent to deny" notices have 20 days to respond, and the Commerce Department has 45 days to advise the companies of any change in a decision or it then becomes final. Companies would then have another 45 days to appeal.

The United States put Huawei on a Commerce Department "entity list" in May 2019, restricting suppliers from selling U.S. goods and technology to the company.

But some sales were allowed and others were denied while the United States ratcheted up the restrictions against the company, including expanding U.S. authority to require licenses for sales of semiconductors made abroad with American technology.

Before the latest action, some 150 licenses were pending for $120 billion worth of goods and technology, which had been held up because various U.S. agencies could not agree on whether they should be granted, a person familiar with the matter said.

Another $280 billion of licenses for goods and technology for Huawei still have not been dealt with, the source said, but now face a higher likelihood of denial.

An August rule said that products with 5G capabilities were likely to be denied, but sales of less sophisticated technology would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

The United States made the latest decisions during a half dozen meetings starting on Jan. 4 with senior officials from the departments of Commerce, State, Defense and Energy, the source said. The officials developed detailed guidance with regard to which technologies were capable of 5G, and then applied that standard, the person said.

By doing that, the officials denied the vast majority of the roughly 150 disputed applications, and revoked the eight licenses to make those consistent with the new denials, the source said.

The U.S. action came after pressure from a recent Trump appointee in the Commerce Department, Corey Stewart, who wanted to push through hard-line China policies after being hired for a two-month stint in the agency at the end of the administration.

The United States has targeted Huawei in other ways during the administration. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada in December 2018, on a U.S. warrant. Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, and the company itself were indicted for misleading banks about the company's business in Iran.

Meng has said she is innocent. Huawei has denied the claims of spying and has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, which also includes charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and conspiring to steal trade secrets from American technology companies.





This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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The UK variant of the coronavirus has claimed the lives of three residents at a retirement home in northwestern Belgium and infected 111 people including 39 staff members, its director Jurgen Duyck told AFP on Sunday.

The cluster represents two-thirds of the residents of the De Groene Verte home in the western Flanders city of Houthulst near the border with France.

Belgium has suffered one of the worst per capita death rates in the world during the epidemic with its nursing homes representing more than half of overall deaths from the disease, according to the Public Health Institute.

Mayor Joris Hindryckx said the outbreak prompted a halt to "all social and sporting activities" in the town of around 10,000 people.

The source of the contamination is unknown, but the mayor said the infection must have been "indirect" as none of those testing positive was known to have travelled to Britain.

Read | 116 people infected with UK strain of Covid-19 in India

He said those infected must quarantine for 10 days instead of the usual seven.

But an epidemiologist urged a "full lockdown" in Houthulst and called for all inhabitants to be tested.

Writing in the daily Le Soir, Yves Coppieters said: "We have the foundations of the third wave of contaminations."

Speaking to the Belgian TV station La Une, he noted: "If there is already a cluster of this intensity, there are sure to be others."

Without blanket testing, "we won't succeed against a variant that is a lot more contagious," he warned.

On Friday, the spokesman of the Belgian health authorities, Yves Van Laethem, said there were already several dozen cases of both the British and the South African strains of the coronavirus in the country, adding that "other strains could emerge".

He noted that the Pfizer vaccine, the one most widely used in Belgium, is effective against the two variant strains.

Also Read | Covid-19 vaccine drive: Jab and job go hand in hand for doctors

Residents of the Houthulst retirement home were set to be vaccinated against Covid-19 this week, but the programme was postponed because of the large number of Covid patients, Hindryckx said.

The elderly are the priority target in the vaccination campaign, which according to official figures had reached 17.26 percent of retirement home residents and staff by January 13 with the first dose of the vaccine, which is to be followed up by a second dose.

Belgian authorities said Saturday that a delay in delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses would not affect the vaccination of this segment of the population.

The country recorded 16.6 percent excess deaths last year attributed mainly to Covid-19.

Since the start of the pandemic, Belgium has recorded 677,209 cases and 20,396 deaths.
(Natural News) If the coronavirus pandemic has been the best thing to ever happen to Democrats then events in Washington on Wednesday have given their authoritarian tendencies an injection of steroids.

(Article by Chris Donaldson republished from TrendingPolitics.com)

The same people who have locked down the nation and endorsed the idea of sending armed police to break up Thanksgiving dinners are moving with lightning-fast speed to eliminate those who oppose their anti-American agenda by redefining dissent as terrorism.

The brief occupation of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and Antifa provocateurs has opened a box of horrors with the most fascistic policy proposals spilling out as Dems sense an opportunity to permanently put America under one-party rule.

From the minute that establishment puppet Joe Biden declared that those who stormed the Capitol were domestic terrorists and insurrectionists, the Rahm Emanuel principle of never letting a good crisis go to waste has been used with a flurry of oppressive and dangerous new laws set to be rolled out.

One of the point persons for the coming reign of terror to be waged against all who have supported President Trump is Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who once compared U.S. troops to Nazis.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin plans to reintroduce the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act in the wake of Wednesday's Capitol Hill attack. https://t.co/7ebgSY7Yt2  ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) January 8, 2021

Via Fox News Chicago, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin to reintroduce Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act:

In the wake of Wednesdays attack on the Capitol, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin plans to reintroduce the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. The bill was first introduced by Durbin and Brad Schneider of Illinois last fall. It passed in the House, but went nowhere in the Senate. Sen. Durbin is now hoping that will change. After the attack on the Capitol, I hope that congress can finally come together and do something to address this threat, said Sen. Durbin. Sen. Durbins Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act would establish government offices at the DOJ, FBI and Department of Homeland Security to prevent future attacks, like the one this week at the US Capitol. It would require these offices to regularly assess the domestic terrorism threat, said Sen. Durbin. Durbin was among those on the chamber floor when it came under attack Wednesday. Someone broke through the door in a suit, went up to the VP and literally dragged him out of his chair and off the podium. It was a secret service agent, said Sen. Durbin.

There are some who are comparing the incident at the Capitol to the 1933 Reichstag Fire when the real Nazis torched their own government building and blamed it on a mentally impaired communist in order to create the pretense that led to Hitlers seizure of sweeping powers  we all know how that turned out.

Another Democrat who is making it clear that the Biden regime will be declaring war on Trump supporters is CIA asset turned congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

The post 9/11 era is over. The single greatest national security threat right now is our internal division. The threat of domestic terrorism. The polarization that threatens our democracy. If we don't reconnect our two Americas, the threats will not have to come from the outside. pic.twitter.com/ADgGcf7qEo  Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) January 8, 2021

According to Slotkin:

The post 9/11 era is over. The single greatest national security threat right now is our internal division. The threat of domestic terrorism. The polarization that threatens our democracy. If we dont reconnect our two Americas, the threats will not have to come from the outside.

In other words, its now open season on Trump supporters in what will be a brutal campaign carried out by the enemies of democracy.

Rest assured that the same rules will never be applied to the Democrat shock troops in Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA who waged a months-long spree of domestic terrorism over the summer.

Read more at: TrendingPolitics.com
Vice President on Monday suggested all corporates to encourage whistle-blowing mechanism and provide adequate safeguards for the protection of whistle-blowers.

"I would like to suggest all corporates to consciously encourage whistle-blowing mechanism and provide adequate safeguards for the protection of the whistle- blowers," he said.

Naidu, who was delivering the Convocation address at the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), stressed on upholding the principles of transparency, integrity and honesty at all times and reflecting them in every business activity.

The modern day company secretary is a true guide of the corporates, protecting the interests of all stakeholders, and more importantly, ensuring adherence to the laws of the land in letter and spirit, he said.

"This profession should be taken as a mission," he said.

Public money, the money the company takes from the bank and the shareholders or even the partners should be protected and their interests need to be served, he said.

"Because of the actions of a few blacksheep, business got bad name.Some people try to cheat the banks, cheat the system and then they run away from the country."



Why such situation has come? Why it was allowed to come to such a stage...I am not talking politics, this government, that government.System was there.So, we must have foolproof system. We must have accountability," he said.

India has fared reasonably better than many other nations, including the developed countries, in the fight against COVID-19 and taking steps to revive its economy, he said.

After gradually relaxing the lockdown, the focus must now be on reviving the livelihood of the people, Naidu said.

Pointing out that the IMF has recently appreciated the country's efforts, the vice president said IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva stated India took decisive steps to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences.

While the economy is expected to rebound in the coming months, it is important to sustain the momentum, he said.

"Hence, there has to be a concerted effort by all the stakeholders in making the economy robust again and I urge India inc.to take the lead in this regard," he said.

Institutions like the ICSI would be playing a key role in putting the economy back on the rails with a focus on good corporate governance, the vice president added.

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

With the search for new antibiotics becoming increasingly urgent, artificial intelligence offers valuable help. Smart software developed by Leiden Ph.D. candidate Alexander Kloosterman searched genomes of bacteria and found clusters of DNA that code for proteins that have an antibiotic effect. "This new search method is enormously promising."

The discovery was published on 12 January in PLOS Biology. Professor of Molecular Biotechnology Gilles van Wezel from the Leiden Institute of Biology (IBL) initiated the research together with visiting professor Marnix Medema. "We knew it must be possible to find new antibiotics if we searched the genome of bacteria in a completely different way."

Classical search exhausted

The classical search for antibiotics, which are used to fight bacterial illnesses, involves cultures of bacteria or moulds that may make antibiotics. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic by chance as a result of contamination in a petri dish. That was penicillin, produced by a fungus. Since then, researchers have been making cultures of other micro-organisms and seeing whether they make molecules that could inhibit other bacteria.

Today, more and more types of bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. This means we need new antibiotics, but the classical search method using cultures has been exhausted. In the lab, bacteria do not produce all the antibiotics that are part of their genetic make-up.

Criteria for antibiotic code

Van Wezel: "To find the piece of code in DNA that can be used to make a possible antibiotic, there are a number of things you need to look at. All the genes that code for antibiotics are found close together in a cluster. There has to be a gene there that dictates that the molecule to be made leaves the bacterium cell: the bacterium always excretes the antibiotic. The DNA shouldn't be present in all bacteria. The making of antibiotics is a specialist function and it is limited to only some of the bacteria. We adopted the criterion that it had to be present in 10 to 30 percent of the types we examined."

Van Wezel knew what he wanted to look for, but he didn't know how to approach it technically. "So I worked with Marnix Medema, a bio-informatics specialist at Wageningen University. He is able to create software that can search bacteria DNA."

Medema says, "This joint project was my first collaboration with Leiden University." It is a collaboration that is set to continue, with Medema as the holder of the Van der Klauw guest chair at IBL since May 2020.

Fleming's namesake, a century later

Taking up the ideas of Van Wezel and Medema, Ph.D. candidate Alexander Kloosterman, who by chance shares his Christian name with the discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, set to work. Almost a century after his illustrious predecessor's discovery, Kloosterman, under the supervision of Medema, developed software that could search based on criteria he and Van Wezel specified. The software identified 42 new types of clusters of genes in the DNA code that met the necessary conditions. These genes could possibly code for 'precursors' that will later become proteins with antibiotic effects.

Pristinine: basis for new medicines?

Van Wezel says, "One of these 42 clusters was the best match for all our conditions and also occurred in a type of bacterium that we could easily work on in our lab." The researchers were successful in getting this bacterium to produce a small amount of pristinine, the substance that is produced with the gene cluster identified by the software."

Pristinine is one of a new subclass of the so-called lanthipeptides that many antibiotics belong to. The best-known is nisine, which is commonly used as a preservation agent in such foodstuffs as cheese. The machinery in the cell that produces pristinine is very different from that of nisine, which is why conventional software did not recognise the DNA encoding for it as potentially interesting. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it now does.

The potential uses of pristinine have yet to be determined. The other 41 gene clusters that the new software identified are also interesting subjects for further research. Van Wezel: "Our work is open science; it's all online, so every research group can use it." The project is funded by the Chemistry Top Sector. Van Wezel coordinates the Syngenopep project within this group, which aims to find new protein antibiotics. Van Wezel: "This new search method offers a huge array of possibilities for systematically identifying new antibiotics."

Explore further New antibiotic named after Leiden

More information: Alexander M. Kloosterman et al. Expansion of RiPP biosynthetic space through integration of pan-genomics and machine learning uncovers a novel class of lanthipeptides, PLOS Biology (2020). Journal information: PLoS Biology Alexander M. Kloosterman et al. Expansion of RiPP biosynthetic space through integration of pan-genomics and machine learning uncovers a novel class of lanthipeptides,(2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001026
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- City officials showed their support for the Cleveland Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which has opened a new facility for federal investigators, police, and state and federal prosecutors to share resources and create a combined effort to investigate crime.

The facilitys ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Jan. 6. Mayor Greg Kurtz and Police Chief Michael Kilbane were in attendance, as Independence is the fiduciary partner for the strike force.

According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, the task force brings together local police agencies, federal agents and prosecutors to work collaboratively on investigations into major criminal organizations and their subsidiaries trafficking narcotics, weapons, humans and the proceeds of those crimes.

Kilbane explained that the facility was funded by the Department of Justice through a federal drug-control grant. The facility itself will be used for investigating, processing evidence and gathering electronic evidence using computers and analyzing tools.

It is the home base for the task forces, he said.

Located at the Jennings Industrial Park in Cleveland, the facility, according to Kilbane, is in the most central location in Cuyahoga County.

The facility is state-of-the-art and was built from the ground up to house the strike force, he said.

All contributing agencies will combine their resources within the new building, including the Cleveland Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Independence police officers, among others.

The driving forces behind the creation of this partnership were former U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman, Special FBI Agent Eric Smith and Special DEA Agent Keith Martin.

Smith was quoted in the Department of Justice press release saying, The need for such a capability comes as a response to a persistent and growing crime rate, but it also serves as a bulwark and a predictive unit to address the new threats we see ahead.

This Strike Force represents the best of our combined efforts -- law enforcement resources working violence, drugs, gangs, carjackings and armed robberies together -- under one roof.

Independence has been the fiduciary partner for the OCDETF since 2019. The task force is a federal agency branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.

City Finance Director Vern Blaze said the force is granted an annual budget from Congress and can only send money to state and local agencies in order for them to combat organized crime.

The Independence Finance Departments role as a fiduciary partner is to have OCDETF Strike Force revenue and expenses run through a Strike Force Fund that the City of Independence maintains. For this fiduciary, facilitator role, Independence receives compensation in return, Blaze said.

Kilbane said the city has already been acting as the fiduciary partner for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) since 2017. He said the success of this relationship led Herdman to ask the city to be the fiduciary partner for OCDETF as well.

Kilbane said the benefits of having this new facility include sharing regional intelligence assets beyond Independences capabilities and having an overall regional approach to attacking crime, thus producing a more timely response.

He hopes that the success with the HIDTA program will be replicated with this strike force to come down hard on crime.

As crime gets more violent, this will go a long way in addressing those problems, he said.

Read more from the Parma Sun Post.
Xtract Resources PLC - miner with projects in Mozambique and Zambia - Says drilling of the first of three holes on the phase one drilling programme at the Racecourse mineral resource on the Bushranger copper-gold exploration project in Australia has now progressed to a depth of 975 metres.

Says it noted copper mineralisation in the hole at 110 metres and the hole has been mineralised continuously to the current depth of 975 metres, around 160 metres past the original planned finishing depth.

"The hole continues to be strongly mineralised well past the planned hole depth, which is very encouraging for the scale of the porphyry system at Racecourse. We will continue to drill until we bottom out of the zone," says Executive Chair Colin Bird.

Current stock price: 7.30 pence; up 83% on Monday

Year-to-date change: up sharply from 1.78p

By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Health care workers use a continuous positive airway pressure machine on a COVID-19 patient who was having difficulties breathing, in a COVID-19 holding pod at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2021. (Ariana Drehsler/AFP via Getty Images)

Orange County Reports 47 New COVID-19 Deaths

SANTA ANA (CNS)Orange County reported 1,448 new cases of COVID-19 and 47 additional deaths on Jan. 17, bringing the countys totals to 210,813 cases and 2,367 fatalities.

Hospitalization rates continued to dip, dropping to 2,026 Jan. 17down from 2,065 on Jan. 16, 2,101 Jan. 15 and 2,169 Jan. 14, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency (HCA). The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care decreased by four to 538, a slight reduction from Jan. 10s record of 547.

Of the 47 deaths reported Jan. 17, six were residents of skilled nursing facilities, and eight were residents of assisted living facilities. Since the start of the pandemic, the virus has killed 730 skilled nursing facility residents and 259 assisted living facility residents.

The death reports are staggered and sometimes take weeks to be logged, but December was the deadliest month for the county since the pandemic began, with 538 fatalities recorded so far from that month. That tops the summer peak, when 379 died in July and 367 in August, according to HCA statistics.

The Orange County Sheriffs Coroners Department has had to provide trailers with freezers to store an average of about 100 bodies until funeral homes can catch up and take them, Orange County chief executive Frank Kim said.

The countys state-adjusted intensive care unit (ICU) bed availability remains at zero, and the unadjusted figure decreased from 7.8 percent Jan. 17 to 5.5 percent. The state created the adjusted metric to reflect the difference in beds available for COVID-19 patients and non-coronavirus patients. The county has 36 percent of its ventilators available.

The Southern California region remains at zero percent ICU availability.

The 25,761 positive tests reported Jan. 17 raise the cumulative total to 2,430,704. There have been 136,506 documented recoveries.

Orange Countys adjusted daily case rate per 100,000released on Tuesdaysincreased to 78.8 from 67.8 last week.

The countys Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate, which measures the cases in highly affected, needier parts of the county, rose to 24.2 percent from 23.4 percent last week.

The countys seven-day positivity rate is 19.5 percent. Testing demand is also slowing, while the demand for vaccinations is soaring. Officials dont expect a significant drop in hospitalization rates until at least the end of January, Kim said.

The countys Othena app and website, where residents can get vaccination information and make appointments to get inoculated at the Disneyland mega-site that opened Jan. 13, have been heavily used since going online Jan. 12. Downloads of the app plus website hits topped 100 million combined this week, Kim said.

On Jan. 15, some of the residents being inoculated at Disneyland were given a ticket so staff could track how long it took them to get through the process. What was taking an hour or two on Jan. 13 was down to 42 minutes on Jan. 15, Kim said.

I was really happy we got it under an hour, he said. That means we can start increasing capacity.

The county will hire about 120 temporary workers to help with staffing, Kim said. Another team is working on recruiting and screening volunteers.

Officials are also working out the bugs on the app, adding that a new version awaiting Apples approval is expected to address the most common concerns and issues.

We think the majority of the issues are behind us now, Kim said.

Dr. Clayton Chau, the countys chief health officer and HCA director, said seniors 65 and older were moved to the front of the line for vaccines this week, immediately following the states modified guidelines. He noted that a survey showed 54 percent of the COVID-19 patients hospitalized in 13 Orange County hospitals are 61 and older, and 71 percent in ICU are 61 and older. Nearly 72 percent of those on a ventilator are 61 and older.

The county is expecting 35,000 more doses of vaccine next week, Chau said, and is handling distribution of about 20 percent of the doses sent from the state, with health care providers doling out the rest.

Sheriffs officials reported a decline in the number of Orange County Jail inmates testing positive for COVID-19 from 254 on Jan. 14 to 181 on Jan. 15.

Authorities are awaiting results from 428 tests, and three inmates are hospitalized, down from five on Jan. 12.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu, national general secretary Nara Lokesh and a host of other leaders commemorated the 25th death anniversary of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR on Monday.

Naidu paid tributes to the legendary actor at NTR Ghat near the Tank Bund and by the Necklace Road in Hyderabad on Monday morning.

The TDP supremo was also joined by Telangana TDP president L. Ramana and several other leaders.

"NTR gave a new definition to politics, filling light in crores of lives. NTR enabled the poor and downtrodden communities to share political power. He gave food security, ensured shelter and gave clothing with his welfare," said Naidu, as he paid his tributes to the legendary Telugu personality who hailed from Nimmakuru village in Krishna district near Gudivada town.

He said Rao proclaimed Telugu self-respect and glory to the entire world and highlighted that it has been 25 years since NTR left.

After paying respects to the former CM in Hyderabad, Naidu reached NTR Bhavan in Amaravati to pay tributes in Andhra Pradesh.

As Naidu alighted from his vehicle, TDP leaders and cadre chanted 'Jai Babu Jai Jai Babu'

"Wherever Telugus are, today is a day to feel proud about. NTR fought for the self-respect of Telugus. It has been 25 years. Even though it has been 25 years, NTR will live in the hearts of Telugus forever," said Naidu in Amaravati.

He was accompanied by party senior leaders Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and TDP AP president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu among others.

NTR passed away on January 18th, 1996. In less than one year of establishing the regional party, TDP, in 1982, NTR swept the elections to rise to power in 1983.
Today OnePlus has commenced the rollout of OxygenOS 10.5.9 for the Nord N10 5G. The new software update is still based on Android 10, as you can glean from the naming. That unfortunate reality aside, this is the first OnePlus device to be graced with the January 2021 security patch - the Nord N10 got it before its more expensive siblings, which is worth celebrating we guess.

The update arrives in the EU as build 10.5.9.BE89BA and in North America as 10.5.9.BE86AA. Aside from the security fixes, you're also getting optimized power consumption and "further improved network stability".

As always with OnePlus releases, the over-the-air rollout will be incremental. That means it's going out today to a small percentage of devices, with a broader distribution to follow in a few days if nothing goes terribly wrong.

Source
Portland parents agree: Distance learning doesnt hold a candle to the traditional classroom experience. But many are split on how quickly schools should reopen.

I want my kids back in school desperately, said Rashelle Chase, a Portland parent who opposes a wide-scale reopening. Its been pandemonium.

A group of families calling for districts to offer in-person instruction has steadily drawn more adherents since November and staged various demonstrations in support of the cause.

But though theres consensus among families on the shortcomings brick-and-mortar schools have shown after pivoting to a virtual curriculum, parents across the city disagree on when and how schools should bring kids back.

Gov. Kate Brown will announce new state rules Tuesday that are expected to allow Oregon schools to allow thousands of children into school buildings.

The state could lower both the infection levels it recommends counties reach before opening schools and the safety restrictions under which schools must operate during the pandemic.

Portland Public Schools recently announced a narrow segment of its youngest students may return to classrooms Jan. 25 under the current guidelines. But officials say they feel hamstrung by state rules requiring classrooms be configured to allow 35 square feet of unshared space for each student and teacher and limiting the number of people students come into contact with per week.

Chief of Systems Performance Russell Brown told the school board last week that means the average Portland elementary classroom can accommodate just 12 people.

School board meetings for months have kicked off with parents and students relaying their experiences, many of them calling for the district to find ways to offer in-person instruction as widely as possible.

Conversations often pivot to the disproportionate impacts COVID-19 has had on families of color. But board members note they rarely hear from those impacted communities directly  its often white parents purportedly speaking on their behalf.

Marcus Mundy, executive director of the Coalition of Communities of Color, said the collective hasnt mounted a survey of its member organizations to gauge how Black, Indigenous and other people of color writ large feel about the districts reopening plans.

He has observed one thing, however.

Were not all in consensus, Mundy told the school board.

Rashelle Chase, right, and her son Leo, 8, began meeting with his teacher at Kairos in early August as he started the 2020-21 school year weeks ahead of other Portland students. His routine of digital lessons and weekly check-ins via Zoom is typical of what most Portland Public Schools families can expect in the coming months.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff

Chase, an early childhood educator whose son Leo is a second-grader at Portland charter school Kairos, said its unlikely shell feel safe having Leo return to a classroom this academic year.

She recently penned a column for the blog Scary Mommy on the ways reopening debates fail to consider the perspectives of Black, Indigenous and other people of color and told The Oregonian/OregonLive that families with strong multigenerational ties like her own are rarely represented in those talks.

Chases parents are a constant presence in her childrens lives, offering child care and visiting regularly. When a parent at her daughters day care tested positive for coronavirus, the family self-isolated for two weeks.

We support each other. We depend on each other. We dont live in the same household but we live as a unit, Chase said. Leos father died when the boy was young.

Its been proven that children Leos age dont spread coronavirus as widely as those older than 10. A pair of national studies suggest that reopening schools does not increase the spread of virus in communities where COVID-19 case rates are low, defined as below about 40 new hospitalizations per week.

But they also suggested that when new cases are high, reopening schools may lead to spread. Even the newer, more contagious variant Oregon Health Authority officials announced has recently appeared in one patient in the state, doesnt behave much differently across age groups, The New York Times reports.

Chase said the risk, however small, is what keeps her from supporting a wide-scale reopening.

And Chase has thought a lot about other multigenerational families and educators who are either older or whose underlying conditions put them at high risk of serious complications if they become infected.

If I can protect other families from having to have these conversations with their children and navigating the experience of loss and tragedy, Ill try to prevent that, Chase said. Its a game of Russian Roulette and Im not willing to play it.

Still, pediatricians and other medical professionals have said the benefits of allowing young students to return to classrooms outweigh the risks of keeping them home.

Children absolutely need to return to in-school learning for their healthy development and well-being, and so safety in schools and in the community must be a priority, Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Association of Pediatricians, said.

Earlier this month, the organization urged education officials across the country to find ways to offer in-person instruction, echoing similar calls it made last year. Some Portland doctors have also reported a spike in the number of children struggling with mental health issues as a side effect of the pandemic.

Rene Gonzalez, a Portland-based attorney and co-leader of a group of families pushing for schools to offer in-person instruction, said hes heard from parents whose children are similarly struggling.

He pulled his two daughters out of public school and enrolled them at De La Salle High. His third-grade son is still enrolled in the Portland district.

Dozens of parents and students rallied at Revolution Hall in Southeast Portland on Dec. 6, pushing for Gov. Kate Brown to order the state's public schools to offer in-person education for families and educators who feel safe returning to classrooms amid the coronavirus.

The girls are freshmen and Gonzalez said its unlikely theyll ever return to public schools.

The question is do we bite the bullet and put the third one in private school at this point? he said.

Portland Public Schools officials wont say which 16 of the 58 elementary and K-8 schools in the district will host its limited in-person offerings, only that theyll begin with campuses that offer child care, have a high rate of poverty or are on the states list of underperforming schools.

That makes it highly unlikely that Gonzalezs son will see the inside of a classroom at the end of the month. Gonzalez also isnt expecting the governors announcement to change much for his family, either.

I cant find any expert who says were going to meet new metrics, Gonzalez said. Theres no real light at the end of the tunnel.

He and other parents in the pro-opening group he co-leads were on board when the governor announced what was supposed to be a two-week closure. But Gonzalez contends that state and local education officials should have known COVID would have a long tail.

Lake Oswego was among the first districts to shutter at the behest of the school board last March. The lone dissenter, Kirsten Aird, voted so saying that closing schools should be a last resort and that reopening would prove a heavy lift.

Gonzalez points to Airds testimony and countries like Germany and France, where officials imposed restrictions on businesses before shuttering schools. He said officials in Oregon should have drafted short-, medium- and long-term plans for the states schools.

It was never a short-term thing, Gonzalez said. It was always going to have a two-year shadow. When you look at it that way, it influences your decision-making.

That lack of planning makes Gonzalez and his wife consider relocating. Hes thought about San Francisco and Seattle, possibly Bend, where schools officials have signaled a willingness to reopen.

Gonzalezs business isnt rooted in Portland and he knows hes in a position of privilege. As for the parents who dont have those means in the group Gonzalez co-leads?

They feel completely trapped, he said. Nobodys giving them hope.

Families who support reopening Oregon schools say students are missing out on seminal childhood moments and that district officials should consider the mental health effects the pandemic is taking on kids as well as the risk of infection.

The loss of a structured school day has left Gonzalez and other parents scrambling to fill certain voids such as the ones left open by the loss of after-school sports. Parents have also had to take a more active role as tutors and part-time teachers.

But both Gonzalez and Chase, the mother of third-grader Leo, say that experience has brought them closer to their children. Theyve observed how their kids learn and feel better equipped to guide them through lessons.

Chase said shes also taught Leo about social justice as mass protests against systemic racism unfolded in Portland and across the country.

We have these important conversations about what it is to care about our community, she said. We talk about our houseless neighbors and why some people dont have a house.

And like Gonzalez, Chase doesnt want public education to look like it did in the pre-pandemic days. Theyve seen the disparities.

Beaverton school officials, for instance, reported that one in three Latino students failed more than one class in the first quarter. About 24% of Black students did as well while 12% of white students failed more than one class.

In Portland Public Schools, about one in five students failed at least one class during the same time or did not complete enough coursework to earn a grade. Among Black and Latino students, those rates were closer to 40%.

Still, officials in most districts say theyre worried less about academics and more about the mental health effects students have suffered. Gonzalez and Chase agree.

Were living through a collective, chronic trauma  a few of them, actually, Chase said. This is a once-in-a-century perfect storm of global health, pandemic, social upheaval.

--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook

Eder is The Oregonians education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com.
Amidst uncertainty over resumption of the suspended COVID-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the exercise will begin on Tuesday at 285 centres. The CM took stock of the preparations for the drive at a meeting held with state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar, CM's principal advisor Ajoy Mehta, principal secretary to public health minister Dr Pradeep Vyas and other officials.

"The vaccination will take place four days a week starting Tuesday (January 19). Vaccination will be conducted on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 285 centres in Maharashtra. 100 beneficiaries will be inoculated per centre in one day," the CM said. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday evening that the state government will "review the situation" before restarting the vaccination drive from Tuesday in view of several complaints of minor adverse reactions as well as glitches in using the Co-WIN application.

The Maharashtra government on Saturday evening announced suspension of the COVID-19 vaccination drive till Monday owing to problems in the software application. Thackeray said immunity against coronavirus is developed in 14 days after taking two shots.

"Even after that people will have to abide by the strict guidelines to avoid spread of coronavirus," the CM said. At the meeting, the CM also assured officials that their inputs on making the Co-WIN software application easily accessible will be communicated to the Centre.

Tope had said the state government was waiting for the Centre's response on its request to use the offline method due to the problems being encountered with Co-WIN. "At several places where vaccination was held on January 16, we have received complaints from health workers.

Though none of the complaints is of a serious nature, we have decided to review the situation first and then resume the vaccination (drive)," he told reporters. As per Union health ministry data, Maharashtra administered 18,328 vaccines of day one of the drive, which state officials said was some 64 per cent of the registered beneficiaries.
Now robots would deliver medicines and essential services to Covid-19 patients at a hospital in Assam, officials said here on Sunday. The robots designed by the Guwahati-based Yantrabot Technologies Pvt Limited with remote controllable robotic vehicles would deliver food, medicines and other essential services to Covid-19 patients as well as patients with other extremely contagious diseases inside the isolation chambers of the quarantine facilities.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday handed over two robots to the Principal of Dibrugarh-based Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH), Sanjib Kakati, to use them for delivering food, medicines and essential services to Covid patients.

An official release said it is part of the Covid-19 infrastructure equipment grant sponsored by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, Rotary Club of Dibrugarh and Bangladeshs Rotary Club of Dhaka Royal under the support of Global Grant". Sonowal thanked co-founder Arunjyoti Borgohain of Yantrabot Technologies Pvt Limited for designing the robot. The Chief Minister said the two robots would have a huge role in rendering care to patients in the hospitals.

Meanwhile, in a first-of-its-kind in northeast India, a robot developed by young scientist Harjeet Nath from Tripura University was deployed in a government Covid Care Centre in May 2020 to deal with Covid patients.

Nath has made the robot from locally available material, including scrap. He has named it as WARBOT to fight the war against the Covid-19 pandemic. Naths aim was to assist the frontline health workers, including doctors, in taking care of the coronavirus patients from a distant place. The young scientist in July 2020 donated the robot to the Tripura Medical College and Dr B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Teaching Hospital.

The medical college had used the robot at the 250-bed Covid Care Centre in Hapania, on the outskirts of the capital city Agartala. Tripura Medical College Professor and in-charge of the Hapania Covid Care Centre, Shib Sekhar Datta, said the robot was useful to some extent.

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here
Billionaire rag trader Solomon Lew has declared it is "business as usual" at his $3.9 billion fashion retailer despite the unexpected departure of chief executive Mark McInnes.

Premier, which runs Smiggle, Peter Alexander and Just Jeans, told investors on Monday morning that Mr McInnes had advised he planned to step down from his role. He must serve a compulsory notice period of one year and will have been in the job for a decade by the time he exits.

Mark McInnes will serve a 12-month notice period and the company has the option to restrict him from retail roles for two years. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Premier chairman Solomon Lew said Mr McInnes had decided to leave his post due to his "desire to commit more time to his family than the demands of the role allow".

"At this time, it is business as usual. The board has commenced a process to ensure an orderly transition, including a comprehensive search."


The youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bombing may have survived if she had been given better first aid, according to reports.

Eight-year-old Saffie Roussos was one of 22 people who died when terrorist Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a bomb after an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 2017.

Saffie Roussos was the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena terror attack (Manchester Arena Inquiry/PA)

An expert report commissioned by lawyers for the Roussos family found she lived for more than an hour after the blast and that opportunities to help her were missed, the BBC reported.

According to the report, Saffie, from Leyland, Lancashire, asked a paramedic Am I going to die? as she was being taken to hospital, and died from losing blood from her legs, but no tourniquets or splints were applied to reduce the bleeding.

Her father, Andrew Roussos, told the BBC: How do we carry on living with this information? How can we carry on breathing with this information?

A public inquiry into the bombing is due to resume on Monday following a break over the Christmas period.

The inquiry has heard that Saffie, who went to the concert with her mother, Lisa Roussos, and sister, Ashlee Bromwich, was four metres from the explosion and police and members of the public, including an off-duty nurse, tried to help her.

The 22 victims of the terror attack (top row L to R) Off-duty police officer Elaine McIver, 43, Saffie Roussos, 8, Sorrell Leczkowski, 14, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, (2nd row L to R) Nell Jones, 14, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, Megan Hurley, 15, Georgina Callander

The hearing, chaired by Sir John Saunders, started in September.

Sir John is due to issue a number of reports later in the year, including on the security arrangements at the Arena, the emergency response to the attack, and the experience of each of those who died, as well as on radicalisation and preventability.
MONTREAL - The Boeing 737 MAX can return to Canadian airspace beginning Wednesday, Transport Canada says, concluding nearly two years of government review after the aircraft was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide.

An Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is shown next to a gate at Trudeau Airport in Montreal on March 13, 2019. Transport Canada has announced that it will allow the return of Boeing Max aircraft to service in Canadian airspace on Jan. 20, concluding the government's review process.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - The Boeing 737 MAX can return to Canadian airspace beginning Wednesday, Transport Canada says, concluding nearly two years of government review after the aircraft was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide.

The planes will be permitted to fly as long as they meet conditions specified by Transport Canada in December, including allowing pilots to disable a faulty warning system that was found to be central to two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

"Canadians and the airline industry can rest assured that Transport Canada has diligently addressed all safety issues prior to permitting this aircraft to return to service in Canadian airspace," Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.

The measures go beyond those announced by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in November, which required Boeing to make changes to the computer systems inside the plane and required pilots to undergo training in flight simulators.

The announcement Monday caps a recertification process without precedent in the history of modern aviation.

The planes have been grounded since March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 people. Investigators determined that the cause of the crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the planes nose downward in flight and couldnt be overridden by pilots.

Canada had been one of the last countries to ground the MAX, banning it only after the European Union, U.K. and Australia had already done so.

An inquiry by the U.S. Congress found that missteps at Boeing and the FAA led to the computer malfunction going undetected. The investigation found shortcomings within both Boeing, which it said compromised safety to maximize profits, and the FAA, which it said exercised inadequate oversight over the aircrafts approval.

Other planes have been grounded after crashes, but flight suspensions have never lasted as long as for the MAX, which was being independently recertified by aviation authorities such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Prior to the MAX crashes, civil aviation authorities had typically gone along with the approvals of other countries, with limited independent oversight into the safety of the aircraft. But the scrutiny of the MAX, including the role of the U.S. regulator, could usher in an era of more intensive reviews by regulators looking to avoid repeating their mistakes.

"Regulators such as Transport Canada have learned that they have to be much more careful, much more cautious and much less trusting," said Joel Morin, an aviation consultant for To70.

The U.S. approved the MAX's return to service in November, and the first commercial flights in the U.S. took off in December. European regulators have said they could formally approve the aircraft for flight as soon as this month.

The Chinese government, which was the first to ground the MAX after the crashes, said in November that it had no set timetable for approving the jet, citing lingering safety concerns.

"The industry has full confidence in the aircraft as it returns to service," said Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada. "This is the most thoroughly reviewed aircraft in the history of commercial aviation, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to fly on the 737 MAX in the near future."

WestJet spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said the carrier's MAX aircraft have been updated with the required modifications, which have been approved by Transport Canada. She added that all pilot training will be completed prior to flight and that each aircraft will be flown on a validation flight before returning to service.

Air Canada and Sunwing, which also operate the MAX, didn't immediately comment on their plans for returning the aircraft to service.

The president of the Canadian arm of the Air Line Pilots Association said that while his group believes that engineering and systems modifications to the MAX are "sound and effective," the details of Transport Canada's announcement weren't provided in advance and the association wants time to examine them.

Tim Perry noted, however, that the association has been receiving detailed briefings on the validation and proposed training requirements along the way. He also said the return-to-service guidelines illustrate the need for pilots to be involved in certifying any new or derivative planes.

The aircrafts approval in Canada will help struggling airlines, which rely on the smaller, fuel-efficient MAX for long flights. But Canadas carriers now face a new challenge: convincing consumers to actually fly on the aircraft, a task made even more daunting by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surveys have shown that people are still skittish about the MAX. A survey of 1,757 flyers conducted by Barclays in May found that 21 per cent would never fly on a MAX and 23 per cent planned to wait a year or more before doing so.

Restoring public confidence in the MAX will be key as airlines look to capitalize on an anticipated recovery in demand this summer, when a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to become available for many Canadians. Air Canada, the countrys largest carrier, has 24 MAX aircraft in its fleet, while WestJet and Sunwing have 13 and four, respectively.

"That airplane is going to have to prove itself once again to the marketplace," said John Gradek, a lecturer at McGill University and the head of its Global Aviation Leadership Program. "Theres going to have to be a very concerted effort on the part of the aviation industry, both Boeing as well as the operators, to try to get people to feel confident that its OK to fly on the 737 MAX."

That effort could involve testimonials from passengers or flights that demonstrate the capabilities of the MAX, showing the improvements that have been made to the plane, Gradek said. In the U.S., the battle to sway public opinion has already begun, with American Airlines conducting a public flight on Dec. 2 with members of the media aboard.

American Airlines also said in December that it has begun announcing aircraft types during boarding so that passengers are aware if they are flying on a MAX, and will alert passengers if they are set to fly on one due to a schedule change.

Morin said transparency from airlines, regulators and Boeing will be key to rebuilding consumer confidence in the aircraft, which would involve communicating what originally went wrong with the MAX and what steps the industry had taken to ensure it wont happen again.

Morin added that the efforts to restore trust in the MAX will be part of a broader effort by the aviation industry to show that flying is safe, even with fear of catching COVID making people reluctant to board aircraft.

The industry "wont be able to go back, flip a switch and time travel us back a year," Morin said. "Itll have to be a hand-holding exercise."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC)
Two family members of health staff at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin have received Covid-19 vaccines, it was confirmed today.

It followed news that 16 family members of staff in the Coombe maternity hospital also were given the vaccine earlier this month.

The two family members are believed to be in a vulnerable group.

In a statement today the the Rotunda said it received its first batch of 93 vials of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from the HSE on Wednesday, January 6, for the purpose of administration to its staff.

Read More

The vaccine was licensed and approved for administration to staff of six doses from each vial.

The Rotunda confirms that every one of these six doses were administered to staff working at the Rotunda.

At the end of the first day of administration of the vaccine, the Rotundas dedicated vaccine administration team noted a small amount of vaccine remnants in a number of vials that had been re-constituted, following administration of the approved number of six doses per vial. In other words, there was excess vaccine in some vials

"These remnants would have expired within a number of hours, if not used and would have been discarded.

"Rather than wasting any vaccine whatsoever, and following immediate discussion with leadership at the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC), the Rotunda requested expressions of interest from the local community, who could attend the hospital within an hour, prior to expiry of these vaccines and who would be willing to accept these unapproved vaccine remnants."

A spokeswoman said that 37 people including local GPs and members of other vulnerable groups, agreed to attend and to avail of the non-approved vaccine remnants.

The Rotunda is of the view, and is supported by NIAC, that this was the morally correct thing to do and a wholly appropriate response in the setting of a pandemic, such that no vaccine was wasted and the maximum good was achieved, said the hospital.

It must be noted that even if Rotunda staff could attend at short notice to receive the vaccine remnants, the hospital was not approved to administer it to them.

"Equally, the 37 non-Rotunda personnel who received the vaccines did so in the full knowledge they were receiving a non-approved vaccine remnant.

Meanwhile Minister Simon Harris has raised concern about the lack of clear protocols around spare vaccines.

He said he was concerned that 16 vaccines were given to family members of staff of the Coombe Hospital.

Speaking at Government Buildings, the Minister for Further Education said he would be very concerned if there is not a protocol in place for what should be done with leftover vaccine doses.

The idea that we had spare vaccines, albeit we had just 16 in this case, is a concept that I find hard to understand, because of course there isnt spare vaccines, he said.

Either this is a situation in place where there is a protocol about what you do with so-called spare vaccines and that wasnt followed, or more concerning if there isnt a protocol in place.

At tonight's briefing from the National Public Health Emergency Team, it was revealed that protocols for leftover vaccines were issued on January 12  family members of staff the Coombe received surplus vaccines.

The protocol for leftover doses of the vaccine is that names and contact details of 120 healthcare workers should be kept on standby, according to Dr Vida Hamilton, the national clinical advisor and group lead at the HSE.

Should there be additional doses left over or for some unanticipated reason, somebody scheduled was unable to attend, that they would have a list of personnel that they can pull in at short notice to receive those excess doses, she said.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said that spare vaccines should be used for those with the highest priority.

People in leadership positions across the health system recognise their particular responsibilities in not only following but being seen to uphold the highest standards in terms of supporting the distribution of the vaccine to the highest priority groups, he said.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was to speak to the Coombe today.

Master of the maternity hospital, Professor Michael OConnell, last night apologised for giving vaccines to family members of staff.

According to the hospital, the decision was taken so that no vaccine would go to waste, after workers and those it has been tasked with administering the first dose had got it.

The hospital would not give details about the family members who got the vaccine other than to say there were 16 of them  nine were over the age of 70 and seven were of varying age.

Mr Harris said that he was very concerned to hear that spare vaccines had been given to family members and that there is very clear prioritisation to who should get the vaccine.

Nobody in their right mind is suggesting that vaccines should be thrown in the bin, he said.

What there should be and that there is very clear clinical prioritisation in my understanding who gets the vaccine.

Its very clear that people who are getting vaccines right now should be the people who are working on the frontline, healthcare staff and people in nursing homes. And Im concerned that today in Ireland there are some frontline healthcare workers who havent yet been able to get the vaccine.

However, he said there is no need for a specially designated Vaccines Minister to take charge of the vaccination programme rollout.

I think at this stage, the establishment of an individual ministry would take more time and effort that we have, quite frankly.
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(Natural News) Earlier this week on The View, Meghan McCain said she wants to send Trump supporters to Guantanamo Bay after the mostly peaceful protest in DC on January 6th.

(Article by Clayton Keirns republished from TrendingPolitics.com)

Keep in mind, McCain never said anything this extreme after BLM and ANTIFA torched the entire city of DC. However, she goes as far as to say Trump supporters should be treated like actual terrorists. She even compared them to the actual terror group Al-Qaeda, who slaughters innocent people for sport.

Im not against sending these people to Gitmo. That may sound extreme. These are domestic terrorists who attacked our own republic. They should be treated the same way we treat Al-Qaeda, McCain said.

I just think we need to treat the domestic terrorists the way we do actual terrorists. I think we need to consider all the possibilities, she added.

Watch below:



She has shown her true colors once again.

What is your reaction? Comment below

Read more at: TrendingPolitics.com
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  Vice President Leni Robredo, several lawmakers, and progressive youth groups denounced the Department of National Defense's decision to abrogate its three-decade agreement with the University of the Philippines that bars uniformed personnel from entering UP campuses without notifying school officials.

The Duterte administration's unilateral termination of the deal is clearly meant to silence the government's critics, Robredo said Tuesday, pointing out that the accord simply asks law enforcers to give notice to the university before conducting any security operations inside their campuses.

"This is neither a difficult nor onerous rule... Clearly, then, this is not a practical gesture, but a symbolic one. One designed to sow fear. One designed to discourage dissent. One designed to silence criticism," she said.

The vice president believes that the public will take a stand against the government's disregard for the safeguard established to protect dissenting students.

UP President Danilo Concepcion urged Lorenzana to reconsider his decision and revoke the abrogation.

"I must express our grave concern over this abrogation, as it is totally unnecessary and unwarranted, and may result in worsening rather than improving relations between our institutions, and detract from our common desire for peace, justice, and freedom in our society," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

RELATED: UP accord terminated to protect majority vs 'enemies of the state,' defense chief says

Senator Francis Pangilinan, a former UP Diliman University Student Council chairperson, emphasized the historical significance of the UP-DND accord which was signed in 1989 to prevent student activists in the campus from being arrested.

UP has always been and will always be a citadel of freedom and democracy. Please dont mess with UP, tweeted Pangilinan.

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago, also a UP Diliman graduate, blasted the Defense Department for ignoring the role of educational institutions in upholding human rights and democracy.

This brazen step signals intensified attacks on academic freedom, and violations of rights of students, faculty, personnel resisting tyranny and fascism, tweeted Elago, while calling for an end to campus militarization.

Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, now a professor at the UP Diliman National College of Public Administration and Governance, said the governments act to terminate the pact can worsen the insurgency problem that has existed since the rule of dictator, former president Ferdinand Marcos.

These are the kinds of acts that worsened the insurgency problem during the Marcos regime. We should have learned by now that purely military actions will not solve this very complicated problem, Trillanes tweeted.

The League of Filipino Students said the abrogation of the accord is an attempt by the Duterte administration to attack academic freedom and is a way to enforce the Anti-Terrorism Law that can be used to silence student activists.

Sa kasalukuyan, ang kinakaharap ng mga kabataang estudyante ay hindi nalalayo sa hinarap ng LFS noong rehimeng Marcos. Nasa tungkulin natin bilang mga kabataang estudyante na tumindig at ipaglaban ang karapatan ng mga mamamayang Pilipino, the group said in a video statement.

[Translation: At present, the dilemma faced by students is not too different from what LFS experienced during the Marcos regime. It is our obligation, as students, to stand and fight for the rights of the Filipino people.]

The Samahang ng Progresibong Kabataan also expressed their concern on AFPs unsubstantiated claims that schools like UP are breeding grounds of communist rebels may lead to militarization of educational institutions.

The AFPs demand to militarize UP campuses is an issue that concerns the very basics of our democratic life. Should we let them succeed in UP, the path is open for them to militarize all schools, the organization said in a statement. The relevance of our schools as academic institutions and centers of free conscience and speech is at stake.

The UP Manila University Student Council vowed to fight against attempts by state institutions to curtail academic freedom and democractic rights.

We refuse to cower to the deceptions of a government institution that masquerades as a protector of human rights but in reality, only serves as a conduit for the further curtailment of our freedoms, the council said in a statement.

Akbayan Youth chairperson RJ Naguit appealed to UP President Danilo Concepcion to protect the community from the possible militarization activities brought by the accords abrogation.

We urge President Danilo Concepcion to protect the UP community against President Duterte's latest crackdown or else UP will become a hunting ground for the likes of Debold Sinas and the AFP, he said in a statement.

Hashtags #DefendUP, #NoToCampusMilitarization, and #UPFight trended in social media overnight as several youth netizens reacted on the abrogation of the UP-DND accord.

In a letter, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana informed Concepcion that the UP-DND accord was "terminated or abrogated" as of January 15, 2021. He said this was done so they could perform their mandate to protect the youth from being recruited by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army.
Moscow: A Russian judge has remanded Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in pre-trial detention for 30 days for violating the terms of a suspended jail sentence, ignoring calls from Western countries to free the opposition politician immediately.

The ruling, a day after police detained him at the airport as he returned home for the first time since being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, may be the prelude to him being jailed for years.

Police officers stand at an entrance of the police station during Alexei Navalny's court hearing. Credit:AP

Moscow's prison service has applied to convert a suspended 3-year embezzlement sentence in the same case, which he says was trumped up, into real jail time later this month.

He faces three other separate criminal cases too.
Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief on Monday announced that she will contest from Assembly seat in the state election that is due in just a few months.

"I will contest from Assembly. If possible I will contest from both Bhawanipur and Nandigram," she said while addressing a rally here.

Suvendu Adhikari, who recently switched to BJP from Banerjee's party, won the seat as the TMC candidate in 2016. Traditionally, Banerjee has always contested from Bhawanipur.

"I will come again and again as Nandigram is my lucky place. In the 2016 election, I announced my election from Nandigram. Today also I came to Nandigram. TMC will win in 2021.

Mamata had swept into power defeated the ruling Left with a landslide victory in the 2011 Assembly election.

"If I make mistake slap me but don't go away from me. Who will do that much work for you? If anyone calls me bad, I won't let them," she said.

BJP has been aggressively campaigning in over the past few months with top leaders Amit Shah, JP Nadda visiting the state.

Elections to 294 seats in are slated to take place later in 2021.

(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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is concerned about the detention of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and calls on the international community to act more decisively to condemn Russia's repressive practices.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is deeply concerned about the detention of Russian opposition politician figure Alexei Navalny. We regard the situation around Navalny as a continuation of the Kremlin's shameful practice of attacking human rights and suppressing freedom of speech," reads the Ministrys comment.

The Ministry stressed that the Kremlin's systematic detention and politically motivated persecution of politicians and public figures, members of national minorities and journalists contradict Russia's international obligations and relevant human rights agreements to which the Russian Federation is a party.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands that the Russian authorities immediately release all illegally detained political prisoners, including citizens of Ukraine.

"We also call on the international community to take more decisive action to condemn the repressive practices of the Russian authorities," the Ministry added.

As reported, Navalny was detained on January 17 immediately upon arrival to Moscow from Berlin, where he was being treated and undergoing rehabilitation after he had been poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in August last year.

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MILAN, Italy, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following is a statement by Marco Durante, president of LaPresse.

There is no better time to contract COVID-19 than now, especially if you are an entrepreneur: since 26 December I have been forced to stay at home, but the production of LaPresse has continued to run at full speed and this is because I have chosen well. The recent opening of the new US website, www.lapresse.us, which is already yielding excellent results, is proof of that.

Speaking of www.lapresse.us - an important new feature of LaPresse and a challenge that is proving to be successful, a new concept site, in step with the times - I invite you to check it out.

The new website relies on the support of LaPresse's partner Associated Press (AP) and it is key to strengthening the international role of the agency in the global information system, keeping abreast of new trends in the communication sector and anticipating the development scenarios of this global market.

Once again, the alliance with AP has made it possible to achieve an outstanding result, and I thank AP for its support. We have taken on new resources in the United States and Morocco, yet another promise kept.

For over a year and a half we have been promising and delivering.

We will be taking the next steps in the near future: new sites, new locations that are not just distributive, but fully operational. Although I cannot say that this COVID-19 is helping, thanks to your support I feel confident in myself, in LaPresse, in all of us. Your commitment encourages me to be serious and respectful in keeping my promises. It's only a matter of time: 15 months ago, we didn't have 25 new locations or 43 new hires, and we hadn't launched any new websites".

I represent this Company and I am aware that we are all keeping our promises in order for this Company to become an information giant.

For further information:

LaPresse SpA Communication Area Manager:

Barbara Sanicola - barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it T +39 02 26305578 M +39 333 3905243

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6f804f32-5a48-4077-b630-587b0acee000
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989. She can be reached at jmaschino@berkshireeagle.com.

Images showing the internal structure of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have been revealed for the first time thanks to a 3D scan.

Geospatial mapping specialist GeoSLAM produced the never-before-seen digital images of the inside of the famous statue ahead of its 90th birthday on October 12.

Emblematic of the city of Rio de Janeiro and the nation of Brazil, the concrete clad statue stands 98 feet tall and spans a mammoth 92 feet wide.

The digital re-creation of the iconic statue involved more than 180 million points of data - taken from a drone-mounted laser scanner and someone walking up and down the staircases inside the statue using the same scanner.

The new digital images will allow people to virtually explore this world-famous monument in ways never before been possible - inside and out.

Geospatial mapping specialist GeoSLAM produced the never-before-seen digital twin of the inside of the famous statue - ahead of its 90th birthday on October 12

In 2019, the statue was visited over two million times, with people from all over the globe travelling to admire the monument, which soars 2,320 feet above the city.

To create the sensational images, the team from GeoSLAM used the latest SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping) and unmanned aircraft technology.

To complete the scan, the summit of Mount Corcovado, where the statue is located, was closed to the public for 45 minutes - allowing experts including Gabriel de Barros Praxedes, to scan the entire site inside and out.

The narrow staircases and tight internal passages were revealed as part of the scan, which involved using a laser scanning tool called the ZEB Horizon.

This emits 300,000 laser points per second, scanning the statue gradually as de Barros Praxedes climbed the stairs inside the iconic creation

The same ZEB Horizon scanner was then mounted to a drone to allow the the team to capture the full, detailed exterior of the monument.

A series of 3D scans containing over 180million points was captured, producing a comprehensive digital model of the giant monument in all its glory inside and out.

The data was then processed through GeoSLAM Hub, software used to process the vast amount of information gathered by the scanner.

This allowed the team to see the results of the scan before they even left the site, including the network of internal staircases the team had climbed.

Emblematic of the city of Rio de Janeiro and the nation of Brazil, the concrete clad statue stands 98 feet tall and spans a mammoth 92 feet wide

The digital re-creation of the iconic statue involved more than 180 million points of data - taken from a drone mounted laser scanner and someone walking up and down the staircases inside the statue using the same scanner

The new digital images will allow people to virtually explore this world famous monument in ways never before been possible - inside and out

Commenting on the never-before-seen feat, Barros Praxedes, said the results of the scan were at a high level of detail - showing the moment as never seen before.

He said the statue had to be scanned 'from the face, hands and robe, to the staircases inside and carved marble base beneath it' which was a lot of detail'.

'Im in awe of the capabilities of this technology and the clarity of data produced,' he said of the scanner the team used, adding 'weve been able to capture the statue in a totally new light, that almost no-one has had the privilege to see'.

'This is one of the most recognisable statues on the planet, and a symbol of hope for many Brazilians near and far, and Im delighted to have been able to capture it in its current form before the restoration works gets underway.'

GeoSLAMs solutions are being used more and more to aid in the documentation and management of historic or hard-to-reach landmarks, the firm said.
The move is in an attempt to take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) head-on in what is increasingly looking to be her toughest political battle, from a place that in many ways had relaunched her a decade ago. I will contest from Nandigram. It is my lucky place. she said, addressing a rally in the town, while reassuring voters from her constituency, Bhowanipore (in South Kolkata), that she would ...

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Her mum Carol and dad Mark have suffered from severe health complications after recently contracting coronavirus.

And Natalya Wright posed up a storm in a black one-piece and a cut-out high-neck jumper on Sunday, as she encouraged others to follow lockdown rules amid her parents' health battle.

The model, 20, revealed she has watched her 'parents suffer' as her siblings, Jess and Mark Wright, also recently urged the public to comply with coronavirus restrictions.

Wow! Natalya Wright stunned in a black one-piece and a cut-out high-neck jumper on Sunday, as she encouraged others to follow lockdown rules amid her parents' COVID-19 battle

Natalya styled her chocolate tresses in effortless loose waves and rocked full coverage make-up for her series of Polaroid snaps.

She wrote in her accompanying caption on Instagram: 'Hello 2021.. I think I am just about ready for you.

'Covid has hit my family quite hard over the last few weeks. Ive watched my parents suffer, my dad breathing through oxygen in hospital & other family members very unwell.

'Whilst some of my family members are still fighting this awful virus I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Please dont think this virus isnt real & cant affect you or your family. Corona virus is REAL, It is SCARY. Take care, stay safe'. (sic)

Devastated: The model, 20, confirmed she has watched her 'parents suffer', as her siblings, Jess and Mark Wright, also urged the public to comply with coronavirus restrictions (pictured in 2019)

'Take care, stay safe': Natalya styled her chocolate tresses in effortless loose waves for her Instagram post and she penned: 'Please don't think this virus isn't real and can't affect you'

Last week, her older brother Mark, 33, said that his father is still 'not completely better' and that his family 'worried for his life' while he was in hospital battling coronavirus.

The former TOWIE star's parents Mark. Snr, 64, and Carol, 60, announced on New Year's Eve they had been struck down by Covid-19, Mark. Snr has since returned home.

Mark also revealed that two of his uncles are currently in hospital due to the virus with his uncle Eddie, 65, the father of his reality star cousin Elliott, in a coma and intensive care unit (ICU).

Speaking on his Heart Evening Show last Monday night, the presenter made an impassioned plea for people to observe government guidelines to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Mark also revealed that he had tested positive for Covid-19 last year but it didn't affect him like it has his family.

The emotional reality star said: 'I want my life back. I want my family to be well again. I don't want my family to have to worry anymore.

'I don't want you to worry anymore. If you want to get your life back, the only way this will happen is if we obey by the government rules.'

Mark noted that people obeyed the government guidelines and rules 'so much better' during the first lockdown compared to the third lockdown, which was imposed in England towards the start of January.

He said: 'Now last time when this happened, last year's lockdown, I saw such a difference. Everybody was sticking to the rules so much better than it feels this time and it's coming back to bite us, harder, faster and tougher.

'Do you want to see your family members go through what I'm seeing right now? I understand if it hasn't affected your family like it has affected mine, bloodlines are different, I don't know the science of it.

Scary: Last week, her older brother Mark, 33, said that his father is still 'not completely better' and that his family 'worried for his life' while he was in hospital battling coronavirus (pictured with his father)

'But what I do know is that my father, my dad was suffering in hospital and we worried for his life for two weeks, he's now home, he's not completely better, he knows that and we know it.

'My other uncle, his brother, is in hospital right now, receiving oxygen, and their other brother, my uncle Eddie who I love dearly is currently in a coma in the ICU.'

Mark admitted that he wasn't trying to get 'too dark' but by sharing personal information about how it has impacted his family, it will highlight how important the guidelines are.

He continued: 'Now I'm trying not to be too dark but I'm trying to give you a personal from me, because I am seeing first hand, and I know if you haven't seen it and you haven't felt it the way I have, I understand it's hard to believe it.

'It's easy to sit and think, "You know what, it's just for people that have got real underlying health issues, they were going to die of something anyway." That's not the case.

Battle: The former TOWIE star's, 33, parents Mark. Snr, 64, and Carol, 60, announced on New Year's Eve they had been struck down by Covid-19, Mark. Snr has since returned home

'A) that shouldn't be a good excuse anyway because they don't deserve to take this badly just because they've got an underlying health condition. And b) it's not just that. My dad is a healthy man, so are my uncles.'

He added: 'So look, I want to move on from this subject, but I just wanted to clear it up because it's made a bit of the headlines from what I said on Good Morning Britain.

'My dad is doing okay, and I want him to know I love him very much. But look, please going forward, we stick together, we do this together and we do what we can to get us back to normal.

'Get us back to holidays, get us back to seeing our friends and dancing on the dance floor.'

Mark also admitted that he understands it's a 'tough situation' and that he is aware that the virus affects everyone differently.

Heartbreaking: Mark also revealed that two of his uncles are currently in hospital due to the virus with his uncle Eddie, 65, the father of his reality star cousin Elliott, in a coma and intensive care unit (ICU) (Elliott and Eddie pictured in February 2020)

He continued: 'It is a tough situation, I understand, because there's so many conspiracy theories that you hear from people.

'Many people that don't believe how real what is going on actually is, and I hear it first hand from friends of mine, very close friends of mine.

'"Oh it's just like a cold, it's just like a flu," "I know someone who had it," "I had it, I was just tired, it didn't hurt, it was fine" and I know that. We know that. It doesn't affect everybody to the point of the way it affects some.

'It didn't affect me when I had it back last year, the way it affected my family members, the way it is affecting my family members.

'I've always done my best to stand by what the government say, and the reason I do that is because I know the experts working with the government, are the best experts we have and that's why they're working for the government.'

Scary: Mark's sister Jess, 35, has said Covid has ripped through her family like 'wildfire', with some family members being hospitaiised

His sister, Jess, 35, also took to Instagram recently to share her experience with the virus.

She wrote: 'Covid has ripped through my family in the past month and it has been absolutely horrendous. Please stay safe everyone, stay home, wear masks and also check on loved ones regularly.

'The fight isn't over for us yet, we are taking every day as it comes and praying a lot. This new strain seems to be spreading like wildfire.

'Thank you the well wishes for those who have known, for my family members that have been hospitalised by this awful, awful virus.'

Jess added it was important to also focus on mental health and help build others up as the nation navigates the third lockdown.

Giuliani Says He Wont Be Part of Trump Impeachment Defense Team

President Donald Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on Jan. 17 he wont be part of the presidents impeachment defense team.

Giuliani said the reason is because he gave a speech at The Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6.

I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or Senate chamber, he told ABC News.

Trump was impeached last week over allegations he incited the storming of the U.S. Capitol. The beginnings of the breach were unfolding as he spoke about two miles away at The Ellipse, a park in downtown Washington.

Giuliani, who hasnt responded to requests for comment, had claimed on Jan. 15 that he was involved with preparing Trumps defense. But a campaign spokesman said Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him.

The House Judiciary Committee announced last week it has retained lawyers Barry Berke and Joshua Matz to support the impeachment efforts. Both took part in Trumps first impeachment trial, which culminated with the Senate acquitting the president.

Impeachments trigger a trial in the Senate. Members decide whether to acquit or convict on the charge or charges, in this case, incitement of insurrection. A two-thirds vote is required to convict.

Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hasnt transmitted the impeachment article to the Senate, a trial cant start yet. The Senate is out of session but is scheduled to reconvene on Jan. 19.
While West Australians pay more for fish and chips than other states, WA is doing exceptionally well in offering sustainable alternatives to the dubious flake, a new report reveals.

More than 320 shark species live in Australian waters, half found nowhere else globally, the Australian Marine Conservation Society report says.

The AMCS investigated 70 leading fish and chip shops across Australia. Credit:AMCS

But a third of all sharks are endangered thanks to commercial fishing, and a quirk in Australian environmental law allows them to be legally harvested even if theyre listed as threatened or critically threatened.

And flake, while technically meant to refer only to non-endangered gummy or rig sharks, is in practice used for any kind of shark, endangered or not, in more than three-quarters of fish and chip shops the council surveyed.

President Trump's culpability for the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago will be judged by U.S. senators in a looming impeachment trial - and possibly by the court system after he leaves the presidency.

And now a man with a personal connection to Trump - and whose violent rhetoric Trump promoted to the world - has been arrested in the riot.

Otero County, N.M., Commissioner Couy Griffin was arrested Sunday for illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. Griffin, the head of a group called Cowboys for Trump, claims he got caught up with the crowd and didn't actually enter the building, but the affidavit says video on his personal Facebook page showed him in restricted areas.

Griffin also pledged to return to Washington with guns for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday, and he alluded to the prospect of violence and another incursion into the offices of lawmakers. According to the affidavit, he said in a video posted after the Jan. 6 riot:

". . . We could have a 2nd Amendment rally on those same steps that we had that rally yesterday. You know, and if we do, then it's gonna be a sad day, because there's gonna be blood running out of that building. But at the end of the day, you mark my word, we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Donald J. Trump if it boils down to it."

It's not the first time Griffin has employed such violent rhetoric. He did so in May as well. And at the time, his message was promoted by Trump on Twitter.

In the video, Griffin said, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." He qualified in the video that he was only speaking metaphorically about politics.

Trump promoted the video by saying, "Thank you Cowboys. See you in New Mexico!" (Twitter suspended both Trump's and the Cowboys for Trump accounts this month.)

But while Griffin qualified his comments in the video, he later indicated to the Daily Beast that he wasn't speaking entirely figuratively. He suggested that Democratic governors who locked down their states amid the coronavirus pandemic could be guilty of treason and might face the death penalty.

"You get to pick your poison: You either go before a firing squad, or you get the end of the rope," Griffin said.

He was also asked whether anti-lockdown activists like him might need to resort to violence to get their way, and he suggested that they might.

"I'll tell you what, partner, as far as I'm concerned, there's not an option that's not on the table," Griffin said.

Trump's connection to Griffin isn't limited to the retweet. Three months earlier, Griffin had posted photos from an audience with Trump in the Oval Office to the Cowboys for Trump page on Facebook.

Trump also spoke with Griffin by phone a year earlier, after Cowboys for Trump organized a week-long horseback ride through Maryland to Washington to highlight border security. And it wasn't just a brief hello; according to Griffin, the two spoke for 30 minutes. Griffin also said Trump asked for his personal phone number.

When Griffin told Trump that his group planned to return to Washington that summer, Griffin said Trump talked about welcoming them onto the White House grounds.

"He said, 'Couy, that sounds amazing,' . . . 'If you will do that, then whenever you get here, there's 20 acres on the South Lawn and the gate will be open to you at the White House where you can ride your horses right in,' " Griffin said. "Then he jokingly said that he might have to get on my horse whenever I get there."

Griffin is hardly the only fringe figure in the conservative movement whom Trump has engaged with and promoted in ways that presidents generally avoid. But he's now one who is accused of actively taking part in an attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol - and who spoke in violent terms about a redux this week. The type of rhetoric he used surrounding his arrest echoes the message Trump decided to promote less than a year ago.

Just a day after the May retweet, Trump also tweeted of racial justice protesters, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" - a phrase with an ugly history in American politics.)

Trump's critics argue that Trump incited the scenes we saw at the Capitol. They have significant evidence, in that some of those who participated and were arrested at least cited a belief that they were indeed acting at Trump's request. And now, they can draw a more direct through-line from Trump's promotion of violent rhetoric to the siege on the Capitol.
Management consultants paid for by the Government to speed up the vaccine roll-out are pushing back on plans to introduce a 24-hour Covid jab service.

Companies helping to achieve Britain's ambitious vaccination programme have told ministers there is little demand for a round-the-clock vaccination programme.

They claim getting pensioners to vaccination centres in the middle of the night is not 'physically feasible' and the constraint on the current programme is not the lack of hours in the day but making sure there is enough skilled staff.

More than 15 companies are being paid millions of pounds by the Government to help get the country vaccinated quickly and effectively.

Many of the firms were responsible for implementing UK's Test & Trace tracking system, reports claim.

Yesterday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said a trial for 24-hour Covid vaccines will begin within the next 10 days.

Management consultants paid for by the Government to speed up the vaccine roll-out are pushing back on plans to introduce a 24-hour Covid jab service. Pictured: Robert Salt, 82, at Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield last week

And Boris Johnson earlier promised the NHS would launch an all-night jab programme 'as soon as we can'.

But chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association Tamzen Isacsson said firms have told ministers that a round-the-clock programme for the Oxford and Pfizer jabs 'wouldn't be the answer to the problem at the moment'.

Chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association Tamzen Isacsson said firms have told ministers that a round-the-clock programme for the Oxford and Pfizer jabs 'wouldn't be the answer to the problem at the moment'

She told The Daily Telegraph: 'Getting elderly people to somewhere at 2am is just not physically feasible, practically.'

She said there are enough vaccines available and enough time to administer them - but the 'constraint' is 'making sure that the right skilled staff who have been trained with this vaccine are in the right place to administer it'.

A further 671 people died after testing positive for Covid-19 yesterday in the highest Sunday increase ever recorded.

But the number of new cases has dropped by nearly a third since last week, in a clear sign that lockdown is working.

Official statistics released yesterday afternoon showed 38,598 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded across Britain, down on the 54,940 recorded on the same day last week.

Yesterday, NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said a trial for 24-hour Covid vaccines will begin within the next 10 days

Pressure is mounting on the Government to dish out coronavirus vaccines 24/7, with Labour saying No10 'must deliver for the British people' because the public 'have sacrificed so much'.

But ministers earlier claimed there was 'no clamour' for appointments beyond 8pm.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last week said the NHS will would do 'whatever it takes' - but he played down the prospect of a round-the clock operation, saying people will prefer to get jabs in the day.

And in the Commons, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said round-the-clock vaccines will not happen in the first phase, where the four most vulnerable groups are being targeted, because staff would end up 'standing around waiting'.

'If we were to go to a 24-hour regime, it would be much harder to target the vaccine at those four cohorts,' he said.

'Obviously, when we have limited vaccine volume, we do not want staff standing around waiting for people in centres that are open 24 hours.'

The Health Secretary made the announcement on Twitter the morning after saying the UK is 'nearly on the home strait' out of the pandemic

NHS boss Sir Simon was yesterday asked if he would like to see jabs given 'all day, all night'.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'Absolutely, we will do that at the point that we have enough supply that it makes sense.

'We will start testing 24/7 in some hospitals over the course of the next 10 days.

'But we are at the moment vaccinating at about 140 jabs a minute and yesterday (Saturday), a quarter of a million people got their vaccinations on the NHS.

However, Dominic Raab today failed to guarantee that everyone will receive a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within a 12 week target period as he dampened hopes of all UK adults getting the jab by the end of June

'I'm pretty confident by the time we get to the end of today, Sunday night, we will have perhaps done 1.5 million vaccinations this past week, that's up from around a million the week before.'

'We are vaccinating four times faster than people are catching coronavirus.'

He also insisted that no vaccines were being thrown away by doctors, despite reports.

Sir Simon said: 'The guidance from the chief medical officer and NHS medical director is crystal clear, that every last drop of vaccine should be used.'

Sir Simon said the NHS is facing the most 'unique' situation in its history.

The Government has chosen to deliver the two required doses of the vaccines (file image) 12 weeks apart in order to get more people vaccinated with the first jab as quickly as possible

Asked if the nation's health service has ever been in a more precarious situation, he said: 'No. This is a unique event in our 72-year history, it's become glib to talk about this as the worst pandemic in a century, but that is clearly correct.

'We have got three-quarters more Covid inpatients now then we had in the April peak.

'Although we are seeing some promising signs of the steadying of the infection rates, the fact is they are still far too high and, among some age groups, still rising.'

He added: 'It is not going to be the case that on Valentine's Day, with one bound, we are free.

'Equally, I don't think we will have to wait until the autumn, I think somewhere between those two.

'Subject, of course, to this uncertainty around new variants of coronavirus and it will be very important we don't see those taking off in a way that undermines the effectiveness of the vaccines we have.'

He also said the army is helping the NHS battle the virus: 'There around 200 combat medical technicians who are going to be supporting. We have currently around 50,000 NHS staff off for coronavirus related reasons.

The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain's vaccination drive and has privately set an ambitious target of giving every adult the jab by the end of June, it was claimed last night (vaccines in Salisbury Cathedral)

Resident Kate Stewart receives an injection of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from Dr Jess Harvey at the Lady Forester Community nursing home in Wenlock, Shropshire

'We've also got 50,000 more staff working in the health service than we had a year ago.'

Former minister Steve Baker - a leader of the lockdown-sceptic CRG group of Tory MPs - earlier told MailOnline the Government must 'look carefully' at extending the hours.

'The sooner the vulnerable are vaccinated, the sooner we can end these destructive cycles of lockdowns and restrictions,' he said.

'So the Government should look closely at all the practical problems of 24/7 operation and press forward with it if it would help meet necessary goals.'

Tory MP Henry Smith said the vaccine rollout seemed to be going well so far, adding: 'There is no excuse why it shouldn't be 24/7. This is a national emergency and every hour lost is damaging to our economy and our future and our finances and our health.

French drugs firm Valneva is just 'days away' from kick-starting manufacture of its jab on British soil, The Mail on Sunday can reveal

'We cannot lose a moment. I steer away from making international comparisons... but the fact that Israel has been able to vaccinate most of the population - it could be done faster.'

On Sunday, it was revealed that more than half of over-80s have had Covid jabs - despite Dominic Raab's hints that all adults may not be vaccinated before September.

The Health Secretary made the announcement on Twitter the morning after saying the UK is 'nearly on the home strait' out of the pandemic.

Tory rebels demand Boris Johnson publish a 'clear road map' to begin easing the national lockdown from March 8 Tory MPs have urged Boris Johnson to publish a 'clear road map' to start easing the national lockdown from March 8 as they warned the Prime Minister there 'cannot be any more excuses'. Mark Harper, the Tory chairman of the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, said the Government needs to give people 'hope' while 'businesses need a plan in order to survive'. The Government is aiming to have vaccinated the 13.9million most vulnerable people in the UK by the middle of February. Mr Harper, a former chief whip, argued that on the basis it will take those people time to build maximum immunity to coronavirus, ministers should target March 8 for the gradual loosening of restrictions. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Harper said that the PM must publish a draft plan this week setting out how curbs will be lifted. The Government is due to conduct its first formal review of lockdown on February 15 and Mr Harper said ministers could at that point firm up the proposals ahead of an easing of rules in March. He said: 'The top four at-risk groups, which the Government aims to have given a first dose by Feb 15, will have got the maximum immunity from that within three weeks - by March 8. 'That has got to be the point at which we start to lift restrictions in a way proportionate to the reduction of risk.' Mr Harper said that 'nobody is expecting nightclub doors to be flung open on March 8' because it is 'obvious that not every restriction can be lifted straight away'. He pointed to Mr Johnson's previous suggestion that there will be a 'gradual unwrapping' of lockdown and said he agreed that will be the best approach to take. 'People need hope and businesses need a plan in order to survive, especially those in the hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors,' he said. 'That's why this week, we need a draft plan for the progressive lifting of restrictions from March 8 so that the public, businesses and scientists can use it as the basis for a sensible debate, as the Prime Minister suggested on Friday. 'That will allow a definitive plan to be published ahead of Feb 15.' He added: 'There cannot be any more excuses and there's no need to wait until Easter. 'We need a clear road map to all our freedoms, economy and health prospects being fully restored.' Advertisement

He said: 'I'm delighted that over half of all over-80s have been vaccinated.

'Each jab brings us one step closer to normal. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.'

But Dominic Raab yesterday failed to guarantee that everyone will receive a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within a 12 week target period as he dampened hopes of all UK adults getting the jab by the end of June.

The Government has chosen to deliver the two required doses of the vaccines 12 weeks apart in order to get more people vaccinated with the first jab as quickly as possible.

However, there are concerns that supply issues could hamper efforts to hit that target.

Mr Raab said this morning the Government 'should be able to deliver it' and he is 'quietly confident' the UK will get there but he declined to make a firm promise.

Reports overnight suggested that ministers are now privately aiming to have vaccinated every UK adult by the end of June.

But Mr Raab played down the idea of a much faster vaccine roll-out as he insisted the Government's target is still September for having offered every adult a first dose.

The Foreign Secretary also said that 'hopefully by March' the Government will be in a position to begin easing lockdown restrictions.

His comments came as ten new vaccine centres are set to open across England on Monday with more than a million over-80s invited to receive their coronavirus jab.

The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain's vaccination drive, with more than 3.5million people having received their first dose as of Saturday.

Whitehall sources are confident of accelerating the pace of the rollout to a point where four to five million people are receiving their shots each week.

The Mail on Sunday yesterday revealed French drugs firm Valneva is just 'days away' from kick-starting manufacture of its jab on British soil.

Valneva will soon furnish Britain with 60million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine  the UK's second largest supply after the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection  but is yet to strike a deal with the EU or its native France.

In a major boost for the UK's vaccination drive, the company's boss said he hopes Valneva's Covid jab will be approved and ready to be administered into British arms by the summer or early autumn.

Chief executive Thomas Lingelbach said Valneva's vaccine, which has been produced with financial aid from the UK Government, is about to go into mass production at its plant in Livingston, Scotland.

Valneva's jab is administered in two doses 21 days apart  like Pfizer-BioNTech's  although it does not require ultra-cold storage.

Early trials are taking place on 150 volunteers at four sites across England. The UK has the option to order up to 130 million further doses between 2022 and 2025, which would bring the cost to nearly 900million (800million).

The French-headquartered firm's jab is the second-largest Covid vaccine ordered by Government, after the 100 million dose Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.

Brighton's seafront - a popular choice for sun-seeking revellers this summer - was jam-packed with Sunday ramblers looking to soak up the winter sun (pictured)

Crowds of Britons were seen walking along the seafront in Brighton during England's third national lockdown. Exercise outdoors is permitted alone, with a household or in a bubble

By contrast, the European Commission last week said a period of 'exploratory talks' with Valneva had concluded 'with a view to purchasing its potential vaccine against Covid-19'. The EU is likely to order 30million doses, with the option to buy a further 30million.

However, the UK will be the 'priority' for Valneva, its boss said, leaving France, Germany and other countries in the bloc likely to receive their deliveries of the vaccine later.

Valneva has previously said that its jab, which entered clinical trials in December, would not be available for use in the UK population until the last three months of the year.

However, Mr Lingelbach said conversations were under way with regulators to discuss the possibility of releasing the treatment at some point between July and September.

He told The Mail on Sunday: 'We are days away from starting the commercial manufacturing We cannot release it without regulatory approval so we're in a little bit of a Catch-22 situation and there are certainly scenarios that we are currently discussing with the regulators But we have already signed up to give priority to the UK and this is something we're currently working on.'
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SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament has passed decisions made by a major ruling party meeting where leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent and established plans to salvage the country's battered economy.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, members of the Supreme Peoples Assembly attend a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament has passed decisions made by a major ruling party meeting where leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent and established plans to salvage a dismal economy. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament has passed decisions made by a major ruling party meeting where leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent and established plans to salvage the country's battered economy.

The Norths Korean Central News Agency said Monday that members of the Supreme Peoples Assembly during Sundays meeting unanimously supported the development plans for the next five years that were revealed during the Workers Party congress that ended last week.

The assembly also approved a major reshuffle of the Cabinet, which Kim had criticized over failures in economic policies. KCNA said six of the Cabinets eight premiers were replaced.

North Korean premier Kim Tok Hun, who has led the Cabinet since August after his predecessor was sacked, said during a speech at the assembly that serious mistakes were observed while the Cabinet implemented the previous five-year development plan that ended last year.

Reports and images from state media suggested Kim Jong Un did not attend the assembly. State media also didnt mention a reshuffling of the State Affairs Commission, the governments highest decision-making body that is led by Kim.

Meetings of the Supreme Peoples Assembly are usually brief, annual affairs that are intended to approve budgets, formalize personnel changes and rubber-stamp policy priorities set by Kim and the ruling party leadership.

During the party congress, Kim called for accelerated national efforts to build a military arsenal that could viably target Asian U.S. allies and the American homeland and announced a long wish-list of new sophisticated assets, including longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, spy satellites and tactical nuclear weapons.

But its unclear whether North Korea is fully capable of developing such systems. While the country is believed to have accumulated dozens of nuclear weapons, outside estimates of the exact status of its nuclear and missile program vary widely.

The North showcased some of its most advanced strategic assets during a nighttime military parade on Thursday, including what appeared to be a new ballistic missile that is being developed to be be fired from submarines.

In an article published last week on 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, analyst Michael Elleman said that the new missile was similar in size with another submarine-launched ballistic missile the North rolled out during a parade in October. He noted that the new missile, which the North designated as Pukguksong-5, had a payload shroud that was slightly longer than the previous one.

These dimensional similarities indicate North Korea is still in the process of settling on a specific design for its next-generation SLBM, said Elleman, who projected the Pukguksong-5 to have a possible range of around 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles) when completed.

But there have been no reports of North Korea ground testing large solid-rocket motors recently, another indication that the Pukguksong-5 design remains on the drawing board," he said.

Analysts say Kim, with his repeated hardline comments, is trying to pressure the incoming U.S, administration of Joe Biden, who inherits stalled nuclear talks from President Donald Trump that imploded over disagreements over sanctions and disarmament.

Kim also used the congress to announce new national development plans for the next five years to salvage his broken economy. Some analysts say the prolonged sanctions combined with pandemic-related border closures and natural disasters that wiped out crops last year are possibly setting conditions for an economic perfect storm in the North that destabilizes markets and triggers public panic and unrest.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the latest Houthi attack on Jazan governorate in Saudi Arabia, affirming Cairo's support to the kingdom against terrorism.

The "Egyptian government and people reiterate that they stand by the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the face of brutal terrorism and its supporters, a statement by the foreign ministry read.

A man and two children were wounded on Sunday as a projectile fell inside the border village of Al-Ardha in Jazan governorate in southwestern Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

One of the three wounded in the attack remains in a critical condition, added Mohammed Al-Samghan, deputy media spokesperson for the civil defense directorate in Jazan.

The statement also voiced support to measures taken by the kingdom to preserve its security and stability and protect its citizens against such cowardly and despicable attacks.

The statement also wished the Saudi people wounded in the incident a speedy recovery.

In the last few years, Saudi Arabia has intercepted hundreds of projectiles launched by the Houthis, accusing the Iran-backed group of targeting civilian areas.

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Using technology to suck carbon dioxide out of the sky has long been dismissed as an impractical way to fight climate change  physically possible, but far too expensive to be of much use.

But as global warming accelerates and society continues to emit greenhouse gases at a dangerous rate, the idea is gaining support from a surprising source: large companies facing pressure to act on climate.

A growing number of corporations are pouring money into so-called engineered carbon removal  for example, using giant fans to pull carbon dioxide from the air and trap it. The companies say these techniques, by offsetting emissions they cant otherwise cut, may be the only way to fulfill lofty net zero pledges.

Occidental Petroleum and United Airlines are investing in a large direct air capture plant in Texas that will use fans and chemical agents to scrub carbon dioxide from the sky and inject it underground. Stripe and Shopify, two e-commerce companies, have each begun spending at least $1 million per year on start-ups working on carbon removal techniques, such as sequestering the gas in concrete for buildings. Microsoft will soon announce detailed plans to pay to remove one million tons of carbon dioxide.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18) Chinese company Sinovac Biotech said it is along the middle stage of negotiations with the Philippine government for the latters procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, adding that a binding, definitive agreement still has to be discussed further.

We have already entered into a term sheet with the Philippine government, and if it is approved, we should discuss further on the definitive agreement. That is where we are, Sinovac Biotech General Manager Helen Yang said in an interview with CNN Philippines The Source on Monday, stressing that the deal is not yet sealed.

A term sheet, Yang explained, is a much simpler document a non-binding understanding between buyers and sellers regarding the essential terms for an agreement.

If their general terms are acceptable to both, then both parties should develop a binding, definitive agreement, Yang said. A definitive agreement will include a lot more terms, including how to deal with side effects, logistics.

The Philippine government earlier announced it has closed the deal to purchase 25 million doses from Sinovac, but appointed czar Carlito Galvez clarified it is not yet final and that the government can still opt out from the agreement, since the vaccine has yet to gain local regulatory approval. Officials also previously noted that the initial 50,000-dose batch from the Chinese-made product is set to arrive in February.

Yang said that a tentative supply schedule is agreed upon by both parties, but reiterated that the actual delivery of the vaccines will still depend on further discussions and execution.

The actual delivery is a matter of how to execute the collaboration. So thats why we can discuss in detail and see how we can manage that practically, she said. We will work on that objective and try to make it happen.

Sinovac on EUA: We need to move very fast

Meanwhile, Yang said the company is working days and nights to compile all the required documents for its emergency use application to be submitted to the Philippines Food and Drug Administration.

We need to move very fast, Yang said, noting that they are actively discussing and reporting to the FDA for further questions and additional requirements.

The FDA earlier noted that Sinovac initially submitted incomplete documents for its EUA application, with only the phases 1 and 2 clinical trial data on hand. The agency stressed it would need to review results from the Phase 3 trials to further assess the vaccine's safety on a large number of people.

On Sunday night, Brazils regulatory agency Anvisa approved Sinovacs vaccine for emergency use, despite concerns on its efficacy, reported to be at 50.4%.

The Supreme Court said on Monday the entry of protesting farmers into Delhi on Republic Day has to be decided by the Delhi Police due to it being a "law and order issue".

The apex court was hearing a plea seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor rally on January 26. "We said this last time that entry to Delhi has to be seen under Delhi police. Who should not be allowed and the number of people who can enter are all matters of law and order to be dealt with the by the police," the top court said.

"We have indicated to the Attorney General and Solicitor General that it's totally up to the police to decide who should enter and who should not. Does the Union of Indian want police to be told that they have powers under the police act?," said the bench, after the AG sought an adverse order against the tractor rally.

The matter has been adjourned till Wednesday.

In an application filed through the Delhi police, the Centre told the court that any planned rally or demonstration that aimed to interrupt and disrupt the festivities of Republic Day would cause the nation to be "embarrassed".

After the hearing, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the reforms brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were "courageous" and would benefit farmers.

ALSO READ | SC Wants Delhi Police to Decide On Farmers' Tractor Rally: What Happened in Court Today

Agitating farmer unions have remained firm on holding a tractor rally on the Republic Day and vowed to continue their stir till the Centre's farm laws are repealed. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday urged them to discuss alternatives to scrapping the legislation at the next meeting scheduled for January 19.

However, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters in Nagpur that the farmer groups were prepared to sit in protest till May 2024. "Our demand is that the three laws be taken back and the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP," he said.

In an application filed through the Delhi police, the Centre told the court that any planned rally or demonstration that aimed to interrupt and disrupt the festivities of Republic Day would cause the nation to be "embarrassed".

Meanwhile, union leader Yogendra Yadav said at a press conference at the Singhu border protest site that the agitating groups will carry out a tractor parade on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi on Republic Day. "The parade will be very peaceful. There will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade. The farmers will put up the national flag on their tractors," he added.

But Tomar stressed that the farmer unions should give up their "stubborn stand" after the apex court's stay on the laws on January 12. "They should come for a clause by clause discussion on Tuesday. Except for the demand of repealing the laws, the government is ready to consider seriously and with an open heart other alternatives," he said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had too reached out, saying the Narendra Modi government was dedicated to farmers and the three farm laws would ensure a manifold hike in farmers' earnings. "Since coming to power, the Modi government had increased the budget for the farm sector and also the minimum support price (MSP) for various crops," he said at an event in Bagalkote district in Karnataka.

"I want to say that if there is any big priority of the Narendra Modi government it is to double the farmers' income," he said.
Opening Ceremony of Industrial Rooftop Solar Energy System at SCSC - Cargo Terminal in Tan Son Nhat International Airport

The industrial rooftop solar power system on the roof of Saigon Cargo Services Corporation (SCSC) has an installed capacity of 1.1MWp on an area of more than 7,500 square metres, is invested by Copper Mountain Energy JSC (CME). This is the first renewable energy project to be installed at an airport in Vietnam and the largest in the inner area of Ho Chi Minh City.

CME, with our experience, reputation and capacity, have installed the rooftop solar power system on the warehouse system of SCSC under the 'full responsibility' model, including investment, installation, and operation costs, said Bui Trung Kien, CEO of CME.

The features of an energy project serving the cargo operations of Tan Son Nhat International Airport require the investor (CME) to pay special attention to the design, construction, ensuring the highest quality, safety, and security.

CEO of SCSC Nguyen Quoc Khanh showing visitors the 1.1MWp rooftop solar system

The project meets the rigorous accreditation requirements of AFRY (Sweden), one of the world's leading energy consultancy firms. The report from AFRY stated that for rooftop solar power projects like SCSC, construction at airports must not only ensure technical quality but also need to commit not to affect air traffic, security, and safety. The consultancy added that this was one of the few projects that they highly evaluate, meeting regional and international requirements.

Technical criteria for design and construction of the operation, maintenance, and supervision systems include detection of potential failures that may affect system operation while electrical and fire safety are both reviewed and implemented with the highest quality, technical director of CME Le Hong Quang noted.

CEO of CME Bui Trung Kien stressed that the project actively meets 40 per cent of SCSC's electricity needs, saving about 15 per cent of energy costs and reducing emissions by 1.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalents

Remarkably, this is the first project in Vietnam that has been fully licensed regarding the design, review, and installation by the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department of Fire Fighting and Prevention.

Previously, Bui Trung Kien, deputy general director of Ho Chi Minh City Electricity Corporation (EVNHCMC) said: So far, industrial and commercial rooftop PV systems capacity in Ho Chi Minh City has reached nearly 70MWp. Assessments show a potential generation capacity of nearly 1,500MWp, which means the room for solar power development in Ho Chi Minh City is huge. According to EVNHCMC, there were 8,762 grid-connected rooftop solar power systems in the city in 2020, including the residential sector.

Currently, although EVN has suspended the connection of rooftop solar power projects to sell electricity to the grid to wait for further consideration of grid balancing, it does encourage business models where investors like CME and roof owners like SCSC produce and consume electricity on the spot.

In Ho Chi Minh City, especially in the inner city, there are very few enterprises with large roof areas like SCSC to deploy and install rooftop solar panels while electricity demand in the inner city (especially in Tan Binh district and the airport area) is very high, putting pressure on the citys grid. Another plus point for this project is the emphasis on the "green economy" development model of Vietnamese enterprises for international visitors transiting and staying at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Energy industry experts attending the inauguration ceremony also said that to ensure energy security, Vietnam must quickly mobilise solar power. Rooftop solar power needs to be brought into Ho Chi Minh City, where electricity is needed the most.

According to SCSC, their electricity demand is about 3.7 million kW per year, and the operation of solar rooftop system is expected to help SCSC save VND1.5 billion ($65,220) a year in costs and about $1.4 million over the course of its 25 years of use while also generating significant savings on operating costs.

The SCSC-CME Industrial Rooftop Solar Power project is the first phase of a green energy plan between the two companies. The project will provide 1.5 million kWh of electricity annually, meeting 40 per cent of SCSC's electricity needs, saving about 15 per cent of energy costs, and reducing emissions by 1.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalents. The business will expand the second phase to achieve 100 per cent clean energy output.

According to Nguyen Quoc Khanh, general director of SCSC, they aim to develop SCSC to become a model aviation cargo terminal in Vietnam and the region, quickly applying renewable energy, utilising the available roof to save energy costs, and building a responsible business image, protecting the environment.

An Irish couple were reunited with their son on Monday night's Long Lost Family, after he was given to a Spanish family as a baby by a Catholic adoption agency - despite reassurances he would be returned once his young parents were more stable.

Phyllis and Kevin Haran, from County Clare, have spent more than forty years searching for their first-born child Sean and became emotional when finally seeing him again on the ITV programme.

The couple fell in love as teenagers in Ireland in the 1970s but Phyllis soon became pregnant and, aware of the scandal this would cause, the pair fled their Catholic community and travelled to England.

But in London, their landlady discovered they were keeping a baby in their flat and gave them less than 24 hours to get out - so, homeless, jobless and desperate to put their son's interests first, they agreed through an agency to place him in the care of a family, with the possibility of adoption if they couldn't find their feet.

However, the couple said the Catholic adoption agency told them they could get their son back once they were financially stable - and two months later, with secure jobs and a flat, they went to get their child.

Sadly, the agency felt the baby should stay with Spanish parents living in the UK at the time, who were married and more financially stable, and after it was taken to the courts, a judge agreed.

Phyllis and Kevin Haran, from County Clare, have spent more than forty years searching for their first-born child and became emotional when finally seeing him again on Long Lost Family (pictured)

In emotional scenes, married couple Phyllis and Kevin hug their son, who is now called Ruben

'We loved him and we didn't want him adopted, we never wanted him adopted. He's lost to us and we want him back,' said Kevin, who runs a guest house with wife Phyllis.

Speaking about their scheme to run away, Phyllis said: 'We didn't tell our parents, just packed a bag and just went brave. We were looking forward to it. I was excited, we were young, you think you can do anything.'

The pair rented a room together and had casual work. Six months later, their little boy, Sean was born.

'He was gorgeous, 7lb 2, a fine healthy baby,' said Phyllis. 'We were young, we were happy and excited, he was a beautiful little baby,' added Kevin.

But after just five-weeks, their bubble of happiness soon came crashing down when their landlady caught them living together out of wedlock and demanded they leave her flat within 24 hours.

The couple (pictured left, with their son, and right, recently) fell in love as teenagers in Ireland in the 1970s but Phyllis soon became pregnant, and aware of the scandal this would cause, the pair fled their Catholic community and travelled to England

The couple contacted an agency who said they would give their son to a Spanish family, with the possibility of adoption if they couldn't find their feet.

'It was very difficult having to give him up but I thought we'd get him back again, said Phyllis, who later had three other children with Kevin.

However, two months later, with secure jobs and a flat, they went to get their child and were told that the agency felt the baby should stay with the Spanish parents.

The distraught couple had to go through the courts to try and get their son back.

'We wanted our child back, but the judge looked at us and says "you're young, you come from big families in Ireland, I'm sure you're going to have plenty more children yourselves",' recalled Kevin.

'"The people who have Sean, they're in the position to look after a child where you are not and you're doing them a good deed so I order that the adoption be finalised".'

But in London, their landlady discovered they were keeping a baby in their flat and gave them less than 24 hours to get out. Pictured, the couple in the 1970s

His wife added: 'I couldn't believe it. I felt betrayed, devastated. It's horrible,' while Kevin said: 'I said "we'll find him wherever you put him and we'll keep searching and we will take him back."'

The couple married and had more children before returning to Ireland, but sadly, in 2008, they lost their other son Ryan, who was killed in a traffic accident, aged 24.

Speaking about Sean, Kevin said: 'We still need to find him, and find that he's happy and that love will always be there, even if we never meet him it will always be there for him.'

Long Lost Family discovered that Seans name had been changed to Ruben Molinero and he was now living in a small mountain town west of Madrid as a member of Spain's elite mountain rescue team.

His official adoption had taken place in Aldershot, Hampshire, and his adoptive parents took him back to live in Spain when he was four years old. He now lives with his wife and 11-year-old son, and his adoptive parents supported him meeting his birth parents when the team got in touch.

Speaking to co-presenter Nicky Campbell after being discovered, Ruben said: It was a big surprise. I didn't expect them to look for me.

When I was young, my feeling was that they had abandoned me so I didn't want to look back, I just wanted to look forward.

Homeless, jobless and desperate to put their son's interests first, they agreed through an agency to place him in the care of a family, with the possibility of adoption if they couldn't find their feet. Pictured, Ruben with his wife Raquel

In emotional scenes, the three were reunited in Ireland and insisted they would be keeping in touch and getting to know each other (pictured)

I know that my birth parents were teenagers. It seems they didn't have any money and had to give me up for adoption.

After being told the situation, and how he was always wanted, an emotional Ruben added: I feel it's a shame. They just had difficulties and they weren't allowed to raise me. That makes me sad. I want to meet them and discover my roots and see what happens.

In emotional scenes, the three were reunited in Ireland and insisted they would be keeping in touch and getting to know each other.

'You were never abandoned, we fought for you, we went to court for you, but the judge thought we had nothing to offer you,' explained Kevin to his son.

'It makes me sad because things could've been different', said Ruben. 'But we have to go forward and I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know me. I want to find out more about where I come from.'

He added: 'Today is a special day. A new story starts and I hope it'll be a good one.'

Viewers praised the touching episode, with one branding it the 'best yet' on social media

Kevin continued: 'It seems like we've known him forever. He's never been away. Let's hope he likes us as much as we like him.'

Viewers praised the touching episode, with one branding it the 'best yet'.

Another tweeted: 'Omg first episode sobbing so sad but love happy endings.'

And one wrote: 'Long Lost Family is going to kill me! So emotional and beautiful. Thank you.'

Long Lost Family Series 10 continues on Monday January 25, 9pm
LONDON  All at once, the coronavirus seemed to change.

For months, Dr. Steven Kemp, an infectious disease expert, had been scanning a global library of coronavirus genomes. He was studying how the virus had mutated in the lungs of a patient struggling to shake a raging infection in a nearby Cambridge hospital, and wanted to know if those changes would turn up in other people.

Then in late November, Dr. Kemp made a startling match: Some of the same mutations detected in the patient, along with other changes, were appearing again and again in newly infected people, mostly in Britain.

Worse, the changes were concentrated in the spike protein the virus uses to latch onto human cells, suggesting that a virus already wreaking havoc around the world was evolving in a way that could make it even more contagious.
On Friday March 7, 1533, the Bom Jesus set sail from Lisbon bound for India. Sailing towards the Cape of Good Hope, she came to grief on the coast of Namibia. None of the 300 souls on board survived.

The final resting place of the Portuguese nau remained unknown until April 2008, when a geologist found an engraved copper ingot of the type used in the 16th century spice trade. Archaeologists were alerted and a dig commenced; the grave of the missing vessel had finally been discovered.

The Bom Jesus was one of only two intact 16th century sub-Saharan wrecks to be excavated. All others had been plundered. She was carrying hundreds of artefacts, quantities of gold and, strangely for a Portuguese vessel during the golden age, coins bearing the likenesses of Spains Ferdinand and Isabella.

Richard Collins: Fur seals ride huge Atlantic breakers rolling in at Cape Cross, like the surfers on Aileens Wave off the Cliffs of Moher.

A hundred elephant tusks had been stored under tonnes of copper and lead. The metals were a godsend to the archaeologists; they isolated and protected the ivory from the ravages of the sea. DNA samples, extracted from the tusks, proved to be the nautical equivalent of an aircrafts black box. They presented a tantalising snapshot of African elephant populations 500 years ago.

The cause of the vessels demise, however, remains a mystery, but the Atlantic seaboard of Namibia is notorious for shipwrecks, both ancient and modern.

A stretch of it is known as the Skeleton Coast; wrecks, commandeered by cormorants, are strewn along its 400km length. Some of the hulks are so spectacular they should have preservation orders.

But what has turned this coastline into one of worlds largest maritime cemeteries?

There are two main culprits. Oddly, for a location on the Tropic of Capricorn, persistent thick fogs roll in from the ocean. Perhaps a storm blew the Bom Jesus off course and the sailors lost their way in fog.

Fur seals ride huge Atlantic breakers rolling in at Cape Cross, like the surfers on Aileens Wave off the Cliffs of Moher. The waves, when I visited, were not in the 12m-high Aileen league, but the seals, rising up in the snot-green walls of water, were an unforgettable sight.

Ship-wrecked sailors struggling ashore in the chilly waters of the Benguela Current would have to emulate them.

Having managed to scramble on to a landscape devoid of people, what would there be for famished sailors to eat? Seal meat?

The Cape Cross breeding colony, numbering 80,000 to 100,000 animals, is said to be the largest in the world; noisy seals, of all ages from cradle to grave, crowd the shore. The smell is almost overpowering, but you soon get used to it.

The seal city, teeming with life, is in total contrast to the arid moonscape stretching eastwards towards the Namib Desert and the Kalahari. Rainfall seldom exceeds 10mm a year.

Few terrestrial animals eke out an existence here. Darkling beetles climb to the tops of dunes and open their wing cases to harvest moisture from the driving fog.

Did the unfortunate Bom Jesus sailors die of hunger and thirst in this austere place?

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Porifera, the leading provider of forward osmosis solutions, has received the prestigious Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration for its exemplary achievement in the development and commercialization of its environmentally-friendly concentration technology.

The company's forward osmosis membrane systems use the natural power of osmosis to gently remove water from a wide variety of products to create a concentrate that is true to the original product upon rehydration. This unique, nonthermal approach to product concentration reduces the costs and carbon footprint of a variety of products throughout the entire lifecycle. In addition to broad applications in the food and beverage industries, Porifera's robust membrane systems can efficiently remove challenging wastes from process streams and provide clean water for reuse for any industry.

Porifera is among 38 companies, seven organizations and 14 individuals in 2020 to be recognized for its achievement of the SBIR goals of stimulating technological innovation, encouraging diverse participation and increasing the private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D. Details on each of the winners can be found at www.tibbettsawards.com.

"Receiving this honor is a testament to the company's technical successes and the economic and societal benefits our technology generates," said CEO Olgica Bakajin, PhD. "We are proud to be recognized among other great organizations for the dedication and perseverance that went into bringing this innovation to the market."

Funding from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs was instrumental in both the founding of Porifera in 2009 and the invention of the company's core technology. Support from these programs enabled Porifera to engage in technology development with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames, Idaho National Laboratory, and several universities. Additional SBIR awards allowed the company to expand its application portfolio from desalination to the concentration of products for a variety of new markets and commercialize its technology.

About Porifera

Porifera is a San Leandro, California-based company which manufactures proprietary forward osmosis membrane systems and provides process solutions to a variety of industries. Porifera's innovative forward osmosis solutions enable industries to efficiently remove water and retain only the most valuable components of their products. This unique technology facilitates the reduction of water waste, improvements to water reuse, and more efficient processing solutions to create better products using less energy. For more information, visit www.porifera.com.

CONTACT: Alyssa May, [email protected]

SOURCE Porifera

Related Links

http://www.porifera.com


Minister Brophy launches Samaritans Freephone helpline for Irish diaspora in Canada and Australia

Press release

The Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, Mr. Colm Brophy, T.D., today launched Samaritans Freephone helpline for the Irish diaspora in Canada and Australia.

Samaritans, in partnership with the Government of Ireland through the Emigrant Support Programme, have been working together to provide 24-hour Freephone access to the Samaritans helpline in Ireland for Irish people in a number of countries abroad. The purpose of this project is to provide access to a culturally sensitive emotional support resource for the Irish abroad who are in distress, struggling to cope and who are in need of emotional support.

Members of the diaspora are signposted to Samaritans through the relevant Irish Embassy, or Irish community organisation, in that particular country. All calls to this number are connected to a Samaritan volunteer in Ireland via a technical divert, and are free of charge to the caller.

Since 2018, the service has operated on a pilot basis initially in the United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong and Poland. Following this pilot, the service will now extend to Canada and Australia.

Announcing the launch of the service, the Minister said:

I am delighted to support, and work in partnership with, Samaritans. Supporting the mental health of emigrants and Irish communities abroad has been a particular focus of the work of the Emigrant Support Programme. However, the need has become even more evident since the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although language is not a barrier to services in these cases, the distance from home, and the limitations imposed by the current restrictions in place, mean that many people are feeling increased loneliness and isolation, particularly following the Christmas and New Year period.

Ireland greatly values our diaspora, whose energy, expertise and experience has done much to build Irelands reach and reputation in the world. In todays world, where change and uncertainty appear to be the order of the day, our commitment to the Irish abroad remains steadfast.

Minister Brophy went on to acknowledge the work carried out by Samaritan volunteers, saying:

I would like to thank Samaritans for their dedication to supporting our diaspora through their important work, particularly at a time when many among our diaspora are facing emotional difficulties in a challenging and changing environment.

This Freephone service will be an invaluable resource for many of our diaspora in the New Year and beyond.

These freephone numbers are being launched on Brew Monday, the third Monday in January normally dubbed Blue Monday, but which Samaritans turn into something positive by urging people to stay connected and share a virtual cuppa.

Niall Mulligan, Executive Director for Samaritans Ireland, said:

Samaritans is delighted that we have been able to offer emotional support to members of the diaspora who are in distress or struggling to cope while living so far away from home.

Our partnership with the Government of Ireland, through the Emigrant Support Programme, is a vital support to those who need us, and we are excited that a pilot project launched in 2018 is now being extended to Irish people living in Canada and Australia. It is so important that people in these countries can now access the support of our volunteers with no cost.

The challenges many people face during winter have been felt even more acutely this year with the pandemic restrictions. At Samaritans, we know how powerful talking and listening can be, even if it is virtually. This Brew Monday we are asking everyone to take the time to listen and support one another. It could save a life.

ENDS

PRESS OFFICE

18TH JANUARY 2021

Notes for Editors The freephone numbers for the Samaritans helpline in Canada and Australia can be found in table below, alongside other numbers avilable to those in Ireland and abroad. Alternatively Irish abroad in Canada and Australia can get in contact through the Irish Embassy, and see details on their Twitter pages: @IrlEmbCanada or @IrlEmbAustralia

Emigrant Support Programme: Since 1984, the Irish Government has given financial support to voluntary agencies providing advice and welfare services to Irish emigrants overseas. The Department of Foreign Affairs, working through Irelands Embassy Network, coordinates the provision of support to communities abroad and administers the programme.

The main focus for funding under the Emigrant Support Programme remains the frontline welfare service providers that support elderly Irish emigrants, and other vulnerable members of our communities worldwide. In more recent years the programme has also recognised the importance of strong and active Irish communities more generally, funding projects which foster a sense of community, promoting vibrant networks and a sense of Irishness among the Irish abroad.

Emigration and the experience of living away from home can be psychologically and emotionally challenging. Many projects supported through the Emigrant Support Programme help to support the most vulnerable among our emigrant communities, helping people to access the services to which they are entitled, and supporting their wellbeing, emotional and mental health.

The Emigrant Support Programme funding year runs from 1 July  30 June. Further details can be found on www.dfa.ie

Samaritans provides a 24-hour helpline, text and email service for people who are in distress, struggling to cope and who are in need of emotional support, including those who are feeling suicidal. Samaritans vision is that fewer people die by suicide and we do that by making sure theres someone there for anyone who needs us, when they need us, how they need us.

Anyone in Ireland can contact Samaritans FREE any time from any phone on 116 123, even a mobile without credit. This number wont show up on your phone bill. Or you can visit samaritans.ie. Country Freephone number Ireland 116 123 Australia 1800 570699 (freephone) Canada +1 833 951 2484 (freephone) Mainland China and Hong Kong Mainland China (freephone) 4006612223 China Telecom (freephone) 1080 04400835 China Netcom (freephone) 1080 07440765 Hong Kong (freephone) +852 30017063 United Arab Emirates 800 04444409 (freephone) Poland 800 012 274 (freephone) 24 Hour Telephone Helplines:

116 123

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London: A teenager who plotted an Anzac Day terror attack in Australia from his bedroom in England will be released from prison five years into a life sentence.

The boy became the youngest Briton ever convicted of terrorism when, aged just 14, he encouraged Australian jihadist Sevdet Besim to attack a 2015 memorial parade in Melbourne and behead a police officer.

The boy planned an attack on the ANZAC Day parade on St Kilda Road on April 25, 2015. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Authorities discovered thousands of messages between the pair just weeks before Anzac Day that year and police swooped on Besim, who was later sentenced to 14 years' jail.

The case made international headlines because of the British teen's age and a bizarre discussion between the two conspirators about whether to pack a kangaroo with explosives and set it loose on police.
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Ghana stands to face grave economic challenges in 2021, if the government does not adopt the right economic recovery strategy, Kenneth Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Dalex Finance Limited has said.



He said the economy was in recession after two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product growth, adding that, the standard prescription for a recovery from recession was an economic stimulus package and yet Ghana was broke.



Mr Thompson made this remark in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the countrys economic prospects in the year 2021, looking through the crystal ball.



He said the only way the country could start to fund a half-way decent stimulus package in 2021 was either to borrow about five billion dollars on the international capital markets or the country must reign in expenditure and increase tax revenue.



He described the solutions as a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, saying, that was the situation President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would be facing either to borrow more or increase revenue mobilisation.



Despite the rhetoric and the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana Cares Obaatampa programme, President Akufo-Addo, is facing a choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea with respect to the economy.



He faces the possibility of going down in history as the all-time President of Public Debt or the President of Austerity, he said.



Despite the rhetoric and the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana Cares Obaatampa programme, President Akufo-Addo, is facing a choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea with respect to the economy.



He faces the possibility of going down in history as the all-time President of Public Debt or the President of Austerity, he said.



He said the economic recession if not well managed would result in a spectra of high unemployment, reduced revenue collection combined with increased demand for stimulus packages.



Businesses face reduced demand, revenues and profits. Customer defaults will rise and this will trigger staff layoffs and other unpleasant cost-cutting measures, he said.



He said if the government decided on a continuous borrowing trajectory, it could lead to the Ghanaian economy crashing, the effects of which would be heavy cuts to government expenditure, massive layoffs, unemployment, currency crash, and a low standard of living.



He said to avert the risk of debt distress; the country must reign in expenditure and increase tax revenue.



To reign in expenditure, projects that have made the government popular will have to be severely curtailed or cancelled. These include; Free SHS, free water and electricity, NABCO and payments to depositors with defunct financial institutions, he said.

Source: Ghanaian Times









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At the end of last week, the border policemen from Arad and Bihor caught 18 migrants who tried to leave the country hidden in trucks transporting various types of goods, all of them asylum seekers in Romania.

A truck drove by a 51-year-old Bulgarian carrying dog food to Germany was checked at the Nadlac I Border Crossing Point (PTF).

"Following the specific risk analysis, the border police discovered, hidden in the cargo compartment, six people, two citizens of Pakistan origin and four citizens from Afghanistan, adults aged between 18 and 34. All six are asylum seekers in Romania," reads a press release sent by the Arad Border Police to AGERPRES on Monday.

At the same border crossing point, the law enforcement checked another 62-year-old Bulgarian driver, who was transporting alcoholic beverages to Germany. In this case, six migrants from Afghanistan, three children aged 15 to 16 and three adults aged between 21 and 23, asylum seekers in our country, were found in the trailer.

In Bihor, at the Bors II border crossing point, the border police checked another truck transporting metal pipes to Poland, driven by a Bulgarian citizen but registered in Turkey, finding six Afghans, a 23-year-old adult and five minors, aged between 15 and 17, hidden in the trailer.

In all cases, drivers risk being investigated for migrant trafficking and foreign travellers for attempting to cross the state border illegally.
Elected Fair Haven mayors, a goat, and a dog on January 17 started a fundraiser for a community elementary school playground renovation in Vermont, New England, US. The honorary mayor Murfee, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, and Lincoln the goat raised money from the residents for the local kids to get civically involved by rehabilitating the schools integral area. The 3-year-old Nubian goat runner up Lincoln raised about $10,000, while its successor mayor Cavalier King Charles spaniel raised close to $20,000, raising the benchmark for co-mayor Sammy, town Police Chief Bill Humphries 6-year-old K-9 German Shepherd rescue dog.

Town Manager Joe Gunter told the Rutland Herald, that the community chipped in another $20,000 as the money raised this year by Lincoln hadnt hit the mark due to the pandemic. Therapy dog mayor Murfees owner, Linda Barker, had suggested the dog mayor sells T-shirts for the fundraiser. She then switched to the idea of selling at least 1,000 masks and raised more than $5,000. Additionally, the town had a $50,000 grant which was awarded by the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The money would be utilised to revamp the schools playgrounds for kids, however, the animal mayors of Fair Haven wouldnt be allowed inside.

Read: Dog Greets Devotees Outside Temple, Netizens 'love' The Adorable Video

Read: US Town Elects Bulldog As Mayor In 2020 'Pawlitical' Election, Check Other Cute Candidates

[Cavalier King Charles spaniel Murfee. Credit: AP/Joe Gunter]

[Nubian goat Lincoln. Credit: AP]

The playground displays a "No dogs allowed" sign. Murfee is going to take that up with the town, Barker told AP. He's going to contest that.

Murphy won election in March 2020

In the Vermont town, children and adults vote to choose an animal mayor as dogs, hamsters and even horses run for the mayoral seat. In 2020 polls, while goat Lincoln, therapy dogs Murfee and Sammy were tucked in a tight race, the 3-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel won the race, defeating the incumbent Nubian goat Lincoln.

The four-legged animals annually organize the towns fundraiser to replace the community's elementary school's playground equipment or rehabilitate the ground area as the school is nearly 20 years old. Joe Gunter, the towns person mayor accompanies the furry mayors to raise some money for the towns betterment. Last year, certified therapy dog Murfee nursing homes, grade schools, and hospitals along with other dogs from the Caring Canines Therapy Dogs of Southern Vermont for a fundraising campaign.

Read: AI-enabled Collar Can Detect Emotions In Dogs To Tell Owners How Their Pets Feel

Read: Netizens Fawn Over Navy Special Forces Commando & His Dog Slithering Down From Chopper





Haiti - News : Zapping...





Monitoring of the works of the gas plant

"On Saturday, I paid a visit to the Carrefour Power Plant where two 30 MW gas turbines are being installed. 53 piles out of 119 drilling, reinforcement then concrete pouring) have already been completed. This work will add an additional 60 MW to the grid in the metropolitan area," Dr. Evenson Calixte Director General of the National Regulatory Authority for the Energy Sector (ANARSE).



Launch of the Jacmel Carnival

Sunday January 17, 2021, took place the launch of the 29th Edition of the Carnival of Jacmel, with a provisional budget close to 70 million Gourdes, the Carnival will take place on February 7, 2021 around the theme "Kanaval Jakmel se yon patrimwan, Ann pwoteje l".



Constitutional referendum, an important step forward

"The publication of the Decree on the constitutional referendum https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32723-haiti-new-constitution-what-the-decree-says-on-the-referendum.html is an important step forward towards the development of the new Constitution and its validation by the Haitian people," declared the Embassy of Haiti near the Benelux and the European Union which encourages its European partners to bring their logistical, technical and financial support to the reform Constitution launched by His Excellency President Jovenel Moise. Moreover, the Embassy invites the Haitian community to support the Government in this democratic process which will promote the stability and balance of our political, social and economic institutions.



The PM at the Congress of the Diaspora

The Prime Minister, Mr. Joseph Jouthe participated at the Congress of the Diaspora on the new Constitution https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32769-haiti-flash-3-day-congress-of-the-diaspora-on-the-constitution-petion-ville.html , in the presence of former President Boniface Alexandre President of the Independent Advisory Committee for the preparation of the draft of the new Constitution and of several government ministers. Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe warmly expressed his gratitude to the diaspora for its invaluable contribution to the social and economic life of the country. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-32793-icihaiti-congress-of-the-diaspora-the-minister-of-tourism-presents-the-advantages-of-investing-in-the-country.html



Agriculture: Words of Jovenel Moise

Thursday, January 14 at the Convention and Documentation Center of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), President Jovenel Moise launched the National Bank for Agricultural Development (BNDA). "The country's development, to be socially balanced and sustainable, must be based on a strong agricultural sector. Today, an important step has been taken," declared the Head of State.



DR : Binational dialogue at the Embassy of Haiti

On January 14, a meeting of the binational dialogue table was held at the Embassy of Haiti in Santo Domingo. On the Haitian side, the discussions were led by Ambassador Smith Augustin, and on the Dominican side by the Director of relations with Haiti, Luis Perez Cabrera. During this meeting, questions related to the recent agreements signed by Presidents Luis Abinader and Jovenel Moise on Sunday January 10 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32758-haiti-flash-9-joint-commitments-between-haiti-and-the-dominican-republic.html were discussed.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
A teenage girl who was found 24 hours after she bolted from a bar while drinking cocktails with her older brothers has been embraced by her sobbing mother.

Lativa Taulia appeared happy and carefree in social media videos posted on Sunday night from a restaurant on Church Street in Paramatta, in Sydney's west.

Dressed in a white top and jeans, the 18-year-old smiled as she clinked shot glasses with her two siblings.

But at 6.45pm, just minutes after the 18-year-old's final post, she fled the bar and was last seen that evening at 11pm.

Pictured: Lativa Taulia drinking with her brothers, just hours before she fled for 24 hours

The 18-year-old fled the restaurant after dinner and was seen the following day in Blacktown

About 22 hours later, Ms Taulia was found reunited with her mother, who was so relieved she couldn't stop crying.

An emotional video by her brother showed her tears tightly hugging Ms Taulia who stood motionless in a black shirt, shorts, and holding a lit cigarette.

Her father Lance Taulia was sick with worry and made an impassioned plea on Twitter for his daughter to come home.

'Ive done this for many people, now its personal. Please help me find my daughter,' he wrote.

'Lavita Taulia last seen in Parramatta last night, please contact me via DM if you see or come across her.'

Pictured: The teenager with one of her brothers, who she was drinking with before she vanished

Pictured: The multiple shots and cocktails ordered by the three siblings before Lativa ran away

The teenager's two brothers also kept their Instagram stories updated with news throughout the time their little sister was missing

The teenager's two brothers also kept their Instagram stories updated with news throughout the time their little sister was missing.

'Please Lativa, come home,' one sibling wrote, before asking anyone with information to come forward.

Her second brother wrote: 'Vita was last seen in Blacktown wearing a black shirt. If you're in town or in the area please keep an eye out for her.'

Police also issued a missing person notice, asking anyone with information on her disappearance to come forward.

'Please Lativa, come home,' one sibling wrote, before asking anyone with information to come forward

Police also issued a missing notice, asking anyone with information on her disappearance to come forward

Lavita is described as being of Pacific Islander/Maori appearance, of medium build, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white one shoulder top and dark blue ripped jeans,' the statement read.

'Concerns are held for her welfare due to medical conditions.'

About half an hour after a final plea for Lativa to come home on Instagram, her relieved brother said she was found.

The circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain unknown.

Rolling Updates: North Queensland Braces for Tropical Cyclone Kimi

Update (4.42 p.m.)

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued updated advice at 4.34 p.m. for Tropical Cyclone Kimi, now a category 2 system.

The cyclone is now 165 kilometres north of Townsville in North Queensland and moving south-southeast at 14 km/hr.

Tropical Cyclone Kimi Forecast Track Map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology at 4.42 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2020. (BOM) Refer to Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 11.

The BOM said that TC Kimi is expected to continue south tonight and become slow-moving on Tuesday, somewhere off the coast between Hinchinbrook Island and Townsville.

The cyclone is expected to begin weakening as it stalls on Tuesday. The remnants of the system is expected to begin tracking northwards as a weak tropical low, the BOM said on its website.

The systems movement has been erratic and considerable uncertainty remains with the forecast movement. Hence, a coastal crossing between Hinchinbrook Island and Townsville tonight or on Tuesday REMAINS A POSSIBILITY.

For more information see: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

Update (1:49 p.m.)

Tropical Cyclone Kimi has intensified into a category 2 system as it moves south with a cyclone watch declared for Bowen. However, it is expected to stall and weaken off the coast of Hinchinbrook Island and Townsville on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) in an update at 1.49 p.m. said that it remains possible the cyclone might cross the coast as a category 2 system on Monday night or on Tuesday.

As TC Kimi moves further south, the BOM has cancelled the cyclone warning zone from Port Douglas to Innisfail, replacing it with Innisfail to Ayrincluding Lucinda, Palm Island, and Townsville.

Forecasts show that it might circle back north as a tropical low, potentially returning to the east of Cairns by Jan. 21.

The region from Ayr to Bowen is in the watch zone.

Tropical Cyclone Kimi Forecast Track Map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology at 1:56 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2020. (BOM) Refer to Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 10.

TC Kimi is now 130 kilometres east-southeast of Cairns and 195 kilometres north of Townsville.

The Bureau has warned that destructive wind gusts could reach 150 km/hr near coastal and island areas between Hinchinbrook Island and Ayr overnight or on Tuesday, depending on the movement of the cyclone. Gales with gusts to 120 km/hr are likely as wellpossibly extending southwards to Bowen later on Tuesday.

A flood watch is active in the area as heavy rainfall may bring flash and river flooding between Innisfail and Bowen on Monday night and on Tuesday.

Coastal regions need to be aware of large waves and abnormally high tides on Monday and Tuesday as the cyclone gets closer to the coast, however, the sea level should not exceed the highest tide of the year, the BOM said.

Update (10:34 a.m.)

The Bureau of Meteorology reported an update at 10.34 a.m. that Tropical Cyclone Kimi has moved slowly south of Cairns and is estimated to be about 90 kilometres east off the coast, and 250 kilometres north of Townsville.

The cyclone has picked up speed and is now tracking south at 12 km/hr, and is expected to move closer to the coast on Monday afternoon, where it might intensify into a category 2 system.

Tropical Cyclone Kimi Forecast Track Map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology at 10:47 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2020. (BOM) Refer to Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 9.

The BOM is still considerably uncertain about when and where the cyclone may cross the coast, but current forecasts show it may cross the coast overnight or on Tuesday between Innisfail and Lucinda.

Destructive wind gusts up to 130 km/hr may develop about coastal and island communities between Innisfail and Lucinda overnight or on Tuesday.

Update (7 a.m.)

Far North Queensland residents are battening down the hatches as Tropical Cyclone (TC) Kimi is expected to strengthen off the east coast and make landfall somewhere between Innisfail and Lucinda on Monday evening or Tuesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology said that as of 7 a.m. on Monday the cyclone was 85 kilometres east-northeast of Cairns and 295 kilometres north of Townsville.

Coastal regions between Port Douglas and Ayr are on alert, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Meteorologist David Grant told reporters on Monday.

TC Kimi is expected to develop damaging and destructive winds sometime on Monday or Tuesday with gusts forecast to reach 120 km/hr.

The cyclone slowly crept south throughout Sunday and is expected to shift course on Monday in a south-southwest direction, moving at 9 km/hr.

However, authorities have warned that the cyclone may shift direction once again.

Tropical Cyclone Kimi Forecast Track Map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology at 7:57 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2020. (BOM) Refer to Tropical Cyclone Advice Number 8.

The system is most likely to approach, and may cross, the coast late today or early Tuesday between about Innisfail and Lucinda, however, there remains considerable uncertainty with the crossing time and location, the Bureau Of Meteorolgy warned. The system may intensify further during today and is likely to be at least at least a category two system as it approaches the coast.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged residents to pay attention to emergency updates via radio and media and avoid flooded areas.

Cyclones are a little bit unpredictable, and they will move  during the course of today, she said.

The Queensland Disaster Management Committee will meet on Monday at 3.30 p.m. with the ministers and mayors of the affected regions.

I know that people in the north are very well prepared when it comes to cyclones. They know how to deal with these, they do listen to what authorities are saying, and they are very, very well prepared, Palaszczuk said.

Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski warned residents that the cyclone had shifted directions multiple times already and urged them to monitor updates throughout the day.

Flash Flood Warning

The system will bring heavy rainfall, and flash flooding will be a risk along the tropical east coast for the next few days with a flood watch in place between Cape Flattery and Ingham.

People between Port Douglas and Ayr and inland to Mareeba and Atherton should immediately commence or continue preparations, especially securing boats and property, the BOM said in an update issued online.

Recent rain has saturated the soil, creating the conditions for flash flooding.

I know were Queenslanders, I know we go through cyclones every single year, but please do not be complacent, Police Minister Mark Ryan said.

Ryan said a flood watch had been issued for at least ten waterways including the Jeannie, Endeavour, Daintree, Mossman, Barron, Mulgrave, Russell, Johnstone, Tully, Murray, and Herbert rivers.

So if youre in those areas you need to prepare  if its flooded forget it, have a plan about where youll be travelling, bear in mind where those river catchments are, be aware that during this event you could have flash flooding, he said.

The cyclone had been set to cross the coast between Cooktown and Innisfail, but its now expected to make landfall further south between Innisfail and Lucinda.

More to come.
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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Homicide detectives are investigating after a woman was killed near East Central on Monday morning.

Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said that around 6:30 a.m. officers were called to Rhode Island and Chico NE by the Shot Spotter gunshot detection system. The device alerts officers when a shooting occurs in certain areas of the city.

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As officers arrived, they received a second call advising their friend had been shot, Gallegos wrote in an email. Responding officers located a female with an apparent gunshot wound. The female subject succumbed to the injuries on scene.

He said detectives are conducting interviews and canvassing the neighborhood.

This is the seventh homicide of the year in the city. Only one of the cases has resulted in an arrest.

Also on Monday, Gallegos released updates on the previous investigations:

He said:

 The man who was shot and killed early Saturday at the Motel 6 on Avenida Cesar Chavez SE near Interstate 25 has been identified as 32-year-old Dennis Valdez.

Gallegos said that officers were dispatched overnight to a shots fired call and that as they arrived, they received another call that there was a dead man at the motel.

Officers arrived on the scene and located a male subject with obvious trauma, Gallegos wrote. (Albuquerque Fire Rescue) responded and declared the male deceased.

 The death of a man who was found in a diversion channel later that day is not being considered a homicide.

Gallegos said the man was found dead in the channel near Lafayette and Delamar NE on Saturday, but the cause of death is undetermined.

(The Office of the Medical Investigator) will continue with toxicology and other tests to determine a cause of death, Gallegos wrote.

He did not identify the deceased.

 The woman who was found dead on Rice near Rio Grande NW Sunday night has been identified as 23-year-old Johanna Montoya.

Gallegos said officers were initially dispatched to the scene for a vehicle crash.

 As officers arrived on scene, they located a deceased female with obvious signs of trauma, Gallegos wrote. It was then determined a homicide callout would be initiated due to the suspicious nature of the scene.

He did not say whether the woman was inside or outside a vehicle, or how reports of the crash related to the investigation. Detectives are not releasing additional details at this point, Gallegos said.

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[January 18, 2021] Vaporesso Releases 'Together We Can!' Video to Bring Confidence and Empower the Vaping Community

SHENZHEN, China, Jan. 18, 2021 /CNW/ -- Global vaping brand Vaporesso has recently released an inspiring video 'Together We Can!' on its YouTube channel, aiming to bring confidence and unity to the global vaping community. The video highlights Vaporesso's efforts to create an assistance network for vape shops worldwide through the Vaporesso Power Shop projects. "There are moments in life that test your resolve," states the one-minute video, referring to the fact that vape shops have been facing significant challenges during the pandemic and burgeoning government regulations. At the forefront of the entire e-cigarette industry, vape shops play a crucial role in the vaping market. They bring reliable products to consumers whilealso receiving feedback from the market they pass on to the brand. Vape shop businesses are essential pillars of the vaping industry. Vaporesso's goal is to build a stronger community so that voices are well heard, and communication is easier.



With a membership of over 1,000 vape shops worldwide, the Power Shop is a Vaporesso initiative intended to bolster the international vaping industry by improving cooperation between manufacturers, shops, and consumers. It also supports vape shops with marketing and sales, or even Covid-19 supplies. Vape shops within the community may also choose to help each other and grow together. During the pandemic, Vaporesso has distributed personal protective equipment to stores heavily impacted by COVID-19. As of now, Vaporesso has already donated over one million US dollars to vape shop partners through the Power Shop project.

Over the last year, vape shops have struggled to stay in business due to the pandemic and regulations. "The video reflects the journey we've gone through with our vape shop partners in the past year. There are pain and gain, tough times and achievements. However, our vape shop partners are never alone. There are thousands of friends and partners supporting and empowering each other in the Vaporesso Power Shop community. We've gone through 2020 by supporting each other, and we firmly believe that our community will become even stronger and see a brighter year in 2021." said Simon Lai, Vaporesso's CEO. Vaporesso calls for more vape shops worldwide to join the Vaporesso Power Shop community and contribute to shaping a better future for the vaping industry. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vaporesso-releases-together-we-can-video-to-bring-confidence-and-empower-the-vaping-community-301209907.html SOURCE VAPORESSO

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TUNIS - Unrest was recorded in the night between Sunday and Monday as young demonstrators clashed with police in several areas of Tunisia. Clashes were recorded for the third consecutive night in Cite Ettadhamen, Mnihla and al Intilaka, low-income districts of the capital, as well as Sbeitla, Nabeul, Beja, Kasserine, Jelma, Menzel Bouzalfa, Sousse, Gafsa, Bizerte, Sidi Bouzid, Korba, Tebourba. Violence, looting and attacks against police forces were reported. At least 600 people were arrested.



The violence forced security officers to use tear gas and prompted authorities to deploy the army in several governorates of the country ''to protect institutions and prevent any act of chaos'', said defense ministry spokesman, Mohamed Zekri. During the night, President Kaies Saied oversaw security operations from the interior ministry.



The protagonists of protests were youths, mostly minors, who were called ''looters'' by authorities. Hundreds were arrested (242 last night alone). Some posts on social media have described the unrest as a revolution of the poor amid the Covid crisis who chant slogans against authorities.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Antifa activist Daniel Alan Baker on Friday on allegations of plotting and calling to arms on social media platforms against the Florida state Capitol.

The 33-year-old suspect, a former U.S. Army soldier, proclaimed himself to be a "hardcore leftist," according to a Breitbart report.

Daniel Alan Baker also took part in numerous protests around the country, including Seattle's CHOP/CHAZ zone, to protest against police brutality and "the destruction of America."

Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Tallahassee Police Department assisted the FBI in arresting Baker, who reportedly surrendered peacefully.

Daniel Alan Baker made a poster that reads: "This is an armed COUP and can only be stopped by an armed community!"

He added that if one is afraid to die fighting the enemy, they should stay in bed and live, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

There were also photos and YouTube videos, which show Baker posing beside the Antifa flags, with various firearms and high-capacity magazines.

Prosecutors said that Baker even tried to buy additional firearms, including an AK-47 and a pistol, two days before his arrest.

Related story: Violence, Vandalism, and Looting Erupt Near the White House





Daniel Alan Baker's Profile

Prosecutors said that Daniel Alan Baker was kicked out of the Army and was homeless for several years in the Tallahassee area before choosing to fight with a U.S.-designated terrorist group in Syria, Fox News reported.

He was also reported of attempting to recruit and train others to the anti-government and anti-authority ideology. Baker has also made multiple violent threats to those he claims to be White supremacists, fascists, and other U.S. citizens who have a different ideology than his.

He was also reported to have promoted the killing of U.S. military officers, according to a charge against him filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

He has also recently posted that people should prepare for another civil war and shared a flyer on January 14 with a title, "Call to Arms January 20," with instructions to join him in encircling any protesters and confining them in the state Capitol grounds using firearms.

Baker was also temporarily banned from Facebook after the U.S. Capitol riot. The ban was lifted on January 12, and he posted condemnation to the country and both the current and elected presidents.

After approximately one year in the Army, the Antifa activist received an "other-than-honorable" discharge. He went AWOL in 2007 before his unit was deployed to Iraq.

Daniel Alan Baker also claimed on social media that he was a trained sniper for the People's Protection Units or YPG and that he can be seen in a documentary film fighting ISIS and Turkish militants.

YPG is under the arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is designated by U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Officials Respond to Daniel Alan Baker's Arrest

U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe said that the extremist's intent on violence from either the political and social spectrums must be stopped.

Keefe added that they would not stop in their efforts to detect, deter, and disrupt anyone planning to incite or commit violence, My Local News reported.

According to Tallahassee Democrat, Daniel Alan Baker appeared before Magistrate Judge Charles A. Stampelos on Friday. He would remain at a federal detention center in Tallahassee until his next court appearance scheduled on January 21.

He was charged with violating a federal law that makes it a felony to "transmit in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another."

On Saturday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis granted the request of Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey's to have the National Guard brought in to help protect the state Capitol.

DeSantis granted Dailey's request after receiving a warning through an FBI internal memo stating potential armed protests at state Capitol buildings in all 50 states, days leading up to the inauguration.

The Tallahassee City Hall and the Leon County Courthouse will be closed early this week.

Related story: Tensions Rise in Washington as Thousands of Pro-Trump Protesters, Counterdemonstrators Face Off
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She competed on the 2019 season of I'm Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in the sweltering South African jungle.

And now Ajay Rochester has slammed this season of the reality program, claiming this year's contestants have it 'far better off'.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Monday, the 51-year-old said: 'I'm questioning if I'm watching Celebrity Big Brother or I'm A Celebrity.'

Not impressed! Former contestant Ajay Rochester, 51, (pictured) has slammed this year's series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here claiming the stars 'have it easy'

'They're supposed to be in the jungle and Abbie Chatfield is sitting there licking Vegemite off her fingers while others are being fed McDonald's.'

Ajay said it 'wasn't fair' and she was 'outraged' that celebrities on her season had it harder.

The Australian TV personality continued: 'Jack Vidgen was able to sneak in a massive hoodie and it would have had to go through at least four different people so I don't know how it ended up in there.'

'I'm questioning if i'm watching Celebrity Big Brother or I'm A Celebrity,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. Pictured: (L-R) Jess Eva, Toni Pearen and Travis Varcoe eating McDonalds

'There is absolutely no punishment for contraband,' she said.

'Some of us had to eat kale for two days and only kale. We had to work our a** off for a little salt, yet there they are with herbs and spices and mattresses.'

'They have openly delivered this cooking stuff to them, and yet Pettifleur (Berenger) still complains about the food - Where did she think she was going?' Ajay added.

Annoyed: Ajay said it 'wasn't fair' and she was 'outraged' that celebrities on her season had it harder as they endured hotter temperatures being in South Africa

'Some of us had to eat kale for two days and only kale. We had to work our a** off for a little salt, yet there they are with herbs and spices and mattresses,' she said. Pictured Robert "Dipper" DiPierdomenico sleeping on a mattress

Last week, contestants Jess Eva, Toni Pearen and Travis Varcoe were surprised with McDonald's meals during an episode of the reality competition.

Ajay, who remains in a group WhatsApp chat with her former campmates, said that Richard Reid, who won the 2019 series, also felt the same way.

'This season is all wholesome and there is no drama because everyone is being taken care of, when you get hungry you get agitated and angry and that's what we want (to see).'
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi fears black and ethnic minorities may see a lower take-up of the Covid-19 vaccination.

There are concerns language and cultural barriers are feeding the spread of false information as the Government scientific advice panel revealed large differences in different communities taking the vaccine.

A document released by SAGE last week found a 'marked difference existed by ethnicity, with black ethnic groups the most likely to be Covid-19 hesitant, followed by Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups'.

The report said adults in minority ethnic groups were less likely to receive vaccines than those in white groups, by between 10-20%.

Mr Zahawi said: 'My big worry is if 85% of the adult population get vaccinated, if the 15% skews heavily to the BAME community, the virus will very quickly infect that community.'

There are concerns that BAME communities have low confidence in the Covid-19 vaccine, due, in part, to a lack of endorsement from trusted providers and community leaders. In Bradford community initiatives have tried to encourage uptake among ethnic communities, with Muslim imam Mufti Zubair Butt receiving the jab at Whetley Medical Centre

The minister, who himself was born in Baghdad, Iraq, said he was working with local mayors and councils to get the message across to 'hard-to-reach groups,' that the vaccine is safe.

Among the barriers to the vaccine uptake is the perception of risk, low confidence in the vaccine, and lack of endorsement from trusted providers and community leaders, the undated document said.

Mr Zahawi told Monday's BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I am worried about BAME communities, which is why I'm spending a lot of time with the mayors, with Sadiq (Khan), and of course other parts of local government to make sure we reach those hard-to-reach groups.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi fears Covid-19 will 'quickly infect,' communities who avoid getting the jab, as false information plays on some cultures' religious concerns

Concerns have been raised that misinformation spread within some BAME communities plays on religious concerns - that the vaccine might contain gelatine, or other animal products and is not halal, or that it can result in modification of DNA.

Dr Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, has said language and cultural barriers play a part in the false information being distributed.

He said: 'We need to be clear to our communities that there is no meat or meat products in the vaccine. There is no pork, there is no alcohol and it has been endorsed by religious leaders and religious councils.

'Organisations and officials are working with social Asian role models, community leaders, influencers, religious leaders, to help to debunk some of the myths that are out there.'

Dr Naqvi said is essential for the NHS to tailor its services to meet 'the diverse needs of our communities'.

Religious leaders and councils have endorsed the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, amid concerns that language and cultural barriers play a part in false information being distributed

Salman Waqar, from the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA), who works as a GP in Berkshire and academic researcher at Oxford University, is helping set up one of the local vaccination hubs.

'Some of my colleagues have said that they struggled to book in minority community patients, particularly the elderly,' he said.

'If you look at data from influenza, that's also showed a lower uptake amongst minority communities, so it's not surprising in that sense.

'There is a lot of misinformation, a lot of fog. And people really need help seeing through that fog.

'When you do actually sit them down and explain to them, 'these are the myths', a lot people turn around and they do change their minds.'

IT comes as a campaign in Bradford aimed at a debunking myths and fake news surrounding the vaccine was declared a success.

Well Bradford, a community health programme hosted by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, teamed up with local GP Dr Sohail Abbas to help get the message across.

Among priority groups for the vaccine are gravediggers employed in the Muslim section of Scholemoor cemetery, Bradford.
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - White Metal Resources Corp. (TSXV: WHM) ("White Metal" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received the required drilling permits and will commence the first round of diamond drilling on the Tower Stock Gold Property (the "Property" or the "Project" or "TSGP"). White Metal recently optioned the Tower Stock Gold Property which is located about 40 km west-northwest of the port city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and consists of 52 claims (73 units) and 3 freehold land grants or patented claims covering an area of 1 442 ha (see Company news release dated June 20, 2020).

Commented Michael Stares, President & CEO of White Metal, "Now that the Company has completed its first phase of exploration that included compilation of all historical work, prospecting and sampling, and targeting, I am very confident that our first round of drilling will prove successful. I look forward to updating our shareholders on our results as the drilling program progresses."

Mineralization discovered to date on the Tower Stock Gold Property is classified as syenite-associated disseminated gold deposit-type similar to that of the Kirkland Lake or Malartic gold camps. More specifically, mineralization and alteration styles on the Property are similar to those found at Alamos Gold's Young-Davidson Mine, which is currently one of Canada's largest underground gold mines, forecast to produce between 135,000 to 145,000 ounces of gold for 2020 (reported by Alamos Gold). Mineralization hosted by established operations and other exploration projects is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's Property.

Pyrite is the main sulphide mineral and is generally an indication of anomalous levels of gold. Pyrite typically occurs as disseminations in volcanic flows, tuffs and breccia's, polymictic conglomerate, feldspar porphyry, syenite and hydrothermal breccia's commonly developed along the west contact with the syenite of the Tower Mountain Intrusive Complex ("TMIC").

Historical work has delineated two main areas of gold mineralization which contain historical mineral resources; the UV and Bench zones. In addition to these two zones, numerous targets/showings at variable distances (>100 m to >1 km) from these two main areas, as defined by drill intercepts and surface sampling, show the Property to have exceptional exploration potential. Previous drilling programs targeting gold mineralization and undertaken throughout the Property, show that mineralization remains open, either along strike and/or down dip, including numerous drill holes shut down in target gold mineralization. Additionally, a number of zones that have not been drill tested, returned significant gold mineralization from trenching and surface sampling.

The initial exploration focus of the drilling program at the TSGP will be to test and/or expand known gold mineralization from previous drilling and to test highly anomalous gold surface showings, in conjunction with a detailed assessment and subsequent interpretation of all historical work plus geophysics by the WHM exploration team to further our understanding on controls of the widespread gold mineralization that occurs throughout the Property.

A summary of the main gold targets for the initial 2021 drilling program are as follows:

UV Zone

The UV Zone occurs on the west side and adjacent to the TMIC, with gold mineralization hosted in brecciated fragmental volcanic rocks and to a lesser extent syenite dykes and feldspar porphyry, with an overall pyrite content of 3 to 5%. Mineralization is open to the northwest and southeast, with regional airborne geophysical surveys and more recently ground 'checkerboard' magnetic surveys also indicating extensions of this zone. Bench Zone

The Bench Zone lies 800 m southeast of the UV Zone. Gold mineralization is hosted within lithologies and associated pyrite content similar to the UV Zone but with syenite becoming more significant. Numerous drill holes ended in gold mineralization indicating that the gold zones are still open at depth. A thorough review of data from previous drilling programs shows the potential of the Bench Zone and that it is open to the north and south. Creek Zone

Located between the UV and Bench zones, this area is ~800 m along strike has only been tested by two widely spaced (250 m) diamond drill holes, both intersecting significant gold mineralization. Surface sampling of rare outcrop exposure completed in 2020 returned numerous assays of >0.5 g/t Au. This would suggest that the area between the UV and Bench zones is highly prospective, with the possibly that the two zones may be one continuous gold mineralized zone. 04-36 Zone / A Zone / D Zone

These three widely spaced separate zones, lie along a similar northwest trend that underlies the UV-Bench zones, occurring roughly 400 m to the southwest, representing a mostly untested strike length of >1 km. Also encouraging is that mineralization at all three zones is hosted mostly within polymictic conglomerate. Drilling will focus on extending the individual zones and to further understand controls on mineralization to enable accurate drill targeting between the zones. H Zone

The H Zone occurs wholly within the TMIC where historical grab samples assayed up to 5 g/t Au. Recent grab samples by WHM personnel has delineated this zone for >100 m, but a true assessment of this showing at this time is difficult due to extensive overburden. One historical hole stopped before truly testing the zone.

A detailed review of the Property in late 2020 clearly shows the exceptional prospectivity of the area due to:

widespread gold endowment

numerous targets open along strike and/or down dip

numerous holes ended in mineralization

untested surface showings

overall vertical depth mostly only tested to less than 200 metres

highly advantageous location - 10 km from the TransCanada Highway with year-round road access

Note that rock grab samples are selective by nature and values reported may not represent the true grade or style of mineralization across the property. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to verify the historical assay results reported by previous operators.

The Company would also like to announce that, subject to all regulatory approvals, it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of flow-through and non flow-through units (the "Private Placement"). The Private Placement is expected to close on or before January 31, 2021.

On receipt of all regulatory approvals, the Company intends to issue up to 3,846,153 flow-through units at a price of $0.13 per flow-through unit, each consisting of 1 flow-through common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder to acquire an additional common share of the Company at $0.20 for a period of 24 months from the date of issue, and up to 16,666,667 non flow-through units at a price of $0.09 per unit each consisting of 1 common share of the Company and 1 common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder to acquire an addition common share of the Company at $0.20 for 24 months from the date of issue, for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $2 million. The flow-through shares will entitle the holder to receive the tax benefits applicable to flow-through shares, in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).

In connection with the private placement, the Company may pay finders' fees in cash or securities or a combination of both, as permitted by the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued pursuant to the private placement will be subject to a four-month hold period.

The proceeds of the financing will be used to advance the Company's Tower Stock Gold Property and for working capital purposes.

Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans (P.Geo.), Vice President Exploration and a Director of White Metal, who is a Qualified Person under the definitions established by the National Instrument 43-101.

About White Metal Resources Corp (TSXV: WHM):

White Metal Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company exploring in Canada. For more information in regards to White Metal Resources Corp. you can visit the company's Web Page at www.whitemetalres.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of White Metal Resources Corp.

"Michael Stares"

President & CEO, Director

For further information contact:

Michael Stares

President & CEO, Director

684 Squier Street

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, P7B 4A8

Phone: (807) 358-2420

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72289
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is now the largest private owner of agricultural land in the United States, according to the landowner magazine The Land Report.

The world's fourth richest man currently owns 242,000 acres of farmland across eighteen states.

His largest holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres), Nebraska (20,588 acres) and Arizona (25,750 acres).

The acquisitions are mainly held through Gates' investment company, Cascade Investments.

While Gates and his wife Melinda are the largest private owner of farmland, they are not the largest overall landowner: Billionaire businessman John Malone owns 2.2 million acres.

According to The Land Report, it is unclear why Gates, who has a net worth of $121billion, has invested so heavily in US farmland.

Despite this, he is no stranger to agriculture. His charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on agricultural development in poorer countries, particularly in Africa.

And in 2018, Gates pledged more than 28 million funding for 'cutting-edge' agriculture research projects in Edinburgh.

In the UK, major owners of farmland include the Duke of Buccleuch, the Queen, numerous large grouse moor estates, and James Dyson.
Brisbane, Jan 18 : Australia on Monday got bundled out for 294 in their second innings, thus setting a 328-run target for India on Day Four of the fourth and final Test at The Gabba.

For India, right-arm fast bowler Mohammed Siraj picked up his maiden five-wicket haul, conceding 73 runs in 19.5 overs. Shardul Thakur also picked four wickets for 61 in the 19 overs he bowled while debutant off-spinner Washington Sundar scalped one.

Steve Smith was the top scorer for Australia in the second innings as he scored 55 runs off 74 deliveries, with the help of seven boundaries. David Warner, Marcus Harris and Cameron Green made notable contributions of 48, 38 and 37. Pat Cummins and skipper Tim Paine also made scores of 28 and 27 as the host's second innings came to an end in the 76th over.

Earlier, India had posted 336 in reply to Australia's first inning score of 369, thus conceding a 33-run lead.

The four-match series is currently tied at 1-1 with Australia winning the first Test in Adelaide and India winning the second in Melbourne. The third Test in Sydney had ended in a draw.

Brief scores: Australia 369 and 294 all out (Steve Smith 55, David Warner 48; Mohammed Siraj 5/73) vs India 336 all out

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi:

Three militants of United Tribal Liberation Army (UTLA) have been arrested by the Manipur police on charges of smuggling arms and ammunition.



The police said that the militants were arrested from a hotel in Jiribam districts Jiribam bazaar. 15 gram of heroin and mobile phones were seized from their possession, police added.



The arrested ones have confessed that they are involved in smuggling arms, ammunition and drugs. The investigation is under process, police said.

With inputs from PTI.

ALSO READ: J&K: Bodies of LeT militant Junaid Mattoo, 2 others recovered from encounter site

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
What was true in 1860 is still true today: The Democrat partys strength derives from its racist ideology. In 1860, it hated Blacks. In the 21st century, its hate-filled racial obsessions center on Whites. Thats why, in the summer of 2017, it was manna from Heaven when leftists twisted President Trumps words to create the lie that he supports White supremacists. This useful lie allowed Democrats to slander Trumps supporters too  something it is doing with unusual aggression as Democrats prepare to take over the federal government.

Before Trump glided down the golden escalator in 2015, there had never been a whisper of racism connected to him. Indeed, he was much admired in the Black rap community. Its impossible to imagine they would have felt this way if hed been known for White supremacy.

Moreover, looking back over Trumps four-year presidency, nothing he did or said (when accurately quoted) was racist. His economic policies served minorities spectacularly well. And over 25 years after Bidens crime bill consigned two generations of Black men to prison, Trump finally did what Obama either couldnt or wouldnt: He got a criminal justice reform bill passed that finally returned Black men to their families.

No wonder that Trump received the 2019 Bipartisan Justice Award from a bipartisan organization of Black leaders. And no wonder that Trump improved his performance among both Blacks and Hispanics in the 2020 election. Its inconceivable that these new Republican voters would have cast their votes for Trump if they believed the Democrats insistence that Trump is a White supremacist.

In other words, whether in word or deed, theres nothing of the racist about Trump. Nevertheless, beginning after Charlottesville, Virginia, when people clashed over removing a statue of Robert E. Lee, the media propagated the Fine People Hoax, which may be one of the most successful and damaging lies ever perpetrated in America.

The reality was that Trump said that there were fine people on both sides of the debate  meaning the debate about whether mobs should rip down history. He hastened to add that he was explicitly excluding White supremacists from that statement.

The media, in a spectacular act of dishonesty, latched onto the first statement about fine people, misinterpreted it, and suppressed Trumps immediate and explicit disclaimer. Within hours  and for the remainder of Trumps presidency  the Democrats had their narrative: Trump supports White supremacists.

The equally immediate corollary was and remains that only White supremacists support Trump. Thus, we Trump supporters started off as Deplorables and ended up as Nazis. (Ironically, Virginias Democrats elected as their governor a guy who dressed up either as a KKK member or wore Blackface; its hard to tell.)

With Trump due to walk out of the White House on Wednesday, one would think the left would let up on this narrative. Instead, the left is doubling down on it (hat tip for link round-up: Revolver).

None of the articles can explain why one of the people who was a leader on Capitol Hill that day was John Sullivan, a young Black man, a leftist, whose own brother said that he went there to be a provocateur and leader. Its hard to imagine a raging army of White supremacists looking to Sullivan for leadership, but he was one of the ones whom those alleged race haters followed.

It doesnt take a genius to understand why the Leftists and NeverTrumpers are escalating their contention that Trump is a racist, even as he leaves the D.C. scene. Seventy-five million Trump supporters are still living, working, and voting in the U.S., and the left must marginalize them by otherizing them in the worst possible way.

Additionally, the leftist coalition has nothing in common but a sense of victimhood and an abiding hatred for Trump and racists. Because the left will be in power, that sense of victimhood is going to diminish. Instead, therell be fierce battles for political money and spoils, which will start to break down the coalition.

Trump will be gone, so the only thing that will bind that disparate, angry party together is hating you. If youre familiar with 1984s two-minutes of hate for Emmanuel Goldstein, get ready for the Groundhog Day version, which is endless, daily minutes of hate for anyone low on melanin whoever supported Donald Trump.

IMAGE: Trump as Emmanuel Goldstein by O.Binkey.
She is accustomed to working with the European Unions chemical regulation system known as REACH, which has a reputation for strictness. Companies are required to submit lengthy files on each chemical substance that they supply inside the European Union, detailing its properties and uses as well as the potential risks and hazards, to the European Chemical Agency, based in Helsinki. Ms. Loughran said REACH was a headache, which we dreaded and cursed, but at least it covered the whole trading bloc including Britain.

But the chemical industry had hoped that, after Brexit, Britain and the European Union would continue sharing data filed under REACH, but that language did not make it into Decembers deal.

Companies now face the prospect of making voluminous and largely duplicate filings on the chemicals they want to sell in Britain with a newly created British agency, UK REACH. The fees charged and the work required in reconstructing data on product safety and other matters, which is expected to take several years, could eventually add up to 1 billion, according to estimates from the Chemical Industries Association, a British trade body.

A company cant simply cut and paste statements and files that have been previously lodged with the European regulator because, in many cases, the filings are full of commercially sensitive intellectual property belonging to other firms.

Stephen Elliott, the industry groups chief executive, said chemical firms operating in Britain could be forced to replicate almost word for word the submissions they have already made to the European regulator.

That is a pointless use of resource, he said.

Mr. Elliott said that the industry continued to lobby the government to agree to accept the filings it has already made under REACH, but said that at this point such an outcome looked like a tall order because of the governments aversion to relying on European regulation.
A wheelbarrow and a handful of metal grids for capturing litter, emblazoned with the words Renew Oceans, sit rusting outside an empty, padlocked office in the Indian city of Varanasi, a short walk from the Ganges. It is all that is left of a programme, funded by some of the worlds biggest oil and chemical companies, that they said could solve a runaway ocean plastic waste crisis which is killing marine life  from plankton to whales  and clogging tropical beaches and coral reefs. The closure of Renew Oceans, which has not previously been reported, is a sign ...
[January 18, 2021] Silexica Announces New Distribution Partnership With Jingwei HiRain Technologies

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Silexica (Silexica.com) today announced a new distribution partnership with Beijing Jingwei HiRain Technologies Co., Inc., a leading Tier 1 solution provider for the automotive market in China, headquartered in Beijing, to extend the distribution channels of SLX FPGA. Using the SLX FPGA tool, Silexica is committed to accelerate the journey from C/C++ to FPGA and ASIC. "We are excited about the partnership between Silexica and Jingwei HiRain Technologies as this aligns with our growth initiatives in creating global availability and local support for our customers," said Greg Cole, Director of Worldwide Sales at Silexica. "With Jingwei HiRain Technologies' in-depth knowledge of EDA tools and strong local presence in China, it creates an opportune moment for us to deliver the best solution to customers and accelerate the journey from C/C++ to application-specific hardware." Effective today, the agreement entitles Jingwei HiRain Technologies the rights to distribute Silexica's SLX FPGA in the Chinese market. Through Jingwei HiRain Technologies network and extensive sales channels in the country, Silexica will be able to strengthen its presence and customer support in China. The agreement further iterates both companies' willingness to drive growth and build relationships with customers in the Chinese market. "At Jingwei HiRain Technologies, we are continuously evolving and developing new solutions to enhance customers' processes and success," said Yingcun Ji, CEO of Jingwei HiRain Technologies. "With Silexica's SLX we found an innovative and unique technology that perfectly complements our growing portfolio and supports our customers to convert C/C++ code into an FPGA much faster and with better performance." Jingwei HiRain Technologies and Silexica are working together to drive next-generation automotive solutions using Xilinx silicon. Xilinx, Inc., is the worldwide leading supplier of programmable logic devices for the automotive market with a proven track record of solutions targeted for infotainment, driver assistance, an driver information systems.



"The automotive market in China is growing rapidly with the push to autonomous driving and electrification at the forefront of growth," said Willard Tu, senior director of the automotive business unit at Xilinx. "Jingwei HiRain Technologies' technical expertise combined with Silexica's tool suite will further drive adoption of Xilinx's automotive silicon solutions in China." Overcome High-Level Synthesis Challenges with SLX FPGA

Adopting a high-level synthesis (HLS) methodology presents challenges that must be considered and overcome during the design process. SLX FPGA tackles the challenges associated with the HLS design flow, including non-synthesizable C/C++ code, non-hardware aware C/C++ code, detection of application parallelism, and pragma insertion location to help engineers prepare and optimize their C/C++ application code for HLS. About Silexica Silexica provides software development tools reducing time-to-market of innovative software IP and intelligent products. Enabled by deep software analysis, heterogeneous hardware awareness, and quick design space exploration, the SLX programming tools accelerate the journey from software to application-specific hardware systems, democratizing accelerated computing. Founded in 2014, Silexica is headquartered in Germany with offices in the US and Japan. It serves innovative companies in the automotive, robotics, wireless communications, aerospace, and financial industries and has received $28M in funding from international investors. For more information, visit www.silexica.com. About Jingwei HiRain Technologies Since its founding in 2003, Jingwei HiRain Technologies has grown to become a leading supplier for automotive electronic products, project consulting & engineering, development tools and operational services. The company is headquartered in Beijing with global offices/operations including China (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Changchun, Wuhan, Chongqing, Nantong), North American (Detroit), and Europe (Munich).

Jingwei HiRain Technologies is guided by the principles of delivering exceptional customer value, high-quality products, and superior customer service. The company is driven by a very talented team - 54% of whom hold either Doctorate or Masters Degrees in engineering or business. Together, we have created a corporate culture which strongly encourages cooperation and communication while advocating creativity and innovation through scientific enquiry. For more information, visit http://www.hirain.com. PR Contact

press@silexica.com

silexica.com Related Images new-distribution-partnership.png

New distribution partnership between Silexica and Jingwei HiRain

Silexica Announces New Distribution Partnership with Jingwei HiRain Technologies View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/silexica-announces-new-distribution-partnership-with-jingwei-hirain-technologies-301210122.html SOURCE Silexica GmbH

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"The lady was like, 'I don't want to ask, but can either of you check on them?' and Lisa's just jumped at it and said, 'Yeah, yeah I'll go.' " Lisa Mandeltort and her partner Bill Murphy. The woman asked Ms Mandeltort if she was a strong swimmer, to which the school teacher replied jokingly, "Look at me, I'm in a swimsuit," her partner said. "She always found joy in teaching and helping others. That's who she was. Her last words were a joke to comfort someone whose teenage daughter was drowning in the ocean," Mr Murphy said. Ms Mandeltort was able to help the man and teenage girl, who made it back to shore unharmed, but she soon started waving her hand to signal she herself was in trouble.

It took about eight minutes for lifesavers to drag Ms Mandeltort, who was by then unconscious, back to shore, where an off-duty lifeguard started CPR but could not revive her. Mr Murphy lovingly described his partner as stubborn and said that was one of the reasons he wouldn't have been able to stop her from entering the water even if he tried. "There's never a point where I am feeling that survivor's guilt of, 'Oh I could have said something to stop her, I could have run and tackled her,' because she was gone before I could do anything and at the end of the day, even if I had said something, it's who she was," he told Nine News. "She was always someone who cared about people who were struggling."

Although Ms Mandeltort is being remembered publicly as a hero for her actions, Mr Murphy said she should be remembered for the rich and complex life she led. "To call someone brave or heroic by death that final action never really does justice to the person," he said. Ms Mandeltort and her dog. "Yes, she was brave and heroic, but she was also sad and anxious and delightful and romantic and funny, caring. And it's never a thing that you can actually put into words. "I would rather her be [a] coward and [still] be here with me."

Mr Murphy described his grief as an "emptiness". "I woke up the next morning and found the surprise birthday party that she planned on her phone. My birthday is [this] week," he said. Lisa Mandeltort. "Things like that are devastating as you'd absolutely imagine  but it's the quiet moments where you just go: 'This is life now and it f---ing sucks.' " Nossal High School principal Roger Page said Ms Mandeltort  who taught science, chemistry and digital technology across years 9 to 12  would always challenge her students to do new and creative things.

"Lisa was highly dedicated, very professional, and very engaged and engaging," Mr Page told The Age.



He said she was immensely proud of the results of one of her VCE students who received a 99.95 ATAR score. "Shed be quite inspired by that," he said. The school will hold a remembrance assembly for Ms Mandeltort next week. "Teachers and students, were all pretty shocked and devastated  as I think one of our teachers said today, they weren't surprised that Lisa would put herself in danger to help someone else," Mr Page said. "Its an absolute tragedy that someone so young and vital has lost her life in that manner and we will greatly miss her."

Ms Mandeltort's father, Michael, said although he was proud of his daughter for immediately trying to help others, he urged swimmers to be aware of their limits. Loading "I'm proud but I'm sad that she's gone. I always knew she'd do what she did  hopping into the water [but] I was hoping she'd come out breathing," he said. "Please think twice before you decide to do something that could be outside of your range of capabilities. Don't. It really hurts those that you left behind." Last Wednesday's three water-related deaths prompted Premier Daniel Andrews and Life Saving Victoria to urge swimmers to take precautions before taking entering the water this summer.
University and regional government officials join the awarded agricultural extension officers for a group photo. [Photo provided to China Daily]

By Otiato Opali in Nairobi, Kenya

In order to support poverty reduction and rural agricultural development practices in Tanzania, the China Agricultural University in March 2018 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania to advance collaboration in agricultural research and development.

Almost three years later, the benefits of this collaboration are already visible. According to the Morogoro Regional Secretariat, the government arm coordinating the project, it has increased maize productivity from an average of 2 tons per hectare to 3.

This has increased food security and income generation, as the project is on course to reach 2,000 demonstration farmers, each with at least one acre of maize fields, by the end of this year.

On Jan 13, another milestone was reached by the project after an online ceremony was conducted to acknowledge the hard work of the top 10 agricultural extension workers on the maize labor intensification project in Morogoro.

Speaking at the event, Emmanuel Kalobele, Morogoro's regional administrative secretary, said the collaboration between CAU and SUA has increased interaction between farmers and extension officers in his region by upscaling the frequency of field visits.

"Some of our agricultural and extension officers from villages were privileged to have a study tour in China and learn more on agriculture development, and also a number of students and officials from CAU visited the Morogoro region to evaluate our progress," Kalobele said.

"We are glad that based on this spirit of mutual learning and sharing between Chinese and Tanzanian small farmers, we have attained capacity-building for local stakeholders to enable the adoption of Chinese technologies and approaches in selected pilot villages," he added.

In her address, Wang Ke, China's ambassador to Tanzania, said such collaborations have led to an increase of Chinese investment in Tanzania's agriculture sector and more Tanzanian agricultural products are entering the Chinese market.

"As one of the agricultural bases in Tanzania, Morogoro has played an important part in China-Tanzania agriculture cooperation. The region hosts a Chinese sisal farm, with its sisal fiber being processed and exported to China. The Chinese Agriculture Technical Demonstration Centre based in Morogoro has also been instrumental in bringing Chinese advanced agricultural techniques to the people of Tanzania," Wang said.

"I hope the cooperation between CAU, SUA and the Morogoro region will be further strengthened, and through this program more Chinese agricultural experience can be passed on, so that more local farmers, rural people, women and children in particular can benefit and become food secure," she added.

Wang expressed her hopes with the success of this project, it could be promoted to other regions in Tanzania and set a good example of collaboration to improve grain production and ensuring food security in Tanzania.

Speaking from China, Du Taisheng, vice president of CAU, said the award ceremony is evidence of the significant and substantial people-oriented cooperation between Tanzania and China.

"The China-Tanzania joint maize project is a success, and the cooperation between China and Tanzania is fruitful. We are happy project farmers benefited from the increasing yield of their maize production. Under the leadership of the local government, agricultural extension workers have played a significant role in promoting maize planting technology. I congratulate them on their achievements," Du said.

To acknowledge the hard work of the top 10 agricultural extension workers, they received a certificate and a motorcycle. Kalobele said the motorcycles will be instrumental in expanding their reach in far-flung areas as they share the knowledge they have acquired with more farmers.

"The reason we settled on motorcycles as an award is to facilitate their movement within the village during the implementation of their daily duties. With motorcycles, they will be able to reach many farmers within a short time," he said.

Updated: 2021-01-14

 
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A celebrity facialist has revealed her ultimate guide to sunscreen, and the mistakes you've been making your entire life.

Melanie Grant, from Sydney, said thousands of us apply far too little sunscreen every single day, which leads in the short term to sun damage and in the long term potentially to more harmful things like skin cancer and melanoma.

'Remember, it's likely you are applying way less sunscreen than you actually need to adequately protect yourself from the sun,' Melanie wrote on Instagram.

She shared her top tips to ensure you're getting the most from your products.

How much sun cream do you need?

Melanie said a 'rough guide' for an average-sized adult should see you apply a full teaspoon of sunscreen for the face and neck.

Then, you need another seven to eight teaspoons of product for the rest of your body.

'Don't forget to ensure you're applying in frequently overlooked spots, like between the eyebrows, behind your neck, around your eyes, up into the hairline and the backs of your hands,' Melanie said.

'And remember, UV rays break down the ingredients in sunscreen, meaning the maximum SPF efficacy remains steady for only an hour or so.'

She added: 'Apply liberally and frequently, and try to stay in the shade or away from direct sunlight as much as possible.'

You can also follow the 'two finger rule', making sure you squeeze enough product on to your index and middle finger to cover one limb each and then your face and neck.

What are the main mistakes people make? * Not applying enough product: you need one teaspoon per face and neck, and seven to eight teaspoons for the rest of your body. * Thinking you can 'layer' an SPF15 over an SPF30 moisturiser and this gives you SPF45+. It doesn't. * Forgetting frequently overlooked spots, like between the eyebrows, behind your neck, around your eyes, up into the hairline and the backs of your hands. * Using the wrong sunscreen for your skin type. The skin type best suited to a chemical sunscreen is anyone with sensitive, dehydrated, dry or mature skin - or if you want a product that 'sits nicely' under makeup. Physical sunscreens, on the other hand, are suited to anyone who struggles with congestion and inflammation. * Not re-applying enough, particularly if you're using a physical sunscreen, which sits on top of the skin. Remember, if you have been swimming, or you've just finished a sweaty gym class, it's likely your sunscreen has been completely washed away. * Using aerosol products. These do not have the same level of efficacy. Advertisement

What are physical and chemical sunscreens and which is right for you?

One of the first things to look at when buying sunscreen is whether you want a physical or chemical product - and which one is best for your skin type.

'Chemical sunscreen is a variant of sunscreen that employs chemical agents to protect against the sun,' Melanie explained.

'Chemical agents absorb UV light within the skin and dissipate it as heat energy.'

The skin type best suited to a chemical sunscreen is anyone with sensitive, dehydrated, dry or mature skin - or if you want a product that 'sits nicely' under makeup.

'Physical sunscreen is a variant of sunscreen that works like a surface layer, coating the skin to physically deflect, scatter and block the UV light from skin,' Melanie said.

Physical sunscreens, on the other hand, are suited to anyone who struggles with congestion and inflammation, as they are 'non-comedogenic'.

They are also good for those who struggle with redness as no heat is absorbed into the skin, which might aggravate any flushing.

Melanie said if you opt for physical sunscreen, you're going to have to be more careful with your re-application as it sits on top of the skin.

'Remember, if you have been swimming, or you've just finished a sweaty gym class, it's likely your sunscreen has been completely washed away,' she said.

What is the difference between UVA and UVB protection?

Sunscreens often report to fight either or both UVA and UVB rays - but what do these mean?

'Ultra violet A rays are responsible for the premature ageing of skin, while ultra violet B rays cause sunburn and skin cancer,' Melanie said.

'If a sunscreen is broad spectrum, it means its UVA protection is proportional to its UVB protection.'

Melanie said you should always look for broad spectrum products in order to ensure your skin is adequately protected, even when buying moisturisers and serums.

What is the one type of sunscreen you shouldn't use?

When it comes to what you should avoid, Melanie said she always steers clear of aerosols - or any form of spray products.

'Aerosols have become increasingly popular to their "simple" means of application, but I advise against using them,' she said.

'Uneven, sloppy, incorrect and under application is far too easy when using aerosol sunscreens, and the Cancer Council strongly advises against using them.'

What does the sun protection factor really mean and what are the common mistakes?

While you might think you know what SPF means, many in fact don't realise what the acronym denotes.

'SPF denotes the sun protection factor of a product,' Melanie said.

'Simply put, it refers to the percentage of UVB rays blocked by sunscreen. SPF15+ allows you to be in the sun 15 times longer than it would normally take for you to burn without sunscreen, and so on.'

The facialist said many people mistakenly think of sun protection as a layering system, but this is not the truth:

'If you apply a sunscreen with SPF50+, a moisturiser with SPF15+ and a foundation with SPF30+, this does not equate to SPF95+,' Melanie said.

Instead, you should always opt for SPF50+ where possible, and never go less than SPF30+.

'If you see sunscreen brazenly emblazoned with anything over SPF50+, avoid it!' Melanie said.

'This level of sun protection is not possible, nor is it recognised by strict government regulations. SPF50+ is the highest form of sun protection.'

To find out more about Melanie Grant, you can visit her website here. You can also follow her on Instagram here.
PORTLAND, Ore  On Sunday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 799 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. That brings the state's total to 133,205 cases since the pandemic began.

Health officials said on Sunday they surpassed 200,000 doses of COVID vaccine administered to Oregonians. That includes first and second doses of the vaccine.

OHA said they are meeting Gov. Kate Browns goal of administering 12,000 vaccinations per day. On Saturday, they administered 12,781 doses.

There are 361 patients across Oregon who are hospitalized with coronavirus, that number is four fewer than Saturday. OHA reported there are 95 patients in intensive care unit beds, which is three more than Saturday.

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported are in the following counties: Baker (2), Benton (12), Clackamas (66), Clatsop (16), Columbia (10), Coos (5), Crook (6), Curry (6), Deschutes (46), Douglas (11), Gilliam (3), Harney (2), Hood River (3), Jackson (30), Jefferson (15), Josephine (30), Klamath (6), Lake (1), Lane (53), Lincoln (6), Linn (7), Malheur (7), Marion (86), Morrow (5), Multnomah (102), Polk (34), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (57), Union (10), Wasco (8), Washington (131), Yamhill (20).

Health officials reported one death from COVID-19 on Sunday, which raised the states death toll to 1,800.

Oregons 1,800th COVID-19 death was a 74-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested positive Dec. 6 and died Dec. 25. Location of death is being confirmed. She had underlying conditions.
An American expat living in Australia has discovered the classic catchphrase 'shrimp on the barbie' was all a 'lie'.

Brittany Neff quickly learned life Down Under was very different after moving to Geelong, Victoria, from Pennsylvania in early 2019.

In an amusing TikTok video, the 26-year-old said she only realised once she moved to the country that no one actually says 'throw a shrimp on the barbie'.

The iconic phrase, which is slang for grilling prawns on a barbecue, is still associated with Australians to this day - and is mistakenly thought to be commonly used.

Scroll down for video

American expat Brittany Neff (pictured) living in Australia has discovered the classic phrase 'shrimp on the barbie' was all a 'lie'

'Living in America, you always hear that one Australian slang like "throw some shrimp on a barbie". I feel like after moving to Australia, my childhood was a lie,' she joked.

'Because A, I've never had shrimp on a barbie here and B, Australians don't call even shrimp "shrimp", they call them "prawns". I'm upset.'

The world-famous phrase originated in the 80s from an Australian Tourism advertisement starring actor Paul Hogan who urged Americans at the time to 'come and say g'day', adding 'I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you'.

And it wasn't the only thing Brittany learned about the country. In the video, she shared other things she discovered including 'cuppa', 'arvo' and AFL.

In an amusing TikTok video , the 26-year-old said she only realised once she moved to the country that no one actually says 'throw a shrimp on the barbie'

Brittany quickly learned life Down Under was very different after moving here from the US

'I'm a huge tea fanatic, I would have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and during snack time. And I would just call it a cup of tea back home,' she said.

'But in Australia, they call it a "cuppa... I'm going to have a cuppa". How cute is that?

'In American, the time "afternoon" is just afternoon but in Australia, you would call it the arvo.'

Brittany said she didn't know AFL (Aussie Rules) existed until she moved to Australia.

'I didn't know Australian rules footy was a thing. It's not televised in America, I like it but I don't understand it,' she added.
Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in a gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety.

The Xinhua News Agency said Monday a note passed through a rescue shaft Sunday night reported the fate of the other 10 remains unknown.

The handwritten note said four of the workers were injured and that the condition of was deteriorating because of a lack of fresh air and an influx of water.

Managers of the operation were detained after they failed to report the accident for more than a day.

The mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under the city of Yantai in Shandong province, had been under construction at the time of the blast, which occurred January 10.

More than 300 workers are seeking to clear obstructions while drilling a new shaft to reach the chambers where the workers were trapped and expel dangerous fumes.

Keep on with the rescue efforts. We have hope, thank you," read the note, written in pencil on notebook paper and posted on Xinhua's official website.

China's industry has a reputation for skirting safety requirements amid massive demand for coal and precious minerals, although increased supervision has reduced the frequency of accidents that used to claim an average of 5,000 miners per year.

Two accidents in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing last year killed 39 miners, prompting the central government to order another safety overhaul.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Paul Reid confirmed that there are more than 2,000 people now receiving hospital treatment for the first time.

There are now more than 2,000 Covid-19 patients in Irish hospitals for the first time, HSE CEO Paul Reid has confirmed.

As of this morning, there are 2,023 patients with the virus receiving care in hospital, with over 400 receiving help to breathe from high-grade ventilation and respiratory supports.

There are just 22 free ICU beds across the hospital system, latest HSE data shows, with 193 people in ICU with the virus and 108 of those are ventilated.

Read More

There were 12 hospitals across the country with no ICU beds free, despite national critical care surge plans being in effect, as of last night.

Only seven hospitals in the nation had more than one available ICU bed as of 6:30pm last night.

Mr Reid said that the health service is working really hard to remain in control.

2,023 patients are now in hospital with Covid-19. Over 400 are receiving high grade ventilation & respiratory support inside & outside of ICU. Our national critical care surge plans are activated. We're working really hard to remain in control. Your help counts, the HSE boss said in a tweet this morning.

Dr Ian Counihan, Clinical Lead Covid-19, at Our Lady of Lourdes said the Drogheda hospital is in a degree of surge due to the amount of wards dedicated to Covid.

The hospital had the highest number of Covid-19 admissions in the country three of the last seven days as Louth experiences a surge in case numbers.

Dr Counihan said that some patients who do not have Covid-19 are being moved from ICU to coronary care to be treated there with ventilators.

The Consultant respiratory physician says it appears that the rate of admissions across the country does appear to be plateauing or slowing down since the start of the weekend.

Dr Counihan confirmed that this wave is seeing a lot more younger people becoming seriously ill with the virus.

Theres a large group of younger people that are admitted with Covid pneumonia. We have patients in their 20s, 30s and 40s in the hospital on oxygen but certainly, for the last week, were seeing an increase in those in their 70s and 80s.

It is a huge stretch on our staff - weve been doing this for almost a year now, he told Morning Ireland.

Dr Counihan says the degree to which how sick patients are is causing hospital staff a lot of stress.

He said that on average last week, 20 patients were on their wards that would have been usually in ICU or High Dependency Units due to how sick they are but the space is not there to allow for that now.
On this day remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., evidence exists everywhere that his lifes work is not yet done. A lifelong warrior for both civil rights for Black Americans and for better living and working conditions for poor people of every race and description, King was a social justice leader who worked for a better America all the way up until he was murdered in Memphis in April 1968.

But amid the deepening economic inequality and racial divide of our times, there are also glimpses of Kings vision coming true. For those moments of hope we are grateful today.

A striking example has been the political earthquake building over the past two years in Georgia, the state where King was born and from which he led his nonviolent movement for civil rights.

Just 26 months ago, former Georgia state lawmaker Stacey Abrams was on the losing end of a terribly close election for governor. Amid furious claims of voter suppression, which remain disputed, she stewed for a while  refusing even to formally concede, so certain that Black votes had been suppressed  but then, in the best imitation of King, she got busy.

What she accomplished since has changed the course of American history  and provided the country something it badly needs now: reason to believe that we are still on the path King set toward becoming a place where all citizens, regardless of our stations in life, have a stake in our future, a voice that can be heard and a vote that will be counted.

As Brian Kemp, the third consecutive Republican to serve as Georgia governor, was being sworn in after the 2018 election, Abrams began working with an army of fellow activists to identify Black voters whose voices had been missing in the states big elections. She helped them work around the legal and other barriers to Black participation on Election Day that are so prevalent in her state and many others in the South, including Texas.

In November, the power of those voices reverberated across America as Georgia voters famous allegiance to Republican presidential candidates  they hadnt backed a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992  was upended by a narrow victory for Democrat Joe Biden. The echoes swelled to a thunderclap this month, when Democrats outvoted Republicans in races against each of Georgias two incumbent Republican U.S. senators.

Across our state, we roared, Abrams said after the Jan. 5 victories.

The victories gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, promising to supercharge Bidens presidency.

But theyre more than partisan victories. All Americans, Democrats and Republicans, can be proud of something bigger in Georgias election outcome.

Whats inspiring, and so fitting to recall on this day, is that one of the winners is a Black man who for 15 years has been pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, once the home base for King, and who brings a radically different set of life experiences to the Capitol than the men who usually serve in the upper chamber.

Born the 11th of 12 children to parents in Savannah, including a mother who picked cotton in her youth, the fiery preacher is the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South.

The other day, because this is America, the Rev. Raphael Warnock said after the win, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody elses cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator.

Also on Jan. 5, Georgia voters elected 33-year-old Jon Ossoff, the youngest senator since Biden more than 40 years ago. Ossoff, the son of an immigrant and one of the few Jews ever to represent the South in the Senate, beat incumbent Republican David Perdue.

Democrats began singing Abrams praises even before all the votes had been cast, so effective had been her work organizing and turning out Black voters. But the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives has insisted  credibly  that many others also deserve credit for what was a massive response to the 2018 claims of voter suppression.

Looking ahead to the 2020 election, Abrams knew she had strong backing to run for one of the two Senate seats, but instead poured her energies into a grassroots organizing effort that eventually registered upward of 800,000 new voters. These voters helped Biden and the Senate candidates win their races and send President Donald Trump into a post-election spiral.

His funk over his loss led him to call both Kemp and new Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to demand they do something to overturn the states votes or find him enough votes to win.

To their enormous credit, they bravely refused. They chose democracy, and the Constitution, over partisan politics, perhaps even at the risk of their own political careers. The president responded with personal attacks, saying he was ashamed of ever endorsing Kemp and vowing to retaliate politically.

Rarely have two such bitter rivals as Kemp and Abrams played important roles with the integrity they did in the two years following their 2018 gubernatorial race.

Democracy survives, and politics in Georgia  where opposition to civil rights has for so long been a potent tool in the pitch for conservative white voters, first among Democrats during the Jim Crow era and later for GOP voters  may never be the same.

Thats a kind of outcome Dr. King would have approved of.
(Newser)  A student who failed to wear their mask properly failed their university entrance exam in Japan. Authorities say the student, one of more than 535,000 who took the standardized exam at 681 locations across Japan Saturday, was disqualified because they didn't wear their mask over their nose and repeatedly disobeyed instructions to adjust it, Kyodo News reports. The student was disqualified after the seventh and final warning, according to the National Center for University Entrance Examinations. The center says the student, whose age and sex were not made public, did not explain why they were refusing to cover their nose.

story continues below

The center says students taking the exams are required to wear masks correctly, but those who have a valid reason not to wear a mask can take the exam in a separate room if they provide notice one day in advance. "We made our decision comprehensively because the test-taker, who was not even coughing, continued not to cover the nose intentionally," an official at the center said, per the Asahi Shimbun. "It is not misconduct to occasionally uncover noses when participants feel difficulty in breathing. The test-taker was disqualified for repeatedly refusing to follow the instructions." (Read more Japan stories.)
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The UKs National Health Service on Saturday said that it has teamed up with law enforcement and security agencies to warn the public not to fall victim to con artists trying to exploit the coronavirus vaccine campaign.

Englands senior doctors have joined hands with Action Fraud and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to issue joint advice reminding people that vaccines are only available for free at the NHS, and health service staff will never ask for payment to get it.

It comes as a 33-year-old man was charged by the City of London police with five offences including common assault and fraud over the fake administration of a "COVID-19 vaccine" after he conned an elderly woman.

We know how excited people are to get the vaccine when its their turn to do so, but sadly were seeing that excitement is also bringing out the cheats, crooks and conmen looking to make a fast buck, said Dr Nikki Kanani, general practitioner (GP) and NHS medical director for primary care.

Remember, the vaccine will always be free on the NHS. Our staff will never ask for, or accept, cash for vaccines, never ask for your banking details or identity documents, and will never come around to your house unannounced, she said.

The warning comes as temples and mosques in the country launched a drive to combat fake news around the two vaccines currently being administered in the UK  the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs.

We have encouraged people to be aware and remain vigilant of any scams in relation to the vaccine, sharing the standard NHS advice from their websites, said a spokesperson for Neasden Temple in London.

The warnings come amid a number of reports of criminals attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to steal cash or personal details from people keen to get the vaccine.

In one extreme case, a man in London knocked on the door of a 92-year-old woman and administered her with a fake vaccine before taking a 160 pounds payment, which he told her would be reimbursed by the NHS.

In other cases, people are reporting suspicious text messages with a link to a booking site which mimics an NHS page, but asks for personal details including bank account numbers.

Con artists have also been known to use telephone calls to extract payments or bank details which can then be sold to organised criminal gangs or used to order and pay for goods online.

The vaccine is a crucial tool in fighting the coronavirus and keeping people safe. Thankfully, the number of reports into Action Fraud are relatively low but we have seen an increase in the last two months, particularly around scam text messages, said Pauline Smith, Head of Action Fraud.

Remember, the NHS will never ask for your bank account or card details. Anyone asking for payment for the vaccine is committing fraud, she said.

As of January 10, Action Fraud, the UKs national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, said it has received 65 reports in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The advice is very simple. The vaccine is only available on the NHS, and you will never be asked to pay for it or to provide your bank details. Anything that suggests otherwise is a fraud," said Graeme Biggar, Director General of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA.

The NHS said that public polling has consistently shown a high level of enthusiasm for the COVID-19 vaccine, which is now being made available at over 1,000 sites across England.

Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic. It is vital that we do not let a small number of unscrupulous fraudsters undermine the huge team effort underway across the country to protect millions of people from this terrible disease, said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The vaccines are being rolled out free of cost by the NHS, with letters going out to eligible categories of those most at risk of death from coronavirus and frontline workers through the NHS, certain employers, GP surgeries or pharmacies.

The UK government has set a target to cover all the vulnerable groups by mid-February before further expanding the vaccination programme to other lower risk adults.
Martin Luther King Day is Monday, Jan. 18.

The holiday is set aside to honor King, the late civil rights leader. It is marked on the third Monday in January of each year, close to Kings actual birthday on Jan. 15.

King was born Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta. He rose to national prominence when he led the boycott of the Montgomerys transit system after Rosa Parks, an African-American, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus. King later helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and went on to lead protests throughout the South and, in 1963, was a central figure in the March on Washington.

King was killed by an assassin on April 4, 1968 in Memphis.

Heres a look at whats open, whats closed on Martin Luther King Day 2019:

Federal offices - Closed

State offices - closed

City and county offices - Most closed

Courts - Closed

U.S. Post Office - Closed, mail will not run

Fed Ex  Modified schedule, some early drop offs and pickups. All other FedEx services will operate normally.

UPS - Open, normal pick-up and delivery

ABC stores - Alabama state liquor stores are open unless otherwise closed on Monday. Some locations are currently closed due to COVID-19.

Grocery stores - Open

Banks - Closed

Stores and malls - Open, most on normal schedules. Walmart and Target are operating on regular schedules, as are most grocery and drug stores.

Stock markets - Closed

Schools and universities - Closed

Track pick-up - Most will be suspended on MLK Day, check with your provider for holiday schedules

Public transportation- Limited or moderated service in most areas, check with your provider.

When is the next federal holiday?

The next federal holiday is Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 15.
President-elect Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris face reporters during a brief news conference in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 10, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst via Reuters)

Kamala Harris Resigns Senate Seat Ahead of Inauguration

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris submitted her resignation from her seat in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 18, two days before Inauguration Day.

As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it, Harris wrote in her resignation letter. As senator-turned-Vice-President Walter Mondale once pointed out, the vice presidency is the only office in our government that belongs to both the executive branch and the legislative branch. A responsibility made greater with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

The California Democrat said that while she will use her power as a Senate tie-breaker, she hopes she wont have to.

Harris noted that since the founding of the United States, Only 268 tie-breaking votes have been cast by a Vice President. I intend to work tirelessly as your Vice President, including, if necessary, fulfilling this Constitutional duty.

Biden transition officials said Harris is going to have a hand in Bidens agenda.

Symone Sanders, Harriss chief spokeswoman, told news outlets that while its not clear what her role will be, she has a hand in all aspects of Bidens policies.

There are pieces that Biden may specifically ask her to champion, but outside of that, she is at the table for everything, involved in everything, and giving input and feedback and being a supportive partner to him on all pieces, Sanders told The Associated Press over the weekend.

She has a voice in all of those. She has an opinion in all those areas, Sanders said, referring to four priorities, including the U.S. economy, the CCP virus crisis, and more. And it will probably get to a point where she is concentrating on some of the areas more specifically, Sanders said. But right now, I think what were faced with in this country is so big, its all hands on deck.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the No. 2 Democrat in the House, acknowledged that Harris will have a significant role.

There will be a lot of weight on those shoulders, he told AP. Those of us who come to these positions, we come to them knowing full well that we have a burden to make sure that we do it in such a way that there will be people coming behind us.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has selected the states secretary of state, Alex Padilla, a Democrat, to serve out Harriss term, which ends in 2022. Padilla, in a statement on Jan. 17, confirmed that hes heading to D.C.
Pipeline

18 January 2021

IHG Hotels & Resorts, one of the world's leading hotel companies, has signed a Management Agreement with Saleh Alsalamah and Partner Companies, to open Holiday Inn Jeddah Corniche. Having signed Holiday Inn Riyadh Al Malaz last year with the same partner, this latest development is part of IHG's dedicated efforts to increase its midscale portfolio in the region.

Once completed, Holiday Inn Jeddah Corniche will be IHG's third Holiday Inn hotel in Jeddah, joining Holiday Inn Jeddah Gateway and Holiday Inn Jeddah - Al Salam. Expected to open in January 2022, the 156-room property will be strategically located behind the corniche road, near Jeddah Waterfront, InterContinental Jeddah and Crowne Plaza Jeddah. The hotel is also in close proximity to one of the city's must-see attractions, Jeddah Corniche, offering long stretches of sandy beaches, a winding pier and lush parklands, making it the ideal destination for business and leisure travellers alike.

Holiday Inn Jeddah Corniche will feature well-appointed guest rooms, excellent facilities including a business center, two meeting rooms (450 sqm in total) as well as a state-of-the-art gymnasium, spa and pool for guests to relax and rejuvenate. Furthermore, guests will have three dining options offering an excellent selection of food and beverages.
The Midland Area Community Foundation (MACF) and the United Way of Midland County have raised more than $5 million for flood recovery related to last May's dam failures, MACF President and CEO Sharon Mortensen said in a recent hour-long Long Term Disaster Recovery Group public Zoom meeting.

The Long Term Disaster Recovery Group holds monthly meetings, and this week's meeting was dedicated to providing a financial overview.

Mortensen said those funds have come from 4,332 donors from around the country, including individuals, organizations, businesses and foundations.

In addition, $1.55 million has been contributed in in-kind donations (materials and goods) to the two organizations' flood recovery funds.

And 4,000 volunteers have logged 19,564 hours of work in flood recovery, Mortensen said.

"The community support has been just phenomenal," she said.

The financial support committee of the Long Term Disaster Recovery Group is co-chaired by the United Way and MACF and also includes human service organizations, housing organizations, and the faith community.

Mortensen screen-shared a graphic that showed three designated phases of disaster recovery after the dam failures.

Phase 1, the emergency phase, began on May 19, the day of the dam failures.

Phase 2, the relief phase, began on June 15.

Phase 3, long-term recovery, began on July 20, a few days after a federal major disaster was declared for Midland County and four other mid-Michigan counties, which made flood victims eligible for federal grants and loans.

United Way President and CEO Holly Miller provided meeting attendees an overview of the challenges facing local communities after the flooding.

More than 2,400 homes in Midland County were damaged or destroyed by the flooding, with approximately $150 million in damage, she said.

The six key areas that the Long Term Recovery Group is focusing on, Miller said, are case management and assessment, public relations and outreach, rebuilding and construction, financial support, volunteer coordination, and housing support (both short-term and long-term).

"Strength is in collaboration," Miller said.

Alysia Christy of the MACF Community Impact Team acknowledged the disaster case management team, the people who are meeting with flood victims and assessing their needs.

The disaster case managers include Becca Marcott, Katie Vokal, Raegan Schultz and Anne Wortley.

Residents who need help with flood recovery can call 989-374-8000 to reach a disaster case manager.

So far, 125 disaster cases have been opened, of which 30 have been completed and closed.

Those who may qualify for help from the Long Term Disaster Recovery Group include a single-parent head of household with children under 18, a household living in unsafe conditions, a household with members who are over age 65, a household experiencing significant emotional distress, a household that is uninsured or underinsured, or one that is displaced from its residence.

Requests for assistance, Christy said, range from clothing and gift cards up to a full construction or rebuilding of a home. Twelve projects have been approved for construction.

Christy shared the success story of a client in Sanford, an older adult with physical and cognitive disabilities, who was displaced from her home by the flooding and was sleeping on a couch at a friend's house.

A disaster case manager helped the woman fill out a federal SBA loan application. A funding request was submitted to make up the difference between the contractor's estimate and the federal funds available. The homeowner was eventually able to celebrate Christmas back in her own home. She sent case managers pictures of her home decorated for Christmas.

During Thursday's meeting, a few viewers posted questions on the chat room.

"Why have I not heard of the federal (government) funding dam replacement?" wrote Michael Adams. "I am sure there are many people like me on a fixed income scared that now that I have my retirement home on the lake aware we may lose them if we are taxed $3,000 a year above our present taxes."

This question was not addressed during Thursday's meeting, but that subject could be addressed during the March meeting of the Long Term Disaster Recovery Group meeting, which will be about the Four Lakes Task Force.

"Of the 2,400 homes damaged by the disaster, how many are still in need of repairs?" wrote Marly Maskill. "Are the resources of the LTRG (Long Term Recovery Group) sufficient to help every homeowner recover?"

Christy addressed this question during the meeting and said the LTRG discusses this issue regularly.

"Every week we're talking about, how do we reach out and connect (those in need) with the case management team?" Christy said.

The next LTRG meeting is planned for 11:30 Thursday, Feb. 11, focusing on flood recovery in Sanford.
On the occasion of the 176th anniversary of the first arrival of Indian immigrant labourers to these shores, I intend to comment briefly, through a couple of letters to the press, on the current status of Indo-Trinidadians after their presence here for over a century and a half. They may be regarded as ethnic-focused, divisive and contentious, or may be deemed irrelevant and inconsequential in these times.

Whether the storming of the US Capitol was an attempted coup, an insurrection, or an assault on democracy is merely a question of semantics. What matters is that the violence was aimed at derailing a legitimate transition of power for the benefit and at the behest of a dangerous [leader]. President Donald Trump, who has never hidden his dictatorial aspirations, should now be removed from power, barred from public office, and prosecuted for high crimes.

After all, the events of 6 January may have been shocking, but they were not surprising. I and many other commentators had long warned that the 2020 election would bring civil unrest, violence, and attempts by Trump to remain in power illegally. Beyond his election-related crimes, Trump is also guilty of a reckless disregard for public health. He and his administration bear much of the blame for the massive covid death toll in the United States, which accounts for only 4% of the global population but 20% of all coronavirus deaths.

Once a beacon of democracy, rule of law and good governance, the US now looks like a banana republic that is incapable of controlling either a contagious diseasedespite spending more on healthcare per capita than any other countryor mobs incited by a wannabe dictator. Authoritarian leaders around the world are now laughing at the US and scoffing at American critiques of others political misrule. As if the damage done to US soft power over the past four years was not immense enough, Trumps failed insurrection has undermined Americas standing even more.

Worse, although President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated in about a week, that is plenty of time for Trump to create more mayhem. Right-wing militias and white supremacists are already planning more acts of protest, violence and racial warfare in cities across the US. And strategic rivals such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea will be looking to exploit the chaos by sowing disinformation or launching cyber-attacks, including potentially against critical US infrastructure.

At the same time, a desperate Trump may try to wag the dog" by ordering a strikeperhaps with a tactical nuclear warheadon Irans main nuclear facility in Natanz on the grounds that it is being used to enrich uranium. Far from this being out of the question, the Trump administration has already held drills with stealth bombers and fighter jetsloaded, for the first time, with tactical nuclear weaponsto signal to Iran that its air defences are no defence at all.

No wonder, speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi felt the need to reach out to the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff to discuss steps to prevent a nuclear strike by the Dr. Strangelove in the White House. Whereas an unwarranted order to launch a nuclear attack on a target with a large civilian population would be rejected by the military as obviously illegal," an attack on a military target in a non-populated area might not be, even if it would have dire geopolitical consequences. Moreover, Trump knows that both Saudi Arabia and Israel would tacitly support an attack on Iran (indeed, the US may avail itself of Saudi logistical and ground support to carry one out, given the shorter range of nuclear-armed fighter jets).

The prospect of an attack on Iran may give vice- president Mike Pence the pretext he needs to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from power. But even if this were to happen, it would not necessarily be a win for democracy and the rule of law. Trump couldand likely wouldbe pardoned by Pence (as Richard Nixon was by Gerald Ford), allowing him to run for president again in 2024 or be a kingmaker in that election, given that he now controls the Republican party and its base. Removing Trump with the promise of a pardon may be a Faustian deal that Pence strikes with Trump.

Because the self-pardon that Trump has been considering might not pass constitutional muster, it is reasonable to assume that he will be groping around for other creative ways out. He cannot simply resign and allow Pence to issue a pardon, because that would make him look like a loser" who accepted defeat (the worst insult in Trumps egomaniacal lexicon). But if the President were to order an attack on Iran and then become a (pardoned) martyr, he could both preserve his base and avoid accountability. By the same token, Trump cannot risk being impeached (again), because that would open up the possibility of his being disqualified from holding office in the future. By this reasoning, he has every incentive to go out with a bang and on his own terms.

If this all sounds like the final days of Nero fiddling while Rome burned", thats because it is. The decay of the American empire appears to be hastening rapidly. Given how politically, socially and economically divided the US now is, four years of sound leadership under Biden will not be enough to reverse the damage that has been done. Most likely, the Republicans will do everything they can to sabotage the new administration, as they did with former President Barack Obama.

Even before the election, US national-security agencies were warning that domestic right-wing terrorism and violence would remain the primary home-grown threat to the US. With Biden in office, this risk will be higher still. For the last four years, heavily armed [Caucasian]-supremacist militias have been kept relatively at bay by dint of the fact that they had an ally in the White House. But once Trump is gone, the groups whom he has instructed to stand back and stand by" will not simply accept Democratic control of the presidency and Congress. Trump, operating from Mar-a-Lago, will continue to incite the mob with more lies, conspiracy theories, and falsehoods about a stolen election.

The United States will thus most likely be the worlds new epicentre of political and geopolitical instability in the months and years ahead. Americas allies will need to hedge their bets against a future return of Trumpism, and strategic rivals will continue to try to destabilize the US through asymmetric warfare. The world is in for a long, ugly, bumpy ride. 2021/Project Syndicate

Nouriel Roubini is professor of economics at New York Universitys Stern School of Business

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Greater Accra Regional Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Moses Abor has commended Chief of Staff of the Republic of Ghana, Hon. Frema Osei Opare for her hard work in President Akufo-Addos government.



According to him, Hon Frema Opare has within the past four years been passionate to provide the needs of the grassroots with regards to their welfare.



He eulogized her in a statement reading; Her open-door policy encourages the grassroots and party functionaries as a reassurance that the government is concerned of their plights and continues to find long lasting solutions to mitigate them.



Read full statement below:



The illustrious and Hardworking Chief of Staff of the Republic of Ghana, Hon. Frema Osei Opare deserves all the appreciation and selfless praises.



Hon Frema Osei Opare, popularly known as Mother for all, has within the past four years been passionate to provide the needs of the grassroots with regards to their welfare.



Her open door policy encourages the grassroots and party functionaries as a reassurance that the government is concerned of their plights and continues to find long lasting solutions to mitigate them.



Madam Frema Osei Opare has very good interpersonal skills and has been marvellous in the dispensation of her mandate as the Chief of Staff of this Republic.



She is a wonderful mother to many and a backbone to the running of our party. No wonder she superintended in ensuring that the policies of President Nana Addo were successfully implemented without a fiasco.



Again, her overwhelming contribution and immense support in the just ended elections and it's prior activities cannot be overlooked. Never have we had a chief of staff that has supported party work like Hon. Frema Osei Opare, that is the reason the grassroots and the youth are calling on the President Nana Addo to maintain her to do more for the youth as the Chief of Staff of the Republic of Ghana.



This is a woman the party needs and the youths are proud of her.



GOD BLESS H.E. NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO



GOD BLESS THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY



GOD BLESS GHANA

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Lets call this column, and perhaps the next couple of columns, an old-timers memories of the past offered with the hope that they may help u Read more
1. Yes. The public must have assurances that ethical standards are met by everyone.

2. Yes. As long as an independent board hears the grievances, its a worthwhile idea.

3. No. The concept is too broad. It should be limited to the citys elected officials.

4. No. There are plenty of stipulations in place already. An ordinance is a waste of time.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say without seeing how it would be structured and applied.

Vote

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Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Had the rioters studied the life of Americas greatest protester, they would have known that violence would get them nowhere. Even if they were fighting for something real rather than a lie that the presidential election had been stolen, violence still would have led to condemnation and the demise of their movement.
PHOENIX, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Phoenix VA Health Care System proudly serves Veterans in central Arizona at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center and nine community based outpatient VA clinics. With a commitment to providing the best possible patient-centered care, the Phoenix VA Health Care System is joining a growing number of VA health care facilities in adopting a new method of health care delivery called Patient Aligned Care Teams, or PACTs. The highly trained medical team at the Phoenix VA Health Care System demonstrates the highest level of professionalism and integrity.



Having led an impressive career for 23 years, Dr. Halpern is currently serving Veterans at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center as the Chief of Vascular Surgery for the past 12 years. She offers expert vascular surgery services utilizing her skills and interests in limb salvage, wound care, carotid disease, aneurysms, and dialysis. Born to two doctors, Dr. Halpern continues to provide the highest level of support to veterans. Alongside her clinical role, she serves as a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Arizona Medical College. She is proud to have been a part of various initiatives throughout the course of her medical career, including overseeing an ongoing telehealth project for Veterans in remote locations to improve access to care with interactions with multiple service lines across two VA campuses.



In light of her academic achievements, Dr. Halpern completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology/Genetics in 1983. Then she went on to obtain her Medical Degree from the New York University School of Medicine, and later completed her internal medicine internship at New York University/V.A. Medical Center, as well as his general surgery residency at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center. Additionally, she completed her vascular surgery fellowship program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. As a testament to her academic excellence, she is an invited Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Professional Wound Care Association. With a commitment to excellence, Dr. Halpern is triple-board certified in General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Wound Care.



Prior to working within the Phoenix VA Health Care System, Dr. Halpern devoted 15 years at Northwell as the Medical Director of the Comprehensive Wound Care Center from 2006 to 2008 and Attending Surgeon from 1995 to 2008. Then she decided to move to Arizona to further her career. She is notable in supporting animal shelters.



Remaining abreast of the latest technologies and advancements, Dr. Halpern maintains active memberships with professional organizations including the Society of Vascular Surgery, American Medical Association, American Vein and Lymphatic Society, Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, Association of Veterans Affairs Surgeons, and the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care. To further her professional development, she has participated in various service and outreach academic activities, as well as sat on society and hospital committees throughout her extensive career.



Dr. Halpern dedicates this honorable recognition to Dr. Donna Mendes, Dr. Julie Freshlag, and Dr. Jon Cohen.



For further information, please visit https://www.phoenix.va.gov/about/index.asp.



Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

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Idea of building community with shared future for mankind wins global support On Jan 18, 2017, President Xi Jinping explained his vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind in a speech at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, as China's answer to the challenges and problems facing the world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Xi's vision has become increasingly significant and has been widely accepted worldwide as the international community responded to the unprecedented public health crisis while striving to promote socioeconomic development. In a recent letter to Xi, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said countries should be united, respect and support each other against the disruption caused by the pandemic and commit to building a community with a shared future for mankind. While talking over the phone with Xi on Dec 15, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique expressed his country's willingness to work with China to advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. He said Chile is willing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with China, jointly safeguard a fair and free trade system, and strengthen communication and coordination on major issues such as sustainable development and climate change. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, countries including Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos have agreed with China to build a community with a shared future to strengthen bilateral ties. At the regional level, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, African countries, Arab states and Latin American and Caribbean nations have reached consensuses with China on the initiative. In a telephone conversation with Xi last month, Bounnhang Vorachith, then general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, said his country stands ready to join with China in implementing the action plan of the Laos-China community with a shared future and will strive for greater development of Laos-China relations. When Xi visited the United Nations Office in Geneva on Jan 18, 2017, he delivered a keynote speech entitled Work Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. In the speech, he called for building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity to achieve shared and win-win development, and he explained how countries can build such a community. In February 2017, the phrase was incorporated into a UN resolution for the first time by the 55th UN Commission for Social Development. It has also been adopted by the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council and the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, thus turning the Chinese concept into an international consensus. In recent years, Xi has used multilateral occasions to systematically explain China's perspectives on development, security, cooperation, civilizations and global governance to offer China's solutions in dealing with global challenges. His propositions fully demonstrate the nation's firm resolve and strong responsibility to work with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind, said Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in an article published in Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee, on Jan 1. The pandemic has reminded the world that countries share a common destiny and need to stand together in the face of the crisis, which has made it more important and imperative to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, said Yang, who is also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee. Pandemic response As COVID-19 hit the world with an unprecedented impact, Xi has championed solidarity and cooperation in the global fight against the virus. He used head-of-state diplomacy to send a clear message that the virus respects no borders and disease does not distinguish between races, and humankind is a community with a shared future. In 2020, Xi took part in 87 video meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations and participated in 22 important bilateral or multilateral events. During these diplomatic activities, he repeatedly underlined the importance of advancing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The global fight against COVID-19 has fully proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the right way for the whole world to cope with global challenges and build a more prosperous and better world, observers said. The international community is a family that shares weal and woe, Yang said, and unilateralist and protectionist policies or the practices of extreme pressure and blackmail are not workable and are doomed to fail. Mutual support and win-win cooperation are the only way forward, he added. BRI cooperation The pandemic has sped up the transformation of the international landscape, causing a deep economic recession and affecting global industrial and supply chains. However, the Belt and Road Initiative, which is considered as a platform for building a community with a shared future for mankind and a new path to improve global governance, has demonstrated strong vitality and resilience despite these challenges. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in an interview earlier this month that the past year witnessed BRI partners supporting each other and forging a "bond of solidarity" to control the coronavirus and pursue common development. The China-Europe Railway Express transported more freight in the first 10 months of 2020 than in the whole year of 2019 and helped countries with their COVID-19 response, according to the Foreign Ministry. The Silk Road in the Air has enabled shipments of over 1,700 metric tons of medical supplies from China. In the first three quarters of 2020, China's nonfinancial direct investment in countries involved in the BRI reached $13 billion, an increase of nearly 30 percent year-on-year. "Most BRI projects have continued uninterrupted and without layoffs, and a number of new projects have been launched as scheduled," Wang said. "This has brought much-needed warmth to this harsh winter in the world economy and contributed to the efforts of partner countries in fighting COVID-19." In his message to the High-Level Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation in June, Xi proposed developing the Belt and Road into a model of cooperation, health, recovery and growth. Addressing the Understanding China Conference in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in November, Shanghai Cooperation Organization Secretary-General Vladimir Norov commended Belt and Road cooperation, saying that it helps expand trade partnerships, promotes capital flows and rejuvenates the ancient Silk Road.


How can people hear the voices of the dead? Scientists are coming to terms with how and why only a few can.

'I hear dead people' If anyone is like that, then science might have an explanation.

To help understand the phenomena of spirit voices or from those departed yet still here,or the afterlife, when spirits reach out, human science may have found traits that determine it, reported Sciencealert.

Several findings have been uncovered by new studies that might cause individuals to hear dead voices. According to researchers, it is the following:

They tend to focus on the task at hand. As a child, one tends to hear unusual sounds. Another is getting caught up with "Hearing" things that are almost convincingly real. Most of these uncanny characteristics are found in self-described clairaudient mediums, not too many in a population.

According to scientists, such findings will help understand auditory hallucinations that happen if anyone has schizophrenia.

Experience of spiritualism like clairvoyance or clairaudience, having to hear and see something in the corporeal realm, is the opposite of spiritual form. These are seen as those of the afterlife coming back or stuck here on earth.

For anthropology, it is the study of religious, spiritual matters with scientists studying hallucinations created by a person. Human cultures are a combination of both one in the living world and the afterlife.

One way to understand what is happening is to know how an auditory experience seems to transform into something spiritual. Or hearing voices of the dead means a place in the psychiatric ward or straight to the looney bin (mental ward).

Also read: Creepy Giggling Voices, Shadows on the House Where Chris Watts Murdered his Pregnant Wife and Girls

According to psychologist Peter Moseley of Northumbria University in the UK, he said Spiritualists describe weird auditory experiences that are positive, and it happens during childhood. This phase of spiritism is usually controllable too.

He added to know how these conditions develop is crucial to know about its opposite. It is the distress from hearing auditory input without any control. For some, it can be maddening hearing what seems to be the voices of the dead.

Psychologist Adam Powell of Durham University in the UK got and surveyed 65 clairaudient mediums (UK's Spiritualists' National Union), with 143 ordinary people. The goal is to differentiate those who can hear dead voices from people who cannot.

The results of the study

After the data gathering, it was 44.6 percent of the Spiritualists heard voices daily. About 79 percent said it is normal to hear dead people. A remaining 31.7 percent told researchers said voices were wherein their heads, with others voices that weren't in their heads.

Scientists document a high paranormal belief for Spiritualists. They did not care if others thought they are looney tunes. The rest do not care much about the supernatural. They like being normal.

Most Spiritualists hear their first spirit voice at 21.7 years, with a high level of absorption. They tune out external stimuli to hear voices better. More likely than anyone to hallucinate and not be bothered by it.

Based on these findings, hearing the voices of the dead is more likely, according to researchers.

Related articles: Can the Dead Speak? Inventor Thomas Edison Created Spirit Phone to Reach the Dead

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Jeanerette, Louisiana - Across the nation people are hosting a service project for M L King National Day of Service. The only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

In collaboration with the Presidential Inaugural Committee National Day of Service [mobilize.us], citizens in Jeanerette are supporting the non-profit organization Sockn It! www.sock-n-it.com Care & Share A Pair of new socks for unsheltered, transient and displaced individuals, families and homeless veterans. In the Acadiana area, the Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness [archacadiana.org] reported an 82% increase in homelessness due to Covid-19 and a 55% increase for veterans.

The convenient, DROP-OFF SOCK-DRIVE-THRU receptacle is located on the corner of MLK and Monnot in Jeanerette through Monday, January 19th.
FAIR HAVEN, Vt. (AP)  A goat and a dog who were each elected mayor have helped raise money to renovate a Vermont community playground.

The oddball idea of pet mayor elections to raise money to rehabilitate the playground and to help get local kids civically involved came from a local town manager.

In 2018, Fair Haven residents elected Lincoln the goat as its honorary mayor. Lincoln helped raise about $10,000 while the current mayor, Murfee, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has raised $20,000, Town Manager Joe Gunter told the Rutland Herald. The town chipped in another $20,000.

Murfees owner, Linda Barker, said that when she was talked into having Murfee get involved in politics, she thought it would be easy to raise money through T-shirts. Then the pandemic struck.

So she shifted to masks. Shes made nearly 1,000 of them, and will be making another round of them for Valentines Day. She raised more than $5,000 from the masks and a similar amount from basket raffles.

The town was also recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, she said.

Ironically, the honorary mayor is not welcome on the playground. Barker said theres a no dogs allowed sign.

Murfee is going to take that up with the town, Barker said Sunday with a chuckle. Hes going to contest that.
Robert Nichols is the state senator for Senate District 3. First elected in 2006, Nichols represents 19 counties, including much of East Texas and part of Montgomery County. He can be reached at 699-4988 or toll-free at (800) 959-8633. His email address is robert.nichols@senate.texas.gov.
Sanitary crisis accelerating the pace of digital transformation of companies that need to adapt and revamp their processes

Regulatory News:

Despite a dire economic situation, the Prodware Group (Paris:ALPRO) sees a significant surge in technological investments in the 4th quarter of 2020 on behalf of many customers, both mid-market companies and subsidiaries of large groups.

With the growing demand for digitalization, especially with regard to support functions, brought on by the generalization of remote work, soaring e-commerce business and a relentless quest for operational efficiency, Prodware, supported by its ecosystem of prestigious technological partners (Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage) and its innovation-ready dynamic delivers the solutions that cater to the need of its customers.

The new deals signed at the end of 2020 were with businesses in various industry sectors such as the manufacturing industry with notably the implementation of solutions incorporating digital twin technology or Fab 4.0 the production of wind and solar power, consulting firms, distribution and healthcare. Prodware helped these new customers in conducting a comprehensive overhaul of their strategic processes or in the digital transformation of certain processes such as planning, analysis and reporting. Over that same period, there was increasing demand from existing customers such as Manutan or Jeff de Bruges requiring support in adjusting their respective organizations to work around the constraints of the sanitary crisis and continue to develop their business.

These examples clearly illustrate the pertinence of Prodware's strategy geared towards supporting companies in developing their growth paths by combining the latest state-of-the-art technologies, industry-specific expertise and excellence in delivering and maintaining business solutions.

"The crisis we are going through has accelerated digital transformation timelines of a majority of our customers. They have grasped that while digital transformation is somewhat challenging it does open up a whole host of opportunities if properly conducted and supported. This has been corroborated by a recent survey conducted by the METI in cooperation with EY/APX which states that 71% of business executives believe that the crisis has hastened investments. In fact business started picking up right at the beginning of the third quarter with 10 new customer wins. According to Frederic Champalbert, the Managing Director of Prodware France, "These new customers turned to Prodware for their experience and know-how in appreciating the disruptive impacts on the business models and organizations of its customers, beyond the only technological considerations, when going full Cloud."

Next publication: Annual turnover of the 4th quarter of 2020: February 17th 2021, after market close.

About Prodware

Whether it is enabling ambitious Cloud strategies, artificial intelligence driven decision-making solutions or more flexibility and agility delivered by modern business applications, Prodware, with more than 3 decades of expertise and know-how is in a class of its own. Prodware leverages the latest technologies and technological breakthroughs building the business processes of tomorrow across the manufacturing, retail distribution, professional services and finance verticals.

The Prodware group is a global company founded in 1989 with regional offices in 13 countries with close to 1300 employees.

Prodware is listed on Euronext Growth in Paris generating 188 m in annual revenue and a net income of 10,5 million euros in 2019.

For more information www.prodwaregroup.com

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 01:26:26|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Jan. 17, 2021 shows discovered antiques in Saqqara, Giza province, Egypt. An Egyptian archeological mission working in Saqqara necropolis near the Pyramids of Giza announced on Sunday the discovery of the funerary temple of ancient Egyptian Queen Neit, wife and daughter of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt over 4,300 years ago. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian archeological mission working in Saqqara necropolis near the Pyramids of Giza announced on Sunday the discovery of the funerary temple of ancient Egyptian Queen Neit, wife and daughter of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt over 4,300 years ago.

The discovery introduces the name Queen Neit for the first time in ancient Egyptian history, as King Teti was known before the discovery to have had only two wives: Iput I and Khuit II.

"Our archeological mission discovered a pyramid in this place in 2010 but we didn't know the name of the owner. Only yesterday we discovered the funerary temple and found inscriptions showing that it belonged to a queen named Neit, wife and daughter of King Teti," Egyptian top archeologist Zahi Hawass, head of the mission, told Xinhua at the site.

"Queen Neit is a new name to be written in the history of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt," Hawass, also a former antiquities minister, emphasized.

The archeological site is located near the Pyramid of Teti, and Neit's funerary temple is opposite to the remains of her pyramid that is also near the remains of another two pyramids of the Teti's other two wives.

"So far, we have unveiled only 30 percent of the antiquities buried in this place and 70 percent is still underground," said the Egyptian top archeologist, noting that Egypt has more than 122 pyramids including 13 in Saqqara.

Hawass explained that these discoveries will "rewrite the history of this region," especially when it comes to the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Dynasties of the New Kingdom, during which King Teti was worshipped and the citizens at that time were buried around his pyramid.

The mission also found 22 burial shafts, with one of them alone containing 54 colorful coffins, besides the discovery of dozens of mummies, funerary figurines known as ushabtis, pots, stelae, miniatures of wooden boats with sailors onboard and a 5-meter tall papyrus, all dating back to the New Kingdom some 3,000 years ago.

The joint mission is composed of Zahi Hawass Center of Egyptology, which belongs to Bibliotheca Alexandria, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

"Usually wooden coffins with mummies inside belong to the Old Kingdom, but finding wooden coffins with inscriptions from the New Kingdom is itself a new addition to this place, Saqqara," the SCA chief Mostafa Waziri told Xinhua near the burial shafts.

At a nearby corner in the archeological site, hundreds of intact, broken and reassembled pots were displayed while specialists were still working on reassembling more pieces.

Nermeen Aba Yazeed, a creamologist with the SCA and a member of the mission, said that finding pieces of pots is the first step that leads to more information about the history of the place and the surrounding objects.

"Through the unveiled pottery, we can find out the era to which the place belonged as well as the nature of the place whether it was for burial or dwelling because ancient house pots were different from those placed near coffins," the Egyptian creamologist told Xinhua.

She noted that the recently unveiled pots include some that give evidence of Egypt's ancient trade relations with Crete, Syria, and Palestine.
Logan, WV (25601)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 58F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Egypts foreign ministry denounced on Sunday the Israeli authorities approval of plans to construct 780 homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, describing the step as another violation of the international legitimacy decisions."

In a statement, foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Hafez reiterated Egypts full rejection of the continuation of settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, stressing the need to stand against such violations.

The new setlement construction activities announced by Israel on Sunday include 100 homes in Tal Menashe, a settlement where an Israeli woman was killed last month in an attack for which a Palestinian man has been charged.

Hafez noted Egypts concerns over the impact of these activities on the possibility of achieving a two-state solution.

"These activities pose obstacles to the intensified efforts made to push the peace process forward and resume negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides," he said.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group, Israel approved or advanced construction of more than 12,000 settlement homes last year.

This is the highest number of new settlements in a single year since 2012, Peace Now says.

The anti-settlement monitoring group added that more than 90% of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state.

Egypt has repeatedly condemned Israeli construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank both as a violation of international law and an impediment to peace efforts.

Cairo supports the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as the only way to reach a just solution to the Palestinian cause.

In recent weeks, Egypt has intensified efforts to jump-start the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.Last Monday, Cairo hosted the latest meeting of the Munich Quartet, which comprises Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany, to discuss ways to push the peace process forward.

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The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) today (January 18) launched Sharjahs first Portuguese Business Council, as part of its Business Councils Initiative which aims to set up more business councils representing friendly countries and their businessmen.

The initiative aims to strengthen joint cooperation and increase the volume of trade and investment exchange between the two countries, a statement said.

Abdullah Sultan Al Owais, Chairman of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Dr. Daniel Pereira Pontes, Economic Counsellor at the Embassy of Portugal and Lourdes Isabello, Chairperson of the Portuguese Labor Council, launched the new council in a ceremony held at the chambers headquarters.

The event was attended by Mohammed Rashid Al-Dimas, SCCI board member, HE Mohammed Ahmed Amin Al Awadi, Director General of SCCI, and Fatima Khalifa Al Maqrib Director of the SCCI Department of International Relations.

Lauding the new step, Al Owais affirmed that the setting up of the Portuguese Business Council will pave the way for launching more councils of friendly countries in the Emirate of Sharjah, as part of the Business Councils Initiative.

The SCCI takes great interests in supporting this initiative simply because business councils are considered one of the most important methods to strengthen our ties with our friendly countries and to support the mutual relationship between the economic sectors and business communities of those countries, Al Owais said.

He affirmed that the new business council will further deepen the solid ties between Sharjah and Portugal and is crowning the so many meetings and mutual visits of official and commercial delegations between the two friendly countries over the past years. It will also contribute to boosting the commercial relations and mutual investment between the business community in both countries, taking them into new heights.

The recently launched business council represents a significant step forward and a perfect opportunity for Portuguese businessmen to enhance networking with their counterparts in the Emirate of Sharjah and build up new relationships, as well as to exchange information, learn new experiences, and inaugurate new ventures, benefiting from the development plans adopted by our wise leadership, Al Owais added.

He went on to say: We are expecting that these efforts will bear fruit within a short period, where the Portuguese business community can promote their businesses in the UAE, launch new economic initiatives, take part in exhibitions and conferences, exchange trade delegations, increase trade exchange between the two countries, and take advantage of the outstanding services provided by the Sharjah Chamber.

Lauding the chambers strenuous efforts made to launch the Portuguese Business Council, Dr. Daniel emphasised that since 2012, commercial relations have significantly developed between the two friendly countries, something which will further be boosted by the establishment of the new council.

The council will not only contribute to developing and devoting economic cooperation but will also help enhance investment and trade exchange between the two countries, which last year reached about 300 million euros, Pontes said.

For her part, Lourdes Isabello called on the Emirati business community to visit Portugal and learn about the available investment environment, adding that she will encourage Portuguese companies to visit Sharjah and learn about its economic opportunities.TradeArabia News Service
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En Belgique, avec la fermeture des bars et restaurants qui se prolonge, il faut avoir de la suite dans les idees pour maintenir son activite tant bien que mal. Un restaurateur a trouve un concept pour rouvrir son etablissement : il propose de servir ses clients dans leurs camping-cars.

Commande par SMS, service immediat

A Tarcienne, un serveur vous place non pas en salle mais vous repartit entre les differentes places de parking. Les mesures de distanciations sociales sont respectees : vous netes en contact quavec les passagers de votre camping-car. La commande est faite par SMS et les plats vous sont servis, a deguster depuis votre vehicule. Autre option pour ceux qui ne disposent pas dun camping car : des petits chalets privatises. Une maniere de disposer de sa propre salle de restaurant.

A lire aussi
OSLO, Norway, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DigiPlex, the Nordic leader for sustainable, innovative, and secure data centres, has signed an agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to host AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) technology in its Stockholm data center.

The DigiPlex Stockholm campus is located close to Arlanda, the capital airport of Sweden, the perfect geographical location for business needs. The multi award-winning campus runs on electricity from 100% renewable energy and offers 26,000 m with up to 40 MW capacity which makes it attractive to businesses from a sustainability perspective. The campus offers high levels of 24/7 manned physical security including high-grade dual perimeter fencing, man-trap intruder protection and advanced surveillance cameras.

Commenting on the deal, DigiPlex CEO, Wiljar Nesse, said; "Situating these advanced technical solutions and services in strategically located facilities that not only conform to stringent data protection rules, but also are powered by abundant low-cost, 100% sustainable energy helps HPE deliver on commitments to its clients as well as its sustainability agenda. I am pleased that DigiPlex is able to offer HPE this powerful combination."

Anna Grano, Managing Director, HPE Sweden, added; "DigiPlex provides an excellent home for AI and HPC data needs, being scalable, of high standard, and well connected to an ecosystem of potential partners. Partnering with DigiPlex gives us the confidence that we have the right high-quality, truly sustainable and secure data center to support our HPC and AI solutions for our clients."

Connect with DigiPlex

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This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/digiplex/r/hpe-turns-to-digiplex-for-hosting-high-performance-computing-infrastructure,c3269492

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https://mb.cision.com/Main/7526/3269492/1360317.pdf HPE Turns to DigiPlex for Hosting High-Performance Computing Infrastructure https://news.cision.com/digiplex/i/wiljar-nesse--ceo-digiplex,c2868044 Wiljar Nesse, CEO DigiPlex

SOURCE DigiPlex
India sent a consignment of two Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHC) to Irans strategically located Chabahar port to enable seamless cargo handling services, the Ministry of Shipping said on Wed.

The consignments are a part of a total contract value of over $25 million under a contract agreement for supply of 6 MHC. The consignment of cranes arrived from Marghera port, Italy has been unloaded successfully on 18th January, 2021 at Chabahar port and presently undergoing trials run, the ministry said in a statement.

Here are top ten developments on the use of the strategically located Chabahar port:

1) With 140 metric tons lifting capacity, multipurpose equipment and accessories like Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHC) will enable India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) to provide seamless services for Container, Bulk and General Cargo at Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar.

2) This is a step towards India's aim towards infrastructure development of Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar.

3) Located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Iran's southern coast, the Chabahar port is being increasingly seen as a fulcrum of connectivity to Central Asia.

4) The port is being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan to boost trade ties among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. It can be easily accessed from India's western coast, bypassing Pakistan.

5) On 23 May 2016, India Ports Global and Irans Aria Banader Iranian Port and Marine Services Company signed a deal to equip and operate the Shahid Behesti terminal, with a capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million, on a 10-year lease.

6) To achieve this aim, an SPV namely India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) Mumbai was incorporated under the ambit of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

7)Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (I/C), Mansukh Mandaviya stated that the delivery of consignment of heavy equipment, including cranes shows Indias commitment to the strategic connectivity of Chabahar port project that will provide access to markets in Central Asia.

8) Development of Chabahar port is the anchor for the expansion of economic and mutual relations between India and Iran and it will give a further boost to the maritime trade between both the countries, he further said.

9) Last month, India, Iran and Uzbekistan discussed ways for joint use of the Chabahar port for trade and enhancing regional connectivity at their first trilateral dialogue on the issue, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

10) It said the virtual meeting was held as a follow up of decisions taken during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan last week.









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Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Britain's AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.







Minutes after Anvisa's board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Chinese vaccine known as CoronaVac.







President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic who has refused to take a vaccine himself, is under growing pressure to start inoculations in Brazil, which has lost more than 200,000 to COVID-19  the worst death toll outside the United States. (Graphic:

)







Delays with vaccine shipments and testing results have held up vaccinations in the country, once a global leader in mass immunizations and now a regional laggard after countries such as Chile and Mexico started giving shots last month.







Bolsonaro's government aims to kick off a national immunization program this week but is waiting on shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine at the center of its plans. That has added to public frustration and offered a political rival the chance to upstage the right-wing president.







Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, who oversees the Butantan biomedical center that is partnered with Sinovac in Brazil, said Anvisa's decision was a triumph for science as he gave the go-ahead for the first vaccination in his state.







"A victory for science. A victory for life. A victory for Brazil," Doria tweeted.







Bolsonaro, for whom Doria is a potential center-right rival to his 2022 re-election efforts, has taunted the governor over CoronaVac's disappointing 50% efficacy in Brazilian trials. But the federal Health Ministry has agreed to acquire and distribute the shot for the national immunization drive.







Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello told a news conference that the rush to start vaccinating immediately was an illegal "marketing ploy" and the government would start distributing the vaccines to states on Monday, with the nationwide immunization plan beginning on Wednesday.







Brazil could eventually vaccinate 1 million people a day, he said.







Adding to the urgency for vaccinations, a second wave of the outbreak in Brazil is snowballing as the country confronts a new, potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus that originated in Amazonas state and prompted Britain and Italy to bar entry to Brazilians.







Butantan, which is set up to fill and finish CoronaVac doses on its production line, plans to supply 46 million doses of the two-dose shot by April, the institute said in a statement. Some 6 million of those are ready to go.







The federally funded Fiocruz institute is still waiting for a delayed shipment of the active ingredient in the AstraZeneca vaccine for finishing on a Rio de Janeiro assembly line.







The Health Ministry has scrambled to line up 2 million ready doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, but officials there have suggested it may take weeks to approve exports. Pazuello said on Sunday he expected the doses from India this week. (Reuters)


Graduation was fast approaching, but Yang Xiaomin, a 21-year-old college student in northeastern China, skipped her universitys job fair. Nor did she look for positions on her own. She didnt think she had a chance of landing one.

Some jobs wont even take resumes from people with bachelors degrees, said Ms. Yang, who, along with a record 3.77 million of her peers, instead took the national entrance exam for graduate school last month. Going to graduate school wont necessarily help me get a better job, but it will at least give me more choices of opportunities.

Chinas economy has largely rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic, with data released on Monday showing it has become perhaps the only major economy to have grown last year. Still, one area remains sorely lacking: the supply of desirable, well-paying jobs for the countrys rapidly ballooning count of university graduates. Most of the recovery has been fueled by blue-collar sectors such as manufacturing, on which the Chinese economy still relies heavily.

With the encouragement of the government, many students are turning to a stopgap solution: staying in school. Chinas Ministry of Education announced at the height of the outbreak that it would order universities to expand the number of masters candidates by 189,000, a nearly 25 percent increase, to ease unemployment. Undergraduate slots would also increase by more than 300,000.
A patient of the Covid ward in Cork University Hospital (CUH) has urged the public to increase their vigilance after she found it so difficult to breathe that she thought she was going to suffocate.

Emma O'Sullivan, aged 49, said that the word "frontline" doesn't even begin to cover the efforts made by staff to stablise Covid patients who present at the hospital.

Having spent a week in hospital Emma has called on the public to stay at home in order to reduce virus numbers.

"With my breathing I thought I was going to suffocate. They gave me oxygen and it was like giving me life," Ms O'Sullivan said. "I am only 49 and there is a 90-year-old across from me and with their breathing I don't know if they are going to survive or not.

"There was a woman next to me last night who is heading for ICU now. People have no idea how bad it is."

Emma joined the Neil Prendeville show, on Cork's Red FM, from her bed in the hospital where she thanked the doctors and nurses for giving her her life back after she was transferred onsite from her home in Bandon.

Emma says that staff have made trojan efforts to save lives.

"I have never met nicer people (than since I came in here). The smile and the cheer and the nourishing food. The ICU doctor comes down and he encourages me every day."

I have been put on oxygen and it has been reduced with the hope that I will be home in west Cork soon. It is unbelievable what they have done for me.

"My sense of taste went. I couldn't eat and I was forcing a cracker and water down. The ambulance driver came and he said 'you are drowning'. I had Covid pneumonia.

"The staff are coming out of everywhere. There were two nurses here the other night and they have spent 20 years in theatre."

The childcare worker, who owns her own business, said that she wouldn't hear any criticism of CUH.

"You can tell or reassure any person out there who has a grandmother in here that they are keeping them alive if they can.

"The old people  they bathe them, they wrap them in their arms. My heart is jumping out of my chest (from all they have done.)

Emma said she was missing her husband and children. She added that she had to fight for her life after contracting Covid whilst appealing to the public to stay safe.

"I didn't know the day or the hour. I was in a room isolated. The staff have supported, helped me and nourished me and they have done it for everyone in the hospital. There are people of all ages here.

"I am on the B side of the hospital and the A side in ICU is worse. What is in the other side of the hospital? This is a call of gratitude."
Bengaluru, Jan 18 : The anti-cow slaughter ordinance came into effect in Karnataka on Monday, with provisions of up to seven years in jail and (or) a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for those 'illegally' involved in cow slaughtering, smuggling or selling of beef in the state.

"All provisions of the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Ordinance, 2020 to come into force from January 18," the Karnataka government has said in an order.

The new amended law bans transportation of cattle within Karnataka or to other states. The transportation is allowed only with due permission from the competent authority and against the payment of fee, if the purpose is to use cattle only for the agricultural or animal husbandry activities.

The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020, which envisages a ban on all forms of cattle slaughter and stringent punishment for offenders, is a revised version of a Bill that was passed in 2010 when the BJP was in power.

Subsequently in 2013, Congress came to power and the BJP's 2010 contentious Bill was shelved. The Congress had reverted to the less stringent Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Preservation of Animals Act, 1964, which allows cow slaughter with certain restrictions.

While the 1964 law banned the killing of "any cow or calf of she-buffalo", it allowed the slaughter of bullock, buffalo-male or female if it was certified by a competent authority to be above the age of 12 years or incapacitated for breeding or deemed sick.

Due to lack of majority in the Upper House, the ruling BJP was unable to move this Bill there and decided to take an Ordinance route and promulgated the Ordinance on December 28.

After the state Cabinet passed it, the Ordinance was sent for the approval of the Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala. The Ordinance was formally approved on January 5 and it is coming into effect in the state from Monday onwards.

According to the order, three to seven years imprisonment and a fine starting from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh can be imposed under this law and subsequent repeat offences can invite fines up to Rs 10 lakh.

The amended Act states that the slaughter of cows and calves are not allowed while the slaughter of buffaloes above 13 years is allowed.

The Act however is ambiguous on the part of consumption of beef, as it does not specify or prohibit the consumption of beef.

The Act states that slaughtering of buffalo above the age of 13 years, cattle that suffer from incurable disease, and for experimental or research purposes by recognised institutes is allowed.

Karnataka Law Minister J. C. Madhuswamy said: "When slaughter of buffalo above 13 years is allowed, how can we close down Cattle slaughter house in the state or be complete ban on beef ban?" "Illegal selling, transportation or culling of cows has been made punishable. If a cow has contracted a disease, which can spread to other cattle, then it can be culled or slaughtered," the Act said.

The amended Act has a provision to set up special courts for the speedy trial of the accused.It also makes provision for setting up Goshala or cattle-sheds for the protection of livestock.

Police have been given powers to conduct checking and most importantly the law also gives protection to those who protect these livestock.

The Act also allows a competent authority to monitor atrocities on cattle, receive complaints as well as to issue permits to transportation of cattle.

Karnataka in its order said that the Act is aimed to provide comprehensive legislation for the prevention of slaughter and preservation of cattle in the state.
STATE-owned postal service operator An Post insists it is going ahead with plans to launch mortgages despite the plans falling behind schedule.

It said in 2018 it was planning to launch a mortgage offering last year that would shake up the market with rates that would undercut what lenders are currently offering.

Now it says it is still in negotiations with potential joint venture partners on the home-loan plans.

Asked if it has now abandoned its mortgage plans, given how long it is taking to get the venture up and running, An Post said it is still planning to offer home-loans through post offices.

Mortgages are certainly on our radar and we are continuing to engage with a number of interested parties about providing a market leading mortgage proposition for Irish consumers.

It said it was also focused on building on the success of its An Post Green Hub, and on launching a current account app, and a new account for seven to 15 year olds, An Post Money Mate.

The spokeswoman did not reply to a question asking if it had been rebuffed by Spanish lender Bankinter which has since launched mortgages here under the Avant Money brand, offering rates as low as 1.95pc.

The latest deadline was for An Post to enter the mortgage market in the first half of last year but those plans were hit by the economic fallout from Covid-19.

In September 2018 An Post secured board approval for a new financial services strategy, revealing at the time that it planned to offer mortgage rates priced at a 1 percentage point discount to the market.

Rates here are as high as 4.5pc.

Average mortgage rates here are twice the typical level charged in the eurozone, according to the Central Bank.

This is costing a typical borrower here 2,000 more a year more than the average being paid in the currency zone.

Ireland has gone from having the third highest mortgage rates in the eurozone in September, to now being number two, after Greece.

An Post, which is headed up by David McRedmond, has been trying to find a partner to underwrite mortgages that would be sold under the companys brand from post offices and online.

This is similar to how Bank of Ireland provides mortgages through the British post office service, Royal Mail.

It is understood An Post has been trying to do a deal on a securing a joint venture with an overseas lender not currently in this market.

Mr McRedmond said in an interview in 2019 that An Post had planned to build a mortgage market share of between 5pc and 10pc.

Banks argue that they are unable to lower their rates to the levels seen in the likes of France and Germany because they are required to put aside far more capital than lenders in other European countries when they issue a new mortgage.

A lack of competition in the Irish mortgage market, as it remains heavily concentrated in the hands of AIB and Bank of Ireland, is also blamed for the high rates.
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On Sunday, January 17, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the claim by France that Tehran was in the process of building up its nuclear weapons is absurd nonsense. This comes after French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in an interview said that Iran was building up its nuclear weapons' capacity. He also said that it was important for Iran and the US to come back to its 2015 nuclear agreement.

In a tweet, Zarif wrote, Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran. He also said, Reality check: YOU are destabilizing OUR region. Stop protecting criminals who chainsaw their critics and use YOUR arms to slaughter children in Yemen. In another tweet he wrote, E3 leaderswho rely on signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOAhave done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA. Remember @EmmanuelMacron's stillborn initiative or UK non-payment of court-ordered debt? JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3, @JY_LeDrian.

E3 leaderswho rely on signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOAhave done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA.



Remember @EmmanuelMacron's stillborn initiative or UK non-payment of court-ordered debt?



JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3, @JY_LeDrian.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 17, 2021

Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran.



Reality check: YOU are destabilizing OUR region. Stop protecting criminals who chainsaw their critics and use YOUR arms to slaughter children in Yemen.  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 17, 2021

'Deeply concerned'

In a separate development, France and Britain urged Iran to back off the latest violation of its 2015 nuclear deal saying that Tehran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal. As per reports by AP, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran had informed that it had begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal. It also said that Tehran is still on its plans on conducting research and development on uranium metal production.

Read: 'Deeply Concerned' By Nuke Deal Violation, Germany, France & UK Ask Iran To 'back Off'

The European powers, in a statement, said that they are deeply concerned by the latest Iranian announcement. The statement said, Iran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal. The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications. It added, We strongly urge Iran to halt this activity, and return to compliance with its JCPoA commitments without further delay if it is serious about preserving the deal. The statement comes from the foreign ministers of German, French and Britain.

Read: Iran Warns Of Expelling United Nations Nuclear Inspectors If US Doesn't Lift Sanctions

Recently, EU officials supervising the agreement regarding Irans nuclear ambitions have warned that Tehran's decision to ramp up uranium enrichment could undermine efforts to keep the deal alive and bring the United States back on board. According to AP reports, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the countrys aim of enriching uranium up to 20 percent at the Fordo facility is a "very serious" development. He also said that it is a matter of concern as it has "very severe proliferation implications. After US President Donald Trump won the elections in 2016, he withdrew the United States from the Obama-era deal, calling it "rotten".

Read: Iran Holds Anti-warship Ballistic Missile Drill

Also Read: 'Taking Decisive Steps': France Shuts Down 9 Places Of Worship To Curb Islamic Extremism

(Image Credits: Unsplash/AP)
(Newser)  Tech company GitHub says a Jewish worker who was fired for warning that Nazis were among the Capitol rioters can have his job back. The worker was fired from the Microsoft subsidiary on Jan. 8, two days after he posted a message on Slack directed to DC-area colleagues during the unrest that read "stay safe homies, Nazis are about," the Guardian reports. He was told he was terminated due to a "pattern of behavior that is not conducive to company policy." Chief Operating Officer Erica Brescia said in a blog post Sunday that after an outcry from employees, the company hired an outside investigator who found "significant errors of judgment and procedure" in the firing process. Brescia said the company's head of HR has "taken personal accountability and resigned."

story continues below

"To the employee we wish to say publicly: we sincerely apologize," she said. Brescia said GitHub had "immediately reversed the decision to separate with the employee" and had contacted his representative, CNBC reports. In the blog post, Brescia and CEO Nat Friedman acknowledged that the mob had included "Nazis and white supremacists," adding: "Employees are free to express concerns about Nazis, antisemitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussion." Before the company's apology, the worker told TechCrunch that he had been genuinely concerned about the safety of his colleagues and Jewish family members. The worker said he wasn't interested in getting his job back. (A rioter who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" shirt was arrested last week.)
Ramban: District Police Ramban jointly with SOG Jammu busted a terror module on 18.01.2021 by arresting two valley based terror operatives and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Ramban: District Police Ramban jointly with SOG Jammu busted a terror module on 18.01.2021 by arresting two valley based terror operatives and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Jammu, Jan 18 : The Jammu & Kashmir Police busted a terror module on Monday in Jammu's Ramban district by arresting two terror operatives and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from their possession, officials said.

Police said initial investigation reveals that two terror operatives Umar Ahmed Malik and Suhail Ahmed Malik, both residents of Semthan, Bijbehara in south Kashmir's Anantnag district working under a plot hatched by Kashmir-based terrorists and their Pakistan-based JeM handler Aqib alias Alfa from Budgam, clandestinely travelled from Kashmir to the international border at Vijaypur, Samba and received arms and ammunition dropped with the help of drones.

Police said a large quantity of arms and ammunition has been recovered including two AK rifles, one pistol, 16 grenades, nine AK magazines, 269 live bullets and two magazines.

Police said that further investigation is on.
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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has endorsed the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, as the leader of the party in the South-West.

The Deputy Chairperson of the PDP in Lagos State, Waliu Hassan, made the disclosure on Saturday after meeting with Mr Makinde at Government House in Agodi, Ibadan, Oyo capital.

He told journalists after the meeting that Mr Makinde has worked diligently to become a force to reckon with in the PDP.

More over, a former House of Representatives member, Rita Orji, said they came all the day from Lagos to pledge total loyalty to his (Makindes) leadership of the South-West.

We can tell you that the governor does not want anything from us. He, as the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State, needs nothing from the party. Rather, we are the ones who came all the way from Lagos to plead with him to keep leading the party, he said.

We resolved to, irrespective of any rancour, move the party forward and we will ensure that the party takes its better seat in 2023. We did not come here to discuss who takes anything for zonal congress. The congress will soon come up and for all we care, we have come to restate our commitment to our own governor.

It is the full structure of Lagos that is represented here. Out of 19, we have the representation of 12 local government chairmen. We also have 17 complete non-working committee members of state exco here present. We have the deputy chairman of the party here. We have the secretary, legal adviser and the entire party structure of Lagos State here. This is a complete House of PDP, Lagos State, the party chieftain was quoted by Punch Newspaper.

PREMIUM TIMES has repeatedly reported the Southwest leadership crisis rocking the PDP between Mr Makinde and a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.

Mr Makinde has consistently claimed to be the leader of the party in South-West, but Mr Fayose disagreed, saying the Oyo state governor is a baby-politician.

As the crisis gets deeper on a daily basis, the national chairperson of the party, Uche Secondus, has reportedly not made any attempt to reconcile the two politicians.

Recently, a former minister of Power and Steel, Wole Oyeleso, accused Mr Secondus of being selfish and more interested in becoming the chairperson of the party for the second term than the unity of the opposition party.

But Mr Secondus responded, saying the two politicians should settle their differences before the Bukola Saraki reconciliation committee empaneled to reconcile all the warring factions in the party.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has denied giving $5million bribe to the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and others to facilitate the appointment of a sole administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Mr Akpabios ministry supervises the commission.

The embattled NDDC sole administrator, Effiong Akwa, who hails from the same state  Akwa Ibom State  with Mr Akpabio, was appointed into a previous interim management as a replacement for the late director of finance, Ibanga Etang, who died of COVID-19.

There have been several protests, especially from the Ijaw ethnic group, against the NDDC after President Muhammadu Buhari in December sacked the former interim management and left behind Mr Akwa, whom he elevated to the position of a sole administrator.

Some people, including members of the former interim management, believe Mr Akpabio manipulated the system to edge out others from the NDDC leadership in order to have absolute control of the commission, through Mr Akwa.

They believe that Mr Akwas appointment negates the principle of rotation of the NDDC leadership among the nine states that make up the Niger Delta region.

I didnt bribe Malami  Akpabio

Mr Akpabio, in a statement issued on Saturday by his media aide, Anietie Ekong, denounced some publications which alleged that he gave a $5million bribe to the attorney general, Mr Malami, and others to get Mr Akwa appointed sole administrator.

The attention of the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been drawn to a piece of fake news which claimed that Senator Akpabio paid $5 million bribe to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and others to secure the appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The story is a desperate attempt by some unscrupulous bloggers to impugn the integrity of the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami as the claim is not only spurious but utterly ridiculous, the statement said.

Mr Akpabio, who threatened to file a lawsuit over the report, said people who are uncomfortable with the NDDC forensic audit were behind the bribe story.

The statement said Mr Akwas appointment was a fallout of a lawsuit against the NDDC.

The fact is that in a suit number ABJ/CS/617/2020 filed by a Civil Society Organization, Forum for Accountability and Good Governance, at a Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Ahmed Mohammed had granted an order restraining the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC from performing the functions of the board and accessing the Commissions offices and files.

The Order clearly listed the Managing Director Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Executive Director of Projects Dr Cairo Ojougboh, Mrs Caroline Nagboh and Cecilia Akintomide as those restrained. The Order also asked that the most senior civil servant or administrator in the Commission be appointed to take charge of the Commission.

It was based on this order that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the elevation of the Acting Executive Director of Finance and Administration, Mr Effiong Akwa, being the most Senior Administrator to take over the headship of the NDDC as an Interim Administrator pending the completion of the Forensic Audit Exercise.

PREMIUM TIMES, Monday, asked Mr Akpabios media aide, Mr Ekong, why the federal government did not consider appointing others into the NDDC management, if such moves could help douse tension.

I think that is the discretion of the president to make, he responded.

Mr Ekong said NDDC has had about two sole administrators in the past, before Mr Akwas appointment.

Some people have this sense of entitlement that if it is not from their stock, it shouldnt work. But I believe that most of those agitations have been doused and they have come to realise that Akwa is not just eminently qualified, but he is also a son of the Niger Delta, he said.

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Corrupt agency

The NDDC has failed to lift the Niger Delta people out of poverty, more than 20 years after it was established in 2000 by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, to fast-track development in the oil-rich region.

Billions of naira that have accrued to the commission have been mismanaged and stolen over the years by corrupt officials and politicians, why several abandoned projects litter the region.

Mr Akpabio, in July, indicted federal lawmakers over the corruption and poor job delivery in the NDDC, saying that most of the commissions contracts were executed by the lawmakers.

The NDDC, in June, accused a senator, Peter Nwaoboshi, of using 11 companies as fronts to secure for himself a N3.6 billion contract in the commission. The contract was not executed and the money not refunded, the commission said.

Mr Nwaoboshi is a Peoples Democratic Party senator representing Delta North District, Delta State. He is the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta and the NDDC.

The NDDC spokesperson, Charles Odili, said the contract was the biggest single case of looting of the Commissions resources.

Mr Akpabio, who once said the NDDC abandoned $70million in a bank for 13 years, said the commission was so corrupt that it was treated like a teller machine where money could be withdrawn freely at any time.

Interestingly, Mr Akpabios tenure as the Niger Delta affairs minister so far has been blighted by the corruption scandals in the NDDC.

I said it on radio the other day, why did it take us 20 years to know that NDDC was not living up to its mandate? said Ken Henshaw, the Executive Director of We The People, a non-governmental organisation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

It was created in 2000 and it took us up to 2020 to realise that the NDDC wasnt working.

The same thing with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. Have we carried out any evaluation to know whether the ministry is living up to its mandate?

I think we should put robust monitoring and evaluation frame-work in place to ensure there is a match between projects and objectives and to ensure that those projects actually speak to the issues in the Niger Delta region, Mr Henshaw said.
The previous year is one to remember for realme as it scored local and international awards for its quality products and business milestones. realmes success in 2020 showcased real strength across all business silos thereby exceeding industry expectations.

The fastest-growing smartphone brand attributes its local and international success to the value and quality of its globally recognized products

realme Philippines was able to climb to being the number one smartphone brand in the country in just two years, as reported by global analysis firms Counterpoint Research, Canalys and IDC. With consistent sold-out sales, successful product launches and campaigns, and industry awards under its belt, the leading smartphone brand in the country is the fastest among its competitors to grow its local presence.

In the previous year, realme Philippines executed several campaigns and launched a number of products in aid of Filipinos trying to thrive in the highly digital dynamics of the new normal. The number one smartphone brand launched two new product line-ups in 2020 -- the premium X-series and the e-commerce exclusive narzo series. It also grew its smart home device portfolio with the launch of new audio devices, smartwatches, smart camera, toothbrush and many more. realme Philippines also onboarded its first product ambassadors, social media superstar Donnalyn Bartolome and cosplay royalty Alodia Gosiengfiao.

The efforts of realme Philippines were not only recognized by consumers but by industry leaders as well. The two-year-old brand bagged a Silver Anvil for its Facebook Community under the Digital PR Program for the Consumer Welfare category. The award recognized realme Philippines Facebook Community as a platform to build ties and to nurture an elevated smartphone experience for the Filipino youth. It also took home a bronze trophy from the prestigious Asia-Pacific Stevie awards as the Most Innovative Startup of the Year  Consumer Product Industries category.

realme Philippines joined its global counterparts in a winning streak last year. Underpinned by strong support, realme global has gained 17 brand awards, 159 product awards and 5 top-tier design awards around the world in 2020. Much of realmes commercial, corporate and innovative success is attributed to its clear and precise vision to provide cutting-edge features and trendsetting design. The brand also takes pride in its strong affiliation with its main consumers -- the youth.

realme is currently among the Top 5 tech brands in terms of market share in 12 countries, claiming the number one spot in the Philippines, and has thenceforth expanded to 61 markets globally. The esteemed media outfit Financial Times has corroborated the companys leading position across Asia-Pacific.

One major milestone realme has reached in 2020 is being the fastest company to reach 50M shipments, as reported by Counterpoint Research. realme, whose slogan is 'Dare to Leap', adopts a strategy of producing products with exceptional performance and trendsetting quality for the youth, all of which available at an affordable and attractive price point. "At realme, we commit to our philosophy which is to dare to leap into the forefront of innovation, design and product value -- something young people can identify with,' says Sky Li, realme's CEO. realme's trendsetting image and product reputation have contributed to building customer trust and brand awareness.

realmes trendsetting design present across its product line-ups was also lauded by the international design community. realme has won five international design awards such as the Good Designed Award 2020 for three different products, the Red Dot Design Award for the realme X2 Pro, the Golden Pin Award, and more. With its world-class design and cutting-edge technology, renowned mobile authority GSM Arena rated realme as the midrange all-rounder mobile phone for 2020.

The strong momentum realme gained in 2020 is expected to catapult the brand to greater heights in 2021, with new exciting products and technology on the horizon.
There are many award worthy movies and series past and present, but Vikings just won a rather impressive award thats worth mentioning. The series premiered in 2013 on the History channel, and its had a fan following ever since. Last month the shows final episodes were released on Amazon Prime Video ahead of its premiere on History, concluding the epic saga. Although the series is now officially over, Vikings recently won an award worth boasting about.

Alexander Ludwig and Katheryn Winnick in Vikings | Jonathan Hession/A+E Networks/History

The epic story of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons is now over

Vikings is a tale about Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a farmer turned earl that becomes a legendary king. He chooses to sail west and he lands in England, changing everything for his people. He also makes history with an impressive raid on Paris when he pretends to be dead to enter the gates of the city.

Once Ragnar is killed by the kings of England the story becomes about his five sons  Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig), Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith), Hvitserk (Marco Ils), Sigurd (David Lindstrom), and Ivar (Alex Hgh Andersen). They jointly seek revenge for their fathers death with The Great Heathen Army, making themselves even more famous.

Ragnars sons are all so different, and fans have grown to love them over the last few years. With only Ivar, Hvitserk, Bjorn, and Ubbe remaining going into season 6B, fans witness a new beginning for some, and theres numerous twists and turns throughout the final 10 episodes.

Vikings wins a Critics Choice Super Award for Best Action Series

Marco Ils in Vikings | Bernard Walsh/A+E Networks/History

RELATED: Vikings Season 6B: The 1 Fan Favorite That Never Returned

The Critics Choice Association is holding its 26th annual Critics Choice Awards on March 7, 2021. It will be broadcast live on the CW, but there is also a new type of award given out this year. The Critics Choice Super Awards, which aired on the CW on January 10, 2021, included awards centered around series and movies in a variety of categories that include action, horror, superheroes, science fiction/fantasy, and animation.

Vikings received three nominations for the series which included Best Action Series, as well as Best Actor in an Action Series nomination for Alexander Ludwig for his role as Bjorn Ironside. Katheryn Winnick, who played Lagertha for six seasons, was nominated for Best Actress in an Action Series as well.

The winners have finally been announced, and the series scored the coveted award for Best Action Series. Fans know the show is full of action, so this award was definitely earned. In season 6 alone, there are many action sequences that are memorable, and its nice to see the show walking away with this award.

Katheryn Winnick congratulated the incredible cast and crew

Winnick recently took to Instagram to congratulate the series on its award. She shared an image of Lagertha in battle with her armor on and her face all muddy from a fight. She congratulates the cast and crew as well as Michael Hirst, the creator of the hit series, on the win.

Winnick captioned the post on Instagram: VIKINGS WINS BEST ACTION SERIES FOR CRITICS CHOICE SUPER AWARDS! Huge Congrats to all the incredible cast and crew and to our legendary creator, Michael Hirst. .

Vikings has won other awards in the past

According to IMDb, the series has won an incredible 39 awards and has been nominated 121 times previously. The most recent award before the Critics Choice Super Awards was an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role for episode 10 of season 6 called The Best Laid Plans.

More recent awards that the series scored include Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for Best Sound in a Dramatic Program or Series, Best Visual Effects, and Achievement in Overall Sound. In 2018, the show took home more awards from the Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Visual Effects, Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Alexander Ludwig, and Best Sound in a Comedy or Dramatic Program or Series.

Vikings won a Critics Choice Super Award, and its a fitting acknowledgement that fans know the show deserved.
2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors have arrested a Kentucky man who they say was part of a violent crowd that stormed the House Speaker's Lobby during the breach of the U.S. Capitol, smashing a window with a flagpole moments before a woman was fatally shot, court filings show.

An FBI charging affidavit alleges that Chad Barrett Jones is the man shown in video at Ashli Babbitt's left on Jan. 6, wearing a red-hooded jacket and gray skullcap and striking the lobby door's glass panels as a mob chanted "Break it down!" and "Let's f-----g go!"

Jones allegedly used a flagpole to break the glass, the affidavit says.

Seconds later, Babbitt, 35, an Air Force veteran from Southern California, was shot by a police officer as she tried to enter the lobby, an inner sanctum that leads to the House floor. Hers is one of five deaths linked to the riot, which was carried out by supporters of President Donald Trump who wanted to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.

District of Columbia police and U.S. Capitol Police are investigating the shooting of Babbitt, and the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave. Acting U.S. attorney Michael Sherwin of Washington has said investigators are probing all aspects of the shooting of Babbitt, including whether the officer, whose name has not been released, used excessive force. They are also examining whether the shooting was foreseeable and occurred during felonies committed by others, in which case those individuals could face felony murder charges.

Dozens of people have been arrested for their roles in the Jan. 6 riot. On Sunday, Capitol Police arrested Couy Griffin, a county commissioner in Otero County, N.M., who heads a group called Cowboys for Trump and has spoken openly about his involvement in the storming of the Capitol.

Images from a Facebook video that Griffin posted shows that he was within the restricted area of the building, the FBI said in an affidavit. In the video, on the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page, Griffin said he had "climbed up on the top of the Capitol building and . . . had a first row seat."

He also raised the specter of a future gun rights rally at the Capitol, saying there would be "blood running out of that building" and promising, "we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer."

Griffin, who is from Tularosa, said last week that he planned to return to Washington to protest the inauguration and would bring guns with him, the affidavit said. He was arrested Sunday afternoon just north of the Capitol.

The affidavit said Griffin was interviewed by the FBI on Monday and told agents "that he hopes a change in leadership can be accomplished 'without a single shot being fired' but noted that there was 'no option that's off the table for the sake of freedom.' "

Jones, of Mount Washington, Ky., was arrested Sunday. He is charged with assaulting a federal officer, civil disorder, obstruction of justice, destruction of property and trespassing. To support those charges, prosecutors submitted a statement by FBI Special Agent Javier Gonzalez narrating the three minutes before Babbitt was shot.

Citing video footage published by The Washington Post and on YouTube, the agent described apparent lawmakers and officials awaiting evacuation yards behind lobby door, which was barricaded with chairs and protected by officers.

One man splintered the glass door panels with punches as the crowd shouted at officers, including one person who cried out "F--- the blue" multiple times, the statement by Gonzalez says.

Another voice warned the officers to leave, saying he did not want to see them get hurt. Three officers appeared to move to one side as colleagues in tactical gear arrived, the statement says.

But within seconds, a man identified as Jones allegedly struck the glass with a wooden flagpole at least 10 times, attempting to break in. A police officer, with gun raised, appeared to shoot Babbitt, with Jones still in view at the left, holding the pole, the FBI agent said.

The FBI interviewed a relative and a close friend of Jones who had identified him from footage of the shooting, the agent said. Court papers say the relative, identified as W-1, told the FBI that he spoke with Jones on the night of Jan. 6.

The relative allegedly described Jones's clothing to FBI agents as a way of identifying him, and said Jones was "using a rolled up Trump flag to attempt to break the glass on an interior door," the court papers say.

In three FBI interviews, the witness told agents that he contacted Jones after watching news of Babbitt's death and told him that he needed to contact the FBI or an attorney. Jones allegedly responded by saying he wanted to explain to another close friend "why it all was happening and why it was a hoax."

That friend, identified as W-2, also allegedly told FBI agents that he recognized Jones from video circulating on the Internet as the man wearing a red jacket and a gray cap, breaking a window inside the Capitol, and standing next to Babbitt.

The FBI said the friend told agents that Jones called him on Jan. 7, saying he was in trouble, admitted that he broke the glass and "called himself an idiot." According to the affidavit, the friend said Jones told him that he was in the middle of the crowd and had been able to walk into the Capitol "without any problem."

Jones attended a previous Trump rally in Washington, his relative allegedly told the FBI, adding that he saw on Facebook that Jones was going to the Capitol on Jan. 6. The "Stop the Steal" demonstration that day was inspired by Trump's repeatedly debunked claims that he lost reelection because of fraud.

At least three others were arrested or charged in their home states over the weekend, the U.S. Justice Department said.

One was Brandon Fellows, 26, of Albany, N.Y., who told Bloomberg News that he had "no regrets" about entering the Capitol and that his Bumble dating profile was "blowing up" after he posted a picture of himself there.

Photos on social media sites show Fellows with his feet propped on a table in the private office of Sen. Jeff. Merkley, D-Ore., and sitting on a police motorcycle outside the Capitol, wearing costume hat, fake orange beard and a red, white and black jacket and "USA" in blue letters, the FBI said. He was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

On Saturday, two cousins were arrested and charged with assaulting police, civil disorder, and other offenses during the riot. One allegedly told a witness that he would return to Washington, armed, for future pro-Trump demonstrations and not go home "unless he was in a body bag," the FBI said.

An FBI affidavit said Cody Page Carter Connell of Louisiana allegedly described events in a conversation on social media, saying he and his cousin Daniel Page Adams of Texas stormed police and breached the Capitol after Adams "got clubbed and shot with rubber bullet."

"But we pushed the cops against the wall, they dropped all their gear and left," the FBI quoted Connell as allegedly saying.

"We will be back and it will be a lot worse than yesterday," Connell allegedly wrote on Facebook, the FBI said.
Wine Talk: The Cork Problem

You may recall the issue of so-called cork taint that ravaged the wine industry not so long ago.

Many natural corks were infected with a compound called TCA (short for trichloroanisole, which forms through interactions between plant phenols, chlorine, and mold). TCA was a huge problem until recently, spoiling many bottles of wine, including some of the most expensive, with an unpleasant, musty aroma.

The TCA issue prompted many wineries to switch to screwcap closures despite initial resistance from the distribution chain, which feared a consumer backlash because screwcaps had previously been used mostly for cheap wines or jug wines.

Some producers of fine wine resisted the transition and moved away from natural corks to what are described as composite corks made up of various materials. Now we have a different problem.

Many of the composite corks are difficult to work with and, in some cases, dangerous because of the sheer force required to extract them from the bottle. Be careful when you encounter one of these monstrosities. Ive had the lever on the corkscrew slip off the top of the bottle and stab my hand because of the force required to simply get the cork to move a fraction of an inch. Ive bent several of my less-sturdy corkscrews.

Extracting a cork from a bottle of wine shouldnt be that difficult, and it definitely shouldnt be dangerous. There are composite corks that work, permitting soft entry with the corkscrew and easy extraction, but they are few and far between.

My solution is a return to natural corks for wineries that insist on having a cork in the bottle. The cork industry has cleaned up its act and solved most of the problems that promoted the spread of TCA. At the wine competitions I oversee, we open thousands of bottles over the course of a weekend. We have seen a dramatic drop in the number of wines rejected because of TCA, from double digits at the peak of the problem to less than 1 percent today.

Its high time to return to natural cork as the primary wine closure, especially for age-worthy red wines.

Tasting Notes

Wines are rated on a 100-point scale. Wines are chosen for review because they represent outstanding quality or value, and the scores are simply a measure of this reviewers enthusiasm for the recommended wine.

Poliziano 2019 Rosso di Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy ($19): You wouldnt expect to find some of Italys greatest values in red wine in the hallowed vineyards of Tuscany, yet there it is, the Montepulciano district that lies south of the Chianti region and east of the Montalcino district. Montepulciano hasnt caught up to its neighbors in popularity, hence why the prices lag a bit. Poliziano is one of the finest producers from the region. The rosso is its base wine, 80 percent sangiovese and 20 percent merlot, and it has plenty of oomph. Showing notes of black cherry, plum, and spice, its an excellent match for grilled poultry, sausages, and red pasta sauces. While not exactly cheap, the quality far surpasses the price. Best Value. Rating: 91.

Poliziano 2019 Rosso di Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy. (Courtesy of Poliziano)

Chappellet 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, Pritchard Hill ($250): There are a handful of Napa Valley cabernets that are deserving of iconic status, having demonstrated over decades that they are anything but a fluke of nature. Pritchard Hill is Chappellets contribution to the pantheon of truly great Napa Valley cab. This is the 20th anniversary for this iconic cab from the iconic 50-year-old winery located off the Silverado Trail along the eastern side of the valley. The 2017 is rich, deep, and impressive, with polished tannins despite its muscular structure; dark-fruit notes of blackberry, cassis, and blueberry; and remarkable depth and length. Its a wine for the ages. Rating: 100.

Chappellet 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, Pritchard Hill. (Courtesy of Chappellet)

Duckhorn 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley ($32): Consistently among the finest sauvignons produced in California, the 2019 Duckhorn follows in that vein, showing beautiful aromas of citrus, tropical fruit, and peach; exquisite balance; and impressive length with a subtle note of wood spice on the finish. Rating: 93.

Duckhorn 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley. (Courtesy of Duckhorn Vineyards)

Chateau Lassegue 2017 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France ($60): Chateau Lassegue is a Right Bank gem operated by vignerons Pierre and Nicolas Seillan. This, the chateaus flagship wine, is sourced from the hillsides surrounding the chateau and is undoubtedly one of the finest values in Bordeaux today. The 2017 vintage is nearly equal parts merlot and cabernet franc, with a hint of cabernet sauvignon in the blend. The nose offers a hint of violets and spice, leading to a palate that is supple and smooth, with richly layered red-fruit aromas and a subtle note of wood spice. It needs another few years in the cellar to be at its best, but it will be worth the wait. Rating: 93.

Tinto Figuero 12, 2017 Tempranillo, Ribera del Duero, Spain ($31): Though a bit pricy for a crianza (aged 12 months in barrel), its whats in the bottle that counts. This is a richly layered, beautifully structured red from Ribera del Duero that is drinkable now but has the guts for the long haul. With complex aromas of blackberry, blueberry and raspberry, and a dash of sweet oak vanillin, its a crowd pleaser. Rating: 92.

Tinto Figuero 12, 2017 Tempranillo, Ribera del Duero, Spain. (Courtesy of Quintessential Wines)

Follow Robert on Twitter at @wineguru. To find out more about Robert Whitley and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at Creators.com. Email Robert at whitleyonwine@yahoo.com. Copyright 2020 Creators.com
In Alabama, honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on King Day means sharing memories.

In Birmingham, King taught love in the face of hate.

This January would have marked Kings 91st birthday.

King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. He was killed on April 4, 1968, in Memphis. Kings wife, Coretta, was born in Marion, King was a pastor in Montgomery, and Alabama was a major backdrop for the events of his life, including the setting for his classic 1963 plea for civil rights, Letter from Birmingham Jail.

The civil rights activist is commemorated in many places in Birmingham, including with a statue in Kelly Ingram Park, and throughout Alabama. He was the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery from 1954-60, where he rose to national prominence as a spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56. He led civil rights marches in Birmingham in 1963 that reverberated throughout the nation. He led the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent campaign against segregation.

In addition to the influence of Jesus and Mohandas K. Gandhi, Kings ideas reflected the teachings of a devoutly religious family - his father, maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were ministers. He was also strongly influenced by the personalist philosophy taught at Boston University School of Theology, where King received his doctorate in 1955.

Kings life was molded by the circumstances that gave rise to practical application of his theology. Many scholars have noted that King may well have had a relatively quiet life as a minister and theology professor after he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the 'whites only' section of a segregated bus, King was thrust into leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.

Kings philosophy always emphasized a basic tenet of Christianity: forgiveness. In Stride Toward Freedom, King wrote that forgiveness was the favorite topic of mass meetings during the boycott. It remained a dominant theme of the movement.

King is more than a legendary figure to those in Birmingham who knew him personally.

It was like he was leading a rescue mission for the world, said Jeff Drew, whose father, John, operated Alexander and Co. Insurance Agency in Birmingham, which had insured church vans during the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Drews mother, Deenie, was known as the den mother of the civil rights movement. King often stayed at their house on visits to Birmingham from the late 1950s through 1968. He was a giant, and a giant for all men, Drew said.

The Rev. Wilson Fallin Jr., a Birmingham pastor and historian who hosted King speaking as pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in Bessemer in 1968, said that King was calm in the face of the death threats surrounding him at the time.

After King spoke to help set the stage for the Poor Peoples Campaign Mule Train of 1968, Fallin took King, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth to eat dinner at the home of church member Bessy Wilkins, a woman in her 70s, who cooked dinner.

'He teased Ralph about being born in the Black Belt and that he thought he knew about collard greens,' Fallin said. It was hardly more than a month later that King was killed.

He was a legendary man, but also a man who loved to eat and joke and talk, Fallin said.

'He was a man that loved life,' Fallin said.

For Drew, who first met King when he was about seven years old and was 16 when King last stayed with the family shortly before his death, the civil rights leaders visits to Birmingham were commonplace, but also historic.

The Drew house was on Center Street, a dividing line between whites and blacks. Blacks were allowed to live on the east side of the street, but when they bought houses on the west side of the street, they were often attacked by the Ku Klux Klan.

The North Smithfield community was nicknamed Dynamite Hill because it was bombed so often. The home of attorney Arthur Shores, one of the first blacks to practice law in Alabama, was bombed twice in 1963 and targeted in 1965.

King knew that, but stayed in the neighborhood anyway. He tried to keep his visits secret so the Drew family wouldnt be targeted. Part of his secrecy was to protect the families in the homes he was visiting, Drew said. He knew he was a target.

History was happening, and that was apparent at the time.

All of us Dynamite Hill kids, we knew something special was going on, Drew said.
The U.S. Capitol dome is seen beyond a security fence in Washington, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Capitol Hill Lockdown Prompted by Nearby Fire

Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., was placed on lockdown due to a security concern. Smoke was seen rising from behind the capitol building. The fire has been reportedly extinguished and there have been no injuries.

#DCsBravest responded to an outside fire in the 100 block of H St SE that has been extinguished. There were no injuries. This accounts for smoke that many have seen, wrote the DC and Fire EMS official account on Twitter.

An emergency broadcast was heard along with an alarm and staff inside the Capitol were asked to remain inside the building and away from doors and windows.

Some sources allege that the fire came from a nearby homeless encampment.

BREAKING: Smoke rising behind Capitol building. Inauguration rehearsal appears to be evacuating. Emergency announcement playing at Capitol grounds. pic.twitter.com/86J9S8CsMY  Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) January 18, 2021

The U.S. Army confirmed that as many as 25,000 National Guard members will be stationed in Washington D.C. for Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

The Defense Department authorized up to 25,000 service members to be deployed, which is an increase of 5,000 from numbers earlier last week.

A statement from the Army to news outlets on Friday said the increase would support the federal law enforcement mission and security preparations during the inauguration, and it would be led by the U.S. Secret Service.

Our National Guard soldiers and airmen are set around the city to protect our nations Capital, National Guard Bureau Chief Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson said in the statement.

President Donald Trump wrote on a statement last Wednesday urging Americans not to engage in violence.

In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking, and NO vandalism of any kind, Trump said. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.

South Carolina National Guard among others denied the claims about a nationwide lockdown that were circulating on the internet.

The rumors that the South Carolina National Guard is supporting a statewide or nationwide lockdown or quarantine are not true, the South Carolina National Guard post said. Rumors like this can create confusion and anxiety in the organization and our communities.

If you hear or see something that seems unfounded, do not continue spreading the information. Verify that information with one of the official sources pertaining to the National Guard Bureau, the South Carolina National Guard, and the state of South Carolina.

Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
FAIRIFIELD  A review process is launched whenever police officers are fired, but in most cases, it does not mean they will lose their certification, law enforcement experts say.

In most instances, the officer will have violated the departments ethics code or standards of conduct, but the offense wont rise to the level of revoking certification. This means officers are generally able to start working at another department  as was the case with a member of the Shelton department who was fired last year and then was hired this month in Fairfield.

An officer generally loses certification if the person is convicted of a felony or lied in a case, law enforcement experts said.

Once a cop lies, and is known to lie, they cant be a cop anymore, said John DeCarlo, a criminal justice professor at the University New Haven, who is also a retired police chief.

But some changes are already being considered to increase the criteria for removing an officers certification  including conduct undermining public confidence in law enforcement or excessive force  and some say the list can be expanded even more.

For DeCarlo, this includes creating more uniformity across a very diverse profession.

Policing in the U.S. is so granular and so local, he said.

There are about 18,500 police departments nationwide, including 102 in Connecticut  each of which is generally overseen and funded by the municipality it serves. This means each board or commission could have its own hiring and firing practices for their department.

Theres a lot of different interpretation nationally on how thats done, DeCarlo said, adding theres been discussion about creating a national decertification board.

How does an officer lose certification?

Certification is overseen by the Police Officers Standards and Training Council, a division of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. It also oversees police officers training, as well as a mandatory police department accreditation program.

While POST has its own staff to oversee various aspects of the organizations duties, there is also an appointed council comprised of police chiefs, town administrators, a faculty member from the University of Connecticut, the chief states attorney and members of the public.

Departments are required to report to POST within 10 days of firing an officer.

A chief law enforcement officer can request for an officers certification to be revoked. The requests must be done in writing, signed and state in reasonable detail why it should be considered, according to POSTs regulations.

A preliminary inquiry is then conducted if the council believes there is enough basis for the certification to be pulled. If the council finds there is probable cause after this inquiry, the officer is notified and can either surrender his or her certification or request a hearing. If theres no hearing, the executive director will conduct an investigation and complete a written report.

The council will then vote, with at least two-thirds needed to revoke the officers certification.

Termination may or may not affect the officers certification, said Karen Boisvert, the Police Academy administrator who also oversees POST. POST must follow (Connecticut General Statutes) and regulation, which governs the certification, recertification or decertification requirements for the certification process.

In 2020, only one Connecticut officer lost certification, according to a database maintained by POST. Officers generally lose their certification if they are convicted of a felony, as was the case last year with a member of the Hartford Police Department.

Changes in new police bill

Some changes are already included in last summers police accountability bill.

The bill expands these grounds to include conduct undermining public confidence in law enforcement or excessive force, it reads. In both cases, the law enforcement unit, under its procedures, must have found that the officer engaged in this conduct. In cases of undermining public confidence, the unit must have considered any POST guidance.

The first part includes discriminatory conduct, falsifying reports, or racial profiling in violation of state law.

In its evaluation, POST must consider conduct the holder undertook in a law enforcement capacity or when representing himself or herself as a police officer to be more serious than conduct in other circumstances, according to the bill.

The excessive force expansion builds on the existing law that already allowed POST to cancel or revoke certification if the officer improperly used a firearm that resulted in someone elses death or serious injury.

Under the bill, POST may also cancel or revoke an officers certification if the officer used excessive force or physical force found to be unjustified after investigation under the laws standards for police use of force, it reads.

DeCarlo said more needs to be done regarding certification during the hiring and training process that goes beyond the punitive approach included in certain parts of the bill. But, he said, these are all moves in the right direction.

DeCarlo said there are about 9,000 police officers in Connecticut and there is an annual 10 percent attrition rate. Each community looks different, ranging from small towns in rural parts of the state to bigger cities.

Thats a lot of people that have to be trained by a system thats so granular and diverse, he said.

From Shelton to Fairfield

Dan Loris was sworn in as a Fairfield police officer on Jan. 4, just months after he was fired in Shelton.

Im not opposed to him getting another job, but when they make the comment that they did a stringent and rigorous background check, I really have to call that into question especially when the standards for police officers are so high today and the statutes are very demanding, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti said.

Loris was fired from the Shelton department, according to Chief Shawn Sequeira, on allegations of ethics and sexual harassment violations and misconduct while on duty.

Loris termination resulted from an internal affairs investigation into alleged photos of officers changing their clothes in the department parking lot that were posted on social media in July.

Loris filed a grievance, which is still pending.

Fairfield Police Commission Chairman James Millington said the department conducts a comprehensive background check on all new hires and lateral transfers. The Police Commission then reviews the background information and interviews the candidates.

The Fairfield Police Department prides itself on its dedication and commitment to maintaining a safe community and, as such, employs strict hiring standards, which apply to all applicants, he said.

Fired officers can seek a lateral transfer at a different department and retain their certification as long as the previous employer doesnt claim they committed acts that rose to the level of malfeasance, Millington said.

In such cases, the department and commission fully review the facts and circumstances surrounding any incidents the officer is alleged to have been involved in, he said.

He said this process was followed for Loris, who was named the Connecticut Law Enforcement Officer of the Year last summer by the Connecticut Department of the American Legion.

Each year, the American Legion gives its National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award to a well-rounded law enforcement officer who has exceeded the duty requirements expected of his or her position and has demonstrated a distinct pattern of community service coupled with professional achievement, according to the organization.

The administration and commission reviewed the incident he was involved in, reviewed his full employment records and performed an extensive background investigation, Millington said. The department administration and Police Commission members determined that Officer Loris is an exceptional individual whom has nothing in his background that would exclude him from being hired.

Staff writers Brian Gioiele and Josh LaBella contributed.
WATTIE CHEUNG/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesBy ANGELINE JANE BERNABE, ABC News

(LONDON) -- Prince William is taking part in the effort to get people vaccinated in the United Kingdom by joining its vaccination campaign.



In a video posted on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges social media accounts Saturday, Prince William joined a roundtable of frontline workers talking about the National Health Services vaccination effort, which is described by one health care worker in the video as the biggest public health campaign that the U.K. has seen.



So far, health care workers in the U.K. have administered more than 2.8 million vaccines.



A huge congratulations to all of you for playing your part in such a monumental moment, Prince William said in the video.



This is because we have a world-leading NHS, this is because we have the right people, the right research and development here, he added about the work that has been done so far.

 Thank you to all the staff and volunteers across the country working to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected from coronavirus  pic.twitter.com/4gbXBligcp  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 16, 2021

Britain was the first western country to begin a mass vaccination rollout against the coronavirus. In December, the country began administering the vaccine to its top priority groups, which included front-line health care workers, everyone over the age of 80 and health and social care workers who are at high risk.



Just over a week ago, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, received their COVID-19 vaccines, which were administered by a doctor at Windsor Castle.



In the video, Prince William commended his grandparents for getting the vaccine.



My grandparents have had the vaccine, and Im very proud of them for doing that, William said. Its really important that everyone gets their vaccine.



The British government is aiming to administer vaccine doses to 15 million people by mid-February.



Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Update: Riley June Williams was arrested Monday

Did a Harrisburg woman take Nancy Pelosis laptop?

The FBI says thats a possibility, according to an affidavit newly filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

At the very least, that filing by FBI Special Agent Jonathan Lund states the feds have cause to charge Riley June Williams with violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot by a pro-Trump mob.

Lunds affidavit, filed late Sunday, tells a bizarre story. It includes claims by an ex-lover that Williams stole the laptop from the office of House Speaker Pelosi during the riot and tried, without success, to sell it to Russias foreign intelligence service.

According to the tipster, Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it, Lund wrote. This matter remains under investigation.

The FBI attached this photo to an arrest warrant for Riley Williams of Harrisburg in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The charges against Williams are based in part on a 32-minute video, Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story, that was created by ITV News, a British television network, and published on YouTube. Lund wrote that the video appears to show Williams participating in the riot inside the Capitol.

She has brown shoulder length hair and wears eyeglasses. She is wearing a black face mask below her chin, around her neck. She can be heard in the video repeatedly yelling, Upstairs, upstairs, upstairs, and can be seen physically directing other intruders to proceed up a staircase, the agent wrote. The video also shows a stream of intruders walking up a nearby staircase.

That staircase leads to Pelosis office, Lund said. He said surveillance video from cameras in the Capitol also show Williams inside the buildings Statutory Hall pointing and directing intruders during the melee. Other surveillance video shows her entering the Capitol with the mob, the agent said.

Lund said local law enforcement in Harrisburg contacted Williams mother on Jan. 11 in response to a suspicious person report. Williams mother said that report involved the same person who called the federal tip line with the claim that Williams had Pelosis computer, the agent wrote.

With the officers present, Williams mother placed a video-enabled cell phone call to her daughter, he said. When Williams answered she was wearing a brown jacket that appeared to be the same one surveillance cameras allegedly showed her wearing inside the Capitol during the riot, Lund wrote.

He said that on Jan. 16 Harrisburg officers said Williams mother told them a British news crew had come to her house the previous night asking to speak with her daughter, who was not at home. The mother acknowledged that her daughter was in photos the news crew showed her of the riot, Lund wrote.

Williams father, a Camp Hill resident who isnt named in the affidavit, told investigators he and his daughter drove to the Capitol together for the protest, but did not stay together, the affidavit states. The father said they later drove home together.

On Jan. 16, ITV posted another video on YouTube in which it identified Williams as a protester who stormed the Capitol, Lund wrote. He said that video showed Williams mother stating her daughter had taken a sudden interest in President Trumps politics and far right message boards.

It appears that Williams has fled, Lund wrote. According to local law enforcement officers in Harrisburg, Williams mother stated that that Williams packed a bag and left her home and told her mother she would be gone for a couple of weeks.

Williams did not provide her mother any information about her intended destination, he added. Sometime after January 6, 2021, Williams changed her telephone number and deleted what I believe were her social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Parler.

A warrant has been issued for her arrest based on Lunds affidavit.

Williams is the sixth Pennsylvanian charged to date with actually participating in the riot inside the Capitol building.
Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson has had many celebrity crushes over the years, but there's one Hollywood heart-throb she now regrets fawning over.

The mother of one, 45, revealed on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday that she no longer feels comfortable about her crush on actor Armie Hammer.

'So, Kyle, you're aware of Armie Hammer... we had him in the studio,' she told her co-host Kyle Sandilands, adding that she thought the Call Me by Your Name star, 34, was 'a massive hottie' at the time.

Awkward! Jackie 'O' Henderson (right) has had many celebrity crushes over the years, but there's one Hollywood heart-throb she now regrets fawning over: Armie Hammer (left)

She said her opinion of Armie changed after reports surfaced alleging the Hollywood star had sent women sexually deviant DMs on Instagram.

Earlier this month, a recent ex-girlfriend of Armie's, Courtney Vucekovich, claimed he'd told her about his twisted 'master-slave fetishes' and cannibalism fantasies.

She also alleged 'he said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it'.

Days earlier, alleged private messages about rape fantasies and cannibalism from Armie's account were leaked online.

Allegations: Earlier this month, a recent ex-girlfriend of Armie's, Courtney Vucekovich (right), claimed he'd told her about his twisted 'master-slave fetishes' and cannibalism fantasies. She also alleged 'he said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it'

In one personal message, shared by the anonymous Instagram account @HouseofEffie, Armie allegedly said he hoped to 'cut off one of your toes and keep it with me in my pocket so I always have a piece of you in my possession'.

In a second, Armie, who is going through a divorce from his wife and the mother of his two children, Elizabeth Chambers, allegedly described himself as '100 per cent a cannibal'.

Responding to the claims - which Armie has described as 'bulls**t' and 'vicious and spurious online attacks against me' - Jackie said: 'God no! Don't get me wrong, he's no longer on my list!'

Claims: Armie, who is going through a divorce from his wife and the mother of his two children, Elizabeth Chambers, allegedly described himself as '100 per cent a cannibal' in an Instagram DM. Pictured in happier times with Elizabeth and their children

She was quick to lighten the mood by making a joke about the fact she'd broken a rib over the Christmas holidays.

'Hey, Armie, my rib is already broken!' Jackie said with a laugh.

Kyle then replied: 'We still haven't found out how you got your broken rib. How coincidental!'

Not a crush anymore! Responding to the claims - which Armie describes as 'bulls**t' - Jackie said: 'God no! Don't get me wrong, he's no longer on my list!'
A man has spent three months living in a secure section of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, claiming he was 'too scared to fly home to LA because of Covid'.

Aditya Singh, 36, was charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft, NBC Chicago reported.

Singh is unemployed and lived with 'roommates' in Orange, Los Angeles, before he flew to Chicago according to assistant public defender Courtney Smallwood.

Police and prosecutors said he arrived at O'Hare from Los Angeles on October 19 and then set up home in the airport instead of leaving, later claiming his actions were because he was afraid to fly home because of coronavirus.

Singh, who has a master's degree in hospitality and no criminal background, said he survived on food from other airport passengers.

Aditya Singh, 36, was arrested on Saturday after being found to have been living in a secure area of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for three months. Police and prosecutors said Singh (pictured) was too frightened to fly back to LA because of COVID-19

'It shows how things can slip through the cracks,' transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman told NBC.

'You get an idea at the airport and can go two weeks without being detected. It's really remarkable that in this day and age and security, this occurred.

Singh was eventually caught on in the early hours of Saturday after two United Airlines employees asked him for identification.

The badge he displayed belongs to an operations manager who had reported it missing on October 26 so the employees then called 911.

Police took Singh into custody about 11:10 a.m. on Saturday in Terminal 2 near Gate F12, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Assistant state attorney Kathleen Hagerty told Cook County judge Susana Ortiz that Singh had found the badge in the airport, The Guardian reported.

'So if I understand you correctly,' Ortiz said, 'you're telling me that an unauthorized, nonemployee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the O'Hare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected? I want to understand you correctly.'

It is not clear whether Singh left the airport between arriving on October 19 and being arrested last weekend, nor what his reason for traveling to Chicago was.

The Chicago Department of Aviation, which is responsible for O'Hare and the city's other airports, released a statement saying that the incident 'remains under investigation'.

Singh was eventually caught when two United Airlines employees asked him for identification and he produced a badge belonging to an airport employee who had reported it missing in October

'CDA has no higher priority than the safety and security of our airports, which is maintained by a coordinated and multilayered law enforcement network. While this incident remains under investigation, we have been able to determine that this gentleman did not pose a security risk to the airport or to the traveling public. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners on a thorough investigation of this matter,' it read.

'A lot of people no doubt look back and are embarrassed - gate agents - that probably saw this individual, Schwieterman said, adding that the 'good news' was that there was 'no real risk to safety here'.

'It just shows how different parts [of the airport] may not talk to each other, question each other'.

Ortiz disagreed however. 'Being in a secured part of the airport under a fake ID badge allegedly, based upon the need for airports to be absolutely secure so that people can feel safe to travel, I do find those alleged actions do make him a danger to the community'.

Singh's bail was set at $1,000 and he is banned from entering the airport should he be able to post bail.
First Minister reiterates vaccination comments  while BMA say stop sitting on supplies and get on with it

This article is old - Published: Monday, Jan 18th, 2021

A doctors leader has called on the Welsh Government to rethink its vaccination strategy after it was confirmed that thousands of coronavirus vaccines being held back in Wales.

Over 151,000 vaccines have now been administered across Wales, but there have been concerns that some of the doses made available to the Welsh Government are not being administered.

Last week Wrexham.com asked the first minister why Wales has been supplied with 174,000 vaccine doses that have not yet been used, and specifically asked if there was throttling taking place and where the issues were to get the vaccines out.

Mr Drakeford confirmed that whilst the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is being used as we get it, doses of the Pfizer vaccine have to last until February so we have to provide it week on week.





He doubled down on those comments earlier today by stating that Wales is not using all its available Pfizer vaccines because he does not want to leave those administering immunisations standing around with nothing to do for weeks.

Reiterating his comments made last week, he told BBC Radio 4: The Pfizer vaccine we have has to last us until the beginning of February.

We wont get another delivery of that until the very end of January or probably in the beginning of February.

Therefore, we have to use that over that six week stretch. There will be no point, and certainly it will be logistically very damaging, to try and use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do for another month.

The system we would have would not be in a position to then go on doing the job we need to do over the weeks ahead.

The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine youve got over the period that youve got it for so that your system can absorb it, it can go on working and you dont have people standing around with nothing to do.

However the decision to hold back some of the doses of the Pfizer vaccine has been described as deeply concerning by Dr David Bailey, chair of the BMA in Wales, who has called on the Welsh Government to rethink its strategy.

Dr Bailey said: For the First Minister to say that there is no point in using all the supplies in a week to ensure vaccinators arent standing around with nothing to do is truly bewildering.

Frontline staff are risking their lives to help others  the priority must be to get the second dose administered to those who have received the first, and to accelerate first doses for all remaining vaccinations to ensure maximum protection for staff and patients.

We are asking Welsh Government to stop sitting on supplies and get on with it.

The first ministers comments have also been condemned by opposition parties, with Plaid Cymru Shadow Health Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth MS describing them as very frustrating.

He said: Wales appears now to be dramatically behind England in terms of vaccine rollout, so to see the First Minister being relaxed about the slow pace of the vaccine roll-out here is very, very frustrating.

The most recent data from both NHS England and Public Health Wales demonstrates that Wales is lagging way behind. Figures from January 17 show that more than 3.7 million doses have been administered in England  almost half a million of which being second dose. In Wales figures from 16 January show 126,504 vaccines administered, including only 129 second doses.

Comparing population sizes, if Wales was vaccinating at the same rate wed have hit around 190,000. Comparing Wales and England isnt always useful  for various reasons, were ahead on some things, and England ahead on others  its swings and roundabouts. But where its a four-nations programme, we need to know its a level playing field.

Welsh Government must give an update on vaccines made available for Wales  of each type  plus numbers vaccinated in Wales compared to England, using the different types of vaccine, and on the projected supply of vaccines in the weeks to come. Why are we rationing here?

Welsh Conservative health spokesman, Andrew RT Davies, claimed it was proof that the roll out in Wales was not working.

He said: Whether intended or not, this outburst of honesty from the First Minister tells the Welsh people all they need to know.

The Welsh Labour Government is failing to deliver its vaccine programme.

His shocking doubling-down on his decision to delay deployment of Pfizer vaccine supplies is dangerous, and makes no clinical sense whatsoever.

We need to get these vaccinations into peoples arms ASAP. Lives and livelihoods across Wales are at stake.
Despite the challenging times, Girl Scout entrepreneurs in southeast Louisiana will be selling cookies in safe, creative and socially distant ways this year, including through GrubHub, the group's first-ever collaboration with a national delivery service.

Girl Scout Cookies can also be ordered so for delivery direct to your home or office.

The massive, girl-led entrepreneurship cookie program has previously relied on in-person booths and the digital platform launched in 2014.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, however, the scouting organization had to pivot to safely meet market demand. And by doing so, girls as young as 5 will be able to continue this year to embrace their entrepreneurial spirits, stay connected to their communities, and have fun selling cookies.

The proceeds from each and every purchase stay with the local troop and its council to power Girl Scouts essential leadership programming at home.

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The ways to safely purchase Girl Scout Cookies this season, which in southeast Louisiana stretches through March 14, includes the following:

If you know a registered Girl Scout, reach out to her to find out how shes selling cookies in ways that meet local and state safety protocols. Preorders began on Jan. 15 by sharing personalized URLs with friends and family through email and social media.

If you dont know a Girl Scout, visit www.girlscoutcookies.org, text COOKIES to 59618 or use the official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app for free on iOS or Android devices to find socially distant or contact-free cookie booths, if they are available in your area.

If you are in the New Orleans metro areas, visit www.grubhub.com/food/girl_scouts to order via contact-free delivery from GrubHub from Feb. 25 through March 14. (Delivery will not be available on Mondays, and GrubHub hours are posted on the GSLE website.)

Some local businesses will allow Girl Scouts to sell outside their stores in a safe and socially distant manner, when allowed by local COVID-19 guidelines.

There will be a gift-box option that ships directly to others via the Digital Cookie platform, if desired.

This year, Girl Scouts Louisiana East will also offer a new Toast-Yay! cookie, a French toast-inspired cookie dipped in icing, along with the traditional favorites such as Thin Mints and Caramel deLites.

And finally, the Girl Scouts is also providing new materials as part of their cookie badge program to support girls as they run their cookie business online and via social media. The Scouts will get hands-on experience managing e-commerce, tracking and fulfilling orders, managing inventory and more using GrubHubs back-end technology.

Berlin: Germans who repeatedly refuse to quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus will be locked up in detention centres under tough rules drawn up by regional authorities and permitted by emergency powers.

The eastern state of Saxony has confirmed plans to hold quarantine breakers in a fenced-off section of a refugee camp, to be constructed next week.

Berliners stay distanced at a vaccine centre. Credit:Getty Images

Three further states  Baden-Wurttemberg, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein  have also either already created such facilities or are in the process of doing so, a report in Die Welt newspaper stated on Sunday.

In Baden-Wurttemberg, two hospitals will have rooms reserved for repeat offenders, which will be guarded by police. Brandenburg will use a section of a refugee centre, while Schleswig-Holstein will use an area within a juvenile detention centre.
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On a warm November afternoon in 2020, Shareena Banu picked up a call from a colleague who wanted to know if any of her students needed a free laptop. Banu, an assistant professor at the sociology department of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi had several options among her undergraduate students, many of whom come from low income families across the country.

"I suggested the name of one of my undergraduate students, who received an old laptop from an NGO the next day," says Banu, who obtained her doctorate in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University over a decade ago. "He was the lucky one. There were many more in my class who would have wanted to get their first computer," she adds.

Bhanu Pratap Kumar, a second-year BA (Hon) Sociology student at the Jamia Millia Islamia, is excited at the turn of fortune because of his newly-acquired laptop. "It has helped me attend all classes this semester. It was very difficult to read study material running into 40-50 pages on my mobile phone, " says Kumar, the first in his family to go to college.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the digital divide in the country's higher education system

Kumar's father, a farmer who owns a small piece of land at Dingrahi village in Aurangabad district of Bihar, couldn't afford higher education for his two other children, both of whom dropped out of school after Class X. "I am the first student from my village to attend a good university in Delhi," beams Kumar, an alumnus of Sainik School, Jhumri Telaiya in Jharkhand, who plans to appear for the Combined Defence Services exam after university.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the faultlines in the country's higher education hampered by a frightening gap between the haves and have-nots. As campuses around India lie empty without students sequestered in their homes, teachers and university administrators are embracing the harsh reality of only half-full virtual class rooms and one-sided tutorials.

Bhanu Pratap Kumar, a second-year B.A (Hon) Sociology student at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, is attending online classes with the help of a used laptop donated by an NGO

"There is no complete participation of students in onlines classes. Out of 50, about 30 attend regularly. Those who miss the online classes don't have smartphones or computers to log in. Even some of those who participate go offline because of poor connectivity," says Chandran Komath, assistant professor of political science at the Government College, Kottayam, affiliated to the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala.

The state-of-the-art library at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, spends about 90 per cent of its library budget on online resources

All Eyes On Budget

With poor families having school and college-going children being the worst-hit in the pandemic, which has destroyed the livelihoods of millions, the Union Budget 2021 to be presented on February 1, will have the opportunity to address the challenges in the country's higher education system. There are expectations of a centrally-sponsored scheme to provide free laptops and an internet allowance to university students from low income families.

While such a central assistance to students kept out of online classes because of poverty could be the vaccine for an education system plagued by inequalities, the pandemic has also proved the need for upgrading college libraries with modern infrastructure, trained personnel and high-end online resources.

The library complex of the Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru

The two words often repeated by education experts during the pandemic are -- availability and access. Non-physical learning has meant availability of resources online and, most importantly, making them accessible to all. Both availability of learning material digitally and their access have also brought out the digital divide in higher education, putting a question mark on the quality of degrees to be awarded this year.

"I believe there is a digital divide in terms of getting access to content," says Anand Byrappa, Librarian, Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore. "For example, IISC and first-generation Indian Institutes of Science (IITs) spend crores of rupees every year to subscribe to journals and databases. However, state universities and colleges struggle to get the quality of content required for their students and faculty. Yes, it may affect the quality of education to a certain extent," adds Byrappa.

The library of Government College, Kottayam in Kerala doesn't have a separate building and a computer with internet connection

Government-driven initiatives over the last two decades have been helping college libraries modernise their infrastructure. The Ahmedabad-based Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) centre, an autonomous inter-university facility by University Grants Commission, coordinates building of e-resources for colleges across the country.

"The INFLIBNET centre has been doing excellent work for over three decades," says Ishwara Bhat, former Pro-vice-chancellor, Presidency University, Bengaluru. "The centre provides key journals, e-books and data base to colleges and universities all over the country giving a good push to use of online resources," adds Bhat.

"INFLIBNET's e-ShodhSindhu consortium makes digital resources available to all central universities, centrally-funded technical universities and state universities," says Jagdish Arora, who headed the INFLIBNET centre between 2007 and 2018. "We negotiate with publishers for the entire education system in the country. While we pay for the eligible institutions, all others can avail the same negotiated rate," adds Arora, an adviser to the National Board of Accreditation.

"Libraries require huge investments, even the smallest college needs 20-25 lakh rupees per year. The IITs spend 10-12 crore every year for their libraries," he adds. "The pandemic has affected so much change that most libraries will have to quickly upgrade their physical and digital infrastructure in the next one-and-half years. We can't delay it," says Bhat, a former university librarian at BITS, Pilani.

What IITs, IIMs Et Al Are Doing

Elite institutions like Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Technology and top business schools are prepared to meet the challenges thrown by the pandemic. "We are prepared. About 85-90 per cent of our library budget is spent on online content," says Antony Jose, Librarian, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. "Earlier, library users were those who visited the library. Today the user is one who visits virtually," he adds.

MDI, Gurgaon pays about rupees 80 lakh licence fee every year to buy global financial data base from the Bloomberg Finance Lab. "We spend more than one crore rupees as licence fee to the Harvard University every year to get their case studies for teaching in classes," says Jose, a former librarian at IIM, Indore. "A large amount of money is also spent on online journals numbering about 18,000 and e-books," he adds.

It is a different reality in many colleges across the country. At the Government College, Kottayam in Kerala, the library doesn't even have a computer connected to the internet. Generous teachers like the college's political science assistant professor Komath help students, who are unable to attend online classes for lack of smartphones and computers, handing them photocopies of tutorials.

"We have more than 500 universities supported by state or central governments, but fewer than 100 are headed by qualified librarians," says ARD Prasad, professor of library and information sciences at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru. "Everybody says the library is the most important place in a university, but when there is a budget cut, it is the library that is affected or the librarian who is axed. That is a danger for the society," adds Prasad, who was a member of the high level committee of the National Mission for Libraries set up in 2011.

While availability of online resources varies among institutions, access has been a hurdle for students across the country due to lack of computers and connectivity. "I couldn't join two online classes this week because of poor network connection," says Abhirami Rajendran, a final year B.A Political Science student at the Government College, Kottayam. Rajendran, who will be appearing for the Civil Services Preliminary exam after her undergraduate programme, doesn't own a computer, something her family can't afford.

"Access to information is very important," says Usha Munshi, president, Information and Communication Society of India. "A big step in this direction is the concept of 'One Nation, One Subscription' right now handled by the office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the government, K Vijay Raghavan. It will offer open access to high quality online resources."


This is the last in a series of contributions on prospects of ASEAN-Korea relations in 2021.  ED.



By Choe Won-gi



The inception in 2017 of the New Southern Policy (NSP), the signature foreign policy initiative of President Moon Jae-in, has opened a new chapter in Seoul's relations with ASEAN. To date, it remains the most successful and active foreign policy initiative under his administration. While the COVID-19 pandemic posed serious obstacles for implementing the prior pledges of the NSP, Seoul nevertheless came up with a new implementation strategy, "NSP Plus," which modified and updated previous programs of the NSP in order to meet ASEAN's urgent needs to deal with the public health crisis as well as new demands and priorities in the COVID-19 era.





Choe Won-gi, professor and head of Center for ASEAN-India Studies at Korea National Diplomatic Academy
Ton Nu Quynh Duong, 66, started her first work of public philanthropy in 2010 and has since devoted her life to it.

Her philanthropic mission began with a child care home of Phu Thuong at Phu Thuong Commune, Phu Vang District, Thua Thien-Hue Province, located in central Vietnam.

[The children in need] call me mom and I consider them my children too, Duong said.

In many cases, I feel richer than a billionaire because of having more than one hundred children, who are more valuable than gold or silver."

Making a dream come true

Inside a small kitchen of the Phu Thuong childcare center, a slim woman with grey hair is preparing meals for her thirty children.

The house is cozy despite the chilly weather outside.

As a former teacher, Duong graduated from the faculty of biology of the Hue University of Education.

During her teaching career, she worked at some of the high schools in Phu Loc District, Thua Thien-Hue

She is loved by many generations of students after more than thirty years of devotion and sympathy.

When she was a young teacher, Duong often felt concerned about the poor and studious children.

Many of them were forced out of school to earn a living.

At that time, the only way she could help them was to pay a visit to their home after school.

She tried to persuade their parents to let them return to the classroom by offering to help them with part of their tuition.

More than one hundred students were able to continue studying thanks to teacher Duongs support.

Apart from teaching for extra hours, she spared a part from her humble monthly salary to provide them with notebooks, clothes, and textbooks.

Many of the first generation of students have become successful and want to pay it forward," Duong told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

"So, they offer help to the students that suffer the same plight as them in the past.

"That generation has succeeded, and as a circle, many of them have returned to help difficult generations.

"My job is like sowing, it's time for those seeds to germinate and I feel really happy about that."

Around mid-2008, Duong accepted a job offer at Xuan Phu Childcare Center while she was working as a teacher at Phu Loc Middle School.

The underprivileged childrens living conditions at the center made her obsessed.

The children who should have been in the arms of their parents were left alone.

She told herself that if she had the opportunity and appropriate resources, she would spend the rest of her life with these children.

Retiring in 2010, Duong decided to participate in the childcare home of Phu Thuong to continue her dream of sharing with poor students.

The open house was established in 2007 from the contribution of the family of late Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thong and his relatives living in Australia with the aim of nurturing poor and studious students in the province.

It is extremely hard and challenging, but I never regret choosing this job," Duong confided.

"I don't need anyone to praise me, just smile at the challenges and obstacles to move forward."

Being both a teacher and mother

Working here as three in one,' I am a teacher, a mother, and a psychologist," Duong smiled when being asked what her main job in the center is.

With 30 years of experience in teaching, she has always used the most effective teaching methods.

In addition to mentoring the children by herself, she asked teachers from other schools to help the students.

Duong used her pension and the money she was given by her siblings to pay for other teachers.

It is Duongs commitment and devotion that have taken many underprivileged students to various campuses such as the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy and the University of Danang - University of Science and Technology.

Huynh Phi Cong Hung, an eighth grader at Phu Thuong Middle School, said Duong not only taught him school subjects but also showed him how to be well-behaved.

There are always more than thirty students here and Duong takes good care of them all.

In Hungs opinion, Duong was like his second mother.

To teacher Duong, most of her students are in the "most difficult" age.

Each of them is a question mark to her, which prompts her to pay more attention to their behavior, nutrition, and sleep.

"Every child here has a unique situation that I would deal with them depending on which circumstances they are in," Duong said.

"I always fear that my improper behavior will ruin a persons life.

The care she gives has resulted in good children.

According to Duong, the open house has now become a center for gatherings and reunions on special occasions.

Many children who have grown up here stood by me in a quiet way to help the following generations, which makes me truly happy, Duong confided.

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio had already publicized his plans to participate in the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally. The 36-year-old Miami resident and national chairman of the Proud Boys posted on social media that he would direct small teams of his far-right group with a history of violence to wear black and fan out across Washington.

But when he arrived in D.C. on Jan. 4 ahead of the scheduled demonstrations, he said, "15 cop cars" swarmed his Honda Crosstour soon after he passed through the Third Street Tunnel. Tarrio was wanted on a misdemeanor charge from December accusing him of setting fire to a historic Black church's Black Lives Matter banner.

During the traffic stop, authorities found high-capacity firearm magazines in his backpack, resulting in felony weapons charges, according to court records. And as he sat in a jail cell for 24 hours, Tarrio said, he thought about how he would need a lot of money to get out of this mess. Good lawyers, he said, don't come cheap.

He said family members had the idea to monetize the support of his online followers through GiveSendGo.com, a niche Christian fundraising website that bills itself as "a place to fund hope." Within a week, the "Enrique Tarrio Defense Fund" had amassed more than $113,000 from 2,359 donors, according to the site. Tarrio has pleaded not guilty.

"It's not just Proud Boys that are raising money there," Tarrio said in an interview Thursday, noting that his group's chapters nationwide have used the site to fund their cause. "There's just so many people that are raising money there."

A review by The Washington Post shows that the self-described Christian website has become a refuge of sorts for outcasts and extremists, including fringe groups such as the Proud Boys as well as conspiracy theorists who seek to undercut the results of the presidential election by promoting debunked claims of fraud. Some of the users claim to have been booted from other crowdfunding websites for violating terms-of-service agreements.

Postings on GiveSendGo show that at least $247,000 has been raised for 24 people - including at least eight members of the Proud Boys - who claimed online that the money was intended for travel, medical or legal expenses connected to "Stop the Steal" events, including the Jan. 6 rally.

Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

One post asked donors to "sponsor a warrior" and help "buy body armor and other protection pieces for our patriots." It has raised only $5. Another featured a screenshot of President Donald Trump's tweet promoting the Jan. 6 event above a man's plea for help after he claimed that a different crowdfunding site, GoFundMe, had removed his page. "I plan to meet you all there and fight alongside you," he wrote on GiveSendGo, raising $958.

The pleas for money illustrate how even small-dollar donations could make the trip to Washington possible for some Trump supporters.

A Texas woman asked for $500, listing her expenses: $15 for pepper spray, $100 for cab fares and $100 for a room at a hostel, with extra money for food and an emergency fund. She said one donor already contributed his frequent flier airline miles to defray the cost of a plane ticket.

Another woman pleaded for $400 to cover her travels: "Funds are tight and I'm behind on bills. . . . For the last rally I drove straight through with no motel and no sleep. It was difficult. By giving, you would allow me to sleep on the 5th and 6th and keep my trip and driving safer." She ended her post by writing: "We're going to MAGA" - referring to Trump's pledge to "Make America Great Again!"

The Post's review also found that more than $321,000 has been raised through GiveSendGo for funds that promote conspiracy theories about the presidential election.

Following the siege of the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in the deaths of one police officer and four rioters, GiveSendGo has found itself in a firestorm over the use of its platform to finance travel or legal defense funds related to the events of Jan. 6.

Several days after the rally, PayPal announced that it would no longer process transactions for the site.

"The account in question was closed due to a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy," a PayPal spokeswoman said in a written statement. "PayPal carefully reviews accounts to ensure our services are used in line with our well-established policy, and has a long history of taking action when we deem that individuals or organizations have violated this policy. We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance."

Jacob Wells, the chief financial officer of GiveSendGo, told Bloomberg News that he "broke up first" with PayPal after growing alarmed by its plans to censor some funds.

In interviews with The Post, Wells said he is "definitely not comfortable" with the presence of the Proud Boys on his site but had no plans to remove their pages.

"I'm extremely hesitant to trample or walk on that freedom at the outcry of public opinion,'' Wells said. "If the law dictates that we can't have things [on the website], we adhere to the law.''

Over the past few days, however, the site has suspended donations to several funds set up by the Proud Boys and other Stop the Steal participants. Wells said he removed the donate button on these pages after Stripe, a company whose software enables online payments from credit or debit cards, emailed with objections. He said he hopes to come up with a solution that would allow donations to resume to those accounts as soon as Feb. 1. Stripe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GiveSendGo drew criticism last year following its apparent willingness to host campaigns connected to people accused of crimes, including Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the killing of George Floyd, and Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with killing two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis. Chauvin and Rittenhouse have pleaded not guilty; Rittenhouse has claimed self-defense.

Wells acknowledged that the site has at times struggled to stay true to both Christian principles and its commitment to facilitate fundraising for individuals or causes irrespective of their popularity.

"We're not radicalized people,'' he said. "I'm a Jesus guy. . . . I love the message of the cross and the gospel, which is an equalizer for everybody."

Wells added, "The mission at GiveSendGo has [been], and will always be, to share the hope of Jesus in the midst of a divided place."

A handful of Christian pastors who had publicly condemned the events of Jan. 6 said in interviews that they feared the website could become a tool in what they see as the dangerous rise of Christian nationalism, an ideology rooted in its followers' intent to take back what they view as the American identity.

"When you've got people waving flags and taking Jesus' name in vain like this, what seems to happen is that Jesus becomes more of an 'Uncle Sam' character than what we proclaim as the living Christ," said Garrett Vickrey, who leads the Woodland Baptist Church congregation in San Antonio.

"That's how Jesus kind of becomes a mascot for your movement and a blank canvas to project whatever your values or vision is of what's good and right. And that's how things get dangerous."

On GiveSendGo, the religious branding is central to the site. If would-be donors can't afford to chip in money for a cause, they can hit the "PRAY NOW" button to let a fundraiser know they are supporting the effort through prayer.

Wells and his sisters, Emmalie Arvidson and Heather Wilson, began brainstorming the idea for GiveSendGo in 2013, according to the website. The siblings grew up in the Boston suburb of Milton. Wells said he attended Boston Baptist College and served five years in the Navy as a cryptology technician before eventually starting the site.

"The creators of this new site desire for all to understand that they believe God wants www.givesendgo.com to be a place for Christians," Wilson wrote in a 2015 news release. "A place to fund hope. A place to pray and connect with other believers worldwide, and most importantly, a place for GIVERS, SENDERS and GOERS to work together to be the light of the world."

Wells said staff members for the website, which bills itself as the premier free Christian crowdfunding site, work remotely. He declined to generally describe where he lives, citing security concerns. Arvidson, who could not be reached to comment, is not involved with operating the website, Wells said.

GiveSendGo is a for-profit business and the site has experienced "year-over-year growth" since its inception, said Wells, who added that he hoped to "hit $1 million" in revenue in 2021. He said the site processed more than 10 million payments last year.

"We operate on the generous donations from our Campaign Owners and Givers," according to its website. "You will never be asked by us to make a payment."

When users attempt to donate, the site defaults to a $1 suggested "gift" for GiveSendGo to help defray costs.

Emily Clagett, 25, of Gaithersburg, Md., said she interned for GiveSendGo in 2015 while she was a student at Salisbury University. Clagett said she worked remotely but would meet with Wilson, who was her direct supervisor, once a week at a coffee shop to work together for an hour or two. At the time, Clagett said, the site was just starting and the founders were hoping to get the attention of prominent Christian churches and their followers.

Every day, Clagett said, she was tasked with choosing three quotes from well-known Christian leaders to post on social media with graphics. But after a while, she said, it grew difficult to find succinct quotes that she had not already featured.

"I slipped up once and I guess I put like a Buddha quote in there and I got in trouble," she said. "The quote was really just something about being kind to other fellow humans. I get that he's not a Christian religious figure."

Clagett said Wilson didn't get angry, but told her: "Hey, that's not OK. Don't do that again."

Last year, she said she was puzzled to read about GiveSendGo's willingness to host Rittenhouse's legal defense fund, which has raised more than half a million dollars, according to the site.

"I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore, but the tenets of Christianity are, you know, 'Don't hurt people,' " Clagett said. "So I was surprised about that and pretty much equally as surprised about all of the Proud Boys fundraisers. I'm not really sure how that can be spun as being Christian."

A few days after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Clagett said, she updated her online resume to delete the reference to the time working for the website.

"I just don't really agree with what they are doing now," she said. "I don't want to be associated with them at this point."

Asked to comment, Wilson, Clagett's former boss, said by email, "Emily was a great intern and we wish her well in whatever she does."

In some instances, GiveSendGo has leaned into the criticism - issuing news releases to call attention to payment vendors that it claims have tried to block transactions.

On Sept. 4, GiveSendGo wrote: "Discover Card is attempting to ban their customers from donating. . . . It is our assumption that they reached this decision due to the fundraiser for Kyle Rittenhouse."

The same day, Wells recorded a video in which he calls Discover's actions "horrendous" and takes a pair of scissors to his own Discover card, cutting it into small shards and dropping them, one by one, into a trash can.

"Why don't we make this go viral?" he asked his Facebook followers, challenging them to film videos of themselves destroying Discover cards.

In a statement to The Post, Discover spokesman Jon Drummond wrote: "GiveSendGo.com is a platform that facilitates a variety of fundraising endeavors. Activities that violate our operating regulations are terminated through our financial institution partners. Activities that comply with our operating regulations are allowed to accept Discover."

In response to some of the recent criticism, Wells told The Post that he strives not to judge the people who use his site.

"For the people that use our platform that we might not agree with, we are going to give them grace, because they're going to deal with the ramifications of their actions," Wells said, referring specifically to the Rittenhouse example.

"And same with everyone that busted into the Capitol and did anything wrong there. They're going to have to deal with the ramifications of their actions, and they are. They're being caught, and they're being arrested.''

Before his GiveSendGo post, Tarrio, the national chairman of the Proud Boys, said he had used a crowdfunding website only once before.

In 2017, he posted a pitch on the nation's largest crowdfunding site, GoFundMe, asking for donations for a Proud Boys trip to Houston for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. But once he made it to the city, he said, he received notice that GoFundMe had deactivated his page for violating its terms of service.

Tarrio said the hurricane relief money was refunded to donors. But GoFundMe's decision to pull the plug on his charitable efforts infuriated him, he said. He said that anger - along with the realization that many sites were "de-platforming" people affiliated with the Proud Boys - made GiveSendGo the only viable destination to host his legal defense fund.

In the wake of the Jan. 6 events, GoFundMe issueda statement explaining its position on the use of its platform: "We continue to enforce our terms of service and do not tolerate fundraisers supporting hate, violence, harassment, or spreading misinformation about the 2020 election."

The website stressed that it condemns "the violence and attempted insurrection and will continue to remove fundraisers that attempt to spread misinformation about the election, promote conspiracy theories and contribute to or participate in attacks on US democracy."

Wells said GiveSendGo has not solicited the controversial users.

"We don't go out looking for campaigns," he said. "They pop onto our site because they were booted off somewhere else or because they knew about us."

The photo accompanying Tarrio's GiveSendGo legal defense fund shows him wearing a black cap emblazoned with yellow letters that spell out "The War Boys." He is holding his hands outward, with his fingers forming a hand gesture that appears similar to the "okay" sign. The signal has been interpreted by some experts on extremism as a call for "white power." Tarrio, who is of Afro Cuban descent, disputed that he is calling for white supremacy. He said his hand gesture was a way to "troll" the media.

The terms of service for GiveSendGo state that it should not be used for harassment or "to promote violence, degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age or veteran status."

Wells said GiveSendGo screens its participants to ensure that no fundraising appeals call for violence or law breaking of any kind.

"I don't know, necessarily, any group that's used our platform that has outwardly advocated using violence,'' Wells said. "I'm not Google, so I don't have all the answers in the world.''

Nicholas Ochs is a self-described Proud Boy from Honolulu who posts online under his self-styled social media brand called "Ochs Report." On GiveSendGo, a post under his name raised $300 for expenses to attend the Jan. 6 rally.

"It's an alt-media dream team," he wrote on the plea for money, saying he was "going to DC because the president asked." He said that he expected to lose money on the trip but that "our sweet boys wouldn't miss it and promise to deliver the heinous, ugly truth to a heinous, ugly city."

He added, "We will try not to get stabbed but if one of us does that's when the real bucks come in so keep an eye out for that fundraiser too."

Ochs was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry stemming from his presence inside the Capitol on Jan 6, according to court documents. The Los Angeles Times reported that he filmed videos of the insurrection for a California right-wing news outlet called "Murder the Media." With Ochs's criminal case pending as he sat behind bars in Hawaii, a new GiveSendGo page popped up: the "Legal fees for Nick Ochs" fund. As of Sunday, it had raised nearly $20,000, but the ability to donate had been disabled.

Asked by email to comment, Ochs responded, "Shut up nerd." His attorney declined to comment.

A GiveSendGo fund listed under the name of Zach Rehl, who has been described as the president of the Proud Boys Philadelphia chapter, raised more than $5,500 for travel to the Jan. 6 event. In California, a page bearing the name of Ricky Willden took in more than $1,300 after a request to fund travel for 13 Proud Boys to Washington for the rally. "We have found our purpose in life and we know what must be done," read a statement on the page, which signed off with: "We are no longer Standing By! God Bless America," followed by the praying hands emoji.

Rehl and Willden did not respond to requests for comment.

The legitimacy of some of the GiveSendGo pages tied to the Jan. 6 events is unclear.

As of Sunday, at least six pages claimed to be fundraising for the family of Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego woman who was shot by a Capitol Police officer when she was trying to make her way through a broken window of a door inside the building.

One memorial fund for Babbitt was listed under the name of "thedonald.win" - the moniker of a group of Trump supporters with their own online forum. The fund raised nearly $4,500, but a family friend, Destinie Condon, told The Post that they had no idea who was behind the effort.

"It really is sad how so many are able to get approval overnight, even those taking advantage," Condon wrote in a text to a Post reporter. "Yet those who are honest and family members can't get a campaign up and running even a week later."

Condon has since posted the "Ashli Babbitt Official Memorial" on GoFundMe, where she had raised $2,460 as of Sunday.

On GiveSendGo, there are numerous public posts that have nothing to do with Trump or fringe groups. The website includes tabs to filter campaigns by the expressed purpose of the fundraising, including community, mission, church and medical expenses.

As of Sunday, one campaign had raised $36,487 in memory of a schoolteacher who died of covid-19. Another had raised $72,643 for survivors of a father who died in a truck accident.

Lorie Murphey said she turned to GiveSendGo after school closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic dried up her horse-riding business and placed her at risk of losing her five-acre ranch in Central California. As of Sunday, she had raised $81,561, according to the site.

In an interview, Murphey said she learned about GiveSendGo in the fall while posting complaints about the state's coronavirus restrictions on social media. The raised money, she said, will help her to satisfy terms of a balloon payment for a loan that is due Feb. 1 on her ranch in Wilton, about 20 miles southeast of Sacramento.

"I'm absolutely blessed with the response I've gotten,'' Murphey said. "I'm not a political person. I'm just trying to survive."

Some pastors told The Post that, despite its intended Christian audience, they had never heard of GiveSendGo until they learned that some of those involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol had used the site to raise money.

"I don't really know any Proud Boys," said Bill Ireland, the pastor of the Norris Religious Fellowship, a small interdenominational congregation about 20 miles north of Knoxville, Tenn. "But I just don't think that there's a place for Christians to be fomenting violence. I see that being contrary to the way of Jesus.''

Emily Hull McGee, a pastor who leads the First Baptist Church on Fifth congregation in Winston-Salem, N.C., said she is upset that some potentially bad actors are adopting fundraising mechanisms used by Christian churches for such efforts as mission trips to aid the poor. McGee said she was troubled that GiveSendGo was used to promote plans for disruptions on Jan. 6, which she noted is the Epiphany, a day to celebrate "the light of Christ in the world." She said she sees an irony.

"For decades, we have pooled our money to do together what we cannot do apart," she said. "And this takes the very heart of a commitment that has been exercised in a number of Christian traditions for years and perverts it to the very sort of worst impulses that I can see."

Wells said GiveSendGo has recently sought advice from public relations consultants about how to handle the controversy.

"These aren't things that we are approaching lightly,'' he said. "And they're not things that we've got so solidly locked that there's no room for [change]. We're trying to navigate it with advice from people that we trust.''

As for Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader said he sees nothing wrong with his decision to use the Christian site. He said that he admits to burning the Black Lives Matter banner but that he did not know it belonged to a church.

"The disciples that Jesus had around him weren't, like, perfect human beings," he said, noting that his views align most closely with those of Baptists. "They were human beings that sinned. And I'm not free of that sin. I've f---ed up many times in my life."

The Rev. Ianther M. Mills, who leads the Asbury United Methodist Church whose banner Tarrio is accused of destroying, declined to comment.

The generosity of GiveSendGo donors has been overwhelming, Tarrio said, so much so that he recently stopped accepting new donations.

He said that once the $113,000 in GiveSendGo money is transferred to his bank account, he will start his search for a top lawyer to mount his defense.

"I'm gonna go with the best one I can find," he said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Alice Crites and Marissa Lang contributed to this report.
Four years of unconscionable, duplicitous, manipulative, manufactured attempts by the ruling class to get rid of the unacceptable outsider Trump seems poised to achieve success. The deplorables who dared in 2016 to elect Trump in defiance of their ruling-class betters are about to be put back in their place.

Maybe the Bible suggests otherwise.

The Bible's Book of Esther records the story of how Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai stood up for their Jewish heritage against a conniving, arrogant, anti-Semitic ruling-class "noble" named Haman.

Haman was furious that Mordecai wouldn't bow to his presence. Haman was fed up with Mordecai and his people, who seemed to love their religious faith and values more than they cared about his stature and authority.

The Mordecai types just weren't going to give him the subservience he felt entitled to, so he came up with a plan to exterminate them and pay for it himself. The king shrugged and let him go forward.

The king happened to genuinely love Queen Esther, and he was not aware of her Jewish heritage. He also wasn't aware until late in the story that Mordecai the Jew had actually saved the king's life by outing two of the king's aides who were plotting to assassinate him.

Long story short, Esther finally had to step up and steel herself to tell the king what Haman was up to. She did so after having been convinced by Mordecai that perhaps she had become queen "for such a time as this."

And when she made it clear to the king that Haman was determined to kill all of her people  including even the man, Mordecai, who had saved the king's life  the king immediately turned on Haman. The king soon ordered Haman to be hanged on a pole that Haman himself had just built for the purpose of hanging the man who wouldn't bow to him, Mordecai.

The story of Esther suggests some lessons and portends some parallels.

Don't be surprised by authorities determined to shut down people who won't bow to them, and don't underestimate the depths of depravity to which they can sink. Hyper-wealthy elites with a "shut down" inclination will pay to have the government accomplish the dirty work of their worst intentions.

Exposing evil and corruption among high-level government officials takes courage.

Courage when the stakes are highest is the ultimate in courage  even the willingness to risk life itself to stand up for what is right. Esther summoned that level of courage  she said, "If I die, I die"  and went forward with the explicit exposure of Haman's wickedness.

Evil was exposed by Esther's courage and then destroyed. Good was discovered and remembered  in the form of Mordecai's protection of the king  and preserved.

Is the Book of Esther 2.0 about to be played out in the United States of America in 2020?

There is treachery in America's Deep State and its hyper-wealthy secular financiers (read: George Soros, in my opinion). There is no one single Haman, but an entire cabal of them.

Whether they admit it explicitly or hide it deviously, their real hatred is directed at Americans who cling to their guns and religion, or otherwise have that ingrained American spirit that will not bow to the rule of men. They hate those who revere and uphold the God-given, freedom-grounded Constitution.

The Hamans of today are furious that there are men and women who will not bow to them  to their self-generated definitions of morality and their concept of unlimited power to control the lives and businesses and families of others. The Hamans of today are determined to teach such deplorables a lesson.

So far, the Newsoms and Cuomos and their Big Tech and MSM enablers haven't ordered extermination of patriotic religious people, but they are leveraging the pandemic (which itself looks more and more contrived) to take dead aim at shutting down churches and synagogues and the congregations of people who might worship and obey something other than the secular ruling class. (Joe Biden has said he will order the creation of a 100,000-person force to carry out "track and trace" to battle the phony pandemic  which is another way of saying he intends to create a surveillance state in the land of the free and the home of the brave.)

The good news is that there are Esthers rising up all over the country "for such a time as this." Sidney Powell looks like an Esther-type figure all by herself  ready to go not to the king, but to the American court system to make clear how enormous the plot against the Republic really is.

Because no matter how many Karl Roves try to characterize America's struggle of 2020 as just another every-four-years political battle of Rs vs. Ds, or even as a unique clash of personalities named Trump and Biden, the American people sense that something far, far more serious and fundamental is at stake.

They know that the 2020 election was stolen by the radical left/Deep State/Democrat Party/mainstream media mob. They sense that the theft wasn't about a few thousand votes in a few states  it was likely a system-wide manipulation of the vote count that transformed a Trump electoral landslide into the utterly preposterous notion that a senile old man who couldn't draw 200 people to a personal campaign appearance, and who carries the baggage of demonstrable corruption of the worst kind staring the American people in the face  he appears clearly compromised by Communist China  drew a record 80 million or so votes. That didn't happen, and the fact that every ruling-class institution of America is trying to sell the American people on the absurdity that it did happen is a measure of evil that Haman would be impressed with.

America is at a crossroads. Sidney Powell has rightly characterized the next two months as the most important in the history of America.

The context of Queen Esther's "trial" of courage was really the age-old but simple struggle between good and evil. So is this one. It is the good of preserving the American constitutional structure and heritage of individual freedom and responsibility under God versus the evil of a Deep State ruling class determined to impose godless, tyrannical socialism on America.

Here's to American Esthers everywhere, and to the judges who will hear the cries of the American people that are not really about legal arguments per se; they are about heartfelt anguish as to whether the American rule of law can still stand as a bulwark for preservation of their exceptional nation from the evil that seeks to destroy it. And they are pleas to see the Hamans of today outed and appropriately dealt with.

Eric Georgatos blogs at America Can We Talk?

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Member of Parliament for the Ofoase-Ayirebi constituency, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said that his colleagues in the New Patriotic Party should not be chastised for reporting to the House at 4 am.



Over 70 New Patriotic Party Members of Parliament stormed the House six hours early to the 10 am reporting time to sit at the right side of the Speaker of the House.



The act by the said MPs triggered mixed reactions on social media after photos of them sleeping in the House hit the internet.



Some Ghanaians have spoken against the decision of the NPP MP's to storm the house at the early hour, but according to the MP for Ofoase Ayirebi said it is a good practice.



Your producer asked me to step out at 7:15 am to join you for an interview. My office is just by the chamber block and I am in the chamber building. Some of our colleagues were here as early as 4 am and for some of us, its our regular time coming in here, he told Joy FM in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb.



He added that they didn't go there to intimidate the opposition since it was clear that they are the majority in the House.



The point is that we are clear in our minds that our colleagues on the other side are electing to resort to unparliamentary behavior in an attempt to undermine us.



And our colleagues are very clear that they would no longer countenance on parliamentary behavior and thats why you noticed that as early as 4 am, some were already in the chamber," he explained.









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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[January 18, 2021] Introducing The XOR TITANIUM Handset

Hand Built In England And Engineered To Perfection LONDON, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the reveal of English communications company, XOR's first premium feature handset collection, XOR TITANIUM. XOR has developed a mobile phone that is as dependable as it is elegant. The handset uses hardware encryption to protect your calls and messages, an air quality sensor to alert you to potential harm and a battery life measured in days not hours. Made in England, the handset effortlessly combines life-enhancing and reliable security technology with a sophisticated and robust design. The XOR team has developed a modern handset designed with the user at its heart. Created specifically for those who appreciate design, quality, craft and exclusivity, an XOR mobile phone delivers it all. Whether protecting your business or your family, XOR allows you to create a personal network of communications that are protected from all potential intruders. With an XOR in your hand, you will always be secure and self-assured. It is Safe by Design. THE BRAND XOR was founded by a small group of entrepreneurs who all recognised the need for a beautiful phone that offered unbreakable protection. They assembled a unique team of experts in their fields, including designers, engineers, technicians, craftsmen, audio and material specialists to make their vision a reality. DESIGN & MATERIALS XOR TITANIUM embodies the brand's design philosophy of organic geometry. The design team were passionate about creating an object that was as ergonomic as it was stylish and strong. The fluid surfaces create edges at their intersections that define the form. This organic movement is captured in the titanium sides of the phone. The lower half is deliberately sculpted to the palm enabling the natural folding over of the fingers. The upper half transitions to a concave form that makes a natural home for the thumb and index finger, guiding them to the protected keys. This edition takes its name from one of the key matrials used in its construction: titanium.



XOR handsets are designed and hand built in England. Using only the finest materials to produce a lightweight, strong and dependable phone. The phone exudes mystery and commands interest, there is no brand name anywhere except for XOR's intriguing shield logo. The first XOR collection consists of four variants: TITANIUM Classic, TITANIUM Ebony, TITANIUM Marine and TITANIUM Rose.

Hypoallergenic Metal Alloy : The phone is encased in titanium which is as strong as steel but weighs only half as much. Forged in soaring temperatures but engineered to precision, it is widely used in the aerospace industries.

: The phone is encased in titanium which is as strong as steel but weighs only half as much. Forged in soaring temperatures but engineered to precision, it is widely used in the aerospace industries. Sapphire Crystal Screen : Polished to perfection, it can only be cut with diamond-tipped tools resulting in a virtually scratch-proof screen.

: Polished to perfection, it can only be cut with diamond-tipped tools resulting in a virtually scratch-proof screen. Ceramic : Known for its incredible strength and polished elegance, XOR uses high tech ceramic similar to that used in spacecraft. It is known for its incredible scratch resistance and unique thermal characteristics.

: Known for its incredible strength and polished elegance, XOR uses high tech ceramic similar to that used in spacecraft. It is known for its incredible scratch resistance and unique thermal characteristics. Leather: Supple, perfectly smooth and blemish-free leather encases the back of each handset. Each piece of high-quality leather is painstakingly checked to ensure that the grain is consistent and of premium quality. UNIQUE OFFERING XOR believe that protecting your wellbeing is as important as safeguarding your data. Every XOR handset has been enhanced with an indoor air quality sensor, to inform you of any pollutants in the air you are breathing. Marked by a leaf icon on the home screen; green signifies safe, yellow denotes alarming while red is unhealthy. Each XOR handset is hardware encrypted to protect your personal data. Hardware encryption is more effective than software encryption because it is direct, phone to phone, no servers are involved, therefore no keys can be discovered. Two or more XOR users can exchange calls and messages using end-to-end encryption through a unique contact system and a series of secure one-time passwords. XOR use Advanced Encryption System (AES) algorithm: AES 256. In order to access your personal information, a hacker would need to try 2256 different combinations to find the right one or a brute force attack of 5.4 billion years. Conversations and data content are safeguarded with the ability to delete data via a remote secret key created during the handset's initial set-up. This protects the user and gives them complete control of their data if the phone is lost or stolen. The unique ringtone was created by British multi award-winning recording artist, composer and producer Mark Sayfritz. The XOR ringtone is akin to a movie soundtrack with its atmospheric quality. More importantly, the same original composition is played in a non-encrypted (piano) and encrypted (synthesiser) way to differentiate the type of call you are receiving. The XOR TITANIUM handset comes with active noise cancellation technology to remove the background noise. Sounds picked up are filtered out, while the call volume is automatically adjusted based on surrounding noise levels, creating a better quality call for the user. Each XOR handset is equipped with a receiver to allow wireless charging. Place the handset on top of any universal wireless charging pad for more convenient charging. The unique user interface is clear and easy to navigate. The home screen's analogue clock face features the shield logo. It is a subtle reminder that you are constantly under protection 24/7. The XOR TITANIUM range starts from 3,000 and are available to order direct from the XOR website - xorinc.uk  from 18 January 2021. Link to image library: https://we.tl/t-coproOtqsY Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1420220/Handset.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1420219/XOR_Logo.jpg SOURCE XOR

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX FLOW, Inc. (NYSE: FLOW), a leading provider of process solutions for the food, beverage and industrial markets, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of UTG Mixing Group, the maker of Stelzer, Uutechnic, and Jamix mixing solutions for the chemical, food, metallurgical and fertilizer, environmental technology, water treatment and pharmaceuticals markets.

The addition of UTG's operations, based in Finland and Germany, will add technology, manufacturing capacity and technical expertise to SPX FLOW's already robust global portfolio of mixing and blending solutions, including Lightnin, Plenty and APV.

"UTG's products, skilled team members and sales channels align well with the strategy for our mixer business. We are excited about the new growth and synergy opportunities for our combined organizations," said Marc Michael, Chief Executive Officer of SPX FLOW. "Bringing UTG Mixing Group and its well-known product brands into the SPX FLOW family strengthens the sales network of the combined company, offering customers a greater breadth of solutions for a wider range of applications."

KPMG Oy Ab and Dittmar & Andrenius advised SPX FLOW on the transaction.

About SPX FLOW, Inc.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SPX FLOW, Inc. (NYSE: FLOW) innovates with customers to help feed and enhance the world by designing, delivering, and servicing high-value process solutions at the heart of growing and sustaining our diverse communities. The company's product offering is concentrated in process technologies that perform mixing, blending, fluid handling, separation, thermal heat transfer, and other activities that are integral to processes performed across a wide variety of sanitary and industrial markets. SPX FLOW had approximately $1.5 billion in 2019 annual revenues and has operations in more than 30 countries and sales in more than 100 countries. To learn more about SPX FLOW, please visit www.spxflow.com.

Media Contact

Melissa Buscher

Chief Communications Officer

[email protected]

704-449-9187

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Scott Gaffner

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With Johnson & Johnson (J&J)'s COVID-19 vaccine Phase-3 clinical trial data expected to be announced before the end of January, followed by an application for Emergency Use Authorization in the US and other countries, another vaccine may soon become available in the market. But why is the J&J vaccine generating interest not just in US, but also in India?

Unlike other COVID-19 vaccines, which require two doses, the J&J vaccine is a single-shot vaccine, adding a lot of convenience for people taking the shot and government bodies struggling to scale-up the mass rollout. It also greatly simplifies logistics and scalability. The vaccine's storage temperature requirement is 2-8 degrees Celsius.

The Phase 1/2a interim analysis has been encouraging. J&J showed that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate induced an immune response and was generally well-tolerated across all study participants. Data demonstrated that, after a single vaccination, neutralising antibodies against COVID-19 were detected in over 90 percent of study participants at Day 29 and 100 percent of participants aged 18-55 years at Day 57. These neutralising antibodies remained stable through Day 71, currently the latest timepoint available in this ongoing study, in all participants aged 18-55 years.

The study also evaluated a two-dose regimen, in which the data showed that a second dose of the vaccine candidate, administered 56 days apart, was less reactogenic while it triggered more than a two-fold increase in antibodies against COVID-19. Reactogenicity refers to reactions that occur soon after vaccination.

J&J's COVID-19 vaccine is based on the viral vector platform. The vaccine uses a re-engineered human adenovirus (Ad26) vector fused with genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to elicit an immune response. Ad26 is a benign virus, that causes a mild cold but is effective at invading human cells. J&J scientists have been working on the platform to develop vaccines against Ebola, Zika, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, and other viruses.

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

J&J is investigating multiple doses and dosing regimens of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to evaluate long-term efficacy in Phase-3. The company is studying a single dose of its vaccine candidate in the Phase 3 trial, which completed enrolment of approximately 45,000 participants on December17, 2020.

The two-dose regimen involving 30,000 participants in Phase 3 is ongoing. The Phase-3 trial is one of the largest multi-country trials.

The J&J vaccine is expected to be available in India much sooner, as Indian vaccine maker Biological E has entered into an agreement with J&J to manufacture the drug substance and finished product of the vaccine. J&J had earlier said that the partnership with Biological E, allows for production of 400-500 million doses per year.

The government, in its recent presentation, said the J&J vaccine is expected to be around $10 per dose. Currently, the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, available in India as Serum Institute of India (SII)'s Covishield, is sold at Rs 200 per dose to the government (excluding taxes), while Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is sold at Rs 295 per dose (excluding taxes).
 Flash

The death toll of a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Indonesia's West Sulawesi province has risen to 73 with over 27,000 people taking shelters, the National Disaster Management Agency said on Sunday.

A total of 67 bodies were retrieved in Mamuju city and the rest were in Majene district, the agency's spokesman Raditya Jati said, adding that the jolts forced 27,850 residents to flee home and take shelters in 25 evacuation centers.

The emergency services in three hospitals have been ready to treat the quake victims, the spokesman said.

The risk assessment on the natural disaster and evacuation of the victims were underway, involving soldiers, policemen, personnel of the search and rescue office and volunteers, according to him.

The government will assist 50 million rupiahs (some 3,554 U.S. dollars) for rebuilding of a house which is seriously destroyed and 25 million rupiahs (about 1,777 U.S. dollars) for a house with moderate damages as well as 10 million rupiahs (equal to 710 U.S. dollars) for a house with light damages, he said.

The earthquake rocked West Sulawesi early Friday, with an epicenter at 6 km northeast of Majene, and a depth of 10 km.
The Bombay High Court has asked media houses to exercise restraint when reporting on suicide cases, saying 'media trial leads to interference and obstruction to administration of justice'.

The Bombay High Court on Monday asked media houses to exercise restraint when reporting on suicide cases, saying "media trial leads to interference and obstruction to administration of justice".

A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said some reportage by Republic TV and Times Now in the aftermath of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput was "contemptuous".

The bench further said that it had, however, decided against taking any action against the channels.

The HC said such reportage by any media organisation, that obstructs an ongoing investigation or administration of justice in a case, will amount to contempt of court.

"Media trial leads to interference and obstruction to administration of justice and violates programme code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act," it observed.

"Any reportage has to be in accordance with the norms of journalistic standards and ethics, else media houses stand to face contempt action," it said.

The HC also issued a slew of guidelines for media houses to follow when reporting in cases of suicide.

Following weeks of exhaustive arguments, the bench had on 6 November last year reserved its verdict on a bunch of PILs seeking that the press, particularly TV news channels, be restrained in their reportage on the death Rajput.

The PILs, filed through senior counsel Aspi Chinoy, by activists, private citizens, and a group of retired police officers, had also sought that TV news channels be stopped from conducting a media trial into the case.

During the arguments, the Union government's counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, had said there already existed adequate statutory as well as a self-regulatory mechanism for the media, including TV news channels, to follow while printing or broadcasting any news item.

Private TV news channels that are party to the case had also argued that the self-regulatory mechanism was adequate and no new statutory mechanism or guidelines were required to control the media.

Rajput was found hanging at his home in Bandra area of Mumbai on 14 June last year.
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[January 18, 2021] dynaCERT Announces Strategic OEM Collaboration with Harold Martin

dynaCERT Inc. (TSX: DYA) (OTCQX: DYFSF) (FRA: DMJ) ("dynaCERT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has agreed with Martin Technologies LLC Corporation ("Martin Technologies") to collaborate on scientific expansions required for introducing dynaCERT's patented proprietary Carbon Emission Reduction Technology ("HydraGEN Technology") to Original Equipment Manufacturers ("OEM's") in North America and globally. Hydrogen Economy Leaders Collaborating dynaCERT's numerous successful experts in R&D are fully committed to maintaining a Canadian leadership role in the new Hydrogen Economy while collaborating significantly in partnerships with other top-ranked industry leaders, such as Martin Technologies, to further supplement and broaden the know-how of the Company's clean-technology line of products currently available to the global market. Deployment of dynaCERT's Technology to the OEM Market dynaCERT and Martin Technologies have signed a ground-breaking collaboration agreement whereby the scientific and engineering aspects of dynaCERT's existing HydraGEN Technology will be further industrialised for deployment to the OEM market. Moreover, such scientific data and design advancements by Martin Technologies are intended to form the basis for future decades to advance the Company's goal to adapt its HydraGEN Technology to numerous market segments of the transportation and logistics industry, globally. Advisory Board Commitment dynaCERT is pleased to announce that Mr. Harold Martin, Chairman and CEO of Martin Technologies, has joined the Company's Advisory Board. Mr. Martin brings over 45 years of knowledge, experience and achievements in the diesel motor and engine industry and has been personally responsible for numerous inventions and innovations that have been adopted by many OEM's throughout his illustrious career. Mr. Martin has global business experience ranging in North America and South America, EU, Asia and Africa. He has been an OEM Supplier partner providing complete vehicle services in engineering, manufacturing, assembly, and marketing. He is a former Automotive Engineer at General Motors (News - Alert) who led numerous programmes and awarded 20 World Patents and 5 Classified Patents. He has expertise in Concept to Reality with full vehicle programs with proficiency in Design, Development, Durability, Manufacturing and Assembly, Vehicle Certification, Homologation, Launch, Warranty and Dealer Network. Mr. Martin founded Martin Industries in 1996 where he developed and sustained solid business partnerships within the Automotive, Aerospace, Defense and Motorsport industries and where he commissioned 15 global facilities reaching more than 1 million square feet in combined space. He led many joint global partnership agreements including Wiring JV, Smart Wiring JV and Casting JV. He is recognized by the OEM industry for engineering and manufacturing expertise, creativity, sense of urgency, and speed to market. He designed and manufactured and currently supports, globally, with classified security clearance, the President of United States vehicle. He was a Carroll Shelby partner in the limited edition X50 Series 1 and Shelby vehicles and has pioneered numerous Limited Production Specialty Vehicle programs. Additionally, he shares Motorsports legacy with innovations and successes both on and off the track. Mr. Martin is highly recognized for his leadership and development of the Cadillac Norstar engine, which was used by GM in their vehicles for over 20 years. Mr. Martin led over 100 million miles of vehicle testing in "real world" environment and led over 20 million hours of vehicle and engine laboratory testing where he certified emissions testing for production and specialty vehicles including vehicle integration with advanced electronics, control systems and Advanced Driving Autonomous Systems (ADAS). He commissioned facilities to provide vehicle port processing services, the design and manufacture of specialty tools and aftermarket product and equipment. Mr. Martin has been profiled publicly by CNN, ESPN (News - Alert) , NBC, ABC, FOX, SPEEDVISION, USA Today and Automotive News and was a Speaker for over 75 Corporations and more than 250 schools (70,000 students). He is a winner of Editor's Choice Award, and earned the prestigious award of "MARTIN Day", held annually on February 27 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He is inducted into the American Auto Industry as a Leader by DRIVEN and earned "best engineered vehicle" awards bestowed by National Hot Rod Association ("NHRA"), International Hot Rod Association ("IHRA") and the American Drag Racing League. He was also chosen as "Racer of the Year" by NHRA and IHRA and was featured with other significant renowned leaders in the bestselling book, "I am a Father". He is the winner of the Trailblazing Award of the AFMIM and acted as "Harold Martin" n the movie "Home Run Showdown".



Mr. Martin holds a Bachelor of Engineering with a minor in International Finance from Oakland University, and completed System modeling in Vehicle Dynamics, Aerodynamics, and Global Propulsion studies, including Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), electrification modeling and simulation with dynamic forces. He is a graduate of the Dale Carnegie Executive Management program and completed the Manufacturing Executive Program of the University of Michigan. He also has Top Secret Security Clearance with the United States Government (SCI). Distinguished Engineering Credentials Across Many Market Segments

Martin Technologies, based near Detroit, Michigan (USA), operates a full-service engineering and manufacturing company, providing global mobility solutions to the automotive, marine, aerospace and defense, marine and motorsports industries. Martin Technologies delivers results and expertise in providing competitive solutions to global transportation and technology customers, such as dynaCERT's clients. Broad Range of Innovative OEM Motor Design & Certification History The vast experience of Martin Technologies with all Internal Combustion Engines and related systems have been capitalized globally in numerous OEM vehicles. Martin Technologies has over 25 years of researching, designing, engineering, testing, certifying, and manufacturing of a wide range of Internal Combustion Engines, including diesel engines. These engines have been utilized in all forms of mobility including passenger vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, boats, industrial equipment, standby power, United States Secret Service vehicles and many others. Martin Technologies pride themselves in exceling in many engine design categories, including the total process and system integration of Internal Combustion Engines. Leading Innovation and Prized Patents Founded in 1996, and with approximately 1,000 workers around the world, Martin Technologies continues to consolidate related businesses. Martin Technologies is getting stronger in the automotive industry, with engineering and manufacturing services, and are also a strong presence in the aerospace industry, as well as in the defense sector, working specially with the American army while providing the Department of Defense and military contractors testing and certification services, data acquisition, engineering analysis and more. Martin Technologies has 15 patents worldwide, some of which have been implemented in an innovative manner in the automotive industry. As a world-class example of contributions of Harold Martin, patents include the design and development of the first combustible electronic injection engine. Global Operations Martin Technologies operates globally, achieving a highly visible industry footprint in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Philippines, Malesia, China, Australia, as well as in different countries of the European Union, exporting worldwide where their customers need. The company has grown with innovative methods and best practices required to support customers, and continuous growth in Global Propulsion, Hybrid, Electrification and autonomous/mobility functionalities. Harold Martin, CEO of Martin Technologies, stated, "The advanced technology of dynaCERT presents a colossal opportunity for improvements of OEM diesel engines. At Martin Technologies, we have the scientists, the industry expertise, the engineers and the know-how to propel an innovative aftermarket product, like dynaCERT's HydraGEN Technology, in front of the eyes of decision-making executives of OEM's, globally. I am very keen to have joined dynaCERT's senior executives, engineers and other staff as a member of dynaCERT's Advisory Board and in furthering, in 2021 and beyond, the Company's enormous R&D accomplishments. I truly endorse dynaCERT's important Global Solution to Reduce Pollution". Jim Payne, CEO of dynaCERT, stated, "Harold Martin brings to dynaCERT the high profile, the applauded stimulus and his unwavering dedicated team to prominently supplement our technological triumphs in innovative designs for the global clean motor marketplace. It is a great honour of dynaCERT to work side by side with an accomplished and highly respected international industry authority such as Harold, and with the leverage of his veteran line-up of specialists at Martin Technologies. This great honour is backed by our commitment at dynaCERT to constantly improve and drive our innovations with the utmost industry doyens who share our corporate mission and corporate culture. dynaCERT welcomes Harold Martin. We all look forward to our noteworthy alliance together in the weeks, months and years to come as we continue to grow and expand our technology for today and into the future of the new Hydrogen Economy." About Martin Technologies Please see: http://haroldmartin.com/ About dynaCERT Inc. dynaCERT Inc. manufactures and distributes Carbon Emission Reduction Technology for use with internal combustion engines. As part of the growing global hydrogen economy, our patented technology creates hydrogen and oxygen on-demand through a unique electrolysis system and supplies these gases through the air intake to enhance combustion, resulting in lower carbon emissions and greater fuel efficiency. Our technology is designed for use with many types and sizes of diesel engines used in on-road vehicles, reefer trailers, off-road construction, power generation, mining and forestry equipment, marine vessels and railroad locomotives. Website: www.dynaCERT.com. READER ADVISORY Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance of achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; the uncertainty of the emerging hydrogen economy; including the hydrogen economy moving at a pace not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements; and the other risk factors disclosed under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the release. On Behalf of the Board Murray James Payne, CEO View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005085/en/

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France is on track to reach its target of vaccinating 1 million people against COVID-19 by the end of January and has enough doses to increase the total to 2.4 million by the end of February, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday.

During a visit to a vaccination centre in the eastern city of Grenoble, Veran told reporters that France had now set up about 800 such centres.

"With the acceleration of the vaccination campaign in retirement homes, we will comfortably reach our goal of 1 million French people vaccinated by the end of this month," he said.

On Sunday, the health ministry reported that France had vaccinated more than 422,000 people since the start of the vaccination campaign on Dec. 26.

But France still trails far behind several other European countries such as Britain, where the number of people who have received a first dose of the vaccination had reached 3.2 million by Friday. In Germany and Italy, more than 1 million people had been vaccinated at the end of last week.

Veran said the main challenge in France - which has reported nearly 3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest in the Europe Union - was not the logistics of the vaccination process but the delivery of doses.

A new delivery of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech would arrive this week and more would be arriving in coming weeks, he said.

With the vaccines already at its disposal, France will be able to have vaccinated 2.4 million people by the end of February, Veran said.

That total could rise to 4 million once vaccines it has ordered from other pharmaceutical companies are approved by health authorities, he said.

On Thursday, Veran said France was being supplied with 500,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine per week, an amount that will rise to 1 million per week, and that he hoped 5 million people in France will have been vaccinated by Easter.

From Monday, coronavirus vaccinations are available to all people aged over 75 - as opposed to only people in retirement homes - and for people with serious health issues.

The vaccine is already available for health workers 50 and older.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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Story Highlights Less than half of Americans now rate their governor positively on COVID-19

Governors still rated far better than President Trump or CDC

Confidence in both Republican and Democratic governors fell

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the first time since Gallup began tracking U.S. leaders' handling of the coronavirus pandemic last June, state governors receive less than majority support for the job they are doing of communicating a clear plan to deal with the virus.

The percentage of Americans agreeing their state governor has communicated well slipped to 47% in December from 51% in November. At the same time, ratings of President Donald Trump and the Centers for Disease Control for communicating a clear plan were unchanged at a much lower level, with just over 30% of Americans rating them positively.

Line graph. Trend since June in percentages of U.S. adults rating their state governor, President Trump and the CDC positively for communicating a clear plan to deal with the coronavirus. The 47% rating for governors in December is down from 51% in November and the lowest yet in the trend. Ratings of Trump and the CDC have been stable throughout the trend near 30%, including 32% rating the CDC positively in December and 31% rating Trump positively.

These findings are based on a Gallup question asking respondents to indicate, using a five-point numeric scale, whether they agree or disagree that each has communicated a clear plan on COVID-19. The results reported here reflect the combined percentages scoring their agreement at the highest level -- using a 4 or 5 on the scale.

The latest results are based on more than 3,000 U.S. adults interviewed by web Dec. 15, 2020, to Jan. 3, 2021, using Gallup's probability-based web panel.

President-elect Joe Biden, who was added to the list in October, is rated about as well as state governors, with 46% agreeing he has communicated a clear COVID-19 plan. This is identical to his November reading but a bit better than his 41% score in October.

Satisfaction With Governors Fell in the West and South

There was a clear geographic aspect to the recent decline in governor ratings. Americans living in the West and South grew significantly less satisfied with their governors' communication about COVID-19 plans, while the views of those living in the Northeast and Midwest didn't change.

Although new COVID-19 infections and deaths were up nationwide in December, particularly high spikes in California and in parts of the South may account for the decrease in public confidence in governors' handling of the situation in these regions.

Line graph. Trend since June in percentages of Americans rating their state governors positively for communicating a clear plan on the coronavirus. As has been the case most months, residents of the Northeast are the most positive, at 58%, while residents of the South are the least (40%). In the last month, views of governors were stable in the Midwest and Northeast while down in the South and West.

These recent regional changes only accentuate the pattern seen throughout the pandemic whereby residents of the Northeast have been the most positive about their governors' performance in communicating a clear plan during the pandemic, while residents of the South have been the least positive.

Governors of Both Parties Rated Less Well in December

Residents in states led by Democratic governors have consistently been more positive about their governor's communication on the coronavirus than have residents in states with Republican governors.

That pattern continued in December, although ratings of governors of both parties fell to their lowest yet. Fifty-four percent of residents in Democratic states now agree their governor has communicated a clear plan, down from 59% in November, and 39% say the same in Republican-led states, down from 43%.

Line graph. Trend since June in state governor ratings for communicating a clear plan on the coronavirus, broken out by residents living in states led by Democratic versus Republican governors. Residents in Democratic-led states have consistently been more satisfied with their governors' performance than residents in Republican-led states. Both groups' ratings fell slightly in December, to 54% among residents of Democratic states and to 39% among those in Republican states.

Bottom Line

With confirmed new COVID-19 infections skyrocketing in the U.S. since November, it may have been inevitable that Americans' ratings of their own governors for their handling of the situation would decline as happened in December. Governors' ratings as a whole did not decline by much, and they didn't decline in all regions of the country, but governors of both parties were affected.

Cases have continued to rise in January at the same time that states are focused on distributing COVID-19 vaccines. Gallup's next update of these ratings in February will reveal whether Americans' satisfaction with the communication they are receiving from governors about COVID-19 plans improves amidst the vaccine rollout or remains lower until infections get under better control.

Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works.
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

BEIJING, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (the "Company" or "New Oriental") (NYSE: EDU and 9901.SEHK), the largest provider of private educational services in China, today announced that the board of directors has appointed Mr. Zhihui Yang as the Executive President of the Company, effective on January 15, 2021. Mr. Yang will continue to serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

Mr. Zhihui Yang has served as the Company's Chief Financial Officer since April 2015. Prior to this, Mr. Yang held multiple positions after he joined our company in April 2006, including vice president of finance, deputy director of president office and senior financial manager. Prior to joining New Oriental, Mr. Yang served as the financial director of Beijing Hua De Xin Investment Co., Ltd. from July 2002 to March 2006. From August 1997 and May 2002, Mr. Yang worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior auditor. Mr. Yang received his bachelor's degree in economics from Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.

Mr. Michael Yu, New Oriental's Executive Chairman, said, "We are very pleased to announce Mr. Yang's promotion to Executive President. Mr. Yang has been with the Company for 14 years and a key part of our success with his wealth of experience, knowledge and passion in China's fast-growing education services industry, along with his prior experience in accounting, financial management and corporate financial advisory. As we are delighted to have Mr. Yang taking this important leadership role at New Oriental, we look forward to the contributions he will make to the future growth of the Company and wish him well in his new role."

About New Oriental

New Oriental is the largest provider of private educational services in China offering a wide range of educational programs, services and products to a varied student population throughout China. New Oriental's program, service and product offerings consist of K-12 after-school tutoring, test preparation, language training for adults, pre-school education, primary and secondary school education, education materials and distribution, online education, and other services. New Oriental is listed on NYSE (NYSE: EDU) and SEHK (9901.SEHK) respectively. New Oriental's ADSs, each of which represents one common share. The Hong Kong-listed shares are fully fungible with the ADSs listed on NYSE.

For more information about New Oriental, please visit http://www.neworiental.org/english/.

Contacts

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Ms. Rita Fong

FTI Consulting

Tel: +852 3768 4548

Email: [email protected]

Ms. Sisi Zhao

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc.

Tel: +86-10-6260-5568

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc.

Related Links

http://english.neworiental.org


The worlds largest inoculation drive against the COVID-19 virus was flagged-off in India on January 16th. The pan-Indian vaccination campaign was launched by the countrys Honorable Prime Minster Nagendra Modi on Saturday morning at 10:30 am via a video conference.

Dubbed as the worlds largest vaccination programme, the campaign inculcates a total of 3006 session sites across all States/UTs, which will be connected virtually. The first day witnessed the voluntary vaccination of 100 people in each of the 3006 dedicated centres in the country, kick-starting the biggest such vaccination programme in the world.

The vaccination drive offers beneficiaries choice between the two authorized vaccines in India  Covishield and Covaxin. It has been further clarified by the Health Ministry that health workers, both in the government and private sectors shall get the first preference while receiving the vaccine. The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan further stated that adequate doses of both the vaccines have already been delivered across the country, and an online digital platform named CoWIN have also been developed by the Health Ministry to drive the vaccination programme more efficiently. The platform CoWIN, facilitates real-time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries as well.

This digital platform will assist programme managers across National, State, and District levels while conducting vaccination sessions. It will help them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held and vaccine utilization, said the Health Ministry.

Additionally, the digital platform also enables state administrators to view and sort out the data of the beneficiaries according to their gender and age. Around 30 million frontline health workers will get the first preference in the nationwide vaccination drive followed by those in the sanitation and security forces, and only then to about 270 million people older than the age of 50.

The government of India has already procured 11 million dosses of the AstraZeneca COVISHIELD shot, produced by the Serum Institute of India, and 5.5 million of Bharat Biotechs COVAXIN. At present, the COVISHIELD vaccine has an efficacy rate of 72 percent according to the Indian Drug Regulator, while the COVAXIN shot developed by Bharat Biotech is still in its last- stage trial, and the results are expected by March, 2021.

India  the worlds second most populous country after China, has reported the highest number of Coronavirus infections after USA with a total number of caseloads of 10.5 million thus far. More than 151,000 individuals have already succumbed to the virus in the country, although the number of active cases has come down significantly since the mid-September peak.
New Delhi: India on Monday said that it had speeded up infrastructure construction along border areas with China and was keeping a constant eye on all developments impinging on Indias security.

The Indian foreign ministry in a statement said that China had undertaken infrastructure development along its border with India in recent years.

In response, our Government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much needed connectivity to the local population along the border," it said in the statement which was in response to a news report which said that Beijing had constructed an entire village on territory which was in Chinese control since 1959.

The Government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh. Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement said.

According to the report by NDTV, China had constructed a new village in Arunachal Pradesh, consisting of about 101 homes.

This came to light in satellite images accessed exclusively by NDTV, the report said. It said that experts approached by NDTV confirmed that the construction was approximately 4.5 kms within Indian territory of the de facto border.

Though this area is Indian territory, according to official government maps, it has been in effective Chinese control since 1959. However, earlier only a Chinese military post existed, but this time a full-fledged village that can house thousands has been built," the report said.

The development comes amid a tense military standoff between India and China in Ladakh where India detected intrusions by Chinese troops in May last year. Many rounds of talks to defuse the crisis have not yet yielded any results.

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Further proof of the vast strides being made by cashless payment on the African continent comes from Malawi where a new agreement aims to enhance the countrys e-commerce sector.

NBS Bank, a leading commercial bank in Malawi, has launched a state of the art e-commerce platform, powered by Network International (Network.ae), a leading enabler of digital commerce across Africa and the Middle East.

The implementation of its N-Genius Online payment gateway will, says Network International, enable NBS Bank to offer Malawian small and medium enterprises, large corporations, public institutions and individuals a fast and secure way to enter the rapidly growing e-commerce market in Malawi.

With the capability to enable digital commerce transactions for merchants and public organizations through the N-Genius Online payment gateway, NBS Bank and Network International say they aim to help drive Malawis goal of becoming a cash-light economy.

Kwanele Ngwenya, Chief Executive Officer, NBS Bank, Malawi described this as a sophisticated, yet low-cost solution, and added: By accommodating all payment types, offering the highest levels of safety and security and enhancing the mobile device experience, our online platform will help many businesses and sectors of the economy grow their online presence and help drive a digital and cashless society.

NBS Bank is a fully fledged commercial bank providing a wide range of financial services to individuals, small and medium businesses, large corporations and public institutions. It was incorporated as a limited company in 2003.
PACE calls on all political parties to claim seats in Parliament

By Veronika Malinboym

On January, 11 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe released a report on the progress made by 14 countries in 2020, including that of Georgia. While the report applauded the effort made to achieve the March 2020 agreement and the shift towards a more proportionate election system, it has also noted that despite the agreement, the political climate in Georgia remains polarised and contentious.In its report, PACE is calling for all political parties to take up their seats in Parliament and to ensure its democratic functioning. PACE report also notes that the decision of the opposition bloc to boycott the seats is especially unfortunate because joining the Parliament would provide it with a much more significant political leverage. The report has also referenced the findings of the International Society for Free and Fair Elections (ISFED), Transparency International, and the international observation missions, all of which concluded that the October 2020 Parliamentary Elections were competitive and were held in a way that respected fundamental freedoms and the parties ability to campaign freely. Nevertheless, the report also notes the uneven playing field and abuse of the administrative resource that was determined by the international monitoring organizations.On January, 15, Transparency International Georgia (TIG) released its own report on the campaign financing in Georgias 2019 Elections. According to the report, a total of 38,6 million GEL was received by the studied election subjects between September, 1 and November, 17. Georgian Dream received almost half of the aforementioned amount  17.3 million GEL (46%), Lelo received 6 million GEL in financing and the UNM- UOPU received 5.7 million GEL. The TIG report recommends the country to establish a new, anti-corruption agency to monitor and adequately respond to the alleged cases of political corruption, including corrupt transactions between donors and the parties, and illegal financing schemes.In a recent interview, the Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze told PalitraNews that he would be very happy if the opposition parties decided to end the boycott and join the Parliament. I want to reinstate that the current convocation of the Georgian Parliament does not only consist of one party, as one more party is also represented there. I would be very happy if the opposition parties decided to join the Parliament instead of being the hostages of one specific person  Mikhail Saakashvili, said Kaladze.According to the 2020 election results published by the CEC, the ruling Georgian Dream party has won the majority of seats, and, as of today, 8 political parties are yet to join the newly formed Parliament.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Female orcas are most thrown off from foraging when boats and vessels intrude closer than 400 yards, according to new researchtroubling findings for the endangered population of southern resident orcas that desperately needs every mother and calf to survive.

The research, gathered by attaching suction-cup electronic tags to the whales, is a clear wake-up call to the protection endangered mother orcas need, researchers and experts say.

"Anything that takes food away from a mom trying to support a calf, that is something we should carefully consider," said Marla Holt, lead author on the study, and a research wildlife biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "We need females to produce calves if we want to move toward population recovery."

NOAA declared the southern resident orcas in 2015 a Species in the Spotlight, an initiative to bring more attention to the most endangered marine species in the U.S. These latest findings, published Tuesday in Frontiers in Marine Science, are expected to help the agency align its guidelines for whale watching with rules already in place in British Columbia and the state of Washington to be more protective of southern resident mother orcas and their calves.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission recently adopted new rules that forbid commercial whale watching of a southern resident calf up to 1 year old, among other restrictions.

In Canada, whale watch tour operators have agreed to not offer or promote tours of southern resident orcas.

But NOAA has yet to update its own regulations, which are less protective than either the state or Canada. Boaters meanwhile are encountering a confusing three-way regulatory regime of a critically vulnerable species that goes back and forth across the border. Enforcement on the water is also crucial to the effectiveness of the rules.

What the new research shows

The new findings on vessel disturbance build on earlier field work that used temporary tags attached to southern resident orcas with suction cups.

The tags record the whales' movements and allow scientists to observe the orcas' lives underwater, as they dive, swim and pursue prey. It is those findings that revealed that male and female orcas alike change their behavior when vessels come closefemales more than males.

Females will either stop foraging if they are, or not initiate foraging dives.

Just why females are more vulnerable is not exactly known. They have smaller bodies and don't have the same capacity as males for extended dives. Mothers with calves also stay with their young, and therefore are restricted by the baby's physical limits to shallower waters, closer to shore.

Males are more typically seen in deeper water, foraging alone.

Even kayaks cause disturbance.

"We see an effect of kayaks," Holt said. "That physical presence is a factor people need to remember."

The reason is the complex maneuvers orcas need to undertake to successfully hunt prey, which involves reconnaissance at the surface, exploration, then the actual deep, foraging dive to nail a fleeing salmon, all using echolocation, or biosonar, to "see" in the dark depths.

Female orcas also share their prey, usually at the surface. Noise by vessels or the presence of even kayaks at the surface where the orcas need to come up to breathe and to share prey all can hinder crucial prey capture and sharing. The effect is most concerning in pregnant and nursing mother orcas, whose nutritional needs are greatest.

Lactation takes more calories than any other activity, and orca moms typically nurse their baby for at least a year. The baby will depend on her for food as long as three years as it learns to hunt. Adult male offspring also often are partly provisioned by their mothers, so the females' hunting success is crucial to the entire family.

Jennifer Tennessen, a research scientist at NOAA's Northwest Science Center and another author on the paper, said as a mother with a 10-month-old herself, it is not hard to understand a mother orca's challenge in feeding her calf.

"There is the potential for mothers to be more vulnerable to disturbance due to this need to be with the calves, they need more prime opportunities to forage," Tennessen said. "If vessels are close, it may be that it is not worth it, you just wait until conditions are better."

Holt, also a mom, likened the mother orcas' dilemma to trying to ski with her young son while nearby skiers are bombing down the mountain.

It's specifically close approaches that are the problem, Tennessen said. "These results don't show whales can't coexist with vessels, it just shows there is an effect when they are closer."

The orcas are challenged not only by vessel noise, but also pollution and scarce chinook, their preferred prey. A new Washington state report shows Puget Sound chinook are in crisis, as their numbers continue to dwindle, making the orcas work harder than ever to get enough to eat.

There are only 74 southern residents left in a population unique in the world in its culture and affinity for the waters of Puget Sound. They need salmon to surviveand quiet water in which to hunt them.

Time is running out for the salmon orcas need and the southern residents that hunt them.

Whales return to previously hostile waters

But recent good news from up north also shows when conditions improve, orcas take notice.

Scientists were thrilled earlier this month when members of some of the northern resident families they had not seen in decades were documented in waters the families had fled, when a local fish farm turned on electronic pingers to scare away seals.

"I saw them traveling with their heads out of the water," Alexander Morton, an independent biologist based in the Broughton Archipelago, said of the northern residents.

The pingers were turned off long ago, after the B.C. government banned their use. The fish farm was dismantled last year. Then, this winter, the orca families so long absent from Fife Sound, came back. They brought a newborn with them.

Morton said she had thought perhaps, in their long absence, the matriarchs that knew the way to the waters of Fife Sound, home to fat-rich king salmon, had died, and their mastery of the sound's key fishing spots was lost along with them. "I was worried the knowledge of how they used this area was trapped in a human brain, mine, with no way of getting that back to them," Morton said of the next generation of northern residents.

But apparently, the younger orcas were paying better attention to their elders than she thought.

"It turns out, they knew."

2021 The Seattle Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Nagol is Back! VTOs guide to this years Nagol, plus where to stay and play in south, central and north Pentecost.
Woman killed after Cancun police, private car collide

Cancun, Q.R.  A woman was killed over the weekend after being tossed out of the vehicle in which she was a passenger. The fatal accident happened in SM 98 after a private vehicle and police truck collided.

According to preliminary information, it was at 3:44 a.m. when the driver of the private security vehicle failed to stop and give way to a responding police unit. The private car entered Andres Quintana Roo Avenue and into the path of the fast-moving patrol.

The driver allegedly failed to give way to the police unit

The car, which was driven by 36-year-old Eber N, was redirected by the impact with both vehicles coming to rest at a Pemex gas station. The female passenger of the private security vehicle, identified as Kenia N, was thrown from the car. She landed on the ground beside the stations gas pumps.

The female passenger of the private car died on scene

Police and paramedics quickly responded to the emergency call, however, the woman was pronounced on scene. There was no report of injured officers in the collision. The driver of the private security vehicle was arrested.

It is the second time in a week that a private vehicle has failed to yield to a responding police unit. Last week, four Cancun officers were rushed to hospital after the driver of a private truck failed to give way to a responding unit.
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ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos administration late Friday defended sending a contract to bid without giving first refusal to organizations employing people with disabilities, a practice prescribed in law that requires public entities to purchase goods and services from organizations that employ people with disabilities if it meets the agency's "form, function and utility."

In a Jan. 4 letter penned to Cuomo, Capital Region state legislators called into question the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance disregarding the Preferred Source Program, which was created nearly 50 years ago following exposure of abhorrent conditions at state institutions housing people with disabilities, for fulfilling the alternative format mailing services contract.

Advocates for people with disabilities say the work sought in the request for proposal issued by the state in October could be done by the vulnerable population, yet it was never presented to the Preferred Source Program. Section 162 of State Finance Law requires projects to be first offered to the preferred sources, one of which is the New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), before putting out for bid.

We wish to express our deepest concerns that the law is being circumvented, either by ignoring its very clear requirements or something worse  the insertion into the contract of a very small portion of duties that permit for an end around that avoids the Preferred Source Program and subverts its noble objectives, the state legislators wrote to Cuomo.

Neither legislators nor NYSID officials received a response or explanation on why OTDA had sent the contract straight to bid, and OTDA officials initially told Capitol Insider they could not comment on the request for proposal because they were in a "blackout period." According to the proposal, bids were due Dec. 30. Upon further pressing on why the state was taking that course, OTDA spokesman Anthony Farmer said that interpretation is a "gross misunderstanding of the law."

"The law requires the state to purchase through preferred sources only if the procurement can be met in full by a preferred source," Farmer said in an emailed response. "While OTDAs procurement complied with all relevant laws and procedures, at this time we will extend to NYSID the opportunity to demonstrate how they can meet the mail fulfillment requirements of this contract. OTDA will be in touch with NYSID shortly with details about the next steps that NYSID will need to take."

The service contract previously was held by an out-of-state vendor and had expired, presenting the opportunity for a New York business to perform the work.

Out-of-state contracts were scrutinized by Capital Region lawmakers last year after the state budget office nixed a $55 million, five-year contract that was slated to employ people from the Center for Disability Services in Albany. The budget office argued that the work could be done in-house at a significantly lower cost, although advocates questioned the math considering the savings New York sees when people with disabilities are gainfully employed.

A Capitol Insider review of marketing and advertising, mail services and other print-related work contracts last year found that about 64 percent of them were held by out-of-state vendors, totaling about $966 million.

Legislators initially called attention to the nixed contract in a letter to Cuomo in August. Cohoes Democratic Assemblyman John McDonald said they learned that the budget office was reviewing all its contracts to see whether any could be fulfilled by New York organizations.

However, the legislators latest letter has been met with radio silence, McDonald said.

No one is responding at all. To me that is just unlike OTDA, and therefore it just raises in my mind, what is going on here? he said. Ive talked to our leadership, just to put it on their radar screen and say, at some point, we might want to have a conversation about preferred source if its going to be ignored.

New York Industries for the Disabled, which acts as the liaison between nonprofits across the state that employ people with disabilities and the state to connect the vulnerable population with gainful employment, sent a letter to OTDAs procurement management on Dec. 15 asking the agency to suspend the request for bids.

NYSID President and CEO Maureen O'Brien said they have not heard back and she fears people with disabilities will again miss out on employment opportunities. Unemployment is high for people with disabilities, at around 67 percent, she said.

It is those statistics that fueled the creation of the Preferred Source Program, which OBrien said she still must educate businesses, state agencies and local government on.

We did that with OTDA and helped them understand that this is work that could and should be done through preferred source, she said. We have not received a response to that.

Since NYSID does not bid on projects, OBrien said the only recourse is seeking a review from the state Procurement Council. It's unclear how OTDA's latest promise to work with NYSID could impact this process.

My hope is that as we enter 2021 with this mission to renew and rebuild that there is a prioritization of this super important population, OBrien said. They are problem-solvers, incredibly good workers and thinkers who have to be prioritized.







A young father had been high on cocaine and ice when police shot him dead a day after he had tied up and fatally stabbed the mother of his child 16 times, an inquest has heard.

Gabriella Thompson (pictured) was fatally stabbed 16 times in March 2019

Tafari Walton, 22, was shot dead after telling police, 'come on, f***ing shoot me', then charging with a knife towards a detective.

Two officers had each fired two shots during the confrontation with Walton at about 9am in the backyard of his mother's house, west of Newcastle, in March 2019.

Jake Harris, counsel assisting State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan, told the Newcastle inquest into the deaths of Walton and his ex-partner, Gabriella Thompson, 27, that one officer had earlier tried to use capsicum spray on Walton with no effect.

He was shot once in the head and once in the chest by the officers standing one to two metres away. The other two bullets fired missed Walton.

Walton had been on the run since fatally stabbing Ms Thompson at her Glendale home on March 13, 2019.

Mr Harris said Walton had been in a toxic relationship with Ms Thompson since 2014 involving prolonged domestic violence because of his intense jealousy and controlling behaviour, and he had regularly threatened to kill her.

He said Walton's mother claimed Ms Thompson had been psychologically abusive towards Walton, often demeaning him.

There was one incident when Walton was in jail and called Ms Thompson in April 2016 to tell her his mother was going to pick him up when he was released.

Tafari Walton, 22, (pictured) was shot dead by police a day after he tied up and stabbed the mother of his three-year-old daughter to death

The taped phone call revealed Walton became angry when Ms Thompson accused him of being 'mummy's little boy', and he threatened to kill her and her family and would cut her tongue out.

On the day Ms Thompson was killed, Walton, who had been released on parole seven weeks earlier and given strict conditional bail after being charged with stabbing another inmate at the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre, told a friend he was never going back to jail and would kill himself if he ever faced being imprisoned again.

It was 11.02am when Walton's mother and stepfather arrived at Ms Thompson's home planning to help repair a hole in the wall caused by Walton a few days earlier.

Mr Harris said the couple parked in the driveway and had Walton and Ms Thompson's three-year-old daughter in the car as well as Walton's brother's son.

When Ms Thompson called out for help, the stepfather walked into the house and saw she had blood on her face and rope around her ankles.

Young mum Gabriella Thompson (pictured) suffered 16 stab wounds, including a laceration to her throat

The stepfather struggled with Walton who had a 'vacant look' on his face before he broke free and began choking Ms Thompson.

Fearing Walton had a weapon, the stepfather stepped outside to get his mother to try to calm him down but she had left with the children.

He called Walton's mother and she told him to call the police.

As the stepfather went back to the house, Walton walked out and told him 'she thinks she's dying', before driving off.

The stepfather saw Ms Thompson was holding her neck and there was a lot of blood.

He put a towel around her neck before she was taken to John Hunter Hospital and pronounced dead at 12.39pm.

Police at the Glendale home of Gabriella Thompson after she was stabbed to death in 2019

She had suffered 16 stab wounds, including a laceration to her throat.

The inquest continues.

Ms Thompson was remembered by friends as a 'loving mother, daughter, sister, aunty and dear friend to so many'.

'You will be missed and forever in our hearts, fly high with the angels baby girl, love you always,' the tribute posted on a GoFundMe page at the time read.

If you or anyone you know needs confidential support, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline 13 11 14.

An inquest has heard Gabriella Thompson (pictured) had been in a toxic relationship with Walton since 2014
For the first time since COVID-19 mitigation efforts began in mid-March, two Illinois regions have reached the final tier and will be able to loosen restrictions to allow such things as the reopening of bars and restaurants.

Guidelines on hours and occupancy will remain in place under the Restore Illinois plan. For example, bars also must serve food to allow indoor customers, and indoor service is limited to either 25% of capacity or 25 people. Establishments also must close by 11 p.m. and not open before 6 a.m.

Crowd sizes also will be limited to 25 people for social gatherings, such as weddings, funerals and sporting events.

This should serve as motivation for other regions. However, I do want to caution that moving back through tiers does not mean abandoning your mask or attending large events and gatherings, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike said. We must continue to watch our distance and wear our masks and get vaccinated when we become eligible.

The changes were announced this weekend for Region 5 in far southern Illinois and Region 2 in the north-central part of the state. One of the states established mitigation regions is in Tier 2, but the other eight  including Region 3, which covers Morgan, Brown, Cass, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott and eight other west-central Illinois counties  remain at Tier 3, the most restrictive.

To move from Tier 3 to Tier 2 requires such factors as a rolling test positivity rate under 12% for three days in a row, intensive care unit and hospital bed availability above 20% and a drop in hospitalizations because of coronavirus for seven out of 10 days. Tier 1 requires a test positivity rate of under 8% for three days in a row and other factors.

There is some anticipation the Morgan County area could move to Tier 2 for the first time since Nov. 20 if infection rates and other criteria continue to improve. Most west-central Illinois county health departments have been closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so statistics have not been reported since Friday.

A change in mitigation tiers would have little impact on struggling restaurants, though, because indoor dining still would be prohibited under Tier 2.

Restaurants have been able to offer pickup, delivery and drive-through service, but many have chosen to close temporarily because of the financial strain of the restrictions. Limited outdoor dining is available, but is not an attractive option in winter weather.

Lonzerottis Italia Restaurant in Jacksonville announced its plans this weekend to close until warmer temperatures make outdoor dining viable or at least 50% capacity indoor dining is allowed.

After a meeting Friday with Morgan County Health Department Director Dale Bainter, one of Lonzerottis owners, Frank Whitney, said the county was doing a very good job in a very tough situation and it was apparent  the lack of leadership regarding restaurants and the COVID mitigation orders is not the countys failure, but rather the failure of our state government and its agencies.

Some restaurants have defied the restrictions, but it was not something Lonzerottis owners felt was the correct course of action for us to take, they said in posting on the restaurants Facebook page.

The restrictions burden on the hospitality industry, especially bars and dining establishments, has prompted a loud outcry across the state.

A frustrated state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer of Jacksonville said it was past time for the state to move forward.

Davidsmeyer, the assistant Republican leader for the state House of Representatives, said keeping our businesses closed isnt working but said Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have been unwilling to discuss alternatives.

There have been zero conversations between the governors administration and sitting legislators, only one-sided, my way or the highway answer sessions for far too long, he said. Its time for the governor to look outside of his administration for new ideas.

The state keeps doubling down on the same failed policies, using the wrong metrics. I believe in science and this is not science, Davidsmeyer said.
Mumbai, Jan 18 : Actress Sonali Bendre took to Instagram and shared the name of the first book of the year that she is reading.

Sharing her first book of the year is "The Authenticity Project" by author Clare Pooley, the actress, who runs a social media page by the name of Sonali's Book Club, encouraged fans to read more.

"2020 has been a rollercoaster ride and I wanted to start 2021 with a light, feel-good book. Happy to announce the first book of the year - The Authenticity Project by @clare_pooley. It's a book about friendship, love, and a book dropped at a cafe, which happens to intertwine the lives of six strangers. Looking forward to embark on this journey. Hoping this year is filled with positivity and sunshine. See you at the #SBCBookDiscussion," she captioned her Sunday night post on Instagram.

Sonali was diagnosed with metastatic cancer in 2018. She underwent treatment in New York, following which she is back in action in Mumbai.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Michael Knight and Kitt are an '80s duo that every South African knows and loves. But what if Kitt was no longer in America? What if he had a new owner and a new best friend? Chicken Licken, together with their brand and communications agency, Joe Public United, reimagined this classic in a South African context to create a new off-the-wall film: "Nyathi Rider". The seamless connection with Knight Rider introduces South Africans to not just the new Super Slider but a new rider, Michael Nyathi.
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The incoming Joe Biden administration in the US could spell good news for Northern Ireland's economy, according to an expert.

While the United States and Northern Ireland have always had a close relationship, the president-elect's Irish roots and long-standing support for the Good Friday Agreement could bring benefits, according to Dr Esmond Birnie, chief economist at Ulster University.

Last year the US was Northern Ireland's second largest international export market, with 1.2bn in goods going across the Atlantic. This is compared with 3.2bn to the Republic of Ireland, 0.8bn to Canada and 0.5bn to Germany. Imports here from the US were also substantial at 0.8bn.

Almost 30,000 workers are also employed by US firms here.

Dr Birnie said exports from Northern Ireland to the US could increase as a result of the $1,900bn financial stimulus package Mr Biden will try and push through Congress.

Back in 2017, President Donald Trump decreased corporation tax from 30% to 21% to support business, although Mr Biden may reduce this back to around 28%, a move Dr Birnie said would make Northern Ireland a much more competitive location for US firms.



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One potential bump in the road is the post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) between the US and UK. Dr Birnie warned that it is unclear if this will include Northern Ireland, or be confined to GB only.

He posited that one of the key US demands will be increased access to the UK market for its food products.

"Given that one of the key aspects of NI's Protocol is that we are still applying all the EU's animal and food safety standards it is hard to see how NI could allow in US agricultural products," Dr Birnie said.

"Unless the Biden Administration is prepared to be extraordinarily generous to NI it is possible that the US-UK FTA will turn out to be a US-GB FTA.

"More immediately, Bushmills whiskey has been caught up in the US-EU trade war which followed from on Airbus-Boeing disputes about aviation subsidies. The Biden transitional team have indicated that the 25% tariff on Scotch and Bushmills whiskey coming into the US will stay in place."

Northern Ireland's aerospace, maritime and IT companies could also receive a boost as a result of US defence spending, said Dr Birnie.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 05:22:46|Editor: huaxia

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A migrant woman shows the police her credentials in Cofradia, Honduras, Jan. 15, 2021. Guatemalan security forces clashed with a caravan of Honduran migrants crossing the country en route to the United States on Sunday in Vado Hondo, Chiquimula, 177 km east of Guatemala City, migration authorities said. On Saturday night, Guatemalan authorities intercepted 992 migrants at the border, some of whom were detained and others deported to Honduras. (Xinhua)

GUATEMALA CITY, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Guatemalan security forces clashed with a caravan of Honduran migrants crossing the country en route to the United States on Sunday in Vado Hondo, Chiquimula, 177 km east of Guatemala City, migration authorities said.

According to the director general of migration, Guillermo Diaz, this confrontation between migrants and security forces was a "pitched battle," but the situation was eventually brought under control.

Local media reported that the confrontation included the use of tear gas to disperse those trying to continue on the route to Mexico.

According to Diaz, the caravan had been infiltrated by members of Honduran gangs.

Diaz said that there are reports of about 6,000 people in Guatemala attempting to reach the Mexican border, and from there to travel to the United States.

On Saturday night, Guatemalan authorities intercepted 992 migrants at the border, some of whom were detained and others deported to Honduras. Enditem
Japan's foreign minister accused South Korea on Monday of worsening already strained ties by making ``illegal'' demands for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and use of forced laborers during World War II.

Toshimitsu Motegi, in a diplomatic policy speech in parliament, said a recent South Korean court ruling ordering Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women who were sexually abused in Japanese military brothels during the war was ``an abnormal development absolutely unthinkable under international law and bilateral relations.''

``We strongly urge South Korea to correct the violation of international law as soon as possible'' and restore healthy relations, Motegi said.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled on Jan. 8 that the Japanese government must give 100 million won ($91,360) to each of 12 elderly women who filed lawsuits in 2013 over their wartime suffering as ``comfort women.''

They were among tens of thousands of women across Japanese-occupied Asia and the Pacific who were sent to front-line Japanese army brothels.

The ruling worsened tensions between the two countries, whose relations had already plunged to the lowest level in decades over earlier South Korean rulings on Japan's actions during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Japanese companies to provide reparations to some South Koreans who were forced to work in their factories during the war.

The dispute over forced labor escalated into a trade dispute and prompted South Korea to threaten to scrap a 2016 military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, a key component of their regional defense cooperation with the United States.

Japan has protested the court rulings, saying all wartime compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations in which Japan provided $500 million in economic assistance.

Motegi called South Korea ``an important neighbor'' and said its cooperation with Japan and the United States was ``indispensable for regional security,`` including the response to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Japan, under a 1995 semi-governmental Asian Women's Fund, offered payments and apology letters to certified victims of its wartime sexual abuse from five countries, settling disputes with all but South Korea.

In 2015, the then governments of South Korea and Japan reached what was supposed to be a final and irreversible deal to settle the issue with a new fund set up by the Japanese government, but the current South Korean administration of President Moon Jae-in dissolved it, saying the deal was reached without proper consultation with the victims.

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(Natural News) As razor wire fences are erected around the U.S. Capitol, communism is rising in the halls of Congress. In violation of her oath to the U.S. Constitution, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is looking to abolish the First Amendment entirely. After cheering on the destruction of alternative social media site, Parler; after cheering on the censorship of President Trump and his supporters across all social media channels; AOC is looking to exterminate any last vestige of political debate in the country and censure any remaining voice of dissent in the mainstream and independent media. AOC is calling on Congress to rein in all unapproved domestic publishers, and is demanding that lawmakers establish an official Ministry of Truth.

AOC and the communist Dems want to silence political opposition, shut down independent media

AOC is calling this communist takeover of speech a media literacy initiative. She wants the Democrat-controlled Congress to determine what the people of the United States are allowed to speak, to hear, to watch and to think. She wants to mandate a congressional truth and reconciliation committee to push this media literacy initiative. This congressional Ministry of Truth would target all publishers who spread misinformation  just as Big Tech is currently doing. Once the threat is identified, the government can then target the source and eradicate the message.

AOC wants to blacklist her critics and publicly humiliate anyone who disagrees with her hateful, destructive message of communism. She wants the power to deconstruct and demonetize the platforms that conservatives and independents rely upon to get their message out to the public. She wants absolute power to shame the sponsors, payment processors, and funding sources that her political opponents rely on, so she can strip them of their infrastructure and ability to speak up and speak out.

With Democrats in control of Big Tech, the Senate, House, and Executive branch, AOC feels as if this is her moment to shine, to be the leading voice for censorship and oppression. The desperate second impeachment of Donald Trump, (waged by power-drunk democrats and a handful of boot-licking republicans) did not follow any form of probable cause or due process. Thats because this impeachment proceeding was not about the rule of law; it was conducted to establish new precedent to empower the authoritarian Lefts war against the American people and their principles. If Trumps speech can be blamed for inciting insurrection, then anything the Left disagrees with can, not only be censured, but also be used to convict conservatives of crimes that they did not commit. The 1984 Thought Police are here. (Related: Democrats are now moving quickly to reclassify conservative dissent as domestic terrorism.)

Media outlets across the political spectrum denounce AOCs Ministry of Truth

In a recent interview, AOC lamented being scared for her life following the Capitol breach. Because of this, she believes anyone who speaks against election fraud and democrats policies should be silenced. I do think that several members of Congress, in some of my discussions, have brought up media literacy because that is a part of what happened here and were going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you cant just spew disinformation and misinformation, Ocasio-Cortez said.

Joe Conch, a media columnist for The Hill was quick to rebuke the proposal. Lets unpack this proposal. She wants to basically establish a Ministry of Truth. Weve all read 1984 and, you know, to determine what is truth and what is not, he said. So, who sits on this committee exactly? Eric Swalwell? Adam Schiff? Because they seem to have some challenges when it comes to telling the truth.

David Harsanyi, was quick to call out AOC on her wicked proposal. He wrote a New York Post opinion piece headlined, AOC and other progressives have a new goal: Silence the press. Media moguls across the political spectrum are starting to sound like NaturalNews did, four years ago, when the network was censored off social media channels for spreading misinformation. NaturalNews has survived years of censorship and gone on to warn America about the unchecked power and evils of the authoritarian Left.

Sources include:

TheGateWayPundit.com

FoxNews.com

NaturalNews.com

WASHINGTON  The Pentagon is intensifying efforts to identify and combat white supremacy and other far-right extremism in its ranks as federal investigators seek to determine how many military personnel and veterans joined the violent assault on the Capitol.

In the days since a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, senior leaders of the 2.1 million active-duty and reserve troops have been grappling with fears that former or current service members will be found among the horde.

The F.B.I. investigation into the Capitol siege, still in its very early stages, has identified at least six suspects with military links out of the more than 100 people who have been taken into federal custody or the larger number still under investigation. They include a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, an Army officer from North Carolina and an Army reservist from New Jersey. Another person with military service was shot and killed in the assault.

The militarys examination of its ranks marks a new urgency for the Pentagon, which has a history of downplaying the rise of white nationalism and right-wing activism, even as Germany and other countries are finding a deep strain embedded in their armed forces.
Will Waldron/Albany Times Union

ALBANY  In his Monday morning coronavirus briefing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had good and bad news: Data shows that COVID-19 cases in the state are on the decline after the holiday surge, but there's a concern that new variants found at home and abroad, if they become more widespread, could usher in a new and dangerous period of surging cases and overwhelmed hospitals.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said over the weekend that the UK variant, which has already been identified in New York, could be the dominant coronavirus variant across the country by March. Cuomo said there has also been evidence of new variants in South Africa and Brazil, raising new and troubling questions about the possibility of a major new wave of infections.
Lucknow: An FIR has been lodged here against the makers of web series 'Tandav' and Amazon's India head of original content for allegedly depicting Hindu gods in a manner hurtful to religious sentiments of the people.

The FIR against Aparna Purohit, the head of Amazon's India head of original content, director of the series Ali Abbas, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki, and an unknown person was lodged late on Sunday night by senior Sub Inspector Amar Nath Yadav at the Hazratganj Kotwali police station here.



The film starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan and Kritika Kamra, premiered on the streaming platform on Friday.

According to the FIR, following public outrage expressed on social media platforms, the web series was viewed and it was found in the 17th minute of the first episode of the series that Hindu gods and goddesses have been presented in an "undignified manner'' and shown using language which is hurtful to religious sentiments.

Dialogues in the web series can incite caste anger, the FIR alleged.

TandavIt also alleged that the person occupying the high post of Prime Minister of India has been portrayed in a very belittling manner besides there are scenes in which castes have been presented as low and high and women in an insulting manner.

The FIR further alleged that intent of the web series is to incite religious sentiments of a particular community and create enmity among classes. This act of the producer-director has hurt and incited religious and caste sentiments of the people, the FIR added.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-17 23:36:01|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 447 cases of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFIs) after the COVID-19 vaccination have been reported over the past two days, out of whom three required hospitalization, India's health ministry said on Sunday.

"Of those who were hospitalised, one was discharged from the Northern Railway Hospital in Delhi within 24 hours, one another was discharged from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, and one is still under observation in AIIMS in Rishikesh (northern state of Uttarakhand) and is being monitored," said a statement issued by the ministry.

Most of the AEFIs reported so far included minor ailments like fever, headache and nausea etc.

Till Sunday a total of 224,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated, out of whom 17,072 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Sunday alone.

The second day of the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination program was conducted with 553 sessions held in six states.

An AEFI is any unexpected medical occurrence following immunization which may not be related to vaccine or vaccination process. Protocols are in place for reporting, immediate case management at vaccination session site, transportation and hospitalization and further care of such cases.

According to health ministry officials, protocols are also in place for systematic investigation and causality assessment of serious AEFIs.

All the Indian states have been advised to plan COVID-19 vaccination sessions four days in a week to minimize disruption of the routine health services. Some states have already publicised their weekly vaccination days.

Two types of COVID-19 vaccines were supplied for the vaccination drive. While the "Covishield" vaccine, made by the Serum Institute of India, was supplied to all the Indian states, the "Covaxin" vaccine, made by Bharat Biotech International Limited, was supplied to 12 states. Enditem
War-like imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trumps supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war.

In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege to remove an online post urging followers to prepare for war. The incoming co-chair of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic.

Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in Californias Santa Clara County, appeared to urge on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please.. Civil War or No Civil War?

The heightened rhetoric mimics language far-right extremists and white supremacists have used for years, and it follows a year of civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer and its links to systemic racism. Some leftists have used similar language, which Republicans have likened to advocating a new civil war.

The post-Floyd demonstrations prompted governments and corporations alike to reevaluate, leading to the removal of Confederate symbols across the South and the retirement of racially insensitive brands.

Then on Jan. 6, demonstrators stoked by Trumps false claims that he won the 2020 election brought symbols of the Old South to the siege of the Capitol, carrying Confederate flags inside and even erecting a wooden gallows with a noose outside the building.

Democrats say the uptick in war talk isnt accidental. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Trump began putting his supporters in the frame of mind to make the opening charge years ago and is capable of starting a civil war.

Since his first day in office, this president has spent four years abusing his power, lying, embracing authoritarianism (and) radicalizing his supporters against democracy, she said in arguing for impeachment. This corruption poisoned the minds of his supporters, inciting them to willingly join with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and paramilitary extremists in a siege of the United State Capitol building, the very seat of American democracy.

There are parallels between now and the run-up to the Civil War, including a fractious national election that ended with presidents  Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Joe Biden in 2020  who millions rejected as illegitimate victors, said Nina Silber, co-president of the Society of Civil War Historians.

Lincoln won the Electoral College but came away with only a plurality of the popular vote in a four-way race. Biden won the popular vote by 7 million over Trump and defeated him decisively in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. Dozens of lawsuits by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the results failed, some of them turned away by federal judges Trump himself nominated. Then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department could find no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the elections outcome.

While the same geographic split doesnt exist today as when the Civil War started in 1861 and there is no mass preparation for all-out conflict, Silber said white anger and resentment fueled both eras.

At the time of the Civil War, this took the form of Southern white men angry at the idea that the federal government would interfere with their right to own Black slaves. Today, I think this takes the form of white people who believe that Black and brown people are making gains, or getting special treatment, at their expense, Silber, who teaches at Boston University, said in an email interview.

Just as happened generations ago, partisans are using strident words and images to define the other side  not just for policies with which they disagree but as evil, said George Rable, a retired historian at the University of Alabama.

I think both then and now, we need to worry about the unanticipated consequences of overheated rhetoric and emotions, he said. Secessionists then hardly anticipated such a bloody civil war, and their opponents often underestimated the depth of secessionist sentiment in a number of states.

State Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican who represents the same area as Lincoln did in the state legislature, condemned the attack on the Capitol during a speech on the Illinois House floor and urged more Republicans to speak up.

If youre not stepping up and denouncing this, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I dont have a place for you ..., Butler said. The favorite son of this city was murdered because of a civil war as he was president. Im not going to see a civil war on my watch, I can tell you that.

The question is whether those stoking the war talk can be controlled by the more moderate elements within the party, or whether they will become the dominant voice.

Randy Voepel, a state Assemblyman in California, backtracked after referencing an earlier war  the American Revolution  in a Jan. 9 San Diego Union-Tribune article: This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny. Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.

More than three dozen veterans and officials have called for Voepel to be expelled from office. He has since revised his war-like rhetoric with a condemnation of the violence and lawlessness at the Capitol and a call for healing.

The other California Republican, Reynolds, said he has no plans to step down from his local party position. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wasnt trying to incite violence with his war has begun rhetoric, but simply reporting what he saw on television: My statement was that this cant happen. I was condemning it with my words. It was taken out of context, he said.

Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low isnt buying it. He called for Reynolds resignation, telling the Chronicle that the man he has known for two decades was a genuine and warm human being but was radicalized by Trumps poison and lies.

In Missouri, state GOP Chairwoman Jean Evans had enough of the war talk. She resigned after she was barraged by calls from Trump supporters, some of whom demanded a military coup to keep Trump in office no matter what it takes.

Theres a lot of good Republicans right now who totally disagree with whats going on, she told KMOX. Its been very scary and frightening and un-American from my perspective, and definitely not part of the conservative party I embrace.

Andrew Hitt, the Republican chairman in Wisconsin, faced off against the St. Croix County party without initial success, describing the call to war as an ill chosen phrase and urging its removal.

Despite his plea and those of Democrats and a Republican sheriff, the post remained defiantly in place until a week after the Capitol attack. The website went dark Wednesday without explanation, and the county GOP chairman, John Kraft, resigned on Friday. He did not return a call seeking comment.

Silber, the Civil War historian, said she is worried the attack on the Capitol wasnt the last stand for enraged Trump supporters.

I think we can see how well-organized right-wing militia groups have become and how well armed they are, and that makes for an extremely explosive situation, she said. I dont know if that would be war in the technical sense, but there could be an extended period of violent attacks.
State first to achieve 100 percent vaccination rate for health care personnel, now working on antigen test strategy for tourists

Riviera Maya, Q. R.  Officials in the state of Quintana Roo are working to ensure international visitors have access to the necessary Covid-19 tests required to enter the U.S.

The Secretary of Tourism, Marisol Vanegas Perez, says they are working on a strategy so that as of January 26, the required Covid-19 tests can be applied in hotels and airlines.

The strategy is complete with training, with tests endorsed by COFEPRIS and the Institute for Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference and will be carried out in hotels with the proper validation and protocol for the facilities, explained Vanegas Perez.

Passengers at Cancun International adhere to strict health protocols

The Minister of Tourism announced that as of now, there are more than 70,000 guaranteed rooms where tourists can take the antigen test inside the hotels. The tests are preformed with specialized medical equipment that work in partnership with laboratories.

Quintana Roo governor Carlos Joaquin, explained that the application of these antigen tests will prevent the cancellation of trips. He says a promotion scheme will be created for all countries, mainly the United States, ensuring them that citizens can come to Quintana Roo, to the Mexican Caribbean and have the necessary tests available to return to their home countries.

Carlos Joaquin stressed that last week, more than 300 flights a day were maintained at the Cancun International Airport with a significant number of seats and larger aircraft, including Boeing 767 and 777.

100 percent of the states front line health personnel have been vaccinated

The governor also pointed out that Quintana Roo is the first state in the country to meet the vaccination goal. He said in the first allocation, the state received 4,875 doses of the vaccine and that the application of the total number of vaccines received has already been completed.

According to the National Vaccination Strategy, the state received 4,875 doses on January 12, to which 100 percent has been applied to front-line health professionals.
A woman received the fright of her life after her friend's pet guinea pig crawled its way into her hairpiece.

Desmon Tolliver, 19, from Dekalb, Illinois, had been trying to help his friend Kenya Washington, 21, overcome her fear of his eight-week-old pet Skai Hogan when the event took an unexpected turn.

The rodent managed to make its way from Ms Washington's shoulder into her wig and left her screaming as her friends rushed to her aid.

Kenya Washington, 21, is left terrified as the eight-week-old guinea pig Skai Hogan crawls into her hairpiece

During the clip, which has now received 1.9million likes on TikTok, a terrified Ms Washington screams as the guinea pig crawls into her hair.

A friend then reaches into Ms Washington's hair and tries to pull the rodent out as others are heard laughing in the background.

Mr Tolliver, who was also joined by his friends Amarah and Makayla, later explained that he had been trying to encourage Ms Washington 'get more comfortable' with Skai when the rodent crawled into her wig.

He said: 'We wanted to help Kenya get more comfortable with Skai, so Makayla placed the guinea pig on Kenya's shoulder, and when we went to grab her, she started crawling up the back of Kenya's wig.

'We all started laughing and then proceeded to help get the guinea pig out of the wig.

'The guinea pig was removed unharmed and it was a funny experience.'

Friends rush to Ms Washington's aid and try to remove the rodent from her hair as she screams

West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday her decision to fight the upcoming assembly elections from Nandigram seat at a rally in the town.

The announcement holds significance as Nandigram is the constituency of her former right hand man Suvendu Adhikari, who crossed over to the BJP last month."I will contest from Nandigram. Nandigram is my lucky place," Banerjee said, addressing a public meeting in the town for the first time in five years.

Banerjee is presently an MLA from Bhabanipur constituency. The Bengal CM also said she could contest the election from two constituencies, including Bhabanipur in south Kolkata.

In a reference to the party leaders who left the TMC, including Adhikari, Mamata said that she is not worried about those who are switching over to the BJP.

"Those who have left the party, have my best wishes. Let them become president and vice president of the country. As long as I am alive, I won't allow them to sell out my state to the BJP," she said.

Banerjee is currently serving her 2nd term as the state's Chief Minister.

West Bengal is likely to go to polls in April-May.

Also read: PM Modi to perform bhoomi poojan for Gujarat Metro Rail Project today

Also read: 7th Central Pay Commission: Centre may increase DA by 4%; check out details
Police have launched an investigation into whether to fine one of Britain's top fire officers for breaching lockdown rules by spending afternoons at the home of his former secretary.

Mark Andrews, the 105,000-a-year Deputy Chief Officer at West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, twice last week drove 20 miles to visit his ex-assistant Anna Colwell, 34, as revealed by MailOnline.

The father-of-two, 49, is currently under investigation by superiors at the fire and rescue service for breaking Covid lockdown rules.

Now his furious bosses have passed the case to Sussex Police to consider issuing him with a 200 fine for the breach.

A West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service spokesperson told Mail Online: 'A disciplinary investigation into the allegations reported in the media is taking place and the information we have received has been passed to the police.

'The person concerned remains in post and will continue to carry out their duties.'

Mark Andrews (left), 49, the 105,000-a-year Deputy Chief Officer at West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, is being investigated for visiting his former secretary Anna Colwell, 34, (right)

Married Mr Andrews and his former secretary Mrs Colwall were pictured last week travelling in her Mini without wearing masks despite the fact that they are not in the same household

Mr Andrews is married to Judy Andrews (left), 58, with whom he has a son and daughter. Mrs Colwell (right) was hired as his assistant last April, in which he chaired the recruiting panel

A Sussex Police spokesman confirmed: 'We received a report on 15 January of a potential breach of Covid regulations by a man and a woman and we are currently reviewing this.'

Mrs Colwell's employers East Sussex Fire Service also said it had also reported her to police and were considering disciplinary action.

Government rules state that two households should not mix to help battle the spread of Covid-19, and Mr Andrews has been a strong supporter of the anti-Covid rules on social media.

When confronted about the visits, he initially claimed they were 'work colleagues' but then admitted Mrs Colwell is now employed by an entirely separate fire brigade.

In August, Mr Andrews re-joined West Sussex Fire Service where he began his career

'I have to face the consequences, frankly. But anything I say will be incriminating and difficult,' said Mr Andrews when confronted by MailOnline.

Mr Andrews and Mrs Colwell were seen to meet on two successive days at her marital home in Worthing, West Sussex, last week.

At one point they drove together in her white Mini without masks, after Mr Andrews had parked his own Volvo some distance away from the property.

Angry colleagues have branded him a 'hypocrite' for flouting the rules.

Mr Andrews and Mrs Colwell, who is believed to have separated from her husband, met while working at East Sussex Fire services headquarters where she was a secretary and working for East Sussex police, which shares the same HQ in Lewes.

When Mr Andrews was looking for an assistant last April, she applied for the job and he chaired the interview panel which appointed her.

In August, he re-joined West Sussex Fire Service where he began his career more than 25 years ago, but their friendship continued after his departure.

Colleagues have slammed Mr Andrews as a 'hypocrite' for travelling in Mrs Colwell's Mini without a mask and spending afternoons at her home while being a advocating lockdown rules

Asked if he had broken lockdown rules, Mr Andrews said of Mrs Colwell: 'She is a work colleague so clearly I had some work to do. But... in a way that didn't compromise myself.

Told that she was no longer a colleague as he claimed, but a former colleague, he said: 'That is right.'

He added: 'I have to face the consequences frankly. But anything I say will be incriminating and difficult so I just need to absorb what you are saying to me. '

Asked the nature of their work, he said: 'It is just collaborative work in the services which you will see in the record.'

Mr Andrews pictured with his wife Judy on holiday two years ago. He faces an investigation

Mr Andrews lives with his wife and their two children 20 miles away from his former assitant's home in this beautiful detached, gated home worth approximately 1.5 million in Horsham

Asked why he'd parked so far from Mrs Colwell's home, he said 'I've no further comment gentlemen.'

After being contacted by MailOnline, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service has launched an investigation.

'All staff are expected to follow COVID-19 regulations and any reports of a breach of that would be investigated on a case by case basis,' said a spokesman.

Mr Andrews lives with his wife Judy, 58, and son and daughter in a 1.5million detached house with a gated drive in Horsham.

He has been a vocal supporter of the Covid-19 restrictions and is vice-chair of the Sussex Resilience Forum, made up of emergency and contingency support groups in the area.

Last week it tweeted: 'Not only are we in a national lockdown but the #Sussex LRF has declared a major incident in order that public services can escalate their response to the unprecedented pressures of #Covid19 on the county.

'Please follow government rules and stay at home.'

Mr Andrews (right) has been a vocal supporter of the Covid-19 restrictions and is vice-chair of the Sussex Resilience Forum, made up of emergency support groups in the area

Mrs Colwell is separated from accountant Richard, 36, who works for an accountancy firm in Brighton and they have two young sons.

She was a civilian police worker before being appointed to be Mr Andrew's assistant and has continued in her job after his departure.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Belgium on Monday prepared to fight the spread of the British variant of the coronavirus after outbreak reports in schools and retirement homes of the strain believed to be more infectious.

Carl Decaluwe, the governor of West Flanders, which includes the postcard city of Bruges, said he had ordered a massive wave of testing in several schools.

The measures came after about two-thirds of the residents of a retirement home in the town of Houthulst and one third of the staff were infected, a statement said.

Three people died, the De Groene Verte home said.

In all about 130 people tested positive with the British strain, the town's mayor told AFP, with the country now seriously considering tougher restrictions on travel in and out of the country.

An outbreak was also reported in a small town near the port city of Antwerp, where two pupils from a primary school in Edegem were infected with the British variant.

"We have promised and guaranteed that we will not make people feel guilty," the town's mayor Koen Metsu told VTM news.

"But it is effectively the case that if everyone had followed the quarantine rules after returning from a trip, we could have avoided this."

Non-essential travel abroad remains strongly discouraged in Belgium.

But the cross-roads country of 11 million people is tucked between France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands with thousands of people crossing the border everyday.

Reports said the government could decide by the end of the week to reduce the maximum length of stay to avoid testing and quarantine from the current 48 hours to 16 hours or shorter.

Belgium has recorded 678,839 cases of the coronavirus and 20,435 deaths, making it the most bereaved country in the world in terms of population.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Frederic Tudor: The Entrepreneur Who Brought Ice to Calcutta

Frederic Tudors daring dream made him one of the richest Americans of his day. But his path to success was hardly guaranteed.

The year is 1806. You are 23 years old, living in New England, and searching for a way to make a fortune. You have already declined an opportunity to attend Harvard at your fathers expense because for the past 10 years, business was your fascination. Now out on your own, you need to settle on an established trade or start an altogether new one.

Heres an idea: Cut giant ice blocks out of ponds in wintry Massachusetts and put them on a ship bound for some steamy-hot Caribbean islands, a journey of two weeks or more. There you will sell the ice to people who have probably never seen frozen water in their lives. After the natives get a taste of your ice, there will be no end to their demand for it. Go into debt to finance this because in the long run, its a sure thing!

Are you nuts?

All this is exactly what Frederic Tudor actually did in 1806. Many people questioned his sanity for ituntil it eventually transformed him into one of the richest Americans of his day. He began a trade that did not previously exist, overcame long odds and the consensus that his idea could not work, and earned the famous moniker, The Ice King.

Entrepreneurs like Tudor are peculiar and fascinating. They see something nobody else sees and they possess the courage to act on it. They think big. They endure setbacks and failures, but they press on. The rest of us, I am convinced, do not fully appreciate the indispensable contributions they make to human progress. Without men and women willing to dream and take risks, life for the masses would surely still bein the words of Thomas Hobbesnasty, brutish, and short, just as it was for centuries until capitalism gave the entrepreneur a chance to succeed.

Frederic Tudors path to success was by no means easy or guaranteed. On the one hand, the ice itself was free since he carved it from his familys pond. The sawdust he used to insulate the ice was also free, as lumber mills regarded it as waste; they were happy to have Tudor haul it away. He did not have to worry about competition at first because he was alone in the business. But he found, as entrepreneurs always do, that the task was easier said than done.

He sent his first shipload of ice to Martinique in 1806. What did not melt on the way, he was able to sell but at a loss of $4,500. His next three shipments went to Cuba, producing an even bigger loss. By 1812, he found himself in bankruptcy and in debtors prison, a laughingstock among the smug know-it-alls of Bostons elite.

Delivering ice in hot spots reminds me of this old episode of The Three Stooges. (Start watching at 3:45.)

What happened next is best understood in light of Tudors own words, written on the cover of his first diary: He who gives back at the first repulse and without striking the second blow, [and who] despairs of success, has never been, is not, and never will be a hero in war, love or business.

He took his own advice and did not give up on his dream. Instead, he tackled it with renewed vigor, armed with the lessons he learned from early failures.

Ten years after his first, ill-fated ice venture, Tudor was earning a profit on regular shipments of ice to Cuba. His improvements in insulation and speedier voyages began to pay off. He developed profitable outlets for his ice in various cities in the southern U.S. as well. He still suffered occasional calamities, however. When he tried to bring fruit from the Caribbean back to New England, packed in unsold ice, it all rotted on ship before it could ever get to consumers.

Ice harvesting on Spy Pond in Arlington, Mass., in the mid-19th century. (Public domain)

Tudor really hit the jackpot in the 1830s when he decided to sell ice in Calcutta, India. Think of itthe 16,000-mile voyage to Calcutta required four months in those days. Tudor packed 180 tons of ice onto his first ship to India. Eighty tons melted on the way, but he still managed a profit when he sold the remainder. And for two decades thereafter, Tudor made a bundle shipping frozen water half-way around the world to thirsty Indians. He constantly experimented to discover better and cheaper ways to get the job done, and it made him a millionaire.

In his fascinating 2002 history titled The Frozen Water Trade, author Gavin Weightman paid tribute to the Ice Kings achievements:

From the time he first shipped lake ice to the West Indies in 1806 to the beginnings of the Calcutta trade in the 1830s, he clung to one conviction: people living in tropical climates would pay a good price for ice if they could get it. The inhabitants of Havana in Cuba, and the British sweltering in Calcutta, could make ice cream, cool their drinks, and relieve their suffering from fevers with ice harvested from the clear waters of New Englands many spring-fed ponds. They could even enjoy crisp Baldwin apples from the orchards of Massachusetts, and fresh churned butter, which Tudor packed in barrels and stowed alongside the ice.

The story of Frederic Tudor the Ice King is slightly marred by one flaw: In some tropical destinations, he tried to get local governments to ensure him a monopoly on ice sales and sometimes he got it. It takes two to tango in that dirty business, however, so if you fault Tudor for seeking such advantages, be sure to equally fault governments for assuming the power to sell them. By and large, however, Tudor stands as a remarkable genius of market entrepreneurship. His success ultimately depended far more on making the lives of ordinary people better than it did on securing a temporary favor from politicians.

Tudor died in 1864 at the age of 80. The ice trade he had founded was, by then, a thriving worldwide business full of rival firms competing to sell ice to places as far-flung as Hong Kong and Sao Paulo. With the advent of ice-making machines in the early 20th century, no more fortunes were to be made by shipping the stuff across oceans. The ice trade on the high seas was history.

Carl Seaburg and Stanley Paterson concluded their 2003 biography of Tudor by noting the enormous contribution that Frederic made to the everyday society of his time:

By showing that it was possible to transport ice great distances, by educating people to its value in the preservation of food, by introducing them to foods from other climate zones, he spawned a whole new source of revenue for himself and others. He wanted to monopolize the whole system, but that was proved impossible. After all, he did not invent ice. He only took it out of ponds and transported it to where it did not occur naturally.

I enjoy reading and writing about risk-taking wealth creators like Frederic Tudor, but I shudder at the thought of putting my own money where his dream was in 1806. Im just grateful that he didnt have to wait for approval from me or from anybody else to give it a whirl.

For Additional Information, See:

The Frozen Water Trade by Gavin Weightman

Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances and Enterprise in America by Jonathan Rees

The Ice King: Frederic Tudor and His Circle by Carl Seaburg and Stanley Paterson

Cool Customer: Frederic Tudor and the Frozen-Water Trade by Jason Zasky

The Ice Trade Between America and India (in Mechanics Magazine, 1836)

Graduates: So You Want to be an Entrepreneur? by Lawrence W. Reed

Competition and Monopoly: A Refresher by Lawrence W. Reed
This week: Pitkin Countys front line workers are eligible for the COVID19 vaccine, but can your employer require you to get vaccinated? Also a look at the two back-to-back worldwide ski events Aspen is hosting beginning March 10. Host Alycin Bektesh is joined by Madeleine Osberger, Erica 
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On the eve of the UK Department for International Trade's Africa Investment Conference, East African architecture and masterplanning firm FBW Group noted that private sector investment is key to solving East Africa's mounting affordable housing challenges and the UK can play a leading role in turbo-charging the development drive needed.

UK investment in housing sector

Antje Eckoldt, FBW Group director and Kenya country manager

Housing challenge

Sustainable solutions

The conference, on 20 January, comes 12 months after the UK-Africa Investment Summit hosted in London by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where 27 trade and investment deals, worth 6.5bn and commitments worth 8.9bn were announced.It will explore how inclusive, sustainable and resilient investment can serve to help countries across the continent transition to a cleaner, greener economy and support recovery from the impact of the coronavirus.Speaking before the conference, the UKs minister for investment, Gerry Grimstone, said: Despite the current global economic context, the UKs ambition to be Africas investment partner of choice has never been stronger.Growing investment relationships will be central in helping economies recover and build back better from the disruption caused by coronavirus.Africas economic potential and investment opportunities are huge, and our partnership will help ensure UK and African businesses are able to capitalise on trade and investment opportunities, now and in the future.Early last year, UK Climate Investments announced a 30m ($39m) commitment to support the construction of 10,000 green affordable homes in Kenya. Managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, UK Climate Investments is a 200m pilot investment programme mandated to invest in India and Sub-Saharan Africa.FBW, which has operations in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, believes that commitment has the power to unlock more inward investment and give East Africas private sector confidence to commit to green, affordable development projects across the region.Said Antje Eckoldt, FBW Group director and its Kenya country manager: There are major opportunities for UK investors to make a real difference by supporting projects that will deliver real social and environmental change.The large-scale commitment by UK Climate Investments is a game-changer, embedding green standards into the market that will give local investors added confidence to put more of their money into the affordable housing sector.Were also seeing other welcome investment moves from the UK, including a joint venture involving CDC Group, the UKs publicly-owned impact investor. It is using 3D printing technology at scale to build affordable and low-carbon housing and schools in Africa, starting in Malawi.Housing remains a major challenge across East Africa. The World Bank has estimated that 200,000 housing units are needed annually in Kenya alone. Uganda and Tanzania also face a large-scale and growing housing shortage.To try and close that gap the Kenyan government has launched a programme to build 500,000 new affordable homes by 2022.Since 1969, the countrys population has grown at a compounded annual rate of 3% and there are now more than 47.5-million people living in Kenya. However, the country only had 26,504 active mortgages at the end of 2018, according to research.The World Bank has also estimated that by 2050, 50% of the Kenyan population will be living in urban centres. Said Eckoldt: This rapid urbanisation, which we are seeing across the region, will put even greater pressure on the availability of affordable housing. Closing the housing gap is really important if East Africas economic potential is to be fulfilled.There are major challenges, including meeting budget requirements while also delivering homes of real quality, but the drive to deliver affordable housing is gaining momentum.The delivery of sustainable building solutions and green principles is also coming to the fore in this drive. Locally sourced materials and skills are at the heart of this, along with meeting the challenges of climate change and its impact.Eckoldt says effective urban planning will also have a big part to play in shaping future housing development. The UK Centre for Cities and Infrastructure has been set up to turbo-charge investment in fast-growing cities across the developing world.It will provide British expertise to African governments and city authorities to improve the way cities are planned, built and run, including making them more environmentally friendly. The focus will be on improvements to infrastructure, including water and energy networks.
Apple had a good year in 2020. The Cupertino-based giant launched quite a few products, along with some new offerings that the company had not launched previously. Apple launched the new iPhone 12 series, the first 5G-enabled iPhones, the AirPods Max - the company's first over-the-ear headphones (separate from the Beats brand), its first ARM-based in-house silicon chips, first LiDAR-enabled camera module, among other new things. In 2021, it seems that the company has more in store with new M1-powered MacBook laptops, first mini-LED display iPad Pro, AirTags, and much more.

Several reports have said that Apple will carry over its run this year, with the company reported to launch its first device with mini-LED display, new AirPods (3), AirTags item trackers, along with other new products. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had said in November 2020 that Apple will launch a mini-LED display iPad Pro model in the first half of this year. In the same research note, the TFI Securities analyst had said that AirPods 3 will go into production in the first half of this year. AirPods 3 are said to come with the same system-on-chip as the one on AirPods Pro. The AirPods 3 are also expected to be more affordable and may lack high-end features like Active Noise Cancellation, which could also mean a better battery life. The report in November also said that Apple is working on a new wireless chip as well.

One of the most prominent rumours this year has been of a foldable iPhone. While the foldable iPhone is reported to come after 2021, there have been multiple reports that have suggested that Apple is looking into it for the (not so) near future. The most recent report came last week and said that Apple may have already developed a prototype foldable screen for internal testing, but hasn't solidified plans to launch its foldable. The report said that the Cupertino-based giant has internally discussed multiple foldable screen sizes, including one that unfolds to a similar size as the 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The foldable screens from Apple, according to the report, have a mostly invisible hinge with the electronics stationed behind the display. An earlier report from an Isreali outlet said that the first foldable iPhone may be launched in 2022. The report also said that Apple may discontinue the iPad Mini if it launches a foldable smartphone. An earlier report from known tipster Jon Prosser had said that Apple is working with Samsung for the foldable iPhone screen. In a video, Prosser had hinted that Apple is testing a clamshell-like folding iPhone similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip that may launch in 2023. Despite there being a lot of reports, there is no clarity whatsoever about the details or availability of Apple's foldable iPhone.

Apple is also rumoured to launch its first devices with a mini-LED display, presumably starting with the iPad Pro. Last month, a report had said that the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a mini-LED display will launch in the first quarter of 2021.

Apart from the iPad Pro, Apple is also speculated to bring a MacBook Pro model with a mini-LED display. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had predicted that Apple will release two MacBook Pro models in 2021. According to Kuo's research notes in early December 2020, the new MacBook Pro models will come with a mini-LED display and will be powered by Apple's in-house Silicon chips. Kuo also mentions that Apple will be able to offset the increased cost of using mini-LED panels in Mac devices because the cost of Apple Silicon chips is significantly lower than that of Intel processors.

While we are at MacBooks, Apple is also reported to bring two MacBook Pro models powered by the company's M1 processor. Apple is said to bring a 14-inch and a 16-inch MacBook Pro this year, powered by the company's in-house M-series silicon chip. A recent report citing known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the next 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will come with a flat-edged design, similar to the iPhone 12 series. Further, Kuo also said that this year's MacBook Pro models will ditch the OLED touch bar in favour of physical keys. In his report, Kuo noted that the next MacBook Pro would also come with extra ports and Apple may also bring back the magnetic charging port.

Kuo has also said that Apple will next refresh the MacBook Air in 2022, and there will not be a new MacBook Air this year.

Apple is also reported to unveil its long-awaited Bluetooth-based AirTags item trackers, along with an unspecified AR device. In a research note earlier this month, Kuo said that Apple also plans to release the new AirPods, more Apple Silicon-powered Mac computers, and its first devices with mini-LED display throughout the year, among other new offerings. The Apple AirTags are said to be Tile-like Bluetooth-based item trackers that will help users locate their belongings like keys, wallet, backpacks, and would possibly notify users when they are separated from a tagged item. Reports about Apple's AirTags item trackers have been coming in since the past couple of years, and it is believed that the item trackers will be managed through Apple's Find My app.

Details about the augmented reality device are unclear at the moment, but it was reported earlier that Apple is working on an augmented reality headset, glasses, or both. Kuo, however, did not specify what kind of an AR device Apple may introduce this year.
Tushar Burman

What the...? was my first reaction when Honda launched the CB350 HNess (pronounced Highness, for whatever reason). I thought Hero was the king of weird, soft, cuddly names for their bikes, but Hondas brand team is really letting their freak flag fly.

Some background: Royal Enfield is the obvious target here. I mean theres a red dot and everything. The storied Chennai-based, formerly British heritage motorcycle brand has been (by default) the king of the premium motorcycle segment forever. Premium, at the time, was necessarily defined as 350cc motor capacity and above, since nobody else was playing in that market anyway. The Royal Enfield Bullet and its variants and derivatives ruled the market, with the likes of KTM coming in later to take some sales away (but not from the same customer). This premium, high-margin segment is attractive to manufacturers, even in a volume market such as India.

Honda has a solid chance at this space with the CB350. Im going to avoid using the HNess moniker from here on, out of embarrassment. For India, the basic, single-cylinder 350cc thumper is a well-understood, loved, aspired-to style of motorcycle that has seen little change over 70-odd years. And while you may lament the opportunities lost in making something bigger, better, faster, more modern, better looking, Honda is betting on the traditionalist customer, that still wants to buy a Royal Enfield for that sense of occasion.

What is it?

Simply put, this is Hondas version of a 350cc Bullet, updated as required by 2020 regulations. Honda has a long history of CB motorcycles of varying displacements, ranging from the tiny 100cc to the monstrous 1000cc. The original CB350-Four used an inline four motor that sang the song of my people  that is, it made me stand up in attention and salute that glorious wail. The CB350 we get is quite different. It gets a single-cylinder, 348cc motor using an overhead cam like most modern engines do, that delivers 21hp and 30Nm of torque at 3000rpm. The is absolutely on the nose with the 350cc competition, but the numbers dont tell the real story.

As expected of a bike meaning to take Royal Enfields lunch, its a traditional single downtube frame, the fuel tank takes centre stage, there are lozenge-shaped side panels, a flat seat and relatively large-diameter tyres  19 in the front, and 18 in the rear. My initial impressions of the bike  in pictures and in metal  were that of disappointed resignation. However, riding it for a couple of days, my impressions have changed. I think its a nice-looking motorcycle and would make a great platform for modifications.

Apart from the engine, you get modern conveniences such as an all-LED lighting package (headlight included) and Bluetooth connectivity to a Honda app that allows you to navigate and control some basic functions on your Android-based phone, using the D-pad buttons on the left handlebar. Theres no iOS support just yet, which is a miss, because anecdotally, I understand that a lot of potential buyers are iPhone users.

And thats about it. Everything else is what an eight-year-old would draw if you asked them to draw you a motorcycle. Its simple and doesnt mess with the formula.

A word about tech

While the Android-based companion app was demonstrated for me, I did not have a chance to put it through its paces because my daily-driver is an iOS device. From what I understood, the companion app is meant to stay open on ones phone, and can be navigated using the buttons near the left handlebar grip, once paired with the motorcycles Bluetooth receiver. You can do things like call pre-set numbers and navigate to pre-set destinations or recent points of interest. Honda doesnt seem to have a proper mounting bracket available for the bike just yet, so youre on your own if you actually want to use these features. Based on what Ive seen, I do not expect an iOS app to be forthcoming soon, and if it does, it will differ somewhat from the Android experience.

The Bluetooth-based pairing and app functionality is available on the DLX Pro variant of the CB350 that also gets a two-tone paint job. The rest remains common.

On the go: wow!

That really is the first word that comes out of a riders mouth, as it did mine  wow! The CB350 floors you with the buttery smoothness of the ride. The motor seems to have very little vibration, and what is there, is tactile and pleasing. The 5-speed gearbox is a perfect match and just as smooth. I did not have a missed shift in three days of riding, whether I used my heel or toe to shift.

Being a fuel-injected BS6 motor, one might expect a lean, rough or somewhat anaemic motor, but none of these bear out. The motor pulls strongly no matter what you throw at it. The 30Nm peak torque is clearly spread nice and flat throughout the rev range, allowing you to lug the motor in a higher gear if you want to listen to that lovely thump. Gearing is tall, letting you really pull the engine for what its worth before slotting into the next cog. Yet, the torque allows you to trundle along in the city without too much clutching. It really is a lovely motor.

We need to spend some time talking about the sound that the CB350 makes. Much is made about the thump of the big 350/500cc motors from Royal Enfield, and they took a lot of care to retain much of that in the recently-launched Meteor 350. And as much as I like the Meteor, I must confess that as far as the exhaust note is concerned, the CB350 hits it out of the stadium so far that the ball has landed a considerable distance off-shore and will require Navy divers to retrieve it. It has a sophisticated, bass-heavy thump with no attendant rattles, whistles or harshness. Just a steady, solid thump that assures you that the Honda is going to get you home. Ive never been a particularly enthusiastic fan of the thump of a big single, but the Honda CB350 made me get it.

About 80 km/h is the sweet spot for the CB350, which is about par for the course. The difference is that the Honda remains smooth, and possibly gets smoother, at higher speeds. I saw the speedo needle go past 120 km/h at one stretch (private track, of course) and the bike made no complaint. I wouldnt want to cruise at 100 km/h on this motorcycle simply because there isnt enough grunt left to make quick overtakes. But you can definitely do it if you want. In the city, the torque and silky-smooth delivery make you ride the big Honda like a much smaller bike.

In fact, I was unable to wrap my mind around the fact that this is a normal-sized 350cc motorcycle. It feels so much smaller while riding it, or even moving it around the parking space. The 800 mm seat height should be low enough for those of average height, and the bike belies its 181 kg weight. I find it harder to move my much-lighter KTM 390 Adventure around.

The suspension and brakes really round out this package. The brakes are not the sharpest to bite, but are very easy and progressive, making them comfortable to modulate and bring the bike to a safe halt. Dual-channel ABS is standard, and our city commute threw up nothing that needed it to activate. The Honda CB350 is softly-sprung. A friend described it as a magic carpet ride, and I agree. City comfort is among the best Ive experienced and were it a different format of motorcycle, Id be happy jumping over speedbumps instead of slowing down for them. It makes for a great, comfortable commuter motorcycle. Id go as far as to say Id use one instead of an Activa scooter for chores; I actually did a grocery run with a backpack, and it was just so convenient and manageable.

I didnt push this around the corners at all, because I was unable to find confidence in the MRF tyres. Aggressive riders will also find the suspension too soft for sporty riding, so if youre that sort, get another bike.

But can you tour?

Ergonomically, the CB350 feels suited for city commutes and perhaps the odd highway stint. You sit atop the bike, with an upright posture, hands outstretched to a narrow handlebar. Much like a classic Bullet, actually. Its comfortable and affords great visibility, but can be hairy if you encounter an unmarked speedbump or unexpected crater; you tend to get bounced out of the seat, despite the soft springs. The flat seat is soft, but that tends to cause hotspots on longer rides. I would love to tour on the CB350, but would probably make some changes to the seat, and some accommodations for luggage and wind protection. But these are all cheap, well-understood mods.

The CB350 comes with a generous 15l fuel tank, and our friends at Overdrive found it to deliver an efficiency of 40km/l combined, with almost 49km/l on the highway! Thats an easy 400km before you hit reserve, if not more. This is far and away better than any of the competition.

So the short answer is: yes, you can tour on the CB350 with a few mods. You get a silky-smooth ride, great mileage and Hondas legendary reliability (or so we hope).

Buy this bike

I was deeply impressed by the Honda CB350. The smooth, easy ride just comes together as an engaging, rewarding ride. You feel like youre working for your endorphins, when in reality, youre working just enough for them. The motor, slick gearbox, good brakes, comfortable suspension and that lovely thump come together to make a bike that Id be happy to own. I never thought Id say that about a 350cc single, but here I am, unabashedly admitting that I love the Bullet  but the one made by Honda.

The Honda CB350 HNess starts at Rs 1,86,500 for the DLX and Rs 1,92,500 for the Pro, ex-showroom, Mumbai. You can only buy the motorcycle at Hondas premium Big Wing stores, however.

Pros

+ Smooth engine, gearbox

+ Comfortable suspension

+ Great sound

Cons

- Much smaller dealer network than other Hondas
Pakistan in a spot of bother as UAE could also seek early repayment of loan

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: Pakistan is facing the possibility of being asked to pay up the loan taken from United Arab Emirates. Months back Saudi Arabia too had sought an early repayment of the USD 3 billion loan.

In 2018 after Imran Khan became Prime Minister, Saudi Arabia had provided Pakistan with a USD 6.2 billion financial support. This was a USD 3 billion loan and a USD 3.2 billion deferred oil financing facility.

Following a fall in bi-lateral ties after Pakistan sought to form an alternative Muslim coalition with Turkey and Malaysia, Saudi Arabia initially withdrew the arrangement for deferred payment and then asked Pakistan last year to repay the loan.

As Pakistan gets ready to pay the final tranche of USD 1 billion, it now faces of the possibility of being asked by the UAE for early repayment of USD 3 billion financial support package that was announced in December 2018.

As of now the UAE has not indicated if it will extend a USD 1 billion loan part of the USD 3 billion package that would be payable on January 24, a report in The Express Tribune newspaper said. While quoting a senior unnamed official of the Pakistan Finance Minister, the report said, in case UAE does not withdraw the facility, the loan would be considered extended for one more year.

The report also said that Pakistan is apprehensive that after Saudi Arabi's decision to withdraw its bailout package, the UAE too may follow suit. Pakistan has turned to China for support and has so far taken three loans from the country to repay the USD 3 billion loan to Saudi Arabia.

"Beijing gave $1 billion soft loan and two separate financing lines of $1.5 billion and $500 million to pay back the Saudi debt," the report said. Pakistan's central bank's foreign exchange of USD 13.4 billion are fragile as most of it consists of loans. As of last November, the short-term loans taken from commercial banks amount to USD 4.6 billion.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 15:04 [IST]
Ukraines Ambassador to Turkey Andrii Sybiha and Consul in Ankara Andriy Bilyk visited Ukrainian sailors who were rescued after the freight ship named Arvin sank off the coast of Turkeys Black Sea province of Bartin.

Today is your second birthday. I wish you a speedy recovery and return home. You are under the protection of the Ukrainian state, and we guarantee you all-round support and assistance, the ambassador said, an Ukrinform correspondent in Turkey reports.

The sailors thanked the rescuers, doctors and Ukrainian diplomats for their care and assistance.

Moreover, the consul stays with the Ukrainians and will accompany them during the procedure for testifying and identifying the body of a deceased sailor.

The condition of the rescued sailors is satisfactory. They will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. After carrying out official procedures and restoring documents, they will go to Ukraine.

Most of the sailors are from Odesa city and Odesa region.

On Sunday, January 17, a Palau-flagged freight ship sank off the coast of Turkeys Black Sea province of Bartin.

The coast guard said the ship had sunk after taking in water amid heavy weather conditions. Six crew members were rescued and efforts are underway to rescue others, it said in a statement.

ish
One of the most significant statements in the history of the Civil Rights struggle. It never gets old for me.

April 16, 1963

MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities unwise and untimely. Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against outsiders coming in. I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial outside agitator idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the citys white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birminghams economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchantsfor example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.

As in so many past experiences, our hopes bad been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: Are you able to accept blows without retaliating? Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail? We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

Then it occurred to us that Birminghams mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene Bull Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-off we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer.

You may well ask: Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isnt negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: Why didnt you give the new city administration time to act? The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain for civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was well timed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word Wait! It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This Wait has almost always meant Never. We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that justice too long delayed is justice denied.

We have waited .for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, Wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white and colored; when your first name becomes nigger, your middle name becomes boy (however old you are) and your last name becomes John, and your wife and mother are never given the respected title Mrs.; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Courts decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may won ask: How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an I-it relationship for an I-thou relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of mans tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that states segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you can see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly (not hatefully as the white mothers did in New Orleans when they were seen on television screaming nigger, nigger, nigger), and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal. It was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitlers Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that countrys antireligious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season. Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isnt this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isnt this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isnt this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to Gods will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: An Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth. Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At fist I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of somebodiness that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammads Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negros frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible devil.

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the do-nothingism of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle.

If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as rabble-rousers and outside agitators those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or. unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom ridesand try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence. This is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: Get rid of your discontent. Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized.

But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Was not Amos an extremist for justice: Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Was not Martin Luther an extremist: Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God. And John Bunyan: I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience. And Abraham Lincoln: This nation cannot survive half slave and half free. And Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal  So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvarys hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crimethe crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Somesuch as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boylehave written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as dirty nigger lovers. Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful action antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find. something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern. And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.

I have travelled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the Souths beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when tired, bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being disturbers of the peace and outside agitators But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were a colony of heaven, called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be astronomically intimidated. By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the churchs silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If todays church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with Americas destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliationand yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

I must close now. But before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping order and preventing violence. I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if .you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. Im sorry that I cant join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.

It is true that the police have exercised a .degree of discipline in handing the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather nonviolently in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering, and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: My feet is tired, but my soul is rested. They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for consciences sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, and thusly carrying our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Never before have I written so long a letter (or should I say a book?). Im afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think strange thoughts and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dont worry about air quality, says Phuket health office

PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Public Health (PPHO) Office advised people on the island to not worry about the mild haze over Phuket today, saying that the quality is healthy.

healthpollution

By The Phuket News

Monday 18 January 2021, 03:16PM

The air quality reading for Phuket at 2pm today (Jan 18). Image: agmthai

The Air Pollution Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) posted on aqmthai Data provided by the Division of Air Quality Data of the Air Quality and Noise Management Bureau, which operates under Thailands Pollution Control Department, earlier today posted a PM2.5 reading for Phuket of 112, rising to 117 at 2pm today (Jan 18).

The forecast remains at a high of 137 later tonight.

According to the PCD, PM2.5 readings of 101-150 are classified as Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.

The classification comes with the warning, Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected. Ative children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.

Kriangkrai Bamrungta, an officer at the PPHO, today told The Phuket News, The air quality still is at a good level and we can handle the situation. The big problem that is causing worse air pollution are fires in Indonesia.

We do advise people to wear a mask to protect themselves from the pollution [in addition to the COVID-19 requirement that all people in Phuket must wear a face mask or else face a fine of up to B20,000], Mr Kriangkrai said.

People wear a mask these days because of the COVID-19 situation, so everyone already knows to do this, he said.

If the air pollution gets worse, there will definitely be a caution issued, Mr Kriangkrai added.

According to the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) based in Singapore, the latest weather and haze situation report noted, Dry conditions prevailed over the Mekong sub-region. No smoke plumes were discernable in the sub-region but thin smoke haze was observed over parts of Myanmar and Thailand. There was slight improvement in the air quality over the central Mekong sub-region as good to moderate air quality values were reported across most stations there. Moderate to unhealthy air quality values continued to be reported at station across western Mekong sub-region. Over the other parts of the ASEAN region, wet conditions were observed.

The ASMCs weather and haze outlook forecast, The existing dry conditions over the Mekong sub-region and the scattered showers over the other parts of the ASEAN region are expected to continue over the next few days. The strong prevailing winds are forecast to blow from the east or northeast over the north of the Equator, and blow from the west or northwest over the south of the Equator.
After condemning the pro-Trump invasion of the Capitol, the incoming Biden administration invited Carlos Vecchio  a coup leader charged in the 2014 torching of the Venezuelan Attorney Generals office  to its inaugural ceremony

As Washington recovered from shock and outrage caused by pro-Trump hooligans storming the United States Congress  breaking windows, smashing doors, and intimidating police officers in order to push their way inside  a sense of pre-inaugural excitement began to sweep the nations capital. Who would be attending incoming President Joe Bidens inauguration on January 20, scheduled to take place exactly two weeks following the Capitol riot?

While heavily armed National Guard troops descended onto Washingtons streets to set up check-points, construct fences around government buildings, and establish their military presence, news about the upcoming swearing-in ceremony began to trickle out in the media.

Lady Gaga was booked to belt out the National Anthem, while Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, Bruce Springsteen, and a host of other Democratic Party-aligned pop artists were scheduled to perform throughout the day. Former Trump cabinet members, including Vice President Mike Pence, Supreme Court Justices, and lawmakers were all expected to attend, though the National Mall would be closed to the general public.

Beyond entertainers and high-level federal officials, foreign dignitaries were invited to join a smaller-than-usual group of individuals permitted to witness the days festivities. Among those dignitaries is Carlos Vecchio, a former Exxon lawyer who currently serves as US-recognized Interim President Juan Guaidos envoy in Washington. When the Trump Administration initiated a coup against Venezuelas government in January of 2019, Vecchio became Guaidos ambassador, and has risen to prominence as the de facto leader of a US-based exile lobby dedicated to toppling Venezuelas UN-recognized government.

The Biden teams decision to invite Vecchio was a disappointing sign to those hoping the new administration would break from Trumps failed and destructive policy of recognizing Guaido as Venezuelas leader. In the two years since Washington appointed the previously unknown opposition figure to lead its attempt at regime change, Guaido has failed to rally public support in Venezuela or gain control of any government ministry. The countrys military remains loyal to President Nicolas Maduro and the United Nations still recognizes the Maduro governments authority.

Beyond giving the appearance that Biden will continue the Trump Administrations doomed Venezuela policy, Vecchios presence at the presidential swearing-in ceremony was filled with irony. In the days following the Capitol riot, Biden and his allies have denounced the violent takeover of Congress as an assault on democracy, with the incoming president himself declaring the rioters to be domestic terrorists.

Yet Carlos Vecchio, the Guaido ally with a fresh ticket to Bidens inauguration, is responsible for leading his own assault on his home countrys democracy  and is currently wanted in Venezuela for inciting a violent attack on the Attorney Generals office in Caracas.

After condemning Trump for inspiring the Capitol riot, Biden sent inaugural invite to @carlosvecchio  Venezuelan coup leader charged with inciting insurrectionist 2014 attack on gov't building. See what Vecchio's charged for here, it might seem familiarhttps://t.co/S3nJHdccrk pic.twitter.com/zb6umY3WJ4  Anya Parampil (@anyaparampil) January 18, 2021

Bidens guest charged with inspiring a violent assault on Venezuelas public institutions

On February 12, 2014, right-wing opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez led a feverish rally of his supporters in the heart of Venezuelas capital, Caracas. For over a month, Lopez and his political allies had been holding demonstrations aimed at overthrowing newly-elected president Nicolas Maduro, who came into office following snap elections held in the aftermath of Hugo Chavezs death.

Carlos Vecchio, the corporate lawyer who went on to represent Juan Guaido in Washington, also spoke at the demonstration, and stood loyally by Lopezs side as he delivered his incendiary speech calling for an angry march to the Attorney Generals office, and whipping the crowd into chants of, No fear! No fear!

Lopezs supporters heeded his call and charged straight for the office of Venezuelas Public Prosecutor, eventually setting the building on fire. Columbia Universitys Global Freedom of Expression project conceded the mayhem resulted in the death of two people and considerable damage to public property.

Lopez and his allies, including Vecchio, were charged for their role in inciting the destruction. Lopez was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison for his actions, while Vecchio fled to the United States to escape incitement of violence charges.

The attack on Venezuelas public institutions in February of 2014 mirrored events that would take place in Washington DC roughly six years later, when President Donald Trump delivered a speech on the White House eclipse instructing his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers voted to cerity his election loss. Within minutes of arriving at Congress, Trumps followers overwhelmed the meager crowd of police deployed to protect the legislature and forced their way inside  unafraid to shatter doors and windows as they did so.

Following the violent breach of the Capitol, incoming president Joe Biden characterized the mobs actions as an unprecedented assault on our democracy, an assault literally on the citadel of liberty, in the United States Capitol itself and an assault on the rule of law. Democrats in the House of Representatives quickly moved to impeach Trump, charging the president with incitement of insurrection.

In light of their outraged response to the Capitol raid, which they branded an act of illegal insurrection, Biden and his allies might be sympathetic to the Venezuelan government, which similarly moved to charge Lopez and his co-conspirators, including Vecchio, for their role in encouraging a blitz on government buildings after the countrys Attorney Generals office was torched by a politically-charged mob.

Instead, the wanted coup leader Vecchio was welcomed by a bipartisan crew of top Washington politicians including President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Florida neocon Senator Marco Rubio, and former Democratic Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The violent actions of Vecchio and his allies were hardly limited to the events of February 12, 2014. The chaotic demonstrations they led lasted until May of that year, resulting in the deaths of 49 people and roughly 10 billion dollars in damage. Regime change rampages by Venezuelas opposition have featured assaults on journalists, the construction of barricades manned by vandals, and the burning to death of political opponents.

On June 13, 2017, activists set Venezuelas Supreme Court on fire following jailed opposition leader Lopezs call for a rebellion against the Maduro government. Days later a police officer named Oscar Perez hijacked a government helicopter and attempted to launch four grenades at the Court while firing live bullets at the countrys Interior Ministry. (Trump honored Perez during a political rally in South Florida on February 18, 2019).

For his part, Juan Guaido has led two failed campaigns of violent insurrection against Venezuelas government. In April of 2019, he called for an uprising against President Maduro while a group of a few dozen soldiers launched an attack on the La Carlota Air Base in Caracas. While the rebellion failed to generate popular support, Lopez was broken out of house arrest during the days events, leading to his eventual exile in Spain.

Roughly a year later, Guaido was exposed at the center of yet another coup plot when former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau accused the politician of contracting his services to carry out a botched capture or kill operation targeting President Maduro. Goudreau, who previously provided private security for Trump campaign rallies, produced a contract containing Guaidos signature along with a voice recording of Guaido allegedly discussing the deal though Guaido himself has denied involvement.

Biden and the Democrats reacted with indignation when the U.S. Capitol was breached for just one afternoon, immediately initiating Trumps second impeachment by the House of Representatives. Within days, the Capitol was surrounded with unscalable fencing and 25,000 National Guard soldiers were summoned to occupy central Washington DC  more than three times the amount of troops deployed to Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan combined.

It would be instructive to imagine how Democrats would have responded if Trump or his supporters attempted anything like the years-long campaign of insurrection by Venezuelas opposition  and did so with the full-throated support of a foreign power. What if Trump supporters had set up barricades around Washington DC, preventing residents from leaving or entering their own neighborhoods? What if they had lit the Supreme Court on fire and bombed it from the air in a stolen military helicopter? And how would Democrats have reacted if Trump had contracted foreign mercenaries to capture or kill Biden?

Anyone troubled by these hypothetical scenarios should be equally disturbed that Carlos Vecchio, a veteran coup leader allied with seditious forces in his home country, will be present at Bidens inauguration on January 20.

Sen. Durbin lobbies for Venezuelan coup leaders hours after condemning Trumpist insurrection

In the lead up to the House vote on President Trumps impeachment, on January 11, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin tweeted, The President and his Republican enablers incited a violent mob into storming the Capitol This was an assault on our democracy, our national security, and our Constitution. There must be accountability, including impeachment.

Hours later Durbin took to Twitter again to boast of his meeting with incoming Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, saying the two discussed his plan for the State Department in the Biden Administration.

According to the senators office, Durbin explicitly advocated the Biden administration preserve support for Juan Guaido, whom he described as Venezuelas Interim-President.

We thank you @SenatorDurbin for addressing with the nominee for US Secretary of State @ABlinken the critical situation of Venezuela, the actions to restoring democracy hijacked by Nicolas Maduro's dictatorship, and the necessary support to the Venezuelan people. https://t.co/IUTNVPbTI7  CARLOS VECCHIO (@carlosvecchio) January 13, 2021

We thank you Senator Durbin for addressing with the nominee for U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken the critical situation of Venezuela, the actions to restoring democracy hijacked by Nicolas Maduros dictatorship, and the necessary support to the Venezuelan people, Vecchio tweeted in response to news of the conversation.
(Newser)  O'Hare International Airport employees called 911 on Saturday after asking a man for his ID and discovering the airport badge he presented had been reported missing months earlier. Then the story got much, much weirder. Authorities say that man, 36-year-old Aditya Singh, had been living in a secured area of the airport since October. A court on Sunday heard the California man arrived in Chicago on a flight from Los Angeles on Oct. 19 and had been in the airport since. Police say he claimed he was "scared to go home due to COVID," with the Chicago Tribune reporting police said he claimed he didn't want to fly due to those COVID fears. A prosecutor told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz that Singh had been eating food given to him by other fliers, and that the badge he had was that of an airport operations manager who reported it missing on Oct. 26.

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As for Singh's background, he lives with roommates outside LA and has his masters degree in hospitality though he is unemployed; it is unclear why he was in Chicago. Ortiz seemed gobsmacked by the allegations: "Youre telling me that an unauthorized, nonemployee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the OHare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected?" she said to the prosecutor. "I want to understand you correctly." Singh has been charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanor theft and has a Jan. 27 court date. Should he manage to post bail, he is prohibited from entering O'Hare. The Chicago Department of Aviation said this in a statement, per the Guardian: "While this incident remains under investigation, we have been able to determine that this gentleman did not pose a security risk to the airport or to the traveling public." (Read more strange stuff stories.)
Kolkata Police said that a clash between BJP workers and the stone-pelters was averted after a huge police contingent rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control

Kolkata: A little over a month after BJP national president JP Nadda's convoy came under attack in West Bengal, a roadshow by the party was on Monday pelted with stones by miscreants, carrying TMC flags, near Rashbehari Avenue-Charu Market area, triggering tension in south Kolkata.

The TMC, however, denied any involvement and accused the BJP of trying to vitiate the atmosphere.

The roadshow, which commenced at Tollygunge tram depot, was set to culminate at Rashbehari Avenue  often referred to as the backyard of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

According to a police officer, as the rally led by state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and senior leader Suvendu Adhikari, proceeded toward Charu Market, unidentified miscreants threw bricks and stones at the entourage, injuring some of the saffron party activists.

Infuriated over the attack, BJP workers chased the miscreants, who by then had fled to nearby bylanes, the officer said.

The saffron camp activists then ransacked a few motorcycles and shops in the vicinity. A major clash between the two sides was averted after a huge police contingent was rushed to the spot to control the

incensed activists, the officer stated.

The state BJP unit called the incident a "blatant attack on democracy".

"Today's attack has once again proved that democracy has no place in West Bengal. Earlier, our party president (JP Nadda) was attacked, today our roadshow was attacked. This only shows that the TMC has lost the plot ahead of the assembly polls," Ghosh said.

Taking to Twitter, the saffron party said, "Incorrigible TMC goons showing their true colours by unleashing violence during BJP's South Kolkata roadshow! No wonder they are unnerved by the people's support for BJP! This is a direct and violent attack on democracy!"

State minister Aroop Biswas also visited the troubled area, shortly after the incident, to take stock of the situation.

Biswas claimed it was the BJP activists who unleashed violence, following Mamata Banerjee's announcement that she would contest polls from Nandigram.

"The BJP, after Mamata Banerjee's announcement, panicked... That is why they unleashed such violence to divert attention," he claimed.

Nadda's convoy was attacked during his visit to Diamond Harbour area in South 24 Parganas district on 10 December.

Election to the 294-member Bengal Assembly are likely to be held in April-May.
The resignation of RMM office bearers comes after actor Rajinikanth said he would not enter politics in time for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections due in April-May

Chennai: The Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) on Monday said members, if they want to, may join any political party after resigning from the Mandram.

The statement comes in the wake of three district secretaries of RMM joining the DMK on Sunday. The resignation of the Mandram office-bearers comes following actor Rajinikanth's recent U-turn on his plan to enter politics and face the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, due during April-May this year.

"Members, if they desire to join and work with any political party, may do so after resigning from the Mandram," RMM said in a statement.

Though they join other parties, members of Rajini Makkal Mandram "should not forget" that they are fans of the actor, the statement added.

District secretaries of Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram and Theni joined the DMK on Sunday. Apart from them, three other functionaries also joined the DMK.

The Rajini Makkal Mandram, (Rajini People's Forum) was previously considered the political launch vehicle of the top actor.

On 29 December last year, Rajinikanth, citing his health condition vis-a-vis the coronavirus pandemic announced that he would not join politics. He had undergone renal transplant in 2016 and is on immuno-suppressants.
While Wozny is named the objector, it was Maine Township Democratic Committeeman Laura Murphy who actually filed the objection to the candidacies of the Republicans, said Meyer. He argued that because the Democratic party changed the location of its own caucus less than 20 days before the event, that was a violation of the township code as well.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has finally revealed around how much the Philippines will spend per dose of the COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech.

Roque said Sinovac's CoronaVac is priced near 650 per dose or around 1,300 for the complete two doses. He added that the exact amount will be revealed after the Philippines inks the procurement agreement, saying they have only signed a term sheet, where Sinovac agreed to supply 25 million doses to the Philippines.

"Kapag iyan ay na-deliver na at napirmahan na ang kontrata, may obligasyon na kaming sabihin sa inyo magkano talaga. Sa ngayon mahigit kumulang 650 (per dose), hindi po tataas ng 700," he said in a media briefing.

[Translation: Once it has been delivered and we have signed the contact, we will be obliged to tell you how much it costs. For now we can only tell you it's roughly 650 but it won't exceed 700.]

Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH had submitted a report to the Senate Committee on Finance last year indicating that two doses from the brand cost 3,629 based on market price estimates. She said there are now changes after negotiations but the actual prices cannot be divulged yet due to non-disclosure agreements.

"We are already undertaking specific negotiations with the different manufacturers. Mayroon nang negotiated prices na lumalabas [We now have negotiated prices]," she said in a media briefing on Monday.

Despite the clamor of lawmakers and the public, officials previously refused to divulge the price due to the non-disclosure agreement with the Chinese government. But Roque and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines is being charged at "BFF price" since the Philippines is directly dealing with Chinese government officials, including Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian.

Senator Panfilo Lacson suggested there may be corruption in the vaccine procurement due to sharp differences in the prices of Sinovac vaccines in the Philippines and in other nations.

This comes after a recent news article on Bangkok Post said that one dose of CoronaVac only costs $5 or roughly P240. The report published on January 16 cited figures from the World Health Organization and drug manufacturers. Jakarta Post, meanwhile, reported that one dose of Sinovac in Indonesia is priced at $13.57 or roughly P670, attributed to Sinovac Biotech's email to state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma.

"The difference in prices of Sinovac vaccine at US$5, US$14 and US$38 reminds me of an old story about how corruption is committed in three Southeast Asian countries  UNDER the table, ON the table, and INCLUDING the table," Lacson tweeted.

The Philippines is in the middle to talks to buy 25 million doses from Sinovac. The first batch, 50,000 doses, is set to arrive on February 20. China is set to donate 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines, but Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not specify which brand.

Sinovac's application for emergency use in the Philippines has not yet been reviewed pending its submission of the crucial phase 3 clinical trial results.
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By Kang Seung-woo



President Moon Jae-in announced his objection to offering presidential pardons for his two jailed predecessors, Monday, claiming the timing was inappropriate.





President Moon Jae-in speaks during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. / Courtesy of Joint Press Corps

The rejection of the suggestion to release former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak came during his New Year press conference at Cheong Wa Dae.



Park is serving a combined 22-year sentence for bribery and illegal interference in a nomination process of her former party, while Lee has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for embezzlement and bribery.



"It is not the right time yet to discuss pardoning them," Moon said.



"It is very unfortunate to see two former presidents behind bars, but their trials have just finished and their acts of misconduct did the nation a lot of harm, inflicting enormous pain and suffering on the people."



The President expressed his belief that he should only use his authority to grant pardons if there is a public consensus.



"Otherwise, the pardons will divide the nation, impeding social integration," he added.



Moon also referenced the refusal of Park and Lee to accept the court rulings in their respective cases and said that it would be unacceptable for him to grant them pardons.



Whether or not the two former leaders should be granted clemency has been a topic of much debate in political circles since the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon floated the idea last month.






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'He feels genuine sympathy for the decent, honest Catholics whose hearts are breaking at these revelations.' Photo: PA

Another brilliant piece of writing on Saturday by Ian ODoherty regarding the mother and baby homes report (There is plenty of blame to go around, but the church must pay, Review, Irish Independent, 16 January).

In a very personal and honest piece, he even writes that he feels genuine sympathy for the decent, honest Catholics whose hearts are breaking at these revelations.

As indeed do I, Ian. But as you also write, we all know who truly deserves our sympathy  the victims of this dreadful holocaust. Write on, Ian.

Brian McDevitt

Glenties, Co Donegal

Address present wrongs, as well as redressing the past

The State apology for the cruelty and injustice of our mother and baby homes, and Ms Justice Murphys shocking report, are welcome  even if the report fell short of expectations in relation to who exactly did what in those dark days.

The report follows on from the Ryan Report on abuse in industrial schools and the McAleese Report exposing the Magdalene Laundries.

In the weeks and months ahead well have the opportunity as a nation to reflect on what happened to so many innocent women and the babies that either died or were taken from them in an era when Ireland had two governments, the elected one and the shadow regime over which presided powerful prelates like Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.

It was an era when the power of love, supposedly at the heart of Christianity, was replaced by the love of power. Women slaved in the laundries, locked away despite not having been guilty of any crime. Boys and girls suffered unspeakable ill-treatment behind the high walls of the industrial schools that left many of them traumatised for decades afterwards.

But will we learn from these past wrongs? Right now, whole families in Ireland are suffering a cruel and humiliating ordeal, largely in silence and unheard or unseen by the majority of us.

I refer to asylum seekers who endure months, and in many cases years, in an institutionalised limbo that would test anyones mental and physical stamina.

It has been established that people in direct provision are more prone to depression and suicide than the rest of us free-living people.

The conditions at many of the centres have been denounced by human-rights campaigners as inhuman and degrading. Stories of cramped bedrooms, scant privacy and poor food at the centres abound. Adults lose their self-confidence and their skills, while children experience a nightmarish environment, near poverty and social isolation.

So, yes, we have much to reflect upon following the publication of the report on mother and baby homes. But we need to address present wrongs as well as redressing grievous past ones. Lets not be silent about the plight of asylum seekers. Lets not pretend we dont know, like so many people did in that other Ireland.

Theres no point in saying never again when its happening right now.

John Fitzgerald

Callan, Co Kilkenny

Individual responsibility better than a State apology

One can understand the view that, It is easy  and quite wrong  to deride Micheal Martins apology, (The nation is close to apology fatigue and now needs restitution, Irish Independent, January 15).

An apology on behalf of the State is unacceptable and is an attempt to blame all citizens for the structural, institutional and purposeful violence perpetrated by a small number of citizens in powerful privileged positions against their fellow citizens. Whilst there is a need for restitution, there is also a need for restorative justice in a form acceptable to mothers and their families who still bear the mental and physical scars.

It is time that the perpetrators of these atrocities are named and shamed and, where possible, be asked to apologise.

It is also time for those who were aware of this violence, yet stood by and did nothing, to apologise for their complicity in not speaking out. Secrecy and societal responsibility is no longer acceptable and individual responsibility is needed if our society is to mature.

Hugh McDermott

Dromahair, Co Leitrim

Surely weve learned Nphet's advice is now non-negotiable

If we have learned one lesson from the third Covid-19 wave, surely its that the Government must follow and implement the advice of Nphet to the letter of the law until this pandemic is over. If you are dead  the economy is worth nothing to you.

Chris Fitzpatrick

Dublin 6

Vice President Mike Pence tried to sing the praises of Donald Trump on Sunday, boasting that the president was the first in decades to keep the US from engaging in a war.

"I'm proud to report with just a few days left in our administration, our administration is the first in decades that did not get America into a new war," Mr Pence said during a speech at Fort Drum. "That's Peace through Strength."

Mr Pence made the comment less than two weeks after Mr Trump's supporters attacked the US Capitol while calling for him to be hanged.

Critics were quick to paint Mr Pence's sentiment as hollow, pointing out to the massive death toll under Mr Trump's leadership.

"Does someone else want to tell him? Or should I?" author Rochelle Riley replied on Twitter. "We've been at war for 11 days. And he and Donald Trump cannot leave soon enough."

Others pointed out that more Americans died under Mr Trump's leadership than in almost any American war as a result of the coronavirus.

"Instead we killed nearly 400,000 Americans," Rabia O'Chaudry, an attorney, author and host of the podcast Undisclosed, said.

Even without considering the coronavirus, it's hard to argue Mr Trump's time in office was an era of peace.

The president used federal troops to beat down racial justice protesters over the summer, ramped up the role of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in his war against illegal immigration and he assassinated Iranian general Qassim Soleimani, which risked starting a war with Iran.

One of Mr Trump's first actions as president was to launch a botched military operation in Yemen that left one US Navy SEAL dead, three wounded, and that caused the destruction of a V-22 Osprey.

Mr Trump escalated Barack Obama's drone warfare programme, and made it even less accountable than it was under his Democratic predecessor. The president loosened the rules of engagement on troops in Afghanistan in 2017, and since then civilian casualties have increased 95 per cent.

The president also pardoned the four Blackwater war criminals who massacred Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007, and has advocated for war crimes himself on at least three occasions.

Mr Trump bragged that he had defeated ISIS after enacting his policy to "bomb the s*** out of" them, and famously stated "when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families."

The president also backed coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela.

By Kim Yoo-chul



Hankook Tire & Technology Senior Vice President Suh Ho-sung has been chosen as the sole candidate to become the chief executive of K bank, the internet-only bank said, Monday.

"The bank's CEO-selection committee recommended Suh as the sole CEO candidate to K bank's board committee. After shareholders' approval, Suh will officially take the top seat," K bank said in a press release. If shareholders approve the recommendation, Suh will be the first outsider to take the top position at the bank since its establishment.





Suh Ho-sung
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's brand will 'fail' unless they move too far from the royal model of 'personal sacrifice and public service', Princess Diana's former chief of staff has warned.

The Duke, 36, and Duchess of Sussex, 39, are currently residing in their $14million mansion in Santa Barbara with eighteen-month-old son Archie, having stepped back from duty in March last year.

According to the Express, royal expert Patrick Jephson has said the couple face an 'evolving brand issue' with their new foundation Archewell.

Speaking during a virtual conference promoting and protecting personal brands, which was organised by a US-based public affairs agency, he said: 'If it departs very much from that great tradition of personal sacrifice and public service that defines the monarchy brand then I dont believe it will succeed.'

Prince Harry, 36, and Meghan Markle's, 39, brand will 'fail' unless they maintain a focus on a 'life of sacrifice and service', Princess Diana's former chief of staff has warned

He added: 'One could argue that, at it's best, membership of the Royal Family gives you access to the most extraordinary and powerful brand in the world.

'To voluntarily divest yourselves of all those advantages in pursuit of something else is very daring - and we don't even know what that something else is.'

Patrick's comments come after a royal biographer claimed the 'long-term solution' to the rift between Prince Harry and Prince William is for the Sussexes to 'enjoy the freedom of America' while the Cambridges dedicate their life to duty.

Speaking to Elle.com, royal biographer Robert Lacey said he thought 'there will be some sort of reconciliation' between the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge this year.

Patrick Jephson claimed that if the couple move their brand too far from the royal tradition, then they would not succeed (pictured, at their final event as senior royals)

But he said the brother's relationship is 'never going to be the same', explaining: 'I expect that is the long-term solution here: Duty in the form of William and Kate will take over the situation, and Harry and his love will enjoy the freedom of America and, I hope, obviously there will be some sort of reconciliation.'

Robert said the brother's long 'history and texture' would always be there, suggesting they both 'took something different' from their parent's marriage breakdown.

The royal expert explained the Duke of Cambridge had found 'strength' in his duty, saying: 'At least he had this duty, this responsibility to be King, the future monarch, and he had to live up to that.'

Meanwhile he said Prince Harry 'took a different lesson' from the relationship, adding that the Duke was going to 'go for love...unapologetically.'

It comes after a royal expert said the 'long-term solution' to the rift between Prince Harry and Prince William is for the Sussexes to 'enjoy the freedom of America' while the Cambridges dedicate their life to duty

He added: 'His parents were locked into an arranged, loveless marriage, and he's not going to make that mistake.'

It is believed the trigger that caused the rift to develop between William and Harry was when the Duke of Cambridge advised his younger sibling to 'take things slow' when he first began dating Meghan Markle in 2017.

Relations became so sour that they reportedly didn't talk for weeks after Harry's wedding, where William was best man. Then Megxit, and the way it was handled, left William and Charles devastated.

In a documentary in 2019 - Harry & Meghan: An African Journey - the Duke of Sussex, admitted he and William are 'certainly on different paths at the moment'.

He told ITV's Tom Bradby: 'Inevitably stuff happens. But we're brothers, we'll always be brothers.'

There are hopes the unveiling of the new Princess Diana statue at Kensington Palace this summer 'will help to heal old wounds' for the brothers.

A statement on behalf of the Duke of Sussex and Duke of Cambridge issued by Kensington Palace in August read: 'The statue that Prince William and Prince Harry have commissioned to commemorate their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, will be installed next year on what would have been her 60th birthday.'

The statue was commissioned to mark the twentieth anniversary of Princess Diana's death and recognise her positive impact in the UK and around the world.

Earlier this month, royal expert Angela Levin said while Prince Harry 'balked at being 'the spare' to Prince William , he seems to accept being second to Meghan'

Earlier this month, royal biographer Angela Levin claimed Prince Harry has 'discarded life as an action man to become an airy-fairy do-gooder' with a 'woke West Coast life'.

Royal expert Angela, who wrote Harry: Conversations with the Prince in 2018, has claimed that the Duke has become a 'shadow of his former self' since moving to California.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, she said while Prince Harry 'balked at being 'the spare' to Prince William, he seems to accept being second to Meghan'.

The biographer said Prince Harry's recent appearances were 'out of character' from the royal she once knew, who would instantly identify with everyone he spoke to.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : The Supreme Court on Monday asked Attorney General K.K. Venugopal to frame issues for decision in the matter connected with the reservation in promotion to the SC/ST employees in different states and in the central government.

The Centre is concerned that on January 31, 2020, more than 1.3 lakh promotions were held up in 23 out of a total of 78 departments. The held-up promotions have caused resentment and financial loss to the employees, it had argued.

The top court is dealing with several cases from different states and the Union government. In this backdrop, the court noted that the issues in the present matter are connected with the application of the court in case of M. Nagaraj vs Union of India (2006) to various promotions.

The Nagaraj judgement had ordered state governments to collect on data on inadequacy of representation and also the consequence on overall efficiency of administration before granting reservation in promotion.

A bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran: "We therefore consider it appropriate and expedient in the interests of justice that the Advocates-on-Record appearing for each state should furnish a note clearly stating the issues involved in that particular state to the learned Attorney General for India within a period of two weeks from today." The bench added: "It was accepted by the parties that the promotions which have been made or proposed to be made in several states are in question in these matters. The issues are not common in all the cases which have arisen from several states." The bench observed that after such notes are received, the Attorney General may hold a conference of the counsels appearing in the case in all these matters or such number of counsels as he deems appropriate and thereupon finalise the issues for the determination of this court.

"Learned Attorney General for India may prepare a list of such issues along with a reference to the state where they have arisen and the SLP/Civil Appeal No. Such a note may be submitted to this court within a period of four weeks," said the top court.

Earlier, the top court had refused to consider the Centre's plea seeking clarification on an order, passed on April 15, 2019, to maintain status quo on reservation in promotion to the SC/ST employees.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, along with advocate Kumar Parimal, representing general category of employees, objected to the plea for passing any interim order in the matter.

After a detailed hearing in the matter, the apex court ordered listing of these matters after six weeks on receipt of the note from the Attorney General.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Russian military stationed in Syria will not engage in combat with US troops deployed there, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday.

During a press conference, the minister acknowledged the existence of military contacts between the two sides, despite Moscow's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of US military presence in the country.

"We can't kick them out of there, we will not engage with them, of course, but since they are there, we have a dialogue with them on so-called deconfliction, in which we seek compliance with certain rules.

And, among other things, we talk firmly about the inadmissibility of using force against facilities that are property of the Syrian state," Lavrov said.

Syria has been engulfed in a protracted civil war since 2011, with the Syrian government's forces fighting against various insurgent groups, like Islamic State (terrorist gorup banned in Russia). While Russia and the United States have been deploying their forces in the country, Moscow is acting with the permission of the country's government of Bashar Assad, while Washington is staunchly opposed to Assad and operated under its own auspices.
[January 18, 2021] CI Global Asset Management Announces Changes to the First Asset-Branded Mutual Funds, Risk Rating Changes, and the Completion of Liquid Alternative ETF Mergers

CI Global Asset Management ("CI GAM") today announced proposed changes to its First Asset-branded mutual funds, including fund mergers and the introduction of fixed administration fees. In addition, the previously announced mergers of three liquid alternative exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") into other liquid alternative investment funds with identical mandates were completed after the close of business on January 15, 2021. The ticker symbols of each series of the terminating ETFs have been carried over to the corresponding ETF series of the continuing funds, which begin trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX"). First Asset mutual funds CI GAM plans to merge two First Asset mutual funds into other funds it manages and to implement fixed administration fees for the remaining two First Asset mutual funds. These changes require the approval of securities regulators and unitholders in the affected funds, which include First Asset Canadian Convertible Bond Fund, First Asset Canadian Dividend Opportunity Fund, First Asset REIT Income Fund and First Asset Utility Plus Fund. First, CI GAM is proposing the following two fund mergers (the "Mergers"): The merger of First Asset Utility Plus Fund into Signature Global Infrastructure Fund.

The merger of First Asset Canadian Dividend Opportunity Fund into CI North American Dividend Fund. If the Mergers are approved, First Asset Utility Plus Fund and First Asset Canadian Dividend Opportunity Fund will be terminated and unitholders will receive the equivalent dollar value of securities in the same series of the corresponding continuing funds upon completion of the Mergers. The Mergers will not result in a taxable disposition for unitholders, but the terminating funds may pay a distribution when the mergers take place. In each case, the terminating and continuing funds have the same CI GAM portfolio management team. Both First Asset Utility Plus Fund and Signature Global Infrastructure Fund are managed by Kevin McSweeney and Massimo Bonansinga, and both First Asset Canadian Dividend Opportunity Fund and CI North American Dividend Fund are managed by Peter Hofstra. In addition, the management and administration fees of the continuing funds are lower than the management fees and operating expenses of the corresponding terminating funds. CI GAM has proposed the Mergers to reduce duplication in its fund lineup and create larger, more efficient funds with increased potential for diversification opportunities. The costs and expenses associated with the Mergers are being borne by CI GAM, not the funds. Second, CI GAM is proposing to implement fixed administration fees for each series of First Asset Canadian Convertible Bond Fund and First Asset REIT Income Fund, replacing the current variable operating expenses being charged to these funds (the "Fixed Administration Fee Proposal", and together with the Mergers, the "Proposals"). If approved by unitholders, CI GAM, as manager, will be responsible for the operating expenses of each fund, other than certain expenses, in exchange for the payment by the fund of a fixed administration fee. Under the Fixed Administration Fee Proposal, the management expense ratio ("MER") of each fund series will consist of the management fee, the fixed administration fee, certain expenses and applicable taxes. The benefits to unitholders of fixed administration fees include greater predictability and transparency of the MER for each fund, as well as protection from potential increases in future operating expenses. Pursuant to National Instrument 81-101 Investment Funds, both Proposals require the approval of unitholders of the funds. In addition, the Mergers will require regulatory approval. Accordingly, unitholder meetings will be held on March 25, 2021 and, if required, adjourned meeting(s) will be held on April 1, 2021. Holders of record for each series of units of these funds on February 12, 2021 will be entitled to receive notice and vote at the meetings. The Notice and Access Documents which detail the Proposals will be mailed to unitholders and the Management Information Circular will be available on www.sedar.com and www.firstasset.com on or about February 23, 2021. Pending the required unitholder and regulatory approvals, if applicable, the Proposals will be implemented on or about April 19, 2021. The Independent Review Committee of the funds has reviewed the Proposals with respect to the potential conflict of interest matters and provided its positive recommendation, having determined that the Proposals achieve a fair and reasonable result for each fund. Risk rating changes CI GAM has also reviewed the risk ratings for each fund involved in the Proposals and will be changing the risk rating for First Asset REIT Income Fund from "Low to Medium" to "Medium." In addition, the risk rating for Signature Global Infrastructure Fund will be changed from "Medium" to "Low to Medium." Risk rating changes are based on the risk classification methodology mandated by the Canadian Securities Administrators to determine the risk level of mutual funds. CI GAM reviews the risk rating for each of the funds it manages at least on an annual basis, as well as when a fund undergoes a material change. Such changes are not the result of any changes to the investment objectives, strategies or management of the funds. CI Liquid Alternatives ETF mergers The mergers of three liquid alternative ETFs into liquid alternative mutual funds with identical mandates, as listed below, were completed after the close of business on January 15, 2021: CI Lawrence Park Alternative Investment Grade Credit ETF was merged into CI Lawrence Park Alternative Investment Grade Credit Fund. The ETF C$ Series and ETF US$ Hedged Series of the continuing fund will trade under the existing tickers CRED and CRED.U, respectively.

CI Marret Alternative Absolute Return Bond ETF was merged into CI Marret Alternative Absolute Return Bond Fund. The ETF C$ Series and ETF US$ Hedged Series of the continuing fund will trade under the existing tickers CMAR and CMAR.U, respectively.

CI Munro Alternative Global Growth ETF was merged into CI Munro Alternative Global Growth Fund. The ETF C$ Series of the continuing fund will trade under the existing ticker CMAG. As a result of the mergers, each continuing fund now offers both mutual fund series units and ETF series units. In each case, the investment objectives and the portfolio management team for the terminating ETF and continuing fund remain unchanged. No action is required by unitholders in the terminating ETFs as a result of the mergers. In connection with the completed mergers, each unitholder of the terminating ETF received one ETF C$ Series unit and/or ETF US$ Hedged Series unit, as applicable, of the continuing fund for each Common Unit and/or US$ Common Unit of the terminating ETF held. The ticker symbol(s) of each terminating ETF have been carried over to the corresponding continuing fund. As a result, as of today, the following number of units of each continuing fund will be listed on the TSX and commence trading:







Fund and Series Number of

Outstanding Units Aggregate Net

Asset Value CI Lawrence Park Alternative Investment Grade Credit Fund - ETF C$ Series (CRED) 2,005,000 $40,920,438.15 CI Lawrence Park Alternative Investment Grade Credit Fund - ETF US$ Hedged Series (CRED.U) 220,000 US$4,505,680.36 CI Marret Alternative Absolute Return Bond Fund - ETF C$ Series (CMAR) 5,850,000 $122,207,100.65 CI Marret Alternative Absolute Return Bond Fund - ETF US$ Hedged Series (CMAR.U) 450,000 US$9,447,758.09 CI Munro Alternative Global Growth Fund - ETF C$ Series (CMAG) 7,500,000 $201,753,835.43

There were no taxable dispositions for securityholders; however, the mergers resulted in the terminating ETFs paying distributions, as shown below. The distributions will not be paid in cash but have been reinvested and the resulting units immediately consolidated so that the number of units held by each investor will not change. Ticker Reinvested Distribution Amount

(to be reinvested and consolidated) CI Lawrence Park Alternative Investment Grade Credit ETF CRED $0.106290 CRED.U $0.107323 CI Marret Alternative Absolute Return Bond ETF CMAR $0.000000 CMAR.U $0.000000 CI Munro Alternative Global Growth ETF CMAG $0.000000 Each terminating ETF has now been terminated. More information about CI Liquid Alternatives is available at www.ci.com/liquidalts. About CI Global Asset Management CI Global Asset Management is one of Canada's largest investment management companies. It offers a wide range of investment products and services and is on the Web at www.ci.com. CI GAM is a subsidiary of CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX, NYSE: CIXX), an independent company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services with approximately $231 billion in total assets as at December 31, 2020. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with an investment in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Please read the prospectus before investing. Important information about mutual funds and ETFs is contained in their respective prospectus. Mutual funds and ETFs are not guaranteed; their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell units of an ETF on recognized Canadian exchanges. If the units are purchased or sold on these Canadian exchanges, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying units of the ETF and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them. This communication is provided as a general source of information and should not be considered personal, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice, or construed as an endorsement or recommendation of any entity or security discussed. Individuals should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding any particular investment. Investors should consult their professional advisors prior to implementing any changes to their investment strategies. Certain statements in this document are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements ("FLS") are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," or "estimate," or other similar expressions. Statements that look forward in time or include anything other than historical information are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results, actions or events could differ materially from those set forth in the FLS. FLS are not guarantees of future performance and are by their nature based on numerous assumptions. Although the FLS contained herein are based upon what CI Global Asset Management believes to be reasonable assumptions, CI Global Asset Management cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these FLS. The reader is cautioned to consider the FLS carefully and not to place undue reliance on FLS. Unless required by applicable law, it is not undertaken, and specifically disclaimed that there is any intention or obligation to update or revise FLS, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CI Liquid Alternatives is a trademark of CI Global Asset Management. CI Global Asset Management is a registered business name of CI Investments Inc. CI Investments Inc. 2021. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005094/en/

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An executive head chef is suing an Audi driver for 1.8million after he was knocked off his motorbike on his way to work.

Cristian Bravaccini, 39, is executive head chef at Roka, an exclusive London-based Japanese restaurant group known for its luxury Wagyu beef dishes.

But he claims his 100,000-a-year career could be ended because he now struggles to spend hours on his feet doing gruelling shifts in charge of kitchens after being knocked off his motorbike by an Audi driver in February 2017.

The Italian-trained chef says he was riding on the A2 when he was knocked over, sustaining serious leg injuries which have blighted his career.

Lawyers for the driver, Mark Harvey, have admitted he was to blame and Mr Bravaccini is now claiming over 1.8million in compensation at Central London County Court.

Cristian Bravaccini (pictured), 39, is executive head chef at Roka, an exclusive London-based Japanese restaurant group known for its luxury Wagyu beef dishes

His barrister, Nicholas Hillier, said the claim is so high because experts say a knee injury means he will not be able to continue in his highly paid job for long.

'The medical evidence obtained is that, because of his deteriorating condition, he will be unable to continue to work as a head chef for the rest of his career,' he said.

According to documents filed with the court, Mr Bravaccini, of Greenhithe, Kent, was filtering between lanes in slow morning rush hour traffic on his Honda PS125 when he was hit by Mr Harvey's Audi TT Quattro.

'The defendant attempted to change lanes hurriedly and without indicating and drove straight into the immediate path of the motorbike,' his lawyers state in the court papers.

Bravaccini claims his 100,000-a-year career could be ended because he now struggles to spend hours on his feet doing gruelling shifts in charge of kitchens after being knocked off his motorbike by an Audi driver in February 2017

'Mr Bravaccini performed an emergency stop, but was not able to prevent a collision and falling off his bike to the road.'

He sustained a head injury, which has impaired his memory, as well as a knee fracture and damage to the nerves and blood vessels in his left leg.

Although he is currently executive chef at high-end urban restaurants Roka Canary Wharf and Roka Aldwych, Mr Bravaccini faces an uncertain future, with claims he will have to give up his job.

He has managed to continue working during the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, but has been 'struggling' physically, particularly due to his left knee injury, said Mr Hillier.

'It's apparent from the medical evidence that he may not be able to continue as a head chef because he spends long periods of time doing shifts on his feet,' he added.

The Italian-trained chef says he was riding on the A2 when he was knocked over, sustaining serious leg injuries which have blighted his career

'There is also a certain amount of physical activity which he is not going to be able to do.'

Mr Hillier said the claim for lost future earnings alone is around 1.8million - on top of claims for other losses - because of the potentially catastrophic effect of the ending of his cherished role in the kitchen.

He said it was unclear what else Mr Bravaccini could do to bring home the same level of salary, and said his team needed more evidence exploring the effects of his leg injury on his future career.

'Mr Bravaccini requires the opinion of an employment consultant on what sorts of jobs are available to him in the catering industry if he cannot continue as head chef,' he told Judge Heather Baucher QC.

The court heard the insurers for Audi driver Mark Harvey, of Sidcup, have admitted liability for the accident, but are questioning the value of his claim.

His solicitor, David Peake, said in the defence to the action: 'It is accepted that the accident...was caused as a result of the negligence of the defendant.'

The damages claim will be heard by a judge at a later date.
This is an opinion column.

When I was a child  before on-demand TV provided Sesame Street at all hours of all days  you turned on the box and took what you could get.

I try to explain this to my son whenever we find ourselves in hotel rooms or in AirBnBs without Netflix or Amazon Prime. But rather than marvel at the modern wonder of video streaming, he looks back at me with pity in his eyes, and perhaps some concern that I might soon die of old age.

Cartoons were only on Saturday mornings, I tell him. But it wasnt all bad, because just about any time you could find the Three 

And I stop.

The Three Stooges. Even back then, most of the original actors had been dead for years, but through the lucrative economics of cheap syndication, their antics lived on, and it seemed on one superstation or another, you could always find Mo, Larry and Curly  or on a bad day, Shemp.

I want to tell him about the Stooges, but I cant  not for any concern of copycat violence. Hes smart enough not to poke a classmates eyes or hit his napping dad with a hammer. No, I stop, because it reminds me too much of real life, of our political class in Alabama, of folks too dumb to understand how dumb they are, made that way through self-inflicted repetitive brain injuries.

It reminds me of some of the folks weve sent to Washington.

Moe

Its not hard to figure out which of our elected officials is the Moe Howard of the bunch. Its not just the name  Rep. Mo Brooks.

Brooks has said he believes sea-level rise is due to rocks falling in the water, hes called mitigation measures put in place by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey nanny state politics and last year, he bragged on the effectiveness of the American healthcare system against the coronavirus.

American healthcare: ZERO dead, he tweeted last February as if the pandemic had already ended.

Brooks thinks hes the brains of the bunch, but he really just gets the others into trouble. After he led the House effort to overturn the election and spoke to insurrectionists before they stormed the capitol, Brooks now faces censure by Congress.

Larry

Like Larry Howard, Rep. Barry Moore is just as dumb as Mo but doesnt have the ambition yet to call himself a leader.

While running for Congress, Moore told Alabamians that, if Trump could get the coronavirus, everybody would wind up getting it, so there was little point to protective measures.

You dont need to be in big crowds, running around licking doorknobs, Moore said. But youre not going to stop yourself from getting it.

District 2 voters elected Moore anyway, and he has dutifully fallen in line behind Mo. He supported overturning a lawful election and declared that he was leaving Twitter after the platform had already suspended his account.

Before he was banned, his tweets called into question the race of a Capitol police officer who shot an insurgent, and he ranted about more people being arrested for that riot than had been arrested for stealing an election. (It wasnt stolen.)

It wasnt Moores first time running into trouble with social media. In August, Moore shared a meme on Facebook defending Kenosha, Wisc., shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, saying hes fought back.

Curly

Its tempting to give this spot to Rep. Robert Aderholt because of his pate. (And theres still room on this list for a Curly Joe, if he isnt careful.) However, Sen. Tommy Tuberville earns the distinction  for being too dangerous to trust around kitchen appliances, much less the power of a United States senator. And hes prone to slap people hes mad at and no one assumes he knows what hes doing.

While campaigning, Tuberville avoided the press and refused debates, and now we can all see why. In an interview, he misnamed the three branches of the federal government, and recently he seems to have discovered that coronavirus is a thing. This week he suggested the inauguration be delayed until the virus is under control.

This from a senator who campaigned without wearing masks, opposed Gov. Iveys mask ordinance, and once took pictures with supporters while standing on one of those please, keep 6 feet apart stickers on the floor.

Shemp

Shemp never really fit in the Three Stooges, much like Alabama Attorney Gen. Steve Marshall doesnt belong in D.C. But that hasnt stopped Marshall from going there.

Marshall met with Trump while the president contested the election, and he backed a frivolous lawsuit challenging the results. When Alabamas electors met at the state capital, Marshall continued to undermine other states results with the usual lies, saying those states results were still in question.

An organization Marshall heads, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, helped organize the pro-Trump march in Washington, but after that march turned into an assault on the capitol, Marshall said he didnt know anything about the organizations role in it. Marshall promised to investigate, but when asked whether Trump bore any responsibility, Marshall played dumb.

I didnt see anything about the rally, he told the Montgomery Advertiser. I dont know anything about his remarks.

As anyone whos watched their share of the Stooges, things went downhill when Shemp joined the cast.

The slapstick silliness felt too serious. Self-inflicted trauma no longer got the same laughs.

It wasnt funny anymore.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

Mo Brooks knows hes lying. Just ask Mo Brooks.

Mo Brooks didnt shout fire. He started it.

Why is this taking so long? Failure and a big, big number

The Biggest Phony

Must I care if someone doesnt want the coronavirus vaccine?

Alabama prisons stonewalled a data request. Heres what that data showed.

Think we can live with COVID? Meet me at the Cracker Barrel, Kay Ivey.

Mo Brooks thinks he knows better than everyone

Wait-n-see is over. Do something, Kay Ivey.

COVID was the perfect weapon

Is America a democracy or a republic?

Alabama is open for COVID

Thanksgiving wont be canceled

What Tommy Tuberville doesnt know

Lets never do anything like this again

Beware your new friends, Tommy Tuberville
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The Liquor Traders Formation, which represents township-based liquor traders including taverns, has requested an urgent meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss ending the third alcohol sales ban currently in place.

Alcohol industry seeks deferment of excise duties until sales ban lifts The South African government's decision to extend the alcohol ban has led the alcohol industry to apply for a deferment of the payment of excise tax payments until the ban is lifted...

Requests for assistance

Liquor traders, taverners plead for off-premise sales Liquor traders from the tavern sector are appealing to the government to allow off-premise alcohol sales to resume on 16 January, to help protect the 250,000 jobs in the sector and safeguard livelihoods.

Death knell for taverners

Our call to the President is to immediately convene a meeting with the alcohol industry with a view to unbanning alcohol and allow normalcy to return to the lives and livelihoods of the liquor traders, their families and the 250,000 workers dependent on the tavern sector can resume."We believe that it is through a collaborative effort with government that innovative ways to support the health sector and our heroes, frontline workers could be found that a balance is struck that will ensure that livelihoods are preserved and lives are saved as move forward as a country," said Lucky Ntimane, convener of the Liquor Traders Formation.Ntimane added, We are equally concerned that the alcohol ban is having a negative impact on the country and will further dent its image as an investment destination. The withdrawal of R2,5bn worth of investment into the country by South African Breweries parent company AB InBev and the announcement by Consol that it is putting on hold R1,5bn worth of investment has a major implication on the future growth prospects of the alcohol industry and its value chain and even more detrimental to the job preservation and creation agenda espoused by the President."The alcohol industry has already lost an estimated R25bn and counting due to the three bans it had to endure and if status quo remains we are on course to shed a record number of jobs in a sector that has always been known to create and sustain livelihoods  all 1 million of them."In an email penned by the Liquor Traders Formation and the Liquor Traders Association of South Africa (LTASA), the coalition made a number of requests to help cushion the financial impact of the currently alcohol ban. These include: The resumption of alcohol sales for off-consumption Ongoing UIF TERS support whilst the ban is in place Assistance with procuring rental relief Compensation for stock that expires A tavern financial relief package that entails payment of R20,000 for taverns and shebeen permit holdersThe Liquor Traders Formation described the third ban as a 'death knell' for the tavern sector, and highlighted its continued commitment to helping control the spread of Covid-19."As liquor traders we have always supported government's efforts to fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic and continue to do so through our industry-funded tavern compliance programme which seeks to educate liquor traders on best practices for complying with Covid-19 regulations and by extension encourage consumers to observe and practice Covid-19 compliance protocols in their communities."We continue to support and engage in societal issues that bedevil our country through our GBV initiative called Tavern Dialogues on GBV which positions liquor traders as champions in the fight against gender-based violence. We highlight this to remedy the narrative that seeks to position liquor traders as being irresponsible and not alive to the realities facing the country. The opposite couldn't be truer," said the Liquor Traders Formation.
Moscow: A Russian judge has remanded Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in pre-trial detention for 30 days for violating the terms of a suspended jail sentence, ignoring calls from Western countries to free the opposition politician immediately.

The ruling, a day after police detained him at the airport as he returned home for the first time since being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, may be the prelude to him being jailed for years.

Police officers stand at an entrance of the police station during Alexei Navalny's court hearing. Credit:AP

Moscow's prison service has applied to convert a suspended 3-year embezzlement sentence in the same case, which he says was trumped up, into real jail time later this month.

He faces three other separate criminal cases too.
Germany's foreign minister is scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart in the Turkish capital, following a tumultuous year in Turkish-European relations.

Ahead of his arrival in Ankara, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas noted the difficulties of 2020 and warned that ``this playing with fire must not be repeated.''

The visit comes amid an easing in tensions between nominal NATO allies Turkey and Greece. The two neighbors came close to the brink of war over the summer due to a dispute on maritime boundaries and energy rights in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Last week, both countries announced the resumption of exploratory talks and said meetings could take place between top officials, including the Turkish president and the Greek prime minister.

``We welcome the fact that Turkey has sent signals of detente since the beginning of the year - not just with words, but also with actions,'' Maas said. He added that the return to talks with Greece is ``an important first step'' and pulling back the research ship Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa is also ``a positive signal from Ankara.''

In December, the European Union gave the green light for the expansion of sanctions against Turkey over its exploration of gas reserves in waters claimed by EU members Greece and Cyprus.

Though Ankara has repeatedly said sanctions would not deter Turkey from defending its energy rights, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed a readiness to put frayed relations with the EU ``back on track'' and called on them to display the same determination.

``The positive momentum of recent weeks must be maintained in order to restore lost trust and create the basis for a solutions-oriented dialogue,'' Maas said. ``That is why I am traveling to Ankara today to encourage my counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to resolutely continue and perpetuate the constructive course of recent weeks.''

``As a NATO partner, Turkey has a clear obligation to sort out even difficult disputes in negotiations, observing international law, and not to endanger peace in the region.''

EU-Turkey relations also suffered a blow last year after Ankara made good on its threats to open its borders to allow migrants to leave for European nations as it feared a new migration flow from Syria's Idlib province. The Greek border saw violence as Greek forces pushed back on migrants leaving Turkish border gates. As COVID-19 spread across Europe and a fragile cease-fire was achieved in Idlib, Turkey closed its borders again and dispersed the migrants.

Short link:


SAD's call came at the end of a three-hour meeting of the party's core committee of the party held at the party headquarters here. The party President Sukhbir Singh Badal presided the meeting.

Chandigarh, Jan 18 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday appealed the government not to deny the constitutional right for a peaceful march in Delhi to law abiding farmers of the country on January 26.

Giving details of the meeting, Harcharan Singh Bains, Principal Adviser to the SAD president, said the meeting considered the government's dragging of its feet over permission for the peaceful democratic march as "a grossly violative of the very Constitution which the Republic Day symbolizes".

The government, he said, could not have chosen a worse and more inappropriate day and occasion than January 26 to deny the citizens of the country their fundamental democratic right to free expression as well as the right to organize democratic activity.

"The farmers of the country have already declared that their peaceful march would be a celebration of the spirit of the very Constitution for which the nation observes Republic Day.

"The march by farmers would in fact be a reminder that India is a democratic republic and is neither a monarchy nor dictatorial set up. The government should in fact thank the farmers and facilitate the march," said a resolution passed at the meeting.

Bains said the core committee also came down heavily against the brazen abuse of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) against farmers who have demonstrated to the world how disciplined, peaceful and democratic their genuine and totally justified protest is.

"It is really reprehensible that the government is taking resort to such draconian measures against the country's peaceful bread winners (annadata) who have not given law enforcing agencies a single excuse in over two months to complain of any violation of peace or law and order. It is really absurd that the government sees a threat to peace and security from the law abiding citizens."

The party called upon the government to withdraw all the notices issued to farmers and farmer leaders by the NIA.

--IANS

vg/sdr/
New Delhi: This year, there will be no joint or coordinated parade at the Attari border on Republic Day. Earlier, Pakistan and India used to do a joint parade, which spectators used to watch from both the side.

This year, no public will be allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions at the Attari border.

"No joint or coordinated parade this year at Attari border on Republic Day. No public will be allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions. India will conduct flag-lowering as per daily schedule," a Border Security Force (BSF) senior official said.

Since March 7 public was not allowed at the Attari border due to COVID-19 restrictions.

According to sources, Pakistan since the last few weeks have allowed public as they are seen from the Indian side.

Also, India is not offering sweets to Pakistan on various occasions due to the tense relationship with Pakistan, sources said.

BSF sources have also claimed that a meeting is scheduled this week to decide what can be done on Republic day.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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A new highly contagious coronavirus strain that emerged in the United Kingdom and has spread throughout the world was detected in Massachusetts for the first time over the weekend.

Reported in the commonwealth Sunday, the B.1.1.7 variant is said to have first appeared in the U.K. in September and circulated at very low levels in the population through mid-November, according to the British government.

Since September, the strain has been detected in 50 countries and 15 U.S. states, according to public health officials. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out the variant emerged with an unusually large number of mutations and spreads more easily and quickly than other variants of the viral respiratory infection.

On Dec. 29, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and state public health officials announced the first U.S. case of the strain, and in a broadcast conversation just a day later with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the countrys leading infectious disease expert, California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed the nations second B.1.1.7 patient.

California, the nations most populated state, has since reported 39 additional cases of the strain, the highest number in the United States, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed.

In early January, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state Department of Healths Wadsworth laboratory detected the case in Saratoga Springs as part of its U.K. strain testing program, marking the fourth state to report the virus variant in the U.S. at the time.

Multiple states other states - among them California, Massachusetts and Delaware - were analyzing suspicious virus samples for the B.1.1.7 strain variant this winter, Dr. Greg Armstrong, director of genetic sequencing at the CDC, told The Associated Press last month.

Authorities in the United States noted early on the variants high transmissibility and detection in California and Colorado in December suggested it may have already spread more widely in the country.

Ongoing travel between the U.K. and U.S. as well as the small fraction of general COVID-19 infections that have been genetically sequenced in the United States could have also contributed to the strains undetected circulation, according to the CDC.

The high prevalence of this variant among current U.K. infections, increase the likelihood of importation, the federal agency added.

Public health officials continue to shed light on the new virus strain, but there are still a number of unanswered questions: How widely B.1.1.7 has spread in the U.S. and abroad, how the disease it causes differs from those of other variants and how it impacts existing therapies and vaccines.

The Massachusetts B.1.1.7 patient

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced over the weekend the states first case of the B.1.1.7 variant, a Boston woman in her 20s.

The woman flew to the U.K., tested negative for the virus before leaving the country and became ill the day after she returned to the U.S. She developed symptoms in early January and later tested positive for COVID-19.

A genetic sample was sent to an out-of-state laboratory as part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) established surveillance process to identify COVID-19 variants. The State Public Health Laboratory was notified last evening of the results, DPH said in a statement Sunday.

The patient, who was interviewed by contact tracers when the initial positive result came back, was expected to be re-interviewed by public health officials following the detection of the B.1.1.7 strain. The womans close contacts have been identified, authorities said.

According to DPH, surveillance testing for the highly contagious variant has been ongoing at the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory in collaboration with clinical diagnostic laboratories and academic partners.

The surveillance includes genomic sequencing on portions of coronavirus-positive specimens, the department said.

Citing the increased transmissibility of the virus strain and the number of states and other countries that have detected it, the department said it expected the variant to arrive in Massachusetts eventually.

The public health risk reduction measures remain the same, DPH noted. Individuals must continue to wear masks or face coverings while out in public, maintain 6-foot social distancing, stay home when you are sick, and get tested if you have symptoms or are identified as a close contact.

When and how did the new strain emerge?

On Dec. 14, the United Kingdom reported a COVID-19 variant of concern. However, the strain is estimated to have been circulating on the island nation far earlier.

Backwards tracing using genetic evidence suggests the B.1.1.7 variant, also referred to as VOC 202012/01 or 20I/501Y.V1, emerged in September, spread at low levels throughout the U.K. for months and went on to become highly prevalent in southeast England, according to authorities.

The variant eventually accounted for roughly 60% of all recent coronavirus infections in London, officials said.

The increase in cases linked to the new variant first came to light in late November, the U.K. government explained. We then discovered a cluster linked to this variant spreading rapidly into London and Essex.

In response to its sharply increasing number of B.1.1.7 cases and COVID-19-related hospitalizations, the U.K. issued a national lockdown for England earlier this month.

On Jan. 12, the United Kingdom saw 4,134 new coronavirus-related admissions to hospitals in a single day, the highest at any point during the public health crisis. More than 37,000 COVID-19 patients in total were hospitalized across the U.K. as of last week, authorities noted.

In spite of the countrys best efforts to stave off transmission of the virus, the nations doctors, nurses and other medical staff are still seeing cancer treatments postponed due to COVID-19 hospitalizations, ambulances queuing and intensive care units spilling over into adjacent wards, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

And with 55,761 positive cases since yesterday and, very sadly, 1,280 deaths, this is not the time for the slightest relaxation of our national resolve and our individual efforts, Johnson said at a Jan. 15 press conference. Please stay at home, please protect the NHS and save lives. And please remember that this disease can be passed on not just by standing too near someone in a supermarket queue, but also by handling something touched by an infected person.

Where has the variant been detected?

To date, the CDC has reported 88 cases of the B.1.1.7 strain from 15 states in the U.S.

The states that have identified the strain include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

Among the other 48 countries, besides the U.K. and the U.S., where the variant has been detected are: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and others

Modeling from the CDC suggests the variant has already been rapidly spreading in the U.S. in early 2021 and may become the predominant strain by as early as March. The increased transmission of the virus, caused in part by B.1.1.7, threatens to strain health care resources and require extended, more rigorous public health strategies, the federal agency said.

A sharp uptick in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious variant may also need to be met by an increase in the percentage of U.S. residents who are immune to the virus in order to bring the pandemic under control, the CDC noted.

Higher vaccination coverage may be needed to protect the public, the agency said.

The threat of the new strain comes as the United States continues to be battered by coronavirus, reporting the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases and virus-linked deaths in the world at around 23.938 million and nearly 398,000, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The detection of B.1.1.7 also comes as states are looking to roll out the coronavirus vaccine among its residents.

In Massachusetts, first responders are currently being vaccinated in mass, and as of last Thursday, 206,190 cumulative doses of the vaccine have been administered since the distribution of the vaccine started last month, according to officials.

The CDC warned the B.1.1.7 variant has the potential to increase the U.S. pandemic trajectory in the coming months.

The U.K.s experience, along with modeling surrounding the future of B.1.1.7, illustrates the impact a more contagious COVID-19 strain can have on the number of cases in a population, according to the CDC. The variants increased transmissibility, the agency pointed out, requires even more diligent vaccination and mitigation efforts.

Taking measures to reduce transmission now can lessen the potential impact of B.1.1.7 and allow critical time to increase vaccination coverage, the CDC said. Collectively, enhanced genomic surveillance combined with continued compliance with effective public health measures, including vaccination, physical distancing, use of masks, hand hygiene, and isolation and quarantine, will be essential to limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

(Alison Montemagni / Baystate Medical Center)

Do recently COVID-19 vaccines protect against the strain?

How exactly COVID-19 variants like B.1.1.7 affect existing therapies and vaccines is still somewhat of a question mark. Scientist are currently working to determine whether such mutations change the effectiveness of authorized coronavirus immunizations.

However, experts have pointed out a virus would have to mutate substantially for a vaccine to be rendered useless, and a study published earlier this month confirmed Pfizer-BioNTechs coronavirus vaccine is in fact effective in protecting against the B.1.1.7 strain.

The results of the study indicated there was no reduction in the ability of a persons antibodies to neutralize the U.K.-originated variant, according to the study.

The ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 necessitates continuous monitoring of the significance of changes for vaccine coverage, researchers said. This surveillance is accompanied by preparations for the possibility that a future mutation in SARS-CoV-2 might necessitate a vaccine strain change. Such a vaccine update would be facilitated by the flexibility of mRNA-based vaccine technology.

Other immunization developers - like the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company Moderna - have expressed confidence their vaccines have a diverse range of neutralizing antibodies to be protect against any recently reported variants.

We have already tested sera from animals and humans vaccinated with the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine against a number of previous variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have emerged since the first outbreak of the pandemic and found our vaccine to remain equally effective, the company said in a statement.

While information about the characteristics of B.1.1.7 are rapidly emerging, the CDC has pointed out there is no evidence that these variants cause more severe illness or increased risk of death.

Are there other variants to be concerned about?

Multiple COVID-19 variants are circulating globally at the moment and have proven to be a cause for concern.

Along with the B.1.1.7 strain, another variant called 1.351 has emerged in South Africa, independently of the mutation detected in the U.K., according to the CDC. Both variants contain the same N501Y spike protein substitution.

This variant, originally detected in early October, shares some mutations with the variant detected in the U.K., the agency said. There have been cases caused by this variant outside of South Africa, but it has not been detected in the U.S.

In mid-November, genetic sequencing by South African health authorities found the new variant had largely replaced other COVID-19 strains circulating in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of the country, according to the World Health Organization.

While data highlighted the fact that the variant rapidly displaced other strains circulating in South Africa, characteristics about 1.351 that influence transmissibility still need to be investigated, the agency noted.

Further investigations are needed to understand the impact on transmission, clinical severity of infection, laboratory diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, or public health preventive measures, WHO said.

In Brazil, a variant called P.1 emerged and was identified in four travelers from the country who were tested during routine screening at Haneda Airport outside Tokyo, Japan, the CDC said.

The South American strain, which has yet to be detected in the U.S., contains a set of additional mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies, according to authorities.

All three variants appear to spread more easily and quickly than other strains, which may lead to more cases of COVID-19, the CDC noted.

Currently, there is no evidence that these variants cause more severe illness or increased risk of death. However, an increase in the number of cases will put more strain on health care resources, lead to more hospitalizations, and potentially more deaths, the CDC repeated.

Public health officials are studying the variants quickly to learn more to control their spread, the agency added.

In August and September, another variant made headlines after it was found among farmed mink in Denmark and subsequently spread to people. The strain, referred to as the Cluster 5 variant by Danish authorities, was identified in only around a dozen humans as of late December, according to WHO.

A few of the thousands of infected mink disconcertingly rose from their shallow graves in Denmark after gases built up inside the bodies, The Associated Press reported.

The authorities in the affected countries are conducting epidemiological and virological investigations to further assess the transmissibility, severity, risk of reinfection and antibody response to new variants, WHO said. These studies are ongoing.

Related Content:
At least 26 people have been killed by gunmen in separate attacks in Safana and Maradun local government areas of Katsina and Zamfara State respectively, residents and officials have said.

The Katsina attack occurred on Thursday at Kabuke community, Rumka ward, Safana LGA.

The attack resulted in the killing of 11 persons, mostly vigilante members. The assailants also burnt grain 51 silos and other valuables.

A PREMIUM TIMES correspondent who visited the community on Sunday counted 51 silos still burning and three motorcycles razed by the attackers.

On Sunday the community was still deserted. The village head, Mati Bukadi, was among hundreds of residents who fled for safety, taking refuge at Safana council headquarters.

A community leader, Alhaji Adamu, told PREMIUM TIMES, that since he was aged and could not run, he decided to stay behind.

He said the gunmen launched the attack around 4 p.m. and spent about three hours ransacking the community, burning down houses and silos before the arrival of the vigilante members from a neighbouring community.

He said those who died were mostly members of the vigilante group who came to assist.

At Jar Kuka community, one was killed; at Daulai community, one person died; at Mai-jaura community they recorded five casualties, he said. Also, at Kwanar Dutse community, two persons killed, while at Kabuke community, the prime target of the gunmen, two persons died.

They have virtually ransacked the whole community leaving behind nothing but trauma and agony, he added.

The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isah, did not call back to comment on the incident hours after he pledged to do so. He also did not respond to subsequent calls.

Zamfara attack

Meanwhile, the Zamfara State commissioner for security and home affairs, Abubakar Dauran, confirmed that 15 people were killed following a clash between armed herders and members of the vigilante group.

He said the gunmen on Sunday morning stormed Janbako Community in Maradun Local Government Area, killing ten persons and injuring many. He said the attack was retaliatory.

The official said five Fulani herdsmen were earlier killed by members of the outlawed vigilante members.

The official told DW Hausa Service on Monday that the attack was prompted by the outlawed vigilante group.

The group earlier killed a Fulani herdsman at Talata Mafara Local Government Area, Tuesday, while returning from the local market, the official said.

The official added that the outlawed vigilante group, whom he accused of fueling insecurity, also attacked and killed another Fulani herdsman who was fetching firewood.

Three other herders were also killed by the vigilante group and their livestock rustled and kept at the Janbako community, Mr Dauran added.

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The gunmen, in a retaliatory attack, invaded Janbako community and killed residents at will. The deadly attack occurred because of the activities of the illegal activities of the vigilante group, he said.

The government will not tolerate any group breaching security in the state and sabotaging the relative peace recorded in the state, Mr Dauran said.
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ForbiddenX This site uses cookies to enhance the 07 runescape gold experience. For more information see our privacy policy. Existing justice theory explains why fair procedures motivate employees to adopt cooperative goals, but it fails to explain how employees strive towards these goals. We study self regulatory abilities that underlie goal striving; abilities that should thus affect employees' display of cooperative behavior in response to procedural justice.

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Joining Piers Morgan this evening for a face to face, primetime interview, Cuban details the challenges that come with raising down to earth kids amidst massive wealth. Having started out bar tending and couch crashing before innovating his way to the top, instilling values into his son and two daughters is part of Cuban at home business plan.

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Governor Phil Scott recently attacked Vermont GOP leadership for continu[ ing ] with what I perceive as white supremacy dominating, racial inequity, and so forth That leadership's sole offense? -- refusing to endorse the governors call for the Presidents resignation. This impugns all Vermont Trump supporters as white supremacists .

Scott, a nominal conservative, habitually grandstands against Donald Trump. He was the first GOP governor to support the Ukraine impeachment inquiry, endorsed Bill Weld, and voted for Biden. He was first (ahead of Sanders and Leahy) in the current push to oust the President:

In a stunning statement issued shortly before 6 p.m. that day, Gov. Phil Scott called for his fellow Republican to leave the White House immediately -- or be dragged out of it. Make no mistake, the president of the United States is responsible for this event, Scott said. The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the president. Enough is enough.

Next day, Flip-Flop Phil gallingly proclaimed:

The challenges we face demand the very best of all of us, that we rise above the partisanship and division, the pettiness and political games, to commit to the tough work ahead, to get through this crisis safer and stronger, and to do it together, Scott said.

Vermonts Legislators enthusiastically seized Scotts cue, producing J.R.H.1 calling for the President to resign or to be removed from office.

Vermont GOP Party Chair Deb Billado condemned the D.C. violence as wrong, immoral and against the fundamental principles that we hold dear. This wasnt enough for Phil Scott.

On January 8, GOP senator Joe Benning published a scathing condemnation of Trumps followers:

Today I saw a picture of a busload of Vermonters on their way to Washington, D.C. They were Donald Trump supporters who remain convinced his election was stolen. I want to believe that all of them on that bus were heading down for a peaceful protest I have to wonder whether anyone in that group got duped into joining the assault of that beautiful and historic building. These thugs were Republicans devoted completely to Donald Trump. They are not Patriots. They are not real Americans. They are anarchists who believe in mob rule, plain and simple.

Benning declared he can no longer tolerate extremists posing as Republicans, and joined with other Vermont GOP to demand that Deb Billado and the Party leadership must sign the Legislative Resolution or resign.

GOP representative Scott Beck complained that the GOP statement failed to accuse Trump of direct responsibility or call on him to resign.

These elected officials share a guilt-by-association methodology: Trump is presumed guilty; all his followers are dehumanized using the actions of the few; hesitation to affirm this barbaric indictment is vilified. Where does this cannibalistic spiral lead?

Governor Scott called for President Trump to be dragged out of the White House on January 6th, declaimed the pettiness of political games on January 7th, called for the resignation of GOP leadership on January 8th, then charged that white supremacy dominates the Vermont GOP on January 15th.

Could this be the same governor who criticized Deb Billado for questioning Robert Muellers investigation?

Activating the base with this type of rhetoric probably isnt new, its being used by both parties in many respects, but I think its unfortunate, Scott said. We see this political divide, polarization going on throughout our country and all the rhetoric that goes along with it, I dont think its healthy.

To recklessly declare white supremacy dominates the Vermont GOP is the type of [unhealthy] rhetoric that gets innocent people killed.

Image: State of Vermont
The agricultural production in Ukraine decreased by 11.5% in 2020 compared to the previous year, while over 11 months the decline amounted to 12.4%, the State Statistics Service said on Monday.

According to its data, crop production fell by 13.6% (over 11 months by 14.8%), while livestock by 2.6% (by 2.5% over 11 months).

The State Statistics Service said that the decline in agricultural enterprises was 14%, including crop production by 16.5%, and livestock by 0.9%, while in households it amounted to 6.8%, including crop production by 7.8%, and livestock by 4.5%.

The service said that in 2019 agricultural production in Ukraine increased by 1.4%.

The State Statistics Service said that from the regional perspective in 2020, the growth of agricultural production was achieved in such regions as Sumy by 4.1%, Ivano-Frankivsk by 3.2%, Chernihiv by 4.7%, Rivne by 3.1% and Chernivtsi 0.6%, while the greatest decline was recorded in such regions as Odesa by 38.4%, Kirovohrad by 32.2% and Cherkasy by 24.4%.
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The University of Technology Sydney has ordered thousands of masks for students to wear on campus this year as students increasingly get the option of attending more classes.

The university sent the students an email informing them they may be required to wear the masks when they return in March.

Many people have become accustomed to wearing masks, including on public transport. Credit:James Brickwood

The University of Sydney will not require students to wear masks in line with NSW Health guidelines.

UTS deputy vice-chancellor (Education and Students) Shirley Alexander said students had expressed a strong desire to come back and many people had become accustomed to wearing masks, including on public transport.
Primary school-aged children infected with the coronavirus have much smaller viral loads than adults with Covid-19, a study has found.

Viral load  the amount of virus a person harbours in their nose and throat  is believed by some scientists to be linked to transmissibility, although there is debate over these claims.

Data from public health officials in the Netherlands reveals over-80s have a viral load 16 times bigger than than children under the age of 12.

Rapid antigen tests, like ones suggested for use in schools and airports, are also likely to be less accurate for children than adults, due to this smaller load, the researchers say.

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This graph show the Cp value for coronavirus patients sorted by age. Cp is a measure of how many cycles of PCR analysis, which amplified a genetic signal, is needed to detect a SARS-CoV-2 signal. The higher the number, the lower the viral load. 'The median Cp values between the oldest (>79 years) and youngest (<12 years) population differed by over 4 PCR cycles, suggesting approximately a 16 fold difference in viral load,' the researchers write

Children are more at-risk of catching the new variant of coronavirus than the previous strain, Government advisers today revealed

More than a quarter of a million people in northern Holland were tested between January 1, 2020 and December 1, 2020.

Of these tests, 211,933 were carried out by qualified healthcare professionals, with viral load data available for 18,290.

All of these swabs were processed by the same regional laboratory in the Netherlands to ensure the tests were analysed in the same way.

'To our knowledge this is the first study to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 viral load distributions in a large number of patients from different patient categories,' the researchers write in their study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed and is published online as a pre-print.

'Our data present a clear relation between age and SARS-CoV-2 viral load, with children (less than 12 years) showing lower viral loads independent of sex and symptom duration.'

More than 2,500 of the people tested were younger than 20 and 238 of these were younger than 12, equivalent to primary school age.

One metric used to quantify viral load is Cp, which indicates how many cycles of PCR  which replicates and amplifies genetic material  is needed before the virus could be detected.

The higher the figure, the lower the viral load, as it indicates how many cycles of amplification were required.

In the study, the researchers note the difference between the average Cp figure for over-80s and under-12s is more than four cycles, equivalent to a 16-fold increase.

Coronavirus infection can cause forms of paralysis in some rare cases in children, a new study reveals (stock)

Children may be more likely to catch the mutant Kent variant than original strain Children may be more at-risk of catching the Kent coronavirus variant than any previous strains, Government advisers claimed in December. Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist of Imperial College London and member of No10's advisory group NERVTAG, said there was a 'hint' children - who have barely been affected by the pandemic so far - were more susceptible to the mutation. The academic was instrumental in the UK's March restrictions but stepped down from his advisory position on SAGE after he flaunted the guidance to visit his married lover. He said it is possible the surge of called B.1.1., during the November lockdown  which occurred in school term-time  could have happened because the variant is better at infecting children. Researchers believe the strain is between 50 and 70 per cent more infectious, but don't believe it is more deadly or causes any more severe disease in either adults or children. Advertisement

'The most remarkable finding of this study was the relation between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and age, with significantly lower viral loads in children,' the study authors from Kennemerland in the north of the Netherlands add.

'As previous studies have suggested that young children play a limited role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, our data support this suggestion.'

Throughout the pandemic there has been mystery surrounding why children are relatively unaffected by Covid-19, when adults are so severely impacted.

Children have throughout the coronavirus pandemic constituted far fewer cases than for other respiratory diseases, including flu.

The leading theory for this is due to how the coronavirus enters human cells, via a receptor called ACE2 which is found on many cells in the upper respiratory tract.

As a result, Professor Wendy Barclay of Imperial College London, a member of NERVTAG, explained last month that this made adults 'easy targets' compared to children.

This is because the amount of ACE2 a person expresses naturally and steadily increases over time, with young children having very little and people.

ACE2 is the receptor on the surface of human cells which the coronavirus hijacks and uses to infect.

The Dutch researchers point out that antigen tests, which are quicker but not as reliable as PCR tests, are even less accurate when used by an infected patient with a low viral load.

In infected children younger than 12, the registered viral load was less than 30 in almost a third (31.1 per cent) of cases, almost double the proportion of people with this low reading in all other age groups.

As a result, the researchers say 'SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests could have lower sensitivity in children than in adults'.
A Navy reservist from Delanson has been mobilized to help keep ships combat ready.

Chief Petty Officer Michael Foster has a role in the largest mobilization of reservists in the Naval Sea Systems Commands history, according to Danna Eddy, a Navy spokeswoman. Foster, a Delanson native and 2001 Hornell High School graduate, is helping to maintain and repair ships, and submarines at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

He is one of 2,200 enlisted reserve sailors and 240 reserve officers available from more than 75 units across the country for Surge Maintenance. The SurgeMain program mobilization is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Eddy.

For several months, up to 25 percent of the shipyards production workforce had been on administrative leave due to being at high risk from severe complications tied to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Eddy. That shortfall in workers impacted production schedules for most of the ships, subs and aircraft carriers.

This delayed maintenance work could result in delays to ship and submarine maintenance, which could cause disruptions to the Navys deployment schedules and require ships and sailors to remain forward-deployed for longer periods of time, said Eddy.

So, NAVSEA activated the reservists to help fill the gap. NAVSEA, the largest command within the Navy, oversees the construction, delivery and maintenance of all the Navys commissioned ships, Eddy adds.

The reservists have been deployed to the Navys four shipyards, including the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine, the Puget Sound Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., and Pearl Harbor Shipyard and Maintenance Facility in Honolulu.

Workers at each of these shipyards perform a vital role in national defense by performing maintenance on ships, submarines and aircraft carriers required for combat-ready fleet forces.



The four naval shipyards are critical to providing deployable, combat-ready warships for our Sailors and Marines, said NAVSEAs Commander Vice Adm. Bill Galinis. Augmenting our organic civilian workforce with SurgeMain reservists allows us to address the maintenance challenges generated by the pandemic.



Foster is currently assigned to the overhaul of a submarine where is responsible for working with the outside machine shop.



I am repairing and testing the subs mast and antenna, said Foster.

Soldiers advance

Lance Geddis from Delmar was promoted to chief warrant officer 3 while on duty with the New York Army National Guards Intelligence and Sustainment Company, 42nd Infantry Division.

Jeffrey Lord of South Glens Falls was promoted to sergeant first class while on duty with the Recruiting and Retention Battalion.

Other soldiers promoted included:

Staff sergeant: Breanna Center of Slingerlands, 1427th Transportation Company; Gregory Hafensteiner, Niskayuna, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, 42nd Infantry Division; Matthew Heeran of Loudonville,, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 501st Ordnance Battalion; and John Iseman, Schenectady, 1108th Ordnance Company.

Sergeant: James Mahoney, Burnt Hills, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery; and Christopher Mensler, Ballston Spa, 1427th Transportation Company.

Corporal: Amanda Coleman, Saratoga Springs, 206th Military Police Company; and James Hilson of Saratoga Springs, Company C, 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion.Specialist: Hunter Beaulieu, East Greenbush, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, 42nd Infantry Division; Shannon Burbank, Glenville, 206th Military Police Company; Thomas King, Ballston Spa, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery; Brian Trexler, Mechanicville, 1427th Transportation Company; and Sandro Tskitishvili, Albany, 466th Area Support Medical Company.


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Huntsville Police are conducting what Madison County Coroner Dr. Tyler Berryhill said is a homicide investigation after a shooting in the 4,900 of Century Street on Monday.

One male victim was found with a gunshot wound, said Don Webster, Huntsville Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

Stay with WAAY 31 for updates
KYODO NEWS - Jan 18, 2021 - 23:37 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday that Taro Kono, Japan's administrative reform minister, will lead coronavirus vaccination efforts, as the country grapples with a third wave of the pandemic and concern about strains on the medical system.

Suga, who called vaccines the "decisive factor" against the pandemic, said he wants to roll out COVID-19 vaccinations by late February.

The move to tap Kono for this role is to ensure smooth coordination, in his capacity as administrative reform minister, among relevant ministries and agencies, as well as other parties including medical associations, government sources said.

"We must ensure that many people are vaccinated as quickly as possible," Kono told reporters, adding that he wanted to start hearing from the central government ministries and agencies.

In an interview last week with South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo published on its English website Monday, Kono said he did not think the roll-out schedule was too late.

He also said the Olympic Games "will only be possible if vaccination takes place, so we will prepare for this thoroughly."

Japan, as the host of the already postponed games rescheduled for this summer, is eager to implement a successful vaccination campaign.

A Reuters interview last week reporting uncertainty about the games based on Kono's remark gained great media attention in the country. It quoted him as saying the fate of the Olympics "could go either way."

Kono tweeted in Japanese on Monday that it is "normal to consider various responses" to possible scenarios looking at the world's coronavirus situation.

Japan logged over 4,900 daily cases nationwide on Monday, with the health ministry putting the number of serious infections at 973, rising one from the previous day.

Also Monday, Japan confirmed three cases of the new coronavirus variant first detected in Britain, of which two had unknown transmission routes. It was the first time it had confirmed in the country those infected with the virus variant and whose transmission routes could not be traced.

The individuals, ranging from their 20s to their 60s and in Shizuoka Prefecture, had not traveled to Britain and did not have any prior contact with people who had recently been to the country, according to the ministry.

"We are currently investigating whether the infection is spreading in the region," Takaji Wakita, the head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told a press conference, noting they would strengthen efforts to track the situation in the central Japanese prefecture.

For Tokyo alone, its latest daily tally stood at 1,204 new coronavirus cases, the metropolitan government said, as the capital entered the 11th day of its second state of emergency.

It was the second-highest number of cases logged on a Monday since last Monday, which saw 1,219, and brought Tokyo's cumulative number of cases to 86,674.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said the same day that subsidies given to small and midsize eateries that comply with the government's request to close by 8 p.m. would be expanded to include restaurant chains to help offset their financial losses.

The subsidy amount is still under discussion but could be the same as the 60,000 yen ($580) per day offered to the small and midsize restaurants and bars with shortened business hours, she told reporters.

Koike added she would like the subsidies to be disbursed as soon as possible to the restaurant chain operators.

The metropolitan government has allowed businesses with capital of less than 50 million yen or those with 50 employees or fewer to receive the subsidies, leading to criticism from large restaurant and bar chains.

Suga declared a monthlong state of emergency on Jan. 7 for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, later expanding it to seven other prefectures out of a total of 47 prefectures.

Under the state of emergency, people have been urged to refrain from going outside unnecessarily and restaurants asked to shorten their opening hours.

Related coverage:

Severe patients at record high as Japan reports 5,700 new virus cases

Homebound virus patients top 30,000 amid hospital bed shortage in Japan

Japan eyes COVID-rule-breaker penalties, 1 yr after 1st virus case
We are proud to be acknowledged in Digital.coms announcement of the Best Contract Management Software Companies of 2021. This recognition serves as an attestation to the success of our contract management software suite, said Bradford Jones, Director of Sales & Marketing at CobbleStone Software.

CobbleStone Software, a trusted leader in contract management software, is excited to announce its recognition by Digital.com in their article Best Contract Management Software Companies of 2021. Digital.com is an online publication that helps business leaders find the right tools to take their business to the next level by providing reviews and comparisons of the best products, services, and software for their needs.

CobbleStones award-winning AI-based contract management, eProcurement, vendor management, and eSourcing software suite is trusted by organizations of all sizes - spanning the globe. CobbleStone offers many valuable source-to-contract management tools for organizations in a variety industries, including government, legal, healthcare, education, supply chain, pharma/bio, BFSI, and many more.

CobbleStones enduring mission has been to provide organizations with the most user-friendly, scalable, low-friction, and cost-effective source-to-contract management software solution  saving organizations time, reducing contract lifecycle bottlenecks, and increasing compliance, employee accountability, and organization-wide productivity.

We are proud to share that CobbleStone has been acknowledged in Digital.coms announcement of the Best Contract Management Software Companies of 2021, said Bradford Jones, Director of Sales & Marketing at CobbleStone Software.

This recognition serves an addition to the array of attestations to the success of our long-trusted, user-friendly contract management software suite. Contract Insight offers small, medium, and large businesses alike the best tools to increase contract management software ROI and transform their pre-award and post-award contract administration processes.

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Photo: (Photo : Johnna Jablonski / Twitter)

A ten-year-old girl Emma receives a reply after sending a touching letter to an officer. She sent the letter after watching how the officer got crushed in a CCTV footage.

Emma's mom, Johnna Jablonski, explained to Good Morning America how she got heartbroken upon seeing the clip where the officer was. She said that her daughter saw that a Capitol building metal door frame had crushed Officer Daniel Hodges.

On the afternoon of January 6, rioters pushed through not only through barricades but also officers in riot gear.

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At that moment, although security measures were put in place, five people died in the incident. Many times that day, Hodges had become afraid for his life. He said that he was "surrounded" by rioters outside the building.

Near-death feeling

The 32-year-old officer told ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington what he thought at that time. He said that after being beaten, he thought it might have been his end. And for the third time, he feared that he would die on that day.

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Jablonski said that her daughter got triggered after seeing the video where Hodges was hurt. The little girl kept asking her mom what the rioters were doing to the officer, then her mom explained that he was doing his job.

Emotional impact

The Billings, Montana, mom said that her ten-year-old had the outpouring of care and concern, so she asks too many questions about what is happening in the clip. Jablonski believed that her daughter was still too young and that she did not have to worry about what is happening in the video that she saw.

However, Emma was "emotionally impacted," according to her mom. To help the girl feel better, Jablonski advised that her daughter write her thoughts on paper. Emma then made a "get well" card for Hodges.

READ: Dad Loses 40 Pounds to Save Sick Son in Need of a Liver Transplant

Jablonski shared a photo of the card on her Twitter account and hoped it would reach the officer. D.C. police replied hours later after her post, then identified that the officer Emma was referring to was Hodges.

Hi Emma - thanks for sharing your card! Just wanted to let you know Officer Hodges is recovering and doing well. Thank you for the kind words! Well DM you an address of where to send it! @JohnnaJablonski https://t.co/rzByMALqPF  DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) January 12, 2021



According to the department, the officer was "recovering and doing well," then, it sent Hodges' address so the mother-daughter duo could mail the card to Hodges directly. In the letter, Emma wrote that she felt terrible for the officer after he got crushed and hoped he would heal.

The girl also hoped that Hodges' family are healthy despite what is happening at that time. She explained that she almost cried upon seeing the officer got hurt. A local news station has helped Emma get in touch with Hodges through video chat.

Since then, Emma has sent some gifts along with the card to Hodges. She and her mom is hoping to connect with Hodges again in the future.
Lauren Goodger has announced she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Charles Drury, three months after confirming their relationship.

The former TOWIE star, 34, confirmed she is three months pregnant in her new magazine column on Monday, and will welcome the couple's first baby in July.

The TV personality admitted her new boyfriend, 23, was initially sceptical after she told him her pregnancy test had returned a positive result.

Lauren said of her happy news: 'It's exciting and were really happy. It's difficult, but we've just got through it.'

Happy news: Lauren Goodger has announced she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Charles Drury, three months after confirming their relationship

Recalling the moment she discovered she was pregnant, Lauren explained: 'I was in bed not well with a cold and I was meant to come on that day and Im always quite regular.

'We went and bought a test from a bargain shop and I did it - I couldnt believe it! I rang him [Charles] and he was like: "Youre lying, youre joking."

'He didnt believe the test! I did a digital one as well and he walked around with it in his bag for about three days.'

The happy news comes after Lauren moved Charles, whose former girlfriends include retired glamour model Katie Price, 42, into her Essex home in late October within weeks of meeting him.

Bumping along: The former TOWIE star, 34, confirmed she is three months pregnant in her new magazine column on Monday, and will welcome the couple's first baby in July

A source told The Sun: 'Charles has moved into her Essex home and they're really loved up.

'She's head over heels for him - friends can't believe how fast she's fallen for him. Everyone's hoping she's finally found The One.'

Last month, Lauren suggested that she wanted 'marriage and family' with her current boyfriend after years of disappointment.

Sharing four black and white slides alongside a lengthy poem, Lauren told Instagram followers: 'We fall in love with 3 people in our lifetime. Each one for a specific reason...'

The poem read: 'First love: This love often happens at a young age. You eventually grow apart or call it quits over silly things.

Whirlwind romance: The pregnancy comes after Lauren moved Charles, 23, whose former girlfriends include glamour model Katie Price, into her Essex home within weeks of meeting

Lauren Goodger's romance history Mark Wright: 1999-2011 Lauren found fame on The Only Way Is Essex while in a on-off, 12-year relationship with ex-fiance Mark Wright. First love: Lauren and Mark pictured in 2011 Their tumultuous relationship was filled with infidelity on Mark's part, trust issues, and tensions between Lauren and his family. The couple cut off their engagement in May 2011, just five months after his proposal, and the presenter went on to marry actress Michelle Keegan, 33, in 2015. Lauren later revealed she had an abortion at the age of 20 after the couple decided they weren't ready to become parents. She told OK! in 2011: 'I did think I was pregnant. I'm not on the pill and haven't been for a little while, just because of my cells, not because I was planning a baby and thank God we didn't. 'I was late once and I think it was the stress of what was going on. I've been pregnant before with his baby but I chose not to have it. I was only 20. No one knows except my close family.' Jake McLean: 2012-2016 After splitting from Mark, the media personality dated Jake McLean, 33, on and off for four years - from 2012 until May 2016 - with Lauren suffering a miscarriage during their relationship Jailbird ex: The influencer pictured with Jake in 2013 The TV star discovered she had lost the unborn child while appearing as a contestant on ITV talent show Dancing On Ice in 2013, and later admitted she has little choice but to 'carry on.' Discussing the loss on Channel 5 show In Therapy in 2017, she said: 'I was on a TV show that was quite intense. I had to try and perform when I was quite far gone. It didnt last.' Lauren and Jake split for the first time later that year before rekindling their romance in 2015. Shortly after their final split in May 2016, Lauren told OK! of her former jailbird ex: 'I fell out of love with him. I know some people say you wake up one day and things click, but that didn't happen to me; it was a gradual thing. 'The relationship was quite hard. I felt like I was the one doing everything and putting the effort in. I'm at the age where I'd like to have children but Jake isn't the sort of man I'd want to do it with.' Jake was jailed for three-and-a-half years 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. JOEY MORRISION: 2016-2018 The TV star struck up a relationship with another convict, Joey Morrison, but the couple went their separate ways two years later, in 2018, despite Lauren waiting for him while he served time behind bars. Bad boy: The TV star and convict Joey pictured in 2017 Joey, 31, was given a 16-year prison sentence for a violent offence but was released after nine years - Lauren and Joey split close to his release date. In 2019, Lauren opened up about her two year romance with Joey, who was sentenced for drug related crimes, saying: 'My ex was my biggest mistake. I wasted two years when I could have been dating. I wish I hadn't waited for him to come out.' Writing previously in new! magazine of her relationship with Joey, she said: 'I regret giving two and a half years of my life to someone who was in jail only for him to come out and not be what I thought. 'I thought we were going to get a house, get married and have kids. I regret the time I've wasted.' Charles Drury: 2020-present

In October 2020, Lauren teased she was dating a mystery man, who was soon to be identified as Charles Drury, 23. Inseparable: Lauren and Charles pictured last year The amateur footballer and builder has littered his social media account with images of his girlfriend. Sharing his thoughts on their romance, Charles previously gushed: 'The story of you & me is my favourite because it's happening so naturally.' The couple announced their expecting their first child together, just three months after going public with their relationship. Lauren's partner has a history of dating older women, having previously enjoyed a brief fling with former glamour model Katie Price, 42, in 2019. Advertisement

'When you get older you may look back and think it wasn't love. But the truth is, it was. It was love for what you knew it to be. Remember: there [are] different depths of love.'

Moving to her second love, Lauren spoke of pain, abuse and damage suffered, but also the growth and learning which came from the relationship.

The slide read: 'Second love: The hard one. This love teaches us lesson[s] and makes us stronger.

'This love includes great pain, lies, betrayal, abuse, drama and damage. But this is the one where we grow. We realise what we love about love and what we don't love about love.

'Now we know the difference between good and bad humans. Now we become closed, careful, cautious, and considerate. We know exactly what we want and don't want.

Childhood sweetheart: Lauren was previously engaged to her TOWIE co-star Mark Wright, whom she dated for more than a decade (pictured in 2011)

Finally, Lauren shared about slide about her third love, where she made it clear that she wants to settle down and have children.

The last slide read: 'Third love: This one comes blindly. No warning. It creeps up on you silently. You don't go looking for this love. It comes to you.

'You can put up ANY wall. you want, it will be broke[n] down. You'll find yourself caring about that person without trying.

'They look nothing like your usual crush types, but you get lost in their eyes daily. You see beauty in their imperfections. You hide nothing from them.

'You want marriage and family with them. You thank the universe for them. You truly love them.'

Lauren found fame on The Only Way Is Essex while in a relationship with ex-fiance Mark Wright, who she dated for over 10 years, and has since dated jailbirds Jake McLean and Joey Morrison.

Jailbird ex: Lauren then dated Jake McLean on and off from 2012 until 2016. They split in 2013 before rekindling their romance in 2015. The relationship ended months later

She and Mark cut off their engagement in May 2011, just five months after his proposal, and the presenter went on to marry actress Michelle Keegan, 33, in 2015.

Lauren later revealed that she had an abortion at the age of 20 after the couple decided they weren't ready to become parents.

She told OK! in 2011: 'I did think I was pregnant. I'm not on the pill and haven't been for a little while, just because of my cells, not because I was planning a baby and thank God we didn't.

'I was late once and I think it was the stress of what was going on. I've been pregnant before with his baby but I chose not to have it. I was only 20. No one knows except my close family.'

Asked why she hadn't continued with the pregnancy, Lauren added: 'I was still living with my mum, our relationship was so volatile and we weren't ready for a baby.

'I'd be left in the flat and he'd go off with other girls and we said, "Let's wait till we're more settled."'

Heartbreaking: The TV personality suffered a miscarriage while appearing on ITV talent show Dancing On Ice in 2013, and later admitted she has little choice but to 'carry on'

After splitting with Mark she dated Jake McLean on and off for four years - from 2012 until May 2016 - with Lauren suffering a miscarriage during their relationship.

The TV personality discovered she had lost the unborn child while appearing as a contestant on ITV talent show Dancing On Ice in 2013, and later admitted she has little choice but to 'carry on.'

Discussing the loss on Channel 5 show In Therapy in 2017, she said: 'I was on a TV show that was quite intense. I had to try and perform when I was quite far gone. It didnt last

'Im the type of person who, when something happens, I move on. Thats how I am. Its not something I addressed. '

Lauren and Jake split for the first time later that year before rekindling their romance in 2015. The relationship came to a permanent end that October.

Shortly after their final split, in May 2016, Lauren told OK! magazine of her former jailbird ex: 'I fell out of love with him.

Old times: Lauren admitted she 'fell out of love' with jailbird Jake prior to their final split in 2015 (pictured together in 2013)

'I know some people say you wake up one day and things click, but that didn't happen to me; it was a gradual thing.

'The relationship was quite hard. I felt like I was the one doing everything and putting the effort in. I'm at the age where I'd like to have children but Jake isn't the sort of man I'd want to do it with.'

Jake was jailed for three-and-a-half years 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.

He was part of vicious criminal gang and it is believed he only served half of his sentence. He has since fathered a child with another woman.

After splitting from Jake, Lauren struck up a relationship with another convict, Joey Morrison, but the couple went their separate ways two years later, in 2018, despite Lauren waiting for him while he served time behind bars.

Loved-up: Lauren and Charles - who is 11 years her junior - have been dating since early October and regularly show off their romance on social media

Joey was given a 16-year prison sentence for a violent offence but was released after nine years - Lauren and Joey split close to his release date.

In 2019, Lauren opened up about her two year romance with Joey, who was sentenced for drug related crimes, saying: 'My ex was my biggest mistake. I wasted two years when I could have been dating. I wish I hadn't waited for him to come out.'

Writing previously in new! magazine of her relationship with Joey, she said: 'I regret giving two and a half years of my life to someone who was in jail only for him to come out and not be what I thought.

'I thought we were going to get a house, get married and have kids. I regret the time I've wasted.'
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-17 23:28:40|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- After Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set the dates for holding the general elections in the Palestinian territories, analysts say the election call offers hope to end the internal division, but internal and external challenges are still ahead.

On Friday, Abbas issued a presidential decree that called for holding the legislative elections on May 22 and the presidential elections on July 31.

Many Palestinians doubt that their first national elections in 15 years will achieve reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian groups, Abbas's Fatah Movement and the Islamic Hamas movement.

The Palestinian legislative elections haven't been held since 2006, while the last presidential elections were held in 2005.

Hani al-Masri, the Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua that the American administration's upcoming change, the Arab and international pressures, and Hamas's flexibility might be the reasons that pushed Abbas to make his decision to set dates for holding the general elections.

"What I fear is not the external factor. I fear that these elections will constitute an entry point to reproduce the existing situation of internal division between Fatah and Hamas without a real change and restitution," al-Masri said.

He added that holding the Palestinian elections "would face internal challenges, such as the internal division and providing a free and fair environment without fraud."

"The external challenges are related to the financial interventions, and whether the Palestinians, Israel, and the United States will respect the election results," al-Masri said.

He also said that setting dates for holding the elections before launching a national dialogue between the political factions "is like going upside down," adding that "this dialogue should agree on making the elections successful, instead of discussing substantial issues that harvest big failure."

Al-Masri proposed that the factional dialogue "should prepare for a proper environment for holding the elections and agree upon a transitional government that prepares for free and transparent elections that everyone respects its results."

Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Xinhua that it is essential to hold the elections to renew the Palestinian political system, "but no one can predict what would happen during the upcoming stage."

Ibrahim expressed hope that the general elections will lead to an end of the internal Palestinian division that has continued since 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.

Rajab Abu Serreyah, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua that "if nothing happens and there will be no obstacles or challenges, the elections would strengthen the position of the Palestinian Authority as a legitimate and elected body to open a political horizon for the next stage."

He added that the Palestinian Authority would emerge after the elections, reinforced by Fatah and Hamas's partnership.

"It will be stronger than today, which means that any agreement with the next Palestinian Authority will be guaranteed implementation," Abu Serreyah said. Enditem
Bhopal:

One more debt-ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh, taking the number of cultivator deaths in the state to 12.



The latest suicide was reported from Dhar district on Friday where a 40-year-old farmer, Jagdish Mori of Rampura village took the extreme step by consuming pesticide.His family members claimed that Mori ended his life as he was disturbed because of mounting debts.



The victim had a bank loan on his farm land, which was registered in the name of his father, they claimed.



However, Dhar SP, Birendra Singh said that he took the extreme step because of a family dispute and the deceased has no land in his name.



He was a habitual drinker and yesterday had an altercation with his family members, the SP said adding the matter is under investigation.



Madhya Pradesh recently witnessed a big farmers stir over loan waiver, farm produce prices and other demands. The death of five farmers in police firing in Mandsaur district on June 6 during the unrest had triggered a series of protests in various parts of the state.



Since June 8, the state has witnessed a total of 12 farmer suicides. Earlier incidents were reported from Sehore, Hoshangabad, Raisen and Vidisha districts.

Suggested read | Farmers protests: Javadekar reveals 7-point strategy to double agrarian income

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US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

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Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

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Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

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Eurostar could go bust within months without a rescue package, MPs and business leaders warn.

Eurostar passenger numbers have plummeted 95 per cent since last March. It is now operating just two services a day to save money.

Industry projections suggest Eurostar, which is majority-owned by the French government, could go bust as early as April. Top London firms and chief executives, including Tom Athron, the chief executive of Fortnum and Mason, wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps over the weekend urging them to act. MPs also wrote to Mr Sunak last month.

Without a rescue package Eurostar could go bust, according to MPs and business leaders

Passengers numbers have fallen 95 per cent since last March and it now only operates two services a day

A Department for Transport spokesman said it has been engaging extensively with Eurostar since the pandemic began.

Ministers have also been warned a collapse risks increased fares for domestic services between Kent and London, which use the same route, because Eurostar pays to use the UK side of the line.

Sir Roger Gale, one of 12 MPs who wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak last month urging him to offer financial support, said French and UK ministers should come up with a joint plan.

He said: The fact is the fast link line from London St Pancras to Ashford and beyond to the tunnel is paid for on a per use basis by Eurostar and if they are not using it that means on that line the fares domestically potentially will have to rise.

So this is not about pouring money into a black hole.

We have to look ahead to when the pandemic ends. We have got to keep those routes and re-establish them.

It is a vital link to mainland Europe. I dont believe weve actually done enough to support our transport industries and I include aviation in that. But I do think there is a case for offering some help to make sure that Eurostar survives.

Sir Roger Gale is one of 12 MPs to have written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak last month urging him to offer financial support

A letter was also sent over the weekend by top London firms and CEOs to Mr Sunak and transport secretary Grant Shapps urging them to act.

Its signatories include Tom Athron, the CEO of the Queens grocer Fortnum and Mason, Brian Bickell, chief executive of West End landlord Shaftesbury, Basil Scarsella, chief executive of UK Power Networks and the bosses of City law firms Pinsent Masons and Clyde & Co.

It says Eurostar could run out of funds in the coming months, particularly given the emergence of new more infectious virus strains which have led to a further shutdown of international travel.

The line, which connects London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, has been credited with reducing carbon emissions.

It launched in 1994 and since then the number of flights between London and Paris has more than halved.

A Eurostar spokesman said: We are encouraged by the government backed loans that have been awarded to airlines and would once again ask that this kind of support be extended to international high-speed rail which has been severely impacted by the pandemic.

Without additional funding from government there is a real risk to the survival of Eurostar, the green gateway to Europe, as the current situation is very serious.
Mumbai, Jan 18 : In a significant verdict, the Bombay High Court on Monday said that "media trial" impacts investigations, violates laws, obstructs administration of justice besides amounting to a contempt of court.

The ruling was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni on a bunch of PILs filed by a group of IPS officers and activists vis-a-vis the case concerning the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020 and the resultant high-voltage media coverage.

"Media trial violates the programme code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act. We have held that the media trial runs counter to the programme code," said the judges.

The court said that since the electronic media does not have its own guidelines currently, the Press Council of India guidelines for print media would be applicable to the electronic media also.

Candidates who get selected in the mop-up round of AYUSH counselling will have to report for admission at allotted institutes between 28 January and 8 February.

The third round registration of AYUSH counselling 2020 will commence on 19 January. AYUSH Admissions Central Counselling Committee (AACCC) will begin the online registration process at aaccc.gov.in.

According to a report by NDTV, NEET 2020 qualified candidates will have register online for admission to BAMS, BSMS, BUMS, and BHMS seats under the all-India quota. As per the report, choice filling and locking facility will be available up to 24 January and the results will be announced on 27 January.

The report adds that candidates who get selected in the mop-up round of AYUSH counselling will have to report for admission at allotted institutes between 28 January and 8 February.

Here's how to register for AYUSH Counselling:

Step 1: Candidates need to go to the official website, aaccc.gov.in.

Step 2: Once there, they need to click on UG counselling.

Step 3: They need to click on the new registration tab and key in the required information, which will generate the login credentials.

Step 4: Candidates need to log in using their credentials and fill in the application form.

According to a report in ABP Education, the Ministry of AYUSH listed 40 percentile as the minimum marks required in NEET 2020. Students who hail from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes will require 30 percentile, while those with benchmark disabilities will require 30 percentile as well.

The first round of AYUSH counselling 2020 for NEET qualified candidates began on 26 November. The results were declared on 4 December. The second round of AYUSH counselling 2020 started on 22 December with the result of the second round being declared on 30 December.
LEEDS, Ala., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Buc-ee's, home of the world's cleanest bathrooms, freshest food and friendliest beaver, will unveil its new travel center in Leeds, Alabama, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 25, 2021, at 11 a.m. CST. The celebration will be attended by local leaders including Mayor David Miller, Lee Barnes, Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors member Johnny Brunson, Scott Barnes, City Zoning Administrator Brad Watson and City Clerk Toushi Arbitelle.

Located at 6900 Buc-ee's Boulevard, Buc-ee's Leeds joins Buc-ee's Loxley to bring the total number of Alabama Buc-ee's travel centers to two. After opening their first location in Georgia in late 2020, Buc-ee's is slated to continue their multi-state expansion by opening travel centers in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Florence, South Carolina, in 2021. Buc-ee's currently operates 38 stores across Texas, where it was founded.

Buc-ee's Leeds occupies more than 53,250 square feet and offers 120 fueling positions just outside its store with thousands of snack, meal and drink options for travelers on the go. The new travel center will also feature the same award-winning restrooms, cheap gas, quality products and excellent service that have won the hearts, trust and business of millions in Texas and Alabama for nearly 40 years. Buc-ee's favorites including Texas barbeque, homemade fudge, kolaches, Beaver nuggets, jerky and fresh pastries will all be available as well.

"Leeds is home to a vibrant community that we feel honored to join," said Stan Beard of Buc-ee's. "The new location is conveniently located for travelers--just east of Birmingham and on the way to Atlanta. We are thrilled to offer a friendly pit stop for passersby and provide residents of Leeds with new employment opportunities."

Buc-ee's remains committed to providing a friendly, safe and fun stop for travelers everywhere. Buc-ee's Leeds will bring upwards of 200 new, permanent, full-time jobs to the area with great pay, full benefits, 401k and three weeks of vacation.

About Buc-ee's

Buc-ee's is the world's most-loved travel center. Founded in 1982, Buc-ee's now has 38 stores across Texas, including the world's largest convenience store. Buc-ee's began its multi-state expansion in 2019, with a store in Loxley, Alabama. Buc-ee's opened its first store in Georgia in 2020, then broke ground on its first South Carolina outpost, and plans to open its first Florida travel center in 2021. Buc-ee's is known for pristine bathrooms, a large amount of fueling positions, friendly service, Buc-ee's apparel and fresh, delicious food. Originally launched and still headquartered in Texas, Buc-ee's has combined traditional quality and modern efficiency to redefine traveling for their customers. For more information, visit www.buc-ees.com.

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Baghpat native Shiv Kumar rode over 20 km on his bike daily to Rajiv Gandhi hospital in east Delhi during the lockdown, zealously fed coronavirus patients and shared their grief, and on Monday the 19-year-old became the youngest staff of the facility to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Kumar, son of a farmer, who delivered yeoman service during the pandemic last year, was beaming with pride and exhibited humility after getting a jab of Covishield on his arm at the vaccination centre of the hospital, which till recently was a dedicated coronavirus facility.

The teenager, who is pursuing a bachelor's course at a private university in Meerut through distance learning, says he took up a job of a multi-tasking staff at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) in April despite knowing that he will be "put on Covid duty". "I was not afraid of the virus at all, neither the lockdown made me feel scared. My family didn't ask me to do any job, but I did not want to sit at home after finishing high school. And, so, when my uncle told me about a job opportunity at this hospital, I took it up readily," Kumar told PTI.

On Monday, the second scheduled day of the mega COVID-19 vaccination drive, 20 staff got vaccinated nearly half of the number (45) on the launch day of the exercise on Saturday, officials said. "Out of the 65 beneficiaries, he (Shiv Kumar) is the youngest one to have been vaccinated at our hospital's centre. All our staff had risen to the occasion when it mattered," RGSSH spokesperson Chhavi Gupta said.

Kumar, when asked if he was afraid of getting vaccinated as many people are getting apprehensions about its efficacy and safety, said, "I don't have any fear at all." The 19-year-old still recalls the day when he would have to leave his home at Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat at 4.00 am to reach Delhi and join duty by 6-6:30 am when he was deployed in COVID-19 wards. "I was hired as an MTS (multi-tasking staff) and my job involved giving beverages to senior officers, carrying files and also COVID services. So, I have fed corona patients in their wards, wearing a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kit, sat with them, shared their grief," he recalled.

Asked why he chose to take up such a "precarious job", Kumar said, "I want to serve people, do something from them." "I know youth of my age were scared of the lockdown and the pandemic that wreaked havoc across the world. But there was a feeling of faith inside and an inner strength that allowed me to go on and do what I did," he said. The memories of grieving families, dead bodies piling up and extraordinary services of doctors and nurses and other staff, will be "part of my indelible memories forever".

While Kumar was tested negative for COVID-19 a few months ago, many of his colleagues were hit by by the pandemic, two of whom got vaccinated on Saturday. Tikesh Kumar, 27, another MTS, who had also joined the hospital during the early months of the lockdown, praised Kumar and his "zeal to serve the society, fearlessly".

"He is so young, his moustache has not even come properly. When he told me he was 19, I asked him to pull his mask down as I couldn't believe a teenage was serving in a dedicated coronavirus hospital," he said. RGSSH has till date treated nearly 4,000 patients and from a high number of fatalities in November when the third wave of the pandemic had hit Delhi, the active cases have come down to about 10, the facility's Medical Director, B L Sherwal told PTI.

"Our staff, young and old, experienced and newly-trained, all rose to the occasion. As far as the number of people turning up for vaccination is concerned, yes it is below expectation, and people feeling apprehensive about the vaccine is one factor behind it," he added. Kumar, when asked if his father is following the unprecedented protest by farmers at Singhu Border mostly drawn from Punjab, he said "quite intently".

"He fully supports the protesting farmers and I too have been reading in newspapers and seeing reports on internet," he said. "I am a farmer's son and not afraid of the odds. Also, RGSSH colleagues with whom I worked during the pandemic are like one family now."
A search and rescue operation for other crew members is underway.

Three bodies of the ARVIN ship's sailors have been found after the Palau-flagged freight vessel with 10 Ukrainians aboard sank off the coast of Turkey's Black Sea province of Bartin.

This was reported by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on its website with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Read alsoBulk carrier with Ukrainians on board sinks off Turkey coast in Black Sea (Video)

"According to the Turkish authorities, as of 10:00 Kyiv time on January 18, six crew members had been rescued (five citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of the Russian Federation), the bodies of three dead sailors had been found. Their identification is underway," it said.

At the same time, a search and rescue operation for other crew members continues.

ARVIN ship accident

On January 17, the ARVIN dry cargo ship sank in the Black Sea off the coast of the Turkish province of Bartin. On board there were 10 Ukrainians and two foreigners.

At first, it was reported that the vessel was Russian, later it became known that the ship was sailing under the flag of Palau and belonged to a Ukrainian company.

The ship was en route from the Georgian port of Poti to Burgas, Bulgaria.

The incident was caused by bad weather conditions.

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, five Ukrainian nationals and one foreigner were rescued; they were rushed to a local hospital, but later discharged.

Reporting by UNIAN
Economic forces, natural disasters, and foreign threats were easily surpassed by the threat presented by other people in America.

In coming years, a majority of the American public predicts that political violence will become more frequent, not more rare.

Voters overwhelmingly expect Joe Bidens focus as President to be placed upon the Chinese coronavirus, with concern over the virus evidently a bipartisan sentiment surpassing the deep political divisions of the Union.

Trump and Biden voters report overwhelming scorn for one another, with 5% of the former and 4% of the latter approving of the oppositions political constituency.

A slim majority of Trump voters reject viewing Joe Biden as a legitimate President.

Its one thing to lament the disunity and recommend the adoption of a partisan agenda as a tentative solution to the unprecedented decline in social trust in America. The most honest of commentators may be the ones who frankly admit that Americas legal and governing structure isnt designed for such a scenario and that the solutions arent readily available.

Follow me on Gab @WildmanAZ, Twitter @Wildman_AZ, and on Parler @Moorhead.
Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Amman on Monday in an official visit upon an invitation by King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues.

King Abdullah II received El-Sisi at Marka airport, according to the Royal Hashemite Court.

According to the Egyptian presidency, the two leaders will discuss ways to boost Egyptian-Jordanian relations, in addition to exchanging views on regional issues in light of the keeness of both sides on regular coordination to unify efforts to protect Arab national security.

The visit comes less than a week after Cairo hosted a quartet meeting attended by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Jordan to discuss coordination and consultation on means to push forward with the Middle East peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

In August, El-Sisi attended a tripartite summit in Amman between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq to discuss partnership prospects between the three countries, as well as regional issues, including the Palestinian cause.

Short link:


PORTLAND  John Antonelle got his calling late in life, though he always felt drawn to the church, even at an early age.

The grandson of Italian immigrants, Antonelle grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., became a well-regarded graphic artist at a New York advertising firm and, then, in his mid-40s, became a Catholic priest.

Formerly chaplain at the University of Connecticut,Antonelle is the newly installed pastor of St. Mary Church in Portland, which he oversees in the company of Patsy, his pet Boxer.

He feels his story seems to have been laid out for him by a higher power.

His parents were living in Brooklyn with one son, nine-year-old Patrick, when he was born.

I dethroned him when I came along, Antonelle said with a laugh during a recent interview.

However, as John grew up, Patrick was always good to me: he took me on his dates.

Their father, Pasquale, owned a personnel agency; when he retired, he concentrated on painting, Antonelle said.

He was quite an accomplished artist, a talent he passed on to both his sons.

In fact, Johns talents were so good they landed him a job as a graphic artist and designer with a New York advertising agency.

I was doing quite well. I lived in a Manhattan doorman (apartment) building, and took good vacations, he said.

But there was another element in Antonelles life, one he had grown up with. Id always felt called to the priesthood, he explained.

Even as a child, Id look at the priest on the altar and say, Id like to do that. I can do that, he said.

His parents, his mother, Mary, in particular, knew he was drawn to the church.

Still, they encouraged him to get a good education and respected his decision to work in advertising.

It was during that time in his life when things suddenly changed.

Antonelle had a family friend who also lived in the city. As Antonelle traveled to his office on Long Island for work, he would pick up his friend and drop him off at their parish church in Manhattan, where the man attended Mass every day.

And then one day, Antonelle got a phone call.

The friend had walked out of the church, collapsed and died on the sidewalk.

The mans death struck Antonelle, - and caused him to reassess his own life.

All that he had done up to that point, at 46 years old, could end in the blink of an eye, he said.

His friends sudden death gave him the strength to acknowledge his calling. He approached a priest he knew, and they discussed his future.

He told me it was never too late, that when God has a plan for you, He will keep at it. Well, God was very patient with me, Antonelle said.

Some family members thought I was a little crazy, he said, but not his mother.

She knew this was my true calling, he said. and he enrolled at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell.

It was, he acknowledged. a challenge going back to college. But he was buoyed by his mothers support.

She grew as I did, he said. It was a joint journey.

As his graduation drew closer, Antonelle had to choose the diocese in which he wanted to serve. He liked Cromwell, and mentioned it to an upper classman who put Antonelle in touch with the vocation director. In short order he got an application to join the Diocese of Norwich.

Everything just fell into place, Antonelle said, almost as if it was planned.

It was an indication that God - and Our Holy Mother Mary  were with me, he said.

Antonelle had been working at St. Bernards Church in Rockville when it came time for him to be ordained in 2006.

A busload of parishioners came to the ordination. They were delirious, he said. It was a wonderful experience.

But there also was some anxiety leading up to that day.

My mother had had a few close calls, and he had prayed fervently that she would be well and healthy for the ceremony.

She was, and was able to bring up the gifts during his first Mass as an ordained priest. She also got to see him perform his first baptism on a member of his extended family.

And then, a month later, Mary Antonelle went to be with God.

She was quite a lovely lady, Antonelle said.

I could not be upset by her death, he said, because God had heard his prayers and allowed her to see the ordination and the first Mass. And she became my first funeral, he said.

Antonelle embarked on serving in various roles in churches in Eastern Connecticut.

Because of a drastic fall-off in the number of men becoming priests  down by one-third over the past 50 years, according to an analysis by Georgetown University - Antonelle sometimes ministered to the faithful in two parishes at the same time.

And then he got a dream job at St. Thomas Aquinas Church on the UConn campus, ministering to Catholic students, while also serving as pastor of St. Mary Church in Coventry.

It was almost like I was making up for lost time, he said.

Last fall, he was told he was coming to St. Mary in Portland.

I feel very much at home, here in Portland, he said. The staff has been so helpful and supportive, in particular the administrative assistant, Anna Freeman.

And I have been asked to be chaplain to both the Fire Department and the Police Department, which is an honor I gladly accepted, he said.

There have been many twists and turns in his journey, Antonelle acknowledged.

But its Gods plan, he said, and so you have to be open to it and have to be positive about it.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

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Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

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Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

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Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with startups and addressed Prarambh: Startup India International Summit via video conferencing on Saturday, January 16, 2021. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that the start-ups are changing the demographic characteristics of todays business. He pointed out that 44 per cent recognised startups have women directors and number of women working in these start up is very high. Similarly, 45 per cent startups are in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, working as the brand ambassadors of the local products. Every state is supporting and incubating startups as per local possibilities and 80 per cent of districts of the country are now part of the Startup India mission.

In 2014, only 4 Indian startups were in the Unicorn club now, more than 30 startups have crossed the 1 billon mark, Modi added. Noting the fact that 11 startups entered the Unicorn club in 2020 during the Corona time, the Prime Minister underlined their contribution in the Aatmnirbharta during the crisis.

The Prime Minister also announced launching of Startup India seed fund with Rs 1,000 crore so that there is no shortage of seed money for startups. The Government will also help the startups in raising capital through guarantees.

The Prime Minister said that the biggest USP of the startup world is its disruption and diversification capacity. He was addressing Prarambh: Startup India International Summit today via video conferencing today.

Modi further said that the biggest USP of the startup world is its disruption and diversification capacity. Disruption  as startups are giving rise to new approaches, new technology and new ways. They are changing the time-worn ways of thinking. Diversification  because a large number are coming up with diverse ideas bringing revolution is diverse sectors with unprecedented scale and substance. They are revolutionising multiple sectors. The greatest feature of this ecosystem is that it is guided more by passion than pragmatism. This can-do spirit is evident in the way India is working today, Modi said.

The Prime Minister gave the example of BHIM UPI, which has revolutionised the payment system as only in December 2020, 4 lakh crore worth of transactions took place through UPI in India. Similarly, India is leading in solar and AI sector.

India is working for a startup ecosystem based on the mantra Of the Youth, By the Youth, For the Youth. We have to fix our goals for the next five years and these goals should be that our startups, our unicorns should emerge as global giants and lead in the futuristic technologies, Modi concluded.
EV

SUV

This is exactly what happened recently to a Tesla Model Y owner who had just taken delivery of the electric compact crossover utility vehicle mere days before the crash that might have left thean insurance write-off.According to the details shared by the Wham Baam Teslacam YouTube channel inside its latest compilation (which also includes other incidents from the 1:50 mark), the Model Y was being driven down the center lane of a three-lane freeway somewhere in San Francisco, California. The driver was doing around 70 mph (113 kph) when an equally compact Honda Civic came up from behind on the fast lane.The initial impact occurred on the rear left side of the Model Y (front right side for the Civic ), and the two vehicles locked and spun together before the Honda broke off, hit the center divider... and hit the Model Y once more.This time around, thetook the impact on the right side towards the front wheel/right passenger door and again spun out of control before the driver managed to safely pull out of traffic.Thanks to Teslas array of cameras, were being presented with the incident from all angles, which also leads to the comment on the Model Ys inherent safety traits. Its all due to the heavy battery pack thats placed low down to achieve a sporty center of gravity, and the added heft of the CUV made it a lot less prone to being uncontrollable for a long period of time.As for the Civic, things are quite different because the compact car is probably around half the weight of the 4,416-lb (2,003-kg) Tesla Model Y electric compact SUV. Of course, theres another small detail that led to the outcome  the Honda Civic driver was driving under the influence and ended up being taken in custody of the Police following the incident.
(Newser)  Rudy Giulianiwho called for "trial by combat" at the Trump rally that preceded the Capitol riotwon't be representing the president in his trial by Senate on a charge of inciting an insurrection. "Because I gave an earlier speech, I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or Senate chamber," Giuliani told ABC News Sunday night, a day after he told the network that he was involved with the impeachment defense and would raise voter fraud allegations. Sources tell the New York Times that Giuliani met Trump at the White House Saturday night, and the president told people the next day that the former New York City mayor would not be on the team for his second impeachment defense.

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The sources say the president was unhappy about Giuliani's Saturday ABC interview, in which he said Trump might testify. Republican strategist Karl Rove said Sunday that Trump would be more likely to be convicted in the Senate trial if Giuliani was on the team, Forbes reports. "With the Rudy Giuliani defense there is a strong likelihood that more than 17 Republicans will (vote to convict)," Rove told Fox News. Rove believes that's because Giuliani has been arguing that Trump wasn't spouting "fighting words" but truth when he talked about voter fraud, so it wasn't incitement. Giuliani has asserted that "the attack on the Capitol and the attempt to end the Congressional hearing on certifying the election was justified because all these charges are true," said Rove. "Frankly, they are not." (Trump is reportedly refusing to pay Giuliani.)
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Among the many urgent issues that the N.M. Legislature will be addressing in the upcoming legislative session, economic diversification will be one of our top priorities. The most recent market fallout in the oil and gas industry is a stark reminder of how volatile the industry is, and its a call to action to expeditiously diversify and ensure that NMs businesses and economy are dynamic and no longer at the mercy of global oil markets.

One new industry that has the heft to jolt NMs economy in very positive and productive ways is the recreational cannabis industry. Economists have projected more than 11,000 new jobs, $300 million in annual sales, and $50 million in new revenue to the state budget would be generated in the first year alone. The recreational cannabis industry can play a major role in rebuilding NMs economy in ways that benefit every corner of the state.

But its not all about the money.

New Mexico has the opportunity to legalize cannabis the right way, correcting the many wrongs of the failed War on Drugs which for more than 50 years has disproportionately hurt communities of color through mass incarceration, family separation, joblessness, drug addiction and poverty. In the upcoming legislative session, we have the opportunity to legalize cannabis with these foundational principles.

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The War on Drugs, which dates back to Jim Crow policies of the 1940s and 1950s, has been among the most shortsighted, ineffective and dangerous federal policies implemented. It has been politicized and used to target communities of color and has been applied disproportionately for decades, resulting in mass criminalization of people of color. With an equitable cannabis legalization policy that leads with racial justice, we can do our part to undo some of the worst legacy impacts of the failed War on Drugs.

These policies  which we consider mandatory to any cannabis legislation introduced  include:

 Allowing individuals with prior cannabis convictions to work in the new cannabis industry and to apply and receive a license.

 Requiring a social and economic plan to encourage diversity in licensing.

 Providing protections so that nobody is denied public benefits or health care based on cannabis use or a positive cannabis drug test or barred from licensure or employment of any kind because of prior cannabis convictions.

 Investing funds generated by cannabis back into communities most harmed by inequitable enforcement of cannabis prohibition laws.

 Providing financial assistance to low-income patients who use medical cannabis.

In addition, we can also create incentives and opportunities for homegrown New Mexico entrepreneurs to compete fairly against a new crop of multinational cannabis companies. Just a few months ago, Northern Community College in El Rito announced its plan to start a new Cannabis Tech and Industry program on its El Rito Campus Branch Community College.

Recent statewide polling has shown that 72% of New Mexicans favor cannabis legislation if they contain these types of equity provisions. New Mexicans are ready. We are sick and tired of the War on Drugs. We all want to see our state diversify our economy, create new industries and offer jobs and small business opportunities so our young people stay in New Mexico and not leave for greener pastures. These equity provisions will make New Mexico a national leader in legalizing cannabis the right way.

New Mexicos cannabis legalization policy must ensure equity and diversity while reinvesting in the communities that were the hardest hit by cannabis criminalization. I encourage you to learn more about how we can legalize cannabis and not repeat the mistakes created by the War on Drugs.

We can be national leaders if we legalize cannabis the right way. The time is now, New Mexico.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh talks on the phone with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on January 7 on bilateral economic and trade issues (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The US Trade Representative (USTR), in its report released on January 15 on findings in the Section 301 investigation of Vietnams acts, policies, and practices related to currency valuation, did not mention or recommend the imposition of tariff or any sanction measures on Vietnams exports, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on January 16.

The ministry informed the press on January 16 that the USTRs report provided comprehensive information regarding the case, including the reasons and purposes of the investigation.



The report did not mention or recommend imposing tariff or any sanction measures on Vietnams exports, the ministry said, noting that the efforts made at all levels, from Government leaders to officials of ministries, sectors, agencies, associations and businesses of both Vietnam and the US have brought about positive outcomes.



The ministry, as chair of the Vietnam section in the Vietnam-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council and the agency authorized by the Prime Minister to work with the US in handling the case, welcomed the conclusion of the USTRs report.



The USTRs decision has a positive meaning to bilateral trade, Vietnams business and investment environment and the multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.



According to the Ministry, immediately after the reports release, Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, announced that the US business community welcomed the news that the Trump Administration will not impose tariffs on goods from Vietnam.



Trade actions are an inappropriate means by which to address currency valuation questions, he said in a statement, adding that the business community strongly encourages the United States to foster a closer strategic and commercial partnership with Vietnam as that country grows in importance as a commercial market.



The Ministry of Industry and Trade stressed that Vietnam attaches importance to its economic and trade relations with the US, considering those relations an important pillar and a driver of the bilateral ties between Vietnam and the US.



In the time ahead, Vietnam will continue with efforts to open up the market, intensify policy dialogue through TIFA Council mechanisms and seriously implement bilateral cooperation agreements so as to produce substantial outcomes and comprehensively address the concerns of the US and Vietnam, thereby maintaining stable trade ties towards a sustainable and harmonious trade balance that benefit both sides.



The Ministry of Industry and Trade, as co-chair of the TIFA Council, along with Vietnamese ministries and sectors, is willing to talk with officials at all levels of the USTR and relevant agencies, including at ministerial or working levels, in any form, to address concerns and create specific progress in outstanding problems in economic and trade relations between the two countries, in a cooperative, goodwill and constructive spirit, so that the two sides can officially end the investigations, the ministrys representative said.
The nurse died at Wexford General Hospital, where he worked (PA)

Tributes have been paid to a popular nurse who died with Covid-19 in hospital over the weekend.

Solson Payyappillil Saviour, a father-of-one, was described by his former colleagues as someone who was always full of life.

Gowran Abbey Nursing Home in Co Kilkenny said that he lost his personal battle with Covid-19 on Sunday at Wexford General Hospital.

Solson, originally from India, had worked at the nursing home for three years.

In a statement, the nursing home said: Just over two years ago we shared the happiness of one of our colleagues, nurse Solson Saviour as he announced the news that he was the proud new father of a baby boy, his first-born.

Today, we received the devastating news that Solson tragically lost his personal battle with Covid-19, as he sadly died in Wexford Hospital this afternoon.

Solson came to Ireland from India, and spent his first three years in this country working and living with us in Gowran Abbey before moving to Wexford where, as a nurse, he became a sad victim of Covid-19. Another true Covid hero.

Solson was always full of life and had a gentle smile and kind word for all our residents.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his heartbroken wife and young son at this time, and also with his family in India who have been so tragically touched by the devastating reality of this cruel Covid-19 virus.

Solson was always full of life and had a gentle smile and kind word for all our residents Gowran Abbey Nursing Home

We extend our sincere condolences to Solsons wife Bincy, his son, family and friends, and also to the extended Indian community, many whom, like Solson, work and care for people in our hospitals and nursing homes throughout this country.

His former colleagues at Ros Aoibhinn Nursing Home in Co Wexford also paid tribute to him.

Mr Saviour had worked at Ros Aoibhinn Nursing Home up until December last year.

In a statement posted on Facebook, they said: It is with great sadness that we learned yesterday evening of the sudden and tragic loss of our former colleague Solson Saviour.

Solson lost his personal battle with Covid-19 in Wexford Hospital yesterday evening.

Solson was a very kind and gentle nurse, always smiling and he will be greatly missed by us all here in Ros Aoibhinn.

Our thoughts, prayers and hearts go to Solsons wife Bincy, his young son, and his family in India at this devastating and very sad time.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) also paid tribute to the nurse, describing him as a valued member of the nursing community for many years in Wexford and Kilkenny.

We have seen tremendous courage in our community over the past year, and we extend our sincere sympathies and solidarity to all those who are grieving at this time Varghese Joy, Migrant Nurses Ireland

INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheadhgha said: It was with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of Solson Saviour.

On behalf of our members and everyone in the INMO, I want to extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Bincy, their young son and his family. We also extend our condolences to our members who worked alongside Solson, and our thanks to those who cared for him in Wexford General Hospital.

Migrant Nurses Irelands Varghese Joy said it is a devastating loss for his family, friends and colleagues.

He added: We have seen tremendous courage in our community over the past year, and we extend our sincere sympathies and solidarity to all those who are grieving at this time.

THINK plant protein is just a passing fad? Think again.

Opinion

THINK plant protein is just a passing fad? Think again.

You likely noticed that the plant-based counter at your favourite grocery store is growing. Theres good reason: people are buying.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaos surrounding containment and vaccination rules, consumers are quietly enjoying products made from plant proteins and milk alternatives. According to recent data offered by Nielsen, since the start of 2020 sales of vegetable protein products have increased by 31 per cent.

At the retail level, the market for plant-based protein substitutes is worth almost $300 million in Canada. Thats an impressive figure, considering where the category was a few years ago. By 2025, along with food service, this market could easily exceed $1 billion.

Some may be surprised to learn that Beyond Meat, the "darling" of plant-based proteins, is far from dominating the market in Canada. Indeed, American brand Yves de Hain Celestial Group is most popular in Canada. The Yves brand has existed since 1985 and stands out for its innovative product development. The company offers all kinds of products for a variety of tastes.

In second place is Sunrise, and in third place is Gardein. Beyond Meat is ranked fourth in sales by brand of plant-based proteins.

Twenty brands in Canada have generated sales exceeding $3 million in the past 52 weeks. Several large companies, including Maple Leaf and Kellogg, now offer products without animal meats. So theres a lot of traffic in an area that remains relatively new.

Consumers are interested in these products for three important reasons:

First, animal welfare is a concern for all those who support local agriculture and who are concerned about animal exploitation.

Theres also health. Several studies suggest that plant protein products are a better choice from a nutritional perspective, although some of these studies are heavily disputed by the livestock industry.

Finally, the environment. More consumers see the planet on their dinner plate and claim that animal production emits too many greenhouse gases. The livestock sector also disputes such claims as it tries to change practices to become a greener sector. The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is a good example.

These factors appear to be motivating consumers, and Nielsens sales numbers confirm that consumers are looking beyond meat for sources of proteins. Of course, some may believe the movement toward plant proteins is disrupting traditional sectors such as cattle and dairy. Even though these sectors provide consumers with high-quality, all-natural products, the threat is certainly real.

Its no coincidence that Agropur Dairy Cooperative just sold its yogurt division to the major French dairy group Lactalis. But given whats going on with the pandemic and American politics, the announcement was largely unnoticed.

Many consumers are revisiting their relationship with animal proteins, both at the meat counter and in the dairy products section. But the Agropur dairy farmers co-operative was never ready or willing to make the switch to plants. So the dairy sector in Quebec is moving on, with a good portion of its dairy processing capacity going foreign.

Giving consumers more choice is critical. Livestock and dairy producers may feel threatened, thinking food business is a zero-sum game. Some win and some lose. And it may have been like this for years, but since consumers are looking for value, everyone has a place and role to play.

Animal and vegetable proteins are complementary. With a more sophisticated consumer looking for novelty, and value, companies must bet on a growing market and not the other way around. This is what Agropur never wanted to do, and paid the price.

Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.

 Troy Media
Joe Biden's team on Monday quashed Donald Trump's plan to lift the travel ban on visitors from the UK, Brazil and Europe, instead announcing they will strengthen border controls.

Officials had told Reuters the outgoing president, set to leave office Wednesday, had planned to remove the current restrictions starting on January 26.

In an order Trump wrote 'this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely'.

But just 90 minutes later the president elect's press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted: 'With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel.

'On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.'

The current restrictions bar nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the 26 countries of the Schengen area in Europe that allow travel across open borders within the last 14 days.

Restrictions on travelers from Europe have been in place since mid-March; the Brazilian entry ban was imposed in May. The Trump administration imposed the bans in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Under Trump's plan the restrictions had been set to end the same day that new COVID-19 test requirements take effect requiring all international visitors to have a negative result.

It was first reported in November that the administration had been considering lifting the restrictions, imposed early last year in response to the pandemic, after winning support from coronavirus task force members and public health officials.

But new coronavirus variants have been found in both the UK and Brazil in recent weeks. The UK's strain, B 1.1.7., has resulted in the country being forced back into strict lockdowns. The CDC has already warned it could become dominant in the US by March, triggering massive surges in cases.

In Brazil the Amazonas state where the variant emerged is now so overwhelmed with coronavirus cases that health care system in the capitol, Manaus, is in 'collapse,' Brazil's Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said.

Joe Biden's team on Monday quashed Donald Trump's plan to lift travel ban on visitors from the UK, Brazil and Europe, instead announcing they will strengthen border restrictions

Officials had told Reuters the outgoing president, set to leave office Wednesday, had planned to remove restrictions starting on January 26. But just 90 minutes later the president elect's press secretary Jen Psaki had tweeted

Passengers pictured at JFK Airport in New York last month. Restrictions on travelers from Europe have been in place since mid-March; the Brazilian entry ban was imposed in May. The Trump administration imposed the bans in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic

Last week, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed an order requiring nearly all air travelers to present a negative coronavirus test or proof of recovery from COVID-19 to enter the United States starting on January 26.

Airlines had hoped the new testing requirements would clear the way for the administration to lift the restrictions that reduced travel from some European countries by 95 per cent or more.

They pressed senior White House officials about the issue in recent days.

Reuters previously reported the White House was not considering lifting entry bans on most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in China or Iran.

On Twitter US visa holders and those with relatives in America asked Biden to consider opening the borders up to allow their travel

On Twitter US visa holders and those with relatives in America asked Biden to consider opening the borders up to allow their travel.

Justin Elbon wrote: 'Its time to lift restrictions that are keeping familys separate. Many of which have been in quarantine for a long time and wish to be with their loved ones again. Its time to end the ban on people that wish to come to the US from Eur.'

Another Twitter user said: 'Youre forgetting the impact of this travel ban to immigration and immigrants. At least allow people with visas to enter the US after being stuck abroad for 10 months.'

Elena Graham tweeted: 'PLEASE consider a middle ground that allows partners/immediate family members to reunite with testing and quarantine. It's been a horrific year for binational families.

'Please also do not discriminate against unmarried partners.

@CFCHudsonValley wrote: 'Would US, EU & other countries figure out a testing/quarantine protocol that would allow those of us w/ loved ones in other countries to visit them safely. Would happily isolate pre/during/post travel & take multiple tests to be able to visit my daughter. Shes my only family.'

Other Twitter users backed the continued ban replying to Psaki on Monday evening

Other backed the continued ban, writing: 'Thank God there are about to be adults in charge.'

Another replied to Psaki saying: 'Thank you. Can we implement travel restrictions specifically from the areas where these variants are currently appearing. We failed to do this the first time around... and can we ramp up testing here for these mutations so that we can properly isolate and contain them?'

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has effectively shut the UK's borders amid fears of the spread of 'mutant' Covid first detected in southern England.

All arrivals to the UK from abroad will have to test negative and isolate for 10 days when they get here, regardless of where they come from.

The new regime will be backed by tougher spot checks and stay in place until at least February 15 as ministers and scientists work out how to manage the threat posed by mutations.

A COVID-19 patient, one of 12 to be transferred in a military airplane, is assisted by medical staff at the Ponta Pelada airport in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, on January 15. The health system in Manaus, in the Brazilian northern state of Amazonas, is at breaking point. The city's hospital intensive care units have been at 100 percent capacity for the past two weeks, while medical workers are battling a shortage of oxygen and other essential equipment

Travellers in the international arrival area of Heathrow Airport, near London on Monday

Scientists have warned that the new variants seen in Brazil and the UK could easily reinfect people who have survived COVID-19 because there is possible resistance against antibodies, which evades the immune system response generated by the first infection.

What's more, they caution that the variants could force researchers to update vaccines often to the point that it becomes like the flu with a shot needed every season.

There is currently no evidence that any of the variants are resistant to either Pfizer of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. However, the fact that new mutations keep cropping up is concerning.

'The not-so-good news is that the rapid evolution of these variants suggests that if it is possible for the virus to evolve into a vaccine-resistant phenotype, this may happen sooner than we like,' Philip Krause, chair of a WHO working group on COVID-19 vaccines, told Science Magazine.

Last Tuesday, Marty Cetron, director of CDC's global migration and quarantine division, said the entry bans were an 'opening act strategy' to address the virus spread and should now be 'actively reconsidered.'

Many administration officials for months argued the restrictions no longer made sense given most countries were not subject to the entry bans.

Others have argued the United States should not drop entry bans since many European countries still block most U.S. citizens.
A health care worker gives a CCP virus test at a COVID drive-thru testing center at Bergen Community College in Paramus, N.J., on Dec. 3, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

CCP Virus Updates: US Death Toll Approaching 400,000

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 23,653,919 cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, an increase of 213,145 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 3,557 to 394,495.

Outbreaks in China Continue to Worsen

The CCP virus outbreak in northern Chinas Hebei Province continues to worsen as two hospitals reportedly had large numbers of medical staff test positive for the CCP virus.

Meanwhile, authorities detected a superspreader in Jilin Province and have been scrambling to find all those who were in contact with the person in recent days.

UK Strain of Virus Found in Los Angeles

Public health officials in Los Angeles County said that the UK COVID-19 strain discovered late last year has been found in the county, warning that a surge of the CCP virus will continue into the near future at the very least.

Los Angeles County on Jan. 16 surpassed 1 million overall CCP virus cases, officials said.

Brazil Clears Emergency Use of 2 Vaccines

Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and Britains AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.

Biden Team Projects More Deaths

Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain says the pandemic will get worse before it gets better, projecting another 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the first five weeks of President-elect Joe Bidens administration.

Ice Cream in China Tests Positive

Officials in a Chinese municipality said that three samples of ice cream tested positive for the CCP virus, and thousands of boxes were confiscated, according to state-run media.

Officials said that the companys more than 1,662 workers were placed under quarantine.

Nicole Hao, Jack Phillips, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report
Heavily guarded statehouses around the country are seeing small groups of right-wing protesters on Sunday. Some of the protesters are repeatedly seen carrying rifles.

National Guard troop members and police force were brought in to prevent a repeat of the violence and deadly riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press report.

Heavily fortified statehouses surrounded with protesters

Security was ramped up in certain states after the Federal Bureau of Investigation cautioned law enforcement authorities of possible armed protests in Washington D.C., as well as at all 50 state capitol buildings before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

Only a small crowd was seen at some statehouse. Several streets in other cities are still empty. Some supporters noted that they were going to support U.S. President Donald Trump.

Others said that they will be in protests to voice their support for gun rights pr condemn government overreach.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said that commanders have been warned to be on the lookout for problems inside their ranks.

McCarthy added that Guard troops are being trained to identify potential insider threats, according to The Guardian report.

"We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation," McCarthy was quoted on a report.

He and other leaders said they had not seen evidence of any such threats. In addition, officials said the vetting had not flagged any issues.

Troy Thompson, the spokesman for the Department of General Services, said that it was a non-event today and that they are glad it was.

Department of General Services is responsible for the protection of the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg.

Related story: Possible Armed Protests To Erupt Across 50 States, FBI Memo Warns Law Enforcement

Statehouses Situation

Meanwhile, some militias and extremist groups told followers to stay at homes, noting the increased security or the risk that the planned events were law enforcement traps, according to a South China Morning Post report.

Downtown Washington was empty on Sunday as National Guard members in camouflage manned checkpoints across the city center. Large military vehicles were deployed to block streets, which caused some streets to be closed off to traffic.

In Virginia, streets around the statehouse were lined with police barricades. Richmond was widely empty except for a few police officers and reporters.

About two dozen members of the Boogaloo Bois movement gathered at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. They were among protesters who were heavily-armed.

However, members said that they were there for a long-planned gun rights protest, according to a BBC report.

In Michigan, the statehouse in Lansing has seen nearly two dozen people protesting outside as police watched on. Some of the protesters in the area were carrying rifles.

More protests are seen to erupt as Biden will officially be taking oath into office, ending the Trump administration.

Biden will reportedly issue executive orders to oppose Trump's travel bans, as well as re-join the Paris climate accord on his first day in the White House.

The president-elect has also recently unveiled a COVID-19 plan with a price cap worth $1.9 trillion.

He also noted that he will be focusing on reuniting families that were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Related story: Trump Concedes Election To Biden, Condemns Capitol Riot


Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

More than 40 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been given around the world according to an AFP count Monday, with Israel topping the global table.

Israel leads

At least 60 countries or territories, representing 61 percent of the global population, have launched vaccination campaigns.

But nine out of 10 doses have taken place in only 11 countries.

Israel is by far leading the mass vaccination race in proportion to its population: 2.43 million vaccines have been given to 2.12 million people, or nearly a quarter of the population.

Some 3.6 percent of Israelis have already received the second dose.

The country secured a huge stock of Pfizer jabs partly by pledging to share impact data quickly with the company.

One privacy specialist describing the rollout as "the biggest experiment on humans in the 21st century".

Britain tops Europe

The US leads the way in terms of volume, giving 12.28 million jabs to 10.60 million people (3.2 percent of the population), ahead of China (more than 10 million doses).

In Europe the UK is leading, having been the first in the region to begin its innoculation campaign at the start of December.

So far it has administered 4.31 million doses to 3.86 million people (5.7 percent of the population).

Next are Italy (1.15 million doses) and Germany (1.05 million).

European Union countries in all have administered more than 5 million doses to some 1.2 percent of citizens.

Denmark is leading in the bloc with 2.9 percent of its citizens already receiving one dose.

Seven vaccines

There are currently seven vaccines circulating around the world, all designed to be given in two doses.

The vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech (US-German) and Moderna (US) are dominant in North America, Europe, Israel and the Gulf.

Britain's AstraZeneca-Oxford is used in much of the UK and India, with the latter also using a vaccine produced by its pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine has been rolled out in Russia, Argentina, Belarus and Serbia.

China's Sinopharm jabs are being administered in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the Seychelles and Jordan, while Indonesia and Turkey are using China's Sinovac vaccine.

Global total

At least 40,062,725 vaccines have been administered, according to data collected by AFP based on official sources on Monday at 1030 GMT.

This figure is undoubtedly an underestimate since China, the US and Russia have not updated their data in recent days.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
More than 400 people have been fined by gardai for breaching Covid-19 travel restrictions in the past week.

The majority of the fines, 300, were issued last weekend for suspected breaches of the Governments travel restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.

People are required to stay at home except for travel for work, education or other essential purposes.

Exercise is permitted with five kilometres of home.

Read More

Gardai said between Monday and Friday of last week a total of 74 fines for non-essential travel had been processed.

The fines issued over the weekend will now be checked and processed.

Today GardaA in the Wicklow Division issued over 70 Fixed Payment Notices and turned back over 200 vehicles after issuing a caution to the drivers.



The COVID-19 Pandemic remains a public health crisis.



(1/2)#StayHome pic.twitter.com/XwT7dy4wP8  An Garda SAochAna (@GardaTraffic) January 17, 2021

Once these are processed, definitive figures will be available later this week.

Since January 11, the Garda have been permitted to issue a 100 euro fixed payment notice to anyone in breach of travel restrictions.

Gardai had warned the public not to travel for non-essential reasons and that checks were being conducted throughout the country.

They have reminded people that the 5km limit includes the distance travelled to a location to exercise.

In other words, you cant travel more than 5km to a location to exercise, a Garda spokesman said.

Read More

On Sunday gardai in Wicklow issued over 70 fixed payment notices and turned back over 200 vehicles after issuing a caution to the drivers.

In Longford, 30 people were fined and 70 vehicles were turned back after gardai from Roscommon/Longford roads policing conducted a check at Newcastle Woods, Ballymahon on Sunday.
The vaccine roll-out minister accused a company boss of 'discriminatory' practices today after he insisted that he would not employ people who did not get a coronavirus vaccine.

Charlie Mullins, the high profile founder of pipe-unblocking giant Pimlico Plumbers said he would insist his staff had the jab to protect his workers and customers.

But Nadhim Zahawi insisted this morning that the injection should be handed out on a voluntary basis, with no Government plans to make it compulsory.

It also emerged today that as much as a fifth (21 per cent) of care home staff working for one provider have declined to take the vaccine.

When asked about Pimlico Plumbers' policy, Mr Zahawi replied: 'I think that is discriminatory.'

He added: 'We're not that sort of country and I think it's important we do it by persuasion.'

Charlie Mullins, the high profile founder of pipe-unblocking giant Pimlico Plumbers said he would insist his staff had the jab to protect his workers and customers

But Nadhim Zahawi insisted this morning that the injection should be handed out on a voluntary basis, with no Government plans to make it compulsory.

Speaking to LBC Radio, Mr Mullins said: 'It's an employer's right to protect and look after their employees.'

He said he would not put staff and customers at risk unnecessarily, and that in future the company would not be taking on anybody that had not been vaccinated.

After the minister's intervention he said: 'I like Vaccine Minister Nadim Zahawi, but if ''jab for a job'' is discriminatory, then what about his Government's ''no test no touchdown'' policy?

'The government's refusal to let anyone into the country without a negative Covid test - and that's for UK citizens or foreigners  is a bit of a kettle and pot situation I think.

'Nadhim's got us all wrong, but for the record I still think what the government are doing is right - just like our plans! The virus is a killer and if you don't take it on face to face it's all over.'

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Zahawi said the Government still favoured persuasion over force.

'I think, as the Prime Minister has said, we're not the sort of country that forces people to take vaccines, we want to do it by persuasion.'

Mr Zahawi said he was 'very confident' that the Government would reach its vaccination targets through persuasion, citing a recent poll indicating the UK has the second-highest vaccine take up in the world.

He said this was due to the fact the health service 'is seen to be transparent' about the process and the risks.

Data obtained by the PA news agency shows between 5 per cent and 21 per cent of care home staff offered a vaccine have declined it.

One large UK care home group, which asked to remain anonymous, said more than half of residents and 36.8 per cent of staff have had at least one dose as of January 14.

However, 21 per cent of staff and 2.7 per cent of residents offered the vaccine had chosen not to take it up, with data suggesting that younger workers were more likely to be hesitant.

There is currently no centralised data from the NHS or Government on how many care home residents and staff have been given the vaccine, and how many have refused a jab.

However, Boris Johnson said on Friday that almost 40 per cent of elderly residents have been vaccinated.

Nadra Ahmed, from the National Care Association (NCA), said there has been a reduction in refusals following a strong push from providers to address fears and anxieties.

She said information from members and other industry bodies suggests around 6 per cent-8 per cent of care staff still remain nervous or resistant due to health and cultural reasons, down from 18 per cent-20 per cent at the start of the rollout.

But she said many are now being persuaded as they see colleagues get the jab, while the NCA is seeking legal advice on whether care workers could be forced to take the jab.

As of January 14, 47 per cent of residents and 37 per cent of staff in the 200-plus homes run by Barchester Healthcare had been given at least one dose of one of the approved vaccines.

It is understood that 5 per cent of staff offered a jab have refused it.

The figure for staff refusals at Sunrise Senior Living and Gracewell Healthcare's 46 care homes is around 8 per cent of those offered, and just 1 per cent for residents, with more than half of residents now vaccinated.
HAARLEM, Netherlands, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 62 million households have recently watched The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, sparking a surge of interest in chess worldwide with a recent 300%+ increase in searches for "chess" according to Google Trends and chess book sales rising by more than 600% according to the NPD Group. With incredibly high levels of interest in chess, a new innovative app now provides the possibility to turn a smartphone or tablet into a digital chess set for two players for the first time. Entrepreneur Adrian McPhee developed "Two Player Chess", a symmetrical digital chessboard app, to solve problems with traditional 2D chess designs that have meant until now two people couldn't enjoy chess together on a single device.

Two players using a single iPad as a virtual chessboard thanks to Two Player Chess

When two people are using a single phone or tablet as a chessboard, traditional 2D chess piece designs have meant the pieces are upside down for one player - because the players are sitting opposite each other and the pieces are not symmetrical. This caused Adrian McPhee, a chess player himself, to develop "Two Player Chess" a symmetrical digital chess board app for mobile and tablet devices. With the unique symmetrical design, players of Two Player Chess both see the same board, just as with a traditional chessboard. Every smartphone or tablet can now be turned into a virtual chessboard for two players with Two Player Chess, meaning you always have a chessboard with you.

Adrian got the idea for Two Player Chess a few years ago, when during a holiday he discovered that he couldn't find an app that would turn his iPad into a chessboard for two. During the first COVID-19 lockdown he decided to develop his idea into an application, with the thought that during this time more people would want to play boardgames. The release of Two Player Chess has accidentally coincided with the massive spike in popularity of chess driven by the successful Netflix series: "Friends and colleagues are asking me if I had knowledge about the Netflix release calendar!" Adrian says.

Whether a digital chessboard makes the traditional chessboard redundant remains to be seen. It is a fact that Two Player Chess can be an alternative for starting chess players who have a smartphone or tablet and are on the fence about buying a chess set. Features in Two Player Chess such as the highlighting of legal moves can help beginners to understand chess, whilst flexible timers, a record of game history and ability to share games via email and Whatsapp also provide advantages over traditional chess sets. For more advanced players, Two Player Chess is a great addition to the traditional chess board, because it offers the possibility to play chess anytime and anywhere with two people. Two Player Chess can be downloaded for free via the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Links are provided at https://twoplayerchess.com

Editorial note: for more information, please contact Adrian McPhee: [email protected]

Related Images

two-player-chess-turn-your-tablet.jpg

Two Player Chess - turn your tablet or phone into a two-player chessboard.

Two players using a single iPad as a virtual chessboard thanks to Two Player Chess

Related Links

Two Player Chess Website

Related Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_aLS5nCoVY

SOURCE twoplayerchess.com
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for Republicans and Democrats to equally condemn domestic terrorism, as she appeared alongside Michigans Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on MSNBC Sunday night.

The trio of Democratic officials spoke with anchor Alicia Menendez on the left-leaning networks American Voices about Michigans extremist threats over the last year, including Aprils storming of the state Capitol and the attempted kidnapping of Whitmer in October.

Michigan has been living with this extremism longer than the rest of the country, Whitmer told Menendez, adding that rhetoric by President Donald Trump incited people.

This whole year has been so partisan and destructive, she said. The partisanship around issue of wearing a mask has cost people lives. When the President tweets something like Liberate Michigan, or an attack on our attorney general, or our secretary of state or on me, it incites people. It legitimizes actions to hurt us. That is not acceptable and it should have never been deemed acceptable.

"When the President tweets something like 'Liberate Michigan'... it incites people. It legitimizes actions to hurt us." @GovWhitmer



Don't miss the full exclusive interview tonight at 7 PM ET on @MSNBC.#AmericanVoices pic.twitter.com/qFm1t2IMBc  American Voices with Alicia Menendez (@AliciaOnMSNBC) January 17, 2021

Trump tweeted Liberate Michigan in April in protest of Whitmers executive orders that limited public gatherings by shutting down a large percentage of businesses. She has reopened almost all businesses over the ensuing months, though restaurants are still not allowed to serve customers indoors until at least Feb. 1.

Even after armed protesters stormed the state Capitol in April, Whitmer accused Republican lawmakers other than Trump of not doing do a darn thing to tamp down the rhetoric.

Now, maybe that it has been directed at them, they will, she said. This is a moment where I would love to see good will on both sides of the aisle -- in the private sector as well -- take this on. Domestic terrorism is not acceptable. None of us should coddle it, incite it, encourage it or legitimize it.

Some of the examples of rhetoric that Whitmer and Democrats have cited included challenges to Bidens win in the November election and opposition to her COVID-19 orders.

Michigan Republicans such as U.S. Reps. Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids, Fred Upton of St. Joseph and former Rep. Paul Mitchell all publicly condemned challenges to election results, with the former two also voting to impeach Trump this week.

Related: U.S. Capitol attack, Trump impeachment vote was worst week of my life, says Congressman Peter Meijer

However, many Democrats have pointed to COVID-19 protest appearances by Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, and former House Speaker Rep. Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, as evidence of Republican leaders allowing extreme opposition to fester.

In addition, experts told MLive last week that politicians have enflamed people who already feel like the system is stacked against them.

Related: Politicians who lied about election fraud gave extremists something to fight for, experts say

In the wake of the U.S. Capitol storming, Michigan State and Lansing police have heavily increased their presence in downtown Lansing in anticipation of armed demonstrations held by right-wing groups.

An FBI bulletin warned militant anti-government groups were organizing rallies at state capitals across the country on Jan. 17, leading to the deployment of the Michigan National Guard to secure state buildings leading up to President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration on Jan. 20.

Related: Heavy police presence at Michigan Capitol ahead of potential protests, threats

No more than a couple dozen armed boogaloo boys showed up outside the Capitol building on Sunday, dispersing with little incident.

Benson, who dealt armed protesters intimidating her family outside their home in December, said she feels safe now due to increased security measures, though she warned that vigilance is always needed.

I feel very safe, and I know my colleagues do, as well, Benson said. But its about being vigilant, and its about keeping a focus on the issue that hateful words and rhetoric that weve heard for months now on social media networking and everywhere else has indeed transformed the possibility of hateful actions.

Final Update: 20 - 25 protesters during peak attendance. There were no incidents or arrests.  Michigan State Police (@MichStatePolice) January 17, 2021

One new security measure enacted by the Michigan Legislature last week was the ban of the open carry of firearms in the Capitol building, which Nessel said was not nearly enough to stop threats to lawmakers.

All we would really need to do is to implement the very same procedures that we have had in place for decades in every single courthouse in the state of Michigan, which is simply to have metal detectors and to have either police officers or security guards who are ensuring that people are not bringing in firearms or explosive devices of any kind, she said. We do that when we go see the Detroit Lions play. I dont know why we cant have the same security procedures in place for visitors who wish to visit our Capitol.

The Michigan Legislature will not meet next week due to credible threats of violence.

Through Bidens inauguration and possibly a few days beyond that, MSP and National Guard will stay deployed to help Lansing police secure the Capitol.

Read more on MLive:

Full firearms ban at Capitol would come with $1.5 million price tag for new security measures

Police maintain high state of awareness at Michigan Capitol through Bidens inauguration

Armed boogaloo boys gather at Michigan Capitol, join small group of protesters
Looking at the structural problems of Canadian conservatism at the dawn of 2021 (Part Two) By Mark Wegierski

The Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute (despite a far higher profile in the late-1980s) appeared to mostly have been (from the 1990s until early 2014) the personal enterprise of one indigent person. The full name of the Institute was rendered in earlier years as The Mackenzie Institute for the Study of Terrorism, Revolution, and Propaganda. In early 2014, The Mackenzie Institute revamped its website and appears to have become more dynamic. The Ottawa-based Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, which was founded around 2011, appears to have become more active in 2014. Its main leading figures were the late Martin Collacott, and James Bissett, both of them formerly being prominent Canadian diplomats and civil servants. The Centre argues for lowered numbers and more responsible selection and screening in immigration, temporary worker, and refugee policies. The author is also aware of an association called Societe Macdonald-Cartier Society. For non-partisan celebration of the Canadian Monarchy, there is the Monarchist League of Canada. The profile of social and cultural conservatism in Canada is rather thin. The main social conservative publications are The Interim: Canadas Life and Family Newspaper (and an associated website, lifesite.net). The longtime magazine Catholic Insight (Toronto) ceased printing in 2015. Lifesite has tried to found a similar magazine, called Faithful Insight. Lifesite has had to defend itself from an irksome libel suit that could have potentially financially crippled the website. (However, the litigant passed away in 2014.) The main pro-life, pro-family association is called the Campaign Life Coalition. There is a French-language, Quebec-based, social conservative intellectual journal, called Egards. The most prominent think-tank of what could be called broadly religious conservatives is Cardus. Cardus has linked with the Centre for Cultural Renewal (formerly the Centre for Renewal in Public Policy). Cardus publishes a magazine called Convivium, as well as Comment. However, Convivium has become an online-only publication  its last print issue appeared in January 2017. Cardus is a think-tank which does not yet offer scholarships or grants (beyond one, as far as the author of this article can recall). In earlier articles, it had been suggested that Cardus could try to move in the direction of becoming an institution like the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) in the United States. The ISI, which has, for most of its history, been mostly traditionalist conservative, offers very extensive scholarships to students, as well as publishing scholarly journals and books, and holding various seminars and conferences for promising students and academics. There is also the Ottawa-based Institute for Marriage and Family Canada. In British Columbia, there is the Canada Family Action group. And, for many decades, REAL Women of Canada has been a well-known association. To be continued. v Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher.

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MDHHS Guidance Encourages Schools to Safely Offer In-Person Instruction Michigan's Children Need to Succeed

Goal is for all Michigan school districts to offer in-person learning option March 1 or sooner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 8, 2021

Contact: Bob Wheaton, 517-241-2112

LANSING, MICH. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) announced new guidance for schools today to keep students, staff and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic while providing the in-person instruction that is crucial to learning and development.

The states goal is to have all Michigan school districts offer an in-person learning option for students no later than March 1, and earlier if possible.

Guidance emphasizes use of scientifically proven methods of reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread, include wearing masks, ventilation improvements, frequent hand washing and social distancing.

Vaccination of teachers and other school staff will begin by Jan. 11 due to educators roles as essential frontline workers.

MDHHS will continue to do what it takes to save lives and limit the spread of COVID-19, said Director Robert Gordon. At the same time, in-person instruction is critical for the current and the future well-being of children, especially young learners and students who are disadvantaged. We encourage schools to reopen as soon as they can do so with proven protections for staff and students.

The value of in-person learning for our kids is immeasurable, and we must do everything we can to help them get a great education safely, said Gov. Whitmer. Over the last 10 months, medical experts and epidemiologists have closely followed the data and have learned that schools can establish a low risk of transmission by ensuring that everyone wears a mask and adopting careful infection prevention protocols. I also announced this week that educators and support staff will be eligible for the next phase of COVID vaccinations beginning Jan. 11 to help protect them and their families as they return to work. I strongly encourage districts to provide as much face-to-face learning as possible, and my administration will work closely with them to get it done.

Guidance is for grades pre-kindergarten through 12 and includes early childhood education, such as Head Start and Great Start Readiness Program.

Drawing on evidence from Michigan, the United States, and countries around the world, the guidance document outlines specific infection control measures that have worked in schools during the pandemic.

Wearing masks is especially important for controlling COVID-19 transmission and masks should be worn inside schools by all staff and students, except during meals and in other limited circumstances. Face masks may be made of cloth or may be disposable surgical-style masks.

Other infection control measures in the new MDHHS guidance include:

When feasible, assigning children to cohort groups and limiting their interactions to their cohorts to reduce the number of contacts.

Keeping children 6 feet apart from one another to the extent feasible, making creative use of school spaces to facilitate distancing.

Providing adequate hand sanitizing supplies and reinforcing proper handwashing techniques.

Improving air ventilation.

Having staff and students conduct self-screenings for symptoms at home every day before going to school.

Ensuring school plans are in place in coordination with their local health department if there are any positive COVID-19 tests.

Having staff and students who either test positive or are close contacts of those who test positive follow the guidance issued by MDHHS as well as local health departments. Anyone who is considered a close contact of someone who tests positive but does not have symptoms should quarantine for 10 days under CDC guidance.

Additional recommendations can be found in the State of Michigan Guidelines for Operating Schools Safely on Michigans Schools COVID Testing website.

In November, MDHHS paused in-person learning in high schools as part of an order to limit indoor gatherings to address an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths and in hospital occupancy rates.

After case numbers decreased, high schools were permitted to resume in-person classes effective Dec. 21.

The guidance is subject to change. Information around this outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

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In tandem with airport authorities, Neuberg has also setup RT-PCR test counters at Ahmedabad and soon going to set up counters in Lucknow and Mangalore airports

Neuberg Diagnostics, Indias fourth largest diagnostics lab chain, has received approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting COVID-19 tests in Noida, UP (Delhi NCR), Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh; Salem, Tamil Nadu and Kozhikode, Kerala.

All these labs have the capacity to process close to 7000 RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) test samples every day. Besides these cities, as per ICMR guidelines, Neuberg has been conducting tests in its 10 labs in cities consisting - Chennai, Trichy, Kochi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore & Udaipur.

In tandem with airport authorities, Neuberg has also setup RT-PCR test counters at Ahmedabad and soon going to set up counters in Lucknow and Mangalore airports. The test will be available for all international arrivals as well as to domestic travellers arriving and departing from the airport. The hard copy of the test result will be given within 6-8 hours to all the passengers undergoing COVID-19 test.

Aishwarya Vasudevan, Group Chief Operating Officer, Neuberg Diagnostics said, As part of its corporate social responsibility, in this hour of a national public health emergency, we have been conducting free-of-cost as well as subsidised tests for deserving patients in all cities.

Apart from this Neuberg also has presence in South Africa with three approved Covid molecular testing labs in Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
In the Grampians, on November 30, 2020, Scotgold Resources was able, in spite of all the coronavirus headwinds, to pour the first gold to come out of the Cononish mine in decades.

The mine is located near to the town of Tyndrum, which has been hard hit by the series of lockdowns that have come into force as a result of the virus.

Nonetheless, development at the mine itself, which is located in a relatively isolated position in a glen in a national park, has continued to the point where the separation of gold from ore using gravity circuits was able to begin in November, with gold production from flotation following on shortly.

The gold mine is located near to the town of Tyndrum

All of which, reckons Scotgold chief Richard Gray, can only be good for a local community in which Scotgold has already become a substantial employer.

In these difficult times its almost become a moral duty for us to get this mine up and running as fast as possible, he says.

The gold pour marks the first significant milestone in that process.

At the moment were still in the capital phase, says Gray. But we plan to move to operational accounting withing three months.

The plan is for output from Cononish to run at nearly 10,000 ounces of gold per year during the current first phase, and then rise to nearly 24,000 ounces in phase two.

The pace of the ongoing development and ramp up is likely to be frenetic, as a high gold price continues to spur the company on.

Were cracking on with getting the equipment and supplies ordered for phase two, says Gray.

Our whole philosophys been to reduce capital expenditure, and thats why we went for the two phase approach. But Cononish always was a better project in phase two.

And the planned expansion has already been fully budgeted for.

In October we raised 3million, and that, combined with the cashflow from operations, means we can pay for phase two, says Gray.

Gold prices continue to rise, despite some recent dips

It also means that after production at Cononish has bedded down, the company will be able to look up and turn its hand to some broader exploration work in the surrounding district.

Scotland has been relatively quiet as a gold exploration destination over the past few decades, but the potential is significant.

As it stands, most of Scotgolds initial targets are in the vicinity of the mine itself, and follow on naturally from historical work.

But the geological structures that underly Scotlands potential gold endowment are the same ones that run under the Irish sea and support the Dalradian resource and others that are up-and-coming in Ireland.

Gray talks, in the longer-term, of eventually developing a gold camp along the lines of the great Canadian gold mining regions, some of the most prolific in the world.

Its a big vision, but one that now stands a substantially greater chance of materialising now that Scotgold is about to become self-funding.

A major factor will be the continuing strength in the gold price and, although there have been some recent dips, with governments continuing to print new money hand over fist Gray isnt overly concerned on that score.

All these fiat currencies are going to be devalued, he says.

And theres a further premium on offer too. The gravity portion of Scotgolds output, which amounts to around 25 per cent, is likely to command a higher price than spot, as Scottish gold is much in demand.

So the choice becomes gold at a premium to spot, or cash thats getting diluted every day?

Scotgold investors have been voting with their wallets, which is why the shares have more than doubled over the past 12 months.

And there should be more to come.
How to deal with the legacy of the Troubles has always been a sensitive issue in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) has called on the UK Government to set out a timeframe for introducing legislation to deal with the legacy of Troubles.

Conservative MP Simon Hoare, chair of the committee, made the call in a statement on the government's response to the NIAC's interim report on legacy issues, published in October last year.

In the report, the NIAC criticised new proposals set out by the government the previous March, describing them as "unilateral and unhelpful" and hitting out at the lack of consultation with victims' groups.

Read More

One of the pledges of the New Decade, New Approach deal agreed in January 2020 was the implementation of legacy provisions outlined in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement within 100 days. This would include the setting up of an independent investigations unit to investigate outstanding Troubles deaths.

In March, however, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis made a written statement in the Commons outlining the government's new approach to dealing with legacy issues, including "significant changes", such as investigations only in cases where there is a "realistic prospect" of prosecutions being brought. All other cases would be permanently closed.

The NIAC said this raised "profound legal, ethical and human rights issues" and they also criticised the lack of detail in the proposed role on the Irish Government.

In response to the committee's report, the government said it believes it is right to focus on information recovery for families and will "consider all options and work through all the concerns expressed".

The government also said it wished to reaffirm its commitment to the working with the Irish Government on legacy issues.

"These are important, sensitive, and highly complex issueswhich is why they remain largely unresolved despite more than 20 years of extensive public discourse and debate," a UK Government spokesperson said.

"Despite the real challenges this brings, the Government remains determined to make progress on legacy issues, and has always been clear that it will engage with the Irish Government, the Northern Ireland parties, and civic society, including victims groups, as part of this process."

Simon Hoare said the NIAC was encouraged by the "change of tone" in the government's response, compared to Brandon Lewis' March statement, welcoming the commitment to consulting with all stakeholders.

"Were pleased to see that the Government has not pushed back on our other recommendations, including on ensuring any legislation tackling the Legacy of the Troubles is consistent with the six principles of the Stormont House Agreement," he said.

"However, the Government response argues that the sensitive and highly complex nature of the issues is why they are unresolved. The issues are, of course, complex and sensitive, and they become more so with the passage of time.

"That state of affairs should be a driver to reach a resolution at the earliest possible opportunity, before memories have faded to the extent that there is no prospect of closure for those affected. We need to see a clear timetable for consultation and a timeframe in which we can expect the Government to bring forward legislation. Victims have already been waiting too long.

"We look forward to discussing this matter with the Secretary of State when we take evidence from him later this week.
Get to know David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl from Green Kitchen Stories





Every kitchen has its own story, with the kitchen that Swedish David Frenkiel and Danish Luise Vindahl share with their three children in Stockholm no exception. These two peas in a pod are behind Green Kitchen Stories, an award-winning food blog that pioneered the Scandinavian vegetarian food scene more than a decade ago by offering a seasonal, healthy and modern take on vegie recipes created in their very own green kitchen.

Green Kitchen Stories began as a blog in 2009 and has evolved into a multimedia brand encompassing five cookbooks (The Green Kitchen, Green Kitchen Travels, Green Kitchen Smoothies, Green Kitchen at Home and Little Green Kitchen), an app and quite the Instagram following between their two accounts  @gkstories (394k followers) and @luisegreenkitchenstories (214k followers). Across these channels, Frenkiel and Vindahl share easy, delicious and nutritious vegetarian family recipes and travel tips from their adventures with their brood. From shooting inspiring flat-lay food photography to capturing joyous moments shared as a family, the visual storytelling of Green Kitchen Stories is just as rich as the recipes themselves.

If you tell a story about a recipe its not usually just the ingredients. Its always who taught you it. I mean recipes have more meaning than just the ingredients, and thats what we try to tell.

I meet the couple on FaceTime as morning light streams through their home in Stockholm, Sweden, and birds are chirping in the background. They have just dropped off their three children  Elsa (10), Isac (6) and Noah (3)  at school. An average day for the couple varies from day to day, Frenkiel explains, but is built around their roles as parents. We have the routine around the kids  dropping them off and picking them up, having breakfast together and all that, with Vindahl adding, and we have so many different projects. We have projects mostly with each other, a few projects without each other, and a lot of things with the kids. And we still dont have an assistant or a nanny, she says with a laugh, so we try to put all work in between 9am and 4pm. It can be developing things for the website, for Instagram, or just in Green Kitchen. From finishing each others sentences in their sweet Scandi accents to the laughter they share with each other, its hard not to be captivated by the warmth of these partners in work and in life.

The couples love story began more than a decade ago when they met in Rome. Frenkiel was a self-proclaimed unhealthy vegetarian and Vindahl a healthy carnivore, which led them to cultivate a new way of cooking and eating together. In 2014 Frenkiel proposed to Vindahl in the back of a campervan in New Zealand, but they didnt get married until November 2017; they shared the experience in a rustic Swedish greenhouse on a chilly Novembers day not only with their closest friends and family, but also their children.

Frenkiel (39) hails from Sweden and has been a vegetarian for more than 20 years. Hes a graphic designer and photographer by trade and worked as a magazine art director for 10 years before transitioning into being a full-time cookbook (and app) author, photographer and recipe developer. Vindahl (35) is originally from Denmark and has a background in nutritional therapy, which has no doubt influenced the green element of their recipes. I think we had our differences when we met each other and we realised that we didnt have the exact same approach to food and to health, Frenkiel reflects. Luise was much more healthier, he continues, laughing, and into more diverse eating than I was. But they used their differences to their advantage and paved a new path together. We are both very open-minded and spontaneous and positive, and I think that definitely helps, Vindahl adds.

From a hobby to a career

As their family has grown, so too has their green kitchen. Back then [at the beginning] it was just us trying to develop a way of eating together, and writing about it, Vindahl explains. And living together, Frenkiel adds as they both laugh. Now we have our whole family to feed, Vindahl continues. It has been a natural evolution. And it hasnt been a really thought-through plan all the time, Frenkiel reflects. In the beginning this wasnt even our job  it was just a blog.

The transition from Green Kitchen Stories as a passion project to a business happened during their first book when Frenkiel was still working in magazine publishing. It was when we signed the second book that we realised  We had to decide, Vindahl says, finishing Frenkiels sentence. It was quite hard to have several focuses, Frenkiel continues. And as this blogging business took up more and more time  answering comments, figuring out recipes  and navigating parenting, we realised that we had to focus on one thing, with that focus being their green kitchen.

Embracing flexibility and creativity

When it comes to their children and food  which plays an integral role in Green Kitchen Stories  they like most things, Vindahl explains, but that may be due to the fact that the family has a rule of only cooking one meal for everyone. And then we usually have different things to choose from in one meal. We dont force them to eat anything they dont like, but we encourage them to try everything on the table. And it changes all the time. We just had a long period where they only wanted to eat egg whites and not the yolk. They eat something one day and then all of a sudden they hate it, Frenkiel continues. Luise made a spinach quiche yesterday, and they havent been eating spinach for quite a while. Theyve been like, thats disgusting, and now two out of three loved it. And the third one, he didnt like it  He liked the crust, Vindahl interjects, laughing.

These humble parents understand the universal struggle of getting children to eat vegetables, and one of their ways around this predicament is through a healthy game of wrestling. If you eat your greens, youre gonna get strong, Frenkiel states, explaining that this is what he advises their children when theyre reluctant to eat their vegies. They have a family ritual of wrestling on the couch after dinner; I always say, Now you dont have to eat your spinach, I can take that if you dont want it. And then Im gonna beat you when we have our wrestling, Frenkiel says with a smile. They look at me and they quickly shove it in. I think they understand thats not how the physical body works but still they feel strong. This technique worked yesterday with their youngest son, Noah.

The kids have a lot to say in what we eat, Vindahl explains, in everything from choosing what to have for dinner to chopping up ingredients, highlighting the flexibility and creativity they embrace in family cooking. And if theyre not helping out actively, allowing them to express an opinion or to taste and guide them a bit is also really helpful, just to make them more engaged, adds Frenkiel. Their children are integrated into the food experience, which shines through in their visuals on Instagram and in their cookbooks. Not only are Vindahl and Frenkiel open-minded as a couple, they also embody this philosophy as a family. I think thats what we have in common  Luise and I  we have this openness. Im not sure you can force that. Its not something that we have talked about and discussed. I think its more just how its turned out, Frenkiel reflects.

Food enriched with story

The food we cook  all the food  it comes with a story, Frenkiel explains. Not only for us, but for most people. If you tell a story about a recipe its not usually just the ingredients. Its always who taught you it. I mean recipes have more meaning than just the ingredients, and thats what we try to tell. So thats why our recipes on the blog and in the books have been very personal, because we want to bring more to the table, or to the book, than just the ingredients and how to combine them. Its also very emotional.

Staying relevant to their audience while staying true to their values has been an organic process expressed through their recipe storytelling; a co-creation the whole family partakes in. All the food comes with a story, says Frenkiel. When Elsa was younger, she was very simple to feed. She liked a lot of food and was open to testing. I remember when she was a toddler she was always leaning her head backwards and saying, mmmmmmm, every time we gave her something to eat! he laughs. We wrote our first book [The Green Kitchen] then and thought how easy it was to have kids. As she grew older, and we had Isac, our second kid, we realised it is not always as simple  not all kids just like food and want to try it, which is how their Green Kitchen story began to grow. Thats when we started trying to figure out how to get them to eat more vegetables, and realised they loved pancakes. Pancakes are our family dish; we do it almost weekly. Theyre so quick and simple and when it comes to simple recipes that they love, finding ways to get vegetables into those dishes was suddenly what we had to figure out. This story was the catalyst for creating one of their most popular recipes in Green Kitchen at Home: Banana and Spinach Pancakes.

Our recipes on the blog and in the books have been very personal, because we want to bring more to the table, or to the book, than just the ingredients and how to combine them. Its also very emotional.

Not only are their recipes rich in story, theyre also steeped in history. I have this special love for porridge, says Frenkiel. Its like a warming feeling in the morning that comes back to my grandparents. When I was a kid I spent summers with my grandparents. My grandfather  he was a farmer  he woke up really early to feed the animals. And as we woke up, he was always in the kitchen making porridge. I still hear that sound of a wooden spoon stirring the pot whenever Im making porridge; I think we still have my grandfathers spoon. It means so much more than just the porridge, to me, and thats what I want to bring forward to our kids. Its not only food, but also history that Im cooking. One quick glance at their Instagram feeds or cookbooks shows a chic Scandinavian kitchen with a cosy fireplace that would no doubt add some hygge to Frenkiels morning porridge ritual.

This in-depth form of storytelling wasnt always part of the plan for Green Kitchen Stories, however. When we started, we didnt have any idea of what it would become, Frenkiel explains, with Vindahl adding, It was also a very undiscovered area 10 years ago, and it was just the right time for developing a new way of eating vegetarian food. They even attempted writing in three different languages (Danish, Swedish and English) but that, understandably, became too much. By choosing English we thought we could find a few people around the world who share the same interests in this as us, and then we realised it was more than a few, Frenkiel explains. Plant-based eating has peaked and it has been driven by different things, and it keeps changing. And I think since we havent jumped on any of those trends its helped us to stay in the conversation.

Growing the green kitchen

It comes as no surprise that another Green Kitchen Stories book is on the cards, but the intention behind this new cookbook is still in question. We have an offer for another cookbook, and I think were going to do it, we just want to do it for the right reason, Frenkiel says. Writing cookbooks is super fun and quite hard. I mean you get lost in the process of writing a cookbook  when youre deep into recipe testing, it gets mushy. And we dont want to feel like were just making another cookbook  we want to make it with a purpose, and feel like it really means something to us, and to the people reading it. So were still in that process.

What comes as more of a surprise, however, is learning about their other projects. From Frenkiel co-owning a falafel restaurant in Stockholm  Fafelle  with a few of his friends, to the couple launching a vegan supplement line with a Danish brand, their green kitchen is definitely evolving. Despite Vindahl and Frenkiel having different strengths, they meet each other with creativity. We have different talents, but when it comes to creativity were both quite similar. But I am really hard to please, laughs Frenkiel. Recipes, books  If I would do things on my own, we would never finish. Luise is really good at making things happen, so its good that we have different traits and talents, but together I think thats been one of the keys as to why weve been fairly successful in what weve done, because weve combined our differences into something good. That something good has turned into a world-renowned food blog and a slew of cookbooks that are inspiring families around the world to write their very own green kitchen stories.
Israeli authorities have expedited plans to build an additional 780 homes in West Bank settlements, in a last-minute surge before the friendly Trump administration leaves office this week.

Anti-settlement group Peace Now said 90pc of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state. More than 200 homes were located in unauthorised outposts the government had decided to legalise.

Israel has stepped up settlement construction during President Trumps term. According to Peace Now, Israel approved or advanced construction of more than 12,000 settlement homes in 2020, the highest in a single year since it began recording statistics in 2012.

By promoting hundreds of settlement units, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is once again putting his personal political interests over those of the country, the group said. Not only will this settlement activity erode the possibility for a conflict-ending resolution with the Palestinians in the long-term, but in the short term it needlessly sets Israel on a collision course with the incoming Biden administration.

Mr Netanyahus office would not comment yesterday but last week he said he would seek approvals for the construction projects. They include 100 homes in Tal Menashe, a settlement where an Israeli woman was killed last month.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state. They say the growing settler population, approaching some 500,000 people, makes it increasingly difficult to achieve their dream of independence.
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New Delhi: A case has been lodged against Amazon Prime officials and the makers of the web-series Tandav in Uttar Pradesh. A scene in the latest series has set off a row as politicians claim that the freedom from censorship that OTT platforms enjoy has led to repeated attacks on Hindu sentiments

An FIR has been filed at Lucknows Hazratganj Kotwali against Amazon Primes India head of original content Aparna Purohit, director of web series Tandav Ali Abbas Zafar, its producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki and others for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, ANI reported.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has summoned Amazon Prime Video officials in India in connection with the controversy around the web series Tandav on Sunday after several politicians asked for the show to be banned on social media.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders alleged that the Saif Ali Khan-starrer web series `Tandav` hurts Hindu religious sentiments.

Expressing similar concerns, BJP leader Manoj Kotak has written a letter to Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.In the letter, Manoj Kotak wrote, "It seems that the makers of Tandav have mocked Hindu gods and disrespected Hindu religious sentiments. I urge the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to ban Tandav for the meantime."

BJP leader Ram Kadam had earlier said that he has filed a complaint at Mumbais Ghatkopar Police Station against `Tandav`.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is looking increasingly isolated in his decision not to adopt the Directors Income Support Scheme.

On Thursday, Northern Irelands Executive announced that it would adopt a version of DISS from January 21st, to provide financial support to company directors hit by covid-19.

And on Monday in the House of Commons, six MPs launched and signed an Early Day Motion calling for DISS to be urgently implemented. The motion has since doubled its supporters.

'Raise the plight of PSCs'

In addition, Tracy Babin MP has tabled a bill which is already onto its second reading asking the government to assess and close the gaps in financial support for pandemic-hit workers.

Also, Owen Thompson MP has secured a debate on Jan 25th, Support for limited company directors during the covid-19 outbreak, in which he will raise the plight of such workers.

People are getting increasingly desperate, says Caroline Lucas MP, who has tweeted her support for both Ms Babins bill and the DISS EDM.

Directors of small, limited companies that take income in dividends have all been utterly abandoned by this government. My mailbox is full of heart-breaking stories of despair.

'This shows it can be done'

Rebecca Seeley Harris, who drafted the DISS, said on Friday that she and the schemes supporters like Forgotten Ltd and the FSB, were still waiting to hear back from HMT.

This shows it can be done, she said on social media to Jesse Norman, the financial secretary to the Treasury, referring to Northern Ireland's adoption of the DISS variant.

[Although] the NI grant is just a starting grant, she added, I believe NI are [planning on] distributing more [money] but, it does lead the way, hopefully, for the UK.

'No meaningful recovery'

Pressing the government in an impassioned address in the House of Commons, Labours Ms Babin said: The DISS could help support company directors.

[Its] really important because there will be no meaningful recovery if there aren't any businesses left standing to employ people.

It is not just a financial matter, added Tory MP Heather Wheeler, a DISS supporter. I am concerned about the mental health of some of the constituents I am receiving emails from.

'You should be compensated'

Yet neither Mrs Wheeler nor any other Conservative MP has so far signed the DISS EDM, which is overwhelmingly being supported by the SNP (eight of its 13 signatories).

On Twitter however, veteran Tory John Redwood MP said over the weekend: Still many self-employed and small businesses [are] left without government financial help.

If you are stopped from working and trading [because of coronavirus impacts] you should be compensated. I keep on pressing ministers to do better.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Armenia had abandoned its soldiers in Karabakh after the conclusion of the trilateral agreement of November 9, that is, it sent troops to the territory of Azerbaijan, despite the cessation of hostilities.



"Subsequently, there was an exchange of those who were participants in the events that ended on November 9. Now the main issue is the question that arose in the Hadrut region in December, when most of the Armenian soldiers sent there were captured.They were captured within a week - ten days - at the beginning of December, 62 people. The Azerbaijani side stated that since these people were transferred to the region after the ceasefire, they should be considered in a separate order," Lavrov said during a press conference on the outcomes of Russian diplomacy in 2020.



"Russia wants to make efforts to finally close the issue of returning Armenian prisoners," he said, noting that at first the Armenian side could not draw up lists of prisoners. "It turned out that there are much more prisoners than 62, as mentioned earlier. And now our military is in contact with the military of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the lists are being verified in order to understand where these people may be," the Russian Foreign Minister noted.



He further reiterated that the issue of prisoners of war in "its current version" arose in early December, that is, a month after the signing of the November 9 agreement. Thus, Sergei Lavrov fully confirmed the information previously announced by official Baku: Armenian saboteurs captured by the Azerbaijani special forces were thrown into the Hadrut region by Armenia after the surrender. Azerbaijan considers these soldiers as terrorists and saboteurs, and the agreement of November 9, respectively, does not apply to them, since they were sent by Armenia after its conclusion.
He said that while the rollout of the vaccine is a plus, it is difficult at this point to gauge when retailers at the local or national level might be able to move from survival mode to again looking at reviving expansion plans.
Saif Ali Khan-starrer Tandav web series has landed itself in troubled waters for allegedly depicting the Hindu Gods in a bad light. It is high time for web series to define themselves by bringing out something meaningful rather than the same old plotline and larger-than-life characters which make the whole film redundant.

Saif Ali Khan-starrer Tandav web series has landed itself in troubled waters for allegedly depicting the Hindu Gods in a bad light. An FIR has been lodged against Ali Abbas Jafar and Gaurav Solanki, the director and the writer of the series respectively for hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. Further, a notice has also been issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to Amazon Prime, the OTT platform where the series was released first streamed on January 15th.

An increasing clamour for banning the series is being reflected on social media platforms with the hashtags of #BanTandavNow being widely circulated. In light of this, many people have come forth to call the portions of the series, objectionable and demeaning. One particular scene which has remained in the focus and is being widely criticized is where actor Zeeshan Ayyub, who plays the role of campus activist Shiva, dresses up as Lord shiva while giving a stage performance. The execution of the whole scene where Ayyubs character says Azaadiwhat the? on stage while playing Lord Shiva is being seen as offensive and distasteful. BJP leader Ram Kadam has slammed the series, asking whether it has become a trend amongst film and web series makers to demean Hindu Gods.

Other scenes that have become a part of the controversy include casteist slurs being hurled at a Dalit politician by Prime Minister, the government trying to actively suppress the farmers protests, Muslims being killed in a police encounter after getting orders from the higher-ups, etc. Besides the controversial scenes, the series in itself is filled with cliched tropes, lacking powerful writing and cinematic grit, making it unable to stand out amongst its peers. This is also reflected in the poor reviews that have been given by the audience to the series.

Also read: UN body disclosed dissenters names to China: Senior UN staffer

Also read: US retains Foreign Terrorist designation of Pak-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba

The scenes of Tandav are not only being alleged as hurtful to the sentiments of devotees but also bear the allegations of creating religious enmity and portraying India as a whole in poor light. Looking at the trend which is being followed, it is high time that web series try defining themselves by bringing out something meaningful rather than the same old plotline and larger-than-life characters that make the whole film redundant.

Also read: Unrest in Pok: Massive protests break out over rising inflation, lack of commodities
London, Jan 18 : Researchers have identified the biological mechanism that explains why some people experience abdominal pain when they eat certain foods.

According to the researchers, up to 20 per cent of the world's population suffers from the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which causes stomach pain or severe discomfort after eating.

The researchers revealed a mechanism that connects certain foods with activation of the cells that release histamine (called mast cells), and subsequent pain and discomfort.

"With these new insights, we provide further evidence that we are dealing with a real disease," said researcher Guy Boeckxstaens, Professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

In a healthy intestine, the immune system does not react to foods, so the first step was to find out what might cause this tolerance to break down, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

Since people with IBS often report that their symptoms began after a gastrointestinal infection, such as food poisoning, the researchers started with the idea that an infection while a particular food is present in the gut might sensitise the immune system to that food.

They infected mice with a stomach bug, and at the same time fed them ovalbumin, a protein found in egg white that is commonly used in experiments as a model food antigen.

An antigen is any molecule that provokes an immune response. Once the infection cleared, the mice were given ovalbumin again, to see if their immune systems had become sensitised to it.

The results were affirmative -- the ovalbumin on its own provoked mast cell activation, histamine release, and digestive intolerance with increased abdominal pain. This was not the case in mice that had not been infected with the bug and received ovalbumin.

The researchers then went on to see if people with IBS reacted in the same way.

When food antigens associated with IBS (gluten, wheat, soy and cow milk) were injected into the intestine wall of 12 IBS patients, they produced localised immune reactions similar to that seen in the mice. No reaction was seen in healthy volunteers.
FALL RIVER MILLS, Calif. - Mayers Memorial Hospital in Fall River Mills in rural eastern Shasta County is opening up vaccinations soon for people who qualify for Phase 1B of the Covid-19 vaccination program. This includes people age 65 or older, education workers, child care and child welfare workers, emergency services workers, and food and agriculture workers.

On Friday a vaccine clinic was held at Mayers Memorial Hospital for In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers. CLICK HERE if you are an IHSS worker in eastern Shasta County who would like to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

In the photo above IHSS worker Carol Stovall received her vaccination at Mayers Memorial Hospital. She was the first IHSS worker in eastern Shasta County to receive a vaccination.

CLICK HERE to find the Phase 1B Vaccine Information Form for submittal to get on the waiting list. You will be notified when it is available. The vaccine will require two doses.

Shasta County is in the process of organizing more vaccination clinics. Action News Now will share details when they are provided.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

The second impeachment of President Donald Trump, led by the Democrats in the House of Representatives, was the most bipartisan in history, as 10 Republicans joined in with their affirmative vote. However, the event continues to divide the country and local leaders about whether it was the right move for an already divided nation.

Webb County Democratic Party Chair Sylvia Bruni and Webb County Republican Party Chair Tyler Kraus discussed their views on the impeachment and how they feel it will either further divide or unite. Despite differing opinions, they agree the impeachment process is a distraction for the incoming administration.

Bruni favors fully the second impeachment of the president.

Actions warrant consequences, and this latest atrocity, an insurrection clearly instigated by his words, by his prompting, that very day, warrant nothing less, Bruni said. Not since 1812 has our Capitol been under siege and that time by a foreign country. This time, it was far worse because it was led by U.S. citizens intent on disrupting the duties of Congress and most likely on causing actual harm to members of Congress.

Bruni said the impeachment was reasonable considering the president incited the crowd that stormed the Capitol during a morning rally. She said investigations into the attack reveal possible collusion within the government and the attackers.

The investigations that are already in full force are disclosing troubling evidence that there might actually have been collusion from within, Bruni said. We do know that the president was encouraging, fomenting, urging the crowd that gathered for his rally that morning to fight. And fight they did, smashing windows and doors, beating police officers, looting and damaging a sacred place, evidence indicating that they actually had prior knowledge of specific offices, specific congressmen. So, yes, as an American faithful to our Constitution, I believe the impeachment is definitely warranted.

On the other hand, Kraus adamantly opposes the second impeachment of the president because he does not believe it is about justice, but rather about politics.

I believe that the second impeachment of President Trump was a pure political stunt, Kraus said. It does nothing to help our country heal from the violence that took place at the Capitol.

He believes the impeachment will only help divide the country further and incentivize the extremists to do more attacks and stage more protests as it will help fuel their agenda.

Kraus also finds it hypocritical that Democrats are denouncing the president and the attackers of the Capitol  who he said were extremely wrong  but also that the Democrats failed to condemn the violence of protests during the summer and at times congratulated protesters.

I believe Democrats need to condemn the violent left-wing protesters that destroyed small businesses and used violence to intimidate people in the summer of 2020, Kraus said. Republicans have widely condemned the right-wing agitators who stormed the Capitol building, why wont Democrats condemn left-wing agitators? The double standard is very obvious.

Kraus believes the video message released by the president condemning the attack and telling his supporters to stand down shows the president did not incite the attack and that he cares deeply about the nation.

I thought the video that President Trump released condemning the violence and asking the agitators to calm down was what the country needed to hear, Kraus said. Theres no place for violence in our country. We are a nation of laws, and thats what distinguishes us from third-world countries around the globe.

Bruni believes otherwise, and said that the presidents message was too little, too late for what had already happened in the nations Capitol.

Too late and totally without merit, Bruni said. He had ample time, when it most mattered, to call off his followers, and hes had ample time since then to acknowledge the harm done. Days went by after the death of the Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and no flag flew at half mast over the White House. This last-minute message carries with it no real sign of remorse or concern.

But both party chairs agree the impeachment process will be a complete distraction for President-elect Joe Biden and his administration.

The impeachment will absolutely be a distraction and will not help President-elect Biden during the beginning of his administration, Kraus said. President-elect Biden will now have an even harder road ahead trying to unite the country.

Bruni agrees, but said the impeachment process is still needed as nobody, including the president, should be held above the law. She believes he should be subjected to a court investigation into what role his comments played in the insurrection.

Of course it will be a distraction, the last thing that a duly-elected president and our nation deserve, but necessary if we are to stand up for what is right, Bruni said. This was a grievous crime against our democracy, and ignoring it is simply not acceptable. My hope, and even the stock market is acknowledging it, is that with Bidens entry into the White House, stability and justice will prevail once again in spite of distractions such as the second impeachment of a sitting president.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
Severe storm cells bringing damaging and destructive winds, heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding were barrelling towards the south-east Queensland coast on Monday afternoon.

An updated severe weather warning has been issued for parts of Gympie, as well as the Cherbourg, Redland City, Moreton Bay, Logan, Somerset, Scenic Rim, South Burnett, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane City council areas.

There are four dangerous cells, all heading in an easterly or north-easterly direction.

One was near Logan City and moving towards Brisbane and Redland City. Another extended from Ipswich to Moreton Bay and was heading to Brisbane. A third cell was near Kilcoy and barrelling towards the Sunshine Coast. And the final cell was near Kingaroy and on course for Noosa and Gympie.
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Prayagraj : , Jan 18 (IANS) An app, launched by a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, Kishor Fogla, at the ongoing Magh Mela, is helping devotees to use technology for religious purposes.

The app is particularly useful for those who cannot undertake pilgrimage amid the ongoing pandemic outbreak.

"The Bhagwaanji app gives a quick access to the larger reservoir of information on Hindu religion. The app will help devotees to know about dharma-karma, puja, vrat katha, bhoj (feast), gau seva. They can also book puja or bhoj online," he added.

He explained, "If a devotee from Mumbai wants to perform a special puja at Sangam or wants to hold Brahmin bhoj, but is unable to come, then the person can book it online. The puja or bhoj will be organized after making required arrangements." The app also offers information about holy cities like Deoghar, Vrindavan, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain, Rishikesh and Ayodhya.

'Bhagwaanji' is offering information about religious sites across the country and facilitating booking for puja and yajna. Any app user can book puja, seva, prasad, VIP passes, guided tours, in both online and offline modes.

"I created the app for the convenience of devotees and pilgrims so that they can know about religious sites, puja methods, upcoming festivals, religious and spiritual activities taking place across the country," Fogla told reporters.

Devotees who usually search for priests for performing special prayers, can book one through the app.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The United States Post office announced on Jan. 15, 2021, that they would be releasing a series of stamps highlighting images of the Sun captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA/SDO/USPS

NASA's images of the sun's dynamic and dazzling beauty have captivated the attention of millions. In 2021, the US Postal Service is showcasing the sun's many faces with a series of sun Science forever stamps that show images of solar activity captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.

"I have been a stamp collector all my life and I can't wait to see NASA science highlighted in this way," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. "I feel that the natural world around us is as beautiful as art, and it's inspiring to be able to share the import and excitement of studying the sun with people around the country."

The 20-stamp set features ten images that celebrate the science behind NASA's ongoing exploration of our nearest star. The images display common events on the sun, such as solar flares, sunspots and coronal loops. SDO has kept a constant eye on the sun for over a decade. Outfitted with equipment to capture images of the sun in multiple wavelengths of visible, ultraviolet, and extreme ultraviolet light, SDO has gathered hundreds of millions of images during its tenure to help scientists learn about how our star works and how its constantly churning magnetic fields create the solar activity we see.

That solar activity can drive space weather closer to Earth that can interfere with technology and radio communications in space. In addition to this immediate relevancy to our high-tech daily lives, the study of the sun and its influence on the planets and space surrounding ita field of research known as heliophysicsholds profound implications for the understanding of our solar system and the thousands of solar systems that have been discovered beyond our own. As our closest star, the sun is the only nearby star that humans are able to study in great detail, making it a vital source of data.

Explore further Image: The sun in 2020
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TUCSON, Ariz.  Road rage was the suspected motive in a fatal shooting of a man initially believed to have died due to a Tucson car crash, police said Saturday.

Dallas Combs, 40, was jailed in lieu of $1 million bond after being arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the Jan. 4 death of 29-year-old Johnny J. Rodriguez, police said in a statement.

Police said officers responded to a reported single-vehicle crash where firefighters were rendering aid to Rodriguez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

However, an Jan. 6 autopsy revealed that Rodriguez had sustained gunshot trauma prior the the vehicle collision, police said.

An investigation that included interviews and surveillance video led to the arrest Friday of Combs who surrendered after a standoff that lasted several hours while he barricaded himself in a stolen car, police said.

The police statement said investigators determined that Rodriguez was shot by a person in another vehicle, and a police spokesman, Sgt. Francisco Magos, told The Associated Press that detectives believed the incident started as road rage.

Online court records didnt list an attorney for Combs who could comment on his behalf regarding the allegation.

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Schools in Delhi have re-opened today, after being closed since March, 2020. Classes have resumed for students in standards 10 and 12 in view of the upcoming board examinations. The Delhi government has made it clear that physical attendance is not compulsory and students will attend school only with the consent of parents.

Schools in Delhi have re-opened today after being closed since March, 2020. Classes have resumed for students in standards 10 and 12 in view of the upcoming board examinations. The Delhi government on Sunday allowed all schools outside containment zones to resume functioning and directed authorities to ensure social distancing norms are followed.

We have taken a little risk by reopening schools, Delhi Education Minister, Manish Sisodia said today as students of classes 10 and 12 returned to their classrooms after 10 months when the coronavirus lockdown was enforced. Schools across Delhi have since then remained closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision to reopen schools for classes 10 and 12 was taken last week as the citys positivity rate dropped to under 1 per cent and daily fresh infections remained below 500 after the recent third wave of COVID-19 infections. The step had to be taken to prepare students for practical exams and pre-boards, only after reviewing Covid-safety measures at various schools, said Sisodia.

Also read: India kickstarts Covid-19 immunization drive: 2L+ vaccinated in two days across states

The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) board exams are due in a few months. We hope that this exercise pays off and students gain the confident needed, said Mr. Sisodia. However, the Delhi government made it clear that physical attendance is not compulsory and students will attend schools only with the consent of parents. Schools are also working out ways to ensure that students who choose to not come to campus, do not miss out on anything.

Mr. Sisodia also added that, schools will not be reopened for other classes till a significant section of the population gets the COVID-19 vaccine. Schools have been instructed to ensure students and teachers follow Covid-safety precautions, including mask-wearing and distancing. They must also ensure sanitization of classrooms, laboratories and other common areas and keep a stock of face masks and sanitizers for students.

Other steps like, allowing 15 students at a time in a classroom, placing handwashing consoles and sanitizers in corridors, volunteers to ensure social distancing is maintained, temperature checks, and medical facilities on standby if any student is not feeling well, are being taken by schools to ensure the safety of their students.

Also read: Farmer protests enter day 54: SC to hear plea against Tractor Rally
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Vishvas Sarang and state Assemblys protem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma on Monday appealed to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar to ban Amazon Prime Videos series Tandav for allegedly ridiculing Hindu deities. Talking to PTI, Sarang said it is very unfortunate that deities of a majority community are ridiculed like this.

A censor board is needed for the OTT segment as it is increasingly becoming popular, he said. I have written a letter to the information and broadcasting (I&B) minister demanding a ban on this series. I also said there should be a law to control the OTT platforms, Sarang informed.

The minister said he has also mailed a letter to the CEO of Amazon Prime to immediately withdraw the web series. If they do not withdraw this web series, we will appeal to the society to boycott such OTT platforms. I request everyone to send mails in this regard to the CEO of the OTT platform, he said.

MP Assemblys protem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma also urged Javadekar to ban Tandav web series, and said various organisations and individuals have opposed it as it allegedly ridiculed the Hindu deities. There should be a law in the country to stop the efforts to mock Hindu deities on such OTT platforms. Why people do not dare to mock other religions? Why are Hindu deities ridiculed every time? This web series should be banned, Sharma told PTI.

Earlier, BJP MP Manoj Kotak and partys Mumbai MLA Ram Kadam had also raised objections over the web series. Tandav, starring actors Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan and Kritika Kamra, premiered on the streaming platform on Friday.

Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar has created, directed and produced the political drama with Himanshu Kishan Mehra and it is written by Gaurav Solanki, best known for Article 15. Taking cognisance of complaints over the web series, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Sunday sought an explanation from the Amazon Prime Video on the issue.

Amazon Prime Videos PR on Sunday said the platform wont be responding on the matter. The government recently brought OTT platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, besides other online news and current affairs content, under the ambit of the I&B ministry, giving it powers to regulate policies and rules for the digital space.
The families of two murdered Northern Ireland women whose bodies have never been found have formed a remarkable friendship across the Irish Sea with a campaigning mum behind a landmark new law in England.

Joanne Dorrian, sister of Lisa Dorrian, who went missing in 2005, and Denise Murray, identical twin sister of Charlotte Murray, murdered in 2012, were inspired to fight for justice for their missing loved ones as a result of Marie McCourt's successful campaign for Helen's Law in England.

Helen's Law is named after Helen McCourt, from Merseyside, whose killer Ian Simms was freed from jail without disclosing the location of her remains.

After it entered the statute book in England earlier this month - making it a legal requirement for parole judges to consider the issue of non-disclosure by killers - the two families have spoken of forging a close friendship with Mrs McCourt (77), of Billinge, Merseyside, spending hours on phone and Zoom chats with her.

And they hope that Marie's success will also pave the way for Charlotte's Law to be passed here.

Joanne said: "Marie told me that it took five solid years of campaigning to see Helen's Law finally make it onto the statute book. But she didn't think it would be nearly as difficult, or take anywhere near as long, for other countries now that the hard work has been done.

"She said 'now that the ball is rolling, we have to keep it rolling'."

And Joanne (36), from Bangor, says that the campaign, which is featured in Marie's forthcoming book Justice for Helen, published by Bonnier Books UK on February 4, has come just when they needed it most. Lisa, who was 25, was last seen alive at Ballyhalbert Caravan Park in February 2005. Detectives believe she was killed by someone she knew. Her body has never been found despite extensive searches.

Over the years the Dorrians have tried everything to find her, including desperate billboard posters and heartrending film appeals screened at local cinemas.

Joanne added: "When you've searched for so many years and you don't get any results you just feel useless, absolutely useless. It's much easier to deal with it when you have a campaign. Because you have something to focus on. You have an end goal. This campaign has become our lives now.

"If I was just left sitting in the house thinking that I was leaving it up to everybody else to find Lisa I'd go crazy. It's a driving force. And the thought you could change things like Marie has done - it's utterly amazing that she could make that much of a difference.

"Helen's life and death have made a difference. It's amazing to think that you could change laws and help other families."

The campaign began after Charlotte's sister, Sinead, saw Marie McCourt fighting for Helen's Law on the news, back in 2015.

Charlotte (34), from Omagh, was killed some time between October 31 and November 1, 2012, but her body has never been found.

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Sinead said: "I shared her petition with the family and we all signed.

"Then I thought 'that's a fantastic way to get justice. Wouldn't it be great to do something like that for Charlotte'. But without even a conviction for Charlotte's murder, then, we weren't in a position to think about anything like that."

In October 2019, seven years after Charlotte disappeared, her fiance Johnny Miller (48), from Redford Park in Dungannon, was convicted of murder. Two weeks later, the family watched with sad hope as police drained a quarry in Benburb, Co Tyrone.

"The quarry was mentioned for the first time in the trial when Miller said he'd gone there to walk his dog," explains Sinead. "It gave us and the police hope.

"We stood at the top watching what was going on below. Mum cried when we first got there. She said 'I hope she's not there'. To think that's what he would have done with her none of us want to think about her being there, but at least we would have her back.

"We'd see the work come to a halt and think they've found something. But it was always just animal remains. But you'd get your hopes up and think 'this is it'."

Sadly, the search revealed no sign of Charlotte's remains.

Sinead added: "Afterwards, we were left thinking again 'where is she?' Then we realised he is not going to tell us. We have to force him to. That's when we took up the campaign.

"After we started our own petition, based on Helen's Law, on change.org, Joanne said she'd like to support us and the two families came together - gathering more than 10,000 signatures of support.

Both families were thrilled when a motion to 'introduce legislation equivalent to Helen's Law' was passed by MLAs at Stormont in September.

As a result, Justice Minister Naomi Long is now consulting with the campaigning families, plus other organisations, including the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland, the Probation Board and the Prison Service.

Parole rules are also being amended to ensure families have more access to information surrounding decisions and are able to challenge those decisions if they believe they are unreasonable, unfair or unlawful.

DUP MLA Paul Givan, who chairs Stormont's justice committee, said: "The campaign to introduce Charlotte's Law has been strengthened by the commencement of Helen's Law in England.

"The denial of information to identify the location of the remains for a victim by the perpetrator of such appalling crimes must be better reflected in the sentencing framework and in the considerations by Parole Commissioners for releasing prisoners from custody.

"The campaign in Northern Ireland continues and this development will strengthen the calls for action to be taken."

Both families say that Marie is one of the few people who truly understands the pain of being unable to lay a murdered loved one to rest.

"Only someone like Marie McCourt can know what this is like," said Joanne. "You don't have a process for your grief. There is no way for your mind to accept what's happened because you haven't got that process.

"The funeral is there for the living - it's there to help you to come to terms with it. When you are robbed of the closure of seeing someone buried or cremated, you can't get your head around the fact that the person is gone. Let alone that they have been murdered and their body has been hidden."

For their latest appeals, the families want the public to know what Lisa and Charlotte were like, what made them tick, in the hope that someone will feel compelled to come forward with information.

"Lisa was the eldest of four girls and we were known locally as Lisa's sisters," said Joanne. "We didn't really have our own names! She was really well-known and popular.

"She was unique with funny little ways. She always had a bowl of cereal before her dinner. She loved a fried egg on top of her mashed potato and she was the only one in the family who liked Turkish Delight! Just all the stuff that made her Lisa.

"We still talk about her every day - even more in death than in life. There is always something that relates back to her, or reminds you of her. She is always at the forefront of our minds and that has never gone away. It's all consuming.

"She was a really caring person and had big dreams of living abroad and raising a family. All of that was completely robbed of her. That's the really sad thing for the victims. We are left behind, dealing with it, but they have lost their lives and their dreams."

Charlotte, too, was adored by her 10 siblings.

Her identical twin sister, Denise (42), said: "Charlotte was funny. Always the first one on the dance floor at any party or event. She loved dancing and she loved music. She'd have been the one surrounded by our nephews and nieces. They all loved her.

"She had a very strong Christian faith and went on retreats to the Sanctuary of St Patrick at Lough Derg. She also loved animals and had a little Staffie bull terrier called Bella who she adored. In fact, we knew something was wrong when Miller said she had left to start a new life - leaving her dog behind. She would never have left Bella."

From her home in Merseyside, Marie said: "My heart goes out to these two families - I know only too well the ordeal they are going through. And I will help them however I can.

"It's almost 33 years since my daughter was murdered but the pain is still so fresh. Without a funeral you never get that closure.

"It's been a long, hard slog to get Helen's Law adopted but I really hope I've raised awareness of this terrible injustice and smoothed the path for others to follow. I'd love to see a version of this law adopted in every country around the world."

Fiona Duffy is a journalist and co-writer of Justice for Helen, which is published on February 4
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  Citing the supposed "clandestine recruitment" of students in communist organizations, the Department of National Defense has ended a three-decade-old agreement with the University of the Philippines that barred the police and military from entering any of its campuses without notifying school officials.

In a letter, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana informed UP President Danilo Concepcion that the UP-DND accord was "terminated or abrogated" as of January 15, 2021. He said this was done so they could perform their mandate to protect the youth from CPP-NPA recruitment activities.

A copy of the letter was posted online Monday by the Philippine Collegian, UP's official student publication.

The letter read in part: "This Department is aware that there is indeed an ongoing clandestine recruitment inside UP campuses nationwide for membership in the CPP/NPA and that the 'Agreement' is being used by the CPP/NPA recruiters and supporters as a shield or propaganda so that government law enforcers are barred from conducting operations against the CPP/NPA."

The letter said the agreement was being terminated for reasons of national security and safety of UP students.

The letter, however, added that no military nor police personnel would be stationed inside campuses. The DND said it does not wish "to suppress activist groups, academic freedom and freedom of expression."

"Our Armed Forces and Police are willing to reach out to the youth and provide them with another perspective on our nation and society. We want them to see their Armed Forces and Police as protectors worthy of trust, not fear," it added.

A separate statement from the DND said Lorenzana has confirmed that he had informed the UP administration about the abrogation of the agreement.

UP has not yet given a statement on the DND's unilateral termination of the agreement.

The UP-DND Accord was signed in 1989 and states that prior to entering any UP campus, the military and police must give notice to university officials.

This is a developing story.
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Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 18 : Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will head a panel of Congress leaders who would be supervising the upcoming Assembly elections. The Congress Supervisory Committee would comprise ten members which may have a few more inclusions later.

The Congress committee will include Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mullappally Ramachandran, Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, former KPCC President K. Muraleedharan, Congress Lok Sabha member K. Sudhakaran, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Tariq Anwar , AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, KPCC Working President Kodikunnil Suresh. Shashi Tharoor is likely to be inducted later.

Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony will be heading the poll campaign and would be present in Kerala from mid-February onwards till the end of the Assembly elections.

A.K. Antony while speaking to IANS said, "The Congress party will have a collective leadership and most of the candidates will be fresh and young faces. The Congress will come back with a bang in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections." Congress leader K.C. Venugopal while speaking to mediapersons said, "The Congress is on track and those who are rejoicing at the recent local body poll victories are living in a fool's paradise. The Congress party has already done all the basic preparations and there will be several fresh faces as our candidates." The Congress high command does not want the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections to be a repeat of the recent state local body polls wherein the party and the United Democratic Front (UDF) received a drubbing.

The main coalition partner of the Congress in the UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), is also happy at Oommen Chandy coming back to the helm of the Congress party.

IUML National Organising Secretary and Member of Parliament, E.T. Mohammed Basheer while speaking to IANS said, "Chandy is a seasoned politician and his coming back to the helm of affairs in the Congress party will provide a morale boost to both the Congress and the Muslim League cadres. He is a grassroot leader who knows the pulse of the people and it is a welcome development as far as the Congress, the Muslim League and the UDF is concerned."

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Hundreds of mostly Honduran migrants were removed from a road in Guatemala where they camped out after security forces blocked their path to the United States

Video footage on social media and local television showed lines of military and National Police officers wielding plastic shields as they moved down the road towards the asylum seekers near the Guatemalan village of Vado Hondo, some 34 miles from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador.

The removal was confirmed by the Guatemalan Institute of Migration a day after the administration of President-elect Joe Biden urged the migrants to return back to Honduras and their other native lands.

Guatemalan Police dissolves the caravan of thousands of people that blocked the road in Vado Hondo on Monday

Security remains high as migrants who arrived in caravan from Honduras try to make their way to the United States in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Monday

A cloud of teargas rises as Guatemalan soldiers and police clash with migrants at a roadblock on the highway. The roadblock was strategically placed at a chokepoint on the two-lane highway flanked by a tall mountainside and a wall leaving the migrants with few options

Migrants from a caravan seeking to reach the southern United States border were dispersed from a road in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Monday

Migrants holding the American and Honduran flags block a road in the Guatemalan village of Vado Hondo before security forces removed them Monday

Cops arrest a Honduran migrant in Guatemala after he refused orders to disperse from a road where several thousand members of a caravan convened on Monday

A migrant cries along with her child after the police dispersed the caravan of thousands of people that blocked the road in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

Migrants who arrived in caravan from Honduras on their way to the United States are blocked by security forces in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Monday

Guatemalan security forces in the village of Vado Hondo fire tear gas while dispersing migrants from Honduras who were blocking a road Monday as part of their efforts to reach the United States and seek asylum from President-elect Joe Biden's administration

There were about 2,000 migrants camped out on the highway after they clashed with Guatemalan security forces on Sunday.

As many as 8,000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say, fleeing poverty and lawlessness in a region rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and Category 4 back-to-back hurricanes in November.

'We're scared,' said Rosa Alvarez, a Honduran mother who was at the roadblock just before troops began clearing the area. 'We just want to pass freely to the United States.'

Thousands of Honduran migrants, who since Thursday night have marched towards Guatemala in hopes of reaching the United States, were forcefully dispersed by Guatemalan security forces on Monday. Cops and soldiers fired tear gas at the migrants who were camping out along a highway in the village of Vado Hondo, about 34 miles from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador. According to Guatemala immigration authorities, more than 1,000 Hondurans were sent back on Sunday and an additional 100 migrants were returned to El Salvador. At least 21 Honduran migrants who joined the caravan tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized. They will be sent back to Honduras once they have recuperated

Security forces in Guatemala stand in the way of migrants, mostly from Honduras, looking to continue their journey to the United States by continuing their path to the Guatemala-Mexico border

On Monday, security forces in Guatemala dispersed migrants who had arrived in caravan from Honduras over the weekend

Migrants from Honduras look on as security forces from Guatemala moved in to disperse caravan members from a road in the village of Vado Hondo on Monday

Security forces block migrants who arrived in caravan from Honduras on their way to the United States, in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

The efforts to clear out the desperate migrants came after Guatemalan soldiers and cops were seen on video clashing with migrants who broke through a human barricade set up on a highway in the town of Chiquimula on Sunday afternoon.

So far, at least 1,568 migrants turned back home since Friday, the vast majority to Honduras, according to Guatemalan authorities. Nearly 100 were returned to El Salvador.

Guatemalan health officials reported that at least 21 Honduran migrants tested positive for COVID-19. The 12 men and nine women who tested positive were hospitalized and will be under observation until they recover. They will then be returned to Honduras.

Honduran who joined a new caravan of almost 8,000 migrants who want to seek asylum from the United States rest on a stretch of a road in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, before Guatemalan security forces moved in and forced them to disperse

A migrant from Honduras clashes with Guatemalan cops and soldiers in the village of Vado Hondo on Monday

Honduran migrants walk away from clashes with Guatemalan soldiers and police blocking them from advancing toward the United States on the highway in the village of Vado Hondo on Monday

Guatemalan soldiers and police chase groups of Honduran migrants at a roadblock on the highway in Vado Hondo

A woman carries her son as Honduran migrants confront Guatemalan soldiers and police manning a roadblock that prevents them from advancing toward the US, on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

Guatemalan soldiers and police chase groups of migrants amid tear gas cloud at a roadblock on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

President-elect Joe Biden leaves The Queen theater following meetings in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday. Biden, who will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday and is expected to carry out immigration reform and work with Mexico and Central America on a plan that could provide alternatives to migration

Guillermo Diaz, head of the Guatemalan Institute of Migration, said there is an increased concern over migrants from Honduras who are paying about $28 for fake documents which indicate they have tested negative for the coronavirus.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday warned migrants not to try to enter countries by force, and said he was in touch with both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations over the migrant caravan.

Lopez Obrador said he was hopeful that Biden would carry out immigration reform and work with Mexico and Central America on a plan that could provide alternatives to migration.

The first migrant caravan of the year precedes Biden's inauguration on Wednesday promising to adopt a more humane approach to migration than his predecessor President Donald Trump, who favored a hardline approach.

BIDEN'S DAY ONE EXECUTIVE ORDERS The Biden administration plans to sign a series of executive orders on Wednesday or soon after including: Mask mandate on federal properties and interstate planes and trains

End of the travel ban which initially affected Iran , Iraq , Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria , and Yemen when it was implemented in January 2017

Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord

Nationwide suspension of evictions and foreclosures until at least September Advertisement

Trump threatened the government's of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras by cutting or reducing billions in aid and vowed to place tariffs on imports from Mexico unless they all clamped down on illegal migration to the United States.

Biden plans to put forward a sweeping immigration proposal on his first day in office.

His plan would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million people estimated to be living in the country illegally  a sweeping turnaround from the posture of the outgoing administration.

People who first gained protected status under the Obama administration's DACA program would be on the shortest path to citizenship. Biden has said previously he will secure permanent protections for so-called 'DREAMers' who came here illegally as children.

A Biden administration official told NBC News that the thousands of would-be immigrants who formed the caravan Thursday in the Honduras city of San Pedro Sula with the intention of making their way through Mexico to claim asylum will have to wait it out.

'The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight,' the official said.

'[They] need to understand they're not going to be able to come into the United States immediately. There's help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey.'

However, there was no indication that the caravan would stop Biden from unveiling sweeping immigration reform plans.

It was unclear Monday exactly when the announcement would take place, with his inauguration speech closely-held by aides.

Guatemalan military tried to break up the caravan, which authorities said numbered close to 8,000 people, within hours of its departure for the United States from Honduras last week

Groups of migrants went back into Vado Hondo looking for alternative routes. It was unclear how many were turning back

Many of the migrants say they are fleeing poverty and lawlessness in a region rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and two devastating hurricanes in November

Migrants who arrived in caravan from Honduras on their way to the United States are being dispersed by security forces in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

The head of the Honduran border police, Julian Hernandez, said more than 800 security officials had tried to stop the caravan at the Guatemalan border, but migrants pushed through the barrier, some using children 'as shields'

The incoming White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is to hold a briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

Biden has also said he will take executive actions, separate from new legislation, to turn around the Trump administration's immigration posture  which included immigration bans on certain countries and efforts to end the DACA program that didn't prevail in the courts.

His most sweeping proposals would require action in Congress  which features a narrow House majority and en evenly divided Senate. Barack Obama took his executive actions on DACA after repeated failures of the Congress to produce bipartisan legislation.

Biden campaigned on his ability to work with Democrats as well as Republicans, and has been contacting GOP senators throughout the transition  even as Trump and the GOP fought the legitimacy of his election.

However the immigration issue is a hot one politically after four years where President Trump while in office railed against unfettered immigration, sought to impose a Muslim ban and then a multi-country immigration ban, tried to do away with DACA, and campaigned repeatedly on his ability to turn back immigrant caravans.

Biden's decision to immediately ask Congress to offer legal status to an estimated 11 million people in the country has surprised advocates given how the issue has long divided Democrats and Republicans, even within their own parties.

Biden will announce legislation his first day in office to provide a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States illegally, according to four people briefed on his plans.

The president-elect campaigned on a path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, but it was unclear how quickly he would move while wrestling with the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and other priorities.

For advocates, memories were fresh of presidential candidate Barack Obama pledging an immigration bill his first year in office, in 2009, but not tackling the issue until his second term.

Biden's plan is the polar opposite of Donald Trump, whose successful 2016 presidential campaign rested in part on curbing or stopping illegal immigration.

Migrants camp out along a road in Guatemala before they were forced to disperse by security forces

Guatemalan soldiers block a street as Honduran migrants gather after Guatemalan security forces cleared a road where they were camping after authorities halted their trek to the United States

Migrants who arrived in caravan from Honduras on their way to the United States, are seen after security forces dispersed them in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

Guatemalan security forces detain a Honduran migrant as they clear a road where the migrants have been camping after authorities stopped their journey to the United States where they planned to seek asylum

'This really does represent a historic shift from Trump's anti-immigrant agenda that recognizes that all of the undocumented immigrants that are currently in the United States should be placed on a path to citizenship,' said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, who was briefed on the bill.

Some past proposals have included tough enforcement measures as an effort to secure GOP buy-in.

'This notion concerning immigration enforcement and giving Republicans everything they kept asking for  was flawed from the beginning,' Hincapie told the Los Angeles Times.

If successful, the legislation would be the biggest move toward granting status to people in the country illegally since President Ronald Reagan bestowed amnesty on nearly 3 million people in 1986. Legislative efforts to overhaul immigration policy failed in 2007 and 2013.

During his first 100 days in office, Biden plans to deal with the pandemic by introducing a COVID-19 relief package which he expects will pass through the Democrat controlled Congress.

Biden also will introduce a mask mandate on federal properties and passengers boarding interstate airplanes and trains will be instructed to wear face covering as a preventive measure against the spread of the ravaging virus.

Biden is also expected to extend a national moratorium on foreclosures and evictions until September 30.

The President-elect intends to lift Trump's travel ban that targeted Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Under Biden, the United States will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and spend $2 trillion towards clean energy.

Honduran migrants, top, stand between cargo trucks as they confront Guatemalan soldiers and police blocking them from advancing toward the US

Guatemalan soldiers and police chase Honduran migrants as they try advancing toward the US border, on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala

Honduran migrants walk away from clashes with Guatemalan soldiers and police blocking them from advancing toward the US

Honduran migrants walk away from where clashes with Guatemalan soldiers and police took place, at a roadblock preventing them from advancing toward the US, on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala. The roadblock was strategically placed at a chokepoint on the two-lane highway flanked by a tall mountainside and a wall leaving the migrants with few options

Migrants kneel to pray in front of the Guatemalan police officers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala on Monday
An ex-con kidnapped the parents of an 18-year-old girl he was 'in a romantic relationship' with at gunpoint before he forced them to withdraw money from different ATMs in Florida and then took off with the teenager.

Police said ex-con Jaddier T. Sanchez, 37, of West Palm Beach, kidnapped Nicole Martinez, 18, and her parents from outside their home in Pembroke Pines, Florida, just after midnight on Sunday.

After forcing them inside their red Dodge Ram pickup truck, police said Sanchez drove the family to multiple bank in the area so that they could withdraw cash.

Police said Nicole Martinez, 18 (pictured), and her parents were kidnapped from outside their home at gunpoint by Jaddier T. Sanchez, 37, just after midnight on Sunday

About five hours later, at 5.30am, Nicole's mother and father were found on the side of a road near Lake Okeechobee, in Belle Glade, Florida, about 63miles away from where they were allegedly taken, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Police said that Nicole wasn't allowed out of the car and was being kept against her will after her parents were released.

Jaddier T. Sanchez, 37, had been released from prison in May 2020 after serving out 15 years for armed robbery with a deadly weapon

Sanchez was described as being 185lbs and 5-foot 11-inches tall with a prominent neck tattoo reading 'ATM.'

It's unclear whether Martinez's parents suffered any injuries during the incident.

Nearly 24 hours after Sanchez took Nicole at gunpoint in Florida, the two were tracked down in Virginia.

The Virginia State Police notified the Pembroke Pines Police Department that they had found them in Alexandria, Virginia, at about 12.40am Monday - more than 1,000miles away from her home.

Sanchez was safely taken into custody, while Nicole - who had unspecified minor injuries - was taken to the hospital, WPBF reported.

Pembroke Pines Police said they believed that Nicole and Sanchez 'shared a romantic relationship,' but did not elaborate about the relationship or how they'd met, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Nicole and her parents were allegedly kidnapped outside their home in this Pembroke Pines. er parents were found at 5.30am in Belle Glade. Nicole was found Monday at 12.40am in Virginia

Nicole's parents, Arturo (left) and Yadi (right) Martinez were found by the side of a road in Belle Glade, about at about 5.30am

Police have not named Nicole's parents, but a woman named Yadi Martinez had posted multiple Facebook messages about her missing daughter, Nicole, and expressed relief at her having been found.

'My daughter has been found safe!!!' she wrote Monday. 'We are in the process of going where she is to pick her up. She is safe, I can't thin of anything else but to have my daughter in my arms, and never lettign [sic] her go... Thank you for all your prayers and love.'

Sanchez had been released from Palm Beach County Jail in May 2020, after serving out a 15-year sentence for armed robbery with a deadly weapon, according to Florida Department of Corrections records obtained by the newspaper.

Prior to that incarceration, between 2003 and 2004, Sanchez had served about nine months for a charge of burglary of an occupied structure and aggravated stalking with a credible threat, the Miami Herald reported.

At some point between his prison stints, Sanchez was convicted of domestic battery and violating a domestic violence restraining order. It's unclear who his victim had been in that case.

Its unclear what charges Sanchez will face, stemming from this latest kidnapping and robbery incident.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
Mr Leo Nelson Adzidogah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Akatsi South, has appealed to the party to investigate the issues raised against him by some Constituency Executives of the party in the Municipality.



Some three Constituency Executives have accused Mr Adzidogah of putting the fortunes of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Municipality in the balance.



The agitating Executives include, Mr Patrick Xormenyo Agboyibor, Deputy Akatsi South constituency secretary, Mr Mensah Kadzaku, Constituency Youth Organiser and Mrs Veronica Sakpaku, Constituency Women Organiser.



Mr Adzidogah, who contested in the 2020 elections as a Parliamentary candidate for Akatsi South, made the appeal in a statement in reaction to calls by the three aggrieved Constituency Executives to President Akufo-Addo not to re-nominate him as the MCE for the area.



He said an investigative team would ascertain all the facts after the petitioners failed to use the laid down structures of the party in addressing their grievances and chose to publicly address the issues.



Mr Adzidogah also said the investigation was critical during the period as "you prepare to re-nominate your representatives to serve the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs)."



"The result of this investigation would help inform any decision you will take in respect of my bid for re-nomination," the statement said.



He expressed hope that his innocence would be positively established to expose the wicked agenda of the petitioners, who he claimed, were on a mission to destroy the gains the party had so far made.



Mr Adzidogah stated he would be available to support the investigation team with all information needed to complete the process.



The three executives, in an eight page petition letter titled "Petition to kick against re-nomination bid of Mr Leo Nelson Adzidogah as Akatsi South Municipal Chief Executive (MCE)" and copied to the top hierarchy of the party among other issues, said the MCE had formed allies with some National Democratic Congress (NDC) members.



They accused Adzidogah of providing government contracts to NDC members while their supporters were left in the dark.



The petitioners also raised misappropriation of 2020 campaign funds and improper disbursement of party logistics, the diversion of government fertilizers to neighbouring Togo for sale, disregard for party elders and founders in the Municipality.

Source: GNA









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 Close Trump: Biden is lying or 'mentally gone on vaccines

Joe Biden said the world can't return to a Cold War with Russia and China and must seek ways to cooperate on global challenges like the Covid pandemic even as the two countries pose security risks to the western alliance.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Biden reaffirmed his commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while apologizing to European leaders for the last four years under Donald Trump.

That apology came with the Biden administration returning the US to the Paris climate accord, another reversal of Trump-era policies of the past four years.

The focus on foreign policy came as the Biden administration continued to face domestic crises in its first weeks, including unprecedented winter weather that delayed 6 million doses of Covid vaccine.

While Biden toured the Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant in Michigan, Republican senator Ted Cruz stayed out of the spotlight after coming under intense scrutiny for fleeing Texas for the warmer climes of Cancun.

Congress continued going through its motions, with Democrat Joe Manchin announcing his opposition to the nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management & Budget, Neera Tanden.

The White House has refused to withdraw her nomination, hoping instead to convince Republicans to confirm her post.

Trump himself, meanwhile, did things that were terrible when contradicted on the coronavirus pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci has said in an interview.

Fauci said Trump entirely lost interest in tackling Covid-19 as it became clear he had lost Novembers presidential election.
Darjeeling/Kolkata:

On the boil for the past 10 days over a separate state demand, Darjeeling on Saturday witnessed widespread clashes between GJM activists and the police in which one person was killed and 35 security personnel were injured, including an IRB officer seriously.



Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) workers hurled petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the police at several places which led the security forces to lob teargas shells and resort to baton-charge to disperse the mobs, a police official said.



Army contingents were deployed to control the situation and they staged flag marches in several areas of the violence-hit hill district, including Darjeeling and Kurseong, where the indefinite shutdown to press for a separate Gorkhaland entered the third day.



Singmari in Darjeeling turned into a battleground as GJM activists threw petrol bombs and stones at the anti-riot police personnel, who fired teargas shells and lathi-charged the agitators.



The incident, in which several people were injured, prompted the administration to deploy the Army.



An Army official said six columns (around 250 personnel) continued to deployed in the district and the situation in Kalimpong was tense.



Besides Singmari, clashes also took place at Lebongcart Road, Chowkbazar and Ghum, where the countrys highest railway station is located.

Read | Darjeeling's Gorkhaland stir live: IRB personnel seriously injured not dead, says WB CM Banerjee; 2 GJM supporters killed



West Bengal ADG (law and order) Anuj Sharma said in Kolkata that one person was killed at Singmari and around 35 policemen were injured, 19 of them seriously. This was the first death since violent protests returned to Darjeeling on June 8, after a gap of a few years.



The GJM, however, claimed that two party supporters were killed in police firing.Two of our comrades were killed in police firing. They are martyrs of the Gorkhaland movement. The people of the hills will not stop until and unless Gorkhaland is achieved, GJM chief Bimal Gurung said in a statement from an undisclosed location.



The final battle is on. Either we get our right or die fighting for it, he said.Gurungs claim was dismissed by ADG Sharma. The police did not open fire. Not a single bullet was fired, It was the GJM which was firing at us, he said.



Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata that India Rerserve Battalions Assistant Commandant Kiran Tamang was critically injured in the violence.



Tamang, who belongs to IRSs 2nd Battalion, has been shifted to a private nursing home in Siliguri, the police said. Earlier, IRB sources said Tamang was killed in the clash.



Amidst the continuing violence, Home Minister Rajnath Singh telephoned the chief minister and discussed the situation prevailing there.



During the conversation, Banerjee briefed the home minister about the steps being taken by the state government to maintain law and order and bring back normalcy in the hill district, official sources said.



Singh asked the CM to take all possible steps to restore peace in the hill station.What is happening today is a deep-rooted conspiracy. So many bombs and arms cannot be gathered in a day, Banerjee told reporters, adding, I am ready to sacrifice my life, but I will not allow Bengal to be divided.



She said that the GJM has connections with insurgent groups in the Northeast and some foreign countries. She, however, did not name any insurgent group or foreign country.There is a terrorist brain behind this hooliganism. We have got clues that they have connections with underground insurgent groups in the Northeast. There are some other countries also helping, Banerjee said.



The police said seven GJM supporters were arrested for their alleged involvement in the violence.



Giving details of the Singmari incident, a senior police officer said prohibitory orders were in force in the area and the police told the protesters, who were carrying the tricolour and GJM flags, to return.



The slogan-shouting protesters did not relent and started throwing petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the police, he said. A number of police vehicles were set on fire, he said.



We asked them to go back, but they started throwing stones, bottles and petrol bombs. We had to resort to lathi-charge, the official said.



ADG Sharma told PTI, We are waiting for the postmortem report, but it seems that the man died of gunshot wound.



We are trying to identify the person, but going by the preliminary investigation it seems that he is a local, he said.



Law will take its own course. We will arrest anybody found violating law and order in the hills. The police will be tough. he said.



Barring pharmacies, all others shops and hotels were closed in Darjeeling, one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the country. The protests had started against imposition of Bengali language in schools.



Meanwhile, GJM leaders claimed that Vikram Rai, son of GJM MLA Amar Rai, was picked up by the police from Darjeeling.



Vikram is the in-charge of the GJMs media cell. The police last night raided the residence of senior GJM leader Binay Tamang, following which party activists tried to torch a PWD office in Bijanbari area in the hill town.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
President Moon Jae-in puts on his face mask after finishing a New Year press conference held at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



President Moon Jae-in said Monday that the country's drug safety ministry will thoroughly verify the safety of COVID-19 vaccines before the beginning of inoculations next month, in an apparent effort to relieve public concern over their safety after a small number of deaths following vaccination were reported in other countries.



"People can rest assured that the vaccines are safe," Moon said during a New Year press conference at Cheong Wa Dae. "The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will examine COVID-19 vaccines (that are developed by global pharmaceutical companies) in accordance with domestic standards before approving them."



Moon said all vaccines potentially have some side effects, ranging from mild symptoms such as minor discomfort to more serious ones.



"The government will provide compensation if serious, nonconventional side effects occur," he said, noting that the administration will provide the vaccines free to everybody.



When asked about whether he is willing to get vaccinated first as some leaders of other countries have, Moon said he would "not avoid it if somebody needs to set an example and dispel worries over the safety of the vaccines."





Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) (WKN: A2JNFG) ("Altiplano" or the "Company") is pleased to report on the November 2020 production results from the Farellon Copper-Gold (Cu-Au) mine located near La Serena, Chile.

During November 2020, Farellon produced approximately 4,030 tonnes of mineralized Cu-Au material at an approximate grade of 1.80% copper with shipments for processing totaling 3,157 tonnes (including stockpiled material). Revenue in November was approximately US$215,000 generating a marginal increase from October revenue of approximately US$9,000. The November production figure represents an improvement of approximately 28% from October 2020 with November shipped material ending the month marginally higher than October. At November month end, an additional 950 tonnes were stockpiled and available to be shipped.

CEO Alastair McIntyre commented, "Our focus continues on improving the output at Farellon with production occurring on six development headings. With the new headings at the 376 m level and the existing 382m level beyond the extrusive dyke to the SW, we can expect additional efficiency improvements. By further expanding to the next target at the 370 m level, our near term goal is to operate on eight headings."

Table 1. Comparative 2020 Monthly Review of Farellon Output and Shipments





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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/72158_cb86a272c45e6885_001full.jpg

Table 2. Comparative 2020 Monthly Grade at Farellon





To view an enhanced version of Table 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/72158_cb86a272c45e6885_002full.jpg

Table 3: Comparative 2020 Monthly Revenue





To view an enhanced version of Table 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/72158_cb86a272c45e6885_003full.jpg

At the end of November, advancement on the SW 382 m level completed 5.5 m of work beyond the intrusive dyke where grades of 1.65% Cu were observed. Development work has also begun on expanding the 389 m level to access the mineralized zone beyond the dyke. This work is expected to begin in January 2021. Further development of the Hugo Decline is also expected to continue in January to extend the underground workings and access the 370 m level. This work will provide two additional development headings to access the NE - SW trending vein system at the 370 m working level. These new access points will bring the total number of development headings to eight, once fully operational. The Hugo decline extension to the new 370 m level will be approximately 60 m.

Figure 1. Illustration of Underground Operations at Farellon





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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/72158_cb86a272c45e6885_004full.jpg

The decision to commence production on the Farellon deposit is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with the production decision

COVID-19 Update: The Government of Chile announced that its borders have reopened to visitors and travel to the country is permitted; however, certain limitations and requirements must be observed. The health and safety of our employees, contractors, visitors, and the local community remain our top priorities. Altiplano continues to follow the COVID-19 guidance issued by the Federal and Provincial Governments of Canada and Chile. Mine site safety and hygiene protocols (such as: disinfection points for hand washing and supply of face masks) remain in place in order to keep employees and stakeholders safe and to limit any spread at site or within the broader community.

About Altiplano

Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) is a Canadian mining company focused on the acquisition and development of near-term cash flowing assets and exploration projects of significant scale. Altiplano's goal is to grow into a mid-tier producer of copper, gold and silver. Management has a substantial record of success in capitalizing on opportunity, overcoming challenges and building shareholder value.

John Williamson, B.Sc., P.Geol., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this document.

Altiplano is part of the Metals Group of companies, an award-winning team of professionals who stand for technical excellence, painstaking project selection and uncompromising corporate governance, with a proven ability to capitalize on investment opportunities and deliver shareholder returns.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

/s/ "John Williamson"

Chairman

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Yaseniuk, Director

jeremyy@apnmetals.com

Tel: (604) 773-1467

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the (TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify any historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the issuer is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Farellon mine was previously in production dating back to the 1970's with a reported historical production (to a depth of 70 m) yielding approximately 300,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.5% copper and 0.5g/t gold. This material was processed locally and sold to ENAMI. Altiplano is relying upon past production records, underground sampling and related activities and current diamond drilling to estimate grade and widths of the mineralization to reactivate production. The decision to commence production on the Farellon deposit is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with any production decision. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72158
A cluster of allergic reactions that prompted California to halt the use of hundreds of thousands of doses of coronavirus vaccine has thrown another wrench into the states struggling vaccination rollout, forcing some health care providers to cancel clinics on Monday.

The development stems from one batch of Moderna vaccines apparently linked to severe allergic reactions in six health care workers who received shots at a mass vaccination site at Petco Park, the Padres baseball stadium in San Diego last week. The California Department of Public Health on Sunday issued a statement recommending that health care providers stop using vaccines from this batch, which arrived in California between Jan. 5 and Jan. 12.

More than 330,000 doses from this batch, or lot, were sent to 287 providers across the state, including some in the Bay Area. The doses, which expire in July, will not be thrown out. They will be kept in storage until public health and Moderna officials who are investigating the cases know more about what caused the allergic reactions. The state hopes to provide more information this week.

Its probably prudent to hold them, but every time a vaccine isnt given out, its slowing us down, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at UCSF.

As of Sunday, about 43% of the 3.2 million doses shipped to local health departments and providers statewide had been administered.

Some doses from the Moderna lot have already been administered, but statewide, it is unclear exactly how many and where. No other clusters of allergic reactions have been reported from sites that used vaccines from the same lot, the state said Sunday.

On Monday, two vaccination clinics  Stanislaus Countys in Modesto and one at CSU Stanislaus  canceled appointments because they could no longer guarantee vaccine availability due to the Moderna issue.

In the Bay Area, health care providers in San Francisco, Alameda, Marin and Santa Clara counties are among those that received doses from this batch. Providers that had started using those doses have stopped.

Kaiser Permanente has removed doses of the Moderna batch from its vaccine supply, a Kaiser spokesman said Monday. No severe reactions were recorded in Kaiser members who got the vaccine. Kaiser did not say how many doses from the batch it received or how many it administered. This situation only affects a relatively small percentage of our supply, the spokesman said.

Marin County received about 1,200 doses from the batch on Jan. 11 and had administered all of them by Friday; no one reported allergic reactions. Santa Clara County was allocated 21,800 doses from the batch to distribute to providers, but none have been administered.

San Francisco, which received about 8,000 doses from the batch, had administered some but stopped using those doses on Friday when it heard about the problems in San Diego. The city reported no adverse reactions to the doses that had already been given.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health has not had to cancel appointments yet and is trying to complete vaccinations that are already scheduled. But it may become difficult by the end of the week unless additional doses arrive.

This setback comes at a time when vaccine is scarce and when SFDPH allocation from the state arriving this week is only 1,775, a department spokeswoman said. This will have an impact on the overall citys ability to complete scheduled appointments.

The six cases of allergic reaction at the Petco Park vaccination site occurred in a 24-hour span and required medical care. It is unclear what symptoms the individuals had or whether any of them have a history of allergic reactions. The Food and Drug Administration has said there is a remote chance that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can cause allergic reactions including difficulty breathing, rash and swelling of the face and throat.

Authorities have not said whether the six people have anything in common beyond having received shots at the same vaccination site last week. The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency referred questions to the state and the FDA. The state said it does not have any information about whether the six individuals have a history of allergic reactions. The FDA did not immediately respond to questions Monday.

That number, clustered together, was slightly higher than expected for the time period, Dr. Eric McDonald, San Diego Countys director of epidemiology, said about the Petco Park allergic reactions last week. He said the batch was swapped out in the possible event the reactions were connected.

The allergic reactions appeared to happen within the observation period required after receiving the vaccine. Because of early reports of a small number of people experiencing severe allergic reactions, regulators recommend that people who get the vaccine be observed for 30 minutes afterward.

Moderna said Monday it is cooperating with the state health department to investigate the reported reactions. The company said it is not aware of comparable adverse events from other vaccination sites that may have administered doses from the same batch.

Moderna acknowledges receiving a report from the California Department of Public Health that a number of individuals at one vaccination center were treated for possible allergic reactions after vaccination from one lot of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine, a Moderna spokeswoman said in a statement Monday. The company is fully cooperating with CDPH in investigating these reported adverse events.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA are also reviewing the batch.

The state said the risk of a serious adverse reaction is very small. It is unclear how many cases of severe allergic reaction have occurred in people after getting the Moderna vaccine.

For a similar vaccine, made by Pfizer, the risk is less than 1 in 100,000. There were 175 cases of possible severe allergic reactions, including 21 cases of anaphylaxis, identified out of nearly 1.9 million doses administered in the United States as of Dec. 23, according to the CDC.

Each batch of vaccine may have slightly different amounts of certain ingredients, which could be why this one batch was linked to a cluster of severe reactions, vaccine experts said. It is possible, for instance, that one batch contains slightly more polyethylene glycol, or PEG, an ingredient that the National Institutes of Health has been looking into as a potential cause of earlier reports of anaphylaxis in a small number of people who got the Pfizer vaccine.

PEG has not been used before in other vaccines, but is used in the coronavirus vaccines to keep the fragile genetic material they rely on stable.

Every batch is not like a batch of shoes (that) all look alike, maybe this batch had more PEG in it, or a different ingredient, Gandhi said. It may have had a little too much X and too little of this. It could just be associated with one batch.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: Cat_Ho

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Egypt sent on Monday a load of medical supplies and medicines to Jordan. The shipment was sent in collaboration with the health ministry on a military transport plane as per the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to assist Arab countries during the coronavirus crisis, the Egyptian Armed Forces announced.

The aid comes in light of Arab national ties and Egypt's firm stance alongside its Arab brothers, solidarity and full cooperation with them in the face of adversity and crises, the Armed Forces spokesperson said in a statement.

President El-Sisi arrived on Monday in Amman to discuss bilateral and regional issues upon an invitation from King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Egypt has sent several medical aids to various Arab countries, including Sudan and Iraq.

Jordan has recorded 315,957 infections, 299,000 recoveries, and 4,145 fatalities since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

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OTHER VOICES: Changes have been made, but there's still a long way to go
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Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has urged people laid off temporarily as a result of Covid-19 to do short courses, saying it will not affect their social welfare payments.

He was speaking as a new online portal which simplifies the process for people looking to retrain or add new skills is launched by the Government today.

Mr Harris said the portal will be "a one-stop shop" for businesses, employees or unemployed persons and outlines the third-level options available to them.

The minister said the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on working life has forced Ireland to confront many of its skills shortages.

If you are unemployed temporarily as a result of Covid-19, now could be the time to do a short course. You can still retain your social welfare payments while undertaking the course. Or if you are in employment but want to improve your skillset, there are options available to you too."

Mr Harris said there are many options for people but acknowledged that the system is complex and can overburden some.

Ireland is a small country. We cannot afford to have untapped talent and we cannot leave any person locked out of society because of a lack of skills.

"We must ensure our people have access to the skills they need to succeed in life, and that Irish business has the people with the skills they need to grow.

"This is also critical to securing our recovery and ensuring Irelands people share in that recovery.

Read More Revenue website experiencing 'issues' as people log on to check tax bills

According to his department, the new portal will outline further education and training places, the courses in higher education on offer, and information for those on a social welfare payment.

Business owners should explore the range of upskilling options available from Skillnet Ireland, including enterprise-led business supports, targeted upskilling for employees, free online training, and virtual job placements, it said.

Minister of State for skills, Niall Collins, said: We have so much on offer but it can be a very difficult system to navigate. This website outlines all of your options  apprenticeship, traineeship, a short course, a degree, a Masters."
Norway plays down link between jab, deaths

Empty vials of the Pfizer vaccine are seen at a centre near Paris. File photo: Reuters

Norway said on Monday no link had been established between Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine and post-vaccination deaths in the country, but recommended doctors consider the overall health of the most frail before giving them the jab.



Since the start of Norway's vaccination campaign at the end of December, the country has registered 33 deaths among elderly people who have received their first dose, according to public health authorities.



Of the 13 cases analysed in detail so far, "they are people of advanced age, are frail and have serious illnesses, all of them," the director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Camilla Stoltenberg told reporters.



"When it comes to causes there hasn't been any analysis done yet," she added.



"It is important to remember that on average about 45 people die every day at nursing homes in Norway, so it's not given that this represents any excess mortality or that they are related to the vaccines," she said.



After the reports of deaths, Norway has nonetheless stressed that doctors should individually consider whether patients who are frail or terminally ill should receive the vaccine, as is also recommended in some other countries.



"It's not impossible that some of those who have gotten the vaccine are so frail that maybe you should have reconsidered and not given them the vaccine, because they are so sick that they might have become worse from the normal side effects as the body reacts and builds up immunity," Stoltenberg said.



The Norwegian Medicines Agency said last week that normal side effects from messenger RNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, "may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients."



A number of countries, including Norway's neighbours Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, have reported post-vaccination deaths but no direct links to the vaccine have been established.



Pfizer and BioNTech said on Monday they were "working with the Norwegian Medicines Agency to gather all the relevant information".



They recalled that Norway's vaccination campaign started with the elderly living in care homes, "most of whom are very elderly with underlying medical conditions and some of which are terminally ill."



More than 48,000 people have been vaccinated in Norway so far. (AFP)

Iran convicted an American businessman on a spying charge and sentenced him to 10 years in prison weeks after the U.S. election.

A family friend of Iranian-American Emad Shargi, 56, said he was called to court on Nov. 30, convicted of espionage without trial and sentenced to a decade in jail. The conviction came almost a year after an Iranian court acquitted Shargi, but officials continued to hold onto his Iranian and U.S. passports.

Shagis family in a statement obtained by the network that they have not heard from him for more than six weeks.

Iranian and Farsi-language outlets had previously reported about Shagis conviction but did not include that he was a U.S. citizen. He was not immediately taken into custody until his arrest on Dec. 6, NBC News reported, citing Iranian media.

Shargi, who was born in Iran and educated in the U.S., had moved back to Iran with his wife in 2016. The family friend said Shargi had no history or interest in political activity.

He was first arrested in April 2018 and imprisoned until December 2018 after being released on bail. The family friend told NBC News that during his imprisonment he was interrogated and blindfolded and put in a rooms corner.

Iranian Judge Abolqasem Salavati, who the U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned, handled Shargis November conviction and sentencing.

Shargi is the fourth Iranian-American to be detained in Iran, in addition to Siamak Namazi, who has been in jail since 2015, his father Baquer, who is on medical furlough, and Morad Tahbaz, an environmental activist.
CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Moldova's former president and the leader of the Party of Socialists, Igor Dodon, said on Monday that the country is set to receive several hundred thousand doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 in a few weeks.

In late December, Dodon and the Deputy Chief of Staff of Russia's Presidential Executive Office, Dmitry Kozak, discussed cooperation between the countries in the fight against COVID-19, including the purchase of the Sputnik V vaccine.

"We have agreed with Kozak that Moldova will receive several hundred thousand doses. In a few weeks, Russia's vaccine is to emerge in Chisinau.

There is already an agreement on the issue," Dodon said at a press briefing.

The former president expressed hope that no one in Moldova would impede the process of the vaccine's procurement.

Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, was registered by the Russian Health Ministry on August 11. According to Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, the majority of Sputnik V vaccine doses intended for export were to be produced at facilities located in Brazil, China, India, South Korea and other countries.
(CNN)  US President Donald Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter, a major batch of clemency actions that includes white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others but  as of now  is not expected to include Trump himself.

The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said.

Trump, who had been rolling out pardons and commutations at a steady clip ahead of Christmas, had put a pause on them in the days leading up to and directly after the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, according to officials.

Aides said Trump was singularly focused on the Electoral College count in the days ahead of time, precluding him for making final decisions on pardons. White House officials had expected them to resume after January 6, but Trump retreated after he was blamed for inciting the riots.

RELATED: Trump's 'pro-law enforcement' image crumbles in his final days

Initially, two major batches had been ready to roll out, one at the end of last week and one on Tuesday. Now, officials expect the last batch to be the only one -- unless Trump decides at the last minute to grant pardons to controversial allies, members of his family or himself.

The final batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies.

The pardons are one of several items Trump must complete before his presidency ends in days. White House officials also still have executive orders prepared, and the President is still hopeful to declassify information related to the Russia probe before he leaves office. But with a waning number of administration officials still in jobs, the likelihood that any of it gets done seemed to be shrinking.

The January 6 riots that led to Trump's second impeachment have complicated his desire to pardon himself, his kids and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At this point, aides do not think he will do so, but caution only Trump knows what he will do with his last bit of presidential power before he is officially out of office at noon on January 20.

After the riots, advisers encouraged Trump to forgo a self-pardon because it would appear like he was guilty of something, according to one person familiar with the conversations. Several of Trump's closest advisers have also urged him not to grant clemency to anyone involved in the siege on the US Capitol, despite Trump's initial stance that those involved had done nothing wrong.

"There are a lot of people urging the President to pardon the folks" involved in the insurrection, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on Fox News. "To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong."

One White House official said paperwork had not yet been drawn up for a self-pardon.

Still, Trump is expected to leave the White House on January 20 and could issue pardons up until noon on Inauguration Day.

Other attention-grabbing names, like Julian Assange, are also not currently believed to among the people receiving pardons, but the list is still fluid and that could change, too.

It's also not certain whether Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon will receive a pardon.

RELATED: Wikileaks asks reporters for help in desperate bid to score Julian Assange last-minute pardon

Trump is still receiving multiple streams of recommendations on pardons from those advisers who remain at the White House, as well as people outside the building who have been lobbying for months for themselves or their clients.

The expectation among allies is that Trump will issue pardons that he could benefit from post presidency.

"Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him," one source familiar with the matter said.

Salomon Melgen clemency possible

Dr. Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach, Florida, who is in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud, is currently expected to be included in the clemency list, three sources familiar tell CNN.

Melgen, who is noteworthy for being the co-conspirator in a since-dismissed corruption case against Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, was sentenced to 17 years for health care fraud in 2018.

While his name surprised some Trump allies given the President's attitude toward Menendez, Melgen is seen as a wealthy and influential figure in south Florida. The corruption case against Menendez and Melgen was dropped by the Justice Department in January 2018.

Inside the White House, there has been a scramble to petition for pardons on behalf of allies and advocacy groups and names could be added and taken off up until the last minute, sources say.

CNN previously reported there has been a crush of pardon requests during Trump's final days in office from allies, lobbyists and others hoping to cash in on their loyalty to Trump. The New York Times reported Sunday some of those people were getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of felons hoping for pardons.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Trump to issue around 100 pardons and commutations Tuesday, sources say."

[January 18, 2021] Digital Isolator Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2024 - Cumulative Impact for COVID-19 Recovery

The Digital Isolator will register an incremental spend of about USD 523.95 million, growing at a CAGR of 5.60% from 2020-2024. A targeted strategic approach to Digital Isolator market sourcing can unlock several opportunities for buyers. This report offers market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Get free report sample within minutes This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005157/en/ SpendEdge has announced the release of its Global Digital Isolator Market Procurement Intelligence Report (Graphic: Business Wire) Get detailed insights on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and recovery analysis of Digital Isolator market Digital Isolator Market Analysis Analysis of the cost and volume drivers and supply market forecasts in various regions are offered in this Digital Isolator research report. This market intelligence report also analyzes the top supply markets and the critical cost drivers that can aid buyers and suppliers devise a cost-effective category management strategy. The report provides insights on the following information: Regional spend dynamism and factors impacting costs

The total cost of ownership and cost-saving opportunities

Supply chain margins and pricing models

Competitiveness index for suppliers

Market favorability index for suppliers

Supplier and buyer KPIs For more information on the exact spend growth rate and yearly category spend, download a free sample.



Spend Growth and Demand Segmentation The Digital Isolator market will register an incremental spend of USD 523.95 Million, growing at a CAGR of 5.60% from 2020-2024

On the supply side, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment, Subscribe Now for Free.

Some of the top Digital Isolator suppliers enlisted in this report This Digital Isolator procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Analog Devices (News - Alert) Inc.

Broadcom Inc.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc.

Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Texas Instruments Inc.

Infineon Technologies (News - Alert) AG

ROHM Co. Ltd.

Vicor Corp.

NXP Semiconductors NV

NVE Corp. This procurement report answers help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their Digital Isolator requirements following questions: Am I engaging with the right suppliers?

Which KPIs should I use to evaluate my incumbent suppliers?

Which supplier selection criteria are relevant for?

What are the workplace computing devices category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx? Get access to regular sourcing and procurement insights to our digital procurement platform- Activate Free subscription. Table of Content Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more Request for demo View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005157/en/

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A 45-year-old Indian woman died after her husband accidentally rammed their car into her while parking at a vehicle enclosure in the UAE 's Ajman emirate, according to a media report on Monday.

Liji and her husband (name withheld) had gone for a health check-up at a community hospital on Saturday, The Gulf News reported quoting a source close to the family.

Liji was standing in front of the car, giving her husband directions to park it, when the vehicle accidentally raced forward, trapping Liji against the compound wall, said Sajad Nattika, president of the Indian Association, Umm Al Quwain.

Liji and her husband -- both natives of Kerala -- have two children, the newspaper reported.

Their son is an engineering student in India. Their daughter, who is the younger amongst the two, studies at a school in Umm Al Quwain, where the family has settled for nearly a decade now.

Nattika said the Indian community in Ajman was in shock after the tragic accident.

Ajman Police is investigating the case. The Indian association is supporting the family to repatriate the mortal remains, the daily reported.

Consul for Press, Information and Culture, at the Indian Consulate in Dubai Neeraj Agrawal said, The Consulate offers its heartfelt condolences to the family and all the assistance required from our side."

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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(Natural News) A Chinese doctor has dubbed the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine candidate from a state-owned drugmaker as the most unsafe in the world. Dr. Tao Lina posted in the Chinese social media platform Weibo Jan. 5 that the jab made by Sinopharm caused 73 side effects. The vaccine expert from Shanghai, who has 4.8 million social media followers, later retracted his statement and apologized for his imprudent choice of words.

Tao criticized the vaccine candidate in a blog post titled Sinopharms inactivated COVID-19 vaccine feared to be the most unsafe vaccine in the world. In the post, he pointed out that the jab had as many as 73 side effects. These included pain around the injection area, headache, high blood pressure, urinary incontinence, and taste and vision loss.

The vaccine expert also commented that none of the vaccines in the world has more side effects than Sinopharms two-dose COVID-19 jab. He described the vaccines potential adverse effect as unprecedented, with the numerous side effects catapulting it to be the most unsafe vaccine.

A number of international news outlets reported Taos claims, which led to the doctor retracting his previous statement. He claimed Jan. 7 that his controversial blog, which has disappeared, was an extremely sarcastic piece pointing out the errors in the Sinopharm vaccine manual. Suspecting that the side effects were mistakenly listed, he wrote the blog to call the drugmakers attention toward the flawed handbook.

Furthermore, Tao refuted accusations that he blasted Sinopharms Wuhan coronavirus vaccine candidate. He also denounced international news outlets for twisting and exploiting his words. The vaccine expert said in a Weibo post: Hereby, I extend my apologies to numerous web users and citizens across the nation, and express my despisal [of] the evil actions of overseas media.

Tao also assured his social media followers that the Sinopharm vaccine was very safe, saying he had already received the first dose. He added that he would receive the second dose Jan. 9.

Chinas mass vaccination program is progressing despite Taos controversial post

The news of Taos controversial blog entry and subsequent retraction of it came amid Chinas mass vaccination program against COVID-19. Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said Jan. 7 that it had administered more than four million COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Jan. 4. Two vaccine candidates by Sinopharm are included in the countrys emergency vaccination program launched in July for specific high-risk sectors.

Chinese health authorities granted conditional approval to Sinopharms vaccine Dec. 31. According to a WeChat post by CNBG, no serious adverse reaction was reported in large-scale emergency use of Sinopharms COVID-19 vaccines. The state-run pharmaceutical firms vaccine candidate reported a 79.34 percent efficacy rate. (Related: Chinas coronavirus vaccine production may be unable to fulfill commitments to other countries.)

Outside of China, a number of Middle Eastern nations have approved Sinopharms COVID-19 vaccine for their immunization campaigns. Egypt approved the emergency use of the jab Jan. 2, the countrys health minister Hala Zayed said. The Egyptian Drug Authority tested the first batch of the vaccines that arrived in December to ensure they are safe to use.

Zayed continued that the next batch of Sinopharm vaccine doses will arrive in the coming days, with vaccination campaigns to commence within the second and third week of January.

The United Arab Emirates also announced its approval of Sinopharms vaccine candidate Dec. 9. In a press release, Emirati authorities said the approval was based on promising efficacy rates from clinical trials. Final-stage trials on the vaccine  including a 31,000-participant trial in the country  found that the vaccine reported an 86 percent efficacy rate.

China is aiming to inoculate millions of people before the Lunar New Year in mid-February. It particularly targets front-line workers and the working-age population, including those who plan to travel abroad for academic or employment purposes. As such, it has assigned nine key groups to be prioritized in the vaccination campaign. International and domestic transport workers, logistics and public utility staff and public sector employees among the groups China prioritized in its vaccination queue.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, China currently has a 96,432 COVID-19 caseload with 90,464 recoveries and 4,788 deaths.

Visit Vaccines.news to read more about jabs to combat the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

English.Ahram.org.eg

Nature.com

Famine historian Dr Ciaran Reilly will be especially keen to watch Joe Biden being sworn in as President of the United States on Wednesday.

Not only has the Maynooth University professor had the honour of meeting Mr Biden when he visited here in 2016 as US vice president under Barack Obama, he also thinks the president elect may end up repeating family history in a bid to get millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic back to work.

In a revelation that pleasantly surprised the incoming leader of the free world, Dr Reilly told Mr Biden how his great great great grandfather Edward Blewitt, a native of Ballina, Co Mayo, helped save thousands of people in the area from starving to death during the Famine.

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Mr Blewitt, who was a surveyor for the Ordinance Survey, was appointed in 1848 to oversee the relief efforts in the area.

"The workhouse in Ballina was full," he said, adding, "chances are that if you went into the workhouse you'd end up in the graveyard."

Mr Blewitt was tasked with employing local people in relief schemes to build roads and other infrastructure that would give them paid employment to ward off starvation.

"They kept an awful lot of people alive, said Dr Reilly.

Read More

"There could have been around 700 or 800 people employed and with five or six people in every home, it would be a couple of thousand people kept alive," he said.

While not everyone survived the relief projects, with many so badly malnourished they couldn't even survive the journey to their work places, they did keep many people alive who would have otherwise starved to death, he said.

And to his delight when Dr Reilly informed him of his ancestor's role in the Famine during his visit to his ancestral home, Mr Biden was pleasantly taken aback, he said.

"He didn't know anything about it. When he heard the story he stopped me and asked me to repeat it; he was adamant that his grandkids would hear it," he said.

"He looked to (former Taoiseach Enda Kenny who accompanied him on the trip) and said we should be proud of this man," he said.

Dr Reilly said he and Mr Biden discussed how little is known about the people in Ireland who survived the Famine and he was intrigued by the story.

Mr Blewitt, meanwhile, emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, two years later as a forebearer to Joe Biden.

As Joe Biden prepares to take over the reins of power this week, he may well be looking into a similar relief scheme for the millions of Americans who are unemployed and finding it difficult to put food on the table as a result of Covid-19.

"He is faced with challenges now that are similar to what his ancestors faced," Dr Reilly said.

Ill be watching him with interest, he said, adding it was an honour to meet with the man who would become President of the US.

"This was momentous. Not many people get to do it, he said.

"Ive met a lot a people but you could genuinely tell he was interested, he said.
Indians may soon find job offers from Japan in sectors like healthcare, construction, aviation, food services, agriculture.

A memorandum of cooperation on movement of specified skilled workers to Japan for a maximum period of up to five years has been signed by India and Japan on January 18.

The Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) is a category created by Japan in April, 2019 to accept foreign nationals who have a certain level of expertise and skill to fill vacancies arising in specific sectors because of declining population and ageing society in that country. The MoC signed between two countries by Japanese Ambassador to India Suzuki Satoshi and India's foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla calls for a basic framework for partnership for operationalising a system to promote people movement from India to Japan under this 'Specified Skilled Worker' category.

There are 14 specified industry fields that offer jobs under SSW. These are nursing care (caregiving), building cleaning management, machine parts & tooling industries, industrial machinery industry, electric, electronics and information industries, construction industry, shipbuilding and ship machinery industry, automobile repair and maintenance, aviation industry, hospitality sector, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, food and beverages and food services sector.

The MOC sets a framework between the Governments of Japan and India, allowing information sharing and problem solving in order to protect Indian nationals coming to Japan as SSW and facilitate a smooth implementation of the SSW system. The two governments will hold consultations to prepare for implementation of the SSW system with India.

As language proficiency is required, it is hoped that new opportunities presented by the system of SSW will also spur interests in Japanese language studies.

Incidentally, there is another scheme called "Technical Intern Training Program (TITP)" of the Japanese government which is up and running for Indian nationals from October 2017. While TITP's main objective is training and skill development, participants of TITP who have acquired sufficient skills in Japan can also transition their status to that of SSW, without taking exams on expertise or Japanese language.

Also read: ONGC may have to wait till FY24 to merge MRPL, HPCL

Also read: L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering gets Rs 7,000 cr order from HPCL Rajasthan Refinery
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Sir - In her article last week, Senator Frances Black demands a referendum on Irish unity in accordance with the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 - but fails to address its possible consequences.

As I understand it, that agreement recognised the complexities of conflicting nationalist and unionist loyalties and rights in Northern Ireland and replaced the unionist majority abuse of the nationalist minority with a power-sharing arrangement - because that majority abuse had led to an unsuccessful 25 years of revolt that cost 3,500 lives.

In other words, a simplistic, rigid interpretation of democracy (that a majority can do whatever it wishes, regardless of the minority) was replaced with a more flexible interpretation.

How should that agreement be interpreted by us in the event, say, of a 51pc:49pc referendum result in favour of Irish unity? Would that justify absorbing the 49pc into a united Ireland against their wishes? Or would doing so just mirror unionist majority abuse of nationalists - but this time with a nationalist majority abusing the unionists, with an equally catastrophic outcome?

If it was wrong for unionists to abuse their majority, could it possibly be right for nationalists to abuse theirs?

I do not know the answers to these questions. But they need to be asked and answered by thoughtful democrats before they rush to insist willy-nilly on their 'right' to a border poll that may turn out to be divisive rather than unifying.

Rights need to be matched with obligations if we are to avoid repeating past mistakes on our small island. As things stand right now, I do not wish to choose between a divisive border poll and our hard-won peace. As an Irish republican deeply committed to our republic's traditions and elective system, I can understand the equally passionate commitment of unionists to their traditions. I do not share it - but neither will I deny it to them.

Pat Lynch, Castlebar, Co Mayo

Welcome to the All-Dublin final

Sir - All this talk about funding for the Dublin team and "dividing" Dublin in four is very unfair.

First of all, "funding" does not kick the ball. It's the players.

If they divide Dublin in four, no other county would have even a chance to play in an All-Ireland semi-final.

Brendan Savage,

Swords, Co Dublin

Imagining Tony in his tracksuit

Sir - For almost a year now, Dr Tony Holohan has made a socially distant appearance on our TV each evening. I imagine I'm not alone in admiring the knowledge and resilience of the man. Indeed, I am often reminded of Oliver Goldsmith's line: "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew."

However, it is not just Tony's mastery of his brief that I admire but also his composure, his patience, and his restraint.

Recently, however, I find myself imagining what Tony would look and sound like if he dispensed with the suit and appeared in jeans and open-neck shirt - or in a tracksuit and runners. Would he throw caution to the wind and deviate from politically correct answers to tell us a few home truths?

In a time when political bosses have a fondness for using questionable quotations, would Tony dare quote Oliver Hardy: "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into." Or would he prefer WB Yeats: "You have disgraced yourselves again."

Maybe he might regale us with the modern-day parable of the farmer in old God's time who returned home one night in late September, accompanied by his son, to find all his cows had broken into the barn and were feasting on the hay they had saved and stored for the long winter ahead. The farmer's son got excited, as they are prone to do, and the father, like Dr Tony, stayed calm, looked at the cows, and uttered the not-so-famous words: "'Tis on yourselves you're doing it."

We all know Tony would never resort to such controversial actions or statements - but he must be tempted. He is, without doubt, a loyal public servant who, in the words of Shakespeare, has "done the State some service". One can only hope "they know't" and that we all continue to appreciate it.

Eddie Morrissey,

Cashel, Co Tipperary

Remembering Niall McCarthy

Sir -Shane Ross last week said Donal O'Donnell was only the third person in the State to be appointed to the Supreme Court directly from the Law Library.

Has Mr Ross never heard of the late Niall McCarthy, Supreme Court judge from 1982-1992? He was a barrister, chair of the Bar Council, at the time of his appointment by Patrick Hillery.

Patrick O'Keeffe,

Portlaoise, Co Laois

My heart goes out to all fellow survivors

Sir - My heart bleeds for the mothers of the 9,000 babies buried in the grounds or the sewerages of mother and baby homes. Those were very dark times for unmarried mothers.

The nuns and priests attached at the time to the homes must have had an inkling as to what was going on. Where were the dead babies going ? Had they a few prayers at their funerals? Or were they just dumped to waste their sweetness in the desert air?

I had my baby in Bessborough, Cork, one of the homes investigated. I was privileged to raise my son to be a wonderful human being.

Thank you to Catherine Corless, the historian who alerted the country to the barbaric burials of the lost children. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

The sky is still as blue, the grass is still as green, the birds sing as sweetly, the flowers have not lost their fragrance. It might not seem so at the moment, but slowly it will.

Terry Healy,

Kill, Co Kildare

Appalling stain our responsibility alone

Sir - To hear the Taoiseach describe this as a "dark chapter" in Irish history is tantamount to describing the Holocaust as a "dark chapter" in German history.

What's most concerning is that it lasted around seven decades and impacted around 60,000 women.

This is an appalling stain on Ireland, its politicians and the Catholic Church.

For years my parents and grandparents said that Ireland's troubles came from English colonisation, but I believe Ireland created many of its own problems and has used "the English" as a scapegoat.

John J Maguire, via email

Fathers enabled to simply walk away

Sir - The headlines in the Sunday Independent made for sad and deeply disturbing reading. We can only imagine what the mothers of the 57,000 children born suffered at the hands of the cruel, ugly, unchristian people who ran or supported these so-called homes.

Now flip the coin and remember that for each of the 57,000 children there was a father who was, for the most part, able to button up his pants and stroll off into anonymity, no case to answer.

Why? Because they were enabled by a male-dominated State and church.

We will never read a report or see stats on how many of them were committed to a life of slavery, insult, ridicule and pain, because there is none. There was no need, the women were the sinners.

Thank goodness women have fought their way out of that era and continue to take their rightful place in society today.

Mary Buckley,

Ennistymon, Co Clare

Parents of young girls owe apology

Sir - It is not Micheal Martin or the Government who should apologise. It is those parents who turned their backs on daughters in their hour of need, forcing them to go into those homes.

Maybe some apologies could also come from members of the clergy who did not want their parishes 'shamed' and pressured some of those parents.

I write as one who, with my wife, was involved in the late 1960s/early 1970s hosting young girls for Fr Fergal O'Connor's organisation that kept them out of those 'homes'.

Cal Hyland,

Rosscarbery, west Cork

Many involved had best of intentions

Sir - As a society today, we may judge those who provided care to the unmarried pregnant women harshly, but many involved no doubt acted with the best of intentions, but in a way that is no longer acceptable in terms of respecting their human rights.

Frank Browne,

Templeogue, Dublin 16

Politicians should share the blame

Sir - I listened carefully to the apology issued by Taoiseach Micheal Martin for the crimes committed in the mother and baby homes. I listened in vain for any mention of the culpability of Irish political parties and Irish politicians in this scandal.

Why was there no mention of the culpability of the fathers of all those children who were born in these institutions? Are the inexcusable, ongoing delays in achieving justice for the mothers and babies in this scandal intended to protect the perpetrators and deny justice for the victims?

Edward Horgan,

Castletroy, Co Limerick

Society must face up to its failings

Sir - The Catholic Church and the State are responsible for the appalling treatment of women and children throughout the 20th century. Nevertheless, whether we like to admit it or not, Irish society played a role in contributing to women and children's suffering in many institutions throughout Ireland.

The church ruled with an iron fist and exploited and manipulated communities. The wealthier the family, the more welcome within the church.

Social status played a huge role; one only needs to examine Irish graveyards to witness the trade-off with high crosses strategically positioned. The most favoured families are positioned in the cemetery centre, while the lower classes filled the surrounding periphery.

Priests and nuns with financial clout and a higher social status filled the most significant places within.

Sex outside of marriage was the ultimate sin, and sex for enjoyment was an evil act of defiance.

The legacy left behind can never be rectified, nor the women and children's lives returned. We must strive against all prejudice to ensure a similar pattern never follows. Men ran the church; men ruled the government; men controlled the communities. Men impregnated women; men bore no responsibility, and women and children suffered catastrophically.

The church and State colluded to inflict the most indescribable hardships, and society remained silent.

Declan Monaghan,

Tullamore, Co Offaly

A church enabled by a wimpish State

Sir - There has been so much interest in last week's report - but very little attention given to the fathers involved.

Bishops and priests exercised such power over the people because they were allowed to do so by the wimpish politicians of the day. So when allocating blame for this terrible regime the finger must first be pointed at the State. Politicians were elected to care for the people - but they handed the power over to the church, which behaved in a most unchristian way.

Mary O'Dowd

Kilkee, Co Clare

You are all so special and you should never forget it

Sir  I am a survivor, apparently. I was one of the lucky babies adopted and rescued from Tuam Mother and Baby home at the age of nine months.

However, the legacy from that era lives on; firstly in the obviously emotional side and in particular the attitude of some narrow-minded holier than God people in Irish society.

Like the nun in my secondary school who frequently referred to the fact that I was adopted despite the fact that I was doing very well in my studies.

Like the mother of my then boyfriend who did not want him with me as we dont know who she is or where she came from.

Also, the priest who was meant to assist me in tracing my birth mother but sent me a letter asking if my husband was aware of what I was doing and advised that I should have his permission to do so.

However, I was very lucky that these and other incidents did not affect me too much as I had adoptive parents who told me: Youre a very special person, not forced on us but chosen by us.

The most difficult and distressing legacy left to me was the lack of medical information on my background, which proved almost fatal when one of my children ended up in intensive care close to death.

I had absolutely no medical history to provide doctors with which could have been crucial in this instance. My child survived due to emergency surgery and pure luck.

It also affects my own health. Recently, having been ill, I have been unable to provide doctors with any medical history which could help with a diagnosis.

So, the legacy from Tuam Mother and Baby home does not only affect those born there but also their babies.

I would like to thank the bravery and tireless energy of Catherine Corless and other purposeful people for exposing this living nightmare and taking on the might of the church, religious and political institutions.

I would also like to reinforce my adoptive parents words to all survivors of these cold, uncaring, loveless intuitions: You are all special and never forget that.

Name and address with Editor

Let our remembrance flower

Sir  As lately as the 1980s when I was a bus conductor in Cork city, I would regularly have older passengers who were getting off at Marian Park in Blackrock shyly ask me how to get to Bessborough Home from there.

They almost always carried little bunches of flowers to that girl or woman they were visiting. Their story was never really a complete or happy one, I always felt. But I knew by the posies a birth had happened.

Bittersweet?

We can be assured that this particular time of horror, even if unaddressed properly up to recently, will never again happen.

This has to be seen as a mature population moving forward, not before time. Let us today temper justice with mercy.

Robert Sullivan,

Bantry, Co Cork

Now gardai should investigate homes

Sir  Surely now a State criminal investigation is warranted because of the crimes and evil depravity committed in these repulsive, obscene residences. We now have the opportunity to use as evidence the experiences of the survivors who were incarcerated in these edifices of pure wickedness and finally give them a voice.

Vincent OConnell,

New Ross, Co Wexford

Make the orders pay for their sins

Sir  Well done to our Taoiseach on an essential and necessary apology. It was well delivered and though some think it was the least that we can do at this time, it still had to be done.

The religious institutions deserve to pay and if they made money from these times then penalties should also be added.

A national remembrance day should be added to our calendar for the lost innocence of these daughters and their children.

A sincere and heartfelt sorry from us all.

Ken Maher,

Kilcoole, Co Wicklow

Survivors and families should have been first to see Mother and Baby Report

Sir  We write as survivors, family members of lost children and advocates of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

[Last Sunday] we awoke to your newspapers front-page coverage devoted to the leaked commissions report by your journalist Jody Corcoran.

Those of us who are more media-savvy than others realise that for such a headline and evidence to make front-page coverage it goes before an editorial team, and I wonder aloud did you or others at any time think about how those who are most affected  the men and women who spent their formative years in such homes  would feel? Or did it not cross your mind?

I can name the reaction as retraumatising. For six years we have reacted to and contributed to the commission to enable a truthful narrative to emerge and one that will allow for survivor testimonies to shine through. By providing such commentary you have actually placed statistics without any full context or indeed without support structures that the Government has provided. It shows a lack of respect for our members and for survivors of institutions throughout Ireland.

I hope in future you place yourselves in the survivors shoes and think: That is me, that is my mum, my dad or my grandparent, a loved one. Then perhaps you would not sensationalise in such a manner that dehumanises the victim-survivor.

You are better than that. And, whats more, you know it.

Breeda Murphy,

PRO, Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance



Sir  Your lead article was a breach of respect and an absolute lack of sensitivity to a marginalised, mainly elderly, group of women who had waited many, many years to be recognised and were waiting to review the report.

My mother grew up in an industrial school and spent time in a Magdalene laundry. On previous occasions there were many excellent, sensitive articles written and printed in your paper. However, this article was unacceptable and caused great distress. I will discontinue buying the newspaper.

Mrs Terry Donnelly,

Portmarnock, Dublin 13



Sir  As an online subscriber I generally find your products excellent. I do have a problem with last Sundays article on the leaked contents of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission Report. It was wrong on many fronts, not least your empathy (or lack of) for the people affected by the entire sorry and sad issue.

Philip Brennan,

Brig Gen Retired, Kilkenny



Sir  Your grandiose editorial in defence of liberal democracy and your condescending explanation as to the importance of this report was, at the least, disrespectful to the survivors and their families.

Riddle me this  to whose benefit and to what end did you jump the gun on the publication?

It certainly did not help the cause of liberal democracy and did nothing but inflict more pain on the families involved and the 56,000 women who went through these institutions.

LS Glynn, Galway



Sir  That one of your reporters got a copy of the leaked report is no justification for acting irresponsibly just to get a scoop to the detriment of those most affected by its publication.

They deserve an apology from you for putting them through additional trauma ahead of them being able to read the report in the comfort of their own surroundings. Scoops like this do not sell more papers and do no favours to the public or, in this case, the survivors.

George Flynn,

Dunboyne, Co Meath



Sir  Shame on you, Sunday Independent staff, for lowering yourself to the lowest common denominator in printing that leak of the Mother and Babies Homes Report. Why couldnt your staff go to the higher moral ground?

Lucy Greaney,

Co Meath



Sir  I am very upset that you published the findings of the report before the survivors had a chance to be briefed on its contents. If you did this in order to sell papers and increase your income then you deserve to be condemned.

Proinsias Mac an Bheatha,

Clontarf, Dublin 3



Sir  You disrespected the process of the commission and the women who took the time to testify. These women are of advanced years; what was published was hurtful and unprofessional. Many women are old and cannot defend themselves.

Just because you got the report does not mean you should have published it.

Mary Christopher,

Co Westmeath



Sir  I was disappointed to see the Mother and Baby Homes Report printed in your newspaper two days before the victims of this shameful period in Irish history had seen it.

How could you? Is money and getting ahead of the competition more important to you than human kindness? You all should be ashamed.

Denise Waters,

Howth Road, Dublin 5



Sir  Since the beginning of this pandemic, cocooners like myself struggle to remember what day of the week it is. Delivery of the Sunday Independent has been a welcome treat.

However the pleasure was short-lived when I read a headline regarding the mother and baby homes. The journalist that accessed the leaked report may have regarded the story as a scoop; I regard it as another unnecessary abuse of mothers and children who have already endured immense suffering.

Since the report was published the State and the church have been, deservedly, denounced for the role they played. It is now time for journalists to ask themselves: Have I contributed to the anguish of those affected?

Martina Murphy,

Glanmire, Co Cork



Sir  This is not the letter you want to land on your desk.

What was the purpose of leaking such sensitive information before the services could be put in place?

Did you not stop to think that the feelings of the people concerned were more important than a headline?

OAP, Tullamore.

Name with Editor



Sir  Paper may never refuse ink but I seriously question the editorial judgment, or lack of it, that resulted in your coverage of the Mother and Baby Homes Report days ahead of its availability to survivors and children of those institutions.

In the exclusive we are informed that counselling services will be offered to former residents because of the harrowing nature of details contained in the report  all the more reason why serious thought should have been given to the added trauma that must be inflicted on these women and their children by the leaking of information in order to produce the journalistic scoop of the day.

Or have they not endured enough?

Rita OBrien,

Lucan, Co Dublin



Sir  Survivors were to be granted first access to the report. The rest of us could have waited.

Aoife Long,

Model Farm Road, Cork



Sir  Having been a weekly reader of the Sunday Indo for over 65 years, I have (nearly) always admired the content. I have noticed your friendly editorial, outlining your hopes and plans for the future.

However, last Sunday I was shocked to see you had published a brief summary of the report on the mother and baby homes.

You stole the opportunity that the victims had been promised of letting them be first to read about their dreadful incarceration, ill-treatment and degradation.

Only some years ago did I realise a memory I had of some 60 years ago. It was of leaving laundry into a high-walled institution and seeing faces (not bodies, just heads) looking out of high windows with a pained expression on them. Now I know the reason.

Shame on you for this major slip in your standards. I hope your editorial reflects this.

Edward Lynch,

Lismore, Co Waterford



Sir  I have always been a fan of Jody Corcorans journalism in the past, especially on political matters, but I think he should have passed up on this front-page scoop. Sorry, Jody, but I think it was the wrong call.

Sean Fox,

Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim
There was the mass shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, and a white supremacist who targeted Latinos in El Paso. And last year saw the record number of anti-Semitic incidents in New Jersey.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who already has introduced legislation to address the rise in hate groups, just got a stronger platform to work from: appointment to the Homeland Security committee. So did Rep. Tom Malinowski, who received death threats after introducing a resolution to condemn QAnon, the right-wing conspiracy movement.

Homeland Security is the committee that holds hearings into domestic terrorism and will legislation introduced on the subject in the new Congress.

This gives me an even greater platform to fight hate, to fight anti-Semitism, to fight white supremacists, said Gottheimer, D-5th Dist. Being on the committees gives you an extra way to investigate and go after these groups.

Reps. Donald Payne Jr., D-10th Dist., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., already serve on the panel.

Its always been something Ive been focused on, Gottheimer said. This is a very personal issue.

In Malinowskis district, QAnon supporters marched through Westfield last August and swastikas and other racist graffiti was scrawled on three Union County schools in November 2018.

Its a very big issue for my constituents, particularly the anti-Semitic violence that is associated with these far-right groups, said Malinowski, D-7th Dist. So its not just a deep personal interest, its something Ive been hearing about from folks back home.

Being on the committee will help me focus in on that work even more effectively, he said.

There is a long list of incidents to focus on.

White supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Then a swastika and anti-Semitic graffiti was found at a Gottheimer supporters home in Hampton in September 2018. The following year, Gottheimer pushed for condemnation of comments by another House Democrat that invoked the anti-Semitic false claim of Jews being loyal to a foreign country.

In September 2019, Gottheimer and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th Dist., marked the 9/11 anniversary with legislation allowing law enforcement authorities to freeze the assets of domestic terrorists or those who provide material support, and setting up a national clearinghouse to collect and share information about U.S. terrorist incidents.

Then in October, Gottheimer and three other lawmakers pushed Twitter to block all accounts linked to the Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, which the U.S. State Department classifies as terrorist organizations. (Twitter had drawn a distinction between their military and political wings).

The following December, a police officer as well as three people in the supermarket were murdered by two people in what Mayor Steve Fulop described as an attack on the Jewish community.

Malinowski, a former assistant U.S. secretary of state, helped push back against efforts by President Donald Trump to cut funding for Department of Homeland Security programs designed to combat domestic terrorism.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in New Jersey rose to 345 in 2019 from 200 in 2018, a 73% increase, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

White supremacists and anti-Semites were among the pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 to protest what the president said was a stolen election. One protester carried a Confederate flag and another wore a T-shirt reading, Camp Auschwitz.

The No. 1 terrorist threat we face comes from within our country, Malinowski said. Jan. 6 was a wakeup call for the whole country.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant.

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SINGAPORE and BENGALURU, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- India's leading Digital Health startup MFine has raised $16m in a new funding round led by Heritas Capital with participation from Singapore-based family office of Y'S Investment Pte Ltd. Existing MFine investors including SBI Investment, SBI Ven Capital, BEENEXT and Alteria Capital have also followed-on in the round. The oversubscribed round wraps up a strong year for MFine with the company achieving 10x growth amidst exponential adoption of telemedicine and digital health in India in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent lockdown measures and the release of Telemedicine Guidelines by Government of India have led to the widespread adoption of telemedicine in India. A new standard for digital health services including health IDs, personal health records, Digi Doctor and a health facility registry has also been announced in August 2020 under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) to support universal health coverage for India's citizens.

With over 4,000 doctors including some of India's top doctors from 600 reputed hospitals covering 35 specialties on the platform, MFine provides users with on-demand access to quality medical care even as COVID-19 hindered delivery of routine healthcare to chronic patients from remote locations. Since COVID-19, more than one million users have utilized MFine's platform to teleconsult with doctors on chronic conditions such as diabetes and arthritis and acute illnesses including viral infections, and for varying services including diagnostics, health checks, radiology and e-pharmacy.

"The year 2020 has been very significant for us. During the pandemic, with the introduction of strict lockdowns and social distancing measures, we found ourselves in a unique position to help millions of people with access to essential healthcare services. We are seeing incredible traction on the provider and consumer side. Our vision of digital health as a solution to scale quality healthcare delivery has been accelerated by 2 years. The entire ecosystem is now on an accelerated transformation with the Indian government also introducing the National Health Stack. India is on the cusp of redefining healthcare delivery and we are actively engaged in shaping and leveraging this big shift," said Prasad Kompalli, Co-founder & CEO of MFine.

In 2020 MFine expanded its geographical coverage beyond physical boundaries of the cities to serve people from over 1,000 towns in India and launched several new services such as AI-based self-assessment of various health conditions, long term care programs for chronic conditions and membership to offer benefits on all the services for its direct consumers and also corporates.

"MFine has developed a compelling solution that has proven to be highly impactful during this pandemic to ensure continued and trusted access to quality and affordable healthcare services. We believe that MFine's collaborative partnership model with hospitals and doctors powered by the application of AI will enable smart optimization of limited healthcare resources to address unmet needs throughout India and beyond," said Chik Wai Chiew, CEO & Executive Director of Heritas Capital.

"This is a great example of how mobile connectivity and advances in technology can aid in providing primary health care to millions of people. We see huge potential MFine's state-of-the-art AI and mobile technology platform and its ability to scale beyond India as COVID-19 has accelerated the use of telemedicine and digital health in India and other regions in SEA," Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director & Chairman of SBI Investment.

"MFine has pioneered the access to top-class, trusted medical care in India. Despite 2020 being a difficult operating year, the MFine team has demonstrated its strong execution capability to add new capability, launch new offerings, accelerate traction while achieving strong economics. We are excited to continue backing the MFine team to create a large, world class healthcare company with deep positive impact," said Teruhide Sato, Founder & Managing Partner of BEENEXT.

The COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged global funding activity in digital health in 2020. In 2020, telemedicine was the top-funded category and led VC funding activity with $4.3 billion, a 139 % YoY increase compared to $1.8 billion in 2019. Global venture capital funding in digital health came to $14.8 billion, a 66% increase compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, according to Mercom Capital's annual report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the digital health sector for 2020.

With this fresh funding, MFine plans to reinforce its leading position in delivering an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare service across India, and aims to be one of the largest virtual hospitals in the world with services across primary care, secondary care and chronic care management in collaboration with its trusted partners. MFine will deploy the funds towards tripling its investments in AI, mobile engineering and device integration; expanding its hospital network across the country; scaling the recently launched services which include delivering medicines, preventive health screenings and diagnostic tests. The company will also initiate Series C fund raising in the coming months.

About MFine

MFine is an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare platform that provides its users access to virtual consultations and connected care programmes from the country's top hospitals. The app-based mhealth platform partners with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors. MFine users can consult doctors from their preferred hospitals via chat or video to get prescriptions and/or routine care. Users can also book routine lab tests, medicine delivery and access comprehensive health packages. MFine was founded in December 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli who were later joined by Ajit Narayanan and Arjun Choudhary . For more details, please visit: https://www.mfine.co/.

About Heritas Capital

Heritas Capital is a Singapore-based private equity and venture capital investment firm that invests in fast-growing companies across the healthcare, education and technology sectors. Guided by our investment philosophy, "Invest with Purpose, Impact Across Generations", Heritas Capital backs innovative companies to become emerging champions and drive inclusive growth that improves the lives of local communities while delivering sustainable returns to investors.

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Senate Republicans have the opportunity to not only convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection, but also punish him with a ban on ever running for political office again, so he could never again be president or the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. If you are a Republican who believes Trump is a figurative cancer on the GOP, then this is your best chance to remove the tumor.

The problem, as with any operation, is that the procedure comes with risk. For one thing, the surgeon might not remove all of the cancerous growth. What if Trump and Trumpism have already spread too widely inside the party? Even if he cant run again, he can still function as a de facto party boss, installing loyalists in the party hierarchy, endorsing candidates, encouraging primary challenges, and running family members for office up to and including the presidency.

Or the cancer may re-appear in another part of the body politic: a new third-party. A nationwide Trump Party, if it can master the byzantine state-by-state ballot access process, would ensure that Trumps name remains on the ballot even if he were no longer allowed to run himself. A party of his own could be a lucrative grift, a fundraising vehicle that sucks up money from his loyalists and skims a significant portion of it into The Trump Organizations network of businesses. Creating such a schism would also be a potent weapon of revenge against a Republican Party leadership whom Trump has portrayed as backstabbers.

Donald Trump wouldnt be the first ex-president to divide his former party in two. Teddy Roosevelt stormed out of the 1912 Republican convention, accused his successor, William Howard Taft, and party regulars of robbing him of the presidential nomination, and grabbed the banner of the Progressive Party. The current and former presidents split the Republican vote, helping elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Millard Fillmore, by running as the 1856 presidential nominee of the American Party (or Know Nothing Party), accelerated the death of his Whig Party by attracting its conservative supporters, while opponents of slavery flocked to the new Republican Party. Like Wilson, Democrat James Buchanan defeated his splintered opposition with less than 50% of the vote.

The 1848 presidential election saw Martin Van Buren running as the first nominee of the Free Soil Party and peeling off opponents of expanded slavery from the Democratic Party. Van Burens gambit helped Whig candidate Zachary Taylor snatch four Northern states with plurality support, enough to win the Electoral College.

All of these examples involve third-party presidential bids by former presidents, something Trump could not directly do himself if convicted in the Senate and barred from running again. But he certainly could give life to a third party, throw his support to its presidential nominee -- one who might share his last name -- and unsubtly suggest he would be the power behind the throne.

Should these examples scare Republican straight, and avoid provoking Trump with an electoral death penalty? No. Granted, the Whigs didnt survive their 1856 schism. But it was already deeply divided over slavery, and Fillmore wouldnt have been able to save it even if he wanted to. But the Republican and Democratic parties did survive their temporary schisms, by adapting to new political realities.

While its far from the most noble chapter in its history, the Democratic Party was able to let the Free Soilers go after 1848 and successfully regroup in 1852 with New Hampshires Franklin Pierce. A supporter of the Compromise of 1850 and its Fugitive Slave Act, Pierce was able to almost completely unify North and South while the Whigs struggled with the slavery issue. (Though Democrats would soon suffer an even deeper schism when Southerners seceded from the Union, the partys Unionists and Confederates would reunite after the Civil War.) The re-nomination of Taft in 1912 set the Republican Party on a century-long conservative course, one Teddy Roosevelt helped solidify when he abandoned the Progressive Party and endorsed the 1916 GOP nominee.

Republicans cant know today how much revenge Trump would be able exact on their party if they effectively excommunicated him. Maybe Trumps base of supporters is big enough to maintain control of the party, or fatally rip it in two. But for a Republican who wants to be part of a party that cares about enacting conservative policies more than blindly worshiping a nihilistic autocrat, the prospect of Trump running for president again under your partys banner cannot be tenable. The fight for control of the party must be waged; excising the cancer must at least be attempted.

If banning Trump from office means the loss of millions of QAnon supporters and other delusional cultists, so be it. Republicans should have faith that they can adapt to a new political landscape, and compete with Democrats for the votes of rational Americans. If rational Republicans are not in big enough supply today to retain control of the GOP, then they can draw inspiration from their own origin story.

After all, it was the anti-slavery Whigs who recognized their party had become a useless shell, then left it to launch the Republican Party and change the course of history.
As per latest trends, the BJP had wins and leads in 2,921 seats, Shiv Sena in 2,724 seats, NCP 2,673, and Congress 1,905. It is to be noted that these figures are not validated independently as there were no official declaration of results

Leaders of the constituent parties of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra said the alliance had achieved huge success in the Panchayat elections, for which the counting of votes was held on Monday, while the BJP claimed it had emerged as the single largest party.

As per latest trends, the BJP had wins and leads in 2,921 seats, Shiv Sena in 2,724 seats, NCP 2,673, Congress 1,905.

It is to be noted that these figures are not validated independently as there were no official declaration of results till night. Though the village panchayat elections are not fought on party symbols, panels are fielded by political parties or local leaders. Polling for elections to 12,711 gram panchayats was held in 34 of the total 36 districts on 15 January. Polling was held for 1,25,709 seats for which 2,14,880 candidates were in the fray. Of the total 2,41,598 candidates who were in the race post scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations, 26,718 candidates faced no rivals, so they would be declared elected unopposed, the state Election Commission had said. As per news agency PTI, about 1.25 lakh candidates emerged victorious in the elections held in Maharashtra last week.

As per reports, transgender candidate Anjali Patil was elected to the Bhadli Panchayat in Jalgaon district.

Taking to Twitter, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's Prakash Ambedkar congratulated Patil.

"Being the lone transgender candidate in the entire state, Anjali took the struggle right from filing her nomination straight to victory," he said.

In Ahmednagar's Hiwrebazaar, Padma Shri awardee Popatrao Pawars Adarsh Gram Vikas Panel swept the Panchayat polls while Kishore Samble's Parivartan Gram Vikas Panel lost its deposit, reported the Indian Express. As per the report, the gram panchayat elections in Hiwarebazaar were held after 30 years.

In Beed districts Parli taluka, the NCP bagged six of the seven panchayat seats, as per a report by Loksatta. Social justice minister Dhananjay Munde represents the Parli constituency.

According to the Hindustan Times, the Shiv Sena won six of nine seats in Kolhapir district's Khanapur, which is the native village of BJP state president Chandrakant Patil.

'Results in favour of MVA'

Leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) claimed that the results were in favour of the MVA comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, senior NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said, "As per inputs, the results of gram panchayat elections are good and are in favour of the MVA. Party workers of the Congress, Sena and NCP have clinched the victory. In most of these places, the Congress, NCP and Sena retained seats in their respective strongholds. I congratulate all these members for this success".

Pawar also said the overall (political) picture in Maharashtra seems to be changing post the results of Legislative Council elections held last year, in which the BJP had suffered a setback.

Another senior NCP leader and state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said in Nashik that the MVA has achieved a "huge success" in the gram panchayat elections as per trends and results.

"The Maha Vikas Aghadi has received a huge success in Gram Panchayat elections. It gives a message that all the three political parties in the alliance  Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party  are working in good co-ordination. The results of the Legislative Council polls held last month had also proved this fact," Deshmukh said. The home minister also asserted that similar results will be seen in future polls for municipal councils or municipal corporations.

Responding to a query, the home minister said the MVA government will continue to function not only for the next five years but even after that. "Opposition parties should stop seeing 'Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne' (day dreams)," Deshmukh added.

Another senior NCP leader and state Minority Development Minister Nawab Malik said the success of MVA meant "success of all".

Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat claimed that 80 percent of the seats in gram panchayats that went to polls were won by the constituents of the MVA. "The MVA alliance has won 80 percent villages in this elections while Congress alone has won 4,000 gram panchayats. This is a strong message to the BJP and its style of working," he said.

'BJP single largest party'

However, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, said, "As MVA parties have come together, we got a lot of space to expand. The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the gram panchayat polls".

"Following a natural calamity, this MVA government has failed to resolve woes of the people. The poll outcome is a strong message to the state government," the former chief minister said.

The Aam Admi Party said 50 of its members won the elections.

@AamAadmiParty opens Maharashtra innings with half a century!

50 members have won in the #GramPanchayat polls. We contested just a handful seats and won in most.

Congratulations to @AAPMaharashtra leadership. Well begun is half won.  Preeti Sharma Menon (@PreetiSMenon) January 18, 2021

Earlier, Maharashtra Times had reported that the party won five of seven seats in Dapkyal village of Latur. Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted his congratulations in Marathi.

Elections to 14,234 gram panchayats were announced on 11 December, but in some local governing bodies elections were held completely or partially unopposed. Later, the elections got delayed mainly because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Gram panchayats are considered the third tier of governance. Elections for them are not held on party lines or using party symbols. Candidates are allotted election symbols from a list of free symbols.

Last week, the Election Commission canceled the election process in Umrane and Khondamali gram panchayats in Nashik and Nandurbar districts, respectively, after it received evidence of auctioning of posts of sarpanchs and other members.

The commission also said that voting for 162 gram panchayats in six talukas of Gadchiroli, a Naxal-hit district, will be held on 20 January.

According to a NDTV report, at least 14 villages in Thane district have boycotted the elections to press for their demand to be a part of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

With inputs from PTI
/

Another New COVID Strain Is in the US

Health authorities in California are working quickly to assess the threat
The Vietnam Corporate Pride Network officially kicked off in Vietnam

The Vietnam Corporate Pride Network (VCPN) is a joint collaborative effort of KPMG Vietnam and the ICS Center, with active support from the Consulates-General of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and the Australia-Vietnam Young Leadership Dialogue (AVYLD).

The network will bring together corporate organisations to promote inclusive workplace cultures and initiatives where LGBTI people can be themselves and are valued in their employment.

The VCPN will be driven by ICS, a local Vietnamese NGO who runs local and national inclusion programmes for the LGBTI community. KPMG Vietnam, the Consulates-General of Australia, the UK, and the US, and AVYLD will provide ongoing strategic direction.

It is expected that the VCPN will hold regular bi-monthly meetings to share corporate inclusivity best practice, provide updates on key strategic initiatives, and foster continued networking. The network also plans to organise further activities to showcase local leaders progressing the inclusion agenda.

The VCPN welcomes all types of corporate organisations with a commitment to inclusion to join the network.
There has been an ongoing debate on the need for B-schools to rejig what and how they teach. From being just a glorified placement services cell for top companies, they were being asked rather pointed questions about what they were really imparting as education.

This debate is not specific to India, though Indian B-schools, at least the top ones have had a ride of their lives for the last decade or more. In the article "The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School" Joel Podolny points towards several serious issues B-schools need to address starting with a greater emphasis on values-based leadership; while having a greater emphasis on analytics they need to also impart a holistic approach to business problem etc. The article also speaks about the need to defocus from the rankings game. If you thought these were part of an epiphany brought out by the pandemic, you are wrong. This article appeared in the Harvard Business Review more than 10 years ago [June 2009]. For those of you interested in knowing more about the crisis facing international B-schools, I would strongly recommend they also read the book "Rethinking the MBA" by Srikant Datar, David Garvin and Patrick Cullen. This book came out after the financial crisis of 2009 and the issues that crisis threw up.



The pandemic has been a period of serious rethinking at all B-schools. Most of them adapted to remote teaching and learning. Harvard Business School took the lead in organizing a series of "free" webinars in March and April 2020 as most B-schools around the world were wondering what they were going to do.



Much credit should be given to them for taking the initiative in sharing their own learning on teaching remotely. There were special sessions on teaching cases in a Zoom class. Many B-schools in India benefited from these classes. I should add that several Indian B-schools had been teaching long distance programmes for over a decade. But in all those cases the students had to assemble at a delivery center, albeit in 30 different cities. Now you were teaching to a larger cohort of students sitting in their own homes.



When I started teaching D2D (Desk to Desk) in May 2020 I had to ask the class "How do you like these classes?". I was happy to hear that some of them said the classes were fine and were much better than expected. But most of the students felt that they missed the real class room experience. HBS recommends that all the students should have their video on and mic off during the class. Unfortunately, most of our Indian students do not have the wi-fi bandwidth to keep the video on. This is a big disadvantage. But looking at it differently, if the same crisis had hit us five years ago, hardly a small fraction of the students, even those doing pricey MBA courses would have had good enough internet connectivity at home.

As I write this article, all B Schools are still closed and classes are being held remotely. Some of the students have returned to campuses since they did not have the requisite wi-fi bandwidth at home to attend classes from home (this points towards the diverse set of students attending business school education in the country). From all indications classroom based business education may return only in March 2021. We would have gone a whole year with remote teaching/learning.



Moving forward, will the pandemic bring about some serious changes in the business school education in India? I think a few trends are worth tracking.



India has had a surfeit of B Schools and at the last count there were more than 4000 spread all over India.



B-schools had de facto become degree printing MBA factories. They also had become a means of building the respectability of your son or daughter, before they entered the other competitive market. I was also told that in the dowry market an MBA is a must. But this is fading. B-schools around the country are shutting down by the dozens. I think this will gather momentum in the coming years.



One interesting benefit from the pandemic is the desire of parents to keep their wards at close distance.



This could help B-schools in smaller cities to attract talent that may have moved to a bigger city and to a better institution. I know that one of the challenges smaller business schools face, in addition to quality faculty, is quality students. This problem may see some temporary reprieve.



It is now established that classes can be delivered remotely. In the US schools of higher education have been adopting technology to do flipped classrooms. The students, all living on campus, watch the lecture in a video format and come to class to discuss a problem or a case. This may gather steam in Indian education as well.



One of the special features of teaching from home or teaching from anywhere has been the ability to bring in speakers from all over the world, into the classroom. I know of a professor of international business who invited global experts to each of his 14 sessions. This was impossible in the past. I think this kind of hybrid sessions will become the norm. Even if the class is happening in a typical classroom, the professor may invite an industry expert from anywhere in the world to speak to the class, remotely.



Now that we know that students can attend class from home, B-schools will start offering interesting variations of remote E-MBAs. Several B-schools in India have pioneered the LDP or long distance programmes. We will see new applications of these, both for training and executive education. In the upcoming boom of this kind of business education we will see the top B-schools grabbing a bigger share of the pie as they start eating the breakfast of the smaller B-schools.



It will be apt to end with a quote from Prof Srikant Datar (What Business Schools Will Look Like After The Pandemic www.poetsandquants; Prof Datar is taking over as Dean HBS in January 2021): In my view, I firmly and strongly believe that the coming out of this crisis we will have all developed a new muscle, a new way of engaging with students, a new way of finding the best aspects of online education to combine it with the model by which we are all physically together [sic] Maybe finally at the end of all this, we will have learned so much about what a very good hybrid classroom might look like. I feel with a high probability that it will not be the same. We will not go back to what it looked like before.


Another day, another reason to believe Masahiro Tanaka has thrown his last pitch in a New York Yankees uniform.

MLB Networks Jon Heyman reported Monday that while the Yankees and Masahiro Tanaka are still in contact, there appears to be a good chance he pitches elsewhere. Theres said to be strong interest in Japan, and the likelihood of a much bigger deal there.

Introducing Yankees Insider: Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text message directly with beat writers

Heymans report came one day after SNYs Andy Martino indicated money is the most likely sticking point for a reunion between Tanaka and the Yankees.

According to league sources, longtime Yankee Masahiro Tanaka is seeking a one-year deal at $15-20 million. SNY reported earlier in the offseason that a reunion with the Yankees was unlikely. Now its even harder to see how it would work. The San Diego Padres have been engaged with Tanakas camp, but sources say those negotiations have not heated up. It remains a real possibility that Tanaka will return to Japan.

That might be too rich for the Yankees, who many believe want to keep their payroll below the $210-million luxury tax threshold for 2021.

On Friday, the Yankees signed second baseman DJ LeMahieu to a six-year, $90-million deal. Hours later, they agreed with righty Corey Kluber on a one-year, $11-million deal. The team hasnt announced either move. The Yankees must clear two spots off their full 40-man roster to fit Kluber and LeMahieu.

Cots Contracts pins the Yankees current payroll at $206 million.

(NJ Advance Medias Brendan Kuty contributed to this report.)

Get Yankees text messages: Cut through the clutter of social media and text during games with beat writers and columnists. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Professor Joseph Osafo, Head of Psychology at University of Ghana, has called on schools to set up a COVID-19 Compliance Committee to assist students and pupils in observing the COVID-19 protocols.



Schools across the country officially began today after 10 months closure due to the Coronavirus pandemic.



The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced, during his 21st update on the pandemic, the resumption of kindergarten, Junior and Senior High Schools and tertiary institutions.



Kindergarten and JHS were to resume on Friday, January 15 but, according to the Ghana Education Service (GES), the schools are to officially open on Monday, January 18 with clean-up exercises.



Although schools have reopened, there are worries over the little children in adhering to the COVID-19 safety protocols as some fear the children might be exposed to the disease.



To put the matter to rest, Prof. Joseph Osafo has suggested a solution.



According to him, the various schools should have Compliance Committee whose duty will be to go round the school classrooms and campuses, particularly during break hours, to ensure the students and pupils are indeed wearing their nose masks and also taking all the precautionary measures to curb the spread of the disease.



''You will have to continuously monitor them...I don't know what the teachers will do but my thinking and my suggestion is this that schools schools should have certain Committees that are COVID-19 Compliance Committee. This means in some schools, they have security or people who whilst teaching is ongoing or school is on break, they can authorize the children to wear their masks. It can help because once they're playing, teachers may not be around'', he told host Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.



He also charged the schools to help the government by taking up the challenge to be innovative.



''Teachers and schools will have to be very innovative...Every school should see this as a challenge and opportunity.''





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno is on medical leave following a medical procedure on Sunday, the central bank has announced.

The Governor is on medical leave after undergoing a successful procedure to address a blood clot caused by a minor head accident, said the BSP in a statement on Monday, noting the prognosis for his complete recovery is very good.

Diokno was awake and conversant an hour after the procedure, added the BSP, citing his medical report. The official is also expected to be discharged from the hospital in four or five days, it added.

The procedure went well and Im now on my way to recovery, Diokno said in a message addressed to the Monetary Board and the BSP staff. He likewise assigned Deputy Governor Francisco Dakila Jr. as office-in-charge as he recovers.

Diokno has been responsive to texts from the media following the announcement.

CNN Philippines correspondent Melissa Lopez contributed to this report.
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Kansas Democratic Party leader Rep. Sharice Davids shows her pride in the new administration by way of a virtual inaugural party and rally in support of the boss.



Look for her amid this celebrity cavalcade of NEXTGEN leaders.



Read more . . .
The high-stakes U.S. Senate race in Georgia catapulted the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church back into the spotlight. For 135 years, the church played a vital role in the fight against racism and the civil rights movement. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

It is now the home of the states first Black senator  the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the church.

As a scholar of African American religion and Christian theology, I believe it is important to understand how the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power and organizing for generations in Atlanta.

Stone of help

Ebenezer Baptist Church, a predominantly African American congregation, was founded in 1886, nearly 20 years after the end of the Civil War. The pastor, Rev. John Andrew Parker, served as Ebenezers first pastor from 1886 to 1894. Little is known about Parker and Ebenezers early years. But according to historian Benjamin C. Ridgeway, Parker organized the church in a small building located on Airline Avenue in Atlanta.

The name Ebenezer, meaning stone of help, comes from the Hebrew Bible. In the First Book of Samuel, the Israelites are said to have gathered in the town of Mizpah to offer burnt offerings to God. When their enemies, the Philistines, received notice that the Israelites were in Mizpah, they sent forces to attack them.

With Gods help, the Philistines were eventually defeated. Prophet Samuel then named a large stone Ebenezer to remind the Israelites of Gods intervention in their battle against the Philistine army.

As historians Roswell F. Jackson and Rosalyn M. Patterson observed in their 1989 article, The selection of the name Ebenezer, Stone of help, was profoundly prophetic. In their view, Ebenezers name proved fitting to describe the role the church would come to have in the subsequent civil rights movement.

Growth of the church

The Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, the maternal grandfather of King, served as second pastor from 1894 to 1931. Williams led the Ebenezer Church into the 20th century as a religious community mobilized to fight the segregationist policies plaguing the African American community in the state of Georgia.

By 1913, the church had grown from 13 to nearly 750 members. Williams developed a distinct form of the social gospel, which emphasized the importance of African Americans owning businesses and taking social action against racial and economic injustice in their local communities.

Known for his powerful preaching, impressive organizing and leadership skills, Williams led several initiatives, including boycotts against a local Atlanta newspaper, The Georgian, which was known for using racist language against African Americans.

In 1906, Williams led a fight to end the white primary system which prohibited African Americans from voting in the Georgia primaries. In 1917, Williams helped establish the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.

A year later, he was elected as branch president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, and, within five months of his tenure, the chapters membership grew to 1,400.

As religious historian Lewis Baldwin remarks in his book The Voice of Conscience, Clearly, Williams used the [Ebenezer] church as a power base and rallying point for such activities, an approach that would also be used by [Martin Luther] King, Sr. and King, Jr.

Working for social change

Following Williams death in 1931, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., Ebenezers assistant pastor and Williams son-in-law, became the churchs third pastor. During his 40-year tenure as pastor, Daddy King, as he was affectionately known, led Ebenezer with a mixture of evangelical faith and progressive social action.

Finding warrant for social action in the Christian scriptures, King Sr. challenged other Black churches to embrace the social gospel  a late 19th-century Protestant movement that emphasized the application of the Christian message to the social and moral concerns of society.

Moreover, King Sr. led marches and rallies to protest discriminatory and segregationist policies in the city of Atlanta, including the desegregation of the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Board of Education. In the first 15 years of King Sr.s pastorate at Ebenezer, church membership grew to 3,700.

MLKs spiritual home

Ebenezer came into the global spotlight when Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the call to join his father as co-pastor in 1960. Before then, King had pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1954 to 1959.

During his tenure at Dexter Avenue, King served as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization which successfully led the Montgomery Bus Boycott from Dec. 5, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956. In 1959, King resigned from his position as pastor at Dexter Avenue to serve alongside his father as well as serve as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is also based in Atlanta.

From the pulpit of Ebenezer, King preached some of his more memorable sermons. In one of his sermons published in a collection titled The Strength to Love, King describes racial prejudice as indicative of softmindedness, a persons tendency to uncritically adhere to unsupportable beliefs.

In the same sermon, titled A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart, King argued, Race prejudice is based on groundless fears, suspicions, and misunderstandings. To overcome this, King argued that human beings must cultivate both a tough mind and a tender heart, a joining of a critical mind with a concern for fellow human beings.

This message reverberates in contemporary movements for racial equity and justice, including the Black Lives Matter movement. While many BLM members are not affiliated with any organized religion, the movement emphasizes the importance of spiritual wellness for African Americans as they fight for Black liberation.

Since its inception, Ebenezer Baptist Church has been an institution in which evangelical fervor and progressive social activism joined to foster societal change.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the spiritual home of King from hosting the annual commemorative service in honor of the slain civil rights leader, which usually draws 1,700 attendees. But attention to the church has been renewed following the election of Pastor Warnock to the U.S. Senate.

One cannot appreciate the importance of MLK Day without understanding the tradition that formed one of Americas most influential civil rights leaders.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter.]

Jason Oliver Evans, Ph.D. Student in Religious Studies, University of Virginia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks edged lower on Monday as surging Covid cases and worsening U.S.-China relations sparked concerns about a slow recovery from the pandemic. Encouraging GDP and industrial production data from China helped to limit the downside to some extent. The benchmark DAX slid 15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 13,772 after losing 1.4 percent on Friday. Aareal Bank was moving down 0.7 percent. The bank said it expects consolidated operating loss in a double-digit million euro amount for the 2020 financial year. Fraport fell 2.3 percent. The company reported that Frankfurt Airport welcomed some 18.8 million passengers in 2020, a decline of 73.4 percent from prior year. Aircraft movements at Frankfurt Airport were down by 58.7 percent year-on-year to 212,235 takeoffs and landings in 2020. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Cant wait until May

Regarding What you need to know about getting your vaccine, (A7, Jan. 13): Dear Mayor Sylvester Turner and County Judge Lina Hidalgo: Its been a long road. Ive watched you get out among the citizens of Harris County and urge them to distance and wear masks. Ive watched you work with park visitors and beachgoers; Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrators; and even demonstrators to try and contain the pandemic in Harris County. Now I see you urging others to get their vaccine, and thats a wonderful thing. You continue to urge citizens to persevere, to stay the course. I ask the same of both of you. We have almost 500,000 people over 65 in Harris County. The Houston area received 26,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week. The three hub vaccination registration sites are full through the end of the month. At this rate it will take through May to vaccinate those over 65. And that does not even include those with serious comorbidities, also in the 1B tier. You can, should and must do better. I urge you to try harder, for the sake of your constituents. I am sending this letter to our governor and senator as well in the expectation that you will work together for Houston and Texas.

S.C. Ross, Houston

Minimal side effects

Regarding The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and heres why, (A15, Jan. 7): I got my Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shot on Monday afternoon and was observed for side effects the required 20 minutes after the shot. As of Wednesday morning, the only noticeable side effect is minor arm soreness which is getting better. That seems to be the norm for those Ive talked to but a few people are experiencing flu-like symptoms. Friends of mine, who are over 70 years old and got the Pfizer vaccine, also note only minimal arm soreness after getting the vaccine.

I am 66 years old and being treated for the comorbidities of heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure.

I also have had anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, dust, milk products and shellfish in my past. Because I have or had those allergies, my doctors advised I be observed 15 minutes longer after receiving the vaccine and get it at a medical facility, not a pharmacy or civic center.

My business partner also has a shellfish allergy, and he had no adverse effects from the vaccine except minor arm soreness.

I highly recommend getting the vaccine as the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages unless your physician advises differently.

I also will continue to take other precautions and wear a mask in public as advised by Dr. Peter Hotez. My wife gets her vaccine shot on Friday. My wife and I both worked for many years in hospitals and three of my best friends since college are prominent doctors who concur.

Mike Fuljenz, Beaumont
Donald Trump declared victory in the early morning hours of 9 November 2016 while gripping a lectern inside a Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, blocks from his Fifth Avenue penthouse. Hours later, anti-Trump demonstrations had erupted across the US.

At his inauguration on 20 January 2017, then president-elect Trumps motorcade and the streets of Washington DC faced a massive protest drawing a line against his demagoguery and agenda with a warning to the nation about the nascent fascism that would follow.

Disrupt J20, or J20, sought to bring widespread civil resistance to Washington, with permitted protests, sit-ins blocking intersections and anti-capitalist marches to mark Mr Trumps first day in office, with demonstrations harnessing a force that can have an impact on Trumps ability to claim a mandate, setting a tone of resistance for the coming years, its organisers said at the time.

More than 200 protesters, journalists, medics and legal observers were arrested in Washington DC alone, not counting the dozens of arrests during simultaneous demonstrations in cities across the US  seven people outside of Trump Tower in New York, 16 in Chicago, 15 in New Orleans, six in Seattle, and so on.

The following day, millions of people across the US participated in the Womens March, the enduring image of mainstream liberal resistance during the Trump administration.

But over the next few years, as press coverage of the J20 protests diminished, the defendants  some facing as many as 70 years in prison for unprecedented felony riot and conspiracy charges  were plunged into a protracted legal battle, supported by civil rights groups and facing a newly minted Trump-era Justice Department, marred by prosecutorial misconduct and relying on evidence from a Trump-backed far-right activist group.

Ultimately, more than 200 cases were dismissed, and 16 others faced trial. Not a single case was convicted by a jury. Twenty-one defendants pleaded guilty, all but one for misdemeanours. Only one person served any actual jail time  a four-month sentence for rioting and assault on a police officer.

On 6 July 2018, more than a year after their arrests, the remaining 39 defendants awaiting trial had rioting charges against them abruptly tossed out by federal prosecutors, capping an 18-month fight that upended dozens of lives through dragged-out hearings and detentions.

A lawsuit against Washington DCs Metropolitan Police Department alleging excessive force and invasive body searches during the arrests is still making its way through the Superior Court in DC more than three years after it was filed.

Four years later, on another 20 January, the nation prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, and Washington braces for more far-right violence in the wake of a lethal pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol. The violence  compelled by the presidents big lie that the election was stolen from his supporters  has shaken the halls of Congress and underscored J20s urgent call to action.

We protest to set a tone of resistance for the coming years, DisruptJ20 organiser Lacy MacAuley said in a statement before the protests. Trump is a sign of a dangerous shift toward fascism, hate and exclusion. Many of us protest because Trump represents a threat to our very existence. Many of us do not have the luxury of remaining quiet through this crisis. We simply must stand up, and stand against what Trump represents.

Hundreds of people took to the streets on 20 January 2017; a small group broke away from demonstrations and busted store windows and set a parked limousine on fire. Footage of thick clouds of tear gas, smashed windows, graffiti, property damage and black-clad protesters dominated news coverage.

Officers from Washington DCs Metropolitan Police Department kettled dozens of protesters for several hours and detained them without food or water, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the police department on behalf of a legal observer, a photojournalist and two other people who were also arrested that day.

During the chase and then while detaining demonstrators for hours, police fired pepper spray, stingballs and flash-bang grenades at crowds of demonstrators, journalists, and legal observers, frequently without warning or justification, the lawsuit alleges.

The city has agreed to settle the case, according to court documents; a decision is expected later this month.

People from all over the country come to the nations capital to exercise their constitutional right to protest, Scott Michelman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of the District of Columbia, said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.

He said that the police departments wanton and vindictive conduct on January 20 chills free speech, which is a vital part of our democracy.

After their arrests on 20 January, protesters made their first court appearances, in batches of 10, the following day. Despite a lack of evidence linking most of the defendants to the chaos, most of them faced felony charges for rioting, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, if convicted. Prosecutors argued instead that the group was a criminal body, responsible for one of its members actions. In her opening argument in the first trial, US Attorney Jennifer Kirkoff said: We dont believe any of the defendants personally engaged in property destruction.

The Trump administration has relied on the weight of federal charges, rather than state or local ones, against left-wing protests over the course of his administration and during Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the US in 2020.

Federal charges follow stricter sentencing guidelines and typically see higher conviction rates  in 2018, 90 per cent of people charged with federal crimes pleaded guilty, according to Pew Research.

In the years that followed, more than a dozen state and local governments enacted new laws to criminalise dissent. Hundreds of people were charged with felonies following Black Lives Matter protests, which the president sought to identify along with antifa as terrorist organisations.

On 27 April, the Superior Court of DC returned a superseding indictment adding felony charges to 212 of the J20 defendants, including inciting a riot, conspiracy and destruction of property. Others were also charged with assaulting a police officer. Altogether, the charges carried sentences of up to 70 years in prison, if convicted.

In an op-ed for The New York Times chronicling her experience, defendant Elizabeth Lagesse said: Unlike more than 90 per cent of criminal defendants in this country, my co-defendants and I have chosen to take our cases to trial. I cant speak to all of their motives, but I was unwilling to capitulate to a system dominated by petty tyrants willing to win at any cost.

Another defendant told Teen Vogue: "I think the mainstream media never connected [J20 to] the authoritarianism of Trump and how dissent was at stake  they were never willing to think about what the consequences would be if people were actually locked up, and how it would actually stifle dissent when we needed it most.

In December, a jury began deliberations in the first trial after DC Judge Lynn Leibovitz tossed out the riot charges that could have landed them with 10-year sentences. But they still faced a host of other charges, including felony property destruction and misdemeanor rioting.

The jury rejected prosecutors conspiracy argument and the first batch of defendants were acquitted. Prosecutors later dropped another 129 cases relying on similar arguments.

Following the verdict, the ACLUs Michelman said the jurys decision reaffirms two central constitutional principles of our democracy: first, that dissent is not a crime, and second, that our justice system does not permit guilt by association.

For nearly a year, these people have been under the cloud of felony charges that have turned their lives upside down, subjecting them to the anxiety and expense of defending themselves against charges that should never have been brought, he said. No one should have to fear arrest or prosecution for coming to the nations capital to express opinions peacefully, no matter what those opinions may be.

In 2018, a second trial resulted in an acquittal and several hung juries.

Meanwhile, the court found that prosecutors had withheld video evidence that it was constitutionally required to turn over to the defendants, constituting a so-called Brady violation. Superior Court Chief Justice Robert Morin sanctioned prosecutors for failing to disclose evidence that the defence argued could exonerate the defendants.

The government relied on undercover video from James OKeefes Project Veritas, the far-right activist group that has sought to expose liberal groups with deceptively edited footage. The group had filmed a planning meeting among Disrupt20 organisers. In the edited video, a speaker is heard promising to make the inauguration a giant clusterf***.

But a fuller picture reportedly shows an undercover police officer, referencing other organisers, saying: I dont think they know anything about any of the upper echelon stuff.

Defence attorneys argued that prosecutors also withheld 69 other videos, half of which contained footage from planning meetings discussing how to de-escalate violence, undermining prosecutors argument. Charges were dropped against 10 defendants.

The government has succeeded in misleading over 200 co-defendants, their attorneys, and three Honourable Superior Court Judges to believe there were only seven videos in its possession from Project Veritas, attorney Andrew Clarke wrote in a court filing. Only by Order of the Court and more recently, its own disclosures, we now know the truth, that the government withheld 69 additional recordings by Project Veritas and altered others.

Prosecutors also initially sought a massive dump of online data from people who may not have even at the protests. In 2017, the Justice Department served the web-hosting company Dreamhost with a warrant for information related to the DisruptJ20 website, including IP addresses for people who visited the site  essentially a landing page with contact information, media statements and a schedule of events  along with emails from its owners, drafts of blog posts and photos.

Finally, in July 2018, the government voluntarily dismissed charges against the remaining defendants in light of the results of the cases brought to trial  effectively ending the governments year-long effort to imprison protesters.

The motion dismissing the remaining charges said simply: After further review, the United States, in the exercise of its discretion, has determined that these matters should be dismissed without prejudice.

In a statement, the US Attorneys Office in DC acknowledged its inability to secure any trial verdicts from the mass arrests.

The destruction that occurred during these criminal acts was in sharp contrast to the peaceful demonstrations and gatherings that took place over the Inauguration weekend in the District of Columbia, and created a danger for all who were nearby, the office said. In light of the results of the cases brought to trial, however, the US Attorneys Office has now moved to dismiss charges against the remaining 38 defendants in this matter.

Then-chief of DCs Metropolitan Police Department Peter Newsham said in a statement that in the American criminal justice system, sometimes the bad guys win.

Thats what happened in this case, he said.

But a groundswell of support and legal aid from antifascist groups bolstered defendants throughout the ordeal, ultimately strengthening the movement undergirding the never-ending protest and actions against the Trump administration and its far-right legion.

Dylan Petrohilos, a J20 defendant whose charges were dropped in early 2018, told the Associated Press: The solidarity we showed as defendants won out.

Solidarity was what won the case, said Sam Menefee-Libey, a member of the legal support and activist collective DC Legal Posse. I hope that organisers and people on the left study it.
Prime Minister and Chinese premier will be among the top world leaders who will participate in a five-day online Agenda Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) later this month.

Several union ministers including Narendra Singh Tomar, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan along with top business leaders such as Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra will also participate in the event.

While the WEF will host its physical annual meeting in May in Singapore, as against the regular venue of Swiss ski resort town of Davos, the Geneva-based organisation is hosting an online event, named ' Agenda' around the same time it generally hosts its yearly congregation of the rich and powerful of the world.

The online Agenda Summit from January 25-29 will see several heads of state and government deliver special addresses and engage in dialogue with business leaders at the start of a "crucial year to rebuild trust".

In a statement, the WEF said the heads of state/ government who have confirmed their participation include Xi, Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, South Korea President Moon Jae-in, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, the host of the World Economic Forum Special Annual Meeting 2021.

The WEF's Davos 2020 summit was the last major global event that took place before almost the entire world got locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 'Davos Agenda' will also mark the launch of WEF's "Great Reset Initiative'' and begin the preparation of the special Annual Meeting in the spring, said the Geneva-based entity, which describes itself as an organisation for public-private cooperation.

Heads of state and of government and organisations will give special addresses on the state of the world, besides engaging in dialogue with business leaders.

Industry leaders and public figures will discuss how to advance and accelerate public-private collaboration on critical issues such as COVID-19 vaccination, job creation and climate change, among others, according to the WEF.

Those who have already registered for the event also include former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

From India, the registered participants from the business community are Mukesh Ambani, Sanjiv Bajaj, Shyam Sunder Bhartia, Hari S Bhartia, Ajay Khanna, Jayadev Galla, Dipali Goenka, Ajit Gulabchand, Shobana Kamineni, Hemant Kanoria, Neeraj Kanwar, Onkar S Kanwar, Vikram Khemka, Grandhi Kiran Kumar, S P Lohia, Anand Mahindra, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Rajan Bharti Mittal, Pawan Munjal, Salil S Parekh, Jai Shroff, Sumant Sinha and Vaishali Sinha.

The ministers registered for the event so far are Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Zubin Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan and Narendra Singh Tomar.

While the WEF annual meeting for 2021 will be held during May 13-16 in Singapore, the high-profile summit will return to Davos in 2022.

The WEF said the Davos Agenda 2021 will convene under the theme 'A Crucial Year to Rebuild Trust'.

More than 1,500 business, government and civil society leaders from over 70 countries will set the agenda for a critical year ahead and discuss how to catalyse impact in the rapidly advancing Fourth Industrial Revolution, it added.

The conclusions from the Davos Agenda week will feed into task forces working on global issues for the upcoming Special Annual Meeting in Singapore, the WEF said.

"In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to reset priorities and the urgency to reform systems have been growing stronger around the world," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF.

"Rebuilding trust and increasing global cooperation are crucial to fostering innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery. This unique meeting will be an opportunity for leaders to outline their vision and address the most important issues of our time, such as the need to accelerate job creation and to protect the environment," he added.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that no institution or individual alone can address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges of our complex, interdependent world.

The pandemic has accelerated systemic changes that were apparent before its inception. The fault lines that emerged in 2020 now appear as critical crossroads in 2021. The Davos Agenda will help leaders choose innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery over the next year, it added.

Special addresses from G20 heads of state and government and organisations will provide crucial insights into a range of important issues in the year ahead, the WEF said.

The private sector will be represented by more than 1,000 leaders from the Forum's member and partner organisations.

(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.)
COVID-19 origin: Either it is emerged naturally or it was laboratory accident, says US Intel community

MP: Day after receiving vaccine doctor tests positive for COVID-19

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

Bhopal, Jan 18: A day after a doctor in Madhya Pradesh had been vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19. Dr Yogesh Walimbe's wife also tested positive.

They were later shifted to the Apollo hospital, according to reports.

Dr Walimbe, a noted physician of Dewas district was among those who were chosen for getting a vaccine shot against Covid-19 on Saturday, as the country began its nationwide mass vaccination drive.

The physician and his wife underwent a test for the disease on Saturday night and were confirmed to be carrying the virus on Sunday, said Dr MP Sharma, Chief Medical and Health Officer, Dewas.

Dr Walimbe had been allowed to leave after being given the vaccine shot post a 30-minute observation period. But before leaving the venue, he came in contact with BJP MP Mahendra Singh Solanki, MLA Gayatri Raje Pawar, collector Chandramauli Shukla, and other senior officials present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh, a hospital worker died on Sunday evening after receiving the Covishield vaccine shot in Moradabad. The 46-year-old hospital employee had received a shot of the Covishield vaccine against the coronavirus infection just 24 hours before he died.

Moradabad Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has confirmed the death of a Moradabad hospital employee, identified as Mahipal Singh. The CMO has said Mahipal Singh died due to a heart attack. The reason for Mahipal Singh's death in the postmortem report is a heart attack, the CMO said.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 12:56 [IST]
Yosemite, CA  Yosemite National Park is seeking information from the public about a hiker who went missing late last week.

41-year-old Yu Xie, who also goes by the name Alice, headed on a day hike to the Upper Yosemite Fall overlook on January 14 or 15, and has not been seen since. Anyone who traveled to the top of the trail one of those two days, or who may have information on her whereabouts, is asked to call the Yosemite Emergency Communications Center (209-372-0216 during business hours or 209-379-1992 after hours).

She is five feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds. Yosemite officials report that she traveled to the park from Mariposa on the YARTS bus on January 14 and is a Chinese National living in the United States.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Still out-performing the auto industry on the stock market

Tesla is considered by many - including industry analysts and investors - to be the automaker of the future, with its emphasis on smarter and cleaner mobility. The company's innovation-driven approach and its high expenditure on capital ensures that it stays ahead of its peers. A continuing focus on new product development and product scaling, along with its plan to enter emerging markets, such as India, will help the company sustain its status as a leader in the coming years, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company was able to reach its target of delivering half a million vehicles in 2020 and it increased the production capacity for the Model 3 and Model Y to 500,000 at the Fremont factory in California. Over the last year, share prices of Tesla rocketed 951% from US$95.6 in January 8, 2020 to US$880 in January 8, 2021 with the strengthening of renewable energy stocks. As congress confirms Joe Biden's victory, Tesla's stock soared 24% year-to-date (YTD) as of January 8, 2020 as Democrats bat for green energy legislations.

Ramnivas Mundada, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, says: "Norway, the first country globally where the purchase of battery-electric cars outperformed cars run by gasoline and diesel in 2020, is just the tip of the iceberg. We can expect similar patterns to emerge from other countries over the medium term as they race to meet green energy goals. Rising demand for electric cars, penetrating new markets like India, launching cheaper variant of cars such as Model Y Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) in January 2021 and plans to introduce affordable family cars, will help to sustain Tesla's sales momentum over the medium and long term."

To capitalize on soaring share prices, Tesla raised US$10bn in capital through stock offering, US$5bn each in September and December 2020, respectively, amid surging demand for electric vehicles and solar panels. The raised capital will be used for the upcoming factories in Germany and Texas and for the planned expansion of Model Y capacity in Shanghai. The company is expected to invest US$4.5bn to $6bn each over the next two years in capital expenditure to support future growth.

David Leggett, Automotive Editor at GlobalData, comments: "Tesla is a star performer in autos at the moment. It is turning a profit, ramping up production and tapping into rising demand for electric vehicles globally. Crucially, it has products that people want to buy. Last year it hit 500,000 deliveries, approximately 36% up on 2019  an impressive achievement. With a new manufacturing plant in Berlin set to come on stream this year, more volume growth is in prospect."

An increase in production capacity, rising demand for electric cars and its fifth straight quarter of profit ending Q3 2020 along with plans to penetrate new markets has triggered hiring activity in Tesla. According to GlobalData's Jobs Analytics database, active jobs increased by 324% to 5,258 on January 5, 2020 when compared with August 1, 2019. The company mainly embarked on a cost saving recruitment strategy by hiring part-time employees and providing fewer benefits.

At the same time, GlobalData's Filing Analytics platform identified that the average sentiment score for all filings released in 2020 was 18% higher compared to 2019. Additionally, earning transcript mentions of 'share price' and related keywords rose by 14% in 2020 in comparison to 2019. With its blowout 2020 performance, sentiments are expected to skyrocket post the company's upcoming earnings release.

Mundada adds: "Tesla's growth story is only set to ramp up over the coming years as it aims to help accelerate global transition to a green economy. In December 2020, EU ministers agreed to cut tolls by 50% for electric or hydrogen run trucks until April 2023, while individual EU members can extend it to 100% until 2025, which is likely to increase further investments in electric vehicles."
(GFM), the real estate private equity arm of the Godrej Group, on Monday said it raised $200 million from Netherlands-based for its $500 million office property fund. This is the first closure for the fund.

The has put in $50 million into the fund called Godrej Build to Core (GBTC) II. The fund manager plans to do the second and final close by the end of the year. Asked whether GFM will raise funds from Allianz, its investor in the previous fund, Karan Bolaria, MD & CEO, GFM, said, All options are open and we are in talks with multiple investors for the second and final close.

This is the second fundraising announcement by a real estate fund manager in recent weeks. Last week, Motilal Oswal said it is raising Rs 800 crore property fund for construction financing. GFM will have the ability to develop class-A office assets that will be valued over $1.5 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) on completion. The total value of office assets, including those from previous funds, will take the portfolio value on completion to over $3 billion (Rs 22,000 crore), the fund manager said in a release on Monday.

GFM has fully invested the previously raised capital under GBTC I and Godrej Office Fund I. The platform currently has a strong investment pipeline and aims to deploy the newly raised capital within 12 months, it said. This is the third India-focused office venture and fifth overall, sponsored by GFM.

Bolaria added, Our group has strong conviction in Indias premium office sector and we believe the current dislocation in markets provides attractive capital deployment opportunities. The addition of this platform brings significant scale to our overall strategy and will open up strategic avenues for value maximisation.

Graeme Torre, MD, Asia, said, The build-to-core strategy for Indian offices aligns very well with our broader investment aspirations for our pension fund clients and our desire to invest alongside partners who offer best-in-class execution capabilities.
Kozhikode, Jan 18 : Measures to unleash the economic potential of women and transgender persons that would empower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs will be the focus of the upcoming second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE), a signature event of the Kerala government's Gender Park.

Policymakers, academics, professionals and domain experts from across the globe attending the event will also brainstorm the crucial linkages between entrepreneurship, economic growth and poverty alleviation, which are in tune with the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In addition, they will chart out an actionable roadmap to facilitate women and transgender persons for their active participation in entrepreneurship and social businesses by making the process more gender inclusive, especially during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment' is the focal theme of the high-profile event, to be held at the Park's sprawling campus in Kozhikode from February 11-13.

The 13th Five Year Plan (2017-22) has laid great emphasis on encouraging entrepreneurship among women. This seeks to create more job opportunities for women, thereby empowering them to be economically self-reliant, Kerala Health, Social Justice and Women and Child Development Minister K K Shailaja said.

Though women entrepreneurship in the state has achieved rapid growth, that has not been properly recorded. Despite persistent efforts, sustainable women entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship have not become the topic of serious debate. In the case of transgender persons, even accurate statistics regarding their entrepreneurship are not available, she added.

Gender Park CEO Dr P T M Sunish said the theme of the ICGE-II is relevant for India and more so for Kerala, with high levels of educated unemployment, which is significant amongst women.

The 13th Five-Year Plan of Kerala (2017-2022) stresses on skill development, employment generation and sustainable livelihoods with an emphasis on women entrepreneurship, which has grown rapidly in recent years but has not been mapped.

Despite several initiatives, issues related to sustainable entrepreneurship and social businesses have not yet been mainstreamed into the discussion on women's employment and engagement in entrepreneurship. Transgender individuals have witnessed even worse conditions in the absence of conclusive data about them in the country's gender statistics.

"Our efforts would be geared towards gathering and sharing more information with a wider audience about best practices and lessons learned. Despite the challenges, a string of initiatives by civil society and multiple state interventions have resulted in women and transgender persons overcoming obstacles to imprint their presence in the realm of sustainable entrepreneurship," Sunish said.

"We need to document this process by sharing viewpoints, experiences and ideas from across the globe with a wide spectrum of audiences," he added.

Focusing on sustainable entrepreneurship and social business can tackle different SDGs. Further, it will directly and specifically contribute to a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, entrepreneurship and innovation besides ensuring access to financial services.

The first edition of ICGE was centred around 'Gender, Governance and Inclusion' and saw the official release of the Kerala State Policy for Transgenders, 2015. Transgender leaders also participated and discussed the relevance of the policy in their lives.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) has summoned representatives of social media companies Twitter and Facebook on January 21 to discuss "misuse of their platforms".

The move comes amid data concerns after Facebook-owned WhatsApp notified users it would update its data sharing policy (which it has now delayed due to intense backlash) and Twitter blocked accounts.

The panel is seeking response from the companies on the issue of safeguarding citizens rights and prevention of misuse of social online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space, The Economic Times reported.

The emphasis would be women's security, besides misuse of the platform, the report said.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The committee is headed by Congress leader and Minister of Parliament Shashi Tharoor.

Earlier in January, WhatsApp informed users it would impose an update in it's privacy policy to allow sharing of data with parent Facebook by month-end. The move however triggered mass backlash with many shifting to other messaging apps that promise privacy such as Telegram and Signal.

After the response and following notices from multiple governments, WhatsApp clarified its policy change and has pushed back the same.

Twitter meanwhile has invited scrutiny for political reasons as the Indian right wing and BJP raised alarm over the ban of twitter accounts of US President Donald Trump, after the attack on Capitol.

Prior to this line of questioning, the panel heard Facebook reps on the company's functioning in India, including reasons for why "inflammatory content by some Hindu right-wing groups during riots and elections" were not removed, it added.

Besides the IT panel, the Parliament Joint Committee on Data Protection has also sought data on Facebook's revenue model, data storage of Indian users in the US, and whether the platform terms itself as "a publisher or only an intermediary."

Both panels said responses from the companies have so far been unsatisfactory, it added.
Police and National Guard troops stood sentry at newly fortified statehouses Sunday ahead of demonstrations planned for the leadup to President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration, as authorities worked to deter a repeat of the recent riot that overran the U.S. Capitol. A few protesters were starting to gather in some cities, but streets in many others remained empty.

About two dozen people, several carrying long guns, protested outside the Ohio Statehouse, observed by several of the dozens of state troopers positioned around the building. Several dozen people  some carrying American flags  gathered at South Carolinas Statehouse. And at Michigans Capitol, a small group of demonstrators, some armed, stood near a chain-link fence surrounding the building as state police walked the grounds and National Guard vehicles were parked nearby.

Tall fencing also now surrounds the U.S. Capitol, the National Mall is closed to the general public, and the District of Columbias mayor asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country were due in the city in the coming days.

The stepped-up security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when a supporters of President Donald Trump swarmed the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

The FBI has warned of the potential for armed protests at the nation's Capitol and all 50 state capitol buildings beginning this weekend. Some social media messages had targeted Sunday for demonstrations, though it remained unclear how many people might show up.

Authorities in some states said they had no specific indication that demonstrations would occur, much less turn violent. Yet many state officials vowed to be prepared, just in case. They said they did not want a repeat of the mob's assault, which left left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead. In recent days, more than 125 people have been arrested on charges related to the insurrection.

In some locations, a small number of people showed up intending to counter protests, even in places where they had not yet materialized.

One counter-protester came early to greet any demonstrators at the Pennsylvania Capitol, saying he had heard about the possibility of a meet-up of a far-right militant group. But no one else was there.

Im fundamentally against the potential protesters coming here to delegitimize the election, and I dont want to be passive in expressing my disapproval of them coming into this city, Stephen Rzonca said.

Wisconsin National Guard troops armed with rifles, shields and body armor arrived near the state Capitol on Sunday morning. A man who drove a vehicle up the steps of the Capitol building was arrested overnight for driving while intoxicated.

More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their state capitols and aid local law enforcement officers. Several governors issued states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Biden's inauguration day.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Sunday that law enforcement officers will protect the rights of peaceful demonstrators but will also vigorously resist any violence.

Some state legislatures also canceled sessions or pared back their work for the coming week, citing security precautions.

Even before the violence at the U.S. Capitol, some statehouses had been the target of vandals and angry protesters during the past year.

Last spring, armed protesters entered the Michigan Capitol to object to coronavirus-related lockdowns and were confronted by police. People angered over the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes, vandalized capitols in several states, including Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

And just last month, crowds in Oregon forced their way into the state Capitol in Salem to protest its closure to the public during a special legislative session on coronavirus measures.

Anticipating the potential for violence in the coming week, the building's first floor windows were boarded up and the National Guard has been deployed. The Legislature was scheduled to begin its 2021 session on Tuesday, but much of its initial work has been delayed for at least two days because of warnings about potential violence.

The state Capitol has become a fortress, said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat. I never thought Id see that; it breaks my heart.

___

Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Sara Cline in Salem, Oregon; Ben Fox in Washington; Mike Householder and David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Marc Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Angie Wang in Atlanta; Paul Weber in Austin, Texas; and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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I hate him so much.



Is it because he's thought with Chris? Is he tight with Taiwan, too? Idiot but I've only watched the 1st one.





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Yep. He's close with Chris and Taika. He spent like 3 months in Australia last time.

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Bb I'm proud of you for deciphering my typos 

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your autocorrect made my head hurt lmao

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Months???? Either he's playing a different character or his original one was just a disguise. I'm confused lol

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So I guess he's doing more than cameo like last time?



lol I hope this film is nothing but hilarious.

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my boss is vacationing in australia right now, even though we've been told not to travel. he's been there for a month and i kind of hope he stays there.

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... I'm curious as how the fuck he got here because we aren't accepting international visitors??

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100% my thought too. I thought we were hard bordered unless you were a resident. I think Kiwi's are allowed to come through BrisVegas now, but that's only been in the last two weeks.

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he was born there but hasn't lived there for 25+ years so i guess he was allowed for that?

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Its probably like Canada. We've got shut borders and nobody but essential workers are supposed to be flying in, but movies and tv are special and don't have to follow the rules.

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he's not supposed to be doing that, i will dob him if you want

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Theyve slashed flights in and out of the country so good luck to him getting home I guess?

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Yeah and Im sure the private quarantine facility is exactly like the ones we all have to use even between states with the same ammenities and foods etc. What a guy! Superhero movies are really important.

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Actor Matt Damon arrived in Sydney in style, direct from Van Nuy Airport in Los Angeles. It was only a brief stay in Sydney for Border Force and Quarantine checks, before they were on their way again to Ballina Byron Airport, no doubt visiting his friend Chris Hemsworth #GL7T pic.twitter.com/T9BeR2dPgZ  16Right Media (@www16Right) January 17, 2021



A mansion in Byron Bay. :/ A mansion in Byron Bay. :/

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oh please, your ass will be yass queening next year as you watch the film.

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Ehhhhhhh my main reason for being ok with it is that it doesnt take places of Australians wanting to come home.



The federal government has been a disgrace and how this is still a problem is baffling.

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Ugh, I can't stand this motherfucker

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I always forget he exists and had no clue he was in the mcu. Lol. Probably better that way tbh.

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God, he's so fucking ugly.

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idk how he fooled so many people into thinking he's attractive

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Classic Boston Pig Face.

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At age 11, when I was more into the Spice Girls than I was into fangirling over teen heartthrobs, I was bullied into picking a guy to have a crush on or be known as the lez of the school. I picked a rando in my friends magazine, which happened to be Matt Damon. I then had to pretend from there on to practically orgasm every time I saw a picture of him. In hindsight, 1) school girls are a special kind of toxic, 2) I have had an extra aversion to Matt Damon ever since.

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Can Hollywood get over him already? It isnt interesting to put him in movies anymore lol

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If the divorce rumors are true, I hope his wife takes his piggy ass to the cleaners.

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When did ontd hate Matt Damon?

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Since he has downplayed how hard it is for women of color to make it in Hollywood....and the whole "I didn't see women as women until I had my own daughters" shit he said.

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Fuck Bourne

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theres too many celebs in australia now it's confusing me



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He seems like IRL he is just like his character in School Ties.





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bb brendan fraser!!

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I am ready for his Hollywood come back!! He seems so sweet IRL.

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I remember watching this movie in school!

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He fucking sucks.

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The staunch Putin critic has been jailed for 30 days by a Russian judge after flying back to Russia from Germany.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Monday urged Russians to take to the streets in protest at his treatment in a video clip released after a judge ordered he be remanded in pre-trial detention for 30 days.

"Don't be afraid, take to the streets. Don't go out for me, go out for yourself and your future," Navalny said in the video, posted on YouTube.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on Sunday after flying home for the first time since he was poisoned last summer. The United Nations and Western nations told Russia to immediately free the opposition politician and some countries called for new sanctions.

German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday called on the Russian government to immediately release Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, adding that his detention had been illegal.

"In Russia, the role of the state should have been to protect him - not to arrest him and hastily put him on trial," Scholz said, adding that he regarded Navalny as a brave man who was fighting for civil rights and democracy.

"And that's why I demand the immediate release of Mr. Navalny. That's important for the democratic development of Russia," Scholz added.

More to follow..
US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress after refuelling during a mission over the Middle East on Sunday. (US Air Force)

US B-52 Bombers Fly Over Middle East in Show of Force

B-52H Stratofortress bombers flew over the Middle East on Sunday in the midst of tensions with Iran, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Central Command wrote that B-52H crews have conducted their second Middle East presence patrol of 2021 as key part of CENTCOMs defensive posture.

The agency, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, included photos of the nuclear-capable bombers flying over the region.

It is the fifth time that U.S. Air Force planes have been flown over the Middle East in recent months, according to Central Command.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, Central Commands commander, told news outlets that the missions are designed to demonstrate the United States commitment to the region.

Short-term deployments of strategic assets are an important part of our defensive posture in the region, he said in a statement. The training opportunity and continued integration with regional partners improves readiness and delivers a clear and consistent message in the operational environment to both friends and potential adversaries, alike.

Irans Revolutionary Guard carried out a drill on Saturday, launching anti-warship missiles at a target in the Indian Ocean, according to state-run media outlets cited by The Associated Press. The regime also fired cruise missiles in the Gulf of Oman, according to state media.

A top Iranian commander downplayed the B-52H bomber flyover.

Asked by reporters about the US Central Commands move to fly B-52 bombers in the region, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said on the sidelines of a Monday conference in Tehran that those flights have no operational value, according to state-backed Tasnim News.

Tehran also recently seized a South Korean oil tanker and started enriching uranium. Other than B-52 patrols, the United States sent the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine to the region, AP reported.

In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from Irans nuclear deal to the chagrin of Tehran. Trump cited Irans ballistic missile programs.

Tensions have also risen over the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran in November. Iranian leaders have accused Israeli spies of being behind his death. And more than a year ago, U.S. forces killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani near the Baghdad airport before Iran launched a barrage of missiles at U.S. bases.
The question that Ben and I kept asking ourselves over and over again: Were we actually doing what the FBI was trying to do so many years ago -- are we now doing that to King and his legacy? says Pollard, speaking by Zoom from his New York apartment. It wasnt easy to say, No were not. Absolutely not. In some ways, you could even say we were a little bit complicit.
BETHLEHEM - Delmar-Bethlehem EMS Chief Steven Kroll was selected by City & State magazine as one of the top 50 pubic servants in New York.

In addition to being named to the magazine's "50 Over Fifty" edition, Kroll will be celebrated during an online reception on Jan. 26. Kroll started as an EMT in 1982 and has done legislative work for the New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association, and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.

For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done everything in his power to imprint in the publics mind that Arab citizens of Israel must not be allowed to participate in the political game or determine the shape of Israels government. Things have certainly changed. Over the last few weeks, he has been touring Arab towns and villages, the very places that were not on his agenda as prime minister until as recently as a few weeks ago. And if those towns were on his agenda, it was usually to advance legislation detrimental to their residents (i.e., the Nationality Law, the Kamenitz Law or the Camera Law) or simply to incite against their residents. This offered him an opportunity to tell his own electorate that the future of his government was in danger because, Heaven help us, Arab voters might fulfill their democratic right to vote.

After starting his tour with a visit to the vaccination centers in the towns of Tira and Umm al-Fahm, Netanyahu paid a visit to the vaccination center in the countrys largest Arab city, Nazareth, Jan. 14. From there, he continued to City Hall for a meeting with Mayor Ali Salem. His visit was a celebratory occasion, with the mayor showering the prime minister with praise. On Jan. 17, the prime minister met with a delegation of Arab mayors and announced that in the next few days" he would release a "huge program to fight violence and crime in the Arab sector, with significant funding backing it up.

All of this raises the question: What prevented Netanyahu from releasing this plan earlier? After all, he has been prime minister since 2009, or, in other words, for over a decade. Why did he wait until now to fight crime and violence in Arab society, which has run rampant this entire time, claiming more and more victims? Why not put a stop to it earlier?

If we pause for a moment on his visit to Nazareth, we will find that while Netanyahu was delivering a speech to Arab society, promising a new era for Jews and Arabs, a protest against his visit to the city was taking place. Most of the protesters were political activists from the various Arab parties, including a few Knesset members from the predominantly Arab Joint List. The protest resulted in clashes between the police and demonstrators and, in the end, 12 arrests were made. Also, Knesset Member Sondos Saleh was taken to the hospital for what was thought to be a fractured hand.

At the same time, no one who followed the protest could ignore the basic fact that a city like Nazareth, home to almost 80,000 people, was unable to get more than a few dozen people or at most a few hundred to protest against the prime minister. Many of the protesters were also activists involved in the demonstrations on Balfour Street (Netanyahus official residence). What this seems to indicate is that the general population of Nazareth had no real interest in protesting against the prime ministers visit, or at least not this time. And it could mean that Arabs are weary of the same old scenario in which the members of the Joint List call them out to demonstrate against just about any prominent politician representing Israels Jewish sector.

Mohamed Attieh  who once owned a business in Nazareth  is a high-tech entrepreneur from the Arab village of Yafia. He told Al-Monitor, First and foremost, it is important for me to stress that I am not an enthusiastic supporter of Netanyahus visit. At the same time, the Arab population is fed up with all the protests and demonstrations by the Arab parties against visits by just about every Jewish politician to some Arab village or another. We are well aware of their reasoning too. The parties that make up the Joint List are afraid that they will lose Arab votes. They have no interest in their being an alternative address for the Arab community instead of their particular party. It doesnt matter if were talking about Netanyahu, [Defense Minister Benny] Gantz, [former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak or [former Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert. They just want to keep the Arab community sealed off hermetically, at least when it comes to politics. I think this might explain why there was such poor attendance at the demonstration too. People are fed up with all the sloganeering and the repetitive cycle of demonstrations.

Does poor attendance at the demonstration indicate that Netanyahu is gaining favorability in the Arab society? That would be hard to believe. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that a new wind is blowing among the Arab population, as seen in polls predicting that the Joint List will win 10-11 seats in total, compared with the current 15. Meanwhile, a source in the Joint List revealed that according to internal polling, the Likud will win 12% of the vote in the Arab society. This certainly boosts Netanyahus statement that he hopes to win two seats from the Arab voters.

Mohamed Kadan, a social activist from the Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, discussed Netanyahus strategy with Al-Monitor. As an Arab citizen of Israel, the question of Netanyahus visit to Nazareth is complicated. On one hand, his attempt to appeal to Arab society offer Arabs an opportunity for representation and legitimacy, while shifting the discourse of hatred that he used against them in previous election campaigns. Back then, he incited incessantly against us. On the other hand, Netanyahu is a top rate politician, so it is difficult to tell whether he is exploiting Arab society or if he really wants to help it and weaken the Joint List along the way, he said.

This may be the precise dilemma faced by Arab society. They are fed up with the same old discourse, but also with the private club that is the Joint List, set up to block anyone else in the Arab population from running for the Knesset. This created a vacuum in Arab society. Netanyahu is now trying to squeeze in and get as many votes as he can from it.

Another group trying to fill this vacuum is a new party named Together Toward a New Era, which is joining the race for the Arab vote and has already announced that it will join the coalition. Candidate Iman Gera Elmalek told Al-Monitor, I call on the heads of the Arab local authorities not to fall into Netanyahus honeytrap, not to take part in his election campaign, and not to lend a hand to his cynical use of Arab society to win votes by making all sorts of promises that he has no plans to keep. Netanyahu promised to rein in crime in the Arab sector as far back as in 2012. But these are just promises intended to chip off votes and ensure that he remains in the Prime Ministers Office.
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Burma Myanmar Receives $10m in Public COVID-19 Vaccine Donations

Medics conduct COVID-19 tests with rapid antigen kits in Yangon. / Photo / Htet Wai.

Yangon  Myanmars government has received about US$10.2 million (13 billion kyats) in public donations to buy COVID-19 vaccinations within a week of the governments request.

The government initially earmarked $251 million (335 billion kyats) on Jan. 5 and also sought help from the public.

The governments COVID-19 vaccine fund has since received donations from individuals, businesses and religious organizations.

The Islamic Religious Affairs Council in Myanmar said on Sunday that it donated more than 1 billion kyats to the fund and is still receiving donations from the Muslim community in Myanmar.

The Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, which was established by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is also accepting public donations.

By Jan. 15, the foundation had transferred more than 530 million kyats to the government.

The CB Bank also donated 2 billion kyats.

The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry is collecting donations from its members and has earmarked 150 million kyats itself.

U Chit Khine, chairman of one of Myanmars biggest conglomerates, the Eden Group, donated $1.5 million (2 billion kyats). U Zaw Zaw, chairman of the Ayeyarwady Foundation, who has already contributed more than $11 million (14.7 billion kyats) to government COVID-19 efforts, donated another 2 billion kyats for vaccines.

The KBZ bank, which has already contributed more than $10.5 million (14 billion kyats) to COVID-19 efforts, donated another 3 billion kyats for vaccines.

Myanmars military has reportedly donated 1 billion kyats.

Myanmar has ordered 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer, which is producing Covishield, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The vaccines are due to arrive in Myanmar in February.

Myanmar has initially paid $75 million (100 billion kyats), half the amount for the vaccine order. The total cost could reach $550 million (734 billion kyats) for the whole adult population, with two doses needed per person with each Covishield dose costing about $5 (6,700 kyats).

Myanmar forecast that 40 percent of its 54.4 million inhabitants will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021. The remaining adults are expected to be vaccinated during the 2022-23 financial year.

Myanmar is also trying to buy COVID-19 vaccines from China, Russia, the UK and USA through diplomatic channels.

Since Dec. 19, Myanmar has seen a decline in daily cases of COVID-19. Fewer than 1,000 cases are now being reported per day, down from a peak of more than 1,400 daily cases.

On Sunday, Myanmar reported 134,318 cases, including 2,955 fatalities and 117,663 recoveries.

In Asean, Myanmar is fourth in terms of COVID-19 cases, behind Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. 

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Myanmar Secures Second IMF COVID-19 Loan

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SPRINGFIELD - A 40-year-old man was arrested at his Exposition Avenue home and charged with illegal possession of anabolic steroids after U.S. Customs officials in Los Angeles intercepted a package addressed to him, police said.

Luke Delaney is charged with possession of a Class E substance, steroids, with intent to distribute.

On Thursday evening, the West Springfield narcotics unit, Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force, the Hampden District Attorneys Task Force and investigators with the Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant on his home.

He became the focus of the investigation into controlled substances after Customs found a package addressed to him that contained 122.4 grams, or around 4.3 ounces of anabolic steroids.

Among the items in the package were stanozolol, methandienone, dromostanolone enanthane, dromostanolone propionate and nandrolone penylpopionate, which are all controlled substances and available only with a prescription. The drugs are popular among body builders and athletes as a way of increasing size and aggressiveness.

An undercover West Springfield police officer delivered the same package, and police moved in after he accepted it.

A search of his apartment uncovered a a safe containing 162 vials of a liquid substance packaged for sale, and several prescription labels resembling those from a pharmacy. They also found $13,500 in cash.

He was arraigned Friday in Springfield District Court.
Honduran migrants, part of a caravan heading to the United States, walk along a road in Camotan, Guatemala, on Jan. 16, 2021. (Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)

Migrant Caravan Demands Biden Honor Commitments as Travelers Told to Abandon Journey

A caravan of as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants headed toward the U.S. border is calling on the incoming Biden administration to honor its commitments to migrants and asylum seekers, referring to a December pledge to hone a new approach to migration issues.

Guatemalan security forces on Sunday used sticks and tear gas to beat back a large migrant caravan bound for the United States, just days ahead of President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration on Jan. 20. The migrants, including families with young children, are fleeing poverty and violence in a region hammered by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November.

Migrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras said in a statement that it recognizes the importance of the incoming administration having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers.

The incoming administration presents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and a migration management that respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility, the statement said, Fox News reported. We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments.

Honduran migrants, part of a caravan heading to the United States, clash with Guatemalan security forces in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)

Honduran migrants, part of a caravan heading to the United States, take a rest in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)

Bidens campaign said on Dec. 19, 2020, that the former vice president and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vowed in a phone call to hone a new approach to migration issues that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States.

President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a priority of his administration. Bidens campaign has vowed to halt a Trump program called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), however the transition team has said it will take time.

President Donald Trump speaks with Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott (R) as they participate in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, on June 23, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden in January had promised to, on day one of a Biden presidency, eliminate President Trumps decision to limit asylum and end the program that sees asylum seekers remain in Mexico while waiting for the claims to be adjudicated.

Bidens campaign website says he will take urgent action to undo Trumps damage and reclaim Americas values, including reasserting Americas commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees. It says he would end Trumps asylum policies, including the protocols.

Mark Morgan, acting chief of Customs and Border Protection, warned in a statement on Dec. 29 that rescinding humanitarian agreements that help protect Americas southern border would likely lead to waves of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border.

More than 67,000 migrants were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2020, compared to the 33,500 apprehended in November 2019.

Zachary Stieber and Reuters contributed to this report.
T he Government is considering introducing quarantine hotels in a bid to contain the threat of coronavirus variants spreading in the UK.

Last week officials were ordered to study New Zealands policy of directed isolation, where everyone arriving is charged for a stay at an airport hotel and forced to remain in isolation for two weeks, according to the Sunday Times.

In Australia it is between 14 and 24 days, with travellers charged between 1,500 and 2,500. The UK government is only considering a system where visitors pay the costs themselves, the newspaper said.

Mr Raab told Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday when asked about the reports: We will consider all the measures in the round.

In terms of enforcement, we are going to be strengthening the checks at the border  so when people come in to make sure that they have filled out the passenger location form, that they have got that negative test that they have to vouch for before they get on the flight.

Also, because the effect of abolishing or suspending the travel corridors is that people go into quarantine and self-isolation for 10 days, were making sure that Public Health England checks to make sure people are adhering to those rules.

As well as changing the rules, we are also making sure that we beef up the capacity to make those checks.

Civil servants will also examine the possibility of emulating a scheme in Poland, where those told to isolate are subject to enhanced monitoring., according to reports.

Each person is contacted once a day and told to send a photograph of themselves at the location where they are confined. These are cross-referenced using GPS data and facial-recognition software. Those who fail to comply within 20 minutes receive a visit from police.

The Sunday times said it is understood that ministers discussed both Quarantine hotels and enhaced monitoring at a meeting on Thursday. A senior government source said that, if used, this technology would be confined to new arrivals in the UK, not those told to self-isolate who are already here.

New Jersey on Monday reported another 3,511 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 23 additional deaths as vaccination locations reported a huge surge in appointments with the recent eligibility expansion.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the latest figures on social media.

NEW JERSEY #COVID19 UPDATE:

3,511 new positive PCR tests

568,573 total positive PCR tests

533 new positive antigen tests

62,501 total positive antigen tests

23 new confirmed deaths

18,367 total confirmed deaths

2,091 probable deathshttps://t.co/JW1q8awGh7 pic.twitter.com/yv09hdQiug  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) January 18, 2021

The state of 9 million residents has now lost 20,458 residents in the COVID-19 pandemic  18,367 confirmed deaths and 2,091 deaths considered probable, according to state data.

The statewide rate of transmission was 1.12 for a third straight day. A transmission rate over 1 indicates the outbreak is expanding and the seven-day rolling average was 5,148.

New Jersey recently expanded vaccine eligibility to those 65 and over, residents with certain health conditions and smokers, creating a backlog for appointments when vaccines promised by the federal government did not materialize.

Four of the six coronavirus vaccine mega-sites have opened throughout New Jersey to serve as vaccination hubs.

The four locations open are the Moorestown Mall in Burlington County, Rowan College of South Jersey in Gloucester County, the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Middlesex County and Rockaway Townsquare in Morris County. Two additional sites will open later in East Rutherford and Atlantic City.

Many vaccine sites throughout the state do not show appointment availability due to supply not meeting demand. State officials have said more appointments will become available as New Jersey receives additional vaccines.

If you are eligible, you can sign up directly with vaccine providers, who can be found on a list provided by the state Department of Health, said Donna Leusner, a health department spokeswoman.

Those locations include county and municipal sites, individual hospitals, pharmacies and ShopRite locations.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

VACCINATIONS

At least 348,414 doses of the vaccine had been administered in New Jersey as of Sunday, according to the states COVID-19 dashboard. Of those, 308,874 were the first of two doses people will receive, while 39,330 were the second.

New Jersey has faced criticism for having a slower rollout than dozens of other states as it continues to deal with a second wave of the pandemic, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state has been doling out doses in phases. And even though officials last week greatly expanded vaccine eligibility, demand remains greater than supply, and residents are scrambling for scarce appointments. More than 4 million New Jersey residents are now eligible.

Officials stress that the state is depending on the federal government for its supply and is receiving only 100,000 doses a week, though New Jersey has the capacity for 470,000 a day.

Murphy on Saturday said the federal government has not provided additional doses that were promised.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were 3,432 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jerseys 71 hospitals as of Sunday night, 313 fewer than the previous night.

They included 632 in critical or intensive care (55 fewer than the previous night), with 426 on ventilators (40 fewer).

There were 305 COVID-19 patients discharged Sunday, according to the states COVID-19 dashboard.

The governor has said any hospitalizations over 5,000 patients would likely trigger new rounds of restrictions.

However, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Monday that officials arent concerned at the moment about an upcoming surge in the number of people needing to be hospitalized.

The interesting thing is: Our cases are increasing and our mortalities are increasing, but our hospitalizations are not, Persichilli told reporters before a public event in Old Bridge.

Hospitalizations are staying pretty stable, she said. I think its still affecting older individuals. Almost 60% of our deaths are older individuals, so it may be that its more transmissible, more asymptomatic. Its over 50% now are asymptomatic transmissions. Asymptomatic transmitters are perhaps affecting older, vulnerable adults, and thats who is ending up in the hospitals, and the mortality is significant.

Hospitalizations as of 1/13/21

SCHOOL CASES

There have been 111 in-school coronavirus outbreaks in New Jersey involving 557 students, teachers and staff since the school year began in late August, according to the state dashboard.

Those numbers do not include students or staff believed to have been infected outside school or cases that cant be confirmed as in-school outbreaks. Though the numbers keep rising every week, Murphy has said the school outbreak statistics remain below what state officials were expecting when schools reopened for in-person classes.

New Jersey defines school outbreaks as cases where contact tracers determined two or more students or school staff caught or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school.

The number of New Jersey school districts with all-remote learning has increased as students return from winter break, Murphy said Monday.

There are 339 districts that started 2021 remotely  an increase of 18 all-remote districts from Dec. 21. Only 77 school districts are returning with full in-person instruction (down from 82 on Dec. 21), and 348 are returning with a hybrid of in-person or remote instruction (down from 362).

Another 47 districts are using some combination of in-person, hybrid, or all-remote across multiple buildings  one more than Dec. 21.

AGE BREAKDOWN

Broken down by age, those 30 to 49 years old make up the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who have caught the virus (31.2%), followed by those 50-64 (23.7%), 18-29 (19.3%), 65-79 (11.1%), 5-17 (7.5%), 80 and older (5.4%), and 0-4 (1.6%).

On average, the virus has been more deadly for older residents, especially those with preexisting conditions. Nearly half the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents 80 and older (47%), followed by those 65-79 (33%), 50-64 (15.6%), 30-49 (4%), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%), and 0-4 (0%).

At least 7,644 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. That number has been rising again at a steeper rate in recent months, with deaths at the states nursing homes nearly tripling in December.

There are currently active outbreaks at 426 facilities, resulting in 6,802 active cases among residents and 7,368 among staffers.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Monday morning, there were more than 95.17 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.

The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 23.95 million, and the most deaths, at more than 397,600.

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A fifth batch of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine consisting of 87,750 doses, is expected today in Romania by air at the airports of Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara, according to AGERPRES.

According to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee, transport to storage centres is provided by the manufacturing company, including by land.

Vaccines are transported safely in special containers with carbonic ice and sealed foil.

Thus, the vaccination process continues both at the centres in Bucharest and elsewhere in the country, as the 87,750 new doses will be distributed as follows:

* Bucharest Regional Distribution Centre - 33,930;

* Brasov Regional Distribution Centre - 11,700;

* Cluj Regional Distribution Centre - 9,360;

* Constanta Regional Distribution Centre - 8,190;

* Craiova Regional Distribution Centre - 7,020;

* Iasi Regional Distribution Centre - 10,530;

* Timisoara Regional Distribution Centre - 7,020 doses.

The vaccination centres will use both doses received by Romania in the current batch and in the previous batches based on requests to the National Centre and the regional storage centres, through county and Bucharest public health directorates.

On January 15, the second stage of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign rolled out designed for people over the age of 65, people with chronic diseases, regardless of age, as well as key personnel working in essential areas.

***

In Romania, the allocation of vaccine doses is made according to a delivery schedule provided by the manufacturing company, meaning that Romania receives weekly the vaccine batches necessary to immunise the population.

As new batches arrive in Romania, the appointment scheduling application and the address are updated to allow the continuation of the scheduling process for the population categories in the current stage.

Regarding the delivery schedule of the doses, Pfizer has announced a return to the initial delivery schedule to the European Union starting with the week of January 25, with increased quantities starting with the week of February 15.
Thousands of Honduran migrants are making their way to the United States border. However, an unnamed Biden transition official said that migrants eyeing to claim asylum in the U.S. during the first few weeks of the new administration might not be able to come to the U.S. right away.

Honduran migrants moved into Guatemala on Friday without registering as a part of a larger caravan. More than 1,000 Honduran migrants were reported to this, according to a Fox News report

The migrants are hoping for a warmer reception once they reach the U.S. border. Migrants group Pueblo Sin Fronteras said that it expects the Biden administration to take action, citing the incoming administration's efforts to ease the restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

However, a senior Biden transitional official said the perception that the Biden administration will be able to allow all arriving asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. to make their claim on day one is false, according to an NBC News report.

"The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight," the Biden transition official was quoted on a report.

However, the transition official refused to say when asylum seekers might come to the U.S. and whether they will be detained as they away a court hearing.

Related story: Trump Officials Warn of Illegal Border Crossings Surge If Biden Reverses Immigration Policies



Honduran Migrants

Hondurans have utilized WhatsApp and Facebook groups to organize another caravan that was set to leave the San Pedro Sula on Jan. 15 despite the ongoing pandemic.

However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting commissioner Mark Morgan said in a statement that the migrants should not waste time and money, and risk their safety and health.

"Migrant caravan groups will not be allowed to make their way north in violation of the sovereignty, standing public health orders, and immigration laws of the respective nations throughout the region," Morgan was quoted on a Reuters report.

Some 3,000 people left Honduras in hopes of finding a better life in the U.S.

Many were seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug-related violence, as well as the effects of the two destructive hurricanes in their country.

Many American officials have already warned groups that include people of all ages and some entire families, according to an Arab News report.

However, Honduran migrants would have to show travel documents and a negative COVID-19 test to enter Guatemala.

Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico have an agreement with the United States to stop north-bound migratory flows from the south of the continent.

On Sunday, Guatemalan security forces have clashed with thousands of Honduran migrants as they try to hinder the largest caravan in years from reaching the U.S., according to a Financial Times report.

The soldiers turned on the migrants with batons and stocks.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, the National Guard and other security forces had already started deploying en masse to prepare for the arrival of the caravan.

Guatemalan officials said that the new caravan has at least 6,000 people after some people had returned home. Many migrants said they have no jobs that they can return home to.

Related story: Joe Biden Plans to Reverse Trump's Immigration Policies Once He's in Office


Good morning.

Security preparations continue leading up to president-elect Joe Bidens inauguration in Washington on Wednesday. The Jets are in Ontario for a three-game road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators (twice). And colder temperatures are expected in the next two days, with a high a couple of degrees below the average for todays date.

 Adam Treusch, assignment editor
A central Pennsylvania man is facing aggravated assault charges after police said he battled and injured an officer who arrested him during a domestic dispute.

Northern Lancaster County Regional Police said the officer arrived at a home on Snyder Lane in Clay Township at 2:11 a.m. Sunday and found Luis Xavier Hernandez-Gutierrez, 21, fighting with several women.

They said Hernandez-Gutierrez assaulted the officer when he intervened, choked and kicked the cop and punched the officer after resisting being handcuffed. Hernandez-Gutierrez was tased twiced before he could be taken into custody, police said.

Luis Xavier Hernandez-Gutierrez

The officer and Hernandez-Gutierrez both suffered minor injuries, police said. Hernandez-Gutierrez also is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.
Law Offices of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Cerner Corporation, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The Sacramento employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a representative action Complaint against Cerner Corporation, alleging the company violated Labor Code  2699, et seq. seeking penalties for DEFENDANTs alleged violation of California Labor Code  201, 202, 203, 204, 210, 226(a), 226.7, 351, 510, 512, 558(a)(1)(2), 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 1198, and 2802. The lawsuit against Cerner Corporation, is currently pending in the Placer County Superior Court, Case No. S-CV-0045961. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here.

The lawsuit filed against Cerner Corporation alleges PLAINTIFF and other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES were from time to time unable to take thirty (30) minute off-duty meal breaks and were not fully relieved of duty for their meal periods. California labor laws require an employer to provide an employee required to perform work for more than five (5) hours during a shift with, a thirty (30) minute uninterrupted meal break prior to the end of the employee's fifth (5th) hour of work.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that PLAINTIFF and other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES as a business expense, were required by DEFENDANT to use their own personal cellular phones as a result of and in furtherance of their job duties as employees for DEFENDANT but were not reimbursed or indemnified by DEFENDANT for the cost associated with the use of their personal cellular phones for DEFENDANTs benefit. Specifically, PLAINTIFF and AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES were required by DEFENDANT to use their personal cellular phones for work related issues.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Cerner Corporation, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, Santa Clara County, Orange County and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct.

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Nigeria on Sunday recorded one if its highest daily fatality toll from COVID-19 with 15 people dying from the disease

A total of 1,435 have died from the disease in Nigeria, the countrys infectious disease agency, NCDC, announced Sunday night.

A total of 110,387 infections have now been reported across the nation with 1,444 new cases found in 21 states on Sunday.

This is coming barely a day after the global coronavirus death toll surpassed two million.

As countries begin to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine, experts anticipate there will be a reduction in mortality but there have been more deaths especially in countries where the second wave of the virus is spreading unrestrained.

Last Friday, Nigeria announced its deadliest day of the pandemic with 23 lives lost.

Last week, which is the third week of the new year, the country recorded 70 deaths, the weekly highest in the new year. The country also recorded 50 and 48 deaths in the first and second week of 2021 respectively.

In the past four weeks, there have been over 200 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

The rise in mortality shows that the second wave of the pandemic is deadlier than the first as more patients are symptomatic and require breathing support.

Akin Abayomi, the commissioner for health in Lagos State, the epicentre of the pandemic, had said the use of oxygen by COVID-19 patients in isolation centres across the state is on the increase this January.

The professor of medicine disclosed that the new strain ravaging the state and the country at large is deadlier than the previous variant.

The reason for rise in fatalities is not far-fetched. When there are is a sharp rise in new cases, there will definitely be more deaths, said Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the NCDC.

Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 about two months ago to over 20,000 due to a rise in new infections.

Of the over 110,000 cases so far, 89,317 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Specifics

The 1,598 new cases were reported from the following 21 states: Lagos-901 Plateau-136 Kaduna-57 FCT-54 Ebonyi-53 Akwa Ibom-52 Nasarawa-32 Osun-29 Ogun-28 Imo-16 Oyo-16 Edo-15 Kano-14 Rivers-10 Ekiti-7 Borno-6 Abia-5 Benue-4 Yobe-4 Kebbi-3 Anambra-2.

Lagos again led with 901 new cases on Sunday, more than half of the daily total. The commercial city is Nigerias coronavirus epicentre with a total of over 40,000 confirmed cases and over 270 deaths.

The Minister of State for Health, Mr Mamora, warned Nigerians against complacency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic as the much-awaited vaccines may not arrive the country as soon as expected.

The government said it is expecting to start receiving vaccines for the disease by the end of the month and that the vaccines will be administered in four phases.

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So far, Nigeria has conducted over 1.1 million COVID-19 tests.
'Arrest Randeep Hooda' trends on twitter after his 'sexist and casteist' joke video on Mayawati goes viral

Tandav controversy: FIR lodged against director, Amazon India head of content

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Lucknow, Jan 18: An FIR has been lodged here against the makers of web series ''Tandav'' and Amazon''s India head of original content for allegedly depicting Hindu gods in a manner hurtful to religious sentiments of the people.

The FIR against Aparna Purohit, the head of Amazon''s India head of original content, director of the series Ali Abbas, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki, and an unknown person was lodged late on Sunday night by senior Sub Inspector Amar Nath Yadav at the Hazratganj Kotwali police station here.

The film starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan and Kritika Kamra, premiered on the streaming platform on Friday.

Tandav controversy: Centre seeks explanation from Amazon Prime Video

According to the FIR, following public outrage expressed on social media platforms, the web series was viewed and it was found in the 17th minute of the first episode of the series that Hindu gods and goddesses have been presented in an "undignified manner'' and shown using language which is hurtful to religious sentiments.

Dialogues in the web series can incite caste anger, the FIR alleged.

It also alleged that the person occupying the high post of Prime Minister of India has been portrayed in a very belittling manner besides there are scenes in which castes have been presented as low and high and women in an insulting manner.

The FIR further alleged that intent of the web series is to incite religious sentiments of a particular community and create enmity among classes.This act of the producer-director has hurt and incited religious and caste sentiments of the people, the FIR added.

Taking cognizance of complaints that Hindu gods and goddesses have been ridiculed in the web series, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had on Sunday sought an explanation from streaming platform Amazon Prime Video on the issue, sources had said.

The development came after BJP MP Manoj Kotak on Sunday said he has written to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on Amazon Prime Video''s series ''Tandav'' for ridiculing Hindu deities.

"The ministry has taken cognizance of the matter (complaints) and asked Amazon Prime Video to explain," a source in the ministry had said.

Kotak, the MP from Mumbai North-East, said different organisations and individuals have complained that Hindu gods and goddesses have been ridiculed in the ''Tandav'' web series.

When contacted about the complaints, Amazon Prime Video PR had said the platform "won''t be responding" on the matter.

The government recently brought OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, besides other online news and current affairs content, under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, giving it powers to regulate policies and rules for the digital space.

PTI

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 12:57 [IST]
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An infection of the more transmissible British strain of the coronavirus was officially confirmed in the Philippines for the first time last Wednesday, threatening a more disastrous stage of the pandemic for the second-worst hit country in Southeast Asia. The Philippines joins at least 51 other countries and territories that have recorded a case of the variant, including Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

The infection was detected in a 27-year-old old real estate agent who had recently returned from a business trip to Dubai with his partner. On January 7, the couple returned on an Emirates flight and were placed in quarantine and swab tested. On January 8, the man tested positive for the original strain and contracted a cough. He was transferred to an isolation facility, where it was discovered through an X-Ray that he had developed pneumonia.

It was not until the results were sent to the Philippine Genome Centre (PGC) for full genomic sequencing that the new B.1.1.7 strain was confirmed on January 13.

Thousands of Catholic devotees line up as they celebrate the feast day of the Black Nazarene at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in downtown Manila, Philippines, Saturday Jan. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerard Carreon)

Both residents of Quezon City had tested negative prior to leaving the Philippines and upon arrival in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is still unclear when and where the infection took place, given that the UAE is yet to detect its first case of the new strain.

The Philippine Department of Health acquired the flight manifesto pertaining to the patient and is now scrambling to contact those who were on board. Currently there is one flight passenger missing, a resident of Quezon City, who left incorrect contact details.

The UAE and Hungary have now been included on a travel ban of 33 countries, which was extended on Friday from the 15th to the 31st. Only Filipinos are able to arrive from the list of countries, but they must be placed in 14-day quarantine and tested. In addition, the government announced it is now compulsory for travellers from all countries to be tested and to undergo genome sequencing to identify the new strains.

The emergence of new COVID-19 variants is the product of the profit-driven approach by capitalist governments worldwide. Under the banner of the herd immunity policy, they have allowed the virus to circulate, rejecting lockdown measures that would have an impact on corporate profit-making activities. This has created the conditions for variations and mutations to occur.

The fact that the variant arrived on a flight from a country that was omitted from the travel ban indicates its far-advanced spread and the inadequate character of attempts by governments in the Philippines and elsewhere to prevent its spread.

Studies have indicated that the UK variant has an increased infection rate of up to 70 percent. Whilst not more virulent, its increased transmissibility gives the virus the opportunity to spread at an exponential rate and overwhelm the capacity of hospitals and intensive care units.

Dr. John Wong, part of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), warned earlier this month that the new strain could increase cases in the Philippines by fifteen-fold.

With our current R [reproduction rate] of 1.1, 20,000 cases at the beginning of the month will be about 32,000 at the end of the month. But if the variant takes over, the 20,000 cases can become almost 300,000 cases by the end of the month, Wong said.

Despite these warnings, the government has resisted calls for more stringent lockdown measures.

Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported on Friday that the government would not impose a complete travel ban for everybody. We want to balance health with the economy. It is not feasible for us to do that, she said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also ruled out any immediate escalation of the current general community quarantine (GCQ). He said any change to the policy would be dependent upon an increase in the weekly transmission rate and the capacity of the hospital system.

As of now, we dont have that kind of signal yet to elevate the current community quarantine [status], Duque said at a news briefing last week.

There is a possibility that more people would get sick because the new variant is more contagious. But if they would not be hospitalised because their cases are mild, it is possible that the quarantine restrictions wont change, Roque said.

In other words, the government is allowing the virus to circulate, to prevent any disruption to big business, and is openly acknowledging that this will result in ordinary people contracting COVID-19 and becoming ill.

Under the GCQ, businesses can operate at between 50 and 100 percent capacity, depending on their industry classification. Public transport is continuing to operate, at reduced rates, and potential centres of mass infection, such as shopping malls, remain open. Outside Metro Manila and four other hard-hit provinces, a modified GCQ is in place that involves even fewer restrictions.

This week, the Department of Labor and Employment acknowledged that some 20 percent of businesses it inspected, equating to almost 14,500, had been in breach of health and safety requirements, such as ensuring that workers could socially-distance. Officials ruled out any penalties for the transgressions, instead declaring that they would provide those businesses with greater assistance.

A post-holiday surge is also driving an increase in cases. The Octa Research Group recently noted that the reproduction number in Metro Manila had increased from 1.02 to 1.17. Health experts have previously cautioned against letting the virus rise above 1 until a vaccine becomes available.

There is a clear upward trend now... and if this upward trend continues, the local governments will need to implement measures to reverse this direction before the pandemic gets out of hand," the Octa team stated.

They also noted that the percentage of tests returning positive has risen above 11 percent in Metro Manila, indicating broader transmission that is not being tracked. The World Health Organisation warned early last year that a positivity rate above 5 percent indicates insufficient lockdown measures and contact tracing.

The rise in cases is particularly sharp in Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, where daily infections are greater than 100. In the Davao region more broadly, there is a continuing spread amongst health care workers. A total of 107 cases were recorded last week, mostly among nurses.

Government officials have stated that there is sufficient hospital capacity in most areas. The infections among medical staff, and the prospect of the spread of the new strain, pose the risk that the health system could be overwhelmed if there is a major surge.

The Philippines has been the second-worst-hit country in Southeast Asia. It passed half a million cumulative cases on Sunday, while the official death toll is approaching 10,000. When the pandemic struck, the right-wing administration of President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed the threat posed by the virus and rejected calls for elementary safety measures. Only amid mass infections and a crisis of the health system were lockdown measures introduced.

At the same time, Duterte has used the pandemic to boost the role of the military in public life, in line with a broader authoritarian agenda. This has gone hand in hand with an offensive against the social position of the working class and the poor. Hunger and malnutrition are at record highs and millions have been thrown out of work or pushed into poverty, with only a pittance of government assistance.
Covid-19 exposed all the flaws of both national and international governance.

The World Health Organization struggled.

Too many countries, even those supposedly best prepared for a pandemic, flailed and failed to grasp lessons from each others experiences, at the cost of 2 million lives and trillions of euros.

Has the world rectified those weaknesses?

A vaccination campaign of record size is the first opportunity to at least partly assess that, and the global results are not as encouraging as they should be.

Take the United States, which had hoped to give at least 20 million people their first coronavirus shots by the end of last year, but has so far managed a little over half that.

The US, hampered by poor federal-level support, have struggled with basics like who goes first, and both excessively stringent and excessively broad stances have caused problems.

France has struggled with vaccine hesitancy.

Russia raced to develop and approve homegrown jabs, but a skeptical population remains less than eager. The vast majority of countries have not even started.

The pandemic was identified as a threat well before 2020 but, for most of us, the reality was unimaginable in its eventual scale, and certainly in the devastating cascade of social and economic problems it created.

When it comes to inoculations, though, we knew this day would come eventually.

Governments were cognizant that it would be an unprecedented logistical challenge.

They knew it could well happen in the northern hemisphere winter when case numbers were bound to be higher.

They had months to plan, put strategies in place and debate basics like whether to prioritize one dose or aim straight for two. Too many are still scrambling.

It is true that these are very early days. Countries that do well in the initial stages may not look as good when we get to the finish line.

But it is vital, as we go, to evaluate whether there is progress.

Providing public goods at scale is, after all, the very essence of a governments function.

More importantly, the basics we need to get right now  from being agile to following science and combating misinformation  will underpin our fight against every subsequent global challenge, not least a changing climate.

Of course, as with everything in this pandemic, measuring vaccination success isnt straightforward.

We could do worse, though, than start by weighing up how countries did in securing vaccines, distributing doses and communicating effectively to build trust.

Supply is immediately problematic as a gauge of government success on its own.

We can of course count the volume of doses countries secured and there were high-profile blunders, as with the United States passing on the chance to buy extra Pfizer doses last summer.

But wins here are predicated on wealth and sharp elbows as much as they are on administrative capacity and quality of governance.

Israel, for example, paid a hefty premium for its vaccines, something not all Covid-battered budgets allow, and was able to throw data into the deal too, thanks to an unusually personalized and digitized health system.

Members of staff prepare to administer injections of a Covid-19 vaccine at the NHS vaccine centre that has been set up at the Millennium Point centre in Birmingham in the UK. Picture: PA

Then theres speed of delivery  actually getting the shots and rolling them out.

Again, though, this isnt just about good governance.

Certainly, Israel is a standout when considering doses delivered per capita, having delivered more than 2 million doses for a population of just over 9 million.

So too are the United Arab Emirates, and even Britain.

But speed here has been largely dictated by circumstance  its a race against an out-of-control outbreak.

Israel has had over 535,000 cases, almost 6% of its population. Britain registered almost 56,000 new cases on Friday, one of the worst rates globally. In both, the fate of politicians depends on it.

By contrast, the go slower approach taken by some Asian countries isnt exactly failure by comparison  certainly not yet.

Even if a decision to sit back is open to question during an economically devastating pandemic where millions have already been inoculated elsewhere.

Vaccine side effects typically show up quickly, and we know that even jabs that prevent complications will help.

So whats a better test of how governments have actually done, irrespective of pre-existing wealth and Covid-19 status?

One, did they make room for ethically tricky discussions?

This was already necessary last year, when lockdowns forced the damage to economies to be weighed against the risk to human lives, but, as Donald Low, professor of practice in public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, put it to me, there is precious little space for ethics when conversations focus on cost-benefit analysis.

Hence much of the floundering in debates where there is no perfect answer, like whether to bet on the probable protection of one dose or the near-certainty of two, or whether to vaccinate the elderly before school teachers.

It is hoped the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will be approved by the European Medicines Agency by the end of the month. File Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Deliberations on doses, for example, could have started earlier, says Keiji Fukuda, director and clinical professor at the University of Hong Kongs School of Public Health, though he adds final decisions were not possible far in advance without a sense of the immune response to the first dose of specific vaccines, manufacturing capacity and the speed at which infection is spreading, which only come with the outbreak.

Even if a decision to sit back is open to question during an economically devastating pandemic where millions have already been inoculated elsewhere.

Finally, the least forgivable oversight of all: Did governments educate and communicate to get citizens rolling up their sleeves and avoid the greatest collective action failure of our time?

Thats not about inoculating the president on live television as Indonesia did, but explaining the science, the testing process, the risks and rewards.

Most people, after all, are not hard-bitten vaccine skeptics.

Instead, officials  as in Hong Kong, for example, where a lack of trust in government should have made this a priority  talk publicly about vaccines that do not fully protect from infection without adequately explaining what that means.

Perhaps, in a few months, as James Crabtree of Singapores Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy puts it, well find that most rich countries will have muddled through, but left emerging economies lagging.

That, he rightly adds, is not governance success either.

The one lesson we should have learnt from 2020 is that no one is safe until everyone is.

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- enCore Energy Corp. (TSXV: EU; OTCQX:ENCUF) (the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company's Chair, William M. Sheriff and the Chief Executive Officer, W. Paul Goranson, will present at NobleCon17  Noble Capital Markets' Seventeenth Annual Investor Conference on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 9:45 AM (EST). The conference is virtual, and available at no cost by registering at: www.nobleconference.com.

A high-definition, video webcast of the presentation will be available the following day on the Company's website and as a part of a complete catalog of presentations to be rebroadcast on Channelchek (www.channelchek.com) next month.

About enCore Energy Corp.

enCore Energy Corp. is U.S. domestic uranium developer focused on becoming a leading in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium producer. The Company is led by a team of industry experts with extensive knowledge and experience in the development and operations of in situ recovery uranium operations. enCore Energys opportunities are created from the Companys transformational acquisition of its two South Texas production facilities, the changing global uranium supply/demand outlook and opportunities for industry consolidation. These short-term opportunities are augmented by our strong long term commitment to working with local indigenous communities in New Mexico where the company holds significant uranium resources.

For additional information:

William M. Sheriff

Executive Chairman

972-333-2214

info@encoreenergycorp.com

www.encoreenergycorp.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law including the anticipated completion of the transaction and acquisition of the Marquez, Nose Rock and other properties, and the potential advancement thereof. Forward- looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward - looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Estimates of mineral resources and reserves are also forward looking statements because they constitute projections regarding the amount of minerals that may be encountered in the future. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation; statements about the terms and completion of the transaction are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the respective companies undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
EDWARDSVILLE  Music composed by Dr. Kimberly K. Archer will be part of Wednesdays inauguration ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden.

Archer, a professor of Music Composition at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, titled the work Fanfare Politeia. Selected to be performed by The Presidents Own United States Marine Band, the work is translated from Platos Latin term for Republic and celebrates Americas traditions of a free and fair election, and of a peaceful transfer of power.

This is an incredible honor, Archer said. If you had told my 20-year-old self that someday the Marine Band would play my music  much less for a presidential inauguration  I would never have believed it.

Under the direction of Col. Jason K. Fettig, the United States Marine Band will perform Archers composition at the event to be broadcast starting at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Archer joins the ranks of composers such as Leonard Bernstein and John Williams who have previously penned works for the executive branch.

The United States Marine Band has performed at presidential inaugurations since 1801 when Thomas Jefferson was sworn into office in Washington, D.C., the first inauguration at the nations capital.

Archer, 47, teaches composition, music theory, analysis, counterpoint and 20th century music at SIUE. She also has taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Western Carolina University in North Carolina and Southeast High School in Florida.

Originally from Mendota, Illinois, she holds a Bachelor of Music Education from The Florida State University, a Master of Music in Composition from Syracuse University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a specialist in music for winds and percussion.

Archers composition will be distributed by Murphy Music Press, a Cleveland based music publishing company, which will make the composition available to purchase following the inauguration. Murphy Music Press has worked closely with Archer in the representation of her new works for concert band since she joined the catalog in 2016.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Inauguration Day is just three days away, as the country awaits the unexpected with tensions rising left and right.

Rather than just being hopeful for the inauguration on Wednesday, I have some fear, Eugene resident Dana Fleming said.

Fleming said she hopes to see a peaceful transition of power, especially after the recent events at the Capitol Building.

RELATED: INSIDE THE MOB THAT SWARMED THE US CAPITOL

Im cautiously optimistic that we will get this thing under control," Fleming said.

Ben Ehrlich is the chairman of the Oregon Federation of College Republicans. He said he has concerns about President-elect Joe Biden taking office.

I'm not sure what Joe Biden really intends to do with the presidency, Ehrlich said. On one hand, you have him saying he wants to unify the country but him and all these Democrats are doing all these hyper political moves.

Ehrlich shared his thoughts on COVID-19 relief. He said the $2,000 checks need to go out.

"When they passed the first bill, it was only a maximum of $600 and then you saw it all published online of all the payments to all these foreign countries for frivolous things, Ehrlich said. I felt like a slap in the face to me. That's what it felt like. I feel like most people I talked to on the right and the left had that perception as well.

Biden proposed a $1.9 trillion economic relief plan with help coming in the form of the expansion of COVID-19 testing, stimulus checks, boosting minimum wage and a safe reopening of schools.

RELATED: BIDEN UNVEILS $1.9T PLAN TO STEM VIRUS AND STEADY ECONOMY

Eugene resident Chrystine Deuel weighed in.

Weve had so many false promises, so I'm kind of in the Ill believe it when I see it camp, Deuel said.

There is a piece of relief college students are calling "good news" -- the halting of federal student loan payments. Biden plans to extend the pause on the payments in day one of office, tackling the nearly $1.6 trillion student loan debt crisis.

There should be some plan for student loan relief, UO freshman Alex Halpren said.

"I hope it happens, UO freshman Nessa Greeley said. Whatever relief can be provided would be awesome."

RELATED: BIDEN TO SIGN ORDER REJOINING PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD, OTHER EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON FIRST DAY
She never fails to look glamorous on her way to work.

And Kelly Brook put on a typically stylish fashion parade as she arrived at the Heart Radio station in central London on Monday ahead of her show.

The presenter, 41, wore a short grey smock dress and black knee-high boots as she strutted the streets of the capital.

Glamorous: Kelly Brook put on a typically stylish fashion parade as she arrived at the Heart Radio station in central London on Monday ahead of her show

The former model teamed the look with a black jacket which she kept open to show off her outfit and accessorised with a simple necklace.

Kelly, who has continued to present during lockdown 3.0, dressed for cold January weather and covered her slender legs with black tights.

To tie the look together, the TV and radio personality paired her outfit with a dark shearling bag, which she wore across her body.

Kelly's dark tresses were pushed back from her face by a large black hairband and fell in loose curls round her shoulders.

Stepping out in style: The presenter, 41, wore a short grey smock dress and black knee-high boots as she strutted the streets of the capital

Looking good: The presenter pushed her dark tresses away from her face with a large black hairband and styled her hair in loose curls

The beauty kept her make-up simple but still managed to look glamorous, with a smoky eye and nude lip.

Kelly recently revealed her weight crept up to size 16 during the first lockdown, but she has since dropped two dress sizes.

She previously admitted to altering her social media pictures in the past to recreate 'the 20-year-old version' of herself after struggling to come to terms with her figure when she was a size 16.

In an exclusive interview, Kelly told MailOnline she has questioned her sense of identity over the years after wanting to give up being a lingerie model and 'Keith Lemon's sexy sidekick' in favour of a quiet life in the countryside.

Stylish: Kelly was dressed for cold January weather and covered her slender legs with black tights, tying the look together with a dark shearling bag, which she wore across her body

Chic: The former model teamed the look with a black jacket which she kept open to show off her outfit and accessorised with a simple necklace

Kelly, who was accused of using Photoshop in 2018 when she appeared to make herself look slimmer in a picture with boyfriend Jeremy Parisi at Ascot, said: 'It's a terrible message to send out if I started altering pictures digitally.

'That's not fair, so I wouldn't do that. Not to say in the past I haven't done that! When I was a size 16, I was like "that's not what I look like!"

'I would make the 20-year-old version of myself. It's been a process for me to accept my new body and my new life.

'So now, pretty much what you see on my Instagram is what I am. Some of the selfies I take, even though I don't digitally enhance them, they're beautifully lit and I know how to take a nice picture of myself. That's kind of cheating as well.'
Art, Talent and Adversity

Syriac Catholic artist Ghusoon Durdur with her painting depicting the invasion of her parish by ISIS in Northern Iraq. ( Giovanni Portelli) On the outskirts of Sydney lives an extraordinary artist whose work is bringing others closer to Christ.

Syriac Catholic Ghusoon Durdur and her family were forced to leave their home in Bakhdida, northern Iraq when they were threatened by ISIS.

While seeking refuge in Lebanon, Ghusoon's talent was able to flourish, particularly, and held her first exhibition of hyper-realistic pencil drawings and paintings.

She also recently discovered a gift for writing and is attracting a growing social media following.

Having experienced hardship, she said she prefers the main focus of her work to be spiritual subjects such as Jesus Christ and the saints.

Her first portrait completed in Australia is a tender image of Our Lady and the infant Jesus.

"I prefer to draw faces because they remind me of our Creator and how beautifully he makes each of us so unique," Ghusoon said.

"Lebanon is a place with many saints and there is very strong faith there, so I was really inspired in my own faith and to use my talents for God.

"He is the greatest artist and from Him comes every talent.

"God gave me this ability to create with a pen or a paintbrush so that I can praise him through it."

Ghusoon Durdur with her first artwork completed in Australia of Our Lady and the Child Jesus. ( Giovanni Portelli)

She said that despite many difficulties she and her family have endured, she believes everything has been "a blessing from God".

"I have greater appreciation of what life is really about."
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New Delhi: At least 447 persons reported adverse effects after covid-19 vaccination with majority complaining fever, headache and nausea, according to the provisional data of ongoing vaccination drive .

An Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) is any unexpected medical occurrence which follows immunization which may not be related to vaccine or vaccination process.

India has granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) to two covid-19 vaccines -- Pune-based Serum Institute of Indias Covishield and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltds Covaxin which are being used in the governments vaccination drive.

A total of 447 AEFI have been reported so far. Out of these, three required hospitalization. Of these, one has been discharged from Northern Railway Hospital Delhi within 24 hours; one has been discharged from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi; and one is under observation in AIIMS Rishikesh and is being monitored," said Manohar Agnani, additional secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The government however hasnt given any details about the adverse reactions happened for which particular vaccine.

Protocols are in place for reporting, immediate case management at vaccination session site, transportation and hospitalization and further care of such cases. Protocols are also in place for systematic investigation and causality assessment of serious AEFIs," he said.

A total of 553 sessions were held in six States --Andhra Pradesh (308), Arunachal Pradesh (14), Karnataka (64), Kerala (1), Manipur (1) and Tamil Nadu (165) --with 17,072 beneficiaries vaccinated on Sunday, the second day of the countrywide covid-19 vaccination program. India has vaccinated the highest number of persons on first day under its covid-19 vaccination program, the worlds largest such exercise. This is much higher than many other countries such as USA, the UK and France. Total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till today as per the provisional report," said Agnani.

States/UTs have been advised to plan covid-19 vaccination sessions four days in a week to minimize disruption of the Routine Health Services. Some States have already publicized their weekly vaccination days," said Agnani. The union health ministry also convened a meeting with all States on Sunday to review the progress, identification of bottle-necks and to plan corrective actions as the vaccination program moves ahead.

While India has started the covid-19 vaccination, the burden of the highly infectious disease continues to rise in the country. India current number of active cases remained 2,08,826 on Sunday that share 1.98%. of the total cases.

In the last 24 hours, 15,144 daily cases were recorded with 81% of the new cases are from 8 States and UTs. Kerala continues to report the highest daily new cases at 5,960. It is followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with 2,910 and 610 new cases, respectively, the union health ministry. Six States & UTs have reported 66.30% of the 181 case fatalities in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported 52 deaths. Kerala saw a fatality count of 27 while West Bengal reported 15 new deaths, the government said. The total number of covid-19 cases rose to 1,05, 60,536 and the toll mounted to 1,53,524 on Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the nationwide covid-19 vaccination drive virtually billing it as the worlds largest vaccination program" covering the entire length and breadth of the country. The covid-19 vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on evolving pandemic situation, and finally to the remaining population based on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability, according to the operational guidelines for covid-19 vaccination issued by the union health ministry. The first phase is ongoing in which over 3 crores healthcare workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated for free.

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Ministers were urged to delay any planned tax rises for up to two years today in order to let firms left shell-shocked by Covid to recover - as ministers mull an online sales tax.

Jesse Norman, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, told MPs last night such a levy is a possibility as Chancellor Rishi Sunak tries to raise money to pay off the UK's pandemic debt pile.

Mr Norman did not give any detail about what an online sales tax might look like, but the idea was first suggested when the Treasury reviewed business rates in July.

It was the clearest hint yet that Mr Sunak might look to raise taxes at the Budget in March, with UK national debt above 2trillion and fears about the long-term effect of heavy public borrowing.

However the Confederation of British Industry today warned against a fresh tax burden on UK businesses.

Some economists have suggested taxes will need to go up for covering the cost of the pandemic, but CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said: 'We don't see now as the time to be increasing taxes.

'You need to wait until one or two years after you've seen the trough in GDP when growth is back on a sustainable trajectory before really trying to think about either significant cuts in Government spending or significant increases in taxation.'

There has been speculation that a levy of 2 per cent on all goods bought online  potentially raising 2billion a year  could be implemented.

Shoppers may have to pay more for items bought online under plans for a tax that could be introduced in Rishi Sunak's Budget

CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said: 'We don't see now as the time to be increasing taxes. You need to wait until one or two years after you've seen the trough in GDP when growth is back on a sustainable trajectory'

Critics say the tax will push up prices for consumers. Online retailers have thrived during the lockdown with customers unable to visit non-essential shops for months.

'When we thought about business rates in the recent consultation, we touched on the idea of an online sales tax and just put that out there for discussion and evaluation and we're still reflecting on that,' Mr Norman told the Treasury Committee yesterday.

Internet sellers have also benefited because they do not need to rent expensive properties on the high street.

Mr Sunak is believed to be keen to start filling the vast hole in the Government's books soon.

Various wealth and property tax rises have been mooted in order to fill the nation's coffers but Mr Norman was quick to dismiss the ideas.

He told the Commons Treasury committee: 'The Chancellor is looking to build strong sustainable finances when circumstances permit that.

'That seems to me to be a judicious recognition that some taxation could impede growth and damage our recovery.'

Former prime minister Tony Blair also urged the Government to stay away from wealth taxes, telling the Bloomberg news agency yesterday that they never work in reality.

Jesse Norman (pictured), Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said an online sales tax is a possibility

There has been speculation that a levy of 2 per cent on all goods bought online  potentially raising 2billion a year  could be implemented

The CBI said the most pressing demand for businesses was an extension to the furlough scheme and business rates holiday before the Budget in March.

In its Budget submission to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the CBI said businesses cannot be expected to wait nearly two months to know whether support will be extended beyond the current deadlines.

The furlough scheme is currently set to finish at the end of April and a rates holiday closes at the end of March but many businesses will already be planning spending for the year ahead.

Tony Danker, CBI director-general, said: 'Our Covid-related business support asks are about moving now or soon, rather than waiting until March 3... Business support needs to go in parallel with the tiering of restrictions.

'Sudden stops and cliff edges really don't help and I don't think anybody in Government believes that we're going to have a sudden opening up with the economy.'

The organisation said business rates will become a particularly serious problem if not addressed ahead of the Budget, with a rates holiday for retailers, leisure and hospitality sectors due to end at the end of March.

This should be extended by at least three months and the Government should commit to a significant overhaul of the commercial property tax, which remains the highest in the G7, the CBI said.

Other measures being urged by the CBI also include ensuring the Budget is focused on job creation and creating a net zero economy to drive growth, including a review of fuel duty.

Tax credits for research and development should be introduced with particular focus on digital technologies, it said.
The first meeting of a new business council focused on helping the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic will be chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson today.

Thirty senior figures from a wide range of industries including finance, technology, and manufacturing, will attend an online gathering of the Build Back Better Council, alongside other senior politicians such as co-chair Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Johnson is expected to discuss the UK's current progress on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and rebuilding the economy in the post-pandemic era. New Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Trade Secretary Liz Truss will also be present.

At the business council meeting today, Boris Johnson is expected to discuss the UK's current progress on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and rebuilding the economy in the post-pandemic era

Many of the attendees run some of Britain's largest companies, including Bernard Looney, the chief executive of petroleum giant BP, newly-appointed Tesco boss Ken Murphy, Unilever's Alan Jope, and GlaxoSmithKline's Emma Walmsley.

There will also be representatives of major American multinationals at the virtual conference, such as Visa's CEO of European Operations Charlotte Hogg, Google's UK & Ireland Managing Director Ronan Harris, and Rachel Lord of investment firm BlackRock.

The government said the various council members 'will share their views on the economy, provide a commercial perspective on policy and highlight obstacles and solutions to economic recovery.'

Each council member will hold their position for a year, and meetings will take place every three months, though more summits with the Prime Minister and Chancellor could happen.

Sources from the government have steered away from the idea the committee was intended to find ways to turn the UK into the 'Singapore of the Atlantic' with lower standards in order to better compete with the EU.

One stated: 'This is not about reducing workers' rights. But unnecessary burdens are a different matter, and a balance has to be struck.'

Two of the Build Back Better business council members are Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, and Bernard Looney, the boss of petroleum giant BP

The Prime Minister said he wants the new forum to be a space for 'frank feedback' from business on recovery plans. He remarked:

'We know the best way to rebuild our economy is to beat Covid which is why we have invested billions in new vaccines and a national testing operation so that we can reopen the economy safely as soon as possible in the future.

'But despite this we  like many other countries  face a huge economic challenge. And as we recover from this crisis it won't be enough to just go back to normal  our promise will be to Build Back Better and level up opportunity for people and businesses across the UK.'

The UK had already suffered one of the worst economic contractions in the developed world because of the coronavirus pandemic, declining by 2.6 per cent in November

Figures last week from Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the UK economy contracted by 2.6 per cent month-on-month in November as the country entered a second national lockdown in England that forced non-essential stores to shut their doors.

The UK had already suffered one of the worst economic contractions in the developed world because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first three months of 2020, it declined by 3 per cent. But from April to June, it fell by around a fifth, more than twice the OECD average, before bouncing back over the summer with growth of 16 per cent in the third quarter.

Last month, the OECD published its latest forecasts that projected the UK economy would fall by 11.2 per cent in 2020, more than any other G7 country. By contrast, it predicted the United States economy dropping by only 3.7 per cent.
Serious doubt has been cast on plans for re-opening of schools for pupils with special needs on Thursday amidst an angry backlash from teachers and special need assistants (SNAs).

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has called on Government to reconsider plans to resume special education on Thursday.

The INTO Central Executive Committee said tonight that teachers grave safety concerns had not been adequately addressed by todays public health webinar and by Government.

Read More

A statement said: Teachers have serious concerns about the public health advice provided at todays webinar in relation to the planned limited reopening of special education.

"Teachers are understandably and justifiably anxious about their own safety and that of their pupils whilst community infection levels remain very high. The public health webinar, organised by the Department of Education, following an INTO call for up-to-date information, failed to allay teachers fears.

We will continue to engage with the department and public health authorities in an effort to work towards a safe, phased reopening. However, up-to-date, reliable information and supports are essential if this effort is to succeed.

INTOs CEC will meet once again tomorrow to assess the situation further.

INTO General Secretary John Boyle said: Todays webinar did not address teachers concerns. The Government must take responsibility for poor and untimely communication and mixed messages over the past two weeks.

The failure of Minister Foley and Minister Madigan to engage in proper consultation in the last two weeks has been very damaging and it has hampered the planning for the safe reopening of schools.

We have made progress on some of our key concerns in recent days, but there is more work to be done to ensure the safety of staff, pupils and their families, including a higher prioritisation of education staff for vaccination.

"We will continue to be constructive and work with our colleagues in Forsa and with the Department of Education towards the safe, orderly reopening of schools.

Earlier today, teachers and SNAs vented their frustration at a Department of Education webinar on how to safely reopen special education this Thursday.

Some 11,000 people tuned into the meeting which featured public health consultant Dr Abigail Collins and HSE Assistant National Director, Public Health, Dr Kevin Kelleher.

Despite the speakers saying most teachers and SNAs were happy to see schools reopening for children with special and additional needs, many in the comments were furious, saying it is unsafe for this to go ahead.

Others said if teachers are being treated as frontline staff that they deserve to be given the vaccine higher up in the queue.

Issues of childcare for teachers, how social distancing can work in special classes and what high-risk teachers and SNAs should do dominated the comment section.

Others questioned why Education Minister Norma Foley wasnt included as a speaker in the webinar while others were disappointed with the lack of a teacher representative.

Toward the end of the seminar, Department of Education Assistant Secretary Deirdre Shanley said there will be further guidance provided for pregnant and high-risk staff.

The live stream on YouTube was available for anyone to join in. It is understood to have been streamed on another site too where comments were disabled.

Writing in the comments of the Education Departments video on YouTube titled Webinar for school staff members working with children with special education needs, one poster said: We trust public health advice and expertise but we dont trust that public health doctors currently have the capacity or influence to do all that could be done to keep us safe.

Another said: School personnel nor their vulnerable families will be safe until everyone concerned has had the vaccine. If we are classed as frontline workers then we should be prioritised for the vaccine.

From Thursday, pupils in special classes in mainstream schools, such as those catering for children with autism and hearing impairment, are expected to go back to the classroom on a full-time basis.

Pupils in the 124 special schools around the country will partially return. These schools may operate at 50pc capacity, which means that pupils will attend on alternate days.

This is in recognition of the significant level of staff and students in these schools and the agreement is aimed at reducing the overall numbers on site at any one time.

Forsa, the union that represents SNAs, yesterday sought clarity on the return to work for their members and were told that questions would be answered in this online seminar.

However, many viewers were disgraced that their queries were not being responded to. One person commented: Not answering anything. While another said: "11,000 voices, none being heard.

At the end of the webinar, Dr Kevin Keller thanked teachers and SNAs for their dedication. He said: We have not recognised the huge amount of work you have put in to keep these kids educated.

However, some called this patronising, with one viewer writing: This is so insulting. Please listen to us it is too soon to go back when the rate is at its highest. LISTEN TO SCHOOL STAFF.

Another said: Kevin - please dont patronise us. We dont report to you nor do your compliments have value
Prime Minister Florin Citu discussed today with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with the COVID vaccination campaign being one of the main subjects of the call; in this context, the head of the government in Bucharest expressed hopes that Romanian citizens will soon be able to travel again unrestricted to Greece.

"Today I had a call with my Greek counterpart, Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis. We discussed the pandemic situation in both countries and the long-standing friendship between Romania and Greece. The vaccination campaign was one of the main topics of discussion, in the hope that Romanian citizens will soon be able to travel unrestricted to Greece again. Tourism is one of the most important areas of our bilateral relationship. I am happy that our states have such a close cooperation and that we are partners in the large European family," PM Florin Citu wrote on Facebook.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Tens of thousands of farmers protesting new agricultural laws along the Delhi borders seeking withdrawal of the contentious legislations, have shared details of "Farmers' Republic Day parade" that they plan to take out as they complete two months of agitation.

Their January 26 parade will include tableaux on tractors and trollies reflecting the agricultural reality of various states in addition to providing glimpses of movements that have historical and regional importance.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha said "the foodgrain providers of the country want to celebrate Republic Day with the soldiers of the country" echoing something similar to the historical call of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' of the 1960s.

"No anti-social elements will be allowed to infiltrate the rally.

"Haryana and Delhi Police have been requested to cooperate as well. The parade will be held in a peaceful manner, and not disrupt the official Republic Day parade. There will also be no threat to national heritage sites, or any other site," a farmer leader said on Sunday.

A detailed information regarding the parade will be shared soon, and as of now, the plan is to take out the parade on Outer Ring Road, the Morcha has said.

The farmers would hoist the Tricolour on their vehicles apart from carrying the flags of the farmers organisations.

A farmer leader said that no flag of any political party will be allowed.

The family members of fallen farmers, defence personnel, sportspersons were expected to take part in the parade.

Several states are likely to be represented in the programme planned next week.

Farmers, who would not be able to come to Delhi to participate in the parade would organise similar parades at state capitals and district headquarters.

The next round of meeting between the farmer organisations and the government will be held on Tuesday at Vigyan Bhawan.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A barrister acting for Hong Kong authorities to prosecute pro-democracy campaigners has been branded 'pretty mercenary' by Dominic Raab.

David Perry QC is being paid by Beijing for two cases against a group of nine activists, who include newspaper proprietor Jimmy Lai, and Martin Lee, who is dubbed the father of Hong Kong democracy.

Mr Perry is understood to have had to go to court himself to get permission to fly out for the hearings  after a Chinese bar association protested over his appointment.

It said no effort had been made to hire local barristers before he was taken on.

And yesterday Foreign Secretary Mr Raab said he could not understand why Mr Perry had agreed to prosecute the cases.

Lawyer David Perry QC appears at High Court in Admiralty, Hong Kong, after taking on cases

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab questioned whether the lawyer should take on the work

He said: 'I don't understand how anyone in good conscience, from the world-leading legal profession that we have, would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing, which is directly violating, undermining the freedom of the people of Hong Kong.

'From Beijing's point of view, this would be a serious PR coup.

'There's no doubt in my mind that under the Bar code of ethics a case like this could be resisted and, frankly, I think people would regard it as pretty mercenary to be taking up that kind of case,' he added to Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is being prosecuted under the new China national security law

Martin Lee is also among the activists and is known as the he father of Hong Kong democracy

QC is 'star individual' David Perry QC is described as 'phenomenally impressive' and a 'star individual' in criminal work in gushing legal praise. Chambers and Partners say of him that he is 'consistently viewed by peers as one of the hardest working and most committed silks at the Bar. Possessed of a very diverse practice, Perry not only handles complex domestic cases but also advises overseas governments and is a top extradition expert'. He has acted for a number of governments, including the UK in European Court of Human Rights cases. Eight years ago in 2012 he teamed up with Lord Justice Scott Baker and Anand Doobay to conduct the Home Office's Independent Review of the UK's extradition arrangements. Advertisement

The cases are being prosecuted under the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing and are charges of taking part in an illegal assembly.

Mr Perry has declined to comment, but his friends have claimed he is simply following the Bar Standards Board code of conduct, also known as the 'cab rank rule'.

It states barristers should accept cases if their experience and expertise suits it, no matter who the client may be. This rule can be ignored however if it involves 'foreign work'.

England and Wales' representative body The Bar Council would not specifically comment on Mr Perry.

But its chairman Derek Sweeting QC told The Times: 'We are concerned by the arrest of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.

'This crackdown is an assault on democracy itself and calls into question the legitimacy of the security laws being used.'

Mark Ellis, of the International Bar Association, said: 'The UN basic principles on the role of lawyers impose on the legal profession the duty to 'uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms recognised by national and international law'.

'This responsibility includes protecting those who are being unmercifully attacked by the government - not enabling that assault.'
Akhil Gogoi first in Assam to win election from jail

Who will be the next CM of Assam? Sarbananda Sonowal or Himanta Biswa Sarma?

C-Voter Opinion Poll predicts clear win for BJP in Asaam

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 18: Sarbananda Sonowal is likely to return to power as the BJP-led NDA might get 73-81 seats in the upcoming polls, crossing the magic number of 63. UPA is projected to win 36-44 seats, the ABP-C Voter opinion said.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance is looking to secure its foothold in the state, allied by Atul Bora's Asom Gana Parishad and other regional parties like the United People's Party Liberal and the Gana Suraksha Party.

Projected Vote share

NDA- 43%

UPA- 35%

AIDUF- 8%

OTH- 14%

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by Congress and consisting of the Left parties looks to regain power in the state with roping in Badruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which commands a significant support base among Muslims of Bengali descent.

The contention over the 1985 Assam Accord and National Register of Citizens (NRC), liely to be the hot debate during the elections.

The elections to the 126-member Assam assembly will be held in April-May 2021. The 2016 polls resulted in a fractured mandate and no party had an absolute majority.

The BJP is the single largest party with 60 MLAs, while its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and BPF have 14 and 12 lawmakers, respectively. The ruling coalition also has the support of an Independent MLA.

The opposition Congress has 23 MLAs, while the AIUDF has 14 members in the House.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 23:44 [IST]
Teagasc has said it would be unfair for larger farmers to have to comply with additional environmental regulations just because of their scale.

It made the assessment in its response to a public consultation on the future of Irelands Nitrates Action Programme, seen by the Farming Independent.

Asked whether those with the largest herds in the country should face additional measures, Teagasc said it is not aware of any published relationships between herd size and environmental impact on pasture-based livestock systems.

"While herd size and stocking rate are not always mutually exclusive, the size of the herd on a farm may not be closely related with stocking rate," it said.

Teagasc also highlighted that large farms are required to have increased pasture area availability for feed production and manure management in order to stay within the maximum stocking rate limits.

"Within each stocking rate band farmers must comply with the rules and regulations set out and therefore, farms with larger herds present no greater risk to nutrient loss than farms with smaller area and consequently fewer animals

"On that basis, and while it is imperative that all farms follow the guidelines of good farm practice, Teagasc believe that it would be inequitable to require any additional requirements on individual farms solely on the basis of scale," it said.

Zero Grazing

Also, under the microscope in the consultation, Teagasc acknowledged the increased prevalence of zero grazing on intensive farms.

It said the practice of zero-grazing has allowed farmers on fragmented land holdings to greatly increase the utilisation of outside land blocks and provides for a more even redistribution of recycled slurries on grassland across fragmented land holdings.

Zero-grazing, it said is generally associated with increased stocking rates on the milking platform, which has the potential to create nutrient loss hotspots as these milking platforms are operated at very high stocking rates.

"Increasing the amount of manure generated through reduction in grazed grass could potentially increase ammonia emissions and this needs to be considered when reviewing the potential of zero grazing," it said.

The further confinement of animals for zero-grazing, was also highlighted by Teagasc as an area of increasing animal welfare concerns for the European dairy industry.

On the area of grazing intensity relative to whole farm stocking, Teagasc said it would be administratively arduous and very complex to calculate or implement a within-farm maximum stocking rate intensity.

Teagasc recommended that regulation per se should not be used to regulate within-farm practice.

It also said the review process, which saw the dairy cow excretion rate recently increase from 85kg to 89 kg should be repeated every five to seven years.




Saudi Appeals Court Reduces Sentence of US-Saudi Physician: Documents

RIYADHA Saudi appeals court has nearly halved a six-year jail sentence handed to a U.S.-Saudi physician whose case has been closely followed by Washington and suspended the rest of his term, court documents showed, meaning he will not have to serve any more time in prison.

Prominent physician Walid al-Fitaihi was detained in 2017 under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans anti-corruption campaign, and was sentenced last month to six years in prison. U.S. senators condemned the sentencing.

Fitaihi, who was also given a six-year travel ban last month, had not yet begun his sentence as he awaited the outcome of his appeal.

The appeals courts verdict cut his jail sentence to 3.2 years and reduced the travel ban to 38 months, according to the documents dated Jan. 14 and seen by Reuters.

The court decision comes ahead of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden taking office this week. Biden has said he will take a firmer line regarding the kingdoms human rights record.

Fitaihi will not have to serve any more jail time as the appeals court took into account time served and suspended the remainder, the documents showed.

Fitaihi, who was temporarily released in July 2019 pending trial, was convicted on charges that include obtaining U.S. citizenship without permission, supporting a terrorist organization calling for disobedience against the states rulers, and criticizing other Arab nations.

The appeals court upheld the conviction on those charges which were listed in the documents. The terrorist organization is understood to be a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, activists and his family have said.

The Saudi governments media office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Last month, a Saudi court sentenced prominent womens rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to nearly six years in prison. The court suspended two years and 10 months of her jail term, most already served since her arrest in May 2018, meaning she could be released by March 2021.

Foreign diplomats said at the time that the December trials aimed to send a message that Riyadh would not yield to pressure on human rights issues, but that Saudi Arabia could also use the sentences as leverage with the Biden administration.

The U.S.-trained Fitaihi ran a private hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah at the time of his detention and had gained prominence as a motivational religious speaker. He advised the kingdoms health ministry on the pandemic in between hearings.

His wife and six of his children, all U.S. citizens, were also barred from travel and the family had its assets frozen, his son has said.

By Aziz El Yaakoubi
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
Members of the National Guard stand guard near the Capitol ahead of US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington. (Image: Reuters)

Ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on January 29, the American capital over the weekend was literally converted into a garrison city because of the multiple reports of threats and armed violence that security agencies have been receiving over the past few weeks.

More than 25,000 National Guards have been deployed along with thousands of local police personnel and those from other security agencies. The area in and around Capitol Hill, a large part of Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House has been made out of bounds for the general public with eight-feet high iron barricades being erected.

US Marshals are deploying 4,000 officers to Washington DC. Major parts of the majestic National Mall, which during inauguration is usually thronged by thousands of people, have been closed off.

The entire city is on high-alert as authorities are receiving multiple reports of violent threats from various groups at the level of the incident that happened on January 6 -- when hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Capitol Hill, disrupting the constitutional process of certification of electoral college votes, forcing hundreds of lawmakers to take shelter at safe locations and vandalizing the historic building. At least five people died in the shameful incident.

In addition to converting downtown Washington DC into a fortress, security in and around State Capitols has also been put on high alert as security officials are gearing up to prevent a January 6-like event and ensure a peaceful transition of power.

"I think this will be an inauguration unlike any other. It was already destined to be, given COVID concerns and some of the limited seating and public access. But having our fellow Americans storm the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the government certainly warrants heightened security," Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, told NBC News in an interview.

Our police department is working with our federal law enforcement partners and the United States Army also has a plan to pivot if we have any attacks in our neighbourhoods, she said.

"We've never believed that so-called patriots would attempt to overthrow their government and kill police officers. That's exactly what happened. So, I do think we have to take another posture in our city that is more domestic terrorist focused than external to our country and act accordingly. We don't want to see fences. We definitely don't want to see armed troops on our streets. But we do have to take a different posture," Bowser said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its internal bulletins has warned of the potential for violence in Washington DC and at all 50 state Capitols. "We are concerned, certainly, about these threats in other places," incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein told CNN in an interview.

"I do think the Secret Service and all their assets, the help they're getting from the National Guard, will keep the inauguration itself safe and the official ceremonies in Washington safe. But these broader threats are concerning," Klein said.

He said the president did incite the mob on January 6, and that's "very, very disconcerting".

"It's an action that Congressman Raskin, I thought, was quite articulate about, the unprecedented nature of that action. We are obviously getting briefings from the outgoing administration about the efforts to try to secure state capitals, secure Washington, D.C., the National Capital Region," he said.

The president-elect is asked Lisa Monaco, the former homeland security adviser to President Obama, to be on point for him in the final days of the transition. We will have a team in place in the White House to monitor these actions going forward starting on 12:00 noon on January 20, Klein said.

Meanwhile, a Kentucky man was arrested and charged on January 16 in connection with the riots last week during which he joined a crowd of individuals who unlawfully entered the US Capitol and disrupted the conduct of business by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
General view through the bars of a prison in England on Aug. 20, 2018. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

UKs Youngest Convicted Terrorist Can Be Freed, Says Parole Board

The youngest person ever convicted of terrorism-related crimes in the UK can now be freed after spending five years in prison, the parole board for England and Wales said on Monday.

The 20-year-old man, who can only be identified as RXG, attempted to instigate a terrorist attack to kill police officers during a parade in Australia when he was 14.

He received a life sentence in 2015 with a minimum of five years, which ended in October 2020.

Two hearings were held after RXG became eligible for parole. After the hearings, the board was satisfied that considerable progress had been made and that there was no need for him to serve more time in prison.

After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in detention, and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was satisfied that RXG was suitable for release, a written summary of the boards decision reads.

The document also said that RXG had undertaken extensive specialist work in detention to address his offending behaviour, his understanding of Islam, and to develop his level of maturity.

The Mirror reported that Forensic Psychologist Dr. Louise Bowers had said in a 2018 assessment that RXG appears to have left his terrorist identity behind, and he is well on the way to developing a new stable and pro-social identity.

The reporting restrictions on identifying children as victims, witnesses, and defendants generally expire when the person concerned becomes 18. However, Dame Victoria Sharp granted RXG lifelong anonymity for his protection in 2019.

In 2015, the then -14-year-old boy pretended to be older and sent thousands of messages to Australian jihadist Sevdet Besim, suggesting the then 18-year-old behead an officer or kill officers with a car during the Anzac Day parade in Melbourne, Australia, on April 25.

UK police officers alerted their Australian counterparts ahead of the possible attack, after they found the messages in RXGs phone.

Besim pleaded guilty in June, 2016, to doing acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. In 2017, he was re-sentenced to 14 years, with a minimum of ten years and six months.

According to a statement from Australias Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, it was alleged that Mr. Besim planned to kill a police officer during Anzac Day commemorations in Melbourne 2015 and then use the officers weapon to commit further acts of violence.
Priti Patel faced fury today after she refused to face MPs over a computer debacle that saw hundreds of thousands of vital records wiped from a police database.

The Home Secretary sent her deputy, the Policing Minister Kit Malthouse, to the Commons after a significant number of fingerprint, DNA and arrest history records were lost due to human error and defective code.

Initially, some 150,000 records were believed to have been affected, but it has emerged the number is far higher than first thought at about 400,000.

Ms Patel earlier posed for pictures with police officers in Westminster and said everyone was working flat out to solve what she said was a 'technical coding error'.

But it was left to Mr Malthouse to face political fury from opposition parties this afternoon. He revealed the Home Secretary has commissioned an internal review.

He said Ms Patel was '200%, if that's possible, committed to the job' when asked about her non-attendance in the chamber.

But shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: 'I must ask, where is the Home Secretary? The loss of hundreds of thousands of pieces of data, data so important for apprehending suspects and safeguarding vulnerable people, is extraordinarily serious.

'It was the Home Secretary who needed to show leadership and take control. It's what previous home secretaries have done in a crisis - on the passport office, on Windrush, on knife crime, whatever their mistakes, home secretaries came and answered to this House, they didn't just offer a media clip as has happened today.

Ms Patel earlier posed for pictures with police officers in Westminster and said everyone was working flat out to solve what she said was a 'technical coding error'.

But it was left to Mr Malthouse to face political fury from opposition parties this afternoon. He revealed the Home Secretary has commissioned an internal review.

'This Home Secretary failing on violent crime, failing on the Windrush compensation scheme, with chaos on border testing, found to have broken the ministerial code, now won't even answer to parliament and the public on this most serious of issues.

'The Home Secretary likes to talk tough, but when the going gets tough, she's nowhere to be seen.'

A Home Office statement last Friday revealed it was working with police to 'assess the impact' of the glitch, which reportedly occurred by accident during a weekly 'weeding' session to expunge data.

The Home Office said no records of criminals or dangerous persons had been deleted, and that the wiped records were those of people arrested and released when no further action was taken.

However, the omissions would appear to at least impinge on police power to reopen investigations should more evidence come to light in certain cases.

The Times said 'crucial intelligence about suspects' had vanished because of the blunder, and that Britain's visa system was thrown into disarray, with the processing of applications having been suspended for two days.

Mr Thomas-Symonds asked whether the Government can be sure how much data has actually been lost.

He said: 'Can (Kit Malthouse) tell us when the Home Secretary first knew about the data loss and why the public had to find out from the media?

'Given the initial reports were of 150,000 items of data and now the figure seems to be over 400,000, can the minister be sure how much data has actually been lost?'

Mr Malthouse responded: 'Once the error became clear to the team, they escalated it up through the Home Office, first of all on Monday and then through Wednesday into ministerial and other offices in accordance with normal protocols.

'In terms of the scale of the data, while the figures of 400,000 has been quoted, that is an accumulation of the various bits of information that may or may not have been deleted.'

Labour chair of the Home Affairs Committee Yvette Cooper asked why there was not a 'proper back-up system in place'.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: 'I must ask, where is the Home Secretary? The loss of hundreds of thousands of pieces of data, data so important for apprehending suspects and safeguarding vulnerable people, is extraordinarily serious.'

She asked: 'It is very hard to understand how 400,000 records could be deleted from such a crucial system without there being a proper back-up system in place, so if this was the normal weekly process as ever, why was new coding being used?

'If new coding is often used, why aren't there built-in safeguards and is it true that ministers were warned many months ago their approach to the police national computer and database posed a significant risk to policing's ability to protect the public. What did the Home Secretary do about that?'

Mr Malthouse said: 'Obviously one of the questions that we will have to answer is what went wrong, not only in the writing of the code that introduced this error, but in the quality and system checking that then would sit behind it to make sure that this matter doesn't reoccur.

'It is the case that there have been concerns about the replacement - the process of replacing the police national computer, and indeed the police national database, but over the last few months the Home Secretary and I have worked hard to put reset processes in place around that particular project and I'm confident now that we're on a better footing to move forward to a brighter future for police technology.'
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form

RADNOR, Pa., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP alerts investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE: QSR) ("Restaurant Brands") on behalf of those who purchased or otherwise acquired Restaurant Brands common stock between April 29, 2019, and October 28, 2019, inclusive (the "Class Period").

Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Restaurant Brands common stock during the Class Period may, no later than February 19, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (James Maro, Esq. (484-270-1413) or Adrienne Bell, Esq. (484-270-1435)); toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at [email protected]; or click https://www.ktmc.com/restaurant-brands-international-inc-securities-class-action?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=restaurant_brands

Restaurant Brands is a Canadian corporation and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest restaurant chains with over 27,000 Tim Hortons, Burger King, and Popeyes restaurants in more than 100 countries and U.S. territories. On April 24, 2018, Restaurant Brands announced a new strategy designed to improve performance within its Tim Hortons brand. Specifically, the "Winning Together Plan" would focus on three key pillars: restaurant experience; product excellence; and brand communications. Then, on March 20, 2019, Restaurant Brands announced "Tims Rewards"  a new loyalty program for Tim Hortons customers in Canada. Under the Tims Rewards program, customers would be eligible for a free hot brewed coffee, hot tea, or baked good after every seventh paid visit to a participating Tim Hortons restaurant. On April 10, 2019, Restaurant Brands announced that it was expanding the Tims Rewards program to include customers in the United States.

The Class Period commences on April 29, 2019, when Restaurant Brands filed its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 with the SEC. Among other things, Restaurant Brands reported 0.5% system-wide year-over-year sales growth for Tim Hortons on system-wide sales of $1.547 billion. The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the defendants repeatedly touted the implementation and execution of Restaurant Brands' Winning Together Plan and Tims Rewards loyalty program. On the heels of Restaurant Brands touting the benefits of these initiatives, the company completed two stock offerings on or about August 12, 2019, and September 5, 2019, collectively resulting in proceeds of approximately $3 billion to insiders.

However, on October 29, 2019, the truth about Restaurant Brands' execution of its Winning Together Plan and Tims Rewards loyalty program was revealed when the company announced disappointing financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019. Among other things, Restaurant Brands reported a 0.1% system-wide year-over-year sales decline for Tim Hortonsrepresenting a 1.4% same-store sales declineon system-wide sales of $1.774 billion. Following this news, the price of Restaurant Brands common stock declined $2.59 per share, or approximately 4%, from a close of $68.45 per share on October 25, 2019, to close at $64.86 per share on October 28, 2019.

The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Restaurant Brands' Winning Together Plan was failing to generate substantial, sustainable improvement within the Tim Hortons brand; (2) the Tims Rewards loyalty program was not generating sustainable revenue growth as increased customer traffic was not offsetting promotional discounting; and (3) as a result, the defendants' statements about Restaurant Brands' business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis.

Restaurant Brands investors who wish to discuss this securities fraud class action lawsuit and their legal options are encouraged to contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (James Maro, Jr., Esq. or Adrienne Bell, Esq.) at (844) 887-9500 (toll free) or at [email protected].

Restaurant Brands investors may, no later than February 19, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP, or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP, please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

James Maro, Jr., Esq.

Adrienne Bell, Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(844) 887-9500 (toll free)

(610) 667-7706

[email protected]

SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

Related Links

http://www.ktmc.com


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Speakers discuss ways to stay open with small-business owners at the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

Spurred to Action, LA Saloon Owner Creates Think Tank to Help Struggling Businesses

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.Angela Marsden was unexpectedly thrust into the media spotlight when she went viral for her fiery grievances against Los Angeles Countys COVID-19 restrictions, which prohibit outdoor dining, after an NBC comedy production was allowed to have a similar outdoor setup next to her restaurant, the Pineapple Hill Saloon.

To her, it was a clear display of the city enforcing the rules unfairly.

Either theyre not thinking, theyre doing it intentionally, or maybe theyre not doing it intentionally, but they just are so out of touch with the middle class and the lower middle class, Marsden told The Epoch Times.

For Marsden, the incident was a call to action. Amid uncertainty, she has become a vocal leader in her community, hosting brainstorming sessions to come up with solutions, organizing protests outside officials homes, and filing lawsuits to reopen her restaurant.

As state-mandated restrictions persevere and the COVID-19 pandemic continues, stressed owners and employees of restaurants and small businesses, holding on by a thread, are joining her efforts and calling for local leaders to support outdoor dining and loosen restrictions on the local economy.

Creating a Think Tank

In an effort to brainstorm solutions with other struggling businesses across the Southern California region, Marsden held a think tank event on Jan. 7 outside of her restaurant in Sherman Oaks, with dozens of restaurateurs and small-business owners in attendance.

Its not about politics, its about our community, Marsden told the gathering. It doesnt matter your color, your race, your belief. We are all in this suffering together, and we have to do something.

The attendees brainstormed different options to help their businesses: organizing more protests, hosting press conferences, and starting GoFundMe campaigns.

One commenter suggested putting up signs with a common catchphrase in front of all their businesses, hoping to get more media attention. In Stockton, California, a catchphrase has taken hold, with local businesses putting signs out front saying, Sorry, Were Open.

Marsden belittled the $600 she and her staff had been given by authorities. The ice cream in that  refrigerator was more than $600, she said.

The group appeared restless and expressed anxiety over the lack of resources available to them. Some asked what options they had to keep the lights on.

Hands shot up with questions. Others provided encouraging comments. The forum chimed to the tune of a protest, with voices echoing chants often heard at reopen marches.

No violence, Marsden told the crowd. We have to use legal tools.

Small-business owners gather to discuss ways to stay open outside the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

People sit on the curb outside the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

Restraining Order

Marsden announced she is in the process of filing a restraining order against the state to prevent officials from enforcing restrictions on all restaurants. Attorney Alexandra Kazarian from the office of Geragos & Geragos is representing her.

If we win the restraining order, everybody gets to open outside, Kazarian told The Epoch Times. Angela is telling the state that they cant make any more orders shutting people down.

Kazarian said the lawsuit is just like a normal restraining order, telling someone else to stay awayexcept in this case, restraining the county from making everybody close down.

Marsden previously filed a federal lawsuit against the county in December, arguing that the county, in a gross abuse of their power, have seized the Coronavirus pandemic to expand their authority by unprecedented lengths.

Like many restaurants, Marsden had created an outdoor dining setup at her restaurant to accommodate for mandated restrictions. Restaurants were allowed to reopen for a period with modifications, including takeout and delivery only, until local hospitalization numbers triggered new shutdowns in December.

Thats when she saw the NBC production set up only a few feet away from her restaurant. Im losing everything, everything I own is being taken away from me, and they set up a movie company right next to my outdoor patio, Marsden said tearfully in the video that went viral.

Kazarian said criminal defense lawyer Mark Geragos, a renowned celebrity attorney who is president of the firm, owns five restaurants himself, so the case hits close to home. Geragos has previously represented Michael Jackson, Gary Condit, Chris Brown, and Winona Ryder.

Obviously owners want to make money, but they dont want to fire their employees that theyve been loyal to, Kazarian said. Angela is talking about opening up so that the people that love you can come in, customers and employees and people that need the restaurant, because its a sense of community.

Kazarian said the restraining order is basically asking a judge to make a case instead of waiting until the end of the case.

If we win the restraining order, the lawsuit doesnt go away, it still goes forward. But we get to stay open while the lawsuit goes forward, she said.

Kazarian said she believes they have a strong case, because Geragos previously won a lawsuit against LA County to allow one of his restaurants to open outdoors.

Kazarian and Marsden hope to attract more struggling restaurants to their cause.

The more plaintiffs we have in Angelas lawsuit, the greater the impact and the easier we can show how damaging it is, instead of just having one restaurant, Kazarian said.

Yoga Studio in a Bind

This is definitely more restaurant-gearedwhich is great, because theyve gotten a lot of press, and theres a lot of support behind the restaurant industrybut our industrys gotten zero attention, Alexandra Del Gaudio told The Epoch Times.

Alexandra and her sister, Daniela Del Gaudio, founded The Wild Plum in 2017, a yoga studio in San Fernando, with money they saved for nearly a decade. They attended Marsdens think tank event hoping to find some answers for their business.

When COVID-19 restrictions shut down their studio, they wanted to apply for the Payroll Protection Program through Chase, their primary banker. But the bank sent them an email stating they werent ready for applications.

They said they will backlog and let us know. A follow-up email never came, said Alexandra.

Eventually she called them again. I finally get on the phone with someone and they tell us, Im sorry, miss, there is no more funding. They didnt even give us a chance.

Alexandra said she was frustrated that Gov. Gavin Newsoms Napa Valley winery received $3 million in federal assistance because he had an entire team of people, lawyers, accountants, and great financial analysts.

Its like the most privileged and the ones that have the most resources received the most assistance, she said. All of us that really need it, we literally are at the point where, do we close?

Daniela told The Epoch Times the two tried moving their yoga business online, but didnt make any money through their Instagram Live accounts.

Theres no takeout version of yoga and wellness, or even facials, she said, adding that people are now conducting business under the table to avoid the binding restrictions.

Theyre forcing people to do things in an illegal way.  People are now doing treatments in their homes, she said.

Its so easy for them to sit on Capitol Hill and make these declarations when theyre not suffering in any way. Nothings changed in their life.

A man looks at items on a table calling for the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom outside the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

Artist Ponti Lambros holds pictures of a symbol he createdhe has been spreading it in sticker form in Los Angeles to signify support of local businessesoutside the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill on Jan. 7, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

Life of an Artist

Also attending Marsdens think tank was Ponti Lambros, the owner of Art Rebel, in Thousand Oaks, who told The Epoch Times, I dont know if Ill survive.

His 14-year-old art studio has been closed since March 2020 due to the restrictions.

Its been a very humbling experience. I havent made any money since March. Ive been bleeding, and mental health was the biggest issue that I faced, he said.

Lambros is preparing to introduce mental health resources and activities for people stuck in quarantine. He has already launched a campaign called the LA Love Project, where people can pick up artwork stickers and take them to their favorite spots in the city to support local business owners.

I started with my city of LA because I felt we had a broken heart, and the whole idea is to reconnect with the city, Lambros said. We also launched a whole line of [merchandise], and all proceeds go to small businesses.

As he gets ready to relaunch a modified version of his brand, Lambros hopes he can make a positive impact through his projects to support other struggling businesses.

Meanwhile, Marsden said shed be spending more money keeping her restaurant open for takeout onlyso she has decided to close the Pineapple Hill Saloon until she can reopen for dining.

Shortly after her viral video, she created a GoFundMe campaign, hoping for $10,000 to keep the lights on. Shes now raised over $200,000.

The outdoor dining ban on restaurants, breweries, and wineries was set to expire on Dec. 27, but has been indefinitely extended as the pandemic continues to rage throughout Southern California.

US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
The wife of a Samaritans volunteer who died from Covid-related complications has warned the public to take the virus seriously.

Waterford man Nigel Pim (50) passed away on Thursday morning in University Hospital Waterford after developing mild symptoms of the virus shortly after Christmas.

Mr Pim was a volunteer with the Samaritans and an organ donor, donating a kidney 10 years ago to his father, who is still alive.

Speaking to Damien Tiernan on WLR FM, his wife Jeni Pim said the family took every precaution necessary to avoid contracting the virus.

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We were so careful. We do not know where Nigel got this.

All of us tested negative. He wore his mask everywhere, to work, hand sanitizers in both the cars.

He worked from home most of the time so he didnt go out at all, she said.

Jeni expressed her gratitude for the frontline and ICU workers at UHW who looked after her late husband.

I walked him into the hospital and I squeezed his hand and said Ill see you in a few days.

They brought him straight up to the Covid ward. He got sicker and sicker and then he was brought into the ICU, she said.

Jeni and her two children, Robert and Jordan, urged the public to be more cautious about the virus.

For those people who arent taking this seriously, to see someone you love on all these machines is absolutely heartbreaking.

He was only 50-years-old. We were going to be 25 years married this year, Jeni added.

Nigels daughter Jordan, who is studying medicine at UCD, said her father was in great health before contracting the virus.

There was nothing wrong with Dad, he was healthy. We go to the gym, we go running, hes up and about, were eating the most amazing food made by my mum.

He had incredible lung health, he was a swimmer as well so his lungs were in good health. It can happen to anyone, she added.

Jeni thanked those who offered their support as she paid tribute to her late husband.

He was kind to everybody but he was my soulmate. There are so many people to thank.

Everyone who sent a message, the Samaritans, old school people and business people. I am not able to reply to you all but just to let you know we really appreciate it, she added.

The family held a private funeral for Nigel on Saturday.




Congress MLA Harsh Vijay Gehlot has courted controversy after he was seen threatening a woman officer in a social media clip. Gehlot is seen talking aggressively with sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Kamini Thakur in the video.

"You are a woman. Had you been a policeman I would have held you by the collar and then handed the memo to you," he is heard saying.

The incident took place in Ratlam district's Sailana town on Sunday, near the MP-Rajasthan border, NDTV reports. The Congress had taken out a tractor rally in solidarity with farmers protesting against the centre's contentious farm laws.

Later, the Sailana legislator led a crowd to the SDM's office to submit a memorandum. When Thakur took time to step out, Gehlot reportedly threatened the officer.

Earlier, former MP minister and Congress legislator Sajjan Singh Verma had said that girls are capable of bearing children at 17 years of age and there was no need to raise the legal age for marriage.

His comments drew a sharp reaction from the BJP which demanded his apology. As Verma's remarks caused uproar, the Congress said the BJP was bent on making an issue out of nothing.

Verma's statement had come in response to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans recent proposal of a national-level debate on parity in the legal age of marriage for both the sexes.

Doctors say any girl is physically capable to reproduce after 17 years. Has he (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) become a bigger physician now? Verma, a former AICC secretary, told reporters. The former minister had also accused the BJP government in the state of "failing to protect minor girls".
Bhopal, Jan 18 : Curfew has been lifted in three police station areas in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal on Monday, which was imposed following a court's decision anticipating disturbance to the communal harmony in the area.

However, Article 144 of the CrPC will be in place and procession will not be allowed.

A structure was about to be made in Kabadkhana area of the capital after the court's ruling in the favour of one party and the another faction was opposing the decision.

The Administration was expecting that riots may break out due to the construction. Hence, the curfew was imposed in Hanumanganj, Tila Jamalpura and Gautam Nagar police station areas on Sunday.

District Magistrate Avinash Lavania had directed to lift the curfew Sunday late night, and prohibitory orders be imposed in all three areas. Also, gathering of more than five people will not be allowed and procession and protests were totally banned.
(CNN) -- As DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone lay on the ground at the US Capitol building, stunned and injured, he knew a group of rioters were stripping him of his gear. They grabbed spare ammunition, ripped the police radio off his chest and even stole his badge.

Then, Fanone, who had just been Tasered several times in the back of the neck, heard something chilling that made him go into survival mode.

"Some guys started getting a hold of my gun and they were screaming out, 'Kill him with his own gun,'" said Fanone, who's been a police officer for almost two decades.

Fanone, one of three officers who spoke with CNN, described his experience fighting a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters who'd invaded the Capitol in an insurrection unheard of in modern American history.

Federal officials have said the details of the violence that come out will be disturbing.

"People are going to be shocked by some of the egregious contact that happened in the Capitol," acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin said Tuesday in reference to attacks on police officers.

Fanone, a narcotics detective who works in plain clothes, heard the commotion at the Capitol and grabbed his still brand-new police uniform that had been hanging in his locker and put it on for the first time, he said. He raced to the building with his partner and helped officers who were being pushed back by rioters.

But Fanone, who said he'd rather be shot than be pulled into a crowd where he had no control, was suddenly in his biggest nightmare as an officer. And in those few moments, Fanone considered using deadly force. He thought about using his gun but knew that he didn't have enough fire power and he'd soon be overpowered again, except this time they would probably use his gun against him and they'd have all the reason to end his life.

"So, the other option I thought of was to try to appeal to somebody's humanity. And I just remember yelling out that I have kids. And it seemed to work," said the 40-year-old father of four.

A group within the rioters circled Fanone and protected him until help arrived, saving his life.

"Thank you, but f*** you for being there," Fanone said of the rioters who protected him in that moment.

Fanone's anger and frustration was a sentiment felt by law enforcement around the country, furious that Trump supporters had breached the grounds of the Capitol on the very day Joe Biden's win was confirmed by the House and Senate.

Fanone's dramatic encounter with the Trump supporting rioters was repeated all over the grounds of the US Capitol as law enforcement officers battled to push them back. Fanone, one of scores of officers who were injured in the brutal battle, shared his story for the first time, still suffering the effects of a mild heart attack.

Since the breach of the Capitol, investigators have been dissecting every aspect of the day's events, from the response of US Capitol Police to the nationwide manhunt for everyone involved.

Investigators are now looking into the notion that here was some level of planning, with enough evidence to indicate that it was not just a protest that got out of control, law enforcement sources tell CNN.

"Certainly some things that we saw on the ground were some indication that there were some coordination going on, but I think as we get further into the investigation, a lot of that will be revealed," acting MPD Chief Robert Contee told reporters Thursday.

Fanone said the rioters had weapons, either of their own or taken from his fellow police.

"We were getting chemical irritants sprayed. They had pipes and different metal objects, batons, some of which I think they had taken from law enforcement personnel. They had been striking us with those," said Fanone, who added that he wasn't going to be sitting at a desk while an insurrection was happening at the Capitol.

"And then it was just the sheer number of rioters. The force that was coming from that side," he added. "It was difficult to offer any resistance when you're only about 30 guys going up against 15,000."

Fighting off 'bear mace'

Officer Christina Laury, a member of the Metropolitan Police Department's gun recovery unit, got to the Capitol at around 12:30 p.m. ET and saw the riotous groups gaining ground.

Laury, who was guarding the line to make sure there were no gaps for anyone to slip through, was hit with a much stronger type of pepper spray that's supposed to be used only on bears, she said.

"The individuals were pushing officers, hitting officers. They were spraying us with what we were calling, essentially, bear mace, because you use it on bears," she said.

"Unfortunately, it shuts you down for a while. It's way worse than pepper spray," Laury added. "It seals your eyes shut. ... You've got to spray and douse yourself with water. And in those moments it's scary because you can't see anything and have people that are fighting to get through."

She was lucky enough not to be struck with anything but saw others beaten with objects.

"They were getting hit with metal objects. Metal poles. I remember seeing pitchforks. They're getting sprayed, knocked down," said Laury, who added that reinforcements kept rotating in so others could rest during the hours-long battle.

"Just puling officers back to heal up and (reinforcements) stepping in to get to the front line. And then they go down and more officers step in and the officers that were knocked down, they're better again and they're just battling because the bottom line is, we're not letting anyone through."

'He was practically foaming at the mouth'

Officer Daniel Hodges was one of those officers who tried to battle back rioters but was roughed up in the fight. Hodges gained notice after footage of him circulated being crushed by a door. The 32-year-old officer is seen in the clip with blood dripping through his teeth as he kept gasping for enough air so he could yell "Help" at the top of his lungs.

Hodges raced to the Capitol to offer support like many others and soon found himself being assaulted from an angry mob that, he said, believed they were patriots.

"There's a guy ripping my mask off, he was able to rip away the baton and beat me with it," said Hodges, who was stuck in the door and added that his arm was bent before they ripped the weapon away.

"He was practically foaming at the mouth so just, these people were true believers in the worst way."

Hodges was eventually rescued by other officers who eventually came to his aid.

"You know things were looking bad," said Hodges, who miraculously walked away with no major injuries and may have suffered a minor concussion. "I was calling out for all I was worth, and an officer behind me was able to get me enough room to pull me out of there and get me to the rear so I was able to extricate myself."

This was Hodges's first visit to the Capitol building.

'They felt entitled'

The patrol officer said he had been hearing about the possibility of violence for years so he wasn't surprised that the rioters would storm the Capitol. What did surprise him was how the insurrectionists thought the police would be on their side.

"Some of them felt like we would be fast friends because so many of them have been vocal," Hodges said. "They say things like, 'Yeah, we've been supporting you through all this Black Lives Matter stuff, you should have our back' and they felt entitled."

He added, "They felt like they would just walk up there and tell us that they're here to take back Congress and we would agree with them and we'd walk in hand in hand and just take over the nation. But obviously that's not the case and it will never be the case."

Now, only days before Biden's inauguration, federal authorities are warning of other threats that may come.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has publicly warned people not to come to the city for the inauguration.

Hodges echoed her sentiments, and wanted not only residents, but Trump supporters and extremists to stay home too. But with one caveat.

"Stay home. Stop this," said Hodges. "On the other hand, I hope they're caught. Let's leave it at that."

The-CNN-Wire

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3 1 of 3 OnScene TV Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Houston Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Texas EquuSearch is looking for a woman last seen Saturday in the Midtown area, authorities say.

Laura Read, 34, was seen around 7 p.m. in the 3300 block of Smith Street. She is about 5 foot 10 inches tall and weights between 125 to 130 pounds.
Vladimir Putin is embracing a new brazenness. It was always obvious that he was directing the years-long series of assassinations and disappearances of his opponents. But he at least tried to feign innocence.

By killing people with radioactive isotopes and nerve agents, he was using methods that might go undetected in most circumstances. And even when the covert instrument of assassination was discovered, Putin always denied any involvement by the Russian state.

Is democracy in decline? Credit:Dyson

It wasnt convincing, of course  you cant buy the Russian militarys home-grown nerve agents of the Novichok variety at the local chemists, or even on the dark web. But Putin always protested his innocence. It was important to him to keep up a facade of deniability, no matter how thin.

His spokespeople denied any state involvement again when the hero of Russias opposition movement, the charismatic Alexei Navalny, was suddenly taken gravely ill on a flight in August 2020, suspected poisoned. The doctors in the Russian city of Omsk diagnosed the problem as low blood sugars, which supposedly triggered a metabolic disorder.
Leaked Telegrams Show Dispute Between China, Russia Over Illegal Chinese Fishing Boat

The Epoch Times recently obtained government documents from a trusted source that reveal a conflict in 2019 between China and Russia over a Chinese fishing boat that was caught illegally fishing in Russian waters.

The series of telegrams were sent from the Chinese Consulate in Vladivostok, Russia, a major port city near the countrys far-eastern border. They were addressed to the provincial governments of Shandong, Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guangxi, and copied to Chinas foreign and agriculture ministries, the China Coast Guard, and the Chinese Embassy in Moscow.

According to the first leaked telegram, sent from the consulate on May 9, 2019, Russian authorities requested the consulates assistance in deporting seven Chinese citizens back to China. There were also several North Korean nationals onboard.

The telegram noted that almost six months earlier on Nov. 21, 2018, Russian border patrol forces notified the consulate that a fishing vessel with pennant number SUSAN204 had been caught and detained for illegal fishing in Russias Exclusive Economic Zone, and that three crewmen were Chinese nationals.

The consulate verified with respective provincial governments and confirmed that two crewmen were from Shandong Province, and the third was from Jilin Province.

Chinese authorities identified the vessel as a boat registered in Hainan Province by the name of Qionglinyu 90008. Its managing agent was identified as Wang Haibo, a resident of Rongcheng, Shandong.

Russian authorities found upon further investigation that the boat actually had seven Chinese citizens aboard, according to the telegram.

The telegram asked the authorities of Shandong and Hainan to pressure Wang to make arrangements for the return of the crewmen. The consulate also stated that it would provide all necessary support to help the crewmen return home.

Two weeks later, the consulate sent another telegram following up on the incident. Russia was considering confiscating the fishing vessel, the May 23 telegram stated. Since the boat entered Russian territories from North Korea, Russian authorities warned that they would deport the Chinese citizens to North Korea along with the North Korean crewmen if China didnt retrieve them on time.

The telegram reemphasized the need for Shandong and Hainan authorities to work with the boats managing agent to bring the crewmen home.

The last telegram on the incident, sent on May 28, 2019, reported that on the morning of May 24, the consulate contacted Russian border patrol to pick up the crewmen but encountered issues.

Russia eventually released the crewmen on the early morning of May 28. They boarded a flight back to China.

Relationship Between China and Russia in Recent Years

While the two governments have grown increasingly close, tensions remain.

Much of the resentment Russians have toward the Chinese stems from the environmental destruction caused by Chinese factories, which Russian locals say exploits their countrys abundant natural resources.

Over a million Russians signed an online petition protesting the construction of a Chinese bottling plant that planned to draw water from Lake Baikal, the worlds deepest lake and largest freshwater body, located in southern Siberia. In March 2019, a Russian court ruled that the plant didnt have legal permission for construction, according to a report by AFP.

Lake Baikal has also seen an influx of Chinese tourists and businesses, which raised concerns about pollution as well as fears of a Chinese takeover of the region, according to an article by The New York Times.

Many Russians also resented commercial logging and deforestation in Siberia by the Chinese, which the Russian government enabled by selling them logging rights at a low cost, Steven Lee Myers reported in The New York Times in 2019.

Protests against loggingand Chinese logging in particularhave erupted across Siberia and the Russian Far East, the report said.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices edged lower on Monday as climbing coronavirus cases and tighter restrictions in Europe and China fueled worries over a slower recovery in fuel demand. Encouraging GDP and industrial production data from China helped to limit the downside to some extent. Brent crude for March delivery eased 0.2 percent to $54.98 a barrel, after having fallen 2.3 percent on Friday. Similarly, U.S. oil futures were down 0.1 percent at $52.36 after falling more than 2 percent in the previous session. The total number of global coronavirus cases topped 95 million, while the death toll surpassed 2 million. China reported more than 100 new Covid-19 cases for the sixth consecutive day, while the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients with serious symptoms in Japan topped 970, marking a record high since the onset of the pandemic in the country. Portugal imposed a new nationwide lockdown while the U.K. government announced that it will close all travel corridors from today in order to restrict the spread of new coronavirus variant cases. New coronavirus infections have been decreasing in Germany but the country's health minister said that more needed to be done to bring it permanently under control. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's 16 state premiers will discuss what to do next on Tuesday. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
In the days following events at the Capitol, weve been flooded with statements from media talking heads and Congresspeople clutching their pearls and vehemently denouncing the violence. Images of Congressmen and women donning gas masks and fleeing through underground tunnels have circulated via social media. The attack sent our leaders scurrying to their bunker and resulted in four lives lost.

Trump supporters have been completely demonized, with calls for post-9/11 surveillance methods to be used on domestic terrorists. The summers riots, which claimed 30+ lives and caused $1 billion in property damage, have been largely forgotten since the election. Down the memory hole.

Joe Biden and the Establishment, their power cemented in all three branches of government, are eager to dispose of Donald Trump and continuously call for unity and healing. In the D.C. machine, the attitude is one of victory: Events on January 6 successfully purged the Republican Party and American politics of Donald Trump.

But have they?

The riot at the Capitol was a sign of something far more troubling than angry voters expressing their contempt for legitimate election results. It was evidence of a complete loss of faith in the institutions.

The Left gave up on the system long ago. The constant calls for socialism, the anarchy in the streets, the defund the police movement -- these are demands from people who have given up on the traditional ways of politics. Republicans long defended the institutions from these narratives. These Leftist proposals were perceived as vicious attacks on the core of Americanism. Dismantling the system would result in pure chaos and the perfect conditions for malignant actors to seize power. Better to fill the institutions with politicians who will defend them.

But what happens when the people lose the power to fill those institutions? When the vote becomes merely symbolic? That is what the Left believes happened in 2016, and now the Right in 2020. The vote is meant merely to placate the people into believing that their government works. Meanwhile, elected officials carry on, keeping corporate donors and D.C. pundits happy, largely ignoring the reality that exists outside of Capitol Hill. And nothing can stop them.

We are seeing the systemic failure of the two-party system and all three branches of government. This election convinced the citizens who still had faith in the American system that voting doesnt really mean anything. The Establishment always wins. America is neither a democracy nor a representative republic, and it hasnt been for some time. Those who burst into the Congressional chambers didnt do so because they sincerely believe in the politicians who inhabit them.

Trump played a crucial role in unveiling the corruption within D.C. Despite his flaws, he revealed a swamp deeper than anyone could have imagined. His anti-war, anti-establishment policies preserved the Tea Partys shaken faith, temporarily stopping the gradual radicalization. His removal has opened the floodgates.

D.C. is no longer full of Democrats and Republicans engaging in debate on behalf of their constituents. The Capitol has emerged as a Uniparty, neither Left nor Right, but deeply corrupted. This Uniparty has succeeded in establishing an international war empire that George III would have drooled over.

Our leaders have taken on the same tyrannical qualities that Washington and Adams fought against. They engage in policy, not for the betterment of the people, but to line their bank accounts. Their obsession with exporting democracy has little to do with democratic values and everything to do with buying their next summer home.

Strangely, the far-left Socialists correctly identified these issues, seeing them before many on the right did. Still, leftist solutions are unreasonable and likely to lead to Americas demise. Abolishing private property, defunding the police, amnesty, no borders...these are not winning ideas.

There is no clear remedy. A Republic cannot function without the consent of the governed. When citizens believe that voting is merely symbolic and that our government is more a front for foreign trade deals than a representative body, that consent diminishes every day. Without the consent of the governed, the social contract falls apart. Elected officials can continue governing, but no one outside of D.C. will acknowledge their authority. America will not necessarily descend into anarchy, but the emperors will lose any shreds of legitimacy. Daily life will carry on with little importance assigned to Capitol Hill or the Oval Office.

That still is not a solution. If the Establishment always wins elections, there is no point in voting. If the masses dont vote, the system will collapse. That seems far-fetched, but it happened in Georgia -- half a million voters stayed home for the January 5th runoff election. Staying home, though, works only if everyone does it. This is implausible, given the virtue assigned to casting a vote. Its more likely is that the Establishment will keep on winning, with fewer voters to worry about.

What makes America great isnt the government. Its certainly not the Establishment. Its the people. The people possess an incredible American spirit. Americans fought to abolish the evil of slavery, stormed the Normandy beaches, and ended systemic racial inequality via the Civil Rights movement. Demagogues cannot strip this spirit, which is why they despise us.

America is in a difficult position, one that will likely last for several years. We are at the tip of a cultural battle. Two opposing sides, both with no faith in the body that governs them. Two competing philosophies, as different as night and day. The future looks turbulent.

The good thing is, we can see the truth: The Ruling Class has no clothes.

IMAGE: The Capitol on January 6. YouTube screengrab.
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The hard way. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are enjoying the fruits of their labor one year after stepping down as senior members of the royal family, but their path to success has not been easy.

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To be at the point they are at now, having set up an empire and a charity in just over nine months, shows just how hard they have worked to make this transition a success, but its taken a lot of work to get here, Finding Freedom coauthor Omid Scobie told Grazia earlier this month. The journey has been painful.

Matt Baron/Shutterstock

A friend of Meghans emphasized that the couples repeated relocations with their son, Archie, 20 months, did not help the loneliness that stemmed from so many major life changes. The insider told Grazia that Archies nanny moved back to the U.K. because of the coronavirus pandemic. The source added that COVID quarantine and restrictions left Harry and Meghan feeling alone.

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Harry, 36, and the former actress, 39, announced their intentions to step away from their roles as senior members of the royal family in January 2020. After a stay in Canada early last year, they completed their duties and moved to her hometown of Los Angeles in March. The pair ultimately settled in the Montecito community of Santa Barbara, California, in July, purchasing a $14.65 million home.

Read article

The decision to forge their own future caused tension with the royals, which, according to their friend Tom Bradby, has left Harry sad. I think they are feeling better [since moving to California], yes.  So are they unhappy? No, I think they are content. The things they are doing they are quite excited by, the journalist said on ITVs Love Your Weekend on Sunday, January 17. I think he is heartbroken by the situation with his family. You dont necessarily need to have knowledge to know that, but I think it is true.

Although difficult at first, the prince is resolved in his choice. Harry doesnt have any regrets about leaving the royal family and is really happy in Montecito, a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. He and Meghan are enjoying their new life in California  being a normal family and having the freedom to make their own decisions without anyone watching over them.

As for his relationship with Meghan, they are as solid as ever. 2020 was a huge game-changer for Harry and Meghan and it came with its ups and downs  the stress of announcing their departure from the royal family, moving three times, dealing with the pandemic, making huge business decisions, setting up Archewell, coming to terms with the miscarriage, an insider revealed. Its brought them closer together and made them a stronger couple.
AN environmentalist has written a book about what should be done to effectively combat climate change.

Dr Peter McManners penned Face Up to Climate Change: Demand Change Now as a call to action as he argues that there is a way out of the worlds climate emergency.

However, he says there needs to be greater realism than that ofered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Dr McManners, who is a founding member of the Pangbourne and Whitchurch Sustainability Group, believes little will change unless we stop relying on fossil fuels.

He said: In the 21st century, we should now be taking the leap forward beyond the primitive technology of fossil fuel. Instead of building on the gains of the past, abandoning outdated methods and developing new capabilities, we seem to have lost our mojo.

The first world climate conference was held more than 40 years ago in Geneva. We understand what is happening and why, but little has been done in response. This is a colossal failure for which we are all responsible.

No one should claim: Not me, guv. We all know the situation and we are all guilty of doing next to nothing. Even those people who are making changes in their own lives, such as reducing their carbon footprint, are not doing enough to push politicians for change which applies to everyone.

To address climate change, a downturn in the current fossil-fuel economy was inevitable eventually. The coronavirus pandemic has got there first.

There is now a wonderful opportunity to rebuild a broken economy into a vibrant new economy redirected away from dependence on fossil fuel.

Dr McManners lives in Pangbourne and is a visiting fellow at Henley Business School at Greenlands, where he leads the sustainability module.

He says the changing climate is leading to record temperatures and increasing frequency of storms, which is just the start of the problems the world faces.

Dr McManners believes it has become abundantly clear that a bold approach is needed to pull back from the brink and says fellow campaigners like Greta Thunberg should be admired.

But while he says it is important to understand why groups such as Extinction Rebellion exist, without a clear agenda for change, protests will have little lasting impact.

This book provides the manifesto that protesters and environmentalists need, said Dr McManners. It takes a laser sharp look at climate change, why we are failing to address it and what should be done.

It criticises the current weak response but moves quickly from criticism to proposing how to move forward. Protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion make a lot of noise and cause disruption but ultimately fail because they dont know what to demand.

It states clearly the need to close down fossil fuel without delay. Individuals making change within their own lives will make little difference. The solution is to demand even bigger changes which apply to all.

Dr McManners graduated in engineering science from Durham University and later took an MSc in geographic information systems at Edinburgh University.

His first career was in the army, where his last post was as a Lt Col and head of operations division for the UK Defence Geographic and Imagery Agency.

After completing an MBA, he had roles as a chief operating officer involved in incubating high technology companies and chief executive in the not-for-profit sector and argued for developing and investing in green technology before such ideas were mainstream.

His doctorate focused on sustainability economics and his current research is looking at radical measures to reduce the environmental impact of society and the industrial economy.

Dr McManners has also written Adapt and Thrive: The Sustainable Revolution, Green Outcomes in the Real World, Corporate Strategy in the Age of Responsibility and Victim of Success: Civilisation at Risk.

The illustrator of his lest book is his son Thomas McManners.

 Face Up to Climate Change: Demand Change Now (9.25) is published by Susta and will be available from Thursday.
Price trends: The volume of land sales declined in 2020, but prices remained strong and this 45ac farm at Fordstown, Rathmolyon, Co Meath sold for 470,000 exceeding its guide by 120,000.

Auctioneers expect the land market to be a lively and competitive place in 2021. Dairy farmers seeking to expand their holdings to comply with the latest nitrates regulations are buying or leasing more ground, while the re-entry of non-farming investors into the market is putting further pressure on supply.

In order to fulfil their nitrates obligations, farmers will have to increase their holdings by 5pc or reduce their herd size. This is especially urgent for dairy farmers and most auctioneers dont see them cutting their cow numbers.

Gordon Cobbe of GVM Tullamore said his phone has been hopping with calls dairy operators looking for land to lease or to buy, I expect the cost of leasing land to increase considerably, he said.
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COVID-19 will prevent the traditional gatherings this year where people come together to recognize the teachings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and recommit to them.

But this year, after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020 at the hands of police and the strife that followed in a deeply divided country, it is more important than ever that we take time to reflect on Kings message of equality and peaceful change while recognizing both how far we have come toward racial justice and how far we still must travel.

The Rev. Charles Becknell Sr. made both those points in a lengthy interview in Sundays Albuquerque Journal. Becknell, a minister with a doctorate in American studies from the University of New Mexico, grew up in segregated Hobbs.

He has been active with the New Mexico Black Leadership Conference, the Black Coalition and the NAACP.

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While still in high school, he helped organize the first Black sit-ins at segregated Hobbs lunch counters. A lifelong advocate for nonviolent social change, he went on to serve at the highest levels of government under two New Mexico governors.

Now retired, he still delivers sermons at the Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Rio Rancho, where his son is lead pastor.

While Becknell says conditions are much better today for the African-American community than when he was a child, he stresses the importance of developing a larger successful Black middle class.

His road map, which is being circulated in the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., is not about reparations but about paths to accelerating social change through education and funding of historic Black colleges, homeownership, help for struggling Black-owned mom and pop farms, and African-American representation on major corporate boards.

We need to get beyond talk of how youre going to pay us off, he said of reparations, and shift the conversation to how to develop a strong Black middle class.

While gatherings are mostly off the table this year, Becknell will host a program at 3 p.m. Monday on KUNM 89.9 FM featuring Bernard Lafayette Jr., chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership board of directors, a member of Kings staff and one of the Freedom Riders who fought to enforce federal integration laws on interstate bus routes in 1961, along with Bishop Calvin Wallace Woods Sr., who was a close personal friend and adviser to King and who worked to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day we are a nation divided  where images of Black Americans killed at the hands of law enforcement, of a mob rampaging through the Peoples House, of a deadly COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through communities of color at a greater rate than white communities, are seared into our consciousness.

And on this day, Becknell would urge us to look inside ourselves to reflect on Kings message. Because in Kings words, Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.

And, as he pointed out, the time is always right to do what is right.
Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top challenger in upcoming elections is promising a tough line toward Iran and the Palestinians, yet expressed confidence he has the tools to avoid what appears to be a collision course with the incoming Biden administration.

In an interview, Gideon Saar voiced harsh criticism of Netanyahu, accusing him of turning the ruling Likud party into a cult of personality as he faces a corruption trial. While welcoming President Donald Trump's affinity for Israel, he acknowledged that Netanyahu's close ties with the divisive US President had alienated many Democrats and vowed to restore traditional bipartisan support for Israel.

I think I am in a better position than the Prime Minister to have an effective and true dialogue with President-elect [Joe] Biden and his administration, he said.

Israeli politician Gideon Saar is promising "new hope" for voters ahead of March elections. Credit:AP

That could be critical given the deep differences between Israel and Biden, who plans to return to the Iranian nuclear deal and adopt a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Neelamalai Agro Industries hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 1417.50 after the company said its board will consider share buyback on 21 January 2021.

Neelamalai Agro Industries is engaged in the business is in tea plantation business of cultivating tea, its manufacturing and sale, both domestic and export.

The company's consolidated net profit surged to Rs 6.14 crore in Q2 FY21 from Rs 3.28 crore in Q2 FY20. Net sales during the quarter jumped 28.6% YoY to Rs 8.41 crore.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CAIRO  Ethiopias Minister of Water and Irrigation Seleshi Bekele Awulachew announced Jan. 9 that the foundation stone of a new dam was laid on the Agma River, a small river in the Blue Nile Basin, in the Amhara Region, north of the capital Addis Ababa.

According to a report by Sky News Arabia quoting the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, the dam, dubbed Agma-Shasha, will be built in northern Shewa in the Amhara Region, and will be 45.5 meters (149 feet) high and 371 meters (1,217 feet) long, with a storage capacity of up to 55 million cubic meters.

Ethiopia is scheduled to finish construction within three years, at an estimated cost of $125 million. The project will allow it to develop 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of land, which would benefit 28,000 families.

The dams construction will be implemented by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in cooperation with the Amhara Water Work Construction Enterprise.

This comes at a time when the negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) are stalling between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The latest round of talks was held on Jan. 10 and came to a halt, this time, over disagreements over how to resume negotiations and the procedural aspects of managing the negotiation process.

Mohamed Nasr Allam, a former Egyptian minister of water resources, told Al-Monitor via phone, The Agma-Shasha dam that Ethiopia is preparing to build is a small dam and does not affect Egypts share of the Blue Nile water.

Allam criticized Ethiopias decision to start building the dam without notifying Egypt and Sudan, explaining that the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses states that any country seeking to construct a dam must notify in advance the co-riparian states and even obtain their approval before taking any steps on the ground.

Commenting on the timing of the project, Allam said that announcing this project in light of the faltering GERD negotiations is nothing but bad propaganda to raise questions and confusion among the Egyptian public opinion about the impact of the new dam on Egypts water share.

The two downstream countries  Sudan and Egypt  have been striving, since the construction of the GERD in 2011, to reach a legally binding agreement with Ethiopia  an upstream country  through negotiations on the filling and operating of the dam, within the framework of the Declaration of Principles between the three parties signed on March 23, 2015, in Khartoum.

The agreement stipulated for the fair, equitable and appropriate use of the Niles water amid regional cooperation and integration. The GERD raises the concerns of Egypt and Sudan about affecting their water shares.

Egypt, which suffers from water scarcity, fears a decrease in its share in the Nile water amounting to some 55.5 billion cubic meters, as a result of operating the GERD, which Addis Ababa began building in 2011 on the Blue Nile in an area located on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, at an estimated cost of about $4.6 billion, with a maximum capacity of 74 billion cubic meters.

The dam might also affect agriculture in Sudan by retaining silt and decreasing the water level that will impact fisheries.

Ethiopia, for its part, assures that the dam is necessary for the countrys development as it provides Addis Ababa and neighboring countries with large quantities of electricity.

The Ethiopian Agma-Shasha dam has a limited capacity. It is true that it is being built on a tributary of the Blue Nile, but it will not affect Egypts water share, Abbas Sharaqi, a professor of biology and water resources at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor.

He said that these small dams, however, do not require prior notice to the Blue Nile countries, as they are considered a local project, serving irrigation and not electricity generation, unlike massive dams that withhold large quantities of water such as the GERD.

Sharaqi ruled out that there is any correlation between the timing of Addis Ababas announcement and the faltering talks on the GERD, stressing that the matter is not a cause for concern in any way.
Following the publication of the genetic sequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus in January 2020, pharmaceutical companies worldwide have been racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine, with many reaching clinical trials in record time.

The method of action and constituents of any particular vaccine may vary wildly, just as the viruses they protect against target different cells and take different routes to infection.

Image Credit: Viacheslav Lopatin / Shutterstock.com

SARS-CoV-2 has been well reported to induce a range of immune responses in patients, with some remaining non-symptomatic while others just as heavily infected require hospitalization. This variability makes the development of a long-lasting vaccine that will guarantee immunity throughout the whole population highly challenging.

SARS-CoV-2 binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, expressed in many tissues and organs throughout the body, particularly in the lungs, gut, and brain. The wide presentation of the ACE2 receptor is partly the reason for the highly variable symptoms of COVID-19.

T-cells are responsible for immune memory, and the generation of high-affinity antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 infected patients tend to show elevated antibody levels for significant periods post-infection.

Unlike most other vaccines that are either inactivated (consist of virus particles that have no disease-producing capacity) or attenuated (made less harmful or virulent), many of the vaccines approved for use against COVID-19 so far are nanotechnology-based.

This article will discuss two of the most prevalent vaccination technologies being used for SARS-CoV-2 and some of the approved vaccines in use these methods.

mRNA vaccines

Two of the earliest companies to announce successful vaccines were Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, both of which utilize lipid nanoparticles to encapsulate an mRNA payload. The mRNA encodes for the production of an antigen known to be specific to SARS-CoV-2, allowing the cell's machinery to produce the antigen to which the body will then develop immunity.

The use of a lipid nanoparticle carrier can potentially provide several benefits, including the possibility of direct cytoplasmic delivery and increased specificity towards antigen-presenting cells. The full details of each formulation are yet to be released. However, the Pfizer-BioNTech lipid nanoparticle is known to be slightly cationic, which could potentially aid in cell internalization due to the slight negative charge of the cell membrane.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines use mRNA that encodes for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which binds with the ACE2 receptor. The spike protein consists of two subunits, the first of which is responsible for the initial binding with ACE2, while the second promotes viral fusion.

The Moderna vaccine, mRNA-1273, specifically encodes for the pre-fusion form of the protein and is largely intact besides two amino-acid substitutions at positions 986 and 987 that help to keep the protein stable in this pre-fusion state. The surrounding lipid nanoparticle is composed of four lipids, the exact structure of which is yet to be announced. However, previously developed lipid-nanoparticle-based vaccines from Moderna contain 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, cholesterol, and polyethylene glycol-lipid, which may also be the case here.

The mRNA utilized by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (BNT162) encodes for the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein only, found on the first subunit of the protein. The mRNA has been modified to incorporate 1-methylpseudouridine, which aids in reducing the immunogenicity of the mRNA and increases translation rate, most likely through improved stability of the molecule, although this has yet to be entirely elucidated.

Again, the exact formulation of the lipid nanoparticle carrier has not been published, though past papers from the company indicate it could contain phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, and polyethylene glycol-lipid.

mRNA vaccination technology has not yet been approved following initial clinical trials for any other disease. In this case, the comparatively quick development time and urgency of the situation have brought this technology to the fore.

Since the vaccine itself does not carry the antigen, there is little chance of neutralization in the serum, and repeated booster regimens are less prohibitive. Since RNA replicates in the cytoplasm, it does not need to be localized to the nucleus, like DNA.

Concern has been expressed over mRNA vaccines altering your DNA. However, the mRNA remains in the cytosol after entering a cell and cannot cross the membrane into the nucleus where the DNA is contained. The mRNA degrades quickly in the cytosol. Hence, mRNA vaccines cannot alter DNA.

However, RNA vaccines are a developing technology that are likely to require additional boosts. In light of this, several other companies have instead been working towards a viral vector vaccine.

Conceptual illustration of SARS-CoV-2 virus binding to an ACE-2 receptor on a human cell. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com

Viral vector vaccines

Adenoviruses are simple non-enveloped viruses that contain a linear double-stranded DNA genome and are responsible for a variety of illnesses including cold-like symptoms. Adenovirus vectors are used in vaccines to express foreign antigens and thus stimulate an immune response, achieved by replacing sections of DNA within the adenovirus.

Adenoviral DNA does not integrate into the genome of the host and is not replicated during cell division. Since the adenovirus is sourced from a family of common viruses including the common cold, many patients have already developed neutralizing antibodies, leading to the use of adenoviruses that had originally evolved to infect other species, and to which humans do not have immunity.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (ChAdOx1) utilizes an adenovirus vector derived from the chimpanzee, incorporating genetic sequences that instruct cellular machinery to produce the full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Some changes were made to the genetic sequence that would prevent replication and improve translation, specifically by deleting E1 and E3 and incorporating a tissue plasminogen activator leader sequence.

The Chinese vaccine company CanSino took a similar vector approach, though it uses an adenovirus native to humans often employed as a vaccine vector: adenovirus type 5. The company noted that around half of their early participants had pre-existing immunity towards adenovirus type 5, compared to only 1 in 98 patients for the chimpanzee sourced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Both vaccines demonstrated some adverse effects in early clinical trials, including mild to moderate pain, fatigue, and headache. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was co-administered with the anti-inflammatory drug acetaminophen as a precaution that seemed to lessen these problems.

Meanwhile, the Johnson & Johnson vaccines uses Adenovirus 26 (Ad26), a one dose vaccine that has come out of phase III trials as safe and effective.

Efficacy and comparisons

Dozens of additional companies are working towards creating a safe and reliable vaccine, some utilizing the technologies described above. In contrast, others rely on more classical live-attenuated or inactivated virus vaccine platforms.

These vaccines have not been explained here, but there are benefits and limitations to both. For example, whilst they are well-established technologies, attenuated vaccines may be unsuitable for use in immunocompromised individuals, making them less than ideal for protecting those most vulnerable, and inactivated vaccines often have low immunogenicity, requiring multiple boosters.

Each of the vaccines discussed here has been found to possess acceptable safety profiles across phase I, II, and III clinical trials by various governments and organizations, having now been administered to millions of patients from across the globe. There are several more that have been approved around the world.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna report a high degree of efficacy, stated to be as high as 95% depending on the age group, sex, ethnicity, infection status, and dosing regimen. Pfizer-BioNTech has been approved in several countries and has emergency use approval in many countries around the world including the UK, US, EU and validation for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO). Moderna has been approved for use in Switzerland and has emergency use approval for many other nations including the UK, US and EU.

The CanSino one-shot vaccine is approved in China for general use and some other countries for general use, with the company announcing a 65.28 percent efficacy rate for preventing symptomatic COVID-19, although trial details are not yet published.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for general use in Brazil, and for emergency use in several countries including emergency use validation by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In March 2021, some countries in the EU temporarily suspended rollout of the vaccine due to a possible risk of blood clots. The stance of the WHO (as of 18 March) is that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks and that it should continue to be administered, and that safety data will continue to be reviewed and made transparent. Currently, although Denmark has stopped the rollout of the vaccine, the EU has resumed use; however, some countries are restricting its use to older people as the blood clot risk seems to be in younger patients.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a one-shot vaccine now being mass-produced and rolled out across the world. It has been approved for emergency use by several countries including the FDA (US) and EU. This has been stated to be 86% effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and 72% effective at preventing all COVID-19. In April, there was a pause of the vaccine in the US due to an extremely rare risk of blood clots. However, after a review by the FDA and CDC, this pause has now been lifted.

A key point is that it is difficult to compare the efficacies of these vaccines, due to differences in clinical trial designs. Furthermore, earlier clinical trials will not have included exposure to the concerning variants that have appeared since. Most vaccines are now being tested for efficacy against these strains, and some are showing reduced efficacies (although none have yet been shown to be ineffective).

Many of the vaccines are now undergoing further development in order to adapt them to new strains of the virus. Some of the vaccines are undergoing further phase III trials or carrying out further trials on specialized groups such as pregnant women and children.

It is important to have multiple different vaccine approaches to SARS-CoV-2. Different vaccines have different advantages and limitations.

For example, whilst the mRNA vaccines may have higher efficacies and be easy to manufacture, the vector vaccines offer better opportunities to vaccinate in more isolated areas and less developed countries due to their easier storage requirements. mRNA vaccines require storage at very low temperatures due to the fragility of the mRNA.

Furthermore, the one-shot vaccines offer a more accessible approach and viral vectors may offer longer-term protection than mRNA vaccines.

There are four types of COVID-19 vaccines: heres how they work Play

References

Chung, Y. H., Beiss, V., Fiering, S. N. & Steinmetz, N. F. (2020) COVID-19 Vaccine Frontrunners and Their Nanotechnology Design. ACS Nano, 14(10). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsnano.0c07197

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Pfizer Limited & BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH (2020) Public Assessment Report Authorisation for Temporary Supply COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 (BNT162b2 RNA) concentrate for solution for injection. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/944544/COVID-19_mRNA_Vaccine_BNT162b2__UKPAR___PFIZER_BIONTECH__15Dec2020.pdf

Li, Z. & Xu, X. (2019) Post-Translational Modifications of the Mini-Chromosome Maintenance Proteins in DNA Replication. Genes, 10(5). https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/10/5/331/htm

The New York Times. 2021. Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker [online] Available at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html [Accessed 18 March 2020]

Voysey, M. et al. (2021) Safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2: an interim analysis of four randomised controlled trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK. The Lancet, 397(10269). https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32661-1/fulltex

Further Reading
Lets call this column, and perhaps the next couple of columns, an old-timers memories of the past offered with the hope that they may help u Read more

The gram panchayat polls were held more than a month after the ruling MVA's victory in the graduates' and teachers' constituencies in the Legislative Council elections

The Maharashtra panchayat polls, the results for which will become clear on Monday, constitute a crucial test for both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, which is now close to completing 15 months in power in the state.

The election results will also be a indication of how rural voters in Maharashtra view the Centre's contentious new farm laws, which have sparked off large-scale protests across the country.

Panchayat elections are not officially held on party lines, using party symbols. Candidates are allotted election symbols from a list of free symbols. However, most candidates are backed by various political parties.

Here is an overview of what the panchayat poll results would mean for the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the BJP.

Maha Vikas Aghadi

The gram panchayat polls were held more than a month after the ruling MVA's victory in the graduates' and teachers' constituencies in the Legislative Council elections that took place late last year.

The MVA, which consists of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, had won four out of six seats on offer, while two others were bagged by an Independent and the Opposition BJP.

In this backdrop, the Maha Vikas Aghadi would hope to continue its winning streak and consolidate its position in the state.

FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES ON MAHARASHTRA PANCHAYAT POLL RESULTS HERE

Also, this is the first time that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance will face a grassroots electoral challenge together.

The panchayat poll results will also be an indication of whether the constituent parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi have been able to overcome their differences to work together, as they did during the Legislative Council polls. Despite the outward bonhomie, several sticking points remain among the three parties. Most recently, differences have emerged over whether the city of Aurangabad should be renamed as Sambhajinagar, a long-standing demand of the Shiv Sena. The Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, recently termed the Congress a 'weak and ineffective' Opposition, and heaped praise on NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

Such differences are especially dangerous for the alliance as they come when the three parties should be preparing for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Election slated for 2022. The BJP would be looking to wrest the country's richest civic body from the Shiv Sena, which has controlled it since 1985.

BJP

For the BJP, a successful show in the gram panchayat polls would be a significant indication of strength, as it would come against the combined might of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.

If the saffron party does well, it would also view it as a validation of the Centre's three new farm laws. Many parts of Maharashtra had observed the Bharat Bandh called on the issue on 8 December, 2020. On that day, Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) had remained closed in many parts of the state, and wholesale markets in major cities like Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad had also remained shut.

In this backdrop, a win for the BJP would lend credence to its stand that the majority of farmers are not protesting the new laws, but stand in support of them. It is little surprise then, that the BJP sought to underline the importance of the laws ahead of the panchayat polls. At an internal meeting, the party leadership urged its cadres in rural belts to aggressively convey the message of 'agricultural reforms' with the central theme of farmers welfare, according to a report in The Indian Express.

With several municipal corporation elections slated in 2021-2022, the BJP would be keen to bounce back in the key state of Maharashtra. A good performance would also validate its stand that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state lacks the popular mandate, as the Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after fighting the Assembly polls together.

The Maharashtra gram panchayat elections covered 34 districts out of 36 districts in Maharashtra, barring Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban districts.

The districts and the district-wise number of gram panchayats where polling was held are as follows: Thane (158), Palghar (3), Raigad (88), Ratnagiri (479), Sindhudurg (70), Nashik (620), Dhule (218), Jalgaon (783), Ahmednagar (767), Nandurbar (86), Pune (748), Solapur (658), Satara (879), Sangli (152), Kolhapur (433), Aurangabad (618), Beed (129), Nanded (1,015), Osmanabad (428), Parbhani (566), Jalna (475), Latur (408), Hingoli (495), Amravati (553), Akola (225), Yavatmal (980), Washim (152), Buldhana (527), Nagpur (130), Wardha (50), Chandrapur (629), Bhandara (148), Gondia (189) and Gadchiroli (362).

With inputs from PTI
Over 10m in recurring annual funding is being awarded to the voluntary hospice sector from 2021 onwards.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced the provision earlier this afternoon.

The Government says the additional funding will help to address the core funding shortfall the sector has experienced in recent years.

All the hospices which make up the Voluntary Hospital Group, which includes Cork's Marymount Hospice and Milford Care Centre in Limerick, will benefit from the investment.

Other hospices set to receive part of the 10.68m in funding include:

Our Ladys Hospice and Care Services, Harolds Cross, Blackrock, and Wicklow

St Francis Hospice, Raheny and Blanchardstown

Galway Hospice

North West Hospice, Sligo

Speaking following the announcement of the funding, Mr Donnelly praised the work being done in Ireland's voluntary hospice sector, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: "Ireland is fortunate to have a dedicated voluntary hospice sector, who have worked tirelessly down through the years, in partnership with local communities, to expand the network of hospice services around the country," he said.

I would like to particularly commend the voluntary hospice sector for their efforts to maintain critical and ongoing care services against the background of the challenges presented by the pandemic.

"They have supported our acute hospitals, community health care services, and nursing homes to ensure a compassionate response for those with palliative care needs and their families throughout this difficult period.

The minister said the additional funding was "designed to take account of the potential impact of the loss of fundraising income during the public health emergency."

He said that when fundraising initiatives are finally able to continue in the sector, money raised could be put towards "enhancing and improving services, rather than fund core services."
Some of the low-carbon policy options currently used by governments may be detrimental to the households and small businesses less able to manage added short-term costs from energy price hikes, according to a new study.

However, it also suggests that this menu of decarbonising policies, from quotas to feed-in tariffs, can be designed and balanced to benefit local firms and lower-income families - vital for achieving 'Net Zero' carbon and a green recovery.

University of Cambridge researchers combed through thousands of studies to create the most comprehensive analysis to date of widely used types of low-carbon policy, and compared how they perform in areas such as cost and competitiveness.

The findings are published today in the journal Nature Climate Change. The researchers also poured all their data into an interactive online tool that allows users to explore evidence around carbon-reduction policies from across the globe.

"Preventing climate change cannot be the only goal of decarbonisation policies," said study lead author Dr Cristina Penasco, a public policy expert from the University of Cambridge.

"Unless low-carbon policies are fair, affordable and economically competitive, they will struggle to secure public support - and further delays in decarbonisation could be disastrous for the planet."

Penasco authored the review with Prof Laura Diaz Anadon, Director of Cambridge's Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG), and Prof. Elena Verdolini from the RFF-CMCC European institute on Economics and the Environments (EIEE) and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change and University of Brescia. Anadon and Verdolini lead the workpackage of the EU project INNOPATHS that funded the work.

Around 7,000 published studies were whittled down to over 700 individual findings. These results were coded to allow comparison - with over half the studies analysed "blind" by different researchers to avoid bias.

The ten policy "instruments" covered in the study include forms of investment - targeted R&D funding, for example - as well as financial incentives including different kinds of subsidies, taxes, and the auctioning of energy contracts.

The policies also include market interventions - e.g. emissions permits; tradable certificates for clean or saved energy - and efficiency standards, such as those for buildings.

Researchers looked at whether each policy type had a positive or negative effect in various environmental, industrial and socio-economic areas.

When it came to "distributional consequences" - the fairness with which the costs and benefits are spread - the mass of evidence suggests that the impact of five of the ten policy types are far more negative than positive.

"Small firms and average households have less capacity to absorb increases in energy costs," said co-author Laura Diaz Anadon, Professor of Climate Change Policy.

"Some of the investment and regulatory policies made it harder for small and medium-size firms to participate in new opportunities or adjust to changes.

"If policies are not well designed and vulnerable households and businesses experience them negatively, it could increase public resistance to change - a major obstacle in reaching net zero carbon," said Anadon.

For example, feed-in tariffs pay renewable electricity producers above market rates. But these costs may bump energy prices for all if they get passed on to households - leaving the less well-off spending a larger portion of their income on energy.

Renewable electricity traded as 'green certificates' can redistribute wealth from consumers to energy companies - with 83% of the available evidence suggesting they have a "negative impact", along with 63% of the evidence for energy taxes, which can disproportionately affect rural areas.

However, the vast tranche of data assembled by the researchers reveals how many of these policies can be designed and aligned to complement each other, boost innovation, and pave the way for a fairer transition to zero carbon.

For example, tailoring feed-in tariffs (FiTs) to be "predictable yet adjustable" can benefit smaller and more dispersed clean energy projects - improving market competitiveness and helping to mitigate local NIMBYism*.

Moreover, revenues from environmental taxes could go towards social benefits or tax credits e.g. reducing corporate tax for small firms and lowering income taxes, providing what researchers call a "double dividend": stimulating economies while reducing emissions.

The researchers argue that creating a "balance" of well-designed and complementary policies can benefit different renewable energy producers and "clean" technologies at various stages.

Government funding for research and development (R&D) that targets small firms can help attract other funding streams - boosting both eco-innovation and competitiveness. When combined with R&D tax credits, it predominantly supports innovation in startups rather than corporations.

Government procurement, using tiered contracts and bidding, can also improve innovation and market access for smaller businesses in "economically stressed" areas. This could aid the "levelling up" between richer and poorer regions as part of any green recovery.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution," said Penasco. "Policymakers should deploy incentives for innovation, such as targeted R&D funding, while also adapting tariffs and quotas to benefit those across income distributions.

"We need to spur the development of green technology at the same time as achieving public buy-in for the energy transition that must start now to prevent catastrophic global heating," she said.

Penasco and Anadon contributed to the recent report from Cambridge Zero - the University's climate change initiative. In it, they argue for piloting a UK government research programme akin to ARPA in the US, but focused on new net-zero technologies.

###

*Acronym for 'Not In My Backyard' - a colloquialism for local residents opposing a development in their area.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 05:35:18|Editor: huaxia

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ROME, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Monday saw its best one-day indicators for the coronavirus pandemic in weeks, but the developments were marred by the news that vaccine shipments from pharmaceutical company Pfizer would be slowed for the next week.

Italy had performed 1.12 million coronavirus vaccinations as of Sunday, making Italy the first country in the European Union to have successfully vaccinated 1.1 percent of its population.

But media reports said the vaccination campaign would be slowed by delays in the delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the main vaccine in use in Italy.

For its part, Pfizer said deliveries would return to normal by Jan. 25. But the slowdown has sparked complaints from Italians, amid accusations that the company may have diverted vaccines intended for Italy to other countries.

Codacons, a consumer and environmental protection group in Italy, on Monday filed a complaint against Pfizer and said it will petition the European Commission to sanction the company for abusing its dominant position.

Fabrizio Pregliasco, a University of Milan virologist, gave the drug company the benefit of the doubt while noting the slowdown is already causing problems.

"I hope these delays are temporary and due to production problems rather than changes in the destination of the vaccines," Pregliasco told local media Il Fatto Quotidiano. "In the hospital, the delay has already caused some problems that have resulted in our slowing down vaccination."

Domenico Arcuri, the Italian government's commissioner for the coronavirus crisis, said help could be on the way via AstraZeneca, the maker of other vaccines. He said Italy has reserved more than 40 million vaccines from the company, with 16 million expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2021.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Italy and some other countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 64 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan. 15.

The vaccine worries cast a shadow over a day that has seen Italy's best overall coronavirus indicators in weeks. According to the country's Ministry of Health, there were 8,824 new infections over the past 24 hours, the second-lowest one-day total since Oct. 15.

The only day with a lower infection rate during that span -- Dec. 28, when 8,583 infections were announced -- saw a mortality figure of 445, higher than the 377 recorded Monday.

Monday's death rate was the same as on Sunday, and just the eighth time since early November the one-day total dipped below 400 lost lives.

There were nearly 15,000 new recoveries Monday, continuing a trend where recoveries outnumbered new infections by a large margin. That brought the total number of active cases to 547,058, down more than 6,300 compared to Sunday. The total number of recoveries since the start of the pandemic in Italy climbed to 1.76 million.

Official data also showed that there were 2,544 COVID-19 patients in intensive-care units on Monday, an increase of 41 from Sunday and 24 more than on Saturday. Enditem
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
January 9, 2021, will be remembered as a day like no other for many, including those whove made the United States their new home. VOA spoke to a few of them in this report by Correspondent Mariama Diallo.
Govt hardens stance asks unions for alternate to repeal of farm laws

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: The government has hardened its stance and asked the farmer unions for an alternate to repealing the contentious farm laws.

Agriculture Minister, N S Tomar called on the unions to come up with an alternative to their demands stating most farmers, experts and other stakeholders are in favour of the new legislations.

There is no point in being adamant when the Supreme Court has already stayed the implementation.

Farmers' Protest: Ghazipur, Chilla other key Delhi borders remain closed

We expect farmers to discuss the laws clause by clause on January 19 and give us other options. If the objections by the unions are found to be valid, the government may consider them and go ahead with the amendments, Tomar also said.

The farmers have however said that the comments by the minister are an indication that the Centre was not willing to speak on their core demands.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday the pleas relating to controversial farm laws and the ongoing farmers' protest at Delhi borders. The court may take into account the matter of recusal of a member of the committee set up by it to resolve the impasse.

The top court would also hear the plea of the central government, filed though the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march or any other kind of protest by farmers which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of Republic Day on January 26.

In an "extraordinary" interim order on January 12, a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde had stayed the implementation of the new farm laws till further orders and had constituted a four-member panel to listen to the grievances and make recommendations to resolve the impasse.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 11:31 [IST]
Locked-down Aussies have been shifting their spending away from overseas holidays and into electronics and home equipment, according to booming sales forecasts from two of the nation's biggest retailers.

On Monday JB Hi-Fi revealed it expected a bumper profit result for the first half of 2021, with online sales jumping 161 per cent to $678.8 million in the six months to December. Meanwhile, Super Retail Group, owner of the BCF and Super Cheap Auto brands, reported online sales up 87 per cent as Australians rushed to buy exercise and camping gear.

JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray said the company was pleased to report strong results after what he described as an "extraordinary period". Credit:Eamon Gallagher

Super Retail Group chief executive Anthony Heraghty said it was an "encouraging sign" that even against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, sales were growing.

In the face of lockdown and border closures customers were investing in activities they are still able to enjoy, including camping, exercise and DIY projects.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Fort Drum, January 18: Vice President Mike Pence and his wife made their final official appearance together Sunday with a visit to Fort Drum, where they thanked the 10th Mountain Division and their families for their service.

I'm here to deliver a very simple message to each and every one of you on behalf of your commander and chief, and every American," Pence said. "Thank you for your service. And to the 1st Brigade combat team, welcome home. The 1st Brigade recently returned from Afghanistan. Donald Trump Orders Pentagon to Withdraw 2,500 US Troops from Afghanistan & Iraq by Mid January 2021.

Karen Pence, speaking before her husband took the podium, became emotional and briefly faltered as she addressed the troops. It is such an honour to be with you  here I go  for our very last trip as vice president and second lady of the United States, she said.

The Pences thanked the sailors at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California on Saturday. Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in as Pence's successor on Wednesday. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, will become the nation's first second gentleman.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Met Eireann received a frosty reception last year for some of its forecasts with 87 complaints made by unhappy weather-watchers.

One correspondent was prompted to declare Midland farmers matter after becoming frustrated while trying to plan ahead for hay, silage or turf cutting.

The farmer from Co Offaly who was frustrated trying to plan for hay, silage or turf cutting, said: "I'm tearing my hair out at this stage after listening to ye on RTE for the last few days predicting loads of rain and thunderstorms because we just haven't got it.

"I'm a little bronzed off at this stage. Midland farmers matter," they said.

A separate letter written in June claimed that while the complainant was listening to a weather forecast on the radio, they noted that the presenter raised their tone when sunshine was mentioned and dropped it when talking about rain.

The complainant felt that after very little rain, a day's rain now is something that will be more than welcomed across the country.

"Presenters should be more in tune with the mood in the country with regard to the weather and difficult weather (a drought is difficult weather) in particular and reflect this when presenting the forecast."

Another complainant to the national weather forecaster was annoyed that their plans to meet up with friends were cancelled due to what they claimed was your false forecast.

"My summer has already been ruined by Covid-19 and then finally I thought I am able to see my friends since lockdown has lifted, but you have been ruining my days by giving me false forecasts. This is so disappointing. I just want to live my youth," said the complainant in correspondence which was sent on June 30 last year.

Records released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Irish Independent revealed the different gripes people had with forecasts.

A Donegal resident wrote to Met Eireann in February to say they were in the hospitality business "and our business is being repeatedly devastated by overly pessimistic forecasting from your office. This is costing millions in lost business to trade along the western seafront in particular.

In June, the service was contacted to say: "Spent afternoon in hot Crosshaven carrying a rain coat based on iPhone forecast! It is 18.00hrs and no sign of inclement weather."

Met Eireann issued responses to complainants throughout the year. It pointed out that it can only issue warnings based on the weather it is seeing, and its concern is for peoples' lives and livelihoods. It adheres to very strict guidelines when issuing warnings.

"The forecaster must adhere to strict criteria, and would issue what they feel to be the correct level warning for each location based on their extensive resources and education in meteorology, it said.

It said that thundery and showery weather can quite often miss particular locations.

"Thunderstorms would be forecast for a region as a warning that the likelihood of them happening is high. However they may not occur in your exact location."
One of Chiles prominent Church leaders says the government lacks a project to unite Chileans in the face of the ongoing pandemic.

By Devin Watkins

Archbishop Fernando Chomali of Concepcion has expressed his concern with the direction Chile is taking, in an interview with daily newspaper El Sur.

The Covid-19 pandemic, he said, has brought to the fore a major problem facing the nation: There is no national project or comprehensive vision of the meaning the human person and the community.

The Archbishop pointed out that last Octobers referendum revealed Chileans discontent with their political leaders.

Chile held a national plebiscite on 25 October 2020, in which 78 percent of voters approved plans for a new constitution to be written by a Constitutional Convention.

The referendum was held as a result of massive nationwide protests in late 2019 and early 2020.

National reflection

Archbishop Chomali said the situation merits extensive reflection.

He added that the new constitution can be a good occasion to put in place a reference point for rights and duties, as well as for political power and how we define ourselves as a society.

However, he warned, it would be wrong to believe that the new constitution will solve the problems facing a majority of the population today.

Church helping poor

The Archbishop of Concepcion also reflected on the ongoing pandemic and the Churchs mission to care for the marginalized.

Chile has reported nearly 670,000 Covid-19 cases and over 17,000 deaths.

Despite the difficult health situation, Archbishop Chomali praised the Catholic Church for its minsters efforts to care for the poor. He cited the opening of several soup kitchens, as well as a care center for migrant women and children, which also welcomes the homeless.

The local Church, he added, continues to fundraise and support a project to protect young people with Down Syndrome.

Caring for others

Finally, Archbishop Chomali urged Chileans to think about their loved ones as they follow health guidelines.

This is a good opportunity to recognize that we are not alone, that we owe a great debt to one another, and that everything we do will have either positive or negative effects on others.
Damage was assessed at over a quarter of a million dollars. The door of the Senate Minority Leader was ripped from its hinges. A valuable, stately portrait of Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster was left in shards. Chandeliers, mirrors, and furniture were damaged beyond repair. Plaster and glass were strewn about everywhere, particularly in the Republican cloakroom behind the Senate chamber.



No, this was not from January 6, 2021. The date was November 7, 1983. A bomb was planted inside the US Capitol and exploded at 10:58 PM ET, ripping through the second floor of the US Capitols Senate wing. The damage was extensive.

It took five years for the FBI to make arrests

It took five years for the FBI to make arrests. It was in May 1988 when seven-(7) people, all members of the Resistance Conspiracy, were charged with the Capitol bombing and bombings at Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.: Marilyn Jean Buck, Linda Sue Evans, Susan Rosenberg, Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman, Laura Whitehorn, and Elizabeth Ann Duke.1



Its interesting and relevant to note that on December 7, 1990, US District Court Judge Harold H. Greene sentenced Whitehorn and Evans to lengthy prison terms for conspiracy and malicious destruction of government property. Greene, however, dropped charges against the co-defendants, including Susan Rosenberg, because they were already serving extended prison sentences for prior terrorist activities. Self-proclaimed anarchists and enemies of the United States, most had direct or indirect connections to the Leftist groups known as the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army.



Their activities as domestic terrorists are well documented yet conveniently ignored by the corporate media and all obedient Leftists.



Consider and compare the fates of nearly anyone present at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, to the Leftist terrorists who bombed the capitol and other government facilities and murdered several people during their reign of domestic terror.



Today, anyone who attended the rally in DC on January 6, 2021, to object to a fraudulent Presidential election is being made into a social pariah. They are losing their jobs, their legitimately earned university degrees, and had their voices silenced from the virtual town square. Along with their families, they are being subjected to death threats by the virtuous Left and banished into obscurity. Conversely, Susan Rosenberg, who was also indicted for driving the getaway car in an October 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored car carrying $1.6 million in which two policemen and an armed guard were executed in cold blood, received a last-minute pardon in 2001 by former President Clinton. A mere four years later, Rosenberg was awarded a university teaching post by New Yorks Hamilton College.
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On January 11, compelled by the agreement drawn by the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), school nurses began returning to campuses in the world epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The union-backed agreement is an initial move towards resuming in-person instruction in the nations second largest school district, even as the pandemic rages out of control and deaths mount.

Over the past week, Los Angeles County has reported an additional 105,716 new cases. That is an average of 15,102 new cases per day and 232 average daily deaths. The county is now home to 959,156 reported cases, or 1,047 infected per 100,000 residents. Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is at zero, forcing hospitals to accommodate critically ill patients in areas not equipped to support intensive care. Angelenos count for 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths in California, despite making up only 25 percent of the states population.

The UTLAs deal does not require the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to provide N95 respirators, goggles, or disposable gowns to nurses working at reopened schools. According to the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), 72 percent of nurses lack N95s, 77 percent lack isolation rooms for infectious students, 75 percent lack disposable gowns, 80 percent lack any sort of face shield, partial or full, 67 percent lack goggles, and 22 percent lack basic surgical masks. School nurses have been encouraged to obtain this life-saving personal protective equipment (PPE) from charitable organizations. The UTLAs socially criminal deal with the district also does nothing to remediate the critical shortage of school nurses. Barely 450 nurses serve the LAUSDs 650,000 students, a ratio of 1 nurse to 1,444 students.

Students return to class.(Image credit: AP/Emilio Morenatti)

The most recent data from our testing program is alarming, LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner admitted to the Los Angeles Times. Over the past week, five percent of adultswho did not report any exposure or symptomstested positive, and close to 10 percent of children. Think about that1 in 10 children being tested at schools show no symptoms but have the virus. A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics demonstrated that children and youth under the age of 22 had significantly higher viral loads in the airways than adults, with some children presenting higher viral loads before symptoms appeared.

Notwithstanding its calls for supposedly safe schools, the UTLA has colluded with the Democrats criminal drive to reopen the schools throughout the pandemic. The UTLA mounted no opposition to the in-person instruction waivers granted to schools in late September, when the county saw over 264,400 positive cases, including 24,300 children, and a test positivity rate of 9 percent. The waivers were rescinded after the deluge of COVID-19 cases around Thanksgiving.

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsoms plan to reopen schools throughout the state, the so-called Safe Schools for All program, quadruples the school reopening threshold from 7 positive cases per 100,000 to 28 per 100,000. It also coerces cash-strapped school districts, which have a combined $23 billion deficit over the coming year, to reopen by February 1 if they want any share of the one-time $2 billion pittance Newsom has dangled in front of the states 1,000 school districts. Over 300,000 children in California lack health insurance, and the mandatory COVID-19 tests for these children will have to be paid for by the school districts themselves. Districts will also likely have to foot the bill for testing children who have health insurance but do not present any symptoms of COVID-19, because most insurance plans refuse to cover asymptomatic testing.

The governors homicidal plan, in addition to browbeating poor schools into herding educators and students back into unsafe classrooms, completely denies extra funding to school districts in areas where the test positivity rate exceeds 28 per 100,000, the very communities hardest hit by the double blows of plague and poverty. As of this writing, Los Angeles County has a daily positivity rate of 151 per 100,000. 1 in 3 children in the lowest-income communities in the district test positive, compared to 1 in 25 children from more affluent areas. More than 80 percent of the LAUSDs 650,000 students live under the official poverty threshold, and 75 percent of families in the county have lost work due to the pandemic. California has the highest cost of living in the nation second only to Hawaii, and Los Angeles County has the second highest cost of living in the state, just under San Francisco County.

What has been the UTLAs opposition to this?

Nothing. In fact, worse than nothing, the UTLA has collaborated all down the line with Newsom, Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAUSD Superintendent Beutner.

The union hailed Newsoms proposed budget as a critical step forward and lauded LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrers toothless recommendations for schools to remain closed in the month of January. This is no concession to teachers and parents since not a single school in the purple tier county, the highest of four risk levels in California, can reopen under the states own rules.

Newsoms proposal has received laudatory comments from the leading bureaucrats of other educators unions throughout the state. E. Toby Boyds, the president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), affiliated via merger with the UTLA, wrote, We appreciate the governor finally recognizing what CTA, for months, has been advocating for

Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, also affiliated via merger with the UTLA, wrote, With this plan as a starting point, the CFT looks forward to working to ensure that schools reopen for in-person instruction

Despite the cynical expressions of concern for students and parents struggling with inadequately resourced and chaotically implemented remote learning, the bipartisan drive to reopen the schools is aimed at forcing parents back to work to produce the profits needed to pay for the massive bailout of corporate America.

No less than their Republican counterparts, the Democrats, with the full support of the trade unions, have repudiated any serious effort to contain the pandemic. The previous world epicenter of the pandemic, New York City, is dominated by the Democratic Party, which pushed through in November school reopenings for the new year in wide opposition to educators and students families. New daily confirmed cases in the nations largest school district have increased from 3,690 at the end of 2020 to 4,246 in the first two weeks of 2021. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has colluded with Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio to suppress popular opposition.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of UTLAs betrayal of the 2019 Los Angeles teachers strike, which was part of the wave of educators struggles in 2018-19, involving hundreds of thousands of teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and other states, along with Denver, Oakland, Chicago and other cities. The movement erupted in opposition to the unions, which had colluded in decades of austerity and school privatization, but it was contained with the help of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudo-left organizations, which helped the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) regain control, prevent a nationwide strike and defeat statewide and local struggles.

After 33,000 educators struck for six-days, the UTLA suddenly announced an agreement and gave teachers only three hours to review and discuss a 40-page contract. To prevent a revolt, the ratification did not take place at a mass membership meeting but was instead held in 900 splintered locations. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and other union officials hailed the tentative deal as a historic victory, although it abandoned the teachers most pressing demands to stop the expansion of charter schools and standardized testing. It also allotted teachers who have borne a decade of frozen wages only two annual wage increases, which fell short of the annual cost of living increases in Los Angeles. The agreement promised class-size reductions to only 38 students per classroom in 2020 and 35 in 2021.

Determined to prevent the Los Angeles strike from sparking statewide and national action against the bipartisan attack on teachers and public education, the UTLA ended the strike just before teachers in Oakland were set to walk out.

Maintaining its pro-capitalist policy of channeling mass opposition to social inequality into political dead-ends, on January 12 the UTLA joined other unions affiliated with the DSA in a National Day of Resistance. The event turned out to be nothing more than a Twitter Storm of social media posts under the slogan #BidenBeBold, which deliberately covered up the role of the unions and the president-elect who presided over historic attacks on public education during the Obama years and has pledged to open the majority of US schools by mid-April.

Days after Trump's putsch attempt on the US Capitol, the UTLA and other educators unions are disarming workers before the threat of fascism, diverting left-wing opposition into the channels of racialist politics and support for the Democratic enablers of the coup attempt, who now urge for unity and healing with the Republican conspirators.

We cannot move forward as a country unless we recognize the roots of yesterdays violence: structural racism and white supremacy, proclaims a statement signed by the leading UTLA officials. But the real roots of the coup are the decades-long decline of American capitalism, endless militarism, and the growth of social inequality to levels that are completely incompatible with the maintenance of democracy.

With its racialist presentation, the UTLA belittles the dangers facing the working class and conceals the political aims of the coup plotters and their accomplices in the Republican Party: to smash the resistance of workers to the back-to-school and back-to-work drive and abolish the slightest limitations on the exploitation of the working class.

The Democrats have no intention of warning the working class about the fascist danger because they fear this will spark an immense movement of opposition, which would disrupt their own efforts to reopen schools and force workers to pay for multi-trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout.

Like their counterparts in Chicago, New York and other cities, LA teachers, school nurses, and other education workers are being driven into a direct conflict with the Democrats and their hangers-on in the UTLA and other unions. In order to wage a serious struggle for high-quality education and the safety of students and workers, new organizations of collective struggle, independent of the pro-capitalist trade unions, must be built.

Educators must organize rank-and-file committees and link up with workers in the hospitals, factories, logistics industry, farmworkers and others in a political general strike to demand the immediate closure of schools and non-essential workplaces and full income to all workers. The private fortunes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other billionaires must be seized to fund mass vaccination, protect workers against evictions and hunger and to vastly improve public education, including remote learning and aid to parents and children to study at home until the pandemic is contained.

We urge LA educators, youth, and families to help build the Los Angeles Educators Rank-and-File Safety committee, and workers and youth the globe over to form Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees in their communities. Draw the necessary political conclusions! The defense of students and workers against the pandemic and fascism is inseparable from the struggle for socialism!

The is



gathering information about the leaked social media chats between and BARC ex-CEO Partho Dasgupta in which highly sensitive things like Balakot airstrike and Pulwama attack were mentioned, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has said, adding the issue will be discussed by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

The purported chats widely reported in media mentioned that Goswami, the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, was privy to the Balakot air strikes.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday night, Deshmukh said how Goswami came to know about such sensitive information is a big question.

"We are gathering information about the leaked chats between and Partho Dasgupta. Some highly sensitive things including the Balakot airstrike and the Pulwama attack have been mentioned in the chats. How Arnab came to know about such sensitive information is a big question," Deshmukh said.

He said the state Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Mumbai.

"After the meeting, a decision about this issue will be taken," Deshmukh said.

Earlier in the day, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) asked the government to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the purported chats between Goswami and Dasgupta.

Dasgupta, who was arrested in the fake Television Rating Point (TRP) case, is now in the ICU of state-run JJ hospital in central Mumbai.

A diabetic, he was rushed to the hospital from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai on Saturday after his blood sugar levels went up on Friday midnight.

The Mumbai police had earlier told the court that Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta with lakhs of rupees to ramp up Republic TV's viewership.

Meanwhile, the home minister attended a review meeting of the police department organised at the Maharashtra Police Academy (MPA) here.

On the occasion, Deshmukh lauded the facilities available at the MPA and expressed satisfaction about the low crime rate in Nashik.

Deshmukh hailed the successful initiative of Pratap Dighavkar, Special IG, Nashik Range, to give back the money of farmers duped by unscrupulous traders.

"We will try to implement this measure at the state level," the home minister 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.)
More than 100 people have been infected with the UK strain of coronavirus at a Belgian retirement home. The mutant virus named B.1.1.7 was initially reported in countrys north in December but its exponential spread has left authorities concerned. The British strain, as per scientists is 56 per cent more contagious and genetically diverse from other known variants.

New outbreak

A total of 111 people have been confirmed to be infected at De Groene Verte including 39 staff members. As per authorities, the infected population makes two-third of the home residents. Out of the total that contracted the virus, three have lost their lives. In addendum, Belga News Agency earlier reported infection in eight other people with disabilities in the same area, however, it later clarified that it wasnt yet known if the contracted the UK variant.

In the aftermath, Mayor of Houthulst said that the situation has put a halt on all social and sporting activities in town. As of now, no source of the infection has been identified as none of them had travelled to the UK. However, the mayor said that infection must have been indirect.

Belgium has reported 678,839 cases and of now, latest official records revealed. The country located western Europe has been hammered with one of the highest per-capita death rates with current toll touching 20,435. According to official data, Belgium has a population of 11.5 million as of 2020.

Read: Clashes At Belgium Protest Over Death Of Black Man

Read: Belgium Advances COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

In Belgium, people are still not allowed more than one guest at home, bars and restaurants remain closed. Last month, chocolate and beer shops were declared essential items and were allowed to keep trading when the "non-essential" businesses were shuttered due to the coronavirus restrictions. One of the oldest and Belgiums popular chocolate producers Neuhaus was open to buyers as its CEO Ignace Van Doorselaere told SKY that the establishment was central to the Belgian culture and despite lockdown, had remained operational. Similarly, outlets serving the beers were also exempted from the COVID-19 restrictions. According to sources of DW, some Brussels-based breweries were also allowed by the Belgium authorities to commence the home delivery services throughout the lockdown.

Read: COVID-19: Chocolates, Beer And Books Declared 'essential Items' During Belgium's Lockdown

Read: Belgium: Virus Infection Figures Decreasing Since Christmas
Ahead of Inauguration Day, the state Capitol building has increased security, which state Rep. Tim Twardzik said Thursday has made it feel safe.

It certainly is a very safe environment right now with the extra police and barricades in place and very limited visitation, Twardzik, R-123, said Thursday. We dont feel worried about being at work. Theyve done a really good job of securing, and hopefully it will be a peaceful transition.

Twardzik said there have always been metal detectors and police at the building, but the increased security measures have made it more secure.

In response to the riots in Washington, D.C., last week, Twardzik said that kind of violence has no place here.

I dont understand what happened in the capital, Twardzik said. Eventually there will be enough investigations to find out who perpetrated the violence and they will hopefully be punished to the full extent of the law. It was nothing like all the other rallies that Trump had held.

Moving forward, Twardzik said he hopes to see no more rioting in the country.

Protest all you want, but the rioting is un-American, Twardzik said.

Twardzik said the state House of Representatives has a lot of work to do, so once Inauguration Day has passed, that will be the priority.

We have a very busy schedule, Twardzik said. Theyve already put a lot of bills to the various groups and committees. Well work within those committees to bring them to the floor, bring them to votes and get back to business.

Rep. Joseph Kerwin, R-125, said Saturday he cannot comment on the security measures, as he is in Washington, D.C., as the company commander with Alpha company 2nd Battalion 112th Infantry of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

I have been able to vote remotely and by proxy, Kerwin said. My district offices are still running with my staff maintaining a presence there, so constituents needs, concerns and issues are still being addressed. I look forward to my return and hopefully will be back following inauguration.
Berlin, 18 January 2020 (SPS)  Polisario Front representative in Germany Najat Handi said on Saturday that the German governments position, in line with international law concerning the Sahrawi cause is "constant and unchanging."



In a statement to APS, the Sahrawi diplomat said that Germanys position with regard to the Sahrawi question was clear, officially expressed by German representative to the UN Christoph Heusgen, during last Decembers Security Council consultations on Western Sahara.



"The definitive solution of the question must take place within a UN framework, in accordance with the relevant international resolutions," he had said then.



In the absence of a contrary decision to the previous one in support of the process of political settlement of the Sahrawi cause, the position of the German government therefore remains "constant and unchanging," she stressed.



He added that the remarks attributed to the German ambassador in Rabat, Gotz Schmidt-Bremme about the Sahrawi cause "do not reflect the official position of the German government, contrary to what the Makhzen media are trying to make believe."



Last December, German Ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, said during a Security Council meeting on the latest developments in Western Sahara, that "resolving conflicts peacefully means following the rules and implementing UN resolutions and apply international law."



He affirmed that his country "remains deeply committed to a political solution which is really in the interest of all". (SPS)



062/090/700
Deadpool BHPian



Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: Kolkata Posts: 108 Thanked: 740 Times

Your favorite car logo



From American muscle to European exotics, everyone has a favorite car they would like to own one day. But do you also have a favorite car logo? Here goes my list. Please share your's.



1. Alfa Romeo







Even a quick glance at the Alfa Romeo logo implies there's a decent story behind it, and you wouldn't be wrong. While the red cross on the left-hand-side is the symbol of Milan, home of the Italian car maker, on the right it appears to have chosen a man-eating snake.



Otone Visconti, a knight from the former ruling family of Milan who fought in the First Crusades, is said to have taken the symbol of a serpent devouring a man from the shield of a Saracen he defeated in battle. Alfa Romeo, however, claims that the man is in fact emerging from the snake, purified and renewed, and the scene is a symbol of rebirth.



2. Ferrari







No list of great brand logos is complete without mention of the prancing horse. The image was first seen on the fuselage of famed Italian First World War fighter pilot Francesco Baracca, who may have taken it from his enemys coat of arms. Legend has it that in 1923, brand founder Enzo Ferrari met the pilots mother and father and was convinced that using the same pony painting would bring good luck. The yellow is a throw to Ferraris hometown of Modena, with a touch of the Italian flag above. The unique design of the logo has certainly brought Ferrari immense prosperity  merchandise bearing the logo makes up a large portion of the brands profits.



3. BMW







For a long time, the blue and white are often thought to be a spinning propeller, to honor BMW's aircraft-engine beginnings, but the truth is a little different. For BMW, the blue and white colors of the BMW logo symbolized the Bavarian flag colors and represented the companys origin.



The companys home state of Bavaria was also to be represented on the company logo. The quarters of the inner circle on the BMW logo display the state colors of the State of Bavaria  white and blue. But they are in the inverse order (at least as far as heraldic rules are concerned, where you read clockwise from the top left). The reason for this inverse order of blue and white in the BMW logo was the local trademark law at the time, which forbade the use of state coats of arms or other symbols of sovereignty on commercial logos. A brands logo indicates its face and signature. In a letter or word, design or crest, it acts as a visual representation of the objects it is attached to. In the automotive world also, logo design plays a major role in the companys brand identity. Brands go to great lengths to design logos that create an identity that will draw fans towards it even before they see the rest of the vehicle.From American muscle to European exotics, everyone has a favorite car they would like to own one day. But do you also have a favorite car logo? Here goes my list. Please share your's.Even a quick glance at the Alfa Romeo logo implies there's a decent story behind it, and you wouldn't be wrong. While the red cross on the left-hand-side is the symbol of Milan, home of the Italian car maker, on the right it appears to have chosen a man-eating snake.Otone Visconti, a knight from the former ruling family of Milan who fought in the First Crusades, is said to have taken the symbol of a serpent devouring a man from the shield of a Saracen he defeated in battle. Alfa Romeo, however, claims that the man is in fact emerging from the snake, purified and renewed, and the scene is a symbol of rebirth.No list of great brand logos is complete without mention of the prancing horse. The image was first seen on the fuselage of famed Italian First World War fighter pilot Francesco Baracca, who may have taken it from his enemys coat of arms. Legend has it that in 1923, brand founder Enzo Ferrari met the pilots mother and father and was convinced that using the same pony painting would bring good luck. The yellow is a throw to Ferraris hometown of Modena, with a touch of the Italian flag above. The unique design of the logo has certainly brought Ferrari immense prosperity  merchandise bearing the logo makes up a large portion of the brands profits.For a long time, the blue and white are often thought to be a spinning propeller, to honor BMW's aircraft-engine beginnings, but the truth is a little different. For BMW, the blue and white colors of the BMW logo symbolized the Bavarian flag colors and represented the companys origin.The companys home state of Bavaria was also to be represented on the company logo. The quarters of the inner circle on the BMW logo display the state colors of the State of Bavaria  white and blue. But they are in the inverse order (at least as far as heraldic rules are concerned, where you read clockwise from the top left). The reason for this inverse order of blue and white in the BMW logo was the local trademark law at the time, which forbade the use of state coats of arms or other symbols of sovereignty on commercial logos.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 41F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
EMILY ST. LAWRENCE, Chariho girls lacrosse, senior: St. Lawrence tied a school record for goals in a game with nine in a win over Smithfield. St. Lawrence scored 17 goals for the week and has 32 for the season.

CARLY CONSTANTINE, Stonington softball, sophomore: Constantine singled home Shea OConnor with the winning run to hand Waterford, the states No. 2 ranked team at the time, its first loss of the season. For the week, Constantine was 5 for 15.

GREG GORMAN, Westerly baseball, junior: Gorman, a junior, hit a massive home run in a win against Barrington. The homer went over the fence in center field and landed in a nearby road. Gorman was 3 for 3 with four RBIs in the game. He is hitting .571 with 10 RBIs for the season.

BRADIN ANDERSON, Wheeler baseball, freshman: Anderson, a freshman, pitched a complete-game shutout to beat Grasso Tech. Anderson struck out three to earn the first win of his varsity career.

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File image: US President Donald Trump (left) joined by his inner circle in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, on January 28, 2017. (Image: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

United States President Donald Trump at this point is opting not to issue a pardon for himself as he prepares an expansive list of more than 100 pardons and commutations for release on January 19, a source familiar with the effort said.

White House advisers have said Trump has privately debated with advisers whether to take the extraordinary step of issuing a pardon for himself but some administration officials have cautioned Trump against a self-pardon because it would make him look guilty.

Many scholars have said a self-pardon would be unconstitutional because it violates the basic principle that nobody should be the judge in his or her own case.

Others have argued that a self-pardon is constitutional because the pardon power is very broadly worded in the Constitution. Historical texts made clear that the nation's 18th century founders discussed self-pardons, but opted not to include an explicit limitation on that power.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives last week on charges of inciting the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by pro-Trump protesters. His case is to face a Senate trial and if convicted, he could be disqualified from seeking another run for the presidency in 2024.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said so far Trump does not plan to pardon himself and also does not plan to issue preemptive pardons for members of his family, another subject he has discussed privately with advisers.

Trump, who has already issued two waves of pardons in the past month, met advisers on January 17 to finalize a list of more than 100 pardons and commutations, the source said.

CNN reported that Dr Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach who is in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud, is expected to be on the clemency list.

The source said the clemencies were expected to be issued on Trump's last full day in office on Tuesday. Skipping the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Trump leaves on Wednesday morning to begin his post-presidency at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. His presidency ends at noon on January 20.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Late last month, 103-year-old Mildred Clements made history as the first nursing home resident in New Jersey to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

On Monday, Clements finished the process, getting her second  and final  dose as state and national officials continue to face questions about the pace and availability of vaccinations.

Gov. Phil Murphy returned to Roosevelt Care Center in Old Bridge to see Clements, decked in a purple winter coat and large checkered scarf and seated in a wheelchair, complete her inoculation during a ceremony held in a tent outside the facility.

Make sure she can pitch with that arm, Murphy joked after a doctor injected the vaccine into Clements left arm. Spring training is around the corner.

The ceremony came exactly three weeks after Clements  who was a toddler during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic  became the first of New Jerseys 83,000 long-term care residents to get their first dose. Vaccinations are expected to continue at long-term care centers through early next month, officials say.

How are you? state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli asked Clements after Mondays shot.

OK, Clements replied.

You are quite the celebrity now, Persichilli said.

Esther Moodey, a nurse at Roosevelt, also received her second shot at Mondays event. She told Murphy the only side effect she had after the first dose last month was a little cough for a few days. And she said her arm hurt only for a day.

Its exciting, Moodey said of receiving the second dose. Very soon, hopefully, Ill be completely immune. I hope they make enough soon so that everybody will get a shot.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

More than 200 residents and staff members at Roosevelt received the first dose last month and are scheduled to receive the second shot Monday, said Bentzy Davidowitz, the facilitys administrator. None have experienced any issues, he said.

Weve had really tremendous success, Davidowitz said.

Some residents and staff members have not been vaccinated at the site because they are hesitant or have received their shot elsewhere, he said.

The facility had no active coronavirus cases as of Monday morning, Davidowitz said.

Still, more than a month after New Jersey received its first vaccine deliveries and three weeks after nursing home vaccinations started, only 29% of the 215,000 doses reserved from weekly shipments by the federal government made it out of the freezer and into someones arm as of last week, according to data provided by the participating pharmacies.

In the meantime, the virus has continued to rampage through nursing homes. There are currently active outbreaks in 426 long-term care facilities, according to state data. Between Dec. 28  when vaccinations started  and Monday, there have been at least 339 deaths associated with long-term care facilities, including at least one staff member, and 3,819 people tested positive, according to the data.

New Jersey holds the undesirable distinction of being the state with the most COVID-19 deaths per nursing home residents. More than 7,644 residents and 140 staff members have died from the virus over the last 10 months, accounting for about 42% of the states total deaths. The number of deaths at those facilities has been rising again at a steeper rate in recent months, nearly tripling in December.

While the vaccinations represent a light at the end of the tunnel for nursing homes, state officials have admitted they are frustrated by the pace of the vaccinations, which are being conducted by Walgreens and CVS staff as part of a federal program adopted by 49 states.

Last week, Murphy said he and other state officials have had highly charged conversations with the pharmacy chains who are keeping the doses on ice.

CVS is pretty much on track and Walgreens isnt, he said Wednesday. And so, what are we doing? Were pounding away to make sure that they get on track.

Vaccinations in the states long-term care centers could not start until Dec. 28, about two weeks after New Jersey got its first doses, due to state officials missing a deadline and a federal requirement that vaccinations could not begin until a certain number of doses were put aside.

It is a pretty significant task for the pharmacies to schedule clinics and get staff to 655 long-term care facilities, and CVS was better prepared than Walgreens, Persichilli said last week.

The pharmacies have nearly completed their first vaccination clinics at all New Jersey nursing homes, which were prioritized over assisted living and other long-term care facilities. CVS said it has delivered first doses at all 277 nursing homes it partnered with, while Walgreens has held clinics at 72 of 94 nursing homes its working with in New Jersey.

Another 258 long-term care facilities have received first doses out of a total of 1,221 locations, according to the pharmacies data.

The process started off slow but has been picking up and appears to be working quite well at the present time, said Stuart Shapiro, interim president and CEO of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, a trade group that represents long-term care facilities.

Meanwhile, New Jersey officials say demand continues to far outpace supply for all vaccinations across the state, causing people to scramble for scarce appointments. Persichilli said said Monday the state is expecting to continue to receive only 100,000 doses from the federal government in each of the next four weeks after dashed hopes that supply from the national pipeline was about to ramp up.

That, she said, is enough for people who have already received the first dose will be able to get their second shot. But Persichilli said she cant assure increasing numbers of people will be able to get their first dose.

We were hoping for more, she told reporters before the Old Bridge event. But what our points of dispensing need are predictability for appointment scheduling. So were gonna stick with 100,000 for the next four weeks, allocate appropriately based on the throughput of some sites are busier than others, and hope that the Biden administration through the manufacturing pipeline finds more doses for it. Because we really need it.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Rebecca Everett contributed to this report.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.


The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
File photo of two robots that have been deployed at Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad Hospital to serve food and medicine to Covid-19 patients as a precautionary measure to mitigate the risk of infection to the hospital staff, in Vadodara, Gujarat, in July. (ANI photo)
CHONGQING, China, Jan. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 15, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality held a press conference on turning Liangjiang New Area into a region with high-quality life and development, according to Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Management Committee.

As the third state-level development and opening-up new district in China and the first of its kind in the central and western regions, Liangjiang New Area has been developing for 10 years.

With less than 1.5 percent of Chongqing's area, it contributes about 15 percent of Chongqing's total economic volume, industrial output value and added value of digital economy, as well as 30 percent of the municipality's total actually utilized foreign capital and trade volume.

The press conference offered detailed introduction of the guideline issued last November to boost the area's high-quality development, which is designed to help make Liangjiang New Area an inland opening-up portal, smart city in Chongqing and a pilot area in high-quality life and development.

Specifically, by 2025, high-end and high-quality high-tech industries will gather at an accelerated pace, while innovation and entrepreneurship will enjoy full play. The area is expected to take the lead in development and opening-up in west China, with enhanced smart governance capabilities. A number of influential modern industrial clusters will be formed, with upgraded industrial foundation and modernized industrial chains. The area's GDP aims to exceed 500 billion yuan (about 77.15 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.

The guideline is set to help Liangjiang New Area expand new frontiers and inject strong impetus in seeking high-quality development. According to a senior official with the area's management committee, Liangjiang will continue to remain Chongqing's main frontier of development, growth engine and vanguard with focus on six aspects.

Liangjiang will speed up the construction of the core place of the sci-tech innovation center as well as the high-quality development of the real economy, especially advanced manufacturing. Big data innovation and deepening reforms are highlighted in a bid to make a leading smart city and a demonstration zone for institutional reform. The pace will pick up for the building of an important inland opening-up gateway and the construction of an international, green, smart, cultured modern city.

Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission will support and promote the introduction of major national industrial projects in Liangjiang to help the area build a national demonstration zone for high-quality development in manufacturing industry, a national demonstration zone for industrial transformation and upgrading, and a demonstration base for new industrial industries. At the same time, Liangjiang will explore more open and convenient talent introduction policies to create a special zone of innovation and talents by drawing on the strengths of global talents.

For more details, please visit: http://www.liangjiang.gov.cn

SOURCE Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Management Committee

Related Links

http://www.liangjiang.gov.cn


WASHINGTON  They launched their assault on the U.S. Capitol with impunity, livestreaming their crimes and posing for photos as they breached the buildings perimeter and threatened the democratic process. Now members of the pro-Trump mob are arguing they shouldnt be held to account.

Speaking through defense lawyers or in interviews, the alleged rioters argued they did nothing illegal. They couldnt have been trespassing, they say, because they entered the Capitol at the invitation of President Trump, following his direct orders. Capitol police also held the doors open for them, they assert, basically ushering them into the buildings hallowed halls. Even so, knowing that time is running out on Trumps presidency, they are also making a last-minute case for clemency to avert prosecution, appealing to the man who allegedly incited them to act.

I would like a pardon from the president of the United States, said Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate agent charged in the storming of the Capitol, in an interview with CBS News late last week. I think that we all deserve a pardon. Im facing a prison sentence. I think that I do not deserve that.

Adam Newbold, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, told ABC News that he was seeking clemency after posting a Facebook video boasting about breaching the Capitol, which brought FBI agents to his door for an interview.

I would like to express to you just a cry for clemency, as you understand that my life now has been absolutely turned upside-down, Newbold said.

An attorney for Jacob Chansley  the man who entered the Capitol wearing horns and carrying a spear  said on CNN that his client also deserved a pardon, as he was only in the Capitol because he had hitched his wagon to Trump and felt he was answering a call from the president to go there.

The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something, said the attorney, Albert Watkins.

Trump had called his supporters to the National Mall on Jan. 6 for what he said would be a wild protest, a continuation of his months-long falsehood-filled campaign to overturn an election he lost. He then egged them on during a rally speech to head to the Capitol as Congress was counting electoral votes for Biden. His actions led House Democrats, joined by 10 Republicans, to impeach Trump last week, making him the first president to twice face that sanction. Lawmakers said he incited the mob attack, setting up a Senate trial that will take place when Biden is president. Biden is set to be sworn in on Wednesday.

Although the prosecutions are in their early stages, scholars and legal experts say the alleged rioters early pronouncements  that their fealty to Trump should get them leniency in return  reflect a deeply rooted sense of entitlement among many supporters of Trump, who for years has projected a swaggering disregard for his own legal troubles and a penchant for pardoning his confidants.

Impunity is in some ways kind of the defining feature of Trump as a public personality and of the Trump presidency. He has taken impunity to an art form, said Brian DeLay, an associate professor of history at UC Berkeley.

In both his impeachments, in the special counsel probe into Russias interference in the 2016 campaign, and in case after case in which associates have been charged and convicted of crimes, Trump has telegraphed to his supporters that he  and they  are beyond reproach, castigating investigations as witch hunts or hoaxes.

Impunity is something that has been baked into Trumpism from the beginning, DeLay said, and so its not surprising to me now that the people who consider themselves his followers are saying, I think in a pretty authentic way, Surely youre going to get us out of this. You asked us to do it, we did it, and impunity is how things work.

The alleged rioters hope may not be entirely misplaced.

Trump has used his clemency power almost exclusively as a political tool to reward supporters. His first pardon went to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County, who was held in contempt of court for refusing to stop racially profiling Latinos. The following year, at the urging of Kim Kardashian, he commuted the sentence of Alice Johnson, who was serving a life term for a nonviolent drug offense. He later pardoned Johnson after she supported his reelection campaign.

The president has also almost completely undone the sentences handed down during the Russia investigation, pardoning nearly every former adviser who was convicted or pleaded guilty, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and longtime political advisor Roger Stone.

Overt appeals for clemency have been welcomed by Trump. Hes come to the aid of accused and convicted war criminals after their supporters or lawyers have made pleas for help on Fox News.

Its unclear if Trump is considering pardoning any of those who breached the Capitols security. The Department of Justice said in a statement that its Office of the Pardon Attorney is not involved in any efforts to pardon individuals or groups involved with the heinous acts that took place this week in and around the U.S. Capitol, although the president has typically circumvented the normal procedure for weighing clemency.

Steven Levin, a former federal prosecutor and military judge who is now a criminal defense lawyer, says he thinks it is unlikely Trump will pardon the rioters. Doing so, he said, would be further evidence that they were doing his bidding.

Despite their protestations that the president urged them on, the defendants are also likely to fail in court because an invitation to commit a crime is not an excuse to do it, Levin said.

To make his point, Levin  who is not representing anyone accused in the riot  compared the siege of the Capitol to a bank robbery.

You cant really make the argument that, Hey look, the bank president invited me in with my friends so we could take money from the vault. That doesnt make it legal, Levin said. No jury is going to find that argument sympathetic or, frankly, even reasonable.

Some of the accused also have claimed that they didnt break into the Capitol but were let in by police.

Watkins, the attorney for the spear-wielding Chansley, argued on CNN that Chansley did not break into the building but had the doors to the Capitol held for him by Capitol Police.

Thomas Robertson, a Virginia police officer, made a similar assertion to investigators in trying to explain why he entered the building, according to court papers.

Levin said such arguments were almost certain to fail. Police officers who feared for their own safety and were overwhelmed by the sheer size of the advancing crowd had legitimate reasons for not attempting to halt the intruders.

Levin said defendants  particularly those charged with unlawful entry, especially those who know images of them in the building are out there  would be wise to negotiate a deal as soon as possible.

___

Kevin Rector and Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times wrote this story.

(c)2021 the Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, one U.S. children's hospital saw an increase in trauma cases from recreational and outdoor activities, even as total ER visits dropped by 50%, researchers report.

What happened? Their new study suggests that being in lockdown, with schools closed, may have prompted more kids to go outside and playand potentially get injured doing so. At the same time, parents may have feared taking their children to the hospital unless it was a dire injury.

Study author Dr. Zaid Haddadin, a postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and his colleagues looked at the number of emergency room visits for respiratory illnesses or trauma between March and May 2020.

Over that time, a total of nearly 6,400 pediatric emergency room visits occurred in 2020, compared with more than 12,000 in 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of respiratory care for kids visits dropped by 58% in 2020, the researchers found.

"Community efforts to control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 might have played a role in decreasing the spread of other respiratory viruses in children," Haddadin explained.

But at the same time, there was a significant increase in the number of trauma visits related to activities like all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and motorcycles, which might have been related to school closings, Haddadin said.

"Most schools were closed starting mid-March in our area, and our data show an unusual increase of trauma due to recreational and outdoor activities, compared to previous years when kids were still at school during March to May," he said. "These injuries are usually encountered during summer breaks."

Also, trauma cases from abuse, suicide, assault and homicide dropped and animal-related injuries declined nearly twofold, the study found.

"Increased supervision with multiple caregivers at home likely resulted in a decrease in these intentional injuries," Haddadin said.

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, agreed, adding, "The study's findings related to increased traumatic injuries seen during the pandemic illustrate the importance of ongoing public health messaging to discourage the use of ATVs and motorcycle riding in the midst of lockdowns when resources for trauma care are diverted for care of patients with COVID-19."

Parents also need to discuss with teens that engaging in such risky activities could result in serious injury due to delay in definitive carethe result of reduced access and capacity for trauma care during COVID-19, he said.

"Data from the study serves as a caution for families of teens who feel 'cooped up' or have 'cabin fever' and may want to pull out their ATVs and motorcycles and go riding during a raging pandemic," said Glatter, who wasn't part of the study.

While the message during the pandemic has been to "stay home," it should also include a warning to avoid activities that place you at elevated risk for bodily injury and death, he said.

"Choosing lower-impact activities with a reduced risk for injury is advisable as we continue to face ongoing surges and reduced capacity at our nation's hospitals," Glatter said.

"Anecdotally, I continue to see teens with extremity fractures, head injuries and lacerations resulting from use of electric scooters and e-bikes during the pandemic," he added. "The increase in injuries might be linked to a desire to avoid the risks of exposure to COVID-19 from public transportation."

The report was published online Jan. 12 in the journal Hospital Pediatrics.

More information: For more on coping with COVID-19, see the For more on coping with COVID-19, see the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
They got engaged on the finale of season 16 of The Bachelorette.

And Tayshia Adams has been sharing pics from her weekend road trip with Zac Clark to celebrate his 37th birthday.

The reality star couple journeyed through upstate New York where they enjoyed walks in the snow, a sauna and celebratory mocktails.

Fun time: They got engaged on the finale of season 16 of The Bachelorette. And Tayshia Adams has been sharing pics from her weekend road trip with Zac Clark to celebrate his 37th birthday

Adams, 30, posted a series of images to her Instagram Story starting on Saturday morning.

They included a selfie of the couple wearing knit beanies as they walked through a snowy forest as well as a snap of a wood cabin on stilts situated on the edge of a river.

The birthday celebration included an impressive charcuterie board and fizzy drinks with straws, which presumably were non-alcoholic as Clark has been sober since 2011.

Wintry: Adams, 30, posted a series of images to Instagram Story starting Saturday morning. They included a selfie of the couple wearing knit beanies as they walked in a snowy forest

Remote: She also shared a snap of a wood cabin on stilts situated on the edge of a river in a very scenic setting

Party: The birthday celebration included an impressive charcuterie board and fizzy drinks with straws, which presumably were non-alcoholic as Clark has been sober since 2011

Adams, who is from Orange County, California, has previously explained that she plans to be bi-coastal now she is engaged to New Jersey native Clark who co-founded a sober living facility in New York.

Ill have my place [in California] and Im looking forward to spending time in New York with him and just getting used to being bicoastal,' she said during a recent appearance on Good Morning America.

Adams has revealed she knew Clark was 'the one' when he met her family during filming of the ABC dating contest.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: 'There were multiple moments where I saw myself envisioning a life with him. I guess it really solidified when my family was involved, just because I'm really close with my family. You don't just marry an individual, you also marry their family.'

Adams explained: 'It was really important for me to see him with my brothers and see how he interacted with my parents. My dad is kind of protective over me, if you haven't noticed! So, to get his approval is everything.'
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A MAN ran up behind a woman and grabbed her twice as she made her way home alone on a Dublin street late at night, it is alleged.

John Byrne (23) is accused of grabbing the woman around the chest area and attempting to rob her, after telling her he mistakenly thought she was someone he knew.

He is facing trial after a judge ruled that the case was too serious to be dealt with at district court level. Judge David McHugh adjourned it for further directions of the DPP.

Mr Byrne, with an address at Castleknock Gate, Phoenix Park, is charged with attempted robbery last June 2.

Garda Quin Hanley told Blanchardstown District Court the DPP was consenting to the case being dealt with in the district court subject to the judge considering the issue of jurisdiction.

Outlining the proposed evidence, he said a woman was walking at Auburn Avenue at 11.45pm, on the opposite side of the road to the accused.

It was alleged he ran up behind her and grabbed her back, but she managed to push him away and shouted at him.

Gda Hanley said the accused claimed he had mistakenly thought she was someone he knew and the woman continued to hastily make her way home and crossed the road.

It was alleged the accused crossed the road behind her and she shouted at him.

She was directly opposite her home at this stage.

It was alleged Mr Byrne again ran up behind her and put his arms around her chest area. She shouted out and broke free of the accuseds grip and ran into her home, Gda Hanley said.

The alleged victim did not know Mr Byrne but provided gardai with a detailed description and he was later charged.

Judge McHugh refused jurisdiction to deal with the case after hearing the gardas outline of the allegations.

He said the view of the Director of Public Prosecutions would be required before a book of evidence can served and adjourned the case.

When a book is served the accused will be sent forward for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The accused has not yet entered a plea to the charge, which is under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act.



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With the global economy being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam drew nearly $16 billion in foreign direct investment in the first six months of 2020, down 15 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, yet much better than the average 30-40 per cent downturn all over the world in 2020, making Vietnam a promising destination for foreign investors.

Particularly, a raft of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) taking effect as well as the newly signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and two other FTAs being negotiated make Vietnam one of the most open economies in the world, offering multiple opportunities to develop the supply chain.

As stated by Trang Bui, head of Markets at JLL Vietnam at the CEO Forum, 26 international brands have shifted or expanded production to Vietnam. This figure has enabled Vietnam to benefit the most from the structural change in international supply chain, followed by Taiwan (11 brands). The shift in supply chain has transformed Vietnam into a global warehouse.

In the first 11 months of 2020, FDI flows into Vietnam reached $26.43 billion

Blooming modern logistics centres

According to JLL Vietnam, in the past 24 months, nearly $3 billion has been injected into the warehouse system and modern logistics centres.

Investors and businesses used to pay little attention to the lifespan of logistics centres. However, as customers requirements are getting stricter, basic infrastructure will not meet their needs. Therefore, investors will need to consider the lifespan and cost-worthiness of logistics centres to better serve supply chains  and construction materials will be a key area of focus to ensure the safety of goods, commented Bui from JLL Vietnam.

In fact, the number of logistics centres in Vietnam is on the upswing. According to NS BlueScope Vietnam, an industry leader providing high-quality steel solutions for enterprises, recently, every five out of 10 projects provided by BlueScope belong to logistics enterprises such as DHL, Kerry, Mapletree, BW, FM Logistic, or Kizuna.

Kizunas ready-to-serve space in Long An uses BlueScopes Lysaght steel solution with COLORBOND steel Activate technology

Mapletree Bac Ninh Logistics Centre consists of three Grade A single-storey warehouse blocks applying BlueScope Lysaght steel solution with COLORBOND steel

According to Le Duy Hiep, chairman of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, previously, warehouses were of a smaller scale. The current trend is that enterprises team up or top players in the industry invest in large-scale warehouses integrated with multiple functions to form logistics centres.

The second trend is improving administration through IT and automation. The third trend is promoting green logistics powered by renewable energy in the management and operation of logistics centres and warehouses.

Priority on safety and quality

For a well-established company like FM Logistic, the prime concerns when building warehouses are fire safety and the temperature inside the warehouses to ensure the safety of goods and staff.

FM Logistic Bac Ninh is another logistics centre in Vietnam that applies BlueScopes cutting-edge steel solution

Construction materials and technique are two important factors that determine the quality of logistics projects, Vo Minh Nhut, country president of NS BlueScope Vietnam noted.

Currently, BlueScopes COLORBOND steel and Lysaght solutions are not only widely used by factories and warehouses throughout Vietnam but are also present in a variety of projects worldwide.

The company has invested more than A$100 million ($77.34 million) in the past more than 22 years into research and development to develop its Activate coating technology, setting a new benchmark for the coated steel industry.

Activate is known for its matrix of four-phase protection for the steel substrate integrated in premium COLORBOND steel, completely different from the aluminium-zinc alloy coating two-phase technology in the market, which can prevent corrosion in severe environments like marine and polluted industrial sites.

In addition, this Australian-based steel group has also managed to improve the paint coatings to augment dirt and stain resistance and optimise thermal performance through Clean (self-cleaning technology) and Thermatech (solar reflectance technology), ensuring lasting beauty for construction projects.

BlueScope invested over A$100 million dollars in more than 22 years into R&D to develop Activate coating technology to enhance the lifespan of constructions

We offer the Lysaght solution with a synchronised design and completely non-perforated roof connection. The roof system can move freely, helping to prevent disconnection between clip and cladding while the roof can expand or contract under thermal change. This kind of roofing solution is especially suitable for the Vietnamese climate, eliminating leaks and limiting wind uplift. In addition, we also work with strategic partners to ensure aesthetics, quality, and modern look for projects, Nhut said.

Currently, BlueScopes COLORBOND steel and Lysaght solutions are not only widely used by factories and warehouses throughout Vietnam but are also present in a variety of projects worldwide. Its solutions encompasses all that is needed for high-quality logistics warehouses, from steel materials with superior durability and quality to excellent roofing, walling, and other innovative solutions that provide optimum efficiency for investors.
Researchers in Saudi Arabia have conducted a study demonstrating the antiviral effects of two medicinal herbs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)  the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The team's analysis of Hypericum perforatum  also called St. John's Wort  and two species of Echinacea (Purple Cone Flower) showed that each herb, as well as the two combined, exerted inhibitory and virucidal effects on SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells.

The effects were most potent when cells were treated with H. perforatum. A combination of the two herbs was the second most effective, and treatment with Echinacea alone was the least effective.

Leena Hussein Bajrai and colleagues from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah recommend that clinical trials are initiated to investigate the herbs as potential treatments for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A pre-print version of the research paper is available on the bioRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review.

Saint John's Wort. Image Credit: Tessaluna / Shutterstock

Effective antivirals are urgently needed

Although most SARS-COV-2 infections cause mild-to-moderate COVID-19, a substantial proportion leads to severe disease characterized by vasculitis, coagulopathy, and multi-organ damage that can lead to death. Such advanced disease can be caused by the overproduction of certain cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-), interleukin -6 (IL-6), and interferon-gamma (IFN-).

Although some vaccines protecting against SARS-CoV-2 infection have recently become available, their efficacy is a topic of intense debate, particularly since new variants have arisen in the virus's genomic structure.

Effective antivirals are therefore still urgently needed as treatment approaches, says the team.

Echinacea. Image Credit: Mitand73 / Shutterstock

More about the medicinal plants

H. perforatum or St. John's Wort has long been known for its medicinal effects across a range of bacterial and viral infections. In vitro and in vivo studies have previously demonstrated the antiviral activity of H. perforatum against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), hepatitis C, and coronaviruses other than SARS-CoV-2.

Three species of Echinacea (Purple cone Flower), namely E. angustifolia, E. purpurea, and E. Pallida, have also traditionally been used as remedies to treat influenza and to boost the immune system. In vivo and in vitro studies have previously shown that Echinacea influences cytokine production, increases expression of the lymphocyte activation marker CD69, and reduces the severity of illness.

One study conducted in 2009 showed that E. purpurea extract inhibits infection with H5N1 influenza by blocking the receptor-binding activity of the virus.

What did the researchers do?

The team investigated the antiviral effects of H. perforatum and two Echinacea species (E. purpurea and E. angustifolia) on Vero E6 cells incubated with SARS-CoV-2. The effects of treating the cells with a mixture of the herbs (H.E) were also investigated.

Their mode of action was assessed using three approaches: direct treatment of virus-infected cells, pre-treatment of cells prior to viral infection, and a virucidal activity assay.

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to measure the mRNA expression of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) gene, viral load, and virus neutralization every 12, 16, 24, 36, and 48 hours post-infection.

What did the study find?

When virus-infected cells were treated with the extracts, H. perforatum showed the greatest efficacy, with an IC50 value (concentration that inhibits 50% of target) of 1.56mg/mL, followed by the H.E mixture (IC50: 6.25mg/mL), and Echinacea (IC50: 6.25mg/mL).

The greatest reduction in viral load was observed for H. perforatum, followed by the H.E. mixture and Echinacea. Both H. perforatum and the H.E mixture reduced viral load for up to 36 hours, while Echinacea reduced it for up to 24hrs of addition.

Next, the cells were incubated with the extracts at 37C for two hours prior to infection. The effective concentration was highest for H. perforatum, at 1.56 g/mL, followed by the H.E. mixture (6.25 mg/mL) and Echinacea (6.25 mg/mL).

For the virucidal activity assay, SARS-CoV-2 was incubated with the extracts for two hours before it was added to cells. Again, H. perforatum exhibited the greatest effect, followed by the H.E mixture, and Echinacea. Incubation with H. perforatum or the H.E mixture reduced viral load for more than 48 hours, while Echinacea reduced viral load for up to 36 hours.

"H. perforatum showed the highest inhibitory effect in all three antiviral assays, while Echinacea showed the lowest inhibitory effect," writes the team.

Future directions

The researchers say the study provides clear evidence for the first time that a mixture of H. perforatum and Echinacea demonstrates anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. They suggest testing whether the mixture can boost the inhibition of the virus in clinical trials.

The mixture could be useful for treating SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with mild or severe disease and for protecting people who have contact with infected patients, says Bajrai and colleagues. However, treatment with H. perforatum is preferable since it demonstrated a higher efficacy, they add.

The researchers also recommend using either Echinacea or H.E as a prophylactic approach to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued a new order to stop fining people for not wearing masks inside their private vehicles. The new rule came into force in Mumbai from Sunday afternoon.

Though, while travelling in public transport like taxis or rickshaws the fine for not wearing a mask will continue to be levied.

The municipal commissioner has directed to stop penalising passengers in a private car. However, this is strictly for the private cars only and marshals will continue to penalise the passengers (without face masks) who are travelling in public vehicles. All marshals must be informed of this change today itself," a statement from BMC chiefs office was quoted by a Times of India report.

With the intention to curb the spread of coronavirus infection post-Diwali season, the civic body had increased vigilance in the city and the violation of the mask rule attracted a penalty of Rs 200.

From April till November 28, Rs 63.39 lakh was collected as fine from people not wearing masks in the K-westward area, a BMC official said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtras COVID-19 tally rose to 19,87,678 after it recorded 2,910 fresh cases. The fatality count, on the other hand, reached 50,388. A total of 3,039 patients were discharged on Saturday, pushing the tally of recovered people to 18,84,127. With this, the number of active patients settled at 51,965.
USTR is not curently taking any specific actions regarding Vietnam tariffs but is continuing to "evaluate all available options"

The US has decided it will not impose tariff increases on goods from Vietnam for the time being, bringing relief to footwear and apparel brands and retailers across the country.

Outlining the findings of its Section 301 investigation into Vietnam's currency practices, the US Trade Representative (USTR) said it had concluded the country's acts, policies and practices, including excessive foreign exchange market interventions and other related actions "taken in their totality, are unreasonable and burden or restrict US commerce".

"Unfair acts, policies and practices that contribute to currency undervaluation harm US workers and businesses, and need to be addressed," said USTR Robert Lighthizer. "I hope that the United States and Vietnam can find a path for addressing our concerns."

While the USTR said it is not taking any specific actions in connection with the findings at this time, it will continue to evaluate all available options. A separate Section 301 investigation on Vietnam's timber practices is still pending.

"There is never a good time for tariffs, but they would be particularly harmful as all Americans and this industry continue to be impacted by the effects of COVID-19," says Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). "Tariffs are taxes on American consumers, American workers, and American companies. This has become abundantly clear during the US-China trade war. Vietnam is an important trading partner, especially as businesses try to rebalance their sourcing away from China. Adding tariffs to imports from Vietnam would hurt those efforts and investments."

He adds: "We look forward to continuing a dialogue with USTR under the leadership of USTR-designate Katherine Tai and the incoming Biden administration as they seek remedy with Vietnam."

Last week, a multi-industry letter signed by 200 company and trade association CEOs was submitted to the USTR Section 301 hearings on Vietnam currency valuation and urged the administration to avoid using tariffs as a remedy in the investigations.

If additional tariffs are applied to US imports from Vietnam, it would mean that more than half of all apparel and footwear, and more than three-quarters of all accessories sold in the US, would be hit with cumulative tariffs as high as 25-50%.

Many companies including footwear brands Nike and Adidas have shifted sourcing to Vietnam as a direct result of the China 301 tariffs and supply chain diversification efforts. Lower wages and vertically integrated supply chains help make it increasingly attractive to source from.

As well as being the second-largest supplier of apparel, footwear, and travel goods to the US, Vietnam is also a key supplier of raw materials used by US manufacturers, and a major market for US textile and chemical exports.

According to the US International Trade Commission, US textile and apparel exports to Vietnam increased by $97m from 2015 to 2019. During that same time, US footwear exports to Vietnam increased by $170m.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 00:18:13|Editor: huaxia

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MANDERA, Kenya, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Al-Shabab has freed three Kenyan government officials who were abducted early this week in the northeast Kenyan border region, the police said on Sunday.

The police said the three officials working at the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) who were abducted on Jan. 11 were found abandoned at Tawfiq area in Mandera near the common border with Somalia on Saturday.

"The trio narrated that on the very day of abduction, they were taken several kilometers to an unknown place as the militant group numbering about 20 and asked whether they are Muslims or Christians," the police said in a security report.

According to the police, al-Shabab interrogated the three officials to find out if they were government employees.

"They finally convinced them that they are Muslims and are not working for the government hence being handled well," said the police.

The police said the three who looked tired and weak were later taken round for 24 hours on Friday before being released on Saturday.

The police said they had intensified the search and recovery of the three officials in Merile and Wakodadacha areas of Banisa region following their abduction.

Somalia-based fighters have been blamed in the past for a spate of kidnappings of foreigners along Kenya's northeast and coastal regions.

The police have also blamed local al-Shabab sympathizers for the attacks in the region which have always targeted security personnel and civil servants including teachers.

The east African nation shares a porous border with Somalia and many times the insurgents have carried out cross-border attacks where they also abduct people for ransom. Enditem
Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in a gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety. The Xinhua News Agency said a note passed through a rescue shaft reported the fate of the other 10 remains unknown. The handwritten note said four of the workers were injured and that the condition of others was deteriorating because of a lack of fresh air and an influx of water. Managers of the operation were detained after they failed to report the accident for more than a day.

Kremlin critic detained in Moscow

View Full Image Police detained prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on arrival in Moscow on Sunday

Police detained prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on arrival in Moscow on Sunday after he flew home to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned last summer, triggering a political clash with the West. Navalny's detention at passport control in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was widely expected because Russia's prisons service said he had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction. The prisons service said he would be held in custody until a court rules on his case. No date for a court appearance was immediately announced. The service earlier said that it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3 1/2-year sentence behind bars. Navalny, 44, who is President Vladimir Putins most prominent and determined foe, brushed off concerns about arrest as he boarded the plane in Berlin, reports the Press Trust of India.

Riots erupt in Tunisia

View Full Image Clashes broke out for a third consecutive evening Sunday in several Tunisian cities

Clashes broke out for a third consecutive evening Sunday in several Tunisian cities, pitting stone-throwing youths against security forces despite a tight lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, reports AFP. In the working-class neighbourhood of Ettadhamen on the edge of the capital Tunis, young men hurled rocks at riot police who responded with volleys of tear gas. Authorities said they had arrested dozens of young people during consecutive nights of disturbances in the capital and other cities, amid a nationwide anti-coronavirus lockdown imposed since Thursdaya decade to the day since dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled from power. But in Ettadhamen, there were no political slogans to be heard. Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni said earlier Sunday that dozens of young people, mostly aged between 14 and 17, had been arrested after they took to the streets during previous evenings, to loot and vandalise shopfronts and cars.

Building vaccines and trust

View Full Image India stepped up efforts to bolster trust in coronavirus vaccines

India stepped up efforts to bolster trust in coronavirus vaccines after it was revealed that nearly a third of those invited to get jabs at the launch of a nationwide drive failed to turn up, reports PTI. The government has launched one of the world's most ambitious vaccine programmes, aiming to innoculate 300 million of the 1.3 billion population by July. In the first two days of the drive, which started Saturday, the government said 224,000 of 300,000 planned vaccinations were carried out. In the capital New Delhi, only 53% of people came forward for jabs, according to a health official. With public doubt about the drugs spreading on social media, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan changed his Twitter profile header to say "VACCINES WORK". The government said that over the first two days of vaccinations 447 people had reported adverse symptoms.

US announces new sanctions

View Full Image The US announced sanctions on Friday against six Hong Kong or Chinese officials it blamed for implementing a new security law in Hong Kong

The United States announced sanctions on Friday against six Hong Kong or Chinese officials it blamed for implementing a new security law in Hong Kong, following the mass arrests of pro-democracy activists this month. Hong Kong police arrested 53 people on Jan. 5 in the biggest crackdown on the democracy movement since China last year imposed a security law which opponents say is aimed at quashing dissent in the former British colony. This action by Hong Kong authorities is yet another stark example of Hong Kong's freedoms and democratic processes being fundamentally undermined, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. Pompeo said 13 former Legislative Council members, an American lawyer and a former law professor were among those reportedly detained before being released on bail. He called for the freeing of all those held under the security law.

Japan gets stricter on covid

View Full Image Tokyo Olympics organisers said Monday they will slash the number of athletes at the opening and closing ceremonies of this year's coronavirus-delayed Games

Tokyo Olympics organisers said Monday they will slash the number of athletes at the opening and closing ceremonies of this year's coronavirus-delayed Games, as a report said thousands fewer will attend. More than 11,000 athletes are expected to compete at the Tokyo Games, but anti-virus measures limiting the time they can spend in the Olympic Village mean not all will be able to attend the opening and closing festivities. Organisers said they would also "reconsider" how many athletes can take part in the ceremonies, and how to get them into the stadium safely. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged to tackle surging coronavirus cases and restore normal life "as soon as possible" as polls showed plunging support for his government. Suga was speaking at the opening of a new parliament session and has only been in office since September, reports AFP.

Curated by Sohini Sen. Have something to share with us? Write to us at feedback@livemint or tweet to @shohinisen

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Telugu superstars Ram Charan and Pawan Kalyan might soon come together for an upcoming project helmed by director Shankar. If reports are to be believed, the two megastars will be starring in a movie together for the first time.

According to Tollywood Net, the makers will be narrating the script to Panjaa star Pawan Kalyan. The report mentions that Ram Charan will be playing the lead role in the movie, while Pawan Kalyan will be essaying a pivotal and lengthy role. Tamil film director Shankar, who has created some blockbuster movies like 2.0, Enthiran and Indian, stalled his Indian 2 project after actor Kamal Hassan got busy with his political party.

However, fans can expect an equally interesting movie if Pawan Kalyan agrees to star in the upcoming film next to Ram Charan. The 35-year-old actor is currently working in the upcoming mega star Chiranjeevis movie titled Acharya. On Sunday, the director of the project, Koratala Siva also shared a poster featuring Ram Charans character on his Twitter handle.

Captioning the poster, Koratala wrote that their Siddha is ready. He further wrote that he is welcoming Ram Charan garu onto the sets of Acharya. The movie marks Chiranjeevis 152nd project and also stars Sonu Sood in a major role.

Ram Charan has joined the shooting after recovering from coronavirus. The actor had tested positive for the widespread virus in December last year.

Meanwhile, superstar Pawan Kalyan will be seen in the upcoming Telugu remake of Bollywood movie Pink, which is titled Vakeel Saab. Teaser of the courtroom drama/thriller was released last week. The teaser shows the actor in an aggressive yet righteous character of a lawyer who will be fighting a case that involves sexual assault against women. The remake will also star Shruti Haasan, Nivetha Thomas, Anjali and Ananya Nagalla in major roles, besides Pawan Kalyan. The movie is directed by Sriram Venu.

The teaser has garnered over 12 million views since it was released on January 14, 2021.
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TN Polls: Stalin accuses AIADMK govt of putting on hold projects brought during DMK rule

India

oi-Deepika S

Chennai, Jan 18: DMK chief M K Stalin on Monday accused the AIADMK government of blocking schemes such as the Hogenakkal integrated drinking water project, brought by his party when it was in power.

Participating in a people's gram sabha meeting held by his party in Kummanur village in the district, he said the scheme would be fast tracked and also extended to several other villages in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts if the DMK came to power in the assembly elections, due in a few months.

Stalin claimed the DMK government had completed 80 per cent of the work on the Hogenakkal integrated drinking water project.

"I went to Japan to get funds for the project. But when the AIADMK came to power, it thwarted the plan. We will complete the project when the DMK comes to power," he said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly claimed the AIADMK government had not implemented any scheme for Dharmapuri district.

DMK alliance to sweep Tamil Nadu elections: C-Voter opinion poll

"The prices of groceries, which were under check during the DMK regime, have now gone up. In four months time, the DMK will form the government in Tamil Nadu with the support of the people," he asserted.

Stalin, whose party is aiming to come back to power after being in the opposition for the last ten years, has been touring the state and addressing the people's grama sabha meetings, as a prelude to the campaign for assembly elections, likely in April-May.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 23:24 [IST]
Ukraine will finance the construction of a bridge across the Dniester River, which will become part of a new highway connecting Kyiv and Chisinau, said Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

"One of the projects that we will start immediately will be the construction of a bridge across the Dniester River in the Yampil-Kosuets region, and a corresponding highway that will connect Kyiv and Chisinau. And not just connect, but will allow almost to get by car from Kyiv to Chisinau across the new bridge in five hours. Funding for the construction of this bridge will be carried out at the expense of the state budget of Ukraine. I note that the construction of the entire bridge is carried out at the expense of Ukraine," said Zhovkva in an interview with TSN, published on Monday.

According to him, Ukravtodor is already working on the appropriate regulatory framework for this funding.

"Also, Ukraine will complete a part of the highway from Kyiv directly to the bridge. Most of it has already been built, restored or reconstructed ... Moldova, for its part, will complete its own part of this highway. And, again, they have already built a part of this road. Therefore, this is an absolutely realistic project with realistic financing. The only thing left to do is to complete it. The Ukrainian and Moldovan sides have received the corresponding instructions from the two presidents," Zhovkva said.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Ayvazian had a phone conversation with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov on January 18.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia, the FMs referred to issues of establishing stability and ensuring security in the region.

In the context of the implementation of the November 9 and January 11 statements, Minister Ayvazyan once again highlighted the full implementation of humanitarian issues, first of all the priority of returning POWs and other kept as hostages.

Minister Ayvazian drew the attention of his Russian counterpart to the importance of preserving the Armenian religious, cultural and historical heritage in the territories of Artsakh that have passed under the Azerbaijani control and the unobstructed involvement of international specialized institutions in those works.

The interlocutor also exchanged views on Armenian-Russian bilateral and multilateral agenda.
The Ansar Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Brigade has claimed responsibility for an attack that wounded three Turkish soldiers in the northern countryside of Idleb writes Alsouria Net.

A group by the name of Ansar Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Brigade has claimed the sniping of three Turkish soldiers in the village of Batabu in the northern countryside of Idleb, at a time when the Turkish Ministry of Defense did not make any statement regarding new attacks on its soldiers.

On Saturday, the group issued a statement in which it said that the sniper detachment of the Ansar Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Brigade had used thermal snipers to target the Turkish forces stationed in the village of Batabu in the northern countryside of Idleb, which resulted in wounding three soldiers.

In the absence of any information about the alleged attack, Alsouria Nets team got in touch with the spokesperson for the National Liberation Front (NLF), Naji Mustafa, who said he had no information on the matter.

A leader in the NLF confirmed to Alsouria Net that Turkish soldiers were wounded by a sniper in the area.

The leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that three Turkish soldiers were wounded in the Idleb countryside in a sniping operation. The soldiers were taken to Turkey to receive treatment, and one of them was in critical condition.

He indicated that the group that claimed responsibility for the operation is unknown, expecting cells affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) to be behind the incident.

This coincided with the Turkish armys establishment of a new military post, near the village of Afs, north of the city of Saraqib in the southeastern countryside of Idleb, in addition to bringing heavy weapons to the post.

It is not the first time that the aforementioned group has claimed an attack on the Turkish forces. In August last year, it announced the detonation of a motorcycle bomb near the Turkish point in Marj al-Zuhur in the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur, wounding a Turkish soldier.

Last September, it also claimed responsibility for shooting at a Turkish patrol on the M4 highway near the town of Mutarim, south of Idleb, killing a Turkish soldier and wounding another.

The attack comes days after a group called Abdullah bin Unais claimed the targeting of Turkish convoys with RPG missiles, while patrolling the Aleppo-Lattakia international highway.

For weeks, Idleb has been witnessing a calm that some described as cautious, sometimes punctuated by violations by Assads forces, backed by Russia, which announced, a few days ago, the targeting of three of its members, an attack that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham claimed responsibility for.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
ALBANY  The latest restaurant to decide to take a pause from service as winter drags on and coronavirus vaccine rolls out more slowly than projected is New World Bistro Bar in Albany. Open for takeout/delivery and market fare since early November, New World is now fully closed for about six weeks. Owner Annette Nanes said she hopes to reopen in early March.

On Jan. 10, the Malta Diner in Malta said it is closing, effective immediately, "due to a decreased volume of business and lack of staffing." Also closed as of the same day, Ryan's Wake in Troy said that it is "going to take a breather and temporarily pause operations." Neither place projected reopening dates.
Long-term development commitments realised through strategic M&A moves

The Vietnamese merger and acquisition (M&A) market has suffered a plunge since the beginning of 2020 as investors took a more cautious tack while restrictions and quarantine measures hindered the evaluation and decision-making of M&A deals.

Such transactions in Vietnam were estimated at $3.5 billion during 2020, accounting for 48.6 per cent compared to the previous year, but it is believed the market will recover this year when its size may return to previous levels of around $5 billion.

Beside other traditionally big investors to Vietnam including those from Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, Thai corporates have showcased great confidence in Vietnam in the midst of the global health crisis.

In one case, Stark Group acquired Thinh Phat Cables JSC and Dong Viet Non-Ferrous Metal and Plastic JSC, while a leading Thai conglomerate SCG bought Bien Hoa Packaging JSC. There have also been a few notable power projects in Vietnam involving Thai investors in the past year such as Banpu Pcl., Super Energy Corporation, and Gunkul Engineering Plc.

These transactions, along with many other M&A deals that have been carried out recently, come with worries that many Vietnamese companies may fall by the wayside in the hands of foreign companies.

However, Ong Tiong Hooi, transaction services partner of PwC Vietnam, told VIR that almost all investments made via Thailand have come through corporates that are looking to expand their value chain either horizontally or vertically into sectors such as beverages, retail, construction, packaging-related materials, and industrial products.

Generally, all foreign investors regardless of corporate or financial investors look for the same thing: supporting their investee to grow, adding value and synergies to their portfolio of investments, and strengthening and generating financial returns, he said. For most Thai buyers, our general observation is that they do understand the general business practices in an emerging country like Vietnam, as most of their countries underwent the same business trajectory before.

Supercharged competitiveness

Meanwhile, Eric Johnson, senior associate in Vietnam at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, stated that foreign investment into local Vietnamese businesses should be viewed as a positive trend that increases competition and benefits the domestic business community as a whole.

For example, for founders looking to sell a family-owned business, selling to a foreign investor is an attractive option, and there is still plenty of demand from foreign investors for well-run local businesses.

For growing Vietnamese companies, funding from a well-known foreign financial investor can provide capital, know-how, and a reputational boost that can supercharge their expansion plans. Of course, too much investment done in the wrong way could freeze out local businesses and actually reduce competition, Johnson said.

But the government has plenty of means at its disposal to review foreign investment transactions to guard against this risk, including the new Law on Competition that became effective in 2020, he added.

Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, stated that M&A have become an effective capital mobilisation channel, helping to diversify investment sources for the Vietnamese economy, accelerate economic restructuring and renewal of the growth model, and bring variety to the types of business ownership.

Therefore, the ministry is completing the draft of a new strategy on attracting foreign direct investment with the aim of prioritising high-tech projects and those backed by advanced and clean technologies, with modern governance, and likely to yield high added values, create spill-over effects, ensure technology transfer, and commit to assisting Vietnamese enterprises in joining global production chains, Phuong said.

SCG is one such example. M&A has become the most effective channel for the company to realise its commitment to long-term investment in the Vietnamese market. At present, SCG boasts 21 subsidiaries in Vietnam focusing on petrochemicals, cement, and building materials, and packaging, many of which have been established via M&A activities. Following the acquisitions, SCG coordinates with companies within its portfolio to foster growth by improving operation and safety standards as well as productivity. SCGs M&A efforts in Vietnam also reflect its vision to become a regional business leader.

The group has a relentless commitment to driving innovative products, services, and solutions that meet the diverse needs of consumers whilst creating business success in accordance with the circular economy concept to contribute to the sustainable growth of each and every society and community.

Performance boosts

Thanks to its vision, Vietnamese companies have elevated their businesses into higher levels after becoming members of SCG. Typically, Song Gianh Cement JSC has recorded improved business performance after the 100 per cent buyout to SCG. The company also adopted state-of-the-art technology to make innovative products for the market. The new cement products in line with international standards have helped Song Gianh Cement enhance its competitiveness in the market.

Meanwhile, Binh Minh Plastic was honoured as one of Vietnams 50 Best-Performing Companies in 2019 by Nhip Cau Dau Tu magazine, in tandem with Thien Viet Securities. Making that the ninth consecutive year in the top 50, Binh Minh Plastic has a consistent performance thanks to excellent corporate governance and strong commitment to quality improvement. The achievement can be attributable to SCGs efforts to build a sustainable business in line with social and environmental welfare.

Over the past few years, such Vietnamese companies as Binh Minh Plastic are working with deep-pocketed international partners to strengthen their operations. Indeed, Vietnamese companies realise that they can compete globally if they shake hands with foreign investors and combine each others resources, creating a larger entity with bigger distribution networks, economies of scale, and more talent at senior levels.

As a result, more and more Vietnamese companies are eager to find the right strategic investors who is keen on their businesses and would accompany them on their development journey, rather than just paying regard to their assets.

M&A is typically carried out in order penetrate markets and leverage the advantages of their partners in a global context; however, deals need proper understanding from both law-makers and businesspeople to grab the best benefits.

And with the international and regional situation remaining complicated and unpredictable in 2021, businesses and investors are changing their way of thinking and taking more drastic action to overcome the difficulties. As a result, more efforts have been made to improve mobilisation and efficient use of resources. As such, according to industry insiders, a reasonable M&A strategy could be a key tool for businesses to conquer the hardship and thrive in a new normal.
Iranian scientists have assessed a new active approach for solar module cooling based on water spraying. Water sprayed from different angles can reduce the operating temperature of PV modules, with limited water consumption. However, the team noted that they have yet to assess the economic viability of the system.A research team from Iran's Semnan University has tested the use of a solar module cooling technique that is based on a pulsating water spray system. The team claims that the system uses a minimal amount of water. The system relies on a 140-cm iron pipe with a diameter of 1.5 cm and ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
The One Club for Creativity recently revealed seven creatives from South Africa who will serve as judges for The One Show 2021. The judging panel is made of more than 250 top creatives from across 42 countries that will judge work from around the world.

Steph van Niekerk, creative director a Grey Africa

You are one of 7 South Africans to serve as a judge for The One Show 2021. How do you feel about this?

7 South Africans to serve as judges for The One Show 2021 The One Club for Creativity has revealed seven creatives from South Africa who will serve as judges for The One Show 2021...

How did you celebrate the news, and what does this mean to you, personally?

Which category will you be judging?

For the second year in a row, judging will take place online. What do you expect to experience as a judge?

What specific criteria will you be looking for when judging?

Ill be looking for great ideas brought to life with beautifully crafted storytelling that entertains and moves people.

You have some major experience in the creative industry. Could you comment on the impact of Covid-19 on the industry?

Creativity needs space, and we need to resist the urge to fill each inch of the day with meetings and reviews and working sessions just because we can.

In your opinion, What's the biggest trend we can expect this year?

Ranked as No.1 Creative Director and No.1 Copywriter in South Africa for 2019, and as the runner-up for Woman of the Year 2020, Steph van Niekerk is one of the country's top talents. Over the last 19 years, she's honed her skills as a copywriter at some of South Africa's best agencies. She's won nearly every local and international award, including several Gold Cannes Lions, SA's first (and still only) Gold One Show Pencil for TV and Cinema and the first Grand Prix at the Loerie Awards for a branded content series.I chat to Steph van Niekerk, creative director at Grey Africa, Johannesburg, who will serve as a judge for The One Show 2021.I am thrilled! No, seriously. I have won quite a few One Show Pencils in my life, but Ive never been invited to judge them. Im excited to finally see what goes down behind the scenes and to have a chance sit and talk about the best work in the world with some of the best creative minds in the world.I watchedon Netflix to remind myself how lovely New York is and that I wont be travelling there because of the current lockdown restrictions. LOL. The irony is that Ive waited 20 years for an international judging gig and when it finally happens, it happens right here in my lounge! Typical.In all honesty, it means quite a lot. Weve all had a horrible year, and it was just the encouragement I needed to face 2021. For a minute there it felt like nothing exciting was ever going to happen again. Im really grateful it did.Radio and Audio.Haha, Im guessing You're on mute!! and Can you guys hear me??!. I know from friends who have judged that I can expect intelligent, respectful discussions and robust debates. Im hoping it inspires me and that I can bring that inspiration back to the teams at the agency.Radio, as with all mediums, is at its best when its underpinned by a universal human truth and a whip-smart idea.At the end of the day, its not about the content but whether that content has the power to make people stop and listen, to stay engaged and to not change the channel or press next.Goodness. Covid has changed the industry in fundamental ways. Not only in the type of work we do, but also the very way in which we work. Remote working has definitely had some benefits, but the creative process thrives on intimacy, creative rapport and connection. We are all stuck behind a screen, buried in an avalanche of Teams and Zoom meetings, and Im starting to see and feel its effects on our creatives.Also, this year, with the death toll rising and more and more people losing loved ones, we are having the deal with the impact of this virus on a deeply personal level. I dont think we can underestimate the emotional and mental toll its having on people. It kind of puts everything else into perspective.As with last year, I expect the winning work to fall into two camps: Social justice issues and humour.

For the class of 2020, the rites of passage disappeared.

There was no walking across a giant stage alongside your peers, while the allotted ticketed amount of loved ones watched and cheered alongside professors wearing caps and gowns. There probably wasnt the traditional moving out of ones family home into the real world. Most crushing of all, there was also probably no landing of the job that is supposed to jump-start your adult life.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bay Area schools and universities went online almost a year ago. Graduation ceremonies were no exception, as many happened over Zoom.

Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

Although they left college with a diploma, these graduates didnt know what to expect when they entered the job market of today.

Before graduating, one of my professors said Oh theres a lot of jobs out there, dont worry. Theres a lot of startups and hedge funds who are backed up and need help, but then all of a sudden COVID-19 hit and then there were significantly less jobs, said Bryant Candia, a marketing graduate of San Francisco State University. We were all very optimistic about us graduating and finding jobs, but now its been even more difficult to find a job.

Not only has the amount of jobs decreased, many online job applications lead nowhere because of hiring freezes.

Candia applied to a handful of marketing jobs before graduating in May, and even did an initial interview with a few of them, only to be eventually turned down. He is always waiting for that second call, and he is not the only one.

Applying for jobs takes a toll on me emotionally, said Manuel Rendon, a sociology graduate from California State University East Bay, who temporarily moved back home with his parents in Central California to save money. I usually get that rejection that says I wont be considered for the position but that theyll keep my resume on file, and yet I wont hear back. You move on from the first interview, but then you dont get the second one. You have to keep applying.

Rendon took a job working at a local warehouse as he was in need of money, a job he never could have imagined himself working until now. It wasnt something I was passionate about, so I didnt look forward to working there every day even though the work was easy. I didnt have that incentive to get up and go to work.

He has since left his warehouse job and is now relying on the $600 government stimulus check to get by, which barely helps when having to pay rent in California.

Other graduates have also either returned to or have taken jobs that they dont find emotionally fulfilling, for better or for worse.

I feel less hopeful now with the pandemic. It changed everything, said Kayla McGrogan, a marketing graduate from San Jose State University. Its been hard for me to find a job in marketing, at least. Ive gone back to my old retail job right now. I feel like Ive gone backwards. I feel like Im still in school but without any school responsibilities.

My goal is to just find a more meaningful job because I feel like Im past that part of my life, she added. I dont know where to go or where to turn.

Looking back, these graduates are still feeling disappointment about how their final semester unfolded, a semester unlike any other in the past, and a far cry from how any of them would have ever expected it to end.

I feel like I was forced out of school, said Trisha Tulud, a mechanical engineering graduate from SFSU, who has since moved in back with her parents in Southern California. I didnt feel ready. It was scary to leave campus and the comfort that I had with my friends and professors. I lost a lot of support.

Another barrier to finding a job for 2020's graduates is the emphasis put on prior experience in the hiring process, which begs the seemingly eternal question: How can someone get experience if they are never hired?

We should be given some slack when people see our resumes and see it says Class of 2020, said Candia. We should be seen through different eyes. Where are we going to get any experience when nothing is open? Where do people expect us to get this so-called experience? Were doing everything right and putting ourselves out there, but our chances are lower because of COVID-19.

While former students may feel anxious about finding a job, they dont miss online learning.

I just took my last final on my computer then closed it, and that was it, said McGorgan, recalling how her college undergraduate career ended. I dont think the tuition should be the same for having all of your classes online. It was an absolute mess when my classes went online.

However, McGrogan does think online learning can work at times. She had opted to take at least one online in each of her semesters prior to COVID-19. She enjoyed it because, to her, she was able to get the class credit without having to deal with the class itself.

But there is still no equivalent substitute to that of learning in person inside a classroom with classmates and professors.

Online learning does cost too much because you are not receiving the same support and services you would have had had the campus been open, said Rendon. I dont think its worth it whatsoever for universities. It can be hard studying at home depending on the circumstances. Staring at a screen isnt the same as working with classmates in person.

It makes me feel like I didnt really pass because I didnt learn as well as I could have in person, explained Tulud. I couldnt focus when its just me. I need to be in a classroom setting for me to get into the class material.

Angela Tulud

Amid it all, what stings the most is not being able to walk the stage at their graduations.

Candia missed out on walking the stage at Oracle Park, where SFSU used to hold their graduation ceremonies. Tulud had looked forward to the day where she could shake her professors' hands and thank them for all their support throughout the years.

With their unexpected past behind them and their unknown future ahead of them, these graduates sometimes feel like there is little hope; nevertheless, some graduates still remain hopeful.

Im looking forward to the new perspective we will have, said Rendon. Weve been going through lockdowns for a while and weve been getting used to this new way of living. COVID-19 hit us like a train. Were still not in a recovery period because were still going through it, but at least I know more people are taking COVID-19 seriously and are being more cautious now.

The victim said he was bound, gagged, blindfolded and told that he needed to come up with $15,000 or he would be tortured and killed, prosecutors said. The abductors also demanded the mans personal identification number for his debit card and withdrew about $800 from an ATM.
The ESB has said it is committed to the responsible sourcing of coal to operate its Moneypoint power station in Co. Clare after being accused of breaching OECD human rights and environmental guidelines.

The Global Legal Action Network  supported by Christian Aid- has formally lodged a number of complaints with the OECD regarding the running of the Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia, from which the ESB has sourced fuel.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday had an interview with media after concluding his trips to Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Last January, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Myanmar and reached an important consensus with Myanmar on building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, giving new meaning to the millennia-old "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, Wang said in the interview.

The choice of Myanmar as the first stop of this year's first visits to the surrounding areas aims to fully implement the outcomes of Xi's visit and make solid progress in building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, Wang said.

Noting Myanmar's new government is about to be established, Wang said his visit also sends a clear message that China is willing to deepen communication and strengthen coordination with Myanmar, and will support the smooth administration of Myanmar's new government.

The two sides, Wang added, have reached a consensus in principle on the action plan of building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future and formulated a series of concrete ideas and measures for all-round cooperation between the two countries in the next stage.

On building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, Wang emphasized that fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic with solidarity is the community's priority task, constructing the economic corridor is the community's important practice, supporting each other's core concerns is the community's prominent feature and promoting regional cooperation is the community's responsibility.

Asked about his expectations for China-Indonesia cooperation in the post-pandemic era, Wang said China and Indonesia are both large developing countries and important emerging economies.

Against the backdrop of profound changes in a century and global pandemic, the cooperation between the two countries has strategic significance and world influence, Wang said.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Xi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo have had three phone conversations, exchanging strategic views on fighting the pandemic and developing cooperation, Wang said, adding that the purpose of his visit is to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and determine the path of deepening cooperation.

The two sides, Wang said, have agreed to set up "three models" for emerging major countries and South-South cooperation, namely a model of vaccine cooperation, a model of joint construction of the Belt and Road and a model of safeguarding multilateralism.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Brunei and the 30th anniversary of the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) dialogue relations.

Asked about ties between China and Brunei, Wang said the double 30th anniversaries coupled with Brunei's assumption of the rotating chair of ASEAN provided a crucial opportunity for the two countries to deepen cooperation comprehensively.

Under the strategic guidance of the heads of state from both countries, China and Brunei are steadily pushing forward major projects cooperation, such as the Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd's oil refinery and petrochemical project as well as the Brunei-Guangxi Economic Corridor project, with the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative being the main line, and have expanded mutual benefit and converged interests and brought tangible benefits to the two peoples, Wang said.

In the face of COVID-19, both countries have achieved significant results in their joint response to the pandemic and have realized positive economic growth, he said.

On the occasion of the double 30th anniversaries, Wang said China and Brunei have agreed to deepen regional cooperation, expressing his hope that Brunei could give play to the role of the ASEAN chairmanship, push China-ASEAN relations to a new level, and guide East Asia cooperation to focus on East Asia, development and regional integration.

Recalling his trip to the Philippines, Wang said China and the Philippines are friendly neighbors, and enjoy a long tradition of helping each other.

In the face of the pandemic, both countries have offered support to each other in the first place, demonstrating friendship and brotherhood, he said, adding that China has announced to donate a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines and encourages Chinese companies to seek vaccine cooperation with the Philippine side.

According to Wang, China and the Philippines announced during the visit the launch of a fast passage for necessary personnel exchanges between the two sides, signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation, and the Bank of China Manila was officially established as the renminbi (RMB) Clearing Bank of the Philippines, providing impetus for economic recovery and boosting confidence of both sides.

He added that China will continue to participate in the Philippines' "Build, Build, Build" program and actively advance bilateral cooperation on major projects to lay a better foundation for the long-term development of the Philippines.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the China-ASEAN dialogue relations, the visits aim to seize the opportunity together with the leadership of the four countries and the ASEAN secretary-general to forge a higher level of strategic partnership between China and ASEAN and build a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future, said Wang.

At present, the regional and international situation has entered a period of turbulence and change. Both China and ASEAN countries believe that to ensure lasting peace and prosperity in East Asia, real multilateralism must be supported and practiced. At the same time, the countries should also be on guard against all kinds of pseudo-multilateralism, Wang said.
In a meeting held in Amman on Monday, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan agreed to push ahead with efforts to revive the negotiation path for the Palestinian issue.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the Jordanian capital earlier today upon an invitation from King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues.

The two leaders first held one-on-one discussions and then extensive talks in the presence of delegations from both countries, according to a statement by Egyptian presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to push forward bilateral consultations and coordination in order to unify Arab and international efforts to revive the international mechanisms of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, in parallel with the efforts to achieve a national reconciliation between the Palestinian parties.

The Egyptian president stressed that Cairo will continue its "tireless" efforts in this issue, given that it is one of the countrys fundamental policies, the statement added.

"Egypt will push ahead with efforts to ensure that the Palestinian people restore their legitimate rights and establish their independent state as per international legitimacy references," El-Sisi stressed.

Also, King Abdullah voiced his appreciation for the "relentless and appreciable" efforts exerted by Egypt to support the Palestinian cause, stabilise the situation in the Gaza strip, and better the humanitarian, living and economic conditions there, as well as to achieve political consensus among all Palestinian factions in order facilitate reconciliation.

The visit comes less than a week after Cairo hosted a meeting of Munich's quartet group, which is tasked with supporting the peace process in the Middle East, including the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

The group, comprising Egypt, France, Germany, and Jordan's foreign ministers, forged 11 provisions detailed in a joint statement outlining the endeavours to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations stalled for years.

The quartet group is due to hold another meeting in Paris to continue consultations regarding ways to boost the peace process.

El-Sisi and Abdullah also agreed to reinforce endeavours that aim to mobilise the international community's efforts to reach political settlements to the crises in some of the region's countries, as well as to combat terrorism, restore security and stability and preserve the territorial integrity of these countries.

The statement added that both leaders exchanged views about the Egyptian-Jordanian efforts to strengthen the trilateral cooperation with Iraq, agreeing to intensify coordination to implement development projects and plans between the three countries to achieve the aspirations of the three peoples.

In August, El-Sisi attended a tripartite summit in Amman between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq to discuss partnership prospects between the three countries, as well as regional issues, including the Palestinian cause.

Both leaders expressed during Mondays meetings their hopes to strengthen bilateral relations in a way that helps achieve the joint interests of both peoples.

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Pretoria (South Africa), 18 January 2021 (SPS) - Sahrawi Ambassador to South Africa, Mohamed Yeslem Beissat said that the Joint Declaration of Algeria and South Africa was in line with the requirements of the African Union (AU) regarding the need to meet the minimum conditions, namely Resolution 690 and the organization of the referendum to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara.



In an interview with APS on Sunday, the Sahrawi diplomat said that "the conflict in Western Sahara is a question of self-determination and decolonization, which is the political position of the majority of countries, a position consistent with international legality."



For Beissat, "the Makhzen's haste to normalize its relations with the Zionist entity will have no clear practical impact and will not change anything in the equation."



After recalling that "the Moroccan regime invaded Western Sahara in 1975 with the support of the Ford Administration (former US president, editor's note) and built its defense lines with Israeli help and planning," the Sahrawi ambassador said that "Trump only declared relations that were secret.



The Sahrawi ambassador to South Africa referred to the opening of consulates in territories occupied by countries that do not respect international legality, including that the existence of a community or economic interests is an integral part of the conditions for opening a consulate in terms of international law.



After attacking Sahrawi civilians on November 13, 2020, he continued, Morocco has created a new reality by pushing the Sahrawis to defend themselves, adding that over time, the Mekhzen "will feel pressure given that the Sahrawis are able to resist 40 more years to convince him to sign a just peace agreement allowing the respect of our law."



"Morocco has no ability to resist in its war against the Saharawi people," said Beissat.



"The war imposes its logic, its dynamics and its conditions, which is why Morocco must prepare for a war longer than before and more ferocious against the Saharawi people," warned the Saharawi diplomat. (SPS)



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Hundreds of thousands of people normally attend a new American presidents inauguration. But the first day of Joe Bidens presidency will be very different.

Because of the coronavirus crisis, the official presidential swearing-in ceremony  to be held January 20 - was already going to be more low-key.

But after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, heightened security measures will also be in place and crowds will be further limited. A high-security area is being established around the Capitol, the White House and the National Mall.

The U.S. Secret Service is in charge of the inauguration. Michael Plati is the agent in charge. He said to help deal with possible security threats, there will be increased communication between local and federal police. His agency will also cooperate closely with the Department of Defense and Homeland Security officials.

Plati said he sees the inauguration and the attack on the U.S. Capitol as two very different events. For example, he said the inauguration is planned far in advance. Unlike what happened at the Capitol on January 6, agencies have plans in place to prevent possible violence.

In addition to local and federal police officers, there will be 10,000 National Guard soldiers on duty.

Earlier, the coronavirus was the main concern ahead of this years inauguration. Now, the combination of possible violence and the continued spread of the virus across the U.S. will make this one of the most unusual inaugurations ever.

There will be no large crowds. President-elect Biden will make his way from the Capitol to the White House, but it will not be in the usual public parade. Instead, this will be a virtual event that people can watch online and on television.

Many of the traditional speeches and warm wishes that go along with an inauguration will also be completed online. There will not be a special celebration, known as a ball, that night. That event will also happen online and on television.

Organizers say the events will center around the subject America United. Throughout his campaign for president, Biden has talked about being a president for all the people and has suggested he will seek to heal a nation divided by major political disputes.

Hollywood actor Tom Hanks will host a special television event to welcome Biden to the White House. Musical performances will be given by Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi and Demi Lovato.

Here is an example of how few people will attend the inauguration. Usually, each member of congress receives about 40 tickets to be given to friends and supporters from their states to attend.

Under that system, at least 20,000 special visitors were invited to come to the inauguration. This year, each member of congress gets only two tickets. That adds up to just over 1000 guests.

In most years, people without tickets were permitted to watch the ceremony on the National Mall, the large public area that stretches from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial.

But this year, the National Park Service is urging people to stay home. The Washington Monument, the famous centerpiece that rises above the Mall, will be closed.

There will, however, be a representation of all of the people who usually attend the inauguration. There will be nearly 200,000 U.S. flags planted in the ground, along with a display of 56 high-powered lights. The lights will represent the U.S. states and territories.



One person is definitely staying home: President Donald Trump. The outgoing leader who was impeached for the second time last week has said he will not attend.

Vice President Mike Pence will be there. So will former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Biden will lead the small group to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Tony Allen is in charge of Bidens inaugural committee. He said the goal of this years inaugural activities is to show the nation that we are stronger together than we are apart.

Biden is set to take the oath of office on January 20 at noon.

Im John Russell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on reporting from the Associated Press and VOA. Bryan Lynn was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

low-key - adj. quiet and relaxed; not noticeable

virtual - adj. using computer and internet technology to conduct activities normally carried out in person

in advance - n. before a particular time

host - n. to be the host, or organizer, of an event

display - n. a collection of objects placed for people to look at

wreath - n. an arrangement of leaves or flowers in the shape of a circle

oath - n. a formal and serious promise to tell the truth or to do something

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
The UK variant of the coronavirus has claimed the lives of three residents at a retirement home in northwestern Belgium and infected 111 people including 39 staff members, its director Jurgen Duyck told AFP on Sunday.

The cluster represents two-thirds of the residents of the De Groene Verte home in the western Flanders city of Houthulst near the border with France.

Belgium has suffered one of the worst per capita death rates in the world during the epidemic with its nursing homes representing more than half of overall deaths from the disease, according to the Public Health Institute.

Mayor Joris Hindryckx said the outbreak prompted a halt to "all social and sporting activities" in the town of around 10,000 people.

The source of the contamination is unknown, but the mayor said the infection must have been "indirect" as none of those testing positive was known to have travelled to Britain.

He said those infected must quarantine for 10 days instead of the usual seven.

But an epidemiologist urged a "full lockdown" in Houthulst and called for all inhabitants to be tested.

Writing in the daily Le Soir, Yves Coppieters said: "We have the foundations of a third wave of contaminations."

Speaking to the Belgian TV station La Une, he noted: "If there is already a cluster of this intensity, there are sure to be others."

Without blanket testing, "we won't succeed against a variant that is a lot more contagious," he warned.

On Friday, the spokesman of the Belgian health authorities, Yves Van Laethem, said there were already several dozen cases of both the British and the South African strains of the coronavirus in the country, adding that "other strains could emerge".

He noted that the Pfizer vaccine, the one most widely used in Belgium, is effective against the two variant strains.

Residents of the Houthulst retirement home were set to be vaccinated against Covid-19 this week, but the programme was postponed because of the large number of Covid patients, Hindryckx said.

The elderly are the priority target in the vaccination campaign, which according to official figures had reached 17.26 percent of retirement home residents and staff by January 13 with the first dose of the vaccine, which is to be followed up by a second dose.

Belgian authorities said Saturday that a delay in delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses would not affect the vaccination of this segment of the population.

The country recorded 16.6 percent excess deaths last year attributed mainly to Covid-19.

Since the start of the pandemic, Belgium has recorded 677,209 cases and 20,396 deaths.
CROMWELL  A observant Cromwell police officer on routine patrol is credited with raising the alarm when fire broke out in the Motel 8 early Monday, according to fire officials.

The fire, which broke out at 1:42 a.m., was confined to the third floor of the three-story motel, which is located at 1 Industrial Park Road in the shadow of Interstate 91.

No one was injured in fire, according to Fire Lt. Brett Hallden.

However, as a precaution, some of the guests staying in the 90-room motel were checked at the scene, Hallden said.

Hallden said the credit must be given the police officer for giving us advance notification.

An observant police officer came across the fire during routine patrol, prior to the buildings alarm system activating, Hallden said in an email Monday.

The first fire units arrived on scene within six minutes of receiving notification from police.

Some of the firefighters immediately began fire suppression efforts while others helped evacuate the building.

Firefighters from Berlin, Middletown, Portland, and Westfield all responded to the scene to provide mutual-aid assistance to the Cromwell firefighters, as did Hunters Ambulance.

Firefighters from Newington and Rocky Hill provided coverage for the town while was extinguished.

In all, Hallden said, it took fire units 30 minutes to bring the flames under control.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the departments acting fire marshal.

By 9 a.m., a team from a professional cleaning service was cleaning the building of smoke and water damage and repairing the room in which the fire began.

The motel guests were re-located to another venue.

A message seeking comment was left at the hotel.

The towns health and building departments are taking the necessary steps to see the motel is cleaned and repaired, Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore said.

Once those repairs have been completed, the health and building department representatives will sign off on the project and the motel can reopen, he said.

Hallden thanked the other departments that came to Cromwells assistance.
Robert Jeffress: Church must 'be prepared' for increasing 'persecution' under Biden

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Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress issued a warning to his congregation Sunday, arguing that there might be increasing persecution during the Biden administration. He urged Christians to be prepared for a possible restrain on our ability to teach Gods word without consequence.

In a sermon delivered ahead of President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration ceremony Wednesday, the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas told congregants that the New Testament book of Matthew speaks of how, in the last days, savage times will come as people cast off all moral restraint and society begins to disintegrate.

Doesn't that describe the time we're living in right now when people have cast off the restraints that God has put into place? Jeffress, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump and a Fox News contributor, asked.

You see that all around you  whether it's regarding gender fluidity, same-sex marriage, unrestricted abortion. All of these things are the result of a society that has thrown off God's restraints.

The pastor contended that unspeakable things that were once condemned by society are now celebrated.

He added that if the Church refuses to join in the celebration of immorality and ungodliness, it could run into problems.

If you've got the culture celebrating while the Church is condemning, you know what that produces? It produces friction, the 65-year-old conservative preacher explained. There is going to be pressure whenever the Church condemns what society is celebrating. And I believe that's what we're going to see happen very, very quickly over these next four years.

Jeffress argued that the Democratic Biden administration will promote the right of people to choose their own gender and choose the gender of their children. He further contends that the government will go after organizations that refuse to celebrate their expansive view of marriage. He also fears that the government will support the slaughter of an unborn child for any reason.

So when you've got an administration, a government, that is celebrating what God has condemned, and the Church condemning what they are celebrating, ladies and gentlemen, there's going to be friction, he repeated. There's going to be pressure. There's going to be persecution.

We need to be ready for the fact that there's going to be pressure, governmental pressure, to restrain our ability to preach and teach the eternal truths of God's word without consequence, he continued.

Jeffress, one of the earliest evangelical supporters of the president going back to the 2016 Republican primary election, has spoken out against far-right protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He said the storming of the Capitol was carried out by despicable human beings who need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

They werent doing Gods work; they were doing Satans work, he said. I denounce it with every fiber of my being.

But the answer to such disarray isnt limiting free speech, the pastor declared.

Once you allow the government to start controlling speech, its not a very long trip to the persecution of the Church at all, he stated. We need to get ready for it. It is coming.

While the Church must push back against persecution, the body of Christ can still be hopeful because terrible times are temporary and simply a prelude to the return of Christ, he said.

Though the Church will be forced to navigate choppy waters in the coming years, God is in control  and no election can change that," Jeffress reminded his congregation.

Earlier in the sermon, the pastor touched on Gods sovereignty, stressing that God didnt slap his forehead when Biden won the election.

There was no panic in Heaven over the election, he asserted. There is nothing that happens outside the sovereign plan of God.

God can also use imperfect people to carry out His will, Jeffress said, emphasizing that Christians do not have that right to resist government authority because doing so is resisting God Himself.

We are to obey the governing authorities; that's our first responsibility, Jeffress remarked. Secondly, we're to pray for the government leaders. Were to pray for Joe Biden, and we're to pray for Kamala Harris, and were to pray for every elected official.

The most important prayer a believer can pray, Jeffress said, is that government leaders would leave us alone to practice our faith.

Many people are concerned about the future and what this  new administration might mean to us, he said. You are in the grip of God if you're a Christian, and no election is going to change that. God has a plan He's working out, and that plan is for your good.
The Governor a British Overseas Territory and tax haven has ordered an official probe into allegations of widespread corruption and political interference including the misuse of millions of dollars of taxpayers money.

A British High Court judge will oversee the independent commission of inquiry into the state of governance in the British Virgin Islands, Dominic Raab told MPs.

Augustus Jaspert, the Islands' UK-appointed governor, took the drastic step of ordering the inquiry today, the first time such an investigation has taken place in a British territory in a decade.

The British Virgin Islands is a parliamentary democracy and is self-governing. But the governor, appointed by the Queen, has oversight of external affairs, defence, internal security, administration of the courts, the public service, elections, and disaster preparedness under its constitution.

In a written Commons statement, Mr Raab said he had agreed to a request from Mr Jaspert - a civil servant who used to work for David Cameron - that Sir Gary Hickinbottom will lead an independent commission of inquiry into the allegations.

Mr Jaspert told islanders today the probe would look into 'whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty in relation to officials - elected, statutory or public - may have taken place in recent years.'

The governor of the British Virgin Islands has ordered an official probe into allegations of widespread corruption and political interference, including the misuse of millions of dollars of taxpayers money

A British High Court judge will oversee the independent commission of inquiry into the state of governance, Dominic Raab told MPs

Governor Gus Jaspert told islanders today the probe would look into ' whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty in relation to officials - elected, statutory or public - may have taken place in recent years'

Its report, due in six months' time, could recommend criminal proceedings.

'The UK is extremely concerned about the state of good governance in the British Virgin Islands,' Mr Raab said.

'A consistent and deeply troubling array of concerns have been put to the governor by local institutions and the community.

'The commission will inquire into whether there is information to substantiate claims that corruption, abuse of position and serious impropriety has taken place in public office in recent years, and it will make recommendations.'

Mr Raab said the allegations included:

Political interference and coercion in relation to appointments in the public service and statutory boards, the criminal justice system and individual criminal cases;

Claims that people in public service, media and community leaders have been intimidated to such a degree that they describe living in a climate of fear;

Allegations that funds set aside for struggling families during the pandemic may have been re-allocated to political allies;

Concerns around spending on Government contracts without any proper procurement process;

Misuse of taxpayers money on infrastructure and transport projects.

He added: 'Against this backdrop, we are also concerned about the potential vulnerability of the islands to serious organised crime.

'The scale of this was made clear in November 2020, with the seizure of more than two tonnes of cocaine, worth just under 190million.'

The drugs haul was discovered at the home of a BVI police officer, who was arrested along with his brother. It was the largest haul ever discovered in the islands.

Ice cream from Chinas Tianjin municipality tests positive for COVID-19, around 65 boxes of it sold to consumers.

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Source: Medindia

Officials report that three samples of ice cream from China's Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Company were tested positive for COVID-19, during routine government testing.Reports say that out of the 4,836 boxes of COVID-19 contaminated ice cream produced by the company, 2,089, boxes have been sealed away. From the remaining 2,747 boxes, 935 boxes entered the market in Tianjin and only 65 were sold to markets.Authorities advice residents who may have bought the product to report their health and physical movements to those in their communities.The Tianjin Centre for Disease Control directed the company's 1,662 employees to undergo nucleic acid testing and then quarantine. All of the other products of the company have been sealed and contained.The company used raw materials imported from outside the country, including milk powder from New Zealand and whey powder from Ukraine. But, Dr. Stephen Griffin, a virologist from University of Leeds, UK, suggests that it is likely that the virus has come from a person and that this is not a cause for panic.says Griffin.He explained that the fat content and cold storage temperature of the ice cream could be a reason for the virus to survive this long.
(Newser)  Saying that serving as first lady "has been the greatest honor of my life," Melania Trump posted a goodbye to the nation on Monday. In a nearly seven-minute video, she expresses gratitude and says has been inspired by people she's met over the past four years who "lift up our communities through their kindness and courage, goodness and grace." Trump mentioned health care workers, US troops, truck drivers, manufacturing workers, and law enforcement. She didn't explicitly say anything about the attack on the US Capitol but said, "Be passionate in everything you do but always remember that violence is never the answer and will never be justified."

story continues below

Trump also mentioned the pandemic, thanking people working to save lives and acknowledging the grief of families that have lost loved ones. Her Be Best campaign, she said, "has evolved into a platform that encourages world leaders to discuss issues impacting the lives of children and allows them to share solutions." In more normal times, the first lady's next public appearance probably would be to welcome the Bidens to the White House just before the inauguration. But she and President Trump are leaving town early Wednesday morning, so President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will instead be greeted by Timothy Harleth, the White House chief usher, per CNN. The video and text of the farewell message are posted here. (Read more Melania Trump stories.)
Newsmax reporter Sean Spicer is seen at the White House in Washington on March 20, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

CNN Is Trying to De-platform Us: Newsmax

A competing media outlet is pointing to de-platforming efforts from CNN and decrying claims CNN is making as part of its efforts as false.

Newsmax TV has seen strong growth since the 2020 election, cutting into Fox News viewership. But its growth has sparked calls for censorship led by CNN.

A CNN reporter recently pressured cable providers to stop airing Newsmax and blamed its coverage of the election for the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol. He claimed that Newsmax engaged in election denialism by reporting on election fraud allegations. And former Facebook official Alex Stamos on CNNs Sunday media show pushed for censorship, saying Newsmax and another news broadcaster, One America News, have freedom of speech, but Im not sure we need Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and such bringing them into tens of millions of homes.

Only one cable provider responded to CNN. CenturyLink said it was committed to providing a variety of broadcast channels covering thousands of topics and that it does not endorse specific media or outlets, but instead support viewers access and choice.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the cable providers CNN messaged and asked whether they had considered removing Newsmax or CNN. CenturyLink provided the same statement it gave CNN, while Dish told The Epoch Times: Network owners (and their editorial boards) are responsible for the content that they deliver to us. Provided that the content is legal, contractually we generally do not have the ability to unilaterally edit content or remove channels from our line-up based on their content. Our customers have the flexibility to tune in, remove or block channels and content based on the platform they are using.

Newsmax told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: Newsmax is disappointed that CNN, which has a long history of mis-reporting and conspiracy-mongering with its Steele Dossier and Russian Collusion reporting, is urging cable companies to remove Newsmax from their platforms.

CNNs real reason is to eliminate Newsmax as a competitor. Newsmax is now the 4th highest-rated cable news channel and Newsmax is clearly on a trajectory to overtake CNN on ratings, it added.

An unsubstantiated dossier from ex-British spy Christopher Steele, funded by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee, played a central role in an investigation into purported ties between Donald Trump and his campaign and Russian actors.

CNN heavily promoted both the dossier and the investigation, which concluded with no evidence of collusion.

CNNs claims about Newsmax are also false. Newsmax never denied the election results. We called all contested states for Biden as they were certified and accepted him as President-elect on December 14, Newsmax added. We note that our coverage of Pres. Trumps electoral challenge was similar to Fox News and Fox Business but they are not included in CNNs recent blacklist. Clearly this is not about editorial concerns, this is about removing a new cable news competitor.

One America News told The Epoch Times via email that executives are discussing CNNs censorship push internally and consulting with their attorneys.

CNN didnt respond to a request for comment.
Learn the ways of the waves Kelowna - 7:00 pm
JAKARTA At least 78 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesias West Sulawesi province on Friday, the Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country.

In a statement, Basarnas confirmed 78 had died, 67 of whom were from the district of Mamuju and the rest from the district of Majene in West Sulawesi.

More than 740 people were injured and over 27,800 left their homes after the 6.2 magnitude quake, the countrys disaster mitigation agency separately (BNPB) said in a situation report. Some sought refuge in the mountains, while others went to cramped evacuation centers, witnesses said.

Police and military officers have been deployed to crack down on looting in several parts of the region, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said.

An emergency response status, intended to help rescue efforts, has also been put in place for two weeks, Raditya said.

Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesias meteorological, climatology and geophysical agency (BMKG), has said that another quake in the region could potentially trigger a tsunami.

Straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2018, a devastating 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands.

Just two weeks into the new year, the worlds fourth-most populous country is battling several disasters.

Floods in South Kalimantan and North Sulawesi have respectively killed at least 15 and five this month, while landslides in West Java province have killed at least 32, authorities said.

On Jan. 9, a Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into the Java Sea with 62 onboard.

East Javas Semeru mountain erupted late on Saturday, but there have been no reports of casualties or evacuations.

Dwikorita said extreme weather and other multi-dangers of hydrometeorology are forecast in the coming weeks.

By Stanley Widianto and Agustinus Beo Da Costa
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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Massachusetts General Hospital has expanded its ICU capacity and opened new surge unit amid a post-holiday rise in hospitalizations, CBS Boston reports.

Hospital officials told to the television station that ICU beds have been at capacity for about a month, as new cases and hospitalizations remain elevated into the new year. Some smaller hospitals in the Greater Boston area had already been at capacity toward the end of 2020, and were redirecting patients to larger medical centers.

There have been more than 2,000 COVID patients hospitalized statewide for the better part of a month now, with daily admissions averaging between 200 and 300 patients, according to the Department of Public Healths data.

As of Saturday, roughly 86% of medical/surgical beds and 78% of ICU beds are occupied statewide, with other some regions reporting more strain than others. There are currently 2,165 patients hospitalized and 433 in intensive care.

Health officials confirmed 4,283 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, including the first case of the highly contagious variant of the respiratory infection identified in the United Kingdom. Sixty-seven deaths were also reported.

Since to the start of the pandemic, 448,311 Massachusetts residents have been infected, and 13,372 have died.

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YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Two collector coins  Arno Babajanyan - 100th anniversary of the birth and Grigor Tatevatsi - 675th anniversary of the birth, have been issued, the Central Bank of Armenia told Armenpress.

Arno Babajanyan - 100th anniversary of the birth

Arno Babajanyan (1921-1983) is a famous Armenian composer, pianist, Peoples Artist of the USSR (1970).

Babajanyan graduated from the Yerevan and the Moscow Conservatories. In 1950-1956 he taught at the Yerevan Conservatory. A celebrated piano virtuoso, Babajanyan was known for performing his own works. A. Khachatryan and S. Rachmaninoff had an influence on formation of Babajanyans creative style, which was mostly expressed in his early works: the piano concert (1944) and the violin concert (1949). The works Vagharshapat Dance, Prelude and Impromptu won the first prize at the 1st World Youth and Student Festival in Prague in 1947. The composers creative personality was obviously shown in the Heroic Ballad (1950) written for the piano and orchestra (USSR State Prize, 1951), then in the piano trio (1952).

Babajanyan composed in different styles - classical, pop, jazz. He was one of the prominent masters of song in the Soviet era. He wrote many lyrical songs, music for dramatic performances (W. Saroyans My hearts in the highlands) and movies (The first love song, co-author Gh. Saryan, On the path of thunder, The mechanics of happiness).

As one of much-loved composers of the Soviet people, Babajanyan holds a special place in the history of Armenian and Soviet music thanks to his unique natural talent, deep sensitivity and musical expression.

Obverse: a wedding couple, a treble clef, as well as a stylized rose and vinyl.

Reverse: Arno Babajanyans portrait, stylized images of vinyl, piano keys, notes and pen.

Designer: Vardan Vardanyan.

The coin is minted in the Lithuanian Mint.

Technical specification

Face value 1000

Metal/fineness silver 925

Weight 33,6

Diameter 40,0

Quantity 500

Edge ribbed

Quality proof

Grigor Tatevatsi - 675th anniversary of the birth

Grigor Tatevatsi (1346-1409) is the thrice greatest archimandrite of the Armenian Church, philosopher, theologian, philologist, pedagogue, miniature painter, musician.

Tatevatsi studied in the theological seminary of the monastery of Tatev, was mentored by a great theologian-philosopher Hovhan Vorotnetsi, after whose death he headed the higher clerical schools of Tatev and Aprakounis and taught theology, philosophy, grammar, music theory and other subjects. He also lectured at the clerical schools of Metsopavank and Saghmosavankchurches. In the meanwhile, he was dealing with national-ecclesiastical issues, confronting the Catholic preachers, i.e. unitarians, in his struggle to back the orthodox persuasions and independence of the Armenian Church.

Settled in Tatev in 1390, Tatevatsi brought around him people who came from Syunik and different parts of Armenia to study. He presented his pedagogical views in the work Constitution of Education, which was phenomenalto the medieval Armenian pedagogical literature. Under Tatevatsis governance the theological seminary of the monastery of Tatev became a university, reaching its peak of prosperity, turning into a center of science, culture, art, and spiritual life.

Tatevatsi wrote valuable theological, denominational and philosophical works. Most important of them are The Book of Inquiries and Voskeporiq encyclopedic works, which bring together the centuries-old achievements of the Armenian denominational thought, as well as The Winter Volume and The Summer Volume predicant books.

Tatevatsirewrote and illustrated the Gospels, which are kept in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and Matenadaran named after Mesrop Mashtots.

The Armenian Apostolic Saint Church has ordained Grigor Tatevatsi a saint, and commemorates him on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday of Lent.

Obverse: the Tatev Monastery.

Reverse: the bas-relief of Tatevatsi on the wall of the Armenian Church of the Holy Transfiguration of the Armenian Diocese in New Nakhijevan and Russia (architect: Artak Ghulyan) in Moscow.

Designers: Karapet Abrahamyan (obverse) and Lusine Lalayan (reverse).

The coin is minted in the Lithuanian Mint.

Technical specification

Face value 1000

Metal/fineness silver 925

Weight 33,6

Diameter 40,0

Quantity 500

Edge ribbed

Quality proof

Notice

Collector coins are made of precious metals and are issued to present to the society the national, international, historical and cultural, spiritual and other values of the country, to immortalize these values in the metal and to meet the demands of the numismatic market.

Like any other currency the collector coins have face value which makes them the means of payment. However, the face value of these coins is much lower that their cost price which includes the cost of the precious metal used for manufacturing of the coin, mintage and other expenses. Low face value and high cost price allow these coins to be considered as the items of collection and not the means of payment used in money circulation. The collector coins have also the sale price set by the Central Bank of Armenia.

As the items of collection the collector coins are issued in very restricted quantities and are not reissued.

Numismatists, collectors and all interested persons can buy the Armenian collector coins in the sales salon Numismatist which is in the building of the Central Bank of Armenia and is open for everyone.
The numbers are in. The hottest seven years in recorded history are: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

Notice a trend? As 2020 smashed hurricane and wildfire records, doing $90 billion worth of damage in the United States alone, new data shows last year neck-and-neck with 2016 as the hottest year in recorded history.

But at this point, says NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel, rankings are worthless. It's all about that horrifying trend towards a level of global overheating impossible to control.

"What really matters, and what I think is really significant and really concerning, is that the seven hottest years on record were the past seven years," Marvel told CNN.

Her work is part of a global consensus among scientists -- from the United Kingdom's Met Office, Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Berkeley Earth and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- that the planet's man-made fever shows no sign of breaking and that land, sea and sky may all be getting hotter faster.

The seven-year stretch "almost hints at a bit of an acceleration in the rate of warming we're seeing globally," Russ Vose, chief of climate monitoring at NOAA, told CNN. "Each decade has been warmer than the decade that preceded it for the past four or five decades."

If the trend continues, it means this was also the coldest seven-year stretch for the rest of our lives, if not the rest of recorded human history. And the scientists who authored these latest reports all agree.

Humanity will determine exactly how bad it gets.

"It's not the sun. It's not natural climate variability. It's human actions, specifically human emissions of greenhouse gases, dioxide and methane," Marvel said emphatically. "I'm a scientist. I hang out with scientists all the time. We don't agree on anything. Scientists will fight about absolutely everything. So the fact that scientists agree that it is human activities causing the climate changes that we've seen, that's really, really, really significant."

Trump appointees pushing disinformation on climate

But even as experts were finishing their annual global climate assessments, climate skeptics appointed by President Donald Trump to top scientific positions at NOAA last September, and later temporarily assigned to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), were publishing contrarian pseudoscience online.

"The Office of Science and Technology Policy is pleased to bring you these briefs to further your understanding of climate change by learning from these learned scholars," reads the introduction written by one of those Trump appointees, David Legates, a professor at the University of Delaware who supports the climate-denying Heartland Institute.

But the essays, now known as the "Climate Change Flyers," were written by longtime contrarians and filled with theories debunked by the peer-reviewed work of scientists across US agencies, and even the public acknowledgment by major oil companies that the climate crisis is caused by burning fossil fuels.

Without permission, Legates and fellow Trump appointee Ryan Maue posted the flyers on a website affiliated with leading climate skeptic Willie Soon and bore the seal of the Executive Office of the President.

OSTP Director Kelvin Droegemeier "was outraged to learn of the materials that were not shared with or approved by OSTP leadership," spokeswoman Kristina Baum said in an email to the Washington Post. "He first became aware of the documents when contacted by the press. As a result, Dr. Droegemeier took swift action and the individuals responsible have been relieved of their duties at OSTP."

Legates and Maue finished out their term at the White House this week and returned to NOAA, where the incident is under review, according to the Washington Post. CNN reached out to Legates and Maue for comment but received no response.

"I do know David Legates from back in my days in graduate school, but I haven't seen him in a long time, and I can't explain the actions that he and others took in this case," Vose told CNN. "I can't speak for all of NOAA, but I can tell you that where we are, our morale is high," he said. "I've been through four administrations. I've happily served them all. I look forward to serving the next administration."

Scientist hoping for less politics, more policy

Despite the politicization of science under Trump, Vose likens the role of NOAA scientists to Department of Labor statisticians in charge of job reports: neutral dispensers of accurate numbers.

"We happily do our work independently without interference," he said. "And please hold us accountable if you ever feel like that's happened."

"I'm hoping that the long-term effects will be almost nil," Marvel said. "I think the fact that this stuff came out and most people said, 'Well, this is a bit silly' and then moved on gives me a lot of hope."

With an incoming Joe Biden administration committed to reversing course on US climate inaction, the conversation around this most difficult topic is bound to change. The question is how soon before debate turns to policy and action.

"My entire goal is to become completely irrelevant to the climate conversation," Marvel said. "I don't want scientists to be debating whether or not this is happening or who's responsible for it. I think we've moved beyond that. I think we should be having a much better fight. We should be debating policy. We should be debating solutions. We should be debating the morality of climate change. None of those things are my particular area of expertise. But I think we're getting there."
OTTAWA - Federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole pushed back against attempts to link his party to Trump-style politics on Sunday, saying there is "no place for the far right" in the Tories while accusing the Liberals of divisive dirty tricks.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole holds a press conference on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on December 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole pushed back against attempts to link his party to Trump-style politics on Sunday, saying there is "no place for the far right" in the Tories while accusing the Liberals of divisive dirty tricks.

In a statement Sunday, O'Toole asserted his own views on such issues as abortion, gay rights and reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada while insisting that his party is not beholden to right-wing extremists and hatemongers.

"The Conservatives are a moderate, pragmatic, mainstream party  as old as Confederation  that sits squarely in the centre of Canadian politics," O'Toole said.

"My singular focus is to get Canada's economy back on track as quickly as possible to create jobs and secure a strong future for all Canadians. There is no place for the far right in our party."

The unusual statement follows the riot on Capitol Hill, which U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of inciting and which has since been held up as proof of the dangers posed by right-wing extremists to Western democracy.

It also comes on the heels of a Liberal Party fundraising letter sent to members last week that accused the Conservatives under O'Toole of "continuing a worrisome pattern of divisive politics and catering to the extreme right."

As one example, it cited the motto used by O'Toole's leadership campaign: "Take back Canada."

It also referenced a photo that has been circulating of Conservative deputy leader Candice Bergen wearing a hat with Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again," and a since-deleted Tory website alleging the Liberals want to rig the next election.

O'Toole on Sunday condemned the Capitol Hill attack as "horrifying," and sought to distance himself and the Tories from Trumpism by touting his party's support for free and fair elections, the peaceful transfer of power and accountable government.

To that end, he lashed out at the Liberals, referencing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to prorogue Parliament last summer as hurting accountability, before turning the tables on the governing party and accusing them of using U.S.-style politics.

"If the Liberals want to label me as 'far right,' they are welcome to try," O'Toole said. "Canadians are smart and they will see this as an attempt to mislead people and import some of the fear and division we have witnessed in the United States."

Former Conservative strategist Tim Powers, who is now chairman of Summa Strategies, believes O'Toole's team saw a "gathering storm" and felt the need to act to prevent the Liberals from painting the Conservatives as beholden to Trumpism.

Such action was especially important ahead of what could be an extremely divisive week down in the U.S., where there are fears that Trump supporters and far-right actors will respond to Joe Biden's inauguration as president with violence.

Powers suggested it is also the latest act in O'Toole's effort to introduce himself to Canadians and redefine the Conservatives ahead of the next federal election, both of which have been made more difficult by COVID-19.

And when Conservatives in caucus make statements or otherwise act counter to his stated positions, Powers said O'Toole will need to "crush them and take them out" to prove his convictions.

Shuvaloy Majumdar, who served as a policy director in Stephen Harper's government, welcomed O'Toole's statement while also speaking of the threat that events in the U.S. could pose to the Tories in Canada  particularly if the Liberals try to link them.

O'Toole was accused during last year's Conservative leadership race of courting social conservatives who oppose abortion, among other issues. That raises questions about the degree to which he may anger the party's base by taking more progressive positions.

But Majumdar suggested many of the populist elements left the Tories for Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada and that O'Toole is seeking to appeal to more voters by taking a broader view on social issues while sticking to the party's core economic positions.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version misquoted Shuvaloy Majumdar saying many social conservatives had left for the People's Party of Canada. He actually said many of the populist elements had left.
WASHSINGTON - When a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Leslie hoped that this would be her Trump-supporting parents' wake-up call. She hoped they were watching, maybe feeling ashamed.

Then, a friend called. "Do you know already?" the friend said, and Leslie wondered briefly if someone had died.

The politically liberal 35-year-old cried about the screenshots from her mother's Facebook page, posts defending the pro-Trump crowds and suggesting that Leslie's mom made it at least to the Capitol's steps. Then she reported her mom to the FBI - because "actions," she said, "should have consequences."

"I think before I realized she was this far gone . . . there was a sense that perhaps there was some way to reconcile," said Leslie. "It felt like a death, honestly."

Leslie shared screenshots of text messages in which she shared her FBI tip "submission complete" page, and another friend recounted hearing that Leslie had reported her mother.

Leslie and many others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition that their full name not be revealed, citing concerns about retaliation or further heightening tensions in their families.

In relationships already strained or severed, last week's violent spectacle of democracy under siege has pushed some people to take a drastic new step: warning law enforcement. Anguished Americans are turning in friends and family for their alleged involvement in the Capitol riots, contributing to more than 100,000 tips submitted to the FBI and playing a role in at least one high-profile arrest.

For months - sometimes years - the informants say they have watched helplessly as loved ones embraced far-right ideology and latched onto conspiracy theories, from QAnon to viral-video claims of a coronavirus "Plandemic." Extremism has thrived in the Trump era and under pandemic lockdowns, experts say, with more people isolated at home and misinformation rampant online.

"Far-right extremism is not a small-fringe worldview, it's not an insular cult that only reaches a few dozen or a few hundred people - it's a wide-ranging worldview embedded in American society," said Peter Simi, an associate professor of sociology at Chapman University who has studied far-right extremist groups and violence for more than 20 years.

Increasingly estranged friends and relatives told The Washington Post they were driven to law enforcement by their own politics, a sense of moral obligation and a fear of what their loved ones could do next.

"They left me no choice because they are on such a destructive path and I do worry about other people's safety as well as theirs," said a Texas woman who recounted learning through social media that family members were on the Capitol lawn, apparently beyond the barriers that rioters toppled. Her husband said he can corroborate that she informed the FBI.

Authorities say they have just started making arrests in the wake of the four-hour insurrection attempt at the Capitol, which sent lawmakers into hiding, halted certification of the presidential vote and left five people dead, including a police officer. Hundreds could eventually face charges,and people around the country are volunteering information.

Reddit forums and Twitter threads urge users to turn in even those closest to them - and comfort those who say they did. Some of these online spaces have become safe havens where people share their struggles with the radicalization of a loved one.

"Maybe being held accountable will do them some good," one Reddit user writes in a thread about reporting Capitol rioters, making sure to include the FBI's Web form for tips. Elsewhere, someone notes that Ted Kaczynski, the serial terrorist known as the "Unabomber," was turned in by his brother.

The FBI did not respond to questions about the sources of its Capitol riot tips. But one of their agents described a witness in the case of Larry Rendell Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who called in identifying herself as Brock's ex-wife. According to the FBI, Brock was photographed last week in the well of the Senate chamber with zip-tie handcuffs - and a military patch recognized by the FBI's tipster, who explained that she was married to Brock for 18 years.

The Post was unable to reach Brock, his relatives or his public defender.

Some family members have stuck by those arrested, defending them to the media. And for others, contacting the FBI feels drastic.

Waking up from a nap last Wednesday to see the Capitol breach on TV, Robyn Sweet said, she had a feeling that her father, Douglas Sweet, was there. She knew he went to the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, she said, and she has listened to him spout QAnon conspiracy theories, speaking of child pedophile rings and a chemical compound supposedly extracted from young captives' blood.

By the time family located him, Robyn said, her father was already arrested. She says she would not have contacted law enforcement anyway, since she does not believe her father harmed anyone. But she says she has heard from a large community of people who are also mourning their own relatives' descent into conspiracy - and who say that if they were in her shoes, they would report.

"I have had a lot of people around the world reaching out to me and saying they feel like they've lost their parents to this radical Trumpism," she said. "They feel like they don't have a family anymore."

The Post could not reach her father, and it is not clear if he has a lawyer. Posting on Facebook after his arrest, Douglas Sweet dismissed his unlawful-entry charge as the equivalent of a "ticket."

Simi argued that while right-wing extremism has been building - and ignored - for decades, it has gained greater force during the Trump administration, fomented not only by the president, but other federal officials as well.

This has brought political extremism in America to unprecedented levels, Simi said, adding, "We really are in unchartered territory."

The coronavirus pandemic has proved a "terrible recipe for extremism," Simi said. Then came the Capitol riots: "What we saw on the 6th is the culmination of something that has been burning and building for quite some time, and in that sense what happened was quite predictable," he said.

The Texas woman who says two of her relatives were on the Capitol lawn also described radicalization long in the making.

"They have closed themselves off from the rest of society, everybody else is the enemy," she said of her relatives. One family member has argued for a "white ethnic state" and the separation of races, she said.

"It's almost like a cult," she said. "They all sit around and share conspiracy theories, that the media is lying to them, they don't want to believe any kind of fact outside of their circle."

Stunned after learning they were at the Capitol last week, she slept on the issue and then tried to discuss it with other family members. The woman says they brushed her off, echoing claims of widespread voting fraud.

"They said I was being ridiculous and overreacting," she said. That response helped push her to report to the FBI.

"I felt I had to do something because it seemed like no one else in their immediate circle was going to talk to them," she said.

Another woman said she informed the FBI about a former friend - estranged because of her increasingly radical politics - who appears in video close to the overrun Capitol, shouting toward police: "Traitor! Traitor Traitor!" The ex-friend, a California attorney named Leigh Dundas, also posted video of herself telling a crowd the day before the Capitol chaos that "we would be well within our rights" to take traitorous Americans "out back and shoot 'em or hang 'em."

The woman shared screenshots of a group chat where she said she reported Dundas to the FBI, and her daughter also corroborated that her mother notified law enforcement.

Dundas did not respond Friday to calls and emails. She wrote on Facebook last week that "the police were the aggressors" on Jan. 6 and blamed "antifa thugs" inside the building. The FBI has said it does not believe antifa was responsible for the day's violence.

Dundas's former friend said she initially felt some hesitation about contacting the FBI. But Dundas's words erased "all of the great things we did together and the wonderful things she did for me," she said.

"What she said about killing people . . . she was talking about me."

- - -

The Washington Post's Alice Crites and Jenn Abelson contributed to this report.
A New Jersey naval contractor accused of being a white supremacist and nazi sympathizer is facing multiple charges after he told an informant he participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, entered the building and encouraged other rioters to advance on the building, according to a criminal complaint.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 30, of Colts Neck, was charged with unlawfully entering restricted grounds, obstructing a law enforcement officer, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, demonstrating in a Capitol building, and obstructing government business.

Hale-Cusanelli is a member of the U.S. Army Reserves and a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle, where he has a secret security clearance and access to a variety of munitions, according to an criminal complaint and arrest warrant filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

His involvement in the riots was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which received a tip Tuesday that Hale-Cusanelli was among the violent mob that entered the Capitol. The confidential informant told NCIS Hale-Cusanelli showed the informant recordings of him making harassing and derogatory statements toward Capitol police officers both inside and outside of the building, according to the complaint.

Two days later the informant secretly recorded a conversation in which Hale-Cusanelli admitted to entering the Capitol building and urged other members of the mob to advance, the complaint said.

Hale-Cusanelli told (the informant) that if theyd had more men they could have taken over the entire building, the complaint says. Hale-Cusanelli also admitted to taking a flag and flagpole that he observed another rioter throw like a javelin at a Capitol Police officer, which Hale-Cusanelli described as a murder weapon. Hale-Cusanelli stated his intent to destroy or dispose of the flag and flagpole as soon as he could.

The informant described Hale-Cusanelli as a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer who posts Youtube videos on a dedicated page. Leading up to the Jan. 6 event, he wrote Trust the plan, its the final countdown, stay tuned next episode and Trust the plan, major announcement soon, the complaint said.

A man by the same name, also of Monmouth County, was accused of stabbing another man during a domestic dispute at a Freehold Township residence in 2011, according to a report by the Asbury Park Press.

Court records indicate Hale-Cusanelli was charged with with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two weapons charges stemming from that incident. The case was disposed in Superior Court in 2012, but the court records do not show a conviction.

Hale-Cusanelli could not immediately be reached for comment. A voicemail box belonging to his father was full Sunday evening.

Five people, including a Capitol police officer, were killed in the riots at the Capitol, where Congress met to certify President-Elect Joe Bidens win over President Donald Trump. The House has since voted to impeach Trump for inciting supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 over false claims of a stolen election.

Brian Sicknick, the officer killed during the violent riot, hailed from South River. Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

An Associated Press review of public records, social media posts and videos shows at least 22 current or former members of the U.S. military or law enforcement have been identified as being at or near the Capitol riot, with more than a dozen others under investigation but not yet named. In many cases, those who stormed the Capitol appeared to employ tactics, body armor and technology such as two-way radio headsets that were similar to those of the very police they were confronting.

Experts in homegrown extremism have warned for years about efforts by far-right militants and white-supremacist groups to radicalize and recruit people with military and law enforcement training, and they say the Jan. 6 insurrection that left five people dead saw some of their worst fears realized.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com.

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Lallemand acquires Biotec BetaGlucans AS





Lallemand Inc's subsidiary, Danstar Ferment AG, has signed an agreement to acquire Biotec BetaGlucans AS (BBG), a wholly owned subsidiary of the ArticZymes Technologies ASA (AZT) , effective December 31, 2020.

AZT is a publicly listed company located in Troms, Norway. BBG is specialised in the development, production and sales of high purity beta-glucan products for human health supplements and aquaculture. BBG's high purity yeast beta-glucan technology and patented soluble beta-glucan (SBG) offer potential for several other applications and markets.

The acquisition includes a specialised pharma and food grade certified production plant located in Troms. Under the terms of the agreement, Lallemand will acquire all BBG assets and associated intellectual property including the M-Gard, SBG, M-Glucan and Woulgan brand product portfolios, and will assume manufacturing responsibilities for beta-glucans in the Nordya manufacturing facility.

BBG's business is an excellent strategic fit for Lallemand, the company said.

Lallemand president and CEO Antoine Chagnon said: "Our acquisition of the Biotec BetaGlucans business will broaden our beta-glucans product portfolio as well as our access to leading technologies within yeast-based ingredients.

"We look forward to offering our customers in both human and animal nutrition sectors innovative products from Biotec BetaGlucans. We are delighted to have secured the pharma certified Troms plant, our first production facility in Norway."

AZT CEO Jethro Holter said: "We are delighted to divest BBG to Lallemand who is ideally suited to take over this business. AZT will subsequently become a pure enzyme company with all efforts focused towards expanding it enzymes portfolio through organic and inorganic growth initiatives."

- Lallemand
Los Angeles, Jan 18 : Hollywood star Matt Damon will soon be seen in the superhero adventure, Thor: Love And Thunder, and has moved to Australia with his family to shoot the film.

Damon has begun 14 days of privately-arranged quarantine in New South Wales, reports dailymail.co.uk.

"I'm so excited that my family and I will be able to call Australia home for the next few months," Damon said.

"Australian film crews are world renowned for their professionalism and are a joy to work with so the 14 days of quarantine will be well worth it," added the 50-year-old.

Damon flew to Australia with wife Luciana Barroso and children -- Isabella, 14, Gia, 12, and Stella, 10 -- on a private jet over the weekend.

"Australia definitely is the lucky country," said "The Good Will Hunting" star, and thanked the Australian Government for the "enormous support" regarding his entry into the country.

Damon had a small cameo in "Thor: Ragnarok" as an Asgardian actor playing Loki in a play. However, it is not clear if he is reprising the role for the superhero film or will appear in a new role.

He joins the existing cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and Christian Bale. Plot details of the new Thor film have been kept under wraps.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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As the WHO-led investigating team conducts research about the origin of coronavirus in Wuhan, the US Department of State on January 16 claimed that the researchers at a Wuhan lab got ill with COVID-19-like symptoms in autumn 2019 as they were experimenting with a virus genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2. In an official statement released by the US Dept. of State, the US intelligence stated that several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including the WIVs staff and students were infected with SARS-CoV-2 like virus infection while they were studying RaTG13, a bat coronavirus identified by the Wuhan lab in January 2020, which is 96.2 percent similar to coronavirus.

While the Chinese Communist Party lied about and hid the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the Trump Administration led the world in publicly calling for transparency and denounced the cover-up. #ChinaLiedPeopleDied pic.twitter.com/7YkSmKb6dY  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 16, 2021

Wuhan Institute of Virology has not been transparent nor consistent about its work with RaTG13 or other similar viruses, including possible gain of function experiments to enhance transmissibility or lethality, a statement from the US Department of State read. It added, Despite the Wuhans institute presenting itself as a civilian institution, it has collaborated on publications and secret projects with Chinas military and has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military forces since at least 2017. The US categorically denied Wuhan Institutes senior researcher Shi Zhenglis public claims that there was zero infection among the lab workers. the report asserted, that the laboratory accident was made to resemble a natural outbreak after the initial human exposure.

Read: China Detects More Than 100 COVID-19 Cases Near Beijing, Authorities Warn People

Read: China's SinoVac Efficacy Remains Inconsistent, COVID-19 Cases Surge In The Country

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a statement: Beijing continues today to withhold vital information that scientists need to protect the world from this deadly virus, and the next one.

China tried to 'cover-up'

Further condemning China for trying to cover-up the outbreak, US State Dept. said: Any responsible country would have invited world health investigators to Wuhan within days of an outbreak. China instead refused offers of help, including from the United States, but China instead arrested doctors, scientists, and journalists who tried to alert the world to the dangers of coronavirus. Furthermore, the US alleged that Beijing continues to withhold vital information, even today. In the report, the authorities insisted that the US still needed access to the samples, lab records, personnel working in the lab, eyewitnesses, and whistleblowers to ensure the credibility of the WHOs final report.

Read: US: Deceptions In The Time Of The 'alternative Facts' President

Read: India Records Highest Number Of COVID Vaccinations In Single Day, More Than US, UK: Centre
A mans body was stuck under a tractor-trailer for about 60 kilometers after he was fatally hit by the vehicle in south-central Vietnam on the weekend.

The accident occurred on National Highway No.1 in Hoa Minh Commune, Tuy Phong District, Binh Thuan Province on Sunday evening, according to preliminary information.

Tran Duc Van, 54, was riding his motorbike and was about to approach the left side of the road when he was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer driven by 49-year-old Bui Minh Tung.

Van was killed on the spot, with his body stuck under the truck.

A tractor-trailer is pulled over in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam following a fatal accident on January 17, 2021 in this supplied photo.

Tung did not stop his vehicle and continued on his journey following the crash.

The tractor-trailer was pulled over by traffic police in Phuoc Nam Commune, Thuan Nam District, Ninh Thuan Province, about 60 kilometers from the crash site, later that night.

Vans body was found near the front wheels.

Tung and his vehicle have been handed over to officers in Tuy Phong District for further investigation.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Rep. Mike Carter is back in Nashville after battles with COVID-19 and then pancreatic cancer.

The Ooltewah Republican was appointed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, to serve as Chairman of the House Civil Justice Committee for the 112th Tennessee General Assembly.

Rep. Carter, an attorney and former judge who was diagnosed with the cancer last Fall, said, I feel blessed to be back in Nashville representing the people of District 29.

Im honored that Speaker Sexton has entrusted me to serve in this important role."

He was hospitalized for several days after getting the coronavirus.

Rep. Carter represents House District 29, which includes Ooltewah and parts of eastern Hamilton County.

He is chairman of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR).


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A patent for Plant Product Infused with Oil and Method of Infusion, covering the infusion sector of the cannabis and hemp industries, was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 29, 2020, to inventor Michael Brunson. (United States Patent No. 10,874,703.) The process he invented infuses cannabis oil into plant product. The invention controls THC or CBD oil content in the plant product to a consistent and regulated dosage.

Brunsons invention can be used to process dried plant product, such as cannabis or hemp, by infusing the plant product with THC or CBD oil. Certain cannabis products are made by the process of infusing oil into the dried cannabis plant. By regulating the amount of oil content in the cannabis or hemp product, the cannabinoid levels in the plant matter can be controlled from zero to 90%. Infusion of oil increases potency making the cannabis plant product up to three times stronger.

The invention also allows dosage control. Medicinal applications allow cannabis and hemp to be administered by a medical provider in prescribed doses. The user can provide informed consent regarding dosage amounts. Resulting products have a consistent and regulated amount of THC and/or CBD, and in particular, a higher dosage of CBD than is available in the natural plant product.

A growing number of medicinal and recreational cannabis businesses are using infusion to make cannabis products commonly known as moon rocks (which are infused cannabis buds rolled in kief). Cannabis products, such as moon rocks, infused prerolls and infused blunts, are covered by Brunsons patent if they use his infusion process.

Cannabis and hemp businesses interested in securing a patent license agreement in their territory are encouraged to contact Michael Brunson's legal counsel, Arthur D. Hodge, located in Carlsbad, California.
WASHINGTON - U.S. defense officials say the federal government is screening the 25,000 National Guard troops who have begun flowing into the nation's capital to secure the inauguration because concerns about extremism in the ranks are intensifying.

The screening comes after a number of pro-Trump rioters involved in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were found to have military ties, raising questions about extremist sentiment within the armed forces. Dozens of people on a terrorist watch list were in Washington as the deadly riot unfolded.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive preparations, said the Army is working with the FBI to vet all service members supporting the inauguration. The Army maintains awareness of threats but does not collect domestic intelligence itself, the official said. It was not immediately clear how extensive the FBI vetting of the military personnel would be.

The screening comes as thousands of troops in camouflage uniforms patrol the streets of the nation's capital, which has turned into a fortress of security barriers and fences in the lead-up to the inauguration. Many of the guardsmen are armed, but they often do not have magazines loaded in their rifles.

Maj. Gen. William Walker, commanding general of the District of Columbia Guard, said in an interview with Defense One that the screening represented an "extra layer" of security for this deployment on top of the continuous monitoring that the U.S. military does of its service members.

"For this deployment everybody is screened additionally, but it's more of a reassurance, because we do everything we can do (to) know our guardsmen, our soldiers and airmen," Walker said.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who is overseeing the D.C. Guard and the military's preparations for the inauguration, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the vetting process has not flagged any potential problems with the troops coming to help protect the inauguration.

"We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation," McCarthy told the AP, which reported that the screening is being carried out by the FBI and is scheduled to be completed by Inauguration Day - Wednesday.

McCarthy told the AP that he has told commanders to keep an eye out for any problems within their units.

Because D.C. is not a state, its Guard answers to the president, but his authority is traditionally delegated to the defense secretary and the Army secretary, who assume operational control on the president's behalf.

The extra screening of the forces flowing into the city from states demonstrates the high level of concern U.S. officials have heading into the week. President Donald Trump is set to be the first outgoing president since 1869 to skip his successor's inauguration.

A second defense official said the Pentagon received 143 notifications of extremism-related probes last year from the FBI, 68 of which were related to suspected domestic extremism among current and former service members - a category that includes White nationalism, anti-fascist, antiabortion and anti-government beliefs. Most of the cases were related to veterans, the official said.

In a statement, the Army said it is working with the Secret Service to determine which service members supporting the inauguration require additional background screening.

All service members go through an annual program that requires them to report information regarding known or suspected extremist behavior in the ranks, the Army said. The Army also noted that the D.C. Guard is providing additional training as service members arrive in the city, instructing them to report anything they see or hear that seems inappropriate to the chain of command.

"There is no place for extremism in the military and we will investigate each report individually and take appropriate action," the Army said in the statement. "The Army is committed to working closely with the FBI as they identify people who participated in the violent attack on the Capitol to determine if the individuals have any connection to the Army."

To enter any branch of the U.S. military and receive a security clearance, all personnel undergo background checks, the Army added.

In a statement, Capt. Chelsi Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Guard, said all members coming to Washington for the deployment "go through a credentialing process."

"That information is shared with the requesting federal agencies and added to their database," Johnson said. "We cannot speak for those agencies and how they use the information."
As COVID-19 deaths and infections continue to rise across the nation, threatening economic recovery and the return of restrictions, small businesses are finally getting another chance for aid to retain their employees.

The U.S. Small Business Association reopened the Paycheck Protection Program for first-time borrowers on Monday and businesses participating for the second time on Wednesday, opening the gates for another rush to secure emergency loans that were quickly snatched up last spring.

The latest COVID relief package signed into law at the end of December included $284 billion for additional lending to eligible businesses, including those that already received a loan months ago.

Quick facts about Paycheck Protection Programs second launch First-time borrowers who didn't participate in the program in April 2020 were able to apply starting on Jan. 11. An overview of what the SBA calls "first draw" is available at sba.gov. The SBA priorititzed the following institutions: Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) Certified Development Companies (CDCs) Microloan Intermediaries Borrowers participating for the second time were open to apply on Jan. 13. The SBA has staggered which financial institutions can process applications, starting with community banks and smaller institutions that are more likely to serve small businesses. All financial insitiutions are expected to gain access after Jan. 18. Forms, more information and resources for help with the program or available at sba.gov/PPP and treasury.gov/CARES. See More Collapse

As with the last time, the program is giving a chance for businesses to secure forgivable loans if they use the funds for rent, expenses  and most importantly for economists  retaining employees during a period of reduced business.

But this time, the SBA has promised some refinements to the program to help cut down on the long waits and even dead ends that some small businesses experienced during the first iteration last April.

One of those changes was to increase the impact for hospitality and services industries, arguably the businesses most affected by the pandemic.

Most eligible businesses may get a loan equal to 2.5 times their average monthly payroll, but restaurants and hotel businesses may now apply for loans equal to 3.5 times monthly payrolls.

Related: Restaurant and hotel workers reel as layoffs soar again

Thats good news for people like Hannah McReynolds, a waitstaff member at Tia Juanitas in Beaumont who was laid off early in the pandemic in spring 2020.

McReynolds had been working there for only a month when she and most of the non-management staff had to be sent home. She had to fall back on her second job as a court reporter.

With the loss of one of her income sources, she said the next few months were stressful financially, but she was able to return to Tia Juanitas in August.

I was excited to come back, she said.

Ricky Martinez, owner of the regional Tia Juanitas chain, said he had to lay off more than 400 employees across all of his restaurants last March when the state began temporarily barring dining room services to try to control the spread of the virus.

More than 10 months later, Martinez said PPP funds helped him retain employees he needed to keep orders headed out the door and now the company has grown to 500 employees thanks to local support for the brand.

Related: Biden's economic plan will test Republican taste for dealmaking

Last December, Jefferson County joined a now growing list of counties in Texas that had to roll back their capacity guidelines for businesses because of COVID-19 hospitalizations. That rollback limited restaurants including Tia Juanitas to 50% capacity and closed bars again.

As local hospitalizations continue at high levels, the SBA program could be coming at the perfect time for businesses, but Martinez said he sees a lot to be skeptical about.

(PPP) let our employees come back fairly quickly, but we just dont know what could happen here, he said. Its one thing for us to get the loan to cover payroll. I dont know how they can make sure people will stay employed.

Martinez said he and other businesses owners are concerned about possibly more restrictions and financial relief from Congress that might severely limit their workforce, especially as a new political administration takes control of the coronavirus response.

President-elect Joe Biden previewed a $1.9 trillion economic recovery plan Thursday that included $1,400 stimulus checks, additional unemployment benefits and an additional $15 billion in small business loans.

Related: Biden to begin presidency pushing emergency relief, other ambitious economic plans

But, before that plan even has a chance to be voted on in Congress, local business resources will have to help entrepreneurs get through the current round of federal aid.

During the first round of PPP, Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce President Bill Allen said the chamber was able to host video conferences and get information into the hands of members while they rushed to make their applications.

This time, the process is somewhat more familiar, but the way it will ultimately play out is still being explained by SBA as it goes.

We will, at minimum, be a resource on the second round of PPP loans and which lenders intend to participate this time around, he said. We are expecting additional guidance to come from the SBA as things become more clear.

The SBA hosted district-level virtual conferences through its regional office based in Houston on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss more of the details in full, including the changes to how certain businesses are prioritized.

While many Southeast Texas businesses will probably receive their PPP loans eventually to cover retaining employees, the question remains of how workers will be protected in the workplace and whether they will feel safe.

Tammy Scott, who has worked at Tia Juanitas for four years, said she was calling the Beaumont restaurant constantly to see if she could join the crew working to-go orders, and she gladly came back to work in August when she was asked.

Like McReynolds, Scott said the months away from work were hard financially, but the time she had to spend away from her family and seven grandchildren was even worse.

Now that she is back to work, she has her new worries about whether something similar will happen again as coronavirus cases rise and more infectious variants are discovered in the United States.

I think maybe they should have kept it closed longer, because I do worry about them shutting things down again and the impact that could have on small businesses, she said.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 41F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.

108 names but one emotion - Mahabali Hanuman. From burning down Lanka to slaying demons, He is worshipped and admired by billions the world over for His many acts of righteousness and eternal devotion to Lord Ram. But not many know of His extraordinary journey of self discovery  the story of a humble vaanara who forgot about His divinity, and how the people around him helped him discover the God within him. Narrated by Sharad Kelkar, the unseen tale of the mighty warrior Lord Hanuman comes alive in The legend of Hanuman, a visually mesmerizing portrayal of an epic saga by Hotstar Specials.

Produced by Graphic India and created by Sharad Devarajan, Jeevan J. Kang and Charuvi P. Singhal, the mythological animation series has been designed using superior quality visuals mounted on a global scale, previously never seen before in India. The series has been directed by Jeevan J Kang and Navin John, with lead writers Sharad Devarajan, Sarwat Chaddha, Ashwin Pande and Arshad Syed and chronicles the perpetual war between the forces of good and evil; and how the immortal Hanuman became the ever-burning beacon of hope amidst the harrowing darkness. The legend of Hanuman brings forth the power of great storytelling combining mythology with using easy-to-understand words and phrases, that make it an ideal watch for adults, children and families across the country. All 13 episodes of the show will be available in 7 languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada; and will release exclusively on 29th January 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar VIP.

Sharad Kelkar who lends his voice as the sootradhar said, Most of us have grown up either listening to tales of Lord Hanuman or watching it on television. Interestingly, we know little about His formative years. The legend of Hanuman is a visually rich tale of a God who forgot who He was, and believed He was just a vaanara. As a sootradhar, it's my privilege to lend my voice in a way that ties that story together; it's been a truly unique experience. I think this story will inspire people to believe that true measure of a being is not defined by power, but from faith, courage and compassion.

Sharad Devarajan, Co-founder at Graphic India said, For the first time, the grandeur of the epic world of Hanuman and the mythical beings of Gods, demons, forest creatures, spirits and anthropomorphic clans, will be visualized through high quality animation, creating an animated event that we hope will transcend ages and speak to all generations who have held this hero in our hearts. We are honoured and humbled to work with the amazing team at Disney+ Hotstar to make this dream project a reality.
Farmers unions refused to call off the tractor march planned for 26 January and asserted that they had the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully on Republic Day

The crucial tenth round of talks between the Centre and protesting farmers' unions was on Monday postponed from 19 January to 20 January.

"The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on 20 January at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of 19 January," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, the Centre had said both sides want to resolve the long-continuing stalemate at the earliest but it was getting delayed due to the involvement of people of "other ideologies".

Asserting that the new farm laws are in the interest of the farming community, the government said obstacles occur whenever good things or measures are taken and it is taking longer to resolve the issue as farmers' leaders want a solution "their own way".

On the other hand, farmers unions protesting the new agricultural legislations on Monday asserted that they had the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully on Republic Day, and reiterated that they would go ahead with the proposed tractor rally on 26 January.

This declaration came hours after the Supreme Court told the Centre that the proposed tractor rally by farmers was a matter of law and order, and the Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the National Capital. We are not going to tell you what to do, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said, adding that police has all the authority to deal with the matter.

The previous nine rounds of formal talks between the Centre and 41 farmer unions have failed to yield any concrete results to end the long-running protest at Delhi's borders as the latter have stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three acts.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws: the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.

Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers' income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and "mandi" (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out a repeal of the laws.

'Resolution getting delayed due people of other ideologies'

Speaking to PTI, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said: "It is different when farmers talk to us directly. When leaders get involved, then it becomes difficult. There could have been early solution had the discussions were held with farmers directly."

Since people of different ideologies have entered into the protest, they want a solution in their own way, he said.

"Both sides want a solution, but they have different points of view and hence it is taking more time. But a definite solution will emerge," he noted.

Separately, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while addressing a virtual event, reiterated that the three farm laws will be beneficial for farmers.

"These laws were expected earlier but the previous government could not implement because of pressure. It was the Modi government that took a bold step and brought these laws passed in Parliament... Whenever a good thing happens, there are obstacles," Tomar said.

On the eve of the tenth round of meeting, a delegation of farmers representing over 270 farmer producer organizations from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Odisha met Rupala and appealed not to repeal the laws. Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhury was also present in the meeting.

"We support the new laws. We don't want the government to repeal them," Narendra Tomar of Gwalior-based Chambal Agro FPO said after the meeting.

'Just a few people disagreeing'

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the protests against the Centre's farm laws were just a few people in disagreement and added that the changes allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere like traders.

Speaking to reporters in Betul, the Union minister for petroleum and gas also took a swipe at protesters claiming it was difficult to make those understand who wanted to remain asleep.

"The disagreement of a few people cannot be called a farmers agitation. Is it there in Betul? MP agriculture minister Kamal Patel has shared his experiences with me. We are talking in a straight manner and are able to put forth our views in villages," he said.

He said the new farm laws allowed cultivators to sell their produce anywhere "just like a trader can sell his clothes in any market in the country".

When queried on whether the Centre was not being able to make the protesters understand its viewpoint, Pradhan said, "We are trying to make them understand. But in a democracy, it is a little difficult to make those understand who want to remain asleep," he said.

SC-appointed panel to hold first meeting tomorrow

The Supreme Court-appointed committee on the three new farm laws is scheduled to hold its first meeting with members on Tuesday at Pusa campus in Delhi, its member Anil Ghanwat said.

"We are going to meet tomorrow. Only members will meet to discuss the terms of reference and decide the future course of action," Ghanwat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra), told PTI before boarding a flight to Delhi.

The Supreme Court had on 11 January stayed the implementation of the three laws, against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for over 50 days now, till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.

Bhartiya Kisan Union President Bhupinder Singh Mann had last week recused himself from the committee.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, hearing the Centres application seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor or trolley march or any other kind of protest which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of the Republic Day, said that police has all the authority to deal with the matter.

Does the Supreme Court will say as to what are the powers of police and how they will exercise them? We are not going to tell you what to do, said the bench, also comprising Justices LN Rao and Vineet Saran.

The apex court told Attorney-General KK Venugopal that it will take up the matter for further hearing on 20 January.

'Farmers have constitutional right to take out tractor rally'

Protesting union leaders on Monday said that farmers have a constitutional right to take out their tractor rally peacefully and asserted that thousands of people will participate in the proposed event on 26 January.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) Punjab general secretary Paramjit Singh said that farmers are not going to hold their rally on Rajpath and in other high-security areas, adding that they would only take out it on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi and that there will be no disruption in the official Republic Day parade.

"We are stuck at the Delhi borders. We have not decided to sit at these borders ourselves, we have been stopped from entering Delhi. We will take out the rally peacefully without disrupting any law and order. We will exercise our constitutional right and we will definitely enter Delhi," Singh told PTI.

Another farmer leader Lakhbir Singh, who is vice president (Punjab) of All India Kisan Sabha, said that farmers will return to protest sites after taking out the tractor rally on the Outer Ring Road on 26 January.

Women Farmers' Day celebrated today

From taking centre stage to handling backstage responsibilities, managing crowd and collecting donations, women farmers took over the reins of the ongoing agitation against farm laws at multiple Delhi border points on Monday as they marked the day as 'Women Farmers' Day'.

A large number of women from various states reached the sites of protest against the Centre's three farm laws that has been going on for over 50 days now.

At the Singhu border, the epicentre of the agitation, many women farmers were seen regulating entry at select locations, coordinating among volunteers and ensuring that the day's proceedings went seamlessly, jobs that were taken care of by men till now.

"The stage at the Singhu border was managed by only women and all the speakers were women. In different places across India, women farmers organised rallies, dharnas, and meetings to mark the day," said Kavitha Kuruganti of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC).

With inputs from PTI
Lucknow, Jan 18 : UP Minister Anand Swaroop Shukla has called Mamata Banerjee an 'Islamic terrorist' and claimed the West Bengal Chief Minister will have to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh when the assembly elections in her state gets over.

Shukla, who is Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, has also alleged that Banerjee 'does not believe in Bharatiyata (Indianness)' and has insulted Hindu gods and goddesses.

"She is an Islamic terrorist. She has worked to break the temples and insult gods and goddesses in West Bengal. She is acting at the behest of Bangladesh," the minister told a select group of journalists on Sunday.

"Mamata Banerjee will be defeated badly in the assembly polls, after which she will have to take refuge in Bangladesh," Shukla added, referring to the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.

The minister also added the Muslims who say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' will be honoured in the country.

The assembly polls in West Bengal are due in April and the BJP is working to wrest power in the state.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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just-styles annual look at key issues likely to impact the apparel industry and its global supply chain in the year ahead begins with a roundup of potential challenges and opportunities in 2021. The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic means there will be continued volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, with fewer retail brands, stores and malls. The winners will be those companies that communicate purpose, deliver new value, and adapt to this new normal.

We also share four major changes manufacturers must make to ensure they don't just survive but come out of Covid-19 stronger.

Embracing end-to-end transparency is one recurring theme for the industry  and was emphasised last week by the US introducing a sweeping ban on the import of cotton products from China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The move looks set to accelerate the industry sourcing shift away from China  and could prompt a surge in the adoption of alternative fibres.

The UK government has also announced tougher restrictions for companies to prevent goods linked to China's Xinjiang region from entering the supply chain.

After Britain finally left the European Union (EU) at the start of the year it sounded like nothing was going to change. Yet post-Brexit apparel trade still clouded by uncertainty  and almost every aspect of importing and exporting clothes in the UK could now get a lot worse.

The actions of 6 January 2021, when hundreds of President Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building, will also take years to overcome.

And concerns continue to mount over the prospect of additional punitive tariffs on US imports of apparel and footwear from Vietnam  with companies including Nike, Adidas America, Gap Inc, Levi Strauss and Under Armour the latest to oppose any such move.

Turmoil in Hong Kong may also be one reason why VF Corporation, owner of brands including The North Face, Timberland and Vans, is shifting its Product Supply Hub  which serves as the base of its global supply chain in Asia  to Singapore.

As holiday sales results start to come in, performance has been a mixed bag. Online retailer Asos has posted a 23% jump in total group revenue as renewed Covid restrictions drive consumers to shop online.

Stocking lockdown categories such as loungewear, which have brought reduced returns rates as they are less fit-dependent, has also helped Fast Retailing, owner of the Uniqlo casual clothing brand, to a higher-than-expected rise in first-quarter earnings.

And despite widespread criticism for poor conditions in its supply chain, the Boohoo Group has raised its full year revenue guidance after posting a 40% sales hike for the four months to the end of December.

The UK-based fast-fashion retailer is continuing to investigate some suppliers following a probe related to working conditions and low pay.

But for Primark, which does not sell online and relies heavily on city-centre store locations, the latest lockdown has lost it an estimated GBP540m (US$737m) in sales for the 16 weeks to 2 January.

US apparel and footwear brands and retailers have also seen assorted results as they try to navigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, in other news, Marks & Spencer has bought the Jaeger fashion brand out of administration; Pakistans Artistic Milliners has acquired a denim factory in California; Bonmarche has been sold to Purepay Retail; and Debenhams is to close six stores as sale talks continue.
Secunderabad, Jan 19 : The South Central Railway (SCR) zone has jabbed the first shots of Coronavirus vaccine on its frontline staff at the central railway hospital in Lallaguda, Secunderabad on Monday.

"The first shots were given to healthcare staff like doctors, nurses and housekeeping staff," said a railway zone official.

According to the railway zone officials, the frontline staff discharged yeoman service during the Coronavirus pandemic, putting their physical, mental and social wellbeing at stake.

"Due to their dedicated service, the healthcare staff of the zone are the first to be given Covid vaccination doses, as part of the nationwide Covid vaccine drive to the frontline healthcare personnel," he said.

The zonal railway hospital received 593 doses of Coronavirus vaccine in coordination with the state and central governments.

"These vaccine shots will be given to all healthcare staff belonging to the health units (railway) of Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Chilkalguda, Kacheguda and Moula-Ali over a period of six days," said the official.

The railway zone's General Manager Gajanan Mallya was present at the hospital on Monday when the first shots were being jabbed and expressed happiness over the development.

After lauding the frontline staff, Mallya conducted an extensive inspection of the hospital, including interacting with patients about its services.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Supporters and critics of a proposed natural gas pipeline that would travel through Luzerne and Carbon coutnies had their voices heard Wednesday night during a virtual public hearing conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The PennEast Pipeline Company is seeking to create a 120-mile pipeline from Dallas Twp. to New Jersey. Its seeking DEP permits regarding sediment and erosion control and also water encroachment.

Dozens of people from throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey offered commentary during the hours-long virtual hearing.

Those supporting the pipeline, like former Nanticoke Councilman Cameron Cox, testified that construction of the pipeline would be great for the economy.

These projects are huge job creators, Cox said. This is a no-brainer. We need to invest in infrastructure.

Various pro-natural gas drilling groups voiced their support for the project.

Phase 1 of the project is a 68-mile pipeline from Dallas Twp. to Bethlehem Twp. in Northampton County.

Don Nealey, a resident of Bethlehem Twp., said hes against the pipeline, as did representatives for groups like the Sierra Club.

My concern is related to safety, Nealey said.

Some of the critics said the pipeline would undoubtedly pollute the environment. They also said the project is unneeded. Several noted that several natural gas companies went bankrupt in the past year and prices are down due to a surplus of gas in the market.

Phase 2 of the project would link the pipeline from Bethlehem Twp. to Mercer County, New Jersey.

PennEast officials said the overall project is a $1 billion investment.

Those wanting to give written testimony about their thoughts on the project have until 4 p.m. Jan. 20. They can email DEP official Colleen Connolly at

coconnolly@pa.gov.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has summoned streaming platform Amazon Prime Video following complaints that Hindu gods and goddesses have been ridiculed in the web series 'Tandav'.

Additionally, an FIR has also been registered at Lucknow's Hazratganj Kotwali against Amazon Prime's India head of original content Aparna Purohit, Tandav's director Ali Abbas Zafar, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra, and writer Gaurav Solanki and others for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.

The development has come after BJP MP Manoj Kotak wrote a letter to the I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on the 'Tandav' web series.

The Mumbai North-East MP alleged that attempts are often made on such platforms to not show Hindu deities in good light. Sharing the picture of his letter to Javadekar on Twitter, Kotak said as there is no law or autonomous body governing digital content, and films on such platforms are full of sex, violence, drugs, abuse, hate, and vulgarity. "Sometimes, they also hurt religious sentiments," he added.

It seems that makers of 'Tandav' have deliberately mocked Hindu gods and disrespected Hindu religious sentiments, he said in the letter dated January 16.

Another politician, Ram Kadam, a BJP MLA from Ghatkopar West, also asked the director to remove the portion of the web series in which Lord Shiva is allegedly ridiculed.

Meanwhile, the makers of Tandav have offered an unconditional apology for hurting public sentiment.

"We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series 'Tandav' and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people," read an official statement from cast and crew of the web series.

"The web series 'Tandav' is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of 'Tandav' take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments," it further added.

It must be noted that the government brought OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, besides other online news and current affairs content, under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 2020, giving it powers to regulate policies and rules for the digital space.

The web series 'Tandav' features Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan, and Kritika Kamra in the key roles. It was premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.

Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar has created, directed, and produced the political drama with Himanshu Kishan Mehra and it is written by Gaurav Solanki, best known for 'Article 15'.

Also read: COVID-19 vaccination drive: Over 1.91 lakh people inoculated on Day 1, no hospitalisation post-jab

Also read: IndiGo to operate daily Delhi-Leh flights from February 22
Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode, has taken a swipe at Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State for accusing Christians, white men a...

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode, has taken a swipe at Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State for accusing Christians, white men and Asians of being Boko Haram members.

Recall that Governor Babagana Zulum had said some Boko Haram members were Christians, Muslims, white men and Asians.

The Governor, who spoke during the 17th Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture organised by the Nigerian Bar Association in Ikeja, Lagos State, said Nigerians should see insurgency as a general challenge and not just a Northeast problem alone.

He also said the high rate of unemployment, poverty, drug abuse and nepotism were all causes of terrorism and banditry.

Reacting, Kayode in a tweet via his Twitter account on Monday said the Governors allegations were lies from the pit of hell.

According to him, no real Christian will be in the ranks of an Islamic terror group whose objective is to wipe Christianity off the face of the earth.

The allegation that there are Christians in Boko Haram by Gov. Zulum of Borno state is a lie from the pit of hell.

No real Christian will be in the ranks of an Islamic terror group whose objective is to wipe Christianity off the face of the earth.

I have lost respect for Zulum, he wrote.
One of President-elect Joe Biden's priorities in the early days of his incoming term is to immediately ask Congress to offer legal status to about 11 million immigrants in the country.

This decision from Biden was a surprise to some advocacy groups given that offering legal status to immigrants has been a divisive issue, even within parties, noted The Associated Press.

The move to provide legal status to immigrants was first told to reporters by four people familiar with Biden's plans.

It will give a shorter pathway to citizenship for people on temporary protected status and beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and probably a vast number of immigrant front-line essential workers, noted Los Angeles Times.

It's part of Biden's groundbreaking plans to change immigration rules in the U.S. and something that became exciting news for many immigrants who want to come to the nation.

These plans are the flipside of the current administration's move to shut down the U.S.'s southern border with Mexico and banned several foreigners from coming into the country.

Pace of Biden's Immigration Plans Unknown

Under Biden's immigration plan, immigrants can qualify for permanent legal status after five years of residence and can get citizenship after another three years. It offers a faster citizenship path than any other bills, noted Daily Wire.

Read also: Joe Biden Chooses Familiar Faces for Top FEMA, CIA Roles

It is still unclear how quickly the president-elect can act on his immigration plans, especially with the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, among other priorities of the incoming administration.

Some advocates are worried that these will only be blank promises as when former President Barack Obama pledged that he would put an immigration bill in place during his first year in office but none were made until his second term.

"We got the same promises from Obama, who got elected in '08, and he totally failed," said Domingo Garcia, former president of the League of Latin American Citizens.

"This really does represent a historic shift from Trump's anti-immigrant agenda," said National Immigration Law Center's executive director Marielena Hincapie.

It also represents a departure from earlier immigration bills passed by both Democratic and Republican leaders. In that sense, it does not have any provisions relating to expanded enforcement and security measures, said Hincapie who was consulted by Biden's staffers.

LA Times also confirmed that the new administration doesn't have plans with the "security first" political concessions of past efforts.

The last time a president successfully moved toward granting status to a great number of illegal immigrants was during President Ronald Reagan's term, where some three million people were bestowed amnesty in 1986.

Congress to Get Biden's Plans on Immigration 'On His First Day'

Biden's incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Saturday that Biden will be sending his proposals to Congress "on his first day in office" but he did not give any more specifics, as did Biden's office.

Related story: Migrant Caravan Calls on Biden Administration to Honor Commitments

However, he said the new system will "restore humanity to our immigration system."

The release of Biden's plans came as a migrant caravan from about several thousand people from Honduras approaches the U.S. border.
COMPASSIONATE CERTIFICATION CENTERS, (http://www.CCCregister.com), a first of its kind alternative healthcare system - specializing in cannabis medicine, has been awarded recognition as Best Cannabis Certification Specialists  USA by Global Health & Pharma (GHP) in the International Commercial Cannabis Awards 2020.

The Global Health and Pharma Awards were created as an international recognition of leaders in the Human, Animal, and Environmental Health fields. This annual event highlights prestigious industry professionals as the cannabis-focused awards continue for a second year. CCC is honored to be chosen as a winner by Global Health & Pharma, once again. We have made great strides in ensuring cannabis medicine is available legally to qualifying patients and are humbled to have such prestigious recognition for our care. states C.E.O. and Co-founder, Melonie Kotchey. In addition to this years award, the multi-award-winning healthcare network, colloquially called CCC, was named as the Leading Pioneers in Medical Marijuana Registration  Pennsylvania as well as receiving a Distinction Award for Cannabis Medicine Advancement 2020, in last years GHP Medical Marijuana Awards 2019.

Qualifications for the Global Health and Pharma awards are determined not by votes but solely upon professional merit and achievement. Nominations were based on case files built by GHP researchers. These case files present merit-oriented research considering factors such as the companys accomplishments and adaptability, organizational growth, future aspirations, company values, and public reputation. After relaying notice of the nomination, a panel of judges review all research to identify a level of proficiency and excellence within a companys given field as well as their devotion to patient care and satisfaction.

About Compassionate Certification Centers

Compassionate Certification Centers is an award-winning, U.S. Medical Cannabis Healthcare System, specializing in cannabis medicine. The company is devoted to assisting U.S. citizens with discovering cannabis-derived treatment options for a wide-range of medical conditions.

CCCs network of convenient healthcare centers operate throughout some of the top U.S. medical regions providing Medical Marijuana consultations, THC & CBD treatment plans, and High-Quality CBD products. Recently, the company has expanded their services to include many holistic and alternative therapies. For more information on CCCs locations, services, or products please visit http://www.CompassionateCertificationCenters.com  http://www.CCCregister.com or call 888-316-9085.

Join us at our Grand Re-Opening of our NEW Washington, PA office on Feb. 1st.

Contact

Melissa Rigby

Marketing@cccenters.org

412-983-0995
New coronavirus variants across the global could interrupt the progress being made in the battle against the pandemic.

Over the past few weeks, a number of new strains have been found, including in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.

Scientists warn that these new variants could easily reinfect people who have survived COVID-19 because there is possible resistance against antibodies, which evades the immune system response generated by the first infection.

What's more, they caution that the variants could force researchers to update vaccines often to the point that it becomes like the flu with a shot needed every season.

New coronavirus strains may be able to bypass the immune response that COVID-19 survivors have developed and allow for easier reinfection. Pictured: Medical Director of the ICU Dr Thomas Yadegar checks the vital signs of Dr Neil Hecht and his wife Mindy Cross (center) at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California, January 3

Vaccines may also have to be updated to target mutations seen on the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter and infect cells. Pictured: A man receives a dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination site in the Bronx, New York ,January 10

Dr Nuno Faria, a virologist at Imperial College London and associate professor at the University of Oxford, told Science Magazine that Manaus, Brazil, is a perfect case study of how variants can undo progress.

In December 2020, he co-authored a paper estimating 75 percent of the city's population had been infected with the virus, enough for herd immunity.

However, around the same time, cases of COVID-19 began to rise again and hospital beds were being filled.

'It was hard to reconcile these two things,' Faria told the magazine.

By looking at samples, he discovered a new variant had developed that had been spreading across the city.

Of 31 samples collected in mid-December, 13 had the new linage called P.1, and it appeared to circumvent the immune response triggered by virus that had been infecting people earlier in the year.

Of course, P.1 is not the only variant. Several have arisen across the globe, perhaps none more notable than B 1.1.7., first identified in the UK.

B 1.1.7., which is believed to be up to 70 percent more transmissible that other variants, has infected nearly 100 people in 18 U.S. states.

And, last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report saying it could become the more prevalent strain in the country by March.

Another variant, called 501Y.V2, was first detected in South Africa has spread to several other nations, but not the U.S.

B 1.1.7., which is believed to be up to 70 percent more transmissible that other variants, has infected nearly 100 people in 18 U.S. states, along with some homegrown variants

One pre-print study found that the South Africa variant has mutations to the spike protein, which the virus uses to infect human cells, which reduced the potency in convalescent plasma by 10-fold.

Plasma is the liquid portion of blood that is transferred into COVID-19 patients in hopes they will develop antibodies needed to fight off the virus.

The study'a author, Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, did note to Science Magazine that this does necessarily mean people's natural immunity decreased 10-fold if infected with a new mutation.

He adds that the Brazil variant, P.1, is concerning because that mutations are similar and it causing cases to rise in areas believed to have a high immunity threshold.

'Anytime you see the same mutations arising and starting to spread multiple times, in different viral strains across the world, that's really strong evidence that there's some evolutionary advantage to those mutations,' Bloom told Science Magazine.

'I would expect that those viruses have some advantage when a lot of the population has immunity.'

There is currently no evidence that any of the variants are resistant to either Pfizer of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

However, the fact that new mutations keep cropping up is concerning

'The not-so-good news is that the rapid evolution of these variants suggests that if it is possible for the virus to evolve into a vaccine-resistant phenotype, this may happen sooner than we like,' Philip Krause, chair of a WHO working group on COVID-19 vaccines, told Science Magazine.

There is a sense of urgency to vaccinate people as soon as possible to at least deal with the most prevalent strains right now.

If need be, vaccines could be easily be reformulated to respond to different mutations of the spike protein.

This does mean they would likely have to go through more Food and Drug Administration scrutiny before being authorized

'To be clear: These are downstream considerations,' Krause told Science Magazine.

'The public should not think that this is imminent, and that new vaccines will be needed.'
Egyptian Christians faring better under Al-Sisi, but remain under threat of attacks and persecution

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Experts on the persecution of Egyptian Christians report that although life under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is better for Christians than past presidents, such as Mohamed Morsi or Hosni Mubarak, believers continue to face persecution and violence at the hands of radical Muslims who evade arrest and prosecution.

When mobs of radical Muslims attack Christians, none of them get arrested, said Coptic Christian leader Samuel Tadros. Instead, the victims of violence are arrested by police.

Not a single person has been convicted or spent time in jail for attacking Christians, said Tadros, who was among the experts who spoke at a Zoom conference on Friday hosted by In Defense of Christians, an advocacy group for Middle Eastern Christians.

They will execute ISIS who are enemies of the state for attacking Christians, but not violence by Muslims. When it comes to mob attacks we have had a complete failure by government, not of impunity but encouragement," he stressed.

Recently, a radical Muslim mob burned houses and stripped an elderly Christian woman naked and drug her through the streets. Egypts courts acquitted the men who led the mob.

Even though such incidents are common, Egypts present government under al-Sisi has a better record of protecting Christians than former president Hosni Mubarak or the Muslim Brotherhood, Tadros said.

Al-Sisis government presents a strange mixture of public support and private indifference to Christians, speakers at the conference said. Al-Sisi, a Muslim, has attended Christmas services at a Coptic cathedral, signed new legislation that registered churches with the government and built a Coptic Christian cathedral with government money.

But these deeds arent the whole picture. Al-Sisis church registration program has made it challenging for churches to get licenses approved and difficult for Christians to build new churches.

These are modest advancements but still important to recognize," said Nadine Maenza, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to the Commission for International Religious Freedom in May 2018 and elected vice-chair in June 2019. "Egyptian bureaucracy is infamous for moving slowly, but [the church program has accepted] only a third of applicants. Church registration is still substantially different and far less proportional than mosques in the country.

Even al-Sisis cathedral is not really a Coptic cathedral, said Tadros. Its in an inconvenient location and doesnt have a Coptic name,

Its in the desert, not where you can worship, he said. We, as Copts, name our cathedrals after saints. Its a telling thing that even the name of the cathedral was chosen by the Egyptian president.

Kurt Werthmuller, a supervisory policy analyst for USCIRF with a particular emphasis on religious freedom in Egypt, Iraq, and the Levant, brought up al-Sisi's detention of Christian rights activist Ramy Kamel in 2019.

Hes been theoretically not imprisoned but in pre-trial detention. The charges that are levied against him include colluding with a terror organization to spread false information, said Werthmuller. He has spent most of that year in solitary confinement. Weve heard that the last couple of months his health has been deteriorating.

Werthmuller said Egypt should be doing better on religious freedom. Coptic Christians shouldnt have to accept mob violence against them as a normal part of life, he added.

Egypt is a country with tremendous potential. Its people are amazing, it has resources. We shouldnt take this is the best were going to get as enough, Werthmuller said.

Egypt is ranked No. 16 on Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA's 2021 list of countries where it's most difficult to live openly as a Christian.
Software company Expensify is seeking to narrow the pay gap between U.S. men and women, which has barely budged in the past two decades. The company said it will donate 25 cents for every dollar the company pays to white, male employees to fund justice and equity efforts through its charity, Expensify.org.

This company expects the effort to generate $3 million in 2021.

The move was sparked by internal employee discussions about diversity, equity and inclusion, the company said. Women earned 85% of what men took home in 2018, according to a Pew Research Center study.

A director at the company, Puneet Lath, was also central to coming up with the idea.

This massive pay gap is a result of generations of systemic inequality, unequal access to opportunity, and unequal treatment within the workforce, he said in a statement.

The share of women and people of color in the workforce increased significantly in the past century, but inequalities continue to put men ahead of women in terms of pay, according to the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress.

Women of all races earned an average of 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races, according to an analysis of federal income data by the think tank.

Expensify plans to donate the money it generates to the charity it created last year that allows people to apply for grants for projects fighting injustice.

The charity has focused on tackling hunger brought on by the coronavirus pandemic in the last year, reimbursing around 5,000 low-income families for their grocery bills.

Expensify said it is accepting applications for projects to be funded with the money, up to $100,000.

Last year the company announced a corporate card it created for business customers that allows 10% of the transaction fee Expensify gets from each swipe to go to Expensify.org.

Interactive Vaccine Tracker: Latest developments Detailed information about the coronavirus vaccines as it becomes available.

Companies across tech have responded in a variety of ways to massive protests over the summer demanding reforms in policing and racial injustice.

Twitter, Facebook and Google all pledged to further diversify their work forces, which for years have seen lopsided underrepresentation of minority groups.

Some of the companies also pledged to hire more women and to invest in Black and diverse businesses and communities. Facebook pledged over $1 billion to its effort, while Google has promised to pay $175 million to support Black business owners and communities.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
When a society is deeply divided, a paradox is in force. On the one hand, people cry out for unity, while on the other hand, they keep on doing the very things that incite division. We are seeing this paradox grow stronger year by year in politics, but at bottom what were facing is a broken relationship. Society is a huge bundle of relationships, nothing more.

To stop being trapped in a paradox, you need a little practical psychology. The first step when a relationship falters, if you consider the situation psychologically, is to stop doing more of what didnt work in the first place. The same holds true in a divided society.

As long as both sides engage in futile behavior, ending the divide between them isnt going to happen. At a certain point a futile tactic turns into a fantasy. Here Id define fantasy as a belief that runs contrary to reality. If you confront the realities of a situation but continue to ignore them, you are indulging in a fantasy.

Here are five fantasies that surround us right now. Ill couch them in terms of a broken relationship.

Fantasy No. 1: You need to listen to me. Meanwhile, I refuse to listen to you.

When two opposing sides stop listening to each other, the relationship has reached an impasse. Communication has shut down. In its place, rigid rituals are acted out. These rituals consist of repeating the same argument over and over, shouting to try and be heard, and freezing the other side out with rude contempt or silence.

Fantasy No. 2: Everything will be okay if you change. I certainly dont need to change.

This is the classic disguise for blame. When you demand that the other person change, you are judging against them without really coming out and saying so. What fuels this fantasy is the delusion that others change if you blame them enough. The other part of the fantasy is a self-righteous confidence that you dont need to change because the other person has no right to blame you.

Fantasy No. 3: You are here to make me happy. Until you do that, I cant relate to you.

This fantasy is a holdover from childhood. Young children pout and cry when they are unhappy, and as long as they are unhappy, they dont relate. They are too sunk in their own feelings. When carried over into adulthood, however, the same attitude becomes narcissistic. No one outside your marriage or intimate partnership is here to make you happy. To cut off ties because you are waiting to be made happy leads nowhere if your aim is to bring people together.

Fantasy No. 4: Im better than you. Thats why I have the right to tell you what to do.

Much of social discord can be laid down to a mutual superiority complex. Tune in to commentators for the other side, and you will probably be shocked at their sense of superiority, especially if you think that only your side has the right to feel superior. In reality, neither side has the right to feel superior. If this fact is ignored, there is no chance for reconciliation.

Fantasy No. 5: I deserve to win, and once I do, you will be sunk once and for all.

This is the emotional equivalent of a zero-sum game. The Super Bowl is a zero-sum game because only one side can win. But human affairs are tidal. One day you are down, the next day you are up. The belief that you can be up forever and never down again is pure fantasy.

If two people, two factions or two nations find themselves stuck at an angry impasse, these five fantasies are almost always in play. Perhaps not all of them at once, and perhaps not everyone is honest about how they feel, yet this makes no difference. Each fantasy is based on two underlying tendencies. The first tendency is holding judgments; the second tendency is us-versus-them thinking. Each fantasy expresses these two tendencies in a slightly different way. But you can be sure that they are present.

Calls for unity, comity, and healing dont lead to actual healing until both sides stop engaging in more of what never worked in the first place. By looking closely at how we indulge in fantasy, we can get much closer to turning good intentions into reality.

DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his latest book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books, September 22, 2020) will help to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century. www.deepakchopra.com

By Deepak Chopra,MD
By John Burton





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made his opening bid in dealing with the new administration of President Joe Biden at the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party, which ended last week. The congress was deliberately held before Biden's inauguration this week to send a message on how Pyongyang views the situation.



It was not a reassuring one for Washington. Kim declared that the U.S. was North Korea's "foremost principal enemy" and added that North Korea would only negotiate from a position of strength as he outlined new nuclear and missile programs.



These included the development of tactical nuclear weapons suitable for local conflicts on the Korean Peninsula, long-range strategic missiles with multiple warheads that could reach most of the U.S. mainland, and nuclear submarines. This point was underscored when a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, described as "the world's most powerful weapon," was displayed in a military parade afterwards to celebrate the end of the congress.



This tough stance apparently anticipates that the Biden administration will adopt a more hardline policy toward North Korea than that of Donald Trump, who met Kim three times in a failed attempt to reach a nuclear deal.



Kim's remarks amounted to a defiant statement that North Korea will never give up its nuclear and missile arsenal, which it views as a legitimate self-defense measure.



But beyond the harsh rhetoric, things may not change much for the moment since Washington and Pyongyang will be distracted with other issues over the coming months.



The Biden administration will be focused on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and possible domestic terrorist attacks by Trump supporters. Meanwhile, Kim will probably prefer to concentrate on economic recovery efforts after admitting the failure of the latest five-year economic plan. This was partly due to a sharp reduction in trade with China after Pyongyang last year closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19, along with the effects of international sanctions and several natural disasters.



As a result, it might be in the interests of both countries to adopt a "wait and see" attitude toward each other. Although there is speculation that North Korea might soon resume major weapons tests, which have been suspended since 2017, to pressure Washington to ease sanctions, it might produce the opposite effect. Kim can ill afford to take such an action when the economy appears to be slowly imploding.



The display of military power might also have been staged to shore up Kim's political prestige in the face of the growing economic crisis. At the end of the congress, Kim assumed the title of general secretary of the Workers' Party, which signaled a tightening of his authority. There was also a shake-up in the Politburo with new members named.



The demotion of Kim's sister, Kim Yo-jong, in the party hierarchy suggests that despite the military bluster, the North Korea leader might be preparing to ease tensions with South Korea. Kim Yo-jong had played a highly visible role in criticizing Seoul.



Inter-Korean relations have been deadlocked following the failure of Kim's summit with Trump in Hanoi two years ago, which President Moon Jae-in helped to broker. Kim may be hoping that a renewed outreach to Seoul could lead to economic cooperation projects that Moon has been proposing, while driving a wedge between South Korea and the U.S.



Whether such a strategy will succeed will depend on Washington's response. Will the Biden administration, for example, decide to push for full-scale joint military exercises with the South in the spring? Trump reduced the size of the annual exercises in the past two years in a conciliatory gesture to Pyongyang.



Biden's appointment of Kurt Campbell as his top adviser on Asia on the National Security Council could result in increased strains with the Moon administration. As assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the administration of Barack Obama, Campbell was a key architect of the policy of "strategic patience" toward North Korea, which led to a period of non-engagement with Pyongyang. A possible revival of this policy would clash with Moon's efforts to seek reconciliation with North Korea.



Campbell will likely modify Trump's demands that Seoul significantly increase its financial support to host the 28,000 American troops in South Korea, which has become a major irritant in bilateral relations. But he is also likely to press Seoul to take a firmer stand against China in cooperation with the U.S. and Japan. This places Moon in an awkward position since he would like to avoid being caught in the escalating rivalry between China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, and the United States, its major security ally.



As Pyongyang and Washington put down their markers at the beginning of the New Year, it looks like once again Seoul will be caught in the middle.





John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.






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Staff members and alumni of Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, have written to President Muhammadu Buhari, listing what they described as the unprecedented anomalies allegedly perpetrated by the institutions rector, John Adekolawole.

Mr. Adekolawole had in recent time been in the news for the wrong reasons, especially following allegation of putting in place a king-sized bed in his office.

PREMIUM TIMES had also, in December, reported how the schools academic board passed a vote-of-no-confidence in the rector and subsequently sent its resolution to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

The board called for Mr Adekolawoles suspension, after accusing him of maladministration.

This newspapers investigation also exposed how Mr Adekolawole was indicted and suspended in 1995 for allegedly sexually harassing a woman in his office while serving as the director of school of applied science and head of the department of science laboratory technology.

Although the rector did not deny the allegations when confronted by our reporter, he, however, pleaded that the media should not get involved in the matter.

But in a follow-up reaction to the development, members of the campus community, comprising the polytechnic`s academic board, leadership of the academic staff union and that of the alumni association, have appealed to the President to quickly intervene in the crises rocking the institution.

The 10-page letter is titled; An Open Report to President Muhammadu Buhari on the Unprecedented Anomalies of Dr John Taiwo Adekolawole as the Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State and the Vote of No Confidence Eventually Passed by the Critical Stakeholders to Salvage the Institution from a Systemic Collapse.

According to the stakeholders, Mr Adekolawole has committed unpardonable crimes, and the institution should be saved from further damage.

Below is the polytechnic communitys open letter to the President

================

An Open Report to President Muhammadu Buhari on the Unprecedented Anomalies of Dr John Taiwo Adekolawole as the Rector of The Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State and the Vote of No Confidence Eventually Passed by the Critical Stakeholders to Salvage the Institution from a Systemic Collapse

A pragmatic examination of the first three years of Dr John Taiwo Adekolawoles tenure (2017 to 2020) as the Rector of The Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, by concerned stakeholders has revealed an avalanche of administrative cum financial improprieties. These have been pointed out straight from the shoulders by the critical stakeholders especially the staff unions but the Rector has been persistent in perpetrating and perpetuating myriads of anomalous deeds. The institution, therefore, has been recording incessant strike actions, students protests, postponement of academic activities, labour-related court actions and continuous writing of petitions especially by aggrieved staff members among others. Some of the unprecedented anomalies directly linked to the Rector which have been affecting the institution negatively, hindering its smooth running and seriously portraying it in bad light that informed the decision to pass a vote of no confidence on the Rector by the critical stakeholders so as to prevent a total collapse of the institution are enumerated below:

1. Flagrant dereliction of duty by absconding from office for about twenty-five (25) working days in October/November, 2020 which is serious act of misconduct according to Chapter 3 Section 4 (e) of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition) as this was done by the Rector without an official imprimatur by the Ministry of Education approving or authorising such a French leave and without duly informing the Management Committee (MC), the Academic Board (AB) and the entire Polytechnic Community, especially at a critical period of students demonstration, however, even a ruler or leader is not permitted to violate a law/government regulation based on the legal maxim Lex Non A Rege Est Violanda.

2. Desecration of the highly respected office of the Rector with the creation of a bedroom furnished with a special bed bought with the institutions money to be sleeping at work contrary to Chapter 2 Section 3 (j) of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition) or/and for recalcitrant display of sexual immorality/harassment for which he had once been officially sanctioned about twenty-five (25) years ago as a Head of Department of Science Laboratory Technology/Director of the School of Applied Sciences, and his vehement refusal to remove the bed from his office after he had been rightly advised against doing such a thing by well-meaning stakeholders including members of the Management.

3. Advertent concealment of vital information relating to his official indictment and punishment for an established case of sexual harassment of an innocent married woman when he was the HOD of SLT and Director of School of Applied Sciences when he applied for the post of the Rector of the institution about three (3) years ago knowing full well that such an official indictment would automatically disqualify him as an applicant as expressly stated in one of the qualification criteria of the advertisement placed and this was successfully done with the aid of some of the custodians of official information as if they have forgotten that Fraus Est Celare Frauden, that is, it is a fraud to conceal a fraud and that suppression of records is prohibited in Chapter 3 Section 4 (b) of the Public Service Rules (2018 Edition).

4. Nepotic employment cum improper placement of the Rectors immediate family members viz his wife, son, daughter, extended family members and other relations which is a serious act of misconduct that contravenes Chapter 3 Section 4 (b) of the Public Service Rules, and without following the laid down procedures that give equal opportunity to every interested person/party since equality is equity, which has been criticized by the Unions and condemned by the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) who directed that the Rectors improperly placed relation(s) should be properly placed to prevent the persistent agitations in the institution but which has not been done by the Rector and such a refusal to carry out a lawful instruction of a superior officer is expressly prohibited in Chapter 2 Section 3 (m) of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition).

5. Inconsiderate purchase of an exotic car (Toyota Prado) of about N42 million naira as the Rectors official vehicle which was not done pro bono publico as it was not freely done in public interest but with the intention of riding the best of cars that will eventually be taken away, which was a departure from what previous cost-conscious Rectors did, and which was done even with the institutions numerous financial challenges, inability meet fundamental needs of staff and students and indebtedness of the institution to various individuals and organizations leading to serious financial embarrassment identified as a serious misconduct in Chapter 2 Section 4 (h) of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition).

6. Improvident purchase of an equally exotic car of about N22 million naira for the erstwhile Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution which was rarely brought to the institution as the Chairman usually came by air to and fro Ede throughout his three-year tenure and which the Rector has personally released to the former Governing Council Chairman as parting gift as if a Public Officer has the power to unilaterally give out governments property and based on the fact that one cannot give what one does not have/possess or what does not belong to him/her in line with the legal maxim Nemo Dat Quod Habet hence, such an unbecoming act is also a serious misconduct according to Chapter 2 Section 4 (w) of the Public Service Rules (2008 Edition).

7. Misapplication of about N120 million naira collected from students over the last three years as transport fees without purchasing a single vehicle for that purpose to justify the collection of the money and to make inter-campus movements to attend various lectures pretty easy for the students, as a result of which students still pay transport fares for their inter-campus movements which is economically sapping and equally dangerous as many who opt for commercial motorcycles often sustain injuries due to the recklessness of some intemperate motorcycle riders, in a similar vein, there is nothing to show for about N350 million naira collected over the last three years as medical/TISHIP, entrepreneurship and students handbook fees among others.

8. Profligating the scarce resource of the institution by embarking on spending aimed at achieving personal aggrandizements like the reconstruction of the front part of the Rectors private residence just immediately after his appointment and the purchases of horses on the Rectors own volition with the institutions money, with the horses being fed and their trainers/handlers paid by the institution, and the horses roam freely and defecate all over the campus posing a lot of threats to staff and students, however, while the horses exeplify the Rectors private needs, public necessity should have priority over private needs in line with legal maxim Necessitas Publica Major Est Quam Privata.

9. Over bloating the students population with the ultimate goal of making a lot of money from the fees to be paid by the students without considering the class capacity guideline stipulated by the NBTE/available facilities and without express consent of the Academic Board that has the final say on all academic matters as a result of which the classes allocated to courses cannot contain the students as they outnumber the available seats making some students to squat, lap others or stay outside the classes while peeping/listening through the windows of such classes, however, the institution is yet to feel the pecuniary benefit of the thousands of students admitted as it is still highly indebted to staff members, cooperative societies and other organizations.

10. Improper improvisation of a dual-award (ND plus NCE) programme in collaboration with a consultant, M8 Global, and misinforming the Academic Board about the authenticity of the opaquely run dual-award programme, until the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) eventually declared it unapproved and illegal on 16th September, 2020, however, the institution has not been paid anything from the several millions of naira made from the programme as promised by the Rector, and the Rector jettisoned the decision of the Academic Board to put the programme on hold so that a committee set up could critically examine the programme and related lingering issues and which informed the vote of no confidence passed on the Rector by the Academic Board on Friday,11th December, 2020 for disregarding crucial Academic Board decisons.

11. Consistent display of high-level skullduggery by the Rector especially on administrative cum financial matters requiring high-level transparency in line with government policy and best practices evident in the construction of a toilet at an unfathomable and precarious rate of about N30 million which amounts to dishonesty and corruption both prohibited in Chapter 2 Section 3 (g) and Chapter 3 Section 4 (k) of the Public Service Rules respectively, secret employment of staff members, wrong placement and improper upgrading/regarding of favourite workers, waiving of promotion requirements for close associate and giving special consideration to beloved cronies in respect of training programmes as a result of which the staff members discriminated against have been clamouring for justice and nobody should be denied justice based on the legal maxim Justitia Nemini Neganda Est.

12.Emasculation of the two fundamental decision making organs of the institution viz the Management Committee (MC) and Academic Board (AB) which by the Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Act, 2019 are empowered and saddled with the responsibility of taking decisions on general management or administration of the institution and taking decisions on academic matters respectively, hence, the Rector has singlehandedly been taking crucial and far reaching decisions like stopping the monthly responsibility allowances of office holders for about ten (10) months which has never happened, sharing of palliative items on behalf of the Management during Covid 19 lockdown without the knowledge of other Management members which needs to be investigated and postponing academic activities from an unknown destination without recourse to Academic Board while stating flimsy Ratio Decidendi as rationale for such a postponement, thereby trampling on the doctrine of separation of powers which informed the creation of the Management Committee and the Academic Board as decision making organs.

13. Usurpation of the roles of the Bursar/Bursary and the Registrar/Registry by taking over some of their fundamental responsibilities especially in respect of matters in which he has vested interest as result of which a lot of financial and administrative anomalies have been recorded, for example, the Rectors office has become another Registry as hundreds of unsolicited applications are submitted there just because he wants to be the sole determiner of those to be employed and whose cadres and salaries will be decided by him since they are mainly his candidates, hence, the recent October/November crisis which made the staff unions to down tool and the students union to lock the gates of the institution for about ten (10) days was because the Rector surreptitiously engaged some workers without following the due process and at time he was finding it difficult to pay a lot of outstanding allowances of existing staff members.

14. Jeopardizing the interest of subordinate staff and principal officers who obediently or forcefully comply with deviant and unlawful directives/instructions frequently given them by the Rector to protect his self interest especially on administrative and financial matters, which usually diametrically negate laid down government regulations as expressly spelt out in extant rules as a result of which some of the affected staff members have been summoned, interrogated, sanctioned or warned by appropriate government/supervisory agencies like FME, NBTE, EFCC, ICPC, DSS and the Nigeria Police, however, the Rector always tries to be absorbed by claiming to be a scientist/physicist and not an administrator or a financial expert when his unlawful directives boomerang thereby trying to implicate or indict the misdirected officers who acted on his instruction and on his behalf, whereas he who acts through another is deemed to have acted himself based of the legal maxim Qui Facit Per Alium Facit Parse.

15. The Rectors idiosyncratic vindictiveness and display of schadenfreude when he vengefully gets those he believes are his critics or perceived opponents or when negative things happen to them, hence, he has been using his office as the Rector of the institution to settle scores which informed his removal of many of the Heads of Departments, Deans of Schools and Directors he met when he came on board without established offences or following due process as required by relevant regulations thereby truncating the tenure of the affected officers in a punitive manner and denting their records of service simply because they are not in his good book, just as some other staff members are given punitive posting without offices and are made to roam about for months, while some are victimized by being subjected to the investigation of the Staff Disciplinary Committee and placed on half salaries for exposing and condemning sharp practices that they believe may be inimical to the welfare/health of the staff and students.

16. Utilising an exclusionary and non-inclusive administrative approach that is characteristic of autocratic and undemocratic leadership which prevents the participation of other highly cerebral polytechnic functionaries especially in crucial decision making where the robust contributions of sound minds can help a great deal because more good heads are better than a single one ceteris paribus but the Rector, because of his supercilious nature and vainglorious posture, believes he knows more than everybody in virtually most areas as a result of which he does a lot of things alone which inhibits collective and successful decision making that ensures collective responsibility of the decision makers to stand by or defend such jointly made decisions, however, the Rectors autocratic leadership style evident in his undemocratic decision making approach has been responsible for a number defective and erroneous decisions that has been criticized and condemned by all and sundry like the controversial surreptitious employment of staff that infuriated the staff unions but which the Rector would have been rightly advised to shelve until a most appropriate time if he had sought the opinions of other well-meaning members of the Management Committee.

17. Systematic degradation/annihilation of the standard the institution has been known for over the years via deviation from fundamental norms, traditions and regulations and advertently/ inadvertently denting or battering the fabulous and splendiferous image or goodwill of the institution built over the twenty-eight (28) years of its existence through the efforts of committed, determined and dedicated present and past students and staff members against the background of which the products of the institution have always been reckoned in the labour market and the society at large, however, since the advent of the Rector the institution has been recording unprecedented happenings that have been giving critical stakeholders in the system as well as the Alumni Association a lot of concern simply because if the battering of the image of the institution continues with the negative news persistently relayed about the institution in the conventional and new media of communication the institution may lose its goodwill completely, become a laughing stock and will no longer be reckoned with or held in high esteem.

18. Recalcitrant perpetrating of imprudent/improvident financial practices, like spending in a present session the money collected in respect of a coming or subsequent session among others, which have been condemned/corrected because this has been subjecting the institution to financial embarrassments especially with the inability of the institution to meet many of its financial obligations like payment of the outstanding allowances of staff members, hundreds of millions of naira deducted on behalf of the cooperative societies used by the institution with no interest, outstanding responsibility allowances of about ten (10) months owed office holders like HODs, Deans and Directors among others, hence the institution is practically bankrupt simply because the money presently at the disposal of the institution is highly insufficient to clear its various debts, which is highly paradoxical because this institution is now highly indebted in a session that the students population rose to about fourteen thousand (14,000) and about one billion (1,000,000,000) naira is expected to be paid by the students which calls for an investigation of the financial disequilibrium.

19. Exhibiting verisimilitude of cognitive dissonance via the display of inconsistent thoughts and incoherent submissions on serious contemporary happenings evident in his fallacious declaration on the Management Committee platform that no institution has resumed academic activities in Nigeria after the government directed all institutions to reopen based on stipulated Covid 19 guidelines whereas he earlier submitted/confirmed that many institutions have resumed while requesting that Academic Board/Management Committee should approve the proposed resumption of the institution following stipulated Covid 19 guidelines, just as he declared at a recent Management Committee meeting that the institution has more than enough money to pay what it is owing staff and cooperative societies before he was quickly cautioned by the Principal Officers not to say that again because that was not true and he had earlier told the officers of the staff unions and cooperative societies that the institution is having difficulties in paying what it owes them because of financial insufficiency, in a similar vein, he also claimed that the students have only resumed on their own volition without being officially asked to resume whereas they were officially asked to resume and this was announced in various media of mass communication, the danger of the cognitive dissonance presently displayed by the Rector is that it may metamorphose to cognitive derailment which may be inimical to the interest of the institution as effective management of an institution of higher learning requires a pretty sound mind for the boss to be compos mentis.

20. Administering the institution by proxy from an unknown destination for about two months now after abandoning/departing his private residence in Ede to make himself inaccessible especially to aggrieved staff and students whose basic demands are still outstanding, as a result of which the Rector now comes to office only once in a while making it very difficult for many people who wants to see him especially on very urgent matters to be able to see him, which is worsened by the fact he hardly picks calls any longer including the calls of members of the Management Committee hence, the very slow pace of decision making which now characterize the administration of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, and which must stop or must be stopped immediately in the interest of the system before other polytechnic functionaries start to emulate the Rector by equally not doing the right thing at the right time in the right way or following the right procedures so as to get the right results which has negative implications and will eventually result in outright systemic breakdown.

21. Neglecting and procrastinating on the long overdue accreditation/re-accreditation of the various programmes of the institutions over his three years as the Rector as result of which none of the programmes of the institution that are due for accreditation/re-accreditation have been accredited/re-accredited as required for institutions to continue to run programmes approved by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) which has serious implications for the students trained during this period and the institution training them, however, the Rector has continued to expend the scarce resources of the institution on things that are not as essential as the accreditation/re-accreditation of the programmes as result of which the institution now tops the list of institutions running programmes that have not been duly accredited/re-accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

It is axiomatic ipso facto the above explicated anomalies which epitomize the unprecedented happenings that characterize the first three years of Dr John Taiwo Adekolawoles tenure as Rector of The Federal Polytechnic, Ede that with his modus operandi cum modus vivendi especially with the identified deviations from administrative regulations, financial guidelines and moral standards the boat of the institution will soon be rocked and grounded if a very prompt and decisive action is not taken to salvage the institution from an imminent systemic collapse. It is against this background that we, the undersigned representing the critical stakeholders of the institution, hereby pass a vote of no confidence on Dr John Taiwo Adekolawole as the Rector of The Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, having lost confidence in his ability to effectively direct the affairs of the institution as a selfless, committed, reliable, focused, exemplary and regulation-abiding Rector. We are therefore appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) as the Visitor to the Nigerian Polytechnics to urgently constitute and send a Panel of Enquiry/Investigation to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the various anomalous deeds linked to the Rector and to take decisive actions so as to save the institution owned and financed by the Federal Government of Nigeria from an imminent systemic collapse.

This document is signed by the officials listed below.



Comrade A.N. Masopa

ASUP Chairman



Comrade O. O. Akinola

ASUP Secretary



Dr. A. S. Amusan

Dean, Applied Sciences/



Dr. S. O. Oluga

Dean, Institute of Continuing School of Business Studies (SBS)



Dr. T. O. Adebayo

Chairman, Committee of Deans Education (ICE).

 - 

Engr. D. O. Olatunji Surv. T. G. Akinola Comr. I. A. Komolafe

Dean, School of Dean, School of Representative of HODs

Engineering Technology Environmental Studies

  -

Dr. Arc. O. Otitoola Mr. B. O. Shittu Bldr. T. A. Buari

Representative of Chief President, Alumni Secretary, Alumni

Lecturers
The claim: Trumps second impeachment was not just bipartisan  its the most bipartisan impeachment in American history.  Jake Tapper, CNN anchor.

Tapper made the statement moments after the vote was taken on Jan. 13.

PolitiFact rating: True. Trumps second impeachment attracted more bipartisan support  10 GOP floor votes in favor  than the impeachments of Andrew Johnson or Bill Clinton, or Trumps first impeachment.

Discussion

No Republicans supported the first impeachment of Trump in 2019. Its also higher than the five Democrats who voted to impeach President Bill Clinton on both successful counts in 1998. And it was more bipartisan than the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, which did not receive any Democratic support. (Well address President Richard Nixon, who resigned under threat of impeachment, as well.)

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About PolitiFact PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made. See More Collapse

The article of impeachment considered by the House on Jan. 13 cited Trumps false claims about the election results, including at the rally of his supporters on Jan. 6. By having incited the crowd, the article said, Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.

The final vote was 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting for the sole article of impeachment.

The Republicans who broke ranks and voted to impeach were Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican; John Katko of New York; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Fred Upton and Peter Meijer of Michigan; Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington; Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; Tom Rice of South Carolina; and David Valadao of California.

Heres a rundown of past presidential impeachments, including some committee votes.

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson

When Johnson was impeached in 1868, no Democrat in the House supported the overall floor vote to impeach. In that vote, all but two Republicans voted for impeachment. The House went on to pass 11 specific articles of impeachment, along largely party-line votes.

The impeachment of Bill Clinton

The impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 attracted less bipartisan support for the two of the four articles approved by the Judiciary Committee that went on to win approval on the House floor.

The first article that won approval from the full House was Article 1, which said that Clinton had willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury related to the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky sexual harassment cases. This article passed the committee on a party-line vote. On the floor, the article was approved 228-206, with five Republicans voting against it and five Democrats voting for the article.

The other one to pass the House, Article 3, said that Clinton had obstructed justice related to the lawsuits against him. This article also passed the committee on a party-line vote, and it passed the full House by a 221-212 margin, with 12 Republicans voting against it and five Democrats voting for the article.

Two articles passed the committee but failed on the floor. Article 2 involved perjury during Clintons answers in depositions. In committee, this was a party-line vote, except for one Republican defection  then-Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. On the floor, it failed, 205-229.

And Article 4, which addressed obstruction of Congress, passed the committee on a party-line vote before failing on the floor, 148-245.

The first impeachment of Donald Trump

Article 1 against Trump in 2019 addressed abuse of power, focusing on Trumps alleged efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden. The article passed the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.

Article 2 focused on Trumps efforts to block cooperation with Congress on its impeachment inquiry. This passed the Judiciary Committee by an identical party-line vote.

On the House floor, no Republican voted for either article. Two Democrats voted against Article 1, Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey. (Van Drew later switched his affiliation to the GOP.) Peterson and Van Drew were joined in voting against Article 2 by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine.

The impeachment effort against Richard Nixon

The impeachment of President Richard Nixon in 1974 didnt make it to the House floor because Nixon resigned first. So its not directly comparable. But we can look at what happened in the House Judiciary Committee when it approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon.

Article 1, which focused on obstruction of justice, won support from six Republican committee members as well as all Democrats. That was about one-third of Republicans on the committee.

Article 2, which focused on abuse of power, also secured the support of six Republican committee members in addition to all Democrats.

Article 3, which focused on obstruction of Congress, received less bipartisan support, even though it passed the committee. This article saw two Democratic defections and only two Republicans joining with the Democratic majority.

Such votes make Nixons impeachment the previous high-water mark for bipartisanship, though again its not a case of apples-to-apples since well never know what the floor vote would have looked like. That said, the number of committee Republicans joining Democrats for the Nixon impeachment was smaller than the number of overall House Republicans backing Trumps second impeachment.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. (CSE: OILS) (OTCQB: OILFF) ("Nextleaf", "OILS", or the "Company"), the world's most innovative cannabis extractor, announced today that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office has granted the Company a patent for the acetylation of cannabinoids. More specifically, the patent covers a process for acetylating cannabidiol ("CBD"), and subsequent refinement of CBD-O-Acetate using a proprietary extraction and distillation technique.





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The Company owns 12 issued U.S. patents and 70 issued patents globally for the extraction, purification, and delivery of cannabinoids - representing the 2nd largest patent portfolio among all cannabis companies.

"We expect the results of the 2020 U.S. elections will have a transformational effect on the commercial value of our U.S. patent portfolio," stated Paul Pedersen, CEO of Nextleaf Solutions. "The world's largest cannabis company launching the industry's first patent infringement lawsuit against GW Pharma on December 22, 2020 demonstrates the value of patents and intellectual property in the cannabis industry."

This patented process to produce CBD-O-Acetate enables the standardization of a more potent analog of CBD through targeted drug delivery. Prodrugs utilize various physical and chemical modifications to improve features of active drugs. Maintaining the integrity of the molecule and its ability to deliver drugs to precisely targeted areas in the body may increase efficacy for desired outcomes.

The Company believes an orally consumable CBD metabolic prodrug produced under its patented process for acetylating cannabidiol will enhance the therapeutic potency of CBD.

OILS already owns U.S. patents for the acetylation of THC, and the acetylation of CBD. The Company's patent portfolio and Health Canada licenses for cannabis processing and research presents an entry point for pharmaceutical firms looking to manufacture cannabinoid prodrugs in a federally legal jurisdiction.

The Company plans to commercialize this intellectual property ("IP") through IP licensing, and the production of IP protected cannabinoid-based products as legally permitted by Health Canada.

Nextleaf has engaged Kronos Capital Partners Inc. ("Kronos") to pursue and evaluate global strategic partners and investors. Kronos is a strategic advisor and an active investor in the global cannabis and life science sectors.

About Nextleaf

OILS is the world's most innovative cannabis extractor, having developed the 2nd largest portfolio of U.S. patents among all cannabis companies. The Company wholesales THC and CBD oils and provides extraction services through its wholly owned subsidiary Nextleaf Labs Ltd. The Company's automated closed-loop extraction plant in Metro Vancouver has a design capacity to process 600 kg per day of dried cannabis biomass into distilled oils. Nextleaf Labs holds Health Canada licenses for standard processing and research under the Cannabis Act, allowing for a number of licenced activities including sensory evaluation of cannabis via human testing. The Company owns a portfolio of 12 issued U.S. patents, and 70 issued patents globally, for the extraction, purification, and delivery of cannabinoids.

Nextleaf Solutions trades as OILS on the Canadian Securities Exchange, OILFF on the OTCQB Market in the United States, and L0MA on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Follow OILS across social media platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

www.nextleafsolutions.com

For more information please contact:

Jason McBride

604-283-2301 (ext. 219)

investors@nextleafsolutions.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

Paul Pedersen, CEO

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's ability to capitalize on its IP portfolio,the Company's strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to the risk factors discussed in the Company's MD&A for the most recent fiscal period. Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law. The CSE has not reviewed or approved the contents of this press release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72247


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Obama signed us up; Trump signed us out; and, on Day One, Biden will turn the tables again. Its the Paris Climate Agreement, of course, aimed at saving the planet. Raising the obvious question: Is global warming for real? The stats seem clear enough, but does this mean we should take seriously the stern lecturing by teen guru Greta Thunberg that weve only got a decade to get the climate under control before civilization goes into an unrecoverable tail-spin?

Amid all the hype, nagging questions persist. If industrialization and fossil fuels are behind rising temperatures, what explains the historic warming ending the Ice Age? Or that in the year 1,000 there were sun-kissed vineyards all over southern England, which, despite industrialization, saw temps gradually becoming cooler, not warmer? Its a question of cause and effect: Is human activity the primary cause of global warming, or, rather, cyclical periods in nature? To put it another way, is a changing climate something we can control, or not?

What everyone can agree on is that the environment is fragile, so we should do what we reasonably can to protect it. Indeed, as people of faith, we have an even higher obligation being stewards of Gods divine Creation. Its a God thing, whereas, for many climate activists who reject God, saving the planet has become a kind of surrogate religion. Ever wonder why evolutionists, in particular, should be so fanatical about saving a planet that came into existence solely by chance? Simple, really. Since, for them, the natural physical world is all that exists, it must be saved no matter the cost. Then again, if the universe is here only by accident, why should we care if the planet or humanity becomes extinct? Stars burn out; dinosaurs vanish.

Followers of Christ have every reason to responsibly tend the planet, but not to focus on saving it from an environmental demise that will never occur. The end-game has nothing to do with any ecological catastrophe. As Peter tells us (2 Pet. 3:7,10), The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodlyThe heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Whether the fiery picture is literal or merely figurative, God is in control of both timing and method. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.

But this is merely a parable bringing us full circle back to the incoming Biden regime and a radical change in the political climate, over which we now have little control. Faced with the prospect of an increasingly faith-hostile environment (often engendered by those most keen on environmentalism), what can we believers do? One answer is found hanging in our closet. We cant change winter, but we can put on a coat. Instead of futilely railing against what we cant change (indeed, it might well be Gods judgment!), well have to adapt. Spiritually adapt. Its no longer a season for politics, so hang it up! The time has come to lower the temperature.

Want to know what Jesus would advise? Read his intriguing Revelation to John during a time of oppression not unlike where were headed. Written for believers facing persecution, theres no call to arms, merely two simple themes: Be faithful, trusting that God is in control; and keep your robes white, saving your soul, not the planet. The zeal of todays militant eco-warriors may be misplaced, but their passionate commitment is a sobering challenge for the rest of us. In the daunting days ahead, are we prepared to trust God fully, no matter the political climate?
Former Bachelorette Georgia Love was just brutally dumped from her dream job at Channel 10.

But on Monday, Georgia, 31, and fiance Lee Elliott, 38, appeared to be taking her new more relaxed lifestyle in their stride.

The loved-up couple couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they enjoyed a romantic mini-break in sunny Noosa, Queensland.

Seriously, relaxed! Bachelorette Georgia Love, 31, and fiance Lee Elliot, 38, (pictured) enjoyed a romantic getaway to Noosa on Monday, after she was dumped as a reporter from Ten

Georgia and Lee enjoyed a relaxed stroll together around restaurants in the resort town, before sitting down for a drink and a quick bite.

The Bachelorette star kept to a summery look by wearing a black jumpsuit, which flaunted her bronzed trim pins.

Georgia kept her look stylish with a pair of black cat-eye sunglasses and a floral hair accessory. She finished her look with a pair of Birkenstocks.

Romantic: Georgia and Lee enjoyed a relaxed walk together around restaurants in the resort town, before sitting down to enjoy a drink and a quick bite

Beauty: The Bachelorette star kept to a summery look by wearing a black jumpsuit, which flaunted her bronzed trim pins. Lee also wore an all black ensemble

Lee kept his ensemble all-black by wearing a tight t-shirt along with a pair of black swim shorts. He wore his New York Yankees cap backwards.

Lee finished his look with a pair of sunglasses and a white pair of thongs.

Later, the couple stripped down to their swimwear while they relaxed by the pool.

Yummy: Georgia appeared to be laughing and joking with Lee at the restaurant

Love: Georgia looked relaxed and loved-up as she glanced at Lee while at a restaurant

It comes after Georgia was dumped from Channel Ten. On Saturday, a network spokesperson confirmed she no longer worked for the network.

They said in a statement: 'During her time with Network 10, Georgia Love made a valuable contribution as a freelance reporter.

'As with any casual position, the availability of work ebbs and flows with the requirements of the company.'

Relaxed: Georgia and Lee later stripped down to their swimmers to soak up the sun together

On Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported that Georgia had exited the role under 'mysterious circumstances'.

An alleged source told the paper: 'Nothing was really said about it  one day a memo just went around saying that "Georgia no longer works here".'

The paper went on to claim that Georgia's exit is believed to be part of the brutal Covid-19 cost cutbacks at the network last year, which saw at least 25 jobs slashed.

Getaway: Lee looked to be taking photos as Georgia posed on a sun bed in the afternoon

Georgia landed what she described as her dream job with the channel in 2017, as a reporter at Ten Eyewitness News Melbourne.

In June 2018, the former reality star announced she would be presenting the weather for Ten Eyewitness News.

She last posted a job-related Instagram image in October, in which she was depicted covering Derby Day.
Chloe Sims has revealed she has travelled to Mexico on a 'work related trip' amid Britain's coronavirus lockdown.

The TOWIE star, 38, took to Instagram and shared a series of bikini photos of herself after landing in celebrity hot spot Tulum.

After several reality stars have received criticism for travelling to Dubai for 'work' trips recently, Chloe insisted an opportunity presented itself in Mexico that she 'could not turn down'.

Travel: Chloe Sims has revealed she has travelled to Mexico on a 'work related trip' amid Britain's coronavirus lockdown

She wrote: 'I HAVE ARRIVED IN MEXICO.. SO I WANTED TO GET AHEAD OF ANY NEGATIVE STORIES TO MAKE IT CLEAR, THIS IS FIRST & FOREMOST A WORK RELATED TRIP.

'SOME OPPORTUNITIES HAVE PRESENTED THEMSELVES, THAT I FELT I COULD NOT TURN DOWN & SO AFTER FULLY CONSIDERING THE LATEST GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES. I DECIDED TO TRAVEL.'

Chloe added that she would be quarantining at her home in Essex as soon as she returns from the trip.

She said: 'OBVIOUSLY I WILL BE QUARANTINING IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LEGAL REQUIREMENTS UPON MY RETURN.'

Pose: The TOWIE star, 38, took to Instagram and shared a series of bikini photos of herself after landing in celebrity hot spot Tulum

Perhaps trying to prevent a negative backlash from Instagram followers, Chloe notably turned off comments on the post.

Chloe looked incredible in the photos as she donned a red bikini that showcased her incredible figure.

The reality star also sported a pair of shades and a crisp white shirt as she posed outdoors at the Copal Tulum Hotel.

Tulum is popular with stars including Drew Barrymore and Kristin Cavallari with Love Island's Eyal Booker and girlfriend Delilah Belle Hamlin also recently visiting the city.

Work: Chloe insisted an opportunity presented itself in Mexico that she 'could not turn down'

Dozens of influencers who found fame on reality shows such as Geordie Shore and Love Island have spent the previous weeks soaking up the sun in Dubai while Brits back at home are in a nationwide lockdown.

Many have travelled abroad under the ruse that their trips are 'for work,' sparking backlash from fans who have been holed up in lockdown amid the pandemic.

Among those who have shared glimpses of their trips to Instagram are Love Island's Laura Anderson, Francesca Allen, Arabella Chi and twins Jess and Eve Gale.

Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry is also in Dubai for 'work' while TOWIE's Yazmin Oukhello and her beau James Lock have also been there for some time on 'business'.

Chloe wrote: 'I HAVE ARRIVED IN MEXICO.. SO I WANTED TO GET AHEAD OF ANY NEGATIVE STORIES TO MAKE IT CLEAR, THIS IS FIRST & FOREMOST A WORK RELATED TRIP'

Many stars have insisted their trips are for 'work' as the government currently asks UK residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

Although at first not facing restrictions upon their return, it was recently announced that the country has been removed from the UK travel corridor amid the pandemic.

Travellers now returning to the UK from the UAE will have to quarantine following a 52 per cent surge in the number of Covid-19 cases there.

Living it up: Dozens of influencers who found fame on reality shows such as Geordie Shore and Love Island have spent the previous weeks soaking up the sun in Dubai (Chloe Ferry pictured)

New rules that have come into force require international travellers to come back negative after a PCR test before arriving in England.

Any arrivals who flout the rules will face a minimum 500 fine, while the operator who transported them will also be fined.

Passengers will still have to quarantine for 10 days regardless of their test results, transport minister Robert Courts said in a statement.

People with diabetes and obesity should be prioritised for early Covid-19 vaccination, according to both metabolic doctors and Diabetes Ireland.

The Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) said that diabetes and obesity have emerged as significant underlying risk factors for developing severe illness from Covid-19, and these patients should also be prioritised for continuity of treatment during the pandemic.

IrSPEN spokesperson and Obesity Specialist at St Vincents University Hospital Professor Carel le Roux said: Intensive care units (ICUs) are currently filling up with many younger patients who have underlying diabetes and obesity and have contracted Covid-19.

People with more severe obesity and more severe type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at most risk. These patients are now not being ventilated as quickly as in the first wave because we understand that the reason their oxygen levels become so low has as much to do with their underlying condition, rather than the coronavirus being the sole cause.

Diabetes and obesity cause inflammation of small blood vessels around the lungs and other organs and this is then exaggerated by Covid-19.

This understanding highlights the importance of continuity of existing treatments for patients with diabetes and obesity as a part of managing the impact of the virus. It also highlights the importance of vaccinating this cohort of patients to minimise hospitalisation, he said.

Diabetes Ireland advocacy research manager Dr Anna Clarke said: We now know that the worse the control of diabetes, the higher the risk of serious complications from Covid-19. Medical research over the past 10 months shows the importance of people with diabetes and obesity continuing to take their medications and attend appointments, even if these are virtual.

St Vincents University Hospital consultant surgeon and IrSPEN member Professor Helen Heneghan said: The consensus amongst metabolic doctors who specialise in treating these conditions is that these patients should be prioritised both for vaccination and continuity of care.

Many patients with diabetes and obesity have had their treatments postponed or deprioritised within hospital care in recent months. The relationship between these conditions and the development of severe illness from Covid-19 means we should continue to treat patients.

Dr Mick Crotty, a Dublin based GP, added: Our thinking about the virus has changed from it causing a disease of the inside of the lung towards considering it as a disease that reduces blood flow immediately outside the lungs, thus reducing oxygen transport. The virus accelerates underlying complications of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

The Covid-19 pandemic has alerted us to the vulnerability of patients with diabetes and obesity, who should be prioritised for vaccination. We should redouble efforts to help these patients through the Covid-19 pandemic, and doing so would benefit hospitalisation and mortality rates.

More than a million people in Ireland have obesity and more than 200,000 have diabetes. See also www.irspen.ie
NSW reported no new local coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, as genome sequencing linked mystery cases in Sydney's west.

A mystery group of seven cases  a man and six of his contacts  identified in western Sydney at the weekend have been genomically linked to the region's Berala cluster. However, it is not known how the initial case caught the virus.

Sydney has recorded a day with no new local coronavirus cases. Credit:Louise Kennerley

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said "investigations and contact tracing [were] under way to establish the route of acquisition".

NSW reported two consecutive days without local cases last week, before the mystery infection was detected on Saturday. His close contacts' infections were reported on Sunday.
Planet will not be the same after COVID-19: PM Modi

Is Modi too focused on public image during COVID?

Rahul Gandhi demands withdrawal of new regulations in Lakshadweep; Writes to PM Modi

PM Modi becomes chairman of Somnath temple trust

India

oi-Deepika S

Ahmedabad, Jan 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Monday appointed the new chairman of the trust which manages the world famous Somnath Temple at Prabhas Patan town in Gujarat''s Gir-Somnath district.

Modi, one of the trustees of the Shree Somnath Trust, was named to the top post unanimously, a senior official of the shrine management body said.

The post of the Somnath Trust''s chairman fell vacant after the death of the incumbent, former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, in October last year.

Patel had served as the trust chairman for several years.

PM Modi, Xi Jinping among world leaders to participate in virtual Davos summit

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is one of the trustees of the Somnath Temple trust, was appointed the new chairman during a virtual meeting of trustees held today.

"The decision to appoint the PM as the chairman of the trust was taken unanimously by all trustees during the online meet," said Trustee-Secretary P K Laheri.

Other trustees include BJP leader LK Advani, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat-based scholar JD Parmar and businessman Harshvardhan Neotia.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 21:55 [IST]

THROOP  Third grade classes at Mid Valley Elementary Center are spending time in Florida over the next two weeks to learn about sea turtles.

They didnt have to pack luggage or boarding passes for their field trip down south. Theyre not hopping on a plane or taking the long drive down the East Coast. The students from the six classes are learning from home in their bedrooms, kitchens and dining rooms and eventually, back in their classrooms.

The teachers at Mid Valley are just some of the educators around the region finding a silver lining to virtual lessons prompted by the pandemic  they can now take their students anywhere.

Valley View students, who are learning fully remote, have gone to Australia, Boston, Canada, Hawaii and Seattle, watched a rocket launch at NASA and made hot chocolate alongside the Hersheys Chocolate Factory from their homes.

Its really neat and in a way, it enhances even what wed normally do, said Valley View Superintendent Michael Boccella, Ed.D. He said while theyre eager to get students back in their physical classrooms, the virtual world is broadening what school districts are capable of doing  not just field trips but also virtual parent/teacher conferences and professional development.

Mid Valley Elementary Center students in Shelley Busellis and Diane Wasps third-grade classes were the first on Thursday to take their grades virtual field trip to the Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island in Stuart, Florida. The students reading module before the holiday break focused on the sea; the field trip was a way to cap off what the students learned about the worlds water, said Buselli.

Students in the Mid Valley School District are learning fully remote until Tuesday when they return to a hybrid program.

Yasmeen Fadlallah, the societys education and exhibit specialist, taught the students about three different types of sea turtles. She moved her camera around to show a few of the turtles swimming in the waterways around the societys preserve and used life-sized cutouts of three different types of sea turtles found in Florida to show the students the actual size of the reptiles.

Fadlallahs screen froze at one point, which the tech-savvy students were quick to point out but patient for the lesson to resume.

She noted the weather, just 50 degrees, was cold by Florida standards. Back north in Throop, snow fell outside the empty classroom windows and the thermometer barely crept past 30 degrees.

The third-graders were engaged, turning on their mics to ask Fadlallah questions about the turtles. They wondered how a leatherback turtle could dive so deep and if any of the societys turtles laid eggs. They fidgeted as if they were seated in their classroom. During this lesson, even family members joined. One student brought his little brother along for the trip.

Elsewhere in the county, Elizabeth Dessoye, who teaches first grade at Riverside Elementary West, created a lesson around the Scranton Civic Ballet Companys performance of The Nutcracker this year. The students were not able to attend the performance in person but, through WVIA, they had access to a recording of the show.

Dessoye said families were thrilled about the performance.

The parents liked that they were able to experience it with their kids at home, something normally they wouldnt be able to attend, she said. The students, who are now hybrid, were on a full remote schedule in the week before Christmas.

The first graders were exposed to a cultural event and were thrilled to find out that boys dance ballet and some older Riverside students were part of the performance, she said. Instead of taking just one class to the performance like in past years, all Riverside West students were able to experience the show, she noted.

Buselli said pre-pandemic, Buselli would have invited a speaker to come to class or taken a field trip to wrap up the Mid Valley students module . She sees virtual field trips as something that she will continue to offer in the future.

The students waved goodbye to Fadlallah as they signed off, their faces disappearing as they moved onto their next virtual class.

The Mid Valley third-graders will learn about space next, and Buselli and Wasp are already planning to take them out of this world.
Massive passenger slump recorded at Frankfurt Airport and Fraport's Group airports worldwide - Relatively low decline in FRA's cargo volumes

FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FRA/gk-rap - Frankfurt Airport (FRA) welcomed some 18.8 million passengers in 2020, representing a decrease of 73.4 percent compared to 2019. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic, Frankfurt Airport started to experience a major decline in passenger traffic in mid-March 2020. Between April and June, traffic almost came to a complete standstill - with weekly passenger figures plummeting by up to 98 percent year-on-year. Following a slight traffic recovery in the third quarter of 2020, a new rise in coronavirus infection rates led to intensified travel restrictions. This resulted in passenger numbers falling sharply once again in September and remaining low for the rest of the year.

Fraport AG's executive board chairman, Dr. Stefan Schulte, commented: "The year 2020 brought extreme challenges to the entire aviation industry. In Frankfurt, passenger volumes dropped to a level last seen in 1984. Cargo traffic was one of the few bright spots, reaching almost the same level as in 2019 - despite the loss of "belly freight" capacity on passenger aircraft. Aviation played a vital role in ensuring the supply of essential medical goods to the world's population, particularly during the first lockdown."

Aircraft movements at Frankfurt Airport contracted by 58.7 percent year-on-year to 212,235 takeoffs and landings in 2020. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) shrank by 53.3 percent to about 14.9 million metric tons. In comparison, cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) registered a relatively minor dip of only 8.3 percent year-on-year to just under 2.0 million metric tons.

In December 2020, FRA's passenger traffic slumped by 81.7 percent to 891,925 travelers. With 13,627 takeoffs and landings, aircraft movements declined by 62.8 percent compared to December 2019. MTOWs were down 53.6 percent to about 1.1 million metric tons. Cargo throughput grew by 9.0 percent to 185,687 metric tons in December 2020, rising for the third consecutive month.

Looking forward, CEO Schulte said: "Because of the recent launch of vaccination programs throughout many countries, we are optimistic that travel restrictions will be gradually lifted beginning in the spring. Therefore, we expect Frankfurt's passenger traffic to rebound noticeably in the second half of 2021. Nevertheless, we have to realize that a difficult year lies ahead of us. While we are confident passenger traffic will exceed last year's level, we still expect Frankfurt to reach only 35 to 45 percent of the 2019 level."

Fraport's international portfolio also hit by sharp traffic declines

Across the Group, the airports in Fraport's international portfolio also recorded a sharp decline in passenger traffic during 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the individual Group airports to varying degrees over the months. At times, regular passenger operations were even suspended at some airports (Ljubljana, Antalya and Lima). In addition, wide-ranging travel restrictions affected most of the Group airports beginning in the spring.

Traffic at Slovenia's Ljubljana Airport (LJU) fell by 83.3 percent last year to 288,235 passengers (December 2020: down 93.7 percent). The Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) together received about 6.7 million passengers, representing a 56.7 percent decrease year-on-year (December 2020: down 46.2 percent). Peru's Lima Airport (LIM) reported a 70.3 percent slide in traffic to around 7.0 million passengers (December 2020: down 61.6 percent).

Serving a total of about 8.6 million passengers in 2020, the 14 Greek regional airports experienced a 71.4 percent plunge in traffic (December 2020: down 85.3 percent). Combined traffic at the Twin Star airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast decreased by 78.9 percent to about 1.0 million passengers (December 2020: down 69.7 percent).

Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey registered a 72.6 percent decline in traffic to about 9.7 million passengers (December 2020: down 69.8 percent). Last year, Russia's Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg saw traffic drop by 44.1 percent to about 10.9 million passengers (December 2020: down 38.5 percent). Xi'an Airport (XIY) in China achieved a slight recovery in the course of the year, following a strong reduction in traffic during the spring. In 2020, XIY registered about 31.0 million passengers - a 34.2 percent decrease year-on-year (December 2020: down 14.8 percent).

Print-quality photos of Fraport AG and Frankfurt Airport are available for free downloading via the photo library on the Fraport Web site. For TV news and information broadcasting purposes only, we also offer free footage material for downloading. If you wish to meet a member of our Media Relations team when at Frankfurt Airport, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our contact details are available here.

Fraport AG

Dana Selin Kroll Telephone: +49 69 690 31403 Corporate Communications E-mail: d.kroell@fraport.de Media Relations Internet: www.fraport.com 60547 Frankfurt, Germany Facebook: www.facebook.com/FrankfurtAirport

For further information about Fraport AG please click here.

Fraport Traffic Figures















December 2020

























































Fraport Group Airports1

December 2020





Year to Date (YTD) 2020









Fraport Passengers Cargo* Movements Passengers Cargo Movements Fully-consolidated airports share (%) Month ? % Month ? % Month ? % YTD ? % YTD ? % YTD ? % FRA Frankfurt Germany 100.00 891,794 -81.7 182,568 8.9 13,627 -62.8 18,768,601 -73.4 1,914,285 -8.5 212,235 -58.7 LJU Ljubljana Slovenia 100.00 5,422 -93.7 1,143 11.0 686 -61.4 288,235 -83.3 10,559 -7.1 12,980 -58.8 Fraport Brasil 100.00 782,592 -46.2 6,111 -25.1 7,952 -38.3 6,718,048 -56.7 51,528 -39.8 70,809 -48.5 FOR Fortaleza Brazil 100.00 361,676 -47.7 3,494 -32.4 3,662 -34.7 3,156,418 -56.3 29,356 -39.3 32,897 -44.9 POA Porto Alegre Brazil 100.00 420,916 -44.8 2,617 -12.5 4,290 -41.1 3,561,630 -57.1 22,172 -40.4 37,912 -51.2 LIM Lima Peru 80.01 768,959 -61.6 18,422 -28.4 7,673 -54.9 7,017,414 -70.3 190,365 -29.8 73,255 -63.0 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece A+B 73.40 102,623 -85.3 471 -29.9 3,036 -56.2 8,611,780 -71.4 5,330 -29.9 101,007 -58.9 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece A 73.40 69,107 -87.2 400 -28.2 1,894 -59.3 4,838,669 -71.0 4,266 -26.6 54,767 -58.2 CFU Kerkyra (Corfu) Greece 73.40 4,826 -78.6 7 -18.7 229 -27.8 961,037 -70.7 72 -59.7 10,889 -57.0 CHQ Chania (Crete) Greece 73.40 9,125 -83.6 20 18.7 224 -55.4 703,482 -76.4 180 -52.7 7,392 -63.9 EFL Kefalonia Greece 73.40 992 -72.0 0 0.0 88 -20.0 192,477 -75.1 2 > 100.0 3,184 -56.7 KVA Kavala Greece 73.40 794 -85.3 2 -80.8 30 -74.6 72,674 -77.5 38 -61.8 1,142 -67.0 PVK Aktion/Preveza Greece 73.40 176 -52.0 0 n.a. 58 3.6 161,408 -74.2 0 -100.0 2,342 -58.1 SKG Thessaloniki Greece 73.40 52,035 -88.4 371 -28.9 1,187 -65.6 2,317,336 -66.4 3,974 -22.8 24,966 -55.2 ZTH Zakynthos Greece 73.40 1,159 -63.7 0 n.a. 78 -22.0 430,255 -76.2 0 -98.4 4,852 -63.2 Fraport Regional Airports of Greece B 73.40 33,516 -78.6 72 -38.2 1,142 -49.7 3,773,111 -72.0 1,064 -40.5 46,240 -59.6 JMK Mykonos Greece 73.40 1,400 -80.6 1 -49.0 56 -60.3 409,060 -73.1 47 -46.9 7,556 -59.8 JSI Skiathos Greece 73.40 416 -61.8 0 n.a. 34 -22.7 88,916 -80.1 0 n.a. 1,600 -61.7 JTR Santorini (Thira) Greece 73.40 3,049 -90.4 4 -48.5 120 -73.0 572,963 -75.1 66 -61.2 7,286 -65.8 KGS Kos Greece 73.40 4,577 -75.9 7 -70.0 182 -47.1 800,655 -70.1 162 -50.2 7,994 -59.6 MJT Mytilene (Lesvos) Greece 73.40 7,053 -75.0 22 -11.7 234 -48.9 206,095 -58.5 228 -34.6 3,729 -43.2 RHO Rhodes Greece 73.40 12,388 -78.2 26 -31.8 330 -39.1 1,551,123 -72.0 377 -39.8 14,801 -60.5 SMI Samos Greece 73.40 4,633 -63.2 11 -40.8 186 -37.6 144,299 -69.9 184 -20.5 3,274 -47.8 Fraport Twin Star 60.00 27,948 -69.7 1,015 > 100.0 474 -43.0 1,046,467 -78.9 3,934 -19.2 10,960 -69.1 BOJ Burgas Bulgaria 60.00 2,590 -79.0 1,014 > 100.0 94 -39.4 424,252 -85.3 3,889 -18.1 4,079 -79.6 VAR Varna Bulgaria 60.00 25,358 -68.3 1 -79.4 380 -43.9 622,215 -70.1 44 -64.1 6,881 -55.5





























At equity consolidated airports

























AYT Antalya Turkey 51.00 263,536 -69.8 n.a. n.a. 2,473 -61.3 9,713,650 -72.6 n.a. n.a. 65,223 -68.4 LED St. Petersburg Russia 25.00 828,230 -38.5 n.a. n.a. 8,546 -32.5 10,944,421 -44.1 n.a. n.a. 105,042 -37.7 XIY Xi'an China 24.50 3,212,568 -14.8 42,773 0.9 26,791 -6.4 31,083,681 -34.2 376,320 -1.5 254,607 -26.2

Frankfurt Airport2











December 2020 Month ? % YTD 2020 ? % Passengers 891,925 -81.7 18,770,998 -73.4 Cargo (freight & mail) 185,687 9.0 1,952,628 -8.3 Aircraft movements 13,627 -62.8 212,235 -58.7 MTOW (in metric tons)3 1,100,860 -53.6 14,874,646 -53.3 PAX/PAX-flight4 91.7 -35.6 108.6 -26.0 Seat load factor (%) 51.9

58.4

Punctuality rate (%) 74.1

82.9











Frankfurt Airport PAX share ? %5 PAX share ? %5 Regional Split Month

YTD

Continental 59.5 -81.5 66.2 -72.3 Germany 8.1 -86.5 10.1 -74.3 Europe (excl. GER) 51.4 -80.4 56.1 -72.0 Western Europe 41.8 -80.5 47.1 -71.6 Eastern Europe 9.6 -79.9 9.0 -73.8 Intercontinental 40.5 -82.0 33.8 -75.3 Africa 6.7 -76.6 4.9 -72.5 Middle East 7.3 -77.9 5.5 -71.8 North America 12.5 -83.6 10.6 -78.1 Central & South Amer. 6.3 -75.9 4.4 -65.6 Far East 7.7 -87.4 8.3 -78.2 Australia 0.0 n.a. 0.1 n.a.
Bengaluru:

A complaint has been lodged by a Bengaluru-based music label against OLA founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati and its parent company, ANI Technologies Private Limited, for allegedly downloading and streaming songs from Telugu and Kannada films without permission.



Lahari Recording Company had lodged a complaint against ANI Technologies Private Limited, the parent company of OLA and its founders for downloading and streaming songs from Telugu and Kannada movies for which the former owns the rights, Jeevanbeema Nagar Police Inspector, Shivaprasad told PTI here.



The complaint was filed under sections 63 and 64 of the Copyright Act, 1957 last month at Jeevanbeema Nagar police station, he said. The police also seized downloading, song storing and streaming equipment during a raid.

ALSO READ: Indian rape victim indicts Uber, its CEO for 'unlawfully' obtaining her medical details



Responding to the complaint, OLAs Legal Counsel Luthra and Luthra said the media reports on the issue was unfair and baseless and that the management has been dragged into it with a mala fide intention.



This matter has come to our attention and the facts that have been reported in the media regarding the management of OLA are unfair and without basis, it said in a statement.



Our client is sensitive to their rights as well as that of others. We have taken appropriate legal steps to protect our clients interests and the matter is now before the courts, it said.



Our client, OLA, has at all times conducted its business with the highest legal and ethical standards and will continue to do so in the future as well, the statement said.



The cab aggregator had launched OlaPlay on November 23 last. It is a connected car platform for ride sharing.

ALSO READ: Uber fires Asia Pacific business head for obtaining medical reports of Indian rape victim

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 16:12:27|Editor: huaxia

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A Tesla Model Y vehicle is pictured at a Tesla Center in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 18, 2021. U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday began Shanghai deliveries of its built-in-China Model Y. On Jan. 7, 2020, Tesla launched the project to manufacture Model Y vehicles in its Shanghai Gigafactory, its first overseas plant outside the United States. The China-made model went on sale on Jan. 1. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

SHANGHAI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday began Shanghai deliveries of its built-in-China Model Y.

On Jan. 7, 2020, Tesla launched the project to manufacture Model Y vehicles in its Shanghai Gigafactory, its first overseas plant outside the United States. The China-made model went on sale on Jan. 1.

Starting at 339,900 yuan (about 52,372 U.S. dollars), the Model Y follows the Model 3 to become the second car built by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory for sale and delivery in China.

Deliveries in other cities will begin soon, according to the company.

Tesla has so far built and opened more than 720 supercharging stations with over 5,700 superchargers in China. Shanghai is home to 86 stations and more than 880 superchargers.

The company also plans to invest 42 million yuan in the construction of a supercharger manufacturing plant in Shanghai with an initial planned annual production capacity of 10,000 superchargers. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2021.

Tesla said that the company will invest more energy in China in the future to promote the construction of basic services and a charging network, and will innovate its service models to provide consumers with a better electric vehicle travel experience.

Tesla delivered its Shanghai-made Model 3 sedans to the public in January 2020. The model was shipped to European customers from October 2020. Enditem

Researchers from Aarhus University have modelled the decarbonisation of the sector-coupled European energy system using very high-resolution data. The results are clear: To reach climate-neutrality by 2050 we need solar energy; and lots of it

Researchers from Aarhus University have modelled the decarbonisation of the sector-coupled European energy system using very high-resolution data. The results are clear: To reach climate-neutrality by 2050 we need solar energy. And lots of it.

What's the cheapest, easiest way to honour the Paris Agreement of limiting the global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius? A clear and strong investment in wind and solar power. Starting now.

That's the message in a new scientific paper published in Nature Communications, where Aarhus University researchers have modelled the decarbonisation of the sector-coupled European energy system using uninterrupted high-res hourly data for every European and Scandinavian country and network interconnectivity.

Using the university's supercomputer, PRIME, the researchers have modelled how to modify the production of electricity, heating and transport sector energy, so to make sure that there's enough of everything for every possible hour, even in the coldest weeks of winter.

"We ask the question of which energy strategy to employ in order to reach the 2050 goal. We have a 'carbon budget' - a maximum amount of CO2 we can emit - and how do we make sure, that by 2050 we reach climate-neutrality in the cheapest and most feasible way?" asks Assistant Professor Marta Victoria, an expert in photovoltaics (PV) and energy systems at the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University.

She continues:

"There are two scenarios: Early and steady or late and rapid. Our model clearly shows that the cost optimised solution is to act now. To be ambitious in the short term. And we find solar energy and onshore and offshore wind to be the cost optimised cornerstone in a fully decarbonised 2050 energy system."

Marta Victoria highlights, that both paths require a massive deployment of wind and solar PV during the next 30 years.

The required installation rates are similar to historical maxima making the transition challenging, yet possible.

"It's not an easy task," she emphasises:

"In some years, we will have to install more than a 100 Gigawatts of solar PV and wind power, and to achieve full decarbonisation the CO2 prices will have to be a lot higher than today."

The paper illustrates a slowly inclining CO2 price that maximises around 400 /ton in the year 2050 - around 20 times higher than today's prices. Needed, in order to favour the renewable transition, Marta states.

The model also includes hydro power and - to account for so-called 'nightmare weeks' - a small amount of gas-based electricity and heating production plus energy storage facilities:

"District heating systems are efficient for very cold and critical periods where electricity demand and heating demand is high, but wind and solar energy production is low. Large hot water tanks discharge during those weeks. This way we make sure, that the future energy systems works for every possible scenario."

###

The research has included every energy resource including nuclear energy, but optimised for cost and feasibility, the model clearly favours solar, wind and hydro. The research has been conducted in cooperation with researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and is part of the RE-INVEST project funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.

The paper is available at nature.com/ncomms.
A sign warning of a restricted zone is seen at the Capitol Building on January 16, 2021 in Frankfort, Kentucky. Supporters of President Trump are at state capitol buildings throughout the nation to protest the presidential election results and the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. / AFP-Yonhap



Protesters are expected to descend on statehouses across the United States on Sunday in support of baseless claims that electoral fraud robbed President Donald Trump of a second term, as law enforcement officials girded for possible violence.



More than a dozen states have activated National Guard troops to help secure their capitol buildings following an FBI warning of armed protests, with right-wing extremists emboldened by the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.



There were scattered demonstrations on Saturday, but statehouses remained mostly quiet.



Security officials have eyed Sunday as the first major flashpoint as that is when the anti-government "boogaloo" movement made plans weeks ago to hold rallies in all 50 states.



While many states have erected fences or other barriers to secure their capitols, Texas and Kentucky have taken the further step of closing their capitol grounds to the public.



It is just days until Wednesday's Inauguration Day, when Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in amid extraordinary security efforts in Washington, D.C.



The downtown area of the capital was virtually empty on Saturday, with streets near the Capitol closed and battalions of camouflaged National Guard soldiers taking up positions across the city center.



Connecticut has activated its National Guard in preparation for as many as 2,000 mostly Trump supporters at its capitol complex in Hartford on Sunday, a state police spokesman said.



"We are preparing possibly for anything to happen," said Trooper Pedro Muniz, adding that there had not been any specific threats. "We won't tolerate any acts of violence."



The nationwide security scramble followed the attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington by a mix of extremists and Trump supporters, some of whom called for the death of Vice President Mike Pence as he presided over the certification of Biden's election victory.



POTENTIAL VIOLENCE



The Democratic leaders of four U.S. congressional committees said on Saturday they had opened a review of the events and had written to the FBI and other intelligence and security agencies asking what was known about threats, whether the information was shared and whether foreign influence played any role.



The FBI and other federal agencies have warned of the potential for future violence, as white supremacists and other extremists look to exploit frustration among Trump supporters who have bought into falsehoods about electoral fraud.



It was not clear whether the ramped up security presence might lead some protesters to stay at home.



Following the Jan. 6 violence in Washington, some militia members said they would not attend a long-planned pro-gun demonstration in Virginia on Monday, where authorities were worried about the risk of violence as multiple groups converged on the state capital, Richmond.



Some militias and extremist groups have told followers to stay home this weekend, citing the increased security or the risk that the planned events were law enforcement traps.



Bob Gardner, leader of the Pennsylvania Lightfoot Militia, said his group had no plans to be in Harrisburg this weekend, where the Capitol has been fortified with barricades and will be protected by hundreds of members of its National Guard.



"We've got our own communities to worry about," Gardner said earlier this week. "We don't get involved in politics." (Reuters)


San Antonio set a record for the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 Sunday, pushing local hospitals even closer to reaching full capacity.

Daily coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations have been climbing steadily for the past two months, threatening to overload the local health care system. Hospitals are becoming strained, with staff overwhelmed by a constant flood of dangerously ill patients and few remaining beds on which to place them.

We are not out of the woods yet, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at the city-county coronavirus briefing Sunday. There is a breaking point, and we dont want to reach that.

In the past 24 hours, San Antonios hospitals admitted 130 people with COVID-19, pushing the total number of infected patients to 1,439, up from 1,394 Saturday and six patients higher than the previous record, which was set Jan. 11. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased by about 72 percent in the past month.

On ExpressNews.com: A guide to getting vaccinated in San Antonio

Patients with COVID-19 currently make up more than one-third of all patients in local hospitals. That figure has almost doubled since mid-December, and now only about 10 percent of the citys hospital beds remain available for new patients.

It all depends on you, how careful you are with respect to the masks, washing your hands, staying 6 feet away from someone, County Judge Nelson Wolff said. Just take the extra precautions.

As of Sunday, 436 patients with COVID-19 are receiving intensive care, up from 424 Saturday, and 244 patients need a ventilator to breathe, a slight increase from 241 Saturday.

Officials reported 1,676 new cases Sunday plus 536 backlogged cases from more than two weeks ago, bringing the case total since the start of the pandemic up to 148,555. About 70,000 cases have been identified since Thanksgiving.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases dropped to 2,071, but is up from 1,694 a week ago. The average has almost tripled since Thanksgiving and nearly doubled since Christmas.

Officials added three deaths from the last two weeks Sunday and 90 previously unconfirmed deaths from between July 4 and Dec. 31. Since March, 1,809 Bexar County residents have died of COVID-19.

On ExpressNews.com: The San Antonio Express-News Vaccine Tracker

Vaccines

City officials said Mondays vaccination appointments at the Alamodome have been pushed back to Wednesday because an expected shipment of Pfizer vaccines was delayed.

We are hopeful that the shipment will arrive in the next 24-48 hours, allowing us to proceed with the vaccinations on Wednesday. We ask for your continued patience, Colleen Bridger, interim director of the Metropolitan Health District, said in a statement.

Individuals who had scheduled appointments for Monday at the Alamodome will be notified of the change by phone or email. Their appointments will be at the same scheduled time, but Wednesday instead of Monday. There were no appointments already scheduled for Wednesday at the Alamodome, officials said.

University Health System will keep appointments scheduled for Monday at the Wonderland of the Americas mall. The WellMed vaccination sites on the citys West and South Sides use Moderna vaccines, so they will be able to keep their appointments, officials said.

Texas is currently offering coronavirus vaccines only to people in priority groups 1A and 1B, which include front-line health care workers, long-term care facility residents and employees, pregnant women, anyone 65 or older and anyone 16 or older with underlying health conditions. Supply shortages mean that it could be months before everyone has access to the vaccine, officials have said.

There are more than 1 million people in groups 1A and 1B in Bexar County, but so far, only about 61,900 of them have gotten their first dose. About 16,700 people here have been fully vaccinated, data from the Texas Department of State Health Services shows.

On ExpressNews.com: State of the pandemic in San Antonio, in Texas and across the U.S.

Vaccine remains limited based on the capacity of the manufacturers to produce it, so it will take time for Texas to receive enough vaccine for all the people in the priority populations who want to be vaccinated, DSHS said in a statement Sunday. The supply is expected to increase in the coming months, and additional vaccines are in clinical trials and may be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.

Texas will receive about 334,000 vaccine doses this week to be used as first doses, and the state is ordering about 500,000 more shots to be used as second doses. Last week, Texas became the first state to vaccinate 1 million people, according to DSHS.

Additional information about vaccines, testing, scheduling appointments and more can be found on the citys coronavirus website, www.covid19.sanantonio.gov.

andy.picon@hearst.com | Twitter: @andpicon
It has been less than a week since Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S21 series featuring a powerful new chipset, the Exynos 2100. Reports are now saying that the company's processors could also be headed to personal computers in the future.

According to a report from Wccftech, the phone manufacturer, which switched to the 5nm fabrication process with the Exynos 2100, may soon bring the processor to other devices like desktop computers. The company already supplies chips to manufacturers like Motorola, so the likelihood of ARM-based chips in computers (like the Apple M1 processor) isnt such a far-fetched idea.

Also read: Samsung's flagship Exynos 2100 successor might sport that long-rumored AMD GPU

Weve previously reported that Samsung might release the next generation of its Exynos processors minus the Mali GPUs and instead adopt an AMD manufactured GPU instead. The move could really give Qualcomm a run for their money, because the Mali chip is currently the only component in the Exynos 2100 holding it back, behind the Snapdragon 888s Adreno 660 GPU.

Having more ARM-based processors on the market is definitely a good thing for consumers, as it will likely drive down the costs and keep manufacturers innovating for better performance and features. Apples M1 chips already offer between 15 and 18 hours battery life, excellent processing power and other security enhancements. Samsungs Knox features could also prove to be a solid advantage for the company if the Exynos 2100 makes it to devices being used for work.

Also read: Samsung takes on Qualcomm, Apple and Huawei with powerful 5nm Exynos 2100 chipset

HT Tech had previously covered the launch of the companys Exynos 2100 last week, noting that the new 5nm chipset is a significant upgrade over the older 7nm Exynos 990, bringing up to 10 percent higher performance while using 20 percent less power. It also has an integrated 5G modem that supports downlink speeds of 5.1 Gbps on sub-6GHz 5G networks, and 7.35 Gbps on mmWave 5G networks.
Even though the Endowment Department and temple executive officer (EO) announced that balipeetham is not being removed but would remain at the temple, protests continued unabated on Monday too.  Representaional DC image

ANANTAPUR: There was tension in Kadiri town when a group of protestors owing allegiance to Telugu Desam, Bharatiya Janata Party, and other organisations mobbed the historic Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple on Monday.

The protests were against removal of the balipeetham (sacrificial altar) at western Gopuram of temple as part of road widening works. The issue had been simmering since Sunday after supporters of BJP, TDP and allied organisations expressed opposition to removal of the centuries old balipeetham.

Even though the Endowment Department and temple executive officer (EO) announced that balipeetham is not being removed but would remain at the temple, protests continued unabated on Monday too.

Telugu Desam in-charge Kandikunta Venkata Prasad led a group of his party activists demanded action against temple EO Venkateswar Reddy, who had earlier announced the decision to remove balipeetham for road widening; but retracted his statement on Sunday.

Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple has a centuries-old history. This is where Lord Narasimha saved Prahlada from his demon father Hiranya Kasyap, Venkata Prasad declared.

BJP leaders also landed up at the temple demanding action against authorities for their failure in ensuring continuing of temple traditions. BJP leader G. Devanand demanded that the state government withdraw the proposal for removing the balipeetham.
Religious makeup of the 117th Congress is 88% Christian

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The 117th United States Congress is made up of 88% Christians, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

In a report called Faith on the Hill, the Pew Research Center analyzed the religious affiliations of all 531 members of the 117th Congress and compared them to the religious demographics of the U.S. as a whole. Pew obtained the data from a questionnaire conducted by CQ Roll Call asking members about their religious backgrounds.

The publication of the Pew report came just one day after the 117th Congress was sworn into session on Jan. 3. Pew has been analyzing the religious composition of members of Congress since the 111th Congress, which met from 2009 to 2011.

While the House of Representatives has 435 members and the Senate has 100 members, two House seats and two Senate seats were either vacant or undecided as of Jan. 4, when the report was published, leaving the number of senators and representatives analyzed at 531.

Since the publication of the report, Democrats won two Senate runoffs in Georgia while Louisianas 5th Congressional District remains vacant due to the death of Representative-elect Luke Letlow. The outcome of the race in New Yorks 22nd Congressional District remains undecided.

Four hundred and sixty-eight (88%) of members of the 117th Congress are Christian, compared to 65% of the American public as a whole. A majority of the Christians on Capitol Hill identify as Protestant. While 55% of lawmakers in the 117th Congress are Protestants, just 43% of the American public identifies as such.

A plurality of the Protestants in Congress describe themselves as unspecified/other. The largest single Protestant denomination represented on Capitol Hill is Baptists, which has 66 adherents serving in the 117th Congress. Baptists on Capitol Hill make up 12.4% of the 117th Congress, compared to 15% of the American public.

The other Protestant denominations represented on Capitol Hill include Methodists, which has 35 adherents in Congress, Anglicans/Episcopalians, with 26 adherents, Presbyterians, with 24 adherents, Lutherans, with 22 adherents and nondenominational Protestants, with 12 adherents. With the exception of nondenominational Protestants, all of the aforementioned religions have higher representation in Congress than they do in the public at large.

The 117th Congress has 158 Catholics, equivalent to 29.8% of the total Congress. Catholics comprise 20% of the U.S. population. Nine Mormons and seven Orthodox Christians are members of the 117th Congress, accounting for 3% of the membership.

The religious denominations, including Protestant denominations, with less than 1% representation on Capitol Hill are Restorationists (0.8%), Congregationalists (0.6%), Muslims (0.6%), Unitarian Universalists (0.6%), Pentecostals (0.4%), Adventists (0.4%), Hindus (0.4%), Buddhists (0.4%), Reformed (0.2%) and Pietists (0.2%.)

While religiously unaffiliated people make up more than a quarter of the U.S. population (26%), just one member of the 117th Congress identifies as religiously unaffiliated: Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-Ariz. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., describes himself as a humanist, he is listed as the sole member of the other category.

Compared to the 116th Congress, the number of Christians overall has declined. The total number of Protestants has increased by one, with the sharpest increases among the unspecified/other protestants (+16) and Restorationists (+3). The Protestant groups that saw the largest decreases in members from the 116th Congress to the 117th Congress were Methodists (-7), Baptists (-6) and Lutherans (-4).

The number of Catholics in Congress has decreased from 163 to 158, while the number of Mormons has decreased from 10 to nine. The 117th Congress has seven Orthodox Christians, an increase from the five Orthodox Christians in the 116th Congress. One fewer Jew and Hindu sit in the 117th Congress compared to the 116th Congress, while the number of Unitarian Universalists has increased by one.

The religious makeup of the House does not differ significantly from the religious composition of the Senate. Christians make up a slightly higher proportion of the membership of the House than the Senate (88.5% vs. 86.7%), while Jews make up a higher share of the membership of the Senate than the House (8.2% vs. 5.8%).

Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Unitarian Universalists have no members in the Senate while each religion has less than 1% membership in the House. Orthodox Christians, which make up 1.6% of the House, do not have any members in the Senate.

The Pew report also analyzed the religious affiliations of members of the 117th Congress by party. Some 98.9% of the Republicans in Congress identify as Christians compared to 77.8% of Democrats. Jews comprise a significant portion of congressional Democrats (11.5%) while just 0.8% of congressional Republicans identify as Jewish. Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y., declined to state his religious affiliation.

All (100%) of the Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Unitarian Universalists and unaffiliated members of Congress are Democrats. Meanwhile, 100% of the Mormons in Congress are Republicans.
New Years resolutions to get healthy usually bring crowds to workout classes, and gyms count on the annual influx of new members. This year, restrictions meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 and some consumers wariness of working out indoors with others are forcing both fitness studios and customers to pivot. Gyms have already introduced virtual classes and adapted studios for socially distanced workouts. Now, some are extending outdoor classes expected to be a seasonal offering well into winter.
Amaala, the ultra-luxury integrated wellness project situated along Saudi Arabia's northwestern coast, has announced the departure of its chief executive Nicholas Naples as it enters the second phase of development. He will now be playing an advisory role on the company board.

Confirming the news, the Amaala board said Naples has left the company as part of the evolution of the destination, as the project goes into its next phase of construction. The Red Sea Development Company CEO John Pagano will be taking over the new role.

Naples had been instrumental in driving the early phase of the project, establishing a team of 420 strong professionals and experts, all dedicated to bringing the destinations blueprint to life. He will now be playing an advisory role in the company, said the statement from the company.

Welcoming Pagano into the fold, the Amaala board said he will be heading the group while also continuing as the CEO of The Red Sea Development Company.

An industry veteran, Pagano brings 38 years experience in delivering large-scale, multi-billion-dollar investments and he will enable the complementary visions of both projects to be realised.

"We are very grateful to Naples for his strong leadership in bringing Amaala to life and driving its development over the past three years. His departure is part of the evolution of Amaala and he will continue to be part of the destination's development in the capacity of senior advisor to Amaala," stated Pagano, who takes on the mantle of CEO starting January 2021.

"We wish Nicholas well as he heads to the US to spend more time with his family," he added.

Since its launch in 2018, Amaala has pressed forward with its ambitious agenda of creating a haven of luxury and well-being, underpinned by sustainability and philanthropy.

In three years, it has laid the groundwork for its three core communities, revealed the design of its dedicated airport, and kicked off the first phase of construction.

It has also built an advisory board that is composed of prominent experts from the fields of hospitality, wellness and sports, travel and tourism, arts and culture, construction, sustainability as well as luxury lifestyle and wellbeing.

"It has been an honour and privilege to have been part of this ground-breaking project and I look forward to its evolution over the coming years," noted Naples.

"Although I will no longer be involved in the day-to-day operations, I will remain one of Amaalas biggest champions and look forward to supporting in an advisory capacity as the destination goes from strength to strength," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The final resting places of two brothers killed in a horror crash will likely be decided by a court, with the tragedy furthering an already ugly divide between their parents.

It has been almost two weeks since Sheldon, 6, and Shane Shorey, 7, were allegedly killed by unlicensed driver Jacob Steven Donn, 25, at Wellington, in NSW, on January 5.

But the funerals for the two brothers have been delayed because their father Joseph Shorey and mum Shayleen Frail are unable to agree on where, or even if, they should be buried.

Ms Frail - who was with her sons when they died - wants them to be buried close to her in Wellington.

But their father, who now lives in Queensland, wants them to be cremated, to allow both parents - and also their older brother - the ability to feel close to the two boys.

Daily Mail Australia understands that both parties have now engaged lawyers in a bid to settle the dispute, with papers expected to be filed in the Supreme Court in coming days.

Joseph Shorey (left) and Shayleen Frail (right) remain at odds over the best way to lay their two sons Sheldon, 6, and Shane Shorey, 7, to rest almost two weeks after a car crash in New South Wales that claimed their lives

Sheldon (left), 6, and Shane (right), 7, were killed when an out-of-control car allegedly driven by Jacob Steven Donn, 35, ploughed into them on Warne Street, Wellington, on January 5

Police allege Donn was performing burnouts on Warne Street in his red Holden (pictured) when he lost control, mounted the gutter and hit the group of five pedestrians

Mr Shorey's relatives say he believes the best compromise is to cremate the bodies of his boys so he, Ms Frail and his oldest son can always feel close to them.

But Ms Frail told Nine News her sons must be buried in Wellington.

'Wellington most definitely was and still is their home, they started off their little lives here,' she said.

'They need to come home, they need to be buried here in Wellington where they are loved, where their family is.'

Despite the tragedy occurring in Wellington, the boys had only spent a few years of their lives there.

Shane was born in Dubbo in 2011, before they moved to Mudgee ahead of Sheldon's birth in 2014, Mr Shorey explained the day after their death.

They moved to Wellington two years later, but Ms Frail would spend almost two out of the next four years in prison.

This led to Mr Shorey moving up to Queensland with his three boys.

He said he believes cremating his sons is the best possible resolution, so that both parents can still feel close to their sons.

'I'm not going to bury them in Emerald, in Queensland, because it's too far for them to travel,' he said.

'We both love our kids dearly and they've spent time with both of us, that's why the cremation idea is a sensible one.

'It's not the first option, but its the best. We both get to have our babies close to us.'

The divide comes as NSW Police continue to investigate the moments before the crash.

Donn is facing a total of 14 charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death and drug possession

Ms Frail (pictured) spent 11 days in hospital after suffering a broken leg and spinal injuries in the crash

Police initially believed Ms Frail, her sons and two other boys were leaving the local swimming pool when they were allegedly struck by an out-of-control Mr Donn.

But Daily Mail Australia revealed the group had actually only just arrived on Warne St.

Instead of going straight to the water, a surviving boy has told loves ones that Ms Frail instead took them 'to see the man in the red car first'.

'[The surviving boy] got out of the car and said to Shayleen: "The pool's this way?"' a source said.

'Shayleen said to him: "I'm just going to see the man in the red car first".'

Donn was allegedly at the wheel of a red Holden when he crashed into the group.

When he was later arrested by police, officers allegedly found a prohibited drug in his possession.

The boys' father Joseph Shorey (pictured in blue) made an emotional visit to the scene a day after the crash, having driven through the night from his Queensland home

Mr Shorey lays a hand on the broken black fence that Donn's red Holden allegedly ploughed through

The crash happened just outside the Wellington Aquatic Leisure Centre (pictured) where Ms Frail was intending to take her sons, and two other boys, for a swim

The results of mandatory blood tests for drugs and alcohol are yet to be returned.

In the aftermath of the crash, Mr Shorey drove through the night from Queensland to visit the scene of the tragedy.

Mr Shorey had last seen his sons on Monday when they told him they loved him and would see him in just a few weeks upon their return to Queensland, where they lived.

'I only saw them the day before and they gave me big hugs and cuddles and said: "Dad, we love you, we'll see you on the 17th",' Mr Shorey said.

'Now I've lost my two youngest boys.

'I can't believe it mate. I'm so shattered. It is gut wrenching, it is heartbreaking, it is everything you ever imagine it would be.

'My kids should be burying me, I shouldn't have to be burying them, they were my world.'

Both parents have told how their children were all incredible sporty and loved the outdoors (Pictured on their scooters above are Shane, left, and Sheldon, right.

More than $25,000 has so far been raised to help fund the funerals for Shane and Sheldon via generous

Just three days after the crash, on what would have been Shane's eighth birthday, his family gathered at the Dubbo Pool to celebrate in his memory.

Balloons spelling out his name were released into the sky and his father told those in attendance it was the party he had dreamed of.

In heartwarming footage shared to Facebook, Mr Shorey lit the candles on his late son's birthday cake while other children in the group sang Happy Birthday.

A GoFundMe page set up to assist him pay for the funerals for his two boys has so far seen more than $23,500 donated.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 17)  The Food and Drug Administration hopes reports of deaths among the elderly in Norway after receiving COVID-19 vaccine shots will not worsen Filipinos' vaccine hesitancy, its chief said Sunday.

While concerns were raised after over 20 died in Norway after receiving doses from US-based drugmaker Pfizer, FDA Director General Eric Domingo said he was quite optimistic the news would not further dampen vaccine confidence in the Philippines.

"I hope not," he told CNN Philippines in a text message, when asked if the news could affect Filipinos' trust in the vaccine.

"This shows that the vaccine recipients are being monitored closely and all events are investigated and recommendations are updated regularly," Domingo added.

Of the 2,400 Filipino adults surveyed by Pulse Asia last Nov. 23 to Dec. 2, 47 percent said they were not willing to get vaccinated against the virus due to safety concerns.

According to a Bloomberg report, the deaths among elderly people in Norway were linked to Pfizer's vaccine.

Quoting the Norwegian Medicines Agency, it said they "have experienced the expected side effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at the injection site, and worsening of their underlying condition."

The government last week gave the go signal for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, the first one to be granted emergency use authorization in the Philippines. Pfizer boasts that its phase 3 clinical trials showed that the vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing infections after a person received two shots.

The country has yet to secure vaccine procurement deals with the US pharmaceutical company, but vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government expects to receive more or less 40 million doses this year.

Domingo said the FDA was still waiting for Pfizer's reports before they decide whether to put an age cap on the recipients.

"We will wait for the report and updates from Pfizer and make any needed age cap before the vaccine is used in the Philippines," he said.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Future climate change will cause a regionally uneven shifting of the tropical rain belta narrow band of heavy precipitation near the equatoraccording to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions. This development may threaten food security for billions of people.

In a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the interdisciplinary team of environmental engineers, Earth system scientists and data science experts stressed that not all parts of the tropics will be affected equally. For instance, the rain belt will move north in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere but will move south in areas in the Western Hemisphere.

According to the study, a northward shift of the tropical rain belt over the eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean will result in future increases of drought stress in southeastern Africa and Madagascar, in addition to intensified flooding in southern India. A southward creeping of the rain belt over the eastern Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean will cause greater drought stress in Central America.

"Our work shows that climate change will cause the position of Earth's tropical rain belt to move in opposite directions in two longitudinal sectors that cover almost two thirds of the globe, a process that will have cascading effects on water availability and food production around the world," said lead author Antonios Mamalakis, who recently received a Ph.D. in civil & environmental engineering in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.

The team made the assessment by examining computer simulations from 27 state-of-the-art climate models and measuring the tropical rain belt's response to a future scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise through the end of the current century.

Mamalakis said the sweeping shift detected in his work was disguised in previous modelling studies that provided a global average of the influence of climate change on the tropical rain belt. Only by isolating the response in the Eastern and Western Hemisphere zones was his team able to highlight the drastic alterations to come over future decades.

Co-author James Randerson, UCI's Ralph J. & Carol M. Cicerone Chair in Earth System Science, explained that climate change causes the atmosphere to heat up by different amounts over Asia and the North Atlantic Ocean.

"In Asia, projected reductions in aerosol emissions, glacier melting in the Himalayas and loss of snow cover in northern areas brought on by climate change will cause the atmosphere to heat up faster than in other regions," he said. "We know that the rain belt shifts toward this heating, and that its northward movement in the Eastern Hemisphere is consistent with these expected impacts of climate change."

He added that the weakening of the Gulf Stream current and deep-water formation in the North Atlantic is likely to have the opposite effect, causing a southward shift in the tropical rain belt across the Western Hemisphere.

"The complexity of the Earth system is daunting, with dependencies and feedback loops across many processes and scales," said corresponding author Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, UCI Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering. "This study combines the engineering approach of system's thinking with data analytics and climate science to reveal subtle and previously unrecognized manifestations of global warming on regional precipitation dynamics and extremes."

Foufoula-Georgiou said that a next step is to translate those changes to impacts on the ground, in terms of flooding, droughts, infrastructure and ecosystem change to guide adaptation, policy and management.

Explore further Manmade aerosols identified as driver in shifting global rainfall patterns

More information: Zonally contrasting shifts of the tropical rain belt in response to climate change, Nature Climate Change (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00963-x Journal information: Nature Climate Change Zonally contrasting shifts of the tropical rain belt in response to climate change,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-00963-x
On Sunday, scientist and COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones tweeted that the state of Florida had issued a warrant for her arrest in a flagrant effort to intimidate the outspoken and courageous scientist.

Jones is one of the most outspoken public opponents of the herd immunity policy being carried out by the Trump White House and Democratic as well as Republican governors. It has resulted in the premature reopening of schools and businesses even as the pandemic surges throughout the country.

Jones has repeatedly warned of the dangers of reopening schools, countering the false narrative peddled in much of the establishment media that schools are not major sources of transmission for COVID-19.

To protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that Im ready to fight whatever they throw at me, Im turning myself in to police in Florida Sunday night, Jones said. The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.

At the time of this writing, Jones current location is unknown, and the Florida government has not even enumerated the charges against her. Jones made clear that the state of Florida was using the threat of legal prosecution to muzzle her. The agent told my lawyer there would be only one charge, but emphasized that speaking out or going to the media may result in police stacking additional charges. All of this just to silence a critic of a governor who failed to do his job and got thousands killed as a result, she wrote.

She later defiantly posted, Censored by the state of Florida until further notice. #LetHerSpeak.

Jones incarceration comes one month after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ordered a police-state-style raid on her house, during which state police aiming guns at Jones and her family. The immediate target of the police were flash drives that, according to an interview given to CNN by Jones, contain proof that Florida officials were lying [last] January about things like internal reports and notices from the CDC, as well as evidence of illegal activities by the state.

More broadly, last months police invasion of her home and the current arrest warrant are an attempt to silence a well-known and outspoken opponent of the back-to-work campaign.

Jones became famous last May for refusing to doctor Floridas coronavirus case numbers to support the state governments escalating back-to-work and back-to-school campaigns.

Now, as then, the coronavirus case numbers and death toll make a clear argument for closing down schools and non-essential workplaces to halt the pandemic. There were nearly 24,000 reported deaths in the US during the past week, averaging more than 3,400 dead each day. More than 1,200 of those deaths were in Florida alone.

After being fired from her position, Jones went on to help create and oversee Florida COVID Action and The COVID Monitorthe most comprehensive databases for tracking COVID-19 infections and deaths in Florida and in K-12 schools across the US, respectively.

To date, there have been no major statements from the Democratic Party or pseudo-left organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America opposing the censorship of Jones.

The pretext for the December raid against Jones is a felony charge based on claims by Florida authorities that she circulated an email among state employees on November 10 that urged them to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead." The email continued: "You know this is wrong. You dont have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before its too late.

Even before Jones turned herself in, the charges were shown to be false. She explained that, FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to speak out on any of the devices they tookthe entire basis for the raid on my home in Dec. She also made clear that an agent confirmed that whatever police found on her hard drives has nothing to do with the subject of the warrant.

Moreover, since the states first attempt to silence Jones by claiming she broke the law is falling apart, Florida government authorities have moved on to a new allegation. As Jones tweeted, the new warrant was issued the day after a Tallahassee judge told police that if theyre not investigating a crime, they had to return my equipment. They didnt find proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me for in retaliation.

The timing of the arrest warrant is also significant. It was issued in the wake of the January 6 attempted coup detat by President Donald Trump and during the same week that the US death toll in the pandemic topped 400,000. DeSantis is making clear that the central preoccupation of the American state is not to seriously probe the immense dangers posed by Trumps attempts to overthrow the Constitution or the mass death caused by the pandemic, but to ensure that schools and businesses remain open at all costs.

In that light, Jones is an obstacle to be removed before she can reveal any more truths about the governments handling of the pandemic. The ruling class is very aware of the mass hostility to its homicidal herd immunity policies, anger that will only grow as the number of deaths spirals to ever greater heights. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now predicts that 92,000 more deaths will occur during the next three weeks.

Such projections agree with those from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which predicts that more than 500,000 people will have died from COVID-19 in the US by mid-February.

Five hundred thousand dead! And the IHME model admits that even with a rapid vaccine rollout the number of dead will be essentially the same. At the same time, the authors of the model, including Chris Murray at the University of Washington in Seattle, predict that the daily death rate will level off in April, presumably a result of the policies of the incoming Biden administration.

In reality, the pandemic will continue to rage out of control as long as the necessary measures to contain the pandemic are not taken, including a lockdown of all but essential production and full compensation for those who arent working. The science is clear.

This is ultimately why Rebekah Jones is being silenced. Just as with other persecuted whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, she took it upon herself to commit the crime of telling the working class the truth, both about the pandemic and the criminal response of the government to the public health crisis. It is now up to workers themselves to fight against censorship and defend all democratic rights as part of a broader revolutionary struggle for socialism.
Israeli war planes struck military positions of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza strip on Monday in response to a launch of two rockets to its territory earlier on the same day, the press service of Israels Defense Forces (IDF) said.

"Earlier tonight, 2 rockets were fired from the north of the Gaza Strip towards the coast near the city of Ashdod. In response, IDF fighter jets struck military targets belonging to Hamas in Gaza," TASS cited the statement as saying.

"Hamas will bear the consequences for terror activity against Israeli civilians," the IDF added.
GE T&D India rose 2.92% to Rs 128.50 after the company agreed to sell its Global Engineering Operations Division to GE India Industrial for a cash consideration of Rs 87.3 crore.

In a filing made on Saturday (16 January 2021), GE T&D India said that it had agreed to sell its Global Engineering Operations Division (India for Global) to GE India Industrial together with the assets and manpower comprised therein alongwith its corresponding liabilities on slump sale basis on an "as is where is" basis. The company will receive a cash consideration of Rs 87.3 crore on completion of sale of business.

GE T&D India said that the sale would help management to focus on its core business activities besides realizing cash from sale.

The activities of the Global Engineering Operations Division were to provide engineering and product & project design services to global affiliates of GE Grid Solutions and hence non-core to company's business. GE T&D India will continue to have an internal team to support such activities of its business.

GE India Industrial is in the business related to aviation, renewable energy, gas power, digital energy, propellers, other electrical equipments, research & development activity in material science, process technology, engineering etc., software development, engineering design/consultancy services & providing necessary support/back end services to all businesses.

The engineering division had turnover of Rs 85.9 crore out of total turnover of Rs 3,158.7 crore of the company during the financial year ended 31 March 2020, which is less than 3% of the total turnover.

GE T&D India expects the business transfer agreement is expected to be executed by 29 January 2021. It further said that the expected date of completion of sale is at end of day on 31 March 2021.

GE T&D India is engaged in business of products, projects and systems for electricity transmission and related activities.

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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Vice President-elect on Monday officially resigned from her Senate seat, ending her four-year innings in the upper chamber of the United States Congress.

Her resignation from the Senate came two days before the 56-year-old would be sworn in on Wednesday along with President-elect Joe Biden, making history as the first female, first Black and first South Asian American vice president.

Harris, a Democrat, has formally submitted her letter of resignation to California Governor Gavin Newsom, CNN reported, quoting a Harris aide.

"I hereby resign as Senator from the State of California, effective January 18th, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).

"As I assume my duties as Vice President of the United States, I would like to thank the people of California for the honour of serving them in the U.S. Senate over the past four years," CNN quoted Harris' resignation letter to Newsom as saying.

Harris won her seat in November 2016 and was sworn in January 2017. At the time, Harris was California's attorney general.

Newsom has already named Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state, to fill Harris' seat.

The incoming vice president has spoken to Padilla before he comes into office, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion.

Harris made history throughout her career, becoming the first Black woman in California to serve as a senator.

In her November victory speech, she recognised the hard battle women faced to exercise their civic rights and break into the upper echelon of American politics.

"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," Harris said. "Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities."



Now, Harris will preside over the same chamber that she is stepping down from, becoming president of the 100-member Senate.

In an op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Harris wrote, Thus, as I leave the United States Senate, this is not goodbye. This is hello, a nod to her changing position in the Senate as president of the chamber.

As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it, she wrote.

Harris will now, as vice president, become a potential tiebreaking vote in the Senate, giving Democrats control of the chamber which is divided 50-50 between the two parties and the ability to advance nominations and some budget-related policies.

Meanwhile, Harris tweeted on Monday that January 20, 2021 will "mark a new chance to heal, rebuild, and strengthen our democracy we all cherish."



"And fulfilling the promise of this moment will require each of us doing our parttogether.

(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.)
At least 83 people were reportedly killed and 160 others injured in a sporadic violent attack that took location at El Geneina, the capital city of Sudan's West Darfur state, according to authorities. "The death toll from the bloody events in El Geneina has climbed to 83 and the injured to 160 since Saturday," Xinhua news agency quoted the Doctors' Committee of West Darfur state as saying in a statement on Sunday.

The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the people in the Krinding camp and other areas Saturday.

In the meantime, Sudan's Security and Defense Council on Sunday decided to send security reinforcements to West Darfur to protect the citizens and vital utilities there, according to a statement by Sudan's Sovereign Council.

The council, chaired by the Chairman of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the violent events which took place in El Geneina on Saturday, the statement noted.

West Darfur State's Governor Mohamed Abdalla Al Doma decided to designate the regular forces to end the violence started by a fight between two citizens in El Geneina, in which one of them was killed.

US Capitol turned into military zone ahead of Biden's inauguration

Biden inducts 20 Indian-Americans in his dynasty, swearing in on 20th Jan

Indian tradition adds fuels in the swearing of Biden-Harris, with Auspicious KOLAM
Summary

Focus

China's local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) are often viewed as platforms that are used to evade borrowing constraints and make inefficient investments. They are even accused of harbouring potential fiscal and financial risks. By contrast, anecdotal evidence suggests that some LGFVs contribute to local economic growth through successful investments.

Contribution

We provide new insights on LGFVs, especially in terms of how they invest. Using data for 4,432 LGFVs from 1,225 counties across China between 2005 and 2018, we show that since 2014 the function of LGFVs has changed from financing conduits to conglomerate platforms with more diversified investments. By combining LGFV-level micro data and county-level macroeconomic data, we evaluate the investment style of LGFVs and their impact on local economies in a novel way.

Findings

The degree of LGFV diversification has an inverted U-shaped relationship with local economic growth. Diversification up to a certain level accelerates growth, while over-diversified investment hinders growth. Moreover, the effect of diversification on economic growth has become much more prominent since 2014, and also depends on the condition of a local economy. The finding that some diversification is a blessing but too much is a curse might be explained by debt build-ups and the crowding-out effect on private firms.

Abstract

This paper examines how China's local governments make investment via financing vehicles (LGFVs) and provides new insights on often-criticised LGFVs from a different perspective. Using data for 4,432 LGFVs from 1,225 counties across China between 2005 and 2018, we show that since 2014, the function of LGFVs has changed from financing conduits to conglomerate platforms with more diversified investments. While a certain level of diversification can be a blessing for local economic growth, over-diversification is a curse. Such an inverted U-shaped relationship depends on the condition of the local economy. Over-diversification may lead to rising local debt and crowding-out effects on private investment.

JEL Codes: E61, G21, H72, O17

Keywords: local government financing vehicle, diversified investment, government debt, conglomerate
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In a massive pro-freedom rally organised on the 117th birth anniversary of GM Syed, one of the founding fathers of modern Sindhi nationalism, protesters raised the placards of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders to seek their intervention for the freedom of Sindhudesh.

The people raised pro-freedom slogans during a massive rally held in Syed's hometown of Sann in Jamshoro district of Pakistan's Sindh province on Sunday.

They claimed that Sindh is the home of Indus Valley Civilisation and Vedic religion which was illegitimately occupied by the British Empire and was delivered by them in the evil Islamist hands of Pakistan in 1947.

"Among all these barbaric assaults on its history and culture, and all these ages of occupation and dawns of independence Sindh has retained and maintained its separate historical and cultural identity as a pluralist, co-existent, tolerant and harmonious society where all the different cultures, languages and ideas of the foreign and native people have not only influenced each other but accepted and absorbed the common message of the human civilisation," said Shafi Muhammad Burfat, Chairman of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz.

He added, "This historical synthesis of religions, philosophies and civilisation from the east and west has given our motherland Sindh a distinct place in the history of humanity".

Burfat told ANI, "While the Sindh gave India its name, the Sindh citizens who pioneered in the fields of industry, philosophy, marine navigation, mathematics and astronomy are today chained by the Islam-o-fascist terrorist unconstitutional forced federation of Pakistan by the military might of Punjabi imperialism in the name of Islam".

There are several nationalist parties in Sindh, who are advocating for a free Sindh nation. They have been raising the issue on various international platforms and calling Pakistan an occupier that continues to exploit resources and involved in human rights violations in the region.

"Our nation believes in universal peace, unity of humanity and human development and our country has remained as an independent nation on the face of the earth for thousands of years. But today, it is enslaved by Punjabi colonialism in the name of religion and through the might of the military. The Sindhi people do not want to remain in the oppressive slavery of the terrorist state of Pakistan, and therefore, we appeal to the entire international community to step forward and support us in our struggle for national independence from the fascist theocratic Islamist terrorist state of Pakistan."

Sindhudesh is a demand for a separate homeland for Sindhis which was emerged in 1967 under the leadership of GM Syed and Pir Ali Mohammed Rashdi.

A large number of Sindhi nationalist leaders, activists and students were disappeared, tortured and killed allegedly by Pakistan's security agencies in the past few decades.

(ANI)

Also Read: UK invites PM Modi to attend G7 summit
A University of Kentucky student, a New Mexico council member and a heavy metal guitarist are each facing charges in connection with storming of the Capitol.

Gracyn Dawn Courtright faces federal charges including theft of government property and knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, The Courier Journal reports.

She told one friend 'idk what treason is' and posted pictures to her Instagram account from the siege earlier this month, according to a warrant for her arrest.

Sharing one picture from DC Courtright, a senior from West Virginia, wrote: 'can't wait to tell my grandkids I was here'. She has since deleted her social media accounts.

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was arrested Sunday after vowing to return to Washington with guns and to place a flag on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk.

Griffin, the founder of the group Cowboys for Trump faces charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol.

And Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer is in federal custody after handing himself into authorities in Indiana on Sunday, TMZ reports.

He faces charges of engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a capitol building. The FBI tweeted: 'Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with 'bear spray.''

The riot at the Capitol, which left five people dead, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. President Donald Trump told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that 'you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.'

Gracyn Dawn Courtright faces federal charges including theft of government property and knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was also arrested Sunday after vowing to return to Washington to place a flag on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk. He is pictured with Trump

Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer, center in the blue sweatshirt, is in federal custody after handing himself into authorities in Indiana on Sunday

The criminal complaint against Courtright appears to show her inside the Capitol carrying a 'Members Only' sign.

It also includes alleged messages from Courtright which read it 'wasn't like the news said', 'it's history idc', 'I thought it was cool,' and 'idk what treason is'.

In another post she is said to have written: 'INFAMY IS JUST AS GOOD AS FAME.'

The affidavit reads: 'Courtright can be identified by her unique hat with the yellow band, the surrounding people, flag, and building architecture (all of which can be seen in both this picture and her personally captured video).'

In a statement the University of Kentucky said: 'We don't discuss individual disciplinary issues. But, in general, we can tell you that the student code of conduct applies both on and off campus.

The criminal complaint appears to show Courtright inside the Capitol carrying a 'Members Only' sign, pictured

It also includes alleged messages from Courtright which read it 'wasn't like the news said', 'it's history idc', 'I thought it was cool,' and 'idk what treason is'

The criminal complaint also includes alleged messages from Courtright which read it 'wasn't like the news said', 'it's history idc', 'I thought it was cool,' and 'idk what treason is'. In another post she is said to have written: 'INFAMY IS JUST AS GOOD AS FAME'

'If the university is made aware of a student taking actions in violations of local, state or federal laws, the student code of conduct applies in that context.'

Her father told FBI special agents 'he would assist in ensuring she turned herself in to authorities...if his daughter was charged with a crime'.

According to court documents, Griffin told investigators that he was 'caught up' in the crowd, which pushed its way through the barricades and entered the restricted area of the U.S. Capitol, but he said he did not enter the building and instead remained on the U.S. Capitol steps.

A video posted to Griffin's personal Facebook page shows Griffin in the restricted areas, according to the affidavit.

According to court documents, Griffin told investigators that he was 'caught up' in the crowd but he said he did not enter the building and instead remained on the U.S. Capitol steps. A video posted to Griffin's personal Facebook page shows Griffin in the restricted areas, according to the affidavit

Iced Earth's Schaffer faces charges of engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a capitol building

The FBI tweeted: 'Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with 'bear spray''

Griffin did not immediately respond to phone or text messages seeking comment.

On Thursday, Griffin, said he planned to travel with firearms to Washington, D.C., for Bidens inauguration.

'Im gonna be there on Jan. 20 ... and Im gonna take a stand for our country and for our freedoms,' Griffin said during a meeting of the Otero County Board of Commissioners.

'Im gonna leave either tonight or tomorrow. Ive got a .357 Henry Big Boy rifle lever action that Ive got in the trunk of my car and Ive got a .357 single action revolver, the Colt Ruger Vaquero that Ill have underneath the front seat on my right side and I will embrace my Second Amendment,' he said.

On Thursday, Griffin, pictured with Trump, said he planned to travel with firearms to Washington, D.C., for Bidens inauguration. 'Im gonna be there on Jan. 20 ... and Im gonna take a stand for our country and for our freedoms,' Griffin said

Cowboys for Trump leader and Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, center in 2019, was arrested by the FBI on Sunday. He was arrested on charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol

Griffin, a New Mexico county official who runs a group called 'Cowboys for Trump' who had vowed to return to Washington after last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol to place a flag on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk was arrested by the FBI on Sunday

Schaffer was pictured inside the Capitol on January 6 wearing an Oath Keepers cap, a loosely organized group of right-wing extremists.

The group recruits current and former law enforcement officers and military personnel.

His bandmate bassist Luke Appleton had said: 'We absolutely DO NOT condone nor do we support riots or the acts of violence that the rioters were involved in on January 6th at the US Capitol building.

'We hope that all those involved that day are brought to justice to be investigated and answer for their actions.

'With broken hearts we are sending our love and compassion to everyone who has felt pain from the events on January 6th. We are deeply saddened and our hearts go out to the families of the lives lost that day.

'There are really no proper words to console. Just know we are with you in your shock, grief and pain.'
The Coca-Cola Co has ended its membership of food lobby group the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).

The Coca-Cola Co said the decision was made following a "routine review"

In a statement, Coca-Cola said it left ILSI earlier this month. "This decision was made after a routine review of membership," the company added without giving further details on its reason for leaving.

Bloomberg first reported the news last week, describing the move as a "major setback" for the ILSI. According to Bloomberg, the ILSI is "known for its pro-sugar research and policies" and still counts a number of food and beverage companies including PepsiCo as contributing members. Bloomberg said Coca-Cola had been a "prominent supporter and financial backer" of the ILSI.

In 2016, Coca-Cola halted funding research on issues related to health and well-being. The move followed a New York Times report that claimed Coca-Cola was working with "influential scientists" to promote the idea that exercise is more important than calorie-control in the fight against growing global obesity.

Is 'community commerce' the silver bullet for beverages' direct-to-consumer problems? - Click here for a just-drinks analysis
Charges dropped against deacon arrested for singing hymns outdoors

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A court has dismissed all charges against a church deacon who was one of the three arrested last September for singing while not wearing a mask at a psalm sing outdoor worship service held in Moscow City, Idaho.

The Idaho District Court dropped charges against Gabriel Rench in the case State of Idaho v. Gabriel Rench. The deacon was arrested at an event hosted by Christ Church and held outside City Hall in response to the extension of a COVID-19-prompted mask mandate imposed by Moscows mayor at the time, the law firm Thomas More Society, which represented the church, said.

We had done the Psalm sing in the past under the same [mask] resolution and we werent arrested, we werent warned  we were just taking our constitutional liberties to do what were allowed to do under the Constitution  worship, Rench said, referring to the event that was attended by about 200 people.

The city of Moscow, appears to have been so anxious to make an example of Christ Churchs opposition to their desired COVID restrictions that they failed to follow the mandatory exemptions articulated in their own laws, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Michael Jacques noted.

The Moscow City Code allows the Mayor to issue public health emergency orders, but exempts [a]ny and all expressive and associative activity that is protected by the United States and Idaho Constitutions, including speech, press, assembly, and/or religious activity, Jacques explained. Mr. Rench and the other worshipers who were arrested had their constitutionally protected liberties violated and their lives disrupted  not only by the inappropriate actions of law enforcement officers, but also by city officials who did not immediately act to correct this unlawful arrest.

After Rench and others were arrested in September, the church wrote on its Facebook page: Yesterday Christ Church sponsored a flash psalm sing at city hall. We were going to appear there at quarter to [5 p.m.], sing three psalms or hymns, then the doxology, and then out. The songs were Psalm 20, Psalm 124, and 'Amazing Grace.' When we arrived, the police were waiting for us. One of them informed me that people either had to social distance or wear a mask or otherwise face a citation.

Douglas Wilson, who wrote the post, added: I told him that I would inform everyone of that, which I did. I said a brief prayer, and we began to sing. Over the following 15 minutes of singing, three of our people were arrested, and two others were cited.
NASHVILLE  The long awaited ribbon cutting for the National Museum of African American Music is Monday, Martin Luther Kings Birthday, in the heart of the tourist district here. But theres still so much construction equipment enveloping 5th + Broad  Nashvilles sprawling new mixed-use development at the corner of Fifth Avenue North and Broadway  that the museum can be easy to miss.

Lower Broad is basically just one raucous bar after another. From the storied Tootsies Orchid Lounge, where the Grand Ole Opry performers of old once slipped in the back door between sets, right down to the Cumberland River, its a place where visitors go to get drunk and dance to big-hat country songs. Among tourists, its known as the Honky Tonk Highway. Hardly the most natural place to build a museum devoted to the music of Black Americans.

This is not a small space for a niche audience or a token recognition of the least recognized people in Music Citys musical heritage. It is a 56,000-square-foot tribute to the makers of the first music that was truly American  one nation under a groove, as the museums tagline puts it in a nod to the George Clinton song. Beginning with the musical traditions of enslaved people, its interactive exhibits celebrate the brilliant legacy that has followed the first Black Americans through more than 50 musical genres and subgenres  classical, country, gospel, jazz, blues and hip-hop, just for starters  during the past 400 years. According to the museums website, no other museum with this purpose exists in the world.
NEW DELHI : The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is taking all efforts to extradite Indian businessman Vijay Mallya , accused in bank loan default case of over 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines from United Kingdom, but the process is being delayed to some legal issues involved in the matter.

A bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing on March 15, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought some time to file report on the status of extradition of Mallya.

At the outset, Mehta shared a letter of the Ministry of External Affairs official Devesh Uttam written to him on the status of extradition of Mallya from the United Kingdom.

The solicitor general stated that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has raised the issue of extradition with the UK government and the Centre is taking all serious efforts to extradite Mallya.

He said that government is trying its best but the status remains the same and from political executive level to administrative level the matter is being looked into repeatedly.

The bench took the letter on record.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

The letter submitted by the law officer stated that, the Ministry of External Affairs has been informed by the UK government that there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya can be extradited".

It said, Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential and you will understand that Her Majestys government cannot provide any more details. We also cannot estimate how long this issue will take to resolve. Her Majestys government fully understands the importance of this case to the government of India. I can reassure that Her Majestys government is seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible".

The letter further stated, The government of India has been making consistent efforts for early extradition of Vijay Mallya. In November 2020, Foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla raised this issue with Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary who informed that UKs legal complexities were preventing the quick extradition of Vijay Mallya".

It further said, In December 2020, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar raised the issue with the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home. UKs response remains the same".

On November 2, last year, the top court had asked the Centre to file status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the UK on extradition of Mallya to India.

The Centre had on October 5 told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate secret" legal process in the UK, which is judicial and confidential in nature is resolved".

The top court had also refused to accept the plea of advocate E C Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case.

The Centre had in October, last year said it is not aware of the secret on-going proceedings against Mallya in the UK as the government of India is not a party to the process.

On August 31, last year the top court had directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5, 2020, while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring $40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

When the top court had asked Mehta about the time-frame for conclusion of proceeding pending in the UK, he had said they have no information about it from the London High Commission.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its affidavit filed earlier in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said that the pending legal issue in the UK is outside and apart from the extradition process" and is confidential and cannot be disclosed".

The top court had in October, 2020 asked Mallya's lawyer to apprise the apex court by November 2, last year what kind of "secret" proceedings are going on to extradite him.

The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from February 9, 2017 till dismissal of his appeal against extradition in UK on May 14, last year and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.

The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallyas surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallyas extradition may take place".

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Joe Biden is due to be inaugurated as the President of the United States in just two days  but on Monday, it was almost impossible to pick him out of a crowd when he volunteered at a Pennsylvania food bank with his family, but kept his entire face concealed behind a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a face mask.

On Monday morning, Biden, 78, his wife Dr. Jill Biden, 69, his daughter Ashley, 39, and his granddaughter Finnegan, 21, visited the Philabundance food bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they marked MLK National Day of Service together by helping to pack up food donation boxes.

All four took precautions amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by wearing protective face masks and gloves  however, the President-elect took things even further by also covering up his eyes and head.

Volunteer time! Two days before his inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden and his family celebrated MLK National Day of Service by working at a Pennsylvania food bank

Here to help! Biden, his wife Dr. Jill Biden, his daughter Ashley, and his granddaughter Finnegan visited the Philabundance food bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cozy: Jill was warmly-dressed for the outing in a moto jacket, a colorful scarf, and a simple blue cloth mask

Hey there! She waved as she made her way over to the assembly line

The group was photographed volunteering outside at the food bank, standing in a row down an assembly line where they packed up boxes of supplies.

The boxes of food that the Bidens packed today will be distributed in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties.

Biden put on a dapper show for the outing, wearing a navy zip-up sweater and a collared shirt under a smart coat. He finished the look with a pair of dark pants and some leather shoes.

The President-elect's face was almost completely covered thanks to the dark green Philabundance baseball cap atop his head, which he wore with sunglasses and a large cloth face mask.

Though the family mostly appeared to have their own section to box up food, Biden made sure to keep the protective covering on in order to safeguard himself and set an example in the midst of the global pandemic.

Meanwhile, his wife Jill was warmly-dressed for the outing in a moto jacket, a colorful scarf, and a simple blue cloth mask.

The outing was truly a family affair, spanning three generations and including Joe and Jill's daughter, Ashley.

Ashley, who is married to plastic surgeon Howard Krein, donned a black hoodie with the word 'democracy' written across the front in red, white, and blue.

With mom and dad: The outing was truly a family affair, spanning three generations and including Joe and Jill's daughter, Ashley, 39

Shoe game: Ashley, in heeled boots, stood next to her niece Finnegan, 21, in sneakers

Stylish: Finnegan added a bright spot of color to the assembly line, dressed in distressed light-wash jeans, a pink sweatshirt, a jacket baring the Nascar logo, and a pink floral face mask

Next gen: Finnegan is the daughter of Joe's son Hunter and his ex-wife Kathleen

She further bundled up with a black coat, knee-high black heeled boots, and a black face mask.

Meanwhile, her niece Finnegan  the 21-year-old daughter of Joe's troubled son Hunter and his ex-wife Kathleen  added a bright spot of color to the assembly line, dressed in distressed light-wash jeans, a pink sweatshirt, a jacket baring the Nascar logo, and a pink and black floral face mask.

The group picked the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to give back in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

Americans are encouraged to use the federal holiday  a day many people have off from work  not as a 'day off' but a 'day on,' during which they can volunteer their time and serve their communities.

'Service is a fitting way to start to heal, unite, and rebuild this country we love,' Biden wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. 'I hope youll join us in honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by participating in the National Day of Service.'

In a video accompanying the tweet, Biden quoted Dr. King.

'Dr. King once said, "Everyone can be great because everyone can serve." Its one of his many lessons that endures today, and that weve seen throughout this pandemic,' he said.

'From sewing masks to dropping off groceries to their elderly neighbors, Americans across the country know that service, looking out for one another, is part of who we are as a nation.

Ready to go: The boxes of food that the Bidens packed today will be distributed in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties

Charitable: The group picked the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to give back in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Helping hands: Americans are encouraged to use the federal holiday not as a 'day off' but a 'day on,' during which they can volunteer their time and serve their communities

Who is Ashley Biden? Born in 1981 in Wilmington, Delaware, Ashley, now 39, is the daughter and only child of Joe Biden, 77, and English professor Jill, 69. Her father was first elected as Senator almost a decade earlier, so Ashley was born into the world of politics. She is the younger sister of brothers Hunter and Beau, the latter of whom died from brain cancer in 2015. The boys were the product of Joe's first marriage to Neilia, who died in a 1972 car crash alongside their infant daughter Naomi. Ashley has had public brushes with the law - she was reportedly arrested in 1999 for possession of marijuana and in 2002 for obstructing a police officer - and faced questions over her husband's role in Biden's campaign, but has otherwise stayed largely under the radar. Instead, she has focused on building a career in social work and social justice, and has also launched a charity clothing label. Making a difference: Ashley, pictured with her father at a 2016 cocktail party, has built a career as a social worker and a social justice advocate before leaving her role last year Ashley has described how her passion for public service was 'in her DNA', thanks not only to her father's political career, but also her mother's work as an English professor. Ashley pursued a career as a social justice activist and social worker. For 15 years, she worked as a social worker in the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families, during which time she created programs that focused on juvenile justice, foster care, and mental health. In 2012 she joined the Delaware Center for Justice as an associate director, focusing on criminal justice reform in the state. She helped establish and run programs and services at the center focused on public education, adult victim services, gun violence, incarcerated women, and community reentry. In 2014 she was promoted to Executive Director of the center, and served in that capacity until 2019. Three years ago, Ashley announced she was launching a passion project, a line of sweatshirts that benefited local charitable causes in Delaware, inspired by the death of her brother Beau. Its logo, an 'LH' with an arrow shot through it, pays tribute to him. Ashley flexed her fashion designer muscles again last year when she created new uniforms for the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., as an offshoot of Livelihood. In 2010, she met Dr. Howard Krein, an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology: Head & Neck Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University and a founding partner and co-director of Jefferson's Facial Aesthetic and Reconstructive Center. The couple married in the summer of 2012 at Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Greenville, Delaware, where Ashley was baptized. A rabbi officiated the inter-faith service, which reflected both her Catholic traditions and his Jewish beliefs. Advertisement

'And it's why, during the inaugural week, my family will be joining in the National Day of Service on Dr. Martin Luther King Day.'

Who is Finnegan Biden? Finnegan, 21, is the daughter of Biden's troubled son Robert Hunter Biden, known as Hunter, and Kathleen Buhle, who had three children together before splitting in 2017. She has both an older sister, Naomi, 26, and a younger sister, Maisy, 18. Currently a senior at The University of Pennsylvania, Finnegan has become involved in campus activism. Earlier this year, motivated by the concerns of her fellow classmates, she successfully petitioned UPenn's administration to extend grading options. Advertisement

He urged Americans to consider what their communities need and reach out to friends to get them involved.

Ashley and Finnegan's appearance alongside the President-elect seems to confirm long-standing speculation that the two women will play prominent roles during his time in the White House.

The future First Daughter  who is Joe's only child with Jill  has previously shied away from the spotlight. However, she has taken on a more high-profile role during her father's campaign over the past year.

Like her older half-brother Hunter, whose mother is Joe's late wife Neilia Hunter, Ashley has had several public brushes with the law. She was reportedly arrested in 1999 for possession of marijuana, and again in 2002 for obstructing a police officer.

In recent years, however, she has turned her life around, focusing on building a career in social work and social justice  and she now appears poised to take on a more public-facing role when her father officially becomes President on January 20.

Meanwhile, Finnegan has actively played a public role in her grandfather's presidential campaign, appearing in a campaign video for the Democrats alongside Biden's other grandchildren and supporting him at a November rally in Philadelphia, as well as at an event in Iowa in February last year.

The University of Pennsylvania student has weathered a great deal of public scrutiny over her father's colorful personal life, including his drug addiction, which led him to be admitted to rehab when Finnegan was just three years old.

In 2018, her dad hit the headlines again when it was revealed that he had fathered a child with Arkansas-based stripper Lunden Roberts.

In October 2020, just days before the election, Hunter sparked furious scandal once again when the New York Post published emails and documents that were allegedly taken from the hard drive of a laptop that he had left at a Delaware computer store.

Getting stuck in: Biden's running mate and soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris, 56, also spent Monday volunteering at a food bank alongside her husband Doug Emhoff

Working hard: The couple were seen sorting through food donations at Martha's Table in Washington, D.C.

Taking care: Both were wrapped up warm in thick jackets, and made sure to cover their mouths and noses with not one, but two face masks that they layered up

Bundle up! The future Vice President appeared quite windswept at points throughout the morning, and ensured that she wrapped up against the D.C. chill in a quilted black coat

Cheery: Despite the cold weather, Harris seemed to be in a great mood as she waved happily for the cameras

The Post was given a copy of the hard drive by President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The laptop contained a series of emails, as well as personal photos, including several of a sexually-explicit nature, according to the New York Post.

Then, in December of last year, Hunter confirmed that the US Attorney's Office in Delaware was investigating his tax affairs.

Still, despite the controversy surrounding her father, Finnegan remains incredibly leveled headed, and it seems likely that she will become a regular fixture alongside her grandfather during his presidency.

The Biden family were not the only ones who spent MLK National Day of Service volunteering for a good cause. Joe's running mate and soon-to-be Vice President, Kamala Harris, also spent the morning working at a food bank, although she opted for an organization closer to home.

Harris, 56, and her husband Doug Emhoff got to work at Martha's Table, a food bank in Washington, D.C., where they were seen helping to sort through boxes of donated food.

Much like the Biden family, Harris and her husband wrapped up warm against the chilly weather, with the future VP wearing a quilted black jacket over a black turtleneck, while Doug donned a navy zip up sweater over a collared shirt, layering up with a navy coat.

Run-through: Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., stand-ins for the President-elect and the soon-to-be First Lady ran through Wednesday's inauguration ceremony

Practice makes perfect: The stand-ins walked through the through the Capitol Crypt for the rehearsal, coming out the podium

Getting ready: The man mimed being sworn in, while the woman mimed holding up a bible

Both appeared to be wearing two protective face masks, adding a white design under a black medical covering, and they put on blue latex gloves before touching the food.

Following their separate volunteering endeavors, Biden and Harris will continue to honor MLK's legacy with a virtual 'celebration of the National MLK Day of Service', which will 'feature a diverse array of entertainers, inspiring speakers, and stories celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Biden-Harris Administrations commitment to service'.

The hour-long event will be live streamed on Biden's website, and will see the likes of Rosario Dawson, Andra Day, Rev. Al Sharpton, Aloe Black, and Diane Warren taking part  as well as Martin Luther King Jr's daughter, Rev. Dr. Bernice King, and his son Martin Luther King III.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., stand-ins for the President-Elect and the next First Lady ran through Wednesday's inauguration ceremony.

The stand-ins walked through the through the Capitol Crypt for the rehearsal, coming out the podium where the man mimed being sworn in, while the woman mimed holding up a bible.

However, the rehearsal had to be cut short  and everyone in attendance evacuated  due to an 'external security threat' that turned out to be a fire started by a homeless woman under a nearby bridge.

Emergency: The rehearsal had to be cut short  and everyone in attendance evacuated  due to an 'external security threat', which turned out to be a fire started by a homeless woman

Concern: The scare comes amid fears of an attack on the Biden inauguration while the nation still reels from the Capitol Building riot on January 6 (pictured: the Capitol this morning)

Military personnel and staffers ran from the temporary seating on the Capitol Building's West Front while an evacuation warning played in the background, shortly after an 'explosion' was heard at around 10:30 a.m.

Plumes of smoke rose above the Capitol Building, where thousands of armed protesters staged an attempted coup on January 6.

Journalists at the scene reported being told of an 'external security threat' and people working in the Capitol Complex were told to stay away from windows and doors.

Less than an hour later, the fire department revealed that the ruckus had been caused by a homeless woman who unwittingly caused an explosion by using propane gas in her tent.

It caused a huge fire beneath a freeway on H Street South East, which is a stone's throw from the Capitol, and was the source of the black smoke that had terrified people on the hill.

The scare comes amid growing fears of an insider attack on the Biden inauguration while the nation still reels from the Capitol Building riot on January 6. Pentagon officials are concerned that an insider attack may be in the works.

All 25,000 of the National Guardsmen who will be there to protect the event are being vetted by the FBI.
Mamata Banerjee to contest from Nandigram: It a challenge to Suvendu Adhikari

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Kolkata, Jan 18: Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said that she would contest from the Nandigram assembly constituency in the upcoming West Bengal elections.

This is a significant announcement as Nandigram was Suvendu Adhikari's constituency. Adhikari had recently quit the TMC and joined the BJP.

I will contest from Nandigram. This is my lucky place she said while addressing a public meeting in the town.

It may be recalled that it was Mamata's campaign for the farmers that had propelled her to victory in the 2012 elections. The landslide win that year also saw the end of the Communist rule after several decades.

It may be recalled that in 2007, 14 persons were killed in clashes between protesters against an SEZ project in Nandigram that was cleared by the Left government. Following this, in the next election the

Trinamool Congress began the Ma Maati Manush campaign.

The decision by Mamata to contest from Nandigram is a clear message to Suvendu Adhikari, due to whom there was an exodus from the TMC to the BJP. In Nandigram, Adhikari had played an important role for the party's narrative.

Then a close aide of Mamata, he snatched Nandigram from the Left and made the party almost unbeatable in rural Bengal. Even in the previous elections, he won on a TMC ticket from Nandigram by a huge margin.

If Adhikari decides to contest the elections from Nandigram, it would be an interesting battle between the Chief Minister and her once trusted aide.
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In December, the Limerick Leader reported that Paddy, the West Highland terrier, was looking to make his way from London to Crecora and he needed your help. (Click here) Well, we asked and you answered. Paddy has arrived safely in Limerick and is loving life on Shannonside.

Tom Kerbey and his wife Jan passed away in 2020, leaving Paddy without an owner. Tom had always asked that should anything happen to him, that his dog would be taken care of. That task then fell to Robert Kerbey, brother to Tom, from Crecora.

Because of Covid lockdowns in the UK before Christmas, original travel plans for Paddy had to put on hold, then with Brexit kicking in on January 1 the Kerbey family had to arrange for an Animal Health Certificate as well as a passport for their new four legged family member.

The Kerbey family have confirmed this week that Paddy, by land, sea and road, has arrived to Crecora, thanks to the help and willingness of Limerick people.

"I am extremely grateful to the people mentioned below and to the Limerick Leader for firstly kick starting things" Robert Kerbey admitted.

"Thanks to Pat Carroll who put it up on social media, Shona OCurry from Ballysimon and her boyfriend Daniel (who had agreed to bring Paddy from London to Limerick before Christmas) Elaine and Chris who looked after Paddy in England (while all the arrangements were being put in place) and Dick Lyons the Limerick vet living in England who arranged all of the paper work" Robert continued.

"The year 2020 has been tough on us all, but with stories like these, we can see that humanity and community spirit are alive and well, while also remembering that there are Limerick people everywhere across the World" added Donn O'Sullivan, Managing Editor of the Limerick Leader.

(CNN)  Mass public vaccination programs using a Chinese coronavirus vaccine are underway across Indonesia and Turkey, where tens of millions of people are expected to receive doses of the CoronaVac shot made by Beijing-based company Sinovac.

On Wednesday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo was shown receiving the country's first CoronaVac shot, after the government authorized it for emergency use. While on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he had also received the vaccine.

But the rollouts come despite a growing number of questions over the effectiveness of the shot, which last week was revealed to have an efficacy rate of just 50.38% in late-stage trials in Brazil -- significantly lower than earlier results showed. That rate only barely crosses the 50% efficacy threshold as set by the World Health Organization, and far lower than the 78% previously announced to much fanfare in China earlier this month.

The apparent discrepancy has led to concern among some scientists, and shaken international confidence in Chinese-made vaccines.

"Since many countries are planning to order, or have already ordered Sinovac's vaccines, it might undermine people's willingness to take them, because people may question the usefulness of the vaccines," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the US based Council on Foreign Relations and expert on the Chinese health care system. "It could be a potential stumbling block."

The Brazilian results suggest CoronaVac is far less effective than vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have an efficacy rate of about 95%. Russia says its Sputnik V vaccine has an efficacy of 91%, while the UK's vaccine, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, has an average efficacy of 70%. The Sinovac vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than its domestic Chinese competitor, developed by the state-owned Sinopharm, which it says has a 79.34% efficacy.

Under review

The Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines have been regarded as potentially affordable and easily distributed vaccine candidates. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Chinese shots do not require expensive cold storage.

Sinovac has agreements in place with at least six governments, with plans in place to provide 46 million doses of its CoronaVac vaccine to Brazil, 50 million doses to Turkey and 7.5 million doses to Hong Kong. It will also supply 40 million doses of vaccine bulk -- the vaccine concentrate before it is divided into vials -- to Indonesia for local production.

Thailand has ordered 2 million doses of CoronaVac and expects to receive the first 200,000 doses in February, while the Philippines has ordered 25 million doses, of which the first batch is also expected to arrive next month, according to Reuters.

However, following the release of the Brazilian trial data, Singapore's Health Minister said officials would review Sinovac's vaccine before any potential rollout to its citizens. Singapore has not approved the vaccine but does have a purchase agreement with the company. Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said the vaccine would need to go through a regulatory process and authorization by Singapore's Health Sciences Authority, according to the Straits Times.

Malaysia also said it would seek more data from Sinovac before it approved and purchased supplies, Reuters reported -- while in Hong Kong, which has signed a deal with Sinovac, a senior medical adviser said an expert panel would review every vaccine based on clinical trial data, with a recommendation to come this week.

Even though Brazil's health agency regulator, Anvisa, voted to approve emergency use authorization of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine on Sunday, it said it did not have access to important data about the vaccine on the Phase 3 study, such as the duration of protection provided by the vaccine and its effect on the elderly and other specific groups, such as people with comorbidities.

Brazil's national vaccination program is set to begin on January 20, according to the health ministry.

And while governments in Thailand and the Philippines have so far publicly backed the Sinovac shot, politicians in both countries have questioned their government's vaccine preferences. In response to the concerns, Thai regulators have asked Sinovac to provide more detailed information on the clinical trials.

On Wednesday, Sinovac defended the safety and efficacy of its vaccine. "These Phase III clinical trial results are sufficient to prove that CoronaVac vaccine's safety and effectiveness are good around the world," company chairperson, Yin Weidong, said in a news conference, according to Reuters.

Different efficacy rates

Part of the confusion over Sinovac's vaccine has been around different efficacy rates and the data made available.

Turkey, which approved the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, reported an efficacy of 91.25%, while Indonesia reported 65.3%.

Data from Brazil, meanwhile, showed 50.38% efficacy for those who suffered very mild cases of Covid-19. But the rate rose to 78% for mild to severe cases.

"It is difficult to interpret all this information without seeing the full datasets. This highlights the problem of issuing data by press release rather than publication in a peer-reviewed journal," Prof. Lawrence Young, virologist and Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Warwick, said in a statement. "It also emphasizes the different approaches to requirements for regulatory approval."

There are several reasons why one trial could produce a different efficacy rate from another, including how they were conducted, or that the vaccine could be more or less effective in different age groups, or different population groups, experts say.

A Sinovac representative told CNN that the discrepancy in efficacy results was due to the different situations in countries where clinical trials were carried out.

"The results are from different populations, in different places with different morbidity rates, and therefore they span a relatively large range," the representative said.

But amid the vast amounts of new vaccine information coming out on a daily basis, analysts say there is a risk people could get confused and lose trust.

"There is a danger when people misunderstand the science," said Dr. Nikki Turner, director of the immunization advisory center at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. "There is a really important point here about trying to effectively communicate the science behind these vaccines. Especially when things are moving very fast."

And efficacy might not necessarily mean how effective the vaccine turns out to be. "Once the vaccine moves from clinical trials into the community, you need to think broadly about all the different aspects of what makes a vaccine work," Turner said.

"Some vaccines may be more effective against reducing the disease, some vaccines may be more effective in reducing transmission, so it depends what your aim is."

Going where it's most needed

The concern about one country relying on a single vaccine with a lower efficacy rate is that it may not necessarily build up the required herd immunity in a population.

That debate played out in Australia this week, with some scientists proposing a delay in mass inoculations.

Australia has secured 54 million doses of the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine, with plans to begin rolling it out later this year. However, some scientists -- including the president of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology -- have argued that the vaccine won't provide herd immunity and rollout plans should be halted, citing its low efficacy rate compared to US-made vaccines.

Australia's chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, tried to alleviate such concerns, saying "AstraZeneca is, on the evidence we have so far, a safe and effective vaccine," adding that more data is set to come.

Experts have said that while scientific discussion of new data being made available is a good thing, it shouldn't detract from the fact that all vaccines that have been approved in countries around the world have been shown to be safe and effective at stopping death and serious disease.

Australia has recorded fewer than 30,000 Covid-19 cases and under 1,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Several other nations in the Asia-Pacific region which have had similar success in controlling the pandemic have purchase agreements for vaccines but appear to be waiting for more data and to see what happens during the mass vaccine rollouts in harder-hit nations, before inoculating their own citizens.

New Zealand has been hailed as a global model for how it handled the outbreak -- it hasn't had a locally transmitted case since November 18. No vaccine has been approved in the country, though it has struck deals with several vaccine developers for access to their candidates once local regulators give the green light.

Turner, from the University of Auckland, believes waiting and assessing new data on vaccine safety and effectiveness will mean the population will be able to have greater confidence in the vaccines.

"You have communities around the world that are nervous about new vaccines, new vaccine technology. Are they safe? Are they effective? So if we do not have to rush emergency decisions with preliminary data, then we are in a good position to wait a few more months and get more complete data on the effectiveness and the safety of these vaccines," she said.

Waiting too long, however, could risk another outbreak -- particularly given new, potentially more transmissible variants.

"This is a balancing act between getting vaccines into the country to get the economy (on track), and to try and prevent the disease entering our country, versus rushing ahead and losing community confidence," Turner said.

Jamie Triccas, professor of medical microbiology at the University of Sydney's school of medical sciences, said that with the pandemic still raging, multiple vaccines from several suppliers must be considered -- and it was important to use them all.

"The main thing is we want to stop deaths, that's the first thing you want. If you vaccinate as many as you can, you know the vaccine may not stop all people from getting infected but those are good at stopping serious infections, hospitalizations and death," he said.

"Time is not on our side. We're in a situation where we're having more deaths and cases per day than ever. It's time to cooperate and move all vaccines out as quickly as possible, as long as they're safe and have a level of efficacy that's agreed on as being effective."

This story was first published on CNN.com.
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Christian leaders and celebrities falling from grace never becomes less difficult to accept, even as it becomes seemingly more common. In the past 12 months alone, we have learned unpleasant truths about former Hillsong leader Carl Lentz and legendary apologist Ravi Zacharias to name a few of the imperfect Christians in the limelight. Some would even say that the past four years under President Trump have revealed anew how God can use imperfect Believers.

Still, as a former faith skeptic who once, I am ashamed to say, reveled when fallen Christians faced public demise, I am all too familiar with how eager the world is to point to the mistakes of Believers as proof that our faith is null and our God is void.

It wasnt until becoming a Christian myself that I realized one of the reasons we dont fixate on other Christians shortcomings perhaps as much as nonbelievers is because we expect imperfection. We understand that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In the spirit of doing unto others as we would have them to do us, we tend to have more grace, because we hope for the same when we fail.

But even as a Believer, it is sometimes easy to slip into the mindset that sins are on a sliding scale. Its comforting to count our small sins of lying or sinning in anger as incomparable to say, theft or sexual misconduct. Its tempting to discount everything fallen men and women of the faith ever said when we are disappointed by them.

But herein lies the Truth. God uses imperfect people to talk about how the perfect God has transformed our lives. Even, and perhaps especially, those who have committed the sins we would consider big. I think about King David, an adulterer, Paul, a murderer, and Peter, a liar, who all fell incredibly short of Christs example, yet continued to repent and try nonetheless. Regardless of the messenger, the message is still the same, and we all have a duty to verify that the people who speak the message are sharing the Truth from the Bible.

There are numerous men and women from the hall of faith known to be flawed to whom I will continue to listen and verify if their messages are Truth based. And as long as what they have to say is biblical and of Gods Word, I will continue to listen to them and learn from their wisdom.

To discount the Truth by looking at the vessel with whom the Truth is presented would be akin to ignoring a doctors orders for my health because he practices an unhealthy lifestyle.

Because I follow Jesus, and not Ravi, President Trump, King David or any other imperfect leader, I can learn from their examples and wisdom, noting what God was able to speak through them despite their imperfections. Any individual who can help me follow Jesus more closely is someone from whom I am excited to learn.

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Global Fracking Chemicals Market is anticipated to reach over USD 65 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the horizontal well segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.

A significant growth in urbanization, population increase, and industrialization along with government initiatives and funding is expected to support the growth of fracking chemicals market. Other driving factors include growing demand for natural gas as a fuel and favorable regulatory policies. Increasing demand from developing nations, development of environment-friendly fracking chemicals, and technological advancements are expected provide numerous growth opportunities to fracking chemicals market players during the forecast period.

Get sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fracking-chemicals-market/request-for-sample

North America generated the highest revenue in the fracking chemicals market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The high economic growth in the region, growth in drilling and exploration industries, and growing energy demand are factors expected to drive the fracking chemicals market growth. Increasing disposable incomes, growing urbanization, and increasing industrialization in countries of North America are further expected to support fracking chemicals market growth. Rising shale gas explorations, and rising demand for natural gas as fuel in the region are expected to further provide growth opportunities during the forecast period.

The key players operating in the fracking chemicals market include Halliburton Co., E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co., BASF SE, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, Baker Hughes Incorporated, The DOW Chemical Company, Calfrac Well Services Ltd., Albermarle Corporation, Akzo Nobel N.V., and Schlumberger Ltd. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fracking-chemicals-market

Fracking Chemicals Market Size and Forecast by Well Type, 2018-2026

Horizontal Wells Vertical Wells



Fracking Chemicals Market Size and Forecast by Function, 2018-2026

Gelling Agent Friction Reducer Clay Control Agent Cross-Linkers Corrosion Inhibitor Surfactant PH Adjusting Agent Others



Fracking Chemicals Market Size and Forecast by Fluid Type, 2018-2026

Foam-Based Fluids Water-Based Fluids Oil-Based Fluids Others



Fracking Chemicals Market Size and Forecast by Region, 2018-2026

North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/fracking-chemicals-market/request-for-discount-pricing

About Polaris Market Research

Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities.

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(Natural News) Circuit Court Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer has once again overruled the wishes of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by ordering the release of a large volume of 2020 election data, which plaintiffs in a lawsuit claim is fraudulent.

Judge Elsehnehimer had previously granted permission to William Bailey, the lead plaintiff, along with his team of IT experts to conduct a full forensic analysis of every Dominion Voting Systems machine and associated piece of equipment that was used in Antrim County, Mich., to run the 2020 election.

One of Baileys concerns is a ballot initiative to allow the establishment of a cannabis retail store in the Village of Central Lake that passed by single vote. Since some conservatives still inexplicably side with police state prohibition of a plant rather than constitutional individual liberty to freely possess and use what God provides in nature, Bailey and others deemed the initiatives passage as fraudulent.

There were also a few thousand votes that were switched from President Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the county, which despite having been later corrected remains a point of contention among those trying to prove that the state of Michigans Electoral College votes rightfully belong to Trump.

Court documents provided by constitutional attorney Matthew DePerno reveal that Sec. Benson has been ordered to supply him with certain 2020 election data no later than Feb. 2, 2021. This includes all correspondences, communications and documents between Benson and Antrim County, the Michigan House of Representatives, the Michigan Senate, the federal government, the United States House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, Dominion, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook.

Yesterday in Antrim county, Judge Elsenheimer largely overruled SoS Bensons objections to discovery and ordered her and her office to produce large amounts of information regarding the 2020 elections, DePerno tweeted about the development.

Michigans state-run media ignored this part of the hearing but instead declared victory for Dana Nessel, a second tweet added. Having now reached out to several reporters, I have learned that the document production issue was not deemed news-worthy (i.e. must be hidden from public view).

Democrats do not have a corner on tyranny; many Republicans are just as bad

DePernos tweet series went on to talk about government that prohibits and restricts opposition and exercises a high degree of control over public / private life as not being acceptable, insinuating that prohibitionist Republicans somehow embody the opposite of this type of tyranny.

Political power is held by autocrats who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled media, he added, again appearing to refer specifically to Democrats.

While this writer certainly supports uncovering and rectifying all instances of voter fraud, it is disingenuous to claim that only Democrats embrace totalitarian approaches to governance.

Consider, as one prominent example, the fact that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a supposedly constitutional Republican who supports individual liberty, is wasting taxpayer money on a lawsuit that seeks to strike down a voter-approved cannabis legalization initiative that was overwhelmingly passed in her state.

Legalization opponents have shown time and time again that they cannot succeed in either the court of public opinion or at the ballot box, responded NORML State Policies Coordinator Carly Wolf to Noems efforts to undo the will of We the People.

Thus, they are now asking judges to set aside the votes of over a million Americans in a desperate effort to override undisputed election outcomes. Whether or not one supports marijuana legalization, Americans should be outraged at these overtly undemocratic tactics.

As for Michigan, if it can be proven that votes in Antrim County were, in fact, fraudulent, then indeed those need to be removed. But let us not pretend even for a moment that tyranny is an exclusively Democratic problem, because it certainly is not.

Sources for this article include:

100percentfedup.com

NaturalNews.com

NORML.org
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Slovenia: vote of no confidence in Jansa government on Wed. All MPs will be tested for coronavirus

(ANSAmed) - LJUBLJANA, JANUARY 18 - The Slovenian parliament will vote on Wednesday a constructive motion of no confidence proposed by the opposition against the government of conservative Premier Janez Jansa. But before the secret vote all lawmakers will need to test negative for coronavirus. Parliament Speaker Igor Zori has informed that the vote has been planned for two days, despite the fact that an MP, the Social Democrat Matja Han, tested positive. A potential postponement, he observed, would not prevent new cases, saying that it was necessary to test MPs voting on Wednesday. On Friday, the website 24ur.com said secret services director, Janez Stuek, had tested positive for Covid after attending that day a session of the parliamentary commission overseeing intelligence services and security (Knovs). The nine commission members included four opposition lawmakers. There is fear that Stuek could have infected other participants whose presence is now requested for the vote. Meanwhile the executive council of the pensioners' party (DeSUS) has proposed to vote a motion of no confidence and to formally adhere to the Coalition of the constitutional arch (Kul), joining the List Marjan Sarec, Socialdemocrats (SD), the left (Levica) and the party of Alenka Bratusek (SAB). (ANSAmed).




Bengaluru: Protests erupted in parts of Karnataka on Monday including in the district headquarters city of Belagavi on Monday in a strong condemnation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's statement on the sensitive border issue.

Political leaders cutting across party lines came down heavily on Thackeray.

"There is no question of giving even an inch of land from Karnataka to Maharashtra. He should give up issuing statements just for political reasons," Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa told reporters on Monday.

"I am pained at Maharashtra Chief Ministers remarks that can disturb the prevailing harmonious atmosphere. I expect Shri Uddhav Thackeray, as a true Indian, to show his commitment and respect to the principles of federalism in letter and spirit," Yediyurappa said in a tweet.

Thackeray said on Sunday his government is committed towards incorporating into the state the areas of Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority.

This will be the "true tribute" to martyrs of the cause, the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) said in a tweet.

Maharashtra claims Belagavi (earlier called as Belgaum) and some other areas, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently in Karnataka, on linguistic grounds.

Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, a regional organisation fighting for the merger of Belagavi and some other border areas with Maharashtra, observes January 17 as the 'martyrs day' for those who laid down their lives for the cause in 1956.

"Bringing Karnataka-occupied Marathi-speaking and cultural areas in Maharashtra will be the true tribute to those who accepted martyrdom in the boundary battle. We are united and committed towards it.Respects to the martyrs with this promise," the CMO tweeted.

Maharashtra claims certain areas, including Belagavi, Karwar and Nippani which are part of Karnataka, contending that the majority of population in these areas is Marathi-speaking.

On Monday, pro-Kannada organisations held demonstrations and burnt Thackeray's effigy in parts of the State.

A few pro-Marathi activists led by local units of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti had organised the 'Martyrs Day' in Belagavi on Sunday.

They demanded the merger of Belagavi, Karwar, Nippani, Bidar and Bhalki with Maharashtra.

Thackeray's statement came on a day when Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Yediyurappa along with his cabinet colleagues and BJP legislators were present in Belagavi bordering Maharashtra to commemorate the victory of BJP backed village panchayat members in the recent elections.

Yediyurappa added on Monday that the Marathi people have been living in harmony with Kannadigas in Karnataka.

Likewise, Kannadigas living in the border districts of Maharashtra are living in harmony with the Marathi people there.

The Karnataka Chief Minister condemned Thackeray's comments saying it can disrupt the peace and harmony among people.

Hitting out at Thackeray, former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah tweeted, "Belagavi is an integral part of Karnataka. Don't try to instigate us by bringing up the issue which is already resolved."

Cautioning Thackeray not to politicise the issue which is already decided, Siddaramaiah reminded him that he is not just a Shiv Sena activist but also a responsible Chief Minister of a state.

Lashing out at Thackeray, JDS leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said, "Looking at his tweets, it appears like a statement issued by a terrorist."

In his tweets, Kumaraswamy likened Thackeray's statement with Chinese expansionism.

"Uddhav Thackeray's irresponsible statement that 'Karnataka occupied territories will be annexed to Maharashtra' sounds like Chinese expansionism. Such an expansionism will jeopardise the harmony among states formed on the linguistic ground," Kumaraswamy said in a statement.

Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and several others condemned Thackeray's statement.

Live TV





Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris on Monday paid a farewell courtesy call on Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and expressed his wish to play a role in advancing the bilateral alliance between Seoul and Washington.





Harris, a former Navy admiral-turned-diplomat, also expressed his wish that the friendship between the two countries further develop in a wide range of areas, including politics, the economy and public health, according to the prime minister's office.





The ambassador recalled Seoul's donation of COVID-19 masks to U.S. Korean War veterans last year, part of a national commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the inter-Korean conflict, as a special memory from his tenure, Chung's office said.





Chung lauded Harris for working actively to promote the alliance during the past two and a half years and asked for the envoy's sustained interest in the advancement of the alliance even after his departure.





Earlier in the day, Harris also paid a farewell call on National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug.





Harris, who took office in July 2018, will stay in the ambassadorial post until Wednesday, and Rob Rapson, the deputy chief of mission, will serve as Charge d'Affaires ad interim until a new envoy arrives, according to the U.S. embassy in Seoul. (Yonhap)


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WASHINGTON - One of Joe Biden's first actions once he becomes U.S. president Wednesday will be to slam the door yet again on Canada's politically fraught Keystone XL pipeline expansion, transition documents suggest.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theatre, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. Transition documents suggest president-elect Joe Biden plans to block the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in the White House. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Matt Slocum

WASHINGTON - One of Joe Biden's first actions once he becomes U.S. president Wednesday will be to slam the door yet again on Canada's politically fraught Keystone XL pipeline expansion, transition documents suggest.

The documents, seen by The Canadian Press, feature a to-do list for inauguration day that includes signing an executive order to rescind the Keystone XL construction permit granted in 2019 by predecessor Donald Trump.

They also suggest that despite its best efforts, Canada has failed to convince the incoming administration of the virtues of importing fossil-fuel energy from a friendly ally and trading partner with similar climate change goals.

"Roll back Trump enviro actions via EO (including rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit)," the document reads.

Other entries under the "Climate" heading include, "Rejoin the Paris Agreement" and "Announce date for U.S.-hosted Leaders' Climate Summit."

Campaign officials promised in May that if elected, Biden would cancel the $8-billion US cross-border project, but neither the timeline nor the extent of Biden's own commitment to the promise was clear until now.

The controversial, on-again, off-again pipeline expansion, owned by Calgary-based TC Energy, would ferry up to 830,000 additional barrels a day of diluted bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Government officials quietly refused to rule out the possibility that there might still be time to change the Biden administration's mind.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., has argued for months that the project is not the same one President Barack Obama rejected in 2015  an argument she reiterated in a statement Sunday.

"Not only has the project itself changed significantly since it was first proposed, but Canadas oilsands production has also changed significantly," Hillman said.

"Per-barrel oilsands (greenhouse gas) emissions have dropped 31 per cent since 2000, and innovation will continue to drive progress."

The federal Liberal government has also beefed up its climate plan in an effort to exceed the current target for cutting greenhouse gases by 2030, and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, she added.

Ever since May, Canadian officials have been advocating for a cross-border discussion on climate and energy that would make room for both building the project and reducing emissions at the same time.

"Keystone XL fits within Canadas climate plan," Hillman said, adding that it promises good union jobs in both countries "at a time when our economic recovery is a top priority."

"Underpinned by a crucial and long-standing trade and security partnership, there is no better partner for the U.S. on climate action than Canada as we work together for green transition."

Where Ottawa was clinging to hope, however, Alberta appeared to be girding for a fight.

"We renew our call on the incoming administration to show respect for Canada as the United States' most important trading partner and strategic ally," Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.

Cancelling the project would "kill jobs" in both countries, "weaken" cross-border ties and "undermine U.S. national security" by making the country more dependent than ever on oil imports from OPEC countries, he said.

"Should the incoming U.S. administration abrogate the Keystone XL permit, Alberta will work with TC Energy to use all legal avenues available to protect its interest in the project."

Biden campaign officials did not immediately respond to media queries Sunday.

TC Energy, however, confirmed an ambitious plan to spend $1.7 billion US on a solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline to ensure it is zero-emission by 2030, and to rely exclusively on union labour  all of it clearly aimed at winning Biden's favour.

"Since it was initially proposed more than 10 years ago, the Keystone XL project has evolved with the needs of North America, our communities and the environment," project president Richard Prior said in a release.

"We are confident that Keystone XL is not only the safest and most reliable method to transport oil to markets, but the initiatives announced today also ensure it will have the lowest environmental impact of an oil pipeline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions."

Federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole echoed Kenney's concerns, describing the U.S. decision as counter to economic recovery efforts and urging Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit down at the earliest opportunity.

"I call on the prime minister to immediately reach out to the incoming U.S. administration to stop this from happening and stand up for working Canadians across Canada," O'Toole said.

"I also call upon the incoming U.S. administration to meet with our prime minister and affected workers prior to making this decision."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe echoed the call for a meeting between Biden and Trudeau, saying the project is "critical to North American energy security."

"While I am urging the prime minister to leverage his relationship with Mr. Biden, Saskatchewan will continue exercising our contacts in Washington D.C. to advocate for the continuation of this project that clearly benefits both of our nations," he said.

Some 200 kilometres of pipe have already been installed for the expansion, including across the Canada-U. S. border, and construction has begun on pump stations in Alberta and several U.S. states.

Biden was vice-president in 2015 when Obama initially rejected Keystone XL for fear it would worsen climate change. Trump approved it again in 2019.

The Biden campaign team appeared to slam the door on the expansion in May with an unequivocal statement committing the president-elect to "proudly" sign an order that would "stop it for good."

But observers and experts alike continued to hold out hope, even after Biden named John Kerry  the climate hawk who as secretary of state recommended that Obama reject the permit  as a special presidential envoy on climate change.

The news drew praise, however, from Biden's former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"The Keystone pipeline is & always has been a disaster," he said on Twitter. "With all of the major crises facing America, we must never lose sight of the most existential threat facing our planet: climate change."

Environmental groups also cheered Biden's decision and encouraged federal leaders in Canada to follow suit.

"Its time for Canadian politicians to stop beating this dead horse and get on with building a clean energy future," said Keith Stewart, Greenpeace Canada's senior energy strategist.

"The Biden administration offers us a fresh start on addressing the climate crisis with a willing partner, so lets not blow it by pushing pipelines."

This report from The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2021.
L abour MP Apsana Begum will stand trial in July over housing fraud allegations after a judge prioritised her trial in the public interest.

The 30-year-old politician is accused of concealing the true state of her living conditions when she was handed an east London social housing council flat.

The MP for Poplar and Limehouse is accused of fraud between January 2013 and March 2016, in a prosecution brought by Tower Hamlets council.

At a hearing at Snaresbrook crown court this morning, Judge Martyn Zeidman QC set down the case for a four-day trial to start on July 21.

He said some cases, including those involving sensitive sexual allegations and where defendants are in custody, are currently being prioritised during the pandemic, when the number of jury trials being held is limited.

Due to backlogs in the system, some non-priority trials are now being listed in 2022, with others expected to eventually reach court in 2023.

Judge Zeidman concluded in Begums case: Im inclined to say this case should be given a degree of priority because theres a public interest in these issues being resolved as quickly as possible.

Begum, who was elected to Parliament in December 2019, was not present at Mondays hearing, with lawyers addressing the judge over a videolink.

Her barrister, Judy Khan QC, confirmed Begum will enter not guilty pleas to all charges.

The MP said in a statement last month: I am vigorously contesting these charges. The ongoing legal proceedings mean that I cannot and will not be making any further public comment during this process. I want to thank my lawyers and supporters at this difficult time."

It is said she caused more than 63,000 of loss to the council when she was given the one-bedroom flat on the Isle of Dogs, allegedly failing to disclose key information to the housing authorities.

The Shadwell-born MP appeared at Westminster magistrates court last month to indicate her pleas, and is on unconditional bail until the trial.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : China is undertaking construction work along the border areas, the Indian government said on Monday while categorically stressing that all developments having a bearing on India's security are being closely watched.

Acknowledging the reports of construction by the Chinese along the Arunachal Pradesh border, the Ministry of External Affairs said "We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India." The reports stated that China has constructed a new village near the border with Arunachal Pradesh. The village is said to be located on the banks of the Tsari Chu river -- a place long disputed by India and China.

The MEA said that they are taking all the necessary measures to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years. In response, our government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc which has provided much needed connectivity to the local population along the border," the ministry said.

The government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh, the ministry said.

"The government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the ministry stressed.

Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on January 15 had stated the forces are maintaining a high level of operational readiness to deal with all eventualities along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control, from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

India and China are engaged in a nine-month-long standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. Despite several levels of dialogue, there has not been any breakthrough and the deadlock continues.
Her extensive experience, accomplishments, and knowledge of Connecticut make her a perfect fit to drive their growth efforts in this marketplace. We have aggressive goals for this company and I believe she is the right person leading the charge.

The McIntyre Group, a Connecticut-based staffing and recruitment firm and member of the TalentLaunch Network, recently added Michelle DAmato as President. In this role, Michelle will be responsible for the growth and overall performance of this professional staffing company within Connecticut and New York.

Prior to joining The McIntyre Group, Michelle was most recently Managing Partner for PRI Technology in West Hartford, Connecticut. Michelle started her staffing career running a full desk specializing in IT. For over 20 years, she has held a variety of sales and recruiter roles within staffing firms resulting in numerous awards, including winning #1 regional branch as well as receiving multiple regional sales awards. Michelle also built a staffing firm inside of a managed service provider (MSP).

Her passion lies in building strong relationships and empowering her teams to reach their goals and the opportunity to change peoples lives daily! Michelle is married to her husband, Pasquale, and has two children Amanda, age 29, who lives in Connecticut and Brianna, age 25, who lives in Washington D.C.

I am thrilled to have someone of Michelles caliber to join as President of The McIntyre Group, said Doug Dandurand, President of TalentLaunch. Her extensive experience, accomplishments, and knowledge of Connecticut make her a perfect fit to drive their growth efforts in this marketplace. We have aggressive goals for this company and I believe she is the right person leading the charge.

About The McIntyre Group

The McIntyre Group is a staffing and recruitment firm headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut. We are trusted advisors and matchmakers who are well-versed in helping talented individuals reach the next level in their careers. We also assist discerning companies in attaining their goals, allowing them to feel confident that they have the right people in place to achieve more. If you would like to learn more, please visit our website at https://themcintyregroup.com/.

About TalentLaunch

TalentLaunch is a nationwide network of independently-operated staffing and recruitment firms under common ownership. Our firms have deep roots in their communities and are focused on meeting companies talent demands by leveraging best-in-class tools & resources to elevate the overall experience. We are committed to a common purpose  inspiring the world to realize its potential. For more information, visit http://www.mytalentlaunch.com.

The mob that rampaged through the Capitol on 6 January wanted to kill vice president Mike Pence and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Democratic Congressman, Jamie Raskin, as he elaborated on the level of the threat faced by lawmakers during the siege.

The rioters came within a hairs breadth of hanging vice president Pence, Mr Raskin told CNN. I mean, the words are still ringing in the ears of the members  hang Mike Pence."

There was an assassination party hunting for Nancy Pelosi, he said, as he emphasised on why the impeachment of outgoing president Donald Trump was not at the level of a normal partisan push and pull." This was an attack on our country."

The Congressman who is going to lead the prosecution of Mr Trump, also spoke about the death of his 25-year-old son. I am not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country in 2021," Mr Raskin told host, Jake Tapper. Mr Raskins son, Tommy, died by suicide after battling depression for years on New Years Eve.

The Democrat slammed the outgoing president for the armed insurrection on the Capitol building and said, this was the most terrible crime, ever by a president of the United States against our country and I want everybody to feel the gravity and solemnity of those events.

I dont think anybody would seriously argue that we should establish the precedent where every president on the way out the door has two weeks or three weeks or four weeks to try to incite an armed insurrection against the Union or organise a coup against the Union. And if it succeeds, he becomes a dictator and if it fails, he is not a subject to impeachment or conviction because we just wanna let bygones be bygones, he said.

He also put the responsibility for the riots squarely on the shoulders of Mr Trump as he quoted Congresswoman Liz Cheney and said, She thinks Donald Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob. He lit the match that led to violent insurrection."

None of it would have happened without him. Everything is due to his actions. And this was the most sweeping betrayal. The most terrible betrayal of Presidential oath and office in the history of the United States," Mr Raskin said.
Huntington, WV (25701)

Today

Thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 74F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 53F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
With a native Bay Arean (and a woman to boot!) at the podium this week, you can bet our region is throwing a partylots of partiesto celebrate the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Raise a glass at home with a whole host of virtual events, creative drink specials, and festive eats around the Bay Area. Cheers, America.





Order Home of Chicken and Waffles' new special, The Kamala. The Jack London Square spot, owned by Harris' cousin, is the honoring VP-Elect with a collard greens chicken lasagna, served with salad, a drink, and dessert. One dollar of every special sold benefits the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center. // Order through Monday at homeofchickenandwaffles.com.





Watch "Oakland Salutes," the Oakland Symphony's commemorative virtual Inauguration Ball. Held in honor of Oakland native Kamala Harris, the show includes performances by a variety of local artists including Oakland Symphony Chorus, Jazz Mafia, jazz vocalist Tiffany Austin, and Ashley Thopiah of Oakland Ballet Company, plus an appearance from Mayor Libby Schaaf; on demand. // Watch for free on youtube.com.





Join the Bay Area's own Tom Hanks for "Celebrating America," a 90-minute TV special that will showcase Americans' resilience and shared commitment to healing. Expect performances by Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, Ant Clemons, and Jon Bon Jovi; Wednesday at 5:30pm. // Broadcast on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and MSNBC or stream live.





Grab a scoop or a pint of Smitten's MVP ice creaminspired by our first Madam Vice President. Beneath the lid, featuring an illustration of Kamala Harris of course, you'll find a scrumptious malted salted vanilla ice cream with pecan pralines. A portion of MVP sales will help Five Keys Home Free provide transitional housing for criminalized survivors of domestic violence. // Pickup in Smitten shops or order online for shipping at smittenicecream.com.

Kamala reportedly likes to start her day with a cup of tea with honey and cornbread muffins. Order Local Food Adventures' Inauguration Breakfast Box stuffed with Everett & Jones Barbecue's corn bread, Papillon loose leaf tea, wildflower honey from Oakland Honey Company, and garam masala spice blend from Oaktown Spice Shop. The basket also includes a free coupon redeemable at Home of Chicken & Waffles. Purchase grants you access to a live inauguration watch party with trivia at 8am. Donations will be made to the PTA at Harris' own elementary school, Thousand Oaks Elementary. // Purchase ($49) on localfoodadventures.com.







Watch the Swearing-in Ceremony. While the inauguration will have very limited attendanceand be followed by a virtual paradeit will still feature Lady Gaga singing the national anthem, a musical performance at the Capitol by Jennifer Lopez, a poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, and more; Wednesday morning. // Details on bideninaugural.org





Tune in to Manny's Virtual Inauguration Watch Party. Dress in your patriotic bestand maybe even pour yourself a celebratory morning glass of Champagnethen log online for a pre-show discussion with a local political expert, live coverage and commentary of the swearing-in and inaugural address, and the chance to share the moment; Wednesday at 8:30am PST. // Register (donation-based) on welcometomannys.com.





Stroll by San Francisco City Hall to see the building's facade illuminated in red, white, and blue, Wednesday at sunset. // Details on sfgov.org

Pick up drinks at Horsefeather. In honor of Inauguration Day, the Divisadero spot is offering up two aptly named drink specials this week. Opt for the "Adios, Pendejo" with peaflower-infused Illegal mescal, rum, banana, ancho chili liqueur, curacao, and lime; or the "Georgia on my Mind" with Maker's Mark Rc6, cinnamon, caramelized peach compote, maple, smoked salt, and lemon. While supplies last, you'll even get a "Donald eres un pendejo" T-shirt with your drink purchase. // Details on Instagram







Nosh on gumbo, one of Harris's favorite foods. Just for Inauguration Day, Oakland chef Robert Dorseywho happened to have the same first grade teacher, Mrs. Frances Wilson, as Kamala Harris at Thousand Oaks Elementary Schoolis offering a special multi-course takeout dinner with crab cakes, shrimp and sausage gumbo, and banana raisin bread pudding; order for Tuesday pickup. // Details ($46 per person) on chefrobertdorsey.com





Watch the 2021 Inaugural Gospel Celebration. Through performances by gospel artists including Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, and Tasha Cobb, plus appearances by Hollywood stars Taraji P. Henson and Morris Chestnut, the two-hour virtual event hosted by Anthony Anderson of "Blackish" will celebrate an upcoming period of unity and healing; Wednesday at 5pm. // Tickets ($20) are available at the2021igc.org.

Order a copy of Ambitious Girl by Meena Harris. Harris' book, based on the true story about her mother and aunt Kamala, addresses the challenges faced by women and girls; available beginning Tuesday. // Order ($19) at indiebound.org.







Gear up for a brighter future with Inauguration Day specials courtesy of Che Fico. Dive a piping hot cheese pizza accompanied by your choice of Temescal Fluffy lager or Fort Point Sfizio, perfect for toasting to the new presidencyor opt for a cheese and cured meat board, pickup between 4 and 5:30pm PST on Wednesday. // Order in advance on exploretock.com





Have a toast to Biden and Harris with Rythmix and Fireside Lounge. The bartenders will teach you how to make "Kamala the Fierce," with Jamaican dark rum, chai syrup, orgeat, lime juice, cinnamon, and star anise or a "Go Easy on Me Kid," an ice tea inspired all-American drink with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Coca Cola, honey syrup, and lemon juice. After, get grooving to beats courtesy of DJ SamoaBoy. Plus, test your knowledge during a round of inauguration trivia with host Sean Kealy; Wednesday at 7pm. // Register for free on rhythmix.org, purchase cocktail kits ($56) for pickup on the-fireside-lounge.square.site.

Watch When We Gather. Inspired by the unprecedented inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris, this multifaceted art project includes a three-minute film directed by Codie Elaine Oliver with choreography by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Okwui Okpokwasili, and LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs. Knotted blue fabric serves as a symbol for connection between When We Gather performers, while circular movements represent healing, unity, and potential. Additionally, attend When We Gather: Together, an hour-long online production that includes conversations, diverse artistic interpretive performances, and interviews; Wednesday at 4pm. // Stream on whenwegather.art.





Let your hair down during Cat Club's liberating virtual dance party in celebration of the 46th President. DJ Damon will keep the music going for four hours straight; 1pm to 5pm Wednesday. // Event is free; find details on Facebook.





Sing in "The End of an Error" with an Art Boutiki Folk and Americana virtual show featuring performances by Cap, Stefan Frazier, AJ Lee, Andy Karn, and Brad Sanzenbacher; Wednesday at 8:30pm. // Register for free on gopassage.com.
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Photo: The Canadian Press Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole holds a press conference on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Dec. 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Anti-abortion groups are furiously organizing ahead of the Conservative party's March policy convention to advance ideas core to their members.

Resolutions they're hoping will be up for votes at the virtual event will test a pledge by leader Erin O'Toole issued Sunday that the party he leads is moderate and pragmatic.

Pitches already in the works include a renewed attempt to delete the party's policy that a Conservative government would not support any legislation to regulate abortion.

That resolution failed by a slim margin in 2018 and insiders say given the heft of the socially conservative wing of the party since the leadership race, the results might be different this time around.

Leaders don't have overt control over what policy resolutions hit the floor, though previous Conservative leaders have been accused of working behind the scenes to keep some ideas off the voting list.

Those allegations saw O'Toole promise during his leadership bid that all ideas would get a chance to be heard and voted on during conventions.
We are very blessed that everyone is OK, East Porter School Corp. Superintendent Aaron Case said in an email. Bus 33 was on its normal morning route picking up students for Washington Township Schools. There were 16 students on the bus. After being checked out by the paramedics the students were taken to school by another bus or released to their parents or guardian.
T his is not the Washington that we know, love and call home. It doesnt feel like a peaceful transfer of power is imminent in a great democracy. Rather, it appears that the city is having a nervous breakdown and that the military has taken over.

The downtown area is sealed off by miles of fencing, hundreds of troops are on patrol, even the bridges that cross the Potomac are closed. It follows the scenes of chaos when the Capitol was stormed by a mob on January 6.

Joe Biden will arrive in Washington later today to see all of this for himself. Although he has spent a lifetime in Americas capital, nothing can prepare him for the security operation that is surrounding him. When insurrectionists erected mock gallows outside Congress, one name was written at the base: Joe Biden. There are reports that the Pentagon fears that a soldier may go rogue and launch an insider attack.

We now know a little more about the opening plan of the Biden- Kamala Harris administration. There will be an immediate flurry of executive orders. The US will rejoin the Paris climate accords, the ban on travel from Muslim countries will be lifted and masks will have to be worn on government property.

But the poison that has characterised these last four years is not over. Donald Trump will face a Senate trial on a single charge of inciting an insurrection. Banned from social media, the trial may be the greatest gift to Trump, allowing him to dominate the agenda and the national conversation in the weeks after he has left the White House. Democrats, even as they take the reins of power, may have fallen into their first trap.
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The tenth round of talks between the government and representatives of protesting farmers on controversial new farm laws was on Monday pushed back by a day to January 20, with the saying both sides want to resolve the stalemate at the earliest but it was getting delayed due to involvement of people of other ideologies.

Asserting that the new farm laws are in the interest of the farming community, the government said obstacles do come whenever good things or measures are taken and it is taking longer to resolve the issue as farmers' leaders want a solution their own way.

"The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed panel to resolve the crisis is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.

The previous rounds of talks between the government and farmers have failed to reach any concrete results, as protesting unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the new laws, but the government has refused to do so.

Speaking to PTI, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said: "It is different when farmers talk to us directly. When leaders get involved, then it becomes difficult. There could have been early solution had the discussions were held with farmers directly."



Since people of different ideologies have entered into the protest, they want a solution in their own way, he said.

"Both sides want a solution, but they have different points of view and hence it is taking more time. But a definite solution will emerge," he noted.

Separately, the told the on Monday that the proposed tractor rally on the Republic Day by protesting farmers is a "law and order" matter and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the capital.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are protesting for nearly two-months at various Delhi borders against the three farm laws enacted by the central government in September 2020.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while addressing a virtual event, reiterated that the three farm laws will be beneficial for farmers.

"These laws were expected earlier but the previous government could not implement because of pressure. It was the Modi government that took a bold step and brought these laws passed in Parliament... Whenever a good thing happens, there are obstacles," Tomar said.

On eve of the tenth round of meeting, a delegation of farmers representing over 270 farmer producer organizations from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Odisha met Rupala and appealed not to repeal the laws.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhury was also present in the meeting.

"We support the new laws. We don't want the government to repeal them," Narendra Tomar of Gwalior-based Chambal Agro FPO said after the meeting.

(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 Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Armed protestors have started to gather in front of four state capitols preceding Wednesdays inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, according to The New York Times.

Since the Capitol breach in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, states around the country have been preparing for the worst in the days leading up to Inauguration Day.

The gatherings on Sunday in Ohio, Texas, Oregon, and Michigan appear to be the start of a long week of anticipated protests.

In Columbus, OH, around 25 members of an extremest movement, known as boogaloo, gathered at the Statehouse, the Times reported.

The men told The New York Times that they were there for a long-planned gun rights rally, claiming it had nothing to do with President Trump.

Several Trump supporters did appear at the Ohio rally, but protests remained peaceful as of Sunday afternoon.

In Texas, protestors started to gather early Sunday morning near the state capitol, which was closed for the protection of its staff, according to the Times.

Armed officers patrolled the capitol grounds and guarded the entrance to the nearby governors mansion.

Several protestors arrived at the Oregon capitol in Salem around 10:30 a.m., the Times reported.

Some men were dressed in military-style clothing and waving flags, including upside-down American flags. They told the Times that they dont support either Trump or Biden, because they always end up losing...

A protestor at the capitol building in Lansing, Michigan told the Times he was not interesting in fighting anyone, but was not going to keep quiet either.

He was joined by a handful of people with military-style weapons on Sunday morning.

Since the initial breach of the U.S. Capitol, at least 19 states have deployed National Guard troops to their capitols in an anticipation of protests surrounding the inauguration, the Times explained.

The F.B.I. has released warnings that white supremacists and ring-wing extremists may target cities across the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 01:58:59|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Sunday 645 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 608,232.

The ministry also reported nine new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,944, and 1,531 more recovered cases, bringing the total recoveries to 569,429.

A total of 5,119,479 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February, with 36,483 done during the day, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Minister of Health Hassan al-Tamimi told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the pandemic is under control in Iraq as the recovery rate has reached 93 percent and the death rate about 2 percent.

Al-Tamimi also denied the reports by some local media about the discovery of the new strain of coronavirus in Iraq, saying "the new strain is characterized by its rapid spread, so if the new strain exists, we would have recorded double numbers of infections," the INA said.

He stressed that some irresponsible local reports aimed at distorting the epidemiological situation in the country and creating panic among people, it added.

"Life in Iraq has returned, and we call on citizens to adhere to health instructions," al-Tamimi said, warning that the Ministry of Health will take all legal measures against those who claim incorrect information about the spread of the new strain of coronavirus, according to INA.

Iraq has taken a series of measures to contain the pandemic since the first coronavirus case appeared in the country.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March 7 to April 26 in 2020, 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.

China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
"Car insurance is mandatory for any driver in the US. However, the minimum liability coverage is not enough in some situations, and the at-fault drivers will have to pay with their own money

Many drivers are wondering if the minimum car insurance is enough to protect them. The majority of them prefer to buy only the minimum required liability coverage. However, in some cases, the liability coverage will not be enough to pay for the costs to repair the damaged property or to treat the injuries of the victims of an at-fault accident. In these types of cases, a driver that caused an at-fault accident can get sued in order to pay from his pockets the costs that are not covered by minimum car insurance.

Before buying car insurance. drivers should consider the following:



In case of an accident, drivers should purchase between $50,000 to $100,000 per person for bodily injury and the same amount for property damage liability, in order to avoid getting into a delicate situation. There are many drivers that don't carry any form of insurance, or their coverage is not enough to pay the costs of a severe accident, so adding uninsured/underinsured coverage should be considered. Drivers should talk with their insurers to find out what will happen to them in the case they will be the victims of an accident and the other party doesn't have enough coverage to pay for the repair costs and medical bills.

Protect the assets. Policyholders that are involved in at-fault car accidents and have policies that won't cover all the costs for the damage they've done, can get sued by the victims. If they don't have enough money to pay for the additional expenses of their victims, then their asses will be seized. To avoid having their houses or cars taken away from them, drivers should purchase additional liability coverage that can protect the value of their assets combined.

For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
Major businesses in different fields are now taking over the plan to remove carbon dioxide emissions in Earth's atmosphere. Here's how they plan to do it: make a giant fan to pull CO2, trap it, and inject underground.

Is Earth Net Zero possible?

Using technology, giant companies are now planning to make the 'Earth net zero' possible within the next years to come.

Few businesses already pledged to invest money in creating the most gigantic engineered carbon removal machine. But, how is it possible?

According to New York Times, companies are set to make a machine -- like a giant fan-- that will remove the 'healthy air' from 'damaged air.'

In fact, Occidental Petroleum and United Airlines already invested fund to create a "direct air capture" plant in Texas. This will be used to scrub carbon dioxide from the air, while a giant fan separates it in the atmosphere.

Once done, they meant to trap the CO2 and inject it underground. There are still no explanations on how the plant expected this to happen.

ALSO READ: Ocean 100: Researchers Identify Top 100 Corporations That Control Ocean's Economic System

Road to Earth Net Zero: Microsoft, United Airlines, Pepsico, others join movement

Most companies in the world produced CO2, in order for their plant to function properly. Ironically, they can't seemed to stop this practice, so the only way to reduce it, is to create a CO2 removal machine.

Surprisingly, since December, famous companies like Microsoft, United Airlines, or Pepsico, already announced to join the movement.

Microsoft, for example, pledged to remove one million tons of CO2. United Airlines, on the other hand, vowed to become carbon-free by 2050.

"If we want to make aviation sustainable, everything has to be on the table," said Lauren Riley, managing director of global environmental affairs at United. "Carbon removal might not be a silver bullet, but we have to try."

Machine to suck carbon emissions, possible?

Throughout the years, carbon dioxide has been a major problem for the planet. In fact, this is not the first time that experts have suggested to create a CO2-removing device. However, the main issue, was the money.

Maybe, this year's different.

RELATED ARTICLE: Earth's Ocean Discovers Storing Heat; New Study Shows Planet to Reach Temperature Crisis Within Next 20-30 Years
NEW DELHI : Gurgaon-based kids learning platform Udayy on Monday said that it has raised $2.5 million seed funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) managed by Falcon Edge Capital, and InfoEdge Ventures.

Founded by Saumya Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney  alumni of IIT Delhi and Stanford University - the start-up had its first round of angel funding in June 2019. Udayy will use the capital proceeds for the next phase of its growth which includes curriculum development, product suite expansion, and hiring across the product, curriculum and engineering teams.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

The latest round also saw participation from Better Capital, Kunal Shah and other angel investors. The online platform provides interactive classes for Mathematics and English to children in the age group of 6-11 years.

After-school education in the younger age group segment is an untapped market in India. Udayy is on track to disrupt the space through its experiential learning model, which uses technology driven gamification as a key driver of learning outcomes," Anirudh Singh, Managing Director, Alpha Wave Incubation, said in a statement.

As supplementary education gains ground, and role of technology is being harnessed to reduce classroom education, ed-tech firms in India are getting a huge traction. Ed-tech firms raised more than $2 billion in funding in 2020, Mint reported on 28 Dec.

Primary grades are formative years of education for childrenUdayy is making learning fun and engaging for children by bringing learning by doing methodology through games, roleplays, and activities to our classrooms. We are thrilled to partner with AWI, Info Edge Ventures and our other investors," said Yadav.

While bigger and established ed-tech firms like Byjus have been an investors favourite for last couple of years, several smaller names has gained traction in recent time. For example, Practically, an interactive and immersive learning app for students of classes 6-12 with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics raised $4 million in a pre-Series B round. The round was led by Siana Capital, a deep tech investor and saw participation from existing investors like YourNest Venture Capital and Exfinity Ventures.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a mammoth disruption in the education sector and the transition from traditional learning to digital mode, and adoption of technology as a key education delivery medium has accelerated the growth of Education technology startups and existing companies. We are seeing a growing acceptance of technology across various segments of education and it will only grow furtrher," said SeethaPrasad Mandikel, founder and chief executive of TriByte, a Bengaluru based ed-tech firm that helps firms to shift from off line to online teaching, learning and assessment delivery.

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Vaccination from COVID-19 has begun in Azerbaijan in parallel with the leading countries thanks to the efforts of the countrys President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, Health Minister Ogtay Shiraliyev said at a press conference.

According to Shiraliyev, the opinion of the vaccination specialists was studied, and based on it the conclusion was made that the vaccine used in Azerbaijan is the best one.

He also noted that the same vaccine is used in Turkey.

"The vaccinated persons can also contract the disease, but in a mild form. The vaccination has already begun. The vaccine has been tested in several countries and is absolutely safe. By the instructions of Azerbaijans president, its safety has been checked out," the minister added.
Representative image: Reuters

Export of COVID-19 vaccines can start in about next two weeks, the Business Standard reported, quoting Serum Institute of India (SII)s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla.

The news report further cites Poonawalla as saying that exports of the vaccine doses will start only after local requirements are fully met.

Further, the Serum Institute will start producing the Novavax vaccine candidate at its facility in around two months from now. Poonawalla told the newspaper that his company was making preparations and working on regulatory protocols.

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate is currently under clinical trial in the United States and would have to go through a bridging trial in India.

SII is already manufacturing doses of Covishield, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The vaccine was granted emergency use authorisation in India earlier this month.

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

Covishield is one of the two jabs being used as part of the worlds largest vaccination exercise that was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16.

Priority is being given to healthcare and frontline workers, who had already been registered on the purpose-built CoWIN application. This would be sequentially followed by people with comorbidities, senior citizens, and finally, the general public. The Centre is hoping to vaccinate 30 crore people by July, in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: All you need to know about manufacturing and pricing

As of January 17, India had reported more than 1.05 crore confirmed COVID-19 cases. The death toll from the outbreak in the country stood at over 1.52 lakh. While more than 1.01 crore patients had recovered, 2.11 lakh cases remained active. Globally, more than 9.44 crore individuals have been infected by the virus and over 20.24 lakh people have died so far.

A speedy rollout of vaccines is being seen as the best way to curb the spread of COVID-19 and restore normalcy in the pandemic-battered global economy. More than 50 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have already vaccinated a large number of people from high-risk groups.
He may be a big Hollywood star.

But Sean Penn was content to wait in line like everyone else as he stopped by an upscale supermarket in Malibu on Sunday.

The double Oscar winner wore a face mask and socially distanced while patiently waiting his turn to enter the store.

No drama: Sean Penn waited patiently in line to enter a grocery store in Malibu on Sunday, wearing a face mask and socially distanced from other customers

Penn, 60, was casually dressed in a logo'd navy t-shirt and gray cargo pants.

The bearded actor donned a khaki peaked hat with the name of his nonprofit CORE across the front in white lettering.

His organization has been helping to administer COVID-19 tests across the country in partnership with local governments and institutions.

Casual: The double Oscar winner, 60, was dressed in a logo'd navy t-shirt and gray cargo pants. He donned a khaki peaked hat with the name of his nonprofit CORE across the front

Helping out: Penn's organization has been helping to administer COVID-19 tests across the country in partnership with local governments and institutions (pictured with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti at a LA testing site in December)

Penn also managed to tie the knot for the third time during the pandemic.

He married Australian-born actress Leila George, 28, back in July in a ceremony officiated by a county commissioner via Zoom, he revealed during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Myers.

Penn and George, the daughter of actor Vincent D'Onofrio and actress Greta Scacchi, had been dating since 2016.

The Hollywood star was previously married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989, and to Robin Wright from 1996 to 2010.

He and Wright share daughter Dylan, 29, and son Hopper, 27.

Newlyweds: Penn also managed to tie the knot for the third time during the pandemic. He married Australian-born actress Leila George, 28, back in July
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - More than a half-dozen school districts in Kent and Ottawa counties have had to plan for replacing their longtime superintendents since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Michigan last March.

The educators departing are among a growing list of superintendents retiring statewide amid the pandemic. However, the numbers in the Grand Rapids area are notable.

Related: Multiple Michigan school superintendents retire as pandemic lingers

The job of a school superintendent is a difficult and often lonely one, said Tina Kerr, a former Michigan superintendent herself.

As executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, Kerr said shes watched hundreds of talented school leaders leave the profession over recent years, unable to keep up with the strenuous demands of the role while also under intense scrutiny by parents and staff.

But nothing compares to the kind of pressure superintendents have faced in the past year amid the coronavirus pandemic, Kerr said.

They have basically been on-call 24/7, Kerr said. Theyre facing much more scrutiny than in the past. Its been a challenge all the way around, but the unbelievable community pressure is so distinct across the state and is different depending on the region.

Running a school district has never been an easy job but the demands on West Michigan superintendents and those across the state have been enormous during the pandemic, as theyve led their districts through extraordinary circumstances.

While the pandemic might be pushing some superintendents to retire, some were planning to depart regardless of COVID-19, but it has taken its toll and in some cases expedited plans.

Since the pandemic hit in March 2020, seven area districts have had superintendents announced they are retiring, including Holland, Kentwood, Jenison, West Ottawa, Lowell, and the Kent and Ottawa ISDs.

Kerr said roughly three dozen Michigan superintendents have decided to retire this year. While that is a big number, she said it mostly falls in line with the trend of a growing number of superintendents deciding to leave education in the past few years.

RELATED: Multiple Michigan school superintendents retire as pandemic lingers

Were fortunate to have some exceptional leaders, but to see that kind of turnover, youre really losing that legacy knowledge and that is frightening, Kerr said. To lose that experience is a hindrance in education.

The pandemic has forced many Michigan superintendents who love their profession to make a challenging decision about whether they can keep up amid the pandemic, said Michael Washburn, an educational consultant, who retired as superintendent of Forest Hills Public Schools after 21 years in 2006.

If theres been a straw that has broken the camels back for some really talented superintendents, its the pandemic, Washburn said.

It just becomes that pressure point where some people say, Im getting older, Ive done this enough, my phone is ringing off the hook all the time because of frustrated people and I just dont want to do it anymore.

Washburn believes the notable number of retirements in West Michigan is mostly cyclical.

I think much of it is just the demographics of the superintendents -- how old are they, how long have they been superintendents, he said.

One of this years retiring school leaders, Jenison Superintendent Tom TenBrink, is leaving education after a 44-year career. TenBrink, who has been at the helm of the district for 18 years, said he has given Jenison all he has to give.

Over the past several years, I knew the day would come when I would no longer be able to give all that it takes to lead JPS in the only way I know how to do so, TenBrink said in a statement. The time has come for me to retire from one of the very best jobs in education.

Other Ottawa County superintendents to retire this year include Holland Public Schools Superintendent Brian Davis, Ottawa Area Intermediate School District superintendent Pete Haines and West Ottawa Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Martin.

In Kent County, Ron Caniff retired as Kent ISD superintendent Dec. 31, Kentwood Superintendent Michael Zoerhoff is retiring June 30, and Greg Pratt, retired as superintendent of Lowell Area Schools in August.

Michigan has seen a sharp decline in the number of educators entering the profession in recent years. A report from earlier this year showed that inadequate compensation, student loan debt and lack of input into policymaking are contributing to the states teacher shortage.

The shortage of teachers has a domino effect on Michigans education system, Kerr said.

As fewer people become teachers, she said fewer teachers end up becoming principals and fewer principals become administrators. That means there are less candidates available to replace the growing number of retiring superintendents.

The number of educators leaving their profession has only been exacerbated by COVID-19, officials say. Superintendents already lengthy job description has gotten longer in the pandemic. For example, coordinating contact tracing.

School leaders have had to track the number of cases in their districts at all times and often had to switch some or all of their district to remote learning at a moments notice based on spread of the virus.

Principals and superintendents are now spending 70-80% of their time contract tracing, instead of doing what they should be doing which is leading the instructional process for students, Kerr said.

If your community has a surge in COVID-19 cases, now they have to rethink the whole day. So, theyre checking all weekend long, theyre getting calls during winter break. They just have not had any downtime, because its such a fluid system right now, depending on what the virus does.

Beyond the contact tracing and acquiring PPE (personal protection equipment), school leaders are managing pandemic learning, the fear and anxiety of students, staff and parents, relief funds, and often the disparate direction coming from local, state and federal entities, among other matters.

Educators say even more superintendent retirements across the state could be coming in the year ahead. Kerr said MASA is planning to host a webinar in the coming weeks about how to plan for retirement, which has 130 superintendents signed up.

Those are staggering numbers to me, she said. Were trying to work together to encourage people to want to be a superintendent and be part of this profession, and its a challenge.

Im encouraged by the talent I see in our system, but I am worried about making sure that we continue to have high quality candidates to fill open positions.

Kerr said she hopes the pandemic will help Michigan residents understand the value of the states educators.

It is a tough job, and we all have to work together because we all do still have a common goal, and thats to ensure our students get a high-quality education, she said. So, having a little patience and compassion will ensure that their superintendents continue to perform at a high level.

To help you navigate this complicated school year, were pleased to offer you a simpler way to get all of your education news: Our new Michigan Schools: Education in the COVID Era newsletter delivered right to your inbox. To receive this newsletter, simply click here to sign up.

More on MLive:

Michigan is short hundreds of school bus drivers. The pandemic only made it worse

Oceans away from campus: International students carry on despite the pandemic

Michigan school districts ranked by median family income: See states richest, poorest districts
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Libya: Operation Irini and Frontex boost cooperation More exchanges of analyses, data and information

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JANUARY 18 - Operation Irini and Frontex will boost their cooperation to exchange information, data, analyses and satellite images.



The agreement was signed during a videoconference by Admiral Fabio Agostini, commander of the operation, and by Fabrice Leggeri, the executive director of Frontex, according to a statement of the EU mission. The cooperation will help exchange information on merchant ships suspected of violating an arms embargo against Libya, as well as strengthen the promotion of European standards of integrated management of borders, in particular for the training of the Libyan Navy and coast guards.



(ANSA).




Amended and Restated NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimates Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project:

Posted by Publisher Internet

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX-V: CNC) (\Canada Nickel\ or the \Company\  https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/canada-nickel-ceo-update-on-glencore-deal-pea-and-pfs-by-year-end/ ?is pleased to announce the filing on SEDAR of an amended and restated independent National Instrument 43-101 ? Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (\NI 43-101\) entitled: \Independent Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimates Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project: Main Zone (Update) and East Zone (Initial) Deposits\ prepared by Scott Jobin-Bevans (Ph.D., PMP, P.Geo.), John Siriunas (M.A.Sc., P.Eng.) and David Penswick (P.Eng.) (the \Amended Technical Report\).

The Amended Technical Report can be found under the Company\-\-s profile at www.sedar.com. The Amended Technical Report has been filed further to a review by staff of the Ontario Securities Commission (the \OSC\). The OSC review is now complete.

The Amended Technical Report includes a conceptual pit envelope constraint in order to demonstrate reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction and updated mineral resource tables. Prior mineral resource estimates, as previously disclosed in the December 4, 2020 Technical Report, were not constrained by conceptual pit envelopes.? The addition of a pit constraint resulted in no change to the Measured & Indicated resource in the Higher Grade Core of the Main Zone, a 1.5 kt reduction in contained nickel in the overall Measured and Indicated resource to 1,690 kt, and a 335 kt reduction in contained nickel from the original Inferred resource to 1,183 kt. 90% of the overall reduction in Inferred resources occurred at depths below 300 metres.

In addition, the gram per tonne (g/t) assay values for Palladium (Pd), Platinum (Pt), and Palladium + Platinum (Pd + Pt) included in Table 10-2 of the Amended Technical Report have been corrected for holes CR19-05 to CR19-13.

Disclosure of explorations targets for the Main Zone Pd + Pt reef, two East Zone Pd + Pt reefs and the East Zone nickel domains was also revised to comply with subsection 2.3(2) of NI 43-101.

1. The independent Qualified Person for the Mineral Resource Estimate, as defined by NI 43-101, is Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans (P.Geo., APGO #0183), of Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. and Atticus Chile S.A. The effective date of the Mineral Resource Estimate is December 11, 2020.

2. These Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources in this Mineral Resource Estimate are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Resources as Indicated or Measured, however it is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.

3. A cut-off grade of 0.15% Ni was used for the low-grade domains (Main and East zones) and cut-off grades of 0.25% Ni (Main Zone) and 0.21% Ni (East Zone) were used for the high-grade domains. Cut-offs were determined on the basis of core assay geostatistics and drill core lithologies for the deposit, and by comparison to analogous deposit types. Given the current stage of the Project, the mineral resources contained within the Main and East zone deposits have not been constrained by open pit optimization. The Company is planning to complete open pit optimization and present pit-constrained mineral resources as part of its Preliminary Economic Assessment (?PEA?) scheduled to be completed by the end of the first quarter, 2021.

4. Geological and block models for the Mineral Resource Estimate used data from a total of 62 surface drill holes (51 in the Main Zone and 11 in the East Zone), completed by Spruce Ridge Resources (4 holes in 2018) and Noble Mineral Exploration and Canada Nickel Company (58 holes in 2019-2020). The drill database was validated prior to resource estimation and QA/QC checks were made using industry-standard control charts for blanks, core duplicates and commercial certified reference material inserted into assay batches by CNC and by comparison of umpire assays performed at a second laboratory.

5. Estimates in Table 1 have been rounded to two significant figures.

6. The mineral resource estimates have also been revised in the Amended Technical Report to include a conceptual pit envelope constraint that was developed using the optimization parameters included in the Amended Technical Report. Metal prices used (US$) were $7.75/lb nickel, $15/lb cobalt, $90/tonne magnetite $1,600/oz Pd, and $800/oz Pt. Different pit slopes were used for each layer (in degrees): 9.5 in clay, 21.8 in gravel and 45 in rock. Exchange rate utilized was US$/C$ of $0.75. Mining costs utilized different values for overburden (clay, gravel), selective mining and bulk mining ranging from C$1.75 to C$3.15/t mined. Processing costs and G&A for 100ktpd operation were C$6.18/t. Based on the range of grade and ratio of sulphur to nickel at Crawford, recovery could be expected to range from 10%  60%. It has also been assumed that 30 ? 40% of total iron would be recovered to a saleable magnetite concentrate.

7. The Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared following the CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019).

MAIN ZONE:

8. The geological model as applied to the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Main Zone comprises three mineralized domains hosted by variably serpentinized ultramafic rocks: a relatively high-grade core (largely dunite) and two northern and southern lower grade envelopes (combination of dunite and peridotite). Individual wireframes were created for each domain.

9. The block model was prepared using Micromine 2020. A 12 m x 12 m x 9 m block model was created and samples were composited at 4.5 m intervals. Grade estimation from drill hole data was carried out for Ni, Co, Fe, S, Pd and Pt using the Ordinary Kriging interpolation method.

10. Grade estimation was validated by comparison of input and output statistics (nearest neighbour and inverse distance cubed), swath plot analysis, and by visual inspection of the assay data, block model, and grade shells in cross-sections.

11. Density estimation was carried out for the mineralized domains using the Ordinary Kriging interpolation method, on the basis of 3,270 specific gravity measurements collected during the core logging process, using the same block model parameters of the grade estimation. As a reference, the average estimated density value within the high-grade is 2.64 g/cm3 (t/m3), while low-grade domains of the resource model yielded averages of 2.63 g/cm3 (t/m3) in the north and 2.71 g/cm3 (t/m3) in the south.

EAST ZONE:

12. The geological model as applied to the Mineral Resource Estimate for the East Zone comprises three mineralized domains hosted by variably serpentinized ultramafic rocks: a relatively high-grade core (largely dunite) and two northern and southern lower grade envelopes (largely peridotite). Individual wireframes were created for each domain.

13. The block model was prepared using Micromine 2020. A 20 m x 20 m x 15 m block model was created and samples were composited at 3 m intervals. Grade estimation from drill hole data was carried out for Ni, Co, Fe and S using the Inverse Distance Squared method.

14. Grade estimation was validated by comparison of input and output statistics (nearest neighbour), swath plot analysis, and by visual inspection of the assay data, block model, and grade shells in cross-sections.

15. An average bulk density value for each mineralized domain was calculated on the basis of 244 specific gravity measurements collected during the core logging process. Blocks within the high-grade were assigned a single bulk density value of 2.62 g/cm3 (t/m3), while low-grade domains of the resource model were assigned single bulk density values of 2.66 g/cm3 (t/m3) in the north and 2.72 g/cm3 (t/m3) in the south.

Assays, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Drilling and Assay Procedures

William E. MacRae, MSc, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, is responsible for the on-going drilling and sampling program, including quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). The core is collected from the drill in sealed core trays and transported to the core logging facility. The core is marked and sampled at 1.5 metre lengths and cut with a diamond blade saw. Samples are bagged with QA/QC samples inserted in batches of 35 samples per lot. Samples are transported in secure bags directly from the Canada Nickel core shack to Actlabs Timmins, an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum and palladium) are completed by Fire Assay while analysis for nickel, cobalt, sulphur and 17 other elements are performed using a peroxide fusion and ICP-OES analysis. Certified standards and blanks are inserted at a rate of one QA/QC sample per 32 core samples making a batch of 35 samples that are submitted for analysis.

Qualified Person and Data Verification

Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans (P.Geo., APGO #0183), independent of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this news release, and is responsible for the Mineral Resource Estimate. ?The Quality Control-Quality Assurance review was conducted by independent engineer Mr. John Siriunas (P.Eng., APEO #42706010), a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Canada Nickel Company

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt in low political risk jurisdictions. Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain information that may constitute \forward-looking information\ under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, drill results relating to the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, the potential of the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, timing of economic studies and resource estimates, strategic plans, including future exploration and development results, and corporate and technical objectives. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals, the future? demand for metals, the results of drilling, inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, results of exploration programs, risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals, and the impact of COVID-19 related disruptions in relation to the Company\-\-s business operations including upon its employees, suppliers, facilities and other stakeholders.? There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Canada Nickel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO

Phone: 647-256-1954

Email: info@canadanickel.com

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch
The Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe plans to challenge the powers of the Russian delegation, including in connection with the detention of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Moscow.

"Our delegation will use all possible tools provided by the regulations for further steps to hold urgent debates and challenge the powers of the Russian Federation, based, among other things, on these events," head of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the PACE Maria Mezentseva wrote on Facebook, commenting on detention of Navalny at Moscow's airport on January 17.

Mezentseva reminded that Navalny was to speak and participate online at a meeting of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on January 19.

"Given the recent events (his detention in Moscow, further stay in a pre-trial detention center, as well as a court hearing scheduled for January 29), he is unlikely to participate [in the PACE Committee meeting]," the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Assembly noted.

She added that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Russia to pay Navalny more than EUR 22,000, ruling that the Russian government had violated a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Alexei Navalny was detained at passport control of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on January 17 after returning from Germany where he had been undergoing treatment for poisoning. The plane of the Pobeda airline, with Russian opposition politician and his wife on board, landed at Sheremetyevo airport instead of the scheduled arrival at Vnukovo airport.

Earlier it was reported that Navalny might be detained upon arrival by the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and the Investigative Committee. One week ago, the Federal Penitentiary Service asked the court to revoke Navalny's probation in the Yves Rocher case and replace it with a real prison term.

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The National Defence Academy (NDA) and Military Hospital, Khadakwasla, here in Maharashtra on Monday commenced a COVID-19 vaccination drive for about 205 healthcare and frontline workers, a defence release said. The event was flagged off by Lt. General Asit Mistry, Commandant, NDA, in a solemn manner, remembering sacrifices made by healthcare and frontline workers, while combating the scourge of this pandemic, it said.

"Armed Forces have always been at the forefront of combating the enemy, be it rogue forces or microbes. In keeping with this tradition, the NDA and its affiliated health care institution Military Hospital, Khadakwasla, commenced the vaccination drive on Monday for close to 205 priority-I subjects i.e healthcare and frontline Workers," the release said. Speaking at the event, Lt General Mistry applauded the contribution of "Trishakti Healers" the Military Hospital, Khadakwasla, in helping the academy contain the spread of COVID-19 and continue with the training of cadets, in accordance with the "new normal".

The commandant said this vaccination drive will subsequently address the populace in Khadakwasla and Girinagar military garrisons, "duly prioritised as per organisational policy, including the most precious of all resources, 2000-odd NDA cadets, the future leaders of the Indian Armed Forces". The lieutenant general further said the vaccine is safe and efficacious.

He exhorted all to be part of this national effort, marginalising those who are doubting the capability of our scientists and the rigorous scrutiny of our evaluatory mechanisms, prior to permitting such use, the release said.The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive began on January 16.
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Gunmen have abducted as yet unknown number of travellers along Omoh/Erin-Ijesha road in Ori-Ade Local Government Area of Osun State.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the gunmen accosted the travellers from bush along Ilesa-Akure expressway.

It was not clear as of the time of this report the number of victims that were kidnapped.

Speaking with our correspondent, the commandant of Amotekun in Osun State, Bashir Adewinbi, said his operatives were already combing the bush in the area to ensure that they rescue the victims alive.

We dont have the specific number of those kidnapped but our men are currently in the bushes to ensure that we rescue the victims, he said.

While confirming the incident, the state police spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, said only two people were kidnapped and police officers were already in search of the victims.

Our men are on the field to ensure they rescue the two kidnap victims, she said.

A source within the police force in Osun State told PREMIUM TIMES that the number of those abducted could not be ascertained at the moment.

We got a distress call last night that some travellers were abducted and swiftly, the police commissioner reached out to Amotekun commandant and there is a joint effort now to rescue the victims. We cant ascertain the number of victims now, the source said.
Not too long ago, Prashanth Neel's highly ambitious project with Prabhas titled Salaar was launched in Hyderabad. The event was graced by the one and only Rocking Star Yash. His picture with the Rebel Star and the team had also gone viral on social media.

Well, as the film has finally launched, the fans and followers of the actor and director are awaiting the announcement of the film's cast, especially the lead actress.

As per the latest report, Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif has been approached by the makers to essay the lead role in the film. Reportedly, the actress was impressed with the narration and is yet to confirm her inclusion in the highly anticipated project. If the actress gives her nod, she will be making her comeback in Tollywood after almost 15 years. She was last seen in Allari Pidugu (2015) opposite Nandamuri Balakrishna.

Notably, the actress is awaiting the release of her Bollywood film Sooryavanshi and is currently shooting for Phone Bhoot opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khattar. As details of her other upcoming projects are still under wraps, there are high chances that Katrina might say 'yes' to Prashanth Neel's film.

On the other hand, there are reports suggesting that Bollywood's heartthrob John Abraham might lock horns with Prabhas in Salaar. However, there is no confirmation regarding the same. Backed by KGF producer Vijay Kiragandur under his home production banner Hombale Films, the action thriller is touted to be an out and out action-thriller. Rumours suggest that the Rebel Star will play a never seen before avatar in the highly anticipated film of the year, which will reportedly start rolling from January 2021.

Also Read: Salaar Saga Begins: Prabhas And Yash's Picture From The Launch Event Goes Viral!

Also Read: Salaar: John Abraham To Lock Horns With Prabhas In Prashanth Neel's Film?
A San Francisco investment firm VP described as a mentally ill anti-vaxxer obsessed with government mind-control killed his nine-year-old son and then himself last week amid a legal battle with the boy's mother over his vaccinations and health care.

Stephen O'Loughlin, 49, and his son, Pierce, were found dead from gunshot wounds inside his apartment in San Francisco's Marina District on Wednesday evening by police performing a welfare check at the request of the boy's mother.

The mother, Lesley Hu, 41, called the police after learning that her son had failed to show up for class at Convent & Stuart Hall, his $35,000-a-year Catholic school in the center of the city.

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San Francisco business executive Stephen O'Loughlin, 49 (left), shot and killed his nine-year-old son, Pierce (right), and then himself amid a custody battle on Wednesday

A family attorney said O'Loughlin and his ex-wife, shipping executive Lesley Hu (pictured together at an event) had been locked in a bitter custody dispute that revolved around their son's health care

Police performing a welfare check at the request of Pierce's mother found the bodies of the father and son inside this apartment building in the 3800 block of Scott Street

Police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.

According to his LinkedIn page, O'Loughlin served as regional vice president at LoCorr Funds, an investment management company headquartered in Minnesota.

His ex-wife, who divorced him in 2016, had only recently been promoted to executive vice president at Waterfront Global, a container supplier where she has worked for more than 15 years.

O'Loughlin and Hu had been locked in a bitter custody battle that revolved around their son's healthcare.

The mother's attorney, Lorie Nachlis, claimed that O'Loughlin suffered from untreated mental illness, which made him paranoid about vaccinations and obsessed with his son's health.

The San Francisco power couple divorced in 2016, and Hu was seeking sole custody of their son so that she could make medical decisions on his behalf without interference from her ex-husband.

O'Loughlin had given his consent to have Pierce vaccinated on Tuesday, a day before their deaths.

A hearing concerning the custody battle was set to take place in March, reported San Francisco Chronicle.

Hu (pictured with her son) wrote in court filings that O'Loughlin had been obsessed with Pierce's health and videotaped his breathing if he had a stuffy nose

Hu wrote that O'Loughlin became involved with a self-help group and turned into an anti-vaxxer

According to court records from last September, Hu wrote that O'Loughlin joined a 'new-age, self-help group' in 2012 and became convinced that the government was using mind-control on Americans.

By the time the couple divorced, O'Loughlin reportedly had paid the group thousands of dollars.

OLoughlin had refused to allow his son to be vaccinated from a young age, claiming that Pierce was vaccine-injured and had suffered serious side effects as a result of receiving shots as a baby, including vomiting and dramatic weight loss.

'This is not an "anti-vax" parent seeking to prevent his child from being vaccinated,' OLoughlins attorneys wrote in a filing from early January.

'For the average child, the risk-to-benefit ratio for vaccines is in favor of vaccinations. For a certain subset of society, however, that is not the case. Pierce is one of those people.'

Hu, however, denied her ex-husband's claims and argued that Pierce's doctors strongly recommended that he be fully vaccinated.

'[OLoughlins] stance on vaccinations has taken on a cult-like tone,' Hu alleged.

The mother also claimed that her ex-husband had become so consumed with their son's health that he would videotape his breathing several times a day 'to document a stuffy nose.'

Attorney Lorie Nachlis (left) argued that Pierce O'Loughlin was not killed over vaccinations, but because his father felt he was losing control and wanted to punish his ex-wife

Nachlis, Hu's attorney, pushed back against the narrative that Pierce was killed solely because of his parents' feud over vaccinations.

'Yes, the parents disagreed about vaccinations, but they disagreed about other issues affecting the childs well-being,' she stated.

'In fact, they disagreed about whether Pierce was a healthy child or a sick child. Was his stuffy nose a product of allergies or something bigger? Pierce wasnt killed because of a disagreement over a stuffy nose and he wasnt killed because of a disagreement regarding vaccinations. He was killed for much more complex reasons.'

The lawyer argued that O'Loughlin carried out the murder-suicide because he felt he was losing control.

'He punished Leslie with the ultimate act of violence, killing her child, and she will suffer as I believe was intended for the rest of her life,' Nachlis told KRON4.

While they were married, O'Loughlin and Hu were heavily involved in San Francisco's cultural life and helped organize various events.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  Senator Panfilo Ping Lacson is demanding transparency on the price negotiations regarding Chinas Sinovac vaccine.

In his privilege speech during a Senate hearing on Monday, Lacson bared that other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Thailand have released information about their procurement of the vaccine.

In contrast, the senator said vaccine program officials in the country have been tongue-tied when asked about the lock-in agreement of the government with the brand.

Lacson also wondered why the confidentiality disclosure agreement is being invoked by the vaccine officials.

I could not understand for the life of me why we are being kept in the dark when it comes to our price negotiations with Sinovac, while our neighboring countries cannot be more transparent about it, he said.

The Senate Committee of the Whole has started to conduct hearings on the government's COVID-19 vaccine plans.

Lacson said Indonesia and Thailand were able to acquire the Sinovac vaccine at 683.30 and 240, respectively, per dose.

Will somebody explain the 1,814.75 per dose price of the Sinovac vaccine, he asked.

The figures, according to Lacson, were based on the Department of Healths report to the Senate Committee on Finance during budget deliberations last year.

But in a Palace press briefing on Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed that Sinovac's CoronaVac is priced near 650 per dose or around 1,300 for the complete two doses.

READ: China's Sinovac near 650 per dose, gov't to bare exact amount after purchase  Roque

The Philippines is set to receive 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from Sinovac this year, with the first 50,000 doses available as early as February, as previously announced by Roque.

Lacson also pointed out that despite being one of the most expensive vaccines available, Sinovac's efficacy rate falls behind other brands.

The issue of Sinovac is not just a matter of price but of efficacy, he added.

The Chinese-made vaccine is only 50.38% effective, according to a recent trial study conducted in Brazil.

Despite raising many questions, Lacson clarified that he was not accusing anyone of corruption.
Hundreds of Honduran migrants huddled overnight on a highway in eastern Guatemala after domestic security forces used sticks and tear gas to halt the passage of a U.S.-bound caravan just days before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

As many as 8,000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say, fleeing poverty and lawlessness in a region rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November.

"There's no food or water, and there are thousands of children, pregnant women, babies, and they don't want to let us pass," said a Honduran stuck at the blockade, who gave his name only as Pedro.

Guatemalan authorities say they have sent hundreds of migrants back to Honduras.

A Reuters witness said about 2,000 migrants were still camped out on the highway near the village of Vado Hondo, about 55 km (34 miles) from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador, after clashing with Guatemalan security forces on Sunday.

"We're starving," said one Honduran mother, stuck behind the cordon with her 15-year-old son, her daughter, 9, and her 4-year-old niece.

"All we have is water and a few cookies," said the woman, who declined to give her name, but added that she and other travelers had formed a prayer circle as they camped out.

Other migrants evaded the gridlock by fleeing into the hills to continue onward to the border of Mexico, where the government has deployed police and National Guard troopers.

"We ran into the mountains because I'm traveling with my one-year-old," said Diany Deras, another Honduran.

Mexico's border with Guatemala was quiet.

"All is calm here," said a National Guardsman in charge of a border crossing directly opposite Tecun Uman, Guatemala, where caravan leaders hope to cross into Mexico. He sought anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.

"I hope Guatemala contains them," he added.

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SACRAMENTO  Threats of a violent assault on the state Capitol building by supporters of President Trump were met Sunday by a huge police presence backed by 1,000 California National Guard troops, standing by on the first of four days of tension leading up to Wednesdays presidential inauguration.

Responding to FBI warnings that statehouses nationwide could be the next battleground, authorities surrounded the Capitol grounds with a 6-foot chain-link fence and had enough armed protection to fight off a small army of insurrectionists.

But the insurrectionists never arrived. For much of the day, the only political presence of any kind was supplied by Christian Alvarado, who stood in front of the Capitol with an American flag and a yellow mask scrawled with E Pluribus Unum to show his support for lawmakers, police and the National Guard troops who were protecting the building.

Saddened by the images of the Jan. 6 pro-Trump insurrection in Washington, D.C., Alvarado, 25, a computer science graduate student from Sacramento, said he stood in front of the state Capitol for five hours Saturday and planned to do the same Sunday. He said he would return on inauguration day if his class schedule allowed it.

We are one nation, no matter who you are and what you believe, Alvarado said. We are different people, but we come together as one.

The counterprotest by Alvarez met a total of one sign-carrying Trump supporter, Frank Unger of Sacramento, carrying a sign demanding that President-elect Joe Biden go to jail for crimes he said had to with his son Hunter Bidens laptop.

Unger said he wasnt surprised by the lack of crowds after Trump released a video Wednesday condemning violence. Im here basically to support free speech, Unger said. The mass media may try to censor us, but there are still 75 million people who voted for Trump.

There were at least two of them in Sacramento on Sunday, counting Steven Bourasa, who said he regularly joined weekly Stop the Steal rallies in downtown Sacramento throughout the fall. Bourasa said many of his conservative friends were hesitant to come out Sunday after seeing an anonymous flier that announced an armed protest.

We felt it was kind of a setup, he said. So, as you can see, none of my friends are here today.

Bourasa said he wasnt sure who would be behind a setup, but he similarly thought the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 had been a planned operation that Trump supporters had merely gotten swept into in the moment.

The president did not encourage any kind of rioting or violence, he said.

Bourasa said he planned to return to the state Capitol on inauguration day and expected more Trump supporters would, too.

Bourasa said he was spooked by a Biden presidency and was still hopeful that Trump would take office for a second term. If it took invoking martial law, Bourasa said, then Im supportive. Im hoping for an 11th-hour surprise.

But law enforcement has had enough surprises and has stepped up security nationwide after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of Bidens inauguration.

On Sunday, tall fences also surrounded the U.S. Capitol. The National Mall was closed to the public, and the mayor of Washington asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when far-right Trump supporters galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen stormed the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

The attack left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested on charges related to the insurrection.

In the aftermath, more than a third of governors called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. Several governors declared states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Bidens inauguration.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called out the California National Guard last week. On an unseasonably hot Sunday afternoon, dozens of Sacramento police officers rested in vans while groups of Guard troops chatted under shade trees. A sniper watched pedestrians pass the Capitol from the top floor of a parking garage across the street.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governors Office of Emergency Services, said it was premature to say whether the Guard would stay on duty at the Capitol. However, we are optimistic that the relative quiet thus far demonstrates that the actions taken by the administration have been effective and that the state remains well positioned to support safety and security surrounding the inauguration, he said.

Officials in a few state capitals elsewhere reported crowds numbering in the dozens, but streets in many other places remained empty. There were no reports of clashes.

At Nevadas Capitol in Carson City, where demonstrators supporting Trump have flocked most weekends in recent months, all was quiet except for a lone protester with a sign.

Trump Lost. Be Adults. Go Home, it read.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alexei Koseff, Dustin Gardiner and Sam Whiting are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com, dgardiner@sfchronicle.com, swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff, @dustingardiner, @SamWhitingSF
Its not that Trump is not guilty of sedition and insurrection; its that the issue is bigger than he is. A good part of those involved with the Capitol invasion were there because of QAnon.

QAnon is made up of people who believe Donald Trump to be a savior who will save us from the deep-state people who run a child trafficking ring, and the belief persists despite Pizzagate where an armed believer demanded access to the non-existent basement of a Washington pizza parlor identified by fellow believers to hub for the trafficking.

QAnon is seen as a religion because of these beliefs, incipient if not real, and dealing with a belief system by crucifying the savior after a hasty trial may not be the best way to deal with the belief system.

The bigger question is how to deal with an incipient religion based on conspiracy theories. Sociologist have studied this issue in the light of our political polarization and see the best solution in creating coherent groups that contain both sides, both genders, as well as mixed races, and challenging them to reach a consensual decision. That may help with political polarization, but Im not sure about religious beliefs. The keystone of an American religion has been thoroughly debunked by Scientific discovery without effecting its membership nor their devotion.

Many of our workplaces have such a mix, as do many families, including my own. In my case I have found that online attempts in this direction are not realistic because I am unsure of the reliability of their information paths. Consensual decisions demand that everyone have a voice, but even then, when confronted with undeniable truth religious beliefs can persist.

The Iroquois clan mothers deal with defecting chiefs by dehorning them. Their horns are symbols of power and dehorning is removing them from that power; they can no longer speak in public and the people are not supposed to listen to him. The metaphor applies to our day as well; dehorning is removing the megaphone from one crying fire in the theater, the ability to speak to groups via an assembly, a rally, or any electronic media including radio and TV. That does not abridge their fundamental 1st Amendment rights, written at a time when these instruments were not dreamed of.

Perhaps the best step forward is challenge our religious leaders to study QAnon and publicly address the issue in their congregations, even to sponsoring the above groups to reach consensus.

Lon Jones D.O.

Plainview, TX
WASHINGTON - Authorities in cities from coast to coast mobilized a military-style defense of state capitol complexes Sunday, rolling out Humvees, concertina wire and thousands of National Guard troops clad in battlefield helmets to defend against a possible onslaught of rioters whipped up by the baseless claims of the American president.

The assault never came. Despite warnings from the FBI and boasts from armed, far-right extremist groups, security forces in every instance outnumbered scattered groups of demonstrators, and there were no reports of violence.

Yet the show of force - and the reasons behind it - marked an unsettling start to a week that will include the most contentious transfer of presidential power in modern U.S. history. And although Sunday passed peacefully, there was no reason to think that the threat had disappeared, raising questions of whether the escalated response reflected a new American normal.

"I turned around and saw all these soldiers and their trucks, standing there with these frickin' huge guns, and that's just not how it's supposed to be," said Louisa Piper, a nurse who was walking her dog, Sierra, at Utah's Capitol Hill on Sunday morning. "It almost made my cry."

Shortly after sunrise, Utah officials had fortified the Capitol with Humvees and hundreds of National Guard troops. From coast to coast, similar weapons of war created chilling scenes of dysfunction in America's outposts of democracy.

In the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, troops took up elevated positions around the Capitol complex. Law enforcement drones hovered over the capitols in Albany, N.Y., and in Phoenix. And in Kentucky, Humvees and armored personnel carriers were positioned in Frankfort driveways leading to the Capitol. SWAT officers guarding the Capitol in Atlanta were armed with M4 rifles and paintball guns.

The display of firepower at capitols - many normally sleepy and lightly defended - was in direct contrast to the force that was guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when it was breached by a mob of pro-Trump rioters - a scene the nation's governors hoped to avoid being repeated in their states.

They said they did not mind if the precautions they took ended up looking like overkill.

"We have gone to an extreme amount of trouble to prepare for what we hope doesn't happen," Sgt. William Gregory, public affairs commander for the Kentucky State Police said Sunday morning near the steps to the Capitol.

There were no arrests reported related to events in capitols. But in Washington, where most of downtown was essentially locked down ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday, a 22-year-old Virginia man whose Facebook page featured a photo from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested near the Capitol complex Sunday, carrying three high-capacity magazines, 37 rounds of unregistered ammunition and a Glock 22 firearm.

A week after federal officials warned that armed far-right extremist groups were planning to march on capitols, the protests on Sunday were mostly limited to a few dozen people in several states.

Many of the demonstrators appeared to be linked to the "boogaloo boys" movement, a loose collection of anti-government groups who say the country is heading for civil war. The movement includes people who hold a variety of political views, with supporters often saying they support neither President Donald Trump nor Biden.

In Ohio, about a dozen men wearing body armor and carrying AK-47s, AR-15s and extra magazines, identifying themselves as "boogaloos," stood in front of the Capitol in Columbus, telling onlookers not to fear their weapons, saying they were there to "unify" the people.

"Don't let our firearms scare you," Henry Locke told the crowd of about 25, many of them journalists covering the anticipated protests. "Right now, there is too much division going on. . . . Instead of fighting with your neighbors, we need to unify."

In Austin, Texas, an Air Force veteran with political aspirations came to the Capitol with about 10 armed demonstrators Sunday afternoon to push for an end to the two-party political system.

Stephen Hunt, a 25-year-old college student in Abilene, brought a loudspeaker and, wearing a navy suit and a burgundy ascot, spoke to a gathered crowd of about 30 people.

"Let today be the day we reignited the torch of liberty," Hunt said. "It pains me to see this kind of divide."

In Phoenix, fewer than a dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol fortified with two layers of fencing and concertina wire. A few wore Trump paraphernalia or carried guns. One woman walked circles around the Capitol complex, fingering a set of rosary beads and saying the Hail Mary.

Two men who identified themselves as part of the boogaloo movement set up a portable speaker to play what they said was a carefully curated playlist for the day, including the Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and AJR's "Burn the House Down."

Another man, Aaron Kotzbauer, 50, wore a holstered gun and a T-shirt that read "Make America shoot straight again" and said he had come to protest the state's coronavirus restrictions. He blamed the low turnout on apathy.

"I think apathy runs really high in the country, and especially deep in Arizona," said Kotzbauer, adding he had driven 40 minutes from his home in Surprise, just as he has nearly every day for weeks.

Kotzbauer was not happy with Biden's win, but he said national politics were only "an ancillary part" of why he was there; so small "I wouldn't even associate the two."

"I'm not naive enough to say I'm going to have any influence on that," he said of Biden's upcoming inauguration.

In other states where the demonstrations did not materialize, some residents were angered and alarmed that the nation appeared to be sliding toward instability in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

In Atlanta, where dump trucks blocked roads near the Capitol, 47-year-old Latisha Morris said she continues to blame Trump for stoking the nation's division.

"Biden won fair and square!" said Morris. "But then you had all these Trump activists come to the White House. They destroyed the Capitol, broke windows, a cop died of his injuries and a female was shot and killed, all because he told them to do it. Now there's a big ol' mess that has to be cleaned up because of Trump's arrogance."

Morris said she is grateful for the police presence and glad Georgia's golden dome was locked down this weekend. But she wonders whether her neighborhood will remain peaceful.

"People have to work in there every Monday through Friday," Morris said.

At the State Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., Rich Richards and Lindsey Moore took a detour during their morning walk when they saw the building was barricaded by police.

The couple then reflected on how the lockdown coincided with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which symbolizes racial progress and the strife the nation endured during the 1960s.

"Fifty-two years ago was not peaceful either," said Moore, a 36-year-old general contractor who lives in Raleigh. "But what came of that was for the better."

In Denver, where a flock of geese jostled for space with reporters on the steps of the Colorado Capitol, passersby said they worried that the media was adding to the tensions.

"We can oversensationalize something and some part of us wants to see it," said John Barber, 59. "I think we are almost perpetuating or enabling it, until everyone's consciousness starts transcending this - we almost have to wean ourselves off of it."

Federal and state law enforcement officials have stressed that the potential for violence from extremist groups will persist through Biden's inauguration, and probably for months or years to come.

"We're on high alert because of the general volatility," Melvin Carter, mayor of St. Paul, Minn., said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"Our FBI is telling us they are tracking those individuals who they think are - may have been kind of presenting those kind of specific threats," Carter said. "And they're at a space right now where we continue to be on a state of high readiness because this moment is just so insane."

Alexander Reid Ross, an adjunct professor at Portland State University and a research fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right, said it will be difficult for any state to let their guard down soon, given the variety of heavily armed and increasingly militant groups that exist in the country.

After spending the past few days analyzing data of far-right groups and their recent actions, Ross said he believes Salem, Ore.; Austin; Sacramento, Calif.; Richmond, Va.; and Salt Lake City are places where new demonstrations could become especially unruly.

On Sunday in Minnesota, the pro-Trump demonstrators who showed up at the Capitol said they were there to pray.

Just below the Capitol steps, where dozens of state patrol officers in riot gear had formed lines of protection around the building, Becky Strohmeier unfolded a portable chair and unpacked her Bible.

Strohmeier is affiliated with Hold the Line Minnesota, a conservative activism group, and has been holding near-weekly gatherings at the Capitol and the nearby governor's mansion in support of Trump's false claims of election fraud.

As she looked around at the sparse crowd and overwhelming presence of law enforcement, Strohmeier said she worries that conservatives are scared to speak out.

"A lot of people have been threatened. They've been censored. They've been attacked," said Strohmeier, a 33-year-old homemaker. "And all this week we've heard, 'There's threats of violence, there's no threats of violence. There's false flags, there's this, there's that.' I mean, people are afraid they might get arrested just for showing up as a Trump supporter, and that's very scary for a lot of people."

In Ohio, demonstrators affiliated with the boogaloo movement said they will keep holding events to draw attention to their cause. Some expressed lukewarm support for the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week.

"They could've done it a different way - they could've kept it peaceful," said one 27-year-old man who would identify himself only by his nickname, "Prison."

He was carrying an AR-15 rifle.

- - -

Hauslohner reported from Phoenix, Whoriskey reported from Columbus and Bailey reported from St. Paul. The Washington Post's Kayla Ruble in Lansing, Mich.; Jane Gottlieb and Shayna Jacobs in Albany, N.Y.; Brittany Shammas in Tallahassee, Fla.; Matthew David LaPlante in Salt Lake City; Faiz Siddiqui in Sacramento; Christine Spolar and Amy Worden in Harrisburg, Pa.; Alex Horton in Atlanta; Arelis R. Hernandez and Eva Ruth Moravec in Austin, Texas; Carissa Wolf in Boise, Idaho; Jennifer Oldham in Denver; Kathy Lynn Gray in Columbus, Ohio; Haisten Willis in Atlanta; and Maria Sacchetti in Frankfort, Ky., contributed to this report.
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The next round of talks between the government and representatives of protesting farmers on controversial new farm laws was on Monday pushed back by a day to January 20. The Centre said that both sides want to resolve the stalemate at the earliest but it was getting delayed due to involvement of people of other ideologies. The tenth round of talks will now take place at 2 pm in Vigyan Bhawan.

Asserting that the new farm laws are in the interest of the farming community, the government said obstacles do come whenever good things or measures are taken and it is taking longer to resolve the issue as farmers' leaders want a solution their own way. "The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed panel to resolve the crisis is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday. The previous rounds of talks between the government and farmers have failed to reach any concrete results, as protesting unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the new laws, but the government has refused to do so.

Speaking to PTI, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said, "It is different when farmers talk to us directly. When leaders get involved, then it becomes difficult. There could have been early solution had the discussions were held with farmers directly."

Since people of different ideologies have entered into the protest, they want a solution in their own way, he said.

"Both sides want a solution, but they have different points of view and hence it is taking more time. But a definite solution will emerge," he noted. Separately, the Supreme Court told the Centre on Monday that the proposed tractor rally on the Republic Day by protesting farmers is a "law and order" matter and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are protesting for nearly two-months at various Delhi borders against the three farm laws enacted by the central government in September 2020. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while addressing a virtual event, reiterated that the three farm laws will be beneficial for farmers.

"These laws were expected earlier but the previous government could not implement because of pressure. It was the Modi government that took a bold step and brought these laws passed in Parliament... Whenever a good thing happens, there are obstacles," Tomar said. On eve of the tenth round of meeting, a delegation of farmers representing over 270 farmer producer organizations from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Odisha met Rupala and appealed not to repeal the laws.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhury was also present in the meeting. "We support the new laws. We don't want the government to repeal them," Narendra Tomar of Gwalior-based Chambal Agro FPO said after the meeting.
After tragedy, student finds new beginning at UofSC Honors College

Antonia Adams story is filled with tragedy. Its about devastating phone calls, vigils in hospital rooms and more sorrow and gut-wrenching decisions than a college student should ever face. But above all, it is a story of perseverance, about fighting through the uncertainty and sadness with a belief that education can restore confidence and hope.

Its a story that starts in Edgefield County, where Adams grew up in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Peach trees and cow pastures, that was my backyard. Literally, she says.

She had what she calls a normal, middle-class upbringing, born when her mother was 44 and her father was 47. Her parents instilled in her the value of hard work and the importance of education, with her mother earning her college degree with honors at age 60.

Adams thrived in the public schools in her hometown. She was the high school valedictorian and a delegate to Palmetto Girls State. She was involved in band, public speaking competitions and leadership roles. After graduation, she attended a private college, where she considered herself a typical student.

That changed with a visit home during Thanksgiving break during her sophomore year. Her mother, looking sick and thin, revealed that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Adams had just turned 20, and her mother convinced her to return to college for the spring semester, wanting nothing to get in the way of her daughters education.

But the cancer quickly spread and stopped responding to chemotherapy. A phone call in February told Adams she needed to come home, immediately. Her mother was given only a few months to live; she died a couple weeks later, on March 5, 2017, at age 64. The morning after the funeral, her father became very sick. She drove him to the hospital, where doctors found he was bleeding internally, and discovered a tumor on his colon.

He was hospitalized in April, and Adams quickly took responsibility for his care, spending days and nights at the hospital, holding his hand, singing Happy Birthday to him as he turned 68, doing everything to make him comfortable. After consulting with doctors, Adams made the decision to remove her father from life support. He died on May 26, 2017.

After that, I was absolutely hopeless, she says. My mom and dad were my best friends. When I was at college, I called them all the time. We were always together. When they passed away, it was the hardest thing I could ever imagine dealing with.

I want to use my story; to let someone see if you let people have a chance, if they have access to education and resources, they can recover from anything. Antonia Adams

She didnt return to school, and spent the next year managing the estate, figuring out bills and trying to see her way through the chaos. Eventually, she enrolled at Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, South Carolina, and she went to work rebuilding her confidence and dealing with the grief of losing her parents.

A lot of people there reminded me, You absolutely have potential. You will get through this. You have to remember what your mom and dad said. They knew they were dying. My mom said, You will go back to school. My father said the same thing, Youre going to be successful. 

She eased back into her studies and saw she had the strength to continue. She found her path again, finding work at Piedmont Tech as a student employee and a presidential ambassador. She got involved in diversity issues, and eventually was elected president of the student body. She worked at a car dealership to earn money.

She started thinking about her next steps, with her eye on the University of South Carolina. After earning a 3.95 GPA at Piedmont Tech she was accepted into the Darla Moore School of Business and the South Carolina Honors College in the fall of 2020. Her experiences handling her parents estate, dealing with probate court and medical bills, inspired her interest in business and law.

She jumped right into campus life at South Carolina, becoming a peer leader at the Leadership and Service Center. And while she presented at the regional Student Leadership and Diversity Conference on the Columbia campus while she attended Piedmont Tech, this year she is helping to plan the conference as a UofSC student. She is a Gamecock Guide, helping to tell the universitys story on social media channels. She also is part of the Civic Leadership Education and Action Team, involved in voter registration initiatives and sharing election information on campus and online. She earned a 4.0 GPA for the fall semester.

Im doing well in my courses, and I love the business program here and the opportunities for diversity and leadership. Theres so much opportunity for students to have a voice here, she says.

Now 24, she expects to earn her degree in economics with a minor in political science in two years. She then hopes to attend law school at Georgetown University, focusing on public policy law. She thinks a run for public office may even be in her future.

I want to help people like me, who are dealing with unfortunate circumstances. I know how I felt most of the time, trying to figure out the world. Its hard. And I understand that. All it takes is a little bit of hope. Even if you havent put yourself completely together, you can continue to move and continue to progress, she says. Losing my mom and dad opened my eyes. Something like that, it changes everything. I love the idea of going to Washington and helping make those laws for people who are struggling. I want to use my story; to let someone see if you let people have a chance, if they have access to education and resources, they can recover from anything.

I love being involved. I still grieve for my mom and dad. But Im finding my way back again.

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Fledgling mobile developer Savage Game Studios has raised $4.4 million to establish two new studios in Helsinki and Berlin and push ahead with production on its debut project.

As reported by VentureBeat, the investment round was led by Makers Fund with participation from Play Ventures. The cash will also allow Savage to scale up its 10-strong team, which already includes former Rockstar, Rovio, Next Games, and Wargaming veterans.

The company's debut game is a competitive mobile shooter that's looking to carve out a niche by placing less pressure on players than its rivals.

"All of the shooter games, since the start of battle royale boom in 2018, have focused on competitive fast paced gameplay," said Savage co-founder and CEO, Michail Katkoff. "We see there an opening for games that offer an opportunity to play with others and have rewarding sessions without the high pressure of player-versus-player environment."

That as-yet-unnamed title is slated to release in select markets in 2021, by which time Savage hopes to have doubled in size.
Celebrities seem to land themselves in legal trouble one after another, and likewise, Salman Khan is no stranger to it either. The actor, along with Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam Kothari and Sonali Bendre was accused of hunting blackbucks back in 1998, while they were filming Hum Saath Saath Hain. While the stars were acquitted in the case, a petition was initiated for Salman to have a court trial and imprisonment for 5 years. Later, Salman too was acquitted from the case but now, it looks like there are some matters that still remain unresolved.

Salman was asked to appear before the court on January 16 for a hearing, however his lawyer has sought exemption from the hearing due to the pandemic. The court, has also, exempted him once again and asked him to appear on February 6 with regards to the matter. This is the second time that the actor was granted exemption by Sessions Judge Devendra Kachhwaha. Earlier, Salman was asked to appear before the court on December 1, 2020 for the hearing. At the time, the reason for being exempted was also the pandemic. The actors latest absence marks the 17th hearing that he has missed since the case was transferred to the sessions court back in April 2018.

In 2007, Salman spent a week in Jodhpur jail before the court granted him bail. In addition to the accusations of poaching of endangered antelopes under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, a case under sections 3/25 and 3/27 of the Arms Act was filed against Khan for allegedly keeping and using firearms with an expired licence. Prior to that, the actor had also been named in a hit and run case, for which he was later cleared.
WOOD RIVER  Madison County surpassed 400 COVID-19 deaths over the weekend.

According to the Madison County Health Department, five COVID-19 related deaths were recorded since Friday afternoon. Fridays deaths included three women in their 70s, 80s and 90s. The department on Saturday reported the death of a man in his 80s and, on Sunday, the death of another man in his 80s.

As of Monday, the countys COVID-19 death toll was at 404. Mondays county health department figures were not available at presstime.

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) on Monday reported 3,385 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 50 additional deaths. To date, the IDPH has reported 1,072,214 cases, including 18,258 deaths.

On Sunday the county health department announced 182 new confirmed and probable cases, bringing the total to 23,745. The department also reported 1,522 tests on Sunday for a total to date of 216,891 tests.

The three-day positivity rate Sunday was 11.3%. The seven-day rate was 11.61% and the 10-day rate was 11.91%. There were 59 people in Madison County hospitals Sunday, four on ventilators.

There are sometimes discrepancies in the number of cases and deaths reported at the state and local levels, in part because of the volume of cases, and also as each local department forwards the information and it is verified. Local health officials have said the cases eventually reconcile as the reporting catches up.

As of Sunday night, 3,345 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 705 were intensive care unit patients and 392 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests Jan. 11-17 was 5.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity for the same period was 7%.

More Information COVID-19 cases by county Madison - 23,745 (404 deaths) Jersey - 2,172 (37 deaths) Calhoun - 452 (4 death) Greene - 1,201 (41 deaths) Macoupin - 3,987 (96 deaths) Montgomery - 3,038 (38 deaths) St. Clair - 22,191 (387 deaths) Clinton - 5,006 (77 deaths) Bond - 1,735 (19 deaths) Monroe - 3,561 (70 deaths) Randolph - 3,714 (63 deaths) Washington - 1,446 (19 deaths) Source: IDPH and Madison, Macoupin, Calhoun, Jersey & Greene county health departments See More Collapse

Additional cases also were reported Thursday by the IDPH in Jersey, Calhoun, Greene, Macoupin, Montgomery, St. Clair, Clinton, Bond, Monroe, Randolph and Washington counties. An additional death were reported in St. Clair County.

On Monday, the IDPH reported 781,150 doses of vaccine had been delivered to providers in Illinois. About 304,600 doses have been allocated to the federal governments Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 1,085,750.

IDPH on Monday reported a total of 495,563 vaccines administered, including 66,679 for long-term care facilities. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 22,856 doses.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday that the state will begin its next phase of vaccinations against COVID-19  Phase 1B  on Jan. 25. But transition to that phase may take a few weeks, according to Amy Yeager with the Madison County Health Department.

Phase 1B will center on residents age 65 years and older and frontline essential workers, including first responders, education workers like teachers and support staff, childcare workers, grocery store employees and postal service workers.

We are still in Phase 1A, which is healthcare providers and long-term care facility residents and staff, and we project that we will continue to be in Phase 1A through January, Yeager told The Intelligencer. However, many of our long-term care facilities being vaccinated by Walgreens and CVS will continue through February.

The governor made the announcement that he is going to move the state into Phase 1B on Jan. 25, but thats just an indicator that if youre done with Phase 1A, you can move to the next phase, she said. In highly populated counties such as Madison and St. Clair, it might take longer to get through each phase.

She said the countys five hospitals have done a tremendous job of getting the vaccine to healthcare providers, and theyre going to continue to work with us as we move forward.

Were in the process of planning for Phase 1B, which will be people that are 65 and over and people that are on essential worker lists as determined by the state of Illinois, she said. The information we have at this point is on our website (https://www.co.madison.il.us/departments/health/index.php) and our social media and its on the IDPH website (https://www.dph.illinois.gov/sites/default/files/Phases%201A%20and%201B%20of%20Vaccine%20Distribution%20in%20Illinois.pdf) as well.

We want to ask the public for patience, but we also want to give them hope, she said. We have been overwhelmed with how excited Madison County residents are about the vaccine being available and many people want to get it, which is awesome.

Its going to take a while to get this vaccine out and you need a large portion of the community vaccinated to make things better.

For the latest information about COVID-19 or coronavirus resources, visit www.madisonchd.org or Facebook @madisonchd. Also visit www.co.madison.il.us or Facebook @madisoncountyil for more vaccination news and daily updates.

Local and statewide information also is available at www.dph.illinois.gov. Click the coronavirus banner.

For health-related questions about COVID-19, people also can call the IDPH hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday defended vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. against criticisms about the government's procurement and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

Duterte responded to allegations that there may be corruption in the government's deals with Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac after it was initially revealed that it will cost the Philippines 3,629 for two doses of CoronaVac. Officials later clarified that it will cost under 700 for one dose due to government negotiations, but they refused to reveal the exact amount pending the purchase of the shots.

He said corruption is near impossible with the number of officials a procurement contract has to go through.

"Walang magic diyan. Kaya sabi ko nga eh kayong mga doubting Thomases, kung gusto ninyo, kayo na lang. I-surrender namin lahat yung ano ang so far what we have accomplished," he said in a taped speech during the weekly Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting.

[Translation: There is no magic. Those who are questioning, you can do it yourselves. We will surrender everything we have accomplished.]

He said it's a practice in the pharmaceutical industry not to reveal prices of medicines due to varying prices offered to different countries.

Galvez explained the country needs to follow its non-disclosure agreements to vaccine manufacturers to avoid losing its ongoing deals. He cited a report that Malaysia broke its agreements.

"We respect the agreement because mawawalan tayo ng credibility and integrity sa mga (we will lose credibility and integrity to these) companies. Baka mawalan tayo ng vaccine supply (We might lose vaccine supply)," Galvez said.

The vaccine czar also said the Asian Development Bank and World Bank are implementing stringent transparency and anti-corruption clauses in any country's vaccine deal.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, meanwhile, called on the public to trust national government officials in managing the country's COVID-19 vaccination program.

"Pagkatiwalaan naman po natin ang mga opisyal ng ating gobyerno dahil talaga naman pong ipinaglalaban ang interes ng mamamayan at interes po ng gobyerno," he said.

[Translation: Trust your government officials. We are working in the interest of the public and the government.]

Snub Congress probes, officials told

With the Senate and House of Representative's ongoing probes into the government's vaccination program, the President told Galvez to ignore any investigation and proceed with the roadmap he has crafted.

"I'm telling you now, General Galvez: 'Yung game plan niya, sundin niya. (He should follow his game plan.) With or without the investigation, proceed and implement what we plan to do. Never mind about the investigation kasi mas lalong matagalan tayo kung nandiyan na yung bakuna magdating na [It will only lead to delays]," he said.

Some lawmakers questioned the cost and efficacy of the vaccines procured by the national government. Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday demanded transparency on the price negotiations with Sinovac. The government is in talks with the Chinese company to procure 25 million doses of CoronaVac. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said officials will reveal the exact amount per dose after the Philippines inks the procurement agreement.
Food and beverage giant PepsiCo plans to more than double its science-based climate goal, targeting a reduction of absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by more than 40% by 2030. In addition, the company has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, one decade earlier than called for in the Paris Agreement.

Credit: PepsiCo

GLOBAL NPO exerts pressure on FMCG and retail giants to cut plastic usage As You Sow has filed shareholder proposals with 10 leading consumer goods companies and retailers, calling for commitments to absolute cuts in the use of plastic packaging...

Action plan

Credit: PepsiCo

SOUTH AFRICA The PepsiCo Foundation to invest R6m in water and sanitation projects in SA For its inaugural investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, The PepsiCo Foundation will introduce programmes to improve access to water and sanitation for thousands of people in South Africa...

Specifically, PepsiCo plans to reduce absolute GHG emissions across its direct operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 75% and its indirect value chain (Scope 3) by 40% by 2030 (2015 baseline). This action is expected to result in the reduction of more than 26 million metric tonnes of GHG emissions or the equivalent of taking more than five million cars off the road for a full year."The severe impacts from climate change are worsening, and we must accelerate the urgent systemic changes needed to address it," said PepsiCo chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta. "Climate action is core to our business as a global food and beverage leader and propels our PepsiCo Positive journey to deliver positive outcomes for the planet and people. Our ambitious climate goal will guide us on the steep but critical path forward  there is simply no other option but immediate and aggressive action."PepsiCo's sustainability strategy, informed by science-based measures and cost-benefit analysis, focuses on the areas where it can have the most impact, while creating scalable models and partnerships for accelerated progress across the full value chain. The company's emissions target aligns to the Business Ambition for 1.5C pledge and has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative as the most ambitious designation available through their process."We congratulate PepsiCo on setting an emissions reduction target consistent with limiting warming to 1.5C, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement," said Nate Aden, senior associate at World Resources Institute, one of the Science Based Targets initiative partners.PepsiCo's action plan is centered around both mitigation, reducing GHG emissions to decarbonise its operations and supply chain, and resilience, reducing vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change by continuing to incorporate climate risk into business continuity plans. With operations in more than 200 countries and territories around the world and approximately 260,000 employees, the company's emissions reduction plan will be comprehensive across priority areas such as agriculture, packaging, distribution and operations.With agriculture accounting for approximately one-quarter of worldwide GHG emissions and one-third of PepsiCo's emissions, PepsiCo will further scale sustainable agriculture and regenerative practices that help lead to emissions reduction and sequestration, as well as improved soil health and biodiversity, decreased deforestation, and increased productivity for farmers. This includes expanding the company's global network of Demonstration Farms, which provide localised training and tools to implement sustainable practices and improve livelihoods.PepsiCo will lower GHG emissions impact with a continued drive to reduce virgin plastic use and increase recycled content in its packaging.Through the implementation and upgrading of environmentally sustainable manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and distribution sites, similar to the Frito-Lay North America facility in California, the company aims to maximise efficiency in its supply chain, while also adopting zero- and near-zero-emission technologies.PepsiCo said it's implementing "innovative business processes" that enable GHG emissions mitigation, such as its 'Sustainable from the Start' programme, which puts environmental impact decision-making at the heart of product design. Additionally, two internal carbon pricing programmes, one aimed at eliminating the carbon impact of employee business air travel and another at building carbon impact into carrier selection for third party logistics in North America, will help further reinforce climate considerations in PepsiCo's business decisions.From Lay's to Pepsi and Quaker to Tropicana, more and more PepsiCo brands are being made using electricity from a mix of renewable energy sources. In 2020, PepsiCo met its target to source 100% renewable electricity in the U.S. and set a new target to source 100% renewable electricity across all of its company-owned and controlled operations globally by 2030 and across its entire franchise and third-party operations by 2040.PepsiCo is also expected to achieve 100% renewable electricity in Mexico and Australia in 2021, which will bring the total number of countries fully sourcing renewable energy in PepsiCo's direct operations to 15 and address approximately 60% of its direct global electricity needs through renewable sources. Twelve countries in PepsiCo's Europe sector already source 100% renewable electricity.The food company continues to support the growth of new renewable energy generation capacity through power purchase agreements. The company has finalised agreements with renewable energy company rsted for two new wind projects in Texas and Nebraska that will address nearly a quarter of PepsiCo's total U.S. electricity needs."Our climate ambition is at the very heart of accelerating our global sustainability progress, and we are using our scale and reach to build a more sustainable and regenerative global food system," said Jim Andrew, chief sustainability officer, PepsiCo. "It's long overdue that companies move beyond just minimising their environmental impact; they must actively work to improve and regenerate the planet."
Kinahan Cartel lieutenant Ross Browning has put up no defence in a case taken against him by the Criminal Assets Bureau and his lawyer has told the High Court that he has received nothing from him yet.

Senior Counsel Shane Costello told the CAB hearings today that Browning is the main respondent in the case, but he has yet to receive instructions from him.

Proceedings were issued last July, and the case was mentioned in virtual hearings conducted this morning by Justice Alexander Owens.

The court heard that the case is adjourned under agreement to March and a fresh party is looking to be attached to the proceedings to represent the estate of Brownings grandfather Mr Conway who passed away in March 2018.

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The court heard that it was the wishes of Mr Conway to leave property to his daughter Julie Conway who is Ross Brownings mother.

The Sunday World understands that Browning moved to the United Arab Emirates in the months before the CAB proceedings were launched and is often in the company of mob boss Daniel Kinahan.

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The Bureau hope to strip him of a millionaire's fortune including a 1.2-acre private estate in Garristown in County Dublin where he built paddocks, a warehouse that resembled a show-jumping arena and two separate houses along with sites in picturesque Rush.

For years fitness fanatic Browning portrayed himself as an ordinary gym owner and even kept an address at Hardwicke Street flats where he grew up. He followed a spiritual guru, Dr Robert OYoung, and followed a vegan zen life.

Browning has been a top target for both the CAB and the Gardas Drug and Organised Crime Bureau for years and is suspected as being one of the most senior members of the Kinahan Cartel in Ireland.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
John Dixon & Associates is pleased to announce its quarterly Multi-Seller Real Estate Auction on Wednesday, January 27 at 2:00pm. This simulcast auction will feature a total of 23 properties in 16 offerings across five states - California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Mississippi. Half of the offerings are selling at Absolute Auction where you set the price. As a buyer, Absolute means there is no minimum price, no reserve price, and no starting bids!

John Dixon & Associates has found great success in the past conducting multi-seller auctions. This auction will feature a wide array of real estate including a Church selling Absolute in Thomaston, GA; a 39 Slip Condo Marina w/ Declarant Rights selling Absolute in Cristfield, MD; Raw Land on 60.66 acres in Quincy, FL; a Prestigious Estate Home with 9,150 SF on 5 Acres in Auburn, GA; a 35 Acre Industrial Site with wetlands selling Absolute in Stockbridge, GA. 8 Residential lots selling Absolute in Bay St. Louis, MS. Also included in this incredible auction is an investment portfolio with 3 single family residences (selling separately) which are currently rented in Jonesboro, GA. Plus, several commercial and residential land tracts.

The Dixon team will use their time tested and proven live in-person/simulcast online format. This simulcast auction will be conducted on Wednesday, January 27 at 2:00pm. You can bid live at the auction, in person or online. The live auction will be held at the Hampton Inn & Suites located at 2136 Kingston Court, off Delk Road, in Marietta, GA. The Dixon Team is very mindful of the safety of bidders in this pandemic environment, with socially distanced seating in the sale venue and contract room. There will be face masks available for all needed.

A simulcast auction process uses live video and audio streaming so you can watch and hear auctions right as they happen. The simulcast internet streaming technology includes bidding and buying with a single click or swipe, all in real time. After the auction these properties will have a new owner.

The experienced auction professionals at John Dixon & Associates are ready to answer any questions you have regarding the auction process or property specific details. On auction day, the staff will be in attendance to assist you with bidding and any last minute questions. After the auction, our professionals will follow up with you, the closing attorney and the seller to ensure the closings occur in a timely manner.

We encourage you to attend or bid online and take advantage of this golden opportunity. Photos, property details and terms of sale can be found on the auction website JohnDixon.com.

CONTACT

John Dixon

John Dixon & Associates, Auctions & Marketing

800-479-1763 | http://www.johndixon.com
(Image: Reuters)

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is projected to win close to 154-162 seats against the BJPs 98-106 seats in the 294-member house in West Bengal, the ABP-C Voter opinion projections said on January 18. The Congress and Left alliance is likely to get 26-34 seats, it said.

In 2016, the TMC had won the West Bengal election by bagging 211 seats, while the BJP could win just three seats. The Congress and Left had won 76 seats together in 2016.

The TMC will poll 43 percent votes while the BJP will poll 37.5 percent votes, the survey said.

The ABP News conducted an opinion poll along with CVoter for the five poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.

In Tamil Nadu, the UPA (DMK+Congress +others) is projected to sweep polls by winning 162 seats in the 234-member House. The ruling NDA (AIMDMK+BJP+others) is likely to win 64 seats, according to the projections. In 2016, the UPA had won 98 seats while the NDA had won 136 seats.

In Assam, the ruling NDA is projected to return to power with 77 seats against opposition UPAs 40 seats in the 126-member house. AIUDF is projected to get seven seats. In 2016, the NDA had won 73, the UPA had won 36 seats and the AIUDF 13 seats in Assam.

In Kerala, the ruling LDF is projected to return to power with 85 seats while the Opposition's UDF will get 53 seats in the 140-member house. In 2016, LDF won 91 seats and UDF won 47.

In Pudhuchery, the SDA alliance (Congress + DMK) is projected to win 14 of the 30 seats while the NDA will win 16 seats as per the projections. In 2016, SDA had won 17 seats while NDA had won 12 seats in the 30-member House.
Could greater data integration and utilisation help shipowners successfully navigate an increasingly demanding future? Leading Norwegian headquartered shipowners comment on the top day-to-day operational challenges facing them in 2021, and the solution they desire.

1. Environmental efficiency

Its a constant battle, but one were committed to fighting, says Anders Tnnessen, Performance Manager, Hoegh LNG, addressing the one subject that impacts upon every stakeholder within the shipping value chain  sustainability.

Improving the industrys environmental performance is intrinsic to survival: of individual companies, of commercial maritime, and of wider society itself. The IMO has set an ambitious industry wide goal of decarbonisation by 2100, while forward thinking owners are positioning to sit at the vanguard of change, supercharging their own transitions to carbon-neutrality.

Hoegh LNG is in a strong position - thanks to the relatively clean nature of LNG, a modern fleet, and large investments in technology and people to monitor performance and emissions  but that doesnt breed complacency.

Far from it, in fact. We have the responsibility to continually work to reduce our carbon footprint, Tnnessen explains.

Thats good for the environment, but it also makes good business sense  enhancing energy efficiency, lowering costs, and ensuring compliance with both regulatory demands and the requirements of our charterers. It necessitates an on-going process of optimisation; on every vessel, for every day of operations, no matter where they are.

And that, he smiles, is a challenge but a rewarding one delivering real benefits.

For Oslo-based Tnnessen it means his battle is fighting to gather and analyse all relevant performance data for an advanced fleet of 12 vessels, benchmarking individual vessel results to incorporate best practice into a fleet-wide systematic approach.

He explains: Monitoring real-time performance is crucial, checking to identify deviations from expectations and assess exactly what the fleet is doing and how we could do it better.

Theres so many data sources, and so much value to be derived from them, that we need an effective organization and tools to streamline and simplify the process, guiding our ships  and our business  on a path of improvement.

2. Administration

Greater regulatory demands, a competitive commercial landscape, and increasing operational complexity create an environment where documentation and reporting is more essential  and expected  than ever before.

Port authorities, charterers, business stakeholders and a diverse spectrum of interested parties place a heavy burden of proof upon individual vessels and fleets. Torfinn Jlle, Senior Marine Superintendent, and a colleague of Tnnessen, sums it up concisely: Put simply, theres too much administration, he notes. Its definitely one of the main challenges facing crews, and onshore teams, that already shoulder a great deal of responsibility.

Jlle says that a greater integration of systems and data would assist those in his role as much as Tnnessens, making insights easier for his colleague and enabling the possibility of increased automation of tasks for vessel crews and himself.

That would deliver real efficiencies across fleets, he comments, while also improving safety.

Here the Hoegh LNG executive references the increased likelihood of human error when it comes to laborious admin tasks and data input.

One slip of a key can make a big difference, he concludes. The more we avoid that possibility, the better.

3. Proving performance

For owners chartering out vessels, meeting contractual covenants is essential to running a profitable, reputable and successful business. Charter party agreements may have implicit warranties or performance guarantees, with promise of a minimum standard related to fuel consumption and set speed. If this level of performance cannot be achieved, a charterer can potentially submit a performance claim, which could be substantial, eating into a companys bottom line.

In todays harsh trading environment theres simply no room for such excesses, opines Thomas Strand Knudsen of Bergen headquartered Spar Shipping. Knudsen says theres a clear need to both protect profitability, reduce environmental impact and, at the same time, demonstrate integrity.

Good shipping companies invest in building strong relationships with customers, he says, and for Spar that means operating with integrity, trust and transparency. Proving performance is key.

But, it is often easier said than done.

Traditionally, performance is assessed based on a raft of different documentation from vessels, detailing, for instance, average speed, weather and bunker consumption. This requirement places an administrative burden on ships staff, as highlighted by Hoeghs Jlle. Despite the best intentions and efforts of crew, results can sometimes be disputed and the integrity of Masters and bridge teams questioned, as Knudsen explains:

The information is coming from the owners vessel and the owners officers, and a charterer looking to submit a claim may see that as subjective. Ideally, you may like to see third party verification, with no vested interest, and a charterer may refuse to accept an owners report altogether, instead looking to compile their own with a weather company they trust. The owner may, in turn, also have to consult a third party to provide further proof.

Its a time-consuming way of doing business and not necessarily optimal when it comes to building relationships.

A platform capable of channelling various real-time data sources into one system, which then can be used to automatically generate reports, and provide immediate feedback, may be the way forward, the Spar executive suggests. Data provided by respected suppliers, with proven integrity, could potentially provide a solid foundation of proof all at the touch of a button.

In an increasingly connected, digital industry, the less analogue work we are required to do the better, he notes. A system that unequivocally demonstrates performance would be a real step forward.

4. Trouble shooting

The need for digitisation is something Tor Svanes appreciates more than most.

For a supplier perspective on challenges, Svanes, the Founder and CEO of NAVTOR, is a perfect port of call. His company, formed in 2012, has quickly established itself as the leading authority on e-Navigation, delivering innovative products and services to over 6000 vessels  and a wide variety of shipowners  worldwide. Hes used to speaking to owners and, along with his team, devising solutions

to meet demands. He agrees that data and integration is the way forward.

We now have the digital infrastructure to enable safe, reliable and secure real-time data flows between vessels, shore-based offices, and throughout entire organisations, he comments. But you have to be smart when you look at that data to see the big picture. By combining, for instance, weather data with consumption, speed, wave heights, schedules, fleet management data, and sensors throughout vessels you can not only simplify operations and automate tasks, but you can also fine tune performance and, interestingly, trouble shoot when you see deviations from expectations.

This, Svanes stresses, is something that is of particular interest to todays owners.

Here he explains, as Tnnessen hinted, that its challenging to manage multiple, geographically scattered assets, and address issues, from afar. To really understand what is happening and deliver solutions you need to have eyes on the ship and, he says, data can deliver that vision.

If you can integrate real-time navigation and weather data, engine shaft torque, rpm, and so on, you get an accurate insight not just of fuel consumption, but fuel consumption and engine performance under exact conditions and on exact routes. That allows you to benchmark performance, compare vessels and optimise operations across the fleet.

Based on that you could even stream data in real-time to test performance of individual vessels. For example, if you know what rpm should produce a speed of 10knots in good weather conditions, you can set the engine accordingly and monitor ongoing speed. If the speed doesnt meet expectations you may have a hull performance issue, with bio-fouling producing frictional drag, hampering performance, and adding cost both for you, and the environment. You then know its time to schedule hull cleaning.

Voila, he smiles, The trouble is well and truly shot!

Importantly, Svanes adds, better real-time monitoring and data utilisation also enables owners to prevent issues in the first place: for example, by staying ahead of developing weather situations and allowing vessels to prepare for individual port and state requirements, avoiding delays and improving overall compliance.

In short, the NAVTOR chief sees smarter data utilisation and integration as the answer to all of the shipowners top challenges here  from better environmental performance to cutting administration.

Its clearly not a panacea, he remarks in conclusion, but it is a powerful tool for addressing day-to-day challenges and facilitating better fleet wide business decisions.

I firmly believe data will be the key to unlocking smarter shipping, for existing vessels as well as newbuilds. We may not have the systems in place to enable this just yet, but they are on the horizon.

This is the future. This will set a new course for a more sustainable, profitable and efficient shipping industry. For owners and for everybody.--TradeArabia News Service

Southeast Texas residents hoping to get tested today for COVID-19 are in luck.

Hardin County is hosting a state-sponsored testing site at the Old Hardin County Hospital, 440 W. Monroe St. in Kountze.

The clinic will be open until 4 p.m., and preregistration can be done by texting DOCSTX to 41411. Registration also can be done at www.docshealthtesting.com.

Results of the Monday tests are expected to be returned within 72 hours.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitinBain
In an attempt to avoid further attacks by Israeli warplanes, Iranian militias have replaced their flag with that of the Syrian regime reports Asharq Al-Awsat.

Iranian militias have replaced their flags in their military sites and bases located in large areas of eastern Syria, with the flags of the Syrian regime, amid fears of a new Israeli attacks, according to local sources and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Sources in the cities of al-Mayadin and al-Bukamal, in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, said that the IRGC transported ammunition and heavy weapons, including missiles, through refrigerators and trucks carrying Syrian plate numbers, as part of a camouflaged repositioning, days after the heaviest Israeli raids targeted eastern Syria.

Well-informed sources revealed that the Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias continue to change their positions in this geographical area along the Iraqi borders, pointing to suspicious movements of the Iranians and their allies in that region.

According to the Jusoor Center for Studies and Development, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is deployed in 125 locations throughout Syria, distributed over 10 governorates, mainly Daraa in the South, which includes 37 military posts, followed by Damascus and its countryside with 22 sites and Aleppo in the north, with 15 military points and headquarters.

Deir ez-Zor Governorate has 13 Iranian posts, the largest of which are located in the cities of al-Mayadeen and al-Bukamal.

Iran has been one of the largest military forces supporting the ruling regime in Syria, after Russia, since the outbreak of the anti-regime protests in the spring of 2011.

Local activists, SOHR and the Jusoor Center reported that most Iranian fighters in Syria operate within the ranks of the IRGC and are deployed in southern Damascus, the southern countryside of Aleppo, the eastern countryside of Homs, and the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor.

The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
Atomic relaxation lies at the heart of moire metrology: the atoms of the two layers move in search of a stable configuration, forming domains separated by domain walls (illustrated on the left). This kind of analysis allows moire metrology to reach the level of description as shown on the right with great agreement between experiment (top: STM topography) and modelling (bottom).

When two atomically thin layers of a material are stacked and twisted slightly on top of one another, they can develop radically different properties. They may become superconducting or even develop magnetic or electronic properties due to the interaction of their two layers. The challenge for scientists is to find out precisely what happens in these ultra-thin double layers  and how these changes can be induced and tuned. Now a research team from the United States and Germany has developed a groundbreaking method to map the interaction between such layers. The work on their new concept, moire metrology, has been published in Nature Communications.

When two layers of a material are stacked and twisted, they form a large-scale periodic structure, called a moire superlattice. The research team from Columbia and Harvard Universities in the United States and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg and RWTH Aachen explored the atomic landscape and the subtle features of such moire lattices to gain a better understanding of these systems.

The team developed moire metrology as a combined experiment-theory framework and applied it to three representative twisted systems: bilayer graphene, double bilayer graphene and H-stacked MoSe/WSe. Through various imaging techniques and detailed modelling, the researchers deciphered material information imprinted in moire superlattices and gained information about the interaction between the layers that was not accessible thus far by other means. However, moire metrology is not limited to a given material system, but can be used across the field of twisted bilayer structures.

At the heart of moire metrology lies the notion of relaxation. When two atomic layers are placed one on top of the other they do not remain still. In fact, they behave more like deformable membranes, and they stretch and compress in search of stable configurations, based on the interaction between the layers. The authors of this study claim that the information about the interaction is imprinted on top of fine spatial patterns that emerge after the atomic relaxation. They further demonstrate how this information can be extracted for the studied cases, and provide constraints that can guide the future modelling of these systems.

The unprecedented reported sensitivity can be understood from the description of the moire superlattice in terms of a geometric interference pattern of the lattices of the two layers. So just as minute changes between two paths can be resolved by studying the interference pattern of light traveling across each of them (as was remarkably done in the LIGO experiment, for instance), here sub-atomic shifts in atomic position are projected to a measurable large scale spatial pattern.

Beyond the theoretical implications, the team also developed relaxation simulation tools which can help with the modelling and design of non-uniform strain fields in realistic devices. They show remarkable agreement with the experimental results.

The experimental measurements and theoretical modelling were developed and

performed by scientists at Columbia University with theoretical support from the MPSD Hamburg, RWTH Aachen University and Harvard.
Just before a mob ransacked the US Capitol, two Georgia runoff wins for the Democrats ensured a 50-50 balance in the US Senate.

The unexpected new balance of power giving Democrats only the barest control of Congress has big consequences for President-elect Joe Biden, easy confirmation of his Cabinet most importantly, but the road ahead for his ambitious legislative agenda remains complicated and murky.

Republicans remain poised to block most of Mr Bidens proposals, just as they thwarted much of President Barack Obamas efforts on Capitol Hill.

But 50/50 control permits action on special legislation that cannot be filibustered, and momentum for the popular parts of Covid-19 relief could easily propel an early aid bill into law.

 What does Joe Biden get from a 50-50 Senate?

 Nominations

With Democrats chairing committees in the Senate and only needing a majority to win floor votes on nominations, Mr Biden is now assured of sealing confirmation of his Cabinet and judicial picks  including potentially for the Supreme Court.

It also means controversial choices such as Neera Tanden, Mr Bidens pick for budget director, can look ahead to assuming their posts.

After my parents were divorced when I was young, my mother relied on public food and housing programs to get by. Now, Iam being nominated to help ensure those programs are secure, and ensure families like mine can live with dignity. I am beyond honored.  Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 30, 2020

Republicans can slow but not stop nominations.

 Budget reconciliation

Democrats also have the opportunity to pass special budget-related legislation by a simple majority, an often-arcane process that enabled Barack Obama to finish his 2010 health care bill and gave President Donald Trumps Republican allies a failed chance to repeal Obamacare and passage of a tax overhaul bill.

Mr Biden could use this so-called budget reconciliation process to pass more controversial elements of Covid-19 relief with only Democratic votes, repeal some of Mr Trumps tax cuts or make federal health care programmes more generous, for example.

 Setting the agenda

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, he will be majority leader once the two new Georgia senators and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are all sworn into office  now has the opportunity to bring legislation to the floor and force votes.

That could permit passage of 2,000 US dollars direct Covid-19 relief payments and other aid, for instance, and could mean debates on issues like police reform, immigration and climate change.

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But passage of such legislation would require support from Republicans, which gives the minority party enormous leverage.

 What Joe Biden does not get?

 Elimination of the filibuster

Before the November election, pressure had been mounting from the Democratic left to eliminate the filibuster, leading Republicans to charge that Democrats would pack the Supreme Court or give statehood to Democratic strongholds such as the District of Columbia.

In just 14 days, there will be a peaceful transition of power. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were legitimately elected and are our next President and Vice President. It is time to come together and begin to move forward as one nation. God bless the United States of America.  Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) January 7, 2021

Moderate Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he willl block any attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so party progressives may be wasting their breath on this topic now.

 Bipartisanship

Unified control of the government by one party almost invariably drives the two sides apart.

Recent events  hard-won passage of a 900 billion US dollar Covid-19 relief bill and a sweeping override of Mr Trumps veto of the annual defence bill  have been evidence that the vanishing congressional middle can help drive outcomes on Capitol Hill.

This is not who we are.



This is not what we fight for.



This is not American.



This must stop.



Now.  Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) January 6, 2021

But issues like increasing the debt limit instantly become partisan, and the political incentives for many Republicans heading into the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election are to vilify Mr Biden and Democrats controlling Congress.

Expect a short honeymoon for Mr Biden.

 Progressive messaging priorities

A 50-50 Democratic Senate and bare control of the House grant virtually any individual Democrat the ability to gum up the works.

That means impossible-to-pass ideas like Medicare For All and a Green New Deal are not going to be the focus of Mr Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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That could, over time, frustrate liberals and cause them to issue demands related to bills that actually can pass like infrastructure spending and budget reconciliation proposals.
New Delhi:

Terrorists on Saturday attacked SICOP complex at Bijbehara town in south Kashmirs Anantnag district where CRPF and Army troop are stationed.



A gunshot was heard near a CRPF camp on Saturday morning, triggering panic in the area, a police official said. No casualties have been reported so far. However, the area was cordoned off soon after the attack.

He said it was not an attack on the camp, but a bullet fired somewhere. There was no report of any casualty.

J&K-Terrorists attack Complex in Bijbehara where CRPF & Army troops are stationed.No casualties/injuries.Area cordoned off(visuals deferred) pic.twitter.com/o40CadBZhN  ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2017

Earlier, two civilians were killed and a militant was gunned down during an encounter between security forces and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in Anantnag district of south Kashmir on Friday.

The encounter broke out at 10 AM at Arwani village in Bijbehara, 51 km from Srinagar, in which 10 other civilians were injured, while three terrorists were trapped inside a house.

ALSO READ: J&K: 2 civilians, 1 LeT terrorist killed in Anantnag

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The L452R variant of COVID-19 -- being identified by viral genomic sequencing in San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Clara counties -- has been linked to the outbreak at Kaiser Permanente's San Jose Medical Center that led to several dozen infections and possibly one death, as well as other large outbreaks in Santa Clara County.

"In the Kaiser hospital outbreak, we did take a sample of those specimens and sequenced them in our public health lab and, indeed, they are this variant," said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer, in a Zoom press conference Sunday night.

"The fact that this variant was identified in several large outbreaks in our county is a red flag and must be investigated further," Cody said in a statement. "This virus continues to mutate and adapt, and we cannot let down our guard. This news underscores the need for everyone to follow all prevention measures and get vaccinated as soon as they are offered the vaccine."

This variant -- first identified last year in other countries and states, including California -- is different than the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom. As the number of specimens tested to monitor for variant strains has increased at California labs, including UCSF, the 452R variant has been identified more frequently since November, officials from the California Department of Public Health, Santa Clara County and the University of California San Francisco said.

Over the course of a month the variant has increased from 3.8 percent of the cases in California to 25.2 percent, explained Dr. Charles Chiu, UCSF virologist and professor of laboratory medicine, in the press conference. Chiu has been sequencing cases from multiple counties across the state over the past several months as part of the state's SARS-CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing Initiative known as COVIDNet.

Outside of the Bay Area, the L452R variant has been detected in Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and San Luis Obispo counties. Because genomic sequencing is not done equally across the state or country, it is too soon to know how prevalent the 452 variant is statewide, nationally or globally, officials said.

"This variant carries three mutations, including L452R, in the spike protein, which the virus uses to attach to and enter cells, and is the target of the two vaccines that are currently available in the United States," Chiu said in a statement. "Now that we know this variant is on the rise in our local communities, we are prioritizing it for study. Researchers at UCSF and elsewhere will now be able to perform the critical laboratory experiments to determine whether or not this virus is more infectious or affects vaccine performance."

A 20-year-old man who was a passenger of a dirt bike died Sunday evening after a crash threw him from the bike onto the eastbound Bay Bridge and he was struck by a pickup truck, California Highway Patrol San Francisco said.

The accident followed reports Sunday afternoon that several hundred motorcyclists were "running amok" in San Francisco, said CHP SF Public Information Officer Mark Andrews.

Around 5:04 p.m., a group of about 15 bikes splintered from the main group and entered the Bay Bridge heading eastbound, Andrews said, but when the drivers saw CHP patrols set up to monitor for stunts and other sideshow activity, they turned around and started heading the wrong direction.

The splinter group of cyclists exited at the Sterling Street and Fourth Street ramps, traversed downtown San Francisco and re-entered the bridge the wrong way on the Fremont Street onramp, heading eastbound on the upper deck of the westbound Bay Bridge, Andrews said.

Andrews said he attempted to divert the group going against traffic onto the Treasure Island ramp but was unsuccessful, and the cyclists reached the new span of the bridge. The man who was later killed crashed his dirt bike near the incline and was picked up as a passenger on another dirt bike, which turned around and began heading westbound on the bridge and then exited and attempted to hide from police near the Treasure Island tunnel, Andrews said.

To flee police, the dirt-bike driver attempted to jump the median wall, and that caused the passenger to be ejected onto the Bay Bridge, where he was hit by the truck and killed, Andrews said. The driver, who was also injured, has been arrested.

As a result of the collision, two lanes of eastbound I-80 east of the Treasure Island tunnel were shut down for hours Sunday evening, causing major delays. According to CHP, all lanes were reopened as of 9:10 p.m. Sunday.

Oakland Fire Department, San Francisco Fire Department and CHP were on the scene. CHP San Francisco is continuing to investigate the collision.

Three suspects allegedly involved in a Saturday night shooting are currently detained, and evidence, including firearms, has been seized, San Francisco police said Sunday. Five people were shot in the exchange of gunfire, police said.

Officers responding to a shooting report at Eddy and Taylor streets shortly after 9 p.m. determined that at least two groups were involved.

Three victims -- a 37-year-old Oakland man, a 30-year-old Antioch woman, and a 30-year-old Stockton man -- were taken in private vehicles to a hospital in Oakland. All three were listed in non-life-threatening status, police said.

A 44-year-old San Francisco man and an Oakland man of undetermined age were hospitalized in San Francisco with non-life-threatening injuries.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at (415) 575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.

A traffic stop around 12:05 p.m. Sunday on eastbound I-580 at 150th Avenue in San Leandro led to a probable cause search that yielded a fully loaded AR-15, police said.

The AR-15, which had 50-round drum machine with one bullet in the chamber, was found concealed in a bag in the vehicle's backseat, San Leandro police said.

Police also recovered an "It" clown mask and marijuana from the vehicle. The suspect was arrested, transported to jail and booked on multiple drug and weapons violations, officials said.

"This was a great traffic stop that took an illegal and dangerous weapon off the street," San Leandro police wrote on Twitter. "This is another positive outcome in keeping the citizens of San Leandro safe."

Deputies investigating a pharmacy takeover robbery in Castro Valley on Friday uncovered a large cache of weapons, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said.

The robbery was reported at the Walgreens store at 3382 Castro Valley Blvd.

Deputies located a car similar to the one used in the robbery parked at a storage unit facility, officials said, and contacted the driver, whom they found was armed and on probation.

A search of the suspect's storage locker turned up at least seven firearms, including one reported as stolen. "Some were stolen (AK Pistol) and the handguns are full auto with 100 round drums," the office said in a social media post.

As of 7:22 p.m. Sunday, police were at the scene where a vehicle struck a pedestrian near Monterey Highway and Branham Lane East in San Jose. The injuries to the pedestrian are currently life-threatening, police said.

Southbound Monterey Highway is closed to traffic between Skyway Drive and Branham Lane East, police said.

Police are asking drivers to avoid the area and use alternate routes.

A multiple-vehicle collision in San Jose has left two people in critical condition, police said.

San Jose police received the call about a serious collision at southbound Capitol Expressway and Quimby Road at 6:28 p.m.

As of 8:46 p.m., Quimby Road is closed in both directions at this intersection, police said.

A large boulder rolled down onto southbound Highway 17 south of Redwood Estates around 1:05 p.m. Sunday, the California Highway Patrol said. A blue Toyota Prius collided with the boulder and sustained damage, but no one in the car was hurt, officials said.

According to CHP, both lanes of traffic were briefly shut down before the boulder was removed and one lane was reopened. As of 4:47 p.m. Sunday, all lanes on Highway 17 were open.

No arrests were made at a protest Sunday evening in Vacaville during which protestors vandalized the Vacaville Police Department and City Hall, police officials said.

According to police, the protest started as a peaceful demonstration of approximately 40 to 50 people at Andrews Park as part of an ongoing Sunday evening protest with some participants carrying "Black Lives Matters" signs.

As the protestors marched along Merchant Street, witnesses observed some demonstrators spray-painting graffiti on signs on the downtown bridge. The spray-painted messages matched graffiti messages on other buildings in the downtown area.

Protestors arrived at City Hall around 5:30 p.m. and continued to spray-paint graffiti in additions to breaking multiple City Hall windows and a police department door. Demonstrators also broke the windows of two cars with people inside.

The protestors did not enter City Hall or the Police Department.

At Andrews Park later on, police found an abandoned cart with two machetes.

No arrests were made in connection to the protest, but a vehicle associated with the demonstrators with helmets found inside was impounded.

Two Santa Rosa residents were arrested Sunday evening for allegedly firing a firearm and concealing the evidence, Santa Rosa police officials said.

At approximately 7:30 p.m., Santa Rosa police received several reports of the sound of gunshots in the area of Martin Luther King Park, located at 1671 Hendley Street.

Responding officers contacted 27-year-old Francisco Ramirez as he exited the north side of the park, and F. Ramirez fled north along Hendley Street before turning into the driveway of a residence.

Officers pursued F. Ramirez, who exited the driveway and was detained without incident. Officers checked the area F. Ramirez had been and located a handgun and a magazine containing additional live ammunition.

As the investigation continued, officers discovered that F. Ramirez had fired the gun at the park, before which 30-year-old Miguel Ramirez collected the shell casings and evidence of the shooting and discarded these in a trash can.

F. Ramirez and M. Ramirez were both arrested and booked into Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility.

Warm and dry weather conditions persist Monday, with strong winds forecast from early Monday morning through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Monday will be sunny with highs in the 70s, before cooling to the 40s and 50s at night.

A Wind Advisory and a High Wind Warning remain in effect from Monday through Tuesday as strong and possibly damaging offshore winds are expected.

The National Weather Service additionally warns that the dry conditions and strong winds can potentially result in critical fire weather conditions. A Fire Weather Watch is in effect for the Santa Lucia Mountains and Los Padres National Forest down to Monterey County.

Additionally, a High Surf Warning and a Beach Hazards Statement have been issued for the Bay Area's entire coastline through Monday afternoon.

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When President Donald Trump visited the Rio Grande Valley this week, he came to tout the construction of the border wall under his administration.

It was a fitting bookend to his presidency, which began with this promise to build a 30-foot wall between the U.S. and Mexico. His administration completed over 450 miles of construction in these four years  some of this was replacing smaller vehicle fencing in places like Arizona and California, and some is new construction on private property in places like Hidalgo and Starr counties.

None of this wall, however, made it to Laredo, the first border city Trump visited in the run-up to his election, a place where he was told he would be in great danger.

And as Trumps last days in office wane, Laredo will remain untouched by the wall, unless President-elect Joe Biden allows the project to continue.

Four construction contracts have been awarded to build a combined 70 miles of border fencing in Webb and Zapata counties, and one section is nearing construction.

The 14 -mile span from the rail road bridge north to El Pico Water Plant is 90% complete in its design phase. Surveys are still ongoing, along with engineering, environmental and flood plain studies, Laredo Sector Border Patrol Chief Matthew J. Hudak told LMT.

As all the stuff going into that design is completed, that probably should be within a month or two at the most, he said.

The 17-mile stretch from the rail road bridge south to El Cenizo is 60% complete in its design, and the 27 miles from El Cenizo south to San Ygnacio is still in its initial design phase, as is the northernmost 13 miles, from El Pico to the Colombia Bridge.

Only once the design is complete will the federal government start taking action to purchase the property they need, Hudak said, through negotiations with landowners or through imminent domain.

Meanwhile, there are still several landowners along these 70 miles who have not allowed the government the right to access their property to conduct the initial studies needed to complete the design.

Of the 207 landowners, 191 have signed the right of entry, 14 are battling the issue in court and two are still negotiating with the federal government outside of the courts, according to Border Patrol.

Although Biden has promised that not another foot of the border wall will be built once he takes office, he has not made public how he plans to accomplish this.

Laredos Rep. Henry Cuellar wrote a letter to Bidens transition team in December, co-signed by 34 other members of Congress, urging Biden to terminate all existing border wall construction contracts, end the national emergency that Trump declared at the border, dismiss all ongoing condemnation proceedings and prohibit the governments use of waivers to expedite construction while eschewing dozens of federal laws.

Laredos No Border Wall Coalition is offering the Biden administration a simpler, temporary option of a six-month moratorium on all border wall construction.

Its an easier ask, legally speaking, said Melissa Cigarroa, a member of the No Border Wall Coalition. Politically, its not as splashy. ... The administration has a boat load of issues on their plate, we just want it to be easier. But the expectation is, within those six months you cancel those contracts.

The coalition has proffered a resolution to most of the local government entities that own land along the border that lays out their ask. Laredo City Council is the last group to take it up, which theyll do at their meeting on Tuesday.

We will not breathe a sigh of relief until the Biden administration has put a moratorium on all construction, all condemnation and all contracting, Cigarroa said.

Mayor Pete Saenz said he believes its only up to Biden at this point whether construction moves forward or not. But he hopes that if they do cancel the contracts, that the investment in Laredos border security stays in tact. Laredo leaders have long favored an invisible wall approach that involves more technology, cameras and Border Patrol agents on the ground.

Theres a high probability that whatever (Biden) wants, hell get, Saenz said. Its more of a Washington decision. Yes, we can express our wishes and desires here, but those come and go. But well see what council decides.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com

Adekunle Okunuga, a consultant anaesthetist, who was temporarily removed from work for beating his son has been reinstated. Daily Ma...

Adekunle Okunuga, a consultant anaesthetist, who was temporarily removed from work for beating his son has been reinstated.





Daily Mail UK reports that the 59-year-old medical personnel, who was arrested after the incident in June 2014, blamed his cultural upbringing in Nigeria for the act.

He said corporal punishments are common in Nigeria.

Okunuga caned his son for misbehaving in school and made him stand one leg with his arms in the air while he kicked him.





He also caned the boys open palms with a walking stick.

The boy got into trouble in school for not submitting homework, lying to other pupils, using the word rape and for stamping in any injured girl during PE lesson.

In 2015, Okunugas name was ordered to be removed from the medical register after he was found guilty of professional misconduct by a disciplinary panel.

The doctor, who has been working at the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Lagos, is now free to return to work at the University Hospital Coventry.

My actions embarrassed the medical profession and brought it into disrepute and as a member of the medical community, I should be role model. I apologised sincerely to the GMC and the wider public, he was quoted to have said.

My behaviour was born out of my cultural upbringing, I should have known better and I take full responsibility for my actions. If I were to witness a similar occurrence by one of my colleagues, I would be the first to speak up and take action and report it to the appropriate authorities.

I have been working abroad but have always given full disclosure of my sanction to all employers and the relevant medical authorities.

I have attended courses in order to maintain my professional development and am clinically ready to resume practice in the United Kingdom where I could be of tremendous support to the medical community.

After the incident, he was arrested and convicted at Leamington Spa magistrates court for ill treating a child and was sentenced to eight weeks in jail and ordered to complete 160 hours unpaid work.

The boy was temporarily put in foster care and was later returned to his family.
This week: Pitkin Countys front line workers are eligible for the COVID19 vaccine, but can your employer require you to get vaccinated? Also a look at the two back-to-back worldwide ski events Aspen is hosting beginning March 10. Host Alycin Bektesh is joined by Madeleine Osberger, Erica 
Premier League

Arsenal v Newcastle United, 8pm, Sky Sports

An Saol Beo  Ri na nEan

TG4, 7.30pm

A study of the 'king of birds', the eagle, and the challenge to return them to Ireland after almost a century.

RTE Investigates: Stuck in the Rough

RTE One, 9.35pm

A look at the lives of rough sleepers and homeless hostel users, examining the challenges they face and the difficulties in getting off the streets.

RTE Investigates: Stuck in the Rough

Pulling with My Parents

RTE 2, 9.35pm

Coming from a big farming family in Armagh means Annabel is under pressure to deliver some grandchildren (six to be exact) for mum Sandra and dad John.

Pulling With My Parents: Annabel is under pressure to deliver some grandchildren (6 to be exact) for mum Sandra and dad John.

Tyricke is a competitive disco-dancer from Donnycarney, having only recently come out, his aunts are ready to help him make the first move.

Long Lost Family

ITV, 9pm

Phyllis and Kevin Haran contacted Long Lost Family after more than 40 years of searching for their first-born son. The couple fell in love as teenagers in Ireland in the 1970s and a couple of months into their relationship, Phyllis became pregnant. Aware of the scandal this would cause within their Catholic community, they ran away to England to bring up their baby. But, in London, their landlady discovered they were keeping a baby in their flat and gave them less than 24 hours to get out. Homeless, jobless and desperate to put their babys interests first, they agreed through an agency to place their son in the care of a family, with the possibility of adoption if they couldnt find their feet.

Phyllis says: It was very difficult, having him and keeping him for five weeks and then having to give him up. I thought wed get him back again. However, when they found jobs and a flat and returned to retrieve their son, the couple were told by a judge in court that he would be better off staying with the family whod taken him in. Phyllis and Kevin, still together, approached the Long Lost Family team for help.
BJP state president Bandi Sanjay (from right) and Union minister of state G. Kishan Reddy seen at the BJP state executive meeting in Secunderabad on Sunday, along with BJP OBC Morcha president Dr K. Laxman and party MLC N. Ramchander Rao. (DC Photo: S.Surender Reddy)

Hyderabad: Telangana state has become a laughing stock in front of the country for having of K. Chandrashekar Rao as its Chief Minister for he is the only administrator who never comes to work at the Secretariat to run the states administration, said BJPs Telangana state chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Speaking at the BJP executive meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday, Sanjay targeted the Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao for working in, what he alleged, was total contrast to the expectations and aspirations of the people of the state. He further alleged that the CM camp office had become a platform for the land, sand and brick mafia.

CM Rao has reduced Telangana, a surplus budget state at the time of its formation, to a debt-ridden unit, he said, adding that the BJP was the only party which had the wherewithal to put an electoral end to this worst administration ever being run by the TRS.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, instead of working hard to give strength and boost the morale of the people, the Chief Minister slept in his farmhouse, the BJP chief said.

The TRS car (its symbol) has been already punctured by the BJP in the Dubakk and the GHMC elections, so Chandrashekar Rao was protecting himself in office by keeping a Razakar party beside him, said the BJP state chief.

Blasting the false claims of the TRS leaders that during their reign the state of Telangana added 13,500 investments, leading to creation of three lakh jobs, he said, If there had been an iota of truth and even if a partial success was seen on ground as a reality, I would have been obsequious towards KCR and do pooja to him.

Strongly castigating the TRS supremo for destroying caste harmony and for creating rifts between people on caste lines instead of trying to bridge the gaps, Sanjay said, by including Muslims in backward castes, he is stealing the rightful claims of the OBC in their reservation quotas due to them.

He said, In the coming days, once the BJP comes to power, we will show TRS how a government must actually be run and what a Chief Minister and Cabinet who actually works can achieve.

He was also extremely critical of the KCR government for registering false cases against BJP leaders. Such unleashing of police brutality and illegal arrests will not stop the BJPs commitment towards the people or slow down our fight against this corrupt TRS government.

Minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy, who also addressed the gathering, said, The people of Telangana are fed up with the TRS government, which has created a record as the worst administration ever."

Asserting with certitude the likelihood of coming to power of the BJP, Kishan Reddy said, Across the state, discussions have already started amongst common people as to not if but when the BJP government will come in the state to rescue them from the TRS.

Senior IAS and IPS officers are confiding in private that a change in government is definitely going to happen in the coming days. The next two years will be crucial for all of us, even as with each passing day, people are losing faith completely in the TRS government, said Kishan Reddy.

Admonishing the state government for its indifference to propriety, he said, After Independence, there has never been an election in which teachers served as officials during polls. But the TRS government headed by KCR conducted elections for the GHMC without teachers. The KCR government promised to give Rs 10,000 to flood victims after elections, which proved to be yet another broken promise of the TRS

At the call of the BJP, the people defeated KCRs daughter Kavitha and his relative. People of Telangana are waiting for change. By having an alliance with the MIM, the TRS got some seats, else they would have not won 50 plus seats in GHMC, Kishan Reddy said.

The Telangana BJP leaders must take inspiration from the Bengal BJP unit and fight against this government from the ground level up, he said.

Intellectuals across the country are supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under his leadership, the BJP will continue to win more elections and get support from the people. In the upcoming MLC elections, for the BJP to win two seats is important. To achieve this goal, karyakarthas from the grass-root-level to state leadership must work tirelessly to ensure BJPs MLC candidates Ramchander Rao and Premendhar Reddy win, he said.

The BJP will also win the Warangal election. If we had a little more time, the BJP would have given Hyderabad a new mayor, he added.

BJP cadre urged to expose KCR failures

BJP state affairs in-charge Tarun Chugh urged the party cadre to expose the TRS governments failures and corruption and fight against them.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is looting the state under the guise of Bangaru Telangana, and ruling party leaders were grabbing land in the name of development, Chug alleged.

Addressing the partys state executive committee meeting here on Sunday, he said that the people had begun thinking of BJP in power and the party will need to seize the mood and consolidate its position in the State.

The BJP leader criticised the Chief Minister for failing to fill up the over two lakh government jobs.

He made it clear that they will highlight the developments achieved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Reminding that former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had assured to construct Babri Masjid, he said that Modi was honouring his word about constructing Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Chugh said that the Modi government also took a daring decision on Article 370.


Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 20:25:43|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has evacuated around 28,200 nationals since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

"Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Mongolia has evacuated a total of 28,195 nationals on chartered flights, buses or trains from 93 countries across the world," Lkhanaajav Munkhtushig, director general of the consular department at the ministry, said at a press conference.

"We planned to operate two chartered flights to South Korea this month to repatriate 320 more nationals," Munkhtushig added.

As of Monday, 8,433 Mongolians living abroad have expressed their wish to return home, according to the official.

Mongolia entered a heightened state of readiness in February last year to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including the suspension of international passenger flights.

The land-locked Asian country has reported a total of 1,526 COVID-19 cases, among which over 1,100 were locally transmitted.

The country, with a population of 3.3 million, has so far recorded two COVID-19 deaths since its first case was confirmed in March. Enditem
Airborne Network apologised for the 'embarrassing mistake' which had been confirmed by two separate sources

The Parachute Regiment veteran was shocked to find his own obituary published

Colonel Ron Back, 84, who served in the Army for 38 years, said he was completely taken aback when he read his own obituary in the publication. Pictured: Back while serving as a Major

A retired Colonel was shocked to read the 'sad news' of his own death in an Army newsletter.

Colonel Ron Back, 84, who served in the Army for 38 years, said he was completely taken aback when he read his own obituary in the publication.

The father of three had to reassure a number of friends and former comrades that he was in fact alive and well after rumours spread of his demise.

Col Back, who is chairman of his local branch of the Royal British Legion, even got a call from the worried branch secretary to check if he had passed away since they last spoke.

Phyllis Inglis was 'relieved' to hear his voice, having been told of a death notice bearing his name in an Airborne Network newsletter.

Col Back, from New Milton, in Hampshire's New Forest, insists he found the mistake 'rather amusing' and said friends are now comparing his return from the grave to that of Saint Lazarus.

Col Back, who served in the Parachute Regiment, said: 'It was first picked up by a member of the branch, who instantly rang Mrs Inglis saying "why didn't you let me know Ron had died?"

'From what I've heard, the rumour came from a colleague I had served with who now lives in France, who said he heard it from another friend who claimed he had read about my death in a newspaper.

Col Back, from New Milton, in Hampshire's New Forest, insists he found the mistake 'rather amusing' and said friends are now comparing his return from the grave to that of Saint Lazarus

The obituary in the Airborne Network newsletter read: 'Sad news: Col Ron Back died recently. He was born in 1936, commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1955. 'He served in 33rd Light Regiment Royal Artillery, 7th Royal Horse Artillery and was Director of Army Accounts and Quartermaster General in headquarters 44th Parachute Brigade 1970-72'

'I wasn't angry, but instead thought it was rather amusing.

'It's not something everybody gets to do; read their own obituary. The details printed about me were correct - apart from the obvious.

After being told about the obituary, Mrs Inglis had hurriedly phoned him to check whether he had indeed died.

'Mrs Inglis was very pleased I answered the phone. She said "Oh my God - I'm so relieved to hear your voice."'

The secretary said: 'Someone contacted me and said "you're the secretary and you haven't let anyone know that our chairman has died".

'So I rang a committee member and they said it couldn't be true, as they'd spoken to him the day before.

'I phoned Ron and said, "Did you know people think you're dead?" I'm just glad he's OK and we've still got him as our chairman.'

Col Black, who worked for the British embassy in the USA after leaving the Army and also served as the British military advisor for the European Conference on Disarmament, said his wife Patricia, 83, received a number of cards mentioning the obituary.

A spokesman for the Airborne Network apologised for the 'embarrassing mistake' which they said had been confirmed by two separate sources. Pictured: Back in Cyprus prior to the Suez crisis

He added: 'I've spoken to the editor who apologised and said he would make sure he checks his facts more carefully in future.

'It was a bit of a Mark Twain moment - the news of my death is greatly exaggerated.'

When rumours of American writer Twain's death spread in 1897 he confirmed he was in good health in a statement that included the phrase: 'The report of my death was an exaggeration.'

The obituary in the Airborne Network newsletter read: 'Sad news: Col Ron Back died recently. He was born in 1936, commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1955.

'He served in 33rd Light Regiment Royal Artillery, 7th Royal Horse Artillery and was Director of Army Accounts and Quartermaster General in headquarters 44th Parachute Brigade 1970-72.

'He later commanded the Junior Leaders Regiment RA and retired a Colonel in 1991. I have no more details at present.'

A spokesman for the Airborne Network admitted it was an 'embarrassing mistake'.

He said: 'We take announcements of the deaths of veterans or serving members of Airborne Forces very seriously, and although Colonel Back's death was reported to us from two separate sources in good faith it turned out to be an embarrassing mistake.'

He thanked Col Black, who joined the army aged 17, for being 'very gracious' about the error.
Martin Luther King Jr. had traveled to Memphis, Tenn., in late March 1968 to lead a protest march in support of the citys striking sanitation workers. Violence had followed, with police descending on the protesters with billy clubs, mace and tear gas.

The next week, King returned to get court permission for another march. Despite the death threats he had received, and the growing concern for his safety, King pressed to hold a nonviolent demonstration.

On the night of April 3, he delivered what became known as the Ive Been to the Mountaintop speech, in which he said:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I have looked over, and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

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The events of the next day, April 4, 1968, would be seared into the memories of Americans for decades.

Do you remember Kings assassination? Leave your memories in the comments section.

A fallen King

Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of a Memphis motel at approximately the spot where he was shot by an assassin. This picture was taken Wednesday, the day before the shooting, shortly after King arrived in Memphis. Associated Press

The bullet struck him just before dinner time.

King was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel and had turned to grab his coat. Moments later, he lay dying.

The sniper shot him from a building across the street. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist, saw the blood. Ralph Abernathy, the co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, ran to his side. By the time an ambulance had taken King from the motel to St. Josephs Hospital less than two miles away, King was dead.

News spreads

The Los Angeles Times headline. L.A. Times

That evening, Abraham L. Davis was asleep in his Atlanta apartment when the sound of his neighbors television woke him up. It was a news report.

I kept hearing Martin Luther King Jr. and his birthdate. As soon as I turned my TV on, it showed Kings picture, his birthdate and the days date, said Davis, 79. That day is deeply etched in my memory.

The next day was very solemn in Atlanta.

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Davis had trailed King at Morehouse College by 13 years. Though their paths didnt cross as students at the historically black college in Atlanta, they would in the future.

Davis had met King during a protest orientation at an Atlanta church in the early 1960s and saw him again at the March on Washington in 1963.

Years later, he would make another, more personal, connection with the King family when he taught Martin Luther King III in his political science classes at Morehouse. He took more courses under me than any other professor in his major, Davis said. Another student had told Davis of King IIIs presence, which was a surprise but also reflected family tradition: Kings father and brother also attended Morehouse.

Martin Luther King III can you raise your hand? Davis asked him in front of the entire class.

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A day before he was shot, King and his aides walk at the Lorraine Motel, discussing the restraining order King had just received barring him from leading another march in Memphis without court approval. Barney Sellers / Associated Press

Xernona Clayton, a civil rights activist, had grown close to the King family through organizing events and marches for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She learned of Kings death while dining at an Atlanta restaurant when a waitress brought a note to her table. Clayton, not realizing the message was urgent, ignored it. Then the waitress returned.

I hate to interrupt, Clayton recalled her saying, but I got the news that some harm had been done to King in Memphis.

Clayton called the King home in Atlanta but the phone lines were busy. She drove to the house, arriving just as Coretta Scott King was leaving for the airport with Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., accompanied by a police escort. Coretta asked Clayton to stay with Corettas parents and children. Kings wife knew he had been shot but not his condition.

When she got to the airport, she got the message that King had died, Clayton said. Coretta chose not to fly to Memphis and went back to her children.

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When she arrived, the King house on Sunset Avenue was surrounded by well-wishers, reporters and neighbors. She was such a gracious lady, Clayton recalled.

She thanked everyone for their interest and concern.

Clayton, 88, was present when Kings widow received phone calls from President Lyndon B. Johnson and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She was there as Coretta tried speaking to her children about their father.

Coretta did not tell the kids right away that he had died, Clayton said. Coretta told the kids King had been hurt. She couldnt give them the truth just yet.

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Dexter, Kings second son, pleaded for more information about his father. What will I tell my friends at school tomorrow? he asked his mother.

Coretta told Dexter he wasnt going to school the next day. I think your teacher will understand, she said.

Clayton also remembers witnessing a scene with Coretta and her first daughter Yolanda, then 13.

Mommy, were not going to cry because were big girls and we can handle this, Yolanda told her mother, sitting together on a bed. I know you loved him and he loved you. The love will sustain us. Were not gonna cry at all. Despite the brave words, the mother and daughter wept.

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Libby Atwater. Handout

On the opposite coast, Don Atwater had just placed an engagement ring on his fiance Libbys finger. They had received a call from the jewelers that morning informing them that the gold ring was ready.

The couple had met at UCLA. As they drove to Atwaters parents house to celebrate, they turned on the car radio. The sounds of chaos in Memphis and news of Kings death met them.

Much of the joy I felt dissolved as I heard the terrible news, Libby Atwater, 70, said.

Outrage grows

Smoldering ruins remain where a building stood in northwest Washington. Numerous fires accompanied turmoil in the nations capital following Kings assassination. Associated Press

Kings death ignited widespread fury. Riots erupted, curfews were instated and National Guardsman were deployed. Fires raged in parts of Washington, D.C.

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In Chicago, where King had led civil rights marches, a young couple feared for their safety.

Charles and Janice Tyler on their wedding day. Tyler family

Charles, a 28-year-old black man, and Janice, a 25-year-old white woman, were engaged to be married  less than a year after the Supreme Court struck down state laws that banned interracial marriages in Loving vs. Virginia.

The soon-to-be Tylers had already faced discrimination as an interracial couple. As the riots consumed their neighborhoods, a new worry consumed them.

Janice hid in the back of Charles car until they arrived at her apartment. They understood too well the racial division that King had tried to mend.

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When King was assassinated it was traumatic  like losing someone who was fighting for the same things, Charles Tyler, 78, said. It was a traumatic experience for everyone in the country.

John Mackerer. Handout

John Mackerer didnt expect his first service to the United States to be inside the nations capital.

Mackerer, a 23-year-old West Point graduate, was stationed outside Washington with the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment. As Washington burned, he was deployed.

For the next days, we defended our capital from our own citizens.

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Two months later, he would be in Vietnam.

A nation mourns

Kings colleagues pay their respects, from right: Andrew Young, Bernard Lee and Ralph Abernathy. Keystone / Getty Images

King was laid to rest on April 9, 1968.

Thousands gathered outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where a private ceremony was held for the civil rights leader.

Inside, several dignitaries joined Kings widow and children at the service.

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Vice President Hubert Humphrey sat in the first row with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Jacqueline Kennedy, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Harry Belafonte and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy attended. As did three men running for president: Sen. Eugene McCarthy, former Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who would be killed just two months later.

Clayton was there as well. She remembers seeing Kings body at a family viewing the night before, and being appalled at the morticians treatment to his skin.

He looked like someone grabbed a whole glob of red clay and slapped it across his face, Clayton said.

We all wanted him to look good, look natural and like himself, she said. I eased over to the mortician and asked if there was anything you can do to tone down that face. The mortician said, The jaw was blown off! Thats the best I could do.

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The Rev. Ralph Abernathy presides over Kings funeral. Keystone / Getty Images

Growing desperate, Clayton mixed together face powder she borrowed from Coretta and Julie Robinson, then the wife of Harry Belafonte. She mixed the brown and white powder, creating something close to Kings complexion and applied it with a handkerchief. I was trying to make that mark blend in to look more natural. And it worked, Clayton said.

She would apply the mixture twice more: at midnight before he was taken to the church and the next morning before the private funeral.

During the service, a recording was played of one of Kings signature speeches, The Drum Major Instinct. During it, King imagines his own funeral. The speech had been delivered and recorded exactly one month before he was killed.

Every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I dont think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, What is it that I would want said? King is heard saying.

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Id like somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. Id like for somebody to say that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody, he answers.

King eventually is heard giving the often-quoted line: Yes, if you want to say I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice.

Crowds gathered on rooftops near Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta during Kings funeral. Robert Connell / Associated Press

Among those listening in the congregation were Lawrence G. Campbell and his wife, Gloria. The speech had Kings intended effect.

It was not an atmosphere of death, Campbell, 88, said of the funeral. We felt more confident we would overcome the situations before us. It was a feeling for me and others to rejoice, not because of his death but what he died for.

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King had a profound influence on Campbells life.

When I saw that King wanted to develop Christian leaders in the South, we joined him, he said. It gave me the courage and persistence to try to overcome racism.

Campbell, the co-founder and bishop of Bibleway Cathedral in Danville, Va., remembered how King traveled to Danville in 1963 to show solidarity with protesters who were brutally beaten by police officers on what has become known as Bloody Monday. On June 10, 1963, about 40 protesters in Danville were arrested after marching to the municipal building to demand civil rights. Police went after them with billy clubs and fire hoses. Attendees of a prayer vigil later that day also were beaten by officers. More than 60 people were injured, including Gloria Campbell, who suffered a hip injury when hit with the high-powered spray from a fire hose.

King visited Danville the following month and called Bloody Monday one of the worst moments of police brutality hed ever seen. After his visit to Danville, Campbell and local leaders took him to a Holiday Inn in Greensboro, N.C. Thats when Campbell saw a reminder of the perils King faced  a scar on his chest.

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He just chose to relax, and when he took off his shirt, we could see it, Campbell said of the scar.

Seven years earlier, while attending a book signing in Harlem, King was attacked by Izola Curry, who stabbed him with a letter opener. Curry was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and lived in mental institutions until her death in March 2015.

King told Campbell that the letter opener was so deep in his chest, If I had sneezed, I wouldve lost my life.

Kings funeral procession through the streets of Atlanta. Associated Press

After the service, a simple wooden cart carrying Kings casket was pulled by two mules in a four-mile, two-hour procession to Morehouse College. At the gates, the crowd sang We Shall Overcome.

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Davis remembers how younger mourners scrambled to view the procession.

I could see these youngsters climbing the trees so they could get a good spot, he said.

Davis could hardly move in the crowded campus chapel, where the congregation listened to spirituals and then-university President Benjamin Mays eulogy.

When one woman got to the casket, she just stood there crying, Davis said.

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A National Guard soldier in Washington two days after the assassination. Bob Schutz / Associated Press

During Mays eulogy, he addressed the unrest that had caused millions of dollars in damage, prompted the arrests of thousands and left dozens dead. If we love Martin Luther King Jr., and respect him, as this crowd surely testifies, let us see to it that he did not die in vain. Let us see to it that we do not dishonor his name by trying to solve our problems though rioting in the streets, he said.

Mays acknowledged that the uprisings were a reaction to pain and loss. Let us see to it also that the conditions that cause riots are promptly removed, as the president of the United States is trying to do.

He ended his eulogy with a call to action: Permit me to say that Martin Luther King Jr.s unfinished work on earth must truly be our own.

Mary Ann Solari at age 7. Handout

The spring of 1968 was bookended by death.

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Mary Ann Solari came home from school to find her mother and neighbor watching a funeral on TV. The 7-year-old Bostonian was confused  hadnt this program been shown before?

Her mother corrected her.

The first funeral was for King  a man who took on the title of Dr. not far from their home at Boston University.

This funeral was for a different man, her mother explained. His name was Kennedy, and hed grown up just outside Boston.

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Two months separated their deaths, and to this day I remember that somber feeling, Solari, 57, said.

1968 was a year that rarely gave leave to the disheartened.

colleen.shalby@latimes.com

Twitter: @cshalby

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ALSO:

The president was polarizing, even crude. The shocking became routine. Somehow, we survived 1968  or did we?

1968: A timeline of anger, grief and change

Share your memories from 1968

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How 1968, a year of tumultuous events, continues to shape our world
A federal judge last week handed former national security adviser John Bolton a potentially significant win in his ongoing legal battle with the government over his bestselling memoir The Room Where It Happened.

In a January 14 opinion, Judge Royce Lamberth denied the Department of Justices bid for a quick victory in the case, rejecting the governments motion for Summary Judgment without prejudice, while granting Boltons motion for discovery. The decision means Boltons attorneys can now pursue evidence which they insist will show that senior White House officials acted in bad faith by improperly prolonging the pre-publication review process and/or attempting to improperly influence classification decisions.

In its July 30, 2020 motion for Summary Judgment against Bolton, DoJ attorneys had argued that it did not matter whether the government had acted in bad faith by refusing to clear Boltons book for publication, because Bolton had clearly breached his non-disclosure agreement by moving ahead with the book before receiving a formal written clearance, as required by the plain text of the agreements.

Lamberth rejected that contention, however, acknowledging a strong public policy concern in allowing Bolton to pursue his defense.

To hold otherwise would create tremendous moral hazard, because otherwise the government would face effectively no consequences for conducting pre-publication reviews in bad faith, Lamberth wrote. The Court does not countenance any individuals decision to short-circuit pre-publication review and publicly disseminate potentially classified information. But nor does it wish to free the government from all consequences for potential misconduct.

 To hold otherwise would create tremendous moral hazard, because otherwise the government would face effectively no consequences for conducting pre-publication reviews in bad faith. 

If the DoJ had prevailed it would have paved the way for the government to begin the process of seizing Bolton's royalties, including the author's reported $2 million advance. Instead, the case will now proceed to discovery. However, in denying the DoJ's bid "without prejudice," Lamberth left the door open for the DoJ to pursue their bid for Summary Judgment once discovery is complete.

The discovery process could be lengthy and will certainly be complicated. Under Lamberth's order, Bolton's discovery will be limited to "allegations that President Trump or senior White House officials acted in bad faith by intentionally delaying pre-publication review and by attempting to unduly influence classification decisions." And because it involves potentially sensitive information and questions of executive privilege, the process will be closely overseen by the court and rolled out in phases, one at a time, with Bolton required to seek authorization from the court to begin each phase of discovery.

The bigger question, of course, may be whether the DoJ under a new administration will continue to pursue the case against Bolton.

In a letter filed with the court last year, attorneys for Ellen Knight, the National Security Council official who led the pre-publication review of Bolton's book, bolstered Bolton's claims of potential bad faith in the review process. In the19-page letter, Knight confirmed that she had deemed the book clear of classified information after an intensive review process. However, final written approval, she claims, was then withheld by political appointees who later unsuccessfully pressured Knight to change her story, and, when she refused, eventually removed her from her post.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 04:42:48|Editor: huaxia

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QUITO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed, including six minors, when a van veered off the road and into a ravine in the Andean Ecuadorian province of Bolivar, the national emergency service ECU 911 said on Monday.

According to the agency, the accident was reported at 8:33 p.m. local time on Sunday (01:33 GMT on Monday) on El Torneado road, which links the towns of Chimbo and Balsapamba.

The integrated security service said it coordinated a rescue effort between the National Police, the Health Ministry and the Fire Department.

A police report indicated that "a van-like vehicle" was involved in a crash after it appeared to "lose traction and subsequently overturned."

Initially, 11 fatalities were confirmed, but an infant less than 12 months old later died in the hospital from "multiple trauma plus respiratory arrest," the agency said.

Local media said the deceased were members of two families, though authorities have yet to confirm that. Enditem
On Inauguration Day, President-elect Biden and both the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take Oaths of Office at noon, which will be followed by the inaugural address

Joe Biden is all set to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on 20 January. President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths at the West front of the US Capitol for the 59th Presidential Inauguration.

Biden's inauguration will happen amid heightened security concerns after Donald Trump's supporters attacked the US Capitol building on 6 January. The FBI had to vet the 25,000 National Guard troops coming to Washington for the event over concerns regarding an insider attack.

Outgoing president Trump, who alleged fraud in counting votes during the 2020 US President election, will not be attending his successor's inauguration. According to reports, Trump plans to leave Washington on the morning of Inauguration Day.

Here's all you need to know about the Inauguration Day:

On Inauguration Day, both the vice president-elect and president-elect will take Oaths of Office at noon, which will be followed by an inaugural address. The in-person attendance this year has been limited to Congress due to safety protocols. The Bidens will arrive at the White House with a presidential escort, which will consist of representatives from every branch of the military.

Earlier on 19 January, a virtual lightning ceremony honoring American lives lost due to COVID-19 will take place.

Following the Inaugural address on 20 January, the president-elect, first lady, vice president-elect, and second gentleman will participate in a Pass in Review on the East Front with members of the military.

Biden and Harris will then visit Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The event will also be attended by former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, former president George W Bush and Laura Bush, and former president Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton. A 'virtual parade' showcasing communities from across the country will be televised.

The day will come to an end with a 90-minute prime time programe, 'Celebrating America', hosted by Tom Hanks that will include interactions with Biden and Harris.

The show will have performances by Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi and Ant Clemons. There will be special appearances by Bruce Springsteen, the Foo Fighters, John Legend, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington.

The Inauguration Day ceremony will be streamed live on bideninaugural.org. It will also be showed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
Mass testing of whole regions is being considered by No10 to help bring the hated cycle of lockdowns to an end by the spring.

Testing could be used to move the worst-hit areas of the UK down the tiers, which could be implemented as the third national shutdown ends.

One idea under consideration is to send out home testing kits, known as lateral flow tests, to every household in a region so the population can be tested within a week, according to the Telegraph.

Ministers hope that by identifying those who have Covid, the chain of transmission can be broken and case rates can be brought down.

Yesterday Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government is hoping to be able to begin lifting lockdown rules in March.

But he warned there will not be a 'big bang' out of lockdown and 'we'll end up phasing through the tiered approach' with national curbs gradually loosened.

A government source told the Telegraph: 'We are currently concentrating testing around critical workers and we are some way off looking at whether restrictions can be lifted.

'But when decisions are made about lifting restrictions we will look again at whether there would be a further role for mass testing on a wider scale.'

It comes as 10 new vaccine centres are set to open across England today with more than a million over-80s invited to receive their coronavirus jab.

The Government is increasingly bullish about the speed of Britain's vaccination drive, with more than 3.5million people having received their first dose as of Saturday.

In other coronavirus developments:

NHS figures revealed one in six Covid-19 patients in English NHS hospitals arrived without the virus but were infected there since September;

Another 671 deaths were recorded, the highest number for any Sunday of the pandemic so far, along with 38,598 new cases;

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said a patient is being admitted to hospital with coronavirus every 30 seconds;

Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption sparked a row after telling stage 4 bowel cancer sufferer Deborah James on TV that her life was 'less valuable' than other people's;

All travellers arriving in Britain face being forced to quarantine in hotels under plans to further lock down the country's borders;

England rugby star Maro Itoje called for every schoolchild to have a laptop as he vowed to tackle the 'digital divide';

Parks remained packed despite the Prime Minister warning people to 'think twice' before leaving the house;

Mr Raab warned the public it is 'too early' for them to book summer holidays for this year.

Mass testing of whole regions is being considered by No10 to help bring the hated cycle of lockdowns to an end by the spring

A student takes a COVID-19 test at a mass testing site which has re-opened at the University of Hull in East Yorkshire

It comes as a further 671 people have died from Covid-19

Whitehall sources are confident of accelerating the pace of the rollout to a point where four to five million people are receiving their shots each week.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK is 'nearly on the home straight' as 324,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered in the space of 24 hours.

More than 3.5 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a vaccine, with Boris Johnson having hailed those helping the 'fantastic national effort'.

The vaccination bid will be further supported by the new centres opening tomorrow, which NHS England says will offer 'thousands' of jabs every week.

The ten new centres include a rugby ground, a racecourse, a food court and a cathedral and will mean there is at least one hub in each English region.

They will join seven hubs previously opened to support the mass-immunisation programme, as well as 1,000 GP-led surgeries and more than 250 hospitals.

People over 80 who live a 45 minute drive from one of the centres are being offered a vaccination. Around 641,000 invitations were sent out last week and another 380,000 will arrive at people's homes this weekend before another 500,000 letters go out this week. Anyone who cannot travel can wait to be contacted by their GP-led service or hospital.

The hubs will come as welcome news to ministers who have long hailed mass immunisation through jabs as the path to lifting lockdown.

Staff at a COVID-19 mass testing site which has re-opened at the University of Hull in East Yorkshire

Another 704 people have died with Covid-19 in British hospitals, it was announced this afternoon, with 631 of those in England

Ministers 'consider plans to replace council tax and stamp duty with property levy' which would hit Tory Shires hard as Rishi Sunak 'weighs up raising corporation tax' at Budget on March 3 Ministers are considering replacing council tax and stamp duty with a new national property levy which could hit Tory Shire heartlands hard, it was claimed today. The Government is said to be looking at what the impact would be of doing away with the two taxes. But the suggestion of replacing them with a property tax, likely based on the current value of a home, could spark a Conservative rebellion. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak is reportedly weighing up tax hikes at the Budget on March 3 in an attempt to start repairing the damage done to the public finances by the coronavirus crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted ministers to borrow money at record levels in order to prop up UK plc. The UK's national debt continues to climb above 2trillion - its highest level since 1962. Advertisement

Writing in the Sunday Express, Mr Hancock said: 'We can see the way out of this pandemic. We are nearly on the home straight.

'After months of detailed preparations, rigorous scientific scrutiny and an extraordinary amount of patience, we are rolling out two highly effective vaccines, with a third coming in spring and others progressing through clinical trials.

'We're rolling it out to as many vulnerable people as possible and we expect tens of millions of people to be vaccinated by the spring.'

Ministers are urging the public to 'play their part' in supporting the vaccination programme, such as by helping the elderly attend their appointments.

The UK's virus-fighting power was dealt another boost yesterday after the boss of a new state-of-the-art vaccine production factory said it was on standby to tackle any future variants and produce jabs at breakneck speed.

And in a triple lift for vaccination efforts, the Mail on Sunday revealed French drugs firm Valneva is just 'days away' from kick-starting manufacture of its jab on British soil - with the UK set to receive 60million doses.

It comes as new figures show almost a third of recovered Covid patients are readmitted to hospital within five months and up to one in eight die of Covid-related complications.

Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that out of 47,780 people discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent returned to hospital within 140 days and 12.3 per cent died.

The devastating long-term effects of coronavirus can cause many survivors to develop heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions.

Study author Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University, told the Telegraph this was the 'largest study of people discharged from hospital after being admitted with Covid'.

Professor Khunti said: 'People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 per cent have been readmitted, and that's a lot of people. The numbers are so large.'

The study has yet to be peer-reviewed and the alarming statistics are based on initial data.
[January 18, 2021] Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Echoes Reverend Al Sharpton's Calls for the Appointment of Diverse Judges in His Letter to President-elect Joe Biden

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware (CPBD) highlighted Rev. Al Sharpton's letter to President-elect Joe Biden through a print ad in the Delaware News Journal on Sunday in the lead-up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The legendary civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton wrote a letter to President-elect Joe Biden calling for him to usher in a new era of diversity and equity within the United States judicial system, and leave behind the old guard of judges like former Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine Jr. and outgoing Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard as he appoints new federal judges. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005097/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) The letter becomes especially significant as the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Court of Common Pleas have had their Chancellor and Chief Justice resign within the last month. Delaware's Court of Chancery, in its most recent appointment, replaced an open seat by the first African American Justice with a white male. And, Delaware's courts have continued to lag in diversity with only 15% of the judiciary being Black while 60% of the prison population is comprised of Black inmates. In his letter, Sharpton advocates for increased diversity within the federal judiciary, citing statistics on the lack of federal judges representing underrepresented groups, most notably people of color. He also challenges President-elect Biden to reduce racial disparity in the criminal justice system by addressing the disproportionate numbers of incarcerated African Americans, writing: Dear President-elect Biden, First, I wish to congratulate you and your family on winning one of the most historic and consequential elections in American history. Second, as a lifelong civil rights activist, I am writing to you today to urge you, in your role as President, to take serious measures to seek out and appoint judges to all levels of our nation's federal justice system that represent minority communities. As you well know, the damage done to the fabric of our nation's institutions by President Trump has left countless Americans feeling as though their government does not represent them, but rather the interests of the few and powerful. Synonymous with that feeling, and the deeply embedded hopelessness President Trump has instilled in our nation over the last four years, has been a keen sense that he is not the least bit interested in what Americans think or feel. And as his record has shown, he is not the least bit interested in building a government that is reflective of the diversity of our great nation. Following Justice Barrett's appointment to the Supreme Court, there is now just one Black and one Hispanic jurist on the same court tat upheld 'separate but equal' treatment of Americans based on race until the 1950s. In the past few decades, the Court has also made decisions granting law enforcement qualified immunity from prosecution, eroding education funding for schools in low-income neighborhoods, and eviscerating the Voting Rights Act -- all of which are critical legal doctrines that have disproportionately impacted the lives of American minorities for the worse.



But the Supreme Court is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the Center for American Progress, in 2019, more than 70% of sitting federal judges are men and 80% are white, while just 10% were Black and 6% Hispanic. Moreover, per a 2015 survey, nearly 83% of all federal law clerks - highly sought positions critical for anyone hoping to rise through the legal ranks - were also white. This is a direct extension of the fact that most law schools are also severely lacking in racial diversity. And despite efforts at many of those top universities to admit more law students of color, in 2019, only 12.7% of law students were Hispanic and just 7.8% were Black. The results of this state of affairs should shock no one. From the top down, without ever being given the opportunity to rise through the ranks of the legal field, communities of color have effectively been denied representation in our nation's judiciary. The consequences have been dire.

Nationwide, 38% of prisoners are Black and 21% are Hispanic, despite making up just 13% and 18% of the population respectively. In your home state of Delaware, for example: 56% of the incarcerated population is Black despite making up just 23% of the state's population. At the same time, people of color make up only 15% of the judges on Delaware's highest courts. As you move to fill vacancies on federal courts, it is my sincere hope that you leave Delaware's old guard of judges who fail to represent the diversity of the state, like Chancellor Andre Bouchard and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine, behind. A failure of diverse representation is a foundational flaw that exists in every pillar of our nation's legal structures - a flaw so deep that it has sown seeds of distrust in minority communities for decades. As a result of the unending body of evidence that people of color receive unequal treatment under the law, 87% of Black Americans believe they are treated less fairly than their white neighbors. But for our nation's judicial institutions to be legitimate, the public needs to trust them, and for that trust to exist, those institutions must reflect America's diversity. As we work to rebuild our justice system more equitably, we must break down the barriers that have disenfranchised people of color from leading within it. Throughout my life, I have seen countless Americans victimized by our undeniably broken criminal justice system. Which is why I challenge you to address the overwhelming racial disparities in our justice system by using your role as President of the United States to build a truly inclusive federal judiciary. We need structural reform at every level of the judiciary system, and we need to start now by radically reimagining the justice system, beginning at the top so it may trickle down. So today I challenge you to give us hope. America needs and deserves a substantially more equal representation of minority groups in the courts, and we need a president who supports bold leaders who will successfully guide us through these trying times. This is a call to action to encourage change and finally break the mold in our justice system. We need our courts to have an equal representation of the forgotten and overlooked communities in our country. We need the brilliant minds who have passionate and well sought-after plans to finally have a seat at the table under your lead. It's time for our courts to represent the people. Said Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey, "For too long, we as a country have allowed our judiciary to be run by the privileged for the privileged, leading to unequal treatment of communities of color, especially Black Americans. Nowhere is this more evident than in President-elect Biden's home state of Delaware. Today, as we honor one of the greatest civil rights leaders in our history, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is especially important to amplify Rev. Sharpton's message in President-elect Biden's home state of Delaware and across the country." "We are proud to highlight Rev. Sharpton's work in the Delaware News Journal. Rather than appointing members of Delaware's 'old boys' club' like Chancellor Andre Bouchard or former Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine to federal judgeships, we hope that President-elect Biden follows through on his commitment to diversity by appointing people of color to the nation's most consequential courts. And, we call on Governor Carney to correct his commitment to the status quo and fill Andre Bouchard's seat with a person of color so that the Chancery can once again represent more than just white people." Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 5,000 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect, as well as concerned Delaware residents, business executives and others. They formed in April of 2016 to focus on raising awareness with Delaware residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders about the unprecedented forced sale of TransPerfect. While their primary goal of saving the company has been accomplished, they continue their efforts to fight for more transparency in the Delaware Chancery Court. For more information on Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware or to join the cause, visit DelawareForBusiness.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005097/en/

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Former Union minister told a Delhi court on Monday that harm to his reputation was done by journalist Priya Ramani as she instigated and ignited the flame first when she accused him of sexual misconduct that allegedly took place decades ago.

Akbar was replying to Ramani's argument that she was not alone but many women journalists have accused him of sexual miscount but he filed a defamation complaint only against her.

Akbar made the submission before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar through senior advocate Geeta Luthra during the final hearing in a criminal complaint filed by him against Ramani for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct, when he was a journalist more than 20 years ago.

Ramani had made allegation of sexual misconduct against Akbar in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018.

It doesn't matter what people say post facto. Harm is done by the man who instigates and ignites the flame first, Luthra told the court.

She said there was no public interest in Ramani's allegation.

There is no public interest. There is no good faith. There is just some other motive. It is not for me to state it, she said.

She added that it is vindictive and actuated out of malice. The fact is your can just spoil a person's reputation.

The court will further hear the matter on January 23.

Akbar had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Ramani in October 15, 2018.

He resigned as Union minister on October 17, 2018.

Akbar had earlier told the court that Ramani had defamed him by calling him with adjectives such as 'media's biggest predator' that harmed his reputation.

He has denied all the allegations of sexual harassment against the women who came forward during #MeToo campaign against him.

Over 20 women came up with accounts of the alleged sexual harassment by Akbar while they were working as journalists under him.

He termed the allegations false, fabricated and deeply distressing and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.
Two dozen Indian sailors stranded on ships carrying Australian coal will reach land for the first time in seven months on Monday night, as scores of others remain in limbo in Chinese waters.

The Jag Anand had been stuck off the Chinese port of Caofeidian since June but a breakthrough last week after months of lobbying from the Indian government, unions and the ship's owner, Great Eastern Shipping, saw the vessel and its 23 crew members granted passage to Japan.

The Jag Anand crew.

The sailors had been trapped in the middle of a trade dispute between Australia and China which has seen up to $4 billion in Australian coal imports blocked and Chinese importers refuse to sell their product elsewhere at reduced prices. China has slapped import restrictions on key Australian exports after multiple disputes over the coronavirus, national security and human rights.

"Our seafarers who were discharging their professional duties were caught in a political war between Australia and China," said Abdulgani Serang, the general secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India.
RIF Trust, part of the Latitude Group, an international leading residency and citizenship by investment advisory, expanded to Morocco through their partnership with SLS Groupe.

This move is in line with RIF Trusts strategic global expansion plans and lays the foundation for future development in North Africa.

On December 7, 2020, in the presence of Ian M. Queeley, Ambassador of the Embassies of Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Morocco, RIF Trusts CEO and Vice Chairman of the Latitude Group Mimoun A. Assraoui signed an agreement with SLS Groupe, represented by Hassan Naciri, the Regional Manager of French Speaking Countries.

Naciri will lead a team of local consultants at SLS Groupe supported by RIF Trusts international expertise to advise high-net-worth individuals and their families seeking second passport or EU residency solutions throughout Morocco and the wider North African market.

The new office is based in Casablanca, the economic capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, to provide premium assistance for clients that are seeking visa-free travel to over 140 countries, including the UK and EU Schengen Area, through second citizenship or residency by investment.

Following the signature ceremony, Assraoui and Naciri hosted a small seminar for a private group of 20 Moroccans at the Hotel Casablanca explaining the benefits, process, and legality of obtaining Caribbean citizenship and EU residency through investment.

Mimoun Assraoui, RIF Trusts CEO and Vice Chairman of Latitude Group, said: As a proud Moroccan citizen, I am pleased to announce RIF Trusts expansion in Morocco. This agreement with the SLS Groupe is crucial to serve the increasing demand for EU residency and second citizenship in Morocco and North Africa. Morocco has a population of 36 million citizens and boasts 4,800 millionaires  half of which resides in Casablanca. It is also one of the key trade routes from Europe to Africa. Our new office will help Moroccan high-net-worth-individuals and their families become global citizens and expand their business and lifestyle far beyond their borders."

SLS Groupe is an international company with more than 30 years of legal expertise in citizenship by investment, emigration consultancy, and is a registered consultant in several countries worldwide, including Canada. - TradeArabia News Service
Navalny to be detained for 30 days - judge

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17:07 18/01/2021

MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI)  A judge of the Khimki Town Court in the Moscow Region on Monday ordered Alexey Navalny to be detained until February 15, the bloggers defense lawyer Vadim Kobzev told RAPSI.

The hearing was held in a police division of the Khimki Regional Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On Sunday, the blogger was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport on his return from Germany based on the search warrant issued in late December.

In December 2014, he received a 3.5-year suspended sentence, a 500,000-ruble fine for embezzlement and 5-year probation after the sentence is served. In August 2017, probation was extended for a year.

In late December 2020, FSIN officials warned Navalny of the possible replacement of his suspended sentence with a real prison term because of breaching obligations imposed by court and evasion of the penitentiary control.

According to the penitentiary authorities, Navalny left a German hospital yet in September. However, he has failed to appear in a correctional inspection as necessary since then.

On August 20, a plane departed from Tomsk to Moscow with Navalny onboard urgently landed in Omsk after the blogger became heartily sick. He was taken to a hospital in coma. Later, he was transported to Berlin. Russian medics said no poison was found in his body.

Currently, the blogger is also a defendant in two other criminal cases: over fraud and defamation against war veteran Ignat Artemenko.
(Natural News) In my last column, I described how I have come to better understand the moral problem of the good German, the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime.

(Article by Dennis Prager republished from PJMedia.com)

Watching America accept the rationally and morally indefensible physical and economic lockdown of the country, I concluded: Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America.

In one week, it has gotten worse. Now we are faced with a lockdown on speech the likes of which have never been seen in America. And the parallels with Germany are even more stark. The left-wing party (the Democrats) and the left-wing media (the mainstream media) are using the mob invasion of the Capitol exactly the way the Nazis used the Reichstag fire.

On Feb. 27, 1933, exactly one month after the Nazis came to power, the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set ablaze. The Nazis blamed the fire on their archenemy, the communists, and used the fire to essentially extinguish the Communist Party and its ability to publish, speak or otherwise spread its message. Using the Reichstag fire as an excuse, the Nazis passed the Enabling Act, a law that gave the Nazi chancellor, Adolf Hitler, the power to pass laws by decree  without the Reichstag.

Now to America 2021.

On Jan. 6, 2021, a right-wing mob of a few hundred people broke away from a peaceful right-wing protest involving tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of American conservatives and forced its way into the U.S. Capitol. One Capitol policeman was killed after being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, and one of the right-wing Capitol invaders was shot by a Capitol police officer. (A handful of others who died in the vicinity of the Capitol did so of nonviolent causes.) Aside from smashed windows, the mob seems to have done little damage to the Capitol. Their intent is still not clear. It seems to have been largely catharsis. They hurt no legislators, and if they intended to overthrow the government, they were delusional.

Beginning the next day, the American left used the Capitol mob just as the Nazis used the Reichstag: as an excuse to subjugate its conservative enemies and further squelch civil liberties in America  specifically, freedom of speech.

Twitter not only permanently banned the account of president of the United States but permanently banned him from Twitter. Any Twitter account found tweeting Donald Trump was permanently banned.

The left was able to do all this not only by using the Capitol mob incident but also by engaging in a series of lies.

The first was blaming the attack on President Donald Trump. Over and over, in every left-wing medium and stated repeatedly by Democrats, Trump is blamed for inciting the riot in his speech just before it took place. Almost never is a Trump quote cited. Because there is none. On the contrary, he did say, I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard (italics added).

Another lie was the immediate labeling of the mob attack on the Capitol as insurrection. All left-wing media and Democrats now refer to the event as an insurrection, a term defined by almost every dictionary as an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government. As morally repulsive as the actions of the mob were, they did not constitute a revolt against civil authority or an established government. Disrupting the work of legislators for a few hours  as wrong as that was  does not constitute a revolt.

But what proves the lefts insurrection label is a lie is that Democrats and their media never once labeled the left-wing riots of 2020  which involved the destruction by fire and/or occupation and vandalizing of police stations, and the establishment of autonomous zones, which, by definition, revolted against established governments  as an insurrection. The enormous number of businesses burned down, looted or otherwise destroyed was barely covered by the mainstream media, and their violent perpetrators were almost never prosecuted, let alone condemned, as engaging in an insurrection.

Dozens of people were killed in these riots, yet there was more outcry and condemnation against the hourslong occupation of the U.S. Capitol than against six months of left-wing violent riots.

Then, like the Nazi regime after the Reichstag fire, the left immediately moved to further curtail civil liberties, specifically conservatives ability to promote their ideas. Twitter and Amazon made it impossible for the alternative to Twitter, Parler, to exist, all in the name of preventing another right-wing insurrection.

In the name of the Capitol insurrection, the Democrats announced they would impeach the president of the United States, though he had only 14 days left in office.

In the name of the Capitol insurrection, the editor of Forbes, Randall Lane, announced that Forbes media was holding those who lied for Trump accountable in what he called a truth reckoning: Hire any of Trumps (press secretaries), Lane warned, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie.

In the name of the Capitol mob attack, 159 law professors at Chapman University have called for the firing of John Eastman, a tenured fellow law professor and holder of an endowed chair at Chapman  because his actions Wednesday (that) helped incite a riot. Eastman had spoken at the Trump rally.

The professors ended their Los Angeles Times letter: He does not belong on our campus.

Words well chosen.

What the left is doing is announcing  and enforcing  that conservatives do not belong in our society. The parallels to 1933 are precise. And most good Americans are keeping silent, just as did most Germans. Though they do not risk being beaten up, are Americans in 2021 as afraid of the American left as Germans in 1933 were of the German fascists? Were about to find out.

Read more at: PJMedia.com
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expects that the law on the introduction of the fully-funded pension system in Ukraine will be adopted in 2021.

"We and the Ministry of Social Policy have fully developed a strategy for introducing a funded pension system. We discussed it and agreed on all the nuances with the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada. Now this issue is in the legislative plane. The bill has been prepared, we will ask parliamentarians to adopt it as soon as possible so that this year this funded pension system was introduced," Shmyhal said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The prime minister said that Ukraine needs the funded pension system and considers it unacceptable that over 30 years of independence this has not been done.

"Another crime, in my opinion, is the absence of a civilized stock market in Ukraine. There is a presentation prepared by the National Securities and Stock Markets Commission in cooperation with USAID, EBRD and the American Chamber of Commerce. They are ready to provide funding," he added.

According to Shmyhal, a memorandum will be signed in the near future, after which its implementation will begin. "We want the normal stock market to start working in a year. But there is a lot of legislative work. Therefore, taking into account all the nuances of the bureaucracy, it may take three years for its full-fledged work," the prime minister said.
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Lockdown seemed to be a remote concept on Sunday as jet-setting Demi Rose enjoyed another day in Ibiza.

While most Brits are adjusting to further lifestyle restrictions in the fight against COVID-19, the voluptuous model has been racking up the air miles with work assignments in Africa and Spain.

And taking to Instagram as the weekend drew to a close, Demi, 25, showed off her famous curves while indulging herself with a cruise across Ibiza's picturesque coastline.

Island life: Demi Rose showed off her famous curves while indulging herself with a cruise across Ibiza's picturesque coastline on Sunday

Sporting a distinctive orange bikini, the carefree brunette struck a pose on her rented yacht's top deck as it sailed around the Balearic party island.

Captioning the image, she wrote: 'Island life.'

On Friday Demi set pulses racing once more on Friday as she appeared to wear nothing more than a cardigan during her Ibiza getaway.

Here we go: On Friday Demi set pulses racing once more on Friday as she appeared to wear nothing more than a cardigan during her Ibiza getaway

The model displayed her ample assets in the unbuttoned garment from BoohooMAN as she sipped on tea in front of the glorious Spanish sunset.

She swept her raven tresses back in a chic updo and she enhanced her visage with soft make-up while resting her legs on an outdoor sofa.

Demi is spending lockdown in Ibiza following a recent trip to Kenya, and has been posting positive mantras amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She recently shared: 'I woke up. I have clothes to wear. I have running water. I have food to eat. Life is good. I am thankful.'

Feeling reflective: The Instagram sensation is currently spending lockdown in Ibiza and has been posting positive mantras amid the coronavirus pandemic

The brunette beauty recently opened up to MailOnline about how she shot to stardom at the age of 14 after being bullied in school.

She recalled: 'I was bullied in school, I wanted to make friends outside of it so I ended up spending a lot of time online.

'I was even interested in virtual reality as a kid, I was always on the computer and then MySpace came around and I found my calling.'

Demi experienced her first taste of fame when pictures of her on the beach as a young teenager went viral on the social media platform.

She added: 'I only ever got Instagram because someone made a fake profile of me on there with 3,000 followers and I was really envious.

'I was like, "wow, how can someone using my pictures get that much?" And then I started an account and it went from there.'

From the age of 18, the bombshell - who currently boasts more than 15.6m followers - signed with a modelling agency and her career went from strength to strength.

However, while still studying to become a beauty therapist, she recalled how teachers would congregate to gossip and speak disapprovingly about her work.

She reflected: 'I never found my place in school, people were quite nasty and I guess I was just different, people were drawn to picking on me and since leaving, I've blossomed.

Candid: Demi recently opened up to MailOnline about how she shot to stardom at the age of 14 after being bullied in school

'Now I just block out any negative comments, I can't see anything that I don't want to see because I don't want that to impact my own thoughts about myself. I've had to grow a very thick skin.'

Despite putting the past behind her and learning to cope with disparaging comments, Demi admitted that she still has moments where she struggles with her own body confidence.

She has previously admitted to trying non-surgical procedures including a cellulite reduction treatment, however the Instagram model is focused on cultivating beauty from within and credits her healthy lifestyle as the secret to staying on top form.

Demi added: 'I'm comfortable in my skin, but I'm never going to be 100% happy because everyone wants to be a certain way and we all have our own hang-ups, but I work out five to six times a week for my general health and wellbeing.'
Stephen Bear was pictured with his secret girlfriend who is 13 years his junior hours after being arrested for revenge porn.

The former reality star, 31, emerged from his Essex home on Saturday accompanied by on-off lover Tia McAlister, 18, following his arrest at London's Heathrow Airport.

A source told MailOnline Tia, who's a beauty therapist from Slough and turned 18 earlier this month, has been seeing Stephen for over a year and the pair has matching star sign tattoos, as they're both Capricorns.

In a relationship: Stephen Bear was pictured on Saturday with his secret girlfriend who is 13 years his junior hours after being arrested for revenge porn

'Bear and Tia have been seeing each other on and off for over a year now,' a source explained.

'They got matching star sign tattoos to signify their love while Bear also got an inking of Tia's face on his back.

'The couple went on holiday together in October but had spent some time apart after Bear went to Dubai towards the end of 2020.

'Tia met up with Bear the first opportunity she had after he was released from custody on Saturday and is standing by him amid the allegations.'

'Standing by him': The former reality star, 31, emerged from his Essex home this weekend accompanied by on-off lover Tia McAlister, 18, following his arrest at Heathrow

Rule break?: The pair met despite the fact Bear should have been adhering to isolation laws given he had flown from Dubai after the UAE was removed from the UK's quarantine list

Tia celebrated turning 18 on January 5 while Stephen's 31st birthday was on Friday, the day he travelled from Dubai to the UK and was arrested.

It is believed Stephen met Tia, who recently completed a hairdressing course at Langley College, when she was 16.

Stephen and Tia saw each other on Saturday and visited a Marks & Spencer despite the fact Bear should have been following isolation laws given he had flown from Dubai after the UAE was removed from the UK's quarantine list.

The former Celebrity Big Brother star was taken into custody at Heathrow for allegedly filming himself having sex with his ex-girlfriend Georgia Harrison, 26, without her knowledge and sharing the explicit content online.

Matching tats: Tia and Bear are said to have matching star sign tattoos as they're both Capricorns, with the beauty therapist showing off her inking in a recent Instagram post

Spotted: Tia celebrated turning 18 on January 5 while Stephen's 31st birthday was on Friday, the day he travelled from Dubai to the UK and was arrested

Love Islander Georgia accused Stephen of revenge porn in December when she said on social media he had secretly recorded them being intimate on CCTV cameras at his home, with Bear issuing a denial at the time insisting the claim was not true.

On Sunday, Georgia thanked 'everyone that has reached out over the last few days' and said 'you have no idea how much it means to me.'

In a statement, she said: 'I am passionate about supporting victims of revenge porn and hopefully by coming forward it will give others the courage to do the same.'

Georgia, who's currently living in Dubai, was pictured looking distressed on the beach as she looked at her phone following the news of Stephen's arrest.

Couple: It is believed Stephen met Tia, who recently completed a hairdressing course at Langley College, when she was 16 and the pair enjoyed their first holiday together in October

The Love Island star believes Stephen showed an intimate recording of her to at least 'two friends' and claims the footage was widely shared on WhatsApp.

She also alleges Stephen shared screenshots of the video to followers on his OnlyFans account, but he denied it was her.

Essex Police confirmed to MailOnline on Friday: 'A man has been arrested in connection with an investigation into the disclosure of sexual photographs without consent.

'The 31-year-old man from Loughton was arrested on Friday 15 January on suspicious of disclosing private sexual photographs or films without consent with intent to cause distress harassment, and obstructing a police officer.'

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Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has asked bosses at the Coombe hospital in Dublin for a full account after it emerged that Covid-19 vaccinations were given to relatives of staff members (Niall Carson/PA)

The health minister has asked bosses at the Coombe hospital in Dublin for a full account after it emerged that Covid-19 vaccinations were given to family members of staff.

The relatives of employees at the south Dublin hospital were vaccinated with doses left over from a batch.

Stephen Donnelly said he will speak with the chairman of the Coombe Hospital board about the matter.

Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened Health Minister Stephen Donnelly

A spokeswoman for the hospital said 16 doses of the vaccine were left after 1,100 frontline workers, including GPs and community health staff, were vaccinated.

The hospital said that, of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 and the other seven were of varying ages.

The hospital said the doses would have been thrown out if they had not been administered.

In a statement issued on Monday morning, Mr Donnelly said he found out about it on Sunday night.

He said: I was made aware on Sunday night of a situation with regard to the administration of vaccines on Friday January 8, at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin.

Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened.

Expand Close A man crosses Middle Abbey street in Dublins city centre as Ireland remains in lockdown (Brian Lawless/PA) PA / Facebook

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Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets out a priority list for vaccination  and thats currently for frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long-term residential care facilities.

It does not include family members of healthcare workers.

I will be speaking with the chair of the Coombe Hospital Board for a full account.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said he was very concerned at what happened at the Coombe hospital.

Speaking at Government Buildings on Monday, Mr Harris said he found it hard to understand that there were spare vaccines.

I have been reading different schools of thought on this during the day and I think some of them are little bit disingenuous, he added.

There is one school of thought saying you shouldnt have wasted the vaccine, you shouldnt be throwing them in the bin  no one in the right mind is suggesting to throw them in the bin or waste them.

What there should be  and there is  is a very clear clinical prioritisation about who gets the vaccine.

The idea that we have spare vaccines, albeit just 16 in this case, is a concept I find hard to understand. There aren't spare vaccines in Ireland Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education

Its very clear that the people who should be getting vaccines right now are people working on the front line with other healthcare staff, and people in nursing homes.

I am concerned that today in Ireland, there are some frontline workers who havent yet been able to get the vaccine.

The idea that we have spare vaccines, albeit just 16 in this case, is a concept I find hard to understand.

There arent spare vaccines in Ireland.

Either there is a situation in place where there is a protocol for spare vaccines and that wasnt followed, or more concerning, if there isnt a protocol in place as to what you do if there are so-called spare vaccines.

The facts are really important as we need people to have absolute confidence in our vaccination programme.

The master of the Coombe hospital, Professor Michael OConnell, said the decision was made to ensure that not a single reconstituted vaccine was wasted.

He added: Had they not been used, they would have been discarded.

I was keenly aware of that and, throughout the evening and from 9.30pm onward, I personally made every effort to prioritise and identify additional frontline workers and followed all measures available to me at the time.

In hindsight, as master, I deeply regret that family members of employees were vaccinated and for that I wholeheartedly apologise.

It came as some 1,800 GPs, practice nurses and other healthcare staff received Moderna jabs at mass vaccination centres in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise.

2,023 patients are now in hospital with #COVID19. Over 400 are receiving high grade ventillation & respiratory support inside & outside of ICU. Our national critical care surge plans are activated. Were working really hard to remain in control. Your help counts. @HSELive  Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) January 18, 2021

On Monday, the number of coronavirus patients in hospital continued to surge, with 2,032 now in hospitals across Ireland.

HSE director-general Paul Reid said critical care surge plans have been activated.

He tweeted: 2,023 patients are now in hospital with Covid-19.

Over 400 are receiving high grade ventilation and respiratory support inside and outside of ICU.

Our national critical care surge plans are activated.

Were working really hard to remain in control. Your help counts.

Hundreds of people have been handed fines amounting to thousands of euro for travelling more than 5km from their home for non-essential reasons in the last week.

Today GardaA in the Wicklow Division issued over 70 Fixed Payment Notices and turned back over 200 vehicles after issuing a caution to the drivers.



The COVID-19 Pandemic remains a public health crisis.



(1/2)#StayHome pic.twitter.com/XwT7dy4wP8  An Garda SAochAna (@GardaTraffic) January 17, 2021

More than 400 were fined by gardai for breaching Covid-19 travel restrictions, including 300 last weekend.

People are required to stay home except for travel for work, education or other essential purposes. Exercise is permitted within 5km of home.

Meanwhile, the number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (Pup) has jumped by more than 61,700 in the last week, figures show.

Almost 469,000 people are now in receipt of the weekly Pup, amounting to a total of 138.07 million euro.

The Department of Social Protection said the sector with the highest number of people receiving Pup is accommodation and food service, followed by wholesale and the retail trade, and construction.

The construction sector has seen the largest increase, with 56,217 people receiving a Pup.

This increased from 32,152 recipients last week, which is attributed to the Level 5 restrictions imposed on the sector on Friday January 9.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed, on 11 January, Elena Panova of Bulgaria as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt with the host governments approval.

Panova has over 22 years of development and management experience, including all aspects of programme management, cross-areas collaboration, and resource mobilisation, with specific experience in government and private sector financing.

She holds a masters degree in international law and foreign trade from the University for National and World Economy in her country as well as a masters degree in microelectronics from the Technical Chemical University, also in Bulgaria.

At the United Nations, she most recently served as Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan after holding several leadership positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

She was also a senior programme coordinator overseeing the coordination of all regional UNDP and inter-agency programmes at the UNDP Regional Hub in Istanbul.

At the UNDP, she also served as deputy country director of UNDP Ukraine, supported the establishment of a private sector global compact network, managed a flagship employment creation and micro-financing project at the UNDP in Bulgaria, and worked as a private sector engagement specialist at UNDP Headquarters in New York.

Prior to joining the United Nations in 1999, Panova was an executive director of a local non-governmental organisation, delivering business support services to micro and small businesses, as well as women entrepreneurs in Bulgaria.

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Not apartheid in the West Bank. Apartheid

By Gideon Levy

January 17, 2021 " Information Clearing House " - For just six months of its 73 years was Israel a democracy. Six months, and not one day more. This shocking fact, which most Israelis and the wider world repress and truth-seekers have no way of denying, must resound in every civics lesson and every debate in Israel.

All the nonsense about Bibi is destroying democracy ignores this eternal fact: Only for six months did the state treat all the people under its rule in a democratic way, at least for the sake of appearances. Throughout all its decades of existence, Israel has treated part of its subjects tyrannically. Thats why it has no connection at all with democracy.

On October 21, 1948, Israel put its Arab citizens under a military government. On December 1, 1966, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol lifted this disgrace. Six months later, in June 1967, military tyranny returned to define Israel when its newly occupied territories were placed under military rule.

This situation has continued to this day and its end is nowhere in sight. All that remains is the costume. Now, that too is beginning to be torn away; a long process. The roots of the lie of democracy are deep.

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The rights group BTselem published a revolutionary position paper last week, crossing the Rubicon by saying that the Jewish supremacy regime exists not just in the occupied territories, where BTselem has been documenting crimes since the groups founding, but in all the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

A few days earlier, the American writer Nathan Thrall, who lives in Jerusalem, published an eye-opening and mind-expanding piece in The London Review of Books entitled The Separate Regimes Delusion. Thrall doesnt hesitate to criticize the supposedly liberal-Zionist and leftist organizations, from Meretz and Peace Now to Yesh Din and Haaretz. All of them believe that Israel is a democracy and oppose annexation because it could undermine their false belief that the occupation is happening somewhere else, outside of Israel, and is only temporary. The separation between the occupation and Israel is still valid in their eyes, so theyre leading people astray.

The conclusion from the two documents is one and the same: Its impossible to speak any longer about apartheid in the territories. Its impossible to separate the territories and Israel, and its impossible to consider the occupation temporary. The conclusion: Israel is an apartheid state. Just as in South Africa it was ludicrous to talk about democracy, even though elections were held, its ridiculous to view Israel as a democracy.

If part of it is tyranny, all of it is tyranny. Its impossible to argue with the fact that in the occupied territories two systems of rights and laws exist based on the separating of nationalities. No fact is more certain.

The temporariness of the occupation is also an outdated argument. Thats why we have to stop trying to terrify people and claim that the right wing is leading us to apartheid. Apartheid has been here since 1948. Only then will we be able to recognize that the occupation defines the Israeli regime  not the High Court of Justice, not the elections and not the freedoms for Jews, and also a bit for non-Jewish citizens. Jewish supremacy is in everything, as BTselem puts it. Its impossible to separate the good Israel and the bad occupation, as Thrall states.

Get to know it: apartheid. An apartheid state. We live in one, we are part of it, we are partners to it. Its our country.
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The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has commended personnel attached to the Police Mobile Force  9 Squadron, Kano, for repelling attack on their convoy by bandits in Kaduna State.

The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Frank Mba, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

He said officers who were on their way back to their base in Kano after completing a special duty were attacked on Friday along the Birnin-Gwari Funtua Highway.

According to him, the officers are personnel attached to Operation Puff Adder and deployed to Niger State in the sustained operation to reclaim public space.

He said the team was deployed to tackle incidences of banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes in the area.

Contrary to unconfirmed reports in some sections of the media that 18 officers were kidnapped, only 16 were attacked in the ambush.

The officers successfully repelled the attack accordingly and neutralised the bandits in their tens while many others scampered into the bush with gun shot injuries.

Regrettably, four of the Officers paid the supreme price during the exchange of gun fire between the police and the bandits while an officer is still missing, he said.

Mr Mba said the remaining 11 officers led by their Unit Commander successfully recovered the bodies and firearms of their fallen colleagues, adding that concerted efforts were being intensified to rescue the officer still missing.

He said the IGP had commiserated with the families of the officers who paid the supreme price in the service of the nation, pledging to ensure that their deaths were not in vain.

He pledged the commitment of the police to check all activities of bandits and other unscrupulous elements in the area and other parts of the country. (NAN)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Pompeo wrote, "Deeply troubled by Russia's decision to arrest Aleksey Navalny". He added, hinting at Russian President Vladimir Putin, "Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents". Russian opposition leader and Putin's rival, on January 17, returned to Moscow after convalescing in Germany for several months since August, following his poisoning onboard a plane with a nerve agent Novichok.

Navalny and his wife Yulia landed in the Russian capital at a different airport than had been scheduled, diverting the plane as Police officers and guards waited at a terminal of Moscow's Vnukovo airport to arrest him. The Kremlin critic was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport at passport control. Several officials and diplomats in the United States, the European Union, Canada and a senior aide to US President-elect Joe Biden urged the Russian government to free Navalny, as the EU threatened sanctions against Moscow. Bidens national security adviser elect Jake Sullivan condemned the arrest, as he wrote on Twitter: 'Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable".

Read: Kremlin Critic Navalny Leaves Germany For Russia

Read: Navalny Plans To Return To Russia After Recovery In Germany

Violated 2014 conviction probation

Navalnys arrest was expected as Russias Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) had warned that upon entering the country, the opposition leader would be held in custody. Kremlin arch-foe was accused of violating the probation that he received for 2014 conviction on charges of embezzlement and money laundering. FSIN had warned that it will immediately take Navalny under arrest when he returns from Germany for flouting the suspended sentence.

The FSIN, in a statement, said Thursday that it issued an arrest warrant for Navalny in late December after he failed to report to its office. Prison service had appealed to the Moscow court to overturn Navalny's 3 1/2 years sentence for fraud, adding that the law was obliged to take all the necessary action to detain Navalny pending the court's ruling". Meanwhile the 44-year-old opposition leader, despite detention threats had informed that he booked a flight, stressing that he will arrive in Russia on January 17. Coming home, he wrote.

Read: Russia's New Reusable Carrier Rocket Engine Will Have Capacity For 50 Flights: Roscosmos

Read: Navalny Flies Back 'home' To Russia Despite Arrest Threats From Prison Service

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I went into The Great Indian Kitchen expecting a pleasurable food flick, and sat in its thrall for 1 hour 40 minutes watching an unparalleled gem.

She chops, slices, dices and grinds. She cooks, washes, wipes, sweeps and swabs.

Meanwhile, he does yoga before breakfast and office. In another part of the house, her father-in-law waits for a woman of the house to put toothpaste on his toothbrush and bring it to him while he sits relaxing or reading the newspaper on the porch.

As the men exercise their bodies and minds, she picks up the trail of garbage they leave in their wake.

She takes out the trash. She keeps out the holy lamp. She is the first to wake up and the last to bed, there to be raped by him to whom she is legally and socially bound.

Writer-director Jeo Babys The Great Indian Kitchen aka Mahaththaya Bharatiya Adukkala is a Great Indian Film that captures an under-discussed horrific reality with astonishing accuracy, by merely replicating on screen what happens in millions of Indian households. It is in Malayalam, but the title reminds us that patriarchy knows no state borders. The characters have no names because they are you and I and everyone around.

(Minor spoilers in this paragraph) A wife leaving her husbands shoes out for him to step into as he leaves the house, a man cooking one meal and leaving a mess behind for women to clean up while lauding himself for having given those women a break  these are not mere fictional scenes in a film, these are snapshots from homes we inhabit or have visited, where womens hard labour is romanticised as a mark of a devi-like unlimited capacity for love and sacrifice in a pre-emptive bid to demonise women who break free. (Spoiler alert ends)

I went into The Great Indian Kitchen expecting a pleasurable food flick, and sat in its thrall for 1 hour 40 minutes watching an unparalleled gem.

It could have been called Portrait of a Wife as Cook, Cleaner, All-round Housemaid and Sex Slave, but that would not fully capture what this extraordinary film conveys.

There is no story to tell, so here is a precis of the first 9 minutes. Nimisha Sajayan plays a dancer in The Great Indian Kitchen. The film opens with her family preparing for a pennu kaanal (a potential groom coming to see a girl for an arranged marriage). Suraj Venjaramoodus character arrives. He is the prospective husband. We have seen her house and family, but are told nothing about him, his occupation or financial background in those early scenes except for snatches of a fleeting conversation implying that he is from the sort of family that is considered prestigious.

Formalities are completed, rituals are done and dusted, and soon the new bride arrives in her new home, where her routine as a wife and daughter-in-law sets in.

I have seen Jeo Babys last film, Kunju Daivam (The Little God, 2018), which earned Adish Praveen the National Film Award for Best Child Artist. It was sweet and clever for a while, but the storytelling lacked polish and it didnt come together for me. Nothing in Kunju Daivam prepared me for the utter brilliance, the acute power of observation, the subtlety and finesse of The Great Indian Kitchen. Note the song sung with the closing credits, the lyrics brimming with literary tropes that have long been summoned to glorify women and thus keep them enchained.

Sajayan here lives up to the formidable reputation she has built for herself in her brief career. From her debut in Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (2017) to Eeda (2018), Chola (2020) and a bunch of other films, her strength has been the ability to immerse herself so completely in a role that it becomes near-impossible to believe she is not that very person in real life. In The Great Indian Kitchen she flows through the veins and breathes through every cell of the unnamed Wife.

Venjaramoodu, her senior co-star from Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, displays remarkable artistic intelligence by playing The Great Indian Kitchens Husband not as an overtly repulsive fellow but as a seemingly diffident Everyman with a nice-guy demeanour whose regressive attitudes stress the fact that villains are usually the regular chap next door.

Jeo Baby has done well to pack his uniformly flawless supporting cast with unfamiliar faces  Sidhartha Siva is the only star among them. The rest are theatre actors from Kozhikode who come across as real people plucked out of real life for the film.

The understatedness of their acting is complemented by every technical department, from supervising sound designer Tony Babus finely detailed palette of swishes, trickles, bubbling oils and human mouths chomping down food, to DoP Salu K Thomass shooting of the leading ladys dimly lit marital prison until that glorious finale with its explosion of brightness and light. The editor, Francies Louis, ensures that every single shot in the film counts. And costume designer Dhanya Balakrishnan dresses the characters in outfits that provide a range of insights into Malayali culture, until that luscious closing scene in which she gets to give her imagination free rein. Even the subtitles are top-notch.

The only scene lacking subtlety in The Great Indian Kitchen involves a telephone conversation between the female lead and her friend. No other point in the film is put across with so much underlining.

Jeo Baby weaves the Sabarimala Temples refusal to allow menstruating women near the deity so smoothly into his story that it is hard to tell when it begins. This film is unlike Lal Joses comparatively bland Nalpathiyonnu (41), which used Sabarimala as a hook but was hesitant to make any contentious statement about it.

It should be a matter of pride for the Malayalam film industry aka Mollywood that within a span of a year it has given us stinging critiques of both Hinduism (this film) and Christianity (Midhun Manuel Thomass Anjaam Pathiraa) in the state. There are many such Malayalam films and no space here for an exhaustive list. At a time when Muslims are being demonised across India, offering a balanced, fair critique of Islam is trickier because the community is on edge and liberal filmmakers might fear that their works will be misused by anti-Muslim elements, but Mollywood has shown the intellect, sensitivity and courage to do even this. In a post-9/11 scenario, for instance, producer Aryadan Shoukath and director T.V. Chandran made Paadam Onnu: Oru Vilapam (2003), skewering a reprehensible Muslim social practice.

The uniqueness of Kerala society as compared to other Indian states lends itself to such cinema  Hindus account for approximately 55 per cent of Keralas population, Muslims about 27 per cent while Christians are a little above 18 per cent. This means that though Muslims and Christians are a minority, their percentage is still large enough versus the national 14.2 per cent Muslims and 2.3 per cent Christians to ensure that neither community has a justifiable reason to feel insecure in Kerala.

Among many memorable elements in The Great Indian Kitchen is that moment when a woman weaponises a mans conviction that menstruation makes her impure. Take that, misogyny!

That said, the film does marginally falter in its conversation on periods. Of course it is despicable that a woman is seen as a pollutant when she is menstruating, but The Great Indian Kitchen misses a crucial nuance: unlike this films heroine, many women suffer from pain or extreme discomfort in addition to heavy bleeding, and enforced segregation in homes that consider them dirty at this time of the month is, ironically, the only reason why they get the rest they so desperately need.

In a Mollywood that tends to normalise domestic violence (recent examples being Aadya Rathri and Ayyappanum Koshiyum), The Great Indian Kitchen illustrates how horrendous realities can be portrayed without being casual about them. (Minor spoiler ahead) It also shows layering among progressives exemplified by a Hindu man who has no qualms about eating beef in his house but has no reservations either about his wife serving food to family and guests as he sits around being served.

(Minor spoilers in this paragraph) Unlike many films that let men off lightly for patriarchy by emphasising women who buy into patriarchy and perpetuate it, The Great Indian Kitchen has the intellectual depth to portray a range of women, from victims to rebels, from enablers of patriarchy to allies of other women. My favourite supporting character in the film has barely any minutes on screen, but a key argument is driven home through her: contrary to social and cinematic stereotypes, the mother-in-law (a wonderful Ajitha VM) symbolises female solidarity and shared suffering here  Aparna Sens Paromitar Ek Din (Bengali, 2000) devoted its entire length to this theme; The Great Indian Kitchen does it with brief conversations and by showing the senior lady slaving away in the posh house of her well-off married daughter who is nearing the end of a pregnancy. This also brings up another facet of Indian society  family support  that is romanticised endlessly while its exploitative aspects are ignored: that Indian families walk the extra mile to support each other is great, but thats no reason to ignore the uncomfortable truth that this culture is routinely misused to take advantage of considerate relatives. (Spoiler alert ends)

The directors commitment to his theme is best illustrated by his decision to begin and end with shots of Sajayan. Even Take Off  one of the best Malayalam films of the past decade  veered from its course (as so many women-focused films do) by ending on Fahadh Faasils voice and image though it told the story of Parvathys character.

The Great Indian Kitchen is a startling, scathing, stunning take-down of patriarchy and its eternal sidekick, religion. That Jeo Baby achieves so much with the simplest of stories, one that has been staring us all in the face all our lives, is what makes it such a work of genius.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Great Indian Kitchen is available on the Malayalam-only streaming service Neestream.

(All images from the film's trailer)

RELATED LINK:

Jeo Baby Directors Cut: On The Great Indian Kitchen, piracy, censorship, Sabarimala and a fear of right-wingers among TV channels
She's no stranger to speaking her mind on social media.

So when Hayley Vernon called Queenslanders 'slow' in a post to her Instagram Stories on Monday, it was no surprise.

The Married At First Sight star-turned-OnlyFans creator, 33, had just finished a 'business meeting' when she unleashed her train of thought on her followers.

Controversial: Hayley Vernon (pictured), 33, called Queenslanders slow in a post to her Instagram Stories on Monday. The Married At First Sight star-turned-OnlyFans star had just finished a 'business meeting' when she unleashed her train of thought on her followers

'So, I've just had a meeting, a business meeting, and the lady turned around mid-conversation and said "are you in a rush?", and I said "why?",' she explained.

'She goes "oh, you just speak really quickly"... I almost felt like saying "no, no," but yeah I do.

'But everyone in Queensland just speaks really slow.'

The former tradie then went on to question how quickly she spoke, being originally from Melbourne and able to 'speak under water with marbles in my mouth'.

Chit chat: 'The lady turned around mid-conversation and said "are you in a rush?", and I said "why?",' Hayley explained. 'She goes "oh, you just speak really quickly"... I almost felt like saying "no, no," but yeah I do. But everyone in Queensland just speaks really slow'

'Is it a Melbourne thing? Do I speak quickly? Yeah, I do speak quickly,' she said.

'My mum used to say I could speak under water with marbles in my mouth.'

Her latest post follows Hayley sharing a glimpse of her cryotherapy treatment with fans on Sunday.

Peak: Her latest follows follows Hayley sharing a glimpse of her cryotherapy treatment with fans on Sunday

In an Instagram post, she was spotted laying on a table as a practitioner applied cooling agents to her derriere.

Hayley beamed for the camera as she showed off her shapely behind, while the therapist explained they were 'targeting a specific muscle group' with the treatment.

Localised cryotherapy is used to treat inflammation, pain, swelling and other issues in specific, spot-targeted areas. It can also help with weight loss and the signs of ageing, such as sagging skin.
News Around the Republic of Mexico



Mexicans in US Sent Record Remittances Home in 2020



Mexican workers confounded economists by sending home huge amounts of money during the pandemic. Experts had predicted that migrant workers would wire less money as the U.S. economy took a dive. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) El Paso, Texas - Mexican workers abroad sent a record $36.9 billion to their homeland in the first 11 months of 2020, and some of that went to families in Tijuana, Juarez and other cities bordering the U.S.



According to



Jalisco, Michoacan and Guanajuato - states the Mexican government has identified as "exporters" of migrants to the United States - received the highest amount of remittances, with around $3 billion each. The average remittance in the form of an



Mexico City led the municipalities with $1.56 billion in remittances received from January through September 2020. Tijuana received $467 million, Juarez got $298 million and Mexicali $230 million, according to the latest



Reynosa was the only major Mexican border city to experience a drop in remittances, according to the Institute.



Many immigrant workers are employed in service occupations hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but many others work in construction, transportation and manufacturing, according to



"Ciudad Juarez received $50 million more in remittances during the first nine months of 2020 on a year-over-year basis," the Hunt Institute report states. "Given the integration of border sister communities, transactions that were previously conducted in person are now conducted remotely as current inland travel restrictions on the U.S. border lead to increased electronic money transfers."



Remittances to Mexico were on the rise and hit their peak last March at around $4 billion. Then the pandemic struck, and remittances went down in April, but have picked up ever since, according to the Hunt Institute.



"The rate at which remittances have increased differ across states, increasing more rapidly in states situated across the U.S.-Mexico border," the report said.



Money sent from abroad to Mexican states bordering the United States rose 14.1% January through September compared to 9.3% for the rest of Mexico.



Original article - Mexican workers abroad sent a record $36.9 billion to their homeland in the first 11 months of 2020, and some of that went to families in Tijuana, Juarez and other cities bordering the U.S.According to data released this month by the Bank of Mexico, remittances rose 11% through November of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 and eclipsed the record $36.4 billion sent in all of 2019. This, despite a COVID-19 pandemic that cost millions of people their jobs in the United States and prompted many others to tighten spending.Jalisco, Michoacan and Guanajuato - states the Mexican government has identified as "exporters" of migrants to the United States - received the highest amount of remittances, with around $3 billion each. The average remittance in the form of an electronic transfer, a money order or cash was $347, which also represents an increase.Mexico City led the municipalities with $1.56 billion in remittances received from January through September 2020. Tijuana received $467 million, Juarez got $298 million and Mexicali $230 million, according to the latest Paso del Norte Indicator Review by the University of Texas at El Paso's Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness.Reynosa was the only major Mexican border city to experience a drop in remittances, according to the Institute.Many immigrant workers are employed in service occupations hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but many others work in construction, transportation and manufacturing, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. Most states in the U.S. have deeded construction, transportation and logistics jobs as essential during the pandemic, as well as some manufacturing jobs that produce essential goods."Ciudad Juarez received $50 million more in remittances during the first nine months of 2020 on a year-over-year basis," the Hunt Institute report states. "Given the integration of border sister communities, transactions that were previously conducted in person are now conducted remotely as current inland travel restrictions on the U.S. border lead to increased electronic money transfers."Remittances to Mexico were on the rise and hit their peak last March at around $4 billion. Then the pandemic struck, and remittances went down in April, but have picked up ever since, according to the Hunt Institute."The rate at which remittances have increased differ across states, increasing more rapidly in states situated across the U.S.-Mexico border," the report said.Money sent from abroad to Mexican states bordering the United States rose 14.1% January through September compared to 9.3% for the rest of Mexico.



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From left: Stephan Woellenstein (CEO Volkswagen Group China), Clemens von Goetze (German Ambassador China), Liu Yunfeng (EVP Volkswagen Group China), Werner Eichhorn (president Audi China) at the ceremonial signing of the new JV documents

Volkswagen Group premium brand Audi said the relevant supervisory and management boards of Audi, VW Group and FAW Group had confirmed Changchun, in northeast China, would be the headquarters of the newly founded Audi-FAW company. At the ceremonial signing in Changchun and Beijing on Monday (18 January) the companies also confirmed Audi AG and Volkswagen Group China would have a 60% share of the new JV, making the company  founded for local production of fully electric models on Audi's Premium Platform Electric (PPE) co-developed with Porsche  the first cooperation company with a majority interest held by Audi in China.

"With the new Audi-FAW company in Changchun, we are further expanding our presence on the Chinese market and strengthening our position as a manufacturer of fully electric premium vehicles through local production," said Audi chairman and China chief Markus Duesmann. "In doing so, we are continuing the Audi success story in China and actively helping to shape the transformation of the Chinese automotive industry as it moves toward sustainable mobility."

Local manufacture of the first PPE model produced jointly with FAW is scheduled to start by 2024. Changchun is also the headquarters of the joint venture FAW-Volkswagen with which Audi has been involved for over 30 years and, in addition to other locations in China, already produces many Audi models locally.

The founding of the new PPE company was officially scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, following stakeholder consent and Chinese regulatory approval.

"This deepened partnership between Audi and FAW heralds a new era of electrification as the next 'golden decade' for Audi on the highly important Chinese market," said Audi China president Werner Eichhorn. FAW Audi Sales will assume responsibility for selling cars produced locally by FAW-Volkswagen as well as fully imported Audi vehicles and future cars produced at the joint PPE plant.

This partnership with FAW will allow Audi to increase the number of locally produced models to 12 by the end of 2021. The models produced by its second partner, SAIC Volkswagen, are set to be introduced in 2022.

Audi entered China in 1988 and has delivered almost 7m vehicles there. In 2020, it sold a record 727,358 vehicles.

Electrified Audi SUVs - 2020 to 2030
Right now angelic hottie Taylor inspires us to share just a few more stories that offer a glimpse of life in this town for the overnight and with respect to our place in the big picture via pop culture, community news and top headlines.

Kansas City Discounted

Kansas City cracks list of most affordable areas in the U.S., according to Trulia by: Michelle Robertson, Nexstar Media Wire Posted: / Updated: The majority of the nation's priciest zip codes are located - no surprises here - in California. California's San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego have the highest share of zip codes in which zero percent of homes are "reasonably affordable" to the typical buyer, according to new research by real estate site Trulia.

Tragic Northland Inferno

Man found dead inside home following 'suspicious' fire PLATTE COUNTY, MO (KCTV) -- Authorities are investigating after a 60-year-old man died in a suspicious fire overnight Sunday. Timothy Darby, 60, was found dead inside the home. The fire, which investigators classify as suspicious, was reported just before 2 a.m. on Sunday.

Surviving Waldo

Two Waldo Heights fire victims recount their jump to survival KANSAS CITY, Mo. - FOX4 heard from the two women that jumped from their third-floor balcony during an apartment fire last month. "So that was my whole plan," Maria Gonzalez, who jumped from the third floor, said. "To swing myself into the second balcony, but I couldn't do it."

Former Angel Exec Accused

Les Wexner let Jeffrey Epstein abuse girls at his Ohio mansion An explosive new lawsuit obtained by DailyMail.com claims Victoria's Secret mogul Les Wexner let former friend Jeffrey Epstein abuse girls at his mansion Wexner, 83, has faced mounting scrutiny over his decades-long ties to Epstein but has always insisted he knew nothing about his sex trafficking crimes The complaint filed

Guarding The Guard

Fearing inside attack, FBI vetting Guard troops in D.C. "We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation," McCarthy said in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesday's inauguration.

Prez Trump Uncleared?!?

Schiff says Trump "can't be trusted" to receive intel briefings when out of office Washington - Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he doesn't believe President Trump should receive intelligence briefings after he leaves office, as he "can't be trusted" with the nation's secrets.

Speaker Under Attack

Pelosi deputy chief of staff responds after Graham questions House speaker over riot security failures House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill fired back at Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., after the Republican seemed to blame the Democratic leader for security failures during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building. During an appearance on Fox News' " Sunday Morning Futures," Graham asked, "Where was Nancy Pelosi?

COVID Vaxx Hope

Fauci says Biden goal of 100 million doses in 100 days 'can be done' Joe Biden's goal of seeing 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine injected within his first 100 days in office is "absolutely" achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci said Sunday, days before he is to become the new president's chief advisor on Covid-19.

LONG LIVE BETTY!!!

On Betty White's 99th birthday, her 10 tips for a happy life are especially relevant Betty White turned 99 on Sunday, and her top 10 tips for living a long, healthy life are just as pertinent as ever. In 2011, White stopped by "The Late Show with David Letterman" and revealed a tongue-in-cheek take on a question that's often asked of successful seniors - what's the secret to a long, happy life?

Talented Kansas City Creatives Perform Door-To-Door

Introducing Show Delivered-Live Theater That Comes To You! - In Kansas City Covid-19 caused an unprecedented intermission in our community of artists and arts organizations. Theater artists and marketing professionals Bess Wallerstein and Kelly Main discussed how performing arts organizations were responding to the pandemic. While most of the live arts industry was working to offer virtual experiences, the duo decided to try something decidedly different.

Kansas City South Side Connection Remembered

The Red Bridge has carried over 160 years of history By Diane Euston The Old Blue Ford on the Santa Fe Trail was the site where thousands of wagon trains crossed the Blue River and moved along to their goal of the west. Starting in 1821, the Santa Fe Trail traveled through the area and across the familiar locations of Hickman Mills, Red Bridge and Verona Hills.

Forecast For Now

A few sprinkles possible to start the day Monday Hide Transcript Show Transcript AND SHARING ON HIS FELLOW QUARTERBACK THERE. WE ARE LOOKING TOWARDS DOWNTOWN HERE, WE WILL SEE A LOT OF RED LATER ON THIS EVENING, CURRENTLY SOME CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE OVERHEAD LOOKING FROM THE PLAZA. 40 DEGREES RIGHT NOW, IN NORTHWEST WIND AT 10 MILES PER HOUR, THE GUSTS ARE STARTING TO GO AWAY.

Matthew West - Truth Be Told was the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 02:06:20|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Monday the discovery of remains of a Roman fort in Upper Egypt's Aswan Governorate.

At the fort site, an Egyptian archaeological mission also uncovered the remains of a church from the early Coptic era and a temple from the Ptolemaic period, Mustafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, said in a statement.

A vessel made of clay and part of a red brick vault dating back to the Coptic era were also found at the site.

For his part, head of the Central Administration of Antiquities of Upper Egypt, Mohamed Abdel Badie, said that the Coptic church was built on the ruins of the Roman fort, according to the statement.

Abdel Badie added that the mission also found the remnants of a mud-brick wall surrounding the church from the western side.

"There are four chambers, a hall and an upward staircase on the northern side of the church. As for the southern side, there are ovens for burning pottery," the official said.

The North African country has witnessed several large-scale archeological discoveries in recent years in different parts of the country, including Pharaonic tombs, statues, coffins and mummies. Enditem
The Covid-19 death toll now stands at 440, with the deaths of 15 more people yesterday.

The Ministry of Health reported the deaths in its daily update yesterday evening.

One of the new deaths occurred in Tobago. The Tobago Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development disclosed that the patient was a 38-year-old male with co-morbidities.
The three-day initial share-sale of Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) worth Rs 4,600 crore was launched today. The first-ever IPO by a non-banking financial company (NBFC) in the public sector is being done by a dedicated market borrowing arm of the Indian Railways. The IPO will close on January 21. Price band for the IRFC IPO has been fixed at Rs 25 to Rs 26 per share.

The share sale that is offering up to 178.2 crore shares of face value of Rs 10 each, comprises a fresh issue of up to 118.8 crore shares and an offer for sale of up to 59.4 crore equity shares by the government.

Post the IPO, the shareholding of government will come down to 86.4%, from 100% earlier. The issue includes a reservation of Rs 50 lakh worth of shares for eligible employees.

Shares of IRFC are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE. The company will utilise the net proceeds towards augmenting the company's equity capital base to meet future capital requirements arising out of growth in business and general corporate purposes. The company will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale and the same will be received by the government.

The bids for the issue can be made for a minimum of 575 equity shares and in multiples thereafter. Up to 50% of the net issue is reserved for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB). The company has reserved not more than 35% of the issue for the retail investors and the remaining 15% for Non-Institutional category. The issue includes a reservation of equity shares worth Rs 50 lakh for subscription by eligible employees.

AM Capital Advisors Ltd, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Ltd, ICICI Securities Ltd and SBI Capital Markets Ltd are the book running lead managers to the offer. KFin Technologies Private Ltd will be the registrar to the issue.Ahead of the IPO, IRFC had raised Rs 1,398.63 crores from 31 anchor investors.

Most brokerages have given a thumbs up to the share sale given its attractive valuation. AR Ramachandran, Co-founder & Trainer, Tips2Trade said, "IRFC's relatively strong fundamentals & an attractively priced IPO with current primary market frenzy in India make it a subscribe for short term investors looking for listing gains. Long term investors, however, are advised to buy only on a dip post IPO as currently, the overall market & especially the PSU stocks look technically overbought & due for a sharp correction."

Geojit in its IPO Note said," IRFC follows a low-risk business model with a margin determined by the MoR at the end of each fiscal year. For FY18-20, revenue grew at a CAGR of 21% while PAT grew by 26% CAGR. In FY20, IRFC reported PAT of Rs.3,192 cr on revenue of Rs.13, 421cr. In FY17, 18, 19 and 20, IRFC financed 72%, 93%, 84% and 76%, respectively, of the rolling stock purchased by it and leased to the MoR. From April 1, 2017 to September 30, 2020, IRFC financed Rs. 1.79 trillion to the Indian Railways. At the upper price band of Rs.26, IRFC is available at a P/E of 9x and P/B of 1.1x on an annualized basis, which appears attractive. Considering the extensive expansion plans of the Indian Railways, monopoly in the business, a low-risk business model and stable RoE, we assign a Subscribe rating for the issue."

"IRFC's gross NPAs are nil as it has entire exposure to Railways or its controlled entities for which the RBI has exempted IRFC from asset classification norms. IRFC has a significant dependence on Railways for its revenues. Change in capex plans or policies like Railways having ability to raise its own funds, detrimental changes to the term of agreement, lack of support in terms of ability to raise funds at lower rate or availability of funds are some of the key risk factors impacting the business and result of the operation," IIFL said in a note.

"Given the promising long term growth prospects and low-risk business model, we have a positive view of the company for the long term. On the valuation front, IRFC is valued at one time September 2020 book value per share. Investors having long term view can invest in the company," Religare Broking said.

LKP Securities said in its note, "The company's primary business is financing the acquisition of Rolling Stock Assets and Project Assets of the Indian Railways and lending to other entities under the MoR. Over the last three decades, the company has played a significant role in supporting the capacity enhancement of the Indian Railways by financing a proportion of its annual plan outlay. The promoter of the company is the President of India, acting through the MoR. As of September 30, 2020, the company's total AUM consisted of 55.34% of lease receivables primarily in relation to Rolling Stock Assets, 2.25% of loans to central public sector enterprises entities under the administrative control of MoR (Other PSU Entities), and 42.41% of advances against leasing of Project Assets."

"IRFC has strong fundamentals and has delivered good growth in recent years. It has a low-risk profile since it caters to the Indian Railways and other Public sector Undertakings. Moreover, it has a low cost of borrowing and diversified sources of funding. At the higher end of the price band, IRFC IPO is attractively priced at 1x the FY20 book value per share. Given strong business fundamentals and good growth prospects, we remain positive on the prospects of the issue," INDmoney said in a report.

According to brokerages, IRFC share allotment is likely to be finalised on 25th January while listing could happen on 29th January.

Share Market News Live: Sensex, Nifty trade tad higher; SBI, HCL Tech, Asian Paints, ITC, RIL top gainers

Wipro completes Rs 9,500-crore buyback programme

Stocks in news: HCL Tech, InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet, Vedanta, Wipro, DHFL, JBM Auto
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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Ive had close friends go through the court system, he said, and I cant tell you how many times Ive been stopped and searched.

The Reps decision to host a court was turning the theater into a potential site of trauma, Mr. Crutchley added. Theres a line for me where ethics gets in the way of money, he said.

On Monday, the theater announced two online meetings to listen to the feedback of anyone concerned about its decision. We are committed to hearing your thoughts directly, it said.

Birmingham is one of Britains most diverse cities  at the time of the last census, in 2011, more than a quarter of its population was Asian, and around 9 percent was Black  and the Rep has long been praised for its efforts to engage people of color. Its latest season would have included several plays by people of color, if coronavirus had not forced its closure. Those included the premiere of Lolita Chakrabartis Calmer, directed by the Black actor Adrian Lester. Mr. Lester is a trustee of the Birmingham Reps board and is also married to Ms. Chakrabarti.

But just days after the Dec. 14 announcement that the playhouse would be used to hear trials, Talawa  a leading Black theater company  canceled a scheduled season of plays at the Rep on the theme of Black joy. The Reps move does not align with Talawas commitment to Black artists and communities, the company said in a news release. (A spokeswoman for Talawa declined to an interview request for this article.)
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Yosemite National Park officials are requesting the publics help in locating a missing woman who they believe was hiking at the Upper Yosemite Falls overlook last weekend.

Alice Yu Xie, 41, traveled to Yosemite from Mariposa on a YARTS bus Thursday and left for the hike either that day or Friday morning, authorities said.
GP surgeries across Kildare are under severe pressure since the rise in the number of cases of Covid-19 within the county.

That is according to Newbridge-based GP Brendan OShea, who is a council member of the Irish College of General Practitioners  the professional body for general practice in Ireland.

He said that while the pressure on doctors is increased dramatically this is the new normal.

He said doctors are linked in with both the ICGP and the HSE for guidance before the country entered the latest lockdown phase.

This is the fourth time weve been in lockdown including the lockdown affecting counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly so it is the fourth time we have been under this kind of pressure, he said.

Read more County Kildare news

He said surgeries are facing both external and internal pressures.

Doctors are engaging with the national testing system for Covid-19 as well as assisting patients with non-covid issues such a need for surgery or mental health issues.

All County Kildare practitioners have seen a rapid rise in the number of positive test results in recent weeks, he said.

At the same time GPs have to deal with issues such as antenatal care, chronic disease management, cervical smear tests and childhood immunisation.

Practices must always be mindful of the health and safety of those working within individual surgeries.

He said many doctors are making use of telemedicine, where technology can be used to make assessments and to deliver care at a distance.

Where possible people are being seen to without having to visit a waiting room but at the same time those people needing electronic examination or blood work are attended to.

In some cases people are treated in cars.

The Covid hubs have increased capacity and if a patient looked like they have the coronavirus as a result of an electronic examination then a determination is made about whether they should be in hospital.

Testing for the virus is by appointment only, there is no walk-in service facility at any of the testing centres.

GPs decide if somebody with symptoms should be tested and they arrange the test. Those awaiting a test should self isolate (stay in your room) while others in the same dwelling should restrict their movements (stay at home).

Dr OShea said the scale of testing has been stepped up dramatically since last week.

He added that Level 5 works in terms of reducing the spread of the disease.

Patients who are concerned are advised to make contact with their GP by phone or by using the K Doc service out of hours or at weekends.

This means that people who are not seriously ill can stay at home.

This worked very well previously and weve no reason to believe it wont work well again, added Dr OShea.
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Having already killed his grandmother and led police on two dangerous pursuits, Murray Deakin snarled when a retired police officer approached him on a country NSW road.

'Follow the code... you have to follow the code,' the expressionless 20-year-old told Michael 'Mick' Horne in June 2018.

He sighed when Mr Horne asked for his name and pulled a claw hammer from his backpack, striking the fleeing 54-year-old in the back of the head.

Melanie Horne witnessed her husband's final moments before Deakin ordered her out of the couple's ute and drove away.

Murray Deakin snarled when a retired police officer approached him on a country NSW road

The NSW Supreme Court on Monday heard Deakin accepts he killed Mr Horne, 54, and Gail Winner, 69, on the Far South Coast on June 1, 2018.

But he has pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of mental illness, the trial was told.

'We rely on psychiatric evidence that on the balance of probabilities, Mr Deakin was in fact suffering the prodromal stages of schizophrenia not only immediately before, but for some years before the 1st of June (2018),' Deakin's barrister, Julia-Ann Hickleton, said.

Deakin, now 22, has also pleaded not guilty on mental illness grounds to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder his grandfather, Thomas Winner, then 71.

Former NSW police officer Michael Horne (right) died when Murray Deakin hit him in the back of the head with a hammer

Noting it wasn't a medical opinion, Ms Hickelton said she intends to place weight on Mr Winner telling police on June 1 his grandson 'lost it' and was 'a schizophrenic'.

Prosecutors disagree that Deakin's psychosis and subsequent homicidal actions stemmed from mental illness.

'The Crown argues it is a drug-induced psychosis,' Neil Adams SC said, alleging Deakin had consumed cannabis and LSD prior to the two homicides.

'It's common ground between the Crown and the defence that he knew what he was doing.

'But the issue is whether he knew what he was doing was wrong.'

Agreed facts state Deakin arriving back at the Winners' Bega home about 3.30pm on June 1 found his motorbike had been moved.

Using a pen-knife to stab his grandfather in the chest on the front doorstep, Deakin then chased down his grandmother as she ran to her car, stabbing her in her chest, neck and back.

Mr Winner was stabbed another four times as he tried to wrestle the knife from his grandson.

Deakin then drove his grandparents' car erratically and at speed through Bega towards the coast.

Police called off two pursuits for safety reasons, including when a prime mover with a trailer was forced to evade the oncoming Deakin on a two-lane highway.

Pictured: Michael Horne who died when he was hit in the back of the head by a hammer by Murray Deakin

The damaged car was later spotted by Mr Horne, a retired senior constable as he and Ms Horne drove home from Merimbula.

The couple followed until Deakin parked beside a road outside Tura Beach and began walking up a driveway towards a house.

As her husband walked after Deakin, Ms Horne stayed in the car, filming Deakin and talking to emergency services.

Her footage caught her husband turning and running back to the car while the recorded triple-zero call captured a screaming Deakin ordering Ms Horne from the car.

He was arrested at gunpoint about four hours later after crashing the Hornes' ute in nearby forest.

Ms Horne flagged down help minutes after the attack but her husband died of his injuries on June 3 in a Sydney hospital.

The trial, which Justice Robert Beech-Jones is hearing without a jury, adjourned early on Monday after Deakin became unwell.

It's due to resume on Tuesday.




ASF ruled out for wild boar carcass found in Potsdam Gro Glienicke, Germany

African swine fever (ASF) has been ruled out from a wild boar found in Potsdam Gro Glienicke, Germany.

The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (Federal Research Institute for Animal Health) was able to rule out the disease through extensive, additional examinations of the carcass.

So far, the domestic pig herd in Germany remains ASF-free.

There are now a total of 463 confirmed ASF cases in wild boar in the state of Brandenburg.

The total number of ASF cases in Brandenburg and Saxony now stands at a combined 480 cases.

- MSGICV (Germany)
Nicole Trunfio travelled to Australia from the US with her husband Gary Clark Jr. and their three children two weeks ago.

And after competing their mandatory 14 day quarantine period, the 34-year-old model and her family finally left the Sydney hotel they were staying at.

The brunette beauty looked every every inch the doting mother as she walked out of the hotel on Sunday with her son Zion, five, daughter Gia, two and Ella Wolf, one.

Finally free! Model Nicole Trunfio left hotel quarantine with her musician husband Gary Clark Jr. and their three children after completing mandatory two week quarantine in Sydney on Sunday

Quarantine over: The beauty looked every every inch the doting mother as she walked out of the hotel with her son Zion, five, daughter Gia, two and Ella Wolf, one

Nicole showed off her incredible physique in a figure-hugging dress as she pushed her daughter Ella's pram.

She completed the ensemble with a pair of black sandals, a cross body Saint Laurent bag and also wore a white bucket hat.

Nicole wore a face mask and black sunglasses as she walked alongside Gary while he pushed a large cart loaded with their luggage.

Meanwhile, Gary also looked stylish in black jeans, a white T-shirt and a pair of brown boots.

Looking good! Nicole showed off her incredible physique in a black figure-hugging dress as she pushed her daughter Ella's pram

Stylish: Gary also looked stylish in black jeans, a white T-shirt and a pair of brown boots as he pushed a large cart loaded with their luggage

Travelling: After leaving the hotel, the couple and their children then headed to Sydney airport to catch a domestic flight

After leaving the hotel, the couple and their children then headed to Sydney airport to catch a domestic flight.

Last week, Nicole spoke about her hotel quarantine experience in a video shared to Instagram.

'When you get here you get a police escort, you go on a bus, you get taken to a Covid hotel. There's many of them around the city, that is dedicated towards people coming into the country,' she said.

Doting parents: Nicole pushed her daughter Ella's pram while Gary pushed a trolley with the couple's luggage

Journey: Last week, Nicole spoke about her hotel quarantine experience in a video shared to Instagram

Post: 'When you get here you get a police escort, you go on a bus, you get taken to a Covid hotel. There's many of them around the city, that is dedicated towards people coming into the country,' she said

'I'm really proud of the way that Australia's handling this pandemic': The Bumpsuit founder reassured fans she was being taken care of in quarantine

'You get locked in a hotel room, a nice one, for two weeks, 14 days.'

The Bumpsuit founder reassured fans she was being taken care of in quarantine.

'I'm really proud of the way that Australia's handling this pandemic, it's really strict.

She added: 'It's really comfortable as uncomfortable as it is. And I'm kind of proud to be Australian right now.'

Beauty: Nicole styled her long brunette locks out and wore a face mask and sunglasses as she arrived to Sydney airport

Family: Nicole and Gary welcomed their third child, daughter Ella, in February last year
Huawei sold its subsidiary Honor back in November as an attempt to shelter the brand from suffering in the trade war between the US and China. Huawei Central reported that the next step of separation has already happened - all Honor devices were removed from Huawei-owned online website vmall.com that used to sell devices by both brands in China.

Huawei Y7a/P smart 2021 (left) and Honor 10X Lite are no longer sold at the same store

According to multiple sources from China, Honor has developed its own Honor Mall. However, the current Chinese version of the Honor store has plenty of non-existing listings and returns 404 errors for pretty much every device - it looks like the website is still in transition, but were sure it will be running at full speed soon.



Vmall.com screenshots

Currently, if you type in Honor in English at Vmall.com, you receive a message in Chinese saying, Sorry, Honor-related products have been removed, you are welcome to buy Huawei products while searching the brand in its native language says there are 0 products and the recommendations are filled with Huawei products.

Via
Stacker curated a list of the greatest speeches given in the 20th century (19001999) from American presidents and political figures, international leaders, civil rights activists, celebrities, artists and ordinary citizens.
Parler, the social media website popular with Donald Trump supporters which was banned on Apple, Google, and Amazons platforms, has returned online.

While the social media site has not regained full operability, there are now two messages at its URL.

Now seems like the right time to remind you all  both lovers and haters  why we started this platform. We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both, a statement on Parlers website reads.

We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!

The second is a more succinct post from CEO John Matze made on 16 January: Hello world, is this thing on?

When Parler was banned from using Amazon Web Services to host its site, it went offline, since the company no longer had access to servers that could store the actual content that had been posted on the platform. Since then, Parler has been looking for new ways to get online while being banned from many major providers of web hosting and other internet services.

The Parler domain appears to have been registered with Epik, a company that allows websites to register their domain names as well as a host of other services designed to power websites. Epik has also supported not only Parler but also other social media websites such as Gab and 8Chan.

However, Epik told CNN that it does not provide Parler's web hosting. It is currently unclear which company is providing server support for Parler.

With respects to a future relationship between Epik and Parler, it is important to note that our conversations to date have been focused on improvements in policy, rather than specific capabilities for hosting and service provision, Epik said in a statement on 14 January.

As the capacity exists for Parler to purchase servers direct almost anywhere in the world, the most critical elements of any return online should be first focused on the significant responsibility they carry for self policing, better governance, and more capable enforcement of policy.

According to one employee familiar with the companys attempts to find new hosting services after being banned from Amazon, the social media site has been discussing a yet-to-be-announced deal with Cloudrovia, another provider of tools to websites.

Recommended WhatsApp and Parler have the same problem all tech companies have

This news follows rumours of talks between the two companies, with Cloudrovia positioning itself as a free speech advocate.

A deal over six figures that has been discussed for almost a week is expected to be announced, with Cloudrovia massively expanding server capabilities, the employee said.

A screenshot of an email shared with The Independent, with the subject line Cloudrovia.com will host and sent to a Parler.com email address, seemingly describes the server capabilities necessary to host the site.

However, the move has been seen as controversial within the company. Its all gone very dark [and] quiet, they said, adding that employees have said they will leave the company should Cloudrovia announce the deal, feeling hesistant and confused.

Other companies sent messages to Cloudrovia saying they would withdraw their custom should the company host Parler, including furniture brand Savs and video calling platform Pijin.

Yes. We are pulling our use of all Cloudrovia services. They are already supporting Parler, a Pijin spokesperson told The Independent via email.

Parler have been directly involved in the promotion of propaganda. They have instigated violence, destruction of government property & murder. They are incubating the plotting of terrorist attacks. It's not something will support. We won't be using Cloudrovia & their services any longer.

A Savs spokesperson said that the company does not condone any of the hate speech that circulates on Parler.

A partner company of ours that also works with Cloudrovia informed us of their partnership with Parler, they continued. We have read Cloudrovias statements on free speech & we will not work with a company opens their doors to Parler.

According to the employee, Cloudrovias CEO issued an internal statement stating that it had offered our services to Parler indefinitely and that the company had been in communication with the team since the ban took effect.

The CEO also apparently said employees should remember the great lengths made for the preservation of free speech.

In a public blog post shared on 15 January, Cloudrovias founder said that it does not support violence, anti-government riots or extremism in any form but that our mainstream society has seen the horrifying effects of free speech oppression from the far-right but seem to be very accepting of the same oppression from the far-left.

You may not support the current leader of the USA. However if you respect democracy, you will have considered that 75 million americans [sic] voted him into power. The recent bans on social media signal a dangerous threat to our democracy, the statement continues.

We have witnessed the silencing of an elected politician by non-elected entrepreneurs. Taking away anyones [sic] voice, be it your neighbour or local shop keeper, should worry us all. The fact this voice belongs to the elected leader of the free world, exhibits the frightening power of tech.

The statement goes on to criticise Apple and Google for platforming Parler  claiming the app was launched with uncensored free speech as a key feature  before removing it after the events at the Capitol Building.

Both Google and Apple suspended the social media app from their stores following incitement of violence in the wake of the insurrection attempts on the US Capitol.

Google said it suspended Parler in light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat.

In an email to Parler executives, Apple wrote: "We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities" in Washington DC.

Amazon further removed Parler by taking it off Amazon Web Services. Amazon told Parler that it had seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms.

In response, Parler has taken legal action against Amazon, accusing the company of political animus and double standards compared to the treatment given to Twitter.

AWSs decision to effectively terminate Parlers account is apparently motivated by political animus, states the lawsuit.

There is no merit to these claims. AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parlers right to determine for itself what content it will allow, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.

However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service. We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening.

Many Parler users uploaded videos of themselves storming the Capitol, inadvertently giving away GPS data that would identify them to their crimes.

Moreover, Parler encourages users to hand over more identifying information than Facebook or Twitter, including their drivers license, in order to receive a verified real person badge, similar to Twitters blue tick.

[Law enforcement] can just subpoena AWS once people start digging through this stuff. remember: those people were dumb enough to give Parler photos of their IDs one hacker who was examining the data said.

Neither Parler nor Cloudrovia responded to repeated requests for comment when contacted by The Independent.
New York, Jan 18 : Oakland, California; Urbana Champaign, Illinois; Berkeley, Quebec, Canada; Washington, D.C, California once again, and now the White House.

When Kamala Harris finally pitches tent in the country's most powerful political office, it will be the culmination of long road trips and wild rides from coast to coast in America and a significant sojourn in Canada, a stint that the US Vice President prefers to relegate mostly to a footnote.

"I was 12 years old, and the thought of moving away from sunny California in February, in the middle of the school year, to a French-speaking foreign city covered in 12 feet of snow was distressing," Harris writes in her memoir "The Truths We Hold".

Harris' arrival as America's first ever woman Vice President is a story of wheels whirring, pausing, and setting off in new directions. First, her parents came in search of academic achievement and then Harris took the scenic route in search of her political north star.

"A very vivid memory of my childhood was the Mayflower truck," she told journalist Dana Goodyear during a 2019 interview. Mayflower is one of the largest full-service moving companies in America and handles long-distance moves within the U.S. and internationally.

"We moved a lot," Harris told Goodyear.

But Harris' shuttling between American cities almost pales before the travels of a journey-woman who came before her: Shyamala Gopalan.

When Gopalan came to America in Fall 1958, she was all of 19 and the first in her immediate family to ever travel overseas to study at "a university she'd never seen, in a country she'd never visited", as Harris explains in her 2019 memoir.

Gopalan spent months doggedly chasing a scholarship that would clinch the deal for her. At the time, British rule in India had ended barely a decade ago.

Donald Harris made a similar journey, a couple of years after Shyamala Gopalan did. The couple met in 1961, married in 1963 and through it all, their activist spirit was such that they were constantly on the move, even locally.

Kamala Harris alludes to this in her book and in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and possibly in many speeches yet to come.

As she explains it, even her parents' growing affection for each other is framed against an idea gathering momentum. "They fell in love in that most American way, while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s." So too Kamala's initiation into ferment in the public square that later bloomed into her own political candidacy: "In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a stroller's-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called 'good trouble'," she said while accepting her nomination on the Joe Biden ticket in August 2020.

For most part, Kamala Harris' story has been that of an inveterate traveller, most often pictured with a Goyard tote.

When her motorcade rolls into the view on January 20, it will be the ultimate tribute to two other audacious voyages that began in Madras (now Chennai) and Brown's Town, Jamaica, about 60 years ago.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Posted Monday, January 18, 2021 6:53 am

OLYMPIA  The first week of the Legislature brought numerous hearings on proposed police reform legislation, from changing tactics to updating training protocols to collecting data on every use-of-force incident.

Lawmakers have been working on a broad set of legislative proposals regarding police reform since the summer after the in-custody killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The proposals heard this week are likely just the first to come out of this 105-day session, as police reform is one of Democratic leaders' main priorities this session.

"We can deliver on true public safety that is equitable and just," said Rep. Jesse Johnson, D-Federal Way.

Police reform isn't just a Minnesota problem or a Seattle problem or an urban problem, said Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent. "This is a problem that affects every corner of our state."

Some of the bills heard this week had support from both law enforcement and families of victims of police violence. Others have already proven to be controversial.

Changing police tactics

A police tactics bill received mixed reactions in its first hearing on Tuesday, including some opposition from law enforcement groups.

The bill would ban or severely limit the use of the following:

* Chokeholds and neck restraints

* Tear gas and other military equipment

* Unleashing police dogs during an arrest

* Vehicular pursuits, unless it's probable that the person in the vehicle has committed a crime

* The intentional concealing of badge numbers while working

* No-knock warrants

The House Public Safety Committee heard some emotional testimony from those in favor of the police tactics bill.

Trishandra Pickup, of the Suquamish Tribe, teared up when talking about the number of people who are killed each year by police. She said chokeholds and neck restraints are "way too risky" and predominantly used on Black and Brown people.

"Please enact this law," she said. "We must start to address the history of policing."

Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs told the committee he was impressed with the bill because it looked at state standards. The average city does not have the resources to look at all of these issues, Beggs said. It's going to take a change in state standards and training.

Fred Thomas, of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, shared his support for the bill and issued a warning to committee members: "Don't be surprised if your 105-day session is over, and more people are dead at the hands of law enforcement."

But law enforcement groups had some reservations on the bill.

James McMahan, policy director at the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said the language in the bill creates "unacceptable consequences" and puts the public and officers in "unnecessary danger."

The bill removes many opportunities for deescalation, McMahan said.

Republicans Rep. Brad Klippert, a Benton County sheriff's deputy, and Rep. Jesse Young, of Gig Harbor, both pushed for some changes in the bill's language to allow for these tactics to be used in certain situations, if an officer's life was at risk.

Collective bargaining

Two bills regarding law enforcement personnel's collective bargaining were heard in committee this week. Supporters said the bills would provide more transparency in the law enforcement arbitration process while opponents say it severely limits workers' rights.

One bill would establish an arbitrator selection procedure for grievances that would be heard by nine appointed arbitrators. It would also prohibit a public employer of law enforcement from entering into a collective bargaining agreement that prevents civilian review, if a local ordinance calls for it.

"We can respect the work that local jurisdictions are doing with their communities while also respecting the rights of workers to bargain over the impacts of those community-based decisions," Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-White Center, told Senate Labor, Commerce and Tribal Affairs Committee members on Thursday.

Beggs said Spokane has struggled with allowing meaningful civilian review of the arbitration process while not interfering with union contracts. He said as long as it is not directly affecting disciplinary decisions, civilians should be involved.

Another bill would limit what can be included in law enforcement's collective bargaining agreements, such as having a waiting period before an officer is interviewed about a use-of-force incident. It would also establish a list of misconduct practices that would result in firing of an officer and require any appeals for misconduct to go through a civil service commission, hearing examiner or administrative law judge.

Labor representatives and law enforcement groups opposed the bills, saying they go too far and limit worker's rights.

"This would tip the scale away from workers and toward management," said Teresa Taylor, of the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs.

Marco Monteblanco, of the Washington State Fraternal Order of Police, said he supported the first bill but did not support the second as it "goes way too far" and represents "bad policy."

Data collection

The House Public Safety Committee also heard a bill that would require Washington State University to establish and maintain a program to collect and publish information on law enforcement's use-of-force incidents.

The information must be published on a website and viewable to the public. The data collected would include information about fatalities or substantial injuries, the discharging of weapons, use of chokeholds or the use of a police dog, among other things.

Over time, it would include broader law enforcement interactions with the public.

The data collection would cost money, but the exact price is not known.

This bill would provide much-needed transparency surrounding use-of-force incidents by police, said co-sponsor Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek.

"If we are unable to understand the cause of the issue, it becomes difficult to solve it," Lovick said.

Law enforcement representatives supported the bill, although they did have some concerns about the amount of data they would be required to provide.

Klippert, a patrol deputy, said he worried the data points were too broad and would lead to law enforcement officers spending too much time on answering questions for the data collection, instead of actually protecting the public.

"There are so many questions and so many instances that have to be answered," Klippert said.

Decertification and state oversight

In its last hearing of the week, the House Public Safety Committee heard a bill that would change the process for how law enforcement officers are hired, certified and decertified.

It also would make changes to the Criminal Justice Training Commission, ensuring that civilians make up a majority.

"We do want civilian oversight in our law enforcement," said committee chair Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland.

The proposal lists when certification is denied or revoked, including when an officer is found to have engaged in force resulting in death or serious injury. The bill also does not allow for recertification at any time.

Law enforcement representatives opposed pieces of the legislation, saying it goes too far and the language is too broad.

"We think it oversteps the due process of each individual officer," James Schrimpsher, of the Fraternal Order of Police, said on Friday.

Beggs said there needs to be a statewide standard for training and decertification. How someone is disciplined shouldn't depend on their ZIP code, he said.

------
POTTSVILLE  The Schuylkill County commissioners on Wednesday approved a contract with a consulting firm, which includes two former two state legislators, to aid it in obtaining government grants.

Effective Feb. 1, the county will pay Allen-Goodman & Associates Ltd. $5,000 per month for its services under the terms of the one-year contract.

Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington said the firm will try to get state and federal funding for county projects, including long-term ones such as improvements at the airport and dredging Sweet Arrow Lake.

Otherwise, he said, county taxes would have to be increased to raise money for the projects.

Commissioner Gary J. Hess also said the firms services will be valuable, since some projects have had to be put on hold due to questions over funding.

Other counties have these services, he said. These are other voices.

The Allen in the firms name is former state Rep. Bob Allen, a Pottsville Republican, while the Goodman is former state Rep. Neal P. Goodman, a Mahanoy City Democrat who retired at the end of 2020.

County Administrator Gary R. Bender also said the men will help the county get money for important projects.

Also on Wednesday, the commissioners approved the agreement with the City of Pottsville to resolve questions about the cost of collecting taxes.

Under the agreement, the county will pay one-third the cost of the citys tax office, except for the deputy clerk handling city trash accounts.

The county will pay one-sixth of that employees salary and benefits.

I just wanted it resolved, Bender said. Once we all communicated, it worked out.

The commissioners also voted to add Cornerstone Advisors as a fiduciary to the countys deferred compensation program.

Cornerstone will receive an annual service fee of 0.5% on the first $3 million in plan assets, 0.15% on the next $17 million and 0.8% on the next $30 million.

Any fund amounts under $1 million will be billed at the minimum rate of $5,000.

Also on Wednesday, the commissioners approved three supplemental 2020 budget appropriations.

One is for $67,925 for the Schuylkill County Transportation Authority.

Bender said the appropriation consists of additional state money for the authority, not a diversion from the county contingency fund.

A second is for $15,493 for the Children & Youth agency. Bender said that money will be used for additional security enhancements, which he declined to specify.

A third is $6,387 for the Adult Probation & Parole Office.

Bender said that money will be used to buy additional equipment.

In another matter, the commissioners approved six budget adjustments for 2020 and two for 2021.

Also, the commissioners:

 On behalf of the Office of Senior Services, increased the contract cap with Diakon Child Family & Community Ministries, Middletown, by $710,750.02 to $1,664,868.02 for 2020-21.

 Approved purchase-of-service agreements with five companies on behalf of Children & Youth for answering services and foster care and residential placement.

 Approved the repository bid sale of 152 Llewellyn Road, Branch Township, to Michael Kyriannis.

 Increased by $4,627.92 and $6,019.28, respectively, the payments for 2020-21 and 2021-22 to the Schuylkill County Transportation Authority to account for increases in shared ride fares.

 Appointed Dr. Manish Mishra to fill a vacancy in the Senior Services Agency Advisory Board.

 Reappointed Mark J. Scarbinsky, of Saint Clair, to a one-year term on the Highridge Improvement District Authority.

 Appointed Jacquelyn Burke, of Shenandoah, as a county caseworker 1 with Children & Youth. The county Salary Board approved her salary of $18.1499 per hour.
Pros and Cons of Mixing AVOD and SVOD

Learn more about OTT monetization at Streaming Media East.

See complete videos and other highlights from Streaming Media West Connect on Streaming Media's YouTube channel.

Read the complete transcript of this video:

Mike Gamboa: What's interesting is that digital distribution really provides content partners with multiple options to enable access to content. And then the choice in how to monetize that content. I think there are definitely pros and cons to each model. One key thing for me is, while using multiple monetization models really opens up opportunities, you have AVOD and SVOD combos like Hulu or CBS All-Access. Having an AVOD tier enables you to have a lower entry point for the, a squad service. But I think having multiple business models presents a ton of challenges and the expertise in each is really key for success. If you look at someone like a Netflix, they're extremely successful because they do one thing and one thing only, and they're best-in-class in all aspects with respect to SVOD, from customer acquisition to billing conversion rates, to managing churn.

And so I think success in both an SVOD and AVOD hybrid model requires different technical and monetization capabilities. And you really can't downplay how hard it is to execute in each business model and properly to do it well. From my standpoint, while having a multiple AVOD/SVOD combo can really lower the entry point for SVOD services, you widen the potential audience and you can drive additional ad revenue per engagement. It is difficult to execute and and it does potentially introduce customer confusion. So there are definitely pros and cons to having a multiple business models.

Mark Young: We look at our cohorts as consumers that consume content across different business models and lifecycles. AVOD has a role for driving more time spent within an overall ecosystem that we operate. And we think that whether it's longform or shortform content in AVOD, it has an opportunity to entertain consumers. And in some cases, if you look at our movie clips content, it's actually shortform content for engagement, but also to drive people into consideration for purchase and rental. And so we think of that as easy, snackable content, but also an opportunity, a low barrier to get into the ecosystem. The differences are really just making sure that you're very sophisticated in the way you look at your first-party data, both browsing and consumption data, and have a good CRM system, because ultimately, how those consumers want to be messaged to, how will they want to pay and what they want to pay with, whether it's Venmo or PayPal or other traditional forms of type of banking, we have to be very sophisticated in understanding each consumer's need.

From that perspective, when we get that right, we think we have more choice for consumers as they come into our network. And again, we have an advertising model to complement that time spent. So we have a multi-revenue stream that has allowed us to fortunately be a very profitable, sustainable business.

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Photo: Contributed

A Dawson Creek city councillor is quarantining after returning from a trip to Mexico last week.

Mayor Dale Bumstead said he was aware Coun. Darcy Dober had taken time off  but was unaware of travel of destination plans.

"We hope councillors and staff follow all public health orders, and we will continue to take direction from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control," he said last week.

The trip has angered some.

"It is completely irresponsible for an elected official to be traveling right now," said one resident. "He was elected to be a leader of our community. This is not leadership."

Mike Sudnik, who ran against Dober in the fall municipal election, floated the idea that Monday's city council meeting was to deal with Dober. Not true, says Bumstead.

"This is not the case at all and was pure speculation. We were dealing with an internal issue, and councillor Dober participated via Zoom," said Bumstead.

The news comes as the BC government is seeking legal advice on whether it can limit non-essential travel to the province during the pandemic.

Premier John Horgan said he and other premiers have made the case for Canadians to stay home during the pandemic, but people continue to travel.
Greetings on Vietnam - China diplomatic ties anniversary

Leaders of Vietnam and China have exchanged greetings on the 71st anniversary of the two countries diplomatic relations (January 18, 1950 - 2021).









Vietnamese Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong (R) and Chinese Party General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping (Photo: VNA)

Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan exchanged messages with Chinese Party General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress Li Zhanshu.



On this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam - China steering committee for bilateral cooperation, exchanged greetings with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Chairman of the China - Vietnam steering committee for bilateral cooperation.



China was the first country in the world to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam. In 2008, the two countries agreed to establish the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, the highest cooperation framework in Vietnam's relations with other countries in the world./.
Fashion giant Next has been tipped as the 'frontrunner' in the race to buy Sir Philip Green's Topshop empire, ahead of today's reported deadline for bids.

Green's Arcadia collapsed in November after the pandemic hammered sales.

It could fetch more than 200m, with administrators from Deloitte appointed to oversee the sale.

'Frontrunner': Next and its consortium partner Davidson Kempner were leading the race to buy the group, according to reports

Yesterday Next, led by Lord Simon Wolfson, and its consortium partner Davidson Kempner were leading the race to buy the group, according to the Sunday Times.

Next is the minority partner and Wolfson has said it is not interested in retaining all of Arcadia's brands. His main interest is thought to be in Topshop  the crown jewel of Green's assets.

Under Wolfson, Next recently bought lingerie brand Victoria's Secret after it collapsed last year.

Firms thought to be among the other bidders for Arcadia are Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, JD Sports, Boohoo and Juicy Couture owner Authentic Brands.
It's been exactly one year since health authorities in Australia went public with their concerns over a new illness emerging from central China.

Unbeknown to them, January 19, 2020, was the same day the first case to be detected on our shores quietly arrived in Australia.

In fact, two other cases were already in the country.

Health Minister Greg Hunt, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and then-chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy at a coronavirus press conference in March 2020. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Most Australians weren't familiar with the term "coronavirus", many didn't understand "contact tracing", and the idea of watching daily press conferences hoping for "doughnut days" was inconceivable.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Akshay Oberoi has been a part of Bollywood for almost a decade now. He agrees that the acting profession is difficult and can knock down people multiple times.

In his decade long journey in Hindi cinema, Akshay has starred in films such as "Pizza", "Gurgaon" and "Kaalakaandi". He has also made a name for himself in the digital space, with web projects like "The Test Case", "Hum Tum And Them" and "Flesh".

Talking about the industry being a brutal place, as it defines an actor on the basis of hits and misses, Akshay told IANS: "It is brutal but that is the industry world over. It's not just Bollywood. In any cinematic industry, this is the way it works. It is an art made for commerce. So, if your part is not done well you don't have any takers." "It is tough to get the next gig and that has been going since the beginning of time, beginning of star structure, beginning of cinema itself. I think it will be unreasonable to expect that it would be very easy for somebody to come from outside and break into a very tightly-knit industry," he added.

Akshay said that he knew it would not a "cakewalk" for him, when he entered the world of films.

"With me, I may have thought I would make it faster than I did but I didn't come in thinking it would be a cakewalk. This profession can knock you down multiple times. The rejection and failure ratio is skewed. You have to learn at a young age to face that rejection and if you can't do it then you better do something else, because this is a difficult job," he summed up.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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With three of its District Secretaries and couple of other officials joined DMK on Sunday, Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) on Monday said its members are free to join any political party of their choice after submitting their resignation.

In a statement issued here, RMM leader V.M. Sudhakar said those who are in RMM wanting to join a political party can do after submitting their resignation.

He also said RMM members should not forget that those persons who resign and join a political party are fans of actor Rajinikanth.

On Sunday, three District Secretaries of RMM joined DMK after the actor categorically said he will not be entering active politics.

On December 29, 2020, Rajinikanth announced his decision not to get into Tamil Nadu politics, citing Covid-19 pandemic as it would risk his health condition.

His volte-face came a few days after he, earlier in December, sounded his poll bugle against the ruling AIADMK as well as the major opposition party DMK.

On January 10, fans of Rajinikanth held a peaceful demonstration here demanding their screen idol take a plunge into the Tamil Nadu politics.

Responding to that the actor had reiterated his earlier decision of not to enter politics on health grounds.
In all the agreements, first of all, in the November 9 statement, the parties agree to ensure the link between Armenia and Karabakh through the Lachin corridor, which is monitored by Russian peacekeepers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated this during his press conference, and in response to an Azerbaijani reporters question as to why Armenias officials visit Karabakh "without Baku's permission, and what Moscow's position is in this regard."

"No one has ever denied Armenia's link with Karabakh. During the decades-long negotiations, the issue of cutting Armenia and Karabakh off from each other was never raised; and this is why the Lachin corridor, as a concept, has not been rejected by anyone. And it is, as before, the subject of agreement between the parties, including the agreement by our Azerbaijani neighbors.

In the same way, a reliable permanent link will be established between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. If we agree [and everyone agrees on that] that there should be a link between the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenians of Armenia, I see no reason to hinder contacts at that level. The officials of Armenia are involved in the process of providing humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh, which does not received any negative response from Baku; and it would be weird if it were otherwise.

The fact that Armenian officials make politicized statements in Karabakh still causes tension; I believe it would be better to avoid it. Before the 44-day [recent] war [in and around Karabakh], we witnessed how emotional statements being made (). You know, words have material power. In this case, such words from different sides have a negative material power. That is why we pay great attention to the contacts between the leaderships of Armenia and Azerbaijan, to the formation of a climate of trust. And this was one of the most important meanings of the January 11 meeting in Moscow (). I am full of hope that emotions will be pushed to the background. By the way, that is why the topic of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is not a priority now; it will remain for the future, and we will return to it later. But the most important thing is that in the future, concrete, calm, legal negotiations on the status issue take place between Yerevan and Baku, based on the good neighborliness they need to restore in the region," Lavrov said.
CHICOPEE  Citing a salary study that shows the mayor, treasurer and other elected employees are underpaid, the citys top leader has submitted a proposal to hike annual salaries by amounts ranging from $37,000 to $6,500 a year.

The proposal also calls for increases for City Councilors and law department employees of about $2,000 each.

The mayors salary and some of those of elected officials havent been hiked in a dozen years. In 2008, when Michael D. Bissonnette was mayor, the City Council raised the pay from $65,000 to the current $85,000. Councilors also granted raises for the treasurer, collector, clerk and assessors at the same time based on recommendations from a salary study conducted at that time.

With the top official in the city earning less than most department heads, all the school principals, most vice principals and a number of police and firefighters, Mayor John L. Vieau said he felt it was time to do a study and asked the Human Resources Department to examine salaries of elected officials and compare them with those in other cities and the private sector.

Im trying to stay completely separate of the study, Vieau said. The review came from human resources and Ive given it to the City Council and they can do what they want with it.

The City Council should look at the positions separately of the person who currently holds them and decide if they should be increased, he said.

The study recommended the mayors salary be increased $37,000 annually to $122,000 a year; the treasurers increased from $74,960 to $92,000; the city clerks pay increased from $67,000 to $77,000; the tax collectors pay increased from $65,000 to $84,000 and each of the three assessors salaries increased by $6,000 to $66,500. If the salaries were increased immediately it would cost about $65,145 to fund the raises through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, according to the City Council documents.

It also calls for the salary for each of the city councilors to increase from $12,000 to $14,000 and the president to receive an additional $1,000. The study does not call for an increase for the School Committee members, who earn $6,000, but adds a $500 stipend for the vice chairwoman.

During the pandemic people have worked really hard from the collector and the treasurer and the clerk. We have to make sure people get paid, Vieau said. There is never a good time to do things like this but it is the right thing to do.

It has not been easy, for example, City Clerk Keith Rattell worked hundreds of extra hours to hold elections during COVID-19 and handle thousands of mail-in votes and city Collector Stanley Iwanicki and Treasurer Marie T. Laflamme have had multiple challenges handling all the financial changes that have occurred because of shutdowns during the pandemic, he said.

But several others said with many people laid off and residents and business owners struggling to pay rent or mortgages, this year is not the time to raise salaries.

When we are furloughing employees, it sends a terrible message to pay a raise to elected employees, Councilor Joel McAuliffe said. Yes they work very hard and may be worthy of it, but it just is not the time.

School Committee vice chairwoman Mary-Elizabeth Pniak-Costello agreed, saying the school department alone has hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to upgrade ventilation systems in buildings, especially older ones, so teachers and children can return to in-person classes without being forced to keep windows open in the winter.

Its a substantial increase and I understand you have to give pay raises but it is during the pandemic and when it is revealed our schools need a lot of money for air quality improvements, she said.

The City Council will discuss the proposal at its meeting on Tuesday and it will likely be sent to the finance subcommittee for further study and discussion, said Shane Brooks, council president.

At $85,000 Im concerned we will struggle with getting qualified candidates to run for mayor, he said.

The Chicopee mayoral salary is one of the lowest in the region, especially since the city with about 55,000 people, is the second-largest. Currently, Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno earns the highest salary at $135,000 a year governing a city of about 154,000 people. The Holyoke mayor earns $85,000 and the Westfield mayor earns $100,000 with a $5,000 car allowance and each city has about 40,000 people.

The mayor of Northampton earns $92,500 a year, the West Springfield mayor earns $125,000 and the Agawam mayors salary was just increased from $85,000 to $110,000. All three communities have populations of about 28,000. In December the Easthampton City Council approved an incremental raise in the mayors salary to increase it from $70,000 to $90,000 by 2025 for the city of about 16,000 people.

The Chicopee salaries have remained stagnant for so many years in part because Mayor Richard J. Kos, who served for the past six years until Vieau took over in 2020, was financially conservative and did not request a raise, saying he knew what the pay was when he ran for the job, Brooks said.

The city has attracted professional candidates in the last election, but both Vieau and D. Joseph Morissette, a vice principal at Comprehensive High School, said they would be taking a pay cut to serve in office.

The city also has been fortunate to have multiple long-term employees who serve in professional positions such as city clerk and collector but Brooks said the salaries in those positions also need to be examined since they do not get regular raises that typically come with contract renewals.

In one example, Auditor Sharyn Riley, who is not elected and has received regular pay raises when her contract is renewed, earns about $110,000 a year.

It starts with the mayor but if some of the other elected officials decide to retire or move into the private sector it leaves us vulnerable if we do not have competitive salaries, Brooks said.

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A Winnipeg mother and son face charges after allegedly defrauding a man and woman, both of whom are mentally disabled, including allegedly stealing $20,000 in federal government pandemic assistance payments.

A Winnipeg mother and son face charges after allegedly defrauding a man and woman, both of whom are mentally disabled, including allegedly stealing $20,000 in federal government pandemic assistance payments.

The suspects are also accused of surreptitiously recording embarrassing videos of the man, as well as giving him an unauthorized and embarrassing tattoo.

The 37-year-old woman  whom the Free Press is not naming as it would identify her 16-year-old co-accused son  has been charged with two counts of fraud, and one count each of voyeurism and assault with a weapon.

Her son has been charged with voyeurism and assault with a weapon.

According to unsealed police search warrant documents obtained by the Free Press, the 56-year-old male victim and 48-year-old female victim moved into the accuseds Transcona home in September 2019, agreeing to pay her monthly rent by way of e-transfer.

Police say the female accused would have the male victim log on to his mobile banking app and then take control of his smartphone to transfer herself the rent payment.

The female victim, the mans friend, "was able to e-transfer (the female accused) her share of the rent money, but on many occasions, (the accused) would ask her to log on to her TD mobile banking application, take control of her cellphone and send herself an e-transfer payment."

The female accused "continued the monthly money transfers for the entire year and withdrew almost all the funds from the (man and womans) separate bank accounts, leaving them with very little money for themselves," police documents allege.

Unhappy with the way she and the male victim were treated, the female victim moved back in with her parents in June 2020.

Police allege the female accused and her son recorded the male victim as he used a public washroom, and on other occasions when he was showering. "Unknown persons" later uploaded some of the videos to YouTube.

The man "did not provide any consent and was upset about the video recordings," police documents say.

Police said sometime in summer 2020, the female accused, who offered eyebrow treatment services from her home, asked the man if he would like his eyebrows trimmed. The man agreed, was given a glass of vodka and Gatorade, lay down on his stomach, and fell asleep.

He awoke later and saw the woman and some of her friends laughing at him. He later discovered the woman had used her microblading equipment to tattoo a large penis on his back.

The man is "absolutely devastated by this, he cannot go shirtless, and will have to live with this the rest of his life," police documents say.

The man moved out sometime later, to his female friends parents. The parents helped the two secure their bank records and learned someone had applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in their names.

The man and woman "were unaware that they were receiving the CERB benefit and believed that (the female accused) was entitled to the funds," police documents say.

A review of the mans bank records showed he had received 12 CERB payments of $1,000 each, almost all of which was withdrawn by e-transfer "almost immediately" after being deposited, police documents say.

The man "completely trusted (the female accused) and advised that he didnt understand what was happening and didnt know what the CERB benefit was," police documents say.

The female victim received $8,000 in CERB deposits, "all followed by an immediate e-transfer withdrawal," documents say.

Both victims told police they believed the CERB payments were lottery winnings the accused woman deposited into their accounts.

The female accused allegedly referred to the deposits as her "lucky account." The male victim "didnt understand how or why (she) needed to use his TD bank account to receive the lottery money, but he totally trusted her," documents say.

The two accused are set to appear in court April 13.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
File image: Members of the public receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, at Salisbury Cathedral, in Salisbury, England on January 16, 2021. Organ music played as the jabs were delivered at Salisbury and requests were even taken. (Image: Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

The United Kingdom government plans to offer a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to every adult by September as the nations health care system battles the worst crisis in its 72-year-history.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on January 17 that the government will soon begin a trial of round the clock injections at some locations as it continues to add more vaccination sites to increase the pace of delivery. The National Health Service opened a mass vaccination center on Saturday at the historic Salisbury Cathedral, where injections were accompanied by organ music.

Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose, he told Sky News. If we can do it faster than that, great, but thats the road map.

Britain has more than 51 million adults in its population of 67.5 million people.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the 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 ambitious vaccination program comes amid crushing pressures on the National Health Service. Already beleaguered hospitals are admitting another COVID-19 patient every 30 seconds, putting the service in its most precarious situation ever, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.

The facts are very clear and Im not going to sugarcoat them, hospitals are under extreme pressure and staff are under extreme pressure, he told the BBC. Since Christmas Day weve seen another 15,000 increase in the in-patients in hospitals across England. Thats the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.

Britains health care system is staggering as doctors and nurses battle a more contagious variant of the coronavirus coupled with cold, wet winter weather that drives people inside, where infections spread more easily.

The surge in infections has pushed the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to a record 37,475, more than 73% higher than during the first peak of the pandemic in April. Britain has reported 88,747 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other country in Europe and the fifth-highest number worldwide.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Jan. 2 ordered England into its third national lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and protect the NHS, which Stevens said now has some 50,000 employees off work due to COVID-19 infections and exposure quarantines.

The government says it wont review the lockdown measures until mid-February, by which time it plans to offer at least one dose of vaccine to everyone over 70, as well as to frontline health care workers and others who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: All you need to know about manufacturing and pricing

Once that goal has been reached, the U.K. will offer the vaccine to everyone over 50 before finally moving on to everyone over 18.

Unlike other nations, Britain has chosen to stretch out the time between vaccine doses from 21 days to up to 12 weeks  a decision that means more people will get at least one dose more quickly.

Britain has approved three vaccines  ones by Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna. The first two are already being used, while the Moderna doses are not expected until spring.

Meanwhile, vaccination centers are being opened in England at some of the country's great cathedrals. Salisbury Cathedral, which also houses a copy of the Magna Carta, opened its great nave to the public. Others will follow as the rollout continues.

Organ music played as the jabs were delivered at Salisbury. Requests were taken.

I doubt that anyone is having a jab in surroundings that are more beautiful than this, so I hope it will ease people as they come into the building, said the Very Rev. Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury.
Sen. Hawleys Book Picked Up by New Publisher After Cancellation

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will see his book published after all.

Washington-based Regnery Publishing confirmed to The Epoch Times on Jan. 18 that it will publish Hawleys book, after Simon & Schuster canceled its publishing contract following Hawleys objection to electoral votes from two states earlier this month during a joint session of Congress.

As a publisher, it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: At the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat, the New York-based Simon & Schuster said at the time.

Critics claim Hawleys objections were somehow connected to the mob that stormed the Capitol on the same day of the joint session.

Regnery noted that the senator has forcefully condemned the storming of the Capitol. The company said Hawley had fallen victim to so-called cancel culture, the movement to ban or bar ideas or speech that run counter to leftist viewpoints.

Its discouraging to see them cower before the woke mob, as Senator Hawley correctly calls it. Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldnt be more urgent, Thomas Spence, Regnerys president and publisher, said in a statement.

The book from Hawley, the former attorney general of Missouri, is titled The Tyranny of Big Tech. In the book, according to the publisher, he shows how Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and other digital giants have abused their enormous market power and political influence, silencing their competition.

Explaining why current policies fail us, he identifies alternatives that will break Big Techs control over our liberties, stated Regnery, which recently published Sen. Ted Cruzs (R-Texas) book on the Supreme Court.

The book is scheduled to be published this spring, Regnery said.

Hawley and Simon & Schuster didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Press Release

January 18, 2021 SPONSORSHIP SPEECH OF SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS ON SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 613 EXPRESSING THE PROFOUND SYMPATHY AND SINCERE CONDOLENCES OF THE PHILIPPINE SENATE ON THE DEATH OF MMDA CHAIR GENERAL DANNY LIM

January 18, 2021 Mr. President, dear colleagues, magandang hapon po. I sponsor Resolution no. 613 with honor and with gratitude, but I also sponsor it with a heavy heart. Hindi ko inakala na sa pagbukas ng sesyon ngayong 2021, ang aking unang gagawin ay magbigay pugay sa isang sundalo, isang magiting na Pilipino, at higit sa lahat, isang tinuturing kong kaibigan. He didn't fulfill the adage that old soldiers never die but he will never fade away. General Danny Lim, as most people who know him can attest, was an intellectual giant. Even as a young child growing up in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, he was always known for his brilliance and perseverance. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of excellence: first topping the entrance exam to the Philippine Military Academy, and then making it to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Conversations with him were always provocative and provided a window to his thoughts, his ideas, and perhaps also to his inner conflicts. This intellectual rigor is matched only by his patriotism. General Danny was a brave soldier. He was wounded twice in his combat in Sulu, and was named commander of the elite Scout Rangers. Bagamat may ilan na may agam-agam sa mga naging desisyon ni Gen. Danny sa iba't ibang yugto ng ating kasayasayan, hinding hinding matatawaran ang kanyang pagmamahal sa bayan. Nakasama ko at ng aking partidong Akbayan si General Lim sa isang kasong sinampa sa Ombudsman para panagutin ang mga nakaupo sa poder. At sa pag-giit ng demokrasya sa mga mapanghamong yugto katulad ng state of emergency. We may now have opposing views on the many issues of the day, but I will choose to hold on to my memory of him as a fighter, crusader and fellow traveler. At the end of the day, General Danny Lim - a man who fought the establishment, a man who fought for the establishment - was a man who put country over self, no matter the cost. My personal condolences, prayers and tight embraces to his family, Rep. Aloi and their beloved daughter Aika. Maraming salamat po Mr. President at mga kasama.
California Potter Talks Art of Survival, Survival Through Art

BEAUMONT, Calif.Rich Lopez almost died twice before he started truly living.

The first time I tried to end my life, I was driving on the freeway. I jumped lanes into oncoming traffic. A huge semi was coming right at me. At the last second, I swerved and ended up in a ditch, he said while sitting in his home in Beaumont, California.

Lopez grew up in an abusive household, with a brother he says used him as a punching bag and a father who was scarred by World War II. The school bus driver got tired of seeing me so badly beaten up by my dad and my brothersometimes bothso he taught me how to box.

I used to thank God for him every day. I had to learn to fight to be able to beat up my own brother  and learn to survive.

Lopez said he wasnt good to his own familythough he didnt physically abuse them, his drug and alcohol abuse led him to mentally and emotionally abuse them.

Until he turned his life around some 20 years ago, with the help of a supportive wife, art, and what he sees as divine intervention.

The Wheel

Lopez, now 64, met his wife, Cheryl, when he was 16. Cheryl said she has loved Lopez since her sophomore year of high school.

I remembered the night-school pottery classes we took as kids. I remembered how Rich loved working with the clay and the wheel, she said. I thought that maybe he could use it to help himself.

She bought him a pottery wheel. He was in such mental pain, and I didnt know how to reach him.

Cheryls seemingly small gesture led to an amazing transformation in her husbands life. But not immediately. For years, the wheel just sat there, Cheryl said.

Lopez tried to stay clean and sober, and tried to hold onto his job as a wholesale coffee salesman, but always failed. Feeling that he and his family had had enough of him, Lopez decided for a second time to try ending his life.

That second time I tried to commit suicide, that wasnt an attemptI died that day, he said.

An Angel Had Taken Me

The business Lopez worked for was being sold and he was losing his job with the sale.

I was never taught how to cope with setbacks or anything negative, so one day, while no one was in the house, I drank two bottlestwo full fifths of alcoholand I downed a bottle of pills. The last thing I said was, Lets do this.

Suddenly, I wasnt upstairs sprawled out on my bed anymore. An angel had taken me  to show me what was going to happen. He said, Youre going to be a well-known artist.

I said, Im a coffee salesman, not an artist.

He quieted me with a finger, brought me downstairs, and showed me the wheel that my wife had bought years before. He reminded me that I loved to work with pottery as a child.

Ever the salesman, Lopez made a deal with the angel.

He showed me the wheel, he showed me the sequence of events and how it would play out, and even the museum where I would have my own show, but I didnt believe it.  I said, If all of this is real, and I wake up  prove it to me. Let me wake up without a hangover.

Lopez soon awoke feeling no need for alcohol or drugs, feeling no need for the many medications he was on for stress, depression, and diabetes.

I woke up, and I felt fine. I was amazed.

Cheryl was not so amazed. As soon as my wife came home that day, I said, Honey, Im done. Ill never touch another drug or take another drink. But she had heard it before. She laughed in my face.

I told Rich, Show me, dont tell me, Cheryl said. He did show her; the drugs and alcohol stopped immediately.

That was 20 years ago. He was about 400 pounds and hes lost almost half his weight since then.

My comeback  started the minute I sat down at the wheel. To me, the wheel is life itself playing out in front of me.

That first night, Lopez sat at the wheel hour after hour, throwing a total of 200 pounds of clay. When he was finished, at nearly four in the morning, he had made figurines, bowls, pots, and dishes.

Rich Lopez paints a piece of his pottery. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

I looked at my wife and said, Honey, you bought me a wheel.  Now you have to buy me a kiln, Lopez said.

Lopez had somehow managed to recall the lessons from his gin-soaked, drug-infused meetings with ceramic masters.

Somehow, I retained it all and never forgot a thing. Within months, I was selling my art at the Village Fest in Palm Springs.

Still, Lopezs wife and children were skeptical for a while. Years of broken promises, like broken pottery, littered the floor of Lopezs life.

I learned that life is like the clay: its in my hands  but I cant force it, or Ill destroy it. I had to learn to work slowly and use my very life as the persuasive proof that I had changed. I tell people that I dont mold the clay into shape  I persuade it, Lopez said.

His wife supported him financially, but she couldnt trust me. I understood why, but that realization was so painful.

I began to feel as if I was going to crumble, feeling like I would never be the artist I wanted to be  feeling that I had failed. I lost hope in my ability. I lost my confidence. I began to cry. It was right there at a show, at my booth, surrounded by all the other vendors. I just started to cry, and I felt disgusted with myself.

I dont know why I said it, but I looked up and I said, God, if you told me the truth, that I was going to be an artist, I want to make $376 today. I still have no idea why I picked that number. It was crazy. The most Id ever made at a show was 75 bucks, he said.

Enter angels numbers two and three. You see, in Rich Lopezs world, angels look just like ordinary folks, and two of them approached his booth that day.

Two More Angels

They were an ordinary-looking couple, but I knew when I saw them. I felt it. She said to me Why are you crying? I looked up, aggravated, and said, Dont worry about it. She said, Id like to buy that piece; its beautiful. And Id like that piece.

She asked for another piece, then her husband asked for two more. When I totaled it up, it came to $375.

I just looked up, tears in my eyes and said, Are you two angels? Youre angels.

She said, No, were not, but youll be fine.

Cheryl returned to the booth and looked at Lopez as if I was back on the stuff when he said he just met two angels. Then she looked at the check and said, They spent $376? I said, What? What? I looked at the check. The woman had made a mistake and had written out the check for $376. $376.

When I told my wife what had happened, we were both in shock. Every time we looked at the check, we just shook our heads.  My wife began to believe in me then.

But it wasnt a straight line from failure to success.

Rich Lopez sits in his home studio in Beaumont, Calif. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

He felt stalled, a creative block. His friend and mentor Crispin Gonzalez, a pottery teacher at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, told him, This is California. There are a thousand guys doing pretty bowls.  You have to find your own niche.

Cue another dream, another angel.

And a Fourth

I had this dream: I saw myself hovering over baskets and holding a unique tool. An angel showed it to me. It was a tool thats not made for the trade. I knew it didnt exist in real life. I immediately woke up, took a steak knife, ran to my grinding wheel, and fashioned the tool that I now use to make the striations in the clay that mimic a woven basket, he said.

It works like no other ceramics tool ever invented.

Lopezs pottery baskets look like finely woven, handmade Native American baskets.

Things progressed quickly for Lopez after that. His work was featured at homes and galleries around the country, and one of his signature woven baskets now fetches as much as $2,000.

A ceramic woven basket made by California artist Rich Lopez. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

An oxide paint container sits on a piece of Rich Lopezs pottery. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

Rich Lopez speaks with a fan of his work in his outdoor home studio in Beaumont, Calif. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

Lopez has spent time at Native reservations to watch local artisans.

I am half Indian, and I spent over a year on the reservation learning the art of basket weaving, he said.

He had his own show at The American Museum of Ceramic Arts (AMOCA) in Pomonathe premier ceramics gallery west of the Mississippi and home to some of the countrys most exceptional ceramics exhibits.

It wasnt until his second time at AMOCA, however, that its special significance dawned on him.

When I walked in that second time, I began to cry. I realized that everything looked exactly as I remembered it in my first visit with the angel, when I almost died. I knew the walls  the floors, the steps, the furniture. I had been there before. I was too busy to realize it that first time  but suddenly I realized it, he said.

I began to shake and cry.

Rich Lopez was beginning to establish himself as a major regional artist who was on the brink of national success when another ugly, dramatic hurdle emerged.

Vision

I hadnt been feeling right, but I never told my wife or anyone else. My eyesight was giving me problems  and the minute Cheryl would leave for work, Id collapse on the bed from fatigue. The only time Id get up was to vomit. Then Id crawl out of bed two minutes before she came home, so she would think everything was all right, he said.

After visiting her mother in Arizona for several days, Cheryl came home to find him in bed, and slurring his words. All I could say was, Call 9-1-1, then I blacked out.

Doctors told Cheryl to be ready at any moment for a call telling her that Rich had passed away. The call never came.

I was out of it for 48 hours. I hadnt taken care of my diabetes, hadnt taken the meds  and had not been drinking water as I should have. My liver and kidneys werent happy. Neither was Cheryl, Lopez said.

But I realized I wasnt out of the woods. After two days of keeping quiet, I could no longer hide the fact that my vision was damaged. They knew something was up when I tried to pour myself a glass of water, and I spilled it all over myself.

Lopez was blind in his left eye. Cheryl says she immediately felt a crushing sympathy for him, but that that was immediately followed by a feeling that, no matter what happened, her husband would overcome it.

To me, even if he remained blind in that eye, it wasnt going to stop him in any way, shape, or form. I knew hed beat it.

But Lopez wasnt so sure. I was pretty much devastated  and angry. I had already suffered from depression and anxiety on and off my whole life. I shut down. I stopped making art. I was miserable.

But slowly I realized that my entire life was like one of those Etch A Sketch boards. Every time I had gotten too complacent, life came and scrambled the whole thing  like shaking that board  and every time it did, I re-imagined myself, Lopez said.

If Im going to be a one-eyed potter  Id better get started, he told himself.

At first, I was almost scared of the clay, but as I worked it, felt it in my hands, my muscle memory took over. I began to smile  then I cried. I was back.

The first piece he created after coming to grips with his blindness was a hummingbird. Because even in the most turbulent winds, a hummingbird finds stability and peace.

A hummingbird made by Rich Lopez. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

Rich Lopez holds a demonstration through his Art Force program for children. (Courtesy of Rich Lopez)

Hes also proud of a program he created called Art Force, which teaches children the art of pottery through demonstration and allows them to create small pieces themselves.

I sit at the wheel for hours on end. I tell the clay my story. It answers back  and I give thanks, Lopez said. When people see my work, they see a bit of me in every piece. I want them to see a part of themselves too: the best part.

Portions of this article first appeared in the Hemet San-Jacinto Chronicle. Rich Lopez can be reached at RichLopezClayArtist.com
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Maria Byrne has been chosen as the Fine Gael candidate to fill the Seanad seat left following the resignation of former Fine Gael senator Michael DArcy.

Fine Gaels Executive Council has nominated Ms Byrne as the partys candidate to contest the forthcoming Seanad Agricultural Panel bye-election.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects 405,000 deaths by Democrat Joe Biden's inauguration day on January 20  the one-year anniversary of the first reported COVID-19 case in the US  and more than 500,000 by February 19. The pace of new infections has accelerated at a stunning rate in the past 2 months, along with the number of fatalities. On October 29, the IHME projected 399,000 COVID-19 deaths by February 1. About that time, the country averaged 87,000 new cases and 826 deaths a day. This past week, those figures had skyrocketed to 246,000 and 3376, and a Centres for Disease Control forecast aggregate predicted 440,000 to 477,000 deaths by February 6. Loading Along with the vaccines, the biggest ray of hope public health specialists see comes from the incoming Biden administration, which is likely to bring a science-based approach to containing the virus. Except for the efforts to develop the vaccines in record time, the Trump administration's response to the pandemic has been assailed by the medical community. Even the vaccine achievement has been tarnished by the slow rollout.

"By any metric, anybody who believes in data and science would acknowledge we've done terribly with this pandemic, arguably the worst in the world," said John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of California-Berkeley, citing failures with testing and protective equipment along with mixed messaging on masks. "What that tells us is how badly things can go if you have a bad administration. As the death toll from COVID-19 hits 400,000 in the US, many Americans blame Donald Trump and his administration. Credit:AP "Everybody, including me, is excited about the vaccines, excited about science and what it can do for us. It's incredibly important. But I think we downplay the importance of what a good administration can do in managing this pandemic. We will do a lot better when we have an administration that follows science and follows public health, that gives consistent messaging, that doesn't politicise key institutions like the CDC and the FDA." Biden to take 'more active role' Biden has assembled a COVID-19 response team and vowed to have 100 million doses of vaccine administered in his first 100 days in office. On Thursday he proposed a $US1.9 trillion ($2.46 trillion) pandemic-relief package that includes $US70 billion for virus testing and a national vaccination program.

Though Swartzberg considers the 100 million vaccinations goal "a stretch", others said it was realistic, including Jason Schwartz, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Schwartz said the Trump administration set unrealistic expectations by saying 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December. As of the last update on Friday, 31.2 million doses had been distributed and 12.3 million vaccine shots had been applied, the CDC said. The vaccine distribution has been hampered by a funding shortage  CDC director Robert Redfield pleaded for more resources in September, but they weren't approved until three weeks ago  and a lack of co-ordination and direction from the federal government in the enormous task of making vaccines available to 330 million people in 50 states, Schwartz said. "The design so far of this vaccination rollout was so decentralised that it was, basically, ship vaccines to each state, you tell us where to ship them, give us the mailing addresses and you take it from there," Schwartz said. "One thing we've seen already from the incoming Biden administration is they intend to have a far more active and engaged role in supporting this vaccination effort, co-ordinating it, leading it."

The early stages of the vaccination program are the easy part, Schwartz said, because those first in line  healthcare workers, plus residents and staff of long-term care facilities  are readily accessible. Expanding the effort to rural communities and people without regular access to health care will be harder. Schwartz said it is important to keep promoting mitigation measures such as mask use, social distancing and frequent hand washing. Neither the vaccines nor the strategies implemented by the new administration are likely to make a major dent in the pandemic for at least a couple of months, and researchers don't know whether vaccines prevent transmission in addition to symptoms. Swartzberg predicted a "horrific" rest of January followed by several ups and downs in cases, deaths and hospitalisations throughout February before a gradual levelling off by mid-March and continued improvement after that. He doesn't envision a return to some semblance of normality before late summer, a less optimistic outlook than presented by some members of the Trump administration, such as former Operation Warp Speed head Moncef Slaoui. Any forecasts could be nullified by the recent emergence of more contagious variants of the virus  the CDC said on Friday the new mutation first found in Britain could become the dominant strain in the US by March  or in the best of cases, by the development of therapeutics that might ameliorate the disease's worst effects. Regardless, Biden's team will be charged with clearing monumental wreckage.

Woolf pointed out COVID-19 was the country's leading cause of death in the spring of 2020 and late in the year, surpassing cancer and heart disease. That's not even taking into consideration the likely undercount of coronavirus fatalities or other excess deaths caused by the pandemic  often because of people skipping or being unable to access medical care  which Woolf estimates at one for every two COVID-19 deaths. WWII deaths took four years The virus is likely to kill more than 400,000 Americans in less than a year  the first such death is believed to have occurred on February 6  whereas it took almost four years for that many US service members to die in World War II. Woolf said an infectious disease had not been America's leading killer since the flu pandemic, and he highlighted three reasons that COVID-19 turned into such a scourge here:

US life expectancy has been falling compared with other wealthy nations since the 1980s, putting Americans at a disadvantage.

A fragmented system divides public health response across 50 states, while other countries mounted a national response.

The United States lacked national leadership, particularly from the President but also from the rest of his administration and Congress. Other countries' leaders promoted policies that reduced the spread of the virus and inspired the public to respond. "This shouldn't have happened, and it didn't happen in other countries that are modern and industrialised," Woolf said. "This is a uniquely American phenomenon." Whalen said the calamitous handling of the pandemic brings into question the notion, widely held in these shores, that the US is the world's greatest country. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. Credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images He drew a parallel between Trump and Wilson, who presided over the US participation in World War I from April 1917 to the conflict's end in November 1918.
Skye distiller Torabhaig auctioning two rare bottles of its first whisky

Scottish distillery Torabhaig is preparing to auction two rare signed bottles of its first single malt ahead of its general release in February.

Included in the auction are a single cask bottle from the Torabhaig Family Reserve - which would not otherwise be available to purchase - and a bottle of the new Legacy Series 2017 peated single malt, the distillery's first expression. Each bottle has been signed by all nine Torabhaig distillers.

The auction will start on 31 January on Whisky Auction with all proceeds going to two charities that are close to the hearts of the Torabhaig team: the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, Sabhal Mor Ostaig and the Dr MacKinnon Memorial Broadford Hospital.

Fully operational since January 2017, Torabhaig - the first whisky distillery to be built on the Isle of Skye in nearly 200 years - uses traditional wooden washbacks for fermentation and distils its whisky in copper stills.

It is set to release Legacy Series 2017 for general sale through specialist retailers on 19 February. The first-edition bottling is a single distillation vintage issue, with just over 3,000 bottles available for distribution in the UK and 6,000 in the US.

Neil Mathieson, CEO of Mossburn Distillers, the company behind Torabhaig, said: "This Legacy series will lay down the foundations for the future profile of our bottled whisky and with each edition we will guide your journey with details on the barley, yeast and casks on the back label of the bottle.

"For the first, the 2017, we selected only 100 barrels from our first quarter's distillation, the spirit having been aged solely in Bourbon barrels that we shipped directly from the Kentucky distillery the day they were emptied."

On the Torabhaig Family Reserve, Neil said: "Whilst selecting casks to go into our first bottling of Torabhaig, the Legacy 2017, we chose to bottle a single cask in order to evaluate the whisky following the bottling process.

"The cask we selected was no. 311 from our third production run, which took place in early 2017. It was bottled by hand unblended, at cask strength and with only light filtration. The bottles from this cask will be placed in the distillery's reserves and will not be made available for sale."

18 January 2021 - Bethany Whymark
As the largest producer of vaccines in the world, with 60 per cent of the global share, India is well-positioned to use its existing manufacturing capabilities to contribute to mass vaccine production and distribution needs for other countries in addition to meeting its domestic requirements, it said in its latest report. "With exports of the Covid-19 vaccines expected to begin soon, India (along with China) look set to take the ...

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Charcot Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. (Photo by Lauren Simkins)

Over the past century, global sea level has been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. That means the damage done by storm surges will be more severe, coastal erosion will accelerate and flooding will become more frequent and more expensive.

But one of the most troubling things about that trend is that current models for predicting future sea-level rise are missing critical pieces of informationkey factors that could help us better prepare for effects of rising seas on our communities and our economy.

A new study by geologist Lauren Simkins, a University of Virginia environmental sciences professor, however, suggests that she and her colleagues, who describe themselves as "glacial geologists," have discovered a way to test important variables in the equation that could make those models much better at predicting how much sea levels will riseand how fast.

While a warming climate will contribute to a continued rise in global sea level by melting land-based glaciers and ice sheets that cover Antarctica and much of Greenland, the models scientists use to predict how quickly the ice will melt involve some guesswork about what's happening under those massive ice structures as they move across the terrain beneath them.

"The way we chose to approach this problem," Simkins said, "was to look at the geological record and the glacial landforms that were formed by now-extinct ice sheets or sectors of ice sheets that no longer exist. There we can see very clearly the signature of ice flow, the pattern of retreat and what the terrain looks like."

Using massive data sets collected from around the world, Simkins and her co-authors have been able to uncover clues about the interactions between the ice sheets and different types of terrain they once covered by looking for evidence that supports the assumptions modelers make or to identify circumstances in which those assumptions don't apply.

"There are some properties of the terrain that allow us to better predict future outcomes," Simkins said, "but we also know that there are some properties of the underlying terrain that can stabilize the ice that we didn't really know were as important as we found through this extensive data set of formerly glaciated landscapes."

Simkins and her colleagues from Sweden and Norway are placing these geological observations of how sensitive ice flow and retreat are to the underlying terrain into the context of modern ice masses that are contributing to global sea level rise.

"Thwaites glacier in Antarctica is contributing 4% to global sea level rise, and that's just one glacier, one slice of the Antarctic ice sheet draining ice into the ocean," Simkins said. "So, we're taking information from individual past glacial systems and merging all those empirical observations to come up with something that that we can use to help predict and to help constrain the models that are essential to determining ice sheet contributions to sea level."

Ultimately, her work in helping to fine-tune predictions about rising sea levels will be critical to understanding how to anticipate the consequences of a changing climate and how quickly we'll need to act.

"Sea-level rise from melting of glaciers and ice sheets is a critical climate challenge facing coastal communities around the nation and the world," Scott Doney, an expert in environmental change with UVA's Department of Environmental Sciences, said. "Professor Simkins' research provides valuable insights into our ability to predict rates of glacial retreat and the limits on those predictions. She brings new and exciting scientific expertise to UVA on ice-dominated parts of the world, now and in the geological past."

Simkins' paper, co-written with Sarah L. Greenwood of Stockholm University, Monica C.M. Winsborrow of the Arctic University of Norway and Lilja R. Bjarnadottir with the Geological Survey of Norway, was published in the January issue of Science Advances.

Explore further Sea level rise from ice sheets track worst-case climate change scenario

More information: Sarah L. Greenwood et al. Exceptions to bed-controlled ice sheet flow and retreat from glaciated continental margins worldwide, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances Sarah L. Greenwood et al. Exceptions to bed-controlled ice sheet flow and retreat from glaciated continental margins worldwide,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb6291
President Donald Trump dealt the country another parting blow Wednesday by ordering the relocation of Space Command from Colorado Springs to H


The Temple Covenant of Peace synagogue in Eastons West Ward no longer has its eye on a sale to 7-Eleven for its next convenience store.

Synagogue representatives last year initially began discussing plans for 7-Eleven to possibly set up shop at 1451 Northampton St. as the temple finalized its merger with Bnai Abraham Synagogue in neighboring Wilson Borough. Now, Harvey Cartine, who serves as co-president with Dr. Marc Abo of the new Congregation Bnai Shalom, told lehighvalleyive.com the property is being sold instead to Life Church.

Temple Covenant of Peace understood the neighborhood concerns about replacing the church with the 7-Eleven and saw many benefits in selling the property to Life Church, Cartine said Monday. He said the expects the sale to be finalized soon.

Mayor Sal Panto Jr. previously indicated there would be controversy with the interest of 7-Eleven Sales Corp. because the property sits in a very nice, low-density residential community with larger homes. The mayor noted Wilson Boroughs commercial stretch extending for four blocks west of the site.

The building remains as it was originally intended, that is, a house of worship, Cartine told lehighvalleylive.com. Our congregation is happy for that and the legacy and memories that live on. The outcome is that everybody connected with the Easton community wins with this sale to the church.

Cartine did not provide specifics about the pending sale, including the agreed upon price. Online real estate sale records indicate a total property assessment of $367,900 for the 15,266-square-foot, one-story building constructed in 1959. It sits on about 1.67 acres with a CVS Pharmacy and Exxon gas station across the street -- all about a mile from Downtown Easton.

Life Church, which has existing campuses in the Easton, Nazareth, Allentown, Bethlehem and Macungie areas, announced on the Nazareth campus Facebook page Jan. 10 the church would be moving its Easton campus to the Temple Covenant of Peace for its 10 a.m. Feb. 14 service. A photo of the temple was attached to the message and stated, Welcome Home.

The posting went on to say congregants of Easton would gather at the Life Church Nazareth campus, 4609 Newburg Road, in Lower Nazareth Township from now until Feb. 7 as the Easton building is being prepared for worship. It ended with such hashtags as #futureisbright, #getready, #thereismore and #blessed.

BIG NEWS! This morning at our Easton Campus we announced the exciting news that we have signed a sale of agreement to... Posted by Life Church Nazareth on Sunday, January 10, 2021

Jon Schwartz, executive pastor of Life Church and Nazareth and Easton campus pastor, said congregants in Easton previously met at Paxinosa Elementary School, 1221 Northampton St., before finding the permanent space. Life Church Easton has about 250 congregants.

We are super-excited to continue to serve the people of Easton, Schwartz said Monday.

We believe moving into a permanent location at the previous temple allows us to continue to grow and reach more people in the community, he added.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the church is offering online services, as well as a safe, spacious and sanitized in-person environment at all of its locations. Theres also Kids Life component, offering religious teachings, music and youth ministry, from infant to fifth grade. Additional opportunities for discipleship and outreach also are envisioned, Schwartz said.

Temple Covenant of Peace sold the property as a result of the newly formed Congregation Bnai Shalom that consolidates its synagogue and congregation with Bnai Abraham. The temple in 2019 celebrated its 180th anniversary and is the third-oldest ongoing Jewish congregation in Pennsylvania, Cartine had said. He noted the merger with Bnai Abraham, 1545 Bushkill St., which houses the new Congregation Bnai Shalom, became necessary as membership dwindled.

The merger, Cartine then said, allows both synagogues to continue in the future and supply both progress for the Jewish community and involvement in all of Eastons community aspects, including civic activities for the area.

Life Church has future plans to add another campus at 621 Centre Avenue, Reading, Berks County in March, according to its website.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.

A Chinese province grappling with a spike in cases is reinstating tight restrictions on weddings, funerals and other family gatherings, threatening violators with criminal charges.

The notice from the high court in Hebei province did not give specifics, but said all types of social gatherings were now being regulated to prevent further spread of the virus.

Hebei has had one of China's most serious outbreaks in months and it comes amid measures to curb the further spread during February's Lunar New Year holiday. Authorities have called on citizens not to travel, ordered schools closed a week early and conducted testing on a massive scale.

Hebei recorded another 54 cases over the previous 24 hours, the National Health Commission said on Monday, while the northern province of Jilin reported 30 cases and Heilongjiang further north reported seven.

Beijing had two new cases and most buildings and housing compounds now require proof of a negative test for entry.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Chrome deliveries to the port of Maputo in Mozambique have been severely disrupted over the past two weeks amid queues as long as 25km at Lebombo, a major land border crossing. And the cobalt intermediates payable soared to a record high due to congestion at land borders in South Africa, where most cobalt that is mined in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) goes to be shipped.Fastmarkets assessment of the cobalt hydroxide payable indicator, min 30% Co, cif China, % payable of Fastmarkets standard-grade cobalt price (low end) , rose to 88-90% on January 13, up by 2% from 86-88.5% on January 8. This weeks value was the highest assessed for the indicator since its launch in January 2019.Cargoes out of South Africa have a little bit more uncertainty built into the price at the moment, an upstream cobalt market source told Fastmarkets.

Much of the disruption in the...

The SMM has so far recorded at least 6,294 ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine recorded 91 ceasefire violations in Donbas over the weekend.

"In Donetsk region, between the evenings of January 15 and January 17, the Mission recorded 83 ceasefire violations, including six undetermined explosions. The majority of ceasefire violations, including four undetermined explosions, occurred in areas north of Shyrokyne (government-controlled, 100km south of Donetsk) and at easterly directions of Lebedynske (government-controlled, 99km south of Donetsk). In the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded 184 ceasefire violations in the region, the majority of which also occurred in areas north of Shyrokyne," the OSCE SMM said in a daily report on January 18, 2021.

Read alsoOSCE Chairperson-in-Office Linde to visit Ukraine this week"In Luhansk region, between the evenings of January 15 and January 17, the SMM recorded eight undetermined explosions in an area west-south-west of Kalynove (non-government-controlled, 60km west of Luhansk). In the previous reporting period, it recorded no ceasefire violations in the region," it said.

It is noted following agreement reached at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on July 22, 2020 regarding additional measures to strengthen the ceasefire, from 00:01 on July 27, 2020 until the end of the reporting period, the SMM has so far recorded at least 6,294 ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions (including 2,660 explosions, 911 projectiles in flight, 90 muzzle flashes, 54 illumination flares and at least 2,579 bursts and shots).

Other related news reports

Reporting by UNIAN

Brussels, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2021 ) :The UK variant of the coronavirus has claimed the lives of three residents at a retirement home in northwestern Belgium and infected 111 people including 39 staff members, its director Jurgen Duyck told AFP on Sunday.

The cluster represents two-thirds of the residents of the De Groene Verte home in the western Flanders city of Houthulst near the border with France.

Belgium has suffered one of the worst per capita death rates in the world during the epidemic with its nursing homes representing more than half of overall deaths from the disease, according to the Public Health Institute.

Mayor Joris Hindryckx said the outbreak prompted a halt to "all social and sporting activities" in the town of around 10,000 people.

The source of the contamination is unknown, but the mayor said the infection must have been "indirect" as none of those testing positive was known to have travelled to Britain.

He said those infected must quarantine for 10 days instead of the usual seven.

But an epidemiologist urged a "full lockdown" in Houthulst and called for all inhabitants to be tested.

Writing in the daily Le Soir, Yves Coppieters said: "We have the foundations of a third wave of contaminations." Speaking to the Belgian tv station La Une, he noted: "If there is already a cluster of this intensity, there are sure to be others.

" Without blanket testing, "we won't succeed against a variant that is a lot more contagious," he warned.

On Friday, the spokesman of the Belgian health authorities, Yves Van Laethem, said there were already several dozen cases of both the British and the South African strains of the coronavirus in the country, adding that "other strains could emerge".

He noted that the Pfizer vaccine, the one most widely used in Belgium, is effective against the two variant strains.

Residents of the Houthulst retirement home were set to be vaccinated against Covid-19 this week, but the programme was postponed because of the large number of Covid patients, Hindryckx said.

The elderly are the priority target in the vaccination campaign, which according to official figures had reached 17.26 percent of retirement home residents and staff by January 13 with the first dose of the vaccine, which is to be followed up by a second dose.

Belgian authorities said Saturday that a delay in delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses would not affect the vaccination of this segment of the population.

The country recorded 16.6 percent excess deaths last year attributed mainly to Covid-19.

Since the start of the pandemic, Belgium has recorded 677,209 cases and 20,396 deaths.
Staff Sergeant John D.S. Bailey, 27, from Haiku, Hawaii, died at an on-post residence at Fort Bliss, Texas, on January 14. The circumstances are currently under investigation.

Fort Bliss army detectives have opened an investigation after a 27-year-old officer 'took his own life' two days before two other soldiers were killed in separate and unrelated car accidents over the weekend.

Staff Sergeant John D.S. Bailey, from Haiku, Hawaii, took his own life on January 14 his father told KITV.

Two days later Sergeant Dejaun K. Frazier, 43, was killed in a motorcycle crash followed by Specialist Kenmaj D. Graham, 21, who died in a hit and run on January 17.

The three deaths in four days at the troubled base come two weeks after Private First Class Asia Graham, 19, was found unresponsive in barracks on New Years Eve after claiming fellow soldier Christian Alvarado, 21, sexually assaulted her in 2019.

The circumstances are currently under investigation by Army officials but Staff Sergeant Bailey's father Matt Bailey has claimed that his son committed suicide on Friday after his 'demons overcame him'.

Sgt. 1st Class Dejaun K. Frazier, 43, (left) was killed in a motorcycle crash on January 16 and Specialist Kenmaj D. Graham, 21, (right) was killed in a hit and run crash on January 17

Asia Graham, 19, was found dead in her barracks on New Years Eve. One year prior, she reported she had been sexually assaulted

Mr Bailey warned of a mental health crisis in the military and said on Facebook: 'They became too much for [John] to bear and he took his own life'.

Sergeant Bailey was the second of four soldiers to die at Fort Bliss in three weeks, after Private First Class Asia Graham, 19, was found unresponsive in her barracks on New Year's Eve.

Prior to Asia Graham's death she had accused private Christian Alvarado, 21, of sexually assaulting her in 2019.

On January 14 Alvarado was arraigned in a general court-martial hearing and charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of making a false statement to Army investigators.

Fort Bliss is just the latest Army base to face intense scrutiny in recent months, joining the likes of Fort Hood, where Vanessa Guillen was murdered, and Fort Bragg, for a series of sexual assault claims and deaths

Sergeant Bailey was an Indirect Fire Infantryman, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2013.

He arrived at Fort Bliss, his third duty posting, in March 2019 and was assigned as the Fire Direction Chief, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 70th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.

Captain Kristopher Italiano, Headquarters Company Commander, said the base was 'deeply saddened about the loss of such a bright and talented NCO'.

Captain Italiano added: 'Staff Sgt. Bailey was above all else, a genuine and incredibly caring person. He was a member of our Family. His kindness and compassion toward his fellow Soldiers extended well beyond the scope of his daily duties as a mortar platoon sergeant', as reported by KFox14.

John Bailey's father Matt posted on Facebook that his son, pictured in an undated photo together, had taken his own life and warned of a rising mental health crisis in the military

But his father Matt warned that military suicides are a rising crisis and said on Facebook: 'Reach out to your loved ones - military or not. Let them know that they dont have to carry their burdens alone'

He added: 'If in the military, tell them that its not a weakness to ask for help. Johns friends and family have been shattered by his death. Nothing will ever make that pain go away, but if by talking about it we can prevent even one unnecessary death, it might lessen it a bit.', as reported by KITV4.

Private First Class Asia Graham, 19, a human resource specialist, reported that she had been sexually assaulted by another soldier. She said the assault happened in December 2019 and an investigation into her claims ended on December 1 in which a top commander agreed with her. However, just one month later she was found dead in her barracks in El Paso, Texas

Pfc. Christian G. Alvarado has been charged with the sexual assault of fellow soldier Asia Graham, who was found dead in her barracks on New Years Eve, appearing in court on January 14

Foul play is not suspected in Graham's death, according to her family, who live in Cleveland and Lincoln Counties.But as Graham's family mourns her death, they still have several concerns regarding how she died

Asia Graham, whose family come from Cleveland and Lincoln Counties, was a human resource specialist who joined the Army in July 2019.

She arrived at Fort Bliss in December 2019 after completing Basic Combat Training in Missouri and Advanced Individual Training in South Carolina. She had only been at the base for a matter of weeks before the alleged assault occurred.

She reported the assault to her chain of command six months later on June 1st, and an investigation was immediately launched.

Charge sheets show Alvarado was interviewed June 11 by CID agents, which is when he allegedly made false statements to investigators.

Alvarado is accused of raping Graham on Dec. 30, 2019, while she was 'unconscious,' according to the charge sheet.

She was found dead in her barracks room this past New Year's Eve, a year and a day after the first alleged assault occurred.

Sgt. 1st Class Dejaun K. Frazier, 43, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, was a noncommissioned officer assigned to the 1st Armored Division Artillery Brigade, as reported by 21 CBS DFW.

He died after a motorcycle crash in far east El Paso on January 16.

Frazier, who previously served in the Marine Corps, joined the U.S. Army in February 2011 as a 25W, Telecommunications Operations Chief.

Specialist Graham, 21, was allegedly on foot when he was struck by a vehicle on January 17, a spokesperson for Fort Bliss told CBS 4 News in El Paso.

Graham was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, according to officials.

Graham, a native of Wichita, Kansas, was a 19D, Cavalry Scout, who joined the U.S. Army in July 2017 from Kansas City, Mo. Fort Bliss was his first duty station.

Fort Bliss is just the latest Army base to face intense scrutiny in recent months, joining the likes of Fort Hood, where Vanessa Guillen was murdered, and Fort Bragg, for a series of sexual assault claims and deaths.

Most recently, soldier Sergeant Keith Lewis, 31, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina shot his heavily pregnant wife in front of their three-year-old daughter then turned the gun on himself in a horrific murder-suicide on December 20.

Earlier that same month Master Sgt. William Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, were both found dead in a training area at Fort Bragg on December 2 in whats suspected to be a drug deal gone wrong.

Fort Bragg has seen less eyebrow-raising death cases at the base compared to Fort Hood, with just one homicide reported in 2020 before the latest investigations began.
The UK's economic recovery this year could be stronger than most experts predict, the chairman of a leading bank has said.

William Vereker, who chairs the UK arm of Spanish banking group Santander, said a return of business investment and consumers unleashing savings will drive growth.

He believes the Brexit deal along with the roll-out of vaccines could lead to a stronger than expected bounce-back this year. He expects a 'big uptick' in consumer spending and increased business investment. 'I am a great believer in being an optimist,' he said.

Setting sail: William Vereker believes the Brexit deal along with the roll-out of vaccines could lead to a stronger than expected bounce-back this year

'There have been so many negative predictions. But there is another possibility: things might be okay.'

Mr Vereker took over as chairman of Santander UK last year after a long career in finance. He was also business envoy for Theresa May.

The economy shrank by 2.6 per cent in November, meaning output was 8.5 per cent below its pre-pandemic peak. That was better than many had foreseen but more financial agony is expected in the short term.

Mr Vereker outlined why he is optimistic. 'There is significant pent-up consumer demand and savings which will flow into the economy later this year so I can see a quick bounce-back.

'Second, I am optimistic about business investment.'

He said this had been 'anaemic' due to uncertainty over Brexit and the pandemic. 'Now, however, you are going to have a much clearer framework in which to make investments because the Brexit deal is going to remove a big element of uncertainty and I would also expect the Covid situation to improve.'

He added that there will be a 'reassessment of the UK as a place to invest and do business,' if the Government gets its policy framework right.

'I am optimistic because of the combination of those three things, and a fourth. That is, on a relative basis, the UK looks good in terms of the opportunity to invest, employ and develop businesses,' he said.

'We still have pretty flexible labour laws, the English language, excellent education and a strong legal system.

'These are competitive advantages which have meant capital and talent have gravitated to the UK over 30 years. I can see sterling strengthening and the economy growing faster than forecast.'

ROME - Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte won a crucial vote in Parliament's lower house Monday night after a coalition defector's lawmakers abstained in the balloting, but he must clear a much tougher hurdle less than 24 hours later in the Senate to hold on to power.

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2021 file photo, Italian Senator, former premier and head of the political party 'Italia Viva' (IV), Matteo Renzi holds a press conference at the Italian Chamber of Deputies in Rome. Former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is testing his already low popularity by provoking a political crisis that could bring down the government at yet another critical juncture in the fight against the pandemic. The outcome Renzis powerplay - orchestrating the resignations of two ministers from his tiny but key Italia Viva party - will play out this week, when Premier Giuseppe Conte addresses both houses of Parliament in a bid to win support and form what would be his third coalition government since elections in 2018. (Alberto Pizzoli/pool via AP)

ROME - Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte won a crucial vote in Parliament's lower house Monday night after a coalition defector's lawmakers abstained in the balloting, but he must clear a much tougher hurdle less than 24 hours later in the Senate to hold on to power.

Lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies voted 321 to 259 in approval of Conte's government, after the premier sought their backing to overcome a political crisis  lamenting that it had left Italian citizens bewildered in the midst of the pandemic. There were 27 abstentions.

Conte lost his coalition majority with the defection of Cabinet ministers belonging to former Premier Matteo Renzis tiny but key Italia Viva (Italy Alive) party, that threatened to collapse his government.

The open ballot in the Chamber was tantamount to a confidence vote on the government.

Conte's chances of prevailing in the vote received an important boost when a lawmaker in Renzi's party announced in Parliament after Conte's speech that Italy Alive's deputies would abstain in the balloting.

But a much tougher hurdle looms Tuesday in the Senate where Renzis party has 18 members, meaning Conte would seek support from outside his wobbly coalition to stay in power  even if Renzi's party again abstains in that vote.

Premier Giuseppe Conte, center, delivers his speech at the lower chamber of Parliament, in Rome, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Conte fights for his political life with an address aimed at shoring up support for his government, which has come under fire from former Premier Matteo Renzi's tiny but key Italia Viva (Italy Alive) party over plans to relaunch the pandemic-ravaged economy. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, pool)

Even should Conte's government survive in terms of numbers in Parliament, Renzi's party pullout last week highlighted the coalition's fragility. Conte would likely need backing from the thin ranks of centrists outside his coalition or the opposition to be able to get legislation passed, including vital economic measures to rescue an economy that was already stagnant before the pandemic pummeled it.

Renzi has faced harsh criticism for the power play during a pandemic that has killed more than 82,000 Italians. But with billions of European Union recovery funds expected to flow into the country, he has defended the move as necessary to prevent Conte from amassing too much power.

Did we always take the best decisions? Everyone can make their evaluations, Conte told the lower house. For my part, I can say the government worked with the utmost care and attention for the delicate balances, including constitutional ones, while keeping in mind the heavy implications for ordinary Italians.

If I can speak in the name of the whole government, with head high, it is not out of the arrogance of someone who believes not to have made errors, Conte said. It is out of awareness of how the whole government put all of its physical and mental energy into best protecting the nation.

He expressed perplexity at the political crisis for which he saw no plausible basis at a moment when the pandemic is still in full course.

He said the developments in Rome had provoked deep dismay in the country, when the priority should be fighting the virus and relaunching the economy. .

The interest rate Italy pays on its public debt has nudged up in recent days, but it is nowhere near the high levels reached during Italys 2011 political crisis.

During the debate, Conte used his follow-up speech to pitch to centrists, who might be wary of backing a government whose senior party is the populist 5-Star Movement.

After avowing to keep his government solidly pro-European Union, Conte promised his coalition would be aligned with the agenda of the incoming U.S. administration of Joe Biden, whose presidency, he said, is viewed with great hope.

I already have had a long and warm phone conversation with him, Conte told the Chamber. He added that the Biden agenda is our agenda.

During his speech to lawmakers, Conte conceded one point of contention, that he would give up the secret services portfolio. But he also made clear that it would be hard to mend fences with Renzi.

"We can't forget what has happened, and you can't think of regaining the climate of trust,'' Conte said.

Italia Viva lawmaker Ivan Scalfarotto accused Conte of setting up too many tasks forces during the pandemic, and not taking enough action.

Conte, a lawyer by training hailed for his mediation skills, was tapped by Italys 5-Star Movement to run the government after the indecisive 2018 election led to a governing coalition of the 5-Stars with a right-wing group led by League party leader Matteo Salvini.

That government fell when Salvini, then interior minister, mounted a failed power grab. Conte was able to form a new government with the support of the left-wing Democratic Party, which then included Renzi. Renzi later defected from the party he once ran, giving himself the ability to shake up the government by yanking loyal ministers.

Renzi acted after Conte unveiled a plan to manage the EU recovery funds himself, which was widely seen as accumulating too much power.

Barry reported from Milan. Frances D'Emilio contributed from Rome.

[January 17, 2021] VIISA Hold Virtual Investment Day For The First Time

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 7 January 2021, VIISA organized Investment Day Batch 8 on its online platform, attracting more than 80 investors as well as corporations and startup community builders. This invite-only event also marked a new milestone for tech-startups Batch 8 in their 4-month journey with VIISA. Taking place online for the first time, Investment Day Batch 8 solves the problem of geographical distance as well as difficulties in the global context of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing opportunities for startups and investors to share and exchange the latest updates about startup ideas. The event was divided into 2 sessions: live-streamed pitching shows from startups and networking activities between founders and investors with separate rooms for each startup team. Opening the event, Mr. Vo Tran Dinh Hieu - Board Member and Program Director at VIISA, said: "Unlike any other, we want to preserve the excitement of live pitching, so this is not a recorded video, we have all the founders here with us and they are ready to go. So it is the first week 2021 and it seems like we will have another very eventful year. The UK announced 3rd lockdown, the Capitol Hill was taken yesterday. But still in Vietnam thousands of people gathered for fireworks shows on new year's eve. I believe this tranquility in Vietnam represents what everyone has achieved in the last year. We all have sharpened our adaptability and agility to maintain the composure of our businesses. I hope we all will carry on this great attitude forward to 2021. We started this batch in June 2020 with 3 companies and only one succeeded to graduation. During this batch, we also continued supporting the alumni to recover from the covid situation." This year's Investment Day is not only an opportunity for VIISA Batch 8 startups to demonstrate their maturity, but also a chance for alumni startups who have participated in previous courses to reconfirm their development and position in the startup ecosystem. Whether the startup model isabout real estate, fashion, events, e-commerce, technology, and applicability factors are all of the program priorities. With the hope to help young Vietnamese startups build their global business, these are special features that VIISA always appreciates.



Pitching in the event are 5 startups: CYHOME : CyHome is Vietnam's leading Property management platform that has already served top-tier customers in the field of Property management (PM) such as CBRE, Proman (Novaland), Visaho, Blue Diamond, My House With an affordable fee, PMs now can have a world-class ERP, and service providers can have a better way to serve customers. What the startup wants to bring to market is a new way of living and working in crowded cities: with no fee, the resident/tenant should have a premium experience.

DROBEBOX : Drobebox is a disruptive fashion tech startup that offers a clothing subscription service for women. Users could unlock their dream closet, which contains thousands of premium designs with a fixed monthly fee, and enjoy any items without buying, maintaining, or laundry. Starting at 30$ per month, members could explore and enjoy up to 30 new items every month that used to cost them 1000-3000$. Using state-of-art technology such as AI, Drobebox platform provides an "infinity" closet with a true personalization experience that helps dress best every day as simple as ordering food delivery. WISEPASS : WisePass is a lifestyle app enabling its subscribers to access products, services, or events sponsored by brands. Starting from 239,000 VND per month, a subscriber gets 3 PASS a day to enjoy anything brands provide on the platform. VDES : VDES is the very first marketplace of the event industry, which connects event venues & event suppliers to customers in the simplest way with advanced technology. During over 4 years of operation, VDES has been partners with more than 520 vendors and organized more than 2250 events for users (customers & cooperate). With technology solutions and event-ecosystem platform, VDES offer service to vendors to increase competitive advantage, increase business efficiency, and decrease operating costs by event management system, we will launch this SAAS in 2021. ECOMEASY : EcomEasy Asia (ECE) is a dynamic ecommerce solution provider for consumer brands in Vietnam. ECE's integrated capabilities encompass all aspects of the e-commerce value chain from SKU selection, sales and inventory management to on-site operations, logistics and fulfilment. ECE has generated billions of VND in sales and hundred thousands of orders on all 10 ecommerce platforms operating in Vietnam for a dozen of brands. The representative from VIISA hopes that Investment Day will provide Vietnamese startup community with many opportunities to connect and exchange knowledge, which contribute to awakening the potential of domestic businesses and open up more opportunities to promote Vietnamese startups At the end of Investment Day Batch 8, Mr. Hieu also called for startups to apply at www.viisa.vn to capture opportunities for companionship and support from VIISA. About VIISA: Established in January 2017 by FPT Ventures and Dragon Capital, VIISA is an acceleration program and seed-stage fund that invests to build global-ready startups from Vietnam. After 7 batches, there have been 40 graduates, in which some startups have successfully called for US $5.5 million committed deals from investors. SOURCE VIISA

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Syracuse, N.Y. -- Oneida County will suspend its county-run Covid-19 vaccinations on Thursday because its allotment from the state has shrunk, County Executive Anthony Picente said today.

This affects shots being given at Mohawk Valley Community College and Griffiss International Airport. It does not affect any ongoing vaccinations at state-run facilities, such as at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute or the New York State Fairgrounds.

As of this afternoon, some appointments were available at state-run clinics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, SUNY Albany and SUNY Binghamton, according to the states website.

Oneida County is not cancelling appointments. In fact, Oneida County has enough supply on hand to book some appointments through Wednesday. Those appointments will be available as supplies last.

The change by Oneida County comes as the supply from the federal government has decreased. Originally, New York was to get 300,000 first-shot doses each week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said. That has shrunk to 250,000.

That affects doses down the supply chain, including at the counties.

So far, Oneidas vaccine shipments from the state have gone from 3,000 to 1,300, Picente said in a news release.

This coming weeks replenishment is down to 500, he said.

These changes to not affect second doses, according to Oneida County.

Erie County announced a similar situation on Friday. There, the county had counted on incoming vaccines that arent coming, for now. Some appointments were canceled.

Onondaga County officials are taking the same tact as Oneida County -- only booking appointments once the vaccine is in hand.

An Onondaga County spokesman confirmed this weekend that no appointments had been canceled. It remained unclear if Onondaga County would, too, receive fewer doses than expected this week. The county had planned on opening up appointments for Wednesday through Friday to deliver more than 3,000 shots.

As of this afternoon, Onondaga County was not booking new appointments, as County Executive Ryan McMahon explained last week. At the time, he advised people to check on Tuesday for the next round of appointments.

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
The Georgia teen who was jailed for 32 days on the Cayman Islands for breaking a mandatory COVID-19 quarantine has been released and shared an emotional hug with her family after landing back in the United States.

Skylar Mack, 18, of Loganville, beamed with happiness and embraced her mother after landing at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Friday.

When asked how she felt she said, 'Very excited. Happy to be home!'

Mack had traveled to the Cayman Islands on November 27 and was required by the government to quarantine for 14 days.

But her dream vacation turned into a nightmare when she broke quarantine to attend her boyfriend's jet ski competition and ended up behind bars for violating the island's strict coronavirus guidelines.

Mack is not allowed back on the island as long as the borders remain closed under COVID-19 restrictions.

Georgia teen Skylar Mack, 18, who was jailed for 32 days on the Cayman Islands for breaking mandatory COVID-19 quarantine, returned back to the US on Friday

When asked how she felt she said, 'Very excited. Happy to be home!' with a smile as she embraced her family who greeted her at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta

Mack (left) had traveled to the Cayman Islands on November 27 and was required by the government to quarantine for 14 days. But her dream vacation turned into a nightmare when she broke quarantine to attend her boyfriend Vanjae Ramgeet's (right) jet ski competition and ended up behind bars for violating the island's strict coronavirus guidelines

American teen Skylar Mack has returned home after serving 32 days in a Cayman Islands prison for violating its mandatory COVID-19 quarantine regulations. @janai reports. https://t.co/i9rZzYvW4s pic.twitter.com/BANSGK4Gz8  Good Morning America (@GMA) January 18, 2021

Now the family is at ease knowing Mack is home safe and sound.

'Its the biggest relief. Ive finally slept through the night. Its kinda hard to fall asleep when someone you love so much, you know that theyre not sleeping. And that theyre uncomfortable. Shes a tough girl but she had to be scared,' her grandmother Jeanne Mack said to Good Morning America Monday.

Mack was supposed to undergo a two-week quarantine as mandated by the government, which electronically tracks anyone who arrives in the British Caribbean territory.

After two days in quarantine Mack allegedly removed her wrist monitor to see her boyfriend 24-year-old Vanjae Ramgeet compete in a jet ski competition.

Both Mack, who is enrolled as a pre-med student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and her boyfriend were detained and initially ordered to pay a fine and serve 40 hours of community service.

'Its the biggest relief. Ive finally slept through the night. Its kinda hard to fall asleep when someone you love so much, you know that theyre not sleeping. And that theyre uncomfortable. Shes a tough girl but she had to be scared,' her grandmother Jeanne Mack said to Good Morning America Monday

Both Mack, who is enrolled as a pre-med student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and her boyfriend were detained and initially ordered to pay a fine and serve 40 hours of community service. Mack pictured in handcuffs being escorted from a police car

However, after legal back and forth over their sentences not being harsh enough, they were sentenced to four months in prison, which was halved in late December to two months. They ultimately served 32 days behind bars. Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, pictured above in handcuffs

However, after legal back and forth over their sentences not being harsh enough, they were sentenced to four months in prison, which was halved in late December to two months. They ultimately served 32 days behind bars.

Ramgeet, a Cayman resident and professional jet-ski racer, also was released from prison last week, as per The Cayman Compass.

Mack's family had repeatedly made public pleas for mercy and even sent a lette to President Donald Trump pleading for help in her case.

Her family says on the incident: 'Skylar made the decision to breach quarantine and Skylar needed to face the consequences.'

During her time in prison her family made repeated pleas for help, noting how Mack was terrified being so far from her family.

The original law called for a $2,400 fine and up to six months in prison, while the recently amended law calls for a $12,000 fine and up to two years in prison. Mack left and boyfriend Ramjeet right

'The stress, scared, shes scared to death over there,' her mother Rebecca Burt previously said to Channel 2.

'Shes by herself; theres not family there whatsoever to speak of,' she added.

The couple was the first to be sentenced under an amended law targeting COVID-19 violators.

The original law called for a $2,400 fine and up to six months in prison, while the recently amended law calls for a $12,000 fine and up to two years in prison.

Under the original law, a Canadian couple found guilty of violating coronavirus measures were ordered to pay a $1,200 fine each.



Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 14:53:23|Editor: huaxia

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Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong arrives at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 18, 2021. The Seoul High Court sentenced Lee, an heir apparent of South Korea's biggest family-run conglomerate Samsung Group, to two and a half years in prison for corruption charges, including bribery. (Photo by Lee Sang-ho/Xinhua)

SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was jailed Monday for corruption linked to his management succession.

The Seoul High Court sentenced Lee, an heir apparent of South Korea's biggest family-run conglomerate Samsung Group, to two and a half years in prison for corruption charges, including bribery.

With a suspended prison sentence, he was released from jail in February 2018 after serving about one year behind bars, but the Supreme Court returned the case to the high court calling for harsh punishment.

Two more former Samsung executives were imprisoned for two and a half years on similar charges.

Lee was charged with offering tens of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes to former South Korean President Park Geun-hye in return for the assistance to his management succession.

The court said in a ruling that Lee "actively" provided a bribe to former President Park to ask a presidential power to be exercised for his management transfer.

The country's national pension fund voted in favor of the 2015 merger between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, the two Samsung units merged to create Samsung's de-facto holding company.

The merger helped Lee strengthen his management control over the entire conglomerate.

The top court upheld a 20-year prison sentence on Park last week for the corruption that led to the impeachment of the former head of state. Enditem
Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Monday reacted to the death of David Ntekim-Rex, a computer prodigy that was allegedly shot by a...

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Monday reacted to the death of David Ntekim-Rex, a computer prodigy that was allegedly shot by armed robbers but denied treatment by hospital due to lack of police report.

Saraki who was Senate President when the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act (2017) was passed called for the prosecution of anyone found culpable in the death of Ntekim-Rex.

According to reports on social media, the late computer expert was allegedly robbed and shot around Jibowu in Lagos, however, instead of getting the victim medical attention, policemen at the scene rather focused on investigating the crime.

Also, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and other hospitals allegedly refused to treat him due to the nature of the wound despite the existence of the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act (2017).

Saraki in a tweet described the death of the young man as heartbreaking.

Learning that David Ntekim-Rex died despite existing laws that we passed during the 8th Senate to mitigate against such occurrences is truly heartbreaking. My heartfelt prayers are with his loved ones at this truly difficult time.

I hope that all those that are found to have been negligent in this case are quickly apprehended and tried under the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act (2017) to ensure that no family ever has to suffer such a loss again.
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An economic recession that left millions of Americans unable to pay rent or put food on the table amid a raging pandemic is just the beginning of the new president-elects problems.

Our healthcare system is stretched beyond repair, we have an unpredictable white supremacist autocrat clinging to power, and too many gun toting Republican politicians in Congress and local governments that support him and his vitriol. We have police forces that target Black people, the climate crisis is getting worse, and the list goes on.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are walking into a veritable s**t show on January 20th.

With so much to do, its hard to know what president-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris should address first. But there are three specific pieces of legislation that the incoming administration needs to immediately work on pushing through. There are also a fewvery fewkey players on the other side of the aisle that might help them do it in a Democratically controlled Congress.

I spoke with Joanne Lin, Amnesty International USAs national director of advocacy and government relations, about the top pieces of domestic legislation that the incoming Biden administration needs to move on.

We have this rare opportunity to get legislation passed because the next two years they [Democrats] have a slight majority in the House of Representatives, said Lin. And in the Senate, it really isnt a majority. Its 50/50 and vice president-elect Harris, as the president of the Senate, will be the tie breaker.

Ive listed the top three issues to push through first.

1) The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act or the No Ban Act, which already passed in the House this summer. The Act would repeal the travel ban that was created as part of Trumps 2017 executive order Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States, popularly known as the Muslim Ban.

The No Ban Act would also limit the authority of the executive to create similarly discriminatory bans in the future as well as provide legal remedies for victims. The Act would also support already existing prohibitions on religious discrimination in immigrant visa applications.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has been something of a voice of reason lately within the Republican party, particularly since the domestic terrorist insurrection in the nations Capitol two weeks ago. In 2017, her husband, former VP Dick Cheney called out the ban saying it goes against everything we stand for and believe in as a nation. Democrats can likely look to Rep. Cheney for support on the No Ban Act as well as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who broke ranks with the Republican party calling the ban overly broad. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) along with the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) used more specific language and decried the ban for alienating and stigmatizing Muslim allies.

2) Another legislative priority for 2021 is Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Pramila Jayapals (D-WA) Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act of 2019, which calls for sweeping immigration reforms instituted during the Trump administration.

The Bill would allow immigrants the ability to speedily request release from immigration detention as they wait for their cases to move through the courts, as well as curtail detentions over the coming years.

Now we lock up kids and families that don't need to be detained merely for immigration reasons. said Lin. We want to dramatically reduce the immigration detention footprint.

Unfortunately and tragically for the children freezing in cages and families being torn apart at the border, not one Republican member of Congress helped sponsor the bill. It looks unlikely that any of them might step across the aisle to work on compassionate immigration legislation that is in line with international human rights standards.

3) The third legislative priority for Democrats and progressive activists involves gun control legislation and gender-based violence. This is something that Tarah Demant, Amnesty Internationals director of Gender, Sexuality and Identity Program, told me used to be an entirely nonpartisan issue before things became more polarized under Trump.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, half of all female homicides are a result of intimate partner violence (IPV). Demant said that if there is a gun present during an incident of intimate partner violence the woman is much more likely to die.

VAWA helps us provide domestic violence shelters, police training crisis hotlines and helps survivors get resources, Demant explained. It was passed every five years without a problem until 2018, when it was supposed to be reauthorized. So, while shelters and other organizations have budgeted for several years ahead of time with the money allocated to them five years ago, for many organizations that money has run out.

Demant also told me that there is currently a boyfriend loophole in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAW). The loophole means that an abuser doesnt have to surrender their weapon if they aren't legally married to their victim. This is true even if the abuser is arrested for domestic violence or convicted of domestic violence. They can also still buy a weapon.

She went on to say that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a survivor of domestic violence, has introduced a competing bill that would fund most things from the VAWA. However, her bill leaves lots of people behind like those in the LGBTQ+ community. It also keeps the boyfriend loophole in place. Still, this issue is something that should be on Bidens priority list.

History has shown us that after a major calamity, like the assignation of JFK or the foreign terrorist attack of 9/11, the president often enjoys a temporary surge in support. In this case, incoming president Biden will have a short window of time where the tide is in his favor. And its a big tide with Democratic control of Congress and the continued disgust after the white supremacist insurrection at the Capitol. However, it remains up to voters to let their representatives in Congress know what they want.
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After almost a year of staring at each others living rooms or other spaces in virtual meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic, members of a Swiss startup have a new idea: sending holographic emissaries to a virtual meeting space. VOAs Arash Arabasadi logs on.
Angel Garcia, a single father approved for a mortgage loan of $300,000, had high hopes in early 2020 of finding a house he could afford in his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Within months, New Yorkers began fleeing the city and the surrounding area, snapping up houses. Home prices that already had been out of reach for many jumped higher. Garcia, who oversees security at Stamfords government building, ended the year still living with his 3-year-old daughter in a Stamford rental.

Its so hard with all the competition out here and the prices, as they are now. They were already expensive, said Garcia, who has a second job as a security guard.

An influx of people relocating to the state and in particular Fairfield County, on the New York state line, has been celebrated by many including Gov. Ned Lamont, who said in his State of the State address last week that it showed a desire for more spacious living arrangements and an appreciation of Connecticut values.

But it also has made it more difficult for many to find affordable housing in an area that rates among the countrys most unequal places in terms of income levels.

A shortage of affordable homes is being worsened by newcomers who often are buying homes quickly and with cash, said Joan Carty, president and chief executive officer of the Stamford-based Housing Development Fund, a nonprofit that finances development of affordable housing and provides loans to first-time homebuyers.

We absolutely can see it. And its just making, I think, the level of inequity more glaringly obvious, she said.

One day late last month, there were just five single-family houses for sale under $400,000, with the lowest priced at $325,000, in Stamford, which is 52 square miles (134 square kilometers) and is considered more affordable than other Fairfield County communities, said Tammy Felenstein, executive vice president and managing director of sales at Brown Harris Stevens Connecticut LLC in Stamford.

You hear stories, Oh, this couple have lost three homes. Theyve been outbid every time. And that definitely happens, said Felenstein. She said her brokers are dying for inventory in Stamford, a place that can seem like a bargain to many from New York City.

In metro areas across the country, big-city dwellers relocated this year to smaller cities, according to Updater, a relocation technology company that has tracked national moving trends during the pandemic. Connecticut saw more people move into it than out of it for the first time in three years, according to Updater, which said Stamford was the top destination for relocating New Yorkers.

Thomas Madden, director of economic development for Stamford, said that in a typical month before the pandemic, there were roughly $80 million to $110 million in housing sales. That shot up to $146 million in August, $152 million in September and $157 million in November.

Its insane, he said. The prices have gone up and the sales have gone up.

Lamont, a Democrat, noted in his address the advantages of the influx.

There are many reasons young families and new businesses are giving us a second look and choosing Connecticut, Lamont said, suggesting people may be drawn to the states schools, city and town centers that offer some of the best and safest outdoor dining experiences in the country, or the ability to quarantine in a small backyard rather than a small apartment.

Whatever the reason, Lamont said, tens of thousands of young families have moved to the state for the first time in a generation because they recognize and appreciate our Connecticut values.

In the same address, he pledged to expand his administrations commitment to affordable housing.

Max Reiss, the governors spokesperson, said that while Lamont believes a competitive housing market is good for the states overall economy, he doesnt believe access to home ownership should be out of reach because of one housing boom  and thats why he supports adequate funding for state housing assistance programs.

Stamford Mayor David Martin, a Democrat, said more rental options soon will be available, and he noted a push to finish the construction of apartment complexes that were approved before the pandemic hit. City zoning rules require at least 10% of all new complexes with 10 or more units to be affordable.

Theyre anxious to get those buildings up because right now its an attractive market. And when they come online, it will provide some more affordable units, he said. We actually have built more affordable units in the last five to 10 years in Stamford than any other municipality in the state.

Before the pandemic, 38% of Fairfield County residents spent more than half of their monthly income on housing, said Mendi Blue-Pace, chief community impact officer at Fairfield Countys Community Foundation. While the current trend likely will price out more potential buyers, Blue-Pace expressed optimism the new residents will have a positive impact.

Theres hope that theres a new set of people who can be engaged in philanthropy, potentially, she said. We would like to certainly connect to a lot of these new residents who are moving into the county and may have an interest in addressing social issues and taking some of their disposable income and directing it towards all the need that does exist in the county.
New South Wales health authorities have 10 days to find the source of nine of the state's unlinked COVID-19 cases before Queensland will consider opening its border to Greater Sydney.

Queensland requires declared hotspots to record 28 consecutive days without any unlinked cases before it will remove quarantine requirements for travellers.

Jeanette Young says people should continue to wear masks on public transport and at the shops even when the mandatory order is revoked. Credit:Tertius Pickard

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young will next review Sydneys hotspot declaration at the end of the month.

"If you go onto their own website [NSW Health] they say they have nine unlinked cases in the last week," she said.
As part of a high-level defense engagement with Sri Lanka, India earlier this month provided the country with 341 Indra Radar spares worth Lankan Rupees 200 million. The spares will be used to provide support to the 4 Indra MK-11 air surveillance radars gifted to India by Sri Lankan Air Force in 2011.

Indra MK II radar is a mobile 2d Radar capable of detecting low flying aircraft. They have been developed by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) wing of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Manufactured by Bharat Electronics and is the cornerstone of the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Indian Air force's An-32 aircraft had landed with the spares on January 10 and were formally handed over by Indian High commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay to Commander of Sri Lanka Air Force, Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana.

India has also completed the annual life extension checks of 54 shoulder-launched surface to air IGLA missiles of the Sri Lankan Air force. This coincided with the handing over of the spare parts.

The Indian mission in Sri Lanka in a statement said, "the expeditious positioning of the spares and the Igla Missiles is indicative of the growing cooperation, camaraderie and friendship between the two nations, with Sri Lanka being accorded the status of Priority One partner by India."

The IGLA missile system were gifted to Sri Lanka by India in 2007 and as a 'goodwill gesture', the annual life extension checks are taken by Indian air force. In fact, IAF training teams had assisted Sri Lanka Air Force in setting up the system and have also conducted multiple courses on the missile system.

The development comes even as under its SAGAR vision -- Security and Growth for All in the Region, India has been reaching out to many Indian ocean countries. November of 2020 saw, India-Sri Lanka-Maldives NSA level trilateral with focus on more increased cooperation amid challenges like piracy, maritime security, counter-terror.
New Delhi: Amid the backlash over the recently released web series 'Tandav' featuring Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, the team on Monday (January 18, 2021) released a statement on the same.

The official statement from the cast and crew said, "We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series Tandav and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people."

It added, "The web series Tandav is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead."

"The cast and crew of Tandav take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybodys sentiments," the statement read.

Our sincere apologies . pic.twitter.com/Efr9s0kYnl  ali abbas zafar (@aliabbaszafar) January 18, 2021

The statement comes following the controversy over Tandav as several people including many politicians expressed their anger over the web series.

Earlier in the day, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan also spoke on the issue and said that no one has the right to hurt the faith and insult deities.

"The obscenity being served on OTT platforms is not good for our teenagers, so there is a need to closely monitor these platforms. The Central Government is taking suo motu cognizance of this," he said.

      -         !                                  pic.twitter.com/9vNiNTTsmd  Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) January 18, 2021

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam asked for the series to be boycotted till the necessary changes are made.

Kadam listed his demands in a series of tweets and also announced that he would go to the Ghatkopar police station to file a complaint against the show. Using the hashtag #boycottTandav, he demanded that director Ali Abbas Zafar remove a scene in which a joke was cracked on Lord Shiva. He also asked for an apology from actor Zeeshan Ayub and said that the series will be boycotted till the necessary changes have been made.

                            #BanTandavNow  Ram Kadam -   (@ramkadam) January 17, 2021

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut also criticised Tandav and called it 'Hindu phobic, atrocious and objectionable'. Kangana took to her official Twitter account and wrote, "The problem isn't just the Hindu phobic content, it's also creatively poor and deprived, atrocious and objectionable on every level hence deliberately placed controversial scenes. Put them in jail not just for criminal intentions but also for torturing the viewer."

The problem isnt just the Hindu phobic content, its also creatively poor and deprived,atrocious and objectionable on every level hence deliberately placed controversial scenes. Put them in jail not just for criminal intentions but also for torturing the viewer #tandavwebseries https://t.co/bmeaPzgkA5  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 18, 2021

Earlier, BJP MP Manoj Kotak had also released a statement asking for Tandav to be banned saying that the freedom from censorship that OTT platforms enjoy has led to repeated attacks on Hindu sentiments.

Recently, another similar news had come to the limelight when former Meghalaya Governor and senior BJP leader Tathagata Roy filed a case against Bengali actor Saayoni Ghosh for one of her tweets, which Ghosh claimed that was not posted by her.

Tathagata Roy took to Twitter and wrote, "@sayani06 You have already been reported to Kolkata Police. The complaint is attached. Meanwhile a person from Guwahati has told me that his religious feelings have been hurt by your meme and he is filing a complaint. I hope Assam Police will take cognizance and ask for remand."

@sayani06 You have already been reported to Kolkata Police. The complaint is attached. Meanwhile a person from Guwahati has told me that his religious feelings have been hurt by your meme and he is filing a complaint. I hope Assam Police will take cognizance and ask for remand. pic.twitter.com/qn94doOPdG  Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) January 16, 2021

Saayoni Ghosh also released a statement within an hour and said, "I had previously mentioned that this obnoxious tweet from 2015 was uploaded without my knowledge. And the moment I was made aware of that I heavily criticised it and deleted it immediately after informing the public. I never had any intention of hurting the sentiment of my own religion."

The actress added, " I have always been vocal about my stance on certain issues and have never moved an inch away. However the harassment I ordeal I had to face today is deeply saddening."
Top leaders of the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress conducted a meeting here on Sunday to discuss the seat-sharing and other election-related strategies, leaders of both the parties said, adding that their candidates would be finalized by the end of this month.

However, both the Congress and Left leaders said that they would hold more such meetings this month to finalize the candidates' list for the upcoming Assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May.

Both the party leaders would meet again on January 25 and 28 to settle the seat-sharing issue and other poll-related preparedness.

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls, the two parties had forged an alliance and won 76 seats in the 294-member Assembly.

Post-meeting, Left Front Chairman and CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose said that their discussion with the Congress was cordial and fruitful.

"To defeat the communal force BJP and the fascist TMC (Trinamool Congress), the Congress-Left parties' alliance is a must. The alliance would definitely thrash the binary rule in Bengal," the veteran Left leader told the media.

Bose said that leaders and workers of the Left parties and Congress should fight against the BJP and the TMC shoulder to shoulder.

Party sources said that the Congress wanted to contest in 130 seats but the Left leaders did not concede the demand.

Bengal Congress chief and the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Chowdhury said that the seat-sharing with the Left parties would not be completed in a single meeting, however, the seat-sharing process would be concluded within this month.

CPI-M state secretary Suryakanta Mishra, Congress leaders Abdul Mannan and Pradip Bhattacharjee were present at the meeting. The Left and Congress parties are likely to hold a mega joint rally in Kolkata soon to kick start their election campaign.

The all-important elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are likely to be held in April-May along with Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.In the 2016 West Bengal polls,

Trinamool had retained its majority and won 211 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party won three seats.

However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Left and Congress had fought separately with the Congress won two seats, the Left Front dominated by the CPI-M, which ruled Bengal for 34 years (1977-2011), drew a blank.


On the occasion of the 176th anniversary of the first arrival of Indian immigrant labourers to these shores, I intend to comment briefly, through a couple of letters to the press, on the current status of Indo-Trinidadians after their presence here for over a century and a half. They may be regarded as ethnic-focused, divisive and contentious, or may be deemed irrelevant and inconsequential in these times.
Hryvnia remains unchanged to U.S. dollar on Jan 18

The rate against the euro is fixed at UAH 34.01.

Reporting by UNIAN

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Locked-down Aussies have been shifting their spending away from overseas holidays and into electronics and home equipment, according to booming sales forecasts from two of the nation's biggest retailers.

On Monday JB Hi-Fi revealed it expected a bumper profit result for the first half of 2021, with online sales jumping 161 per cent to $678.8 million in the six months to December. Meanwhile, Super Retail Group, owner of the BCF and Super Cheap Auto brands, reported online sales up 87 per cent as Australians rushed to buy exercise and camping gear.

JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray said the company was pleased to report strong results after what he described as an "extraordinary period". Credit:Eamon Gallagher

Super Retail Group chief executive Anthony Heraghty said it was an "encouraging sign" that even against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, sales were growing.

In the face of lockdown and border closures customers were investing in activities they are still able to enjoy, including camping, exercise and DIY projects.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 05:53:10|Editor: huaxia

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SANTIAGO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chile on Monday reported 3,918 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 673,750, according to the Ministry of Health.

In its daily report, the ministry also reported 70 deaths in the same period, with a death toll of 17,547.

COVID-19 cases in the South American country have increased 58 percent in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, the ministry ruled out a quarantine in Santiago's metropolitan area for the time being, given that on Monday it recorded a 4 percent positivity rate.

However, epidemiology experts have recommended that the government restrict mobility between regions and plan for total lockdowns in view of a second wave of infections that could worsen in the coming weeks.

Amid the summer season, Chile has issued special vacation permits for families who want to travel within the country, while keeping the borders open for foreign tourists. Enditem
Thirty-one years have passed since January 20, 1990 events, which went down the history of Azerbaijani people as Bloody January tragedy. The atrocious act of terrorism committed in that day by military machine of the former Soviet Union against the people of Azerbaijan will always remain as a black page in the history of civilization, and as one of the worst crimes against humanity.

Acting upon the orders of the USSR Communist Party leadership, 26 000 Soviet troops, heavily armed and equipped with military combat vehicles, attacked Baku to punish people rallying on the streets, protesting against violations of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and demanding freedom. As a result of punitive actions more than 145 civilians were killed and 700 wounded, hundreds of people were arrested and subjected to various forms of physical pressure. Among victims were children, women, young and old men and civilians of different nationalities in Baku.

The strong indignation and protest of the people of Azerbaijan were caused by the prejudiced and biased policy of the Communist Party and the Government of the Soviet Union towards the people of Azerbaijan. Soviet authorities connivance at the Armenian expansionists, who claimed Nagorno-Karabakh, an integral part of Azerbaijan, had already allowed Armenia to forcibly expel more than 250.000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia in 1988-1989.

The next day, on January 21, 1990, Heydar Aliyev, National Leader of Azerbaijan, at the press conference for the representatives of foreign mass media, organized in the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan in Moscow, condemned the aggression of Soviet leadership against Azerbaijan and its people. His statement became the first political assessment of Black January of 1990. Helsinki Human Rights Watch has addressed how the Soviet brutal army intentionally crashed unarmed peaceful civilians under their tanks.

According to its reports, among the most heinous violations of human rights during the Baku incursions were the numerous attacks on medical personnel, ambulances and even hospitals.

The Wall Street Journal editorial of January 4, 1995, stressed that the Soviet leader Gorbachev chose to use violence against independence-seeking Azerbaijan.

Black January has become the turning point in the history of modern Azerbaijan. The Soviet invasion failed to achieve its aim. The Azerbaijani people confronted the tragedy with strength and dignity. Every bullet that was fired splattered blood across the face of the Soviet regime, undermining the ideals of communism and totalitarianism. The heroism of the people of Azerbaijan on January 20, 1990, made the final collapse of the Soviet Union inevitable.

Black January is forever inscribed in the country history as a day of heroic struggle in the name of the freedom and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The day that led to serious losses and the killing of innocent people demonstrated the readiness for struggle, the pride of people who could not bear the policy of the USSR leadership treacherous towards Azerbaijan, raised their voice to gain freedom and on October 18, 1991, Azerbaijan regained its independence.

Today the victims of the Black January repose in Martyrs Alley in the capital city of Baku. They were among the first to sacrifice their lives for freedom. Those heroes will never be forgotten!

Therefore, every January 20 our nation pays tribute to those killed by the Soviet army in 1990. This is a very tragic and sad day for our people. It was a crime against humanity and a rare case where the state used force on such a large scale against its own citizens. But it is also a time to reflect on the value and importance of the independence. Those killed on that day sacrificed their lives for the independence of Azerbaijan and it is our duty always remember and pay our respects to them. My hope is that perpetrators of this crime against humanity will be brought to justice.

(The author SHAHIN ABDULLAYEV is Azerbaijans ambassador to Saudi Arabia)
Arcelik AS, a Turkish multinational household appliances manufacturer, and Hitachi Global Life Solutions (Hitachi GLS) have signed a share purchase agreement to establish a new joint venture company.

As part of the transaction, Hitachi GLS will establish a new company into which it will transfer its global home appliances business outside of Japan. Arcelik will acquire 60% ownership in the new company, which both partners aim to establish in the spring of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary conditions, said a statement.

The transaction value is calculated as $300 million on a cash-free and debt-free basis for 60% of the business, which is subject to customary adjustments based on the balance of net debt, net working capital of the company, and minority shares adjustment for the outstanding minority shares as of the closing date.

Arcelik and Hitachi GLS plan to build a competitive value chain leveraging the complementarity of both companies' strategies and create growth opportunities that will increase their access to new markets, enhance their product ranges and sales capabilities, while delivering increased competitiveness across supply chain and production operations.

Arcelik has consistently expanded its home appliance business in over 145 countries around the world. The company has grown significantly in Europe in particular and achieved strong growth in South Asia over the last decade. Hitachi GLS currently operates its home appliance business mainly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where it enjoys a high-end brand image. The joint venture will manufacture, sell and provide after-sales services of Hitachi branded home appliances (including refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners etc.) globally outside of the Japanese market. Both partners will benefit from their complementarity in geographic coverage of sales channels and product line-ups as well as from management synergies arising from their collaboration.

The joint venture encompasses 12 Hitachi GLS group companies outside Japan (two manufacturing companies, ten sales companies) and approximately 3,800 employees. The portfolio generates a revenue of over JPY100 billion in sales (approximately $1bn). Leveraging the sales network of Arcelik and Hitachi GLS, the joint venture will expand the sales of Hitachi branded products in Europe, South Asia and Africa as well as South East Asia and the Middle East.

In addition, Arcelik and Hitachi GLS will combine their expertise in other key areas such as R&D, procurement and production systems, in order to optimize the joint ventures global supply chain and strengthen its competitive positioning in the market.

Sustainability is at the core of both Arceliks and Hitachis strategies. Through their combined leadership in energy efficiency and sustainable solutions related to the home, the partnership will increase competitiveness around these key issues in the broader market, it said.  TradeArabia News Service
With the farmers agitation continuing for the 54th day and the crucial 10th round of talks of the farmers with the government scheduled on Tuesday, Kisan Congress Vice President Surendra Solanki on Monday said that the downfall of the Narendra Modi-l Image Source: IANS News

With the farmers agitation continuing for the 54th day and the crucial 10th round of talks of the farmers with the government scheduled on Tuesday, Kisan Congress Vice President Surendra Solanki on Monday said that the downfall of the Narendra Modi-l Image Source: IANS News

With the farmers agitation continuing for the 54th day and the crucial 10th round of talks of the farmers with the government scheduled on Tuesday, Kisan Congress Vice President Surendra Solanki on Monday said that the downfall of the Narendra Modi-l Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 18 : With the farmers agitation continuing for the 54th day and the crucial 10th round of talks of the farmers with the government scheduled on Tuesday, Kisan Congress Vice President Surendra Solanki on Monday said that the downfall of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will start from this farmers agitation, as it is the first protest in 73 years of Independent India which has gone strong even during the Covid pandemic.

The Kisan Congress has been standing shoulder to shoulder with farmers by lending their hand for providing food and other materials to the farmers at several borders of the national capital, where the farmers have been agitating since November 26 last year demanding repealing of the three farm laws.

In an interview to IANS, Solanki alleged the motives of the government are not good, as it has already made up its mind "not to repeal" the three farm laws.

He said, "Somewhere the government is under pressure from its capitalist friends. And for the first time in the history of Independent India in last 73 years, such a huge number of farmers has been sitting on protest in this chilling winter and in this pandemic era." He said that the motives of the BJP are questionable as on number of occasions government has clearly said it will not repeal the farm laws.

"So once you are not in mood to listen to farmers then from where a solution can be expected?" he quipped.

To a question about the farmer leaders being called for questioning by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and many leaders describing the farmers as Khalistani, Solanki, who hails from Haryana, said, "There is a famous saying in Hindi 'Vinash kale viprit Buddhi', the brain of the government has stopped functioning in right direction." "They need to understand the fact that even during the nationwide lockdown, the farmers kept on supporting the GDP of the country," he said, adding that even the sons of the farmers are part of the armed forces fighting for the country on borders.

Slamming BJP's leaders, Solanki said: "Who are BJP leaders to distribute the certificate of nationalism to farmers? This is unfortunate and condemnable. Their decline has started now with the farmers agitation." When pointed out that the farmers were not allowed to enter the national capital, he said that it shows that they are not willing to "find a solution".

"If the government had reports that the condition can deteriorate then they should have found a solution immediately instead of delaying it for more than 54 days. Why they have taken such long time? There are number of examples when the Supreme Court has held hearings and the government has taken decisions at midnight," the Kisan Congress leader said.

Hitting out at the BJP government, he said that after coming to power in 2014 the government has started to distribute the certificate of fake nationalism.

"They need to tell the country about their contribution in the Independence movement and why the tricolour is not hoisted at the RSS headquarters at Nagpur," Solanki said.

To a question that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi hitting the streets in the favour of farmers on Friday, almost after a delay of 52 days and many of the Congres leaders missing on the front, the Kisan Congress leader said, "Rahul Gandhi has led from the front on the farmers issue and he has won the trust of farmers." He said that Rahul Gandhi has taken a stand for ther farmers in Uttar Pradesh, when then Chief Minister Mayawati decided to acquire the land of farmers in Bhatta Parsaul.

He highlighted that it was the Congress-led UPA govt that brought in the Land Acquisition Bill. "And after the Modi government came to power and it brought changes in the land acquisition bill, Rahul Gandhi opposed it in Parliament and fought it fearlessly and all of use got inspiration from him," he said.

Talking about the role of the Kisan Congress against the three farm laws, Solanki said: "We were the first to oppose the ordinances when they were brought last year during the Covid pandemic. I even went to President Ram Nath Kovind and also staged a protest outside Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's residence during the nationwide lockdown amid the Covid pandemic to oppose the farm ordinances." Solanki also said that before participating in the protest in the national capital last Friday, Rahul Gandhi had held talks with farmers across the country virtually three months ago. "Rahul Gandhi also spoke to the traders in different mandis across the country to understand their grievances," he said.

"Rahul Gandhi has also made it clear that if the government does not repeal these three farm laws, if voted to power, the Congress will repeal these laws," he said He also said that the Kisan Congress was the first organisation to demand compensation of Rs one crore to the families of the farmers who died during the protest and a government job to their kin.

Asked about the farmers' planned tractor parade on Republic Day, Solanki said, "We are extending all supoort to the farmers for their planned Republic Day tractor parade. I am a farmer first. And I am associated with the party later." He also said that now the farmers agitation fight is about self-esteem for farmers and farmers have decided not to return home until the three farm laws are repealed.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Harayana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting against the three farm laws at several borders of ther national capital and over 60 farmers have died. The farmers are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
The reason: The death of Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi since the last Assembly elections in May 2016. 'Dithering' by Rajinikanth to take the electoral plunge has also not helped the cause.

New Delhi: Once dominated by former matinee idols like late MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalitha or DMK's writer-politician M Karunanidhi, Tamil Nadu politics is likely to miss the star power in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Jayalalitha, who became the first Tamil Nadu Chief Minister since MGR in 1984 to be voted back into office after the 2016 electoral battle, fell severely ill in September 2016 and died on December 5 that year due to a cardiac arrest after 75-day hospitalisation.

The demise of M Karunanidhi on August 7, 2018, robbed the state politics of another star leader who could sway the voters towards his DMK.

Now, many were pinning hopes on Tamil movie superstar Rajinikant to inject a huge dose of star power into state politics by his entry in the coming polls but his back-pedalling left many fans and supporters surprised and countless more dejected.

In a Twitter message to his followers, the southern superstar appealed to his fans not to organise events to urge him to enter politics and thus make him more and more sad.

The superstar initially decided to enter politics but later backtracked after his hospitalisation in December last.

However, there are still some known faces from the regional cinema who are active in state politics but they lack the huge charisma and larger-than-life persona that MGR, Jaya or even Karunanidhi commanded. For example, former actress Khushboo who in recent times had switched sides from the Congress to the BJP.

Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief and another famous actor-director Kamal Haasan had also entered politics with much fanfare but has not been able to make a mark expected of him.

In December last, he had said that he was just a "phone call away" if actor turned politician Rajinikanth wished to join hands with his party ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Another actor and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) founder Vijayakanth is also active in state politics.

Tamil Nadu will witness Assembly polls this year, with ruling AIADMK and opposition DMK the main contestants. DMK trounced AIADMK in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and holds an advantage in Assembly polls as the ruling party doesnt have a charismatic leader like Jayalalitha to once again storm to power after two terms.

While the DMK has an alliance with the Congress, AIADMK will likely go with the BJP. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi participated in Pongal celebrations on January 14, as did BJP President JP Nadda in 'Namma Ooru Pongal Vizha' (Our City Pongal Festival) organised by the Tamil Nadu BJP unit near here.

Gandhi also witness the traditional bull taming sport of Jallikattu at Avaniyapuram in Madurai district, said Congress state unit leaders.

In the 234-member Assembly, AIADMK has 124 MLAs and opposition 105, including DMK's 97.
One week after it lost access to Amazons hosting servers, Parlers website is back online in limited form. Visit it today and youll find a message from CEO John Matze. Hello world, is this thing on? he says at the top of the page. We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon, a follow-up message declares.

Parler went offline last Sunday when Amazon suspended the companys access to its hosting services for violating its terms of service. That same weekend, Google and then Apple removed Parlers app from their respective marketplaces. The enforcement actions came after evidence came out that Trump supporters and far-right extremists used the platform to organize January 6ths deadly US Capitol attack, which left five people dead.

In an interview over the weekend, Matze told Fox News he was confident the platform would be back up by the end of the month. Thats a significant change from what the executive told Reuters earlier in the week. It could be never, he said when asked about a timeline.

Parler is back up, and being hosted by "DDOS GUARD" out of Russia. If that's not an obvious sign of its malfeasance, there's nothing else that could possibly be shown to convince you. pic.twitter.com/FkScxQdCoK  Dave Temkin (@dtemkin) January 18, 2021

Per CNN, Parlers domain is currently registered with Epik, a DNS provider known for offering a safe haven to websites like 8chan and The Daily Stormer in the past. A tweet from Dave Temkin, Netflixs vice-president of network and systems, suggests Russias DDOS Guard is hosting the website. But getting online is just one of the challenges Parler needs to solve before it can say its fully up and running again. Without access to the App Store and Google Play, Parler users wont have an easy way of installing the software on their phones. Sideloading is an option on Android, but thats not a viable way to distribute a mobile app. Getting back on the App Store and Google Play will mean playing by Apples and Googles rules.
Malaysia unveiled a 15 billion ringgit ($3.7 billion) package to help the economy weather the impact from a fresh surge in coronavirus cases.

The plan, which includes cash support to the poor, tax breaks and wage subsidies, will help bolster the existing initiatives aimed at helping people blunt the economic impact of the pandemic, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address Monday.

The measures come a week after Malaysia declared a state of emergency, allowing the government to enact immediate laws to contain the pandemic and support the economy. The move had raised concerns about the governments ability to stoke activity amid limited fiscal space and a relatively high debt load.

The package amounts to 1.1% of gross domestic product and the relatively conservative amount is essentially a sign that fiscal space to do large-scale stimulus is limited," said Wellian Wiranto, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Any impact on the overall budget deficit figure is likely to be contained."

Record Cases

Malaysia is experiencing a fresh surge of Covid infections that has stretched its health system to the breaking point. The country recorded a record 4,029 cases Saturday and doesnt expect to flatten the infection curve until May. The nations immunization plan is on track, with the first batch of vaccines set to roll out in early March, Muhyiddin said.

The emergency, which could last until Aug. 1, coincides with a two-week lockdown against the virus that led analysts to shave as much as 1.5 percentage points off their GDP forecasts for this year. While the government has said the economy will grow as much as 7.5% this year, regions under the new stay-at-home orders contribute more than two-thirds of GDP.

Muhyiddin said the impact of the targeted lockdown is still under control. Growth will continue to be supported by strong exports sector and the global trade recovery," he said.

The new package is necessary as the restrictions on movement are expected to have a significant bearing on the economy," said Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid, chief economist at Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. Under the current circumstances, we cant be dogmatic in respect to keeping the fiscal deficit in check. The present situation warrants swift and flexible approach."

Malaysias key stock index, which was down 0.9% before the package was announced, extended the loss to 1.1% at the close in a third straight day of losses. The ringgit held earlier losses to trade 0.4% weaker at 4.0512 per dollar.

Relief Measures

The economy shrank in the second and third quarters of 2020 -- fourth-quarter data isnt out yet -- and the government was expecting the economy to contract 4.5% to 5.5% for all of last year.

The government last year announced 305 billion ringgit of relief measures -- more than 20% of GDP -- to spur the economy amid the pandemic, according to Muhyiddin. Those measures included 55 billion ringgit of direct stimulus, he said.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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A lorry drives during a protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that hinders exports to the European Union, as police officers in vans watch over the demonstration at the Parliament Square in London, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Brexit Carnage: Shellfish Trucks Protest in London Over Export Chaos

LONDONMore than 20 shellfish trucks parked on roads near the British parliament and Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Downing Street residence on Monday to protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that has throttled exports to the European Union.

Many fishermen have been unable to export to the EU since catch certificates, health checks, and customs declarations were introduced at the start of this year, delaying their deliveries and prompting European buyers to reject them.

Trucks with slogans such as Brexit carnage and incompetent government destroying shellfish industry parked metres from Johnsons 10 Downing Street office in central London.

A lorry drives during a protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that hinders exports to the European Union, at the Parliament Square in London, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

We strongly feel the system could potentially collapse, said Gary Hodgson, a director of Venture Seafoods, which exports live and processed crabs and lobsters to the EU and had trucks parked near Downing Street.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs to be honest with us, with himself, and with the British public about the problems for the industry, he told Reuters.

He said one operator needed 400 pages of export documentation last week to board a ferry to the EU.

David Rosie, transport manager at DR Collin & Son, which employs 200 people, used to send one or two lorries a night to France carrying live crab, lobster, and langoustine worth around 150,000 pounds ($203,000). He said he has not exported a single box this year.

Fishermen, he said, lost their livelihoods in the turn of a clock when Britain left the EUs orbit on New Years Eve.

Under a deal reached last month, British trade with the EU remains free of tariffs and quotas on goods, but fish exporters say their businesses are now threatened by a host of often conflicting demands for documents to export to the EU.

A spokesman for the British governments environment ministry declined immediate comment. Environment Secretary George Eustice said last week that post-Brexit teething problems on fish exports could be resolved shortly.

Crazy

Fishing alone contributes 0.1 percent of Britains GDP if processing is included, but for coastal communities of Britain it is a lifeline and a traditional way of life.

The Scotland Food & Drink Association says exporters could be losing more than 1 million pounds in sales a day.

Those participating in the protest said they did not know how long they could survive. Many in coastal communities voted for Brexit but said they had not expected this impact.

Allan Miller, owner of AM Shellfish in Aberdeen, Scotland, said it was impossible to get by with the paperwork or veterinary checks. His deliveries of live brown crab, lobster, and prawns were being delayed, with some of it arriving dead, and thus getting lower prices.

Its not a premium Scottish shellfish that were shipping any more, he said.

Miller criticised Johnsons Brexit trade deal, saying delivery times had doubled from 24 hours.

Now youre talking 48 hours to 50 hours. Its crazy, he said.

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton
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Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on...
2,000 National Guard Troops in DC Sworn In as Special Deputy US Marshals

About 2,000 National Guard troops were sworn in as U.S. Marshals before Inauguration Day, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Chief Lamont Ruffin from D.C. District Court swore in the 2,000 National Guard troops as special deputy U.S. Marshals prior to the presidential inauguration, according to the federal law enforcement agencys Twitter page.

The deputation gives the guardsmen temporary, limited, law enforcement authority pertaining specifically to the safety and protection of the inauguration and related events, the U.S. Marshals said in a caption on its Flickr page, showing the Guard troops being deputized at night.

Later Monday, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that the agency was assisting the U.S. Secret Service, which is leading the coordination of security for inauguration day.

The U.S. Marshals Service said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times that it routinely supports other agencies with security efforts for presidential inaugurations.

Additionally, the U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia customarily specially deputizes thousands of state and local law enforcement officers from around the country to augment security at the event, the statement said.

The U.S. Secret Service and Pentagon didnt respond to The Epoch Times requests for comments.

Last week, officials confirmed that as many as 25,000 National Guard members were being deployed to the District of Columbia for Inauguration Day.

A statement from the Army to news outlets said the increase in Guard troops would support the federal law enforcement mission and security preparations during the inauguration.

Our National Guard soldiers and airmen are set around the city to protect our nations Capital, National Guard Bureau Chief Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson said in the statement.

Chief Lamont Ruffin from D.C. District Court swears in 2000 National Guard troops as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals prior to the upcoming presidential inauguration: https://t.co/vw5OC3maqV pic.twitter.com/oG6n1JgpiZ  U.S. Marshals (@USMarshalsHQ) January 18, 2021

Last week, the FBI sent out bulletins for the possibility of violence in connection with events on Jan. 20. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump called on Americans not to break the law.

In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking, and NO vandalism of any kind, Trump said. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.

The National Park Service has closed the Washington Monument to tours and Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked visitors to avoid the city.

In Washington, the perimeter of a fence surrounding the Capitol was pushed out to encompass the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Roads and other access points were closed, and some businesses said they would shut.

At least 21 states have activated their National Guard troops, respectively, in capital cities. States where National Guard troops have been activated include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin, according to a tally from The Associated Press.

Reuters contributed to this report. This article has been updated with a statement from the U.S. Marshals service.
MIDDLETOWN  The city is experiencing an increase in requests for medical services from neighboring towns, which a local EMS transport agency official attributes to call volume, requests for multiple ambulances, and travel to emergency facilities outside of town.

Middletown has contracted with Hunters Ambulance, at 594 Washington St., for some time, according to Middletown Fire Department Chief/EMS Director Robert Kronenberger. Those services are in the process of being transferred to Hartford Healthcare, according to Hunters Chief Operating Officer David Lowell.

There are three fire companies in Middletown: the main station, with locations on Main Street and Cross Street; Westfield Volunteer Fire on East Street in the north part of the city; and South Fire District on Randolph Road. Each is responsible for various sections of the city.

In the last two weeks, Kronenberger said, his company needed mutual aid six times from Cromwell and Durham, something he hasnt seen happen in a very long time.

This is something we really have to monitor, he said. Im going to be watching this closely.

The need for multiple ambulances at accident scenes, for example, as well as occasions when patients are taken to hospitals outside of town are driving the rise in the need for assistance for neighboring towns, Lowell said.

Recently, within a span of 40 minutes, Hunters received seven 911 requests for emergency ambulance response in Middletown, Lowell said. Four were made within a four-minute span, and six were fulfilled by his units. The sixth one was sent to Cromwell EMS as a mutual aid partner, Lowell said. They responded and were subsequently canceled en route.

The pandemic is not one of the contributing factors to the issue, he said.

Middletown is in the process of trying to secure a primary service agreement so it can decide which agencies to work with, Kronenberger said. The city, at this point, does not want to get into ambulance transport, but we want a little bit more control over who supplies service to the city, he said.

Kronenberger has not seen delays in ambulance response times in Middletown, he said.

There is a tiered system of duties set up in Middletown, Kronenberger said.

[Middlesex] Hospital supplies our paramedic service, the fire department supplies the EMT service, and Hunters provides the transport, he said.

When you call 911, the dispatch will go through a series of questions for you. How you respond to those questions will dictate what level of response you get, Kronenberger said. That could mean just an ambulance; an ambulance along with the fire department; or , fire crews and paramedic, depending on the severity of the incident, he said.

The query process, known as emergency medical dispatch, is a nationwide standard that most communications centers use, Kronenberger said.

At South Fire, as with fire services across Connecticut and the nation, the volume of coronavirus calls has caused a strain, Chief Michael Howley said. As our numbers increase, and people get sick, these services are getting stretched, he said. We understand it, and the need to prepare for it.

Hospitals around the state are diverting emergency vehicles at various times depending on the influx of people positive for the coronavirus, Howley said. It happens once in a while. With COVID, its now showing up more and more. Its not just here. Its all over the place.

City leaders recently began discussing the issue, Howley said. He and other fire officials anticipated a bump in the need for ambulance services after the first of the year  following the holidays, Howley said, and now its coming to its peak.

Once COVID cases decline and the rate of vaccine distribution increases, the transportation situation should ease, Howley said. Its a citywide conversation. We need to be aware.
The insurrection at the Capitol building on Jan. 6 has touched or affected everybody in some way. However, one Laredoan that used to work in the building described the attack as one of the most frightening chapters in modern American history.

Former City of Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas  who has served in the FBI, as a security consultant and as a Capitol building police officer from 1970 to 1975  served in the nation's Capitol building during a tense time in American history during with during the Watergate scandal. However, he said the tension never reached anything like what he saw less than two weeks ago.

There were a lot of demonstrations obviously, Salinas said. There was demonstrations all the time for various issues, and most of the time the demonstrations were very peaceful, and there were some that were a little bit more tense where we had to arrest people because of their disorderly conduct, but never anything to this level.

Salinas said the event saddened him more than made him mad because of the symbolism behind the an attack and because they were attempting to derail an election.

When I saw this happening, I was saddened and sickened by what I saw, Salinas said. Never, never would I have thought that a United States Capitol would be invaded in such a violent manner. This is the home of democracy, and to see this go down like that is just incredible. It was a very vicious and defiant attack on our democracy.

He said the images of a police officer protecting the Capitol almost getting crushed to death by the rioters moved him deeply as he recalls his time at the building. He is glad the fatalities were minimized thanks to the response of some of the law enforcement personnel in the moments after it began.

Salinas commends the service undertaken by one Capitol building police officer who did as much as possible to block the rioters from entering even further into the congress chambers. He said this is what he would have done if he was still serving there.

You are there to serve and protect, you are there to protect the lives of the people who work in that building, Salinas said.

Salinas is surprised the attack could happen considering how secure the area must be not just because of the potential for demonstrators but also foreign attacks.

According to Salinas, there are about 23,000 Capitol building police officers that served in a 12-block area to protect both chambers of Congress and make sure everyone had the safety needed to continue their functions. Also, the Capitol police get assistance when needed from Washington D.C. police and the national guard.

Salinas said times of great crisis such prompt various agencies to work together and that the issues seen Jan. 6 could have been due to a lack of communication between agencies. He said this is critical because it shows to the countrys enemies that entering the Capitol is not as difficult as it may seem.

What scared me and bothered me the most was when you see terrorist groups, foreign and some domestic groups, when they saw how easy it was gaining access to the U.S. Capitol. That is really frightening, Salinas said.

He believes that now law enforcement and military personnel around the Capitol must be more aware of these possible threats and prepare better.

The most important thing is that you have to be prepared and have good communication between agencies, Salinas said. Now we have social media that is monitored to be able to share information, and when you share information, then you can prepare actions to prevent these kinds of things. I know there is going to be some obvious changes, and the other thing is that if people know something, then they must say something.

Ultimately, the former mayor said the president is to blame for what happened.

It was very clear that there was blame, Salinas said. The people there were his supporters, and they have the right to support whoever they want. However, when you cross the line and it means that you are breaking the law, then that means something totally different. He incited this insurrection.

One other thing Salinas finds disturbing is that this is one of the first inaugurations in the country in which things will be solemn as there will be little festivities for the incoming administration due to both heightened security and a limit on the amount of people who will be permitted to attend.

He said the inauguration should be a time when all Americans should celebrate no matter who becomes the president because it is a sign of true democracy just as he previously saw Presidents Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Obama take office.

Salinas said service as a Capitol building police officer is not all about preparing for the worst. It is also a time in which these officers become friends of politicians that become high level officials within the federal government.

Salinas remembers giving a hug to Gerald Ford as he came through the same door he was guarding that day in the nations Capitol right before he became president. He asked the future president Le puedo dar un abrazo? meaning Can I give you a hug?: and then told him Vaya con Dios.

Salinas said he also spent time with Fords vice president Nelson Rockefeller who he was tasked to take care during his visit to Congress and spent several hours with him. He said the vice president was a classy man who spoke Spanish with him and others.

As for what is to come, Salinas simply hopes the country becomes more united.

I am hopeful that America can unite and move on and appreciate the freedoms that we have in this great democracy, Salinas said. I love this country. I love America.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
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CSW has received disturbing reports indicating that 15 of the children who were seized during police raids on Du Merci orphanages in Kano and Kaduna states in December 2019, are to be transferred from the government-run Nasarawa Childrens Home in the Kano State capital to unknown rural locations.

According to credible local sources, the children aged between 4 and 10 will be transferred to an undisclosed area on 18 January, while those aged between 10 and 15 will also be sent to an unknown facility at an unknown date.

The impending relocations were preceded by the forcible expulsion from the government-run orphanage of an older Du Merci resident, who had remained voluntarily to care for these minors, and have increased concerns for their physical and psychological wellbeing.

Twenty-seven children were transferred to the government-run facility following raids on the Du Merci orphanages in Kano and Kaduna states by armed officers from the police force and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), that occurred on 25 and 31 December 2019, respectively.

Once in the Nasarawa Childrens Home, they were not permitted to leave the premises to attend school or church and have complained of being mistreated on account of their religious belief.

They have also experienced violence, including one of the older Du Merci residents being physically assaulted by security officers in the presence of a government official. Two children who suffer from chronic conditions that require constant treatment, a 15 year-old with sickle cell anaemia and an 18 year-old who developed high blood pressure due to trauma, were abandoned at a private hospital. Another remains hospitalised following a fire in the government orphanage in which he suffered first degree burns to the face, hands, body, and legs. Following the accident, other residents in the home falsely accused the Du Merci children of having started the fire deliberately.

In April 2020, Kanos Commissioner for Womens Affairs agreed to release eight of the older children into the custody of the Kano Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). However, 16 minors remained in the government-run establishment.

CSWs Founder and President Mervyn Thomas said: The treatment of these children is a shameful indictment of both state and federal authorities. The rights of these children continue to be violated comprehensively. They have been torn from their home and from the adults they consider to be their parents, and placed in a government orphanage where they have experienced discrimination, violence, a lack of education and separation from their religious community. Now they face being separated and moved yet again. CSW condemns the continuing lack of consideration for the trauma experienced by these young children by the authorities, who profess concern for their wellbeing while pursuing their own nefarious agenda. Since state authorities clearly do not have their best interests at heart, and no one in the state system is minded to care for them holistically, these children must be restored to their parents who love and cherish them as their own as a matter of urgency, before they endure further emotional damage.
I had helped start young horses before I had Chester but he was the easiest.

Some 25 years after I sold him I received word through a friend the old horse had died aged about 32 years, a good age for a working horse which is what Chester did best.

The man who had him for most of his life, about 25 years, a cattleman in the midlands of Tasmania where good horses are valued above just about everything else, said he was the best horse hed ever had and he wanted me to know just how good he was.

Temperament

An unhandled 18-month-old colt when I bought him at a sale, Chester proved to be a horse Id never forget.

At first I couldnt put a hand on him in the paddock but he succumbed very quickly to a half-filled ice cream container of oats.

After the first week he was at the fence waiting for his oats every afternoon.

A few weeks of handling and I decided to start him.

New versus old

Id seen young horses started the old way, that is, forced into submission and I was determined to try a better way, gently, persuasively and slowly.

I was determined to make a better fist of starting Chester than what Id seen done when I was younger when the old methods led only to frightened horses.

Those horses all bucked.

I very clearly remember the day I stepped into the saddle for the first time.

I was in the yard on my own with him wondering if this was the most stupid thing Id ever done, but he didnt flinch.

A day or two later we were riding around the paddocks and it was as if he was born to do it and enjoyed it as well. He was easy to shoe, easy to load on the trailer and soon learned to accept whatever job I gave him.

A hard lesson

Then there was the day we both learnt a valuable lesson.

I didnt have a tractor then and so tied a rope to my grass harrows, climbed on Chester and he pulled it around the paddock for me with my end of the rope wrapped around the saddle horn  I had bought this cheap Mexican-made roping saddle to help me start in rodeo timed events.

By now I had become a little too trusting of the young horse and when I climbed off him to clear some sticks with the rope wrapped around the horn too tight to come loose, he took fright and raced off with the harrows jumping madly behind him.

He was out of sight in the scrub within seconds and heres me thinking he would be killed or the saddle torn to pieces.

Five minutes later I caught up to him, stretched out on his side unable to move with the harrows wedged between two trees about two metres off the ground  and nothing broken.

Whew!

The harrows werent going to come down and the rope was too tight to unwrap so I had to cut it. He waited for me to take the reins and then stand up. No damage, I almost cried with relief.

Apart from when roping in the arena, I have never since tied a rope hard and fast to a saddle horn, just coiled it and held the loose end.

He was never meant for rodeo

I did rope cattle off Chester and started steer wrestling off him but the brutal truth was, he was too slow for the job. Yes, we caught some cattle but the prizemoney was a long way off and it was this lesson which led me into Quarter Horses and the prizemoney.

In 1982, I accepted a job in Warwick and could only take two horses with me. The big champion roping horse I had, County, was a no brainer and I decided to take a young Quarter Horse filly rather than Chester  looking back with perfect hindsight, a mistake.

I sold Chester to an old mate of mine whose son ran cattle in the Midlands of Tasmania and the story went from there.

Almost 40 years later I still think about him. The old saying is you only ever have one really good horse but Ive had three or four and to lose them from old age or injury is almost as sad as losing a family member  but life goes on and soon it will be my turn.

My entry fees into heaven were paid by Jesus, I just hope I will see all my old horse friends there waiting for me.
Today's best roundup of a recent murder describes a terrifying urban core scene and dozens of shell casings littering the ground following a deadly shootout.

Read more . . .

Twenty one year old Tityana Coppage of South Kansas City has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Armed Criminal Action in connection to the fatal shooting of Keith Lars Wednesday near Thompson Avenue and Benton Boulevard. According to court records, police we3re called to the 3100 block of Thompson on a shooting call at approximately 12:30 on Wednesday.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Chocho Industries, Alhaji Mustapha Oti Boateng is dead.

The cosmetics entrepreneur died on Sunday dawn (January 17, 2021) at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.



A source close to Alhaji Boateng told Graphic Online that the deceased had an underlying health condition.



Some sources say his death is COVID-19 related.



After starting off as a cab driver for over 19 years, the entrepreneur had his big break with two organic products namely; Chocho cream and Chocho soap.



He had previously worked at a printing press and in Japan doing odd jobs before he returned to the transport industry in Ghana.



Popularly known as Alhaji Chocho he was enstooled the Nkosuohene (Developmental Chief) of Akim Kwabeng in the Eastern Region in 2015.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would undoubtedly be saddened by the crisis of police brutality consuming America. He would mourn the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, the death of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, and the loss of countless other black lives at the hands of the police.

But it's unlikely that he would be shocked by these events as much as he'd be shocked at how little progress the U.S. has made in reckoning with the vast political and economic problems that he felt underpinned and gave rise to its compulsive violence against black America. Decades after his death, extreme poverty, soaring economic inequality and perpetual war are either unaddressed or worse than during his life. These issues were key to King's radical outlook on the roots of racial progress, and he'd trace the contemporary plight of black youth to their neglect.

Our warped legacy: The King most of America knows has been hollowed out and sanitized. In school curricula and popular media representations, King is depicted as a man with the narrow political mission of racial equality before the law, and his social aspirations are distilled to the hope that "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers," in his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. There is little to suggest the enormous politico-intellectual complexity that ranks him, in the eyes of political philosopher Cornel West, the "most significant and successful organic intellectual in American history."

Interracial friendship and civil rights were only one part of King's grand vision for a society governed by fundamentally different values, many of which were derived from the tenets of socialism he hovered around for his adult life. As West discusses in his book Black Prophetic Fire, King began to identify as a socialist as early as his college days, during which he studied Karl Marx. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, said that their first date was the first time she ever met a socialist.

During the earlier stages of his career, King was quiet about this part of his political identity for fear of backlash  calling for both racial integration and the explicit overturning of capitalism was bound to make him too threatening or fringe  but socialism remained important to him, and by the end of his career, it was an open and inextricable part of his dream for a better America.

Over the course of his brief life, King revealed an interest in many "-isms" beyond conventional liberalism and its view of racism. "The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism," he declared in 1967. King devoted great energy to discussing the interconnectedness of these vices and the need for sociopolitical solutions that recognized that they must be combated simultaneously. He tied the funding for the Vietnam War to the scarce resources provided for social services for the working class; he saw the violence perpetrated against the black community in the U.S. as traceable to the logic of imperial violence abroad. In speeches about "The Other America," he fleshed out how the design of the economy was inextricable from black oppression.

According to West, when the Nobel Prize committee contacted King to notify him that he had won, King said that he didn't deserve the award if Norman Thomas  a socialist, pacifist and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party  hadn't won a Nobel yet.

A deeper view: It's remarkable that shades of King's radicalism are shorn from his most iconic moments. In mainstream accounts it's rare to see any kind of acknowledgement that "I Have a Dream" was delivered in a speech whose main themes were jobs and freedom. He praises the "marvelous new militancy" of the black community as they inhabit "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." The speech itself embeds the goal of integration within broader societal transformation  one that requires avoiding the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism."

Toward the end of his life, King immersed himself in goals beyond traditional civil rights aims that many advocates felt had gone too far. Before his death, King was criticized for his increasing zealotry on ending poverty and war by parts of both the white and black communities, and had lost allies from various quarters of the progressive community, even within his own organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

In many ways, King seemed to be practicing what he preached when it came to valuing integrity over popularity:

I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. ... If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way. If it means sacrificing, I'm going that way. If it means dying for them, I'm going that way.

King's radicalism isolated him in his time, but the state of race relations in modern America has unambiguously validated his fears of the inadequacy of narrowly pursuing civil rights. Over the last three to four decades, segregation in education has grown worse; the white-black wealth gap has increased; the American residential landscape is as segregated as ever; trillions are spent on war rather than services for the underprivileged; and the U.S. incarcerates a far greater percentage of its black population than South Africa did under apartheid in a regime that policy analysts consider the new Jim Crow.

The civil rights era achieved many great things. But King rightly predicted that if it was not coupled with a deeper reevaluation of how power and wealth function in the U.S., it would not serve as a guarantor of equality. Unless we acknowledge this, it will continue to seem as if the arc of history bends away from justice.
Charleston, WV (25301)

Today

Thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with light rain possible. Low around 55F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
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STOCKHOLM, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Severalnines is a pioneer in providing automation and management software for database clusters. Its flagship product, ClusterControl, has been a key resource to several global universities helping them scale their database operations for open source learning management systems like Moodle.

"ClusterControl has helped to simplify and automate many of the routine database tasks like monitoring health and performance, managing backups, responding to operational anomalies, recovering broken nodes and ensuring maximum uptime," said Vinay Joosery, CEO & Co-Founder of Severalnines. "With more and more students requiring eLearning, this has greatly reduced the amount of work for the system administrators while improving the stability, uptime, and performance of the LMS."

AP Hogeschool Antwerpen, a non-profit public higher education institution in Belgium leveraged ClusterControl when their team struggled to meet the demand for online learning and existing platforms couldn't easily be scaled to meet the increased bandwidth needs.

"It made life a lot easier when it came to the database management for our Moodle platform," according to a representative from the University's IT Team. "We were spending a lot of time repairing broken database nodes after very busy periods, where with ClusterControl, this is only one click away so to speak."

On the other side of the world, the University of Malaysia Sabah was having a similar struggle. "When the country was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, our university was adapting to the new normal where all teaching & learning would be conducted online via our eLearning platform," said Rozaidah Mohd Yusop, System Admin. "Our previous eLearning setup was only able to support up to 1,000 concurrent users. Upon trying out ClusterControl, we easily set up and deployed a MariaDB Cluster for our Moodle eLearning platform and it has helped us to ensure high uptime for our students and teachers."

Popular eLearning tools like Moodle and Canvas offer support for many different open source database technologies, however managing them.especially under the strain of increased usage, can be a challenge for an organization without specialized database administrators. ClusterControl has allowed them to automate much of their database management and keep their LMS platforms running with several nines of availability. To learn more, visit https://severalnines.com/elearning.

About Severalnines

Severalnines provides automation and management software for database clusters. We help companies deploy their databases in any environment, and manage all operational aspects to achieve high-scale availability. Severalnines' products are used by developers and administrators of all skill levels to provide the full 'deploy, manage, monitor, scale' database cycle, thus freeing them from the complexity and learning curves that are typically associated with highly available database clusters. Severalnines is often called the anti-startup as it is entirely self-funded by its founders. The company has enabled over 12,000 deployments to date via its popular product ClusterControl. Currently counting BT, HP, Orange, Vodafone, Cisco, CNRS, Technicolor, UK National Health Service and Paytrail as customers. Severalnines is a private company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with offices in Singapore, Japan and the United States. To see who is using Severalnines today visit, https://www.severalnines.com/company.

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https://www.aish.com/tp/i/gl/The-Three-Plans-of-Leaving-Egypt.html

Shemot, 9:13-14: And God said to Moshe, get up in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, So says Hashem, God of the Hebrews: Send forth my people, that they may serve Me. For this time, I will send all My plagues into your heartso that you shall know there is none like Me in all the world.

Shemot, 10:1-2: And Hashem said to Moshe; Go to Pharaoh  for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might establish My signs in the midst of them. And so that you will be able to tell your children, and your childrens children, how I played with Egypt and My signs which I have done among them, so that you will know that I am Hashem

The Torah Portion begins with Gods instruction to Moshe after the seventh plague of hail, where God tells Moshe that the remaining Plagues will demonstrate to the Jewish people and their descendants that God has toyed with the Egyptians through the Signs of His limitless power, so that the Jewish people will recognize God in all His greatness. This instruction seems straightforward as we know that the Ten Plagues served to teach Emunah to the Jewish people. However, in last weeks Portion on a number of occasions, Moshe tells Pharaoh that the purpose of the plagues was so that Pharaoh himself (and by extension, the Egyptian people) would recognize God.1 What happened in between these two points to cause such a significant change in the purpose of the Plagues?

In order to answer this question, it is first necessary to ask an even more basic question  what was the purpose of the Exodus? The obvious answer is that the purpose was to bring about the freedom of the Jewish people from their slavery and to bring them to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah and ultimately to the land of Israel. However, it is abundantly evident that there was another goal  to teach the world about the existence of the One, All-Powerful God. Up to that time, with the exception of the Jewish people, all the nations of the world were essentially polytheistic  they believed that there were many gods, each with great power in a particular realm (such as the sun or rain) but who were otherwise limited. The world viewed these gods as not being in concert with each other, and in fact many of the histories of the ancient nations show the exact opposite  that the gods were at war with each other as one gods realm of power clashed with another, such as the god of fire and the god of ice. In addition, these gods were not paragons of morality, rather they were beset by the same foibles as human beings, just they were far more powerful.

A final aspect of the polytheistic religions was that the relationship between man and the gods was not one of closeness or love, it was purely practical  for example an idol worshipper would offer a sacrifice to a god not as an expression of closeness, but as a way of buying favors from the god or preventing him from unleashing his destructive powers on them.

When God sent Moshe to speak to Pharaoh, it wasnt just with the goal of having Pharaoh release the Jewish people, and it also wasnt about showing Pharaoh that the Jews had their own G-d who looked after them. Rather, it was to demonstrate to Pharaoh that his, and the worlds conception of many gods was fundamentally flawed, and that there was one, all-powerful G-d, who existed beyond the physical world and who desired a relationship with His people. This is demonstrated in Moshes initial words to Pharaoh on their first encounter  So said God, God of Israel, send out My nation and they will rejoice with Me in the desert.2

Rabbi Dovid Fohrman3 notes that Moshe referred to God in his name spelt yud, kei, vav, kei (known as the Shem Havaya), not His name of Elokim. He explains that Elokim refers to a power, whereas the Shem Havaya refers to Gods nature as being totally above the physical world. Moshe was teaching Pharaoh about the one, true God, in contrast to Pharaohs belief in numerous powers. Moreover, God expresses His desire that His people rejoice with Him in the desert. Rabbi Fohrman explains that the idol worshippers did not rejoice with their gods, rather they sacrificed to them, but there was no close relationship. Thus, Moshe was alluding to Pharaoh about the difference between the true God and Pharaohs conception of gods.

Rabbi Fohrman goes further and suggests that at this point, it was possible for Pharaoh to accept Moshes words and acknowledge the one true God, and let His nation go. Had this happened, the whole saga of the Ten Plagues would have been unnecessary, because the twin goals of bringing about the freedom of the Jewish people and teaching the world - as represented by the most powerful nation in the word, the Egyptians - about God would have been fulfilled. He adds that before any of the Plagues took place, Moshe further proved this point when Aarons staff swallowed all the staffs of the Egyptian sorcerers after they had turned them into snakes. In Rabbi Forhmans words:

If one staff swallows many, what is that really saying? Right there at that moment, Pharaoh could have seen an indication of the bankruptcy of his polytheistic line of thought. If the one staff swallows the many, what does that say? It says that one rules over the many. All the powers of nature are ultimately answerable to one higher power, qualitatively above them all. They all answer to the creator.4

Unfortunately, Pharaoh did not accept the lesson being given in a gentle manner, and so od reverted to a Plan B. This involved convincing Pharaoh through the Plagues that God was the only true Power and how He was in control of all the powers that the Egyptians worshipped, such as the Nile. Each plague in turn demonstrated how God had control over the Nile, all living creatures and the weather. And yet after weakening after each plague, Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to send out the Jewish people on their terms.

This carried on until the seventh plague where Pharaohs reaction suddenly changed  after seeing the opposite powers of fire and ice co-exist together in the hail, Pharaoh exclaims: And Pharaoh sent and called to Moshe and Aaron and said to them: I have sinned this time. God is the righteous One, and my people and I are the wicked ones.5

Pharaoh talks of sinning, righteousness and wickedness  he also refers to God with the higher name of yud, kei, vav, kei. All this indicates that after hail, Pharaoh finally recognized that the God of the Jews wasnt just another power along with the numerous Egyptians gods, but that He transcended all of them, and controlled every force in existence. It was at this time, when Plan B could have come to fruition and Pharaoh could have willingly let the people go. Had he done this, Rabbi Fohrman suggests, it is conceivable that there would have been no need for the remaining plagues.

However, soon after, the Torah tells us that again Pharaoh changed his mind, stubbornly ignoring what he knew to be true, because of his arrogance and what he stood to lose by giving in. It is at this point, where it becomes evident that Plan B has failed, and that it was now necessary to resort to Plan C  if the Plagues could not persuade Pharaoh and his nation to recognized God, then they have forfeited there rights as agents of free will, and are now reduced to being pawns of God, and their remaining punishments would serve to demonstrate, if not to them, but to the Jewish people alone, the truth about the One, all powerful, transcendent God. This is why, at the beginning of the Portion, the purpose of the Plagues abruptly switches from an attempt to persuade the Egyptians (as well as the Jews) to recognize God, to being solely a demonstration to the Jewish people and their descendants.

One lesson that can be derived from this approach is that sometimes God wants to communicate to a person in a gentle manner. If he does not pen his eyes and does not internalize the message, then it may be necessary to send him more unpleasant messages that are more likely to convince him to open his eyes and perhaps see the error of his ways. Yet, one can often avoid the difficulties that come about through these lessons if he pays attention to the gentler lessons, thus avoiding the need for unnecessary suffering.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  After a weekend of hours-long wait times, line conditions at two of Staten Islands coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine hubs seemed to have improved Monday, but problems remained.

Most of the people who spoke with the Advance/SILive.com outside the sites at Port Richmond High School and Staten Island Technical High School said their biggest challenges came navigating the online application process.

Stephen Lerner said it took him about seven hours to finally sign up to get his first dose of the vaccine in Port Richmond after several unsuccessful attempts.

It was really a bad situation, he said. You would write it up and then all of a sudden it was like magic, it disappeared and you had to do it all over again.

He said the wait hadnt been bad as he stood in line outside the high school, but Harold Moshel, who came all the way from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, had a different experience.

Moshel, who was leaving the vaccine site, said he had a brief problem navigating the online application, and that he waited about an hour before receiving his vaccination.

Its slow, obviously, Moshel said when asked to rate the citys efforts vaccinating its population.

People wait outside Staten Island Technical High School in New Dorp ahead of their scheduled coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine appointments Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta)

At Staten Island Technical High School  another one of the Islands 11 current vaccine sites  people said they didnt experience the same long wait times reported over the weekend, but still saw some issues.

Lori Klemas was leaving the New Dorp site with her father-in-law whom shed help to set up an appointment. She said they had walked by Staten Island Tech on Saturday, and saw the hours-long line. However, their experience wasnt nearly as bad.

When you get inside, its pretty good. He had a 10:30 appointment. Its now 10:46, so that was very, very good, Klemas said, adding that there was some confusion regarding an appointment confirmation before her father-in-law actually received his first dose.

Local officials, including Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) and City Council Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island), have raised similar concerns about the vaccination process on behalf of their constituents.

Congresswoman @NMalliotakis & I are aware of numerous issues at the Staten Island Tech & Port Richmond HS vaccine hubs this weekend.



We contacted the City to share these issues with them and will continue to follow up until all are rectified. pic.twitter.com/KAjKhLtLqy  Steven Matteo (@StevenMatteo) January 17, 2021

In a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, the local pols said they had heard from constituents about seniors needing to wait on long lines, flouting of the mandatory post-vaccine observation period, and internet issues that meant those receiving their initial dose were unable to schedule their follow-up dose on-site.

The WiFi issues meant some people were told to log into an online portal when they got home  a barrier that could cause some to not schedule appointments, the letter from Malliotakis and Matteo warned.

We fear that many of those vaccinated at Staten Island Tech this weekend will simply give up and not receive their second shots to avoid having to endure such an experience again or just because they had no help from family members in scheduling their second appointments in this borough, the letter read.

According to officials, some recipients of the first dose also received a message in error that suggested the city was not accepting appointments for second doses, but a spokesman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene clarified that those appointments are available.

Regarding concerns about seniors standing in line, the spokesman said the city has deployed staff to assist them, including making seating available, and the city is also providing transportation options to those who need it.

De Blasio announced the transportation program on Sunday.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 22:50:44|Editor: huaxia

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JINAN, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Shandong province saw record exports of agricultural produce in 2020, local authorities have said.

Shandong's exports of agricultural produce grew 1.9 percent year on year to a record annual high of more than 125.7 billion yuan (around 19.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, accounting for 23.9 percent of the country's total exports of such goods.

The province has been China's biggest exporter of agricultural produce for 22 consecutive years, Zhang Yibing, deputy director of Jinan Customs, told a press conference on Monday.

Its exports of such goods to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 13.9 percent year-on-year.

Shandong's high-quality agricultural development and diversified international markets contributed to its record exports, said Zhang. Enditem
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The U.S. government published a report Friday that triggers a land swap involving U.S. Native American land for an area that could become the largest copper mine in North America, pushing the project into the next phase in the permitting process.

The Forest Service's final environmental impact statement finalizes a swap of land at Oak Flat in Arizona for Rio Tinto Group's Resolution Copper mine, which has received increased scrutiny from indigenous groups in recent weeks and months. The agency also published a draft record of decision indicating it will issue, pending review, permits for use of power lines, pipelines and roads in the area.

Rio Tinto said in a statement following the publication that it will continue to engage with Native American tribes and seek consent before any decision on the development of the project. The company is trying to avoid repeating mistakes it made on the other side of the world.

The project manager of Rio's Resolution Copper wrote to 11 Native American tribes last month, saying the company welcomed the opportunity to increase direct engagement with the groups, while emphasizing that the development remains in the early stages.

Rio's outreach comes as indigenous groups become more vocal about the finalization of a land swap involving U.S. Native American land at Oak Flat, less than a year after the London-based miner provoked public and investor outrage when it leveled Aboriginal heritage sites in Australia during a mine expansion. The actions led to the departure of the firm's then-chief executive officer and two other key managers.

Resolution will pose a key early test for new CEO Jakob Stausholm, promoted into the role with a task to improve ties to local communities. The project may also show whether President-elect Joe Biden can both preserve the environment while speeding a transition to clean energy, which will require more copper and other metals.

"It is likely that the decision described in this Draft ROD document will be made after transfer of the Oak Flat Federal Parcel to Resolution Copper," the document said. "Following the land exchange, all mineral extraction operations will take place on private land. In addition, Resolution Copper has indicated that it intends to place the tailings storage facility on private lands or Arizona State Trust lands. As a result, the only decision to be made by the Forest Service concerns the proposed use of NFS roads, and the use of NFS land for a tailings pipeline corridor and power line corridors across NFS lands."

Apache Stronghold, which represents the San Carlos Apache tribe, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix this week seeking to stop both the land transfer and the Forest Service's statement. A judge denied the request late Thursday night.

Resolution, which Rio says would be able to supply 25% of U.S. copper needs, is committed to "careful and respectful treatment" of any Native American artifacts or ancestral remains found on the property, project manager Andrew Lye said in a Dec. 23 letter seen by Bloomberg.

"We will comply with all laws related to Native American cultural heritage and will strive to do more," Lye said. "I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these commitments with you and hear your views and ideas on these and any other matters you may wish to raise as we seek to work together in a way that can provide mutual benefit for us all."

The language of the letter contrasts with the company's disastrous handling of Western Australia's Juukan Gorge, where blasts in May flattened natural rock shelters that showed a record of life more than 40,000 years ago. Rio faced criticism over poor communication with traditional landowners of the sites.

The San Carlos Apache tribe has been one of the most vocal groups opposed to the project, with its Chairman Terry Rambler drawing comparisons between the Australian debacle and the U.S. situation.

"Like the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, Oak Flat is a sacred and holy place that Resolution Copper greedily seeks," Rambler said last year in a letter to a committee of Australian lawmakers. "If the land transfer occurs, Resolution Copper's block cave mine will decimate Oak Flat, swallowing it whole by massive subsidence and collapse, leaving a huge crater almost two miles across and a thousand feet deep."

It's a critical point that also comes as some worry the outgoing Trump administration is attempting to push through approvals, despite the land swap being part of congressional legislation signed by the Obama administration years ago. That law said the formal handover would not be approved until after the EIS.

Rio Tinto has reiterated that the project isn't being fast-tracked and remains in the permitting and study phase. The Biden administration will oversee permitting that must be approved in the next few years, and the company says the decision to invest in construction hasn't been made. BHP Group, the world's top miner, is Rio's partner in the project.

Oak Flat will remain untouched for decades and the land swap includes area around the sacred Apache Leap, which will be protected in perpetuity, according to Rio.

The vice chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, Jerome Kasey III, in a November letter acknowledged its inclusion in the consultation process with the U.S. Forest Service on the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Resolution Copper project "ensuring the inclusion of the tribal voice.

Explore further Aboriginal group urges mining 'reset' after ancient site destroyed

More information: 2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
GBP/USD Exchange Rate Slips as Demand for Safe-Haven USD Remains Strong Despite Uptick in Chinese Economy

The GBP/USD exchange rate fell by -0.3% today, with the pairing currently trading around $1.35.

Th US Dollar has continued to benefit from demand for the safe-haven currency this week despite news that Chinas economy had picked up after the initial shock from Covid-19 last year.

However, investors have remained cautious, aware that the outlook for the Chinese economy remains largely uncertain.

Robert Ward, an economist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, tweeted:

Optics good for [Chinas President] Xi [Jinping] in run-up to Julys CCP 100th anniversary: CN only major economy to grow in 2020, Q4 gives strong statistical hand-off to Q1 print. But structural problems remain, not least reliance on debt for growth.

Last week also saw President-elect Joe Biden announces a huge stimulus package of $1.9 trillion to help recover the American economy.

Demand for USD was compromised, however, after Joe Biden said that everyone must pay their fair share, which hints at further tax hikes soon.

Professor Charles Wyplosz from Geneva University was optimistic about the American economy, saying:

The US economy is going to recover much faster than in Europe as Biden fires up the bazooka.

Consequently, we could see demand for the safe-haven Greenback begin to slide this week if the outlook for the US economy continues to improve.

Pound (GBP) Falls Despite Over 3.8 Million in UK Receiving First Vaccine Dose

The Pound failed to rise against USD today despite news that the UK Government and NHS is now preparing to vaccinate the over-70s from Covid-19.

This follows new that over 3.8 million people in the UK  many over 80s as well as care home residents, NHS staff and social care staff  have already received their first jab.

As of today, however, Covid-19 vaccines will be rolled out to the next two priority groups.

Today also saw news that London would start trialling the first 24-hour Covid-19 vaccine centres.

However, UK markets are remaining cautious, as potential delays in coronavirus vaccine could further extend the nations lockdown.

UK Vaccine Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said that due to a limit supply of Covid-19 vaccines they needed to get into the arms of the most vulnerable.

Zahawi also added:

We now have built a deployment infrastructure that can deploy as much vaccine as it comes through. And so its the vaccine supply  which remains lumpy, it remains challenging, you may have read over the weekend probably some of the challenges around Pfizer and of course Oxford/AstraZeneca  but Im confident we can meet our target mid-Feb, [for] those top four cohorts.

Any further news of a dearth of Covid-19 vaccines therefore would prove GBP-negative.

GBP/USD Forecast: Could a Bullish BoE Boost Sterling This Week?

Pound traders will be awaiting tomorrows speech from the Bank of Englands Chief Economist, Andrew Haldane.

Any upbeat comments about the future of the UKs economy post-Covid-19 vaccine rollout would be GBP-positive.

Sterling investors will also continue to monitor progress in the UKs Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme.

If this looks increasingly likely to meet its mid-February target of vaccinating those in the vulnerable category, then we should see the Pound rise.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar will continue to be driven by risk sentiment.

As a result, we could see the Greenback head higher if the global Covid-19 economic situation appears to be worsening.
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There is substantial opposition to the ongoing imprisonment of Julian Assange in Londons maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, after Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against his extradition to the US at the beginning of the year.

The British verdict was narrowly based on Assanges acute health issues, resulting from his decade-long persecution, and the oppressive nature of the US prison system. Baraitser upheld all of the anti-democratic arguments of US prosecutors, which aim to criminalise any journalism based on national security disclosures. The US Justice Department is appealing the judgement, as it continues the campaign to extradite Assange for exposing American war crimes, human rights violations and diplomatic conspiracies.

A Brisbane protest defending Assange on the day of the extradition verdict

Days after her verdict, Baraitser rejected a bail application, despite the fact that Assange is only being detained in Britain to facilitate the extradition request, which she had denied. This punitive measure, imperiling the WikiLeaks founder with further medical damage and the threat of coronavirus infection, again demonstrates that the British state wants Assange dead.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the extradition ruling by again declaring that his government would do nothing to defend Assange, despite the fact that he is an Australian citizen and journalist. This is a continuation of the decades-long complicity of Australian governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike, in the abrogation of Assanges rights.

In contrast to the hostility of the official parties and the silence of most of the corporate media, there is substantial support for Assange among workers and young people.

Sofia, a law student at Monash University in Melbourne, told the WSWS: I was initially somewhat surprised that they ruled against the extradition, but then I read more deeply into it and realised it was only in regard to his mental health. The court completely rejected any assertion that there was political motivation behind the extradition, or that he wouldnt face a fair trial in the US. They denied that he could claim protection for freedom of speech or freedom of the press under the European Convention on Human Rightswhich is actually quite an extensive human rights act as they go.

He now has to go through the [US Department of Justice] appeal and that might be ruled against him. So, it is actually a bad precedent because this is a very individual case where his mental health has been so damaged by his treatment that he would likely commit suicide in a US prison. The outcome is positive, but the means to get there is not so good.

Investigative journalists are being targeted everywhere. Even in our own country, ABC offices were raided over Afghan war crimes stories, a Newscorp journalists home was raided and the government has passed laws against whistleblowers. Taking a step back and looking at it, its obvious that whats at stake is freedom to hold governments to account, freedom of information, freedom to dissent, all these things that were nominally meant to have in the most democratic countries in the world. It is worrying and it is symptomatic of a bigger crisis in these capitalist and imperialist countries.

The complicity of the Australian government and official political parties is symptomatic of their serving the interests of Australian capitalism, which is in turn subservient to US imperialism, rather than serving their own people, of whom Assange is one, as an Australian citizen. The fact that theyre ignoring him and not providing any assistance, that they would normally provide a citizen overseas, is a result of the battle between being the USs lackey and furthering the interests of Australians generallyit is always going to be the former that wins out. It just shows where their priorities are.

It has to be a grassroots movement from below to save Assange. A mass movement or mass support for himrather than trying to appeal to the goodness of Australian politicians hearts.

Sneha, a political economy student in Sydney, commented: The ruling against Julian Assanges extradition was on mental health grounds rather than a recognition of the right to free speech. As such, it was an assault on democratic rights and freedom of the press.

Sneha

The ruling class fears Assange because of the depth of what he uncoveredthe war logs and diplomatic cablesbut also they are trying to make an example of him.

Whats happened with Assange and whistleblowers, even US COVID-19 data scientist Rebekah Jones, cant be seen in isolation from increasingly authoritarian forms of rule in the US and globally. With capitalism in crisis, social inequality and class antagonisms are at an acute point. The turn to authoritarianism is the only resort of the ruling class. America is trying to preserve its hegemonic power, which will lead to war. The attacks on journalists have a lot to do with suppressing the anti-war sentiment of the public. The ruling elite is trying to instill fear in people and force them to be quiet.

The Australian government has been completely indifferent to Assanges treatment, claiming its up to the courts, when clearly those trials were show trials. Australia is closely tied to US foreign policy and is an aggressor itself. The comparison between the treatment of Assange and those responsible for the war crimes in Afghanistan, documented by the recent Brereton Report, is like night and day.

The Australian government and media have tried to downplay those war crimes as an aberration from otherwise peaceful and disciplined military forces. That narrative doesnt work anymore. Assange has shed so much light on it.

Julian Assange can only be freed through a mass movement of the working class, which cant be separated from the fight for socialism. That is the only way to salvage democracy.

Caroline, a retired teacher, stated: Julian Assange is an Australian citizen and he should be getting help from the prime minister, who should be standing up for him. He is entitled to protection from Australia. Why is he in London? He is a journalist. He has won a Walkley Award. If he found out about war crimes and did not report them, then he would be complicit. But he has reported crimes. Theres freedom of speech. If Julian Assange cannot speak freely, then what about the rest of us?

Lachlan, a University of Newcastle student, said: I thought the verdict on Assange was strange, honestly. The major thing is that if the judge has actually said he can't be extradited. It begs the question, why is he still in prison? If there is no legal justification in sending him to America, why can't he be brought back to Australia? A lot of mental health experts and professionals have looked at his conditions and have come to the conclusion that he has been treated horrendously, and has put him in a state where he cant continue his life in prison.

"This is made all the worse by the fact that COVID-19 is in the prison system in the UK. The government there is basically just allowing prisoners to get the virus. It is quite brutal and medieval. I absolutely condemn the actions of the UK, the US and Australian governments in allowing this to happen.

Frank, a semi-retired professional and long-standing supporter of Assange, added: The extradition verdict is designed to further question Assange's sanity and hence his credibility as an adversary. Clearly, a smear in the foreground with the main intent to dissuade other investigative journalists from attempting to emulate, in any way, his work.

The matter of Australia's sycophantic relationship with the US is too large a topic to go into here. Suffice to say that the clear evidence of the Australian political establishment's treatment and lack of support for David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib [Australian citizens who were imprisoned by the US at Guantanamo Bay], was a prelude to their present abandonment of Assange. The school bully will always have his sycophants. They are, of course, aided and abetted by an extremely compliant press, correctly described as stenographers for the state.

Rebecca, a worker in Townsville, commented: Its good that the court ruled against extradition, but the reason his mental health has deteriorated to this point is because he has been persecuted and arbitrarily detained for the past decade. Not granting bail was disgraceful. I read that Julians partner said that its freezing cold in the Belmarsh Prison, which just shows the continued torture of Julian Assange.

Rebecca

Rebecca condemned the role of successive governments. I initially had hopes in Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, when she was installed in 2010, but she was repulsive towards refugees and she falsely declared that Julian was guilty of crimes for publishing the truth, Rebecca recalled.

A worker at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) responded: The decision by Judge Vanessa Baraitser to block the extradition of Julian Assange to the USA is an historic victory for Assange, his legal team and supporters throughout the world. However, with his application for bail denied, Assange is in more danger today than he has ever been, with coronavirus sweeping through Belmarsh Prison.

Moreover, Baraitsers ruling was carefully crafted so as to endorse every attack on democratic rights made by the US government. As an employee of the ABC, which was raided by the police in 2019, I am all too aware of the danger that the Assange precedent represents.

Every Australian government has demonstratedthrough their active collaboration in the persecution of the award-winning journalist their contempt for democratic rights. This started with Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whose installation was exposed by WikiLeaks as being the work of protected sources of the US embassy. The fact that the current Morrison government has stood by, when an Australian citizen is on the brink of death, proves that they will stop at nothing in their commitment to the US alliance.
This week, Nevens Irish Seafood Trails leads him north east along the County Louth coastline to the historic town of Carlingford, where oysters have been farmed for centuries. He calls in at the Carlingford Oyster Company situated beside Carlingford Lough, and as the oyster beds are 1km from the shore, Neven takes a trip out to the bay to meet owner Kian Louet Feisser.

Neven learns how Kians father Peter sailed into Carlingford in the 1960s in a wooden yacht he built himself, and established the farm which specialises in Pacific oysters. Kian explains how the oysters take three years to grow and have a distinctive tear-drop shape and a flavour unique to their Carlingford Lough environment, and Neven enjoys an oyster tasting.

Louth is celebrated for its seafood, and the county has a new seafood tourism initiative called Sea Louth - a visitor trail comprising restaurants and seafood producers. One of the restaurants on the Sea Louth trail is the Bay Tree in Carlingford, where Neven meets chef-proprietor Conor Woods who shares a delicious seafood recipe with Neven, a Trio Of Hake, Prawn and Scallop served with Herb Veloute.

No visit to Carlingford would be complete without a boat trip on Carlingford Lough. Neven heads down to the harbour to meet Shane Reenan of Louth Adventures for a tour on board the Brienne, a restored 1940s Dutch tugboat. Out on the lough the scenery is stunning, and highlights include King Johns Castle, the Cooley Mountains, the Mourne Mountains, Carlingford Marina and the new Carlingford to Omeath Greenway. Neven even tries steering the Brienne himself, and turns out to be a surprisingly good sailor.

Following the coastline south, Neven visits the seaside village of Annagassan which overlooks Dundalk Bay. In the year 841 Annagassan was invaded by Vikings who founded one of the largest Viking settlements in Europe, believed to have 5,000 inhabitants. Neven calls in at The Glyde Inn where Managing Director Conor ONeill has created a Virtual Reality Viking experience for visitors which culminates in eating a real life, local seafood platter. The Glyde Inns head chef Tony Smith treats Neven to Annagassan Lobster Tail with Clogherhead Hake, Sea Kale, and an intriguing Secret Sauce.

Nevens Irish Seafood Trails is broadcast on RTE One at 8:30pm on Wednesday nights, with the fifth episode which features his events in Louth due to air on January 27th.
Administrators have swapped out their desks for the drivers seat, districts are combining routes and some even face closing in-person learning due to a lack of school bus drivers in Michigan.

Schools across the state face a shortage of bus drivers to transport students to school every day, and officials in charge of transportation departments say the COVID-19 pandemic has only complicated the matter.

Mahlon Williams, transportation director for Buchanan Community Schools, said his job duties as director must be second to the necessary role he plays as daily bus driver in his district.

Buchanan runs six bus routes and could use another two full-time drivers to cover the district, Williams said. In the event a driver gets sick and needs the day off, he said the district is out of luck.

Which is why Im driving morning and afternoon, Williams said.

Southwest Michigan schools like Buchanan and others across the state have been grappling with the school bus driver shortage for awhile.

Kellie Dean, president and CEO of Dean Transportation, said his company provides bus drivers to 140 districts across Michigan and saw a shortage for a few years even before the pandemic, Dean said.

Its a concern, theres no sugarcoating it, Dean said.

Michigan has about 19,000 school bus drivers, said Bill Disessa, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Education. The state does not track data related to the supply and demand of school bus drivers but considers the need critical based on feedback from local districts, he said.

The state is short about 2,500 bus drivers, said Kalamazoo Educational Regional Service Agency Transportation Specialist Bill Dawson, who said he gathered that estimate talking to transportation directors across the state.

Related: Kalamazoo area seeks school bus drivers to address countywide shortage

When the economy is good and jobs are plentiful, the competition for employees is higher, Dean said. Districts across the state and companies like Deans must get creative to attract people to the job. Many will pay for job training and offer competitive wages, he said.

Michael Shibler, superintendent for Rockford Public Schools near Grand Rapids, said the bus driver shortage is a significant issue for his district.

Rockford has used their transportation director, trained office staff and mechanics to drive routes when in a pinch, Shibler said. Its not a new issue for Rockford, he said, though the pandemic has made an impact on the shortage.

Like other districts, Rockford takes safety precautions when transporting students such as requiring masks, social distancing and using sanitizer.

Driving a bus is a tough job to begin with, Shibler said, and COVID-19 precautions are an extra responsibility that drivers now have.

Dean agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic made a bad problem worse.

When schools were closed in March, Deans drivers were out of work and many left the job because of the uncertainty for consistent, stable income.

They had a family to feed, Dean said. They needed to go because we just didnt have work for them.

Some of his drivers had to take a leave of absence from the job due to childcare responsibilities or preexisting conditions that made working during a pandemic a higher risk, he said.

Dean Transportation services about 10% of the states districts and currently has about 150 job openings across Michigan, which is about 10% of its workforce, Dean said.

Buchanan Superintendent Patricia Robinson said the district has taken steps to mitigate the shortage problem such as combining bus routes, though that means longer rides for some students.

The district is searching for new drivers and offering incentives such as paying for all necessary training to rid applicants of any barriers.

We just have not been successful (finding applicants), Robinson said.

The district can cover the routes currently -- with the help of Williams -- but will be unable to provide transportation for students in the event that a bus driver gets sick or needs to quarantine from COVID-19 exposure, she said.

It may even get to a point where we would just have to go remote because we would not have the means to transport our students, Robinson said. Thats what were facing on a day-to-day basis.

Its a critical time right now, she said.

Buchanan is currently advertising for job openings and offering a $500 signing bonus. But, attracting new drivers -- especially in a pandemic -- has its challenges.

School bus driving is often attractive to older people who have recently retired and are looking for part-time work, Williams said. Those same people are the ones who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 and many dont want to be around large groups of children, he said.

Tom Zahrt, assistant superintendent for human resources for KRESA, said the RESAs nine local districts need about 50 more bus drivers and additional substitutes.

Michigan Works! Southwest featured KRESA as its Employer of the Day Wednesday, Jan. 13. The event was held to attract possible applicants to apply to become a bus driver in Kalamazoo County and drew about a dozen people.

Zahrt said KRESA is pulling out all the stops to attract candidates to the job.

In the pandemic, as schools consider transitioning back to in-person learning -- or are abruptly closed when cases pop up -- school bus drivers are among the staff who dont know when they might work again.

KRESA held the virtual job fair in anticipation of many districts returning to in-person learning now that the COVID-19 vaccine has been rolled out.

Its tied to when we can get all these educators vaccinated, and that includes bus drivers and food service and custodians and all these support groups, Zahrt said. When we get them vaccinated and can get back to in-person learning, then were going to have a huge need.

Dean shares in that optimism for a future need for drivers. His company is encouraging many of the same drivers who left when schools closed to return to the job they previously loved.

We think its a really good job, Dean said. Its not just another job, its a career.

Dean Transportation and many districts across the state offer to pay for training for new drivers and offer other incentives to attract new applicants. School bus drivers are required to have Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and be at least 18 years old.

Rockford advertises for the job opening using a large banner on a school bus parked in a busy intersection, Shibler said. They also negotiated a higher wage for their drivers.

The job is a good fit for someone who wants part-time work and time off during the holidays and summer, he said.

Were trying our best to make the job more attractive, Shibler said.

Also on MLive:

Call for in-person school, vaccine for teachers top priorities for Michigan schools now

Next in line for vaccines, Michigan teachers are feeling optimistic

What worked in 2020 and what needs work in 2021 for 12 Michigan schools

4% of Michigan adults vaccinated so far; see numbers in your county
It's been exactly one year since health authorities in Australia went public with their concerns over a new illness emerging from central China.

Unbeknown to them, January 19, 2020, was the same day the first case to be detected on our shores quietly arrived in Australia.

In fact, two other cases were already in the country.

Health Minister Greg Hunt, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and then-chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy at a coronavirus press conference in March 2020. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Most Australians weren't familiar with the term "coronavirus", many didn't understand "contact tracing", and the idea of watching daily press conferences hoping for "doughnut days" was inconceivable.
Seoul commuters breathed a collective sigh of relief as a forecast blizzard proved to be nothing more than a light dusting of snow.

But the Korea Meteorological Administration, which had issued dire warnings a day earlier, said caution is still advisable as snowfall is expected to continue until the afternoon.


Michael B. Jordan's new girlfriend Lori Harvey sunned herself in a Chanel-print swimsuit during her 24th birthday getaway to Saint Barthelemy on Monday.

The Playboy Playmate of 2020 gave her 3M Instagram followers a filtered glimpse at her one-piece beneath a white blouse as well as a hot-pink bucket hat over her natural curls.

Lori also showcased her legs while chilling solo poolside at her condo on the French Caribbean isle.

Chanel-lo! Michael B. Jordan's new girlfriend Lori Harvey sunned herself in a Chanel-print swimsuit during her 24th birthday getaway to Saint Barthelemy on Monday

As of Monday, there have reportedly been 251 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Saint Barthelemy leading to only one death since January 2020.

St. Barts reopened to North American travelers in June, but they are required to bring proof that they tested negative for the coronavirus within three days.

If no test is available, tourists must get tested on the island and will need to quarantine until the results are in. If tourists remain on St. Barts longer than a week, they have to be retested.

It's been a ritzy vacation spot for celebs like Paul McCartney, Amy Schumer, Robbie Williams, Lionel Richie and his daughter Sofia, as well as John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen.

Selfie time: The Playboy Playmate of 2020 gave her 3M Instagram followers a filtered glimpse at her one-piece beneath a white blouse as well as a hot-pink bucket hat over her natural curls

Shiny gams: Lori also showcased her legs while chilling solo poolside at her condo on the French Caribbean isle

'I'll be here until further notice': As of Monday, there have reportedly been 251 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Saint Barthelemy leading to only one death (pictured Sunday)

Thanks, Daddy! Harvey took her famous father Steve Harvey's private jet to Saint Barthelemy with the 33-year-old Emmy-nominated producer (L) last Friday

Harvey took her famous father Steve Harvey's private jet to Saint Barthelemy with the 33-year-old Emmy-nominated producer last Friday.

It was two days after the Tennessee-born beauty and Michael celebrated her 24th birthday at the 64-year-old Family Feud host's Atlanta home.

Jordan bought Harvey an eye-popping 15 bouquets of white roses for her special day.

Light-up dance floor! It was two days after the Tennessee-born beauty and Michael celebrated her 24th birthday at the 64-year-old Family Feud host's (L) Atlanta home

'Thank you baby!' Jordan bought Harvey an eye-popping 15 bouquets of white roses for her special day

A source told Hollywood Life last Saturday: 'Michael treats Lori and her family with the utmost respect. For her parents to welcome Michael into their home and celebrate with the family speaks volumes about how they view him'

'Michael treats Lori and her family with the utmost respect. For her parents to welcome Michael into their home and celebrate with the family speaks volumes about how they view him,' a source told Hollywood Life last Saturday.

'It was really important to Lori that Michael be there to celebrate her 24th birthday with her and her family because she definitely sees their relationship going somewhere.'

The 'inseparable' snowboarding couple - who've nicknamed each other 'Turtle' and 'Nugget' - only went Instagram official on January 10 but they're clearly smitten.

PDA: The 'inseparable' snowboarding couple - who've nicknamed each other 'Turtle' and 'Nugget' - only went Instagram official on January 10 but they're clearly smitten

Ex: It's hard to believe that only a year ago, Lori celebrated her birthday kissing Grammy-winning rapper Future (R) in a pool in Jamaica, but they reportedly split by August

Lori and Michael were first pictured together sporting matching sweats while departing a Delta airplane in Georgia on November 25.

It's hard to believe that only a year ago, Harvey celebrated her birthday kissing Grammy-winning rapper Future in a pool in Jamaica, but they reportedly split by August.

The Teyana Taylor video vixen is said to have previously romanced three-time Grammy winner Diddy and three-time Grammy nominee Trey Songz.
Bharat Biotechs Covaxin beneficiaries are reluctant to sign the consent form, all three states- Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Telangana that administered the vaccines on January 16 have said. This has resulted in a less than 50 percent strike rate in states on the first day of the worlds largest coronavirus inoculation drive.

The issue was raised by the states in the coordination meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan later on January 16, an Economic Times report stated.

Reportedly, on Day 1, only 99 Covaxin doses were administered in Tamil Nadu out of the planned 600 for the first day. The following day, it had administered 90 more doses till 2.00 pm. All 11 states, which agreed to administer Covaxin doses, have dedicated six vaccination centres as part of the drive and all of these centres are restricted to government hospitals.

Meanwhile, in Rajasthan 314 Covaxin doses were administered out of the planned 600. Even though no adverse event was reported from the vaccine in the state, reportedly, beneficiaries were still hesitant to take it. Rajasthans National Health Mission director Naresh Thakral told ET that translating the consent form to Hindi may have helped.

This comes after several politicians and experts have raised questions on the efficacy of Covaxin as it is still under phase-3 clinical trials.

Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was granted restricted emergency use approval under the clinical trial mode. This means that people who receive the doses will have to sign a three-page informed consent form, and will also be monitored for any serious side effects.
It's an Oedipus complex scenario, with a few murky, extra steps.

A Russian weight loss influence became the talk of the Internet in mid-2020 for bringing to life Shakesphere's tragedy and the psychological condition named after it after she ditched her husband and married her step-son.

Marina Balmasheva, 35, fell in love with her step-son, Vladimir "Vova" Shavyrin, 21, last year when he returned to the family home during a break from university.

The Russian blogger who has more than half a million followers on Instagram - has known Vladimir since he was seven, as she was married to his father Alexey Shavyrin, 45, who now cares for their five adopted children, reported Daily Mail.

She divorced Alexey after 10 years together, after he had previously accused her of seducing his son when he came home on holiday from university.

Marina and Vladimir recently welcomed a baby girl, who has so far not been named.

Marina had posted pictures of her daughter on Instagram without revealing her face. According to her caption, it was her partner who had instructed her not to show the girl's face.

'Dad does not want to show our daughter yet,' she said. 'That's why the view is only from the back We are thinking about the name.'

Earlier during the course of the pregnancy, she told her followers details of her pregnancy and revealed how she went through a succession of plastic surgery treatments to make herself attractive to her new spouse who she calls 'the most charming blue-eyes in the world.'

"So many people tell me to use makeup because of my young husband. But there is one thing - he fell in love with me with all my scars from plastic surgeries, cellulite, excessive skin and personality. And I do not want to seem better than what I am," she said.

Balmasheva also cleared the controversy about her marriage to her followers. "Did I have regrets that I destroyed the family? Both yes and no. I was ashamed that I killed the stability of 'mum and dad' Did I want to return to my ex? No. Do I feel anger and hatred to him? Not any longer," she said, reports The Sun.

Gujarat Chief Minister on Monday called the COVID-19 vaccination drive a success and said no serious adverse reaction case had emerged from anywhere in the state.

Some 12,000 people in priority groups were vaccinated in Gujarat in January 16, the first day of a nationwide inoculation drive.

Though some vaccine beneficiaries in Rajkot complained of adverse effects, Rupani said. "Vaccination usually triggers some kind of reaction in the body. However, no serious case has emerged in Gujarat so far. There is absolutely no reason to worry and beneficiaries are being monitored by officials. Vaccination was a total success in Gujarat."



Earlier in the day, officials said around 50 of the 100 people vaccinated in Rajkot Civil Hospital complained of headache and fever.

However, Dr Umed Patel, members of the Adverse Monitoring Committee for Rajkot, said. "Some 10-12 hours after getting the vaccine, 50 per cent beneficiaries developed minor adverse reactions, such as fever and headache. But, no one is serious. These are normal complications and can be cured with paracetamol."



After a break, the vaccination drive will resume on Tuesday in the state.
A Mount Pleasant startup that uses data and artificial intelligence to help other companies make better hires says it is kicking off 2021 with a new name and $3.4 million in fresh funding.

The company launched as Sentio in August 2018. In an announcement last week, the firm said it has rebranded as Sprockets, inspired by the gear-like piece of hardware that turns machinery and bicycle wheels.

The firm calls its technology an "applicant matching system."

The underlying methods are straightforward. Customers have some of their top-performing employees take a survey. Applicants take the same questionnaire. The results are compared using data science, and job seekers are assigned a score based on how well they match with employers' ideal candidates.

The technology de-emphasizes the traditional job interview and is meant to take much of the guesswork out of the recruiting new workers.

CEO AJ Richichi said in a statement he started the company to "make a profound change to a hiring process that is plagued with inefficiencies and bias."

"This investment changes the scale of that mission, and we were thrilled to find partners that believe in its integrity," Richichi said of the new investors.

The company's first backer was VentureSouth, a Greenville firm that targets early-stage businesses.

New York-based Lytical Ventures led the new fund-raising round. Two other new investors  Thayer Ventures and Healthy Ventures  also chipped, and VentureSouth re-upped its commitment.

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Chad Troutman, chief marketing officer at Sprockets, said the firm has been able to apply its know-how to help some employers alleviate staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said Fortune 500 businesses shouldn't be the only companies able to use artificial intelligence in the hiring process. Sprockets is marketing its services at what it called an affordable price point  no more than $130 per month and per location  to franchises, hospitality firms and other businesses hit hard by the unemployment crisis. Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's and the home health agency HomeWell among its customers.

U.S. businesses lose as much as $1 trillion each year from voluntary turnover, according to a Gallup estimate. And the cost of replacing a single employee can be one-and-a-half to two times that person's salary.

Sprockets isn't the first to use artificial intelligence to try to solve this problem and make hiring more efficient. A survey LinkedIn conducted in 2018 found 35 percent of respondents said the technology was already "very" or "extremely" important for hiring and recruitment efforts.

Many large, forward-thinking organizations already use a AI across their human resources operations. Well-known tools like Indeed, for example, seek to filter the most relevant jobs for applicants and the best-fit candidates for employers.

Smaller businesses can benefit too, Troutman said, particularly during the pandemic, which has upended the labor market.

With many unemployed workers contemplating career changes in order to find new jobs, Troutman said Sprockets' technology would give applicants from varying backgrounds a better shot at success.

"People need a fair shake in order to get back to work," he said.

Soon, Troutman said the company will start offering its platform to job seekers, by helping them sort out which companies are best matched to their skills.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- One Lafayette man has become the first known World War II veteran to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Tippecanoe County. 97-year-old Wayne Firestone said he's happy to hold this title.

More than 80 years ago, Firestone stood on a battlefield as a U.S. infantry soldier during World War II. Now at age 97, he's found himself helping fight a new battle, Covid-19.

"The virus has created problems for everybody and I get discouraged when I see people not wearing their masks," said Firestone.

He's spent this pandemic staying inside to help prevent the spread of the virus. Being the first known World War II veteran in Lafayette to be vaccinated means a lot to him and his wife Linda Firestone.

"It means I'm getting old," said Firestone. "This vaccine will be able to allow people to get back to normal life as Wayne and I can get back. We usually spend the winters in Florida, we'd like to get back to the warm weather again," added Linda.

The Indiana State Health Department is continuing to broaden its pool of eligible people to receive the vaccine. But as we wait, the former soldier is encouraging the public to wear their masks as a shield of protection. He said it's one of the best ways to help win the battle.

"It's important that everyone do their part so it's not to spread the virus and if they don't, it's just going to get worse," said Firestone.

"It is a nice honor to get to give him his vaccination," said David Hodson, Firestone's step-son.

Hodson is the IU Health Arnett EMT who got to administer his stepfather's first shot, making the moment even more special for the family.

"Back then in World War II, it took the whole country to come together to overcome what we needed to. While this is fighting on a different front, we are still fighting an enemy that when the country comes together, when we all get these vaccines, we will get ahead of this as well," said Hodson.
It seems that some of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's real-life stories have surprising twists just like his movies.

Back in 2016, Matthew Perry appeared on The Graham Norton Show, where he revealed a story where he thought he was partying with The Sixth Sense filmmaker... only to be told that the man he was with was not Shyamalan.

In an incredible twist, Shyamalan revealed on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show that he was actually hanging out with Perry... but not for the whole night.

Night twist: It seems that some of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's real-life stories have surprising twists just like his movies

Partying: Back in 2016, Matthew Perry appeared on The Graham Norton Show, where he revealed a story where he thought he was partying with The Sixth Sense filmmaker... only to be told that the man he was with was not Shyamalan

Shyamalan appeared on Norton's program via video conferencing to promote the second season of his Apple TV Plus series Servant, which debuted on Friday.

He was asked if he was familiar with the story that Perry told back in 2016 that he was partying with who he thought was M.Night Shyamalan, only to be told by a friend the man he was with was not, in fact, the filmmaker of Indian descent, and just, 'a random Indian dude.'

The Philadelphia native said he was in fact familiar with the story, confirming they did actually hang out, and, using his, 'amateur sleuth' skills, he believes he figured out what happened.

Promote: Shyamalan appeared on Norton's program via video conferencing to promote the second season of his Apple TV Plus series Servant, which debuted on Friday

'I'm watching it, and here's the twist. We did actually hang out! That's actually what's so astonishing,' Shyamalan said

'So we were hanging out and we were having fun, and Matthews like, "Lets go to another place,"' Shyamalan began.

'And Im like, "Im a little tired, Im going to leave here and you can go to the other place." Meanwhile, theres this kind of fan thats been hanging about and hes also Indian. And hes a big fan, hes come over a couple of times, wants to hang out with us,' Shyamalan added.

Twist: 'I'm watching it, and here's the twist. We did actually hang out! That's actually what's so astonishing,' Shyamalan said

'What I think happened is Matthew went on to continue partying and this other Indian dude joined him. And then later in the evening, his friend said, "That's not M. Night Shyamalan" and then Matthew had second-guessed himself that we actually had this evening together,' Shyamalan added

'All these years later I have to see him because we did hang out, we had a great time and he was very funny,' Shyamalan concluded.

During Perry's initial tale on The Graham Norton Show in 2006, Perry revealed that he had first encounter with Shyamalan, 'about 15 years ago' when his The Whole Nine Yards co-star Bruce Willis won the People's Choice Award for Best Actor, and Willis asked him to present the award.

Initial tale: During Perry's initial tale on The Graham Norton Show in 2006, Perry revealed that he had first encounter with Shyamalan, 'about 15 years ago' when his The Whole Nine Yards co-star Bruce Willis won the People's Choice Award for Best Actor, and Willis asked him to present the award

Perry then said at the after party he had met both Haley Joel Osment and Shyamalan, adding that the now-infamous story he told happened about 'six months later,' after their first meeting, which was 'back when I was drinking.'

The Friends star has been sober for many years, even earning a Champion of Recovery Award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

He won the award for opening Perry House, a home for sober living that he made out of his former mansion in Malibu, California.

Yes Bank board of directors in its meeting scheduled on January 22 will consider raising of funds through different modes, the bank informed stock exchanges today. Yes Bank will also announce its December quarter earnings on the same day.

"Raising of funds by issue of equity shares/depository receipts/convertible bonds/debentures/warrants/any other equity linked securities, through permissible modes subject to necessary shareholders/regulatory approvals, as applicable," the bank said in a statement.

YES Bank share was trading 2.8 per cent higher despite a bearish session, ranking among the most active banking scrips in terms of volumes on both BSE and NSE today.

The rise in Yes Bank share came after brokerage house Jefferies said in a report that the Piramal group winning creditors' approval to take over DHFL's loans, was a "marginal positive" outcome for banks that have exposure to DHFL, including state-run Bank of India, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India and private-sector lenders such as YES Bank.

Earlier this month, YES Bank among other listed companies was re-classified as large-cap stocks in the semi-annual Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) review, which will be effective for the February-to-July 2021 period.

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Britain's Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden during a visit to the Royal Academy of Dance in London on Oct. 12, 2020. (Kirsty O'Connor/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Social Media Must Be Regulated, UK Minister Says, After Trumps Twitter Ban

Democratically elected governments must play a role in regulating social media, a UK minister said on Monday in the wake of Twitters removing of U.S. President Donald Trumps account, and ahead of the introduction of a new UK bill to regulate online space.

In an op-ed published in The Times of London on Monday, Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Secretary Oliver Dowden said that democratic societies have to seek a balance between protecting vulnerable people from harm and protecting free speech, and find ways to impose consistency, transparency, and fairness in the online sphere.

Dowden said that the past decade has been largely defined by the power of social media, whose unprecedented ability to spread ideas and bring people together catalysed the Arab Spring 11 years ago and may have played a role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Put simply, we have a new printing pressbut its an invention whose implications society and governments are just beginning to grapple with, he wrote.

Dowden said that the new ways with which people consume news and information gave the few social media monopolies vast power in shaping how people see the world.

To an outsider, it doesnt always seem this power is wielded transparently or consistently, he said.

Irans supreme leader has a Twitter account, while the elected president of the United States is permanently suspended from holding one, Dowden cited as an example of the inconsistencies in social medias rule enforcement.

As to the debate in recent years on whether social media should be defined as a platform, which is comparable to a utility, or a publisher, which is responsible for the content it publishes, Dowden said neither definition works realistically.

Holding companies liable for every piece of contentfor 500 hours a minute of uploads on YouTube alonewould break social media, he said.

But equally, when these companies are curating, editorialising, and in some cases removing users, they can no longer claim to be bystanders with no responsibility whatsoever.

Online Safety Bill

Dowden said the UK governments upcoming online safety bill will be one of the first steps to address the dilemma, and that the UK wants to work with its democratic allies to forge a coherent response as it takes up the G7 presidency.

On Dec. 15, 2020, the UK government announced that new rules would be introduced to penalise tech companies if they fail to protect people from harmful content, and to protect free speech.

President Donald Trump speaks in a video released by the White House late on Jan. 13, 2021. (Screenshot/White House)

Twitter permanently removed Trumps account from its social media platform on Jan. 8. YouTube on Jan. 12 removed new content from Trumps account and suspended his channel for at least a week, saying that the channel violated its policies for inciting violence. Snapchat joined in on Jan. 14 permanently removing Trump from its platform.

The deplatforming of the U.S. president has caused concerns over censorship and security around the globe.

World leaders including Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack have condemned the move.

Experts have told The Epoch Times this censorship by Big Tech could cause countries to consider developing their own platforms rather than depend on a handful of private U.S. companies that have the ability to cut off communication to millions.

Mimi Nguyen Ly, Bowen Xiao, and Alexander Zhang contributed to this report.
Days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) team of international experts arrived in Wuhan to investigate the origins of COVID-19, former UK secretary State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith termed China despicable for covering up vital information regarding the highly-infectious disease. In an opinion piece for The Sun published on January 17, the former British Secretary even questioned the credibility of the United Nations (UN) health agency whose existing investigation team hasn't even asked to inspect the Wuhan laboratory.

Smith even lambasted the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for congratulating the Chinese Communist Party for their timely action and transparency noting the Chinese President Xi Jinpings government knew exactly how destructive the novel coronavirus was that originated from Wuhan and that it could be transmitted from human to human. According to Smith, it was a critical discovery and should have been shouted from the rooftops but China chose to keep the world in the dark.

Smith wrote, Their record in holding China to account from the beginning of the coronavirus crisis has been terrible... The reality is that months earlier, the Chinese government already knew that the destructive virus sweeping Wuhan could be passed from human to human..

He added, "This critical discovery should have been shouted from the rooftops and the WHO should have demanded the truth. Instead, China was allowed not only to keep the rest of the world in the dark, it also cracked down viciously on people who knew there was a serious health crisis."

Read - Mike Pence Advises Biden Government To Stand Against Chinese Aggression And Trade Abuses

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US blames China for concealing and unleashing the virus

Meanwhile, the US Department of State on January 16 claimed that the researchers at a Wuhan lab got ill with COVID-19-like symptoms in autumn 2019 as they were experimenting with a virus genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2. In an official statement released by the US Dept. of State, the US intelligence stated that several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including the WIVs staff and students were infected with SARS-CoV-2 like virus infection while they were studying RaTG13, a bat coronavirus identified by the Wuhan lab in January 2020, which is 96.2 per cent similar to coronavirus.

While the Chinese Communist Party lied about and hid the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the Trump Administration led the world in publicly calling for transparency and denounced the cover-up. #ChinaLiedPeopleDied pic.twitter.com/7YkSmKb6dY  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 16, 2021

Read - China Detects More Than 100 COVID-19 Cases Near Beijing, Authorities Warn People

Read - China's SinoVac Efficacy Remains Inconsistent, COVID-19 Cases Surge In The Country

More than half a million police officers and teachers could jump the vaccine queue if they are given priority in phase two of the rollout.

Hundreds of thousands of shop workers could also be added to the list, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said yesterday.

He added those who come into close contact with the public as a result of their jobs should be considered for priority access.

Police officers and teachers are among those being considered for priority in the next phase of the coronavirus vaccine rollout

NHS staff administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at Totally Wicked Stadium home of St Helen's rugby club

But any decision to give such a large number of people priority could be controversial as it would leave others waiting much longer.

Last night Health Secretary Matt Hancock called for a national debate on prioritisation.

The decision on who will get the jab and when will be taken by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. It has so far outlined only phase one of the rollout, covering everyone over 50, those with clinical vulnerabilities, care home residents and NHS and social care staff.

That should be completed by early spring and the committee is now deciding who should be top of the list in phase two.

Mr Zahawi told Times Radio yesterday: Teachers, police officers, shop workers, those who through no fault of their own, other than the work that they do, may come into contact with the virus at much greater volume [should be] the top of the list.

There are 408,615 teachers in state-funded English schools who are under 50, meaning they would not have been offered the jab in phase one. The statistics do not include teachers in the private sector.

As well as police and teachers, there are also suggestions of giving thousands of shop workers priority in the next vaccine phase. Picture: Stock

In England and Wales, there are around 129,000 police officers under 55, with no breakdown for those under 50.

That makes around half a million, although the total will be higher when teachers and police officers from the rest of the UK are included.

It is not known whether Mr Zahawi was referring to all shop workers or just those working at the height of lockdown in supermarkets and corner shops.

Across the whole UK retail sector, there are 2.5million workers aged 55 or under. It is not known how many of these work in essential shops.

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference yesterday, Mr Hancock outlined how a decision on vaccine priorities would be made.

He said: The clinical advice is to go through the top groups... and then after that it is essentially about protecting people as well as possible according to a judgment about who should come next.

That is why we should have a debate about that.

The move to vaccinate so many people, such as shop workers and teachers, could be controversial as it would leave others waiting much longer

Ninety-nine per cent of deaths occur in the top nine groups and after that it is about protecting against transmission and getting life back to normal as soon as possible.

Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England, said: We are learning about how well this vaccine protects against transmission and that knowledge will help inform the next decision-making process.

You may target groups that are transmitting more than others or are out there working.

But she added that if it turns out that the vaccine does not protect much against transmission, another decision may be made.

Cabinet ministers such as Mr Hancock and Priti Patel have previously said police officers and teachers have a good case for being placed at the top of phase two of the rollout.

Mr Hancock said last night the UK has so far vaccinated just over 4million people.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Shutterstock

Friday morning, Trumps former campaign lawyer Sidney Powell was hit with a lawsuit. The voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems Inc. is looking for $1.3 billion from Powell, accusing her of defamation after claiming in multiple unsuccessful court cases that the companys machines somehow altered votes from President Donald Trump to now President-elect Joe Biden.

See: Trump Sues Wisconsin to Throw Out Votes for Biden  After a $3.5 Million Recount

Find: What Is Rudy Giulianis Net Worth?

According to Bloomberg news, the company states in the complaint that Powells wild accusations are demonstrably false. Acting in concert with allies and media outlets that were determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election, Powell launched a viral disinformation campaign about Dominion that reached millions of people and caused enormous harm to Dominion.

Major companies have the resources to pay for top-of-the-line legal teams and financially endure litigation for years  but they dont always come out victorious, whether they sue someone or theyre the ones accused. Large companies like McDonalds and Enron have had to pay out millions or even billions as part of lawsuits and class-action settlements. For some, the lawsuits have put them out of business, but many are able to carry on despite these major financial setbacks.

Find out why these companies were taken to court and how much some of their biggest failures cost them.

Last updated: Jan 8, 2021

Mike Mozart / Flickr.com

Airborne

In 2008, Airborne agreed to pay $23.3 million to refund customers who bought the product, though the company did not admit to any wrongdoing, NPR reported. David Schardt, a senior nutritionist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, brought a class-action lawsuit against Airborne for making misleading claims that the remedy can ward off colds and boost your immune system. Schardt argued that there was no scientific evidence for either claim. The court ruled in his favor.

Story continues

See More: 13 Ludicrous Company Lawsuits in the Last Decade

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Apple

In 2016, Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement, claiming that Apple has relied on its patents related to software, video coding, chipsets, display, UI and antenna for years dating back to the release of the iPhone 3GS, TechCrunch reported. The companies settled for an undisclosed amount in May 2017, but Nokiamob reported that Apple ended up paying Nokia a whopping $2 billion. Despite the lawsuit, the companies buried the hatchet and agreed to what will hopefully be a lucrative collaboration on technologies, and research and development for future projects.

Learn: Facebook Stock Down Thursday Following Antitrust Lawsuits from 46 States and the FTC

DenisMArt / Shutterstock.com

Dannon

Dannon was ordered to pay up to $45 million in damages to consumers under the terms of a class-action lawsuit that was settled in 2010, which found that the company had been falsely advertising the alleged health benefits of its Activia and DanActive yogurts as being clinically and scientifically proven.

The companys legal troubles began when Trish Wiener of Los Angeles filed a federal lawsuit against Dannon, stating that the yogurt did not improve her digestion, and yet the company was charging higher prices than other yogurts. She alleged that the companys claims were false and deceptive, ABC News reported.

See: 11 Companies That Quietly Downsized

Hanneorla Hanneorla / Flickr.com

Enron

Energy company Enron collapsed in 2001 after its fraudulent accounting practices came to light. Then, in 2008, the company made history for being at the center of the largest settlement of a U.S. securities fraud case. As part of the settlement, Enron shareholders and investors were entitled to split more than $7.2 billion from financial institutions accused of playing a role in the companys downfall. The settlement included payments of $2.4 billion from CIBC, $2.2 billion from JPMorgan Chase and $2 billion from Citigroup, CNN reported.

Discover: Enron and the 24 Other Most Epic Corporate Downfalls of All Time

Willy Barton / Shutterstock.com

GlaxoSmithKline

Wendy Dolin filed a lawsuit in 2012 against the drug company GlaxoSmithKline after her husband committed suicide after taking a generic version of the antidepressant Paxil. Although the drugs label included a black box warning that the drug could increase the risk of suicidal behavior for users under age 25, Dolins lawyers alleged that GlaxoSmithKline had evidence that the active ingredient in the drug increased the risk of suicide by older users by as much as 670 percent. The jury ruled in Dolins favor, and GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay her $3 million, Huffington Post reported.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg. Later in the same year, the Department of Justice ordered the drug company to pay $3 billion as part of a criminal and civil case against it for misbranding Paxil and another antidepressant, Wellbutrin, as well as failure to report data to the FDA about the drug Avandia.

Related: 18 Deadly Corporate Mistakes and the Companies That Paid the Price

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Kellogg

In 2009, Kellogg launched a new ad campaign and box design for its Rice Krispies cereal, making claims about the cereals ability to boost childrens immunity. The Oregon attorney general, the FTC and a number of private individuals took issue with the claim due to the lack of scientific evidence to support it. The various lawsuits were rolled into one class-action lawsuit, and in 2011, Kellogg settled for $5 million  $2.5 million would be paid to consumers, and $2.5 million worth of Kelloggs products would be donated to charity, Lexology reported.

Explore: Corn Flakes, Mountain Dew and 9 Other Beloved Brands With a Twisted History

ivanastar / iStock.com

McDonalds

In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, N.M., sued McDonalds after the fast food chains coffee caused severe burns when she accidentally spilled some onto her lap. Liebeck offered to settle the claim for $20,000, but McDonalds chose to fight it. During the trial, it came to light that McDonalds was serving their coffee at a potentially dangerous temperature  between 180 and 190 degrees  while most other fast food restaurants serve coffee in the range of 135 to 140 degrees.

Liebeck was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, although those charges were reduced by the trial judge. Liebeck ended up settling with McDonalds for an undisclosed amount, and McDonalds lowered the temperature of its coffee, Huffington Post reported.

Learn: McDonalds and 41 Other Franchises That Could Make You Rich

August_0802 / Shutterstock.com

New Balance

In 2011, Kimberly Carey, Victoria Molinarolo and Shannon Dilbeck sued New Balance for making claims that their TrueBalance and Rock&Tone shoes helped tone butts and burned 8 percent more calories than regular sneakers. The plaintiffs argued that not only were the claims false, but the shoes could potentially cause injury to the wearers. A Massachusetts judge sided with the women, and New Balance was ordered to pay $2.3 million  up to $5,000 for each of the women, and $100 refunds to customers who purchased the shoes, Huffington Post reported.

Related: Michael Jordans $500,000 Sneakers and More Insanely Expensive Sports Memorabilia

Katherine Welles / Shutterstock.com

Philip Morris

Philip Morris is the company behind some of the most well-known cigarette brands, and its one of the cigarette manufacturers that was sued by several U.S. states to recover the costs incurred to treat sick and dying cigarette smokers. The Master Settlement Agreement was reached in 1998, and it required the tobacco industry to pay the settling states billions of dollars annually forever, and imposed restrictions on the sale and marketing of cigarettes by the participating manufacturers. In Fiscal Year 2019, the participating states will collect $27.3 billion from the settlement and taxes.

Philip Morris has since re-branded itself to PMI, and is now focusing on the development and sales of its smoke-free tobacco products.

Read: Cutting Out These 25 Expenses Will Save You $16,142.08 a Year

ZRyzner / iStock.com

Red Bull

It turns out Red Bull does not give you wings. Benjamin Careathers filed a class-action lawsuit against Red Bull in 2013, alleging that the companys claims that the energy drink increased performance, concentration and reaction speed were misleading. The company was ordered to pay $13 million in a settlement, which would be put toward a fund that would reimburse individuals who had purchased a can of Red Bull over the prior 10 years. Individuals could also opt to get two free Red Bull products in lieu of the cash, BevNET reported.

See: Surfings Highest-Paid Athletes of All Time

magnez2 / iStock.com

Splenda

Splenda was sued by its rival Equal over claims that Splenda was misleading consumers into believing its product was more natural and healthier than other artificial sweeteners by using the slogan, Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar. Although the active ingredient in Splenda begins as pure cane sugar, it is chemically altered in the process and the end product contains no sugar. Merisant Co., which makes Equal, was seeking over $200 million in damages from Splendas parent company, McNeil Nutritionals. McNeil did settle the lawsuit, but the total they ended up paying was not disclosed, NBC News reported.

Find Out: Whats New in Fast Food in 2020

fcafotodigital / iStock.com

Visa and MasterCard

After 13 years of litigation, in 2018 Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay up to $6.2 billion as part of a class action lawsuit brought on by U.S. retailers over unfair swipe fees. The lawsuit claimed that Visa and MasterCard violated antitrust laws by fixing prices to benefit the banks. A settlement had previously been reached in 2012, but it was rejected by the retailers as being unfair and was overturned. The new settlement required Visa to pay an additional $600 million, and MasterCard to pay an additional $108 million, CNN reported.

Learn: Mastercard vs. Visa: Which Is Better?

Denys Prykhodov / Shutterstock.com

Spotify

In 2015, the band Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery filed a lawsuit against Spotify for distributing songs without the proper licenses. The musicians asked for $150 million in damages as part of a class-action lawsuit, Billboard reported. Nearly three years later, Spotify settled and agreed to pay $112.5 million: $43.5 million would go to the artists who were directly affected, and the rest would be used to pay ongoing royalties and other fees when required, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Invest: What $1,000 Invested in 25 Trendy IPOs like Spotify Is Worth Today

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Volkswagen

In 2016, car manufacturer Volkswagen agreed to a $14.7 billion settlement after it came to light that the company had been deliberately cheating on emissions tests. Up to $10 billion of that settlement was to be paid out to owners of the affected cars through buybacks, repairs and additional compensation, CNN reported.

Buybacks continued through the end of 2019.

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Katie Wudel contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Trump Ex-Lawyer Sued by Dominion for $1.3 Billion  How 14 Corporate Lawsuits Turned Out

Gyeonggi governor should take some time before executing decision



The Gyeonggi Provincial Government has decided to provide another round of disaster relief funds for everyone living in the province. The decision was made in the form of Governor Lee Jae-myung accepting a proposal from the province's assembly, which argued that the provision of relief funds was necessary to help residents struggling with the prolonged coronavirus pandemic and to stimulate consumption. This time, around 580,000 foreign residents of the province will also receive 100,000 won ($90) each in digital currency in early April.



It's not surprising that Gov. Lee made such a decision, given his track record of gaining greater political weight by returning money to taxpayers in the name of "cash welfare" from the time when he was the mayor of Seongnam. The lawyer-turned-politician, who is on top in the latest polls of support for presidential hopefuls, appears eager to solidify his position by leaping ahead of other aspirants through his sugar-coated plethora of policies.



The atmosphere in the ruling bloc is somewhat different, however. While Lee has always advocated for universal welfare, there has been a trend of holding the governor in check amid the debate over providing another round of nationwide disaster relief payments. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun has especially blasted the governor by stating that the political community should shake off its simple-minded approach toward relief handouts.



Many have strong opinions about Lee. Some praise him for being sensible, bold and straightforward while others criticize him for being a populist, self-righteous and elusive. With respect to his decision to again dole out money, there is the negative view that Gyeonggi residents are not unique in suffering from the COVID-19 fallout, and that Lee is politicizing the disaster relief issue.



Given the profound financial plight of small business owners and the country's limited resources, it might not be easy for Lee's universal payment plan to gain traction. He should take some time before executing his decision, considering that the central government is ready to discuss with the ruling and opposition parties another round of nationwide disaster payments. Haste makes waste.




U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a York County Republican who has always practiced his politics without a net, has doubled down at the dawn of his fifth term.

So far, hes positioned himself in the vanguard of those Republican Congressmen who wanted to invalidate Pennsylvanias presidential vote. Their objections were based on alleged irregularities and overreaches with election administration that no one has yet shown would have had a game-changing effect on President-elect Joseph R. Bidens 80,000-vote win.

As we all know now, that last-gasp effort egged on by President Donald Trump became the fulcrum for the violent, mob attack on the House and Senate that interrupted the Jan. 6 electoral vote certification process and ultimately has been blamed for five deaths.

For that, the editorial board of The York Dispatch called last week for Perrys immediate resignation:

Perry has taken a step too far. He cannot be trusted to represent the people of the 10th District, the people whose votes he was so willing to cast aside in the service of a demagogue of a president who just hours earlier had incited a mob to force their way into the U.S. Capitol building, the newspaper wrote in part..

He is a disgrace to Pennsylvania and our democracy, and he has to go.

Perrys office released a one-word response: No.

In the week since, amid strong bipartisan calls for unity, Perry has been seen in supporting roles in two other stories that reflect the divisions still roiling America.

As scores of House members waited out the Capitol attack in an undisclosed, secure location on Jan. 6, Perry was captured on a cellphone video with some colleagues refusing the offer of a face mask from Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester. The attending House physician later advised members to be tested for coronavirus because of the length of time they were crowded in the safe space. Three members have since announced positive tests, though its not known where they were exposed.

Perry told PennLive he didnt accept the mask because he already had one. It was not clear from his response how long, or if, he wore the mask during the lockdown.

This week, reporters identified Perry as among a group of House members who skirted around new metal detectors set up at a members entrance to the House floor.

Perry called the metal detectors a political stunt that would have done absolutely nothing to protect House members or the public during the incursion... The events of last week show that the Speaker and Senate Leadership - who ultimately are responsible for the security at the Capitol - failed to secure us, and that members need to be more proactive about their own protection.

Perry capped it all Wednesday with a floor speech, opposing President Donald Trumps impeachment, that appeared to equate the Capitol mobs with protesters who took to the streets to call for racial justice after the death of George Floyd at the hand of Minneapolis police.

Is the Carroll Township Republican finally pushing things too far for his own good?

It depends on who you talk to.

The events of the past week surely have been noticed by Perrys political opponents.

Outgoing Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who unsuccessfully challenged Perry in the 2020 election, tweeted this on Jan. 7, the day after the riot:

Your actions last night on the House floor objecting to a free and fair election were an attempt to overthrow an election. Im embarrassed @RepScottPerry that you represent us in PA 10 and Im sorry to the people of this district and the nation that I didnt beat you.  Eugene DePasquale (@DePasqualePA) January 7, 2021

In a press call with reporters Tuesday, DePasquale further explained his rage.

For the congressman to cast a vote to overthrow the election after that (the Capitol riot) is simply shocking to its core, DePasquale said, noting Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler dropped her objection of the election, knowing it was going to further divide America. Scott Perry could have cared less.

To me, anyone thats behaving this way over the past week, with political calculations in mind, theres a cold place in hell for them, DePasquale said.

And the House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which targeted Perrys seat in 2020, is already eyeing the 10th District again in 2022.

This was a close race last year and Congressman Perry has already put himself in a precarious position for reelection, said committee spokeswoman Brooke Goren. Pennsylvanians wont forget Perrys refusal to hold President Trump accountable for the five Americans killed - including a Capitol Police officer - at the hands of the QAnon mob he helped incite at the U.S. Capitol.

But the bigger issue may be where the Republican Party heads in the next couple of years, and how well it holds together.

I can certainly imagine that any number of Democrats in Pennsylvania 10 who are thinking about a challenge to Perry two years from now are absolutely archiving that (video) footage to use it in campaign ads, to put on direct mail pieces, said Sarah Niebler, a political science professor at Dickinson College. Because I think that story (that Scott Perry is more extreme than the average voter) will probably be the story again when Perry has to run two years from now.

But, Niebler added, Democrats have always been opposed to Trump. Theyve been opposed to the Trump agenda. Theyve been opposed to the contestation of the election results for the last two months.

So when were talking about change in public opinion after January 6, what were really talking about is whether that change is happening among Republicans.

There are anecdotal signs that some Republicans dropped their Republican Party voter registration in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riots. But its way too early to know whether some folks current disgust with Trump will ultimately give way to a broader movement that reshapes the party.

Early polling isnt clear.

An Axios-Ipsos poll released Thursday showed a majority of self-described Republicans support the presidents recent behavior and say he should be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. But there are large variances between those who described themselves as traditional Republicans  56 percent  and people who said Trump is their main attraction to the GOP.

Other polling suggests that 70 percent of self-identified Republicans saw the Congressmen who tried to stop the certification of Bidens win as protecting democracy.

Perry, a 58-year-old small businessman who recently retired as a brigadier general in the National Guard, clearly has been betting on the Trump wing, said Daniel Mallinson, a public policy professor at Penn State Harrisburg.

The folks that Trump has brought into the party arent just going to go away, and so I think his (Perrys) actions only benefit him in a primary, Mallinson said. And in terms of the general? Perry was able to win in a year (2018) where the wind was behind Democrats, and so I question whether its going to really threaten his position in the district.

Perry has strongly condemned the violence at the Capitol.

But he makes no apologies for his actions in the run-up to it, which he said were part of a larger fight to ensure election integrity. He also told PennLive in emailed responses to questions this week that its patently unfair to blame the Republican objectors for the riots.

If you dont like what I said or how I voted and you wish to voice your opposition or protest, I accept that  thats the American way, Perry said.

What no one should accept, however, is the bizarre narrative and partisan double standard being applied for political paybacks and partisanship, which takes personal responsibility of criminal actors out of the hands of individual perpetrators and places it on a select group of leaders.

Perry said no one has ever argued that Democratic leaders  after four years of calling for total resistance against Trump  should be held accountable for Black Lives Matter or other protests that devolved into violence, but that standard apparently doesnt apply to Republicans who raised our concerns over election integrity.

A couple things to note here.

While his staunch conservative leanings and his blunt defenses of those positions routinely drive Democrats crazy, and he has been vigorous in his complaints about the Pennsylvania vote, Perry has not been named among a small circle of Republican House members who some Democrats have accused of more direct involvement in the Jan. 6 rally.

Nor, he says, did he or his campaign committee charter any busses to bring constituents into the protest.

Perry stressed that he accepts that Biden is legitimately taking office. I fully intend, however, to continue to work with my colleagues at the state and federal levels to strengthen election integrity to ensure that these constitutional abuses never happen again.

Cumberland County Commissioner Gary Eichelberger co-sponsored a fundraiser for Perry last year. But he said Thursday he was disappointed in Perrys speech on the House floor in support of the election objections, given his own rock-solid belief in the accuracy and validity of the vote count.

It is true, Eichelberger said, that lawmakers need to firm up language governing issues such as the use of drop boxes and whether mail-in ballots that are not fully signed and dated should be counted.

Perry spoke sometimes this fall on the basis of bad information, Eichelberger believes. But in the end, he is certain Perrys main goal has been to ensure the election was free and fair.

Now, he said, elected officials will have to work together and cool their rhetoric to get those fixes.

I would really like to see Scott and everyone else really put their energies into those things where the need is, and get through this current crisis because we cant dwell here, Eichelberger said. All leaders need to be much more careful about the words they choose, and thats just as true of the Democrats when it comes to these issues as it is of Scott and the Republicans.

Most observers reached for this story said its too early to tell what kind of a lasting mark this months events have left on the regions politics, and Perry in particular.

in the just-completed election, Trump beat Biden in the 10th District, 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent. Perry, meanwhile, won his race by a slightly wider margin over Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent.

Much depends, observers said, on who challenges Perry in 2022, and the effects of redistricting.

If PA 10 stayed exactly as it is for the foreseeable future, yes, I would say that I think the more extreme views that Perry is taking could come back to harm him, particularly as the Harrisburg area and the Harrisburg suburbs maybe get a little more younger, a little bit more diverse, DIckinsons Niebler said.

The 10th consists of Dauphin County, and portions of Cumberland and York.

Democrats have overtaken Republicans in voter registration in Dauphin County, and the Democratic Party has slowly chipped away at the Republican edge in the Cumberland County portion of the district, which runs east from Carlisle.

But there is a scenario where Perry gets helped by redistricting, and it goes like this:

Most population experts see Pennsylvania losing a seat in the U.S. House, starting with the 2022 election cycle, because of the states slow population growth.

Going from 18 to 17 districts statewide would add about 50,000 people to the current 10th District. If that pushes the district lines south into York County, further west into Cumberland County, or both - which would be the neatest way to grow the 10th without creating more county splits - the seat becomes more safely Republican.

There are other major variables, too.

Will the regions Democrats  after seeing Perry crush York County-based Democrats in the York vote  align behind a candidate from Dauphin or Cumberland counties to try to grow a little more of a hometown bounce in 2022?

And what will the nations politics look like two years into the Biden Administration?

Eichelberger said hes not breaking with Perry and, Im not sure that Scotts choices on this will necessarily cost him politically.

I still feel that Scott brings a lot of benefit to this district. He is very reflective of the principles of his constituents. Thats probably the most important component.... I still have great faith that Scotts going to be an enormously positive influence for us as a county and a region with his role in the Congress.

As for Perry?

Hes going to keep being Scott Perry. Even if it means more fights ahead.

Its absolutely fine to hold me to a standard  but never a double standard, Perry wrote to PennLive. We have an incoming president who boasted that hed like to take (Trump) behind the gym and beat the hell out of him, and the left cheers him on, while I get told that Im responsible for criminal actions for voicing the concerns of my constituents through Constitutional means? Wrong.

In America, youre free to think what you want and do what you want, as long as it doesnt take away the rights of others to do the same. Lets unite around that  the idea that we may not have unity of faith or ideas, but because of the Constitution and the many faces and voices who are protected by and defended it, we will always have a unity of love for our nation.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Members of President Donald Trumps failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president's grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the Save America Rally on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trumps 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be on site during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

The riot at the Capitol, incited by Trumps comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. The president told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

A week after the rally, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice. But the political and legal fallout may stretch well beyond Trump, who will exit the White House on Wednesday before Democrat Joe Biden takes the oath of office. Trump had refused for nearly two months to accept his loss in the 2020 election to the former vice president.

Women for America First, which applied for and received the Park Service permit, did not respond to messages seeking comment about how the event was financed and about the Trump campaigns involvement. The rally drew tens of thousands of people.

In a statement, the presidents reelection campaign said it did not organize, operate or finance the event. No campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally, according to the statement. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.

At least one was working for the Trump campaign this month. Megan Powers was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event, and her LinkedIn profile says she was the Trump campaign's director of operations into January 2021. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The APs review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles, removed tweets that referenced the rally and blocked a reporter who asked questions.

Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is named as a VIP Advisor on an attachment to the permit that Women for America First provided to the agency. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. During the campaign, she was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the presidents reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to organize credentials for VIP attendees, according to Kimberly Fletcher, the president of one of those groups, Moms for America.

Wren retweeted messages about the event ahead of time, but a cache of her account on Google shows at least eight of those tweets disappeared from her timeline. She apparently removed some herself, and others were sent from accounts that Twitter suspended.

One of the messages Wren retweeted was from Stop the Steal, another group identified as a rally participant on a website promoting the event. The Jan. 2 message thanked Republican senators who said they would vote to overturn Bidens election victory, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas. She also retweeted a Jan. 1 message from the president promoting the event, as well as promotional messages from one of the presidents son, Eric Trump, and Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist and a spokesperson for Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Wren did not return messages seeking comment, and locked her Twitter account after the AP reached out to her last Monday to ask her about her involvement in the Trump rally and the tweets she had removed. Several days later, she blocked the AP reporter.

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the VIP Lead. She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trumps reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on Nov. 13.

Maggie Mulvaney had taken down her Twitter account as of last Monday, although it reappeared after an AP reporter asked her about the accounts removal. On Sunday, the same day the AP published this report, she blocked that AP reporter on Twitter.

Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on Jan. 6, including one from the president that urged support for the Capitol Police. Trump's Twitter account has been suspended, but the message could be seen in a cache of her Twitter account captured by Google. She also retweeted a message from her uncle, urging Trump to address the nation.

Maggie Mulvaney did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The insurrection at the Capitol prompted Mick Mulvaney to quit his position as Trumps special envoy to Northern Ireland. He told CNBC a day after the assault that remaining in the post would prompt people to say Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government.

The leaders of Women for America First arent new to politics

Amy Kremer, listed as the groups president on records filed with Virginias state corporation commission, is one of the founding mothers of the modern day tea party movement, according to her website. Her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is the organizations treasurer, according to the records.

The IRS granted Women for America First tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization a year ago, with the exemption retroactive to February 2019. The AP requested that the group provide any tax records it may have filed since then, but received no response.

In a statement issued the same day rioters attacked the Capitol, Amy Kremer denounced the assault and said it was instigated after the rally by a handful of bad actors, while seeming to blame Democrats and news organizations for the riot.

Unfortunately, for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool, she said. They were wrong. It is not.

The AP reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 unrest or who, going maskless during the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee.

The review found the crowd was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, off-duty police, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals.

Videos posted on social media in the days following the Capitol attack shows that thousands of people stormed the Capitol. A Capitol Police officer died after he was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher as rioters descended on the building and many other officers were injured. A woman from California was shot to death by Capitol Police and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos.

Trumps incendiary remarks at the Jan. 6 rally culminated a two-day series of events in Washington, organized by a coalition of the presidents supporters who echoed his baseless accusations that the election had been stolen from him. A website, MarchtoSaveAmerica.com, sprung up to promote the pro-Trump events and alerted followers, At 1 PM, we protest at US Capitol. The website has been deactivated.

Another website, TrumpMarch.com shows a fist-raised Trump pictured on the front of a red, white and blue tour bus emblazoned with the words, Powered by Women for America First. The logo for the bedding company My Pillow is also prominent. Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow, is an ardent Trump supporter whos falsely claimed Trump didnt lose the election to Biden and will serve another four-year term as president.

To demand transparency & protect election integrity, the web page reads. Details of the DC PROTEST will be coming soon, it adds, and also lists a series of bus stops between Dec. 27 and Jan. 6 where Trump backers can Join the caravan or show your support.

Kimberly Fletcher, the Moms for America president, said she wasnt aware the Trump campaign had a role in the rally at the Ellipse until around New Year's Day. While she didnt work directly with the campaign, Fletcher did notice a shift in who was involved in the rally and who would be speaking.

When I got there and I saw the size of the stage and everything, Im like, Wow, we couldnt possibly have afforded that, she said. It was a big stage. It was a very professional stage. I dont know who was in the background or who put it together or anything.

In addition to the large stage, the rally on the Ellipse featured a sophisticated sound system and at least three Jumbotron-style screens projecting the president's image to the crowd. Videos posted online show Trump and his family in a nearby private tent watching the rally on several monitors as music blared in the background.

Moms for America held a more modest Save the Republic rally on Jan. 5 near the U.S. Capitol, an event that drew about 500 people and cost between $13,000 to $14,000, according to Fletcher.

Justin Caporale is listed on the Women for America First paperwork as the events project manager. Hes identified as a partner with Event Strategies Inc., a management and production company. Caporale, formerly a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, was on the Trump campaign payroll for most of 2020, according to the FEC records, and he most recently was being paid $7,500 every two weeks. Caporale didnt respond to requests for comment.

Tim Unes, the founder and president of Event Strategies, was the stage manager for the Jan. 6 rally, according to the permit paperwork. Unes has longstanding ties to Trump, a connection he highlights on his companys website. Trumps presidential campaign paid Event Strategies $1.3 million in 2020 for audio visual services, according to the campaign finance records. The company declined to comment for this story.

Another person with close ties to the Trump administration, Hannah Salem, was the rallys operations manager for logistics and communications, according to the permit paperwork. In 2017, she took a hiatus from the consulting firm she founded and spent three years as senior White House press aide, executing the media strategy for President Trumps most high-profile events, according to her company bio and LinkedIn profile.

Last week, within minutes of an AP reporter sending her a LinkedIn message asking about her involvement in and understanding of what happened on Jan. 6, Salem blocked the reporter and did not respond to questions.
UNODC Supports Lebanon to Strengthen Crime Scene Management in Terrorism Cases

First responders on a crime scene after a terrorist attack have a critical task. Recovering, collecting and preserving evidence is imperative in identifying and bringing suspected criminals to justice. The collection, management and sharing of digital evidence is equally instrumental in preventing and investigating the use of the Internet and social media for terrorist purposes.

In this context, UNODCs Terrorism Prevention Branch (UNODC/TPB) delivered two workshops for Lebanon on crime scene investigation management and digital evidence in terrorism-related cases. The events took place on 14-16 and 17-19 December 2020 and brought together 28 investigators, law enforcement and criminal justice officials.

The first event sought to further develop procedures regarding the identification, collection and preservation of forensic evidence in crime scenes in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Presentations, case studies, live simulations and practical exercises during the event focused on the role and responsibilities of first responders.

Participants shared their experiences and techniques in crime scene management by giving examples from 19 terrorist attacks including explosions and bombings that recently took place in Lebanon. They also explained the steps and precautions they took in initiating crime scene walk-throughs - which is essential to formulate a plan to collect and preserve evidence  and related accounts of the documentation and evidence collection processes. Participants also shared their lessons learnt on the preservation of evidence to ensure its admissibility in court.

The second workshop introduced participants to tools and resources needed to conduct digital investigation in terrorism cases which builds on TPBs continued efforts to strengthen the management and cross-border exchange of electronic evidence. Experts delivered a presentation on terrorist groups digital modus operandi in the MENA region , which also addressed advanced operating systems and complex network configurations used for terrorist activity.

This event also offered a platform for participants to share challenges they encounter when requesting electronic evidence from foreign digital service providers. The workshop helped me better understand the intricate details related to the process of filing a request for information, while also shedding further light on UNODC tools for international cooperation and digital evidence said one investigator from the Lebanese Army Intelligence Investigation Branch.

Lebanese judges from the Military Tribunal presented the national framework to prosecute cybercrime, allowing participants to exchange insights on the legality of data extraction processes, and share best practices related to digital forensics with Egyptian law enforcement representatives.

Both events were hosted in Egypt, with the support of national authorities, and were delivered under the framework of UNODCs project on Strengthening the Legal Regime Against Foreign Terrorist Fighters in the Middle East North Africa and South-East Europe which is funded by the European Union.




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HRODNA, Belarus -- Three associates of jailed Belarusian blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, the husband of opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, have gone on trial in the western city of Hrodna.

The October district court opened the trial of Dzmitry Furmanau, Yauhen Raznichenka, and Uladzimer Kniha on January 18 for organizing mass disorder. Raznichenka and Kniha are also charged with assaulting a police officer.

The defendants were arrested in late May 2020 after police disrupted public events in Hrodna to collect signatures to support Tsikhanouskaya's bid to become a presidential candidate.

Crisis In Belarus Read our coverage as Belarusians continue to demand the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid a brutal crackdown on protesters. The West refuses to recognize him as the country's legitimate leader after an August 9 election considered fraudulent.

Tsikhanouski was arrested at the same time and later charged with the organization and preparation of actions that severely violated public order and disrupting the work of the Central Election Commission.

Tsikhanouski is the owner of a popular YouTube channel called The Country For Life, which challenges the Belarusian authorities.

When Tsikhanouski's candidacy was rejected by election officials, his wife took over and ran for president. She became the main challenger to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian leader who has run the country since 1994.

The official results of the August election that Lukashenka claims to have won sparked mass protests, with Tsikhanouskaya's supporters and opposition figures claiming she was the victor.

Since then, Lukashenka has overseen a violent crackdown on protesters by law enforcement, detaining thousands of people -- including media members -- and injuring scores.

The European Union and the United States have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate ruler of Belarus, characterizing the election as fraudulent.
KAKINADA: Telugu Desam Party leaders and cadre in East and West Godavari districts paid rich tributes to party founder and former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) on his death anniversary on Monday.

MLC Chikkala Ramachandra Rao, and senior leaders Jyothula Naveen Kumar, Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao (Kondababu), Datla Buchiraju and others garlanded the statue of NTR near Zilla Parishad centre and paid homage.

Ramachandra Rao said that NTR played an unforgettable role in Indian politics and he himself drafted principles and ideologies to uplift the poor and earned the self-respect of Telugu people. He urged the Union Government to confer NTR with a posthumous Bharat Ratna. Kondababu said that NTR pioneered several welfare schemes for the poor.

Meanwhile, At Rajamahendravaram, former GUDA chairman Ganni Krishna garlanded the statue of NTR near Arts College gate. He said that NTR took the reputation of Telugus to New Delhi.

At Kadapa, a blood donation camp was organized under the auspices of Telugu youth. Party leaders anointed and paid homage to the NTR statue while under the auspices of Balakrishna Family Associations state president Peeraiah, TD leaders distributed clothes to sanitation workers.

Mallela Lingareddy, president of the Telugu Desam Kadapa Parliamentary Party, said that NTR gave a new definition to politics while state executive secretary Balishetti Hariprasad said that NTR lit up millions of households. Kadapa constituency in-charge VS Ameer Babu, former director of fisheries corporation Yatagiri Ramprasad and others participated.

Tributes were paid on Pottipadu Road in Proddatur, Kadapa district. Proddatur constituency in-charge Dr. G.V. Praveen Kumar said that soldiers will work tirelessly for realization of the aspirations of the great leader. He was accompanied by state secretary V.S. Mukhtiar and party town president EV Sudhakar Reddy.

Meanwhile, Visakhapatnam North MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao skipped the death anniversary meeting organised in TDP urban office on Monday. He, however, was seen at the garlanding function on beach road along with other MLAs Velagapudi Ramakrishnababu, PVGR Naidu (Ganababu) and former MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao.

We were not surprised at his absence. He has been keeping a distance from all party activities when rumours of his joining YSRCP were making rounds in political circles, said a senior leader of the party about Ganta Srinivasa Rao.

But the former ministers close aides defended his absence stating that Srinivasa Rao was busy in attending other programmes in connection with the death anniversary of their founder.

The state observed the death anniversary and attendance of party workers and sympathisers was good, said party vice-president Pasarla Prasad.
Messages About Adding Nominee to a Bank Account Are Fraud, Warns Govt

Cyber Dost, a twitter account managed by the union ministry of home affairs, has warned people about a new scam that informs on adding a nominee to their bank account. Beware of such spoofed information. Such messages may be trick of cyber criminals to defraud you. Always verify from your bank and avoid clicking on such links (given in the SMS), it warns.

Usually when people add a new beneficiary to transfer money, they receive a message stating that they have added a new beneficiary. Of late, a new online banking scam is has come to light. The scam is designed to trick people through a fraudulent text message. The Cyber Dost Twitter account has warned users not to fall for any fraudulent messages. According to the tweet, people should avoid clicking on such messages.

As per the image posted by the Cyber Dost handle, the message says, Dear XXX customer, you recently added a nominee to your account named XXXXX. You will be able to send funds to this nominee after 30 mins.

Timings are also mentioned in the message, which some people may take as an authentic one. Additionally, the message will ask users to log in to their account online using the link given and follow instructions if they have not made any beneficiary.

It is likely that many innocent users can fall for it and log in to their bank account using the link, which could lead to a scam. The government is cautioning people that such messages can be fraudulent and cyber criminals can trick people into this. The government has asked people to avoid clicking any such links and always verify with the bank first before doing anything.
A High Court in Abuja has waded into the crisis which has been rocking the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for many months.

The judge, Peter Affen, in a ruling on January 12, details of which was obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, ruled against one of the factional presidents of the association, Ahmed Maiwada, who is seeking the upturn of the processes which brought in his rival, Camillus Ukah on March 28, 2020.

The registered trustees of ANA had been listed by Mr Maiwada (also the claimants counsel), as claimant/respondent while Jerry Agada, Odia Ofeimun, Olufemi Obafemi, Wale Okediran, Remi Raji, Akachi Ezigbo and May Nwoye, had been listed as defendants/applicants in the suit.

The ruling was after a preliminary objection by the defendants on July 7, 2020, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter on the grounds that the suit was incompetent as the required consent was not obtained from the proper authorities of the claimant.

The defendants had also said the suit was intended to embarrass and annoy the defendants and was mischievous, malicious, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of court process.

Background

PREMIUM TIMES extensively reported how the Nigerian writers Association was embroiled in raging strife which is threatening to tear the body apart.

Sources say, on one hand, the battle is mainly for who heads the Association which boasts of hundreds of Nigerian writers.

On the other, control over a large expanse of land, in a choice area of the Federal Capital Territory also seems to be a source of conflict.

This newspaper also reported how a committee was announced to unite the splinter groups, which emerged as a result of the crisis rocking the union. The committee has not succeeded in its mission.

This newspaper also reported how attempts by the associations advisory council to intervene were unsuccessful.

Rather, the two factions recently held parallel conventions as the crisis worsened.

While the Maiwada group held its convention in Awka, Anambra State, between December 10 and 12, the Ukah group held its convention between December 3 and 6 in Ilorin, Kwara State, where it said it took decisions concerning its status.

At the Maiwada groups convention, Bode Sowande was reportedly appointed as the new ANA BOT chairman alongside Yaya Dangana and Tracie Utoh-Ezeajugha as members.

But the Ukah faction had dismissed the appointments, insisting the event was an illegal one.

Ruling

Mr Ukah has drawn the first victory as the judge, Mr Affen, in the ruling on January 12, dismissed Mr Maiwadas move to upturn the emergence of his rival.

After the election which brought him in March 7, 2020, Mr Maiwada had gone to court to restrain the defendants from conducting elections into the National Executive Council of the Association.

Despite this move, the election eventually held in Makurdi, Benue State March 28, 2020, wherein the Ukah-led faction was elected.

But, Mr Affen, in the 18-paged document outlining the ruling, said the suit was not properly filed by any of the competent organs of the association.

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He ruled: having carefully and insightfully examined the supporting and counter-affidavits annexed thereto and the arguments canvassed by counsels on both sides of the divide, it does not seem to me, on a balance of probabilities, that the institution of this action was duly authorised by the relevant organs of the claimant since the Trustees who are statutory members of the claimants council or governing body have disassociated themselves from the suit, it seems to me obvious that the action is plagued by incompetence for being unauthorized

He, therefore, struck out the case.

Reactions

The two factions have reacted to the court ruling.

While the Ukah faction said it was elated by the development and adds this would rest the controversy over which is the authentic leadership, the Maiwada faction said the battle was far from over.

With this judgment, the court has thrown a torch into the dark alleys of such dishonest moves; in doing so, it revealed a certain vaulting ambition to the world. It is a judgment that screams out to be quoted as a future reference, Maik Ortserga, the general secretary of the Ukah faction said in a statement, Monday.

The judgment is in line with what we have always known. It is the same conclusion that was reached when Barr. Ahmed Maiwada ran to the police crying foul, it is the same common tone that the ANA BOT and the Advisory Council have been singing all the while. Now that both the law and law enforcement agency has spoken with the voice of respect for the Association and its internal capacity to resolve its matters, every ANA member with the paternal DNA of a writer must join hands to ensure that never shall our dirty linen be brought as close to the outside as the corridors of our formidable house.

Finally the judgment has naturally defined the right passageway to the open doors of camaraderie that ANA is known for and the door has been thrown open wider now to all writers of goodwill. There is ample room for repentance and reintegration.

But Mr Maiwada, who expressed dissatisfaction with the ruling, hinted that he would be challenging it soon in court. He also insisted the court is yet to declare anyone as the authentic president of ANA.

He told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that the judge was misled into giving the ruling despite the inconsistencies in the signatures contained in the sworn affidavits alleged to have been deposed to by Labo Yari and Mabel Segun (two surviving ANA trustees).

The Abuja High Court had delivered its ruling on the preliminary objection, in which it overlooked the inconsistencies in the signatures of the two surviving trustees. The court, however, did not dismiss ANAs case, contrary to the prayers of the seven defendants. The court only struck out ANAs case, meaning that ANA might return to the same court (or another court of competent jurisdiction), for the determination of the substantive issue of the constitutional rights of the seven defendants to conduct elections into the National Executive Council of ANA, when the seven were not constituted as an electoral committee by the General Assembly of ANA, but by Professor Femi Osofisan, whether acting for himself or for a group of people calling themselves as ANA Advisory Council, he added.

He also said: I have studied the ruling of the honourable court and observed many errors of law that should not be allowed to stand, including the error of overlooking the inconsistent signatures on the affidavits allegedly deposed to by Mallam Labo Yari and Mrs Mabel Segun. In the coming days, I will review the said ruling together with the immediate past ANA National Legal, the current ANA National Legal Adviser and my legal team. We shall be putting heads together in order to advise ANA on the next line of action to take (or not to take): to return to the Abuja High Court with the same case for adjudication, or approach another court entirely, or to appeal the ruling, with the implications of each action or other actions that we ought not to disclose in public, due to their sensitive nature.

DOWNLOAD: Ruling in the Case of Registered Trustees of ANA v Jerry Agada & Co. 2021
Green New Deal ideologies, fantasies and realities By Paul Driessen

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, AOC, the Democrat Party and US environmentalists are committed to making climate change, the Green New Deal, and replacement of fossil fuels with wind, solar, battery and biofuel power the centerpiece of their foreign and domestic policies. They claim the transition would be easy, affordable, ecological, sustainable and painless. Thats ideology and fantasy, not reality. Wind and sunshine are certainly clean and renewable. Harnessing them to power America is not. The GND would hit American families, jobs, living standards and environmental quality hard. Western states would feel the brunt, because their fossil fuel rents, royalties, jobs and tax receipts would disappear, as drilling, fracking and coal mining on federal lands are closed down. Their open spaces, scenic vistas, wildlife habitats and wildlife would be desecrated by wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines to serve distant urban voting blocs that dictate energy and land use decisions far beyond city lines. Coal, oil, natural gas and petroleum liquids still provide 80% of US energy. In 2018, they generated 2.7 billion megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity  which would have to be replaced under an all-encompassing Green New Deal costing tens of trillions of dollars. Another 2.7 billion MWh worth of natural gas powered factories, emergency power systems, and furnaces, ovens, stoves and hot water heaters in restaurants, homes and other buildings. Cars, trucks, buses, semi-trailers, tractors and other vehicles consumed the equivalent of yet another 2 billion MWh. Altogether, thats 7.4 billion megawatt-hours per year that the GND would have to replace! On top of that wed need at least another 150 million MWh of wind and solar generating capacity to charge batteries over and over to maintain just one week of nationwide backup power, to avoid blackouts. The more we try to do so, the more wed have to put turbines and panels in low quality wind and solar sites, where theyd generate electricity only 15-20% of the year, 80-85% below nameplate capacity. Of course, we could replace all this fossil fuel energy with nuclear power. But radical greens inside and outside the soon-to-be Biden Administration detest and oppose nuclear as much as they do fossil fuels. That means this transformation to an all-electric nation would require millions of onshore wind turbines, thousands of offshore turbines, billions of solar panels, millions of vehicle battery modules, billions of backup energy storage battery modules, thousands of miles of new transmission lines, millions of charging stations, tens of billions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, plastic, cobalt, rare earth elements and countless other materials  and digging up hundreds of billions of tons of overburden and ores! If the United States and world could summon the will to mine, process and smelt enough metals and minerals  and manufacture, transport and install all those turbines, panels, batteries and transmission lines  the GND would require the greatest expansion of mining and manufacturing in human history. But radical greens inside and outside of the Biden Administration detest and oppose US mining and manufacturing almost as much as they despise fossil fuels. That means we would have to go overseas for these essential metals and minerals  primarily to China and Russia, which have them within their boundaries or under their control in various African, Asian and Latin American nations. They also have no reservation or hesitation about digging them up and processing them  without regard for child, slave or forced labor, workplace safety, air and water pollution, mined land reclamation or any other standards that we insist on in America. And its highly unlikely that Team Biden would demand that those countries implement such standards  or that it would refuse to import the metals, minerals and finished green technologies unless China, Russia and their foreign subsidiaries abide by our rules and regulations. The entire GND (and much more) would collapse without those unethical raw materials. Moreover, nearly all this mining, processing and manufacturing would require gasoline, diesel, natural gas and coal in those foreign countries, because those operations cannot be conducted with wind, solar and battery power. The fossil fuel use and emissions would take place outside the United States, but would not go away. Indeed they would likely double or triple. The carbon dioxide emissions would increase global atmospheric levels and, Team Biden insists, worsen climate chaos and extreme weather. In fact, most wind, solar and battery mining, processing and manufacturing already take place overseas, under few or nonexistent workplace safety, fair wage, child labor and environmental laws. Some 40,000 Congolese children labor alongside their parents, for a couple dollars a day, while exposed constantly to toxic, radioactive mud, dust, water and air, to meet todays cobalt needs. Imagine the GND toll. Replacing oil and gas for petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics would require importing those feed stocks, as well  or planting millions of acres in canola, soybean and other biofuel crops. The water, fertilizer, pesticide, tractor, harvester, processing and transportation requirements would be astronomical. All that work, and all those industrial facilities, would impact hundreds of millions of acres of scenic areas, food crop lands and wildlife habitats. Raptors, other birds, bats, and forest, grassland and desert dwellers would suffer substantial losses or be driven into extinction. Most of those impacts would also occur in Midwestern and Western America, far from the voting centers and suspicious voting patterns that put Team Biden in office. But as they say, out of sight, out of mind  in someone elses backyards. The GND would also mean ripping out perfectly good natural gas appliances, replacing them with electric models, installing rapid charging systems for vehicles, and upgrading household, neighborhood and national electrical systems to handle the extra loads  costing more trillions of dollars. Families, factories, hospitals, schools and businesses accustomed to paying 7-11 per kilowatt-hour for electricity would pay 14-22 per kWh, as they already do in green US states  or even the 35 that families now pay in Germany. Once they use more than some arbitrary maximum baseline amount of electricity per month, they will pay closer to 45 per kWh, as families already do in California. How companies will survive, how many jobs will disappear, how many families will join the ranks of those who must choose between heating and eating  is anyones guess. GND technologies are nearly 100% dependent on metals and minerals from China, Russia, Ukraine, and Chinese companies in Africa and Latin America. Emails from Hunter Bidens laptop underscore concerns that Americas foreign, defense and domestic policies would be held hostage, while certain well-connected politicians, families and wind, solar, battery and biofuel companies get rich. All these issues require open, robust debate  which too many schools and universities, news and social media outlets, corporate and political leaders, and Antifa thugs and arsonists continue to censor and cancel. That censorship and silencing must end before any votes or other actions are taken on any Green New Deal. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening. Big Media and Big Tech are conspiring with Democrats, Greens and other authoritarian elements to shut down any and all discussion by anyone who does not support their agendas. Others are moving to persecute and prosecute President Trump and anyone associated with his administration and policies. As anger and frustration build among the increasingly disenfranchised, America and the world could be heading into a frightening future indeed. Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books, reports and articles on energy, environmental, climate and human rights issues. Home

The foundation Vice-Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Prof (Mrs) Esi Ewuah has urged Ghanaian researchers to consider just producing papers to producing actionable research findings that meet societal needs.



Prof (Mrs) Ewuah contends that some Ghanaians, unlike people in other part of the world, do not like to read and so producing brilliant research findings in papers will only leave the ideas espoused on the shelves of libraries.



She noted that writing of papers by researchers is a foreign concept that has been blindly copied by Ghanaians urging researchers to reconsider how research findings are presented.



According to her, the country is saddled with a whole of lot challenges and findings of research from researchers should show how the research solved a societal problem and not only be shown with a document.



This she says will go a long way to solve the myriad of challenges the country faces.



Prof (Mrs) Ewuah said this at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology over the weekend during the opening ceremony of the 26th Annual Delegates Congress of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG).



Prof (Mrs) Ewuah, who was the keynote speaker at the event, demonstrated how she used research to solve a water problem in Bimbila in Northern Ghana among other problems she has solved through research.



Call on government



She said many of the countrys challenges can be solved when investment is made on research. She has therefore called on the government to demonstrate its commitment to research by putting in more money for research institutions and individuals.

She also called on the students to use the various platforms they have to call on government to support research in the country.

She noted that Ghana is blessed to have intelligent young men and women who are leading the students front urging them to use the voice they have to cause change in the way things are done in the country.



Opportunities in the face of Covid-19

President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Isaac Jay Hyde, who was also speaking at the same ceremony said though the novel coronavirus pandemic has come as a challenge to the world, it has also come to present some opportunities, especially, to the Ghanaian student.



We can think of our positions as students as helpful to informing our teaching practices and developing materials online that we would like to see from our own professors. We can also rethink how we conduct our research and pursue academic endeavors like conference presentations and publications, he said.



He added as future faculty members and professional researchers, COVID-19 provides us with a sample of the disruptive but timely circumstances that may come in our may in the course of our work.



Call for waiver

On his part, President of GRASAG, Samuel Sagoe, called on the management of KNUST to waive off the extension fees they are charging post-graduate students who were unable to complete their research work on time.



He noted that in the era of Covid-19 where students research conferences, including foreign travels became challenging, it could not have been the fault of the students not to complete their work on time and should therefore not be punished for crimes they did not commit.



He used the opportunity to outline some successes chalked by the 2019/2020 leaders of GRASAG.



The congress saw the election of Heartwill Selasi Tamakloe, a student of the University of Education, Winneba, as the next president of GRASAG.

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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Calisen confirmed it was pushing ahead with a takeover from a consortium of major international investors

Smart-meter business Calisen is about to be bought by overseas investors as Britain's pandemic plundering continues.

The FTSE 250 firm, which installs energy meters and manages them for the 'Big Six' suppliers, confirmed it was pushing ahead with a takeover from a consortium of major international investors.

The world's largest asset manger Blackrock, Abu Dhabi wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company, and a handful of Goldman Sachs' infrastructure funds are buying Calisen for 1.4billion.

Since Calisen is a leading employer in the north-west of England, the bidders said that they would not move its headquarters from Greater Manchester and did not plan any large-scale job cuts.

Calisen is the latest in a string of companies to be snapped up by a foreign buyer since the pandemic began, as William Hill, G4S and RSA insurance have all changed hands.

The company's largest shareholder, private equity giant KKR, has already agreed to the 261p-per-share deal.


Australian Army to Get American Apache Choppers

The Australian army will replace its troubled Tiger helicopter fleet with the more reliable American-made Boeing Apache Guardian helicopters after a report revealed that design flaws and reliability issues plagued the Airbus-made Tigers.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said on Jan. 15 that the AH-64 Apache helicopters would strengthen Australias armed reconnaissance force and allow Australia to shape its strategic environment better and deter threats.

The Apache Guardian is the most lethal, most survivable and lowest risk option, meeting all of Defences capability, through-life support, security, and certification requirements, Reynolds said. By pursuing a proven and low-risk system offered by the Apache, Defence will avoid the ongoing cost and schedule risk typically associated with developmental platforms.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) chose the Apaches due to their proven ability, maturity, and an off-the-shelf operating system, Reynolds said. The Apache Guardian is indicated to provide improved survivability in active engagement and provide the armed forces with a helicopter with enhanced sensors, communications suites, and attack capabilities.

The move comes after the pre-existing fleet of Tiger reconnaissance choppers were assessed as being crippled by 76 capability deficiencies in 2016.

According to the 64-page report on the Tiger by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) the Department of Defence (Defence) deemed 60 of those deficiencies to be critical.

The Tiger helicopter fleet has not yet delivered the original capability expected by the Australian government, and continues to experience higher than expected sustainment costs and lower than expected aircraft availability, said the ANAO.

On average, only 3.5 aircraft in the operational fleet of 16 helicopters were available on any given day in 2015, it said.

Other issues included limited pilot flying hours, interoperability and communications, lack of a capability to operate from warships, airworthiness, and the roof-mounted sight.

The Tigers were also increasingly expensive to maintain with the current sustainment cost in 2016 being estimated as $921 million with a cost per flying hour of $30,335.

According to the report, Defence concluded that the rushed nature of the initial Through-Life Support contract negotiations resulted in a poor outcome for the fleets sustainment and that Defence was ineffective in enforcing its contractual rights under the contract.

Makers of the Tigers, Airbus Australia Pacific, told FlightGlobal in October 2020 they believed the decision to replace the Tigers is a poor one.

The decision in 2016 was made at a time when Tiger was not performing as well as it is today, Andrew Mathewson, managing director of Airbus Australia Pacific, said.

[Now] its kicking goals and achieving its missions. And the performance is very good. We hope that weve got a bit of a head start because the product is in service.

Further, Mathewson said the Tigers have plenty of life left in them with the helicopters each only amassing 2,000 flight hours.

We know that we need to do the engineering analysis on some dynamic components such that they can be lifted out to 8,000 hours, and then could [serve] well out to 2,040, he said.
SALEM, Ore. --- Armed protesters gathered outside the state capitol building in Salem and counter protesters arrived across the street.

On Sunday, the two sides were seen arguing, however, Salem Police said the activities there remained small and peaceful.

One armed protester in Salem said he is showing support for President Trump because he believes no one is listening.

"I'm here because this is one of the last things we can do as peaceful protests we can, we can say hey listen to us. You guys are pushing us against the wall. We're begging you to listen. We don't want a war. We don't want people to die We don't want violence."

Heavily fortified statehouses around the U.S. are also seeing small and peaceful protests, despite widespread fears of another burst of right-wing violence like the attack on the Capitol in Washington.

As of nightfall across much of the country Sunday, there have been no reports of any clashes.

During the day, crowds of only a dozen or two demonstrated at some boarded-up, cordoned-off statehouses, while the streets in many other capital cities remained empty.

Some protesters said they were there to back President Donald Trump. Others said they had instead come to voice their support for gun rights or oppose government overreach.
Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Silver Spruce Resources Inc. ("Silver Spruce") has commenced its planned Phase 1 exploration program on the Jackie Property located in Sonora, Mexico, located approximately 175 kilometers east of Hermosillo, Sonora.

On November 30, 2020, Colibri signed a definitive agreement with Silver Spruce whereby Silver Spruce can earn a 50% interest in the Jackie property by completing USD$100,000 in exploration and drilling expenses including a minimum of USD$50,000 within 12 months and pay to Colibri total cash payments of USD$50,000 and CAD$50,000 in common shares within 12 months. Silver Spruce will also pay 50% of the requisite property taxes and surface rights agreements due. Upon completion of these terms, the Jackie property will be held on a 50-50 basis and a Joint Venture will be formed for the direction and funding of continued property exploration and development.

The exploration program planned by Silver Spruce includes prospecting, rock, soil and stream sampling, and initial geological and structural mapping of areas exhibiting significant alteration or mineralization. Samples collected during the field work will be delivered to the ALS Global ("ALS") sample preparation facility in Hermosillo and splits will be sent to ALS in North Vancouver, BC for gold by fire assay and to ALS in Reno, NV for hyperspectral analysis for the identification of the principal alteration minerals and their relative intensity. Multi-element analysis will be completed at ALS in North Vancouver on select samples as determined from analytical and mapping results. In addition, Silver Spruce has retained GeoDigital Imaging de Mexico S.A. de C.V. ("GeoDigital") of Hermosillo to carry out GIS data compilation and preparation of digital base maps for geographical, geological, geochemical, and geophysical information.

Jackie Property Location and Access

The Jackie Project is located within the western portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex and within the prominent northwest-trending "Sonora Gold Belt" of northern Mexico. The Property is situated approximately six kilometers northwest of the Nicho deposit currently being developed by Minera Alamos. Major gold mining operations in the Sonora Gold belt in the area of the Jackie Property include Alamos Golds' Los Mulatos Mine and Agnico Eagles' El India and Pinos Altos Mines.

The 1,130-hectare Jackie Property is located approximately two kilometres ("km") southwest of the town of Tepoca. Tepoca is accessed by Highway 16 approximately 175 km east of Hermosillo and the property is accessed from Highway 16, south of Tepoca, with vehicles and pack teams on unpaved roads and trails. The property is located approximately 2 km south of Colibri's El Mezquite Property which is also under an option agreement with Silver Spruce.

The reader is referred to the Silver Spruce News Release dated January 18, 2021 for further details on the Jackie Property and exploration plan.

About Colibri Resource Corporation

Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) focused on acquiring and exploring properties in Mexico. The Company currently has five active projects at various stages of exploration. The Evelyn Gold Project is 100% owned and explored by the Company and four projects Pilar, El Mezquite, Jackie, and Pitaya are currently subject to joint venture or earn agreements to arms length parties.

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

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be accurate.

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

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72256


Paducah's MLK Celebration Virtual This Year

By Bill Hughes

PADUCAH - Paducah's celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., will be virtual this year.President J.W. Cleary of the Paducah-McCracken County NAACP told West Kentucky Star they didn't want to put anyone in harm's way with an in-person event.Cleary said, "We just didn't want to take a chance of anybody catching COVID or getting hurt or any of that nature, but with the Man Upstairs' help, that everything would be back to normal next year."Because of the change, there will only be two events, rather than several that are typically scheduled over the three-day weekend.Instead of Monday's luncheon at the Cherry Civic Center, an hour-long program will be aired on Zoom and Paducah Channel 2 at noon, and again at 7 pm. It will also be available for viewing at the local NAACP chapter's Facebook page. The event will include remarks by Mayor George Bray and County Judge-Executive Craig Clymer, presentation of awards for the MLK Essay Contest (sponsored by Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership), local scholarship winners, and keynote speaker Phyllis Young Nichols.Nichols is the President and CEO of the Knoxville Area Urban League. She joined the organization as a curriculum and education specialist in 1994 and has been CEO since 2000. She is a graduate of East Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Recognized as a Senior Fellow by the National Urban League, Nichols' expertise in board and affiliate development has facilitated her work with the national league and other non-profit organizations across the country.The "I Am the Dream: Answering the Call," event at 7 pm Monday night will be streamed on the Facebook page of the W.C. Young Community Center. "I Am the Dream," honorees will be recognized, and an encouraging word will be delivered by Rev. Donna Hawkins of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.
[January 18, 2021] Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Industry Projected to Reach 18339.95 Million in 2027, Says Brandessence Market Research

PUNE, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global demand for global robotic process automation (RPA) market size in terms of revenue was worth of USD 2715.75 Million in 20-20 and is expected to reach USD 18339.95 Million in 2027, growing at a CAGR of 31.07% from 2020 to 2027. The global robotic process automation industry is expected to grow at significant growth rate due to number of driving factors. RPA Industry top-performing key players: UiPath, Automation Anywhere Inc., NICE, Blue Prism, Celaton Ltd., Pegasystems, Kofax, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation, Redwood Software, Genpact Ltd, EdgeVerve, IPsoft Inc, Verint Systems Inc., Xerox Corporation Request a Sample Report:@ https://brandessenceresearch.com/requestSample/PostId/1176 The form of business process automation technology is based on metaphorical robots or artificial intelligence (AI) or a digital worker is nothing but the Robotic process automation (RPA). This technology permits user to configure computer software or a robot to integrate and emulate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems for executing a business process. RPA robots use user interface for operating applications and capturing data just like humans do. In order to perform on a vast variety of repetitive tasks they interpret trigger responses and communicate with other systems. The ability to reduce staffing costs and human error with organizations is provided by RPA. It provides various benefits such as decreased costs, freeing up staff for higher value tasks, increased employee engagement, reduced operational risk, reduced output variability, reduced paper use/waste, driving process improvement, increased output, and many others. The study provides a crucial view of global robotic process automation market by segmenting the market based on type, services, application, and region & country level. Based upon type, the market is segmented into software and services. Based upon the services, the market is segmented into consulting, implementation, and training. Based upon application, the market is segmented into BFSI, manufacturing, Pharma & healthcare, retail, telecom & IT and others. The regions covered in global robotic process automation market are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. On the basis of country level, global robotic process automation market is sub divided into U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, India, South East Asia, Brazil, Mexico, GCC, Africa, etc. Request for Methodology of this report: https://brandessenceresearch.com/requestMethodology/PostId/1176 Factors such as increasing demand for business process automation (BPA) through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) & software robots and adoption of RPA technology by organizations are driving in the growth of the market. The manufacturers of RPA are providing advanced solutions by integrating RPA solutions with cognitive technology such as artificial intelligence (AI). This integration will offer the organizations to operate with unstructured data, decision making tasks and complex processes. For Instance, in the five years since Amazon's $775 million purchase of Kiva to form Amazon Robotics, the company has invested heavily in AI techniques, including sponsoring an annual RoboCup competition. Hence, increasing adoption of artificial intelligence is driving the growth of the robotic process automation market. In addition, the operations provided by RPA such as ease in business processes, increased efficiency and cost-effective and highly profitable operations are also supplementing the growth of the robotic process automation market. However, data insecurity risk and less potential for RPA in knowledge-based business processes may hamper the market growth. In spite of that, integration of new technologies with robotic process automation can provide various opportunities for the further growth of the market. The type segment of robotic process automation market is dominated by Software with the largest market share of 60.46 % in 2020. The process segment of obotic process automation market report is dominated by automated solution segment by capturing the largest market of 59.45 % in year 2020. The application segment of robotic process automation market report is dominated by BFSI segment by capturing the largest market of 44.59 % in year 2020.



Geographically, North America region is expected to dominate in the global robotics process automation market due to the increased penetration of automation and process management solutions across the region. In addition, a strong inclination of SMEs for adopting RPA within their business functions such as human resource-related processes, accounting/finance, and procurement is also supplementing the market growth in this region. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest growth in the global robotics process automation market within the forecast period owing to the increasing demand for business process automation solutions in the BPO sector in India and China. Robotic Process Automation:

In recent years, companies are rapidly moving towards technological advancement in their workspace. Industries around the world are turning to automation to become faster and more responsive in the face of increased demand and rapidly changing environments. From handling high volumes of testing results to associate the increased need in call centres to preparing and allowing a remote workforce, organizations understand the benefits of automating right now. Remote processing automation solutions give the impression in many business sectors, including financial services, healthcare, human resources, and retail. Robotic process automation tools are widely used for the configuration of task automation. These tools are essential for automation of the repetitive back-office processes. Due to the fast-adopting nature of user numbers of tools or software's are available in the market and they are creating trends in various sectors. Some of the major robotic process automation tools or software in trending are as follows: Complete Access of Report@ https://brandessenceresearch.com/Checkout?report_id=1176 UI path: UiPath is a highly extensible robotic process automation tool for automating any desktop or web apps. It sanctions global enterprises to design, deploy a robotic workforce for their organization.

UiPath is a highly extensible robotic process automation tool for automating any desktop or web apps. It sanctions global enterprises to design, deploy a robotic workforce for their organization. Automation Anywhere: Automation Anywhere RPA developer tool combines conventional RPA with intellectual elements like language understanding and reading any unstructured data.

Automation Anywhere RPA developer tool combines conventional RPA with intellectual elements like language understanding and reading any unstructured data. Blue Prism: Blue Prism is tool which user should have programming skills, but it is user-friendly for developers as well as perfect for medium and large organizations.

Blue Prism is tool which user should have programming skills, but it is user-friendly for developers as well as perfect for medium and large organizations. Work Fusion: WorkFusion is a crowd computing platform. This robotic process automation software automates the process of monitoring of data feed and helps the user to manages crowd-sourced workers from global talent markets.

WorkFusion is a crowd computing platform. This robotic process automation software automates the process of monitoring of data feed and helps the user to manages crowd-sourced workers from global talent markets. Pega system: Pega is a business process management tool. It can be used on desktop servers. This tool can work on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Pega is a business process management tool. It can be used on desktop servers. This tool can work on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Kofax: Kofax robotic process automation is the fastest and most efficient way to acquire, enhance, and deliver information from virtually any application or data source including websites, portals, desktop applications, and enterprise systems without any coding.

Kofax robotic process automation is the fastest and most efficient way to acquire, enhance, and deliver information from virtually any application or data source including websites, portals, desktop applications, and enterprise systems without any coding. Nice Systems: Nice robotic process automation develops and manage robotic process automation portfolio from a single platform. Additionally, a nice robotic process automation tool is named as NEVA-Nice Employee Virtual Attendant.

Nice robotic process automation develops and manage robotic process automation portfolio from a single platform. Additionally, a nice robotic process automation tool is named as NEVA-Nice Employee Virtual Attendant. Power Automate: Power Automate is a robotic process automation tool that helps to boost User organization's productivity.

Power Automate is a robotic process automation tool that helps to boost User organization's productivity. Contextor: Contextor is a robotic process automation solution that offers complete customer view, online help, and shares data between two or more applications.

Contextor is a robotic process automation solution that offers complete customer view, online help, and shares data between two or more applications. Kryon: Kryon Robotics process automation tool works on the cutting edge of robotic process automation technology, driving innovation in the discovery of suitable automated processes.

Kryon Robotics process automation tool works on the cutting edge of robotic process automation technology, driving innovation in the discovery of suitable automated processes. Redwood: Redwood robotic process automation tool offers unattended robotic processes that are easy to create, simple to scale, and fast to deploy.

Redwood robotic process automation tool offers unattended robotic processes that are easy to create, simple to scale, and fast to deploy. Outsystems: The OutSystems software is providing some fantastic features which are helpful to robotic process automation users.

The OutSystems software is providing some fantastic features which are helpful to robotic process automation users. Hyper Automation: Hyper automation has been collecting lots of automation for a couple of years it is an advanced form of automation offering of completing tasks and processes faster, more efficiently, and with less error. Smart Process Automation (SPA): The recent advancements achieved in IT trends are a clear indication of the evolution of robotic process automation into a further advanced and highly sophisticated form of smart process automation. Related report to RPA industry: Global Robotic Nurse Assistant Market is valued at USD 380.3 Million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 1486.3 Million by 2025 with the CAGR of 21.5% over the forecast period. https://brandessenceresearch.com/semiconductor/robotic-nurse-assistant-market-size Non-Medical Biomimetic Robot Market report is segmented on the basis of technology, application, and region & country level. Based upon technology, non-medical biomimetic robot market is classified into cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, block chain, internet of things, cyber security and biometrics, and others. https://brandessenceresearch.com/healthcare/non-medical-biomimetics-robot-market Medical Robotics Market 2021 By Product Type (Telepresence, Surgical Assistants, Rehabilitation, Medical Transportation, Sanitation And Disinfection, Pharmacy Automation), By Application Type (Laparoscopy, Cardiology, Orthopedic, Neurology), Industry Analysis, Trends, And Forecast 2025. https://brandessenceresearch.com/healthcare/medical-devices/global-medical-robotics-market-2018-2024 Robot Sensor Market is valued at USD 1.98 Billion in 2018 and expected to reach USD 4.16 Billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 10.8% over the forecast period. https://brandessenceresearch.com/technology-and-media/robot-sensor-market-overview Related Topics Debt Collection Software Market Size By Type: (On-Premise, Cloud) By Application: (Financial Institutions (Banks & NBFC), Collection Agencies, Healthcare, Government, Telecom and Utilities, Others (Real Estate, and Retail)) Forecast 2020-2025. Data Monetization Market is valued at USD 1.34 Billion in 2018 and expected to reach USD 4.15 Billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 17.53%over the forecast period. Rehabilitation Robots Market is valued at USD 581.4 Million in 2018 and expected to reach USD 2269.8 Million by 2025 with the CAGR of 21.48% over the forecast period. About Brandessence Market Research & Consulting Pvt ltd. Brandessence market research publishes market research reports & business insights produced by highly qualified and experienced industry analysts. Our research reports are available in a wide range of industry verticals including aviation, food & beverage, healthcare, ICT, Construction, Chemicals and lot more. Brand Essence Market Research report will be best fit for senior executives, business development managers, marketing managers, consultants, CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and Directors, governments, agencies, organizations and Ph.D. Students. We have a delivery center in Pune, India and our sales office is in London. Website: https://brandessenceresearch.com Article: https://businessstatsnews.com Contacts:

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Codehesion is South Africas premier smartphone app development company and makes it easy for businesses to build their own Android and iOS apps.

With the increase in digital transformation and remote working, most companies are looking to improve their operations through mobile apps.

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To make it easy for companies to see how Codehesion can build their app, it offers a free consultation process.

Their experienced app developers also help companies with the strategy around the app, advice on which features to include, and listing it on the app stores.

Codehesion CEO Hector Beyers encourages companies who are looking to build an Android or iOS app to contact them via their website.

For a risk-free consultation  Contact Codehesion here.
It is the desire of the Beacon Hospital to sign an agreement with the HSE today, CEO Michael Cullen has said.

Mr Cullen told RTE radios Morning Ireland that the HSE sent the hospital a revised agreement last night, that he believes goes a long way to addressing the concerns that kept the hospital from signing a safety net surge capacity agreement earlier this month.

The Beacon were the only private hospital to refuse to enter into the agreement that would have seen it hand over 30pc of its capacity to the HSE, if needed.

HSE CEO Paul Reid this weekend described the Beacons decision not to enter the agreement as beyond belief and comprehension.

Read More

Mr Cullen said he was delighted that the HSE sent the hospital a revised agreement which goes a long way to addressing the concerns raised by us over the past two weeks.

We have been looking at it all night - I think it goes a long way towards doing that. We will seek a number of clarifications and are meeting the HSE later today to try and reach an agreement.

It is our desire to sign up. It is our great hope, I think it would be a major disappointment, if we werent able to reach an agreement. Im delighted that this agreement seems to address our initial concerns and then Im more than happy to sign the HSE agreement. We believe we are wearing the green jersey and are happy to sign the agreement, Mr Cullen said.

The CEO said it was never about money when the hospital refused to enter the agreement with other private hospitals but rather about having operational control of their own hospital.

We took this position because of our experience in the previous surge in April, May and June of last year, when having signed the HSE agreement, we were left with 70pc of the hospital being empty for the duration of the agreement.

Immediately before it, it was operating at over 90pc capacity and immediately after it, it was operating at 90pc plus capacity. In fairness to our own staff who have been working on these patients, we felt we had to respond and put the record straight.

This was never about money - its the fact that we are a facility that is geared up to operate near full capacity and we were only able to treat 30pc of the patients that would normally be treated in the Beacon. A huge number of patients did not get treated and should have been treated during that time, Mr Cullen said.

He said the hospital was disappointed with Paul Reids comments at the weekend that the hospital werent wearing the green jersey and said they believe it doesnt accurately or adequately reflect the fact that the hospital is currently, and for the last number of months, providing significant capacity to the public system.

This was about disillusionment as well as wanting to have operational control to treat patients and indeed the patients of the public system. This was never about being unable to treat public patients, it was being able to control our own activity, Mr Cullen pointed out.

Read More




WASHINGTON - There will be no tourists dotting the sprawling green grass of the Capitol lawn as Joe Biden is inaugurated the 46th president of the United States. There will be no cheering crowds, no vendors hawking merchandise. The monuments named in honor of former presidents - Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson - will be closed.

But there will be protests - exactly two, with fewer than 100 demonstrators at each, tucked away near the National Archives and the Canadian Embassy inside a secure perimeter, along a largely vacant Pennsylvania Avenue.

After a week of back-and-forth over security concerns following the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol by a violent pro-Trump mob, District of Columbia and federal officials reached a compromise. They say the plan allows the city's tradition as the nation's preeminent stage for protest and free-speech gatherings to continue.

"We are the premier First Amendment arena in the country, in the world, probably," Jeffrey Reinbold, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said at a news conference Friday. "These are different times, and really different measures."

The measures amount to a de facto "free-speech zone," a tactic that has been used in other cities struggling to maintain order amid volatile protests and high-profile events, including political conventions. They also ensure that demonstrators, whose primary purpose is to be seen and heard - by officials, passersby, the news media - may instead be shouting into an empty street.

First Amendment experts are closely watching the unfolding scene in the city.

Although safety and free speech can coexist, legal experts said, they caution against overreach as an unprecedented portion of federal parks, major roads and access to government buildings are shut down.

Photo for The Washington Post by Evelyn Hockstein

"The more restrictions there are, the more troubling it is for democracy," said Mark Tushnep, a retired Harvard University law professor and First Amendment scholar. "It may be completely understandable given security concerns or threats, but it is still a cost."

The National Park Service had for days been trying to walk a line between shutting down the area entirely and allowing select groups to express their First Amendment rights.

The agency, which issues permits for rallies on the National Mall and other federal parks in the nation's capital, vacillated on proposals with officials from the U.S. Secret Service, D.C. police and the office of Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has said no protest permits would be issued from the city in the coming days.

"If ever there was a time that we needed to make sure that those basic constitutional guaranteed rights were protected, it's right now," Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said. "When the government is under assault, that's especially a time you do not want to appear to be denying civil liberties or denying people their rights under the First Amendment."

Legal experts said that given the violence of Jan. 6, the security measures in D.C. are probably justified - but they cautioned against allowing a prolonged response that extends beyond the need to secure the inauguration.

"It's no question that closing off public spaces, even for a limited time, affects people's ability to exercise their free-speech rights, but at the same time, the government is permitted to carry out temporary targeted closures of common areas when they have a good reason and aren't trying to favor one viewpoint over another," said Scott Michelman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union's D.C. office. "If they close the Mall for the inauguration based on a threat, the First Amendment doesn't prohibit that. If they close the Mall for all of 2021 because there was a threat in January, that is very likely to be overly restrictive."

The Park Service has not issued permits for inauguration week, though officials said the agency is prepared to allow two protests, with restrictions: No more than 100 people each inside a secured perimeter that, to enter, will require participants to undergo a security screening.

They are the most restrictive requirements Litterst said he can recall being imposed on First Amendment activities in Washington.

"I cannot put into words what it's like down there; it defies any description," Litterst said. "I have never seen anything like this. There has never been a shutdown of the Mall like this before."

The two possible rallies are the only potential demonstrations that remain out of a list of nearly a dozen protests that had applied for permits, including some long-term demonstrations such as David's Tent, a religious gathering that has held vigil on the National Mall for years.

Most groups withdrew their applications after the siege at the Capitol, which led to heightened anxieties and security measures involved in the inauguration.

Both groups in consideration for permits are left-leaning organizations, one of which applied for protest clearance more than a year ago - well before it was clear who would be president the next four years.

If permits are granted, the groups will be required to gather on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue in John Marshall Park and at the Navy Memorial.

Virtually no one will be there to witness the demonstrations, which Tushnep said can feel to activists like being "put in a box" by officials.

"The theory these days is that even though these demonstrators are, in some cases, being put quite far from the event or people they're protesting, the method of getting your message out has changed some," Tushnep said. "It's no longer by shouting at people directly but rather through media, including social media, and for that it really doesn't matter how close you are to the venue."

The only pro-Trump group that applied for a protest permit from the Park Service appeared to be a motorcyclist-run rally dubbed, "Let America Hear Us: Roar For Trump," which Park Service officials said has not responded to requests for more information after filing its permit request last year. The application window has closed.

"We can't issue a permit if we haven't had a chance to talk to you about what you're going to do and how your group can meet the conditions we have and all that," Litterst said.

A group of Black activists from Los Angeles leading a "March for Reparations" the day after Biden's inauguration pushed its gathering back until the high-security zone around the National Mall is eased.

Organizer Tara Perry, with California-based group Black Pact, said the rally will proceed despite threats of violence from far-right groups and heightened anxieties among law enforcement officials around potential acts of terrorism.

"We can't sit around and cower in fear, because it is our right as citizens to petition our federal government, and we will not allow white supremacists to intimidate us out of exercising those rights," she said.

Perry said she expects a couple hundred people to attend the rally, though she had originally planned for several thousand.

Experts who evaluate security measures' impact on free speech note the potential for a chilling effect: the possibility that people will decide it's not worth it to exercise their rights in the face of restrictions or safety protocols.

But Michelman, of the ACLU, said not establishing a more robust security response after violence like the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol - or pro-Trump rallies that devolved into roving street battles late last year - may also threaten to erode people's freedom of expression.

"It can be just as chilling for many would-be demonstrators to know that they're going to be met with violent counterprotesters as it would be if they were to be met with state violence," Michelman said. "Nobody wins when insurrectionists storm the Capitol and wanton violence plays out on the streets of the nation's capital. That's not free speech, and that's not conducive to anyone's free speech."
SAO PAULO, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty years ago, on January 15, 2001, GOL Linhas Aereas' inaugural Flight 1741 on a Boeing 737-700 aircraft took off from Brasilia and landed in Congonhas, Sao Paulo. The flight crew included Captain Grabler and Flight Attendant Giselle, who are also celebrating their 20 years at the Company, together with another 127 employees. This group is representative of our Team of Eagles, which is composed of thousands of people who dedicate themselves unconditionally to GOL every day, strengthening the bases of our contribution to transforming the history or air travel and Brazilian society itself journey that has made GOL the leader in the Brazilian airline industry.

Millions of Brazilians took their first ever flight with GOL, and that democratization of air travel is the best possible outcome. Through our constant efforts, the countless lessons learned throughout our journey, and the choice to always take courageous and disruptive action on several fronts  ranging from the organizational culture to the products and services offered  GOL has irreversibly widened access to quality air travel in Brazil. GOL's aim is to Be First for Everyone. However, GOL would not be celebrating these achievements today if innovation had not been imprinted in the Company's DNA from the beginning.

"On our anniversary, we look at what the past 20 years can teach us about tackling the complex challenges that lie ahead, particularly when it comes to protecting the environment, addressing social issues, and the internal organization of the Company itself. We will work hard to learn and innovate, as we have always done since January 15, 2001," adds Paulo Kakinoff, GOL's CEO.

Access here the full press release.

About GOL Linhas Aereas (www.voegol.com.br): Brazil's largest airline and the leader in the business and leisure segments, serving more than 36 million passengers annually. In its 20 years of history, the Company democratized air travel and became the largest low-cost company in the sector, offering the best fares in Latin America.

SOURCE GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A.

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Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was suspended from Twitter for 12 hours after sending out a now-deleted tweet telling Trump supporters to "mobilize". ProPublica preserved the deleted tweet, which said: "I encourage all Americans, not just the 75 million people who voted for President Trump, to mobilize and make your voices heard in opposition to these attacks on our liberties."

She was suspended after also tweeting misinformation about election fraud. A Twitter spokesperson told NPR that Ms Greene "has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy".

Ms Greene said in a statement: "Just days after the Silicon Valley Cartel launched a multi-front attack to chill free speech in America by deplatforming President Donald Trump and purging an unknown number of conservatives, Twitter has decided to suspend my personal account without explanation."

Before she was suspended, she tweeted that the "disaster in Georgia lays solely in the hands of state leadership who failed voters in our state". President-elect Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since 1992. Georgia, which has long been seen as a safe red state for Republicans, also elected two Democrats to the Senate on January 5, both by very slim margins.

Ms Greene criticised Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and top election official Gabriel Sterling, saying they "were begged by Republicans to fix our elections. They did nothing," despite that there's no evidence of any widespread irregularities in Georgia or in the rest of the country.

Trump news - live: President to host ceremony for himself on inauguration day as he plans to pardon 100

Twitter labelled the tweet, saying: "This claim about election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence."

Both Mr Raffensperger and Mr Sterling have received death threats after not working to overturn Georgia's election in Mr Trumps favour.

Writing in The Atlantic on Saturday, Republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said "The newly elected Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. She once ranted that 'theres a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it.'"

Ms Greene added in her statement that "Conservative Americans shouldn't be afraid to speak their mind. They shouldn't have to fear being cancelled by American corporations where they work, do business, and use services. They shouldn't be scared into submission by Socialists who want to end their way of life".

Ms Greene's Twitter suspension comes a little more than a week after Twitter banned President Trump from the platform, citing the risk of further incitement of violence following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.

Ms Greene was elected to represent Georgias 14th District in November. She's gained large followings on social media in part by posting incendiary videos and comments and has also embraced QAnon, a far-right U.S. conspiracy theory centred around the debunked belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the deep state and a child sex trafficking ring they say is linked to Democrats.

As of January 12, Twitter had suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with QAnon. Twitter has said it is taking action against online behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm".

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.

The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Gatchalian: Extension of lifeline rate subsidy in electricity bill gets Senate nod

Senator Win Gatchalian said low-income households can look forward to a continued subsidy in their electricity consumption bills in the next 10 years.

Senate Bill No. 1877, the measure extending the implementation of subsidized electricity rate to marginalized end-users, particularly those households consuming not more than 100 kilowatt hour (kWh) or less per month, was passed on third and final reading today.

"Malaking kaluwagan ito sa mga kababayan nating patuloy na nagdarahop dala ng kawalan ng pinagkakakitaan na lalo pang pinalala ng nararanasan nating pandemya. Sa pamamagitan ng panukalang ito, makakaasa silang hindi mapuputol ang ayudang tinatamasa ng dalawang dekada na," Gatchalian said.

The Senate Energy Committee Chairman remains optimistic that the bill will see its enactment before the expiration of the Lifeline Rate provision under Section 73 of Republic Act No. 10150 otherwise known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 on June 26 this year.

If passed into law, some 5.5 million households stand to benefit from the socialized pricing mechanism until June 2031 and have an estimated annual savings of P900 on electricity expenses, Gatchalian said.

Under the bill, qualified marginalized end-users are either those who are household-beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or who have applied and have been certified by their respective distribution utilities based on criteria set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), taking into account the poverty threshold set by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

This will be the second time that the Lifetime Rate provision will be given a 10-year extension. It was first extended for 10 years in 2011.

The lifeline rate subsidy being paid by non-lifeline consumers in the Meralco franchise is Php 0.0478 per kWh.

# # #

Pagpapalawig ng Lifeline Rate subsidy sa mga mahihirap aprubado na sa Senado - Gatchalian

Maaari pang madugtungan ng sampung taon ang pagtanggap ng mga mahihirap na pamilya ng subsidiya kaugnay ng buwanang kunsumo nila ng kuryente, ayon kay Senador Win Gatchalian. Lusot na sa mataas na kapulungan ang Senate Bill No. 1877 o ang panukalang nagpapalawig sa tinatawag na Lifeline Rate, isang ayuda para sa mga pamilyang kumukunsumo ng 100 kilowatt hour (kWh) o mas mababa pa. Inaprubahan na ito sa third at final reading ngayong araw.

"Malaking kaluwagan ito sa mga kababayan nating patuloy na nagdarahop dala ng kawalan ng pinagkakakitaan na lalo pang pinalala ng nararanasan nating pandemya. Sa pamamagitan ng panukalang ito, makakaasa silang hindi mapuputol ang ayudang tinatamasa ng dalawang dekada na," ani Gatchalian.

Umaasa ang Senate Energy Committee Chairman na maisasabatas ito bago mapaso sa darating na Hunyo 26 ang probisyon ng Lifeline Rate na nasa ilalim ng Section 73 ng Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 o Republic Act No. 10150.

Sa ilalim ng panukalang batas, nasa 5.5 milyong pamilya ang makikinabang sa socialized pricing mechanism hanggang Hunyo 2031 at maari silang makatipid ng humigit kumulang Php900 sa kanilang gastusin sa kuryente, ayon kay Gatchalian.

Sa ilalim ng panukalang batas, ang mga kwalipikadong marginalized end-users ay kinakailangang kabilang sa Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) o napatunayan ng mga distribution utilities na kwalipikado batay sa pamantayan ng Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) at poverty threshold ng Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Sakaling maging ganap na batas, ito na ang pangalawang beses na napalawig ng sampung taon ang probisyon sa Lifeline Rate. Una itong pinalawig noong 2011.

Ang mga hindi kwalipikadong kunsyumer ng Meralco ang umaako ng subsidiyang Lifeline Rate sa halagang Php 0.0478 kada kWh.
(Newser)  The BBC has apologized for a headline it posted about the death of Phil Spector. When news broke of Spector's death over the weekend, the news organization quickly posted a headline that read, "Talented but flawed producer Phil Spector dies aged 81." However, complaints soon followed, with critics accusing the BBC of sugar-coating Spector's murder conviction in 2009. UK pop star Lily Allen was among them. "Rolling eyes at all the journos deliberately downplaying Phil Spector being a murderer in their headlines, so everyone (points) this out while linking to their articles resulting in lots of clicks," she tweeted. But she was far from alone. The London Economic rounds up other criticism, including multiple references that had the name of serial killer Fred West trending.

story continues below

"Fred West was not a 'talented but flawed' builder," reads one tweet. Editors at the BBC soon agreed. "The breaking news story on Phil Spectors death was published with a headline that did not meet our editorial standards," reads the statement. "This was changed within minutes and we also deleted a tweet that had gone out automatically with the original headline. We apologize for this error." The new headline: "Pop producer jailed for murder dies at 81." The polar opposite of the original BBC headline can be found at the Digital Fix: "Murderer of Lana Jean Clarkson dies in prison," it reads. (Read more Phil Spector stories.)
Alexei Navalny, centre, and his wife Yulia travel in an airport bus (Mstyslav Chernov/AP)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnys arrest as he arrived in Moscow after recovering from his poisoning with a nerve agent drew criticism from Western nations and calls for his release, with Germanys foreign minister calling it incomprehensible.

Mr Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport after flying in Sunday evening from Berlin, where he was treated following the poisoning in August that he blames on the Kremlin.

Mr Navalnys arrest adds another layer of tension to relations between Moscow and the West that have long been strained and were worsened by his poisoning.

Expand Close Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia (Mstyslav Chernov/AP) / Facebook

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German foreign minister Heiko Maas noted that Mr Navalny had returned of his own volition and said it is completely incomprehensible that he was detained by Russian authorities immediately after his arrival.

Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international commitments to the principle of the rule of law and the protection of civil rights, Mr Maas added.

These principles must of course also be applied to Alexei Navalny.

He should be released immediately.

I condemn the detention of Alexei Navalny by the Russian authorities. They must immediately release him and ensure his safety.



Detention of political opponents is against Russiaas international commitments. pic.twitter.com/RRATmAHVvn  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 18, 2021

The politicians allies said on Monday he was being held at a police precinct outside Moscow and has been refused access to his lawyer.

According to Mr Navalnys lawyers, in an unexpected turn of events, a court hearing into whether Mr Navalny should remain in custody started on Monday at the precinct itself, and they were notified minutes before.

It is impossible what is happening over here, Mr Navalny said in video from the improvised court room, posted on his page in the messaging app Telegram.

It is lawlessness of the highest degree.

Calls for Mr Navalnys immediate release have also come from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and top officials of other EU nations.

Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable. The Kremlinas attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard.  Jake Sullivan (@jakejsullivan) January 17, 2021

US President-elect Joe Bidens pick for national security adviser called on Russian authorities to free Mr Navalny.

Mr Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable, Jake Sullivan tweeted.

Deeply troubled by Russia's decision to arrest Aleksey Navalny. Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 18, 2021

The outgoing US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the US strongly condemns the decision to arrest Mr Navalny, which he called the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities.

Mr Navalnys detention was widely expected because Russias prisons service said he had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

The prisons service said it would seek to have Mr Navalny serve his 3 1/2-year sentence behind bars.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday the stream of reactions to Mr Navalnys arrest by Western officials reflects an attempt to divert attention from the crisis of the Western model of development.

Navalnys case has received a foreign policy dimension artificially and without any foundation, Mr Lavrov said, arguing that his detention was a prerogative of Russian law enforcement agencies that explained their action.

Its a matter of observing the law, he added.

Mr Navalny, 44, President Vladimir Putins most prominent and determined foe, brushed off concerns about arrest as he boarded his flight in Berlin on Sunday.

Its impossible. Im an innocent man, he said.

Mr Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20.

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He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Mr Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison.

Russia refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Mr Navalny was poisoned, and officials have challenged Germany to provide proof of the poisoning.

Last month, Mr Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he alleged was a member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up.

The FSB dismissed the recording as fake.

Mr Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlins side for a decade, unusually durable in an opposition movement often demoralised by repression.

New Delhi: The vaccine has entered into a war against the epidemic in the country. Since Saturday, people in the country have started getting corona vaccine. Not only that, India has also created a record of corona vaccination. A total of 224,301 people have been given the first dose of the vaccine within two days in the country, while the US, UK and France have lagged behind in the case.

Corona vaccination campaign will resume in all states of the country from Monday. In some states, vaccination was halted on Sunday. On the second day of corona vaccination, 17,072 people were vaccinated. A total of 2,24,301 people have been vaccinated in the country so far. After PM Modi launched the corona vaccination drive through video conferencing, about 1.91 lakh frontline workers and health workers had given the first dose of corona vaccine on the first day of vaccination at about 3300 sites across the country. However, it was much lower than the target of three lakh daily. The government hopes that corona vaccination will see momentum from today.

The Delhi government will launch a campaign to provide more health workers in Delhi to get corona vaccine. The campaign will try to address their doubts or hesitation by talking to health workers. The health workers will also be motivated to get the vaccine by calling them.

Also Read-

Today is third day of corona vaccinayion, know which cities will get vaccine

Construction of record 534 km Highways in one week: Govt

Coronavirus India: Many cases recorded in the last 24 hours
The Luzerne County Council election inquiry committee began to review the findings of its work over the past several months during a virtual meeting Thursday.

Council created the committee after a September 2020 incident in which a temporary worker in the county election bureau opened and discarded overseas military ballots, leading to a federal investigation which is still ongoing.

Since October, the committee has met multiple times to review county electoral procedures. It will soon issue recommendations in several areas of the electoral process.

Thursdays meeting focused on general operating policies and procedures.

Committee members  Linda McClosky Houck, Harry Haas, Stephen J. Urban and Sheila Saidman  discussed suggested ways to improve the voting process for voters, poll workers and election officials.

Urban suggested that more phone lines be installed at the election bureau, especially early on Election Day, to allow poll workers with questions or problems at polling sites to get help.

Saidman said she tried in vain to get through to the election bureau by phone in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 general election.

Haas suggested the committee should lobby state lawmakers to eliminate no-excuse mail-in voting, which was new to Pennsylvania last year and according to Haas caused numerous problems.

Houck, the committee chairwoman, suggested a procedural manual should be assembled to guide the daily operations of the election bureau. She said several people told her they received conflicting information from different workers in the bureau.

At its next meeting on Jan. 21, the committee will discuss the role of the county board of elections, Houck said. The role of that board, which consists of five appointed citizens who do not hold elective office, has been debated since the board was formed as part of the countys home rule form of government that took effect in 2012.
Pedestrians walk on the street near Seoul City Hall in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



A heavy snow advisory has been issued for Seoul and central and southwestern regions, the weather agency said Monday, forecasting nearly 10 centimeters of snow in some areas during the day.



The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said it issued the heavy snow advisory for Seoul; almost all areas in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province and the central provinces of Chungcheong; and some areas in the southwestern Jeolla provinces and southeastern province of North Gyeongsang.



A heavy snow advisory is issued when it is predicted that more than 5 cm of snow will accumulate over 24 hours.



In Seoul, the advisory took effect at 9:40 a.m., KMA said, asking citizens to pay extra attention to safe driving and walking in the snow.



Almost all cities and counties in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces, except for those close to the inter-Korean border and along the east coast, have been put under the advisory, KMA noted.



The heavy snow advisory also affects some areas in the Jeolla provinces, except for coastal areas, and mountain areas in North Gyeongsang Province, it said.



KMA previously forecast heavy snow for Seoul early Monday morning, but the actual amount of snowfall reached a mere 0.1 cm in downtown and 1 to 1.5 cm in southern areas. Bracing for snow-related traffic congestion, many commuters left for work up to an hour earlier than usual but eventually vented grievances about the inaccurate weather forecast.



KMA, however, predicted strong snowfalls for most parts of Seoul on Monday afternoon following light snow or a lull in the morning.



In Chungcheong provinces, where up to 7 cm of snow fell between Sunday night and Monday morning, an additional 3 to 8 cm is forecast for the afternoon.



In the southwestern city of Gwangju and the Jeolla provinces, around 10 cm of snow was recorded Monday morning and an additional 3 to 8 cm is expected during the afternoon.



Following snowfalls, the morning low in Seoul will dip to minus 12 C on Tuesday before rising gradually for the rest of the week, KMA said. (Yonhap)


On Sunday, January 17, Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government for the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign. Ibrahim took to his Twitter handle and hailed the 'landmark program to vaccinate India's population against COVID-19.'

Congratulations to PM @narendramodi and the Indian government for its landmark program to vaccinate Indias population against COVID-19. Im highly confident that youll be successful in this endeavor and that we are finally seeing an end to the COVID-19 scourge.  Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (@ibusolih) January 17, 2021

India launches vaccine campaign

PM Modi launched the pan-India rollout of COVID-19 vaccination drive via video conferencing. He said that everyone had only one question in their minds and that is "when will the vaccine be available?" PM Modi said that the vaccine is now available and the world's largest vaccination rollout will begin in a few minutes.

Read: India And Maldives Sign Four MoUs During Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardha Shringla's Visit

"With self-confidence and self-reliance, we fought with the virus. The pledge that we will not let our confidence down in this battle is shown by every Indian," PM Modi said.

"Today when we take a look at the last year, we realise that we have learnt a lot as a person, a family and as a nation. Today, when we start our vaccination drive, I want to remember those days when everyone wanted to do something but were not able to find a way due to Coronavirus," he said.

The drugs regulatory body of India has currently approved two vaccines. Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.

Read: Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Congratulates PM Modi For Vaccine Launch

During November, India and Maldives signed four Memoranda of Understanding. It also included one MoU on the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) with the Maldivian Foreign Affairs Minister Abdulla Shahid. According to reports, the MoU stated that India is an "undisputed first responder, the best of friends, an invaluable partner" of Maldives.

Maldivian Foreign Affairs Minister Abdulla Shahid said that the relationship between the two countries is built on common values and traditions. He added, "Ours is a relationship of people - built on shared values, shared culture and traditions... India is the undisputed first responder, the best of friends, an invaluable partner. The MoUs were signed during a ceremony attended by Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardha Shringla and Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.

Read: Kiara Advani & Sidharth Malhotra Arrive In Maldives, Share Pictures From Island

Also Read: Kiara Advani Shares Her Maldives Vacation Routine, Shares Stunning Pictures

(Image Credits: PTI)
Modi the person through which Balakot information went to Arnab: Rahul Gandhi

NCP demands JPC on 'WhatsApp chats' between Arnab Goswami, Partho Dasgupta

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Mumbai, Jan 18: The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday asked the government to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the purported chats between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former Broadcast Audience Research Council head Partho Dasgupta.

Referring to the purported chats widely reported in media which mentioned that Goswami was privy to the Balakot air strikes, NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, "It is extremely shocking and disturbing to know how issues related to national security have been used to gain TRPs."

As part of diplomatic outreach, India to give COVID-19 vaccine to other countries in few weeks

Tapase said he will meet Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday on the issue and seek clarification from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the 'chatgate'.

"The question also arises how Arnab was privy to such sensitive information. The Ministry of Home Affairs has to identify the source and immediately take action," he said. Goswami has been at the forefront in maligning the image of the Mumbai police and also the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state, Tapase claimed.

Tandav controversy: FIR lodged against director, Amazon India head of content

"In his TV debates, he tried to give a communal angle to the Palghar incident. The Sushant Singh Rajput death case was blown out of proportion and a false narrative was set. All this was done with the sole intention to destabilise the MVA government," Tapase said.

The BJP should clarify its position on Arnab Goswami, he said. Dasgupta, who was arrested in the fake Television Rating Point (TRP) case, is now in the ICU of state-run JJ hospital in central Mumbai.

Explained: Is India prepared to restyle its mode to 5G?

A diabetic, he was rushed to the hospital from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai on Saturday after his blood sugar levels went up on Friday midnight.

The Mumbai police had earlier told the court that Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta with lakhs of rupees to ramp up Republic TV's viewership.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 13:29 [IST]
Alcatraz, the former federal prison and current national park, was a very timely site for an art installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in 2014, when he was under house arrest following release from detention by the Chinese government. He was arrested following his activism on behalf of thousands of children killed in an earthquake in Sichuan province.

His @Large expo included a prison hall nearly filled by a massive bird sculpture, made with reflector panels referencing the plight of Tibetans under Chinese rule. Elaborate kites also invoked the freedom of flight and restraint. The expo also included portraits of 116 people imprisoned in 22 countries around the globe, including the U.S., largely for political reasons, from organizing the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt to journalists exposing corruption.

The documentary Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly takes its name from a portion of Ais Alcatraz expo and it details the artist and his fathers persecution by Chinese authorities. It also highlights a handful of the 116 prisoners of conscience.

Yours Truly is directed and produced by Cheryl Haines, and she appears frequently on screen. Shes the director of the FOR-SITE Foundation, based in San Francisco, and she suggested the location to Ai when she helped organize the show. Alcatraz had been used to detain Native Americans resisting assimilation, and it was occupied in 1969 the by the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Ais father was Ai Qing, a well-known Chinese poet who was accused of being anti-socialist and sent to a labor camp in a remote northeastern region of China. His family followed him there, and Ai grew up watching his father subjected to hard labor and being publicly shamed. He shares a story of his fathers delight at receiving a postcard from a friend commemorating publication of a particular poem, and that inspired Yours Truly.

At the Alcatraz exhibit, visitors were invited to send postcards to any of the 116 people whose plights were profiled in the show. More than 92,000 were sent, and some of the film recounts their reception by the imprisoned people or their families.

The film doesnt offer much other detail about Ais life. He actually lived in the Bay Area, New York, Berlin and elsewhere before he returned to China and was imprisoned. There is some attention to a handful of installations he created, including in Berlin, where he moved after being allowed out of China in 2015.

Many of the political prisoners in the film are not well known. Ai was an internationally recognized artist when he was detained, and such notoriety puts pressure on a government holding political prisoners. The film could have put more attention on other prisoners. A few of those mentioned are Reeyot Alemu, an Ethiopian teacher-turned-journalist jailed under anti-terrorism laws; Mohammed Habib al-Miqdad was jailed and tortured in Bahrain for advocating for changes to the constitution; Ivan Fernandez Depestre was jailed in Cuba for his political activism. Two of the Americans included are Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of espionage after giving military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks, and John Kiriakou, who disclosed that the U.S. used torture in interrogations.

The film is framed as a success story  for the creation of the art exhibit and Ais release and emigration out of China. But that still costs him his native home and does not result in political reform. In interviews after their release, former prisoners talk of the loneliness of confinement (often in solitary), and what the jailers did to extinguish their senses of hope. Several acknowledge that they have to be careful to stay out of jail, and its an ominous notion that theyve realized freedom without justice.

Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly runs at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

'MLK/FBI' details J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. Its no secret that the FBI kept civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. under heavy surveillance. The agency tapped phones he used, bugged


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US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

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Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

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Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

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Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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The last person known to have seen Libby Squire alive heard her scream 'don't leave me' just moments before she disappeared, a court heard today.

Polish butcher Pawel Relowicz, 26, is accused of finding the 21-year-old 'drunk and vulnerable' and 'stalking' her before picking her up in his car, raping her, then dumping her body.

Sainsbury's manager Matthew Handisides told Sheffield Crown Court today that he was walking home down Beverley Road in Hull when he noticed the drunken student.

Polish butcher Pawel Relowicz, 26, (left) is accused of finding Libby Squire (right) 'drunk and vulnerable' and 'stalking' her before picking her up in his car and raping her

He said his attention was initially grabbed by a car with its headlights on before he was drawn to a 'movement in the shadows'.

He said: 'I noticed a young girl or lady on the ground. She was sat with her legs akimbo [with hands on the hips and elbows turned outwards].

'She was yelling, not towards me but to the car or the shadows, 'don't leave me'. I made an assessment that she was very intoxicated. The 'don't leave me' was more angry or cross rather than pleading or anything like that.'

Mr Handisides said he thought the car was of medium size but that he couldn't make out its colour or if anyone was inside it because of the light.

He added he assumed the stricken woman was talking to her partner, although there was no mention of one, and carried on walking home.

'From being a student myself I have plenty of female friends and have seen those kinds of interactions on nights out,' he said.

'Although I didn't see a boyfriend, the way she was saying it was similar to how I'd seen my friends interact with their boyfriends.'

Mr Relowicz, of Hull, denies raping and murdering the philosophy student on February 1 2019

Prosecutor Mr Wright asked if he saw her again, to which the witness replied 'no'. He also replied 'no' when asked if he saw any other man close to her at the time.

Mr Relowicz, of Hull, denies raping and murdering the philosophy student on February 1 2019.

A court earlier heard Relowicz had 'uncontrollable sexual urges' and previous convictions for 'sexually motivated' crimes in which he 'prowled' around the city's student area.

This morning, Sheffield Crown Court heard evidence from three of Libby's friends who were with her hours before she disappeared on January 31.

Libby's housemate Amelia Cummins said they began drinking while getting ready at home before going on to a house party and a club.

In a written statement read by the prosecution, she said: 'We all had a good time, Libby was happy and funny. She was laughing and generally enjoying herself.

'Libby appeared fine in herself and didn't appear to have anything worrying her or any concerns.'

Ms Cummins said they began getting ready at around 7.30pm and that Libby drunk two large vodka cranberries followed by a vodka coke and a bottle of wine after moving on to a friend's house.

At the house, she chatted with a friend from her philosophy course at the University of Hull called Nathan Murphy, the court heard.

In a statement read about by the prosecution, he said: 'Libby was in good spirits. She was welcoming and friendly.

'Other than being cold and drunk she seemed fine in all other respects.'

Libby left the house party for a club at around 11pm, Ms Cummins said, but that she was 'struggling walking'.

A court artist's sketch of Pawel Relowicz (in blue) sitting in Sheffield Crown Court earlier in the trial

In a statement, Libby's other housemate Chloe Wise said: 'As we walked to the club Libby's level of intoxication became more noticeable.

'I was of the belief that the fresh air might have hit her.'

After being refused entry to the club for being 'too drunk' Ms Cummins and Ms Wise put Libby into a taxi and sent her back to their shared house, the court heard.

The court also heard from two more witnesses who spotted Libby on the street before she vanished.

University of Hull mechanical engineering student Joshua Scott said he was walking home from work at around 11.45am when he saw her.

Miss Squire died in Hull two years ago

In a statement read out by the prosecution, he said: 'The female looked really drunk and seemed unable to stand. She was being loud, either singing or shouting, but she didn't seem distressed.'

Mr Scott said by the time he got to the woman she was already being helped by Mr Jones, who the court heard from this morning, so he carried on walking home.

Today, Richard Woolfall, prosecuting, read a statement from witness Lorna Allen, who saw Ms Squire in Beverley Road shortly before midnight on January 31 2019.

Mr Woolfall told the jury that Ms Allen said: 'I saw a girl on the other side of the road, at the bus stop near Haworth Street.

'She was lying on the floor and crying and screaming. She was in a state. I couldn't understand her because she was drunk.'

The statement continued: 'She was lying flat-out on the floor, on her right side.

'She was slurring her words and talking to herself and she seemed very drunk. I said to her 'Are you all right?' She replied 'I just want to go home'.

Another witness told police she saw Ms Squire 'sobbing' and saying that she was trying to get to Wellesley Avenue - where she lived with three other students - and a group of men, who saw her get out of a taxi near her home, described how they saw her fall as she walked away, the court heard.

Mr Woolfall also read the statement of Hannah Wright, a student who heard Ms Squire 'crying and sobbing' outside her house and invited her inside.

Ms Wright said in her statement: 'She didn't say anything coherent. She was crying, sobbing, rambling. She appeared to me to be drunk.'

The witness said she and her housemates tried to find out Ms Squire's name and address but said she was 'not forthcoming with information' and she left after being in the house for around five minutes.

Roland Jacobs told the court that he tried to help Ms Squire after seeing her lying on the ground in the snow as he and a friend drove home from a darts match.

He said: 'I said 'Stop the car'. I realised what it was - it was a girl laid there on the floor. I wouldn't like to see my daughter in that state.'

He added: 'She was just mumbling things but I couldn't understand what she was actually saying.'

Mr Jacobs said Ms Squire asked him to lie on the ground with her, and later asked him for a hug but he refused.

He said she began swearing at him.

The court heard that Mr Jacobs helped Ms Squire off the ground and on to a wall before deciding to 'give up on it as a bad job' and driving away after around 10 minutes.

The trial continues.
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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Amman on Monday in an official visit upon an invitation by King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues.

King Abdullah II received El-Sisi at Marka airport, according to the Royal Hashemite Court.

According to the Egyptian presidency, the two leaders will discuss ways to boost Egyptian-Jordanian relations, in addition to exchanging views on regional issues in light of the keeness of both sides on regular coordination to unify efforts to protect Arab national security.

The visit comes less than a week after Cairo hosted a quartet meeting attended by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Jordan to discuss coordination and consultation on means to push forward with the Middle East peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

In August, El-Sisi attended a tripartite summit in Amman between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq to discuss partnership prospects between the three countries, as well as regional issues, including the Palestinian cause.

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A PRESENTATION by council staff on planned housing developments for the Newcastle West municipal district became heated.

Information was being given on the Rebuilding Ireland Programme at last months local area meeting. When details were being given about a 30 unit social housing development in Woodfield, Newcastle West, Cllr John Sheahan was first to raise concerns of local residents.

He asked who the provider is to be and was told Cluid  an authorised housing body (AHB). The meeting heard that the council were supportive of AHB (Authorised Housing Bodies) applications to build once they have demonstrated there was a need.

There are many young couples looking to buy a house. Nobody wants to develop for them. You get more (money) from approved housing bodies  its a gravy train, said Cllr Sheahan.

Cllr Tom Ruddle asked if other site could be entertained as there has been opposition from existing residents.

Cllr Jerome Scanlan said there had been a private meeting between a number of councillors and housing staff with regard to the Woodfield development.

It is extremely disappointing that we didnt get the courtesy of a return call. Residents in Woodfield dont want this development. Can we not finish one before we commence another? It is not good enough. It is an affront to public representatives. Weve been given the two fingers, said Cllr Scanlan.

Mayor of Limerick Michael Collins said the views of public representatives were completely ignored.

This is going to create a huge amount of hassle. The residents there paid a lot of money during the boom for those houses. Their concerns have been completely ignored. That information we gave is going to come back and bite the authority, said Mayor Collins.

A council staff member said the development with Cluid as the provider was locked in. It is due to be completed in late December of this year.

Cllr Scanlan said, Nobody came back to us.

The plans are not thought through. If you cant talk to people on the ground you are going nowhere, said Cllr Scanlan.

Mayor Collins said: You are going to end up with a half finished estate with the council picking up the tab.

According to its website, Cluid Housing is an award winning, not-for-profit charity providing over 8,000 affordable, high quality homes to people in housing need.

Cluid has grown to become the largest approved housing body (AHB) in Ireland.

There are currently nearly 69,000 households on local authority waiting lists for social housing.

Although Cluid is a not-for-profit charity, our team know it is essential that we operate efficiently and effectively and ensure that our financial stewardship is of the highest standard, it says on its website.
While they're lumped together in the beauty department, in some ways, make-up and skincare are polar opposites.

Active-packed moisturisers and serums aim to improve your complexion over time, whereas make-up - as anyone who's accidentally gone to bed with a full face of foundation on can attest - has the power to really mess with your skin, leaving you with an outbreak of spots that you then need more potions and lotions to fix.

Now a new generation of products aims to bridge that gap, offering the instant enhancing effects of make-up, with the longer-term benefits of skincare.

But can they deliver on both fronts? Here, experts explain everything you need to know about the hybrid beauty scene.

Where did the trend for hybrid products start?

Like many of today's hottest beauty trends, hybrid products originated in South Korea with pigmented BB ('beauty balm') and CC ('colour correcting' or 'complexion correcting') creams.

"There, BB creams were a beauty hit, adored for their ability to transform skin easily," says Kenza Dahbi Skali, international marketing director for French-Korean brand Erborian.

"The trend made its way to Europe. Erborian was the first brand to launch a BB cream in Europe, partnering with Sephora, to show the magical benefits of this all-in-one 'it' product."

While some make-up brands have subsequently boosted their foundations or tinted moisturisers with active ingredients, other products are formulated as hybrids from the start.

"Many skincare brands have started launching hybrid products instead of just make-up, because their expertise is to treat the skin, so the idea was not to lose that know-how and identity when launching make-up," says Nassim Hamek, product manager at Typology, which has just launched a six-shade range of tinted serums.

What are the main hybrid product types?

"We mostly see skincare-infused CC creams or very sheer foundation alternatives as a key product within the make-up hybrid category," says Rosalba Martone, director of education at Perricone MD. "However, recently, more and more skincare hybrids have been focused on grouping key ingredients to simplify your routine."

The emergence of the 'no make-up make-up' trend led to a rise in demand for barely-there complexion products, and now the category has expanded to include nourishing tinted lip balms and even mascaras that condition your lashes over time.

Martone adds: "Perricone MD was first to market with our original No Makeup Foundation in 2012 and then expanded the collection in 2014 with additional ancillary items - like blush and mascara - to complete a natural, healthy, radiant look."

What are the benefits of hybrid products?

"Compared to classical make-up, hybrids are rich in skincare actives. They bring care to the skin, treat it and protect it, while instantly enhancing it," says Dahbi Skali. "You still get all the make-up benefits, but with a natural look and a substantial skincare bonus."

Some hybrid products are suitable for all skin types, Martone says: "They will target textural concerns - including fine lines, wrinkles and enlarged pores - but also uneven tone and discolouration, while boosting your skin's health and hydration levels."

Others are aimed at tackling specific concerns, such as acne. Hamek says: "Using these products can be a good solution, to reduce the number of conventional make-up products that can clog pores because of silicones or mineral oils."

How do you choose the best product for your skin?

"Look for the hybrid product that talks directly to your personal skincare concern," says Martone. "For example, if you have fine lines and wrinkles, look for moisture-rich products that specifically target lines and wrinkles, or if your concern is blemishes, look for oil-free products that deliver clearing benefits."

Hamek warns that it's important to "check the active ingredients correspond to one's skin type. For instance, an oily skin should not go for hybrid products with too many vegetable oils in its ingredients list".

And you still need to cleanse and moisturise twice daily, says Dahbi Skali: "You should still use your skincare routine as first steps, prior to applying even skincare-infused make-up. It is not meant to replace your existing routine, but rather be supplementary to it."
At a meeting with the Council of Minorca and Minorca's mayors on Monday, President Armengol said that she was "in favour of regions having all the tools at their disposal to manage the crisis". "If we had the option of bringing the curfew forward, we would do so."

The president was echoing what government spokesperson Pilar Costa had stated earlier on Monday - that the government would support the proposal at this week's Inter-Territorial Council for the National Health System to bring forward the current curfew from 10pm to 8pm.

Armengol added that the Balearic government had raised the possibility of an earlier curfew with the Spanish government in December. This was because of the increase in infections in Mallorca. "We requested this possibility, but the minister (Salvador Illa) responded as he has now - that it is necessary to amend the state of alarm decree law. For that reason, we decided that there should be closure of commercial activity at 8pm in Mallorca and we recommended that people be home at that time."
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Its hard to pinpoint exactly when we lost control of what we see, readand even thinkto the biggest social-media companies.

I put it right around 2016. That was the year Twitter and Instagram joined Facebook and YouTube in the algorithmic future. Ruled by robots programmed to keep our attention as long as possible, they promoted stuff wed most likely tap, share or heartand buried everything else.

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Bye-bye, feeds that showed everything and everyone we followed in an unending, chronologically ordered river. Hello, high-energy feeds that popped with must-clicks.

At around the same time, Facebookwhose News Feed has been driven by algorithms since 2009hid the setting to switch back to Most Recent."

No big deal, you probably thought, if you thought about it at all. Except these opaque algorithms didnt only maximize news of T. Swifts latest album drops. They also maximized the reach of the incendiarythe attacks, the misinformation, the conspiracy theories. They pushed us further into our own hyperpolarized filter bubbles.

There are bad people doing bad things on the internetQAnon, white supremacistsits not that Facebook, YouTube and other social-media sites allow it on their platform. Its that they amplify it," says Hany Farid, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The worst-case scenarios are no longer just hypothetical. People are shown things that appeal most to them, they click, they read, they watch, they fall into rabbit holes that reinforce their thoughts and ideas, they connect with like-minded people. They end up in their own personalized version of reality. They end up inside the U.S. Capitol.

Certainly social media isnt alone to blame. And when the blame does fall on social media, the robots arent the only ones culpable. The silencing of President Trumps Facebook and Twitter accounts revealed the opposite: The humans running these companies still have final say over what doesand doesntappear. (And last I checked, we can still opt out of using social media at all.)

But at the heart of it all, this is still a gigantic technology problem: Computers are in charge of what we see and theyre operating without transparency.

Usually, the goal of my column is to provide solutions to tech problems. In this case, there isnt onecertainly not a simple one. All I can do is share some ideas.

Idea #1: No algorithms, no ads

Mark Weinstein, the founder of MeWe, a social network that markets itself as the anti-Facebook, is very clear that the solution is going back to a pure chronological feed with zero manipulation.

On MeWe you follow friends, pages or groups. The posts appear in your feed as they were posted. No advertiser, no marketer, no political operative and no member can boost content into someone elses feed. So we completely dismantle the idea of disruptive, outrageous amplification," Mr. Weinstein said. It cant happen on MeWe."

Specifically, he says, this limits the spread of misinformation. You have to choose to follow misinformation. You cant be spoon-fed misinformation by an algorithm or by a Russian government or a Chinese government," he added.

In the recent week, however, as far-right users look for alternatives to Facebook, Twitter and Parler, theyve landed at MeWe, which currently reports 15.5 million users. Mr. Weinstein says the social network has invested heavily in moderation and that its terms of service are clear: You will be kicked off for inciting violence, posting unlawful material and more. In the wake of Parlers removal, MeWe has been in touch with Apple, Google and Amazon about making sure the app meets their moderation guidelines.

The issue with a non-algorithmic timeline, however, is that the feed can become flooded and hard to sort through. Its exactly what Twitter, Facebook and Instagram told me when I asked why they did away with chronological defaults in the first place.

Mr. Weinstein says MeWe, which makes money from paid features and a premium subscription optionnot from advertisingsolves for that with filters and tools to manage your feed; you can sort by contacts, groups and pages you follow. And because there arent targeted ads, MeWe isnt constantly collecting data about you, Mr. Weinstein says.

Idea #2: Deprioritize the destructive

For the big guys which depend on advertising, however, removing the algorithm is as likely as teaching my dog to write columns.

Instead, experts suggest that the platforms get serious about deprioritizing the outrage, anger and conspiracy, and prioritizing the trustworthy, thoughtful and reputableeven if they know it means less engagement.

Algorithms simply have to just decide, We think there is more value to the Wall Street Journals, the Wikipedias, the World Health Organizations than the Dumbdumb.coms," said Prof. Farid.

And theres proof that it can work. In a March 2020 study, Prof. Farid and other researchers found that YouTube had in fact decreased the promotion of conspiracy videos after the company changed its recommendation algorithms.

Facebook has done the same. In the weeks leading up to the election, Facebook and Instagram took steps to limit the spread of information its algorithms classified as potential misinformation, including debunked claims about voter and ballot fraud. It resulted in a boost to trusted news sources and a decrease to partisan sites.

And theres evidence that election-fraud narratives sharply decreased on Twitter following the suspension of Mr. Trumps account, according to media intelligence platform Zignal Labs.

Regulators could also step in. Beyond the various antitrust suits, there have been specific calls to hold the companies liable for their algorithms. Reporting from my colleagues has shown that Facebook has been well aware of its recommendation systems tendency to drive people to extremist groups. One bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D., N.J.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D., Calif.), aims to hold the platforms liable for algorithmic promotion of extremism."

Idea #3: Give back control

The craziest idea of all? Oh, you know, just give us back some control.

What if people could say, I want to see news from a broad political spectrum of sources, or, I only want to see posts from friends and family, " said Jesse Lehrich, the co-founder of Accountable Tech, a nonprofit dedicated to combating disinformation on social media.

Facebook does, at least, allow you to see some information about why you are seeing something. Tap the three horizontal dots on any post in your feed and then Why Am I Seeing This Post?"

And if you think the good, old chronological feed is the answer, there are ways to get it back, at least temporarily, on some services. The settings are as hidden as Waldo, however:

Facebook: In a web browser, go to the home icon at the top of your feed, scroll through the menu on the left side. Select See More," then Most Recent." In the mobile app, go to the three horizontal lines on top or bottom right of your screen and look for Most Recent." Just know, youll be bumped out of this feed when you close the website or the app.

Twitter: Twitter is far easier. A small star in the upper right corner of the website and app allow you to See latest Tweets" instead of Top Tweets." While it used to throw you back to the algorithmic feed, it now keeps you in the feed you last used. I often toggle between the two.

YouTube: You cant turn off the entire set of algorithmic recommendations but you can switch to Latest videos" in each category or search query. You can also turn off autoplay. In a web browser, look for the tiny toggle with a play button on the bottom of the video player. In the app look for the tiny toggle at the top of the video player.

TikTok: Next to the addictive, algorithmically driven For You feed is the Following feed, showing just the people you follow on the service. Just know: TikTok still uses algorithms here to show you videos it thinks youll want to watch most.

Instagram: Sorry, no can do. Algorithms only. A Facebook spokeswoman explained that with the old chronological feed, people missed 70% of the posts in their feedalmost half their friends and familys posts. After making the change to the algorithmic feed, the company found that on average, people saw more than 90% of their friends posts.

If it were just about us and our friends and family, that would be one thing, but for years social media hasnt been just about keeping up with Auntie Sue. Its the funnel through which many now see and form their views of the world.

Will more algorithms that serve Big Techs bottom line continue to inform those views, or will we get some real rules and control? Unfortunately, its not up to us to decide.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
California-based messaging app Signal's co-founder Brian Acton lauded Indian users' strong stand in favour of data privacy saying that India has been a "focus" for the company for many years.

The app, backed by the non-profit Signal Foundation, is being pitched against WhatsApp as one of the top alternatives to the latter following uproar over its privacy policy update, which has sparked fears over user data and privacy.

India prime focus for Signal

Hailing India for being at the forefront in adopting new technology, Acton stated that Signal is "including new Indian languages" in addition to 10 existing ones.

"We also believe in localisation and are calibrated for 10 Indian languages so far, namely Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. We are working on many more," he told India Today Tech.

Also Read: WhatsApp's new privacy policy "very confusing", says Signal co-founder Brian Acton

Signal, which has become a buzzword over the last few days, has topped the charts on iOS App store in more than 70 countries and the Android App Store in over 50 nations, Acton said, adding that the "burgeoning support from all corners of India" has been encouraging for the company.

"India is a country that has always been ahead of the curve at adopting the best technology, and it's exciting to see it happening again. To see India, make such a strong stand, in favour of data-privacy and a new more privacy-oriented messenger, speaks volumes. We are now continuing to scale infrastructure and are all hands on deck, so as to handle this incredible growth," he noted.

"India is such a large aspect of the internet, and what India wants is what the internet wants. This growth proves that what India wants is digital privacy," Acton stated.

Also Read: BT Buzz: Why WhatsApp's clarification on privacy policy is misleading

WhatsApp privacy policy row

Talking about WhatsApp's new privacy policy, Acton remarked that Signal being a non-profit company doesn't "collect any user data". Acton also assured that the company's commitment to privacy is steadfast.

"When a company is for profit, their motivations strive towards gaining more profit. Signal is an independent nonprofit, and our motivation is different, our mission is to provide the best tools for communicating privately with your friends, family and colleagues. We follow a revenue model of donations and contributions which fuel the cause of data privacy, and we aim to continue the same. No ads. No trackers," he said adding that ultimate goal is to "make the Signal Foundation financially self-sustaining."

WhatsApp, which for the last decade hasn't been challenged by any other messaging application, finally has Signal and other platforms as potential threats. Speaking about the competition between the two, Acton stated that the app has been "carving a niche of its own" since users feel it's a "safe app to be on."

"The kind of transition we have seen in such a short time span is testament to that - and we are committed to keep working harder, to keep the momentum going, and to keep protecting everyone on Signal," he said.

Also Read: Signal climbs to top of free apps category on App Store after WhatsApp row

Signal's operations, features, security

Elaborating on the app's operations, Acton noted that the company is delivering billions of messages every day and is scaling up gradually by ramping up infrastructure to handle user load better along with new features it is working on.

"Our key differentiator, when compared to other messenger apps, is that we want you to own your own data. There are no ads, no trackers, and no analytics," he stated adding that Signal uses "state of the art end-to-end encryption" so that it cannot read users' messages, see their photos, listen to their phone calls, know who they are talking to or even see their profile photo.

In case an exchange is intercepted, by a hacker or any government agency, the interceptor, Acton said, sees a "nonsensical snarl of letters and numbers."

He added that Signal will concentrate on providing features that are needed by users rather than borrowing them from WhatsApp or any other platform. Acton further stated that the company will soon launch more India-specific wallpapers, which have been the most requested feature by the users.

Also Read: Signal app faces global outage days after adding millions of users

Talking about other features Signal is working on, he added that users can also witness "some uncommon features, such as messages that disappear after a set period of time, reacting to messages with any emoji, and the note to self feature."

Acton, who co-founded WhatsApp in 2009 with Jan Koum, had quit the company following disagreement over how Facebook should monetise WhatsApp.

He subsequently co-founded Signal in 2014 with Moxie Marlinspike. Signal is a cross-platform end-to-end encrypted messaging service that allows users to have one-on-one conversations and group chats.
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A politician in the running for a governor's seat in Mexico held a party with 500 guests to celebrate his birthday despite a ban on gatherings due to a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country.

who in the past was accused rape and of being tied to a drug cartel and an American-born drug lord, dismissed the grave threat of the COVID-19 pandemic when he celebrated his birthday with at least 500 guests.

Felix Salgado celebrated his 64th birthday Thursday with a bash that went on into the early hours of Friday morning in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, according to local media reports.

The fiesta was held in an open setting and inside an event hall in the capital city of Chilpancingo and featured catered food and live music despite a nationwide ban on gatherings of more than 10 people in states where the pandemic's risk level is set at orange, as is the case with Guerrero.

As of Monday, Mexico has 140,704 COVID-19 deaths - the fourth highest the world, according to John Hopkins University. Mexico is 13th in the world with 1,621,428 COVID-19 cases, but the fourth-worst hit country by the pandemic in Latin America.

The state of Guerrero has registered 28,215 coronavirus cases and 2,864 deaths.

At least 10 states in Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, are under the red risk level while 19 remain in orange.

Felix Salgado (second from left standing), a candidate for the governor's seat in the western Mexico state of Guerrero, held a birthday party with at least 500 guests Thursday despite a COVID-19 measure that bans gatherings of more than 10 people in the state, which is under a orange risk level

Guerrero state governor candidate Felix Salgado (right) is being criticized for celebrating his 64th birthday party, which featured a live band, a mariachi and catered food

Felix Salgado (center), a candidate for the governor's post in the Mexican state of Guerrero, with two guests at his birthday party Thursday in the state capital of Chilpancingo

Images posted to social media showed guests ignoring social distancing protocols imposed by the government and disregarding the use of face masks.

Salgado appeared in multiple photos mingling with guests while wearing a face mask and is also pictured enjoying the tunes of a mariachi.

Felix Salgado (right) seeks the governor's seat in the western Mexico state of Guerrero under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's (left) Morena party in the June elections

A live band plays for guests at Felix Salgado's 64th birthday bash in Guerrero, Mexico, on Thursday. Salgado is making his third attempt for the governor's seat in the western state. Elections are set for June

Felix Salgado, a candidate for the governor's seat in the western Mexican state of Guerrero, drew as many as 500 guests for his birthday party Thursday

For Salgado, it will be the third time he seeks the governor's seat in the western Mexico state of Guerrero under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Morena party in the June elections.

However, the controversies surrounding his past came to light last week when Morena party secretary general Citlalli Hernandez slammed Salgado's sexual abuse allegations after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 1998 and a woman in December 2016.

The aforementioned victim said told the Guerrero State Attorney General's Office that Salgado assaulted her on three separate occasions. The woman came forward again in 2017, but the report was archived.

A worker prepares a tray of food for attendees of Felix Salgado 64th birthday party in Guerrero, Mexico

Felix Salgado was accused of the sexual assault of a teenage girl in 1998 and a woman in 2016

American-born drug trafficker, Edgar 'La Barbie' Valdez, was a high-ranking leader the defunct Beltran Leyva Cartel and allegedly benefited from the protection Felix Delgado during his term as mayor of Acalpulco

'It seems to me that by an act of congruence and until we know more details, it is best that we make a decision and that Felix Salgado is not a candidate,' Hernandez said in an interview with W Radio. 'In Morena we cannot remain silent in the face of cases of possible rape and gender abuse.'

Salgado's checkered past included allegations that he was bribed by Zetas Cartel and Edgar 'La Barbie' Valdez, high-ranking leader in the defunct Beltran Leyva Cartel, during his 2005 to 2008 term as mayor of the resort city of Acapulco.

During a January 8 press conference, Lopez Obrador said the links to criminal organizations and sexual assault accusations were just part of a ploy generated by weaker opponents looking to diminish the reputation of their stronger foes.

'It is a partisan affair and a product of the [election] season.There is a competition in some states because elections are coming, so all this generates controversy, accusations,' the president said.

'The only thing I can comment on is that when there are elections or competition, it is about disqualifying the adversary in one way or another.'
The Ministry of Aviation (MoA) and Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) are leaving nothing to chance in their effort to ensure that the countrys airports are safe and secure in the midst of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19)



It is the light of the above that the two state entities engaged waste management and disinfection experts, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), to undertake a massive disinfection exercise at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).



The two-hour exercise, which was carried out from Thursday, January 14, around 11:30 p.m., to Friday, January 15, 1:30 a.m., was to help rid the airport of Covid-19 tendencies.



All facets of the airport including its open spaces were thoroughly disinfected. In addition, the Zoomlion disinfection crew dusted all touchable surfaces and gadgets of the airport.



Speaking to the media, the Head of Vector Control Unit of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Reverend Ebenezer Kwame Addae, explained that the disinfection of the KIA had been necessitated by the new wave of the virus.



It has become necessary for us to reinforce the disinfection exercise looking at the wave of Covid-19.The beginning is very very important but the ending is crucial so therefore, we are not relenting on our effort to ensure that the success we have chalked continues, he assured.



According to him, even though the KIA authorities have their own internal Covid-19 mechanisms and protocols, the disinfection exercise was to further augment their effort in ensuring safety at the airport.



He noted that Ghanas first Covid cases were imported, recounting that they came through the airport.



Against this backdrop, Reverend Addae emphasised the need for his company [Zoomlion] to increase its presence at the airports through disinfections so that it will calm every nerve coming through the airport.



He added that disinfection was one of the potent arsenals in combating this malignant virus.



We all know that Covid is real and the speed at which it is taking the lives of people at the global level, we as a middle income country need to position ourselves well so our human capital is derailed, Rev Addae urged.



That is why we have met here to reinforce our monthly disinfection that we started last month to be able to beef up the activity of disinfection because per the WHO, the first step to combat this virus is disinfection, he said.



The Zoomlion Vector Control Unit boss also indicated that his outfit was leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that the fight against the pandemic was won.



Later, he mentioned that though the previous disinfectant the company was using was potent, it was now using a WHO recommended disinfectant which has high residual activity that can last long.



Higher residual activity in a sense that it can take 26 to 28 days before its active ingredients will be less, he explained further.



Rev Addae hinted that the ministry of aviation which oversees activities of the countrys airports has taken steps to engage Zoomlion Ghana Limited to disinfect on a monthly basis, adding that the ongoing disinfection will be replicated in Kumasi and Tamale as well.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Board approves calendar

The Cy-Fair ISD school board approved the instructional calendar for the 2021-2022 school year during the Jan. 14 board meeting.

The calendar was developed by a committee that was formed in the 2020 fall semester, states a district press release.

Cy-Fair school notebook: Chromebooks issued to all Cy-Fair ISD high schools

The committee was made up of district-wide representation, including teachers, parents, community members, campus administrators and support staff, states the district in the press release. The committee sought public input online while working to construct the calendar using the 75,600 minutes needed to complete a school year required by law.

According to the calendar, the first day of school for students for the 2021-2022 school year will be Aug. 23, 2021  the earliest start date for the instructional year.

State law mandates that instruction for the school year may not begin before the fourth Monday in August, the press release states.

Some important dates in the 2021-2022 calendar include:

Aug. 23, 2021: First day of school for students

Sept. 6, 2021: Student/staff holiday

Nov. 22-26, 2021: Five-day Thanksgiving holiday

Dec. 20, 2021-Jan. 3, 2022: 11-day winter break for students

March 14-18, 2022: Five-day spring break

April 15, 2022: Student/staff holiday

May 26, 2022: End of school year for students

Sept. 24, 2021, Oct. 22, 2021, Jan. 14, 2022, Feb. 11, 2022 and April 18, 2022: Five teacher workdays/school closure makeup days, also serving as student holidays

Feb. 14, 2022 and May 27, 2022: Inclement weather makeup days

A copy of the calendar can be found at www.cfisd.net/en/calendar/.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

Team wins Horse Cup

Cy Woods FFA horse judging team was awarded the 2020 Texas Horse Cup, announced a Cy-Fair ISD press release.

Cy-Fair Resource Guide: Organizations helping families as pandemic continues

The horse judging event helps teach students about equine science by evaluating and ranking horses based on breed characteristics, conformation and performance, states the press release. The winning team was determined based on the results of nine contests. The team took home the award with 1,301 points.

The Cy Woods horse judging team included sophomore Grace Ehrenfeld and 2020 grads Thomas Binig, Katelyn Morgan and Catie Halaska.

I could not be more proud of this horse judging team, Cypress Woods FFA and horse judging adviser Monica McClellan said in the press release. They worked so hard and stayed flexible throughout all the changes and challenges 2020 has brought this horse judging season. There is not any other team that is more deserving of this award.

Halaska was a top 10 individual finalist with 1,015, coming in fourth overall. Jersey Village 2020 grad Cale Essman took home the individual Cup with a total of 1,218 points.

Cale is a true leader and led our horse judging team to many great successes, Amber Hibdon, Jersey Village FFA and horse judging adviser, said in the press release. He set the bar high for other team members and every new member. Cale always made sure he was prepared for contests and encouraged the other team members constantly. Cale put in the time, dedication and hard work to succeed and we are so proud to see it pay off for him and to have him represent Jersey Village FFA so well.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

District names Principals of the Year

Keith Elementary Principal Dawn Tryon and Cypress Springs Principal Dr. Cheryl Henry were chosen by Cy-Fair ISD principals to be district representatives for this school years Region 4 Principal of the Year award, announced a district press release.

Tryon has been Keith Elementary principal since 2017 and has over two decades of experience in classroom and administrative education, states the release. Henry has been Cy Springs principal since 2015 and has over three decades of experience in classroom and administrative education.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

Thespians succeed at competition

First and second place rankings were achieved by over 85 theater arts students from across multiple Cy-Fair ISD high schools during the Virtual Texas Thespian Festival which took place over the course of several weekends from Oct. 24 through Dec. 5, a district press release states.

For a list of the students, visit Cy-Fair ISDs News & Media website.

The achievement has qualified these students to participate in the national competition to be held virtual on June 22 through June 25, and which is sponsored by the Educational Theatre Association.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

Cy Falls dancers get special visit

The Cy Falls Sky Dancers received a special visit on Jan. 8 from Kilgore College Rangerettes Bailey Stark and Hannah Moss. The Cy Ranch alumnae, who visited to recruit dancers, also took the opportunity to teach a dance combination to the Sky Dancers, a district press release details.

Caitlin Beresford, Sky Dancer assistant director, also used to be a Rangerette, whom she said are renowned for their precision and discipline.

Stark said she enjoyed her visit with the Cy Falls drill team.

In dance, it is important for you to take some time to find excitement in your passion, and I tried my best to help the drill team do just that, she said in the press release. They were extremely hard working and receptive to what I had to share. I would love to work with these girls again as I had a blast.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

Student wins bee for third year

With the word bitumen, Lee Elementary fifth grader Aroob Latif won her schools spelling for the third year in a row on Dec. 15 and will advance to the Cy-Fair ISD Elementary Spelling Bee, set for Feb. 2.

A district press release states that Latif likes to learn new words and works with her parents to prepare for the spelling bee.

I feel honored to have another opportunity to compete at the district spelling bee, she said in the press release. I wanted to do it again as I really enjoy it and also, its my last year.

-Contributed by Cy-Fair ISD

LSC-UP grad publishes first book

A 2016 Lone Star College-University Park graduate recently became a published author, writing a self-help book titled Develop a Genius Mindset: Unleash Your Full Potential and Achieve Unimaginable Success.

The author, Jesse Rodriguez, wrote the book for Purist Publishing, and said the book is a reflection of his research into the statistics and facts that show that successful people all had mentors, set goals, and were highly motivated and self-disciplined, an LSC-University Park news release stated.

Rodriguez, who is nearly finished earning a bachelors degree in technical communications from the University of Houston-Downtown, credited LSC-University Park and UHD for his self-sufficiency and self-confidence, and said his education provided him with the fundamental skills to become a writer, the release detailed.

He had been on the LSC-University Park campus long before he was a student, when it was still an office for Compaq Computers, where he worked as a janitor. He wrote about the experience in an essay that earned him an award from the Lone Star College Foundation.

I walked the dark, lonely halls of Compaq as a janitor, cleaning its offices and trying to earn an honest living, Rodriguez wrote in the essay. When the time came for me to pursue my dream of returning to school, LSC-University Park presented a perfect, if not serendipitous, answer. The college was so convenient and so close. I had no excuse for not attending.

While attending the college, Rodriguez also had to take care of his widowed mother and his 10-year old son, the release stated, who he was raising by himself. And he still had time to meet with a dozen tutors at the school to help him with his writing.

Students often remark that the passion and dedication of our faculty and staff, together with our commitment to innovation, has made a difference in their lives, LSC-University Park President Dr. Shah Ardalan said. That is certainly the case with Jesse and his writing. His persistence, combined with the support he received from tutors, mentors and other college resources, made all the difference.

Rodriguez plans to write a childrens book after he graduates, the release said. After that, he said his research will guide him to choose the subject matter for his next book.

-Contributed by Lone Star College-University Park
Hudson, NY (12534)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing later in the day. High 56F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
Dozen thousands of online businesses have yet to fulfil their tax obligation

As of the end of 2020, about 15,000 YouTube channels in Vietnam have earned advertising revenue. However, only 30 per cent of them (about 5,000 units) have been paying tax, following the latest data published by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

Hanoi Department of Taxation said that for the cases which have purposefully delayed registering and declaring tax, the authority will issue sanctions as per the stipulated regulations, and even prosecute them.

While tax inspections have been ongoing for years, little has been reported in terms of results. According to Ta Thi Phuong Lan, deputy head of Tax Administration for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises and Individuals under the GDT, the collected sum has grown over the years but remains small compared to the actual number of these individuals.

While previously, individuals were responsible for registering and declaring tax on their own. However, with the system's spectacular failure, the latest Decree No.126/2020/ND-CP guiding the Law on Tax Administration, the authorised partners of Google and Facebook have to register and declare tax on their behalf.

Meanwhile, businesses and individuals who directly received money from Google and Facebook have to fulfil this obligation by themselves.

Lan said that to date, the authority has yet to figure out the actual number of Facebook and Googles partners in Vietnam. The new regulation took effect on December 5, so we still have to wait until the next term of tax declarations on January 20 for specific statistics.
Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jan, 2021 ) :Kamala Harris will shatter one of the highest glass ceilings Wednesday when she takes the oath of office as America's first woman vice president, blazing a trail in the most diverse White House ever.

As running mate to incoming president Joe Biden, she helped bring Donald Trump's turbulent rule to an end, rapping him during the campaign for his chaotic handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, last year's unrest over racial injustice and his crackdown on immigration.

Harris, 56, enters the post already forging a unique path, as California's first Black attorney general and the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the US Senate.

As vice president, she will be a heartbeat away from leading the United States.

With Biden, 78, expected to serve only a single term, Harris would be favored to win the Democratic nomination in 2024, giving her a shot at more history-making -- as America's first female president.

"While I may be the first woman in this office, I won't be the last," Harris said in a speech on November 7, her first after US networks projected Biden and Harris as the winners over Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump bitterly contested the results, peddling the lie that the Democrats only won due to massive election fraud.

During the campaign he routinely attacked Harris, branding her a "monster" after her October vice presidential debate with Pence. When asked about it my reporters, Harris curtly dismissed the president: "I don't comment on his childish remarks." While Harris pushed back fiercely during the campaign, in the past two months she rose above the fray, pivoting to plans she and Biden are unveiling to help struggling families and fix a reeling economy.

"The first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration will focus on getting control of this pandemic -- ensuring vaccines are distributed equitably and free for all," she tweeted Tuesday.

- The decider - While the vice president's job is often seen as ceremonial, Harris will also be thrust into the powerful role of ultimate decider in the US Senate.

Thanks to two shock Democratic run-off victories this month in Georgia, the Senate will be evenly split, 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

That means Harris may spend considerable time on Capitol Hill acting as the tie-breaking vote on legislation on anything from judicial nominees to Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

Harris was born to immigrants to the United States -- her father from Jamaica, her mother from India -- and their lives and her own have in some ways embodied the American dream.

She was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California, then a hub for civil rights and anti-war activism.

Her diploma from historically Black Howard University in Washington was the start of a steady rise that took her from prosecutor, to two elected terms as San Francisco's district attorney and then California's attorney general in 2010.

However, Harris's self-description as a "progressive prosecutor" has been seized upon by critics who say she fought to uphold wrongful convictions and opposed certain reforms in California, like a bill requiring that the attorney general probe shootings involving police.

Yet Harris's work was key to molding a platform and profile from which she launched a successful US Senate campaign in 2016, becoming just the second Black female senator ever.

Her stint as an attorney general also helped her forge a connection with Biden's son Beau, who held the same position in Delaware, and died of cancer in 2015.

"I know how much Beau respected Kamala and her work, and that mattered a lot to me, to be honest with you, as I made this decision," Biden said during his first appearance with Harris as running mates.

- 'I'm speaking' - Harris oozes charisma but can quickly pivot from her broad smile to a prosecutorial persona of relentless interrogation and cutting retorts.

Clips went viral of her sharp questioning in 2017 of then-attorney general Jeff Sessions during a hearing on Russia, and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh the following year.

Harris also clashed with Biden during the first Democratic debate, chiding the former senator over his opposition to 1970s busing programs that forced integration of segregated schools.

"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she was bused to school every day," she said. "And that little girl was me." That showdown did not stop him from picking Harris, who brought that feisty energy to Biden's carefully stage-managed campaign.

During her only debate against Pence, Harris raised her hand as he tried to interrupt her.

"Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking," she said with a glare.

Harris has no children of her own. But she claims the role of "momala" to the son and daughter of her husband Doug Emhoff.

Emhoff, a lawyer, will become the first-ever US "second gentleman," and the first Jewish spouse of a US vice president.

As for her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a scientist born in India who immigrated at 19, "maybe she didn't quite imagine this moment," Harris said in her November speech.

"But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible."
The exterior of the Chapel is nearing completion, with the approximately 100-foot steeples set to be installed this spring. (Christendom College)

The New Christ the King Chapel at Christendom College

Shenandoah Beauty: Building a church that points to God

Several times Ive gone into the fieldWilliamsburg and Jamestown in Virginia, and the Basilica of Saint Lawrence in Asheville, North Carolinato write for The Epoch Times, but never did I think one of these assignments might kill me.

Until now.

It was mid-December 2020, and Pat Haggerty, a man in his 40s who is the project manager for the new Christ the King Chapel at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, had decked me out in a construction helmet, bright yellow vest, safety glasses, and for some reason, gloves, to enter the chapels construction site. We had completed part of the tour when we reached the crossing at the other end of the church. I craned my head up to view the high dome above and saw a narrow walkway beneath it. Can people walk up there? I asked.

Yeah. Would you like to go up?

Sure! I said.

What in the name of cardiac arrest was I thinking?

The steel framing of the building, in an earlier phase of construction, gives a sense of just how tall the structure is. (Christendom College)

Yikes!

Up we went on a narrow, enclosed spiral staircase, up and up, climbing and climbing. At some point, I was nearly down on all fours, clutching the handrail and pawing my way up stair after endless stair. By the time we reached the top, that climb had sucked the wind from my lungs and made a bass drum of my heart. I hope you know CPR, this 69-year-old man wheezed.

Pat just laughed, thinking I was cracking a joke. Its nine stories, he said. It leaves me a little short of breath sometimes too.

As I stood there, well away from the walkwayheights and I have never gotten alongI caught my breath, felt the banging in my chest subside, and reveled in the magnificence being created all around me.

Pat Haggerty, the project manager for Christ the King Chapel. (Christendom College)

A Brief History

Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts schoolit now enrolls about 500 studentsand has long needed a new chapel. The old one, which stands at the heart of the campus, is too small to meet the needs of the student population.

About 10 years ago, the schools president, Dr. Timothy ODonnell, and some others began making plans to build a new chapel to accommodate the growing number of students. Originally, these planners considered tearing down the old church and erecting a new structure on that site, but complications with that plan led to this new location, which Pat explained was the highest point on campus.

The site work for the church began in the spring of 2019, and construction commenced in September 2019. By the time of my tour, workers had completed most of the exterior construction, with the exception of certain towers, parking lots, and landscaping. The target date for opening the doors to students and faculty is April of 2022.

The chapel is being built by Hoar Construction, a leader in the construction industry.(Christendom College)

Some Numbers

As Pat led me on this excursionYoure tour number 101, he told mehis knowledge and his recitation of certain statistics blew me away. The roof, for example, will contain 42,000 pieces of slate. The organ will have 2,800 pipes. The towers will contain 12 bellsthe largest weighs 1,400 poundswhich the college chaplain, Father Marcus Pollard, has already blessed in a special ceremony. Stained glass windows, 115 of them, will grace the walls of this gem, containing 8,000 pieces of handblown French and German glass.

The Nativity transept window in Christ the King Chapel was refurbished by Beyer Studio. The chapel will contain over 100 stained glass windows once completed, with Beyer Studio designing new windows in addition to refurbishing old ones from other churches across the countryincluding Christendoms own existing chapel. (Christendom College)

The new chapel will hold 840 people and will seat 540 in the pews, whereas the maximum capacity of the older church is 380.

Treasures From the Past

As we made our way through this church under construction, Pat again and again pointed out how many pieces of art and furniture came from shuttered churches up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Some of the bells, many of the stained glass windows, and pews from the 1850s were rescued from other churches.

How do you find these things? I asked him.

Oh, there are brokers now who deal with closed churches, he said, which is sad news for churches but of benefit to places like Christendom.

The new building will also hold some local objects as well. Black walnut from trees on the campus will be used on part of the floor, and the heap of large stones dug up during the early site workthe church has no crypt, or basement, because it sits on stonewill be used in exterior decoration.

Making It Personal

Three college alumni are also mixing their artistic talents into the building. According to Alumni Artisans Contribute to New Christ the King Chapel, an article in Instaurare (the Latin name of the colleges magazine means to build, to renew, and to restore), Michael Schmitt, Mandy Hain, and Corey Morgan wanted to contribute to the chapel through their artistic talents, giving back to their alma mater in a significant way while also assisting in an ecclesiastic project that would impact lives for the better.

Following the traditional practices of the Middle Ages, Schmitt put aside a stone blaster and used a mallet and a chisel to hand carve HAEC EST DOMUS DEI ET PORTA COELI, meaning THIS IS THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE GATE OF HEAVEN, across the 24-foot-long panel over the entrance to the church. The panel should help create a special and sacred aura at the chapel, says Schmitt. Its a signpost, so to speakit points to God.

Alumnus Michael Schmitt carved the inscription, which translates as This is the house of God and the gate of Heaven, on Indiana limestone above the front door of the church. (Christendom College)

Alumnus Michael Schmitt, who hand carved the stone lettering for the chapel. (Christendom College)

Morgan, an experienced artisan in woodworking who has contributed to several other area churches, is working on arches, side chapels, confessionals, and the altar in Our Ladys Chapel behind the main high altar. In the article, Morgan speaks of how meaningful it is to give glory to God through the work of his hands, adding: It is also incredibly special to be able to give something lasting back to the college, literally one of the fruits that I gained while in attendance there, namely my love of faith, and the inspiration to pursue the very life of craft I am living now.

Alumnus Corey Morgan is primarily focusing on the more decorative wood elements of the chapel. (Christendom College)

Mandy Hain has also worked in beautifying churches. In this case, she has added the gold gilt to the inscription carved by Schmitt and is creating artwork for the ceiling of the chapel, including the part I viewed after my death march toward the heavens. (When Pat informed me that Hain had painted this cupola another couple of stories above us, my one thought was: Better you than me, kiddo.)

Alumna Mandy Hain designed the artwork for the ceiling of the chapels crossing tower, in addition to providing the gold-leaf lettering for the Latin inscription above the front doors of the chapel. (Christendom College)

The artwork adorning the ceiling of the crossing tower, which will be located directly above the high altar, was designed by alumna Mandy Hain and her team of artisans. (Christendom College)

A giant thurible will be installed in the center of the artwork and will hang directly above the high altar once the chapel is complete. (Christendom College) Other Christendom College graduates have also given time and talent to this project.

Art Is the Grandchild of God

Those words above, from Dante, kick off the Instaurare article.

During our tour, Pat remarked that the creation of such a building in this day and age is amazing for a college this size. After seeing the efforts made to bring beauty to a building and to give glory to God through architecture, I agreed with him, though the use of chapel to describe this church seemed understated. Cathedral might better describe this edifice, though no bishop sits here.

Ive left out a dozen more details from my tour, but here is a final example of the care and thought put into this creation. When Pat took me to the choir loft, which is above the entranceway, I asked him whether theyd experienced any problems with acoustics. He explained that a single layer of drywall in such buildings can do harm to the quality of the sound, and went on to tell me they had therefore installed in the choir loft three layers of drywall glued together and two layers throughout the rest of the church. They then brought in some members of the Christendom College choir, had them sing, and found that this tactic worked.

The interior of Christ the King Chapel under construction. The lavender-colored drywall, showed front right, was installed two layers thick throughout the chapel, with three layers in the choir loft. (Christendom College)

Near the end of my tour, Pat Haggerty remarked, Were really pleased with the team weve put togetherthe architects, the artists and engineers, and all the others.

Beautys Role

Beauty will save the world, so wrote Dostoevsky. Is that true? Can beauty really redeem our fallen humanity?

Of that I am uncertain, but I do know that Haggertys team is teaching the rest of us a lesson. Their efforts and care in this construction of Christ the King Chapel clearly demonstrate that we are still capable of constructing beautiful buildings, that we can merge the treasures of the past with the talents of the present, and that as Mandy Hain says: Beauty is not an accessory. It is a necessity that has transformative, healing, and encouraging power. It brings us to its source and makes us better without effort on our part.

Agreed.

Except when climbing those nine stories of stairs. Now that took some effort.

You can find pictures, descriptions, and tours of Christ the King Chapel on the Christendom College website, at Chapel.Christendom.edu

Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, Amanda Bell and Dust On Their Wings, and two works of non-fiction, Learning As I Go and Movies Make The Man. Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog.
On Sunday, Jan. 17, the Korean Brand Research Institute released their girl group members' brand reputation rankings for the month of January. Keep on reading to see who the most popular girl group idols for the month are.

The Korean Brand Research Institute analyzed the brand reputation index by determining an idol's participation index, media index, communication index, and community index. To do so, the organization analyzed 91,339,797 pieces of data concerning 535 girl groups from Dec. 17, 2020, to Jan. 17, 2021. Compared to the available 90,780,154 information last year, the data increase by 0.92%.

The brand reputation ranking is an index created through data analysis to find the online habits of consumers and what has a big impact on brand consumption. Through the analysis of female idols' personal brand reputation, we can determine their positive and negative influence, the media's interest in them, and the amount of interest and communication among consumer becomes measurable. This index also includes brand value analysis that measures brand influence.

Sitting at number one is BLACPINK's Jennie with a brand reputation index of 2,865,331. The female idol has a participation index of 533,272, a media index of 533,276, a communication index of 855,121, and a community index of 728,252. Compared to her brand reputation index of 3,521,147 in Dec., her index dropped by 18.91%.

At second, we have Oh My Girl's Arin with a brand reputation index of 2,415,960. She has a participation index of 923,766, a media index of 486,881, a communication index of 579,533, and a community index of 425,780. Compared to her brand reputation index of 2,046,259, her index increased by 18.07%.

BLACKPINK member Jisoo sits in third place with a brand reputation index of 2,405,932. The BLACKPINK member has a participation index of 525,470, a media index of 567,462, a communication index of 718,081, and a community index of 594,917. Compared to her brand reputation index of 1,704,950, her index increased by 41.11%.

Fourth place goes to (G)I-DLE's Soyeon with a brand reputation index of 2,257,766. The girl group member has a participation index of 238,965, a media index of 1,138,272, a communication index of 461,717, and a community index of 418,813. Compared to her brand reputation index of 260,224 in Dec., her index increased by 526.77%.

In fifth place, we have another (G)I-DLE member, Yuqi, with a brand reputation index of 2,087,574. She has a participation index of 322,737, a media index of 874,526, a communication index of 4225,003, and a community index of 465,308. Compared to her brand reputation index of 952,803 in Dec., her index rose by 119.10%.

From 6-50, the ranking goes:

6. MAMAMOO's Hwasa

7. BLACKPINK's Rose

8. BLACKPINK's Lisa

9. TWICE's Sana

10. TWICE's Nayeon

11. APRIL's Naeun

12. TWICE's Momo

13. Girls' Generation's Taeyeon

14. MOMOLAND's Nancy

15. LOONA's Chuu

16. Aespa's Karina

17. (G)I-DLE's Soojin

18. IZ*ONE's Jang Wonyoung

19. (G)I-DLE's Miyeon

20. Aespa's Winter

21. (G)I-DLE's Shuhua

22. (G)I-DLE's Minnie

23. Red Velvet's Joy

24. TWICE's Mina

25. Red Velvet's Irene

26. TWICE's Dahyun

27. Oh My Girl's Jiho

28. Oh My Girl's Hyojung

29, TWICE's Jihyo

30. Oh My Gir's YooA

31. TWICE's Jeongyeon

32. Gugudan's Sejeong

33. Oh My Girl's Seunghee

34. Gugudan's Hana

35. Gugudan's Mina

36. TWICE's Tzuyu

37. Red Velvet's Wendy

38. IZ*ONE's Kim Chaewon

39. MAMAMOO's Solar

40. Girls' Generation's Hyoyeon

41. MOMOLAND's JooE

42. IZ*ONE's Kwon Eunbi

43. GFRIEND's Eunha

44. TWICE's Chaeyoung

45. WJSN's Bona

46. Girls' Generation's Soyoung

47. WJSN's Dayoung

48. IZ*ONE's Choi Yena

49. MAMAMOO's Wheein

50. GFRIEND's Umji

Check out the whole list here:

Did your favorite female idol make the top 50?

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns This

Written by Alexa Lewis
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Jan, 2021) The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Institute announced the launch of its virtual series of talks, which kicks off Monday, 18th January.

The online format is in line with NYUADs commitment to explore topics of importance to the global community and offer the public deeper insight into a range of themes, enabling them to participate in engaging conversations from the safety of their homes.

Upcoming sessions will cover a diversity of topics on health and COVID-19, politics and the US election, climate change, and music.

A talk titled, "Can We Predict Virus Emergence?" will provide an overview of worldwide ongoing surveillance for emerging viruses and the ways novel technology can accelerate these efforts.

On 24th January, NYUAD Research Scientist Clare Eayrs will explore why sea ice is an essential part of the climate system and what researchers at NYUAD are doing to advance our understanding of sea ice changes.

Three more talks include "The End of the Western Model" (20th January); "Making Social Spaces" (28th January), an event in collaboration with Institute Francis, French Embassy in the UAE, and "The Youth Hub"; as well as Januarys final talk, "The Musical Citizen" (31st January).

Notable speakers include Elodie Ghedin from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; author and winner of the 2014 Windham-Campbell prize for non-fiction Pankaj Mishra; and King Edward Professor of Music at Kings College London Martin Stokes.

Registration for the virtual series is free and open to the public to attend through Zoom.
Thank you for reading!

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A man has died after he was found with critical injuries near the main street of a town on the Mornington Peninsula.

Emergency services were called to Queen Street in Hastings, about 70 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, just before 7am on Monday.

The man was found with critical injuries in a car park in Hastings. Credit:Nine News

The 29-year-old man from Hastings was found with upper body injuries outside a car service and repair shop. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him but he died at the scene.

Detectives from the homicide squad arrested a 26-year-old man, also from Hastings, on Monday afternoon.

BATON ROUGE, La.  Possible criminal charges are pending following the death of a Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate. The West Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office and the Louisiana Department of Corrections have launched a joint investigation into the incident.

The deceased inmate was involved in a fight with another inmate in his cell and died at the hospital. It happened around 11:45 p.m. Saturday. Correctional officers making routine rounds discovered the fight. The other inmate involved in the fight is in investigative segregation at this time.

An autopsy will be performed this week. Possible criminal charges are pending the outcome of the investigation and the autopsy. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further details or names of the inmates are available at this time.
SHENYANG, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Over its year-long fight against COVID-19, China has found effective therapies to tackle the virus.

In Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, a 95-year-old patient whose symptoms were once severe has recovered following treatment in the Liaoning COVID-19 Treatment Shenyang Center. She was moved to a rehabilitation ward on Wednesday for further medical observation.

In consideration of her underlying diseases including coronary heart disease, the hospital adopted convalescent plasma therapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), said Wu Yunhai, head of the center.

Wu and his medical team also provided post-disease rehabilitation and extra daily care for the patient.

Many recent COVID-19 patients in Shenyang have been treated with TCM, according to local health authorities.

In the port city of Dalian, a mother and her 3-month-old infant underwent special medical treatment after being confirmed as locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. In addition to regular treatment, the mother was also offered a tailor-made TCM herbal decoction to guarantee daily breastfeeding.

Under proper care, both mother and baby recovered from the disease and they were discharged from hospital on Jan. 6.

Benefiting from the combination of TCM and Western medicine, 14 cases in Shenyang and over 70 percent of current cases in Dalian had been discharged from hospitals by Jan. 13. Most patients have had their symptoms effectively relieved, according to the provincial health commission.

TCM has significantly reduced the incidence rate, prevented cases with mild symptoms from worsening, increased the cure rate, and lowered the fatality rate, according to a white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action," issued in June by China's State Council Information Office.

Ma Xiaochun, a member of the National Health Commission expert team, explained that differing from one-size-fits-all therapy, TCM medicines are based on the different symptoms and specific conditions of individual patients. "The tailored therapy can bring better effects," Ma added.

Ma noted that for elderly patients, especially for those with poor cardiac function, psychological counseling is crucial to help them feel relaxed and speed up their recovery.

The province has also eased the financial burden for patients. For those with basic medical insurance, all medical and accommodation expenses caused by COVID-19 have been fully paid by governmental funds.

"We are striving to cure every patient, and will never give up," Ma said.

New statistical model suggests an infected student returning home for Christmas would, on average, have infected just less than one other household member

A student infected with COVID-19 returning home from university for Christmas would, on average, have infected just less than one other household member with the virus, according to a new model devised by mathematicians at Cardiff University and published in Health Systems.

Professor Paul Harper and colleagues defined an equation to predict the number of secondary household infections using variables for prevalence of the virus, the probability of secondary transmission, the number of household occupants and the total number of students returning home.

The model predicts that each infected student allowed to return home would produce, on average, 0.94 secondary infections.

"With the potential movement of over 1 million UK students for the Christmas vacation, even a modest 1% infection level (meaning 10 in 1,000 students are infected, perhaps many of them without symptoms at the time of travel) would equate to 9,400 new secondary household cases across the country," says Professor Harper.

As the study does not consider transmission to the students' wider home communities or include the journey home - which may give rise to a larger number of cases, particularly if public transport is taken - the numbers are a lower bound on the likely impact of transmissions and new cases.

However, although the indicative levels of secondary infections are potentially very large, multiple strategies can be adopted to help reduce the number of students taking Covid-19 home, the authors say. These include strongly advising students not to mix in the days leading up to departure, implementing staggered departure times and facilitating mass testing of students before they head home.

The authors have provided computer code and an online app (http://bit. ly/ Secondary_infections_app ) to allow anyone to rerun and adapt the simulations. "The code and app are quick to run with a focus on accessibility so that a user can rapidly change the input probabilities to suit their data, thereby generating their own results based on localised parameters," the authors say.

Their results have been presented to the Welsh Government and have informed policy in relation to the two-week firebreak in Wales in October/November and for the forthcoming vacation. The data has also been communicated across the governments of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

###

Martin Luther King Jr. had a powerful message to deliver when he visited Portland in 1961, one that continues to resonate 60 years later as the country experiences a surge in racist rhetoric and violence.

We must learn to live together as brothers, he told the crowd at downtowns Civic Auditorium. Or perish as fools.

King at the time was the 32-year-old co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He had led the influential Montgomery bus boycott in the mid-1950s.

But those accomplishments didnt mean all Americans knew who King was or what he was about. He hadnt yet won the Nobel Peace Prize. He hadnt yet delivered his stirring I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Oregon Journal newspaper, in its coverage of Kings 1961 Portland address, introduced him not by name but as a Negro Baptist minister.

The Civil Rights Movement was beginning to dominate headlines and public debates when King came to town for a day of speeches, conversations and interviews. This was the year of the Freedom Riders, when young activists headed into the Jim Crow South to challenge the segregation of bus terminals -- and frequently faced a brutal response from local law enforcement.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., talking to reporters during a Portland press conference in 1961, said he could see a truly integrated society within 40 years "if we work at it." (The Oregonian)Oregonian

King, who would be assassinated in 1968, addressed the violence faced by the Freedom Riders when he gave a press conference in Portland on the morning of Nov. 8. During his speech that evening at Civic Auditorium, he told the 3,500 people in attendance that segregation was slavery covered up with nothing but the niceties of complexities.

The civil-rights leader also appeared that day at Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church and Portland State. That same day, critics in Seattle were trying to get the school board there to ban King from speaking at a public high school in the city on Friday. The school board refused the demands.

More than 50 years after his death, King commands a central place in 20th-century American history. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, marking his birthday, became a federal holiday in 1983. It is observed on the third Monday in January -- Jan. 18 this year.

Meanwhile, his lifes work continues in his absence.

As he talked in Portland 60 years ago, about the Freedom Riders and segregation, about fair-housing policies and his commitment to nonviolent protest, King time and again appealed to what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.

Americans must rise above the narrow confines of their individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity, he said. They must rid themselves of the notion that there are superior and inferior races.

He added that the choice Americans faced was stark: it was between nonviolence or nonexistence.

-- Douglas Perry

dperry@oregonian.com

@douglasmperry
As CM Nitish Kumar is facing the heat of both Opposition and alliance partner BJP due to the murder of Indigo's manager Rupesh Singh in broad-daylight in Patna, the Congress has now made an offer to him to rejoin the Mahagathbandhan. Opining that the Bihar Chief Minister is working under "a lot of pressure" in the BJP-led NDA, Congress said that he must rethink about quitting NDA in order to work "freely" for the development of Bihar. However, RJD was quick to dismiss the statement by Congress as "not official stance of Grand alliance."

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajeet Sharma while referring to the incident wherein Nitish lost his calm recently and said, "Nitish Kumar is never known for such behaviour. We all know that. He is obviously under a lot of pressure in the NDA. It is well-known that he is under pressure to give up the all-important Home portfolio, which he has been keeping." Ajeet Sharma, who represents Bhagalpur in the assembly, added, "The Grand Alliance is Nitish Kumar's old home. He will be able to freely work for the state's progress if he chooses to return".

READ | 'Reason For Nitish Kumar's Temper': Tejashwi Shares Clips Of BJP Netas Slamming State Govt

Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD's heir apparent and leader of the opposition coalition, however, rejected Ajeet Sharma's remark when asked about the same at Saran, where he went to meet bereaved family members of Indigo's manager. "This is not an official statement (of the Congress)," said Tejashwi Yadav. He said, "It is my request to the Chief Minister with folded hands please act and do not let people of your state die like insects. I understand you are a weak Chief Minister." Yadav also threatened to stage a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan along with opposition legislators "if law and order situation does not improve in a month".

READ | Sushil Modi quips 'not real farmers' as Kisan Unions refuse to talk to SC-appointed panel

BJP-JDU power tussle

The 2020 Bihar Assembly election witnessed a voter turnout of 57.05 per cent as against that of 56.66 per cent in the 2015 polls. The polls turned out to be a nail-biting contest with NDA emerging victorious in 125 seats as against that of 110 seats won by the Mahagatbandhan. BJP, RJD, JD(U), Congress won 74, 75, 43, and 19 seats respectively. BJP winning more seats than JD(U) for the first time in a Bihar Assembly election led to the speculation that JD(U)'s clout in the alliance will reduce. LJP is believed to have damaged JD(U)'s prospects in 32 seats despite bagging a solitary seat. While Kumar again took oath as the CM of Bihar, BJP has two Deputy CMs in 4-time MLAs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi.

READ | RJD's Tejashwi slams CM Nitish Kumar over Indigo manager's murder; calls him a 'tired CM'

Moreover, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet expansion is in limbo with each party wanting more berths for themselves. Amid this, Nitish said that he is unaware of who is his friend and who are the enemies in politics. In what seemed an indirect attack at the BJP, Kumar said that the seat distribution within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the recently concluded assembly elections should have been done five months prior to the poll. CM Nitish added that it is because of the delay that his Janata Dal (United) suffered a blow. He also said that false propaganda was spread against JDU, in a dig at LJP's Chirag Paswan, who contested the polls against Nitish but with PM Narendra Modi.

READ | RJD's Tejashwi Yadav to visit slain IndiGo Manager Rupesh Singh's home in Bihar's Chapra
ABT Telecoms has responded to a City Press report that it was responsible for a telecommunications shutdown in Mpumalanga provincial government offices, calling it unsubstantiated and slanderous.

The City Press recently reported that 76 Mpumalanga provincial government sites were left without telecoms services despite the provider, ABT Telecoms, receiving R13 million to deliver these services.

The newspaper has also reported that Mpumalanga premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipanes office was investigating the allegedly irregular R265.3-million tender awarded to ABT Telecoms.

According to the report, the previous telecoms provider, Kwa-Mahlaba Connects contract had expired in October, but it continued to render services in November.

After Kwa-Mahlaba Connect switched off their services, numerous government sites, including hospitals, clinics, and police stations, were left without telecoms services.

ABT Telecoms said the allegations in these articles cannot go unchallenged, especially in light of the fact that the matter is sub-judice.

The City Press articles have extracts out of an Affidavit solely by Kwa-Mahlaba Connect and has not taken extracts from the States affidavit, nor ABT Telecoms, thus making the story one-sided, said ABT Telecoms Thula Nkumane.

He said there is no clarity on why the R265 million tender was alleged to be awarded irregularly, and that City Press relied on the gossip and conjecture by its faceless source whose version is presented as established fact.

Nkumane said in the normal course of doing business, ABT Telecoms submits proposals to both the private and public sectors.

ABT Telecoms conducts its business above board in the spirit of solving societal problems, driving innovation and achieving commercial success.

The company does not have any politicians beholden to it, nor does it engage in business with any politically exposed people, he said.

He added that ABT Telecoms was not responsible for lack of telecommunications services at Mpumalanga Provincial Government offices, as reported.

The articles do not explain that Kwa-Mahlaba Connect, the former service provider, refused to do a handover to ABT, said Nkumane.

They refused to hand over the States telephone numbers in the range of 013, 766, 0000 and 9999 to ABT Telecoms to facilitate a seamless continuation of telecommunication services to Government offices and facilities.

The government and ABT Telecoms instituted legal proceedings against Kwa-Mahlaba Connect to force the latter to hand over telephone numbers to enable ABT to provide telecommunications services.

Kwa-Mahlaba Connect managed the numbers, which have been gazetted to the provincial government by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), through a third-party reseller, he said.

By withholding the numbers and refusing to hand over fully to ABT Telecoms, he said, Kwa-Mahlaba Connect deprived over 15,000 civil servants in Mpumalanga access to telecommunications services.

The impact of their unfortunate actions had a spillover effect to millions of Mpumalanga residents who could not access critical public sector and emergency services.

In a bid to speed up services delivery in the face of shameless and blatant sabotage by Kwa-Mahlaba Connect, ABT Telecoms purchased a tranche of 087 numbers to provide telecommunications services to civil servants while the porting of the numbers was still a subject of a court process.

Nkumane said the decision to purchase the 087 range of numbers was indicative of their commitment to ensuring business continuity.

It was unfortunate that the provincial government was not allowed by regulations from advertising this range of numbers, he said.

Nkumane added that the court has since ruled in favour of the government and ABT Telecoms and instructed Kwa-Mahlaba Connect to cede the numbers to ABT Telecoms.

In a bizarre twist of events, it has turned out that Kwa-Mahlaba Connect, which has served as a telecommunications service provider to the province for the last 18 years, is unable to carry out the court order because it does not have the ICASA license required to port the numbers to ABT Telecoms.

Nkumane also dismissed allegations that ABT Telecoms lacks the capacity and infrastructure to provide telecommunications to the provincial government.

ABT Telecoms has built telecoms infrastructure for Mpumalanga without a glitch. Over and above this contract, ABT has built telecommunications infrastructure in the Free State and KZN, thus rendering the argument around capacity nonsensical, said Nkumane.

ABT Telecoms has also built a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network that connects government buildings in Mpumalanga.

This MPLS network connects to the LAN that was re-engineered in less than three months and has enabled more than 7,000 civil servants to make voice calls through the 087 number.

There is no merit to the allegation that ABT Telecoms was disqualified by MTN due to lack of affordability, he said.

In light of respecting confidentiality between MTN and ABT, these agreements have not been made public as per the laborious request our colleagues Kwa-Mahlaba.

He said ABT Telecoms has three standing agreements with MTN  a reseller agreement, an on-biller agreement, and a teaming agreement specific to the Mpumalanga Provincial Government.

Nkumane further dismissed the allegation that it was paid R13 million for doing nothing.

The Mpumalanga Provincial Government has to date not paid ABT Telecoms one cent, he said.

We are in full support of the investigation by the Office of the Premier as we believe that its outcome will further vindicate us, just as the High court has, and lay bare the malicious intentions to ruin ABTs reputation.

MyBroadband contacted Kwa-Mahlaba for comment about ABT Telecoms MD Thula Nkumanes accusations, but they did not respond by the time of publication.
The ex-wife of a Florida man who was arrested for abusing his stepson claims she ended their marriage after he wouldn't stop 'whooping' her two toddlers, as the boy's biological father claimed the restaurant manager who saved his son 'is a walking angel.'

Timothy Wilson II, 34, was arrested in Orlando on January 1, charged with multiple counts of child abuse after his stepson told police how the 360 pound bully handcuffed him to furniture, hung him upside down and battered him with fists, a broom and a back scratcher.

Authorities were alerted to the possible abuse when a restaurant manager noticed bruises and marks on the 11-year-old, prompting her to pass him a note asking if he needed help, which he affirmed.

Now, Wilson's ex-wife Amanda Powell has told DailyMailTV how she ended their volatile marriage because he wouldn't stop 'whooping' her two young sons, both from a previous relationship.

She said: 'He seemed really nice at first and I couldn't tell that he was mistreating them until it just got really controlling and he started whooping them.'

The ex-wife of Timothy Wilson II, who was arrested for abusing his stepson, claims she ended their marriage after he wouldn't stop 'whooping' her two toddlers. Pictured: Wilson with Kristen Swann, her son and the couple's daughter

Wilson, 34, was arrested in Orlando on January 1, charged with multiple counts of child abuse after his stepson told police how the 360 pound bully handcuffed him to furniture, hung him upside down and battered him with fists, a broom and a back scratcher

Now, Wilson's ex-wife Amanda Powell has told DailyMailTV how she ended their volatile marriage because he wouldn't stop 'whooping' her two young sons, both from a previous relationship. Pictured: Powell and Wilson with her two young sons

Powell, 37, added: 'I told him I didn't agree with it because he wasn't their father and I kept telling him and telling him they were too little.

'They were two and four, they needed a time out or something like that, not a whooping.'

Powell wed Wilson in 2006 and moved to Washington while he was stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

But within a year Amanda said she fled and filed for divorce to protect her sons, Bradley and Aaron.

Amanda said Wilson wouldn't let her use the car or mingle with other military wives. She says he also began to hit the children with a belt.

'He threatened me daily. There was a time he hit me and tried to choke me,' she added.

The marriage ended in a blow-out fight, which saw Amanda being carted off to jail while Wilson was left with the boys.

'I told him if he did it again he was going to regret it and he went to whoop them again,' she said. 'So when he came back I broke his nose with the glass top of a jewelry box.

'I had scratches and scrapes where we had been tussling. When the military police showed up they defended him and I went straight to jail.'

When Wilson dropped the charges Amanda, a furniture plant worker, says she left jail, picked up the kids and immediately returned to her family in Athens, Alabama.

Her blood ran cold last week when she heard on the news that her ex-husband had been arrested for allegedly abusing his 11-year-old stepson.

'I can believe it, it's probably because it wasn't his child,' she added. 'When you marry someone, you take their kids in, you don't treat them like they're different.'

Powell, 37, added: 'I told him I didn't agree with it because he wasn't their father and I kept telling him and telling him they were too little. They were two and four, they needed a time out or something like that, not a whooping.' Pictured: Wilson with Powell's two sons

Powell wed Wilson (pictured) in 2006 and moved to Washington while he was stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. But within a year Amanda said she fled and filed for divorce to protect her sons, Bradley and Aaron

The 11-year-old's biological father Heath Lewis also chimed in on the shocking abuse claims, praising restaurant manager Flaviane Carvalho for her heroic actions.

He had split with his son's mother Kristen Swann, shortly before his birth in October 2009, claiming in divorce papers seen by DailyMailTV that she 'committed adultery'.

Swann married - then divorced - a second man before hooking up with Timothy Wilson II around six years ago.

Their daughter was born four years ago. DailyMailTV is choosing not to name either child.

Lewis, 32, said he hadn't talked to his son for six years because of the strained relationship with his ex-wife.

He says he's since been in contact with the Florida Department of Children and Families, however, to apply for custody of the youngster.

'I rang the lady at the restaurant to thank her from the bottom of my heart. What she did was amazing. She is just awesome,' Lewis told DailyMailTV.

Swann, 31, was charged with neglect for failing to seek help for her son, who was emaciated and 20 pounds underweight. Both the boy and his four-year-old sister, Wilson's biological daughter, have been taken into care

The 11-year-old's biological father Heath Lewis also chimed in on the shocking abuse claims, praising restaurant manager Flaviane Carvalho (pictured) for her heroic actions

He added: 'If it wasn't for her, there's no telling what could have happened.

'I don't know anything about the guy my ex-wife was with. I will say this though: I am horrified and I just want to try to get my boy back. I just want to make sure he's OK.'

Swann, 31, was charged with neglect for failing to seek help for her son, who was emaciated and 20 pounds underweight. Both the boy and his four-year-old sister, Wilson's biological daughter, have been taken into care.

While Flaviane has played down her heroics, Rafaela Cabede, the owner of Mrs Potato Restaurant, begs to differ.

'She called me, I could see what was going on via the security cameras. I was really worried for her in case this man was violent,' Rafaela told DailyMailTV.

'But she kept calm and acted like nothing was wrong while she waited for the police.

'Any abuse case is revolting enough, but when we heard how bad it was, we knew she had saved the boy's life. She is an angel sent by God.'


Ever since he was 12 years old, James Perkins has been collecting  obsessively, passionately, unstintingly and, lately, increasingly secretively. Because his wife, Sophie, is fast losing her patience  particularly with the stuffed giraffes.

As a boy, he started on toy Smurfs, but finding them 'rather limiting' quickly graduated to Marvel comics, followed by leather suitcases and brass and iron beds  which he bought, restored and resold. Until, aged 15 and just as his pals were embracing cider and girls, he discovered rugby  he once played for England  along with a searing passion for intricate plasterwork. Busts, buttocks, cornicing and master samples from stately homes, museums and churches.

'Some people say I'm obsessive but I prefer the word 'passionate',' says James, a former rave promoter, record producer and, latterly, property developer.

He is equally passionate about taxidermy and boasts a vast collection that, as well as giraffes, includes zebras, penguins, flamingos, a polar bear, cheetah and a lion which prance, perch or snarl around the house.

Ever since he was 12 years old, James Perkins (far right) has been collecting  obsessively, passionately, unstintingly and, lately, increasingly secretively. Because his wife, Sophie, (far left) is fast losing her patience  particularly with the stuffed giraffes.

James is equally passionate about taxidermy and boasts a vast collection that, as well as giraffes, includes zebras, penguins, flamingos, a polar bear, cheetah and a lion which prance, perch or snarl around the house

James is 51 now and still can't stop buying. On holidays, on business trips, online. Museums and collectors now call him when they have specialist pieces they want to shift.

So it's a very good thing he's got a socking great home  Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire, with 48,000 square feet, 41 en-suite bedrooms, along with endless acres, every inch of which he has renovated at vast expense  in which to stash his treasures

He also loves 18th-century portraits, ostrich feather lights, fossils  he has an impressive collection that includes a 65-million-year-old triceratops skull  and, well, pretty much anything else you can think of.

He is 51 now and still can't stop buying. On holidays, on business trips, online. Museums and collectors now call him when they have specialist pieces they want to shift.

So it's a very good thing he's got a socking great home  Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire, with 48,000 square feet, 41 en-suite bedrooms, along with endless acres, every inch of which he has renovated at vast expense  in which to stash his treasures. Oh yes, and a constant stream of celebrity guests to admire them.

Before lockdown, Aynhoe doubled as a top-end wedding and party venue for rich and famous revellers including Noel Gallagher, Kate Moss and Bono, who have danced till dawn to Duran Duran and Status Quo surrounded by the stuffed zebras and a giraffe suspended from balloons. And most recently, Cara Delevingne spent Christmas there with her family.

However, even Aynhoe's vast, airy and exquisite interiors have begun to feel cluttered.

However, even Aynhoe's vast, airy and exquisite interiors have begun to feel cluttered. Pictured: The library is filled with a cheetah, a five foot scale model of Big Ben among other taxidermy

Tomorrow, pretty much the entire contents of the house  nearly 700 items, including animals, fossils, sofas, pictures, skulls, glitter balls, canopied beds, chandeliers and rugs  will be up for private auction and expected to fetch more than 2 million.

A more than seven foot giraffe held up by five large glass balloons in the main hallway, which is worth around 15,000

Which is why, tomorrow, pretty much the entire contents of the house  nearly 700 items, including animals, fossils, sofas, pictures, skulls, glitter balls, canopied beds, chandeliers and rugs  will be up for private auction and expected to fetch more than 2 million.

The house has been sold, too, to a top secret buyer.

Meanwhile, James, Sophie and their three young kids are off to Grade I-listed Parnham House in Beaminster, Dorset  or what's left of it  to start restoring and collecting all over again.

'I'm always, 'where's the next project? The next thrill?' I'm very, very driven. I get itchy feet,' he explains. 'I do love a challenge.'

He's certainly lined one up this time.

Parnham burned down in a suspected arson attack in 2017.

Weeks later, the previous owner, Michael Treichl  who had spent years and over 10 million restoring it to untold levels of beauty and opulence  was found drowned in Lake Geneva.

James spent just 15 minutes viewing the charred rubble remains of Parnham before snapping it up (it was on the market for 2.5 million).

James also loves 18th-century portraits, ostrich feather lights, fossils  he has an impressive collection that includes a 65-million-year-old triceratops skull (pictured)  and, well, pretty much anything else you can think of.

'There wasn't much to see! The main bit was too dangerous to go in. It doesn't really have anything  it's just a frame.'

Even for him it is quite a leap, though he's never been the sort to agonise over purchases.

'And I've never bothered about budgets either,' he says. 'It just costs what it costs!'

He bought Aynhoe in 2006  exchanging on it the day after first spotting it from a helicopter, having never even set foot in it. 'It looked great from the outside, so I said to myself, 'I'm sure its got lots of lovely rooms inside'  and bought it,' he says.

It was only after he'd exchanged that he discovered 17th century Aynhoe came with three sitting tenants and an awful lot of thick white and red gloss paint.

'It was a bit of a shock when I got inside, but we've sorted it out now,' he says cheerily.

They put the finishing touches to the 41st bedroom just last year.

James bought Aynhoe in 2006  exchanging on it the day after first spotting it from a helicopter, having never even set foot in it. Pictured: The dining room

And while it won't be to everyone's taste, it has already developed a dedicated and obsessive fan base among those who don't blink at spending a minimum of 100,000 per party. Jade Jagger had her wedding here and James shows me where Mick slept  right at the top of the house 'where he couldn't be woken'. It will be a long time before they're holding a party in their next home.

The scale of the project, designed by the world-renowned studio set up by Thomas Heatherwick in London, is extraordinary. Sophie insists firmly that it will be 'more family and holistic' than Aynhoe. Works are likely to stretch to a decade.

But first  and at Heatherwick's request  there will be a spiritual cleansing ceremony to address the past sadness of the house.

'He recommended a ceremony to ward off evil spirits,' says Sophie.

James rolls his eyes, but it won't be their first brush with exorcists.

They brought someone into Aynhoe a couple of years back after a guest claimed she had felt a child's hand cupped in hers.

But after years of madness and revelry that's finally all over  and everything must go to help fund their latest project. Or nearly everything

A giant white plaster statue of Hercules wearing a gold watch and chain around his neck

The exorcist, meanwhile, saw ghosts of maids and children running and insisted that James was possessed by a man who used to live here.

Whatever, James is certainly possessed with startling reserves of energy and drive.

As a boy growing up in Cheltenham, he was determined to be a millionaire by the age of 24.

To subsidise his antique collecting, he ran parties. He organised his first  at 1 a ticket  when he was 15 and by the time he was 22 was masterminding raves at stately homes for more than 22,000 people.

From there he went into record producing  there are framed discs all over the walls of the endless loos  and then, with a partner, property developing, which presumably is where all the money came from. But he was always collecting.

He collected Sophie, 34,  who has a background in antiques and vintage clothes  after they met at a wine tasting at the local pub.

Now they have three children, were themselves married at Aynhoe in 2019 and seem to thrive on their differences.

He is great company  big, bouncy and very charismatic  but can't be easy to live with.

'I have to be on the go,' he beams. 'My mantra is: why do something later when you can do it now?'

Which means he's constantly on his phone doing deals. He is in the process of buying another huge house while we chat  'oh, it's so exciting'  and never switches off, not even on holiday.

Meanwhile, deliveries still arrive daily from all around the world.

Recently, he started hiding his purchases in his office, much to Sophie's dismay

Recently, he started hiding his purchases in his office, much to Sophie's dismay.

'I'll walk in here and I'll say, 'James! That giraffe  standing 20ft tall in the corner and sporting a bowler hat  that's new!' And he'll say, 'No, no, no. It's been here for months!'

'And I'll say, 'No James, shut up! That's definitely new.'

In a funny way, the parties sounded like a godsend to Sophie.

She could slide off to bed in their soundproofed wing, ready to get up with their young children in the morning, while he popped out to play host and have fun.

'I am very, very, very, social,' he says. 'I really like it. So I'll say, 'I think I'll just go and say hello and I'll be back six hours later! It's just such fun.'

The parties were mad. One had an Alice in Wonderland theme, with guests crawling through a rabbit hole to enter the house. At another, Bob Geldof was asleep under the table and Madonna tried to gatecrash.

To be fair, it would be impossible not to have fun here and hard to imagine any party falling flat surrounded by such weird and wonderful treasures.

But after years of madness and revelry that's finally all over  and everything must go to help fund their latest project. Or nearly everything. Because towards the end of my tour and just out of Sophie's earshot, James confesses there are 'a few bits of bobs' he just couldn't quite part with, which he has stowed safely in storage.

A few?

'Well . . . er . . . two airport hangars full of stuff. And at last 14 40-foot containers,' he says sheepishly. 'Maybe I should start collecting stamps next time.'
London has received more emergency business support from the Treasury than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined during the pandemic, official figures revealed today.

The capital was offered bounceback loans and coronavirus business interruption loans far in excess of any other part of the UK, according to new statistics.

The Treasury said that each region of the country was allotted loan amounts 'proportionately to the amount of businesses located there'.

The numbers show the overwhelming reliance on London as the economic driver of the country.

Only the South East of England received more than half of London's total in cash payments, with Northern Ireland and the North East the lowest recipients, along with Wales.

Scotland received 80,000 bounceback loans worth nearly 3 billion, Wales more than 50,500 loans worth in excess of 1.7 billion and Northern Ireland nearly 35,000 loans worth more than 1.3 billion.

In contrast London firms received almost 300,000 bounceback loans worth just shy of 10 billion.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak, said: 'Throughout this crisis, we have provided more than 280billion of support to protect jobs and livelihoods up and down the country.

'We are committed to continuing to ensure jobs are protected and opportunity is created.'

It came as Mr Sunak was urged to resist calls to introduce a property tax amid fears it would be a wealth tax in all but name.

Treasury officials have modelled a plan to scrap council tax and stamp duty and replace them with a property tax based on a percentage of a home's value.

The scheme would be revenue-neutral, meaning it would not bring in any more money for the Treasury.

But it could see winners in northern areas and losers in the South, where property prices are higher.

One economist said there was a danger that it could become a 'creeping wealth tax', while another said it could be devastating for cash-poor pensioners who live in valuable homes.

The Chancellor is also at the centre of a Cabinet row over whether to extend a 20-a-week increase to Universal Credit payments, it was claimed today, ahead of a crunch Labour vote on the issue.

The Chancellor is said to want to scrap the increase which was put in place last year to help families through the coronavirus pandemic and is due to expire in April.

Tory MPs are demanding Mr Sunak keep the payments in place until the UK is clear of the Covid-19 crisis while Cabinet ministers, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, are also urging him to look at extending the policy.

The Chancellor reportedly believes that if the extra payments remain in place there is a risk they could become permanent at a cost to the Treasury of approximately 6billion per year.

Labour will try to force a symbolic vote on keeping the payments this evening, with Boris Johnson instructing Tory MPs to abstain.

The Prime Minister claimed Sir Keir Starmer is 'playing politics' and accused Labour 'trolls' of 'intimidating and threatening' Tory MPs on the issue.

Mr Johnson said similar votes in the past had been 'misrepresented' by Labour and he did not want to risk that happening again.

However, a number of Tory MPs are still expected to rebel and vote with Labour.
Kenney Says Alberta Has Strong Legal Basis to Seek Damages If Biden Administration Cancels Keystone XL Pipeline

Indications that the incoming U.S. administration may be planning to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline is raising concerns for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

A briefing note shared by members of President-elect Joe Bidens transition team purportedly contains the words Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit, suggesting the incoming president will cancel the project via executive action, CBC reported citing anonymous sources. The Epoch Times hasnt confirmed the claim.

Should the Biden administration abrogate Keystones permit, Kenney said, Alberta will work with Keystone owner TC Energy to employ all legal avenues available to protect its interest in the project.

He said on Jan. 18 that Alberta has a strong legal basis for seeking damages if the Keystone XL pipeline expansion is killed, The Canadian Press reported.

Kenney said in a Jan. 17 Facebook post that he feels deeply concerned by reports the Biden administration may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.

Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-US relationship, and undermine US national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future, Kenney wrote.

Kenney noted that Canadas petroleum production and commitment to climate change would meet the needs of the new U.S. administration. The United States has imported 3.7 million barrels of petroleum per day from Canada in 2019, and will likely consume just as much under Bidens green policy, he said.

In 2017, President Donald Trump issued a presidential permit for the pipeline project, which had been rejected by former president Barack Obama in 2015.

Despite the gloomy prospects, TC Energy announced a new sustainable energy initiative for the project on Jan. 17. The company said it is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2023 and have the operation fully powered by renewable energy by 2030.

Canada and the United States are among the most environmentally responsible countries in the world with some of the strictest standards for fossil fuel production, Keystone president Richard Prior said in a press release.

We are confident that Keystone XL is not only the safest and most reliable method to transport oil to markets, but the initiatives announced today also ensures it will have the lowest environmental impact of an oil pipeline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

The pipeline, which would link Albertas oilsands with U.S. refiners, represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now, Kenney said.

Alberta invested $1.5 billion in the expansion in 2020, reported CP.

We renew our call on the incoming administration to show respect for Canada as the United States most important trading partner and strategic ally by keeping that commitment to engage, and to allow Canada to make the case for strengthening cooperation on energy, the environment, and the economy through this project, Kenney said.
Mumbai, Jan 18 : Actor Himansh Kohli, who made his Bollywood debut with the 2012 film Yaariyan, says he is concerned with the recent news of privacy leak on the popular chatting network, WhatsApp.

The actor, who is a self proclaimed techie, loves exploring technology but is also cautious about it.

"I'll continue using WhatsApp, mainly because of the phenomenon it has become. I'm open to something else if it comes to that. In fact, I like being the first mover and I am always on the lookout for better substitutes in the market," he said.

"When you're known and there are people who recognise you everywhere you go, you start feeling responsible for everything you say. It works the same for everyone, but people often misquote celebrities, focus on every word and the choice of using those words, etc. So, I keep this wall up to protect myself from quoting anything that can put me in trouble," he added.

WhatsApp recently received backlash over its privacy policy controversy. Although the messaging app has delayed the privacy update from February 8 to May 15, a lot of users have already started switching over to other similar applications.
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At least five palapas burn in residential area of Tulum

Tulum, Q.R.  Emergency 911 sent a response team to a residential area of Tulum Saturday morning after receiving the report of multiple palapa fires.

The fires broke out in an irregular area of the municipality called Zama village at 10:28 a.m. Authorities arrived to find at least five palapas had already been devoured by flames. At least six people were on site trying to extinguish flames, but to no avail.

Ministerial police remained on site to investigate the start of the fires. No injuries were reported.

Earlier this month, a palapa fire in the towns hotel zone wiped out its Jungle Market with authorities saying at least 20 businesses were destroyed by the flames. An official cause of the fire has yet to be released.
Published:

5 January 2021

Dr Matthieu Burnay

School of Law, Queen Mary University of London

This blog post was first published by Synergy Magazine (n. 68, 2020)

Situations of rule of law backsliding or democratic recession in European Union (EU) Member States (EUMS) such as Hungary and Poland have generated a strong wakeup call for the EU that came up to realise that the very values upon which the European integration process is based  as spelled out in Article 2 of the TEU - are now trembling (Kochenov and Closa 2016).

It is in this context that one should situate the current debate on human rights between the EU and China. Needless to say that cooperation in the field of human rights has always been difficult not least because of the significant normative gaps that exist between the two Strategic Partners. EU values have hence been described as dead on arrival (Mattlin 2012) while the dedicated Human Rights Dialogue has also been criticised by human rights organisations for being a cheap alibi for EU leaders to avoid thorny rights issues in other high level discussions (Human Rights Watch 2017). EUMS have also grown increasingly divided making the EU failing largely to be coherent in its promotion of human rights to China (Raube and Burnay 2018). The most notable example thereof is the inability of the EU to come up with a joint statement criticising Chinas human rights record before the UN Human Rights Council because of a Greek veto back in 2017.

Engagement with China in the area of human rights remains nevertheless central for the EU as recent developments in Chinas governance system  that have been coined as the end of an era and an authoritarian revival (Minzner 2018)  do have significant transnational implications for the EU. In this short paper, I would like to highlight three particular human rights issues, which are very much likely to shape the bilateral relationship between the EU and China in the years to come.

First, the growing influence of the Party State in Hong Kong in general, and the adoption of the controversial National Security Law in 2020 in particular, have sparked major criticisms internationally, including in the EU. In addition to constituting a direct challenge to the One Country, Two Systems principle, this law has an important extraterritorial reach as it also applies to individuals who are not permanent residents of the Special Administrative Region and to individuals who may have violated the law outside Hong Kong (Art. 38). It is very much in support of the position of the United Kingdom  the other Party to the Joint Declaration signed by the PRC at the time of the retrocession of Hong Kong  that the European Parliament adopted a very critical Resolution calling the EU to consider the adoption of targeted sanctions against PRC officials and reemphasising the need for the EU to streamline the promotion of human rights across all fields of bilateral relations (2020/2665(RSP)). The evolution of the situation in Hong Kong and the uncertain future of the One Country, two Systems principle will definitely inform whether the EU will consider China as a negotiation partner, an economic competitor, or a systemic rival to use the words of the latest State of the Union speech by Commission President von der Leyen.

Second, human rights issues are also to be found where they are the least expected. It is in application of Art. 207 TFEU that the European Commission has been given a mandate to negotiate a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China (CAI) on behalf of the 27 Member States. In line with the EUs comprehensive approach to investment agreements, the EU is expected (both politically and legally) to take due account of the human rights aspects of the bilateral relationship in the area of foreign investments. In its reflection paper Harnessing Globalization, the European Commission hence made it clear that the EU should develop an investment agenda that does not only opens markets in a reciprocal way but also enhances global governance on issues like human rights () (2017). Beyond the remaining difficulties in the negotiations of the CAI,[1] it is clear that human rights will play an important role at the time of ratification of the Agreement. As a mixed agreement, in line with CJEU Opinion 2/15 on the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA), the CAI will have to be ratified by both the EU and its Member States. In that process, there is no doubt national (and some sub-national) parliaments will scrutinise the overall human rights situation in China.

Third, recent technological developments in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have important human rights implications including in the context of EU-China relations. Since the adoption of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan by the State Council in 2017, the PRC has established turning the country into a world leader in the area of AI as a strategic objective. Not only do AI-enabled technologies, from facial recognition to the use of AI in dispute resolution, transform Chinese society in depth, but are now also being exported all over the world through the Digital Silk Road. Far from being as advanced as other actors in the development of AI technologies, the EU now tries to establish itself as a leader of ethical AI and keeps calling for the regulation of AI (European Commission 2020). It is therefore clear that a number of human rights implications of AI will have to be discussed at both bilateral and multilateral levels not least in view of the transnational nature of most AI technologies. Interestingly, the normative/ethical implications of AI were discussed at the occasion of the EU-China Legal Affairs Dialogue that took place in 2019.

As a conclusion, the EU-China Strategic Partnership, as it has been called since 2003, can no longer be compartmentalised with human rights being only one of the many issues discussed at bilateral levels. Both the political and economic aspects of the Strategic Partnership are shaped by normative differences between the EU and China. The question should not be how the EU can export these values to China but how the EU can engage with the PRC in a way that responds to both the EU strategic priorities and legal obligations. Critical attempts to understand the prospects and challenges for EU-China relations will probably make us realise that this is only by bridging strategic considerations with normative principles that the EU may make sense of its role as a global actor.

Footnotes

[1] Since the first publication of this blog post, it has been officially announced China and the EU reached an agreement in principle on investment.
Parting With Peggy Noonan and the Irrational Hatred of Trump

Commentary

It is with regret that I must record a radical parting of the political ways with my dear friend, columnist Peggy Noonan (and many other like-minded commentators).

Our differing views of candidate and President Donald Trump have been a matter of civilized and often humorous comment for five years. Peggy saw from the outset better than most observers the attractions of Trump to a wide swath of America who felt that they had been ignored and disparaged by the rich Reagan and Bush Republicans and forgotten by the Clinton and Obama Democrats in their hot pursuit of the approval of the yuppies and the trendies.

I have no standing to read minds, but Peggy Noonan came to Washington to serve Ronald Reagan, a great president and consummate gentleman. He used to say that his 11th Commandment was Never speak ill of a fellow Republican, and he never did. Trump wouldnt have lost his appeal to the huge numbers of people who thought that there were no other presidential contenders who listened to them if he had avoided the personal physical disparagement of his opponents. (I never understood why those whom he ridiculed didnt respond in kind; there is plenty to make fun of about the outgoing president.)

But for all his stylistic enormities, Trump was almost always right on policy questions. When he ended the appeasement of Iran and resumed sanctions, he dried up the support for Middle Eastern terrorist organizations and encouraged the Arab powers to bury the hatchet with Israel and focus on their ancient Persian enemy as the real threat to the Middle East.

He played an indispensable role in mobilizing concern and civilized resistance throughout the West to the unfair trading practices, currency manipulation, violation of international waters, and attempted intimidation of neighboring states by the Peoples Republic of China. Trump did this cogently and with no hint of the red-baiting McCarthyism of the early Cold War against the Soviet Union.

He was much criticized for stopping direct flights from China to the United States on Jan. 31, 2020, and for identifying the coronavirus as Chinese, even though the regime in Beijing effectively unleashed a biological war on the world by promoting the exportation of the virus, and has since had the effrontery to declare that its response to the virus (a subject of massive lies, as well as totalitarian repression) demonstrates the superiority of the Chinese communist dictatorship over democracies.

Trump has received nothing but criticism from commentators who should know better, for recognizing the injustice and unsustainable cost of economic shutdowns to deal with the pandemic that ultimately only endangered the lives of the 1 percent of the population that is easiest to isolate and protect. The response to his successful pursuit of a vaccine, which brought the distribution of it more than a year before scientists had thought possible, was expressions of skepticism by Democratic leaders about any vaccine developed under the auspices of Trump.

A Cancer

Noonan generally was relatively polite and sparse in her references to the president for a couple of years. Even from her, he received no credit for reviving the concept of nuclear nonproliferation with Iran and North Korea, for building his promised wall and reducing illegal immigration by 90 percent, or for eliminating unemployment and creating conditions for the first time in any serious jurisdiction where the lowest 20 percent of income-earners were gaining income in percentage terms more quickly than the top 10 percent.

The three previous administrations had been swindled by North Korea, and for 20 years, all we heard was pious claptrap about Comprehensive Immigration Reform, as millions of illegal migrants swarmed in, and inconsequential handwringing about the problem of income disparity.

Instead of referring to any of these accomplishments, Noonan became nastier in her references to the president and finally referred to him in her column as a cancer metastasizing in the Oval Office. Describing Hitler or Stalin in such terms would have been justified.

Denying Election Irregularities

But in these last weeks, Noonan and others have crossed a Rubicon of unprofessional bias. They have all submitted to the diktat that no credence can be attached to claims of material election irregularities in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It didnt happen, its canceled, and those who suggested otherwise are to be boycotted, excluded, and even expelled from the U.S. Senate.

Republican Rep. Elizabeth Cheney, according to Peggy Noonan, showed great leadership in supporting a second impeachment of Trump thats even more outrageous than the first. Trump, typically, squandered his credibility by claiming that he had been robbed of a landslide in the election, and by publicly pressuring the vice president to reject the vote of the Senate confirming the composition of the Electoral College, a preposterous idea.

Trump breached the walls of the Democratic electoral fortresses of the African and Latin American communities, made important gains in congressional and state elections, and broadened the Republican base of support. But very plausible and disturbing evidence of decisive voting irregularity in the five states mentioned were deemed to be legal, under COVID-justified changes in voting and counting methods that facilitated widespread election fraud.

Since the states have the constitutional responsibility for elections, the relevant laws were apparently legal, and the Supreme Court abdicated its responsibility and declined to hear a direct complaint by Texas supported by 18 other states against four of the swing states for failing to fulfill the constitutional obligation of fair elections.

In the circumstances, when Trump addressed his 300,000 followers in Washington on Jan. 6 (95 percent of whom were respectable concerned citizens, not the mob thats been depicted), his remarks were relatively restrained. He incited nothing illegal, and certainly gave no hint of insurrection (the attempted violent overthrow of the government).

It now emerges that most of the ringleaders were semi-professional hooligans with no particular connection to Trump, but Speaker Pelosi jammed through a wad of newspaper clippings purporting to be an indictment of the president for inciting an insurrection.

Being one of 10 Republican members of the Congress to support this wasnt leadership by Cheney, or fair comment by Noonan. This impeachment will sink like a rock and may never be argued, but it was the most contemptible and absurd legislative initiative in U.S. history: no evidence, witnesses, or due process, just a malicious attempt to defame an outgoing president with a move to remove him from an office that he vacated at the normal expiry of his term.

Peggy thinks its a triumph of the establishment and the merciful end of a freakish interlude. The suspect election, the abdication of the Supreme Court, the indifference of much of Republican officialdom, which foolishly believes it can have the benefits of Trumps policies and electioneering while knifing Trump himself in the back, the rabid partisanship of the media, and the thought control of the totalitarian dictators of social media. All of it is an unmitigated and horrifying disgrace that compromises Americas status as a functioning democracy and a free country.

It remains to be seen how durable Trump and Trumpism are, but that Donald Trumpan acquired taste as a public personality (or not)could have driven civilized people such as Noonan to such transports of irrational hatred will puzzle historians and socio-pathologists for many decades. Sad.

Conrad Black has been one of Canadas most prominent financiers for 40 years, and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. Hes the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently, Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other, which has been republished in updated form.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.



Taapsee Pannu is a terrific actress. On-screen she always manages to take away all the accolades and the praises. But the actress is somehow quite mum when it comes to her personal life. There have been strong rumours whether Taapsee is dating Mathias Boe. Mathias is a badminton player and hails from Denmark and is seen in some group selfies shared by the actress and even went on a vacation with her to the Maldives last year.

In a recent interview with E Times, the actress got talking about her personal life and when asked would she make her relationship with Boe public this year, heres what she had to say, I didnt want to date someone from the industry for this very reason--I want to keep my personal and professional lives separate. I always share a picture with those who matter to me on their birthdays and did the same for Mathias, who is a part of my inner circle.In the interview, the Thappad actress was further asked about marriage, and the diva said, Once I do, Ill probably think of slowing down, doing two-three films a year instead of five-six. Only then will I have time to dedicate to my personal life. The actress has some dozen projects in her kitty. Apart from Haseen Dilruba and Rashmi Rocket, soon this month, she has Shabash Mitthu in the pipeline, the remake of Run Lola Run titled Loop Lapeta to be shot in Goa and then she has Anurag Kashyaps next supernatural film.
The Conversation

The race is on to secure vaccines that will protect people from COVID-19. But its already become apparent that there is gross inequality playing out in the procurement and distribution of the new drugs. One reason is intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is considering whether to temporarily waive certain rules about Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), so as to allow more countries access to vaccines, drugs, and medical technologies needed to prevent, contain, or treat COVID-19. Initially proposed by South Africa and India, the waiver has the support of almost 100 developing countries, scores of international NGOs, several UN agencies, and the Director-General of the World Health Organisation. But there is opposition, particularly from countries that are home to large pharmaceutical companies. This means that the decision has yet to move forward within the WTO. Meanwhile, vaccinations are underway in high-income countries that made multiple bilateral advance purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies. Developing countries are having to wait.

Caroline Southey, the editor of The Conversation Africa, asks Ronald Labonte and Brook Baker to unpack the issues.

Has the WTO failed developing countries?

No. The failure rests with some of the WTO member states. The WTO is an intergovernmental institution that is rules-bound and whose actions are directed or guided by the many trade treaties (including TRIPS) that it oversees. Those treaties are the products of negotiations between governments of countries that are member states of the WTO. Some member states are withholding support for the proposed TRIPS waiver. These are the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, the EU and Brazil. Most are home to pharmaceutical companies benefiting from TRIPS extended patent protections. All have inked advanced purchase agreements with vaccine companies.

Some countries, including Canada and those in the EU, are using voluntary measures, like promises to donate excess vaccine or contributions to the WHOs COVAX facility, as a defence against the need for the waiver. COVAX now has enough financial commitments to make just over one billion doses available to eligible developing countries by the end of 2021. But the supply and the roll-out is insufficient to meet the need. The bottom line for the non-supporters appears to be: protect TRIPS patent rights first, worry about globally equitable vaccine access second.

What difference would the waiver make?

The waiver would allow WTO members to choose to neither grant nor enforce certain sections of the TRIPS agreement. This would allow WTO member states to collaborate on manufacturing, scaling up and supplying COVID-19 medical tools equitably.

The waiver would be temporary, in effect only until the WHO declares global herd immunity. It would apply only to those drugs, vaccines and medical technologies related to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19. It would be optional; countries could elect not to abide by the waiver.

WTO member states arguing against the waiver maintain that existing TRIPS flexibilities already allow countries experiencing a public health emergency to issue compulsory licences to domestic pharmaceutical companies to produce generic (and less costly) equivalents. This is true, but the process is cumbersome and does not yet apply to trade secret know-how and cell lines needed to copy vaccines and biologic medicines. Compulsory licences must be issued on a country-by-country, case-by-case basis. Some compulsory licences require prior negotiations with rights holders and some are only for public, non-commercial use. Moreover, even for a single medicine, compulsory licences might need to be issued in the country that produces the active pharmaceutical product, the country that produces the finished product, and the country that imports and uses the medicine.

The rules covering export of a compulsory-licensed product to a country lacking its own production capacity are so complex that this flexibility has only been used once. Countries attempting to invoke these TRIPS flexibilities in the past have been subject to criticisms and trade pressures from the US and the EU in efforts to discourage them from doing so. Attempts to bypass patent rules on several COVID-19 related medical technologies have already faced implementation barriers.

Approving the waiver will not immediately solve all access issues. Underfunded or limited health system capacities in developing countries will remain a challenge. Countries will also need to share manufacturing capacities and the technical production knowledge that newer health technologies require, and allow export to other countries. And countries that want to use the waiver may need to implement their own legislative changes or emergency declarations to do so.

The waiver doesnt solve these concerns, but it does create an enabling context for their more rapid resolution.

What role are pharmaceutical companies playing in the waiver deliberations?

Member states within the WTO will make the final decision on the waiver. But many are home to rich and powerful pharmaceutical industries or have secured bilateral agreements with them for vaccines or other COVID-19 health products. It is reasonable to infer that domestic lobbying by pharmaceutical companies may be at play, or that support for these industries for some countries has simply become accepted practice. The pharmaceutical industry itself has been vocal in opposing any efforts to undermine the patent system, arguing that intellectual property is the blood of the private sector.

Pharmaceutical companies have long argued the need to be rewarded for their risks in researching new discoveries. But what of the $12 billion plus that governments have directly contributed to vaccine discovery and expanded manufacturing? It is true that private funding for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was four times that of public funding. But governments have also entered into $24 billion of advance purchases agreements, including an estimated $21 billion in 2021 for the Pfizer vaccine, sales of which are expected to generate a 60 percent-80 percent profit margin.

Is there anything developing countries can do to ensure they dont get left behind?

Negotiations at the TRIPS Council in January and February may well produce a draft text or declaration on the waiver. When, and if, the waiver or declaration text makes it to the WTO General Council in March, both developing and developed countries should vote in support of it. WTO member state decisions are usually made by consensus. But in the absence of one, they can be passed with a three-fourths majority (123 of 164 members).

Between now and then government leaders of developing countries and others who support the waiver should contact non-supportive member states directly, making their arguments in favour of it. Emphasis should be placed on:

the extent of public financing for COVID-19 medical discoveries,

the degree of UN and broader civil society support for the waiver, including support from global public health leaders,

the slow roll-out of vaccines to developing countries in its absence,

the inequalities this will worsen as some countries are able to access vaccines and treatments and so recover more rapidly than others, and

most countries already stated acknowledgement that until everyone receives the vaccine everyone remains at risk.

If the waiver fails, developing countries should explore a collaborative effort to make use of TRIPS Article 73 (Security Exceptions). A legal interpretation of this article suggests that the pandemic satisfies the conditions set out in the article and its conditions could achieve much the same outcome as the proposed waiver.

Invoking Article 73 might be challenged and have to undergo a formal dispute settlement process. Nonetheless, it is a strategy that merits consideration.

Finally, there is an urgent need to clarify public interest and public health exceptions to TRIPS intellectual property rights. Compulsory licensing for all applicable intellectual property rights should be improved so that full technology transfer and access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics can be more easily guaranteed in the future. This body of work should proceed quickly this year so that the world can better address predictable pandemic threats and global health needs  now and in the future.

Ronald Labonte, Professor and Distinguished Research Chair, Globalization and Health Equity, LUniversite dOttawa/University of Ottawa and Brook K. Baker, Professor of Law, Northeastern University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Phuket national park officer probed for allegedly spying on woman in park public toilet

PHUKET: A park officer at Phukets Sirinath National Park is under investigation for allegedly spying on a woman at a public toilet in the park yesterday (Jan 17) by climbing the wall separating the mens and womens sections of the restroom.



By Eakkapop Thongtub

Monday 18 January 2021, 05:46PM

The public toilet has no ceiling to prevent people from climbing up and looking over, just an exposed roof and a wall separating the mens and womens areas. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Senior officers at Sirinath National Park are investigating whether the accused officers actions were imprudent and punishable. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The womans boyfriend, 32-year-old Panupong Rungrueng, a resident of Rassada, raised the alarm by reporting the incident at about 5:20pm yesterday.

Mr Panupong explained in his formal complaint that his girlfriend, 29-year-old Miss Sopita, or Ta, went to use the toilet. While Mr Panupong was waiting outside, he saw a man climb onto the wall separating the mens and womens sections of the public restroom, and peer down into the womens area.

Mr Panupong took a photo of the offender, which he later posted on Facebook and gave to officials when filed his formal complaint.

Sirinath National Park Chief Pramote Kaewnam later confirmed that the man in the photo seen looking down into the womens toilet is park officer Abdulrama Mahaderi, 28.

The officers tasked with investigating this incident are now in the process of collecting evidence This is a sensitive matter, Chief Pramote said.

Chief Pramote made no mention of whether his officers will now install a ceiling in the public restroom to prevent further invasions of privacy.

Sirinath National Park said in a public statement released today, To ensure fairness for both sides, the park chief has appointed an investigative committee. This official has been suspended from duty pending further investigation.

Sirinath National Park also today posted a statement by Mr Abdulrama, in which he explained that he was performing his routine patrol of the park when at about 4:50pm he thought he heard two mens voices coming from inside the public toilet, which is located directly behind that national parks main office.

Mr Abdulrama said that he smelled smoke, but not cigarette smoke, leading him to believe that men in the toilet might be taking drugs.

So I climbed the wall to try to take a photo to catch the men, but when I climbed up and looked down, there was no one in the mens toilet, he said.

Then a man and a woman, both tourists, entered the toilets. The man walked into the mens and the woman walked into the womens toilet.

The man looked up and saw me and asked if I was spying on his girlfriend. So I climbed down and tried to explain to the man what I was doing  that I thought there were some men in the toilet taking drugs, which I have found before.

I apologised to the man and explained what I was doing, but the man was still angry  so I left and went back to the office.

Then I saw the man and woman go to Sakhu Police Station, which is nearby. I left the office and went over to explain to the police what had happened.

The tourists told me that they did not want to press charges. They just told me that they did not want me to do anything like this again, Mr Abdulrama continued.

I said thank you. I thought that was the end of it, but when I came to work this morning I was called to see the park chief, Mr Abdulrama said.
Actress Monica Bedi turns 46 today. At one time, she was counted as one of Bollywood's most expensive leading ladies. When her career was soaring high, she chanced upon someone who changed her life totally. That someone was none other than underworld don Abu Salem. Their love story became the talk of the town. To mark her birthday, take a look back at the infamous love tale in her own words. (Image: Instagram)
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

China and the World Health Organization could have acted faster to avert catastrophe during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, a panel of independent experts has concluded.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said its evaluation of the start of the crisis in China "suggests that there was potential for early signs to have been acted on more rapidly".

Containment measures should have been implemented immediately in all countries where transmission was likely, the panel said in their second report, due to be presented to the WHO's executive board on Tuesday.

COVID-19 was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 before seeping beyond China's borders to wreak global havoc, costing more than two million lives and eviscerating economies.

The panel said it was clear that "public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January".

The report also criticised the WHO for dragging its feet at the start of the crisis, pointing out that the UN health agency did not convene its emergency committee until January 22, 2020.

And the committee failed to agree to declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)its highest alert leveluntil a week later.

Trump accusations

"It is not clear why the committee did not meet until the third week of January, nor is it clear why it was unable to agree on the (PHEIC) declaration... when it was first convened," the report said.

The WHO has already faced claims it was too slow to declare an international crisis, to acknowledge the virus was spreading through the air, and to recommend face masks.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump accused the organisation of botching its handling of the pandemic and of being a "puppet of China".

The panel, led by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, began its work in July after WHO member states called for an "impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation" of its response to the pandemic.

'Hidden epidemic'

Just over a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in China, experts agree that the official tally of over two million deaths and close to 100 million infections is an underestimate.

And according to the panel report, the case numbers have been undercounted from the start.

"In retrospect, it is clear that the volume of infections in the early period of the epidemic in all countries was higher than reported," it said.

"A largely hidden epidemic contributed to the global spread."

The WHO and national authorities were not quick enough to warn that the virus could spread between people, including those without symptoms could pass it on, the panel said.

It also questioned whether the WHO should have used the word pandemic earlier than it did.

The WHO did not use the word until March 11 last year, repeatedly insisting before that date that it did not need to use it as a PHEIC had already been declared.

The word "pandemic" does not feature in the official WHO alert system.

But the panel hinted countries may have taken the situation more seriously if the word had been used, stressing it serves "to focus attention on the gravity of a health event".

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP




Cobb completes first shipment to Jordan



Cobb has made history by completing its first shipment to Jordan last month after establishing a strong relationship with Saudi distributor Al-Watania Poultry.

The companies worked together to successfully navigate new logistical challenges and deliver the first Cobb500 shipment to the country.

"This is a significant step as we continue to bring quality products and expertise to this emerging market," said Pelayo Casanovas, vice president of Cobb-Vantress EMEA and Asia-Pacific. "Supporting the Middle East is a priority for Cobb, and we expect this shipment will be the first of many from Cobb and Al-Watania Poultry into Jordan."

Al-Watania Poultry, one of the leading poultry producers in the Middle East, signed a distributor agreement with Cobb in 2018 for the territories of Saudi Arabia and the surrounding Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries.

Since then, the companies have focused on expanding the daily production of broilers to support Saudi Arabia's initiative to increase local chicken meat production.

According to Cobb, Al-Watania Poultry is reaching new heights with the wide-ranging technical support from the company. Cobb experts have advised on all aspects of production to help Al-Watania Poultry optimise flock performances.

"We are very happy to deliver our high-quality expertise to all of our customers in the region," said Mohammed Chail, business development manager at Cobb. "Al-Watania Poultry is a strong company that customers trust. We look forward to continuing to fulfill the growing demand in this region with premium and affordable products."

Cobb continues to enhance services to customers in the Middle East to help reduce transportation time and provide supply security. Meanwhile, Al-Watania Poultry is investing in quality facilities and personnel to help ensure a reliable, local supply.

"This is a great achievement for Cobb, Al-Watania Poultry and our customers," said Mohammad Hamed Al-Shayea, vice president of production for Al-Watania Poultry. "We are like one family, and we will continue to serve the industry together."

- Cobb
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will visit New Delhi on Tuesday for a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, official sources here said. Though the sources did not specify whether the Chief Minister has been summoned to give an explanation, the sudden visit assumes significance as it comes after the state BJP leaders lodged complaints with the Centre against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government over the recent desecration of idols in temples.

The state BJP, in fact, has alleged the state police under the leadership of Director General of Police D G Sawang had not only "utterly failed" in protecting the temples and the idols but also "intentionally, deliberately and carelessly issuing statements defaming and damaging the reputation of the party." State BJP president Somu Veerraju threatened to take "appropriate action for your prosecution under criminal law" against the DGP over the latters claims that BJP workers were involved in the recent attacks on temples. BJP MP G V L Narasimha Rao spoke to Amit Shah and complained about the attacks on temples and the "failure" of the state government in not only preventing the acts of vandalism but also in bringing the culprits to book.

In the temple chariot burning case in Anatarvedi in September last the state government did write to the Centre seeking a CBI investigation, but the Central agency is yet to take up the case. The Chief Minister is expected to take up the issue with the Union Home Minister, sources said.

The state, during its winter session of the Legislature in December last, passed a modified legislation the AP Disha (Special Courts for Specified Offences against Women and Children) Bill 2020 which requires the Presidents assent upon clearance by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The state Assembly's resolution seeking abolition of the AP Legislative Council is also awaiting the Centres approval.

These issues too are expected to come up in the discussions between the two, the sources added. As his government is keen on locating the states Executive Capital in port city Visakhapatnam and launching the functioning by Telugu New Years Day Ugadi in April, the Chief Minister is expected to brief Shah on the current legal imbroglio that has been holding up the move.
Home Capital Announces Settlement of Outstanding Litigation

Home Capital Group Inc. ("Home Capital" or "the Company") (TSX: HCG) announces that a settlement has been reached with West Face Long Term Opportunities Global Master LP, a Cayman Islands limited partnership which opted out of a global settlement of a securities class action made by the Company in 2017.

The settlement is a compromise of a disputed claim and is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the Company or any other defendant named in the action nor has there been any finding of liability by the Court against any of them.

The amount of the charge taken to arrive at this settlement s not material to the financial results of the Company.







About Home Capital: Home Capital Group Inc. is a public company, traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (HCG), operating through its principal subsidiary, Home Trust Company. Home Trust is a federally regulated trust company offering residential and non-residential mortgage lending, securitization of residential mortgage products, consumer lending and credit card services. In addition, Home Trust offers deposits via brokers and financial planners, and through a direct-to-consumer brand, Oaken Financial. Home Trust also conducts business through its wholly owned subsidiary, Home Bank. Licensed to conduct business across Canada, we have offices in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Manitoba.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005090/en/

Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 04:07:16|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Jan. 18, 2021 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Police ramped up security measures on the Capitol Grounds in the lead-up to the inauguration, as they braced for possible violence after pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The entire U.S. Capitol complex was on lockdown Monday morning after a fire was reported several blocks away, Capitol Police said in a letter to lawmakers.

"Due to an external security threat under the bridge on I-295 at First and F Streets SE, staff and other personnel are directed to avoid coming to the Capitol Complex area until further notice," read the alert. "All personnel currently on the Capitol Complex are advised to stay indoors and away from windows and doors."

Police vehicles are seen near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services said on Twitter that the fire had been extinguished. It said the fire was caused by homeless person who used propane, adding the incident resulted in one individual sustaining "non life threatening injury."

On-site photos showed people inside the Capitol building were evacuated from the West Front of the Capitol. They were rehearsing the 59th Presidential Inauguration slated for Wednesday, when Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president, respectively.

A policeman stands guard near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Police ramped up security measures on the Capitol Grounds in the lead-up to the inauguration, as they braced for possible violence after pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Roughly 25,000 National Guard members have been deployed in the nation's capital, with 7-foot barriers being erected around the Capitol, its office buildings and the Supreme Court. Military vehicles were seen parking at intersections downtown to boost security. 
An ex-U.S. Army soldier, Daniel Alan Baker, 33, has been arrested after allegedly threatening to kidnap and attack Trump supporters during demos planned at the Florida state Capitol

An ex-Army soldier who described himself as a 'hardcore leftist' has been arrested after allegedly issuing a call to arms online.

Daniel Alan Baker, 33, is alleged to have attempted to recruit 'like-minded' individuals to join him at the Florida state Capitol in Tallahassee, days before Joe Biden's presidential inauguration.

Baker is alleged to have taken part in a number of Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests around the country last year.

He was arrested by the FBI on Friday along with agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Tallahassee Police Department.

Prosecutors say Baker was turfed out of the army after going AWOL instead of following orders and being deployed with his unit to Iraq. He is also alleged to have fought alongside a militia group in Syria.

Baker, 33, is alleged to have made threats online and encouraged other 'like-minded' people to join him

'This is an armed coup and can only be stopped by an armed community. If you're afraid to die fighting the enemy, stay in bed and live,' a flyer read

Various other alleged postings on social media show Baker encouraging people to join him and asks others to buy guns and 'take up arms'

Baker had been promoting an event at the Florida State Capitol Sunday. He was arrested Friday

He has been charged with violating a federal law that makes it a felony to 'transmit in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.'

Authorities monitored Baker's social media posts which were found to be increasingly disturbing in recent months including an attempt to recruit and train others to further his anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism ideology.

The criminal complaint also details how Baker has made threats to white supremacists, fascists, and American citizens whose political loyalties do not tally with his own, including Trump supporters.

He is also alleged to have promoted the murder of U.S. military officers.

In recent weeks he began posting that people should start preparing for a new civil war.

An FBI internal memo has warned of possible armed protests at state Capitol buildings in all 50 states in the days leading up to the inauguration on Wednesday

A number of alleged social media postings in recent months appeared to promote violence

In one posting, Baker appears to note that he is being followed by police

He was dishonorably discharged from the military in 2007 after going AWOL instead of being sent to Iraq

In a comment on a Florida news station's report about preparations the Tallahassee police were making in advance of Inauguration Day Baker shared a flyer on January 14 entitled, 'Call to Arms January 20!!'

'This is an armed COUP and can only be stopped by an armed community!' the flyer stated. 'If you're afraid to die fighting the enemy, stay in bed and live,' it read.

He went on to allegedly instruct others to join him via the use of firearms, encircling any protesters and confining them at the state Capitol complex in Tallahassee.

He also posted a YouTube video of himself printing the flyers.

Authorities allege that last week, in the hours before his arrest, Baker was looking to purchase more firearms, including an AK-47 and a pistol.

Baker, pictured here, is alleged to have joined a militia group in Syria in 2017

Baker received a temporary ban from Facebook following the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, but no sooner had the ban been lifted, Baker posted: 'Death to amerikka of course, f*** the president, current and elect.'

He is also alleged to have made a number of posts on social media offering money to anyone who would help him identify and hunt down those seen in videos of pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

Baker claimed also to be offering rewards for anyone identifying the Capitol police officers that he believed were allowing demonstrators freely past barricades.

'There will be no faith in law enforcement until every single department is shut down and replaced by new faces,' Baker stated in a YouTube video on January 8.

'Yall better hope the cops find you before we do cuz l believe in torturing prisoners for information. Yall better turn yourselves in cuz we dont intend to involve the cops.'

Baker served in the army for a year but was dishonorably discharged in 2007 after going AWOL instead of heading with his unit on a deployment to Iraq.

Baker is pictured during a his time with the People's Protection Units (YPG), a group fighting in Syria against ISIS and the Turkish government

After being homeless for almost ten years he then is said to have joined the People's Protection Units (YPG), a group fighting in Syria against ISIS and the Turkish government.

In the summer of 2020, Baker is believed to have traveled around the US protesting against 'police brutality and the destruction of America.' He took part in street demonstrations in Seattle and Nashville.

The position of law enforcement is clear: 'Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,' U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe said in a statement.

'The diligent work in this case by the FBI and other public safety organizations has averted a crisis with this arrest, and we will not stop in our efforts to detect, deter, and disrupt anyone else planning to incite or commit violence.

'While extremists who plan mayhem may skulk in the shadows, it's important that we force them into the light and bring them to justice,' Keefe said.

'This arrest serves as a message to anyone who intends to incite or commit violence in the Northern District of Florida: If you represent a threat to public safety, we will come for you, we will find you, and we will prosecute you.'

On Saturday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis allowed Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey to bring in the National Guard to help protect the state Capitol.

It came after an FBI internal memo warned of possible armed protests at state Capitol buildings in all 50 states across the country in the days leading up to the inauguration.
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Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be inaugurated on 20th January as the 46th President of the United States of America. His historic election was made possible in part to electoral inroads which the Democrats made in the State of Georgia. Georgia last voted for a Democratic president in 1992 (when Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush). Bidens recent win of Georgia unique therefore because he is the first Democratic president elected by Georgia in nearly three decades.

Expectedly, political observers have attributed the successes of the Democrats in the recent presidential and senate elections in Georgia to the work of Stacey Abrams. Abrams founded the voting rights organization New Georgia Project in 2013 to increase voter registration and turnout among communities of colour in her home state. In 2018, Abrams was the first Black woman to win a Democratic nomination for governor but lost by just 55,000 votes. Amid widespread concern that her loss was the product of voter suppression, Abrams took her initiative nationwide through Fair Fight  a nonprofit dedicated to protecting voting rights and fair elections. Abrams efforts have paid off visibly by the outcome of the recent presidential and senate elections in Georgia.

It is tempting for the average Nigerian elite not to want to care about politics. My vote doesnt matter, its too divisive, I dont want to lose friends over political views, etc. are common justification for such attitude. In reality, however, politics is too important to ignore. Every aspect of our lives relates to government and politics in some way. According to David Foster Wallace In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehards vote.

When Stacy Abrams lost in 2018 she could have been discouraged from further participation in the electoral or even democratic process. Rather, she doubled down on her efforts to make the system more inclusive for her fellow Georgians, and in the process, laid the groundwork for her partys stunning gains in Georgia. According to her Back in 2019, I met with every major candidate who was running for president and I had two messages, one, voter suppression is real and its one of the reasons that we lost across the country. But two, Georgia is a competitive state and it would be malpractice to not pay attention. Luckily both of those messages broke through.

Abrams adopted a fact-based approach to identifying the challenges to bringing about democratic change and through insight from big data, Abrams and her team applied solutions that have worked. This is the kind of real work that is often required for real change by the democratic process. In other words, the elite in Nigeria must walk the talk. Words alone are not enough; get your voter's card (or regularise it, if need be) encourage someone around you to do the same; engage your local representative on some of the issues affecting your community; hold them to their campaign promises, etc.

Media reports have it that Abrams and her campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, in September 2019 drew up an influential 16-page document detailing trends in the state that could help Democrats. The report noted, among other things, that recent arrivals to the state had skewed overwhelmingly Democratic in recent years. Voters of all races who had lived in Georgia for less than 10 years voted for Stacey Abrams by a whopping 30-point margin, 65% to 35%, according to a CNN exit poll, the report said. Each person who moves to Georgia and votes is almost twice as likely to vote Democratic than Republican.

The report also said the white share of the electorate had been steadily declining, and the African American share had been significantly growing, has had the share of other voters of colour and those who declined to disclose their race. In Georgia, as in other states, the race is often the strongest predictor of political leanings, which means that effective engagement of voters of colour, increased turnout of white voters with Democratic leanings and high turnout rates overall could tip the scales, the report noted.

Abrams' work in Georgia is evidence of what is achievable by even individual efforts, once there is clarity on the issues and determination to help in bringing about democratic change in our communities.

In Nigeria, all too often we congregate on mainstream social media platforms to lament about the ever-deteriorating leadership failures of Nigeria. These online engagements are sometimes meaningless chatter, with no potential for real political change. Far too few of us are prepared to take any concrete steps to bring about real democratic change in our communities. We assume that by constantly hurling insults at politicians and offering nothing but words of condemnation for Nigerias electoral system, we will create enough disaffection in the electorates towards the incumbents to make them choose our preferred candidates. This approach, however, only ends up creating voter apathy.

Politics is a powerful social construct; it influences everyones life and often, in very profound ways. Society and life are moulded by decisions taken by elected representatives. Laws, prices, only to name a few, are or have been influenced in a certain way by the political spectrum. In todays society, it is imperative that each of us stays up to date with what is happening in the political world, and act upon it democratically.

We all have to do our bit to change the world for the better. To overcome our problems as a society, we all should do our fair share. A simple way to better understand your communitys problems and observe potential solutions is to involve yourself or volunteer in different activities. Doing so will let you have a better understanding of whats surrounding you, and will make you have realistic expectations regarding your political leadership.

The vote is the most important tool in a democracy, and many people take it for granted. Direct participation of citizens remains the simple solution against declining voter turnout, increasing disengagement of citizens from politics and political organizations as well as increasing distrust in political institutions and politicians.

Nigerias population is young and fast-growing. According to the UN, it is expected to be the worlds third most populous country by 2050 with 400 million inhabitants. More than half of all voters (i.e 51.1 per cent) are between 18 and 35, according to INEC. General elections in Nigeria routinely record a below-average turnout, notwithstanding the frenetic pace of online engagements on the Nigerian social media space. Low voter turnout is not beneficial for Nigeria's quest for credible elections and the strengthening of democratic structures, mainly because it creates loopholes for politicians to creatively redistribute unused votes to their advantage

Voting and election are virtuous features of a modern democratic society. To appreciate the connection between voting and election, eligible voters must be enlightened and sensitized about their rights and obligations, the modus operandi of the electoral process, the informed and non-prejudicial choices they make during an election, amongst others. This is what is commonly referred to as Voter Education. By educating voters, they will meaningfully participate in elections; and turnout will also increase, thereby providing a framework for protecting, sustaining, and institutionalizing a culture of credible elections and popular participation in governance.

Michael Dugeri is a lawyer based in Lagos state.
A state of emergency was declared last week in Malaysia, reflecting the countrys worsening political and social crisis, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the spread of the virus was the stated reason, the anti-democratic powers that the government now has in its hands are above all directed against the working class and the population more generally.

The king, Al-Sultan Abdullah, issued the emergency declaration last Tuesday at the request of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. A day earlier, Muhyiddin had announced a two-week lockdown of Kuala Lumpur and five states as well as a nationwide travel ban.

Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, right, sits next to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during his welcome ceremony at Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (AP Photo/Yam G-Jun, FIle)

Muhyiddin described the situation as very alarming and said the countrys healthcare system was under tremendous pressure. He added: As I have said before, unprecedented situations call for unprecedented measures.

The number of COVID-19 cases in October, when Muhyiddin first called for a state of emergency, was comparatively low at 13,000. The king refused the request. The number of cases, however, has risen sharply as the government eased restrictions.

By last Tuesday the daily infections had hit a new record of 3,309, bringing the total number of cases to more than 141,000 and over 550 deaths.

Dr. Suan Ee Ong, a Malaysian public health expert at Singapore-based think tank Research for Impact, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): Most of our ICU beds are very, very full. Even our non-ICU beds are reaching capacity, especially in the major hospitals.

In early January, a group of nearly 50 former and current senior healthcare workers addressed an open letter to the prime minister warning the governments measures were not bringing the virus under control. Our national metrics paint a very bleak picture of COVID-19 pandemic management, it declared.

The letter called for a ramping up of testing, for more people to isolate at home, and for vaccine approval to be expedited so that immunisation can begin as soon as the first doses of vaccines arrive at the airport. Malaysia has ordered 25 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and also has an agreement to buy the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The prime minister, however, offered no explanation as to why the emergency declaration was necessary in order to adopt measures to contain the virus and safeguard public health. No such step was required last year between March and May, when the government imposed a stringent ban on mass gatherings and restrictions on movement. The police and military enforced the lockdown, making thousands of arrests.

The emergency proclamation hands the government sweeping powers. With the parliament suspended, the cabinet can make laws with virtually no restrictions on their scope. The state of emergency will be in force until August 1, so the shaky ruling coalition, which has a slim parliamentary majority, will avoid a no-confidence motion.

Since the end of British colonial rule in 1957, a national state of emergency has been invoked only once beforein 1969 amid race riots instigated by the dominant ethnic Malay establishment following substantial losses to the opposition parties in that years general election. The constitution was suspended and parliament dissolved. A National Operations Council took over the government, imposing a curfew, censoring the media and arresting opposition politicians.

The current political crisis is far more severe. The right-wing and repressive United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had held power since independence, was defeated for the first time in the May 2018 election by an unstable alliance between the party headed by former UMNO Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and an opposition coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim. In 1998, amid the Asian financial crisis, Mahathir expelled Anwar from UMNO, then had him arrested and jailed on trumped-charges.

The shaky ruling alliance fell apart when Mahathir resisted handing over the post of prime minister to Anwar after two years as part of their partnership agreement. Mahathir himself was pushed to one side by Muhyiddin, a minister from his own party, who formed a new ruling coalition with UMNO. Anwar challenged the Muhyiddin government last September, saying he had a majority in parliament and sought to form a fresh government, but the king denied his request.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the political crisis. The government proceeded with a state election in Sabah last September, despite warnings by health experts that it would lead to a spike in cases. Even though his party won the election, Muhyiddin later conceded that the election campaign, during which voters and politicians travelled to Sabah, had contributed to the rise in cases.

The growing discontent and opposition to the government is being fuelled by a sharp downturn in the economy and rising unemployment, which has hovered between 4.6 and 4.7 percent in recent months, up from 3.2 percent at the end of last year. The World Bank estimates that the Malaysian economy contracted by 5.8 percent last year. The banks projection of a bounce back of 6.7 percent growth for 2021 is now in doubt as a result of the lockdown and travel ban.

Commenting to the ABC on the emergency declaration, Tengku Nur Qistina, a senior researcher at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said: The government can be said to [be prioritising] the nations health security at the expense of democracy. With the emergency proclaimed, Parliament does not meet and this has been inferred as an obstruction of democracy [by] many.

Like its counterparts around the world, the Malaysian governments decision to lift restrictions from May onward was driven by the demands of business for a resumption of work to ensure profits, regardless of the danger to the health and lives of workers. The worlds largest medical glove manufacturer Top Glove was forced to shut down half its factories last November after thousands of its employees tested positive to COVID-19.

With the political establishment deeply divided, the weak coalition government has sought the state of emergency to concentrate police-state powers in its hands to suppress any social unrest. The Malaysian ruling class, which has a long history of autocratic forms of rule, is deeply fearful that the rising tide of working class struggle internationally will find its expression among Malaysian workers, who have been forced to bear the brunt of the pandemic.


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Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

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Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

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Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

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European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

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Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

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Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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Peacefmonline.com is reliably informed that a top security official in the current administration, Joshua Kyeremeh, has reportedly passed away at the Ga East Municipal Hospital, following a short illness.



National Security Coordinator, Kyeremeh, died this morning (Monday), as he underwent treatment for COVID-19, a leading member of the National Security Secretariat disclosed.



A product of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kyeremeh was a former Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), now known as National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).



Peacefmonline sources at the hospital say he died of kidney complications at the hospital where he was being treated.



Kyeremeh was one of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos first appointees in 2017 during his first term. A consummate intelligence professional, he had been holding the position of National Security Coordinator since then.



Over two decades at NIB



Joshua Kyeremeh was at the NIB for about 22 years, where he served at command levels in the Northern, Upper East, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions.



He also served as head of the Investigations Unit of the Bureau. He rose to become the Deputy Director NIB and ultimately, the Director NIB from 2005 to 2009.



The late Kyeremeh was part of the transition team after the 7 December 2020 elections.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/GHANA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Darjeeling (WB):

Darjeeling is bracing for another shutdown as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership has decided to hold a protest rally with the bodies of two persons allegedly killed during Saturdays clashes.

The GJM has claimed that two of their supporters were shot dead by police in Singmari. The police rejected the allegations of firing by its personnel, and said one person was killed during the clashes.

A senior GJM leader on Sunday said, We will conduct the rally at Chowbazar with the bodies.

The police has declined them the permission to hold such a rally. A senior police official said, No one has been given permission to hold a rally in the hills.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Saturday said that the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling hills was a deep-rooted conspiracy supported by the insurgent groups of the Northeast and some foreign countries.

The GJM had rubbished the allegation made by Banerjee, saying that she was trying to malign the Gorkhas fighting for their identity.

Also read: Demand of Gorkhaland turns Darjeeling into battleground: Civilian killed, 35 securitymen injured

The police, who have been on high alert after Saturdays violence and arson, conducted route marches with the Army in several parts of the hills.

Police pickets and barricades were placed in front of the government and GTA offices, and various entry-exit points of the hills. Several woman police personnel have also been deployed.

Except for medicine stores, all others shops and hotels remained closed in Darjeeling.

Also read: Darjeeling's Gorkhaland stir live: IRB personnel seriously injured not dead, says WB CM Banerjee; 2 GJM supporters killed

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Lashing out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, PML-N Vice President said that opponents of former Prime Minister have fallen into the same "trap" they had set for him.

"The opponents wanted to trap the [former prime minister] [in litigation], but they now face the Broadsheet case against themselves. These elements are so corrupt that they even sought money from the company," Maryam said after a meeting with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz at Lahore's Accountability Court on Sunday.

The Express Tribune further quoted PML-N Vice President as saying that all these cases will be abolished one day and her party will emerge victorious.

"This is not accountability, this is revenge," she said while adding, "We will also win the by-polls."

Stating that Lahore has been turned "into a pile of garbage", she asserted that the Imran Khan-led government's actions in the Broadsheet charge sheet indicate "foul play", The Express Tribune reported.

This comes days after Broadsheet LLC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kaveh Moussavi had said that he had "voluntarily" identified the suspicious bank account in the UK having an account of USD 1 billion. He had also said that the government did not pay heed to the matter when he brought it to their notice.

(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.)
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Mamata Banerjee is projected to win the West Bengal Assembly elections although with a reduced number of seats with the BJP set to make big gains, while in Tamil Nadu the DMK is set to make a strong comeback to power with a comfortable majority, toppling the ruling AIADMK, as per the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.

In Assam, the ruling BJP led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is set to come back for another term while in Kerala, the LDF is set for another term. In Puducherry, the AIADMK has an edge.

In the 126-seat Assam assembly, the NDA is expected to win 77 seats as per the latest projections, down 9 seats from the 86 in 2016, while the UPA is set to gain 14 seats to go up to 40 seats from the 26 in 2016.

Like Assam, Kerala too is set to vote for the incumbent party with the LDF led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan set to cruise to a majority with 85 seats, down 6 seats from 91 seats in 2016 in the 140-member assembly.

Vijayan remains extremely popular with more than 46.7 per cent of voters set to make him the preferred choice. The Congress-led UDF will get 53 seats, up 6 seats from 47 seats in the previous elections.

In the intensely contested West Bengal elections between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is suffering heavy reverses, losing almost a fourth of its tally but is still on track to win by a simple majority.

In the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, the Trinamool Congress is projected to win 154 seats, down 53 from the 211 seats it got in 2016. The BJP is making gains with the tally going up to 102 from 3, a gain of 99 seats.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK-Congress alliance is gaining big and is set to win the Assembly elections. In the 234-seat House, the UPA is projected to win big with a two-third majority, getting 162 seats, up by 64 seats from its 2016 tally.

The ruling AIADMK alliance headed by Chief Minister E. Palanaswami is in for a drubbing, getting only 64 seats against the 132 it got in the previous elections, losing 72 seats, more than it is winning now.

The poll had a sample size of 5,000 plus in Assam, 6,000 plus in Kerala, 1,000 plus in Puducherry, 15,000 in Tamil Nadu and 18,000 in West Bengal, making a total sample size of 45,000.

This is the comical moment a golden retriever climbs up a ladder to join his owner on the roof of his home.

Vince Matteson, from Portland, Oregon, had been taking down his Christmas lights when he realised two-year-old Ace had joined him on the roof.

The startled dog owner later checked his surveillance footage and was shocked to discover the canine had scaled up the ladder step-by-step while his brother Bo stood guard.

Two-year-old golden retriever Ace places his paws on the steps of the ladder and makes his way up in Portland, Oregon

As the dog makes his way to the roof his brother Bo remains on the ground and stands guard

Dog owner Vince Matteson, who had been taking down his Christmas lights, spots his canine on the roof

During the clip, which was filmed on January 7, Ace calmly places his paws on each step of the ladder and makes his way up.

Just moments later, the dog's owner discovers his beloved pet stood beside him and says: 'I'm up here taking down my lights, turn around and Ace climbs up this whole ladder by himself. He is now on top of the roof.'

Footage later showed Mr Matteson carry the dog down the ladder to the ground.

Mr Matteson, who adopted Ace in 2019 and his second dog Bo in 2020, described being 'absolutely shocked' to see his canine climb the ladder.

The canine stares at his owner and walks around the roof of the property after managing to scale the ladder

Mr Matteson, who described being 'absolutely shocked' by the dog's antics, pans the camera down to show the ladder his dog has climbed

He said: 'I was absolutely shocked! Ace has always been curious and loves to climb things but never thought a ladder.

'I had my headphones in taking down lights so I didn't hear him come up, but when I turned around there he was!

'You can see his shadow in the video once he gets on the roof and is happy to see me.'
A dog-walker has told a jury how he performed CPR on a young man who collapsed in a car park at Tyrella Beach.

The man was giving evidence at the third day of a trial concerning the death of west Belfast man Darren ONeill (22), who died two days after he was punched in the face.

The jury also heard evidence from the pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr ONeill, and who said the blow which caused the fatal injury was not just a simple straight-forward slap but a punch with some force behind it.

Joseph Dorrian (23), from Lakeview in Crumlin, is standing trial at Downpatrick Crown Court after denying a charge of manslaughter on the grounds of self-defence.

Mr ONeill, Dorrian and two female friends travelled from Belfast to the Co Down beach on June 27 2019, and the jury has already heard that the two men became involved in an argument after a drunken Mr ONeill drove Dorrians Seat Arona in the car park.

A couple who came to Mr ONeills aid on the evening in question gave evidence via videolink. They parked their van at around 7.30pm and were about to take their two dogs for a walk on the beach when they observed the blue vehicle being driven in an erratic manner.

The male witness said the man behind the wheel  Mr ONeill  was trying to do handbrake turns at speed and when the vehicle stopped he saw Dorrian approach the vehicle, pull Mr ONeill out by the t-shirt and shout at him.

The witness said he then saw Mr ONeill hit Dorrian a wee slap then saw the men shouting back and forwards. The dog-walker said he walked on towards the beach but then heard two thuds which made him turn around.

The man said he was aware Mr ONeill had fallen and was down for a couple of seconds then he got back up again and sort of stumbled to the back of the car.

He was stumbling all over the place. Joseph (Dorrian) was at the back of the car, the two of them met, the two of them hugged and shortly after that he collapsed.

The man said when it became apparent the situation was serious, he and his girlfriend went over to offer assistance. Saying at this stage Mr ONeill was lying on the ground on his back, and when asked if he checked his condition, the man said: I didnt really have any experience in that, but I couldnt feel a heartbeat and I couldnt feel him breathing on me.

An ambulance was called and the dog-walker said that after being given instructions down the phone, he began performing CPR straight away. Another man at the scene took over until the ambulance arrived.

His girlfriend also gave evidence, and described Mr ONeill and Dorrian rowing in the car park after the driving incident. She said: Darren punched Joseph, I think he went to punch him in the face but he actually hit his chest.

There was a bit of shouting and Darren started saying I didnt mean to hit you, come on hit me back, hit me back.

She also described Mr ONeill as being unsteady on his feet and stumbling about after being punched, and that when Mr ONeill collapsed Dorrian laid him on the ground.

The woman confirmed she called and ambulance and remained with Mr ONeill until it arrived.

Mr ONeill was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He arrived at 9pm and was taken to the Intensive Care Unit. Despite medical intervention, he passed away on June 29.

Also called to give evidence today was Assistant State Pathologist Dr Christopher Johnson, who carried out the post mortem examination on July 1.

Dr Johnson said death was due to blunt trauma to the head which tore an internal artery, causing a bleed on the brain and a cardiac arrest.

Revealing Mr ONeill also sustained a fracture to a small bone in his neck, Dr Johnson - who also appeared via a videolink - told the jury there must have been some element of force behind this punch.

When asked if it was possible to determine just how much force was used, Dr Johnson replied: Its very difficult to give a precise definition as to the degree of force, but I would certainly say in this case there has been some element of force has been applied.

What I would say is its not just a simple, straight-forward slap. Its got to have been a punch with some force behind it.

Dorrian has denied a charge of manslaughter and has made the case that after being punched by Mr ONeill he responded immediately in self defence.

At hearing.
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - China is scheduled to release a batch of data on Monday, headlining a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are Q4 numbers for gross domestic product, as well as December data for industrial production, retail sales, unemployment and fixed asset investment. GDP is expected to rise 3.2 percent on quarter and 6.1 percent on year after gaining 2.7 percent on quarter and 4.9 percent on year in the three months prior. Industrial production is tipped to add 6.9 percent on year after rising 7.0 percent in November. Retail sales are pegged at 5.5 percent, up from 5.0 percent in the previous month. Fixed Asset Investment is expected to advanced an annual 3.2 percent, up from 2.6 percent a month earlier. The jobless rate in November was 5.2 percent. Japan will see final November numbers for industrial production; the previous reading suggested an increase of 4.0 percent on month and a decline of 3.0 percent on year, with a 6.0 percent gain in capacity utilization. Singapore will provide December data for non-oil domestic exports, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 3.6 percent on month and 0.3 percent on year. That follows the 3.8 percent monthly decline and the 4.9 percent annual drop in November, when the trade balance was 3.93 billion Singapore dollars. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
London: A teenager who plotted an Anzac Day terror attack in Australia from his bedroom in England will be released from prison five years into a life sentence.

The boy became the youngest Briton ever convicted of terrorism when, aged just 14, he encouraged Australian jihadist Sevdet Besim to attack a 2015 memorial parade in Melbourne and behead a police officer.

The boy planned an attack on the ANZAC Day parade on St Kilda Road on April 25, 2015. Credit:Paul Jeffers

Authorities discovered thousands of messages between the pair just weeks before Anzac Day that year and police swooped on Besim, who was later sentenced to 14 years' jail.

The case made international headlines because of the British teen's age and a bizarre discussion between the two conspirators about whether to pack a kangaroo with explosives and set it loose on police.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-17 23:31:35|Editor: huaxia

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SHENYANG, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Over its year-long fight against COVID-19, China has found effective therapies to tackle the virus.

In Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, a 95-year-old patient whose symptoms were once severe has recovered following treatment in the Liaoning COVID-19 Treatment Shenyang Center. She was moved to a rehabilitation ward on Wednesday for further medical observation.

In consideration of her underlying diseases including coronary heart disease, the hospital adopted convalescent plasma therapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), said Wu Yunhai, head of the center.

Wu and his medical team also provided post-disease rehabilitation and extra daily care for the patient.

Many recent COVID-19 patients in Shenyang have been treated with TCM, according to local health authorities.

In the port city of Dalian, a mother and her 3-month-old infant underwent special medical treatment after being confirmed as locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. In addition to regular treatment, the mother was also offered a tailor-made TCM herbal decoction to guarantee daily breastfeeding.

Under proper care, both mother and baby recovered from the disease and they were discharged from hospital on Jan. 6.

Benefiting from the combination of TCM and Western medicine, 14 cases in Shenyang and over 70 percent of current cases in Dalian had been discharged from hospitals by Jan. 13. Most patients have had their symptoms effectively relieved, according to the provincial health commission.

Medical staff work at a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy in Weinan City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Feb. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

TCM has significantly reduced the incidence rate, prevented cases with mild symptoms from worsening, increased the cure rate, and lowered the fatality rate, according to a white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action," issued in June by China's State Council Information Office.

Ma Xiaochun, a member of the National Health Commission expert team, explained that differing from one-size-fits-all therapy, TCM medicines are based on the different symptoms and specific conditions of individual patients. "The tailored therapy can bring better effects," Ma added.

Ma noted that for elderly patients, especially for those with poor cardiac function, psychological counseling is crucial to help them feel relaxed and speed up their recovery.

The province has also eased the financial burden for patients. For those with basic medical insurance, all medical and accommodation expenses caused by COVID-19 have been fully paid by governmental funds.

"We are striving to cure every patient, and will never give up," Ma said. 
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The Government has been accused of "flying kites" and causing confusion over the early delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said officials are exploring the possibility of importing batches of the 'game changer' AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of its expected approval.

However, the minister has yet to get confirmation from the manufacturer as to whether this is even possible, with a spokesperson stating that there could also be issues with transporting the vaccine to Ireland before its expected approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on January 29.

As a further 73 deaths were confirmed over the weekend, there are warnings the number of patients in intensive care will peak in the next two weeks with the situation in hospitals expected to get worse before it gets better.

While the number of new infections is decreasing, with less than 3,000 new cases confirmed on both Saturday and last night, the healthcare system is now into surge capacity.

There are now 1,928 people in hospital with 195 of these patients requiring intensive care treatment.

Mr Donnelly said the HSE and immunisation taskforce is currently examining whether it is possible to get delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines ahead of formal approval as "every day counts".

"What I would like to see if possible is to get the AstraZeneca vaccine into Ireland and ideally into all the GP surgeries, into all the pharmacies so that the moment the EMA and EU Commission authorise it, I then have to sign a statutory instrument that authorises it for use in Ireland and we get vaccinating straight away."

However, he admitted that this is in no way certain.

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall hit out at the minister for "misleading" the public.

Stephen Donnelly needs to stop flying false kites because he's confusing the situation and he's giving people false hope.

"If there is potential for speeding up the delivery of any of the vaccines and going quicker than is set out in the plan that would be great, but he needs to check that before floating ideas publicly."

This was echoed by Sinn Fein's health spokesperson David Cullinane who criticised the Government for "mix-messaging" around the roll-out of vaccines.

"There has to be an urgency and people need to see every effort made because when people are asking reasonable questions, it's not that they are being difficult, it's that there's a hunger for information because of the importance of the vaccine," he said.

Mr Donnelly said all nursing home residents will have received their first vaccination dose by next Sunday.

Read More Covid-19: Government in talks to secure early delivery of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine

Public health officials will today brief thousands of teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) as the Government hopes to get children with special educational needs in both special and mainstream schools back to class from Thursday.

But Forsa, which represents SNAs, has yet to reach agreement with the Department of Education on enhanced safety measures for members.

There were ongoing discussions between Education Minister Norma Foley and representative bodies over the weekend.

However, a spokesperson said there are still a number of outstanding issues that must be resolved ahead of schools reopening for special education.

Ms Foley's preference is to have Leaving Certificate students back in school from the beginning of February, however, she is aware that there are a lot of "different voices" and she will listen to all opinions on the matter.

Separately, opposition members have called for mandatory hotel quarantining of all those who arrive into the country, especially given the spread of new more transmissible variants of the virus from the UK, South Africa and Brazil.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, as president of the Eurogroup will today chair a meeting of his EU counterparts to discuss practical preparations around the EUs 673bn Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

Irelands initial allocation under the RRF is 853m with 70m more expected in 2023.

"The European response to Covid19 has shown the power and potential of co-operative action. It is now time to build the strong and equitable recovery our citizens need, and, beyond that, deliver the sustainable green and digital focused European economy of tomorrow," Mr Donohoe said.
John Charles Stalter, a widowed US Navy veteran, small business owner, and father of three who was raised in Washington State, has completed his new book Jimmy Baund and the Holy Figurine: A Fictional Spy Spoof: lighthearted globetrotting adventure that keeps the pages turning until the satisfying conclusion.

John writes, SSSO Agent 0077, Jimmy Baund offers intrigue, mystery, laughter, and betrayals in abundance. Plus, lots of excitement in Paris, DC, NY, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and MoscowMeanwhile, Annie Baund Wins Big! Millions of Euros at the casino in Monte Carlo. Its a Trump & Putin scheme to increase their poll numbers!

Published by Page Publishing, John Charles Stalters engrossing tale is a little bit Ian Fleming, some Peter Sellers, a touch of North by Northwest, and a little seasoning from the Maltese Falcon.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Jimmy Baund and the Holy Figurine: A Fictional Spy Spoof at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing understands that authors should be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
View of the virtual exhibition GRAFIK! Five Centuries of German and Austrian Graphics.
[January 18, 2021] Luxxfolio Holdings Inc. - Miners Expected Delivery in May 2021

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - Luxxfolio Holdings Inc. (the "Company") (CSE: LUXX) is pleased to announce that through their wholly owned subsidiary Luxxfolio Network Inc. ("Luxx Network"), it has closed the asset backed lending facility ("ABLF") with Arctos Capital for USD$880,575 for the 590 bitcoin miners ("Miners"). The estimated time of delivery for the Miners is expected to be May 2021. The Miners will produce an aggregate operating hash power of 53.1 petahashes (PH) per second. Given the current supply chain constraints in the manufacturer delivery schedules and the rapid increase in cost of miners, Luxxfolio is extremely fortunate to be able to take advantage in the near term of this rising Bitcoin price environment and well positioned in its discussions with data centers that have excess capacity. Dean Linden commented, "Our immediate opportunity continues to be to partner with groups that will provide us with a sustainable pricing model to ensure we can thrive when mining difficulty/hash rates increase. The capabilities of our team and access to debt capital continues to provide us with the fexibility to structure these opportunities as joint ventures, royalties, or acquisitions."



The Company will look to provide a further update closer to the end of the month on its ongoing negotiations with data centers, including Ocean Falls Blockchain Corp.

About Luxxfolio

Luxxfolio Holdings is a growth-oriented, CSE-listed company based in Canada. The Company utilizes secure permission-based technology, record keeping, and other trust-based authentication and mining tools for asset monetization of real or digital unique identifiable assets (UIA's). We provide a liquid alternative for exposure to the UIA's for the broader capital markets. The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "estimated", "will", "expected", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the assets and the Company's development of its permissioned based technology and platform are based on the Company's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company and its subsidiary to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including capital expenditures and other costs. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE Luxxfolio Holdings Inc.

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He will also begin reversing some of President Trumps most hotly disputed policies, including rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries; rejoining the Paris climate change accord; ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from their families after crossing the southern border; and extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments.

Potential violence: In many states, military vehicles and police barricades lined the streets near government buildings, and officials braced for the possible influx of pro-Trump protesters ahead of the inauguration on Wednesday.

Kamala Harris: The incoming vice president will officially resign her Senate seat today ahead of being sworn in on Wednesday. As Ms. Harris ascends to this barrier-breaking role, millions of Americans will see a more expansive version of the American family staring back at them.
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
The parents of south Armagh man Paul Quinn say they hope a fresh garda probe into their son's brutal murder almost 14 years ago will lead to justice.

The 21-year-old, from Cullyhanna, was beaten to death by a gang of around a dozen men in a farm shed across the border near Castleblayney, Co Monaghan in October 2007.

His family blame members of the IRA, but Sinn Fein has long denied republican involvement.

Now those behind the killing are at the centre of a new inquiry.

The Irish Sun newspaper reported that around 200 exhibits seized in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan are being re-examined for traces of DNA, including clothing from some of the suspects and a vehicle.

A dedicated scientist from Forensic Science Ireland is now working on the case, using the latest DNA technology.

Once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, gardai say they plan to re-interview suspects and those who have made statements about the murder.

The PSNI is also set to examine items they have seized over the years.

Mr Quinn's parents, Breege and Stephen, who met with gardai about the case earlier this month, have welcomed the new quest to uncover DNA.

Mr Quinn told the Belfast Telegraph on Sunday: "We had a meeting with the gardai recently. They have always remained determined to bring those who killed Paul to justice so this new development with the DNA is a welcome step forward.

"That sort of technology wasn't available 14 years ago when Paul was murdered."

Mr Quinn added: "Since I'm looking at the people who killed my son every time I leave the house,

"I hope it means we will finally see those cowards brought to justice. They committed a barbaric act on a defenceless young man with his whole life in front of him."

Meanwhile Breege Quinn has again appealed to Sinn Fein Finance Minister Conor Murphy to state categorically that her son wasn't a criminal.

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Weeks after the murder, he branded Paul a smuggler and a criminal, and insisted that the IRA wasn't responsible for the brutal killing.

Years later, Mr Murphy denied that he had accused Paul of being a criminal but he was forced to admit he had done so after the BBC tape of his interview was unearthed last February during the Irish election campaign.

While Mr Murphy apologised to the Quinns, he has refused their request to unambiguously state that Paul wasn't a criminal.

Mrs Quinn said: "He needs to say my son was not a criminal in a public forum."

The re-examination comes after a review by the Serious Crime Review Team was completed in late 2019. Over the last 13 years, detectives have followed 1,900 lines of inquiry, made 20 arrests and taken over 700 statements.

Gardai also believe the gang who abducted and killed Paul spent weeks planning the attack.

Supt Gary Walsh, who is running the new probe, added: "The answer to this appalling crime lies in the area and it's never too late for people to do the decent thing and to tell us what they know."
For Colombia, 2021 is starting with the promise of a boom in renewable energy generation. On January 14th, the Ministry of Finance announced the offering of its first green bonds next July, aimed at funding environmental projects, notably renewable energy plants. A new round of auction allocating 5 GW of wind and solar capacity for long-term PPAs is also slated for 2021. And although renewable energy sources (excluding hydropower) currently represent only 1% of the countrys electricity mix, Ivan Duque's government is determined to make them the next energy frontier for the country.

Fossil fuels and hydropower have historically been the cornerstones of the Colombian energy landscape. Yet, several trends suggest that it might be time for a change. The oil sector has been a key driver for the Colombian economy, with a share amounting to over 40% in the primary energy supply. However, due to rampant corruption and civil unrest with the FARC, the security of Colombian energy infrastructures became harder to guarantee. This was a problem in a country where international investment had already fallen due to the drop in oil prices in 2014 and again in 2020. In addition, the depletion of oil resources is threatening the future of the whole Colombian petroleum industry: in 2019, the proven reserves were estimated at 2 billion barrels, which was equivalent to only 18 more years of exploitation (excluding exports).

Beyond oil, Colombia has also managed to transform the rivers flowing through its territory into a powerful source of energy. The country is proud to have 70% of its electricity coming from massive dams - such as the San Carlos or Guavio - installed across the countrys rivers providing close to 12 GW of capacity. However, the increasing risks of flooding and the reluctance of local communities to embrace new dam projects have incentivized the move from hydropower towards alternatives.

Combined, the constraints on oil and hydropower are indications of the decline of conventional energy in Colombia. In its National Energy Plan 2050, voted on in 2016, the Colombian Ministry of Energy set the ambitious target of 2.2 GW capacity of non-conventional energy by 2022 (versus 1500 MW today), and up to 10% renewable energy by 2028 in one of its most optimistic scenarios.

Colombia benefits from ideal conditions for wind and solar development At first, these projections appeared overly ambitious and failed to draw positive attention. During the tender organized in February 2019, the government failed to draw any response from energy companies because of restrictive antitrust conditions. Following this attempt, the Colombian government altered its National Development Plan with new measures that were more attractive to investors. An exemption from VAT for wind and solar projects was introduced, and border tariffs for equipment imported for those projects were suppressed. The following rounds were far more successful, attracting $2.2 billion investment.

Related: U.S. Shale Is Gaining Influence Over Oil Markets



Wind energy is the main driver of the Colombian renewables revolution. Specifically, the region of La Guajira, located in the Northern part of the country, is seducing investors for its considerable wind potential, with wind speeds reaching 9 m/s. For the moment, only one offshore wind farm is operating there, but that is expected to change soon with 18 wind farm projects approved in 2019 (for a total capacity of 1,2 GW). Although the sun shines bright in Colombia, photovoltaic technology still lacks competitiveness and so is not as popular as wind energy. The largest solar project in the country is the Parque Solar El Paso, powered by the Italian Enel Green Power. But the government is determined to promote solar energy as a key part of its decarbonization. In 2020, the Ministry of Energy announced the creation of a subsidy scheme for households not connected to the national grid and wishing to install solar panels. Even the oil company Ecopetrol has demonstrated a willingness to take part in the solar transition and co-financed the construction of a new 50 MW solar plant.

But Colombia pushed its renewable goals even further than just wind and solar. A partnership with Chile was implemented to develop a large-scale research program on green hydrogen (hydrogen produced from renewable sources). Although this project is still at an embryonic stage, Colombia hopes to benefit from the global hydrogen boom, which attracted massive investments as part of multiple international post-Covid recovery plans. Chile is a particularly relevant partner, as its president Sebastian Pinera recently pledged to become a major exporter of this clean fuel by 2040. The cost of hydrogen production is still a major issue, but the intent is certainly there.

Remaining challenges of grid integration and cost reduction

Despite the countrys ambitious goals in regards to renewable energy, the Andean nation will have to deal with several challenges. The most urgent and probably most costly one will be the grid integration of these renewables facilities and granting access to electricity in rural and remote areas often excluded from the National Interconnected System. The government will also have to guarantee fair electricity prices for the consumers without excessively subsidizing the sector. Related: UAE Oil Major Turns To Hydrogen

Special attention was given to indigenous communities living in La Guajira, communities that cannot be left behind when renewable projects are implemented. During the GWEC summit on wind energy in Colombia, the governor of La Guajira Nemesio Roys warned that the Pajaro community of La Guajira did not have access to the gas produced in their region, and such a situation must be avoided when it comes to renewables.

Furthermore, even though the capital costs of wind energy are rapidly falling, they are still far from being competitive with conventional fuels. The sector still heavily relies on subsidies schemes, such as the Renewables Law (REL) of 2013 or the Fund for Non-Conventional Energies (FENOGE) in 2000. The strike price agreed upon at the closure of the second auction was USD 0.028/kWh, but has to be further improved during next rounds of auctions.

Due to the eternal low emissions vs. security of supply dilemma, Colombia is unlikely to fully rely on renewables in the future and will have to guarantee a baseload source of energy. The logical choice for a transition fuel is natural gas, currently occupying a modest share of 9% in total energy supply (2012 data), but is expected to grow in the upcoming years. It will be mostly imported from 2024 and will serve to replace coal plants.

In any case, it seems clear that the motivations behind Colombias renewable energy strategy are not limited to environmental concerns. The policy is driven by the necessity of diversification to ensure less dependency on oil and hydropower, and also by the pragmatism of using renewables for the post-Covid recovery.

By Tatiana Serova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
With a quizzical message asking if this thing is on, Parler CEO John Matze has just has announced that Parler is returning soon (screenshot below). This is the message posted under Technical Difficulties:

Now seems like the right time to remind you all  both lovers and haters  why we started this platform, the status update said. We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both. We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!

According to the research of CNN Business, Parler is to be hosted by Epik.

More to come.
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MOSCOW  A Russian judge on Monday ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days, after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putins government.

The ruling followed a hastily set up court hearing at a police precinct where Navalny was being held since his arrest at a Moscow airport on Sunday evening, which sparked sharp reactions both at home and around the world.

A crowd of Navalny supporters outside the precinct shouted Shame! as the judge announced the ruling and Navalnys allies immediately called for protests. His arrest had already prompted a wave of criticism from U.S. and European officials, adding to existing tensions between Russia and the West.

His top strategist, Leonid Volkov, announced preparations for large rallies on Saturday all across the country.

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Dont be afraid, take to the streets, Navalny said in a video statement released after the ruling was announced. Dont come out for me, come out for yourselves and your future.

At least 13 protesters were detained Monday outside the police precinct where the court hearing was held, and at least 55 demonstrators were rounded up by police in St. Petersburg, Russias second-largest city, according to activists.

The 44-year-old Navalny, Putins most well-known critic, campaigned to challenge him in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running. He has issued scores of damning reports over the years about corruption in Russia under Putins regime. After recuperating for months in Berlin after his Aug. 20 poisoning, he returned to Russia on Sunday evening despite the warrant for his arrest.

As expected, Navalny was detained at passport control at Sheremetyevo Airport after the plane was diverted from landing at another Moscow airport in what was seen as an attempt to foil supporters who had gathered to cheer their heros arrival.

Russias prison service said Navalny had violated probation terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which he says is contrived and politically motivated. The service said it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3-year sentence behind bars.

Navalny described the move as an attempt by the Kremlin to deter him from coming back to Russia to continue his political activities.

A court hearing on the prison services motion to have Navalny serve his suspended sentence in prison is scheduled for Feb. 2, according to his lawyers.

Amnesty International, which called Navalny a prisoner of conscience, denounced Mondays court hearing as a mockery of justice.

Calls for Navalnys immediate release have come from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and top officials of other EU nations.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert noted that the Russian authorities have arrested the victim of an attempted assassination with a chemical weapon, not the perpetrator and called for Navalnys release.

U.S. President-elect Joe Bidens pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also called on Russian authorities to free Navalny, and the outgoing U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the U.S. strongly condemns the decision to arrest the opposition leader.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that the stream of Western reactions to Navalnys arrest reflected an attempt to divert attention from the deep crisis of the liberal model of development.

Navalnys case has received a foreign policy dimension artificially and without any foundation, Lavrov said, arguing that the detention was a prerogative of Russian law enforcement agencies. Its a matter of observing the law.

Navalny spent the night at the police precinct outside Moscow. In a highly unusual development, the court hearing on Monday was held right at the precinct, and his lawyers said they were notified only minutes before.

It is impossible, what is happening over here, Navalny said in a video from the improvised courtroom that was posted on his page in the messaging app Telegram. It is lawlessness of the highest degree.

The judge ordered that Navalny be remanded in custody until Feb. 15. Navalnys lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities, however, insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison. Russia refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned, and Russian officials have challenged Germany to provide proof of the poisoning.

Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he alleged was a member of a group of officers of Russias Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up. The FSB has dismissed the recording as fake.

Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlins side for a decade, unusually durable in an opposition movement often demoralized by repression. Russian authorities have launched multiple criminal investigations against him, and he has been tried and convicted in two separate criminal cases widely seen as politically motivated.

In December 2014, Navalny was convicted on charges of fraud and money-laundering and received a 3-year suspended sentence, which he denounced as politically motivated and which the European Court of Human Rights found arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.

The sentence carried a probation period that was to expire in December 2020. Authorities said that Navalny was subject to regular in-person checks with law enforcement officers as a condition of his probation. In December, days before his probation period was supposed to end, Russias prison service accused Navalny of not appearing for these checks, including when he was convalescing in Germany.

As he boarded a plane bound for Moscow on Sunday, he brushed off concerns about being detained again in Russia, saying: Its impossible. Im an innocent man.

___

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
A nurse prepares to inject a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Jan. 15, 2021. (Xinhua)

Twenty-three elderly Norwegian people died after receiving Pfizer vaccines. Thirteen of them have been assessed and common side effects may have contributed to severe reactions in them, according to the Norwegian Medicines Agency.

Norway is a small Northern European country and only about 25,000 people have been vaccinated with Pfizer vaccines. Twenty-three deaths are a large number. But surprisingly, mainstream English-language media did not report the incident immediately, as if they had already reached a consensus. Major US and UK media were obviously downplaying their deaths.

In contrast, those major Western media will immediately hype any unfavorable information about Chinese vaccines and try to amplify their impact on public psychology. For example, the data of China's Sinovac vaccine was lower than expected in Brazil, and it was reported everywhere in Western media. The death of a Brazilian volunteer who participated in the trials also became a major event in Western media. But it was later proven that the death had nothing to do with the vaccination, and Western media lost their interest.

The COVID-19 vaccine is serious scientific issue. The current pandemic situation is extremely critical. It is the fundamental interests of all mankind to have more vaccines to fight COVID-19. However, some mainstream US and British media are taking the lead in putting geopolitical labels on vaccines. They are meddling in political stances with the scientific attitude toward vaccines, using their propaganda to promote Pfizer vaccines and smearing Chinese vaccines.

In fact, the research and development of all COVID-19 vaccines is relatively hasty. They should have gone through more sample tests and longer clinical verification before being fully introduced to the market. But time does not wait, and the pandemic does not wait. The vaccines have been promoted to the front line of the COVID-19 fight with a much faster speed.

If there needs to be some comparison, then China's inactivated vaccine definitely has more solid foundation in safety than Pfizer's mRNA vaccine. The inactivated vaccine technology has been very mature and has undergone decades of clinical testing. But it is the first time that the mRNA technology was applied to the vaccine. This large-scale promotion of Pfizer's vaccine is a continuous process of large-scale testing on human beings.

We believe the US and some Western countries do not have better choices now. Mass vaccination of Pfizer is a must. Even if there are risks, these countries would rather bear them. As long as they can save the lives of most people, they would accept the pros and cons. Western mainstream media turned a blind eye to the death of the 23 people, which can be regarded as a part of their acceptance of the "big picture."

Western media's crude double standards on vaccines and their unhealthy mindset show that the US and UK mainstream media's mentality toward China has gone highly geopolitical. Double standards have become political correctness for them. They are no longer objective in terms of competition with China. Attacking China is their desperate goal.

In terms of the COVID-19 vaccines, Chinese society and the Chinese government have regarded science and objectivity as priorities. In a practical and realistic manner, China has squarely faced the reality that Chinese vaccines lacked sufficient data. Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have been put on the market but are conditional. Vaccination priority will be given to high-exposure populations between 18 and 59 years old, not the elderly. No senior Chinese official has come out to openly endorse Chinese vaccines. Most praises about China's vaccines are from abroad. Many leaders of developing countries have taken the lead in injecting Chinese vaccines based on their countries' data of Phase III trials.

However, the Pfizer vaccine has been strongly promoted by the US administration and capital. Their potential risk has been deliberately downplayed by Western public opinion. And public opinion has created an impression that Pfizer's mRNA vaccine, which is being used for the first time, is safer than the Chinese vaccine.

Regrettably, Washington has promoted China-US confrontation and the US and its major allies have initiated their ideological frenzy. Is there any justice? They believe it is right to suppress China and wrong to be fair to China. Such an attitude has extended to serious scientific and humanitarian fields which should have been far away from politics.

Chinese people need to face such increasingly harsh ideological confrontation whether we are willing to or not. We must defend China's national interests and support our own country in important competition. To weaken China's competitiveness, the US and its allies' public opinions have completely disregarded ethics. Their attitude toward China is nothing but geopolitical logic. We will not cringe from their attacks.
By Tommy Parker, Afsheen A. Shamsi and Linda Oppenheim

Last summer, the brutal murder of George Floyd by a uniformed Minneapolis police officer triggered a wave of protests around the country. These protests signified that we as a nation were no longer willing to stand by and allow the killing of innocent Black people at the hands of law enforcement officers. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and countless others in Black communities over many decades at the hands of the very law enforcement professionals that have sworn to protect them without any real consequences is indeed a travesty of justice on so many levels.

Princetons Mayor Liz Lempert and council members, recognizing the need to take action, passed a resolution declaring racism to be a public health crisis, also making a commitment to examine Princetons ordinances, policies and procedures through a racial equity lens. Not in Our Town Princeton, a local racial justice organization in consultation with the Princeton Civil Rights Commission (CRC), suggested to Mayor Lempert that this goal be achieved through a racial equity impact statement (REIS), a tool that has been adopted by some cities and counties across the country as well as in the United Kingdom to address institutional and structural racism.

That is what brought the five of us together under the leadership of CRC Chair Tommy Parker who formed an ad hoc committee to work on this project. At our very first meeting, as we were outlining processes and timelines to develop the REIS, Princeton Human Services Commissioner and community advocate Larry Spruill conveyed, When you have been waiting all your life, tomorrow doesnt seem soon enough for something like this.

Larrys words created a real sense of urgency in our work. We, a team of volunteers, agreed to meet on a weekly basis every Thursday evening to work on this project and completed our endeavor in three short months. In our work, we looked at models from other cities and developed a Toolkit, which is a series of questions and resources specific to the needs of the Princeton community.

Princetons Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit provides a systematic examination of how the proposed or existing implementation of particular budgets, programs, activities, policies, guidelines, or procedures will impact different racial and ethnic groups. The goal of the Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit is to prevent structural and institutional anti-Black racism and to minimize adverse consequences to historically marginalized communities thereby addressing long-standing racial inequities in Princeton.

One of the goals in the development of the Toolkit was to ensure that it is not burdensome on those charged with using it. Once the toolkit was developed, we tested it by applying it to some existing Princeton policies, ordinances and a job application. Our conclusion is that the toolkit in its current form works. However, we recognize that as the toolkit is used by the municipality, it will continue to evolve to address new and changing realities on the ground. Thus, we see the development of the toolkit as an iterative process. It is our hope that adopting a racial equity lens in the development of programs, policies and ordinances will become second nature in the municipality through the use of the toolkit.

We also built into the toolkit means to solicit input from community stakeholders. We believe it is essential to consult and get the perspective of impacted communities, particularly historically marginalized communities, in the development of programs and policies.

On Dec. 14, Princeton Council approved the use of the Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit. Princeton is going to initiate this work by sharing the toolkit with all municipal department heads and by offering implicit bias training to municipal staff and leaders including elected and appointed leaders. We couldnt have hoped for a better outcome and are truly proud to live in a town that puts into action its commitment to racial equity.

While this commitment by Princetons leaders is a step in the right direction, we recognize that justice and equity will take years to achieve. We all, individually and collectively as a society, have a responsibility to ensure that we are working toward this goal. We encourage you to think about how you can make your township or city more just and equitable as well. Now is the time to take action.

This op-ed was also written by Surinder Sharma, a civil rights commissioner in Princeton, and Jean Durbin, a former civil rights commissioner in Princeton.

Tommy Parker is the chair of the Princeton Civil Rights Commission.

Afsheen A. Shamsi is a social justice advocate and former Princeton Civil Rights Commissioner.

Linda Oppenheim is a board member of Not in Our Town Princeton.

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MOSCOW -- Aleksei Navalny has urged Russians to take to the streets in protest after a judge at a hastily arranged hearing in a makeshift courtroom just outside Moscow ruled to keep the Kremlin critic in police custody for 30 days after his dramatic airport arrest a day earlier.



At a January 18 hearing, which Navalny called a "mockery of justice," the judge ruled to keep him incarcerated until February 15, by which time a different court is expected to decide whether to convert a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence he served in an embezzlement case, which he says was trumped up, into real jail time.



Navalnys detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring President Vladimir Putin for Navalnys immediate release.

In St. Petersburg, police detained at least 20 people among a crowd of hundreds of Navalny supporters who had gathered at the Gostiny Dvor trade complex.



Detentions were made during similar rallies in support of the politician in Moscow and Khimki, near the capital.



"That very old man, the thief in the bunker is sitting there trembling in fear. They are scared, that is why they are doing all this in such an expedited, secret, and surreptitious way. They are in such a hurry (to jail me) because they are scared," Navalny said in the video, posted on YouTube in a reference to Putin and other Russian politicians.



"Do not be silent, resist, come out to the streets. Nobody will defend us except ourselves. And there are so many of us that if we want to achieve something we will make it," he added.

Navalnys team headquarters in St. Petersburg called for nationwide protests on January 23.



"[Aleksei] is not afraid, do not be afraid either!" a tweet from the group said, adding that people were "indignant" over the ruling.

Police led the 44-year-old away on January 17 at the Sheremetyevo International Airports passport-control booth after he arrived from Berlin, where he had been recovering from the attack in August that Navalny says was ordered by Putin.

Aides said Navalny was denied access to his lawyers and notified at the last minute of the hearing, while his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh posted a video of the opposition politician chiding President Vladimir Putin for fearing him so much that he has abandoned the country's laws altogether.



Navalny has been held incommunicado, his lawyers said, adding that they had not been granted access to him and that his condition was unknown.



"Ive seen justice mocked many times, but this time the old guy in the bunker seems so scared that the Criminal Code has been ostentatiously ripped apart and thrown away," Navalny said in a separate video before the ruling on Twitter in an apparent reference to Putin.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said Navalny was being held because of "multiple violations" of the conditions of his suspended sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and of evading criminal inspectors.

Navalny has said the case against him was trumped up and politically motivated.

Moscows Simonovsky district court will hear the states case to convert the suspended sentence on February 2. Russian lawyers said decisions on such issues are made quickly, generally in one hearing and, in exceptional cases, in two or three hearings. Sentence conversion is a common practice with Russian courts presiding over more than 15,000 cases last year.

Navalny, who Amnesty International on January 17 called a "prisoner of conscience," was poisoned in August by what tests at Western laboratories showed was a Novichok nerve agent. He was flown to Germany for emergency medical care after falling acutely ill while traveling in Siberia.

The opposition politician, who has been jailed numerous times in Russia for organizing and leading anti-government protests, blames the poisoning on Russian authorities. Moscow denies any involvement.

The poisoning, which was similar to the near-fatal attack on Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury, drew widespread international attention, as did Navalny's planned return after Russia's prison authority warned of Navalny's potential incarceration.

"The United States notes with grave concern that Mr. Navalnys detention is the latest in a series of what appears to be attacks targeting opposition figures and independent voices critical of Russian authorities in an intensifying effort to silence civil society," U. S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said in a statement.



"Confident political leaders do not fear independent voices, nor do they see the need to misuse legal authorities to commit violence against or wrongfully detain political opponents. The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open exchange of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, fair and equal treatment under the law, and the ability to exercise their rights without fear of retribution," he added.



The U.S. ambassador's words were echoed by the United Nations, the European Union, and many other countries and human rights groups, who have called for the Kremlin to explain how he was attacked with a Soviet-style chemical weapon.

"We are deeply troubled by the arrest of [Aleksei] Navalny, and call for his immediate release and for his due process rights to be respected in line with the rule of law. We reiterate our call for a thorough and impartial investigation into his poisoning," UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office said on Twitter on January 18.

"The European Union condemns the detention of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny upon his return to Moscow on 17 January and calls for his immediate release," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement on behalf of the bloc's 27 nations.



"The EU will follow closely the developments in this field and will continue to take this into account when shaping its policy towards Russia."



Former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia pushed other EU members at a ministerial meeting on January 18 to expand punitive measures that the bloc imposed in October over Navalny's poisoning.



"Lithuania, in the name of all three Baltic states, suggested to consider possible sanctions at today's General Affairs Council over the arrest of [Aleksei] Navalny and so-called court hearing that is taking place now," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.



"We are the realists towards Russia as we live at the border. I hope that some EU capitals will wake up from their optimism and return towards realism."

Britain also joined in the chorus of calls for the Kremlin to act on January 18, demanding Navalny's release, saying Moscow should explain how he was attacked with a Soviet-style chemical weapon.

"It is appalling that Aleksei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

"Rather than persecuting Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil."

Russia, meanwhile, continued to shrug off the West's consternation.

The Kremlin itself usually refers questions about Navalny to law enforcement agencies, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on January 18 called the condemnation of the detention an attempt to distract from the West's own problems.

"You can feel the joy with which these comments [on Navalny's arrest] are coming out," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow.

"Judging by everything, it allows Western politicians to think that by doing this they can divert attention away from the deep crisis that the liberal model of development finds itself in," he added.

Navalny had been scheduled to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, where hundreds of his supporters had gathered amid a massive riot-police presence.



At the last minute, however, authorities closed Vnukovo to incoming flights and diverted Navalny's plane to Sheremetyevo airport on the other side of the capital.



Police detained numerous people who were awaiting Navalny's arrival at Vnukovo, including Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation; Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager for the foundation; and Novaya Gazeta journalist Vlad Dokshin. Other journalists were also reportedly among the detained.



Sobol and others later said they were released and were facing administrative charges.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Interfax
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The University of Macao (UM) kicked off celebrations for its 40th anniversary on Sunday, with government officials, education professionals and university staff, students and alumni invited to the event.

Ranked among the top in Asia, the university now places equal emphasis on teaching and research, with a number of national key laboratories and strong research capabilities in areas such as chip, traditional Chinese medicine, and Internet of Things (IoT) for smart cities.

In recent years, UM has made breakthroughs in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as unmanned vessels, drones, and autonomous buses.

UM Rector Song Yonghua said at the ceremony that the university would continue fulfilling its social responsibility and aligning with the special administrative regional government's policies and directions in higher education and technological innovation, through quality education, technology transfer, and service to the society, to promote the diversification and sustainable development of Macao's industries.

UM also held an Open Day as part of the celebrations, aiming to allow the public to experience UM's development in teaching and research as well as its campus life through exhibitions and activities.

This year, the university will hold a series of celebratory activities with different themes, including academic research, cultural exchanges, and alumni development.

Peter Gay is the executive director of North Attleborough Community Television Inc.  North TV. The views expressed in his column are not necessarily those of North TV. Reach him at pgay@northtv.net
Supplier News

18 January 2021

Team size doubles after successful first twelve months of commercial operations

Product diversification: systems for Pine Weevils and Palm Weevils in development

Company extends reach into European and North American markets

Spotta Smart Pest Systems has capped a strong first year of commercial operations with accelerated product development and market reach for 2021. To support its growth into new territories and pests, the company has doubled its headcount and secured partnerships to further extend its commercial reach.

Having secured $1.18 million in seed funding in July 2020, Spotta's ambition to revolutionise the pest control market - providing monitoring technology to help prevent wide-reaching infestations - has continued to evolve.

New markets and sectors

Designed for hospitality, the Bed Pod monitoring system for bed bugs was the pillar of 2020. Following the successful first year of Bed Pod in the UK hospitality sector, the company adapted its sales strategy to work directly with Pest Controllers in the UK, Europe and North America as the Covid pandemic hit. The Bed Pod is also set to be installed in its first community housing association in 2021.

Their Service Provider partnerships assist Pest Management Professionals in providing effective monitoring as part of their client services. In December 2020, a partnership with BadBug was announced, extending Spotta's representation in key European markets including France, Germany and Scandinavia.

Product development

In late 2020, Spotta announced its development of the Forest Pod, currently in trials with Forestry and Land Scotland monitoring Pine Weevils. The company aims to deliver the Forest Pod to market later in 2021.

Spotta's technology is also being applied to Red Palm Weevils, with initial trials set to take place in Q1 2021 and further trials in the Middle East later in the year, where the pests cause extensive damage to Coconut and Date farm crops.

Team growth

To support the growth in partnerships and systems, as well as allow the business to further develop, the Spotta team expanded in the start of 2021.

Two new Engineering recruits - Hanting Qin (R&D Engineer) and Jordan Docker (Firmware Engineer) - along with Ekansh Mittal (Commercial Lead) and Helen Snook (Office Manager) joined the team, cementing the company's reputation as an exciting place to work and develop.

From the co-founders

Robert Fryers, CEO and co-founder of Spotta, says: "It's been a busy twelve months and our ability to grow rapidly - despite the challenges our initial target market of hospitality faced from the pandemic - reflects both the huge opportunity for our technology and the fantastic contributions from our team. The year ahead looks even more promising with the launch of Forest Pod later this year, and trials due to start on our product targeting Palm Weevils. Insect pests cost 320bn despite the use of 4 million tonnes of pesticide to treat each year: our monitoring systems can help reduce the cost and environmental impact of pesticides by detecting pests early."

Neil D'Souza-Mathew, Spotta's CTO and co-founder, says: "The addition of new team members gives us a great footing to continue our business growth, from developing the technology and hardware to discovering further applications for our monitoring solutions. Bed Pod continues to prove its efficacy in international accommodation sectors. The trials of Forest Pod have been successful and we're nearing market launch. Our next project for Red Palm Weevil will further showcase the importance of monitoring as part of a wider pest management strategy."

For more information, visit spotta.co
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We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.
Al-Futtaims Trading Enterprises, the exclusive distributor of Honda vehicles in the UAE, is kicking off 2021 with new product offensive that will see more than three new Honda vehicles make their UAE debut over the next few months.

Opening the product launch programme will be a new redesigned 2021 Honda Odyssey that will be hitting the Honda UAE showrooms this month. With a whole host of new and improved comfort and convenience features, the Honda Odysseys dynamic and versatile offerings makes it an ideal car for modern families.

Poised to be most sophisticated and technologically advanced minivan in its segment, the completely reengineered Honda Odyssey boasts a refreshed overall design, upgraded technology features, and advanced Active and Passive Safety specifications. The Honda

Odyssey has been a class-leading minivan for over 20 years, and for 2021 the Odyssey gets a variety of innovations, setting a high standard for minivans by focusing on features and capabilities required by families with children.

Rhett Maxwell, Honda UAEs General Manager at Al-Futtaims Trading Enterprises, said: I am proud to be announcing the UAE launch of the new 2021 Honda Odyssey  a perfect minivan for the modern families of the UAE. The 2021 refreshed Odyssey has been designed to appeal to progressive young families through its leading combination of innovation, space, flexibility, safety and style. Receiving numerous updates to styling, along with upgraded technology and safety features, the 2021 Honda Odyssey further strengthen its position as the top choice of UAE families looking for the ultimate fun-family vehicle.

STYLING

The 2021 Odyssey now features more powerful and efficient LED headlights as part of a new front-end design that includes a new front bumper fascia with redesigned fog light, and a bold new blackout grille topped by a chrome strip.

The design is echoed in the rear with new gloss-black trim under the rear window, accented by a chrome strip. The Odyssey Touring grade gets 19-inch alloy wheels in a new design.

A distinct feature of the Honda Odyssey in the EX-L and Touring grade is the Power Programmable Tailgate feature, which makes it easy to customise for drivers of all heights and protects the tailgate from damage in areas with lower ceiling heights.

In addition, the Touring Grade has the Hands-Free Assist feature, which allows the driver to open and close the tailgate with a simple kick action under the rear bumper when their hands are full.

INTERIOR STYLING

The Odyssey is comfortable and versatile when it comes to interior styling and cabin environment with different convenience features and state of the art technologies.

The EX-L and the Touring Grade feature new piano-black interior accents which gives the Odyssey a sophisticated and premium appeal to the car in its segment. The Odyssey can easily accommodate up to eight passengers and a multitude of cargo in different shapes and sizes.

With the centre seat removed, the Magic Slide second-row seats can move to the centre and forward allowing for convenient access to the third row.

The third row features a 60/40 Split Magic Seat configuration that folds down into the large recess in the cargo floor by pulling a single strap on each side creating a flat-floor cargo area.

The Odyssey boasts of a new and soft touch instrument panel, which includes a full colour and an interactive 8-inch Display Audio Touch Screen, Stop Start button, Electronic Parking Brake with Brake Hold function, ventilated seats and a new push button gear selector. In addition, the 7-inch Digital Driver Information Interface with direct sight to the driver ensures that relevant information such as phonebook, fuel consumption; remaining distance, select app control, turn by turn direction when using the navigation and even Honda Sensing TM (touring grade only) are accessible and easy to read.

AUDIO AND CONNECTIVITY

The Redesigned Honda Odyssey is a technologically advanced vehicle, which offers the latest features in technology and connectivity.

SAFETY AND PERFORMANCE

The Redesigned Honda Odyssey is equipped with some of the best specs for Active and Passive Safety. It is equipped with the Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) Body Structure, which is a Honda-exclusive body design that enhances occupant protection and crash compatibility in frontal collisions.

The Odyssey is equipped with Multilink Rear Suspension, and a low centre of gravity chassis, with revised damper and steering geometry settings.

Therefore, the Odyssey is excellent for the daily school runs and even better on those long journeys fully loaded at the weekend. With Dual Pinion Steering and Variable Gear Ratio, the 2021 Odyssey is easy to park, whilst providing excellent steering feedback on highways.

The Odyssey is equipped with Dual Stage Multiple Threshold Front Airbags, Front Side Airbags, Three-Row Side Curtain Airbags, Drivers and Front Passengers Knee Airbags to ensure maximum safety.

Other Honda active-safety features include Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with Traction Control Systems (TCS), Anti-Lock Brake Systems (ABS), Electronic Brake Distributor (EBD), Agile Handling Assist, Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS), and Hill Start Assist (HSA).

Powering the Odyssey is a 3.5-litre direct injected i-VTEC 24-valve SOHC V6 engine with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM). This engine is mated to an all-new front-wheel-drive (FWD) 10-speed automatic transmission (10AT) with Shift-By-Wire (SBW) and Paddle Shifters producing 280hp at 6000rpm and a torque of 355Nm at 4700rpm.

HONDA SENSING

The Touring Grade of the redesigned Honda Odyssey is equipped with the Honda Sensing suite of safety and driver-assistive technologies designed to alert the driver to things they might miss while driving. It includes:

*Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS): To help reduce the likelihood of a frontal impact, the Collison Mitigation Braking System helps bring the car to a stop if the system determines that a collision with a vehicle detected in front or a pedestrian is unavoidable. A warning sounds, and if necessary, brake pressure is automatically applied;

*Forward Collision Warning (FCW): It scans the road ahead to warn drivers of a potential collision, and provides visual and audible alerts to prompt the driver to take corrective actions to avoid a potential hazard;

*Lane Departure Warning (LDW): It will detect if the car is straying out of its current lane without the turn signal activated, and provides an alert to prompt the driver to make a correction;

*Road Departure Mitigation System (RDM): Road Departure Mitigation System uses the windscreen-mounted camera to detect whether the car is veering out of its lane. It applies subtle corrections to keep the vehicle in its lane, and in certain situations can also apply braking force and provide a tactile warning;

*Blind Spot Information System: The Blind Spot Information System uses radar sensors to automatically detect vehicles in the drivers blind spot and alert the driver via a warning symbol inside the car;

*Pedestrian Detection System: The Pedestrian Detection System warns driver of a potential collision with pedestrians with audible and visual warnings. It also provides autonomous braking to bring the vehicle to a stop as well as actively steers the vehicle away to avoid collision with pedestrians;

*Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS): It helps to keep the car in the middle of the current lane, by detecting road markings with a monocular camera and making small adjustments to steer the vehicle within the lines.

*Head on Collision System: The Head On Collision System warns drivers of a potential collision with audible and visual warnings. It also uses a tactile warning with autonomous braking as well and vibrates the steering wheel to warn the driver in case they are tired;

*Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC): Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), allows the driver to set a desired speed and following distance from a vehicle detected ahead, allowing the Odyssey to adjust its speed automatically for a safe and comfortable journey; and

* Low Speed Follow: The system uses a millimetre wave radar and monocular camera mounted to the windshield to continually track the distance to the detected vehicle ahead, and adjusts the Odysseys speed to maintain the set distance. The Low Speed Following function allows the Odyssey to come to a complete stop, if the vehicle in front slows down and stops. To move off again, simply apply the throttle.-- Tradearabia News Service

11th round of India-China military commander level talks likely to be held on Friday

India stood up Chinas disruptive use of technology and my way or no way attitude: CDS

India on 'constant watch': MEA on reports of Chinese construction in Arunachal

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 18: India has kept a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads and bridges, the ministry of external affairs said responding to reports that claimed Chinese constructions in Arunachal Pradesh.

"We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India. China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years," the MEA said in a statement.

"In response, our government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much-needed connectivity to the local population along the border," it added.

In message to China, Army Chief says dont test our patience

"Government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh," the report said.

"Government keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," it further added.

Report have said that China has constructed a new village in Arunachal Pradesh, consisting of about 101 homes.

The Chinese purportedly withdrew 10,000 troops from the depth areas adjacent to the Line of Actual Control, the defect boundary between India and China.

India has all along been maintaining that the onus is on China to carry forward the process of disengagement and de-escalation at the friction points in the mountainous region.
The detention of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny upon arrival in Moscow from Germany has drawn a wave of international criticism.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas voiced Germany's criticism early on January 18, calling for Navalny's immediate release.

"Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international obligations to the principle of the rule of law and to the protection of civil rights," Maas said in a statement. "These principles must, of course, be applied to Alexei Navalny as well. He should be released immediately."

On January 17, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement also demanded the "immediate and unconditional release" of the Kremlin critic and said Navalny "is not the problem."



Pompeo said the United States noted Navalny's detention with "grave concern," calling it "the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities."



Pompeo added that confident political leaders "do not fear competing voices, nor commit violence against or wrongfully detain political opponents" and urged the Russian government to provide a level playing field for all political parties and candidates.



He said the Russian people "deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, an independent judiciary, and the ability to exercise their basic human rights of speech and assembly without fear of retribution."

Earlier on January 17, the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden called for Navalny's immediate release and that "the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable."



"The Kremlin's attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard," Jake Sullivan, Biden's incoming national security adviser, said in a tweet.

Navalny arrived in the evening on January 17 in Moscow from Germany, where he was being treated after being poisoned in Siberia in August and was promptly detained by law enforcement authorities at the airport.



The detention sparked immediate outrage from European governments and human rights organizations.



European Council President Charles Michel called the apprehension of the opposition politician "unacceptable" and demanded his immediate release.



"The detainment of Alexei Navalny upon arrival in Moscow is unacceptable," Michel, who coordinates EU governments in Brussels, said in a tweet. "I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him."



The 44-year-old Kremlin critic, who Amnesty International called a "prisoner of conscience," was poisoned last summer by what tests at Western laboratories showed was a Novichok nerve agent. He was flown to Germany for emergency medical care after being poisoned.



Navalny, who has been jailed numerous times in Russia for organizing and leading anti-government protests, blames the poisoning on Russian authorities. Moscow denies any involvement.



The poisoning, which was similar to the near-fatal attack on Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury, drew wide international attention, as did Navalny's planned return after Russia's prison authority warned it Navalny could be jailed for 3 1/2 years for allegedly flouting the terms of a suspended prison sentence.



In a joint statement upon the news of Navalny's detention, the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia -- all former Soviet republics -- issued a call for the "imposition of restrictive measures" against Moscow.



Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis added in a tweet that the detention of Navalny "by the Russian authorities is completely unacceptable. We demand his immediate release."



The EU "should act swiftly and if he is not released, we need to consider imposition of restrictive measures in response to this blatant act," he added.



Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek called Navalny's detention a "politically motivated" action and said he was being held "for his views, not what he was formally accused of."



Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also called for "a swift and unequivocal response at the EU level" if Navalny is not released.

France's Foreign Ministry said it "takes note with great concern of the arrest" and called for Navalny's immediate release.



Italy's foreign minister also called for Navalny's immediate release.



"The arrest of Navalny on his arrival in Russia is a very serious matter, which concerns us. We ask for his immediate release. And we expect his rights to be respected," Luigi Di Maio said on Twitter.

With reporting by Current Time and RFE/RLs Russian Service
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Sen. Lankford apologizes to black constituents after supporting call for election audit

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U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has apologized to black constituents in his state after he joined other Republican senators in calling for an audit of the 2020 presidential election ahead of the Jan. 6 certification of Electoral College votes.

Writing to residents in north Tulsa, the 52-year-old Lankford stated in a Thursday letter that his actions in contesting the election caused a firestorm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in Black communities around the state.

I was completely blindsided, but I also found a blind spot, the lawmaker stated in his letter.

The former Baptist youth camp director was among the handful of senators to join Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, earlier this month to say he would vote against the Electoral College results unless a commission was formed to provide a 10-day audit exploring claims of voter fraud in several states.

Lankford retreated from that position after the U.S. Capitol was stormed by far-right protesters on Jan. 6.

What I did not realize was all of the national conversation about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming out of predominantly black communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit, he wrote.

After decades of fighting for voting rights, many Black friends in Oklahoma saw this as a direct attack on their right to vote, for their vote to matter, and even a belief that their votes made an election in our country illegitimate.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who served under President Barack Obama for two terms from 2009-2017, is set to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday. Kamala Harris, who served as U.S. senator from California, will serve as his vice president.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, where a white mob killed dozens of black residents on June 1, 1921.

The massacre has been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history."

The attack, which was carried out both on the ground and from private aircraft, destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the Greenwood district. The district was the wealthiest black community in the U.S. at the time and was known as "Black Wall Street."

As a result of Lankford's support of Cruz's call for an election audit, black leaders in Tulsa called on Lankford to be removed from the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Committee, according to Tulsa World.

I can assure you, my intent to give a voice to Oklahomans who had questions was never also an intent to diminish the voice of any Black American. I should have recognized how what I said and what I did could be interpreted by many of you, Lankford concluded in his letter. I deeply regret my blindness to that perception, and for that I am sorry.

Lankford explained his reasoning for joining the call for an election audit.

"When I announced my support for an Electoral Commission to spend 10 days auditing the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, it was never my intention to disenfranchise any voter or state. It was my intention to resolve any outstanding questions before the inauguration on January 20, he stressed.

"I believe Congress cannot legally ignore any state's electors or change any state's vote, but we can work to get answers to outstanding questions. I want to strengthen the confidence all Americans have in their electoral system so everyone is encouraged to vote and knows their vote matters."
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 23:36:02|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is currently engaging China in order to expand its horticultural exports, a senior government official said on Monday.

Betty Maina, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development, told journalists in Nairobi that the country is keen to diversify its markets as the bulk of its fresh produce is sold in the European Union and Britain.

"We have engaged with China to try to satisfy the sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures that are required to be able to export more fresh produce export to China," Maina said when Kenya Airlines signed a cooperation agreement with the Kenya fresh produce exporters.

According to the trade ministry, Kenya currently exports fresh flowers and frozen avocados to the Asian nation.

Maina noted that the fresh avocados are not able to access the Chinese markets and this has reduced the volume of produce that can reach China.

She noted that the country will prioritize use of voluntary compliance to health protocols among agricultural exports to ensure that Kenyan goods meet the safety standards of importing nations.

The official urged the horticulture industry to invest in self-regulatory compliance measures so that Kenya safeguards its lucrative export markets.

The government official said that Kenya is also seeking other markets such as Russia, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East for its horticultural products. Enditem
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Two years after taking over the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR in the Kanpur defence recruitment scam, officials said on Monday.

The case has been filed against Santosh Kumar Tiwari, Deputy Controller in the Material Division of the Controllerate of Quality Assurance CQA(M), who was the presiding officer of the recruitment board and beneficiaries Ravi Kant Pandey, Utkarsh Srivatsava, Arti Gupta, Pratibha Mishra and Arpit Singh and other unknown persons.

The officials in Kanpur had organised a recruitment drive for six posts of Lower Division Clerk (LDC) in the Directorate General of Quality Assurance which comes under the Union Ministry of Defence. For this purpose, advertisements were issued in 2015 and appointments were made in 2017.

An internal inquiry committee headed by Brigadier Sudhindra Itnal had found serious irregularities in the recruitment process. Following the submission of a report in this regard, the recruitment board itself was dissolved by the competent authority and the services of the appointed LDCs were terminated on November 28, 2018.

In a letter to the CBI on August 10, 2018, the Department of Defence Production (DDP) mentioned "serious irregularities" of a criminal nature concerning the appointment of six LDCs in 2016 by the now-dissolved recruitment board in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur. This letter was sent to the apex investigative agency on the orders of Minister of State for Defence, Subhash Bhamre who acted on the advice of the Central Vigilance Commission.

The official said the agency had done a preliminary enquiry against Tiwari, Sunil Kumar, SSO-II, CQA (M) Kanpur (member) and Mohammad Alim, AE (QA), SQAE (GS), Kanpur (Member) and Colonel A.K. Gandhi, Joint Controller, CQA (M), CQA (GS) and CQA (T&C), Kanpur in 2020.

In the preliminary enquiry, it was revealed that an advertisement for filing four posts of the LDCs in CQA (M) Kanpur was published in various newspapers. Later on the number of posts were increased from four to six, including three for the general category, one each for the OBC, SC and Physically Handicapped (PH) category in March 2015.

It was also revealed that 4,181 candidates had applied for the said post out of which 952 candidates were found eligible for the written test.

It said that on June 22, 2016, a Board of Officers was constituted by C. Devakinandan, Controller Kanpur to conduct the recruitment for the said posts. It said that the board comprised Tiwari, Neha Agarwal, a Scientist, Sunil Kumar and Mohammad Alim.

It further said that a written test was held on June 26, 2016 in which a total of 517 candidates appeared. "After completion of the written examination, the invigilators had collected the answer sheets and submitted the same in the room of Tiwari in an unsealed condition which was against the rule," it alleged.

"In the enquiry it was also revealed that answer sheets were evaluated by the BOO under the supervision of Tiwari in his room and Agarwal who was an external member was not called for the same," the official said.

He also said that on the basis of the evaluation of the answer sheets, 110 candidates were qualified for the typing test, out of which only 95 appeared for the same on September 28, 2016.

"The PH candidates were exempted from the typing test. Total 54 candidates and two PH candidates were qualified for the same post and a final merit list was published by DGQA website on November 25, 2016. Out of six selected candidates, five candidates joined their duties whereas one candidate Vivek Chandra did not join as he was selected elsewhere," the official said.

"Investigation further revealed that there were manipulations done in the selection process by Tiwari, who altered the marks obtained by candidates at the time of rechecking," the official said, adding that Tiwari, was also involved in evaluation of answer sheets of written exam wherein he evaluated overwritten answer sheets in contravention of the instructions of the DGCA.

"The alteration was done by Tiwari and some of the answers of the selected candidates were also changed by him after the evaluation. The answer sheets were rechecked by Tiwari and during rechecking he altered the final marks of the candidates without the knowledge of concerned invigilators," the official alleged.

The preliminary enquiry further found that Arpit Singh, who got selected under the PH quota did not have the requisite handicapped certificate at the time of submission of the application as well as on June 26, 2016 the day of written exam and he obtained the same on August 27, 2016.

"Since, he had not submitted the certificate at the time of applying the post, he should not be eligible for the written test and exemption from the typing under PH category and his selection should be void ab-initio," the FIR alleged, which has been viewed by IANS.

In the FIR, it said, investigation also revealed that one of the selected candidates Vivek Chandra had originally scored 52 marks which were subsequently changed to 61, similarly marks obtained by another selected candidates Arpit Singh were increased from 58 to 69 and marks obtained by selected candidate Arti Gupta was increased from 68 to 70 by Tiwari during the rechecking.

"Probe further highlighted that there was overwriting in the answer sheet of Arpit Singh in case of several answers and there was overwriting in the answer sheet of another selected candidate Pratibha Mishra, Utkarsh Srivatsava. These candidates were clearly favoured by Tiwari," the FIR alleged.

"Even the other members of the board Sunil Kumar, Mohammad Alim who had evaluated the answer sheets, stated during the CBI enquiry that they were neither overwritten on the answer sheets nor altered the final scores of the selected candidates," the FIR said.

"They stated that the said alteration or over writing was done by Tiwari and some of the answers of the selected candidates were edited by Tiwari after the evaluation," the FIR stated, adding that the role of Sunil Kumar and Mohammad Alim did not surface during the enquiry.

"During the probe it was also found that Ravi Kant Pandey is a relative of H.N. Tiwari, Pratibha Mishra is daughter of Om Prakash Mishra, Staff of COD, Cantonment Kanpur and daughter-in-law of P.P. Dwivedi, the then security officer, CQA(M), Kanpur," it said.

It was found that another candidate Utkarsh Srivatsava is the son of Sunil Srivatsava, who retired as office superintendent of SQAE (Armament), Kanpur, the FIR alleged.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
There were more pedestrians pounding the pavement in Melbourne's central business district during morning peak hour on Monday than during any start to the working week since the first COVID-19 lockdown last year.

City of Melbourne data showed 380 pedestrians trudged past Southern Cross Station on Collins Street between 8am and 9am on Monday, the highest count for that time of the week since late March.

Victorians are trickling back into offices. Credit:Joe Armao

But there was still far less foot traffic in the area compared to a typical Monday morning in 2019, when an average of 3800 pedestrians walked through the area, almost 10 times more than Monday's figure.

The data for the Flinders Street Station underpass showed a similar trend. There were 807 pedestrians recorded at the site between 8am and 9am on Monday, which is the location's highest Monday morning total since the start of the first lockdown, but nowhere near the average of 3685 for the same period in 2019.
More than 20 shellfish trucks parked on roads near Number 10 Downing Street and the British parliament in central London on Monday to protest against post-Brexit bureaucracy that has stopped them exporting to the European Union.

Trucks with slogans such as "Brexit carnage" and "incompetent government destroying shellfish industry" parked just metres from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office. Police were asking the lorry drivers for details.

Many Scottish fishermen have not been able to export their stocks to Europe since the start of the year after the introduction of catch certificates, health checks and customs declarations added lengthy delays to their delivery times, prompting European buyers to reject them.

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"We strongly feel the system could potentially collapse," said Gary Hodgson, a director of Venture Seafoods, which exports live and processed crabs and lobsters to the EU and which has trucks parked near Downing Street.

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs to be honest with us, with himself and with the British public about the problems for the industry," Hodgson told Reuters.

Hodgson said he had cancelled several lorries since December due to the onerous red tape involved with exporting to the EU. He said one operator needed 400 pages of export documentation last week to board a ferry to the EU.

Those participating in the protest said the British government needed to understand the severity of the problems they face and the impact on coastal communities.

They want a more workable system and say there is a shortage of customs agents on both sides of the Channel.

"Many fishing communities did vote to leave but I dont think anyone who did anticipated being constrained by documentation and restrictions that have now been thrust upon us," Hodgson said.

"We need to bring the country together now and find workable solutions to limit the damage to the economy and to protect jobs."

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MANZINI  A knife-wielding shoplifter was arrested shortly after he stole food worth E70 at Shoprite.

Much like Operation Bopha, the incident unfolded on Friday around noon as it created commotion around the Manzini Central Business District (CBD) near the President Centre.

According to the Shoprite security personnel manning the entrance, the offender, Emmanuel Mndzebele, went inside the shop with a silver plastic bag and stole food amounting close to E70.

This included a bun, fish hake and a take-away of chicken and porridge. Upon reaching the exit, I requested to search his plastic bag and he refused, citing that he had already been searched. I tried to apprehend him but he quickly drew a Three-star knife while attempting to stab me with it, said one of the guards. During this commotion, Mndzebele got a chance to run away. Security personnel at the store are said to have swiftly pursued him with the assistance of Kwekwe Security, which patrols the city of Manzini.

Fingers

Worth noting is that the offender did not have four of his fingers on his left hand and some members of the public wondered as to how he was able to carry the plastic bag and wield a knife at the same time.

Mndzebeles freedom was shortlived as minutes later; he was apprehended while trying to negotiate his way near the President Centre. By that time, a host of Kwekwe Security personnel were present. However, as he was being forcefully apprehended during the chase, he injured a security officer on the thigh with the knife he was carrying. The security personnel then took him back to Shoprite near the bus rank while police were called to arrest him as he even failed to produce a slip. Shoprite management was called and he was later handed over to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the matter. She further stated that the suspect was remanded briefly at the Manzini Police Station and he later gained his liberty after paying an admission of guilt fine worth E200.
Biden Names Iran, Ukraine Veterans To Top State Department Posts

01/18/21

Source: RFE/RL

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Wendy Sherman, the country's lead negotiator of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, to be the No. 2 official at the State Department.



Wendy Sherman during Iran deal negotiationa in Geneva in March 2014

Sherman served under President Barack Obama.

Biden also named retired career diplomat Victoria Nuland, who voiced strong support for the popular uprising that pushed Ukraine's Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014, in the department's third-ranking post.

The Biden transition team announced on January 16 that Sherman, who served as undersecretary of state for political affairs under President Barack Obama, was nominated to be deputy secretary of state.

Sherman was the lead U.S. negotiator in talks that led to the agreement between Tehran and world powers under which Tehran committed to limit its nuclear activities in return for relief from sanctions.



US negotiating team applauding Wendy Sherman

July 2015 photo by US State Department

But tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen since 2018, when outgoing President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal, arguing that it did not go far enough, and started imposing crippling sanctions on Iran as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign aimed at forcing the country to negotiate a new accord.

Since then, Iran, which claims its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, has breached parts of the nuclear pact, saying it is no longer bound by it.

Nuland, whose past portfolio at the State Department made her a leading Russia official in the Obama administration, was picked as undersecretary for political affairs.

As assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, she was the lead U.S. diplomat on the ground in Kyiv and Moscow during the pro-democracy uprising in Ukraine and Russia's subsequent annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

The seizure of the Ukrainian region by Moscow and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014 have greatly contributed to the dramatic deterioration of relations between Russia and the United States.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is to hold a confirmation hearing on January 19 for Antony Blinken, Biden's nominee to be secretary of state.

If confirmed, Sherman and Nuland would serve under him.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and Bloomberg


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When Ilana Drake, 17, saw footage of people in Congress hiding under their desks and being ushered to safety during the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, she immediately drew a connection to a situation she experienced in October 2018, her sophomore year at the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College in New York.

Drake and her classmates later found out that the allegedly armed person was a student who had brought a toy gun to a school adjacent to hers. For more than an hour, though, Drake said she and her classmates experienced the situation as a real threat.

"I remember hiding in the mental health room and texting my parents and praying that everything would be OK," said Drake, now a senior. "Thinking about how members of Congress witnessed something similar to that, I just hope it influences their policies and how they address certain issues related to gun control. Oftentimes people don't have the natural empathy, and they need to have firsthand experience with something catastrophic or very scary in order to actually change their behavior and outlook towards an issue."

Lawmakers, aides, journalists and others at the Capitol had reason to fear when a mob of Trump supporters came dangerously close to reaching lawmakers preparing to certify President-elect Joe Biden's win. As armed rioters breached the building, security officers rushed lawmakers and staffers to hiding spots. Photos of their makeshift barricades, which included chairs blocking the entrances to offices, quickly went viral.

After the riots, which resulted in the deaths of five people - including a Capitol Police officer - lawmakers and journalists described the trauma they experienced. Some students and teachers said that type of fear is a deeply felt reality in the age of school shootings. The Washington Post calculated that 240,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since the Columbine shooting in 1999, in which 12 students and one teacher were killed. Far more go through mandatory shooter drills at school, which can themselves be traumatizing.

Samantha Hardwick, a 33-year-old AP government teacher at a high school in Midland, Texas, decided that she would talk in class about what happened at the Capitol the day afterward. She showed her students images that included people hiding under desks and wearing gas masks.

"One of my students said, 'Ha, welcome to public school.' That came right out of the mouth of a senior," Hardwick said. "Another said, 'I don't know why we're expecting anything to change after today, because the Capitol building didn't burn down.' " One of Hardwick's students said the riots would not change lawmakers' thoughts about gun-control regulations, "because no congresspeople died."

As students processed the events, many teachers carried the burden of ethically and carefully discussing the news with them while dealing with their own fears and trauma.

"It's so hard, because you as a person are still processing," said 25-year-old Abbey Kutlas-Prickett, who teaches fifth and sixth graders in Bloomington, Ind. "I feel a lot of trauma that's triggered by active-shooter drills. It's been especially strong for teachers my age because it's been a constant of our lives. We were in K-12 during Sandy Hook [in 2012], and in college during Parkland [in 2018]."

During her senior year at Northwestern University, Kutlas-Prickett said she hid alone in a lab room for hours as she followed social media updates of an alleged gunman on campus. Although it turned out to be a false alarm, she said it was two hours of terror.

"I had that fear [of gun violence in schools] when I was growing up because I grew up in central Nebraska, where guns are commonplace," Kutlas-Prickett said.

She said she would often feel a trauma response when her school did shooter drills. Even as she was expected to stay calm for her students, her hands would shake and her palms would get clammy. Her heart would race as she went over all the possible escape routes. She said her students, desensitized after so many drills, often did not take them seriously.

For some older students, the events of Jan. 6 led to reflection on the politics of gun control. This is a generation primed for such conversations; after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Fla., at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, student activists pushed for federal gun-control measures, and many hoped the recent election would bring a change.

Honey Soneye, a 17-year-old senior in Dallas, Ga., said she immediately felt the irony when watching events at the Capitol.

"Students from pre-K all the way through 12th grade, we have to have these active-shooter drills to make sure we know what to do if someone comes onto campus with intent to hurt people," Soneye said. "It's kind of ironic that happened at the Capitol building, where they make decisions about gun control."

- - -

This report first appeared in The Washington Post's The Lily publication.
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My first dinner party is one example. I was so excited to use my fancy-schmancy china that I forgot to think about the political inclinations of my guest list. They were a collection of friends from my then-husbands childhood. Hed grown up in D.C.
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SVMC To Hold Online COVID-19 Information Session

BENNINGTON, Vt.  Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), and Bennington's office of the Vermont Department of Health will appear in a digital information session regarding the COVID-19 vaccine distribution at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The event is made possible with cooperation from CAT-TV and the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Members of the public are invited to view and ask questions during the live broadcast at www.facebook.com/CATTVbennington/ . The program will also air on CAT-TV's public channel 1075.

The session will feature SVMC's Chief Medical Officer Trey Dobson and Bennington's Public Health Services District Director for the Vermont Department of Health Megan Herrington. They will discuss the status of a community vaccine clinic and answer questions. The Chamber's Executive Director Matthew Harrington will moderate.

Dr. Dobson is an emergency medicine physician with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, an instructor of Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, and the chief medical officer for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. He serves on the Medical Executive Committee of Dartmouth-Hitchock and will join the Board of Trustees in January 2021. He is the past president of the Vermont Medical Society and currently sits on the Governance Council. He performs medical practice peer review for the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care, a nonprofit organization designated by the Vermont Legislature. Prior to entering a career in medicine, Trey obtained a master's in Geology. He earned his medical degree at The University of Tennessee and completed residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia.

Ms. Herrington relocated from New Orleans to join the Vermont Department of Health in May 2019. In New Orleans, Megan completed her year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA, worked as an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist for the Louisiana Department of Health. While working on food insecurity issues with Second Harvest, she cultivated a passion for systems level change to address food insecurity and public health. Since joining VDH, Megan has focused on building community partnerships, cultivating local public health initiatives, and the COVID response. Megan earned her Master of Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2010.
Mr. Pompeo is not the first military man to become the countrys chief diplomat: Colin L. Powell had retired as a four-star Army general before becoming President George W. Bushs secretary of state in 2001. Mr. Powells tenure was forever stained by his citing of faulty intelligence to urge the invasion of Iraq in 2003  what he has called painful and a blot on his record  but he is widely viewed as more of a statesman than Mr. Pompeo.

For political purposes, Mr. Pompeo might hope to be remembered as a key player in Mr. Trumps administration  a designation that is far more tarnished abroad than it is with hard-core Republicans who care little about foreign policy in elections. After the storming of the Capitol by Mr. Trumps supporters this month, however, a growing number of Republican officials have sought to distance themselves from the departing president.

Notably, Mr. Pompeo has not, although people close to him said he was appalled by the attack. Instead, he has continued a barrage of daily Twitter posts that began Jan. 1 to herald what he called his foreign policy successes, echoing Mr. Trumps campaign slogans.

Mr. Pompeo was at the fore of the Trump administrations crackdown on China, Iran and Venezuela, using a mix of economic sanctions and provocative policy shifts to reshape global strategy against each.

That was especially the case for China, as Mr. Pompeo emerged as the administrations most vocal critic of Beijing. He took every opportunity to highlight Chinas human rights abuses of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities and, as a parting shot, he is now considering whether to declare them acts of genocide.

He has also led global condemnation of Beijings expansionist ambitions and oppression in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Other nations, however, have refused to follow the United States withdrawal from the World Health Organization, which stripped funding from the U.N. agency during the coronavirus pandemic, which Mr. Pompeo insisted on calling the Wuhan virus, again echoing Mr. Trump.

In dealing with Venezuela, Mr. Pompeo marshaled about 60 countries against Mr. Maduro after disputed elections and battered the government in Caracas with sanctions. But Mr. Maduro has remained in power.
Aleksei Navalny knew he would be arrested as soon as he stepped foot on Russian soil, and he had no illusions about what this could mean.

Mr. Navalny had been abroad since August, after all, because President Vladimir Putins political goons had poisoned him, and had failed to kill him only because a pilot had diverted his Moscow-bound flight to Omsk, where doctors kept him alive until he could be evacuated to Germany. Ironically, his flight was diverted again on Sunday  this time by Russian authorities afraid of the welcoming crowd gathering at the Moscow airport where his flight was supposed to land.

Mr. Navalny knew he would be arrested, because he was arrested several times before. Repression is the only way Mr. Putin knows. But he is also learning that, in the era of social media, every arrest on a trumped-up charge only broadens Mr. Navalnys following and amplifies his indictment of the corruption of Russias rulers.

Mr. Navalny knew what awaited him, because he knows as well as the dissidents of the Soviet era knew that the one thing a corrupt and authoritarian regime cannot abide is the truth. I am not afraid. I know that I am in the right, Mr. Navalny told supporters at Moscows Sheremetyevo Airport before he kissed his wife goodbye and was hustled off by police officers who warned that they would use force if he disobeyed their orders. All the criminal cases against me are fabricated.

WRL and W&M Libraries' One Book One Community returns with author Jason Reynolds

One Book One Community This years book selection is "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" by Jason Reynolds (pictured here) and Ibram X. Kendi. Photo courtesy of W&M Libraries Photo - of - Hide Caption

Williamsburg Regional Library and W&M Libraries are once again partnering for One Book One Community, an initiative that encourages readers to come together for a shared reading experience. This years book selection is "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi.

This #1 New York Times bestseller is an exploration of race and racism in the United States. Virtual programs related to this title will take place throughout the months of January and February, culminating with a virtual talk from co-author Jason Reynolds on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.

One Book One Community debuted last year, with Tommy Orange's bestselling novel "There There" as the inaugural read. This year's series will follow the same general pattern, with lectures, book group discussions and other programs taking place in the days and weeks leading up to a virtual visit from one of the co-authors.

"'Stamped' is a powerful book that provides a very accessible, very important overview of 500+ years of racism and antiracism in the United States," said Carrie Cooper, dean of university libraries at William & Mary. "Our hope is that this book will prompt thoughtful intergenerational discussion about critical issues facing our nation and our local community."

"Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" is a reworked version of Kendi's "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America." Kendi tapped Reynolds, who has won Newbury, Prin and Edgar awards for his young adult fiction and poetry, to help him "remix" "Stamped from the Beginning" in order to make it accessible to a wider audience.

The finished product is an approachable and thought-provoking survey of African-American history from the time of the first European slave traders all the way through today's Black Lives Matter movement, written in a fast-paced narrative format.

WRL and W&M Libraries have planned several opportunities for students and community members to come together and discuss the book itself and the themes it touches on. The series kicked off on Jan. 13 with "Learning about Racial Trauma," a presentation by Chloe Edwards, the advocacy and engagement manager for Voices for Virginias Children, whose specialization is trauma-informed care and equity.

Next up, on Jan. 26 author Bill Sizemore will share his experience confronting the legacy of his slave-owning ancestors. Sizemore traced the descendants of the people enslaved by his family through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights movement. His book, "Uncle George and Me," was the result of his eight-year search and his growing understanding about how self-induced amnesia on the part of people in his position prevents a dialogue about slavery and its ongoing and crippling effects.

Barbara Hamm Lee, host and executive producer of WHROs "Another View," will moderate a Jan. 27 discussion about race and racism, its history in our region and its current effects. Participants are encouraged to join this conversation with their own ideas and questions.

On Feb. 4, W&M Associate Professor of Education Natoya Haskins will offer conversation starters and strategies to help families have meaningful conversations about race. This program is meant to be a jumping-off point for parents and guardians of tweens or teens who are just beginning to come into a fuller understanding of these complicated and difficult topics.

A few programs will take place after Reynold's virtual visit, as a way to close the conversation and offer some next steps. On Feb. 24, Amanda Lynch, a trauma informed specialist, will give a talk on healing from racial trauma through self-care. She will help attendees with accessing resources to help with healing from the wounds of racist actions.

Finally, on Feb. 25 there will be a talk highlighting organizations around the region that are working towards racial justice, reconciliation and progress towards an anti-racist society. This presentation will include information about their current work and how to get involved.

"We have received a great deal of feedback over the past year that racism and racial justice are topics this community wants to engage with more deeply," said Betsy Fowler, WRL's director. "We're thrilled to be partnering with William & Mary to not only encourage people to read this eye-opening book on the subject, but also give people an outlet to work through and more deeply understand the issues it raises."

Swem Library has numerous print copies of "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" available for check-out, as well as the e-book version.

For information on the One Book One Community program, visit libraries.wm.edu/one-book or wrl.org/onebook
For Jammu & Kashmir's most renowned neurologist - Dr Sushil Razdan - leaving his home and clinic in the Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar city was out of the question despite the fact that almost all other prominent Kashmiri Pandits had abandoned their Image Source: IANS News

For Jammu & Kashmir's most renowned neurologist - Dr Sushil Razdan - leaving his home and clinic in the Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar city was out of the question despite the fact that almost all other prominent Kashmiri Pandits had abandoned their Image Source: IANS News

Srinagar, Jan 18 : For Jammu & Kashmir's most renowned neurologist - Dr Sushil Razdan - leaving his home and clinic in the Jawahar Nagar area of Srinagar city was out of the question despite the fact that almost all other prominent Kashmiri Pandits had abandoned their homes to escape the wrath of militants.

Dr Razdan continued his daily practice without giving a thought to what was happening all around him. Patients have always lined up over months to manage an appointment with this doctor who has become a celebrity over the years.

"I was an ordinary Kashmiri doing my bit to alleviate the pain and suffering of patients across Kashmir. I was in competition with nobody after having voluntarily given up my job at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar." "I had never agreed to be part of any official body simply because I hardly had any spare time to attend to such a responsibility. I would be left alone since I was nobody's enemy," Dr Razdan recalled when talking about those eventful days of January 1990 when the local Pandit community was forced to leave the Valley.

He said even during the worst periods of January 1990 he had patients at his clinic from different parts of the Valley.

"They braved curfews, protest shutdowns and what not, to reach my clinic and I could not be seen as a doctor who failed his patients," he said.

When the majority of his community had left the Valley, Dr Razdan's practice as a neurologist seemed to have outlived the troubles other members of his community had been going through.

Out of the blue, a doctor friend of his entered his clinic around 8.30 p.m. on that cold winter January evening. The two had worked together at SKIMS.

"You must leave immediately. I heard people are planning to harm you. Kindly don't trust anybody because nobody is in control of the mindless violence that is going on here. You have your father, mother and family. I implore you to leave before you are harmed".

"These words of my friend sounded like the drums of destiny. I was completely benumbed to understand why would someone want me out of the way. I went to my wife and narrated what I had heard. We decided not to take any chance. I firmly believed it must be some misunderstanding, but we must leave the Valley for a few days till the dust settled." "The next day we flew to Jammu and here I am for the last over three decades now," Dr Razdan smiled with a bitterness and sarcasm that cannot be delivered through tears.

He did not carry anything except his clothes. His household goods and other valuables were sent by his friend after almost three months to his Bhagwati Nagar home in Jammu city.

His father, Master Satlal Razdan has been one of the most respected school teachers of Kashmir. He taught at the Tyndale Biscoe Memorial School in Srinagar.

He always taught his students, those included two later chief ministers and scores of others who distinguished themselves in different walks of life, the motto of the school, 'In All Things Be Men'.

What had happened to that 'manhood' of Kashmir in which a brother could not now stand by his brother? This was a question 'Masterji' was battling to understand till his death in Jammu, away from his home and students.

Dr Razdan has one of the most roaring medical practices as a clinician in Jammu where he gets patients not only from the Valley, but from all over north India.

He is immediately recognised and respected wherever he goes in the city and outside.

"My heart is still there. They took me out of Kashmir, but they couldn't take Kashmir out of me. How can an entire society forget the motto which my father taught to thousands of students? What has happened to 'the Men' Masterji spoke about all his life?" Dr Razdan's narrative is universal for thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who are living in their country, but not in their homeland.

Where have all the "men" gone who kept the torch of compassion, tolerance and religious brotherhood alive?
'Furious and devastated' Ruthie Henshall has slammed the government after learning her mother is yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, despite being in the highest-risk category.

The West End star, 53, who took part on 2020's series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, took to Instagram and Twitter on Sunday evening to share two images of her mum, Gloria, who suffers from dementia.

In one, Gloria, who is in her 80s, was beaming happily, while the second photograph saw her present state 'unable to walk or talk' after deteriorating rapidly in the past few months.

Ruthie explained that the first image portrayed her mother prior to lockdown, with the second one taken of her after four months of isolation in her room at the care home, after 13 of her fellow residents died from COVID-19.

'Furious and devastated!' Ruthie Henshall has slammed the government after learning her mother has yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, despite being in the highest-risk group

She wrote: 'I am furious and devastated. My mother has dementia. The first picture is my mother in the home she is in just before 1st lockdown.

'The second is my mother after 4 months of being confined to her room because COVID was killing residents in the home. 13 died.

'When my mother went into the lockdown she was walking and talking. She now can do neither. I am not allowed to see her. Only 1 member from each family can go, the same one each time.

'You wanna know why I'm so angry? She hasn't even had the vaccine yet! Neither have the brilliant tireless carers. I cried today when I found out this!'

Worrying: The West End star, 53, took to Instagram and Twitter to share two snaps of her mum, Gloria, who suffers from dementia. In one, Gloria, who is in her 80s, was beaming happily. The second saw her, still smiling, but looking noticeably less healthy [the latter is pictured]

'Simply unbearable!' Ruthie explained that the first image portrayed her mother prior to lockdown, with the second one taken of her after four months of isolation in her room at the care home, after 13 of her fellow residents died from COVID-19

Tagging the UK government on Twitter, Ruthie went on: 'What are you playing at? You said care homes were a priority!

'I haven't seen my mother in months and I have no idea if she will even know who I am when I do. Sort this out! It is unbearable. Simply unbearable!' [sic]

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Ruthie for comment.

Gloria falls into various eligible categories for receiving the vaccine, which the government began rolling out at the start of January.

The NHS is prioritsing people aged 80 and over, people who live or work in care homes, and health and social care workers at high risk.

Pre-lockdown: Gloria is pictured prior to spending four months in isolation in her care home room

Concerned: Ruthie spoke about Gloria's diagnosis in October last year

How long does the Pfizer vaccine take to give immunity? It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity after vaccination. This means it is possible a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and get sick. This is because the vaccine has not had enough time to provide protection. Regulators said there was evidence of 'partial immunity' just seven days after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. But they insisted the best immunity comes seven days after the second dose, which is given three weeks after the first. It remains a mystery as to how long immunity against Covid lasts for, with top scientists warning that people may need to be vaccinated against the disease every winter, like the flu. Advertisement

Gloria is over 80, has a medical condition and lives in a care home.

The NHS website also states: 'Wait to be contacted. The NHS will let you know when it's your turn to have the vaccine. It's important not to contact the NHS for a vaccination before then.'

Ruthie spoke about Gloria's diagnosis in October last year.

She explained how she helps her father care for Gloria - who has evidently since been relocated to a home.

Speaking to the East Anglia Daily Times, she said: 'Dad is 87. Normally you would never know it but there are days when I see him and he looks exhausted just looking after Mum.

'She gets up at all times of the night and of course Dad can't let her wander off by herself and so has to get up as well and that means he's never getting a full night's sleep. So I am really pleased to be close, so I can at least help out  give him a bit of respite.'

Of dementia's 'unfair' and 'cruel' nature, she said: 'Mum has always been very active. She's always kept herself fit. She's bright and intelligent. Been an inspirational teacher all her life and then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes this awful disease.

'It's hard to reconcile. Life seems so unfair at times.

'It seems a really random condition as well. It's hard to make sense of it.

'There are times when her long-term memory seems absolutely razor sharp but she can't remember what you said to her five minutes ago or what she did yesterday. It's such a cruel disease.'

Ruthie is herself a mother to two girls - Lily, 17, and Dolly, 15.

Last year: Ruthie is pictured with Sir Mo Farah, Victoria Derbyshire and Vernon Kay during the 2020 season of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in Wales

She became tearful talking about them after her eviction from the I'm A Celeb castle last year, saying: 'As a mother, all you think about are the things you do wrong, you never think about all the things you do right.

'You have to be good cop, bad cop and try to figure out how to deal with each situation, sometimes you just wish there was someone else there to help deal with it.'

Ruthie shares her daughters with singer and actor Tim Howar, whom she split from in 2010.

The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
IGlu dimer with the two-fold like axis (green arrow), A-chain is coloured light grey, B-chain in light blue, C-chain in dark grey and D-chain in purple. Figure created using Chimera v1.8.1 cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/. Credit: Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81251-2

For the first time, scientists have come up with a precise atomic level explanation for why glulisine- a commonly used medication to treat diabetes- is faster acting than insulin.

The findings, published today in Scientific Reports, could have benefits for diabetes patients in ensuring that a more improved insulin can be developed for future treatment.

The study was carried out by experts from the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester and Imperial College London, along with the Diamond Light Sourcethe UK's national synchrotron science facility.

Glulisine is a synthetic rapid-acting synthetic insulin developed by Sanofi-Aventiswith a trade name of Apidra. It is used to improve blood sugar control in adults and children with diabetes.

In this new study, scientists set out to establish the exact structure of gluisine, and how this structure might affect the way in which it behaves physiologically.

The team aimed to establish, by examining the structure, what fundamental role gluisine plays in diabetes management. These findings could potentially lead to an improved synthetic insulin for patients, with fewer side effects.

Dr. Gary Adams Associate Professor and Reader in Applied Diabetes Health at the University of Nottingham, and Lead author of the study, said: "For the first time, our research provides novel, structural information on a clinically relevant synthetic insulin, glulisine, which is an important treatment for those patients presenting with diabetes.

"This information sheds light on the dissociation of glulisine and can explain its fast dissociation to dimers and monomers and thereby its function as a rapid-acting insulin. This new information may lead to a better understanding of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behavior of glulisine and, in turn, might assist in improving its formulation and reducing side effects of this drug."

To carry out the research, the team created a perfect crystal of glulisine. The researchers then applied a combination of methods to provide a detailed insight into the structure and function of glulisine.

Dr. Hodaya Solomon, a member of the Imperial College team, and joint first author said: "The key molecular level comparisons between this crystal structure of glulisine and of previous insulin crystal structures showed that a unique position of the glutamic acid (an amino acid), not present in other fast-acting analogs, pointed inwards rather than to the outside surface. This reduces interactions with neighboring molecules and so increases preference of the more-active-for-patients dimer form, giving the experts a better understanding of the behavior of glulisine."

John Helliwell, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Manchester, and one of the authors of the paper, said: "An unexpected finding was that the glulisine formulation is documented as a zinc-free insulin analog for its rapid absorption action. Insulin crystallography has shown that zinc is pivotal for hexamer formation. The new glulisine crystal structure showed zinc bound in the same way as in native insulin, by three histidine amino acids. This finding must mean that traces of zinc ions are present in the commercial, as supplied, formulation solution. A further optimisation for glulisine is now clear, that of finally removing the zinc."

More information: Richard B. Gillis et al. Analysis of insulin glulisine at the molecular level by X-ray crystallography and biophysical techniques, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Richard B. Gillis et al. Analysis of insulin glulisine at the molecular level by X-ray crystallography and biophysical techniques,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81251-2
EMILY ST. LAWRENCE, Chariho girls lacrosse, senior: St. Lawrence tied a school record for goals in a game with nine in a win over Smithfield. St. Lawrence scored 17 goals for the week and has 32 for the season.

CARLY CONSTANTINE, Stonington softball, sophomore: Constantine singled home Shea OConnor with the winning run to hand Waterford, the states No. 2 ranked team at the time, its first loss of the season. For the week, Constantine was 5 for 15.

GREG GORMAN, Westerly baseball, junior: Gorman, a junior, hit a massive home run in a win against Barrington. The homer went over the fence in center field and landed in a nearby road. Gorman was 3 for 3 with four RBIs in the game. He is hitting .571 with 10 RBIs for the season.

BRADIN ANDERSON, Wheeler baseball, freshman: Anderson, a freshman, pitched a complete-game shutout to beat Grasso Tech. Anderson struck out three to earn the first win of his varsity career.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 05:17:59|Editor: huaxia

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ALGIERS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Algeria on Monday reported 259 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the North Africa country to 104,092.

The death toll from the virus in Algeria rose to 2,840 after four new fatalities were recorded, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.

It said 193 patients have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 70,807.

China and Algeria have offered mutual help in the fight against the pandemic in 2020.

In February 2020, Algeria sent a medical donation to help China combat the coronavirus. In return, China sent several batches of medical aid to Algeria.

In addition, a Chinese medical expert team arrived in Algeria on May 14, 2020, for a 15-day mission to help fight the coronavirus, by sharing China's experiences in curbing the spread of the contagious disease. Enditem
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  The Development Bank of the Philippines did not give the Lopez Group of Companies a free pass from its soured 1.6 billion loans in the early 2000s.

Dumper PTDA Party-list Rep. Claudine Diana Bautista, who asked for the House inquiry, said the write-off cost the Filipino people's money.

However, the state-owned bank denied writing off the unpaid loans of the Lopez family for its current and former subsidiaries Benpres Holdings, Bayan Telecommunications, Maynilad Water, and Central CATV (also known as SkyCable) when it sold these debts in an asset sale in 2006.

READ: Duterte threatens to look into alleged past loans of Lopez group

DBP President Emmanuel Herbosa said the non-performing debts  or those which are behind amortizations for over 180 days  were sold to Lehman Brothers Asia Limited on October 16, 2006, which comes years after the 1997 Asia Financial Crisis and precedes the Global Financial Crisis from 2007 to 2009.

"There's no condonation or write-off. There was a transfer or sale of loan accounts," DBP chief compliance officer Atty. Soraya Adiong also told lawmakers.

At the time, DBP needed the additional liquidity in order to lend more to borrowers, Herbosa added. The bank availed of tax incentives as it sold the BayanTel and Central CATV loans through Republic Act 9182 or the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Act of 2002  a move meant to trim losses from unpaid overdue loans.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Director Mary Anne Cube added that there is "no record" of DBP write-offs. Adiong said the Commission on Audit and the BSP have not flagged any irregularities regarding the asset sale.

The SPV law allowed tax breaks when selling bad loans and other non-performing assets to SPVs like the Lehman unit to free up cash flow. This is similar to the Department of Finance's proposed Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer or FIST bill awaiting the President's signing into law.

To qualify for incentives, a loan being passed on to an SPV must secure a certificate of eligibility from the central bank. However, Adiong said loans not qualified for the perk may still be transferred to other entities but without tax incentives, as provided under the Civil Code.

Both the DBP and Lopez Holdings Corporation President Salvador Tirona said they do not have documents of the loan transactions and the subsequent loan anymore as the deals were made over 20 years ago, and that these were turned over to Lehman Brothers Asia. Adiong added that the bank is required to destroy all files which are over a decade old, pursuant to the National Archives of the Philippines Act of 2007.

Deputy Speaker Lito Atienza and Nueva Ecija Rep. Rosanna Vergara both clarified that DBP never condoned or wrote off the Lopez Group's loans, with the former noting that the entire investigation is based on mere allegations.

The House probe was triggered by last year's hearings that looked into alleged misdeeds of the Lopez Group, which led to the denial of TV network's ABS-CBN franchise renewal.

RELATED: How lawmakers voted on ABS-CBN's failed bid for new franchise

But Anakalusugan Party-List Rep. Michael Defensor accused former DBP officials of illegal acts.

"May mga officials ngayon diyan sa DBP na nag-commit ng graft and corruption kung binenta niyo ng mas mababa (ang loans) [There are DBP officials who committed graft and corruption for selling the loans cheap]," he said during the hearing.

The Lopez loans forms part of a cumulative 9.55 billion debts from over 2,000 borrowers which were sold to Lehman Brothers Asia for 3.83 billion, or just a third of the cost.

An asset sale means a different entity will be in charge of collecting or restructuring loan payments.

Another hearing will be scheduled regarding the issue, with House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano asking to invite more companies whose old loans were also sold off by DBP.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  The country logged 2,163 new coronavirus cases on Monday, pushing the overall tally to 502,736.

Active cases account for 26,839 or 5.3% of the total infected, the Department of Health's latest report showed.

Davao City contributed the highest number of new infections with 134, followed by Cagayan with 100, Quezon City with 99, Leyte with 93, and Cavite with 75.

Fourteen more patients also died of COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 9,909.

Meanwhile, the recovery count slightly rose to 465,988 with only two new survivors reported. This is the lowest daily rise in recoveries since April last year.

The DOH said the updated case count does not yet include data from four testing laboratories which failed to submit on time. It added that after final validation, three cases mistakenly reported as recoveries were reclassified as deaths, while four duplicates were removed from the overall tally.

In its Jan. 17 report, the independent research group OCTA said that average daily new cases in Metro Manila over the past week stood at 430, which is up 45% from the average during the holidays. Experts earlier explained that the rise may be attributed to more people getting themselves tested after the holidays, as well as testing laboratories resuming normal operations.

OCTA added that in the country's capital region, the reproduction number  or the average number of people infected by a single patient is holding steady at around 1.12. This means that while new infections are still on an upward trend, [it] has remained the same over the past week.

Meanwhile, the group has raised alarm over the rising cases in Benguet, which it noted has pushed the provinces hospital occupancy rate past critical level. It also said Benguet's positivity rate  or the percentage of those infected out of all tested  averaged at 16% the past week, significantly higher than the ideal rate of below 5% set by the World Health Organization.

Among Filipinos abroad, confirmed cases climbed to 13,591 after 48 more tested positive, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. It also listed 55 new recoveries and three deaths, bringing the total figures to 8,682 and 941, respectively.

Worldwide, the coronavirus has infected over 95 million people and claimed the lives of more than two million, based on the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Global recoveries currently stand at around 52.3 million.
A Pennsylvania man posted about attending the deadly Capitol attack earlier this month, but two days later deleted his entire Facebook account, federal prosecutors said.

A tipster sent authorities screenshots of Andrew Wrigleys photos and videos from the Jan. 6 mob in Washington, D.C., including photos showing the Jim Thorpe man inside the building, investigators said.

Five people including a U.S. Capitol police officer were killed in the Capitol riots, and dozens of others were injured. Multiple arrests have been made since, and the FBI has released a slew of photos trying to identify other people involved.

The photos sent to authorities included a selfie Wrigley took at the Upper West Terrace door, wearing a hat and a blue bandana over his face, court records say. Police compared the selfie to another photo of Wrigley without his face covered, where he was holding a 1776 flag and wearing a similar colored hat and jacket.

Wrigley allegedly wrote At the protest in DC at the capitol building #stopthesteal and At the protest in DC. I went inside the capitol building and got tear gassed.

Wrigley was arrested Friday and was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds.

Andrew WrigleyCourtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

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

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Cynthia Bailey grappled with tough decisions as she planned her September 11 wedding to Mike Hill on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

The 53-year-old reality star and her fiance invited 250 people to their nuptials, but expected just 100 to confirm because of the coronavirusso they were shocked when 167 did.

Then Mike wanted to ask his pal Dennis McKinley, 44, to come, even though he was in the midst of a split with their friend and RHOA castmate Porsha Williams, 39.

Tough: Cynthia Bailey grappled with tough decisions as she planned her September 11 wedding to Mike Hill on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta

Invites: The 53-year-old reality star and her fiance invited 250 people to their nuptials, but expected just 100 to confirm because of the coronavirusso they were shocked when 167 did

Porsha: Then Mike wanted to ask his pal Dennis McKinley, 44, to come, even though he was in the midst of a split with their friend and RHOA castmate Porsha Williams, 39.

Most contentious however was the fact that Cynthia wanted to invite her father Elijah Bailey, as she knew doing so would seriously trouble her mother.

Three years before, Barbara Ford Morris had done a domestic violence PSA that hinted Elijah had once done something to hersomething 'so bad' that it led her to grab a knife.

Asked for the PSA what she would tell her daughters about relationships now, Barbara said, 'Don't ever let a man hit you. Don't ever let a man talk ugly to you.'

Cynthia's mother: Three years before, Barbara Ford Morris had done a domestic violence PSA that hinted Elijah had once done something to hersomething 'so bad' that it led her to grab a knife

PSA: Asked for the PSA what she would tell her daughters about relationships now, Barbara said, 'Don't ever let a man hit you. Don't ever let a man talk ugly to you'

Cynthia was upset by the revelations but had tried to remain civil with Elijah.

'Although I don't have the closest relationship with my dad, he's not going to be here forever,' she reasoned. 'I would at least like to give him the option to come if he would like to come.'

With the conversation weighing on her mind, Cynthia called her daughter Noelle Robinson, 21, a Los Angeles-based influencer, and asked to visit for a few weeks.

Civil: Cynthia was upset by the revelations but had tried to remain civil with Elijah (left)

Influencer daughter: With the conversation weighing on her mind, Cynthia called her daughter Noelle Robinson, 21, a Los Angeles-based influencer, and asked to visit for a few weeks

Noelle conceded to two weeks and then rushed off the phone to tend to her promotional items from sponsors before flying to Atlanta and taking a flurry of selfies.

Cynthia knew that Barbara might be more open to the idea of seeing Elijah if she had Noelle with her for the conversation.

The pair went for a meal at Barbara's house, where they were joined by Cynthia's sister Malorie Bailey-Massie.

Selfies: Noelle conceded to two weeks and then rushed off the phone to tend to her promotional items from sponsors before flying to Atlanta and taking a flurry of selfies

Cynthia and Noelle: Cynthia knew that Barbara might be more open to the idea of seeing Elijah if she had Noelle with her for the conversation

Family: The pair went for a meal at Barbara's (center) house, where they were joined by Cynthia's sister Malorie Bailey-Massie (right)

As they ate, Cynthia gingerly brought up the topic of inviting Elijah, and Barbara shook her head slowly as if she were in pain.

'I'll just put my mask over my eyes,' she offered, unhappy with the idea of Elijah coming.

Barbara reminded her daughter of how much she'd hurt her feelings last Father's Day when she made a social media post thanking Elijah for her wonderful childhood.

Topic: As they ate, Cynthia gingerly brought up the topic of inviting Elijah, and Barbara shook her head slowly as if she were in pain

Hurt feelings: Barbara reminded her daughter of how much she'd hurt her feelings last Father's Day when she made a social media post thanking Elijah for her wonderful childhood

'Thank you for having me,' Barbara quoted to Mal. 'He didn't have her! I had you.'

She turned back to Cynthia. 'I have been your mother and your father all your life,' Barbara said, emphasizing that Elijah quit looking after Cynthia when she was 'three or four.'

Barbara remembered how hard it had been to get child support from Elijah, and Cynthia feebly responded that she just wanted to acknowledge her dad.

Mother and father: She turned back to Cynthia. 'I have been your mother and your father all your life,' Barbara said, emphasizing that Elijah quit looking after Cynthia when she was 'three or four'

Child support: Barbara remembered how hard it had been to get child support from Elijah, and Cynthia feebly responded that she just wanted to acknowledge her dad

Barbara then told her daughter she hadn't known she was going to be asked such probing questions in the domestic abuse PSA, and had not understood what it was about.

She'd gotten flak from her family and community for embarrassing her ex, she said, with some people saying forgivingly, 'He goes to church.'

Noelle interrupted to tell Cynthia it was obvious Barbara didn't want Elijah there, pointing out that she'd personally only seen her grandfather once.

Didn't understand: Barbara then told her daughter she hadn't known she was going to be asked such probing questions in the domestic abuse PSA, and had not understood what it was about

Obvious: Noelle interrupted to tell Cynthia it was obvious Barbara didn't want Elijah there, pointing out that she'd personally only seen her grandfather once

'You know who I have seen though?' Noelle asked. 'Granny. I don't have to think about how many times I've seen her.'

In a confessional, Cynthia said that as her parents' first-born, she felt responsible for a lot of their issues, and that made her feel 'guilty.'

'I do feel guilty that she got pregnant with me, because I know that my mom is beautiful, smartI mean she could have been a model,' Cynthia affirmed. 'She could have done anything with her life. But she got pregnant with me. So I always just never want to disappoint her.'

Granny: 'You know who I have seen though?' Noelle asked. 'Granny. I don't have to think about how many times I've seen her.'

Confessional: In a confessional, Cynthia said that as her parents' first-born, she felt responsible for a lot of their issues, and that made her feel 'guilty'

Noelle agreed. 'She literally asks nothing from us ever,' she said. 'And I can tell that she agrees with me [about this] because she didn't say anything.'

That week, Cynthia also met Porsha for drinks to ask her if she wanted Dennis at the wedding.

Porsha said she was still feeling insecure about the fact that Dennis had cheated on her, and on top of that she had gained 20 'quarantine' pounds.

Agrees: Noelle agreed. 'She literally asks nothing from us ever,' she said. 'And I can tell that she agrees with me [about this] because she didn't say anything'

Porsha and Cynthia: That week, Cynthia also met Porsha for drinks to ask her if she wanted Dennis at the wedding

Insecure: Porsha said she was still feeling insecure about the fact that Dennis had cheated on her, and on top of that she had gained 20 'quarantine' pounds

The combination had made her 'snippy' at Dennis over the smallest things, like getting their daughter Pilar Jhena, 1, a bottle, Porsha reported.

'Even though I got over him cheating, I couldn't get out of the habit of punishing him, and we started to just bite at each other until there was nothing left,' she explained.

Porsha also changed after getting involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests for social justice in 2020, which made her realize what was important.

Snippy: The combination had made her 'snippy' at Dennis over the smallest things, like getting their daughter Pilar Jhena, 1, a bottle, Porsha reported

Involved: Porsha also changed after getting involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests for social justice in 2020, which made her realize what was important

'So much craziness outside my house made me want to say, 'I'll be damned if there's some craziness in my house,' Porsha told Cynthia. 'I just became completely intolerant.'

She ultimately reaffirmed that she didn't want Dennis at the wedding at the moment.

The day after her talk with Cynthia, Porsha lent a hand to families in need by volunteering with Kandi Burruss' charity Kandi Kares.

Craziness: 'So much craziness outside my house made me want to say, 'I'll be damned if there's some craziness in my house,' Porsha told Cynthia. 'I just became completely intolerant'

Food Drive: The day after her talk with Cynthia, Porsha lent a hand to families in need by volunteering with Kandi Burruss' charity Kandi Kares

Both she and friend of the cast Marlo Hampton, 44, also donated $5,000 to its event.

The charity was giving away free groceries to 549 single-parent families in need, all of it handed out in socially distant fashion through car windows.

During a break, Porsha told the group what she and Cynthia had spoken about the night before, and about her discomfort over Dennis being invited to the wedding.

Marlo: Both she and friend of the cast Marlo Hampton (left), 44, also donated $5,000 to its event

Groceries: The charity was giving away free groceries to 549 single-parent families in need, all of it handed out in socially distant fashion through car windows

Kenya Moore, 49, told Porsha she didn't think it was that big a deal, which led Porsha to blast in a confessional, 'Please dismiss yourself!'

Kenya then came up with a good idea, suggesting they all go on a girls' trip (which her pals then decided should be to South Carolina).

While all this was happening, Kandi, 44, was privately trying to get her ex Russell 'Block' Spencer to pay $92,000 in child support to their daughter Riley, 18.

Dismiss: Kenya Moore, 49, told Porsha she didn't think it was that big a deal, which led Porsha to blast in a confessional, 'Please dismiss yourself!'

Support: While all this was happening, Kandi, 44, was privately trying to get her ex Russell 'Block' Spencer to pay $92,000 in child support to their daughter Riley, 18

Drew Sidora, 35, and her husband Ralph Pittman were also dealing with their own struggles as they mourned the death of Ralph's father.

On their home's back deck, they released balloons in memory of the man and held each other.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta returns next week on Bravo.

Mounring: Drew Sidora, 35, and her husband Ralph Pittman were also dealing with their own struggles as they mourned the death of Ralph's father
As part of his promise to tour his district to speak about the impact of the latest COVID-19 relief bill, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) made a stop in Webb County and an adjacent county.

On Monday, the congressman made a morning stop in the southern Webb County city of Rio Bravo, and by late afternoon he arrived in Zapata to discuss the same issues with the people. During both of his stops, he spoke to local officials and citizens to discuss the relief package and the resources and support that could be provided to both areas in light of the pandemic.

The main focus of the tour stops were to discuss how the COVID-19 relief package helps working families, local governments and small businesses and also how the congressman helped assure additional funding for vaccine distribution, small businesses and families in need as well as resources to close the digital divide.

His first stop to discuss such issues was in Rio Bravo around 10:15 a.m. where he met with City of Rio Bravo Mayor Gilbert Aguilar Jr. and several constituents who attended the event.

The fact that stimulus checks were just $600 was one of the main things discussed by Cuellar as people asked about what other economic relief can be expected in small communities like Rio Bravo.

In the beginning, we wanted for the stimulus checks to be $1,200 like the first time, but (Treasury) Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin just wanted $500, so we got something in the middle, Cuellar said.

However, he said this is not much for a family wanting to know how to spend their money whether it is for groceries, rent, medications or other essential items.

By around 1 p.m., Rep. Cuellar was in Zapata where he met with his constituents alongside Zapata County Judge Joseph Rathmell and Zapata County Sheriff Reymundo Del Bosque.

Some of the main topics discussed during the tour stop focused on how much was allocated by the first COVID-19 relief package and how the latest bill intends to distribute resources.

According to Cuellar, he was not in agreement with the way the first COVID-19 relief package worked as the state got all the authority to see how the funds could be distributed to the individual counties, which saw Zapata County only get 20% of the funds indicated.

In the meeting, Rathmell said the county is already trying to work with the state to get the other 80% of funds to have the resources for the expenses they have made, and he pointed out that will help them get back into good shape as they reimburse all the expenses they have made.

Although the second bill follows a similar path to the first COVID-19 relief bill in which federal resources are given to the states and not the cities and counties directly, he believes that this could change after Jan. 20.

We were trying to get this done all since the beginning, but as you know the negotiations between the House and the Senate, the Senate didnt want to do it as they said they didnt want to help New York and California, and since this has nothing to do with either New York or California it was unfortunate that it got caught up in the politics of things, Cuellar said. So, we didn't do it even though we wanted as Zapata would have gotten the aid directly from there. I think that after Jan. 20 we can bring that back up again, so we can get the monies sent to the cities and counties directly, so we can avoid that issue.

Vaccines were another major issue discussed during the Zapata stop.

According to Cuellar, he does not understand why vaccine distribution is a major problem right now in Texas and elsewhere as there was about 10 months for the state to prepare for the distribution of vaccines. He said the most recent COVID-19 relief bill helps fund enough for the vaccine distribution apparatus.

Only 44% of vaccines in the state of Texas, as reported last week, have been used, Cuellar said. They need to get them out. I know they are setting up hubs in different areas, but my question is: What happens in rural areas? What happens in small communities? In Rio Bravo? They havent gotten anything. In Zapata? They havent gotten anything, and I know that the judge has been working really hard with the clinics.

Cuellar said this will be a main point he will work on in the near future to ensure there are enough vaccines for all communities whether they are rural or not.

Rathmell told LMT he believes the vaccines are needed as they are the hopeful antidote to the pandemic that continues to affect the communities of Zapata and even Rio Bravo badly. He believes if the vaccines work then the end of the pandemic is in sight for all the people of Zapata and elsewhere.

Other issues discussed during the Zapata stop included hi intention for there to be more stimulus checks for people beyond the $600 sent out as he thought $2,000 was suitable, how the latest relief bill helped increase unemployment benefits and also how he helped appropriate money from the bill for initiatives regarding better broadband in the area of Zapata.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
Only one paramedic went into the scene of the Manchester Arena terror attack in the first 43 minutes after the bombing  as it was revealed today two victims, including the youngest, 'may have' survived if treated earlier.

Dozens of police officers and civilians arrived at the bomb site in the City Room foyer using first aid kits to try and help in the aftermath of the atrocity.

But while at least eight ambulances visited the area, only one paramedic Patrick Ennis went in, before leaving after five minutes.

The details were heard at the Manchester Arena inquiry, which was told this morning Saffie-Rose Roussos, eight, could have survived if she was treated earlier.

She was the youngest of 22 people killed in an horrific terror attack carried out by Salman Abedi after an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

The inquiry has previously heard John Atkinson, 28, only received treatment after he was carried to paramedics by members of the public on a makeshift stretcher and suffered a heart attack an hour and 17 minutes after the blast.

Saffie-Rose Roussos was leaving the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017 with her mother Lisa (pictured together) and her sister Ashlee Bromwich, when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the venue's foyer

John Atkinson, a victim of the Manchester arena bomb attack, may have survived if treated

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said today: 'It is notable that 40 minutes after explosion, despite the presence of numerous members of NWAS staff, Patrick Ennis was the only NWAS paramedic to have been into the City Room.

'Why that was so is plainly something that will need to be closely examined in evidence.

'On the basis of material generated since I made my opening statement, survivability is an issue in the case of Saffie.'

'It was only at 11.14pm that the NWAS hazardous area response team (HART) arrived at the station, which had been established in 2009 and equipped with specialist equipment and skills in order to access and treat patients in difficult and hazardous conditions after a terrorist attack.

'One of the issues the inquiry will will want to consider is why a team with obvious specialist skills to bear did not arrive until 43 minutes after the explosion.'

Saffie's family had always believed the youngster had died instantly in the blast, but a new report commissioned by them has revealed she may have survived for up to an hour, before dying as a result of blood loss from her leg injuries.

Saffie-Rose was the youngest victim of the terror attack that claimed 22 lives. A new report has revealed medics she asked paramedics 'am I going to die?' as she was rushed to hospital

Saffie Rose's mother Lisa, brother Xander and sister Ashlee Bromwich attend the eight-year-old's colourful funeral following the horrific attack. A devastating report has shared Saffie's final moments, as a public inquiry into the attack prepares to hear more about the emergency service response

Paddy Ennis was the only paramedic to go in the bomb site in the first 40 minutes after attack

Police's desperate calls for help as only one medic visited terror site in first 43 minutes PC Matthew Hill who was in the City Room foyer at 11.02pm, where the explosion had taken place half an hour earlier, and was heard on his radio saying to a colleague: 'We need paramedics, like f***** yesterday.' At 11.08pm, a PC Mark Kay walked over to his colleague PC Michael Ball and said: 'There is nobody we can move really is there?' PC Ball replied: 'Not really no, they are all really badly injured. If we start moving people, we need paramedics basically.' Sgt Kam Hare of the Greater Manchester Police Tactical Aid Unit entered the City Room at 10.50pm and recalled 'shouting over the radio for paramedics to enter the City Room.' Advertisement

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, told it: 'Most of those who died suffered injuries in bombing that were, in the view of experts, unsurvivable.

'In two cases a different response may, and I underline that word 'may', have led to a different outcome.

'Those two cases were John Atkinson and Saffie-Rose Roussos, who we did not name in the opening.'

Police officers were reduced to shouting over the radio in their desperation for ambulance staff to come and help them at the scene of the bombing, the inquiry was told.

When Mr Ennis arrived one 'emphasised' to him he was the only medic there and more need to get in and 'became frustrated that this was not, as it seemed to him, being acted on'.

Saffie-Rose, from Leyland, Lancashire, had travelled to the Ariana Grande concert with her mother Lisa and sister Ashlee Bromwich before Abedi detonated a bomb inside the venue's foyer.

The report states neither paramedics nor anyone else on the scene used tourniquets or splints to try and stop the bleeding.

Parents Andrew and Lisa Roussos also discovered she asked a paramedic 'am I going to die?' as she was rushed to hospital by ambulance.

Mr Roussos told the BBC of his devastation after discovering his daughter could have been saved.

The public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing carried out by Abedi (pictured)

He said: 'How do we carry on living with this information? How can we carry on breathing with this information?'

Witness statements, CCTV footage and body-worn cameras have all helped compile this new report, which contradicts the family's original belief that Saffie died on the floor of the Manchester venue after a bomb exploded on May 22, 2017.

It found the young Ariana Grande fan was not knocked unconscious by the blast. Instead she was able to lift her head and try to push herself up, before receiving water and asking for her mother.

She was the first person to be carried out of the foyer, with rescuers using an advertising hoarding as a makeshift stretcher.

Once outside there was no ambulance and one had to be flagged down.

Once on board, the report states that the ambulance did not have all of the necessary equipment to treat Saffie.

Neither the ambulance crew, or medics in A&E used tourniquets or splints to treat Saffies's bleeding.

Mr Roussos said: 'Our medical experts have suggested that there were procedures that Saffie could have had and she didn't. She was losing that much blood. And there wasn't a successful procedure in place to get that blood into Saffie - even in A&E. Why?'

The public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing restarted after the Christmas break today.
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The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, has asked all Fulani herdsmen in Ondo State to vacate forest reserves within the state. He also issued a seven-day ultimatum to the herdsmen.

The governor gave the ultimatum on Monday while meeting with leaders of Hausa/Fulani and Ebira Communities in the state.

The meeting held at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governors office, Alagabaka, Akure, the state capital.

Mr Akeredolu said the activities of the herdsmen have long been causing a threat to security in the state.

He also shared his statement on his official Twitter handle.

Today we have taken major steps at addressing the root cause of kidnapping, in particular, and other nefarious activities detailed and documented in security reports, the press and debriefings from victims of kidnap cases in Ondo State.

These unfortunate incidents are traceable to the activities of some bad elements masquerading as herdsmen. These felons have turned our forest reserves into hideouts for keeping victims of kidnapping, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other criminal activities.

As the Chief Law and Security Officer of the State, it is my constitutional obligation to do everything lawful to protect the lives and property of all residents of the State. In light of the foregoing, the following orders are hereby issued:

1. All Forest Reserves in the State are to be vacated by herdsmen within the next 7 days with effect from today, Monday 18th January, 2021.

2. Night-grazing is banned with immediate effect because most farm destruction takes place at night.

3. Movement of cattle within cities and highways is prohibited.

4. Under-aged grazing of cattle is outlawed.

Our resolution to guarantee the safety of lives and property within the State shall remain utmost as security agencies have been directed to enforce the ban.

In its usual magnanimity, our administration will give a grace period of seven days for those who wish to carry on with their cattle-rearing business to register with appropriate authorities.
The New York Times

The millions of airline passengers who traveled over the holidays experienced firsthand the unsettling uncertainties that come with flying during a pandemic. The anxious glances. The awkward semi-distancing. The haphazard mask etiquette, and the absence of regular service. In an effort to reassure, the airlines have updated and adjusted their requirements for travelers, with patchwork results. Some airlines work to maintain social distance, both at the gate and at boarding; others are less vigilant. Mask-wearing is dependent on passenger compliance, and not predictable; nor, increasingly, is flight capacity, which can range from 20% to nearly full.

Given the variables, infectious disease specialists have had a hard time determining the risks of flying. But a study published last week provides some clarity. After an 18-hour flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, landed in Auckland, New Zealand, in September, local health authorities discovered evidence of an outbreak that most likely occurred during the trip. Using seat maps and genetic analysis, the new study determined that one passenger initiated a chain of infection that spread to four others en route.

Previous research on outbreaks that apparently took place during a flight focused on flights that occurred in the spring, when few travelers wore masks, planes were running near capacity and the value of preventive measures was not broadly understood. The new report, of a largely empty flight in the fall, details what can happen even when airlines and passengers are aware and more cautious about the risks.

The findings deliver a clear warning to both airlines and passengers, experts said.

The key message here is that you have to have multiple layers of prevention  requiring testing before boarding, social distancing on the flight, and masks, said Dr. Abraar Karan, an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School who was not part of the study team. Those things all went wrong in different ways on this flight, and if theyd just tested properly, this wouldnt have happened.

The new infections were detected after the plane landed in New Zealand; the country requires incoming travelers to quarantine for 14 days before entering the community. The analysis, led by researchers at the New Zealand Ministry of Health, found that 7 of the 86 passengers on board tested positive during their quarantine and that at least four were newly infected on the flight. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, with a capacity of nearly 400 passengers, was only one-quarter full.

These seven passengers came from five countries, and they were seated within four rows of one another for the duration of the 18-hour flight. Two acknowledged that they did not wear masks, and the airline did not require mask-wearing in the lobby before boarding. Nor did it require preflight testing, although five of the seven passengers who later tested positive had taken a test, and received a negative result, in the days before boarding.

The versions of the coronavirus that all seven carried were virtually identical genetically  strongly suggesting that one person among them initiated the outbreak. That person, whom the report calls Passenger A, had in fact tested negative four or five days before boarding, the researchers found.

Four or five days is a long time, Karan said. You should be asking for results of rapid tests done hours before the flight, ideally.

Even restrictive COVID-free flights, international bookings that require a negative result to board, give people a day or two before departure to get a test.

The findings are not definitive, cautioned the authors, led by Dr Tara Swadi, an adviser with New Zealands Health Ministry. But results underscore the value of considering all international passengers arriving in New Zealand as being potentially infected, even if pre-departure testing was undertaken, social distancing and spacing were followed, and personal protective equipment was used in-flight, the researchers concluded.

Previous studies of infection risk during air travel did not clearly quantify the risk, and onboard air filtration systems are thought to reduce the infection risk among passengers even when a flight includes one or more infected people. But at least two recent reports strongly suggest that in-flight outbreaks are a risk: one of a flight from Boston to Hong Kong in March; the other of a flight from London to Hanoi, Vietnam, also in March.

On the Hong Kong flight, the analysis suggested that two passengers who boarded in Boston infected two flight attendants. On the Hanoi flight, researchers found that 12 of 16 people who later tested positive were sitting in business class, and that proximity to the infectious person strongly predicted infection risk.

Airline policies vary widely, depending on the flight and the carrier. During the first months of the pandemic, most U.S. airlines had a policy of blocking off seats, or allowing passengers to reschedule if a flight was near 70% full. But by the holidays those policies were largely phased out, said Scott Mayerowitz, executive editor at The Points Guy, a website that covers the industry.

All carriers have a mask policy, for passengers and crew  although passengers are not always compliant.

Even before the pandemic, passengers werent always the best at following rules on airplanes, Mayerowitz said. Something about air travel brings out the worse in people, whether its fighting over reclined seats, or overhead bin space, or wearing a mask properly.

Temperature checks are uncommon and are less than reliable as an indicator of infectiousness. And coronavirus tests are not needed for boarding, at least on domestic flights. Some international flights are COVID tested: To fly from New York to Rome on Alitalia, for example, passengers must have received a negative test result within 48 hours of boarding. They are tested again on arrival in Rome.

Karan said that, unless all preventive measures are in place, there would be some risk of infection on almost any flight.

It is surprising and not surprising, on an 18-hour flight, that an outbreak would occur, Karan said. Its more than likely that more than just those two people took off their mask at some point, and every such lapse increases the likelihood of spread.

Benedict Carey. c.2021 The New York Times Company
Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption today suggested coronavirus policy-makers would value fundraising hero Captain Tom Moore's life less than a 25-year-old.

The controversial ex lawlord, himself 72, said if resources were limited the 33million charity walker would be a lesser priority than the younger man.

He spoke out after becoming embroiled in a row when he seemingly said yesterday Stage 4 bowel cancer sufferer Deborah James' life was 'less valuable' than others.

Lord Sumption denied specifically mentioning her but insisted he was talking about a 'standard concept in health economics'.

But this morning he unwittingly said Captain Tom's life would be considered a lesser priority by the NHS than a younger man rushed to hospital.

He said: 'It depends what you mean by value, if you are making a policy choice for example in the NHS, suppose that resources are limited and you cannot devote resources to both that man and a 25-year-old whose come in in a serious road accident then obviously you have to take account of the quality years ahead of the man of 25 are much greater, this is absolutely basic.'

Captain Tom Moore was one of the feel-good moments of the pandemic, raising 33million

Deborah James is a cancer patient and was offended by Lord Sumption's remarks to her

Lord Sumption had been answering a question from Piers Morgan on GMB, where the host asked if what value an unnamed 99-year-old, who had signed a do not resuscitate order, carried.

After the response, Morgan revealed he had been talking about Captain Tom, who put DNR notice on his door after suffering a fall.

It was the accident that prompted his attempts to walk again and his incredible fundraising efforts.

When he was made aware of who they were talking about by Morgan and the huge value he had given the UK, Lord Sumption said: 'You're not listening to what I'm saying. I have not said that he has less value as a person.

'What you're doing is taking part of my words and throwing them back at me as if they were the whole. That as you know perfectly well is a grossly unfair way of approaching a difficult issue. I made my position perfectly clear if you look at the clip was whole and the debate as a whole.

'This is a tool for policy makers, it's not a way of valuing individuals like Capt Tom Moore.

Lord Sumption (left) was discussing the cost of lockdown on the show and argued that he believed his children's and grandchildren's lives were worth more than his 'because they've got a lot more of it ahead'. Miss James (right) - who suffers with Stage 4 metastatic bowel cancer - was brought into the discussion as a younger person with a life-threatening condition.

Captain Tom's Do Not Resuscitate request Fundraising hero Captain Tom Moore once told doctors not to resuscitate him if he stopped breathing in hospital. He had suffered a bad fall and was receiving treatment for the injury. It was the same fall that saw him have to learn to walk again, which sparked his incredible 33million charity drive. In a conversation on Piers Morgan's Life Stories he said he had put the DNR sign on his hospital door. The brave centurion said he never wanted to have to depend on constant care in order to survive. He told Piers: 'I have always felt that if somebody is gravely ill and near to death to bring them back for them to die a very unpleasant death, why do that? If you have gone, you have gone. 'I did not want to finish up in an old people's home without any facility of my own, having to be fed in every way. I would hate ever to be like that.' Advertisement

'I quite agree with what you said about Capt Tom Moore, but one thing policy makers can't do is say 'well we'll look at the life history of every patient in hospital and we will work out whether they have contributed more to society and so on'.

'Policy makers can't operate like that they have to operate on metrics and they do, all the time.'

Anti-lockdown figure Lord Sumption, who sat on the Supreme Court until 2018, made his earlier controversial comments to podcaster Deborah James, 39 while appearing on the BBC's The Big Questions on Sunday morning.

He was discussing the cost of lockdown on the show and argued that he believed his children's and grandchildren's lives were worth more than his 'because they've got a lot more of it ahead'.

Miss James - who suffers with Stage 4 metastatic bowel cancer - was brought into the discussion as a younger person with a life-threatening condition.

She said: 'With all due respect, I'm the person who you say their life is not valuable. I live with metastatic bowel cancer'.

Lord Sumption then interrupted her and said: 'I didn't say it was not valuable, I said it was less valuable.'

His comment proved controversial online, with outraged viewers blasting him as 'inhuman', 'almost grotesque' and 'morally bankrupt'.

She told Lorraine today: 'Inside I think I was taken aback. I knew that kind of comment would be coming, I didn't think it would be so direct, if I'm being honest with you. I think inside, you know when sometimes you have these situations, when inside you are shaking and you look back and think how did I remain so calm and considered, almost.'

Jonathan Sumption, who sat on the Supreme Court until 2018, made the comment while appearing on the BBC's The Big Questions this morning (pictured)

Lord has opposed lockdown repeatedly Lord Sumption, who sat in the Supreme Court from 2012 until his retirement in 2018, has repeatedly warned that ministers have been exceeding their rightful powers. He added: 'I do not doubt the seriousness of the epidemic but I believe that history will look back on the measures taken to contain it as a monument of collective hysteria and governmental folly.' In another swipe at Mr Johnson, he drew a parallel with its attempt last year to prorogue parliament to force through Brexit legislation. He said: 'Governments hold power in Britain on the sufferance of the elected chamber of the legislature. Without that we are not a democracy.' Orders to remain at home and rafts of new laws to restrict what people can do amount to a 'breathtaking' infringement of democratic rights, he said. He accused ministers of using the police to suppress opposition to their policies, of creating new criminal offences without the legal right to do so, and of grabbing unconstitutional powers by issuing misleading guidance. He warned the methods used by ministers will undo the unity of society and will lead to long-term authoritarian government. Advertisement

On the reaction of people since the headlines broke, she continued: 'People have been outraged at the idea, the moral idea that we can be so blatant about putting a value on somebody's life.'

She went on: 'It asks us to question, 'Well hang on a moment, where do we come in the pecking order, if we are suddenly rating our life, where might I sit?' I think, from every perspective, that's immoral. It also really opens us, from a mental health perspective, it opens us into a spiral that we just don't want to go down could you imagine if we functioned every aspect in society believing that none of us had equal value?'

The campaigner added: 'We have to remember that regardless of age and regardless of living with cancer, like one in two of us, it doesn't make our life less valuable. I made it clear yesterday that I feel that life is a gift and I know that from actually staring death in the face...

'Whether we are young or old or over 100 years old like Sir Captain Tom, they are people's mum and people's dads, people's brothers and sisters. I am somebody's daughter. The question I would have said to Lord Sumption is, "Would you say your own daughter's life is less valuable?" Because he made it very clear that an older person's life was actually less valuable. He has not rectified that, but explained it further in terms of economic and medical ethics.

'However, he then made it clear, I felt, that because I, well not because I was a cancer patient, he made it very clear he said, "No, I said your life is less valuable". I would like to ask him, if I was his daughter sitting there with stage 4 cancer would my life be less valuable?'

She was backed today by Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive at Bowel Cancer UK, said: 'To describe someone's life as 'less valuable' because they have advanced bowel cancer is callous nonsense.

'It's also incredibly upsetting to people who have experienced disruption to their diagnosis and treatment because of pressures on the NHS, and insulting to the staff doing their absolute best for every patient they see. What's important is to protect the NHS and each and every life that depends on it, not pit one person against another.'

Miss James (pictured in hospital), from London , known as Bowel Babe, has had 17 tumours in her lifetime and had her latest cancer operation just six weeks ago

His comment sparked outrage among viewers who branded him 'morally bankrupt' and 'horrible'

But Lord Sumption insisted that it had been made in the context of his earlier remarks on the harm done to the young through lockdowns designed to save the elderly from Covid-19.

He said: 'I object extremely strongly to any suggestion that I was inferring that Miss James's life was less valuable because she had cancer.

'I thought she was responding to my earlier comments about older people being protected by a total lockdown which is causing immense harm to the young who are unaffected.

'That harm can be to their mental health or through cooping undergraduates up at university or through the loss of jobs.

'I was saying this should not be inflicted on the young to protect old people like me.

'If Miss James has misinterpreted that then I can only apologise to her as it was not my intention to suggest she was less valuable. Sometimes on videolinks it can be difficult to hear what the other person is saying.'

Host Nicky Campbell invited guests to discuss the cost of lockdown and whether it was 'punishing too many for the greater good'.

Lord Sumption, who argues that vulnerable people should be able to isolate if they want while leaving the rest of the population to continue without lockdown, said: 'All lives are not of equal value - the older you are, the less valuable yours is because there's less of it left.'

Miss James, who hosts the BBC's You, Me And The Big C podcast, has had 17 tumours in her lifetime and had her latest cancer operation just six weeks ago.

Following his comment during Miss James' appearance on the show, viewers took to Twitter to vent their anger - calling him 'dangerous' and 'callous'.

Human rights barrister Adam Wagner said: 'My goodness. Lord Sumption's response to a woman with Stage 4 cancer asking why her life isn't valuable is he didn't say it isn't valuable just 'less valuable'.

'This is the figurehead of anti-lockdown movement - comes across as inhumane, almost grotesque.'

Employment and personal injury barrister David Green said: 'Lord Sumption is a far cleverer lawyer than I will ever be, but I'd swap every brain-cell in my head to avoid being as horrible as he evidently is.'

Lotty Burns wrote: 'I'm sorry, but if you're OK to play 'who's life is more valuable than others'' - you're morally bankrupt. It's dangerous. It's callous.

'And even if you thought it wasn't, it's subjective so isn't a way to decide who lives and dies.'

Ethics professor John Tasioulas said: 'Important to be reminded that ethics by numbers yields results that are, indeed, grotesque. Yet the apparent simplicity of it all makes it irresistible to many.'

NHS mental health doctor Benjamin Janaway added: 'Firstly, it's more than worth saying it was an abhorrent and thoughtless comment devoid of empathy.

'No matter what utilitarian argument you may field, it cannot be made on a 1:1 basis, or on the inherent value of life. That is beyond any of us.'

James Foster wrote: 'Lord Sumption to a woman with Stage 4 cancer: 'I didn't say your life wasn't valuable, I said it was less valuable'.

'WTF's wrong with these people? My mum had Stage 4 cancer. 42. It killed her. Her life wasn't 'less valuable' but, actually, it was more valuable.'

Kerry said: 'I have tears in my eyes listening to this. I am an ex-cancer patient, how can a stuck up b****** say that some people's lives are less worthy of saving.

'For f**** sake! How can a human being say that to another human being on national TV. All lives need saving.'

Others sided with Lord Sumption, saying they value their lives less highly than the lives of their younger loved ones.

Clare said she 'did see Lord Sumption's point', adding: 'I would stand in front of a train for my grandchildren.

'Their life does have more value than mine at 59. This isn't to say I have no value but he did have a valid, and personal, point.'

Emma Robertson said: 'Watch the whole debate for context. I am a Stage 4 cancer patient myself and actually agree with Lord Sumption.

'I am not sure I understand the outrage around this.

Others sided with Lord Sumption, saying they value their lives less highly than their younger loved ones

'I think Lord Sumption made his point pretty clear and I think people are willfully misinterpreting it and feigning outrage to skew the debate.

'You don't win an argument by turning on the tears, you just shut it down.'

Talk Radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer added: 'Rubbish. If you had the chance to save only one person from a fire and had to choose between an eight year old and an 80 year old, you know perfectly well which one you'd save.

'It doesn't mean all lives don't have value, it's about relative value when tough decisions have to be made.'

Mark said: 'All those lockdown fanatics spitting feathers because they know he's right. Totally agree with Lord Sumption.

'My life is less valuable than my kids'. They have everything ahead to live for and to experience and I'm 52. I've lived a great life and I would save them ahead of me.'

Miss James, from London, known as Bowel Babe, replied to Lord Sumption saying her life was 'less valuable', adding: 'Who are you to put a value on life? In my view, and I think in many others, life is sacred and i don't think we should make those judgement calls.

'All life is worth saving regardless of what life it is people are living.

'I'm fully aware and I've seen first hand and said goodbye to best friends in terms of collateral Covid is causing but at the same time I'm grateful to be somebody who is kept alive because of the NHS...

'Only six weeks ago I was in intensive care for a cancer operation that has got me back up on my feet and without that I wouldn't be here.

'And we have to protect the NHS to allow the collateral to be as minimal on all health conditions as possible.'

Miss James said she has seen 'many friends' who she met through cancer die in the four years since her diagnosis.

One was a fellow host of the podcast, Rachael Bland, who died of breast cancer in 2018, aged 40.

Last night, her widower Steve told the Mail Lord Sumption's comments were 'extraordinary and outrageous'.

He said: 'It's one thing to think what he said but another thing to say it to a cancer patient.

'I'm super-proud of Deb for the way she came back at him.

'If that had been Rachael [being spoken to like that] I would have been raging. But I thought Deborah handled herself really well.

'To hear this man saying that their lives are somehow less valuable must be very painful for any cancer patient, some of whom may have suffered delays to treatment in the pandemic.'

Miss James later tweeted of the row: 'Politics aside, have we scooped so low in all this and lost our moral compass?'

Professor Pat Price, a leading oncologist and founder of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign, said: 'This is outrageous  every patient's life is important.'

Lord Sumption added in his response to the outrage: 'I was certainly not saying her life was less valuable. I was saying the lives of older people are worth less because they have less time to live.

'I understood her to be disagreeing with my proposition.

'I do not deny saying what is recorded on the footage.'

He said: 'You are interpreting that as meaning her life is less valuable because she had metastatic bowel cancer. It's a question of age.

'I was saying that young people should not be sacrificed to save old people.'

During his appearance on the BBC's The Big Questions, Lord Sumption also claimed there was no real evidence to suggest that lockdowns are an effective method for reducing fatalities from coronavirus and instead said there are a 'large number' of statistical studies into the relationship between lockdown and mortality and 'there is almost no correlation at all'.

He added that they show variables which determine mortality depends primarily on the age boundary balance and underlying state of health of the population.

Miss James, who hosts the BBC 's You, Me And The Big C podcast (pictured with her cohosts Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland), has had 17 tumours in her lifetime and had her latest cancer operation just six weeks ago

Pictured: BBC podcast cohost Rachael Bland who died of breast cancer in 2018

Lord Sumption said: 'Covid attacks vulnerable groups... 90 per cent of the deaths from Covid have been of people over 70 and 90 per cent of those have other very serious underlying clinical conditions.'

He added: 'Instead of isolating the old and the vulnerable who need it, we have chosen to isolate everybody.

'The argument is that if the young fit and healthy get Covid they will pass it on to the old and vulnerable but that is not correct because the old and vulnerable can isolate themselves if they want to.'

In October Lord Sumption accused ministers of keeping Britons 'under a form of house arrest' for three months in the spring under the original lockdown.

Giving a prestigious Cambridge University law lecture he attacked the control ministers had had over everyday life, saying they went further than any previous curbs, even during wartime.

The peer, a seasoned critic of the lockdown, accused Mr Johnson and his Cabinet of acting by ministerial decree and sidelining MPs.

His concerns echo those of many MPs who have demanded more power to oversee Government coronavirus measures.

Tonight he gave a speech, Government by decree - Covid-19 and the Constitution, to the Cambridge Law faculty.

Speaking via Zoom from Milan he said: 'During the Covid-19 pandemic the British state has exercised coercive powers over its citizens on a scale never previously attempted.

'This has taken effective legal control enforced by the police over the personal lives of the entire population, who they could meet, what they could do, even within their own homes.

'For three months it placed everybody under a form of house arrest qualified only by their right to do a limit number of things approved by ministers

'All of this has been authorised by ministerial decree with minimal parliamentary involvement.

'It has been the most significant interference with personal freedom in the history of our country. We have never sought to do such a thing before, even in war-time and even when faced with health crises far more serious than this one.'




Indian physicist and Padma Shri awardee Rohini Godbole has been honoured with the Ordre National du Merite, which is one of the highest distinctions granted by the government of France to honour eminent persons. Godbole is working at the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

In the official communication sent to Dr Godbole, the French Embassy has recognised her achievements as remarkable in India and internationally for strong collaboration with French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) within the Indo-French Laboratory in Theoretical High Energy Physics.

She has been known for her contributions in collaborations between France and India and commitment to promoting enrolment of women in science, the IISc said.

Passionate about physics since her childhood, Dr Godbole started her life in physics with a Bachelors degree in Physics, Mathematics and Statistics from Sir Parshurambhau college of Pune. Being a meritorious student, she shined everywhere and graduated with a gold medal from Pune University. She later pursued MSc in physics from IIT Bombay and graduated with a silver medal. She received her doctorate from The State University of New York, (SUNY), Stony Brook in the US in 1979.

Dr Godbole has worked mainly on different aspects of particle phenomenology over the past three decades, specifically on exploring aspects of the Standard Model of particle physics and the physics beyond it. She has published over 280 research papers in her academic career.







Her work regarding the hadronic structure of high-energy photons has marked off in a variety of ways. Dr Godbole is also known for her work at CERN, the European organisation for nuclear research, and has also suggested various innovative ways to search for the Higgs Boson, and other new particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). She is an elected fellow of all the three academies of Science of India and also the Science Academy of the Developing World (TWAS).

Dr Godbole is also the recipient of Indias fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, and has been actively encouraging women to take up scientific research. She has also fought for the inclusion of more women in the field of science. She has pointed out that though more and more women are opting for higher education they are very less in number when it comes to research in science and PhD courses. Dr Godbole strongly believes that there is a need to make societal and mainly policy-level changes to help more women participate in scientific research.

She insisted for more women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). We need to normalise the concept that ones career or opportunities do not have anything to do with gender. This message is not just to young women but young men as well, she told a news portal. She believes that there is an urgent need to build a world where the society shouldnt intuitively think that a scientist is a man.

Also Read: This Food Scientist Helps Uttarakhand Tribal Women To Become Foodpreneurs
Press Release

January 18, 2021 Senators honor Danny Lim The Senate adopted on Monday, January 18, 2021, the resolution expressing its profound sympathy and sincere condolences on the death of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Danilo Lim. Senate Resolution No. 613, taking into consideration Senate Resolution No. 614, was adopted by the Senate during its first plenary session for the new year to honor Lim who died on January 6, 2021 at the age of 65. Sen. Risa Hontiveros, principal author of the measure, said she is sponsoring the resolution "with honor and with gratitude but also with a heavy heart." "I did not know that when session opens for 2021, my first task would be to honor a soldier, a brave Filipino, and most of all, a friend," Hontiveros said. Senate Resolution No. 613 cited Lim's life as a life dedicated to the pursuit of excellence being one of a handful of Filipinos who served in the Philippine military with a West Point degree, and was named commander of the elite Scout Rangers. Sen. Cynthia Villar, principal author of Senate Resolution No. 614, said while Lim is known to many as the bemedalled and principled soldier and as the hardworking MMDA chairman, she knew Lim as "a staunch ally and advocate of environmental protection." "I am privileged to have worked closely with MMDA Chair Danny Lim in our common efforts for the clean-up and rehabilitation of Manila Bay. He led by example. Danny Lim was the only high-ranking government official who joined me and actively participated even as early as 6 a.m. in our regular clean-up activities in the protected area which is the Las Pinas- Paranaque Wetland Park and at the Baseco in Manila," Villar said. Senate Resolution No. 614 honored Lim as a brilliant young man who was born and raised in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, who took and topped the entrance exams to the Philippine Military Academy. Lim was incarcerated on charges of rebellion for his involvement as one of the leaders of the Manila Peninsula siege in November 2007 against the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In September 2011, he was appointed by President Noynoy Aquino as Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence of the Bureau of Customs and in May 2017, he was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as chairman of the MMDA.
I want psychic duels and fratricide.

PATTERNMASTER takes place in the same milieu as Wild Seed, but is set far into the future, when the descendants of the immortals have overtaken the world through a psychic network known as the pattern. Their ascension pitches much of society into slavery, and Butler follows two superpowered brothers as they vie to become the Patternmaster, the virtually omnipotent puppeteer of the pattern.

This is Butlers first book, and it lacks the range and gravitas of her later works. People without psychic powers, or mutes, are pawns at best and furniture at worst. And the mutant Clayarks, a third party seeking to usurp the pattern, are narrative fodder. But Butlers clash of titans is briskly plotted and starkly rendered. Though her books would turn pensive and philosophical, she could pulp with the best of them.

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I feel right at home in dystopias.

Parable of the Sower, the first in a two-book series, is a slog. Lauren Oyamina, the teenage protagonist, offers few insights into the nightmarish setting of an America burning itself down, and the story is too shaped by her stilted, dry voice. PARABLE OF THE TALENTS is the masterpiece. The sequel retains the brutal atmosphere of its predecessor  severe economic inequality, climate disaster, lawless mayhem  without sacrificing momentum or texture.

By refining Laurens voice, Butler found others scarred by the American apocalypse, from a rising fascist who wants to make America great again to new-age slave traders to children who are forcibly separated from their families  and are happy about it. The Parable series is known for its discomfiting prescience. But Talents shows that the series true strength is its attention to the lives destroyed by fascism. Theres less spectacle and inferno than Sower, but far more sweat and anguish.

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I want nuclear annihilation and alien sex.

I appreciate your honesty. Liliths Brood, a trilogy first published as Xenogenesis, details the long and seedy seduction of humanity by the Oankali, sluglike aliens that delight in genetic trade with other species. The story is set hundreds of years after the Cold War turns hot and obliterates the superpowers and most of humanity. The Oankali arrive after the war, abduct and resuscitate war-ravaged humans and plan to send us back to Earth  at the cost of merging our biochemistry with theirs.
The New South Wales government wants domestic borders to come down as tourism businesses teeter on the brink of collapse.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian last week accused other premiers of 'inflicting pain and suffering' by keeping their borders closed after two Covid-19 outbreaks in Sydney over Christmas.

The federal government has removed all hotspot declarations for the Harbour City- but still all states and territories are banning some New South Wales residents.

The New South Wales government wants domestic borders to come down as tourism businesses teeter on the brink of collapse. Pictured: Instagram star Laura Dundovic (left) and mates in Byron Bay

The restrictions are costing New South Wales up to $180million a week, the amount spent by interstate travellers every seven days in 2019.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said opening up the country is crucial to economic recovery.

'The more borders are opened up, the better the chance people have of getting back to work and getting on with their lives,' he said on Monday.

Despite urging an opening of the borders, the New South Wales government had strengthened its anti-Covid measures, making mask-wearing compulsory in shops and on public transport, and was pushing more people to come forward for testing.

Cumberland City Council Mayor Steve Christou said the Commonwealth government should pass laws to take control of domestic borders to stop premiers closing off their states.

'The only one who should be able to shut our borders is the prime minister,' he told 2GB radio.

'It's an issue that really needs to be looked at moving forward.'

Fairfield City mayor Frank Carbone slammed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for letting in Australian Open tennis stars while banning western Sydney residents.

'It is quite clear that it seems that if you hold a tennis racket these days, it has a lot more power than having an Australian passport,' he told Nine's Today show.

In the two weeks over Christmas and New Year, tourism revenue across the nation was down $3billion compared with last year, according to study for the Transport and Tourism Forum.

The body's chief executive Margy Osmond said states being too eager to close their borders could destroy hundreds of small businesses.

'We can't recover without international tourism but we can't survive unless we get these domestic borders sorted out,' she told Sky News last week.

A survey by the Australian Airports Association found that 52 per cent of respondents were discouraged from booking travel due to border uncertainty, but only 45 per cent said they were put off by health risks.

Chief Executive James Goodwin said: 'It is clear that Australian travellers need clarity from state and territory governments to give them the confidence to make travel plans. A better coordinated, unified and consistent approach to controlling domestic borders is needed.'

Motorists approach the Queensland-New South Wales border checkpoint in Coolangatta in December

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said the ever-changing borders rules were crippling the tourism industry.

'The entire nation is in a state of uncertainty, and certainly from a consumer point of view in relation to tourism it's not a great back-drop for anyone to make a booking,' he told told Daily Mail Australia.

'There will be very few people willing to put their money into a booking anywhere, I suspect.'

The crippling travel restrictions were imposed over Christmas and New Year after an outbreak emerged on Sydney's Northern Beaches on December 16 and another sprung up in western Sydney on December 29.

The outbreak on the Northern Beaches has been contained but the western Sydney cluster suffered six new cases on Sunday, all linked to another positive case.

On Monday night Victoria removed hotspot declarations for 25 Sydney local government areas but is still blocking people from 10 in the city's west.

South Australia still bans people travelling from Greater Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong.

It is not clear if the six cases reported on Sunday in household in west Sydney will re-set South Australia's clock in terms of requiring 14 days of no community transmission.

Ms Berejiklian has accused Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) of 'inflicting pain' with border closures

'We'll continue to look at the results coming out of NSW,' Premier Steven Marshall said.

'Our transition committee is meeting tomorrow but opening up to (all of) NSW is still some time off.

'We don't want to do anything that is going to put us in jeopardy here in South Australia.'

Western Australia opened to Victoria on Monday but is still closed to New South Wales and Queensland.

Premier Mark McGowan said: 'Generally the eastern states are doing pretty well, Queensland and Victoria in particular.

'New South Wales has had it ticking along for a while now.

'I just urge all states to get it under control as quickly as possible. That allows borders to come down.'

Despite Mr McGowan's favourable assertions about Queensland, figures show there are currently 24 people in that state hospitalized due to Covid, compared to just two in New South Wales.

Queensland is still banning all of Sydney.
Alexei Navalny condemned a 'mockery of justice' today as he resurfaced in a makeshift Moscow courtroom a day after he was arrested on his return to Russia.

Navalny was remanded in custody for 30 days after allegedly being denied access to his lawyers, and faces a potential three-and-a-half-year prison term over an old embezzlement conviction which he claims was based on trumped-up charges.

The Kremlin critic received a suspended sentence in that 2014 case, but authorities accuse him of flouting the terms of it by lingering in Germany after recovering from his nerve agent poisoning last summer.

'I've seen a lot of mockery of justice... but they have ripped up and thrown away' Russia's criminal code, Navalny said in a video from the hastily-arranged court hearing at a Moscow police station. 'This is impossible. It's ultimate lawlessness.'

Russian authorities are under pressure from the West to release Navalny, who returned from Berlin on Sunday five months after surviving the Novichok attack which he accuses Vladimir Putin of orchestrating.

The US condemned the 'latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny', while Britain said his detention was 'appalling' and Germany said the arrest at a border post at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was 'totally incomprehensible'.

But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov hit back by accusing Western governments of voicing outrage over Navalny in order to distract from their own domestic problems.

'We should probably think about our image, but we're not young ladies going to a ball,' Lavrov told reporters.

The day after his arrest at a Moscow airport, Alexei Navalny resurfaced today at a Moscow police station where a hearing to extend his detention was underway

Navalny condemned a 'mockery of justice' today as he appeared in this makeshift Moscow courtroom a day after he was arrested on his return to Russia

Alexei Navalny with his wife Yulia at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday where he was arrested after returning to Russia from Germany

Navalny and his wife sit on the tarmac in Berlin before flying back to Russia on Sunday, five months after he was airlifted to Germany in a coma following his Novichok poisoning

Supporters of Alexei Navalny, gather today near the police station where the opposition leader is being held

How Alexei Navalny has been punished for defying Putin 2011: Navalny is arrested and jailed for 15 days for 'defying an official' after leading protests in Moscow 2012: Jailed for 15 days after leading an anti-Putin protest in the wake of presidential elections. His apartment is subsequently raided, and some of his private emails posted online 2013: Put on trial for embezzlement, amid claims he tried to steal wood from a state-owned company. He is convicted and sentenced to five years, but allowed out on bail. The conviction is subsequently overturned 2014: Placed under house arrest, again charged with embezzlement alongside brother Oleg. Again, the conviction is overturned 2017: He is re-convicted in the first corruption case, and ordered to repay millions of rubles of compensation in the second While leaving his office, a pro-Kremlin activist throws green disinfectant dye in his face, partially blinding him 2018: Arrested twice for leading protests against presidential elections he was barred from running in. Jailed for a total of 50 days in jail 2019: Arrested and jailed for a total of 40 days for leading protests during Moscow Duma elections. While in jail he was rushed to hospital, suffering from what medics called an allergic reaction. Others believe he was poisoned 2020: Navalny is rushed unconscious to hospital and placed on a ventilator after falling ill on a flight. His allies say he was poisoned August 22, 2020: Navalny is transferred from a hospital in Siberia to another hospital in Berlin September 2020: German scientists revealed tests confirmed he was poisoned by Novichok nerve agent December 2020: Bellingcat investigation alleges Moscow's FSB agency began tracking Nevalny after he announced plans to run against Putin before launching an assassination attempt in August using Novichok December 2020: Navalny claimed he had tricked an FSB agent into admitting on a phone call Russian assassins tried to kill him using poisoned underpants and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake January 2021: Navalny is arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after Russia's prison service alleged he had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction Advertisement

Navalny's anti-corruption foundation said today that the 44-year-old was 'illegally detained' and that 'lawyers are not allowed to see him'.

The opposition leader had joked with journalists on the plane from Berlin on Sunday, saying he was 'not afraid' and adding that 'all the criminal cases against me are fabricated'.

After the plane landed, Navalny kissed his wife Yulia before four masked police officers escorted him away at passport control, before he had formally entered Russia.

He reappeared on Monday morning at a Moscow police station where a court hearing to extend his detention was already underway.

'It is impossible what is happening over here,' Navalny said in a video from the improvised courtroom. 'It is lawlessness of the highest degree.

'One minute ago I was taken out of my cell to meet the lawyer, I came here, and here a hearing of the [court] is happening.'

Navalny's lawyers said the immediate court hearing was an unexpected turn of events, saying they were only notified about it minutes earlier.

According to a police notice distributed published Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev, the legal process began at 12.30pm local time on Monday.

The Moscow prison service had warned that it would arrest Navalny once he returned, accusing him of flouting the terms of a three-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence in a 2014 embezzlement case.

Navalny faces potential trouble in three other criminal cases, all of which he says are politically motivated.

He has repeatedly led large-scale street protests against Putin, most recently in the summer of 2019, and was gearing up for another challenge to authorities during elections to the lower house of Russia's parliament in September.

Navalny's supporters gathered at Moscow's Vnukovo airport despite bitterly cold weather and more than 4,500 new coronavirus cases a day in the Russian capital.

But they were denied a glimpse of Navalny after the flight path was switched at the last minute and the plane landed at Sheremetyevo instead.

OVD Info, which monitors detentions at political protests in Russia, said at least 55 people had been detained at the airport.

Prominent Moscow activist Lyubov Sobol was among those arrested, saying later that they had been released and were facing administrative charges.

The latest episode in the Navalny saga has led to calls for more sanctions against Russia, amid a wave of condemnation from Western countries.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen demanded that 'Russian authorities must immediately release him and ensure his safety', repeating Brussels's call for a full investigation into Navalny's poisoning.

The Kremlin denies involvement, saying it has seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent as Western experts have said.

In Britain, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter that 'it is appalling that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities.

'He must be immediately released. Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil,' Raab said.

Jake Sullivan, the incoming national security advisor for US president-elect Joe Biden, said that Navalny 'should be immediately released'.

'The perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,' he said, two days before Biden takes office.

Alexei Navalny kissed his wife goodbye in an emotional scene as he was arrested by Russian authorities just minutes after landing in Moscow

Navalny hugged his wife Yulia before he was taken away by Russian police today at Sheremetyevo airport

Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya is seen surrounded by people as she leaves Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport following the arrest

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny landed back on Russian soil in Moscow and walks out of the plane after arriving at Sheremetyevo airport

Nevalny's plane was diverted last minute from Vnukovo airport in Moscow to nearby Sheremetyevo

How the 'FSB plot' unfolded August 12: Three FSB 'plotters' buy plane tickets to Siberia after Navalny's entourage books a flight there August 13: The alleged FSB team flies to Novosibirsk a day before Navalny arrives. Maria Pevchikh also flies to Siberia and is tailed as she leaves Moscow August 17: Navalny travels on to Tomsk, pursued by the alleged FSB operatives. When he books a flight back to Moscow, the 'plotters' do the same only minutes later August 19: Navalny has a drink at a hotel bar in Tomsk, leaving his room empty. There is a 'surge' in communication among members of the alleged FSB unit August 20: Navalny boards the flight in Tomsk and becomes critically ill on board, forcing an emergency landing August 22: The unconscious Navalny is airlifted to Berlin. A German military lab later finds evidence of Novichok Advertisement

Donald Trump's outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Twitter: 'Deeply troubled by Russia's decision to arrest Alexei Navalny.

'Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents,' he said.

France also called for Navalny's release and voiced its 'strong concern' over his arrest in Russia.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, responded to a question about the arrest by saying 'Was he arrested in Germany? I'm not up to date,' according to Russian media.

The Kremlin typically belittles Navalny by referring to him merely as the 'Berlin patient' and calling him a blogger rather than a politician.

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20. He was airlifted from a hospital in Siberia to Berlin two days later, where a military lab found evidence of Novichok.

Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning.

The Kremlin has rejected calls to open a full investigation into the poisoning, and denied Navalny's claims that the FSB security agency was behind the plot.

Last month Navalny claimed he had duped an FSB agent into confessing details of the plot in a recorded phone call which the agency dismissed as fake.

The alleged plotter, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, was one of a team of alleged chemical weapons experts named last month as suspects in Navalny's poisoning.

The recording purported to reveal that Navalny's underpants had been sprinkled with the nerve agent while he was staying at a hotel in Siberia.

Navalny was initially treated at a hospital in Omsk before Russian authorities agreed to hand him over to a German air ambulance crew on August 22.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on the plane after it landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport

Police officers were seen detaining a man outside the airport to the west of Moscow

In an article in The Lancet, doctors at Berlin's Charite hospital described how Navalny had to be ventilated and given drugs during his airlift to Germany.

Medics described how he had become confused and sweaty before vomiting and collapsing on the domestic flight in Siberia, leaving him unconscious and drooling when the plane made an emergency landing.

By the time he arrived at the Berlin hospital, more than two days after falling ill, his heart had slowed well below an adult's usual range of 60 to 100 beats per minute and his brain was starting to show signs of reduced responsiveness.

When he arrived in intensive care, he was showing 'decreased brainstem reflexes' and suffering from hypothermia with a body temperature of just 33.5C (92.5F).

Navalny was treated with atropine for 10 days and given other antibiotics by the hospital doctors, who said he started to breathe spontaneously within two weeks.

As his condition improved, he was brought out of a coma, and doctors determined that difficulties understanding speech and speaking he had initially showed after waking up disappeared after three weeks.

On the 24th day after falling ill, he was taken off mechanical ventilation, and two days later he was moved from intensive care into a normal hospital ward.

Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level corruption and mobilising protests.

He has been repeatedly detained for organising public meetings, sued over corruption investigations and was barred from running against Putin in the 2018 presidential election.

The 44-year-old has also served several stints in jail in recent years for organising anti-Kremlin protests.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia's arrests and detention of Navalny in 2012 and 2014 were politically motivated.

Airlift: Navalny arrives in Berlin two days after his poisoning on August 20, by which time his heart had slowed to 33 beats per minute and his body temperature was down to 33.5C (92.3F)
This new maintenance service contract for 280 cars will be completely delivered within one year and further illustrates BSTs full capacity

In the last two years, BST has provided maintenance work for more than 1,200 high-speed train cars and has delivered the service with high quality

BERLIN, Jan. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Note to editors: To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f5a88f67-b910-4288-921e-46374ade6f37

Global mobility solution provider Bombardier Transportation announced today that its Chinese joint venture, Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. (BST), has been awarded a contract with China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (CHINA RAILWAY) to provide maintenance service for 280 high-speed train cars (32 trains), which BST manufactured for Chinas evolving high-speed rail network. The total contract is valued at approximately 1.24 billion CNY ($192 million US, 159 million euro). Bombardier Transportation owns 50 per cent of BST shares, which is consolidated by Bombardier Transportations partner CRRC Sifang Rolling Stock Co., Ltd.

We are delighted to be awarded this maintenance service contract by CHINA RAILWAY. Our China teams expertise and experience across the portfolio enable us to support our customers with integrated solutions, including designing, manufacturing and maintenance service, and we look forward to contributing further to the development of Chinas railway industry and keeping sustainable success in China, said Jianwei Zhang, President, Bombardier Transportation China.

BST won this contract to provide maintenance service for 280 cars, which includes CRH1A-A, CRH1A, CRH1E and CRH380D, in total 32 trains, for different levels of maintenance. All the maintenance will be completed by the end of 2021. In the last two years, BST has provided maintenance work for more than 1,200 high-speed train cars and has delivered the service with high quality. The award of this new maintenance contract further illustrates both customers trust in BST and BSTs full capacity and strong competitiveness to deliver integrated solutions in the high-speed train sector.

Bombardier Transportation in China is the full solution provider across the entire value chain. From vehicles and propulsion to services and design, Bombardier Transportation in China has seven joint ventures, six wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and more than 8,000 employees. Together, the joint ventures have delivered 4,700 railway passenger cars, 580 electric locomotives and over 3,000 metro cars, Monorail, APM and trams to Chinas growing rail transit markets. It is a major signalling supplier to the Chinese high-speed network and through its joint ventures, propulsion equipment and signalling systems are utilized in a total of 30 Chinese cities.

Bombardier Transportations Services division has around 8,000 employees globally, and a footprint varying by geography, based on different market characteristics. In 2020, Services had over 420 projects across 34 countries. In addition, our Services function has leveraged an effective value proposition, continuously delivering sales growth and high profitability, with over 190 new contracts signed in 2020.

About Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is a global mobility solution provider leading the way with the rail industrys broadest portfolio. It covers the full spectrum of solutions, ranging from trains to sub-systems and signalling to complete turnkey transport systems, e-mobility technology and data-driven maintenance services. Combining technology and performance with empathy, Bombardier Transportation continuously breaks new ground in sustainable mobility by providing integrated solutions that create substantial benefits for operators, passengers and the environment. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Bombardier Transportation employs around 36,000 people and its products and services operate in over 60 countries.

About Bombardier

With over 52,000 employees across two business segments, Bombardier is a global leader in the transportation industry, creating innovative and game-changing planes and trains. Our products and services provide world-class transportation experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Bombardier has production and engineering sites in over 25 countries across the segments of Aviation and Transportation. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, Bombardier posted revenues of $15.8 billion. News and information are available at bombardier.com or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

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The Bay Areas battle against the COVID-19 pandemic suffered a potentially large setback this weekend, as public health experts sounded the alarm over another variant of the coronavirus spreading across California and linked to multiple outbreaks.

The variant, called L452R, differs from the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant that was first found in the United Kingdom, as well as other mutations recently identified in South Africa and Brazil.

Scientists are not certain whether the variant is deadlier or more easily transmissible than the standard virus, but there was a sharp rise of cases in California linked to L452R at the end of last year.

Here is what experts have learned.

How was the California variant discovered?

Scientists identified L452R in Denmark early in the pandemic, but cases remained rare and isolated until November, when it was found in parts of California, said Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF.

Chiu led the genomic sequencing of samples from around California that identified the variant. It was discovered during routine screening, which has increased as scientists hunted for the U.K. and other variants.

What is troubling is the new variants rapid resurgence over the past few weeks. In mid-December, UCSF researchers had detected the variant in 3.8% of samples from California that they sequenced. By early January, L452R was found in more than 25% of samples.

You can see why this is concerning, Chiu said. We have a variant that was actually pretty uncommon prior to early December that since then is now roughly 25% of all the cases that were sequencing.

Is it more infectious than other variants?

Its uncertain. In California, researchers and public health officials are trying to figure out whether the L452R variant is more transmissible than other versions of the coronavirus in the state.

We do not know whether its more infectious yet, Chiu said. A formal epidemiological investigation needs to be done to establish what we call the R0 (pronounced R-nought), or the potential transmissibility of this particular variant.

The R-nought is a metric used by scientists to determine how quickly and easily a virus can spread. The coronavirus is thought to have an R-nought of about 2 or 2.5, though with measures like universal mask-wearing and social distancing it can be driven below 1, which means transmission is slowing.

Chiu said the fact that the new variant accounts for roughly a quarter of the cases in California is concerning that it may potentially be more infectious.

Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said that the variant was identified in the massive outbreak at a Kaiser Permanente emergency room in San Jose, which sickened more than 90 staff and patients and led to one death.

Authorities are working to determine whether the presence of L452R explains why so many people were infected at the Kaiser hospital or if other conditions account for the outbreak.

That is the question of the day, Cody said.

Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said in a statement that while its too soon to know whether L452R will spread faster than other variants, it certainly reinforces the need for all Californians to wear masks and reduce mixing with people outside their immediate households to help slow the spread of the virus.

Is the variant in circulation outside California?

The L452R variant has been discovered in at least 13 other states and several other countries. In California, it was found in Santa Clara and San Francisco counties in the Bay Area, along with Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and San Luis Obispo counties.

Officials dont know how prevalent the variant is because genomic sequencing is not happening equally across the country or the state.

Will the new vaccines be effective against the variant?

While much remains unknown about L452R, Chiu said it has mutations to the spike-shaped protein that the coronavirus uses to infect cells. Those mutations raise the possibility that the variant could reduce the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines, although more study is needed.

The data so far is very preliminary, but it basically does raise the concern that there may be some impact on the vaccine, Chiu said.

Experts do not currently believe the B.1.1.7 variant, which also has changes in the spike protein, will reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

How soon will we know more about L452R?

The only way to learn more about the California variant is to run formal laboratory and epidemiological investigations, experts said.

Chius group is starting by growing samples of L452R in a laboratory.

At UCSF, we have put eight samples from eight different cases of the variant into culture, Chiu said. The idea is that once you have the virus growing up you could then test it with blood from people who have been vaccinated or blood from patients and get some answers to those questions directly working with the actual variant.

Cody warns that the way the virus behaves in a laboratory setting may be different than how it behaves in the world, so it may take additional time to observe the impact it has in driving Californias case numbers.

The takeaway is not that we need to really start worrying about this variant, she said. I think the takeaway is that this is a variant thats become more prevalent, and we need to lean in and understand more about it.

Chronicle staff writer J.D. Morris contributed to this article.

Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
Boohoo is facing a backlash for hosting an international suppliers conference at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The three-day gathering took place at a luxury hotel in Dubai last week, with suppliers told to bring products and fabrics to show the online fashion business's bosses.

Senior figures from Boohoo attended, including chief executive John Lyttle, after flying there by private jet.

Controversy: Umar Kamani and Arabic model girlfriend Nada Adelle were reportedly present at the event in a luxury hotel in Dubai

Umar Kamani, 32, the founder of Pretty Little Thing and son of Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani, was reportedly present as well.

Boohoo last night insisted the event complied with Covid-19 rules but it appeared to fly in the face of Foreign Office guidance which advises against 'all but essential travel'.

Some guests are said to have mingled without masks during the event, including Lyttle.

A spokesman insisted that wearing a mask 'was compulsory during the meeting' but could not say whether their 53-year-old boss had observed the rules at all times.

Under Dubai's local Covid rules, people must wear masks in public places including inside hotels.

The event was said to have angered some suppliers, and some declined to attend. One said later they had been reluctant due to safety fears, but feared losing business if they did not go.

Boohoo is battling to draw a line under a sweatshop scandal after it emerged last year that workers making its clothes in a Leicester factory were paid as little as 3.50 an hour.

Glitzy: The invitation for event sent out to suppliers. Some guests are said to have mingled without masks, including Boohoo chief executive John Lyttle

Retired judge Sir Brian Leveson, who has been tasked with monitoring Boohoo's supply chain, warned that 13 of the company's suppliers did not have 'adequate Covid governance' in place.

The firm has been scrambling to reassure investors after a report last year detailed 'excessive' hours, life-threatening conditions and illegally low pay in some of its supplier factories.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who represents North West Leicestershire, said Boohoo bosses 'should not be flying'.

He added: 'When you have a company like Boohoo, which has tolerated massive labour abuses in its supply chain, we shouldn't be surprised to also hear that it is not respecting the Covid guidelines as well.'

Last month, Mahmud Kamani insisted he had been 'shocked and appalled' by the factory revelations and pledged to make 'a better Boohoo'.

Mary Creagh, a professor at Cranfield University, Bedford, who campaigns for responsible business, said: 'Before Christmas, Boohoo's bosses were in the House of Commons talking about the steps they were taking to better protect people working for their suppliers and become a more responsible business.

'Once again they talk the good talk, but when it comes to being a responsible business, investors and the board still do not seem to be getting the change they were promised.'

Boohoo said: 'In line with government guidance, everyone that travelled received a negative Covid test before they left for Dubai.

'The measures that we have all become very accustomed to in the UK, wearing masks, using sanitiser, social distancing and frequent hand washing, were implemented throughout the meetings. It is totally inaccurate to suggest that any supplier was pressured to attend.

'A number of suppliers declined the invitation and their choice was entirely respected.'
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Union minister on Monday said the protests against the Centre's farm laws were just a few people in disagreement, and added that the changes allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere like traders.

Speaking to reporters in Betul, the Union minister for petroleum and gas also took a swipe at protesters claiming it was difficult to make those understand who wanted to remain asleep.

"The disagreement of a few people cannot be called a farmers agitation. Is it there in Betul? MP agriculture minister Kamal Patel has shared his experiences with me. We are talking in a straight manner and are able to put forth our views in villages," he said.

He said the new farm laws allowed cultivators to sell their produce anywhere "just like a trader can sell his clothes in any market in the country".

When queried on whether the Centre was not being able to make the protesters understand its viewpoint, Pradhan said, "We are trying to make them understand. But in a democracy, it is a little difficult to make those understand who want to remain asleep," he said.

Asked about fuel price hikes, the minister said they would increase and decrease as per the market system.

"The world is facing a slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. We import crude worth Rs 7-8 lakh crore. When prices increase, it pinches us, but when they come down, we pass it on to customers," he added.

Pradhan inaugurated a biogas plant in the Bharat Bharti residential school premises here and said farmers of Betul could be role models for their counterparts across the country.

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission will hold its first 2021 meeting on Jan. 21-22 when it returns to Chattanooga and the Westin Hotel. The first day portion of the meeting starts at 1 p.m. (EST) Thursday and the second day begins at 9 a.m. Friday.

The latest information on chronic wasting disease (CWD) and disease management in West Tennessee will be presented. The deer hunting season recently concluded the weekend of Jan. 9-10 with the Young Sportsman Deer Hunt.

An amendment to change the start of the fall raptor taking season from Sept. 15 to Aug. 15 each year will be presented. It was changed to Aug. 15 in 2012. It has been noticed that it was inadvertently changed to Sept.15 during the last revision in 2018. This amendment will correct the error.

A presentation on White-nose Syndrome (WNS) will be given. The disease affects the bats and a population decline in Tennessee has been seen since it was first observed in 2010. WNA has been found in 12 of the 16 species of bats found in the state.

The commission will hear an update on the lake sturgeon restoration project. The reintroduction of the native and primitive species into the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers began more than 20 years ago by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and other partners. The long-term goal is to have a self-sustaining lake sturgeon population.

The TFWC last met in Chattanooga in July 2018. In addition, the Feb. 18-19 meeting of the TFWC will be held in Franklin at Marriott of Cool Springs.

---TWRA





Philippines to provide US$310,000 aid to North Cotabato hog farmers affected by ASF



Hog farmers in North Cotabato, the Philippines, who are affected by African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks, will receive support from the country's Department of Agriculture (DA) which will provide about 14.9 million (US$310,000) in cash assistance.

Provincial veterinarian Dr. Rufino Sorupia said the disbursement would be done by municipality.

736 hog raisers will receive assistance in Arakan on January 18, Kidapawan City and Makilala on January 19-20, President Roxas on January 21, and Magpet on January 22.

Each depopulated hog has an equivalent value of 5,000 (US$104.03).

"The total amount depends on the number of hogs that they owned and have been culled during our intense drive to stop the infestation," Dr. Sorupia said, adding that all affected local government units have earlier provided assistance to hog raisers in their respective towns.

ASF, which hit North Cotabato in August last year, has brought an estimated 16 million (US$332,912) loss to the province's hog industry.

More than 3,000 hogs have been depopulated so far in ASF-affected areas of the province.

"Yet, no additional cases were reported during the past one month since the last case was recorded, particularly in Kidapawan City," Dr. Sorupia said.

- Philippines News Agency
A mature mountain goat, suffering from at least three crossbow-related wounds was euthanized by Fish and Game conservation officers earlier this week.

Reports of the injured female (nanny) goat came to Fish and Game via the CAP hotline and Facebook; an accurate description helped officers quickly locate the goat just off Hells Canyon Road, south of Hells Canyon Dam on the Idaho/Oregon border. After watching the nanny for more than an hour, the officers determined that the animal was suffering and needed to be euthanized.

Closer examination revealed several apparent bolt wounds, including one in the middle of the animals forehead. A bolt hung from the hide in the animals left shoulder area, having apparently worked its way out of the adjacent muscle tissue. Another bolt was firmly lodged in the animals throat possibly preventing the goat from feeding and drinking properly. Officers reported that the animal was extremely emaciated.

Its difficult to look at the photos of this mountain goat, think about the needless suffering the animal endured and not be angry, Fish and Game regional supervisor Jon Rachael said. Shooting this mountain goat with a series of crossbow target bolts is one of the most egregious, cruel acts against Idahos wildlife that Ive witnessed in my career.

The goat was transported to Fish and Games Wildlife Health Lab facility for necropsy and further examination.

Citizens Against Poaching (CAP) is offering a reward for information in the case and callers can remain anonymous. Contact CAP at 1-800-632-5999 twenty four hours a day.

We need the publics help to bring these perpetrators to justice, Rachael added. In addition to the CAP hotline, persons with information regarding this case may contact the Fish and Game Nampa office at 208-465-8465 weekdays and Idaho State Police at 208-846-7550 on weekends. An online reporting form is also available on the Fish and Game website at https://idfg.idaho.gov/cap.

Mountain goat hunting in Idaho is tightly regulated with only a handful of tags issued statewide each year. Harvest is limited to once in a lifetime. The mountain goat hunting season closed in early November.
Mandatory Vacation-in-Place Requirement is Replaced by COVID-19 Health Insurance, Monitoring Procedures, and On-Island Rapid Testing for Those Staying Longer Than Five Days

NASSAU, Bahamas, Oct. 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Islands of The Bahamas today announced streamlined entry protocols that will enable visitors to better and more seamlessly enjoy The Bahamas vacation experience.

Effective 1 November 2020, The Bahamas will require all travelers to:

Obtain a COVID-19 RT PCR test five (5) days prior to arrival. Apply for a Bahamas Health Travel Visa at travel.gov.bs For the duration of the visit, complete a daily online health questionnaire for symptom tracking purposes. Take a COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test on Day 5 of the visit (unless departing on day 5). Always wear a mask and always social distance in public places.

In addition, beginning 14 November 2020, all visitors will be required to opt-in to mandatory COVID-19 health insurance when applying for their Health Travel Visa. The insurance will cover travellers for the duration of their stay in The Bahamas.

Specifics of the new protocols are as follows:

Prior to Travel:

1. COVID-19 RT-PCR Test

All persons travelling to The Bahamas must obtain a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR (swab) test taken no more than five (5) days prior to the date of arrival.

must obtain a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR (swab) test taken no more than prior to the date of arrival.

The name and address of the lab, where the test was performed, must be clearly displayed on the test result.



Exemptions :

:

Children age ten (10) and under.





Pilots and crew of commercial airlines who remain overnight in The Bahamas .

2. Bahamas Health Travel Visa

Once in possession of a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result, apply for a Bahamas Health Travel Visa at TRAVEL.GOV.BS



Click on the International Tab and upload test results and other required documents.



Fees for The Bahamas Health Travel Visa, inclusive of Day 5 Rapid Antigen Test and mandatory health insurance, are as follows:



$40  Visitors staying up to four nights and five days.

 Visitors staying up to four nights and five days.



$40  Citizens and returning residents.

 Citizens and returning residents.



$60  Visitors staying more than four nights.

 Visitors staying more than four nights.



Free - Children 10 years and under

Upon Arrival

1. Comply with Monitoring Protocols:

Any visitor who exhibits COVID symptoms at any time during their stay will be required to take a Rapid Antigen Test and receive a negative result before being permitted to continue with their vacation.

will be required to take a Rapid Antigen Test and receive a negative result before being permitted to continue with their vacation.

If a person tests positive they will be required to follow up with a COVID-19 RT-PCR swab test.

2. Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Testing (if applicable):

All persons who are staying in The Bahamas longer than four nights/five days will be required to take a rapid COVID-19 antigen test.

longer than four nights/five days will be required to take a rapid COVID-19 antigen test.

All visitors departing on or before five days will not be required to obtain this test.

be required to obtain this test.

The rapid tests are easy, quick and will yield results in 60 minutes or less with results being provided electronically via SMS text message and email.



Hotel properties will provide relevant information on testing arrangements, while others will facilitate the required rapid test for their guests.



All persons on yachts and other pleasure craft will be able to make arrangements for their required rapid tests at the port of entry or via the relevant website.



All other visitors, returning residents and citizens will be able to make arrangements for their required rapid tests at the port of entry or via the relevant website.

Notwithstanding any health restrictions that may be implemented from time to time, all travelers abiding by these new protocols will be permitted to move about and explore the beauty and vibrant culture of The Bahamas beyond the confines of their hotel or other accommodations.

The Bahamas is an archipelago with more than 700 islands and cays, spread over 100,000 square miles, which means conditions and instances of the virus can be different on each of the 16 islands available to welcome visitors. Travelers should check the status of their island destination before travelling by visiting Bahamas.com/travelupdates, where they can also review entry requirements applicable to each member of their party before booking a trip.

The Bahamas has remained diligent in its efforts to minimize the spread of COVID-19 throughout the islands, and these measures are imperative to ensure that remains the case. The health and wellbeing of both residents and visitors remain the number one priority of public health officials. It is important to note, however, that due to fluidity of the COVID-19 situation, both in The Bahamas and worldwide, protocols are subject to change.

PRESS INQUIRIES

Anita Johnson-Patty

General Manager, Global Communications

Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation

[email protected]

Weber Shandwick

Public Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation
Monday, which was the third day of the inoculation drive in the country, also saw a record dip in the number of COVID-19 deaths

The Centre said that a total of 3.81 lakh people had been vaccinated as of 5 pm on Monday, with a cumulative 580 cases of adverse reactions being reported so far.

Monday, which was the third day of the inoculation drive in the country, also saw a record dip in the number of COVID-19 deaths.

The Union health ministry said that 3,81,305 people had been vaccinated on Monday in 7,704 sessions across the country. The ministry added that two deaths were reported among the healthcare workers who were administered vaccine shots on the first day of the inoculation exercise (Saturday, 16 January).

Additional Health Secretary M Agnani also said that seven hospitalisations been reported in the country so far, since 16 January.

Almost two lakh sanitary and healthcare workers were administered one of the two approved vaccines, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, on the first day of the exercise.

Meanwhile, the National Capital saw a dip in the number of people who turned up for inoculation on Monday. PTI reported that only eight medical staff showed up to get the jabs at AIIMS. The development comes after one "severe" and 50 minor cases were reported in Delhi after the vaccination drive on Saturday.

The Rajasthan government decided to withdraw the night curfew in view of a decline in COVID-19 cases. It also slashed the rate of the RT-PCR test at private labs from Rs 800 to Rs 500. Despite the dip in cases, reports said that the state saw a low turnout of students after schools reopened on Monday.

Additionally, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan noted at the 148th session of WHO Executive Board that the COVID-19 pandemic will hamper progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

"We have to recognise that the poorest and most vulnerable are the hardest hit by the pandemic and that the impact of the crisis will reverse hard-won development gains and hamper progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, we must ensure fair and equitable distribution of COVID vaccines," Vardhan said.

"While each country has its unique approach in dealing with public health based on the strengths of their existing health systems and national policies and programs, I am sure that together we will continue to bring about improvements, aligned with our collective discussions," he said.

'No deaths due to vaccine so far'

Addressing a press briefing on Monday, the Union health ministry said that 1,48,266 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 25 states and Union territories till 5 pm on Monday alone.

Of the 1,48,266 beneficiaries who were administered the vaccine on Monday, 8,656 were from Bihar, 1,822 from Assam, 36,888 from Karnataka, 7,070 from Kerala, 6,665 from Madhya Pradesh, 7,628 from Tamil Nadu, 10,352 from Telangana, 11,588 from West Bengal and 3,111 were from Delhi.

Agnani also provided details of the AEFI cases reported so far: In Delhi, three hospitalisations were reported, out of which two have been discharged, and one who fainted is under observation at Max Hospital, Patparganj.

In Uttarakhand, the reported case of AEFI is stable and under observation at AIIMS, Rishikesh. In Chhattisgarh, one person is under observation at the Government Medical College, Rajnandgaon. Lastly, in Karnataka, one of the two cases of AEFI is under observation at the District Hospital in Chitradurga, and the second person is under observation at General Hospital, Challakere, Chitradurga.

Agnani also addressed the death of a middle-aged healthcare worker in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad and said that it was not related to the vaccine.

"Of the two deaths reported, the death of the 52-year-old man from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh (who was vaccinated on 16 January and died on evening of 17 January) is not related to vaccination as per the post mortem report. The death was caused due to cardiopulmonary disease," he said.

The second death was of a 43-year-old man, a resident of Bellary, Karnataka. He was vaccinated on 16 January and died on Monday.

"The cause of the death is anterior wall infarction with cardiopulmonary failure. The post mortem is scheduled on Monday at Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Bellary, Karnataka, Agnani said.

"No case of serious/severe AEFI attributable to vaccination till date," the additional secretary added.

The health ministry has said each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries per day and has advised states not to organise "unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day".

Delhi sees dip in turnout, only eight get jabs at AIIMS

Nearly 3,600 healthcare workers received the COVID-19 vaccine shots in Delhi on Monday, which is a further dip in the figures compared to that on opening day of the immunisation drive.

Under the nationwide mega vaccination drive launched on Saturday, a total of 4,319 (53 percent) health workers against a target of 8,117 were administered the vaccines at 81 centres across the city.

Various reasons are being attributed to the low turnout, including some technical issues and fears related to adverse events. However, the government has maintained that no case of serious/severe AEFI (adverse events following immunisation) is attributable to vaccination till date.

"On day two, 3,598 people have been administered corona vaccine. AEFI was reported in 26 persons," a senior official of Delhi health department said.

One "severe" and 51 "minor" cases of AEFI were reported among health workers who were administered the coronavirus vaccine in Delhi on Saturday, according to official figures.

An AIIMS security guard had developed an allergic reaction after receiving the vaccine. He was kept under observation of doctors, an official had said on Saturday.

According to the Union health ministry, 3,111 vaccinations were done in Delhi on Monday till 5.00 pm. The numbers reported on day two were much lower, a dip of nearly 28 percent from the corresponding figures on Saturday.

PTI quoted sources as saying that eight vaccinations were done at AIIMS, 20 in Safdarjung Hospital and 69 healthcare workers were vaccinated at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital.

Around 45 beneficiaries had turned up at the Safdarjung Hospital but then many of them had comorbidities or are on medication which are contraindicative for vaccination and that is why only 20 could be vaccinated. Messages were sent to 100 healthcare workers.

As far as eight vaccinations at AIIMS are concerned, an official source said, it was related to multiple factors, including apprehensions of adverse events and late notifications through the Co-WIN app, due to which many people got the information late and were not able to come.

"Also, those who had refused on Saturday were again included in the list and they did not turn up again on Monday. Around 20 people had turned up at AIIMS, of which some had fever while others had history of allergies, only eight beneficiaries received the shots," the source said.

At the Delhi government-run LNJP Hospital, only 12 healthcare workers showed up, compared to 32 on day one, as per data shared by official.

At Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, the number for Monday stood at 20, nearly half of the figures on day one: 45, officials said.

Telangana yet to use Covaxin, says report

The Telangana government on Monday said that the Serum Institute's Covishield will be administered on the second day of its inoculation drive as Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is yet to be dispatched to the centres.

Telangana received 20,000 doses of the Covaxin as against 3.64 lakh of Covishield. "Today (Monday) vaccination programme will be done in 324 session sites. Each site will administer 50 people. Only Covishield will be given as Covaxin is yet to reach the sites," the official told PTI.

The official further said Covaxin has not been used as the state received fewer quantities.

COVID-19 caseload details

The daily coronavirus infections fell below 14,000 for the second time this month taking India's COVID-19 caseload to 1,05,71,773, while 145 new fatalities were recorded, the lowest in around eight months, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

A total of 13,788 infections have been reported in a day. The country's death toll increased to1,52,419 with 145 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The recoveries have crossed 1.02 crore.

The daily COVID-19 infections were 12,548 on 12 January.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,02,11,342 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.59 percent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 percent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh.

There are 2,08,012 active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.97 percent of the total caseload, the data stated.

According to the ICMR, 18,70,93,036 samples have been tested up to 17 January with 5,48,168 samples being tested on Sunday.

The 145 new fatalities include 50 from Maharashtra, 21 from Kerala, 12 from West Bengal and 8 from Delhi.

A total of 1,52,419 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 50,438 from Maharashtra followed by 12,264 from Tamil Nadu, 12,166 from Karnataka, 10,746 from Delhi, 10,053 from West Bengal, 8,576 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,140 from Andhra Pradesh and 5,504 from Punjab.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

With inputs from agencies
1. Yes. The public must have assurances that ethical standards are met by everyone.

2. Yes. As long as an independent board hears the grievances, its a worthwhile idea.

3. No. The concept is too broad. It should be limited to the citys elected officials.

4. No. There are plenty of stipulations in place already. An ordinance is a waste of time.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say without seeing how it would be structured and applied.

Vote

View Results
There was congestion at major lorry terminals in Accra last Saturday and yesterday as travellers, many of them students and their parents, desperately searched for buses to report back to school in various parts of the country.



The development followed the directive from the President for schools at all levels to reopen, after about 10 months of closure following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Buses were in short supply at some stations due to the huge number of passengers at those stations, many of whom became stranded.



At the main Inter-city STC Terminal at the Awudome Junction and the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, both in Accra, as well as the VIP Bus terminal and the Neoplan Station, passengers waited in long queues to purchase tickets to travel to places such as Kumasi, Tamale, Sunyani and Cape Coast.



Some of the passengers expressed their frustration over the challenges they were facing in getting buses to their respective destinations in interviews with the Daily Graphic.



Bus stations



At the main STC Terminal, students, most of them in senior high schools (SHSs) and universities, said they were anxious to get back to school because classes and lectures were supposed to begin today.



Previously, arrangements were made with the management of the STC, who allocated buses to carry students to their various schools. But this is no longer the situation; now you have to be here to hustle it out, a UCC student who declined to mention his name claimed.



At the VIP Terminal at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, some of the students said they were travelling to their various schools in Kumasi.



As of about 2 p.m. yesterday, there were only five buses available.



Some of the parents accompanying their children said they had sought permission from their employers to travel with their children.



Mrs Martha Obiah Weidum, a parent, said her son was a fresher at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and that as a mother, it was the right thing to do.



As a parent, it is only proper to know at least where your child will be staying in school, especially when he or she is a fresher. I sought permission from my boss just to acquaint myself with the campus and the hostel he will be living in, she added.



At the Neoplan Station, the Station Master, Mr Isaac Oppong, said since schools reopened, the station had provided enough buses to convey passengers.



There has been no bus shortage; the only difficulty we are facing is that most passengers come without face masks, and when they are asked to buy some, they do so, but refuse to wear them, he said.



Meanwhile, a good number of passengers were seen with their face masks on, even though most of them wore it on their chins.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Mathematics student sentenced to 6 years in prison for political party office arson

 Moskva city news agency, Alexander Avilov

14:00 18/01/2021

MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI)  Moscows Golovinsky District Court on Monday found mathematics student Azat Miftakhov guilty in a case over the arson of an office of the United Party office and sentenced him to 6 years in penal colony, attorney Svetlana Sidorkina told RAPSI.

Earlier, this term was requested for the defendant by prosecutors.

The young man stood charged with the assault on the partys office in south Moscow in January 2018.

According to investigators, crime figures broke the premises window and threw a firer there. A criminal case was opened over hooliganism. Miftakhov pleads not guilty.




A 52-year-old British man faces six months in prison for sneaking out of his hotel room in Singapore to see his fiancee while serving a mandatory Covid quarantine for foreign arrivals.

Nigel Skea, 52, was locked down in the five-star Ritz Carlton Millenia last September in accordance with Singapore's mandatory 14-day 'stay-home' notice for incoming foreign workers and citizens.

According to Singapore's Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Skea left his room on three separate occasions on 21 September while not wearing a mask.

Nigel Skea (pictured with his Singaporean girlfriend Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai) was serving his 14-day quarantine in a room at the five-star Ritz Carlton Millenia (pictured) in Singapore in September

On one of occasion, 52-year-old Skea (left) climbed 13 flights of stairs to visit his Singaporean girlfriend Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai (right) who was staying on the 27th floor of the hotel

At 2am on the date in question, during Skea's third and final departure from his room, the 52-year-old climbed 13 flights of a stairwell to visit his Singaporean fiancee Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai, who was staying on the 27th floor of the $360-a-night luxury hotel.

The ICA did not disclose Skea's movements during the two earlier breaches.

For defying the strict quarantine rules, Skea faces a fine of 7,390 or a prison term of up to six months, or both, according to the immigration authority.

The 52-year-old could also have his work permit revoked. Forty-four foreigners who have breached the city-state's quarantine laws have already had their right to work rescinded.

Skea's girlfriend Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai (pictured) was staying on the 27th floor of the luxury hotel

Eyamalai, who was not required to be in quarantine at the time of Skea's visit, was also charged with helping her then fiance to break the quarantine rules.

The couple married in November last year.

A spokesperson for the Ritz-Carlton Millenia told Insider that the hotel 'observes all government-mandated regulations' when accommodating guests serving their stay-home notices.

'For privacy reasons, we are unable to provide any further comment on specific incidents,' the spokesperson added.

The couple were staying at $360-a-night luxury Ritz-Carlton Millenia hotel in Singapore

Singapore has reduced its overall number of coronavirus cases and deaths by strictly enforcing its 'stay-home notice' (SHN) for foreigners. The directive forces visitors to stay for 14 days in a room at a government-designated hotel.

The only time individuals are allowed out of their rooms is to undergo a brief swab test to check if they have contracted the virus.

Travellers staying outside of the government's SHN-dedicated hotels are issued an Electronic Monitoring Device to detect whether they have defied the quarantine.

Singapore has recorded under 59,000 cases and 29 deaths since the start of the outbreak.
Chandigarh: Four members of a family were killed when their car collided with a private bus on the Mahendergarh-Kanina road in Haryana, police said on Monday.

The accident took place on Sunday near village Jhagroli in Mahendergarh, they said.

Accident

The deceased hailed from Faridabad, a police official said.

Most of the deceased were aged above 50, he said, adding they were returning to Faridabad from Mahendergarh.

Those who died in the accident were three brothers and their sister, he said.
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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349
The University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine is planning to allow faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and other academic employees who do not have contact with patients to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the second phase of distribution. Thats an apparent violation of Philadelphias prioritization plans but fits a federal recommendation, illustrating another way the vaccine rollout has been fraught with confusion.

The city places higher-education employees in phase 1c of the vaccine rollout, which also includes people in the general population who are 65 to 75 years old. But Perelman last week sent an email informing staff that the school is placing that group in phase 1b.

PSOM faculty, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and students in clinical and basic science departments who are not engaged in patient care or enrolling patients in clinical research studies will receive invitations to schedule an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine based on the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations for Phase 1b, the Jan. 12 email said.

Philadelphias public health agency maintains that Penn cannot circumvent its prioritization plans, and the discord between the city and Penns plans is one of many thorny ethical situations that have arisen across the country over administering limited supplies of the vaccine. Though federal health officials have issued guidance, the Trump administration left it to local governments to administer the pandemic response, creating a patchwork of rules.

Many people who work in hospitals but have no patient contact, such as administrators, have been vaccinated in the first phase of distribution against local guidance, the New York Times has reported. Conversely, people with underlying health conditions that could make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 must wait until phases 1b or 1c, depending on where they live.

Others who are not high-risk are simply jumping the line by signing up to be inoculated by pharmacies with links forwarded to them by friends or family members in prioritized groups, The Inquirer has reported.

Temple Universitys Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Jefferson University did not respond to inquiries about their policies on vaccinating staff who dont interact with patients. But as the Times reported last week, numerous institutions, including Columbia University, New York University, Harvard, and Vanderbilt, are giving vaccines to employees who dont have front-line worker status.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health orders vaccines from the federal government for hospitals, which are supposed to follow the citys rules for distribution, said Jim Garrow, a spokesperson for the department. Currently, health-care workers who have direct contact with patients are being vaccinated as part of phase 1a. The rules do not allow academic staff in higher education who have no patient contact to be vaccinated until 1c, Garrow said.

We define health-care workers as people who have direct exposure to patients, so this includes not just doctors and nurses, obviously, but also front desk staff, he said. A professor sitting in his office in a whole other building is not considered a health-care worker.

Garrow said that the city would stop ordering vaccines for providers who were repeatedly and willfully not following the prioritization scheme.

P.J. Brennan, Penns chief medical officer, said in a series of statements to The Inquirer that the institution is working closely with the city but is following the CDC guidelines for Perelman staff.

The memo reflects the CDCs priority rubric for group 1b, which informs our plans along with the more specific guidance from the city of Philadelphia that outlines when individuals in specific jobs within our academic health system, or based on age and pre-existing conditions and other factors, can be vaccinated, Brennan said. There are multiple, evolving layers of guidance from the federal, state, and city level, and we continue to adapt our plans accordingly and collaborate closely with the city. We are united in our shared goals to ensure that all available vaccine is given to priority groups.

One Perelman professor who would benefit from the new policy does not agree with the schools decision to prioritize faculty who dont see patients.

Its surprising, given all the care and thought the university put into the early part of the prioritization, to see this quick change, said the professor, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the vaccine program and feared loss of a job if identified by name. Many of my colleagues are at very low risk of infection. And it seems like its gone from a very careful thought-out process to just a free-for-all, and that leads to inequities.
Five people have been charged over the theft of 250 tonnes of salmon, worth about $4 million, from a farming and processing plant in Sydney's south-west.

The salmon was stolen from the Huon Aquaculture Ingleburn plant between June and December.

About 250 tonnes of salmon were stolen from a processing plant in Sydney. Credit:Ben Rushton

Police will allege the five people used their roles in the company to falsely grade premium salmon products as waste and remove it from the plant for sale or to trade it for other products.

The theft was discovered after an internal audit at the plant found on average about 600 kilograms of salmon was unaccounted for every day. Over the six-month period, more than 250 tonnes of salmon were stolen.
IBM said it will acquire Taos, a leading cloud professional and managed services provider, in a move which further advances IBM's cloud migration and transformation capabilities, a key aspect of its hybrid cloud platform growth strategy.



"Taos adds the deep expertise, public cloud partnerships and innovative solutions needed to drive growth and adoption of IBM's hybrid cloud platform throughout the Americas," said John Granger, Senior Vice President, Cloud Application Innovation and Chief Operating Officer, IBM Global Business Services.



"The platform gives enterprises the freedom to choose from multiple providers to best meet their business and IT needs, and we are committed to helping our clients successfully navigate their open hybrid cloud journeys with those providers."



Headquartered in San Jose, California, Taos is one of the largest multi-cloud consulting and managed services firms in North America. The company brings 30 years of experience with leading brands across technology, financial services, healthcare, retail, transportation and education.



A leading adopter of public cloud technologies, Taos forged strong partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure to deliver data center migration, platform engineering and hybrid cloud managed services. Taos is recognized as an industry leader and positioned on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Professional and Managed Services.1



Leading IT industry analysts estimate the market for cloud professional services will exceed $200 billion by 2024. IBM's open and flexible approach to advising, building, moving and managing clients' hybrid environments gives enterprises the freedom to choose from multiple providers to best meet their business and IT needs.



This acquisition is the latest example of how IBM is expanding the breadth and depth of its hybrid cloud offerings to manage complex integrations  of technologies, people and processes. IBM announced its plans to acquire European cloud consulting leader Nordcloud on December 21, 2020.



"Our laser-like focus on helping clients migrate to the cloud, modernize multi-cloud platforms, and manage hybrid cloud environments over the past several years is a natural fit with IBM Global Business Services," said Hamilton Yu, CEO of Taos. "Our team brings over 300 certifications with leading public clouds to serve clients throughout North America, and we're thrilled to join forces with IBM and tap into its global delivery capabilities."



The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.  TradeArabia News Service
SP president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said his party would contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on its own, but keep its doors open for smaller parties, including that of his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. "The Samajwadi Party (SP) would fight the 2022 polls on its own, but keep space for smaller parties and keep its doors open for them," Yadav, who was on a visit to Shravasti, told reporters.

Asked if the SP would enter into an understanding with his uncle's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, Yadav said he has already said the doors are open for Shivpal and if there is any other winnable candidate of his party, he or she too would be considered. "We have already said we will not contest in his (Shivpal's) area and he would be made a minister after the formation of the government and given due respect," the SP chief said.

To a question on the upcoming biennial Legislative Council polls on 12 seats, he said if the elections are held, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to look after its MLAs as many of them are ready to "run away". "I do not know how many candidates have filed nominations, but if voting is held, the BJP will have to take good care of its MLAs as many are ready to run away, knowing that they would be denied tickets in the 2022 election," Yadav said when told that 13 nominations have been filed for 12 seats in the Upper House.

Taking a dig at the ruling party, he said the BJP gives membership on missed calls and asked for the mobile phone number which will ensure that farmers get the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops. On the COVID vaccine, Yadav said he has nothing against scientists and doctors, but has complaints against the government.

"I want to ask the BJP government when would the poor get free vaccination," he said, alleging that the government does not want to provide vaccines to the poor for free. The SP chief described the BJP as the "number one party" in telling lies.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Weather Alert

...FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 8 AM EDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures in the lower to mid 30s will result in frost formation. * WHERE...All of northern New York, and much of central and northern Vermont away from Lake Champlain. * WHEN...From 1 AM to 8 AM EDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Frost could kill sensitive outdoor vegetation if left uncovered. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. &&
I have just begun again going through four incomplete manuscripts of mine which were in various stages of progress when I stopped writing a couple of years ago. Three are novelsa political thriller, a historical novel and an imaginary conversation between a popular Hindu god and a troubled scientist (That is all I can say for now about the last one)and one unfinished biography of my hometown of Ahmedabad. I am determined to finish all four this year which would bring me to a total seven books, still three short of ten, a number at which I would call myself a writer. Until that number is reached, I regard myself as an aspiring writer. I have done only three so far.

I have never thought that having written one or two books or even five one should call oneself a writer. Ten is my personal objective when I would begin to think of myself as a writer. I have a long way to go and hopefully 2021 will take me 70 percent of the way.

I am happy to offer a teaser from my political thriller from a chapter titled Odors of Mochipore.

Odors of Mochipore

Chapter 1

It is only at predawn that Mochipore is free from the stench of rotting entrails. As night hands over the realm to day odors cease for an imperceptibly brief moment. They say you have to be born here to know when to capture that moment.

The odors never really leave Mochipore. They merely change their direction and intensity depending on the time of the day and how much sea breeze is blowing. By noon the summer sun has cooked the odors which are seasoned by the humid air so thoroughly that cases of people fainting in the middle of the towns main square are not altogether unheard of. Although it sits in the midst of hundreds of mango orchards Mochipore remains remarkably untouched by the heady fragrances of the fruit in various stages of ripening unlocked during the summer. Locals have a wistful saying here which goes: Even decaying mangoes inside my sweat-drenched armpit smell better than perfumes of Mochipore.

Mochipore (the former name of Mochipur) literally means Cobblertown because it was founded as one by Warren Hastings Shoe Company (WHSC) in 1820. The company was formed in 1818 to commemorate the life of the first governor-general of Bengal who died that year. Its motto was Why ride rough shod on the natives? The accompanying watercolor depicted a ramrod straight Englishman in white breeches, red tunic and black boots standing hands akimbo with his one foot on the severely bent back of a cadaverous and practically naked Indian peasant. To many this may have been just one drawing. To me it was the emblem of the British Raj--cruel but efficient.

WHSCs founder James Yule (1763-1827) had made a deal with the Nawab of Junagadh under which the company acquired 30 acres of land along the coast of the Arabian Sea to settle the States low class mochi population in a colony of captive cobblers whose sole purpose was to handcraft shoes for the (East India) Companys upper echelons who were required to make a profound impression on the subaltern native servants. It was instructive to learn that Yule thought one way the subaltern native servants could be impressed was if the upper echelons wore knee length boots whose untreated leather made a squeaky noise when the English officers perambulated. They never walked. They always perambulated with an authoritative gait.

When an occasional Indian had the temerity to greet an English officer, he would have an ever so slight expression of acknowledgement on his face. The best that anyone ever received by way of a return greeting was when an officer would raise his index finger, which seemed more like a warning or an accusation than a greeting. I want the subalterns to be alerted to the presence of their superior officer. He can always harrumph but squeaky boots sound more authoritative, he wrote in one of his diary entries. The practice of wearing boots made from untreated leather was discontinued soon enough in the face of mounting complaints among the Company officers that they left bloody shoe bites on the delicate English skin.

Several documents exist in the state archives, including a contract between WHSC and Mochipore for the monthly supply of 500 pairs of handcrafted buffalo hide shoes and 300 mugger or alligator skin handbags that the company shipped from the Veraval port and sold in fashionable stores in London. Yule first thought of creating a whole township full of mochis when once on his morning walk along the banks of the Jamna River in Delhi his shoe upper came unstuck from the sole after he tripped over a piece of rock on his path. Troubled by Yules plight a cobbler nearby took out his anvil, hammer, stitching needle and nails and fixed the shoe in 10 minutes. That shoe lasted Yule years. According to British archives, Mochipore became a thriving township within a couple of years after its founding with a population of 15,000 men, women and children. All men in Mochipore were haggard. All women were deprived and emaciated. And all children were unlettered and chronically hungry.

Among the documents found is a letter that Yule wrote to his wife Victoria but never sent. The letter is significant to the story of Firaq Husain Bhama because it makes a reference to the ancestors of the Muslim couple that adopted him in 1952, just five years after India became independent. Of all the cobblers that I have come across in this strip of a town, Bilawal Husain Bhama is the only one who manages to raise his craft to the level of art. His shoes are like second skin to me, said one of Yules entries.

Bilawal Husain and his wife Fatima had seven children, three sons and four daughters, of whom only three survived. One of the two sons to have survived was Liaqat who was born in 1915. By the time he was 16 Liaqats nikah was announced with his second cousin Zahera, who was all of 13. Liaqat was keen to escape the family vocation and become a member of the Congress Party inspired by an attorneyat-law who had returned to India from South Africa in 1916 after earning a considerable reputation in Natal and London as an agitator of extraordinary political astuteness.

That Mohandas K. Gandhis hometown of Porbander was barely 90 kilometers from Junagadh made Liaqat feel a sense of proprietorship about the man and his message.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:36:31|Editor: huaxia

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by Maria Spiliopoulou, Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Greece has made significant progress in recent years on shifting to a greener energy model, and supporting investments in renewable energy sources (RES), the country warmly welcomes the expansion of Sino-Greek cooperation in this field, Alexandra Sdoukou, secretary general for energy and mineral resources at the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy, told Xinhua in a recent interview here..

Last September, Greece broke both a national and a European record. On Sept. 14, 2020, RES (wind, photovoltaic) covered for 51 percent of the country's energy needs (57 percent including hydroelectric power), according to the Independent Power Transmission Operator S.A. (IPTO or ADMIE in Greek).

On the same day, wind power covered 40 percent of Greece's energy use, the highest percentage in Europe, according to WindEurope, an association that advocates wind energy policies for Europe on behalf of more than 400 member companies.

Greece is moving forward at a fast pace and is ahead of many larger European countries in terms of RES penetration in the energy mix, Sdoukou said. The share of RES in the country's final energy consumption was 20 percent in 2020, higher than the initial national target of 18 percent and aligned with the European Union (EU) target for 2020 of 20 percent.

AT THE FOREFRONT IN EUROPE

"Greece is at the forefront among countries that face with determination the issues of climate change and promotion of RES," she said. "Overall, we have a strategic goal as a country for an energy model that is greener, cleaner, more efficient but also more competitive, which we want to implement through comprehensive energy policies based on the support of RES investments."

Greece's National Energy and the Climate Plan which was revised a few months ago, provides for installed electricity generation capacity from wind power to rise from 3.6 GW in 2020 to 5.2 GW in 2025 and seven GW by 2030. Installed photovoltaic capacity is projected to rise from 3 GW in 2020 to 7.7 GW by 2030.

Greece's greenhouse gas emissions reduction, energy saving and RES penetration targets are more ambitious than those of the EU as a whole, proving the country's determination to move away from traditional energy sources sooner, the official explained.

Greece aims to phase out the use of lignite in power generation by 2028 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2030, she said, outlining the national goals.

Greece also wants one in three new cars sold in the country to be an electric vehicle by 2030 and the RES share in gross final energy consumption to be higher than 35 percent by 2030, while the EU goal currently is 32 percent. Likewise, the country aims to improve energy efficiency to 38 percent by the same year, while the EU target is 32.5 percent.

The transition to a greener energy model under Greece's national plan is estimated to require 44 billion euros (53 billion U.S. dollars) worth of investment by 2030, with nine billion euros allocated to the further development of RES, Sdoukou told Xinhua. Greek officials would like to see the first investments in offshore wind farms in 2025.

PANDEMIC FUELS DETERMINATION

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic not only has not slowed down their plans, but fueled the country's determination to utilize all available European funds and attract private investment in the green economy to cope with the new challenges and pave the way to economic recovery, according to Sdoukou.

"We believe that the policy of our country for ending the use of lignite and the gradual abolition of the use of fossil fuels in combination with RES technologies is by itself enough to give a boost to development, but also to certainly compensate the losses from the ten-year crisis that our country has gone through, as well as the consequences of the COVID pandemic," she said.

"Our ambition is to combine the recovery from the recession with the green economy and significant investments in the energy sector," she said.

When the novel coronavirus pandemic broke out, Greece had just returned to growth after an acute debt crisis which brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy. In 2020, Greece's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by about 10 percent, with the government expecting a strong rebound in 2021, according to the Greek Finance Ministry.

Domestic and foreign interest in RES is high as investments in this sector are profitable in many countries. In Greece, the state offers a stable regulatory framework and simplified licensing procedures, Sdoukou said.

TANGIBLE BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

In this drive to scale up renewable energy model, Greece welcomes technological solutions, know-how and capital from China, she noted.

"We always look with admiration and attention at the technological developments in this great Asian country. Moreover, China has undoubtedly become an innovation champion in green energy and of course this knowledge and experience are now transferred to Greece. We now have tangible business partnerships between the two countries," Sdoukou told Xinhua.

In the energy sector, of particular note is the participation of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), one of the global leaders in energy systems, as a strategic investor and shareholder in the IPTO, with the Greek state holding a majority stake in the company, she noted. This very successful and mutually beneficial partnership is a great opportunity for IPTO to share expertise and technical advances with the SGCC, she said.

In 2017, the Shenhua Group Corp. Ltd, one of the largest energy producers from conventional sources but also from renewablesin China, and the Capelouzos Group, one of the largest infrastructure investors in Greece, signed a three-billion-euro agreement on development cooperation in the green energy sector and on the environmental upgrading of energy generating units in Greece and other countries.

"I believe that the road is open for many similar investments by Chinese companies in energy. We, in the Greek government, want to expand this cooperation of our countries in RES, but also in many other sustainable development projects," Sdoukou said. (1 euro = 1.2 U.S. dollars) Enditem
Serious glitches in Western Australia's G2G Now app have led to people isolating at home being told to leave their two-week quarantine barely two days in.

Some have received warnings for failing to be at their designated address despite being at home, while others have been cautioned over missing check-ins that were never requested.

G2G Now users have complained about ongoing issues with the tracking app. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola

The glitches have sparked concerns among users that returned travellers carrying the virus could be out in the community despite not having completed their mandatory isolation.

Two days into his quarantine, Alexander Heights local Paul Kaye received a message on the app letting him know he had completed his mandatory quarantine and was free to leave his home.

Who will be the next CM of Assam? Sarbananda Sonowal or Himanta Biswa Sarma?

Assam Elections 2021: AJP urged by Raijor Dal to take alliance forward

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Guwahati, Jan 18: Assam''s newly floated political party Raijor Dal on Sunday urged another regional outfit Asom Jatiyo Parishad (AJP) to take forward discussions on forming a pre-poll alliance.

Elections to the 126-member Assam assembly are due in March-April.

Working presidents of the outfit, helmed by jailed RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, wrote a letter to AJP chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi, requesting him to decide on a date to hold discussions on forming the alliance.

"The alliance must be given priority as the prevailing situation and anti-people policies of the BJP demands it," the letter read.

Assam Elections 2021: EC official takes stock of situation

"Our party president had given a call to all regional parties to unite and form a party with one flag, one symbol but now though there are two new regional parties, we can still form an alliance in the interest of the state and its people," it said.

The ruling BJP government''s bowing to the Centre''s anti-Assam policies has convinced the democratic people of the state that the Raijor Dal and the AJP must come together, the letter read.

Gogoi later told reporters that the AJP has already decided on the alliance and there are no "ifs and buts" regarding this.

"We are proceeding in the right direction and I urge people to be patient as everything will fall in place at the right time," he said.

The Raijor Dal, however, has decided not to enter into an alliance with the AIUDF, which it has labelled as a "communal party like the BJP".

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

The Raijor Dal was established by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) while the AJP was floated by the All Assam Students'' Union (AASU) and the Asom Jatiyotabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) in the aftermath of the anti-CAA stir in the state.

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The agitation, spearheaded by the AASU, AJYCP and the KMSS, saw the deaths of five persons and the arrest and imprisonment of Akhil Gogoi.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 10:05 [IST]

A pair of teenage boys from Fort Wayne, Indiana are being praised for always carrying a tampon in case one of their female friends needs one.

Blogger Tara Ahrens said that when she first talked to her sons about how 'traumatizing' a bleed-through can be for a menstruating woman or a girl, her sons mostly remained quiet  but it wasn't long before they took it upon themselves to carry supplies to help their female classmates.

Now Micah, 16, and Elijah, 17, always keep tampons in their lockers in case of emergency, and their thoughtfulness is being applauded on social media.

Good guys: A pair of teenage boys from Fort Wayne, Indiana are being praised for always carrying a tampon in case one of their female friends needs one

Feminist lessons: Blogger Tara Ahrens convinced her sons to do so after explaining how 'traumatizing' a bleed-through can be for a menstruating woman or a girl

Writing for CafeMom, Tara, a mother-of-four, explained that it first occurred to her to talk to her sons about periods  and how period mishaps can be incredibly embarrassing  after reading about a man who stepped up to help women.

The man had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail when he gave a tampon to a fellow hiker, explaining that he grew up with moms and sisters.

Soon after, in the car with her sons, she suggested that they, too, should carry a tampon in their backpacks to help friends in an emergency.

She wrote: '"Bleed-throughs happen," Ive explained to my boys. "They are mortifying and can be traumatizing. Kindness and understanding from ANY friend goes a long way. Be that person."'

Initially, Tara didn't think her sons had really taken in her message, recalling: 'They seemed to think it over and didnt say much, because [they are] teenagers.'

But later that year, after one of Elijah's friends had a bleed-through at school, both boys decided to take her advice.

Generous: They now each keep a tampon in their lockers and have let their friends know they can be counted on

'The road to change includes erasing period taboos  maybe a couple of teenage boys at a time,' Tara said

Micah just told his female friends, while Elijah told everyone.

Unfortunately, Elijah was mocked a bit by some male classmates  but others thought it was cool.

Tara finds other ways to destigmatize female anatomy around her sons, including taking them bra shopping for their younger sisters.

In fact, Tara went viral for a post in the private Facebook group Pantsuit Nation in 2019, where she shared a photo of Elijah in Micah in the women's underwear section at Target.

'My teenage boys helped me shop today, which included buying their little sisters first bras because breasts happen,' she wrote.

'Both boys carry a tampon and a pad in their backpacks in case one of their friends needs one. Just a mom out here, trying to erase gender taboo!!'

No big deal! Tara finds other ways to destigmatize female anatomy around her sons, including taking them bra shopping for their younger sisters

Commenters praised the boys and also shared some of their own embarrassing period stories, saying they'd have love to know boys like Elijah and Micah in school.

'In high school if I needed a pad and a guy handed me one and said it's no big deal, my heart would have exploded,' wrote one.

Others praised Tara for raising her boys to be thoughtful about women in their lives.

Writing for CafeMom, Tara said: 'As you normalize these things in your own family by regularly discussing them, they become normal to your kids, too.

'It is an even bigger hope of mine that these small actions change the way kids in our high school handle and view the whole subject.

'The road to change includes erasing period taboos  maybe a couple of teenage boys at a time,' she concluded.

In 2018, another mother went viral for a post in the Facebook page Gurgaon Moms in which she praised her daughter's classmate for helping her get through her own bleed-through

In 2018, another mother went viral for a post in the Facebook page Gurgaon Moms in which she praised her daughter's classmate for helping her get through her own bleed-through.

'My daughter started her period on the bus ride home today,' she wrote. 'A boy a year older than her that she doesnt really know pulled her aside and whispered in her ear that she had a stain on the back of her pants and gave her his sweater to tie around her waist so she could walk home off of the bus.

'She said she was kind of embarrassed and originally said it's okay... but the boy insisted and told her, "I have sisters, it's all good!"

'If you are this boy's Mom... I want to say thnk you and that you are raising him right!'

Commenters on Reddit praised the boy as 'the hero we deserve,' 'the real MVP,' and an 'awesome kid.'
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.


A major garda operation over the weekend led to 1 million worth of cash being seized.

A NORTH Dublin drug dealer was the prime target of a major Garda operation over the weekend which led to 1m cash being seized.

The significant money haul was discovered concealed in a vehicle at an apartment complex in Raheny, Dublin, yesterday afternoon by armed detectives.

Other searches were carried out in the city centre while several cars have also been recovered to be examined as part of the investigation.

A criminal, originally from the Cabra area and a long-term target for detectives, is understood to have been the prime target of the raids.

Sources said the man, who also has links to criminals in the Finglas area, has been using a taxi in an attempt to go about his criminal enterprise undetected.

"This individual is certainly a significant figure in relation to organised crime but has managed to go undetected for several years, a senior source said.

"During the pandemic gardai have also seen an increase in people using taxis or obtaining taxi licences in an effort to hide their assets when transporting large amounts of cash around the city.

As part of yesterday's raids the man's Raheny home was searched and several cars seized during the operation by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB).

A Garda spokesman said that during the search of one vehicle a concealment of cash was discovered.

"The vehicle and its contents remain subject of examination. However, the amount seized is believed to exceed 1 million."

The cash was vacuum packed into several different bundles and in the process of being transported.

Gardai say their investigations into the 1m seizure are continuing and no arrests have yet been made.

It was the second major cash seizure in the capital in less than 24 hours following a separate operation in north Dublin where over 100,000 was seized.

Assistant Garda Commissioner John O'Driscoll, who is in charge of the Garda's national units investigating organised and serious crime, said that seizures were the latest success against crime gangs they are targeting.

"We continue to target those causing most harm in our community," he said.

"This seizure of a significant quantity of cash will, we believe, contribute to the disruption and potential ultimate dismantling of particular organised crime groups that we continue to target, building on earlier success achieved, in recent years," the senior officer said.

Yesterday's seizure is among the most significant by the GNDOCB so far this year and follows around 1m being recovered in Kildare earlier this month.

More than 3m in cash was seized in the first 17 days of 2021.

Last year the value of cash seized by the GNDOCB more than doubled on the previous year as gardai focus on targeting the profits being made by drugs gangs across the country.
NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Credit Suisse is pleased to announce an initial commitment of USD 1.2 million to establish the Credit Suisse Scholars Program, an ongoing endowment with UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to fund scholarships for students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) based in North Carolina.

This pledge reflects Credit Suisse's ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. It also builds on the bank's long-standing relationship with North Carolina and the people and families of the Raleigh Community, where Credit Suisse established a presence over 15 years ago.

Eric Varvel, CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings USA (Inc.), said, "Part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion is to ensure we hold ourselves accountable for creating equitable access to opportunity. One way to do this is by expanding the pipeline of underrepresented talent. The scholarships we will provide for HBCU students will help them complete their degrees and better position them for competitive opportunities."

"This is an incredibly generous gift from Credit Suisse to North Carolina residents," said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, UNCF's president and CEO. "We know that African American communities are disproportionately impacted by the lack of resources needed to go to college. Recognizing that need, Credit Suisse is providing a pathway for successful applicants to continue on their journey to attain a college degree."

About Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse is one of the world's leading financial services providers. Our strategy builds on Credit Suisse's core strengths: its position as a leading wealth manager, its specialist investment banking capabilities and its strong presence in our home market of Switzerland. We seek to follow a balanced approach to wealth management, aiming to capitalize on both the large pool of wealth within mature markets as well as the significant growth in wealth in Asia Pacific and other emerging markets, while also serving key developed markets with an emphasis on Switzerland. Credit Suisse employs approximately 48,800 people. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com

About UNCF

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students' education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically Black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20% of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized trademark, A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF.

Media Contacts

Anna Christensen, Credit Suisse, telephone: +1 212 538 4748, [email protected]

Monique LeNoir, UNCF, telephone: +1 202 810 0231, [email protected]

SOURCE Credit Suisse

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Ahead of the declaration of Assembly polls in five states, an (EC) team headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora arrived in Guwahati on Monday to review the preparations for the Assembly elections.

The election officials said that from Guwahati, the EC panel would go to Kolkata on Wednesday to hold similar review meetings for the Assembly elections. Assembly elections are expected to take place in Assan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in April-May.

Arora, along with election commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar and accompanied by senior officials, arrived in Guwahati on Monday evening.

A senior election official said that the full EC team during its three-day stay in Guwahati would hold a series of meetings with the political parties, police nodal officers, election related regulatory agencies, district election and police officers, state home secretary and other senior officials.

The EC team would also hold meetings with Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, and Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade.

A six-member team of the led by Director General Dharmendra Sharma had held held several meetings with senior Assam government officials last week to review the preparedness for the Assembly polls.

"Sharma had asked the officials to take specific steps, including training and selection of different categories of officials, identification and categorisation of polling stations for the smooth conduct of the elections," the official said.

The five-year term of the 126-member Assam Assembly would expire on May 31.

According the official, the EC team would go to Kolkata on Wednesday and during its three-day stay there, it would hold several meetings with the political parties and senior officials, including Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary H.K. Dwivedi and Director General of Police (DGP) Virendra.

Last week, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain had reviewed the preparations for holding Assembly elections in He had reportedly voiced concerns over the law and order situation in the state.

has witnessed political turmoil and frequent clashes between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the past couple of years. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar too has made adverse comments on the law and order situation on numerous occasions.

The state and the central authorities have also engaged in bitter tussles after BJP President J.P. Nadda's convoy was attacked last month, allegedly by the supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress, in South 24 Parganas district when the saffron party chief was heading to attend a rally.

--IANS

sc/arm

(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 Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Photo: (Photo : Standsome Worklifestyle / Unsplash)

Cocoa Beverages West Africa at Mondelez International head of marketing and full-time mom Ifeoma Chuks-Adizue opens up about the benefits of choosing your family over career. As a working mom, she says she was worried when she had to take a break from her work.

Chuks-Adizue told Good Morning America that a person has to make hard career choices for the family sometimes. She explained that it could be very painful, especially for a career-driven person, but admittedly, she said that it pays off in the long run.

Taking time off from work to care for her son

The mom from Lagos, Nigeria, shared that her son OJ was having a hard time with speech at school. She wrote alongside a now-viral post in LinkedIn that the school informed her of her son's need to repeat his class because of challenges in speech in June 2015.

Chuks-Adizue said that she had to focus on her son after the school highly recommended that the child take therapy abroad for one year. She also shared that it was a very significant time during that time because she was leading the biggest brand at work.

READ: Family Farm Rises from Fall After Neighbors Support Local Business

Struggling to decline a big brand

She then asked herself how it would benefit her if she declines the big brand, but her son would have a psychological problem. Chuks-Adizue knew she had to resign from her job, so as a working mom, she did not take it very well and cried a lot.

The executive mom was working at Procter & Gamble as the senior marketing manager at that time. She chose to take ten months off her job to care for her son. Now, OJ is ten years old, and Chuks-Adizue is working at Cocoa Beverages West Africa at Mondelez International as the head of marketing.

READ: Positive Effects of Working Moms to Other Family Members

How it made a difference in her life and career

On OJ's tenth birthday, Chuks-Adizue shared a post on LinkedIn to reflect on how far her son had come. Apart from that, she also reflected on how far her career had come too. She realized that her life had changed dramatically after taking time off, which had not affected her long-term career.

Chuks-Adizue shared with the outlet that working moms struggle with guilt. She said that many take time off from work to focus on their family while battling with themselves if they could still catch up with their career. She shared that her post would show working moms like her that they could so long as they are happy with their jobs.

READ: How Do You Manage Mom Guilt? 4 Moms Share How They Do It Effectively

Nearly half of working moms take a break

In 2020, Bizjournals shared that nearly half of working moms take a break from their career to care for their families. Over 43 percent believe that staying at home to take care of their children helps them save more than working and then paying for child care.

Over 35 percent of working women with children want to go back to work because they believe it was the best for them mentally. While four out of ten needed to earn money for financial stability, 64 percent would want to have a longer break.
A year after the lockdown imposed in the Chinese city of Wuhan shocked the world, the tactic is turning out to be an enduring tool for quelling the coronavirus almost everywhere.

When the first large-scale lockdown in modern times was implemented in China on Jan. 23 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was then deemed unproven and unthinkable, particularly by democratic governments who balked at the implications for human rights violations of limiting citizens freedom of movement on such a huge scale.

Yet almost 12 months on, the U.K. is in the midst of its third nationwide lockdown as it battles a mutated strain of the coronavirus. In Australia, the recent discovery of one case in Brisbane prompted a three-day lockdown. And China, which is experiencing its biggest outbreak since the start of the pandemic with over 500 cases, locked down three cities surrounding Beijing this month.

Prior to COVID-19 there was a strong global health discourse that argued against lockdowns and similar mass quarantines. This is but one area of thinking that the current pandemic has overturned," said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor in health security at the City University of Hong Kong.

As far as is possible, lockdowns are going to become part of the essential toolkit for governments to use in addressing the ongoing as well as future outbreaks," he said.

Wartime Measures

The speed with which China locked down millions of people when the pandemic broke out marked the first time that the measure had been taken on such a massive scale in modern times.

Until last year, severe lockdowns were synonymous with the waves of bubonic plague that swept through Europe from the 14th century. Even during the Spanish Flu of the early 20th century, no lockdowns were centrally imposed. China did, however, impose three major lockdowns in recent history: during a bubonic plague outbreak in its northeast in 1901, and two short ones following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and another amid a bubonic plague outbreak in Gansu province in 2014.

Foreign countries who were taken aback at the Wuhan lockdown found themselves doing much the same just months later as the virus spread uncontrollably.

After an infectious disease reaches a certain number of people, lockdowns cant be avoided because no other measure can stem spread, said Jiang Qingwu, a professor of epidemiology at Shanghais Fudan University.

Though its clear that there remains a large gulf between what the Chinese government is able to impose on its citizens during a lockdown compared to democratic countries. Ever quick to declare what the government routinely refers to as wartime" measures in response to relatively low numbers of infections, local authorities also ensured compliance by actions such as totally sealing off residential compounds. In some cases, people are not allowed to leave to get food, with deliveries arranged to them instead.

Chinas Unproven Antiviral Solution: Quarantine of 40 Million

According to the authors of a study conducted by Bloomberg Economics comparing how democratic countries fared against more authoritarian ones in dealing with the pandemic, a rapid and stringent lockdown is the kind of knee-jerk reaction that comes more naturally to authoritarian than democratic regimes."

In Chinas latest lockdown in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, the stringent measures are reminiscent of those from the Wuhan lockdown, which ended on April 8 after infections dwindled to zero. Residents in the northeastern city, 180 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of Beijing, are required to stay home for seven days as the city embarks on a second round of mass testing for the entire population of 11 million as cases in the region exceed 500. Flights and trains into and out of the city have been halted, as well as almost all public transport.

In contrast, democracies such as the U.K. in their versions of lockdowns have generally allowed people to leave the house to purchase essentials such as food and medicine, walk their dogs or exercise. Schools remained open in Frances autumn lockdown, while in its latest two-week lockdown this month, Israel is allowing people to gather outdoors in groups of up to 10, with exemptions for religious activities.

U.K. Faces Harder Lockdown Restrictions as Covid Infections Soar

But theres also been examples of democratic governments imposing extreme rules. One state government in Australia, where officials have reacted fiercely to flareups, banned even outdoor exercise and dog-walking during a brief lockdown in November.

Winter Resurgence

Chinese authorities argue that the countrys bounceback from the crisis proves that their approach works. And a winter resurgence of the virus in countries like South Korea, Japan and Sweden, which originally saw success with a minimal-disruption approach that avoided lockdowns, buttresses the argument for stricter measures, particularly as fatigued citizens flout stay-at-home advice.

The Best and Worst Places to Be in Covid: U.S. Sinks in Ranking

Given the huge number and high density of China, we have proved that [these measures] are very effective," Mi Feng, spokesperson at the countrys National Health Commission, told Bloomberg News.

In addition to concerns over civil liberties, many governments remain hesitant to impose the sorts of full lockdowns as seen in China because of the economic cost -- though research by the International Monetary Funds latest World Economic Outlook showed that if countries were decisive in taking such measures, they performed better in terms of protecting the economy. New Zealand is one such example, recording just 25 deaths after quickly imposing lockdowns, with life resuming to near normality soon after.

Early Lockdowns Saved Jobs in Government Responses to Pandemic

However, even China, whose economy has roared back to life, is cognizant of economic pressure. Since the Wuhan lockdown, authorities have tellingly steered clear of shutting down economically significant cities like Beijing despite substantial flareups. Officials turned largely to aggressive contact-tracing during an outbreak in the capital last summer.

Effective as lockdowns are, they are costly," said Yanzhong Huang, Director of the Center for Global Health Studies at New Jerseys Seton Hall University. Even for China, its unsustainable in the long term," he added, likening reflexive lockdown decisions to shooting cannonballs at mosquitoes."

With vaccinations drives now being rapidly rolled out across major western countries and China, the hope is that lockdowns will be far less common in 2021, though substantial uncertainty remains over how long itll take to vaccinate enough of the world population to safely re-open the global economy.

Despite the economic implications, Covid-19s legacy is likely that lockdowns will continue to be deployed during outbreaks of highly communicable diseases in the future, especially since theyre now a familiar concept to people everywhere for the first time in a century.

Restrictive quarantine itself is not a new invention and its application dates back to the Black Death in the medieval times," said Huang. But its ironic that such an old method remains the most effective despite the tremendous progress in medical sciences."





This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Representative Image

A total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine so far in India. Of these, a total of 447 adverse events were reported following immunisation (AEFI), the Union Health Ministry said on day two of the nationwide vaccination drive on January 17.

The six states where the vaccination drive was carried out on the second day of the drive are Andhra Pradesh (308 sessions), Arunachal Pradesh (14 sessions), Karnataka (64 sessions), Kerala (one session), Manipur (one session), and Tamil Nadu (165 sessions), he said.

Indias drug regulator has approved two vaccines -- Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford/AstraZeneca stable being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India -- for emergency use in the country. The country began the vaccination drive on January 16.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

According to the government, the shots will be offered first to an estimated one crore healthcare workers and around two crore frontline workers, and then to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities.

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

Here are all developments related to the COVID-19 vaccine in India:

> The second day of the immunisation drive against COVID-19 saw the Health Secretary being administered the vaccine as the total number to get the shots in Tamil Nadu crossed the 6,000 marks, with no adverse reaction reported, the government said.

> The Delhi government will take measures like counseling and formal phone calls in the coming days to raise the percentage of healthcare workers turning up for being administered COVID-19 vaccines, reported news agency PTI citing officials.

> Under the nationwide mega vaccination drive, a total of 4,319 (53 percent) health workers against a target of 8,117 were administered the vaccines at 81 centres across Delhi.

> There has been no case of adverse reaction or side-effects of COVID-19 vaccine in Maharashtra so far, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said. Talking to PTI, Tope also expressed confidence that "everything will be safe".

> The Uttar Pradesh government has said that the rest of the health workers in the state will get COVID-19 vaccines by January 22. A total of 20,076 healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle got their first jabs in UP on January 16.

> A national association of doctors and scientists has demanded that all data pertaining to COVID-19 vaccine trials should be made public to enable scientists and healthcare workers to make informed choices regarding the administration of vaccination. In a statement issued on January 17, the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum said the Clinical Trial Phase 3 data should be evaluated in a transparent manner as and when available for India for both vaccines and the decision to grant Emergency Use Authorization may be revisited once the Phase 3 trials are completed.

(With inputs from PTI)

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[January 18, 2021] DoctorOnCall Aid Relief For Flood Victims in Pahang with Free Telehealth and Medical Assistance Programme

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The State of Pahang has been badly affected by the recent torrential rain and is one of the hardest hit in Semenanjung Malaysia. DoctorOnCall, Malaysia's first and largest digital health platform, reached out to help lighten the burden of those affected with a free telehealth and an aid relief of basic medical and hygiene kit that was made possible via their network of doctors and pharmaceutical partners. The programme was part of DoctorOnCall's initiatives to fulfil its role as a responsible organisation in community development. Hazwan Najib, Director & Co-Founder of DoctorOnCall commented "DoctorOnCall seek to extend our hands to ensure that flood victims' health are well taken care off, as som of them may be suffering from flood related health conditions such as diarrhoea, food poisoning with some affected with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and even heart problems. The victims may have even lost their medical records, medical cards and the medication in the flood and in need of medical attention. With our free telehealth services for the flood victims, they will be able to reach out for consultations with our registered Doctors."



This initiative which was officially kicked off in Temerloh recently for 2 months includes free medications to be delivered to patients upon Doctors' prescription and discretion depending on the conditions of the patients. This has been made possible with DoctorOnCall's collaboration with pharmaceutical partners. To date, reports showed the number of flood victims which surpassed 20,000 across Pahang last week have dropped down to 7,012 people from 1,923 families taking shelter at the 92 evacuation centres statewide. "Adding to the circumstances of the current pandemic, the situation can be doubly overwhelming. With DoctorOnCall's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, we are hopeful that our efforts will be able to impact those in need," added Hazwan.

The programme was held in the spirit of volunteerism and togetherness with participating bodies such as the Pahang State Government Volunteers including the District Office and District Council, Pahang Social Action Council (MTSP) and Pahang Disaster Squad amongst others. About DoctorOnCall DoctorOnCall is Malaysia's first and leading digital health platform with 2 million Malaysians visiting our website for telehealth consultation, online pharmacy, medication delivery, health content, doctors and specialist booking services. Since its establishment in 2017, DoctorOnCall has established partnerships with top insurers, third-party agencies, hospitals, pharmacies and corporations. These include Prudential, Zurich, Allianz, Great Eastern, Caring Pharmacy, TMC Life Sciences and Columbia Asia Hospitals amongst others. For more information, visit us at https://www.doctoroncall.com.my/ SOURCE DoctorOnCall

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"Rehabilitation care plays an important role in the recovery of patients who have experienced debilitating illnesses and injuries," stated John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. "As part of our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America, we're proud to partner with Kindred to employ the latest innovation and technology to enhance access to these crucial services."

The new rehabilitation hospital is located on Kennedy Boulevard between Oregon Avenue and Willow Avenue and brings downtown Tampa one step further in the development of a fully realized medical district that will attract the best scientists and physicians to the region and transform the area into a center for healthcare innovation. The rehabilitation hospital is projected to be approximately 80,000 square feet and cost $35 million. Kindred will manage the day-to-day operations of the new hospital, which is projected to employ more than 140 caregivers and staff. Tampa General Hospital will provide medical support services, such as imaging, lab and surgical procedures. It is expected to officially open in February 2022.

Tampa General Hospital currently operates an inpatient rehab facility that is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). Clinical teams will ultimately move to the new site, while Tampa General Hospital will continue to provide pediatric and outpatient rehabilitation at alternate sites.

A small, physically distant groundbreaking ceremony was held on January 18, 2021. In attendance were John Couris, president and CEO, Tampa General, Russ Bailey, president, Kindred Rehabilitation Services, and Cleve Haralson, vice president of capital development for Kindred Healthcare.

"Breaking ground on Kindred's first freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Florida is a great way to start 2021," said Russ Bailey, president, Kindred Rehabilitation Services. "Working together with Tampa General, we can bring a dedicated intensive rehabilitative facility to the Tampa Bay region that will help patients achieve their best possible recovery."

The new inpatient rehabilitation hospital will care for adults recovering from conditions such as stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord and other debilitating illnesses or injuries. The new facility will offer state-of-the-art technology and feature all private rooms. It will also have a secured brain injury unit with private dining and a therapy gym.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for inpatient rehabilitation services," noted Couris. "Some patients need specialized help with ventilator recovery and rebuilding their strength and function. While we hope that the pandemic is not a major consideration at the time of opening the new rehabilitation hospital, it's good for our region to know that we're here to help when needed."

Health Affairs Journal projects that 700,000 survivors of COVID-19-related hospitalization will require inpatient rehabilitative care. "We have the resources to help patients reduce disability and create the best opportunity for patients to achieve a full recovery," said Bailey. "Tampa General's long experience as a CARF-accredited rehabilitation hospital is an added benefit and will help establish our new facility as a strong resource for the community."

Transitional living apartments designed to simulate a residential apartment will enable patients to heal in a personalized and private environment as they prepare to return to independent living. Patients will also experience specially planned rooms to treat dialysis patients and programs dedicated to neurological conditions, stroke, brain injury and amputation recovery.

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL

Tampa General Hospital, a 1006-bed non-profit academic medical center, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region's only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2020-21 Best Hospitals, and one of the top four hospitals in Florida, with five specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. It is one of the nation's busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital's footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health and 19 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track. As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost. For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

ABOUT KINDRED HEALTHCARE

Kindred Healthcare, LLC is a healthcare services company based in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $2.7 billion(1). At September 30, 2020, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 23,900 employees providing healthcare services in 327 locations in 35 states, including 64 long-term acute care ("LTAC") hospitals, 22 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 10 sub-acute units, behavioral health services, and non-affiliated hospital-based rehabilitation services in 101 inpatient rehabilitation units and 130 LTAC hospitals, medical/surgical and outpatient therapy sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune magazine's Most Admired Healthcare Companies for nine years, Kindred's mission is to help our patients reach their highest potential for health and healing with intensive medical and rehabilitative care through a compassionate patient experience. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

_______ (1) Revenues for the last twelve months ended September 30, 2020.

Media Contacts: Jen McVan Susan E. Moss Senior Director Marketing & Communications SVP, Marketing & Communications (813) 373-9505 (502) 596-7296

SOURCE Tampa General Hospital
CHICAGO, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Packaging Printing Market by Printing Ink (Aqueous, UV-based), Printing Technology (Flexography, Gravure, Digital), Packaging Type (Labels & Tags, Flexible), Application (Food & Beverages, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals), & Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Packaging Printing Market size is projected to grow from USD 352.1 billion in 2020 to USD 433.4 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2020 to 2025.

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The market is projected to grow in accordance with the increase in the demand for packaging printing for attractive packaging of food & beverage products across the globe. Furthermore, the market is witnessing demand, owing to the rise in manufacturing activities. The market is driven by factors such as strong growth in the packaging industry, along with the growing demand for aesthetic appeal and innovative printing techniques.

The labels & tags segment is estimated to have the largest share in 2019

The packaging printing market, on the basis of packaging type, is classified into labels & tags, flexible packaging, corrugated, folding cartons, and others, which includes wood and textile packaging. The labels segment accounted for the largest share in 2019, due to its numerous applications such as displaying sequential barcodes and numbering, variable text, titles, or graphics and add substantial value to the product.

The food & beverages segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period

The food & beverages segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing segment during forecast period (2020-2025). The demand for packaging printing is experiencing high demand from the food & beverage industry, mainly because of the growing demand for packaged and branded products. An increase in demand for product differentiation and labeling for their authentication drives the market growth for printing in the food & beverage packaging segment.

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Asia Pacific projected to account for the largest share in the packaging printing market by 2025

Asia Pacific, with emerging economies such as China and India, is expected to drive the packaging printing market. China is projected to account for the largest market share and dominate the Asia Pacific packaging printing market by 2025. The growing healthcare and food & beverage industries are likely to drive the demand for packaging printing in China. In addition to this, the country's large consumer base, overall positive economic environment, and an increase in manufacturing activities will drive demand in the packaging industry.

The major players include Mondi plc (Austria), Sonoco Products Company (US), Graphics Packaging Holding Company (US), Quad/Graphics (US), Amcor Limited (Australia), Constantia Flexibles (Austria), Quantum Print and Packaging Limited (UK), WS Packaging Group (US), Toppan Printing Company (Japan), and Duncan Printing Group (UK). Companies have adopted strategies such as new product launches and acquisitions to cope with the increasing demand in the emerging markets.

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Browse Adjacent Markets: Packaging Market Research Reports & Consulting

Related Reports:

Industrial 3D Printing Market by Offering (Printers, Materials, Software, Services), Application (Manufacturing, Prototyping), Process, Technology, Industry (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-3d-printing-market-160028620.html

COVID-19 Impact on 3D Printing Market by Offering (Service, Printer, Material, and Software) - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/covid-19-impact-on-3d-printing-market-216201885.html

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The police had also booked executive editor Paojel Chaoba and editor-in-chief Dhiren Sadokpam of The Frontier Manipur online news portal under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act

Imphal: A day after detaining two journalists for sedition following the publication of an article "endorsing revolutionary ideologies" on their news portal, the Manipur Police on Monday released them as they admitted that it was published due to oversight, an officer said.

The police had also booked Executive Editor Paojel Chaoba and Editor-in-chief Dhiren Sadokpam of The Frontier Manipur online news portal under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The move followed the publication of an article, "Revolutionary journey in a mess" by M Joy Luwang, on the website on 8 January. It criticised the "revolutionary groups" of Manipur for moving away from their cause.

"They were detained on Sunday evening as part of the investigation process," Imphal West Superintendent of Police PK Meghachandra told PTI.

The police released them on Monday afternoon after they admitted in writing that the source was "unverified" and the article was published due to oversight and such mistakes will not recur, he said.

The police had registered an FIR suo motu saying that the article "openly endorsed revolutionary ideologies and activities and expressed shock at the deteriorating character of armed revolutionaries of Manipur in the last decade".

In a letter to the police, Chaoba said, "I submit that it was an oversight from our part. There will be no such mistakes which will not pass on scrutiny in future." He also said that "the source was unverified but came from one person called M Joy Luwang."
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NTC014 seeks to provide physicians with rational treatment for moderate to severe bacterial conjunctivitis, a common eye infection

NTC, an international R&D-focused pharmaceutical company based in Italy, and Zhaoke (Hong Kong) Ophthalmology Pharmaceuticals Limited, have fully integrated the ophthalmology platform with a leading foundation in eye care, announced its agreement for an exclusive license and distribution rights to NTC014, an innovative fixed combination of quinolone antibiotic and NSAID eye drops. Zhaoke will commercialise NTC014 in the People's Republic of China , Hong Kong , Macao , Taiwan, ASEAN countries and South Korea .

NTC014 seeks to provide physicians with rational treatment for moderate to severe bacterial conjunctivitis, a common eye infection. Current treatment is mainly based on the combination of antibiotics or not with steroids without a clear time window of administration. NTC014 is a first-of-its-kind eye drop solution that combines high antibiotic efficacy on bacteria most commonly implicated in eye infections and inflammation-associated NSAID-like control signs and symptoms.

"We are proud to partner with Zhaoke, an innovative company," stated Riccardo Carbucicchio, CEO, NTC. "NTC014 will make the next level of treatment for bacterial conjunctivitis available to millions of patients. It targets a faster response to 'signs and symptoms' compared to available solutions and without limitation of use. Furthermore, NTC014 is consistent with our dedicated mission to contribute to the fight against antibiotic resistance by using fewer antibiotics for a shorter duration of treatment. "

Dr Benjamin Li , CEO, Zhaoke Ophthalmology Limited, explained: "We are excited about this partnership with NTC, which seamlessly integrates with our mission to bring innovative therapies to patients in China and Asia. Additionally, NTC's NTC014 fixed-dose combination strengthens Zhaoke's already comprehensive ophthalmology portfolio. We look forward to working with NTC to develop this product for patients in need. "
Three injured in clash during rally for Ram Mandir donation in Kutch

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Gandhidham, Jan 18: Three persons have been injured in a clash between members of two communities in Gujarat's Kutch district during a rally for collection of funds for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, police said on Monday.

After the incident took place on Sunday evening, the body of a man was found about 200 metres from the clash site in Kidana village, and the police are trying to ascertain if he was killed as part of that violence, Kutch (East) Superintendent of Police Mayur Patil said.

President Ram Nath Kovind donates Rs 5 lakh in his personal capacity for Ram Mandir

Two groups clashed and started throwing stones at each other in the village on Sunday evening when a procession was being taken out for the collection of funds for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, an official from Gandhidham (B-Division) police station said.

Some vehicles were also set afire by rioters, he said. The police lobbed teargas shells to bring the situation under control, he said. Three persons were injured in the incident and were admitted in a hospital, the official said.

As part of diplomatic outreach, India to give COVID-19 vaccine to other countries in few weeks

A man was killed with sharp weapons after a group attacked an autorickshaw on the village outskirts, and the police are trying to ascertain if he was killed as part of the clash, Superintendent of Police Mayur Patil said. "We have lodged a case of murder after the man was killed by some unidentified persons on the village outskirts, some 200 metres away from the place where the clash broke out.

We are trying to find out who killed him and why," Patil said. The victim, hailing from Jharkhand, was returning from work in an auto-rickshaw when a group of unidentified persons carryinglathis (wooden sticks) attacked the vehicle, he said.

"While other passengers managed to escape, the victim died of knife injuries. How he received the injuries is yet to be ascertained," the SP said.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 15:28 [IST]
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Russias Ombudsman urges creation of foundations to support victims of crimes

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

18:37 18/01/2021

MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI)  It is feasible to initiate the formation in Russia of a legal platform enabling the establishment of foundations aimed at support of victims of crimes and compensation of their damages, Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova believes.

The time is ripe for the move, which has already been implemented in the framework of state programs in many foreign countries, the Ombudsmans issue paper reads.

Moskalkova notes that in Russia there has already been in existence practices of compensating damages of and aiding the victims of calamities, technological disasters, plane crashes and so on.

The Ombudsman believes these practices are to be taken into account when developing the legal foundations for the proposed measure and amending the current legislation in order to strengthen legal guarantees ensuring that the rights of victims of crimes are safeguarded; it would be also feasible to continue a discussion of a bill presented by the Investigative Committee in 2012 as to additional state guarantees for victims of crimes, she observes.

According to the paper, the Ombudsman Office received 2,187 complaints concerning violations of rights of victims of crimes in the first nine months of 2020.
Dr. Paul Savory joins CSU Global as Provost for the 100% online university As provost, Dr. Savory will serve as the Chief Academic Officer to help ensure the continued focus on providing modern learners with high-quality, career-relevant academic offerings that deliver workplace success with a quantifiable return on investment.

Colorado State University Global (CSU Global) President Pamela Toney has named Dr. Paul Savory to become the institutions next provost. His appointment is effective Jan. 18, succeeding Interim Provost Dr. Angela Hernquist, who will assist in the transition through her new role as the universitys Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs.

As provost, Dr. Savory will serve as the Chief Academic Officer, providing leadership, direction, and evaluation of all academic and educational activitiesincluding but not limited to accreditation, educational policies, programs, processes, and personnel as it relates to CSU Globals strategic planto help ensure the continued focus on providing modern learners with high-quality, career-relevant academic offerings that deliver workplace success with a quantifiable return on investment.

When we began our search for this position, we understood that it was important to find a leader with a depth of experience in higher education leadership, a commitment to data-driven decision making, and an understanding of how to develop career-relevant curriculum in an online environment, said President Toney. We sought a candidate who could engage with faculty and community stakeholders alike to provide innovative educational opportunities for our students. Dr. Savory not only fulfills all these criteria but also brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in teaching and learning that will further elevate our student experience.

Dr. Savory comes to CSU Global as a distinguished teacher, researcher, and author with over 25 years of higher education and industry experience. Most recently he served as provost and executive vice president of Doane University in Nebraska. Dr. Savorys higher education experience also includes serving as vice president of academic affairs at Nebraska Methodist College, where he helped launch 10 new programs. He also has extensive teaching and university leadership experience from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where he served as a distinguished professor in the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering Department and the Department of Management. During his time at UNL, Dr. Savory also served as interim associate vice chancellor for extended education & outreach, where he developed innovative strategies for expanding online education. In addition to his expertise in higher education, Dr. Savory comes to CSU Global with corporate experience as a strategist and data analytics scientist at Union Pacific, a Fortune 200 company.

It is an honor to be selected as provost of CSU Global, the premier online university in the nation, said Dr. Savory. I want to thank President Toney and the entire CSU Global community for the opportunity. I look forward to working with faculty to provide an outstanding educational experience that prepares students to be successful for challenges and opportunities in a changing world.

Dr. Savory earned a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. in Operations Research from Oregon State University. He completed his doctorate in Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University.

As a former corporate strategist, Dr. Savory is keenly aware of the importance of collaboration with industry leaders to ensure students are career-ready. I am eager to collaborate with stakeholders to develop cutting-edge online opportunities for our students,  he said. Fostering employer relationships is a key tactic for how CSU Global stays ahead of the curve and prepares its students for a changing world and workforce. Dr. Savory also understands that academics is just one of the many responsibilities held by todays learners. I am proud to be a part of a university that allows students to balance career, family, and personal commitments with their desire to advance their education.

Dr. Savorys appointment was made after a thorough search process that included members of the CSU Global Governance Council, CSU Global academic and administrative leadership, and an open interview panel with faculty.

About Colorado State University Global

Colorado State University Global (CSU Global) offers career-relevant bachelors and masters degree programs for working adults and nontraditional learners. As the first and only 100% online, fully accredited public university in the United States, CSU Global is focused on student success as its number one priority. Embracing the land grant heritage as part of the Colorado State University System, CSU Global sets the standard for quality and innovation in higher education through its expert faculty who are recognized as industry leaders and trained in working with adults in an online learning environment. CSU Global offers accelerated eight-week courses that start every four weeks. Visit CSUGlobal.edu to learn more.
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ICSI has mentioned that no physical copy of the Result-cum-Marks Statement shall be issued to the candidates.

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) will declare the results of the CS Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) today, 18 January, on its official website. Candidates who had given the examination will be able to check their results online at icsi.edu.

The CS Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) was held on 9 January and 10 January.

As per ICSI's official notification, the result, along with the individual candidate's subjectwise break-up of marks will be made available on the Institute website.

ICSI has further stated that the formal e-Result-cum-Marks Statement of CS Executive Entrance Test will be uploaded on the website immediately after the declaration of the result so that candidates can download it for their reference, use and records. ICSI has mentioned that no physical copy of the Result-cum-Marks Statement shall be issued to the candidates.

Here's how to check the ICSI CSEET results 2020 on the website after it is declared:

Step 1: Candidates must visit the official website at icsi.edu.

Step 2: Once on the homepage, they need to click on the link that reads, "Click here to view Result and Download E-Mark Sheet."

Step 3: Candidates will be redirected to a new page where they will have to key in their credentials and login.

Step 4: The CSEET results 2021 will be displayed on the screen.

Step 5: Candidates need to download the result for future reference.

As per a report in The Times of India, candidates are advised to visit the official website after 2 pm to check and download the result.
Delhi, Thursday, January 15th, 2021: In a bid to contribute to the corporate employee health across the globe, Vantage Circle is hosting a Global Corporate Virtual Walkathon to mark its 10th anniversary under its flagship product Vantage Fit from 30th January-1st March 2021. Covid-19 has led to many challenges and the health of the greater section has been adversely affected. On the occasion, Mr. Anjan Pathak , the CTO and 
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Some Nigerians living in the United States have designed a special attire, popularly called Aso Ebi, to be won on Wednesday, January 20 fo...

Some Nigerians living in the United States have designed a special attire, popularly called Aso Ebi, to be won on Wednesday, January 20 for the inauguration of Joe Biden and Harris Kamala as President and Vice President of the US respectively.

In a video that surfaced online showing the attire, Biden and Harriss names were imprinted on the Aso Ebi showed off by two Nigerian men.

The attire also had their pictures and a caption, victory party.

The Nigerians, whose identity could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report, said they were taking theirs to tailor.

One of the joyous Nigerians said, So, Aso Ebi is ready now. Can you see this? It is ready. I am taking mine to the tailor for the inauguration.

Another Nigerian, who spoke in Yoruba, said, We will rock this. We will sweep away all those with negative mindsets out of the white house.

The term aso ebi is coined from two Yoruba words  aso meaning cloth and ebi, which means family. It is a uniform dress that is traditionally worn as a means of identification for relatives at weddings, funerals, and other celebrations as a form of support and solidarity.

It is made from different attires such as Ankara, Lace, Guinea among others.

It was gathered that plans for the inauguration had already been scaled-down out of pandemic concerns and fears of new violence by unyielding Donald Trump supporters after the January 6 riot.

Thousands of National Guard troops were filling downtown Washington, the normal crowd has been banned, and streets have been blocked with heavy trucks and concrete barriers.

Traditionally, an outgoing president and previous presidents attend inaugurations, underscoring unity and the democratic transfer of power.

This year, ex-presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama will be on the dais. Jimmy Carter, 96, is staying home, given the pandemic while Trump, who spent the past two months claiming Biden won the election by fraud would not attend.

According to reports, Trump, who is planning to leave Washington ahead of inauguration, will be the fourth president to skip the event. The last was in 1869. But outgoing Vice President Mike Pence will attend.

Virtual parties and concerts

AFP reports that parades, parties, and concerts would be online or televised. Five days of events are planned, with multiple-artist concerts on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

On Tuesday, Biden and Harris will lead virtual commemorations across the country for the 400,000 Americans dead from coronavirus.

On inauguration day they will hold a Parade Across America, an online 50-state tour of speakers, artists, and performers.

The main event on Wednesday night stars John Legend, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Ant Clemons, the Foo Fighters and Demi Lovato.

And for at-home parties, there is a curated Biden+Harris Playlist.
Former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is testing his already low popularity by provoking a political crisis that could bring down Italys coalition government at a critical juncture in the coronavirus pandemic.

Renzi orchestrated the resignations of two ministers from his tiny but key Italia Viva party. The outcome of his power play will become clearer this week, when Premier Giuseppe Conte addresses both houses of Parliament. If Conte makes a successful bid for support, he could remain in power, possibly heading would be his third coalition government since Italys 2018 election.

This is not Renzis first foray as an iconoclast shaking up Italian politics. He became premier in 2014 by out-maneuvering and unceremoniously deposing then-fellow Democratic Party member Enrico Letta as Italys leader. Renzi himself fell from power nearly three years later after gambling his popularity on a constitutional referendum that failed.

Now, the 46-year-old former Florence mayor might bring down Conte. He broadly accuses the premier of not properly managing the coronavirus crisis. Renzi says he is only following his conscience, at great political cost.

Italia Viva did not start the crisis. It has been going on for months, he asserted during a press conference last week.

Renzi, a senator for the Italia Viva party, supported Conte during an earlier, failed power grab by Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing League party that was part of Contes first government.

New polls show junior coalition partner Italia Viva has the support of just 2.4% of survey respondents, down from a high of 6.2% at the partys inception. Italia Viva was created in September 2019 when Renzi bolted the Democratic Party he once ran. He brought with him two Cabinet members, giving himself the kind of leverage he employed last week.

CONTES NEXT MOVE

With the resignation of the Italia Viva ministers, Conte is working to shore up support in parliament among independent lawmakers. He still has the backing of the Democratic Party and the 5-Star Movement, which have criticized Renzis move as irresponsible.

Conte will make his case in the lower house on Monday and to the Senate on Tuesday. A voice vote will take place after each appearance, tantamount to a vote of confidence.

If he fails to secure enough backing, Conte would likely submit his resignation to Italian President Sergio Mattarella. In that case, a technical government could be put in place. Analysts believe an early election is the least likely outcome, due to the difficulty of holding a political campaign and election during the pandemic. There are also concerns that the right-wing opposition would gain strength, and possible lead a new government. The current majority would like to hold on at least until January 2022, when a new president must be chosen.

Conte may survive to lead what would be his third government by cobbling together enough support in both houses. And it is still possible that Italia Viva will restore its backing.

WHATS AT STAKE

Italy expects to have 222 billion euros ($268 billion) in European Union economic recovery funds to manage, money that is crucial to modernizing the country and its limping economy.

While Conte had wide support during Italys devastating go-round with the coronavirus in the first half of 2020, cracks in his popularity have appeared during the even more deadly fall resurgence. Four months into the governments system of tiered restrictions, new confirmed daily infections remain stubbornly high, and Italys pandemic death toll of 81,800 is the second-highest in Europe after Britain.

Contes government also is under fire for not keeping high schools open during the pandemic, a decision mostly tied to inadequate transportation to allow for social distancing. And there are concerns that Italy does not have enough medical personnel to carry out the countrys vaccination campaign.

But the crisis was ultimately spurred when Conte presented a plan that would have put himself in charge of managing the EU recovery funds. Political analyst Wolfgang Piccoli called it the ultimate mistake, setting up Renzis move to reassert his own prominence.

Italians are showing little patience for the political infighting when the nations priority is getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and rolling out the vaccines that many hope will end the nations long coronavirus nightmare. In a new poll, 42% of Italians said they didnt understand what provoked the latest government divisions.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 21:30:34|Editor: huaxia

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Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attends a gathering marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Wang Huning on Monday called for improved international work for the Party in the new era.

Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a gathering marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.

He said that international exchanges should be enhanced to make new and greater contributions to the development of the Party and country, and noted that the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC should be celebrated with outstanding accomplishments.

Reviewing the CPC's international exchanges over the past 100 years, Wang highlighted achievements made since the 18th CPC National Congress.

He said it is important that the CPC's story is told well so that the Party is understood and recognized more by the international community, and to promote communication and cooperation with political parties around the world. Enditem

HANOI - Vietnam on Monday awarded a licence to a unit of Taiwans Foxconn Technology Co Ltd to build a $270 million plant to produce laptops and tablets, the Vietnamese government said.

The plant, to be developed by Fukang Technology, will be located in the northern province of Bac Giang and will annually produce eight million units, the government said in a statement on its website.

Foxconn has so far invested $1.5 billion in Vietnam and plans to raise its investment by $700 million and recruit 10,000 more local workers this year, the government said.

Separately, state media reported last week Foxconn was also looking into investing $1.3 billion in Thanh Hoa province, 160 km (99.42 miles) south of Hanoi.

Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple Inc, a person with knowledge of the plan said in November, as the U.S. firm diversifies production to minimise the impact of Sino-U.S. trade tensions.

Foxconn did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:21:05|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's three state-run conservation authorities are planning to create wildlife sanctuaries on Lake Nyasa's two major islands to make them tourist destinations, an official said on Monday.

Afrikanus Challe, a wildlife official for Ruvuma region, said plans to introduce sanctuaries for wild animals on the two islands of the lake shared by Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique were at an advanced stage.

Challe told a meeting of the Ruvuma regional consultative committee that the animal sanctuaries will be created jointly by the Tanzania National Parks, the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority and the Tanzania Forest Services Agency.

The official said the animal sanctuaries will be established on Lundo and Mbambabay islands with a view to boosting tourism.

He said Mbambabay Island covering about 597 hectares and Lundo Island covering about 20 hectares were attractive for keeping wild animals and birds.

Challe said plans were also underway to introduce aqua tourism, snorkeling, yachting and scuba-diving in Lake Nyasa. Enditem
"American workers are in control of their own geographies in a way they never have been before," said Evan Hock, co-founder of MakeMyMove. Tweet this

MakeMyMove.com (MMM) is the country's first marketplace created to help workers use their power with the communities that want them. It's powered by TMap, a talent recruitment startup co-founded by Bill Oesterle, creator of Angie's List.

"Remote workers are already exercising their new mobility, migrating away from unlivable cities on the coasts. What they've yet to fully realize is the economic power that comes with that mobility," Oesterle said. "For decades, cities large and small have offered companies relocation incentives because they bring investment and people with them as they move or grow."

"Decoupled from the traditional office, American workers are in control of their own geographies in a way they never have been before. Their educations and incomes make them highly-desirable residents for any community that understands the importance of talent attraction as the engine for economic growth. The places that get it are offering incentives directly to the workers. The companies aren't in control anymore: the workers are," he said.

Evan Hock, Oesterle's TMap and MMM co-founder, said the shift is as consequential as the Industrial Revolution, which saw millions of workers leave rural areas to take jobs in factories in big cities.

"For the first time ever, millions of workers are free to choose the place that is right for them," Hock said. "People who can take their jobs with them are taking serious looks at a move . Whether they are trying to get closer to mom, or the mountains, we're helping them find incentive packages to sweeten that life change."

Communities offering cash, free land, free travel - even sandwiches and bicycles - have attracted attention for their quirky offers, but Hock says remote workers shouldn't just be amused by the fun offers: they should take advantage.

"New residents are worth tens of thousands of dollars to local economies. We built this marketplace so communities could compete for new residents, and we expect that competition to drive value to the worker." Hock adds, "These relocation packages for remote workers aren't a tough sell to the communities that understand talent attraction is the engine for economic growth. It's just math."

PEW Research Center estimates 71% Americans are currently working from home, up from only 20% prior to the coronavirus outbreak. More than 50% of those people want to remain remote when the pandemic is behind us. Dozens of major companies have already agreed to that and/or more flexible work arrangements. Nearly 30 percent of remote workers don't ever want to go back to the office.

Up to 23 million Americans who are currently working in major cities in tech careers say they're ready to leave big city expenses behind them. Nearly 30 percent of remote workers don't ever want to go back to the office.

"Workers have proven they can be productive remotely. They're not going to want to return to the 9-to-5 grind in congested cities where even massive salaries don't let them afford the life or family situation they want," Hock said.

Workers need only visit MakeMyMove to see the array of incentives being offered and apply for them. The MakeMyMove team will help them negotiate additional incentives and even reach out to communities not yet advertising incentive plans.

MakeMyMove is powered by TMap, founded by Bill Oesterle in 2019. Using proprietary technology and a massive database of information, the company was established to focus on recruitment for Indiana-based companies. MakeMyMove is a new offshoot designed to match remote workers to communities across the nation offering incentives. Media contact: Cheryl Reed, [email protected]

SOURCE MakeMyMove

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https://www.makemymove.com


New Delhi, Jan 18 : The CBI on Monday urged the Supreme Court to transfer the alleged sex CD case, where Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is an accused, to Delhi.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and M. R. Shah said: "List the matters on 11.02.2021 for final disposal. Learned counsel for the parties may complete the pleadings in the meanwhile." Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, submitted before the bench that some witnesses involved in the case are being threatened, as one of the accused, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, is an influential person. Mehta said some witnesses are from Delhi and Bombay and urged the top court to shift the trial outside Chhattisgarh, preferably to Delhi.

Senior advocate A.N.S. Nadkarni, representing co-accused Kailash Murarka, said it will be appropriate if the Chhattisgarh is impleaded as a party in the plea, as several allegations have been made against the state government. The bench said it will examine this aspect in the next hearing.

Rasjeet Singh Khanuja, who claimed to be a witness in the CBI case, in his plea argued that he has been booked by the state government in another case connected with abetment to suicide, and sought an investigation by CBI in this case. Khanuja's plea was contested by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi and advocate Sumeer Sodhi, representing the state government.

The top court in October 2019, had stayed the criminal trial in the alleged sex CD and sought Baghel's response on CBI's plea to shift the matter out of the state.

The CBI has sought transfer of the case, as the accused is now the chief minister and cited the probability of witnesses being coerced. In 2017, the CBI had registered a case against Baghel, then Chhattisgarh Congress president. A complaint was made stating that Baghel allegedly tried to frame the then state PWD minister and BJP leader Rajesh Munat in the fake sex CD case.

Munat had filed a complaint against Baghel and senior journalist Vinod Verma for allegedly tarnishing his image. The then BJP government in the state transferred the case to the CBI.
A whistleblowing teacher who was sacked after revealing how naughty children were kept hidden away on squash courts during an Ofsted inspection has won a claim for unfair dismissal.

Ged Thomas told Ofsted that unruly pupils were kept hidden away from inspectors during a visit to 'inadequate' Berwick Academy, in Northumberland.

The PE and Maths teacher was later sacked by the academy after he posted critical comments about headteacher Alexis Widdowson on Facebook.

Mr Thomas took the academy to a tribunal claiming unfair dismissal after his 2018 sacking.

Ms Widdowson meanwhile resigned before the damning report - which labelled the academy as 'inadequate' - was published.

Now employment judges have ruled that Mr Thomas was unfairly dismissed - due to what the tribunal heard was the school's 'deeply flawed' internal disciplinary investigation.

Ged Thomas (pictured) told Ofsted that unruly pupils were kept hidden away from inspectors during a visit to 'inadequate' Berwick Academy, in Northumberland

The PE and Maths teacher was later sacked by the academy after he posted critical comments about headteacher Alexis Widdowson (pictured) on Facebook

In a 44-page judgment, they found the school's policy on social media use and whistleblowing was overly 'complex' and 'it was inevitable there would be disagreement on whether they were complied with fully.'

The panel also concluded that making the negative social media comments had not been an 'indication of any disloyalty' to his employers.

The employment tribunal heard Mr Thomas blew the whistle to Ofsted over allegations troublesome pupils had been 'hidden' while on sick leave in January 2018.

The judgment said 'He received text messages from a colleague and parents saying certain pupils, who were known for misbehaving, had been removed from lessons to the squash courts out of sight of the inspection team.

'Hiding children from Ofsted inspectors would almost certainly amount to concealment of information which tends to show relevant failures.

'That for him was the last straw. He formally raised his concerns to Ofsted through their online school teachers portal, whilst sitting in his car.

'These clearly were protected disclosures. He later received requests for further information from Ofsted and the DfE.'

The school was graded inadequate in March 2018, with inspectors particularly critical of school leadership - which they said had failed to improve the school since its previous inspection.

Ms Widdowson had resigned earlier that month, with the tribunal hearing that it was 'most likely that she metaphorically 'jumped before she was pushed' by the awful Ofsted findings'.

Mr Thomas later commented on a Facebook post from the Berwick Advertiser, which had reported Ms Widdowson's resignation.

Replying to another Facebook user, he talked about Ms Widdowson's 'ability to manipulate, persuade, bully and lie' and 'failed approach to behaviour management, teaching & learning, staff management & leadership'.

The comments were reported to the school and Mr Thomas was dismissed.

Academy chiefs claimed the social media posts, which they judged as derogatory or offensive, were 'the sole reason for dismissal'.

However. the tribunal judge said the investigation was 'one-sided and completely inadequate'.

Bosses at the academy (pictured) claimed the social media posts, which they judged as derogatory or offensive, were 'the sole reason for dismissal'

Employment judge Tudor Garnon concluded: 'The respondent has not proved on the balance of probabilities the claimant was guilty of gross misconduct because any breach of lawful and reasonable instructions was not an indication of his disloyalty to, or wish to harm, the academy as such.'

Judge Garnon upheld claims for wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal, compensation for untaken annual leave and breach of contract relating to missing property.

Claims over unlawful deductions of wages were dismissed and compensation is expected to be determined at a later hearing.

Mr Thomas told Chronicle Live he was 'reasonably pleased' to have won the tribunal.

Berwick Academy is a mixed school which caters for 472 pupils, aged between 13 and 18.

During a monitoring visit in 2019, inspectors noted 'significant improvements were still necessary' while acknowledging that 'positive measures had been implemented'.

Donna Goddard, Chair and Parent Trustee at Berwick Academy, said: "We are disappointed with the Employment Tribunal's decision that Mr Thomas was unfairly dismissed, particularly in view of its findings regarding his high degree of contributory fault towards his dismissal.

"We wish to emphasise that the Tribunal rejected Mr Thomas' principal argument that he was dismissed for publicly raising concerns or 'blowing the whistle', as the Academy has robustly maintained throughout.

"This judgment relates to legal proceedings which have been ongoing since 2018, in respect of events which took place under previous Senior Leadership Teams.

"The Academy wishes to move forward and continue working with relevant stakeholders to deliver the highest standards of education to its current and future pupils.

"The allegation that children were hidden in squash courts during an Ofsted inspection in January 2018 was subject to an extensive internal investigation once it was brought to the Academy's attention some time later.

"There was no evidence to substantiate this allegation.

"I'd like to add to the above that, while we still aren't where we want to be at the Academy, the current Senior Leadership team are doing a great job in moving the Academy forward in the right direction during incredibly difficult circumstances.

"As a parent, they and a lot of their peers across the country, deserve our thanks."
Against a backdrop of heightened racial tension, widespread political unrest and a global pandemic that, for the first time in 36 years, is keeping thousands from joining together to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Denver, this years holiday looks and feels unlike any other.
Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, on the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China. (Dale de la Rey/AFP via Getty Images)

Raab Criticises UK Prosecutor for Taking Case Against Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab recently criticized a senior British prosecutors decision to take a case against a group of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.

Senior lawyer David Perry was hired by Hong Kongs justice department to handle a case against nine activists, including prominent media tycoon and frequent Beijing critic Jimmy Lai. They were charged in relation to their participation in a protest rally that took place in August 2019.

Enlisting Perry constitutes a serious PR coup for Beijing, Raab said in an interview with British news outlet Sky News.

Raab said he could not fathom why Perry would take up such a case that is directly violating, undermining the freedom of the people of Hong Kong.

I dont understand how anyone in good conscience, from the world-leading legal profession that we have, would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing, he said.

The case Perry was hired for does not involve charges under the controversial law. But many activists, media personnel, and former lawmakers in Hong Kong have recently been arrested and charged for violating the law, which penalizes vaguely defined crimes that Beijing deems as subversion, secession, and collusion with foreign forces with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Police officers escort men into a police van following a demonstration in Hong Kong on Oct. 1, 2020. (May James/AFP via Getty Images)

Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, director of the Institute of Human Rights for the International Bar Association, said Perrys decision was ill-advised.

To prosecute means that you are representing and acting on behalf of the state, she told Jane Werrell of Epoch Times media affiliate NTD last week.

I think it was an error of judgment to accept a brief to prosecute in this case, said Kennedy, who is also president of JUSTICE, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists, and co-chair of IPAC, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

Veneer of Respectability

Kennedy said that Hong Kong may have sought an eminent English barrister to give a veneer of respectability to the prosecutions.

I think that he [Perry] has been drawn into something where he is plugging the holes in a system where the rule of law is being deeply undermined, she said.

He is  providing a sort of cosmetic to something which is really a source of great alarm to those of us who believe in the rule of law and who believe in democracy.

She suggested that Perry wasnt under obligation to take the case, and that lawyers must bring our values and our principles to the cases that we do.

David Perry did not respond to a request for comment.

National Security Law

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. As a condition of the handover, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promised not to interfere with Hongkongers basic freedoms, which are not granted to mainland Chinese under the communist system, for at least 50 years under the one country, two systems agreement.

Officials and human rights experts have expressed concerns about the arrests and prosecutions of many local activists and Beijing critics following the Chinese regimes enactment of a national security law last summer.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Hong Kong case David Perry was assigned to involved national security law prosecutions. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
PadSplit, an Atlanta-based company focused on affordable housing near where people work, has entered the Houston market with a shared housing platform that connects renters with rooms and services designed to improve their station in life.

Houston will be the second-largest market for PadSplit, which provides furnished rooms for front-line workers earning less than $40,000 a year and an opportunity for property owners to put underutilized real estate to use. The rooms, which could be owned PadSplit, a homeowner with a spare bedroom or single-family or multi-family investors, rent for an average of $600 per month.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of front-line workers to our quality of life, as well as their vulnerability due to the lack of affordable housing options, said CEO Atticus LeBlanc.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Affordable housing gets boost with start of Greenspoint project

Because home sizes in the U.S. have increased as family sizes have decreased, there is surplus space in many houses that could be generating income, according to PadSplit.

The fastest way to deploy affordable housing is to use whats there, said LeBlanc, who founded the company in 2017.

The PadSplit platform converts underutilized spaces such as formal living rooms to bedrooms to maximize returns for property owners, he said. The houses are outfitted with energy efficient lighting and insulation to save on operating costs for the owners.

Our model balances the needs of those who seek affordable housing with actually increasing profits for property owners, all without the use of additional taxpayer dollars, LeBlanc said.

Tenants, who undergo background and credit checks, pay by the week. The rate includes utilities, WiFi, laundry facilities and 24/7 access to telemedicine services.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Taxa Outdoors churns out Camping machines in COVID era

PadSplit works with credit agencies to help tenants improve their credit scores so they can work toward goals such as owning a house or having their own place, LeBlanc said. The company partners with social services groups and staffing agencies to help tenants who are struggling with job losses. Because of the economic fallout from COVID, the company set up an emergency assistance program and has raised more than $90,000 to help members who have fallen behind on their payments.

If they decide they dont like this place or location or this roommate, they can move to another room in the network or they can be refunded, LeBlanc said.

Early on in the pandemic, PadSplit developed a policy including no guests and additional cleanings to address COVID. The pandemic did not directly impact the companys plans for expansion, but highlighted the need  and its resolve  to provide more affordable housing.

PadSplit manages the units, including those it does not own, collecting the weekly rents, which can be set to correspond to paydays. It handles maintenance issues and sends the proceeds to the owners, typically on a monthly basis. It makes money by charging a 12 percent to 14 percent commission to the property owner.

PadSplit tenants, who often earn between $25,000 and $35,000, include security guards, hair dressers, teaching assistants, grocery store and restaurant employees. About 70 percent of them get by without a car, opting instead to take public transportation, ride-hailing services or biking to work. They stay in the rooms an average of about one year.

The company has more than 1,230 rooms available across all markets, primarily in Atlanta. Almost 90 rooms are under development in the Houston market. The rooms, which will be hitting the market in the next few months, are concentrated in the southeast Houston, Acres Homes and Pasadena areas.

katherine.feser@chron.com

twitter.com/kfeser
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Chennai, Jan 18 : No more searching for an envelope to keep the cash and presenting it to the bride or the bridegroom at a wedding.

Now one can just transfer money to their bank accounts using Google Pay or PhonePe.

In Madurai a family hit upon a simple idea of printing the QR code of Google Pay and PhonePe on the wedding invite so that those who had come for the wedding of their daughter and those who were not able to attend due to pandemic but would like to give their present were able to transfer money to the bank account of the bride.

"About 30 persons had used the facility and gave cash as their wedding present," T.J.Jeyanthi, mother of the bride told IANS.

Jeyanthi runs the Janani Beauty Parlour in Madurai.

"This is the first time such a thing has been attempted in our family," she added.

The wedding happened on Sunday and the invite has gone viral.

"I have been getting many calls on this. Similarly, my brother and others in the family have been getting lots of calls since Monday morning," Jeyanthi remarked.

From streaming a wedding or any function online technology is enabling several innovations.

Last month a newly wed couple delivered a wedding feast to the homes of their relatives and friends who had watched the wedding online.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The South Korean company that Guam Power Authority chose to build an 88-megawatt solar farm on Guam bought the solar panels to complete the project from a company in China.

"Beijing-based JA Solar recently announced that it has supplied all necessary photovoltaic modules needed to complete an 88-megawatt project in Guam," Beijing-based JA Solar announced through PRNewswire.

Invested in and constructed by Korea Electric Power, the project will be the largest single solar power plant in Guam, according to JA Solar.

With Guam's strong winds, according to JA Solar, "the project has stricter-than-usual requirements for the backside mechanical load and degradation rate of the module."

"After communication and comparison of products from multiple module manufacturers, Korea Electric Power finally selected JA Solar to be the exclusive module supplier for the project," the Beijing-based company announced.

Largest power plant project coming up

A consortium involving Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea East-West Power also won the contract with Guam Power Authority in 2019 to invest in Guam's largest power plant which will use ultra-low-sulfur diesel or liquefied natural gas. The consortium will get its investment back by selling its power to GPA.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction recently announced it will be the consortium's contractor to build Guam's largest, 200-megawatt power plant in the Ukudu area in Dededo, adjacent to the northern wastewater treatment plant.

Doosan's contract, worth an estimated $560 million, involves building the power plant that will produce about 40% of Guam's power needs.

As the contractor, Doosan will be "responsible for all the processes from plant engineering to equipment manufacturing, installation, and commissioning, with plans in place to have the plant construction completed by 2024," according to a Dec. 21, 2020 statement from Doosan.
Kim White and Erskine Oglesby, mayoral candidates in the upcoming City of Chattanooga mayoral race, engaged in and promoted an increase in the expense of owning property and in owning and operating a business in the citys downtown area.

In 2018, while President and CEO of the River City Company, Kim White and Erskine Oglesby as a board member of the River City Company, promoted, organized, nurtured and spearheaded, through the River City Company, what became known as the Business Improvement District (BID), now known as the Downtown Chattanooga Alliance.



In 2019 Kim White and Erskine Oglesby, who at that time was chairman of the Chattanooga City Council, brought before the City Council a proposal to impose almost $1 million additional dollars per year on the property owners in the citys downtown area through the formation a BID. When this BID was initially proposed, all real estate located within the proposed boundaries of the BID, would be included. This included private and government owned property.

Thanks to the efforts of County Commissioner Tim Boyd the government-owned property, which was included, was taken out so that the taxpayers would not be giving tax dollars to what is a private company. The BID impacts all property, including private, religious, charitable, and non-profits.

When the BID by a resolution was first brought before the City Council, opposition was voiced by private, charitable and religious owners of real property, and the resolution was not passed when a motion was made to approve the BID failed for lack of a second. This failure did not kill the BID attempt. Because the BID failed as a resolution, Erskine Oglesby, along with two other council members, had the BID brought back up as a proposed ordinance, so the fight continued, with Kim White still promoting the BIDs passage. Keep in mind that Erskine Oglesby was, at that time, a board member of the River City Company and the chairman of the City Council. The BID eventually passed and the almost $1 million per year assessment is now imposed on the property located within the BID boundaries. This assessment has caused varying amounts of increase imposed on the properties depending on square footage and area.

Our payment to the city of Chattanooga resulted in an almost 27 percent increase on our city of Chattanooga tax statement. This increases the costs of owning and operating a business in the downtown area. The citizens of Chattanooga should not elect any person who promoted this increase. The imposed assessment/fee is included on the tax bill from the city of Chattanooga, is collected by the city, and although not technically called a tax it is due, just like property taxes by March 1, if not paid on time a lien is automatically placed on an owners real estate, just like delinquent property taxes and is subject to enforcement collection.



The money collected, almost $1 million per year, is then turned over to a private, self-sustaining corporation the Downtown Business Alliance (DBA), which, under state law, can pretty much spend the money on what the DBA chooses within the DBA boundaries. Dont you see, you now have the government taking money from private property owners and giving it to a private corporation who had no hand in the earning of the money. And this was all promoted by Kim White, Erskine Oglesby and the River City Company.



One final note, after the redo of Miller Park, the City Council, as a thank you to Kim White and River City Company, voted for the taxpayers of the city of Chattanooga to give to River City $50,000 per year for 20 years; thats $2 million of our tax dollars going to a private company.



Charles Paty



Downtown Property Owner

* * *

Excellent piece, Mr. Paty.

I just cannot fathom that the businesses in Chattanooga needed a third layer of property taxation. Business is taxed at so many levels, now three attachments exist for downtown property, city, county, and the tax authority of local government literally handed off to River City Company in BID. It was surprising that BID passed. Then again, no.

Many business owners were frustrated at the citys failure to maintain downtown Chattanooga. Downtown Chattanooga was the hub of activity and maintained respectfully for many, many decades. Apparently, the current elected of Chattanooga could not maintain downtown as the elected before them. BID was not required when the natives were growing up here.

The natives tire of funding River City Company debacles, from the failed concrete on the river front they were contracted to inspect and city sued, PILOTs to friends, and perpetual political meddling by a nonprofit. You can bet, the BID will be a future management disaster, an unelected board with tax dollars is more than disturbing.

In reading your article, Mr. Paty, I was again reminded about the short memory of voters who would even consider Kim White to be mayor of Chattanooga. Then again, decades of mayors have proven that Chattanooga loves trust funders and developers, or development community to be in this particular elected office.

Then, at the end of your piece, you mention the gifting of local tax funds to River City Company. It is so easy for the elected to gift other peoples money to their favorite charity without examining the organizations spending or financial status. Try to get financial records from these so called do gooder organizations receiving our tax funds, you cannot. I attempted to acquire public records from the Chamber of Commerce receiving $1.2 million annually in property and sales tax revenue, Sorry honey, our records are not open to the public. Basically, mind your own business

It sickens me to see people and families struggle to pay property taxes, only for the elected city council and county officials to gift our money to their friends at the Chamber of Commerce and River City Company. I want public dollars to go to those that really need the help, not rich in assets nonprofits.

The city and county gifted funds to a rich River City Company that did not need taxpayer funded welfare. The city council and county commission have gifted the Chamber of Commerce $1.2 million of our property and sales tax revenue annually, coupled with $900,000 in consulting fees for VW during doling out of bond money to another rich corporation.

One would believe if an organization were self-proclaimed experts in commerce, they would not require taxpayer funded welfare to support the existence of their organization. Real commerce does not require taxpayer funded welfare.

Well, back to subject. I could get lost in the ponzi model of local tax dollars to rich nonprofits.

Our tax dollars gifted to these nonprofits is offensive when you examine the nonprofit spending and cumulative assets. The Chamber of Commerce and River City Company are the richest welfare recipients in Hamilton County. Its all fun in nonprofit world.

I guess Kim White will take a cut in pay being mayor of Chattanooga.

Thank you for the reminder, it was factual and inspiring.

April Eidson
A poorly-worded email has been blamed for giving thousands of Victorians the impression that fines for breaching Covid restrictions will be dropped.

On Sunday it was understood that police had been told to give cautions for unpaid fines rather than enforcing them, allowing rule-breakers to escape penalty.

But Assistant Commissioner Rick Nugent has now explained a guidance note incorrectly sparked mass confusion and concern among police.

Pictured: Secretary of the Police Association Wayne Gatt addresses the media during a press conference

Pictured: Victoria Police Protective Services Officers patrol St Kilda beach in Melbourne on April 13

'A guide was prepared for prosecutors and police with respect to prosecuting (Covid) fines - in hindsight, that document was poorly worded and doesn't appropriately articulate the process for fines and warnings,' he said.

'There is no policy shift whatsoever in terms of our approach to those fines and the importance of those fines at the time.'

According to an internal email prepared by the police legal services department and sent on December 17, the amended guidelines urge officers to take on a more lenient approach with the public.

'There are three tiers in the guide and informants/prosecutors must proceed with the lowest tier option unless inappropriate to do so,' the email read.

Victoria Police Protective Services Officers speak to a woman at St Kilda beach in Melbourne on April 13

The 'new' advice caused widespread confusion among Victorians and Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt, who told 3AW the rule change was 'a wee bit frustrating'.

'Our members were asked to do a thankless job by the government and they did that,' he said.

'If offenders form a view from this experience that penalties will be readily converted to cautions or diversions as a matter of course, then that sends a concerning message.'

After threatening to 'come after' rule breakers in October, Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday palmed the issue off Chief Commissioner Shane Patton to to figure out how fines were processed.

Victoria Police issue a fine to a protester outside of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on September 5

The guidance note gave the impression that only people who are found to have repeated, deliberate or continuing breaches would be pursued, or people who refused to isolate while infected with Covid-19.

Others who committed less serious breaches were in line to have their fines turned into cautions.

Victorians were fined $200 for not wearing a face mask in public and up to $1,652 for failing to stay at home.

Residents who gathered unlawfully were fined $4,957, along with Covid-positive people who did not isolate.

Of the 40,000 fines, Mr Nugent said about 3,000 had been paid, and another 5,700 had accepted guilt and were on payment plans.

About 2,400 have elected to take their fines to court.

Mr Nugent said fines were issued for 'blatant, deliberate' rule breaches and added police also gave more than 12,000 formal warnings.
The Centre on Monday told the that it is taking all efforts to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines from United Kingdom, but the process is being delayed to some legal issues involved in the matter.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing on March 15, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought some time to file report on the status of of Mallya.

At the outset, Mehta shared a letter of the Ministry of External Affairs' official Devesh Uttam written to him on the status of of Mallya from the United Kingdom.

The solicitor general stated that Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has raised the issue of with the UK government and the Centre is taking all serious efforts to extradite Mallya.

He said that government is trying its best but status remains the same and from political executive level to administrative level the matter is being looked into repeatedly.

The bench took the letter on record.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

The letter submitted by the law officer stated that, the Ministry of External Affairs has been informed by the UK government that there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya can be extradited.

It said, Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential and you will understand that Her Majesty's government cannot provide any more details. We also cannot estimate how long this issue will take to resolve. Her Majesty's government fully understands the importance of this case to the government of India. I can reassure that Her Majesty's government is seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible.

The letter further stated, The government of India has been making consistent efforts for early extradition of Vijay Mallya. In November 2020, Foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla raised this issue with Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary who informed that UK's legal complexities were preventing the quick extradition of Vijay Mallya.

It further said, In December 2020, the external affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar raised the issue with the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home. UK's response remains the same.

On November 2, last year, the top court had asked the Centre to file status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the UK on extradition of Mallya to India.

The Centre had on October 5 told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate secret legal process in the UK, which is judicial and confidential in nature is resolved.

The top court had also refused to accept the plea of advocate E C Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case.

The Centre had in October, last year said it is not aware of the secret on-going proceedings against Mallya in the UK as the government of India is not party to the process.

On August 31, last year the top court had directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5, 2020, while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

When the top court had asked Mehta about the time-frame for conclusion of proceeding pending in the UK, he had said they have no information about it from the London High Commission.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its affidavit filed earlier in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said that the pending legal issue in the UK is outside and apart from the extradition process and is confidential and cannot be disclosed.

The top court had in October, 2020 asked Mallya's lawyer to apprise the apex court by November 2, last year what kind of "secret" proceedings are going on to extradite him.

The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from February 9, 2017 till dismissal of his appeal against extradition in UK on May 14, last year and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.

The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallya's surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallya's extradition may take place.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Gibraltar was reeling on Monday after 13 people died from COVID-19 at the weekend, with soaring infections driving its death toll up fourfold in under a fortnight.

The tiny British enclave of 34,000 residents at the southern tip of Spain said on Sunday that nine people had died over a 24-hour period in its highest daily figure yet. Four others died on Saturday.

The deaths of another two people were reported on Monday, raising the total toll to 45, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told a news conference.

"This is now the worst loss of life of Gibraltarians in over 100 years. Even in war, we have never lost so many in such a short time," Picardo said.

Gibraltar only registered its first death from COVID-19 in mid-November and by January 6 the toll had risen to 10.

Almost all of those who died over the weekend were in their 80s and 90s.

The deaths came two weeks after Gibraltar imposed its second lockdown to slow the soaring rate of infections, with residents only able to leave home for essential shopping, to work, exercise or for medical reasons.

Initially slated for two weeks, the lockdown was extended on Friday and is likely to remain in place until the end of the month.

The territory now has more than 3,712 cases, representing a tenth of its population, after the number of infections tripled from over 1,000 at the start of December.

Officials are concerned the soaring infections may be linked to the new coronavirus variant which was first detected in the UK in November.

So far, Gibraltar has only confirmed one such case, with the territory reliant on British laboratories for genetic sequencing to confirm the variant.

Writing on Twitter on Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya sent a message of "solidarity with all Gibraltarians who are fighting #COVID19," saying she hoped it would "soon be behind us".

Despite its proximity to hard-hit Spain, which has counted 2.2 million cases and more than 53,000 deaths, Gibraltar has not closed its border which is crossed daily by 15,000 workers, although movement is restricted to essential work or medical reasons.

Gibraltar began rolling out its vaccination programme on January 9 using the Pfizer vaccine and by Sunday night had administered 5,847 dosescovering around 17 percent of the population.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Author: Hundreds of thousands of evangelicals sat out election due to Trumps tweets, character problems

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A prominent author is suggesting that questions about President Donald Trumps character and Twitter habits caused a small but not insignificant slice of evangelicals not to vote for him in 2020, a collective decision that may end up denying him a second term.

Joel Rosenberg, bestselling author and the founder of All Israel News, shared the results of exit polling conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of his website Thursday, two days before several media outlets called the 2020 presidential election for Biden. The exit polling shows that Trump received the support of 79.4% of white evangelicals, a drop from his support among the demographic from four years ago, which Pew Research pegged at 81%.

The 2020 exit polling also found that Trumps opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, received 18.6% support among evangelicals, a 2.6% increase from Democrat nominee Hillary Clintons performance in 2016.

If Trump ends up losing his re-election bid  and that is far from clear, but certainly possible  his trouble with a small but important percentage of Evangelicals could prove decisive, Rosenberg wrote.

Results of the survey are based on responses from 1,000 voters with a margin of error of +/-3.1%.

Early exit polling data conducted for The Washington Post and other media outlets also found a drop in support for Trump among white evangelicals, with 76% voting for him and 23% voting for Biden.

Notably, another survey from the Faith & Freedom Coalition found that 81% of self-identified white evangelicals voted for Trump this year, while only 14% voted for Biden.

More than a week after Election Day, the definitive outcome of the race remains uncertain as the Trump campaign continues to contest the election results and look into allegations of voter fraud.

Rosenberg, who claimed to have interviewed evangelicals all across the U.S., said many "could not look past what they regard as Trumps character problems," including mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his inflammatory tweets, his disastrous and distasteful first debate performance, his unkindness towards his political rivals and opponents, his perceived dishonesty on various topics, his chaotic and exhausting manner of governance, and his weird photo-op in front of a church in Washington that had been burned by riots.

Those detractors cited the aforementioned concerns as reasons why they did not vote for the president. Some told me they were inclined to sit out the election. Others in recent months told me they were probably going to vote for Biden, he added.

Rosenberg expanded on the impact that evangelical deflections from Trump may have had on the results of the 2020 presidential election in an interview with The Washington Examiners Paul Bedard. Rosenberg explained, While the percentage lost by Trump may look small, it likely represented 720,000 voters. And in states such as Georgia where few votes separate Biden and Trump, it may have been the difference.

For more than a year, I and others have been warning that if President Trump lost just 1% of the evangelical Christians that he would likely lose White House. Why? There are 60 million evangelicals in the U.S.  75% of them are white. Thats 45 million people, Rosenberg told The Washington Examiner.

According to Rosenberg, A loss of 1% would be losing 450,000 votes. Referencing the All Israel News exit poll finding a 1.6% drop in support for Trump among evangelicals from 2016 to 2020, Rosenberg told Bedard that the decrease in support translates into a potential loss of 720,000 voters.

In a close race, like this year, those votes could very well be the margin between victory and defeat.

In 2016, Trump secured the White House by obtaining razor-thin margins of victory in three states that had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in decades: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. That year, Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes, Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes and Pennsylvania by roughly 44,000 votes.

Four years later, the presidential election results have yet to be finalized. Based on the current, unofficial results compiled by Politico, Biden leads Trump by about 12,500 votes in Georgia, nearly 49,000 votes in Pennsylvania, and more than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) says all necessary measures have been put in place ahead of the official re-opening of basic schools on Monday, January 18, 2021, for effective teaching and learning.



The Service, in a statement issued in Accra, and signed by Ms. Cassandra Twum Ampofo, Head of Public Relations Unit, therefore, urged pupils, parents, teachers, and the public not to panic.



It said academic work would commence on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.



The statement, directed that all schools should use Monday to tidy up classrooms and school environments for academic work.



"In the light of that, Management wishes to inform all stakeholders that the annual event dubbed" My First Day at School observed to welcome children entering school for the first time, will be held across all Districts and Regional Education Directorate on Tuesday 19th January 2021.



"Let us get back to school for safe learning," the statement added.

Source: GNA









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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 13:33:31|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Aug. 25, 2020 shows screens displaying U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo giving a speech to the Republican National Convention (RNC) from Jerusalem. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Apart from all the havoc he has wreaked across the world over the years, Pompeo did accomplish something: He laid bare before the world the true face of an arrogant, hypocritical and overbearing Washington.



by Xinhua writer Wu Xia

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At long last, Mike Pompeo's tenure as U.S. secretary of state is coming to a close. He leaves behind a legacy tainted by ego, lies and little desire to improve the state of the world.

In his final hours at the state department, Pompeo is still racing against time to incite conflict wherever he can.

In a matter of days, he rushed to lift restrictions on Washington's official contacts with Taiwan; hit Cuba, Iran, and Yemen's Houthi group with alleged terror accusations; and once again hyped up a ludicrous theory about the origins of the coronavirus.

Over the years, Pompeo was reckless in abusing the power of his office and the might of the United States for personal political ambitions, and he did so with barefaced lies.

The Capitol and a stop sign are seen in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Despite being America's top diplomat, he failed to show any zeal in helping solve the world's real problems. On the contrary, he, along with other political arsonists in Washington, staged one political farce after another on the world stage, and stoked divisions and confrontation almost everywhere he went.

He publically talked about a possible military intervention into Venezuela.

He brazenly pushed for a snapback of sanctions against Tehran lifted under the Iran nuclear deal the United States had already withdrawn from.

Based on groundless security accusations, he relentlessly pressured Britain, Spain and other European countries not to work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei on 5G networks.

The list of manipulations and coercion is endless.

Under his watch, America's diplomatic conduct has turned unprecedentedly chaotic and destructive, sanctimonious and condescending.

People rally to demand that every vote be counted near the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Nov. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Apart from all the havoc he has wreaked across the world over the years, Pompeo did accomplish something: He laid bare before the world the true face of an arrogant, hypocritical and overbearing Washington.

Pompeo and his likes are leaving "the city upon a hill" deeply mired in the coronavirus pandemic, with more known cases and deaths than any other country by far.

Francis Fukuyama, author of the "end of history" thesis, has called the United States a "failed state." European leaders were alarmed at the "shocking" and "disgraceful" scenes in their troubled transatlantic ally following the Capitol violence earlier this month.

Last week, the state department cancelled Pompeo's final trip to Europe at the last hour. The state department explained that the decision was made because it was busy with transition work. It turns out that European officials declined to meet America's top outgoing diplomat.

Because of Pompeo and his likes, America's global image is now in tatters, with Pompeo's final acts of madness another footnote to its fiasco.

Good riddance, Mike Pompeo. With his departure, the world is better off. 
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Last week, Matassas Market closed its doors and put a question mark over the future of a nearly century-old fixture of French Quarter neighborhood life.

Now, work is underway to bring the small grocery back, with a new operator but with the same name over the door and a goal to fulfill the same role, updated a bit.

This new Matassas Market is slated to open in about a month. It will be a full-service grocery as before, but its getting an overhaul.

Its deli will be back in action and so will its delivery bikes, a common sight around the French Quarter shuttling groceries directly to customers' homes.

The store at the corner of Dauphine and St. Philip streets had been run by the Matassa family since 1924. Third-generation owner Louis Matassa was the face of the operation for decades, a perpetual presence behind the cash register up front.

More recently he brought on Vincent Catalanotto Jr., of the Vincents restaurant family, as a business partner.

Matassa and Catalanotto own the building. When preparing to close last week, they said little about future plans for the market.

On Friday, they completed a lease for the building to Richard Djapni, a pharmacist based in Monroe, La. Djapni has a string of independent groceries and pharmacies around Louisiana that each operate under different names. Matassas Market will be his first business in the New Orleans area.

+11 Facing new rules, fickle weather, here's how New Orleans restaurants keep hanging on On a chilly night last weekend there was still a warm glow around Rosedale, and it wasnt all coming from inside the snug neighborhood restaurant.

Adrian Nagy, a grocery and retail developer working on the project for Djapni, said work is underway to renovate and reopen the store swiftly.

Before closing, Louis Matassa and Catalanotto each bemoaned the diminishing number of residents in the French Quarter and declining business.

But Nagy believes that with new investment in equipment and a fresh look at how the store selects and stocks inventory, the grocery can be successful.

You have to respond to the market and the changes in demographics here, Nagy said. You have to find ways to bring the old customers back and appeal to the visitors who stay nearby now.

Nagy has worked with other groceries that have built new niches in the local market, including Big Easy Fresh Market, an international grocery that opened last year in Mid-City. Refining selection and presentation are keys to making stores like this work, she said.

When renovations are complete at Matassas, customers will notice changes right up front, with a selection of flowers, a coffee bar and a clear view of the liquor, beer and wine selection. That was always an important part of the store's business and it is now being expanded, Nagy said.

The store will still stock grocery staples and household goods along with a wider array of fresh produce. Nagy said theyre interested in getting more local brands in the mix, including baked goods and more fresh products.

While Djapni operates pharmacies in other locations, Nagy said they are still assessing the feasibility of adding one at Matassa's.

Deep roots

The Matassa name goes back deep in New Orleans history. Louis father was Cosimo Matassa, the late record producer who helped shape some of the early sounds of rock 'n' roll. He recorded hits from a pantheon of greats, including Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Dave Bartholomew and the Meters.

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The familys grocery was started by Cosimos own father, Giovanni Matassa, when the French Quarter was home to so many of his fellow Sicilian immigrants it was known as Little Palmero. Today, Louis Matassa can point out the front door to where a half-dozen similar Italian groceries once operated, now converted to apartments, bars or restaurants.

Matassas Market continued as a holdover from bygone times in some ways, but it also served as an anchor for the French Quarters evolving neighborhood character.

As the new operators work on plans for the store, Nagy said shes looking closely at aspects that worked for Matassas through the years. That includes small things. For instance, half-price pizza on Wednesdays had been a popular draw for Matassas in the past, Nagy noted, and thats coming back soon.

For all the changes now planned, the store's history is an important factor to maintain, said Amiee Figueroa, a consultant working on the new market.

+21 Tujagues, second-oldest New Orleans restaurant, reopens in new French Quarter home The Tujagues crew had lots of boxes to unpack as the historic restaurant made the move to its new location in the French Quarter.

A chronological timeline of the stores history will extend across one wall, she said, and old signs and photos will remain.

Its very important for us to keep the heritage, Figueroa said. We want to keep the customers who have always come here and have more people come back. When they do theyll find a place thats familiar but has been freshened up.

Louis Matassa is taking some time off now, but he said he may return to the grocery to help out and lend support.

At age 70, he was working 80 to 85 hours a week; he was there whenever the store was open.

Its my life, its been that way ever since I was a kid, he said.

That made letting go of the business difficult, though his regulars helped him through it.

It was really tough working those last few days, Matassa said. But I got a good response from the neighbors coming in here telling me what we mean to them.

One of those neighbors is William Fagley. He lives next to the store, and he considers it an extension of his home. The store would take deliveries of packages when neighbors werent home to receive them, and the Matassas crew always had a gauge on neighborhood news.

The prospect of losing the corner grocery had his circle of neighbors feeling despondent, he said.

It was like we were in mourning, we felt like wed lost a great friend, Fagley said.

News that Matassas would return, even with a different operator, came as a relief. He predicted the neighborhood will rally around it.

Were thrilled, he said. The neighborhood needs its grocery.
LONDON, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The SubOptic Association ("SubOptic"), the industry-led, International, non-profit association dedicated to promoting the development and sustainability of global fiber-optic subsea cable and connectivity infrastructure, announces today the launch of the SubOptic Foundation. The SubOptic Foundation is a charitable organization with legal entities in the USA and UK, focused on supporting education and research initiatives designed to lay the groundwork for a better future for the subsea cable industry and the global communications fabric as a whole.

The primary purpose of the Foundation will be to enhance SubOptic's support of programs focused on education and outreach, with the end goal of increasing awareness, inclusivity and diversity across the industry. It will also take an active role in promoting the industry as an attractive employer and the professional development of those entering the industry.

A secondary, but equally important purpose of the Foundation, will be to drive initiatives that contribute to the long-term health and sustainability of the wider submarine cable industry. As an example, the SubOptic Foundation is especially pleased to have secured a US$200,000 research grant from the Internet Society Foundation, which is funding a study focused on "Decarbonizing Global Cable Network." The research team will be led by Nicole Starosielski, Associate Professor of Digital Media at NYU. The team includes other university professors from around the globe and members of SubOptic's Global Citizen Working Group, which aims to "Green the Internet's Undersea Infrastructure."

"I'm very excited to be part of this great initiative that we hope to develop into a new keystone supporting our industry's future. We're also committed to finding new ways to attract and develop diverse talent through the Foundation's education initiatives," states Erick Contag, executive chairman of GlobeNet and executive committee President of SubOptic. "The grant Nicole and her team have secured from the Internet Society Foundation provides our Foundation with a great start and set of objectives from which to build upon."

The Foundation will also continue to co-sponsor and support the Subsea OFC Summer School launched in 2019 in partnership with the Optical Society of America and Google.

"I'm thrilled to have played a small part in supporting the Summer School. Both the first 2019 session and last year's participants were a truly diverse set of students and industry-sourced faculty from around the globe. We hope to reach an even broader spectrum of students with our 2021 program," comments Jayne Stowell, strategic negotiator of global infrastructure at Google, "The Summer School's goal is to increase awareness of and interest in our industry to universities - especially graduate students who may be seeking careers in our fascinating business. To date, we're proud to have made real inroads in achieving this goal."

The Foundation Board of Trustees includes Contag, Stowell, Elaine Stafford (DRG Undersea Consulting), Leigh Frame (Xtera) and Ed McCormack (Ciena). A team of preeminent industry veterans has also been recruited as an Advisory Board, to help the Foundation achieve its goals.



McCormack commented, "The Foundation provides the industry with a funding vehicle and tangible development plans to drive awareness and attract new talent. When I was asked to become a Trustee of the Foundation, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to contribute to the long-term health of our industry."

About SubOptic

The SubOptic Association (SubOptic) is a non-profit industry-led and driven association focused on the subsea fiber-optic ecosystem. SubOptic is led and driven by the industry to serve as a central point driving advancement in subsea fiber-optic communications infrastructure. One of the association's key roles looks to explore current and future challenges to create an environment for open and constructive dialogue for the benefit of all industry participants.

The association is dedicated to delivering a central platform for collaboration, education and idea sharing, empowering the greater subsea ecosystem by allowing its members to work together with a holistic view of opportunities and the solutions ready to avail them. Our goal as an association is to collectively address the challenges associated with subsea fiber-optic communications advancement. To join the Association or to learn more visit www.suboptic.org.

SOURCE SubOptic Association

Related Links

http://www.suboptic.org



The village of Shyrokyne was a hot spot on that day.

Two enemy attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, were registered on January 17.

This was reported by the press center of the JFO Headquarters on Facebook in a morning update on January 18.

Read alsoDay in Donbas: Enemy breaches truce four times Jan 16

In particular, Russia-led forces opened fire twice, using anti-tank grenade launchers not far from the village of Shyrokyne.

"OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] representatives were notified of the ceasefire breach incidents through Ukrainian members of the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center," the update said.

No Ukrainian Army casualties were reported over the period under review.

From 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on January 18, there were no ceasefire violations in Donbas, the JFO HQ said.

Other related news reports

Reporting by UNIAN
Over the past decade, new housing development in San Diego has not kept pace with job or population growth, resulting in housing costs that have increased at a much faster rate than income levels.

Atlas West Group today announces the launch of its new residential real estate brokerage and development firm. Atlas West Group specializes in selling residential properties and putting together investment-grade deals for real estate investors. The firm works with residential sellers to identify their propertys unique value proposition, creatively position their property to highlight its current and potential value, and connect them to real estate investors.

With Atlas West Group, a prospective sellers property is thoroughly evaluated to discover its highest and best use in the current market. The property evaluations include a detailed look at property characteristics and their alignment with city and state legislation, government programs, and current and emerging market trends. Upon listing, Atlas West Group works with prospective buyers to create strategic business plans that outline a properties development potential, forecasted financial performance, and projected cost & timeline.

Throughout an Atlas West Group transaction, three things are ultimately accomplished: 1) sellers obtain top dollar selling price, 2) buyers maximize their investment and improve financial returns, and 3) housing affordability and supply is increased for San Diegans.

Bringing extensive experience in buying, selling, redeveloping, and managing a portfolio of over $300 million in value, Atlas West Groups founding team saw the shortage of affordable homes in San Diego and formed Atlas West Group to become a dynamic and impactful real estate solution for sellers, buyers, and tenants alike.

Over the past decade, new housing development in San Diego has not kept pace with job or population growth, resulting in housing costs that have increased at a much faster rate than income levels. Atlas West Group plans to work with the City of San Diego to address this shortage of affordable homes.

To serve sellers, buyers, and San Diego residents alike, Atlas West Group will be focusing on three key strategies to create value in the residential real estate market:



Identify, reposition, and sell underutilized residential properties.

Create strategic business plans for buyers and investors that highlight a properties development potential, forecasted financial performance, and projected cost & timeline.

Bridge the gap between buyers and sellers to ultimately obtain win-win situations for all parties involved in a real estate transaction.

According to CEO Daniel Shkolnik, Atlas West Group was born out of the coronavirus pandemic. The real estate industry has been shaken up over the past nine months and it allowed my team and I to form this vision of an investment deal firm that connects the dots between residential buyers, sellers, and tenants. We look forward to bringing a new perspective to residential real estate in 2021."

About Atlas West Group

Atlas West Group is a real estate brokerage and development firm operating throughout San Diego County. Our company specializes in selling residential properties and putting together investment-grade deals for real estate buyers. We have over a decade of experience developing real estate, giving us the network, reach, and the insights needed to effectively price, position, and close any transaction.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during an on-line New Year press conference with local and foreign journalists at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)

Moon Urges Biden to Learn From Trumps N. Korea Diplomacy

SEOUL, South KoreaSouth Koreas president on Jan. 18 urged the incoming Biden administration to build upon the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trumps diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

A dovish liberal and the son of northern war refugees, Moon Jae-in had lobbied hard to set up Trumps three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but their diplomacy stalemated over disagreements over easing crippling U.S.-led sanctions for the Norths disarmament.

President-elect Joe Biden has accused Trump of chasing the spectacle of summits rather than meaningful curbs on the Norths nuclear capabilities. North Korea has a history of staging weapons tests and other provocations to test new U.S. presidents, and Kim vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent political speeches that were seen as aimed to pressure an incoming Biden administration.

The South Korean leader has been desperate to keep alive a positive atmosphere for dialogue in the face of Kims vows to further expand a nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian U.S. allies and the American homeland.

And while Moon acknowledged that Biden is likely to try a different approach than Trump, he stressed that Biden could still learn from Trumps successes and failures in dealing with North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during an online New Year press conference with local and foreign journalists at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)

Journalists attend an online New Year press conference by South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)

During a mostly virtual news conference in Seoul, Moon claimed that Kim still had a clear willingness to denuclearize if Washington and Pyongyang could find mutually agreeable steps to decrease the nuclear threat and ensure the Norths security. Most experts see Kims recent comments as further evidence he will maintain his weapons program to ensure his regimes survival.

When asked about the Norths efforts to increase its ballistic capacity to strike targets throughout South Korea, including U.S. bases there, Moon said the South could sufficiently cope with such threats with its missile defense systems and other military assets.

The start of the Biden administration provides a new opportunity to start over talks between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea, which have stalled amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations, Moon said.

The North Korean efforts to expand its nuclear program and acquire more weapons systems are all because we have not succeeded yet in reaching an agreement over denuclearization and establishing peace. These are problems that could all be solved by success in dialogue, he said.

During an eight-day congress of North Koreas Workers Party that ended last week, Kim described the United States as his countrys foremost principal enemy. He didnt entirely rule out talks, but he said the fate of bilateral relations would depend on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.

The erosion in inter-Korean relations has been a major setback to Moon, who met Kim three times in 2018 while expressing ambitions to reboot inter-Korean economic engagement when possible, voicing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects.

Moon said the South would continue to seek ways to improve relations with the North within the boundary of sanctions, such as pursuing humanitarian assistance and joint anti-virus efforts against COVID-19.

But Kim during the ruling party congress already described such offers as inessential while denouncing South Korea for its own efforts to strengthen defense capabilities and continuing annual military exercises with the United States, which were downsized under Trump to create space for diplomacy.

Experts say Pyongyang is pressuring Seoul to break away from Washington by halting their joint drills and to defy sanctions and restart inter-Korean economic cooperation.

During Trumps first summit with Kim in June 2018, they pledged to improve bilateral relations and issued vague aspirational vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

But the negotiations faltered after their second meeting in February 2019 when the Americans rejected the North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantling of an aging nuclear reactor, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Moon said that Trump and Kims agreement in their first meeting was still relevant and the Biden administration should take lessons from the failures of their second meeting.

The declaration in Singapore under the Trump administration was a very important declaration for denuclearization and building peace in the Korean Peninsula, Moon said.

Of course, its very lamentable that the (content of the) declaration remains theoretical because of the failures to back it up with concrete agreements, he said. But if we start over from the Singapore declaration and revive talks over concrete steps, its possible that diplomacy between North Korea and the United States and between South and North Korea would gain pace again.

Moon said he hopes to meet Biden as soon as possible and that South Korean officials were actively communicating with their American counterparts to ensure that the North Korea issue remains a priority for the new U.S. government.

By Kim Tong-Hyung
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Over 300,000 people from the second stage have scheduled for vaccination against COVID-19, during the period of January 15th, 15:00 - January 18th, 15:30, informs on Monday, the Special Telecomunication Service (STS).

"During the period of January 15th, 15:00 - until Monday, January 18th, 15:30, on the programare.vaccinare-covid.gov.ro platform there were 300,109 people from the second stage vaccination group - 159,288 adults over 65 years, 68,146 people with chronic illnesses and 72,675 essential employees," STS specifies.

The scheduling for the second stage has been done thusly:

- Individually, straight in the platform - 138,962 people;

- Through doctors - 29,282 people;

- Via telephone, through call centers - 47,946 people;

- Through the employer - 83,919 people from essential services.

According to the quoted source, the maximum number of simultaneous hits of the platform programare.vaccinare-covid.gov.ro during Monday goes up to 23,000 users.
All eyes are on the UK market now that the uncertainty of Brexit has been quashed and the coronavirus vaccination programme is well under way.

The country has been one of the most unloved across the globe for investors, with consistent mass outflows of cash since the EU referendum in 2016.

Meanwhile, the dramatic numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths over the past 10 months hasn't helped its case.

All eyes are on the UK market now that the uncertainty of Brexit has been quashed and the coronavirus vaccination programme is well under way

However, with the UK's political landscape becoming a bit more stable, and more than two million people vaccinated and therefore the prospect of light at the end of this dark tunnel, is it time for investors to come back to the once prosperous region?

Scott McKenzie of Saracen Fund Managers said the UK equity market is still a global pariah and continues to trade on a huge valuation discount.

But he said: 'We are also beginning to see evidence of a post-Covid-19 recovery in earnings expectations from UK companies. The combination of low valuation and improved earnings momentum may prove a potent one in the year ahead.'

The Investment Association's latest fund flow statistics, which looked at November 2020 - when news of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccination success emerged - showed UK All Companies was the worst-selling sector with an outflow of 425million.

But interestingly, this loss isn't as significant as the 782million outflow seen in October or the huge 1,047million lost in June.

Three fund selectors told This is Money which funds and trusts are best poised for a positive bounceback in the coming months and years.

Rachel Winter of Killik & Co recommends the 905million BlackRock World Mining Trust

Rachel Winter, associate investment director at Killik & Co, said: 'Governments worldwide are looking for ways to boost economic growth in the wake of the pandemic.

'So we expect many of them to borrow money to fund large infrastructure projects, particularly ones relating to electrification.

'Greater levels of infrastructure investment will raise demand for commodities such as iron ore and copper, benefiting the mining sector.'

She therefore recommends the 905million BlackRock World Mining Trust (ongoing charge: 1.02 per cent), which has sizeable positions in UK-listed miners such as Rio Tinto.

Rachel also likes LondonMetric Property, a 2billion UK-focused real estate investment trust with a particular focus on logistics warehouses.

The trust has performed well in recent years as demand for e-commerce has grown, and this has been accelerated by lockdowns in the pandemic.

In the six months to September 2020, the trust collected over 98 per cent of its rent, far outperforming other REITs with high exposure to offices and the high street.

Rachel added: 'Since March 2020, thousands of people across the UK have tried online shopping for the first time, and many of these are likely to be long-term converts.

What is an ongoing charge? The ongoing charge is the investing industry's standard measure of fund running costs. The bigger it is, the costlier the fund is to run.

'We expect demand for logistics warehouses to remain high even as the vaccines are rolled out and lockdown eases.'

Her final pick is the 5.6billion Liontrust Special Situations fund (0.82 per cent).

While not immune to the difficulties experienced by the UK market in 2020, the fund far outperformed its FTSE All Share benchmark thanks to its focus on consumer staples such as Reckitt Benckiser and its underweight positions in fossil fuel companies.

Rachel said the fund takes a multi-cap approach - meaning it will invest in companies of varied size - and stands to benefit from any improvement in the UK's economic fortunes.

Meanwhile, Darius McDermott, managing director at FundCalibre, said the UK has been unloved since 2016 almost entirely because of the uncertainty over Brexit.

'If you look back over the past three decades, the UK stock market moved pretty much in line with the global one, but that relationship uncoupled in 2016 and the UK has lagged significantly since,' he said.

'So to me, the next few years are not about value or growth, large cap or small cap  I think you could be invested in pretty much any type of UK equity fund and do well.'

FundCalibre's Darius McDermott likes TM CRUX UK Special Situations for its value tilt

For those looking to back small caps, Darius suggests the 53million Unicorn UK Smaller Companies (0.87 per cent) fund run by Simon Moon.

He said: 'This is a very high conviction UK smaller companies fund with around 40 holdings.

'Its manager focuses on company fundamentals and aims to make long-term investments, while avoiding low quality, cash-burning businesses.

'All companies must be profitable at the point of investment and the team looks for stocks with lasting competitive advantages, experienced management teams and strong balance sheets.'

For a more diverse proposition, looking at companies of all sizes, Darius likes TM CRUX UK Special Situations (0.83 per cent).

'The fund has a value tilt so had a style headwind, but absolutely smashed it when value had its rally on the back of the vaccine announcements,' he added.

'Manager Richard Penny is, by his own confession, a tight-fisted Yorkshireman when it comes to his investments. He likes to find a bargain and has proven himself very able to do so.

'Companies tend to fall into two categories: rising stars that are quality companies that are growing and have high returns on cash, but whose shares are undervalued in Richard's view and fallen angels - the very cheapest shares in the market - and the big price fallers and recovery companies, where there is hidden value and discarded quality.'

Meanwhile, Darius's investment trust picks are the 1.5billion City of London (0.36 per cent) trust for income and the 714million Fidelity Special Values (0.72 per cent) trust for a general UK equity play.

He said: 'For some reason there are a lot of UK equity trusts that have names that tell an investor very little abut what they do. City of London is one. But it has a very patient and cautious investor in manager Job Curtis, who will have been running it for 30 years this year.

If you are looking for income security, the City of London investment trust is for you.' Darius McDermott, FundCalibre

'It invests mainly in larger companies and the board is very cognisant of investors' need for income. This means in hard years  like 2020  they are happy to use the trust's revenue reserves to maintain the dividend.

'As a result the trust has increased its dividend payment for 54 consecutive years. If you are looking for income security, this trust is for you.'

On Fidelity Special Values, Darius said its manager Alex Wright's investment style is best described as contrarian - that is on the opposite side of consensus, looking for stocks that are out of favour.

'But, they must meet two strict criteria,' he added. 'The first is the preservation of investors' capital which they aim to do by choosing companies with exceptionally cheap valuations or an asset, such as intellectual property or inventory, which has the potential to limit share price falls.

'Secondly, they look for companies where there is a catalyst for significant earnings growth. Wright is a patient investor and is prepared to wait for stocks to deliver.'

Willis Owen's Adrian Lowcock suggests Richard Bulla's Franklin UK Mid Cap fund

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at Willis Owen, recommends the 1.1billion Franklin UK Mid Cap fund (0.83 per cent).

Its manager, Richard Bulla, follows a process which involves a broad social and economic overview which helps the team to identify areas of opportunity.

Adrian said: 'Potential Investments are identified following an assessment of the business, management and financials.

'The team set price targets for each investment which are then sold when reached.

'This focus on valuation means the portfolio looks very different from the benchmark.'

The fund's top holdings include a mixture of housebuilders and industrial stocks which Adrian said should benefit from an economic recovery.

Finally, he also likes the 1.8billion JO Hambro UK Equity Income fund (1.29 per cent). Co-manager Clive Beagles considers the economic situation and identifies trends in the market to generate ideas while James Lowen focuses on detailed company analysis.

'The duo combines their expertise to provide a contrarian fund investing for income,' added Adrian.

'Their approach has a long-standing bias towards mid and smaller companies - for an equity income fund - focusing on businesses which have above-average yields and attractive growth prospects.
What will America do after Trump? The first task of the new President will be to clear the mess Mr Trump will leave behind. At the moment, he has brazenly not given up.

by K Natwar Singh

Today, Washington resembles an armed fortress.

America is therefore the land of the future, where, in ages that lie before us, the burden of the Worlds history, shall reveal itself. This was written by the great German philosopher Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831).

Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy writes, Hegels philosophy is very difficulthe is, I should say, the hardest to understand of all the great philosophers.

Before I get to the main theme of this article a short note on the life of this hardest of philosophers will not be out of place. I shall quote from, The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Biography: Hegels, Philosophy represents a complex system of thought with far-reaching influences and diverse applications. Marx based his theory of dialectical materialism on this aspect of Hegels work.

If Hegel was alive today, he could have second thoughts on his fulsome praise of America. In the past four years, America has changed and changed for the worse. A single person, who has been President these four years, has done more harm to his country than all the American Presidents of the 20th century.

He has divided America into two, one the America of Donald Trump and the other the America of Abraham Lincoln. Institutions have been all but destroyed, his second rate cronies have been given plum jobs. He is never to be blamed when things go wrong. A truth is a lie, a lie truth.

He has, according to him, had nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol. But it was a well organised insurrection. Out of the thousands who pillaged the Capitol, only two hundred have been arrested.

20 January has always been a day of celebratory rejoicing. Today, Washington resembles an armed fortress. Twenty thousand troops are already on 24-hour duty. Most are spending the nights sleeping in the corridors of the Capitol. A 12 feet high wall of unbreakable wire has been built round the Capitol, with armed personnel guarding the wire wall. A similar exercise is being undertaken in the Capitols of 49 other states.

How could the worlds greatest, most powerful, richest, technologically most advanced, with the most sophisticated industrial enterprises, with the largest number of Nobel Laureates and with some of the very best educational institutes in the world come to such a pass? In Trump Raj, we witness a dilution of truth, ethics, values and quality.

What is incomprehensible is that the Republican Party is fully behind Mr Trump. Will it remain so after 20 January, when he will not be in power? One must not forget that only ten Republicans voted in favour of the Impeachment Resolution in the House of Representatives.

What will America do after Trump? The first task of the new President will be to clear the mess Mr Trump will leave behind. At the moment, he has brazenly not given up. His army of lawyers are planning to invoke the first amendment to protect Mr Trump for inciting an insurrection. Whether they will succeed or not only the next few weeks will make clear.

Now we come to President-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The lives of both are not safe. One had to look at the hoodlums who invaded the Capitol on 6 January. Each one is capable of taking a shot at either of the most important persons in the world.

Another complex question to be solved is that of Presidential Pardon. Mr Trump is very keen to pardon himself and his entire family, not the most attractive lot. I doubt if he will succeed in pardoning himself. He will get away with pardoning his family and his highly undesirable buddies.

It was an unusual sight to see huge truck standing in the compound of the White House. The outgoing Presidents baggage had to be taken out of the White House before 20 January. Mr Trump is a wealthy man and has many mansions in New York, Florida and Scotland. But there is an unexpected snag. Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Deutsche Bank have made his accounts inoperative. Without Twitter Mr Trump has lost his worldwide reach and influence.

Finally, not once has he conceded that he lost the November Presidential Election. It was stolen, he continues to claim. How does one steal an election?

***

On Friday, I lost one of my most intimate friends. Kamal Morarka suddenly passed away on Friday of a heart attack. He was 74.

He leaves a huge void in my life. My heartfelt condolences to his wife Bharatiji and his two daughters.

Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere T-shirts have been used countless times in history as a form of expression and a way to spread ideas. The Black Lives Movement specifically has used the t-shirt as a tool of expression and a method to share their inspiring message. This of course posed an interesting question to answer... Past News Releases RSS

Source: All Day Shirts Staff Writer http://www.alldayshirts.com

Emerging from South Florida, hypergrowth blank t-shirt company AllDayShirts.com has exhibited a clear dedication to addressing important social justice and civil rights issues that reign over our society during a pressing moment in time.

Rallying around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the day of his celebration approaches, AllDayShirts.com began production of a commemorative and inspiring t-shirt displaying one of the many moving quotes that came from Dr. King during his lifetime.

Currently, AllDayShirts.com is giving away thousands of these t-shirts with orders for free, along with donating 100% of the proceeds generated going directly to the King Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and teaching nonviolence.

View the t-shirt here: MLK Jr. T-Shirt on AllDayShirts.com

The King Center was founded in 1968 shortly after the assassination of MLK Jr. by Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. King. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education, research, and training of the nonviolence that Dr. King preached so passionately about during his lifetime. It works at both a domestic and international level and is currently headed by Dr. Kings youngest child, Bernice King.

The King Center is located on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia as a part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site where Dr. Kings birth home and church can also be found here

This philanthropic act comes at a crucial time in American society with the powerful and inspiring emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black Lives Matter movement opposes police brutality and social injustice that people of color currently face in American society, just as Dr. King did years ago.

Company co-founder Brian Roberts said, We recognize that there are critical civil rights issues that people of color are facing right now in this country. Not only do we recognize them, but we are doing our part to actively create change and help combat these problems."

The quote displayed on the t-shirt is from the legendary account "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," one of the most pivotal pieces of text ever written in American history. The text empowered the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Its amazing how a quote that is nearly 60 years old can have so much relevance to the critical issues we face today in society, said co-founder Scott Roberts. Hes truly an inspiring man that shouldnt just be honored for one day, but throughout the year. Hes a source of strength that people can find motivation from for whatever they are working towards.

T-shirts have been used countless times in history as a form of expression and a way to spread ideas. The Black Lives Movement specifically has used the t-shirt as a tool of expression and as a method to share their inspiring messages. This, of course, posed an interesting question to answer for AllDayShirts.com, a business that sells millions of different types of blank t-shirts.

What t-shirt should the inspiring design and message be printed on?

Co-founder brothers Scott and Brian Roberts made the choice of going with their best selling Gildan G500 heavyweight 100% cotton t-shirt. Brian had this to remark about their decision: We wanted to give some character to a t-shirt that is really a staple of our business. What better way to do that than by honoring the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man of outstanding character.

For background on the business, AllDayShirts.com is a second-generation, USA owned and operated wholesaler of blank t-shirts and apparel. What started as an experiment with no expectations of success during a financially debilitating global pandemic, All Day Shirts has blossomed into a thriving business. Currently, the website averages around 1.2 million users per month, a number that continues to grow rapidly.

The website provides a place where shoppers can get access to wholesale priced blank t-shirts, hoodies, headwear and more. Thousands of blank, decoration-ready products are for sale on the domain. Customers purchase the blank products to use as a blank canvas to then personally apply their own custom designs. Typically, customers apply their designs on these blank clothing products in various ways with the most common being heat press, sublimation, direct to garment, and screen printing.

Clothing is just such an awesome tool of expression that so many people cherish. We just wanted to provide the blank canvas for communities to pour all of their great ideas and designs onto, says co-founder Scott Roberts.

The key to the success of AllDayShirts.com is the brothers full, complete ownership of all inventory, distribution, and fulfillment of products. The business made the necessary capital investments to have their own warehouses and distribution centers in order to carry out the fulfillment/distribution process themselves. This competitive advantage has allowed the site to rapidly capture large market share.

Now with over 220,000 active customers and over 250 employees, the principles that AllDayShirts.com are built upon have laid the foundation for continued success.

As the new industry leader, AllDayShirts.com is positioned to continue to grow and be an active participant in the blank apparel industry for social change.
In the era of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, not much of the inside news and gossip flows out of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The reason being the new style of functioning where information within the organisation is shared on a need-to-know basis. So while journalists covering the party remain clueless, a majority of BJP leaders are equally in the dark about decisions taken at the top. Gossips and possibilities are seldom discussed inside party circles. But now, in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, a fresh move, having a clear impression of Modi-Shah strategy, has shattered this silence.

The entry of PM Modis close associate, former bureaucrat AK Sharma, in the politics of Uttar Pradesh is being seen as a significant move that will have the potential of strong messaging in the run-up to the assembly elections early next year. A move that might be aimed at improving governance under the Yogi Adityananth-led BJP government.

The moment since Sharma left the power corridors of Delhi, post swift acceptance of his VRS and subsequent membership of the BJP in Lucknow, political circles both within the party and outside have been left with questions about the intent behind the move. Though there is still no official confirmation about his larger future role in BJPs politics, he has made a start with his name finding a place in the first list of party candidates for the legislative council polls, declared on Friday.

SHARMAS FUTURE ROLETHE BUZZ SO FAR

On the day of Makar Sankranti, January 14, the BJPs state office in Lucknow was abuzz with excitement since morning. Phone calls reached journalists; they were requested to come and cover a big and important joining. A few hours later at 12 noon, it was AK Sharma, bureaucrat turned politician, who appeared before the media, declaring his entry in the BJP. He was accompanied by party state president Swatantra Dev Singh and deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma.

In his brief comment to the media, Sharma said, It is only in the BJP and under the leadership of PM Modi that a humble person with no political background like me can be chosen for a political role. I will try to discharge the responsibilities given with full dedication. No mention of any other leader was a point that didnt go unnoticed.

A bhumihar by caste and native of Mau district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Sharma has entered politics at a time when the BJP is hoping for a landslide in the soon-to-be-held elections for 12 seats of the states legislative council. Now, as his entry in the upper house is almost certain, Modi-Shahs trusted aide for nearly two decades is expected to be around in UPs politics for a while. So, if insiders are to be believed, entry in the council will just be the beginning.

The question therefore is, what is the big next for Sharma? What it can be and how politically significant it will be. The inner BJP politics is ripe with possibilities. Almost every leader from party organization to those in government feel, the man is all set to be the part of the Yogi cabinet. In what capacity? That remains a million-dollar question.

SPECULATION IN THE AIR

With no one other than the Prime Minister and the chief minister in the know of things to come, political circles and the government is astir with speculation of several possibilities. These range from Sharma being brought in as a deputy CM to the department of home being put under him.

The chief minister himself has chosen not to respond to such wild conjecture. In a dinner meeting with journalists on Friday night when confronted with the question over Sharmas possible role, CM Adityanath was not very clear in his reply. He said, UP will benefit from Mr Sharmas experience." He was, however, noncommittal when asked if Sharma would be inducted into the cabinet and made a deputy chief minister.

DOES BRAND YOGI GET IMPACTED?

Whatever may be the yet-to-be-disclosed position for Sharma in the state cabinet, a key question is does his induction mean less of a free hand for the chief minister in the state, which also has the Prime Ministers constituency? Can it anyway suggest that the PM, with his clear agenda of good governance, wants some radical changes or may be add-ons in the functioning of the state government?

If that is the case, Yogi detractors both in the party and outside will have reasons to be elated and target the chief minister. If a key portfolio either from the kitty presently held by Yogi himself or from any of the other ministers is assigned to Sharma, it will clearly be seen as the sole decision of the Prime Minister and not that of the CM. Depending upon what responsibility Sharma gets, perceptions about Brand Yogi will be further redefined.

BJPs state vice president and MLC Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, The Prime Minister has always appealed to qualified people from different walks of life to come in public life. Mr Sharmas choice is yet another proof of his political vision and farsightedness. Sharma with his vast bureaucratic experience, will clearly help in furthering the goal of sushasan in the state

But with just a year left for the assembly polls, Sharmas entry in UP politics and his almost certain elevation in the state cabinet, has proved beyond doubt that the business of governance in the state is directly under the PMs watch and he intends to put the house in order before the elections .
The one piece of news that might bring joy to your heart today is that the Khalsa Aid, known for its wonderful humanitarian work across the globe, has been recognised by literally everyone on this planet and has now been officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Canadian MP named Tim Uppal. The organization shared this deeply humbling piece of update on their social media and thanked their volunteers for the constant support.

NOBLE PEACE PRIZE NOMINATION FOR KHALSA AID



Canadian MP @TimUppal , Mayor of Brampton @patrickbrownont & the MPP for Brampton South, @PrabSarkaria have officially nominated Khalsa Aid for the Noble Peace Prize !



We are deeply humbled by this nomination.  https://t.co/7insV2XT00  ravinder singh (@RaviSinghKA) January 17, 2021

Obviously, the Twitter feed is filled with ONLY positive vibes and messages to this heart-warming news.

What a beautiful news after so many days. Well deserved   Prabhjot Kour (@DrPrabhjot7) January 17, 2021

Very well timed.. something which was needed the most especially this time.thankyou sir  Aman sidhu (@Amansid07964665) January 17, 2021

Khalsa Aid is one of those NGO's that needs an international level recognition for their work  Diltaz preet (@Diltaz_) January 18, 2021

Khalsa Aid is a non-profit organisation which was founded in 1999 by Ravi Singh and has been providing help and aid in civil conflict & disaster prone zones across the globe for over two decades now. The organisation has been instrumental in providing aid in India through every natural and man made calamity we've experienced in this country. Khalsa Aid is also the first ever cross-border international humanitarian organisation based on the Sikh principle of ' recognizing the whole human race as one'. It is actually ironic that an organisation which has been globally recognised for its wonderful work was infact summoned by the NIA in ties with a recent case registered against the SFJ, an organisation known to support pro-Khalistani activities . It is actually strange that the Khalsa Aid has never been previously summoned in India for anything like this when its volunteers were tirelessly helping people during the floods, or for building roads or for literally helping people survive in areas which were disaster prone.

Only a Sikh charity could be investigated by a national superpower as a terror org in the same week they are nominated for a Nobel Peace prize.



Putting fear into tyrants and helping humanity at the same time, this is the way of the Khalsa! Well done @Khalsa_Aid!#DhanGuruNanak pic.twitter.com/Gm2Il2BhPU  Jasveer Singh (@JazzTheJourno) January 18, 2021

It's a very proud thing for us

But! At the same time they are summoned by NIA.



Shows dirty politics of India.#WomenFarmersAgainstFarmLaws #ArnabExposedPulwama  HARKEERAT SINGH  (@HARKEERATSAMRA) January 18, 2021

The founder of Khalsa Aid, Ravi Singh is a British resident and founded it with the simple idea of taking the Sikh concept of langar across the globe and in the hope that helping each other instil humanity in people. In 2016, the BBC made a documentary on him titled The Selfless Sikh, and it documented his journey to the north of Iraq where he helped the Yazidi families. While he has received many accolades and awards for his efforts, the Nobel Peace Prize will be the best award to honour the beautiful efforts of the Khalsa Aid. However, nothing tops the love, blessings and the good wishes that pour from the hearts of literally everyone in the world for them.










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A student who embarked on a lockdown-breaching 150-mile journey 'for a change of scenery' had his car seized after he stopped in the middle lane of the M62 when police pulled him over.

The driver - who had only a provisional licence - travelled from Preston, Lancashire, to Sheffield to pick up a friend before the pair set off to Liverpool.

They were spotted going 88mph in the third lane of the M62.

He slowed down when he noticed a North West Motorway Police traffic car behind him - but stayed in the third lane for two junctions.

The driver eventually ground to a halt in the middle of the M62 - which the force said 'certainly caused a panic moment'.

Once the car pulled into the hard shoulder, police found it had two bald tyres - when the rubber of a tyre is so worn down it has little tread left.

The man - who has not been named - was reported for excess speed, inconsiderate driving, having two bald tyres, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and for breaching Covid restrictions, the force said.

A student who embarked on a lockdown-breaching 150-mile journey 'for a change of scenery' had his car (pictured) seized after he stopped in the middle lane of the M62 when police pulled him over

Under the rules of England's third nation-wide lockdown, Britons are only allowed to travel outside of their local area for essential reasons.

These include travelling for work or for medical care.

Police also wrote the driver up for having no insurance, as any policy he had would have been invalidated by his escapades, and his car was seized.

The passenger was also reported for breaking lockdown rules.

In a statement shared to Twitter, alongside a picture of the man's car, the force wrote: 'Sometimes things just roll down hill for some people despite it being so easily avoidable.

'A couple of students from Preston were spotted going towards Liverpool on the M62, sat in lane three at 88mph. Michael J Fox would be proud!

The driver - who had only a provisional licence - travelled from Preston, Lancashire, to Sheffield to pick up a friend before the pair set off to Liverpool. The police shared what happened on Twitter (pictured)

'When the driver eventually noticed the traffic car behind him, he slowed right down, but stayed in lane three for two junctions.

'Upon stopping him, he decided the best place to stop would in the running lane.

That certainly caused a panic moment.

'When safely on the hard shoulder, we then find two bald tyres and he only has a provisional driving licence.

'He was picking his friend up from Sheffield to go to Liverpool, apparently for a change of scenery!

'Stay at home, and all of this would have been avoided.

'Absolutely not acceptable. Therefore, the driver has been reported for: Excess speed, inconsiderate driving, two bald tyres, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, no insurance (as any policy he has will now be invalid), vehicle seized, breaching Covid restrictions.

'The passenger will also be reported for his breach of restrictions.

'Both of these individuals [were] taken off the motorway to find their way back home to Preston.'

Saif Ali Khan's latest release Tandav, a political thriller web series, has stirred up a controversy for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Political leaders have taken offence to the content portrayed in the series and filed a complaint with the I&B minister, while an FIR has been lodged against the series' makers in Lucknow.

Amid mounting controversy around the show, police personnel were spotted stationed outside Saif and Kareena Kapoor Khan's home. The actress is pregnant and the couple is expecting the arrival of their second child soon.

The couple is also in the process of shifting homes currently. Saif and his family have bought a new house near the old one and members of their staff were also seen moving household items into the new house on Sunday amid the police presence. The new building is just walk away from their old home.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Viral Bhayani (@viralbhayani)

An FIR has been lodged against Ali Abbas Jafar and Gaurav Solanki, the director and writer of the web series 'Tandav' respectively, for allegedly depicting Hindu gods in a bad light 'which could lead to religious flare-ups'. The FIR also named Amazon Prime's India head of original content Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra and another unnamed person.

"A police team from Hazratganj will leave for Mumbai to investigate and interrogate those named in the FIR on Monday," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, central zone, Somen Barma.

Earlier, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had summoned Amazon Prime Video officials in India in connection with the controversy around the web series. On Sunday, BJP MLA Ram Kadam lodged a complaint against the makers of Tandav at the Ghatkopar police station in Mumbai, and urged authorities to take strict action against the actors, producers and director of the show.

BJP MP Manoj Kotak, meanwhile, wrote a letter to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, asking for a ban on Tandav and a regulatory authority for OTT platforms at large.
Neil Lennon has confirmed another Celtic player has tested positive for Covid-19 as he angrily hit back at criticism of the club's controversial trip to Dubai.

The Celtic boss missed the 1-1 draw against Hibernian and the goalless draw with Livingston at Parkhead as he was self-isolating following the mid-season training camp.

Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 players had to isolate after Christopher Jullien tested positive for coronavirus and chief executive Peter Lawwell admitted the trip was "a mistake" and apologised to Hoops fans.

Ahead of Wednesday's trip to Livingston, Lennon responded to a question about his time self-isolating by saying: "It has been interesting watching the fall-outs, the media and the attacks on the club."

He then said: "Another player has been deemed positive, it is someone who is self-isolating.

"Everyone is negative bar two players.

"I think that is remarkable and blows out the water the way the trip has been portrayed in certain quarters of the media, by certain pundits and by certain government officials as well.

"We didn't abuse any 'privilege', we did the right things, we were totally professional.

"We had a little drink in the afternoon on the day of, completely allowed, no law breaking.

"But we come back to this barrage of absolute hypocrisy."

Lennon also addressed comments made by former Celtic striker Andy Walker who, speaking in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports, criticised the club for "dismal governance" over the trip, which he labelled "a jolly".

He said: "You can't go on a public platform and spread lies and insults about my professionalism, my players' professionalism.

Read More

"About 70-80 per cent of the group are teetotal and you know the inference and innuendo that he is making. It is not a stag do, it isn't an '18-30' even though it has been portrayed like that.

"We went out there with the best intentions.

"The lads had one day off and they are entitled to a bit of down time."
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Procida named Italian culture capital 2022 The island beat nine other candidates for the accolade

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 18 - The iconic Bay of Naples island of Procida was named Italian culture capital for 2022 on Monday.



Procida beat nine other candidates for the accolade.



These were: Ancona, Bari, Cerveteri , L'Aquila , Pieve di Soligo near Treviso, Taranto , Trapani , Verbania, Lake Maggiore and Volterra.



Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who attended the jury selection, said "today's nomination of the Italian cultural capital for 2022 is a signal for the future for the (post_COVID) recovery." He said that in 2022, "we will have returned to normality and culture and tourism will be once more important and very strong as they were before the pandemic".



He said the selection every year "starts a virtuous and attractive process, like for he Oscar candidates".



Procida Mayor Dino Ambrosino said "it is a huge joy, Procida is a metaphor for so many communities who have rediscovered their enthusiasm and pride for their area and want to redeem their lands. We are certain that culture can be a detonator for the strategic recovery plan for the recovery".



He added: "it is an extraordinary opportunity for a small island, we will work hard to make Italy proud of this choice".



Minister for the South Giuseppe Provenzano tweeted "#Procida Italian culture capital for 2022 is great news. Another example of recovery, which, after Matera, arrives in Europe from the South (of Italy)". (ANSA).




Regnery Publishing has acquired Missouri senator Josh Hawleys The Tyranny of Big Tech after the book was dropped by Simon & Schuster following the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Hawley was the first senator who objected to the Electoral College results declaring Joe Biden the president-elect, and it was during the certification process of the vote on January 6 when the attack on the Capitol took place. In announcing its decision to cancel the book, S&S said it weighed its mission as a publisher to amplify a variety of voices with its public responsibility as citizens." It was that latter responsibility, S&S said, that convinced company management that S&S cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.

In announcing its decision to publish the book, Regnery, which is distributed by S&S, called Hawley one of the highest-profile victims of the cancel culture. In a statement, Regnery president and publisher Thomas Spence criticized S&S, and the other major New York houses, for censoring conservative voices.

Its discouraging to see [the Big 5] cower before the woke mob, as Senator Hawley correctly calls it. Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him, Spence said. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldnt be more urgent.

Regnery said it will publish Tyranny, which examines the market power of the large tech companies, this spring.
Scientists led by the Western University in Canada have discovered important clues about the deformation process in engineering materials used in cars or nuclear reactors. Their findings are leading to new models to predict lifetime of these materials.

The automobile industry, in its quest for light materials to reduce the carbon footprint, uses magnesium alloys because of their weight in many components such as gearboxes, drivers air bag housings as well as in steering wheels, seat frames and fuel tank covers, for example. In the nuclear domain, zirconium alloys are used to build reactors. Estimating the lifetime of these materials before they fail is crucial, but for that scientists need to characterise key parameters that control their mechanical behaviour.

Whilst being used, these alloys carry thermomechanical loads, which may cause both recoverable, also known as elastic (when material goes back to its original form), and irrecoverable, also known as plastic (when material does not go back to its original form) deformation. Plastic deformation allows materials to be formed, for example, rolled into a sheet, but it can also ultimately lead to failure of a component.

One of the processes that plays a role in the lifetime of a material is called twinning, which is a reorientation of a portion of a crystal. It is and important process for the properties of hexagonal close-packed metals and alloys, such as magnesium and zirconium, because it can accommodate some additional plastic deformation in the material. Twins are formed when load is applied onto a material and can sometimes disappear when the load is removed or reversed.

A crystal plasticity model created by the scientists, where colours represent grains that the team reconstructed based on the experimental data we measured at ESRF. Credit: H.Abdolvand.

Twins can be good and bad. They can improve ductility, because without them the material would break, but sometimes, depending on the loading conditions of the material, and microscale stress field around them, they can cause fracture.

The role of twins is extremely important, and at the moment it is challenging for the scientific community to predict them because their onset is a rapid process. With my team and researchers at the ESRF and Arts et Metiers ParisTech we wanted to find out how they initiate, under which conditions and what they do to the materials properties, explains Hamidreza Abdolvand, scientist at the Western University in Canada and corresponding author of the paper.

The team came to the ESRFs ID11 beamline and used the technique of 3D synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The goal was to understand what happens at the atomic level and to relate that to how the material works, explains Jon Wright, scientist in charge of beamline ID11. The experiment itself was quite challenging: We had very thin samples and needed to apply load onto them, so we could see very small twins very early on at the onset of plasticity, explains Marta Majkut, scientist at the ESRF and part of the team.

Scientists Jon Wright (left) and Marta Majkut on the experimental hutch of ID11. Credits: D. Chenevier

After the work done at the ESRF, the team combined the results with crystal plasticity modelling to study formation and annihilation of twins. We found that at the early stages of plasticity, thin twins are very stressed, yet they relax with further loading, adds Abdolvand.

These results complement previous findings published in 2007 and 2008, where scientists claimed that thick twins were relaxed.

All this outcome is important to develop new models that allow manufacturers and researchers to predict what will happen to a material and at what point this material will start failing or fracturing. We have submitted a new model, under review at the moment, to be used for materials that twin, concludes Abdolvand.

Reference:

Louca, K., et al,Commun Mater 2, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-020-00105-y

Text by Montserrat Capellas Espuny
India had walked out of the RCEP, a 14-member group led by China, as negotiations failed to address New Delhi's outstanding issues and concerns

Washington: A top India-centric American business advocacy group has suggested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to lower tariff in the Union Budget if the country wants to compete with China-backed mega free trade agreement Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

China and 14 other countries in November last year established the world's largest trading bloc that represents roughly 30 percent of the world's GDP and population.

India walked out of the mega free trade agreement as negotiations failed to address New Delhi's outstanding issues and concerns.

The members of RCEP are 10-nation bloc ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia), China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

If India can focus on a much more predictable environment from a policy framework it will give more confidence to the investors. Bringing a sense of transparency in policy making also sends a very positive signal. And if India is going to be competing, especially with the RCEP, then it has to look at lowering its tariff, Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) told PTI.

Pointing that in the last 12 months tariffs in India have been going up and up, he said, What it does is yes, it protects a local industry, but it doesn't make them competitive. So, it is important to protect the local industry, but at the same time, it is important to make them more competent intervals. Lowering of tariff is important."

In a recent submission to the Union Finance Minister, USISPF recommended specific measures to improve direct and indirect tax collection, which will promote private investment and ensure fiscal and monetary stability.

On the direct taxation side, we recommend specific amendments to facilitate activity in the digital economy, reduce tax and depreciation rates to boost investment, clarify carry-forward and loss-offset rules, and streamline regulations related to withholding tax, indirect transfer, and dispute resolution, USISPF said.

For indirect taxes, we recommend amendments to address challenges with deferred duty payments, simplify various processes and procedures, and align customs regulations more closely with actual industry practices. Together, these changes will free up much-needed investment capital, make it easier for companies to manage their tax liabilities, and provide a needed boost to the economic activity during the next fiscal year, it added.

To increase MSME access to finance in India, USISPF has recommended specific steps to promote supply-chain financing, subsidise the insurance of MSME loans, improve the assessment of MSME credit risk and loan disbursement, and facilitate faster settlement of claims between healthcare providers and insurers.
West Bengal Elections 2021: BJP to hold Paribartan Yatras

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Kolkata, Jan 18: With an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal in the next few months, the BJP is set to take out ''Paribartan Yatras'' across the state, a senior party leader said on Sunday. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh told a press meet here that the yatras with a message of ''paribartan'' (change) will be held in different zones to bolster the party''s connect with people before the polls. Elections to the 294-member state assembly are due in April-May.

"We had wanted to bring out similar ''Jan Sampark Abhijan'' across the state two and half years back but were not allowed by the administration. This time before the elections our ''Paribartan Yatras'' will strengthen the ties of the BJP with people of Bengal, who are angry with the corrupt Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime," Ghosh said.

Tripura Congress chief attacked by BJP workers

A senior party leader said, the rallies will be taken out in five zones, each to be led by a central leader of the saffron party.

Talking to reporters after day-long deliberatons among state party leaders about the future strategy to fight the polls, Ghosh said, booth committees will be formed everywhere by January 31.

"Our aim is to strengthen booth-level organisations," he said.

Among others BJP Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, leaders Babul Supriyo, Kolkata observer Sovan Chatterjee attended the organisational meeting.

State BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said, party workers will reach out to every household to campaign for ''Aar Noy Annyay'' (Misdeeds won''t be accepted any more) before the polls.

Asked about the appointment of TMC MP Satabdi Roy as vice-president of the state unit of the ruling Trinamool Congress shortly after she voiced her grievances over the state of affairs in the party, Ghosh said, "with leaders deserting the party, the TMC is frantically trying to please the dissenters by offering them posts."

Faced with disintegration and "civil war within itself", the TMC is "desperately" bringing the names of icons such as Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda to attack the BJP now and again and harping on the issue of Bengali heritage, Ghosh said.

On seat-sharing talks between the Left Front and the Congress, the BJP leader said "everyone knows what happened to the seat sharing alliance between them in 2016 assembly polls. How many seats had they won? Even in 2019 Lok Sabha polls the Left and the Congress could not make much dent. The two parties have been reduced to virtual non-entities here."

During the 2016 assembly elections, the two parties had stitched an alliance and bagged 76 seats.

However, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the two parties had fought separately and while the Congress won two seats, the Left Front, which ruled the state from 1977-2011, drew a blank.

Leaders of the TMC have called upon the Congress and the Left to join the battle against the BJP as "they are scared to face us alone. By such antics they are only exposing themselves before the people of the state", he said.

Asked about comments by TMC strongman in Birbhum Anubrata Mondal to "beat up the BJP and throw them away beyond boundaries (thengiye pagarpar)," Ghosh said, "the people of Birbhum will give a befitting reply to Mondal".

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

BJP leaders claimed that around 200 TMC workers from South 24 Parganas district joined the saffron party on Sunday.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 9:49 [IST]
Actors Alyssa Milano and Dave Bautista are among those urging people to sign an online petition that calls for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz to be expelled from the US Senate.

The week-old petition posted on MoveOn is addressed to the US Senate and seeks to 'Expel Ted Cruz' for reasons including alleged treason, conspiracy to incite armed insurrection in Washington, DC, undermining rule of law, a coup attempt and sedition.

As of Monday, it has been signed by more than 76,100 people.

Cruz has been the target of fierce criticism in the weeks following the Presidential Election for his role in perpetuating the baseless claim that President-Elect Joe Biden's win had been the result of organized, wide-scale voter fraud and other voting irregularities.

Alyssa Milano (left) and David Bautista (right) have added their support to a petition seeking to expel Sen. Ted Cruz from the Senate based on alleged treason and other claims

Bautista - a retired pro-wrestler - shared the petition Sunday via Twitter, which has 1.4million followers, using the message: 'This cause is close to my heart - please sign.'

Milano, an outspoken political activist, also shared a link to the petition in a tweet Sunday.

In her tweet, she wrote '#ExpelCruzNow - please sign the petition' and included a GIF that read, 'The path to unity flows through accountability. The path to healing begins with justice.'

Actress Lea Thompson and author Don Winslow are also among the famous names who tweeted out the petition over the weekend, using the same language as Bautista in their tweets.

Cruz was among the list of congressmen who voted against certifying the electoral college votes on January 6 - the day that rioters broke into the Capitol Building, an incident that lead to five people dying and dozens being arrested and facing a variety of federal charges.

Cruz's critics say that his claims that Biden's win was the result of voter fraud and other voting irregularities helped egg on the Capitol building rioters

Pro-Trump protesters storm into the Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by Congress on January 6

His staunch objection to certifying the election for Biden - in addition to supposedly sending out a fundraising letter in the midst of the riot - his critics say, helped incite the Capitol building attack.

Petition creator Diana Gorham wrote that Cruz's 'actions have inspired: armed standoff in the Capitol chambers, evacuating chambers, members of Congress sheltering in place.'

The January 6 riot began after Trump gave an hour-long speech to supporters as part of his protest over Congress certifying the Biden's election victory. Following the speech, rioters swarmed the Capitol building, breaking windows and entering lawmakers' offices.

Videos and photos from the riot showed people walking off with signs and rifling through lawmakers' papers.

One video captured by the New Yorker shows rioters on the Senate floor. A man can be seen going through a binder of papers and heard saying: 'Theres gotta be something in here we can fucking use against these scumbags.' At one point, he stops on a page and says, 'This is a good one, him and Hawley or whatever. Hawley, Cruz.'

As he does this, another man can be heard saying: 'I think Cruz would want us to do this... So I think were good.'

Cruz's spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a statement that: 'As Sen. Cruz has said repeatedly, the terrorist attack on the Capitol was reprehensible, and the criminals who carried out the attack should be fully prosecuted. He has been clear, consistent, and unequivocal: violence is always wrongwhether from Left or Rightand violent criminals should go to jail for a very long time.'

In defense of his position against not certifying Biden's election results, Cruz denied having anything to do with the riots, telling KXAS that 'What I was doing is debating on the floor of the Senate election integrity.'

He added, 'That has nothing to do with this criminal terrorist assault, which was wrong and needs to be prosecuted. It's exactly the opposite. What I was doing is how you're supposed to resolve issues in this country.'

In addition to Cruz, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley - who was photographed raising a first in support of the rioters - is also being targeted for expulsion from the Senate.

Hawley was among the group of Republican Senators who objected to certifying the electoral college votes for Biden, even after the Capitol was seized.

Supporters of Cruz and Hawley's expulsion from the Senate are using Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as part of their reasoning.

The relevant portion of the amendment reads: 'No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.'

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, said Friday that his colleagues should consider expelling both Cruz and Hawley for their alleged roles in inciting the January 6 riot under the amendment.

'That should be a consideration,' Manchin said on Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, adding that what Cruz had done 'was totally outside of the realm of our responsibilities or our privileges.'

Manchin noted that he believed decisions to object to the certification of Biden's electoral college vote had been 'done because of political reasons.'

'I believe that all my colleagues truly made a decision that was politically best for them and expedient for them. It was not what they believed to be true or false,' Manchin said.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 10:04:02|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Sunday said that more than 58,000 Ethiopian refugees fled into neighboring Sudan amid military confrontation in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region.

A total of 58,612 Ethiopian refugees have been registered in Sudan since military confrontations between the federal and regional forces in the Tigray region broke out in November 2020, the agency said in its latest situation update.

According to the UNHCR, in a bid to mitigate "potential health and security risks," the UN body has been working with partners to relocate refugees to camps away from the border, and 26,864 refugees have been moved to the designated refugee camps.

The Ethiopian government is presently providing protection to nearly 1 million refugees mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan, who are being hosted across 26 camps and non-camp locations. Enditem
(Natural News) In case you havent heard, the powers that be are turning our nations capital into an armed encampment ahead of Joe Bidens stolen inaugural.

Granted, there is always a heavily armed presence for presidential inaugurals but this time its different.

In addition to regular police and the compliment of federal agents and Secret Service, tens of thousands of troops, many armed, have also been deployed to Washington, D.C.

Only a fool would consider showing up there armed, but thats exactly what some alleged patriots are planning to do. In fact, one of them was just busted.

Breitbart News reported this week:

An Illinois man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly threatening to commit violence at President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration in Washington, D.C., the Department of Justice announced.

Federal prosecutors said the suspect, 45-year-old Louis Capriotti, left a voicemail with a House member from New Jersey in which he allegedly warned that if people think that Joe Biden is going to put his hand on the Bible and walk into that [expletive] White House on January 20th, theyre sadly [expletive] mistaken.

Capriotti then allegedly warned, We will surround the [expletive] White House and we will kill any [expletive] Democrat that steps on the [expletive] lawn.

Hes not the only one who has made threats. So have others; some have even attempted to act on them. And wouldnt you know it, Parler, which was just de-platformed by the big tech overlords, had a hand in catching one man.

Parler officials sent the FBI recordings from posts to the social site from Eduard Florea after he made a number of threats regarding elected officials and the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol Building  which we now know involved at least some left-wing agitators.

According to federal prosecutors, Florea made threats under the account name LoneWolfWar in which he discussed killing a senator-elect (Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.), and planned to travel to D.C. as part of a group armed with firearms ready to engage in violence, according to the Justice Department.

Regarding Warnock, he allegedly said, Dead men cant pass [expletive] laws.

In another post, he allegedly wrote, The time for peace and civility is over . . . ./3 cars full of armed patriots are enroute from NY / 3 cars of armed patriots heading into DC from NY / Guns cleaned loaded . . . got a bunch of guys all armed and ready to deploy . . . we are just waiting for the word.

On the day of the Capitol riot, he wrote, Its [sic] time to unleash some violence.

Florea, a previously convicted felon, made various social media posts about his plan to travel to Washington D.C. to engage in acts of violence, said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge, William Sweeney, in a statement.

We saved him a trip and paid him a visit instead, added Sweeney. For those of you out there with similar intentions, heed this warning  knock it off, or expect to see us at your door, the prosecutor added.

Who thinks hes kidding?

Of course, hes not.

These are just two cases, but according to private source intelligence weve seen, there are others and other groups, left and right, who appear to be planning on showing up to protest Bidens inaugural with weapons. (Related: Situation Update, Jan. 15th, 2021  DECLASS begins, CNN complicit in capitol raid.)

Patriots, we are just as angry as you are about this stolen election. We wanted the best president weve had in our lifetimes to get another four years to make us even stronger, even richer, even better than he had before China gave us COVID-19.

But the powers that be are waiting for people to be stupid  to make the mistake of thinking they can go to Bidens event armed and change whats going to happen.

They cant. They wont. But they will end up behind bars, and probably for a very long time.

Just as we saw left-wing agitators spurring otherwise peaceful Trump protesters to storm the U.S. Capitol, there are no doubt agitators, maybe even government-sponsored, trying to egg people into making a mistake that will cause them to lose their freedom.

Dont go to DC armed. Stay away. Stay free.

See more reporting like this at CivilWar.news.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

BizPacReview.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

NaturalNews.com
Bad Habits in Government? Noooooo!

Waste and partisan obstinacy are two of them

Commentary

Habits matter. Good ones can help us by standardizing useful behaviours, but others can hurt by entrenching practices we possibly shouldnt be doing. And ask any nail-biter how easy it is to break a habit.

While some habits are annoying to us personally, others carry heavier implications. They can harm our public life. When governments, for example, decide its to their advantage to package multiple pieces of diverse legislation in one large bill, an omnibus bill, they set precedents that become habitual in succeeding administrations. We know that omnibus bills are anti-democratic, because the purpose of debate in legislatures is to discuss the value of specific ideas before they are made into law. That time-honoured tradition is short-circuited in omnibus bills, which contain so many new rules on such varying topics that debate about each is impossible.

Even the name is a sly piece of trickery. Weve all seen and approved of omnibus collections of writings, such as those of Mark Twain and Stephen Leacock, so whats not to like about omnibus bills?

Plenty. And they are just one bad habit of government.

Another is waste. In pre-pandemic times, most of the 338 members of Parliament in Ottawa had the habit every Thursday or Friday of grabbing their plane tickets, leaving their offices, and jetting home to the far reaches of the second-largest country in the world. For the weekend.

Then, after two or three days of cutting the grass and maybe seeing a constituent or two, they flew back to Ottawa. This quaint custom, done in the name of democracy, has been going on for a very long time and is paid for not by the members themselves (perish the thought!) but by you, the taxpayer.

Yes, some of them fly first class. Yes, they are elected to work and execute their duties in Ottawa when Parliament is sitting. And yes, they do have much evening and weekend work to do, such as actually reading bills before they are told how to vote on them. They are told how to vote in the vast majority of cases, and those who disobey their parties are punished (another bad habit?).

Of course, some flights to the riding are necessary and important for meetings and events as well as for personal reasons. No argument there. But the customthe habitof going home at the taxpayers expense almost every weekend is nonsense in the age of telephones, video conferencing, and email. Its a slap in the face to Canadians who struggle to keep the kids fed, a roof over their heads, a car in safe condition, and their income taxes paidtaxes which are wasted by practices like this. Trips would be reasonable once or twice a month, apart from essential ones.

Another custom we might want to question is excessive partisanship. Today, little socializing takes place between members of the various political parties because its viewed as unseemly. Yet the sharing of ideas and personal stories and the building of trust and respect that occurs during relaxed and informal visits are beneficial to democracy. There was a time, not long ago, when the likes of Mike Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, and Jean Chretien met socially with Tommy Douglas, Ed Broadbent, Audrey McLaughlin, and Jack Layton, who also gathered with Robert Stanfield, Joe Clark, Erik Nielsen, Brian Mulroney, and Kim Campbell and many other members of their parties, just to relax, enjoy a chat and maybe a drink, and build rapport.

In the great republic to the south, for which I have much empathy and respect, having spent some time there and valuing as I do its precepts, we view with concern the animosity between the Democratic and Republican parties. In this amazing country, with by far the most powerful military and strongest economy, one might think its elected representatives would operate with more constraint, fair-mindedness, and mutual respect. Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon did so in 1960, despite the formers apparent steal of the election.

The problem, again, is habit. Hate between those parties is entrenched.

Being human we are fallible. We are tribal. We dont like to admit error. Having stated a position, it is against our nature to concede we may have been wrong. This is why informal social gatherings can be helpful: in that milieu, politicians can concede points and exchange views with opponents without the glare and intrusion of public inquiry. Later, on stage, they can cite new evidence or reasons which suggest the wisdom of softening their previous position.

The perceptive Jonathan Kay writes about this in the National Post: Anecdotal experience from within my own social media circles suggests that people simply hate admitting theyre wrong once theyve announced their position  even when the facts show their position to be untenable. He notes that changing ones view was easier before social media, which have made peoples opinions about politics a public possession etched into a virtual memory bank. We tend to disparage flip-floppers, and so its hard to change ones mind or concede points to others.

Yet conceding valid arguments is part of proper debate. Changing ones mind is a mark of maturity. We must be able to do these things without fear; they are respectful of others and the truth. The proper functioning of democracy depends on it.

B.C.-based Brad Bird is an award-winning reporter and columnist with a masters degree in political studies. His book Me and My Canoe relates his many experiences paddling rivers and meeting people in the United States.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Social Democratic Party (PSD) MP Alexandru Rafila said on Monday that the Social Democrats support the COVID 19 vaccination campaign, but there are some worrying elements, including the implementation and operation of the IT platform.

According to Rafila, three weeks after the start of the vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus infection, Romania is unfortunately going through a "groping around" period, something that "is not able to create enough credibility and trust for citizens".

"From the very beginning I would like to declare - the PSD supports the vaccination campaign, we want it to run as smoothly possible and to lead in a short time to the immunization of a sufficient proportion of Romanian citizens to ensure, in the first place, the resumption of social activities, economic activities, and this can only be achieved through a very good organization, there are some elements that concern us and that must be mentioned, because their resolution could lead to the achievement of this national goal. First of all, it is about the implementation and operation of the IT platform, which you saw had many stoppages, even today," the PSD deputy told a press conference, at the party headquarters.

He stressed that not only the vaccination schedule, but also the way the campaign will be carried out depend on the functionality of the IT platform.

"Today there were situations in the country when vaccination was delayed due to the breakdown of this IT platform. On the other hand, the inclusion in the second stage, without any kind of prioritization, of an extremely large number of people, there are estimates the authorities presented, some said five million, others six million people, does nothing but prevent the access to vaccination of the most exposed, people with chronic diseases, the elderly, disadvantaged people, people from the rural environment, who have a extremely limited access to registration on these vaccination lists," Alexandru Rafila explained.
Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
K amala Harris has made history as the USs first female vice president  and the first black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office.

The former California Senator, 55, is a battle-tested former presidential candidate who will now work closely with President Joe Biden.

Ms Harris endorsed Mr Biden in March as the Democrats' challenger to Republican President Donald Trump for the White House after dropping out of the race herself.

With the confluence of crises confronting Mr Bidens administration, and an evenly divided Senate in which she would deliver the tie-breaking vote, Ms Harris is shaping up to be a central player in addressing everything from the coronavirus pandemic to criminal justice reform.

Here's what you need to know about her:

Who is Kamala Harris?

The daughter of Jamaican and Indian parents, Ms Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California.

She went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California and embark on a career in the law which would see her serve as a San Francisco district attorney and attorney general of California - the first African-American and first woman to do so - prior to transitioning into politics.

Ms Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016, becoming the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history, according to her website.

Ms Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016 / AFP via Getty Images

She has since served on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.

How did she do in the presidential race?

During her bid for the Democratic nomination, Ms Harris pitched herself as a history-making candidate who could appeal to both progressives and moderates.

But she dropped out of the race in December 2019 after suffering a decline in the polls, saying dwindling donations had made it "harder and harder" to compete.

Her wavering views on how to solve the nation's healthcare problems and whether to embrace her past as a prosecutor were among the missteps that dragged down the campaign after its glitzy launch at the beginning of that year.

When did her and Joe Biden start working together?

Ms Harris and Mr Biden clashed during a Democratic primary debate in June last year about the latter's past work with senators who favoured racial segregation and his previous opposition to a policy combating segregation in schools.

Mr Biden, who served two terms as vice-president to Barack Obama, America's first black president, later said he "detested" the segregationists' views amid a backlash over his work with with two southern Democratic senators, Mississippi's James Eastland and Georgia's Herman Talmadge, after joining the Senate himself in the 1970s.

Then, after dropping out, Ms Harris endorsed Mr Biden. She went on to win praise from a wide range of Democrats for being an outspoken advocate for police reform during mass anti-racism demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

In August, Mr Biden chose Mr Harris as his running mate for the election.

I have the great honor to announce that Ive picked Kamala Harris  a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the countrys finest public servants  as my running mate, Mr Biden wrote on Twitter.

In a tweet, Ms Harris said she was honored to join Biden on the Democratic ticket and pledged to do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris knew each other prior to the 2020 presidential campaign, in part through Ms Harris friendship with Mr Bidens deceased son, Beau.

But they never worked closely together.

After joining the ticket, Ms Harris made efforts to deepen their relationship and is in frequent contact with the president-elect, people close to Ms Harris say.

She has been closely involved with all of Mr Bidens biggest decisions since winning the election in November, joining him for every one of his key meetings focused on Cabinet picks, the Covid-19 relief bill, security issues and more.

The two talk over the phone nearly every day, and she travels to Delaware sometimes multiple times a week for transition events and meetings.

Symone Sanders, Ms Harris chief spokeswoman, said that while the vice presidents portfolio has not been fully defined yet, she has a hand in all aspects of Mr Bidens agenda.

There are pieces that Biden may specifically ask her to champion, but outside of that she is at the table for everything, involved in everything, and giving input and feedback and being a supportive partner to him on all pieces, she said.

Those involved in the transition say both have taken seriously Mr Bidens insistence that he wants Ms Harris to be the last voice in the room on key decisions.
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Close-up of the head of Rakthamichthys digressus, one of the species in the newly described genus. Credit: Senckenberg/Britz

Together with a group of international colleagues, Senckenberg scientist Ralf Britz described a new fish genus. The blind fishes, which are members of the swamp eel family, live in subterranean waters in Southern India and show a red coloration. Moreover, the team assigned three additional species to the new genus. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters.

Swamp eels (Synbranchidae) have an elongated body that lacks pectoral, pelvic, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. They can be found on all continents except for Antarctica. "A total of 26 species has been confirmed for this family of bony fishes. A 'hotspot' with six species can be found in the Western Ghats, a mountain range along the west coast of India," explains Dr. Ralf Britz of the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, and he continues, "The specimen we examined was captured in 1998 near a small village in Kerala State and was described as Monopterus roseni by two American scientists. It belongs to the local subterranean fish fauna, which currently includes 10 species from five families."

Using computer tomography and genetic methods, the biologist from Dresden, along with researchers from India and the U.S., discovered that Monopterus roseni and three other red-colored, subterranean species differed significantly from all of the remaining swamp eel species. "These studies, which have only been possible now, ultimately led to the introduction of a new genus, Rakthamichthys, for these four species. The species previously described as Monopterus roseni now becomes the type species for this new genus, bearing the updated name Rakthamichthys roseni," explains Britz.

The type species is blind, with a length of approximately 17 centimeters, and lives in subterranean, aquiferous laterite layers. "These extremely slender animals show a bright red coloration, which is reflected in the new genus name: Raktham means 'blood-red' in the Malayalam language; the suffix ichthys is the Greek word for fish," adds Britz in conclusion.

The blind fishes with a red coloration live in subterraneous layers of aquiferous rock. Credit: Senckenberg/Britz

Explore further The Gollum snakehead gets its own fish family

More information: Osteology of 'Monopterus' roseni with the description of Rakthamichthys, new genus, and comments on the generic assignment of the Amphipnous Group species (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters DOI: 10.23788/IEF-1163 Osteology of 'Monopterus' roseni with the description of Rakthamichthys, new genus, and comments on the generic assignment of the Amphipnous Group species (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes).
Ukraine demands that the Russian authorities immediately release all political prisoners, including Ukrainian nationals.

Ukraine is concerned over the detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

This was announced by Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an official statement on January 18.

Read alsoNavalny detained immediately upon return to Russia (Photo, video)

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is deeply concerned about the detention of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. We regard the situation around Navalny as the Kremlin's continuation of the shameful practice of attacking human rights and suppressing freedom of speech," the statement said.

As Ukrainian diplomats emphasized, the detention and politically motivated persecution of political and public figures, representatives of national minorities, journalists, which is systematically practiced by the Kremlin, contradicts Russia's international commitments and the relevant agreements in the field of human rights to which Russia is a party.

"We demand that the Russian authorities immediately release all political prisoners, including citizens of Ukraine, who are illegally detained by the Russian authorities. We also call on the international community to take more decisive action to condemn the repressive practices of the Russian authorities," the statement said.

Navalny's return to Russia

On January 17, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he received treatment after being poisoned last summer.

His plane was supposed to land at Vnukovo Airport, but was redirected to Sheremetyevo Airport.

He was detained by police officers at the airport's border control.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow said that Navalny had been detained for the failure to visit the criminal executive inspectorate as a probationer.

Reporting by UNIAN

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0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



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(Newser)  Despite reports that hes on the outs with President Trump, Rudy Giuliani says hes gearing up to defend the president in his historic second impeachment trial allegeding that he incited insurrection in Washington DC during a Jan. 6 rally. I'm involved right now, Giuliani told ABC News on Saturday. that's what I'm working on. Giuliani, who has been at the forefront of trying to overturn Trumps reelection loss based on unfounded claims of fraud, was seen at the White House later that day, per the network. On Sunday, however, Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley tweeted that "President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him, the New York Post reports. Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, has been one of the presidents most vociferous supporters. Recently though, according to accounts, the relationship between the two have soured, with Trump reportedly instructing aides not to pay Giulianis legal fees.

story continues below

Such a rift notwithstanding, Trump may have limited options for legal representation. Lawyers who have represented him in the past are opting out this time around, Bloomberg reports. Im not terribly surprised that top tier conservative attorneys who a Republican president might normally turn to would not be interested in jumping on this particular grenade, a Princeton University politics professor tells the outlet. Giuliani told ABC that there are different opinions about how to approach the second impeachment trial, but that his approach is to prove that the baseless claims of election fraud are true, despite being repeatedly rejected by courts and by officials. If you can prove that it's true, or at least true enough so it's a legitimate viewpoint, then they are no longer fighting words, he said. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, GOP strategist Karl Rove offered a stark prediction: If its the Rudy Giuliani defense, theres a strong likelihood that enough Republican senators will vote to convict the Trump. (Read more Trump impeachment stories.)
Via C-SPAN U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks in support of an objection to counting the electoral votes for president submitted by Arizona on the House floor on Jan. 6, 2021.
Israel has secured a significant stock of coronavirus vaccines partly by pledging to quickly share data on its impact with Pfizer, an agreement with the drug company seen by AFP Monday indicates.

Israel has given the first of the two required Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to more than two million people, a pace widely described as the world's fastest, while some wealthy and many poor nations struggle with supply.

Some critics have voiced ethical concerns and raised the danger to medical privacy posed by a "data for doses" arrangement in what one expert termed "one of the most extensive studies of humans" in recent history.

Israel, which experts say has one of the world's most sophisticated medical databases, had not concealed the fact that it agreed to share data with US-German pharma alliance Pfizer-BioNTech during its vaccination campaign.

Israel's health ministry released a partially redacted copy of the so-called "Real-World Epidemiological Evidence Collaboration Agreement" with Pfizer.

It does not state specific terms of trading the vaccine for medical information, but it does make clear that Pfizer understands Israel must remain well stocked in order to quickly generate quality data about the vaccine.

The deal defines the joint project as an effort to "measure and analyse epidemiological data arising from the product (vaccine) rollout".

It further says Israel's health ministry is relying "on the product delivery rate by Pfizer to allow maintaining (a) vaccination rate sufficient to achieve herd immunity and enough data as soon as possible".

"Both parties acknowledge that the viability and success of the project is dependent on the rate and scope of vaccinations in Israel."

- Medical database -

Multiple media outlets have also reported that Israel paid Pfizer well above market price to ensure full supply.

The health ministry has declined to comment on those reports.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month said that Israel had agreed "to share with Pfizer and with the entire world the statistical data that will help develop strategies for defeating the coronavirus".

Israel's arrangement with Pfizer would help make it "the first country in the world to emerge from the coronavirus," he predicted.

Health data in Israel is collected in part through four health maintainance organisations (HMOs), non-profit groups that collectively cover the country's nine million people.

They maintain meticulous information about their patients and have been credited with rapidly generating vaccination lists by priority, a factor that experts say has enabled Israel to innoculate so quickly.

But Israel's government also maintains a centralised healthcare database -- known as "wagtail," after the migratory bird -- which augments HMO data with information from public hospitals and other sources.

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a data privacy specialist at the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank who spoke to AFP before the data sharing terms were published, described Israel's digitised medical data as "a very unique asset".

She said regulators had justifiably given emergency approval to Pfizer's vaccine because of the gravity of the pandemic -- but that the company was also eagerly seeking more comprehensive data about its product.

"Israel can offer Pfizer, within a month or six weeks, data on a couple of million people," she said.

In a statement issued after the deal was released, she described it as so far "one of the most extensive studies of humans in the 21st century".

"While the agreement might be viewed as an achievement towards expediting Israel's race to be the first country to resume 'normal life' post-Covid, nevertheless it was still necessary to obtain... permission from the residents of Israel to use their health data," she said.

Altshuler has also raised concern about data security and what she terms "sub-group analysis" -- meaning information sharing with Pfizer based on categories that are more detailed than simply age and gender.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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[January 18, 2021] Desktop as a Service Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2024 - Cumulative Impact for COVID-19 Recovery

The Desktop as a service will register an incremental spend of about USD 3.93 billion, growing at a CAGR of 19.68% from 2020-2024. A targeted strategic approach to Desktop as a service market sourcing can unlock several opportunities for buyers. This report offers market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Get free report sample within minutes This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005104/en/ SpendEdge has announced the release of its Global Desktop as a service Market Procurement Intelligence Report (Graphic: Business Wire) Get detailed insights on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and recovery analysis of Desktop as a service market Desktop as a service Market Analysis Analysis of the cost and volume drivers and supply market forecasts in various regions are offered in this Desktop as a service research report. This market intelligence report also analyzes the top supply markets and the critical cost drivers that can aid buyers and suppliers devise a cost-effective category management strategy. The report provides insights on the following information: Regional spend dynamism and factors impacting costs

The total cost of ownership and cost-saving opportunities

Supply chain margins and pricing models

Competitiveness index for suppliers

Market favorability index for suppliers

Supplier and buyer KPIs For more information on the exact spend growth rate and yearly category spend, download a free sample.



Spend Growth and Demand Segmentation The Desktop as a service market will register an incremental spend of USD 3.93 billion, growing at a CAGR of 19.68% from 2020-2024

On the supply side, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment, Subscribe Now for Free.

Some of the top Desktop as a service suppliers enlisted in this report This Desktop as a service procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Amazon.com Inc.

IBM Corp.

Microsoft Corp.

Cisco Systems (News - Alert) Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

VMware Inc.

Dizzion Inc.

dinCloud LLC

Leostream Corp.

Evolve IP (News - Alert) LLC This procurement report answers help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their Desktop as a service requirements following questions: Am I engaging with the right suppliers?

Which KPIs should I use to evaluate my incumbent suppliers?

Which supplier selection criteria are relevant for?

What are the workplace computing devices category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx? Get access to regular sourcing and procurement insights to our digital procurement platform- Activate Free subscription. Table of Content Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more Request for demo View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005104/en/

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New Delhi, Jan 18 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police said on Monday that it has arrested former CEO of National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) Anjani Sinha for fictitious trading on the exchange and for creating false stocks.

The EOW, which had registered a case in 2015 on a broker's complaint against Sinha and others, arrested the ex-CEO of NSEL in Mumbai on Sunday night after conducting raids at various hideouts.

In a statement, the EOW said the accused was produced in a Borivali court and has been granted transit remand. He is being brought to New Delhi for production in the jurisdictional Court, it added.

In 2013, NSEL had defaulted on payments worth of Rs 5,600 crore in which about 22 borrowers had received money which they did not return to the investors.

"The NSEL crisis was an engineered crisis. Though it was solvable, it was not solved with a view to throwing 63 Moons Technologies out of the exchange business. All the probe agencies like the ED, the CBI, the EOW-Mumbai, and SFIO have traced the entire money trail of Rs 5,600 crore to the 22 defaulting entities and their investigations established that not a single paisa has come to NSEL, 63 Moons or its founder," said a spokesperson of the NSEL.

"Even the Bombay High Court has observed that the entire money trail is with the 22 defaulting entities. Despite this, all targeted actions have been concentrated against NSEL, 63 Moons and its founder, who are actually the biggest sufferers and victims. Such victimisation and motivated action notwithstanding, they have been trying to earnestly resolve the crisis," the NSEL spokesperson added.

The crisis-hit NSEL has also urged market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to resolve the Rs 5,600 crore payment crisis in the larger interest of the investors.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Syracuse firefighters battled a fire Sunday afternoon at a vacant home on the citys North Side.

Neighbors saw smoke and called the Onondaga County 911 Center at 3:57 p.m. to report the house fire at 638 E. Division St., between Lodi and Park streets.

When firefighters arrived, they spent several minutes removing boards from the windows and doors to make sure they would be safe working inside. Firefighters then searched the house, which they said was in very poor condition, and confirmed no one was trapped inside.

Firefighters extinguished most of the fire within 10 minutes. Because they had the fire under control so quickly, firefighters said the fire was contained to where it started and no neighboring homes were damaged. No injuries were reported, firefighters said.

Syracuse police, American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance and National Grid also responded to the scene.

The fire remains under investigation, and members of the Syracuse Fire Investigation Bureau are still working to determine the cause of the fire.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie OToole: cotoole@syracuse.com | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook
Tokyo:

Seven crew on a US destroyer were missing and their commander injured on Saturday after their Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan, with the badly damaged US vessel partially flooded.



Two others were hurt along with the USS Fitzgeralds commanding officer Bryce Benson, the military said in a statement.



Two sailors, in addition to the commanding officer, have been medically evacuated from USS Fitzgerald to US Naval Hospital Yokosuka for lacerations and bruises, it added.



There are seven sailors unaccounted for; the ship and the Japanese Coast Guard continues to search for them.



The collision between the US guided missile destroyer and the ACX Crystal took place off the coast of the Izu peninsula southwest of Tokyo, at about 2:30 am (local time), the US Navy and Japans coastguard said.

ALSO READ: Japan develops swimming robots to probe damage at nuclear plant after 2011 tsunami



We are currently searching for the missing individuals, a coastguard spokesman said, adding that they were acting on details supplied by the US military.



Aerial television footage showed an apparent victim on a stretcher and a Japanese rescuer being pulled up to a helicopter hovering over the huge destroyer.



The coastguard has sent five vessels, two planes and a team of specially trained rescue personnel to the area, the spokesman said. The 154-metre Fitzgerald is based in Yokosuka on the Izu peninsula and operates in the Pacific and the Sea of Japan (East Sea).



In a statement released on Twitter, US chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson said: As more information is learned we will be sure to share it with the Fitzgerald families and when appropriate the public.



All of our thoughts and concerns are with the Fitzgerald crew and their families. Video by Japans public broadcaster NHK showed heavy damage to the right side of the Fitzgerald just ahead of the control tower, and that the ship had taken on water.



An orange hose was visible on the ships deck, with many crew members seen checking the damage. NHK said the destroyer, piloted by two tugboats, was sailing to Yokosuka.



The USS Fitzgerald suffered damage on her starboard side above and below the waterline. The collision resulted in some flooding, the Navy said.



A US defence official told AFP that sailors are de-watering flooded areas of the ship. The Fitzgerald was still under its own power although her propulsion was limited, the Navy said.



The footage meanwhile showed relatively light damage on the port bow of the ACX Crystal. Twenty crew members were aboard the container and no one was injured, another Japanese coastguard spokesman said, adding that the vessel was separately sailing back to a Tokyo port.

ALSO READ: India overtakes Japan to emerge as 2nd largest stainless steel producer in world

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.

Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
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In other words, Im not throwing in the towel on America. We are more resilient than weve probably seemed to the outside world in recent years.

Gail: Once again we are on the same page, which makes me feel compelled to turn it and ask, How do you feel about Joe Bidens agenda?

Bret: A mixed bag. The best part is the promise to speed delivery of the vaccine, above all to the elderly. Ideally, by March, anyone who was born before, say, 1956, should be able to get a shot at their nearest pharmacy or stadium parking lot. And of course we need to continue helping small businesses, self-employed people, nonprofits, schools and so on to get through the next few months.

Gail: So far we are in accord 

Bret: Then again, to adapt Everett Dirksens old line: A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon were talking real money. The government has already spent about $4 trillion on pandemic relief. Now Biden wants to spend another $1.9 trillion. Im no deficit hawk, but there has to be some limit to how much a government can print, borrow and spend without creating serious problems for itself and posterity. I also have my doubts about some of Bidens other ideas, like raising the minimum wage to $15, since a lot of the hardest hit businesses  restaurants in particular  will struggle with the extra labor costs.

My biggest fear is that this becomes a new normal and government spending as a percentage of G.D.P. rises to French-style levels, with French-style economic results, but without French-style joie de vivre.

Im guessing youre much more of a fan than I am.

Gail: Well, yeah. Were in a multiple crisis here. The country is in the throes of a pandemic, and Washington cant expect everyone to go out and get a job or start a business when everyone is supposed to stay home as much as possible.

Bret: Dont get me wrong: Im quibbling more than Im quarreling. The pandemic put whole sectors of the economy on the edge of bankruptcy, and Im all for heavy spending in an emergency. But the money should be well spent, unlike in 2009 when all those shovel ready projects we were promised never seemed to materialize. And we should be spending money on the people who need it most, not sending $1,400 more to most Americans.
MOSCOW -- Aleksei Navalny has urged Russians to take to the streets in protest after a judge at a hastily arranged hearing in a makeshift courtroom just outside Moscow ruled to keep the Kremlin critic in police custody for 30 days after his dramatic airport arrest a day earlier.



At a January 18 hearing, which Navalny called a "mockery of justice," the judge ruled to keep him incarcerated until February 15, by which time a different court is expected to decide whether to convert a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence he served in an embezzlement case, which he says was trumped up, into real jail time.



Navalnys detention has sparked global outrage and a chorus of international calls pressuring President Vladimir Putin for Navalnys immediate release.

In St. Petersburg, police detained at least 20 people among a crowd of hundreds of Navalny supporters who had gathered at the Gostiny Dvor trade complex.



Detentions were made during similar rallies in support of the politician in Moscow and Khimki, near the capital.



"That very old man, the thief in the bunker is sitting there trembling in fear. They are scared, that is why they are doing all this in such an expedited, secret, and surreptitious way. They are in such a hurry (to jail me) because they are scared," Navalny said in the video, posted on YouTube in a reference to Putin and other Russian politicians.



"Do not be silent, resist, come out to the streets. Nobody will defend us except ourselves. And there are so many of us that if we want to achieve something we will make it," he added.

Navalnys team headquarters in St. Petersburg called for nationwide protests on January 23.



"[Aleksei] is not afraid, do not be afraid either!" a tweet from the group said, adding that people were "indignant" over the ruling.

Police led the 44-year-old away on January 17 at the Sheremetyevo International Airports passport-control booth after he arrived from Berlin, where he had been recovering from the attack in August that Navalny says was ordered by Putin.

Aides said Navalny was denied access to his lawyers and notified at the last minute of the hearing, while his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh posted a video of the opposition politician chiding President Vladimir Putin for fearing him so much that he has abandoned the country's laws altogether.



Navalny has been held incommunicado, his lawyers said, adding that they had not been granted access to him and that his condition was unknown.



"Ive seen justice mocked many times, but this time the old guy in the bunker seems so scared that the Criminal Code has been ostentatiously ripped apart and thrown away," Navalny said in a separate video before the ruling on Twitter in an apparent reference to Putin.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said Navalny was being held because of "multiple violations" of the conditions of his suspended sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and of evading criminal inspectors.

Navalny has said the case against him was trumped up and politically motivated.

Moscows Simonovsky district court will hear the states case to convert the suspended sentence on February 2. Russian lawyers said decisions on such issues are made quickly, generally in one hearing and, in exceptional cases, in two or three hearings. Sentence conversion is a common practice with Russian courts presiding over more than 15,000 cases last year.

Navalny, who Amnesty International on January 17 called a "prisoner of conscience," was poisoned in August by what tests at Western laboratories showed was a Novichok nerve agent. He was flown to Germany for emergency medical care after falling acutely ill while traveling in Siberia.

The opposition politician, who has been jailed numerous times in Russia for organizing and leading anti-government protests, blames the poisoning on Russian authorities. Moscow denies any involvement.

The poisoning, which was similar to the near-fatal attack on Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in 2018 in the English city of Salisbury, drew widespread international attention, as did Navalny's planned return after Russia's prison authority warned of Navalny's potential incarceration.

"The United States notes with grave concern that Mr. Navalnys detention is the latest in a series of what appears to be attacks targeting opposition figures and independent voices critical of Russian authorities in an intensifying effort to silence civil society," U. S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said in a statement.



"Confident political leaders do not fear independent voices, nor do they see the need to misuse legal authorities to commit violence against or wrongfully detain political opponents. The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open exchange of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, fair and equal treatment under the law, and the ability to exercise their rights without fear of retribution," he added.



The U.S. ambassador's words were echoed by the United Nations, the European Union, and many other countries and human rights groups, who have called for the Kremlin to explain how he was attacked with a Soviet-style chemical weapon.

"We are deeply troubled by the arrest of [Aleksei] Navalny, and call for his immediate release and for his due process rights to be respected in line with the rule of law. We reiterate our call for a thorough and impartial investigation into his poisoning," UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office said on Twitter on January 18.

"The European Union condemns the detention of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny upon his return to Moscow on 17 January and calls for his immediate release," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement on behalf of the bloc's 27 nations.



"The EU will follow closely the developments in this field and will continue to take this into account when shaping its policy towards Russia."



Former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia pushed other EU members at a ministerial meeting on January 18 to expand punitive measures that the bloc imposed in October over Navalny's poisoning.



"Lithuania, in the name of all three Baltic states, suggested to consider possible sanctions at today's General Affairs Council over the arrest of [Aleksei] Navalny and so-called court hearing that is taking place now," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.



"We are the realists towards Russia as we live at the border. I hope that some EU capitals will wake up from their optimism and return towards realism."

Britain also joined in the chorus of calls for the Kremlin to act on January 18, demanding Navalny's release, saying Moscow should explain how he was attacked with a Soviet-style chemical weapon.

"It is appalling that Aleksei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

"Rather than persecuting Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil."

Russia, meanwhile, continued to shrug off the West's consternation.

The Kremlin itself usually refers questions about Navalny to law enforcement agencies, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on January 18 called the condemnation of the detention an attempt to distract from the West's own problems.

"You can feel the joy with which these comments [on Navalny's arrest] are coming out," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow.

"Judging by everything, it allows Western politicians to think that by doing this they can divert attention away from the deep crisis that the liberal model of development finds itself in," he added.

Navalny had been scheduled to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, where hundreds of his supporters had gathered amid a massive riot-police presence.



At the last minute, however, authorities closed Vnukovo to incoming flights and diverted Navalny's plane to Sheremetyevo airport on the other side of the capital.



Police detained numerous people who were awaiting Navalny's arrival at Vnukovo, including Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation; Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager for the foundation; and Novaya Gazeta journalist Vlad Dokshin. Other journalists were also reportedly among the detained.



Sobol and others later said they were released and were facing administrative charges.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and Interfax
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Joseph Biden takes oath as the 46th President of the US this week after an unprecedented election. What kind of ties is the Biden administration likely to cultivate with India? Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal says the Biden presidency will not materially" affect ties with India. That Biden has said that his administration will go slow on trade deals with countries is seen by Sibal as a positive. Elements of Indias Atmanirbhar (self-reliance) policy have been a cause for concern but these doubts could be removed with greater clarity from India on how it intends to proceed with this programme, he says. Edited excerpts:

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

How do you see the India-US relationship shaping up under Biden?

The Biden presidency will not materially affect the momentum of India-US ties. Concerns expressed in some circles about Democrats raising human rights issues can be taken in our stride as the US is itself answerable on these issues. In the larger global scenario, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, US concerns about countering Chinas power which directly affects Americas global role will require closer strategic understandings with India. India is central to a future power equilibrium in Asia as the only Asian country that can independently counter China. A relatively weakened US would require more burden- sharing, and India can fulfil that role unlike others who as allies are entirely dependent on the US for security.

President Donald Trumps Indo-Pacific policy was recently de-classified and there are analysts holding the view that this was done because the incoming Biden administration would maybe jettison the policy and go back to the Asia-Pacific nomenclature (instead of Indo-Pacific). Whats your view on this?

There is no doubt that the Trump administration has declassified certain documents and taken some other steps on the geopolitical front, relating to both China and India, that will make it difficult for the Biden administration to reverse.

More so as the outline of the US thinking is cogent and reflects geopolitical realities that any US administration will have to confront, especially in dealing with an aggressively rising China.

On the margins, some change in tone and style can occur but fundamentally the Biden administration will not be able to change the course of future US policy towards the Indo-Pacific.

Bidens pick for climate change envoy, John Kerry, has reportedly said that bringing China on-board is critical to achieving emission cut targets. How will that impact on US-China relations? Do you see a possibility of cooperation and hence a lessening of tensions?

The Biden administration has already said that on climate change, human rights and trade, they will engage China. This is an objective reading of the situation as China cannot be ignored on these issues internationally or bilaterally. China cannot be wished away from the international scene.

Far more important would be areas from which China will be denied earlier cooperative access - US technology, scientific research, /academia, investment in sensitive US companies. This will impinge on Chinas technological ambitions, in particular with regard to access to semi-conductors, a critical area for Chinas goal to dominate the digital world in the years ahead. Taiwan will become a source of continuing tensions. Contradictions between the US and China are becoming fundamental, especially under Xi Jinping.

The polarization in the US is very sharp. Will the Biden administration become distracted by domestic issues, and give China a free run in its neighbourhood in the process?

I dont think that concern is valid. It is true that the existing polarization in the US will continue. The Democrats will continue targeting the Trump supporters to ward off pressure from Leftist elements in the Democratic Party and preserve unity in the Democratic camp.

But the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and other institutions involved in foreign policy making, will be able to separate domestic political party concerns from core foreign policy issues.

The US, despite being distracted at home, has enormous military capacities to advance its foreign policy goals. That the Democrats now have majority in the House (of Representatives) and the Senate will enable them to successfully pursue their interests globally where they are most critical. The Biden Administration has already announced that it will focus on its East Asian allies, which means China will be countered in the western Pacific.

When you come to issues like trade, which was a signature theme with the Trump administration, will India be under the same kind of pressure?

There will be a change from the Trump administration which scoffed at multilateralism. The Biden administration will be more multilateralist, though as in the past, the US will be unilateralist when it suits its interests.

Bidens agenda of re-entering the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the World Health Organisation, UNESCO and even the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or the 2015 Iran nuclear deal) shows that he will be more traditional in pursuing US policy goals, including, in relation to China, developing an understanding with Europe on how to handle China economically.

Trump was not wrong in his central objective of undoing the damage done to large parts of the US economy because of globalization but his single-minded focus on trade deficits and transactional trade deals was becoming globally disruptive.

Biden will pursue the objective of restoring Americas economy but in a less openly confrontational and disruptive manner. He has already said he will go slow on any new trade deals.

US ambassador Kenneth Juster in a recent speech said the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme may not be compatible with its goal to integrate with global supply chains. What is your view on this?

Trade issues will continue to bedevil India-US relations as they have always done. No matter which administration has been in power in the US, the agenda for so called reform and liberalization as seen by US lobbies and by Indian decision makers has differed.

There are some concerns about the scope of the Atmanirbhar Bharat strategy because some critics have raised fears that it could be a return to the past licence raj of some sorts. The other concern is whether the desire for self reliance which is acceptable in the broader sense for an economically rising power like India may in implementation at various levels by the bureaucracy exceed intentions as the exact scope and definition of this strategy are not clear. This may result in creating additional difficulties in the areas of trade and investment. The concerns expressed are about the lack of clarity and about how things will shape and not the intent.

What about the changes to the H-1B visa system that the US is planning to make?

On this Biden has already said that the US will be more open. In part this would be because the California-based big American technology companies which have been very supportive of Biden would back more flexible policies on H1B visas.

India would be under less pressure in this area than under the Trump administration which had a narrower view of this area of cooperation with India.

Will the US under Biden use defence tech transfers conditional? On the state of human rights, maybe?

No, because arms sales have been a very vital element of US foreign policy. The US could not use this leverage with India for a long time in the absence of a defence relationship between the two countries. Now that they have become a privileged partner of sorts, the US and its defence companies are not going to give up opportunities in this domain through direct arms sales or joint ventures, where necessary enter into joint ventures as dictated by our procurement policies. The US has the intention of replacing Russia as Indias biggest defence partner. Given the Biden administrations anti-Russia orientation they will not dilute their current policy of expanding defence ties with India, especially as all the foundational agreements are now in place. Besides, it would be in the interest of the US in the larger strategic perspective to build India militarily in order to counter Chinas aggressive rise. On human rights, one can expect the Biden administration to be a little more uncomfortable for India. We are used to criticism by the US political establishment about some aspects of the human rights situation in India. In recent years the anti-Modi domestic lobbies had played up these issues with strong echoes in western liberal circles. Its quite likely that some of these issues may figure in our bilateral discussions but given the recent developments in the US with regard to democracy and race relations, America has become vulnerable. One presumes that the Biden administration would realize that it will be counterproductive to lecture India because our reaction against American hypocrisy would be strong.

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Overnight reports from Jacksonville police:

 Items were taken from a residence in the 100 block of Hardin Avenue between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

 Adriannah L. Sims, 18, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to yield after the car she was driving and one being driven by Joyce A. Bock, 71, of Jacksonville collided at 12:05 p.m. Sunday at Hoagland Boulevard and South Diamond Street. Sims told police she tried to stop before turning onto South Diamond Street but was unable to.

 Clint R. Waid, 19, of Winchester was cited on a charge of improper lane use after the car he was driving and one being driven by Kevin V. Heitz, 58, of Jacksonville collided at 9:21 a.m. Sunday at Morton Avenue and Illinois Route 104. Police said Waid was trying to pass a vehicle in the inside lane and went into Heitz lane. A passenger in Heitz vehicle, Clara J. Heitz, 60, of Jacksonville was taken to Passavant Area Hospital for treatment.
Courtesy of IFC FilmsIn the new Martin Luther King Jr. documentary, MLK/FBI, director Sam Pollard explores the government's history of targeting Black activists -- and specifically Dr. King.

Pollard tells NPR some of the great lengths that the FBI went to in surveilling Dr. King.

"They would go into these hotels before King and his associates got there and they would be let in by the management to bug those rooms and to have the rooms next door, nearby, where they could listen in to what was going on when King and his associates took those rooms," Pollard said. "So this was an all-out assault."

Based on newly declassified files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Pollard's doc follows the FBI's campaign against King that not only included wiretaps, but also centered on King's personal life, including his extramarital affairs. Pollard says the FBI wanted to "discredit Dr. King and his reputation as this upright Christian minister who's leading the civil rights movement."

"So people would say, 'Oh, how horrible his personal life is, how can we follow this man?" he explains.

Pollard believes the FBI's focus on King came from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who feared that "King was going to align himself with the Communist Party, which ... J. Edgar Hoover was obsessed with destroying."

On Monday, Dr. Bernice King sent a reminder that although her father is now celebrated on MLK Day, he was not necessarily "loved" in his time.

"Please dont act like everyone loved my father. He was assassinated," King tweeted. "A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most hated. Many who quote him now and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate, the authentic King."

MLK/FBI is available on demand.





By Candice Williams

Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
That reliability boils down to the 4.7-liter V8 that combines aluminum heads with a cast-iron block, port fuel injection, four valves per cylinder, and one-piece camshafts. Also featured in the 4Runner and Land Cruiser from that era, this motor wont leave you stranded on the side of the road.Regular Car Reviews had the opportunity to drive an original Tundra with this engine, highlighting how overbuilt this engine was for its time. Lest we forget, the Big Three in Detroit were running archaic mills in the form of the Magnum V8, Triton V8, and Vortec series of small-block V8s.Hard, bouncy, but not wobbly, the 2000 Toyota Tundra V8 Limited Access Cab in the following video is instantly familiar when you drive it. According to Mr. Regular, the Japanese pickup from Princeton, Indiana looks like a foreigners idea of what an American truck enthusiast would like. Truth be told, its hard to shut ones eyes to the F-Series motifs.Currently sitting at 225,000 miles (362,102 kilometers), this fellow occasionally weeps oil from the passenger-side valve cover gasket. Its understandable given the trucks age and impressive if you glance over the reliability records of the F-150, Dodge Ram, and Rado from this era.Its not all that flashy or exciting, but the Tundra does the job and does it very well, according to Brian Reider of Regular Car Reviews. Be that as it may, Toyota will go down a very different route for the 2022 model year The all-new Tundra will reportedly drop the free-breathing V8 in favor of a V6 with at least 3.0 liters of displacement, but not any ol six. Just like the next-generation Land Cruiser, hearsay suggests a V6 with hybrid assistance.A couple of boosty snails are also rumored, and their role would be to improve oomph as well as the EPA-rated gas mileage. Considering that Ford already offers a half-ton truck with a hybrid sixer, it appears to me that Toyota is playing catch-up to the American truck makers again, just like it did when the original Tundra came out in 1999 for the 2000 model year.
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TRADITIONAL herbs and steaming have become popular home remedies against Covid-19 which has killed 772 people in Zimbabwe.

Social media platforms are daily awash with messages on the efficacy of Covid-19 home remedies such as steaming with Umsuzwane/Zumbane, guava, mango or gumtree leaves as well as drinking ginger, garlic and lemon concoctions.

After steaming, most people drink the mixtures when they have cooled down. The popularity of the plant-based remedy has also turned many residents into business people as they are selling 50g packets of Umsuzwane for US$1.

Others are selling Umsuzwane tea for US$5 per 250g packet. Although there is no scientific evidence that the home remedies work, many people who have recovered from the pandemic have confirmed using the home remedies and some believe they have been able to protect themselves from infection using the same remedies.

Steaming at least twice a day with traditional herbs is prescribed by advocates of indigenous knowledge systems.

According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, about 80 percent of Zimbabweans use traditional medicines which still play an important role in meeting basic health care needs of local communities.

It remains the most affordable and easily accessible source of therapeutic treatment in the primary healthcare system for members of the public.

With the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant, traditional experts have said steaming can kill the virus especially if people add essential oils like Eucalyptus and Spearmint.

Although Scientific research says nothing about proven efficacy of these remedies, traditionalists say such remedies have been used for centuries even before the emergence of modern medicine.

One of the messages circulating reportedly emanating from overwhelmed doctors countrywide states that Covid-19 variants become significantly weakened after heating at 56 C for 15 and 30 min in liquid environments respectively.

Thats why it is very important to take steam, which reaches the back of your paranasal sinus. You have to kill this virus in the nose with steam. At 50C, this virus becomes disabled or paralysed. At 60C this virus becomes so weak that any human immunity system can fight against it. At 70C this virus dies completely, read the message.

Renowned historian Mr Pathisa Nyathi says Africans had always survived in the past using their traditional herbs and plants hence they cannot be discarded as useless.

He said steaming was also an integral part of home remedies which can also work to boost ones immune system and protect the individuals from viruses.

Mr Nyathi said it was important for people to value their traditional knowledge systems even in the wake of global pandemics whose cure can only be certified after scientific research.

I think it is important for us to be aware of what has been part of our lifestyle even before we were introduced to mainstream medicine.

I also believe that just because umsuzwane is readily available does not mean it cannot be sold, that will be undermining the value of our traditional ways of dealing with ailments, said Mr Nyathi.

However, since we still cannot access the cure for this global pandemic, people can steam and use readily available natural remedies as they have been helpful in the past, he said.

A Bulilima-based traditional healer Mr Obert Vundla said steaming is highly recommended and has been a popular practice for many healers.

We usually use intelezi, iwohlo that grows next to water bodies, iphunga and these are the readily available plants and herbs. We have also been using umsuzwane for steaming to protect people from ailments.

Members of the public should steam regularly as the activity boosts the immune system and tends to deal with all ailments, said Mr Vundla.

Bulawayo health expert Professor Solwayo Ngwenya said people could use the natural remedies based on their beliefs but all sick people must seek conventional medical attention.

Home remedies are called complementary medicine and they are not in the mainstream although people use them from time to time.

We know that people have been using natural remedies for a long time but their use should never encourage anyone to stay at home when they have Covid-19 symptoms, said Prof Ngwenya. Those who are unwell should not rely on home remedies but must get tested.

Those who are positive should seek medical help and not stay at home thinking home remedies will help. Home remedies are for people who are healthy and inappropriate use may cause more harm than good.

On steaming, Prof Ngwenya said members of the public should be careful not to burn themselves in the process.

Guava trees, gumtree leaves and so forth can be used as long as it does not compromise our health because Covid-19 is real and it kills. Vitamin C and Zinc tablets are fine as they boost the immune system but all these should not encourage people to be reckless and stay at home when they should seek medical attention, said Prof Ngwenya.

In a statement last week, Vice President Constatino Chiwenga who is the Minister of Health and Child Care said the Ministry was working with traditional leaders to conduct research on the area.

Someone asked me whether traditional medicines such as mufandichimuka, moringa, zumbani and other herbs can be used to treat Covid-19 or as substitute drugs for Covid-19. Some traditional doctors are also saying their patients recovered after administering herbs.

My comment would be that you might be aware that some modern medicines are actually derived from traditional herbs.

Yes, it is possible that some traditional medicines can be used to treat Covid-19. There is however need for scientific research to be done to ascertain their efficacy.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care actually operationalised the Traditional Medicines Department, which is preoccupied with research in this area, he said. Chronicle
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Federal agents have apprehended an East Texas man suspected of assaulting a police officer during the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol this month, according to court records.

Daniel Page Adams  charged alongside Cody Connell, his cousin from Louisiana  was arrested Saturday near the Houston area and is now among 80 or more people who have been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Authorities suspect Adams shoved a U.S. Capitol Police officer while trying to overcome a wall of police officers as lawmakers sought safety inside. The next day, a tipster led investigators to the cousins, court records show.

A statement of facts from FBI agent Michael Sahadi Jr., says he reviewed videos from the Capitol violence that Connell posted to social media and found that the cousins  who had the same mullet-style haircut  often appeared in the footage. It provides the following account:

The cousins at one point appeared to shield their faces from tear gas in the area.

In one video, Adams can be heard saying, Lets go  Are you ready to push? to encourage others attempting to push through a line of Capitol Police officers.

The special agent stated Adams could be seen in front of the line as police tried keeping the rioters at bay with protective shields. The same video shows Adams then sprinting up the Capitol steps and chasing the officers.

The officers tried holding Adams off again at the top of the stairs, the agent continued, describing what he watched.

The video ends with a loud thud and Adams holding his head and uttering an expletive, he wrote.

The incident followed a speech by President Donald Trump encouraging thousands of people to march on the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the electoral college results. The riots left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was fatally beaten during a clash with rioters. The U.S. House of Representatives has impeached the outgoing president for incitement of insurrection.

Adams faces several federal charges, including assault of a federal police officer. It was not known when he would appear in court. A woman who answered a phone number listed for a local man named Daniel Adams declined to comment, citing trauma that her family has experienced.

Investigators alleged that Connell, of Vivian, La., posted about his role in the insurrection on social media, including a comment that 4 of us breached the cops blockage and us same 4 breached the Capitol. He identified a cousin as one of his accomplices and said the cousin was clubbed and shot with a rubber bullet.

But we pushed the cops against the wall, Connell allegedly wrote, according to court documents. They dropped all their gear and left. Thats when we went to doors of Capitol building and breached it.

The court documents primarily focus on Connell, whose social media comments were said to indicate that he believed the fallout from the attempted takeover would lead to a civil war.

Investigators believe Connell intended to return to Washington D.C. for the presidential inauguration and that he was planning with at least two other Texans  both unidentified  to buy body armor, ammunition and weapons. The agent, citing a witness interview, also believed Connell intended to cause violence that may result in the end of his life.

According to the witness, Connell explained that he was not returning to Louisiana unless he was in a body bag, the agent wrote.

Attorneys could not be immediately identified for the men.

Meanwhile, members of the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force on Friday arrested Anthime Joseph Gionet  a far-right media personality known as Baked Alaska  in Houston. He is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint filed last week in federal court.

Charges were also expected against a former Houston police officer  Tam Pham  who resigned last week after being identified as having entered the Capitol building amid the violence. The officer told the Chronicle last week that he was among the crowd to take pictures.

The FBI on Sunday raided the home of a San Antonio man allegedly involved in the riots, arresting 37-year-old Matthew Carl Mazzoco. He is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, authorities said. Mazzocco was identified by social media, largely on TikTok, as being at the Capitol the day of the riots, authorities said.

In North Texas, police arrested a Wylie man  Guy Reffitt  at his home and charged him with obstruction of justice and unlawful entry. According to an affidavit, the 48-year-old was recorded on video outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot and later threatened his wife and children if they turned him in.

Taylor Pettaway and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correctly identify the Houston Police Officer who resigned.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
As President Donald Trump will be out in the office in the coming days and the United States President-elect Joe Biden will be taking over the Executive duties, South Korean President Moon Jae-in shared on Monday that Biden should continue the progress of what the outgoing president had built with North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

President-elect Joe Biden will be taking the Presidential office on Wednesday in the middle of a prolonged stalemate in negotiations to dismantle the nuclear and missile programs of North Korea in exchange for the United States sanctions relief.

South Korean President Moon who offered to be a mediator between Washington and Pyongyang, shared that he will seek an early chance in promoting North Korea as a foreign policy priority of Biden so the resident-elect will be following through on an agreement reached by Trump and Supreme Leader Kim at Singapore during their first meeting.

Based on the first summit, which the two leaders attended, they have vowed to establish new relations. They will be working toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in a joint statement. However, during their second summit and the working-level, the previous talks fell apart.

According to Reuters, During the New Year news conference, Moon has mentioned that the inauguration of Biden's administration would provide a turning point to the new start United States-North Korea dialogue, South-North dialogue to inherit the achievements that were made and established under the administration of Trump.

Moon also shared that the dialogues can pick up the pace if they restart from the Singapore declaration and seek concrete measures in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, during the ruling Workers' Party's rare congress last week, Kim vowed to beef up the nuclear capabilities of the Hermit state, and that pledge highlighted the need to reopen negotiations for a peace deal, Moon added.

Read Also: Biden Security Adviser Urges Russia Detained Putin Critic Release, EU Corroborate

The South Korean president also stated that the issue of joint South Korea-U.S. military drills, which the Hermit State has long condemned, as they considered it a rehearsal for war, can be discussed and revive an inter-Korean military panel, Deutsche Welle reported.

Moreover, Moon also called for a diplomatic solution along with Japan to prevent the planned sale of Japanese corporate assets from compensating victims of forced labor, as he said that it would be undesirable for bilateral relations, Gulf Today reported.

The countries are at odds regarding legacies from the 1910-1945 colonial rule of Japan, and some former laborers have secured a court order seizing domestic properties of Japanese firms.

On the other hand, after the ruling Workers' Party's rare congress last week, the military of South Korea mentioned that they have detected signs that the Hermit state is holding a military parade at night after the announcement of the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un to maximize the military capability of the North.

A key adviser to her Supreme Leader brother, Kim Yo Jong, mentioned the confirmation of the parade's schedule that they are only holding a military parade in the capital city. Still, they are not doing any military exercises and not launching anything.

Related Article: Pablo Escobar's 'Cocaine Hippos' Uncontrollable Breeding Pose Ecological Threat

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Spiritualist mediums might be more prone to immersive mental activities and unusual auditory experiences early in life, according to new research.

This might explain why some people and not others eventually adopt spiritualist beliefs and engage in the practice of 'hearing the dead', the study led by Durham University found.

Mediums who "hear" spirits are said to be experiencing clairaudient communications, rather than clairvoyant ("seeing") or clairsentient ("feeling" or "sensing") communications.

The researchers conducted a survey of 65 clairaudient spiritualist mediums from the Spiritualists' National Union and 143 members of the general population in the largest scientific study into the experiences of clairaudient mediums.

They found that these spiritualists have a proclivity for absorption - a trait linked to immersion in mental or imaginative activities or experience of altered states of consciousness.

Mediums are also are more likely to report experiences of unusual auditory phenomena, like hearing voices, often occurring early in life.

Many who experience absorption or hearing voices encounter spiritualist beliefs when searching for the meaning behind, or supernatural significance of, their unusual experiences, the researchers said.

The findings are published in the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture. The research is part of Hearing the Voice - an interdisciplinary study of voice-hearing based at Durham University and funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Spiritualism is a religious movement based on the idea that human souls continue to exist after death and communicate with the living through a medium or psychic.

Interest in Spiritualism is increasing in Britain with several organisations supporting, training, and offering the services of practising mediums. One of the largest, the SNU, claims to serve at least 11,000 members through its training college, churches, and centres.

Through their study, the researchers gathered detailed descriptions of the way that mediums experience spirit 'voices', and compared levels of absorption, hallucination-proneness, aspects of identity, and belief in the paranormal.

They found that 44.6 per cent of spiritualist participants reported hearing the voices of the deceased on a daily basis, with 33.8 per cent reporting an experience of clairaudience within the last day.

A large majority (79 per cent) said that experiences of auditory spiritual communication were part of their everyday lives, taking place both when they were alone and when they were working as a medium or attending a spiritualist church.

Although spirits were primarily heard inside the head (65.1 per cent), 31.7 per cent of spiritualist participants said they experienced spirit voices coming from both inside and outside the head.

When rated on scales of absorption, as well as how strongly they believe in the paranormal, spiritualists scored much more highly than members of the general population.

Spiritualists were less likely to care about what others thought of them than people generally, and they also scored more highly for proneness to unusual hallucination-like auditory experiences.

Both high levels of absorption and proneness to such auditory phenomena were linked to reports of more frequent clairaudient communications, according to the findings.

For the general population, absorption was associated with levels of belief in the paranormal, but there was no significant corresponding link between belief and hallucination-proneness.

There was also no difference in levels of superstitious belief or proneness to visual hallucinations between spiritualist and non-spiritualist participants.

Spiritualists reported first experiencing clairaudience at an average age of 21.7 years. However, 18 per cent of spiritualists reported having clairaudient experiences 'for as long as they could remember' and 71 per cent had not encountered Spiritualism as a religious movement prior to their first experiences.

The researchers say their findings suggest that it is not giving in to social pressure, learning to have specific expectations, or a level of belief in the paranormal that leads to experiences of spirit communication.

Instead, it seems that some people are uniquely predisposed to absorption and are more likely to report unusual auditory experiences occurring early in life. For many of these individuals, spiritualist beliefs are embraced because they align meaningfully with those unique personal experiences.

Lead researcher Dr Adam Powell, in Durham University's Hearing the Voice project and Department of Theology and Religion, said: "Our findings say a lot about 'learning and yearning'. For our participants, the tenets of Spiritualism seem to make sense of both extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as practising mediums.

"But all of those experiences may result more from having certain tendencies or early abilities than from simply believing in the possibility of contacting the dead if one tries hard enough."

Dr Peter Moseley, co-author on the study at Northumbria University, commented: "Spiritualists tend to report unusual auditory experiences which are positive, start early in life and which they are often then able to control. Understanding how these develop is important because it could help us understand more about distressing or non-controllable experiences of hearing voices too"

Durham's researchers are now engaged in further investigation of clairaudience and mediumship, working with practitioners to gain a fuller picture of what it is like to be on the receiving end of such unusual and meaningful experiences.

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Mr. Nafeis 47-second video this month of the chaos at El Husseineya Central Hospital, about two and a half hours northeast of Cairo, went viral on social media.

As outrage grew, the government denied that the hospital had run out of oxygen.

An official statement issued the following day concluded that the four who died had suffered from complications and denied that the deaths had any connection to an oxygen shortage. Security officers interrogated Mr. Nafei, and officials blamed him for violating rules barring visitation and filming inside hospitals.

A New York Times investigation, however, found otherwise.

Witnesses, including medical staff and relatives of patients, said in interviews that the oxygen pressure had fallen to precipitously low levels. At least three patients, they said, and possibly a fourth, had died of oxygen deprivation. A close analysis of the video by doctors in Egypt and the United States confirmed that the chaotic scene in the I.C.U. indicated an interruption in the oxygen supply.

The fatal oxygen shortage was the end result of a cascade of problems at the hospital, our investigation found. By the time patients were suffocating in the I.C.U., a relief delivery of oxygen that had been ordered was already hours late and a backup oxygen system had failed.

Were not going to bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is OK, a doctor at the hospital said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared arrest. The whole world can admit theres a problem, but not us.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren met Congress president here on Monday and several issues related to the coalition government in the state, including filling up vacant Cabinet berths, and the farmers' protest against the Centre's new agri laws, were discussed.

Soren, who is heading a coalition government of the Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), met and at the Congress chief's 10 Janpath residence. Congress' in-charge R P N Singh was also present during the meeting.

Singh said it was a courtesy meeting as Soren had not met Gandhi for over a year.

JMM sources said that during the meeting Soren also discussed the roadmap of the coalition government going forward after completing one year in office last month.

Several issues related to the government's programmes, filling up of vacant positions in the Cabinet, appointments to various boards, development issues and the farmers' protests against the Centre's new farm laws were discussed, the sources said.

On completion of one year of his government, Soren had said the JMM-led coalition is committed to make Jharkhand self-reliant by the end of the tenure so that the state need not take loan from the world bank and also doesn't wait for the central assistance.

(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 inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States marks the opening of a new chapter in the Anglo-American relationship  raising fresh questions as to whether it remains as special as it once was.

For Boris Johnson the pressure is on to establish good working relations with the new occupant of the White House as he seeks to reinforce the transatlantic alliance as the bedrock of UK foreign policy.

The changeover comes at a critical time for the Prime Minister as he endeavours to show global Britain remains a force in the world as it forges a new path outside the European Union.

But he enters the new relationship with some uncomfortable baggage which may need to be overcome if it is to proceed as smoothly as Downing Street hopes.

For a start, Mr Biden is no fan of Brexit, unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, who was an enthusiastic cheerleader for Mr Johnson.

Mr Biden was vice president during the 2016 referendum campaign when Mr Johnson offended many Democrats with a sideswipe at the part-Kenyan Barack Obama after the then president came out in favour of Remain.

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Mr Biden subsequently described Mr Johnson as a physical and emotional clone of Mr Trump while, as a politician proud of his Irish heritage, he was unimpressed by a threat to override elements of the Brexit withdrawal deal relating to Northern Ireland.

Quentin Peel, associate fellow on the Chatham House international affairs think tanks Europe programme, says the Prime Minister may have his work cut out as he tries to bond with the new president.

Joe Biden is not a man who holds grudges against people but I dont think either he is the sort of man who will be very impressed by the bluster of Boris Johnson, he told the PA news agency.

I think the fact that Britain is no longer a very useful link to the European Union does matter and will weaken the relationship Quentin Peel

He was careless and made mistakes and he offended people. I think there is quite a bit of work the British Government will have to do to mend fences with the new Democrat regime in Washington.

One casualty may be Mr Johnsons hopes of an early trade deal with the US as he seeks to expand British commercial links beyond Europe.

Negotiations with the Trump administration had been making progress and there was even talk of a mini-agreement before the president left office.

All that is likely to go on the back burner as the new administration focuses on domestic priorities  most notably dealing with coronavirus and rebuilding the US economy amid the fallout from the pandemic.

There are however important diplomatic opportunities coming up which those around the Prime Minister hope will provide a way to demonstrate that Britain still has a lot to offer the country it regards as its most important ally.

Most notably the UK is in the chair for two of the most important events on the 2021 international calendar  the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations and the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record. Climate change continues its relentless march.



Now is the time to step up ambition to meet the goals of the #ParisAgreement.https://t.co/gwrhEqMWXN pic.twitter.com/eXnttO8Jar  Global Goals (@GlobalGoalsUN) January 15, 2021

The G7 will be a key moment as the leading economies seek to chart a way forward from the pandemic, while tackling climate change is a high priority for Mr Biden  in sharp contrast to his predecessor who famously withdrew the US from the Paris agreement.

Both will require skilful handling, and there is already reportedly some disappointment in Washington that Mr Johnson has been unable to secure a big figure to head Cop26.

It is Brexit though that may present the greatest challenge, with some observers believing the new administration will look increasingly towards Berlin and Paris now Britain is outside the EU.

Mr Peel said: Britain was seen in Washington as a very useful link to the European Union and therefore a binding factor.

I think the fact that Britain is no longer a very useful link to the European Union does matter and will weaken the relationship.

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Others are more optimistic. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that while the contours of the special relationship will be different under the new president, the bedrock  based on strong cultural, economic and security ties  will endure.

Traditional military and intelligence-sharing links are likely to remain strong, and it will not have gone unnoticed in Washington that Mr Johnson announced a big increase in defence spending at a time when other Nato allies are failing to meet their commitments.

But with some tricky waters to navigate first, the coming weeks and months may be crucial in shaping the way the relationship plays out over the years ahead.
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Again, it's clear our progressive pals are united in their rebuke but angering a very rich dood plays well among this politico's broke-ass rural voter support base.

Read more . . .
Two bodies have been found after a Russian freighter sunk in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast early on Sunday, reported the Turkish news agency Anadolu, citing regional Governor Sinan Guner.



Five survivors have also been rescued. The ship had a crew of 13, all Russians, though some Turkish media have reported the proper number is 15.



Rescue efforts were made harder by storms and strong waves, but rescuers are still seeking survivors. The Turkish navy has also contributed a ship to the effort, tweeted the Defence Ministry.



The cause of the accident remains unclear.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
Dr Alex George has opened up about the heartbreaking moment he found out that his brother Llyr had taken his life at the age of 19.

The Love Island star, 30, revealed that he had no idea that his youngest brother was struggling with his mental health before his tragic death in July last year.

Speaking about his 'bright, talented and funny' sibling, he explained that Llyr's sudden death left their family 'shattered and irrevocably changed'.

Tragic: Dr Alex George has opened up about the heartbreaking moment he found out that his brother Llyr had taken his life at the age of 19

Describing the moment his father told him about Llyr's death, Dr Alex wrote in The Sun: 'In that moment my world fell apart, it came down around me, it shattered.'

The A&E doctor explained that his brother had no diagnosed history of a mental health condition and never told him how he was feeling despite being 'very close'.

Urging people to remember that there is 'no type' when it comes to mental health, he said that Llyr did not share his struggles due to the stigma surrounding suicide mental health.

He continued: 'Not once did Llyr tell me how he was feeling, I'm a doctor, we were very close, he knew I was a mental health advocate and hugely passionate about it.'

'My world fell apart': The Love Island star, 30, revealed that he had no idea that his youngest brother was suffering with his mental health before his tragic death in July last year

Alex, who has been a mental health advocate for years, went on to explain that his pain from Llyr's sudden death will no doubt be there for the rest of his life.

He added that his brother is always in his thoughts, as he shared his hope he will eventually be able to live alongside his grief.

He explained: 'That pain will be there for the rest of my life but at some point I hope I'll learn to live alongside it.'

The doctor, who works in A&E at London's Lewisham Hospital, took to social media earlier this month to urge Boris Johnson to meet with him.

He penned a candid letter to the Prime Minister on Instagram, urging him to give more value to 'support for emotional and mental wellbeing' in schools.

'Let's talk': The doctor, who works in A&E at London's Lewisham Hospital, took to social media earlier this month to urge Boris Johnson to meet with him

He shared a snap of himself holding a handwritten banner reading 'Boris let's talk #mentalhealthmatters' alongside his lengthy caption.

The reality TV star said he has spent 'months' researching and speaking to charities and believes that mental wellbeing needs to be treated with the 'same importance as core subjects such as Maths and English'.

He explained that the issue has only become 'more important' due to the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, saying that each loss of life to suicide is 'potentially preventable'.

Alex urged his 1.5million followers to share his call for action and tag Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who he also requested to meet with.

His lengthy caption read: 'DEAR BORIS JOHNSON, Our children have a right to receive quality mental health education and support that adequately prepares them for the world in which we live.

Call for action: Dr Alex penned a letter to the Prime Minister on Instagram on Sunday, urging him to give more value to 'support for emotional and mental wellbeing' in schools

'I have spent the last few months speaking with mental health charities, teachers, parents and education leads and we all agree that things need to change.

'From my discussions and research, I believe there are clear areas that we can and must improve on.

'Education and support for emotional and mental wellbeing needs to be treated with the same importance as core subjects such as Maths and English.

'Happy and well supported children are much more likely to enjoy and engage in education and become well rounded adults and more able to cope with the pressures of modern life.

'This has never been more important, especially with the effects of the pandemic.

Mental health: The reality TV star said he spent 'months' researching and believes mental health needs to be given the 'same importance as core subjects such as Maths and English'

'This has never been more important': He said the issue has only become 'more important' due to the Covid-19 crisis, saying that each loss of life to suicide is 'potentially preventable'

'Too many lives are lost each year to suicide, each one of them a potentially preventable loss of life. How many more lives must we lose before we act?

'I would like to meet with yourself and Secretary of State for Education @gavinwilliamson.mp to discuss the changes which I propose. I look forward to hearing from you, Dr Alex George.

'Please tag @borisjohnsonuk and share to make this happen'

And the TV doctor did not stop there, as he also shared a flood of posts on his Instagram stories urging his followers to help him 'act'.

Speaking about his brother's death, he wrote: 'I might not be able to help my brother. But I can help other children and young adults, with your help. Together.'

Anger: Alex also fumed in all caps that 'our children have a right to mental health education', arguing that 'they deserve better' as he vowed he would not give up

Support: The A&E doctor also shared driven reactions from his fans, including teachers and practitioners, who argued that 'not enough' was being done to 'protect mental health'

He added: 'I have been quiet until now. Gathering information. Speaking to experts. Understanding the issue. Now it's time to act. Please help me.'

Alex also fumed in all caps that 'our children have a right to mental health education', arguing that 'they deserve better' as he vowed he would not give up.

He also shared driven reactions from his fans, including teachers and practitioners, who argued that 'not enough' was being done to 'protect mental health'.

The doctor also posted an array of messages continuing to thank his followers for all of their support.

His comments come after he endured his first Christmas without his brother Llyr, who tragically committed suicide, aged 19 in July last year.

Grieving: Earlier this month, Dr Alex returned for a new series of his podcast The Waiting Room, and opened with a tribute to Llyr, who died in July

Alex confirmed his brother's passing on social media in July, describing him as 'the kindest and most caring soul'.

Earlier this month, Dr Alex returned for a new series of his podcast The Waiting Room, and opened with a tribute to Llyr.

'I've been going through the hardest time in my personal life after loosing my brother Llyr to mental health in July,' Alex told listeners. 'He was only 19 with a career in medicine ahead of him.

'I was so so proud of him. I miss him so much and he is always in my thoughts.'

Alex recalled what someone 'very very wise' told him after his brother passed away.

Famous medic: A&E doctor Alex - who shot to fame on Love Island 2018 - was debuting the fourth series of the podcast after a trying year

'Life throws us into the deep end at times but with the help of family and friends we overcome even the most seemingly surmountable of challenges. Just know you are never alone.'

Reflecting on the grieving process, Alex added: 'Grief is an ongoing process and I'll never get over losing Llyr, but i want to continue doing the things that are important to me.'

A&E doctor Alex - who shot to fame on Love Island 2018 - was debuting the fourth series of the podcast after a trying year.

He's been treating Covid-19 patients at Lewisham Hospital in London and sharing his experiences with the nation in his role as a TV medic.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
CAIRO  The monthslong suspension of Port Sudan, the main port in Sudan, has been bad news for Sudanese manufacturers and importers. But it could also expedite a new form of cooperation between Egypt and Sudan.

In a press release issued Jan. 12, Kampal Ali Kampal, chairman of the Chamber of Food Industries in Sudan, deplored the frequent disruption of cranes and loading equipment at Port Sudan.

He said that this frequent disruption led to the accumulation of goods at the port for more than four months, which damaged some of the goods and led the exporters to incur additional fees for keeping the goods at the port. Over the past four months alone, he noted, the total losses incurred by the food industries sector amounted to about $10 million.

Faraj Abdel Fattah, a professor of economics at the University of Cairo, told Al-Monitor that not only do the damages resulting from the stalled Sudanese export and import trade negatively affect the states resources and the economy in general, they also adversely affect the lives of Sudanese citizens who are going through critical political circumstance amid recurrent protests against poverty and poor living conditions.

When Sudan imports goods [and they are kept at the port], some of these goods get damaged. As a result, goods are not always available [in Sudanese markets], and the huge fees paid to store the goods at the port for several months are affecting product prices. Meanwhile, foreign companies importing Sudanese goods are refusing to pay such fees on behalf of Sudanese exporters, who also incur delay penalties as a result of the goods not arriving on time, and this might eventually lead some exporters to bankruptcy, he added.

In this regard, Abdel Fattah said that activating transit trade agreements between Egypt and Sudan could be a quick solution for Sudan to protect itself from economic and commercial isolation and to protect Sudanese exporters from bankruptcy and secure the Sudanese peoples needs of imported goods.

On Dec. 27, 2020, Egyptian Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced in an official statement that the joint meetings held between officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance and Sudanese businessmen at the headquarters of the Egyptian Customs Authority in Cairo had concluded an agreement to allow Sudanese exporters and importers to receive imports and exports through Egyptian ports, provided imports are transported from Egypt to Sudan and exports from Sudan to Egypt by land. This is what Maait dubbed as transit trade.

Maait added that preparations are underway at Egyptian ports to receive Sudanese exports and imports and should be ready within a few weeks. He also indicated that the Sudanese exporters have expressed willingness to transfer 90% of the Sudanese maritime trade traffic to the Egyptian ports that will be operating as part of the new agreement.

An informed source at the Ministry of Finance told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the preparation of the ports in coordination with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which is responsible for the port sector, is taking place quickly.

Asked about the expected benefits of the transit agreement between Egypt and Sudan, he said that Egypt is to obtain customs duties in return for goods entering its ports as well as fees for loading and unloading goods to and from the docks of the ports of Ain Sokhna and Suez.

He noted that the entry of Sudanese exports and imports into Egypt may create a new source of income for the shipping companies that will handle the transfer of imports and exports between the ports of Ain Sokhna and Suez on the one hand, and the land ports of Qustul and Arqin, located on the border between Egypt and Sudan, on the other.

The transit agreement will revive services on the land routes connecting the two countries, he added.

The Commercial Representation Authority of the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry held Jan. 9 a meeting with the Egyptian side in the Egyptian-Sudanese Business Council, which is a federation made up of representatives of the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries.

The meeting discussed the obstacles facing trade between Egypt and Sudan, including the transit trade. One of the conclusions of the meetings was that the road between Egypt and Sudan should be improved and services increased to ensure the revival of trade and the preservation of transit trade.

Despite the two sides interest in the commercial transit agreement between Egypt and Sudan, Wael al-Nahhas, an economic expert and financial adviser to a number of investment institutions, told Al-Monitor that while he encourages the agreement out of Egypts need to support the Sudanese, he does not expect the agreement to have a significant economic or customs return for Egypt because the volume of Sudanese trade with the world is limited.

He also ruled out that the agreement would contribute to reviving Sudanese trade because Sudanese manufacturers, exporters and importers and the Sudanese government itself are grappling with a set of economic crises, hence the recession that cannot be solved by using alternative ports only.

According to the World Bank, the volume of trade exchange between Sudan and other countries in 2017 amounted to about $14.5 billion, with $10.276 billion in imports and $4.240 billion in exports.

Kampala voiced another opinion. He told Al-Monitor that the size of the Sudanese international trade is only modest due to the Port Sudan disruption, which caused exporters and importers in the Sudanese private sector alone about 100 million euros [about $121.25 million] in losses due to port fees and delay penalties. If this amount is invested in import, manufacture and export, the Sudanese trade will flourish and Egypt will benefit therefrom through customs duties, especially with the lifting of US sanctions on Sudan.

Asked about the importance of the transit trade between Egypt and Sudan, Rashad Abdo, head of the Egyptian Center For Economic Studies, told Al-Monitor that besides its economic importance, this type of trade is of major political and strategic importance, as it boosts the alliance between Egypt and Sudan and encourages Sudan to converge positions with Egypt in regional crises such as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis.
A White House spokesman declined to comment. Legal scholars and some pardon lawyers shudder at the prospect of such moves, as well as the specter of Trump's friends and allies offering to pursue pardons for others in exchange for cash. "This kind of off-books influence peddling, special-privilege system denies consideration to the hundreds of ordinary people who have obediently lined up as required by Justice Department rules, and is a basic violation of the long-standing effort to make this process at least look fair," said Margaret Love, who ran the department's clemency process from 1990 until 1997 as the US pardon attorney. Long-time Trump associate Roger Stone jailed after the Russia probe received a Trump pardon last year. Credit:AP There are few historical parallels. Perhaps the closest occurred in the final hours of Bill Clinton's administration when he issued 170 pardons and commutations, some of which went to people who paid six-figure sums to his family and associates. But even Clinton, who was seen as flouting protocols, mostly rewarded people who had gone through an intensive Justice Department review process intended to identify and vet the most deserving recipients from among thousands of clemency applications.

Trump has shunned that process more than any recent president, creating an ad hoc system in the White House that Kushner has had significant influence over, and has relied on input from an informal network of outside advisers, including Tolman, the lobbyst. That system favours pardon-seekers who have connections to Trump or his team, or who pay someone who does, said pardon lawyers who have worked for years through the department system. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Few regulations or disclosure requirements govern presidential clemency grants or lobbying for them, particularly by lawyers, and there is nothing illegal about Trump associates being paid to lobby for clemency. Any explicit offers of payment to the President in return could be investigated as possible violations of bribery laws; no evidence has emerged that Trump was offered money in exchange for a pardon. Some, who used resources or connections to try to get to Trump, say clemency should be granted to more people, independent of their clout. "The criminal justice system is badly broken, badly flawed," said former senator Tim Hutchinson, a Republican who served in Congress from 1993 to 2003.

He has paid Tolman at least $US10,000 since late last year to lobby the White House and Congress for a pardon for his son Jeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state legislator who pleaded guilty in 2019 to accepting bribes and tax fraud, according to a lobbying disclosure filed this month. Hutchinson said the money was only for lobbying and acknowledged that Tolman may have performed legal services not reflected in the disclosure. While Hutchinson said he was happy with Tolman, he added, "There is a lot of people deserving of mercy, and I hope the President has a wide net in his approach to pardons and clemency." Also pardoned: Corn, a Thanksgiving turkey receives clemency from US President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump, last year. Credit:AP Tolman, who did not respond to requests for comment, is a former US attorney in Utah appointed by President George W Bush. He was a leading supporter of legislation overhauling sentencing laws championed by Trump and Kushner and was invited to the White House signing ceremony in December 2018. Since then, Tolman has emerged as a prominent advocate for clemency requests, with his firm's website highlighting a White House statement crediting him with helping secure pardons or commutations for three people, including Kushner's father, a wealthy real estate developer who was convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering and campaign finance violations. The White House has also credited Tolman with helping less well-connected offenders win clemency. There are no public records indicating Tolman was paid for those efforts, and Tolman wrote on Twitter on Friday that he has "represented many to get clemency. Some have been paying clients, many have been pro bono. I'm proud of my team's clemency work."

He filed paperwork this month indicating he was paid $US20,000 in the last three months of last year to seek a commutation for Dina Wein Reis, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Reis, who was released from prison in 2014, did not respond to requests for comment. Loading A filing this month revealed that Tolman was paid $US22,500 by an Arizona man named Brian Anderson who had retained him in September to seek clemency for Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and distributing narcotics on the internet. One of the lobbyists closest to Trump and his administration, Matt Schlapp, who was tapped by Trump last month to sit on the trust fund board for the Library of Congress, has been lobbying for weeks for a pardon for Parker Petit, a major Republican donor known as Pete who was the Georgia finance chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign and was convicted of securities fraud in November. Another lobbyist who has advertised his connections to Trump, Mark Cowan, was part of a team hired after the election to seek clemency for Nickie Lum Davis, who pleaded guilty in August for her role in a covert campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.

Weeks after stepping down as the President's lawyer in 2018, Dowd began marketing himself as a potential conduit for pardons. Dowd told prospective clients he could help them receive pardons because of his access to Trump and top aides like Kushner. John Dowd resigned in March 2018 as President Donald Trump's lead lawyer int he Russia probe. Credit:John Marshall Mantel/The New York Times Dowd, who as the President's lawyer had dangled a pardon to stop Trump's former national security adviser from cooperating with investigators, had continued to informally advise Trump. He told would-be clients and their representatives that the President was likely to look favorably on petitioners who were investigated by federal prosecutors in Manhattan or tarnished by perceived leaks from the FBI. At the time, Trump was seeking to undermine those groups because they were investigating his conduct. After leaving the Trump legal team, Dowd began representing William Walters, a wealthy sports gambler in Las Vegas convicted of insider trading. Around that time, Dowd told Walters and others that he would soon obtain a pardon for his client using his access to the White House and because Walters had been investigated by prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI. Walters paid Dowd tens of thousands of dollars, but a pardon has yet to materialise.

Dowd denied that he had boasted to anyone about his ability to obtain pardons and declined to answer questions. A former Trump campaign adviser, Karen Giorno, also had access to people around the President, having run Trump's campaign in Florida during the 2016 primary and remaining on board during the general election. She met in 2018 with Kiriakou, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to illegally disclosing the name of a CIA officer involved in the waterboarding of an American detainee. Although the name was never publicly disclosed, Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison. In the meeting, at the Washington office of his lawyer, Kiriakou said he had been wronged by the government and was seeking a pardon so he could carry a handgun and receive his pension. Giorno was accompanied by Trump's former director of advance, George Gigicos. Both said they had direct lines to the President, Kiriakou said. "I wanted to believe them," he said.

Giorno disputed this account, saying neither she nor Gigicos bragged about their presidential access. She said Gigicos was not involved in her effort, which she said was motivated by a feeling that "it was unfair what happened" to Kiriakou. In July 2018, Giorno signed an agreement with Kiriakou, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, "to seek a full pardon from President Donald Trump of his conviction" for $US50,000 and promised another $5US0,000 as a bonus if she secured a pardon. Loading Giorno said she never spoke to Trump directly about Kiriakou and did not lobby anyone in his administration for a pardon. Rather, she said that in meetings with senior administration officials, she tried "to connect the dots" between the people and techniques involved in Kiriakou's prosecution and those involved in the special counsel investigation then dogging Trump's presidency. Kiriakou said he also broached his quest for a pardon during a meeting last year with Giuliani and his associates on another subject at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which involved substantial alcohol.

When Giuliani went to the bathroom at one point, one of his confidants turned to Kiriakou and suggested that Giuliani could help. But "it's going to cost $US2 million  he's going to want two million bucks," Kiriakou recalled the associate saying. "I laughed. Two million bucks  are you out of your mind?" Kiriakou said. "Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldn't spend it to recover a $US700,000 pension." Kiriakou said he did not pursue the arrangement, but he shared the anecdote at a party last northern fall. A friend, a Transportation Security Administration whistleblower and former air marshal named Robert MacLean, became alarmed and feared Giuliani might be selling pardons. Without telling Kiriakou, MacLean filed a report with the FBI. "I felt duty-bound to report it," MacLean said.
According to the Guatemalan Director General of Migration, Guillermo Diaz, the confrontation between migrants and security forces was a "pitched battle", but the situation was eventually brought under control.

The incident took place on Sunday in Vado Hondo, Chiquimula, 177 km east of Guatemala City, Xinhua news agency reported.

Guatemala City, Jan 18 (IANS) Guatemalan security forces clashed with a US-bound caravan of some 8,000 Honduran migrants crossing the country, authorities said.

Local media reported that the confrontation included the use of tear gas to disperse those trying to continue on the route to Mexico.

According to Diaz, the caravan had been infiltrated by members of Honduran gangs.

Diaz said that there were reports of about 6,000 people in Guatemala attempting to reach the Mexican border, and from there to travel to the US.

On Saturday night, Guatemalan authorities intercepted 992 migrants at the border, some of whom were detained and others deported to Honduras.

According to a CNN report, in October 2020 the first major US-bound migrant caravan since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic left San Pedro Sula, Honduras and crossed into Guatemala with an estimated 1,500 to 2,800 people.

Crossings at the US-Mexico border plunged during 2020 lockdowns.

Apprehensions in the month of April hit the lowest mark in years, with approximately 17,100.

Since then, apprehensions have steadily climbed, with roughly 70,000 each in the months of October, November and December 2020, according to US Customs and Border Protection statistics.

--IANS

ksk/
Pakistan PM Imran Khan (File Image)

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is under "immense pressure" to resign from his post by January 31, alleged the country's top opposition party Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N).

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, while speaking to reporters in Rawalpindi, said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is in the dock over the 2014 foreign funding case.

The Pakistan Democracy Movement (PDM), an amalgam of 11 opposition parties in the country, has launched a nationwide agitation against the foreign funding case that was filed six years ago against the PTI leadership.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has agreed to hear the matter on February 13. Khan, along with other PTI functionaries, are accused of embezzling overseas charity funds for political purposes.

"Setting the date of the foreign funding case on February 13 is a result of our pressure," Dawn quoted the PML-N spokesperson as saying. She further added that January 31 is the "deadline" before the "selected government" to resign.

"Selected" is the jibe used by Khan critics against his government, as they allege that the military establishment "engineered his victory" in the 2018 national elections.

The PDM would be staging a demonstration outside the Election Commission of Pakistan on January 19. The rally would be led by PDM chief and leader of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

PML-N vice president and daughter of former ousted premier Nawaz Sharif would also be joining the protest.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which is also a constituent of the PDM, plans to table a motion of no-confidence against Khan in the Parliament. PPP president Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has appealed to the prime minister to step down before the no-trust motion is introduced.
A new one-stop-shop for upskilling and apprenticeship courses is being launched as part of a government effort to encourage people who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic to retrain.

The first-of-its-kind online resource will combine all apprenticeship and third-level education options available and help people find the course that best suits.

The move follows invest- ment in new third-level education and apprenticeship courses.

Speaking ahead of the launch of The Right Course initiative, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said there is a huge range of upskilling options available, but added that the current system is "complex and can over-burden some people".

Mr Harris said the new online portal, to be launched today, will provide a clear picture of what is on offer and how courses can be accessed.

"If you are unemployed temporarily as a result of Covid-19, now could be the time to do a short course," Mr Harris said.

"You can still retain your welfare payments while undertaking the course. If you are in employment but want to improve your skillset, there are options available."

Mr Harris said the pandem- ic has forced the Government to confront the skills short- age facing the country and said upskilling certain areas of the work- force is "critical to securing our recovery".

Talent

"Ireland is a small country. We cannot afford to have untapped talent and we cannot leave any person locked out of society because of a lack of skills," he said.

"This new portal will be a valuable tool to help each person identify the most suitable upskilling option for themselves and their teams. It is never too late to learn something new."

Mr Harris said 1,358 employers so far have availed of the Apprenticeship Incentivisation Scheme which gives them a 3,000 grant for each apprentice they hire.
Bulletproof star Noel Clarke says the police drama has helped normalise black middle class families on television.

Clarke, 45, and his co-star Ashley Walters, 38, will reprise their roles as London duo Aaron Bishop and Ronnie Pike in the third instalment, set in South Africa, which begins on Sky One and Now TV later this month.

It will see the pair head for Cape Town for a much-deserved holiday before they find themselves caught up in the frightening kidnap of a young girl.

Clarke, known for starring in the Hood film series and as a companion in Doctor Who, said the series was among the few to show black men with positive family backgrounds.

One week to go! #Bulletproof South Africa back on our screens 20 Jan. We literally can't wait for the sunshine. pic.twitter.com/sDJ5NS8svm  Sky TV (@skytv) January 13, 2021

He said: It was important to bring that to the screen because we dont see that with people who look like us generally. You dont necessarily always see that.

And Im not one of those people who are just going to like, Argh, bring race into everything but there isnt many shows where you see two people that look like us that are both or all completely positive.

That are married people that look like them and its a positive family and nobodys cheating and no-ones beating someone up and nobodys somebodys baby mama and all that kind of stuff.

Clarke, who created the series alongside former So Solid Crew rapper Walters, said it was important to both of them that they showed these two guys could love each other.

He added: We wanted to show nah, you can be two men and you can love each other and you can say that and its OK, and you can hug and you can be there for each other.

I think it says a lot about peoples mental health. It says a lot about just the way society is and the way we wanted these characters to show the other side of how we are generally perceived, so that for me was really important.

Clarke has spoken of how Bulletproof stands out among other police thrillers because of its two black co-leads playing parts that are not race specific.

He said the programme showed that the issue of on-screen representation did not have to become a thing if it was handled with care.

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Weve normalised Aaron Bishop and Ronnie Pike on screen and nobody now cares where theyre from and who they are, he said.

Theyre just those characters and its just that show.

And thats the kind of representation and thats the kind of thing that needs to happen moving forward. It doesnt have to be a thing.

Like, an Asian character doesnt need to be called Dr Singh and you see their parents. It doesnt have to be that.

They can be called John Smith as well and be a doctor and their cousin be a doctor  and its not a thing.

And I think Bulletproof is a show that has helped normalise a black middle class family and us as a whole on screen.

Bulletproof: South Africa launches on January 20 at 9pm on Sky One.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday warned he would not allow any company to operate with a franchise if it did not settle its government obligations.

"I assure you, all franchises will not be implemented. I will not implement them until they settle their full accounts with the government," Duterte said during the weekly Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting.

The President also stressed the government serves the interests of the poor and he will not allow large entities to escape with their duty by not paying taxes correctly.

"For all I care, you can have a 1,000 franchise, you will not see the light of day until you come to government with clean hands. Wala akong galit, bayaran mo lang ang gobyerno, sasaludo ako sa inyo limang beses (I'm not angry. Just pay your taxes to the government and I will even salute to you five times)," he said.

Duterte did not name a specific company during his weekly public address.

The alleged tax-avoidance schemes of ABS-CBN Corporation has been pointed out as one of the reasons for the broadcast giant's non-franchise renewal by the House of Representatives last July. The National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN to cease their broadcast last May 5 with their franchise expiration.

However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue cleared ABS-CBN in February 2020 of any tax liability, saying the company paid 70.5 billion in taxes in the past 17 years.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Batangas 6th district Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto, who were prominent actors in the country, filed separate bills to grant the Lopez-owned media company a fresh 25-year franchise.

Duterte has repeatedly threatened to block ABS-CBN's franchise renewal after accusing the network of not airing his campaign ads during the 2016 elections.


Earn your Associate of Applied Business in Business IT (BIT) degree online from the University of Cincinnati. This program can be completed fully online, with curriculum customized to fit your schedule, interests and how quickly you want to complete your degree. Application deadline July 1, 2021. Learn More 

Cosmetics companies traditionally have relied on in-person retail sales to attract new customers and maintain existing clientele. The pandemic, however, has upended the cosmetics industry, bringing new challenges as well as a host of opportunities for companies that are agile and creative enough to take advantage.

The E-Commerce Times spoke with experts in cosmetic sales and e-commerce about trends in this dynamic and evolving industry.

Personalization Trends

One way that cosmetics companies can appeal to online customers is to provide increasingly personalized services.

"What sets us apart is we've created an expert online beauty assessment that's been developed by a team of data scientists, makeup artists and skin care specialists," Jaleh Bisharat, co-founder and CEO of the cosmetics company NakedPoppy, told the E-Commerce Times.

"Think of it as your online beauty consultant. Once you've taken your three-minute assessment, we use patent-pending technology to rate every product in our store just for you. This creates your personalized clean beauty boutique, featuring your perfect picks."

That kind of personalization can help bridge the gap between customers and an online store, approximating and perhaps surpassing the experience they might get at a physical makeup counter.

"We believe the future is in personalization," explained Bisharat. "I see a world in which some day everyone will shop their unique, personalized beauty boutique and not have to waste time on the products that are not for them."

Cosmetics companies can gather data about new customers and maintain information about existing ones to provide a unique online shopping experience tailored to each customer's needs.

"Marketers could display a survey for first-time visitors to learn more about their preferences, like a store associate would," Ben Malki, director of customer success for Dynamic Yield, explained to the E-Commerce Times.

"Then, using the information captured, such as whether they are interested in clean or vegan products or have sensitive skin, to serve up a more customized experience. Product recommendations can act as another helpful extension of the in-store staff."

This kind of personalization can also help to link customers' in-store experiences with their online shopping.

"For those who previously engaged with brands exclusively offline but are now starting to do so digitally, marketers from the beauty industry can combine offline transactions with their online activity," said Malki.

"This can be done by building a segment consisting of those who recently made a purchase offline and serving them with relevant content upon arriving to the site or opening an email, converting them into online shoppers more efficiently."

Ultimately, personalization can maintain and grow a customer base and also prevent revenue lost from returned and unusable products.

"Personalization can also help minimize product returns," noted Malki. "As purchased beauty products cannot be re-shelved and sold, by implementing a greater degree of personalization, customers can be matched with items that best suit their distinct needs. This not only increases the likelihood of product satisfaction, but also reduces the costs associated with returns."

Pricing and Packaging Beauty

The cosmetics industry is also being transformed by new trends in pricing and packaging. Smart pricing strategies, for instance, are helping companies to maintain an edge in a competitive e-commerce marketplace.

"Cosmetics companies are part of the lucky minority in the global e-commerce landscape, in the sense that they have really high margins," explained Burc Tanir, CEO of Prisync, a company that provides competitor price tracking and a dynamic pricing engine for e-commerce businesses.

"This is actually a great opportunity in a growing market with a growing customer base, where pricing can be a secret marketing weapon. E-commerce companies in this space can adjust their prices competitively without sacrificing their solid profit margins at all. In other words, they can maintain a competitively-priced yet profitable position in their market to grow their top-line and bottom-line at the same time."

Similarly, as consumers are becoming more eco-conscious, cosmetics companies are changing how their products are packaged and sold.

"The use of recycled plastics is a first step for environmentally-friendly cosmetics packaging," Robert Lockyer, CEO of Delta Global, a luxury packaging company, told the E-Commerce Times.

"Alongside this, recyclable packaging is also needed, as well as efforts to educate customers how items should be disposed of sustainably -- for instance, with clear labelling on bottles and tubes."

Reusable packaging has become another way that cosmetics companies can appeal to environmentally-minded consumers.

"Companies can promote a circular economy by creating packaging that can be reused," said Lockyer. "For example, perfume bottles or makeup tubes can be cleaned and displayed as decorative ornaments. However, this requires investment into high-quality and visually-appealing packaging, whereby the exterior becomes just as much a part of the product as the internal formula."

A New Complexion

The new world of cosmetics e-commerce is just that -- a global endeavor, no longer limited to customers within a specific country.

"COVID-19 has accelerated the need for retailers to strengthen their online presence and accessibility to global shoppers," Matthew Merrilees, CEO North America of Global-e, explained to the E-Commerce Times.

"While domestic e-commerce sales have increased, they're not necessarily enough to replace the current loss of brick-and-mortar, so retailers must increasingly take advantage of the enormous untapped potential of selling to international customers to expand their revenue."

The changes the pandemic has brought to the cosmetics industry will likely remain even after COVID-19 is over, and those companies that can adapt to the new realities of online cosmetics sales will be those that can survive and thrive in the future.

"The desire for no-touch shopping won't disappear any time soon," said NakedPoppy's Bisharat. "I think consumers are now sensitized to how viruses or bacteria of any kind can spread, and I predict that as a result, people will avoid or minimize the use of testers.

"Some will also maintain a residual preference to not have another person get near their face. What this means is any solution that helps her find and buy perfect-for-her cosmetics in no-touch fashion will have an advantage."

Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and is the author of Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys, published by ECT News Network in May 2020. Email Vivian.


Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- US travelers had been showing growing confidence in travel, including a demand for international trips, prior to the new CDC requirement that they must receive a negative Covid-19 test prior to reentry. Travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth , says this requirement exhibits the ongoing uncertainty of travel, and explains why Cancel For Any Reason remains in-demand.

Traveler Confidence Was Growing

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the travel insurance industry was immediate, with as much as a 90% decrease in business according to Squaremouth. Since that time, the travel insurance aggregator says consumer confidence was nearing pre-pandemic levels, reporting an 864% increase in purchases since the start of the pandemic to current day. New travel trends, discounts, and the availability of a vaccine undeniably contribute to growing consumer confidence.

International Travel Was Still Leading US Tourist Destinations

Despite widespread border closures, Squaremouth says travelers still favor international trips. Since the pandemic began, 67% of travel insurance policies have been purchased for travel to other countries.

A surge of travel to 'open' destinations proved travelers still found a way to leave the country. Squaremouth's current list of top destinations , once ruled by European countries, now heavily consists of Caribbean destinations that remained open to US travelers, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos, and the US Virgin Islands. All of these countries will require US citizens to show a negative test before returning home.

Still Plenty of Unknowns in 2021 Travel

Squaremouth says this new rule came at a time when travelers were starting to feel comfortable traveling again, reaffirming the ongoing vulnerability and unpredictability of the travel industry.

While travel insurers are taking steps to meet new and evolving traveler concerns, this announcement proves it is a moving target. Showing a negative test for reentry is just the most recent hurdle travelers need to navigate. It joins previous reasons, like border closures and quarantine rules, that are deterring travelers, and are not covered by standard cancellation travel insurance policies.

For this reason, Squaremouth continues to recommend travelers consider purchasing the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade. Prior to the pandemic, demand for Cancel For Any Reason was low, accounting for only 3.5% of Squaremouth sales in 2019. Following the pandemic, this has skyrocketed to 17% .

"We never recommend travelers pay more for this coverage unless they have a very specific concern that we know isn't otherwise covered," says Squaremouth CMO Megan Moncrief. "But in today's travel climate, Cancel For Any Reason just gives travelers the biggest safety net as more unknowns become reality."

Squaremouth maintains a large portfolio of travel insurance products that offer coverage related to the coronavirus pandemic, including cancellation and emergency medical benefits for contracting the virus, and Cancel For Any Reason coverage. Travelers can search for policies that include Covid-19-related coverage, including Cancel for Any Reason, here .

Methodology: Data is based on travel insurance policies purchased through Squaremouth.com, comparing sales trends since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to data from the immediate months and year prior.

SOURCE Squaremouth

Related Links

http://www.squaremouth.com



Apicorp, a leading multilateral development financial institution, said it has signed a $125 million shariah-compliant corporate facility with Acwa Power, a major Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation and desalinated water plants worldwide, to support its future growth pipeline.



Announcing the deal, Apicorp said it is aligned with Apicorp and Acwa Powers shared mission of accelerating the energy transition in the Mena region and globally through green technologies, which currently comprise over 15% of Apicorps financing portfolio.



The facility has been earmarked for funding Acwa Powers investments in renewable projects in the countries it operates in, as well as future high-growth markets.



The five-year tenor is well suited for financing a typical renewable projects initial life cycle, enabling greater financial strength during the early development phase.



Moreover, the Apicorp facility can also be utilized as a revolver loan during the initial 3-year period, whereby it could be settled and redrawn as per Acwa Powers liquidity needs, enabling the company to recycle capital and increase financial capacity for further portfolio development and growth.



Nicolas Thevenot, Managing Director of Corporate Banking at Apicorp, said: "Backing the sustainable development of the Arab energy sector through innovative financing solutions continues to be a strategic priority for Apicorp."



"Worldwide and across the Mena region, we are witnessing a concerted drive to accelerate the share of renewables in the energy mix through the adoption of innovative, low-carbon technologies and solutions. This agreement further cements our longstanding and fruitful partnership with Acwa Power to build a renewable, more sustainable energy future," he stated.



Rajit Nanda, Chief Portfolio Management Officer and Acting Chief Investment Officer of Acwa Power, said: "Pursuing renewable energy development is the cornerstone of Acwa Powers growth strategy, and we are focused on enabling transformative solutions to help reduce carbon footprint and increase the share of renewable energy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and globally."



"The timely closing of this facility has also further strengthened Acwa Powers relationship with Apicorp, a long-term financial partner," he added.



Kashif Rana, Chief Financial Officer, said: "Apicorps $125 million facility will serve as an important funding source to support the agile and robust expansion of Acwa Powers green portfolio across markets. The revolving feature of this facility offers Acwa Power the flexibility to reallocate and thus optimize its utilization."



"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Apicorp as we actively seek to unlock renewable energy potential and deliver long-term, sustainable value to nations, backed by our strong ESG framework," he added.



This past October, Apicorp provided a $70.5 million commitment to support Acwa Power and other co-sponsors to develop Phase V of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, UAE, the worlds largest single-site solar park.



A rapidly emerging sector within the regional energy mix, Apicorp forecasts that renewables will comprise just under one-third (32%) of the total value of planned and committed power projects in the Mena region for the period 2020-2024, the largest such share of any power generation source.



Baker & McKenzie, Bahrain, acted as legal advisors for Apicorp on this transaction while Ashursts Riyadh office advised Acwa Power.-TradeArabia News Service
By G. Christopher Hunt

I have known since October that I would write an essay about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his dreams and nightmares. Specifically, I was going to take excerpts of his 1963 I Have a Dream speech and the NBC News interview he gave in 1967 at his Ebenezer Baptist Church, 11 months before he was killed at age 39, and provide commentary about where we are today.

But did I know in October that a 51-year-old Black man, who is the pastor of Kings church, would be elected to the United States Senate to represent Georgia this month? No. Was it clear to me that he would serve in the Senate with a 33-year-old Jewish man also elected less than two weeks ago? It was not.

Dreams fulfilled? Possibly.

Could anyone, including Dr. King, have dreamt that the U.S. Capitol would be overtaken by, as the U.S. Army called them, domestic terrorists?

A nightmare? Definitely.

These are the two sides of Dr. Kings vision, the yin and yang of dreams and nightmares. In America, fulfillment of Dr. Kings dream has always meant struggling to outpace recurring nightmares. Dr. King asserted that there has never been a single solid, determined commitment of large segments of White America on the whole question of racial equality. Vacillation has always existed  since the founding of our nation.

He said support for the civil rights movement came largely from white Americans temporary response to the brutal treatment of Black people under the direction of officials like Police Commissioner Bull Connor. The dream gains ground on the nightmare, but only temporarily, in the aftermath of undeniable horror.

Recall the horror on Memorial Day 2020 when a 46-year-old unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis. We remember the outrage that ensued across America and around the world at racial injustice. But the question is unavoidable: will that moment be similar to the temporary support Dr. King spoke about regarding the civil rights movement? Was the outrage this past summer merely a reaction to the sickening video-documented brutality of Floyds murder and not really about creating lasting racial equality and breaking down systemic oppression?

The symbolic Georgia elections of the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are milestones and they deserve to be celebrated. But racial symbolism is not enough. I believe Dr. King would be proud but he would not consider their elections a manifestation of his dream. He said America was content at achieving decency but had no intention of going as far as true equality.

Going further, Dr. King stated, ... the Negro was brought here in chains; treated in a very inhuman fashion. This led to the thingification of the Negro. So he was not looked upon as a person.

Was the othering or thingification of Black people the reason for such stark differences in the security preparations between the protesters for Black lives as opposed to the insurrection on Jan. 6? Unfortunately, its doubtful that most Americans will agree that racial injustice, which was Dr. Kings nightmare, could possibly be the major theme that anchored the U.S. Capitol invasion.

As a university leader and consultant in diversity, equity, and inclusion, part of my role is to facilitate difficult conversations and ask thoughtful and uncomfortable questions in the pursuit of knowledge and a more just society. With that in mind, Ill say that only time will tell whether Floyds murder will have a lasting impact on Kings dream of racial equality. Temporary reaction to brutality was his concern then and should be our concern now.

G. Christopher Hunt is associate provost for community, equity, & diversity and an adjunct teaching professor for the School of Arts & Humanities at the University of New England. He lives in Easton.

Not so long ago, the global library of professional publications on precious stones was replenished with a unique book about rare diamonds and diamond jewelry published by the World Diamond Museum. Alex Popov, the founder and director of the museum told Rough&Polished about how this book came to life, its concept and future projects within the diamond industry.

Your activity in the international diamond industry is full of significant events, including the creation of the Moscow Diamond Exchange, that of the Indian Fund and the World Diamond Mark, the organization of exhibitions, consulting, interest towards laboratory-grown diamonds and jewelry design, the organization of the World Diamond Museum and the publishing business. How did it all start?

I came into diamond business by chance a bit more than 20 years ago. I visited Geneva quite often and knew a lot of people there in the nineties. One day my brother, who is a jewellery designer, asked me to help his friend, who was in the diamond business. I did, and there it all started. I was lucky enough to enter the world of high-end brands, best retailers and most important diamond manufacturers and traders. So, I learned this business from several angles, and that helped a lot. One cannot easily get into this tight circle of family-oriented businesses, and I came through the family as well.

What are diamonds to you?

My mind was always outside the box or rather outside the loupe. I am not a gemologist, and I dont consider diamonds a commodity. If I would, Id never get into this trade. For me, the diamonds are part of the jewellery world, which in turn, is an integral part of the world of art, history and culture  my favourite subjects.

I strongly believe that diamonds form an integral part of our cultural heritage and will remain there forever, despite the efforts of the part of the industry to diminish it to commodity trading. Not that there is something wrong with the commodity trading, it serves the purpose to create art in the same way as metal commodity trading serves the aim to make good cars.

No art or any other form of expression can exist without people. The same way, diamond jewellery or any other work of art have no value unless the people admire and enjoy them.

So everything I do ultimately is related to people interactions. Establishing relationships between Russian industry members and the world, or working on the World Federation of Diamond Bourses projects, or organising jewellery exhibitions  all are part of the same desire to encourage interest and create more business.

Two areas of my activities are a bit separate but peacefully co-exist with diamond and jewellery  lab-grown diamond jewellery and India.

As in diamonds, where the choice is between commodity trading and art, the lab-grown sector, that is growing steadily, is the same. The only difference is this commodity is not as rare as mined stones. There is an ample space to grow yet, but at some point, it will reach saturation, and prices will go down. So the only sustainable solution is to create additional value, that is jewellery design. This is what Ive been working on since 2018. The current pandemic has been very tough on us and slowed the progress, but we are still determined to get where we planned to be in the first place  to be the most fashionable high-jewellery brand based exclusively on lab-grown diamonds.

How did the Indian theme emerge in your life?

India is my favourite country since I went there fifteen years ago to the WFDB Presidents meeting. Since then, the Moscow Diamond Bourse team, headed by Irina Litvinova, and I have established a working relationship with the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council and the Bharat Diamond Bourse. Apart from that, as you know, I brought a famous India, Jewels that Enchanted the World exhibition to Moscow Kremlin in 2014 and co-organised the first World Diamond Conference in Delhi same year. That conference was honoured by the presence of Indian and Russian Heads of state and triggered further development of the diamond generic marketing movement.

But India is home not only to diamonds and jewellery. This enormous country has always been an inspiration to all foreigners, from Moghul invaders through British colonialists to modern-day connoisseurs of the beautiful. It is a logical continuation from diamonds and jewellery to art.

I remember this exhibition well. Are you planning more projects related to exhibition activities?

This year the State Tretyakov Gallery announced a major Indian Contemporary Art Exhibition co-organised together with Kiran Nadar Museum in Delhi and my Indian Foundation. Hopefully, it will take place after the current pandemics in 2021.

Tell us about the activities of the World Diamond Museum and the idea of publishing the book.

The World Diamond Museum was established three years ago and united like-minded people around the world. The goal is to preserve the heritage, conduct research and educate the people about diamond and diamond jewellery. It is a gargantuan task that requires a lot of work and a lot of funding. Apart from several conferences and consultancy work, we decided to engage in publishing to reach out to the industry and the general public. Diamonds Across Time is the first such publication.

How is this book different from others on this topic? What is its uniqueness, who are its authors?

From the very beginning, we decided not to follow the path of many other books who recite the story of diamonds from the Golconda beginning of mining in Golkonda till DeBeers A Diamond Is Forever in a chronological manner. Therefore the chief curator of our Museum, Dr Usha Balakrishnan, and I, together with the creative team, headed by famous book designer Misha Anikst in London, decided to concentrate on human interaction with the stone.

The book consists of ten seemingly unrelated essays, written by ten different researchers from different countries. It contains over 300 images, including our proprietary photography of famous diamonds and jewellery, archive documents and even some computer-generated historic diamond reconstructions.

I dont want to recite the content that is on our website. It is, in my opinion, the most exciting book about diamonds ever, both in design and in the contents. Im biased, of course, but first reviews are very favourable.

What is the main goal of this project? Is the World Diamond Museum planning further publishing activities?

I repeat myself, but it is to educate the people about diamond and diamond jewellery and to have fun and enjoy. We were fortunate to have good sponsors to keep the price of the book low to be accessible to all. Hopefully, it will achieve this goal.

We have already another book in the pipeline. It tells the story of the incredible jeweller Munnu Kasliwal, who was my friend and passed away early. The book is a tribute to his life and legacy. It will see the light next spring.

Based on the success of Diamonds Across Time, we plan to continue looking for exciting books about diamonds to publish in the future.

Galina Semyonova for Rough&Polished
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A Director with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ayo Olowonihi, has been appointed as the Commandant of the EFCC Academy, the...

A Director with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ayo Olowonihi, has been appointed as the Commandant of the EFCC Academy, the EFCC has said.

Olowonihi, who was on Grade Level 17 was suspended by the then acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, in 2015 and then demoted to Grade 16 by Magu in 2017.

The aggrieved director subsequently instituted a case against the EFCC before the National Industrial Court.

According to court documents, Olowonihi said Magu had on November 19, 2015, summoned him to his office accusing him of being behind some damning online publications on the activities of the commission and against the person of the chairman.

He said on Magus directive, he was interrogated, his official computer taken away, while he two phones (MTN and GLO) were seized, adding that his office, after being thoroughly searched by a team of detectives and policemen, was sealed.

The plaintiff further stated that while interrogation was still on, Magu demoted him as commandant and redeployed him.

Olowonihi said while the letter was purported to have been issued by the management of the commission, he was not aware of any management meeting where such a decision was taken being a management staff.

The EFCC director won his case in court on February 26, 2019 but the EFCC under the leadership of Magu, filed an appeal.

The Court of Appeal in August 2020 affirmed the ruling of the lower court but by then, Magu had been suspended indefinitely by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)





On Monday, the EFCC said in a statement by its Spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, that Olowonihi had been appointed as the head of the EFCC Academy.

A statement titled, Olowonihi Takes Over at EFCC Academy, read in part, The acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mohammed Abba, has appointed Detective Commander Ayo Olowonihi as Commandant, EFCC Academy, Karu, Abuja.

Olowonihi takes over from Itam Obono, a Deputy Commissioner of Police

The appointment which is with immediate effect was consummated with a hand-over ceremony today, Monday, January 18, 2021, attended by both Olowonihi and Obono with heads of departments and units of the Academy in attendance.

Obono charged Staff to give Olowonihi the best cooperation, stating, Ill ask that, Ayo who is coming is not new, he has been here before and the work will take speed. Give him the best cooperation. The little hurdles that are there, you may be able to surmount faster than we have done.

In his response, Olowonihi appreciated Obono and wished him well at his new assignment. He pledged to take the Academy, which is the brain of the organisation, to where it should be.

It was learnt that the new EFCC leadership had reversed several of Magus appointments while those close to the sacked EFCC boss have remained on suspension for the last six months pending the decision of the President to act on the report of the Justice Ayo Salami-led panel.
HISD Board Hears Audit Report, Holds Public Hearing On TAPR The Hillsboro Independent School District (HISD) Board of Trustees selected an auditor for the current school year and held a public hearing on the district's Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR) in a regular session Monday evening, January 11.



The board approved an engagement letter for proposed audit services with James E. Rodgers and Company, P.C. for the 2020-2021 school year and heard a report from the company on the district's financial audit for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2020.



Auditor Rick Rogers said that the district received a clean audit with the firm showing no material weaknesses in the report.



Rogers said that like most districts across the state, HISD did feel the economic impact of COVID-19 as local revenues were down $685,000. He added that the pandemic has created many different financial outcomes in the 28 districts that the Rogers Company audits.



Rogers told board members that the last year's HISD general fund balance started at $3,771,000 and added $271,000 to end with a balance of $4,042,000. He said that given the environment created by the pandemic, the outcome is quite positive.



The board held a public hearing on the district's TAPR report, which pulls together a wide range of information on the performance of students in each school and district in Texas every year.



Performance is shown disaggregated by student groups, including ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The reports also provide extensive information on school and district staff, programs and student demographics.



All of the 2019-2020 data can be accessed online at www.tea.texas.gov by clicking "Reports & Data" and then "Texas Academic Performance Reports."



It was announced that Hillsboro ISD will have two seats available on its Board of Trustees in the May election. The school board spots currently held by Dr. Chris Teague (at large) and Amanda Scarborough (District 1) will be expiring. Those interested in filing as a candidate can call 254-582-8585 for information.


Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Britain's policing minister said Monday that "human error" led to hundreds of thousands of DNA records and other data on criminal suspects being erased from the national police computer.

Kit Malthouse told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the mishap occurred during a "regular housekeeping process" on the computer, which holds 13 million records. He said some 400,000 records were wiped, including 213,000 offense records and 170,000 arrest records.

"Clearly this situation is very serious," Malthouse said, adding that "we will know the full extent of the impact of this issue over the next few days."

Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper said it was "very hard to understand how 400,000 records could be deleted from such a crucial system without there being a proper back-up system in place."

Malthouse said officials were trying to recover the data but he could not guarantee that no criminal investigations would be harmed by the error. He said the government was working "to make sure that any operational impact is obviated or mitigated."

Explore further Pennsylvania reveals cyber intrusion in birth, death records

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- Infosys is among the top global SIs to have achieved the Partner Specialization from Google Cloud augmenting Infosys Cobalt capabilities

BENGALURU, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys [https://www.infosys.com/] , the global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced that it has been accredited with the Google Cloud [https://cloud.google.com/] Partner Specialization in the data and analytics space. Infosys achieved this recognition by successfully demonstrating end-to-end capabilities on Google Cloud including data ingestion, streaming, querying, exploration, analysis, storage, and warehousing on cloud. Infosys is among the top global system integrators (SI) to be accredited with this specialization.

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg]

As a qualified Google Cloud partner, Infosys has showcased technical proficiency, robust methodology, strong industry expertise, and proven success in specialized data and analytics solutions and service areas. These data and analytics offerings, part of Infosys Cobalt [https://www.infosys.com/services/cloud-cobalt/overview.html], together with AI capabilities help migrate workloads to Google Cloud, modernize data landscapes, and optimize costs paving the way for AI and cloud native digital transformation for enterprises.

"Businesses across virtually all segments and industries are looking for ways to drive more insights and value from their data," said Nina Harding, Chief of Global Partner Programs & Strategy at Google Cloud. "In achieving this Specialization, Infosys has demonstrated the highest level of expertise helping customers implement data-driven strategies with Google Cloud's data and analytics products and capabilities."

Satish HC, Executive Vice President, Head Global Services - Data and Analytics at Infosys said, "Achieving the Google Cloud Partner Specialization is a key milestone in the journey of Infosys Data and Analytics capabilities. Meeting the requisite standards further strengthens the Infosys Cobalt proposition on Google Cloud. Infosys being an accredited partner provides delivery assurance on complex Google Cloud implementations along with Google Cloud-native accelerators and offers time-to-market advantage for Enterprises."

To know more about Infosys data and analytics offerings on Google Cloud, please visit - https://www.infosys.com/services/data-analytics/offerings/da... [https://www.infosys.com/services/data-analytics/offerings/da...]

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com [https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A...] to see how Infosys can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov [http://www.sec.gov/]. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg]

CONTACT: For more information contact PR_Global@Infosys.com
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In the reporting period, 268,899 children were born against 286,777 reported last year.

The population of Ukraine in January-November 2020 shrank by 272,500, amounting to 41.630 million as of December 1, 2020, the State Statistics Service reported.

In the reporting period, 268,899 children were born against 286,777 reported last year, the stats agency says.

A natural population decline was recorded by 280,273 in the first eleven months of the year, while in January-November 2019, the natural decline was a bit higher, amounting to 246,987.

The number of people who moved to Ukraine during the reporting period exceeded by 7,783 the number of those who left the country. In January-November 2019, this indicator amounted to more than 16,456 people.

Read alsoOver 25% of population live below poverty line  OmbudspersonThe stats agency also notes a significant excess of the number of deaths over the number of newborns: it's 49 newborns per 100 deaths.

Data covers all regions of Ukraine but the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Data on the natural population and migration movement is generated without taking into account the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Ukraine population: Background

The population of Ukraine in January-October 2020 shrank by 231,600, amounting to 41.671 million as of November 1, 2020, the State Statistics Service reported.

In 2019, Ukrainian population decreased by 251,000, to 41.9 million.

Reporting by UNIAN
The mutations continue to emerge with unsettling frequency.

New coronavirus strains are cropping up throughout the globe: the United Kingdom. South Africa. Brazil.

And now, scientists have discovered at least three new variants that appear to have evolved right here in the United States. Many of these mutations seem highly contagious.

These things are evolving all over the place. The virus is changing, said Dr. David Cennimo, an infectious disease expert at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

The new strains are no more virulent than the variants that have killed more than 20,000 in New Jersey and nearly 400,000 in the U.S., experts say. But they do concern health officials because they spread more easily and are expected to produce a huge spike in cases as the nation struggles to distribute vaccines, according to an alarming report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The strain circulating in the United Kingdom  B.1.1.7  is so contagious it is projected to become the dominant variant in the U.S. by March, the CDC says. It appears to be 50% more transmissible than the virus predominantly found here, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Even more disconcerting, a new variant could eventually threaten the efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, experts say.

People need to realize theres more than one mutant strain, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press. Theres one from the U.K. thats essentially dominated Theres another more ominous one thats in South Africa and Brazil.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said experts are very carefully investigating whether the mutations will lessen the impact of the vaccines.

Although the U.K., South African and Brazilian strains have not been found in New Jersey, health officials and Gov. Phil Murphy are operating as if theyre already here. The U.K. strain has been found in Pennsylvania and New York  including right over the border in Westchester County  among several other states.

People ask us a lot: Do we have proof of this variant being in New Jersey? the governor said last week. My stock answer so far is I dont have the smoking gun, but we assume its in our midst.

State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli echoed that sentiment Monday during a vaccination event at the Roosevelt Care Center in Old Bridge.

We have not identified any variant (in New Jersey)  U.K. or African, she said. Does that mean its not here? Absolutely not. Its everywhere. The variants are many.

One of the two new strains recently found in Ohio carries a mutation identical to a variant that has emerged in the United Kingdom, according to a statement from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine.

Except it didnt travel from Great Britain, experts say. The researchers said it likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States.

Scientists believe one of the new Ohio strains evolved from a variant that has been spreading in Columbus, Ohio, since the fall, according to a report by The New York Times. Its been dubbed the Columbus strain.

Another strain has since evolved in California.

The regions have nothing to do with the mutations. Viruses dont see boundaries. The mutations are merely the result of the virus replicating. But as they emerge, some new strains become more contagious and can become the dominant force in a geographic area.

All they do is randomly mutate  Its been mutating for months and months and will continue for years, said Dr. Reynold Panettieri, vice chancellor for translational medicine and science at Rutgers University. And because it can mutate so fast, with so many different combinations, it can find one that will actually favor infectivity.

The new variants are more contagious, but not deadlier, experts say. But that still means more cases in a pandemic that has already overwhelmed the health care system.

What we have are two that seemingly have an advantage over the usual virus for infectivity, Panettieri said. Now, that means that it could actually infect at a greater rate than the wild type virus.

But the main question is: Will these mutations impact the efficacy of the vaccines? Right now, experts say no.

By all estimations right now, none of these mutations prevent the vaccine from being effective, Panettieri said.

But that may not be the case forever, he cautioned.

If we dont do what were supposed to be doing here  getting as many people vaccinated as possible and practicing all the good (hygiene) issues, then there will likely be a mutation that could render the vaccine less effective, Panettieri said.

Experts are not panicking over the new strains. Mutations were expected. But officials are watching closely.

Is it more contagious? Is it more virulent? That is the concern. And if were getting the vaccine, is it going to be effective? And thats the big question, said Dr. Judith Lightfoot, chief of infectious disease at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine.

What is definite is the U.K. strain is not the only new variant concerning experts.

Its probable that other new strains are circulating in the U.S., Cennimo said.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com.
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Actor Rana Daggubati says working on the documentary, Mission Frontline, has given him a perspective on what goes into guarding our frontiers. The upcoming documentary highlights the life of jawans of the Border Security Force Image Source: IANS News

Actor Rana Daggubati says working on the documentary, Mission Frontline, has given him a perspective on what goes into guarding our frontiers. The upcoming documentary highlights the life of jawans of the Border Security Force Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Jan 18 : Actor Rana Daggubati says working on the documentary, Mission Frontline, has given him a perspective on what goes into guarding our frontiers. The upcoming documentary highlights the life of jawans of the Border Security Force.

"India's Border Security Force - or the country's first line of defense has no holidays, no breaks and no breathers. If it isn't for those brave-hearts always on their toes, our nation stands at risk. I feel grateful to have been able to meet them, live with them and train with them," Rana said.

"As a civilian and countryman, this experience gave me perspective on what goes into guarding our frontiers, 24/7. These Jawans are our lifeline, our guarantee to sovereignty, and they're the true heroes," the actor added.

"Going by what I experienced in Jaisalmer, Mission Frontline is a tribute to those Jawans' grit and spirit, with the intention to drive home some inspiration and gratitude for our defense forces, whose service we often take for granted," he shared.

In the episode, Rana will be seen experiencing the life of a BSF Jawan and live with them at the Murar Post, Jaisalmer. He will be seen performing several tasks, including physical training routines and running drills. Rana will also be trained to use weapons, patrolling on camel and riding sand scooters.

The documentary will premiere on discovery+ on January 21.
Containers at a southern port in Vietnam (Photo: Internet)

Hanoi - The cost to hire shipping containers has skyrocketed to nearly ten times its pre-pandemic level, according to export businesses and trade agencies.



During the last three months, the cost to hire a 40-foot container increased to 8,000 USD, even to 10,000 USD in certain cases, from less than $1,000 at the beginning of 2020. It has sharply driven up expenses for exporters and raised concerns over a lack of transparency and inadequate price management of containers, said businesses during a meeting in Hanoi with the Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA).



A wide range of businesses across all sectors have been hit by the price hike, which exporters claimed was "nonsensical" while demanding shipping companies take steps to rein it in and be more transparent regarding their pricing.



General Secretary of the Vietnam Plastics Association (VPA) Huynh Thi My said the price hike has severely hampered export activities of plastic makers, resulting in significantly lower export volume and in one instance effectively shut down an Indian plastic firm in the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Zone in northern Bac Ninh province for the whole of December last year.



A representative from the firm said it was forced to shutter operations because of the price hike, which has brought its operational cost to an unsustainable level. Other plastic makers also reported a 50 percent higher inventory compared to the same period last year, even after they bit the bullet and shipped orders at a loss-incurring cost.



"We [the VPA] demanded the VMA and other trade authorities launch investigations into and conduct thorough reviews on shipping companies' pricing policies," said My.



The VPA also called for a review of current regulations, pointing to a lack of a control mechanisms and transparency over the price to hire containers in Vietnam. Measures must be taken so avoid future price hikes.



Meanwhile, shipping companies cited difficulties caused by the pandemic, a spike in exports to the EU and US markets and longer time required to free up containers for hire. They said the situation is not likely to improve until at least March, or in worst-case scenario well into the year's second quarter.



Deputy head of the VMA Hoang Hong Giang said the administration has required shipping companies to publish their prices and organised meetings with exporters.



"The reason behind the recent price increase for container-for-rent was a matter of supply and demand. The administration, however, insisted that shipping companies must be transparent with pricing policies. We have also considered commandeering thousands of unclaimed containers in ports across the country as a solution to the shortage," he said.



Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of import and export from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said the ministry is to report the matter to the Prime Minister's Office. Meanwhile, he urged exporters to look into alternatives such as railway transport to EU markets and to renegotiate delivery dates with buyers.
Kabul, Jan 18 : Negotiators representing the Afghan government and the Taliban militant group met in Doha and discussed the agenda of the second round of peace talks, a top official said.

The meeting on Sunday came cafter days of delay, TOLO News reported citing Afghan government negotiator Nader Nadery as saying.

Over the nine days since the start of the second round of talks, the two sides have held four meetings, including Sunday evening's meeting, at the working group level.

But the two sides are yet finalise the final agenda that will pave the way for formal talks.

The second round, which began on January 5 after a three-week break, will focus on a ceasefire and reduction in violence in the war-torn country, TOLO News reported.

The peace negotiations, which formally kicked-off in September 2020, witnessed a breakthrough last month after the two sides agreed on procedural rules for the talks.

They also confirmed to have exchanged their lists about the agenda of the peace talks.

According to TOLO News, in its draft of demands, the Afghan government's team has added ceasefire, preservation of national sovereignty, media freedom and the prohibition of activity by foreign fighters in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, the Taliban's demands include an Islamic government structure, establishment of an Islamic council, and ensuring women's rights and the rights of all citizens based on Islamic principles.
Thiruvananthapuram/Delhi, Jan 18 : Senior Congress leader A.K. Antony, who was the three-term Chief Minister of Kerala, will be leading the party campaign in the forthcoming Assembly elections. The decision was taken at a meeting between the state Congress leaders and the party high command in New Delhi on Monday morning.

The big three leaders of the state Congress, Kerala unit chief Mullappally Ramachandran, former Chief Minister and CWC member Oomen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala met the party president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, general secretary in-charge of the state Tariq Anwar, general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal and CWC member A.K. Antony.

The meeting decided that both Oomen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala will contest the elections, and in accordance with the Congress style of functioning the Chief Minister candidate will be finalised only after the party and the UDF wins a majority.

The state Congress is in a spot following the drubbing it faced in the recent local body elections, even after the ruling Left front was in a quagmire of several controversies, including corruption charges and gold smuggling case.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and senior Congress leader Manacadu Suresh told IANS said, "Antony taking the lead in the campaign will bring in a lot of goodwill to the Congress party in the state. With the high command deciding on a collective leadership and the high command taking the reins of the electioneering in its hands, will take the party to great heights." Highly placed sources in the Congress told IANS that Antony is scheduled to arrive in the state after February 15 and will stay put in the state till the elections are over.

With the high command pushing in the candidature of Oomen Chandy also in the next Assembly elections, the major constituent of the UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League is elated.

IUML national organising secretary and Member Parliament, E.T. Mohammed Basheer told IANS, "Oomen Chandy is a leader who knows the pulse of the grassroots and is contesting the elections, and a collective leadership for the Congress will give the front a major fillip. The presence of former Chief Minister A.K. Antony will be the much needed relief for the front as this will be a fight against the corrupt and the anti-people LDF government. Antony who is considered as the Mr. Clean of the Indian politics will do a lot of good for our election prospects." A.K. Antony while speaking to IANS said, "I will be in Kerala during the election as always but there will be a campaign committee chairman for the Congress party in the elections. I will be in the state after the Budget session of Parliament".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
WLTP

In anticipation of the grand reveal, Honda is hyping up the newcomer with a couple of teasers. The first of two photographs reveals a raked window for the liftgate, which is complemented by full-length brake lights that give the HR-V the impression of width despite its diminutive footprint. The second picture is centered on the e:HEV badge affixed to the tailgate.Sold in this part of the world exclusively as a hybrid, the Jazz e:HEV features two electric motors that work in tandem with a four-cylinder engine. A fixed-gear transmission also needs to be highlighted, along with a combined rating of 109 PS (107 horsepower) and a torque rating of 253 Nm (187 pound-feet).Even though horsepower isnt exactly impressive, dont forget that torque far exceeds the 127 pound-feet (172 Nm) of the HR-V sold in the United States. The e:HEV drivetrain of the Jazz also happens to be remarkably frugal on theregime because it promises 4.5 liters per 100 kilometers (52.2 miles per gallon) and 102 grams of carbon-dioxide emissions per kilometer.Although the ratings for the HR-V are unknown at the present moment, the Japanese automaker did confirm that e:HEV will be standard in the Old Continent. Dont think for a moment that Honda is joining the green party just because it wants to make a point, though. The truth of the matter is, Hondas aggressive electrification push has been forced by circumstances.From 2021, phased in from 2020, the EU fleet-wide average emissions target for new cars is 95 grams per kilometer. This level corresponds to a fuel consumption of approximately 4.1 liters of dinosaur juice per 100 kilometers (57.3 miles per gallon), which is a very tall order if you ask me.Honda isnt alone in this difficult situation, though. According to JATO Dynamics, the CO2 targets imposed by the European Commission are expected to generate 34 billion euros in penalty payments within the EU.
This plan merits, at least for me, a sense of fury: All of this shouldve been done months ago. These are the obvious ideas. We should be considering the hard, but perhaps necessary, decisions that could radically increase supply: using half-doses, for instance, or joining Britain in rapidly approving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, even though the vaccines clinical trial was marred by shaky study design. Im of the view that the situation is bad enough, and the costs of waiting large enough, that it might be worth moving forward on both counts, even with imperfect information. But those are difficult calls, with real downside risk. That there is so much low-hanging operational fruit for the Biden administration to focus on instead is a tragedy. It means people who couldve been saved by simple competence and foresight will die instead.

Even now, the Trump administrations poor planning and inconsistent communication fog the effort. In recent days, there have been reports that states arent receiving the vaccine allotments theyve been promised. Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon tweeted that the leaders of Operation Warp Speed had directly confirmed to her that states will not be receiving increased shipments of vaccines from the national stockpile next week, because there is no federal reserve of doses. The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, said, the national supply simply isnt coming. When I asked Zients whether the federal government had less vaccine supply than has been promised, he wasnt able to give an answer. Well conduct a full evaluation when were in our seats on supply, but its hard for me to say more than that right now, given the lack of information sharing from the Trump administration.

The incoming administration is also free from the delusion that the vaccines will solve the coronavirus crisis on their own. Even on the most optimistic timetable, it will take until well into the summer for America to reach herd immunity. In the meantime, new variants of the virus that spread even faster are taking hold. Ron Klain, Bidens choice for chief of staff, warned that the coronavirus death toll in America will pass 500,000 by the end of February. And it will not end there. That is why if you look at the incoming administrations coronavirus rescue package, most of the money is dedicated to the policies that will let us survive this next year.

Of this, $20 billion is directed at the vaccination effort. Another $50 billion is dedicated to standing up the national testing infrastructure that we shouldve had long ago, with an emphasis on deploying rapid testing for asymptomatic individuals who work in high-risk settings and setting up genomic surveillance so we can see when and how the virus is mutating. Then theres $130 billion intended to retrofit schools so they can operate safely, even with the virus in circulation.

A year into this crisis, America still hasnt built a national contact tracing apparatus to track and suppress outbreaks: Bidens plan calls for hiring more than 100,000 public health workers for national contact tracing, local vaccine outreach and more. Congregant settings, like nursing homes and prisons, have been the sites of particularly vicious outbreaks, and Biden wants to create specialized forces that can be rapidly deployed to such sites to save lives. The list goes on.

None of this  none of it  is interesting or surprising. Its obvious, and it shouldve been done long ago. Back in May, I wrote that we were operating, in effect, without a president and without a national plan. It is January, and that remains true. But that will end on the day of Bidens inauguration. And then the hard work can, finally, begin.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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BEIJING, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beacon Education, the world's largest provider of online graduate degrees to China, is excited to announce its newest partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology, beginning with RIT's Saunders College of Business and the online MS in Business Analytics program.

Beacon's comprehensive services and technology suite will provide RIT core competencies in all aspects of recruitment, delivery, technology, and student support in China. The team at Saunders, with their expertise in the field, world class pedagogy, and thorough background in creating outstanding online learning experience for students around the world, is well-suited to supporting this incoming wave of working professionals across China's top companies.

"RIT sees the future of international education in a similar way as Beacon Education: more diversified and more accessible. From our initial engagement with Beacon Education it became apparent that we could either be an early participant in global adult education or a laggard, and we chose the former. We are pleased that the Business Analytics program, in the Saunders College of Business, will be the pioneering offering as we learn and grow," says Ian Mortimer, RIT's Vice President of Enrollment Management and Associate Provost for Adult and Online Ed.

Beacon Education CEO Michael Wang notes, "We are excited about the launch of our new partnership with RIT. Recognized globally for its outstanding instruction, we look forward to helping them grow their presence in China starting with the MS in Business Analytics. Most importantly, we are excited about partners committed to developing educational models designed to meet the diverse needs of learners in the 21st century."

ABOUT ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Founded in 1829, Rochester Institute of Technology is a diverse and collaborative community of engaged, socially conscious, and intellectually curious minds. With nearly 19,000 students and more than 135,000 graduates from all 50 states and over 100 nations, RIT is driving progress in industries and communities around the world. https://www.rit.edu/

ABOUT BEACON EDUCATION

Beacon is China's largest provider of online master's degrees, partnering with the world's leading universities to deliver a broad range of programs and resources. Our 25+ programs across 15 university partners are transforming digital education in China. Beacon is proud to empower Chinese learners to achieve their goals. https://www.beaconedu.com/

Contact: Charles Iannuzzi, 856-437-0894, [email protected]

SOURCE Beacon Education

Related Links

https://www.beaconedu.com/


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Schools could remain closed until the Easter holidays, with children facing another three months away from the classrooms, educations chiefs now fear.

Despite the UK recording another drop in Covid cases, school bosses believe millions of pupils now face the prospect of being home schooled until the start of April. It means students will have faced almost a year of on-and-off disruption to their education.

Fears of an April return were further compounded as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned at the weekend that it would not be possible to start to lift lockdown restrictions in England until March.

And yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock cast more doubt on a March re-opening for schools when he declined to say that a loosening of lockdown rules meant a return for students.

The warning comes as disgruntled Tory backbenchers last night demanded the Government produce an urgent 'road map' out of lockdown - with measures due to be lifted in mid-February.

But as the number of people vaccinated reached 4million yesterday and infection figures continued to fall, with Britain recording another 37,535 new cases, down a fifth from last Monday, Boris Johnson last night defied fresh demands to say how and when the brutal restrictions in England will ease.

Meanwhile, Government sources last night said it was too early to say when schools would reopen, with one source saying: 'It's about what the health picture is. If lockdown does its job then schools could be the first thing to open.'

The Prime Minister has repeatedly vowed that the reopening of schools will be his priority when lockdown is eased  but no date has ever been set.

And now the leader of a major academy chain has warned the 'mood' is for schools to shut until the Easter holidays - at the start of April.

Steve Chalke, head of the Oasis academy chain, which runs 48 schools, said: 'I don't think schools will reopen until post Easter. I think they will miss the second half of term as well.'

Despite the UK recording another drop in Covid cases, school bosses believe millions of pupils face being home schooled until the start of April. Pictured: Pupils wear protective face masks

Charlotte Rose assists one of her children, who is home schooled in Milton Keynes

Parents are irate that their children could be out of school until April with one declaring: 'Kill me now'

Meanwhile, Government sources last night said it was too early to say when schools would reopen. Pictured: Education Secretary Gavin Williamson

The Prime Minister, pictured yesterday in a full protective suit during his visit to Oxford Biomedica, has said reopening schools will be his priority when lockdown is eased  but no date has ever been set

Mr Chalke meanwhile said many teachers are very worried about catching Covid in school and that they will feel 'safer' and 'more confident' when the weather warms up and they can take children out of the classroom more.

At yesterday's Downing Street press conference, Mr Hancock was asked whether schools would reopen in March.

He simply said: 'We've got to watch the data, and the Prime Minister, when he brought in the national lockdown, set out four considerations. We've got to see the number of deaths coming down, and sadly we haven't seen that yet. We need to clearly see the pressure on the NHS reducing, and we are not seeing that yet.

'We must see the vaccination programme working and the rollout is going really well.' He continued: 'The fourth consideration is that there mustn't be some other new variant.'

Professor Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser at Public Health England, said: 'We've always said the schools should be the last to close and first to open.

'But I think giving a more defined date than that is very difficult until we see what happens over the next few weeks.'

Fears of schools remaining shut until Easter are growing after ministers refused to set a reopening date yesterday. Pictured, a primary school in east London

A sign hangs on the gate of St Anne's Catholic Primary school in Caversham, Reading. No date has yet been confirmed for the reopening of schools

Education insiders said the date for reopening 'was never going to be' February half-term and claimed the Government is 'working on the assumption it will be Easter at the earliest'

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said the Government has presided over 'one of the world's largest procurements of laptops and tablets' so students can work effectively remotely. Pictured: Students takes a COVID-19 test at Oasis Academy in Coulsdon, Surrey

Last night Robert Halfon, Tory MP and chairman of the education committee, said: 'The Government said that schools would reopen after the February half term. Everything possible should be done to keep to that date  for the sake of the children's education, mental health and safety.

'That is why ministers should prioritise school staff for the vaccine, and send in mobile units to jab them across the country.'

Mr Johnson said there would be no 'open sesame' relaxation of lockdown. 'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can,' he said.

Delays at Heathrow as Border Force check 'every UK arrival' for negative Covid test Thousands of airline passengers arriving in Britain from across the world faced delays to get through passport control as Border Force agents demanded proof they did not have Covid-19 - despite all those flying into the UK already having to prove their negative test result when boarding abroad. New rules came into force at 4am requiring arrivals to prove they were negative for coronavirus with a test that meets performance standards of 97 per cent specificity and 80 per cent sensitivity at high viral loads. This is most likely to be a PCR test, which tend to take 12 to 48 hours for the results to come back and were used by every passenger spoken to MailOnline arriving at UK airports today. Border Force staff were ignoring guidelines for 'spot checks' and instead chose to ask every person for proof they don't have Covid-19, leading to concerns over social distancing as queues built up. Travellers described 'chaotic' scenes in arrivals at London Heathrow Airport as border workers checked all negative test certificates and quarantine locator forms despite all airlines not allowing anyone to get on a plane to Britain without seeing them at check-in first. New rules requiring arrivals to take a negative test up to 72 hours before departure and self-isolate for up to ten days after entering the UK came into effect yesterday as travel corridors offering exemptions were scrapped. The move is part of the Government's attempts to prevent new strains of Covid-19 entering the UK. Spanish student Enrique Vasquez arrived today to Heathrow on a flight from Madrid. He said: 'When I arrived, I had to show three documents to the border force officers  my passport, a negative Covid test result from when I took my PCR test in Madrid less than 72 hours before my departure. I also had to give them the locator form telling them at which address I will be isolating at for the next ten days.' Coffy app chief executive Andy Hart, from London, who arrived at Heathrow's Terminal Five from Nairobi with his partner, said he was 'shocked and disappointed' to see the queues at passport control - and fears the delays could lead to the spread of coronavirus. He said: 'We felt unsafe. We felt that, even though everyone was masked, they were far too close together. I've been flying 30 times a year for 20 years. I mean, once or twice have I ever seen it (airport queues) like this. How can this happen during Covid times?' The Department for Transport has recommended 'spot checks' for proof from people flying into the UK - but UK Border Force workers were checking the vast majority of people on the first day of new testing rules, with several people getting 500 fines this morning. Staff at Terminal Two handed out bottles of water to passengers waiting over an hour and a half to clear immigration, leaving suitcases piling up in arrivals. Richard Bradley also arrived from Nairobi with his son Joseph after a Christmas break with family. Mr Bradley, who was returning to his home in Oxford, said there was a 'triple check' of people's passports, proof of a negative Covid-19 test, and their passenger locator form, taking 90 minutes to get through the 'pretty substantial' queue at passport control. He said: 'There were a couple of people in our queue whose tests may have been outside the required 72 hours so that was causing a lot of grief and discussion.' Home Office sources disputed that delays had lasted 90 minutes. One Whitehall source told MailOnline: 'People knew these checks would be made, they are being done as speedily as possible. They are in place to protect people, I think the vast majority of people would accept that.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'People should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary and it is an offence to arrive into England without proof of a negative Covid test or a completed Passenger Locator Form. 'We have also increased Border Force spot checks on arrival, with passengers subject to an immediate fine of 500 for failing to comply with the new rules. 'Despite these measures, the vast majority of passengers have been moving through the UK border in good time.' Advertisement

The Prime Minister insisted that things would look 'very different by the spring', adding: 'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.'

Meanwhile, speaking in the Commons yesterday, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said the Government has presided over 'one of the world's largest procurement of laptops and tablets' so students can work effectively remotely.

He told MPs: 'By December, we had procured and delivered 560,000 laptops and tablets. In November last year we ordered an additional 340,000 devices, bringing our total procurement to one million laptops and tablets.

'This has been one of the world's largest procurement of laptops and tablets, and it has happened despite intense global demand.'

It comes as Mr Johnson yesterday defied fresh demands from Tory MPs for a 'road map' out of lockdown as coronavirus infections tumbled again.

The PM is under pressure to say how and when the brutal restrictions in England will ease after the UK recorded another 37,535 cases - down a fifth from last Monday.

Although deaths rose again to 599 there are increasing signs that the curve is flattening, as it lags weeks behind the new infections.

Conservatives this evening underlined calls from former chief whip Mark Harper, who heads the CRG group of lockdown-sceptics, to say what will happen when the government has vaccinated the four most vulnerable groups - meant to happen by mid-February.

The number of people receiving their first jab topped four million today.

The deputy chair of the group, Steve Baker said: 'We locked down the country and shut down our schools on the basis of a forecast, so why can't we open it up on the basis of one too? It is not sustainable to leave the public and British businesses languishing any longer.

'Businesses and individuals desperately need hope and the opportunity to plan our recovery, that's why we need to know our road to recovery as soon as possible.'

Another Tory backbencher told MailOnline the government should lay out its plans even if it is like 'snakes and ladders' and the arrangements later have to change.

However, Mr Johnson poured cold water on the idea this afternoon, insisting that it will not be possible to set out the route for unwinding restrictions until February 15.

Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant, the PM also warned when the loosening does come it will not be an 'open sesame' moment.

'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well,' he said.

'It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we're not out of the woods yet.'

He said: 'We're going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we've achieved, that's the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we've had.

'It's only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax.

'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.'

The wrangling came as ministers face a backlash over a vaccination 'postcode lottery', with millions of 70-somethings being offered a jab - but only in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have had it already.

Nearly 5million people aged between 70 and 80 are being invited to receive their first dose, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider adult population could be covered by June rather than September.

However, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said people in their 70s will only be offered jabs in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have already had their first shot.

That could mean people in areas such as London and Suffolk, where progress has been slower, will have to wait longer.

Tory MPs demand a route out of lockdown after infections drop AGAIN with 37,535 more Covid cases, 599 new deaths and 4million vaccinations

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor for MailOnline

Boris Johnson defied fresh demands from Tory MPs for a 'road map' out of lockdown as coronavirus infections tumbled again.

The PM is under pressure to say how and when the brutal restrictions in England will ease after the UK recorded another 37,535 cases - down a fifth from last Monday.

Although deaths rose again to 599 there are increasing signs that the curve is flattening, as it lags weeks behind the new infections.

Conservatives this evening underlined calls from former chief whip Mark Harper, who heads the CRG group of lockdown-sceptics, to say what will happen when the government has vaccinated the four most vulnerable groups - which is meant to happen by mid-February. The number of people receiving their first jab topped four million today.

The deputy chairman of the group, Steve Baker, said: 'We locked down the country and shut down our schools on the basis of a forecast, so why can't we open it up on the basis of one too? It is not sustainable to leave the public and British businesses languishing any longer.

'Businesses and individuals desperately need hope and the opportunity to plan our recovery, that's why we need to know our road to recovery as soon as possible.'

Another Tory backbencher told MailOnline the government should lay out its plans even if it is like 'snakes and ladders' and the arrangements later have to change.

However, Mr Johnson poured cold water on the idea this afternoon, insisting that it will not be possible to set out the route for unwinding restrictions until February 15.

Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant, the PM also warned when the loosening does come it will not be an 'open sesame' moment.

'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well,' he said.

'It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we're not out of the woods yet.'

He said: 'We're going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we've achieved, that's the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we've had.

'It's only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax.

'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.'

The wrangling came as ministers face a backlash over a vaccination 'postcode lottery', with millions of 70-somethings being offered a jab  but only in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have had it already.

Nearly 5million people aged between 70 and 80 are being invited to receive their first dose, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider adult population could be covered by June rather than September.

However, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said people in their 70s will only be offered jabs in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have already had their first shot. That could mean people in areas such as London and Suffolk, where progress has been slower, will have to wait longer.

NHS staff administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Totally Wicked Stadium, home of St Helens rugby club, one of the new mass vaccination centres opened today

John Mason, 82, receiving a Covid-19 vaccination from nurse Anie Santillan in the crypt of Blackburn Cathedral today

Boris Johnson was shown the vaccine quality control systems on a visit to Oxford Biomedica in Oxfordshire today

The Prime Minister toured a warehouse at the vaccine manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire today

On another turbulent day of developments in the coronavirus crisis:

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday, Mr Harper set out CRG demands for the PM to publish a draft plan this week setting out how curbs will be lifted.

The Government is due to conduct its first formal review of lockdown on February 15 and Mr Harper said ministers could at that point firm up the proposals ahead of an easing of rules in March.

He said: 'The top four at-risk groups, which the Government aims to have given a first dose by Feb 15, will have got the maximum immunity from that within three weeks - by March 8.

'That has got to be the point at which we start to lift restrictions in a way proportionate to the reduction of risk.'

Mr Harper said that 'nobody is expecting nightclub doors to be flung open on March 8' because it is 'obvious that not every restriction can be lifted straight away'.

He pointed to Mr Johnson's previous suggestion that there will be a 'gradual unwrapping' of lockdown and said he agreed that will be the best approach to take.

'People need hope and businesses need a plan in order to survive, especially those in the hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors,' he said.

'That's why this week, we need a draft plan for the progressive lifting of restrictions from March 8 so that the public, businesses and scientists can use it as the basis for a sensible debate, as the Prime Minister suggested on Friday.

'That will allow a definitive plan to be published ahead of Feb 15.'

Mr Baker said tonight: 'Just like the disease, lockdowns and restrictions cause immense harm  to people's health, their livelihoods and to our children's life chances. So it's a relief to hear that once the top four groups have been vaccinated and immunised by 8 March at the latest, Government will start easing the restrictions.

'It's important that we lift restrictions in a way that is proportionate and safe. The Health Secretary has told us that the vast majority of hospitalisations and death caused by Covid will be protected against by 8 March, so this clearly implies that we should be removing the vast majority of restrictions.

'It is crucial that our response to Covid is proportionate at all times to the harm the disease is capable of causing  which by 8 March should, thankfully, be hugely diminished if we hit the 15 February vaccination rollout target.'

The government is facing concerns it has moved too fast to roll out vaccines for over-70s, with large disparities between how many have been administered in different parts of the country.

London has given the lowest number in England so far, with a total of 417,225 doses between December 8 and January 17, including 367,209 first doses and 50,016 second doses.

This compares to 746,487 total jabs in the Midlands, 681,317 in the North East and Yorkshire, 541,145 in the North West, 652,350 in the South East, 461,792 in the South West and 424,135 in the East of England.

The eligibility is being expanded despite vaccines not yet having been distributed to all care homes. Most residents and carers have already had their first shot in Newcastle, but in rural Suffolk the programme is struggling to speed up.

The PM defended the shift this afternoon, insisting that while the four most vulnerable groups remained the 'top priority' it was right to widen the scheme 'as more vaccine comes on stream'. Asked if he was concerned about a postcode lottery, Mr Johnson said: 'I think actually the whole of the UK is going very well. And, overall, the pace of the rollout is very encouraging.'

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey voiced frustration today, saying 'something isn't right' and it was 'distressing and annoying' that individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly.

Hundreds of patients forced to rearrange their vaccine appointments after jabs failed to arrive Hundreds of disappointed patients were forced to rearrange their vaccine appointments after jabs failed to arrive at a new hub. Headcorn Aerodrome in Kent was set to begin inoculating elderly people in the Weald today. But the delivery never turned up - leading to GPs having to break the devastating news to the most vulnerable at the eleventh hour. A statement from Marden Medical Centre in Tonbridge said: 'We have been informed on Sunday evening 17th January that our patients booked for the Monday afternoon 18th will need to be rescheduled. 'This is due to a failure of supply and is a regrettable and not infrequent issue for those organisations contracted to give the vaccines. They will be contacting the many hundred elderly patients from the Weald area directly. 'We are very sorry for the stresses this will create. Please be patient with the team who are mostly volunteers with a problem beyond their control. 'Marden Medical Centre has no access to the booking system so please do not contact us with queries.' North Ridge Medical Practice in Hawkhurst also raised the alarm by saying: 'Due to stock not being delivered on time, the clinics scheduled for Monday 18th January 2021 has to be postponed for later in the week. You will get contacted to re-schedule. 'If you know of anyone over 80 booked for tomorrow please advise them not to attend there appointment.' Advertisement

'Vaccinations started well in Suffolk Coastal in the last few days, but something isn't quite right as in some places, patients aged 70+ are being contacted for vaccination ahead of 80+/90+ year olds,' she tweeted.

Ms Coffey later said that she had been assured 'letters and messages will be going out today' to all over-80s who had not already been contacted.

Letters are being sent out in England inviting the next two priority groups for vaccinations. That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients.

In London vaccinations have been trailing behind the rest of the country, with Tory MPs voicing alarm that the supplies are being based on take-up of the flu vaccine last winter, which was low in the capital.

Downing Street insists the supplies are being 'distributed equally'.

Some 140 people a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn, if not before. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds.

The Government last night announced that the first phase of the vaccine programme has made enough progress that those in their 70s and on the shielding list will be called up to get their jabs from today.

But in some places medics still haven't got through to the over-90s, who are in the top priority group for the Covid vaccines. Matt Hancock last week revealed GPs leading Britain's great vaccination drive were forced to pause jabs to allow other parts of the country to catch up.

Newcastle's care homes saw all their residents get vaccinated against Covid by seven medical teams who made their way through the city in just two weeks.

Care home residents are top of the Government's priority list for vaccination because they face such a high chance of dying if they catch Covid-19.

Ministers pledged to get jabs to all of them  there are around 400,000 people living in homes across the UK  by the end of January.

The roll-out could not start immediately because the first vaccine to be approved, Pfizer's, had to be kept in specialist freezers so couldn't be transported in batches smaller than 1,000 to begin with.

But since the approval of Oxford and AstraZeneca's jab, which can be kept out of the fridge for almost an entire working day, the care home programme has sped up.

Leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, said: 'In less than two weeks we have protected the most vulnerable people in our communities, providing the residents and their families with a sense of reassurance and hope they have longed for.

'It is also relief for care home staff who have given so much during this pandemic, prioritising the health and care of the residents they work with.'

Public Health England data shows that the North East & Yorkshire  the region containing Newcastle  was furthest ahead with its vaccine programme by January 10.

This is the most recent data available and local figures are not yet available for areas smaller than regions.

It shows that the North East and Yorkshire had vaccinated 370,694 people by January 10.

Elderly people have been the priority since the vaccine programme started and data published by Public Health England shows exactly how many of them have been vaccinated.

PHE figures show that 43.8 per cent of over-80s in the North East & Yorkshire had received a Covid vaccine by January 10, compared to 27.9 per cent in the East of England.

In London the figure was 29.5 per cent, in the Midlands 33.4 per cent, in the South West 34.3 per cent, in the South East 34.8 per cent and in the North West 35.9 per cent.

Mr Johnson last week told MPs: 'There are parts of the country where they have done incredibly well in, for instance, vaccinating the over-80s.

'We are well over 50 per cent now in the North East and Yorkshire; less good in some other parts of the country.'

It is not clear whether some regions are vaccinating fewer people because they can't get enough supplies or because they aren't rolling them out quick enough.

Hailing the vaccine expansion today, Mr Johnson said it 'marks a significant milestone as we offer vaccinations to millions more people who are most at risk from Covid-19'.

The vaccination centre in Bournemouth officially opened today and is expected to give jabs to more than 9,000 a month

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey complained this morning that in her constituency some individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly

NHS staff administering the vaccine in St Helens today as the drive to innoculate the population steps up another gear

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi (left) was bullish about the September target for covering all adults in a round of interviews this morning. NHS England medical director Stephen Powis (right) today warned that vaccines will not have an impact on the death rate until 'well into' February

'We have a long way to go and there will be challenges ahead  but together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus,' he said.

Drakeford under fire as he blames Pfizer vaccine limits for slower rollout in Wales Wales's First Minister Mark Drakeford came under fire from MPs today for deliberately slowing down the country's Covid vaccine roll-out. Mr Drakeford this morning admitted Wales isn't using up all of its doses of the Pfizer jab because it wants to make them last until the end of the month. He claimed the 'sensible' thing to do would be to ration supplies so the programme could work steadily until next month and so staff aren't 'standing around with nothing to do' if supplies run out. But MPs have slammed his plan as 'dangerous' and said the point of the programme is to protect elderly people from dying not to keep NHS staff busy. David Jones, MP for Clwyd West said the explanation was 'wholly incoherent'. Mark Harper, MP for the Forest of Dean on the Welsh border, said it was 'dangerous' and that people needed vaccines as soon as was possible. And Stephen Crabb, the MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said it was 'deeply, deeply frustrating'. The Government  including Mr Drakeford in the same interview  have blamed limited supply from manufacturers for slowing down the roll-out of vaccines, which it is hoped could bring an end to the UK's relentless cycle of lockdowns. Britain has so far immunised nearly 3.9million people  Wales has done the fewest in relation to its population size with a total of 126,375. Advertisement

There are claims swirling that Mr Johnson wants all adults to get an initial jab by June. And Mr Zahawi backed the target to offer a first jab to everyone by September as 'achievable'.

However, he fuelled questions about the way in which people are getting access by confirming that over-70s are currently being offered first jabs in areas only where 'the majority' of over-80s have had their first shot. The speed of the process has varied widely in different areas.

'Anyone who is over 80 watching us this morning should not worry because we are making sure that those areas have vaccinated the majority of their over-80s,' Mr Zahawi told the BBC.

'And in some areas they've got to 90 per cent of their over-80s, that's where the letters are going out for the over-70s to invite them for their vaccinations.'

Downing Street said those aged over 70 would start to be offered vaccines in areas where the 'majority' of those in the older age category and higher up the priority list had already received their first jab - but refused to say what that meant.

A spokesman said: 'From today, those aged 70 and over will begin receiving invitation for vaccination, and it will be for them to book an appointment or come forward.

'Depending on where they are, the timing will be slightly different but the important point is that this allows areas that have already vaccinated a majority of those over 80, care home residents, frontline NHS and care home staff to keep the momentum up and to start giving it to further-at-risk people.'

Asked whether those in their 70s could expect to start receiving their vaccination this week, the spokesman said the jabs would start 'shortly'.

The PM's spokesman also insisted supplies were being 'distributed equally' across the country.

'In some areas where they have already vaccinated the majority of those four high-risk groups, we want to ensure we maintain momentum and continue to rollout the vaccine to more and more people who are at higher clinical risk  that's why we sent out the letter to the over-70s,' the spokesman said.

'The Prime Minister has stated clearly that we will ensure that everybody in the first four priority groups will receive a vaccination by February 15 and we've also said that care home residents will all have received it by the end of the month.'

But Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Coffey was among those expressing alarm at the situation, although she later said she had been reassured.

'I know it is both distressing and annoying when people hear that other cohorts of a lower priority (according to the JCVI) are being vaccinated ahead of our oldest and most vulnerable. On that point, every care home resident will be vaccinated by next Sunday,' she posted on Facebook.

'I am already in regular contact with the NHS and Ministers but will be following up with the local NHS to work out what is going on regarding contacting 80+ population (main route is by text and/or letter) and will be pressing for some local communication.'

Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant today, Mr Johnson appeared to dismiss demands from Tory MPs for an early 'road map' to show how lockdown will be eased.

And he warned when the loosening does come it will not be an 'open sesame' moment.

The PM told reporters: 'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well.

'It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we're not out of the woods yet.'

He said: 'We're going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we've achieved, that's the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we've had.

'It's only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax.

'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.'

Mr Zahawi laid out the timetable for easing the lockdown, although he warned there were 'caveats' about whether it could happen in early March.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'If we take the mid-February target, two weeks after that you get your protection, pretty much, for the Pfizer/BioNTech, three weeks for the Oxford/AstraZeneca, you are protected.

'One of the things we don't know yet, and the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam is on record as saying 'look give me a couple of months and I'll tell you', is the impact of the vaccine on transmission rates ie on infecting people.

'So there are a number of caveats that stand in the way of us reopening the economy.

'It will be gradually, it will be probably through the tiered system but you're looking at that sort of period, two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts.'

He said there should be 'very clear evidence' by the second week in March that there had been a 'break in the correlation between infection rates and hospitalisation and obviously death'.

'There is some really good early data from Israel, where they have vaccinated 20 per cent of the over-60s and they are beginning to see, two weeks later, a marked reduction in the serious illness and death in that same cohort.

'So, two weeks after mid-February, we should be seeing a marked reduction in death and of course serious illness,' he said.

Mr Zahawi said 24-hour vaccinations will be piloted in London hospitals by the end of January - but he played down the usefulness of the idea in the first phase.

He told Sky News: 'We are going to pilot the 24-hour vaccination, the NHS is going to pilot that in hospitals in London and we will look at how we expand that.'

Pressed for when the pilots will start, he said: 'By the end of January, absolutely.'

But he said 8am-8pm vaccination 'works much more conveniently for those who are over 80 and then as you move down the age groups it becomes much more convenient for people to go late at night and in the early hours'.

Home Secretary Priti Patel today vowed tougher enforcement on lockdown-sceptic protests as she chatted to police officers in Westminster

Several passengers have been refused permission to fly to Britain from the US today after being told their negative Covid results were 'not sufficient'. Pictured, Heathrow Airport

Boris Johnson, pictured with his son Wilfred on Sunday, has promised the first four priority groups will all have received the jab by the middle of February

The new mass vaccination hub that has opened in the Olympic Office Centre in Wembley, London today

Meanwhile, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the slower rollout of the vaccination programme in Wales  saying the Pfizer vaccine could not be used all at once.

The Welsh Government has faced criticism in the past week for vaccinating fewer people in proportion to its population than the other home nations.

Priti Patel vows tougher action on lockdown-sceptic protests Home Secretary Priti Patel today vowed tougher enforcement on lockdown-sceptic protests. The Home Secretary warned people will be held responsible for their actions as she visited St Thomas's Hospital in central London, the scene of an anti-lockdown protest on New Year's Eve. Asked whether there would be tougher enforcement to target protesters she said: 'Absolutely, without hesitation. 'When you look at the pressures on the NHS  and we have been saying this for too long, quite frankly  the public need to take responsibility, act conscientiously, wear their masks, wear face coverings, follow the rules, follow the regulations. 'I can't emphasise that enough. 'The police will not hesitate, they are doing a fantastic job in terms of stopping the spread of the virus, making sure people comply, enforcing the coronavirus regulations but helping the NHS in particular save lives and to protect the NHS.' Advertisement

Statistically, Wales is behind the other nations of the UK in delivering the first dose of the vaccine per 100,000.

As of last week, 3,215 had received it in Wales, compared to 3,514 in Scotland, 4,005 in England and 4,828 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Drakeford dismissed the statistics as 'very marginal differences', and went on to explain that supplies of the Pfizer vaccine had to last until the beginning of February and would not be used all at once.

'There will be no point and certainly it will be logistically very damaging to try to use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do with for another month,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine you've got over the period that you've got it for so that your system can absorb it, they can go on working, that you don't have people standing around with nothing to do.

Mr Raab pledged yesterday that every over-18 will be offered a first jab by September  if not earlier.

And he said he was hopeful some lockdown restrictions could start to be lifted from March.

Ten new mass vaccination hubs will open today, including Blackburn Cathedral and Taunton Racecourse.

Ministers said the priority this week will still be to vaccinate the top two priority groups, made up of care home residents and staff, the over-80s, and NHS workers.

More than 3.8million have received their first vaccine dose so far. But NHS sites which have spare capacity will be allowed to offer jabs to those aged over 70 and those who are 'clinically extremely vulnerable'.

Boris Johnson has promised the first four priority groups will all have received the jab by the middle of February.

The PM said: 'Today is a significant milestone in our vaccination programme as we open it up to millions more who are most at risk from Covid-19. We are now delivering the vaccine at a rate of 140 jabs a minute and I want to thank everyone involved in this national effort.

'We have a long way to go and there will doubtless be challenges ahead  but by working together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus.'

Mr Hancock added: 'Now that more than half of all over-80s have had their jab, we can begin vaccinating the next most vulnerable groups.

'Where an area has already reached the vast majority of groups one and two, they can now start opening up the programme to groups three and four.

'We are working day and night to make sure everyone who is 70 and over, our health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable are offered the vaccine by the middle of February and our NHS heroes are making huge strides in making this happen.' Mr Raab said yesterday it would be 'great' if the rollout could be faster amid reports that the target of offering everyone in the UK the jab could be met by June, but said the Government was working to the early autumn target.

'Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose. If we can do it faster than that, great, but that's the roadmap,' he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

Mr Raab said the Government hoped 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus would receive their first jab by the middle of February, with 99 per cent of those at greatest risk protected by the early spring.

He suggested lockdown restrictions could then be eased  with a possible return to the tiered system. 'I think it is fair to say it won't be a big bang, if you like, it will be done phased, possibly back through the tiered approach,' he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if vaccine supplies are sufficient for someone to get their second dose within 12 weeks, he said 'we ought to' be able to deliver.

Sir Simon Stevens said staff were jabbing 'four times faster' than people are newly catching the virus.

He also predicted lockdown could be eased 'gradually' around spring and summer time. However, he said this would depend on the effect of new variants of coronavirus.

A new strain found in the UK that is more transmissible than previous types is rapidly spreading across the country, and variants found in Brazil and South Africa are also being viewed with concern by virologists in case they are more resistant to vaccines.
Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard will appear in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday to seek bail while awaiting a potential extradition to the U.S. on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.

TADENS MPWENE / LA LIBERTE FILES Fashion mogul Peter Nygard during a bail hearing on Jan. 6. (Tadens Mpwene / La Liberte files)

Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard will appear in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday to seek bail while awaiting a potential extradition to the U.S. on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.

Nygard, 79, last appeared before Manitobas Court of Queens Bench on Jan. 6, when his bail application was adjourned for two weeks so lawyers for the attorney general of Canada could review extradition documents and affidavits from his defence team. The hearing resumes Tuesday and continues Wednesday. Nygard will appear by video, as he did earlier this month.

A nine-count indictment filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges Nygard, alongside business associates and co-conspirators, engaged in a "pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims" in multiple countries from 1995 to 2020.

Nygard was arrested on an extradition warrant Dec. 14, 2020 in Winnipeg. He was held at the Winnipeg Remand Centre before being transferred to the Headingley Correctional Centre.

Scott Farlinger, counsel for the attorney general of Canada, has said he intends to oppose Nygards release on bail on the grounds that he poses "a serious risk of flight and is a risk to offend while on release."

Jay Prober, one of Nygards attorneys, has said his client is not a flight risk and  due to medical conditions and his advanced age  is at serious risk for health complications if he remains in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nygard was the subject of mounting rape and sexual misconduct allegations throughout 2020.

On Feb. 13, 10 women filed a class-action lawsuit in a Manhattan court accusing Nygard of drugging, raping and sodomizing them. Some of the accusers were minors at the time of the alleged offences.

Later that month, special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, alongside detectives from the New York City Police Department, raided Nygards international headquarters in Times Square.

Two of Nygards sons filed a lawsuit against him in August 2020, alleging he had a sex worker rape them when they were minors.

Nygard is accused of running a sex-trafficking ring that targeted women and girls from "disadvantaged backgrounds" who had a "history of abuse." Hes alleged to have silenced victims with "threats, false promises of modelling opportunities" and "other coercive means."

The allegations have not been proven in court. Speaking through his lawyers, Nygard has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Highlights Massive blackouts and smog have hit cities across Iran.

Power-heavy cryptocurrency mining and a shortage of natural gas have been blamed for outages and pollution amid the COVID crisis.

Iranians in the bitcoin industry are saying the industry is being blamed for a broader problem.

Iran is suffering vast blackouts and intense air pollution in recent weeks, amid electricity production problems blamed on Bitcoin mining and a shortage of natural gas.

Mohammad Hassan Motavalizadeh, Iran's head of state-run electricity company 'Tavanir', said on Saturday that the (Bitcoin) miners, mostly of the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) type, had been consuming 95 megawatts per hour (MWh) of electricity at an ultra-cheap price.

Motavalizadeh said another 45 MWh of electricity had been saved through implementing modifications at street lighting systems in the capital Tehran and other cities, Press TV reported. "The total reduced consumption corresponds to the (electricity) use for a city with a population of over half a million," said the official.

Iran has launched a fresh crackdown on illegal cryptocurrency mining after a recent decision to impose interim shutdowns at authorized bitcoin farms to prevent controversial power blackouts in major cities. A video circulating in social media earlier this week had shown a view to a large cryptocurrency farm located in southeastern Iran where tens of thousands of ASICs were operating to mine digital gold. The Energy Ministry halted the supply of electricity to the farm which is owned by a Chinese-Iranian investment company.

But one cryptocurrency researcher in Tehran told The Washington Post this claim was false while blaming Iran's infrastructure and management problems. "The miners have nothing to do with the blackouts," Ziya Sadr said. "Mining is a very small percentage of the overall electricity capacity in Iran." "It is a known fact that the mismanagement and the very terrible situation of the electricity grid in Iran and the outdated equipment of power plants in Iran can't support the grid."

Meanwhile, power stations have been deprived of natural gas due to intense consumption to heat private homes, leading plants to reportedly turn to lower quality, polluting fuel that has caused a thick layer of smog to blanket Tehran and other locations.

Facing a cold spell that has caused a major rise in natural gas consumption, Iran is currently struggling to provide enough fuel to power plants to provide for more than 40,000 MWh of electricity demand.
As part of diplomatic outreach, India to give COVID-19 vaccine to other countries in few weeks

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Jan 18: Days after kick-starting pan-India coronavirus vaccination drive, the Central government plans to ship off doses of COVID-19 vaccine to neighbouring nations as part of vaccine diplomacy in a couple of weeks.

Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Mauritius are likely to first benefit from India's vaccine shipment and begin vaccination programme in their own countries.

COVID-19 vaccine: Women health workers in Uttar Pradesh take lead in coronavirus vaccination

While the initial shipments would be a goodwill gesture, the concerned countries subsequently would get the vaccine on a payment basis from either Bharat Biotech or the Serum Institute of India.

It can be seen that Bangladesh and Myanmar have already declared that it has signed up with Serum Institute for vaccines. India has also promised the Sri Lankan leadership to make the vaccines available to them. The countries would not be burdened with huge charges as will be able to procure the vaccine at a similar price as Indians.

Tandav controversy: FIR lodged against director, Amazon India head of content

However, the foreign countries need export clearance from the Indian's Government's National Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) headed by Dr VK Paul of Niti Aayog.

Brazil has ordered vaccines from Bharat Biotech after Brazilian regulating agency, ANVISA said the Chinese vaccine Sinovac had only a 50 per cent efficacy rate.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 13:02 [IST]
Iconic Labs PLC - media company - Notes press release issued by OTT Holdings Ltd refuting its allegations. Iconic Labs says it has not received a valid requisition notice to convene a general meeting, has not called a general meeting of its shareholders and no general meeting is scheduled to take place. Iconic Labs rebuffs OTT claim that it holds 5.74 billion Iconic shares. Says OTT is not registered as a holder of any of its shares and that an initial enquiry suggested that OTT Holdings is a Cyprus based developer of hotels and "does not appear to have any commercial interest or experience in the social media and publishing industry in which the company conducts its operations." Also refutes allegations concerning an alleged lack of commercial progress.

"In the last 22 months the board has had to restructure the previous WideCells business that was close to insolvency and has built a new media business from zero revenues to now running at an annual revenue run rate of over GBP1 million a year. The large majority of these revenues come from management service agreements which Iconic was only able to obtain because of the skills and experience of the Board in managing digital media businesses. It should also be noted that during the last 20 months, the Board members and the company's advisors have deferred substantial parts of their salaries and fees in order to invest in the growth of the company," Iconic Labs says.

Current stock price: 0.0080 pence

Year-to-date change: down 34%

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Armie Hammer's estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers was spotted out for her first public appearance since the actor's 'cannibalism' scandal.

The 38-year-old television personality served as a judge at the Cayman Cookout brunch at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, which took place from January 15-17.

Currently, Chambers resides in the Cayman Islands with her two children, apart from Hammer, whom she separated from back in July.

Business as usual: Armie Hammer's estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers was spotted as a judge at the Cayman Cookout brunch at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, which was her first public appearance since the actor's 'cannibalism' scandal (Pictured second from the left in the bottom row)

In photos, Elizabeth Chambers appeared to put on a good face for the crowd, despite the current turmoil with her ex-husband.

She joined a panel of judges for the annual cooking competition which was hosted by world renounced celebrity chef Eric Ripert. The charity event raised $20,000 for the Cayman Food Bank, Page Six reported.

The mother of two has previously served as a guest judge of cooking and baking shows for The Cooking Channel and Food Network, and owns the Texas based Bird Bakery.

Elizabeth is in the midst of divorcing her husband of 10 years and was reportedly unaware of Armie's alleged bizarre sexual fantasies and behaviors.

Brave face: In photos, Elizabeth Chambers smiled broadly, despite the current turmoil with her soon-to-be ex-husband, Armie Hammer, whom she split from back in July

Sources previously told Page Six that Chambers knew nothing of the 'weird s**t' he did and that people thought they were in an 'open marriage' because of the way he would 'run around' with other women.

A friend told DailyMail.com that Elizabeth is in 'complete shock' and 'sickened' over the recent claims and messages alleged to have been sent by Hammer that discuss rape and cannibalism.

The source added: 'Armie had a whole other side to him that she wasn't aware of. Whether it was always there and he kept it hidden, or something happened that changed him completely, she doesn't know.'

The actor made headlines recently when leaked direct messages surfaced that were purported to have been authored by Hammer himself.

Shocking: The actor made headlines recently when leaked direct messages surfaced that were purported to have been authored by Hammer himself and contained disturbing violence and sexual fantasies, including 'cannibalism' (Pictured in 2018)

The alleged messages contained sexually graphic content like rape fantasies, BDSM, breaking bones and talk of cannibalism and were sent to several women. They date back to 2016 but some are as recent as February 2020.

In one message, the actor allegedly writes to the woman: 'I am 100% a cannibal. I want to eat you.'

In leaked videos obtained by DailyMail.com, Hammer bragged to his inner circle about a lingerie-clad woman waiting for him in his bed and smugly posted about taking a hallucinogenic drug that goes undetected in drug tests.

The 34-year-old allegedly posted the content to his secret Instagram account and in one snippet of himself taking a drag from a vape box on December 16, he wrote: 'When you realize they don't test for DMT on drug tests.'

The 34-year-old posted one snippet of himself taking a drag from a vape box to his secret social media account and wrote: 'When you realize they don't test for DMT on drug tests.'

He also shared a screenshot of what appears to be a court order that states he must take a drug test, as source revealed he is required to pass it before seeing his two young children with his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers.

In a short video filmed in his room at the Ritz-Carlton, a woman dressed in strappy black lingerie was seen waiting patiently on his bed on all fours.

He wrote: 'Well my ex (for a very good reason) wife is refusing to come back to america with my children. So I have to go back to Cayman which sucks.

'Except there are a few silver linings. Like f**king Ms. Cayman again while I'm down there.'

Bizarre: In leaked videos obtained by DailyMail.com, Hammer bragged to his inner circle about a lingerie-clad woman waiting for him in his bed and smugly posted about taking a hallucinogenic drug that goes undetected in drug tests

It is not clear that the reference was to Miss Cayman Islands Universe, and the Miss Cayman Islands Universe Committee released a statement to say it had contacted cops over footage of the lingerie-clad woman and denied that she was involved with their organization.

His rep declined to comment on the videos posted to his private Instagram account.

DailyMail.com also obtained videos of Hammer cracking open a beer while driving and licking white powder off his friend's hand.

Secrets: A friend told DailyMail.com that Elizabeth is in 'complete shock' and 'sickened' over the recent claims and messages alleged to have been sent by Hammer that discuss rape and cannibalism

He is seen in two separate clips, declaring 's**t's getting weird' after polishing off a white substance from a friend's hand and in another saying 'sending love, boys' after taking a swig from his beer can while behind the wheel.

Since the ongoing scandal broke, the Social Network star revealed the he was dropping out of his upcoming romantic-comedy with Jennifer Lopez, titled Shotgun Wedding.

He said in a statement to DailyMail.com: 'I'm not responding to these b******* claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic.'
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The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has received a total of 81 reports of suspected side effects associated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as of January 11.

It comes as another eight Covid-19-related deaths and 2,121 more cases have been confirmed this evening by the Department of Health.

Speaking about the suspected side effects, Chief Executive of the HPRA, Dr. Lorraine Nolan, said that all reports were generally consistent with those typically observed with other vaccines and included events of a mild to moderate nature which resolved or were resolving at the time of reporting.

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She said the most frequently reported side effects were abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, joint pain and pains in the arms, some experience of dizziness, headache, itching and a rash, adding that all of these are consistent with the known and anticipated side effects as emerged during the clinical trials.

She added: While the relatively mild effects described are of course uncomfortable for those who experience them, they do pass quickly and generally do not require any medical treatment.

Safety monitoring of all medicines, including vaccines, is central to the remit of the HPRA and we intend to publish a regular update of the number and nature of reports regarding suspected side effects with Covid-19 vaccines, as the vaccination roll-out continues.

All eight of the deaths reported today in connection with the coronavirus occurred in January.

The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 49-93 years.

There are no newly reported deaths in healthcare workers and there are no newly reported deaths in a young person under the age of 30.

This brings the total number of coronavirus fatalities in the country to 2,616 and there have now been 174,813 coronavirus cases recorded in Ireland to date.

Of the cases notified today:

992 are men / 1,117 are women

58% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 39 years old

753 in Dublin, 236 in Cork, 142 in Wexford, 126 in Kildare, 109 in Limerick and the remaining 755 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,975 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 200 are in ICU. There were 102 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, CMO Dr Tony Holohan warned that all ages are being admitted to ICU due to Covid-19.

Speaking about todays figures, he said: This third wave of the pandemic has seen higher level of hospitalisations across all age groups.

There are now more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic.

The risk that this disease poses to the individual who is infected has not changed.

What has changed is that we are experiencing a much greater level of community transmission and as a result we are seeing higher numbers of people with severe illness who require hospitalisation or admission to intensive care and higher numbers of mortality.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the numbers being hospitalised and admitted to ICU is expected to peak within the next week or two.

Dr Holohan said: We are seeing people of all ages being admitted to hospital and being taken into intensive care units.

"The levels of infection are such that your chances of transmitting or getting Covid-19 are very high, and we know that a proportion of those cases will lead to serious illness and mortality.

There is no group who should feel the public health advice does not apply to them.

He also urged employers to facilitate their employees working from home.

As we look forward to the week ahead, consider your choices and make the right ones. Do not go into work tomorrow if you can work from home. If you are an employer, facilitate remote working for your employees.

Meanwhile, Mr Donnelly warned on RTEs This Week that the numbers in ICU will continue to rise and the situation will get worse before it gets better.

However, he said the number of patients being hospitalised with Covid-19 is expected to peak within the next week or two, in what has been the third wave of the pandemic here.

He said that new modelling in the past few days from Professor Philip Nolan, who heads a team tracking Covid-19, suggests that this week, or potentially next week, the hospitalisations and the number of patients in ICU should peak.
Vote Percentage of Parties in Puducherry2021: How did the parties fare

ABP-CVoter Opinion Poll: Congress-DMK, NDA in close contest in Puducherry

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 18: The NDA alliance with AINRC, BJP and ADMK is expected to come to power in Puducherry, the ABP-C Voter opinion projections said on Monday.

The SDA alliance (Congress + DMK) is projected to win 14 of the 30 seats while the NDA will win 16 seats as per the projections. In 2016, SDA had won 17 seats while NDA had won 12 seats in the 30-member House.

Elections to the Puducherry assembly are likely to be held along with the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is fronted as a DMK-led alliance.

In the previous elections in 2016, the election brought a change of power as the All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), which had formed the government under N. Rangaswamy, lost its majority to the Indian National Congress (INC), led by V. Narayanasamy.

The Congress emerged as Single Largest Party with 15 seats, with the support of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) the government was formed.

C-Voter Opinion Poll predicts clear win for BJP in Asaam

V. Narayanasamy government has been marred by face-offs with Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi over a number of issues, will be seeking re-election in the southern tourist destination.

India's Covid cases drop to lowest in 7 months, vaccination drive day 4|Oneindia News

The Congress has dominated the UT's politics for the last two decades except for a five-year term between 2011 and 2016 when there was an All India NR Congress (AINRC) government. N Rangasamy-led AINRC, the UT's main opposition party, is an ally of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).



Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) has refused to condemn the January 6 coup attempt instigated by Donald Trump. Instead, he has focused his response to the tumultuous events in the US on defending the access of Trumpthe main conspirator behind efforts to establish a fascistic dictatorshipto his social media accounts.

The breakdown of American democracy has explosive implications for the political crisis engulfing the AMLO administration, as his subservience to Wall Street and US imperialism becomes increasingly evident in the context of the uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In defending Trump after the coup, AMLO is signaling that he will enforce the untrammeled exploitation of cheap labor and austerity diktats in Mexico with his own shift toward dictatorship.

Mexico is reporting record daily COVID-19 cases and deaths, while corporations, trade unions, and the authorities cover up deadly outbreaks in factories and workplaces. In this context, the AMLO government plans to double down on its policy of maximizing production and depriving those workers and small businesses falling into economic destitution of the necessary economic aid.

US President Donald Trump meets with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Wednesday, July 8, 2020. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Currently, news coverage in Mexico is dominated by AMLOs most naked appeal yet to the Mexican military, upon which he has increasingly relied to repress strikes and protests. On Friday, he endorsed the exoneration by Mexican prosecutors of Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, a former Mexican Defense Secretary who had been indicted by US courts on drug trafficking charges. The refusal of the Mexican government to level any charges against Cienfuegos is an effective guarantee of impunity to the military brass.

AMLO made his first mention of the US Capitol insurrection during a January 7 press conference. He began: We have always acted with respect to the domestic policy of other countries, like our Constitution says We will not intervene in matters that correspond [to] resolving, serving Americans. That is our policy; that is why I can comment.

He then lamented the deaths of the four insurrectionists at the Capitol and appealed for the conflict to be resolved through dialogue. He concluded fleetingly: Regarding the rest, we dont take a position, we wish for peace, that democracy prevails, being the power of the people, and that there are freedoms. That is all.

The Mexican president had used the same excuse of respect and non-intervention in foreign affairs to justify his refusal to recognize the overwhelming electoral victory of US President-elect Joe Biden until after the Electoral College ratified it on December 14. Every Latin American president, except for Lopez Obrador and Brazils fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro, congratulated Biden on November 7, after the major news networks called the result.

As the World Socialist Web Site warned at the time, AMLO is contributing to the installation of an American presidential dictatorship. Having been portrayed by the American media and the pseudo-left in Latin America, Europe and North America as a left and progressive president, AMLOs stance helped provide a cover of legitimacy for Trumps claims of voter fraud as he prompted his fascist supporters to mobilize to overturn the elections.

As early as November 9, backing Trumps conspiracies, AMLO was already suggesting that the greatest threat to democracy in the United States was the decision by social media companies to label as unverified Trumps claims of voter fraud.

Then, on January 8, after refusing to condemn Trumps instigation of the Capitol coup, AMLO again denounced Twitter and Facebook after Trumps personal accounts were closed. I dont accept that, he said. There is something I said yesterday and some days earlier and I always say what I think, something I did not like about the Capitol businessits only that Im respectfulbut I dont like censorship.

He then compared the closing of Trumps accounts to the Holy Inquisition and called it extremely serious only to add: Where is that regulated? This is a matter of the state, not of the companies. Its an important issue because they have tried to censor us here.

Trumps neofascist conspiracies constitute a threat of historic proportions for Mexican workers domestically and in the United States. Fascist groups violently hostile to migrants, incited by a president who has threatened to deploy US troops into Mexico against migrants and criminal organizations, attempted to overturn an election and establish a dictatorship.

In response, AMLO has extended his hand in collaboration. Not since Porfirio Diaz, the dictatorial ruler overthrown by the Mexican Revolution in 1911, has a Mexican head of state adopted such a submissive stance toward the imperialist power to the north.

In doing so, AMLO is merely expressing the interests of the Mexican national bourgeoisie, which has become completely subordinated economically to US imperialism in the form of a North American geopolitical platform to compete against Washingtons Asian and European economic and military rivals.

At the same time, the fate of workers internationally has been fused in the most unbreakable sense. This is especially true in Mexico and the United States. Nearly half of all Mexican imports come from the United States and 80 percent of exports go to the United States; the two countries share a 2,000-mile border, and about 40 million people of Mexican origin live in the U.S.

Numerous details have continued to surface of the high-level support in the Republican Party, the police and military for the January 6 insurrection, as well as reports by the FBI of more planned attacks by fascist militias against Washington D.C. and all US state capitals ahead of the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden.

However, as late as Wednesday, AMLO continued his silence on the fascist plots and again aimed his attacks against the closing of Trumps media accounts. He declared: Since those decisions were made, the New York Statue of Liberty has been turning green from anger because it doesnt want to become an empty symbol.

Trump himself duly recognized AMLOs backing in what is thus far his only public appearance since the coup attempt, a pilgrimage to his hated border wall in Texas. After applauding the groundbreaking agreement with Mexico to force asylum seekers to the United States to wait in Mexico, Trump gushed:

I want to thank the great President of Mexico. He is a great gentleman, a friend of mine, President Obrador. He is a man who really knows what is happening and he loves his country and he also loves the United States We actually had 27,000 Mexican soldiers guarding our borders over the last two years. Nobody thought that was possible.

Trump was praising the same man promoted by pseudo-left outlets like Jacobin Magazine, which speaks for the faction of the Democratic Party in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), as a firebrand champion of the working class with pro-poor politics.

AMLOs subservience to Trump is a confirmation of the theory of permanent revolution developed by Leon Trotsky, who wrote on Mexico in 1938, at the time of the nationalizations of oil and railways under Lazaro Cardenas, that the bourgeoisie was still absolutely incapable of developing democratic rule. He added: If the national bourgeoisie is compelled to abandon the struggle against foreign capitalists and work under its direct tutelage, well have a fascist regime.

To oppose the threat of fascism, the Mexican working class must build a revolutionary political movement to unite with their class brothers and sisters in the United States, Latin America and internationally in a fight for socialism. This must be done in unbending opposition to all pro-capitalist and nationalist parties and the trade unions.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



President Moon Jae-in acknowledged Monday the capital's housing market turmoil, but added he will try to soothe such concerns by announcing new measures in terms of the supply side.



"The focus of our policies was on curbing real estate speculation, but it wasn't enough to stabilize the market," Moon told reporters during a nationally televised New Year's press conference at Cheong Wa Dae.



Demand for apartments has surged for the past year, as excessive liquidity before and after the coronavirus outbreak has flown into the real estate market and pushed up housing prices, according to the President.



But he reaffirmed his stance toward tightening housing regulations to control demand for speculative buying, and pledged to come up with and announce "special" housing supply measures soon.



He also said "now is not the right time" for the government to provide a fourth round of anti-coronavirus emergency funds for the public.



The remark came in response to Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung's impending announcement of a plan to offer 100,000 won ($90.46) for all residents in the province. Lee was supposed to hold a press conference on the same day to confirm the plan, but canceled the event amid a request from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).



"It is too early for us to discuss the fourth emergency relief fund," Moon said. The plan, if it actually happens, may force the central government to prepare another supplementary budget and issue treasury bonds. The government already executed a fourth round of expansionary fiscal policies in 2020 against the virus-induced economic fallout, according to the President.



The message came amid growing concerns over the nation's surging sovereign debt. As of the end of last November, the national debt reached a record high of 826.2 trillion won, up by 13.4 trillion won from the previous month, according to data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. This exceeds the government's earlier forecast by 11.3 trillion won. Even if the step was mostly aimed at helping those severely hit by the virus shock, concerns are mounting over how the government can handle the worsening fiscal soundness.



"The execution of the 2021 budget is still in its infancy, so it is premature for the government to mention the fourth relief fund as of now," he said.



But Moon left open the possibility for the government to offer a fourth emergency fund if those vulnerable to the continued virus spread  including the self-employed  continue to suffer economic damage.



"Under the scenario, it is appropriate for us to offer selective fund assistance by picking such vulnerable groups," Moon said. The government can also offer the fund universally when the coronavirus comes to an end, to boost consumption nationwide, the President said.



He also expected the passage of three so-called "fair economy" bills to pave the way for the nation's economic democracy. The bills were devised to reform the chaebol-driven economic ecosystem here. Chaebol refers to Korea's family-owned conglomerates. The chaebol reform was one of Moon's top economic policy goals amid unceasing controversies on chaebol's unfair and undue pressure on their subcontractors.



When asked over plans to take additional steps in pursuing the reform of chaebol business structures, he said he would keep watching how the bills take effect in the industry.



"I believe the passage of the bills will play a big part in achieving democracy of conglomerates' governance structures and fostering a fair economy between big and small companies," Moon said.



He also raised a safety issue on worksites, underlining that subcontracted workers should never continue to be exposed to potential risks at worksites.



"One important factor when discussing the chaebol issue is that no one should die anymore while working," he said. "Industrial disasters continued to occur when big firms outsourced risks to subcontractors, and did not take any responsibility for these outsourced risks."



Even if the bills have room for improvement not just on the side of labor, but also companies' management, it is still meaningful that legal and institutional reforms on the long-standing issue have been completed, according to the President.



"We have taken the first step on the issue, even if labor groups still consider the bills insufficient and business circles step up their criticism that this hampers their management activities," he said.



"While enforcing the laws, we believe we can supplement and develop what is missing," the President said. "Any safety issues on worksites will also keep being improved."



Plus, the President also expressed confidence that the economy would be able to bounce back to a level matching that before the virus outbreak no later than the end of the first half of 2021.



"Most OECD member nations reported recession in 2020, but Korea defended well and reported a top-level growth rate," he said. "But this does not mean that the economy is good enough for the public to realize."




Organisers of the World Economic Forum are expecting leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for a virtual gathering next week  after Covid-19 postponed and moved the annual in-person event of Davos, Switzerland.

Forum founder Klaus Schwab said the aim of the virtual Davos Agenda week meeting starting on January 25 is to restore trust and engage all stakeholders in business, government, civil society and beyond to help build a more peaceful and prosperous post-corona era.
ALTON  A racially mixed crowd of about 100 people braved the cold and wind Sunday for the Alton NAACPs 41st annual Commemoration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

Jason Harrison from Deliverance Temple, president of the Riverbend Ministerial Alliance, delivered a passionate speech to those who gathered in James H. Killion Park at Salu in Alton about commitment. His words came just days before U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, is sworn in as the first African-American woman ever elected vice president of the nation.
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While global authorities are shuffling plans to land the COVID-19 vaccine to save their populations from the rapidly spreading coronavirus, a Nigerian governor is discouraging people from taking the vaccines.

The Nigerian government said it is expecting at least 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January through the COVAX co-financing public-private facility.

But several global health experts and bodies told PREMIUM TIMES it is almost impossible for Nigeria to start receiving vaccines this January.

Aso Rock officials said both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will take the COVID-19 vaccines live on TV to allay the growing vaccine hesitancy among Nigerians.

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, who addressed journalists in Abuja after meeting with President Buhari last week said he and his colleagues will also take the vaccines on live television. We too will like to demonstrate to our citizens that we believe that vaccines would work, he said.

Dont forget, we have a lot of experience on this. Governors Forum managed the polio vaccines administration in the country and we have garnered a lot of experience, said Mr Fayemi, the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.

Different strokes

But Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State in a video widely circulating on Facebook since Sunday morning could be seen discouraging a jeering crowd of supporters from taking the vaccines.

They want to use the (COVID-19) vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us. God forbid! Mr Bello said.

The governor hinged his criticism of the foremost COVID-19 vaccines currently being rolled out in nearly 50 countries globally on the breakneck speed at which they were developed.

These vaccines are being produced in less than one year of COVID-19. There is no vaccine yet for HIV, malaria, cancer and for several diseases that are killing us We should draw our minds back to what happened in Kano during the polio vaccines that crippled and killed our children. We have learned our lessons.

If they say they are taking the vaccines in the public allow them take their vaccines. Dont say I said you should not take it but if you want to take it open your eyes before you take the vaccines, he said.

Unverified claims

The governor did not provide any evidence to back his claims that COVID-19 could be dangerous to the health even though the fast development of the foremost jabs raised concerns.

Vaccines typically take at least a decade to develop, test and manufacture, according to scientists. It took 18 years for scientists to successfully develop a vaccine against polio.

But the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were developed at breakneck speed in less than a year to become the fastest ever in human history.

According to researchers, the only difference between the COVID-19 vaccines and their predecessors is the use of the genetic material mRNA which is easy to make in a laboratory.

Before now, vaccines typically use a weakened version of the pathogen or a protein piece of it and because these are grown in eggs or cells, developing and manufacturing vaccines takes a long time.

But by using just the genetic material that makes the spike glycoprotein  the protein on the surface of the coronavirus that is essential for infecting human cells  the design and manufacture of the vaccine is simplified.

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Manufacturing an mRNA vaccine rather than a protein vaccine can save months, if not years, health experts say.

The mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are faster to develop as they do not require companies to produce protein or weakened pathogen for the vaccine.

Another factor that accelerated the vaccine development was the swift and efficient recruitment of patients for clinical trials as well as the urgent need for it due to the unprecedented spread of the COVID-19 infections.

Also, there are no scientific evidence yet that the vaccines already in use have caused severe side effects or led to the death of any recipient.

Not the first time

This is not the first time the Kogi governor would be making controversial assertions about COVID-19 vaccines.

In a Channels TV programme last December, Mr Bello also questioned the need for Nigeria to procure COVID-19 vaccines.

Then he backed his argument with an analogy of varying temperatures between Nigeria and other climes, saying that what is applicable over there may not work in Nigeria.

We dont need to participate in this marketing of COVID-19 vaccine. We should channel the money we want use to buy the vaccines to other things. The Presidential Task Force (PTF) should give the right advice to the president.

The governor also said it is better to invest in tackling more deadly diseases that are killing people everyday, not COVID-19 that has 99.9 per cent recovery rate.

The recovery rate from the disease is quite remarkably high in Nigeria. But that does not mean the disease is not deadly.

Last Friday, Nigeria announced its deadliest day of the pandemic with 23 lives lost under 24 hours, the countrys sharpest daily fatality toll.

Last week, which is the third week of the new year, the country recorded 70 deaths, the weekly highest in the new year. The country also recorded 50 and 48 deaths in the first and second week of 2021 respectively.

In the past four weeks, there have been over 200 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

Mr Bello seems to be following the part of Dino Melaye, a former Nigerian senator who had also expressed doubts in the vaccines despite the approved ones going through various scientific and approval processes including by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In a viral video which was shared on social media platforms including Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram weeks ago, the former senator advised Nigerians and Africans not to accept the use of any vaccine for now, adding that they could cause fatalities.

Like Messrs Bello, Messrs Melaye did not also provide any evidence to back his claims.

Controversial Bello

Mr Bello has repeatedly controverted the coronavirus response strategy in Nigeria, a situation that pitted him against federal officials and health professionals.

The governor had in one instance described the deadly disease as a hoax.

Despite glaring evidence of acute under-testing for coronavirus in Kogi, Mr Bello last December claimed a widespread testing campaign was undertaken in his state and nobody had been infected.

After the earlier misunderstanding we had with the federal health officials and the NCDC, we later allowed them to step in and test people, he said in an interview aired on Channels TV last December.

After one month of intensive testing by their workers and officials, not one single person tested positive. The NCDC (Nigerias Centre for Disease Control), ministry of health and my state incident management team went around. They went to institutions, market places, motor parks, streets, villages, towns and cities and not one single individual was confirmed positive. When students are resuming schools, we carry out tests on both indigenes and non-indigenes, indigenes and there has never been one single positive test.

The issue Mr Bello referenced occurred earlier in the year, around May, and his claims of mass testing since then were at best, false, according to the NCDC general fact-sheet on COVID-19 response by states.

Kogi, a state of almost 3.5 million people, had tested only 425 samples by December 11, the national situational report published December 19 by the NCDC showed.

While states are solely in charge of their coronavirus management and response, the NCDC supports and receives daily infection information from them which is then published by the agency on its microsite.

The general fact-sheet, published weekly, contains information on states with reported laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, recoveries, deaths, samples tested and active cases.

Controversial Kogi

The COVID-19 situation in Nigerias North-central state of Kogi has been enmeshed in controversies, accusations and counter-accusations between governments and health authorities even before the index case was recorded.

At the time, the states COVID-19-free status raised a lot of concern especially because the state sits in-between states with rising numbers of infections.

Federal officials and health authorities believe the state officials are discouraging tests for people with symptoms of COVID-19.

On May 8, health minister, Osagie Ehanire, admitted that efforts to support Kogis response to the pandemic failed after a delegation including NCDC officials had to flee the state for fear of being quarantined by the Kogi State government.

We tried to send a team of the Ministry of Health and the NCDC into Kogi but there were some differences there to processes, the minister had said.

When the index case was reported in Kogi on May 27, state officials said they will not accept any test result conducted outside the state, a position described as unfortunate and condemnable by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

Health experts believe the situation in Kogi does not just raise serious concerns but has also made it more difficult to have a synchronised national strategy.

(Natural News) For weeks now, since the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building  and thats what it was, a riot, not an insurrection that was incited by President Donald Trump  supporters of the commander-in-chief have been scratching their heads.

Why? Because while undoubtedly some of his supporters did breach the Capitol Building, rioting is so very uncharacteristic of his voters and supporters.

For the past four-plus years, in fact, its been the far left, the anarchists, and the Black Lives Matter thugs who have rioted all across the country. Last summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic deepened, rioting became a way of life for tens of thousands of Americans.

But there were no riots tied to Trump voters and supporters. There were a lot of rallies that were well-attended by the presidents backers. But none of them resulted in riots.

Indeed, Trump supporters were often the victims of attacks by deranged leftists  all of which goes back to the initial point that rioting by Trump supporters just doest make any sense. It is so out of character.

Why, then, the U.S. Capitol? Why now?

It appears as though that riot was instigated by more than 200 Antifa backers, according to the brother of one of them  John Sullivan, a veteran rioter who was already facing charges for engaging in violence during a Salt Lake City protest last summer.

Sullivan, you may know, was the man who took video of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt being shot by a plainclothes officer near the House chamber as she appeared to breach a door to the Speakers Lobby, one of the Capitol Buildings most sensitive areas.

But it turns out he wasnt just a documentarian; he was allegedly partaking in the riot, and hes since been arrested on those charges.

Now, his brother, James Sullivan, is speaking out  he believes John not only helped instigate the riot, but he did so along with some 226 other members of Antifa. (Related: Situation Update, Jan. 16th, 2021  Operation Trust psyop revealed, DC prepares for large-scale WAR.)

The NOQ Report noted Friday:

The Sullivan brothers are quite a pair. The adopted sons of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Sullivan, John and James have been on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum since the George Floyd video was released last spring. And both have built reputations of being provocateurs with John helping Antifa and Black Lives Matter while James works closely with the Proud Boys.

John Sullivan was arrested yesterday in connection with instigating the Capitol riots on January 6th. A video of him and CNN photojournalist Jade Sacker emerged this week that shows them giddy following the murder of Trump-supporter Ashli Babbitt. Now, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is wondering why a text message from James Sullivan was not revealed during the Presidents second impeachment hearings in Congress.

Why wasnt this presented to the Witch Hunt Impeachment in Congress? Because they have no interest in the truth that the riots had nothing to do with the Trump speech. They were organized before speech and carried out on their own by groups like ANTIFA trained to riot, Giuliani wrote in a tweet that the speech Nazis at the platform have since removed.

James Sullivans text says: Im currently working with the FBI to expose and place total blame on John and the 226 members of antifa that instigated the Capitol riot I was able to get my agent out of trouble along with three other uthans.

No sooner than the Capitol was breached than Democrats, their lapdog media allies, and #NeverTrump Republicans started blaming the president for the incursion, despite the fact that he told his supporters to go to the Capitol and demonstrate peacefully.

This fake narrative was quickly followed by a snap impeachment  almost as if everything was planned.

And it certainly seems like it was. Investigative journalist Paul Sperry adds another layer.

DEVELOPING: Sources on Hill say Pelosi coordinated the snap impeachment of Trump with Russia collusion hoaxer Schiff in part to distract from forthcoming damning revelations from declassified bombshell FBI docs exposing the Russiagate probe of Trump as a political operation, he tweeted Thursday.

DEVELOPING: Sources on Hill say Pelosi coordinated the "snap impeachment" of Trump with Russia "collusion" hoaxer Schiff in part to distract from forthcoming damning revelations from declassified bombshell FBI docs exposing the Russiagate probe of Trump as a political operation  Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 15, 2021

Coordinated efforts to get rid of Donald Trump have been a frequent occurrence since before he took office; why would this bogus impeachment after an Antifa-inspired riot, a group Democrats have defended for years, be out of the realm of possiblility?

See more reporting like this at Antifa.news.

Sources include:

NOQReport.com

TrendingPolitics.com

NaturalNews.com
Kochi:

People broke into loud cheers when 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan's name was announced on stage during the inaugural function of the Kerala's prestigious Metro project.

Managing Director of the Kochi Metro Rail Limited Elias George, who welcomed the gathering, had to pause for a while as over 3,000 people, majority of them special invitees, rose and greeted the project's chief architect with thunderous applause.

The 85-year-old DMRC principal adviser was among the dignitaries who shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Governor P Sathasivam and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The crowd again broke into cheers when Naidu and Vijayanin their speeches hailed the role played by the 'Metro Man' in fulfilling the dream of people of Kerala.

Read more: Kochi Metro puts equality first, hires 23 transgenders

Through it all, Sreedharan sat impassively.

Earlier, before proceeding to board the metro train for the inaugural ride, the prime minister shook hands with the chief minister and Sreedharan.

During the journey, Modi interacted with Sreedharan and Elias George.

A controversy had erupted in the state as the name of Sreedharan, who was associated with the project from the very beginning, was not found in the list of names of dignitaries to share the stage with Modi for the inaugural function.

Read more: Kochi Metro: 'BJP state prez ride with PM a security breach'

However, his name was included by the PMO following the state government's intervention.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The promotion of fraudulent unemployment services within closed-source reporting over the past six months can be divided into two broad categories: The sale of tutorials or methods to file fraudulent claims The sale of direct access to unemployment relief accounts that often contain a pre-existing balance of funds

Over the past six months, cybercriminals have demonstrated a preference to advertise unemployment fraud tutorials or services via messaging platforms over criminal forums, shops or marketplaces, specifically Telegram.

Underground sources promoting unemployment fraud services typically specialize in a variety of other forms of fraud simultaneously, including credit card fraud and tax fraud.

The scale of fraudulent unemployment claims within the U.S. has become widespread enough in recent months to unlikely be attributed to a single threat entity.

Open source reporting on the reported losses stemming from unemployment fraud activity assessed to be in the millions of dollars has very likely contributed to the growing level of interest among underground threat actors.

Money mules likely remain a critical component of the unemployment fraud supply chain as evidenced by images uploaded by underground sellers of fraudulent unemployment methods and open source reports surrounding the arrests of suspected mules throughout 2020.

The numbers are simply staggering. According to CNBC , the U.S. lost more than $36 billion in unemployment benefits due to improper payments since the CARES Act was passed in the spring.Yes, the federal government and states are taking steps to adjust, but will it be enough to stop the fraud as benefits are extended and expanded?One example of action, the $900 billion COVID relief package signed last month adds steps for workers to prove their eligibility for benefits. However, these extra checks will likely slow payments to those who truly need the money.One expert said that fraudulent claims for benefits can account for roughly 35 to 40 percent of new applications in some states, with international organized crime rings from countries like China, Ghana, Nigeria and Russia accounting for most of the attacks.Back in October, I wrote a blog post describing how widespread unemployment fraud was overwhelming state systems . Sadly, the situation continues to be very challenging, even worsening in some states. This article from News 4 in Jacksonville , Fla., states that as unemployment numbers are back up in Georgia and Florida, and so are the unemployment fraud numbers: New unemployment claims in Florida rose to 75,444 for the week ended Jan. 9. The surge is to the highest level since August. Georgias unemployment claims are up almost 5,000 from the week before.And this article from CBS News , and the following video from ABC 7, describes how people with legitimate claims are being severely impacted in California. A new report released on Jan. 14 from Recorded Future describes in detail how the criminal underground has grown to increase unemployment fraud, which is now a crime of choice.Here are some of the key judgements and findings in the executive summary:Back in late November 2020, the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency released this report describing the potential fraud exposure:The report went on describe findings and corrective actions being taken by Michigan UIA.The number of UI claims around the country continue to overwhelm many state government systems, and residents trying to contact unemployment offices continue to face extremely long wait times and delays.With new stimulus plans announced by the incoming Biden administration , criminal organizations are sure to continue their fraudulent unemployment claims.According to CNN,What is clear at this point regarding fraudulent unemployment claims is that the states and federal government are not out of the woods yet. More fraud is certainly coming in 2021, and states continue to scramble to both meet the essential needs of those truly unemployed and hurting as well as stop the global criminal underground that is working harder than ever to defeat their anti-fraud measures.Expect another report from me by the end of the summer on our ongoing unemployment fraud battle, which has risen to near the top of criminal justice security concerns.
New Delhi:

Hold Janata Darbar (public meeting) for an hour on the lines of the AAP government, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday suggested Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal.



In a letter to Baijal, Kejriwal suggested that there are numerous matters of public dealings, where the LG is directly responsible, which include police and Delhi Development Authority.



The letter stated, Most humbly, may I request LG also to meet public..., without appointment, and hear public grievances? This would be appreciated by everyone and also set an example for all officers that if LG and chief minister themselves are meeting public, than they should also meet.

ALSO READ | Is it fair that files from LG to Chief Minister come via BJP: Arvind Kejriwal to Anil Baijal



Kejriwal has also reportedly cautioned the officials of Delhi government not meeting members of public without appointment of disciplinary action. Recently the Chief Minister wrote to the Chief Secretary and asked him to issue to a strict warning to all officers violating the instructions in this regard.



Kejriwal has also asked all the ministers to meet the public from 10 am to 11 am on all working days without appointment at their respective offices.



This step is being taken to make government accessible to the public. In fact, I myself along with all my ministers and MLAs, am also available during this time to meet the public, Kejriwal said in his letter to the LG.



With inputs from PTI.

ALSO READ: Arvind Kejriwal attends iftar with suspended AAP member Amanatullah, snubs Kumar Vishwas

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

British Airways has launched a new range of 1,935 carry-on suitcases made with parts of its retired Boeing 747 planes.

The airline's BOAC Speedbird suitcases pay tribute to the planes which were removed from service last year.

Only 150 suitcases will be on sale and each one will contain a different fragment from a 747 in the bag's interior.

British Airways has launched a new range of 1,935 carry-on suitcases made out of its retired Boeing 747 planes

The airline's BOAC Speedbird suitcases pay tribute to the planes which were removed from service last year

Only 150 suitcases will be on sale and each one will contain a different fragment from a 747 in the bag's interior

The last British Airways 747 took off for one final time in December before being retired due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic

The glossy white suitcase has a hand-painted retro Gold Speedbird emblem on the case and a navy leather trim.

British Airways teamed up with luggage company Globe-Trotter to design the suitcases which have been hand-made in England.

A pair of special suitcases which were flown on the airline's last ever Boeing 747 flight on December 11 will be up for auction.

British Airways teamed up with luggage company Globe-Trotter to design the suitcases which have been hand-made in England

The glossy white suitcase has a hand-painted retro Gold Speedbird emblem on the case and a navy leather trim

The plane flew from the engineering base at Cardiff Airport to its new home in St Athan in South Wales.

The two suitcases are signed by the flight's captain Richard Allen-Williams and hope to raise money for Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief.

Hamish McVey, British Airways' head of brands and marketing, said: 'We are thrilled to be working with Globe-Trotter to create this very special product, and through this unique auction raise money for vital Comic Relief projects across the UK and overseas.

A pair of special suitcases which were flown on the airline's last ever Boeing 747 flight on December 11 will be up for auction

The two special suitcases are signed by the flight's captain Richard Allen-Williams and hope to raise money for Flying Start

The Boeing 747's last passenger flight was from San Francisco to Heathrow in April 2020, with its retirement brought forward several years as a consequence of the pandemic

'While it was the right time to bid farewell to our Queen of the Skies, the launch of these BOAC-inspired carry-on suitcases provides a perfect opportunity for someone to celebrate a bygone era of global air travel and own a piece of our history.'

British Airways was the largest operator of the B-747 400 until the decision was made to ground the fleet.

In total, more than 3.5 billion people have travelled on the Boeing 747.

Its last passenger flight was from San Francisco to Heathrow in April 2020, with its retirement brought forward several years as a consequence of the pandemic.
By Toni Benn





It was December 2019 when I informed my family that I'd be moving to South Korea to teach English. Their apprehension, fear and concern was expected. All they heard was "North Korea" and immediately envisioned me diving in trenches underground to protect myself from a nuclear attack obviously caused by the infamous Kim Jong-un.



I reminded them that the Korean War ended 67 years ago and that the Korea they imagined, was one far different than the country I would soon call home. My grandfather, who served in the Korean War, was the most fearful; but with the help of YouTube and an episode of a K-drama, most of his worries dissipated.



A couple of weeks prior to my flight, news broke that Korea was now No. 2 on the list of countries plagued with COVID-19, right behind China. My family's fears shifted from nuclear war to the possibility of me contracting coronavirus. My desperation to pay off what I call "diploma debt" gave me the confidence to stick with my plans.



Upon landing at Incheon Airport in Seoul on Feb. 25, 2020, I became a black expat watching my home country become ravaged with COVID-19. Within weeks, the novel coronavirus was in nearly every country on the planet. South Korea kept their death rate at a minimum, but other countries never seemed to get it right, especially America.



Coronavirus swept through the United States, hospitalizing and killing more Americans than the Spanish flu a century ago. South Korea, a place where the people move in unison, trust science and sometimes their leader, had done everything right and their death count was low which in turn caused me to suffer from survivor's guilt.



Here I was in a place where my six year old students yelled at each other for not wearing masks, while in America, the President laughed at masks and considered them a joke. Throughout 2020, Trump had a captive audience on Twitter as he denounced mask wearing and the severity of COVID-19. Sadly, coronavirus had the last laugh and Twitter banned him for life.



Like a deranged standup, Trump delivered a punchline that left the world-audience silent. He activated the National Guard to disrupt peaceful BLM protests, called U.S. elections rigged, and fed red meat to his radical base instead of telling the truth on how to stop the coronavirus. Witnessing this from abroad as a black woman, caused a myriad of emotions.



I was angry that the black community suffered the most from COVID at both the rate of contraction and death. I was furious at the senseless murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many countless others at the hands of white police officers. I was enraged at the site of Kyle Rittenhouse, a young white male, freely parading around the streets with an assault weapon murdering two people at a BLM protest in the name of "self-defense" without any backlash from the police. That same murderous rampage continued at the US Capitol by white Trump supporters and home grown terrorists.



Discussions with fellow black expats in Korea about the insurrection at the US Capitol gave us all pause and a shared moment of grief. One that you can only experience if you're on the outside looking in. My boss, a middle-aged Korean woman, offered her support and sympathy regarding the American carnage that she had also watched in horror. That gave me comfort and also validated my decision to hop on that flight to Korea on February 25, 2020.





The writer is currently residing in South Korea teaching English.


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(CNN)  CES, the closely-watched annual consumer electronics show, often sets the tone for the tech trends of the year  but little did I realize how true that would be last year.

On the flight home from Las Vegas in January 2020, I wrote a piece for CNN Business about how the technology of the future paints a very lonely picture for all of us. I had just seen robots who call 911 when you fall down, mechanical companion cats that keep you company and "artificial humans" from startup Neon able to do the same.

Two months later, my New York neighborhood became one of the first in the country to go into lockdown; and it's been just as long since I've been able to hug some of the people I love the most. A virtual reality trip to the Amalfi Coast with them would be a welcomed change to our routine FaceTime check-ins, not quite the unusual concept I thought it was just a year ago.

If loneliness was the unspoken theme of CES 2020, this year's all-digital event was rife with anxiety and stress, both the everyday variety and the kind specific to the current health crisis. At the event, which took place online this week, there was the wearable for the ears that claims its gentle vibrations regulate stress; the small smart storage box with a fingerprint scanner to lock up your pill supply or credit cards; the bigger lock box that keeps porch pirates from stealing your Amazon packages; a pad for the car seat that sends an alert if you forget your child in the backseat; and the robot that loads your dishwasher.

The robot, Samsung's Bot Handy, is only in development for now, but it's the company's vision for "a better new normal," as more people work, cook, eat and drown in dishes at home than ever during the global pandemic. As seen in a video, Bot Handy sets the table, pours wine and reminds you of upcoming meetings.

"The technologies in your home need to work harder to help you adjust to this new normal," the company said in its session description on the CES website.

And then there were the masks. There was one with built-in earbuds and microphones to make calls, and another to monitor air quality. AirPop Active+ Smart Mask monitors and filters the air around you, blocking dust, allergens and microbial particles. It lets you know when you need a new filter and tracks your breathing with its sensors.

Perhaps the harrowing takeaway from CES this year is that we're not okay, but maybe technology can help.

Executives and thought leaders met virtually to offer solutions to the challenges many industries currently face. A session on the future of contactless payments, with a description on the website that led with "The less you touch, the safer you'll be," discussed how retailers can ride the momentum of the booming trend far past the pandemic. Another on the challenges of remote learning debated what's next for future classrooms, and whether certain tech tools could make telemedicine visits more meaningful.

"We live in a time when most of the things we once took for granted now seem like distant memories," said Brian Kwon, CEO of LG Electronics, in a video ahead of the company's presentation. "Life has changed in so many unexpected ways. While our approach to life may be different now, we persevere."

Not exactly the upbeat speech you normally expect to hear at a product launch.

Apple, which often makes headlines at CES without actually attending, used this week to reveal more details about its $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. Launched in June following the news and protests around the death of George Floyd, the company announced where more of its funds will go to help address systemic racism and create more opportunities for communities of color.

CES 2021 still had its share of fun innovation: the rollable phone, the transparent TV, Cadillac's self-driving party bus concept, to name only a few. But the tech that resonated most reflected our current bleak world, at a time when many of us are trying to just get through the day.

The self-driving party bus will be an excellent way to celebrate the end of the pandemic whenever that time finally comes, but for now, all I really want is that Keurig-like machine for soft-serve ice cream to soothe my soul while I wait things out at home.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "CES is a fantasyland of futuristic products. This year it was dominated by our bleak present."
Forty-one major cities in China's Yangtze River Delta have experienced a significant improvement in air quality, with a 31.4-percent decline in the average concentration of PM2.5 during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), a Shanghai environment official said at a news conference on Friday.

The cities' average density of PM2.5 was 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020, meeting the country's second-level air quality standard, said Bai Guoqiang, chief engineer of the Shanghai municipal bureau of ecology and environment.

Shanghai's average concentration of PM2.5 was 32 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020, 36 percent lower than the reading in 2015 and down from 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2019.

The PM2.5 reading is a gauge monitoring airborne particles of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which can penetrate deep into people's lungs.

In 2019, China unveiled an outline for the regional integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, which includes Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

The delta region is one of the country's most economically active, open and innovative regions, and produces about one-fourth of the national GDP. Enditem




MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio

Suspicious package: SOM Center Road

A bank employee received a mailed package at the branch Jan. 7 with a foul-smelling odor. She contacted officers before opening it because she had received a package with a dead rodent in it two weeks earlier while working at the Willowick branch.

Officers opened it to find a dead mouse in a trap.

The sender was listed as a Lyndhurst resident, but his name did not match the address on the envelope.

The employee said the package that came to the other location was sent after she had shut down an account.

Domestic violence: Mayfield Ridge

A man, 22, and his 21-year-old brother got into a fight at their home Jan. 7 after an argument over a dog gate. They gave conflicting statements and a primary aggressor could not be determined. Both were charged with domestic violence.

Suspicion: Genesee Avenue

A resident said Jan. 9 that two boys were walking in the area and looking in vehicles. Officers located the 14- and 15-year-old boys, but found no evidence that they were attempting to enter vehicles. They said they were trying to buy a vape pen. They were returned to their homes.

Domestic violence: Larchmont Drive

A man, 43, was arrested for domestic violence and resisting arrest Jan. 11 after an incident involving his wife at their home. He was drunk and had smashed a window on the womans vehicle.

Theft: Eastgate Plaza

A woman concealed razor cartridges, three beers, soap and other items in her purse at Marcs Jan. 11. A loss prevention worker stopped the woman, who provided her drivers license and admitted to the theft.

She said she was COVID-19 positive, but she refused to put on a mask and left the area. The Garfield Heights woman, 39, is being charged with the $82 theft of merchandise, which was recovered.

General assistance: Golden Gate Plaza

An Instacart worker said Jan. 12 that she was pushed by an employee at Fresh Thyme. She believed he was a manager, and she said she was asking him a question about an item on an order.

She said he pushed her arm and told her to stay 6 feet away.

Officers subsequently spoke to the manager, who said the woman had shoved her cell phone to his face to inquire about the item. He said he put his arm out and asked her to stay 6 feet from him.

No crime was committed.

Burglary: Fairhaven Road

A HUD-listed home was reported broken into Jan. 7 and a vehicle was stolen from the driveway. The vehicle and all property were subsequently recovered.

A Cleveland man, 32, was charged with burglary. He was with a crew working to winterize the home and had returned later in the day to commit the crime.

Fraud: Kingswood Drive

A resident reported Jan. 13 that a large amount of money had been fraudulently withdrawn from her bank account. A detective was assigned to the case.

Disturbance: Mayfield Road

A drunken man was said to be threatening the staff at Cork N Bottle Jan. 13. Responding officers located the elderly man and returned him to his home at Villa Serena.

Read more news from the Sun Messenger.
QAnon-supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was back on Twitter Monday after having her account suspended when she called on Americans to 'mobilize'  and promptly began using the account to attack Twitter.

'Contrary to how highly you think of yourself and your moral platitude, you are not the judge of humanity. God is,' she wrote Monday morning, in one of several missives blasting the platform for suspending her account.

'And you and the rest of your pals from the Silicon Valley Cartel are not God,' she scolded them.

Greene has been suspended from her Twitter account for 12 hours, her staff announced Sunday, after she tweeted and deleted a tweet calling for Americans to 'mobilize and make your voices heard'. She had also used the cite's platform to repeatedly launch unfounded charges that the elections were rigged, including going after Georgia election officials who certified the state's vote for Democrat Joe Biden.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., had her account suspended by Twitter after she called on Americans to 'mobilize.' Following a 12-hour suspension she was tweeting against the company on Monday

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted an attack on Twitter following the 12-hour suspension of her account. She wrote in highly personal terms: 'Contrary to how highly you think of yourself and your moral platitude, you are not the judge of humanity. God is.'

She also tore into Twitter for banning President Trump after his posts following the Capitol riots for repeat violations of its policies and what it said was a risk of further violence. He attacks came two days before Inauguration Day, with the Capitol on high alert, with 25,000 National Guard deployed around the city and its scaled-back inaugural festivities.

The platform has taken a series of actions since a MAGA mob stormed the Capitol January 6, scrubbing thousands of QAnon accounts and those it deemed threatening or breaking policies against violence.

Greene, a firt-term lawmaker with more than 250,000 followers, slammed the social media platform for locking her out of her account 'without an explanation', while bashing the company's 'attack to chill free speech in America' by kicking President Donald Trump off its services.

In a long complaint she sent out in a series of tweets Monday, she took issue with the policy. 'The tweets that you deem appropriate and safe and true, compared to tweets you deem inciting violence and spreading false information and claims of election fraud is disputed are so many times, in the opinion of many, quit hypocritical and false,' she complained.

'Also, Twitter is becoming boring without President Trump,' the Trump loyalist wrote, using one of the president's favorite insults for TV anchors he wants to undermine.

She also blasted Twitter for allowing what she termed 'Russian collusion' and 'disinformation,' in reference to the Russia probe, which began during the 2016 campaign and continued when then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself and made way for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe

She concluded by invoking the First Amendment and mentioning the 'revolution'  at a time of scrutiny of such calls, after mob members storming the Capitol were captured on video yelling out '1776!'

'And isnt it interesting that the first amendment is freedom of speech? After they fought a revolution, they must have really understood how important free speech really is,' she wrote.

Twitter had said she was suspended for 'multiple violations' of its civic integrity policy, but it's not clear which tweets specifically she got in trouble for.

According to ProPublica, on Saturday, Greene tweeted, then deleted, a message that said: 'I encourage all Americans, not just the 75 million people who voted for President Trump, to mobilize and make your voices heard in opposition to these attacks on our liberties.'

Green said in a statement shared by her staff Sunday: 'Just days after the Silicon Valley Cartel launched a multi-front attack to chill free speech in America by deplatforming President Donald Trump and purging an unknown number of conservatives, Twitter has decided to suspend my personal account without explanation.'

QAnon-supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been suspended from her Twitter account for 12 hours, her staff announced Sunday. Greene pictured at the Capitol on January 4

Her staff shared this statement where she said: 'Just days after the Silicon Valley Cartel launched a multi-front attack to chill free speech in America by deplatforming President Donald Trump and purging an unknown number of conservatives, Twitter has decided to suspend my personal account without explanation'

In her previous posts on Twitter prior to her suspension she spouted unfounded conspiracy theories alleging voter fraud in the Georgia election to her 265,000 followers.

Twitter had flagged her posts with a warning about election misinformation.

On Twitter Sunday morning she alleged Gabriel Sterling, Georgias voter system implementation manager, allowed election fraud to take place and claimed that some Dominion voting machines were corrupted.

'The 1/5 disaster in Georgia lays solely in the hands of state leadership who failed voters in our state. @GASecofState and @GabrielSterling were begged by Republicans to fix our elections. They did nothing. They are to blame,' she tweeted.

In another she alleged vote counting machines were compromised.

'Morons like you are responsible for losing GAs 2 Republican Senate seats. You ran a Nov 3rd election that was stolen bc you idiots at the SOS mailed out millions of absentee ballots to any one and everyone while GA was an open state. Then you counted ballots on Dominion,' she tweeted.

In her last few posts on Twitter she spouted unfounded conspiracy theories alleging voter fraud in the Georgia election to her 265,000 followers. In this tweet she blasted Gabriel Sterling, Georgias voter system implementation manager, claiming he's to blame for election fraud in the state

In this tweet from early Sunday she replied to one of Sterling's tweets claiming Dominion vote counting machines used in the election were corrupted

In one tweet early Sunday she wrote: 'End Abortion In America!'

Twitters temporary suspension of Greene comes it purged 70,000 Twitter accounts linked to QAnon conspiracy theorists.

In the Sunday statement Greene's staff shared, she slammed the 'monopolistic stranglehold' big tech companies have.

'If a conservative dares to utter a political opinion that is deemed unapproved by the internet police they are now subject to false accusations of "inciting violence" simply for having a conservative view,' she said.

'Americans rights are being stripped away and they arent being heard by the people they elected to represent them. And with Big Tech silencing them, they literally cant be heard,' the statement added.
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Indigo Paints will be the second public issue to open for subscription in the year 2021 after the Indian Railway Finance Corporation IPO. Indigo Paints public offer will open on January 20.

The maiden public issue of the paints company will close on January 22. The bidding for anchor book is expected to take place for a day on January 19.

Equity shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and NSE. Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Edelweiss Financial Services and ICICI Securities are the book running lead managers to the offer.

Here are 10 key things one should know before subscribing the issue:

1) About Public Issue

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of Rs 300 crore by the company and an offer for sale of 58,40,000 equity shares by promoters and investors.

Investors - Sequoia Capital India Investments IV and SCI Investments V - are going to sell 20.05 lakh equity shares and 21.65 lakh shares, respectively via offer for sale, while the promoter Hemant Jalan will offload 16.70 lakh equity shares in the public issue.

The offer includes a reservation of up to 70,000 equity shares for subscription by employees of the company. The eligible employees will get these shares a discount of Rs 148 per share.

One can put in minimum bid for 10 equity shares and in multiples of 10 equity shares thereafter.

2) Price Band

The company and investors in consultation with merchant bankers has fixed the price band at Rs 1,488-1,490 per share for its public issue.

3) Fund Raising

The company targets to raise Rs 1,168.99 crore - Rs 1,170.16 crore at a price band of Rs 1,488-1,490 per share.

4) Objectives of the Issue

The company proposed to utilise the net proceeds from its fresh issue for expansion of the existing manufacturing facility at Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu by setting up an additional unit adjacent to the existing facility (Rs 150 crore); purchase of tinting machines and gyroshakers (Rs 50 crore); repayment certain of borrowings (Rs 25 crore); and general corporate purposes.

The company will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale, which will go to selling shareholders.

Also read: Indian Railway Finance Corporation IPO opens: Should you subscribe?

5) Company Profile

Indigo Paints is the fastest growing amongst the top five paint companies in India. It is also the fifth largest company in the Indian decorative paint industry in terms of revenue from operations for FY2020, as per F&S Report.

The company sells its products under the brand 'Indigo', through its distribution network across 27 states and seven union territories as of September 2020. It engaged Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a sportsperson with pan-India appeal, as its brand ambassador, to enhance brand image amongst end customers.

The company manufactures a complete range of decorative paints including emulsions, enamels, wood coatings, distempers, primers, putties and cement paints. As of September 2020, Indigo Paints owns and operates three manufacturing facilities located in Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Kochi (Kerala) and Pudukkottai (Tamil Nadu) with an aggregate estimated installed production capacity of 1,01,903 kilo litres per annum (KLPA) for liquid paints and 93,118 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) for putties and powder paints.

It also intends to expand manufacturing capacities at its facility at Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu, by adding capacities to manufacture water-based paints to cater to the growing demand for these paints. The proposed installed production capacity of the expansion unit is 50,000 KLPA and it is expected to be operational during FY2023.

As of March 2018, 2019, and 2020, its distribution network comprised 33, 33 and 36 depots, and 9,210, 10,246 and 11,230 active dealers in India, respectively. In same periods, the total number of tinting machines that it placed across network of dealers was 1,808, 3,143 and 4,296, respectively.

Also read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies refiles IPO papers with Sebi

6) Strengths

a) The company has track record of consistent growth in a fast growing industry with significant entry barriers.

b) It has differentiated products leading to greater brand recognition and enabling expansion into a complete range of decorative paint products.

c) It has strategically undertaken brand-building initiatives to gain visibility with prudent use of resources, gradually increasing branding and marketing expenses consistent with the growth of business.

d) It has an extensive distribution network for better brand penetration.

e) It has leveraged brand equity and distribution network to populate tinting machines.

f) The company has strategically located manufacturing facilities with proximity to raw materials.

g) It has well-qualified and professional management team with a committed employee base.

7) Strategies

a) It intends to continue to focus on developing differentiated products to grow market share.

b) It intends to further strengthen the brand to consolidate position as a leading paint company in India.

c) It aims to deepen penetration in existing markets and expand presence in select new territories by populating tinting machines.

d) The company intends to expand manufacturing capacities to aid the growth efforts and consolidate pan-India presence.

8) Financials and Peer Comparison

Indigo Paints registered a revenue growth at a CAGR of 25.8 percent during FY2018-20, largely on account of strong growth in categories such as putty, emulsion and distempers which grew at CAGR of 25-30 percent over the same period. The gross margins expanded to 48.5 percent in FY2020 compared to 41.5 percent in FY2018.

The operating profit margin improved strongly from 6.5 percent FY2018 to 14.6 percent in FY2020 (and further improved to 18.5 percent in H1FY2021), which led to around 88 percent growth in the operating profits during FY2018-20. The profit during same period grew by 84 percent.

"Better working capital management aided net working capital days standing low at 20-23 days. The cash generation from operating activities improved by Rs 48.5 crore to Rs 72.23 crore over FY2018-20. Higher cash generation took care of the capex programme. Hence debt: equity remained stable at 0.3x. The company has strong return profile with RoE and RoCE (pre-IPO) standing at 24.2 percent and 28 percent respectively," Sharekhan said.

Indigo Paints' IPO is valued at 148x its post-issue FY20 EPS of Rs 10.05 (and 130x its annualised FY2021 EPS of around Rs 11.4), which is at premium to some of the listed paint companies, said Sharekhan.

Within the paints industry, the organised sector has a 67 percent market share, while unorganised players hold the remaining 33 percent. Until 2015, the unorganised sector had a market share of approximately 35 percent, which has been penetrated by the organised sector due to challenges faced by smaller players such as demonetisation and implementation of GST.

9) Promoters and Shareholding

Promoters of the company are Hemant Jalan, Anita Jalan, Parag Jalan, Kamala Prasad Jalan, and Halogen Chemicals Private Limited. The promoters, in aggregate, hold 2,73,56,615 equity shares, representing 60.05 percent of paid-up equity share capital of the company.

10) Management

Hemant Jalan is the Managing Director and Chairman of the company. He has over 20 years of experience in the paint industry. Previously, he was associated with AF Ferguson & Co. as a consultant. Presently, he is associated with Halogen Chemicals as a director.

Anita Jalan and Narayanan Kutty Kottiedath Venugopal are Executive Directors on the board. Praveen Kumar Tripathi, Sunil Goyal, Ravi Nigam and Nupur Garg are the independent directors of the company.

Sakshi Chopra is the Nominee Director and Ravi Shankar Ganapathy Agraharam Venkataraman is the Alternate Director to Sakshi

Chopra.

Chetan Bhalchandra Humane is the Chief Financial Officer of the company. He has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the company with effect from March 11, 2020. He has over 19 years of experience in accounting and finance. Prior to this, he was associated with Jenson & Nicholson (I) Ltd.

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and as early as now, many people are thinking about gifts they plan to give and perfect dating places. Learn how people in Latin America celebrate this day.

Valentine's Day in Latin America

Valentine's Day is one of the most anticipated celebrations across the globe. Though the way how Valentine's Day is celebrated varies from one country to the other, there is one thing that is common to everyone. It is a day of giving perfect gifts and looking for a dating place for our loved ones.

Everyone wants this day to be memorable and unforgettable. Maybe this time, many stores are already flooded with inquiries about the gifts they offer for Valentine's Day, and many people have already called and reserved a place for Feb.14.

Read also: 8 Awesome Latino Dating Sites to Boost Your Love Life This 2020

Here are some of the Valentine's Day celebrations in Latin America that you should know, according to a published article in Latinitas:

1. El Dia Del Amor y la Amistad

Most countries across the globe celebrate Valentine's Day for a romantic relationship. But this is not the case in some Latin countries like Mexico and Ecuador.

These two countries celebrate Valentine's Day not only for having a romantic relationship but also to share love with family and friends. They refer Feb.14 as the day of love and friendship.

2. Old Love Parade

As mentioned, the celebration of Valentine's Day varies from one country to the other. Guatemala City, Guatemala has a unique way of celebrating Valentine's Day.

During this day, they typically gather and have a large parade and called this as Old Love Parade. The city features senior citizens riding festive floats through the streets and wearing colorful costumes to celebrate love.

Read also: Find Your Valentine's Date With These Latino Dating Sites

3. Peruvian Orchids

Typically, roses are flowers associated when people talked about Valentine's Day. However, Peruvians exchange orchids, a native flower, during this day instead of roses.

Additionally, this is also a public holiday in Peru since Carnaval also takes place during the holiday of love. Peruvians celebrate this day with large weddings and festivals.

4. Angelito o Amigo Secreto

Valentine's Day is a day to share love. This also means that this is not only for young adults and adults but also for children. The Dominican Republic and El Salvador have a unique way of celebrating Valentine's Day.

They call this Angelito or Amigo Secreto or Little Angel and the latter to Secret Friend. This is the day that children exchange gifts which is similar to Secret Santa.

5. Valentine's Day in September

It has been part of the tradition of most countries to celebrate Valentine's Day every February 14 but Colombia and Bolivia celebrate this romantic day every September.

Even though their activities are the same as with other countries like giving of gifts, flowers, and large celebrations, however, Colombia celebrates on September 20 and Bolivia celebrates the following day.

Due to the global pandemic, some activities in Latin America during Valentine's Day might have some changes. Some might choose to have a virtual celebration to avoid social gatherings.

Despite this, if you are planning to have a date remember always to follow COVID-19 protocols to avoid getting infected with the virus.



ATLANTA  A day before the nations annual holiday celebrating life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock of Georgia returned to the pulpit at the church that was Kings spiritual home, calling for the nation to adhere to Gods vision of equity.

Warnocks wide-ranging holiday message included a tribute to King and a remembrance of his last days organizing an anti-poverty crusade before he was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

The tragedy is that the minimum wage had more purchasing power in 1968 than the minimum wage does in 2021, he said at one point.

Warnock decried the pain and death of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he called the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, an unthinkable attack on the very house of the people by those who are driven by the worst impulses, stirred up by demagogues.

Election victories over incumbent Republicans by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Warnock in Georgia ensured a 50-50 Senate split, positioning Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote for Democratic control. But Ossoff and Warnock cannot join the chamber until Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certifies the final vote tally. Raffensperger, a Republican, has said he could act as soon as Tuesday.

Warnock didnt mention the outgoing president by name in his sermon but included clear criticisms of Trump as he named crooked places that he said God seeks to make straight. You dont like the facts? Just create some alternative facts, Warnock said, referencing a term once used by a former Trump aide. Just exchange science for fiction, or your own imagination.

-- The Associated Press
Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday that health officials are investigating how the person in B.C. contracted the variant, as they have not travelled or been linked to any travellers.

The island cases are among 509 new cases found provincewide, pushing B.C.'s total to 60,117 cases since the pandemic began.

Seven people died from the virus in the last day, 1038 people have passed away from COVID-19 provincewide.

"We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic", Henry and Dix said in their statement.

According to the joint written statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister of Adrian Dix, there are now 4,604 active cases of the coronavirus in the province.

In addition to this new case, the province also reported a total of four cases of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom. "We don't believe these have spread at all from these four cases".

The person did not travel or has a known contact with a traveler, details that Henry called "concerning".

The U.K. strain also spreads more easily and has been blamed in that country for record-high cases and surging hospitalizations.

There are now four confirmed cases of the United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 in BC according to BC Health Officials.

Interior Health has seen 115 of those cases; only Fraser Health reported more cases today with 253.

This brings the total number of cases in B.C.to 59,608 and 1,038 fatalities.

He says the inspectors will have the power to issue tickets of up to $750 to store supervisors, workers, or patrons if they're not following public health rules.

"We must never forget how far we have come by working together".

New Delhi, Jan 18 : The central government on Monday said two people have died following Covid-19 immunisation, but the death of one of them is not related to the vaccination while the post-mortem report of the other beneficiary is still awaited.

A 52-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district died one day after being vaccinated. "Post mortem by a board of three doctors revealed death due to cardiopulmonary disease, pockets of pus in lungs, enlarged heart - not related to vaccination," said Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, Manohar Agnani.

The other man, who was a 43-year-old resident of Bellary in Karnataka, died due to cardiopulmonary failure two days after being vaccinated. His post mortem is planned at Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences in Bellary.

A total of 3,81,305 people have been given the Covid-19 vaccine in the last three days, the Additional Secretary said. On Monday, 1,48,266 people were administered the vaccine. On January 16, when the vaccine drive kicked off, 2,07,229 people were vaccinated, followed by 17,072 the next day.

On Monday, Karnataka vaccinated 36,888 beneficiaries, the highest among all states, followed by 22,579 in Odisha, 11,588 in West Bengal, 10,352 in Telangana and 9,758 in Andhra Pradesh.

"So far, cumulative 580 AEFIs have been reported," Agnani said, adding that seven people required hospitalisation. In Delhi, three beneficiaries were hospitalised, out of which two have been discharged and one, who had fainted, is under observation at Max Hospital in Patparganj.

In Uttarakhand, one person was hospitalised but is stable and under observation at AIIMS Rishikesh. In Chhattisgarh, one person is under observation at Government Medical College at Rajnandgaon.

In the southern state of Karnataka, two people were hospitalised, out of which one is fine and under observation at District Hospital in Chitradurga, while the second case is under observation at General Hospital in the same district.

The Union Health Ministry has asserted that "no case of serious or severe adverse event following immunisation is attributable to vaccination till date."
Selena Gomez is a busy woman, recently dropping her first Spanish-language single.

And the former Disney Channel star is also hard at work on an upcoming comedy series for Hulu.

She served up a bold winter look Sunday in an orange faux fur coat, as she filmed Only Murders in the Building with costar and creator Steve Martin in New York City.

Leading lady: Selena Gomez served up a bold winter look Sunday in an orange faux fur coat, as she filmed Only Murders in the Building with costar and creator Steve Martin in New York City

The 28-year-old layered the coat with a yellow ribbed sweater, which was complemented with a pair of brown houndstooth plaid pants.

Her look was finished with a paid of gold hoop earrings, a matching necklace and a pair of burgundy leather Doc Martens, as she carried a black backpack over her shoulders.

Gomez kept warm from the January chill, bundling up in a black ankle-length Canada Goose parka jacket in between takes.

She also took precautions against COVID-19, sporting a grey face mask when the cameras weren't rolling.

Cool for the winter: The 28-year-old layered the coat with a yellow ribbed sweater, which was complemented with a pair of brown houndstooth plaid pants

Accessorizing: Her look was finished with a paid of gold hoop earrings, a matching necklace and a pair of burgundy leather Doc Martens, as she carried a black backpack over her shoulders

Bundled up: Gomez kept warm from the January chill, bundling up in a black ankle-length Canada Goose parka jacket in between takes

Wear a mask: She also took precautions against COVID-19, sporting a grey face mask when the cameras weren't rolling

The Spring Breakers actress was in good company, as the cast and crew appeared to take the precautions seriously on set.

She was spotted chatting with her masked costars Steve Martin, 75, and Martin Short, 70, as they filmed on location.

Short certainly stood out, as his wardrobe called for a purple over coat and a matching polka-dotted scarf.

It marked another reunion for himself and longtime pal Martin, with whom he's starred in several titles, including Three Amigos (1986) and Father of the Bride (1991).

Safety precautions: The Spring Breakers actress was in good company, as the cast and crew appeared to take the precautions seriously on set

Talented ensemble: She was spotted chatting with her masked costars Steve Martin, 75, and Martin Short, 70, as they filmed on location

Bold look: Short certainly stood out, as his wardrobe called for a purple over coat and a matching polka-dotted scarf

Reunited: It marked another reunion for himself and longtime pal Martin, with whom he's starred in several titles, including Three Amigos (1986) and Father of the Bride (1991)

Murder mystery: Their 10-episode Hulu series, which premieres in 2021, follows three strangers who are obsessed with true crime, until they find themselves involved in one

Their 10-episode Hulu series, which premieres in 2021, follows three strangers who are obsessed with true crime, until they find themselves involved in one.

Meanwhile, Gomez is preparing to release the second season of her cooking show Selena + Chef, which drops January 21 on HBO Max.

In each episode, a master chef helps her brush up on her cooking skills during quarantine, while she donates $10K to a different charitable cause.

It comes after she dropped her first Spanish-language single De Una Vez last week, writing on Instagram: 'De Una Vez is out now. This is the beginning of something I've wanted to explore for so long. I hope you love it as much as I do.'

What's cooking? Meanwhile, Gomez is preparing to release the second season of her cooking show Selena + Chef, which drops January 21 on HBO Max

New bop: It comes after she dropped her first Spanish-language single De Una Vez last week, writing on Instagram: 'De Una Vez is out now. This is the beginning of something I've wanted to explore for so long. I hope you love it as much as I do'

One year later: The Texas native previously celebrated a year since the release of her third studio album Rare, which also marked her return to music after a five-year hiatus

She told Apple Music that she thinks she 'sings better in Spanish,' adding: 'I feel like it's the perfect timing. Just with all the division in the world, there's something about Latin music that globally just makes people feel things, you know?'

The Texas native previously celebrated a year since the release of her third studio album Rare, which also marked her return to music after a five-year hiatus.

She posted a photo with some fans to her Instagram Story last weekend, writing: 'Can't believe it's been a year since Rare was released. So much has happened but wanted to let you know I love you guys.'

Rare was released January 10, 2020, becoming her first No. 1, after dropping the singles Lose You to Love Me, Look At Her Now and the title track.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Mayim Bialik is teaming up with her The Big Bang Theory co-star Jim Parsons for their new sitcom, Call Me Kat. The two actors-turned-producers have shared a great friendship for years. And in a recent interview, Bialik revealed why feels so grateful for Parsons.

Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik | Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Call Me Kat is Mayim Bialik and Jim Parsons latest project

Parsons and Bialik worked on The Big Bang Theory together for nearly a decade. They portrayed physics genius Sheldon Cooper and his neurobiologist girlfriend/wife Amy Farrah Fowler. After The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019, the two teamed up to bring the British comedy Miranda to American television with their FOX sitcom, Call Me Kat.

The show features Bialik as Kat, a single woman who owns a cat cafe owner in Louisville, Kentucky. Leslie Jordan, Cheyenne Jackson, Kyla Pratt, Swoosie Kurtz, and Julian Gant also star in supporting roles. Call Me Kat premiered on Jan. 3, 2021, with new episodes airing weekly, Thursday nights on FOX.

RELATED: The Big Bang Theory Star Kaley Cuoco Reveals the Terrifying Fan Encounter She Had With a Flight Attendant

They are producing the show together

Before The Big Bang Theory, Bialik was a child actor who appeared on the NBC sitcom Blossom. Shes been in the industry for over 30 years, and alongside Parsons, she is utilizing her production experience with Call Me Kat.

Ive never been a producer before, Bialik said during a webinar to raise money for The Groundlings. This is my first time producing anything, and Jim Parsons, who was Sheldon on Big Bang Theory, we were producing together. Our companies worked together, but this audition process was a lot of me and Jim texting each other.

RELATED: The Big Bang Theory: Wil Wheatons Improvised Scene Sent the Entire Cast and Crew Into an Explosion of Laughter

Mayim Bialik says shes immensely grateful to Jim Parsons

In a recent video on her Youtube channel, Bialik talked about how she worked with Parsons to bring Call Me Kat to TV. She noted that the show is being produced under Parsons new banner.

The reason that Call Me Kat exists is because Jim Parsons, who played Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, his production company, Thats Wonderful Productions, got the rights to Miranda which was a very popular BBC series in the UK for three years, Bialik explained. [Its] about a very unusual woman, and we absolutely made the decision to adapt that story into an American version with me as the main character.

RELATED: The Big Bang Theory: 5 Adorable Sheldon and Penny Moments That Prove They Were the Shows Cutest Duo

Noting its not always easy to get a character like Kat on TV, Bialik said she was grateful to Parsons for helping her tell this story. Im grateful for the opportunity, Bialik said. Im immensely grateful to Jim Parsons for this opportunity and for trusting me to try and carry this show about a woman who doesnt have it all and is still happy with her life.
Last spring, you could smell the social solidarity in the air. For a few short weeks, there was a feeling that we really were all in it together. We were locked down, but so was our boss and the people that feature in newspaper rich lists.

We embraced that first lockdown and we stayed at home, living on top of each other, often in cramped houses that suddenly felt twice as small now that everyone was staying at home all day long.

We cancelled an entire years worth of plans and shuttered businesses wed taken years to build. Some 73,000 of us applied for the Governments Be On Call For Ireland campaign to recruit healthcare workers. The rest of us lit candles and picked up prescriptions for the older lady three doors down.

But it feels like the rolling waves of Covid restrictions, forcing us indoors for weeks at a time, are finally proving too much even for many of us who had, until recently, clung on. January 2021 is different. Were fed up. Were angry. We snap at strangers in supermarkets. Social media debates about school reopenings turn into nasty, scorched-earth disputes. We have compassion fatigue at the very time we need compassion the most.

We are increasingly a splintered society. Maskers and anti-maskers, law-abiders and rule-breakers, the ones whove had it and those of us who havent caught it yet. And, to put it very bluntly, the survivors and the dead  and the people theyve left behind. Slogans have changed, ideologies have shifted, rules have jumped from strict Level 5 to 3+ and back again several times, tipping more and more us over the edge of empathy.

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A survey from Mental Health America recently sought to quantify the effect compassion fatigue is having on healthcare workers. The responses collected from the 1,119 healthcare workers surveyed indicated they are all stressed out and stretched too thin. But 52pc reported feeling compassion fatigue too, something thats not just a problem for those on the frontline  its something thats high in all of us, according to Dublin psychotherapist Karl Melvin.

The human capacity for empathy is one of our greatest gifts but its finite and tending to those in great distress can easily lead to compassion fatigue, he says. The scale and enduring nature of the pandemic has created a situation where more and more people need assistance and those caring for others may feel trapped and unable to prioritise their own mental and emotional self-care. Even recognising this can be a challenge.

In lockdown 3.0 nobody suggests a family quiz night on Zoom. Weve never been so depleted or so tired. You can hear the frustration in peoples voices and see it in a lack of patience. Where are the bear hunts and postcards through neighbours doors? Those first golden weeks of baking banana bread and clapping for carers in the evening sunlight are well and truly over.

While watching the news for updates about the latest lockdown rules and the spread of the virus has been important during the pandemic, it is numbing us to the brutality of the disease. As the number of those who died with Covid-19 climbs above 2,600 and case numbers hover above 3,000, the deaths of so many is hard to take in. Each death is a tragedy played out on an individual level, with a family left gutted and bereaved.

But as we zoom out, can anyone really wrap their head around the daily numbers?

Were allowed to be angry.

And we are allowed to grieve  to mourn the sudden loss of everything that wed not only been taking for granted, but also had never considered would be taken away. Who would have ever thought that it would be a crime for your mother to see her grandchildren in 2021?

In his 1947 novel The Plague, Albert Camus tells the story of the arrival of a plague in the Algerian city of Oran, the obligations we all have to each other and the ways in which the books characters join forces over the course of the contagion. What they achieve as a group, as opposed to pursuing their individual interests, is quite extraordinary. And thats Camuss point.

This is the weirdest January, like were stuck in a glitching simulation and theres little to reassure us its nearly over. We all likely know people who are now out of work, who are wondering how they will pay their bills, who are worried about their health and that of their loved ones, who dont have paid sick days or paid leave they can take, who are elderly and live alone, who live with disabilities, who do not have safe homes to go to.

So, while we might all be sick of screen time and too frazzled to think about knocking on our elderly neighbours door to see if they need anything, other people need us more now than when Zoom was a novelty.

We cant allow ourselves to run out of kindness when we need it most. In times like these we need as much solidarity and mutual care as we can get.
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Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 00:33:17|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Aug. 7, 2012 shows the melting east branch of the Tian Shan No.1 Glacier in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

In this age of globalization, no country can either preserve or promote its own interests without considering those of others. Win-win cooperation for shared benefits is the only viable solution.

by Xinhua writer Shi Xiaomeng

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- "I cannot help thinking how wonderful it would be if an exquisite Swiss army knife could be made for our world affairs. When there is a problem, we can use the knife to fix it."

When Chinese President Xi Jinping presented that analogy in his keynote speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2017, the world was facing a fork in the road between multilateralism and isolationism, openness and protectionism.

Xi, in the speech, also elaborated on his vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, pointing to the direction in which China was determined to work with the rest of the international community to forge a more prosperous future for all.

Four years later, Xi's penetrating vision is more relevant for today's highly interconnected and deeply troubled world. The gravity of choosing between the notion of a shared future and the zero-sum Cold-War mentality has grown all the more apparent. And the world's need for a multi-functional tool to tackle daunting global problems has turned ever more urgent.

The revelation of the COVID-19 pandemic is as clear as it is compelling. In face of the attack by an unknown virus, the inevitable reality that the fate of all countries on this planet is bundled together can speak for itself.

Chinese medical team experts and Italian doctors pose for a photo during the COVID-19 pandemic in Padua, Italy, March 18, 2020. (Xinhua)

A real Swiss knife demands true craftsmanship to make. To forge such an instrument of common good for humanity's better and shared future, the world should come together in the first place.

As pressing problems like the pandemic, climate change and terrorism are global in nature, turning inward and hiding behind ideological entrenchment will only allow the deadly pathogen to kill more people, melting glacier to vanish at a faster pace and terrorists to stage more attacks against innocent civilians.

Therefore, nations of the world should foster even stronger networks of partnership for the long-term security and general welfare of the people on this planet.

Pursuing win-win cooperation instead of zero-sum confrontation is equally essential.

In this age of globalization, no country can either preserve or promote its own interests without considering those of others. Win-win cooperation for shared benefits is the only viable solution.

To be more specific, dialogue and consultations between different countries can avoid conflicts; dynamic global free trade without barriers can spur economic growth; exuberant cultural exchanges can bridge misunderstandings; low-carbon and green growth can re-balance the relationship between the environment and the human society.

Democratizing international relations and improving global governance is also imperative.

Modern history has witnessed mankind's progressive pursuit for a fair and equitable international order. That relentless odyssey has been coded in the texts of the Peace of Westphalia, the Geneva Convention, and the landmark UN Charter.

To carry this task forward, countries around the world, big or small, should manage global affairs collectively and write the world's rules of the road together so as to avoid the dominance of the globe by just one or several major powers.

Over the years, to turn the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind into reality, China is not only an advocate, but also a practitioner.

It has been a keeper of the spirit of international solidarity. To beat the roaring outbreak, China cares about more than itself. It has provided anti-pandemic aid to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations, and sent medical expert teams to 34 countries, the largest humanitarian operation China has carried out since 1949.

China has also been a champion for shared benefits and win-win cooperation. Its flagship Belt and Road Initiative has over the years brought real benefits like jobs to people and investment for economies in those countries.

In addition, China has long been a staunch supporter for multilateralism and the international system with the UN at its core.

Volkan Bozkir, president of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), addresses a high-level meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the UN at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 21, 2020. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

It is the largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It has eliminated extreme poverty across the country, well implementing the top goal in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda ahead of time.

China has also pledged to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, a boldly responsible move to curb global warming.

In some ways, a multi-functional Swiss army knife solution mirrors the complexity of the problems it is designed for. As the world is undergoing transformations rarely seen in a century, the human race needs to have such a tool in its hand.

By rallying global solidarity, stimulating cooperation and revamping global governance, China's vision to build a community with a shared future for mankind will be proved equal to the convoluted tests of the times. 

Thank you for reading!

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Bilal Ansari prepares to speak at a demonstration last summer in Williamstown. He was presented the annual Peacemaker Award by the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Committee. Jennifer Ceolinski, right, talks with visitors to the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition National Day of Service drop-off site in Williamstown on Monday. Some of the winter clothing that was donated to the NBCC on Martin Luther King Day. PreviousNext

NBCC Honors Ansari with 2021 Peacemaker Award

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Bilal Ansari has been known to quote civil rights icon John Lewis' call to, "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America."

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Ansari was recognized for his efforts to redeem the soul of his hometown.

The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition recognized Ansari with its 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Peacemaker Award in an announcement posted on the non-profit's Facebook page on Monday afternoon.

In making the announcement, the NBCC's Wendy Penner reminded listeners that making peace is not always about avoiding conflict.

"I want to acknowledge that many people feel uncomfortable about some of the work being done around racial equity, and that is OK," Penner said. "Combating racism requires us to all be uncomfortable."

Ansari has been a strong voice for racial justice in Williamstown, where he is a founding member of the town's Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee and serves on the Racial Justice and Police Reform group.

"His family has a long history in the Williamstown community, which he has shared, including painful acts of racism and discrimination against them," Penner said. "You have used this history to educate and empower the community to respond to racism, to not tolerate racism and to address racist practices and their impact."

In accepting the honor, Ansari said no peacemaker acts alone, and he credited his partners on the DIRE Committee and the police reform group for their efforts over the last year.

"I'm just happy to be mentioned with a long line of people who have received this award," Ansari said in accepting the honor. "There is one person I want to call out by name, intentionally.

"Post George Floyd, there has been a lot of anti-Black racism work, and the Black Lives Matter marches and standing firm against hate. I want to call out one person I consider a hero for me, a person I am so proud of. That is Raymond Moore (of North Adams), who has been doing great work for Black lives in the region and who does great work every day showing up as a Black father to his children.  For him to do all he has done, he's my hero."

Ansari thanked the community coalition for all the work it does throughout the year and for honoring Dr. King's legacy with the annual Peacemaker Award.

"I wish the town of Williamstown would be more active in acknowledging and serving and doing something on this day, but we will keep pushing," Ansari said.

Earlier in the day, the NBCC was active in both North Adams and the Village Beautiful, doing what it could to keep the spirit of the National Day of Service alive in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The main goal is we want to make sure we do something impactful," NBCC volunteer Jennifer Ceolinski said. "And we wanted to do something accessible, something that's easy for people to participate in. So we just tried to think about what's going to have the most meaning and most impact and something people can connect to."

Ceolinski, who works with Ansari in Williams College's office of institutional diversity, equity and inclusion, spent her morning connecting with people who turned up to drop off donations of winter clothing and/or shelf-stable food products at the NBCC table on Main Street (Route 2) outside First Congregational Church.

"We're outside because the building is closed to the public, but I realized it's actually a much better thing to be outside," said Bridget Spann, the church's outreach community organizer, who joined Ceolinski on Monday morning. "It gives us a little more visibility, and it's a great way to catch people."

The Williamstown table was mirrored by one at the UNO Community Center in North Adams, one of several suggestions the NBCC had for those who wanted to honor the spirit of Dr. King by serving the community.

In addition to visiting the donation sites, people were encouraged to walk around their neighborhood with a garbage back and pick up trash, offer to rake leaves or shovel snow for a neighbor or have a child write a letter or draw a picture for delivery to neighbors in order to build and maintain connections during the pandemic.

To help older kids take a step toward advocacy, the NBCC distributed letter-writing kits that included the addresses of elected officials and social justice prompts for their letters.

In a normal year, the coalition would have had workshops, efforts to connect volunteers with community projects and a luncheon to recognize the Peacemaker Award recipient. This year, the NBCC found a different path to keep the traditions of the day alive.

"I hope everyone is having a meaningful day today and that you had an opportunity to participate in some of the service activities," Penner said. "The coalition has been involved in supporting the community's observance of the Martin Luther King Day of Service for, this is our 28th year. We're pleased this year that we are able to honor someone who has made an incredible contribution to our community and the spirit and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan received on January 18 Renco's CEO Giovanni Rubini.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of Tigran Avinyan, the sides discusses the implementation process of the agreement signed on November 13, 2019 about the construction of a 250 megawatt combined-cycle power plant.

Giovanni Rubini presented the process of the works, noting that though there are some delays conditioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the current pace is rather promising and it will be possible to launch the TPP at its full scale in autumn, 2021. Rencos CEO thanked the Government for the assistance.

Tigran Avinyan assessed the construction of the TPP as a successful project. The Deputy PM expressed the readiness of the Government of Armenia to continue the cooperation, expressing satisfaction over the ongoing works.

The sides agreed to continue discussions over future projects.
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Vietnam has become richer, but it remains a lower middle-income country facing a risk of being left behind. It aims to become a high-income country by 2045.

We need to make right and timely decisions, because time is gold and it is also our enemy, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung at a conference reviewing the 2016-2020 period.



He said that Vietnams position and power has improved considerably, but the risk of falling into the middle-income trap still exists.

Vietnams economy, as revised by the General Statistics Office (GSO), had value of $332 billion in 2019 while GDP per capita was $3,442. The figures were expected to reach $340 billion and $3,490, respectively, in 2020.

Based on the recalculations, Vietnam has set new goals for socio-economic development in 2021-2025: 6.5-7 percent GDP growth rate and $4,700-5,000 GDP per capita by 2025.

In its report on socio-economic development in 2016-2020, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) pointed out that the economic growth rate was lower than targeted, while the gap between Vietnam and other regional countries still has not narrowed. The risk of falling into the middle-income trap and the possibility of lagging further behind remain big challenges.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, in his article published in Tap Chi Cong San (Communist Review) in November, pointed out that the middle-income trap occurs when a country slows down in development or becomes stagnant after attaining GDP per capita of between $1,000 and $12,000 under World Bank standards.

Japan, South Korea and Singapore succeeded in the last 60 years in maintaining uninterrupted growth to turn from low income to high income countries. Meanwhile, other countries are still among middle income countries and have not become high income countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines).

According to the World Bank, Japan became a middle-income country in 1966. Singapore reached GDP per capita of over $1,000 in 1971. South Korea and Malaysia both reached the threshold in 1977, Thailand in 1988, and Indonesia and the Philippines in 1995.

The GDP per capita of these countries in 2019 were: $40,248 for Japan, $65,233 for Singapore, $31,761 for South Korea, $11,414 for Malaysia, $7,808 for Thailand, $4,135 for Indonesia and $3,485 for the Philippines.

Vietnam became a middle-income country in 2008. Vietnam still needs to build many platforms to become a high income country. Time is not waiting. Speeding up is a necessity, especially when Vietnam has entered a new development stage, striving for an ambitious goal of becoming a high income country by 2045.

As such, only Japan, South Korea and Singapore have become high income countries.

A study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2018 found that the average time a country needs to go from a lower average country to a high income country is 30 to 40 years. After the golden period finishes, if the income of a country doesnt increase, it will be officially be seen as falling into the middle-income trap.

Vietnam became a middle-income country in 2008. Vietnam still needs to build many platforms to become a high income country. Time is not waiting. Speeding up is a necessity, especially when Vietnam has entered a new development stage, striving for an ambitious goal of becoming a high income country by 2045.

The speech delivered by Dung at the conference on January 8 conveyed the ministers message that it is necessary to proceed and go fast.

As general staff, we need to persevere, pioneer and accelerate reform, and conduct research policies on the economy, accelerate investments in infrastructure to improve our strength, prepare a high-quality labor force, and carry out digital transformation, science and technology research and innovation, he said.

He said that it was necessary to take full advantage of human resources to develop the country in the golden population period, before Vietnam enters the aging population stage.

This is also a task assigned by PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc to MPI when he attended the conference on the 75th anniversary of the sector establishment.

At the conference, Phuc once again repeated a task that he has mentioned during his term  taking full advantage of the golden population structure 'to get rich before becoming old, not get old before becoming rich' .

In order to go fast, Vietnam needs to choose the right way, Dung said. All policies need to aim at peoples happiness, because people are both the subjects and the targets. We must not once again stand outside or go behind, he said.

Luong Bang

Vietnams economy pulls through despite COVID-19: French daily A recent article in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro spoke highly of Vietnams economy amid the adverse impacts for the global economy brought about by COVID-19.
Today, the MEP National Network announced the results from its fiscal year (FY) 2020 manufacturing client survey. The survey is conducted annually by an independent third party to document the annual economic impact of services provided by MEP National Network representatives and measure the return on investment to manufacturing clients served. The survey found that the services provided helped U.S. manufacturers achieve $13 billion in new or retained sales as manufacturers navigated numerous challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The MEP National Network strengthens and empowers U.S. manufacturers by making training, tools and technologies more accessible through MEP Centers in every state and Puerto Rico. MEP Centers provide expertise to help manufacturers reduce costs, create new products, find new markets and enhance value within supply chains. MEP Centers also help manufacturers achieve business success by developing the next generation workforce.

In FY 2020, the MEP National Network interacted with more than 27,574 small and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers. According to MEP manufacturing clients surveyed in FY 2020, the MEP National Network helped these companies realize:



105,748 jobs created or retained

$13.0 billion in new and retained sales

$2.7 billion in cost savings

$4.9 billion in new client investments

During 2020, U.S. manufacturers faced incredible challenges. MEP Centers around the country helped many manufacturers meet these challenges, survive and in some cases, even thrive. MEP Centers helped manufacturers pivot and retool to meet the rising demand for personal protective equipment, medical supplies and medical devices. MEP Centers also helped manufacturers stabilize their supply chains, protect their workforce and workplace, adopt technology to improve productivity, and protect against emerging cyberthreats due to changes in how and where people worked.

The MEP National Network was uniquely positioned to help manufacturers meet the challenges of 2020 and MEP Centers in every state and Puerto Rico delivered vital assistance. MEP continues to demonstrate a significant return on the federal investment in the program. For every dollar of federal investment in FY 2020, the MEP National Network generated $19.60 in new sales growth and $33.70 in new client investment. During this same time, for every $1,381 of federal investment, the Network created or retained one manufacturing job, said Chuck Spangler, board chair of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition and president of the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

About The MEP National Network

The MEP National Network is a unique public-private partnership that delivers comprehensive, proven solutions to U.S. manufacturers, fueling growth and advancing U.S. manufacturing. Focused on helping small and medium-sized manufacturers generate business results and thrive in todays technology-driven economy, the MEP National Network comprises the National Institute of Standards and Technologys Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), the 51 MEP Centers located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and over 1,300 trusted advisors and experts at more than 385 MEP service locations, providing any U.S. manufacturer with access to resources they need to succeed.

About the Survey

Fors Marsh Group, LLC (FMG) conducts the NIST MEP client survey. FMG is an Arlington, Virginia-based applied research firm. The company has experience both in market research and surveying, and specializes in working with small manufacturers. FMG conducts the survey quarterly and MEP Center clients are interviewed annually. The survey asks clients to consider the entire set of projects or services provided by a Center and to report on how their companys performance and processes have been affected in the last 12 months. The survey asks clients to report on the impact of MEP Center services on bottom-line client outcomes and impacts such as sales, jobs created/retained, capital investment and cost savings. The survey has 16 questions and takes an average of 10 minutes to complete.

About ASMC

The American Small Manufacturers Coalition (ASMC) is a trade association of manufacturing extension centers that work to improve the innovation and productivity of Americas manufacturing community. ASMC advocates for legislative and programmatic resources that allow our small manufac13turing clients to better compete in the global marketplace. The Coalition and its members do this by increasing awareness of the importance of American small manufacturers, the challenges which they face, and the federal legislation and programs that affect them.
This month's Marketing Mastermind is Alanta Moodley, category brand manager at Mondelez International. She discusses the Cadbury Dairy Milk Generosity campaign.

And what were the results?

The Generosity campaign launched in South Africa in 2019, as part of Cadburys global repositioning to return to the brands core purpose of generosity. Each region identified an area where they could make the biggest impact through a generous spirit.Millions of orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa miss out on the joy of childhood and play, which also forms the foundation of early childhood development. Many of these children dont have a teddy to cuddle or a parent to read them a bedtime story.This is in contrast to many of us in society who are enamoured with the new: the latest upgrade, the newest gadget, the toy that everyone else has.The more we collect, we start to undervalue our possessions. To us, its a broken toy. To an orphan, its a treasure. A precious gift of childhood.So, in 2019, Cadbury Dairy Milk launched The Little Generosity Shop  drop-off points at malls and key locations, where the public could donate preloved toys to orphaned and vulnerable children. Cadbury Dairy Milk then gave these toys some TLC and transformed them into re-loved treasures.There was an outpouring of compassion, with over 100,000 generous donations received from the public  proof that there really is a Glass & a Half in everyone.We wanted to expand The Little Generosity Shop concept in 2020. The campaign was scheduled for launch in May but COVID-19 turned it on its head. Unable to accept donations during lockdown due to social distancing measures and health concerns, we had about three weeks to shift the campaign.The pandemic hit with such force. It changed consumer behaviour and media consumption patterns overnight, and the brand had to push itself into a bigger digital space than it was used to. This  and because we didnt know what was going to happen week by week  was why we took a phased approach to the campaign.We kicked off Phase 1 in June/July with the launch of the limited-edition Cadbury Dairy Milk bars. We redesigned the wrappers to showcase beautiful toys, books, and games, along with a message that, in purchasing a chocolate bar, youre helping us to raise R1 million to support orphaned and vulnerable children.There was no drive to purchase; just a hope that consumers would choose Cadbury Dairy Milk on their next grocery shop and be a part of this Generosity initiative. It was effortless and it allowed consumers to participate in a safe space. We also spread the generosity by gifting frontline workers  medical staff, cashiers, petrol attendants  with chocolate, to say thank you.Following on from this, we launched Phase 2 in July. The  Glass & a Half Project Presents: Theres a Story in Everyone  campaign was designed to give orphans and vulnerable children something to believe in during these difficult times; to encourage imagination and inspire the children to dream again.The public was invited to share their inspirational stories via the Cadbury Dairy Milk WhatsApp bot. We chose the top 10 stories submitted by the public, and top 10 submitted by orphans, and turned them into beautiful ebooks and animated tales.The stories were loaded onto USB sticks and supplied orphanages with projectors and screens, so that they could play bedtime stories to the children. We set up story nooks at 45 orphanages around the country, including books, shelves, and couch areas to encourage reading. Again, we discovered the generous spirit of South Africans and made a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable.Now more than ever, orphaned and vulnerable children need comfort and care. During the Covid-19 pandemic, social workers were unable to visit the orphanages and read to them on a regular basis.We believed that the best solution to this was to launch the Theres a Story in Everyone campaign which called upon South Africans to donate an inspiring childrens story which we would then share with orphaned and vulnerable children across the country in the form of an e-book.Consumers could support the initiative by simply messaging Hi to the Whatsapp number provided. By following the prompts, they could submit their story in the form of a text. The top 10 winning stories were then selected and turned into beautifully curated videos which are being compiled into e-books and distributed to orphanages across South Africa.For further details on our beneficiaries, please visit www.cadbury.co.za Social media was the best way to reach consumers during the pandemic given the increase in digital consumption over this period.Given that this campaign required consumer participation, we needed to ensure we utilised relevant digital platforms that facilitated engagement in the safety of their homes.What we had initially planned versus what we ended up doing were worlds apart. Covid-19 had resulted in changes in consumer behavioural dynamics as well as media consumption. The initial plan of mall activations and in-store donations had shifted to a campaign that was driven by digital and TV.We used storytelling and smart creative on Instagram to raise awareness on Facebook and through Instagram Stories. And we chose WhatsApp as the story-submission platform because of its familiarity among consumers.There was also an influencer element. Shekinah and Proverb helped to drive traffic to the WatsApp chat bot and generating a combined 30 million impressions.Cadbury Dairy Milk was also the first brand in South Africa to participate in the Google Directors Mix campaign, which uses a series of content to drive personalisation at scale  and it performed exceptionally well delivering a 19% lift in Ad Recall, a 2% increase in Favourability and a 2.3% increase in Purchase Intent.We reached 15 million people through Facebook. It was, overall, the highest-reaching platform, resulting in about 70% penetration, which was a great result.During Phase 2, when we revealed the new wrappers, we reached 8.5 million people through Facebook. The Theres a Story in Everyone campaign reached 11.6 million people. The pre-awareness post alone generated 5 million impressions, while Facebook Stories delivered a low CPM and 11 million impressions.The carousel ads, in particular, drove high engagement and website traffic.The campaign has had a massive impact in the childrens lives. Weve received the most heartfelt thank-you notes from some of the children themselves showcasing the joy they felt having received the toys and stories, just for having a toy or being read a story.As marketers, we get absorbed into branding and doing great communication however, we have a social responsibility in everything that we create. By communicating with a purpose, Cadbury Dairy Milk can have a sustainable impact in South Africa, and thats where marketing can make a real difference.Always be consumer-centric. Its important to understand your consumer and how circumstances, like Covid-19, can impact their behaviour. Its important to keep the consumers at the heart and making a difference in our society. Exercise agility over perfection but stay true to your brand.Learning how to be agile and how to create brave campaigns in times of ambiguity. Marketing is about creating emotional connections with people and ensuring that we stay relevant.To find out how you can contribute to the cause, visit the Glass & a Half Project page
New Delhi, Jan 18 : For the first time, French and Indian and Rafale jets would be flying and exercising together during the Desert Knight-21 war games scheduled between January 20 and 24 in Jodhpur, a government source said.

The Indian Air Force is hosting the French Air and Space Force (ArmAe de l'Air et de I'Espace) at Air Force Station Jodhpur for Ex-Desert Knight 21, a bilateral Air exercise. The French forces are currently deployed in Asia as part of their 'Skyros Deployment', and will transit through India.

The aim of the exercise is to provide operational exposure and share best practices towards enhancing combat capability. Both the forces will participate with Fighter, Transport, and Tanker aircraft.

Source said that the current exercise is in addition to the 'Garuda' series that the two Air Forces engage in, and is indicative of the earnestness of Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force to enhance and further mutual co-operation by making use of the available opportunities for fruitful interaction.

"Both the Air Forces will be operating with the Rafale, war gaming various scenarios in Jodhpur," said the source adding that other fighters jets like Sukhoi 30s and Mirage would also be part of the war drill.

India has signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 of these aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore.

A total eight Rafale jets have been inducted into the Indian Air Force out of a total of 36 that will form two squadrons.

By 2023 both squadrons compromising 18 Rafale jets each will be fully ready. The first squadron will be operational from Ambala on the Western sector, the other one will come up in Hashimara in West Bengal to combat the Chinese threat.

The Rafale is considered an omni-role aircraft, which means it can carry out at least four missions in one sortie simultaneously. It is a 4.5 generation aircraft and has the latest weapons, superior sensors and fully integrated architecture.

The fighter aircraft have HAMMER missiles. They will also be armed with beyond visual range missiles such as Meteor, SCALP and MICA, increasing their ability to take on incoming targets from a distance.

(Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in)
Global gaps in access to Covid-19 vaccines are raising concerns that the continued spread of the coronavirus will breed more dangerous versions of the pathogen, weakening medical weapons and further crippling economies.

In a race to catch up with emerging coronavirus variants, wealthy countries are already benefiting from potent vaccines. While the U.S., Britain and European Union have given citizens about 24 million doses so far -- more than half of the shots administered globally -- vast numbers of countries have yet to begin their campaigns.

Disparities in immunity pose a threat to both have and have-not states. Giving the coronavirus an opportunity to advance and generate new mutants would have significant economic and public-health consequences, adding to the pain as the death toll surpasses 2 million.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

Growth Forecast

We cannot leave parts of the world without access to vaccines because its just going to come back to us," said Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at health research foundation Wellcome. That puts everyone around the world at risk."

Countries are relying on effective immunizations to save lives and revive businesses. The World Banks projection for 4% growth this year depends on widespread deployment of vaccines. Surging Covid cases and a delay to the delivery of inoculations, however, could limit expansion to just 1.6%.

High-income countries have secured 85% of Pfizer Inc.s vaccine and all of Moderna Inc.s, according to London-based research firm Airfinity Ltd. Much of the world will be counting on U.K. drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc, whose vaccine is cheaper and easier to distribute, along with other manufacturers such as Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Of 42 countries rolling out Covid vaccines as of Jan. 8, 36 were high-income countries and the rest were middle-income, according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. A growing number of countries are pursuing their own supply deals, in addition to participating in a global collaboration known as Covax.

Future Mutants

Urgency is increasing as the pandemic extends into a second year. New variants that surfaced in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil appear to spread significantly faster than earlier versions. Just in the past month, a new dimension of risk has opened up for the world," said Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.s vaccines business.

Reducing deaths and illnesses has been seen as the main driver of delivering vaccines rapidly, said Venkayya, who worked in the George W. Bush administration to develop a U.S. pandemic flu plan and directed vaccine delivery for the Gates Foundation.

We now understand its also very, very important to control transmission," he said, not just to protect those most vulnerable populations, but also to reduce the evolutionary risk associated with this virus."

While theres no evidence to suggest the current crop of vaccines are ineffective against those variants, future mutants may be less responsive, Wellcomes Weller said.

Drugmakers say they could tweak their shots to counter new variants within weeks if needed. The likelihood that such adaptations will be necessary has increased, Venkayya said.

The longer the virus is allowed to continue in different parts of the world where we dont have a vaccine," said Anna Marriott, health policy adviser at the anti-poverty group Oxfam, the greater the danger of new variants that could be more aggressive, more virulent or transmissible."

Covid shots have been tested for their ability to prevent symptoms, not transmission. Still, their performance in clinical trials gives an indication of how effective they might be against spread.

Effectiveness Gap

The rollout of shots from Pfizer-BioNTech SE and Moderna that achieved efficacy levels of about 95% has raised questions about whether everyone will have access to such high levels of protection.

The gap isnt just about access to vaccines," said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Its also about access to effective vaccines."

One of the shots lower- and middle-income countries are relying on, from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, sparked worries in Australia that it may not be effective enough to generate herd immunity. Health authorities there, however, said they believe it will be comparable to the Pfizer and Moderna shots in preventing people from getting seriously ill.

The vaccine developed by the U.K. partners, introduced in the country earlier this month, delivered an average efficacy rate of 70%. That appeared to climb to 80% with a longer gap between doses, based on limited data available, according to regulators. Lengthening that period to as many as three months from one allows more people to get protected faster, while data show the level of antibodies also increases, an AstraZeneca spokesman said.

An optimized regimen which allows the vaccination of many more people upfront, together with a robust supply chain, means we can have a real impact on the pandemic," he said in an email.

Four vastly differing protection rates have been released on Sinovacs shot, ranging from about 50% to more than 90%. The Chinese developer said the lower number seen in a trial in Brazil is due to participants being medical workers facing a high risk of contracting Covid.

Despite the difference in efficacy rate, they all point to the vaccines ability for protection, especially against mid- and severe disease," Sinovac said.

While the picture is still coming into focus, cleared vaccines are likely to be similarly effective in preventing serious sickness and death, said Takedas Venkayya. Where they could diverge is on side effects, the duration of protection and impact on transmission, an even more critical factor in light of new variants, he said.

Even shots with a lower efficacy level could have a considerable impact. U.S. regulators set a 50% threshold for deeming a candidate effective. But they would require a higher percentage of people willing to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, Huang said.

If less-effective vaccines are distributed to emerging markets, it could have significant economic implications, too, and sharpen differences in pandemic outcomes across countries," Justin-Damien Guenette, a senior economist at the World Bank, wrote in an email.

Many countries are depending on Covax, which aims to deploy vaccines equitably to every corner of the planet. Yet not all lower- and middle-income nations are waiting for a lifeline. Countries such as South Africa and Malaysia are also pursuing their own supply deals through direct talks with manufacturers, and some regions are set to receive Pfizers vaccine as well.

Losing Patience

There seem to be indications that countries are losing patience," said Huang of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Covax has secured access to almost 2 billion doses, with deliveries due to begin in the first quarter, and set a goal of vaccinating up to a fifth of countries populations by the end of the year. Thats far short of the levels of two-thirds or more that many nations are targeting. Some may not get vaccines until 2024, researchers estimate.

The mobilization is ramping up. India, a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, kicked off a massive inoculation drive on Saturday, an effort expected to encounter challenges as it extends into rural areas.

Vaccine advocates have called on rich countries to share while pushing companies to scale up manufacturing capacity. While its early, the trends are concerning, Venkayya said.

Success is defined as getting vaccines to people everywhere," he said, and were not yet successful in that endeavor."

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Tandav: BJP Leaders Demand Ban On Ali Abbas Zafars Web Series For Mocking Hindu Deities

BJP MP Manoj Kotak on Sunday said he has written to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on Amazon Prime Video's series Tandav for ridiculing Hindu deities. Tandav, starring actors Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan and Kritika Kamra, premiered on the streaming platform on Friday.

My letter to Hon.minister @PrakashJavdekar ji regarding regulation of the OTT platforms pic.twitter.com/twwI6OP4iM  Manoj Kotak (@manoj_kotak) January 17, 2021

Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar has created, directed and produced the political drama with Himanshu Kishan Mehra and it is written by Gaurav Solanki, best known for Article 15. The Mumbai North-East MP said attempts are often made on such platforms to not show Hindu deities in good light. Different organizations and individuals have complained that Hindu Gods and Goddesses have been ridiculed in Tandav web series. Comments have been passed about them, Kotak said.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ali Abbas Zafar (@aliabbaszafar)

Hence, we have made a demand to Javadekar ji and have written to him to ban the web series immediately. The actors, producers and directors should apologise for hurting sentiments, he added. Sharing the picture of his letter to Javadekar on Twitter on Sunday, Kotak said as there is no law or autonomous body governing digital content, such platforms are full of sex, violence, drugs, abuse, hate and vulgarity. Sometimes, they also hurt religious sentiments."

"It seems that makers of 'Tandav' have deliberately mocked Hindu Gods and disrespected Hindu religious sentiments, he said in the letter dated January 16. Another politician , Ram Kadam, a BJP MLA from Ghatkopar West, also asked the director to remove the portion of the web series in which Lord Shiva is ridiculed. The legislator said he has filed a complaint in this connection at the suburban Ghatkopar police station.

Filed complaint against Tandav Web Series at Ghatkopar police station.

Police has assured quick investigation, FIR under Sec 295A of IPC, Section 67A of IT Act & Atrocities Act.Producer, Director, Writer, Actors & Amazon to be summoned soon.#BanTandavNow#Boycottandavpic.twitter.com/Apg0hNYZgJ  Ram Kadam -   (@ramkadam) January 17, 2021

Filed complaint against Tandav Web Series at Ghatkopar police station. Police has assured quick investigation, FIR under Sec 295A of IPC, Section 67A of IT Act & Atrocities Act. Producer, Director, Writer, Actors & Amazon to be summoned soon. #BanTandavNow #Boycottandav, he tweeted.

The scene at the heart of the controversy relates Zeeshan's Shiva doing a stage play where he is dressed as Lord Shiva. The sequence talks about how Lord Ram has become more popular today. When contacted Amazon Prime Video PR said the platform "won't be responding" on the matter.

Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
A press conference entitled "Political Parties' Ratings, COVID-19 Vaccination," which was originally planned to be held at the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center with the participation of political expert, director of the company Robotic Television Systems Anton Sokolov at 11:00 on January 19 has been rescheduled for 11.00 on Tuesday, January 19 (8/5a Reitarska Street). The press conference will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. More info by phone: (095) 178 9787.
A sticker reads crude oil on the side of a storage tank in the Permian Basin in Mentone, Loving County, Texas, on Nov. 22, 2019. (Angus Mordant/Reuters)

US Shale Producers Lock in Future Sales as Oil Prices Rise to One-Year High

NEW YORK/HOUSTONU.S. shale producers are taking advantage of the oil markets rally to levels not seen in nearly a year by locking in prices for future sales, sources familiar with the matter said.

U.S. crude futures this month jumped above $50 a barrel to the highest since February 2020. The rally has sparked optimism among shale companies, but after a bracing year of pandemic-induced demand destruction, they arent ready to ramp up production. Instead, they are using futures markets to lock in higher sale prices.

Shale producers buy and sell contracts in the futures and options markets in a process known as hedging to secure cash flows for later-dated sales.

U.S. oil production peaked at nearly 13 million barrels per day in late 2019, but is now around 11 million bpd after coronavirus lockdowns crushed fuel demand and oil prices. Output isnt expected to rise much in 2021, but those that hedged now are guaranteed sales of barrels at more than $50 even if prices drop again.

Theres a lot of hedging going on, said Chris Wright, chief executive of Liberty Oilfield Services, the second-biggest fracking company in North America. At the prices available today, producers with good acreage can do pretty well.

Producers short positions in U.S. crude futures and options, an indication of hedging activity, have been rising since autumn. They jumped to the highest in more than six months in the week to Jan. 12, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Jan. 15.

In 2020, 46 North American exploration and production companies declared bankruptcy, according to energy law firm Haynes and Boone, while others merged to reduce debt. Investors had already been pressuring shale companies to curb spending and boost returns even before the pandemic.

Producers locked in a certain amount of wells at a certain price and hedging at $50 makes you look like a rockstar. This year will be about free cash flow, one executive at a U.S. shale producer said, on condition of anonymity.

Producers that are hedging are likely locking in about 15 percent to 20 percent of production at a time, said Tom Petrie, chairman at energy investment bank Petrie Partners.

Some companies are holding off because they anticipate prices to rise further, perhaps to $60 or $65. Global benchmark Brent crude, which also hit 11-month highs this week near $57, could rise to $65 per barrel by summer 2021, Goldman Sachs said this week.

Some of them (producers) are pretty torn between hedging at a level they would have killed for six months ago and their perpetually optimistic nature, said Steve Sinos, vice president at consultancy Mercatus Energy, which advises corporations on hedging.

Average 2021 U.S. crude prices have climbed above $52, also their highest since February.

Signs of increased hedging activity can also be seen in U.S. crude futures time spreads. The premium for U.S. crude for delivery in December 2021 has climbed to more than $2.80 a barrel over those for delivery in December 2022 last week, a signal that producers are selling the later-dated contract to fund their hedges for 2021, dealers said.

By Devika Krishna Kumar and Jennifer Hiller
New Delhi: On Sunday, India completed its second day of vaccination against Covid-19. The low vaccination numbers on Sunday raised a spate of doubts among people. News18 explains why the numbers remained low and should not be seen as cause for concern.

How many healthcare workers have been vaccinated till Sunday?

Between Saturday and Sunday, 2,24,301 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the country, largely comprising of healthcare workers and other hospital staff such as sanitation workers, housekeeping staff, pharmacists and ambulance drivers. Of these, 17,072 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Sunday and the rest on Saturday.

Why were vaccination numbers low on Sunday?

The Union Health Ministry has advised state governments and union territory administrations to plan vaccinations keeping in mind the functioning of routine health services in primary healthcare centres, district hospitals and large general hospitals. States have been advised to schedule vaccinations four days in a week in order to minimise the routine health services.

On Sunday, only six states  Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur and Tamil Nadu  had scheduled vaccinations. A total of 553 sessions were held on Sunday which saw 17,072 beneficiaries get vaccinated.

What is the schedule across most states?

As per data provided by the Union Health Ministry, 20 states and seven union territories have scheduled vaccinations four days in a week. Bihar, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are some of the larger and more populous states among these 20 states. Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry are some of the UTs.

Nagaland, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have scheduled it for three days in a week, while Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Goa have scheduled it twice a week. Andhra Pradesh has scheduled it for a maximum of six days.

What are some of the other reasons for a lower turnout so far?

Experts and health authorities have said that early hesitancy and doubts, weekend schedules might be some of the reasons for lower turnouts. In some hospitals in Delhi, senior health authorities had to come forward and volunteer to take the vaccine shot to instil confidence among colleagues. Glitches faced on the Co-WIN digital software, which is the backbone of the mass vaccination drive, also led to some issues on Day 1 and 2. These issues pertained mainly to the registration of beneficiaries and did not lead to any major cancellation of planned vaccinations.
Illustrative image (Photo: https://www.bangkokpost.com/)

 The Government of Thailand has adopted a strategic plan on the bio, circular and green (BCG) economy to drivefrom 2021 to 2026.The five-year strategic plan was approved at the first meeting of a management committee to drive the BCG economy chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on January 13.According to PM Prayut, the government agreed to place BCG on the national agenda to speed up development because the sectors can increase the value of farm products and BCG is part of a global development trend.The BCG strategic plan covers four sectors: farm and food; healthcare and medical services; energy and biochemicals; and tourism and the creative economy.He said the government first plans to develop the-economy, ashas more than 30 million people working in the farm sector, yet most of them remain in poverty.He noted that the BCG committee established seven working committees to drive the development, improve regulations and attract real investment.The development plan calls for the government to increase the value of farm products and generate more income for the farm sector.It aims to generate 4.4 trillion baht (146.5 billion USD) worth of income, or 24 percent of GDP, and create 16.5 million jobs by 2022, up from 3.5 trillion baht in 2019.Deputy Prime Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said the government is considering various measures to promote the industry as well as privileges from the Board of Investment (BoI). Last June the BoI approved adjusting investment privileges and conditions for agriculture categories, such as a new agriculture category that applies high technology in plant factories./.

VNA
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
A federal ministrys former Director of Procurement, Mohammed Muazu, on Monday, explained his roles in an alleged deal involving some members of the National Assembly on the sharing of constituency project profits in 2014.

Mr Muazu, who was testifying at the Federal High Court in Abuja as a prosecution witness, did not give the names or the number of lawmakers involved in the profit-sharing deal.

He was testifying as the seventh prosecution witness in the trial of a former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki, who is being prosecuted alongside others on 16 counts of money laundering.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Mr Turaki, his former Special Assistant, Sampson Okpetu, as well as two firms  Samtee Essentials Limited and Pasco Investment Limited  for allegedly using different companies to launder about N854 million between 2013 and 2015.

Testifying in the case as the seventh prosecution witness on Monday, Mr Muazu said the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs (FMSDIGA) which was then being headed by Mr Turaki, entered a profit-sharing deal with the National Assembly members to raise campaign funds for the lawmakers from the profits realised by the companies that were awarded the constituency project contracts.

Constituency projects are nominated by lawmakers in the annual national budget for placement in their constituencies. They have become controversial over the years as they have been riddled with corruption, nepotism and uncompleted projects.

Mr Muazu told the court that the lawmakers nominated the companies that executed the projects in 2014 and part of the profits were shared between the legislators and the companies.

In 2014, members of the National Assembly brought to the Ministry of Inter-Governmental Affairs some intervention projects for processing and execution.

The leadership of the House and members of the constituency outreach committee were asked to nominate companies to execute the projects, the witness said while being led by the prosecuting lawyer, A. U Ringim.

The witness, who said the arrangement was introduced to him by then Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Tahir Haruna (now deceased), added that over 5,000 companies participated in the pre-qualification verification exercise, but he would not remember how many of them made it to the final stage.

He said under the arrangement, one Abdulrahaman Yusuf, a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, collected part of the profits from the contractors, converted it to dollars and hand it over to Mr Haruna, for onward transmission to the lawmakers.

The companies were asked to give part of the profits so that members of the National Assembly will use it for their campaign for 2015, Mr Muazu said.

The witness, maintaining that the companies donated part of their profits out of their freewill, said, Nobody was coerced.

Some complied, some did not. Money was transferred to the BDC, converted to dollars and paid to the Permanent Secretary for onward transmission to members of National Assembly, the witness said.

Cross-examination

Fielding questions under cross-examination by Mr Turakis lawyer, Joe Kyari-Gadzama, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the witness confirmed that the execution of constituency projects was previously domiciled at the Federal Ministry of Finance but was later relocated to the FMSDIGA.

He agreed that there was a negotiation committee of the FMSDIGA that met with National Assembly members for the ministry to be given the role of executing the constituency projects.

Asked if knew that the House of Representatives members were so happy with the ministry that they said the ministry should handle the constituency projects, the witness said yes.

He conceded that he had two companies who executed part of the constituency projects against the code of conduct that bars civil servants from running such businesses and being beneficiaries of such government contracts.

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He also conceded that he had refunded a lot of money to the EFCC.

He said he refunded N45 million on July 9, 2019; N25 million on May 13, 2019, and N5 million on October 5, 2015.

When confronted with his previous statement made to the EFCC, he confirmed that there was an outstanding bonus of N220 million from the funds received from the contractors that was shared by the ministry officials.

But he insisted that all the contracts were executed, adding that the funds he received were proceeds of consultancy services provided by the companies.

The witness was asked if despite returning money, he had been arrested, charged or prosecuted, he said no.

He said he was not aware that Mr Turaki had to refund any fund to the EFCC.

He also said the former minister was not a shareholder in any of the companies that benefitted from the contract awards.

He also said Mr Turaki never asked for money or requested that money be given to anybody from the proceeds of the contracts.

The judge, Inyang Ekwo, adjourned till Tuesday for continuation of trial.
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COVID-19 hospitalizations across the United States reached their lowest point since January 2 on Sunday, with 124,387 Americans getting inpatient treatment for coronavirus.

That's down from the January 6 peak of 132,476 people hospitalized, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

Sunday saw another 174,513 new infections reported in the US, bringing the all-time total cases to more than 23.9 million. But daily case numbers have fallen in 10 states, offering a glimmer of hope that the US may finally be making some progress in the fight against coronavirus.

That's despite Joe Biden administration's fears another 100,000 Americans will die in the next five weeks with Dr Anthony Fauci backing the president elect's plan to vaccinate 100 million in 100 days.

Incoming CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky told CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sunday that 100,000 deaths can be expected in the month. 'By the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country,' she said.

Another 1,723 people died of COVID-19 on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That's down considerably from the 3,000 to 4,000-plus deaths of the previous five days, but Sunday numbers tend to be low, and the seven-day rolling average daily death toll is 3,144.

The US is hurtling toward 400,000 deaths in total, some states including North Dakota, Missouri and Kansas, have seen a decrease in active cases. Others, like California and Florida, are still grappling with an increase in hospitalizations, cases and deaths.

Data by The New York Times Monday shows that 'new cases are higher but going down' in; Kansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Alaska and North Dakota.

But most of the rest of the country continues to see high numbers of new daily cases.

The COVID tracking project said Sunday its staff has seen 'nationwide decreases in all the 7-day averages of all four metrics'. The metrics are tests, cases, hospitalized and deaths. Just over 14 million Americans have been vaccinated.

The project adds: 'Many states are reporting a decrease in the number of new cases per million people, though CA, VA and SC reported more than 1,000 new cases per million today.'

A coronavirus projection from the University of Washington estimates more than 566,000 deaths by May 1 in the US, a figure that it shows could be lowered by thousands with a nationwide mask mandate.

While declines in cases, hospitalizations and deaths are somewhat encouraging, public health officials are on edge as the UK's more infectious 'super-covid' variant reaches at least 17 states. Four additional variants that are likely homegrown have been reported by scientists in Ohio, Illinois and California.

CDC officials warned Friday that the UK variant could become dominant by March, potentially fueling another surge in infections as the US races to vaccinate its population.

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While the US is reporting more than 23.9 million infections and nearly 400,000 deaths, some states have seen a decrease in active cases, pictured. But others are still grappling with an increase in hospitalizations, cases and deaths. Data by The New York Times Monday shows 10 states where 'new cases are higher but going down'. They are; Kansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Alaska and North Dakota. The majority of the remaining states are described as 'where new cases are higher and staying high'

States like North Dakota, which has been under a mask mandate since November, reported significant decreases in COVID-19 cases. Medical professionals have credited the state's mask mandate for the drastic reduction of infections.

North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum on Friday said mid-November active cases dropped more than 80 percent, from 10,224 to 1,675; hospitalizations due to COVID have decreased by nearly 74 percent, to 88 on Friday.

'Our case numbers and hospital capacity have improved dramatically in North Dakota over the past two months, and with three new tools we didn't have last fall - vaccines, rapid tests and effective therapeutics - we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,' Burgum said.

Due to the decline in cases, the Republican governor said he will drop a statewide mask requirement as well as limits on the number of people who gather in restaurants, bars and event venues. The executive order expires on Monday as scheduled.

Burgum issued the executive order on November 13 and extended it once. The mandate, which is set to expire on Friday, requires people to wear face coverings in indoor businesses and indoor public settings, as well as outdoor public settings where physical distancing isn't possible.

Earlier this month, Burgum eased restrictions on food service establishments, allowing them to operate at 65 percent capacity, up from 50 percent. Banquet, ballroom and event venues, which had been limited to 25 percent capacity, were able to operate at 50 percent.

Since the order has taken effect, North Dakota has dropped from first to 49th in the country for new cases per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

Health officials on Friday recorded 233 new coronavirus infections. That raises the statewide total since the pandemic reached North Dakota in mid-March to 95,736. At least 1,403 deaths have been reported.

Occupancy restrictions on restaurants, bars and event venues will become optional guidelines on Monday.

While the US is reporting more than 23.7 million infections and nearly 400,000 deaths, some states have seen a decrease in active cases while others are grappling with an increase in hospitalizations, cases and deaths

That means the establishments can resume full service if they choose to ignore the state's recommendation to limit occupancy to 65 per cent of normal levels.

'However, this fight isn't over, and we need all North Dakotans to continue to exercise personal responsibility, follow protocols and keep wearing masks where physical distancing isn't possible,' Burgum added.

'The day will come when we can take off our masks and discard them with confidence, but only if we do what's needed now to keep ourselves, our families and our communities safe.'

Burgum said more than 76,000 people in North Dakota have been vaccinated, though Molly Howell, the state immunization program manager, said there is an 'extremely limited' supply of vaccine on hand.

She said the state is only allocated 10,000 doses of the vaccine weekly and didn't know when the number would increase.

Burgum said North Dakota ranks No. 2 in the percentage of received vaccine doses administered, at 62 per cent, and No. 4 in first doses administered per capita.

'We're racing to get as many of those in arms as possible,' Burgum said.

Over the last week, North Dakota health officials reported that more cases have dropped more than 80 per cent (active cases depicted). Medical professionals have credited the state's mask mandate for the drastic reduction of infections

On average, there had been 751 cases reported daily over the last week in Nebraska, which is a 25 per cent decrease from two weeks earlier. Nebraska has reported 180,910 cases and 1,892 deaths

The spread of COVID-19 has also slowed enough to ease restrictions in three Illinois regions but in other areas, including Chicago, tougher restrictions will remain in place, Gov J.B. Pritzker announced Friday.

Pritzker also announced some encouraging news for bars and restaurants, saying during a news conference that they can resume limited indoor service sooner than the original rules allowed if the COVID-19 metrics continue to improve.

Under the new rules, restaurants will be allowed to resume indoor dining at 25 per cent capacity or a maximum 25 customers if the region hits certain benchmarks, including a seven-day average positivity rate below 8 per cent for three straight days.

Pritzker said stricter Tier 3 rules have been lifted in favor of Tier 2 rules in the central Illinois region that includes Peoria and Bloomington, counties at the southern tip of the state, and counties in northwest Illinois.

That means activities such as group fitness classes and gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed, retail businesses will be able to increase capacity limits and museums and other cultural institutions can reopen.

'Of our remaining regions, the data shows that most are on track to leave Tier 3 in the coming days if current trends hold,' Pritzker said.

But on the day when the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 6,642 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and another 123 COVID-19 deaths in the state in the past 24 hours, state and Chicago public health officials announced that Illinois has recorded its first case of the new variant of the virus from the United Kingdom.

The arrival of the variant was not a surprise, given that it has spread to about a dozen states in recent weeks. The state's public health director, Dr Ngozi Ezike, said that while the variant spreads more easily than the one already in the United States, there is no evidence that it is more severe or causes more deaths.

Still, she warned: 'If we do not continue to wear our masks, watch our distance and avoid gathering, this new variant could sweep across the state as it swept across the UK.'

Other Midwest states have also seen a steady decline in infections.

On Saturday, the state's Department of Health reported that active cases have dipped to 4,837. Just last month, the state had a total of 10,987 active cases.

In Nebraska, health officials reported zero new cases on Saturday.

On average, there had been 751 cases reported daily over the last week, which is a 25 per cent decrease from two weeks earlier. Nebraska has reported 180,910 cases and 1,892 deaths.

Nebraska was one of very few states that appeared to have avoided a post-holiday season spike in coronavirus cases, Gov Pete Ricketts said Monday.

It may be because people followed virus safety guidelines warning against attending holiday gatherings, Ricketts said during a news conference.

'I think a lot of Nebraskans made modifications to their holiday get togethers,' he said. 'Id also say, theres also a lot of we dont know about this virus.'

The Republican governor said the decision not to impose a statewide lockdown may also have played a role because it helped avoid pandemic fatigue that leads some people to break the recommendations.

Nebraska has imposed restrictions on crowd sizes and public spaces, but has never imposed a stay-at-home order or a statewide mask mandate.

The state saw a sharp increase in virus hospitalizations in mid-November, raising concerns about bed space and burnout among hospital workers.

The numbers have since declined, although public health officials say its important for residents to continue following social distancing safety guidelines.

Meanwhile, states like California, Texas, Florida and New York are seeing a rise in new cases and deaths. Health officials in Washington, DC, have also reported an increase in cases.

In DC, 397 new cases were recorded on Saturday along with five new deaths.

On average, 297 cases per day have been reported in DC over the last week.

It marks a 16 per cent increase from the average two weeks earlier. The increase in cases was reported more than a week after hundreds gathered for the Save America rally on January 6. Dozens ended the day by storming the US Capitol.

The new DC numbers brings the total of cases to about 33,537 with at least 847 deaths.

California reported 669 COVID-19 deaths  the second-highest daily death count  on Saturday.

California reported 669 COVID-19 deaths  the second-highest daily death count  on Saturday. Health care workers are seen treating a COVID patient at Providence St Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California on January 11

The Los Angeles County healthcare system is still severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized, according to Barbara Ferrer, director of the county's Department of Public Health. A nurse is seen preparing for a shift in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles County, public health authorities confirmed its first case of the variant of COVID-19 first detected in the United Kingdom.

It was identified in a man who recently spent time in the county. The man has traveled to Oregon, where he is isolating.

Although his is the first confirmed case of the variant, health officials believe it is already spreading in a county that surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases on Saturday.

'The presence of the UK variant in Los Angeles County is troubling, as our healthcare system is already severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized,' said Barbara Ferrer, director of the county's Department of Public Health.

The state has been seeing more than 500 deaths and 40,000 new cases daily for the past two weeks, and many regions, especially in the south, have seen their hospitals and especially intensive care units overwhelmed.

Lawmakers and public health officials have said mass vaccinations are the key to flattening the surge, but they're increasingly concerned about the rocky rollout of the vaccine.

A center that can handle as many as 12,000 shots a day opened Friday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles but Gov Gavin Newsom and others said they had no idea when, if or how many doses will arrive from the federal government.

Newsom said that he and other governors were told earlier this week that a reserve supply of 50 million doses would be distributed.

California has received more than 3.5 million doses of the vaccine and has administered over 1 million doses, while anticipating hundreds of thousands more.

Michael Pratt, a spokesman for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said there has been no reduction in doses shipped to states.

But around the state, counties said they were struggling to make vaccination plans and said mass inoculations of people 65 and older, who represent most COVID-19 deaths, will have to wait, despite Newsom this week adding them to the eligibility list.

Instead, they are focusing on those at the head of the eligibility line: health care workers and the most vulnerable seniors in nursing homes. In addition, it takes two separate doses spaced weeks apart to ensure the most complete virus protection, health experts say.

Without a steady and predictable supply, long-range planning for vaccine distribution is challenging, said Dr Paul Simon, chief science officer of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The county the nation's most populous with 10 million residents  is struggling to vaccinate its 800,000 health workers and doesn't anticipate being able to provide large-scale inoculations of its 1.3 million people 65 and older until February, Simon said.

'We don't need the full supply to begin vaccinating,' Simon said. 'But there will be a heck of a lot of frustration if we open it up for that many people and there's a very little supply of vaccine to serve them.'

The city of San Francisco announced it's ready to handle 10,000 people a day at mass vaccination sites but can't put the plans in motion because it's unclear how many doses will be available.

Meanwhile, demand is soaring despite the confusion.

Kaiser Permanente said requests for vaccination appointments had overloaded its phone and online appointment systems. The health care giant said it received more than 90,000 calls to its vaccine hotline on Thursday.

'But the problem is we do not have enough vaccine supply on hand to meet even a fraction of this demand,' it said.

In New York, Gov Andrew Cuomo said Friday morning that the state's supply of coronavirus vaccines is running low and that a majority of available doses are in arms.

In New York, Gov Andrew Cuomo said Friday morning that the state's supply of coronavirus vaccines is running low and that a majority of available doses are in arms. Cuomo revealed 74 per cent of more than 1.1 million shots have been administered

Cuomo revealed 74 per cent of more than 1.1 million shots have been administered.

He said he expected more doses of the vaccine from the federal government after officials said it would release doses in reserve.

Instead, the state got 50,000 fewer doses, with its allocation dropping from 300,000 doses per week to 250,000 per week.

This means there may not be enough doses to vaccinate all 7.1 million eligible people in the state after the CDC expanded federal guidelines to include anyone 65 years old or older in the first phase.

At the news conference, Cuomo lamented that the Trump administration increased vaccine eligibility but did not boost the supply.

Last week, federal officials recommended that all people aged 65 and older be eligible to get the shot, which New York agreed to.

Cuomo said this increased the number of people eligible to be vaccinated in New York state from 2.1 million to seven million people.

'All of this volume and it has to go through the point of a needle, literally and figuratively,' he said.

'That's the situation that the federal government created. Our constraint is the federal supply. That is creating a scheduling backlog and it's creating pressure on what was supposed to be the prioritization process.'

The governor said that he expected with increasing eligibility, the Trump administration would increase the number of doses sent to the state.

New York's positivity rate is currently less than 6 per cent. As of Friday it stood at 5.77 per cent. The last time the rate was below 6 per cent was on December 26, when it was 5.9 per cent.

Despite having one of the lowest positivity rates in the US, New York remains on some of the tightest restrictions.

For example, indoor dining is banned altogether in New York City.

However, in other parts of New York, residents can enjoy indoor dining in orange cluster zones after a state Supreme Court decision ruled in favor of some Erie County restaurants that had sued over the restriction.

In areas considered orange zones, schools have moved to remote learning only and high-risk nonessential businesses remain closed. Gatherings are capped at 10 people max.

Governors accuse Trump administration of deceiving states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive

Several governors bitterly accused the Trump administration Friday of deceiving the states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive as they ramp up vaccinations for senior citizens and others. But the government attributed the anger to confusion and misguided expectations on the part of the states.

Things with the vaccine and the virus may be about to heat up as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that the new, more infectious variant first seen in Britain will probably become the dominant version in the US by March.

The CDC said the variant is about 50 per cent more contagious than the virus that is causing the bulk of cases in this country.

'We want to sound the alarm,' said Dr Jay Butler, CDC deputy director for infectious diseases.

The clash over the pace of the government's COVID-19 vaccine allotments threatens to escalate tensions between the Trump administration and some states over who is responsible for the relatively slow start to the vaccination drive against the scourge that has killed over 390,000 Americans.

Several governors have accused the Trump administration Friday of deceiving the states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive as they ramp up vaccinations for senior citizens and others. Nursing home residents wait for a vaccine in Harlem

Oregon had announced earlier this week that it would expand vaccine eligibility to roughly 760,000 residents 65 and older, as well as teachers and child care providers, because of what it said were promises that the state's vaccine allotment would be increased.

But Democratic Gov Kate Brown said those plans are now in disarray because of 'deception on a national scale' by the administration.

Via Twitter, Brown said she was told by Gen Gustave F. Perna, who leads Operation Warp Speed, that states will not be receiving increased shipments of vaccine from the national stockpile next week 'because there is no federal reserve of doses.'

As a result of what she called 'a cruel joke,' Brown said the state will now postpone vaccination of senior citizens to February 8, instead of January 23, and initially limit it to people 80 and older.

Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, a Democrat, said he was among several governors deceived by federal officials about availability of a strategic supply of doses.

'This one is so far beyond the pale to be almost unimaginable,' he said. 'Who's going to be prosecuted for this? What are the states to do when they've been lied to and made all their plans around this?'

Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for Virginia Gov Ralph Northam, said governors were 'told explicitly' on Tuesday that they would be provided additional doses. Northam, a Democrat and a doctor, had moved quickly as a result to announce that the state would expand vaccine eligibility.

Now, Northam's administration is trying to determine whether those additional supplies don't exist, Yarmosky said.

'What we're seeing is fully in line with the dysfunction that has characterized the Trump administration's entire response to COVID-19. President-elect (Joe) Biden cannot be sworn in fast enough,' she said.

Pratt said that states may have been confused in their expectations but that there has been no reduction in doses shipped to them.

Biden alluded to the tensions Friday and pledged to communicate better with states so they know how much vaccine will arrive and when.

'Right now we're hearing that they can't plan because they don't know,' he said. 'That stops when we're in office.'

As of Friday, the government had distributed over 31 million doses to states, U.S. territories and major cities. About 12.3 million doses had been administered, according to online tracking by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is no evidence that the new variant causes more severe illness or is transmitted differently, and mask wearing and other precautions still work, the CDC said. Scientists have also expressed confidence that the vaccines are still effective against it.

For weeks, Operation Warp Speed had been holding large amounts of vaccine in reserve to ensure that those who got their first dose received their second one on time. A man receives the COVID vaccine in Los Angeles County on Friday

According to CDC, the variant has been detected in 12 states and diagnosed in only 76 reported cases. But it is probably more widespread in the US than the numbers suggest, CDC scientists said.

The two COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the US - made by Pfizer and Moderna  are designed to be given in two doses, three or four weeks apart.

For weeks, Operation Warp Speed had been holding large amounts of vaccine in reserve to ensure that those who got their first dose received their second one on time.

The practice was a hedge against possible manufacturing delays. When HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced on Tuesday that he was ending the practice, it was interpreted as essentially doubling the expected supply.

But there was another huge change: He also urged states to open vaccinations to everyone over 65 and younger people with certain health problems, even though most hadn't yet finished dispensing shots to all the health workers first in line.

The result was a scramble by state and local health authorities to figure out exactly how much vaccine they would receive in the coming weeks and how to ramp up shots for a public with higher expectations.

Pratt said doses that were being held in reserve to provide second shots were released last week.

It's unclear, however, if they all shipped prior to the Trump administration's announcement early this week that states should open up vaccination to more people. He said states are getting the required second doses they need and the number of first doses is stable.

Pfizer said it is working around the clock to produce millions of doses a day and that officials 'foresee no issues in delivering on the commitments we have made' to supply Operation Warp Speed.

Moderna didn't immediately respond to questions about its supplies.

President-elect Joe Biden plans to inject 100 million doses of vaccine in his first 100 days in office

President-elect Joe Biden has doubled down on his promise to get 100 million Americans vaccinated in his first 100 days but warned that 'things will get worse before they get better'

Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain says the coronavirus pandemic will get worse before it gets better, projecting another 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the first five weeks of President-elect Joe Biden's administration.

Speaking to CNN's State of the Union, Klain said Biden was inheriting a dire situation, saying even with vaccines: 'It's going to take a while to turn this around.'

Biden has set a goal of injecting 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in his first 100 days in office, a goal Klain said they were on pace to meet.

Klain added he believed there was enough supply of the pair of vaccines currently granted emergency approval to ensure that those who have received their first shot will get the required second.

Biden first unveiled the ambitious goal Thursday as part of his $1.9trillion 'American Rescue Plan' which includes about $400billion to tackle COVID-19.

Speaking from Wilmington, Delaware, Friday, the Democrat insisted 'we can get it done' as he vowed to 'manage the hell out of this operation'.

'Some wonder if we are reaching too far. Let me be clear, I'm convinced we can get it done.'

He added: 'You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation.'

The target is a huge uplift from the current rate of rollout which Biden on Thursday slammed as a 'dismal failure' by the Trump administration.

So far, the US has administered just 13 million shots of the vaccine 34 days on from the day the first American was given the first dose on December 14.

'This is the time to set big goals and to pursue them with courage and conviction because the health of the nation is at stake,' said Biden.

Biden maintained that his administration can accomplish the goal through a five-step plan that includes: getting more people vaccinated, increasing vaccination sites, increasing supply, mobilizing the personnel to administer it, and ensure Americans have confidence in the vaccine.

By using the Defense Production Act, Biden said he can boost supplies of the vital vaccine

He said he will also work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up 100 vaccination centers across the country by the end of his first month in office.

And local pharmacies will also be mobilized to get more shots in arms and will 'increase vaccine supply and get it out the door as soon as possible.'

Biden instructed states to start giving COVID-19 vaccines to all essential workers and Americans over 65 immediately, to stop doses from lingering on shelves.

'The process of establishing priority groups was driven by science, but the problem - the implementation has been too rigid and confusing,' Biden said.

That has caused 'tens of millions of doses of vaccines sitting unused in a freezer,' he said.

However, Biden warned Americans that the nation is not out of the woods yet.

'Almost a year later [from the start of the pandemic], we're still far from back to normal. The honest truth is this: Things will get worse before they get better,' he said.

'We remain in a very dark winter,' he added.

Dr Anthony Fauci says 100 million vaccinations in 100 days is 'absolutely a doable thing'

Biden's goal of delivering 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine within the first 100 days of his presidency 'is absolutely a doable thing,' Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday.

Fauci, speaking on NBC's Meet The Press, said two new vaccines under development by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson could 'very soon' be presented to US regulators for approval, which would increase the pace of vaccinations.

'We're weeks away, not months away, for sure,' he said.

Biden's goal of delivering 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine within the first 100 days of his presidency 'is absolutely a doable thing,' Anthony Fauci (pictured), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday

He said more vaccinations - coupled with mask-wearing and avoiding crowds - would be the best way for the US to tackle a new, more infectious strain of the coronavirus.

'If we can get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, we'd be in very good shape and could beat even the mutant,' he said.

Fauci's remarks came amid criticism of the pace at which the United States is administering vaccines.

About 10.6 million Americans have so far been vaccinated, about half as many as President Donald Trump's administration hoped would have received injections by the end of 2020.

Biden has said ramping up the pace of vaccinations will be one of his top priorities when he takes office on Wednesday.

'One thing that's clear is that the issue of getting 100 million doses in the first 100 days is absolutely a doable thing,' Fauci said. 'The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear. There's no doubt about that, that that can be done.'

During the segment, Fauci also warned of 'more ominous' strains of COVID-19, which have emerged out of South Africa and Brazil.

'People need to realize there's more than one mutant strain,' Fauci said.

'Theres one from the UK thats essentially dominated Theres another more ominous one thats in South Africa and Brazil,' he said.

Fauci said US health officials are taking the new strains 'very seriously' and he doesnt want 'people to panic'.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of London-listed company director and manager changes announced on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Andrews Sykes Group PLC - Wolverhampton-based heating and cooling rental company - Makes Carl Webb, current managing director of its UK businesses, its group interim managing director. This is while Paul Wood, current group managing director, takes a leave of absence as a result of ill health.







RUA Life Sciences PLC - Ayrshire, Scotland-based medical device business - Appoints Chief Operating Officer Caroline Stretton to its board. Stretton was appointed as the company's chief operating officer in April 2020 following the acquisition of RUA Medical Devices Ltd and now joins the RUA Life Sciences board with immediate effect. Also appoints Ian Ardill as a non-executive director with immediate effect. Ardill is currently managing director of Causeway Finance Associates Ltd and was previously chief financial officer at Diurnal Ltd.







European Assets Trust PLC- Netherlands-based trust that invests in European quoted small and medium-sized companies - Appoints Pui Kei Yuen to its board effective February 26 as part of orderly succession as existing directors retire. Yuen has more than 20 years' experience in fund management and investment banking at Mercury Asset Management, UBS Group AG and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Previous roles include: "UK institutional equity portfolio management and research, and Pan-European responsibilities for equity sales advising a large range of institutional investors and hedge funds."







Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd - generic pharmaceutical products and active pharmaceutical ingredients maker - Appoints Mahomed Ibraheem Hosein Khan to its board as an independent director, replacing Shah Monjurul Hoque. Prior to retiring from service in the Bangladesh government, the new director worked in various different government departments, including the Prime Minister's Office.







Medica Group PLC - Hastings, East Sussex-based teleradiology services firm - Announces upcoming retirement of Stephen Davies as group medical director and executive director on the Medica board. Davies will be succeeded by current company clinical director Robert Lavis, who will work closely with him until the planned May 31 departure date.







One Media IP Group PLC - Buckinghamshire-based digital music rights acquirer, publisher and distributor - Notes the appointment of Non-Executive Chair Claire Blunt as chief advertising officer and chief executive officer at the International arm of the Guardian Media Group PLC. Blunt will fulfil her new role at the Guardian and Observer owner alongside her current position at One Media.







By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
The death of David Ntekim-Rex, a 22-year-old computer expert in Lagos, has again raised fears over insecurity in different parts of Lagos.

Mr Ntekim-Rex, who worked with Crevatal, a Financial technology company in Lagos, was attacked at Jibowu area of Lagos, robbed and shot dead.

His cousin, who broke the news on Twitter, said Mr Ntekim-Rex was on his way home on Friday night when he was attacked by robbers and shot dead.

The deceased, who was described as a tech guru by friends on social media, won the IBM Z Academic Initiative Prize in 2018, beating 17,000 other applicants across the globe.

David got shot around 8pm. The police were called, David hadnt died yet. The Nigerian police stood and watched as he gasped for air. They took pictures instead, and were more concerned with why he  a tech guy- was carrying a laptop. Nigeria failed you, David, his cousin @Magnanimous_ tweeted.

David was taken to the military hospital around the area, the nurses ignored him. The doctor came around and kept asking who they all were. It took a senior nurse to come out and start checking for a pulse. He had lost a lot of blood at this point.

The police then took David and his family to Sabo, where they looked for the laptop that he had on him instead of giving them a police report. The police officers were drunk and kept being unreasonable. He was finally released to his family, and they got to LUTH around 12:30am. David wasnt attended to by the doctors at LUTH.

He was there till the family was convinced he couldnt be alive because he had no pulse. The doctors refused to administer any test to see if he was alive. The country failed David. The doctors failed David. The police failed David. The system failed David. Rest in peace David Ntekim-Rex, Magnanimous_ tweeted.

Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, told PREMIUM TIMES that the claims of the family of the deceased are untrue because the boys lifeless body was found in his pool of blood when the police got there.

They met the police and the police raced down to the scene. Met the lifeless body of the deceased. The family insisted they wanted him taken to the hospital which our men followed them to military hospital Yaba, they rejected him there. Yet the policemen still moved with them to LUTH where he was received and confirmed dead.

They came back to the station so that they can get police report and drop him at the mortuary. If the police as not with them at the first instance, we will say negligence of duty. But I spoke with the DPO, officers were there with them and following the family up and down.

While we sympathise with the family of the young man, the police did not fail to respond or act as expected, Mr Adejobi said.

Insecurity in Lagos

Lagosians, who have experienced similar attacks in different hotspots in Lagos, have also taken time to express fears over rising insecurity in the state.

A Twitter user, @itz_laolao tweeted: not only Jibowu is a hotspot for robbers yall should also be careful when going through WAEC, Yabatech road, Moore road, Front of FCE, St Finbarrs, Fola Agoro, Abule Oja (A robbery happened there two days ago), H. Macaulay way, Shomolu. These places are death traps at night.

Jibowu, Ojota, CMS, Ojuelegba are all hot spots for robbery at late hours and they will hack their victim to death without remorse. If you are driving hit anything that crosses your part after 10p.m and dont look back and if you are walking (God safe you),  @FlairMan_ , another Twitter user tweeted.

Several attacks by hoodlums and robbers have also been reported in different parts of Lagos. At Ketu, Tipper garage, many unsuspecting members of the public have been attacked by hoodlums and robbers, who hide at dark spots to perpetrate crime.

Experts speak on insecurity in Lagos

Speaking on the rising insecurity in Lagos State, Davidson Akhimen, a Lagos-based security expert, said the problem of insecurity in the country was gradually extending to other states, including Lagos.

In todays security, what affects one part of the country spreads to other parts of the country with regards to threats to security.

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Mr Akhimen said with the rising cases of banditry, kidnapping and killings in many other parts of the country and the influx of people into different states, security challenges will abound.

Pockets of elements of insecurity begin to be sprinkled across the South Western states and they will begin to influence other sleeper groups that are the state, he said.

The expert further said Lagos as a cosmopolitan city experiences a phenomenal rural-urban drift, with several people coming into the state without any job or source of income.

The state does not have a corresponding infrastructure to handle the population influx. Then the security architecture is not even robust enough to take care of the number of persons coming in to hustle, struggle in Lagos.

Mr Akhimen said the very wide gap between the haves and the haves not, rich and poor, employed and unemployed were other factors that trigger criminal acts.

The expert said the state government needs to strengthen the law and its enforcement and also find means to depopulate Lagos as many of its residents dont have business there.

Law enforcement agents have taken the back seat, because what we find is that most of these activities are carried out on motorcycles, he said.

Another expert, Ona Ekhomu, also said the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos and how it attracts people from all over the country and even foreigners is a major security challenge.

A lot of people in different neighbourhoods, particularly in the sub-urban neighborhoods, have taken to different crimes to survive. These are opportunistic crimes they commit, they can gang up to pick on easy prays or hide in dark spots to perpetrate their acts, Mr Ekhomu.

Mr Ekhomu said the country cannot afford to lose bright Nigerians, especially youths in specialised fields such as IT which is the future to criminal elements.

He said the influx of people from foreign countries without any proper documentation coming to Lagos and other states needed to be checked.

There must be adequate enforcement mechanism, people will live anywhere but there should be adequate security for both people living there and those coming there. that is where the government is falling on its face, he said.
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A new battle is brewing over Public Service Co. of New Mexicos plan to exit the coal-fired Four Corners Generating Station nearly seven years ahead of schedule.

The utility formally filed its plan with the state Public Regulation Commission on Jan. 8, potentially opening a six-month window for approval or rejection by commissioners, who have yet to act on the filing. But environmental groups likely to intervene in the case are already lining up in opposition to key parts of PNMs request, which includes permission to transfer its stake in the coal plant to a Navajo Nation entity and recover $300 million it has invested in Four Corners using low-cost bonds that would be paid off by utility customers.

PNM says the plan will allow it to entirely exit coal generation by 2024, significantly advancing its compliance with the states Energy Transition Act. That law requires New Mexicos public utilities to replace fossil fuels with 50% renewables by 2030, 80% by 2040, and 100% carbon-free generation by 2045. The company already received PRC approval last year to abandon the San Juan Generating Station near Farmington  PNMs only other coal facility  by June

2022.

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The utility says early departure from Four Corners in December 2024  six and a half years in advance of the July 2031 expiration date for the plants current coal supply agreement with the nearby Navajo Mine  would provide significant cost savings for consumers.

Following on the approval to shut down the San Juan Generating Station, the exit from Four Corners is PNMs next and final step in transitioning away from coal-fired generation to more sustainable energy resources, said PNM Vice President of Generation Tom Fallgren in written testimony included in the PRC filing. If PNMs application is approved, PNM will no longer have any coal resources in its generation portfolio after 2024.

Benefits disputed

PNM says use of the low-cost bonds to recover its investments  which is authorized under the energy law  plus replacing the coal with cheaper renewable generation, could save customers anywhere from $30 million to $300 million over time compared to remaining in Four Corners until 2031. The amount saved depends on the particular replacement resources the PRC approves for PNM.

The company asked that the PRC decide on appropriate replacements after it approves abandonment of Four Corners, giving the company time to circulate requests for proposals from energy developers and then develop formal proposals to commissioners based on the RFP responses.

But environmentalists say the early-exit plan has no real environmental benefits, since PNM is simply offloading its share in the coal plant to the Navajo Transitional Energy Co., which would continue operating Four Corners along with other plant co-owners through 2031.

Under the filing, its very difficult to see any environmental benefit to what PNM is proposing, said Noah Long, Natural Resources Defense Council western director for climate and clean energy.  Its set up to be an environmental catastrophe. It leaves the plant running and just pushes off PNMs stake in the facility onto NTEC.

Unlike the San Juan Coal plant, where PNM is the majority owner and facility operator, its only a minority shareholder in Four Corners, giving it no decision-making power to shut that facility down ahead of 2031. PNM owns 200 megawatts, or 13% of the 1,540-MW capacity contained in the two coal units currently operating at Four Corners.

Arizona Public Service is the majority owner and operator with a 63% stake, followed by the Salt River Project with 10%, a 7% stake by Tuscan Electric Power, and another 7% that NTEC already owns in the plant.

It would take a common agreement among all co-owners to shut down the plant before 2031, meaning PNM must sell off its stake as the only option for early abandonment, Fallgren said.

The remaining owner-participants have not indicated an intent to accelerate the plants closure prior to 2031, Fallgren said.

$75M, 700 jobs

PNMs exit plan is based on a negotiated agreement to sell its Four Corners stake for $1 to NTEC. Its also agreed to pay NTEC $75 million for the right to break its share of the coal agreement with the Navajo Mine, which NTEC owns, nearly seven years ahead of contract expiration.

PNM shareholders will pay the entire $75 million, relieving utility ratepayers from any responsibility for breaking the coal contract, according to PNM.

For its part, NTEC wants to acquire PNMs share  which would increase NTEC ownership in Four Corners to 20%  to keep the coal mine and generating facility running through 2031. That reflects the financial benefits the Navajo Nation derives from those operations, and the hardships an early shutdown would cause.

Of the 700 direct employees currently working at the mine and plant, 600 are Navajo, Fallgren said. In addition, the Navajo Nation earns between $40 million and $45 million annually from royalties at the Navajo Mine, plus taxes on mine and plant operations, accounting for nearly 24% of the Navajo Nations fiscal year 2021 general fund.

Other concerns

Meanwhile, in addition to questionable environmental benefits, opponents say PNMs plan, as proposed, would place an unfair financial burden on ratepayers even if the utility shareholders do pay the entire $75 million to break the coal contract. That reflects disagreement over whether PNM is actually entitled to the full $300 million in investments it wants to recover from Four Corners.

Under the recovery bonds authorized by the energy act, PNM is entitled to earn back all expenses that the PRC previously included in the utilitys base rates to cover its lost, or stranded, assets when shutting or abandoning a coal facility. But there are different interpretations about what that means in practice.

PNM believes it refers to any investments already approved by the PRC for recovery through rates prior to the energy laws enactment.

But opponents say about half of the $300 million represents investments PNM made in Four Corners that were never actually vetted for prudence by the PRC, even though commissioners did include it for recovery in PNMs last rate case in 2016. Thats because intervenors in that last case reached a settlement with PNM  which commissioners approved  for the prudence of PNMs investments to be reviewed in the utilitys next rate case. Then, after formal vetting in the next rate case, if commissioners find that some investments were unjustified, rates would be adjusted downward to pay customers back for what they were already charged, with PNM forced to write off the remainder.

PNM believes the energy laws bond authorization, known as securitization, makes those arguments moot.

The (energy act) is clear that what is applicable for securitization are those assets that were in rates already in effect up to the end of 2018, PNM Sr. Vice President for Public Policy Ron Darnell told the Journal.

Intervenors who participated in that last rate case see it differently.

I disagree with that, said Steve Michel, an attorney with Western Resource Advocates. Yes, those investments in Four Corners can be securitized, but the commission still has its authority to address the prudence of those costs that werent vetted in the last rate case.

Anticipating a dispute on the issue, the Sierra Club filed a motion in December asking the commission to immediately open a prudence review of the investments to resolve the disagreements before it authorizes bond recovery for PNM.

Even if the bond recovery issues are resolved, PRC hearings may also get snagged over another $73 million PNM wants to recover for new investments it will have made in Four Corners from July 2020-December 2024 prior to exiting the plant. That could harden opposition to PNMs Four Corners plan even more, said Noah Long of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Thats $73 million in new spending just as PNM is going out the door, Long said. To me, this filing needs to be pulled and PNM needs to go back to the drawing board.

Given the lack of environmental benefits, the questions on cost could become pivotal at the PRC.

There really arent any environmental benefits, so the PRCs decision may boil down to the economics of PNM remaining in the plant or exiting it early, Michel said.

Kevin Robinson-Avila covers technology, energy, venture capital and utilities for the Journal. He can be reached at krobinson-avila@abqjournal.com.
External Article

17 January 2021

Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky on Thursday predicted travel would permanently change due to the pandemic with people seeking out thousands of smaller cities and spending more time visiting friends and family.

Traditional tourism and sightseeing at top global destinations would be significantly reduced by travelers who will drive to smaller communities and fly less for business meetings.

Travelers are "yearning for what was taken away from them," Chesky said at the Reuters Next conference in an interview with Jonathan Weber, Reuters global technology editor. "They're not yearning to see Times Square. What they are yearning to do is to see their friends and their families they have not seen in a long time."

The startup was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and its business dropped by 80% in a little over eight weeks.

10th round of farmers-Centre talks postponed to Jan 20; SC-appointed panel to hold 1st meeting today

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 18: The tenth round of talks between the government and representatives of protesting farmers on controversial new farm laws was on Monday pushed back by a day to January 20, with the Centre saying both sides want to resolve the stalemate at the earliest but it was getting delayed due to involvement of people of other ideologies.

Asserting that the new farm laws are in the interest of the farming community, the government said obstacles do come whenever good things or measures are taken and it is taking longer to resolve the issue as farmers'' leaders want a solution their own way.

"The government''s ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed panel to resolve the crisis is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.

The previous rounds of talks between the government and farmers have failed to reach any concrete results, as protesting unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the new laws, but the government has refused to do so.

Farmers' Protest: Farmers have constitutional right to take out tractor rally, says Union leaders

Speaking to PTI, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said: "It is different when farmers talk to us directly. When leaders get involved, then it becomes difficult. There could have been early solution had the discussions were held with farmers directly."

Since people of different ideologies have entered into the protest, they want a solution in their own way, he said.

"Both sides want a solution, but they have different points of view and hence it is taking more time. But a definite solution will emerge," he noted.

Separately, the Supreme Court told the Centre on Monday that the proposed tractor rally on the Republic Day by protesting farmers is a "law and order" matter and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are protesting for nearly two-months at various Delhi borders against the three farm laws enacted by the central government in September 2020.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while addressing a virtual event, reiterated that the three farm laws will be beneficial for farmers.

"These laws were expected earlier but the previous government could not implement because of pressure. It was the Modi government that took a bold step and brought these laws passed in Parliament... Whenever a good thing happens, there are obstacles," Tomar said.

On eve of the tenth round of meeting, a delegation of farmers representing over 270 farmer producer organizations from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Odisha met Rupala and appealed not to repeal the laws.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhury was also present in the meeting.

"We support the new laws. We don''t want the government to repeal them," Narendra Tomar of Gwalior-based Chambal Agro FPO said after the meeting.
Jewish agency severs ties with Christian ministry over 'false' claims of proselytizing

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A leading Jewish organization that helps Jews across the world settle in Israel is severing ties with the Canadian-based Christian Zionist group Return Ministries over allegations the Christian nonprofit engaged in proselytizing.

The leader of Return Ministries, which runs the Aliyah Return Center dedicated to helping Jews across the globe migrate to Israel, is speaking out against what he considers to be false allegations made against his organization that led the Jewish Agency for Israel to end a yearlong partnership.

The Aliyah Return Center operates at The Jewish Agencys Bikat Kinarot educational facility south of the Sea of Galilee and has often brought Christians to volunteer at the site. Return Ministries has operated in the region since 2013 and helped restore a former boarding school in the Jordan River Valley.

Together in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel, they have operated the 15-acre campus called the Bikat Kinarot Center at Beit Zera, according to the Return Ministries webpage.

However, Israeli media reported this week that the agency has terminated its agreement with Return Ministries and the Aliyah Return Center after the organization was accused by an anti-missionary group of proselytizing in the name of Christ to the Jews being helped by the ministry.

We have been accused, as Christian Zionists, of missionizing and proselytizing the people we have been serving, this anti-missionary group would say, with hidden agendas, Return Ministries International Director Dean Bye wrote in a letter to supporters Thursday. These are complete lies.

As for the partner organization that has been persuaded to terminate agreements with us, we are yet to learn what all this entails but understand their termination is only related to our Bikat Kinarot Campus agreement in its current form, he added. As those who have committed our lives to Gods call to serve and bless Israel, we are prepared to work together on a peaceful resolution to the dissension that has been created.

Bye called for a transition plan that meets the needs of all parties involved and one that is built on mutual respect.

We maintain our innocence to the false accusations and further misrepresentations of our ministries in the media, Bye said. We declare our continued commitment to Israels Aliyah and Absorption, the Return and Restoration of Gods people to their land. We pray our relationship with the Jewish Agency for Israel will continue and grow stronger as truth prevails.

In a statement Monday reported by Haaretz, the Jewish Agency explained that it terminated the partnership even though it found no evidence of any direct missionary activity. However, the agency believes that videos online posted by the Aliyah Return Center create a perception that is in direct opposition to the mission and values of The Jewish Agency for Israel and has unfairly entangled the organizations work and reputation.

Additionally, the agency accused the Aliyah Return Center of taking credit in social media posts for involvement in areas such as Aliyah, specifically with proselytizing lone soldiers and new Olim [Jewish immigrants to Israel]. The agency argues that such actions resulted in the termination of the partnership agreement in its current form.

In his statement, Bye said that he has been involved in this type of ministry work for over 30 years and has worked alongside secular, orthodox and messianic individuals in Israel. He warned that he has often been misunderstood by them all.

Over the last five years, Return Ministries has entered into many different partnerships with Israeli and Jewish partners.

Throughout our history in Israel, we have taught Christians to bless and serve Israels Olim and have mobilized fundraising to accomplish the task, all without one complaint of proselytizing, Bye added.

Bye assured that proselytization is not our corporate calling or ministry purpose.

We demonstrate and teach a service that loves without condition, and we vet volunteers who serve to do likewise in all our projects in Israel, he said. Our call is to help Gods children home.

The Christian Broadcasting Network reports that trouble began last month when the anti-missionary group Beyneynu sent a letter to the Jewish Agency arguing that the Aliya Return Center has a hidden agenda to convert Jews to Christianity through worship programs.

According to Haaretz, the Jewish Agency initially responded with a legal memo calling on the Beyneynu to stop the false allegations against the Aliya Return Center. However, the anti-missionary group continued to push and published edited videos about the Aliya Return Center that the Jewish Agency initially considered to be old and irrelevant footage that contains false statements.

Return Ministries is not the only Christian organization serving in Israel that has faced allegations of proselytizing that has cost them partnerships.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government removed GOD TVs Shelanu channel from the Israeli cable provider HOT over claims that the network aimed to evangelize to Jews.

Evangelism in Israel has been described as a touchy subject as it is illegal in Israel to proselytize to minors without the consent of their parents. Under the terms of the television license, Shelanu TV was forbidden from engaging in missionary activities.
Today

Partly cloudy early with thunderstorms becoming likely during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, then cloudy skies overnight. Low 61F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Tomorrow

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 77F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 03:25:07|Editor: huaxia

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File photo taken on March 16, 2020 shows a plane of EgyptAir at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt. On Thursday, EgyptAir, the national flagship carrier, decided to operate a daily flight to Doha starting Monday, two days after Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation lifted a three-and-half-year airspace ban on the Gulf country. The decision came days after Egypt signed the Al-Ula declaration at the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, which ended a boycott on Qatar by the Arab quartet, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)



CAIRO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first Egyptian flight to Qatar in more than three years took off Monday from Cairo following a milestone agreement between the two Arab nations to resume relations.

The official Egyptian TV announced that EgyptAir flight number MS935 left Cairo International Airport to Doha, with 38 passengers on board.

On Thursday, EgyptAir, the national flagship carrier, decided to operate a daily flight to Doha starting Monday, two days after Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation lifted a three-and-half-year airspace ban on the Gulf country.

The decision came days after Egypt signed the Al-Ula declaration at the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, which ended a boycott on Qatar by the Arab quartet, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Enditem
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha has warned that the risk of load-shedding remains elevated for the better part of 2021.

He said significant levels of load-shedding is expected until at least September, after which the risk will be reduced. This, however, does not mean it will end altogether.

We will have a respite here and there during this period, but our reality is that load-shedding will be with us for quite a while, he said.

These comments come after Eskom announced that stage 2 load-shedding will continue on Monday despite initial plans to stop it on Sunday night.

Eskom explained that the prolonged load-shedding was needed because the return to service of some generation units has been delayed.

Eskom was able to return generation units at the Kriel, Grootvlei, and Duvha power stations to service, but two generation units at the Kusile power station are still unavailable.

Mantshantsha said the two units at Kusile, which will deliver 1,400MW of electricity, is expected to return to service today.

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted the operations and maintenance at Eskom.

46 employees of one of their suppliers doing maintenance at the Medupi power station, for example, have tested positive for COVID-19.

Many teams in other power stations have also been impacted, and Eskom is expected to give further details later today.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not making our situation, which was not good in the first place, any better, Mantshantsha said.

Mantshantsha said it is regrettable that Eskom is in the situation it is, but added that their management and engineering teams are working hard to address the problems at the power utility.

He said four generation units at Medupi had their design defects repaired, and the last two are being worked on.

The work will carry on at the Kusile power station and we hope to have a stable supply of 9,000MW from the two new power stations to reduce the risk of load-shedding, he said.

Mantshantsha urged South Africans to do their part by reducing electricity use and report electricity and cable theft.

What people can do to prepare for load-shedding

With load-shedding expected for most of the year, there are ways to minimise the impact of blackouts on their lives.

This includes investing in the right equipment, staying abreast of the latest load-shedding times, and planning ahead to do work offline.

Eskom has given the guidelines below to help people to invest in the right equipment:

Buy surge protectors to protect your appliances against power surges which can occur when electricity returns after load-shedding.

Buy a generator or batteries to give you an alternative power source during load-shedding.

Invest in solar-powered emergency lights, backup torches, or candles to ensure you are not left in the dark during load-shedding.

Buy a gas stove to make it possible to cook even when the power goes down.

Also make sure your electronic equipment, including smartphones and laptops, is charged before load-shedding starts.

Most smartphones and laptops have enough battery power to outlast a load-shedding session, which means you can continue to work and community during this period.

You should also buy a UPS for your fibre or fixed-LTE router to help you to stay connected during a blackout.

The image below provides an overview of what people can do to prepare themselves for load-shedding.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha interview
Mai Nien, Deputy Chairman of Ngu Hanh Son District Peoples Committee, and Nguyen Thi Phuong, deputy director of Danang Department of Information and Communications, donating scholarships to the students

Pham Hien, president of the Learning Promotion Association of Ngu Hanh Son district in Danang city made the remark at the ceremony on donating scholarships from Swing for the Kids Fund to pupils and students who have posted good academic results despite living in difficult circumstances.

The ceremony took place last Friday (January 15) at Ngu Hanh Son District Peoples Committee.

The Swing for the Kids Fund of VIR provides a source of inspiration, motivating children to strive for better results and grow into good citizens for their families and society.

Ngu Hanh Son is home to 248 especially needy households, with 248 pupils and students going to school. The local government has rendered support for needy households and their children, but support level remains finite.

The sum of VND50 million ($2,170) from the Swing for the Kids Fund earmarked 100 pupils and students living in Ngu Hanh Son district today is very meaningful, inspiring the kids to make greater strides in their learning and progress in life, said Hien.

Mai Hien, Deputy Chairman of Ngu Hanh Son District Peoples Committee, delivered thanks to VIR and Danang Department of Information and Communications for paying regards to underprivileged pupils and students in the district, from there motivating the children to overcome adversities and strive for betterment in the upcoming time.

VIR is happy to have the opportunity to support the students in Ngu Hanh Son district who have achieved good academic results despite their disadvantages, said Hoang Kim Thuy, VIR chief representative in the Central and Central Highlands region.

Hoang Kim Thuy (right), VIR's chief representative in the Central and Central Highlands regions, donated the funding to Ngu Hanh Son District Learning Promotion Association

In the past couple of years, VIR, the press agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, has donated hundreds of scholarships to needy pupils and students in Danang in Vietnam's central region.

Last year, VIR took its scholarships to Ninh Thuan, Phu Yen, and Danang, and in the forthcoming time will turn to Quang Binh province.

The Swing for the Kids Fund provides a source of inspiration, motivating children to strive for better results and grow into good citizens for their families and society.

Since 2007, in the past 14 years, the fund brought more than 16,000 scholarships to needy pupils and students with stellar academic results; bringing computers to classrooms, as well as supporting the repair and upgrading of learning facilities in 40 cities and provinces nationwide.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Mortgage measures imposed by the Central Bank are not intended to regulate or directly control the level of house prices per se, a Kildare TD was told in the Dail when he asked about plans to deter profiteering and help first time buyers in the housing market.

On January 14, Kildare North TD, Bernard Durkan, asked the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, his plans for regulations that the Central Bank might apply to the lending institutions to encourage them to assist first-time house buyers and to deter profiteering in the housing market; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The Minister said the mortgage measures are not intended to regulate or directly control the level of house prices per se but if they had not been brought in house prices and debt would have been higher. However, the 2019 review of the mortgage measures by the Central Bank found that if the measures had not been introduced in 2015, both the level of house prices and the proportion of highly indebted mortgage borrowers would likely have been significantly higher in 2019 than their observed levels, all else being equal.

Minister Donohoe said the Central Bank of Ireland has statutory responsibility for the regulation of mortgage lending and introduced macroprudential measures for residential mortgage lending in February 2015. The objective of these mortgage measures is to increase the resilience of the banking sector and households to reduce the risk of credit-house price spirals from developing.

The Minister said: The mortgage measures are now in place as a permanent feature of the market and are operating in line with their stated objectives of enhancing the resilience of banks and borrowers to future shocks and reducing the risk of credit-house price spirals from developing.

The Minister said that while the objective of the mortgage measures is not to target house prices, this suggests that  in the absence of the mortgage measures  affordability pressures for mortgage borrowers would have been even more acute. Furthermore, the Central Bank indicated that the latest review of the mortgage measures conducted late last year found that they have continued to meet their objectives over the course of 2020, he concluded.
Four other members of Iced Earth have released a statement disavowing the siege. We absolutely DO NOT condone nor do we support riots or the acts of violence that the rioters were involved in on January 6th at the US Capitol building, the other members wrote in their statement. We hope that all those involved that day are brought to justice to be investigated and answer for their actions. With broken hearts we are sending our love and compassion to everyone who has felt pain from the events on January 6th. We are deeply saddened and our hearts go out to the families of the lives lost that day. There are really no proper words to console. Just know we are with you in your shock, grief and pain. Much love to you all. Stu, Luke, Jake, Brent.
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North Dakota has emerged as America's unlikely leader in the battle against COVID-19, racing ahead of most of the nation in the vaccine rollout and battling back from being the worst coronavirus hotspot in the nation with an 80 percent decline in active cases since mid-November.

Only a little over 14 million Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Monday morning, and only about 54 percent of vaccine doses distributed to states have been administered to people, according to data from Bloomberg.

But while some states like California are floundering, using a meager 37 percent of doses distributed to it, North Dakota is flying through the doses sent to it by the federal government, using 78 percent of its allotted doses and vaccinating just shy of seven percent of its vaccine doses.

State officials acknowledge that North Dakota's small population-size is an advantage. But it also gave health care workers a head-start with training before vaccine doses arrived, and has set up a flexible plan to let people 65 or older, people with two or more underlying conditions, and child care and school workers get priority access to vaccines.

California and New York may be known for their top-notch hospitals and medical schools, but they are struggling to get people vaccinated amid the COVID-19 crsis.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has blamed the federal government for his state only getting 5.14 percent of its population vaccinated by Monday, and asked for federal permission to order doses directly from Pfizer.

But the Empire State has only used a little over half (53 percent) of what Trump administration has shipped to it, and its stiff plan for prioritizing people saw at least four precious dose of vaccine thrown out earlier this month.

California lags even further behind, vaccinating just 3.3 percent of its population with the massive allotment of 3.5 million doses sent to it by the federal government.

And in Florida, which was the third state to reach one million COVID-19 cases, more than 40,000 people are overdue for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine - a worrying sign that poor organization could leave at-risk residents unprotected.

North Dakota has given nearly 53,000 of the 76,275 doses sent to it, and kept up a consistent flow of administering vaccines since its first doses arrived last month (pictured), according to the state's health department

Active coronavirus cases have fallen by 80% and the number of new daily infections in the state is a fraction of what it had been a month ago when North Dakota was among the nation's top hotspots

Cumulative deaths have increased in North Dakota, but the state has drastically bent the curve of fatalities since it climbed steeply last month, reaching a peak of 499 deaths in November, followed by 278 in December and 37 so far in January

North Dakota administered 3,222 vaccines on January 14 alone, according to its latest data. Nearly six percent of its population has had their first shot, and nearly one percent have already received their second.

Meanwhile, the state has 1,377 active cases of COVID-19 as of Monday - just a little over 10 percent as many as it saw at its November peak of 10,195.

Deaths in North Dakota continue to climb, but have levelled off since November.

Throughout much the nation, a game of federal and state he-said-she-said continues, and is doing little to speed the sluggish rollout.

Houston, Texas, officials say they are receiving sporadic shipments of small numbers of vaccine doses.

'Right now, having (doses) one day and then running out, it just creates a lot of chaos,' said Galveston County health director Dr Philip Keiser on Monday, according to Houston Public Media.

About 31.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been sent to US states by the federal government, according to tracking from Bloomberg.

While West Virginia races to the head of the pack, vaccinating nearly nine percent of its population in just a month, California and Alabama rank worst, getting shots in the arms of just 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent of their residents, respectively.

Mass vaccination sites opened in larger states like New York, California and Florida, but rates of shot administration remain low.

Some of the states that have most vocally blamed the federal government for the vaccine rollout are among the slowest to use the doses sent to them.

California has vaccinated just 3.3 percent of its population and used a little over a third of its allotted doses, despite turning Disneyland and Dodger Stadium into mass vaccination sites.

Only about 3% of Americans have gotten their first doses of coronavirus vaccines, with the highest rates in West Virginia and the Dakotas, and the lowest rates of vaccination are in Alabama and Arizona

More than half of all doses of coronavirus vaccines distributed to US states are sitting on the shelves, with the highest rates of unused shots in California and Texas - despite the former being one of the worst hotspots for COVID-19 in the country

New York is faring a little better using up 53 percent of its doses and vaccinated about 5.4 percent of its population.

Southern and Sun Belt states are struggling. Alabama and Arizona have each vaccinated just 2.7 percent of their populations.

That's particularly worrisome for Arizona, which has had more coronavirus infections per capita than any where else in the world.

The surprise leaders in the race remain West Virginia and the Dakotas.

West Virginia was the only state in the union turned down the federal government's partnership with CVS and WalGreens to help vaccinate its nursing home residents.

And now it's vaccinated 8.6 percent of its population - more than than any other states.

North and South Dakota have vaccinated nearly seven and 6.45 percent of their respective populations.

A senior federal official told DailyMail.com that the US will meet its goal of distributing 50 million doses to states this week.

But at this rate, it could be weeks before all of those doses make it into Americans' arms.

States have given fewer than half of the doses the federal government has shipped - 46 percent - yet some say they are running out of doses.

Reports emerged last week that there was no federal stockpile of second doses to increase states' supplies - after HHS Secretary Alex Azar promised that the reserve would be released - triggering panic.

Federal officials say that the number of doses made available to states each week has increased, but that the notion that the government ever had a stockpile was incorrect.

In fact, a senior administration official told DailyMail.com that some states are not completing all their orders for new doses each week, leaving them shorthanded.

Yet states, including Texas, say they're on pace to run out of doses of vaccine by next week if they continue to administer as many as possible.

Los Angeles is among the worst hotspots for coronavirus in the US and health workers are racing to vaccinate at-risk people - including nursing home residents in Pasadena (pictured, file), but the state has used just 27.5% of its allotted doses

Since it began over a month ago, the US coronavirus vaccine rollout has been plagued by a game of federal and state 'he said, she said,' and little seems to have changed.

The emergence of more infectious coronavirus variants, including the UK's 'super-covid,' should be a 'clarion call' to Americans to get vaccinated, said Dr Anthony Fauci during a Sunday Meet the Press appearance.

But the uptake has been slow.

Experts say yet another factor is holding up the rollout: 'We're underselling the vaccine' Dr Aaron Richterman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania told the New York Times.

He's not alone in thinking that attempts to temper expectations and keep Americans from ripping of their masks as soon as they get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines may be misguided.

'It's driving me a little bit crazy,' Dr Ashish Jha of the Brown School of Public told the Times.

Vaccines made by both Moderna and Pfizer are more than 94 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, and that should be the focus of public messaging, the experts say.

That's not to say that questions still being researched - such as rather the shots prevent infection or transmission altogether - should be concealed, nor that warnings about potential side effects shouldn't be clear.

But, Dr Jha and Dr Richterman worry that the emphasis on what's unknown is fueling hesitancy and slowing the uptake of shots.

One California epidemiologist on Sunday called for Moderna to put a hold on 330,000 doses from one lot that have already been distributed after 'fewer than 10' people had possible severe allergic reactions to the shots within 24 hours.

Moderna, the FDA and the CDC are all investigating the incidences, but said in a statement to Fox News that vaccination is never without risks.

The reactions all happened within the observation period while the recipients were still at the vaccination site in San Diego.

Health care workers and nursing home residents were put first in line for coronavirus vaccines.

But during the first weeks of the rollout, staggering numbers of health care workers turned down the shots.

One Illinois veterans nursing home said that while about 90 percent of its elderly residents had said 'yes' to the shot, some 80 percent of staff had said 'no.'

Nurses in Texas and California - two of the nation's worst hotspots for COVID-19 - said they and about half of their colleagues planned to refuse or delay vaccination.

In New York, four doses of vaccine had to be thrown out because willing recipients working in health care could not be found in time to use the shots before they expired.

Amid suspicion that resistance among health care workers and rigid state plans for who could be vaccinated when were the problem, federal officials urged vaccination to be opened up to people 65 and older.
The Chief of Staff of the Biafra Nations League, BNL, and leader of Displaced Bakassi Peninsula Youths, Mr Linus Essien, has been arrested i...





The Chief of Staff of the Biafra Nations League, BNL, and leader of Displaced Bakassi Peninsula Youths, Mr Linus Essien, has been arrested in Ikang-Cameroon border area by Nigerian soldiers.

This was disclosed in a statement by the National Leader of BNL, Princewill Chimezie Richard.

The group said Linus was arrested on Monday evening by the security agencies, who are accused the group of setting up an armed group to fight the Nigerian soldiers across the South South and Southeast.

The group also raised the alarm over arrest and torture of its members in the Bakassi Peninsula by Cameroon Gendarmes.

The group accused the Nigerian Army of allowing military from the ceded area in Cameroon to come into Ikang, in Bakassi Local Government area of Cross River State to abduct Ambazonia separatists.

In a separate statement jointly signed by the Deputy National Leader of BNL, Ebuta Akor Takon and made available to newsmen on Monday, the group condemned the arrest of people associated with Biafra and Ambazonia in the Bakassi Peninsula, warning that such actions could result to unrest in the already troubled region.

BNL further revealed that it is planning to hoist its flag in Bakassi Peninsula and two other Cameroon border areas in Cross River State by February, they boasted that Biafra have more followers in the region than Cameroon government.

The group advised other pro-Biafra groups to look beyond respecting the Nigerian constitution, adding that Biafra cannot be achieved without civil disobedience and a little bit of force.
As we talked about on our podcast this week, there have been two major developments in the Flint Water Crisis since in the past couple of months. First, in November, there was a major settlement between Flint plaintiffs and the City of Flint, McLaren Regional Medical Center and Rowe Professional Services Co., a city contractor. The settlement was for $641.2 million but, of course, lawyers will take as much as a third of that.

This past week, the office of Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges against nine defendants:

Jarrod Agen  Former Director of Communications and Former Chief of Staff, Executive Office of Gov. Rick Snyder One count of perjury  a 15-year felony Gerald Ambrose  Former City of Flint Emergency Manager Four counts of misconduct in office  each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine Richard Baird  Former Transformation Manager and Senior Adviser, Executive Office of Gov. Snyder One count of perjury  a 15-year felony

One count of official misconduct in office  a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine

One count of obstruction of justice  a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine

One count of extortion  a 20-year felony and/or $10,000 fine Howard Croft  Former Director of the City of Flint Department of Public Works Two counts of willful neglect of duty  each a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine Darnell Earley  Former City of Flint Emergency Manager Three counts of misconduct in office  each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine Nicolas Lyon  Former Director, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter  each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine

One count of willful neglect of duty  a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine Nancy Peeler  Current Early Childhood Health Section Manager, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Two counts of misconduct in office  each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine

One count of willful neglect of duty  a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine Richard Snyder  Former Governor of Michigan Two counts of willful neglect of duty  each a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine Eden Wells  Former Chief Medical Executive, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter  each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine

Two counts of misconduct in office  each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine

One count of willful neglect of duty  a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine

The fact that former Governor Rick Snyder, shown here in his mug shot, was charged with only two misdemeanors has angered many. While it was Emergency Managers he appointed who largely made decisions leading to the poisoning of Flints water supply, Snyder was responsible for both the Emergency Manager law that he used to appoint them and, ultimately, for the decisions made by them.

Additionally, the settlement is woefully inadequate in the minds of many given the extent of damage to human health and of Flints infrastructure caused by the decision to use the Flint River for Flints water supply. Switching to that water source without using appropriate chemical treatment to protect the delicate protective coating that lined lead water lines in Flint homes was the direct cause of the public health disaster. Making residents of Flint whole will take more than writing them a check. There are ongoing health and developmental problems that will haunt Flint and the people who live there for decades to come and the financial settlement will not address that need.

While its good to see those who were responsible being held accountable, not everyone is happy with the situation Flint finds itself in today. One of those people is former Flint Mayor Karen Weaver. She wrote the essay below about her opinions and feelings about the settlement and the charges filed by Attorney General Dana Nessels office. These opinions are hers but they reflect those of many others and it is presented here so that all voices are heard as our state deals with this shameful legacy of Michiganders own government poisoning a citys water supply.



Flint residents line up for bottled water in January 2016, photo by Anne C. Savage

Flints Urgent Call to Action

2020 has come to a close. I reflect on the journey weve endured just this past year and I cant help but thank God for his continued grace and mercy. As He has preserved me to go forward into 2021, I am even more resolute in my hope and tireless fight for the people of Flint, Michigan. I am even more determined to be an undiluted voice for the City and my home. There is so much left undone in our fight for justice and Flint deserves to set the table, or at least be at the table, and not coerced into simply taking the crumbs which fall from it.

First off, there is a settlement, a settlement that is unfair and unjust, both in amount and distribution. Because it is the largest settlement in Michigans history does not make it just.

Flint was poisoned by lead and chemical byproducts and pathogens at the hand of our local, state and federal government, with the state leading the way. Many died. The actual, true numbers we may never know, but Legionnaires Disease, pneumonia, and stillbirths/miscarriages took place. Some of our children permanently damaged, adults lost limbs, immune systems compromised, and the damage goes on. Mental and emotional pain and trauma is immeasurable. While we know we can never be made whole, financially we deserve much more, and why shouldnt we expect what we deserve. Thats not a question its a statement.



Former Flint Mayor Karen Weaver with Rachel Maddow during an MSNBC Townhall,

photo by Anne C. Savage

We expect in addition to fair and just compensation, health insurance for our people, insurance that follows them wherever they may live, free college tuition within the state of Michigan for children impacted by the poisoned water, neighborhood grocery stores, for access to fresh fruits and vegetables to help mitigate the impact of lead in our bodies , economic equity and opportunities for those most impacted, pipes completed, in home infrastructure addressed. The people of Flint also expect accountability. Lives were lost and/or damaged. While criminal charges have been filed, we expect the punishment to be commensurate with the seriousness of the crime. This should hold true even for Michigans former Governor who shares culpability in the decisions that led to this man-made disaster and was at the helm of its cover up campaign.

At this most pivotal time, I am asking that you join me in calling for full #Justice4Flint. You can contact our Attorney General, Dana Nessel, by clicking HERE, and let her know that you support her in fighting for full #Justice4Flint. You can simply add the following hashtags, produced by Black Millennials for Flint, to your social media posts.

Hashtags

#FlintSaysNo

#FlintWaterCrisis

#WhatHappenedToFlint.

Wishing you a Safe and Healthy New Year! Yours in the Struggle,

Karen Williams Weaver, PhD
2020-12-20

Maeci

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio's two-day visit to Doha, Qatar, begins today.

Minister Di Maio is expected in Doha today to meet his counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, in the afternoon. Together they will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Dialogue.

Tomorrow, 21 December, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will co-chair with the Qatari Minister of Transport and Communications, Jassim Bin Saif Al Sulaiti, a Round Table on Green Economy.

Afterwards, Di Maio will hold talks with the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Bin Abdulaziz Al-Thani, and the Deputy Emir, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

During his mission to the Gulf country, the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also meet with the President of the Qatar Foundation for Development, Education & Research, Sheikh Moza bint Nasser, and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, Hassan Al- Thawadi.

Before returning to Italy, Minister Di Maio will greet Embassy staff and military personnel on a mission at the Al Udeid military base.

Interview with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio at the Doha Forum
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Traders in parts of Accra, continue to disobey COVID-19 safety protocols despite directives from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for strict adherence to the protocols to contain the spread of the virus.



The traders, mostly in the central business district, sat in close proximity and had no nose masks on when the Ghana News Agency visited the market on Monday.



A few traders, who had their nose masks under their chins, told GNA they were having difficulty in breathing with the masks, so we removed it occasionally to breathe in fresh air.



Handwashing stations were also completely out of sight.



However, a few people who were buying foodstuffs and other commodities were seen in nose masks.



Nana Pomaa, a trader who had her sister and three kids with her, said, Since most traders in the market dont have their nose masks on, I make sure my children and I wore ours not to contract the virus.



Kwame Asiedu, a dealer in sunglasses who had his mask on, asked security personnel to enforce the observance of the protocols in the markets and stations.



In update number 22, of measures taken against the spread of COVID-19, President Akufo-Addo, directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, to ensure the rigorous enforcement of the law on mask wearing, at all public places, including markets and in public transports.



He said severe punishments existed for persons who broke the law on the mandatory wearing of masks, saying, "Should anyone be arrested by the security agencies disregarding this directive, that person will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law.



The President lamented that, The number of severe cases, which stood at 18 a week ago, had increased to 120 and 33 critical cases in treatment facilities.



He said the number of confirmed deaths had increased from 338 persons to 352 within a period of two weeks and asked the citizenry to live with the virus responsibly and observe the safety protocols.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The third episode of Matt James season as The Bachelor airs 8-10 tonight on ABC.

James, 28, a real estate broker, is the series first Black bachelor.

In this episode, ABC says, Sarah is at the center of an emotional firestorm that envelops Matt and the other women as the rose ceremony continues.

Last week, Sarah almost fainted during the rose ceremony. She told James she was seeing stars.

A medic was alerted. At the end of the episode, ABC said, to be continued.

Meanwhile, ABC says, A steamy group date, featuring Bachelor Nation favorite Ashley Iaconetti Haibon, offers the women a chance to write their own hot love scenes with Matt and read them to him in front of a live audience.

Serena P. finds out if her initial feelings for Matt could develop into something more serious. And even though his journey just started, Matts biggest fear comes to pass, leaving him devastated.

The women trying to capture James heart are:

Abigail, 25, a client financial manager from Beaverton, Ore.

Alana, 26, a photographer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Anna, 24, a copywriter from Chicago, Ill.

Bri, 24, a communications manager from San Francisco, Calif.

Chelsea, 28, a runway model from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Illeana, 25, a health food developer from New York City, N.Y.

Jessenia, 27, a social media marketer from San Antonio, Texas

Kaili, 26, a hostess from Chicago, Ill.

Katie, 29, a bank marketing manager from Renton, Wash.

Khaylah, 28, a healthcare advocate from Durham, N.C.

Kit, 21, a fashion entrepreneur from New York City, N.Y.

Kristin, 27, an attorney from Jersey City, N.J.

Lauren, 29, a corporate attorney from Miami, Fla.

Magi, 32, a pharmacist from Adwa, Ethiopia

Mari, 24, a marketing director from Odenton, Md.

Marylynn, 28, an event coordinator from Studio City, Calif.

MJ, 23, a hairstylist from Hudson, Ohio

Pieper, 23, a graduate student from Happy Valley, Ore.

Rachael, 24, a graphic designer from Cumming, Ga.

Sarah, 24, a broadcast journalist from San Diego, Calif.

Serena C., 24, a flight attendant from San Francisco, Calif.

Serena P., 22, a publicist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sydney, 28, a marketing specialist from Nashville, Tenn.

Victoria, 27, a self-described queen from Los Angeles, Calif.
Head of Egypts General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel delivered a message from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday.

El-Sisis message stressed Egypts keenness to intensify its efforts so that it contributes to the success of the Palestinian elections process.

The message also affirmed Egypts unchangeable stance on the need to reach a just, comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.

During their meeting, Abbas and Kamel discussed the latest developments of the Palestinian issue, a day after Abbas had issued a decree announcing that the country will hold presidential and parliamentary elections for the first time in 15 years.

According to the decree issued by Abbas on Friday, the Palestinian Authority will hold the legislative elections on 22 May, then the presidential elections on 31 July.

Abbas, during the meeting, expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by El-Sisi to resolve the Palestinian issue.

Kamels visit also included a meeting with the intelligence chiefs of each of Jordan and Palestine, where they discussed means to support the peace process and reviewed future steps to accomplish the Palestinian reconciliation process.

Short link:


A court in Hong Kong on jailed a first-aid volunteer for four years, citing his presence at a pro-democracy protest in Causeway Bay in 2019.



Chan Cho-ho was handed the sentence for "rioting" and "possessing an unlicensed radio communication device" along with a H.K.$5,000 fine by the District Court, for his part in the Aug. 31, 2019 protest.



Judge Frankie Yiu said the "riot" had involved more than 300 people and lasted for around half an hour, during which Molotov cocktails were thrown.



Yiu dismissed Chan's status as a first-aid volunteer. Six co-defendants were acquitted of the same charges.



Chan's mother burst into tears when the sentence was passed, while Chan himself wiped away tears.



The sentence came despite multiple witnesses vouching for Chan, who is a badged volunteer with the St. John Ambulance Brigade, including his teachers and a district councilor.



Chan's defense team had argued that there was scant evidence to support the charge of "rioting," point out that he had neither acted violently himself, nor incited others to do so.



The charge of "rioting" under Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance, which has been criticized by rights groups for infringing on the right to peaceful protest, carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.



Yiu said he had already reduced Chan's sentence because the defendant hadn't disputed the material facts of the case.



Chan's sentencing comes amid an ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent in Hong Kong, under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from , 2020.



Chinese state security police

The law granted sweeping powers to Hong Kong's own national security police, and also to mainland Chinese state security police operating in the city, to enforce the law and investigate cases.



The city government is increasingly requiring anyone in public office to pledge allegiance and accept the law, which bans any public criticism of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or the Hong Kong government, and criminalizes overseas campaigning and lobbying on behalf of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.



Four pro-democracy members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) were stripped of their seats for protesting in the chamber, prompting the mass resignation of the entire opposition camp.



The Civil Service Bureau recently issued a notice to policy bureaus and departments that any civil servant hired before , 2020 must sign a declaration supporting the Basic Law and allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region within four weeks, while department heads have already begun taking oaths in special ceremonies, according to video footage posted by the government.



Anyone refusing will likely be judged unsuitable to continue in their post, a government spokesperson warned last week.



Civil service unions have expressed concern over whether the pledge will bar them from attending protests or from talking to journalists, government broadcaster RTHK reported.



Some 180,000 civil servants could lose their jobs if they refuse to sign the declaration.



Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said a few members have already told him that they are not going to sign, the station reported on .



The Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants Association has demanded a clear explanation from the government about what will happen to those who refuse to sign, RTHK said.



Reported by Gigi Lee for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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George Russell says it felt "strange" when he was unable to keep racing for Mercedes in Lewis Hamilton's place after his near-win in Bahrain.

The 22-year-old Mercedes junior was called up at short notice when Hamilton tested positive for covid-19 - but had to return to his back-of-the-grid Williams cockpit a week later.

"To be honest, it felt strange to go back," he is quoted by Speed Week.

"Before the Bahrain weekend, I really wanted to be able to contest the two races for Mercedes. I would then have taken the first weekend as a lesson and had no more excuses in Abu Dhabi.

"But the guys at Williams gave me this chance in Formula 1, working so hard for me over the past two years. It is my duty to do my best for them," Russell added.

For 2021, Williams has appointed a new team CEO - former Volkswagen and McLaren chief Jost Capito.

He told the Alte Schule podcast: "With the new team ownership, Williams has an opportunity to restructure.

"This is so important, because last season the team earned zero points and there is no lower than that.

"We shouldn't expect miracles this year, because we won't be able to make significant changes to the car. And with the covid-19 crisis, without a moratorium on development, the gap to the bigger teams will only increase," said Capito.

(GMM)
White evangelical support for Trump drops slightly in preliminary exit polling Trump's support among Protestants, Catholics, Hispanics and blacks increases

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Preliminary 2020 election exit polls released Wednesday suggest that President Donald Trump lost about 4 percentage points in white evangelical support compared to the 2016 election, but gained support in key demographics such as Catholics, Protestants, blacks and Latinos.

Early exit polling data conducted for The Washington Post and other media outlets indicates that Trump, the Republican incumbent, garnered 76% of the white evangelical vote, while former Vice President and Democratic nominee Joe Biden picked up 23% of the white evangelical vote.

The early polling result comes as Trump enjoyed between 80-81% of the white evangelical vote in the 2016 presidential election exit polling. Only 16% of white evangelical and born-again Christian voters surveyed said they voted for then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Throughout his term, Trump has long sought the approval of conservative evangelicals as they have become one of his most loyal voting blocs. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign made some efforts in recent months to appeal to evangelical voters of faith.

The preliminary exit polling data suggests that Trump did not fare as well as 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney did with white evangelicals, as the data from that year found that the former Massachusetts governor received 78% of the white evangelical vote.

The 2020 preliminary exit poll results also suggest that Biden, a Catholic, also performed better than Obama did with white evangelicals in 2012.

It is important to note, however, that early exit polling results are preliminary and could change as more surveys are analyzed and results are re-weighted to match trends in vote totals. Preliminary national and state exit poll results consist of interviews from randomly selected voters as they exited polling locations across the country on Nov. 3. The polls were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool and media organizations.

I think the exit polls are telling a fairly consistent message about the white evangelical vote, Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

I've seen several that all pegs vote share to about 76-77%. That's pretty much in line with what high-quality surveys told us a few months after the election. He won 77.4% of white evangelicals, according to the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The issue that exists with exit polls is that they use a self-identification question about being an evangelical. This means that this sample includes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Buddhists who tell pollsters they are born-again.

Burge said that a better measure would take a lot more questions to determine a respondent's evangelical identity and exit polling has to be done quickly.

We should have a healthy dose of skepticism about these early results, Burge stressed.

Ralph Reed, a leading conservative evangelical activist who heads the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a national Christian conservative grassroots organization that spent millions in 2020 to drive conservative voter turnout in key battleground states, questioned the validity of the exit polls.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition released on Wednesday the results of an 800-voter survey that was conducted on Election Day by Public Opinion Strategies that found that 81% of self-identified evangelicals voted for Trump and only 14% voted for Biden. Faith & Freedom says that in 2020, evangelicals comprised 27% of the total electorate, an increase of 1% since 2016. The survey has a 3.46 percentage-point margin of error.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Reed addressed the discrepancy between the poll his organization sponsored and exit polls.

We believe that the network exit poll is not as accurate as ours. We think that for two reasons. No. 1, for Donald Trump to have gotten 76% of the evangelical vote, he would be underperforming Mitt Romney. We didnt see that in our data. We dont see it in voter modeling. We know what share of that vote was in every battleground state. We know from surveys that we have conducted what percent they were going to vote for Donald Trump. I dont believe the 76% number is believable.

Reed contends that polling done in the battleground states show Trump winning 85% to 86% of the white evangelical vote in many of those states.

The math doesnt add up, he added. You cant be at 76% nationally when you are in the mid-80s in every state virtually that matters.

As for people of other Christian faiths, the preliminary exit polling shows that Trumps support among Catholics and Protestants increased by about 12 percentage points.

The early exit polling data states that 62% of Catholics surveyed cast their ballots for Trump and only 37% voted for Biden. In 2016 exit polls, only 50% of Catholics voted for Trump. About 68% of Protestant/other Christian voters surveyed in the preliminary 2020 polling said they voted for Trump and 31% said they voted for Biden. In 2016, 56% of Protestants and other Christians said they voted for Trump, while 39% said they voted for Clinton.

The White Catholic numbers are all over the place, Burge explained. Just for reference, white Catholics were 59% for Trump versus 41% for Clinton in the two-party vote in 2016. Trump got 56% of the White Catholic vote when third parties were included. According to The New York Times exits, Catholics were 62% for Trump. And according to NBC exits, 66% of white Catholics were for Trump. According to AP VoteCast, the Catholic vote was 52% for Biden. Obviously, there's going to be some differences based on an all-white sample versus all races of Catholics. But even that can't explain the wild differences.

Burge said it is too early to make pronouncements about how Catholics voted in 2020.

I think that they shifted: Trump lost ground in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Each state is between 20-25% Catholics, Burge reasoned. I can't imagine a scenario in which Trump gains 7 or 8 more points with Catholics, but then loses the state.

Exit polling also shows that Trump fared better with key racial demographics than he did in 2016. Among African American voters, exit polls show that Trump received about 12% support while Biden received 87%. In 2016, Trump won just 8% of the black vote while Clinton won 89%.

Trump also picked up 4 percentage points with Hispanic voters, with 32% saying they voted for Trump in 2020. In 2016, Trump won 28% of the Latino vote. Biden faired just as well as Clinton did in 2016 by winning 66% of the Latino vote.
The Australian government has reportedly demanded detailed information from Pfizer-BioNTech and the Norwegian medical regulator after 30 vaccine recipients died in Norway. As per reports, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt called on both the Norwegian regulator and the vaccine manufacturers demanding detailed information regarding the incident. This comes after reports emerged on Norway's medicine regulator NOMA stating that the deaths of 29 people may have occurred due to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

Read: Australians Want PM Morrison To Rebuke MP Over Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation: Survey

30 deaths among 40,000 elderly recipients

According to reports, Hunt is seeking additional information from the pharmaceutical companies and the Norwegian regulator through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The additional information will help Australian authorities access the risk associated with the COVID-19 vaccine. This comes after reports of 30 deaths in over 40,000 elderly individuals in Norway in recent days. The deaths may be associated with the fact that all of them occurred in elderly people with underlying diseases, a factor not studied during trials.

Read: Steve Martin Excited To Receive COVID-19 Vaccination, Says 'I Got It Because Im 75'

"The TGA was advised promptly of the Norwegian deaths and is working closely with the European Medicines Agency (of which Norway is a member) and Pfizer on further investigations. Because of Australias close working relationship with European regulators the TGA is one of the first non-European regulators to routinely receive early notification of any possible serious adverse events with COVID-19 vaccines," TGA said in a statement on Sunday.

Read: "I Will Stand At The Frontline" Japanese PM Vows COVID Fight As Olympic Doubts Rise

Australia is yet to approve a COVID-19 vaccine and is currently studying the information provided by Pfizer. TGA is also evaluating other available evidence, including from international experience with emergency use of the vaccine, before it could make a decision. "The TGA's processes for vaccine approvals are extremely rigorous and comprehensive. A vaccine will only be approved for use if it is demonstrated to be safe and effective in clinical trials and if the manufacturer can show it can be produced in a high quality, consistent and controlled manner," TGA said.

Read: UK's Former Secretary Calls China 'despicable' For Covering-up COVID-19, Questions WHO
In a move to strengthen its ties with Middle East ally, India supplied two mobile harbour cranes to Iran's Chabahar port on Monday with a total contract value of over USD 25 million. The harbour cranes aim to carry out smooth cargo handling services.

"India has supplied a consignment of two Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHC) to Iran's Chabahar port...under a contract agreement for the supply of 6 MHC," the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said in a statement. The cranes are presently undergoing a trial run.

READ: Pakistani raid kills Taliban suspected of slaying of troops

On Monday, the consignment arrived from Italy's Marghera port and was unloaded at Chabahar. The cranes have 140 metric tonnes lifting capacity. It would facilitate India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) to provide seamless services for containers, bulk and general cargo at Shahid Beheshti Port of Chabahar.

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said that it's a step towards New Delhi's commitment to the infrastructure development of the Chabahar port.

READ: Pakistan okays India-manufactured AstraZeneca's Coronavirus vaccine for 'emergency use'

In 2016, New Delhi and Tehran signed a bilateral contract with a total value of USD 85 million. It aims to equip mechanise and start operations at the port under the Phase-I. In an attempt to achieve this ambitious aim, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), namely India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) Mumbai, was incorporated under the shipping ministry. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, stated that Chabahar is a strategic port with great national importance.

READ: London: Police break brawl between 40 men involving knives, bottles and a sword

The delivery of the consignment of heavy equipment, including cranes, shows India's commitment to the strategic connectivity of the Chabahar port project that will provide access to markets in Central Asia.

The development of Chabahar port is the anchor for the expansion of economic and mutual relations between India and Iran and it will give a further boost to the maritime trade between both countries.

The location of Chabahar port has the strategic advantage and high potential to provide connectivity among India, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, especially Eastern CIS nations, and boost trade.

(Inputs from PTI)

The chief functionary of Patiala Foundation Ravee Singh Ahluwalia was honoured for his outstanding work in road safety by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in New Delhi on Monday. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Road Trans Image Source: IANS News

The chief functionary of Patiala Foundation Ravee Singh Ahluwalia was honoured for his outstanding work in road safety by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in New Delhi on Monday. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Road Trans Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Jan 18 : The chief functionary of Patiala Foundation Ravee Singh Ahluwalia was honoured for his outstanding work in road safety by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in New Delhi on Monday.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh honoured Ahluwalia as 'Good Samaritan' in the individual category at the inauguration of the National Road Safety Month at Vigyan Bhavan here.

Ahluwalia has been doing social work for the last 12 years.

He has also been awarded the Punjab State Award and District Award twice in the field of social service by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

With continuous efforts to highlight the concept of road safety, Ahluwalia has designed an innovative "Children Challan Book" for school children which has been appreciated and documented as one of the good practices at the national level in 2020 by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

The launch of the state's first helmet bank is again an exemplary contribution of Ahluwalia towards the safety of two-wheeler users.

The foundation based in Patiala under Ahluwalia's guidance holds reflective sticker camps regularly and is working on awareness generation activities among all stakeholders of the society.

The foundation has also been accorded the special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC) since 2018.
Rep. Cori Bush (D. Mo.), a new member of Congress, immediately joined the Squad, a collection of young House members more famed for their leftist radicalism than for their intelligence. Bush instantly fit in when it came to her radical politics. On Saturday, she proved that she was in the Squads league intellectually too. Thats because her rabid hatred for President Trump led her to mourn the execution of a White supremacist. Did I mention that Bush is Black?

Bush was exercised about the fact that Donald Trump reinstated carrying out the federal death penalty. Before he left office, Bush wanted everyone to know that, by carrying out lawful death penalty judgments, Trump himself became a murderer. This is her tweet to that effect:

The 13 people murdered by Trump's death row killing spree:



Daniel Lee

Wesley Purkey

Dustin Honken

Lezmond Mitchell

Keith Nelson

William LeCroy Jr.

Christopher Vialva

Orlando Hall

Brandon Bernard

Alfred Bourgeois

Lisa Montgomery

Corey Johnson

Dustin Higgs



Say their names.  Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 17, 2021

Youll note that, by using the phrase, Say their names, Bush is elevating these people to the same status as the martyrs of the Black Lives Matter movement, everyone from George Floyd (an ex-con who ODd on illegal drugs), to Jacob Blake (a wanted man who admitted to having a knife when he scuffled with police), to Trayvon Martin (a gang member wannabe, high on drugs, who tried to bash George Zimmermans head in), to Breonna Taylor (a moll for one of Louisvilles biggest drug lords).

But what makes Daniel Lee, the very first name on the list, different from all others is that he was a White supremacist. On January 11, 1996, Lee murdered a family of three: William Frederick Mueller, Nancy Ann Mueller, and their daughter Sarah Elizabeth Powell, 8 years old. He and his accomplice then hot them with a stun gun and suffocated them to death by taping plastic bags over their heads. They then threw the bodies into a swamp.

Say his name, Cori Bush! Say his name!

Bush was also unconcerned with the other victims of those who were convicted, lost appeals, and were eventually executed. Including Lees victims, the people on that list killed a total of 32 people between them.

Wesley Purkey kidnapped and killed 16-year-old Jennifer Long. He then dismembered her body, burned it, and dumped the remains in a septic pond. That same year, he used a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.

Dustin Honken, a drug lord, murdered five people in Iowa, including two children.

Lezmond Mitchell and his accomplices killed a woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter. They first tried to kill 9-year-old Tiffany by hitting her head with rocks but, when that failed, they slit her throat. They stabbed her grandmother, Alyce Slim, 33 times.

Keith Nelson kidnapped a 10-year-old girl, raped her, and strangled her to death.

William LeCroy Jr. raped and murdered a nurse by stabbing her repeatedly.

Christopher Vialva shot Todd and Stacie Bagley to death.

Orlando Hall, along with others, tortured, raped, and murdered, Lisa Rene, 16. She had the misfortune to open the door when they came looking for her brother in a dispute over drug money.

Brandon Bernard was part of the crew that killed Todd and Stacie Bagley.

Alfred Bourgeois, said the Justice Department, physically and emotionally tortured, sexually molested, and then beat to death his two-year-old daughter.

Lisa Montgomery strangled eight-month-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett and then sliced her open to steal the baby (who survived and is now 16).

Corey Johnson murdered seven people as part of his cocaine drug kingdom.

Dustin Higgs was part of a group that kidnapped and murdered three women.

Say their names, Rep. Bush. Say their names!

IMAGE: Cori Bush by Photo News 247. CC BY 3.0.
A gang with links to drug dealer David Waldron lost more than 1 million in cash when premises were searched linked to the mob.

Waldron and his mob are one of the top targets of the Gardas Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau along with the gang known as The Family headed by convicted heroin dealer Brian Grendon.

The money was found in a concealed in a vehicle which was seized for examination following an operation carried out over the weekend. A number of mobs have previously used hidden compartments in specially modified cars and vans to transport drugs, money and weapons.

Waldron is currently awaiting a decision by the Appeals Court regarding free legal aid he was granted to fight a CAB case against him. He was awarded legal aid in the High Court but the Bureau appealed the decision saying he spent nearly 3 million of unexplained wealth.

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Waldron is facing the CAB case against a property portfolio including a luxury mansion in the Wexford countryside which comes complete with riding paddocks and a man den.

He had purchased a property in Glenties Park in Finglas in 2001 and then invested in a second property at River Forest, Leixlip in Kildare, which had 315,000 in renovations carried out on it, before building the mansion in Wexford for 1.6 million. Another property in Cabra had more than 600,000 spent on it.

In court CAB have said that Waldron claims he got the money to buy the first house through dole money and working as a plasterer and a security guard. Lawyers for the Bureau also said they believe that Waldron still earns money from criminality. He has denied the claims.

Waldron and brother Christopher Git were once close associates of brutal drug lord Eamon The Don Dunne along with the Bradley brothers Wayne and Alan Fatpuss. Officers suspect they took over his turf after his murder at the Fassaugh House Pub in Cabra ten years ago.

Both brothers are subject to CAB proceedings with Christopher targeted for two properties in Finglas and Cabra and expensive jewellery. Justice Alexander Owens has previously said he will hear both cases together as well as a claim by Davids wife Charlene Waldron that she has a beneficial interest in the Wexford pile which she will say she invested in with money she got from her father.

The house is located in a townland called Laraheen and was built when David was serving time in prison for his role in a savage assault. It measures an enormous 3,000 square foot complete with bedrooms en-suite with double doors opening out onto viewing platforms.

Waldron designed his very own man den in his country hideaway and when Gardai raided the property two years ago they discovered that it was fitted out with his own personal bar with a pool table and a specially framed poster of The Godfather.

The house is surrounded with fencing and can only be accessed through intercom. It is covered in natural stone and also houses a gym and a pricey kitchen looking out over the valley below.

The house was raided by the Bureau along with 23 other properties linked to Waldron, both professional and private residences. The raids also involved officers from the Gardas Drug and Organised Crime Bureau with back up from the Emergency Response and other armed units.

David Waldron has nine convictions including one for drug dealing. Brother Christopher was part of a group of men jailed in connection with a violent assault.

The pair were once part of Eamon The Don Dunnes inner circle and are suspected of being amongst those who nabbed his business after he died, linking in with the Kinahan Cartel who had sanctioned his assassination.

A source said: Its gearing up to be a very bad year for Waldron. He will be seething that 1 million was seized just as he faces losing his property portfolio to the state.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be among the speakers at the online event the World Economic Forum is holding instead of its usual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Also in attendance at the conference running from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 will be Japans Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Geneva-based organization said.

With the global economy in the throes of its worst crisis in living memory, including spiraling joblessness and inequality, topics proposed by the WEF range from fair economic and social systems to digitization and the climate crisis.

On-hand to debate the issues will also be European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey -- along with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

Economic growth needs to be more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable," founder Klaus Schwab said at a briefing on Monday.

The WEFs annual meeting, typically held each January in the mountain resort, features world leaders, central bankers, corporate executives as well as celebrities and billionaires. The in-person event has been postponed due to the pandemic and is now scheduled to take place in Singapore in May.





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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An eagle-eyed driver has spotted a number plate reportedly worth $2million on the back of a $200,000 luxury Mercedes AMG.

The number plate, which was simply the single number 1, was seen on a car stopped at a set of traffic lights in Victoria.

The last Australian to own the coveted 1 number plate was Peter Bartels, the former CEO of Coles, in 2014.

The license plate, which was simply the single number 1, was on a car stopped at a set of traffic lights in Victoria

The plate, which was produced for the first time in 1932, was reportedly the cause of a disagreement between the Police Commissioner, the Premier and the Governor about who should get to keep it

However it's not known if Mr Bartels was behind the wheel of the silver Mercedes sedan at the time the photo was taken.

It's believed Mr Bartels rejected an offer of $1.5million for the sought-after plate, which is now estimated to be worth up to $2.4million.

The plate was produced for the first time in 1932 and was reportedly the cause of a disagreement between the Police Commissioner, the Premier and the Governor about who should get to keep it.

To keep the peace, none of the authorities were allowed to keep the plate and it was instead locked in a vault at the Motor Registration Board.

In 1984, the plates were auctioned off for $165,000 to Gary Price, a retired mechanic from Ballarat.

The plates eventually made their way into the hands of City Saab owner Izzy Herzog, although the price they were bought for was never disclosed.

They were later purchased by John Avram for a reported $250,000 after having been 'through several private hands'.

By 1988 it was rumoured the plates were on the market and expected to fetch about $250,000 at auction, however the buyer was never revealed.

Three years later the plates were purchased by Carlton & United Breweries. It's not know how much the brewery paid for the plates, but it's reported to have been significantly cheaper at $100,000.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz launched a sharp attack on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. She said that PM has fallen into the same "trap" they had set for him.

In a meeting with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz at Lahore's Accountability Court on Sunday, Maryam said, "The opponents wanted to trap the Nawaz Sharif [in litigation], but they now face the Broadsheet case against themselves. These elements are so corrupt that they even sought money from the company."

The Express Tribune further quoted PML-N Vice President as saying that all these cases will be abolished one day and her party will emerge victorious. She said, "This is not accountability, this is revenge," she said while adding, "We will also win the by-polls." According to the Express Tribune, she asserted that the Imran Khan-led government's actions in the Broadsheet charge sheet indicate "foul play". Few days ago, Broadsheet LLC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kaveh Moussavi had said that he had "voluntarily" identified the suspicious bank account in the UK having an account of USD 1 billion. He had also said that the Imran Khan government did not pay heed to the matter when he brought it to their notice.

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Gianluca Vacchi has expressed a desire to tie the knot with his partner Sharon Fonseca following the birth of their baby daughter Blu Jerusalema.

The Italian playboy, 53, and his 25-year-old girlfriend are in the throes of new parenthood after welcoming their bundle of joy into the world in October.

And in an interview with Hello! magazine, the millionaire has revealed that he now wants his daughter to grow up in a 'traditional' family, while Sharon has declared that she's eager to have more offspring with her beau.

Wedding bells: Gianluca Vacchi has expressed a desire to tie the knot with his partner Sharon Fonseca following the birth of their baby daughter Blu Jerusalema

When asked about the prospect of marriage, he said: 'Although I already feel married to Sharon, I would like my daughter to grow up on a traditional family and yes, I would marry, above all, for Sharon...

'I want to say I'll turn up one day with a ring and say: "Sharon, will you marry me right now?" On the other hand, I'd like to wait for Blu to be a little older so that she can be there and remember the wedding of her parents.'

And the couple, who plan to live between Italy and Miami, will likely have a sizeable family during their would-be union, as Sharon wants to have many more offspring.

After being asked if she would like more children, Sharon enthused: 'Yes, because I am living a dream. I enjoy every second so much that I would do it a thousand times.'

Parenthood: The Italian playboy, 53, and his 25-year-old girlfriend are in the throes of new parenthood after welcoming their bundle of joy into the world in October

Couples who party together: Gianluca is hitting pause on his party lifestyle with Sharon as the couple welcome on their new addition

Elsewhere in the interview, Gianluca revealed plans to get more involved with charities and foundations helping children with cleft palate, a condition his own daughter was born with last year.

Last month, he spoke candidly about how the diagnosis was a 'strong blow for both of us' and how his 'head, my soul and my heart immediately went with Blu'.

A cleft lip or palate occurs when the parts of a baby's face do not join properly during its development in the womb.

Gianluca told Hola! USA: 'When they told me, my head, my soul and my heart immediately went with Blu, but also with all the children who can have the same condition and who are not lucky enough of having resources like us.

Tough: The millionaire and his model girlfriend went on talk about Blu's birth, with Sharon explaining she had to have an emergency C-section after three days of labour

Recovery: In November, Sharon revealed that she has stopped using her phone and even forgets to drink water as she recovers from her C-section

'The operation consists of opening the palate and suturing the muscles that did not close naturally during pregnancy. But, of course, it is a surgery that involves anaesthesia, and Blu is only a few months old.

What is a Cleft Palate? A cleft lip or palate occurs when the parts of a baby's face do not join properly during its development in the womb. Around 1,200 babies are born with the condition every year in the UK. Cleft lips can range from a small notch in part of the lip to complete separation of the upper lip up to the nose. In some cases surgery is needed to close the gap left by the cleft, which usually takes place when the baby is under one-year-old. Treatment may also be required to aid speech, teeth growth and hearing. Source: Cleft Lip & Palate Association Advertisement

'Although the doctors have explained to us that once the problem is corrected, she will be able to lead a completely normal life. Thank God, she looks a lot more like her mother.'

The millionaire and his model girlfriend went on talk about Blu's birth, with Sharon explaining she had to have an emergency C-section after three days of labour.

The model said Gianluca 'could only cry and cry,' when he saw his daughter for the first time and managed to say to Sharon: 'She is doing well and she is beautiful, amore.'

Gianluca also expressed his hopes of 'combining my work with dedicating as much time as possible to my daughter to see her grow up and be with her'.

In November, Sharon revealed that she has stopped using her phone and even forgets to drink water as she recovers from her C-section.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Thank you guys for the love we have received.

'I dont lie if I tell you that this is the first time in a week I put on clothes other than my pjs, and that I havent used my phone the whole week, or sometimes I forget to even drink water, while recovering from a c-section.

'But honestly, Im enjoying every little second of it. Its been a week... and I feel nostalgic that time is flying already!!'

The happy couple are enjoying parenthood following the birth of their daughter, with Sharon proclaiming that Gianluca is the 'most amazing father'.
New observations made near the mouth of a small lake on the banks of the Iriri River in Brazils state of Para show Voltas electric eels (Electrophorus voltai) herding, encircling shoals of small fishes called tetras, and launching joint predatory high-voltage strikes on the prey ball. The observations, described in a paper in the journal Ecology and Evolution, challenge the idea that electric eels are exclusively solitary predators.

This is an extraordinary discovery. Nothing like this has ever been documented in electric eels, said Dr. Carlos David de Santana, a researcher in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of Natural History.

Hunting in groups is pretty common among mammals, but its actually quite rare in fishes.

There are only nine other species of fishes known to do this, which makes this finding really special.

First described in 2019, Voltas electric eels are a species of freshwater fish found in the rivers of South America.

They can reach lengths of 2.4 m (8 feet) and are capable of producing 860-V electric shocks  strongest electric discharge of any animal on Earth and 210 V higher than the previous record.

They are typically observed foraging solo at night, when active prey fish are resting in a somewhat lethargic state in shallow waters.

If you think about it, an individual of this species can produce a discharge of up to 860 volts  so in theory if 10 of them discharged at the same time, they could be producing up to 8,600 volts of electricity. Thats around the same voltage needed to power 100 light bulbs, Dr. de Santana said.

He and his colleagues filmed more than 100 adult Voltas electric eels hunting as a group in a small lake connected with the Iriri River.

This is the only location where this behavior has been observed, he said.

Our initial hypothesis is that this is a relatively rare event that occurs only in places with lots of prey and enough shelter for large numbers of adult eels.

The researchers hope that their newly-launched citizen scientist program called Projeto Poraque may help locate more of these special aggregations of eels.

The project, named for an Indigenous Brazilian word for electric eel, will allow users to report sightings and log observations.

_____

Douglas A. Bastos et al. Social predation in electric eels. Ecology and Evolution, published online January 14, 2021; doi: 10.1002/ece3.7121
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Lake Champlain Chocolates or LCC has recalled select LCC milk chocolate products citing the possible presence of foreign objects, mainly brittle plastic pieces, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The affected products include Hazelnut Five Star Bar; Fruit & Nut Five Star Bar; Almond Five Star Bar; Granola Five Star Bar; Organic Milk Chocolate Bar with Sea Salt & Almonds; Milk Chocolate Almond Bark; and Chocolates of Vermont Green Mountain. These products with various UPC and LOT codes and best by dates can be found within a variety of other gift packages, boxes and baskets. The affected items were distributed through retailers and distributors across all fifty states and in the company's three Vermont retail stores. The recall was initiated after a consumer reported finding brittle plastic pieces in a finished product. After initial investigations, LCC issued an alert and called back all potential affected product currently on the market from July 2020 through January 2021. However, the company has not received any consumer reports regarding adverse health effects due to the contamination. Customers are asked to discontinue use and immediately dispose of any affected products. In similar recalls, O&H Danish Bakery, Inc. in mid December called back 3,173 units of Almond Kringle sold in Trader Joe's retail stores in nine states citing the possible presence of undeclared Pecans. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
A health worker receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine from China in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 14, 2021. Photo:Xinhua

A video of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic welcoming the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in the cold wind went viral on Chinese social media platforms over the weekend, touching millions of Chinese netizens who applauded Vucic's strong endorsement of Chinese vaccines, which is of much significance amid fierce smearing from some Western media outlets.

"I went to the airport not only to receive the high-quality vaccines, but to demonstrate the friendship between China and Serbia," Vucic said Saturday according to a video posted by the People's Daily on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Vucic made the remarks at Nikola Tesla International Airport when receiving the first batch of one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by China's pharmaceutical company Sinopharm together with local officials, and the Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, on Saturday, according to the People's Daily.

This batch was said to be the first large-scale arrival of all eight million vaccines Serbia purchased from three different producers.

Serbia has also purchased Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine as well as a vaccine jointly developed by the US' Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech. The country plans to vaccinate 80 percent of its population of seven million, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In an apparent show of confidence in Chinese vaccines, the Serbian president said that he would get vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine, Xinhua reported.

Vucic is not the only foreign president or senior official who is confident in China's vaccines. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had his first dose of CoronaVac, produced by China's Sinovac on Thursday, the day Turkey kicked off mass inoculations using CoronaVac after the authorities approved emergency use of the Chinese vaccine, Xinhua reported.

At least 20 countries have purchased COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese manufacturers including Sinovac, Sinopharm and Cansino, according to the Global Times' calculations, with more planning to purchase Chinese vaccines despite some Western media's intense scrutiny over their efficacy and safety.

China has promised to provide its vaccines as a global public good to lead the worldwide recovery from the pandemic and has also revealed on some occasions it will donate vaccines to certain countries.

On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded a six-day visit to Southeast Asia, during which Wang said China decided to donate a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to Myanmar and the Philippines, continuing to help them combat the novel coronavirus, according to Xinhua.

Boosting confidence

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay on Saturday received the first dose of CoronaVac at the Ankara City Hospital, becoming the latest senior Turkish official to take a jab of Chinese vaccines, local media reported.

Previously, Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca received the first dose of CoronaVac live on television on Wednesday, becoming the first one in Turkey to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 675,000 health workers have received the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac during the first three days of the country's vaccination program, Xinhua reported Saturday citing the Turkish Health Ministry.

Indonesia and Malaysia have also ordered Sinovac vaccines - 125.5 million and 14 million doses respectively. Thailand and the Philippines are expected to receive millions of doses from China in the coming months, according to Xinhua.

The Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday that Indonesia has already begun mass vaccinations on Wednesday, thanks to sound collaboration with China.

He expressed his confidence in the Chinese vaccine, noting that the Sinovac vaccine has received a license from Indonesian authorities after scientific and technical evaluation.

"Indonesia's trust and confidence in Sinovac's vaccine is reflected in Widodo being the first to receive a jab. We share President Widodo's sentiments," the ambassador said.

The long road ahead

In a BBC report that many in China believe to be aimed at defaming Chinese vaccines on Friday, when the reporter asked a Turkish doctor whether he was worried about the vaccine's efficacy, the answer was an unequivocal "no." The local doctor also noted that clinical trials of the vaccine in Turkey showed more than 90 percent efficacy.

The doctor also admitted in the report that a level of distrust regarding Chinese vaccines is common around the world, maybe even reflecting the image of Chinese products in most people's eyes. "Unfortunately, this is true," said a Chinese vaccine industry insider reached by the Global Times.

The pandemic has put Chinese vaccines under global scrutiny. Large number of overseas purchase has boosted confidence in them. But insiders noted that there is a long road ahead for them to explore the international market, especially given continuous politicization of the vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a great opportunity for Chinese vaccine producers but the challenge remains huge, the insider noted.

Chinese vaccine producers have mostly focused on the domestic market before the COVID-19 pandemic and most of them barely export their products as the domestic market is big enough, a vaccine expert based in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, told the Global Times on Sunday under the condition of anonymity.

The international vaccine market has been mostly dominated by the big four major pharmaceutical companies, namely Pfizer, Merck, GSK and Sanofi, so there is little incentive or market space to encourage Chinese companies to branch out.

The big four major producers occupy about 90 percent of the international vaccine market, according to a report from Guangfa Securities in March 2020.

"But I can say that Chinese vaccines have no questions," said the anonymous expert, noting that it will take time to establish a reputation in the international market. Chinese companies can treat the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to gradually increase international cooperation.

Smear from the Western media outlets, especially after Brazilian authorities revealed a 50.4 percent efficacy rate in CoronaVac's late-stage trials, is also a huge hurdle that prevents many people in the West from viewing Chinese vaccines in an objective and scientific way, Chinese observers noted.

While hyping up doubt over CoronaVac's late-stage data, mainstream English-language media mentioned little about the deaths of 23 elderly Norwegian people after they were vaccinated with Pfizer vaccines as if those media outlets had already reached a consensus to downplay the incident.

Yang Xiaoming, CEO of leading Chinese vaccine producer Sinopharm's subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), previously told the Global Times that CNBG had never conducted such large-scale international Phase III clinical trials in cooperation with so many countries before.

CNBG is conducting Phase III clinical trials on two of its inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in 10 countries covering more than 50,000 volunteers, according to Yang.

"We have encountered many difficulties in communication and understanding local cultures and policies," Yang said, noting that the solution to these difficulties is nothing else but communication.

The anonymous expert suggests that Chinese vaccine companies can try to cooperate with Western countries in the future like the US and the EU. It would be easier for the world to accept Chinese vaccines' if they obtain certificates from authorities in these nations.
PORTLAND - Think of great teams: Briscoe and Logan, Rogers and Hammerstein, Montana and Rice, Laurel and Hardy.

Now add to that list the six-legged team of John and Patsy.

The Rev. John Antonelle is the pastor of St. Mary Church. Patsy is, for a lack of a better term, his assistant.

But the beloved Boxer is much more than that.

The other four legs of the team, Patsy is the one who gets a new photo in every new church bulletin. And the dog, whose breed is described by the American Kennel Club as Bright and alert, sometimes silly, but always courageous, certainly fits that bill, Antonelle said.

There always were dogs at Antonelles previous parishes.

When he was pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace, which is composed of St. Thomas Aquinas Church on the University of Connecticut campus and St. Mary in Coventry, his staff urged him to get a dog.

I love dogs, but I told them I was too busy, he said.

Undeterred, the staff began picking out suggestions.

I finally told them if I was going to have a dog, I wanted a Boxer, Antonelle said.

The staff found one online. It was being raised by an Amish breeder in Lancaster, Pa.

The pup had been born on Feb. 1, which sealed the deal for Antonelle.

That was my fathers birthday. He loved dogs, Antonelle said. We used to joke that if he ever came back, he would come back as a dog.

When he learned the pups birthday, I took it as some kind of a sign, Antonelle said. He drove to Lancaster, brought back the dog and, fittingly, named him for his father.

His name was Pasquale, but we all called him Patsy, Antonelle said of his father.

And so, Patsy it was for the dog.

Antonelle ministered to students at UConn. The students loved him. He was a therapy dog for the students, Antonelle said. During exam time, they would come in and play with Patsy to work off some of the stress.

The parishioners in Portland are equally taken with Patsy.

The kids took to him right away, Antonelle said.

Patsy, who has free run of the church, makes people feel very comfortable and safe.
Maintaining financial stability remains one of the uppermost objectives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), drawing from its wide mandate as the regulator of the banks, NBFCs and payment systems; regulator of the money, forex, government securities and credit markets; and also as the lender-of-the-last resort, according to Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor. He noted in a latest speech that since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008, financial stability has featured even more prominently in the discourse of central banks. It has been well documented that central banks in many countries were narrowly focused on price stability and perhaps overlooked the build-up of financial instability during the great moderation period.

The pre-crisis consensus was for unfettered financial sector growth and minimal regulation that was supposed to deliver even more growth. The 2008 crisis made it abundantly clear that financial strength of individual institutions does not add up to systemic stability. That was evident because before the crisis happened, almost every financial institution reported substantial capital adequacy. This made the policy makers realise that while micro-prudential regulations would help determine the strength of a financial entity, they have to be complemented with adequate macro-prudential regulations and anti-systemic risk measures. Preserving systemic stability thus emerged as the cornerstone of central bank policies.

He noted that India's financial system faces both challenging times and new opportunities as the Indian economy returns to full vitality. New vistas of financial intermediation leveraging on technology and new business models will emerge. With the exponential growth of digitisation and online commerce in India, the Reserve Bank has also directed its policy efforts to put in place a state of the art national payments infrastructure, while ensuring a safe, secure, efficient, cost-effective and robust payments ecosystem.

The Reserve Bank is positioning itself to provide an enabling environment in which regulated entities are catalysed to exploit these new avenues, while maintaining and preserving financial stability. The regulated entities, on their part, need to strengthen their internal defences to identify emerging risks early and manage them effectively. Financial stability is a public good and its resilience and robustness needs to be preserved and nurtured by all stakeholders.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

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Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

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World oil prices falling

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Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

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Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

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Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

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DGAP-Ad-hoc: Dexus Finance Pty Limited / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

Dexus Finance Pty Limited: Appointment of non-executive director



18-Jan-2021 / 02:54 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Appointment of non-executive director

Dexus today announced the appointment of Warwick Negus to the Board of Dexus Funds Management Limited (DXFM), as an independent non-executive director, effective 1 February 2021.

Mr Negus has more than 30 years of funds management, finance and property industry experience in Australia, Europe and Asia.

His most recent executive roles included Chief Executive Officer of Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Chief Executive Officer of 452 Capital, and Goldman Sachs Managing Director in Australia, London, and Singapore.

Mr Negus is Chair of Pengana Capital Group and a non-executive director of Washington H. Soul Pattinson, Virgin Australia Holdings Limited, Terrace Tower Group, New South Wales Rugby Union Limited and Tantallon Capital Advisors. He is also Deputy Chancellor and a member of the Council of UNSW and was formerly a

non-executive director of FINSIA.

Richard Sheppard, Chair of the DXFM Board said: "Together with my fellow Directors, I am pleased to welcome Warwick to the Board.

"Warwick brings a valuable mix of funds management, finance and property industry experience to our Board and I am looking forward to his contribution. His expertise complements the Board's diverse skillset and his appointment further progresses our Board renewal strategy."

The appointment of Mr Negus will result in eight independent non-executive directors and one executive director on the Board of DXFM. As previously announced at the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Peter St George, who has served more than 11 years as a non-executive director, will remain on the Board until 30 June 2021.

Mr Negus will stand for election at Dexus's next AGM, to be held in October 2021.

This notice is available at https://www.dexus.com/investor-centre/results-and-reporting/asx-announcements

Authorised by Brett Cameron, General Counsel and Company Secretary of Dexus Funds Management Limited.

For further information please contact:
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
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When Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connors Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for violating an injunction prohibiting demonstrations, he took the opportunity to meditate on the counsel of prudence with which Birminghams white ministers had greeted his campaign.

Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail was the result. Reading the Letter fifty years later is a humbling experience. Perhaps most striking is Kings seething anger over the indignities of segregation:

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, Wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white and colored; when your first name becomes nigger, your middle name becomes boy (however old you are) and your last name becomes John, and your wife and mother are never given the respected title Mrs.; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

In addition to Kings witness, Kings prophetic call permeates the Letter. Why did King presume to come from Atlanta to Birmingham? King writes:

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Kings prophetic call must have been both a source of strength and of concern. His strength was manifest; he rarely let his concern show. Perfection is not a condition of the prophets call, and King was both imperfect and aware of his imperfections. His unbending strength is all the more remarkable.

It is difficult to comprehend that King was only 39 years old at the time of his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, or that the prospect of his death weighed so heavily on his mind. He seems too young to have accomplished so much, or to have maintained his judgment under such trying circumstances. The magnitude of his own trials must have had a deep impact on him.

In the speech he gave in Memphis the day before his assassination, he movingly recalled his first confrontation with death:

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, Are you Martin Luther King? And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once thats punctured, you drown in your own blood  thats the end of you. It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. Ive forgotten what those telegrams said. Id received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but Ive forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and Ill never forget it. It said simply, Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. She said, While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And Im simply writing you to say that Im so happy that you didnt sneeze.

Here he paused to look back on what he had achieved with the time he had been granted:

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didnt sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man cant ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. Im so happy that I didnt sneeze.

Looking beyond his accomplishments, he likened himself to Moses, the prophet par excellence, and testified to the source of the prophets voice:

Well, I dont know what will happen now. Weve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesnt matter with me now. Because Ive been to the mountaintop. And I dont mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain. And Ive looked over. And Ive seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And Im happy, tonight. Im not worried about anything. Im not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

(First posted on Martin Luther King Day 2005.)

UPDATE 2011: Dr. Art Fougner writes from Forest Hills to note: Recently, our Medical Society of the County of Queens honored Dr. John W. Cordice with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Cordice was a young surgeon on duty at Harlem Hospital when Dr. King was brought in with his near fatal injury and was one of the team that saved his life. Thought youd appreciate the circles being completed. Dr. Fougner is past president of the society.
Rudy Giuliani has said he will not be on Donald Trump's legal team for the upcoming Senate impeachment trial - a day after claiming he would be spearheading the president's defense.

Speaking to ABC News on Sunday night, the former mayor of New York said: 'Because I gave an earlier speech [at the January 6 Trump rally], I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or Senate chamber.'

During the speech, Giuliani had instructed supporters to engage in 'trial by combat' moments before they stormed the Capitol - comments which have left him facing his own potential legal troubles.

Giuliani's about-turn Sunday came hours after Trump's campaign spokesperson issued a statement to contradict an earlier claim made by Giuliani on Saturday that he'd be spearheading Trump's impeachment defense.

'President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy, known as the "impeachment hoax." We will keep you informed,' spokesman J. Hogan Gidley tweeted on Sunday.

Gidley's Twitter feed is one of the few remaining social medial outlets Trump can use to get his message out - though Gidley must be careful not to share a message worded directly from the president, or his account would likely be shut down for aiding 'ban evasion'.

Giuliani, who is Trump's personal attorney, was spotted visiting the White House on Saturday, after the ABC interview. His status in Trump's eyes remains unclear after the president reportedly refused to pay Giuliani's $20,000-a-day legal fees in displeasure at his failed efforts to challenge the election results.

It comes as confusion surrounds who will represent Trump at impeachment, with many of the lawyers who defended him in his first Senate trial declining to participate in the second.

Giuliani was spotted visiting the White House on Saturday, after he had claimed to be on the president's impeachment legal team, which the Trump campaign later denied

Trump, seen on January 12, reportedly refused to pay Giuliani's $20,000-a-day legal fees in displeasure at his failed efforts to challenge the election results

Rudy Giuliani arrives at the White House on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/9O8583SMt2  The Hill (@thehill) January 16, 2021

In the interview on Saturday, Giuliani had claimed of the impeachment defense: 'I'm involved right now that's what I'm working on.'

Giuliani said there are 'different opinions' regarding how the president should approach his second impeachment, but said he planned to show that Trump's claims of election fraud were not incitement by proving in the Senate trial that the fraud claims themselves are true.

'They basically claimed that anytime [Trump] says voter fraud, voter fraud - or I do, or anybody else - we're inciting to violence; that those words are fighting words because it's totally untrue,' he said.

'Well, if you can prove that it's true, or at least true enough so it's a legitimate viewpoint, then they are no longer fighting words,' he added.

Giuliani's dozens of lawsuits alleging election fraud were all rejected in court, and Trump himself has not yet indicated whether he hopes to turn the Senate impeachment trial into a final public showdown on his unproven election fraud claims.

The trial will take place after Trump leaves office on Wednesday, and many of the lawyers who might be likely candidates to defend Trump have indicated they are not interested.

Constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who joined Trump's team last year and appeared in the Senate chamber, told DailyMail.com: 'I will be defending the First Amendment in the court of public opinion, not in the Senate.' He didn't say whether Trump had asked him to serve in his defense.

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, seen at Trump's first impeachment, said he won't defend Trump at a second impeachment trial, but will defend the First Amendment in public

John Eastman (left), who joined Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on stage at the January 6 rally, is being considered for a role on Trump's defense team, sources said

White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who helped lead the defense effort during the impeachment over Ukraine, is also not expected to participate in the latest effort, according to one person familiar with the matter. Cipollone will leave his post on January 20, when Joe Biden becomes president.

Jay Sekulow, another personal lawyer for Trump who played a role during the first impeachment, also is not expected to be involved.

Now, Trump is considering hiring a law professor who spoke at his January 6 rally, according to two people familiar with the matter.

John Eastman, who joined Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on stage at the rally, is being considered for a role on Trump's defense team, the people said.

Eastman, 60, who made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud at the rally, would neither confirm nor deny whether he will represent Trump, citing attorney-client privilege.

Asked whether he would be willing, Eastman said: 'If the President of the United States asked me to consider helping him, I would certainly give it consideration.'

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Eastman and has declined to comment on Giuliani.

Last week, Trump expressed disappointment with some of Giuliani's legal moves in challenging the election results, and ordered aids not to pay his fees of $20,000 a day in the failed push, two officials told the Washington Post.

The officials said the president is also demanding to personally approve all expenses incurred by Giuliani in his multi-state legal campaign to prove election fraud, which quickly fizzled in court.

In his election challenge push, Giuliani held a notorious press conference in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia in November, leading to speculation that the location had been booked in the belief it was the posh Four Seasons hotel

In Michigan, Giuliani's star witness Mellissa Carone (above) drew mockery from Saturday Night Live over her disjointed claims of massive election fraud

It was a sign Trump's relationship with Giuliani may be fracturing - although the president's lawyer is one of the few who have vigorously defended him in public, insisting that Trump's actions were not incitement.

Giuliani has been a key legal advisor to Trump in his election challenge, after leading a leading a personal crusade to unearth potential dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.

The former New York City mayor's legal charge challenging the election took bizarre turns at times, such as the notorious press conference held in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia.

It led to speculation that the location had been mistakenly booked in the belief that it was the upscale Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia in Center City, although the incident was never fully explained.

At another press conference, at the Republican National Committee in Washington DC, an agitated and sweaty Giuliani appeared to be melting on live TV, with some kind of hair dye dripping down the side of his face.

Trump, who is known to fixate on the image of his aides, insisting they project a polished veneer, was likely unhappy with those debacles and the mockery they drew.

As well, Giuliani now faces his own potential legal exposure for telling supporters to engage in 'trial by combat' in his remarks at a January 6 rally, following which Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Giuliani now faces his own potential legal exposure for advocating 'trial by combat' in his remarks at a January 6 rally, following which Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol

Giuliani has said that he was quoting from the HBO series Game Of Thrones, which he inexplicably described as a 'famous documentary about fictitious medieval England.' In 'Game of Thrones' the trial resulted in Bronn (left) slitting the throat of Ser Vardis Egen (right)

Defending his rally remarks, Giuliani has said that he was quoting from the HBO series Game Of Thrones, which he inexplicably described as a 'famous documentary about fictitious medieval England.'

'I was referencing the kind of trial that took place for Tyrion,' Giuliani told The Hill, referring to a character from the series.

'When Tyrion, who is a very small man, is accused of murder. He didn't commit murder, he can't defend himself, and he hires a champion to defend him,' he added.

Giuliani's rally comments appear in evidence for impeachment, after a House Judiciary Committee report cited them before the House voted to impeach Trump Wednesday on a single count of 'incitement to insurrection.'

Giuliani is also facing possible expulsion from the New York State Bar Association over the incendiary remarks.

Removal from the bar association, a voluntary membership organization dating to 1876, is not the same as being disbarred and banned from practicing law. That can only be done by the courts.

It's unclear whether Giuliani's rally remarks would raise concerns for Trump about including him on his impeachment legal team.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 35F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 35F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.
Demand for greater speed, inventory accuracy and agility will drive the way products are designed, made and sold

How is the sourcing landscape likely to shift in 2021, and what can apparel firms and their suppliers do to stay ahead, remain competitive and build resilience for the future? Reimagining apparel supply chains and ramping up investments in technology and digital tools to help mitigate risk, speed up production and reduce costs are key, experts say. Also top-of-mind are rewriting the rules on buyer-supplier relationships, end-to-end visibility, and a renewed push for sustainability and carbon neutrality.

Jason Kra, president, Li & Fung:

Covid-19 has really shown all brands and retailers that we need to have a very good diversified supply chain. Having all your eggs in just one, or a few, baskets has caused disruption and instability for many. Some factories are having to adjust their sewing or manufacturing lines for the items that are in demand today. Bankruptcies and changes in payment terms are causing a cash flow problem for suppliers. Insurance companies are also being conservative by not extending export insurances, so some suppliers are unable to generate cash  even when they have orders to hand. Lastly, logistics is a big issue  the pandemic has caused a significant imbalance in the availability of shipping containers with a build-up in markets like the US, while China and other Asian countries do not have enough to meet demand. While this imbalance will likely correct itself, it is not clear when that will be. Overall, retailers and suppliers must learn to anticipate what is to come, listen out for signals of possible challenges ahead and be extremely agile.

Edwin Keh, CEO, Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA):

One of the first victims of the 2020 pandemic was the trust between buyers and suppliers. Many companies will have to rebuild this relationship in 2021. New tools to improve transparency, new commercial agreements, and new trading terms will result in more robust and resilient supply chains.

The dynamic and rapid changes that the pandemic has brought about in market demand and distribution channels have accelerated much-needed changes to design tools, purchasing systems, and distribution tools.

While the demand for greater speed continues in the supply chain, this is now accompanied by the realisation that the actual goal is inventory accuracy, the agility to respond to market changes, and intelligence about local demand at the SKU level. We are seeing the end of the era of making things in the hopes that consumers will buy somewhere down the line, to a new marketplace where products are made when there is great certainty of demand. Data analytics, predictive tools, and make on demand solutions will be more and more normative.

Sustainability, circularity, and carbon neutrality should feature more and more in the way we design, make, transport, store, sell (or lease) products and deal with the reuse and repurposing of post-consumer materials. Access to renewable resources and energy will determine more and more where factories are built, what materials will be used, and how products are handled. Trust in the end-to-end transparency of, and information about, the supply chain will be more and more important to the consumer  and supply chain operators will have to build the tools for real-time tracking of information, and the vocabulary for easy-to-understand point of sale communication of this to the consumer.

Matthijs Crietee, secretary general, International Apparel Federation (IAF):

Geographically speaking, some of the current shifts, such as production closer to the market and a decline of Chinese market share, will continue. Trade politics is accelerating the latter, the transition to more flexible sourcing models is fuelling the former trend. From the buyer's side, uncertainty in the world demands that risks are spread across more supplier countries than before. From the manufacturer's side, a need for diversity has also arisen due to loss of trust caused by too much unpaid production and uncertainty over a client's financial health. Globally, manufacturers are broadening their customer bases.

Ironically, considering what happened in the spring of 2020, the role of apparel manufacturers in the supply chain has become more strategic. To produce what the consumer wants requires upstream flexibility. Across the supply chain, partnering strategically and communicating transparently among partners is what enables faster, more responsive and more sustainable supply chains. Large brands and retailers will more often work through longer term partnerships with larger manufacturers. But similarly, small upcoming brands will need to work in close collaboration with small and super responsive suppliers, sometimes even being micro-factories right on their doorstep. New processes in the supply chain will require a new contract between buyers and suppliers, figuratively and literally speaking.

Transparency will be a huge issue. Tier 1 suppliers will face pressure, but also opportunities to play an important role in acquiring more transparency upstream for their clients. Alongside the physical and financial stream in the supply chain, in 2021 the data stream will be key.

Dr Sheng Lu, associate professor at the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware:

Apparel companies' sourcing and supply chain strategies will continue to evolve in response to consumers' shifting demand, the impact of Covid-19, and the new policy environment. Several trends are worth watching in 2021.

#1: Sourcing bases at the country level will stay relatively stable in 2021 overall. For example, although it sounds a little contradictory, fashion companies will continue to treat China as an essential sourcing base but further reduce their 'China exposure,' a process that started years before the tariff war. Most apparel sourcing orders that leave China will go to China's competitors in Asia, such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia. This means that Asia, as a whole, will remain the single largest source of apparel imports, particularly for US and Asia-based fashion companies. In comparison, near-sourcing is still NOT likely to happen on a large scale, mainly because it requires enormous new investments to rebuild the supply chain, and most fashion companies do not have the resources to do so during the pandemic.

#2: Sourcing diversification is slowing down at a company level, and more apparel firms are switching to consolidate their existing sourcing base. For example, the 2020 USFIA benchmarking study found close to half of respondents said they plan to "source from the same number of countries, but work with fewer vendors" through 2022. Another 20% said they would "source from fewer countries and work with fewer vendors." The results are understandable  competition in the apparel industry is becoming supply chain-based. Building a strategic partnership with high-quality vendors will play an ever more critical role in supporting the efforts of fashion brands and retailers to achieve speed to market, flexibility and agility, sourcing cost control, and low compliance risk. Thus, apparel companies find it more urgent and rewarding to consolidate their existing sourcing base and resources and strengthen relationships with their key vendors.

#3: Apparel sourcing executives still need to keep a close watch on trade policy in 2021. However, we may see fewer news headlines about trade and more "behind the door" advocacy and diplomacy. Specifically:

US Section 301 actions. While the punitive tariffs on Chinese goods may not go away anytime soon, there could be a fight over whether the new Biden administration should continue to grant certain companies exclusions from those tariffs. Further, in October 2020, the Trump administration launched two new Section 301 investigations on Vietnam regarding its import and use of timber and reported currency undervaluation. The case is pending, but the stakes are high for fashion companies  Vietnam is often seen as the best alternative to sourcing from China and already accounts for nearly 20% of total US apparel imports.

While the punitive tariffs on Chinese goods may not go away anytime soon, there could be a fight over whether the new Biden administration should continue to grant certain companies exclusions from those tariffs. Further, in October 2020, the Trump administration launched two new Section 301 investigations on Vietnam regarding its import and use of timber and reported currency undervaluation. The case is pending, but the stakes are high for fashion companies  Vietnam is often seen as the best alternative to sourcing from China and already accounts for nearly 20% of total US apparel imports. The US-China relationship. We all know the relationship is at its low-point, but the fact is many US fashion companies still treat China as one of their most promising markets. China also continues to expand its role in the Asia-based textile and apparel supply chain. In a nutshell, more than ever, apparel executives need to care about what is going on in geopolitics. Hopefully, "tough times can breed positive outcomes."

We all know the relationship is at its low-point, but the fact is many US fashion companies still treat China as one of their most promising markets. China also continues to expand its role in the Asia-based textile and apparel supply chain. In a nutshell, more than ever, apparel executives need to care about what is going on in geopolitics. Hopefully, "tough times can breed positive outcomes." CPTPP and RCEP. With the reaching of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2020, there are growing calls for the new Biden administration to consider rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in some format to showcase the US presence in the Asia-Pacific region. To make the situation even more complicated, China has openly expressed its interest in joining the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), commonly known as 'the TPP without the US.' 2021 will be a critical time for all stakeholders, including the apparel sector, to debate various trade policy options that could shape the future trade architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.

With the reaching of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2020, there are growing calls for the new Biden administration to consider rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in some format to showcase the US presence in the Asia-Pacific region. To make the situation even more complicated, China has openly expressed its interest in joining the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), commonly known as 'the TPP without the US.' 2021 will be a critical time for all stakeholders, including the apparel sector, to debate various trade policy options that could shape the future trade architecture in the Asia-Pacific region. Brexit. Brexit will enter a new phase in 2021 after the transition period ends on 31 December 2020. On the positive side, there is a playbook to follow: the UK has announced its new tariff schedules for various scenarios, which provide critical market predictability. There might also be a new US-UK free trade agreement in the first half of the year, which will be exciting news for the apparel sector, particularly those in the luxury segment. However, as the US Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is set to expire in July 2021, when and how soon such an agreement will enter into force will be another story. By no means will trade policy in 2021 be boring.

Julia Hughes, president, United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA):

After the disruption to supply chains that we experienced during 2020, we are optimistic that we will see some positive changes in sourcing and supply chains. The opportunity is for apparel brands and retailers, and the entire supply chain, to start now to implement what some industry insiders call the "lessons from Covid."

The industry has found that we can stay close to the customer and design and manufacture the right product with less travel and more decisions made faster from the comfort of our home or office. This represents a great opportunity to take actions that the industry has been talking about for many years. After the tough times of the past year, we are optimistic that the sourcing landscape will reflect a new level of agility and flexibility, combined with social responsibility, that will improve supply chains for the apparel industry.

Robert Antoshak, industry consultant:

There could be a significant bump in retail sales this holiday season. However, it is difficult to gauge whether such an increase will be permanent, a sign of pent-up demand, or merely a way for consumers to edge towards some degree of normalcy. Inventories are way down from previous years' levels, but discounting remains  mixed signals from a mixed-up economy.

Regardless, while it's a near certainty that online shopping will gain, the pandemic may harm physical shopping due to rolling lockdowns in major consuming markets. But the longer-term outlook for consumer demand, and hence the overall health of our industry, remains in the balance. It's a fool's errand to venture a guess on this market's direction beyond just the immediate near-term. Much will depend on the intensity of the pandemic and government actions to curtail public gatherings. I want to think that the economy  hence demand for our industry's products  will improve as the pandemic passes. In turn, physical shopping may prove to be more resilient than appears to be the case today. Only time will tell.

Nevertheless, diversification in sourcing will be essential. If the pandemic has taught us anything as an industry, over-reliance on one or two suppliers only weakens buyers over time. Buyers like to think they run things. Well, they don't. That power resides in the overall supply chain. In some ways, we're not witnessing the decline of globalisation, but the limits of globalisation's benefits. Globalisation can be a force for good  employment in the developing world, competitive prices for products consumed in the developed world. But it can equally be a force that harms the system's very roots  cancelled contracts, labour abuses, and environmental devastation, to name a few. We should re-evaluate the traditional slash and burn approach to sourcing, too. Just because things have worked for the past 25 years doesn't mean it will continue just because that's the way it's always been. Sourcing managers: wake up. Think outside what was and consider what could be  this should be a time of innovation, not cowering.

Lynda Petherick, head of retail, Accenture UKI:

It's no secret that the fashion retail supply chain was riddled with problems long before Covid-19  and in fact, the pandemic was instrumental in bringing many of these issues to the fore.

After such a challenging year, apparel firms have no choice but to harness technology to establish a more agile supply chain, putting them in the most resilient position possible for unprecedented events and changes to trade. We live in a social media world where consumers see a product and want it instantly, and to keep up, retailers try to respond to that. But let's not confuse this with fast fashion  if fashion must be fast, it must be good and never at the detriment of our suppliers, workers and planet.

More agility means faster responses to trends, less excess stock and more flexibility. Smaller and more regular sourcing batches eliminate the need to place huge orders six months in advance and reduce order cancellations, whilst embedding ethics and sustainability throughout every step of the supply chain.

Circularity is another vital piece of the supply chain puzzle when it comes to a garment's lifecycle, ensuring resource efficiency through using recycled products and extending their usability through quality and durability.

Let's not forget how important visibility and transparency of a product's lifecycle is. Nowadays, consumers love seeing a garment's whole journey from the fabric maker to the shop floor  so apparel firms that can tap into this as an experience may build stronger consumer relationships whilst holding themselves to account.

Rajiv Sharma, group chief executive, Coats:

Pre-Covid, the apparel industry was under pressure to improve speed, lower cost, become more innovative, be more transparent, connect digitally and be more responsive to customer needs. Covid has acted as an accelerant to these pre-existing challenges. However, in a post-Covid world the industry will be faced with two more challenges: agility and resilience.

2020 demonstrated how a flexible global supply chain provides greater resilience in a crisis. It has enabled manufacturers to shift their operations away from regions with government lockdowns and effectively stay one step ahead of Covid as it tracks round the globe.

Suppliers could focus on the following to stay ahead in a post-Covid world:

 Build nearshoring capacity;

 Digitise and automate manufacturing and warehousing;

 Build manufacturing on demand capability;

 Increase use of sustainable forms of energy, materials and manufacturing;

 Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG).

Efficiency and agility will come through digital transformation. While our industry has traditionally been behind others, it is catching up. The next five years will see extensive digitisation of our supply chain.

Sustainability and ESG have moved even further up the agenda for consumers and brands. This has made it a priority for the entire supply chain. ESG is a source of competitive advantage for those who can verifiably demonstrate they have it deeply embedded in their organisation.

While 2021 will continue to be economically challenging for our industry it will create opportunities for many companies that have a focus on supply chain efficiency, resilience, transparency, ESG, innovation, digital, speed and agility.

Rick Horwitch, vice president - global retail lead & supply chain strategy, Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services:

Given the events of the past year, the answer to this question is summed up as: disrupted, digitised, innovative and flexible.

In March and April the global supply chain practically stopped. Then, out of necessity, pivoted to meet the sudden change in demand and shopping. How the consumer engages with the retailer has changed, forever.

To meet this opportunity, strategies must be built around demand and supply: speed, efficiency, regional balance and transparency. Collaboration and a commitment to trust across the entire chain can no longer be a catch phrase  this needs to be a foundational principle, for the greater good.

The key is to create a collaborative value equation that addresses the entire product cycle (concept to consumer to post-consumer). We are living through an amazing retail renaissance that is driven by choice, innovation, digitisation, product and social justice and high quality products and processes.

What is not changing is the fact that we, as consumers, have certain basic expectations when making a purchase. One is the assumption of quality. We expect that the products we buy, regardless of the outlet, timing and price point, work and won't harm us. The push for speed, sustainability, reduced inventories and margin pressure can have a negative impact on the entire process. This doesn't need to be the case. Digitising processes, harnessing the power of data and collaborative communications will drive significant improvements in speed, cost, quality and customer satisfaction.

Most retailers and brands have moved to a balanced sourcing strategy. However, moving production from China to other countries (such as Vietnam) is the "easy" part. The challenge is that the infrastructure (ports, logistics, fibre, yarn, textiles, trims, quality services and production/workforce capacity and capabilities) could be lacking.

I believe 2021 will see an acceleration in:

Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese suppliers continuing to invest and expand abroad (Vietnam/Southeast Asia, AGOA, Americas) to verticalise these regions.

Regional sourcing closer to the consumer will continue to expand (Asia for Asia, EMEA for EMEA, Americas for Americas).

Enhanced collaboration and communication through the adoption of digital tools for every aspect of the chain (design, samples, fit, colour, product development, quality etc).

Stephen Lamar, president and CEO, American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA):

Diversification, dexterity, and digitalisation will be the watchwords for successful supply chains in 2021 and beyond. Being nimble, employing technology smartly, and minimising risk will be critical to thrive and successfully navigate obstacles in the Covid-19 era.

Some of these obstacles are already known. Trump era tariffs on China, and possibly on Vietnam, that persist into the Biden administration will mean continued costs imposed on importers. But some of the biggest obstacles are still unknown. Changing regulatory requirements, at either the federal or state level, will also affect supply chains.

AAFA will ensure that these governments recognise the critical role of responsible global value chains, creating well-paying US jobs. We will also fight harder than ever to convey how tariffs and poorly implemented and enforced policies harm US companies in our industry and the more than 4 million US workers they employ.

While trade policy may take a lower profile in the Biden administration initially, it will be pursued in a manner that is less chaotic, more predictable, and more multilateral than the past four years. The Biden administration will be tough on China  but "smart tough"  to advance well-articulated American goals.

Job number one will continue to be recovery from Covid-19. This means stimulus policies to sustain the economy until it can sustain itself and common-sense Covid-19 management until a vaccine is widely distributed. We also need to future proof our supply chains, building and funding those public-private partnerships that ensure our industry stays resilient in the face of future such threats.

Mike Flanagan, CEO of apparel industry consultancy Clothesource:

Globally : Four themes will remain constant in 2021: China will continue to dominate rich-country clothing imports; production is still not "coming home"; Africa isn't the "future of clothes manufacture"; and robots aren't going to make all  possibly not even some  of our clothes. But, with the US set to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, attention in the climate debate will switch towards using technology and global cooperation to develop resilience where people need it most: in the desperately poor countries most reliant on exporting garments. There's also China, which has no respect for laws, and needs to be dealt with. The US, EU, the UK and Japan are far from agreeing how  but do completely agree they must lead on dealing with the menace. Ultimately in any market: the supplier must bend to the customer.

: Four themes will remain constant in 2021: China will continue to dominate rich-country clothing imports; production is still not "coming home"; Africa isn't the "future of clothes manufacture"; and robots aren't going to make all  possibly not even some  of our clothes. But, with the US set to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, attention in the climate debate will switch towards using technology and global cooperation to develop resilience where people need it most: in the desperately poor countries most reliant on exporting garments. There's also China, which has no respect for laws, and needs to be dealt with. The US, EU, the UK and Japan are far from agreeing how  but do completely agree they must lead on dealing with the menace. Ultimately in any market: the supplier must bend to the customer. Brexit : To all intents and purposes, no clothing sold in Britain is manufactured in Britain. There will be some increase in the cost of European clothing (because many garments made in the European Economic Area (EEA) will no longer qualify for duty-free access: they won't meet the origination requirement). And delays at British ports, whose costs (says Tesco) will be borne by suppliers, not retailers. The timing of how Britain adjusts to Brexit is currently very unclear. Britain's clothing industry will, of course, adapt to it  when we know what "it" is  but I think adapting will include forcing Boris Johnson's government to honour his post-Referendum promise of staying in the Single Market. But in the first six months, the downside of that decision will certainly be visible. Shops will be closed for much of the year anyway  so there will be lots of government cash to help businesses restructure for the retail boom in 2022.

: To all intents and purposes, no clothing sold in Britain is manufactured in Britain. There will be some increase in the cost of European clothing (because many garments made in the European Economic Area (EEA) will no longer qualify for duty-free access: they won't meet the origination requirement). And delays at British ports, whose costs (says Tesco) will be borne by suppliers, not retailers. The timing of how Britain adjusts to Brexit is currently very unclear. Britain's clothing industry will, of course, adapt to it  when we know what "it" is  but I think adapting will include forcing Boris Johnson's government to honour his post-Referendum promise of staying in the Single Market. But in the first six months, the downside of that decision will certainly be visible. Shops will be closed for much of the year anyway  so there will be lots of government cash to help businesses restructure for the retail boom in 2022. EU: Because we can't tell how long it will take for the reality of Brexit to become clear, we also can't tell how long the EU's negotiation resources will be tied up with the disappearance of its second-biggest trading partner. But it's difficult to see any major developments in the EU's clothing supply chains  except to join its Western peers in putting China back in its box. At the end of 2020, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) the EU signed with China was criticised. This is just a reminder that those Western peers dominate the world's trade because they tolerate criticism, not in spite of it. China's still far poorer than them because it doesn't.

Click on the following link to learn more about what to expect in the year ahead: Outlook 2021  Apparel industry challenges and opportunities
Union Minister on Monday hoped that the and resultant deaths in the country will be reduced by 50 per cent before 2025, and said there should be no compromise on saving the lives of the persons involved in

Stating that 415 people die on roads in India every day, Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said there is a need to expedite the task of saving the lives of people.

The minister said that last year, the Centre had participated in a conference in Sweden where a vision was conceptualised to have zero road fatalities in India by 2030.

"We had promised that we will reduce deaths and accidents by 50 per cent. Today, we saw the success story of Tamil Nadu. It (Tamil Nadu) has reduced the accidents and deaths by 53 per cent," the minister said.

He added that if "we keep waiting till 2030, then at least 6-7 lakh people will die more due to road accidents". Before 2025, the country will be able to reduce the deaths and accidents by 50 per cent, the minister said.

Gadkari also said the government will spend Rs 14,000 crore to identify black spots on roads which are vulnerable to accidents.

"The World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank) have given approval to two projects worth Rs 7,000 crore each. We are hopeful of getting approval from the finance ministry soon. We will spend Rs 14,000 crore to identify black spots," Gadkari said during the launch of the Month.

The minister also expressed hopes that by March-end, the road construction target of 40 km a day would be achieved.

"This time, till now, we have broken the record of road construction. Today, we have reached over 30 km... Probably, by this March-end, we will reach road construction of 40 km per day," Gadkari said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was also present on the occasion, said deaths due to not only lead to the loss of life but also hit the country's economy.

He also said programmes like the Month not only exude confidence in people but also help in increasing awareness.

Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh said around 1.5 lakh persons die on road every year due to various reasons.

The Month, he said, should be utilised to bring in a culture of safety.

To put a check on the rising accidents, he said the ministry has taken various initiatives.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said India is a country where 85 per cent passenger travel and 65 per cent freight travel take place by road.

He also said the government has taken various initatiatives to put a check to road accidents and the Centre is also working on reducing black spots.

During the Road Safety Month, awareness about causes of road accidents and measures to prevent them will be highlighted by organising various activities with school and college students, drivers and all other road users.

These activities include display of banners, walkathons, road signage and pamphlets related to road safety.

Various departments of state governments like transport, police, PWD, health, education, municipal bodies, vehicle manufacturers and dealers and doctors, among others, would also participate in events during the month.

(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.)
Nigerias health minister, Osagie Ehanire, has said efforts are ongoing to secure about 10 million more doses of the approved COVID-19 vaccines for Nigerians.

Mr Ehanire while speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing, on Monday, said the country is expecting 10 million doses of the viral vector vaccine, which could be supplied as from March 2021.

He said Nigeria is participating in the African Union initiative called African Vaccine Availability Task Team, which has secured 270 million doses of various types of vaccines.

Bearing in mind options suitable for our environment and the available infrastructure, as well as Investment in delivery, Nigeria has written to express interest in 10 million doses of the viral vector vaccine, which could be supplied as from March 2021, Mr Ehanire said.

Apart from the COVAX facility, which is billed to cover just 20 per cent of our population, we plan to increase our chances of getting enough vaccines to meet the countrys need to cover an additional 50 per cent of the population.

The Nigerian government had said it will receive at least 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January through COVAX, an initiative run by the vaccine alliance, GAVI, to ensure equitable access to vaccine.

It also said the country is expecting free 42 million doses of vaccines in the second phase through the COVAX facility.

These vaccines will cover only about 20 per cent of Nigerias over 200 million estimated population.

Preparing ahead

Mr Ehanire said preparations are ongoing to receive the COVID-19 vaccines.

He said this requires countries to develop a procurement, supply chain and distribution plan for commodities and devices, as well as a sustainability plan.

These we are already working on so that we are ready when the vaccines arrive, he said.

He said the government will engage other agencies, religious and traditional leaders in the plans for vaccines distribution.

He explained that their role is critical to the orderly and successful deployment of vaccines.

We must be able to reach all those eligible to receive the vaccines, he said.

Vaccine security

Mr Ehanire had in late November, inaugurated an 18-member national COVID-19 task team to ensure vaccine security when it finally gets to the country.

He said the committee would have a seven-point of reference which will include generating strategies for acquisition, deployment and options for licensed production of the vaccines.

The minister urged citizens to disregard claims by some people selling fake COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

He said there are procedures for vaccine acquisition and use which include appropriate regulation and certification by NAFDAC.

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I advise against fake vaccines, as there is no vaccine approved for use in the country and NPHCDA is the only authorized vaccine administrator in Nigeria, he said.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has earlier cautioned Nigerians over fake coronavirus vaccines, explaining that no vaccines have been approved by the agency.

NAFDAC has not received any application from Covid Vaccine manufacturers yet and therefore no vaccines have been approved by NAFDAC.

COVID-19 vaccines are new, and the side effects or adverse events must be well monitored, therefore, if NAFDAC does not approve, the public should not use, Director-General of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, said.
MOSCOW, JAN 18 - Russian Foreign Minister Serghiei Lavrov told a press conference Monday that "from what I can see Italy, not without resistance from Brussels, is defending its right to develop bilateral relations with Russia and it is doing so in a sincere way, I think," TASS reported. "I think, on the basis of my contacts with Italian colleagues, that Italy does not consider sanctions an efficient instrument to influence Russia, in this case, or any other in general". (ANSA).
The 72nd Republic Day parade in India would be different as compared to the preceding years, due to the impact of COVID-19. From a cap on spectators to biobubble for participating soldiers, an array of restrictions have been announced.

No foreign guest

For the first time in 55 years, no foreign head of state would be attending the Republic Day parade. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was invited as the chief guest in December, cancelled his visit earlier this month citing the unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases in the UK.

Cap on spectators

The audience of R-Day parade would be reduced by one-fourth as compared to the previous years. The government has decided to allow a maximum of 25,000 spectators at Rajpath, down from around 1.15 lakh in 2019. Children below the age of 15 and senior citizens aged above 65 would not be permitted.

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

Shorter military contingents

The Indian Army will deploy six contingents of armed forces and paramilitary forces for the parade. Instead of the regular contingents comprising of 144 soldiers, each of them will comprise of 96 this year, NDTV reported.

Children participation reduced

Unlike the past year when nearly 600 children and folk artists participated for various cultural programmes, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the parade this year will feature only 321 children.

Parade route shortened

The parade will end at the National Stadium this year, instead of the Red Fort, Hindustan Times reported officials as saying. The number of cultural programmes would also be reduced, the report added.

Biobubble for soldiers

The soldiers participating in the Republic Day parade would be kept in a biobubble, till the event concludes, The Week reported. Their movement would be restricted in accordance with the biobubble norms. The move is aimed at preventing them from contracting coronavirus.
(Natural News) Nicolas Maduro, the socialist president of Venezuela, claims that his country has produced a medicine that annihilates 100 percent of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) without causing side effects.

The supposed coronavirus treatment was developed by researchers at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), who have been working on a cure for COVID-19 since May.

Tremendous news! said Maduro in a tweet. We certify the [TR-10] molecule as a highly effective antiviral in the fight against COVID-19. We have started the certification process with the [World Health Organization] to offer this treatment to the world. I thank the IVIC team for this great contribution to humanity. (Related: Venezuela enacts strict price controls amid coronavirus pandemic, basic goods now priced higher than minimum wages.)

The medicine is based on a molecule known as TR-10. The IVIC scientists pitted it against the coronavirus and found that it could effectively kill the pathogen. Maduro claims that the study that announced TR-10s effectiveness has already been reviewed by medical experts and other scientists.

According to Gabriela Jimenez, head of the Venezuelan Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the TR-10 molecule is an ursolic acid derivative that can inhibit the ability of the COVID-19 virus to replicate. The study was conducted on cells isolated from Venezuelans who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

It is unclear whether Venezuelan scientists have conducted tests on humans. These kinds of treatments are supposed to go through several rounds of testing in people over the course of several years before they can be certified as effective.

Furthermore, the doses that are usually used in studies often prove to be intolerable for humans. So, while lab results may say the treatment is effective against COVID-19, it may not necessarily be safe for people to take.

Despite criticisms, the IVIC has stressed that their studies concluded that TR-10 will not have any side effects and that it does not affect healthy molecules in the body.

Maduro said that he is willing to share the TR-10 treatment with the rest of the world through international alliances, in exchange for aiding Venezuela in the production of the drug. A representative for the Pan American Health Organization  a regional department within the WHO  said that nobody in Venezuela has shared any information regarding the drug.

Venezuela still purchasing vaccines from Russia

Despite the supposed effectiveness of its coronavirus treatment, Venezuela is still looking to Russia to supply the socialist regime with enough coronavirus vaccines to inoculate the entire population.

Venezuela first received a batch of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, back in October as part of the vaccines final post-registration trial that involved tens of thousands of people from around the world. The doses Venezuela received were enough to supposedly inoculate 2,000 people.

Now, the country has signed a deal with Russia. In the first phase of the contract, the Russian government will provide enough doses of Sputnik V to inoculate 10 million people.

This is a safe vaccine, it is a step forward, said Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Dec. 29, the day the deal was signed. She was accompanied by the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov.

The move comes as many countries across Central and South America begin purchasing vaccines for their citizens. Some countries, like Argentina, have already started distribution. The government in Buenos Aires announced that the country has already received and begun distributing 300,000 doses of Sputnik V. The country has a deal with Russia to purchase at least 20 million doses over the next few months.

Russia first registered their coronavirus vaccine back in August. However, criticisms of the medication have emerged since it was approved well before the beginning of late-stage efficacy trials. Despite this, the Russian government claims that Sputnik V is over 95 percent effective, which would put it on par with the vaccine made by American and German pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech.

As of press time, Venezuela had reported 117,881 cases of COVID-19, including 1,084 deaths.

Learn more about how nations around the world are trying to deal with the coronavirus pandemic at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

RT.com 1

Twitter.com

RepublicWorld.com

TelesurEnglish.net

Reuters.com

RT.com 2

TheHill.com

Coronavirus.JHU.edu
To a Melburnian, arriving in Tasmania feels like stepping into a plague-free oasis. Anyone would be apprehensive about crossing a state border right now, but the anxiety quickly dissipates in the face of a relaxed and friendly COVID-normal.

MONAs Festival of Music and Art kicked off in Launceston last weekend, offering a tantalising foretaste of how major arts and culture festivals will adapt to COVID-19 through 2021.

There are several significant changes from last year. There is no pall of mega-fire smoke drifting across Bass Strait and smudging the sky. And Australias border closure provided an opportunity to focus on performing arts and allowed Tasmanian musicians into the limelight.

MOFO Sessions at Royal Park. Credit:Mona/Jesse Hunniford

MONA FOMA may be the only festival to expand its footprint in 2021. With extra funding, it is now spread over two cities: one week in Launceston, one in Hobart. Launceston got first bite at the cherry, and the picturesque city wasted no time embracing the hyper-local focus.

Site-specific performances provided the most memorable highlights. Set around kanamaluka, or the Tamar River estuary, Big hARTs Acoustic Life of Boatsheds combined a potted guide to the areas history and ecology with a sublime musical adventure.

The piece was bookended by a nautical serenade: the Kiribati Choir  an "accidental choir' formed by homesick fruit pickers from the low-lying Pacific Islands  arrived by boat and reduced more than one listener to tears of joy.

Mozambique: Illegal fishing declines in Bazaruto National Park

January 18,2021 | Source: AllAfrica

The administration of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (PNAB), Mozambique's largest marine conservation area, has recorded a significant reduction in illegal fishing cases, by nearly half, in 2020 compared with the previous year.



Between 2019 and 2020, illegal fishing in the archipelago, lying between the districts of Inhassoro and Vilankulo in the southern province of Inhambane, fell by 47.5 per cent. There were 85 recorded cases in 2020, against 162 in 2019.



Tomas Chibale, head of PNAB Protection and Inspection, said the reduction comes as result of the placement of signaling buoys, which clearly delimit the conservation area.



"The inspection activity has been jointly steered by the Vilankulo naval patrol, the park's inspectors and the maritime and inland water police. The team ensures day and night protection of the conservation area," Chibale said. He said that the inspectors, besides seizing the fishing gear from those fishing illegally, try to raise their awareness about the need to ensure the continuity of marine wild life species, for future generations.



He said that criminal, administrative and disciplinary proceedings were taken against the men involved in illegal fishing activities in the park.



"Some of the individuals are under police questioning. Some are in police custody and others are awaiting their trials in freedom while still others have already been fined for their offenses," he said.



After the tightening of the inspections, 25 vessels used for illegal fishing were seized in 2020 while in 2019 the authorities confiscated four.

 2021 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique

Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.

In March, it was an unexpected occurrence when schools shut , so a lack of a solution to accommodate school children of frontline workers was understandable.

Second time around there is still no plan, and with 4,000 employees at acute hospitals unavailable for work last week, a second class pupil could join the dots and see the correlation here.

On Morning Ireland Anne OConnor, chief operations officer with the HSE, said positive Covid tests and being a close contact were to blame; but also that some of these absences were down to childcare issues.

There were 7,000 HSE staff absent in recent weeks, and we dont know what proportion was down to childcare, but its possibly a significant driver.

There are some healthcare workers coping because maybe have a trusty childminder or a parent available at home.

But many HSE workers, especially nurses, work part time around their childs school hours, and so have a hodge podge childcare system they can no longer call on.

A nurse I know works three long days, and relies on a mix of after school clubs, her 82-year-old mother and friends.

So far she is managing because her husband can work from home and she has requested weekend shifts.

However, last week he had to go into work and she called in sick. She was exhausted and things had come to a head.

She did not have the energy or inclination to beg friends or family to step in when they were also under pressure. She could see her children needed her.

Many healthcare workers I spoke to tell me they are tired and worried about their children  including teenagers.

Even if one parent is working at home, often they cant offer sufficient help with homeschooling. Employers say they understand but the work needs to be done.

Other healthcare workers are single parents, or may have frontline shift workers as partners, so they have no choice but to take time off.

It feels shortsighted not to have acknowledged from the start it was essential to keep schools partially open.

And any plan should have accommodated teachers children, because otherwise this is an understandable obstruction to in-school teaching.

It is why Forsa, the union representing special needs assistants (SNAs), is now presenting lack of childcare as among the roadblocks against a planned return of these teachers.

In the UK, schools stayed open for some pupils since day one of the first lockdown. How was it managed?

Read More

I asked my cousin Joanne, who is from Newry, and teaches the equivalent of second class, in Manchester.

She is a single parent and after she drops her two children into their schools her day of teaching live on zoom from home starts at 9am.

Only six children sit in the school with a classroom assistant, and the rest attend online. She takes the class, sets work, and remains online except for the breaks.

In some classes at her school there are only two children attending in person so the teacher takes the class from the classroom and there is no need for a teaching assistant.

Other schools have substitute teachers supervising children who are plugged into earphones attending online lessons. It depends on the age of the children.

There is no one approach; schools figure out what suits.

Here in Ireland there are many substitute teachers now out of work. Last summer 2,500 graduated from teaching college; with the right attitude we could make it work.

Ideally this would be extended for other parents who need to leave the house to work and are stuck. There are large absences among gardai at the moment.

Another spanner in the works is that the creche situation is not entirely straightforward.

They are all supposed to be open for essential workers, but yet the owner of my creche told me Montessori schools that solely offer reduced hours  ie just the ECCE pre-school scheme  had to close.

Dr Gabrielle Colleran, vice-president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), has no doubt schools not being open is playing a part in the high level of absenteeism.

Other jurisdictions are providing alternative arrangements to support staff attending work. This is essential if we are to have enough staff to provide care in the coming weeks and also a key support to prevent burnout of staff.

My friend who lives in Tyrone is a healthcare worker also. Her childrens principal contacted her to let her know that her children would continue to have three days per week as she is an essential worker.

There is also a huge impact on children of HCW (healthcare workers), we are too stretched for homeschooling, she added.

There is much anxiety about how many ICU beds are available and yet these beds are useless without adequate staff.

The reason the schools are shut is to prevent a collapse of the healthcare system, but it is shortsighted not to acknowledge that by not providing a safety net for schoolchildren of healthcare workers this makes it more likely that some days parents wont be able to go in.

Because of childcare issues and also when you are exhausted with looking after sick people and then you see your child really needs you, well, thats a very strong pull.

With the bleak forecasts trickling out that schools wont reopen on the flagged date of February 1 its a head in the sand mentality not to try to come up with a solution.
More Australians than ever before know about the impact of British colonialism on Indigenous people, says a new report that argues it's time to take braver steps to push reconciliation beyond just raising awareness.

The 2021 State of Reconciliation Report says Australia is at a tipping point after decades of work on reconciliation, but the nation needs to move from 'safe' to 'brave' actions to make concrete steps.

Reconciliation Australia's annual report says it's time for brave steps to make concrete progress. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"Reconciliation must be more than raising awareness and knowledge. The skills and knowledge gained must now motivate us to braver action," Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine said on Tuesday.

"Actions must involve truth-telling, and actively addressing issues of inequality, systemic racism and instances where the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are ignored, denied or reduced."
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[January 18, 2021] Raythink Releases AR HUD at CES 2021, Launching the Interaction Revolution of AR Intelligent Driving

SHENZHEN, China, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Raythink, the provider of the overall solution for the monitoring and display of vehicle-assisted driving, participated in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for the first time to showcase its latest wide-angle spatial imaging AR HUD system. This new technology will be the core application utilized in intelligent vehicle cockpits in the future. CES 2021 adopted a fully digital exhibition mode for the first time. At this exhibition, Raythink, as a technology start-up, provided an AR HUD solution combined with intelligent driving, which attracted significant attention. Raythink held online discussions with a number of manufacturers and technical experts to discuss the technological innovation and application of the wide-angle spatial imaging AR HUD. Raythink's AR HUD solution uses its patented technology - OpticalCore to a wide-angle field of vision (FOV 23 degrees * 5 degrees @ 900mm eye relief, VID 15m ~ infinity). With this optical technology, we are able to moe away from a dependence on HUD displays as shown on the PVB wedge-shaped film interlayer of windshields, and present a clear AR visual effect without ghosting on any windshields. Raythink's AR Generator SDK, AR recognition algorithm and platform software system architecture can present a safe and comfortable AR driving experience on any HUD by integrating environmental recognition with multiple data sources and the independent AR rendering engine, in combination with AI-enabled visual-spatial coordinate correction.



In terms of the application of AR, Raythink's AR HUD display product combines ADAS multi-sensor environment perception, map and navigation, and visual-assisted technology for precise lane positioning, to display a number of intelligent driving functions on the windshield to revolutionize the interaction with drivers, including lane-level navigation, front collision warning (FCW), pedestrian collision warning (PCW), lane departure warning (LDW), etc.

With the accelerated development of intelligent network-connected vehicles, and the deployment of mass-market L3 automatic driving technology by various automobile manufacturers, the intelligent cockpit will be based on AR HUD as the main human-computer interface in the future. The wide-angle spatial imaging AR HUD brought by Raythink is able to realize the innovation of vehicle HMI to the greatest extent, allowing customers to feel the technology and safety of the vehicle through a visual sense, and experience the hidden joys of life in the environment through AR, so as to deeply change people's driving habits, redefine the pleasure of driving, and make driving a safe and pleasant experience enhanced by science and technology. For more information, please visit: https://www.raythinktech.com/ View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raythink-releases-ar-hud-at-ces-2021-launching-the-interaction-revolution-of-ar-intelligent-driving-301209944.html SOURCE Raythink Technology

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Pioneering China's development as the leader of China's ruling party, Xi Jinping has been steering the Communist Party of China (CPC) to enhance friendship, promote exchanges with foreign political parties, and work with political parties worldwide for the global good.



Under the dual capacities of Chinese president and general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi has undertaken three overseas visits and received visiting leaders and representatives of foreign political parties on around 40 occasions in the past eight years.

The CPC is the largest political party in the world and will embrace its centenary later this year. It has been an earnest champion of a new mode of party-to-party relationships, advancing the sound and stable development of international relations.

Expanding circle of friends

So far, the CPC has maintained regular contact with more than 600 political parties and political organizations from over 160 countries and regions around the world.

Political parties play an important role "in the progress of human civilization," Xi said at the opening of the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting held in Beijing in December 2017. It was the first-ever gathering of political parties worldwide, and Xi stressed there that the CPC is ready to "make more friends across the world."

To facilitate state-to-state relations by way of enhancing intra-party friendships, Xi has in recent years engaged in various forms of interaction with leaders of foreign political parties.

In 2017, Xi invited General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong for tea at the Great Hall of the People, where they discussed the similarities of the Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and exchanged ideas to enhance the traditional friendship between the two peoples.

In September 2019, when China was celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xi conferred the Friendship Medal on Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, lauding his contribution to China's development.

The mechanisms for dialogue between the CPC and other political parties have been constantly improving. Occasions such as the China-Arab States Political Parties Dialogue Extraordinary Meeting and the UK-China Leadership Forum have added mutual trust, resilience and vitality to the CPC's relationships with foreign political parties.

"The landscape of the CPC's international work is developing toward one that is more comprehensive and wide-ranging, running via multiple channels at a deeper level, with an expanding circle of friends," Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in an interview.

Enhancing mutual exchanges

The Chinese economy is forecasted to register 1.9 percent growth in 2020, faster than most of the largest economies, as efforts to contain COVID-19 and support recovery have paid off, according to the International Monetary Fund.

As China has blazed a development path that suits the country's actual conditions under the leadership of the CPC, more political parties are keen to learn from China's success to contribute to the progress of their own respective countries.

Noting China's development will create more opportunities for the world, Xi said that China "will draw on our own practices to explore the laws governing the evolution of human society and share with other countries what we have learned" at the high-level meeting in 2017.

The CPC has engaged in exchanges of various forms with foreign political parties over governance and reforms. In one such exchange, Bounnhang Vorachith, former general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, visited villages in China's Hunan and Fujian provinces to learn about targeted poverty alleviation, considering similar practices back in Laos.

Drawing from the CPC's experience, Raphael Tuju, secretary general of Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party, said the party is exploring the possibility of establishing a party school to inculcate a culture of discipline among party members. Six parties in southern Africa co-founded the Julius Nyerere Leadership School in 2018 to strengthen self-construction and improve their governing capacity.

The CPC has become a model for wise governance and also for the positive management of ideological, political and organizational issues, said Ilyas El Omari, former general secretary of the Authenticity and Modernity Party of Morocco.

A community with a shared future for mankind

The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to wreak havoc across the world, with a total of more than 92 million cases and a death toll topping two million as of Saturday, and cases continue to surge.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has once again proved that mankind is a community with a shared future that shares weal and woe," said Xi in a letter to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

While leading the Chinese nation in successfully containing the coronavirus, the CPC has shared China's COVID-19 response plans as well as diagnosis and treatment solutions with over 400 political parties, and has provided medical supplies and technical support for political parties and organizations in need, bearing the welfare of all peoples in mind.

The pandemic, interwoven with profound changes unseen in a century and other emerging global challenges, calls for greater responsibilities shouldered by political parties worldwide.

Notably, the CPC's concept of building "a community with a shared future for mankind" has resonated with an increasing number of political parties, as more countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America have reached a consensus with China on building a community with a shared future to realize mutual benefit and wider cooperation.

The CPC will strive for "a new mode of party-to-party relationships, seeking mutual respect, mutual learning and common ground while shelving differences. The party will continue to promote mutual understanding and mutual trust among countries, political parties and peoples, to strive for a community with a shared future for mankind," said Song.
A general view of Rod Laver Arena at sunset in the third round match between Alex De Minaur of Australia and Rafael Nadal of Spain during day five of the 2019 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 18, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Australian Open Hit by Third Virus-Infected Plane, 72 Players Now in Isolation

The Australian Open has been hit by another setback as a fifth person tested positive for coronavirus, forcing 25 more players into hotel quarantine.

A total of 72 players are now isolating in their hotel rooms ahead of the tournament.

The fifth person tested positive on the night of Jan. 17 and they were on a charter flight from Doha that landed in Melbourne on Saturday.

It means three Australian Open charter flights have carried passengers who later tested positive, following infections on planes from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi.

COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria on Sunday said four people in the Australian Open contingent and one airline crew member had now tested positive.

Despite some of the affected players complaining of being unable to leave their rooms for training, COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria commissioner Emma Cassar insisted the program would not be modified.

Cassar said that there had been cases of challenging behaviour from some confined players and support staff.

She cited two cases when they opened their doors to have a conversation or shout down the hallway.

There is zero tolerance for breaches, she said.

I had a conversation with Victoria police to ensure we are increasing our compliance and enforcement efforts.

Its low level but dangerous acts that we just cant tolerate.

Cassar warned they could be fined up to $20,000 or repeat offenders transferred to the complex care hotel where they have a police officer stationed outside their door.

Australian Open boss Craig Tiley has ruled out delaying the tournament, which is due to begin on February 8.

Melbourne

Barn destroyed by Wednesday morning fire

Fire destroyed a barn about five miles southeast of Watertown Wednesday, according to a report from Watertown Fire Rescue.
Amid ongoing speculation over the acquisition of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, digital payments platform BharatPe has reportedly confirmed that it is looking to buy the crisis-hit cooperative lender.

BharatPe has revealed its plan to acquire the PMC Bank in an interview to CNBC-TV18. On January 16, BharatPe and financial services firm Centrum had jointly submitted a bid to acquire PMC Bank.

In the joint bid for PMC Bank, BharatPe and Centrum could pay back 100 percent to retail depositors looking to withdraw money from the beleaguered urban cooperative lender.

Last week, Centrum Chairman Jaspal Bindra had reportedly said that the group was evaluating the challenge in the financials of the bank and capital requirements if it were to make a formal bid.

As many as four groups, including BharatPe and Centrum Group, have made the submissions to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the acquisition of PMC Bank. Among others, steel baron Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty House Group is one of the three other groups that have submitted EoIs to the RBI for acquiring. The names of the other bidders are not known yet. Last date for submission of EoIs was December 15, 2020.

Last year in November, PMC Bank had invited EoIs from external investors for its reconstruction, which has been under RBI moratorium since September 23, 2019. The exercise is meant to find equity investors willing to take over its management in order to revive the beleaguered lender and resume its day-to-day operations. The central bank has said that the PMC Bank will examine viability and feasibility of these proposals, considering the best interest of the depositors, which would take some more time.

Also Read: BharatPe may offer to pay back PMC Bank retail depositors in full: report

ALSO READ: Centrum may submit formal bid to acquire PMC Bank next week
A crowd of a few dozen, alone and in small groups, gathered on the grounds of St. Peters Episcopal Church in Society Hill on Sunday to mark the approach of a somber milestone: 400,000 dead in the United States from the coronavirus.

They stood silently in the overcast late afternoon among centuries-old gravestones in the historic churchs cemetery as a bell in its tower rang out 400 times  once for each 1,000 deaths  for more than 30 minutes.

Carolyn Klepser, 71, a member of the church, said of the long sequence of chimes that recalled the unyielding spread of the virus: It was so relentless. You just kept wanting it to stop.

As of Sunday evening, there had been 23.92 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide and 397,494 deaths since the onset of the pandemic. Globally, there had been 94.99 million confirmed cases and 2.03 million deaths.

Pennsylvania had seen 677,774 confirmed cases as of noon on Sunday and 19,310 deaths, state data show. In New Jersey, there had been 565,097 cases and 18,348 deaths, according to a Tweet late Sunday morning from Gov. Phil Murphy.

Gail Hauptfuhrer, one of the bell-ringers at St. Peters, lamented that it had only been about a month since she had helped strike the bell 300 times to mark the death of 300,000 coronavirus victims.

This was much more sobering today, she said.

Nearby resident Linda Smith said she had come to the churchyard to reflect on the human toll of the pandemic, whose victims included her uncle.

It makes you stop and think about it  not that I dont think about it every day, she said. This is just such a moving and important tribute.

Burkart Steltzer, 84, of Queen Village, said the long string of chimes helped him grasp the scale of the pandemics deadly grasp.

This makes the number 400,000 more understandable, he said. This makes it real.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has, through his lawyers, filed a response to the amended election petition of the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama.



Henry Nana Boakye who is a spokesperson of the presidents legal team in an interview with Citi News monitored by GhanaWeb said the response was in line with a directive by the Supreme Court.



By the natural sequence of events, once the petitioner has sought the audience of the court to make some amendments in their petition, it is only proper that the respondent also do the same by today. The Supreme Court gave an order that if you have any response to the amended petition, you should file it today, he said.



The legal team spokesperson, however, insists that the presidents lawyers maintain its preliminary objection for the case to be dismissed.



They do not have to waste the courts time on these issues because the facts they have presented do not support their case, he added.



Mr Mahamas petition as presented to the Supreme Court on December 30, 2020, was seen to contain mistakes including, interchanging the Electoral Commission and President Akufo-Addo in one of the reliefs being sought.



Mr Mahama who filed a motion to amend the said errors was given the green light by the Supreme Court who in granting the motion said the typographical errors sought to be corrected did not materially affect the substance of the case.



Former President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress are challenging the 2020 presidential election on claims that it was flawed.



Former President Mahama maintains that between himself and President Akufo-Addo who had the most votes, none of them attained the clear majority of 50% + 1 votes to be declared the winner.



The Electoral Commission in announcing the election results said President Akufo-Addo garnered 51.59 per cent of the votes while Mr. Mahama got 47.37 per cent.



Mr. Mahama based on his claims is asking the Supreme Court to order a re-run of the presidential election between himself and the president.



The seven-member panel of Judges hearing the petition made up of Chief Justice Anin Yeboah; Justices Yaw Appau, Marful Sau, Professor Ashie Kotei, Mariama Owusu, Nene Amegatcher and Gertrude Tokonor has adjourned the hearing to Tuesday, January 19, 2021, for pre-trial to commence.









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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Britain's youngest convicted terrorist who planned to behead police officers at an Anzac Day parade can be freed from jail, a parole board has ruled.

The terrorist, who can be identified only as 'RXG', was just 14 when he told Sevdet Besim, 18, to carry out the massacre at the parade in Melbourne.

He exchanged more than 3,000 encrypted mobile app messages with Besim after he became swiftly radicalised by online Islamic State propaganda.

They also discussed packing a kangaroo with explosives, painting it with an Islamic State symbol and setting it loose on police officers.

The teenager, from Blackburn in Lancashire, was jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court in October 2015 after he admitted inciting terrorism overseas.

He is among a group of child offenders, including the killers of the toddler James Bulger, to be granted lifelong anonymity by the High Court.

Today the Parole Board said RXG, who is now 20, was, 'suitable for release'.

The 20-year-old told jihadist Sevdet Besim (pictured) to behead police officers guarding an Anzac Day parade in Melbourne.

The boy, referred to as only RXG during the case because of his age, exchanged more than 3,000 encrypted mobile app messages with Sevdet Besim

Britain's youngest convicted terrorist who plotted to behead police officers, pictured in a court sketch with his family, is now set to be released

In a document detailing the decision, the Parole Board said: 'After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in detention, and the evidence presented at the hearings, the panel was satisfied that RXG was suitable for release.'

At the age of just 14, the teenager took on the role of 'organiser and adviser' and suggested beheading or using a car to kill officers.

He was recruited online by ISIS propagandist Abu Khaled al-Cambodi.

Over nine days in 2015, he sent thousands of messages to 18-year-old Sevdet Besim, instructing him to kill police officers at the remembrance parade in Melbourne.

The teenager, who was moved to a school for troubled children, was nicknamed 'The Terrorist' by classmates and showed pupils footage of beheadings on his phone.

He also made a list of four teachers he wanted to behead, and told one teacher he would, 'cut his throat and watch him bleed to death'.

Aged 13, he told fellow pupils that Osama bin Laden was his 'hero' and that he wanted to die fighting as a martyr.

RXG amassed some 24,000 followers and was on the radar of security services for around a year before his arrest.

When officers raided his family's home in Lancashire they found a combat knife and an ISIS flag.

He had used his phone to search for 'martyrdom operations' and explosives and identified potential targets including Blackburn Cathedral and the offices of BAE Systems.

Police found a stockpile of deadly weapons hidden inside the bedroom of Besim's Melbourne home (pictured)

Australian police were alerted to the plot after British officers discovered material on the teenager's phone.

Besim was jailed for 10 years with a seven-and-a-half year minimum in 2016, but in 2017 was re-sentenced to 14 years, with a minimum 10 years and six months because his sentence did not match community expectations.

An assessment carried out in mid-2018 by forensic psychologist Dr Louise Bowers stated: 'RXG appears to have left his 'terrorist identity' behind and he is well on the way to developing a new stable and pro-social identity.'

Despite turning 18 two years ago, he is currently in a young offenders institution, and he was diagnosed as autistic after his conviction.

A ban on identifying him made at the time he was sentenced would normally expire upon his 18th birthday.

But he was granted lifelong anonymity in a High Court ruling in 2019 when a judge accepted fears the teenager could become a 'poster boy' for IS and be at risk of 're-radicalisation' and that he and his relatives could face reprisals.

Only a handful of lifelong anonymity orders have been made, including those granted to Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger.

Other people given lifelong anonymity include the Edlington brothers, two boys aged 10 and 11 who attacked and tortured two other boys by whipping them with sticks and covering them in plastic before setting them alight. They were released after six years in prison.

Mary Bell, who strangled four-year-old Martin Brown and Brian Howe, three, when she was just ten years old, also has anonymity. She was released aged 23 in 1980.

RXG is likely to be heavily monitored and will face tough restrictions - such as being banned from using the internet.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 05:08:08|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki and the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff Konstantinos Floros discussed on Monday strengthening military cooperation between Cairo and Athens.

During a meeting in Cairo, the two officials discussed a number of issues of common interest in light of the current regional and international developments and their repercussions on the security and stability in the Middle East, according to a statement from the Egyptian Armed Forces.

The Egyptian defense minister praised the strategic partnership relations between the Egyptian and Greek armed forces in various fields, especially in defense and security, the statement said.

He also stressed the importance of coordinating military efforts and cooperation between the armed forces of both countries.

Egypt and Greece signed in last August an agreement to demarcate their maritime borders in the Mediterranean, allowing the two countries to maximize benefits of the resources available in their exclusive economic zones, especially oil and natural gas reserves. Enditem
The State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine, headed by Dmytro Sennychenko, expresses concern about the actions of law enforcement officials aimed at destabilizing the work of state-owned enterprises, in particular, PJSC United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC), which manages Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant (Zhytomyr region).

According to the SPF press release on Monday, such actions are often illegal, can lead to the curtailment of the privatization process in 2021 and carry the risk of losing UAH 12 billion of budget receipts.

At the same time, it is noted that the fund will be able to provide these receipts already in the first half of 2021, in the event that coordinated opposition from law enforcement agencies and oligarchic groups stops.

"The SPF strongly condemns any attempts to stop and roll back the privatization of public property by law enforcement agencies, former shadow owners and oligarchic groups. Any attempt to put illegal pressure on enterprises threatens the process of building a market and investment attractive economy in Ukraine. Denationalization of the economy is a priority for the president and government of Ukraine, as well as part of Ukraine's international obligations," Sennychenko said.

It is reminded that last week law enforcement officers coordinated by oligarchic groups attempted illegal pressure on the UMCC. It is also indicated that representatives of law enforcement agencies in the course of investigative actions carried out a number of unprecedented procedural violations. Investigative actions are taking place within the criminal proceedings registered in August 2020, even before the allegedly illegal actions were committed. According to the fund, this episode is part of a large campaign to put pressure on the UMCC and discredit the enterprise. For several months, the management of the UMCC has been accused of allegedly supplying products to the occupied territories, and in the spring of 2020, the management experienced intimidation: the attackers resorted to setting fire to the car of one of the company's leaders, and also stole working documentation and equipment.

At the same time, it is noted that the UMCC showed record indicators of net profit in 2020, namely, UAH 600 million, which is six times more than in 2018 and 2019. The process of placing the company for a transparent auction is in its final stage. It is expected in the first quarter of 2021 and promises to be the largest privatization in Ukraine since the sale of Kryvorizhstal. The privatization of this asset is also provided for in the Memorandum of Ukraine with the IMF. In particular, 16 leading foreign companies expressed their preliminary interest in the privatization auction. The starting price is expected to be several billion hryvnias.
It has been said that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's future divorce will benefit the reality star and be an advantage for the rapper.

Early this month, many fans of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" are concerned that the KKW Beauty mogul and her husband will split.

Fans believe that the 40-year-old mom will be fine without Kanye West, but there are a few good reasons why it's also going to be an excellent thing for the Grammy-winning artist.

It has been claimed that perhaps the 43-year-old Atlanta-born rapper-turned-producer will be happier without Kim Kardashian.

Kanye West will be able to focus on his music business without any distractions. He can even bring back the "Heartless era Kanye," which received many praises for that music video.

The "Jesus Walks" rapper may also recover and focus on Wyoming's mental health, away from the loud noises and prying eyes of the people and paparazzi in Los Angeles. Kanye can finally start a new life without cameras following him.

After all, just because the Kardashians announced that KUWTK is ending doesn't mean they're done with reality TV. The Kar-Jenner clan has already signed a mega-deal with Hulu.

Kanye West can also focus on his Yeezy brand without his wife criticizing his designs. However, there are no reports in which the reality star ever did criticize her husband's fashion choices.

Lastly, Kanye West, whose net worth is $1.3 billion, will have an even more significant net worth because he can venture into whatever he wants, whenever he wants, without Kim Kardashian speaking her mind.

But the former power couple's possible split can work in both their favors.

The SKIMS creator can finally focus on learning law while being mentored by lawyer and commentator (and potential boyfriend) Van Jones.

Kim can also find another husband after two (almost three) failed marriages. Perhaps the fourth man is going to be the one who'll not only accept her but her past, her career, her priorities, her businesses, and of course, her family.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's Issues

One of the reasons Kim Kardashian is giving up on her marriage is because of Kanye West accusing her that they wanted to abort their first daughter, North.

They also don't share the same views and opinions, which can affect a married couple's union.

Currently, Kanye has been living miles away from his family, while Kim is living her life while juggling being a mom, an entrepreneur, and a lawyer-in-practice.

READ MORE: Kim Kardashian New Boyfriend? Van Jones Already Helping Her with New Life Mission

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles

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New Delhi:

Technology companies on Friday said it has potential to grow up to USD 4 trillion, surpassing the government's expectations to make India USD 1-trillion digital economy by 2022.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who chaired a meeting with industry captains to chalk out a growth plan, said the government will formulate a new set of strategies to support growth including a new electronics policy, software product policy and a framework for data security and protection.

"There was unanimity among all the participants that USD 1-trillion digital economy is an understatement. India has the immense potential to go to USD 2 to 3 to 4 trillion digital economy potential", Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after meeting with top industry leaders.

The meeting was attended by top experts such as Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar, Google India's Rajan Anandan, Wipro's Rishad Premji, Indian Cellular Association National President Pankaj Mohindroo, NIIT Chairman Rajendra Pawar and Hike Messenger CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal, among others.

Notable absentees from the event included Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Read more: PM Modis note ban one of most disruptive experiments: Report

The government has projected that Indian digital economy will become USD 1 trillion by 2022 from around USD 450 billion digital economy at present.

As of now, the Indian electronics market is estimated to be around USD 100 billion, IT sector USD 150 billion, telecom USD 150 billion, e-commerce USD 30-40 billion and rest is estimated to be size of shared economy like taxi hailing services, start-ups etc.

"One participant said that BPO alone has potential to reach USD 1 trillion potential. One participant said that electronics manufacturing itself has the potential to reach that in coming in 3-4 years. I asked them specifically that is this the hope shared by all. All of them said we share this", Prasad said.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has projected IT and ITeS sector to grow to USD 350 billion by 2025 from USD 160 billion, while electronics sector is poised to touch USD 300 billion by the same time (from USD 100 billion currently).

Telecom and e-commerce are projected to grow to USD 150 billion each, while sharing economy and digital skilling each presents a USD 30 billion opportunity.

Digital payments, cyber security and Internet of Things-- all of which are expanding at a significant pace -- are expected to touch USD 50 billion, USD 35 billion and USD 20 billion, respectively.

It was also projected that the digital economy will generate 30 million employment opportunities by 2024-25, which is double than the current scenario.

The ministry has identified digital payments, Make In India, Start-Up India, Skill India among the key drivers of the digital economy.

Highlighting the potential of the "new economy" with avenues like digital payments and e-commerce, Prasad said the focus needs to be on creating technology that is affordable, developmental and digitally inclusive.

Prasad said that deliberations at the meeting had also brought out the need to promote an ecosystem to facilitate more start ups in areas like education, agriculture and healthcare.

Read more: 10.52 lakh bogus PAN cards is enough to harm economy: SC

"I have decided that we will have a coordinated action with Health, Agriculture and HRD Ministries to promote an ecosystem to facilitate more startups in these areas", he said.

Prasad added that the idea of setting up special innovative zones for start-ups will be explored and a framework for startup cluster policy will be developed.

Besides, digital skilling has a lot of potential as India has a rich talent pool that can be used to meet global demand in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

"We need to re-skill and re-purpose ourselves. We have a list of different skills, where we need people... If you re-skill yourself in block chain or AI, there is no shortage of jobs globally", Tech Mahindra Managing Director and CEO C P Gurnani said.

Citing a Nasscom report, Prasad said that in the last three years, almost six lakh people have been employed in the IT sector, while in 2016-17, the number of people employed was around 1.7 lakh. About 2.5-3 million new jobs are expected to be created by 2025.

He refuted reports of job losses by Indian IT firms, terming them as "motivated".

"There has been a lot of debate, and by any standards of economy, this talk of job decline in the IT sector is motivated", he said.

In terms of challenges, the participants had pointed out the need for setting up a dispute resolution mechanism and liberal regulatory norms.

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This is the overview of news that happened in Slovakia on Monday, January 18, 2021. For a deeper insight into current affairs, see our Last Week in Slovakia, published earlier today.

The Today in Slovakia digests are prepared at the end of every weekday free of charge. If you want to support our work, please buy our online subscription, which will give you access to our entire content. Thank you.

Brace up for testing

The cabinet presented its plan for breaking the curve, along with the gradual opening of schools and shops after its January 17 session. The cabinet is planning mass testing, which started today and will last until January 26.

Starting on January 27, the test will be required when travelling to work, going to nature, as well as banks, insurance companies, petrol stations or newsagents.

The second round is planned to be held in 37 districts with a higher share of positive cases, which will be specified based on the results from the ongoing testing. The remaining districts will follow a milder regime.

Leaving home will be nearly impossible without a negative test Read more

The Slovak Spectator put together answers to some of the most pressing questions, including who will need the test, where the testing will take place and what are the exceptions.

Curfew will be prolonged. Negative test result will be required for work or trips to nature (FAQ) Read more

Other coronavirus related developments

The January 17 testing revealed 1,060 new cases, while 52 more people died. See more detailed results here.

The vaccination of seniors in nursing homes has officially started on January 18, following the updated vaccination strategy. The pilot project will take place in Bratislava, Trencin, Zilina and Kosice.

in nursing homes has officially started on January 18, following the updated vaccination strategy. The pilot project will take place in Bratislava, Trencin, Zilina and Kosice. 200 Polish doctors and healthcare workers will help with mass testing the following weekend, PM Igor Matovic announced on Facebook.

will help with mass testing the following weekend, PM Igor Matovic announced on Facebook. The Economy Ministry has prepared a manual for testing in companies , but it wants to discuss its final version with the coalition first.

, but it wants to discuss its final version with the coalition first. A record number of 333 patients infected with COVID-19 are currently hospitalised in the University Hospital in Bratislava, and another 22 are suspected of being infected. COVID-19 beds are occupied at 93 percent .

are currently hospitalised in the University Hospital in Bratislava, and another 22 are suspected of being infected. COVID-19 beds are occupied at . In case the measures from COVID automat alert system are not observed , Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLaNO) is ready to resign from his post . He admitted so on a political talk show of the private broadcaster Radio Expres.

, Health Minister Marek Krajci (OLaNO) is . He admitted so on a political talk show of the private broadcaster Radio Expres. The second round of voluntary mass testing took place in the Nitra district, and the city of Kosice and its surroundings the previous weekend, with dozens of people attending. Banska Bystrica held the testing for people from the entire district as well.

Production of cars down, but not much

Carmakers in Slovakia produced some 985,000 vehicles last year, which is 11 percent less than the year before.

The result can still be considered great given the current situation, according to Alexander Matusek, chair of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP). Originally, the forecasts suggested a drop of more than 20 percent.

Related article

Related article Drop in car production lower than expected Read more

Picture of the day:

Cold water swimming is popular also in Slovakia. In the picture are members of the Trencin Seals. (Source: TASR)

Feature story for today:

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have banned Donald Trump from making new posts, and in some quarters this has led to accusations of censorship. But this is exactly backwards: social media giants must exert more editorial responsibility  not less  for what is distributed on their networks.

Facebook isnt a state-owned utility. Its a private website, and as such, they have the right to determine what  and what not  appears on their site. Requiring them to publish somebodys view is no different than a government mandate telling the Sme daily what it must publish or a law that would make me print your views on my private blog. While it is a problem that we have privatised the public sphere in a few powerful companies, the solution is to force Facebook to regulate their content more  not less.

Read more in the opinion piece by Ben Cunningham.

Why Trump's Twitter ban is no censorship Read more

In other news

The United Nations Security Council approved on January 15 the appointment of veteran Slovak diplomat Jan Kubis as the UN Libya envoy , nearly a year after the last mediator stepped down. (Reuters)

, nearly a year after the last mediator stepped down. (Reuters) Multinational company AT&T Global Network Services Slovakia reportedly plans to dismiss 440 people due to redundancy, the Aktuality.sk website reported. The trade unions said that it can lay off some 300 people, which is about one tenth of its workforce.

due to redundancy, the Aktuality.sk website reported. The trade unions said that it can lay off some 300 people, which is about one tenth of its workforce. Nearly 211 million was collected through the e-toll system in 2020 , down by 4.6 percent compared with the previous year. More than 2 billion in total has been collected since the system was launched in 2010.

was collected through , down by 4.6 percent compared with the previous year. More than 2 billion in total has been collected since the system was launched in 2010. Industry helped the Slovak economy at the end of 2020 , but the beginning of 2021 may be more difficult . Despite lower economic activity in the first quarter, the economic losses will be smaller than during spring lockdown last year, according to the analysts of the Institute for Financial Policy (IFP), running under the Finance Ministry.

, but the beginning of 2021 may be . Despite lower economic activity in the first quarter, the economic losses will be according to the analysts of the Institute for Financial Policy (IFP), running under the Finance Ministry. Slovakia sold its state bonds for 549 million on Monday auctions . The demand was as high as 655.2 million. (ARDAL)

. The demand was as high as 655.2 million. (ARDAL) Skalite na Kysuciach in the Zilina Region reported a temperature of -25 degrees Celsius at night . The temperature dropped below -20 degrees Celsius mostly in the Zilina Region, and also in some places in the Trencin Region and Spis.

. The temperature dropped below -20 degrees Celsius mostly in the Zilina Region, and also in some places in the Trencin Region and Spis. Slovak skier Petra Vlhova missed the stage during the weekend giant slalom races in Kranjska Gora in Slovenia. She placed fourth in the January 16 race and tenth in the January 17 race.

Also on Spectator.sk:

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Related article Travel agencies struggle but expect improvement this year Read more

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Related article Home of Slovak Leonardo da Vinci: Smolenice Castle Read more

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In an open challenge to her once confidante and ex-minister Suvendu Adhikari, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that she will contest the upcoming state Assembly elections from the Nandigram seat.

The announcement came at her rally held in Nandigram -- the Assembly constituency earlier represented by rebel Trinamool leader Suvendu Adhikari who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal last month.

"I will contest from Nandigram. It's lucky for me. Think I won't be able to give much time to Nandigram as I will have to campaign in all 294 seats. You will have to ensure that 'thing' (her victory) and the rest I will take care later," Banerjee told the rally.

The Chief Minister said that she would contest the election from two constituencies, including Bhabanipur in Kolkata, which is her home turf. "I don't want to neglect Bhabanipur also," she added.

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) state president Subrata Bakshi also announced Mamata's name from Nandigram constituency in the coming election that is due by April-May this year.

Nandigram came to the political spotlight in 2007 after 14 villagers were killed in a police firing for protesting against a proposed SEZ project, cleared by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government .
Source: Reuters

Britain's vaccine rollout is limited by a "lumpy" manufacturing process with production changes by Pfizer and a delay by AstraZeneca that could lead to brief supply disruption, Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday.

The United Kingdom, which has the world's fifth worst official COVID-19 death toll, is racing to be among the first major countries to vaccinate its population - seen as the best way to exit the pandemic and get the economy going again.

The United Kingdom has vaccinated 3,857,266 people with a first dose and 449,736 with a second dose. On vaccines administered per 100 people, the United Kingdom is fourth in the world after Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Zahawi told LBC radio that the United Kingdom was hoping for 2 million vaccines a week from AstraZeneca but that those numbers will not be reached until mid February. Still, he said the UK was on course to hit its rollout targets.

"It's been a bit lumpy," Zahawi said of vaccine manufacture.

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

Pfizer will temporarily reduce its deliveries to Europe of its vaccine against COVID-19 while it upgrades its production capacity.

"There's bound to be delays. Any new manufacturing process has challenges at the outset, it is lumpy, it begins to stabilise and get better and better week in, week out," Zahawi told the BBC.

"The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is a messenger RNA chemical, difficult chemical to manufacture, very very challenging but they're doing really well, they want to do more which is why they're reconfiguring to add volume to the whole world," Zahawi said.

"That could delay supply but I'm confident we can meet our target."

Follow our LIVE blog for latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

VACCINE HOPES

Mass COVID-19 vaccines are seen as the best way to exit the pandemic which has killed more than 2 million people, wiped out trillions of dollars in economic output and upended normal life for people across the world.

The United Kingdom is vaccinating 140 people per minute against COVID-19 on average.

"It is going well, we're vaccinating on average 140 people, that's first jab, literally a minute. That's the average so some areas are doing better," Zahawi told Sky.

Britain is currently rolling out the vaccine to the most vulnerable first, starting with those who are in care homes or over 80 years of age. In areas where a majority of over 80s have been offered a vaccine, letters are going out to the over 70s and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.

Zahawi said a 24-hour vaccine offering would begin to be piloted in London by the end of the month.

Essential workers such as teachers, the police and shop assistants could move to the top of the list for a vaccine once all those over 50 have been offered a shot, Zahawi said.

"Teachers, police officers, shop workers, those who through no fault of their own other than the work that they do may come into contact with the virus in much greater volume, should be top of the list," Zahawi told Times Radio.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on...
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. maintained the deals struck by the country with vaccine manufacturers are virtually without profit, adding that the national government's negotiation efforts even brought expenses down by $700 million.

"Maipapangako ko po sa ating mahal na kababayan na ang lahat ng negosasyon ay at cost, meaning almost no profit. And nung ni-compute ko po lahat ng mga brand, lumalabas po na naka-save tayo ng $700 million," Galvez said Monday in a televised meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and other government officials.

[Translation: I can promise our beloved countrymen that all negotiations are at cost, meaning there is almost no profit. And when I computed expenses for all brands, it showed that we were able to save $700 million.]

Galvez said this meant they were able to slash by half the initial offer prices. He added that the savings were used to secure more vaccine doses from various drugmakers, with the government targeting to procure 148 million doses this year, up from the initial plan of 70 million.

Galvez made these pronouncements amid allegations of corruption in vaccine deals, which were sparked by reports of sharp differences in the prices of Sinovac vaccines in the Philippines and in other nations.

The country is set to receive next month its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines, carrying 50,000 doses from the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac. In total, the country has so far secured 25 million doses from the company.

Apart from this, Galvez also earlier said the national government already inked a deal with the Serum Institute of India for 30 million doses of Covovac, as well as 17 million doses from the UK-based AstraZeneca, which it procured through tripartite agreements involving the private sector and local government units.
Ongole : , Jan 19 (IANS) The police in Andhra Pradesh's Ongole district on Monday arrested five persons from different parts of the state for falsely propagating corrosion damage as temple attack on various social media platforms.

The police arrested Thotakura Anil Kumar from Ongole, Mandadapu Srinivasa Rao from Sattenapalli, Guntur, Chenchennagari Naresh Kumar Reddy from Vennapusapalli, Ananthapur, Budda Devendra Kumar from Akkayapalem Urban, Visakhapatnam, and Bodicherla Nagamallikarjun from Kadapa.

Prakasam police officials fanned out to all these far off places personally and arrested them for spreading falsehoods on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms.

"Those who think they can hide behind a computer and spread communal hatred on social media without any consequences must think again. We will track them down and bring them to justice," Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal told IANS.

The five persons have been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

On January 5, Prakasam district's additional superintendent of police (ASP, Admin) B. Ravichandra had warned rumour mongers not to spread falsehoods about a local temple as some miscreants started peddling corrosion as an attack on a local temple in the district.

He warned of stern action against rumours that two idols were dismembered at Singarayakonda's Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy arch and explained that they broke off due to corrosion.

The temple's executive official Sri Bhairagi had also confirmed that corrosion caused parts of the idols to break off.

Bhairagi said the arch is being repaired every year with the help of donors, but last year the arch could not be repaired as the Brahmotsavalu was not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Additional SP B. Ravichandra immediately informed the media about the incident on the same day. Yet some have spread lies on television and social media to hurt public sentiments with conspiracy and malice," a district police official said.

In addition to these arrests, the police identified 33 more people for false propaganda on social media. Out of the 33, 24 circulated fake temple news on Facebook, five on Twitter and four on YouTube. Among these 33, five have now been arrested.

"The rest of the accused would be identified using technology and legal action would be taken against them," said Kaushal.
States are racing to get Covid-19 vaccine supplies and distribution in order as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday of more contagious variants of coronavirus potentially exacerbating the spread.

CDC officials implored Americans to continue with preventative measures against the coronavirus, while highlighting the variant first identified in Britain known as B.1.1.7.

The B.1.1.7 variant appears to more readily infect human cells and one CDC simulation of its transmissibility raised concerns that it could become the United States' most dominant form of coronavirus by March.

The variant has been identified in about a dozen states with Michigan being the latest state to detect a case. State health officials on Saturday identified the patient as a Washtenaw County woman who recently traveled to the UK.

The CDC has called for aggressive vaccine distribution to try to stem the tide. "Higher vaccination coverage might need to be achieved to protect the public," CDC researchers warned.

On Friday, more than 3,400 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the US, as the total death toll from the pandemic edged closer to 400,000. The nation also recorded its 11th consecutive day of more than 200,000 infections, per Johns Hopkins University data.

On Saturday, Los Angeles County became the first in the US to surpass 1 million cases -- more than Illinois' Cook County and Arizona's Maricopa County combined, according to Johns Hopkins data.

At least 12.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the US as of Friday, according to the CDC, as the federal vaccine rollout has received intense scrutiny and criticism from state officials.

Some states were upset by news from Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said Friday there is no "reserve stockpile" of vaccines available to release.

"We now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people, so we're not sitting on a reserve anymore," Azar told NBC News' Lester Holt. "We've made that available to the states to order."

Asked about the apparent lack of so-called reserve shots, CNN medical analyst and emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen said, "I honestly don't understand how we got to this point, because this is right now in the world the most precious commodity."

"These are doses that were promised to the states," she said. "How are state health departments and local health departments supposed to plan vaccination campaigns when they don't know what's coming their way, or even if there is additional supply?"

"We need answers from the federal government," she added. "We need honesty and transparency."

Vaccine supply woes

Governors across the country are also expressing frustration about the federal government's efforts to distribute vaccines.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday said the state expected to receive just 250,000 doses next week despite the fact 7 million New York residents are now eligible to receive a vaccine.

"We are in a footrace to get the vaccine into the arms of eligible New Yorkers as quickly and equitably as possible," Cuomo said in a statement. "However, we now have 7 million New Yorkers vying for a fraction of doses made available to use by the federal government."

"We need Washington to step up and increase New York's supply to make sure everyone who wants the vaccine has the opportunity to get it," he said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Friday he is "extremely disappointed that we were lied to" about the reserve vaccines, and that the next vaccines "will be delivered in the future of the supply chain."

"There is no influx of doses, contrary to a call we had with the Vice President (and) the Secretary of Health three days ago, where they informed us we would be getting an additional quantity available to the states," the governor said.

Polis estimated that of the 58,000 remaining doses in Colorado, "they will likely all or almost all be used by Sunday."

Governors from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota wrote to Azar, critical of federal plans and hopeful they could purchase vaccines from manufacturers directly.

"Without additional supply or authorization to purchase directly, our states may be forced to cancel plans for public vaccination clinics in the coming weeks, which are expected to vaccinate tens of thousands. It's time for the Trump administration to do the right thing and help us end this pandemic," the letter states.

Pfizer on Friday tried to reassure state leadership and the public about production of its vaccine, saying it didn't anticipate any interruptions in shipments.

"Operation Warp Speed has asked us to start shipping second doses only recently. As a result, we have on hand all the second doses of the previous shipments to the US. We are working around the clock to produce millions more each day," Pfizer said in a statement to CNN.

In some metropolitan areas, including Houston, Phoenix and Los Angeles, stadiums and theme parks are being used as mass vaccination sites for eligible recipients.

In Los Angeles, about 2,200 people were vaccinated at the drive-through site outside Dodger Stadium on Friday, the first day vaccines were distributed there, Los Angeles fire spokesman David Ortiz said.

That site generally is vaccinating only health care workers for now, adhering to Los Angeles County rules aiming to inoculate medical personnel before making more people eligible.

A long line of vehicles snaked around the parking lot Saturday morning. The site eventually is expected to serve more than 12,000 per day, officials have said. The fire department partnered with other groups, including the CORE non-profit founded by actor Sean Penn, to establish and staff the site.

"(I) talked to a captain who had two hours of sleep, trying to ... set up the logistics part of this huge (undertaking) here. And ... he has a smile on his face because he's doing everything he possibly can, humanly, to make (this) a success, to make this efficient," Ortiz said.

January on pace to be the county's deadliest month of the pandemic

Covid-19 hospitalizations nationwide are near record levels, pushing some medical centers past normal capacity and straining their ability to give immediate care.

More than 127,200 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals Friday, just a few thousand short of the highest mark set nine days earlier, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

While December was the country's deadliest month of the pandemic, January is on pace to be worse.

More than 46,240 US coronavirus deaths were reported in January's first 15 days. That's already more than half the roughly 77,500 recorded in all of December, according to Johns Hopkins data.

A recent coronavirus projection from the University of Washington estimates 566,720 deaths by May 1 in the US.

The university's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said the figure could be lowered by about 32,000 deaths with universal mask requirements.

Mask restrictions continue to fluctuate by state

Mask requirements are strongly urged by health officials to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and its implementation is expected to have a direct effect on future infections and deaths. State and local responses have varied widely. Some states continue to maintain no mask directives, allowing businesses to set their own rules.

On Friday, Mississippi extended its mask-wearing mandate in all but nine counties until February 3.

"It is important that we continue to take this virus seriously. We are working on getting Mississippians vaccinated, but continue to social distance, keep gatherings small and wear your mask," Gov. Tate Reeves said.

North Dakota, however, said officials are seeing its Covid-19 numbers falling from an earlier outbreak and Gov. Doug Burgum said the mask mandate will be allowed to expire on Monday, reiterating at a news briefing, "We must remain vigilant."

North Dakota capacity limitations for bars, restaurants, and event venues will be modified from requirements to recommendations.
A supporter of US President Donald Trump protests against the election of President-elect Joe Biden outside the Colorado State Capitol in Denver yesterday. Photo: Reuters/Bob Strong

Security forces are on high alert as they prepare for a storm of violent pro-Trump protests at government buildings across the US in the lead-up to Joe Bidens inauguration on Wednesday.

Around 25,000 troops from the National Guard were deployed to capitol buildings across the country, including those in Michigan, South Carolina and Ohio, yesterday.

There was also a major police presence at the Washington Capitol, which was invaded by Trump supporters on January 6, when five people were killed, including a police officer.

The FBI had warned of the potential for armed protests at the nations Capitol and all 50 state capitol buildings yesterday, but crowds were thin. In some states, a small number of people mounted counter protests.

Wisconsin National Guard troops, armed with rifles, shields and body armour, arrived near the state capitol yesterday morning.

A man who drove a vehicle up the steps of the building was arrested overnight for driving while intoxicated.

Read More

More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their state capitols and aid local law enforcement officers. Several issued states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Joe Bidens inauguration day, which takes place on Wednesday amid very heavy security.

Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, said law enforcement officers will protect the rights of peaceful demonstrators but will also vigorously resist any violence.

Some state legislatures cancelled sessions, citing security precautions.

Four protesters with long rifles stood outside Michigans capitol in Lansing yesterday, one wearing fatigue pants, a brown tactical vest and a blue Hawaiian shirt and another wearing a Trump T-shirt and fatigue pants as he held a Dont tread on me flag.

One of them was Duncan Lemp, a cook from Michigan who was wearing an American flag face mask. He said he believed the election was fraudulent, but he had not come to start a fight. Instead, he said he wanted to encourage a peaceful, unified anti-government stance and to stand up for his right to bear arms.

The goal is unification of left and right, both sides, no reason to fight, Mr Lemp said. Why cant the people, left and right, get along and stop the government from overreaching, oppressing us?

Read More

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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Rebounding from his unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Mark Ronchetti last week returned to the weather forecasting seat at KRQE-TV.

Its something that Ive always loved, Ronchetti said, and Im thrilled to have the opportunity to come back.

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Some New Mexicans and the Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists criticized his return to the station, where he worked for 15 years before his foray into politics.

The rehiring, the SPJ said in its newsletter, should raise red flags for anyone worried about political influence in newsrooms.

It further noted that throughout his campaign, Ronchetti proudly stated, I stand with President (Donald) Trump. 

The SPJ specifically asked whether Ronchetti, a Republican, still stands with Trump, who repeatedly called the media the enemy of the people, if Ronchetti denounces the attack on our democracy, and whether politicians belong in the KRQE newsroom.

Its ironic that the SPJ wants me to clarify my political positions to show that Im apolitical, Ronchetti countered.

Politics is not involved in the weather and never was, he said. When I wanted to get involved in politics, I left the station to do it. When the election results came in, I accepted them, congratulated my opponent and then shut my mouth. Ive set politics aside now, because you cant do both, and I fully do realize that.

KRQE posted the SPJ letter on its Facebook page, which elicited mostly positive comments welcoming Ronchetti back. One writer took the opportunity to slam journalists in general, saying the overwhelming majority of todays reporters are now advocates rather than journalists, while another writer criticized station management for pushing the other weathermen and women aside.

Twitter postings were overwhelmingly critical of the stations rehiring of Ronchetti. One writer noted the violence at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, saying that Ronchetti aligned himself with Trump every step of the way.

While Ronchetti did say he supported Trump, I also said from the very beginning I didnt agree with every tweet and every sound bite from the president, but I will support those policies of his that help our state.

Like most Americans, Ronchetti watched as the violent siege of the Capitol unfolded and said he was horrified by what he saw. Theres no place for it, period.

Regarding Trumps attacks on the media, Ronchetti said he frequently defended his colleagues in the profession by telling people how hardworking I think journalists in this state are, that they care and want to get the story right.

Ronchetti also takes issue with the implication that there was something improper about his returning to the newsroom after his run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Democrat Tom Udall.

Have we gotten to a point in this country where you cant step aside and say,  Hey, I want to try and help in the world of politics, and if it doesnt work out then youre done, and you dont have a right to come back and earn a living?

Gwyneth Doland, who teaches media law and ethics at the University of New Mexico, questioned whether a weather forecaster is a journalist. I dont know the answer to that, she said.

But the questions posed in the SPJ newsletter are legitimate and relevant, given Trumps attacks on the media, which endangered working reporters, she said.

KRQE-TVs president and general manager, Bill Anderson, said he asked Ronchetti to return to the station because hes a workhorse and the best weather guy Ive ever seen.

The prohibition against bringing personal politics into the newsroom is applied to everyone at the station, he said.

I didnt ask him to swear allegiance to anything other than the meteorological seal.
Newlat was interested in UK baker Hovis, which was sold to PE firm Endless

Italian food manufacturer Newlat, which missed out on the acquisition of UK bakery business Hovis, is still looking at targets across Europe, the company has told just-food.

Newlat director Benedetta Mastrolia confirmed the company is surveying possible candidates but stopped short of indicating when the group could table offers for any firms on its radar.

"We are looking at multiple companies, i.e., more than five companies," Mastrolia told just-food today (18 January). "These companies are located all around continental Europe; some relevant countries are Germany, the UK and France. These companies are all in similar or complementary sectors versus our current business. Due to confidentiality and market regulations this is the most information I can disclose at this stage."

In November, Newlat pulled out of the process to buy Hovis  and said it would only return to the table if the UK bread maker's owners granted the Italian manufacturer exclusive talks. The baker ended up being sold to UK private-equity firm Endless.

Italy and Germany are Newlat's two-largest markets, accounting for around 52% and 27% of its total revenues, respectively.

The company has an extensive list of brands across its portfolio. In pasta, Newlat owns Delverde, Birkel, Buitoni, Corticella, Guacci and Pezzullo. The dairy line-up consists of Giglio, Fior di Salento, Matese, Optimus, Polenghi and Torre in Pietra.

Last summer, Newlat acquired a majority stake in dairy firm Centrale del Latte d'Italia, buying just over 67.5% of the business.

In a stock-exchange filing on Thursday, Newlat underlined its "willingness to continue its external growth strategy", which the group had set out at the time of its IPO in 2019. The company said in its statement it had been "scouting potential targets in the food and beverage industry, both in Italy and abroad, which could result in possible M&A transactions, where satisfactory conditions are met".

Newlat added: "Furthermore, the company is evaluating the opportunity to diversify its sources of funding, also through the issuance of a bond, in order to provide the company with enough financial flexibility for new M&A transactions."

In the first half of 2020, Newlat's revenues, including those generated by Centrale del Latte d'Italia as from 1 January, rose 5.5% to EUR255.4m (US$308.3m). Newlat reported "strong" sales growth across "all the main business units", helped in part by M&A. However, the company also reported organic growth in areas including pasta.
Dad Who Chaperoned Daughter to School 1.8 Miles Each Way on His Shoulders Is Gifted a Car

A dedicated father who had been chaperoning his daughter to school on his shoulders has been gifted a car. Making the 1.8-mile journey on foot every single day each way, whatever the weather, the mans 6-year-old daughter never once missed a day of school and was never tardy.

However, the father, who wishes to remain anonymous, did not go unnoticed by his Atlanta, Georgia, community.

A local charitable foundation that adopts a single-parent household every holiday season and surprises them with Christmas gifts chose the father and his daughter as their 2020 recipients.

Monet Farr Bartell (far left), the school principal (far right), pictured with the father and his daughter. (Courtesy of Monet Bartell)

It was philanthropist Monet Farr Bartell, her husband, and their friendthe principal of the little girls schoolthat teamed up to submit the successful nomination.

Monet found out that the 6-year-old was very excited about reading. The very first gift given to her was a Scholastic Bookclub gift certificate for the rest of the year  shell be able to get books for free, Monet explained in a video uploaded to her Facebook page.

Gifts and books for the child who loves to read. (Courtesy of Monet Bartell)

Discovering that the father could not afford a vehicle, but was taking his daughter to school on his shoulders to make the trip more fun, Monet and the school principal dreamed up a spectacular gift idea: They wanted to buy him a car.

The founder of the charity revealed that her husband had a car for sale and reveals the price. After liaising with her cousin, who spread the word among potential donors, Monets Cash App was flooded with generous contributions. The car was shortly purchased and a handover date was agreed upon.

The little girl hugging her school principal. (Courtesy of Monet Bartell)

Let me tell you what it was for me was sitting in that car, watching him walk by, Monet told WSB-TV. I was like, OMG, he has no idea his life is about to change, she said. It gives me chill-bumps right now.

Heartwarming footage on her Facebook video depicts the moment that the car keys were handed over to the shocked, humbled father, changing the dad-daughter duos school commute forever.

The handover of the car. (Courtesy of Monet Bartell)

Monet also brought her kids along to witness the joyful act. For the givers, the act of gifting a car to a single father, who sacrificed on a daily basis for his daughters education, made the holiday season come alive.

Give, Monet implored in her video. Do something, bless someones life  because to give, the blessing becomes yours.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us here: emg.inspired@epochtimes.com
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At long last, Mike Pompeo's tenure as U.S. secretary of state is coming to a close. He leaves behind a legacy tainted by ego, lies and little desire to improve the state of the world.

In his final hours at the state department, Pompeo is still racing against time to incite conflict wherever he can.

In a matter of days, he rushed to lift restrictions on Washington's official contacts with Taiwan; hit Cuba, Iran, and Yemen's Houthi group with alleged terror accusations; and once again hyped up a ludicrous theory about the origins of the coronavirus.

Over the years, Pompeo was reckless in abusing the power of his office and the might of the United States for personal political ambitions, and he did so with barefaced lies.

Despite being America's top diplomat, he failed to show any zeal in helping solve the world's real problems. On the contrary, he, along with other political arsonists in Washington, staged one political farce after another on the world stage, and stoked divisions and confrontation almost everywhere he went.

He publically talked about a possible military intervention into Venezuela.

He brazenly pushed for a snapback of sanctions against Tehran lifted under the Iran nuclear deal the United States had already withdrawn from.

Based on groundless security accusations, he relentlessly pressured Britain, Spain and other European countries not to work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei on 5G networks.

The list of manipulations and coercion is endless.

Under his watch, America's diplomatic conduct has turned unprecedentedly chaotic and destructive, sanctimonious and condescending.

Apart from all the havoc he has wreaked across the world over the years, Pompeo did accomplish something: He laid bare before the world the true face of an arrogant, hypocritical and overbearing Washington.

Pompeo and his likes are leaving "the city upon a hill" deeply mired in the coronavirus pandemic, with more known cases and deaths than any other country by far.

Francis Fukuyama, author of the "end of history" thesis, has called the United States a "failed state." European leaders were alarmed at the "shocking" and "disgraceful" scenes in their troubled transatlantic ally following the Capitol violence earlier this month.

Last week, the state department cancelled Pompeo's final trip to Europe at the last hour. The state department explained that the decision was made because it was busy with transition work. It turns out that European officials declined to meet America's top outgoing diplomat.

Because of Pompeo and his likes, America's global image is now in tatters, with Pompeo's final acts of madness another footnote to its fiasco.

Good riddance, Mike Pompeo. With his departure, the world is better off.
International travellers to Australia surged before Christmas but economists warn businesses will suffer unless the government boosts population growth by moving quarantine facilities outside capital cities and attracting talented migrants.

More than 35,000 people, largely returning citizens, arrived from overseas in December, up 18 per cent on the previous month, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.

Deloitte Access Economics is forecasting Australia's borders will be open as soon as mid-2022 assuming a successful vaccine rollout in line with the government's plans. Credit:Rob Homer

It was the highest number of monthly arrivals since border restrictions began in April but still down 98 per cent on the same time in 2019, ABS director of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.

"We are continuing to see steady month-on-month increases in arrivals," she said, adding the December rise coincided with the opening up of one-way travel with New Zealand and a lift in travel caps.
MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has handed down a six-year prison sentence for hooliganism to Azat Miftakhov, a postgraduate mathematics student at the Moscow State University who says he was tortured while in custody.

Moscow's Golovinsky district court on January 18 found the 25-year-old guilty of involvement in an arson attack on the ruling United Russia party's office in Moscow in 2018.

Miftakhov has denied the charges, which his lawyers say stem from his anarchist beliefs and support for political prisoners.

Police detained some of the dozens of people gathered in front of the court building to express support for Miftakhov, who was arrested in early 2019 and accused of helping make an improvised bomb found in the city of Balashikha near Moscow.

He was released several days after the initial charge failed to hold, but was rearrested immediately and charged with being involved in the attack on a United Russia office in January 2018.

The Public Monitoring Commission, a human rights group, has said that Miftakhov's body bore the signs of torture, which the student claimed were the result of investigators unsuccessfully attempting to force him to confess to the bomb-making charge.

A prominent Russian human rights organization, Memorial, has recognized Miftakhov as a political prisoner, while mathematician Anatoly Vershik told Novaya gazeta last week that 2,500 mathematicians from 15 countries had signed a letter urging the International Congress of Mathematicians to assist in Miftakhov's release, warning that many of them might not attend the congress gathering in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, scheduled for July 2022.

Others who were detained along with Miftakhov but later released have also claimed to have been beaten by the police.

With reporting by TASS and Meduza
In a rather bizarre statement, rabbi (Jewish religious leader) from Israel's ultra-orthodox sect has warned people against taking the coronavirus vaccine saying it might turn people gay.

Rabbi Daniel Asor, who has a large social media following, also asserted that the entire vaccination drive is the work of a "global malicious government," which is "trying to establish a new world order."

In his latest online sermon, the leader said that anything, including the vaccine, which has been made using "an embryonic substrate" can cause "opposite tendencies", reports an Israeli media.

"Any vaccine made using an embryonic substrate, and we have evidence of this, causes opposite tendencies. Vaccines are taken from an embryonic substrate, and they did that here, too, so ... it can cause opposite tendencies," he said hinting at homosexuality.

After establishing a false link between vaccine and homosexuality, Asor went onto assert multiple 'conspiracy theories' surrounding the entire coronavirus pandemic.

He termed the World Health Organisation (WHO) and vaccine-developing giants Pfizer and BioNTech "criminal organisations", who have presented false data about the vaccine's efficacy to the ultra-Orthodox leaders in an attempt to have them on the same page.

ALSO READ: How Israel Became a World Leader in Vaccinating Against Coronavirus

According to Isral Hayom, Asor has argued that the virus was released to "cull global population" and the vaccines are just a way to "further this agenda".

Asor's understanding of such baseless theories has gone a notch higher, as he claimed that entire vaccination business is nothing but a "secret and brutal Army" maintained between the US and Israel, that will eventually interfere wit the local law enforcement to 'further global government's' sinful agenda.

However, Asor's statement goes completely against the instructions given by senior rabbis of the sect including Chaim Kanievsky, Gershon Edelstein and Shalom Cohen, who have urged people to take the maximum protection against the global pandemic and that must include taking the vaccine.

Taking a sarcastic jibe at Asor's statement, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group Havruta said that if the vaccine is likely to alter a person's sexual orientation, then they are eagerly "waiting to welcome the impending new members".

Asor's statement comes at a time, when the Haredi community has reportedly witnessed high morbidity cases due to people repeatedly flouting the covid norms.

According to reports, around 17000 Israelies have receieved the second shot of the vaccine, showing no major side effects.

However, this isn't the first time when such a bizarre claim about the vaccine has been made by a global leader.

Earlier, in December, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro warned Brazilians that if they take the vaccine, they will grow beards or turn into alligators. And then that becomes their problem, no more of the government's.
Please note The Sun Chronicle is providing this story and all of our local coronavirus coverage for free so that all readers have access to this important information about the pandemic. Please visit our dedicated coronavirus coverage page for more stories. If you'd like to support our mission, please subscribe.
(CNN)  Music producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector died of natural causes on Saturday at the age of 80, according to a statement released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

An official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner for San Joaquin County.

Spector was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison in 2009 for the 2003 fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson. The actress was found slumped over in a chair at Spector's California mansion with a gunshot wound through the roof of her mouth.

Spector, who was originally from Bronx, New York, produced recordings by stars including The Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, Cher and the Ramones.

Creator of a production style that became known as the "Wall of Sound," the influential producer formed the Teddy Bears and recorded the group's only hit, "To Know Him is to Love Him," while he was still in high school.

Spector's approach to record production -- the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label -- was a major influence on popular music in the 1960s.

He won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year as a producer of "The Concert for Bangladesh."

He was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.

In February 2003, Clarkson was found dead in his home.

The actress starred in the 1985 B-movie "Barbarian Queen" and appeared in other films, including "Deathstalker," "Blind Date," "Scarface," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Amazon Women on the Moon."

She was working as a hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues at the time of her death.
Nphet raised serious concerns with the HSE over the lack of mass testing in hospitals when Covid-19 outbreaks were identified among staff.

The issue was raised directly with the HSE at a meeting of the expert public health group before Christmas.

Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan also personally voiced his concerns over the speed at which outbreaks were being detected in hospitals.

Minutes of an Nphet meeting on December 10 report that the group expressed concern and sought clarity as to why mass testing was not being carried out in all hospitals where outbreaks had been detected.

Read More

Nphet noted the criteria for mass testing had previously been identified and agreed.

The HSE respond saying it seeks advice from local public health departments when there is an outbreak in a hospital and then decides whether or not to engage in mass testing.

It said outbreak management is carried out between local hospital management with involvement by the central executive where necessary.

On that date in December there were 52 open clusters associated with 21 acute hospitals. Approximately 1,000 cases were linked to these outbreaks with 48pc related to healthcare workers. There had been 63 deaths linked to these outbreaks.

In the first week of January, there were 158 outbreaks in hospitals. This brought the total to 1,819 confirmed Covid-19 cases in hospitals, of those 37 were admitted to ICU and 147died.

Nphet suggested that the HSE establish a national outbreak control team to ensure consistency of approach nationally to addressing hospital outbreaks and engaging in mass testing.

Nphet acknowledged the significant contribution of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control (AMRIC) Oversight Group in controlling hospital outbreaks and said it should work alongside the proposed national outbreak control team.

It was also requested that the new outbreak team report regularly to Nphet.

At meeting a week earlier, Mr Holohan is reported to have voiced his concern about the speed of outbreak detection and response in acute settings.

The chair also posed the question whether a national outbreak control team has been established and if not, the reasons why? the minutes of the meeting said.

The HSE responded saying one of the core challenges facing hospitals was how best to isolate the virus quickly when detected.

The HSE pointed to some areas in need of improvement in hospital infrastructure and isolation capacity. While some facilities are well-equipped to deal with isolation requirements along with occupational health needs, there are other hospitals that are not. These deficiencies have been exacerbated by the pandemic, the minutes said.

The HSE highlighted issues with the coordination of information as well as unfilled senior clinical vacancies within Departments of Public Health as factors influencing the speed of response.

It also noted there had been difficulties caused by deficiencies in the current IT infrastructure.

The HSE explained that while Public Health staff are present to offer advice and help with decisions, they do not lead the response in facilities. The primary decision-making role rests with the hospitals themselves, who then choose the extent to which they follow Public Health direction, the minutes said.

Separately, the HSE voiced its concern that many student nurses, who were on placement in acute hospitals, were working in nursing homes at weekends.

They said this movement of student nurses may be exacerbating transmission in these environments. It suggested that guidance should be developed to address the issue.

The Department of Health said it was difficult to ask student nurses not to work at the weekends as it is often their only source of income.

Nphet also discussed the relatively high incidence rate of Covid-19 amongst members of the Travelling Community. They said it is linked to several factors including the gathering of families ahead of Christmas, international travel, and the high number of weddings occurring.




COVID-19 vaccine: Aadhaar based enrolment likely for elderly

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: The Centre is likely to allow self-registration by the elderly and those with comorbidities on the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) platform for faster enrolment for people to receive a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An Aadhaar based enrolment process could be rolled out for the elderly and those with comorbidities.

Which are the 10 states with highest covid19 vaccine beneficiaries on day 1

A HT report said that the CoWIN platform will allow the public to access its limited features, only those required for enrolment and vaccination. An internal government note said, "there is no need to download any new app for vaccination purposes. This module will be activated soon, once the vaccination of frontline health workers is completed. Along with this a feedback module through Rapid Assessment System (RAS) developed by MeitY is also being integrate."

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

In its guidelines to the states, the Centre had said that the CoWIN portal (cowin.gov.in) might also be used for self registration of the general public. The platform would be used for creation of state and district level admins and the database of the vaccinators and supervisors. It would also be used for the management of material relevant to the vaccination.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 9:32 [IST]

LORTON, Va., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- QinetiQ Inc. is pleased to announce that it has been awarded OASIS Pool 3 and Pool 4 unrestricted prime contracts by the General Services Administration (GSA). One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) is a family of seven separate multiple-award, five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts available to all Federal agencies for the procurement of complex professional services.

QinetiQ Inc. will compete for government-wide engineering, technical, and scientific services contracts under Pool 3 for efforts primarily engaged in Military/Aerospace Engineering and under Pool 4 for Scientific Research and Development (R&D) efforts.

As a Best-in-Class preferred government-wide solution, the OASIS vehicle is a multiple-award, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (MA-IDIQ) contract that provides flexible and innovative solutions for federal agencies seeking complex professional services. The core disciplines offered through its seven pools, or MA-IDIQ task order contracts (MATOCs), include engineering, scientific, management consulting, program management, logistics and financial services.

"We are pleased to partner with GSA and become a member of the OASIS contractor family. OASIS is an essential part of our Mission-Led Innovation customer toolbox," said Mary Williams, President of QinetiQ Inc. "OASIS adds to QinetiQ's growing list of IDIQs that allows us to respond quickly to our customers' needs."

QinetiQ Inc. is a leading defense and security company in the U.S. providing mission-led innovation at pace. We support our customers worldwide with mission-critical solutions to create, test and use the latest technologies to deliver real world advantage. QinetiQ Inc. operates as the U.S. arm of QinetiQ Group PLC (QQ.LSE), a global integrated defense and security company focused on mission-led innovation for defense, security and civil customers around the world.

We are 6,000 people creating new ways of protecting what matters most; testing technologies, systems, and processes to make sure they work as expected; and enabling customers to deploy new and enhanced-existing capabilities with the assurance they will deliver the outcomes required. QinetiQ's 750 U.S. employees are based predominantly in Virginia and Massachusetts. We operate under a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the U.S. Defense Counterintelligence & Security Agency (DCSA).

Visit our website www.QinetiQ.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and FB @QinetiQUS.

SOURCE QinetiQ Inc.
The Covid-19 death toll now stands at 440, with the deaths of 15 more people yesterday.

The Ministry of Health reported the deaths in its daily update yesterday evening.

One of the new deaths occurred in Tobago. The Tobago Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development disclosed that the patient was a 38-year-old male with co-morbidities.

Australia's top scientists could push for a second round of Covid-19 vaccinations if the nation fails to reach herd immunity in its first program.

The government has supply agreements in place for the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Novavax vaccines and will start rolling out the Pfizer jab next month.

Approval by regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration is expected by the end of the month, and injections begin in mid-February and finish in October.

But the program has come under scrutiny in recent weeks over concerns the Oxford vaccine is not effective enough to secure herd immunity.

Professor Allan Cheng, co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, said Australians may be required to receive the jab twice, in four separate injections, if a different vaccine was determined to be more effective.

Australians may be required to be jab twice if their initial COVID-19 vaccine is later found to be less effective than other contenders

However, Professor Cheng said the immediate aim of Australia's Covid-19 vaccine plan was to ensure the country was protected from the disease by inoculating all Australians during the the program.

'Were going for protection to start with; we want to stop people getting sick and dying,' Professor Cheng told The Australian.

'That will mean that we will give the vaccine firstly to people who are at the highest risk of getting sick and dying.'

'And if you need vaccines again in the future, well be ready for that. But its better to get one now than not to get one.'

He said accomplishing herd community was a 'long term' goal, and it would become clear during later stages of the program which contender was best at preventing transmissions.

Those who first received a weaker vaccine would then be given a dose of the more effective immunisation.

The government plans to vaccinate five million Australians with the Pfizer jab, which is imported from overseas, and give everyone else the AstraZeneca jab, which is being made in Melbourne.

Doctors raised concerns about the strategy because the AstraZeneca vaccine is between 62 and 90 per cent effective whereas the Pfizer jab is effective 95 per cent of the time.

Professor Allan Cheng (pictured) said a second rollout would be part of the country's 'long term' goal of herd immunity, as it became clear which vaccine was best at preventing COVID-19 transmissions

If herd immunity is not attained during the first rollout, Professor Cheng said Australians could still expect further easing of restrictions if a large portion of the population were vaccinated as the likelihood of outbreaks would be reduced.

Professor Cheng, an infectious diseases chief at Alfred Health and professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at Monash University, said it was still too early to determine whether any vaccinations would be able to create herd immunity.

Despite clinical trials, Professor Cheng said there is not enough data available to ascertain how long vaccine immunity would last and whether it would prevent transmission.

Australia's top advisers will be keeping a close eye on other countries to determine which vaccines worked best and the duration of their immunity, he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also ordered 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, which is still in trials.

If it is approved, it will be made available in Australia later this year.

Professor Cheng said Australia would be watching other countries to determine the efficacy of vaccines and the duration of immunity. Pictured: Health care workers at a COVID-19 drive through testing clinic at Murarrie in Brisbane on Friday

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian broached the possibility of barring those who decline the Covid-19 vaccine from government-run buildings, as well as permitting private venues to adopt similar measures.

As the planned February rollout of the vaccine nears, the NSW government is considering a data-sharing partnership with the federal government that would help residents prove they have been immunised.

Ms Berejiklian has previously suggested the Service NSW smartphone app could show a tick when a person is vaccinated, enabling venue entry.

'The more people that are vaccinated, the greater likelihood we can have a return to normality as we know it,' Ms Berejiklian told 2GB radio.

'Already airlines have indicated that if you're not vaccinated you can't travel overseas and I think that'll be an incentive to a lot of people.

'But we'll also consider whether we allow venues ... make up their own rules if they have a business or run a workplace about what they feel is Covid-safe.'
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday ruled out scrapping of nursery admission process this year in view of the coronavirus pandemic. "As of now, there is no plan to scrap nursery admissions this year. We are late this year in issuing notification but it will happen," he told reporters.

Usually, the process to enter children in nursery in around 1,700 schools in Delhi begins in the last week of November. The Directorate of Education (DoE) releases guidelines and schools are asked to furnish required information, following which the application process is rolled out usually in December. However, there has been no development on it this year. Delhi government officials had earlier said that a proposal to scrap nursery admissions is being considered as the schools have been closed since nine months due to COVID-19 and will remain closed till a vaccine is available, a whole year of online learning for small children seems unviable.

"The government has decided that schools will not reopen in Delhi till a vaccine is available. Even if they reopen, pre-primary students will be the last ones to start going to school. So, its unviable to enrol them for a year of online learning," an official had said last month. "However, no final decision has been taken in this regard and any move will be planned in consultation with schools only," the official had added.

However, school principals were opposed to the idea. Sisodia, who is also the Education minister of Delhi, reiterated that schools will not reopen till a vaccine is available for public. Sisodia's comments come on a day schools reopened for class 10 and 12 students in view of preparation of board exams.

"We will wait for the vaccine to be made available to public at large and then a decision on reopening of schools for remaining classes will be taken," he said. Schools have been closed since March last year in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is pleased to announce the hiring of Greg George as director of legislative affairs.

George has nearly a decade of government affairs and policy experience with various organizations in Michigan and across the country. He previously served as a policy advisor for the Michigan House of Representatives and as legislative director for the Michigan Speaker Pro Tempore. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Hillsdale College and an MBA from Western Michigan University.

Parts of Northern California will be watching for potential wildfires this week as powerful offshore winds gust over a region parched from a lack of winter rains and heated by a stretch of warm days thatve broken decades-old records.

This weeks forecasted conditions prompted the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for the Santa Lucia range, Los Padres National Forest, and the mountains of interior Monterey and San Benito counties from Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon. Northeast winds will become stronger after sunset across the tallest peaks of the Santa Lucia and Southern Gabilan mountain ranges before descending to lower elevations, meteorologists said.

A wind advisory set to last through Tuesday evening was in effect for the North Bay, East Bay, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, along with both Monterey and San Benito counties, exclusing the south Salinas Valley.

Elevations above 1,000 feet will transition to a high wind warning Monday afternoon. Forecasters said winds will reach between 60 and 70 miles per hour at the peaks, and these damaging gusts will continue through Tuesday morning and down to the valleys.

In San Francisco, winds will be between 15 to 25 miles per hour, with some gusts reaching up to 50 miles per hour. Overnight gusts in the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills reached speeds of 80 miles per hour.

The low humidity in the region will fuel opportune settings for a new fire to spread rapidly, weather officials said.

Weather officials do not typically issue many fire warnings during the winter months. The last time a red flag warning was issued in winter was in 2014, National Weather Service Meteorologist Matt Mehley said.

Strong winds may blow down trees and power lines, and taller vehicles and those pulling trailers may experience difficulties driving, weather officials said. Scattered power outages are also possible.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said that about 6,100 homes and businesses in the southern Sierra Nevada could lose power on Monday. The shut-offs would affect narrow portions of five counties: Fresno, Kern, Madera, Mariposa and Tulare. The is the first time the power utility has turned off power in January due to wildfire risk.

At the lower elevations, the strongest winds are expected just before daybreak on Tuesday, with winds reaching up to 45 miles per hour and more than 50 miles per hour at some of the highest peaks, according to weather officials. Winds will gradually decrease but remain gusty through early Tuesday afternoon.

Additionally, a high surf advisory along the coasts is in effect until Monday evening. Breaking waves will reach between 18 and 22 feet, and officials said there is an increased risk of rip currents and large shore break waves.

Weather officials said sea surface temperatures remain in the low to mid 50s and advised people to keep a safe distance from the coastline to prevent cold-water drownings.

Warmer-than-usual temperatures are expected to continue across the Bay Area. In downtown San Francisco, the temperature rose to 72 degrees on Monday, becoming the hottest Jan. 18 since 1920. Temperatures in Oakland also broke records Monday, reaching 76 degrees. Meterologists said temperatures could continue to climb throughout the day, and nearby areas are also close to reporting record-high temperatures.

On average, temperatures have been 10 to 15 degrees higher than what is typical for January, Mehley said. Temperatures will begin cooling off toward the end of the week.

Vanessa Arredondo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vanessa.arredondo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @v_anana

The Dancing On Ice cast were seen breaking coronavirus rules when they piled into taxis following the launch show on Sunday, without wearing masks.

Host Phillip Schofield, 58, Billie Faiers, 31, Jason Donovan, 52 and Lady Leshurr, 32, were just some of the famous faces seen without masks on as they travelled home.

Holly Willoughby, 39, did wear a mask as she spoke on the phone in the back of her car, as did Phillip's cab driver.

Dancing on THIN ice! Billie Faiers, Phillip Schofield and Jason Donovan broke coronavirus rules as they piled into taxis without masks following the launch show on Sunday

You OK? The government states that failure to wear a mask in a taxi or private car is in breach of the law and could be punishable with a fine and while Schofe's driver wore one, he did not

Denise Van Outen, 46, wore her mask hanging off one ear as she tucked into a packet of crisps.

The government states that failure to wear a mask in a taxi or private car is in breach of the law and could be punishable with a fine.

People with face mask exemptions are permitted to ride without one.

The website states: 'In England you MUST wear a face covering on public transport (aeroplanes, trains, trams and buses), taxis and private hire vehicles.

Needs to be on both ears: Denise Van Outen, 46, wore her mask hanging off one ear as she tucked into a packet of crisps

Resting: She was pictured looking deep in thought as she prepared for her taxi ride home

'You are expected to wear a face covering before entering any of these settings and must keep it on until you leave unless there is a reasonable excuse for removing it.

'You should also wear a face covering... where social distancing may be difficult and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet.'

The Mayor of London's website states: 'If using taxi and private hire services, please use a face covering, carry a hand sanitizer and wash your hands before and after you travel.

'The latest Government advice is that, although face coverings are unlikely to prevent you from getting the virus, they could help prevent you from giving it to others.

No mask: People with face mask exemptions are permitted to ride without one but it's unknown if Jason Donovan has exemption because he too rode without a face covering

Priorities: He had a deliveroo takeaway in hand, but that was all he thought about

Save our NHS: Lady Leshurr kept a low profile under a cap and hoodie but still, no mask was worn

Leading the way: Host Holly Willoughby did wear a mask, even when taking a phone call

Taking no chances: She was surrounded by lots of belongings as she made sure she was safe in the car

You MUST wear a mask on public transport... The government states that failure to wear a mask in a taxi or private car is in breach of the law and could be punishable with a fine. People with face mask exemptions are permitted to ride without one. The website states: 'In England you MUST wear a face covering on public transport (aeroplanes, trains, trams and buses), taxis and private hire vehicles. 'You are expected to wear a face covering before entering any of these settings and must keep it on until you leave unless there is a reasonable excuse for removing it. 'You should also wear a face covering... where social distancing may be difficult and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet.' Advertisement

'Face coverings are particularly important where social distancing is hard to maintain.'

While some are exempt from wearing masks, it's unlikely this rule applies to the whole cast.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Dancing On Ice for comment.

The show is already embroiled in a fixing row after fans lashed out at the show for underscoring celebrity contestant Lady Leshurr and sending her through to next weeks skate-off.

The popular ITV talent show returned with a new crop of stars on Sunday evening as the 13th series launched at a COVID-19 secure at Bovingdon Airfield in Hertfordshire.

But a fraction of viewers were unhappy after the rapper was awarded a collective score of 25 from judging panel following her debut skate with pro partner Brendyn Hadfield - despite other contestants receiving similar scores.

The upset was exacerbated by comedian Rufus Hound winning a golden ticket to the show's much-anticipated musicals week, despite only winning a score of 23.5 for his video game inspired routine.

Taking to Twitter, one unhappy viewer wrote: '@LadyLeshurr was by far the best tonight, was underscored and doesn't deserve to be in the skate-off! I hope them judges see sense next week and keep the Queen in.'

While a second raged: '#DancingOnIce is a fix this year!! How did Rufus get the golden ticket first [of] all? And how is Lady Leshurr out? What on earth lol.'

Bottom two: Dancing On Ice is already embroiled in a fixing row after fans lashed out at the show for underscoring celebrity contestant Lady Leshurr and sending he through to next weeks skate-off
Read what is in the news today:

Politics

 Top leaders of Vietnam and China have exchanged messages of congratulations on the occasion of the 71st founding anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries (January 18, 1950  January 18, 2021).

Society

 As of Sunday, Vietnam had gone 47 days without a single community infection case of COVID-19. The countrys patient tally stands at 1,537, including 1,380 recoveries and 35 fatalities.

 Russia is set to resume flights to Vietnam, India, Finland, and Qatar on January 27 with several flights per week, the Russian News Agency cited the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center as saying on Saturday.

 Authorities will suspend and reroute traffic on many streets in Hanoi from 6:00 am to 9:00 am on January 24, and 6:30 am - 8:30 am, 10:30 am - 2:00 pm, and 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm from January 25 to February 2 to facilitate the activities of the 13th National Party Congress.

 A driver in Hong Linh Town, north-central Ha Tinh Province, was slapped with an administrative fine of VND4 million (US$173) and stripped of his driver's license for three months for driving in the wrong direction on National Highway 1.

Business

 Data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs confirmed that two-way trade between Vietnam and China in 2020 reached over $133 billion, up 13.8 percent over the same period in 2019.

Lifestyle

 The Hanoi-based Vietnam National Puppetry Theater has launched an experimental art program named 'Trang' (The Moon), which features different types of puppetry to offer the audience a new experience of the Vietnamese culture.

 'Mot thoang Viet Nam' (Vietnam at a Glance), a tourism park depicting the beauty of Vietnams thousand-year-old traditional culture located in the suburban district of Cu Chi in Ho Chi Minh City, was reopened on Saturday after a temporary halt for an upgrade.

 The Tet Festival 2021 honoring Vietnamese Lunar New Year food and culture will be held at Le Van Tam Park in District 1 from January 21 to 24, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Slovakia on Monday began a new round of nationwide COVID-19 screeninga process aimed at easing curfew restrictions for people who test negative.

Tests will also serve as a basis for new localised restrictions in the country's 73 districts.

"We have decided to combine lockdown with massive testing," Prime Minister Igor Matovic told a press conference on Monday.

"Subsequently, we will intervene in districts where it is necessary to get the situation under control," he said.

The latest tests will end on January 26.

From January 27, Slovaks aged between 15 and 65 will be able to circulate freely with a negative antigen or PCR test.

Health Minister Marek Krajci said that after testing, Slovakia will be divided into 37 worse and 36 better districts.

"In worse districts, the screening will be repeated. From February 3, it will be necessary to prove a negative test there even when entering your place of work.

"This will be valid until February 7. In better districts, the situation will return to the state it is now.

"Although the situation has finally started to improve, without testing it would take weeks for the measures to begin to be relaxed," Krajci said.

The EU country on Monday reported 1,060 daily infections, bringing the total to 224,385. The death toll currently stands at 3,526.

Slovakia carried out mass antigen testing in November that covered two-thirds of its population of 5.4 million people.

It found 1.06 percent were positive.

Antigen tests give far quicker results than PCR tests, which involve nasal swabs that have to be sent to a laboratory, but they are less reliable.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaros political rival, Joao Doria the conservative governor of Sao Paulo called the beginning of vaccination drive as a "lesson to denialists". Brazils health regulator on January 17 approved two COVID-19 vaccines including China-made CoronaVac and AstraZeneca-Oxfords doses. However, the immunisation ceremony was overseen by Doria and not Bolsonaro as the nation began the rollout starting with the 54-year-old nurse. Rather than the federal government, Sao Paulo governor had spearheaded a partnership with Sinovac and began the inoculations, which as per reports, frustrated Bolsonaro who had hoped to kickstart the vaccinations in the presidential palace next week.

While Brazil currently has 6 million doses of Sinovacs vaccines, two million doses of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine are yet to arrive in the largest Latin American nation. Doria is reportedly also expected to challenge Bolsonaro in 2022 Presidential elections, even though they both were allies at one time. This came especially when Bolsonaro, who himself had COVID-19, took an anti-scientific approach to handle the pandemic leading to a global backlash.

In the early days of novel coronavirus outbreak in the country, Bolsonaro had even dismissed COVID-19 as a little-flu. During the charged immunisation drive, Doria said it represented the triumph of science and life against the denialists, and those who prefer the stench of death to the value and joy of life. He further added, Let this be a lesson to the denialists, to those who lack compassion, who have no love in their hearts, to those who show contempt for life and distance themselves from the reality of a country that suffers  and suffers with death. Doria had also said that Bolsonaro and the incompetence of his government led a fatal blow for Brazil during the health crisis.

Read - Brazil: Sloth Hitches Ride In City Bus, Commuters Left Flabbergasted

Read - Ronaldinho Turns Rapper: Brazil Football Great Plans To Release 8 Songs This Year

Brazil approves Sinovac and AstraZeneca's vaccines

Brazils health regulator on January 17 approved the emergency use of two vaccines developed by Sinovac and AstraZeneca-Oxford and has kickstarted the vaccination campaign in the nation. Despite the novel coronavirus immunisation being subjected to delays and political disputes in Brazil, the nation has currently secured at least six million doses of the vaccine developed by Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CoronaVac. As per The Associated Press report, while CoronaVac is ready for roll-out, Brazil is awaiting at least two million doses of AstraZeneca-Oxfords vaccine.

Read - Brazil Approves Emergency Use Of Sinovac And AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines, Rollout Begins

Read - Brazil's Amazonas State Runs Out Of Oxygen Supply Amid Surge In COVID-19 Cases
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  You might as well call her the queen of Zoom.

Danielle Casey, who landed in Albuquerque in October to become one of the citys top economic developers, has had nearly 150 Zoom calls with business and city leaders, government officials and her own staff, some of whom she has yet to meet in real life.

For an outgoing person in an outgoing profession, its been a little weird.

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Ive had nightmares where I was at a roundtable, at a luncheon, where I didnt have a mask on. For shame, says Casey, president and CEO of Albuquerque Economic Development. But the insane level at which people here have been welcoming and kind and friendly and willing to offer their time and just chat with me has been unbelievable.

Casey, with a degree in anthropology, has an early background that includes nonprofit jobs with the Heard Museum in Phoenix and Save the (Narragansett) Bay in Rhode Island. She went on to assistant city manager jobs in Maricopa and Scottsdale, Arizona, until she found herself enamored with economic development and shifted her focus. Her most recent position was executive vice president of the Greater Sacramento (California) Economic Council.

For Casey, trying to bring jobs to a community is not such a far stretch from her interest in anthropology, which is really the study of people, right?

There are a lot of specialists in economic development  people who just live for the kill or just want to do deals, Casey says. But I definitely consider myself more of a generalist, a community builder.

Yeah, we want to win companies, we want to be able to talk about the economic impact, but at the end of the day, I want people to have great jobs and I want them to be able to take care of their families and grow a really healthy, happy, great quality of life in the community.

Why did you decide to leave economic development in Sacramento for Albuquerque?

I honestly was just talking to a girlfriend of mine in economic development  during COVID, several of us would just check in on each other as leaders in our community  and she said, you know this thing with Albuquerque came across my desk, and I would really like to give the recruiter your name because I think you should look at it. And I said, OK, you know what? You never turn down an opportunity to check out something that could be a great, potential match. When I looked at the recruitment, I just started going, wow. This could be really amazing. I was struck by so many things. By AEDs longstanding success and also the trust of the organization by the community. The fact that it had such continual and solid leadership that built a tremendous foundation (under former AED head Gary Tonjes). All of those things were very attractive.

What do you do in your free time?

A lot of my free time throughout my career has been career-related. Personally, though, Im super handy around the house. I really like fixing things and redoing things. Yeah, I mess with the electrical probably more than I should. My great-uncle was an electrician, and he and my dad were very close, so he would teach me how to do all kinds of stuff. One of my very best friends whos also single says, Its OK. I have my boyfriend, Danielle, because shell come and fix whatever I need.'

Whats been your biggest disappointment?

Ive got a great one, but I can also tell you how we pivoted. Do you remember Theranos? (a failed blood-testing startup whose founder faces criminal charges). Well, they expanded into Arizona and were in Scottsdale. We didnt do any incentives or anything like that; they were just simply recruited into the space. We made a visit to their offices, and I tell you, it was really weird because it was  getting close to where everything was being revealed and you were starting to figure out what was really going on there. But I will tell you, here is the cool part. So because we spent a lot of time on business retention and expansion, every company we talk with, I met with their HR (human resources) folks because I knew then  with companies, its all about labor, its all about talent, access to talent, cost of talent and your ability to deliver talent. So when Theranos shut down, we grabbed our list of HR directors at the health care institutions in the region and emailed them and said, Weve got these 75 people, we need to find them jobs. Those people were placed within days without ever having to go out and shop.

Do you have any regrets?

One of my, I wouldnt even say regrets, but  I wish I had a friend from kindergarten who I knew my whole life. Being a military kid and an only child, its not like you knew a lot of kids. Its just thats the breaks, and Im proud. Most of the men in my family were military in one way, shape or form.

Have you received any words of wisdom that have stuck with you?

A city manager I worked for  Wed say, Well, what do we do? How do we address this? Hed say, Well, dont overreact. But dont underreact. And then hed walk off. And youre going, what the hell is that supposed to mean? The best way I can look at it is just take a minute, take a breath, examine the situation and make the best decision you can with the information you have available. At the end of the day, too, thats a big distinction ultimately between managers and leaders. People that are really out there leading are people that are willing to make decisions and then take responsibility. Thats what Ive always done with my teams. Ultimately, its my butt. Im going to push you hard and Im going to expect a lot out of you, but ultimately, Im also there to protect you, take care of you because thats why Im in this role.

Danielle Casey  President and CEO, Albuquerque Economic Development Danielle Casey  President and CEO, Albuquerque Economic Development

THE BASICS: Danielle Casey, born in Fort Worth, Texas, at Carswell Air Force Base; owns an English bulldog named Sophie; masters in public administration, Northern Arizona University; bachelors in anthropology, Arizona State University; certified economic developer via the International Economic Development Council, and economic development finance professional via the National Development Council, both last recertified in 2018.

POSITIONS: President and CEO, Albuquerque Economic Development, since October 2020; executive vice president, Greater Sacramento Economic Council, 2018-2020; economic development director, city of Scottsdale, Arizona, 2013-2018; assistant city manager, Maricopa, Arizona, 2012-2013; economic development director, Maricopa, 2010-2012.OTHER POSITIONS: Board member, International Economic Development Council; past president, Arizona Association for Economic Development; past board member of City Year Sacramento.
Why is it difficult to get justice? This is a question that haunts the minuscule community of Kashmiri Pandits. Each year January 19 is the reminder of the tragedy that the community faced over three decades ago, when terrorism first struck Kashmir. It is also a reminder of the bitter fact that the nations justice dispensing institutions and the political setup has failed a community.

It was on the intervening night of January 19-20, 1990, that the first mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits started from Kashmir.

The day represents the pain of each of the around 7,00,000 community members, who faced the tyranny of terrorism in the valley.

It also represents the agony of the community that has been waiting for justice for the ethnic cleansing, or for the murders of hundreds of its members, besides the kidnapping, abduction, torture of thousands for the rape or gang rapes of unaccounted number of women and for the desecration, demolition of hundreds of temples, also the looting and burning down of properties of the community and for the encroachments of the properties and for the racial, motivated and targetted harassment of the community and for the denial of the constitutional rights.

For the community, the day also is a reminder of the travesty that justice has not been served.

It is also a reminder of the fact that the institutions that should have delivered justice have failed the community. The successive governments, the judiciary and even the human rights champions have not helped the community to get justice.

But above all, it was the majority in the valley who failed to stand by the community.

Failure of Institutions In 1995, the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) in its full commission's judgment, headed by former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah, held the 'systematic ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits by terrorists as an act of genocide'.

This should have prompted the government of the day to constitute an Inquiry Commission to probe the genocide or ethnic cleansing. But nothing of the sort has happened till date.

For 30 years, the Kashmiri Pandits have been demanding the appointment of a high-level commission of inquiry, but no government at the Centre or state has done anything on this.

The Supreme Court on July 24, 2017 rejected a plea seeking investigation into the killing of hundreds of Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s and early 2000s by saying that "more than 27 years have passed by since then. No fruitful purpose would emerge, as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture." This order came as a shock to the community, which has now come to believe that justice may never come. A whole community was targetted on the sole basis of its religion and ethnicity, and there has been no hue and cry about this. No human and civil rights body has ever taken up the case.

The question that the community is asking today is why their persecution has not hit the headlines or become an agitational movement or a political weapon.

The BJP has been showcasing their plight during the elections and the top leadership of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi also claims to be one belonging to the community. But beyond this political gimmick, there is nothing substantial when it comes to taking up and addressing the plight of the community, and giving them their right.

Majority in Kashmir went silent If the institutions failed the community, the majority in the Kashmir Valley never openly stood against the targetted terror onslaught. The majority went silent or just looked the other way even as heinous crimes were being committed against the community. Instead, concerted efforts have been made to show that the exodus never happened, people abandoned their houses and lands of their own will.

Hardly any FIRs have been registered in Kashmir for the hundreds of the murders, rapes, kidnappings, arson and loot incidents that took place against the community members since 1989 onwards. Even in those few FIRs which were registered, cases have seen no movement at all.

None of the political leaders in the state, whether it be Abdullah's, the Mufti's or others have ever taken up the cause of Kashmir's minuscule minority, the Kashmiri Pandits. They never ever tried to help the community in addressing the wounds that they suffered.

The Kashmiriyat in the valley failed against the terror onslaught as the majority was swayed by the fanaticism, unleashed by Pakistan-sponsored groups, whether terrorists or separatists.

Exodus threatens survival Thirty-one years since the January 19 holocaust day, the community today is finding itself at the threshhold of becoming extinct. Getting cut off from its roots, the community is witnessing a gradual fading of its ethnicity and population. After the exodus, the community got scattered all over the world, and as decades rolled by, its culture, language, rituals, temples are slowly withering away. The community is demanding the granting of the indigenous status so as to protect its 5,000 year old historical link to Kashmir, as written in Rajtarangini.

Politics of 'ellusive' justice The struggle to get justice for the crimes committed against them seems to be never ending for the community, which feels that the lack of electoral strength is the chief cause of their getting neglected. In the present democratic set up, it is the ability to exhibit a community's strength that helps to get the required attention and importance. Lack of the same often gets small groups/communities off the radar. And that is what the Kashmiri Pandits have been experiencing.

Not having been able to collectively rise and lobby for justice is what is seeing the community failing to get justice.

Even after the abrogation of Article 370, the BJP-led government at the Centre has not formulated any plan to resettle them back in the valley.

Over three decades and counting, the Kashmiri Pandits continue to be denied justice. And January 19 is not just the holocaust day for the community; it is a reminder of the failure of the democratic institutions of the country to secure its own people. Facing persecution and failing to get justice in a democratic setup in independent India which has dedicated institutions to take cognizance, is what baffles the community and has added to the tragedy.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Elderly care homes in Chile began vaccinating their residents and workers Monday, as part of second phase of a national vaccination program.

The first person immunized was 79-year-old Laura Areyuna, a resident of the Nuestra Senora de Andacollo care home in La Serena, a northern region of Coquimbo, some 460 kilometers (286 miles) from Santiago.

President Sebastian Pinera said most of the at-risk population will be vaccinated during the first three months of the year, while most of the general population will get their doses through the first half of the year.

Chile's Health Minister Enrique Paris visited the care home and met with the first elderly residents who were vaccinated on Monday.

Octavio Vergara, the director of Elderly National Service, affirmed that authorities would begin inoculating over 3,500 elderly people in seven regions in the country.

Their goal is to reach the 50,000 total of that population.

Last week, a new batch of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine arrived in Chile and the country rolled out a new phase of its vaccination program, with health workers getting second doses.

According to Chilean health authorities, more than 13,000 people have received their first dose so far and over 8,000 have been given the second one.

Chile has reported almost 670,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in total, and 17,477 deaths.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
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A leading coronavirus expert is calling on the Government to make QR code scanning at potential "super-spreader" venues like bars and nightclubs mandatory, amid continued low use of the COVID-19 tracer app.

Epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker says the next six months would be a "very dangerous" time for the country, with high risk of an outbreak while waiting for the vaccine roll-out to begin.

Both the US and the UK are experiencing unprecedented peaks in https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/260170-appeal-information-on-missing-art.html with the worldwide death toll reaching the grim milestone of two million.

But with no community transmission here, daily use of the Covid Tracer app has fallen off dramatically, down to a fifth of its peak which is causing concern among experts.

Last Monday, a total of 515,759 scans were recorded nationwide, down from the high of 2.5 million on September 4.

Baker says contact tracing of community cases had prevented wider transmission.

Meanwhile, New Zealand health officials are trying to learn more about two travellers on an Auckland to Fiji flight who tested positive for the virus.

The two cases were detected during mandatory tests while the pair were in managed isolation in Nadi.

Both cases had arrived in Fiji on Air New Zealand flight NZ952 from New Zealand on December 24, 2020.

Despite moving through Auckland, a Ministry of Health spokesman said there was no "additional risk" posed by the cases.

Global toll

Over 94.7 million people have been infected by COVID-19 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States continues to record the most infections and fatalities - 23.8 million cases, 396,549 deaths. India and Brazil have also recorded high concentrations of cases and deaths - India has reported 10.5 million cases and 152,274 deaths, Brazil has 8.4 million cases and 209,296 deaths. To date, 2 million people have died from the virus.

International researchers from the World Health Organisation  WHO- are in Wuhan, China, to find clues to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new Brazilian variant has also been identified. It shares similarities with the highly-infectious variants from the UK and South Africa. The discovery prompted the UK government to ban flights from 13 South American countries, Panama, Cape Verde and Portugal.

What should I do?

Anyone who wants to get tested can find their local testing centres by visiting the Ministry of Health website.

New Zealand is at COVID-19 alert level 1.

Masks are mandatory for: people travelling on public transport services in and out of the Auckland region; the drivers of small passenger service vehicles in Auckland, such as taxis and app-based ride services; and people travelling on passenger flights throughout New Zealand.

If you are sick, call your GP before you visit, or Healthline on 0800 358 5453.

To avoid contracting and spreading the virus, wash your hands properly, cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow and throw tissues away immediately.

Reach out, find support from people who care, connect with your community or help a neighbour in need.

Stuff
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Author Shubhrata Prakash, Director, NITI Aayog joined KLF Bhava Samvad and discussed her book 'The D Word' with Rakhee Bakshee.

Talking about the conceptualisation of the book, Prakash informed, "This book 'The D Word' was conceptualised somewhere around 2014 and its genesis lies in my own journey of depression. One of the things suggested to me on my road to recovery from depression was to express myself more." The book majorly tells about Prakash's research on her condition and her efforts to understand what was happening with her.

"It is a labour of love towards myself," she defines. She says, "Society generally believes depression means sadness and unfortunately used in a very colloquial way." Prakash has an old association with Odisha since her academic years.

"Incidentally I have a Kalinga connection. I did spent 2 years of my life studying MBA at XIMB." Since depression begins from random sources and not a particular one, Prakash says, "On date, no one can say for sure what happens or why someone develops depression." "Maybe there will be a definite reason or cause why one person gets depression and another doesn't. Everyone has days when they are very low, but depression has a collection of symptoms like doom feeling, complete loss of interest in things that someone previously enjoyed, losing appetite, abnormal increase in appetite, constant negative and ruminative thoughts," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 23:56:17|Editor: huaxia

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JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Higher Education, Science and Innovation Department has invested around 68.8 million rand (4.5 million U.S. dollars) towards COVID-19 research in the areas of diagnostics, vaccines and epidemiology, Minister Blade Nzimande revealed on Monday at a press briefing.

"The threat of future pandemics, has thrust the country's ability to develop and manufacture vaccines locally into the spotlight," he said.

He said there were two studies currently underway on COVID-19 vaccine.

"The first is a study on plant-based manufacturing of antibodies for COVID-19, which aims to facilitate the rapid development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and diagnostic reagents utilizing various expression platforms for advancing the production of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates and reagents," he said.

"The second is a ChAdOx1-nCOV-19 vaccine trial. In partnership with the South African Medical Research Council, the Department is co-funding a study, led by the University of the Witwatersrand, aimed at assessing the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate (ChAdOx1 SARS-CoV-2) in South African adults living without HIV, as well as safety and immunogenicity in a small cohort of adults living with HIV."

The vaccine was developed at the Oxford University Jenner Institute, in collaboration with AstraZeneca.

Nzimande said the results indicate that the vaccine is at least 62 percent effective when given in two full-strength doses. Enditem
The annual holiday Martin Luther King Jr Day fell on Monday, January 18 this year.

And celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon, Taraji P Henson, Vanessa Hudgens and Camila Cabello woke up early to honor the civil rights leader on social media.

Martin Luther King Jr was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

From TPH: The annual holiday Martin Luther King Day fell on Monday. And celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon, Taraji P Henson (pictured) and Camila Cabello woke up early to honor the civil rights leader on social media

Martin Luther King Jr Day is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr, which falls on January 15. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year.

Jennifer Aniston shared two images of King as she shared, '"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."  #MLK, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community.'

The Friends actress added, 'Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today... thinking about all the work he started, and all that is left to do .'

From a Friend: Jennifer Aniston shared two images of King as she shared, '"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."  #MLK, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community'

Barbra Streisand shared a photo of herself with Coretta Scott King, Martin's widow, and called her an 'extraordinary woman' and the slain civil rights leader 'a man of great courage'

Camila Cabello shared, 'True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. - MLK.

'Remembering and honoring you today and every day. We have a long road ahead but we all must keep walking towards justice.'

Vanessa Hudgens uploaded a photo of the leader and added his quote, 'If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.'

A nice tribute: Vanessa Hudgens shared a photo of the leader and added his quote, 'If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward'

A long road indeed: Camila Cabello shared, 'True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. - MLK. 'Remembering and honoring you today and every day. We have a long road ahead but we all must keep walking towards justice'

Feels right: Niecy Nash said she was blessed to be a part of the movie Selma as she added a MLK quote

The Gigi actress added, 'Happy MLK day.'

Reese Witherspoon shared a video of King.

The Big Little Lies star added in the caption: 'As we reflect on #MartinLutherKings unforgettable activism and heroism, I hope his memory brings inspiration that ignites our leaders on all sides to come together and bring peace to our nation. Let us not forget, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'

Her company Draper James also shared a post: 'The time is always right to do what is right.'

Then the page shared, 'Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King today #MLK.'

With love: Reese Witherspoon shared a video of King. The Big Little Lies star added in the caption: 'As we reflect on #MartinLutherKings unforgettable activism and heroism, I hope his memory brings inspiration that ignites our leaders on all sides to come together and bring peace to our nation. Let us not forget, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'

Floral inspired: Witherspoon's company Draper James wrote, 'The time is always right to do what is right.' Then shared, 'Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King today #MLK'

A warning: Alec Baldwin of SNL fame shared the quote: 'I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice'

Alec Baldwin of SNL fame shared the quote: 'I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.'

Diane Warren, an 11 time Oscar-nominated songwriter who has written hits for Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Common, Justin Bieber, LeAnn Rimes and many more, will be seen with the Latin rising superstar Chesca performing the song Warren wrote, El Cambio-The Change/The Spanglish version in a video in honor of #MLKDAY for the Biden/Harris Inauguration.

Directed by Adam Rifkin and produced by Leah Sydney, the song was used as a campaign anthem.

MLK celebration: Diane Warren will be seen with the Latin rising superstar Chesca performing the song Warren wrote, El Cambio-The Change/The Spanglish version in a video in honor of #MLKDAY for the Biden/Harris Inauguration. Directed by Adam Rifkin and produced by Leah Sydney, the song was used as a campaign anthem

Powerhouse: Warren is an 11 time Oscar-nominated songwriter who has written hits for Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Common, Lizzo, LeAnn Rimes and many more

The MLK show begins on Monday at 5 pm PST on many social platforms including; #Inauguration2021 bideninaugural.org/watch and on YouTube.

Warren - who is an animal rights activist as well - looks likely to be nominated once again for her poignant ballad Seen from the Sophia Loren starrer The Life Ahead on Netflix. And she might even get a second nom with her song Free sung by Charlie Puth, from Disney +s The One And Only Ivan, about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who was finally freed.

Kris Jenner shared a note on her Instagram page that read, '#MLKDAY #MLK #Love' as she added a red heart.

The post had a quote from King Jr in red, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.'

Jenner time: Kris Jenner shared a note on her Instagram page that read, '#MLKDAY #MLK #Love' as she added a red heart. The post had a quote from King Jr in red, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear'

Katie Holmes of Dawson's Creek fame shared an image of King and one of his quotes.

'Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve,' King had said.

'You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.'

Profound: Katie Holmes of Dawson's Creek fame shared an image of King and one of his quotes. 'Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve,' King had said. 'You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love'

Grown Ups actress Salma Hayek posted two quotes on a green background.

The first quote read, 'Let no man pull your low enough to hate him. (sic)'

And the second one said, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.'

The beauty's caption read, 'MLKs wisdom still gives us hope today. La sabiduria de Martin Luther King nos sigue dando aliento.'

A nod: Grown Ups actress Salma Hayek posted two quotes on a green background. The first quote read, 'Let no man pull your low enough to hate him. (sic)' And the second one said, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear'

Danica McKellar shared the same quote with a long caption: 'On this #MLK day, we will see many memes and quotes from this great leader.. but this morning I have been particularly interested in his quotes about loving our enemies, especially in a country so currently divided...

'Rather than just post a short quote, I found an excerpt from a sermon that gives a bit more context to some of the quotes you've seen about love. (Swipe to read it.)

'Make no mistake about it, what he was calling for was so much more than the end of racism, which probably feels like something of a no-brainer to anyone reading this... even if you realize you haven't quite nailed it, this feels like an obviously correct and do-able path, right?

From the heart: 'Today on Martin Luther King Jr day, I am paying respect to the visionary who helped teach us about equality, courage, justice, truth, and compassion. In my stories I put together some of my favorite MLK quotes and a swipe up to donate...,' wrote Olivia Culpo

'But... Martin Luther King, Jr also challenged us to *love our enemies,* whoever they are. And that's harder! Think about someone you consider to be an enemy - that person in your life or even someone you don't know personally but who you feel the most truly injured by, hurt, angered. Now, forgive them. For real. Wish good things and a happy heart for them. For real. Love them. For real.

'Now we begin to understand the journey he challenged us to pursue.  #HappyMLKday.'

Tale Of Tails actress Blanca Blanco posted that her favorite quote from MLK Jr was, 'Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?"'

In close up: Selma Blair posted several photos as she wrote, 'In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. who would be 92 this year'

Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween said, 'A soul force of goodness! Rev. Martin Luther King Junior.'

Demi Moore shared, 'As we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lets remember that today is a day of service. Today is a day to learn, and engage in nonviolent action for social and economic progress.'

Justin Timberlake noted, 'Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today  and thinking about the message he would have for this country right now, as we countdown to a new administration.'

From Mr Miami Vice: Don Johnson posted a photo and said, 'The Prophet MLK photo by The artist Gordon Parks'

The love: Katherine Heigl shared her thoughts on a brave man and said 'God bless you'

Selma Blair posted several photos as she wrote, 'In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. who would be 92 this year. I repeat his words in times of conflict... Within the world, within the disparity among our citizens, within myself, with forgiveness even. I think of how his force still grounds us in humanity with his conviction and hope and belief in non violent resistance.

'I humbly honor his teachings, his hope, (which was so clear to him in the way forward and now sometimes quite hidden behind dark clouds of today). The agency he took with his time on earth expands.

'Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for those who have followed your example, forever increasing your span. We honor you, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'

A force: Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween said, 'A soul force of goodness! Rev. Martin Luther King Junior'

An elegant post: Michelle Pfeiffer shared a quote about bringing light and love

Right on the mark: Justin Timberlake said that Martin spoke about peace and progress

'"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,' added Michelle Pfeiffer.

Don Johnson posted a photo and said, 'The Prophet MLK photo by The artist Gordon Parks.'

'Today on Martin Luther King Jr day, I am paying respect to the visionary who helped teach us about equality, courage, justice, truth, and compassion. In my stories I put together some of my favorite MLK quotes and a swipe up to donate so we can continue to be the change we wish to see. Thank you for the invaluable wisdom and humility you continue to incite in us all,' wrote Olivia Culpo.

Demi's touch: Demi Moore shared, 'As we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lets remember that today is a day of service. Today is a day to learn, and engage in nonviolent action for social and economic progress'
Mumbai, Jan 18 : In a new modus operandi, a Nigerian with drugs concealed in his mouth, swallowed the cocaine pellets when a team of Narcotics Control Bureau nabbed him in Mumbai, officials said here on Monday.

The incident occurred on January 14 when the NCB team caught the accused named Ifeamyichukwu Pius when he was moving around a five-star hotel in Juhu to deliver the contraband.

On seeing the sleuths lunging at him, Pius popped the dozen-odd cocaine pellets into his mouth and gulped each plastic pack containing one gm each.

The NCB immediately rushed him to the Sir JJ Hospital where an x-ray and CT scan examination confirmed the pellets were lodged in his abdominal area.

Thereafter, Pius was made to purge the dozen pellets under medical supervision which were retrieved by the NCB. NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede said that the accused was discharged from hospital on Monday and further investigations are on to identify his associates or clients.

The NCB said this is the first instance where a peddler was carrying drugs in his mouth and distributing them to the customers, making it very difficult to ascertain the involvement of the accused.
Its deeply regrettable that Samsung, our countrys best business and a global innovative giant we are proud of, has been implicated in crimes whenever there was a new government, said the presiding judge, Jeong Jun-yung, referring to the companys long history of corruption.

Mr. Jeong said he had taken into consideration that this was the first court case in which Mr. Lee, 52, was convicted of criminal charges.

Samsung is South Koreas brightest corporate success story, helping the country transform from a war-torn agrarian economy into a global export powerhouse. It was once a copycat manufacturer of clunky television sets, but has since surpassed Sony and other global giants in value and reach, offering high-end smartphones, computer chips and flat-screen TVs.

It has also been held up as a symbol of unbridled corruption and the outsize influence of big business in South Korea. Mr. Lees father, Lee Kun-hee, who served as the companys chairman and who died last year, was twice convicted of bribery and other corruption charges, but never spent a day in jail, leading many to believe that Samsung was untouchable.

Mr. Lees sentence on Monday  and the earlier one  set a precedent for Samsung and for the often corrupt ties between South Koreas chaebol and political leaders.

Pro-business groups have warned that Mr. Lees long absence from hands-on management could spell disaster for Samsung and the South Korean economy. As the heir apparent of the company, Mr. Lee is said to be the only person who can make bold decisions and pour billions of dollars into the sort of risky, long-term projects that have helped Samsung become a global player in semiconductors, flat-screen TVs and smartphones.

But Samsungs deep bench of dedicated executives have filled in for Mr. Lee before. When he was in jail in 2017, Samsung Electronics successfully navigated a scandal in which some of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones were found to spontaneously smoke and catch fire.
Back in the quiet, well-to-do neighborhoods of America, the constitution of the mob raised unnerving questions. Do I know any of these people? And: Is anyone I know capable of this? the story asks. It might have been the guy a few houses down who always keeps his lawn immaculately mowed. Or the woman across the street  the one who was always getting in trouble with the homeowners association. Or maybe the man down the block, with whom theyd always politely change the subject whenever politics came up. The insurrectionist next door.
Joe Biden will officially become president of the United States this week. Washington, D.C., has been on high alert, even in the final days of the controversial transition period. The National Guard, which has been stationed at the Capitol Building to prevent a second attack by outgoing President Donald Trumps supporters, became the latest symbol of Americas deeply divided democracy. As Daily Sabah writes, the Jan. 6 crisis is certain to make a deep impact on U.S. politics. Washington faces a challenge that goes beyond Trumps impeachment or preventing him from running in future elections. How the white nationalist wave, which the outgoing president came to symbolize, will be kept under control is a crucial question. Bear in mind that the Republicans turned out to be less supportive of Trumps impeachment than originally imagined.

The Biden administration is expected to initially concentrate on the home front, starting with the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Observers are wondering how the incoming presidents domestic focus will influence his campaign pledge to form an alliance of democracies.

Judging by the lack of heavyweights in his Cabinet, Biden will presumably oversee various foreign policy files personally.

Still, the appointment of several influential people from former President Barack Obamas team to key positions suggests that democracy promotion will remain on the agenda.

An effort to repair the damage that the Trump presidencys most recent crises  such as fraud allegations, the impeachment and the Capitol attack  inflicted on Washingtons global image will shape Bidens rhetoric and practice in democracy.

The single most important question is whether the U.S. will try to address the crisis of its own democracy by focusing on the international arena or look for ways to handle it alone. My sense is that Biden will opt to combine domestic recovery with a renewed emphasis on international alliances. That means that democracy promotion will make a comeback within the framework of domestic and foreign policy interaction.

There is no reason to believe, however, that the incoming administration will go as far as promoting regime change in authoritarian countries. Instead, steps may be taken to strengthen solidarity among democratic nations.

The general view is that the Trump presidency revealed the problems that democracies tend to face when they find themselves isolated.

As such, Bidens top priority may be to unite its democratic allies in Europe and Asia against China and Russia. That would be a fresh overlap between geopolitics and values like democracy, freedom and human rights.

A quick look back to democracy promotion under former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama reveals no significant accomplishments.

Washington is experienced enough to know that such policy decisions do not yield results if the geopolitical interests of American allies are not taken into consideration. I find it hard to believe that the Europeans will jump on the democracy promotion bandwagon to burn bridges with Russia and China. Still, a new wave is on the horizon, and the Western allies should be expected to promote the human rights agenda anew.

The Biden administrations potential policy of democracy promotion will be implemented through NATO solidarity or stronger relations with the European Union. On the campaign trail, the incoming president pledged to support government change in Turkey. Many wonder, therefore, where he will stand on Turkey upon assuming the presidency.

There are two options on the table.

Biden, as an experienced politician who knows Turkey and its neighborhood inside out, will engage in leader-to-leader diplomacy with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and isolate areas of disagreement, starting with the S-400 air defense system.

Turkey and the U.S. would thus make a fresh start in North Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caucasus. That option leads to close cooperation on promoting stability in the Middle East, balancing Russia, and contributing to European security.

Alternatively, Turkeys adversaries within the Biden administration will set the tone, as Washington targets Ankara as part of a democracy agenda  citing existing tensions over the Eastern Mediterranean, Syria and the PKK/YPG.

The second option leads to failure. The U.S., which could not even transform authoritarian governments through invasion, does not need to lose Turkey, a democratic Western ally. Quite the contrary, it serves the interests of all parties to make a reset with Turkey vis-a-vis NATO and the European Union.
She is among the reality stars who fled the UK's coronavirus restrictions on a 'work' trip to Dubai.

And Sophie Kasaei looked incredible as she shared a stunning snap of herself in a teal mini dress during her stay on Monday.

The Geordie Shore star, 31, displayed her incredible figure in the photo, with the skintight garment featuring a daring cut out detail along the sides.

Wow: Sophie Kasaei looked incredible as she shared a stunning snap of herself in a teal mini dress during her trip to Dubai on Monday

Sophie added height to her frame with a pair of white heels as she struck a sultry pose for the camera.

The reality star styled her brunette locks into loose waves for the evening as she partied at The Penthouse in the FIVE Palm Jumeirah Hotel.

Alongside the photo, she wrote: 'Can I be your little mermaid?'

Sophie has joined a long line of reality stars and influencers who have travelled to Dubai recently, amid strict coronavirus restrictions back home in the UK.

Fun in the sun: Sophie has joined a plethora of reality stars and influencers on 'work' trips to Dubai amid the UK's third national lockdown

And despite her tanning woes, she has shared a plethora of bikini-clad snaps of herself sporting a bronze complexion.

Sophie previously enjoyed a sun-soaked trip to Dubai before returning home to spend Christmas with her loved ones.

But she returned to the celeb-favourite city to wave in the New Year alongside her reality star pals, including Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry and Bethan Kershaw.

Last month Sophie was accused of breaking coronavirus social distancing rules after she appeared to mix with three households and attended a family party on Christmas Day.

Holidays: Sophie has joined a long line of reality stars and influencers who have travelled to Dubai this month, amid strict coronavirus restrictions back home in the UK as the third national lockdown takes hold

The reality star appeared to flout rules around mixing during the festive period by travelling to numerous houses and documented some of the celebrations on her social media, according to The Sun.

A source claimed: 'Sophie put the whole day on Instagram Stories - I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

'She started the day with her mum at her house, then she went to her dad's house to see him and her nan, then she went back to her own house - and then went off to her cousin's house for a family party.

'Then she had the cheek to tweet about how good the day was - it's one rule for celebrities and one for everything else.'

Rules: Last month, Sophie was accused of breaking coronavirus social distancing rules after she appeared to mix with three households and attended a family party on Christmas Day

After eating her Christmas dinner, Sophie recorded herself travelling to her cousin's house for a bash.

The reality star said: 'We're on our way, cuz. We've got our bottles, hun. Get us a lemonade ready, cuz.'

The North East was under Tier 3 restrictions at the time, meaning people could visit a maximum of two households on December 25.

Festivities: According to The Sun, the TV personality appeared to flout rules around mixing during the festive period by travelling to multiple houses

Lockdown: The North East was under Tier 3 restrictions at the time, meaning people could visit a maximum of two households on December 25

The Government website said: 'If you do not live in a Tier 4 area, you may see a maximum of two other households (your 'Christmas bubble') on Christmas Day (25 December). You cannot see anyone from a Tier 4 area.

'You should think very carefully about the risks and only form a Christmas bubble if you feel you absolutely need to. Wherever possible, discuss alternatives to meeting up in person.'

It's unclear whether Sophie's father and grandmother are classed as one household, and whether her mother is living with her during the COVID-19 restrictions.

MailOnline contacted representatives of Sophie for comment at the time.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 12:44:33|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer Wu Xia

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- At long last, Mike Pompeo's tenure as U.S. secretary of state is coming to a close. He leaves behind a legacy tainted by ego, lies and little desire to improve the state of the world.

In his final hours at the state department, Pompeo is still racing against time to incite conflict wherever he can.

In a matter of days, he rushed to lift restrictions on Washington's official contacts with Taiwan; hit Cuba, Iran, and Yemen's Houthi group with alleged terror accusations; and once again hyped up a ludicrous theory about the origins of the coronavirus.

Over the years, Pompeo was reckless in abusing the power of his office and the might of the United States for personal political ambitions, and he did so with barefaced lies.

Despite being America's top diplomat, he failed to show any zeal in helping solve the world's real problems. On the contrary, he, along with other political arsonists in Washington, staged one political farce after another on the world stage, and stoked divisions and confrontation almost everywhere he went.

He publically talked about a possible military intervention into Venezuela.

He brazenly pushed for a snapback of sanctions against Tehran lifted under the Iran nuclear deal the United States had already withdrawn from.

Based on groundless security accusations, he relentlessly pressured Britain, Spain and other European countries not to work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei on 5G networks.

The list of manipulations and coercion is endless.

Under his watch, America's diplomatic conduct has turned unprecedentedly chaotic and destructive, sanctimonious and condescending.

Apart from all the havoc he has wreaked across the world over the years, Pompeo did accomplish something: He laid bare before the world the true face of an arrogant, hypocritical and overbearing Washington.

Pompeo and his likes are leaving "the city upon a hill" deeply mired in the coronavirus pandemic, with more known cases and deaths than any other country by far.

Francis Fukuyama, author of the "end of history" thesis, has called the United States a "failed state." European leaders were alarmed at the "shocking" and "disgraceful" scenes in their troubled transatlantic ally following the Capitol violence earlier this month.

Last week, the state department cancelled Pompeo's final trip to Europe at the last hour. The state department explained that the decision was made because it was busy with transition work. It turns out that European officials declined to meet America's top outgoing diplomat.

Because of Pompeo and his likes, America's global image is now in tatters, with Pompeo's final acts of madness another footnote to its fiasco.

Good riddance, Mike Pompeo. With his departure, the world is better off. Enditem
You are here: Travel

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Experts discussed the integration of culture and tourism to boost travel consumption at the Capital Tourism Development Forum in Beijing in late December.

The forum held by the Beijing Tourism Society and Beijing Union University aimed to find solutions to better tap the capital city's cultural and tourism resources and optimize the tourism-business environment.

The pandemic is expected to cause a 50 percent year-on-year drop in domestic tourist visits and consumption for 2020, China Tourism Academy president Dai Bin says.

Inbound tourism plummeted by 90 percent.

"Yet we can see that the massive tourism demand based on national consumption has never disappeared, and digitally driven smart tourism has continued to innovate," Dai says.

Dai says he's optimistic about tourism development in 2021, which is based on the country's goal to eliminate extreme poverty and become a "moderately prosperous society" (xiaokang shehui), as well as the positive results from the demand-side reform outlined at the nation's annual Central Economic Work Conference to stimulate economic development this year.

"Tourism will go from full business resumption to full consumption recovery," Dai says.

He expects pandemic controls, increased consumption and innovation-driven industry upgrades will become focuses of the tourism sector this year.

A group of scenic spots and resorts with outstanding cultural elements will be constructed, and red and rural tourism will be given support to improve travel-business development, and increase quality and supply.

The development of culture parks, including those related to the Great Wall and the Grand Canal, will move forward.

Beijing's tourism plan for 2021-25 has been formulated. Priority will be given to technical reforms and innovation to boost cultural and tourism infrastructure, enhance consumption and advance new business models, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism deputy director Wang Yue says.

The goal is to comprehensively upgrade the capital's tourism quality and raise its profile to make it a first-class tourism city internationally, Wang says.

Five districts in Beijing have been designated as national demonstration zones for holistic tourism development.

"The suburbs are very active in this at the moment," Wang says.

In 2019, Beijing's tourism revenue exceeded 600 billion yuan ($92 billion), and tourism consumption accounted for about 25 percent of total consumer goods' retail sales.

"However, tourism investment only accounts for 10 percent of the added value of investment, and tourism investment has a huge (market)," Wang says.

Beijing Tourism Society's vice-president Zhang Hui suggests efforts on the demand side, whose reform is key for China's quality tourism development.

He says that if the study-tour accreditation and vacations system for students could be adjusted, the potential of the study-tour market, which has accounted for over 25 percent of the global tourism market, could be greatly enhanced in China.

"Once demand pushes supply, our scenic spots and tourism zones will begin an in-depth industrial reconfiguration revolving around study tours," Zhang says.

Since the pandemic has severely affected tourism worldwide, experts call for extra attention to changes in travelers' behaviors.

The public has shown a stronger awareness of risks, including hygiene and real-time tourist flows, says a Tencent survey published last year.

People are no longer putting the fame of a certain destination first but are paying special attention to whether that attraction has taken precautionary measures or has government endorsements, says Song Rui, director of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Song suggests tourism destinations and businesses take note of changes in public tourism services, such as emergency-rescue information delivery and visitor-flow warnings and management, which are increasingly important to tourists.

Song also proposed new consumption models.

"Life or goods' production can be turned into new tourism-consumption modes, once creative and technical elements are added."

Beijing Tourism Society vice-president Wu Bihu calls for regional cooperation to boost Beijing's tourism development.

Destinations within two hours via high-speed rail from Beijing, including Tianjin, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi and Shandong provinces, should be integrated into the capital's travel circuit, he says.

"They would offer more support to Beijing this way."




Washington: A lot of the characters are the same for US President-elect Joe Biden but the scene is far starker as he reassembles a team of veteran negotiators to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

President Donald Trump worked to blow up the multinational deal to contain Irans nuclear program during his four years in office, gutting the diplomatic achievement of predecessor Barack Obama in favour of what Trump called a maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

There are mounting fears regional conflict will erupt, triggered by the accusations, threats and still more sanctions imposed by Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in their final days, but also Iran's decision to spur uranium enrichment and seize a South Korean tanker.

Missiles are launched by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces during a drill last week. Credit:AP

Iran on Friday (Saturday AEDT) staged drills, hurling volleys of ballistic missiles and smashing drones into targets, further raising pressure on the incoming American president over a nuclear accord.
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A hot potato: According to court documents uncovered by the Texas attorney general's office, Facebook and Google entered an agreement in 2018 that effectively gave the social media platform a distinct advantage when bidding for ads against competitors. The two companies came to spending arrangements and concessions not afforded other advertisers.

The complaint filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton is connected to the multi-state antitrust lawsuit filed last December that alleges Facebook and Google agreed to assist each other against antitrust actions. The redacted filing hid much of the specific details. However, The New York Times obtained an unredacted draft that shows the two companies had agreed to a lot more than just aiding each other against antitrust regulators.

The partnership sprung up when Facebook, one of Google's largest ad revenue sources, began testing a new ad-auctioning method called "header bidding." It was developed to get around Google's over-dominating ad platform. It allowed websites to get bids from multiple exchanges simultaneously, increasing competition resulting in better prices for publishers.

"[Header bidding cuts out] third-party middlemen who make the rules and obfuscate the truth," Facebook remarked as a back-handed poke at Google's methods.

According to an internal email, Google viewed header bidding as an "existential threat," especially once Facebook threatened to get on board. So Google created "Open Bidding," which was similar to header bidding, except Google would take a small fee for every winning bid.

At the same time, the search giant offered Facebook a mutually beneficial partnership in Open Bidding. Facebook announced the deal without fanfare or details in a December 2018 blog post. The agreement allegedly offered Facebook preferential treatment on the new platform. The arrangement between the two tech titans gives Facebook more time to bid in ad auctions, affords it more transparency, and offers a "guaranteed win-rate." After signing the deal, Facebook dropped its plans to use header bidding.

"Unbeknown to other market participants, no matter how high others might bid, the parties have agreed that the gavel will come down in Facebook's favor a set number of times," the draft complaint said.

Adam Heimlich, Chalice Custom Algorithms CEO, a marketing and data science firm, said that the deal was so sweet for Facebook that it was essentially like letting it "start every tournament in the finals."

In turn, Facebook pledged itself to bid on 90 percent of auctions as long as it could identify the "end-user." Additionally, it promised to spend up to $500 million on ads by the fourth year of the deal.

"Unbeknown to other market participants, no matter how high others might bid, the parties have agreed that the gavel will come down in Facebook's favor a set number of times."

"Facebook also demanded that data about its bids not be used by Google to manipulate auctions in its own favor, a level playing field not explicitly promised to other Open Bidding partners," said The New York Times.

In light of these terms, the alliance to help each other during antitrust investigations makes complete sense. The two companies allegedly knew that their deal would bring forth price-fixing claims were it to be discovered. In fact, the word "antitrust" appears at least 20 times in the agreement. The contract already had confidentiality clauses to prevent specifics of the duopoly from emerging. Adding an arrangement to help each other in case of antitrust proceedings an added insurance policy.

Google and Facebook both deny any wrongdoing.

"[This complaint] misrepresents this agreement, as it does many other aspects of our ad tech business," Google spokeswoman Julie Tarallo told NYT. She also points out that Facebook has several other similar "alliances" with other companies.

Likewise, Facebook representative Christopher Sgro claimed that such deals increase competition. "Any suggestion that these types of agreements harm competition is baseless," Sgro said.

Image credit: Daniel Constante
The episode remains a bleak reminder of how the West continued to have a brutal role in the Global South, even after its former colonies gained independence. And this kind of self-interested meddling still continues to this very day.

by Peter Bolton

Exactly 60 years ago today, Congolese national liberation leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated. Those responsible were most likely troops of a rival government acting on behalf of the Congos former colonial master, which had retained a presence in the Central African country. But theres more to the assassination than initially meets the eye. There has been a gradual accumulation of credible evidence that the worlds post-WWII colonial superpower, the US, along with its sidekick the UK, played a hand in the events leading to Lumumbas assassination.





The episode remains a bleak reminder of how the West continued to have a brutal role in the Global South, even after its former colonies gained independence. And this kind of self-interested meddling still continues to this very day.

The Congos first democratic leader, elected then killed

Lumumba was the Congos first democratically elected leader following the countrys independence from Belgium in 1960. He became prime minister after his party, the Congolese National Movement (MCN in its French initials), won the first democratic elections in its history. But though Lumumba was an immensely popular figure at home, he had already earned powerful enemies on the international stage.

His decision to make contact with the Soviet Union certainly raised eyebrows. But it was his firmly stated desire to use the Congos resource wealth for the benefit of the countrys own people that attracted the most ire. And as an African nationalist and outspoken proponent of anti-colonialism, he was seen as a potential threat to Western interests throughout the continent. When Congos former colonial master Belgium, which still had troops in the country, backed a rival, pro-Western secessionist government, Lumumba was quickly arrested.

Shortly after, on 17 January 1961, Lumumba was assassinated by a firing squad under Belgian command. The circumstances surrounding his death remained mysterious for decades. Belgium long denied involvement in his assassination, but eventually issued an official apology for its role in 2002.

Evidence pointing to involvement of the US

Subsequent revelations indicate that parties other than Belgium were involved in Lumumbas killing. In fact, theres evidence that the US shares partial responsibility for the events leading up to his death.

In 1975, a congressional committee admitted that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had plotted to eliminate Lumumba. This was due to fears that he might become Africas answer to Fidel Castro. Declassified US intelligence documents subsequently revealed that the leader of the rival Congolese government that had detained Lumumba received arms and financial support directly from the CIA.

Though direct US involvement in the assassination has never been decisively proven, theres no doubt that there were multiple CIA plots to have him killed, including one that could have involved putting poison into his toothpaste. Its also undeniable that the US had a motive. It had long benefited from exploitation of the Congos resources and even used Congolese uranium in the bombs it dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the aftermath of Lumumbas death, the US made sure it secured its interests by providing the new Western-friendly government with generous paramilitary support.

and the UK

And theres evidence suggesting UK involvement as well. In 2013, a member of the House of Lords claimed that an MI6 officer based in the Congo at the time admitted to him that Lumumba was killed as part of a British intelligence-led Cold War operation. The MI6 officer was Daphne Park, and the peer made this claim in a letter to the London Review of Books. He wrote:

I mentioned [to Park] the uproar surrounding Lumumbas abduction and murder, and recalled the theory that MI6 might have had something to do with it. We did, [Park] replied, I organised it.

He added that Park implied the decision was predicated on control of the countrys natural resources and Lumumbas possible future alliance with the Soviet Union:

We went on to discuss her contention that Lumumba would have handed over the whole lot [of the resources] to the Russians: the high-value Katangese uranium deposits as well as the diamonds and other important minerals largely located in the secessionist eastern state of Katanga.

Today, Lumumba is remembered as both a national hero in the Congo and as an important martyr in the cause of Third World liberation throughout Africa and the wider Global South. His assassination remains a dark reminder that the Wests self-interested meddling in former colonies continued even after the granting of national independence. And sadly, this meddling continues right up to the present day.

***

See also

Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists

by Patrice Lumumba - June 30, 1960

Men and women of the Congo,

Victorious independence fighters,

I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government.

I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom.

Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood.

It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us.

That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten.

We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones.

Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were "Negroes". Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as "tu", not because he was a friend, but because the polite "vous" was reserved for the white man?

We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might.

We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others.

We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself.

We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions were for the whites and the tumbledown huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for "Europeans"; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.

Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination?

All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering.

But we, who were elected by the votes of your representatives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we tell you that henceforth all that is finished with.

The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our beloved country's future is now in the hands of its own people.

Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.

Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.

We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.

We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.

We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble.

We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights.

We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country.

We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.

And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship.

Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while remaining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made.

Thus, both in the internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can.

I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad.

I ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking.

Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country's prosperity.

The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.

Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country.

I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.

Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation!

Long live independence and African unity!

Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!
Police responded to a crash at McDonalds, 6220 Lee Hwy. A woman driving a white SUV said she was waiting to enter the drive-thru line at McDonald's. She said that a Mercury vehicle attempted to pull in front of her in the line and then she pulled forward. The woman said that once she pulled forward, she made contact with the Mercury on the front passenger side. The driver of the Mercury said she was pulling into the McDonalds drive-through when the driver of the SUV tried forcing her way into the line, thus striking her vehicle.

The SUV had damage to the rear driver side of her vehicle and the Mercury had damage to the front passenger side of her vehicle. The driver of the SUV said she had shoulder pain and was transported to Erlanger East via Medic 15. Both vehicles were drivable and no citations were issued. A witness said that the Mercury sedan hit the white SUV.The driver of the Mercury said she was standing outside of her vehicle trying to take a picture of the SUV when the driver of the SUV struck the phone out of her hand. The woman said that the SUV driver came towards a male passenger from the Mercury car, screaming at him. He said the woman scratched/struck his face and then he pushed her away. The woman said that the man punched her in the right shoulder. She said that she did scratch him and she also had a broken fingernail. The woman requested EMS transport her for the shoulder pain. She said that she did not wish to prosecute in this matter. The man and woman in the Mercury also said that they did not wish to prosecute in this matter. The witness said that he saw the SUV driver get out of her car and walk towards the Mercury. He said that it looked like she was trying to get a claim out of this accident. The witness said he believed that she did this on purpose.Officers reviewed CCTV from McDonald's and it only showed the SUV driver getting out of her car and walking towards the Mercury. Multiple people are then viewed, but officers were unable to depict who or what is going on. The manager said that he will try to get the video onto a disk and will call back once it has been done.* * *

Police responded to a vandalism call on Acer Circle. Police made contact with a woman who said that an unknown person stuffed candy bars into her fuel cap. Police observed the candy bars in the fuel cap. The woman was unable to give any suspect info.



* * *



Police were called to a residence on 12th Avenue. A woman said she left her silver 2001 Honda CRV running in her driveway and went back inside her home. Moments later the woman said she went back outside and found the vehicle had been taken from her driveway. At this time the woman told police she didn't see who took the vehicle and had no suspect information to provide police. Police entered the vehicle into NCIC as stolen. Police then gave the woman a complaint card and told her to call the police back if she found her vehicle or had anything further to report. Two days later the woman called police and said she got her vehicle back. Police had the vehicle removed as stolen.



* * *



Police received a call from a woman on 12th Avenue who said that sometime during the night an unknown person entered her vehicle and stole various items. She remembers last seeing her vehicle at around 5 p.m. the day before, and when she went to get into her car at approximately in the morning, she found her items gone. The woman said that the vehicle was left unlocked, and that her Apple watch ($400), pocket book ($20), Tennessee driver's license and $60 worth of cash were stolen. There is no suspect information at this time.



* * *



Police were called by the owner of a wrecker company and car lot at 2822 Calhoun Ave. Officers spoke with the man who said that over the weekend someone had got into his car lot and stole his 2003 Chevy Tahoe. The man said the vehicle had been in his lot for more than the length of time that the state requires before he can legally appeal to the state for ownership. The man had all of the paperwork stating that he is the owner. It is believed that whoever took the car had the keys, jumped the fence to get into the property and left by running over the fence. There was property damage that amounted to approximately $1,500. There is no suspect information at this time. The vehicle did not have a license plate on it when it was in the lot. The vehicle was entered into NCIC.



* * *



A woman called police from Joe Engel Drive and said that while they were out of town, an unknown person(s) pulled their light post out of the ground and left it lying in the yard with wires exposed. She said that their mailbox was knocked over and thrown up in the yard. She further said that the unknown person(s) spray painted inappropriately on their driveway (male anatomy). She says that the damage is costing them about $500 to undo.

* * *

Police were called by a woman on Camellia Drive who said that her ex-boyfriend had texted her saying he knew her Social Security number and would post it on Facebook because they had a verbal argument. The woman said she did not want to prosecute, but just wanted a report made. Police attempted to contact the ex-boyfriend by phone, but he did not answer.



* * *



A man on 49th Street said he turned on his vehicle to warm it up and re-entered his residence and left the car unlocked. The man said he came back outside and found his vehicle, a 2006 Toyota 4 Runner, had been stolen from the roadway in front of the residence. The man said the vehicle had after-market rims, but no damage to note or any other distinguishing features. The man had no suspect information to provide police. Police entered the vehicle into NCIC, issued the man a complaint card and told him to call back if he needed to add any other information.


SUV

Unlike its predecessor, which was a sedan that looked so traditional most die-hard Citroen fans called it too German-looking, it seems that the third generation of the Citroen C5 will switch to a much quirkier design.As many of you have already noticed, the mid-size sedan market has been eaten up by crossovers and SUVs of all types and sizes, not to mention that traditional French sedans have always had a tough time competing against their German counterparts.Even Ford has decided to kill the future of the Mondeo sedan and replace it with a crossover-looking hatchback tentatively wearing the Mondeo Evos nameplate.Following a similar path, it looks like the next generation of the Citroen C5 will have almost nothing in common with any of its predecessors, as spy photographers have caught the first pre-production prototype of the model while being road-tested in Europe.The model is highly camouflaged, but the overall proportions are definitely those of an elongated C4 , which has also switched from being a traditional-looking compact hatchback to having a crossover/look.Despite the rather high ground clearance, the 2023 Citroen C5 is not expected to feature all-wheel-drive on most of its versions, and the Citroen-famous pneumatic suspension might not make an appearance either.A host of 1.2-, and 1.6-liter gasoline engines with various outputs and even a plug-in hybrid version should comprise the gasoline lineup, while diesel lovers will have to suffice with a choice between a 1.5-liter and a 2.0-liter.An all-electric e-C5 is also expected to be in the works, but dont expect a Tesla-level of performance or range, with Citroen being more focused on comfort and a quirky design.With Citroen now part of Stellantis , which includes FCA, the arrival of the new C5 might also signal the re-launch of the Citroen brand in the United States, but this is all speculation at this point.

Three Adani airports - Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow were accredited in the Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Health Accreditation programme. The global recognition demonstrates extraordinary proactive measures put in place by these airports to ensure passenger safety.

The evaluation process by ACI under the AHA programme is conducted after reviewing evidences presented based on 118 checks points.

The airports have demonstrated a safe travel experience for all travelers which is in line with the recommended health measures established in the ACI Aviation Business Restart and Recovery guidelines and ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force Recommendations, along with industry best practices.

The accreditation is valid for the next 12 months. The programme is designed to help reassure the travelling public that airport facilities remain safe and that precautions are being taken to reduce health risks.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:34:19|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday disclosed it only received 39 percent of the 385.1 million U.S. dollars it needs to meet the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees in Ethiopia.

The UNHCR in its monthly fact sheet said it's working to meet the needs of refugees and IDPs despite the funding gap and incidence of armed conflicts in some of the areas it operates.

"The UNHCR continues to respond to the situation of IDPs in Ethiopia, leading the Protection Cluster and providing protection, emergency aid and other support to IDPs and IDP returnees, including those displaced by recent flooding and conflict," said the UNHCR monthly fact sheet.

The UNHCR said despite the funding constraints, it's currently engaged in the training of health personnel as well as the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), and essential medicines and materials to strengthen health services in refugee camps in Ethiopia.

UNHCR also said it's supporting the Inter-agency COVID-19 response to the IDP situation by providing PPEs and sanitation materials, equipping isolation and quarantine centers and providing community sensitization.

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 131,195 after 423 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said on Monday morning.

As of Dec. 31, 2020, the UNHCR has registered 802,821 refugees and asylum seekers in Ethiopia, most of whom are housed in refugee camps in six regional states.

Ethiopia currently hosts the second-largest refugee population in Africa, next to Uganda.

Refugees in Ethiopia primarily come from Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sudan, according to figures from the Ethiopian government.

Ethiopia also has several million IDPs, including 2.2 million people displaced by the outbreak of conflict in the country's northern Tigray regional state last November. Enditem
New Delhi : In a top-level meeting that took place on Monday at the health ministry, certain modalities of the export policy of the Indian government with regards to the Covid-19 vaccine were worked out.

Sources privy to the discussions told News18, that Bharat Biotech will provide 8.1 lakh doses to Myanmar, Mongolia, Oman, Bahrain, Philippines, Maldives, Mauritius as a goodwill gesture.

A meeting to discuss this was earlier held on January 15, where the National Expert Group On Vaccine Administration for Covid-19, the expert group on vaccines had spoken about the need to help other countries and ensure a grant in aid. The procurement, this meeting had decided, would be done by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Also read: 'Our Data Open. Don't Drag Us Into Politics. We're Scientists': Bharat Biotech Chiefs Hit out at Detractors

In Monday's meeting, sources said, the Serum Institute of India (SII) raised the issue of indemnification again. It is noteworthy that the Indian government, in its purchase agreement, has said that the liabilities of any adverse event will be borne by the vaccine company and not the government. This applies to both Bharat Biotech and the SII. The SII CEO Adar Poonawalla, has in the past, spoken about the need to protect vaccine companies in case of liabilities related to adverse events involving the vaccine.

SII, the sources said, spoke about the obligation under the COVAX facility, coordinated by the World Health Organization. SII has committed a supply of 10 million doses free to India under COVAX.

SII indicated that 11 million doses have been provided to India already. Currently there are 53 million doses available in stocks that are labeled and are cleared by Central Drugs Laboratory. They have 25 million doses allotted for exports and the remaining 25 million doses can be allocated for India.

For the government to government supplies, SII will supply the vaccine to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Seychelles.

It is likely that the export of vaccines, both by Bharat Biotech and SII will start by the end of January. Bharat Biotech, will start to provide 8.1 lakh doses to the MEA by January 22.
Indias vaccine drive runs into glitches

Indias coronavirus vaccine rollout, one of the largest in the world, has been hobbled by technical glitches in a mobile phone application, leaving the country far short of its vaccination goals in the first few days of the campaign.

State officials complained of problems with a digital platform called the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network, or CoWIN, which is used by vaccine providers and recipients to monitor progress. Vaccine recipients have to sign up through the app.

The software became overwhelmed and didnt work at many vaccination sites as the campaign began on Saturday. India is planning to vaccinate 1.3 billion people, as it battles the second-highest case count and third-highest death count in the world.

Details: On the first day, about 300,000 health care workers were set to be inoculated; the actual number was about 207,000. On Sunday, the number dropped to 17,072.
Jessica Marais has returned to Instagram after 21 weeks of silence on the platform.

On Sunday, the former Love Child star revealed how she has centered herself by partaking in yoga practice as she continues to grieve the death of her mother Karen.

The 35-year-old actress broke her social media silence by sharing a close-up photo of a spider web ebbed on what seems to be the edge of her window-seal on a rainy day.

Jessica Marais has returned to Instagram after 21 weeks of silence on the platform, as she continues to grieve the death of her mother Karen

'Thanking all the beautiful teachers and the community at This Is Yoga for helping me web the ebbs and flows with a little sweat. Ok a lot of sweat,' she wrote in the caption.

The post comes five months after Jessica shared a heartbreaking post dedicated to her late mother, Karen.

She shared a childhood photo to Instagram of herself with her mother and sister at the beach.

The star's family has experienced a lot of tragedy, as Jessica was just nine years old when she watched her father, university dean Tony Marais, collapse and die of a heart attack.

Following the death of her mother, Jessica took to Instagram to share a childhood photograph alongside her late mum Karen and her sister

In August, Jessica's friend and Packed to the Rafters co-star Hugh Sheridan confirmed her mother's death on his Instagram page.

'I'm grieving for my dearest and sweetest friend, who has now lost both of her parents far too young,' he wrote at the time.

Actor Hugh, who has known Jessica since their university days, shared his memories of Karen and said how proud she was of her daughter.

Jessica was just nine years old when she watched her father, university dean Tony Marais, collapse and die from a heart attack. Pictured: the Marais family

'We've helped each other through our lives changing in so many ways. Our wins and highs met extreme lows sometimes, but we always made it through,' he wrote.

'I can't tell you how s**t I feel knowing I can't hug you right now. To have distance between us when I want to be with you,' added Hugh, who was living in Los Angeles at the time.

'I love you, Jess. I'll be back very soon and I will hug you for a very long time (after I get lot of quarantine).'

Jessica became a household name after starring on Channel 7 drama Packed To The Rafters

Jessica and Hugh made a name for themselves after appearing in hit Channel 7 drama, Packed To The Rafters, when it premiered in 2008.

Fans can expect a Packed to The Rafters reboot - appropriately titled, Back To The Rafters in early 2021.

The new series will is set in the present time - six years later after the show's sixth season.
Siemens Gamesa and Siemens Energy are joining forces to develop an innovative solution that fully integrates an electrolyzer into an offshore wind turbine as a single synchronized system to produce green hydrogen directly. The companies intend to provide a full-scale offshore demonstration of the solution by 2025/2026.

Together with Siemens Gamesa, we are in a unique position to develop this game changing solution. We are the company that can leverage its highly flexible electrolyzer technology and create and redefine the future of sustainable offshore energy production. With these developments, the potential of regions with abundant offshore wind will become accessible for the hydrogen economy. It is a prime example of enabling us to store and transport wind energy, thus reducing the carbon footprint of economy. Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy





Over the five years, Siemens Gamesa plans to invest 80 million and Siemens Energy is targeting to invest 40 million in the developments. Siemens Gamesa will adapt its development of the SG14-222 DD offshore wind turbine to integrate an electrolysis system seamlessly into the turbines operations. By leveraging Siemens Gamesas intricate knowledge and decades of experience with offshore wind, electric losses are reduced to a minimum, while a modular approach ensures a reliable and efficient operational set-up for a scalable offshore wind-hydrogen solution.

Siemens Energy will develop a new electrolysis product to not only meet the needs of the harsh maritime offshore environment and be in sync with the wind turbine, but also to create a new competitive benchmark for green hydrogen.

The ultimate fully integrated offshore wind-to-hydrogen solution will produce green hydrogen using an electrolyzer array located at the base of the offshore wind turbine tower. The solution will lower the cost of hydrogen by being able to run off grid, opening up more and better wind sites. The developments will serve as a test bed for large-scale, cost-efficient hydrogen production and will prove the feasibility of reliable, effective implementation of wind turbines in systems for producing hydrogen from renewable energy.

The developments are part of the H2Mare initiative which is a lighthouse project likely to be supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ideas competition "Hydrogen Republic of Germany". The H2mare initiative under the consortium lead of Siemens Energy is a modular project consisting of multiple sub-projects to which more than 30 partners from industry, institutes and academia are contributing. Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa will contribute to the H2Mare initiative with their own developments in separate modular building blocks.

Currently 80 million tons of hydrogen are produced each year and production is expected to increase by about 20 million tons by 2030. Just 1% of that hydrogen is currently generated from green energy sources.

The bulk is obtained from natural gas and coal, emitting 830 million tons of CO 2 per year, more than the entire nation of Germany or the global shipping industry. Replacing this current polluting consumption would require 820 GW of wind generating capacity, 26% more than the current global installed wind capacity.

Looking further ahead, many studies suggest that by 2050 production will have grown to about 500 million tons with a significant shift to green hydrogen. The expected growth will require between 1,000 GW and 4,000 GW of renewable capacity by 2050 to meet demandhighlighting the vast potential for growth in wind power.
The term of Navalny's detention in custody is set until February 15.

Russian opposition leader and Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been arrested for 30 days.

Read alsoUkraine concerned over detention of Russian opposition leader NavalnyA court hearing took place in a police station in the town of Khimki outside Russia's capital city of Moscow.

The term of Navalny's detention in custody is set until February 15.

A video message from the opposition leader to his supporters with an appeal to take to the streets has been posted on Telegram following the court's decision.

Navalny's return to Russia

On January 17, Navalny returned to Russia from Germany, where he received treatment after being poisoned last summer.

His plane was supposed to land at Vnukovo Airport, but was redirected to Sheremetyevo Airport.

He was detained by police officers at the airport's border control.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service in Moscow said that Navalny had been detained for the failure to visit the criminal executive inspectorate as a probationer.

Reporting by UNIAN
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FLINT, MI -- Genesee Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth A. Kelly is assigned to preside over seven felony prosecutions related to the Flint water crisis.

Chief Circuit Judge Duncan Beagle made the assignment, which was entered into court records Thursday, Jan. 14, the same day nine indictments were announced and seven defendants facing felonies were arraigned before Kelly.

Former Gov. Rick Snyder and former Flint Department of Public Works Director Howard Crofts cases, both of which involve two misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty, were assigned to Genesee District Judge William Crawford.

Kelly has spent two years as a judge after winning election to the bench in November 2018, scoring the most votes cast among four candidates in the race.

She was a sole practitioner in her downtown Flint law firm after attending Mott Community College, the University of Michigan-Flint and Michigan State University.

The cases assigned to Kelly are Richard Baird, former senior advisor to Snyder (one count each of perjury, misconduct in office, obstruction of justice and extortion), former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon (nine counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of willful neglect of duty), former Michigan Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eden Wells (nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of misconduct in office and one count of willful neglect of duty), former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley (three counts of misconduct in office), former emergency manager Gerald Ambrose (four counts of misconduct in office), former Snyder Chief of Staff and Communications Director Jarrod Agen (one count of perjury), and Nancy Peeler, manager of the MDHHS Early Childhood Health Section (two counts of misconduct in office and one count of willful neglect of duty).

Although 15 current and former city and state employees faced prosecutions related to the water crisis under former Attorney General Bill Schuette, just three cases were bound over to Circuit Court -- those involving Lyon, Wells and Ambrose - and Kelly was not involved in any of those cases.

Those cases and five others pending in District Court were all dismissed without prejudice after Dana Nessel took over the job as Michigan attorney general in 2019.

Crawford bound Wells over to Circuit Court for trial in 2018.

He was appointed judge by former Gov. John Engler in 1997. A Flint Central High School graduate, he earned a bachelors degree in 1979 and a law degree in 1982, both at Ohio State University. He worked with the UAW-GM Legal Services Plan before joining the Flint city attorneys office in 1984. Four years later, he left the city for private practice, rejoining the city in 1992 as deputy chief legal officer.

Read more:

Former Gov. Snyder, 8 others criminally charged, accused of trampling trust of Flint people

Snyder prosecution in Flint case relies on rare procedure in Michigan

Flint water crisis legal bills have cost taxpayers nearly $35 million so far

Former Gov. Rick Snyder shows up at Genesee County Jail ahead of court appearance on water crisis charges

Former Flint DPW director charged with two counts of neglect of duty in water crisis probe
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet are urging other states to scrap domestic coronavirus travel restrictions after Victoria reopened to parts of Sydney and government figures reveal the borders stalemate is costing NSW close to $180 million per week.

As NSW recorded zero cases of community transmission on Monday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state would downgrade all but 10 of Sydney's 35 local government areas from 'red' to 'orange' risk.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet. Credit: Nick Moir

Ms Berejiklian said the move, which will allow Sydneysiders from orange LGAs to travel to Melbourne but isolate until receiving a negative coronavirus test, was a "step in the right direction".

However, she said there should be no domestic border restrictions given federal health authorities have declared there are no Commonwealth hotspots.
More than 600 people have been arrested and troops have been deployed after a third consecutive night of riots in several Tunisian cities, officials said Monday.

The unrest came after Tunisia imposed a nationwide lockdown to stem a rise in coronavirus infections on Thursday . the same day as it marked the 10th anniversary of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's fall from power.

Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni said a total of 632 people were arrested, notably "groups of people between the ages of 15, 20 and 25 who burned tyres and bins in order to block movements by the security forces".

Defence ministry spokesman Mohamed Zikri meanwhile said the army has deployed reinforcements in several areas of the country.

Hayouni said that some of those arrested lobbed stones at police and clashed with security forces.

"This has nothing to do with protest movements that are guaranteed by the law and the constitution," said Hayouni.

"Protests take place in broad daylight normally... without any criminal acts involved," he added.

Hayouni said two policemen were wounded in the unrest.

It was not immediately clear if there were injuries among the youths and Hayouni did not say what charges those arrested faced.

The clashes took place in several cities across Tunisia, mostly in working-class neighbourhoods, with the exact reasons for the disturbances not immediately known.

But it came as many Tunisians are increasingly angered by poor public services and a political class that has repeatedly proved unable to govern coherently a decade on from the 2011 revolution.

GDP shrank by nine percent last year, consumer prices have spiralled and one third of young people are unemployed.

The key tourism sector, already on its knees after a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015, has been dealt a devastating blow by the pandemic.

Tunisia has registered more than 177,000 coronavirus infections, including over 5,600 deaths since the pandemic erupted last year.

The four-day lockdown ended on Sunday night, but it was not immediately know if other restrictions would be imposed.

No 'future here'

The army has deployed troops in Bizerte in the north, Sousse in the east and Kasserine and Siliana in central Tunisia, the defence ministry spokesman said.

Sousse, a coastal resort overlooking the Mediterranean, is a magnet for foreign holidaymaking that has been hit hard by the pandemic.

The health crisis and ensuing economic misery have pushed growing numbers of Tunisians to seek to leave the country.

On Sunday evening in Ettadhamen, a restive working-class neighbourhood on the edge of the Tunisian capital, the mood was sombre.

"I don't see any future here," said Abdelmoneim, a waiter, as the unrest unfolded around him.

He blamed the violence on the country's post-revolution political class and said the rioting youths were "bored adolescents" who reflected the "failure" of politicians.

Abdelmoneim said he was determined to take a boat across the Mediterranean to Europe "as soon as possible, and never come back to this miserable place".

See Ahram Online Facebook page for full gallery

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Campbell- impacted by Covid

As we move into 2021, just-food continues to provide daily updates on how the Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting the world's packaged food sector  and how the industry's executives see the market and consumer behaviour taking shape in the months ahead.

Don't subscribe to just-food? Click here for a trial

This article is now closed. These rolling updates built on our previous bulletins, published throughout 2020.

Wednesday 10 March

Campbell expecting sales slowdown as world emerges from lockdown

US food giant Campbell Soup Co. has said it expects its full-year sales to fall as Covid vaccines lead to society opening up again.

It is forecasting fiscal 2021 sales will fall between 3.5% and 2.5% as consumers gradually return to their pre-pandemic lives and, by leaving their homes more regularly, reduce their reliance on ready-to-eat soups and snacks.

Reporting its Q2 results today (10 March), Campbell revealed that net sales rose 5.4% to US$2.28bn in the three months to 31 January, compared to the same period last year, but the company missed estimates of $2.30bn, partly because of declines in its foodservice segment due to the Covid lockdown.

Adjusted EBIT was up 8%, year-on-year, to $393m.

Mark Clouse, Campbell's president and CEO, said: "We delivered another quarter of strong results, with top-line growth in both segments - partly tempered by foodservice and supply constraints caused by Covid-19 - as well as continued growth in EBIT and EPS."

Thursday 4 March

Olymel's Alberta pork plant starts phased reopening

Canadian pork and poultry processor Olymel said its Red Deer plant in Alberta province will resume slaughtering operations today (4 March) as it plans a phased reopening following a temporary 14-day closure due to a Covid outbreak.

Cutting room operations will recommence on Friday, Olymel said in a statement, following inspections on Monday and Wednesday this week by Alberta Health Services (AHS), the Occupational Health and Safety authority (OHS), and the Environmental Public Health department.

"AHS made several recommendations aimed at adjusting and reinforcing certain measures that were already in place and gave the green light to gradually resume operations," the company said.

It added: "The employees that are needed to ensure that the gradual restarting of operations goes smoothly will be recalled in accordance with applicable collective agreement provisions. Since March 3, employee groups have been recalled to take part in training sessions covering all implemented health measures, adjustments and additions made to some of them, and the action plan developed for reopening. The training sessions also focus on the important role information plays in compliance with all the health measures that are in place at the plant."

Olymel, which is majority-owned by the Sollio Cooperative Group, will continue to work closely with AHS and the OHS throughout the entire gradual reopening process."

The processor said "most of the employees" who had Covid-19 have since recovered, while three "have unfortunately passed away".

"Although 1,370 employees at the Red Deer plant have been tested since January 1, 2021, AHS experts will be on site when operations resume and will offer rapid testing to anyone who has not tested positive and wishes to be tested," Olymel said.

--

Wednesday 3 March

Two Hilton workers die from Covid after outbreak at UK seafood plant

Two employees of UK-based Hilton Food Group have died after contracting Covid-19.

The workers were employed within the company's Hilton Seafood division and were based at a processing facility in Grimsby in north-east England.

--

B&G to invest in online operations following Covid sales surge

US-based B&G Foods has said it plans to invest in its e-commerce operation this year to build on sales momentum achieved during the Covid lockdown period.

Talking to analysts after the release of its full-year 2020 results, The Green Giant and Clabber Girl brands owner said online sales had grown substantially in 2020,

CEO David Wenner said: "The great majority of our brands grew in fiscal 2020 substantially because of the dramatic effects of Covid on consumer buying and dining patterns. E-commerce was a growing driver of those trends and we invested during the year to follow consumers as they bought more through various online means and we saw sales through those means of buying grow and return.

"Although, there's no precise way to measure this, using IRI and other data sources, we believe that our online sales grew by roughly 150%, albeit from a relatively modest base. We expect that trend to continue in 2021 and are investing further in building out our online presence and on marketing with various retailers on their site so that we can be at the forefront of this new way of selling."

B&G's 2020 net sales were up 18.5% to US$1.97bn, while its adjusted EBITDA was up by 19.4% to $361.2m.

UK government urges regular food industry Covid testing

The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has called on the country's food manufacturers to introduce regular Covid testing for asymptomatic employees.

In a letter to food businesses signed by environment secretary George Eustice, it said: "We now have a roadmap to open up our communities and restart our lives, but we need to remain vigilant and continue to protect our sectors and the workforce as we go forward.

"That means taking all necessary precautions to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection in the workplace."

Defra has called on employers to adopt the government's workplace testing programme.

"Providing the tests is quick and easy, and results are received rapidly. Employers should be aiming to test staff members twice each week," Eustice said in the letter.

The programme of free tests is open to all employers of more than 50 staff and will run until 30 June but firms must register by 31 March.

Tuesday 2 March

Lindt & Sprungli forecasts sweeter sales in 2021

Covid-19 soured Lindt & Sprungli's sales in 2020 but the Swiss chocolate maker is expecting its top line to recover this year.

The Lindor owner saw its sales fall more than 6% on an organic basis last year, with its retail business hit by lockdown-related closures and gift sales hampered by families being less able to get together.

However, Lindt today (2 March) forecast a 6-8% rise in its organic sales in 2021. The upmarket chocolatier added it's "convinced that it will master the current economic downturn and emerge even stronger from this global crisis".

In 2020, Lindt's sales fell 10.9% on a reported basis to CHF4.02bn (US$4.38bn), which equated to a 6.1% decline on an organic basis.

The company's EBIT tumbled to CHF420.3m, contributing to a 37.5% slide in net income to CHF320.1m.

Lindt's EBIT margin was 10.5% and the business today forecast that would return to 13-14% this year.

During 2020, Lindt's online sales doubled to account for around 5% of its business.

--

FrieslandCampina profits hit by Covid-19

Dutch dairy major FrieslandCampina said that the coronavirus pandemic has led to it recording a "significantly lower profit" in it full-year 2020 results.

Announcing its results this morning, the dairy revealed its profit has declined by 71.6% year-on-year to EUR79m (US$95m).

Revenue also declined, by 1.4% to EUR11.1bn.

CEO Hein Schumacher said: "The direct and indirect impacts of the corona pandemic that really became evident within the company starting in March, overshadowed the excellent results in the first quarter.

"FrieslandCampina's operating profit was hard hit by this."

He added: "While there is light at the end of the tunnel now that vaccination programmes are getting underway throughout the world, for the next couple of months we are still totally immersed in the corona crisis. In the first half of 2021, the results will therefore still be under pressure."

Monday 1 March

Coming to the crunch during Covid-19  UK snack bars deep dive, part one

On our analysis pages today, Andy Coyne takes a close look at the UK snack bar category and at how it has adapted to the unique trading conditions created by Covid lockdown restrictions.

Many people have assumed the UK snack-bar category would have come under significant pressure over the last year as the on-the-go market has been hammered by the slump in mobility wrought by Covid-19, with a huge chunk of the population working from home, emptying city centres with their express supermarkets and meal-deal outlets.

However, the stats suggest UK snack bar manufactures have adapted to change more successfully than was widely thought.

--

Maple Leaf to relaunch plant-based brands after Q4 sales disappointment

Canada's Maple Leaf Foods is planning to relaunch its Field Roast and Lightlife brands after seeing sales from its meat-free division slow  while the company also pointed to the pandemic as a factor in the "category deceleration" it saw.

Friday 26 February

A2 Milk Co. has reacted to pressure on its sales in China, a key market for the New Zealand-based dairy and infant-formula business, and lowered its forecasts for annual sales.

The changes to the forecasts came alongside half-year financial results that included a slide in sales and profits.

In the first six months of the company's current financial year, revenue fell 16% to NZD677.4m (US$491m), with its EBITDA down 32.2% at NZD178.5m. A2 Milk Co.'s net profit after tax stood at NZD120m, versus NZD184.9m a year ago.

A factor in the first-half results was, A2 Milk Co., said "challenges resulting from Covid-19 disruption experienced in the daigou/reseller channel with a flow on impact to the cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) channel".

Wednesday 24 February

Trident Seafoods resumes operations at Alaska facility

US-based Trident Seafoods has resumed operations at its Akutan, Alaska, processing plant following a Covid outbreak-enforced temporary closure.

The outbreak among its employees at the plant, which processes seafood such as crab and pollock, spurred a pause on operations on 21 January but now the facility is back up and running.

Trident said surveillance testing, symptoms screenings, PPE and distancing protocols will remain in place.

It added that additional measures are in place to support a swift response if Covid-19 risk is detected again in the future. These include a redesign of shift and break schedules to limit instances of close contact and capacity limits to allow distancing in all areas outside work stations.

Stefanie Moreland, the company's VP of government relations, said: "The management team on site has been working to make sure these operational changes do not come as a surprise, and to ensure our employees know their safety is our priority."

Monday 22 February

UK food manufacturers respond to roadmap for easing lockdown

After UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson this afternoon (22 February) set out the Government's "roadmap" for removing lockdown measures, the trade body representing food manufacturers in the country has given its response.

A phased timetable includes a plan to allow hospitality venues to serve punters outside from 12 April at the earliest, the Government said.

From 17 May at the earliest, indoor hospitality is slated to re-open. Hotels, as well as indoor entertainment venues such as cinemas, are also lined up to open again from this date.

Next week, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak will announce the country's Budget, which will include details on how the Government plans to support businesses and employees affected by the lockdown measures and the phased lifting of the restrictions.

The measures announced today apply to England but the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are setting out similar plans.

Ian Wright, the chief executive of The Food and Drink Federation, the association representing food and soft-drink manufacturers in the UK, said: "It is disappointing but wholly expected that the Prime Minister's roadmap shows no signs of taking account of any input from business.

"For a great many of the food and drink manufacturers supplying the hospitality and food service sectors, a return to 'business as usual' seems an awful long way off. As such, it is only correct that the Chancellor outlines significant extensions to the furlough and credit insurance schemes as part of his Budget announcement next week. The food and drink industry is the UK's largest manufacturing sector. It will therefore be key to the country's economic recovery, with a footprint in every region.

"Now is the time for government to provide additional support to ensure those businesses most at risk can play their part in putting the country back on its feet."

--

Australian rice grower SunRice warns of possible sales pressure

SunRice Group, an Australia-based rice grower, has warned disruption to shipping traffic linked to Covid-19 could impact its sales in the second half of the fiscal year, exacerbating what it says are already "difficult market conditions" driven by the pandemic.

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Olymel shifts production to US after Canada plant closure

The Canada-based pork processor, which has had to temporarily close a factory after a Covid-19 outbreak among staff, has issued an update on the changes it has made to production.

Olymel said its hog production division, which supplies the Red Deer plant in Alberta now closed, will "move a substantial amount of company-owned production" to the United States to create enough plant capacity.

The company, majority-owned by Sollio Cooperative Group, made the comments in a statement framed as a "message to Alberta pork producers".

It said: "The temporary shutdown of Olymel's hog slaughtering, cutting and deboning plant in Red Deer is affecting the many Albertans hog producers, including Olymel's company owned farms that ship market hogs to Red Deer on a weekly basis. The company understands the strain this has put on their operations as we estimate the backlog to be approximately 80-90,000 animals. The company has implemented several strategies to mitigate the impact as much as possible including a clear path to reducing the backlog as quickly as possible."

The meatpacker added: "With the added capacity Olymel anticipates that the backlog of market ready hogs will be cleared up within 4-5 weeks after the plant is able to resume activities."

Last week, Olymel said its hog slaughtering, cutting and deboning plant in Red Deer had seen "a resurgence of positive cases of Covid-19 among plant employees".

Olymel said that, despite close collaboration with Alberta Health Services to deal with the problem, it believed the conditions meant it could not continue normal operations in a safe and efficient manner.

The company, which has suspended all pending deliveries at the plant until further notice, has not said how many workers have been affected by the outbreak.

19 February

Fazer assesses staff count again at Finnish candy plant

Finland's Fazer Group is planning another round of potential lay-offs linked to Covid-19 at its confectionery plant in the city of Vantaa, located in the south of the country.

18 February

US meal-kit firm Blue Apron sees sales soar during lockdown

Blue Apron, the US meal-kit firm saw its year-on-year sales increase by 22% in Q4, 2020, to US$115m, partly as a result of stay-at-home consumers ordering its products during the Covid-19 lockdown.

But the company has cautioned that growth levels may dip as lockdown restrictions ease.

The fourth quarter marked the third consecutive quarter of double-digit year-on-year year increase in net revenue for the business.

The company said that there have been changes in consumer behaviour due to the pandemic as customers ordered more frequently and added more meals per order.

"Since late March 2020, Blue Apron has experienced increased demand for its meal kits reflecting, in part, changes to consumer behaviour in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to meet the increased demand, the company continued to focus on increasing capacity at its fulfilment centres, including hiring new employees, increasing wages for frontline workers, and temporarily reducing menu options, which limits the need to change production lines and allows for more time to pack meal kits," it said.

But it added a note of caution.

"Management continues to monitor the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the company's business, including changes to consumer behaviour relating to cooking at home. While the company believes that a portion of the increased demand it has experienced over the last few months can be sustained through the first half of 2021 and potentially beyond, this will likely occur at varying levels as the impact of the pandemic changes over time," it said.

16 February

Canada's Olymel temporarily closes Alberta meat plant

Canadian meatpacker Olymel has announced the temporary closure of its plant in Red Deer, Alberta, following a Covid outbreak

The hog slaughtering, cutting and deboning plant has seen "a resurgence of positive cases of Covid-19 among plant employees", Olymel said in a statement.

Olymel said that, despite close collaboration with Alberta Health Services to deal with the problem, it believes that the conditions are such that it cannot continue normal operations in a safe and efficient manner.

After notifying the union, Olymel management drew up a temporary closing plan for an indefinite period. Over the next few days, plant management will mobilizs the staff necessary to cease operations and complete the facility closure as soon as possible.

Olymel said it will strongly encourage all staff to get tested before returning to work. In the meantime, it will continue ongoing investigations to determine what may have caused such a large outbreak of Covid-19 cases since 20 January.

Olymel, which has suspended all pending deliveries at the plant until further notice, has not said how many workers have been affected by the outbreak.

15 February

JBS reveals 700 workers vaccinated at US plant

Brazilian meat giant JBS has announced that 700 workers at its Beardstown, Illinois, pork production facility in the US have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

In partnership with the Cass County Health Department, employees were vaccinated on site at the plant in what is understood to be the largest vaccination effort to date at a US red-meat facility.

Bob Krebs, president, JBS USA Pork, said: "We remain committed to providing a safe working environment for our team members and doing all we can to ensure our workforce across the country is given the opportunity to be vaccinated as soon as possible. They have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to provide food for all Americans, and their access to the vaccine should absolutely be prioritised."

Vaccination at the Beardstown facility is voluntary and all employees who choose to be vaccinated receive a US$100 incentive bonus. Vaccines were administered on site by trained third-party nurses and the second dose of the vaccine will be provided to Beardstown workers in March.

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2 Sisters poultry plant in Devon comes down with cases again

2 Sisters Food Group's Willand plant in Devon, south-west England, has once again seen a number of cases of Covid-19 following a bout of infections at the same site last summer.

The poultry-processing facility in the town of Cullompton, which employs around 1,000 workers, saw a cluster of cases emerge a few days ago.

Local media reported workers as saying a testing centre had been set up in the car park of the plant.

A spokesperson for the 2 Sisters' Cullompton site said in a statement provided to just-food: "Colleague safety remains the number one priority at our Willand site.

"We are currently working closely with external agencies and are offering our colleagues the opportunity of voluntary Covid-19 testing. This testing opportunity further strengthens our Covid prevention measures, which have been in place for almost a year and are regularly independently assessed."

12 February

US baker Flowers Foods sees sales going stale in 2021

Another major US-based food company is, perhaps unsurprisingly, cautioning its sales in 2021 may fall after pandemic-fuelled growth in 2020.

Flowers Foods, one of the country's largest bakery businesses, has forecast a 2-4% decline in its sales in 2021 after a 6.4% rise last year, which was also helped by an extra selling week.

As well as lapping a year when Covid-19 boosted at-home consumption, Ryals McMullian, Flowers' president and CEO, said other factors could also dampen sales.

"Our guidance for fiscal 2021 incorporates our expectation of some mix reversion during the year as the impact of the pandemic dissipates, as well as the potential for a higher promotional environment, back-half commodity headwinds, and investment to implement our digital initiative. Partly offsetting those factors are expected benefits from our brand investments and continued savings from portfolio optimisation and operational efficiencies. We are investing in our business at a time when visibility may be more limited than normal, but it is clear that we are on the right path."

Flowers, home to brands including Dave's Killer Bread and Tastykake, generated sales of $4.39bn in 2020. The company's net income fell 7.4% to $152.3m amid expenses linked to a pension-plan settlement. Income from operations stood at $321.5m, up from $225.4m in 2020.

Expo West goes digital, while Expo East will go ahead in person in September

Expo West, the annual organic food industry event normally held in March in Anaheim, California, will now be held virtually in May after the organisers decided against holding a physical gathering due to Covid-19.

The event had been pushed back to May, but will now be held digitally instead from 24-27 May, Informa Market's New Hope Network, which organises the trade fair, said.

Meanwhile, New Hope is promoting its "enhanced" Natural Products Expo East trade show as an opportunity for people to get together in person, designed to serve both Expo East and Expo West customers. It will be held from 22-25 September in Philadelphia.

11 February

Kellogg expects dip in underlying sales in 2021

With lockdowns seeing most meals switch to being made and eaten indoors, breakfast-cereal giant Kellogg saw its sales rise in 2020  but the US group is forecasting a decline this year.

The Corn Flakes and Coco Pops owner today (11 February) forecast its net sales would fall 1% on an organic basis in 2021, pointing to a comparison with "unusually-strong, Covid-related growth" last year. In 2020, Kellogg's net sales rose 6% in on an organic basis to US$13.8bn.

Kellogg, home to brands including Pringles snacks and Eggo frozen waffles, said a 1% decline would still mean "a two-year compound annual growth of about 2.5%".

The company also said it expects its adjusted operating profit to fall in 2021, forecasting a drop of around 2%, Again, Kellogg pointed to Covid-19 but also said the 2020 fiscal year had 53 weeks.

In 2020, Kellogg's adjusted operating profit rose 2.6% to $1.81bn. The company made a net income of $1.25bn in the year to 2 January 2021, up from $960m 12 months earlier.

10 February

Londoners leading surge in home delivery of snacks during lockdown - research

New research has revealed a surge in the home delivery of snacks in London during the Covid lockdown period.

Analysis firm The NPD Group's research showed that demand for home delivery of snacks and coffee in London was up by 95% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

This is significantly ahead of the 11% increase in orders placed by families across the country as a whole.

Dominic Allport, insights director (foodservice) at The NPD Group said: "The main reason is the greater use of delivery subscriptions such as Deliveroo Plus in the capital, where customers pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited free deliveries.

"As these subscriptions become increasingly common across the country, we expect to see a growth in people ordering snacks and drinks to be delivered to their homes more regularly."

The average amount spent per person on snack delivery increased by 20% nationally in 2020 vs. 2019 to reach GBP5.66. The number of items bought during each snacking occasion in London has increased significantly and is now +18% higher than the national average.

Allport added: "Once lockdown is over, this trend is likely to remain embedded in the population."

Danish Crown closes German slaughterhouse after 13 Covid infections

Meat processor Danish Crown has closed a beef slaughterhouse in Germany for a week after 13 of the approximately 300 workers tested positive for Covid-19.

The facility in the town of Husum, situated in the county of North Frisia near the border with Denmark, has been shut as a precautionary measure to prevent the further spread of the virus, a spokesperson for Danish Crown confirmed.

Danish Crown plans to reopen the site on 14 February subject to prevailing conditions at the time.

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8 February

Covid cases identified at Cargill meat plant in Canada

US agri-food giant Cargill has seen a small number of its employees at a meat plant in Canada test positive for Covid-19.

Some six employees at the company's High River facility in Alberta have tested positive for the virus, Cargill told just-food. They are in isolation and receiving medical care and support.

The High River facility, which employs more than 2,000 people, is continuing to function as normal.

It is the second Covid outbreak at the plant. It was shut down for two weeks in April 2020 because of an outbreak that affected more than 350 of its workers and saw two employees die.

In relation to the newly-announced Covid cases amongst its High River workforce, a Cargill spokesperson said: "We continue to learn how to help slow the spread of the virus and are working with Alberta Health Services (AHS) to add safety measures as they become available to safeguard our valued co-workers."

5 February

2 Sisters recruiting 500 workers as pandemic pushes up poultry demand

2 Sisters Food Group plans to hire hundreds of workers to meet growing demand for poultry products in the UK with consumers confined to the home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With factories situated around the UK, 2 Sisters said it had hired approximately 800 workers over the past 12 months to across the entire business to cater to the increased demand.

But Covid has also taken a toll, with a number of sites seeing staff test positive for the virus.

3 February

Premium Brands-owned Belmont Meats shuts Toronto plant amid Covid outbreak

Belmont Meats, a protein business owned by Canada's Premium Brands Holdings, has seen an outbreak of Covid-19 at its factory in Toronto.

The Toronto Public Health agency said 78 cases of the virus have been confirmed at Belmont's North York site, a district in Toronto, and two of those workers have been identified as having the B.1.1.7 strain of the virus, a variant that first appeared in the UK.

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Baxters to close visitor centre and retail outlet in Scotland

Baxters Food Group, the UK-based soups-to-condiments maker, plans to close its visitor centre, restaurant and retail outlet in Edinburgh, Scotland, as the pandemic curtails foot traffic across the hospitality sector.

The Highland Village centre is located in the same village as Baxter's headquarters in Fochabers, Moray, in north-east Scotland. The site employs around 30 people, according to a media report, all of whom face the prospect of losing their jobs.

2 February

Nestle seeking to help with Covid vaccine rollout

Food giant Nestle is seeking ways to help with the Covid-19 vaccine programme in countries in which it operates.

News agency Reuters reported the Switzerland-based company's chief executive Mark Schneider as saying that while it has already donated to the Red Cross and other organisations to help cover the financial cost of vaccination programmes, it wants to go further.

Schneider told the Forum Horizon event in Lausanne: "We will also try to find ways to either sponsor the payment for the vaccine or sponsor the way it gets applied in communities where we are present.

"The price of a vaccine for an advanced economy is negligible...but to a developing country which has been struggling already with all the impacts of Covid, on top of that to pay for the vaccine and for the services to get it applied is going to be very significant," he said.

Reuters reported that the specific details of how Nestle will help still need to be worked out, according to Schneider, who described the project as a "work in progress".

1 February

US Congress probing meatpackers over Covid deaths

A US Congress panel is investigating three of the country's largest meatpacking businesses in relation to worker deaths at their facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Muller reports fatality at another UK plant

Another UK plant owned by Germany headquartered dairy giant Muller has been affected by Covid-19.

An employee at the facility run by Muller Milk & Ingredients in Droitwich, a town in the English Midlands county of Worcestershire, has died from the virus, although the staff member had been off work since 30 December due to a "personal matter", a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement.

A further 26 workers are currently self isolating out of a total employee count in Droitwich of 607.

"It is important to stress that fresh milk processing is highly automated, ensuring no risk to products," the statement read.

26 January

Greencore's food-to-go revenues slide in Q1 amid lockdowns

Greencore, a major supplier of food-to-go products to UK retailers, has reported an across-the-board drop in revenues for the group and its business units due to Covid-19-related restrictions.

In a trading update this morning (26 January) for the first quarter to 25 December, the Ireland-based private-label manufacturer said reported group revenues fell 15% to GBP312.7m (US$425.9m) and were down 15.1% on a pro-forma basis, "impacted by the reduction in mobility arising from tiered restrictions and lockdowns in the UK".

The food-to-go category saw reported and pro-forma revenues decline 21.7% to GBP188.5m, while other convenience foods fell 2.1% to GBP124.1m.

"[The] latest lockdown significantly impacting demand in food-to-go categories, though not as marked as the initial lockdown in March 2020. Currently, pro-forma group revenue is approximately 20% below prior year levels, with performance in food-to-go categories down approximately 35% on [the] prior year, while other convenience categories remain stable," Greencore said.

"The recovery in demand that was evident at the end of FY-20 was impeded by the tiered regional restrictions on mobility introduced across the UK in October, and then by a subsequent national lockdown until early December, followed by the implementation of tiered regional lockdowns."

Greencore also provided an early assessment of the impact of a free trade deal reached between the UK and the EU on Christmas Eve.

"The operational impact has been modest to date as the group had completed extensive Brexit planning and was well prepared for any near-term volatility in the supply chain.

"The ongoing uncertainty regarding the duration and impact of Covid-19 on the group's trading environment, and in particular on demand in its food-to go-categories, continues to make it difficult to predict FY-21 performance. In this context, the group's financial guidance remains suspended."

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Chocolate maker Godiva to close North America retail outlets

Chocolate maker Godiva, owned by Turkey's Yildiz Holding, plans to close or sell its 128 retail stores in the US and Canada after consumers switched to online purchases during the pandemic.

"Demand for the in-person shopping experience offered through Godiva's brick-and-mortar locations has waned as a result of the pandemic and its acceleration of changes in consumers' shopping behaviour. In response to these market dynamics, Godiva will exit its 128 brick-and-mortar locations in North America, partially through sales and partially through closures, by the end of the first quarter," it said in a statement.

However, Godiva's products will still be available online in those North American markets, along with grocery and drug stores and other retail outlets. Europe, the Middle East and China are not affected by t

25 January

Food companies among UK Covid testing scheme

Meat company Moy Park and sugar refiner Tate & Lyle Sugars are among what the UK says are "dozens" of employers in the country to have signed up to a scheme testing workers without symptoms who cannot work from home.

Lateral flow tests are being used to see if staff have Covid-19 without realising they are carrying the virus. The UK government said around one in three infected people have no symptoms and may be unknowingly spreading the virus.

More than 730,000 tests have been distributed across the UK public and private sectors so far. Frozen-food group Apetito and cheese-products maker Primula are also among the companies to have joined the scheme.

Gerald Mason, senior vice president of Tate & Lyle Sugars, said: "Mass testing has really helped us get one step ahead of the virus by identifying colleagues who were infectious but showed no symptoms. This has been especially welcome over the last few weeks at our east London factories as the levels of virus in the local area have been extremely high."

22 January

Trident Seafoods closes Akutan plant for three weeks

Trident Seafoods, which claims to be the largest vertically-integrated seafood harvesting and processing company in North America, has had to temporarily close a plant in Alaska amid a number of Covid-19 infections.

The first of four cases at the processing facility in Akutan became apparent last weekend with an employee testing positive, and the other infections were discovered when the worker's three room mates were tested. All four had tested negative for the virus two weeks earlier.

In a statement issued yesterday (21 January), privately-owned Trident, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, said it will pause operations for three weeks while it undertakes "comprehensive" testing and to "support a preventative quarantine" for the 700 workers.

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JBS, Pilgrim's Pride offer US workers $100 vaccine incentive

Meat packers JBS and Pilgrim's Pride are offering to give US employees a US$100 bonus if they voluntarily take a Covid-19 vaccine.

"The new initiative is designed to encourage maximum participation in the Biden administration's accelerated pandemic response efforts and ensure that every JBS USA and Pilgrim's team member who wants to get vaccinated can do so as soon as vaccines are made available," the two companies said in a joint statement.

JBS, headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is the majority-owner of US poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride. Both companies have, in the recent past, reported Covid-19 cases at their plants in the US and the UK.

"With nearly 66,000 US team members, we are hopeful this initiative will lead to high vaccination participation rates that will benefit our workforce and the rural communities and cities in which they live and work across America," said Andre Nogueira, the CEO of JBS' US division.

"Throughout the pandemic, JBS USA and Pilgrim's have adopted industry-leading measures to protect our essential frontline workers who continue to provide food for the nation. Our goal in offering this extra pay to our team members is to remove any barriers to vaccination and incentivise our team members to protect themselves, their families and their co-workers."

China confirms first cases of Covid among meat workers - report

China has reportedly detected its first cases of Covid-19 among meat workers, with ten confirmed cases at a poultry factory owned by Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Foods.

The facility in question is located in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in China's north-east region.

Reuters reported from an official Chinese news briefing that a further 28 employees at the plant, along with three family members, were asymptomatic amid a wider community outbreak in the region. The news agency added that samples taken from inside the slaughterhouse, its cold storage area and the outside of product packaging earlier this week came up positive for the virus.

Officials at Charoen Pokphand's Bangkok headquarters "made no immediate comment", Reuters said.

21 January

Muller hit by Covid-19 infections at UK plant, worker dies

Unternehmensgruppe Theo Muller, the Germany-headquartered dairy giant, has confirmed a slew of Covid-19 infections at one of its UK plants, along with the death of an employee.

20 January

Trident Seafoods reports cases at Alaska plant

Trident Seafoods, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, has reported four cases of Covid-19 at a processing plant in Akutan, Alaska, despite "rigorous preventative measures".

CEO Joe Bundrant, the son of Trident's founder Chuck Bundrant, said in a statement: "Health and safety are our absolute priority. We have said from the beginning of this pandemic that if we have an issue, we're going to shed a light on it. We want to be sure people are aware and know that we are taking this very seriously."

The first case became apparent last weekend with an employee testing positive, and the other infections were discovered when the worker's three room mates were tested. All four had tested negative for the virus two weeks earlier.

One of the workers is currently in hospital, while the three others are self-isolating.

Stefanie Moreland, Trident's vice president of government relations and sustainability, said the company is working to try and establish the source of the infections among the 700 staff at Akutan.

"We have notified the state of Alaska, the city of Akutan and our medical partners and are coordinating with all to conduct further tests, implement protocols and contain exposure," Moreland said.

19 January

Lindt & Sprungli annual sales drop on pandemic-related challenges

Lindt & Sprungli, the premium chocolate maker based in Switzerland, has reported a 6.2% decline in annual organic sales to CHF4.02bn (US$4.53bn).

The drop  minus 10.9% on a reported basis - was put down to "major global challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic", namely the closure of its store network and reduced shopping visits, and also strength in the Swiss franc.

Still, the decline in organic sales was within the company's expectations for a 5% to 7% decrease (Stifel -5.2%), while the company said it notched up market share gains in "practically all countries" in which Lindt & Sprungli operates.

"The global restrictions and regulations to contain the pandemic unfortunately had an impact on important areas of Lindt & Sprungli's business. The restrictions on the foodservice area in North America and the traditional speciality stores in Italy had a major impact on sales. The travel retail business also recorded a sharp drop in sales due to the restricted air traffic," it said in a statement.

Sales in Europe fell 2.9% on an organic basis and were down 6.8% in North America. It was worse in the rest of the world segment, where sales dropped 16.1%, although China and Japan posted growth.

Lindt & Sprungli said the medium- and long-term organic growth targets remain unchanged at 5-7% per year, while the operating profit margin of 10% realised in 2020 is expected to "return to a level of around 15% in 2022".

18 January

UK trade bodies lobby government to support foodservice suppliers

A group of trade associations are pressing the UK government to provide financial support for food manufacturers supplying the out-of-home sector, warning they risk going out of business without some form of aid.

The 18-strong group is led by the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) which have written a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and other government ministers pointing out how pubs, restaurants and cafes have received extended financial support but the businesses that supply them have not.

They are calling for an extension to the 12-month exemption period for local business rates for companies operating in the hospitality and foodservice sector and the introduction of capital and tax break allowances aimed at retaining staff.

The group is also pressing the Government to formalise the deferment of PAYE and NI payments until the end of 2021 for the sector. And to increase the level of funding for the Additional Restrictions Grant and to make the funding accessible, along with providing grants for those companies that have had to dispose of stock because of lockdown restrictions.

BFFF CEO Richard Harrow said: "England's national lockdown, plus restrictions in the UK's other nations, have been devastating for our many businesses supplying the hospitality and foodservice markets and they are facing a bleak winter. Their continued existence will be critical as the economy starts to recover."

14 January

Bakkavor annual revenues decline on pandemic impact  trading update

Private-label fresh food supplier Bakkavor has said revenues fell in the fiscal year through December amid a new round of Covid-19-related lockdowns in the final quarter.

In a trading update today, the London-based business said group revenues were down 4.9% on both a reported and like-for-like basis in the 12 months ended 26 December ahead of the final results on 16 March. The decline was more protracted in the UK, where like-for-like sales fell 5.3%.

On the international front, revenues dropped 21.6% in China, which was the Bakkavor division "most severely impacted by the pandemic", offsetting a 12.7% increase in revenues in the US.

Bakkavor currently anticipates adjusted EBITDA will be in line with the previous annual print of GBP138m (US$188.3m).

CEO Agust Gudmundsson said: "Notwithstanding the ongoing impact of Covid-19, we have a sound business model and solid platform that leaves us well-placed to navigate the current environment and achieve long-term sustainable growth."

11 January

Maple Leaf Foods to acquire facility for plant-based unit Greenleaf

Canadian meat processor Maple Leaf Foods is set to purchase a production facility in the US for its plant-based unit Greenleaf Foods amid challenges to its expansion strategy in the country caused by Covid-19.

8 January

Cases rise at 2 Sisters' Coupar Angus facility in Scotland

2 Sisters Food Group, a UK-based poultry processor, has seen the number of Covid-19 cases rise at its Coupar Angus facility in Scotland.

Earlier this week, the company reported five infections amongst workers at the poultry plant in South Lanarkshire and now, according to NHS Tayside, the number has since climbed to 30.

The same site had to be closed temporarily last August after a number of employees tested positive.

A spokesperson for 2 Sisters said the company had nothing to add to the statement from NHS Tayside when contacted by just-food.

Dr Emma Fletcher, a director of public health for Tayside NHS, said a "comprehensive risk assessment" has been conducted at the facility a noted the safety measures 2 Sisters has put in place to protect workers.

"For several reasons the public should be reassured that it is possible for the factory to remain open at this time as we are in a very different position to when there were Covid-19 cases at the factory last August. The rate of community infection is much higher compared to August's outbreak," she said.

"The factory is continuing to work closely with NHS Tayside's Public Health team and Food Standards Scotland to help manage the situation."

7 January

BMPA urges UK government to prioritise meat workers for vaccines

The British Meat Processors Association is urging the UK government to prioritise "frontline workers in meat factories" for the coronavirus vaccines.

"The risk of more rapid spread of the virus amongst key workers, coupled with expected disruption of food supplies at our ports as the full effects of Brexit begin to unfold, pose a severe challenge to the industry and to the smooth running of the nation's food supply chain," the BMPA said in a statement today.

As well as the meat industry, BMPA members also include some of the major UK supermarkets, food retailers and ingredient suppliers. It said there is an increased risk that meat plants could close as the new strain of coronavirus pushes up absenteeism rates, which could possibly lead to food shortages.

"Given the specialised nature of the meat-processing industry, if absences go above a certain level, it becomes impossible for a plant to continue operations. If this starts happening, plants would be forced to close entirely and a sizeable chunk of food supply would disappear from supermarket shelves," it said.

Nick Allen, the CEO of BMPA, continued: "As the new coronavirus variant takes hold across the whole of the UK, we are hearing widespread reports of rapidly rising absences in the food-supply chain. In some cases, notably in the supermarket sector, companies are seeing a tripling of staff having to take time off work through illness or enforced self-isolation.

"We are therefore calling on Government to include meat-factory workers in the initial roll-out of vaccinations. This would provide much-needed protection and comfort to this at-risk group and the communities in which they live, as well as ensuring that the critical food-supply chain continues to run smoothly."

6 January

Thai Union says all plants operating amid dozens of Covid cases

The seafood giant has issued a statement to say it is "proactively testing" employees in a province south west of Bangkok and confirmed some 69 of its staff at its sites in the region have tested positive for the virus.

Thai Union Group said it had tested 23,630 out of 27,552 employees in the province of Samut Sakhon, with the rest of the workers to be tested by next week.

"We have comprehensive protocols in place in case of positive test results; these protocols include ensuring taking care of the affected employees while isolating them according to government guidelines, identifying and testing close contacts and deep cleaning of visited work areas," Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said. "It is very important to note that, due to the extremely small number of impacted employees, all Thai Union's factories currently remain open and operational at capacity."

Samut Sakhon province is one of the regions the Thai government has designated as a "red zone", or area with high infection rates. It is also Thailand's chief hub for seafood production.

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Foster Farms faces lawsuit from workers union over Covid-19 safety

The US poultry processor, has become the subject of a lawsuit filed by the United Farm Workers union, which claims the company "refused" to follow safety guidelines after a number of workers died from Covid-19 at two of its plants in California.

5 January

UK announces grants for retail, foodservice businesses

The UK government has said it will make available "one-off, top-up grants" to the country's retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in the wake of the country's the fresh lockdown measures.

Firms can apply for grants worth up to GBP9,000 (US$12,200), with the Government suggesting the cash will benefit more than 600,000 companies.

"This will help businesses to get through the months ahead  and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen," Rishi Sunak, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, said. "Throughout the pandemic we've taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we're announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring."

The UK's furlough scheme had already been extended until the end of April.

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2 Sisters plant operating "as normal" amid Covid cases

The UK food manufacturer has reported a fresh clutch of positive cases of Covid-19 at a plant in Scotland that was hit by the virus during the summer.

2 Sisters said its Coupar Angus facility was "working as normal", with five of its staff having tested positive.

Last August, the site, located in south Lanarkshire, halted production for two weeks to after a number of employees caught the virus.

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Cargill re-opens Covid-hit Canada plant

The US agri-food giant has resumed production at a meat plant in Canada closed before Christmas due to dozens of cases of Covid-19 among staff.

Cargill called a halt to output at the facility in Ontario in the week before the festive period. The company said at the time around 60 of its workers at the site in Guelph in Ontario had been diagnosed with Covid-19 amid a "community spread" of the virus.

Approximately 1,000 staff are employed at the factory, which is located in the city of Guelph. According to the Cargill website, the plant processes 1,500 head of cattle per day and is one of its two beef facilities in Canada. Combined, the plants make up 55% of the beef processing market in Canada, Cargill says.

"The health and safety of our employees continue to be our top priority," Cargill said in a statement on the re-opening of the factory. "In addition to safety measures we implemented at our facilities months ago, we have taken time during the idle to conduct a full, deep-clean of the facility as an additional step to respond to the community-wide impacts of the virus."

Like food manufacturers across the industry, and particularly in the meat sector, Cargill saw its production affected in the early months of the pandemic after positive cases were diagnosed among staff.

4 January

Nestle to expand US site to meet Covid demand

Nestle is to up the production capacity of a plant in the US to meet changes in demand sparked by the virus.

23 December

FDF calls for compensation for exporters following border "chaos"

UK industry association The Food and Drink Federation has called on the country's government to compensate businesses affected by the closure of the border between Britain and France.

21 December

"We see consumer behaviours evolving in ways we think will stick beyond the pandemic"  General Mills' CEO Jeff Harmening on H1 results

General Mills reaped rewards from Covid-19 shopping behaviours in its fiscal first half as organic growth notched up a print of 8% compared to last year's flat performance. And the benefits look set to continue judging by the emergence of a new strain of the virus in the UK and Italy, while the US still grapples to contain the disease. Simon Harvey looks at the key talking points behind the results.

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FDF warns of disrupted food supplies as France closes border with UK

The Food and Drink Federation is warning that supplies of food into the country face disruption as a result of France closing its border with Britain.

18 December

Cargill halts output at Canada meat site amid Covid-19 cases

Cargill has called a halt to production at a meat-processing facility in Canada after dozens of staff tested positive for Covid-19.

The US agri-food giant said around 60 of its workers at the site in Guelph in Ontario had been diagnosed with Covid-19 amid a "community spread" of the virus. Approximately 1,000 staff are employed at the factory.

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Tyson Foods in spotlight over Covid protective measures

Following cases of Covid-19 at a number of Tyson Foods' meat plants since the virus erupted, the comptroller for New York City is calling on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate the company's methods to protect workers.

Comptroller Scott Stringer has criticised Arkansas-headquartered Tyson of "flagrantly misrepresenting its poor pandemic response" to investors.

He has called out Tyson's Form 10-K, a financial results document presented to the SEC annually, for containing scant information on the company's workplace safety measures.

Tyson has been plagued by Covid-19 infections at a large number of plants, some of which have been forced to temporarily shutdown or pause production as the appropriate cleaning and sanitisation processes are carried out. The affected sites have included factories in: Portland, Maine; Waterloo, Iowa; Goodlettsville and Shelbyville, Tennessee; Pasco, Washington; Dakota City, Nebraska; and Longansport, Indiana.

Six workers died from coronavirus at the Waterloo site, which witnessed more than a 1,000 infections.

"There is human cost to Tyson's failures  preventable deaths, hospitalisations and sick workers," Stringer said in a letter to Tyson. "These failures have material impacts on its business operations that carry serious risks for shareholders."

Tyson has yet to respond to just-food's request for comment.

17 December

Tyson Foods sacks seven managers linked to Covid-19 betting pool

Tyson Foods has sacked seven plant management employees at the US meat giant's site in Waterloo, Iowa, following an independent probe into a betting pool linked to Covid-19 infections.

16 December

Greencore's Nottingham factory hit by Covid

Greencore, a food-to-go manufacturer headquartered in Ireland, has a "number" of Covid-19 cases at a UK plant in the county of Nottinghamshire.

In a statement, the ready-meals to sandwiches maker said coronavirus infections in the Bassetlaw district in north Nottingham have been rising and Greencore now has an unspecified number of cases at its Manton Wood facility. All are currently self-isolating.

"We have arranged for testing to be carried out at the site, and have wide-ranging social-distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place," the statement read. "We are liaising closely with the Director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire County Council and Public Health England. Our thoughts are with all those affected, who are currently recovering at home, and we will continue to monitor their welfare as the situation develops."



Jonathan Gribbin, a director of public health for Nottinghamshire County Council, added in the same statement provided by Greencore: "We have been carefully studying the cluster of cases across Bassetlaw district. We are working with Greencore and Public Health England to provide testing and to understand more about how people are acquiring the infection. Greencore has an extensive range of controls in place, has responded quickly and decisively to the situation and is working closely with us."

Other Greencore sites have seen cases of Covid during the year.

15 December

EU food-manufacturing workers "should be priority for vaccines"

FoodDrinkEurope, the trade body for representing food manufacturers operating in the EU, has called on the bloc's member states to take up a recommendation from The European Commission to include workers in the agri-food sector as "a priority group" for vaccines against Covid-19.

A joint statement issued with European trade union federation EFFAT said the Commission had provided guidelines to member states when developing their vaccination strategies and had included agriculture and food sector workers as one of six priority groups.

"The approval and availability of vaccines against Covid-19 is a huge step forward in the fight against the global pandemic. Vaccinating the entire EU population will take significant time, and due to the limited number of doses available not everybody can be immunised immediately," the statement read.

"Food security can only be ensured when the health and safety of the workers in the food and drink industry is protected and production can run smoothly. This holds true in the workplaces, as well as when considering a vaccination strategy."

Quoting an unnamed German government source, Reuters said The European Medicines Agency is set to issue a positive verdict on the first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next Wednesday (23 December).

9 December

Six new Covid cases confirmed at Bakkavor's Tilmanstone plant since Friday

Bakkavor, a UK private-label supplier, has said its salads plant in south-east England where two workers have unfortunately died after contracting Covid-19 has seen a further six new cases since last Friday (4 December), although numbers are declining.

A two-day mass-testing exercise was started at the Tilmanstone site in Kent on Monday (7 December) with 375 staff out of a workforce of "over 900" tested so far. In an update provided by Bakkavor yesterday afternoon, the company said 48 employees are now off work having tested positive, with another 44 self-isolating as a precautionary measure.

The testing programme was due to end at midnight yesterday. The Tilmanstone plant is currently operating at "reduced capacity", the company said, although a spokesperson for the business told just-food it is "a temporary adjustment, [with] no impact on service levels".

Bakkavor said in a statement: "As a business, we have fully followed PHE guidelines for the duration of the pandemic. We are currently working closely with Public Health England (PHE) South East and Kent County Council to monitor the situation and we will take whatever appropriate action is necessary to limit the spread of Covid-19 and to ensure that our staff on site are safe. We will follow PHE advice and, if and when further steps need to be taken, we will communicate any new developments."

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4 December

Bakkavor to test all staff at Covid-hit plant

The UK private-label manufacturer is to test all staff working at a factory in south-east England for Covid-19 in the wake of two employees at the site dying after being diagnosed with the virus.

After talks with local government and health officials this week, Bakkavor will start conducting the tests at the facility, located in Tilmanstone in Kent, on Monday.

On the two members of staff who died, the company said: "We have sadly had two colleagues pass away following positive tests for Covid-19. These were valued members of our team and we are doing everything to support their families during this tragic time. At this early point in our investigation there is no evidence that either case was contracted in the workplace."

More than 900 employees work at the factory, which manufactures salad products. Bakkavor said 59 staff that have tested positive for Covid-19 are off work and a further 54 are self-isolating as a precautionary measure.

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Survey reveals Covid, Brexit outlook for UK hospitality

A UK business survey reveals Covid-19 has "wrecked confidence" among company chiefs in the hospitality industry, with the majority (82%) downbeat on prospects for the coming year.

The poll by Manchester-based research consultancy CGA and Fourth, a provider of cloud-based cost control solutions to hospitality, shows the figure was up from 40% in a similar survey conducted in February.

"Extended restrictions on trading and socialising over the autumn have led more than a quarter (27%) of multi-site business leaders to predict their groups will be unviable within the first six months of 2021 if current levels of support continue. Single-site businesses are at even greater risk of failure," the survey reveals.

Looking at the impact on the hospitality sector when the Brexit transition period ends this month, the majority of company chiefs anticipate a hit to profits (65%) and increased costs on imports (80%).

In terms of investment, the survey of 121 business leaders across management roles, reveals "widespread closures" are expected next year, with 38% having no plans to open new sites. "Substantial market churn, especially in London, where closures of offices, retail and tourist venues has hit footfall, can be expected," the researchers said.

CGA's research and insight director Charlie Mitchell said: "As we near the end of hospitality's toughest year in memory, the bleak picture of the sector will come as little surprise. Suffocating restrictions across Britain will devastate trading in what should be businesses' busiest time of the year.

"Leaders' optimism is at least rising from the rock bottom level of our last survey, and news of a vaccine is a reason for cautious hope of recovery in 2021. However, this week's Tier 2 restrictions in England and strict new limits in Wales could be fatal for smaller business in particular, making the case for more relaxed trading conditions and better government support even more urgent."

3 December

Second Covid death reported at Bakkavor salad plant

A second employee at a UK salad plant owned by private-label major Bakkavor has died after contracting Covid-19.

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PepsiCo 'temporarily closed US plant due to Covid outbreak'

US food and beverages giant PepsiCo is reported to have temporarily closed a Frito-Lay snacks plant in its home market due to an outbreak of coronavirus.

On Tuesday (1 December), media outlets in the US quoted Clark County officials as confirming 17 cases among employees at the plant in Vancouver, Washington State.

Public health officials said the first worker tested positive on 29 October. PepsiCo confirmed in a statement emailed to local media that multiple employees had tested positive for the virus although it did not list a specific number.

It described the decision to close the Vancouver plant as "a precautionary measure and in partnership with the Clark County Health Department". It said that the plant was being sanitised during the closure.

Reports suggested the plant was closed from 25 November but was due to re-open on Tuesday evening.

just-food has asked PepsiCo for an update on the situation at the plant.

1 December

Union calls for mass testing at Bakkavor UK site after Covid outbreak

The GMB trade union has called on private-label major Bakkavor to introduce mass Covid-19 testing at a salad facility in southern England after an outbreak of the virus among workers there.

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BRF plant hit by Covid outbreak cleared to resume exports to China

A plant in southern Brazil operated by meat major BRF has been given the all-clear to resume exports to China following an earlier Covid-19 outbreak.

BRF said on Monday (30 November) its Lajeado pork unit has been authorised to resume exports to China, according to a statement sent to news agency Reuters.

The plant, which saw an outbreak of the virus among workers in May, employs about 3,000 people. The unit should resume exports over the coming days, the statement said.

"After an inspection by the Chinese authorities, it was possible to prove the commitment that all of us at BRF have always had regarding the health and safety of our employees and our products," Reuters quoted BRF as saying.

The news agency reported that least three other Brazilian meat factories remain blocked by China over coronavirus concerns, All are located in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

BRF's Lajeado unit had been suspended by China since July.

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A recent study conducted by Austin Health, Australia, has revealed that the serum level of procalcitonin can be a strong indicator of bacterial co-infection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

Background

Since its emergence in December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative pathogen of COVID-19, has already infected more than 92 million people and claimed about 2 million lives globally. Alike other respiratory infections, the presence of microbial co-infection can increase the disease severity and mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. To prevent adverse outcomes of microbial co-infection, empiric antibiotics are frequently used as a part of the standard of care treatment for in-hospital COVID-19 patients. However, several clinical studies have shown that the risk of bacterial co-infection in COVID-19 patients is lower compared to other viral infections.

The level of procalcitonin, which is a precursor of the hormone calcitonin, in the blood can increase significantly in response to systemic bacterial infection. This means that it can be used as a biomarker to guide antimicrobial stewardship, which specifies the appropriate use of antimicrobial medicines, including antibiotics. In in-hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the serum level of procalcitonin has been associated with disease severity, duration of stay in intensive care units (ICU), and mortality. Clinical measurement of procalcitonin levels at the time of hospital admission or clinical deterioration can serve as a valuable indicator for identifying bacterial co-infection and can inform appropriate treatments.

Current study design

The current study was designed to investigate whether procalcitonin can be a useful marker in predicting the severity of COVID-19, initiation of antibiotic treatment, duration of antibiotic treatment, and intravenous to oral antibiotic switch.

A total of 55 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were investigated in the study. Based on the serum levels of procalcitonin measured at the time of admission, these patients were categorized into normal, medium, and high procalcitonin groups.

Important observations

Of the 55 patients, 44 received antibiotic therapy at the time of admission. Around 60%, 81%, and 100% of the patients with normal, medium, and high procalcitonin levels, respectively, received antibiotic therapy. Although a significant association was observed between the procalcitonin level and antibiotic use, no such association was found for the total duration of antibiotic therapy. However, a significant association was observed between the procalcitonin level and intravenous to oral switch of antibiotics. The patients with high procalcitonin levels received intravenous antibiotics for an additional 1.5 days compared to the patients with normal or medium procalcitonin levels.

As a part of their routine examinations, blood cultures were conducted for 42 of the patients, where three positive reports were obtained.

Regarding other clinical indicators of COVID-19 severity, the study findings revealed that nearly all patients with high procalcitonin levels received supplemental oxygen during the hospital admission. In contrast, only 35% of patients with normal procalcitonin required oxygen supplementation. However, no association has been observed between the procalcitonin level and need for admission to ICUs.

Regarding biochemical markers of COVID-19 severity, significant associations were observed between the serum levels of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein, lymphocyte, ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase.

Study significance

The study findings suggest that the serum level of procalcitonin in COVID-19 patients can be a good indicator of disease severity. By measuring procalcitonin levels at the time of hospital admission, physicians can more accurately evaluate antibiotic therapy requirements, and potentially avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Gardai are warning consumers of the increased presence of text and email scams as online shopping increases.

An Garda Siochana have issued a warning to consumers to be on alert for fraudsters pretending to be various courier companies.

With online shopping and parcel deliveries increasing due to the closure of the retail industry, scammers are pretending to be courier companies in emails and text messages to trick members of the public.

In these emails and texts, it is requested that the recipient pay an additional cost for customs clearance prior to delivery of their parcel.

In some instances these fraudulent correspondences have been circulated in Irish.

Gardai are asking anyone who receives such a communication not to provide payment details, take a screenshot of the text or email and then delete it.

Anyone who believes they have been the victim of a fraud, or an attempted fraud, is asked to report the matter to their local Garda station.

These scams take advantage of the confusion around Brexit and use this uncertainty to defraud people, the Gardai have said.

Gardai are advising people who receive unsolicited correspondence and are awaiting a package to first independently verify the status of their package with the relevant postal service or courier.

You should never click on links in an unsolicited text or email, never provide payment details or give away personal data like your PIN, card numbers or passwords, they said.

Gardai say you should not respond to such messages and delete them straight away, and never open attachments in unsolicited emails.

"Be careful, do your research, dont rush in, ask yourself why me? Why am I getting this great offer, and if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

Only use secure sites and make sure you are on the real site. Check the URL and look for the trust seals. Make sure to check these sites privacy policy, refunds policy and contact us section.

Use trusted payment methods and never send cash, use sites where a padlock symbol is shown beside the website address and do not under any circumstances use public Wi-Fi when making payments - switch to 3G/4G on your phone if necessary, Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau said.
Rob Lowe gave up alcohol and drugs in 1990 and has been open about his road to sobriety for the past 30 years, after he first began drinking at a very young age.

In a new interview on NBC's Today, the 56-year-old actor reflected on his past battle with addiction as a teen idol and member of the Brat Pack in the 1980s.

'The thing that really blows my mind is, I look back at that 18-year-old in The Outsiders, and realize my kids are way way way way older than that and I would be worried putting them, now, in that position,' reflected the star.

30 years sober: Rob Lowe reflected on his past battle with addiction as a teen idol and member of the Brat Pack in the 1980s

Previously, in his book, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lowe revealed actors on the 1983 coming-of-age drama 'were always provided with beers' despite being under 21, according to NPR.

'Nobody's going to do a pity party or have a telethon for all the suffering 18-year-old movie stars,' he noted. 'I get it. Like everyone goes through their time in the barrel.'

Alluding to his own string of events that led him to rock bottom and rehab, including a sex tape with an underage girl in 1988, he said 'every ten years' another rising star endures similar struggles, like 'Justin Bieber, or whoever it is now.'

'The thing that really blows my mind is, I look back at that 18-year-old in The Outsiders, and realize my kids are way way way way older than that and I would be worried putting them, now, in that position,' reflected the star (seen in the 1983 coming-of-age drama)

'Nobody's going to do a pity party or have a telethon for all the suffering 18-year-old movie stars,' he said. 'I get it. Like everyone goes through their time in the barrel'

'You either come out on the other side of it way, way, way better or way, way, way worse,' he reflected, before crediting 'recovery, sobriety and therapy' for saving his life.

When asked about how he has remained sober for 30 years, he said 'you have to want to do it.'

He explained: 'Unfortunately no one can get healthy for their job, or for their relationship, or for their court case, or because of mom or dad, or sister and brother, they can only do it when they want to do it.'

'You either come out on the other side of it way, way, way better or way, way, way worse,' he reflected, before crediting recovery, sobriety and therapy' for saving his life

Lowe shares his two sons John, 26, and Matthew, 28, with wife Sheryl Berkoff, who he married in 1991.

The couple's youngest child made his sobriety journey public in April, by uploading an image from his Twelve Steps program showing that he has been sober for two years.

The post comes as Rob, 56, marked his own significant milestone last year, marking 30 years of sobriety.

Honest: When asked about how he has stayed sober for 30 years, he said 'you have to want to do it'

Underneath his son's post, the Parks And Recreation star commented, 'I have never been more proud. Your hard work is an inspiration. Keep Coming Back.'

Milestone: John Owen Lowe, son to Rob Lowe, took to Instagram last to reveal he has been sober for two years

For added effect in his post, son John also included a SnapChat image alongside his AA statistics, showing him drunkenly chugging from a bottle of wine in his party days to emphasize just how far he's come.

Over the shot of John drinking, a caption reads, 'Life is short, blow it'.

But alongside the split image, the Stanford University graduate began his statement with the heading, 'Then -> Now.'

Proud dad: Rob's encouraging comment to his son

Opening up: 'I havent been vocal about my sobriety on here just because I felt it was something I wanted to keep personal, but I had a change of heart today,' the star's son wrote

'I havent been vocal about my sobriety on here just because I felt it was something I wanted to keep personal, but I had a change of heart today,' he continued.

'Two years in and I am more grateful than ever to have a community of support and friends who continue to build me up and hold me accountable.

'Making the decision to change your life is difficult at any age, but as a young person I hope that I can be a small example that it is possible and that things really do get SO MUCH BETTER,' John went on.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- An estimated one in five teenagers has symptoms of a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety, and suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens.

But the first person a teen confides in may not always be an adult - they may prefer to talk to another teen.

And three-quarters of parents in a new national poll think peers better understand teen challenges, compared to teachers or counselors in the school. The majority also agree that peer support leaders at school would encourage more teens to talk with someone about their mental health problems, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at Michigan Medicine.

"Peers may provide valuable support for fellow teens struggling with emotional issues because they can relate to each other," says Mott Poll Co-Director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

"Some teens may worry that their parents will overreact or not understand what they're going through. Teachers and school counselors may also have limited time to talk with students in the middle of other responsibilities."

Previous research suggests that as many as half of children and teens who have at least one treatable mental health disorder may not receive treatment due to several barriers. But teens who don't have a diagnosed condition may still experience occasional problems with emotions, peer and family relationships, anxiety, academic challenges, substance abuse or other issues negatively impacting self-esteem.

These type of situations may increase risk of developing or triggering depression during tween and teen years, experts say.

Some schools have instituted peer support leaders to give teens safe channels to share problems. Teens who serve as mentors in these programs are trained with oversight from teachers, counselors or mental health professionals. They are available to talk with their fellow students on a walk-in basis at a designated place at school or by referral from school staff.

"We have seen strong examples of school programs that prepare teens to be good listeners and to identify warning signs of suicide or other serious problems," Clark says.

"The peer support mentors' role is to listen, suggest problem solving strategies, share information about resources, and, when appropriate, encourage their fellow student to seek help. The most essential task is to pick up on signs that suggest the student needs immediate attention, and to alert the adults overseeing the program. While this doesn't replace the need for professional support, these programs offer young people a non-threatening way to start working through their problems."

The nationally-representative poll report included responses from 1,000 parents of teens ages 13-18 about their views on programs like peer support leaders.

Weighing Benefits and Concerns of Peer Support

Most parents say they see benefits to peer mentor programs. Thirty-eight percent believe if their own teen was struggling with a mental health problem, their teen would likely talk to a peer support leader and 41% of parents say it's possible their teen would take advantage of this option. Another 21% say it's unlikely their child would seek support from a peer mentor.

However, parents did express some concerns about peers providing mental health support to fellow teens as well. Some worried about whether a peer would keep their teen's information confidential (62%), if the peer leader would know when and how to inform adults about a problem (57%), if the peer leader would be able to tell if their teen needs immediate crisis help (53%), and if teens can be trained to provide this kind of support (47%).

"Some of parents' biggest concerns pertained to whether the peer leader would be able to tell if their teen needed immediate professional intervention and how to initiate those next steps," Clark says.

Despite these concerns, a third of parents still say they "definitely favor" having a peer support leaders program through their teen's school, while 46% say they would probably support such a program.

A quarter of parents also say their teen's school already has some type of peer support program - and these parents are twice as likely to favor such efforts.

"This suggests that parent support increases once they understand how peer support programs work," Clark says. "Most parents agree with the rationale for peer support programs but may be uncertain until they see how they operate and benefit students."

Two in three parents, or 64%, would also allow their teen to be trained as a peer support leader, recognizing the benefits to the community, the school and their child's individual growth.

However, roughly half of parents worried whether there would be sufficient training and that their teen may feel responsible if something bad happened to a student using the program. About 30% weren't sure if their teen was mature enough to serve as a peer support leader.

"Most parents approve of their teen being trained as a peer support leader, seeing it at as an opportunity to develop leadership skills and better understand the challenges that different teens face," Clark says. "But many also wanted reassurance that teens in these roles would have the adult guidance and support necessary to deal with difficult emotional situations."

"Close connection to knowledgeable adults is an essential part of any school-based peer mental health program, particularly in regards to suicide prevention," she says.

Clark says parents of teens considering service as a peer support leader may want to learn more about the training and resources offered, including whether the peer support leaders receive counseling and support in the event of a negative outcome.

She adds that when it comes to young people's mental health, "it takes a village" to support them and help identify warning signs that they may be in trouble.

"The adults in teens' lives - including parents, teachers and other mentors - serve critical roles during challenging times," Clark says. "But peers may also be an untapped resource to help teens who need someone to talk to."

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Emus are one of Australia's most popular animals, and they also feature on the Coat of Arms. (Christel Sagniez/Pixabay)

Study Finds 6,000 Years of Emu Mysteries

A recent study that is shedding light on the emuan Australian iconand its key behavioural patterns, has found it has been roaming around Australia for over 6,000 years.

Western Sydney University researcher Julia Ryeland, who along with researchers from Western Sydney University and the University of Tasmania, wrote the new study said that despite the emu being indigenous to large areas it is still regarded as something of an enigma to native fauna experts.

Theyre so widespread, but we really dont know much about them, Ryeland said. We dont even know basic things like lifespan.

The emu is the second-largest bird in the world behind the ostrich. It stands just over six foot two at 190cm tall and weighs up to 55 kg or 121 pounds.

Indigenous to mainland Australia, the bird once ranged all over Australia including the island territories of Tasmania and Kangaroo Island. It has a special place in many Indigenous Australian cultures and is included in the indigenous constellation of the southern skies.

The Aboriginal emu-in-the-sky constellation stands above the emu engraving in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. (Barnaby Norris)

Ryeland noted that climatic changes over the last 6,000 years had led emus to expand their populations northward, across Australias central areas.

The study found emus dont like heavy rainfall and prefer rainfall across the year instead of wet conditions, although Ryeland noted they are survivors.

Theyre generalists, and theyre large-bodied, Ryeland explained. They can move really far distances quite quickly so they can recolonise different areas, and they feed off a really, really wide range of plants or invertebrates, she said.

But Ryland noted that the study found that emus have also been reducing their territories east of the Great Dividing Range (GDR) putting those colonies along the east coast at risk of endangerment.

Changes in rainfall patterns over the last several thousand years have significantly reduced their distribution that was once widespread east of the Great Dividing Range, leaving remnant niche populations on the eastern coast of Australia, she said.

This makes the east coast population susceptible to potential threats such as further habitat fragmentation and predation by feral pests, Ryeland said.

Ryeland wants more funding to be put into understanding the endangered population in New South Wales (NSW). Theres been no research done on this population at all, she said. That makes it difficult to make really good management plans.

Currently, the emu is not listed as an endangered species in Australia, although vulnerable populations like the one in NSW are monitored.

Current predictions by the government note that while the overall population is likely to remain stable overall into the future, groups of the species could be threatened by increasing urbanisation which takes away access to water and land and losses from feral predators.

The Epoch Times reporter Victoria Kelly-Clark contributed to this report.
Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery giant Grab is exploring a listing in the United States this year, encouraged by robust investor appetite for initial public offerings (IPOs), three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Grab's IPO could raise at least $2 billion, one of the sources said, which would likely make it the largest overseas share offering by a Southeast Asian company. "The market is good and the business is doing better than before. This should work well for public markets," he said. The plans, including the size of the issue and ...
Alimentation Couche-Tard remains open to a second chance to consummate a union with Carrefour if the French government has a change of heart about its opposition.

Couche Tard chief executive Brian Hannasch grabs a coffee from the company's coffee truck before the company's annual meeting, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 in Laval, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Alimentation Couche-Tard remains open to a second chance to consummate a union with Carrefour if the French government has a change of heart about its opposition.

But the company's founder said it would look elsewhere in hopes of expanding and achieving its strategy to double its adjusted operating earnings by 2023.

"It would be interesting to have another string in our bow to do development and consolidation," executive chairman Alain Bouchard told The Canadian Press in a video conference Monday.

Couche-Tard abandoned its potential $25-billion offer for Carrefour after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the Quebec businessman that he refused to let a potential takeover proceed because he felt the deal would put food security at stake.

Bouchard said he was surprised that Le Maire justified his opposition based on food security, even as the two sides were on the verge of a deal.

This surprised us greatly because we weren't going to move the stores, he said, adding that COVID-19 hasn't helped.

"The pandemic has made people withdraw into themselves and politicians have wanted to be careful. We didn't expect it, but I understand.

Earlier, chief executive Brian Hannasch told analysts that the Carrefour file may not be permanently closed.

"We like the transaction and we'd love to do the transaction. So if we got signals that the environment could change or would change from the French government or other key stakeholders, we'd love the opportunity to re-engage under the right conditions," he said in a conference call.

For the time being, however, he said talks remain on ice with the two retailers instead examining the possibility of co-operating in areas such as fuel distribution. private label and joint purchasing.

This transaction, which would have been Couche-Tard's largest acquisition, would have allowed it to become among the five largest retailers in the world, Hannasch said.

The convenience store operator has been evaluating its options for several years to grow its global business by moving into sectors such as grocery, dollar stores, fast food and travel-related food outlets.

"While looking at a grocery chain, we never wavered from our commitment to fuel that's fundamental to our business," he said in answer to investor concerns voiced by analysts.

As a retailer, first and foremost, Hannasch said retail channels are blurring at a fast pace as the landscape changes.

He said it looks at its core business and adjacent opportunities with its "eyes wide open that the world is changing and it's going to take competitors with the right scale and the right culture and the right focus to win."

Bouchard reminded analysts that the company has made bold moves in the past, including the purchase of Circle K in the U.S. and Statoil Fuel & Retail in Europe.

"Was I hoping our bold approach to Carrefour have turned out differently? Of course," he said.

"Yet, I'm tremendously proud that Couche-Tard has the financial strength and acumen to make such an offer, proud that many more around the world understand and support the strong foundation and history of our company and proud that we showed an entrepreneurial spirit, all the while reaffirming our commitment to our core business and our double again strategy."

Still, analyst Derek Dley of Canaccord Genuity lowered his target price for Couche-Tard shares to $46 from $53 because investors will view Carrefour as a strategic pivot for the company despite abandoning the deal.

"In our view, this announcement led to a sigh of relief among many investors, who, like us, questioned the rationale behind such a large transaction and a pivot into the highly competitive European grocery retail environment," he wrote in a repot.

He said the Carrefour interest calls into question Couche-Tard's longer-term strategy as its ambitions appear to shift to becoming a leading retailer rather than just a leading convenience store retailer.

"While we applaud this ambition, we certainly believe it caught the companys investor base by surprise and changes the longer-term investment thesis for Couche-Tard."

 With files from Julien Arsenault in Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ATD.B)
BART Senior Police Officer Eric Hofstein found her again on Thanksgiving. She was wandering through Powell Street Station, covered in urine, purple rings under her wandering eyes, hair matted and scalp bald from brain surgery six weeks earlier.

Hofstein met the young woman, who is not being named by The Chronicle because of her mental state, a couple of years ago when he remembers her running into the same station, throwing trash and yelling, I just want to be safe. She was the frequent subject of 911 calls for racing naked through the trains, he said.

He got in close contact with her mother, Cinda Romero, a nurse in Southern California who described her daughter as an avid reader and lover of Latin before mental illness derailed her. He obsessed over connecting Romeros daughter with treatment and housing  but nothing worked.

By the end of 2020, the officer and mother were just trying to save the young womans life.

The years-long struggle to rescue a troubled loved one is not unique in San Francisco, where thousands of people, many with mental illness or drug addiction, live on the streets. Hofstein, who represents a new push of BART policing to tackle social problems in the train system, has met dozens patrolling downtown stations for the past six years, trying to help people find help and their loved ones. The father of four understands: He lost touch with his oldest child, who has bipolar disorder, years ago. He and the families he becomes close with know how getting help can be agonizing.

Its been exhausting, Romero said in a phone interview. Every day I had prayed for her rescue and help and deliverance from this nightmare situation. I finally had to surrender her safety and care to God, because I had tried to intervene and assist but was ultimately helpless to do anything.

It broke her heart, she said, but the previous December she told Hofstein she had come to peace with the possibility that although she prayed her daughter would be healed on Earth, it might only be in heaven. Hofstein said those words really got to him.

Hearing a parent say that, especially after all those years of trying to save this girls life, he said, his voice catching with emotion as he sat inside Powell Street Station on a recent Monday.

In the case of Romeros daughter, she nearly didnt survive.

Romero said her daughter, the oldest of six children, was a leader growing up, although she did have a dark side. Her mental illness manifested after she left for college, when she began to pathologically lie and develop delusions before dropping out, Romero said.

Around 2010, Romeros daughter had her first mental break and psychiatric hold compelling her into care at a hospital, her mother said. That began a decade of phone calls from police, doctors, social workers and her daughter rambling from emergency rooms, Romero said. About seven years ago, Romeros daughter moved to San Francisco, became homeless and started abusing drugs.

Romeros daughter already had two dozen contacts with BART police that led to holds for self-destructive behavior before Hofstein met her about two years ago. In May 2019, he said he talked her off a restricted elevated walkway area where she was dangling her feet as trains whizzed by. In August, he referred her to social workers through a city-run jail diversion program, but it didnt stick, he said. In December, he got her prioritized for housing, but she left soon after and lost her spot.

Romero said the calls from her daughter and people trying to help increased to a couple of times a week.

You really get phone PTSD. ... That phone call could be that theyre in the hospital again, that theyre dead, that theyre in jail, she said. Its always there with you 24/7.

In October 2020, Romero got a call from Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame: Her daughter, then 31, had been diagnosed as gravely disabled and needed surgery for a brain aneurysm. A week later, her daughter left the hospital against medical advice before the staffers could arrange for conservatorship, which is court-mandated mental health treatment, she said. Police brought her back by ambulance the next night, but she ran away while the hospital waited for administration to review her case, Romero said.

A letter from the hospital to Romero on Nov. 25 about that emergency department visit read clearly we let you and (your daughter) down on this visit. A spokesperson for Sutter Health, which runs the hospital, said the system wasnt able to share any details about patient care due to patient privacy laws. Sutter didnt answer general questions about psychiatric care.

Over the next six weeks, Romeros daughter cycled in and out of half a dozen emergency rooms, always walking out the door before she could receive treatment. When Hofstein finally found her daughter on Thanksgiving, he didnt want to arrest her or write a hold forcing her to go to the hospital, which he feared would damage the trust hed built with her.

Instead, he found her a spot at a voluntary nonemergency psychiatric clinic. The next morning, as Romeros daughter was getting antsy, he rushed to the city to write a hold. By the time he arrived, she had left.

Hofstein filed a missing person report and pushed out information to his police contacts. He was in Georgia on vacation on Dec. 10 when he got a call in the middle of the night: Another BART officer found Romeros daughter and drove her to a locked inpatient psychiatric facility, where she was admitted.

Shes safe and being taken care of after all these years of never knowing whether she was dead or alive, Romero said. She said Hofstein was the only person who understood her daughters needs over the years.

I think hes a hero, a saint, a guardian angel, not just to my daughter but to many peoples children. Hes way beyond an officer, she said. He just wants to take his job to the fullest limits of what law enforcement could do if it really cared for the person itself, not just for the legal system.

Hofstein, who is retiring in March, shunned praise.

Theres satisfaction of forcing the system to do what it should have done years ago saving this girls life, he said. I can emotionally let go and not be so anxious.

Hofstein and Romero see many places where they say the system could have worked better, including 24/7 social workers. Romero wants more coordination among hospitals to understand a patients psychiatric history, more training for police in mental illness, easier access to shelters and more long-term programs.

Everyone needs to start caring and just saying were not going to let this happen anymore, Romero said.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
Queer Eye star Karamo Brown is set to appear in the fourth and last season of Netflixs Dear White People.

It was not immediately clear who Brown, 39, would play on the streaming series, Deadline reported.

The Houston native is coming off an Emmy nomination for his hosting duties on Queer Eye in the category of Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition.

The latest: Queer Eye star Karamo Brown, 39, is set to appear in the fourth and last season of Netflixs Dear White People

He's appeared on the show since 2018 alongside castmates Bobby Berk, Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski.

Brown's past acting credits include shows such as Heads Will Roll, Steam Room Stories and Where the Bears Are and the film The Thing About Harry.

He's also involved in the beauty industry with his skincare line MANTL, and has a self-titled podcast called Karamo.

Dear White People is a TV adaptation from the 2014 dramatic comedy, which hit Netflix in 2017.

Mainstay: Brown has appeared on Queer Eye since 2018; he was snapped in October in LA

Logan Browning plays the role of Samantha White on the Netflix series

The show includes a cast featuring Logan Browning, Marque Richardson, Brandon P. Bell, Antoinette Robertson, DeRon Horton, John Patrick Amedori and Ashley Blaine Featherson.

It tackles racial tensions students of color face as they attend at a Ivy League in contemporary times.

The final 10 episodes of the series is set to drop on Netflix later this year.

SPRINGFIELD  A city man found guilty two years ago of selling crack is asking the states highest court to overturn his conviction, claiming police directed the city to cut down one tree and trim another before defense attorneys could view the scene of his arrest.

Terrence D. Gaskins and his lawyer Lisa J. Steele contend the police departments request for the city forester to trim trees on Fort Pleasant Avenue  one day after the court ordered police to arrange a site visit for the defense team  amounted to the destruction of exculpatory evidence that could have been favorable to Gaskins defense at trial.

Springfield police spokesman Ryan Walsh said the allegations are empty, and that the departments request to trim the trees had nothing to do with Gaskins case. The tree work was done, he said, to improve visibility after a surveillance camera was installed in response to a string of shootings.

Attorneys for Gaskins have made the argument twice before, and it has been rejected both times.

Once was at Gaskins May 2019 jury trial, where he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in jail. The trial judge at the time expressed doubts about the timing of the police request and whether it was coincidental, but allowed the case to continue. The other time was last month, when the state Court of Appeals upheld the guilty verdict and rejected Gaskins bid to have it tossed out.

Gaskins has since been released from jail and is on probation.

Steele said she hopes taking the case to the Supreme Judicial Court will bring awareness to what she describes as a larger issue of police tampering with evidence and playing fast and loose with the law.

When I took this case and looked at it, my jaw dropped and I said, They did what? she said.

The Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has thrown its support behind Gaskins. The association, which represents more than 1,000 defense lawyers across the state, recently filed an amicus curiae, or friend of the court brief, with the SJC.

David Rangaviz, a lawyer and co-chair of the associations Amicus Committee, said the group does not ordinarily file amicus briefs in cases  except to call the courts attention to a larger issue.

The larger issue is police misconduct and what the courts will do about it, he said, adding that unless the courts take a hard line on police misconduct, they are giving it license to continue.

Both the appeal and the amicus brief refer to the recent Department of Justice report on the police department, which alleged that between 2013 and 2018 detectives in the Springfield Police Departments Narcotics Bureau regularly violated department procedures, state law and even the U.S. Constitution. The report  which police officials have claimed contains inaccuracies  said officers filed false reports while supervisors looked the other way.

Steele says in light of the DOJ report, the allegations of police destroying evidence in Gaskins case becomes more believable.

Rangaviz offered a similar argument.

It is important for the (SJC) to look at it in the broad view for context, he said. This is not a pristine department with a pristine record.

A section of the amicus brief reads, The lesson of this history is clear: this department is infected by a culture of impunity. And without accountability, misconduct worsens.

An aerial view of Fort Pleasant Avenue shows the case's key locations.Photo by Patrick Johnson / The Republican

Court documents offer a summary of the undisputed facts in the case.

Gaskins was arrested the night of Aug. 2, 2017, after Officer Michael Goggins, who at the time was working in the departments street crimes unit, reportedly observed him exchanging drugs for money in a doorway at 59 Fort Pleasant Ave.

The transaction was brief, an estimated 15 seconds. It was dark, and Goggins was in an unmarked car 70 to 100 feet away. He observed the scene through a pair of binoculars that work in low light.

Police stopped the other man and found he had crack cocaine. Gaskins had no drugs, but had $44 in his pockets. Police charged him with distribution of cocaine.

The defense argued it was too dark and Goggins was too far away to document drug activity.

The defense petitioned the court to have Goggins account stricken, but was denied. Instead, the judge ordered police to provide the defense with the same low-light binoculars so its investigators could see for themselves how effective they were under conditions similar to the time of the arrest.

The order was issued on Sept. 6, 2018. The following day, Sgt. Sean Sullivan reached out to the city forester about trimming back trees in front of 59 Fort Pleasant Ave. Sullivan said the trees were blocking the view of a recently installed police security camera.

The forester removed one tree and trimmed another by Sept. 11. By the time a defense investigator obtained the binoculars from the police and returned to the scene in early October, they found the scene had been altered.

According to court documents, once the trees were trimmed, one could see down the sidewalk and see lighting from businesses 200-300 feet away. The private investigator could not give an opinion on what the police could or could not have seen at the time of the arrest because the lighting had been changed.

The defense cried foul. Gaskins public defender at the time, Anna-Marie Puryear, filed a motion to have the charges thrown out. She argued that altering the scene before the defense could review it denied Gaskins the chance to present his case that the scene was too dark and the officer was too far away to see what was happening.

This, she argued, was a violation of the U.S. and Massachusetts constitutions, as well as established procedure for criminal investigations.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Michael K. Callan denied the motion. There is some level of culpability on the part of the commonwealth for the tree cutting, he wrote in a February 2019 ruling. The trimming was requested by the police department very close in time to a critical evidentiary hearing in the case where the shading provided by the trees was clearly an issue.

He also wrote it was not established if calls from the police to the forester for tree work was routine or rare. But the trimming did not cause irremediable harm to Gaskins defense, he ruled, and the defense could still make the argument at trial because it had photos of the scene before the trees were cut.

The highly suspicious timing of the cutting shall be fair game at trial, the judge wrote. It will be for a jury to determine whether the testimony of the surveilling and arresting officers is credible in light of the police involvement to later alter/destroy material evidence.

After Gaskins conviction, Steele filed an appeal charging the judge erred by not dismissing the charges on grounds of evidence tampering.

The state Court of Appeals on Dec. 14 upheld the guilty verdict, saying Gaskins defense was not unduly hampered by the scene being altered, and that dismissing the charges was not warranted. The ruling notes that the defense was still able to call the city forester to testify, and to make a plausible argument that the officers view was obstructed and that police tampered with the scene. The judge also told jurors they could draw their own conclusions if they found the explanation for the tree work unsatisfactory.

During the appeal, the district attorneys office argued the forestry department receives around 1,000 requests per year from city departments and the public about trimming or removing trees on city property. With each request, the department inspects the scene but only the forester decides if a tree should be removed or trimmed. And in this case, one of the trees was found to be in severe decay and was a threat to public safety.

Rangaviz feels the December appeals court decision upholding the original conviction was in error, as was the judges decision in the original trial not to dismiss all charges against Gaskins. He also feels the district attorneys office should have dropped the charges once it became clear police may have interfered.

They said it was a coincidence and they said it with a straight face, he said. That shows you the prosecutors are unwilling to police the police.

The Hampden district attorneys office declined to comment on the case.

The larger question behind the tree work goes to motive, Rangaviz said.

If the police testimony about the arrest was completely accurate, officers would have a strong incentive to keep the scene exactly as it was, he said.

Walsh, the police spokesman, said the area of Fort Pleasant Avenue where police observed Gaskins is a high-crime, high-violence hot spot. In the last week of August 2018  shortly before the judges ruling on the binoculars  there were three shootings and a homicide in the neighborhood. Then-Police Commissioner John R. Barbieri ordered an overhead surveillance camera installed on the side of the apartment building at 59 Fort Pleasant Ave.

Once it was installed, officers found the cameras overhead view was obstructed by tree limbs, and the request was made with the city forester for trimming, Walsh said.

The same camera has helped solve a homicide and numerous other crimes, he said.

Rangaviz said it is hard to predict how the SJC will handle the case. Typically, it reviews fewer than 5% of cases that have been ruled on by the Court of Appeals.

Steele said if the SJC agrees to place it on the docket, it could be six months before it decides to hear the case.

Gaskins is seeking to have the verdict overturned or for the court to order a new trial, she said. If the court orders a new trial, she hopes that because Gaskins already served his sentence, the DA would simply not bother with a new prosecution.

The larger issue, she said, is whether the SJC will decide that such conduct by police is unacceptable  and if it does, that departments will be put on notice.

Someone has to step up and do something to stop this from happening, she said. How do we fix it?

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CPPGroup, up 46% at 478.00 pence. The insurance and financial services company said earnings for 2020 are expected to surpass market consensus, with the firm expecting 2020 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization of between GBP7.1 million to GBP7.3 million, ahead of market forecasts of GBP6.4 million.







Faron Pharmaceuticals, up 22% at 337.56 pence. The biopharmaceutical said the US Department of Defense has chosen the HIBISCUS Study to receive USD6.1 million of funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security Act. The phase II/III HIBISCUS trial will assess Traumakine, Faron's IV IFN beta-1a, for the treatment of hospitalised Covid-19 patients in the US.







Mosman Oil & Gas, up 22% at 0.214 pence. The Australia and US-focused oil and gas explorer confirmed the completion of the sale of the Welch Project, in Texas, for USD420,000.







Augean, up 10% at 206.25 pence. The waste management company said it expects to report an adjusted pretax profit for 2020 at least in line with the year before, despite the decline of its North Sea business and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, Augean's adjusted pretax profit was GBP19.2 million.







AIM LOSERS







Velocys, down 26% at 7.64 pence. The sustainable fuels technology company said Shell International Petroleum has withdrawn from the Altalto Joint Development agreement. Velocys and British Airways will continue to work to secure finance for the Altalto Immingham plant, and will continue talks with potential finance sources.







SEC Newgate, down 12% at 42.50 pence. The public relations firm said its two largest UK agencies, SEC Newgate UK - Newgate Communications - and Newington Communications, will merge and rebrand as SEC Newgate UK. As part of this, SEC Newgate will increase its stake in Newington to 100% from 60%, paying GBP420,799 for the 40% minority stake it did not already own.







Remote Monitored Systems, down 8.7% at 2.74 pence. The data collection and surveying firm said the last test for its 4-ply mask, the biocompatibility test, has been delayed and is now expected to be completed in the next week. The mask manufacturing machine arrived from Lemu, as expected, and has been installed in Nottingham's BioCity, with work beginning this week to commission the machine and commence production.







By Lucy Heming;A lucyheming@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
WASHINGTON - One of Joe Biden's first actions once he becomes U.S. president Wednesday will be to slam the door yet again on Canada's politically fraught Keystone XL pipeline expansion, transition documents suggest.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theatre, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. Transition documents suggest president-elect Joe Biden plans to block the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in the White House. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Matt Slocum

WASHINGTON - One of Joe Biden's first actions once he becomes U.S. president Wednesday will be to slam the door yet again on Canada's politically fraught Keystone XL pipeline expansion, transition documents suggest.

The documents, seen by The Canadian Press, feature a to-do list for inauguration day that includes signing an executive order to rescind the Keystone XL construction permit granted in 2019 by predecessor Donald Trump.

They also suggest that despite its best efforts, Canada has failed to convince the incoming administration of the virtues of importing fossil-fuel energy from a friendly ally and trading partner with similar climate change goals.

"Roll back Trump enviro actions via EO (including rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit)," the document reads.

Other entries under the "Climate" heading include, "Rejoin the Paris Agreement" and "Announce date for U.S.-hosted Leaders' Climate Summit."

Campaign officials promised in May that if elected, Biden would cancel the $8-billion US cross-border project, but neither the timeline nor the extent of Biden's own commitment to the promise was clear until now.

The controversial, on-again, off-again pipeline expansion, owned by Calgary-based TC Energy, would ferry up to 830,000 additional barrels a day of diluted bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Government officials quietly refused to rule out the possibility that there might still be time to change the Biden administration's mind.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., has argued for months that the project is not the same one President Barack Obama rejected in 2015  an argument she reiterated in a statement Sunday.

"Not only has the project itself changed significantly since it was first proposed, but Canadas oilsands production has also changed significantly," Hillman said.

"Per-barrel oilsands (greenhouse gas) emissions have dropped 31 per cent since 2000, and innovation will continue to drive progress."

The federal Liberal government has also beefed up its climate plan in an effort to exceed the current target for cutting greenhouse gases by 2030, and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, she added.

Ever since May, Canadian officials have been advocating for a cross-border discussion on climate and energy that would make room for both building the project and reducing emissions at the same time.

"Keystone XL fits within Canadas climate plan," Hillman said, adding that it promises good union jobs in both countries "at a time when our economic recovery is a top priority."

"Underpinned by a crucial and long-standing trade and security partnership, there is no better partner for the U.S. on climate action than Canada as we work together for green transition."

Where Ottawa was clinging to hope, however, Alberta appeared to be girding for a fight.

"We renew our call on the incoming administration to show respect for Canada as the United States' most important trading partner and strategic ally," Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.

Cancelling the project would "kill jobs" in both countries, "weaken" cross-border ties and "undermine U.S. national security" by making the country more dependent than ever on oil imports from OPEC countries, he said.

"Should the incoming U.S. administration abrogate the Keystone XL permit, Alberta will work with TC Energy to use all legal avenues available to protect its interest in the project."

Biden campaign officials did not immediately respond to media queries Sunday.

TC Energy, however, confirmed an ambitious plan to spend $1.7 billion US on a solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline to ensure it is zero-emission by 2030, and to rely exclusively on union labour  all of it clearly aimed at winning Biden's favour.

"Since it was initially proposed more than 10 years ago, the Keystone XL project has evolved with the needs of North America, our communities and the environment," project president Richard Prior said in a release.

"We are confident that Keystone XL is not only the safest and most reliable method to transport oil to markets, but the initiatives announced today also ensure it will have the lowest environmental impact of an oil pipeline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions."

Federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole echoed Kenney's concerns, describing the U.S. decision as counter to economic recovery efforts and urging Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit down at the earliest opportunity.

"I call on the prime minister to immediately reach out to the incoming U.S. administration to stop this from happening and stand up for working Canadians across Canada," O'Toole said.

"I also call upon the incoming U.S. administration to meet with our prime minister and affected workers prior to making this decision."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe echoed the call for a meeting between Biden and Trudeau, saying the project is "critical to North American energy security."

"While I am urging the prime minister to leverage his relationship with Mr. Biden, Saskatchewan will continue exercising our contacts in Washington D.C. to advocate for the continuation of this project that clearly benefits both of our nations," he said.

Some 200 kilometres of pipe have already been installed for the expansion, including across the Canada-U. S. border, and construction has begun on pump stations in Alberta and several U.S. states.

Biden was vice-president in 2015 when Obama initially rejected Keystone XL for fear it would worsen climate change. Trump approved it again in 2019.

The Biden campaign team appeared to slam the door on the expansion in May with an unequivocal statement committing the president-elect to "proudly" sign an order that would "stop it for good."

But observers and experts alike continued to hold out hope, even after Biden named John Kerry  the climate hawk who as secretary of state recommended that Obama reject the permit  as a special presidential envoy on climate change.

The news drew praise, however, from Biden's former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"The Keystone pipeline is & always has been a disaster," he said on Twitter. "With all of the major crises facing America, we must never lose sight of the most existential threat facing our planet: climate change."

Environmental groups also cheered Biden's decision and encouraged federal leaders in Canada to follow suit.

"Its time for Canadian politicians to stop beating this dead horse and get on with building a clean energy future," said Keith Stewart, Greenpeace Canada's senior energy strategist.

"The Biden administration offers us a fresh start on addressing the climate crisis with a willing partner, so lets not blow it by pushing pipelines."

This report from The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2021.
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As I write today, COVID-19 has killed more than 380,000 people in the United States. The country is averaging close to 200,000 cases per day and has a record number of patients hospitalized at this time. This trend shows no signs of abating. Unfortunately, this only means that the number of hospitalized patients and the number of patients dying will continue to trend up in the coming days and weeks.

Amidst this depressing scenario, there is some ray of hope in the form of COVID-19 vaccines that we have all been waiting desperately for months now. Many of us on the frontlines have actually got the vaccine, and some of us have already received our 2nd doses as well.

While that is great, we are not doing so well when it comes to the general publics vaccine rollout. Inefficiency, limited cold storage capacity, stringent prioritization guidelines, and lack of innovative approach throughout the system that is supposed to roll out the vaccine smoothly leads to a few million doses of vaccines lying on the shelves expire. There have been media reports recently that in some Florida counties, seniors are sitting outside in line overnight to get the vaccine that is only available in limited doses. Combine that with rampant conspiracy theories on social media and the internet against the vaccine and its purported side effects and the media negatively highlighting stories of allergic reactions suffered by a handful of people (who eventually recover in a few days) with scaring headlines, only aid to the general public becoming even more skeptical about receiving the vaccine. In short, it is a disaster.

We really need more vaccine doses to reach out to more people more quickly. The vaccines goal is to prevent more new infections, prevent hospitalizations and deaths, eventually attain herd immunity, and control the pandemic. Eventually, we may get there, but the way things are going, it will take a very long time, with some reports suggesting that it will take 10 years. While these estimates are outrageously exaggerated, it will still take a long time at the current pace.

Many states have set prioritization guidelines to give vaccines in various phases to people. Now, it makes perfect sense to give vaccines to frontline health care workers, essential workers, long-term care facility residents, and people above 65 years of age who are at the highest risk. However, across the nation, we see many prioritized groups opting out due to various reasons from taking the vaccine, including health care professionals, front-line workers, and the elderly. The phasing guidelines are very strict, with hefty fines. When these people opt-out of taking the vaccine, the doses sit on shelves and are left to expire.

So what do we do?

It is going to be impossible to convince those who dont believe in vaccines at all but also very difficult to convince the fence-sitters who are skeptical about taking it, despite being in the prioritized group. If our goal is to mass vaccinate people to attain herd immunity and control the pandemic, then we need to allow those people to get the vaccine who are already convinced about the efficacy of the vaccine but are not eligible to get it due to not being included in prioritized groups. Allowing it to happen on a first-come, first-served basis will lead us towards more American people becoming vaccinated quickly and will also lessen the burden of convincing the skeptical, who will be able to reevaluate their decision while we keep moving on towards achieving the goal of herd immunity.

Both Canada and the U.K. have adopted the approach of rolling out as many first doses as possible while they wait for the companies to supply second doses. Estimates show that this approach can reduce the number of new infections by 34 to 42 percent. In the U.S., we continue to hold back half of the vaccine doses, worrying that perhaps we may not be able to get second doses in time from the vaccine manufacturers. This approach needs a serious rethink.

Also, the vaccines that are shipped already and those that are shipping soon are usually cleared for 30 days of storage, and most states dont have the infrastructure to store vaccines at ultracold temperatures to extend their shelf life. This only means that if these vaccine doses are not utilized due to strict phasing guidelines, it will expire and be thrown away.

We are in the middle of the deadly pandemic and have fortunately received the vaccines a few months earlier than anticipated. We cant afford to waste these precious doses. While state governments across the country need to ensure that frontline and essential workers and elderly patients are prioritized for receiving the vaccine, they also need to avoid expirations of additional vaccine doses and consider alternatives of rolling out more first doses and vaccinating those who want to get vaccinated.

Our overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a nation has been disastrous, to say the least. Not only have we been caught unprepared, but the pandemic has completely exposed the already broken system. The least we can do is to now get our act together and carry out our nationwide vaccination campaign efficiently and smartly without wasting vaccine doses and prevent this pandemic from becoming even a bigger disaster.

Parth Mehta is a hospitalist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The CJ questioned the petitioner to explain as to why he should not be prosecuted for filing the PIL suppressing such information, and not be tried for perjury for taking the court for a ride and misleading it.  DC image

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Sarpanch of Laxmidevipet Grampanchayat in Venkatapur mandal of Mulug district, G. Kumara Swamy, for hiding the fact he was an accused in certain cases registered by police against some villagers in a land-related dispute. He has been directed by the court to deposit the fine amount to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority within two weeks.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Abhishek Reddy passed the order. The

Chief Justice reprimanded Sujatha Kurapati, counsel for the petitioner, by saying that as an officer of the court, she should have restrained the petitioner from suppressing facts. "When there is an FIR against the petitioner, how dare he approach the court with guts and say that he is not involved in any civil and criminal litigation," the CJ asked.

The CJ questioned the petitioner to explain as to why he should not be prosecuted for filing the PIL suppressing such information, and not be tried for perjury for taking the court for a ride and misleading it.

He filed the PIL knowing fully well that hes a part of the crime; and despite that he has sworn in an affidavit that he is not involved in any civil or criminal case. This amounts to perjury, the court said and made it very clear that it will take a strong view against such suppression of facts.

In the PIL, he alleged that the Station House Officer of Venkatapur police station was harassing the villagers of Laxmidevipet village and upon his insistence, cases have been slapped against poor villagers who are agitating for their rights over the lands in the village in Mulug district. Though, the petitioner and the villagers approached the DGP and filed a representation seeking action against the SHO, no action has been taken yet.

- Infosys is among the top global SIs to have achieved the Partner Specialization from Google Cloud augmenting Infosys Cobalt capabilities

BENGALURU, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced that it has been accredited with the Google Cloud Partner Specialization in the data and analytics space. Infosys achieved this recognition by successfully demonstrating end-to-end capabilities on Google Cloud including data ingestion, streaming, querying, exploration, analysis, storage, and warehousing on cloud. Infosys is among the top global system integrators (SI) to be accredited with this specialization.

As a qualified Google Cloud partner, Infosys has showcased technical proficiency, robust methodology, strong industry expertise, and proven success in specialized data and analytics solutions and service areas. These data and analytics offerings, part of Infosys Cobalt, together with AI capabilities help migrate workloads to Google Cloud, modernize data landscapes, and optimize costs paving the way for AI and cloud native digital transformation for enterprises.

"Businesses across virtually all segments and industries are looking for ways to drive more insights and value from their data," said Nina Harding, Chief of Global Partner Programs & Strategy at Google Cloud. "In achieving this Specialization, Infosys has demonstrated the highest level of expertise helping customers implement data-driven strategies with Google Cloud's data and analytics products and capabilities."

Satish HC, Executive Vice President, Head Global Services - Data and Analytics at Infosys said, "Achieving the Google Cloud Partner Specialization is a key milestone in the journey of Infosys Data and Analytics capabilities. Meeting the requisite standards further strengthens the Infosys Cobalt proposition on Google Cloud. Infosys being an accredited partner provides delivery assurance on complex Google Cloud implementations along with Google Cloud-native accelerators and offers time-to-market advantage for Enterprises."

To know more about Infosys data and analytics offerings on Google Cloud, please visit - https://www.infosys.com/services/data-analytics/offerings/data-analytics-specialization-space.html

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov . Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

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BATON ROUGE Gov. John Bel Edwards is traveling to Washington, D.C., and will attend the Inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris this week, representing the state of Louisiana at the ceremonial transition of power from one administration to the next.

Gov. Edwards said:

Less than two weeks ago, our United States Capitol was besieged by a riotous mob determined to prevent Congress from performing its constitutional duty to count electoral college votes certified by the states. Their insurrectionist actions were patently un-American and mark one of the most shameful days in our countrys history.

But after great darkness comes the light. Congress did count and certify the electoral college votes, and on Wednesday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will become our nations president and vice president. I congratulate them again on their victory, and I am proud to represent the people of Louisiana at this historic inauguration. This ceremony will mark a chance for a fresh start, new energy and bold leadership to overcome the many significant challenges facing our country.

The challenges seem insurmountable some days  the pandemic, racial inequalities, a struggling economy, rampant misinformation and deep divisions in our communities, to name a few. And while it will not be easy to unite our country, that should never deter us from always working to do better, to be better.

I renew my commitment to my fellow Louisianans and my fellow Americans to continue working with the White House and the new President and Vice President to improve our state and our nation. Louisiana has struggled much over the past year, but our people are kind, strong and resilient, and there is no task too big for us to tackle if we put aside our differences and work together.

I look forward to working with President-elect Biden, and I especially congratulate Kamala Harris, who as Vice President elect, is the living embodiment of the dreams and aspirations of countless Americans, particularly women and people of color, who have long fought for equality and a seat at the table.

I am grateful for the close working relationship I have had with the Trump administration, especially throughout the multiple natural disasters our state has faced. Hurricane recovery, in addition to the COVID-19 response, is ongoing, and I have already begun working with President-elect Bidens administration to ensure that these important issues remain a priority.

I am also grateful to all of the people working to keep the Inauguration safe, from law enforcement to members of the National Guard, and especially the 174 members of Louisianas National Guard who volunteered to protect our nations capital to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. They are our nations unsung heroes and real patriots.

In Louisiana, we have been in touch with federal, state and local officials about warnings of planned protests in Louisiana and, while so far no violence or lawlessness has occurred at protests in Louisiana, we are prepared and will respond as necessary.
President Donald Trumps personal lawyer wont be part of the defense team in the Senate trial for his second impeachment. Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading the presidents failed efforts to prove baseless claims of voter fraud, said he wouldnt represent Trump because he was involved in the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol. Because I gave an earlier speech [at the rally], I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or in the Senate chamber, Giuliani told ABC News.

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Giuliani issued a statement saying he may be a witness and that means the rules of legal ethics would prohibit me from representing the president as trial counsel in the impeachment trial. At the Jan. 6 rally, Giuliani fired up the crowd by calling for trial by combat. He later defended those words by saying they were a reference to the television show Game of Thrones.

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Watch John Eastman (left) break into a smile when Rudy Giuliani declares: Lets have trial by combat! pic.twitter.com/ekvweCdhsq  Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) January 13, 2021

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The announcement comes after a bit of back-and-forth over the weekend. Giuliani had said he was working on the presidents defense and said he was ready to argue the presidents case. Giuliani said there were disagreements about how Trump should be defended but said that he wanted to argue the validity of voter fraud allegations. But Trumps team had other ideas, and a spokesman quickly tweeted out a statement saying the president had yet to decide which lawyer or law firm would represent him.

Statement On President Trumps Impeachment Defense Team:



President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy, known as the impeachment hoax. We will keep you informed.  J. Hogan Gidley (@JHoganGidley) January 17, 2021

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Trump reportedly started telling people around him Sunday that Giuliani would not represent him. That was the same day veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove said in a television interview that Trumps chances of conviction would increase if he was defended by Giuliani. Its still unclear who will actually represent the president, considering many attorneys have refused to take his case.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person familiar with the new administrations plans.

Chopra, an ally of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, had been considered a top candidate for the job running the agency, which had been weakened by the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Bidens transition team could not be reached for comment.

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 innovation that turned Google and Facebook into money-making behemoths wasnt search or social networking. It was selling advertising space alongside content they got for free.

Now, as regulatory investigations in the U.S., Europe and beyond raise the prospect of breaking up the Silicon Valley companies, theyre tweaking that formula. The two firms are striking deals to start paying one important source of that content: news organizations. Not only does this help bring them in line with new copyright laws, it also gives them the chance to regain the media industrys trust.

Later this month, Facebook will launch its news tab (which has been available in the U.S. since 2019) in the U.K., with names such as the Guardian, the Economist and the Independent. Google has meanwhile started rolling out its latest news offering, the Google News Showcase, which is already live in Germany with 20 publications, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. Next up its going to the U.K., France, Belgium and Australia.

Both products set a significant precedent in that the tech giants are paying publishers to license their stories.

In the past, any revenue the two companies directed toward publishers came from either one-off philanthropic funding for news projects or a share of ad income from users clicking on a story  neither of which has been enough to build a sustainable media business. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP expects the global newspaper industrys combined advertising and circulation revenue to fall from $108 billion to $86 billion between 2019 and 2024.

To be sure, the new licensing fees are, in relative terms, insubstantial. Major publishers in Germany are receiving a flat fee of just a few million euros a year each from Google  between 1% and 2% of their annual revenue. Given that the search giant can account for more than a quarter of their traffic, its a drop in the ocean. Facebook is paying similar amounts in the U.K.

The trade-off is the ability to cultivate a relationship with readers who are already on these platforms, because these products will direct them to a publications website to read the story. That hasnt been the case with Apple Inc.s News+ offering or Microsoft Corp.s websites  both of which keep readers on their platform and obscure data from publishers, who are nonetheless paid for their stories. Microsoft is developing another news product for Windows that will host the stories itself. Perhaps now the publishers with which its in early talks will have a stronger bargaining hand.

The Google News Showcase is made up of so-called cards," each focusing on a topic  say sports, finance or Covid  and displaying stories selected by news organizations. Should a user click on a given story, theyre directed to the publications website paywall-free, thanks to the license fee paid by Google. Conveniently for the Alphabet Inc. unit, the contracts let it use the stories across any of its other products. Facebooks news tab will similarly push readers to a publications website.

These products are separate from the stories that appear in Facebook newsfeeds or Google search results  the platforms should arguably pay extra for that. But news executives hope that this effort marks a first step toward more sustainable recurring revenue agreements.

There remains a great deal of skepticism from news organizations, since they have been burned repeatedly in the past. For years, Facebook encouraged companies, public figures and publishers to cultivate an audience through Facebook pages. After those groups invested time, money and effort, the California firm then changed the way content was surfaced, making it very hard to reach that same audience without paying for promotion.

Thats one reason that some publishers are more comfortable receiving just a small fee from the tech companies when they could reasonably seek more: If it was a more sizable payment, then theyd risk becoming beholden to the Silicon Valley firms whims.

The new contracts guarantee revenue from Google and Facebook for three years  an aeon in technology half-lives. As much as news executives are excited about the precedent that is being set, they need to ensure these deals yield meaningful results, primarily by attracting new subscribers.

As antitrust pressures on Google and Facebook mount, its in their interest to help the news business develop sustainable economic models. Doing so might ease the criticism they face for upturning those models in the first place  and ward off additional regulation. Rupert Murdochs News Corp. has championed new rules in Australia that force the tech giants to share more digital ad revenue. Paying for news should also improve the quality of platforms that have become a hotbed for misinformation.

A healthy news industry is good for democracy. For the tech giants, it should also be good for business.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.

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Imagine if you could step back in time almost 3,000 years to walk among mystical creatures and discover ancient traditions.

A new exhibition in China aims to do just that, using the latest technology to whisk visitors back in time and discover a world of colour and art.

The Brilliance of Time  Ci Park, is an immersive experience created to celebrate China's rich porcelain heritage, first crafted almost three millennia ago, and revered around the world for its delicate beauty and colourful designs.

The Brilliance of Time  Ci Park, is an immersive experience created to celebrate China's rich porcelain heritage.

The exhibition was created as a partnership between the news agency Xinhuanet and the Jingdezhen Municipal People's Government.

The combination of futuristic technology and ancient art has created the first-ever holographic immersive art exhibition dedicated to porcelain  a whole world crafted to enchant both adults and children.

It was created as a partnership between the news agency Xinhuanet and the Jingdezhen Municipal People's Government. Jingdezhen is in the eastern Jiangxi province known as the Capital of Porcelain, famed for its beautiful blue and white designs, which defined the Yuan Dynasty.

If you have ever wondered why you refer to your finest 'china', it is because this artform became so associated with the country China over hundreds of years, that it took its name. And this new exhibition plans to reveal just what makes porcelain so special.

A new way to experience culture

Ci Park brings the magical world of porcelain right up to date with interactive exhibits and digital art.

Ci Park brings the magical world of porcelain right up to date with interactive exhibits and digital art, so that visitors of every age can discover this traditional art form.

The exhibition will travel across China, inspiring visitors to reflect on this revered art form by creating a surreal world filled with colour and tradition. Different rooms will plunge visitors into different experiences, appealing to their senses and exploring how porcelain became a symbol of elegance and beauty internationally.

The exhibition will travel across China, inspiring visitors to reflect on this revered art form.

The five guardians

Your guides in this new porcelain world are five auspicious animals, representing the five stages of porcelain craftsmanship: materials, styling, pattern, glaze colouring and firing.

Young visitors can interact with Gao the ceramic elephant, guardian of clay and the materials that create porcelain, and Hai the tortoise, created from white porcelain once transported through the Maritime Silk Road during the Song Dynasty.

One of the five guardians, Hai the tortoise, created from white porcelain once transported through the Maritime Silk Road during the Song Dynasty.

Then there is Hua, the mythical Kylin in the traditional colours of blue and white, who is the guardian of the exquisite patterns in porcelain, Yu the delicate rose finch showcasing the beauty of the glazing, and Long the dragon who fires each piece of porcelain to perfection.

Together, these animated creatures take visitors on a journey through different interactive experiences to explore the history of porcelain. There are adventures to be had and stories to be told.

And with immersive spaces, from the Future Light to the Time Room and the Porcelain River, visitors will become absorbed in a futuristic world that brings an ancient culture to life.

Bringing history to life

Once known as white gold, porcelain has long been admired for combining delicacy with durability. Almost translucent when it is held to the light, it can survive for millennia, with pieces dating back to the Han Dynasty still being found today.

It is an artform that transformed the world. Even the word itself comes from the admiration for its delicate beauty. Adventurer Marco Polo described the pottery he saw in China as porcellana, which means cowrie shell, as he believed it resembled the smooth surface of a shell. Porcelain soon became coveted across Europe, travelling along the Silk Road to find new admirers around the world.

Holographic images swirl and spin, bringing traditions into the present.

The Ci Park exhibition is a chance to rediscover that history, and it creates a captivating experience that young visitors love. Holographic images swirl and spin, bringing traditions into the present and whisking visitors through the dynasties that took porcelain worldwide.

Visitors can explore 300 priceless pieces from around the world and find out about their history, before stepping into rooms offering unique experiences, from meteor lights that form illuminated rain to interactive porcelain plates that seem to come to life.

A magical world

Porcelain forms such an important part of Chinese history and culture, as well as Chinese influence around the world that Ci Park was determined to inspire a new generation with its story.

The idea behind the exhibition was to engage young people and show them just how magical the world of porcelain can be. Bringing it to life with the five spectacular animals that fly around the exhibition, was just one way to immerse young people in its splendour.

Futuristic digital visual arts place visitors at the centre of this beautiful porcelain world.

Other displays teach visitors about the importance of the clay mineral kaolin to create that strong yet delicate porcelain and the key elements of glazing and firing to create a vitrified finish. And it is all made more tangible with futuristic digital visual arts that place visitors at the centre of this beautiful porcelain world.

As well as interacting with digital displays and marvelling at amazing visual effects, children can touch, hear, and see the different stages of porcelain creation as well as watching entertaining cultural performances. It is about creating interactive and vivid experiences that enchant visitors, as well as weaving together almost 3,000 years of history and culture.

Where the past meets the future

An ancient artform is reborn at Ci Park

Ci Park is an ambitious exhibition that immerses every visitor into a surreal new world, one where ancient tradition and nearly 3,000 years of porcelain craftsmanship come to life thanks to the latest technology.

Inspired by the Capital of Porcelain, Jingdezhen, in the eastern Jiangxi province, Ci Park will travel across China to inspire new generations.

An ancient artform is reborn.

Find out more by clicking HERE.
A Turkish rescue team has found the bodies of four crew members of a Ukrainian-owned cargo ship that sank in bad weather in the Black Sea over the weekend, including the vessel's captain, a Russian citizen.



The Russian Embassy in Ankara said on January 18 that the body of the vessel's captain Vitaly Galenko, a Russian national had been discovered.



Russia's Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transportation (Rosmorrechflot) said earlier that three more bodies were found from the January 17 maritime disaster.



According to Rosmorrechflot, six crew members, including a Russian citizen, had been rescued, while two of 12 crew members of the bulk carrier Arvin were Russian citizens and the rest were Ukrainians



Turkish authorities said on January 17 that there were 13 people aboard the vessel when it encountered bad weather conditions.



The ship, registered under the flag of the country of Palau, was heading for Bulgaria from Georgia when it sank, Ukrainian officials said. The Black Sea region has been hit by heavy rains, snow, and strong winds in recent days.



According to Ukrainian authorities, the ship was owned by a Ukrainian firm.

Based on reporting by Novaya Gazeta, Hurriyet, and Interfax
Kamala Harris will make history on Wednesday when she becomes the nation's first female vice president and the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office. But that's only where her boundary-breaking role begins.

With the confluence of crises confronting Joe Biden's administration and an evenly divided Senate in which she would deliver the tie-breaking vote .Harris is shaping up to be a central player in addressing everything from the coronavirus pandemic to criminal justice reform.

Symone Sanders, Harris' chief spokeswoman, said that while the vice president-elect's portfolio hasn't been fully defined yet, she has a hand in all aspects of Biden's agenda.

``There are pieces that Biden may specifically ask her to champion, but outside of that she is at the table for everything, involved in everything, and giving input and feedback and being a supportive partner to him on all pieces,`` she said.

People working closely with Harris on the transition resist the idea of siloing her into any specific issue early on, because the sheer number of challenges the Biden administration faces means it will be ``all hands on deck'' during their early months. They say she'll be involved in all four of the major priorities they've set out: turning around the economy, tackling COVID-19, and addressing climate change and racial justice.

``She has a voice in all of those. She has an opinion in all those areas. And it will probably get to a point where she is concentrating on some of the areas more specifically,'' Sanders said. ``But right now, I think what we're faced with in this country is so big, it's all hands on deck.''

Harris has been closely involved with all of Biden's biggest decisions since winning the election in November, joining him for every one of his key meetings focused on Cabinet picks, the COVID-19 relief bill, security issues and more. The two talk over the phone nearly every day, and she travels to Delaware sometimes multiple times a week for transition events and meetings.

Those involved in the transition say both have taken seriously Biden's insistence that he wants Harris to be the ``last voice in the room'' on key decisions. Biden is known to turn to Harris first during meetings to ask for her opinion or perspective on the matter at hand.

Biden and Harris knew each other prior to the 2020 presidential campaign in part through Harris' friendship with Biden's deceased son, Beau. But they never worked closely together.

Since joining the ticket, and particularly since the election, Harris has made efforts to deepen their relationship and is in frequent contact with the president-elect, people close to Harris say. That personal relationship, according to presidential historian Joel Goldstein, will be key to their success as working partners.

``The relationship of the vice president to the president is the most important relationship. Establishing mutual understanding and trust is really a key to a successful vice presidency,'' Goldstein said.

Goldstein pointed to Biden and President Barack Obama's relationship as a potential model for the incoming team.

Biden and Obama were from similarly different backgrounds and generations and also entered the White House with a relatively fresh working relationship. But their relationship and mutual understanding grew throughout the presidency, and Obama trusted Biden with some of his administration's biggest endeavors, like the implementation of the 2009 Recovery Act and the troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Harris is said to be looking at Biden's vice presidency as a guide for her own.

But unlike Biden during his first term, Harris will face constant questions about her political future. While Biden has skirted questions about whether he plans to run for reelection, at 78 he'll be the oldest president in history, leaving questions about whether he'll retire at the end of his term. That would make Harris the immediate frontrunner in any 2024 Democratic presidential primary.

Early in the vice presidential vetting process, her potential presidential ambitions gave some Biden allies pause. But since her selection, Harris has proven a loyal partner to Biden, rarely if ever contradicting him publicly.

Still, California Rep. Barbara Lee, who was the first Congressional Black Caucus member to endorse in the primary when she backed Harris, said the vice president-elect isn't afraid to speak her mind.

``She's no shrinking violet,`` Lee said. ``If she believes that one decision should be made versus another she's gonna weigh in and give her thoughts and opinions.''

Biden has a personal affection for the work of diplomacy and deep relationships with global leaders that Harris can't match. But aides say she'll be deeply involved in the administration's diplomatic priorities simply because of the sheer amount of issues that will take up Biden's time. She may also be given a particular aspect of the administration's coronavirus response to oversee.

One of her main priorities early on is certain to be the passage of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that Biden announced Thursday. Those working with Harris on the transition say that while Biden will be intimately involved with ushering the package through the Senate because of his longstanding relationships with longer-serving lawmakers, Harris knows the newer members and can help build fresh relationships in Congress.

The first few months of the Biden administration will be focused on COVID-19 and the economy. But Harris is certain to face scrutiny and pressure from advocates to ensure the perspectives of Black and brown Americans are reflected in those policies and the Biden White House's priorities.

Leah Daughtry, a former chief of staff at the Democratic National Committee, said Harris will make a difference simply by being in the room.

``The fact that Kamala Harris is a Black woman, is a woman of Indian ancestry, is a woman, automatically makes her different from every other vice president this country has ever seen,'' she said. ``That combination of experiences brings a set of values and lived experiences into a room where they have not previously existed. And that can only be good for this American democracy.''

But as South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn put it, ``There will be a lot of weight on those shoulders.''

``Those of us who come to these positions, we come to them knowing full well that we have a burden to make sure that we do it in such a way, that there will be people coming behind us,'' he said.

Clyburn also acknowledged that Harris could also be a flashpoint for controversy among the portion of President Donald Trump's followers who are motivated by racial animus, which Clyburn said contributed to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

``They're still holding on to a lot of animus about Barack Obama, and they're gonna transfer it to her, just like they transferred it to others here in this building,`` Clyburn said. ``And they're never gonna get beyond that.''

But Harris' allies say as a child of civil rights activists, and a Black woman who's spent her life confronting and trying to address racism and inequality, navigating those pressures as vice president will come as second nature for her.

``Kamala Harris didn't just fall out of the Harvard Law School like Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz or somebody like that,'' said Bakari Sellers, referencing two Republican senators who objected to the congressional certification of Biden's win.

Sellers, a former South Carolina state lawmaker and an early Harris endorser, likened her to other civil rights trailblazers.

``She comes from the same lineage as Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm and Ella Baker,'' he said. ``I mean, she's built for this.''

Short link:


on Monday announced it has raised Rs 1,250 crore for a private equity fund which will be investing in areas including urbanisation and

It announced the final closure of the Rs 1,250 crore Growth Fund II, which is a successor to a similar fund.

The fund has both newer and existing investors, which include global and European fund of funds, Japanese institutions and a leading Asian development finance institution, a statement said.

The investment strategy for the new fund will be the same as in the first fund, it said, adding that the investments will be made in three identified themes.

These include strategic services, urbanization and discrete in continuation of the earlier strategy, it said.

Growth Fund's managing partner Akhil Awasthi said a stable team, improving underlying economic fundamentals, imminent release of a vaccine and quality of the current portfolio that Tata Capital Growth Fund II has built till date inspires confidence that the Fund will continue to identify and invest in industry leading

New fund raising activity has been impacted by the pandemic, as the economy struggled because of the lockdowns and other restrictions. According to EY, a consultancy firm, there was a 31 per cent dip in new fund raises by value for January-November 2020 at USD 5.9 billion.
WASHINGTON - Authorities in cities from coast to coast mobilized a military-style defense of state capitol complexes Sunday, rolling out Humvees, concertina wire and thousands of National Guard troops clad in battlefield helmets to defend against a possible onslaught of rioters whipped up by the baseless claims of the American president.

The assault never came. Despite warnings from the FBI and boasts from armed, far-right extremist groups, security forces in every instance outnumbered scattered groups of demonstrators, and there were no reports of violence.

Yet the show of force - and the reasons behind it - marked an unsettling start to a week that will include the most contentious transfer of presidential power in modern U.S. history. And although Sunday passed peacefully, there was no reason to think that the threat had disappeared, raising questions of whether the escalated response reflected a new American normal.

"I turned around and saw all these soldiers and their trucks, standing there with these frickin' huge guns, and that's just not how it's supposed to be," said Louisa Piper, a nurse who was walking her dog, Sierra, at Utah's Capitol Hill on Sunday morning. "It almost made my cry."

Shortly after sunrise, Utah officials had fortified the Capitol with Humvees and hundreds of National Guard troops. From coast to coast, similar weapons of war created chilling scenes of dysfunction in America's outposts of democracy.

In the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, troops took up elevated positions around the Capitol complex. Law enforcement drones hovered over the capitols in Albany, N.Y., and in Phoenix. And in Kentucky, Humvees and armored personnel carriers were positioned in Frankfort driveways leading to the Capitol. SWAT officers guarding the Capitol in Atlanta were armed with M4 rifles and paintball guns.

The display of firepower at capitols - many normally sleepy and lightly defended - was in direct contrast to the force that was guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when it was breached by a mob of pro-Trump rioters - a scene the nation's governors hoped to avoid being repeated in their states.

They said they did not mind if the precautions they took ended up looking like overkill.

"We have gone to an extreme amount of trouble to prepare for what we hope doesn't happen," Sgt. William Gregory, public affairs commander for the Kentucky State Police said Sunday morning near the steps to the Capitol.

There were no arrests reported related to events in capitols. But in Washington, where most of downtown was essentially locked down ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday, a 22-year-old Virginia man whose Facebook page featured a photo from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested near the Capitol complex Sunday, carrying three high-capacity magazines, 37 rounds of unregistered ammunition and a Glock 22 firearm.

A week after federal officials warned that armed far-right extremist groups were planning to march on capitols, the protests on Sunday were mostly limited to a few dozen people in several states.

Many of the demonstrators appeared to be linked to the "boogaloo boys" movement, a loose collection of anti-government groups who say the country is heading for civil war. The movement includes people who hold a variety of political views, with supporters often saying they support neither President Donald Trump nor Biden.

In Ohio, about a dozen men wearing body armor and carrying AK-47s, AR-15s and extra magazines, identifying themselves as "boogaloos," stood in front of the Capitol in Columbus, telling onlookers not to fear their weapons, saying they were there to "unify" the people.

"Don't let our firearms scare you," Henry Locke told the crowd of about 25, many of them journalists covering the anticipated protests. "Right now, there is too much division going on. . . . Instead of fighting with your neighbors, we need to unify."

In Austin, Texas, an Air Force veteran with political aspirations came to the Capitol with about 10 armed demonstrators Sunday afternoon to push for an end to the two-party political system.

Stephen Hunt, a 25-year-old college student in Abilene, brought a loudspeaker and, wearing a navy suit and a burgundy ascot, spoke to a gathered crowd of about 30 people.

"Let today be the day we reignited the torch of liberty," Hunt said. "It pains me to see this kind of divide."

In Phoenix, fewer than a dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol fortified with two layers of fencing and concertina wire. A few wore Trump paraphernalia or carried guns. One woman walked circles around the Capitol complex, fingering a set of rosary beads and saying the Hail Mary.

Two men who identified themselves as part of the boogaloo movement set up a portable speaker to play what they said was a carefully curated playlist for the day, including the Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and AJR's "Burn the House Down."

Another man, Aaron Kotzbauer, 50, wore a holstered gun and a T-shirt that read "Make America shoot straight again" and said he had come to protest the state's coronavirus restrictions. He blamed the low turnout on apathy.

"I think apathy runs really high in the country, and especially deep in Arizona," said Kotzbauer, adding he had driven 40 minutes from his home in Surprise, just as he has nearly every day for weeks.

Kotzbauer was not happy with Biden's win, but he said national politics were only "an ancillary part" of why he was there; so small "I wouldn't even associate the two."

"I'm not naive enough to say I'm going to have any influence on that," he said of Biden's upcoming inauguration.

In other states where the demonstrations did not materialize, some residents were angered and alarmed that the nation appeared to be sliding toward instability in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

In Atlanta, where dump trucks blocked roads near the Capitol, 47-year-old Latisha Morris said she continues to blame Trump for stoking the nation's division.

"Biden won fair and square!" said Morris. "But then you had all these Trump activists come to the White House. They destroyed the Capitol, broke windows, a cop died of his injuries and a female was shot and killed, all because he told them to do it. Now there's a big ol' mess that has to be cleaned up because of Trump's arrogance."

Morris said she is grateful for the police presence and glad Georgia's golden dome was locked down this weekend. But she wonders whether her neighborhood will remain peaceful.

"People have to work in there every Monday through Friday," Morris said.

At the State Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., Rich Richards and Lindsey Moore took a detour during their morning walk when they saw the building was barricaded by police.

The couple then reflected on how the lockdown coincided with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which symbolizes racial progress and the strife the nation endured during the 1960s.

"Fifty-two years ago was not peaceful either," said Moore, a 36-year-old general contractor who lives in Raleigh. "But what came of that was for the better."

In Denver, where a flock of geese jostled for space with reporters on the steps of the Colorado Capitol, passersby said they worried that the media was adding to the tensions.

"We can oversensationalize something and some part of us wants to see it," said John Barber, 59. "I think we are almost perpetuating or enabling it, until everyone's consciousness starts transcending this - we almost have to wean ourselves off of it."

Federal and state law enforcement officials have stressed that the potential for violence from extremist groups will persist through Biden's inauguration, and probably for months or years to come.

"We're on high alert because of the general volatility," Melvin Carter, mayor of St. Paul, Minn., said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"Our FBI is telling us they are tracking those individuals who they think are - may have been kind of presenting those kind of specific threats," Carter said. "And they're at a space right now where we continue to be on a state of high readiness because this moment is just so insane."

Alexander Reid Ross, an adjunct professor at Portland State University and a research fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right, said it will be difficult for any state to let their guard down soon, given the variety of heavily armed and increasingly militant groups that exist in the country.

After spending the past few days analyzing data of far-right groups and their recent actions, Ross said he believes Salem, Ore.; Austin; Sacramento, Calif.; Richmond, Va.; and Salt Lake City are places where new demonstrations could become especially unruly.

On Sunday in Minnesota, the pro-Trump demonstrators who showed up at the Capitol said they were there to pray.

Just below the Capitol steps, where dozens of state patrol officers in riot gear had formed lines of protection around the building, Becky Strohmeier unfolded a portable chair and unpacked her Bible.

Strohmeier is affiliated with Hold the Line Minnesota, a conservative activism group, and has been holding near-weekly gatherings at the Capitol and the nearby governor's mansion in support of Trump's false claims of election fraud.

As she looked around at the sparse crowd and overwhelming presence of law enforcement, Strohmeier said she worries that conservatives are scared to speak out.

"A lot of people have been threatened. They've been censored. They've been attacked," said Strohmeier, a 33-year-old homemaker. "And all this week we've heard, 'There's threats of violence, there's no threats of violence. There's false flags, there's this, there's that.' I mean, people are afraid they might get arrested just for showing up as a Trump supporter, and that's very scary for a lot of people."

In Ohio, demonstrators affiliated with the boogaloo movement said they will keep holding events to draw attention to their cause. Some expressed lukewarm support for the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week.

"They could've done it a different way - they could've kept it peaceful," said one 27-year-old man who would identify himself only by his nickname, "Prison."

He was carrying an AR-15 rifle.

- - -

Hauslohner reported from Phoenix, Whoriskey reported from Columbus and Bailey reported from St. Paul. The Washington Post's Kayla Ruble in Lansing, Mich.; Jane Gottlieb and Shayna Jacobs in Albany, N.Y.; Brittany Shammas in Tallahassee, Fla.; Matthew David LaPlante in Salt Lake City; Faiz Siddiqui in Sacramento; Christine Spolar and Amy Worden in Harrisburg, Pa.; Alex Horton in Atlanta; Arelis R. Hernandez and Eva Ruth Moravec in Austin, Texas; Carissa Wolf in Boise, Idaho; Jennifer Oldham in Denver; Kathy Lynn Gray in Columbus, Ohio; Haisten Willis in Atlanta; and Maria Sacchetti in Frankfort, Ky., contributed to this report.
New Delhi, Jan 19 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday said all necessary arrangements will be made as per the Covid-19 protocols during the forthcoming Budget Session of the Parliament starting from January 29.

Birla made the remarks while attending the virtual meeting of the Standing Committee of the Conference of the Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, Birla observed that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the functioning of Parliaments across the world.

He said that even during the pandemic, some important legislative businesses were transacted by the Lok Sabha, including the enactment of appropriate laws for the protection of health workers serving the public during this challenging time.

The proceedings of the House were conducted in compliance with all corona-related safety protocols and health safety was ensured for everyone working in the Parliament House Complex.

Birla informed that the increased use of ICT tools like e-Parliament and e-Office in the functioning of Parliament has served to provide a conducive environment to the Members of Parliament in the effective discharge of their responsibilities.

He expressed the view that while on the one hand ICT technologies have supported the members by providing virtual platforms, on the other hand, they have helped to make the Parliament's working more transparent, inclusive, and accountable.

This has resulted in the creation of more opportunities for MPs and citizens to engage in parliamentary work.

Birla further stressed that the advantages created by ICT should reach all sections of society in an equitable manner and only then will the country and society be able to receive its total benefits.

Therefore, we should strive to work towards creating a "people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented" society, by overcoming the digital divide.

Birla further said that in order to achieve the development goals of all nations, India is closely working with all friendly countries for accelerating the capacity-building in areas of information, communication and technology.

He reiterated India's commitment to strengthen the global partnership to promote use of digital technologies for a brighter future for the global community.

Later, speaking to media persons, Birla said that it is not appropriate for a Parliament to comment on laws passed by Parliaments of other countries.

In the meeting, the subjects to be considered in the 26th CSPOC meeting to be held in Australia in 2022 were discussed.

These subjects are Parliament and the pandemic, the second subject was the ever-changing requirements of Parliaments in respect of physical and cybersecurity, the subject of E-Parliament was also discussed in this meeting.

The fourth subject taken up for discussion in the meeting was the role of Presiding Officers or Speaker in advancing parliamentary innovations.

Finally, the need for training for Members of Parliament and staff was also discussed in this meeting.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has expelled two Dutch diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after the expulsion for espionage of two Russian diplomats from The Hague last month.

The ministry said in a statement on January 18 that, "guided by the principle of reciprocity," the Dutch acting charge daffaires, Joost Reintjes, had been summoned to a meeting where he was informed of the decision to expel the two diplomats.

The dispute started on December 10, when the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said it was expelling two unidentified Russians who were seeking information on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.

The AIVD added that the two men worked for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Russia's embassy in The Hague at the time said the Netherlands had presented no evidence of unlawful acts by the Russian diplomats and the Foreign Ministry said in its statement on January 18 that the allegations were "unfounded and slanderous."

It added that the two Dutch diplomats had two weeks to leave Russia.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Mosque in Ayodhya may be square-shaped like Kaaba, says Trust official

Ayodhya mosque project to start off on Republic Day

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Lucknow, Jan 18: The Ayodhya mosque project in Dhannipur village will formally begin on Republic Day (January 26). According to reports, the project, at a five-acre plot, includes a hospital, a museum, a library, a community kitchen, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre and a publication house.

Speakig to reports, Athar Hussain, secretary and spokesperson of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), said that the national flag will be hoisted on the five-acre plot of the project at 8.30 am on January 26. It will be followed by plantation of tree saplings by the chief trustee and the member trustees of the IICF.

Republic Day 2021: No chief guest, shorter parade and age cap

Last year, the 15-member IICF was constituted by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) for the construction of a mosque on five acres of land allocated to it in Raunahi in Ayodhya. The mosque is coming up in Ayodhya pursuant to the Supreme Court's November 9, 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case.

"At a meeting of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), it was decided that Republic Day will be celebrated with the start of the Dhannipur Mosque Project, which includes a hospital, a museum, a library, a community kitchen, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre, a publication house and a mosque," Athar said.

At a virtual meet chaired by IICF president Zufar Ahmad Farooqi and attended by all the nine trustees, the progress of the trust activities, especially the procedural delay in getting the 12-A/80-G clearances under the Income-Tax Act and the proceedings for the opening of an FCRA account, was discussed, the statement said.

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

"It was decided to make a formal beginning of the project by applying for the plan clearance from the Ayodhya District Board and start the soil testing process at the five-acre plot," it added.
TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has dismissed European states' concerns over Iran's intention for uranium metal production, Press TV reported on Sunday.

In a statement, the AEOI urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Britain, France and Germany to avoid creating any "misunderstanding" about Iran's plan for uranium metal production, according to the report.

The AEOI statement came in a response to the three European states who expressed concerns about Iran's military implications of producing uranium metal.

Iran has not yet "presented the design information questionnaire of the uranium metal factory" to the IAEA, it said.

The issue of the factory producing uranium metal is stipulated in Article 4 of "the Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Iranian Nation's Rights Act" passed earlier by the parliament, and the AEOI is obliged to implement the law, Tasnim news agency cited the statement as saying.

On Saturday, Britain, France and Germany alleged that Iran's move to begin work on uranium metal-based fuel contravened the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Their call came after the IAEA said Iran notified the nuclear watchdog that it had resumed research on uranium metal production in order to provide advanced fuel for a reactor.

Based on the Iranian parliament's law, the AEOI is mandated with designing such a factory as well as other countermeasures in response to the Western states' "violations of the JCPOA," according to Press TV.
Kozhikode, Jan 18 (IANS) Measures to unleash the economic potential of women and transgender persons that would empower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs will be the focus of the upcoming second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE), a signature event of the Kerala government's Gender Park.

Policymakers, academics, professionals and domain experts from across the globe attending the event will also brainstorm the crucial linkages between entrepreneurship, economic growth and poverty alleviation, which are in tune with the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In addition, they will chart out an actionable roadmap to facilitate women and transgender persons for their active participation in entrepreneurship and social businesses by making the process more gender inclusive, especially during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment' is the focal theme of the high-profile event, to be held at the Park's sprawling campus in Kozhikode from February 11-13.

The 13th Five Year Plan (2017-22) has laid great emphasis on encouraging entrepreneurship among women. This seeks to create more job opportunities for women, thereby empowering them to be economically self-reliant, Kerala Health, Social Justice and Women and Child Development Minister K K Shailaja said.

Though women entrepreneurship in the state has achieved rapid growth, that has not been properly recorded. Despite persistent efforts, sustainable women entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship have not become the topic of serious debate. In the case of transgender persons, even accurate statistics regarding their entrepreneurship are not available, she added.

Gender Park CEO Dr P T M Sunish said the theme of the ICGE-II is relevant for India and more so for Kerala, with high levels of educated unemployment, which is significant amongst women.

The 13th Five-Year Plan of Kerala (2017-2022) stresses on skill development, employment generation and sustainable livelihoods with an emphasis on women entrepreneurship, which has grown rapidly in recent years but has not been mapped.

Despite several initiatives, issues related to sustainable entrepreneurship and social businesses have not yet been mainstreamed into the discussion on women's employment and engagement in entrepreneurship. Transgender individuals have witnessed even worse conditions in the absence of conclusive data about them in the country's gender statistics.

"Our efforts would be geared towards gathering and sharing more information with a wider audience about best practices and lessons learned. Despite the challenges, a string of initiatives by civil society and multiple state interventions have resulted in women and transgender persons overcoming obstacles to imprint their presence in the realm of sustainable entrepreneurship," Sunish said.

"We need to document this process by sharing viewpoints, experiences and ideas from across the globe with a wide spectrum of audiences," he added.

Focusing on sustainable entrepreneurship and social business can tackle different SDGs. Further, it will directly and specifically contribute to a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, entrepreneurship and innovation besides ensuring access to financial services.

The first edition of ICGE was centred around 'Gender, Governance and Inclusion' and saw the official release of the Kerala State Policy for Transgenders, 2015. Transgender leaders also participated and discussed the relevance of the policy in their lives.

--IANS

aal/bg
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects 405,000 deaths by Democrat Joe Biden's inauguration day on January 20  the one-year anniversary of the first reported COVID-19 case in the US  and more than 500,000 by February 19. The pace of new infections has accelerated at a stunning rate in the past 2 months, along with the number of fatalities. On October 29, the IHME projected 399,000 COVID-19 deaths by February 1. About that time, the country averaged 87,000 new cases and 826 deaths a day. This past week, those figures had skyrocketed to 246,000 and 3376, and a Centres for Disease Control forecast aggregate predicted 440,000 to 477,000 deaths by February 6. Loading Along with the vaccines, the biggest ray of hope public health specialists see comes from the incoming Biden administration, which is likely to bring a science-based approach to containing the virus. Except for the efforts to develop the vaccines in record time, the Trump administration's response to the pandemic has been assailed by the medical community. Even the vaccine achievement has been tarnished by the slow rollout.

"By any metric, anybody who believes in data and science would acknowledge we've done terribly with this pandemic, arguably the worst in the world," said John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of California-Berkeley, citing failures with testing and protective equipment along with mixed messaging on masks. "What that tells us is how badly things can go if you have a bad administration. As the death toll from COVID-19 hits 400,000 in the US, many Americans blame Donald Trump and his administration. Credit:AP "Everybody, including me, is excited about the vaccines, excited about science and what it can do for us. It's incredibly important. But I think we downplay the importance of what a good administration can do in managing this pandemic. We will do a lot better when we have an administration that follows science and follows public health, that gives consistent messaging, that doesn't politicise key institutions like the CDC and the FDA." Biden to take 'more active role' Biden has assembled a COVID-19 response team and vowed to have 100 million doses of vaccine administered in his first 100 days in office. On Thursday he proposed a $US1.9 trillion ($2.46 trillion) pandemic-relief package that includes $US70 billion for virus testing and a national vaccination program.

Though Swartzberg considers the 100 million vaccinations goal "a stretch", others said it was realistic, including Jason Schwartz, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Schwartz said the Trump administration set unrealistic expectations by saying 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December. As of the last update on Friday, 31.2 million doses had been distributed and 12.3 million vaccine shots had been applied, the CDC said. The vaccine distribution has been hampered by a funding shortage  CDC director Robert Redfield pleaded for more resources in September, but they weren't approved until three weeks ago  and a lack of co-ordination and direction from the federal government in the enormous task of making vaccines available to 330 million people in 50 states, Schwartz said. "The design so far of this vaccination rollout was so decentralised that it was, basically, ship vaccines to each state, you tell us where to ship them, give us the mailing addresses and you take it from there," Schwartz said. "One thing we've seen already from the incoming Biden administration is they intend to have a far more active and engaged role in supporting this vaccination effort, co-ordinating it, leading it."

The early stages of the vaccination program are the easy part, Schwartz said, because those first in line  healthcare workers, plus residents and staff of long-term care facilities  are readily accessible. Expanding the effort to rural communities and people without regular access to health care will be harder. Schwartz said it is important to keep promoting mitigation measures such as mask use, social distancing and frequent hand washing. Neither the vaccines nor the strategies implemented by the new administration are likely to make a major dent in the pandemic for at least a couple of months, and researchers don't know whether vaccines prevent transmission in addition to symptoms. Swartzberg predicted a "horrific" rest of January followed by several ups and downs in cases, deaths and hospitalisations throughout February before a gradual levelling off by mid-March and continued improvement after that. He doesn't envision a return to some semblance of normality before late summer, a less optimistic outlook than presented by some members of the Trump administration, such as former Operation Warp Speed head Moncef Slaoui. Any forecasts could be nullified by the recent emergence of more contagious variants of the virus  the CDC said on Friday the new mutation first found in Britain could become the dominant strain in the US by March  or in the best of cases, by the development of therapeutics that might ameliorate the disease's worst effects. Regardless, Biden's team will be charged with clearing monumental wreckage.

Woolf pointed out COVID-19 was the country's leading cause of death in the spring of 2020 and late in the year, surpassing cancer and heart disease. That's not even taking into consideration the likely undercount of coronavirus fatalities or other excess deaths caused by the pandemic  often because of people skipping or being unable to access medical care  which Woolf estimates at one for every two COVID-19 deaths. WWII deaths took four years The virus is likely to kill more than 400,000 Americans in less than a year  the first such death is believed to have occurred on February 6  whereas it took almost four years for that many US service members to die in World War II. Woolf said an infectious disease had not been America's leading killer since the flu pandemic, and he highlighted three reasons that COVID-19 turned into such a scourge here:

US life expectancy has been falling compared with other wealthy nations since the 1980s, putting Americans at a disadvantage.

A fragmented system divides public health response across 50 states, while other countries mounted a national response.

The United States lacked national leadership, particularly from the President but also from the rest of his administration and Congress. Other countries' leaders promoted policies that reduced the spread of the virus and inspired the public to respond. "This shouldn't have happened, and it didn't happen in other countries that are modern and industrialised," Woolf said. "This is a uniquely American phenomenon." Whalen said the calamitous handling of the pandemic brings into question the notion, widely held in these shores, that the US is the world's greatest country. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. Credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images He drew a parallel between Trump and Wilson, who presided over the US participation in World War I from April 1917 to the conflict's end in November 1918.
The second session of the Academic Forum on Chinese Cultural Economy was held at the Renmin University of China in Beijing on Saturday, along with the Annual Meeting of Cultural and Tourism Corporate Brands.

Liu Yuanchun, vice-president of Renmin University of China, said at the forum that, to achieve the goal of building a powerful cultural country, the cultural industry in China should pave a new road, having its own features with Chinese characteristics.

Song Yangyang, deputy director of the Institute of Creative Industries Technology at the Renmin University of China, gave a keynote speech on aspects such as cultural finance, cultural technology, the tourist economy, the arts economy and new cultural infrastructure.

During the annual meeting, a list showing the top 50 Chinese cultural and tourism enterprises with high brand value was released. It showed that the top 50 enterprises had a combined brand value worth 698.228 billion yuan ($107.8 billion), an increase of 22.1 percent compared to 2018.

Besides, cultural and tourism enterprises in first-tier cities still lead the country, with 70 percent of the listed companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Zhejiang. The top three industries with brand value advantages are digital culture, cultural tourism and news publishing.
He will hold a number of official meetings.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto's visit to Kyiv is scheduled for January 27.

This was announced by Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President's Office Ihor Zhovkva in an interview for the TV news service TSN.ua, the presidential press service reported on January 18.

Read alsoBudapest's support for Hungarians in Zakarpattia can't cross "red lines"  FM Kuleba

In his words, the new diplomatic year starts with the Hungarian foreign minister's visit to Kyiv.

"On January 27, the Hungarian Foreign Minister will arrive in Ukraine at Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba's invitation and hold a number of official meetings. In particular, the whole range of issues will be discussed," Zhovkva said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Kuleba announced his Hungarian counterpart's visit to Ukraine at a briefing on January 14.

Ukraine-Hungary diplomacy: Recent developments

Relations between Ukraine and Hungary deteriorated after the adoption of a new law on education by the Verkhovna Rada in the fall of 2017.

Hungary has been blocking NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) meetings, claiming that the rights of Hungarians living in Ukraine have been violated by provisions of the law, which determines that the official language, Ukrainian, should be the language of instruction at education institutions.

In addition, during local elections in the fall of 2020, Hungarian officials while visiting Zakarpattia region were campaigning for Ukraine's ethnic Hungarian KMKSZ Party. Kyiv put them on the so-called stop list.

Reporting by UNIAN
To discuss the future course of COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the government officials likely to hold a meeting with representatives of pharmaceutical industries and other stakeholders on Monday.

According to a source, the government officials likely to hold a meeting with representatives of pharmaceutical industries along with other stakeholders to discuss the subsequent course of vaccination drive in the country.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday informed that over 2.24 lakh people vaccinated against COVID-19 till now. 17,072 beneficiaries vaccinated in six States on the second day of the vaccination drive.

"More than 2.24 lakh people vaccinated against COVID-19 till now. 17,072 beneficiaries vaccinated in 6 States on day 2. Three cases of post-vaccination hospitalisation reported. India vaccinates the highest number of persons on day 1 of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive; more than many other countries," Vardhan said in a tweet.

Out of two lakh healthcare beneficiaries who received the COVID-19 vaccine in the last two days, a total of 447 beneficiaries suffered adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) while three of them required hospitalisation, the Union Health Ministry informed."A total of 447 adverse events following immunisation on 16th and 17th January out of which only three required hospitalisation," said Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary at the Health Ministry."One has been discharged from the Northern Railway Hospital Delhi within 24 hours. One beneficiary has been discharged from AIIMS, New Delhi. While one beneficiary is under still observation in AIIMS, Rishikesh and is fine," said Agnani. Meeting with is being held with all States/Union Territories for review of progress to identify bottlenecks and planned corrective actions, said the Ministry.

(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.)
Caroline Manzo was viewed as the strong armored mama bear during her time on RHONJ. She was fiercely protective over her family and friends and had no trouble going up against anyone who she felt threatened such, including a rivalry with her former friend and co-star Teresa Giudice. After years on the show, Manzo quit, citing the negativity on the show as a result.

RHONJ season 3 cast | Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Caroline Manzo says RHONJ began negatively affecting her integrity

Manzo left RHONJ after five seasons on the show. She was an original cast member from the shows inception and once had a close friendship with Giudice. But after her sister, Dina quit the show midway through season 2, and Teresas legal troubles began in season 3, the relationships amongst the cast began to fall apart.

Source: YouTube

Related: How Much Are Former Real Housewife Caroline Manzos Children Worth Today?

Manzos last three seasons documented the rollercoaster relationship between her and Giudice. She accused Giudice of lying about her federal bankruptcy case, selling stories about herself and the cast to the tabloids, and trying to ruin the reputation of Giudices own brother and sister-in-law.

In a recent interview with Bravos The Daily Dish, Manzo says her decision to leave the show came because the show became too much of a burden.

There wasnt a final straw, the burden became too heavy in my personal life, Manzo begins. You cant work with something that doesnt reflect your beliefs. The show became something that just didnt reflect my beliefs or who I was as a person. Its not about the money, its not about the fame  its about your moral compass and how you live your life.

Caroline Manzo had her own Bravo spinoff after leaving RHONJ

Manzos work with Bravo did not end upon her decision to leave RHONJ. She, along with her husband and three children, had their own spinoff Manzod with Children. Manzo was the first housewife from the New Jersey spinoff to have her own show.

The show lasted for three seasons, beginning in 2014 and concluding in 2017. Manzo says the experience filming her own show versus RHONJ was vastly different.

Source: YouTube

The experience was night and day, fun, laughs, the best memories I could have in our lives was during that show, Manzo recalls fondly.

Manzos favorite moments on the show were documenting her daughters wedding and a family trip to Italy. She considers her spinoff to be a great blessing and says that her time working with Bravo overall changed the trajectory of her familys life.

What is Caroline Manzo doing now?

Manzo reverted back to her role as a traditional housewife after leaving the reality television world. Her family recently purchased a historic hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey where they handle the food and beverage sector.

On a personal level, Manzo also got serious about her health, dropping 20 pounds and undergoing plastic surgery for a facelift.

Source: YouTube

Related: After Manzod with Children: Why Caroline Manzo Decided to Get Plastic Surgery

Her love of cooking remains. Her Instagram account features images of her pastries and homemade Italian dishes.

What shes most proud of however is her role as a family woman. Manzo marvels over her granddaughter Marchesa, her daughter Laurens toddler. She also gushes over her two sons Albie and Chris, both of whom work at their family business.
President Donald Trump is expected to pardon rapper Lil Wayne in the closing days of his presidency.

Trump will leave the White House Wednesday morning and fly out of Washington before 8 a.m. after issuing around 100 pardons to white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and a jailed Florida eye doctor, according to reports.

Fox News reported Monday that Lil Wayne, who is facing prison time for a 2019 gun charge, would be on the list, while former aide Steve Bannon is 'TBD.'

Wayne prominently backed Trump just before the November election.

His name became the most concrete among those expected to receive clemency amid a growing believe that Trump will not pardon himself or family members.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, landed at the Miami airport on a private jet, where authorities found a gold-plated gun and drugs in his bag.

Bannon was charged with defrauding Trump supporters who were donating money to help build the president's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is not expected to receive a pardon from Trump despite a hard push by Assange's supporters.

Assange faces 175 years in prison from charges including violating the Espionage Act.

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon around 100 people in his final days in office, including rapper Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is expected to be pardoned by President Donald Trump before he leaves office on Wednesday

A pardon for Steve Bannon (left) is 'TBD' Fox News Channel reported Monday morning, while Julian Assange (right) is not expected to be pardoned

President Donald Trump (left) poses for a picture with Lil Wayne (right) when they met in October 2020

Other expected to receive clemency are two men who are serving life in prison sentences for marijuana dealing charges - Michael Pelletier, 64, and Corvain Cooper, 41, according to The New York Post.

Their long sentences are due to the 1994 crime bill, which Trump tried to use as a political wedge between President-elect Joe Biden, who voted for the bill as a U.S. senator, and black American voters.

The New York Times reported late Monday that Trump's also considering pardoning Sheldon Silver, the digraced former New York Assembly speaker.

Another rumored recipient of one of the clemency actions is Dr. Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor from Palm Beach who was imprisoned in 2018 after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud.

So far, Trump has reportedly made no plans to pardon himself or his children, CNN reported. The White House reportedly held a meeting Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, according to two sources.

Trump had previously issued a number of pardons in the lead up to Christmas, but allegedly put them on pause in the days before and after the riots at the US Capitol on January 6.

The outgoing president is due to hold a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, on Wednesday.

He will then depart the nation's capital on Air Force One and head to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida before his successor is sworn in.

White House aides have reportedly sent out invitations for the event, with guests instructed to arrive between 6am and 7:15am. Specific details regarding the ceremony are said to still be under consideration, but it may include a color guard and 21-gun salute.

Attendees are permitted to bring up to five guests but have been instructed to wear masks throughout, Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs reported.

Moving trucks are pictured on West Executive Avenue between the West Wing of the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Sunday

A rumored recipient of one of the clemency actions is Dr. Salomon Melgen (pictured in 2013), a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach who was imprisoned in 2018 after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud

White House aides told CNN Trump was entirely focused on the Electoral College count in the days preceding the riot, which prevented him from finalizing his decision on pardons. Officials then expected him to resume of January 6, but he reportedly withdrew after being blamed for inciting the insurrection.

Trump's Tuesday batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mixture of criminal justice reform-minded pardons, in addition to more controversial ones issued to his political allies.

He could also decide at the last minute to grant pardons to members of his family or even himself, though that's not thought to be currently under consideration.

Trump's desire to pardon himself, his children, and his personal layer Rudy Giuliani has said to have been complicated by the Capitol riots - an event which led to his second impeachment.

The 45th US president was reportedly advised to forgo a self-pardon in the riot's wake, because it would appear as if he was guilty of something, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Trump was further advised to refrain from granting clemency to anyone involved in the deadly attack on the Capitol, in contrast to his initial stance that those involved were 'patriots' who had done nothing wrong.

'There are a lot of people urging the President to pardon the folks [involved in the riots]' Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News. 'To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong.'

While Trump is expected to leave the White House early Wednesday morning, he could continue to issue pardons up until noon on Inauguration Day.

Other high profile names such as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are also not currently believed to be among those set to receive a pardon, though the list is said to be fluid.

Trump's allies predict the president will issue pardons that he believes may be of benefit to him after he leaves office.

'Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral,' a source told CNN. 'And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him.'

While Trump (pictured January 12) is expected to leave the White House early Wednesday morning, he can continue to issue pardons up until noon on Inauguration Day

The outgoing president is due to hold a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, the usual jumping-off point for Air Force One (pictured)

One of those said to be in line to receive a pardon is Dr. Salomon Melgen.

Melgen, once a prominent Palm Beach eye doctor, received a 17-year sentence in 2018 for stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading elderly patients to undergo tests and treatments they didn't need for diseases they didn't have.

In total, he was convicted of 67 crimes, including health care fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files.

In 2017, he was also ensnared in a public corruption scandal alongside New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez.

A federal jury remained hung after a two-and-a-half month trial, in which prosecutors tried to prove Melgen's gifts to Menendez were actually bribes.

In return, prosecutors claimed Menendez interceded with Medicare officials investigating his practice, obtained visas for Melgen's foreign mistresses, and pressured the State Department to intervene in a business dispute he had with the Dominican government.

Both men pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of fraud and bribery saying the European and Dominican vacations and other gifts were tokens of their longtime friendship.

After a judge threw out of the charges in the case, prosecutors decided in January 2018 not to retry the bribery case and it was subsequently dismissed by the Justice Department.

In 2017, Melgen (left) was also ensnared in a public corruption scandal alongside New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez (right)

The White House reportedly held a meeting Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, according to two sources

Inside the White House, there has been a reported frenzy among allies lobbyists and others hoping to cash in on their loyalty to Trump and secure a pardon.

The New York Times reported Sunday some of those people were getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of felons hoping for pardons.

In one document, a former top adviser to Trump's campaign agreed to receive a payout of $50,000 if he could sway the president to pardon John Kirakou, a former CIA officer convicted of disclosing classified information.

Separately, Rudy Giuliani's associate allegedly told Kiriakou over drinks at Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. last year that if he paid Trump's personal attorney $2 million, he would use his sway as one of the president's closest advisers to secure him the pardon.

Although Kiriakou did not accept the offer, an associate alerted the FBI to Giuliani potentially illegally selling pardons  but the former New York City mayor and Trump's personal attorney has challenged this characterization.

Giuliani has come under fire recently for firing up a crowd of thousands of Trump supporters, telling them to engage in 'trial by combat', before they marched over to the U.S. Capitol and stormed the building to delay Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden.

Recently reports also reveal Giuliani has fallen out of favor with the president in his failed legal attempts to challenge the election results.

Rudy Giuliani's associate allegedly told Kiriakou over drinks at Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. last year that if he paid Trump's personal attorney $2 million, he would use his sway as one of the president's closest advisers to secure him the pardon

A press riser with banners for President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris ahead of the inauguration, is seen outside the north gate at the White House

Trump announced on January 8 that he would be skipping Biden's inauguration, becoming the first living US president in more than a century to choose not to attend the traditional exchange of power. He will instead be at his Mar-a-Lago resort as Biden is sworn in at noon.

Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, is slated to attend the inauguration.

Pence reportedly called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Thursday to congratulate her and offer assistance less than a week before she is sworn is as his successor, USA Today reported.

Biden and Trump are understood not to have spoken since the election concluded. Last week, the President-elect dismissed Trump's decision to skip his inauguration, calling it 'one of the few things he and I ever agreed on.'

Of Pence, Biden said he was 'welcome to come' and said he'd 'be honored to have him there'.

Trump and Pence's relationship has reportedly soured dramatically in recent weeks after the vice president defied the president by fulfilling his constitutional role in counting the electoral votes that confirmed Biden's victory.

Trump had previously attempted to pressure Pence to overturn the results by rejecting electoral votes  something the vice president does not have the authority to do.

The president then instead spoke ahead of a rally in DC on January 6, urging the gathered crowd to descend on the US Capitol. The crowd obliged by storming the legislature, with some rioters chanting 'Hang Mike Pence', as they ransacked and vandalized the building.

Trump later became the first president in history to be impeached twice, after Democratic lawmakers accused him of inciting an insurrection for his remarks before the protest.

Trump announced on January 8 that he would be skipping Biden's inauguration, becoming the first living US president in more than a century to choose not to attend the traditional exchange of power. He will instead be at his Mar-a-Lago resort as Biden is sworn in at noon

Last week, President-elect Biden dismissed Trump's decision to skip his inauguration, calling it 'one of the few things he and I ever agreed on'

The 45th US President was also widely criticized for failing to denounce the chaos that unfolded in the heart of nation's democracy.

Earlier Sunday, his press secretary Hogan Gidley said Trump can't denounce the Capitol riots because he doesn't have access to social media, having been indefinitely banned from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a host of other platforms.

'The media are trying to have it both ways,' Gidley said. 'On the one hand, [media says] he should be censored by big tech and not be allowed to talk.

'He also shouldn't say anything because it's divisive. And then when he doesn't say anything and can't say anything because the platform have removed him, they say, "Where's the president? Why aren't we hearing from him?" The whole thing is disingenuous.'

Discussing voter fraud claims that have been central to Trump's fury since his election loss, Gidley said Trump is 'getting that information from advisers who are telling him they have evidence of certain things. So hes going to come out and say "heres what I know" or "heres what Ive been told." The President doesnt make these things up.

Following the chaos inside the Capitol last week, U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. The fears have prompted the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press on Sunday that officials are conscious of the potential threat, and he warned commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the inauguration approaches.

So far, however, he and other leaders say they have seen no evidence of any threats, and officials said the vetting hadn't flagged any issues.

'We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,' McCarthy said in an interview after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill in preparation for Wednesday's inauguration.

'The question is, is that all of them? Are there others?' said McCarthy. 'We need to be conscious of it and we need to put all of the mechanisms in place to thoroughly vet these men and women who would support any operations like this.'
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Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High around 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 56F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Islamabad, Jan 18 : Eighteen crew members of a Pakistan International Airlines flight which was seized by Malaysian authorities over the non-payment of aircraft lease dues, are expected to arrive in Islamabad on Monday, a media report said.

The aircraft was seized at the Kuala Lumpur Airport on January 15 on the orders of a local Malaysian court.

The Pakistani flag carrier had leased two aircraft, including the seized Boeing-777, from a Vietnamese company in 2015.

All the 172 passengers of the seized plane reached Islamabad on two flights, the Dawn news report quoted a PIA spokesman as saying.

According to the spokesman, 118 passengers arrived aboard an Emirates Airlines flight, while the remaining 54 passengers reached Islamabad in a Qatar Airways flight on Sunday morning.

The 18-member crew, due to reach the Pakistani capital on Monday, includes two pilots.

To review the situation, the country's aviation division has called a meeting of the working group, headed by senior joint secretary of the aviation division Abdul Sattar Khokhar on Wednesday, the Dawn news report quoted sources as saying.
Photo: (Photo : nappy from Pexels)

Parents who hope to adopt face challenges in adopting during the pandemic. Also, there have been changes in parents' minds on adoption.

In Texas, adoption agencies have recorded a lower number of adoption placements in 2020. Although there are no known causes as to why this happened, there are several reasons that reports point to be the cause.

ALSO READ: "Most Talented Beard" Dad Uses Prize Money to Fund Adoption





Challenges in adopting during the pandemic

As early as April, The New York Times has already reported the challenges encountered by parents who hope to adopt.

Those who are finalizing their adoptions had to wait for government offices to open. This problem is particularly true to families who were adopting from overseas.

As one parent in the The New York Times article recalled, the process became an emotional one, "My girls have been so excited and took a lot of ownership in helping make sure their brother's room was good to go and welcoming." This parent was adopting a boy from China during that time.

In Texas, a parent who recently adopted also shared that the challenges in adopting during the pandemic were different nowadays.

She shared in an interview with KXAN, "Normally you would meet them in person and you would get to know them while they are still pregnant."

Also, meetings were done online instead of face-to-face, making settling down difficult for the adoptive parents.

Also, newborn babies are not seen by their adoptive parents right after being born because of hospital restrictions. Some hospitals do not even allow adoptive parents in the delivery room.

ALSO READ: How Much Does It Cost to Adopt a Child in the U.S.?





Changes in parents' minds on adoption

According to the executive director of Adoption Advocates, Inc., Rory Hall, they noticed changes in parents' minds on adoption. Specifically, these changes were observed among the birth moms.

Hall said that more birth moms decided that instead of putting their newborn babies up for adoption, they kept the babies instead. She said, "20-25% of moms who make an adoption plan decide to parent even after a match or after the baby is born."

In 2020, more parents decided that they wanted to parent even after being matched to families who would like to adopt.

Although it is still not clear why birth moms chose to keep their babies, Hall thinks that it is due to the circumstances brought by the pandemic.

ALSO READ: Texas Mom Sees Her Son Whom She Placed for Adoption 45 Years Ago





One of the reasons Hall saw was that more people had to stay home either because they are now working from home or because they lost their job. Because of this, more family members are available to take care of a newborn baby.

Also, Hall believes that the isolation and loneliness brought by the pandemic play a significant role. She said, "You feel very vulnerable and you want to keep your loved ones close to you."

ALSO READ: How to Become a Foster Parent: 5 Essential Things You Should Know
Covid: Ministry tranfers funds to hospitals in Lebanon Money coming from World Bank's emergency loan

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JANUARY 18 - The Lebanese government on Monday sent a first money transfer to public and private hospitals, using emergency funding provided by the World Bank, to help healthcare facilities handle the emergency. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), intensive care units in Beirut are full while 90% of beds are occupied outside the capital.



The emergency loan, which was granted in April and is part of funding already allocated by the World Bank to Lebanon, before the start of the coronavirus crisis, totals 40 million dollars.



In a statement, Lebanon's health ministry announced a first transfer of money to a series of hospitals in the country, without however specifying the overall amount of funding. Since the first coronavirus case was reported in Lebanon, over 250,000 infections were officially registered by healthcare authorities, including 1,865 deaths.



On Sunday the infection rate in relation to the number of tests carried out over the last two weeks was 19.4%, a percentage that is steadily rising. Of those currently infected, 2,014 are hospitalized, including 744 in intensive care.



(ANSAmed).




Press Release

January 18, 2021 'A nation that is united has a higher chance of surviving the pandemic', says Bong Go as he asks NTF to formulate process to expedite vaccine procurement by LGUs As he thanked local government units for showing initiative in working with the national government and securing vaccines for their constituents, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go on Friday, January 15, urged vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. to formulate a process which will expedite the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines by LGUs. "Lahat po ay naglalaan na po ng pondo. You always have my full and unwavering support. Marami pa tayong mga oportunidad upang magtulungan," Go said during a Senate hearing on the national vaccine roadmap. "I urge Sec. Galvez to formulate a process which will expedite the vaccine procurement of LGUs and the private sector," he urged. Aside from LGUs, Go also thanked the private sector for its collaboration and initiatives to secure vaccines for the country. "Malaki rin ang pasasalamat ko sa private sector at sa mga inisyatibo nito hinggil sa pag-secure ng vaccines para sa bansa. Kahapon po ay nagkaroon ng ceremonial signing para sa second batch ng private sector donation of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the government," Go said, referring to the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the Philippine government, local government units, private sector donors, and drug firm AstraZeneca for the procurement of seventeen million doses of COVID-19 vaccines under the 'A Dose of Hope' project. "Your efforts are most welcome, and I thank the private sector because despite government's own tireless efforts, government cannot do this alone, sa totoo lang po. We need a whole-of-nation approach to uplift the lives of all Filipinos amid these challenges," he added. The Senator, then, emphasized that the path towards recovery requires the effort of the entire country, including the cooperation and bayanihan of the Filipino public. "Let me emphasize, we are all part of the solution to this public health issue. Therefore, we must (all) share the responsibility if we want to recover from this pandemic. Wala pong pinipili ang pandemyang ito," Go said. "Kakaikot ko po, napapansin ko po sa publiko -- dapat kunin natin ang kumpiyansa ng taumbayan. Lahat tayo, apektado nito, lalaki man o babae, bata man o matanda, mayaman man o mahirap, anumang relihiyon, anuman ang inyong pulitika, saan ka man sa Pilipinas, talagang tinamaan po tayo sa pandemyang ito," he added. Urging Filipinos to continue following health measures and requesting for cooperation even from government detractors, Go said that "a nation that is united" has a higher chance of surviving the pandemic. "Let us work together and do our part. History has proven time and time again that, in these times of crises, a nation that is united has a higher chance of survival," Go said. "Alam ko po na lahat tayo ay pagod na sa sitwasyong ito na dulot ng pandemya. Alam po ito ng gobyerno. Kaya naman po hindi tayo tumitigil para matuldukan na ang mga banta ng COVID-19 at maibalik na natin sa normal ang ating mga pamumuhay," he added.
NPP Stalwart, Nana Fredua has admonished Ghanaians to heed the President's call to comply with the COVID-19 safety protocols.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his 22nd nation address on COVID-19, cautioned Ghanaians against another lockdown if they don't strictly adhere to the protocols to curb the transmission of the pandemic disease.



He said; "We do not want to go back to the days of partial lockdown . . . but should that become necessary that should the number of active cases continue to increase at the current rate, I'll have no option but to reimpose these restrictions because it is better to be safe than sorry".



According to the President, " . . Our COVID-19 treatment centres have gone from zero patients to now being full because of the upsurge in infections. . . particularly worrying is the Ghana Health Service recording 200 new cases daily . . . 13 out of 16 regions have recorded active cases . . . "



" . . our health infrastructure will be overwhelmed if the situation continues . . . it is my duty to protect lives and livelihood. In furtherance of this, I've instructed the Inspector General of police to direct officers, to ensure the rigorous enforcement of the law on mask-wearing..."



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Nana Fredua bemoaned Ghanaian's blatant disregard of the protocols, particularly with the wearing of masks against the spread of the disease.



He called for the enforcement of the protocols stressing the disease can only disappear when the attitude of Ghanaians is set right.



"This disease is not yet gone. The time it will disappear is when we protect ourselves till the time the vaccine will arrive.''



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Yosemite National Park officials are requesting the publics help in locating a missing woman who they believe was hiking at the Upper Yosemite Falls overlook last weekend.

Alice Yu Xie, 41, traveled to Yosemite from Mariposa on a YARTS bus Thursday and left for the hike either that day or Friday morning, authorities said.
By Valerie Hobbs

Carl Trueman's article on Critical Race Theory for the February issue of First Things caught my eye last night because of this provocative claim about religious language:

All-embracing and transformative views often have a religious quality. Critical race theory is no exception. It has a creedal language and liturgy, with orthodox words (white privilege, systemic racism) and prescribed actions (raising the fist, taking the knee). To deviate from the forms is to deviate from the faith. Certain words are heretical (non-racist, all lives matter). The slogan silence is violence is a potent rhetorical weapon. To fail to participate in the liturgy is to reject the antiracism the liturgy purports to representsomething only a racist would do.

Some have already begun responding to Trueman's argument on Twitter, providing some useful counterpoints. One critic took issue with the idea that anything can be religious. This is too liberal, he argued. "I could write a similar paragraph about almost anything."

Image: Twitter

See image below and here for the Full Thread

But actually, that is kind of the point. As Edward Bailey aptly put it, not everything is religious, but anything can be religious.

I present extensive evidence in support of this more open perspective on religion in my recently published book called An Introduction to Religious Language: Exploring Theolinguistics in Contemporary Contexts.

Another point of contention I've seen online is Trueman's (predictable) claim that CRT lacks convincing appeals to evidence. The same Twitter critic of Trueman picks this up, arguing that the "overwhelming" data supporting CRT undermines Trueman's 'CRT as religion' thesis.

They aren't axioms. That's just false.

Data in support of CRT is indeed overwhelming. One example is the breadth of work from scholars examining disproportionality in child welfare. Another is scholarship on implicit racial bias in healthcare. But both Trueman and his critic rely on a common false dichotomy here, between religion and science. Regarding the presence of data supporting CRT, Professor of Critical Race Studies David Gillborn makes these crucial points:

Numbers are not neutral.

Categories are neither natural nor given.

Data cannot speak for itself.

In my view, Trueman is right to point out that CRT, like all theory, is based on underlying axiomatic principles, including that race inequality is unjust. These axioms guide the collection of relevant data. Again, this is a point I make throughout my book.

But the question remains: Does Trueman make a good case that CRT is, in fact, functioning as a religion? Crucial to his thesis is the assumption that CRT functions as a shibboleth.

Critical race theory (CRT), promoted by progressive activists and adopted by many evangelical intellectuals, has become the shibboleth: Are you for it? Or are you against it?

This is indeed often a sign that something religious is going on, since shibboleths are boundary markers. Trueman develops this by later arguing that those who write about, research and discuss CRT are unwilling to entertain any critique or questions from skeptics.

The theory is likewise hard to oppose, since it denies the legitimacy of arguments that call it into question.

The evidence that Trueman provides is objections to the Southern Baptist Convention's recent motion On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. However, sources reporting on disapproval of this motion have revealed that although certainly there are objections to the content of the motion, the problem is more about the fact that it was published at all, especially during such a time of unrest, during which President Trump issued an executive order labeling critical theory "anti-American."

[Jemar] Tisby, the author of the bestselling book The Color of Compromise, referred to critical race theory as the theological and ecclesiastical equivalent of the Red Scare. He said, Slap anyone with the label Critical Race Theory, and they automatically become enemies of the church.

Kate Shellnut, writing for Christianity Today

We can here draw parallels to the ways that 'feminism' has become a shibboleth within (particularly white) conservative and Reformed Christianity. I have documented this in my own research. So I agree with Trueman that at the heart of all this is the issue of exclusion.

But Trueman neglects major issues of relevance here: the nature of the exclusion (who is excluding whom) and the mechanisms by which it has come about.

This takes me to the heart of my objections to Trueman's article: First, that he has not presented convincing evidence that CRT has its own "creedal language." And second, that his article is actually participating in and even increasing the likelihood that people will perceive CRT as central to their identity (or not) and speak about CRT religiously (either as sacred or taboo).

What do I mean? What makes language religious? Repetition is not enough, as our helpful critical Tweeter pointed out. Within my field of linguistics, like all other disciplines, we have our own insider technical language that we use to refer to key concepts and processes. Scholars working within CRT are no different in that regard. The repetition of certain phrases may signal their significance within a field, but this need not be linked with religious devotion or be central to members' identity.

But Trueman also cites what he calls "a potential rhetorical weapon," the phrase "Silence is violence" which he sees as a form of CRT liturgy. And he points to what he sees as ritual behaviour within CRT: raising the fist, taking a knee.

But are these actions actually prescribed or even customary among CRT scholars?

Trueman provides no convincing evidence for this. Simply saying something is a liturgy doesn't make it so. Calling something ritual behaviour doesn't mean it is. Religious language (what Trueman here calls creedal language) is not a matter of opinion. It is a form of discourse whose study requires specialist knowledge and methods.

Are people behaving religiously around CRT? We've certainly seen evidence that leaders within the SBC are doing so, positioning CRT as outside the bounds of the Christian religion, "resulting in ideologies and methods that contradict Scripture." Are those arguing more positively about CRT's usefulness within the church likewise behaving religiously around it? Maybe. Trueman hasn't demonstrated that either way. But there's another problem with Trueman's argument.

Theories like feminist theory and CRT are attempts to ask questions, seek understanding of and propose solutions to problems that institutions, including the Christian church, have tended to overlook and ignore.

There can be no doubt that parts of the Christian church have resisted frank discussions of racism, sexism and misogyny, particularly led by people who've been hurt by this discrimination. Carl Trueman knows this very well, considering he was eyewitness to the recent firing of his colleague Aimee Byrd from the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals, which took place in the context of sexist bullying and harassment of Byrd after the release of her book on Biblical womanhood. Talk about a shibboleth!

Central to theories like CRT is the understanding that exclusionary behaviour like this is reflective and constitutive of, as Trueman puts it, "systemic evil, false consciousness, and hegemonic discourse." Like feminist theory, Critical Race Theory is a tool to achieve greater understanding of the processes that shape and sustain inequality in society. The most violent racist behaviours and speech do not appear in a vacuum but rather take place within institutions which have desensitized people to racism. Within such institutions, everyday language and ways of behaving foster and act as cultural reinforcers of racism, even its most extreme forms. In his recent book, Somethings Not Right, Wade Mullen explores this phenomenon as it relates to some of the ways abuse is institutionalized in the church.

This is one of the points that Christina Edmondson makes in her reference to 'white Christianity' in her recent article for Christianity Today. She positions this within a much larger dynamic of dominance and inferiority, old as sin itself. Edmondson writes,

Isabel Wilkerson, in her new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, writes how Americas racism works within the broader and older idea of a caste system.

Unlike Trueman, I find this term 'white Christianity' extremely helpful and humbling. It acknowledges the complex environment that surrounds and supports white supremacist Christianity. It doesn't imply that all white Christians are committed racists. It doesn't suggest that white Christians who neglect self-examination regarding racism are unsaved. Neither does it assert that racism is the only sin within the Christian church. But it does expose what every white American Christian (and elsewhere) must examine within ourselves: We have been acculturated to (implicitly or explicitly) privilege white bodies, white voices, white lives, and this is woven into the fabric of our systems. Again, there's plenty of evidence for this. It's embarrassing to even have to mention such evidence at this point, in the aftermath of white supremacist violence at the US Capitol.

This takes me to my final point. Eventually, victims resist. Oppressed people protest.

When our love- and freedom-empowered design is restricted or oppressed by sin, we are compelled to resist. We cry out. We push back or seek shelter. We strategize and plan. We protest and legislate. We prophesy and lament.

And in such times of unrest, a religious community is forced to reflect on and reassess its borders, its distinctiveness, its core beliefs. Faced with uncomfortable questions, a community can either buckle down or invite critical discussion and reconsideration.

With regard to questions related to sexism and misogyny, I've seen clearly how certain parts of the church police their borders. I've already mentioned what happened last year to Aimee Byrd. I have been called a feminist more times than I can count, most recently by Denny Burk, who finally deleted that label from an online description of me after a lengthy argument of "No, I'm not," "Yes you are." "No, I'm not." "Yes, you are, but I'll delete it." One fellow Christian went so far as to say recently that the nature of my academic work marks me as being "outside the church."

Uncomfortable questions that unsettle the status quo are not tolerated in certain places. The ways people who ask such questions are treated contain these assumptions: You are not a member of Christianity. You are a member of another religion. Go and be with your people.

This is one reason I do not call myself a feminist, though I have benefitted from and use feminist theory in my work and understand why other Christians choose to embrace the label. For what I have come to see is exactly the point Jemar Tisby makes, that language like feminist and CRT can quickly become markers of core identity when they are used as tools of exclusion. This is another phenomenon I talk about in my book. Resisting a label yet insisting that the difficult conversation continue is one way to counter attempts at exclusion.

In summary, if and when Christians are behaving religiously with regard to CRT, viewing it as "all-embracing and transformative," as Carl Trueman puts it, articles like Trueman's and statements like the SBC motion will only make such practice more, not less likely.

But if the Christian church acknowledges its participation in systemic racism, shows eager efforts to repent of and make restitution for its sin, asks questions in sincerity and humility ... If the church stops issuing public statements against tools that fight oppression, ceases its minimizing and stereotyping of oppressed people's resistance, then religious behaviour around CRT and other theories of inequality will be far less likely. When ones home is a welcoming and loving place, where all are treated with dignity and respect, there is little inclination to look elsewhere.

As for Carl Trueman, he once quipped that he had fallen in love with a feminist and has never been quite the same since. Perhaps he just hasn't found the right CRT scholar?
The Cubs have agreed to a deal with right-hander Shelby Miller, MLB.coms Mark Feinsand reports (via Twitter). The non-guaranteed contract will pay Miller $875K if he makes Chicagos big league roster, with another $600K available in bonus money. The signing will be official when Miller passes a physical.

Miller signed a minor league deal with the Brewers last winter but didnt see any action, as he opted out of the 2020 season in August. Since the start of the 2017 season, Miller has tossed only 82 big league innings, thanks in large part to a Tommy John procedure that sidelined him for much of 2017 and 2018.

Still only 30 years old, Miller will be joining his sixth different organization in a pro career that has seen major highs and lows. Drafted 19th overall by the Cardinals in 2009, Miller posted very strong numbers over his first three MLB seasons  with St. Louis in 2013-14 and with Atlanta in 2015, after Miller was swapped to the Braves as part of a noteworthy trade that saw Jason Heyward go to the Cards. Unfortunately for Miller, he was part of another blockbuster trade a year later, going to the Diamondbacks and then never again regaining his early-career form.

There isnt much risk for the Cubs in adding Miller as a reclamation project, as Miller could be one of a few veterans brought into camp on low-cost or non-guaranteed contracts as Chicago looks for veteran rotation depth. Beyond Kyle Hendricks and Zach Davies, the Cubs other rotation candidates dont have much experience  projected third and fourth starters Adbert Alzolay and Alec Mills, and then a plethora of young arms competing for a look as the fifth starter.
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David Lipson will finish in his role as US Bureau Chief at the ABC this week.

He will report for the ABC in Sydney.

Lipson has been US Bureau Chief since late 2019, and worked as the ABCs Indonesia Bureau Chief and Indonesia Correspondent before that.

Last week Sarah Ferguson headed to to Washington DC for a 6 months in-depth reporting role.

the Australian Govt's 50% cap on international arrivals provides too much uncertainty with so many flights being cancelled. It's the hardest decision we've ever made as a family. It's been such a privilege to work with the crack team in DC. I'll miss you all but.. 2/..  David Lipson (@davidlipson) January 14, 2021

The one-man superpower known as @GregJennett will lead the team. ABC Washington is in very good hands.  David Lipson (@davidlipson) January 15, 2021

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On his final day in office, President Donald Trump is eyeing clemency for Dr. Salomon Melgen, the currently imprisoned Florida ophthalmologist who was tied to Sen. Robert Menendezs corruption case, according to a new CNN report.

Trump, who will be leaving office Wednesday, will be granting pardons to roughly 100 people, ranging from criminal justice reform-related pardons to political allies, CNN reported Monday, citing three anonymous sources.

The president is able to issue pardons up until he leaves office at noon, and it has traditionally been among the final actions before a presidency ends.

Melgen, 66, is currently in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud, including submitting false claims and falsifying patient files. In 2018, he was sentenced to 17 years after he was found guilty of stealing $73 million from Medicare.

The disgraced eye doctor may be most well-known for his lavish gifts and donations to Menendez, a Democrat, which landed the doctor in court over charges of fraud and bribery in 2013.

Dr. Salomon Melgen in a Palm Beach Post 2013 file photo, Richard Graulich/The Palm Beach Post - WEST PALM BEACH The Palm Beach Post

The pair met at a fundraiser in 1993, when Menendez had been recently sworn in as New Jerseys first Hispanic congressman. Melgen, a wealthy eye doctor who specialized in surgery of the vitreous and retina, had offices in Florida that were no stranger to celebrities.

They kept in touch over the years. Melgen told Bloomberg News they were like brothers, like friends in 2013.

In 2017, prosecutors alleged Melgen had provided Menendez with six-figure campaign contributions, luxury gifts and private plane flights in exchange for Menendezs intervention on the doctors behalf in an $1.9 million Medicare dispute, as well as the visa applications of the doctors girlfriends and a contested port security contract in the Dominican Republic, where Melgen is originally from.

After a contentious 11-week trial that ended with a deadlocked jury, a federal judge declared a mistrial and the case was never retried. Menendez has maintained his innocence since the Justice Department announced the indictment against the longtime friends on April 1, 2015.

According to CNN, Trumps pardon shouldnt be a surprise solely based on Menendezs politics, but because Melgen is seen as a wealthy and influential resident of South Florida.

Following a violent siege on the Capitol and dozens of corporations cutting ties with the president, Trump is reportedly planning to spend his post-presidency months at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

During his time in office, Trump has granted clemency to more than 90 people, including Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner and the disgraced-developer who was prosecuted by then-U.S. attorney Chris Christie.

CNN reported that neither Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is being held in a London prison, nor the president himself, are currently believed to be on the pardon list. Allies have also reportedly warned against pardoning supporters charged with breaking into the Capitol on Jan. 6.

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

Ted Sherman and Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.
The new variant of COVID-19 first detected in Britain is now starting to gain a foothold in Belgium, officials said Monday, with cases reported in several northern schools on top of an outbreak in a nursing home.The town of Houthulst in northwestern Belgium shot up to the top of the country's infection rate with 1,207 cases per 100,000 over the past 14 days after a spike in cases at a the care home this year left over 100 people infected.

Tests showed the new variant was to blame."Here in the residential care centre, 63 people are infected, 9 people are infected in the adjacent assisted-living apartments and 43 of the staff are infected," Houthulst Mayor Joris Hindryckx told Flemish broadcaster VTM on Sunday, from outside the De Groene Verte care home

In the Antwerp area, two schools reported cases over the weekend and closed Monday for a week due to the new variant.Authorities said students, teachers and their families should all quarantine for ten days. Belgium has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, seeing 20,435 confirmed deaths.

(Image Credit: AP)

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
The first woman to be executed after 67 years in the history of the US is Lisa Montgomery, who had the dubious honor in many years. It comes after a slew of executions that started in 2020.

Execution of the declared mentally ill woman who died from lethal injection to carry out the death sentence, a witness was present to see her sentence to her final moments.

The reason for getting the death penalty is for killing a 23-year-old pregnant woman. She later took the fetus from the eviscerated woman's belly in 2004. The crimes were shocking, and it made headlines, reported the Ladbible.

She was spared from getting executed earlier by a stay of execution by a federal judge. Pending the results of a mental health assessment. The US Supreme Court decided to go on with the execution despite the need to check the death row inmates' mental fitness. A stay of execution overruled led to the continuation of her death penalty. The 52-year-old died early in the morning at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana last January 13 of 2021.

During the Montgomery execution, a witness said the woman did not say anything as her final words.

Through an IV drip, the chemical would slowly drip into her bloodstream that absorbed a death-dealing substance. Lisa Montgomery was inches from slipping from this mortal coil.

The inmate was strapped as the lethal injection finally given to her. According to the observer, she was fighting for breath as the chemical was acting on her system. Her body was slipping closer to death as breathing became hard.

She was found guilty of a heinous crime, but the killer would be like everyone else in her last moments. No one wants to die, but laws demanded she pays with her life that ended via lethal injection.

Montgomery, from the last federal execution by the state in 1953, was commuted. It took brutal litigation and delays, even getting a short stay, but it got overturned. One death in the long history of executions in America.

According to Michael Tarm, a legal writer, he observed the woman be calm and silent, knowing she' would die faced it squarely. Dying in silence and no sound.

Tarm reported when the execution process started. The female executioner was over Montgomery's shoulder. She took the doomed inmates' face mask to ask if she had something to say one last time.

Facing the officer, who got a "No" as a quiet answer. It was silence as her death got closer.

According to TIME, Montgomery looked 'bewildered' at the journalists watching from behind a glass window and 'tapped her fingers nervously' before closing her eyes to die.

Tarm said the lethal injection started at around 1:18 a.m., and the strapped woman kept licking her lips as the IV's chemical was absorbed.

A little time passed, and her abdomen shook and stopped. Montgomery passed silently without a word.

Her attorney, Kelley Henry, had nothing but vehemence for the court that allowed the execution of Lisa Montgomery. Her execution is viewed as a miscarriage of justice.

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A millionaire businessman said his wife was swept away to her death in front of his eyes after driving into floodwaters because no one had put up a 'road closed' sign, an inquest has heard.

Former High Sheriff of Derbyshire Annie Hall, 69, died after getting out of her car when it became stranded on a country lane as the River Derwent burst its banks in November 2019.

She and husband Michael walked in darkness as torrents raced across fields and submerged the road.

Michael Hall said his wife Annie, the former High Sheriff of Derbyshire, was swept away to her death in floodwaters in 2019 because no one had put up a 'road closed' sign

They began walking on the boundary walls, but Mrs Hall fell several times, before being washed away.

Mr Hall, 78, survived for four hours in the freezing water clinging on to a lamppost before he was eventually rescued.

Today he told a pre-inquest review he wants to know why signs were not put in place to prevent drivers using the flooded lane after they were turned back by police who had closed the main A6.

And he also demanded to know why officers did not inform his wife that there was a safe alternative route away from the rising waters.

At one point he told the hearing 'With respect when you are waist deep in water for four hours you do feel perhaps more could have been done.'

The tragedy happened as Britain was battered by high winds and torrential rain that caused havoc across large parts of the country.

Mrs Hall died after getting out of her car when it became stranded on a country lane as the River Derwent burst its banks (pictured)

On the night of the tragedy his wife had picked him up from a black-tie event in Derby and they were returning home in atrocious conditions in the early hours of November 8.

At around 1am the couple, who lived in a 800,000 house at Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, were six miles from home when they found the main A6 closed by police.

Mrs Hall got out and spoke to an officer, then the couple took a side road towards the village of Winster, but their car became stranded in floodwater near Darley Dale.

'At Four Lane Ends, which as the name suggests is clearly where four roads meet, there were no "road closed" signs on two of the roads,' Mr Hall told the coroner.

'It ended up with both myself and another gentleman who was also travelling down the road getting into deep water.'

Later he told Mr Peter Nieto, area coroner for Derbyshire: 'There's a number of roads that come off the A6, but there was no sign to say that the road we were using was closed.

Mr Hall described his wife of more than 40 years as 'one in a million' as an inquest into her death opened

'I said to my wife "The water's coming over the bonnet", but at that point it's too late, we were in the flow of the water.'

They abandoned the car and tried to walk but Mrs Hall fell and, despite her husband's efforts to hold on to her, she was swept away

'I'm not here to look for a guilty party,' added Mr Hall. 'I'm here to make sure it does not happen again.'

Mr Hall said his other issue was with the re-direction of traffic from the A6 by officers.

'I'm surprised the officer was not able to guide us, as to what we could and couldn't do to get home,' he told Chesterfield Coroner's Court.

'We got from Derby without any problems then we came across a police vehicle blocking the road. Annie went to speak to the officer, when she came back she just said he'd told her we could not get through, but he had not proffered any suggestions.

'If he had told us to go back to Matlock and then get round the back to Winster we would not have gone the way we did.'

At a memorial service a few weeks after the tragedy the businessman relived the tragic moment his beloved wife 'slipped away' as he battled desperately to save her from the rising water.

Mr Hall, who described his wife of more than 40 years as 'one in a million', recalled how they were forced to walk through raging torrents.

He said: 'The water was at such a speed you could hardly pick your foot off the floor. Annie said, "I'm not sure how much of this I can take".

'We tried to walk along the wall and the boundary of the field and try and get up, all in the dark. Annie got very concerned, finding it difficult.

'She fell over for the fourth time and I had hold of her hands but hadn't got the strength to pull her back and she was swept away.

'She just slipped away, so I was then on my own,' he added.

Mr Hall was close to being washed away when two emergency services vehicles turned up and shone their headlights on him. He was then pulled to safety into a rescue boat.

After a search that lasted through the night Mrs Hall's body was found later that morning in flooded farmland about two miles from their stricken car.

At the opening of the inquest into her death a pathologist gave the cause of Mrs Hall's death as drowning.

She was described as 'a stalwart of the local community'. She had grown up in Somerset and after school studied to become a psychiatric nurse.

She and her second husband moved to Derbyshire and set up a business manufacturing winches. Following a successful career Mrs Hall retired and had served as Derbyshire's High Sheriff in 2017.

She dedicated herself to charity work along with being vice-chairman of Derbyshire Mental Health Trust.

The full inquest will be held at a date yet to be set.
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They are the sweaty group of hard-working Aussie men who are living proof not all heroes have washboard abs and pose with firehoses.

Posing shirtless, scoffing down meat pies, and skolling Victoria Bitters, the rugged tradesman of Goulburn Valley Plaster Products in Shepparton are not your usual charity calendar.

But the proud tradies lined up in front of the camera for an unconventional 2021 calendar to raise mental health awareness among blue-collar workers and support the work of TIACS Foundation.

Striking seductive poses on machinery, showing off their builders smiles and not-so toned abs, the down-to earth blokes created an irreverent 'real' take on the iconic hunky Australian Firefighters Calendar.

Tradesman from Goulburn Valley Plaster Products in Shepparton have posed for the 2021 'Real Tradie' calendar to raise mental health awareness among blue-collar workers

One man scoffed down a meat pie as tomato sauce dribbled down his arm and across his neon shirt

One man smiled cheekily with a drinking hat as his rolled up shirt showed off his not-so toned abs

And with recent studies revealing 'Dad bods' are in style, they are giving their predecessors a run for their money.

A behind-the-scenes video of the photoshoot shows the men embracing their inner model, one washing off his hard-earned sweat by dunking his head in a bucket of water before flicking back his hair.

In another bizarre shot, a man chows down on a meat pie as an industrial fan wafts the tomato sauce back across his neon shirt.

One worker indulged in two cans of VB through a drinking hat with his shirt rolled up just beneath his pectoral muscles, as his tool belt weighed down his pants, offering a glimpse of his underwear.

Another employee suggestively reclined sideways on the floor with his hand propped behind his head, while another took a beer-break in a wheelbarrow, fully clothed.

In another shot, a strong tradeswoman posed with bulky gyprock packages loaded on one shoulder while resting her foot on an upside down bucket.

A distracted male colleague swept up debris with a dustpan by her feet.

And for the festive month of December, one tradesman donned a Santa's hat as he pushed a colleague sitting in a wheelbarrow.

A a strong tradeswoman posed with bulky Gyprock packages loaded on one shoulder while a male colleague swept up debris by her feet

One man donned a Santa's hat for a festive season shot, as he pushed a colleague sitting in a wheel barrow draped in tinsel

TIACS provides free frontline support for workers in need of a short chat or long-term care.

The Real Tradie Calendar shifts the spotlight onto a group of 'untapped models' keen to lend a hand for a charitable cause, GV Plaster Products general manager Brad Hanson said on Monday.

'They understand the importance of raising awareness for mental health, so it was great to have the boys jump on board and have some fun in the spotlight,' he said.

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Secretary of state for European Affairs Iulia Matei on Monday participates in the informal meeting of the General Affairs Council, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), according to AGERPRES.

The meeting takes place as a videoconference.

The agenda includes the presentation of the priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU and a briefing related to the current stage of organisation of the Conference regarding the future of Europe.

Moreover, the participants will discuss various aspects related to coordination at the EU level in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, ahead of the informal meeting of the European leaders scheduled on January 21, informs the MAE.
One of the doctors co-ordinating Hollywood star Matt Damon's privately funded quarantine in the Byron Bay area before he films a new Thor movie has said they needed strict new protocols because of unreported security breaches during other celebrity visits.

The chief executive of medical consultancy Concierge Doctors, Dr Zac Turner, said the actor-producer and his family were paying "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for a meticulous approach to quarantine that included flying into the country by private jet so as not to disadvantage Australians wanting to return home.

In quarantine: Matt Damon and wife Luciana Barroso at the Los Angeles premiere of Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. Credit:Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Damon, who is locked down with his wife and three daughters, is due to star in the Marvel superhero movie Thor: Love and Thunder in Sydney. A regular visitor and close friend to Thor star Chris Hemsworth, he is also believed to have another project lined up in Australia.

Dr Turner said the Damon family initially quarantined for two weeks in a ski lodge in the US and had COVID tests every three days. They then arrived by private jet in Australia on Saturday and moved into a rented house, where they are paying for their own hospital-grade cleaning, private security, police monitoring, staff, meals and regular medical checks for two more weeks of quarantine.
Finding Alice

Rating:

Antiques Roadshow

Rating:

Weve been here before. Mum is a scatty mess, rarely without a coffee mug brimming with wine in her hand, clueless about money and unable to concentrate on one thing for more than a few seconds. Her teenage daughter is the sane, sensible one.

And then theres fire-breathing Joanna Lumley, who will say anything to anyone because she simply doesnt give two hoots.

Finding Alice (ITV) is Ab Fab, converted from a sitcom into a darkly witty thriller. Theres champagne, darling, and endless rows in the kitchen, and a queue of brilliant supporting stars.

Nobody smokes, because it isnt 1993 any more, but everything else is perfectly in place.

Finding Alice (ITV) is Ab Fab, converted from a sitcom into a darkly witty thriller. Keeley Hawes (pictured) plays Alice, the utterly irresponsible mother who has never bothered to learn how to do anything for herself

Keeley Hawes plays Alice, the utterly irresponsible mother who has never bothered to learn how to do anything for herself.

Its so much easier to leave it to somebody else  especially if that someone is her patient only daughter, Charlotte (Isabella Pappas), who tucks her into bed at night and wakes her up with a bottle of hangover tablets in the morning.

When we first met Alice, she was having a crisis that even Ab Fabs Edina Monsoon might regard as a trifle airheaded. Shed lost her fridge. It didnt take long to understand shed lost more than that.

Alice moved in to her new house the night before with husband Harry (Jason Merrells). She nipped to the bathroom and, when she came out, he was lying dead at the foot of the stairs.

But the real stroke of casting genius is with Alices parents, Sarah and Roger. Once youve thought of Joanna Lumley and Nigel Havers, you realise no one else could be Keeleys mum and dad

Writers Roger Goldby and Simon Nye, who met working on another of Keeleys shows, The Durrells, set up the story and introduced the all-star cast in a rattling series of scenes that quickly had me hooked.

Harrys parents, Gerry and Minnie, are played by Kenneth Cranham and Gemma Jones, who stroll in whenever they fancy. Hes gruff, she witters and its plain they regard the house as practically their second home. Worse, it turns out they own it, thanks to a business dodge by wheeler-dealer Harry.

But the real stroke of casting genius is with Alices parents, Sarah and Roger. Once youve thought of Joanna Lumley and Nigel Havers, you realise no one else could be Keeleys mum and dad.

Miss Lumley has all the best lines as heartless Sarah. Her first words, when she sees her newly bereaved daughter, are: What are you wearing!? She takes one look at where Harry died and says: No bannisters, which is ridiculous.

It was cocktails rather than champagne for Fiona Bruce on the Antiques Roadshow (BBC1), as she took advantage of a brief lull between lockdowns last summer to convene her experts at Christchurch Park in Ipswich

And Harry hasnt been dead 24 hours before Mum tells Alice briskly: You wont like this, but youll meet someone else, in time. Cynical Sarah might be right. Her daughter and a morgue attendant were flirting within five minutes.

Could there be romance in the air already? Better put the Bolly on ice, darling.

It was cocktails rather than champagne for Fiona Bruce on the Antiques Roadshow (BBC1), as she took advantage of a brief lull between lockdowns last summer to convene her experts at Christchurch Park in Ipswich.

The usual conventions were observed, including the one that insists no one must whoop, Im rich! Ha-ha-ha! Rich, I tell you! when they discover the true value of Aunt Mildreds heirlooms. You cant really put a price on a memory, one chap said solemnly, about his Mickey Mouse clockwork toy.

But the lady whose late mother bought a book of cocktail recipes at a jumble sale for pennies was more candid when it turned out to be worth 800.

Her mum, she decided, would say sell it and go to Salzburg for the weekend. A smashing idea . . . for a later date, perhaps.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 21:40:10|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police said Monday they are interrogating an al-Shabab suspect after being arrested on Sunday from his hideout in Kenya's Mandera county near the common border with Somalia.

The police said the 33-year-old Ali Ibrahim Ibrahim was arrested from his house following a tip-off from members of the public.

The police said Ibrahim is suspected to have taken part in the recent terror attack involving a motor vehicle within the Banisa region of Mandera county.

"The suspect on seeing the officers fled from his house and officers managed to chase and arrest him within Shimbir Fatuma Township," the police said in a report.

The police said the manhunt for other terror suspects who are still at large has been intensified in the area which borders Somalia.

The police have blamed local al-Shabab sympathizers for the attacks in the region which have always targeted security personnel and civil servants including teachers.

The East African nation shares a porous border with Somalia and many times the insurgents have carried out cross-border attacks where they also abduct people for ransom. Enditem
On Sunday, an Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister has alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is working at the behest of Bangladesh. The UP minister, Anand Swaroop Shukla, said that Mamata Banerjee is not interested in Indians and she doesn't care about the citizens of this country. He also said that the Bengal CM has turned into "Bangladeshi" and is an "Islamic terrorist." Claiming that only Rohingya Muslims support Mamata, Shukla also asserted that BJP will win 200 seats in Bengal.

READ | TMC Leaders Get COVID Vaccine Shot Ahead Of Healthcare Workers In Bengal, BJP Cries Foul

Anand Swaroop Shukla said, "Mamata is working under Bangladesh and she is in control of Bangladesh. She is giving citizenship to Rohingya Muslims, giving citizenship to Bangladeshi Muslims but humiliating Hindu Gods and Goddesses. She is an Islamic terrorist and is currently the biggest threat to the country. This is the only reason that TMC leaders are leaving the party and joining BJP. Only Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi Muslims are supporting Mamata Banerjee."

READ | Left's Biman Bose Reiterates 'TMC Brought BJP In Bengal' Claim, Denies Rift With Congress

TMC vs BJP in West Bengal

While the BJP has chalked out a massive plan for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls which includes Home Minister Amit Shah visiting the state every month till the elections, Trinamool has already begun its outreach programme highlighting the welfare schemes of the Mamata Banerjee government. The TMC has also roped in former JDU VP and poll strategist Prashant Kishor for Mamata's re-election while the BJP's campaign is being headed by senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, under the leadership of BJP chief JP Nadda.

While the BJP has claimed it'll win 200 seats, the Trinamool, via Prashant Kishor has contended that the saffron party won't cross 99. West Bengal assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. BJP has made major inroads in the state in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats and establishing itself as the major opposition force in the state.

READ | TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee makes shocking 'Saffron Rapist' remark; outraged BJP lashes out

READ | In poll-bound West Bengal, TMC MP says 'state will drown in Ganga if BJP comes to power'
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Top conservative figures and Trump administration officials gathered in Las Vegas over the weekend for a secret summit to discuss issues including 'woke tech' and 'restoring law'.

The 'Digital Statecraft Summit' was hosted by the conservative think tank Claremont Institute, according to Protocol, which obtained a copy of the agenda and spoke to four people invited to attend.

Among the most high-profile attendees slated to speak at the event were US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and former deputy national security adviser Michael Anton.

Also on the schedule to speak was conservative legal scholar John Eastman, who helped rally President Donald Trump's supporters outside the White House before they stormed Capitol Hill on January 6.

Several major Silicon Valley firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter responded to the Capitol riots by cracking down on conservative figures and platforms - including by suspending Trump's accounts - perhaps prompting the summit's focus on so-called 'woke tech'.

One attendee who spoke to Protocol ahead of the summit said they expected the tone to be 'very critical of tech, very pro some type of intervention'.

'There's going to be some discrepancy and debate around what intervention looks like,' they said.

Top conservative figures and Trump administration officials gathered in Las Vegas over the weekend for a 'Digital Statecraft Summit' to discuss issues including 'woke tech' and 'restoring law'. Among the attendees were Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (left) and US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios (right), according to Protocol

Also on the schedule to speak was conservative legal scholar John Eastman, who helped rally President Donald Trump's supporters outside the White House before they stormed Capitol Hill on January 6. Eastman is seen left next to Rudy Giuliani at the 'Save America' rally

Former deputy national security adviser Michael Anton (pictured) was reportedly on a panel entitled: 'The New Slave Power'

The attendee said the Claremont Institute appeared to be taking steps to keep the contents of the summit 'under wraps' - noting that they had not been given any information about who would be speaking just hours before it was set to kick off.

The Claremont Institute, which says its mission is to 'restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life', had not posted any promotional materials for the event on social media by the time the first panels began on Saturday.

The California-based group did not immediately return DailyMail.com's requests for comment about why the summit was not promoted on its website.

Ryan Williams, president of the Claremont Institute, declined to answer various questions posed by Protocol ahead of the event.

The outlet specifically asked about a panel entitled 'The New Slave Power', and about what COVID-19 safety protocols were implemented for the event, which took place as Las Vegas grapples with a troubling surge in cases.

Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams (pictured) declined to answer various questions posed by Protocol ahead of the event

'The Claremont Institute has been a leading voice against political censorship by the Big Tech oligarchs, and we have no interest in commenting on an obvious hatchet job by a publication so clearly beholden to the pieties of Silicon Valley,' Williams told Protocol in an email.

'Your questions are riddled with false premises, but we welcome the fire.'

Anton, who served as deputy national security adviser under Trump from February 2017 to April 2018, was slated to be on 'The New Slave Power' panel.

Anton recently wrote an essay entitled 'Blue America Needs Red America' for Claremont's American Mind publication, in which he suggested that Democrats were 'openly talking about staging a coup' in an effort to 'command and oppress' Republicans.

Also on that panel was blogger Curtis Yarvin - pen name Mencius Moldbug - who has been dubbed the 'favorite philosopher of the alt-right' and has a history of sharing racially-charged sentiments on his blog Unqualified Reservations.

In one of his most widely-cited blog posts from 2007, Yarvin wrote: 'Although I am not a white nationalist, I am not exactly allergic to the stuff.'

Blogger Curtis Yarvin (pictured) - who writes under the pen name Mencius Moldbug and has been dubbed the 'favorite philosopher of the alt-right' - was slated to speak on a panel entitled 'The New Slave Power'

Kratsios, who joined the Trump administration as chief technology officer in 2019, was expected to speak at the summit about artificial intelligence and China, a source familiar with his planned remarks told Protocol.

Other topics on the agenda included a 'Restoring Law' panel and a fireside chat titled: 'What happened?'

One of the top officials slated to speak Adam Candeub, the current acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

It was unclear which topic Candeub would be speaking on. The lawyer has linked up with white nationalists on several occasions, writing four Wall Street Journal op-eds with Marcus Epstein and representing Jared Taylor in a lawsuit against Twitter in 2018.

It was also unclear what Eastman, the conservative legal scholar, would be speaking about.

Last week Eastman retired from his position as an endowed professor and constitutional law scholar at Chapman University amid an uproar over the speech he gave at the White House before the Capitol riots.

During that speech Eastman pushed several unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud by the Democrats, including that 'secret folders' inside ballot-counting machines skewed the results in Georgia.

One of the top officials slated to speak Adam Candeub (pictured), the current acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Also listed as a speaker was Josh Steinman, who recently left his post as the White House National Security Council's senior director for cyber.

Steinman's LinkedIn profile now describes him as the founder of a 'stealth startup'. The 'about' section of his profile states: 'Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.'

Texas AG Paxton was also on the agenda, but it wasn't clear which sections he would be speaking at. DailyMail.com has reached out to his office for comment.

Paxton, a staunch Republican, is currently leading a multi-state anti-trust lawsuit against Google and recently headed-up a failed bid to overturn Joe Biden's presidential election victory in a handful of battleground states.

The FBI is currently investigating claims that Paxton abused his power to benefit a wealthy donor.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seen right during the 'Save America' rally outside the White House on January 6. He was listed as a speaker at the Vegas summit

Nathan Simington, who recently became FCC commissioner after having been nominated to the post by Trump, was also listed on the agenda - but told Protocol that he did not attend.

'Despite initial plans to do so, I did not attend or otherwise participate in the Claremont event this weekend, and I did not prepare or submit remarks,' Simington told Protocol.

Soylent founder Rob Rhinehart (pictured) was also expected to speak at the summit

Rob Rhinehart, founder of Soylent, a brand of meal-replacement drinks, was also expected to speak at the summit.

Rhinehart stepped down as CEO of Soylent in 2017 - remaining on the board - before making headlines last year when he began sharing bizarre political opinions and conspiracy theories on his blog 'Mostly Harmless'.

Among his most noteworthy blog posts were one voicing support for rapper Kanye West's presidential bid, one about 'The Fall of Silicon Valley' and one with a false claim that Biden 'threw innocent Guatemalans in jail because they did not give a government contract to his company Hunter Medical Devices'.

It is unclear where the Digital Statecraft Summit was held in Las Vegas or how many people attended.

The event took place as the Republican Party faces a reckoning over its alignment with Trump and right-wing conspiracy theorists accused of inciting the Capitol riots which left five people dead.
A former high school teacher who allegedly sexually abused a teenage girl four decades ago has faced court for the first time.

Lee Joyce Dunbar, 67, is accused of sexually assaulting a female student, then aged between 15 and 17, over a period spanning two years between 1978 and 1980 on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

The Five Dock woman appeared in Burwood Local Court on Monday, where details of the alleged historic sexual assault on the former student were revealed for the first time.

A former high school teacher is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl over a two year period between 1978 and 1980 (stock image)

Court documents allege Dunbar touched the girl's breasts, nipples, clitoris and inserted her fingers into her genitalia, NCA NewsWire reported.

Police allege Dunbar abused the female student at Manly and Mona Vale between March 1978 and March 1980 while working at Beacon Hill High School at the time.

It follows Dunbar's arrest by Strike Force Southwood detectives in November as part of ongoing investigations into alleged historic sexual assaults.

She was charged with assaulting female and commit an act of indecency aged under-16 and two counts of assault female and commit act of indecency aged between 14 and 16 years.

Police alleged the teacher was working at Beacon Hill High School (pictured) at the time of the alleged sexual assaults. The school has since shut down and been demolished

Dunbar's bail was continued to reappear in court next month.

Strike Force Southwood, led by Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad detectives, was established by NSW Police in July 2018 to identity and investigate allegations of sexual assault and student/teacher relationships at high schools on Sydney's northern beaches in the 1970s and 1980s.

Beacon Hill High School was shut down in 2002 and has since been demolished.
Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATE 8:49 a.m.

The Boeing 737 MAX can return to Canadian airspace beginning Wednesday, Transport Canada says, concluding nearly two years of government review after the aircraft was involved in two deadly crashes that saw the planes grounded worldwide.

The planes will be permitted to fly as long as they meet conditions specified by Transport Canada in December, including allowing pilots to disable a faulty warning system that was found to be central to two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

"Canadians and the airline industry can rest assured that Transport Canada has diligently addressed all safety issues prior to permitting this aircraft to return to service in Canadian airspace," said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra.

The measures go beyond those announced by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in November, which required Boeing to make changes to the computer systems inside the plane and required pilots to undergo training in flight simulators.

Monday's announcement caps a recertification process without precedent in the history of modern aviation.

The planes have been grounded since March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 people. Investigators determined that the cause of the crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the planes nose downward in flight and couldnt be overridden by pilots.

An inquiry by the U.S. Congress found that missteps at Boeing and the FAA led to the computer malfunction going undetected. The investigation found shortcomings within both Boeing, which it said compromised safety to maximize profits, and the FAA, which it said exercised inadequate oversight over the aircrafts approval.

Other planes have been grounded after crashes, but flights suspensions have never lasted as long as for the MAX, which was being independently recertified by aviation authorities such as the European Union Aviation Safety and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Prior to the MAX crashes, civil aviation authorities had typically gone along with the approvals of other countries, with limited independent oversight into the safety of the aircraft. But the scrutiny of the MAX, including the role of the U.S. regulator, could usher in an era of more intensive reviews by regulators looking to avoid repeating their mistakes.

Regulators such as Transport Canada have learned that they have to be much more careful, much more cautious and much less trusting, said Joel Morin, an aviation consultant for To70.

The U.S. approved the MAX's return to service in November, and the first commercial flights in the U.S. took off in December.

The aircrafts approval in Canada will help struggling airlines, which rely on the smaller, fuel-efficient MAX for long flights. But Canadas carriers now face a new challenge: convincing consumers to actually fly on the aircraft, a task made even more daunting by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surveys have shown that people are still skittish about the MAX. A survey of 1,757 flyers conducted by Barclays in May found that 21 per cent would never fly on a MAX and 23 per cent planned to wait a year or more before doing so.

Restoring public confidence in the MAX will be key as airlines look to capitalize on an anticipated recovery in demand this summer, when a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to become available for many Canadians. Air Canada, the countrys largest carrier, has 24 MAX aircraft in its fleet, while WestJet and Sunwing have 13 and four, respectively.

That airplane is going to have to prove itself once again to the marketplace, said John Gradek, a lecturer at McGill University and the head of its Global Aviation Leadership Program. Theres going to have to be a very concerted effort on the part of the aviation industry, both Boeing as well as the operators, to try to get people to feel confident that its OK to fly on the 737 MAX.

That effort could involve testimonials from passengers or flights that demonstrate the capabilities of the MAX, showing the improvements that have been made to the plane, Gradek said. In the U.S., the battle to sway public opinion has already begun, with American Airlines conducting a public flight on Dec. 2 with members of the media aboard.

Morin said transparency from airlines, regulators and Boeing will be key to rebuilding consumer confidence in the aircraft, which would involve communicating what originally went wrong with the MAX and what steps the industry had taken to ensure it wont happen again.

Morin added that the efforts to restore trust in the MAX will be part of a broader effort by the aviation industry to show that flying is safe, even with fear of catching COVID making people reluctant to board aircraft.

The industry wont be able to go back, flip a switch and time travel us back a year, Morin said. Itll have to be a hand-holding exercise.

ORIGINAL 7:40 a.m.

Transport Canada has announced that it will allow the return of Boeing Max aircraft to service in Canadian airspace on Wednesday.

More coming.
(Alliance News) - Moody's Investors Service on Friday has affirmed the corporate family rating of the Anglo-German tourism company TUI AG at Caa1, its senior unsecured rating at Caa1 and the probability of default rating at Caa1-PD.

The outlook has been changed to stable from negative, the ratings agency said.

"Our decision to stabilise TUI's rating outlook reflects the sizeable liquidity injection provided by three support packages with a total amount of 4.8 billion. This has largely covered an exceptionally high cash burn in fiscal 2020 and provides a significant buffer for potential further cash consumptions in a still highly challenging market environment," said Vitali Morgovski, a Moody's Assistant vice president-analyst.

The stable outlook reflects the expectation of continued external support in case of the absence of a material recovery of the operating performance, Moody's said, as the coronavirus spreading and travel activity remains highly uncertain in the short term.

Moody's, however, noted the potential for a medium term recovery of the underlying operating performance and hence further positive rating pressure, in case that the coronavirus outbreak is contained and travel activity resumes to historical levels.

TUI shares closed 1.4% lower in London on Monday at 397.56 pence each.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Ali Abbas Zafar-directed web series Tandav has been mired in controversy since its release. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has now sought an explanation from the makers of the Amazon Prime Video web series. The Union I&B Minister took cognisance of the matter amid allegations that the political drama hurt religious sentiments.

BJP leader Manoj Kotak had written to the I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on the show. BJP's Ram Kadam has also filed a police complaint against the web series for hurting religious sentiments.

The show has been at the centre of controversy due to a scene that features Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub allegedly playing a character inspired by Lord Shiva, holding a trishul (Trident) at a college theatre festival in the first episode of the series. One of the actors in the scene talks about the character's social media traction and how he can amp it up by posting pictures or tweeting frequently. This is then followed by the contentious 'Azaadi' chants by the audience members.

However, social media users were divided on the issue of a likely ban on the show. While some supported a ban on the show for being 'Hinduphobic', others questioned any need for such a move.





#BoycottTandav

This is the mockery of our religious belief. These film makers has been doing this kind of shit intensionally.



Why they are trageting hindu gods ?

Why they didn't use "prophet Mohd" instead of lord Shiva  . So boycott this. pic.twitter.com/CIQkjBXm5M  Manish vaibhav (@Vaibhavmanish21) January 15, 2021

Even after so many incidents bollywood is not stepping back in defaming hindu gods and goddess in name of struggling actors fir baad mein bolte hain hm jobless hain aur out of jealous boycottBollywood krte hain.. #DontSpareSSRKillers#BoycottTandav#BoycottBollywoodpic.twitter.com/i0piZzEYIH  Nitika Singh (@itsNitikaSingh) January 15, 2021

Why always target Hindu god .every movie Bollywood target Hindu god .need stop this with boycott flims #BoycottTandavpic.twitter.com/UYqKyG7xK8  Thorat suresh (@i_amsuresh3) January 16, 2021

It is a series with Anti-Hindu propaganda. Insulting the hindu gods for their own sake. IT NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.#BoycottTandav  h. (@amorxsushant) January 16, 2021

Thats real Woke.



When you realise injustice, work is done.



Min of I&B summoned #AmazonPrime on #Tandav for hurting people sentiments.  Cdr Aanan.  (@Veteran__007) January 18, 2021

I am not saying that this film is useless but why comedy is made every time by making fun of religion this is not right I think !! #Tandavpic.twitter.com/qhUfJpCXzD   . (@rinku10m) January 18, 2021

Asking my Hindu friends



Whilst we support Charlie Hebdo publishing Mohammad Cartoons in name of freedom of expression, we ask for ban on a 'fictional' web series that is hurting our 'sentiments' .

Educate me someone from creative field@vivekagnihotri#Tandav#TandavOnPrimepic.twitter.com/r2fUOivOik  Saurav.A.Singh London - Dilli (@DDataguy) January 18, 2021

'If you don't like it don't watch it.'

Yahi kaha tha na Judge Saab ne???#Tandav  Sanjay Gupta (@_SanjayGupta) January 18, 2021

T for #Tandav

T for #Terrific

Coincidence? I'd say not



Big ups to @WhoSunilGrover and @GAUAHAR_KHAN for their amazing performance. Your characters looked so real.



10/10 would recommend #TandavOnPrime  Asim Riaz (@imrealasim) January 16, 2021

Meanwhile, the makers of Tandav have offered an unconditional apology for hurting public sentiment.

"We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series 'Tandav' and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people," read an official statement from cast and crew of the web series.

"The web series 'Tandav' is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of 'Tandav' take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments," it further added.

Tandav, which released on January 15, features actors like Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Kumud Mishra, Sarah Jane Dias, Sandhya Mridul, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Kritika Kamra in pivotal roles. The political drama is directed by Bharat fame director Ali Abbas Zafar and written by Gaurav Solanki and Himanshu Kishan Mehra.

Also read: Tandav row: FIR filed against Amazon Prime India head, show director, writer

Also read: 'Bowled over by this delivery': Amul wishes Anushka, Virat in adorable doodle
Andrew Yang made a big splash last week as he entered the mayors race, adding a jolt of energy to a campaign season that has been relatively staid and polite until now.

Other campaigns pounced on Mr. Yang, questioning his authenticity as a New Yorker and his commitment to the city. While their digs highlighted some of his weaknesses, they also illustrated how the candidates view Mr. Yang as a threat.

The campaigns also released their fund-raising figures last week, showing which candidates are in the strongest financial position, while a former Wall Street executive known for a #MeToo complaint entered the lesser-known Republican field.

Here are some key developments in the race:

The knives are out for Yang

Even before Mr. Yang entered the race, he had already faced social media ridicule for a remark he made to The New York Times explaining his decision to leave New York City for his weekend home in the Hudson Valley early in the pandemic.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday described BJPs victory in the Shimla Municipal Corporation election as a reflection of peoples faith in development politics.

BJPs victory in the Shimla Municipal Corporation is historic & yet again reflects peoples faith in development politics...thank the people of Shimla for their support & congratulate karyakartas (workers) & leaders for their hard work, he said in a series of tweets.

The BJP today emerged as the single largest party in the civic poll, winning 17 out of 34 seats, just one short of a clear majority. The hill city will have a BJP mayor for the first time.

The Congress, which is the ruling party in Himachal Pradesh, bagged 13 seats. Independent candidates won three, while the CPI(M) managed to retain one seat.

BJP's victory in the Shimla Municipal Corporation is historic & yet again reflects people's faith in development politics.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 17, 2017

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Love was thin on the ground everywhere last week. Covid-19 spreading like wildfire, America battening down for a possible civil war, and the icy hand of our past rising like a malevolent spectre above the graves of 10,000 discarded infant remains.

It was a week where tenderness and affection were never so badly needed, but yet so hidden as to be invisible. And then, on an afternoon where gloomy winter skies matched the downbeat mood of the nation, I strayed upon a sight to lift the heart  an evocation of how love can conquer all, even in the most dire of circumstances.

Strolling idly along Corks Grattan Street I came face to face with a mural as big as it was beguiling. Celebrating one of the citys most beloved couples, the colourful gable entitled Lovebirds depicts the June 1917 wedding of Terence and Muriel MacSwiney  a love story as ardent as it was brief.
A study across New York City found that out-of-hospital sudden deaths follow the geographic distribution of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting an association between the two, investigators report in Heart Rhythm

Philadelphia, January 18, 2021 - A new study comparing the incidence of sudden deaths occurring outside the hospital across New York City's highly diverse neighborhoods with the percentage of positive SARS-CoV-19 tests found that increased sudden deaths during the pandemic correlate to the extent of virus infection in a neighborhood. The analysis appears in Heart Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society, the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, and the Pediatric & Congenital Electrophysiology Society, published by Elsevier.

"Our research shows the highly diverse regional distribution of out-of-hospital sudden death during the COVID-19 pandemic surge and follows the geographic distribution of seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2 in New York City," explains lead investigator Stavros E. Mountantonakis, MD, FHRS, Northwell Health-Lenox Hill Hospital, Department of Cardiac Electrophysiology, New York, NY, USA. "This finding adds to the previously reported association between out-of-hospital sudden death and COVID-19 presumed deaths and further supports an association between out-of-hospital sudden death and SARS-COV-2 epidemiologic burden."

The investigators collected results of all antibody tests reported to the New York City Department of Health between March 3 and August 20, 2020 for all New York City zip codes, excluding eight commercial districts. New York City requires mandatory reporting of all tests. Data from March 20 to April 22, 2020, during the height of the pandemic, were obtained from the Fire Department of New York City on the number of patients pronounced dead at the scene from sudden cardiac arrest, the classification the Department uses for out-of-hospital sudden death. For comparison, they collected data for the same period in 2019. Census data were used to examine the possible influence of factors including age, race, access to medical insurance, education, and immigration status.

The investigators found that sudden death during the pandemic varied widely among neighborhoods and there was a moderate positive association between the rate of sudden death in a neighborhood and the percentage of positive antibody tests to SARS-CoV-2. The rate of sudden death in 2019 was also predictive of increased sudden deaths in a neighborhood during the first pandemic surge in New York City.

The investigators note that it is unclear whether this association is causative, or if there are factors that affect the geographic distribution of sudden death and SARS-CoV-2 infection similarly.

Dr. Mountantonakis observes, "The epidemiological data is a direct surrogate of viral burden and indirectly associated with people dying suddenly at home. It remains to be seen whether this is due to cardiac complications related to the virus or poor access to healthcare in neighborhoods that suffered the most during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic."

These findings emphasize the importance of preserving access to healthcare, especially in neighborhoods that suffered disproportionally in the first COVID-19 pandemic wave.

Writing in an accompanying editorial, John R. Giudicessi, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, notes that regardless of the ultimate breakdown between direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 on out-of-hospital sudden death incidence, the precipitous rise in New York City and other metropolitan areas is indisputable. "It appears increasingly likely that most areas will have to endure one or more additional surges before the benefits of vaccination efforts take hold," he comments. "There is hope that maintaining safe access to routine and emergency health services, avoidance of ineffective treatment strategies, and improvements in how COVID-19 patients are monitored and treated in the outpatient setting may help reduce the incidence of out of hospital cardiac arrest and death."

###
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On this day remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., evidence exists everywhere that his lifes work is not yet done. A lifelong warrior for both civil rights for Black Americans and for better living and working conditions for poor people of every race and description, King was a social justice leader who worked for a better America all the way up until he was murdered in Memphis in April 1968.

But amid the deepening economic inequality and racial divide of our times, there are also glimpses of Kings vision coming true. For those moments of hope we are grateful today.

A striking example has been the political earthquake building over the past two years in Georgia, the state where King was born and from which he led his nonviolent movement for civil rights.

Just 26 months ago, former Georgia state lawmaker Stacey Abrams was on the losing end of a terribly close election for governor. Amid furious claims of voter suppression, which remain disputed, she stewed for a while  refusing even to formally concede, so certain that Black votes had been suppressed  but then, in the best imitation of King, she got busy.

What she accomplished since has changed the course of American history  and provided the country something it badly needs now: reason to believe that we are still on the path King set toward becoming a place where all citizens, regardless of our stations in life, have a stake in our future, a voice that can be heard and a vote that will be counted.

As Brian Kemp, the third consecutive Republican to serve as Georgia governor, was being sworn in after the 2018 election, Abrams began working with an army of fellow activists to identify Black voters whose voices had been missing in the states big elections. She helped them work around the legal and other barriers to Black participation on Election Day that are so prevalent in her state and many others in the South, including Texas.

In November, the power of those voices reverberated across America as Georgia voters famous allegiance to Republican presidential candidates  they hadnt backed a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992  was upended by a narrow victory for Democrat Joe Biden. The echoes swelled to a thunderclap this month, when Democrats outvoted Republicans in races against each of Georgias two incumbent Republican U.S. senators.

Across our state, we roared, Abrams said after the Jan. 5 victories.

The victories gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, promising to supercharge Bidens presidency.

But theyre more than partisan victories. All Americans, Democrats and Republicans, can be proud of something bigger in Georgias election outcome.

Whats inspiring, and so fitting to recall on this day, is that one of the winners is a Black man who for 15 years has been pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, once the home base for King, and who brings a radically different set of life experiences to the Capitol than the men who usually serve in the upper chamber.

Born the 11th of 12 children to parents in Savannah, including a mother who picked cotton in her youth, the fiery preacher is the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the South.

The other day, because this is America, the Rev. Raphael Warnock said after the win, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody elses cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator.

Also on Jan. 5, Georgia voters elected 33-year-old Jon Ossoff, the youngest senator since Biden more than 40 years ago. Ossoff, the son of an immigrant and one of the few Jews ever to represent the South in the Senate, beat incumbent Republican David Perdue.

Democrats began singing Abrams praises even before all the votes had been cast, so effective had been her work organizing and turning out Black voters. But the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives has insisted  credibly  that many others also deserve credit for what was a massive response to the 2018 claims of voter suppression.

Looking ahead to the 2020 election, Abrams knew she had strong backing to run for one of the two Senate seats, but instead poured her energies into a grassroots organizing effort that eventually registered upward of 800,000 new voters. These voters helped Biden and the Senate candidates win their races and send President Donald Trump into a post-election spiral.

His funk over his loss led him to call both Kemp and new Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to demand they do something to overturn the states votes or find him enough votes to win.

To their enormous credit, they bravely refused. They chose democracy, and the Constitution, over partisan politics, perhaps even at the risk of their own political careers. The president responded with personal attacks, saying he was ashamed of ever endorsing Kemp and vowing to retaliate politically.

Rarely have two such bitter rivals as Kemp and Abrams played important roles with the integrity they did in the two years following their 2018 gubernatorial race.

Democracy survives, and politics in Georgia  where opposition to civil rights has for so long been a potent tool in the pitch for conservative white voters, first among Democrats during the Jim Crow era and later for GOP voters  may never be the same.

Thats a kind of outcome Dr. King would have approved of.
I'm in favor of absolute freedom of speech. I want everybody to make whatever they want, as long as it's creative work, as long as it's their own interpretation about something. But when free speech is being used, or when a creative platform is being used for political agenda, then they will have political repercussion. There are no two ways about it.

Now, what has happened of late, is that the executives sitting in these American OTT platform offices, some of them are card-holding communists and activists, are using their political ideology to propagate the communist ideology. This is basically to embarrass the majority and to paint the majority as evil people and use religion as a tool. And that is quite visible now. This is why I've taken a stand against it.

I'm not against Tandav. I don't care whether it's banned or not, I don't want anything getting banned or boycotted. But yes, people should be aware and should be exposed that there are people sitting over there, and they are participating in a narrative war against the majority.

There is no textbook to Hinduism, there is no one God to Hinduism, there is no one belief system in Hinduism. Anybody who wants to call himself Hindu can call himself a Hindu, you don't have to convert your religion, you don't have to do anything.

Read: Tandav Controversy--Amazon Prime Gets I&B Ministry's Notice

Read: Hashtag 'Boycott Tandav' Trends on Twitter

So obviously, it is a soft target and Hindus never cared about these things. We have always made fun of our own gods and goddesses, we have made fun of our own customs and traditions. There is no law of blasphemy in Hinduism, there are no fatwas. You don't have to baptize anybody to become a Hindu.

We are very different and we believe in multiple gods and multiple faiths and beliefs. This diversity, pluralism and inclusivity have slowly given license to lots of anti-majority and anti-India forces to attack Hinduism. It has become easy. OTT platforms have also become a tool. That's why I think people are standing up against it. But I want to make it very, very clear that I'm not against Tandav. I am against the people who commission and then promote things like Tandav, which hurts the sentiment of the majority.

I'm on the board of directors of CBFC, but still, I believe there should not be any censorship to any kind of speech. But yes, there should be regulation. If there is no regulation, then it comes under monopoly, or antitrust laws, and a whole lot of problems will emerge in the future. So there should be a regulatory body for OTTs, which primarily ensures that the minds of children are not infected with violence and hate and bigotry, which ensures that our national integrity remains intact, which ensures that there is no provocation for violence and hate in the society, which right now the OTTs are doing.

This should also ensure that pornography is not sold in the name of web series, which is being done right now. Thats what I believe.

(As told to News18.com.)
Homeowners Collection features luxurious, relaxing cottages off the sparkling white-sand beaches of Floridas Gulf Coast.

Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals, Seasides largest vacation rental company, has announced its Spring Fever special savings event, available on spring trips, including those that fall on Spring Break.

The promotion provides guests 20% off any stay this spring, but stays must be booked before Feb. 1, 2021 and last for three or more consecutive nights in order to take advantage of the savings event.

Homeowners Collection features luxurious, relaxing cottages off the sparkling white-sand beaches of Floridas Gulf Coast. All residential private beaches remain open to Seaside owners and guests.

Seasides enchanting storybook atmosphere endures while the community follows health best practices and has rallied together to create creative solutions that meet the moment. Restaurants provide outdoor dining, the Seaside Amphitheater continues to be pedestrian focused with Seaside Al Fresco, and masks are required in stores.

Homeowners Collection is the largest vacation cottage rental agency in Seaside, boasting more than 115 luxury homes, such as the beautiful three-bedroom Splendor in the Sand and the iconic, single-story Key Lime. The cottages are perfect for anyone, from individuals to families.

Private vacation homes continue to be a safe travel lodging option, since visitors do not have to be with other guests in crowded public spaces. Homeowners Collection has implemented new cleaning procedures, as well as other protocols to protect guests and staff, such as its no-contact check-in.

Spring Fever savings are available now on a wide selection of more than 100 cottages, ranging from homes with one bedroom up to five-bedroom accommodations. Guests can book online and see other details at https://homeownerscollection.com/specials

About Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals

Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals is an exclusive collection of premier vacation rentals operated by the homeowners of Seaside, Florida. The company manages more than 115 vacation rentals directly in Seaside, one of Americas most celebrated beachfront communities.

For more information, call (855) 411-1557 or visit the collectives website at https://homeownerscollection.com.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan was once again exempted from making a court appearance in a case related to the poaching of two blackbucks in Jodhpur in 1998. The Radhe actor was to appear in Jodhpur court on Saturday (January 16, 2021). However, the actor skipped the hearing owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Salman's counsel Nishant Bora said, "We submitted an application seeking exemption from appearance considering the pandemic situation and the possible risk to his safety during travel. "

Sessions Judge Devendra Kacchawaha accepted the lawyer's plea and asked the superstar to appear in the court on the next date of hearing on February 6.

In 2018, a trial court in Jodhpur had convicted the Bollywood superstar for killing two blackbucks (endangered species) during the shooting of his film Hum Saath Saath Hai. He was charged with poaching the endangered antelopes under section 9/51 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Salman was sentenced to five years of imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000 by the court. Later, he was granted bail by the court after he challenged the judgement in the District and Sessions Court and sought suspension of sentence.

ALSO READ: Salman Khan's Radhe: Cinema Associations Appeal To The Superstar To Release The Film In Theatres On Eid 2021

ALSO READ: Gautam Gulati: Salman Khan Is The Only Generous Superstar; He Will Not Even Ask You Much


The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist



Congress Party (NCP) on Monday asked the government to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the purported chats between Republic TV editor-in-chief and former Broadcast Audience Research Council head Partho Dasgupta.

Referring to the purported chats widely reported in media which mentioned that Goswami was privy to the Balakot air strikes, chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, "It is extremely shocking and disturbing to know how issues related to security have been used to gain TRPs."



Tapase said he will meet Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday on the issue and seek clarification from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the 'chatgate'.

"The question also arises how Arnab was privy to such sensitive information. The Ministry of Home Affairs has to identify the source and immediately take action," he said.

Goswami has been at the forefront in maligning the image of the Mumbai police and also the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state, Tapase claimed.

"In his TV debates, he tried to give a communal angle to the Palghar incident. The Sushant Singh Rajput death case was blown out of proportion and a false narrative was set. All this was done with the sole intention to destabilise the MVA government," Tapase said.

The BJP should clarify its position on Arnab Goswami, he said.

Dasgupta, who was arrested in the fake Television Rating Point (TRP) case, is now in the ICU of state-run JJ hospital in central Mumbai.

A diabetic, he was rushed to the hospital from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai on Saturday after his blood sugar levels went up on Friday midnight.

The Mumbai police had earlier told the court that Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta with lakhs of rupees to ramp up Republic TV's viewership.

(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.)
Egypt's Minister of Defence General Mohamed Zaki received on Monday a Greek delegation headed by army chief of staff Constantinos Florus, who is on a multi-day official visit to Egypt.

The meeting tackled a number of issues of mutual interest in light of the current regional and international developments and their reflection on security and stability in the Middle East, the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman said in a statement.

They also discussed ways to enhance cooperation and military relations between the armed forces of the two countries, the statement added.

Minister Zaki expressed his appreciation for the strategic partnership between the Egyptian and Greek armed forces in various fields, particularly defence and security.

He stressed the significance of coordinating military efforts between the two countries' armed forces.

The Greek minister affirmed his country's keenness to support cooperation between the Egyptian and Greek armed forces, expressing his aspiration for further coordination to meet the common interests of the two sides, the statement added.

The Greek delegation was received at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence in the presence of Egypt's Army Chief of Staff Mohamed Farid, the statement added.

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A total of 102 COVID-19 infections in northeast China's Jilin province were transmitted by an asymptomatic case imported from the neighboring Heilongjiang province, announced a local press conference on Sunday.

The case, surnamed Lin, carried out four marketing activities for middle-aged people and the elderly in Gongzhuling and Tonghua in the province from Jan. 6 to Jan. 11. Lin's close contacts' average age is 63 years old, and the oldest is 87 years old.

Jilin on Saturday reported 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 63 asymptomatic infections, the provincial health commission said on Sunday.

As of Saturday, there were 148 confirmed locally transmitted cases and 100 asymptomatic infections in the province.
Good morning, its Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Over the weekend, the human race hit a grim milestone: The novel coronavirus that spread rapidly out of central China a year ago has now claimed 2 million lives. Thats the official tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University. When you think that Chinas government still admits to only 4,800 deaths -- in the worlds most populous nation and where this contagion originated -- the true number is almost certainly significantly higher.

In two days, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes the oath of office as the 46th U.S. president, the number of Americans felled by this pandemic will have surged past 400,000. Biden has vowed to vastly bolster the governments vaccination efforts. I pray that he follows through on that promise.

With that, Id point you to RCPs front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. Todays lineup includes Martin Luther King III (New York Times), Alveda King (Fox News), Kaitlyn Tiffany (The Atlantic), and Olivia Nuzzi (New York magazine). We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:

* * *

After Siege, Will GOP Fight Scandal-Tainted Biden Nominee? Susan Crabtree explores whether Alejandro Mayorkas, named to lead the Department of Homeland Security, will face a tough confirmation fight in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

Might Trumps Final Revenge Be a Third Party? Bill Scher outlines the history behind such a move.

RCP Takeaway Podcast. On the latest episode, Tom Bevan, Phil Wegmann, Andy Walworth and I discuss impeachment, Bidens inauguration, and other news.

Senate Shift Could Mean More Aid to States and Cities. Lou Cannon has this assessment of the prospects.

Slight Relief From Illinoiss Predatory Government. Richard Porter spotlights a hint of common sense found deep in a 764-page bill on policing and related matters passed last week.

Leaving the GOP: Why Im Now Politically Homeless. Linda Chavez writes that she remains a conservative but no longer wants anything to do with the party that enabled Donald Trumps nativist-driven populism.

Big Tech, Big Brother and the End of Free Speech. Frank Miele asserts that were witnessing a real-life sequel to Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Build Back Better Can Be Bidens American-Made Legacy. Scott Paul notes that the incoming presidents goals line up well with those of American manufacturers.

Conservatives Should Learn From the Left. Heather R. Higgins argues that organizations protesting for liberal issues are adept at deflecting blame for their bad actors.

How Art Offers Refuge From -- and a Reframing of  Unrest. Sabrina L. Schaeffer advocates an avenue for healing in troubled times, one helpful to both children and adults.

SCOTUS Can Prevent Balkanization of Climate Lawsuits. At RealClearPolicy, Thomas Fisher examines a case in which a U.S. city has sued BP for a rise in sea level as well as an increase in storms, floods, heatwaves, drought, extreme precipitation.

Polluting a River in the Name of Public Health. RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy revisits the era of London cesspits, cesspools and ill-considered sewage disposal.

* * *

Carl M. Cannon

Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics

@CarlCannon (Twitter)

ccannon@realclearpolitics.com
In Sikhs for Justice case, NGO and their source of funds come under NIA scanner

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: The National Investigation Agency is examining the role of several NGOs including Khalsa Aid in connection with the Sikhs for Justice (SJF) case.

The NIA is probing to find the financial link between the NGOs and the Sikhs for Justice which has been accused of funding these organisations. The SJF according to the agencies fund these organisations and direct them to incite violence, create hatred and also propagate the cause of Khalistan.

Sources tell OneIndia that several persons are under the scanner. Recently, the NIA files a chargesheet against a person for providing arms to pro-khalistanis who were involved in the murder of a Hindu leader.

Pro Khalistan SJF instigating Sikhs in Army, youth to rise in mutiny against India: NIA

An NIA officer said that so far they have summoned 40 persons as witnesses in connection with the SJF case. The NIA is also examining the role of the Khalsa Aid, which had recently provided foot massagers to the farmers who are sitting in protest against the three farm laws.

On Saturday, the NIA summoned Baldev Singh Sirsa, the president of the Lok Bhalai Insaf Welfare Society, one of the unions taking part in the talks with the government over the new farm laws for questioning.

The NIA will also question a UK based television journalist working for KTV for questioning. The journalist, Jasveer Singh Muktsar will be questioned on January 18.

Nobeljit Singh, a clothes shop owner from Hoshiarpur, Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu have also been summoned by the NIA for questioning.

The NIA summons is in connection with a case registered against a leader of the proscribed Sikhs for Justice (SJF). Sirsa has been summoned as a witness in the case.

The NIA has asked Sirsa to appear at the agency's headquarters in New Delhi on January 17 at 11 am..

The case was registered against SJF chief, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu for an alleged conspiracy to create an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness and also to cause disaffection in people and to incite them towards rising in rebellion against the government of India.

An NIA source said that they are probing the source of funds to several NGOs in India that were allegedly provided by the SJF. The NIA has prepared a list of such NGOs which have been allegedly receiving funds from pro-Khalistan outfits.

Sirsa is among the several persons who have been issued summons for the purpose of answer questions in the case relating to Pannu.

In its FIR, the NIA had accused Sikhs For Justice and other Khalistan outfits of entering into a conspiracy. Huge funds are being collected abroad for the on-ground propaganda against the government of India. The funds also being used to stage demonstrations outside the Indian missions at UK, Canada and USA. The funds that were collected are being sent through NGOs to pro-Khalistan elements based in India to undertake acts of terror and create fear in the minds of the people, the NIA's FIR also said.

How the pro-Khalistan Sikhs For Justice is influencing the farmers protest

The SJF leadership has planned large scale disruptive activities aimed at damaging government and private property. They also plan on disrupting supplies and services, the NIA said.

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

Further the SJF was also accused of incessant social media campaign aimed at radicalising and recruiting impressionable youth to agitate and undertake acts of terror for the creation of a separate Khalistan.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 8:37 [IST]
Citigroup Center in New York / AP-Yonhap



Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs considered strongest candidates



By Park Jae-hyuk



Attention is focusing on whether LG Energy Solution will select Citigroup Global Markets Securities as an underwriter for its planned initial public offering (IPO), despite the U.S. investment bank's close ties with SK Group, which is in fierce rivalry with LG Group in the electric vehicle (EV) battery market.



The EV battery manufacturing subsidiary of LG Chem has already decided not to send out requests for proposals (RFPs) to the underwriters for the listing of SK IE Technology (SKIET)  JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Mirae Asset Daewoo and Korea Investment & Securities  to prevent a conflict of interest, according to sources.



SKIET, which makes core components for EV batteries and flexible displays, is a subsidiary of SK Innovation which is engaging in an intensifying legal battle with LG Energy Solution in the United States over patent infringement allegations. When SKIET started procedures to go public last year, some investment banks intentionally stayed out of the deal so that they could participate in the listing of LG Energy Solution, whose valuation is estimated at up to 100 trillion won ($90 billion), much larger than SKIET's 5 trillion won valuation.



Citigroup is not taking part in the SKIET IPO, so it could be included in domestic and foreign investment banks that received RFPs from LG Energy Solution last week, along with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.



However, Citigroup's recent collaborations with SK Group may hamper it from winning the bid.



Earlier this month, it successfully advised SK Holdings and SK E&S on their combined 1.6 trillion won investment in the U.S. hydrogen fuel cell company Plug Power. Last October, Citigroup served as the adviser to SK hynix on its acquisition of Intel's NAND memory and storage business for $9 billion, the largest ever in the domestic M&A market.



In the local IPO market, Citigroup was the lead underwriter for the listing of SK Biopharmaceuticals on the KOSPI, which was one of the largest deals on the Seoul bourse last year. The investment bank is also serving as the adviser to SK Innovation on its planned sale of a part of its stake in SK lubricants.



Given Citigroup's loyalty to LG Group will likely be the core factor in selection of the underwriter for the LG Energy Solution IPO, market observers are wondering whether the conglomerate would test Citigroup's friendship with SK Group in a tender presentation scheduled for Thursday.



"Details on our IPO will be announced when the official timeline is confirmed," an LG Energy Solution spokesman said.



At this moment, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are considered the strongest candidates because they reportedly gave advice to LG Chem when it considered spinning off its EV battery business.



However, Goldman Sachs' track record in various deals involving Samsung Group is regarded as another variable, considering LG Energy Solution did not send an RFP to Samsung Securities. The nation's largest conglomerate is also engaging in the EV battery business through its subsidiary, Samsung SDI.


Transfer of Energoatom to Cabinet to allow Energy Ministry to return Ukrenergo  Shmyhal

Transfer of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom to the Cabinet of Ministers will allow the Energy Ministry to return NPC Ukrenergo and unite operators and regulators in the energy market under its coordination, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said.

"It is possible to transfer generation to the Cabinet of Ministers, and then to concentrate all operators and regulators under the coordination of the Energy Ministry. In this case, it will be able to form a policy, become a coordinator and operator of the energy market, an industry, and generation is already corporatized and managed as a state-owned business," Shmyhal told Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that in accordance with the EU's Third Energy Package, in order to avoid conflicts of interest, the manager of operators and regulators cannot manage generation.

According to him, the goal of the government is to transfer Energoatom under its control and further corporatization, similar to NJSC Naftogaz.

At the same time, he said that the transformation of Energoatom into a state-owned joint stock company does not mean its privatization.

"We are not talking about this at all," Shmyhal said.

At the same time, he said that when the company is transferred to the Cabinet of Ministers, "the Energy Ministry will be responsible for the formation of policy and operational coordination in any case."

As reported, NPC Ukrenergo is under the control of the Finance Ministry.
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Vials with a sticker reading, "COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only" and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken Oct. 31, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

US Approval of AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson Vaccines Likely Weeks Away: Fauci

A COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, and another by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, are likely weeks away from being presented to U.S. regulators for approval, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday.

Were weeks away, not months away, for sure, said Fauci, speaking on NBCs Meet The Press.

I would imagine within a period of a week or so, or at the most a couple of weeks, theyre going to be getting their data together and showing it to the [Food and Drug Administration], said the governments top infectious diseases expert.

Theyre going to have to get their data and safety monitoring board to look at it to see if it is appropriate to start, you know, essentially putting the package together to get an emergency use authorization, he added.

Operation Warp Speeds chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui previously estimated that AstraZenecas vaccine would not be authorized for emergency use in the United States until April 2021, although he said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would likely receive approval by mid February.

The United States has so far purchased 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

Currently, vaccines developed by Pfizer and German firm BioNTech, and Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are being rolled out across the country following Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

Trump administration officials had said they projected 20 million people would get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2020. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 31.1 million doses have been distributed as of Jan. 15 but just 12.2 million have been administered.

Fauci said Sunday that President-elect Joe Bidens pledge of delivering 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses within the first 100 days of his presidency is absolutely a doable thing.

What the president-elect is going to do is, where need be, to invoke the [Defense Production Act] to get the kinds of things they need, whatever they may be, be they tests, be they vaccines or what have you, he said.

In other words, to just not be hesitant to use whatever mechanisms we can to get everything on track and on the flow that we predict. But the feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear. Theres no doubt about it. That can be done.

AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine is based on an adenoviral vector that requires only refrigeration and is therefore easier to store than Pfizer and Modernas messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, which need to be stored and distributed at cold temperatures to prevent them from degrading.

Johnson & Johnsons vaccine candidate also uses an adenoviral vector. Many low- and middle-income countries are relying on this approach.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., on Jan. 6, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Radical and Benighted Ready to Step Center Stage Under Biden

Commentary

G.K. Chesterton somewhere observed that an inconvenience, looked at in the right spirit, is an adventure, not an inconvenience.

Marcus Aurelius, who encountered not a few inconveniences in the course of his reign, would doubtless have approved of that bit of stoical wisdom.

And I suppose journalists, regardless of political filiation, will come to regard our version of Paul von HindenburgJoe Big Guy Bidenas a sort of blessing.

I dont, by the way, mean to be unfair to Hindenburg. I know that there is nothing martial about the guy who is set to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, notwithstanding his turning Washington, D.C., into an armed camp for his largely virtual inauguration: A wall around the Capitol, razor wire everywhere, 21,000 troops.

Its just that in the early 1930s, Hindenburg was aged and increasingly feckless and his successorwell, the less said about that the better.

Maybe a mot attributed to Talleyrand on the occasion of a different restoration of an old order offers a better parallel: They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing, he said after the Bourbons oozed back into power.

Susan Rice, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Jake SullivanBiden really is getting the old Obama band back together.

Its the same with Obamas policies: on Iran, on China, on fossil fuels, on immigration.

First order of business for Biden? Grant citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants. Think of it, 11 million embryo Democratic voters, just waiting to be driven to a polling place, offered goodies, and instructed on whom to vote for.

Or maybe theyll just be handed a mail-in ballot (or two or three: doubtless family packs will be available).

Personnel is policy, were told. We already know what to expect from The Committees high-level appointments: Rice and Kerry are known quantities.

Were in for another round of green globalism, various high-minded but imprudent capitulations on the international scene and expensive tax-and-spend-and-tax initiatives at home.

But what about lower down the federal employment food chain?

Civil Rights

There will be many hundreds of appointments in the coming days and weeks. Two caught my eye.

Biden promised unity, so, of course, the person he tapped to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department is Kristen Clarke, who once co-authored a letter on the genetic differences between blacks and whites.

According to this letter, published in Harvards student newspaper in the 1990s, differences in cognitive ability, physical prowess, and spiritual keenness can be traced to differences in melanin levels between the races.

Melanin, she wrote, endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilitiessomething which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards.

Those darned Eurocentric standards, always getting in the way of progress.

Racism isnt the only arrow in Clarkes quiver, however. She has also demonstrated an affinity for anti-Semitism. What better qualifications to head the civil rights division of ObamasI mean, Biden-Harriss Justice Department.

China

There has been a lot of comment about Bidens fondness for China. Some wit commented that his preferred pronoun is Xi.

Be that as it may, it is almost too good to be true that Anita Dunn will be returning to the White House as a senior adviser.

Remember Dunn? She was also, briefly, a senior adviser for Barack Obama. The brevity of her tenure can be blamed on the former Fox News commenter Glenn Beck, who publicized the fact that Dunn regards Mao Zedong as one of her favorite political philosophers.

Mao, she said in a speech, was one of the two people I turn to most for answers to important questions like how to do things that have never been done before.

The other paragon, by the way, was Mother Teresa. Dunn didnt have much to say about her.

But she waxed enthusiastic about Mao.

That would be the same Mao who, quite apart from his disgusting personal life, engineered the mass murder of anywhere from 50 million to more than 100 million people.

Estimates vary so widely because murder on that wholesale scale is difficult to tabulate, especially in a country as backward as China was under Maos long reign.

But there is little doubt that Mao has the grisly distinction of being the greatest mass murderer in history.

Dunn calls Mao a political philosopher.

In fact, as a real philosopher, the late, great Leszek Kolakowski, understood, Maos real achievement was as one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, manipulator of large masses of human beings in the twentieth century.

Maos violent peasant revolution mouthed Marxist slogans, but, at its core, was less Marxist than a particularly rebarbative form of anarchic and anti-intellectual tyranny.

The obfuscation of Western admirers of Chinese Communism, Kolakowski observes toward the end of his magnum opus, Main Currents of Marxism, is scarcely believable. I wish he were still here for Dunn.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many American universities, along with some other Western redoubts of privilege and irresponsibility, harbored a few deluded characters who declared themselves Maoists and were fond of toting around his pathetic compendium of absurdity, The Little Red Book.

These creatures were the sorriest detritus of our own cultural revolution. Some destroyed themselves. Others grew up, in whole or part, and were absorbed by a rich and forgiving society into the tissues of American life.

Only now is it clear that some of the most radical and benighted have subsisted long enough in the outer corridors of power to find themselves suddenly translated into its inner sanctum, the White House and other top agencies of the U.S. government.

Its an eventuality that would be risible were it not repulsive and, indeed, frightening.

Roger Kimball is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books. His most recent book is Who Rules? Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Fate of Freedom in the 21st Century.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.


External Article

15 January 2021

The Best Western Hotel in the London suburb of Croydon would normally be packed with visiting families, out-of-town construction workers, and business travelers.

But today the lobby is clear of all guests and furniture except for a single table with a bottle of hand sanitizer, a box of face masks and a notice that reads, "Coughs and sneezes spread disease."A four-foot machine emblazoned with the phrase "Viruskiller" whirs behind the empty check-in counter.This 107-room inn is now a recovery ward for coronavirus patients, as part of a pilot program to relieve local hospitals that are under enormous strain in the second wave of the pandemic.The hotel's manager Alex Palaghiu said the transition from 4-star hotel to makeshift medical facility was driven by the need to help the country's ailing National Health Service (NHS)."We are very proud to be part of this, so it's a very good feeling to be a part of something," he said, "I believe everyone should get together to support the NHS and save lives."This is the first hotel in the UK to take part in the scheme, but if successful, it could be a model for converting more of the hospitality industry's spare rooms, many of which lie empty amid the country's lockdown.
Listen to article

Following the directive on school resumption, the Muslim Students' Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Area Unit has advised governments across all levels to be cautious of the risk of coronavirus resurgence in the country.

The Amir of MSSN Lagos State Area Unit, Miftahudeen Thanni, gave the advice in a press statement on Monday.

He specifically urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to ensure that coronavirus guidelines are implemented in schools.

Recall that despite being an epicentre, with the highest number of COVID-19 cases Nigeria, Lagos State Government had approved that all public and private schools in the State below tertiary level should resume on Monday, 18th January, 2021, for the second term 2020/2021 academic session.

However, Thanni also implored the state government to embrace digital schooling in order to reduce the risk of virus.

Thanni urged parents and guardians to monitor the activities of their wards closely during this period.

He implored teachers and other principal officers to ensure precautionary measures against COVID-19 put in place by school and government are adhered to.

Meanwhile, the MSSNLagos has joined other Muslim communities to commiserate with the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakr Sa'd, over the demise of his younger brother, Abdulkadir Jeli Abubakar III.

Until his death, Abdulkadir was a serving Commissioner for Home Affairs in Sokoto State.

The leadership of the student body admonished the bereaved to remain steadfast and encourage other members of the family to imbibe the teachings of Islam in this unusual moment in life.

"It is our prayer that Allah showers His all-encompassing blessing on the departed soul," Thanni said.

He also warned against religious incitement in any form, whatsoever as witnessed in some quarters, saying, "This must henceforth stop because it will do us no good other than to disunite us as a nation."

The student leader also implored the people of Sango Kataf and Southern Kaduna "to sue for peace to forestall the recurrence of social unrest in that environment".

He, however, exhorts the government to "beef up its security in the area and try to put an end to the varieties of crimes that are on the increase in our society".

Signed

Miftahudeen Thanni

Amir (President),

Muslim Students'Society of Nigeria

Lagos State Area Unit
LOS ANGELES : A 36-year-old Indian-origin man who was too scared to fly due to the coronavirus pandemic and lived undetected for nearly three months in a secure area of Chicago's international airport has been arrested, US authorities said.

Aditya Singh lives in a suburb of Los Angeles, California, was arrested on Saturday for living in a secure area at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport since October 19, the Chicago Tribune reported on Sunday.

Singh has been charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanour theft, the report said.

Prosecutors told a court that Singh arrived at OHare on a flight from Los Angeles on October 19 and allegedly has lived in the airport's security zone ever since, without detection.

Singh was arrested after two United Airlines staff asked him to produce his identification. He showed them a badge, but it reportedly belonged to an operations manager who reported it missing in October.

He reportedly found the staff badge in the airport and was "scared to go home due to COVID", Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hagerty said.

The airline employees called 911. Police took Singh into custody on Saturday morning in Terminal 2 near Gate F12.

Singh managed to live on handouts from other passengers, Hagerty told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz.

The judge expressed surprise at the circumstances of the case, the report said.

So if I understand you correctly, youre telling me that an unauthorised, non-employee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the OHare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected? I want to understand you correctly," Ortiz said.

Singh lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Orange with roommates and does not have a criminal background, according to Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood. She said Singh has a master's degree in hospitality and is unemployed.

Smallwood acknowledged the circumstances were unusual but noted the allegations were non-violent.

It was unclear what brought Singh to Chicago, the report said.

Singh has been barred from entering the airport if he is able to post the USD 1,000 for bail. He is due back in court on January 27.

The court finds these facts and circumstances quite shocking for the alleged period of time that this occurred," the judge said.

Being in a secured part of the airport under a fake ID badge allegedly, based upon the need for airports to be absolutely secure so that people feel safe to travel, I do find those alleged actions do make him a danger to the community," Ortiz said.

The Chicago Department of Aviation, which oversees the city's airports, said in a statement: "While this incident remains under investigation, we have been able to determine that this gentleman did not pose a security risk to the airport or to the travelling public."

The US is the worst-affected country in the world with more than 23,937,000 Covid-19 infections and 397,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus tracker. The US state of California is currently witnessing a surge in infections.

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"The 2020 Piaba underground drill program delivered exceptional results, with 96% of the holes intersecting significant gold mineralization. Drilling extended over 3 km of strike of the currently 4 km-long Piaba deposit and tested depths up to 1 km below surface," said Scott Heffernan, EVP Exploration for Equinox Gold. "These results further strengthen the Company's conviction that the Piaba underground deposit presents a substantial opportunity to both extend the mine life and increase annual production at Aurizona. Drilling at the Genipapo target also continues to demonstrate the potential to define open-pit, near-surface saprolite resources that could further extend the Aurizona mine life.

"The Company has planned a $7.3 million exploration program for 2021 at Aurizona, including 49,000 metres of drilling, with the objective of further expanding the Piaba resource and advancing the numerous high-priority, high-potential near-mine and regional targets in the Aurizona district. In addition, a prefeasibility study is underway to assess the potential to operate an underground mine concurrent with the existing open-pit mine, with completion of the study targeted for late 2021."

Piaba Drill Highlights1 (Figure 1)

5.56 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 24.0 metres ("m") including 9.85 g/t Au over 11.0 m in D696

in D696 96.8 g/t Au over 1.0 m in D698

in D698 4.18 g/t Au over 11.0 m and 6.15 g/t Au over 11.0 m including 55.3 g/t Au over 1.0 m in D708

and 6.15 g/t Au over including 55.3 g/t Au over in D708 2.58 g/t Au over 19.2 m in D713

in D713 8.24 g/t Au over 6.0 m and 3.43 g/t Au over 15.0 m in D722

and 3.43 g/t Au over in D722 3.62 g/t Au over 9.0 m and 4.42 g/t Au over 11.0 m in D730

and 4.42 g/t Au over in D730 4.35 g/t Au over 37.0 m including 7.16 g/t Au over 10.0 m in D737

including 7.16 g/t Au over in D737 9.10 g/t Au over 6.0 m in D742

Genipapo Drill Highlights1 (Figure 3)

1.43 g/t Au over 25.0 m and 1.41 g/t Au over 90.0 m including 11.0 g/t Au over 4.0 m in P630

and 1.41 g/t Au over including 11.0 g/t Au over in P630 3.15 g/t Au over 19.0 m including 6.22 g/t Au over 9.0 m in P631

including 6.22 g/t Au over in P631 1.10 g/t Au over 20.0 m in P638

in P638 1.63 g/t Au over 17.0 m in P650

in P650 17.7 g/t Au over 5.0 m in P662

For a complete table of Piaba UG drill results, click here

For a complete table of Genipapo drill results, click here

___________________________ 1 Core lengths not corrected to true widths; assays are not capped.

Piaba Underground Deposit

A total of 23,916 m in 52 holes (Figure 1) were drilled in 2020 to increase confidence in the continuity of mineralization, expand the underground mineral resources and upgrade the classification of the resources from Inferred to Indicated to support completion of the prefeasibility study. Every hole intersected gold mineralization and 47 of the 49 holes, for which assays have been received thus far, intersected significant gold mineralization. The 2020 drill program tested the deposit to depths of 1,000 m below surface and results to date have shown that the deposit remains open at depth (Figure 2).

Figure 1  Piaba Underground Drilling Highlights

Figure 2  Piaba Deposit Long Section (looking north)

Genipapo Deposit

Genipapo, located approximately 1 km east northeast of the existing Piaba open-pit mine, is the most advanced of three targets including Micote and Mestre Chico that potentially host a series of smaller, near-surface deposits (Figure 3). Three phases of reverse circulation ("RC") drilling (5,489 m in 74 holes) were completed at Genipapo in 2020 to follow up on drilling discoveries made in 2018. Results continue to demonstrate the potential to develop Genipapo as open-pit feed for the Piaba mill. Results of the first two phases of drilling (3,331 m in 50 holes) are included in this press release, with results from the third phase of work pending.

Figure 3  Genipapo Drilling Highlights

About Equinox Gold

Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with seven operating gold mines and construction underway at an eighth site, a multi-million-ounce gold reserve base and a clear path to achieve one million ounces of annual gold production from a pipeline of development and expansion projects. Equinox Gold operates entirely in the Americas, with two properties in the United States, one in Mexico and five in Brazil. Equinox Gold's common shares are listed on the TSX and the NYSE American under the trading symbol EQX. Further information about Equinox Gold's portfolio of assets and long-term growth strategy is available at www.equinoxgold.com or by email at [email protected].

Qualified Person and Disclosure Statement

Scott Heffernan, M.Sc., P.Geo., the Company's EVP Exploration and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. Drill composites for underground targets were calculated using cut-off values of 1.0 g/t, 3.0 g/t or 10.0 g/t gold as specified in the drill table and contain no more than 3 metres of internal waste. Drill composites for open-pit targets were calculated using cut-off values of 0.3 g/t, 1.0 g/t or 5.0 g/t gold as specified in the drill table and contain no more than 5 metres of internal waste. Drill intersections are calculated using uncut assays and are reported as drilled thicknesses. True widths of the mineralized intervals are interpreted to be 60 to 90 percent of the reported lengths depending on the angle of intersection of the drill hole relative to the mineralized zone. The Company maintains a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program at Aurizona that follows industry best practices and is consistent with QA/QC protocols used by each of the Company's exploration and development projects. All samples were submitted to ALS Chemex in Belo Horizonte, Brazil for sample preparation. Sample pulps were then sent to ALS Chemex in Lima, Peru for geochemical analysis for gold by fire assay of a 30-gram charge with an Atomic Absorption finish (AA) and for a 33 multi-element geochemical suite by 4-acid digestion and Inductively-Coupled Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Samples with AA gold values over 10.0 g/t are re-assayed by Screen Metallics fire assay. Control samples (accredited standards, blanks and duplicate samples at the field and preparation stages) were inserted on a regular basis. Results were monitored upon receipt of assays.

Cautionary Notes and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation and may include future-oriented financial information. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this news release relate to, among other things statements regarding planned exploration at Aurizona and the Company's ability to successfully converted Inferred Resources to a higher category; the Company's plans to complete a prefeasibility study for Aurizona; the Company's growth potential, including its ability to increase production or extend the Aurizona mine life; and the Company's ability to successfully advance its exploration, growth and development projects, including its ability to successfully operate an underground mine concurrent with the existing open-pit mine at Aurizona. Forward-looking statements or information generally identified by the use of the words "will", "continue", "expected", "expectations", "potential", "estimate", "further" and similar expressions and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "could", "would" or "should", or the negative connotation of such terms, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The Company has based these forward-looking statements and information on the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and these assumptions include: prices for gold remaining as estimated; currency exchange rates remaining as estimated; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; no labour-related disruptions and no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled exploration, construction, development and production, including by blockade; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals are received in a timely manner; and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release.

The Company cautions that forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in gold prices; fluctuations in prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; fluctuations in currency markets; operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mining (including environmental accidents and hazards, industrial accidents, equipment breakdown, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, cave-ins, flooding and severe weather); inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks and hazards; employee relations; relationships with, and claims by, local communities and indigenous populations; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in a timely manner or at all; changes in laws, regulations and government practices, including environmental, export and import laws and regulations; legal restrictions relating to mining including those imposed in connection with COVID-19; risks relating to expropriation; increased competition in the mining industry; and those factors identified in the Company's MD&A dated February 28, 2020 and its Annual Information Form dated May 13, 2020, both of which relate to the year-ended December 31, 2019, and in the Company's MD&A dated November 5, 2020 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, all of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar. Forward-looking statements and information are designed to help readers understand management's views as of that time with respect to future events and speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement or information contained or incorporated by reference to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements and information. If the Company updates any one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Equinox Gold Corp.
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Robin Williams described Canada as 'like a loft apartment over a really great party'.

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An incredible image by James showing the 10 craggy peaks that form the awe-inspiring Valley of the Ten Peaks in Banff National Park, Alberta. Each one stands over 10,000ft (3,048m) tall. The road that James stood beside to take the photograph leads to the breathtaking Moraine Lake, which together with the peaks forms a scene that according to National Geographic is known by locals as the '20-dollar view' - because from 1969 to 1979 the lake and the mountain backdrop appeared on the back of the Canadian $20 bill

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An amazing shot of a snowy Mount Slesse, which stands 8,001ft (2,439m) tall in the Cascade Mountains, just north of the US/Canadian border in British Columbia. James posted this shot to his Instagram account with one follower remarking 'awesome work here' and another saying 'yet another epic shot'
A man who described himself as a radical leftist was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last Friday, Jan. 15, for plotting to hurt President Donald Trump's supporters who might show up at the Florida's capitol in line with the upcoming inauguration of former Vice President Joseph Biden.

The Blaze reported that the FBI filed criminal charges against Daniel Alan Baker for planning to recruit people to violently attack pro-Trump protesters who will assemble at the Tallahassee Capitol, accU.S.ing him of calling "to arms for like-minded individuals to violently confront" them.

FBI also alerted on Sunday state and local officials on possible violent protests as flow over of the U.S. Capitol rioting last Jan. 6.

According to The Blaze, Baker was a former U.S. veteran who served in the Airborne infantry before he was kicked out for being absent without leave. He then fought with the Kurdish YPG militia and was found by state prosecutors to have attempts in purchasing firearms for the Florida Capitol planned attack.

The Tamba Bay Times added that Baker went AWOL when he was about to be deployed to Iraq during after one year stint in the army in 2007. He became homeless after this in 2008 to 2017 when he occasionally became a security guard. He then joined a the militia group People's Protection Unit of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in 2017 to fight against ISIS in Syria.

In addition, Tampa Bay Times said that Baker was online recruiting since October looking for "like-minded" people" and eventually made a "call for arms Jan. 20th" to "fight back" against "racist mobs" at the Tallahassee Capitol to "drive them out of Tallahassee with every caliber available" after Jan. 6.

"The law-abiding public is safer now that he has been arrested," U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Lawrence Keefe announced.

"We are, and will remain, on high alert and will take all appropriate actions against credible threats," he added. "Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped."

In line with the FBI alert, Tampa Bay Times reported that law enforcements in Florida have heightened security measures to the extent of closing their country courthouse and City Hall in the event that preparations will be made in line with violent demonstrations besides postponing their Martin Luther King Day parade that normally is held annually. Employees of the Capitol were even asked by Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson to work from home because of this.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported that roughly 150 pro-Trump supporters also rallied in the Florida Capitol alongside the U.S. Capitol rally but it was a peaceful one. The said group joined the U.S. Capitol group in protest of the 2020 presidential election results and in prayer before they broke off afterwards.

The FBI actually has been conducting a series of arrests across the United States based on the intelligence reports they gathered the violent rallies will be held by groups in the week of the inauguration of former Vice President Joseph Biden into the presidency.

"In that vein, we and our partners have already arrested more than 100 individuals for their criminal activities in last week's siege of the Capitol and continue to pursue countless other related investigations. Those help not only prevent those individuals from any effort to repeat that kind of activity, but also should serve as a very stern warning to anybody else who might be inclined to try to engage in that activity," the FBI said in their website press release.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Meat exports from UK still facing delays, warns BMPA

UK meat exporters are continuing to face severe problems at EU customs posts, industry body The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has claimed, two weeks after the new Brexit regime came into force.

The BMPA said it is hearing first-hand reports from meat companies and hauliers of "serious cracks in the customs system" and that a "plethora of problems" linked to customs delays are causing meat firms to lose orders and have consignments returned undelivered.

The problems, linked to additional paperwork and new systems following the UK's departure from the EU, can no longer be put down to teething troubles, the BMPA suggested. It said the customs issues are now "causing a serious and sustained loss of trade with our biggest export partner".

It said fresh food exports such as meat are suffering most.

"Alongside seafood, fresh meat is one of the most time critical perishable products. Every hour a lorry load of meat is delayed increases the chance of that order either being reduced in price, cancelled and returned or, in the most severe cases, thrown away and ending up in landfill," the BMPA said.

Nick Allen, the organisation's CEO, said: "One of our members reported on 11 January that he had six lorry loads of product, valued at around GBP300,000 (US$407,083) all waiting for customs clearance into the Republic of Ireland. At the time, one of those loads was about to be returned to the processing company after waiting five days for clearance. Drivers have been reporting long delays as they wait for [UK customs body] HMRC to process the customs documents."

The BMPA is calling for the customs and certification system to be modernised and digitised, calling the existing paper-based system a "relic from the last century and simply not fit for purpose".

Allen said: "It was never designed to cope with the kind of integrated, just-in-time supply chain we have built up over the last 40 years and, if not fixed quickly, it will be the thing that starts to dismantle the European trade British companies have fought so hard to win."

The BMPA is also concerned that worse is to come because export levels have been light.

It said: "For the first two weeks of January most [British] companies deliberately cut the trade they do with the EU and Northern Ireland down to a very low level  on average 20% of normal volumes. This was so they could tentatively test out the new system. But even at these low volumes, there have been catastrophic delays for perishable products.

"The worry is that these companies will need to return to normal volumes from this week but will likely get caught up in a second wave of border chaos caused by a flood of other industries ramping up exports at the same time."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged last week there had been some "teething problems" so far in the implementation of the new exporting rules but also said that "goods are flowing effectively and in normal volumes".

just-food has asked the UK's Department for International Trade for a response to the BMPA's latest comments.

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Krissy Williams, pictured with her brother, lives with schizophrenia. The disruption to her school and health services caused by COVID-19 worsened her mental health. In October, she tried to take her own life. (Patricia Williams)

Childrens Hospitals Grapple With Wave of Mental Illness

Social distancing directly interferes with the social connection at the heart of many therapies

Krissy Williams, 15, had attempted suicide before, but never with pills.

The teen was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was 9. People with this chronic mental health condition perceive reality differently and often experience hallucinations and delusions. She learned to manage these symptoms with a variety of services offered at home and at school.

But the pandemic upended those lifelines. She lost much of the support offered at school. She also lost regular contact with her peers. Her mother lost access to respite carewhich allowed her to take a break.

On a Thursday in October, the isolation and sadness came to a head. As Krissys mother, Patricia Williams, called a mental crisis hotline for help, she said, Krissy stood on the deck of their Maryland home with a bottle of pain medication in one hand and water in the other.

Before Patricia could react, Krissy placed the pills in her mouth and swallowed.

Efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States have led to drastic changes in the way children and teens learn, play, and socialize. Tens of millions of students are attending school through some form of distance learning. Many extracurricular activities have been canceled. Playgrounds, zoos, and other recreational spaces have closed. Kids like Krissy have struggled to cope, and the toll is becoming evident.

Government figures show the proportion of children who arrived in emergency departments with mental health issues increased 24 percent from mid-March through mid-October, compared with the same period in 2019. Among preteens and adolescents, it rose by 31 percent. Anecdotally, some hospitals said theyre seeing more cases of severe depression and suicidal thoughts among children, particularly attempts to overdose.

The increased demand for intensive mental health care that has accompanied the pandemic has worsened issues that have long plagued the system. In some hospitals, the number of children unable to immediately get a bed in the psychiatric unit rose. Others reduced the number of beds or closed psychiatric units altogether to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Its only a matter of time before a tsunami sort of reaches the shore of our service system, and its going to be overwhelmed with the mental health needs of kids, said Jason Williams, a psychologist, and director of operations of the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Childrens Hospital Colorado.

I think were just starting to see the tip of the iceberg, to be honest with you.

Before COVID, more than 8 million kids between ages 3 and 17 were diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health condition, according to the most recent National Survey of Childrens Health. A separate survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 1 in 3 high school students in 2019 reported feeling persistently sad and hopelessa 40 percent increase from 2009.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be adding to these difficulties. A review of 80 studies found that forced isolation and loneliness among children correlated with an increased risk of depression.

Were all social beings, but theyre [teenagers] at the point in their development where their peers are their reality, said Terrie Andrews, a psychologist and administrator of behavioral health at Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Florida. Their peers are their grounding mechanism.

Childrens hospitals in New York, Colorado, and Missouri all reported an uptick in the number of patients who thought about or attempted suicide. Clinicians also mentioned spikes in children with severe depression and those with autism who are acting out.

The number of overdose attempts among children has caught the attention of clinicians at two facilities. Andrews from Wolfson Childrens said the facility gives out lockboxes for weapons and medication to the publicincluding parents who come in after children attempted to take their life using medication.

Childrens National Hospital in Washington, D.C., also has experienced an uptick, said Dr. Colby Tyson, associate director of inpatient psychiatry. Shes seen childrens mental health deteriorate due to a likely increase in family conflictoften a consequence of the chaos caused by the pandemic. Without school, connections with peers, or employment, families dont have the opportunity to spend time away from one another and regroup, which can add stress to an already tense situation.

That break is gone, she said.

The higher demand for child mental health services caused by the pandemic has made finding a bed at an inpatient unit more difficult.

Now some hospitals report running at full capacity and having more children boarding, or sleeping in emergency departments before being admitted to the psychiatric unit. Among them is the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Childrens Hospital Colorado. Williams said the inpatient unit has been full since March. Some children now wait nearly two days for a bed, up from the eight to 10 hours common before the pandemic.

Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Ohio is also running at full capacity, according to clinicians, and had several days in which the unit was above capacity and placed kids in the emergency department as they waited to be admitted. In Florida, Andrews said, up to 25 children have been held on surgical floors at Wolfson Childrens while waiting for a spot to open in the inpatient psychiatric unit. Their wait could last as long as five days, she said.

Multiple hospitals said the usual summer slump in child psychiatric admissions was missing last year. We never saw that during the pandemic, said Andrews. We stayed completely busy the entire time.

Some facilities have decided to reduce the number of beds available to maintain physical distancing, further constricting supply. Childrens National in D.C. cut five beds from its unit to maintain single occupancy in every room, said Dr. Adelaide Robb, division chief of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

The measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 have also affected the way hospitalized children receive mental health services. In addition to providers wearing protective equipment, some hospitals like Cincinnati Childrens rearranged furniture and placed cues on the floor as reminders to stay 6 feet apart. UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in Pittsburgh and other facilities encourage children to keep their masks on by offering rewards like extra computer time. Patients at Childrens National now eat in their rooms, a change from when they ate together.

Despite the need for distance, social interaction still represents an important part of mental health care for children, clinicians said. Facilities have come up with various ways to do so safely, including creating smaller pods for group therapy. Kids at Cincinnati Childrens can play with toys, but only with ones that can be wiped clean afterward. No cards or board games, said Dr. Suzanne Sampang, clinical medical director for child and adolescent psychiatry at the hospital.

I think whats different about psychiatric treatment is that, really, interaction is the treatment, she said, just as much as a medication.

The added infection-control precautions pose challenges to forging therapeutic connections. Masks can complicate the ability to read a persons face. Online meetings make it difficult to build trust between a patient and a therapist.

Theres something about the real relationship in person that the best technology cant give to you, said Robb.

For now, Krissy is relying on virtual platforms to receive some of her mental health services. Despite being hospitalized and suffering brain damage due to the overdose, she is now at home and in good spirits. She still has fun, like trying to beat her mother at Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. But being away from her friends, she said, has been a hard adjustment.

When youre used to something, she said, its not easy to change everything.

If you have contemplated suicide or someone you know has talked about it, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or use the online Lifeline Crisis Chat, both available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Carmen Heredia Rodriguez is a reporter for Kaiser Health News, which first published this article. KHNs coverage of these topics is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation.
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Four policemen have been killed and one officer kidnapped in an ambush on a police convoy by bandits along Birnin-Gwari Funtua Highway in Kano.

Authorities say sixteen (16) officers were attacked in the ambush which happened on Friday, 15th January 2021.

The officers who are personnel attached to Operation Puff Adder were deployed to Niger State in the sustained operation to reclaim public space and tackle incidents of banditry, kidnapping, and other violent crimes in the area.

According to a communique by the police spokesman, CP Frank Mba, the officers were heading back to their base in Kano after the completion of their special duty when they were ambushed.

CP Mba noted on Sunday that a fierce gun-battle ensued, leading to the death of the four officers whose names were not disclosed.

Mr. Mba said contrary to unconfirmed reports in some sections of the media stating that eighteen (18) officers were kidnapped, only sixteen were attacked and eleven successfully repelled the attack accordingly and neutralized the bandits in their tens while many of the bandits scampered into the bush with gunshot injuries.

He further revealed that the eleven officers led by their Unit Commander successfully recovered the bodies and firearms of their fallen colleagues while concerted efforts are being intensified to rescue the officer still missing.

The police image-maker said the Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu has commended the police officers attached to the Police Mobile Force  9 PMF Squadron in Kano for displaying uncommon gallantry and repelling the attack on their convoy.

According to Mr. Mba's statement, the IGP, while commiserating with the families of the officers who have yet again paid the supreme price in the service of the nation, assured that their death shall not be in vain.

The IGP further assured citizens that the Force is not deterred and will not relent in its commitment to delivering on its mandate and ensuring that all activities of bandits and other unscrupulous elements in the area and other parts of the country are brought to check.
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
EASTON, Pa., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Contract furniture dealers and interior designers now have a new choice when it comes to selecting workplace product solutions. HAT Collective, a fresh brand with a broad range of products that empower people to work the way they want, officially launches today in North America.

HAT Collective offers a wide range of work-from-home product solutions that empower workers to work the way they want. HAT Collective's broad product portfolio of fixed, mobile and adaptable workplace products, available with customizable solutions, support worker productivity, wellness and happiness.

The HAT Collective brand unifies a range of office product solutions from several well-established industry brands, including HAT Contract, a leading provider of quick-ship height-adjustable tables; SiS Ergo, a Danish designer and manufacturer of European-designed, customizable workplace solutions; and Innovative, a market-leading manufacturer of ergonomic monitor arms.

HAT Collective's broad product portfolio is defined by a sophisticated design aesthetic and a focus on ergonomics, both of which support worker health, productivity and happiness. Product lines range from height-adjustable workstations and ergonomic monitor arms to storage units, safety and noise-cancellation dividers and accessories, all available in fixed, adaptable or mobile formats. Competitively-priced, available for quick-shipping and with easy customization capabilities, HAT Collective provides customers with an array of options. Workers now have the unique flexibility to choose the workspace solution that best meets their needs  whether that's at a traditional office workplace or at home; sitting or standing; collaboratively or individually. The new brand's extensive product portfolio enables dealers and designers to create timeless, functional, sleek and uniformed workspaces.

HAT Collective will build upon the "easy-to-do-business-with" philosophy, a hallmark carried over from its legacy product line brands. The collection offers a "one-stop" simplified purchasing and ordering process for dealers, along with complementary services for space planning, design and installation. It also offers a unique e-commerce solution called HomeWork, which is tailor-made for dealers to address and offer solutions for their customers' work-from-home needs. Product design, manufacturing and fulfillment are supported by operations in Easton, Pa., San Jose, Calif., Denmark and Asia, along with warehouses on the east and west coasts of the United States.

The new HAT Collective website, www.hatcollective.com , matches the brand's ethos. Its elegant design, fresh look and an intuitive user experience allow visitors to easily explore all product and service offerings. The website's configuration product tool, paired with a variety of inspirational images, helps end-users envision the solutions they want.

Customers can also locate local sales representatives, create quotes, view warranty information, download environmental certifications and much more. Industry professionals can experience the brand first-hand through six HAT Collective showrooms in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Irvine, Calif., and Santa Clara, Calif.

"HAT Collective is revolutionizing the contract office market," said Dave Fox, CEO of Innovative Ergonomic Solutions, the parent company of HAT Collective. "The pandemic has proven how much the marketplace needs well-designed, price-accessible, commercial-grade workplace solutions that enable individuals of all generations to choose how and where they want to work. At the same time, our customers want a partner that is quick to respond, solutions-oriented and easy to do business with on all fronts. With HAT Collective, we are creating a new experience with a diversity of products and services  all under one new exciting brand."

The HAT Collective brand logo, while uniquely distinct, pays homage to the SiS Ergo and HAT Contract product lines. Clean, thin lines speak to the efficiency of the Scandinavian design, a nod to SiS Ergo's Danish design roots. The logo itself is an abstract image composed of the letters that form the word "HAT," the acronym associated with HAT Contract's "height adjustable tables."

To celebrate and support its launch, HAT Collective will be introducing new products, educational webinars, Continuing Education Unit presentations and other initiatives throughout 2021.

For more information, please visit www.HATCollective.com

About HAT Collective

HAT Collective specializes in design-forward, ergonomic, and highly customizable workspace solutions for the contract furniture market. Our sophisticated product lines showcase craftsmanship and design innovation, effectively improving wellness and increasing productivity. Whether you prefer mobile, adaptable or stationary solutions, HAT Collective empowers you to create your ideal workspace. In addition to product excellence, we are always working to make life easier for our network of dealers. We prioritize quick shipping, customer service, and exceptional levels of support. At HAT Collective, we remain committed to excellence and affordability. In the traditional office or the home office, sitting or standing, together or at a distance, our refined product collection lets you work your way. HAT Collective's parent company, Innovative Ergonomic Solutions (IES), maintains its headquarters in Easton, Pa., with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Denmark and Asia. The brand also operates six showrooms across the U.S. HAT Collective is one of several brands from IES. More information can be found at www.hatcollective.com.

About Innovative Ergonomic Solutions

Innovative Ergonomic Solutions (IES) is a collection of inventive brands focused on ergonomic workspace products and services that improve the health, wellness and productivity of users across a multitude of environments. IES serves a broad range of channels and markets including both corporate and home office, healthcare, government and point-of-sale. IES is committed to product excellence and supporting the growth of ergonomics across North America, Europe, and Asia. IES is backed by its management team and Cathay Capital, a unique global investment platform supporting domestic and international expansion of its partner companies with worldwide resources. IES is headquartered in Easton, Pa., where it designs and assembles a majority of products, with international manufacturing and distribution capabilities from California to Denmark to Shanghai. More information is available at www.team-ies.com.

Editor Notes:

Downloadable HAT Collective images are available at the HAT Collective Image Library

A HAT Collective brand video is available at: www.hatcollective.com

Media Contacts: Libby Ferin Matt Spaulding Vice President of Marketing President Innovative Ergonomic Solutions Spaulding Communications [email protected] [email protected] c: 616-292-3630 c: 404-324-6031

SOURCE HAT Collective
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Candente Gold Corp. (TSXV:CDG) (Candente Gold and/or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company will change its name to Xali Gold Corp. on Tuesday January 19th, 2021. The new trading symbol will be XGC, CUSIP number will be 98387F103 and ISIN will be CA98387F1036. The website will also be changed to www.xaligold.com.



In addition, the Company advises that a total of 3,200,000 incentive stock options (the Options) have been granted to directors, senior officers, employees and consultants, as recommended by the Company's Compensation and Governance Committee. Of the total options granted: 1,200,000 have been granted to senior officers; 1,000,000 to directors and 1,000,000 to consultants.

The Options will vest 25% every six months and will have five-year terms until January 18th, 2026, at an exercise price of $0.05 and are subject to the terms and conditions of the Company's incentive stock option plan.

Following this grant of stock options, the Company has a total of 10,700,000 stock options outstanding representing approximately 9% of the outstanding common shares of the Company. The grant of Options is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. The common shares issuable upon exercise of the Options are subject to a hold period which will expire on May 19th, 2021.

About Candente Gold

Candente Gold has launched a comprehensive growth strategy to build a cash flowing business platform and gain access to properties with near surface exploration potential while maintaining El Oro as its flagship asset and an integral part of the overall growth strategy. The acquisition of the SDA Plant, the El Dorado historic mines and the Cocula Project signify important initial steps.

The financial benefits from Western Mexico operations and the addition of specialized personnel will translate across platforms to strengthen the Companys efforts to explore and potentially mine areas demonstrated to contain mineralization of value. The Company is currently evaluating other properties that are complementary to the SDA plant, El Dorado and the Cocula Project.



El Oro is a district scale gold project encompassing a well-known prolific high-grade gold dominant gold-silver epithermal vein system in Mexico. The project covers 20 veins with past production and more than 57 veins in total, from which approximately 6.4 million ounces of gold and 74 million ounces of silver were reported to have been produced from just two of these veins (Ref. Mexico Geological Service Bulletin No. 37, Mining of the El Oro and Tlapujahua Districts. 1920, T. Flores*)

Modern understanding of epithermal vein systems indicates that several of the El Oro districts veins hold excellent discovery potential, particularly below and adjacent to the historic workings of the San Rafael Vein, which was mined to an average depth of only 200 metres.

Joanne C. Freeze, P.Geo., President, CEO and Director and Matthew Melnyk, CPG., Director Operations and Director are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the projects discussed above, however, they have not been able to visit the El Dorado or Cocula Projects nor the SDA Plant recently due to COVID virus travel restrictions. The work discussed in the News Release is either historical and documented by public records or conducted by Mexican professionals with qualifications similar to those of QPs registered in Canada. Ms. Freeze and Mr. Melnyk have reviewed and approved the contents of this release.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Candente Gold is dedicated to being a responsible Community partner.

Forward-looking Information

This news release may contain forward-looking information (as such term is defined under Canadian securities laws) including but not limited to information regarding the processing of tailings to generate short-term cash flow, the potential for discovery in the El Oro district and other statements that are not historical facts. While such forward-looking information is expressed by Candente Gold in good faith and believed by Candente Gold to have a reasonable basis, they address future events and conditions and are therefore subject to inherent risks and uncertainties including those set out in Candente Golds MD&A. Factors that cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking information include, without limitation, gold prices, results of exploration and development activities, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of materials and equipment, timeliness of government approvals, potential environmental issues, availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Candente Gold expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

On behalf of the Board of Candente Gold Corp.

Joanne Freeze P.Geo.

President & CEO

For further information please contact:

Joanne Freeze

President & CEO

+1 (604) 689-1957

info@candentegold.com

NR 092

A nursing leader has voiced concerns about staff leaving the profession after struggling with the pressures of the Covid emergency.

Pat Cullen, the director of the Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland (RCN), made the comments after new figures showed that 1,055 nurses here left their roles last year.

The figures were released by Health Minister Robin Swann after a question from DUP MLA Robin Newton. The total includes 462 who retired and 823 who left for other reasons including ill health or termination, death in service, resignation, end of contract or moving to another HSC (health and social care) organisation.

The figures indicate a nurse leaving a HSC organisation, but this does not necessarily mean they left the profession entirely.

Mr Swann also noted that as of December, there were 3,322 pre-registered nursing and midwifery students in Northern Ireland, which is due to peak at 4,182 students in 2022/23.

Ms Cullen told the Belfast Telegraph the figures were broadly in line with previous years, but she feared what might happen after the pressures of the pandemic are reduced.

"Unfortunately, we don't have the detail on why these nurses have left the HSC other than having retired and this figure would be similar to previous years. What we do know, however, is that when surveys have been conducted in this area, it reveals that after retirement, the second highest reason for leaving is too much pressure," she said.

"Understandably, over the past year, nurses working in hospitals, the community and independent sector have been under unprecedented pressure. What we are most concerned about is what will happen when things return to normal and what the impact of having worked through this pandemic will be."

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She said many RCN members had expressed concern at their ability to sustain what they are currently doing.

"Longer shifts and cancelling of annual leave will leave their mark. The vacancy rates in nursing in Northern Ireland are well-documented," she said.

"At this moment in time we cannot afford to lose any more nursing staff. That is why the RCN is calling for a fair pay rise for nurses. If they are not valued and rewarded properly, we are going to store up even more problems in the future."

She welcomed that nursing places are rising due to an extra 900 places over the next three years, which was agreed as part of the deal for nurses suspending strike action this time last year.

"It will of course take another three years before we see these nurses in the system but it's a step in the right direction."

Meanwhile, a "significant" proportion of frontline doctors face "ongoing distress" after working in the high pressure conditions of the coronavirus pandemic's first wave, new research suggests.

A study based on responses from more than 5,400 frontline doctors in the UK and Ireland found nearly half (45%) reported psychological distress as pandemic accelerated to its initial peak in 2020.

Researchers from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and psychologists from the University of Bath surveyed emergency, anaesthetics and intensive care professionals during the lead up, peak and post-peak of the first wave of infections last year.

Overall researchers concluded: "Our findings reflect a pattern of elevated distress during the acceleration and peak phase of the current pandemic, some degree of natural recovery and a significant minority continuing to experience residual ongoing distress."

Emergency medicine doctor Tom Roberts, from the RCEM, who led the research, said: "Our findings highlight the stark realities for many doctors across the UK and Ireland in responding to the public health crisis and the toll this has placed on their mental health. The extent of the challenge has at times been overwhelming and we see from our results the real-life impact this has on individuals' wellbeing."

Professor Edd Carlton, from the RCEM, said: "Workers across the NHS have responded to Covid-19 with incredible bravery, commitment and dedication. Over and above warm words, what we need most is proper support to help deal with the impact this has had on us all."

While threats from a small number of surviving LTTE sympathisers, and from presently dormant Islamist radical formations, remain a challenge, the policy reversals on several issues by the present Government are an overkill, and are likely to further disrupt the tentative reconciliation process in the country.

by S. Binodkumar Singh

A fast-unto-death protest started by five undergraduates of the Jaffna University came to an end soon after Vice Chancellor of the University S. Srisatkunarajah laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Mullivaikkal Memorial within the university premises on January 11, 2021.

The university administration, on January 8, 2021, demolished the memorial, arguing that the war monument was a threat to the unity of the country. Subsequently, a tense situation arose in Jaffna. In the night of January 9, the university administration changed its decision following discussions between the university student representatives and the Vice Chancellor.

The Mullivaikkal Memorial was erected by Tamil students in 2019 to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of the civil war.

Jaffna parliamentarian S. Shritharan described the development as "very disturbing" and noted:

This is a deliberate, provocative act, knowing well that memorials are to do with people's emotions. After a relatively peaceful period here, this act will trigger much pain and anger, especially among our youth. That is very worrying.

Indeed, such actions have the potential to give fillip to the minuscule number of remaining sympathizers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) within the country and their promoters among the Tamil Diaspora who, despite the LTTEs decisive defeat in 2009, remain relentless in their efforts to keep the memory alive. More worryingly, Diaspora elements have been found to be involved in several failed attempts to carry out terrorist attacks.

Most recently, on December 2, a former female LTTE cadre and her husband were arrested in a joint operation by the Police and the Army in Paranthan town, Kilinochchi District. Their child was with the couple. They were arrested while transporting a claymore mine weighing 1.8 kilograms in a bus plying from Jaffna (Northern Province) to Kandy (Central Province). Later, based on their disclosures, one hand grenade was also found buried in the yard of their house. The claymore mine was to be sent to the Eastern Province to carry out terror attack. It was also revealed that a Switzerland-based group was behind this latest plan.

According to intelligence sources, this is the 15th attempt made by the LTTE to carry out an attack following the end of the war in May 2009.

The country recorded one LTTE-linked fatality in 2020. On July 8, 2020, a former LTTE intelligence agent, Thangarasa Thevanesan (43), who sustained burn injuries when a crude bomb exploded accidentally in his house located at the Puliyadi Junction in Kilinochchi District of Northern Province on July 3, succumbed to his injuries. The last LTTE-related fatality before this was reported on April 10, 2014, when four people, including an Army Lance Corporal and three LTTE cadres, were killed in a clash between Security Forces (SFs) and LTTE cadres in the Nadunkarni area of Vavuniya District.

Meanwhile, the Government continued to crack down on the remnants of the LTTE in 2020. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), four former LTTE cadres and sympathizers were arrested across the country. There were 27 such arrests in 2019. Since May 2009, at least 346 former LTTE cadres have been arrested.

The Government also continued its nationwide crackdown on the Islamist group, National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ), which was responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks on April 21, 2019, in which 259 people were killed and another 500 were injured. 11 NTJ cadres were arrested across the country in 2020, after 294 such arrests in 2019.

On January 8, 2021, The United States Department of Justice, announced that three Sri Lankan citizens had been charged with terrorism offenses, including conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State (IS, also Daesh) for the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide attacks. The three defendants named in the criminal complaint, all of whom pledged allegiance to IS, were Mohamed Naufar, the second emir for the group of IS supporters that called itself ISIS in Sri Lanka, who allegedly led the groups propaganda efforts, recruited others to join IS, and led a series of multi-day military-type trainings; Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan, who allegedly helped manufacture the Improvised Explosive Devices used in the Easter Attacks; and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed, who allegedly executed a Police officer in order to obtain the officers firearm, shot a suspected informant, and scouted a location for a separate terrorist attack. All the defendants are in custody in Sri Lanka. The US Justice Department stated that it would support the Sri Lankan investigation and prosecution and would continue to work with the authorities there to pursue the shared goal of holding these defendants accountable for their crimes.

Two days after the Easter Sunday serial suicide bombings, NTJ had persuaded Daesh to claim the attacks. NTJ leader Zahran Hashim had made a video with his fellow suicide bombers pledging allegiance to Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi. The video was released by Daesh two days later.

Emphasizing that ensuring national security was his and the Governments first and foremost responsibility, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa stated, on October 3, 2020, Appropriate steps have already been taken to achieve this. We will ensure that no ethnic, religious or other forms of terrorism or extremism are allowed on this land and that the right of every citizen to live without fear and suspicion is fully protected.

Reiterating the Governments determination, Defense Secretary General (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne asserted, on December 30, 2020, that there was no room for separatism and extremism in the country, since they had taken steps to thwart all such attempts.

On the political front, the hold of Rajapaksa brothers strengthened further after the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP)s secured a clear victory in the Parliamentary Elections held on August 5, 2020.

In the very first meeting of the new Cabinet, held on August 19, 2020, the Sri Lanka Government decided to abolish the 19th Amendment and to bring in the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. The 20th Amendment, passed on October 22, 2020, granted sweeping powers to the Executive President. With 157 votes in favor and 64 against, the motion secured more than a two-thirds majority. The Amendment gave the President the power, inter alia, to appoint senior judges, members of the Human Rights Commission and other independent institutions, such as anti-corruption bodies; to appoint and dismiss Ministers, including the Prime Minister; and to dissolve Parliament at any time two and a half years after elections.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Election of November 16, 2019, brought Gotabaya Rajapaksas to the Presidency, after which the Government reversed several decisions of the previous Government, which had been intended to help in ethnic reconciliation.

Since coming to power in 2019, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government stopped issuing interim relief payments to families of the disappeared, putting them under further financial strain. According to the recommendations of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) Act enacted on March 13, 2018, by the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, families had begun to receive SLR 6,000 per month as a living allowance to ease the straitened circumstances they had endured after the disappearance of their relatives, including many individuals who were the sole income earners within such families. On January 7, 2020, an official attached to the Justice Ministry disclosed that the Government had decided to review the OMP Act. The Act, however, remains in place at present.

On January 2, 2020, the new Government withdrew the Counter Terrorism Bill drafted by the previous Government to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), 1979. On January 3, 2020, Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena argued,

If the CTA [Counter Terrorism Act] was enacted, it would have stopped the Armed Forces and Police from dealing effectively with the threat of terrorism, and instead curbed the rights guaranteed to the people by the Constitution, such as political trade union rights, and their freedom of expression.

Moreover, expressing serious concern over the Counter Terrorism Bill, the then opposition leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (now the Prime Minister) had stated on April 2, 2019, "The proposed new legislation is because of undue international pressure and the failure of the Government."

The Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government declined to sing the national anthem in Tamil, the countrys second national language, during the islands Independence Day celebrations on February 4, 2020. Earlier, on February 4, 2016, the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, had taken a decision to sing the anthem in the countrys two primary languages  Sinhala and Tamil  to promote ethnic harmony in the aftermath of a decades-long civil war. Tamil politicians had requested Gotabaya to continue the practice of singing the Tamil translation of the national anthem, recognized by the Constitution, in order to give the Tamil community a sense of belonging to the country after decades of estrangement.

President Rajapaksa has transferred responsibility for large areas of civil administration to the Ministry of Defense. The Government placed over 30 agencies, including the Police, under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, and retired and serving military officers have been appointed to numerous key posts previously held by civilians. On June 2, 2020, President Rajapaksa established a Presidential Task Force composed entirely of military and security officials, with loosely defined powers and the authority to issue instructions to all government officials, to build a Secure Country and Disciplined, Virtuous and Lawful Society.

Unsurprisingly, on December 18, 2020, three major political parties in the North began discussions to present a resolution on behalf of their constituents at the 46th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting to be held in Geneva from February 22  March 19, 2021. Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, on behalf of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA); former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran, on behalf of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK); and Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, on behalf of the All-Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), discussed and decided to draft the resolution under joint leadership.

Significantly, on February 27, 2020, Sri Lanka withdrew its 2015 commitment to the Truth Seeking, Accountability and Reconciliation process established following the countrys long civil war.

While threats from a small number of surviving LTTE sympathisers, and from presently dormant Islamist radical formations, remain a challenge, the policy reversals on several issues by the present Government are an overkill, and are likely to further disrupt the tentative reconciliation process in the country.

The writer is a Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management in India
On the face of it, the Bee Gees were among the most important bands in pop history. They helped define the mainstream disco sound of the late 1970s and their songwriting gifts had been signalled in the 1960s, with such luminaries as Nina Simone, Al Green and Andy Williams happy to cover their songs.

And yet the Gibb brothers are rarely mentioned when the giants of music are lauded. They tend not to get the sort of constant exposure rightly enjoyed by, say, the Beatles, David Bowie or Prince. None of their albums is ever mentioned in the all-time best lists and few talk about the brilliance of their songs.

Maybe its Barry Gibbs falsetto, or those awful cover versions by Boyzone and Steps, or the fact that they were beloved by the masses while the cool kids gravitated to punk. Whatever the reason, they havent been given their due.

A new album from Barry, the last surviving Gibb brother, called Greenfields  on which he reinterprets Bee Gees songs with a host of country music artists  offers a reminder that they wrote a glut of truly fantastic songs. And a recently released documentary  the absorbing How Can You Mend A Broken Heart  brings their talents into sharp relief.

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Here are 10 key songs in the Bee Gees story.

New York Mining Disaster 1941 (1967)

The young Gibb brothers were obsessed with the Beatles and, on this first single, that love shines through. While the actual Beatles were deep into experimental territory by the time the Gibbs arrived in London from Australia, it was the early Fab Four that Barry, Robin and Maurice were channelling. Despite the title, the inspiration from the song came from a tragedy in the Welsh mining town of Aberfan in October 1966, where 116 children and 28 adults died in a freak accident. The song demonstrated an early willingness to draw from experiences far removed from their own lives.

To Love Somebody (1967)

Twins Robin and Maurice were still in their teens when they wrote this enduring three-minute masterpiece with Barry. He was then the princely age of 20. If some imagined that these fame-hungry siblings would be a flash in the pan, this was the song that dispelled that idea. Its been covered more than any other Bee Gees composition  and the roll-call of artists whove offered their take shows just how highly regarded the song was, right from the off. Nina Simone, Gram Parsons, Roberta Flack all recorded versions. Years later, Barry said it was the song he was most proud of.

Massachusetts (1967)

Over the years, the Bee Gees said that many of their best-known songs were written in a matter of hours  a claim corroborated by studio boffins and various collaborators. None of the brothers had been to the US state when they wrote the song on a boat in New York, but they were apparently drawn to the strangeness of the word. Robin took lead vocals  a reminder that each of the brothers wanted their moment in the limelight  and it would go on to be a staple of his live solo show.

Ive Got to Get A Message to You (1968)

The band spent a lot of their early days in the US and one of Barrys great vocal performances is to be found on a song that goes to the heart of Americas underbelly. In it, he imagines the final hours of a man on death row, who pleads with the warden for a final note to be sent to his wife. The lyrics were penned by Robin and the song was written with Percy Sledge in mind. It was a UK chart-topper and the first Bee Gees single to penetrate the US top 10. Sledge would release his own version in 1970.

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (1971)

There are several contenders for best Bee Gees song, but this might just be the one. The song was written shortly after the brothers took a 15-month hiatus. They had struggled to cope with instant fame, but time apart didnt dampen their gifts at great songcraft. Written quickly  as was their style  by Barry and Robin, its so perfectly fashioned it could have come from the pen of Jimmy Webb. It was their first US number one and among several great cover versions, Al Greens really stands out. It also provided the title for the illuminating feature-length documentary on the band that aired before Christmas.

Jive Talkin (1975)

With chart-topping hits on both sides of the Atlantic, the brothers might have imagined that their success would continue regardless. But pop is among the most fickle of trades. By the mid-1970s, the Bee Gees were burnt out and, increasingly, playing to half-full venues. Their exemplary balladry didnt seem to chime with the times. They needed a reboot and they got one when they added new players to their studio band and hooked up with in-demand producer Arif Mardin in Florida. It marked a funk-heavy shift in the direction of disco  and their songs would soon be dance-floor staples.

You Should Be Dancing (1976)

Twelfth album Children of the World marked a full embrace of disco, which was fast becoming a sensation in clubs all over the world. Its Barry who takes lead vocals and this was among the first times his falsetto would come to the fore. At the time, it was hard to believe that this was the same man who had earnestly sung ballads like How Can You Mend A Broken Heart just five years before. The song would be among several Bee Gees numbers to feature in the era-defining Saturday Night Fever the following year.

Stayin Alive (1977)

The Bee Gees music is so wrapped up in the success of Saturday Night Fever, its easy to forget that the songs were added in post-production, long after filming had concluded. When he was doing those famous moves, John Travolta was not actually dancing to the Bee Gees, but to artists such as Boz Scaggs. Stayin Alive was written and recorded specially for the movie and its an indelible reason why the film remains a touchstone from that era. It might just be the most emblematic song of disco  and right from those opening bars, the listener is transported to a time of mirrorball and flares.

Tragedy (1979)

If the Bee Gees had been a big deal at the end of the 1960s, they were stratospheric at the tail-end of the following decade. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack  overseen by composer David Shire and featuring no fewer than six Bee Gees songs  is among the top 10 biggest selling albums of all time. Adjusting to that sort of exposure took its toll on the band and their next album, Spirits Having Flown, was a bit of a dogs dinner  although it did sell 20 million copies. Its best song, Tragedy, was a high-camp, tongue-in-cheek delight, however  even if it would spawn that ubiquitous Steps cover years later.

You Win Again (1987)

Some trivia for quiz fans: the Bee Gees became the first band to enjoy UK Number Ones in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s when this super-catchy effort  which saw them reunite with producer Arif Mardin after many years apart  topped the chart. There would be better songs to come  not least 1997s underrated Alone  but You Win Again was the ear-worm that introduced the band to a new generation. Just as their early songs captured the sounds of the Swinging Sixties and their disco smashes caught the zeitgeist of the 70s, everything about this song, not least its glossy production, is redolent of the 1980s.

Barry Gibb and Friends: Greenfields is out now. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is on Sky on Demand and Now TV
Arabella Chi claims she was told to 'lose weight' by ruthless modelling agencies amid a 'constant fight' to be recognised by the fashion industry from the age of 16.

The Love Island star, 29, told how she was turned down for jobs by top designers, and was even told she would 'walk for Chanel and Dior' if she didn't have such a 'big' bottom.

The Instagram model explained how she travelled to Milan to meet with agencies, but was told she was too 'bottom-heavy' for work.

Criticism: Arabella Chi confessed that she was turned down for top modelling jobs and told she needed to 'lose weight' by ruthless modelling agencies because her posterior was 'too big'

She said in an interview with The Sun: 'My hip measurement was always a measurement that modelling agencies told me I had to get down. But when they measure your hips, it's actually your bum.

'I used to cast for really big shows and for Fashion Week and they would always tell me, if you didn't have a bum you'd walk for Chanel and Dior and I'm like, I can't do anything about it.

'Agents used to say to me, 'You need to lose weight in your bum'. I went to Milan, and they said, 'You're bottom-heavy'. So I was constantly fighting my bum!'

Arabella, who shot to fame on the 2019 series of Love Island, said she has now learned to love her bum and is proud of her figure.

'If you didn't have a bum you'd walk for Chanel': The reality star , 29, revealed she had to 'constantly fight' to be recognised as a catwalk model from the age of 16, but she now loves her peachy behind

She said it has been 'amazing' to see the change in cultural perceptions surrounding peachy posteriors, as she confessed that 'I'm so glad I have a bum'.

Now the reality star plans to share the secret to maintaining a pert derriere, after recently setting up an OnlyFans account to share exclusive workout content.

The online subscription service allows it's creators to upload X-rated footage or exclusive content to paying followers.

The interview comes after Arabella showcased her slender curves in racy red underwear from the comfort of her hotel room in Egypt on Saturday.

Self-acceptance: Now Arabella plans to share the secret to maintaining a pert derriere, after recently setting up an OnlyFans account to share exclusive workout content

Her sizzling semi-sheer lingerie from Lounge comprised of a lace bra and matching skimpy thong.

Arabella styled her blonde tresses in a straight hairdo and she rocked natural make-up.

She added a touch of glamour with timeless gold jewellery before switching into black activewear for a gym workout.

The reality star has been documenting her luxurious vacation for modelling work, while staying at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza.

Before arriving in Dubai prior to her Egypt trip, Arabella informed her social media followers that she would be travelling, and asked whether they'd like to see content online.

Set pulses racing: It comes after the former Love Island star showcased her slender curves in racy red underwear from the comfort of her hotel room in Egypt on Saturday

The ASOS star wrote: 'I know with everything that is going on in the world at the moment that travelling should be limited but I just wanted to reach out to you guys and say the reason I am travelling.

'And along side this I will be taking extra precautions to make sure I protect myself and most importantly others.

'I am travelling to Dubai as I have a shoot on Thursday and I have some meetings set up with modelling agencies out there I am then going onto Egypt and working with @flat42.global & @followmetoegypt.

'Having said that... would you guys prefer me to limit my content I post while I am away? As don't want to affend anybody while I am away.' (sic)

Her holiday comes amid an increasing amount of fury over many influencers and reality stars 'bending rules' to jet abroad, which has only been heightened after Boris Johnson announced the nation would enter a third lockdown.

Under the latest national lockdown rules, which is now in effect, holidays are banned as international travel is only permitted for a strict number of reasons such as for work.

Within the UK, domestic holidays are also banned as you must stay at home at all times except for a limited number of 'reasonable excuses' such as shopping for essentials or work.

The Government has said if you need to travel you should stay local  meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live  and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.
Discovery expected to contribute towards more effective methods of harvesting stem cells from bone marrow donors.

A Kobe University research group including graduate student ISHII Shinichi and Associate Professor KATAYAMA Yoshio (both of the Department of Hematology, Graduate School of Medicine) have discovered that fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) produced by erythroblasts (cells that are the precursors of red blood cells) promotes the movement (mobilization) of hematopoietic stem cells into the peripheral blood.

Up until now, FGF23 has been known for the role it plays in the kidneys as a hormone that regulates phosphate concentrations throughout the body.

It is hoped that this discovery will enable new strategies to be developed for harvesting hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow transplant donors.

These research results were given advanced online publication in the American scientific journal 'blood' on December 23, 2020, prior to the printed version.

Main points

FGF23 is mainly produced by bone-embedded osteocytes, however, this research revealed that the hormone is also produced by erythroblasts located in the bone marrow.

This erythroblastic production of FGF23 was triggered by low oxygen levels (hypoxia) in the bone marrow, which resulted from G-CSF administration. G-CSF is utilized medically to induce cell mobilization.

It was revealed that this high concentration of FGF23 in the bone marrow promoted mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells by suppressing the function of chemokine receptors, which retain these cells in the bone marrow.

Research background

According to the textbook definition, fibroblast growth factor-23 is a hormone that is produced by bone-embedded osteocytes and regulates phosphate homeostasis in the kidneys.

It is widely known that overproduction of FGF23 results in hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets (otherwise known as vitamin D-resistant rickets) and this can be treated with antibody-based drugs that target FGF23.

In recent years, FGF23 has also been used as an indicator of chronic renal failure. However, the effect of FGF23 on bone marrow cells had not yet been clarified.

In order to perform bone marrow transplants, it is necessary to collect hematopoietic stem cells from a donor. Nowadays, G-CSF and Plerixafor (which is a CXCR4 chemokine receptor antagonist) are widely administered to donors in order to cause hematopoietic stem cells to be released from the bone marrow and into the peripheral blood.

This makes it possible to harvest the stem cells from the blood, which is safer and less invasive than harvesting them from the bone marrow. However, up until now, the mechanism behind this mobilization was only partially understood.

Research findings

First of all, the research group discovered that when G-CSF was administered to mice, the production of FGF23 in the bone marrow greatly increased. Subsequent cell analysis revealed that FGF23 was produced by the majority of erythroblasts inside the bone marrow. Erythroblasts are the precursors of red blood cells.

G-CSF administration and the subsequent stimulation of the sympathetic nerves resulted in low oxygen levels inside the bone marrow. It became clear that FGF23 was ejected from the erythroblasts into the bone marrow as a result of this induced hypoxia.

A surprisingly high concentration of FGF23 was released in the bone marrow as a result of G-CSF administration (approx. 20,000 times higher than the concentration in the peripheral blood).

It was subsequently revealed that this elevated concentration weakened the anchor molecules (in this case, the chemokine receptor CXCR4) which are responsible for the bone marrow's retention of hematopoietic stem cells, thus causing these stem cells to move (mobilize) out of the bone marrow and into the peripheral blood.

Further developments

It is necessary for bone marrow transplant donors to receive a series of injections beforehand that cause hematopoietic stem cells to be released into the peripheral blood so that these stem cells can then be harvested. However, in around 10% of cases this doesn't occur correctly (insufficient mobilization).

These research findings are expected to contribute towards resolving this issue, hopefully enabling new strategies to be created.

Glossary

1. Hematopoietic stem cells: These are cells in the bone marrow that are responsible for producing blood cells.

2. G-CSF: G-CSF stands for granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. It is used medicinally to stimulate an increase of neutrophils, which are an essential part of the body's immune system.
New Delhi, Jan 18 : Glitches in Co-WIN application and vaccine hesitancy continued to reign over the second day of the Covid-19 inoculation drive as the turnout remained shockingly low at many government hospitals of the national capital on Monday.

The Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI) confirmed that it vaccinated merely 19 people at the facility while the neighbouring Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) inoculated 20 people including healthcare staff, security guards and sanitation workers of the hospital.

Meanwhile, sources at Lok Nayak Hospital said that the inoculation count remained around 25 there.

Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of Lok Nayak Hospital, however, did not divulge the exact figures to IANS but said that the participation was less than the previous session.

The hospital had inoculated 32 people on the first day of the immunization drive.

Ajeet Jain, Medical Superintendent, RGSSH said that the vaccine hesitancy is still reigning supreme among their staff. We will conduct a large scale counselling session to combat it," he added.

Pragya Shukla, nodal officer of Covid immunization at DSCI, said that the hospital had to manually inform the beneficiaries since Co-WIN app failed to do so.

"The people scheduled for immunization today did not receive an alert from the app. We had to call everyone and request them to participate in the drive," she added.

Shukla also said that the institute received the list of beneficiaries registered themselves for immunization drive late from the area's district magistrate which led to further delay.

Besides, many beneficiaries featured in the list had already been inoculated the previous day, she added to the reasons for the low turnout at the centre.

However, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital told IANS that it conducted immunization of 69 people at the centre, which is double the count of people who participated in the previous session there.

On Day 1, 31 people got the vaccine jabs at the centre.
Ankara, Jan 18 : Two crew members were killed and six others rescued after a freight ship capsized off the coast of Turkey's Black Sea province of Bartin, according to officials.

The state-run Anadolu agency reported on Sunday that it was a Russian-flagged dry cargo ship with a total of 13 Russian crew on board.

Later, the Turkish coast guard corrected it on its website, saying that there were 12 crew members and the ship was with a Palau flag, Xinhua news agency.

The Hurriyet daily, meanwhile, reported that the crew included two Russians and 10 Ukrainians.

The Turkish transport and infrastructure ministry said in a tweet that the ship named Arvin had anchored off the port due to bad weather conditions before breaking into two pieces and sinking.

The vessel was en route to Bulgaria from Georgia.

Turkish navy deployed a frigate to support the rescue efforts, which are ongoing, to find the missing people.

Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from GoFundMe)

An Australian single dad is broke because of trying to come home. His family had four canceled flights from the United Kingdom due to the pandemic.

The Australian single dad adds that it was not only the canceled flights that caused him to get "pretty broke." It was also the government red tape that brought him to such a state.

Scott Walker and his two kids, Sarah and Eden who are thirteen and eleven years old respectively, flew back to Australia last Saturday. However, before being able to get the sight of an airplane, the single dad and his two kids went through a lot.

ALSO READ: Houston Mom Receives "Insensitive" Eviction Letter with Emoji





Fighting for custody

Before planning to come back to Australia, Scott and his two kids were living in the United Kingdom with the mother of the kids.

It was in 2019 when the marriage ended in divorce and the single dad had to fight for the custody of his two kids. His win for the custody allowed the single dad to bring the children to Australia.

Even though he has already won, the family got stranded in the United Kingdom. Scott said, "After being granted the right to come home and give my children a life that I thought was better, I am more sceptical about it every day."

Four canceled flights

Due to the pandemic, four flights that were supposed to bring the family home to Australia were canceled.

Aside from the fact that the flights were canceled, Scott was laid off from his job due to the pandemic as well.

Because of all of these fiascos, the single dad is broke.

ALSO READ: Father and Son Devastated After Tornado Tore Their Home





Friends helped to send them home

Walker decided to start a GoFundMe campaign. However, repatriation flights were not cheap.

He shared to ABC.net, "They're (repatriation flight) the normal cost of flight at $2,500 per seat, so it has swallowed a lot of funds that I'll need to replenish."

The single dad is broke but has friends who were willing to help. He said that this made a huge difference in getting back home.

ALSO READ: Young Boy Reunites with Family After Being Stuck Overseas Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic





Single dad is broke but is close to going home.

Last Saturday morning, Scott, Sahara, and Eden boarded the repatriation flight to Australia from London.

It was sudden news for the family. It was a touch-and-go for them since Eden was denied a seat before.

Five hours before their flight on Saturday, they were informed so they had to rush going to the airport. They had to pack quickly and leave their accommodation.

The family is now in a quarantine facility. He shared, "We're now in a quarantine at the Howard Springs facility at Darwin, which is a bit like an army barracks during the zombie apocalypse. It's surreal."

The Australian single dad is broke, but the family now have big smiles on their faces.

ALSO READ: Single Parents Struggle More Due to the Pandemic

A woman wearing a face mask enters a building where the Employment Development Department (EDD) has its offices in Los Angeles, on May 4, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

California Unemployment Benefits Fraud Might Top $9 Billion

A security firm investigating Californias fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims warned that the scope of the fraud could be more than twice as much as previously estimated.

At least 10 percent of unemployment claims before the state Employment Development Department (EDD) installed controls last October may have been fraudulent, according to Blake Hall, founder and chief executive of the company ID.me., the Los Angeles Times reported. Halls company was hired by the EDD in October and has blocked nearly 470,000 phony claims since.

Hall told the LA Times that the amount of fraudulent payout between March and September 2020 might reach $9.8 billion. The EDD has sent out $113 billion in unemployment benefits since March, when the CCP virus pandemic hit California.

He added that a lot of those funds went to foreign crime organizations that filed unemployment claims with stolen identity information, and used money mules in the United States to pick up benefit debit cards sent out by the EDD.

When the Russians and the Nigerians and the Chinese are the players on the field, they are going to put up some points, Hall said. This is a very sophisticated cyberattack thats being run at scale.

It was previously estimated that the EDD paid up to $4 billion to fraudsters, including a Sacramento-area woman, who previously worked for the EDD and collected $21,000 in unemployment benefits using the name and Social Security number of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The scam wasnt exposed until Bank of America, which administers the EDDs benefit debit cards, flagged the unemployment claims made in the senators name.

In addition, hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits went to prison and jail inmates, many of whom werent held in California, according to a law enforcement task force led by district attorneys.

The volume of fraud as well as the types of inmates involved is staggering, the district attorneys wrote in a letter (pdf) to Gov. Gavin Newsom. They added that inmates on death row, those serving life sentences and life without possibility of parole, rapists, child molesters, human traffickers, and other violent criminals, were receiving unemployment checks, and that many of those checks were sent out of state.

According to a December analysis obtained by the LA Times, more than 2,000 claims deemed to be at high or moderate risk of fraud were from inmates of the Florida Department of Corrections or county jails in that state. Overall, the report estimates that some $42 million in claims went to out-of-state prison and jail inmates.
January 18, 2021 New Leaks Show How British Spies Infiltrate And Undermine Lebanon's Security Services A few month ago we reported on documents which revealed secret British 'Strategic Communication' programs in support of the Jihadis who fight against the Syrian people and their government. In December documents of a different secret program revealed similar British efforts in Lebanon. These were designed to influence certain 'liberal' youth groups in preparation for a 'color revolution' that would overthrow the Lebanese government. A new set of documents, just recently published, shows British efforts to influence and infiltrate the security forces of Lebanon. These programs are coordinated with Canadian and U.S. efforts to gain influence in the country and to use it on behalf of Israeli interests. Like usual these programs are sold as white man's burden efforts to 'help' the indigenous people and their governments. But they are in fact undermining the sovereignty of the country and hinder the self determination of its people. As Professor As`ad AbuKhalil remarked on the previously released batch: To be sure, the documents seem to be unclassified material related to the operation of the British embassy in Beirut. But it can be easily ascertained that the embassy (at least from these documents, which the British ambassador in Beirut refused to comment on when asked by Lebanese media) was engaged in activities that would close the Lebanese embassy in London if it were engaged in similar activities. Its clear Western powers allow their embassies to do things they would never allow developing countries to do from their embassies in the West. After the humiliating defeat of Israel in Lebanon in 2006, there has been a feverish escalation of the propaganda war in Lebanon against all those who declare resistance against Israel.

...

These documents help make it clear how the West hasnt moved on from its colonial legacy. The natives are still regarded as mobs to be controlled and manipulated. To manipulate and gain control of the 'mobs' it is helpful to manipulate and control the local security services - police, military and border control. The UK set out to do that when it created its 'Lebanon Conflict, Stability and Security Fund' (CSSF). In April 2019 the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) sent invitations to a private supplier event to a few selected private companies. These were invited to bid on two projects: Security Programme Lebanese Armed Forces Project

Security Programme Policing Project The companies were asked to submit Expression of Interests for certain projects under the CSSF. They were send a summary of requirements that describe the aims of the programs and desired qualities needed to achieve these. The above projects were build on assessments created during previous FCO projects. In 2018 one of such projects was the 'CSSF Lebanon: CT Border Needs Assessment'. Its objective was: To increase UK understanding of the level of resilience at the Lebanese border to the transit of persons of CT interest. This includes FTFs, returnees and the terrorist displacement from Syria into Lebanon. The movement of goods, such as weapons, and finance these will not be the primary focus though the findings may have impact on these areas. Note how this objective is in the interest of the UK, not necessarily Lebanon's. While it is framed as counter terrorism project its real aim is more likely to spy on and disrupt the movement of Hizbullah forces between Syria and Lebanon and on weapon supplies from Iran to Lebanon's Hizbullah - weapons which are needed to deter Israel from waging another war on Lebanon.

bigger The assessment project required collaboration from Lebanese security services:

bigger Building on assessment projects like the above larger programs to penetrate the security forces were initiated. The objectives of the CSSF Lebanon: Lebanese Armed Forces National Security Assistance Programme are: the provision of Train & Mentor type interventions in support of Border Security and Internal Security, delivered at a significant scale, in Lebanon. The 'significant scale' is worrisome. The budget for the above project was 20 million starting in May 2019 and running until April 2022. The statement of requirements for the CSSF LEBANON: BRITISH POLICING SUPPORT PROGRAMME (BPSP) defines the 'output and deliveries' of the program as greater control by the Internal Security Forces over the population and communities of the country.

bigger The British government promised 15 million for the project starting in August 2019 and ending in March 2022. To bid on the FCO project contracts companies have to submit a number of files detailing their experience in such programs and countries. These files, included in the current leak, describe their experience in previous projects and thereby reveal how much previous FCO projects have already undermined foreign institutions. One of the companies that were bidding for the FCO contracts on Lebanese policing is Siren Associates. The company previously cooperated with MI6 cutout ARC described in previous leaks. The wife of the suicided founder of the White Helmets jihadi propaganda show, Sarah Le Mesurier, has previously worked for both companies. Siren Associates is also deeply involved in policing Jordan: In Jordan, our partner organization, the Jordanian Public Security Directorate (PSD), presented an approach to community policing which was partial and focused mainly on public relations, whereas effective community policing is about establishing an organisation-wide philosophy and practice. We worked closely with the PSD to develop a pilot community policing programme in refugee camps and then host communities which resulted in increased community trust and community safety. As a result of this long-term, collaborative engagement, the holistic model of community policing is now being extended by PSD throughout the organisation. When dealing with differences in approach in any future project, Siren will maintain this client-centered, listening approach. The company has previously been on 'scoping missions', i.e. it spied, for the British embassy: In March 2016, the British Embassy Amman asked Siren to respond to the Ruqban crisis on the Syria-Jordan border, in which over 70,000 Syrian refugees were stranded in significant humanitarian distress. Siren deployed a fully equipped team of four staff to conduct a scoping mission, presenting an options paper within two weeks, which led to further UK support for the Syrian populations on arrival in Azraq refugee camp. In February 2018, the British Embassy Beirut asked Siren to conduct a rapid assessment of the security situation in Arsal, a town on Lebanons border with Syria only recently liberated from Daesh. Siren mobilized a team of five regional experts with relevant skills, liaised with the Internal Security Forces(ISF), gained security permissions, travelled to Arsal with the regional police commander, conducted the scoping exercise and drafted the report. The report, described by the Embassy as very interesting and extensive, was delivered within ten days. The company has operated in Lebanon since 2008. It is already deeply embedded in Lebanon's security forces and coordinates this with other Five-Eyes-countries: The objective of Sirens justice and security institutions relationship management strategy is to maintain buy-in to activities that cross-cut the security and justice sector and capitalize on any potential synergies between ongoing and forthcoming projects in the security sector. Key actors will be addressed as follows: Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF): Current Siren projects in Tripoli have allowed us to foster linkages with Army command in Tripoli, with whom MARCH has active community engagement activities. Siren will work closely with the CSSF LAF programme supplier to align programming and benefit from community engagement. Municipal Police (MP): Siren will capitalize on complementarities identified in meetings with Canadian Embassy representatives between this programme and the Canadian-funded UNDP programme in order to enhance MoIMs comprehensive response to safety and security needs. This will include consulting Tripoli Municipal Police when designing community engagement activities. Ministry of Justice: Siren has proven capability to work cross-ministerially: Siren is currently implementing a project that works across the MoIM and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to pilot an improved registration process for stateless persons and is working directly with the Cases Commission. The Ministry is supportive of initiatives that improve judicial processes; Siren will build on this relationship in the forthcoming programme. SSR Implementers: Siren has begun coordinating with the US Implementation Team regarding their major ISF automation project to ensure that any systems deployed are interoperable with systems developed in the Police of Beirut and that any technological transitions are managed effectively in order to maintain ISF operational capabilities. Siren has and will remain an active participant in relevant donor coordination functions, including the Canadian organized CT Working Group on Prisons. Siren is currently implementing a project on behalf of DCAF in the ISF Public Relations Department and is in discussions with DCAF regarding further support to the Anti-Torture Committee; these synergies can be leveraged with proposed activities within this programme. Siren Associates claims to have a 'buy-in' from most leaders of Lebanon's security forces. How these 'buy-ins' happened, through bribes or other convincing arguments, is not explained. It created a detailed graphic listing and categorizing the leaders of all Lebanese security forces. None of the security leaders is listed as 'Resistant' to Siren Associate's doings.

bigger Another company that submitted its credentials to bid for the British program to undermine Lebanese security forces is the British Torchlight Group. It has been working in Lebanon sine 2015. It has hired the former Brigadier General of the Lebanese army Bassam Boutros and others as 'senior strategic advisor' to peddle its influence. The former generals are budgeted with more than 100,000 each for 120 days work on the project. They are used to open the doors to other high level contacts: Working across the security agencies and with civilian host government stakeholders: Lebanon is a relatively top-down environment, and one where seniority matters. Our team members have access to and good relationships with the current DGs of the ISF and GS, as well as senior officials in the LAF. We will continue the existing relationship with General Othman through our Strategic Police Advisor, while at the same time cultivating close relationships with the second tier of leaders and with commanders at regional and local levels.

...

Our international team is supported by well-regarded retired senior ISF officer, Gen (rtd) Joseph Douaihy, who as a former leader in the Territorial Gendarmerie has a close understanding of ISF relations outside Beirut. To help us foster coordination with other agencies, LAF Gen (rtd) Bassam Boutrous and GS Gen (rtd) Dany Faresbring the team extensive experience of inter agency coordination on border management and other issues, and will help us navigate the bureaucracy and political landscape of the SSAs as well as enabling access to leadership cadres in the agencies and related ministries. All our meetings with senior officers are recorded in Key Leader Engagement (KLE) reports and shared with the Authority to ensure coherence of message between operational and policy levels. Reread the last sentence and guess who 'the Authority' is to which the reports of the 'Key Leader Engagement' meetings are handed. The described projects show how deep British MI6 cutouts have already infiltrated Lebanon's security services. They bribed or otherwise convinced the Lebanese security leadership to allow that their infiltration projects can proceed even deeper deeper into its services. All this while working for and reporting to a foreign 'Authority' which certainly does not have Lebanon's best interests in mind. Posted by b on January 18, 2021 at 20:18 UTC | Permalink Comments
A Welsh farmer has been left devastated after fifty of his ewes were killed in a horrific dog attack.

Gwent Police are investigating the matter, which occurred in North Monmouthshire on Saturday 16 January.

"We are investigating the death of 50 ewes in North Monmouthshire, following a livestock worrying incident," the force said on Twitter.

"The sheep were forced into the corner of a field and died there. This is taken seriously by all rural crime teams."

Farmers across the UK have witnessed a sharp rise in livestock worrying incidents recently.

We are investigating the death of 50 ewes in North Monmouthshire, following a livestock worrying incident where the sheep were forced into the corner of a field and died there. This is taken seriously by all #ruralcrimeteams @FarmWatcherUK

Report all livestock attacks on 101 pic.twitter.com/bktm0oyaMV  Gwent Police | Rural Crime Team (@GPRuralCrime) January 16, 2021

Just this month alone, 18 sheep were massacred in a dog attack in North Yorkshire.

And in Lancashire, a heavily pregnant Highland cow was killed by an out-of-control dog.

Other farms have recently experienced similar attacks. On Christmas Eve, an out-of-control dog killed 30 sheep on a farm in Cheshire.

In a separate incident last month, a loose dog massacred 46 sheep in Suffolk.

The Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) has called on farmers to report all livestock attacks to the police to 'ensure that the right actions can be taken'.

The union said it recognised that there was no quick fix to the issue, and that a mixture of education, campaigning and legislative changes were needed.

FUW Deputy President Ian Rickman said: As part of our work in this area, we will continue to lobby for real changes to be made to current legislation in order to provide a better deterrent to irresponsible dog ownership and to ensure that the penalties fit the seriousness of the crime.

"However, to get a true picture of the situation and to help us get those legislative changes, we need farmers to report such incidents to the police.

According to figures released by NFU Mutual, livestock worrying cost farmers across the UK 1.2 million in 2019.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
East Grand Rapids is currently Michigans wealthiest school district, according to new Census data.

Thats based on median family income, using the Census Bureaus five-year average for 2015-19.

The median is $163,500 for families living in the East Grand Rapids school district, compared to a state median of $72,600.

Also in the top 10:

Birmingham ($162,611);

Bloomfield Hills ($160,778);

Northville ($159,409);

Saline ($132,778);

Dexter ($131,449);

Grosse Pointe ($128,223);

Rochester ($128,091);

West Bloomfield ($127,317);

Forest Hills ($124,718).

At the other end of the spectrum, Highland Park near Detroit is the district with the lowest median family income. The median in Highland Park was $27,882 for 2015-19.

Other districts in the bottom 10:

River Rouge ($28,375);

Hamtramck ($29,426);

Muskegon Heights ($32,241);

Beecher ($32,545);

Flint ($33,249);

Covert ($35,250);

Detroit ($36,853);

Saginaw ($37,317);

Muskegon ($38,398).

Below is an interactive map shaded specifically by 2015-19 estimated average median income for families with children. You can put your cursor over a district to see the underlying data. (Cant see the map? Click here.)

A couple of caveats about the data: These are estimates versus exact numbers, and the margin of error is higher for smaller districts.

In addition, the estimates are based on all residents who live within a school districts boundaries and not just the families with children in the district schools. (And keep in mind school district boundaries typically differ from city and township boundaries.)

Next is a searchable database that allows you to search by school district or county. If you search by county, youll see a ranking of school districts in that county. There are 515 K-12 districts in the database.

The database also includes the percentage of children under age 18 who live in a household with an income below the poverty line.

You can click on any column header for a ranking by that category. Click once to rank by the lowest number and twice to rank by the highest number.

Also on MLive:

Multiple Michigan school superintendents retire as pandemic lingers

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A VICTIM of clerical child sex abuse who caused 100,000 in damage to a church because he was upset by a derisory offer of compensation from the church has been given a fully suspended sentence.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told that on July 26, 2017, Ian Kidd (54) got a letter from solicitors for the Catholic Church with a final offer of 30,000 for the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest.

He found this offer derisory and became upset, his lawyer Marc Thompson BL said. Kidd filled a can with 5 worth of diesel and went to St Agnes Church in Crumlin.

He walked up to the altar and began pouring the fuel on the floor while shouting at terrified parishioners in the church to get out, get out.

He had a cigarette and may have had the wherewithal to ignite the diesel but he did not, Kieran Kelly BL, prosecuting, told the court.

A Garda negotiating team arrived at the church and Kidd spoke to one garda about the historic abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest, now deceased.

The court was told the bulk of the damage was caused when diesel was spilled on the altar, which is made of Carrara marble. A monstrance, a crucifix and a Paschal candle were also damaged.

Kidd, of Daytona, Brittas, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to criminal damage.

Judge Elma Sheahan suspended a two-year prison term on condition that Kidd continue to engage with treatment for his alcohol addiction. She noted he had been mentally fragile at the time because of the abuse he had suffered at the hands of clergy.

She said she accepted as genuine his remorse and regret for his actions and noted he had made efforts to address mental health and alcohol abuse issue. She noted he was considered not to be at risk of reoffending.

The court was told that gardai received multiple complaints of abuse allegedly committed by the priest who Kidd said assaulted him. A High Court case, in which Kidd said he was repeatedly abused, resulted in a financial offer and was settled in 2018.

In a victim-impact statement, Fr Paul Tyrrell, the parish priest, said parishioners were terrified by the incident but added that the parish had no desire to add any suffering Mr Kidd may have suffered in this parish in previous years.
But the court heard on Monday that forensic officer Kate Outteridge had identified a positive DNA match from one sample to another man, who was 23 at the time. He was the "minor contributor" in that sample, she said.

A police summary released by Melbourne Magistrates Court says police believe there is extremely strong evidence, based on forensic testing conducted in recent years, that DNA samples show Mr Tsalkos was the offender. Mr Tsalkos, now 59, was 25 at the time.

Police allege Theodoros Tsalkos raped two sex workers, then aged 15 and 16, in Elwood and Balaclava after picking them up in St Kilda in a red Holden Torana on May 7, 1987. The friends began as sex workers four days earlier.

A magistrate has allowed an alleged rape victim to be asked how many sexual partners she had, during a hearing for a man accused of attacking her and another teenager while posing as an undercover police officer 33 years ago.

Ms Outteridge told the court it was not her role to determine whether he could have been the offender, but instead to pass information on to investigating police. No details were given about a police investigation into the other man.

Testing of a piece of fabric taken from clothing worn by one of the complainants also showed the presence of DNA evidence from at least two other people, Ms Outerridge said.

She said the samples were analysed for DNA evidence in 2012, 2018, and last year, but could not say when they were first kept in a freezer after they were taken from the girls in 1987. There was potential that DNA evidence could degrade if samples were not kept in a freezer, she said.

Defence lawyer Martin Kozlowski earlier told the court the case against his client was "very much an identity case". He was granted permission to question one of the complainants about how many men she had sex with before the alleged rapes. The other complainant died in the years afterwards.

Strict rules are in place in sex assault court cases regarding a complainant's sexual history, but Mr Kozlowski applied to question the surviving woman about how many men she had sex with because of the relevance to the case.
People who are prone to high levels of absorption in mental tasks and activities are more likely to claim to be able to 'hear the dead', a new study has revealed.

Scientists have uncovered the key trait in 'clairaudient spiritualist mediums' who claim to able to hear the voices of dead people.

Their results suggest that people who are prone to immersive mental activities, as well as those who were exposed to an 'unusual auditory experience' in early life, are more likely to claim to be able to communicate with the deceased.

The team hopes the findings will help to understand more about distressing or non-controllable experiences of hearing voices.

Scientists have uncovered the key traits in 'clairaudient spiritualist mediums' who claim to able to hear the dead (stock image)

KEY TRAITS OF MEDIUMS To understand the key traits of clairaudient spiritualist mediums - people who 'hear dead people - the researchers surveyed 143 members of the general public for comparison. The results revealed that the mediums were more likely to immerse themselves in mental or imaginative activities, or experience altered states of consciousness. Mediums were also more likely to report hearing voices in early life. Spiritualists reported first hearing the dead at an average age of 21.7 years. However, 18 per cent of spiritualists reported having hearing voices 'for as long as they could remember'. Advertisement

In the study, researchers from Durham University conducted a survey of 65 mediums from the Spiritualists' National Union.

Over 44 per cent of the participants reported hearing voices of the dead on a daily basis, while 33.8 per cent said they'd heard a voice within the last day.

While spirits were mainly heard inside the head, 31.7 per cent said they experienced the voices coming from both inside and outside the head.

To understand the key traits of these mediums, the researchers surveyed 143 members of the general public for comparison.

The results revealed that the mediums were more likely to immerse themselves in mental or imaginative activities, or experience altered states of consciousness.

Mediums were also more likely to report hearing voices in early life.

Speaking to MailOnline, Dr Adam Powell from Durham University's Hearing the Voice project and Department of Theology and Religion and lead author of the study, explained: 'Some recall seeing and hearing a deceased loved one in their own home, often in their bedroom at night.

'Others recall having conversations with invisible others from as early as they can remember.'

Spiritualists reported first hearing the dead at an average age of 21.7 years. However, 18 per cent of spiritualists reported having hearing voices 'for as long as they could remember'.

Dr Powell said: 'Our findings say a lot about "learning and yearning".

The survey revealed that mediums who could 'hear the dead' were more likely to report hearing voices in early life (stock image)

'For our participants, the tenets of Spiritualism seem to make sense of both extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as practising mediums.

'But all of those experiences may result more from having certain tendencies or early abilities than from simply believing in the possibility of contacting the dead if one tries hard enough.'

While members of the public with high absorption rates were more likely to believe in the paranormal, the team found no significant link between belief and proneness to hallucinations.

In 1848, two sisters from upstate New York, Maggie and Kate Fox, reported hearing 'rappings' and 'knocks' that they interpreted as communication coming from a spirit in their house. These events and these sisters would eventually be considered the originators of Spiritualism

Overall, the findings indicate that some people may be uniquely predisposed to absorption, and are more likely to report hearing the dead.

Dr Peter Moseley, co-author on the study at Northumbria University, said: 'Spiritualists tend to report unusual auditory experiences which are positive, start early in life and which they are often then able to control.

'Understanding how these develop is important because it could help us understand more about distressing or non-controllable experiences of hearing voices too.'
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 21:40:00|Editor: huaxia

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WUHAN, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tapping the phone screen with her wrinkly finger to send voice messages to customers, Guo Mingfeng sells another homemade turquoise bracelet out of her hometown in Xiaying Village in central China's Hubei Province.

"I can't read or write, but it does not affect my business," said Guo, 50. Guo mainly sells handicraft products via pictures and voice messages on the messaging service WeChat.

The craftswoman lives in the mountainous area of Yunxi County, Shiyan City. She used to be a tofu maker working from dawn to dusk all year round in the city but could barely make enough money to support her kids' schooling and her sick parents. In 2014, she was put on the local poverty list.

In the same year, her village, known for turquoise reserves and online turquoise businesses, was designated as a "Taobao Village." It is a title granted to villages with total annual e-commerce transactions of over 10 million yuan (1.54 million U.S. dollars).

They should also have more than 100 businesses, or at least 10 percent of households involved in e-commerce, as required by the title's creator Alibaba.

"Since some of my relatives profited from the industry, I thought maybe I could also give it a try. So I went back to my village," she said.

Guo then learned from her brother-in-law how to polish and shape the stones and how to use smartphones.

"My attempt has been a success. Though my hands have become calloused due to stone processing, I can earn around 200,000 yuan in profit every year," she said.

The poverty rate of Yunxi County once reached 32.7 percent, and Xiaying Village was listed as one of the most poverty-stricken villages in the county, according to Liu Tingzhou, Party chief of Xiaying Village.

"Our turquoise industry was good, but poor transportation and poor Internet access restricted the business in the mountains. Only a small number of villagers worked in the field," said Liu, adding that turquoise plus e-commerce could be the solution to leading villagers out of poverty.

Liu then organized free training courses for locals to learn how to do business online. They rebuilt roads and upgraded the village's Internet network. In 2019, a 5G network extended there to help villagers sell goods via livestreaming.

"Step by step, our village changed, and it shook off poverty in 2017," Liu said. In 2019, nearly 700 villagers engaged in e-commerce, running more than 500 online stores, and the annual sales exceeded 200 million yuan.

As the turquoise resource is exhaustible, the village has mapped out a new plan for the future.

"Our county is also a typical agricultural county with rich planting and animal-raising industries. E-commerce plus agriculture could be another solution," said Liu.

With the help of the local government, local e-commerce entrepreneurs provided more jobs to poor people and signed agreements to help farmers sell their products. It included chicken, pork, tea, mushrooms, and honey for sale across the whole country. In 2019, agricultural product sales accounted for more than 30 percent of the village's e-commerce revenue.

Zhou Hua, a previously impoverished villager, saw her income increase three times since working in a local tea factory.

Zhou, 33, once worked as a waitress in a hotpot restaurant in downtown Shiyan, and her husband was a worker at construction sites. "We didn't earn much and had to leave our son alone in the village," Zhou said.

Both Zhou and her husband now work in the tea factory close to their home. Their family income can reach around 100,000 yuan a year.

"I am satisfied with my life. My wallet gets fatter, and the best thing is that I can accompany my son every day," Zhou said. "I hope our days will be better in the new year," she added. Enditem
In a city that treasures its lush summer canopy, the loss of 33,000 elm trees since 2016 has been a serious blow.

In a city that treasures its lush summer canopy, the loss of 33,000 elm trees since 2016 has been a serious blow.

In neighbourhoods such as Wolseley, the West End and Glenelm, these towering icons are being felled by disease.

To put it in perspective, if each block had 10 elms, that would amount to 3,300 blocks being stripped of their foliage because of the citys losing battle against Dutch elm disease.

"They really are the equalizers of our communities: shade, air conditioning, just a place of comfort and protection in the Prairies," said Gerry Engel, an arborist and president of Trees Winnipeg.

Mellanie Lawrenz of the Glenelm Neighbourhood Association tree committee, stands near a tree which was banded in 2020 to protect against Dutch elm disease. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

The group, which considers itself the voice of Winnipegs trees, has launched a campaign to renew the effort to save Winnipegs rapidly dropping American elm population. The huge loss in trees since 2016 has made Trees Winnipeg, which began as a coalition to save Winnipegs elms, return to its roots.

"The last five years have been devastating on our elm population, and its such a significant part of our city, when you consider its history to the communities," Engel said.

'(Trees are) just not valued the same way something that's human-built is valued. And I feel like that's a missed opportunity'  Glenelm resident Mellanie Lawrenz

The year-long campaign will include information on elm maintenance and halting the spread of Dutch elm disease.

For starters, the citys forestry urban forestry branch is woefully underfunded, Engel said.

Recent additional funding from the city, beginning in 2018, to clear the backlog of diseased trees marked for removal, will come to an end this year.

The Glenelm Neighbourhood Association tree committee is passionate about saving the beautiful elm trees by banding old trees to protect them from Dutch elm disease, and fencing off young trees to protect them. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

The group worries the city will return to a backlog as soon as the funding ends.

"If the budget goes back to where it was, status quo before emergency funding, this is going to explode on us," he said.

The 2020-23 budget included an additional average of $4.6 million a year from 2018-2021 to address the backlog of diseased trees that need to be removed.

The operating budget provides the city with resources to remove 3,500 diseased trees a year. In 2020, 8,000 diseased trees were tagged for removal.

"We did catch up on the backlog as of 2020. We eliminated (it), so now were back on schedule with our Dutch elm disease removal," city forester Martha Barwinsky said.

A row of banded Dutch elm trees on Martin Avenue West. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

Despite this, the number of trees that must be removed remains high, and the contagious nature of the disease meant having a backlog in the first place had destructive effects on Winnipegs elm population.

"We certainly dont want to be in a position where we need emergency funding, thats for sure, and were still really feeling the impacts of that backlog," she said.

The city doesnt know how long it would take for the number of diseased trees in Winnipeg to start coming down at a significant number, Barwinsky said, but added she was "hopeful" and believed Trees Winnipegs 2021 campaign will be "an important part in managing the disease."

The elm population is mature, she said, and as the city grows and becomes more urbanized, growing trees becomes more complicated. The city has partnered with the University of Winnipegs centre for forest interdisciplinary research to develop a program to prioritize removal of diseased trees that host most of the elm bark beetles that spread Dutch elm disease.

"I dont want people to give up," she said.

Glenelm resident Mellanie Lawrenz has lobbied for increased funding to the citys urban forestry budget with some success, but said more work needs to be done. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press)

Before Glenelm resident Mellanie Lawrenz moved to the neighbourhood in 2003, she drove in the area with a real estate agent.

"I remember driving down Noble Avenue with all those lovely shaded trees, and turning to my real estate agent and saying, You could sell me a shoebox on this street, and I would move here. It was just so welcoming, and peaceful, and calm," she said.

"I think you really lose that place when you lose those giant old trees."

In 2020, the neighbourhood, bordered by Henderson Highway, the Red River, the Disraeli Freeway and Harbison Avenue, lost about 100 elms to the disease.

The Glenelm Neighbourhood Association tree committee estimates that should trees continue to die of the disease at the current rate, the neighbourhood could have no American elms in just 11 years.

Lawrenz has lobbied for increased funding to the citys urban forestry budget with "some success," but said more work needs to be done.

"Theres something called plant blindness, that I wonder if maybe councils not coming up against a little bit  its when you tend to take natural infrastructure like trees and grass for granted," she said. "Theyre just not valued the same way something thats human-built is valued. And I feel like thats a missed opportunity."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / Grayhawk Wealth ("Grayhawk") is proud to announce the appointment of Claire Lynch as Relationship Lead, Western Canada to its growing team.

Claire joins the company's growing Western Canada division, bringing to the firm over 20 years of experience in high-touch relationship management and business development in both the non-profit and corporate sectors.

"Claire's arrival at Grayhawk demonstrates our commitment to deepening our relationships and growing our business in Western Canada. Her vast network of connections and proven track record in development makes her an ideal fit for our expanding team," said Michael Kaumeyer, Co-CEO of Grayhawk.

Claire brings to Grayhawk a unique combination of skills in family governance, facilitation, philanthropy, business development and multi-generational family enterprise. Most recently, she served as the Vancouver-based Vice-President of Membership for Canada at TIGER 21, where she was responsible for supporting the Canadian growth of the boutique peer-learning organisation for HNW entrepreneurs and investors.

Her previous roles include serving as Director of Development at the Mulgrave IB World School in Vancouver, as CEO of the Irish Hospice Foundation in Dublin, Ireland, and as Director of Development at GAP Activity Projects Ltd., based in London, England.

In the past, Claire has been an advocate and volunteer with palliative and hospice care services in Canada and Ireland. She was also a Director with the West Vancouver Community Foundation, assisting with their fundraising efforts.

"I'm honoured to have the opportunity to work with a growing business committed to creating long term positive impact for the families they work with," said Lynch. "I look forward to drawing on my diverse career experiences in this new role and to helping Grayhawk reach new heights."

About Grayhawk

Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. ("Grayhawk Wealth") ("Grayhawk") works with foundations, institutions and families with multi-generational wealth on their financial and human capital understanding that they need more than an investment plan, they need a strategy to build well-being that lasts. The company is guided by this mission to build trust with families, as well as foundation and institution advisors, that want to look to the future and benefit from the real value of wealth. Grayhawk serves successful Canadian clients with custom portfolio management services, a family office and unique affinity partnerships from its offices in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. For more information about Grayhawk, visit grayhawkwealth.com.

Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. is registered as a Portfolio Manager and Exempt Market Dealer in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan and as an Investment Fund Manager in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Contact:

Adam Daifallah

Sagard Holdings

Work: +1 514.316.7089

media@sagardholdings.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release contains forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of providing information about Grayhawk's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Any such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "proposed", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", and similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such statements and information, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although Grayhawk believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because Grayhawk can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The forward-looking information in this release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of Grayhawk based on information currently available to Grayhawk.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Grayhawk disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE: Grayhawk Wealth

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624531/Grayhawk-Wealth-Welcomes-Claire-Lynch-as-Relationship-Lead-Western-Canada
Coronavirus cases in Spain have continued to rocket upwards, as the country registered its highest-ever number of daily cases on Friday: 40,197 infections in a single day.

This exceeded a record set only two days earlier, on Wednesday, of 38,869 new cases. Thursday also saw exceptionally high figures, with 35,878 infections recorded in the official government count. Prior to the explosion of cases last week, the highest-ever number of daily infections had been recorded on October 30, with 25,592 new positive tests. As of Friday, a total of 2,252,164 coronavirus infections had been detected in Spain and 53,314 deaths.

This is despite a significant drop in the number of tests being conducted. In the week ending January 8, only 804,158 coronavirus tests were carried out, compared to well over a million tests (1,205,303) in the week ending November 5at the height of infections in the autumn.

A funeral at Seville's Cathedral, Spain, Thursday, Jun. 4, 2020 (AP Photo/Miguel Morenatti)

Amid this surge in the pandemic doctors and other medical professionals are warning that hospitals are on the brink of collapse as admissions to intensive care units rise rapidly. Within a couple of days, hospital occupancy will exceed the worst figures recorded during the height of the pandemic in November last year, if the current trend continues.

Since Christmas, hospitalisations for COVID-19 have increased by around 70 percent and intensive care unit (ICU) occupation rates have gone up by nearly 50 percent.

Medical facilities are being forced to ration care and postpone routine activities to cope with the demands placed on them by the surge in coronavirus cases. Many hospitals are delaying part of their non-covid activity, especially surgery that requires an ICU in the postoperative period, explained Ricard Ferrer, president of the Spanish Society of Intensive, Critical and Coronary Unit Medical Care.

Hospitals in the region of Valencia have been forced to suspend routine operations and non-urgent diagnostic tests in order to respond to the new surge in coronavirus admissions. The regional government has also called for 280 more beds to be made available in field hospitals. In Catalonia and Galicia, hospitals are also warning that they may soon be overwhelmed and are beginning to cancel scheduled operations.

The forecasts are very bad and the gradient of the epidemiological curve is becoming almost vertical. If we continue this way, warned Javier Garcia Fernandez, president of the Spanish Anaesthesiology Society, hospitals will start to collapse within two weeks.

Spanish hospitals now have around 800 more patients in critical condition than a month ago. In many regions, over 40 percent of all patients in ICUs had been admitted for COVID-19: the Balearic Islands (41.04 percent), Catalonia (42.38), La Rioja (45 percent) and Valencia (48.09 percent).

There are currently nearly 20,000 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain, with around 3,000 in intensive care. This is approaching the highest hospital admission figures of the second wave, which peaked at 21,051 hospitalised patients on November 11 and 3,156 intensive care patients on November 16.

Madrids Society of Intensive Medicine stated that the occupancy of its ICU beds was standing at 90 percent, if taking the number of available beds prior to the onset of the pandemic as a reference point. The Society pleaded for urgent and drastic measures to control the spread of the contagion and dampen the rising curve of admissions.

The accumulated incidence rate has also exploded over the last week, having risen by over 200 points in only seven days. As of last Friday, the incidence per 100,000 people stood at 575.1 across Spain, compared to 350.48 only a week before.

The region of Extremadura continues to be the worst affected, with the incidence rate rising from 803 per 100,000 to a staggering 1,090.30 in a week. Five other regions are reporting rates of over 600 per 100,000: Murcia (739.40), Valencia (727.80), Castilla-La Mancha (725.00), the Balearic Islands (644.60) and Madrid (632.70).

Even this is a significant underestimate. Many cases are still going undetected, as indicated by the rising positive test rate across the whole country. Across Spain, around 17 percent of tests are returning a positive result, well above the threshold of 5 percent that the World Health Organisation considers to be a sign that the pandemic is under control. In Castilla-La Mancha and Valencia, a massive 30 percent of tests are coming back positive.

This explosion of cases is devastating health care workers, who report intolerable stress and anxiety. According to two studies by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, nearly half (45 percent) of medical workers are at high risk of suffering a mental health disorder as a result of their work in the first wave of the pandemic. Around 14 percent were suffering from a debilitating mental health condition, with clear negative consequences on their professional and personal lives, and 3.5 percent had had suicidal thoughtsmore than double the rate in the population as a whole.

The study also showed that nearly one in three health care workers (28.1 percent) were suffering from depression; 22.5 percent from anxiety; around one in four from panic attacks; 22.2 percent from post-traumatic stress and just over 6 percent from substance abuse issues.

In the face of this looming catastrophe the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government is refusing to take any action to bring the contagion under control. Instead, top health officials are blaming the population for the increased spread of the virus, berating them for supposedly having partied or gathered in large groups over the holidays.

Everyone was aware what was recommended at Christmas, [and] Im sorry to say, perhaps we had a better time than we should have done, declared Fernando Simon, director of the Centre for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies. The spread of the pandemic is now clearly rising and it is a consequence of the behaviour over the last days, he added.

This is a cynical and politically criminal attempt to divert responsibility for the consequences of the bourgeoisies save Christmas campaign. Regional and national governments outright refused measures to contain the virus in the weeks before Christmas, encouraging workers to go out shopping to ensure businesses got their profits.

This was made most explicit by right-wing regional premier of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, who declared in the middle of December, as cases were already rapidly rising: Were not planning on bankrupting businesses, closing hospitality or affecting the economy. We will not be the ones to prevent citizens from going in or out of Madrid to visit their families.

The behaviour of representatives of the ruling class such as Ayuso is indeed now having its consequences.

Despite the explosion in cases, the PSOE-Podemos government is doubling down on its refusal to act to contain the pandemic. In a press conference on Thursday, Simon declared: The option of a [stay-at-home] lockdown, as always, is there. But at the moment it does not seem necessary.

On Saturday, Health Minister Salvador Illa echoed these comments, stating: We are not contemplating any stay-at-home lockdown.  We have the knowledge and the experience; we know how to bend the curve.

The working class cannot place any trust in these corrupt representatives of big business, whose sole concern is to keep profits flowing into the coffers of the financial eliteno matter the cost in human lives. Only an independent political struggle of workers in Spain and internationally will provide the means for an effective struggle against the escalating COVID-19 pandemic and to safeguard lives.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A Russian judge on Monday ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days, a ruling that comes after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin's government.

The ruling concluded an hours-long court hearing at a police precinct where Navalny was being held since his arrest at a Moscow airport on Sunday evening sparked sharp reactions, both at home and around the world.

A crowd of Navalny supporters outside the precinct shouted Shame! as the judge announced the ruling and Navalny's allies immediately called for protests. His arrest had already prompted a wave of criticism from U.S. and European officials, adding to existing tensions between Russia and the West.

His top strategist, Leonid Volkov, announced preparations for large rallies" on Saturday all across the country.

Don't be afraid, take to the streets, Navalny said in a video statement released after the ruling was announced. Don't come out for me, come out for yourselves and your future.

The 44-year-old Navalny, Putins most well-known critic, campaigned to challenge him in the 2018 presidential election but was barred from running. He has issued scores of damning reports over the years about corruption in Russia under Putins regime. After recuperating for months in Berlin after his Aug. 20 poisoning, he returned to Russia on Sunday evening despite warnings that he would be immediately arrested.

As expected, Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after the plane was diverted from landing at another Moscow airport in what was seen as an attempt to foil supporters who had gathered to cheer the arrival of their hero. Russias prison service said he had violated probation terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which he says is contrived and politically motivated. The service said it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3 1/2-year sentence behind bars.

His allies dismissed the move as an attempt by the Kremlin to keep him from coming back to Russia to continue his political activities.

A court hearing on the prison services motion to have Navalny serve his suspended sentence in prison is scheduled for Feb. 2, according to his lawyers.

Calls for Navalnys immediate release have come from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and top officials of other EU nations.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert noted that "the Russian authorities have arrested the victim of an attempted assassination with a chemical weapon, not the perpetrator and called for Navalny's release.

U.S. President-elect Joe Bidens pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also called on Russian authorities to free Navalny, and the outgoing U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the U.S. strongly condemns the decision to arrest the opposition leader.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that the stream of Western reactions to Navalnys arrest reflected an attempt to divert attention from the crisis of the Western model of development.

Navalnys case has received a foreign policy dimension artificially and without any foundation, Lavrov said, arguing that the detention was a prerogative of Russian law enforcement agencies. Its a matter of observing the law.

Navalny spent the night at the police precinct outside Moscow. In a highly unusual development, the court hearing on Monday was held right at the precinct, and his lawyers said they were notified only minutes before.

It is impossible, what is happening over here, Navalny said in a video from the improvised courtroom that was posted on his page in the messaging app Telegram. It is lawlessness of the highest degree.

The judge ordered that Navalny be remanded in custody until Feb. 15, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on Twitter. Navalnys lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, told the Interfax news agency that the defence plans to appeal the ruling.

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities, however, insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison. Russia refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned, and Russian officials have challenged Germany to provide proof of the poisoning.
Candidates who get shortlisted through the seat allotment in the first round will have to complete the admission process by reporting at the law college

The State CET Cell of Maharashtra will release the final merit list of MH CET law five-year LLB today, 18 January, at around 5 pm. Candidates can check the merit list on the official website cetcelladmissions.mahait.org.

The final merit list will be released separately for MS (Maharashtra State) and OMS (Outside Maharashtra State) candidates. The report adds that the merit list will carry the name of the candidate whose application for counselling has been approved and will be considered for preparing the seat allotment list.

Here's how to download the MH CET law final merit list:

Step 1: Candidates must visit the MH CET law counselling website - cetcelladmissions.mahait.org.

Step 2: Once there, candidates need to select their programme.

Step 3: Candidates need to click on the final merit list link for MS and OMS categories.

Step 4: The MH CET law final merit list will be downloaded in PDF.

Step 5: Candidates must find their name, application status and other details.

On the basis of the MH CET law final merit list, authorities will prepare a seat allotment list for the first round. The seat allotment will be done based on merit as well as preference criteria. Candidates who get shortlisted through the seat allotment in the first round will have to complete the admission process by reporting at the law college.

The provisional merit list for MH CET law five-year LLB was released on 7 January. The first round of seat allotment will be released on 21 January at the official website.

The Chief Medical Officers in Ireland and Northern Ireland have voiced their concerns about the high levels of Covid-19 and are urging everyone to stay home.

Chief Medical Officers Dr Tony Holohan and Dr Michael McBride said: As Chief Medical Officers, we are gravely concerned about the unsustainably high level of Covid-19 infection we are experiencing on the island of Ireland. This is having a significant impact on the health of our population and the safe functioning of our healthcare systems.

Unfortunately, due to the surge of infections we have experienced over the past few weeks, we have seen an increase in mortality figures and our health systems have been placed under immense pressure. We are likely to see ongoing increases in hospitalisations, ICU admissions and mortality in the weeks ahead.

Both Chief Medical Officers are strongly urging everyone to stay at home except for essential reasons and to avoid all unnecessary journeys including cross-border travel.

Many of the patients admitted to hospital in January have been under the age of 65 years. Covid-19 can affect us all, regardless of age or underlying condition. It highlights the need for us all to protect one another by staying at home. Not only will you keep yourself and your loved ones safe, but also help to save lives and avoid more preventable Covid-19 admissions to our currently struggling healthcare systems," they said.

We will continue to work together to protect public health across the island as we have done throughout this pandemic, but we need everyone to play their part by staying at home and protecting themselves and their communities.
Approximately 558 health-care workers with vaccine appointments at the Keystone Centre were given the wrong address for todays appointments.

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Approximately 558 health-care workers with vaccine appointments at the Keystone Centre were given the wrong address for todays appointments.

Candid internal emails between senior government leaders about the mistake were also sent to the Manitoba NDP, who issued a press release about the incident on Sunday.

Included in the correspondence is a response by communications director Blake Robert, who asked:

"What, if any, are the consequences for this repeat error? Some kind of contractual penalty? Credit applied to whatever government is paying for the service? Reassignment of the person responsible for the error?

"Or, are we just shrugging our shoulders and using the Britney Spears response of Oops! I did it again."

The private company responsible, PetalMD, is going to be put on "training wheels," treasury board head Paul Beauregard wrote, noting that this is the second time they have made this mistake and that their work would be checked.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew called the mistake another example of the governments vaccine rollout failure.

"They wasted precious doses, made thousands of front-line health care workers wait hours on the phone and are last in the country in getting vaccines into Manitobans arms," he said in a release.

"Now they cant even get the address to the Keystone Centre correct."

In the email thread, priorities and planning secretariat Adam Topp noted that correction notices have been texted to those with appointments.

 The Brandon Sun
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EDITORS NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting a two-day business and networking conference March 9-10, featuring some of the states most prominent industry leaders. Early-bird registration is open. Tickets are limited.

As Gov. Phil Murphy and state lawmakers remain in a stalemate over penalties for underage marijuana use, two legislators have introduced a bill that would require schools to teach students in elementary through high school about the risks of marijuana use.

Sen. Michaela Testa, R-Cape May, on Thursday introduced the bill (S3360), which would make age-appropriate education on the risks of marijuana use mandatory for students in third through 12th grades. Assemblyman Erik Simonsen, R-Cape May, has introduced the bill into the state Assembly.

As soon as the Legislature gets its act together, marijuana will be legal for adult use, Testa said in a statement. That will send a dangerous message to school kids of all ages  that cannabis is safe and accepted.

The course content, delivered in health and physical education classes, would touch on the impact of marijuana on the adolescent brain and body, the risk of addiction to marijuana and the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

It would also focus on the dangers of driving while high.

Current law already requires schools educate kids on drugs, alcohol and tobacco use. The states 2020 education standards mention marijuana and cannabis, and involve educating students about the social, emotional and physical harm use can cause, as well as ways to say no to using.

Simonsen said the bill would prompt schools to begin educating kids about marijuana at a younger age and go more in-depth about the scientific effects if THC, and the difference between medical cannabis and unregulated marijuana.

Its going to be around and be more prominent in our communities, he told NJ Advance Media. Its more accessible, and the stigma has kind of been lifted on it. I think its important to start in the younger grades.

New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in November to legalize marijuana for people 21 and older. The state Legislature has since passed two bills, one to set up a legal framework (S21) and another to decriminalize possession (S2535).

But Murphy has not signed those bills due to discrepancies surrounding underage penalties: one makes possession by those under 21 a disorderly persons offense, and another gets rid of all penalties for possessing up to six ounces of marijuana.

He had asked the Legislature to make changes, but a deal on civil penalties fell through last week.

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

Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj.
"And we cant survive unless the issues around domestic borders are sorted out and there is a uniform set of triggers, a uniform set of responses and a uniform definition of hotspots around the country." The tourism industry estimates 60 to 70 per cent of revenue comes from international visitors and a Chinese tourist spends about $8000 on a visit compared to an Australian traveller spending $1500 on a domestic trip. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The TTF estimated the industry would normally post sales of about $5 billion over summer but had foregone at least $3 billion of this, in part because the states had increased uncertainty for Australians about sudden border closures. The Victorian branch of Tourism Accommodation Australia said 40 per cent of Melbourne's tourism usually came from international travellers, highlighting the cost to jobs.

Loading "Continued uncertainty regarding international travel should instead lead [Australians] to consider the opportunity to explore their own backyard," said general manager Dougal Hollis. Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said employers had to accept the prospect of a "hard-locked" border for all of this year. Mr Westaway said open domestic borders were a "must" when the international curbs were so strict, and that companies needed frank engagement with the government. In a separate warning about overseas arrivals, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was little prospect of international students arriving this year in large numbers.

"Tens of thousands of international students coming back here is going to be incredibly challenging, if not impossible during this year," Mr Andrews said. "I take no joy in saying that, but I try to be as frank as possible about that." Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to meet state and territory leaders this Friday to discuss the vaccine rollout, which will proceed within weeks if the Therapeutic Goods Administration approves vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. "I know the disruptions that come from borders and some of the restrictions put in place cause great frustration and inconvenience to people, but when you stand back and look at how Australia is performing against the rest of the world, Id much rather be here than anywhere else," Mr Morrison told radio station 2GB on Monday. The government is seeking information from authorities in Norway after the deaths of about 30 people among 42,000 who took the Pfizer vaccine.

Loading Unless the TGA rules otherwise, the government is planning to offer the Pfizer vaccine to five million people, including health care workers and older Australians, and to offer an AstraZeneca vaccine to 25 million people. Australian National University professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician, said the vaccines appeared safe and effective but would not stop some travellers bringing COVID-19 into the country. "Were not even expecting most adults in Australia to be vaccinated until September or October and then we have to be concerned about the rest of the world being vaccinated as well," he said. Professor Collignon said border restrictions would have to continue in some form until global transmission was curbed, an outcome that might only become clear after the end of the next northern winter.

"We wont really know where we are at for another 18 months from a global travel point of view," he said. Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has pointed to global test results to assure Australians the vaccines will protect against severe illness and death, the priority objectives. Professor Kelly has cautioned, however, that the effect of the vaccines on the transmission on the virus is not yet clear. University of Melbourne professor of epidemiology Tony Blakely said it was possible that someone who was vaccinated could still catch and spread the virus, even though they would be protected against severe illness. Professor Blakely estimated the 14-day quarantine rules would continue for international arrivals until at least September or October and possibly beyond, depending on what was learnt over time about the vaccine benefits.
Authorities in Louisiana have charged a woman with close to 200 criminal counts after they say she traveled to Texas to mail numerous nude photos depicting two men to more than two dozen people.

Sarah Pharis, 32, from Sulphur, was initially arrested on December 28 and charged with 150 counts of non-consensual disclosure of a private image after her colleague told police that she had sent degrading letters about him to at least 30 recipients.

The strongly-worded letters were sent from the Houston area in Texas, some 130 miles away from Pharis home, and also contained nude photos of the victim performing lewd acts.

Sarah Pharis, 32, has been charged with 180 counts of non-consensual disclosure of a private image for allegedly sending disparaging letters and nude photos depicting two men

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Chief Deputy Stitch Guillory told Fox29 that several people have contacted the victim to tell him they had received the letters and pictures.

The man told investigators that Pharis had access to his personal photographs through Facebook because she had helped him set up his account years earlier.

Pharis was released from jail on $75,000 bond, but on January 14 she was re-arrested after detectives learned that the compromising letters she had mailed out also included images of another man.

DailyMail.com on Monday reached out to the sheriff's office seeking comment on a possible motive and was awaiting a reply.

Officials say Pharis traveled last month from her home in Sulphur, Louisiana (pictured) to suburban Houston to mail the photos to 30 people

Pharis was booked into the Calcasieu Correctional Center and charged with an additional 30 counts of non-consensual disclosure of a private image. She was released later the same day on a $15,000 bond.

Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn of the allegations against Pharis.

'I didn't really think that she would be capable of that,' family friend Amber Beaudeaux said.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter - Global Market Outlook (2019-2027)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter market accounted for $3.40 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $6.30 billion by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 8.0% during the forecast period.



The increasing demand for light commercial vehicles due to the rise in capital investments in small and medium enterprises is the major factor propelling market growth. However, the stringent regulations pertaining to the vehicle safety in regions are hampering market growth.



Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter is designed to allow the seat belt force applied the chest to rise only to a point where serious injury is unlikely. Load limiters technology helps in protecting travellers from seatbelt imposed injury. The load limiter releases the webbing slowly so as to apply low force on the travellers' chest. Currently, two types of load limiter present in the market such as digressive load limiters and progressive load limiters.



Based on the vehicle, the passenger vehicle segment is going to have lucrative growth during the forecast period due to it provides for more than two-third of total demand, which is a reflection if stringent government regulations and growing awareness among consumers for on road safety measures. Furthermore, manufacturers are expected to focus on producing low cost safety systems and emphasize on rear passenger seat belts.



By geography, Asia pacific is estimated to have lucrative growth due to the rising production of vehicles in the region. Furthermore, higher foreign investments in the region supplemented with a rise in the number of manufacturing sites in China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea are likely to augment the automotive seat belt load limiter market in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.



Some of the key players profiled in the Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter Market include APV Safety Products, Autoliv Inc., Beam's Seat Belts, Belt-tech, Far Europe Inc., BERGER GROUP, GWR Co., Continental AG, DENSO Corporation, Goradia Industries, Joyson Safety Systems, Kingfisher Automotive, Seat Belt Solutions LLC, TOKAIRIKA CO, LTD, ZF Friedrichshafen AG., Toyoda Gosei Co.Ltd., and Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd.



What the report offers:

Market share assessments for the regional and country-level segments

Strategic recommendations for the new entrants

Covers Market data for the years 2018, 2019 2020, 2024, and 2027

Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)

Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations

Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends

Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments

Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements

Key Topics Covered:



1 Executive Summary



2 Preface

2.1 Abstract

2.2 Stake Holders

2.3 Research Scope

2.4 Research Methodology

2.5 Research Sources



3 Market Trend Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Drivers

3.3 Restraints

3.4 Opportunities

3.5 Threats

3.6 Technology Analysis

3.7 Emerging Markets

3.8 Impact of Covid-19



4 Porters Five Force Analysis

4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

4.3 Threat of substitutes

4.4 Threat of new entrants

4.5 Competitive rivalry



5 Global Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter Market, By Seat

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Rear

5.3 Front



6 Global Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter Market, By Technology

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Adaptive/ Switchable

6.3 Progressive Load Limiters

6.4 Digressive Load Limiters



7 Global Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter Market, By Vehicle

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Light Commercial Vehicle

7.3 Heavy Commercial Vehicle

7.4 Passenger Vehicle

7.4.1 UV

7.4.2 Hatchback

7.4.3 Sedan



8 Global Automotive Seat Belt Load Limiter Market, By Geography

8.1 Introduction

8.2 North America

8.2.1 US

8.2.2 Canada

8.2.3 Mexico

8.3 Europe

8.3.1 Germany

8.3.2 UK

8.3.3 Italy

8.3.4 France

8.3.5 Spain

8.3.6 Rest of Europe

8.4 Asia Pacific

8.4.1 Japan

8.4.2 China

8.4.3 India

8.4.4 Australia

8.4.5 New Zealand

8.4.6 South Korea

8.4.7 Rest of Asia Pacific

8.5 South America

8.5.1 Argentina

8.5.2 Brazil

8.5.3 Chile

8.5.4 Rest of South America

8.6 Middle East & Africa

8.6.1 Saudi Arabia

8.6.2 UAE

8.6.3 Qatar

8.6.4 South Africa

8.6.5 Rest of Middle East & Africa



9 Key Developments

9.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures

9.2 Acquisitions & Mergers

9.3 New Product Launch

9.4 Expansions

9.5 Other Key Strategies



10 Company Profiling

10.1 APV Safety Products

10.2 Autoliv Inc.

10.3 Beam's Seat Belts

10.4 Belt-tech, Far Europe Inc.

10.5 BERGER GROUP, GWR Co.

10.6 Continental AG

10.7 DENSO Corporation,

10.8 Goradia Industries

10.9 Joyson Safety Systems

10.10 Kingfisher Automotive

10.11 Seat Belt Solutions LLC

10.12 TOKAIRIKA CO, LTD

10.13 ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

10.14 Toyoda Gosei Co.Ltd.

10.15 Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd.



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Health staff who are administering the Covid-19 vaccine in long-term care settings across the country have been told it is not appropriate to give it to residents whose duration of life may be shorter than the length of time it will take for the jab to work.

The advice is being issued by HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry following 23 deaths of a number of very frail elderly patients in Norway after getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency (NOMA) said there is no certain connection between the deaths and the vaccine but there is a possibility that common adverse reactions that are not unusual could aggravate underlying illness in the elderly.

It said it was not alarmed or worried because they are very rare cases and they occurred in very frail patients with very serious disease.

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In a letter to clinicians Dr Henry said: Given that the benefit from vaccination begins only about 1014 days following the first dose and full protection is not achieved until 7-14 days following the second dose of vaccine currently in use, it is not appropriate to vaccinate people if their expected duration of life is less than that for the vaccine to take effect and if, in that context, their overall care is focused on comfort and dignity.

He said that to date well over 10 million Covid-19 vaccines have been administered globally, with vaccination programmes prioritising those at high risk, including older people.

All events reported as possible side effects following vaccination are being closely monitored. It is important to note that fatalities will occur from natural causes or background illnesses, and will continue to do so, during any vaccination campaign.

Dr Henry said NOMA and the Norwegian National Institute of Public Health have reported 23 deaths connected temporally with the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine of which 13 have been assessed.

The reports suggest that common adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some very frail elderly individuals.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee has reviewed the available information and has advised that the vaccination rollout should continue as planned and reiterate that, as in all situations, a careful, individual assessment of the risk/benefit ratio for those receiving a Covid-19 vaccine should be carried out.

All members of the vaccination team should have undergone appropriate training regarding vaccinations and the management of immediate reactions.

They should be aware of situations where vaccines are contraindicated and precautions to be taken. Vaccine should be deferred in people with acute febrile illness, those who are acutely unwell until recovery, and for four weeks following diagnosis of Covid-19, he added.

Residential care facility staff should be aware of expected side effects following administration of a vaccine and should be familiar with the processes following vaccination.

Specifically, they should know who to contact if a resident becomes unwell following vaccination and the reporting process for any adverse events.

In addition, given that the benefit from vaccination begins only about 1014 days following the first dose and full protection is not achieved until 7-14 days following the second dose of vaccine currently in use, it is not appropriate to vaccinate people if their expected duration of life is less than that for the vaccine to take effect and if, in that context, their overall care is focused on comfort and dignity, he added.

Dr Henry said that matters relating to decisions on the potential benefit or otherwise of the vaccine for those who are extremely frail and/or approaching end of life should form part of the considerations during the consent process with the patient, and in consultation with their families as appropriate, and may need input of more than one healthcare professional.

Liaison between the persons GP and the nursing staff of the long-term residential care facility may be required to provide the best advice to support the process of consent to vaccination.

"Where the vaccination is deferred or declined on the basis of this process, a note should be made in the persons healthcare record.

The HSE plans to concentrate the roll-out of the vaccine this week more on long-term care facilities than in hospitals.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the plan is that all nursing home residents will have received their first vaccination dose by next Sunday.

In a statement Pfizer and BioNTech said they are aware of reported deaths following administration of the vaccine.

We are working with the Norwegian Medicines Agency (NOMA) to gather all the relevant information.

Norwegian Authorities have prioritised the immunisation of residents in nursing homes, most of whom are very elderly with underlying medical conditions and some which are terminally ill.

NOMA confirm the number of incidents so far is not alarming, and in line with expectations.

"All reported deaths will be thoroughly evaluated by NOMA to determine if these incidents are related to the vaccine.

"Norwegian Health Authorities have now changed its recommendation in relation to vaccination of the terminally ill. Our immediate thoughts are with the bereaved families.
Heavy rains have flooded a multitude of refugee camps in Idleb province, forcing many families from their shelters reports Baladi News.

A strong rainstorm that struck all regions of northwestern Syria has multiplied the suffering of displaced Syrians, after hundreds of their tents flooded on Saturday night.

Baladi News correspondent in the Idleb countryside said that a rainstorm caused the sinking of about 40 tents in the Ghorbal al-Sham camp, near the city of Maarrat Misrin in the northern countryside of Idleb. Camp residents appealed for shelter for the affected families who did not have a roof over their heads anymore, in light of the continuing rainstorm.

The correspondent added that many of the displaced persons tents in the Duwailah camp, west of the city of Kafr Takharim, north of Idleb, were destroyed due to flooding. He pointed out that the strong winds caused the uprooting of many tents in the camp due to its being located at a high altitude.

He pointed out that the damage was not limited to the two camps, but also to the following: al-Salam camp in the Yousef area, al-Rabeeh camp, al-Kanais camp in the al-Jamaa neighborhood in Idleb city, the Shamna camp near Bir al-Tayeb village, al-Fahd camp in Kafr Yahmul, al-Amal Allah camp in Harbnoush, the Naseem al-Sham camp, the Ahl al-Khayr camp, al-Hasoub camp, the Khair al-Sham camp, the al-Tamimi camp, the Humaymat al-Dayer camp, the al-Birah camp, the Bin Othman camp, the Abu Habbah camp, the al-Nasr camp in Harbnoush, and the al-Rahma camp in Kafr Yahmul.

According to Baladi News correspondent, most of these camps were built on agricultural lands that turn into a mud swamp with the start of the rain season, noting that the roads are not paved and sanitation services are nonexistent.

There are dozens of camps for internally displaced persons from Hama, Aleppo, and Idleb along the Syrian-Turkish border. The displaced suffer from extremely difficult living conditions and poor services due to the weak response to their situation in that geographical area.

On Friday, the Response Coordinators Team said in a statement published on its official website that rainwater had damaged 23 camps in northwestern Syria during the past 36 hours, most of which were in the camps of Maarrat Misrin, central Idleb, and the western countryside of Idleb Governorate.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Historically, Black churches have played a significant role in the lives of Black Americans, offering spiritual solace, community and charity to their congregants. And in New York they have embarked on many community outreach projects over the years that have tackled a wide range of issues, from social injustices to dire health disparities.

Today, members of the citys Black clergy are once again offering their support to their communities, this time taking on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Black New Yorkers, by launching the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan, which will educate individuals about the virus as well as other health disparities and provide COVID-19 testing. Heres a more comprehensive look at a few of the ways that Black churches in the city have intervened during times of crisis.

The civil rights movement

During the 1940s, many Black Americans moved to the city from the South, eventually making New York the city with the densest Black population and the center of the Northern civil rights movement. This growing community still faced segregation in the city, despite how socially liberal we may consider it to be today. Black churches stood together with their communities from the 1940s  up until today, even  asking that members of their community be granted fair labor opportunities and calling for desegregation.

Two churches that played a significant role in demanding equality for Black Americans included the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn. "Abyssinian was an important base for raising money for the national civil rights movement," Clarence Taylor, a history professor at Baruch College, told Newsday in 2008. "The church was a key meeting place for civil rights demonstrations and protests, many of them led by the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr."

Many ministers from across the country who were involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., frequently came to New York to make their call for justice. King even delivered one of his most famous speeches, that railed against the U.S.s involvement in the Vietnam War, at the Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1967, just one year before his death.

The HIV crisis

Beginning in the 1980s, as the HIV epidemic swept across the country it had a particularly harrowing impact on the citys Black community. Many of the citys churches were initially reluctant to confront the crisis, given that the disease was transmitted through sexual activity and intravenous drug use that was typically frowned upon by conservative leaders of faith. However, as the disease continued to ravage much of the city and states Black communities, Black churches, among other religious institutions that served these communities, felt it was their duty to assist those struggling with HIV and AIDs.

In 1987, The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS was founded, aimed at getting leaders in Black communities to help educate individuals about the sexually transmitted autoimmune disease, provide testing and lend support. Black faith leaders who engaged with such community outreach programs were found to have an impactful effect in mitigating the stigma that surrounded the disease. And in 1989, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem became one of the first churches in the city to bring the religious community together to support families dealing with HIV and AIDs, and even formed its own HIV/AIDs ministry.

Drug addiction

New Yorks Black community befell another health crisis in the 1980s, when a smokeable version of cocaine, known as crack became prevalent throughout the city, sparking a serious new wave of drug addiction. However, even before the arrival of this new drug, many of the citys leaders of faith became outspoken anti-drug activists, who sought to increase the presence of police in their neighborhoods to combat the rise in drug addiction among Black people.

Many Black people, especially during the 1980s, became subjected to increasingly harsh drug laws that sought to put them behind bars rather than help them overcome their dependency on the highly addictive substance. Upon seeing this, leaders of faith who once championed these anti-drug initiatives have increasingly begun calling for less damaging penalization and more community-oriented approaches to dealing with addiction, such as youth programs and counseling.
The Test and Trace system is forking out almost 1million a day to just one consultancy firm, it has emerged.

The Government is paying an average of 1,000 a day to each consultant working on the programme. Deloitte has 900 employees working for the service.

David Williams, joint permanent secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care, revealed the shocking figures during a Commons public accounts committee meeting yesterday.

Asked about government reliance on private sector staff  and specifically how many Deloitte employees work for Test and Trace  he said it was down to roughly 900 from more than 1,000 in October.

'We're going to see that number reduced markedly over the course of the next few months,' he said.

Pushed on the cost of individual consultants, Mr Williams said: 'The average cost across our consultancy support, and I imagine it's about the same for Deloitte, is around 1,000 a day.'

Baroness Dido Harding (pictured) said the programme was having a 'material impact' and is lowering the R number by between 0.3 and 0.6 and, in high Covid prevalence areas, by between 0.5 and 0.8

The Government is paying an average of 1,000 a day to each consultant working on the programme. Deloitte has 900 employees working for the service. Pictured: Health Secretary Matt Hancock

David Williams said the Test and Trace (pictured) system could not have expanded quickly without consultants' help, and many firms had reduced their normal public sector rates during the crisis.

David Williams, joint permanent secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care, revealed the shocking figures during a Commons public accounts committee meeting

Matt Hancock says vaccination drive is 'a full seven-day' service despite apparent drop in numbers at weekends Matt Hancock has insisted the UK's ambitious vaccination drive is a 'full seven-day service' - despite an apparent drop in the number of people receiving jabs at the weekend. This week's figures showed a total of 321,951 people received a dose of the Oxford or Pfizer vaccine on Thursday - followed by a further 328,260 on Friday. The figures - which include both first and second doses - then drop to 280,390 on Saturday, followed by another dip to 227,972 on Sunday. Public Health England today blamed the lower weekend figures on reporting delays, as the Health Secretary insisted the roll-out was a 'full seven-day service' with the Government 'prepared to go 24/7'. When asked about the drop in figures at today's daily Downing Street press briefing, Mr Hancock urged Britons to look at weekly averages rather than data from an individual day. He said: 'The vaccine delivery is absolutely delivering a full seven-day service and we are prepared to go 24/7. 'I wouldn't read too much into an individual day's data, I think the best thing to do is look at weekly averages and, as you say, you can see that going up, and up fast.' Mr Hancock said vaccine supply was the 'rate-limiting factor'. 'If you listen to voices on the ground in the NHS, you hear people saying 'give us more supply and we will jab it into more arms',' he added. 'We are shoveling it out as fast as we can.' Pressure is mounting on the Government to dish out coronavirus vaccines 24/7, with Labour saying No10 'must deliver for the British people' because the public 'have sacrificed so much'. But ministers earlier claimed there was 'no clamour' for appointments beyond 8pm. And it was yesterday revealed that management consultants paid for by the Government to speed up the vaccine roll-out have told ministers there is little demand for vaccinations to be administered 24/7. They claim getting pensioners to vaccination centres in the middle of the night is not 'physically feasible' and the constraint on the current programme is not the lack of hours in the day but making sure there is enough skilled staff. Advertisement

He defended the amount, saying he was 'confident' firms were not profiteering from the pandemic.

He said the system could not have expanded quickly without consultants' help, and many firms had reduced their normal public sector rates during the crisis.

He refused to 'get into the specific detail of individual contracts' when asked about reports some consultants were earning up to 7,000 a day.

But the Daily Mail can reveal that almost 3,000 consultants and contractors, many on gold-plated deals worth thousands of pounds a day, have been hired at a cost of at least 375million.

Baroness Dido Harding, chairman of the programme, defended the 'appropriate' use of the private sector in 'extreme emergency circumstances'.

'They've done very important work alongside the public servants, the military, the healthcare professionals and members of the private sector who have come and joined us as well,' she told the committee.

'We couldn't have built the service without all of that combined expertise.'

She said 7.5million people were tested in the first fortnight of 2021 and that in the last week of published data, the first week of January, contact tracers successfully reached a million people.

She said: 'That translates to 198 people a minute successfully contact-traced during every minute of the working day, seven days a week.'

Baroness Harding said the programme was having a 'material impact' and is lowering the R number by between 0.3 and 0.6 and, in high Covid prevalence areas, by between 0.5 and 0.8.

Figures obtained by this newspaper reveal there are 2,959 consultants and contractors working for the Test and Trace system.

The 375million wage bill, which vastly exceeds previous estimates, is equivalent to 163,000 per consultant, even though many are engaged for only short periods.

And analysis by the Mail shows how the system struggled as cases surged before Christmas, leaving thousands waiting longer than the 24 hours for test results pledged by Boris Johnson.

In the week ending December 23, only 17.5 per cent of people received a result within a day.

More than 12 per cent of the one million who took in-person tests that week waited more than 72 hours for a result.

Although the number receiving results within a day has crept up over the past three weeks, the rates are still far below official targets.

Government sources said the dip in turnaround times over Christmas was due to 'unprecedented demand' but that additional staff and resources were now being used.

It comes amid claims contact tracers are expected to carry out clinical work without qualifications.

A former businessman said he was hired as a tracer via Adecco for Serco in May.

He said: 'I've been faced with situations I'm just not qualified to cope with. I've had somebody who is suicidal, somebody who has cancer... people asking when to call an ambulance if their breathing gets bad. I can't field those questions.'

The 375million wage bill, which vastly exceeds previous estimates, is equivalent to 163,000 per consultant, even though many are engaged for only short periods. Pictured: Deloitte is said to have 900 consultants working for Test and Trace

A former businessman said he was hired as a tracer via Adecco for Serco (pictured: Library image) in May

When he asked for help from management, he claims he received conflicting advice. The tracer, who quit earlier this month, said: 'It was the blind leading the blind.'

He added that it took Serco 16 days to reset his password  meaning he was paid for more than two weeks to do nothing.

A health department spokesman said: 'As part of an unprecedented response to this global pandemic, we have drawn on the expertise and resources of a number of public and private sector partners.

This is in line with procurement regulations for exceptional circumstances. All call handlers have received appropriate training for their role and are fully supported in their vital work.'

A Serco spokesman said: 'All our call handlers receive the appropriate training and support for the work that they are undertaking.'

Dido Harding says UK coronavirus testing system is in one of the 'leading positions worldwide' to track new Covid variants - and admits she fears the pandemic will still 'certainly' throw up unpredicted problems in the future

By Sam Blanchard, Deputy Health Editor for MailOnline

Dido Harding today said the UK is in one of the 'leading positions worldwide' to recognise and deal with new variants of the coronavirus.

And the NHS Test and Trace boss admitted to MPs that her biggest fear about Covid-19 is 'what we don't know', saying she was certain it would present new, unknown problems in the future.

Lady Harding was speaking to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee today to discuss the inner workings of Test & Trace.

The system, which now claims to be capable of doing more than 800,000 coronavirus swab tests every day, is one of the most comprehensive in the world, Lady Harding said.

She explained that the way swabs are processed and shared with scientists means the UK has one of the best systems for tracking mutations in the virus.

The Conservative peer insisted that Test and Trace is having a 'material impact' on the coronavirus outbreak and could be bringing down the R rate by as much as 0.6.

She claimed the testing system had led to 'substantially fewer' care home outbreaks in the second wave than in the first.

But the finances behind the programme remain monstrous  David Williams, the Department of Health's finance director, revealed that NHS Test & Trace spent 1.3billion in November and December alone and it still has 900 consultants from Deloitte alone on its pay roll, with external advisers making an average 1,000 a day.

Despite concerns about the accuracy and usefulness of lateral flow coronavirus tests, Lady Harding said the Government had 'hundreds of millions' stockpiled, with Mr Williams adding that Britain has already bought 623million of them.

Lady Harding was speaking to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee today to discuss the inner workings of Test & Trace

David Williams, the Department of Health's finance director, revealed that NHS Test & Trace spent 1.3billion in November and December alone and it still has 900 consultants from Deloitte alone on its pay roll, with external advisers making an average 1,000 a day

The ability to spot and track new variants of the coronavirus as it mutates has become a hot topic in recent weeks with the emergence of more infectious strains found in Kent, South Africa and Brazil.

But the UK analyses the genetics of around 10,000 positive swab test results every week to track how the virus is changing.

It is one of the most active countries in the world at doing this, and shares its findings with a global project tracking the virus.

Lady Harding said today: 'As we stand today our laboratories are well able to identify new variants and, as a country, we do more than half of all genomic sequencing in the world.

'I think we can confidently say that we're in one of the leading positions worldwide to cope with mutations. That doesn't mean that it's perfect but we are very well placed.'

Since the Kent variant emerged it has become the most dominant form of the virus in England, making up an estimated two thirds of all infections.

The South African variant is only confirmed to have been found twice and the most concerning variant from Brazil has not yet been detected in Britain.

UK MUST KEEP COVID UNDER CONTROL OR RISK THE VIRUS MUTATING AGAIN Britain must keep Covid under wraps during the vaccine roll-out or it risks allowing the virus to mutate and render the jabs useless, an expert has warned. Dr Christina Pagel, a health and mathematics researcher based at University College London, said allowing the virus to continue to spreading could give the coronavirus more time to mutate in a way that would make vaccines stop working. The UK is already on high alert for mutations and today closed its borders to anyone who has not tested negative within 72 hours of travelling, to stop evolved variants coming in. But there is still a risk that people will slip through the checks and that outbreaks will start again inside the country in the spring  vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has suggested lockdown rules could start to be lifted as soon as March. If the virus can keep circulating it will keep mutating and, the longer this goes on for, the more likely it is that a devastating mutation will emerge. Scientists fear the virus could learn to evade vaccines and natural immunity over time. Britain's second wave was driven by a highly infectious variant that first emerged in Kent. Laboratory researchers have also spotted dozens of cases of a South African variant across the UK and last week confirmed 11 samples had tested positive for one of two Brazilian variants. England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has already admitted that the UK's current strategy of half-vaccinating people raises the risk of the virus mutating to become vaccine-resistant. Dr Pagel claimed a combination of rapid vaccination and stringent 'suppression' of outbreaks should continue until the majority of people have been immunised. The NHS's vaccine programme has made impressive progress so far, with more than half of over-80s inoculated already and a total of 3,857,266 given jabs by Saturday. Advertisement

When asked what keeps her awake at night, Lady Harding said: 'It's so tempting to believe that we can somehow force Covid-19 to behave in a way that we have pre-determined, and yet actually this is still a very new disease and our brilliant scientists and clinicians are still continuing to learn about it.

'What keeps me awake at night is what we don't yet know about the path of Covid-19.

'So continuing to build this collaborative, agile partnership across all of the public sector and private sector to fight Covid is the only way forward, I think, because I'm certain the disease is going to throw some stuff at us that we've not been able to anticipate.'

On the partnership between public and private services, Lady Harding defended the organisation's decision to pay exorbitant fees to management consultants.

The Department of Health's Mr Williams had admitted that consultants were earning an average 1,000 a day when working for the Test & Trace programme, although refused to confirm the maximum day rate when asked whether it was 7,000.

Lady Harding said: 'I think it is appropriate to build a service in extreme emergency circumstances using short-term contingent labour and consultants for some of those roles.

'I think they've done very important work alongside the public servants, the military, the healthcare professionals and members of the private sector who have come and joined us as well.

'We couldn't have built the service without all of that combined expertise.'

The service, which started last spring, has a controversially large 22billion budget.

Pressed on whether he was confident that there had been no private sector profiteering from the Test and Trace budget, Mr Williams said: 'Yes, as confident as I can be based on the information that I've seen and based on the regular reporting that comes up through the Test and Trace commercial and finance staff.'

Baroness Harding told MPs on Monday that close to 1,000 people per minute were tested on Sunday, January 17, and that more than 7.5million people had been successfully contact-traced since the start of the new year.

Asked about the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggesting in September that the testing programme was having a 'marginal' impact on transmission, she replied: 'There is no doubt that as we have built and scaled the service, we have learnt more and more and we are now hitting all of the operational contact tracing targets that Sage set us.

'We are reaching more than 80 per cent of people who test positive, we are reaching more than 90 per cent of their contacts and the 92 per cent of all contacts we reached last week  three-quarters of a million people  97 per cent of them we reached in less than 24 hours.

'So, no, I don't believe we are having a marginal impact, actually. As measured, we are having a material impact in the fight against Covid.'
After President-elect Joe Biden fractured his right foot in November while playing with one of his German Shepherds, he had to put up with a walking boot for several days. The accident was painful for him, but it provided a bit of useful publicity for the Montgomery County firm whose special medical device was key to checking on his recovery.

On Dec. 12, two weeks after he was hurt in his home near Wilmington, Biden arrived at Pennsylvania Hospital at Eighth and Spruce Streets. There, he stood upright so the device could take a quick CT scan of his foot. That was unusual.

The scan showed he was healing up fine. Doctors conducted the checkup using a $185,000 device made by CurveBeam, the Hatfield-based company that invented the technology.

Until we came to the market in 2012, CT scans could only be done in a lying down or supine position, said Arun Singh, 62, CurveBeams president and chief executive. Only plain x-rays could be done in a standing position, but they were limited because they were two-dimensional images of complex three-dimensional objects.

Getting a three-dimensional picture of the foot while bearing weight is especially important in orthopedics. It allows a surgeon to see whats happening to a foot when a patient is actually up and standing on it  that is, when its under stress, said Daniel Farber, an associate professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn Medicine.

The machine is more compact than a typical CT scanner and allows easy access for the patient to enter the machine and stand up during the scan.

The benefit to this technology is several-fold, Farber said. Its super fast, about 60 seconds to see one side and 90 seconds to see both sides. Its very low-dose radiation, and you can see all the views that you would normally get with a CT scan, but with the relationships between the bones with the pressure on them.

For example, someones flat foot deformity might appear misleadingly normal in an x-ray. But when such a patient stands and put weight on the foot, a truer picture emerges of the alignment of the joints.

Singhs team invented it out of necessity. After Singh tripped and fell while walking with his wife, his doctor diagnosed a fracture on the bottom of his fibula from an x-ray. But the diagnosis came with some guesswork.

He said, I think its a minor fracture and I think you should wear a boot, Singh recalled. But he could barely see the fascia fracture that was not well-defined and was unclear whether it was displaced.

Needing to know for sure, Singh went back to Imaging Sciences, a dental imaging company he had cofounded and ultimately sold in 2007 before retiring two years later. He wedged his foot upside down in a dental CT system, scanned the foot and took the images back to his orthopedic surgeon.

When he saw those images, his jaw just dropped, Singh recalled. Thats when a light bulb went off.

While his physicians guesswork proved correct, Singh pursued his idea. He went back to work in 2011, putting a team together to create the device. Six months later, they had a prototype and were doing clinical trials in doctors offices. By 2012, they had FDA approval.

We expedited every step of the process because there was an unmet need in the market, Singh said.

More recently, the company received FDA approval for HiRise, a device that extends the scan to include the knee, hip and pelvis and also covers the hand, wrist and elbow.

So far, the firm has sold more than 135 pedCAT and successor devices, most in the United States, but significant numbers in Australia, China, Europe and South America. He hopes to have thousands, if not tens of thousands, in hospitals and doctors offices globally in the next decade.

Singh estimates CurveBeams market share at about 90% in the U.S., and 75% worldwide. His competitors include PlanMed Verity and CareStream Onsight.

CurveBeam has 35 full-time employees; Singh hopes it will do about $15 million in sales this year. His products are all made in the U.S., mostly in Pennsylvania.

Farber says the firm deserves to do well.

Its our aspirational standard of care, said Farber. It is a much more helpful diagnostic study than x-rays. For the equivalent risk of radiation, you get a whole lot more information.

London protest for release of Stan Swamy

Jesuits protest at Indian embassy in Washington DC

I am a Christian and I therefore have an interest to prevent the persecution of my fellow Christians, said a British MP

Quoting a reported by Aid to the Church in Need, he said, There was no sign of anti-Christian violence abating during India's Covid-19 lockdown. In the first six months of 2020 one Indian NGO recorded 293 cases of persecution." He quoted Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur, who said, "It is a cause of concern with the Church because Christians are being killed and beaten. There are much more attacks than ten years ago. Fundamentalism is a real problem."

Claiming that the the Indian government's own figures show an upward trend in inter-religious violence, In 2016, 86 people were killed in sectarian violence and 2,321 were injured in 703 incidents. The following year, that rose to 111 people killed and 2,384 injured; there were 822 incidents in 2017. Singling out anti-Christians attacks, he added, Between 2017 and the end of March 2019, there were more than 1,000 individual attacks on Christians.

The attacks are widespread, he said, adding, In recent years, they have taken place in 24 out of India's 29 states. In Odisha state in May 2019, local officials sent a team of 50 workers to demolish a Christian school and children's hostel near Lichapeta. The school's application for recognition of land tenure was suspiciously lost.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner said, I am a Christian and I therefore have an interest to prevent the persecution of my fellow Christians, adding, As a Christian, I remember the appalling murder of the Christian missionary Graham Staines in Odisha. He was burned to death with his two little boys, aged 10 and six, when Dara Singh led a group of Hindu militants who set light to the van that they were sleeping in.

Another Labour MP, Stephen Timms, said, the Open Doors' World Watch List showed that for the last two years, India has been in 10th place on that list of the worst countries for the persecution of Christians, and the position is not going to improve; 10 years ago it was down at number 32. A third Labour MP, Stephen Kinnock, added, According to Persecution Relief, between January 2016 and January 2020, there were 2,067 crimes inspired by religious intolerance against Christians in India.

At least one, MP Barry Gardiner (Labour) resented the debate itself, wondering how would one react if if there had been a debate in the Indian Parliament about the persecution of black people in Britain. Chipping Barnet (Conservative), on the other hand, defended the Government of India, saying, In a country as huge as India, there will be lawbreakers who attack others, including members of minority communities and faiths. He believed, I do not accept that there is evidence of systemic or state-sponsored persecution of religious minorities.

Will Father Stan Swamys arrest, especially the fact that he is a Christian and a priest, turn out to be major international embarrassment for the Government of India? It may well happen, if a recent debate on a resolution titled India: Persecution of Minority Groups in the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament is any indication. While Jesuits have protested Fr Stan's arrest in UK and US, the resolution, adopted in the Parliament, said, This House has considered the matter of persecution of Muslims, Christians and minority groups in India.Minutes of the debate on January 12 on the alleged persecution of minorities in India suggest that while MPs differed on attacks on Muslims in India (one of them, Labour MP Naz Shah, blamed it on RSS, Trump 2.0 in charge in India Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah), ironically, they seemed unanimous when it came to Christians, with Stan Swamys arrest, which took place in October last year, becoming an important reference point.Moving his resolution, Jim Shannon of the Democratic Union Party (DUP), a major centre-right political force in Northern Ireland, said, 80 year-old Father Stan Swamy, who has been an advocate for the rights of the poor and marginalised in India for 50 years, has been unjustly held captive by the National Investigation Agency of India for alleged Maoist links. He sought the UK governments clarification on the issue.Responding, minister for Asia Nigel Adams, talking about the case of Father Stan Swamy, stated, Human rights defenders make an essential contribution to the promotion of the rights of their fellow citizens. Acknowledging that human rights defenders face growing threats, and the UK government is working with many international partners to support them, he said, it has directly raised the case of Father Stan Swamy with the Indian authorities.Even as extensively talking about how Muslims are being treated in India, Shannon particularly referred to the information he receives from from different religious groups, such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Release International, the Barnabus Fund and Open Doors, which referred to how an estimated 100 Christians from Singavaram village in India's Chhattisgarh state were also attacked by a mob of around 50 people armed with home-made weapons during the night while they slept.Pointing out that The mob burnt their Bibles and accused their victims of destroying the local culture by following a foreign religion he said, Christian organisations have noted worsening patterns of discrimination against our communities in India. There have been reports of Christians who will not participate in Hindu rituals being denied employment... Because they do not conform to what the Government want them to do, they are cut off from the water supply and prevented from even burying their dead... These are cruel actions by those in power.Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP, said, Although in India the victims of persecution are overwhelmingly Muslims, the victims of persecution worldwide are overwhelmingly Christian. Praising praising the UK governments courage to stand up more and more for human rights, especially of the right of Christians to profess their faith, he believed, there is a need understand why one should understand that Hinduism is part of India DNA.According to Leigh, Hindus feel that theirs is the religion of India, and appeared to agree to the popular view in India that Muslims are procreating in order to change the demographic balance. He said, Despite the electoral success of Modi and the BJP, it has to be said that although Hindus are still the overwhelming part of the population, their proportion of the population has been declining. No doubt that engenders a feeling of threat.Referring to the the anti-conversion laws, he said, Between 1967 and 2020, six states introduced laws or ordinances aiming to stop conversions. It is a dangerous thing to convert to Christianity in India. Even as pointing out that it is even more dangerous to convert to Christianity in Pakistan, he insisted, We have to condemn absolutely this feeling in many countries of the world that it is wrong to convert or change religion, in any direction.
Social media censorship can be stopped immediately by states controlled by Republicans (meaning both legislative chambers and the governor). Heres how, from an attorney.

Legislation has been introduced in the North Dakota legislature to prohibit social media companies from censoring messages and posts, as reported by Breitbart and ARS Technica.

See: North Dakota Bill Would Let Censored Citizens Sue Facebook, Twitter. So you can follow developments, it is an Act to permit civil actions against social media sites for censoring speech.

Alas, the legislation is not well-written. The penalty is too small, a slap on the wrist, to get Facebooks or Twitters attention. The concepts are like a first draft. It fails to harmonize with Federal law Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, at 47 U.S.C.  230.

But it is a bold move aimed at real results by Republicans who want to solve problems. A sharpened version could bankrupt the censors as they attempt to impose despotism on the Land of the Free. Hopefully, other States will follow the example.

Censored users could receive treble [triple] damages for compensatory, consequential, and incidental damages. But damages one could prove would be very small. Similar legislation would need to impose much larger minimum punitive fines like $100,000 per incident.

The legislation would provide that websites with over 1 million users would be liable in a civil action for damages to the person whose speech is restricted, censored, or suppressed, and to any person who reasonably otherwise would have received the writing, speech, or publication. Lead bill sponsor Rep. Tom Kading said, It's just wrong to ban a sitting president.

More controversially, perhaps legislation could provide a right for anyone world-wide to sue in the state on the theory that people in North Dakota were denied the opportunity for open dialogue and exposure to different ideas.

Meanwhile, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawawiecki harshly criticized Facebook, Twitter, and other social media on January 13, 2021. Reportedly, legislation was introduced in Polands parliament on January 15, that would allow anyone who has been a victim of social media censorship to be paid a fine of $2.2 million. This allows application to a court, so that it would not depend upon waiting for a government official to show diligence and honesty.

However, this proposal has gotten almost no coverage in the mainstream media and your author cannot find it in English translations of Polands newspapers. The harsh speech on camera by Polands Prime Minister does lend credibility to alternative news reports.

If enacted, Polands $2.2 million fine would start to seriously sting Facebooks and Mark Zuckerbergs profits. Just 1,000 successful cases would be a $2.2 billion hit to Facebooks or Twitters bottom line. If only 10,000 of Polands 37,865,542 population pursued their remedies with a strong financial incentive, Facebook would have to pay $220 billion.

A significant drop in profits would cause share prices of Facebook to fall. Facebooks shareholders would have a right to sue for decisions by Facebooks leaders that are not based on business reasons but on politics, causing losses to shareholders. Because most of the non-Zuckerberg shareholders are investment companies re-investing other peoples savings, they would have a legal obligation to sue Facebook.

Most significantly, other countries would quickly follow Polands example and other states, like Texas and Mississippi, could follow North Dakotas example. Mexicos President has harshly condemned Twitters and Facebooks censorship of President Trump. Twitter has picked a fight with Uganda over Ugandas allegations of digital manipulation of its elections. This fire could spread.

Note, that one of the many abuses by Facebook is that you cannot object or appeal their dishonest but arbitrary decisions. Poland's and North Dakota's laws would require implicitly or explicitly that social media companies respond to an objection and allow an appeal and explain.

Your author is currently blocked on Facebook for posting a famous image of Hitler looking over the map table with his generals, with the caption

"Facebook looking over my account for a reason to block me."

For that, Facebook blocked me.

And when I click on "I disagree," enter my explanation, and hit submit, Facebook gives an error "We cannot process your request at this time" (paraphrase). For a year and a half this function has not worked for me. So, there is no ability to draw to a human's attention that their algorithms or a non-English speaker in a third world country made a bad call. Since COVID-19, Facebook says they can no longer provide an appeal (a different function) because of the pandemic. Since this is the quintessential work-from-home job and millions of people are out of work, and people locked up at home are using social media a lot, Facebook's excuse for not allowing an appeal from their censorship is an obvious lie.

Now, there are important and valid reasons why social media must be able to delete some posts and perhaps even ban repeat offenders. Obscenity, child pornography, ordinary nudity or sexual activity (Facebooks official minimum age for members is only 13 years old), invasion of privacy / doxing of private information, criminal activity, advertising criminal activity, or facilitating criminal activity, or the like.

Therefore, the legislation has to be written carefully to allow policing of social media on one side of the balance while prohibiting censorship based on the posters beliefs, religion, politics, etc. on the other side of the balance. Under the well-established legal tests, it is almost impossible for any speech to count as incitement to violence.

However, the most important question is whether such a State law would be pre-empted by Section 230, which is a federal law. Federal pre-emption of state law is a tricky thing and can have various twists and turns. Like most things in the law, it is not as straightforward as it sounds.

First, if you read all of 47 U.S.C.  230, not just the popular snippets, it is very clearly aimed at preventing crime, exploitation of children, obscenity, etc. Taken as a whole, Section 230 cannot be properly interpreted as justifying censoring political beliefs. An honest, diligent court would read the entire Section 230 including the Congressional findings and say that Section 230 does not say what the tech giants want you to think. The focus of Section 230 is narrow.

Second, a State law should define the vague and loose terms, such as:

"any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected."

A state law should define "good faith" to make clear that viewpoint discrimination based on politics, religion, or other beliefs of the poster are excluded as never being in "good faith." Furthermore, good faith in the law requires an objective, external standard, not personal subjectivity. This clarification by the state would not conflict with the federal law.

This is strengthened by the wording of the statute that it immunizes an "action" "taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material..." So, the good faith must be narrowly targeted on that specific purpose. It cannot be good faith about what someone thinks is best for society. The good faith must be narrowly focused on the rest of the sentence.

Third, Section 230 concerns:

"material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected."

Social media companies are relying upon the otherwise objectionable term to mean they can do anything they want.

But this comes under the rule of statutory interpretation of Noscitur a Sociis. If there is a list of specific things and also an open-ended item, the open-ended item must be interpreted consistently with the specific items named. So, one must interpret "or otherwise objectionable" consistently with "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing." "Otherwise objectionable" cannot be interpreted as whatever Facebook feels it wants to do.

For example if a job announcement said: "We are looking for graduates who have made the Dean's list, an average grade of A-, graduated successfully from Advanced Placement courses or had other achievements" Other achievements would not include winning a hot dog eating contest or burping contest. Only clearly academic achievements in an educational institution would qualify, because that is focus of the list.

Therefore, a state law could define "or otherwise objectionable" as being only those reasons that are substantially similar to obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, and explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of political points of view or advocacy for any (non-criminal) cause or belief.

While that would further nail the Jello down to the table and avoid social media and courts playing games, the state law could not be easily challenged as being pre-empted by the Federal law Section 230. A state law should define ambiguous and vague terms.

Graphic credit: Jason Howie CC BY 2.0
Jewel-Osco, which until now has used a combination of in-house drivers and DoorDash for delivery, said that next month it will stop using its own fleet and transition entirely to third-party providers to help us create a more efficient operation and compete more effectively in the growing home delivery market. The Itasca-based company declined to say how many employees are affected but said it is working to place them in its stores and Melrose Park distribution center.
New Delhi: Actress Yami Gautam got nostalgic while shooting for her forthcoming film Bhoot Police on Monday. Jaisalmer holds a special place in her heart because this is where she started her career and began shooting for a television show 11 years ago.

In the picture the actress is seen standing with several rock structures in the background and she explained in the caption the significance of this place and what it means to be back there at this point in her career.

Yami shared a photo of herself from the sets of her upcoming film from her verified Instagram account and wrote: "This is where 11 years back I started my journey as an actor, in the stunning Jaisalmer ! The memories of shooting my introduction scene are still fresh, which marked my brief stint in television ! Life has come about a full circle it feels ! I stand here at the same spot with my heart brimmed with nostalgia & gratitude #Bhootpolice."

Jaisalmer happens to be the location of the final schedule of the horror comedy Bhoot Police. Earlier, the unit filmed portions across locations in Himachal Pradesh, besides Mumbai.

Directed by Pavan Kirpalani, the horror comedy also stars Saif Ali Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arjun Kapoor and Jaaved Jaaferi.
Federal agents have apprehended an East Texas man suspected of assaulting a police officer during the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol this month, according to court records.

Daniel Page Adams  charged alongside Cody Connell, his cousin from Louisiana  was arrested Saturday near the Houston area and is now among 80 or more people who have been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Authorities suspect Adams shoved a U.S. Capitol Police officer while trying to overcome a wall of police officers as lawmakers sought safety inside. The next day, a tipster led investigators to the cousins, court records show.

A statement of facts from FBI agent Michael Sahadi Jr., says he reviewed videos from the Capitol violence that Connell posted to social media and found that the cousins  who had the same mullet-style haircut  often appeared in the footage. It provides the following account:

The cousins at one point appeared to shield their faces from tear gas in the area.

In one video, Adams can be heard saying, Lets go  Are you ready to push? to encourage others attempting to push through a line of Capitol Police officers.

The special agent stated Adams could be seen in front of the line as police tried keeping the rioters at bay with protective shields. The same video shows Adams then sprinting up the Capitol steps and chasing the officers.

The officers tried holding Adams off again at the top of the stairs, the agent continued, describing what he watched.

The video ends with a loud thud and Adams holding his head and uttering an expletive, he wrote.

The incident followed a speech by President Donald Trump encouraging thousands of people to march on the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the electoral college results. The riots left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer who was fatally beaten during a clash with rioters. The U.S. House of Representatives has impeached the outgoing president for incitement of insurrection.

Adams faces several federal charges, including assault of a federal police officer. It was not known when he would appear in court. A woman who answered a phone number listed for a local man named Daniel Adams declined to comment, citing trauma that her family has experienced.

Investigators alleged that Connell, of Vivian, La., posted about his role in the insurrection on social media, including a comment that 4 of us breached the cops blockage and us same 4 breached the Capitol. He identified a cousin as one of his accomplices and said the cousin was clubbed and shot with a rubber bullet.

But we pushed the cops against the wall, Connell allegedly wrote, according to court documents. They dropped all their gear and left. Thats when we went to doors of Capitol building and breached it.

The court documents primarily focus on Connell, whose social media comments were said to indicate that he believed the fallout from the attempted takeover would lead to a civil war.

Investigators believe Connell intended to return to Washington D.C. for the presidential inauguration and that he was planning with at least two other Texans  both unidentified  to buy body armor, ammunition and weapons. The agent, citing a witness interview, also believed Connell intended to cause violence that may result in the end of his life.

According to the witness, Connell explained that he was not returning to Louisiana unless he was in a body bag, the agent wrote.

Attorneys could not be immediately identified for the men.

Meanwhile, members of the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force on Friday arrested Anthime Joseph Gionet  a far-right media personality known as Baked Alaska  in Houston. He is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint filed last week in federal court.

Charges were also expected against a former Houston police officer  Tam Pham  who resigned last week after being identified as having entered the Capitol building amid the violence. The officer told the Chronicle last week that he was among the crowd to take pictures.

The FBI on Sunday raided the home of a San Antonio man allegedly involved in the riots, arresting 37-year-old Matthew Carl Mazzoco. He is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, authorities said. Mazzocco was identified by social media, largely on TikTok, as being at the Capitol the day of the riots, authorities said.

In North Texas, police arrested a Wylie man  Guy Reffitt  at his home and charged him with obstruction of justice and unlawful entry. According to an affidavit, the 48-year-old was recorded on video outside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot and later threatened his wife and children if they turned him in.

Taylor Pettaway and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correctly identify the Houston Police Officer who resigned.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tradewind Finance has completed a USD 5 million export factoring facility for a meat trading company that is based in the United States and has a subsidiary in Brazil. The company exports to the Middle East, South Africa, and Asia and is using the funding to support their growth.

The company needed additional credit lines to expand their business but encountered difficulty securing them. A shareholder of the company who was a former client of Tradewind Finance while at another outfit was pleased with their services in the past and recommended that the company consider Tradewind for account receivable financing.

As their new financial partner, Tradewind Finance provided funding to the meat trader a few days prior to shipment, allowing the company to boost their cash flow and positioning them for growth. Since the trading company was capital-intensive and a very dynamic business, they benefitted from Tradewind's scalable facilities with quick funding that can increase as sales grow. The company also received credit protection from Tradewind which reduced trade risk for them.

Tradewind's office in Brazil provided on-the-ground support for the company, with a local team that helped them navigate currencies and country regulations. Operating branches in both the USA and Brazil, Tradewind Finance stood out as the best choice for the company's needs.

"We are pleased to deliver a bespoke facility that will help enable our client expand sales to existing and new customers. Tradewind Finance's flexibility and ability to provide funding quickly made our financing solution the right fit for the company," states Paulo Silva, Country Manager of Tradewind Brazil.

Tradewind Finance maintains a network of offices all over the world, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Iceland, India, Pakistan, Peru, Turkey, UAE, and USA as well as its headquarters in Germany. Combining financing, credit protection, and collections into a single suite of trade finance products, Tradewind brings streamlined, flexible and best-in-class services to the world's exporters and importers.

Contact

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Following what authorities described as a violent struggle with a 43-year-old man on a motorcycle, Boston police said they found multiple weapons and drugs as well as more than $5,000 in cash on the suspect over the weekend.

Officers in South Boston were patrolling Southampton Street around 1:45 a.m. Sunday when they noticed a large crowd of people gathered around a motorcycle at the intersection of Atkinson Street, according to a statement from the citys police department.

The department noted the vehicle did not have a license plate. The crowd appeared to be gathered around an individual wearing a motorcycle helmet and black backpack.

As the officers exited their cruiser and approached the man, he allegedly tried to speed away but struggled to start the motorcycle.

Police said they noticed he was holding a clear plastic bag in his right hand. According to law enforcement, a violent struggle ensued as officers tried to gain control of the suspects hand.

During the struggle the plastic bag dropped to the ground, revealing multiple small plastic bags containing a substance believed to be crack cocaine, the department said.

With help from other officers, the suspect was apprehended, and before he was booked, police removed his black backpack and found a two-pronged fixed blade knife inside his jacket pocket, according to the departments statement.

During the booking process, officers recovered $5,349 in cash from the suspects clothing, the statement said.

While searching the mans backpack, police alleged, a Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun with 20 rounds of ammunition in the magazine was also discovered. Twenty-four white pills, two scales and three cell phones were found as well, according to the department.

Investigators later found out the motorcycle had been stolen in Washington, D.C., the department noted.

The suspect, identified as Jamal Harrold of Dorchester, had four outstanding warrants for his arrest issued out of Boston Municipal Court, charging him a slew of offenses, including distribution and possession of a Class B substance, a drug violation near a school or park, disorderly conduct, assault and battery, resisting arrest and larceny over $1,200 by single scheme, police said.

Harrold was also wanted out of Lawrence District Court on one count of possession of a Class B drug, according to authorities.

On Sunday, he was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute oxycodone, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession of large capacity gun, officials said.

The Boston man was also charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property and carrying a dangerous weapon, the knife, according to police.

He was expected to be arraigned in Roxbury District Court at a later date, authorities said.

By Andrew Hammond





The siege of the U.S. Congress on Jan. 6 by what U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has called "domestic terrorists" has dominated media headlines since. Yet, this has obscured what may be an even more significant attack on U.S. interests: the recent major foreign cyberattacks by Russia.



For, on the very same day of the extraordinary disorder in Washington, a key U.S. intelligence report was released which highlights that up to 10 U.S. government bodies, such as the U.S. Treasury, had their data potentially severely compromised. Organizations outside of government were also affected, with work still ongoing to understand the scope of the incident more than a month after details first emerged.



Were it not for the Capitol Hill debacle, and the intensifying pandemic to boot, the hack of critical U.S. infrastructure by Moscow (which denies involvement) would have taken up many more headlines. Part of the reason why the incident is so serious is that the breach was undiscovered for months with the attacker showing a degree of sophistication and stealth that the report says is a trademark of Russia's foreign intelligence agency.



With Russia relations already in the deep freeze, Biden must quickly choose how best to respond to the massive hack of national security and financial information. So far, there is only drift and denial from Donald Trump continuing a pattern of him underplaying threats from Moscow.



It is already clear that Biden will take meaningful steps to respond to the breach that goes beyond sanctions. Moreover, one of the first foreign policy actions of the Biden team will be to map out ways to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to engage in cyberattacks against U.S. interests.



Options being mulled by Biden to punish Moscow include financial penalties and retaliation on Russian infrastructure. However, a final decision will await more details on how extensive the breaches are, and what damage has been done.



While the outlook for U.S. relations with Russia therefore appears bleak in the immediate term, the incoming White House team is keen to try to cultivate a more constructive relationship in the medium term.



Biden was, of course, one of the architects of the attempted U.S. reset of relations with Moscow in the Obama era, when key achievements included the U.S.-Russia civilian nuclear cooperation agreement whose 10-year anniversary is Monday. One of the ambitions of the Biden team here is seeking to restart talks on a longer-term extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction agreement.



Russia was one of the last major countries to acknowledge Biden's election victory last year, and the Putin regime has no great hopes for an improved relationship under the new U.S. presidency. The last four years of Trump's administration have been a deep disappointment for Moscow after the initial hints of a rapprochement and calls to "fully restore" ties.



Yet, Trump's goal was stalled by the accusations of his team's collusion with Russia, a charge not completely refuted by the Mueller report. However, a much wider range of issues clouded the bilateral agenda too. This included disagreements on issues from Iran to Syria and arms control deals, including the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which the Trump team began withdrawing from in response to alleged Russian violations.



Tensions between the two sides became particularly strained over Syria. Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in 2017 that "either Russia has been complicit or simply incompetent" referring to Moscow's apparent inability to prevent the Assad regime from using chemical weapons, despite a 2013 agreement, under which Russia was a guarantor, to remove these stockpiles from the country.



The depths to which relations sank was underlined by then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev who said that bilateral relations were "one step away from war" and "totally ruined" after Trump ordered U.S. bombing in Syria.



Going forward, one of the key uncertainties over U.S.-Russia relations that Biden wants to probe is the degree to which Moscow's much warmer ties with Beijing are now set in stone under Putin and Xi Jinping. Perhaps the most cited area of their closer collaboration is on the political and security front. However, there is also an extensive economic dialogue which has grown since Moscow's annexation of Crimea.



The Chinese president asserted last year that their bilateral relations are "the highest-level, most profound and strategically most significant relationship between major countries in the world." He also praised Putin by stating that he "is my best, most intimate friend," and the Russian president appears to reciprocate this sentiment.



This underlines the clear limits on the degree to which any warming of U.S.-Russia ties might occur during Biden's presidency. Not only may relations be significantly retarded in the immediate term by the fallout from Moscow's cyberattack, there are also wider constraints on the scope of any significant future rapprochement for as long as Moscow's relationship with Beijing remains so close under Xi and Putin.





Andrew Hammond (andrewkorea@outlook.com) is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.




People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. PHOTO:AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Kentucky Man Charged in Storming of US Capitol

By The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Authorities say a Kentucky man has been arrested on multiple charges related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol, including at a door where a woman was fatally shot.The U.S. Justice Department says 42-year-old Chad Barrett Jones of Coxs Creek, Kentucky, was arrested Saturday in Louisville.According to an affidavit, the FBI received a public tip identifying Jones as a man attempting to break the glass on an interior door at the Capitol.At the door, police shot Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, as she was trying to climb through the broken panel into an area known as the Speakers Lobby.

MBABANE  Government may have opened floodgates when it approved the back pay in car allowances for Members of Parliament and constituency headmen.

This is because employees from other sectors holding public office want same or something even more meaningful such as funeral cover and medical aid.

A case in point is that of members of urban councils, who dedicate their time coordinating development projects and enacting laws for local towns but what happens when they die?

As the number of COVID-19 positive cases increases, most people have reacted quickly to plan for their future and have policies properly structured in case they die or fall sick.

However, this is not the case for members of urban councils.

Known as councillors and having been elected by ratepayers in different wards, these individuals have for years conducted their duties without a funeral policy or medical aid cover included in their terms and conditions of service.

Interestingly, because of the nature of their jobs, they are regarded as politicians and hold sittings in the same way that parliamentarians do.

Positive

The current situation where more people are testing positive for COVID-19 while others die, has become a concern for the councillors.

They have come out to state that most of them do not have good paying jobs and the fact that there is no funeral policy in place for them is a big concern.

Already, four councillors have died due to COVID-19-related illnesses while others have tested positive for the virus and are either admitted to hospitals or recovering at home.

One of the councillors, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was disappointing that government still did not want to have a funeral policy in place for them yet there was a lot of work they did in their respective wards.

He mentioned that he became concerned when he read reports to the effect that government had approved the payment of car allowances for tindvuna tetinkhundla.

This publication reported last week that government would spend about E9.2 million to cater for car allowances for tindvuna tetinkhundla.

The payment of the allowance is provided for in a circular that governs the terms and conditions of service for politicians.

It should be noted that according to the Tinkhundla System of Governance, local government is divided into urban and rural councils.

The urban councils are municipalities and the rural councils are the tinkhundla.

responsibility

Under the Urban Government Act of 1969, the responsibility for urban local government rests with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, which has the power to define urban areas. The substantive minister is responsible for defining the remuneration and terms and conditions of service for the councillors elected into office. By contrast, the responsibility for rural local government rests with the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development.

According to the concerned councillor, they now get less in terms of sitting allowances.

What government is doing to us is painful. We do not have a funeral policy or medical aid. Making our situation worse is that the money that we get every month is less than E3 000, he said.

Elaborating, he said the coronavirus pandemic had made their situation worse as they now had fewer sittings, which meant they did not receive much in terms of allowances.

I have my salary slip for this month and if you check it you can see that I received around E2 000. Imagine getting such a salary when the work you do is almost the same as the one done by MPs? Councillors pass laws in the municipalities and also work on development projects in the wards where they were elected. This is not fair, he said. He alleged that they had tried numerous times to lobby some MPs to assist them but had not received any feedback.

Another councillor, Mashumi Shongwe of the Nhlangano Town Board, also shared the same sentiments. Shongwe said he was of the view that government was not taking councillors seriously.

The fact that councillors are not well catergorised is a sign that we are not taken seriously. It is not clear whether we are politicians or Board committees. However, when you look closer, you can tell that due to the way councillors are voted into office, they are pure politicians, he said.

Elaborating, he alleged that once voted into office, councillors welfare and terms and conditions were regulated by the substantive ministry and not even the minister.

It is very unfair and uncalled for. Councillors are treated just like an appointed Board yet they go through a harsh electoral process just like all politicians. Their responsibility to govern and develop the urban areas is so huge compared to the way they are treated by government.

Entitled

Something needs to be done. Councillors are not entitled to any benefits that other politicians get. Even bucopho are far better than councillors. In past engagements, we thought the ministry will address this issue but until today nothing has been done, said Shongwe.

Speaking on behalf of the councillors was Piggs Peak Mayor Victor Rodrigues in his capacity as the President of the Eswatini Local Government Association (ELGA), formerly the Swaziland Local Government Association (SWALGA).

He said there were a lot of grey areas that government needed to address regarding the welfare of councillors in the various municipalities.

The issue here is based on how local governance is structured against central governance. The issue has been there for years but nothing has been done. I remember even during the time of former Minister Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza, it was there, he said.

He said when he assumed the position of president, he personally tried to pursue the issue but nothing has been done.

The truth is, COVID-19 has caught us off-guard and something needs to be done, he said.

This publication also engaged Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo, who is the Chairperson of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Portfolio Committee in the House of Assembly. Nxumalo mentioned that the issue had not yet been brought to her attention but that she personally tried to raise the one of allowances for councillors as she felt they needed to be increased.

Allowances

The councillors have not raised it with me. I only raised the one for allowances when I toured the towns. Bucopho earn better than councillors so that is why I raised it, she said.

She wondered if the councillors were aware that medical aid cover was contributed for from salaries.

Us MPs we have medical aid and funeral policy, but we contribute so this has to be clear. This, therefore, means that they have to agree to it first. Also, they need to lobby the MPs. Politics is about lobbying so they have a right to come to the committee. The committee will then present the issue in Parliament, she said.

Nxumalo said the issue of sitting allowances had affected almost all people in Boards as there were fewer meetings.

What I can say is the first thing to do would be to review the allowances. If the allowance is E3 000 for each councillor, they then have to decide how much will go to a funeral policy or medical aid, she said.

Furthermore, she mentioned that it was the law governing the appointment of councillors that could provide the answers they were seeking.

If I am in the Board, there is a law that governs my terms and conditions of service. So we would first have to look into the law that governs councillors, which is the Urban Government Act then we take it from there, she said.






SUZHOU, China, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cure Genetics announced a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop novel Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) vectorsleveraging Cure Genetics' proprietary VELPTM platform to develop next-generation gene therapies. This new collaboration combines Boehringer Ingelheim's experience in disease biology and gene therapy development with Cure Genetics' AAV expertise in library construction and highly efficient in vivo AAV screening. The aim is to provide potential new AAV serotypes for patients.

The clinical applications of existing AAV serotypes are limited by some of their features, such as low transduction efficiency, low tissue specificity and immunogenicity. Therefore, finding new AAV serotypes to overcome these challenges becomes critical for the majority, if not all, AAV-based gene therapies.

Comparing to other traditional vector engineering technologies, Cure Genetics' proprietary VELPTM platform encompasses key methodical innovations, including a comprehensive strategy of engineering a plasmid library with high complexity and an effective ratio. the optimized AAV production protocol ensures high genome-capsid correspondence and world-class production capacity, and the most physiologically relevant models for vector selection and validation. It enables a significantly shorter process to find the "right" AAV vectors with almost all possibility effectively covered.

Boehringer Ingelheim aspires to develop the next generation of medical breakthroughs and gene therapy is one of the focuses under exploration by the team of Research Beyond Borders. The advanced VELPTM technology platform may provide effective solutions in increasing the efficiency of novel AAV screening and help further expand our efforts in the area of gene therapy development.

"This is the very first time that a global pharmaceutical group is collaborating with a Chinese biotech in the cutting-edge field of AAV vector engineering. We appreciate the recognition of Boehringer Ingelheim's recognition of our VELPTM platform. Novel AAV vectors enlarging the therapeutic window is key to unfolding the potential of gene therapy, which is also Cure Genetics' innovative focus . We believe, together with visionary partners like Boehringer Ingelheim, the quality of life for more patients in need can be improved by next-generation gene therapy." stated Dr. Qiushi Li, Cure Genetics' Chief Operating Officer.

The collaboration with Cure Genetics was initiated by Boehringer Ingelheim China External Innovation Hub. It consists of three business units: Research Beyond Borders, Business Development and Licensing, and Venture Fund. The hub is committed to becoming the preferred partner of China's biopharmaceutical industry and bringing more Chinese innovative partnership projects to enrich Boehringer Ingelheim's global R&D pipeline, thereby ultimately benefiting more patients. So far, Boehringer Ingelheim China External Innovation Hub has established various partnerships with reputable research institutions and biotech companies in China.

About Cure Genetics

Cure Genetics is a biotech company founded in 2016, committed to expanding the frontier of gene therapy via its innovative technology of gene editing and gene delivery. With the world-leading AAV manufacturing capability, Cure Genetics' proprietary VELPTM platform enables a fast yet systematic design, selection and optimization of AAV vectors with special features and significantly better performance of in vivo gene delivery, which will empower AAV-based gene therapy to be applied in a much broader range of disease treatments.

SOURCE Boehringer Ingelheim; Cure Genetics
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Monday that the republic was interested in the European Union's support for projects in the fields of energy and infrastructure

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Monday that the republic was interested in the European Union's support for projects in the fields of energy and infrastructure.

The presidential office previously announced that Sandu would be on a working trip to Brussels from January 18-19.

"I had a meeting with Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi. We discussed how we can work with the EU, as well as how the EU can support Moldova in launching energy and infrastructure projects," Sandu said on Facebook.

According to Sandu, the sides discussed the development of a joint action plan within the framework of the Eastern Partnership initiative, Moldova's assistance from the EU to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis, as well as support for Moldovan farmers and entrepreneurs.

Sandu added that Moldova was interested in broadening and deepening cooperation with the EU in economy, energy, environmental protection and services.

Earlier in the day, Sandu discussed Moldova's dependence on EU financial support with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Sandu also expressed interest in broadening cooperation with the EU at a meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.
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Comrade Elliot Afiyo is the National Chairman of the Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), the umbrella body of 42 Northern youth organizations formed in 1990. Afiyo is the third National Chairman of NYLF and also the Secretary General of the Association of West African Monarchs and a senior Pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

In this interview, Afiyo revealed that NYLF would consider supporting candidates for 2023 presidency from the South and northeast exclusively. He singled out Atiku Abubakar, Bala Mohammed, Bola Tinubu, Nyesom Wike, Orji Uzor Kalu, Peter Obi, among other notable politicians, as formidable candidates that the Forum could back to grab the reins of power in 2023.

The Northern Youth Leaders Forum also warned northern governors and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 not to impose another round of lockdown on Nigerians considering the lack of stimulus packages for the average Nigerian in the last nationwide lockdown and the unbearable hardship it brought on them in view of the millions of jobs crippled.

NYLF has been involved in the process of producing Presidents since 2003. What informs your decision?

In 2003, there were forces from the north that for one reason or the other, wanted a change because they believed to some extent, that the north was being marginalized economically and in terms of infrastructural development.

But we felt that will be a breach of political agreement signed with Obasanjo in 1999. It was a serious issue. But thank God, former President Babangida and former head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar were able to douse the tension and brought peace and understanding. Even at that, it was a difficult task to convince the northern youths to dump Buhari for Obasanjo in 2003 presidential election.

In 2006, we were able to convince late President Yar'adua to accept to contest in 2007. He reluctantly agreed but some northern governors opposed the decision and wanted to break away. They were subsequently faced with an option either to remain in PDP or decamp to ANPP. Before then, ANPP had already endorsed Buhari. They were also threatened by the Federal Government through the then Chairman of the EFCC who went to the National Assembly and told the Senators that almost all of them had one or two cases of corruption against them. As such, they decided to remain in PDP. In 2010, it was Obasanjo that persuaded the Northern politicians to allow former President Jonathan to contest and serve for only one term. Based on this understanding, an agreement was reached and accepted by 13 senior politicians. This agreement was signed and the original copy collected by one of the governors from the south-south

In 2014, former President Jonathan reneged on this agreement and decided to contest; the north felt cheated, belittled and ignored. The attention of former President Obasanjo was drawn to it and Obasanjo thrice warned Jonathan on the consequences of his action and thrice Jonathan rebuffed Obasanjo. Meetings of the Northern political, religious, youth and traditional leaders were held in Sokoto, Kaduna and Kano and after these meetings, a final and unanimous decision was taken to remove Jonathan by all means either democratically or otherwise.

A decisive awareness campaign was initiated towards the 2011 presidential election. In order to prove the political worth, value and supremacy of the north, Buhari was supported by the entire North-West, North-East and North-Central youth, religious and traditional leaders irrespective of political, religious or ethnic leanings and against all odds, Buhari won convincingly in all the three geopolitical zones in the North. Even Jonathan's political field commanders from the North were involved in this political conspiracy against him. The defection of some Northern governors to the APC was part of this conspiracy while some remained in PDP to work against the President from the inside.

Note that we supported and voted for Buhari in 2015 not because we considered him as the best candidate for the North, but because he was the only option and available best candidate to be used to politically chase out Jonathan in order to conserve, preserve, maintain and sustain our only best asset, that is, political supremacy and power. In 2019, we knew quite alright that Atiku will definitely win the election but he will not be given his mandate based on the political conspiracy against him despite our efforts towards uniting him with Obasanjo in 2014.

We consequently decided as a Forum, not to waste our resources, time and energy to support him. We could not also campaign for Buhari because we were not happy or satisfied with the performance of his administration especially the security situation in the North, as a Forum, we directed and supported the state chapters in the areas of mobilization and election of individual candidates instead of parties. That was why PDP won in some states and APC also won in other states. Many people didn't understand the political mathematics and scheming that resulted in these victories and defeats, but we knew what we did.

So what Bishop Kukah said was right?

Of course, yes, the only part of Bishop Kukah's Christmas homily that I don't expect from him is tagging Islam as having a pool of violence. That shouldn't have come from any enlightened or educated elite not to talk of coming from a Bishop and a member of the peace committee. I am a senior Pastor in RCCG. Should I come now and say Christianity is a religion of criminals because before now, vices such as kidnappings, rituals, cultism, armed robbery, 419 or assassinations were mostly carried out by Christians who bear the names such as Paul, Silas, Peter, Gideon, Mark and even Joseph? Nobody preached or invited me to leave my church to RCCG.

Jesus personally appeared to me and asked me to leave and join RCCG because my spirit was down and discouraged as a result of the violence I witnessed in my former denomination. Violence is carried out by both Muslims and Christians. We had witnessed violence even inside churches. Presently, we have Muslim leaders, Sheikhs and Imams that are speaking and condemning these killings and other violent acts more than Pastors and Christian leaders.

The Sultan of Sokoto is the Fulani leader, as well as, the head of the Muslim Ummah in Nigeria. When the conference of Bishops including Bishop Kukah visited him in the early 2020 at Sokoto, he told them point blank that he was disappointed in them because nothing was working and they said nothing.

I remember vividly when the Association of Christian Traditional Rulers paid him a courtesy call in his house in Abuja, he told us that he will never be silent when people are being killed because he is a Fulani and a fellow Fulani is the President. He once said any herder found with AK47 riffle should be arrested.

How many of our Christian leaders come out to condemn the senseless killings in Nigeria? I am from Adamawa state and from Girei Local Government, all my elder brothers lived and studied in Girei. They were accommodated and fed by the Fulani who are Muslims until they completed their studies. What moral ground or right do I have now to condemn the Fulani or the Muslims that they love and practice violence?

During your NEC meeting in Gombe, NYLF advised the PDP and APC to zone their presidency slot to North East and South-West respectively, what is your reason for taking such decision?

From the analysis I gave you, you will realize that the decision of Jonathan to contest for the second term against the initial political agreement in the PDP, brought Buhari and by extension the APC to power and consequently all these security challenges we are witnessing and experiencing today in the country. That was what brought the alliance between the North and the South West. If former President Jonathan had respected this agreement, APC wouldn't have come to power because the North would have voted massively for the Northern candidate who would have come from the North-East.

In the same vein, we were told that there is an existing agreement in the APC that power should be shifted to the South West after Buhari. We therefore insist that such agreement should be respected so as to avoid a boomerang effect and consequences. All these agitations for restructuring, true federalism, Biafra or Oodua Republic are as a result of injustices. Let's just avoid them by ensuring justice to all. The North- East that was denied that opportunity in 2015, should first of all be pacified and the South- West that have entered into an agreement with the North in APC, whether right or wrong, should also be considered. That was our honest reason.

Some are arguing that it was donated to the South-West in 1999, the South West through Abiola paid the price, it was not donated. If I may ask, where were the South Easterners when these agreements were being written by the PDP and APC. We breached the agreement of PDP and we are paying the price now. If we break that of APC, we may pay a higher price by saying bye to Nigeria. Let me be frank with you, an average Northerner will be more comfortable with an Igbo as President than a rigid Northerner. The reason is very simple. A president of Igbo extraction will be 90% loyal and be willing to play to the gallery and the dictates of the Northern powers than a Northerner who may ignore them, no president of Igbo extraction will summon the courage and boldness to try.

We have some politicians from the North-West such as Tambuwal, Kwankwaso, Shekarau and Lamido who are rumored to have interest in 2023 presidency, is it justifiable to have another president from the North in 2023?

As I said earlier, we are in a democratic dispensation and so the only asset the Northerners are left with in this enterprise called Nigeria is political supremacy and power because of our collective determination, political unity coupled with our numerical strength. Once one of these three things is affected, the north has nothing left than to become push overs and ready-made vessels in the hands of Southerners. In order to preserve, sustain and maintain this asset, it requires nothing but justice, fairness and sense of belonging by all Northerners irrespective of geopolitical zones, ethnicity and religious belief. It is injurious and morally unjustifiable and unacceptable for somebody to come from the North West to contest for the presidency in 2023.

The North-West has produced two presidents and a vice president, we believe it is the turn of the North-Central or North-East to produce the president or vice president, which must be fully endorsed and supported by the North-West. Fortunately, we have over two million of our members from the North West and they have agreed not to support any candidate from the zone in 2023 in the best interest of the north. Don't take this as a political threat, if anybody from the North West believes that they can dominate other two zones in the North because of their preponderance in number, let them try it and see in 2023. I strongly believe and truly too that even a Fulani man from North East would never vote for any Fulani man from the North west in 2023

So who are the politicians NYLF is considering for 2023?

For now, six politicians have directly approached us and we have not pencilled down any. But you will agree with us that we have the Bala Mohammed, Atiku Abubakar, Danjuma Goje, Prof. Babagana Zulum, Ahmad Lawan etc from the North East. If any of these politicians is chosen to pair with Governors Nyesom Wike, Okowa, Ben Ayade, Raymond Dokpesi, Peter Obi, Rochas Okorocha, Orji Kalu, etc, we will have a near perfect ticket. From the South West, we have Tinubu, Fayemi, Osinbajo. If any of them is chosen to pair with either El-Rufai, Ganduje, Lalong, Bagudu or Babandende, we will have a good combination.

Are you then saying that the political battles for 2023 have started in earnest?

The political battle for 2027 has been concluded already and you are here talking of 2023? Recently there was a meeting in Abuja where the only agenda was 2027 presidential arrangement, these politicians have their short, medium and long term plans just like our economists.

Recently, the federal government through the PTF says it is considering another lockdown because of the second wave of COVID-19 

(Cuts in) I think it is right time to warn the federal government and indeed all northern state governors not to consider any form of lockdown. We have extensively discussed this issue in our last NEC meeting in Gombe and came to a conclusion that if any of the state governors in the North imposes any lockdown because of COVID-19, such state should prepare for end lockdown protest by the northern youths which will have far more worse consequences than EndSARS protest and the consequences will be better imagined.

Most Nigerians and in particular northerners depend on daily labor and trade to feed themselves or cater for their families but here are state governments locking down their states without making adequate provisions for their people. Some even locked up the palliatives sent by the federal government in their warehouses, can you imagine how many people died of hunger and starvation during lockdown in northern states?

How many were sick during lockdown? How many families were separated during lockdown? How many businesses were closed? How many people lost the sources of their livelihood and jobs? (Text, excluding headline, courtesy Saturday Sun)
8 Podcasts Youll Want to Binge: The Bachelor Star Ben Higgins, Surviving 2021, a Chaotic Culture, the Election and More

The Edifi Podcast Network is filled with powerful podcasts youll want to hear. From messages about happiness to celebrity interviews, 2021 fitness tips, election tidbits and advice for living out your faith in a complex culture, weve got you covered!

Here are 8 episodes and shows you wont want to miss:

The Crazy Happy Podcast Discusses Surviving the 'Storms of Life,' Navigating Intense Division  and Finding Happiness Amid Chaos & Fear: As we dive deeper into 2021, Daniel Fusco and Billy Hallowell explore chaos, fear and how we can rely on God to get through the "storms of life." Fusco explains how we can find freedom no matter what our past holds  and how we can move forward after 2020. Listen to this episode on Edifi!

Edifi With Billy Hallowell Talks With "Bachelor" Star Ben Higgins on Purpose, Jesus and His Path to Faith (Plus: A Response to Evil): Higgins sheds light on his faith, his journey and his experience starring on the popular ABC show. Also, Billy Hallowell responds to the attack on the U.S. Capitol -- and the real issues plaguing our culture. Listen to this episode of Edifi right now!

And on Ask Dr. Brown, Dr. Michael Brown Tackles What Christians Sometimes Get Wrong About the Culture Wars: This is an essential episode for anyone looking to understand where we are, how to handle politics and faith  and where we're heading. Listen to this episode right now on Edifi!

On Idleman Unplugged, the Topic Is All Those Prophecies of Trump's Re-Election: Pastor Shane Idleman dives into the discussion about Christian prophecies surrounding President Donald Trumps election. Listen to this episode of Idleman Unplugged on Edifi!

Over at the Vintage Truth Podcast, Jeff Kinley Discusses How to Have Great Faith: Critical times call for courageous faith. And a massive spiritual storm is brewing, requiring our root system to be deep and strong if we are to survive. In this episode, Jeff shares how you can grow your faith to meet the challenges you face! Listen to this episode of Vintage Truth on Edifi!

And on The Relationship Center the Topic Is Fruitfulness: What does it mean to have the fruit of the Spirit? Ernest Wamboye, Andrew Kariuki, Deborah Rao, and David Kimani take a look at Galatians 5:16-23 on how we need to live fruitful lives. Listen to this episode of The Relationship Center on Edifi!

Over at The Pure Flix Podcast, Christian Fitness Expert Kim Dolan Leto Reveals the Missing Link to Fitness Success: Kim joins the show to discuss how she got fit by bringing faith into the mix. Plus: spiritual tips to survive and thrive in 2021! Listen to this episode of The Pure Flix Podcast on Edifi!

Everyday Discernment Sits Down With Kenny Luck and Tackles Dangerous Good: What happens when we compartmentalize our discernment? Our life in God reflects our view of God. In this week's episode, Kenny Luck is the guest. Kenny is the pastor at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills, California. He is an award-winning author of 24 books covering marriage, family and mens issues including his most recent book Dangerous Good. Listen to Luck dive into life, faith and more on this episode of Everyday Discernment!

In addition to these episodes, consider exploring season one of Politely Rude With Abby Johnson and Doubting It With Charlotte Pence Bond (and stay tuned for the start of season two of both shows later this month) among other great shows!

Politely Rude With Abby Johnson: Parenting, life, politics and navigating the daily chaos. "Politely Rude With Abby Johnson"  hosted by pro-life advocate Abby Johnson  offers a powerful exploration of the issues you care about. Dive in today to hear one of the pro-life movements biggest and most powerful voices break down the issues of the day. Listen to Politely Rude With Abby Johnson on the Edifi Podcast Network!

Doubting It With Charlotte Pence Bond: Doubting It" explores the powerful issues of faith, culture and doubt. Hosted by Charlotte Pence Bond  author and daughter of Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence  this show explores some of the most essential questions about our faith journeys. Through powerful interviews with transformational guests, Charlotte gets us thinking deeper about the power of asking questions  and how seeking truth can strengthen our faith in God and deepen our relationship with Him. Listen to episodes of Doubting It on Edifi today.

The Church Boys: Just some silly guys talking about faith, family, culture, and other shinola. Hosts Chris Field, Lucas Miles and Billy Hallowell get some good laughs while tackling some of the more serious issues of the day. Take a listen. You'll laugh. You'll scream. You'll come back. Listen to The Church Boys on Edifi!

The Line of Fire: The Ask Dr. Brown Series: Celebrated apologist, radio host, and author Dr. Michael Brown breaks down some of the most pressing questions about faith, the Bible, and culture. Journey with Dr. Brown as he systematically and beautifully explains complex topics, tackles todays controversies, and answers your most difficult questions. Each episode of "The Line of Fire: Listen to The Line of Fire: The Ask Dr. Brown Series on the Edifi Podcast Network.

Prophecy Pros: Two experts. One topic. No Confusion. Show hosts, Jeff Kinley and Todd Hampson, are on a mission to reach the next generation with the inspiring, hopeful message found in Bible prophecy. Jeff empowers people with Gods Vintage Truth. He is the author of more than 30 books and speaks all across America, motivating Christians to live for Christ and to prepare for His soon coming. Todd is a best-selling author, speaker, illustrator, and animation producer with a burden to reach the next generation with the Gospel through the convincing proofs of Bible prophecy and apologetics. Listen to Prophecy Pros on Edifi today!

Marinate on That: Dr. Derwin Gray is the lead pastor of Transformation Church a multiethnic, multi-generational, mission-shaped community near Charlotte, NC. Marinate On That is where Dr. Gray will discuss theology, discipleship, leadership, marriage, and the multiethnic church. Start listening to Marinate on That right now on the Edifi Podcast Network.

Raising Christian Kids: Raising Christian Kids podcast is for parents, grandparents, teachers, ministry leaders, and all who are raising the next generation to have a strong foundation in Jesus. Lee Ann Mancini's episodes will educate and empower you to be the best spiritual leader for your child. Listen to Raising Christian Kids on Edifi!

The Lucas Miles Show: The Lucas Miles Show hosts an eclectic list of top national guests. The show features deep diving long form interviews to help Lucas and his audience get to know his guests in new and exciting ways. Lucas brings his background as filmmaker, pastor, author, entrepreneur, and lay theologian, to entertain, inform, and explore Christian news, current events, film, leadership, theology, and literature - all to encourage his audience and uplift Jesus! Listen to The Lucas Miles Show on Edifi!

The Tina Nzuki Podcast: The Tina Nzuki Podcast revolves around people's raw and vulnerable stories. The show features riveting conversations with people in various spheres of influence  individuals with a profound impact on society. Tina facilitates humorous banter and candid talk about people's journeys. Listen to The Tina Nzuki Podcast if you are seeking purpose-driven conversations that elevate, entertain, enlighten, inspire and inform  a fascinating and fun-filled guide to gain a new perspective on life. Listen to The Tina Nzuki Podcast right now on the Edifi Podcast Network.
Wrexhams community radio station to cease broadcasting this week after over 13 years on air

This article is old - Published: Monday, Jan 18th, 2021

Wrexhams community radio station is to cease broadcasting this week after more than 13 years on air.

Calon FM, which has been based in Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys Centre for the Creative Industries for five years, will air its final show on January 20th.

Its closure was announced just before Christmas after it was confirmed that the university was withdrawing support for the station.

Since its launch in 2008 Calon FMs community programming has ranged from music and arts shows to Welsh and Polish language shows, broadcasting to a diverse range of people across the community.





It also has won the Radio Academy Award in 2013 and the Community Radio Award in 2016, with many of the volunteer broadcasters have gone on to work in the media industry.

Up to 2019, Calon Communications Limited (CCL) were working with the university on a five year plan, with Calon working towards the radio station covering its own costs as far as possible.

However speaking before Christmas a representative from the board told Wrexham.com that unfortunately, due to financial constraints at the university, the plan had to be laid aside and the radio station was faced with the challenging task of covering its costs faster than anticipated.

A campaign to save the radio station has since been launched with the station saying it is working hard to find a solution.

Tony Pugh, who is chair of the Calon FM board, detailed, We are hugely saddened to see Calon FM close. We felt that the station was thriving, despite the many challenges that the past year has brought.

We do, however, respect the decision of the university, which has left us in an untenable position, with no alternative but to close the station and to hand the licence back to Ofcom.

We know that the loss of Calon FM will be a great sadness to its listeners both in the UK and beyond. The CCL Board would like to thank Amy Hughes and her former colleague Katherine Wade for their untiring effort and hard work that has made Calon FM the excellent community radio station that it now is.

We would also like to thank the hundreds of volunteers, listeners and supporters over the years, without whom the radio station would not exist.

We hope in the future that a new community radio station in Wrexham may rise from the ashes.

We are incredibly proud of what Calon FM has achieved through the years, supplying a vital service to the community of Wrexham and reaching across the globe through its online presence.

Calon has undoubtedly changed lives through helping people with career opportunities and increasing their confidence.

Although the radio station has continued to remain successful and broadcast excellent content throughout this challenging time and, in addition, has started to raise additional income through advertising and sponsorship, the university and the CCL board have had to recognise that the ongoing financial position of the company is untenable in the long term.
The COVID-19 vaccination drive



resumed on Monday at 207 sites across West Bengal with beneficiaries, mostly frontline workers, reaching there as scheduled to receive the doses, a senior official of the Health Department said.

Glitches in the CoWIN portal were reported from several sites, following which health officials chose to manually complete the process of documentation and allocation, he added.

"The vaccination drive began around 9 am. We hope that those who did not come on the first day will turn up today. Most of the people who have received SMSes have already reached the centres. Around 100 beneficiaries will be receiving the Covishield vaccine from each centre today," the official said.

"The CoWIN portal is not functioning. We are facing trouble for session allocation, listing of beneficiaries and sending of SMSes," he said, adding that on Sunday health officials worked round the clock to overcome the limitations.

On Saturday, West Bengal witnessed 75.9 per cent turnout for the vaccination programme with four districts registering 100 per cent success, he said.

These districts are Purba Bardhaman (700/700), Jhargram (400/400), Darjeeling (498/500) and Kalimpong (100/100), he said.

There were five other districts that registered above 90 per cent turnout.

Purba Medinipur registered 96 per cent (995/1,037) turnout, followed by Kolkata (93 per cent) and Murshidabad (92 per cent), the official said.

Fourteen cases of Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) were reported on Saturday from different districts, including one from Kolkata.

While a nurse is undergoing treatment at the critical care unit of the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital in the metropolis, 13 others are "doing fine", he said.

A team of doctors is monitoring the health condition of the woman at the NRS Hospital, the official said.

The others are in touch with the respective district health officials for a daily update on whether they are facing any problem, he added.

AEFI is any untoward medical occurrence following immunisation and might not have a relation with the vaccination process, officials 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.)
London, Jan 18 : A student infected with Covid-19 returning home from university for Christmas would, on average, have infected just less than one other household member with the virus, a UK-based study suggests.

The study, published in the journal Health Systems, showed that each infected student allowed to return home would produce, on average, 0.94 secondary infections.

"With the potential movement of over 1 million UK students for the Christmas vacation, even a modest 1 per cent infection level (meaning 10 in 1,000 students are infected, perhaps many of them without symptoms at the time of travel) would equate to 9,400 new secondary household cases across the country," said researcher Paul R. Harper, Professor at the varsity.

The researchers at Cardiff University defined an equation to predict the number of secondary household infections using variables for prevalence of the virus, the probability of secondary transmission, the number of household occupants and the total number of students returning home.

As the study does not consider transmission to the students' wider home communities or include the journey home -- which may give rise to a larger number of cases, particularly if public transport is taken -- the numbers are a lower bound on the likely impact of transmissions and new cases.

However, although the indicative levels of secondary infections are potentially very large, multiple strategies can be adopted to help reduce the number of students taking Covid-19 home, the authors say.

These include strongly advising students not to mix in the days leading up to departure, implementing staggered departure times and facilitating mass testing of students before they head home.

The authors have provided computer code and an online app to allow anyone to rerun and adapt the simulations.

"The code and app are quick to run with a focus on accessibility so that a user can rapidly change the input probabilities to suit their data, thereby generating their own results based on localised parameters," the researchers said.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

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Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

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China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a New Year press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



President Moon Jae-in underlined an agreement reached between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore in 2018 as a starting point for diplomacy under the incoming Joe Biden administration during a New Year press conference, Monday.



The 2018 Singapore Declaration, the outcome of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12, laid out the principles for establishing new U.S.-North Korea relations and building a robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. Moon stressed that the agreement between two of the combatants in the 1950-53 Korean War should be carried on with despite the change in administrations in the U.S. as the first step to breaking a prolonged deadlock in negotiations since the failure of a follow-up summit in Hanoi in February 2019.



"The Singapore Declaration under the Trump administration was a very important declaration for denuclearization and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said during the conference at Cheong Wa Dae. "Of course, it is regrettable that the declaration fell short of bringing fundamental changes, and we haven't been able to move forward to a more concrete agreement since. I believe that we can speed up U.S.-North Korea as well as inter-Korean dialogue if we start again from where we left off with the Singapore Declaration and negotiate a more concrete plan."









Moon's remarks come amid concerns about the North Korean leader's reaffirmed commitment to build up his regime's nuclear capabilities during the recent Workers' Party Congress held in Pyongyang. The South Korean leader called for resuming "peace diplomacy" in order to ease military tension. "I think that North Korea's talk of a nuclear buildup and various weapons systems can be seen as a result of the deadlock in negotiations on denuclearization and the establishment of peace. If such negotiations are successfully concluded, I think that the military issues can be resolved at the same time."





President Moon takes question during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap
MBABANE - Police officers raided a homestead belonging to Standard Bank Head of Security Charles Machawe Mthethwa where they seized over 50 electronic gadgets, including certain components of automated teller machines (ATM).

Mthethwa, whose homestead is situated at Mahlanya, is reportedly being investigated for suspected theft which occurred within the bank. The police officers are said to have ransacked Mthethwas plush house, where they took valuable items for investigation purposes. According to the police, Mthethwa is a person of interest in connection with the alleged theft which occurred at Standard Bank.

Among the items which were taken from the head of securitys residence, is a cellphone which is allegedly used to store the entire banks internal control system to protect customers privacy pertaining to online and cellphone banking.

In total, the police took 58 electronic gadgets from Mthethwa, which were found at his place of abode.

The detention of the items came after the police obtained an order in terms of Section 52 (1) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

Offence

Section (52) (1) of the Act provides that: If on arrest of any person on a charge of an offence relating to property, the property in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed is found in his possession, if anything is seized or taken under this Act, the person making the arrest shall deliver such property or thing, or cause it to be delivered to a magistrate within such time as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable.

In motivating the application to seize the items, Sergeant Msibi, who is stationed in Manzini under the Financial and Economic Crime Unit, informed the court that he was the investigator of a suspected theft reported at the station. According to the investigator, the matter was reported to the police by the banks Manager of Investigations and Fraud Risk, Sibusiso Mndzebele.

Mndzebele, according the investigator, allegedly received information about the theft of the banks ATM parts/components and other items belonging to the bank, which were reportedly kept at Mthethwas homestead at Mahlanya. He alleged that the banks head of security sold some of the items to other vendors without the banks consent. The items were allegedly also sold without the banks consent by Machawe Mthethwa, who is employed by the institution as a Physical Security Officer.

Acting on investigations of this suspicion, I then applied for a search warrant to search Machawes homestead which is based at Mahlanya. A number of items were discovered at the suspects homestead. We then seized them from the suspect for investigations, submitted the investigator.

Meanwhile, Mthethwa has since filed an urgent application for the release of the items, which he claimed had no connection with the investigations.

He informed the court that the security of the bank was now being compromised as all internal control systems created to protect customers privacy for online and cellphone banking was stored in the cellphone that was taken by the police. He contended that some of the items that were taken by the law enforcers did not form part of those that were listed in the application for search and seizure. Mthethwa argued that the matter was urgent.

A hearing in due course would not afford substantial redress to me as by the time the matter is heard and finalised under the normal cause proceedings, my duties as Chief Security Officer at my place of employment, Standard Bank Eswatini, would have been compromised as any breach of security at the bank would not be easily traced, he argued.

Narrating events leading to the seizure of the items, Mthethwa told the court that on December 27, 2020, in the morning, his home was invaded by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service. He said the police produced a search warrant that was giving the authority to search and they handed over a copy of same to him.

Warrant

Mthethwa pointed out that according to the search warrant, the police officers were instructed to search for the following; any parts or component of an automated teller machine and cellphone in possession of the suspected person.

Upon contextualising the contents of the search warrant, I allowed them to conduct the search. They further advised that I should call someone from my place of employment to witness the search and I did as advised, submitted Mthetwha.

He asserted that after numerous phone calls to various employees, he managed to get hold of one of his colleagues within the banks legal department.

Without taking the court through the gruesome details of the search, I was surprised to observe the police officers taking items that did not form part of the search warrant, alleged the applicant (Mthethwa).

The applicant claimed that the attached items belonged to him, having acquired them through various auctions conducted by his employer over the years, dating back to 2008. He said he had in his possession evidence indicating payments he allegedly made directly to his employers account. Some of the items, according to Mthethwa, were to be utilised in his business, the idea being to invest into the business of an internet cafe.

I must state further that after the search, I was not advised on any detention order granted by the court authorising taking of my items in terms of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, argued the applicant.

The banks head of security brought it to the attention of the court that he was clearly in the dark as to what was happening and he did not know where his items were being kept. Mthethwa claimed that he was not privy of the intention of the police, but he wanted his things back in the same manner they were taken by the police.

His observation was that what the police did to him was clearly an abuse of the criminal justice system and the court should not countenance their behaviour.






FBI Releases Photos of Suspects in Beating of Officer, Planting of Pipe Bombs on Jan. 6

The FBI on Jan. 17 released new pictures of men they say were involved in the beating of a police officer on Jan. 6 and a suspect that agents believe planted pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the same day.

The agency published photographs of seven males who are accused of beating Metropolitan Police officer Mike Fanone during the tumult in and near the Capitol building in Washington.

All seven appear to be white males; most have facial hair. Their faces are clearly seen except for one man, whose face is obscured partially by a white mask.

Another set of pictures shows a single person wheeling a suitcase. That person, the FBI said, is suspected of planting pipe bombs at both committee headquarters in Washington.

Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to call the FBIs tipline or submit information via the FBIs website.

Dozens of people have been arrested and charged in connection with the Capitol storming.

Protesters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to interrupt a joint session of Congress. Members of Congress were counting electoral votes as the final step in the 2020 election process. Dozens of protesters illegally entered the Capitol and some wrought damage to the interior. Others assaulted officers both inside and outside the building.

Fanone later recounted how rioters yanked clothing from him and tried to grab his gun.

I remember guys chanting, like, Kill him with his own gun. I was tased about a half-dozen times on the back of my neck. That sucked, he told WJLA. I thought about killing people.

The D.C. police department said Fanone suffered a mild heart attack when he was repeatedly beaten and tased by his attackers on Jan. 6.
The United Kingdom has stepped up its mass coronavirus vaccination programme this week, offering shots to millions of more people, as the country shuts its borders to anyone who hasn't tested negative.

The UK is vaccinating 140 people per minute against the novel coronavirus on average, Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday.

"It is going well, we're vaccinating on average 140 people, that's first jab, literally a minute. That's the average so some areas are doing better," news agency Reuters quoted Zahawi as saying.

"You'll see that improve as we open more of the large vaccination centres, 17 in total by this week and 50 by the end of the month."

"Today, in some areas where they've done the majority of their over 80s, letters are going out to the over 70s and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable," he said.

He said the 24-hour vaccine offering would begin to be piloted in London by the end of the month.

The Britain government aims to offer the vaccine to all UK adults by September, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday. So far, over 4.3 million people have received their first dose, as per Bloombergs vaccine tracker.

Meanwhile, ministers will close travel corridors with other countries from Monday, meaning that all visitors from overseas will require a negative test result within 72 hours of travel to enter Britain. Health officials will step up checks to make sure they self-isolate at home for the next 10 days.

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Oakland will begin deactivating some of its fire engines and shuttering stations temporarily on Thursday in a budget-cutting move that drew criticism from firefighters and neighboring communities that contract with the city for fire protection.

The fire department will deactivate three engines for six days at a time over the next five months, effectively closing three of the citys 25 stations, each of which operate with one engine. The only station not affected is at Oakland International Airport. The move is expected to save $5 million.

Local officials and firefighters criticized the move and threatened to take legal action to prevent the closures. Some firefighters say their work now is more crucial than ever as they are often the first responders during the COVID pandemic.

You have the domino effect that ends up emptying the city of fire engines because theyre all covering for each others calls, said Zac Unger, president of Oakland Firefighters Local 55.

Not only do we respond to fires, but we respond to all COVID emergency calls in the city. If anybody is having difficulty breathing, they call us and we respond. I dont know of any other city that is reducing emergency response capability at the height of the pandemic, Unger added.

Last month, the citys finance department said Oakland is facing an unprecedented fiscal challenge. The city ended its 2019-20 fiscal year in June with a $30 million budget gap. Now thats grown to $62 million.

The overspending came primarily from the Oakland Police Department exceeding its budget by $32 million over the past fiscal year, wrote Margaret OBrien, the interim finance director, in a report presented to City Council last month.

In December, city administrators said they would cut $29 million to address the financial crisis  $9 million in general spending through a hiring freeze, $20 million from the police department and $5 million from the fire department.

The closures have also sparked criticism from county officials and neighboring cities.

In a letter to Mayor Libby Schaaf, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley said closing the fire stations will disproportionately affect Black and brown communities who use the Fire Department as their medical provider of both first and last resort.

Miley asked Schaaf to reconsider the closures and provide an opportunity for public comment in the process. During fiscal crises, the city administration can make cuts without approval from the City Council.

In a letter to staff Friday, interim Fire Chief Melinda Drayton said the proposed plan is likely to have an impact on emergency response. The standard response time, as defined by the National Fire Protection Association, is four minutes.

We consistently utilize a risk management-based decision approach, and we intend to navigate this challenging fiscal crisis with the same degree of focused attention to minimize any gaps or delays in response, Drayton wrote.

One of the three engines that will be deactivated will be replaced with a two-person medical squad made up of a firefighter paramedic and a fire officer in the Oakland hills. The paramedic from each deactivated engine will be moved to a fire station in East Oakland, which receives the bulk of the citys calls for service.

The Oakland Fire Department responds to nearly 55,000 emergencies per year.

Miley also noted that Oakland fire crews provide service to neighboring cities.

The loss of quick response from Oakland will start a cascade effect, leaving other cities without the fire protection they need, he wrote.

Emeryville Mayor Dianne Martinez sent a letter to the Alameda County Fire Department expressing her frustration with the closures. The Oakland Fire Department provides service to Emeryville through a contract with the Alameda department.

Without any information on which stations will be closed by Oakland and when, nor on the cascading effect of closures, my community is left completely in the dark about the effects of these brownouts, Martinez wrote.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Britain's outdated business rates system must be ripped apart and rebuilt to ensure the High Street can survive and thrive after the pandemic, a major lobby group has claimed.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is urging Rishi Sunak to reveal a 'comprehensive reform' of business rates in his Budget at the beginning of March.

And to ensure that as many businesses as possible can get through the next few months, the Chancellor must act ahead of the Budget to extend coronavirus support measures beyond the end of March, the CBI added.

Tax reform: The Confederation of British Industry is urging Chancellor Rishi Sunak to reveal a 'comprehensive reform' of business rates in his Budget at the beginning of March

If Sunak waits until the Budget to unveil extensions to the furlough scheme and emergency loan schemes, many businesses will already have had to make tough decisions to axe jobs and shutter premises.

CBI director-general Tony Danker told the Chancellor: 'Businesses recognise the vital importance of national lockdowns in combating the Covid-19 health emergency, but the economic reality facing firms now is extremely challenging. After almost a year battling the pandemic, business resilience is at an all-time low.'

But Sunak is hoping to start getting a grip on the UK's creaking public finances in his Budget on March 3, and the CBI estimates its proposals will cost 17.9billion.

Retailers and restaurants, however, were already struggling with sky-high business rates before the pandemic hit, and the Mail has been campaigning for a fairer system which would not unfairly penalise bricks-and-mortar stores over their online competitors through the Save Our High Streets campaign.

The Government introduced a business rates holiday last year but this will end in April.

Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI's chief economist, said: 'This Budget is an opportunity to focus on a balanced economic recovery, not driven solely by consumption and government spending, by stimulating much-needed business investment and tackling the systemic challenges that have held the UK back.

'Top of that list must be a fundamental review of our outdated business rates system.'

Danker urged the Chancellor not to think about raising taxes just yet. He said: 'It would be wrong to raise business taxes when we don't yet have a recovery. It's that simple.'

A Treasury spokesman said: 'As the Chancellor has set out, the Budget will be the moment to take decisions in the round and outline the next stages of our Plan for Jobs to support businesses and families.'
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  wwwnewsofbahrain.com

Representatives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal has sent to the government the visions of the Parliamentary Services Committee, in response to a letter on proposed reforms of the retirement and social security systems and their sustainable goals.

Zainal affirmed that the referral of the proposed visions aims to boost active cooperation between the Representatives Council and the government to serve the nation and citizens.

It is in line with the implementation of the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

She pointed out meetings held between the government and the Representatives Council after receiving the governments address.

Zainal asserted the Representatives Councils keenness on the public and pensioners interest in order to enable the pension funds to honor their obligations towards the pensioners.

The Representatives Council underlined keenness on ensuring the sustainability of the insurance funds resources and protecting their assets to ensure the delivery of benefits and retirement privileges to the affiliates.

Zainal pointed out that the national consensual vision and considering the national and citizens interests as well as low-income individuals will remain a top priority for the legislative and executive branches in discussing the proposed reforms to the retirement and social insurance systems and their sustainable goals.
Cajuput forests, lakes, pagodas and palm trees are the alluring features in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

The cajuput forests, lakes, pagodas and palm trees are alluring features in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

Cajuput forests, lakes, pagodas and palm trees are the alluring features in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

Tra Su cajuput forest is one of the must visit places in An Giang with its diverse and rich variety of flora and fauna. The forest is located in Tinh Bien District in the southern province, 10 kilometres from the Cambodian border.

An Giang has increased investment in the Tra Su tourist complex. The entrance fee is VN100,000 (US$4.3) per person, and canoe and long-tail boat tours inside cost an additional VN50,000 (US$2.2).

Dubbed Heaven Gate and Heavenly Gate of Time by backpackers, this highly Instagrammable gate of the Koh Kas Pagoda is in Chau Lang Commune, Tri Ton District.

Ta Pa Lake is a "fairytale-like destination" in the Mekong Delta. The lake is like a giant emerald mirror reflecting its pastoral surroundings.

A one-day trip to An Giang costs VN500,000 ($22). A bus ticket costs around VN155,000. Since the tourist attractions are 20-30 minutes away from each other, it is a good idea to list them and create an itinerary first. VNS
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is resigning on Jan. 20, citing the violence on Capitol Hill last week, according to his resignation letter leaked Friday.



In the letter dated Jan. 12, Azar said "the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during the past week, threaten to tarnish" the legacies of the administration of President Donald Trump, and "the attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power." "I implore you," Azar told Trump in the letter, "to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the (President-elect Joe Biden's) inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere."



The latest Trump Cabinet member to quit in the aftermath of the violence by the president's supporters, Azar's move followed those of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf. Azar's resignation came at such a critical moment that despite the Trump administration's recently announced plan to release all the coronavirus vaccines originally in reserve for second shots, multiple U.S. media reported that such reserves actually no longer existed.



The administration stopped stockpiling second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the end of last year, said the reports, citing state and federal officials briefed on vaccine distribution. Shipping of the last reserve doses of the Moderna vaccine supply began over the weekend. Both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are on two-dose regimens. The revelation appeared to contradict Azar's statement Tuesday at an Operation Warp Speed briefing, where he said "the administration would be "releasing the entire supply for order by states, rather than holding second doses in reserve." Operation Warp Speed is the Trump administration's initiative for vaccine distribution.



Azar tried to clarify those remarks during an interview with NBC News on Friday, saying "we now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people, so we're not sitting on a reserve anymore." The confusion Azar and other federal officials brought about has outraged state governors tasked with distributing the federally-supplied vaccines as they are scrambling to find enough vials. "I am demanding answers from the Trump Administration," Oregon's Democratic governor, Kate Brown, tweeted Friday. "I am shocked and appalled that they have set an expectation on which they could not deliver, with such grave consequences. This is a deception on a national scale."

Source: GNA









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Featured Video

On January 16, almost a year since India reported its first coronavirus infection, the country launched the world's biggest vaccination drive with an agenda to inoculate around 30 crore high-risk people. The vaccine will first be given to 1 crore health care workers, followed by two crore frontline workers and 27 crore citizens over the age of 50 and people with co-morbidities.

Manish Kumar, a frontline sanitation worker at Delhi AIIMS, became the first person in the country to receive the first dose of coronavirus vaccine.

While Indians welcomed the key milestone in the fight against the deadly coronavirus, many took to Google to search how you can make coronavirus vaccines at home.

According to Google trends, "How to make coronavirus vaccine at home?" was one of the top trending searches on the internet in India as of Sunday and Monday morning.

Take a look at these screenshots:

Photo: Google Trends

The answer is no. You cannot make coronavirus vaccines at home.

The two vaccines that have been approved in India took months of clinical trials before they could be approved for emergency use across the country. Clearly, there is no way one can manufacture vaccines at home.

This is not the first time Indians have Googled ways to make the vaccine at home. In July 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak in India, people had Googled similar DIY methods, according to reports.

Since there's no way you can make vaccines at home, here's what you need to know about the two vaccines that have passed clinical trials and been approved.

Covishield and Covaxin - All you need to know

India has approved two made in India vaccines  Oxford-AstraZenecas Covishield and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin for emergency use authorisation.

Covishield has been developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer, Serum Institute of India (SII) said that the vaccine would be 90 to 95 per cent effective if the two shots are parted by around 2-3 months. The vaccine is being touted as one of the most promising vaccines for India where cost and logistics play a big roll.

Covaxin has been developed by Indian biotechnology company Bharat Biotech and clinical research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). In this method, whole, inactivated viruses are injected in the body to trigger an immune response. These whole batches of coronavirus must be grown, "killed" using a chemical or heat and then made into a vaccine, making it a longer process.

Are there side effects?

"Side effects of coronavirus vaccine" - this also remained one of the top trending searches on Google in the hours following the launch of the vaccination drive.

A total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine so far, out of which only 447 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported, the Union Health Ministry has said. Out of the 447 adverse events following immunisation, only three required hospitalisation.

In Telangana, 3,530 people received the vaccine shot and the state achieved 84% of its target for the day. while no adverse reactions were reported, the state health department recorded 20 instances of minor reactions to the vaccines. These reactions consisted of swelling, mild redness and pain where the vaccine injection was given.

Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain said on Sunday that there have been 51 cases of minor complications reported from the coronavirus vaccine that was rolled out across the country yesterday.

The Delhi Health Minister said that there was one severe case, where the patient was admitted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The FDLE says its investigation began Nov. 10, after the agency received a complaint from the Florida Department of Health that someone illegally accessed a state emergency-alert messaging system. Agents said they found messages sent from Joness home in Tallahassee. They said Jones illegally accessed the state system, sending emails to approximately 1,750 people. They also said she downloaded confidential data and saved it to her devices.

US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
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(Natural News) On Dec. 22, 2020, a Cayuga County nursing home in Auburn, New York started injecting Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines into residents. Exactly a week later, three residents died because of the disease.

The Commons on St. Anthony is one of four nursing homes in Cayuga County. It gets the lowest rating of one-star from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Despite its below-average rating on health inspections, staffing and quality of care, the 300-bed nursing home managed to be free of COVID-19  until it started vaccinating residents.

Elders are vulnerable to the virus so it was no surprise that it spread quickly at the nursing home. Since the outbreak began, 21 residents have died at The Commons and three more at the hospital. At least 115 residents have been affected by the virus while 47 employees have also tested positive.

The first three deaths at The Commons on Dec. 29, 2020 were the first three nursing home COVID-19 deaths in Cayuga County. The three other nursing homes in the county have not reported any COVID-19 deaths.

Loretto, which operates the facility, announced earlier that droplet precaution is in effect throughout the nursing home. It means the employees are required to wear personal protective equipment, such as face shields, gloves and gowns, when caring for residents. There are also designated floors where residents who tested positive are being isolated.

Cayuga Countys virus-related death toll has risen dramatically over the last two weeks. There have been 25 COVID-19 deaths reported in the county in a span of 11 days, based on Cayuga County Health Departments daily reports.

The total COVID-19 death toll in the county has increased from 13 on Dec. 21 to 44 as of Thursday, Jan. 7. The nursing home deaths account for most of the countys COVID-19 fatalities.

The nursing home seemed determined to finish injecting all residents with COVID-19 vaccines amid the mounting death toll. (Related: COVID-19 vaccine trial participant DIES AstraZeneca downplays the death and continues the medical experiments on the remaining humans.)

So far, 193 residents (80 percent) and 113 employees (less than 50 percent) have been vaccinated. The nursing home planned to continue the vaccinations Tuesday Jan. 12.

Outbreak started before vaccination, Loretto official claims

Julie Sheedy, an official of Loretto, believes the outbreak at The Commons started before the residents were vaccinated as a wave of post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 cases hit the county.

An active case involving one of the nursing homes employees reinforces Sheedys claim.

One of the employees infected is Kaylee Gabak, a certified nursing assistant at The Commons. She is currently on life support at Upstate University Hospital. Her family believes Gabak was infected at The Commons before she went on maternity leave on Dec. 16, 2020. Gabak gave birth to a baby girl on Dec. 26, 2020 and was already home when she developed breathing problems.

Sheedy said they are devastated by the outbreak.

Our team is always deeply affected by any loss of life, and our hearts are with the families of these individuals, Sheedy said.

According to Sheedy, the nursing home is testing residents on a schedule established by the state health department and is also testing employees weekly. The health department inspected the facilitys infection control practices and found no deficiency.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 3,650 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cayuga County. Nearly half of those cases have been reported since Dec. 21.

The average percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in Cayuga County is 12 percent, by far the highest rate in Central New York. Here are the average positive test rates for other counties in the region: Onondaga, 7.8 percent; Oswego, 9.7 percent; Madison, 8.5 percent; and Cortland, 8 percent.

Follow Pandemic.news for more on the latest updates on the Wuhan coronavirus.

Sources include:

RonPaulInstitute.org

Syracuse.com

auburnpub.com
Willis Carrier starts the engine that will drive the worlds first modern air conditioning system, installed in the summer of 1902 at the Sackett & Wilhelms printing plant in Brooklyn, New York

With a history of 27 years in Vietnam since 1994, Carrier was among the first US companies to invest in the Vietnamese market. The company is committed to bringing state-of-the-art technologies to the local market to improve well-being and public health.

Over the past few years, Vietnam has witnessed a growing demand for air conditioning systems  whether for residential, commercial, or industrial purposes. The latest report by TechSci Research projected the Vietnamese air conditioner market to witness double-digit growth in the coming years and reach $2.9 billion by 2025.

The growth of the air conditioner market in Vietnam can be attributed to the increasing tourism and hospitality sector, the development of energy-efficient air conditioners, increasing urban population, and rising temperature levels in Vietnam. Rising disposable income, changing lifestyle, and increasing technological innovations are other factors contributing to this growth, says the report.

Carrier was one of the first air conditioning companies to become a member of the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC). Currently, Carrier serves millions of Vietnamese people with its sustainable solutions, integrating energy-efficient products, building controls, and energy services for residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, transportation, and food service clients, among others, including Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi Opera House, Danang Administrative Center, Pullman Saigon Hotel, and Vietcombank Tower. This reflects Carriers reliability as a trusted brand for local consumers, companies, and the Vietnamese nation in general.

As an industry leader, Carrier has consolidated its role in enhancing building health to promote personal health, especially during the hard times of the COVID-19 crisis. The ongoing pandemic is a strong reminder that the lockdown has changed the way people and communities live, work, and interact, and it is necessary to make the built environment more resilient. To address this issue, Carrier has introduced its Healthy Buildings Programme, an expanded suite of advanced solutions to help deliver healthy, safe, efficient, and productive indoor environments across key verticals including commercial, healthcare, hospitality, education, retail, and marine buildings.

COVID-19 has reinforced the already important role that buildings play in ensuring and protecting public health, said Dave Gitlin, president and CEO of Carrier. As people return to work, hotels greet guests, schools welcome back students, and stores reopen, indoor air quality and safe buildings are of paramount importance. For the economy to successfully recover, people need to trust in the safety of the buildings they are entering. New technologies like microscopic filtration systems and touchless building controls have gone from nice-to-have conveniences to must-have protections. The Carrier Healthy Buildings Programme can help enable healthier and safer indoor environments as we get back to our new normal.

The company that invented modern air conditioning is uniquely positioned to deliver healthy building expertise. Through the programme, Carriers experts will work closely with customers to not only design but operate, maintain, and upgrade buildings that protect what is most important  the health of those inside.

The programme will draw from a comprehensive suite of solutions and services designed to help improve indoor air quality (IAQ), increase outside air ventilation, and enable touchless interactions. Carrier offers expert services such as consultation, implementation, and continuous monitoring. These services can enable customers to restart, operate, maintain, and upgrade their buildings safely and efficiently.

In addition to Carriers comprehensive HVAC, fire, security, and controls product offering, Carriers Healthy Buildings offering includes innovative solutions. Its filtration technologies, available in new equipment and for retrofits, include various MERV filters, HEPA filters for particulate matter, and the Infinity electrostatic filters for airborne pathogens. Carrier also offers devices using UVC light, which are intended to target viruses, and UV photocatalytic oxidation to help remove volatile organic compounds and improve IAQ.

Customers at the seminar of Healthy Buildings Program which is an expanded suite of advanced solutions to help deliver healthy, safe, efficient, and productive indoor environments

Another technology  OptiClean Negative Air Machine  cleans contaminated air and creates pressure to prevent air from spreading to different sections of a building. The ActivAir hybrid hydronic air terminal delivers increased ventilation and outside air  key infection control strategies  in an energy-efficient way with low noise. Meanwhile, Environmental Index in a building automation platform enables building operators to manage temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels in a way that identifies and addresses healthy building performance issues.

Carrier has made its debut as a public company since April 2020 following its seperation from United Technologies Corporation. Carrier expects its Healthy Buildings Programme initiative, which includes commercial air-quality monitoring services, to be a key area of growth in the coming time.

Carrier was founded by the inventor of modern air conditioning Willis Carrier, who invented modern air conditioning in 1902. For over a century, Carrier has been developing innovative products and services that have changed the way people live and work. That drive for innovation continues today with a renewed focus on creating solutions that will change the world for the better.
Distressed Mom at Airport Cant Pay Baggage FeeThen Young Man Steps Up: Ill Pay for You

A Ryanair passenger has been hailed a hero after a random act of kindness at an airport in Spain went viral. He was captured on video helping a distressed mother of three who was unable to pay her ridiculous excess baggage fee.

Late last month, passengers were waiting to board a flight from Ibiza to Stanstead, London, when Ryanair airport staff informed the mother of three that she would have to pay a 50 pound (US$70) fee, as her bag had been deemed too large to be carried on board, reported the Mirror.

A fellow passenger captured the incident on film and later shared it on social media. The footage shows the woman looking overwhelmed with her hands grasping her head.

A young man, who was also waiting at the desk, notices her anxiety and reassures her: Its alright, its alright.

The fretful woman can be seen responding to his kindness, before the stranger smiles and adds: Dont worry, Ill pay for you, and then hands over his card.

The mom, identified only as Stephanie, later told Daily Mail she was initially informed by airport staff there would be no need to check her bagonly to later be told it was too large

The plane was half-full so I couldnt understand why they couldnt take my bag or put it in the hold, she said. I was told I had to pay on card but I only had cash with me, so paying it was impossible.

I dont travel a lot and its been a long time since Ive been on the plane, plus with everything thats going on, you can see on the video that Im quite anxious.

The mother of three, with twins aged 9 and a 1-year-old, lives in Ibiza but was visiting the UK to see family. She added that she has since tried to get in touch with the man but learned he wished to remain anonymous.

If it wasnt for him, I wouldnt have been able to take my kids away for the weekend, she adds. Once we got on the plane he was a few rows back from me and I wanted to go over and give him a hug, but because of Covid I couldnt.

I just want to have a chat with him because I dont think he realizes how nice a gesture it was and how much it meant to me.

The touching airport incident was shared by @CoolCalmPoch on Twitter, captioned:

Well done to this young hero for paying the ridiculous Ryanair baggage charges for a distressed mother travelling with 3 kids (who wasnt getting any leniency from ground staff). The flight from Ibiza to Stansted was half empty, not sure what difference a few cm would make.

(Courtesy of CoolCalmPoch)

The passenger who captured the video said, according to the Mirror:

As far as I could tell, the mother with her children had got caught out with a bag that exceeded the allowance on her ticket. She was upset and rather tearful while also trying to keep an eye on her kids. By the time I figured out what was going on, a young man stepped up to the ground handling staff and was heard to say its okay, Ill pay.

The clip has been viewed thousands of times online, with many likes and comments posted in reply.

When asked if they knew the identity of the man, @CoolCalmPoch replied: Great kid isnt he? No idea who he is though, kept himself to himself and acted honourably and discreetly without a fuss.

Comments posted in response to the clip included the following:

What a legend! Karma will see him good.

Another added: Theres hope for humanity.

The Mirror noted that Ryanair was contacted for comment.

The hero, who remains unnamed, has shown through his heartwarming gesture that a random act of kindness can become an inspiration for thousands in no time at all.

This story was last updated in January 2021.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired Newsletter here: TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions, the outdoor unit of Madison World has appointed Prashant Mishra as Vice President  North & East.

Prashant Mishra has over 19 years of experience in Brand Management, Business Development & Buying with specialization in Out of Home and Activation. Prior to joining MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions, Prashant was the North Regional Head at Milestone Brandcom based in Delhi, where he worked for 10 years. He is also an ex-Madisonite, having worked with MOMS as a Sr. Manager  Client Servicing from 2003 to 2009.

Commenting on this appointment to the team, Jayesh Yagnik, CEO, MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions says, Were happy to welcome back Prashant to the team as VP  North & East region. Prashant comes with close to 19 years of experience armed with the knowledge of new business development, client servicing, strategic buying skills and many other aspects to help grow the business and strengthen our work in the North & East region. I look forward to working with him.

Returning to MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions Prashant Mishra, VP  North & East says, Im excited to be back at MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions and Madison World, this time in a new role with added responsibilities. Im looking forward to working with the team and grow the business. We have exciting times planned ahead.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces widespread criticism on Monday over his refusal to commit to renewing a temporary benefit increase brought in last year to help those on low incomes through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Johnson has ordered his lawmakers to abstain on a symbolic vote in parliament later on Monday, putting a new focus on the government's willingness to support those worst affected by the pandemic after damaging rows over free school meals and support for the self employed.

The opposition Labour Party will call for a 20 pounds ($27.08) per week increase to the Universal Credit welfare payment to be extended beyond April. The vote, due at 1900 GMT will not force the government to renew the increase.

The government says no decision has been made yet and will ask its lawmakers to abstain, accusing Labour of a political stunt. Labour and other parties say the government risks devastating the finances of those who rely on the benefit.

Some members of Johnson's Conservative Party could also defy the order to abstain, underlining dissatisfaction over ministers' handling of support for society's most vulnerable.

Britain has previously announced emergency help for the economy worth 280 billion pounds, including a massive job protection scheme, and is running its largest peacetime deficit to try to soften the blow of the pandemic.

Universal Credit is Britain's main method of supporting those who are out of work, working in low income jobs or eligible for welfare based on sickness or disability.

The number of those receiving the payments has soared during the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, with applications almost doubling to 5.8 million from their pre-pandemic levels.

Days before the country went into a full lockdown in March 2020 finance minister Rishi Sunak announced a 1,000 per year increase to Universal Credit "to strengthen the safety net" for those affected.

Short link:


Over the past year, Algeria has reduced its hydrocarbon exports by 11 percent to 82.2 million of tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE), the state-owned Algeria Press Service reported, citing the Ministry of Energy

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Over the past year, Algeria has reduced its hydrocarbon exports by 11 percent to 82.2 million of tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE), the state-owned Algeria Press Service reported, citing the Ministry of Energy.

The total volume of hydrocarbon exports in 2020 has reached 82.2 million TOE amounting to $20 billion, "i.e. down by 11% and 40% respectively compared to 2019," according to the ministry.

Oil exports from the North African country stood at 571,000 barrels per day in 2019, while exports of the natural gas were 42.5 million cubic meters (over 1.

5 billion cubic feet), in line with the OPEC data.

With Algeria ranked in world's top ten gas producers, authorities adopted in November 2019 a law on hydrocarbon resources, designed to facilitate the work of foreign companies. The law is also expected to boost inflow of much-needed investment in the country's oil industry, which have been halted and required foreign investments in order to recover.

Earlier in the month, Algerian Energy Minister Abdelmadjid Attar expressed hope that oil prices would remain above $50 per barrel in the first half of 2021.
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Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
A COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals in Khanh Hoa province has returned positive initial results.

browser not support iframe.

The institute has therefore proposed the Ministry of Health conduct clinical trials on humans at the end of January.

Since last May, with the goal of manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine and completing three-stage clinical trials within 18 months, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals developed a vaccine manufacturing process and initial results have been positive.

After being approved by the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Vaccines and Biologicals will coordinate with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the Hanoi Medical University to conduct clinical trials on humans at the end of January.

The vaccine will be divided into different levels and doses for clinical trials on 125 volunteers.

In Stage 1, volunteers will be from 18 to 59 years old and in good health, with testing to end in April.

The Institute of Medical Vaccines and Biologicals possesses advantages in infrastructure and technology as well as experience in pandemic flu vaccines.

This will be the second vaccine from Vietnam to go to human testing, following the Nanogen Companys Nanocovax vaccine, which saw testing on humans start on December 10./.VNA




Haiti - Covid-19 : Embassy of Haiti in Washington closed for disinfection





The Embassy of Haiti in Wahington D.C. informs the Haitian community in particular and the public in general that the Embassy will be closed from Monday 18 to Friday 22 January 2021.



This decision was taken to allow in-depth disinfection of the building following the resurgence of cases of contagion with Covid-19.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The St John Ambulance first aid unit was broken into.

A fundraiser has been set up after a St John's Ambulance first aid unit was broken into and equipment stolen.

It happened in business complex in the Carn Drive area on Sunday and reported to police around 3pm.

The trailer's lock was forced and items such as a sink, cooker and heater taken.

Police branded the incident as despicable.

On Sunday, a Go Fund Me page was set up to help the charity with replacement costs and for volunteers to get the "pick me up they most desperately need".

"St John Ambulance, Portadown regularly services the local community, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Health Trusts across NI on a voluntary basis and have continued to do so throughout the face of the Covid-19 pandemic," said campaign organiser Jay Timmins.

"In 2020 we reported 21,740 voluntary hours with 980 patients transferred to NHS care or from NHS care to home.

"Sadly, on Sunday after an incredibly busy, tiring and frightening previous year our volunteers were cleaning the ambulances after another busy week and noticed that our treatment unit had been forcibly broken into and a number of pieces of equipment stolen."

He said the trailer allowed the charity to provide first aid and medical cover at events such as the Newcastle Festival of Flight, Summer Madness, North West 200 and many more.

"It is not only a lifeline and vital resource to our division and volunteers but also the many communities which we serve.

"Without this vital resource the we simply cannot provide the exceptional package of care which we always aim to provide in addition to the level of personnel which we can provide."

He added: "Contrary to popular belief St John Ambulance is not funded through the government, instead we rely solely on donations and good will of the people we serve and therefore replacing such an expensive, yet vital asset isnt an easy task.

"St John Ambulance will be back. Bigger, Better and more determined than ever to serve our communities with compassion and pride."

PSNI inspector Alwyn Peters added: "This is a mobile first aid unit belonging to St Johns Ambulance, a charitable organisation. Volunteers give up their time and expertise to provide an invaluable service to the community  and that makes this theft all the more despicable.

I am appealing to anyone with information to contact us on 101, quoting reference 898 of 17/01/21. A report can also be made using the online reporting form via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport. Alternatively, information can be provided to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org."

The fundraiser is aiming to raise 5,000 and can be found here.
She is preparing to marry multi-millionaire Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell after he popped the question in November.

And on Monday, Pia Miller, 37, shared an image to Instagram of a cross equals love symbol, at the front of the Hillsong Church, as she gets ready to plan her big day.

'I parked opposite the building on my way to Pilates yesterday. The image, however rings true to me,' she explained.

'It rings true to me': Australian actress Pia Miller shared a 'meaningful image' to Instagram on Monday ahead of wedding to Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell

The church's branding is used to proclaim the message that Jesus Christ is above all and his love is eternal.

Pia announced her engagement on November 28, sharing a subtle post showing off her incredible diamond ring.

The actress, who reunited with Patrick earlier that month, captioned the photo 'PW'.

Symbol: The model and actress shared a photo to Instagram of a cross equals love symbol, at the front of a Hillsong Church

In the photo, Pia and Patrick held glasses of sparkling wine and shared a celebratory toast, in front of a vista.

Patrick, 55, is the ex-husband of Lauren Sanchez, who is now dating Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man.

Pia was first linked to the Hollywood power agent in August 2019, following her split from her longtime fiance, Tyson Mullane.

Stunning! Meanwhile, Pia announced her engagement on November 28, sharing a subtle post showing off her incredible diamond ring

Pia and Patrick made their public debut at a Halloween party in LA in October 2019, amid reports they'd started dating back in May.

She made their relationship 'Instagram official' aroundChristmas 2019, sharing a loved-up photo with Patrick outside of the Louvre in Paris, and captioning it 'P'.

The couple made their red carpet debut at the Academy Awards last February.
The Bay Areas battle against the COVID-19 pandemic suffered a potentially large setback this weekend, as public health experts sounded the alarm over another variant of the coronavirus spreading across California and linked to multiple outbreaks.

The variant, called L452R, differs from the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant that was first found in the United Kingdom, as well as other mutations recently identified in South Africa and Brazil.

Scientists are not certain whether the variant is deadlier or more easily transmissible than the standard virus, but there was a sharp rise of cases in California linked to L452R at the end of last year.

Here is what experts have learned.

How was the California variant discovered?

Scientists identified L452R in Denmark early in the pandemic, but cases remained rare and isolated until November, when it was found in parts of California, said Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF.

Chiu led the genomic sequencing of samples from around California that identified the variant. It was discovered during routine screening, which has increased as scientists hunted for the U.K. and other variants.

What is troubling is the new variants rapid resurgence over the past few weeks. In mid-December, UCSF researchers had detected the variant in 3.8% of samples from California that they sequenced. By early January, L452R was found in more than 25% of samples.

You can see why this is concerning, Chiu said. We have a variant that was actually pretty uncommon prior to early December that since then is now roughly 25% of all the cases that were sequencing.

Is it more infectious than other variants?

Its uncertain. In California, researchers and public health officials are trying to figure out whether the L452R variant is more transmissible than other versions of the coronavirus in the state.

We do not know whether its more infectious yet, Chiu said. A formal epidemiological investigation needs to be done to establish what we call the R0 (pronounced R-nought), or the potential transmissibility of this particular variant.

The R-nought is a metric used by scientists to determine how quickly and easily a virus can spread. The coronavirus is thought to have an R-nought of about 2 or 2.5, though with measures like universal mask-wearing and social distancing it can be driven below 1, which means transmission is slowing.

Chiu said the fact that the new variant accounts for roughly a quarter of the cases in California is concerning that it may potentially be more infectious.

Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said that the variant was identified in the massive outbreak at a Kaiser Permanente emergency room in San Jose, which sickened more than 90 staff and patients and led to one death.

Authorities are working to determine whether the presence of L452R explains why so many people were infected at the Kaiser hospital or if other conditions account for the outbreak.

That is the question of the day, Cody said.

Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said in a statement that while its too soon to know whether L452R will spread faster than other variants, it certainly reinforces the need for all Californians to wear masks and reduce mixing with people outside their immediate households to help slow the spread of the virus.

Is the variant in circulation outside California?

The L452R variant has been discovered in at least 13 other states and several other countries. In California, it was found in Santa Clara and San Francisco counties in the Bay Area, along with Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and San Luis Obispo counties.

Officials dont know how prevalent the variant is because genomic sequencing is not happening equally across the country or the state.

Will the new vaccines be effective against the variant?

While much remains unknown about L452R, Chiu said it has mutations to the spike-shaped protein that the coronavirus uses to infect cells. Those mutations raise the possibility that the variant could reduce the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines, although more study is needed.

The data so far is very preliminary, but it basically does raise the concern that there may be some impact on the vaccine, Chiu said.

Experts do not currently believe the B.1.1.7 variant, which also has changes in the spike protein, will reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

How soon will we know more about L452R?

The only way to learn more about the California variant is to run formal laboratory and epidemiological investigations, experts said.

Chius group is starting by growing samples of L452R in a laboratory.

At UCSF, we have put eight samples from eight different cases of the variant into culture, Chiu said. The idea is that once you have the virus growing up you could then test it with blood from people who have been vaccinated or blood from patients and get some answers to those questions directly working with the actual variant.

Cody warns that the way the virus behaves in a laboratory setting may be different than how it behaves in the world, so it may take additional time to observe the impact it has in driving Californias case numbers.

The takeaway is not that we need to really start worrying about this variant, she said. I think the takeaway is that this is a variant thats become more prevalent, and we need to lean in and understand more about it.

Chronicle staff writer J.D. Morris contributed to this article.

Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
Rajya Sabha MP and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh has donated Rs 1,11,111 for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

In a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singh reaffirmed his faith in Lord Ram, saying his native place Raghogarh has a 400-year-old Raghoji (Lord Ram) temple.

Despite Lord Ram being present in every bit of me, I never mix my religious feelings with politics, claimed Singh.

I also don't see religion tagged with nationalism, said former CM quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Religion is no test of nationality but a personal matter between man and his God.

He claimed that he wasnt aware that which bank account is meant for depositing donations for Ram temple construction, so he tagged a cheque of Rs 1,11,111 in favour of Shri Ram Janmbhumi Teerth Yatra Trust with the letter forwarded to the prime minister on Monday.

He also flayed aggressive style of donation collection saying such practices cant be part of any religious activity and not at all part of Sanatan dharma.

Singh called for donation collection in compassionate atmosphere. He pleaded ignorance whom Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas Trust has authorised to collect donations for the temple construction.

The senior politician also urged the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for presenting the accounts of previous donation collection for the Ram temple.

To add, VHP has undertaken donation collection for the temple in Ayodhya since January 15 and politicians and commoners in large numbers are coming forward with donations for the same.

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While lazing around over the weekend at home, I stumbled across a Twitter post that really took my breath away. It was a series of planet images which had colours I had never seen on a planet before.

Among Stars Bot

Shared by Twitter user @paintwater_boba, the planets had beautiful hues of pink-red and violet, reminding me of a pastel colour palette that was both breathtaking and calming on the senses. I clicked on the thread to learn more about what this planet actually was, since the post said it was found by NASA, however, closer inspection revealed little to corroborate with this claim.

But soon after I stumbled upon a reply by user @AmongBot, which revealed that it was in fact developed by a bot named Squids-among-stars. Upon further research, I discovered that this bot creates photos of distant planets, inspired by the images captured by the Juno spacecraft, and an algorithm by Inigo Quilez that generated organic-looking textures using noise-based warping.

Twitter

Seeing that a bot has made this, it's nothing short of fascinating, especially seeing how imaginative artificial intelligence can get. However, this made me wonder how do artistic representations of planets made by humans are generated? What makes them bring it to life.

How artists imagine planets yet to be seen

Today we see scientists discover new planets in the universe every now and then. But all they see in this discovery is a small blip on the screen with some numbers and data that they receive from telescopes on the planet and in space. The photos of planets that we see are all artistically generated.

However, the artist's depiction looks like it has been captured in real-time. Scientists work with artists with what they know about a particular planet to make it look close to the information that theyre received from the data. The data normally includes things like approximate size, the distance from its star, the length of its year, and an estimate of its surface temperature.

NASA

Tim Pyle, a graphic artist originally from Hollywood, now working with NASAs Spitzer Science Centre at Caltech revealed in a conversation with NPR that they are able to extrapolate quite a bit of information about a planet.



In case of really faraway planets, they will use information such as the stars colour or the surface temperature of the planet to create breathtaking imagery while presenting relevant information through visual means.

Avoiding spreading misinformation

Scientists give their inputs on what they already know about the star, to create a plausible picture. However, Pyle reveals they always tread with caution as even slightest overdoing could send a wrong message.

Drawing something as simple as water on the planet or some trees-like things growing on the surface, it gives the idea of alien life on another planet -- something that hasnt been proven yet.

NASA

So next time you see a vibrant glowing planet image, remember its just an artists representation and not the real deal, and enjoy while youre at it.
President Donald Trump prepares to offer pardon or reduce more than 100 people's prison sentences before leaving office.

Trump plans to pardon more than 100 people

The national news reports project that Trump plans to pardon over 100 people before leaving office this week. On Sunday, Trump held a meeting at the White House to finish the pardons list, as per the Washington Post. The meeting held by Trump involved his daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other aides.

Trump pardoned a host of former aides and associates in late December. It includes former national security adviser Michael Flynn, father of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Trump plans to issue pardons for "high-profile rappers, white collar criminals, ond others," sources told CNN. Pardons could come for the former Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who's dating Trump Jr., former New York Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, senior adviser Stephen Mille and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Besides, the president considers a final round of pardons and clemencies that may be closer to home. The prospect that Trump may try to pardon himself, senior aides, or other family members is said to be the subject of internal White House talks as he continues to face legal challenges.

Read also: Third Stimulus Check Plans Along with Impeachment Chaos. How Much Exactly Could It Bring You?

Does Trump plan to pardon himself?

Since the election, President Donald Trump has brought it up several times. However, it is unclear if he has discussed it since the January 6 Capitol building riot where many Trump supporters stormed that place, The New York Times reported.

Trump can pardon himself, but that powers are limited to federal crimes and not state crimes. New York state prosecutors have allegedly been looking into Trump and his businesses for potential financial crimes.

Trump's eldest children have not been involved in a federal investigation

Among those, Trump is also considering pardoning his three eldest children; Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump. A pardon is also to consider Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The president's children have not been charged with any crimes, and they are not known to be involved in a federal investigation, as per the Washington Post.

Last month, Frank O Bowman, legal expert and University of Missouri professor, told the TEGNA VERIFY team that a president could not pardon someone for crimes committed after the pardon has been made.

Read also: Biden's $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Plan Could be Harmful than Helpful, Wall Street Strategist Says

Who will Trump pardon on his last day in office?

According to SCMP, the source who wants to remain anonymous, said Trump does not plan to pardon himself and his family members, another subject he discussed privately with advisers. A source familiar with the effort said that the president is opting not to issue a pardon for himself but prepares an expansive list of over 100 pardons for release.

Trump privately debated whether he will take the extraordinary step of issuing a pardon for himself, White House advisers said. But some administration officials warned Trump against self-pardon as it would make him look guilty.

A prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach, Dr. Salomon Melgen, who is in prison after being convicted of dozens of health care fraud, is expected to be on the clemency list.

The source said clemencies are expected to be issued on Trump's last day in office on Tuesday. Reportedly, Trump would not attend the traditional inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Instead, he will leave on Wednesday morning to start his post-presidency in Florida. At noon on Wednesday, Trump's presidency will end.

Read also: Report: Trump Plans to Leave Washington DC in the Morning of Inauguration Day

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Dave Bautista is chipping in a USD 20,000 (roughly Rs 14.64 lakh) reward to find those who scratched a manatee's back with the initials of soon-to-be former US president Donald Trump. He also condemned the act of cruelty committed on the marine mammal and launched a plea to find those responsible for the action.

The manatee was found Sunday in the Homosassa River north of Tampa, Florida and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have launched an investigation into the disgusting incident, as per a website. Manatees are threatened species in the US.

Read: James Gunn on What Makes Former WWE Wrestler Dave Bautista a Good Actor: Hes Grounded in Real Emotion

Jaclyn Lopez, the Florida director at the center, said, Manatees arent billboards, and people shouldnt be messing with these sensitive and imperiled animals for any reason. However this political graffiti was put on this manatee, its a crime to interfere with these creatures, which are protected under multiple federal laws.

Announcing the USD 20k reward plus bonuses to those who help in nabbing the culprits, Bautista shared on social media, "If theres not already a reward for the arrest and conviction of the low life scummy MAGATs that did this Ill throw in $20,000. And I promise there will be bonuses to that reward (sic)!"

He continued, "And I promise there will be bonuses to that reward (sic)!

If theres not already a reward for the arrest and conviction of the low life scummy MAGATs that did this Ill throw in $20,000. And I promise there will be bonuses to that reward! https://t.co/CGa2EIhrEQ Vice President Drax (@DaveBautista) January 12, 2021

Bautista is in line to feature in The Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 3.
BEDFORD, NS / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / (TSXV:SSE) - Silver Spruce Resources Inc. ("Silver Spruce" or the "Company") is pleased to announce mobilization and commencement of its Phase 1 program on the 1,130-hectare Jackie Au-Ag property, an early-stage precious metal project located 175 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. The Company signed a Definitive Agreement (Press release November 30, 2020) with Colibri Resource Corp. to acquire 50% interest in the Jackie Project (the "Property").

"Silver Spruce now has experienced boots on the ground at our large grassroots property in a very productive region only two kilometres from our El Mezquite property and adjacent to Minera Alamos' Santana project. We have maintained technical continuity in our Sonora-based geological team which started working this past week on the Jackie property," said Greg Davison, Silver Spruce VP Exploration. "Jackie has seen very little structured exploration and we look forward to developing pristine targets for the Company in a strong gold and silver market."

Phase 1 Exploration Program

The Company, with a four-person team (two senior geologists and two samplers) and all necessary logistical support, is undertaking a first pass exploration program, including prospecting, rock, soil and stream silt/sand sampling, initial geological mapping of areas exhibiting significant alteration or mineralization and collection of structural data. The team will focus on identifying and sampling readily accessible areas of interest, confirming areas for future detailed mapping and providing a geochemical baseline map for vectoring toward potential Phase 2 targets. Phase 1 will have a planned duration of three weeks after which the team is expected to continue the mapping program at El Mezquite.

All aspects of the exploration program will be conducted with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols for personal safety.

The work program will include a QA/QC program with standards, blanks and duplicates to accompany the in-house programs at ALS Global ("ALS"). Samples will be delivered to the ALS sample preparation facility in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Splits will be sent to ALS in North Vancouver, BC for gold by fire assay and to ALS in Reno, NV for hyperspectral analysis using the Terraspec 4 and aiSIRIS identification of the principal silicate, sulphate, carbonate and hydrous oxide species, namely the alteration minerals and their relative intensity. Multi-element analysis will be carried out at ALS in North Vancouver on select samples as results warrant from the distribution of the gold values and coincident spatial anomalies with alteration mapping.

In parallel, the Company has retained GeoDigital Imaging de Mexico S.A. de C.V. ("GeoDigital") to carry out GIS data compilation and preparation of digital base maps for geographical, geological, geochemical and geophysical information. GeoDigital, based in Hermosillo since 2008, provides the highest international quality standards in geological consulting, satellite imagery and geographic information systems, resource estimation and 3D modelling, topography and digital elevation models, geology and software training.

Project Geology, Location and Access

The Jackie Project is located within the western portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex within the prominent northwest-trending "Sonora Gold Belt" of northern Mexico and parallel to the precious metals-rich Mojave-Sonora Megashear.

The Property is situated approximately six kilometres northwest of the Nicho deposit currently under mine development by Minera Alamos. Other nearby large operating mines include Alamos Gold's Los Mulatos gold mine and Agnico Eagle's La India gold mine located 50-60 km to the northeast, Agnico Eagle's Pinos Altos Mine, 95 km southeast and Argonaut's La Colorada Mine, 100 km to the west. Exploration is very active with adjacent and nearby properties reported to be held by Minera Alamos, Newmont, Garibaldi, Evrim, Kootenay Silver and Penoles.

The 1,130-hectare Property is easily accessible from Hermosillo to the Tepoca area and heading south from Mexican Highway #16 or west from Highway #117, or from Ciudad Obregon travelling northeast on Hwy. #117 and west to the pueblo of La Quema with vehicles and then pack teams along unpaved roads and trails. The southerly road from Hwy #16 traverses through the centre of the known gold mineralization at El Mezquite (pictured above) only 2 km north of Jackie. High voltage power lines are positioned on Highway #16.

Qualified Person

Greg Davison, PGeo (BC), Vice-President Exploration & Director, is the Company's internal Qualified Person ("QP") and is responsible for the technical content of this press release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), under TSX guidelines.

About Silver Spruce Resources Inc.

Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration company which has signed Definitive Agreements to acquire 100% of the Melchett Lake Zn-Au-Ag project in northern Ontario, and with Colibri Resource Corp. in Sonora, Mexico, to acquire 50% interest in Yaque Minerales S.A de C.V. holding the El Mezquite Au project, a drill-ready precious metal project, and 50% interest in Colibri's early stage Jackie Au project, with both properties located <10 kilometres west from Minera Alamos's Nicho deposit. The Company also is pursuing exploration of the drill-ready and fully permitted Pino de Plata Ag project, located 15 kilometres west of Coeur Mining's Palmarejo Mine, in western Chihuahua, Mexico. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. continues to investigate opportunities that Management has identified or that have been presented to the Company for consideration.

Contact:

Silver Spruce Resources Inc.

Brian Penney, Chairman and CEO

(902) 430-8270

info@silverspruceresources.com

www.silverspruceresources.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements," Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to, statements regarding the private placement.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of metals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate.

SOURCE: Silver Spruce Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624644/Silver-Spruce-Mobilizes-Phase-1-Exploration-on-Jackie-Au-Ag-Property-Sonora-Mexico
The diplomatic corps and representatives of international organisations in Vietnam are invited to attend the opening and closing sessions of the upcoming 13th National Party Congress,

which is scheduled to take place in Hanoi from January 25 to February 2, heard a meeting on January 18.

Representatives of the diplomatic corps and international organisations at the meeting (Photo: VNA)

The congress will see the attendance of 1,587 delegates representing nearly 5.2 million Party members nationwide, Chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committees Commission for External Relations Hoang Binh Quan said when briefing the diplomatic corps and representatives of international organisations about the preparations for the big event.

Representatives of the diplomatic corps and international organisations at the meeting (Photo: VNA)

He said that after 35 years of the Doi moi (Renewal) process, Vietnam has obtained various major and historic achievements in constructing and safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

Draft documents to be submitted to the 13th National Party Congress received high consensus as well as feedback from Party members, people from all walks of life, including overseas Vietnamese, as well as former Party and State leaders, National Assembly deputies, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, social-political organisations, scientists and managers, Quan noted.

The Party official also affirmed that the CPV has paid special attention to the personnel work, considering it a key task. The personnel preparations have been carried out thoroughly to ensure that candidates who have firm political mettle, pure morality, outstanding capacity and strategic vision will be elected to the 13th Party Central Committee.

Foreign ambassadors and diplomats attending the meeting, which was held by the CPV Central Committee, expressed their belief that the 13th National Party Congress will be organised successfully and set out policies and guidelines for a new development period for the country, continuing to lead Vietnam to more important accomplishments in the coming time.

Journalists to receive optimal conditions at 13th National Party Congress

Preparations for the press centre for the 13th National Party Congress have been basically completed, according to Le Manh Hung, deputy head of the Party Central Committees Commission for Information and Education.

Hung, who is also director of the press centre, and Nguyen Dac Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee and deputy chief of the committees Office, inspected the preparations at the centre on January 18.

The centre has put forth specific programmes and scenarios to facilitate the operation of reporters, he added, stressing the need for reporters to follow set regulations.

A press conference on the organisation of the National Party Congress is scheduled to take place following the inaugural ceremony of the centre on January 22, Hung said.

The Commission for Information and Education said nearly 500 domestic reporters and technicians, and more than 60 correspondents from foreign news agencies have registered to work at the press centre. More than 60 reporters will cover the congress online.

All reporters present at the centre will undergo COVID-19 testing, at the request of organisers.

An exhibition displaying books and newspapers on the Party Congress will open on January 22./.VNA
(CNN)  The nation is entering inauguration week with an unnerving police and military presence guarding the vestiges of democracy -- with Americans holding their breath as federal officials warn about threats of violence and potential unrest that have clouded preparations for the ceremonies that will usher President-elect Joe Biden into the White House and send President Donald Trump back to private life.

Determined to stave off the terrifying scene that unfolded during the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, Washington, DC -- once the crown jewel of democracy admired around the world -- now resembles a police state as authorities try to ensure a peaceful transfer of power when Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday. Some 25,000 National Guard troops have been deployed, military vehicles are blocking some of DC's streets, the National Mall is closed, and tall fences and barricades protect this country's sacred buildings as movement is restricted.

Deep within the fortressed capital city, Trump has remained out of public view during his last weekend in power  unrepentant for the violence he incited and unwilling to abandon the false election claims that have riled up his supporters. Meanwhile, Biden tried to get Americans focused on a more hopeful future as his team outlined the first steps he will take in office to try to aid struggling Americans amid the pandemic and fulfill campaign promises on issues like climate change, criminal justice and immigration.

But with fewer than four days left in the Trump presidency, the nation remains on high alert.

In another unsettling sign of the potential threats posed by homemade bombs or explosives -- like the ones planted outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters earlier this month that didn't go off -- the US Postal Service has removed blue mail collection boxes from certain jurisdictions in 18 states as a security measure.

The National Guard presence in Washington is a stronger military footprint than the US has in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined. But Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Saturday the added security was "definitely necessary and warranted."

"Closing down the National Mall, closing down the Washington Metro system, Airbnb canceling reservations, the actions you just reported about the post office -- this is as if we were under attack from a foreign enemy," Van Hollen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

"What's so sad about it is that it's an attack on our democracy from within, instigated by the President of the United States," the Maryland Democrat said. "These are the kinds of forces you would normally see protecting us from an external enemy, and yet here we are, trying to protect ourselves from a violent mob -- and people who have been lied to; people who believe the President when he says he was cheated out of an election. We are going to have to come to grips with this."

Many state capitols are also ramping up security to avoid being caught flat-footed as US Capitol Police were on January 6. With the FBI warning last week that "armed protests" are being planned in all 50 states, Michigan State Police, for example, have mobilized personnel from across the state to secure the state Capitol in Lansing in coordination with the FBI and the National Guard.

Michigan, in particular, is familiar with the threats posed by armed protesters, who gathered last spring to demonstrate against restrictions related to Covid-19. With demonstrations expected Sunday, a fence has been erected around the state Capitol, and Lansing Mayor Andy Schor asked Michiganders to stay out of the downtown area and avoid engaging "with demonstrators who come to our city with ill intentions."

The Michigan House and Senate have canceled sessions Tuesday through Thursday because of "credible threats." And Airbnb is also reviewing reservations booked around Lansing during inauguration week, saying they will cancel reservations booked by guests associated with violent hate groups.

Trump's final days

Unwilling to take responsibility for the fear that has rippled across the nation after watching the January 6 attacks, Trump remained out of sight at the White House this weekend -- still stripped of the ability to communicate with his followers via major social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

But in what appeared to be another overtly political move at the 11th hour, his administration tried install a Trump loyalist as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency -- a civil servant job, not a political appointment -- who would be harder to fire after Biden takes office, sources told CNN.

Eschewing the customary handoff between presidents on Inauguration Day, Trump plans to head to Palm Beach, Florida, hours before Biden takes the oath of office. But Trump remains keenly interested in how he will be celebrated when he leaves the White House for the last time, contemplating a departure ceremony that could include a red carpet, a color guard, a military band and even a 21-gun salute, an administration official told CNN's Jim Acosta.

Trump is also preoccupied in these final days with building a legal team to defend him during his upcoming impeachment trial, as a number of high-profile advisers who defended him the last time he faced a Senate trial make it clear they are not interested in this second round. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to send the article of impeachment to the Senate this week.

The President has resisted calls from his aides to give a final speech recounting the accomplishments of the administration. Instead, Pence -- who will be attending Biden's inauguration -- continues to be the public-facing leader of the administration, traveling to Naval Air Station Lemoore in California on Saturday to give a speech touting the administration's national security achievements.

"The American people are grateful," Pence told sailors as he thanked them for their service on behalf of the Trump administration. "And I want to assure you that you have our deepest respects for the selflessness and courage that you personify every day."

The vice president argued that the military is now "more equipped than ever" and added -- with no irony, even though parts of the nation are currently locked down under heavy guard -- that he was "proud to say, with just a few days left in this administration, this is the first administration in decades not to get America into a new war."

Biden readies first-day executive actions

While it has been hard for Biden to capture the nation's attention after the security breach at the Capitol, his team revealed new details Saturday about how Americans could take part in the inauguration activities from home and his incoming chief of staff Ron Klain released a memo detailing the executive actions Biden would take on his first day of office to reverse some of the policies of the Trump administration, including rejoining the Paris climate accord and rescinding the ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries.

Biden rolled out his first signature legislative initiative this past week when he announced his $1.9 trillion relief package to mitigate the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and expand and accelerate the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine across the United States.

On Saturday, Klain's memo said Biden would also sign orders halting evictions and giving relief from student loan payments to those struggling financially because of the pandemic, while also instituting a mask mandate at federal sites and for travel between states. The President-elect has challenged Americans to mask up in his first 100 days in office.

Biden also plans to introduce an immigration plan within his first 100 days that would include a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants living in the United States. In late January and early February, he also intends to ask the federal government to devise a system for reuniting children separated from their families at the US-Mexico border and will focus on moving criminal justice reform.

"These actions are just the start of our work," Klain wrote in the memo. "Much more will need to be done to fight COVID-19, build our economy back better, combat systemic racism and inequality, and address the existential threat of the climate crisis. But by February 1st, America will be moving in the right direction on all four of these challenges  and more  thanks to President-elect Joe Biden's leadership."

This story was first published on CNN.com.

Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
(Alliance News) - Oriole Resources PLC on Monday said the 10,000 metre air core drilling programme at its Senala project in Senegal was completed as scheduled and results from its maiden diamond drilling programme at the Bibemi project in Cameroon are due later this quarter.

Shares in Oriole were up 20% at 1.08 pence in London in late morning trading.

Oriole, an exploration company focused on west Africa, said results from its Senala air core programme, completed by IAMGOLD, are expected in the first quarter.

The goal of the drilling is to better define the geochemical footprint of gold mineralisation at the Fare prospect at Senala. Subject to the results, IAMGOLD intends to conduct 5,000 metres of follow-up drilling and 1,00 metres of diamond test drilling.

IAMGOLD is presently three years into its earn-in to an initial 51% Senala interest and must have spend another USD1 million by February end to keep this option in good standing.

Meanwhile, in Cameroon, Oriole is expecting first results from its maiden diamond drilling programme at Bibemi later in the first quarter of 2021 and into the second.

The total planned Bibemi programme now stands at 28 holes for 3,080 metres, focusing on testing depth expansion of surface gold mineralisation found at the Bakassi Zone 1, Bakassi Zone 2, Lawa West and Lawa East prospects.

Also in Cameroon, the Wapouze pilot trenching is underway and will test key gold anomalies found during previous soil sampling campaign's.

Oriole is waiting for approval for eight further licences in central Cameroon, covering around 3,500 square kilometres.

In Djibouti, Thani Stratex Djibouti has completes its phase 1 programme for the Hesdaba project. Final results for the programme are expected in the first quarter of 2021. Oriole holds an 11.8% stake in Thani Stratex Djibouti.

"The company looks forward to providing updates on all of these projects as the information becomes available," said Oriole.

By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Matter is pleased to announce its acquisition of AIM, a specialized firm providing supply chain consultancy and interim management services to life science companies. AIM specializes in building European supply chain infrastructures for new entrants into Europe. This acquisition provides a strategic complement to Blue Matter's offerings and enhances its PathfinderSM suite of capabilities, designed to help biopharma companies enter European markets and succeed.

Blue Matter is a strategic consultant to biopharma companies globally. These include emerging companies exploring or expanding in Europe. According to George Schmidt, Blue Matter Managing Partner in London, "We typically lead strategy work, but clients often have specialized needs when it comes to establishing operations in Europe, such as building and running flawless supply chains. AIM directly addresses that need."

AIM's founder, Richard de Bakker added, "Blue Matter and AIM have a long, positive relationship. We often serve the same clients, with needs that intersect the capabilities of both firms. By joining forces, we can boost the value of each firm while providing enhanced services to clients. It will also provide additional opportunities for our consulting team."

Blue Matter's proximity to emerging companies in the US will allow AIM to engage with them earlier, as they decide whether and how to enter Europe. AIM will continue providing consultancy and interim management services to pharmaceutical companies in Europe.

AIM complements Blue Matter's PathfinderSM capabilities. These capabilities span the continuum from evaluating potential markets to maximizing the opportunity once a company has entered Europe. Within PathfinderSM, Blue Matter provides strategic guidance. It can also serve as a single point of contact for clients, managing the entry process by leveraging an array of partners including legal, regulatory, human resources, and other firms.

The acquisition was finalized on December 31, 2020. AIM will continue operating under its own brand.

About Blue Matter

Blue Matter (www.bluematterconsulting.com) is a strategic consulting firm serving the life science industry from offices in North America and Europe. Its clients include leading biopharmaceutical companies from around the globe. The firm helps clients maximize value at the product, portfolio and company levels, with a focus on commercial strategy for complex therapies in the development and launch stages. It has broad therapeutic experience with a concentration in oncology and rare diseases.

SOURCE Blue Matter Consulting

Related Links

https://bluematterconsulting.com/


SALEM, Ore. -- Gov. Kate Brown is closing three Oregon prisons, a decision authorities say would save the state more than $44 million.

The governor said she believes the money could be better invested elsewhere, such as early childhood education. On Friday, Brown said she took unilateral action and directed the Department of Corrections to close the three facilities.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the closure of three of the state's 14 prisons will be staggered. First will be Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, which is scheduled to be closed by July of this year, next Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend by January 2022, and last Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, to be closed by July 2022.

RELATED: SHUTTER CREEK, WARNER CREEK PRISONS ON CHOPPING BLOCK AMID BUDGET CUTS

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The Deputy Commandant-General (DCG) of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Hilary Madu, has been appointed acting commandant-general of the corps.

Mrs Madu took over from the former Commandant-General, Abdullahi Gana, whose extended tenure of six months expired January 18.

PRNigeria gathered that Mr Gana officially handed over to Mrs Madu who is the most senior officer in the corps at a brief ceremony in the Abuja office.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ramatu Aliyu, has felicitated with the outgone Commandant-General (CG), Abdullahi Gana, on of his 58th birthday.

Ms Aliyu in a birthday message to Mr Gana, on Monday, commended him for his invaluable contributions to the peace and safety of the country.

I am pleased to join other family and friends in felicitating with you on your birthday.

Your reign as the Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has witnessed a lot of growth and progress within the NSCDC, especially at a time when the nation needs it most.

Your invaluable contributions to the peace and safety of our country Nigeria cannot be underestimated.

May the Almighty Allah continue to grant you wisdom, guidance and good health to discharge your duties, Ms Aliyu prayed.



PRNigeria encourages institutions to be transparent in their information management as it provides news items from authoritative sources for free use by the media

More Press Releases on www.prnigeria.com
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A short update on the Mayberry v. KKR, a pathbreaking public pension suit targeting customized hedge funds designed for the sitting duck Kentucky Retirement Systems by Blackstone, KKR, and PAACO. The litigation is on track to becoming a Jarndyce v Jarndyce level case study in the (mis)use of procedure to delay a case. As we recapped right after the new year:

In 2017, eight plaintiffs filed a derivative lawsuit on behalf of the spectacularly underfunded and incompetently/corruptly run Kentucky Retirement Systems, the public pension fund for the State of Kentucky (see former board member Chris Tobes Kentucky Fried Pensions for lurid details). The filings alleged breach of fiduciary duty and other abuses by three hedge funds operators, KKR/Prisma, Blackstone, and PAAMCO, in the sale and management of customized hedge funds with too-cute names like Daniel Boone. The fund managers had promised the impossible, high returns with low risk, when KKRs and Blackstones SEC filings correctly depicted the very same offerings as high risk. Not surprisingly, the hedge funds markedly underperformed investing in stocks, leaving the pension funds beneficiaries in a worse position than had it gone with traditional strategies. Because Kentucky has strong statutory fiduciary duty standards and the conduct outlined in the initial filings looked egregious, the case was primed to shake up the public pension world.

As well unpack a bit more, the suit wound up at the Kentucky Supreme Court before discovery got underway. The Kentucky Supreme Court dismissed the original case without prejudice due to post-filing appellate and US Supreme Court rulings that narrowed the grounds on which pension fund beneficiaries in certain states could file cases.1

In a surprise move, the Kentucky Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, filed to intervene in the case even though the Attorney General had not joined the case earlier. The plaintiffs then filed a Second Amended Complaint which sought to address the standing issue by replacing three of the original plaintiffs with three different pensioners who had suffered particularized injury and didnt have a state guarantee to make them whole. The 50,000 foot version of the plaintiffs argument was that there is ample case law substantiating that plaintiffs can amend their cases to remedy deficiencies that result due to unfavorable but relevant precedents that are set after they launched their case.

The next episode in this long-running drama was that the trial judge, Philip Shepherd (recall that the Supreme Court had instructed the trial judge to dismiss the complaint) approved the Attorney Generals motion to intervene and denied the plaintiffs motion to file a Second Amended Complaint. The wording of the denial was strained.2 However, the judge did exhibit some unhappiness that the case had been filed in 2017 and here it was, end of 2020, and it had not advanced substantively.

The reason sand-in-the-gears strategies are popular isnt just to run up plaintiffs legal bill. In litigation, delay usually favors the defendant. Memories fade, lowering the ability of witnesses to make statements with confidence. That in turn makes it harder for the plaintiffs to surmount the required standard of evidence.

However, it is likely that when Mayberry v. KKR gets out of stall, which will hopefully happen in the next couple of months, the loss of time wont be as detrimental to the plaintiffs as is typical. The plaintiffs have already been able to provide substantial evidence of misconduct in their filings; getting access to e-mails and other records will almost certainly provide more proof. And since the key allegation is breach of fiduciary duty, theres no need to show intent.

As we explained a couple of weeks ago when the plaintiffs then filed a Third Amended Complaint:

Procedurally, what I do not understand is why the plaintiffs attorneys are back with yet another amendment, rather than filing a new compliant. The original complaint was dismissed without prejudice. Judge Shepherds objections to the Second Amended Complaint were entirely about using amendments and the addition of new plaintiffs to cure the standing deficiencies. Perhaps I am being dense, but I dont see how a better-argued version of the Second Amended Complaint solves that problem. Did the plaintiffs counsel want to assure that their pleadings stayed in Judge Shepherds court?

This new complaint focuses on this language in Judge Shepherds order:

Kentucky law has long recognized that there is no wrong without a remedy. With that in mind, the Court notes that while the Original Plaintiffs lack standing to

pursue their claims by being members of defined benefit plans, each iteration of their Complaint

contains allegations of severe misconduct and breaches of fiduciary duties of Defendants related

to management of KRS assets. The Kentucky Supreme Court observed as much in Overstreet, recognizing that Plaintiffs allege significant misconduct. Overstreet, 603 S.W.3d at 266. Fiduciary duties exist in all circumstances where there is a special confidence reposed in one who in equity and good conscience is bound to act in good faith and with due regard to the interests of the one reposing confidence.Steelvest, Inc. v. Scansteel Service Center, Inc. 807 S.W.2d 476, 485 (Ky. 1991) (quoting Security Trust Co. v. Wilson, 210 S.W.2d 336, 338 (Ky. 1948)). Serious breaches of fiduciary duties have been alleged in this case, and the Court believes

that statute, case law, the Civil Rules, as well as principles of equity and public interest, require that the factual allegations in this caseand the defenses asserted by all Defendantsshould be adjudicated on the merits and not dismissed on a legal technicality. But the very next sentence indicates that all of the factual allegations in the case (meaning the original case) are now being properly handled by the Attorney General: Because the Attorney General is empowered by statute, the Civil Rules, and the decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court in this case, to intervene in suits such as these, the Court finds that the Attorney General must be allowed to take over this case and pursue these claims on their merits. The latest complaint then argues with more particularity why the specific damages suffered by the various plaintiffs result from the defendants actions and also fall outside the states solemn promise. In other words, there are presently wrongs with no remedy, since they are not part of the Attorney Generals case. All well and good, but (and I may have missed it in this 200+ page filing), I dont see how the plaintiffs can overcome Judge Shepherds firm rebuff of amending the original complaint to incorporate additional grounds for damage and new plaintiffs. And I also wonder if the Attorney General was worried about an end run by the original legal team, why he cant simply add their matters to his complaint.

I neglected to add that one reason for trying another amendment as opposed to a new filing would be to assure that Shepherd remained the trial judge. New cases are assigned randomly to judges and the other judge in Frankfort is pro-corporate. However, the Attorney Generals Motion to Intervene was assigned to Shepherds colleague, and he bounced it over to Shepherd, so that risk looks to no longer be operative.

And I lacked the imagination to anticipate that the plaintiffs would go the belt-and-suspenders route and also file a petition on behalf of the so-called Tier 3 plaintiffs (the ones who had started employment after 2014 and were in a hybrid plan where they had mandatory contributions deducted from their paychecks and did not have a state guarantee). Weve embedded that document at the end of the post, since it recites the procedural history and the allegations of misconduct. You can find the other major pleadings in this litigation here.

Judge Shepherd held what was essentially a scheduling conference via Zoom on January 11 and issued an order commemorating his instructions as an order on January 12, which we have embedded below.

Shepherd said he cant decide how to rule on the Tier 3 plaintiff filings until he knows the nature and scope of the claims that will be asserted by the OAG. So Shepherd gave the Attorney General, until February 1, to file its Amended Intervening Complaint and gave the Tier 3 Plaintiffs or any other persons who may seek to intervene a deadline of February 11. A hearing is set for February 22.

The last thing Attorney General Cameron wants is for the another group of plaintiffs with Michelle Lerach, a very formidable attorney, and her disbarred but feared husband Bill Lerach (who can still act as a consultant/researcher) doing discovery. The point of Camerons intervention was to generate some positive headlines while he was getting heat for being too obviously pro-cop on the Brionna Taylor shooting, while making sure loyal Republican donors Henry Kravis and Steve Schwarzman paid only cost of doing business level fines to settle the case quickly. Cameron is therefore almost certain to draft his filing so as to cover all the relevant groups of plaintiffs: taxpayers and pension beneficiaries, and will argue that the pension beneficiaries interests are sufficiently aligned so as to make representing all of them feasible and cost/time efficient.

The Lerach group attorneys are likely to counter that the Attorney General cant ride so many horses at once, for instance, that there are large enough differences of interest between beneficiaries that have a state of Kentucky solemn promise versus the ones with no government support as to render it infeasible for one counsel to represent both groups properly.

So it has taken a very long time but hopefully Mayberry v. KKR is about to get out of neutral.

____

1 These rulings would not affect cases filed in California, for instance, because California has not adopted Federal Article III standing rules, while Kentucky has.

2 The plaintiffs had cited considerable precedent supporting their contention that it would be proper for them to file an amended complaint. Judge Shepherd didnt dispute the relevance of their precedent.
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WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.  Officials on the Navajo Nation reported 96 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths Sunday.

The latest figures bring the total reported coronavirus cases on the reservation to 26,383, including 919 deaths.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement that with the holidays having passed, he is optimistic that the reservation has begun to flatten its curve of positive cases. He is hopeful that the administration of the vaccine will help flatten the curve even more.

Nez said residents still need to remain vigilant and practice health safety measures like staying home.

The number of infections is thought to be higher than reported because many people havent been tested.

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................................................................

Studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

The Navajo Nation extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Residents of the vast reservation were required to stay home from Friday evening until early Monday morning, except for essential workers and in the case of an emergency.
Restaurants in Region 2, which includes Peoria and Bloomington, will be allowed to resume indoor service at 25% capacity, or 25 people, whichever is less, according to the states public health department. Reservations are limited to two hours max, and parties are capped at four people; the health department recommends dining only with members of the same household.
PHILIPSBURG:--- During the opening session of the recently concluded IPKO meetings held on January 6th and 7th, St. Maarten was unable to articulate a position on the decolonization trajectory that a majority of Parliament has decided to undertake and so, opines United Democrats (UD) Member of Parliament, Wescot-Williams, the Parliament of Sint Maarten has missed the opportunity to tell the world where it stood on the constitutional future of this country.

This was not surprising because this articulation and defending the stance on decolonization has not been forthcoming on St. Maarten, either in the Parliament or otherwise. Nevertheless, the motion of November 5, 2020, by a majority could have legal consequences for the country, the MP stated.

I have recently requested a meeting of the Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization of the Parliament and I have asked questions to those responsible for executing the decisions of Parliament, including the aforementioned motion. The Presidium of Parliament is responsible to execute the decisions of Parliament. Central to my questions, is the question: What kind of legal agreements have been established on the basis of the motion regarding decolonization that was passed on November 5th of last year?

The Government finds itself in a rather awkward position on this matter. According to the Government, it was pressured into distancing itself from talk of decolonization and in particular the issue of decolonization versus the Charter of the Dutch Kingdom. Wescot-Williams explains.

On the other hand, you have an existing motion of Parliament that not only recognizes but endorses the position that the kingdom charter is an unconstitutional document.

The Government has thus distanced itself from a foundation, but whose legal actions have been endorsed by the Parliament of Sint Maarten.

It was baffling to hear the representative of St. Maarten in the IPKO meeting attempt to explain the purpose of the Constitutional and Decolonization Committee of Parliament. No wonder you had members of other delegations who continued to stress the point because St. Maarten could not deliver an articulate position on where it stands on this matter.

If the Government is serious about backing down on the matter of decolonization, they also have to revisit a letter from the Prime Minister sometime late last year, in which the Government endorsed decolonization in a lengthy letter to Parliament.

In fact, this letter concludes with the following quote by the Prime Minister: I am of the opinion that finalizing the decolonization can and should be started as soon as possible, it will both benefit the international reputation of the kingdom of the Netherlands and therefore Sint Maarten and its sister islands and allow for the sustainable social-economic development and prosperity of the people of St. Maarten.

With this type of statement, one would think that the Prime Minister would want to see this whole decolonization as an important part of the very agreement signed with the Dutch Government, in which they talk about sustainable social-economic development.

MP Wescot-Williams is of the opinion, that is, therefore, behooves the Government to not only retract or distance itself from third party positions regarding decolonization and regarding the Charter of the Kingdom, but also to give a clear position on the matter, given what the very same Government has told parliament. What or who are we to believe?

This is not a matter of the independence/free mandate [sic] of Parliament versus the Government. The coalition-government, supported by a majority in Parliament needs to make it clear to the people of St. Maarten where they stand on this matter. If we sit back again and feel that we acted cleverly by distancing ourselves from the matter, because it was a condition by the Dutch Government, and yet feel that below the radar, we are going to continue to do what we want, its going to come back to bite us sooner rather than later, the MP concluded.
A mother has drowned in a school holiday tragedy on the New South Wales south coast after heroically swimming out to save her child who was struggling in a rip.

Emergency services rushed to Congo Beach, south of Moruya, just before 4.30pm on Sunday after reports the woman and child were in trouble in the water.

The remote beach is not patrolled and is known for dangerous rips and huge drops in sand levels.

The woman had swum out and alerted a nearby surfer who managed to drag the woman and 10-year-old boy back to shore, police said.

Congo Beach on the New South Wales south coast (pictured) is a popular holiday spot but NSW Surf Life Saving warns the beach is not patrolled and has persistent rips

Witnesses then pulled them from the water and commenced CPR on the 50-year-old woman from Sydney on the sand until paramedics and a rescue helicopter arrived.

She died shortly after.

The 10-year-old boy was assessed by ambulance officers and was not injured.

'These call-outs are difficult for everyone involved and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the woman who drowned at Congo yesterday,' Surf Life Saving Far South Coast director of lifesaving Cheryl McCarthy said on Monday.

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce urged those on the water to exercise caution.

'It is a natural reaction to race into the water when we see our family and friends get into difficulty, but we're pleading with people to stop and think for a moment before diving in and to look for a nearby rescue device, or even an esky lid or bodyboard, to use as a flotation device. It can make a huge difference to the outcome,' Mr Pearce said.

An investigation into the incident has been launched by South Coast Police District officers.

A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

Police have also asked anyone who has information about this incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The region near Moruya is a popular holiday destination featuring a number of picturesque small towns and beaches dotted along the coast.

Congo Beach on the New South Wales south coast (pictured on Saturday)

According the NSW Beachsafe website Congo Beach, consisting of three smaller beaches, is not patrolled and while there is good surfing conditions, the beach has persistent rips making swimming dangerous.

'These are three hazardous isolated beaches, with persistent rips and often a deep longshore trough,' the website warns.

'Surf Life Saving NSW advises anyone entering the water to do so at a patrolled beach, and swim in between the red and yellow flags'.
Bengaluru, Jan 19 : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa's Political Secretary and MLA M.P. Renukacharya has said that a few ruling BJP legislators who had missed the ministerial berths in the recent state cabinet expansion would meet here on Tuesday to chalk out their strategy, including meeting senior party leaders in New Delhi.

Spearheading the campaign to convey the discomfort among the MLAs to the party high command, the Honnali MLA on Monday said the meeting will be within the democratic framework of right to expression in the party.

"Some of us (MLAs) are coming to Bengaluru on Tuesday and we will discuss and then we will decide. We have not fixed any date but we will discuss with our legislators regarding our Delhi visit," he told reporters here.

He also clarified that this meeting can never be against Yediyurappa's leadership or questioning him, but to express and share their own feelings among themselves and plan next course of action of meeting leaders in the national capital.

"We are not against the party, organisation or leadership. We are only conveying our pain and sentiments to our seniors in the party and we have the liberty to express our sentiments," he said.

Yediyurappa had expanded his 17-month-old cabinet on January 13 with the induction of seven new ministers after long-awaited exercise resulted in resentment with some MLAs, including Renukacharya, airing reservations over them being not considered and lack of representation to several districts.

They claimed only a few communities, primarily Vokkaligas and Lingayats, and two major districts - Bengaluru and Belagavi - got more representation in the cabinet.

In October 2010, Renukacharya was the part of rebel group comrising 17 legislators led by the BJP legislator Balachandra Jarakiholi, but at the last minute, Renukacharya abandoned rebels and rejoined Yediyurappa camp but 16 legislators including 11 BJP legislators and five independents attract disqualification from Speaker, K.G. Bopaiah but a year later, Supreme Court reinstates all 16 of them.
By Trudy Rubin





Our democracy cannot heal from the Jan. 6 insurrection, let alone block further violence from far-right terrorists, unless Republicans stand with Democrats to refute President Donald Trump's "Big Lie."



Trump's whopper  that the election was stolen via massive fraud  is the reason tens of thousands of his fans swarmed Washington, D.C., that day.



Amplified by the president's incitement at his pre-insurrection rally, that lie drove rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol. But for luck, it could have led to the deaths of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.



And if pro-Trump terrorists kill anyone at the inauguration, or at state capitols  as the FBI warns of a real and present danger  the blame will not lie only with a traitorous president. Blood will stain the hands of Republican leaders who refuse to tell their base that Trump lost the election fair and square.



No surprise, Trump insisted Jan. 12 that his rally rhetoric was "totally appropriate." Only his ban from Twitter prevents him from easily mobilizing followers to further sedition (which is why Twitter shut him down).



Yet, with a few courageous exceptions, Republicans are unwilling to tell the truth to their voters. Unless Trump is permanently banned from office (via an impeachment conviction) or publicly shamed by GOP leaders, he will continue to promote this traitorous myth to his base.



Although many Republicans condemn the terrorists' attack on the Capitol, most GOP legislators won't debunk the "Big Lie" in public. They refuse to recognize that a democracy cannot properly function if a huge chunk of its population believes the election was rigged, and that far-right terrorists are patriots.



Republican claims that they must pay attention to concerns of the base about a stolen election miss the point entirely. GOP voters have those concerns because Trump conned them with his Big Lie.



"The best way we can show respect for the voters is by telling them the truth," Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said bluntly the evening of Jan. 6  with legislators still reeling from the horror of the invasion. "The truth is that President-elect Biden won."



He begged Republicans that evening to join a unanimous vote to confirm the Electoral College results. Yet, 147 GOP legislators, led by Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, voted against.



Frustration over the Republican Party's aversion to truth has driven Democrats to embrace a second impeachment, even though they know conviction is unlikely, and a belated trial may consume President-elect Joe Biden's important first days in office.



Republican leaders haven't even offered a tough censure measure that would debunk Trump's election lies  and cite his responsibility for the Capitol attack.



GOP leaders (except the brain dead) know Biden won fairly, know that 61 out of 62 court cases brought by Trump lawyers were thrown out because the lawyers had no evidence. They have heard the phone recording of Trump trying to strong-arm Georgia election officials.



They know Trump incited the mob at the Capitol to go after the vice president if Pence wouldn't overturn the election  unconstitutionally  even as rioters were screaming "Hang Mike Pence."



Yet, Pence still refuses to invoke the 25th Amendment, even though Trump betrayed him. And GOP legislators at House Rules Committee hearings, on a bill to urge Pence to do so, had the gall to accuse Democrats of dividing the country.



"If we want to talk about healing," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D., Mass., "we have to talk about truth." He then addressed Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, to whom Trump just awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom after Jordan voted against certification the night of the insurrection. McGovern asked Jordan if he would now "say the election was not stolen and Joe Biden won fair and square  and put it on Twitter."



Jordan refused. What is so dangerous about this GOP myopia is what it portends for America's future. If a president can try to overturn election results with political pressure and force, he shatters the most basic principle of our political structure. Especially if he retains strong GOP support in Congress after he steps down  and gets off scot-free.



Unchecked, the "Big Lie" will eat at our democracy like a cancer. "A lot of people buy into his conspiracy theories," former Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Charlie Dent told me. "He has poisoned political discourse, and threatens the continuity of our institutions."



This time, key institutions held under pressure. The courts threw out frivolous cases, unlike, say, in Poland or where a populist government is restricting judicial freedom. Republican officials such as Georgia's governor and secretary of state refused to buckle to Trump's threats, unlike in Russia where the Kremlin recently seized the independent-minded governor of Khabarovsk and charged him with murder.



But we got off lucky this time. President Trump's effort to provoke a coup was clumsy, his shock troops insufficiently organized. Just imagine what would have happened if the Proud Boys or QAnon nuts had come with automatic weapons.



Worse could happen next week, or after. If it does, those Republicans too timid to debunk the Big Lie  along with the leader who promotes it  will have blood on their hands.





Trudy Rubin (trubin@phillynews.com.) is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. This article was distributed by Tribune Content Agency.








HYDERABAD: TRS leaders on Monday alleged that BJP was a mafia party as 26 Union ministers, including home minister Amit Shah, and 172 MPs from the party were facing criminal charges. Most of the MPs are out on conditional bail.

Given this obnoxious background, state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar has no moral right to criticise Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS, said ruling party MLAs Gade Kishore and Saidi Reddy along with MLC Shambipur Raju during a press conference here.

They alleged that the BJP leaders were playing with peoples sentiments and their lives while Pragathi Bhavan embodies the states progress and developmental activities. They challenged Sanjay for a discussion on development. They said the BJP leaders had not brought a single paise for the state from the Centre.

The TRS leaders said that the Narendra Modi government was yet to bring black money stashed in foreign banks despite making tall claims. Instead, Modi has been protecting bank cheats and fraudulent characters.

They told the state BJP leaders not to daydream, following a few electoral successes, of coming to power in the state. The TRS will win the Nagarjunasagar byelection 200 per cent, they said.

Pointing out that TRS leaders and elected representatives had resigned from the post for the sake of the statehood movement, they said that Union minister G. Kishan Reddy had fled from Hyderabad.

They said that BJP state in-charge Tarun Chugh did not have the courage to visit his home state Punjab because he feared the wrath of farmers. None from BJP can point fingers at the Chief Minister because Rao has been winning the hearts of the people by implementing people-friendly measures to their utmost satisfaction.

They warned BJP leaders against crossing the limits and stated that the people would teach a befitting lesson in the days ahead.

MLC Raju said the Make in India Scheme was false. Even the logo was made outside the country, he claimed and added, This is the situation of the BJP. He said the BJP was playing politics on the Ram Mandir. What relation does the BJP have with the Ram mandir when the Supreme Court gave a verdict to start construction of the temple, he asked.
A feminist psychologist has accused anyone who panders to a 'sexy schoolgirl' fantasy of enabling the sexualisation of young girls.

Dr Jessica Taylor took to Twitter to share her findings after googling the terms 'school boys' and 'school girls', and found that young boys were pictured in smart uniforms while the results for girls were mostly adult women in sexy outfits.

She said it revealed was a 'blatant objectification and sexualisation of girls' from a young age and blamed it on 'porn culture'.

Her post, which has so far received more than three thousand likes, has been met with a wave of support from other social media users who said they were 'angered and sickened'.

Dr Jessica Taylor (pictured) took to Twitter to share her stark findings after googling the terms 'school boys' and 'school girls'

Jessica shared two screenshots side-by-side as one showed boys in smart school uniforms (left) but the other depicted women in skimpy 'school' outfits which were termed 'sexy' and 'novelties' (right)

Jessica shared two screenshots side-by-side. One showed boys in smart school uniforms but the other depicted women in skimpy 'school' outfits which were termed 'sexy' and 'novelties'.

She wrote: 'This is what you get when you google 'school boy' and then 'school girl'. This is why we talk about the blatant objectification and sexualisation of girls.

'This is why we focus on the oppression and abuse of girls.'

She continued: 'See how boys are allowed to just be kids at school? But look what porn culture has done to the image of the school girl. Shes just a child at school... or is she?

'Clearly not. Clearly, a school girl is a sex object, a fantasy, a costume for the male gaze.

She said the findings revealed was a 'blatant objectification and sexualisation of girls' from a young age and blamed it on 'porn culture'

'This is the sexualisation of female children who go to school. Thats what this is, in its simplest terms. This is why we do not accept that boys are abused, oppressed and sexualised on the same level or at the same rate as girls. Its just not true.

'School boy = little kid going to school to get an education, looking all smart.

'School girl = lingerie dress up costumes for adults to pretend they are little girls at school and f*** each other whilst having fantasies about children.

'If youre a man who likes the sexy school girl stuff, youre fantasising about sex with children.

'If youre a woman who dresses up as a schoolgirl cos you think its sexy (or cos your partner asked/told you to) - have you realised that youre dressing up as a child for sex?'

Jessica's (pictured) post on Twitter has so far received more than three thousand likes and one thousand retweets

It has been met with a wave of support from other social media users who said they were 'angered and sickened'

The post has since been met with a wave of support as one social media user wrote: 'This angers and sickens me. Girls aren't ever safe, not even when we grow up to become women.'

Another wrote: 'Blimey! I thought I knew about the extent of objectification and sexualisation of girls, but I'm shocked...'

A third commented: 'Wow, nobody can argue with that. Awful and so, so wrong. Will things ever change I wonder.'
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects 405,000 deaths by Democrat Joe Biden's inauguration day on January 20  the one-year anniversary of the first reported COVID-19 case in the US  and more than 500,000 by February 19. The pace of new infections has accelerated at a stunning rate in the past 2 months, along with the number of fatalities. On October 29, the IHME projected 399,000 COVID-19 deaths by February 1. About that time, the country averaged 87,000 new cases and 826 deaths a day. This past week, those figures had skyrocketed to 246,000 and 3376, and a Centres for Disease Control forecast aggregate predicted 440,000 to 477,000 deaths by February 6. Loading Along with the vaccines, the biggest ray of hope public health specialists see comes from the incoming Biden administration, which is likely to bring a science-based approach to containing the virus. Except for the efforts to develop the vaccines in record time, the Trump administration's response to the pandemic has been assailed by the medical community. Even the vaccine achievement has been tarnished by the slow rollout.

"By any metric, anybody who believes in data and science would acknowledge we've done terribly with this pandemic, arguably the worst in the world," said John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of California-Berkeley, citing failures with testing and protective equipment along with mixed messaging on masks. "What that tells us is how badly things can go if you have a bad administration. As the death toll from COVID-19 hits 400,000 in the US, many Americans blame Donald Trump and his administration. Credit:AP "Everybody, including me, is excited about the vaccines, excited about science and what it can do for us. It's incredibly important. But I think we downplay the importance of what a good administration can do in managing this pandemic. We will do a lot better when we have an administration that follows science and follows public health, that gives consistent messaging, that doesn't politicise key institutions like the CDC and the FDA." Biden to take 'more active role' Biden has assembled a COVID-19 response team and vowed to have 100 million doses of vaccine administered in his first 100 days in office. On Thursday he proposed a $US1.9 trillion ($2.46 trillion) pandemic-relief package that includes $US70 billion for virus testing and a national vaccination program.

Though Swartzberg considers the 100 million vaccinations goal "a stretch", others said it was realistic, including Jason Schwartz, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Schwartz said the Trump administration set unrealistic expectations by saying 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December. As of the last update on Friday, 31.2 million doses had been distributed and 12.3 million vaccine shots had been applied, the CDC said. The vaccine distribution has been hampered by a funding shortage  CDC director Robert Redfield pleaded for more resources in September, but they weren't approved until three weeks ago  and a lack of co-ordination and direction from the federal government in the enormous task of making vaccines available to 330 million people in 50 states, Schwartz said. "The design so far of this vaccination rollout was so decentralised that it was, basically, ship vaccines to each state, you tell us where to ship them, give us the mailing addresses and you take it from there," Schwartz said. "One thing we've seen already from the incoming Biden administration is they intend to have a far more active and engaged role in supporting this vaccination effort, co-ordinating it, leading it."

The early stages of the vaccination program are the easy part, Schwartz said, because those first in line  healthcare workers, plus residents and staff of long-term care facilities  are readily accessible. Expanding the effort to rural communities and people without regular access to health care will be harder. Schwartz said it is important to keep promoting mitigation measures such as mask use, social distancing and frequent hand washing. Neither the vaccines nor the strategies implemented by the new administration are likely to make a major dent in the pandemic for at least a couple of months, and researchers don't know whether vaccines prevent transmission in addition to symptoms. Swartzberg predicted a "horrific" rest of January followed by several ups and downs in cases, deaths and hospitalisations throughout February before a gradual levelling off by mid-March and continued improvement after that. He doesn't envision a return to some semblance of normality before late summer, a less optimistic outlook than presented by some members of the Trump administration, such as former Operation Warp Speed head Moncef Slaoui. Any forecasts could be nullified by the recent emergence of more contagious variants of the virus  the CDC said on Friday the new mutation first found in Britain could become the dominant strain in the US by March  or in the best of cases, by the development of therapeutics that might ameliorate the disease's worst effects. Regardless, Biden's team will be charged with clearing monumental wreckage.

Woolf pointed out COVID-19 was the country's leading cause of death in the spring of 2020 and late in the year, surpassing cancer and heart disease. That's not even taking into consideration the likely undercount of coronavirus fatalities or other excess deaths caused by the pandemic  often because of people skipping or being unable to access medical care  which Woolf estimates at one for every two COVID-19 deaths. WWII deaths took four years The virus is likely to kill more than 400,000 Americans in less than a year  the first such death is believed to have occurred on February 6  whereas it took almost four years for that many US service members to die in World War II. Woolf said an infectious disease had not been America's leading killer since the flu pandemic, and he highlighted three reasons that COVID-19 turned into such a scourge here:

US life expectancy has been falling compared with other wealthy nations since the 1980s, putting Americans at a disadvantage.

A fragmented system divides public health response across 50 states, while other countries mounted a national response.

The United States lacked national leadership, particularly from the President but also from the rest of his administration and Congress. Other countries' leaders promoted policies that reduced the spread of the virus and inspired the public to respond. "This shouldn't have happened, and it didn't happen in other countries that are modern and industrialised," Woolf said. "This is a uniquely American phenomenon." Whalen said the calamitous handling of the pandemic brings into question the notion, widely held in these shores, that the US is the world's greatest country. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. Credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images He drew a parallel between Trump and Wilson, who presided over the US participation in World War I from April 1917 to the conflict's end in November 1918.


[January 18, 2021] EETimes: Taiwan's Technological Goals of the Future

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), for many years, has been hosting thousands of technology brands and startups showcasing the latest in innovative technology. CEOs and aficionados gravitate to Las Vegas to view the stands and connect with innovators and creators featured at CES. This year, CES has moved online, and far from being a drawback, it has allowed many startups to showcase their technology without the logistical burden and costs associated with a physical appearance at the show. The Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has assisted many startups at previous CES. This year, their support has taken another dimension. The Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) has been reconstructed online and carries the latest Taiwanese innovations to the world. MOST has released a feature film highlighting both the country's philosophy and the startups that exemplify those ideals. (FILM: https://youtu.be/fPlU8TzNJzw) The video highlights the importance of how technology can provide for a more pleasurable existence in a rapidly changing world. Technology is becoming more and more personalized and optimized; people will have access to a better life quality across boundaries. Within this scope, technical auxiliary equipment will play a significant role in bridging humankind with the digital world. Through this connection, the idea is that we can change the "impossible to I'm possible" by "believing and then achieving." The Startups The film features a select group of innovators exemplifying these ideals and starring in this year's CES. p>Tresl



One of the people featured in the film is Co-founder of Tresl , John Chao, who explained that the message, "humankind is persistent and won't give up," is evidenced through "the incredible digital transformation of businesses going online, especially eCommerce." Tresl's mission is to simplify data-driven marketing through its eCommerce platform, Segments Analytics. The 1-click customer segmentation platform puts businesses on par with large enterprises when it comes to analytical power. It is just like having "a personal data science team."

Ganzin Technology Professor Shao Yi Chen, Founder and CEO of Ganzin Technology , will show his company's next-generation eye tracking modules at this year's show. The solution can be easily integrated into AR/VR devices and smart glasses. Furthermore, their AI-powered eye tracking algorithms can be used in Qualcomm XR platforms or into their own Edge AI processor. Ganzin promises the most user-friendly and compact eye-tracking tech on the market. Gazing was also an honoree of the 2020 CES Innovation Award for their Aurora eye-tracking module. Mindtronic AI Mindtronic AI provides an interactive driving experience via touchless sensors, which generate a seamless transition between human drivers and robotic drivers. BR Director, Coco Song, pointed out to us that the message in the film, "to lessen the pains and create a more enjoyable living," is vital to Mindtronic AI because "we help the industry via our own developed technology". The WHO reported that more than 1.35M people died due to road traffic injuries every year. Mindtronic AI help keep drivers alert by predicting a driver's movement and taking action before an accident occurs. Mintronic AI has received four CES Innovation awards from 2018 to 2020. FiduciaEdge "Confidential Edge Computing Nodes" is what FiduciaEdge provides. This is done to produce real-time AI inference results without disclosing raw data, which protects the computing process from malicious hackings and keeps data and algorithm owners' know-how private from "second" parties. Taiwan User-Friendly Sensor and Tech (TFT) The goal of TFT is a more personalized healthcare system. The company's Test Food Allergen Detection System is a kit connected via an app that allows users to detect and quantify the amount of gluten in their food in under two minutes. By developing connected gluten detectors, they aim to create an efficient network for the gluten-free community. Visit the CES Taiwan Tech Arena to explore these innovations and more. While there, visitors can interact with representatives from the startups, hold virtual meetings, create business contacts, and witness demonstrations of the latest technology that Taiwan has to offer. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eetimes-taiwans-technological-goals-of-the-future-301209931.html SOURCE EETimes

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[January 17, 2021] Jain (Deemed-to-be) University's educational model is to bring in the industry certifications, guarantee* placement programs and study abroad at California Riverside (USA)

BANGALORE, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The university faculty at Jain (Deemed-to-be University) believe that teaching is the art of building minds and souls of generations. Their passion is to impart theoretical knowledge incorporated to the applicable model, help students to think critically, and make students learn better by experiencing what they have learnt. Learning is enhanced if students apply their knowledge. Teaching has been the most enjoyable and rewarding part of their faculty responsibilities. One of the faculty says that it is ineffable to receive letters from their former students informing their success in finding jobs and fulfilling their job responsibilities that have been influenced by the lectures and discussions that took place in the classes. Jain (Deemed-to-be University) in association with Wiley, hosts a B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering Program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The program focuses on globally recognized industry-standard certifications that will fetch as an added value for the students to go through the placement process and also enable the students to be ready for Industry 4.0 emerging and exponential technologies. Wiley Industry 4.0 certifications in Machine Learning are integrated with the program to deliver fun-filled hands-on learning. Experienced faculty members from various premium institutions and industry experts jointly designed the curriculum. Focusing on students passion to travel, problem-solving skills, getting inspired, beat the competition and bringing impact on information technology era to make a mark in the world, students are given opportunity to study abroad* in Semester 7 and 8 at the University of California Riverside (which is ranked amongst the top public universities in the USA). According to the study conducted recently, one of the firms found that only 4.22% of engineering graduate students are employable in product-based companies and 17% in IT-based companies.



According to Nasscom, engineers produced by Indian organisation makes the employability percentage look even more frightening. At the same time, students who have completed a noticeable number of internationally recognized industry certifications are highly sought after by the employers. The program offers students a Conditional Letter of Intent (LOI) to a suitable position in the industry upon completion of their graduation (with CTC as per prevailing industry standards). The eligibilities for the placements of LOI are, at least 60% aggregate marks in Class X and XII, 75% or above aggregate marks in graduation, satisfactory conduct and attendance of 85% or above during graduation, completion of WileyNXT AI and ML certifications, No backlogs at the time of appearing for the placement process, and good conduct with no criminal records. The program also fetches additional credits for the Micromasters Program in Artificial Intelligence from Columbia University (which is a US Ivy League university). Furthermore, in line with the vision of Jain (Deemed-to-be-University), the course integrates certifications from Harvard Business Publishing and the power of technology with the spirit of entrepreneurship to get you on the right track to become a new-age "Technopreneur". About Faculty of Engineering @ JAIN (Deemed-to-be University)

With a proud history spanning over a decade, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), Faculty of Engineering & Technology (JU-FET) has emerged as one of the finest and highly renowned engineering institutes in Bengaluru. JU-FET offers undergraduate (B.Tech), postgraduate (M.Tech) and many specialized programs. JU-FET is intently focused on delivering the world-class educational experience to its students. The outstanding teaching and research facilities coupled with practical and forward-thinking approach will provide a distinctive and high-quality academic experience focused on developing the skills and knowledge of the students, thereby allowing a smooth transition for them from the academic setup to the portals of the industry. Being one of the best engineering institutes in Bengaluru, JU-FET has recognized that education can even go beyond the boundaries. Remarkable facilities and diverse co-curricular activities serve these educational purposes. The well-maintained campus provides a sense of persistent vision, stability, and management. Besides classroom training, JU-FET emphasizes on intensive interactions between students and mentors and provides excellent facilities such as technology enabled classrooms, seminar halls, auditorium, library, and much more. For more information visti: www.jainuniversity.ac.in & www.set.jainuniversity.ac.in *Conditions apply

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Glenn Greenwald: Biden Means Militarism, Imperialism and Corporatism, Like Eight Years of Obiden

Jan. 17 , 2021 (EIRNS) Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald spoke out on U.S. and Russian media today, warning of the corporatism and militarism behind the Big Tech censorship, and of what is in store under the Biden Administration. On Fox News Sunday Morning Futures, Greenwald said that the Silicon Valley social media shutdowns are not some unilateral power grab, but are by the dark powers behind the major media pressuring for thisCNN, New York Times, and the rest.

Greenwald explained this more at length on RTs On Contact show today, hosted by Chris Hedges, beginning by presenting a terrifying picture of the Biden Administrations future policies. Greenwald warned that Biden is somebody who has repeatedly supported militarism and imperialism and one of the crucial leading advocates of the invasion of Iraq. On the domestic front, Biden is a loyal servant of the credit card and banking industry and the architect of the 1994 crime bill, which has been blamed for dramatically increasing the incarceration rate of Black men in the U.S. Greenwald pointed out the irony of leftists and Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters rallying to Biden, given his involvement in passing the crime bill. Essentially, Greenwald asserted, the Democratic Party serves militarism, imperialism, and corporatism, quite different from what they claim to support. Thats who funds them, thats what they believe in. Its why you see neocons migrating so comfortably back to the Democratic Party, why you see Bush and Cheney operatives cheering for Joe Biden, why Wall Street celebrated when he picked Kamala Harris.

What are the consequences of this establishment support for Biden? Its not a coincidence that after eight years of Obama and Biden, we got Donald Trump, he said. Obviously, if you go back and do exactly the same thing that the Obiden administration did for eight years, which is what Bidens preparing to do, any rational person has to expect the same outcome. Given his policies, Greenwald said, Biden could set the stage for a smarter, more stable version of Trump to take power after him. But what can be expected in the immediate period under Biden, he warned, is that the American middle class will continue to be destroyed, while companies that have no allegiance to the U.S. will continue to outsource jobs. Communities will continue to be ravaged with unemployment crises, drug addiction, suicide, depression, all the things that are dominating small American towns.

As for the degree particularly of Big Tech censorship imposed in the U.S., left-leaning journalists over the past four years have cheered on the censorship and deplatforming of what they were told were dangerous voices, Greenwald explained.

The Democratic Party, including its liberal wing and its left wing are very much aboard the idea that we cannot have free speech in this ageof whatever they want to call itwhite supremacy, domestic terrorism, right-wing extremism, because its simply too dangerous. And not only should free speech be restricted by laws enacted by Congress, which presumably would mean [to] amend the First Amendment, but until then, they are on their knees pleading with billionaires and oligarchs, and monopolists in Silicon Valley, to censor in a way that they believe is advantageous.

Greenwald found it very interesting that numerous world leaders, including ones that have a famously acrimonious relationship with President Trump stood up and denounced Twitters and Facebooks decision to ban President Trump from the [social media] platform. Greenwald cited the case of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. These leaders are extremely concerned about these private monopolists, whom they cannot battlethe EU has been trying to break up Google and Facebook for years, and they simply cant because they are too powerfuland theyre coming after their democracies. If they can do it to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, they know it can be done to them and their countries as well.

Martinus J.G. Veltman, a Dutch theoretical physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for work that explained the structure of some of the fundamental forces in the universe, helping to lay the groundwork for the development of the Standard Model, the backbone of quantum physics, died on Jan. 4 in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. He was 89.

His death was announced by the National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands. No cause was given.

There are four known fundamental forces in the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force that bonds subatomic particles together, and the weak force that is responsible for particle decay. Since the discovery of the last two forces in the first half of the 20th century, physicists have looked for a unified theory that could account for the existence of all four.

In the early 1960s, Dr. Sheldon Lee Glashow, Dr. Steven Weinberg and Dr. Abdus Salam developed what they called the electroweak theory, which found a unity between electromagnetism and the weak force. But the complex math behind the theory ran into problems because it sometimes produced infinite answers, like for the energy of a particle. That was obviously impossible and therefore meaningless.
A nurse who died of Covid-19 in the hospital he worked has been described as a beautiful spirit.

Colleagues have paid tribute to Wexford man Solson Saviour, who is survived by his wife Bincy and two-year-old son.

Gowran Abbey Nursing Home in Co Kilkenny said that he "lost his personal battle" with Covid-19 on Sunday at Wexford General Hospital where he worked.

Mr Saviour came to Ireland from India to practice nursing three years ago and first worked at Gowran Abbey before moving to Ros Aoibhinn Nursing Home in Bunclody and later to Wexford General Hospital.

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In a statement, the nursing home said: "Just over two years ago, we shared the happiness of one of our colleagues, nurse Solson Saviour, as he announced the news that he was the proud new father of a baby boy, his first-born.

"Today, we received the devastating news that Solson tragically lost his personal battle with Covid-19, as he sadly died in Wexford Hospital this afternoon.

"Solson came to Ireland from India, and spent his first three years in this country working and living with us in Gowran Abbey before moving to Wexford where, as a nurse, he became a sad victim of Covid-19. Another true Covid hero.

"Solson was always full of life and had a gentle smile and kind word for all our residents.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his heartbroken wife and young son at this time, and also with his family in India who have been so tragically touched by the devastating reality of this cruel Covid-19 virus.

"We extend our sincere condolences to Solson's wife Bincy, his son, family and friends, and also to the extended Indian community, many whom, like Solson, work and care for people in our hospitals and nursing homes throughout this country."

His former colleagues at Ros Aoibhinn Nursing Home also paid tribute to him.

In a statement posted on Facebook, they said: "It is with great sadness that we learned yesterday evening of the sudden and tragic loss of our former colleague Solson Saviour.

"Solson was a very kind and gentle nurse, always smiling and he will be greatly missed by us all here in Ros Aoibhinn".

Migrant Nurses Ireland also paid tribute to Solson, saying he was a beautiful spirit.

The Wexford unit of the group is calling for good hearts to donate to a fund that will be used to help with costs of Mr Saviours funeral.

For more information on how to donate please visit the Migrant Nurse Ireland Facebook page

With additional reporting from PA.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Cadiz Man Arrested on Marshall County Warrant

By West Kentucky Star Staff

TRIGG COUNTY - A Cadiz man was arrested Thursday on a failure to appear warrant out of Marshall County.The Trigg County Sheriff's Department reports that a deputy went to the home of Troy Anderson to serve him with the warrant.When the deputy arrived, Anderson fled on foot into the woods behind his house.He was taken into custody without incident after a short foot chase.Anderson is facing charges for second degree fleeing or evading police (on foot), and failure to appear.


Shadow Moons arrival in a small town marks a new chapter in the TV version of American Gods, and Lakeside, Wisconsin may not be ready for the reluctant demigods baggage. Thats not a bad thing.

Lakeside seems to already have its hands full with eerily charming residents, a strange car tradition, and a recipe that screams suspicious. There are clues in the series about what may be lurkin under the surface, but one ancient thing sticks out.

[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for American Gods Season 3, episode 2, A Winters Tale]

Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon in American Gods Season 3 | Courtesy of Starz

Episode 2 of American Gods highlighted two deities

Viewers are probably accustomed to the opening sequences on American Gods providing hints for each episode  and sometimes the entire season. In addition to hearing to the name Thunderbird being uttered in episode 2, so was Hodekin, an entity summoned by the colonizers.

The mention of Misikinubik (a reference to the horned snake) was made to signify the underworld deity that works in tandem with Thunderbird.

But several things took place in the first moments of A Winters Tale. The Thunderbird staff was unceremoniously thrown into the river, a giant bird cast a shadow on the ground as thunder clapped in the sky, and when Hodekin was summoned, the rain cleared.

All of that set up a ritual for the future and one keeping Lakeside so insulated.

Excuse me sir, can you tell me which aisle I can find the fire-eyed buffalo?

Catch up on the latest episode of #AmericanGods now on the @STARZ App. https://t.co/x6s7gAQhoc pic.twitter.com/VgdS6JPN5s  American Gods US (@americangodsus) January 18, 2021

RELATED: American Gods: The Shocking Reason Orlando Jones Was Fired From Playing Mr. Nancy

Who or what is Hodekin?

Fans of the American Gods novel or mythology in general may recognize Hodekin as ancient spirit from German folklore. Its a type of kobold  a household trickster spirit  thats temperamental and either likes or detests humans. It depends on its mood, but kobolds can serve, protect, or act on their own accord.

They can take the form of anything or anyone, and in lore, kobolds have sometimes been royal figures, miners, or local townspeople.

However, one myth attached to the entity speaks of it being angered by a child and ripping him to pieces. It then cooked him in a dish. Most tales about kobolds and the like say not to get on their bad side.

Pasty, anyone? Such spirits accept offerings as a form of appeasement, but that doesnt mean it wont have fun along the way.

In the show, someones underwear disappeared, Lakeside sacrifices a car to the ice each year, and Shadow picked the date of March 23. That date coincides with a Norse pagan holiday for the spring. Oh, and a girl disappears under mysterious circumstances.

Hinzelmann is a hint

The kind lady showing Shadow all over Lakeside is named Ann-Marie Hinzelmann. In folklore, Hinzelmann was the name of a kobold entity who could either bestow good luck or misfortune.

Ms. Hinzelmann of Lakeside seems to be on the jovial side so far, but weird things always reveal themselves around Shadow Moon.

Clearly, there is something sinister afoot in Lakeside, and Shadows own spiritual guardians may show up in full force to protect him and unlock whats hidden.

While its already been revealed that the Orishas will play a role in Shadows ancestral story this season, it should also be noted that Shadow has connections to Native Americans too.

As season 3 moves forward, theres bound to a battle for the land of Lakeside once its origins are uncovered by someone other than Ms. Hinzelmann. And something tells us that cheerful veneer of hers will shed, and it wont be pretty.
It's a phenomenon that has seen Dublin city centre's busiest shopping streets become a refuge for destitute homeless, who are flocking to the area with their tents.

Many of the capital's parks and canal areas have already become tented villages, but now rough sleepers are turning to the city's commercial heart as their temporary home.

Ireland's second-busiest shopping area, Henry Street, is now bristling with rows of tents, pitched outside once-bustling department stores.

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In pre-pandemic times, Henry Street had a footfall of 8,505 people an hour, not far behind Grafton Street's 8,802 an hour.

But with late-night shopping now a thing of the past thanks to lockdown, homeless people are now sheltering outside the now defunct Debenham's department store and in surrounding offshoots on the northside, such as Liffey Street and Moore street, and further afield, outside the Living Room bar on Cathal Brugha Street

Others sleep in doorways in their sleeping bags on North Earl Street and Mary Street.

The country's poshest street, Grafton Street, is free from this so-called 'blight', largely because not only do gardai not allow rough sleepers pitch tents there, but they also discourage crashing out in doorways in their sleeping bags or in cardboard boxes on the high-profile thoroughfare.

"I'm here about three weeks," confessed a homeless woman sleeping in a tent outside Debenhams on Henry street, who did not want to give her name but said she was originally from Co. Westmeath.

"This is my own tent. I can't get housed by the council because I've a dog, who's aged 10 months. There is no way I'm giving up my dog."

She picked at a breast of chicken from a snack box as she complained about the homeless crisis.

"It's safer here on the streets though rather than in one of those hostels they put you in, which are full or drugs and where you get robbed."

The woman was being visited during our call by a male Dubliner, who tells us he's living in a hostel.

"I'm homeless two years now," revealed the man, who said he is aged 39. "I became homeless after I was bullied in work and lost my job. Maybe it was the best thing that ever happened me because I would still be bullied.

"I got my own room in the hostel, so I'm doing OK."

Another man with poor English, who said he was from Romania, said he was going to put up his tent in a nearby doorway.

Hundreds

Our team passed by the GPO on O'Connell Street, which in the evenings houses soup kitchens, to which hundreds of people flock for whatever morsels they can get.

Expand Close Homeless people setting up for the night in tents on deserted city centre streets. / Facebook

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On the southside of the city one woman pitched a tent at the foot of the Henry Grattan statue on Dame Street, in the shadow of Trinity College as Luas trams whizzed by.

She refused offers of money. When told we were from the media she said: "Get away from me, the media is what is rotten with this country."

At the top of Grafton Street two homeless friends were begging for money, while a third man with an English accent got cardboard boxes to sleep on for the night outside the Gaiety Theatre, as the rain began to pour down on Friday night.

"I'm homeless on and off for the last 12 years," said Danny McDonagh (41), who is originally from Belfast. "I ended up on the streets because of personal reasons. I was married with four children, but haven't seen them in a few years."

He was facing the night sleeping in a doorway.

"We had a tent and we had it pitched in St Stephen's Green, but it was stolen off us. We don't know who took it. We got it off one of the homeless charities. We don't like staying in the homeless hostels as they're very dangerous.

"We'd prefer to stay in the backpacker's hostel, which is 18.50 a night, so that's why we try and beg for money to stay there. It looks like we're going to be out in the cold tonight again."

Danny was accompanied by Gerard Byrne (43).

Married

"I am originally from the Wicklow Mountains, and I am homeless near 14 or 15 years," he said. "There's a lot of hassle in the homeless hostels, so I avoid them."

Streetlink, a homeless support group, highlight one case they dealt with earlier this week. "The DRHE (Dublin Regional Homeless Executive) hostel system isn't fit for purpose," they stormed.

"We came across a 50-year-old male sleeping in a doorway on Henry Street. We contacted Dublin intake to get him accommodation for the night. It turns out the gent had two weeks accommodation already booked in a hostel on the northside of the city but was refusing to accept it due to the low standards within the hostel.

"Standards (are) that low he would prefer to sleep in a cold, wet doorway than in a hostel bed."

The group gave him a tent, sleeping bag and hot meal. They also got him medical attention as he had a chest infection.

There are approximately 10,000 homeless people in Ireland.

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Councillor Anthony Flynn who spearheads Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) said the people are fearful of moving into hostels because of the Covid crisis.

"At the height of shopping and social activity in the city centre many of the homeless tended to stay away as you'd have drunk people throwing up on people sleeping rough and even urinating on them," he told the Sunday World.

"The tendency is that people would sleep in well-populated areas for safety, as they thought they'd be safer. But that in itself caused its own anti-social problems, particularly when nightclubs and later bars were open.

"What we have found in recent weeks and particularly with Covid, is many people are moving with tents into the city centre and other areas as they are fearful of picking up the virus in a hostel environment, where there are four or five people to a room and they're telling us they don't want to share places with people they don't know."

Fearful

Mr Flynn added that many of the homeless people who've been found dead in recent weeks have been on the outskirts.

"One lady was three or days dead in a tent before she was found," he said. "Now we are looking at them coming into the city centre as they think they'd be seen or noticed in case they have a problem."

He confirmed there have been Garda operations to keep not only homeless people off Grafton Street, but also his own team.

"There has been an issue with outreach support teams on Grafton Street, where some guards did not want our vehicles driving up and down Grafton Street, when it was busy, even if we wanted to access somebody there," he pointed out.

"We are also working in smaller groups of two rather than four due to Covid, which makes if more difficult."

He claimed the number of rough sleepers in Dublin has dropped from about 150/160 a night prior to Christmas to about 80 a night now.

"We have seen those numbers going back up because they can't socially distance within hostels."

He suggested a number of measures to address the crisis.

"I have called on Darragh O'Brien (Housing Minister) to activate the Civil Defence and ensure we have a logistical response to people who are sleeping rough to make sure we do everything we can for them," he said. "We need to increase funding for Outreach."

He also raised the case of Michael 'Old Man Belfield' Byrne, a 71-year-old was who found dead in the grounds of UCD earlier this week.

"He was one of the first people on the first pilot project in 2010, and 10 years later nothing could be done for him," Mr Flynn said.
Fishing banned after Cambodian villages dispute mediated

by Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

January 18,2021 | Source: Khmer Times

A temporary ban on fishing was ordered yesterday by the district authorities of Kampong Tralach in Cambodia to prevent violence while mediation continues to resolve a dispute between the people of three villages and Lorpeang Natural Resources Conservation community. The authorities also ordered the demolition of the community guardhouse in a large natural lake which had been erected to prevent illegal fishing.



San Sam Ath, deputy governor of Kampong Tralach district, said the temporary ban on fishing and the dismantling of the guardhouse was decided after the mediation began between villagers and community leaders.



Nguon Nhoeun, the President of Lorpeang Natural Resources Conservation Community, said yesterday that the community was formed to protect the natural resources in Boeng Por Lake from illegal fishing.



In the past, when there was illegal fishing in the lake, the authorities did not help prevent it, Nhoeun told Khmer Times.



Since Lorpeang Natural Resources Conservation Community was established in 2019, it prevents all kinds of illegal fishing such as the use of electric gear and fishing in prohibited places, he said.



Nhoeun said the community would continue to seek intervention from provincial authorities.



Sam Chankea, Adhocs coordinator in Kampong Chhnang province, said yesterday that for this case, his organisation dealt with both villagers and the community members.



Chankea said: On our side [Adhoc], we are only monitoring this case. But in my own view, to avoid conflict or violence between the villagers and the community members, the community should move the guardhouse first and cooperate with the district authorities to patrolling any fishing offences.



The lake covers an area of more than 47 hectares and provides many benefits to people living in five villages who enjoy harvesting vegetables and fishing.

 2021 Virtus Media Pte., Ltd. (Khmer Times)

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
A car thief stole an SUV from the parking lot of an Oregon grocery store over the weekend, only to discover a toddler in the backseat, which prompted him to return to the scene of the crime to berate the boy's mother for leaving him in the vehicle.

The bizarre incident took place in Beaverton at around 9pm on Saturday.

According to local police, Crystal Leary had left her four-year-old son in the back of her silver Honda Pilot with the engine running so that she could pick up milk and meat at Basics Meat Market in the 11900 block of Southwest Canyon Road.

Crystal Leary stopped off at Basics Meat Market in Beaverton, Oregon (pictured), on Saturday night and left her 4-year-old son in her unlocked SUV with the engine running

The mother was gone for just a few minutes before a man got in the SUV and drove off, only to return moments later when he realized there was a child in the backseat. The car thief chided the mom and threatened to call the police on her for leaving her son alone

Just a few minutes into Leary's shopping trip, a stranger got into her SUV and sped away, reported KGW8.

Leary was alerted to what happened by a store employee and run outside to watch the thief driving away in her Honda with her son still inside.

Moments later, the Honda made a U-turn and returned, and the brazen thief then proceeded to yell at Leary for leaving her child unattended.

The criminal threatened to call the police on the mother, before ordering her to remove her child from the backseat and taking off again. The four-year-old was unharmed.

The Beaverton Police Department has come to Leary's defense, saying that the child in the SUV parked just 15 feet away from the store was never out of her sight or earshot, stressing that there was no criminality in her actions.

Officer Matt Henderson did point out to OregonLive.com that Leary made a critical error by leaving the engine running and the doors unlocked.

Leary's stolen silver Honda Pilot, similar to the one pictured above, was later found abandoned in Portland

As moms we get really busy and we think were just running in for a second and this is just a perfect example of just letting our guards down and how terribly it could have ended, Leary told in a phone interview with KPTV. Im just thankful that hes OK and it was so stupid and Ill never do that again, but its that split-second decision that could just change everything.

The stolen Honda Pilot was found abandoned in Portland just hours after the incident.

Police are still looking for the thief, who is described as a while man in his 20s or 30s, with dark-brown, braided hair.

Anyone with information on the suspect is being asked to call Beaverton police at 503-629-0111.
South Africa's Truworths International, the owner of the UK footwear chain Office, has warned half-year profits are likely to fall by as much as 9% as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its business operations.

Truworths, which sells clothing, shoes and jewellery, said its overall headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months ending 27 December will be between ZAR3.32-3.50 (US$0.22-0.23) compared with ZAR3.64 for the same period a year ago.

Truworths said in the UK, trading conditions have been "exceptionally challenging" amid Brexit uncertainty, and the closure of stores once again as the government implements measures to curb the spread of the Covid outbreak.

Group retail sales for the 26-week period ended 27 December 2020 decreased by 8.5% to ZAR9.7bn relative to the ZAR10.6bn in the same period a year ago.

Specifically to Office, sales fell 24.6% to GBP114m compared with GBP151m a year prior.

"Office continues to benefit from its strong online presence, with online sales contributing approximately 59% (2019: 34%) of retail sales for the current period," the retailer said.
TICKERS: CLAR; CLGCF

Source: Ron Struthers for Streetwise Reports (1/18/21)

Ron Struthers of Struthers Resource Stock Report profiles Clarity Gold and explains why he sees low downside risk.



This chart compares gold (GLD) to gold mining stocks, measured by GDX, the seniors and GDXJ, the more junior producers, since the bull market topped out in 2011. It is easy to see that while gold has recovered to its 2011 highs and did break higher, the gold stocks are a long ways from that. The GDX is about -35% below 2011 levels and the GDXJ -65%. This is an opportune time to accumulate still undervalued gold stocks.





One of our most successful junior explorers last year was Amex Exploration in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Canada. For a quick refresher, the Abitibi is the world's largest mineral-rich greenstone geological belt, hosting many major gold and base metal deposits. It is a 450 km long by 150 km wide geological structure that runs through the Canadian Shield, from west of Timmins, Ontario, then eastward to Chibougamau, Quebec.

Gold was found in the area in the late 1800s, but significant gold mining activity accelerated with the discovery of the Dome, Hollinger and McIntyre mines near what is now Timmins, Ontario, around 1909. Since that time, more than 100 mines have produced in excess of 170 million ounces of gold. While the belt is known primarily for its prolific gold mining history, base metals mines in the region have produced over 400 million ounces of silver, 15 billion tons of copper and 35 billion tons of zinc.





The above map comes from a great article on the Abitibi Belt here.

We bought Amex Exploration (AMX) on a pull back, just a couple months after its discovery at a market valuation of C$70 million. Just two months earlier it was only valued at C$10 million. For sure I wanted to get in my next pick in the belt early with Clarity Gold. It has a current market valuation of C$24 million.

Clarity Gold Corp. (CLAR:CSE; CLGCF:OTC) Recent Price $1.20

Shares outstanding: 20.37 million, fully diluted, 23.24 million

The next graphic shows that Clarity is on the same break/fault as Amex Exploration. What is unique about this break/fault is that it does not have as much gold surface showings as the Destor Porcupine and Cadillac Larder Lake to the south and the Detour and Casa Berardi to the north. The Chicobi break where Amex and Clarity are located has some over burden, so it has had much less exploration. That is a good thing as much more potential remains as proven by Amex Exploration.

Another important point is that Clarity has a head start over what Amex Exploration had because it has a 43-101 resource of 360,000 Indicated gold ounces and 247,000 Inferred ounces on one small area of the project. And just like Amex when it started out, most of the previous drilling was at shallow depths when the Abitibi is known to go down to deep depths.





Management

James Rogers, Director, CEO, is a resource professional and entrepreneur active in the exploration and mining sector for over 13 years, and has developed projects in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Rogers is the principal of Longford Exploration Services. Since 2017, James and his teams have identified and vended over 90 resource properties to public and private companies. James specializes in generating projects through focused-area selection from large databases. Results are achieved by employing a number of GIS, 3D software and remote sensing solutions, along with the timely execution of field exploration.

Andrew Male, Director, is an experienced director and executive officer of public and private companies in the resource and investment sectors. A former founder and CEO of a TSX Venture Top 50 company ranked 9th, Male guided the company through the initial financing phases, project acquisitions, deployment of exploration programs, development financing, transitioning mining assets from greenfield to brownfield and the acquisition of adjacent producers and eventual sale to Private Equity. As a seasoned director and officer, Male has sat on a number of boards and worked with multiple companies in varying capacities.

Theo Van Der Linde, Director, is a Chartered Accountant with 20 years extensive experience in finance, reporting, regulatory requirements, public company administration, equity markets and financing of publicly traded companies. He has served as a CFO and director for a number of TSX Venture Exchange and Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) listed companies over the past several years.

Ian Graham, Advisor, has over 20 years of experience in the development and exploration of mineral projects, corporate transactions, project evaluations and exploration. Graham's experience is mostly at major mining companies, namely Rio Tinto and Anglo American, including as chief geologist with the Project Generation Group at Rio Tinto. He has been involved with evaluation and predevelopment work on several projects in Canada and abroad, including Resolution Copper (Arizona, USA), Diavik Diamond Mine (Northwest Territories, Canada), Eagle Nickel (Michigan, USA), Lakeview Nickel (Minnesota, USA) and Bunder Diamonds (India).

Michel Robert, Advisor, (B.A., B.A.Sc. (Hons), M.A.Sc (Hons)) is a metallurgist and mining engineer with over 45 years of diverse technical experience in the mining industry, both identifying assets for acquisition and then putting those mines back into production. Robert's experience in mining operations with major companies, include Quebec Cartier Mining Ltd., Teck Corp., SNC, Lac Minerals (now Goldcorp), AMEC, Minero Peru, Fluor Daniel and Pan American Silver Corp., where Michels roles have ranged from foreman to President. As senior vice president for Pan American Silver Corp. from 1995 to 2001, Michel managed operations in Latin America including the expansion of the company into Peru, Mexico and Bolivia.

Michael Williams, Advisor, has over 24 years of experience as a senior mining executive. He has held the role of executive chairman with several different public companies, including Underworld Resources Ltd, which was sold to Kinross Gold Corp in 2010 for $138 million.

Rory Kutluoglu , Advisor, is a professional geologist with over 15 years of international mineral exploration experience and executive management roles in North American and European companies. Kutluoglu was the exploration manager for Kaminak Gold Corp., leading their team to deliver the maiden and updated resources on the Coffee Gold Project prior to Kaminak's acquisition by Gold Corp. in 2016.

Properties: Destiny, 100% option, 5,013 hectares

Being in a prolific gold belt, there is very good infrastructure with road access to the project. It is located 75 km NNE of Val d'Or Quebec.

Previous work on the property includes:

172 Diamond drill holes comprising approximately 50,400 meters

Reconnaissance till sampling from 11 Sonic drill holes

2,430 MMI geochemical samples

982 line km of airborne VTEM surveys

171 line km of ground magnetics surveys

128 line km of IP

There are numerous historical high grade intersects, such as:

23.95 g/t over 3.1 meters from 118.8m (Dac zone)

22.14 g/t over 1.4 meters from 161.8m (Dac zone)

19.49 g/t over 2.7 meters from 166.0m (Dac zone)

167.0 g/t over 1.0 meter from 221.7m (Dac zone)

25.65 g/t over 1.1 meter from 372.9m (Daria zone)

90.3 g/t over 1.0 meter from 87.5m (Gap zone)

Dac deposit: the 2011 NI 43-101 Resource consists of Indicated resources of 360,000 oz Au at 1.05 g/t and Inferred resources of 247,000 oz Au at 0.92 g/t

This next graphic is from CLAR's presentation that gives a very good picture how this could easily grow into a multimillion ounce deposit. There is at least 3.5 km of strike that has sporadic drill holes that have assayed grades similar to the Dac deposit. You can see how small the area is that makes up the Indicated resources of 360,000 oz Au and Inferred resources of 247,000 oz Au at Dac. Most of the drilling is relatively shallow so there is lots of potential at depth, especially when we know mines in the Abitibi go to depths to a thousand meters and more. The largest mine in the Abitibi is Agnico Eagle's LaRonde mine, about 50 kms from CLAR's Destiny and has produced over 6 million ounces and still has 2.9 million ounces of reserves. The current underground mining operation are through the 2.2-km-deep Penna Shaft, the deepest single-lift shaft in the Western Hemisphere. The LaRonde mine extension ("LaRonde 3") allows access to even deeper ore at the lower part of the ore body. All the high grades hits I quoted on the previous page on CLAR's Destiny project were at intervals of 222 meters and less. Most drill holes are on angles, so actual depth would be far less.





CLAR has three other projects in British Columbia, but the focus for now is the Destiny project in the Abitibi Belt. There is more info on the website here. The Empirical project had a drill intersect of 21 meters at 3.67 g/t Au. The other two projects have some high-grade surface assays.

Financial

Last financials show $790,000 in cash and no long-term debt. Since then Clarity completed a first tranche of a non-brokered private placement, issuing 1,563,956 units at a price of 96 cents per unit for gross proceeds of C$1,501,397.76. Each unit consists of one common share in the capital of the company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable into one additional share at a price of C$1.25 per share for a period of one year from the closing date. The company expects to close a second tranche shortly. The company is planning a minimum of C$3 million in financing and a maximum of C$9.6 million that will go along way funding the first round of exploration and drilling.

Conclusion

The stock is cheap and the story not well known yet, an ideal time to buy. This will be an exploration play, but they already have 360,000 ounces in the indicated category. At C$1.20 per share, the value on these indicated ounces is about US$50 per ounce, not very much for a project in the Abitibi with strong upside potential.

Amex Exploration hit C$4.00 per share within 18 months of their discovery hole. This was a market valuation of about C$310 million. If we assume another financing after this one, for a total than of 30 million shares out, a C$310 million valuation would be about C$10 per share. I think a reasonable target for 2021, with successful drill results would be between C$5 and C$7 per share, If the gold bull market continues and gold prices go higher as I expect, than we could easily see higher prices on the CLAR stock.

The historical drilling means that downside risk is very low. It also means that targets are already well defined and I doubt there will be too much surface exploration before drilling begins. The company has a good handle on the gold zones and their orientation.

I am only showing a 6 month chart because the stock just started trading beginning of July. It has been consolidating between C$1.15 and C$1.30 since October making a good base here. A break above C$1.30 will be a clear sign the stock is going up to the next level. It is probably still in this range because of the C$0.96 financing announced and that will probably close soon. This project will have no trouble getting financed.

Ron Struthers founded Struthers' Resource Stock Report 23 years ago. The report covers senior and junior companies with ample trading liquidity. He started his Millennium Index of dividend stocks in 2003 - $1,000 invested then was worth over $4,000 end of 2014 and the index returned 26.8% in 2016. He retired from IBM after 30 years in customer service, systems and business analyst, also developing his own charting software. He has expertise in junior start-ups and was a co-founder of Paramount Gold and Silver.





[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Ron Struthers: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Clarity Gold. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company currently has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Clarity Gold is a paid advertiser at playstocks.net. Additional disclosures below. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

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Denise Welch left some Loose Women fans very unimpressed after she attempted to defend influencers who had travelled to Dubai during the pandemic.

Speaking on Monday's show, the panelist, 62, suggested that some of the reality stars who have jetted abroad 'might have a mortgage and children' to pay for.

However several viewers slammed the actress' attempt to 'play devil's advocate', saying she was 'so out of touch'.

Not impressed: Denise Welch was criticised by some Loose Women viewers on Monday after she attempted to defend influencers who had travelled to Dubai during the pandemic

Denise made the comments while chatting to Charlene White, Linda Robson, and Judi Love about the hot topic of reality personalities going on 'work trips'.

She said: 'I think that some people are misjudging the tone of the nation and I get that.

'But, at the same time, I think that what's happening in the pandemic is that we're creating a very, very, very judgemental society

'Because the rules have been a little bit woolly, at the moment you can't travel except if it's for work, but only a few weeks ago you actually could.'

Work trips: Many reality stars have jetted abroad amid the pandemic, with many saying they had to travel for business (pictured left, Laura Anderson, and right, Francesca Allen in Dubai)

Denise then continued that some of the influencers were initially following rules, but have been criticised on Facebook for their decisions to travel.

She said: 'And those people that were adhering to the holiday rules - is that they were getting a test before they left, some of them were getting another test when they got there, and regardless of what Facebook thought about this, they were actually following the rules.'

She continued: 'They may have a mortgage to pay, and they've got children. And that's how they - I'm being a bit of a devil's advocate here...'

Several Loose Women viewers took to Twitter after Denise made her comments, with many saying she shouldn't try and 'justify' the influencers' decision to travel.

Comments: Speaking on Monday's Loose Women show, Denise suggested that some of the influencers who have jetted abroad 'might have a mortgage and children' to pay for

One person wrote: 'Influencers worth their salt, Denise, could find work promoting food, drink, make-up, beauty, pets, clothing - just steer clear of holidays for now - simple enough

'IF you CAN work from home, you SHOULD. Do they speak a different language to rest of us? Capisce?'

'Oh Denise no. They DO NOT need to 'go to work' on location to Dubai for goodness sake. They can do it in their HOME. You're so out of touch,' tweeted another.

And a third said: 'Lmao Denise all these influencers have serious cash & no children pls dont pull the devils advocate they need an income uwu'

Not having it: Several viewers took to Twitter to express their own thoughts, with one saying Denise was 'so out of touch' in her attempt to justify why the influencers might have travelled

While another penned: 'How is Denise trying to justify people jetting off on NON ESSENTIAL Journeys'

Some of the other Loose Women panelists also had differing opinions, with Linda saying the influencers are rubbing peoples noses in it by going on holiday.

She added: Im sorry, but its not essential to be an influencer.

Dozens of influencers who found fame on reality shows such as Geordie Shore and Love Island have spent the previous weeks soaking up the sun in Dubai while Brits back at home are in a nationwide lockdown.

Many have travelled abroad under the ruse that their trips are 'for work,' sparking backlash from fans who have been holed up in lockdown amid the pandemic.

Living it up: Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry has also been soaking up the sun in Dubai, with it recently being claimed she's still earning thousands for Instagram posts shared from the UAE

Among those who have shared glimpses of their trips to Instagram are Love Island's Laura Anderson, Francesca Allen, Arabella Chi and twins Jess and Eve Gale.

Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry is also in Dubai for 'work' while TOWIE's Yazmin Oukhello and her beau James Lock have also been there for some time on 'business'.

Although at first not facing restrictions upon their return, it was recently announced that the country has been removed from the UK travel corridor amid the pandemic.

Travellers now returning to the UK from the UAE will have to quarantine following a 52 per cent surge in the number of Covid-19 cases there.

New rules that came into force on Friday require international travellers to come back negative after a PCR test before arriving in England.

Any arrivals who flout the rules will face a minimum 500 fine, while the operator who transported them will also be fined.

Passengers will still have to quarantine for 10 days regardless of their test results, transport minister Robert Courts said in a statement.

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Erica Hubbard immediately determined she needed more boxes. The director of library services for Houston Community College Central, Hubbard arrived at David Brauers Heights home last year with the containers she could scratch together  bankers boxes, liquor boxes, anything with five sides  but the pickup of Brauers library required a more formidable collection of vessels: 234, to be exact.

Jim Edwards, an art curator and Brauers friend, says, I think of myself as a huge book collector. Theyre in my garage, covering my office, my attic. I bet I have around 3,500 volumes, and David had far more than two times that, which is mind-boggling.

Brauer  a storied art historian and lecturer  died in September. This week, HCC announced hed gifted the school his incredible collection of art and books. His library tally was just under 10,000 volumes. Hubbard has begun a cataloging process that will take years, as Brauers remarkable collection of books is archived and gradually made available to the public through HCC.

Brauer wasnt a native, but in many ways he was a quintessential Houstonian: an immigrant with deep interest in art and the space program, both of which drew him to Space City from London. Here he sunk deep roots and enriched the soil of the citys arts culture. His death brought to an end a career disseminating his accumulated expertise about art. But through one of his last acts of giving, Brauers influence will continue to nurture the city for years to come.

He was a fascinating figure who absorbed the past and presented its relevance in the present. Brauer was also a man out of time. He never owned a computer. Friends nagged him into getting a cellphone. Even then he only complied because it would make communication with his children overseas less expensive than through a landline.

Even then, he complained about the phone all the time, Edwards says. He was almost this 19th-century figure at the end of the 20th-century. But a brilliant one at that.

Brauers interests were wide-ranging, but his lifes focus was art, and he projected his knowledge out into the world to anyone and everyone who might be interested. Brauer didnt see art as the dominion of the privileged.

He taught at the Glassell School, the MFAH, he lectured at the University of Houston and Rice, so I asked him, Why are you contacting us? Hubbard says. And he told me he came from modest means growing up in Scotland. He grew up poor and always felt this kinship for students who had a similar background. He thought the institutions where he taught had the resources to acquire books. So he liked the idea of these books being at HCC, this publicly funded place.

Rockets and pop art

The space program was at least partially responsible for drawing Brauer to Houston. Space exploration enchanted Brauer going back to his childhood in London, as the space race unfolded thousands of miles to the east and west. He was born in Dundee, Scotland, the child of a chef from Germany and a social services worker from Scotland.

Deborah Velders, director at the Mobile Museum of Art, says Brauer was encouraged by a primary school teacher who saw something special in him. That teacher steered his young charge to the Christopher Wren School in hopes of further developing his affinity for art.

David said that was why he became a teacher, Velders says. This one teacher who recognized his abilities and interests. That affected him. David became a historian and a curator. But he always called himself a teacher because early in his life a teacher helped establish the direction for the rest of his life.

Brauer continued his studies at the St. Martins School of Art in London, studying art and art history. He worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, while also starting his career as an educator.

But his interest in space brought him to the United States. He traveled to Cape Canaveral in the early 70s to watch a rocket launch. In 1975, he moved to Houston to be closer to Johnson Space Center. He would paint watercolors based on NASAs rocket launches and read everything he could about the space program.

His work, though, was closer to the citys art scene. Across four decades, he worked with various art institutions around the city. He served as the head of the History of Art Department at the Glassell School, while lecturing at University of Houston, Rice University and the Womens Institute of Houston.

Art was so tied into his life, says Velders, who was for a time married to Brauer. He wanted to share what he knew. He wanted to demystify what seemed remote. He had an ability to lay out how it related to our everyday lives.

And he had such a talent for speaking, too. To him it was no different than curating a show. You think about somebody like (President) Obama, such a great orator. Some people can speak in a way thats moving. David had that talent for speaking.

Paying it forward

Brauers lectures often drew hundreds of wide-eyed and open-eared enthusiasts. He also curated exhibits in Houston and beyond, including a much-lauded 2001 exhibition he assembled with Edwards titled Pop Art: U.S./U.K. Connections: 1956-1966 at the Menil Collection.

But Brauer was in poor health entering 2020. He managed to travel to Alabama in February. There, Velders had curated An Art Historian Collects: The David E. Brauer Collection. The exhibit opened Feb. 7, 2020, with Brauer in attendance to speak about the works. It ran for a few weeks but was shut down due to the pandemic. As the year went on, Velders decided to extend its run date and reopen toward the end of the year, but Brauer wouldnt be there to see it close in November.

His died in his sleep of heart failure on Sept. 15.

His nearly half-century of work in Houston created a ripple effect that extended across generations. The impact of his knowledge and enthusiasm for art is unquantifiable.

The University of Houston will archive his lectures. And Velders is now overseeing the future of his art.

In an ideal world, youd hope to keep the collection together, Velders says. Theres a personal touch that gets lost otherwise.

Still, the first of three auctions will take place through Simpson Galleries on Feb. 6.

Velders has also been working on a book informed by last years exhibit that ties Brauers life, work and collection together. The Mobile Museum of Art is currently courting donations to fund its publication.

Before he died, Brauer invited Hubbard to his home to discuss the donation of his library. His Heights home, she says, was as expected: full of books and art, with newspapers and magazines scattered throughout. And no computer.

After Brauer died, HCC had just three days to get his books out of the home before an estate sale commenced. The school wasnt accustomed to such a big move on short notice, but the HCC Foundation funded the resources needed to get the books boxed and moved into its Central Library.

Brauers book collection was never designed to be a prop or a backdrop. It was filled with titles that were pressed in limited runs and are out of print, as well as rare titles from foreign presses purchased on his travels. Velders calls it, a high-level collection.

Hubbard says many of the books  which are diverse but with an emphasis on post-Impressionism and pop art  included pertinent newspaper and magazine clippings inside, as well as index cards with notes about their contents, which he would refer to for his lectures.

His library wasnt filled with cheap novels, Edwards adds. To him, it was all research material.

Adds Velders, He felt books opened up the world. He thought maybe 2 percent of students might care about these books, but he wanted that 2 percent to have access to them. He knew money created access, but he wanted these available to students who had a steeper climb.

His point was always that these things were tied to your life. He always called it an accumulation not a collection. He lived with the books and he lived with the art. They werent in a vault. He interacted with it all and then shared what he knew with the world.

andrew.dansby@chron.com
A new book about Noah Donohoe has been referred to the Attorney General by a coroner overseeing an inquest into the teenager's death.

Coroner Joe McCrisken revealed the development at a pre-inquest review hearing on Monday into the Belfast school boy who went missing on June 21 last year.

His body was found in a storm drain in the north of the city six days later following a massive search operation.

A post-mortem examination established the St Malachy's College student died as a result of drowning and a coroners hearing was later told there was no evidence that he was attacked or that anyone else was involved.

Noah's mother, Fiona Donohoe, who has called for a full investigation into her sons disappearance and death, said she was sorry to hear about the publication of 'The Noah Donohoe Scandal' by Donal Lavery.

Ms Donohoe said last week it had nothing to do with her family, their campaign to find out the truth about Noah's death, and she did not endorse it.

The pre-inquest review also heard that the PSNI is investigating a line of inquiry that Noah may have been assaulted in the city centre as he travelled on his bike on the day of his disappearance.

The Donohoe family's solicitor Niall Murphy told the hearing, held in Belfast Laganside, that he was appealing to any businesses along Royal Avenue to examine their CCTV footage.

Members of the public are also being encouraged to present images taken on their phone who were in the vicinity to present them to the PSNI.

Mr McCrisken explained that the development came from an individual who presented her account to police which was recorded by her solicitor and "police have an obligation to enquire into that account".

"Some of what was initially told to police has been clarified but inquiries are ongoing," he confirmed.

The coroner also said that he became aware of the book just days ago but was not aware of its contents.

The Donohoe's family solicitor, Niall Murphy said the book was deemed to be "very unhelpful" by Fiona and Noah's relatives.

Mr Lavery, who was not at the review hearing, had said his book was based on information in the public domain and on facts.

He added that he informed the family of his intention to write the book, and had received legal correspondence from the Donohoe family asking it be removed from sale.

The substance of the book should be the focus and not the author. If there are any serious inaccuracies I would invite people to clarify them, but throughout I have provided information that is easily accessible online to the reader and which anyone could obtain if they look for it, he added.

I wish Ms Donohoe well in her legal endeavours in obtaining justice for Noah and have reserved any judgment and avoided speculation, as those are the correct remit of the coroner, which I respect.

Mr McCrisken said: "Everyone should be aware now that the only person who is possession of all of the facts is me, and the investigating officer.

"I have all of the forensics, statements... none of that information has yet been made available to next of kin, let alone any other individual."

"Quite rightly I haven't had sight of the publication but I was made aware of it on Friday of last week and I've referred the matter to the Attorney under the statutory responsibility.," he added.

The hearing also noted that it had not yet been decided if the inquest will have a jury or not, but a date was set for the full inquest to be held 10 January 2022.

However, the coroner heard that the impact of the pandemic had resulted in a backlog in other inquests being held, which had put pressure on courtroom availability.

He stressed that a final decision on the date would likely be made in the summer or by September.
Pensioners - including a 98-year-old Second World War hospital radiographer - have revealed how they are still waiting to get a Covid jab - despite the Government's vaccine roll-out now targeting the over-70s.

Ruth Wide, 98, is one of those yet to hear from her GP practice, in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, about receiving the potentially life-saving injection.

She is one of more than a dozen who have spoken to the Daily Mail, concerned about being looked over in the Government's vaccine roll-out.

It comes as Matt Hancock last night vowed to divert supplies to areas which are lagging behind the national roll-out.

The Health Secretary said in some areas the 'vast majority' of people in their 80s have had their first dose.

But he promised to divert more to of the nation's vaccine stockpile to areas with large numbers of unprotected over-80s.

He told a Downing Street press conference last night: 'We're prioritising the supply of the vaccine into those parts of the country that need to complete the over-80s.'

It comes as ministers are now pressurising their own Government to end the vaccine postcode lottery amid fears the most vulnerable in some areas are being left behind.

Mr Hancock revealed yesterday that more than 4million people in the UK have now received a vaccine, including more than half of over-80s and care home residents.

He heaped praise on Slough in Berkshire for having vaccinated all of the town's elderly care home residents, a feat matched by Newcastle upon Tyne.

But the vaccine programme was questioned by fellow minister Therese Coffey, who said 'something isn't quite right' about how the roll-out was progressing.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said her constituents in Suffolk had 'distressing and annoying' information about younger patients receiving priority for jabs ahead of the more elderly.

She said she has been contacted by people complaining that over-70s appear to be invited ahead of some over-80s and even over-90s.

Ministers are pressurising their own Government to end the vaccine postcode lottery amid fears the most vulnerable in some areas are being left behind

June Rollings, 91, with daughter Denise Burke and granddaughter Rhiannon Burke

Matt Hancock yesterday that more than 4million people in the UK have now received a vaccine, including more than half of over-80s and care home residents

The PM is under pressure to say how and when the brutal restrictions in England will ease after the UK recorded another 37,535 cases - down a fifth from last Monday. Although deaths rose again to 599 there are increasing signs that the curve is flattening

She's 91, but my mum has heard nothing June Rollings June Rollings, 91, is beginning to fear she has been forgotten about after hearing nothing about when she will be vaccinated. The former shoe shop worker, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, has friends across the country who have had their jabs yet her GP practice appears to have no supplies. Her daughter, Denise Burke, 64, is now frustrated to hear that people in their 70s will start being vaccinated this week. Mrs Burke said: 'I'm a participant in the Novavax trials which I volunteered for because I wanted to do my part in helping to get our most vulnerable vaccinated. 'It now feels very ironic that it's my mother who has been left without a vaccine. 'I've looked at the vaccination rates in Peterborough and they are embarrassingly low. My mum is becoming quite anxious and the worst of it is that I can't explain to her what's going on because I don't know myself.' Advertisement

In a post on social media, she said: 'Something is not quite working right yet, particularly in one part of the constituency, as I am hearing from people that 80-plus and 90-plus-year-olds have not been contacted while some 70-plus patients in the same GP practice were invited for vaccination.

'I know it is both distressing and annoying when people hear that other cohorts of a lower priority are being vaccinated ahead of our oldest and most vulnerable.'

Official figures revealed 4,062,501 people have received a vaccine  up 225,000 on the previous day.

Millions of over-70s and the extremely vulnerable will start to be invited for jabs from this week, although officials stressed this will be in areas where the vast majority of over-80s have been reached.

Yet dozens of Daily Mail readers have written in to tell their stories of frustration, with many fearing they have been overlooked.

June Rollings, 91, is beginning to fear she has been forgotten about after hearing nothing about when she will be vaccinated.

The former shoe shop worker, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, has friends across the country who have had their jabs yet her GP practice appears to have no supplies.

Ruth Wide, 98, who worked as a hospital radiographer during the Second World War, has still to hear from her GP practice in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

Her son Marcus, 72, is worried she has been overlooked but has followed the advice not to contact the surgery directly. He said: 'There is no way to check whether somebody tried to call but failed to get through.'

Family doctors have suggested supplies being sent to mass-vaccination centres would be better diverted to local GP surgeries. Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford, said mass-vaccination sites were intended for the younger population and should not be used while there are capacity constraints.

She said: 'It's a big risk to make elderly people travel for long periods in a car with another person and even riskier to take public transport to their appointment.'

Dr Jess Harvey, a Shropshire GP, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I appreciate there might be issues getting the vaccine out, and maybe just an honest approach with that would be helpful. Tell the public that not everyone will get the vaccine because there isn't enough.'

Last night the Government insisted the rollout programme was 'on track' to vaccinate the 13.5million most vulnerable by mid-February.

Boris Johnson said over-80s and those living in care homes were still an 'absolute priority'.

During a visit to Oxfordshire, the Prime Minister said: 'We're getting it out as fast as we can.'

Mr Hancock vowed that supplies of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are being prioritised to areas behind in the roll-out.
Even as the United States banishes various Chinese companies from its bourses and ponders more restrictions, a close scrutiny of public records by a media outlet indicated that Chinese companies who had been involved in extensive cyber-attacks and espionage had funnelled millions of dollars into US universities.

Australian institutions seem to have been similarly exposed to Chinese largesse which targets students and faculty alike. While there is close analysis of financing of Chinas covert operations, there has so far been little data available on Beijings influence operations on this most volatile segment of society.

The whole operation has come to public notice with the media house accessing federal records of donations made to US universities, which revealed that prestigious institutions such as Duke University was operating a joint campus with Wuhan University, which has repeatedly carried out cyber-attacks on behalf of the Chinese military.

The North Western University received millions in research funding from a Chinese defence contractor directly linked to stealing designs of the F-35 fighters. Earlier, a Department of Audit investigation found that US universities had failed to disclose some $6.5 billion in donations from China and other countries. While some of this could be targeted at accessing research for the Chinese PLA, others are assessed as being public outreach projects, or quite simply intelligence operations.

None of this should come as a surprise.

In 2018, a major US think-tank received money from Huawei and then produced a report praising its technology. The vice president of the institute later defended Huawei, when it was identified as a national security threat.

More recently, Wuhan University was again in the limelight as the Department of Justice charged a Harvard University professor for taking some $50,000 a month and living expenses of $158,000 as part of Beijings Thousand Talents programme, without authorisation.

In another instance, a serving PLA lieutenant was found to be studying at the Boston Universitys Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering, even while she was following directions from her superior in the PLA. Another student tried to smuggle biological research vials out of the US.

The sheer numbers of Chinese students rose from a few hundred to 370,000 in 2019, bringing in some $15 billion into the US economy. Numbers have since fallen by 61 percent, not just due to the pandemic, but also a ban on students with ties to the Chinese government. The US universities are going to suffer, and badly.

In Australia, a bizarre incident highlighted the extent of Chinese ingress. A small protest against Chinese suppression of Uighurs at the University of Queensland was set upon by violent mobs of Chinese students. The Chinese consul chose to praise the patriotic behaviour by the mob. Ironically, he was an adjunct professor at the university.

Earlier, the university had 'co-founded' at least four courses with the Confucius Institute, run worldwide by the official language training department Hanban. At the time, the Vice Chancellor had been a member of the governing council of the Global Confucius Institute Headquarters, which controls hundreds of such institutions across the globe.

There are more soft power centres, including the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations that keep a close eye on Chinese students, sometimes forcing them to report back to them. Chinese students were the largest group in Australia in 2019 at 212,264 , providing some top schools with at least a fifth of their total income.

India with its lack of accessible public records, poor data gathering and a sprawling education sector is particularly vulnerable. Available data indicates some 48,000 students from 164 countries, but with no mention of China. But some sense of threat seems to have existed.

Days before a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019, the University Grants Commission barred collaborations with China without ministry approval. Post-Galwan, the education ministry is reviewing Chinese language courses across universities, including two Confucius Institutes in India, one in Mumbai University, and the other rather surprisingly in the Vellore Institute of Technology, in Tamil Nadu.

While this is welcome, closer scrutiny is needed for 369 private universities, and another 46 deemed universities, not to mention the several hundreds of private institutions which are more than willing to accept money from anywhere. This is dangerous territory, all the more so because it targets the most vulnerable and easily misled section of the population, which constitutes nearly half the population.

Thats a lot of minds to tinker with.
Zimbabwes exiled former Information Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo, has dismissed as scurrilously defamatory, a report published by the state-controlled Herald newspaper in which modelling instructor Sipho Mazibuko is claiming that he raped her while she was pregnant eleven years ago.

In a series of tweets, Professor Moyo accused the newspaper of being used by President Emmerson Mnangagwas government to silence him on Twitter.

He categorically and emphatically denied the allegations, noting that for the record, I never spent a second of my life with Sipho Mazibuko alone. Specifically I was not a minister 11 years ago and I never saw nor spoke to her then!

Professor Moyo also dismissed claims by Mazibuko that she reported the matter to the police. At no time in my life did any @PoliceZimbabwe officer anywhere in Zimbabwe engage me on these false and outrageous allegations. Also I never had any direct or indirect involvement with Mrs Mazibuko's psychiatric care!

Mazibuko, who ran the Miss Rural Zimbabwe pageant and others, has over the years accused some top government officials of raping her. All the accused persons dismissed the allegations as baseless, alleging that she needed some psychiatric help.

According to the state-controlled Chronicle newspaper, she suffered a mental breakdown in 2011 following accusations that she was using the pageant as a bait for top government officials and others to support her activities.

She once told the newspaper that the demonisation I endured from the media was immense. Coupled with other factors, I experienced a mental breakdown, which resulted in me being admitted to Ingutsheni Hospital 11 years ago.

She further told the newspaper that this was because I had turned down sexual advances by a well-to-do executive. He in fact took two models from camp and convinced them to give false statements about me. One of the stories was that I was using them as bait to fundraise for my own benefit. However, as it turned out the allegations were thrown out because they were baseless and held no merit. The models could not prove the allegations and until now there was no docket to prove the allegations. I became stressed and suffered from depression, resulting in my mental problems.

Mazibuko, who is planning to re-launch the pageant, was unavailable for comment as she was not responding to calls on her mobile phone.

Police told an online publication that they dont have a record of a rape case involving her and Professor Moyo.
Charleston, WV (25301)

Today

Thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with light rain possible. Low around 55F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the current standoff between the protesting farmers and the Centre will resolve only through dialogues.

"We cannot forget the farmers' efforts in increasing the food production even during the Covid times," Naidu said while speaking at an awards ceremony jointly organised by Rythu Nestham and Muppavarapu Foundation at the Swarna Bharat Trust in Hyderabad.

He also added that he sees the possibility of a certain meeting ground.

"Restriction-free marketing of farm produce has been a long-standing demand. One country and one food zone has been the demand for a long time. The development of the country is closely tied to farmer's progress," Naidu said.

Comparing the farmers' compassion with that of a mother, he said: "It is the duty of everybody to support the farmers."

The Vice President lauded the farmers for rendering a great service to the nation during the pandemic by pro3ducing record food grains despite hardship.

He also appreciated the efforts shown by the doctors, sanitation workers, police and media personnel during the pandemic.

"Both the Centre and state governments should work as 'Team India' in addressing the needs of the farmers. Apart from ensuring remunerative prices, the farmers should be provided with timely and affordable credit.

"There was also a need to increase the cold storage facilities and the godowns at all levels. As a matter-of-fact, every tehsil must have a cold storage facility," Naidu added.

Vice President pointed out that the people of India always accorded a very high status to agriculture and this was the reason why our festivals and rituals are closely associated with agriculture.

Referring to a FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) report which cautioned about the food crisis in the coming times, Naidu asserted saying, "If we support our farmers, India would not only be food secure, but would also be able to feed the world."

Naidu emphasised for a change in perspective towards agriculture among the public and urged the youth to become proactive partners in promoting farming.

Earlier in the day, Naidu interacted with the youth undergoing training at the Swarna Bharat Trust and advised them to maintain discipline, eat healthy food and always remain fit. He said that the youth in India were highly talented and their skills need to be upgraded through regular training.
(Newser)  Nidhi Razdan spent 21 years as the lead anchor of India's NDTV, which one might think would give her the chops to take on a position as an associate professor of journalism at Harvard. In fact, in June she said she was giving up her job to do that very thing, beginning in September, per Boston.comor so she thought. On Friday, the 43-year-old revealed a "shocking development" on Twitter: There was no job. In fact, the school has neither a journalism department nor employs journalism professors. Razdan had fallen victim to a "sophisticated and coordinated phishing attack" that unspooled over the course of six months. As she was readying herself for her new gigand appearing on TV and at events under the title "associate professor of journalism at Harvard," per the Boston Globeshe learned her start had been pushed to January 2021 due to COVID.

story continues below

But per her tweeted explanation, she also "began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me." She initially dismissed them as being part "of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature." So she reached out to Harvard for clarification and learned Harvard hadn't made such an offer or been a part of any of the communication. Razdan tweeted that "the perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts." She has filed a police complaint; there is of yet no word on who might have been behind the scam. (Here's another painful phishing story involving journalists.)
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Texas Legislative Session Begins With Heavy Security Presence Following U.S. Capitol Riot By Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune



The Texas Legislature gaveled in Tuesday, January 12, for its biennial session with a heavy security presence after the U.S. Capitol insurrection the previous week and rampant reminders of the still-raging coronavirus pandemic.



The state House and Senate met in the early afternoon without incident, and there was only a small protest outside the Capitol beforehand. Still, the sight of state troopers clustered around the building's entrances and lining the halls inside was striking, especially after the unrest in the nation's capital on Wednesday, January 6, that left five people dead and has led to dozens of arrests.



"This is my 19th session, and I don't think I've ever felt the way I felt today when I recognized that we had to have all this security," Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, said in the minutes before the session began. "And my first question to myself was, How far have we come? I mean, have we come forward or have we gone backward?"



"I told the DPS officers and the military I felt safe," Dutton added, "but I didn't know I needed them to feel safe."



The opening day of the 140-day session was otherwise highlighted by adjustments made due to the pandemic and the election of Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, as House speaker, which was expected. In addition to each chamber's opening-day protocols, there was mandatory COVID-19 testing for everyone entering the building, a move that the Department of Public Safety announced Monday evening.



"Everyone has been tested thats on the floor today and in the gallery," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during the Senate's meeting. "We want our Capitol open this session unlike many states. ... Were going to be open to the best of our ability throughout session."



The pandemic was a central topic of state leaders' speeches. More Texans were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday, January 11, than at any time since the pandemic started, and the death toll in the state was approaching 30,000. But the state is in the early stages of distributing vaccines.



After he was elected speaker, Phelan told House members they were beginning the session "at a crossroads."



"Today, we are on the brink of defeating COVID-19," Phelan said. "Now the difficult work of recovery begins, and we have a very short runway in which to do it."



In similar speeches to both chambers, Abbott promised to focus on "tackling COVID challenges" and "getting Texans back to work." He also spoke of ensuring better access to health care for Texans and helping law enforcement, an allusion to his previously announced push to punish local governments that "defund the police" in his view.



Phelan also used his speech to address the storming of the U.S. Capitol, saying Americans "witnessed the dark side of political and social division as senseless and unacceptable violence swept through our streets" both last week and over the summer, when anti-police-brutality protesters clashed with some police.



Nothing remotely close to what happened in Washington, D.C., unfolded Tuesday in Austin. There was a small protest  appearing to number less than a dozen people  outside the Capitol's north entrance, at least partly related to vaccines, about an hour before the session began, and a wall of DPS officers were lined up on the perimeter of it.



After the chambers let out around 1:30 p.m., DPS troopers were still in place on the outdoor perimeter of the Capitol, but there were no protests in sight.



There was little drama inside the building as well. After unofficially locking up the speakership weeks ago, Phelan won it by a vote of 143-2. In the Senate, lawmakers unanimously elected state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, president pro tempore, a ceremonial post which typically goes to the longest-serving senator who has not yet served as pro tem. Birdwell replaces state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston.



Both chambers were set to take up their rules last week, and then, if they finished their work, adjourn until January 26.



The scene on each chamber's floor was less active and crowded than it has been on opening day in past sessions, with lawmakers allowed to bring fewer guests than usual. House members were required to wear masks; senators were not.



Milling about the Capitol before noon, lawmakers said they felt safe, both with the enhanced security presence and the pandemic measures.



"I feel way over safe," Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, said, adding that he did not see any security concerns and disagreed with the need for mandatory coronavirus testing to enter the building.



While the House and Senate instituted opening-day protocols inside their respective chambers, members have been allowed to run their offices how they see fit, at least in the House. Phelan said in a statement Monday night that "each member will decide how they run their office and the protocols governing their office for the remainder of the session."



Biedermann said there are "no rules" inside his office and he is relying on people to be personally responsible, "just like they do in real life."



Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said his office is not accepting visitors and requiring masks.



"Members can do what they want through their own offices," Turner said, "but in common areas, on the House floor, I hope everyone is respectful of each other."



Alex Samuels contributed reporting. "Texas legislative session begins with heavy security presence following U.S. Capitol riot" was first published by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.


Uber driver Sergei Fyodorov shows his support for Proposition 22, a ballot measure that passed and allowed ride-share drivers to work as independent contractors, in Oakland, Calif., on Oct. 9, 2020. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

California Freelancers Say New Exemption Law Still Not Enough

California freelancers derailed by last years controversial gig worker mandate are set to receive more exemptions through a newly enacted lawbut opponents say the new bill still isnt enough to offset the harm done to them by AB 5.

Assembly Bill 2257 (AB 2257), which went into effect Jan. 1, adds new exceptions to AB 5 requirements for independent workers, including exemptions for professional services, business-to-business, and referral agencies. However, many freelance workers are not satisfied, either because their professions werent included or the exemptions remain too strict.

There are a handful of professions that did receive legitimate relief, but hundreds of categories of professions and trades are still left out in the cold, Karen Anderson, founder of the Facebook group Freelancers Against AB 5, told The Epoch Times. There are many roadblocks and caveats embedded within the so-called exemptions.

Anderson said the bill doesnt go far enough in allowing employers to hire gig workers.

We are hearing from employment law attorneys that AB 2257 doesnt move the needle that much in terms of giving their clients the green light to hire an independent contractor, she said.

Despite the new exemptions carved out in AB 2257, many peoples careers and livelihoods had been destroyed in the interim, so their exemption was a little too late, Anderson said.

They had already disbanded their business or moved out of state. The scorched-earth policymaking decimated many peoples careers, even those who had a blanket exemption from the beginning or have now received an exemption.

AB 5, which went into effect at the beginning of 2020, requires companies to classify workers as full-time employees, and pay required benefits and taxes, unless certain conditions are met. Opponents say the law instead led to the decimation of the states thriving gig economy, leaving hundreds of industries without work right before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now lawyers are advising employers to hire contractors from other states, according to Anderson, since AB 5 could land them on the Employment Development Departments (EDD) radar for an audit.

Many law firms, large and small, are simply giving blanket advice to their clients to stay away from [California] freelancers, even if there is a pathway to an exemption, Anderson said via text.

Andersons Facebook group has garnered 19,000 members who feel theyve been disenfranchised since AB 5 went into effect. Shes provided members with as many resources as possible, posting updates to the bill and legal advice to the group over the last year.

The law underwent a few modifications in 2020 following the protests of some non-unionized gig workers, including journalists, musicians, health care workers, translators, ride-share drivers, interpreters, and photographers. AB 2257 broadens the exemptions.

Anderson said AB 2257 added several more professions to the referral agency exemption, including tutors, but for most professions, the exemption doesnt work because there are 11 factors that need to be satisfied for the exemption to be applicable.

The referral agency needs to be more like a jobs-posting board that exerts no control or direction over the service provider, Anderson said. For example, although tutors are now exempt, the tutoring companies that connect them with clients remain limited. Unfortunately, for tutoring companies this doesnt work out because they cannot provide curriculum, standards, or training.

Pharmacists, optometrists, rehab specialists, speech pathologists, nurse anesthetists, physical therapists, forensic nurses, and phlebotomists are among the dozens of professions that remain non-exempt.

Creating More Exemptions

The new AB 2257 law attempts to clarify and broaden both existing and additional exemptions, according to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), who wrote AB 5.

AB 2257 represents a comprehensive framework for employment law that makes a clear distinction between employer-employee relationships and professionals that run their own independent businesses, Gonzalez said in a press release.

Gonzalez said the new law reclassifies statutes for what constitutes a freelancer and expands the three-pronged ABC test used to determine whether someone falls under independent contractor status. The test mandates that freelancers must have extensive freedom in how they accomplish their work, be in the same industry as the company theyre contracting for, and do the work outside of the usual course of the hiring entitys business.

This legislation was a product of robust dialogue over the last year with workers and businesses from every part of the state, Gonzalez said.

But AB 2257 remains ambiguous despite adding several exemption categories, according to Lizelle Brandt, an attorney from Pasadena who specializes in entertainment law and represents small business owners, filmmakers, and recording artists.

Theyve got psychologists who are exempt, but then youve got all these marriage and family therapists that arentso a lot of it is just no reason as to why some of these industries are getting exemptions, but others are not, Brandt told The Epoch Times.

Theres just a lot of issues I would say that are just going to remain; hopefully [the gig worker law] will continue to be modified. But in the meantime, only some have gained relief [and] it continues to be vague in a lot of different areas.

Brandt said many gig workers who lobbied and protested the original bill received exemptions earlierwhile those left out accuse lawmakers of cherry-picking.

It seems like the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the exemptions, said Brandt.

She singled out interpreters as freelance workers whose protestations resulted in exemptions.

Interpreters were pretty good actually about being loud, and it almost seems like the more youre able to organize and be loud and get attention, then that helps, she said.

But I dont know if thats the proper way to legislate. I would say the best thing to do is to be fair across the board, and not pay attention only to the ones that are making the loudest noisebecause then you have this disproportionate unfair method of giving out exemptions.

Workers hold signs at a rally opposing Proposition 22, a measure that would allow ride-share drivers to work as independent contractors, in Orange, Calif., on Oct. 16, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

A Matter of Interpretation

But even interpreters who were outlined in AB 2577s new exemption list say the new bill doesnt go far enough, because it doesnt allow freelancers to work together on a single job.

I have to be able to show that Im a referral agency in order to be able to work together with my colleague, interpreter Madeline Rios told The Epoch Times.

For interpreters to subcontract other interpreters under AB 2257, they must be certified. While this is generally a good thing, said Rios, many interpreters only specialize in conferences, not legal services.

They dont have a certification, but they might have graduated from one of the most prestigious universities, specializing in translating and interpreting, she said. But I could not use them.

Rios, who is based in Claremont, said the new law has actually concentrated control of the industry into the hands of larger companies.

The smaller companies are the ones that are suffering, she said. We cant network with each other the way we used towhich was our number one defense against these big corporationsand now the big corporations are the ones that are strengthened.

Rios specializes in legal translation from Spanish to English, including the translation of Supreme Court documents from Latin America into English and translating Latin American court evidence. Prior to AB 5, she had dozens of agencies contracting her for her kind of work, which not many people are qualified to do.

But with AB 5, those agencies would have to hire her full-time, she saideven though there were occasions when she would work for one company for only 30 minutes every two years. Without an exemption, the law would mandate that shed need to be classified as an employee, even in that scenario.

In addition, deductions including books, travel, education, equipment, and software would end up being taxed.

We were not the owners of agencies that were exploiting people, we were the people that were doing the work. In the best-case scenario  we would have lost 100 percent of our business deductions, Rios said.

If everybody made us employees, we would be taxed on a gross income. So we would be paying taxes on about 150 percent of our real earnings, and we would have lost our self-employment health insurance credit, she said.

At that point, interpreters wouldnt qualify for a pension, health insurance, vacation, or sick pay because we would never work for anybody for more than, at most, two weeks at a time, and sometimes as little as half a day, sometimes as little as a few hours.

So that was our initial reaction. I cant come up with an extra $15,000 with taxes per year on my federal income tax, she said.

She added that COVID-19 restrictions created another hurdle for interpreters, as referral agencies in California hired out-of-state translators for telemedicine purposes to get around AB 5.

In the end, the exemption is relatively decent, but its not complete, said Rios.

Workers hold signs calling for onlookers to vote against Proposition 22 at a gathering in Orange, Calif., on Oct. 16, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Getting in on the Act



Rios believes AB 5 is one of the main reasons Democrats lost Congressional seats in California in the last election. She didnt vote Republican, but said a number of her colleagues did.

A lot of people who were lifelong Democrats started voting for Republicans, except for Trump, particularly in California because of AB 5, she said.

But proponents of the bill, like the California Labor Federation, called AB 5 the most important state law in decades to address widespread inequality by raising wages for workers and holding corporations accountable.

AB 5 could have a national spotlight under President-elect Joe Bidens administration through the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (Pro Act), approved by the House in 2019. The act expanded the definitions of employer and employee to discourage the use of independent contractors, and strengthened labor unions.

Rios is concerned the Pro Act will result in jobs shifting overseas.

When they make it illegal for them to hire anybody, basically theyre making it illegal for these companies to subcontract people in the U.S., Rios said. U.S. freelancers will no longer have any work, or will not have a significant amount of work, because its all electronicyou can send it anywhere.

Meanwhile, the fight to repeal AB 5 altogether continues.

In the November election, Californians passed Proposition 22, which rebuked AB 5 and classifies app-based ride-share workers as independent contractors instead of employees. But on Jan. 12, shortly after it became law, some drivers filed a lawsuit to overturn the initiative, calling it unconstitutional.

State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) has introduced bill AB 25 to fully repeal what remains of AB 5 and restore the right to earn a living for thousands of Californians.

Kiley said in a Jan. 14 Facebook post, The Legislature should act immediately to acknowledge the incredible harms of this law and revive the livelihoods of freelancers across the state.
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A Pennsylvania man that posted on Facebook that he was inside the U.S. Capitol during the riots in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 has been charged.

Andrew Wrigley was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds.

On January 8, a special agent with the United States Capitol Police received information from the FBI that included screen shots of posts from a Facebook account belonging to Wrigley.

Photographs of Wrigley on the Facebook page were compared to his photo from PennDOT.

A screenshot from Andrew Wrigleys Facebook page show multiple photographs and videos posted to the page depicting Andrew Wrigley and others standing within, and moving with, an assemblage or procession of persons on the United States Capitol Grounds on January 6, 2021, according to a complaint from the United States Capitol Police.

Police said that two of the items Wrigley posted on Facebook said At the protest in DC at the capitol building #stopthesteal and At the protest in DC. I went inside the capitol building and got tear gassed.

When the special agent tried to find Wrigleys Facebook page on Jan. 8 it had been deleted, the complaint said.

The complaint said that Wrigley took a selfie at the Upper West Terrace door and that he was inside the U.S. Capitol building. Police compared the selfie to another photo of Wrigley without his face-obstructed holding a flag wearing a similar colored hat and jacket.

Wrigley was arrested on Friday in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Wrigley is 50 years old and is from Jim Thorpe, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Five people including a U.S. Capitol police officer were killed in the Capitol riots on Jan 6.
In the late summer of 1990, the forces of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein were poised on the Saudi border, having just overrun Kuwait. U.S. troops scrambled to get ashore and fall in on their gear, overcoming chaos at the Saudi ports.

Five months later, on Jan. 17, 1991, U.S.-led coalition bombings of Hussein's Iraq began, and Operation Desert Shield -- a six-month buildup of troops and defensive mission -- became the kinetic Operation Desert Storm. It was the start of what has been described by the Government Accountability Office as "perhaps the most successful war of the 20th Century."

More than 500,000 U.S. troops deployed to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, preparing the way for Desert Storm.

In a virtual briefing held ahead of Desert Storm's 30th anniversary, analysts with the Center for Naval Analyses who had been embedded during the fight revisited the war and the elements that had made it such a successful U.S. operation.

Read Next: Army IDs 1st Armored Division Staff Sergeant Found Dead at Fort Bliss Home

Analysts pointed to the contributions of the battleships Missouri and Wisconsin in their last war, and stressed that the first test of the "total force" concept relying on the reserves succeeded beyond the expectations of commanders.

Steve Karppi, a senior CNA researcher who was embedded with Cruiser-Destroyer Group 2, said the battleships "were using remotely piloted vehicles to do their targeting" with their fearsome 16-inch guns. "That was a new development."

The second time the battleships unleashed bombardments, the Iraqis "actually tried to surrender," Karppi said. "The drone saw it. The Iraqis put up white flags. It appears the Iraqis were fearful of that bombardment and they actually surrendered."

During the air campaign, the U.S. and its allies conducted more than 116,000 combat air sorties and dropped 88,500 tons of bombs, according to the Defense Department. The six-week air campaign set the stage for the 100-hour ground assault that routed Iraqi forces and liberated Kuwait.

"Beginning at 0239 [hours] on Jan. 17, 1991, a Coalition air armada of nearly a thousand aircraft in the first day of the air campaign attacked more targets than all of the Eighth Air Force aircraft hit in the entire European theater during the years 1942 and 1943," the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies stated in a report titled "Desert Storm: 30 Years Later."

Mark Geis, executive vice president of CNA, who was embedded with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, said that Desert Shield and Desert Storm "really validated the effectiveness of an all-volunteer force," and proved that the active-duty units could rely on the reserves for specialized skills in intelligence, maintenance and logistics, search and rescue, and construction.

It was the first real test of the total-force concept involving shifting major responsibilities to the reserves, Geis said. "Each one of the services did it pretty aggressively," he said, although "there were some questions about whether the reserve was going to be able to perform."

However, the reserves "were able to execute extremely effectively, and so that [total force] concept was validated," Geis said.

As for lessons learned, Karppi and CNA President and CEO Katherine McGrady said Desert Shield and Desert Storm highlighted the need for military planners to pay more attention to the threat of mines on land and at sea, which remain a major problem for an attacking force.

Karppi said the Iraqi mines in the Persian Gulf, mainly bottom-mounted, "were an issue for sure for the Navy." Mines caused serious damage to the amphibious ship Tripoli and major damage to the cruiser Princeton, Karppi said.

Mines were also "a big issue for the Marine Corps," said McGrady, who was embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "What amazed me in my observation -- something like mines, such an unsophisticated device, can really disrupt plans. Even the perception that they might be out there causes an enormous amount of disruption."

In a later interview with Military.com, McGrady said the dangers from mines and improvised explosive devices persisted through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and warned that "the very threat of mines can bring an operation to its knees."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: Why 50-Year-Old Battleships Were a Critical Part of Operation Desert Storm
Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard conducted a drill Saturday launching anti-warship ballistic missiles at a simulated target in the Indian Ocean, state television reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehrans nuclear program and a U.S. pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.

By Nathan Morley

Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, is expanding its arsenal.

The missiles were fired during an exercise in the countrys central desert region and follow the testing of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and new drones.

The chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, said the use of long-range missiles against enemy warships, aircraft carriers and warships was a defence policy goal.

The missiles have a range of 1,800 kilometres and can now strike moving targets in the ocean.

Chief of Staff General Mohammad Baqeri insisted that Iran had no offensive intentions, but would now be able to "respond to any hostile and malicious act in the shortest time."

(Using) Long-range missiles for maritime targets indicates that if the enemies ... show any ill will towards our national interests, maritime trade routes or territory, they will be targeted and destroyed by our missiles," Bagheri said.

This was Iran's third major military exercise in less than a fortnight.
Former Turkish foreign minister Yashar Yakis has said that Turkey must engage in direct talks with the President Assad reports Al-Masdar.

Yashar Yakis, one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party and a former Turkish foreign minister, spoke about the Syrian crisis, directing advice to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In statements to the Turkish newspaper Zaman, Yakis said The world has left Turkey alone in Syria, directing his words to the Turkish authorities to conduct direct talks with the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.

Yakis comments about Syria came during his interview with the newspaper, in which he offered his opinion on several topics, including the Syrian crisis.

Meanwhile, Erdogan Toprak, a member of the Turkish parliament for the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), stressed the need for direct and comprehensive dialogue at the highest levels with Syria in order to protect Turkey.

Toprak stressed in an interview with the Turkish newspaper Birgun that the Syrian state has the right to extend its authority over Idleb, especially since everyone knows that this governorate contains the al-Nusra Front organization.

Previously, the advisor to the Syrian President, Bouthaina Shaaban, considered it not possible to hold a meeting between Assad and Erdogan, in light of the Turkish military presence in Syria.

Al-Mayadeen reported that Shaaban said, It is not possible to hold a summit between Assad and Erdogan, as Turkey occupies Syrian areas, stressing that Syria, will liberate Idleb, defeat terrorism from all of Syria, and consolidate sovereignty in all regions.

Major General Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian National Security Bureau, had affirmed, during a tripartite meeting between Russia, Syria, and Turkey, his countrys determination to retake Idleb.

According to SANA, the Syrian side, represented by Major General Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Security Bureau, during the meeting called on the Turkish side, represented by Haqan Fidan, head of the Intelligence Service, to fully commit to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic, land and people, and their immediate and complete withdrawal from all Syrian territories.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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CAIRO  The death toll from tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudans West Darfur province climbed to at least 83, including women and children, a doctors union and aid worker said, as sporadic violence continued Sunday.

The ruling sovereign council met Sunday and said security forces would be deployed to the area.

The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the people in the Krinding camp and other areas Saturday.

Among the dead was a U.S. citizen. Saeed Baraka, 36, from Atlanta, had arrived in Sudan less than two months ago to visit his family in Darfur, his wife, Safiya Mohammed, told The Associated Press over the phone.

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The father of three children rushed to relieve a neighbor amid the clashes in the Jabal village in West Darfur, when he was shot in his head Saturday, his brother-in-law Juma Salih said.

Barakas wife said the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum phoned her to offer condolences. The embassy did not return phone calls and emails from AP seeking comment.

The violence led to local authorities imposing a round-the-clock curfew on the entire province. Besides the 83 killed, at least 160 others were wounded, according to Sudans doctors committee in West Darfur. It said there were troops among the wounded.

It said clashes subsided by midday on Sunday and the security situation started to improve.

The committee is part of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded a popular uprising that eventually led to the militarys ouster of longtime autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

The clashes pose a challenge to efforts by Sudans transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur, where most people live in camps for the displaced and refugees.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy and is being ruled by a joint military-civilian government.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned about the violence and calls on the Sudanese authorities to expend all efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring an end to the fighting, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

The bout of violence came two weeks after the U.N. Security Council ended the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping forces mandate in the region. The UNAMID force, established in 2007, is expected to complete its withdrawal by June 30.

It also puts into question the transitional governments ability to stabilize the conflict-ravaged Darfur region.

Salah Saleh, a physician and former medical director at the main hospital in Genena, said clashes renewed Sunday morning at the Abu Zar camp for internally displaced people, south of the provincial capital.

He said most of the victims were shot dead, or suffered gunshot wounds.

Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said there were overnight attacks on Krinding. He shared footage showing properties burned to the ground, and wounded people on stretchers and in hospital beds.

Authorities in West Darfur imposed a curfew beginning Saturday that includes the closing of all markets and a ban on public gatherings. The central government in Khartoum also said Saturday a high-ranking delegation, chaired by the countrys top prosecutor, was heading to the province to help re-establish order.

A database by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, showed that inter-communal violence across Darfur region doubled in the second half of 2020, with at least 28 incidents compared to 15 between July and December 2019.

West Darfur province experienced a significant increase of violence last year, with half of the 40 incidents reported in the entire Darfur region, OCHA said Sunday.
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The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police has arrested Anjani Sinha, the former managing director of National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), on January 17 evening for fictitious trading on the exchange, and creating false stocks. Seven years after the NSEL scam broke out, the Delhi Police expedited investigation into this case.

The NSEL scam shocked every segment of investors in the market when it was unearthed in 2013. Even today, the aftershocks can be felt.

Sinha, the former managing director of NSEL, was arrested by Delhi Police following a case registered by the EOW in 2015 on a brokers complaint.

Anjani Sinha was reporting to Financial Technologies (now 63Moons) promoter Jignesh Shah before the scam broke out. Shah had valid reasons for liking him since he was giving a robust return on investment, especially at that time when other exchanges like the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) were facing commodity transaction tax pressure.

According to Delhi Police, during the interrogation, Sinha disclosed that he used to report to Shah, who was the group MD and chairman. "Shah was very desperate to generate profit in the subsidiary companies. He devised the introduction of a new business concept in the NSEL, even violating conditions of the licence of NSEL given by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs," according to a statement issued by the Delhi Police.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have also filed chargesheets this case. Now, the ED and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police are close to filing the final chargesheet in this case.

Anjani Sinha worked with Shah for more than seven years, prior to which he had worked with Ahmedabad Stock Exchange and Baroda Stock Exchange.

However, 63Moons has refuted allegations that Sinha was close to Shah. At the time, 63 moons had 9 multi-asset class exchanges in India and overseas, and many subsidiaries, which were overseen by separate managing directors who were all stalwarts in their fields. Also, once the crisis was unearthed at the exchange, 63 Moons was the first to file a criminal complaint against Anjani Sinha, the company said in a response to Moneycontrol.

The company added that NSEL contributed only a small share of 63Moons (then known as FTIL) revenues. NSELs contribution in the standalone total revenue of 63Moons was only 7.3 percent during FY12-13, while NSELs contribution in the standalone total income was just 5.25 percent during the same period, it said.

NSEL was the platform where investors got assured returns of 15 to 18 percent. NSEL was executing a forward contract which was more than T+25. As per regulations, only T+10 was allowed. However, commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission banned this product after it was appointed as the designated regulator. So, NSEL was not able to give the money back.

According to 63Moons, the NSEL has never offered assured returns on its products. The exchange, on the contrary, had sent out circulars directing brokers not to give any advertisements or make such claims of assured returns. The blame rests sorely on the brokers who had miss-sold the product despite the circular to the contrary, the company said in its response.

There was no specification in the exemption that contracts beyond T+10 were not allowed, because NSEL was allowed to launch Forward Contracts by virtue of Exemption Notification June 5, 2007, which by definition are settlements beyond 11 days. That is, in trade parlance, T+11 and above. The show-cause notice on the duration of the contract is not adjudicated yet, the statement read.

The fact is that NSEL, with the help of 63Moons has been continuously striving to recover the default amount from the 22 defaulting entities, which has resulted in obtaining the decree of Rs 3,365 crore and crystallization of liability by High Court Committee to the tune of over Rs 900 crore, which is pending confirmation by the Honourable Bombay High Court, and an injunction of Rs 4,515 crore. This entire process has been due to single-handed effort of NSEL and 63 Moons, the company statement further added.

After defaulting on payment by NSEL, brokers and investors rushed to investigation agencies. Subsequently, the Mumbai Police EOW registered a case against 63Moons, Shah and brokers and arrested Shah, Amit Rathi from Anand Rathi group, Chintan Modi (IIFL) and CP Krishnan from Geojit.

The FMC issued a not fit and proper order for 63Moons for running exchanges and merger of NSEL with FTIL. However, after a long fight FTIL has got a favourable order from the Supreme Court.

According to sources, around Rs 5,600 crore of investor money is stuck in this scam.

(This story has been updated with 63Moons' response)

Lingering at coastal tourist 'hotspots' is putting injured whale sharks at a greater risk of boat strikes, a study of the larger, slow-moving filter-feeders has found.

Researchers from York and the Maldives warned that wounded sharks stay in certain, favourable locations for three times longer than their uninjured counterparts.

This means they not only miss out on seasonal food sources in other areas, but that they also put themselves at greater risk of further injury as a result of human activity.

The study is a follow-up to the team's 2018 findings that sharks favour locations with warm, shallow water in close proximity to a sharp sea-floor drop into deep water.

This explained why whale sharks gather en masse at only some 20 locations around the world  including off the coasts of Australia, Belize, the Maldives and Mexico.

However, although great locations for the sharks to recuperate, these areas tend to be popular tourist destinations at the same time.

Sharks swimming in such shallow waters are at risk from being struck by both large vessels and tourist boats  result in either injury or death.

Based on their new findings, the researchers are now calling for greater management in these coastal locations to protect these endangered species.

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Lingering at coastal tourist 'hotspots' is putting injured whale sharks (pictured) at a greater risk of boat strikes, a study of the larger, slow-moving filter-feeders has found

'Since investigating why whale sharks only gather at a few sites, we have found that loyalty to these areas seems to be high even in injured sharks,' said paper author and marine ecologist Bryce Stewart of the University of York.

This, he added, is even 'despite the risk of re-injury from boating activity.'

'The impact of injury on where and how long these creatures stay in one spot was not fully understood, however, so we needed to investigate how behaviour differed between injured and non-injured whale sharks.'

Data on whale shark observations between 20062018  taken by the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme  revealed that around 80 per cent of sharks assessed for injury at the South Ari Atoll gathering site had at least one wound.

The team found that both injured and non-injured whale sharks would spend time residing in the area  but that injured sharks would spend, on average, three times longer at the site and less than half as much time away from the location.

'These sites provide the ideal environment for whale sharks to search for food in both deep water and warm shallows, as well as bask in the surface water to warm up their large bodies,' said paper author Harriet Allen.

'Unfortunately, they also pose a huge risk because of the human activity in the area, which means that almost all of the resident whale sharks are injured at some point in heir lives,' the University of York marine biologist added.

'Our new data suggests that the injured sharks remain longer in these areas potentially because they provide the resources the sharks need in order to recover  the benefit gained from this area is greater than the risk of staying.'

'However, we now need to establish whether injury causes the longer residency or whether it is more a case that the more faithful the whale shark is to the area, the more likely they are to get injured.'

'More work is needed on the aspect of "loyalty" that these fascinating creatures seem to have to these select areas.'

Researchers from York and the Maldives warned that wounded sharks (like the one pictured) stay in certain, favourable locations for three times longer than their uninjured counterparts

The study is a follow-up to the team's 2018 findings that whale sharks (pictured) favour locations with warm, shallow water in close proximity to a sharp sea-floor drop into deep water. This explained why whale sharks gather en masse at only some 20 locations around the world  including off the coasts of Australia, Belize, the Maldives and Mexico

'Much of the tourism to [the Maldives] has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, said Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme's managing director, Richard Rees.

'Whilst this has been a big challenge for local business, it is also the ideal opportunity to take a pause and examine what is important for the sites.'

Going forward, he explained, this will 'allow businesses to get back on their feet and the unique wildlife to thrive at the same time.'

'This new research demonstrates the urgent need for effective enforcement of and compliance with an area management process that allows the continued survival of these magnificent creatures.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
EIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese government spokesperson on Monday condemned the so-called U.S. sanctions imposed on officials of the central and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) governments, saying that it is time for U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to end his sanction tricks.

The spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council made the remarks after the U.S. Department of State imposed so-called sanctions following the detention of Benny Tai and others by the Hong Kong police for suspected violations of the law on safeguarding national security in the HKSAR in accordance with the law.

Voicing strong opposition to the "sanctions," the spokesperson called the move a serious interference in China's internal affairs.
M&S asked Oxfam to conduct a gap analysis of its supply chain in footwear factories in India and food manufacturers in the UK

A collaborative review into Marks & Spencer's footwear and food supply chains has identified a number of human rights and worker well-being issues, including inadequate sick pay and a lack of effective worker voice, as the UK food, homeware and fashion retailer looks to pinpoint areas to address.

M&S asked charitable organisation Oxfam to conduct a 'gap analysis' of its supply chain in footwear factories in India and food manufacturers in the UK to better help it understand "the true worker experience" and identify changes it needs to make in its own operations and those of its suppliers.

Focusing on 'worker voice' along with living wages and gender equality, M&S says the issue of worker voice was chosen in collaboration with Oxfam as it was identified as an area where existing sector-wide social processes could be improved.

Oxfam interviewed 390 workers across both industries over a six-month period, focusing on gender equality, worker voice and in-work poverty.

The research revealed a range of concerns among workers, as well as examples of good practice on which the company can build. Yet a number of consistent themes emerged: a lack of effective worker voice; concerns about speaking out; inadequate sick pay; the need for more transparent or fairer job progression processes; and a difficulty in meeting living costs in some instances.

A key conclusion was the disconnect between the information that M&S managers typically receive about conditions in workplaces, based largely on third-party ethical audits, and what workers report as their experience. This raises important questions for M&S and other companies about the reliability of auditors' findings on suppliers, and the need for stronger worker representation and potentially regulation.

Taking on the challenge

Here are some of the findings:

A lack of effective representation via worker committees and/or trade unions was found to be the norm. The majority of workers who expressed a view said committees and unions lacked the power and expertise needed to advance workers' interests on the key issues that mattered to them, i.e. wages, working hours, discrimination.

At all sites, trade unions were found to lack backing from the management team or workforce as a whole.

In India, trade unionists reported working anonymously at some of the sites to avoid retaliation against workers. At three Indian sites, workers could only join a 'trade union' that was managed by the company's human resources (HR) team. This, by definition, is not a trade union.

At supplier sites, many managers responsible for HR felt under significant pressure themselves and often lacked the necessary time, skills and motivation to actively listen to workers.

It was a common theme that workers reported earning the legal minimum but less than a living wage and some had incurred debts. Women in India reported taking paid piece-rate work they could do at home, whereas men were more likely to work excessive hours on site or in a second job.

In both the UK and India, some workers reported issues with their pay, and pay discrepancies between men and women. The latter was much more common in India.

Virtually all workers said they wanted to be in permanent and secure jobs with predictable incomes so they could plan their lives. Such concerns are increasingly prevalent for workers in India and the UK, where the 'gig economy' has doubled in size in three years.

At all 11 sites, there were workers who described concerning health and safety issues they were experiencing or had experienced. A common theme was workers describing the long-term health impacts of their work, the cost of which was not factored into wages or workplace practices.

Oxfam interviewed 49 managers at the 11 supplier sites visited, as well as 17 of M&S's own procurement staff and managers. The M&S and supplier managers all agreed it is important M&S operates with integrity and ensures workers' well-being. Persistent overtime and stress were cited most often by supplier managers as the worst thing about their job; attempts to moderate their working hours had failed.

"High-street retailers, including M&S, face huge challenges, from consumers looking for the best price while expecting next-day delivery, to employers under financial pressure and intense competition from discounters and online retailers, as well as investors looking for the best returns," Oxfam said in its report. "Covid-19 has further exacerbated these pressures, and highlights the need for workforce resilience and well-being across companies' operations and supply chains."

Taking action

"Oxfam's research found some evidence of good practice in M&S's supply chain. We are pleased that M&S is committed to doing more and is not complacent about this, as evidenced by its willingness to initiate this study, and the actions it has taken and the commitments it has made since the fieldwork was completed," the report stated.

As part of its wider response, M&S has taken action to supplement its existing audits and quickly scale its work voice pilot programmes. It has also made three priorities for action in 2021: to further enhance corporate governance; reset its training and engagement programmes for commercial buying teams to amplify human rights and worker perspectives; and scaling its pilot Worker Voice Programmes to help shape a best practice framework for industry.

"Setting standards and making changes in our own operations  no matter how effective  can only ever be a baseline," M&S said in its response. "To effect real change, especially in an age of increasingly complex globalised supply chains, we have to work together appropriately as a sector. While we are competitors, we know we share the same concerns, and in many cases share the same sites too."

Collaborative effort

Oxfam believes that while some issues documented by the study  such as gendered norms and caste discrimination in India  represent clear human rights risks, there is a limit to the influence of one company to address them.

"Challenges in M&S's supply chains, both in the UK and in India, such as unpredictable and low pay, a lack of access to sick pay and health care and debt, are a challenge for the whole sector, not only M&S. They reflect wider social and economic realities. Effective change will require a global cross-industry effort, stronger government regulation and enforcement, as well as strengthened workers' organisations."

The results of the study echoed Oxfam's research from the last 25 years into the global food and garment supply chains, which evidenced in-work poverty, gender discrimination and poor communication between managers and workers.

The report set out a number of recommendations for retailers, including M&S:

New Delhi, Jan 18 : The BJP is set to get a massive positive swing of 27.3 per cent votes in the West Bengal Assembly elections, but may still end up as the runner-up as Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress is not suffering a serious breach in its vote share, according to the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.

The vote share projection for Trinamool is 43 per cent, with a negative swing of only 1.9 per cent compared to 44.9 per cent in 2016.

The big gains are coming BJP's way in West Bengal with a swing of 27.3 per cent, taking its vote share to 37.5 per cent.

The BJP is gaining from the erosion of the vote share of the once invincible Left and Congress in the state which is suffering a negative swing of more than 20 per cent in a fight which is getting increasingly polarised between the Trinamool and the BJP.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK poised to win even by gaining only marginal vote share, primarily because of a major swing away from the ruling AIADMK alliance.

The DMK-Congress alliance is set to garner 41.1 percent vote share, a gain of 1.7 per cent over the previous election. However, what is working in its favour is a huge swing away from the E. Palaniswami led AIADMK government which is losing 15 per cent vote share and getting only 28.7 per cent of the votes.

In Assam, the ruling NDA is gaining with a swing of 1.2 per cent to make it 43.1 per cent, while the UPA is gaining 3.9 per cent with 34.9 per cent vote share.

In Kerala, there is a marginal swing away from the ruling LDF to the tune of 1.9 per cent and a much bigger negative swing of 4.2 per cent which translates into 41.6 per cent for the LDF and 34.6 per cent for the Congress-led UDF.

In Puducherry, the AIADMK-led NDA alliance is gaining a huge 13.9 per cent vote share while the ruling Congress-DMK alliance is also gaining 3.1 per cent, but the AIADMK alliance is ahead in vote share with 44.4 per cent votes.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan remains by far the most popular CM candidate with 46.7 per cent votes followed by Oomen Chandy of the Congress at 22.3 per cent.

Similarly, in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is favoured as the CM candidate with 48.8 per cent of the votes, as per the survey, followed by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh at 18.7 per cent. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is not far behind with 13.4 per cent of respondents rooting for him as the next West Bengal Chief Minister.

DMK chief M.K. Stalin may become the Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu for the first time in a race featuring many interesting candidates. Stalin is leading the race with 36.4 per cent preferring him as the most suitable CM candidate, followed by Chief Minister E. Palaniswami at 25.5 per cent, senior AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam at 10.9 per cent, V.K. Sasikala at 10.6 per cent, Rajnikanth at 4.3 per cent and Kamal Haasan at 3.6 per cent.

Assam CM Sarbananda Sonwal leads the race with 30 per cent favouring him, followed by another BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma at 21.6 per cent and Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi at 18.8 per cent.
Photo: The Canadian Press In this April 13, 2020, photo provided by TC Energy, construction contractors for TC Energy are seen installing a section of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline at the U.S.-Canada border north of Glasgow, Mont. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-TC Energy via AP

North America's perennial pipeline debate erupted anew Monday as president-elect Joe Biden's Day 1 plan to kill off the Keystone XL project cast a pall over hopes for a fresh start to the Canada-U.S. relationship.

Critics cheered and champions fumed at word Biden's first day in the White House would likely end  for now  a politically fraught plan to send more than 800,000 added barrels a day of Canadian bitumen to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Those in Washington who cultivate and monitor the at-times-fragile ties between the two countries wondered, publicly and privately, about what the decision might portend.

If nothing else, it likely points to the return of a more familiar cross-border dynamic, said Eric Miller, a Canada-U.S. expert and president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.

"We can take from it that, as a going-in proposition, the Biden administration is probably not going to be inclined to work with Canada on things that Canada wants, but it will be happy to work with Canada on things that it wants," Miller said.

"To some extent, this is a return to form, where Canada often finds itself in a position where it has to fight hard to get changes made."

A hard fight, including in court should it come to that, is exactly what Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is promising.

"The United States government owes Canada the respect to at least sit down with us and talk about this vital project in the broader context," said Kenney, whose government gave the project a $1.5-billion infusion last year.

"Surely the relationship between Canada and the United States is worth at least having that discussion."

Biden's plan is outlined in transition documents seen by The Canadian Press. They suggest he intends to sign an executive order on inauguration day to rescind the presidential permit for the pipeline issued in 2019 by President Donald Trump.

The decision is less surprising than the timing. Biden's campaign had already promised to block the project, but making it a symbolic Day 1 move  an effort to satisfy the combative progressive wing of the Democrats  stings.

Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, urged the incoming administration to think twice.

Such a decision "would strain relations between our two countries and waste an opportunity to work together on a shared U.S.-Canada strategy to fight climate change," Beatty said in a statement.

"We ask President Biden to take time to analyze this innovative project and its role in spurring a green transition to a healthier economy."

The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters also voiced concern about the looming threat of Buy American, Biden's promise to prioritize U.S.-based workers, manufacturers and suppliers in the coming effort to rebuild the U.S. economy.

"Excluding each other from our respective government procurement markets could seriously hurt our precarious economic recovery," said CME president and CEO Dennis Darby.

Kenney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe say halting construction on the controversial project will be disastrous for both the Canadian and U.S. economies.

In hopes of winning favour with Biden, pipeline owner TC Energy Corp. confirmed Sunday an ambitious plan to spend $1.7 billion US on a solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline to ensure it is zero-emission by 2030.

Moe, meanwhile, is mobilizing his government's Washington network and urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with Biden as soon as possible.

Trudeau has stayed mum so far, leaving it to Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, to sing the project's praises in the most diplomatic way possible.

Trudeau's political critics, meanwhile, have pounced.

Federal Green Leader Annamie Paul accused the Liberals of hypocrisy, paying lip service to climate change while they go ahead with three drilling projects off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The three projects, about 350 kilometres east of St. John's, were approved following an extensive environmental assessment, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said last week.

"Please do not allow them to to fool you into thinking that these are the only jobs that are possible for you," Paul said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, meanwhile, warned the federal government away from backing Kenney's legal fight.

"I dont think that's a good use of our time. Thats not a good use of our resources," Singh said. "We should be finding ways to create good jobs for these workers that are long-lasting and help us fight the climate crisis."
Boohoo, to its credit, has been trying to clean up its supply chain and governance in response to the blistering report from Alison Levitt QC.

So it is acutely disappointing that on the same day as its new high-powered monitor, Brian Leveson, was delivering his debut ethics report last week, Boohoo bosses were in Dubai attending a glitzy event with suppliers.

Doubtless the sessions attended by Boohoos chief executive John Lyttle, as well as members of the founding Kamani family, can be classed as essential business.

Essential business: Boohoos chief executive John Lyttle, as well as members of the founding Kamani family, attended a glitzy event with suppliers in Dubai

However, the instruction on the vamped-up invitation, replete with women in bikinis and doing high kicks, was to arrive at Dubais flashy hotels at the weekend before the real business began.

We are told that suppliers, mainly from the sub-Continent, were able to make their own choices about attending in the midst of the pandemic.

However, if you are a textile and fashion business, seeking to bid for or retain contracts with one of Europes fastest-growing groups, it would be tricky to stay away even if there were concerns about Covid-19.

Everyone involved in the event was, we have been reassured, tested for Covid before and afterwards and social distancing properly enforced.

But there were moments during the week when senior Boohoo executives were seen without masks, even though the rules on faced coverings in Dubai hotels in public areas are extremely strict.

The optics of all of this for a company under close scrutiny are all wrong. Some suppliers are understood to have been uncomfortable with the arrangements.

As seriously, even in the often over-exuberant fashion sector it is not a good image for the bosses to be living it up in Dubai amid a pandemic.

It is impossible to forget Boohoo is a company in the process of reforming practices in a supply chain where inattention to working conditions and pay in Leicester garment sweat shops has been shameful.

Home rule

When it comes to financial regulation, Britain and the US tend to sing from the same song sheet.

After all, the Wall Street banks, like it or not, dominate trading, M&A and public fundraisings in the City. There is great potential for divergence ahead.

Boris Johnsons government, amid some resistance, is preparing to relax regulation, although the Singapore analogy is slightly bonkers.

The rule of law in Singapore under the Lee family dynasty, still in control, is brutal, and it is the low-tax regime which is different.

No one should have any doubt about attitudes toward financial wrongdoers, as former Barings trader Nick Leeson could testify.

As far as one can tell, the approach favoured in London is simply about making it easier to trade new instruments, such as green bonds and their derivatives, and seeking to attract more initial public offerings to the Square Mile by changing listing requirements but not relaxing governance standards.

Nevertheless, as post-Brexit UK liberalises, the Biden regime is tightening. The choice of Gary Gensler, a poacher-turned-gamekeeper, as the next chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission suggests, the Wild West of the Trump years is over.

Gensler grew up at Goldman Sachs and was the key figure in imposing new discipline on Americas banks in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis. In his current role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has taken a keen interest in bitcoin.

Better regulation of cryptocurrencies, not before time, probably will be a focus of attention when he takes over at the SEC.

Stronger consumer enforcement  defanged in the Trump years  is to be strengthened amid pressure from former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. Johnsons instinctive liberalism is likely to face challenge from Bidens interventionist tendency.

China syndrome

There always have been big questions about the integrity of Chinese economic data. Nevertheless, we have to take at face value the 6.5 per cent surge in output in the final quarter of 2020 and 2.3 per cent increase in the size of the economy over the full year.

As much of the world suffers under the shadow of the Wuhan virus it is hard not to applaud this miraculous turnaround.

In much the same way as Chinas struggle with Covid casts a shadow over global prosperity this time last year, we should reluctantly see the strong rebound as a shard of light.
Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Abbie Chatfield and Ash Williams have been getting hot and heavy in the jungle on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

But it appears a love triangle is forming in camp with Pettifleur Berenger, 56, confessing she could steal the hunky comedian away from Abbie.

During Monday night's episode, The Real Housewives of Melbourne star said she could take Ash if she gave him the 'green light'.

Hear her roar: I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! star Pettifleur Berenger, 56, (pictured) said she can steal Ash Williams from Abbie Chatfield if she gives him the 'green light' in the jungle on Monday

After looking at Abbie and Ash cuddling in camp, she said: 'Abbie is very keen and Ash is going with the flow. You can't blame the guy, right?'

Pettifleur then spoke with co-star Grant Denyer in a private conversation about her affections for the muscled comedy king.

'[Abbie's] scared that he's going to slip away, so she's hanging tight, I reckon,' Pettifleur said. 'And if I give Ash the green light, she's going to lose him.'

Watch out: '[Abbie's] scared that he's going to slip away, so she's hanging tight, I reckon,' said Pettifleur. 'And if I give Ash the green light, she's going to lose him'

Grant got Pettifleur to explain what the 'green light' was for, with her saying: 'Oh, to have a bit of a kiss and a cuddle.'

Pettifleur said the comedian has made her feel 'a lot softer' since coming into the camp with her admitting she has had her barriers up.

'I've been barricading myself in this big iron cage,' said Pettifleur, before Grant suggested maybe she should look for an unattached campmate.

Eyes for her: 'He's ticking all the boxes for me at the moment. He's really started chipping away at me,' said Pettifleur

'He's ticking all the boxes for me at the moment. He's really started chipping away at me,' said Pettifleur.

She then lamented her frustration with Abbie: 'You can't even get, like, frickin' two seconds,' she added. 'Like, that would be gone if I really wanted to.'

Ash later spoke with Grant and Alli Simpson saying 'he was in trouble' with the women fighting over his affections.

Watch your back, Abbie! Pettifleur then lamented her frustrations. 'You can't even get, like, frickin' two seconds,' she added. 'Like, that would be gone if I really wanted to.'

'So, she's legit huh,' Ash said, talking about Pettifleur.

'I'm going to have to actually talk to Paulini and get her to simmer the whole thing,' he said, of the women fighting for his affections.

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Ten
Representative Peter Meijer acknowledged on Sunday that I may very well have ended my career after joining nine other Republicans who voted last week to impeach President Trump.

But in an appearance on ABCs This Week, Mr. Meijer  a Michigan freshman who succeeded Justin Amash, who joined the House as a Republican but became in independent in 2019 before voting to impeach the president that year  stood by the decision.

But I think its also important that we have elected leaders who are not thinking solely about whats in their individual self-interest, not what is going to be politically expedient, but what we actually need for the country, he said, noting that his seat was once held by former President Gerald Ford.

Mr. Ford committed a courageous act  one that ended his political career  when he pardoned Richard M. Nixon after Watergate, Mr. Meijer said. Although he did not wish to mirror Mr. Fords electoral defeat, he said he wanted to ensure that political leaders focused on the fact that we are a nation of laws, not men and put the nations interest above that of their own careers.
Portugal's motor racing chief is "optimistic" that Portimao could return to a second consecutive covid-affected Formula 1 calendar this year.

The sport has already made amendments to its earlier-planned schedule, shifting Melbourne to November and removing Shanghai for now.

Imola, also a substitute circuit in 2020, was appointed as a replacement, and now there are reports that several other races are in danger.

Specifically, the street races in Monaco, Baku and Montreal are rumoured to be in doubt, although a spokesperson told us there are no further calendar changes planned for now.

But if those changes do come, Portugal may be in a position to fill a gap.

"There could be more important priorities for the government, but I'm definitely optimistic we can expect a decision by the end of February," said Ni Amorim, president of Portugal's motor racing association.

"I am cautiously optimistic that thanks to the current lockdown and the vaccination campaign we will be able to hold the race in May," he told the Expresso newspaper.

"The situation can look very different in three or four months. If that's the case, we can run the race," Amorim added.

Meanwhile, Imola boss Giancarlo Minardi says he is not sure if the Italian circuit will be able to host spectators at its 18 April race.

"I don't think the decision will be made until April, but we are ready for any scenario," he told Il Resto del Carlino newspaper.

"We can open the circuit partially, we can open it completely or we can hold a race with empty stands," said the former F1 team boss.

"For now it doesn't really bother me. I am simply proud that Imola is again included in the Formula 1 calendar."

(GMM)
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

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Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

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Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

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Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

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Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

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Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

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Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

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Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

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Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

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Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

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Welcome message from our new VC, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi

Professor Vilakazi assumed office on 1 January 2021 and looks forward to stewarding the University in his capacity as the Vice-Chancellor and Principal:

"Dear colleagues,

I hope that you are all well and safe.



I hope that you have had some time to spend with your family, friends and loved ones and that you are ready to return to work refreshed and prepared to face any challenges that may come our way.



I know that many people are hoping to wish away the coronavirus and the havoc that it wreaks in our lives. The reality is that it will still be with us at least for the next few months, and we will have to do all that we can to keep each other safe and strong  physically, mentally and emotionally.



There are also many who are hoping for everything to return to normal. To those seeking to return to the old status quo, I challenge you to think and act differently. Our lives have transformed significantly in recent months  some of us have lost loved ones, some of us have been infected, and we have all been impacted in some way. Our world of work has changed, and so have our ways of learning and teaching. We have the opportunity to reimagine our world, to retain the good from the past, to be creative in our present reality, and to advance boldly, where others are still to venture.



We need to draw on our collective strength, our resilience and our ability to adapt in the face of adversity to craft a new world that is beneficial to our community, and to our society.



This is just a short note to welcome you back to Wits. A newsletter outlining my vision and plans for 2021 will follow in due course.



I look forward to working with you in the next (centennial) phase of this great institution.



Strength to you all."



Professor Zeblon Vilakazi

Vice-Chancellor and Principal


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A Joe Biden official has told the Honduran migrant caravan heading to the United States to stop their journey because 'things at the border won't change overnight'.

Guatemalan security forces on Sunday used sticks and tear gas to beat back the group just days before the advent of a new U.S. administration, which urged travelers to abandon their travel. Between 7,000 and 8,000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say.

The first migrant caravan of the year comes less than a week before Biden takes office on Wednesday promising to adopt a more humane approach to migration than Donald Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a priority of his administration. The incoming administration say they will work to address the root causes of migration, expand lawful pathways and rethink asylum processing.

But a senior source told NBC: 'The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight. [They] need to understand they're not going to be able to come into the United States immediately. There's help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey.'

The official, who was not named, did not comment when asylum seekers might be able to enter the U.S. or whether they will be detained ahead of a court hearing. They said those already waiting at the border will be a priority.

'We have to provide a message that health and hope is on the way, but coming right now does not make sense for their own safety while we put into place processes that they may be able to access in the future,' the source added.

Scroll down for video

Guatemalan soldiers and policemen form a human barricade to stop Honduran migrants walking on a highway near to Chiquimula, Guatemala Sunday. Guatemalan security forces detained and violently reprimanded a migrant caravan

Honduran migrants clash with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Guatemalan authorities estimated that as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants crossed into Guatemala as part of an effort to form a new caravan to reach the U.S. border

A Joe Biden official on Sunday told the Honduran migrant caravan heading to the United States, pictured Saturday, to stop their journey because they will not be let in

A Honduran migrant is tended to by Guatemalan soldiers after they clashed with them in a bid to reach the U.S. border in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Sunday. Guatemalan security forces used sticks and tear gas to beat back the group just days before the advent of a new U.S. administration, which urged travelers to abandon their travel

Injured women, part of a Honduran migrant caravan in their bid to reach the U.S. border, weep as they sit on the side of a highway after clashing with Guatemalan police and soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Guatemala, Sunday

A second Biden transition official, speaking on background, said: 'Overcoming the challenges created by the chaotic and cruel policies of the last four years, and those presented by COVID-19, will take time.

'In the meantime, the journey to the United States remains extraordinarily dangerous, and those in the region should not believe anyone peddling the lie that our border will be open to everyone next month.'

The migrants are fleeing poverty and violence in a region hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November.

Footage shows a large section of the caravan clashed early on Sunday with Guatemalan security officials, some 3,000 of whom had mustered by the village of Vado Hondo, about 34 miles from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador.

'We want the Guatemalans to let us past,' said Joaquin Ortiz, a Honduran in the caravan. 'Because we're not leaving here. We're going to carry on. I want to get through because it's horrible in our country. There's nothing in Honduras.'

Guatemalan soldiers block part of a Honduran migrant caravan in their bid to reach the U.S. border, in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Sunday. The first migrant caravan of the year comes less than a week before Biden takes office on Wednesday promising to adopt a more humane approach to migration than Donald Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a priority of his administration

Honduran migrants clash with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Sunday. A senior Biden source told NBC : 'The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight'

The coronavirus pandemic has battered Honduras' economy, which last year suffered its worst contraction on record. Guatemalan police agents block part of a Honduran migrant caravan in their bid to reach the U.S. border Sunday

The coronavirus pandemic has battered Honduras' economy, which last year suffered its worst contraction on record.

Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday promising to adopt a more humane approach to migration than Donald Trump

The large contingent of Guatemalan security officers managed to stop the migrants from advancing beyond Vado Hondo, with perhaps as many as half of the people in the caravan dispersing into the nearby hills or heading back the way they came, according to a Reuters witness.

Elmer Espinal is traveling with his months-old daughter. He said they were tear gassed by the Guatemalan security forces.

'My daughter almost choked,' said Espinal, a Honduran native. 'I want a future for my girls ... there's no work over there in Honduras.'

Authorities sent buses and trucks for migrants who wanted to voluntarily return home.

Even if the migrants do get past, Mexico is preparing to stop them at its southern border with hundreds of security forces, arguing it must contain the spread of the virus.

Video footage shared by the Guatemalan government showed hundreds of migrants, bounded by a hillside, pressing into a wall of security forces, which used sticks to repel the surge. An unspecified number of people were injured, authorities said.

During the chaotic melee, security forces fired off a tear gas canister and used a stun grenade to disperse the crowd, a Reuters photographer said.

Between Friday and Saturday, Guatemala had sent back almost 1,000 migrants entering from Honduras, the Guatemalan government said, as the caravan tried to advance toward Mexico.

On Saturday evening, the Mexican foreign ministry pressed Central American authorities to halt the caravan's progress, pointing to the need to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Mexico, it said, was committed to orderly and regulated migration and would oppose any form of unauthorized entry.

A health official said several of the Honduran migrants were injured after being struck in a confrontation with police in Guatemala. Between 7,000 and 8,000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say, fleeing poverty and violence in a region hammered by the coronavirus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November

Honduran migrants, part of a caravan seeking to reach the US, get a ride on a truck in Camotan, Guatemala on Saturday

Honduran migrants rest on the side of the road near a police roadblock at a highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala Sunday

Mexican and Central American authorities have coordinated security and public health measures in a bid to deter mass movement of people across the region.

On Saturday Guatemalan soldiers blocked part of a caravan of Honduran migrants at a point not far from where they entered the country seeking to reach the U.S. border.

The soldiers, many wearing helmets and wielding shields and sticks, formed ranks across a highway in Chiquimula, near the Honduras border, to block the procession of migrants.

Guatemala's immigration agency distributed a video showing a couple of hundred men scuffling with soldiers, pushing and running through their lines, even as troops held hundreds more back.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei issued a statement calling on Honduran authorities 'to contain the mass exit of its inhabitants.' On Friday, the migrants entered Guatemala by pushing past about 2,000 police and soldiers posted at the border; most entered without showing the negative coronavirus test that Guatemala requires.

'The government of Guatemala regrets this violation of national sovereignty and calls on the governments of Central America to take measures to avoid putting their inhabitants at risk amid the health emergency due to the pandemic,' Giammattei's statement continued.

Guatemala has set up almost a dozen control points on highways, and may start busing more migrants back to Honduras, as it has done before, arguing they pose a risk to themselves and others by travelling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Belongings of Honduran migrants remain next to soldiers of the Guatemalan Army after clash at Vado Hondo Sunday

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei issued a statement calling on Honduran authorities 'to contain the mass exit of its inhabitants.' On Friday, the migrants entered Guatemala by pushing past about 2,000 police and soldiers posted at the border; most entered without showing the negative coronavirus test that Guatemala requires

Guatemala has set up almost a dozen control points on highways, and may start busing more migrants back to Honduras, as it has done before, arguing they pose a risk to themselves and others by travelling during the coronavirus pandemic

Governments throughout the region have made it clear they will not let the caravan through.

Mexico continued to drill thousands of National Guard members and immigration agents on its southern border, in a show of force meant to to discourage the caravan from crossing into Mexico.

On Friday night, two groups of more than 3,000 Honduran migrants each pushed their way into Guatemala without registering, part of a larger migrant caravan that had left the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula before dawn. A third group entered Guatemala Saturday.

They migrants set out at about 4 a.m. from San Pedro Sula, young men and entire families carrying sleeping children. Some quickly caught rides while others walked along the highway escorted by police.

Mainor Garcia, a 19-year-old laborer from San Pedro Sula, carried a purple knapsack as he walked along the highway early Friday. He said he was scared about the journey, but willing to run the risk. '(Hurricanes) Eta and Iota destroyed all of our homes,' he said.

'There's no choice' but to leave, said 25-year-old Oscar Zaldivar, a driver from Cofradia. 'You have to leave here, this country because we're going to die here.'

A Honduran migrant woman carries a child on her back as they travel with other migrants by foot along a highway in Chiquimula, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in hopes of reaching the U.S. border

A new group of approximately three thousand Honduran migrants arrives in Guatemala, after crossing the border point of El Florido, in Camotan on Saturday

Honduran police officers are deployed in the Honduras-Guatemala border at a checkpoint during the arrival of the migrant caravan on Saturday

Migrants break a police barricade as they attempt to enter Guatemala at the border checkpoint on Saturday

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Friday that 'The combination of COVID-19, social exclusion, violence and climate-related disasters that occur at the same time with a magnitude seldom seen before in Central America raises new humanitarian challenges.'

The migrants leave with little certainty about how far they will make it. Regional governments have recently appeared more united than ever in stopping their progress.

Francisco Garduno Yanez, head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute, said in a statement Friday that his country has 'to guarantee our national territory' and called for 'an orderly, safe and legal migration with respect for human rights and with humanitarian policies.'

On Wednesday, the 11-nation Regional Conference on Migration 'expressed concern over the exposure of irregular migrants to situations of high risk to their health and their lives, primarily during the health emergency.'

On Thursday, Mexican officials said they had discussed migration with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and discussed a possible program for the development of northern Central America and southern Mexico 'in response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the recent hurricanes in the region.'
L ondon may be deep in lockdown but the housing market has still managed a strong start to the new year.

The average asking price of a property in the capital is now 604,000 according to the latest figures from Rightmove.

But it is the suburbs which have seen the biggest price surges, as buyers clamour for more space  inside and out  for their cash.

Where are house prices rising most?

In Haringey, north London, average asking prices are up 10 per cent to an average of 636,000.

Bexley, on the borders of Kent, and Richmond upon Thames, and Kingston upon Thames, in deepest south west London, have all seen price increases of just over seven per cent in the past year, to 433,659, 846,164 and 637,482 respectively.

Londons most affordable borough is Barking and Dagenham, with an average asking price of 328,830, up 5.4 per cent in the last 12 months.

In north London Jeremy Leaf, principal of Jeremy Leaf & Co estate agents, believes that post-lockdown buyers who have decamped from London will return.

However, the desire for more outside space and accessibility to leisure facilities and even working from home will be permanent, he said.

Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, predicts that the popularity of suburban living will continue in the medium term at least  but he doubts central London will ever be a ghost town.

The third lockdown will prolong the escape to the suburbs trend, he said. Any long-term fundamental change is harder to assess but it clearly wont reverse centuries of urbanisation. If the price is right, people will of course be tempted by all the benefits of living in London.

Inner London house prices fall

Prices have certainly softened in central London already, particularly in areas which traditionally rely on wealthy overseas buyers investing in trophy houses and off-plan apartments.

Asking prices in Westminster are down almost six per cent in the past year, found Rightmove, but still stand at almost 1.4m. In Tower Hamlets prices are down 5.6 per cent to an average 565,163.

Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Southwark, have also seen asking prices drop year-on-year.

Across the UK buyers have in the first half of January, with visits to Rightmove up by 33 per cent, enquiries to agents up 12 per cent, and the number of actual sales up nine per cent compared to January 2020.

And the number of homes sold during 2020 was up ten per cent compared to 2019.

The stamp duty holiday, announced last summer and with tax savings of up to 15,000 on offer, has certainly played a part in the current market activity.

However, many buyers are now stuck in a backlog of 613,000 properties awaiting legal completion, and Rightmove forecasts that around 100,000 households will miss out on the current stamp duty holiday which ends on March 31.

Most commentators believe the end of the stamp duty holiday will not equal a collapse in the housing market.

Activity is being driven by reasons that are far more deep-seated than a cut in the transaction tax, which means any cliff-edge may actually prove to be less precipitous than feared, particularly if the vaccine programme advances at the current rate, said Bill.

James Hyman, head of residential at Cluttons, agrees that demand will continue in the spring and summer  for property which is sensibly and correctly priced.

Dominic Agace, chief executive of Winkworth estate agents, thinks a successful vaccine rollout is key to the future prospects of the market.

I don't think prices will drop post the stamp duty holiday in London. People registering now have already missed the deadline  and yet we are still seeing strong demand.

With a vaccine roll-out potentially ending the need for future lockdowns, I would see another major obstacle removed, encouraging more people to the market.
Leiden University, one of Europe's leading international research universities and the oldest university in the Netherlands, awarded a Doctorate of Law to Steven Hilliebrink regarding the decolonization of Aruba and the former Netherlands Antilles in 2007. Dr. Hillebrink defended his thesis entitled "The Right to Self-Determination and Post-Colonial Governance: The Case of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba" before a promotion committee of seven highly reputable professors of constitutional law. The promotion committee included Dr. A.B. van Rijn who wrote the Handbook of Caribbean Constitutional Law (Handboek Caribisch Staatsrecht).

Dr. Hillebrink made the following assertions regarding decolonization:

1) Dutch politicians are often not aware of the contents of the Kingdom Charter (pg. 141)

2) The United Nations REFUSED to declare that the (former) Netherlands Antilles had attained a full measure of self-governance, a right to self-determination and that Chapter XI no longer applies. (pg. 102)

3) While all members of the United Nations agreed that the Netherlands Antilles had achieved SOME measure of self-government, only a few stated that they (former Netherlands Antilles) had achieved a FULL-MEASURE of self-government. (pg. 221)

4) India added a legally-binding amendment, also known as the India Amendment, to Resolution 945X which states paragraphs a - d of Article 73 "remains in force and could be invoked by the GA (General Assembly) at any time." (pg. 223)

5) Uruguay added a legally-binding amendment, also known as the Uruguay Amendment, to Resolution 945X which reaffirms the competence of the General Assembly to decide whether a Non-Self Governing Territory has attained a full measure of self-governance. (pg. 224)

6) Uruguay stated that they submitted the aforementioned amendment because (a) the Netherlands Antilles were still not fully self-governing (b) they wanted to offer the (former) Netherlands Antilles "a safeguard, an opportunity, of coming at a later date to knock at the door of the United Nations, should the need arise." (pg. 224)

7) The majority of the Fourth Committee considered the decolonization of the (former) Netherlands Antilles to be incomplete. (pg. 224)

8) The United Nations remains authorized to discuss the incomplete decolonization of the (former) Netherlands Antilles. (pg. 224)

9) The members of the UN were careful to avoid creating the impression that they approved of the Kingdom Charter (pg. 215)

(Resolution 945X dealt exclusively with article 73e of the UN Charter which was the issue of reporting to the UN.)

10) The population of the Netherlands Antilles was not aware of the decisions being made regarding the Kingdom Charter

because the records of the deliberations were, and still are, not widely known among the "Antillian" population.

Based on the fact that Leiden University awarded a Doctorate of Law to Dr. Hillebrink, his assertions and declarations are to be considered fact rather than fallacious statements. Dr. Hillebrink's thesis has been accepted as truth by seven professors, as well as Leiden University. The Dutch state must now ask itself whether Leiden University, the Netherland's oldest institution of higher learning, is in the business of awarding law degrees based on baseless and erroneous information.
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China could have acted more quickly in dealing with Covid-19, the WHO's pandemic response probe declared today.

The WHO-backed Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said it was 'clear' that 'public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China' in January last year.

The panel, set up last July after countries including Australia angered China by calling for an investigation, said there was 'potential for early signs to have been acted on more rapidly' by both China and the WHO.

The criticism is at odds with the WHO's public statements at the time, when it praised China for the 'remarkable speed' with which it responded to the outbreak.

The panel also faulted the WHO itself, which has faced a chorus of criticism led by Donald Trump for being too close to Beijing - although evidence has since emerged that China withheld key information from the UN agency.

The criticism of both authorities comes as a team of WHO experts carries out a separate, politically sensitive mission in China to investigate the origins of the disease.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that 'no one should be in any doubt that this is a scientific exercise' to understand how the virus emerged.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pictured last January with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, has come under criticism from Donald Trump for his alleged closeness to China

China's official timeline vs new evidence Official timeline Dec 8, 2019 - Earliest date that China has acknowledged an infection Dec 31 - China first reported 'pneumonia of unknown cause' to the World Health Organisation Jan 1, 2020 - Wuhan seafood market closed for disinfection Jan 11 - China reported its first death Jan 23 - Wuhan locked down Jan 31 - WHO declared 'outbreak of international concern' as China admitted having thousands of cases Feb 23 - Italy reports cluster of cases in first major outbreak in the West New evidence Sep 2019- Blood samples are taken in a lung cancer screening trial in Italy which later test positive for coronavirus Oct-Dec - Rise in 'flu and pneumonia' cases in northern Italy which could be linked to coronavirus Nov - Sewage samples taken in Florianopolis, Brazil, suggest virus was present Nov 10 - Milanese woman has a skin biopsy, producing a sample which later shows signs of the virus Nov 17 - Leaked documents suggest case detected in China on this date Dec 1 - Chinese researchers report an infection on this date in a peer-reviewed study, but it has not been acknowledged by Beijing Dec 18 - Sewage samples taken in Milan and Turin suggest virus was circulating in the cities Jan 2020 - Sewage samples from Barcelona suggest virus was in the city Advertisement

The virus first came to light in Wuhan in December 2019 before spiralling catastrophically around the globe, killing at least two million people and bringing the global economy to an unprecedented standstill.

The expert panel was convened last July amid growing pressure on the WHO to hold an investigation, despite Beijing's efforts to postpone a probe until the pandemic was over.

The panel said last month that it was working on an 'authoritative chronology' of how the outbreak began, amid criticism of the WHO for being too credulous towards China in the early days.

In its latest report, the panel upbraided the WHO for failing to call an emergency committee or declare a 'public health emergency of international concern' until the end of January.

'It is not clear why the committee did not meet until the third week of January, nor is it clear why it was unable to agree on the declaration... when it was first convened,' the report said.

Trump claimed last May that 'China has total control' of the WHO as he announced that the US was 'terminating' its relationship with the organisation.

Joe Biden, who takes office on Wednesday, promised during the election campaign that he would restore US ties with the WHO.

Tedros met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last January, when the WHO praised Beijing for its 'seriousness' and 'transparency' in the early days of the outbreak.

The US accused the WHO of 'parroting' the Chinese government by claiming early on that there was little evidence of human-to-human transmission.

'Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities,' the White House claimed last year.

Even as the pandemic started to spiral out of control in February, the WHO praised China for the 'remarkable speed' at which it isolated the virus.

But in private, WHO officials were bemoaning the 'minimal information' they were getting from China, according to leaked documents.

'We're currently at the stage where yes, they're giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV,' a state-owned Chinese broadcaster, one WHO official said.

Anger at China grew after a young doctor, Li Wenliang, was reprimanded for trying to raise the alarm about the disease - and subsequently died of it.

A team of WHO experts arrived in Wuhan last week and were greeted by Chinese health officials wearing hazmat suits at the city's airport

The virus was first confirmed to have spread outside China in January, when a 61-year-old woman was found to be infected with it in Thailand.

After scattered outbreaks in South Korea, Iran and Japan among others, the virus barrelled into Europe and North America with full force in March and April.

But Italy, France, and Brazil have all found traces of the virus from before the WHO's China office was officially alerted about the outbreak on December 31, 2019.

The WHO's team on the ground in China finally arrived in Wuhan last week after months of negotiations to investigate the origins of the disease.

Tedros said today that 'the objective is to understand how and when this new coronavirus emerged'.

The team was expected to investigate the animal market linked to an early cluster of cases, but it is no longer thought that this was necessarily where the virus jumped from animals to humans.

It is widely suspected that the virus originated in bats, but scientists say that it may have passed to humans via another species, possibly pangolins.

The Trump administration has touted alternative theories, rejected by China, that the virus could have leaked out from a virology lab in Wuhan.

Last Friday, the US state department claimed that some researchers at the institute had shown possible Covid-19 symptoms weeks before the outbreak came to light.

China, for its part, has promoted the idea that the virus might not have originated within its borders at all but arrived on contaminated seafood from elsewhere.

Leading steel-producing companies in the country are drawing up plans to vaccinate their employees across offices and plant sites with the start of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Domestic steel makers like -- Tata Steel, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AMNS India) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) said they will continue to support the government in the nationwide drive and will wait till vaccines are available for corporates.

Meanwhile, players like JSW Steel and Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) are already in talks with Indian vaccine makers to place orders according to their requirements.

JSPL Chief Human Resource Officer said "we are reaching out to vaccine manufacturers for bulk supply of doses and will try to get these doses after completion of all frontline COVID warriors' vaccination."



The company has already categorised employees in order of vulnerability, so the ones above the age of 50 years and those who were infected from COVID-19 can be vaccinated first.

JSPL will seek the guidance of the government and will try to get all its employees vaccinated, he said adding the company has been conducting RT-PCR test, a test which detects COVID-19 virus, of all employees twice a month since September 2020.

Meanwhile, JSW Group which employs 55,000 people directly and indirectly, has plans to vaccinate its staff working at its corporate offices, plants and townships in next financial year.

The group is in talks to buy 2 lakh doses initially from one of the Indian vaccine makers and inject double shots once authorities allow private corporate vaccination programme.

The first COVID-19 vaccine shots in India were given on Saturday to nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanitary workers as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest inoculation drive against the pandemic that has caused 1,52,093 deaths and upended millions of lives in the country.

Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech are the two vaccines being given to frontline workers including doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, ambulance drivers and other medical staff besides sanitation workers, police etc.

State-owned RINL and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) have sent details of its employees to the administration and who will be vaccinated based on priority.

Both SAIL and RINL also run hospitals at their plant sites.

A Tata Steel Spokesperson said the company has been working very closely with the government and respective state governments of Jharkhand and Odisha from the start of the pandemic and serving the community with medical facilities at various locations of its operations.

Tata Main Hospital (TMH) at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand has been the largest COVID care facility in the state with over 1,000 beds dedicated for the purpose. As on date, TMH is the designated hospital for conducting COVID vaccine trials.

In line with the priority decided by the government, the vaccination is being started with 3,000 health workers at TMH from January 16 onwards.

"We will continue to work with the government and as and when further vaccines are made available, we would vaccinate our employees as per the guidelines. As always, Tata Steel stands committed to the safety and security of its employees across locations of its operations," the spokesperson said.

AMNS India CEO Dilip Oommen said, "AMNS India has always given the highest priority to the health and safety of its employees. Whenever the vaccines are available to the corporates, we shall certainly take them on priority and provide it free of cost to all the employees.

(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.)
As President Donald Trump plans to grant clemency to criminal executions and to boycott inauguration day as per PBS NewsHour, former Vice President Joseph Biden is set to sign a dozen executive orders that include legalizing 11 million immigrants on the first day of his Presidency.

The Blaze reported that Biden intends to reverse Trump's enacted policies such as the travel ban to Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen; and the Paris agreement on climate change.

Biden's incoming chief of staff Ron Klain released last Saturday a 10-day action plan in a memo that declared focus on immigration, climate change, student loans, and the coronavirus pandemic that "demand urgent action" to "restore America's place in the world."

In terms of immigration, Biden is said to introduce a "groundbreaking legislative package" that will provide citizenship to existing immigrants in the United States.

"I will introduce an immigration bill immediately. And have it sent to the appropriate committees to begin movement," One America News Network quoted Biden in saying last Sunday.

A total of 8,000 immigrants from Honduras, as per The Blaze, are currently traveling in massive caravans that are already in Guatamela bound for the border with great expectation that Biden will welcome them into American soil stating through Pueblos Sin Fronteras, a Migrants rights group, its recognition of "the incoming government of the United States" who have "shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers."

"We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments," the migrant group said in a statement referring to the pledge made by Biden during his campaign to end Migrant Protection Protocols.

OANN explained that Biden's bill will provide permanent residency and citizenship with five years and three years, respectively; which in turn ratiies the current three year process in place.

In line with this, OANN cited Trump in saying that Biden's immigration plans will endanger the American people.

"To terminate those policies is knowingly to put America in really serious danger and to override the great career experts that have worked so hard - those from DHS. The safety of our nation must come before politics. We have many disagreements in the country, but we should all agree the urgent need to secure our borders, protect our homeland and allow law enforcement to fulfill its mission without political interference," Trump said.

Biden is also set to launch a "100 Days Mask Challenge" to curtail the increase of COVID-19 cases in the United States, which remains to be the top country affected by the pandemic with 23,344,423 total cumulative cases resulting to 389,084 total cumulative deaths as per the World Health Organization as of Jan. 17 at 4:35 p.m. Globally during the same timeframe, there are 93,194,922 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 2,014,729 deaths.

"I know masks have become a partisan issue - but it's a patriotic act. Experts say wearing a mask from now until April will save more than 50,000 lives," Biden tweeted early Monday, Jan. 18.

Biden also invited everyone to "celebrate America, reflect and honor our history, and highlight the incredible diversity of the nation" on inauguration in his Twitter account.

It's worth noting, however, that despite Biden's calls for unity, he called Trump supporters "domestic terrorists" for the Capitol riot, even when there's evidence that the riot wasn't caused by the President's supporters.

It's also worth noting that Biden previously promised to undo all of President Trump's pro-life policies, and also vowed to censor pro-life conservatives if he wins.
A 71-year-old Turkmen journalist has been nominated among three finalists for a prestigious human rights award for her reports from Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive countries in the world.



The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva said on January 18 that Soltan Achilova "documents the human rights abuses and social issues affecting the Turkmen people in their daily lives."



The jury composed of 10 activist groups, including Amnesty International, recognized Achilova's work in a country where "freedom of speech is inexistent and independent journalists work at their own peril."



"Despite the repressive environment and personal hardships, she is one of the very few reporters in the country daring to sign independent articles," the statement said.



Based in Ashgabat, Achilova is a contributor to the Vienna-based independent news website Khronika Turkmenistana (Chronicles of Turkmenistan), which focuses on news and developments in Turkmenistan.



She has in the past worked as a reporter for RFE/RLs Turkmen Service.



Turkmen authorities, who dont tolerate an independent press, have targeted the journalist for her work.



Achilova has been detained by police and physically assaulted by officers, thugs, and other unidentified assailants, while her relatives had also come under pressure by the authorities.

The two other nominees for the Martin Ennals Award are leading Saudi advocate for womens rights Loujain Al-Hathloul and Chinese lawyer and human rights activist Yu Wensheng. Both of them are currently in jail.



The statement said that the award ceremony "will celebrate their courage" during an online event co-hosted by the city of Geneva on February 11.
Irakli Kobakhidze  newly elected leader of Georgian Dream party

By Veronika Malinboym

The new party leader was appointed on January 16 following the congress of the ruling Georgian Dream party, where the candidacy of Kobakhidze was supported unanimously. Following the appointment, Kobakhidze thanked the previous leader of the party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, for defeating a regime based on violence and lies, and for restoring the democratic order in 2012. In his speech, Kobakhidze also said that the Georgian Dream is a progressive governmental Parliamentary team with eight years of experience, and it is ready to continue its work with a new attitude. Similarly, the speaker of the new Parliament, Archil Talakvadze has also addressed Ivanishvili, and referred to him as the guarantor of freedom, peace, and stability, and said that the supporters of the party are waiting to see the next steps forward.Bidzina Ivanishvili, the former leader of the Georgian Dream party since 2018, released an open letter on January 11, in which he announced his decision to leave the post of the party leader, and abandon politics altogether. In his letter, Ivanishvili stated that he accomplished [his mission] and is now handing over the reins of the party to the team he has assembled throughout his leadership.While the Georgian Dream party was deliberating the candidacy for the party leadership, some opposition activists took it to the streets to protest the results of the October 2020 Parliamentary Elections. Nine activists with the Stolen Elections banner were arrested on the charges of hooliganism and disobedience to the authorities, however, all the detained persons were released shortly after the party congress was over.This is not the first time when Kobakhidze becomes the center of public unrest. In August of 2019, he was caught up in the midst of the protests, when a Russian communist MP, Sergei Gavrilov, took Speaker's, Kobakhidzes seat in the Parliament at the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy, where the incident occurred. The fact was soon followed by large demonstrations, where the riot gear was used against the protestors and approximately 300 people were injured.On top of the appointment of Irakli Kobakhidze as a party leader, the Georgian Dream party congress has also appointed the members of the political council. Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze will continue to serve as a partys general secretary, and Vasil Maglaperidze, former director of the Public Broadcaster, will continue to act as Kaladzes deputy. Upon his appointment, Kobakhidze promised that he will do everything in his power to turn Georgia into a truly European country.
President Donald Trump is still ranting that he won the election less than 48 hours before he leaves office, according to reporting from The New York Times.

He also called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a 'p***y' because McCarthy didn't keep the Republican caucus together, The Times said.

Ten House Republicans voted with Democrats to impeach Trump for a second time last week.

President Donald Trump is still ranting that he won the 2020 presidential election, with under 48 hours to go of his term. He also called one of his top allies on Capitol Hill, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a 'p***y because 10 of McCarthy's members voted for impeachment

Trump didn't like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's floor speech Wednesday, which directed some of the blame for the Capitol riot on the president. Still, McCarthy objected to impeachment, but Trump doesn't seem to care

A moving truck was spotted outside of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday, as the president is reportedly still boasting to allies that he won the 2020 presidential election

The Times' Maggie Haberman reported Monday that Trump had expressed dissatisfaction with McCarthy's floor speech Wednesday, believing that the California Republican had bowed to pressure.

Trump didn't seem to care that McCarthy actually came out against impeachment during his floor speech.

'A vote to impeach would further divide this nation. A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division,' McCarthy argued.

But he also placed blame on Trump for the January 6 siege on the Capitol Building.

'That doesn't mean the president is free from fault. The president bears bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding,' McCarthy said.

'These facts require immediate action by President Trump, accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term,' McCarthy also advised.

When Trump was impeached the first time, in December 2019, he would often boast that no Republicans joined the effort - and several Democrats voted against it.

The opposite was true during Wednesday's vote, with 10 Republicans voting with every Democrat in the House to impeach.

The article of impeachment blamed Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection.

Trump has been banished from Twitter since, so he's unable to directly attack anyone he now considers an enemy.

Besides McCarthy, who's long been a Trump loyalist, the president also called Vice President Mike Pence a 'p***y' for refusing to overturn the Electoral College results.

Pence didn't have the Constitutional power to do so.

The day after the MAGA riot, Trump filmed a video saying that a 'new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th' - the closest the president got to a concession speech.

Trump is making the unprecedented move of skipping Biden's inauguration.

The two men are not set to meet, nor will Trump participate in any parts of the inauguration festivities.

Trump will leave Washinton, D.C. and arrive in West Palm Beach, Florida before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn-in at noon Wednesday.

First lady Melania Trump released a 'farewell message' on Monday.

She also refused to give incoming first lady Jill Biden a tour of the White House residence, which is a tradition.
NEW YORK and LONDON, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LMRKTS, an industry-leading optimization and compression provider, announced the completion of its third optimization cycle for clients who calculate their capital requirements using the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's Standardized Approach for measuring Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR).

Banks face new challenges in post-trade counterparty exposure management as SA-CCR is being implemented globally. In addition to managing the complexity of new netting sets and a new methodology, banks must continue to optimize and mitigate exposures with counterparties still utilizing the Current Exposure Method (CEM). The phased transition risks the bifurcation of optimization networks and creates additional headwinds for banks' treasury resource management and XVA teams.

Since June 2020, LMRKTS' solution has enabled clients to optimize against a combined network of both CEM and SA-CCR counterparties in a single cycle. "Our innovative approach to holistically managing both methodologies will not only allow the network to remain intact but also grow as additional regions migrate to the SA-CCR framework," said Andrea Ianniello, President and Chief Commercial Officer of LMRKTS. "This dual objective service is the most recent example of LMRKTS proactively helping our network adapt to the changing regulatory landscape."

LMRKTS is a leading optimization and compression provider that uses mathematical optimization to help financial institutions manage risks and regulatory capital costs. LMRKTS contributes to the stability of the financial system by reducing capital, balance sheet, and operational costs for its clients. Since the launch of its first commercial service to reduce risk and leverage exposures in G10 currencies, LMRKTS has gone on to eliminate trillions of dollars of obligations between some of the world's largest financial institutions. LMRKTS was founded by former traders and technologists who saw an inefficiency in short term risk management and has received investment from The World Bank and Motive Partners.

Related links:

http://www.lmrkts.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lmrkts

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1165515/LMRKTS_Logo.jpg

Related Links

https://www.lmrkts.com



SOURCE LMRKTS LLC
100 years ago  1921

Deeds recorded:

J.T. Nagle to Ella Kipp, Cressona, $1,800.

W.D. Labengood to C.E. Heisler, Orwigsburg, $2,000.

75 years ago  1946

The battle for mine jobs by war veterans which has closed all operations in the Panther Creek Valley, was extended to Centralia today when pickets from that town closed the Mahanoy Coal Mining Co. operation.

50 years ago  1971

An estimated 400 Schuy-lkill County people are expected in the delegation at Harrisburg Tuesday for the inauguration of Milton Shapp as governor of Pennsylvania.

25 years ago  1996

ASHLAND  An orange-glowing inferno sent 20 people into the street as it ravaged seven row homes and challenged over 150 firefighters Wednesday night. Fire Chief Thomas P. Towers said it was a struggle to stop the raging blaze that was devouring the Market Street block. Homes from 1125 to 1139 sustained damage, but all of the people living in them fled safely. The homes at 1139, 1135 and 1133 were gutted. The others were damaged to various degrees by smoke, fire and water. It was the boroughs second devastating fire in 5 1/2 weeks. A Dec. 8 blaze ruined much of the 700 block of Centre Street.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Indianas first dedicated residential facility for homeless young adults who identify as LGBTQ will open its doors this year in Indianapolis, providing services that advocates say are desperately needed.

The initiative is years in the making. Trinity Haven, now an independent not-for-profit, started as a project of Trinity Episcopal Church in 2016 as the church sought suggestions for how to use a vacant house it owned.

Leigh Ann Hirschman, Trinity Havens board president and a member of the church, said leaders talked to local not-for-profits, including the Indiana Youth Group, which serves youth ages 12 to 20 who identify as LGBTQ. They learned that those young people often experience homelessness and have few places to go.

About a quarter of young adults in Indiana who come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer are kicked out of their homes, said Chris Paulsen, CEO of the Indiana Youth Group.

A lot of times theyve been rejected by their families, she said. Thats most often the cause of their homelessness.

Nationally, an estimated 40% of all homeless youth identify as LGBTQ.

And in Indianapolis, Paulsen said, finding help can be complicated, in part because all of the citys homeless shelters are faith-based and not always welcoming to LGBTQ individuals.

Hirschman said after hearing stories about young adults sleeping on park benches church members decided to help create a transitional housing program specifically for LGBTQ youth.

The existing services just werent designed for them, Hirschman said. Many of these people didnt feel safe.

Trinity Haven became its own not-for-profit in 2018. By the end of 2019, it had raised $1.5 million and completed renovations on a house that will be used for one of two programs the organization is launching this year.

That house will be the states only residential facility focused on LGBTQ youth.

Every challenge that weve faced has been an incredible opportunity for learning, said Jenni White, executive director of Trinity Haven. Im excited for whats next.

The initial house the church planned to use for the transitional housing programs for LGBTQ youth did not work out, but in 2018, the church purchased a different house nearby in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood.

That same year, momentum for the project took off. The Lilly Endowment awarded a $300,000 grant to the effort, and Trinity Haven won $100,000 from Impact 100 Greater Indianapolis, an organization of women who donate collectively to not-for-profits.

By April 2019, when the board of directors hired White as the organizations first executive director, Trinity had raised $900,000 and then reached its $1.5 million goal by the end of that year. Thats fairly fast for a new not-for-profit, experts say.

Bill Stanczykiewicz, director of the IU Fund Raising School, said being connected to an existing organizationTrinity Episcopal Churchcertainly helped, because it gave Trinity Haven connections to potential donors.

It would be unusual to raise that much money in that time period without relationships, Stanczykiewicz said.

The $300,000 gift from the Lilly Endowmenta well-established private foundationlikely gave the organization credibility to attract other donors, Stanczykiewicz said.

The same year Trinity received that gift, foundations across the country gave a record amount of money to LGBTQ causes. That was a 13% increase over 2017, according to a report from New York-based Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Trinity Haven plans to start hiring a staff and open its doors this year to young adults age 18 to 21, offering them a place to stay for up to two years. The Transitional Housing Program is meant to teach individuals how to live on their own.

A second initiative, the Host Homes Program, will also launch this year and place individuals age 16 to 24 in the home of a community volunteer for an average of six months. It helps get a young person out of the unstable situation theyre in and in a place where they can feel safe and supported and work very closely with a case manager to determine what the next steps are, White said.

White said Trinity initially planned only the Transitional Housing Program for this year, then to slowly launch the Host Homes Program later.

But in 2019, the city received $3.88 million in federal funding for youth homelessness and intervention and awarded Trinity Haven about $250,000. So White bumped up the timeline.

Quite honestly, (the host homes program) was meant to be three to five years down the road, after the house was up and running and we were well established as a young nonprofit, White said. We took a leap of faith  now we are on a fast track.

Each program will be able to serve up to 10 people once fully operational and once social distancing is not necessary. To start, White said, the Transitional Housing Program will have fewer occupants to allow residents to have their own rooms. She expects demand will be high enough to hit full capacity and start a waiting list.

Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, said Trinity Haven will be critical for the community.

It provides space for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults to be seen, heard and connected in a way that is grounded in trauma-informed care, positive development and inclusivity, Haring-Cozzi said in an email.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to know that one reason young people experience homelessness is because their family is unaccepting of who they are and who they love, she said. This makes an organization like Trinity Haven that much more importantits a place for people to be their authentic selves as they get on a pathway to housing stability.

Leaders of Trinity Haven stress that it is not a religious organization, even though its roots came from a church.

Hirschman said the church wanted to get involved in supporting the LGBTQ community, because, while it is an affirming church that welcomes everyone today, that was not always the case.

We understood that the church had some repair work to do, Hirschman said. And this was one way to kind of mend a tear in the community with no strings attached.

Paulsen, who serves as a board member for Trinity Haven, said project leaders made it clear from the beginning that religion would not be required as part of the programs.

Trinity Haven is not a faith-based organization, but it is supported by faithful people, Paulsen said.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  A new trial likely wont be held until late this year for a man whose murder conviction in the gruesome 2017 stabbing of his ex-girlfriend was overturned.

Attorneys for 30-year-old Gregory Davis and prosecutors agreed last week that a new trial won't be possible until October or November. Davis' new trial had been set to begin Feb. 1 after the Iowa Supreme Court tossed out his original murder conviction last November, ruling that he didn't get a fair trial.

Davis was convicted in 2018 of first-degree murder and other counts in the death of 29-year-old Carrie Davis, whose body was found rolled in a blanket inside a trailer in Marion.
Clarice Massmann,age 86 of Osakis passed away on Monday, May 24, 2021 at the Lakeside Lodge care facility in Osakis, MN. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 11:00 am at the Immaculate Conception Church in Osakis with burial at the Calvary Cemetery. Visitation hour
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
MBABANE - I direct that my daughter Brenda Horton shall not inherit anything from my estate. She must be given her bed and her two sets of comforters.

This is contained in the Last Will and Statement of Jean Horton nee Johnston, who died of COVID-19-related complications.

Her children are now embroiled in a legal battle over the estate.

Her son, who is a police officer, is reportedly threatening the executor of the estate, Antoinette Charmaine Horton, who is his sister.

In her Will, the deceased further directed that upon her death and before the distribution of her estate, the executor should allow her other daughter (Antoinette) to choose from her movable property whatever items she might wish to retain for herself.

I bequeath to my daughter Antoinette Plot No 216, at Ngwane Park Township and direct that she makes Chantelle Horton build a small cottage next to her house in the plot, reads part of the will. She further gave her son Branham a house at Grandvalley and a property at Nhlambeni. She directed that the executor should make arrangements for her body to be cremated and the ashes should be placed over the grave of her deceased son, Kevin.

Refusing

The son, Branham Horton, who is a police officer, is purportedly now refusing to grant the executor access to assets of the estate.

Branham is also allegedly threatening the executor and further refusing to hand over the keys to her late mothers house for purposes of having it fumigated.

The executor has since moved an urgent application at the High Court, where she is seeking an order directing Branham to maintain peace and order towards her.

She is further praying for an order directing the police officer to forthwith hand over to her the keys to the deceaseds home situated at Farm 281 Grandvalley in the Manzini Region. The court has since granted the order on interim basis.

The other respondents in the matter are Brenda Phindi Horton, Charlotte Horton, the Master of the High Court of Eswatini and the national commissioner of police. The three children of the deceased, who had been cited as respondents, are opposing the application.

She averred that in terms of clause six of the Last Will and Testament of the deceased, she bequeathed her house at Grandvalley as well as property at Nhlambeni to Branham.

According to the executor, from the point of reading of the Will to date, Branham had allegedly forcefully remained in possession of the keys to the premises and reportedly refused to allow anybody to the premises as he maintained it was in terms of the Will.

Our mother died of COVID- 19, a fact known to the first respondent (Branham), the homestead at Farm 281 Grandvalley has not and cannot be fumigated as he continues to deny the executrix access to the premises, contended the applicant (executor).

She further brought it to the attention of the court that Branham was extremely violent towards any person who attempted to reason with him to hand over the keys.

Frustration

On January 8, 2021 and out of sheer frustration and in fear for her own safety and that of third parties that may attempt to enter the premises, the executor approached the Master of the High Courts offices in Manzini to attempt to reason with Branham, alleged the applicant. These are allegations whose veracity is still to be tested in court.

The Assistant Master, Makhosazane Mdluli, according to the executor, telephoned Branham to request audience with him to discuss the matter. She alleged that Branham refused to attend to the assistant masters request and instead reportedly hurled insults at her and persisted in his refusal to hand over the keys.

Access

From that point until today, he continues to harass employees of the homestead and to refuse anyone access to the premises. In an attempt to mitigate the situation, the executrix has since hired a security guard and affixed chains to the gates in an attempt to keep third parties out of the premises averred the executor.

It was further her submission that she had a prima facie right to access assets of the deceased in order to properly execute her functions as such.

The executor further narrated to the court that as Branham was allegedly threatening her and refusing her access to the premises, she was unable to prepare an inventory or to fumigate the premises.

She highlighted that there were also assets on the premises that had been bequeathed to third parties in terms of the Last Will and Testament of the deceased. The matter is pending before Judge Nkosinathi Maseko and appearing for the executor is Michael Mngadi of MJ Hillary Attorneys in Manzini.
Illustrative image (Source: Activist Post)

 Policies and regulations on free flow of data across the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must be realised urgently to further promoteand its growing participation in the region, according tos national news agency Bernama.This call was made before the first ASEAN Digital Ministers Meeting (ADGMIN 1), scheduled to be held via teleconference on January 21 and 22, under the chair of Malaysian Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, and attended by representatives from ASEANs dialogue partners including Japan, China, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, and the International Telecommunication Union.Themed ASEAN: A Digitally Connected Community", the meeting aims to promote cooperation among ASEAN member countries towards building digital ecosystems as a pillar in the post-COVID-19 development plan.

Bernama quoted Senior Economist of Jakarta-based Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia , Dr. Lurong Chen, saying that the call is essential now as digital activities which include rule setting, trade facilitation and service liberalisation would certainly be beneficial.



Chen said with the challenging period of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the free flow of data implementation would certainly help to further spur the digital economy, and moving towards its integration across the region./.

VNA



Oommen Chandy Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will head a panel of Congress leaders who would be supervising the upcoming Assembly elections. The Congress Supervisory Committee would comprise ten members which may have a few more inclusions later. The Congress committee will include Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mullappally Ramachandran, Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, former KPCC President K. Muraleedharan, Congress Lok Sabha member K. Sudhakaran, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Tariq Anwar , AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, KPCC Working President Kodikunnil Suresh. Shashi Tharoor is likely to be inducted later. Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony will be heading the poll campaign and would be present in Kerala from mid-February onwards till the end of the Assembly elections. A.K. Antony while speaking to IANS said, "The Congress party will have a collective leadership and most of the candidates will be fresh and young faces. The Congress will come back with a bang in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections." Congress leader K.C. Venugopal while speaking to mediapersons said, "The Congress is on track and those who are rejoicing at the recent local body poll victories are living in a fool's paradise. The Congress party has already done all the basic preparations and there will be several fresh faces as our candidates." The Congress high command does not want the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections to be a repeat of the recent state local body polls wherein the party and the United Democratic Front (UDF) received a drubbing. The main coalition partner of the Congress in the UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), is also happy at Oommen Chandy coming back to the helm of the Congress party. IUML National Organising Secretary and Member of Parliament, E.T. Mohammed Basheer while speaking to IANS said, "Chandy is a seasoned politician and his coming back to the helm of affairs in the Congress party will provide a morale boost to both the Congress and the Muslim League cadres. He is a grassroot leader who knows the pulse of the people and it is a welcome development as far as the Congress, the Muslim League and the UDF is concerned."





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Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses and events. With in-person concerts, talks, comedy shows, food festivals and other gatherings cancelled, we have turned our events column into an events/nonevents column. It will remain this way as long as social distancing and stay-at-home orders are in effect.

During this difficult time, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.

Commemorate the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at the start of this inauguration week. Watch Groundlings' storytellers reveal deep, dark and hilarious secrets. Celebrate the women-owned restaurants with a takeout food fest. View photos created during The Year of Not Knowing.

Monday, Jan. 18; 10 a.m.



2021 MLK Day Celebration

The California African American Museum usually opens up its campus for a "Cake for King" festival and party. This year, the celebrations of music, culture and community are moving online (via Zoom). The 2021 festival highlights MLK's dedication to labor and workers' rights. The day opens with music from the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles followed by a King Study Group, a panel discussion, family story time and a poetry workshop.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Martin Luther King Jr. street sign in Los Angeles. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Monday, Jan. 18; 11 a.m.



Kingdom Day Parade

While there's no street parade (because, COVID), the virtual 2021 Kingdom Day Celebration will be broadcast on ABC 7 and streamed on the ABC7 Los Angeles app.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Monday, Jan. 18; 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.



Virtual MLK Day Block Party & Clothing Collection

Nonprofit organization Big Sunday celebrates the dream of Dr. King via a Zoom block party with music, dancing, fun and ways to give back to the community. People can volunteer to sponsor the event, donate funds for laundry kits or winter SOS kits or donate clothing. Due to Covid-19, the organization is only accepting new clothing this year.

COST: FREE (block party); MORE INFO

Monday, Jan. 18; 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.



MLK Jr. Day of Service - 2021

L.A. Works continues its long tradition of organizing Angelenos in service and activism (virtually and in-person) to honor King's legacy. Take part in virtual workshops on the intersection of criminal justice, homelessness, food insecurity and race. March on Washington virtually via Minecraft.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Search for other volunteer/service opportunities for MLK Day.

The Groundlings present the online storytelling night, 'Sh!t My Folks Don't Know.' (Courtesy of The Groundlings)

Tuesday, Jan. 19; 7 p.m. PST



Sh!t My Folks Don't Know

Groundlings alum Karen Maruyama directs this live virtual comedy show featuring Jillian Bell (Bless the Harts), Michael Hitchcock (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Jeremy Rowley (Bless the Harts), Gary Anthony Williams (Bless the Harts), Ian Gary (Top Gun: Maverick) and Michaela Watkins (The Unicorn). The cast shares some of their deepest, dirtiest secrets -- stories even their closest loved ones haven't heard... yet.

COST: $5 per person; MORE INFO

Laverne Cox is featured in the documentary 'Disclosure,' and participates in a Hammer Museum panel on the film. (Courtesy of Netflix)

Tuesday, Jan. 19; 5 p.m. PST



Disclosure Screening with Laverne Cox, Sam Feder & Amy Scholder

The film examines transgender depictions in film and TV, showing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures deep anxieties about gender. The film becomes available to watch at 5 p.m., but the program begins with a panel moderated by producer and director Yance Ford with Disclosure director Sam Feder, producer Amy Scholder and Emmy Award-winner Laverne Cox. Viewers of the film have 72 hours to finish the film once started.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Viggo Mortensen and Lance Henriksen talk about their new film, 'Falling,' which Mortensen also directed. (Courtesy of Perceval Pictures)

Wednesday, Jan. 20; 11 a.m. PST



In Conversation with Viggo Mortensen and Lance Henriksen

U.K. news outlet The Guardian welcomes the two actors to discuss their new film, Falling, the story of a father and son who navigate a new world as the father's dementia escalates. The movie also marks Mortensen's directorial debut.

COST: Tickets start at 5; MORE INFO

Wednesday, Jan. 20; 8 a.m. PST



Secret Los Angeles

Former LAist writer Danny Jensen joins the Los Angeles Breakfast Club for a morning of songs, silliness and 95-year-old traditions followed by Jensen's presentation on his newest book, which delves into L.A.'s hidden history.

COST: $5; MORE INFO

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Saturday, Jan. 30



10 Days RE:Her

RE:Her, an organization that supports women-owned restaurants in L.A., holds a food festival featuring more than 100 female restaurateurs. They include Lien Ta (All Day Baby/Here's Looking at You), Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill) and Heather Sperling (Botanica), to name just a few. The event features diverse collaborations, takeaway menus and virtual programming.

COST: Varies; MORE INFO

Thursday, Jan. 21; 6 p.m.



Phoebe Bridgers Livestream

Enjoy the hazy pop stylings of L.A.-based Bridgers, who received four Grammy Award nominations for her sophomore album, Punisher. One of the tracks, "Savior Complex," has a video starring Paul Mescal (Normal People) and directed by that other Phoebe, Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

COST: $9.99+ (membership fee); MORE INFO

Thursday, Jan. 21; 7 p.m.



Virtual Stargazing - Tour of the Moon

The University of California, Riverside, hosts an online session that explores the moon's surface. Learn about its craters, marias, mountains and highlands. Test your knowledge in a trivia contest and enter the raffle to win prizes.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

The 'Not A Moment, But A Movement' series premieres on the Center Theatre Group's Digital Stage with "Crowndation." (Center Theatre Group)

Thursday, Jan. 21; 5 p.m. PST



Not a Moment, But a Movement

Center Theatre Group launches a series of events to amplify and center Black artists. The on-demand programs begin with an event introduced by Vanessa Williams and hosted by Bruce Lemon. Angelica Cheri's one-person play, Crowndation; I Will Not Lie to David, is paired with the music of Jessica La Rel and the work of visual artist Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle. (There's a free sneak peek streaming at 6 pm on MLK Day, preceded by a panel discussion moderated by artist and educator Erin Michelle Washington at 4 p.m.).

COST: $10 for nonmembers; MORE INFO

This online exhibition features the work of 15 SoCal-based artists who began to document the(ir) world in January 2020. (Courtesy: Los Angeles Center of Photography)

Through Friday, Dec. 31



The Year of Not Knowing

This online exhibition features the work of 15 SoCal-based artists who began a workshop in January 2020, before the world went completely bonkers. They would develop personal photographic projects that they thought would ultimately be exhibited at the Los Angeles Center of Photography in early 2021. Now available for viewing online, the artists' images channel the changes in the world, their work or perspectives during a year of uncertainty. Artists' talks will take place on the third Tuesday of each month, from Tuesday, Jan. 19 through May 11.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Ongoing



Dine & Bash

Sebastian Joseph-Day, a starting nose tackle for the Los Angeles Rams, has launched a new YouTube series that focuses on L.A. culture through his love of food. He's highlighting local eateries, their origin stories and top dishes. He has already visited the Sammiche Shoppe in Inglewood and Nimbus Coffee in downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Caitlin Gallogly and Charlie Mount star in 'Little Red Riding Hood' for the Live from Storybook Theatre series. (David P. Johnson)

Ongoing



Live from Storybook Theatre

For more than 30 years, the theater has been presenting interactive, nonviolent, nonscary musicals for children ages 3 to 9. Six of its audiences' favorite shows, adapted from classic tales and featuring beloved characters, are now available to watch on YouTube at any time. The shows run under an hour: Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Frog, Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Movie Streaming Pick



Some Kind of Heaven

Darren Aronofsky served as one of the producers for first-time feature director Lance Oppenheim's documentary about The Villages, America's largest retirement community. Some Kind of Heaven traverses its gates and manicured lawns to follow a small group of residents (and one outsider) who aren't happy with the pre-packaged paradise. MORE INFO

The pop-up FLINT at Baltaire in Brentwood features a Mediterranean-leaning menu and includes dishes like olive oil cake. (Courtesy of FLINT at Baltaire)





Dine & Drink Deals

Who doesn't miss going out to eat or stopping by a bar for a drink? Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
Stevenson, Alabama, like its nearby neighbor Bridgeport, Alabama, are two small villages that have interesting railroad pasts.

Both were important venues before, during and after the Civil War. Unfortunately, they both remain sparsely populated today. (However, the towns may like it that way!)

The original Stevenson train depot was built in 1852 and it was destroyed around the Civil War period.

During its existence it had a common use by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and by the Memphis and Charleston Railroad with separate tracks for the trains on each side of the depot.

The present depot was built in 1872 and is on the same site as the original one. It has been suggested that some of the salvaged brick from the original depot was used in the construction of the second depot.

With the decline of passenger service the tracks on each side of the restored depot still are used for freight trains along the designated routes.

The depot has been converted into the Stevenson Railroad Depot Museum and it houses a collection of military, agricultural, Indian artifacts, railroad, pioneer life and other memorabilia.

The depot is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.

Possession of the depot changed several times during the Civil War and the Union forces surrounded the railroad junction with blockhouses and an earthen redoubt known as Fort Harker. Its remains are south of the depot.

Fort Harker was constructed by the Union Army in the summer of 1862 and expanded in 1864, using soldiers and freed slaves during the work.

Fort Harker was an earthen redoubt, 150 feet square, with walls 14 feet high and surrounded by an eight-foot-deep dry powder moat.

The fort contained seven cannon platforms, a bomb-proof powder magazine, a draw bridge entrance, and an eight-sided wooden blockhouse at its center. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stevenson was a vital link to major points throughout the Southeast and in 1863 Union General William Rosecrans forces constructed a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River which allowed thousands of Union troops to cross the river and advance on to the battlefield at Chickamauga during the bloody battle held on September 18-20.

Historic homes on either end of town were used as Civil War hospitals.

While the original objective was to build the railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga, it was also a goal to build the track solely within the state of Tennessee, but the mountainous terrain between the two cities mandated that the railroad had to be re-routed below South Pittsburgh into Alabama.

The railroad stop was named for the railroad's president Vernon K. Stevenson, who was a close friend of Chattanooga railroad promoter, James A. Whiteside.

It was also necessary that the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad would go into the state of Georgia for a short distance before going into Chattanooga.

Adjacent to the depot is the Stevenson Hotel that was built simultaneously with the depot and contained eight rooms with a lobby and two dining rooms that was connected to the depot by a walkway.

The hotel for a long time was the center of cultural activities in Stevenson and was rumored to have been the site of the first showing of a motion picture in the city.

When the railroad abandoned the depot in 1976 a group of local citizens put on a campaign to save the depot and they raised the money to purchase the building and to turn it into the local history museum which exists today.

It is also on the National Register of Historical Places as well as the hotel and 30 more buildings in Stevenson.

Traditionally the city during the first full week of June each year celebrates the Depot Days Festival which includes a week-long event of family-oriented activities.

Parker Edmiston is the contact person for the Museum, which is located at 207 Main Street at Stevenson, Alabama 35772, phone number (256) 437-3012. Admission is free and the normal hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Central Standard Time).

A one-day trip to Stevenson, Bridgeport, South Pittsburg, Orme and the Russell Cave National Monument should appeal to the historical appetite and curiosity of all.

* * *

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)
Members of President Donald Trump's failed presidential campaign had key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to a review of records.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the 'Save America Rally' on January 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House.

An AP review of records shows that Trump aides and those recently paid by his campaign were involved in getting permits for the event, were operation managers, and were on site - undercutting claims that the event was the brainchild of Trump's grassroots supporters.

Women for America First applied for and received the National Park Service public gathering permit. But an attachment to the permit lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump's 2020 reelection campaign.

Other staff scheduled to be 'on site' during rally have close ties to White House.

Some names include Megan Powers, the Trump campaign director of operations, Caroline Wren, the former national finance consultant for Trump Victory, and Maggie Mulvaney, who worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign.

Veterans of Donald Trump's presidential campaign helped organize the January 6 Washington DC rally that escalated into the Capitol riot. Pro-Trump nonprofit Women for America First hosted the 'Save America Rally' and got a permit from the National Park Services for the event. Chairwoman Amy Kremer pictured speaking at the January 6 rally

Tens of thousands of Trump supporters gathered for the rally that spawned the violent Capitol Riot that left five dead

A view of the crowd at the January 6 rally including people holding up pink 'Women for America First' signs

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Women for America First for comment on the Trump campaign's involvement for the rally that drew tens of thousands of people.

In a statement, the president's reelection campaign said it 'did not organize, operate or finance the event' and said no campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally.

It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, 'they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.'

At least one person who organized the rally was working for the Trump campaign this month.

Megan Powers was listed as one of two operations managers for the January 6 event, and her LinkedIn profile says she was the Trump campaign's director of operations into January 2021. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.

A review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles, removed tweets that referenced the rally and blocked a reporter who asked questions.

Megan Powers (left), Trump's campaign director of operations, was working for Trump as recently as this month and was listed as director of operations for the January 6 rally. Caroline Wren (right), the former national finance consultant for Trump Victory, was listed as 'VIP advisor' for the rally. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the 'VIP Lead.' She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trump's reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on November 13

Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is named as a 'VIP Advisor' on an attachment to the permit that Women for America First provided to the agency.

Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. During the campaign, she was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the president's reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to organize credentials for VIP attendees, according to Kimberly Fletcher, the president of one of those groups, Moms for America.

Wren retweeted messages about the event ahead of time, but a cache of her account on Google shows at least eight of those tweets disappeared from her timeline. She apparently removed some herself, and others were sent from accounts that Twitter suspended.

One of the messages Wren retweeted was from 'Stop the Steal,' another group identified as a rally participant on a website promoting the event. The Jan. 2 message thanked Republican senators who said they would vote to overturn Bidens election victory, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas.

She also retweeted a Jan. 1 message from the president promoting the event, as well as promotional messages from one of the president's son, Eric Trump, and Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist and a spokesperson for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Wren did not return messages seeking comment, and locked her Twitter account after the AP reached out to her last Monday to ask her about her involvement in the Trump rally and the tweets she had removed. Several days later, she blocked the AP reporter.

Justin Caporale is listed on the Women for America First paperwork as the event's project manager. He's identified as a partner with Event Strategies Inc., a management and production company. Caporale, formerly a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, was on the Trump campaign payroll for most of 2020, according to the FEC records, and he most recently was being paid $7,500 every two weeks

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the 'VIP Lead.' She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile.

FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trump's reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on November 13.

Maggie Mulvaney had taken down her Twitter account as of last Monday, although it reappeared after an AP reporter asked her about the account's removal. On Sunday, the same day the AP published this report, she blocked that AP reporter on Twitter.

Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on January 6, including one from the president that urged support for the Capitol Police. Trump's Twitter account has been suspended, but the message could be seen in a cache of her Twitter account captured by Google. She also retweeted a message from her uncle, urging Trump to address the nation.

Maggie Mulvaney did not respond to messages seeking comment.

A view of the Women for America First invitation to the rally shared on social media above

The insurrection at the Capitol prompted Mick Mulvaney to quit his position as Trump's special envoy to Northern Ireland. He told CNBC a day after the assault that remaining in the post would prompt people to say 'Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government'

The leaders of Women for America First aren't new to politics.

Amy Kremer, listed as the group's president on records filed with Virginia's state corporation commission, is 'one of the founding mothers of the modern day tea party movement,' according to her website. Her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is the organization's treasurer, according to the records.

The IRS granted Women for America First tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization a year ago, with the exemption retroactive to February 2019. The AP requested that the group provide any tax records it may have filed since then, but received no response.

In a statement issued the same day rioters attacked the Capitol, Amy Kremer denounced the assault and said it was instigated after the rally by a "'handful of bad actors,' while seeming to blame Democrats and news organizations for the riot.

'Unfortunately, for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool. They were wrong. It is not,' she said in her statement on the Capitol riot.

An AP review of social media posts, voter registrations, court files and public records for the more than 120 people charged in the riot show the crowd was made up of longtime Trump supporters, GOP donors, far right militants, white supremacists, off-duty police and QAnon conspiracy theorists.

In the violent riot protesters clashed with police, demonstrators broke into the Capitol building to stop the Congress joint session to certify the election and five people died.

Trump's incendiary remarks at the January 6 rally led to a two-day series of events in Washington organized by Trump supporters.

A website, MarchtoSaveAmerica.com, sprung up to promote the pro-Trump events and alerted followers, 'At 1 PM, we protest at US Capitol.' The website has been deactivated.

Another website, TrumpMarch.com shows a fist-raised Trump pictured on the front of a red, white and blue tour bus emblazoned with the words, 'Powered by Women for America First.' The logo for the bedding company 'My Pillow' is also prominent. Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow, is an ardent Trump supporter who's falsely claimed Trump didn't lose the election to Biden.

Kimberly Fletcher, the Moms for America president, said she wasn't aware the Trump campaign had a role in the rally at the Ellipse until around New Year's Day. While she didn't work directly with the campaign, Fletcher did notice a shift in who was involved in the rally and who would be speaking.

'When I got there and I saw the size of the stage and everything, I'm like, "Wow, we couldn't possibly have afforded that," she said. 'It was a big stage. It was a very professional stage. I don't know who was in the background or who put it together or anything.'

In addition to the large stage, the rally on the Ellipse featured a sophisticated sound system and at least three Jumbotron-style screens projecting the president's image to the crowd. Videos posted online show Trump and his family in a nearby private tent watching the rally on several monitors as music blared in the background.

Moms for America held a more modest 'Save the Republic' rally on January 5 near the U.S. Capitol, an event that drew about 500 people and cost between $13,000 to $14,000, according to Fletcher.

Justin Caporale is listed on the Women for America First paperwork as the event's project manager.

He's identified as a partner with Event Strategies Inc., a management and production company. Caporale, formerly a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, was on the Trump campaign payroll for most of 2020, according to the FEC records, and he most recently was being paid $7,500 every two weeks. Caporale didn't respond to requests for comment.

A view of Trump supporters storming the Capitol building January 6 above

Tim Unes, the founder and president of Event Strategies, was the 'stage manager' for the January 6 rally, according to the permit paperwork.

Unes has longstanding ties to Trump, a connection he highlights on his company's website. Trump's presidential campaign paid Event Strategies $1.3 million in 2020 for 'audio visual services,' according to the campaign finance records. The company declined to comment for this story.

Another person with close ties to the Trump administration, Hannah Salem, was the rally's 'operations manager for logistics and communications,' according to the permit paperwork.

In 2017, she took a hiatus from the consulting firm she founded and spent three years as senior White House press aide, 'executing the media strategy for President Trump's most high-profile events,' according to her company bio and LinkedIn profile.

Last week, within minutes of an AP reporter sending her a LinkedIn message asking about her involvement in and understanding of what happened on January 6, Salem blocked the reporter and did not respond to questions.
For the past four years, the Trump administrations cruel Muslim bans have separated mothers from babies, husbands from wives, parents from children, and siblings from each other. U.S. citizens have been kept from their families, including over 40,000 being refused visas, all due to the administration embracing Islamophobia and xenophobia.

These horrible policies have caused untold pain and suffering to many individuals, families and communities, including Raghad Saleh, who had been stranded in Egypt for over a month without her family due to Trumps various travel bans, including the Muslim ban and COVID-related visa services suspension.

Raghads mother and siblings visas were set to expire in early July 2020, so they were forced to leave Raghad behind with their neighbors. For more than a month, Raghad was been alone in Egypt, without her family or any relatives. It was only after an intervention by local civil rights groups CAIR San Francisco Bay Area and the Yemeni American Association that the Embassy finally issued Raghad a visa.

President-elect Joe Biden pledged to repeal the Muslim ban on Day One. It is a promise he needs to keep to end the injustices of the past four years and demonstrate his commitment to turning the page on a new chapter in our countrys treatment of American Muslims. Overturning the discriminatory policies that affect Muslims and the wider immigrant communities is going to take commitment and hard work. Repealing the Muslim bans is a first step, but as we know, they are just one of the many ways in which American Muslim communities have been targeted in the last several decades.

Numerous organizations have been lobbying the incoming administration to ensure it fulfills its campaign promises. At the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nations largest American Muslim civil rights organization, we know our work does not end on Inauguration Day. The first 100 days will be most critical, so we set forth a 100-day agenda for the Biden administration: Restoring the Rights of American Muslims, Advancing Justice for All. In it, CAIR details policy changes that the Biden-Harris administration should pursue early on to restore the rights of American Muslims and advance justice for all.

The report proposes ways to include American Muslims in a more diverse federal government, reform our criminal justice system and counter racism in policing, end national security overreach, including watch lists, and much more. The new administration can start to implement these proposals immediately, not only to undo the harm of the previous administration, but to build positive change for our country.

As Trumps presidency ends, we are left with a nation as divided and unequal as ever, along with policies that continue to target the most marginalized communities. The Biden administration has a major opportunity to right historical  and more recent  wrongs. We hope this historic new leadership will implement historic and meaningful changes, including the 100-day agenda, beginning on Day One. There is no time to wait.

Zoha Raza is the Communications Coordinator of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Email: zraza@cair.com
On Monday, the Supreme Court Bar Association urged the Centre to include the legal fraternity in the category of frontline workers for the purpose of COVID-19 vaccination. In a letter addressed to Union Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, SCBA opined that this step would ensure the priority inoculation of judges, judicial staff and other members of the legal fraternity. Maintaining that this would be in the largest interests of the litigating public, it stated that early vaccination of the aforesaid category would ensure the resumption of physical hearings in courts.

According to the lawyers' body, the pandemic-induced restrictions have led to a restricted audience, limited hearing of cases, delays in hearings and deprivation of the rights of incarcerated persons. As per the country's current policy, 3 crore frontline workers shall be vaccinated in the first phase followed by the people aged above 50 years and the under-50 population group with co-morbidities. Moreover, PM Modi has made it clear that the public representatives do not fall in the category of frontline workers and advised them to take the vaccine only when their turn comes.

Read: 3,81,305 Beneficiaries Received COVID Vaccine, 580 Adverse Events Reported: Health Ministry

COVID-19 vaccination in India

On January 3, the Drugs Controller General of India accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN. Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India with technology transfer from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, COVISHIELD is a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine with its overall efficacy of 70.42 per cent. On the other hand, COVAXIN is a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV.

It has been approved in "public interest" in the clinical trial mode so that there can be more options for vaccination in case of infection by mutant strains. Countering the charge that COVAXIN was approved hastily, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has made it clear that all the recipients of this vaccine will be tracked and monitored as if they are in clinical trial mode. Earlier on January 16, PM Modi launched the pan-India rollout of the novel coronavirus vaccination drive via video conferencing.

Congratulating the citizens for their resilient fight against the pandemic, he requested them to shun conspiracy theories about the vaccines. A total of 3,81,305 beneficiaries have been vaccinated for the novel coronavirus in 7,704 sessions held across the country as of 5 pm on January 18. So far, a 52-year-old person from Moradabad, UP and a 43-year-old individual from Ballari, Karnataka have passed away after being administered the first dose of COVISHIELD.

Read: Coronavirus LIVE Updates: India's Tally At 1,05,71,773; 580 Adverse Events Post-vaccine
MIDDLEBROOK, Va., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA) , the preeminent provider of public relations (PR), digital marketing and event planning services for telecom and data center companies, expands its brand, coverage and reach into the UK and EU marketplace by partnering with esteemed industry thought leader Joao Marques Lima as a writer, editor and host. Lima will serve as a media consultant, contributing to JSA's Telecom News Now (TNN) blog and industry newsletters with insight on the trends and latest happenings in the European market. He'll also serve as host on select JSA TV segments, podcast releases and Virtual Roundtable sessions, featuring top European telecom and data center executives.

"We're proud to welcome one of the top influencers in our community to the JSA family," states JSA founder and CEO Jaymie Scotto Cutaia . "Named one of the top 30 under 30 in media by the Professional Publishers Association and the former Editor in Chief of Data Economy, Joao is a savvy industry insider who brings a journalistic perspective to our JSA content channels. As we continue to grow JSA's industry-focused public relations and marketing expertise in the European market, we will rely on Joao's talent and leadership to create a new level of insight and content for our industry, further strengthening our multiple ways to get our clients and industry news heard."

Lima's background lies in journalism, with experience gained at publications like the Daily Mail and The Guardian. Dubbing himself a mediatrepreneur, he is a highly-recognized figure in the tech, telecom and data center space. In the past five years, Lima has been named a Top 100 IoT Influencer, a Top 100 M2M Influencer and an IoT Thought Leader to Watch, among other recognitions.

Lima served previously as editor-in-chief for Data Economy - part of BroadGroup, the leading media and event company with preeminent brands covering data center, cloud and IT Infrastructure. Under Lima's watch, Data Economy grew into the world's only 24/7 IT infrastructure news and opinion resource. In addition, he served as editor-in-chief for Capacity Media, a hugely influential voice in the telecom carrier and service provider marketplace. This resume affords Lima rich experience in events, directories, podcasts, print media, market reports and video production.

"I'm honored to be part of the JSA team," continues Lima. "Never has there been more of a need for independent news reporting in our industry. By leveraging the already established digital channels of JSA, I am excited to provide a spotlight to our European data center and telecom community, as the industry continues to innovate and provide the necessary backbone to other businesses and homes, during these trying times. There are many exceptional, even heroic, stories that we hope to share on the JSA channels, across both sides of the pond, that allow us all as an industry to grow and thrive together."



To view, hear and read Lima's upcoming interviews, podcasts and articles, subscribe to the JSA Weekly News Roundup up here . You may also reach out directly to Lima at [email protected] .

About JSA



Celebrating over 16 years of success, Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA) is the preeminent provider of Public Relations, Account Based Marketing (ABM), Lead Nurturing and Event Planning services to the telecom, data center and tech industries. Awarded 'Most Outstanding Telecoms PR Agency' by LiveWire for two years in a row, our success is attributed to our skilled JSA team, innovative tools, and established media and industry relationships. Combined, these allow us to deliver the industry's gold standard in content creation, media outreach, digital marketing and brand strategy services available, orchestrated in a timely, integrated marketing plan customized for each client, to offer optimal and measurable ROI.

To learn more about how JSA can elevate your brand, visit www.jsa.net .

Join the conversation: Follow JSA on LinkedIn and Twitter .

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Police have said there is no evidence to support a claim that dissident republicans fired shots at one of their helicopters.

On Friday, Belfast-based newspaper the Irish News reported a claim of responsibility from the Continuity IRA that it shot at a PSNI helicopter near Newtownbutler in Co Fermanagh last Thursday.

The paper said the renegade group claimed it had fired at least nine rounds at the aircraft from a semi-automatic rifle having lured police to the scene at Wattlebridge Road with a hoax bomb.

The CIRA used similar tactics in the same area in August 2019 when a device exploded when police and Army bomb disposal experts were investigating a security alert in Wattlebridge.

No-one was injured in that incident.

PSNI commander for the Fermanagh and Omagh district, Superintendent Alywin Barton, condemned the latest reported claim of responsibility.

Our investigation into a security alert in the Wattlebridge Road area of Newtownbutler continues, he said.

At this time, we have no evidence that a police helicopter was shot at on Thursday morning (January 14) in this area.

Mr Barton condemned the claim of responsibility.

I unequivocally condemn the actions of those who attempt to damage our communities with their criminal actions and claims, and who seek to disrupt policing and the daily lives of law-abiding citizens, he said.

We continue to work closely with the local community and our inquiries continue and I want to continue to appeal to members of the public living in or travelling through the area to be vigilant.

Do not touch any suspicious objects and report any suspicious activity or object to us immediately on 999.

Update: Sheffield Fire Chief David J. Ullrich, Sheffield Police Chief Eric R. Munson III, and State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey said the cause of the Jan. 13, 2021 fatal fire at 1715 Hewins Street in Sheffield was accidental.

Investigators determined that a failure of the chimney and wood burning furnace caused the fire that took the lives of two residents. The Berkshire District Attorney's Office has identified the victims as 75-year-old James Boltrom and 66-year-old Dorene Boltrom.

"On behalf of our firefighters and the town of Sheffield, I offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the victims," Chief Ullrich said. "We're all neighbors in this small town."

The fire in the log cabin style home started inside the chimney and spread to nearby combustibles. Investigators were able to find several areas where smoke and heat breached the chimney and piping system from the furnace and entered the home. There was a significant amount of wood and kindling next to the wood-burning furnace in the basement.

"Sadly, there were no signs that this home had working smoke alarms," Ullrich said. "Smoke alarms provide the early warning needed when you may have less than three minutes to wake up and escape."

Members of the Sheffield Fire and Police Departments and State Police assigned to both the Office of the State Fire Marshal and to the Office of the Berkshire District Attorney jointly investigated the fire. Assistance was received from other State Police Units and the Department of Fire Services' Code Compliance Unit.
Chandigarh, Jan 18 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday appealed the government not to deny the constitutional right for a peaceful march in Delhi to law abiding farmers of the country on January 26.

SAD's call came at the end of a three-hour meeting of the party's core committee of the party held at the party headquarters here. The party President Sukhbir Singh Badal presided the meeting.

Giving details of the meeting, Harcharan Singh Bains, Principal Adviser to the SAD president, said the meeting considered the government's dragging of its feet over permission for the peaceful democratic march as "a grossly violative of the very Constitution which the Republic Day symbolizes".

The government, he said, could not have chosen a worse and more inappropriate day and occasion than January 26 to deny the citizens of the country their fundamental democratic right to free expression as well as the right to organize democratic activity.

"The farmers of the country have already declared that their peaceful march would be a celebration of the spirit of the very Constitution for which the nation observes Republic Day.

"The march by farmers would in fact be a reminder that India is a democratic republic and is neither a monarchy nor dictatorial set up. The government should in fact thank the farmers and facilitate the march," said a resolution passed at the meeting.

Bains said the core committee also came down heavily against the brazen abuse of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) against farmers who have demonstrated to the world how disciplined, peaceful and democratic their genuine and totally justified protest is.

"It is really reprehensible that the government is taking resort to such draconian measures against the country's peaceful bread winners (annadata) who have not given law enforcing agencies a single excuse in over two months to complain of any violation of peace or law and order. It is really absurd that the government sees a threat to peace and security from the law abiding citizens." The party called upon the government to withdraw all the notices issued to farmers and farmer leaders by the NIA.
Joe Biden will become President of the United States of America on Wednesday. The Trump era will be over and at last we can hope for some decency to return to the world of politics. It has been a horrendous period.

The disgraceful scenes which saw the storming of the US Capitol by a thuggish mob was a fitting ending for the bullying era which Trump gloried in.

Their sole aim was to stop the formal counting of the Electoral College vote for the legally elected next president. It turned out to be a spectacularly failed coup.

It was consoling to see that all the major media outlets across the world condemned, without reservation, the actions of a mob egged on by the then-president.

What intrigued me were the editorials in Catholic papers. The lead article in the National Catholic Reporter rightly fingered those Catholics and other fundamentalists who disgracefully backed Trump for five years.

Last weekend the NCR wrote: Clearly, the current resident of the White House [Trump] who for months has repeatedly and deliberately lied about non-existent election fraud, and who, even as Confederate-flag wielding thugs strolled throughout the Capitol, is guilty of inciting violence in his morning speech on the Ellipse. Later in the day, he would express love for what can only be described as domestic terrorists.

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Obviously, Republicans backed him even when it was against every decent principle the party ever stood for. They allowed Trump to hijack their party and no one shouted stop.

However, there were others outside the party who should have known better but who, to their shame, backed Trump. Once again the NCR explained who should hang their heads.

But also among those with some culpability for [the] failed insurrection are more than a few leaders in our church. Catholic apologists for Trump have blood on their hands, NCR opined.

That is precisely the point...

This is the culmination of what (Trumps) presidency has been about from the beginning  and some Catholics have remained silent, or worse, cheered it along, including some bishops, priests, a few sisters, right-wing Catholic media and too many people in the pro-life movement.

NCR went further and named names, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan  whom I took issue with in this paper weeks before the election. Many one-issue anti-abortion campaigners took Trump as their patron saint.

His lifestyle and his decisions had not a single trace of genuine pro-life decency in them. Unbelievably 50 per cent of Catholics still voted for Trump this year  despite four years of incompetence and racism.

It must stop. If the church is to live up to the teachings of its founder, and if it is ever to be a witness to the culture, it cannot, must not, be a part of what happened at our nations Capitol. There must be no white Catholic nationalism. And a pro-life movement that embraces white nationalism is not a true pro-life movement. Period.

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To be fair, not all Catholic/Christian leaders backed Trump. Many individual Christian leaders did point out Trumps all too obvious shortcomings and paid the price by being attacked by rogue priests on Twitter and by being reported to Rome for making the honest call.

Once again NCR expressed it as plainly as possible: While some prelates have spoken out all along, the bishops conference, as a body, must publicly confess and atone for its complicity in empowering [Trump] and the Republican Party in this violence and in denigrating the Democratic Party.

"The US bishops could start by disbanding that ad hoc, adversarial committee on president-elect Joe Biden, and use its various resources to re-shift how we discuss what it means to be pro-life Catholics. A pro-life movement unwilling to exclaim black lives matter is not a pro-life movement.

The NCR team concludes that we now have a chance to start again.

This week Americas second Catholic president  a decent man  will take over and begin the long, arduous task of rebuilding our democracy. Decent people of all religions need to get on board to help, not hinder, that process.

Let us hope it happens now.
January 19, 2021 | 9:30 AM PST | Zoom | FREE

The SFU School for the Contemporary Arts is pleased to welcome Heba Y. Amin as the SCAs 2021 Spring Audain Visual Artist in Residence.

Heba Y. Amins practice is based on extensive artistic research which integrates film, photography, archival history and digital technology as well as performance and spatial installations. Challenging colonial narratives of conquest and control, she looks for tactics of subversion and other techniques to undermine consolidated systems and flip dominant historical narratives through a critical spatial practice. Her investigations address the convergence of politics, technology, and architecture, and take unexpected, often speculative, and sometimes satirical, approaches to these ideas.

In Amins current exhibition When I see the future, I close my eyes (curated by Anthony Downey at the Mosaic Rooms, London), she reflects upon the history of digital media, the post-digital future of surveillance technologies and emerging forms of digital authoritarianism. The exhibition is process based and is intended as a working tool for producing further original research on these topics, which will in turn modify the works on display. During her time as the artist in residence in the School for the Contemporary Arts, When I close my eyes will work as a model for her engagement with the students. In conjunction with SCA faculty member Sabine Bitter, Amin will work closely with third-year visual art students both towards conceptualizing their work for the BFA Project, and in articulating the annual student exhibition in the Audain Gallery as a site of research.

Heba Y. Amin is a Berlin-based multi-media artist from Egypt. She is the co-founder of the Black Athena Collective, co-curator for the biennial residency program DEFAULT with Ramdom Association, and a curator of visual art for the Mizna journal. With Maymanah Farhat, she curated History is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Amin teaches at Bard College Berlin, is a doctorate fellow in art history at Freie Universitat, and a current Field of Vision fellow in New York. She currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Digital War.

Amins current solo exhibition, When I close my eyes, I see the future, at The Mosaic Room, London was accompanied by her publication, Heba Y. Amin: The Generals Stork, edited by Anthony Downey (Sternberg 2020). She has also shown at the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen, the Bottcherstrasse Prize Exhibition, MAXXI Museum, Rome, 10th Berlin Biennale, 15th Istanbul Biennale, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Karachi Biennale KB17, 11th African Biennale Photography, 12th DakArt Biennale Kalmar, FACT Liverpool, Kunsthalle Wien, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Kunstverein in Hamburg, the IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, and Camera Austria in Graz. Amin is also one of the artists behind the subversive graffiti action on the set of the television series Homeland which received worldwide media attention.



Presented by the School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU in collaboration with SFU Galleries.

The Audain Visual Artist in Residence program brings artists and practitioners to Vancouver who have contributed significantly to the field of contemporary art and whose work resonates with local and international visual art discourses. The visiting artists interact with the students and faculty of the School for the Contemporary Arts as well as the broader visual arts and cultural communities and the community at large. In keeping with the experimental nature of the School for the Contemporary Arts, the terms of engagement are open and change from artist to artist. The program is generously funded by the Audain Foundation Endowment Fund.

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March 17March 27, 2021

Audain Gallery
RIO DE JANEIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) on Sunday approved the use of two vaccines against the coronavirus disease, developed by companies AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

The decision is said to have been made at the regulator's meeting.

The experts noted the safety and effectiveness of those vaccines and requested the companies to continue providing information to Anvisa.

Earlier, the regulator refused to grant Brazilian pharmaceutical company Uniao Quimica authorization for the emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
"And we cant survive unless the issues around domestic borders are sorted out and there is a uniform set of triggers, a uniform set of responses and a uniform definition of hotspots around the country." The tourism industry estimates 60 to 70 per cent of revenue comes from international visitors and a Chinese tourist spends about $8000 on a visit compared to an Australian traveller spending $1500 on a domestic trip. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The TTF estimated the industry would normally post sales of about $5 billion over summer but had foregone at least $3 billion of this, in part because the states had increased uncertainty for Australians about sudden border closures. The Victorian branch of Tourism Accommodation Australia said 40 per cent of Melbourne's tourism usually came from international travellers, highlighting the cost to jobs.

Loading "Continued uncertainty regarding international travel should instead lead [Australians] to consider the opportunity to explore their own backyard," said general manager Dougal Hollis. Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said employers had to accept the prospect of a "hard-locked" border for all of this year. Mr Westaway said open domestic borders were a "must" when the international curbs were so strict, and that companies needed frank engagement with the government. In a separate warning about overseas arrivals, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was little prospect of international students arriving this year in large numbers.

"Tens of thousands of international students coming back here is going to be incredibly challenging, if not impossible during this year," Mr Andrews said. "I take no joy in saying that, but I try to be as frank as possible about that." Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to meet state and territory leaders this Friday to discuss the vaccine rollout, which will proceed within weeks if the Therapeutic Goods Administration approves vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. "I know the disruptions that come from borders and some of the restrictions put in place cause great frustration and inconvenience to people, but when you stand back and look at how Australia is performing against the rest of the world, Id much rather be here than anywhere else," Mr Morrison told radio station 2GB on Monday. The government is seeking information from authorities in Norway after the deaths of about 30 people among 42,000 who took the Pfizer vaccine.

Loading Unless the TGA rules otherwise, the government is planning to offer the Pfizer vaccine to five million people, including health care workers and older Australians, and to offer an AstraZeneca vaccine to 25 million people. Australian National University professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician, said the vaccines appeared safe and effective but would not stop some travellers bringing COVID-19 into the country. "Were not even expecting most adults in Australia to be vaccinated until September or October and then we have to be concerned about the rest of the world being vaccinated as well," he said. Professor Collignon said border restrictions would have to continue in some form until global transmission was curbed, an outcome that might only become clear after the end of the next northern winter.

"We wont really know where we are at for another 18 months from a global travel point of view," he said. Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has pointed to global test results to assure Australians the vaccines will protect against severe illness and death, the priority objectives. Professor Kelly has cautioned, however, that the effect of the vaccines on the transmission on the virus is not yet clear. University of Melbourne professor of epidemiology Tony Blakely said it was possible that someone who was vaccinated could still catch and spread the virus, even though they would be protected against severe illness. Professor Blakely estimated the 14-day quarantine rules would continue for international arrivals until at least September or October and possibly beyond, depending on what was learnt over time about the vaccine benefits.
Africas Development Dynamics 2021

Digital Transformation for Quality Jobs

Africas Development Dynamics uses lessons learned in the continents five regions  Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa  to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, this analysis of development dynamics attempts to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Unions Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local. The 2021 edition, now published at the beginning of the year, explores how digitalisation can create quality jobs and contribute to achieving Agenda 2063, thereby making African economies more resilient to the global recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report targets four main policy areas for Africas digital transformation: bridging the digital divide; supporting local innovation; empowering own-account workers; and harmonising, implementing and monitoring digital strategies. This edition includes a new chapter examining how to finance Africas development despite the 2020 global economic crisis. Africas Development Dynamics feeds into a policy debate between the African Unions governments, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers. It aims to be part of a new collaboration between countries and regions, which focuses on mutual learning and the preservation of common goods. This report results from a partnership between the African Union Commission and the OECD Development Centre.

Also available in: French
File image: A worker uses a shovel outside a construction site in Beijing, China on January 13, 2021. (Image: Reuters/Tingshu Wang)

As most nations around the world struggle with new lockdowns and layoffs in the face of the surging pandemic, just one major economy has bounced back after bringing the coronavirus mostly under control: China.

The Chinese economy rose 2.3% last year, the countrys National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday in Beijing. By contrast, the United States, Japan and many nations in Europe are expected to have suffered steep falls in economic output.

Chinas strength seemed improbable a year ago, when the virus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. As travel and business ground to nearly a halt, the economy shrank 6.8% in the January-March period compared with 2019, the first contraction in half a century.

Since then, the economy has improved steadily, finishing the year with growth of 6.5% in the past three months compared to the same period in 2019. While the recovery remains uneven, factories across China are running in overdrive to fill overseas orders and cranes are constantly busy at construction sites  a boom in exports and infrastructure that is expected to drive the economy in the coming year.

At stalls in the Wuhan Taiyuan Textile Market in Hubei province, garment factory managers have been ordering large swatches of cloth to fill domestic and international apparel orders. At Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group in Jiangsu province, the plants have been running day and night to keep up with demand for new earthmovers and pile drivers. And at Huahong Holding Group, a large exporter in Zhejiang province of framed prints and oil paintings, profits have doubled.

This is the only major economy that quickly recovered from the pandemic and could run business normally, said Zhou Linlin, a Shanghai financier on Huahongs board. So all these orders from everywhere are coming to China.

The overall resilience of Chinas economy, though, masks pockets of weakness.

Jobs abound for blue-collar workers, but have been scarce for recent college graduates with little experience. Service businesses like hotels and restaurants did well late last year in big coastal cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but never fully recovered in inland provinces. Makers of consumer electronics or personal protective equipment have benefited from the pandemic, but exporters to poor countries devastated by disease have not.

Zhang Shaobo, the owner of a Halloween mask factory in Yiwu, received word last March that one of his most consistent export customers in India was sick with the coronavirus. By May, the man was dead. New customers from Zhangs main markets in India and South America also stopped coming to China to look at his latest products.

He laid off all but four of his 20 factory workers, and began making preparations to close his shop at Yiwus wholesale market. With business so weak, he said, I am not going to keep renting it.

Chinas top leader, Xi Jinping, acknowledged the economic challenges in a speech published Friday by a Communist Party journal, Qiushi.

There are profound adjustments underway to the international economy, technology, culture, security and politics, and the world has entered a period of turbulent change, Xi said in the speech, which was delivered in August. In the coming period, we face an external environment of increased headwinds and counter-currents, and we must prepare to respond to a series of new risks and challenges.

Those challenges could worsen in the weeks ahead. After considerable success in taming the coronavirus, China has suffered a series of small outbreaks of late. The government has mobilized swiftly, by building hospitals, imposing mass testing and putting at least 28 million people under lockdown.

The authorities are starting to reimpose a wide variety of health checks that are discouraging consumers from spending money. Even before the recent outbreaks, not everyone was prospering. Consumer confidence never fully recovered last year. Chinese families have proved particularly wary of big-ticket expenditures, like home remodeling projects or new furniture.

Lin Jinting, a manual laborer in Wuhan, can usually earn nearly $100 a day carrying heavy loads home for shoppers. Now, many are deferring major purchases, and work is scarce.

I came here at 8 oclock this morning and I havent had any orders today, he said on a recent afternoon.

Keeping the virus at bay has been critical to Chinas economic success over the past year. While the pandemic ravages other nations, Beijings aggressive top-down approach kept the virus from spreading rapidly across the country.

In China, there have been nearly 100,000 total reported cases and fewer than 5,000 deaths, mostly centered in Wuhan; about 150 cases a day have been reported in the current outbreaks. In the United States, there have been more than 220,000 cases a day and 3,300 daily deaths.

Mary Wu, a 26-year-old saleswoman in Jiande in southeastern China, was only allowed to leave her apartment once every three days during a lockdown last spring. Local schools closed for her children, aged 4 and 9. But life quickly returned to normal, schools reopened and Wu and her family began eating out again.

Wu even sent her elder child to extra classes to make sure that he caught up on any ground he lost. She no longer worries much about the virus.

We all wear masks, she said.

With the virus largely under control, Beijing has relied on its old playbook to rev up the economy.

When Wuhan was still under lockdown, the authorities moved to get manufacturing up and running again in other areas. They provided long-haul buses to get workers back from their home villages to factories after Chinese New Year. State-owned banks extended special loans to factories, while many government agencies gave partial refunds of business taxes that had been paid before the pandemic.

Already the worlds largest manufacturer, China widened its lead this year. Despite the trade war and tariffs, American and European companies turned to China parts and goods, when factories elsewhere struggled to meet demand. Factories within China turned to nearby suppliers to replace imports as transoceanic supply lines became less dependable.

The Made in China label has been especially popular as people stuck in their homes have redecorated and renovated. At the Xingxing Refrigeration factory in Taizhou, managers cant hire workers fast enough to keep up with strong demand for freezer chests for people who want to store more food during pandemic lockdowns.

The consumer electronics sector in China is especially strong right now, for white-collar and blue-collar workers alike. When American managers were no longer able to travel to China last spring to oversee tech projects, demand surged for electronics project managers who were already in China.

Companies were scooping up anyone they could find, said Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, the chief executive of Instrumental, a remote quality monitoring system used by global brands to track and manage electronics manufacturing.

Beijing also ramped up its infrastructure spending. Every major city in China was already connected with high-speed rail lines, enough to span the continental U.S. seven times, but new lines were rapidly added last year to smaller cities. New expressways crisscrossed remote western provinces. Construction companies turned on floodlights at many sites so that work could continue around the clock.

Exports and infrastructure fueled much of the growth over the past year. Chinas exports grew 18.1% in December compared with the same month a year earlier, and were up 21.1% in November. Fixed-asset investment in everything from high-speed rail lines to new apartment buildings climbed 2.9% last year.

Both are expected to power the economy in 2021.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted last week that the countrys economy would expand 7.8% this year. If it does, it would be Chinas strongest performance in nine years.

By Keith Bradsher. Liu Yi and Coral Yang contributed research.

c.2021 The New York Times Company
ARCHIVED - Three members of network introducing irregular immigrants from Algeria arrested in Fuente Alamo



The gang arranged transport in 'patera taxi' type boats which were met on the Spanish coastline and their occupants assisted to reach their final destinations

The Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal organization based in Almeria that brings illegal immigrants from Algeria to Spain, and has arrested three people from the Region of Murcia for alleged crimes against foreign citizens and belonging to a criminal group.

This type of organised and co-ordinated trafficking has become increasingly common in the last few months and there have been several waves of small boats coming from Algeria, spreading the resources of the coastguard too thinly, arriving simultaneously in Alicante, Murcia and Almeria this summer.

The investigation, codenamed operation 'Limestone', began at the end of July 2020, when investigators determined that a person living in Fuente Alamo was part of a network with a stable structure in North African countries and Spain, which specialisied in using pateras, small boats, to bring irregular immigrants into Spain from the African coast.

Members of the network operated on the border between the North African countries, facilitating the passage of people who were transferred and housed in homes located in Oran (Algeria), where they stayed until they could board a boat destined for the Almeria coast.

The network used a portfolio of skippers of 'patera taxi' type boats with which the coordinated entry through different parts of the eastern Almeria was planned.

The modus operandi used consisted of the arrival of groups of boats, coordinating time slots and places of disembarkation, in order to make it difficult for the Civil Guard to act at the time of the arrival of immigrants, as the boats were spread out across a wide area of coastline, and while the Guardia and coastguard were busy attending the arrival of one boat, others would arrive at a number of beaches almost simultaneously, making it impossible to intercept all of the vessels.

During the investigation, the Civil Guard agents learned that on September 16th a waveof boats with people from Oran (Algeria) was planned, which would enter Spain via the eastern coast of Almeria.

La Benemerita established a police vigilance operation that culminated in the arrest of three people residing in the Murcian town of Fuente Alamo, who had gone to the province of Almeria and were waiting to receive the boats as they arrived in different parts of the coastline.

Both boats and the gang members waiting to receive them, were detained.

The investigations carried out within the framework of the 'Limestone' operation have been carried out through Investigative Court number 4 of Vera (Almeria) . The investigation remains open in order to discover the involvement of other people.




'Tandav,' the recently released web-series starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauahar Khan, and Kritika Kamra has landed into controversy for allegedly mocking Hindu deities.

An FIR has been lodged against series director Ali Abbas Zafar and writer Gaurav Solanki at Lucknow's Hazratganj police station late on Sunday night.

Two BJP leaders alleged that the Saif Ali Khan starrer web series hurts Hindu religious sentiments.

One of them, BJP leader Ram Kadam on Sunday said that he has filed a complaint at Mumbai's Ghatkopar Police Station against the series. On Monday, he said that he would be going to the offices of Amazon Prime Video and seek an apology as part of 'Joote Maro' movement.

It's been close to 24 hrs and still no apology from Amazon. Seems like they are proud of or don't regret their demeaning act of mocking or targeting our Hindu Gods. I urge all Hindus to boycott Amazon's all products be it their shopping site or content platform  Ram Kadam -   (@ramkadam) January 18, 2021

"I urge the country and Hindus to stop buying stuff from Amazon and delete Amazon Prime until the makers apologise for Tandav web-series and remove it from their platform. People who mocked our faith need to be punished. Now we will answer them with shoes and not patience," he wrote on Twitter.

      #Amazon  products      prime video  app delet           #  series     .   .         .      Ram Kadam -   (@ramkadam) January 18, 2021

In an interview with News18 India, he adds that there is a need to "hit them with shoes."

In an interview with Republic, he further said "Since some time, members of the film industry have been participating in the act of insulting the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. We control ourselves every time, but this time, it is hard to control, there will be tandav. Some of these people of the film industry should be hit with shoes."

A NewsX clip shows Ram Kadam's protest, where he and supporters trample on the poster.

#BreakingNews | 'Tandav' Controversy: Ram kadam protest outside BKC police station against Amazon. pic.twitter.com/dDi6RR18qQ  NewsX (@NewsX) January 18, 2021

The FIR says that there are angry outbursts on social media against the content of the web series which was released on January 16 and people are posting its clippings. "After watching the series, it was found that in the 17th minute of Episode 1, characters playing Hindu gods and goddesses have been shown in an uncharitable way and using undignified language, which can trigger religious sentiments," the complainant said.

Those named in the FIR in Lucknow have been booked for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, makes destruction, damage, or defilement of a place of worship or an object held sacred; forgery for purpose of harming reputation, statements conducing to public mischief, with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India, or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people.

Also Read: Tandav's IMDb Ratings Drop to 3.5 as Amazon Web-series Panned for 'Mocking' Hindu Gods
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan


Debt Free After Early Loan Repayment

Perth, Jan 18, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to advise of the early repayment of the $4 million Loan Facility with Sparta AG (Sparta) of approximately A$4.6m including interest. Early repayment of the loan has achieved a saving on interest of approximately $171k.Horizon entered into the Loan Facility with Sparta in March 20201 at a period when the COVID-19 pandemic was first impacting global debt and equity markets. Securing the funding at this time enabled the trial mining campaign at Boorara to begin in May 2020, capitalising on the strong Australian dollar gold price and providing important grade reconciliation information for the consolidated Feasibility Study.Following the successful completion of the trial mining campaign at Boorara in late 2020 and $16.1 million capital raising (before costs) in August 2020, the Company is in a strong financial position to make the early loan repayment, fund the current consolidated Feasibility Study and the 70,000m drilling campaign which are both due for completion in 2021.Commenting on the early loan repayment, Managing Director, Mr Jon Price said:"The loan facility with Sparta served a great purpose in delivering timely funding for the successful and profitable trial mining at Boorara during a time when it was difficult to raise capital. We are now in a strong financial position to make the early repayment of the loan, complete the consolidated Feasibility Study and continue with our extensive drilling program, returning the Company to a debt free position."About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.
A close-up view of the Telegram messaging app is seen on a smart phone in London, UK, on May 25, 2017. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Group Sues Apple for Not Removing Telegram From App Store

A Washington group is suing Apple for not taking action to remove the messaging app Telegram, alleging that the platform is allowing violent and radical discussions related to the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S Capitol.

In its suit, the Coalition for a Safer Web alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the California business code, and seeks compensation for damages apart from pressuring Apple to remove the app from its virtual store.

Former U.S. ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg is the president of the coalition.

A logo of Apple is seen outside at the upcoming Apple Marina Bay Sands store in Singapore on Sept. 8, 2020. (Edgar Su/Reuters)

Telegram stands out by itself as the superspreader [of hateful speech], even compared to Parler, Ginsberg said in an interview, according to the Washington Post.

In 2019, European police worked with Telegram to disable accounts associated with ISIS terrorists and other violent groups after they had been communicating with each other and posting propaganda on the app.

The suit comes after Apple and Google removed the social media platform Parler from its app stores, saying that the app would be suspended until they could moderate egregious content. Soon after, Amazon Web Services took the site down due to alleged violations.

We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity, the tech company wrote in a statement to media outlets. Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to peoples safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.

Parler, which describes itself as a free speech social media website, drew a number of Trump supporters and other conservatives, including senators and House representatives. Following President Donald Trumps Twitter ban, the website became the No. 1 app on various app stores before it was taken down.

Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
Standing on the Town Hall Green in Trumbull in late August, Marilyn Moore might have been looking at a younger version of herself.

As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last year, the four-term state senator noticed that many of the events, including the one in Trumbull that day, were led by people in their teens or early 20s.

Theres an army of people coming up now that are ready to bring attention to the racial divide, and are sick and tired of not being heard, Moore said. Now its time for them to step up more. Run for office and get involved, let people know that (racial injustice) is not acceptable.

Moore, 72, has been fighting for racial justice since before the parents of many of those protesters were born. The daughter of a Cape Verdean mother and a father who was an Oklahoma-born Army veteran of mixed Native American and Black ethnicity, Moore became aware that people viewed her as different while a third-grader at Columbus School in Bridgeport.

I grew up in the Hollow neighborhood, and I dont really remember being treated any differently than the other kids, she said. There were some neighborhood kids that would occasionally call me names, but if thats all you know, it becomes normal.

But it was a third-grade teachers gesture that exposed a different reality.

She gave me a card to take home that she saw and she said the picture of a little girl on it reminded her of me, Moore said. The picture was a girl, pitch black, with a bone in her hair and big lips.

The irony is the teacher was one of Moores favorites, she said.

She was always very good to me, and I really dont think she was a racist, Moore said. Thats what we learned at the time. If you saw Black people in a history book, they were wild people living in huts. Thats what she grew up with, and she learned that was OK.

That first lesson in racial otherness was soon followed by others, Moore said. She remembers the 1963 afternoon when she went to the home of a close family friend in the Greene Homes apartment complex and found her in tears.

The TV had showed the picture of the Black kid getting attacked by a police dog in Birmingham, Alabama, and that was where her family was from, Moore said. My family was from Cape Verde and Oklahoma, but that was when I learned that just because Im safe, it doesnt mean a thing if Blacks are suffering someplace else.

It was about that same time that Moore first got to know Charles Tisdale. He was a young teacher at the time who became a kind of surrogate father for Moore, whose own father was born in 1889. Moore was born in 1948 when her father was approaching 60.

Moores first Black teacher, he came to Columbus School in 1962, the same year her father died, and the two remained close until Tisdales death in 2019. Tisdale eventually became a city leader and a 1983 mayoral candidate.

For years, I would call him every Martin Luther King Day, she said. He was the person I remember learning about social justice from. I used to tell him he was my Martin Luther King.

As Moore entered Central High School, the Civil Rights Movement was picking up steam across the country and she got involved with the local NAACP youth outreach. She missed Kings historic I Have a Dream speech in Washington, D.C.  My mother said I was too young to go  but found her niche closer to home.

The first activism I ever did was when the NAACP was talking about starting a petition to change from using Negro to Black in our history books, and that just stuck with me, Moore said. We decided to make a statement that the history books werent telling the story of Black people.

Their proposed act of defiance, dropping their history books on the floor and walking out of class, seemed to them innocuous enough. But as the appointed time neared, the school loudspeaker crackled to life.

The principal came on and said he knew what we were planning and not to do it. They were going to work something out, Moore said. Then the teacher, it was my business class, he said, If you leave, Ill flunk you.

Moore, in response, said if he did he would hear from her fathers attorney.

It was a stone cold bluff, she said. Her father by then was deceased and there was no way her mother would have footed the legal bill for a dropped history book.

But it worked. Moore walked out, but she was one of the few. The threat of repercussions kept most of her friends in their seats.

It was disappointing that there were only a few other kids out there when I walked into the courtyard, Moore said. I just remember thinking that I was proud that I kept my word, and that I hadnt let them threaten me into not doing what I said I would.

Moore remained an activist, although she still felt occasional disappointment as time went on and changes were slow to come.

When it comes to civil rights, it seems like we made a lot of progress, then hit a plateau, she said. A few people get elected or appointed here and there so they can check a few boxes, and it was like, OK were done.

Moore also became active in city and state politics, aligning with candidates like Tisdale and state Sen. Edwin Gomes, whose political careers in ways were a prologue to her own.

Tisdale lost to incumbent Republican Len Paoletta in 1983 by about 1,000 votes in a race in which former Democratic Mayor John Mandanici ran as an unaffiliated candidate and received 10,000 votes. Moore, 36 years later, narrowly missed unseating Democratic incumbent Joseph Ganim in a mayoral primary she won on the Election Day vote but lost by less than 300 after tallying absentee votes.

Moore also served as an aide with Gomes, who in 2004 bucked the citys Democratic machine on his way to serving multiple terms in Hartford.

That was when I started thinking about running for state Senate, Moore said. Working for him, it seemed like, I can do this.

Moore defeated a party-endorsed candidate in three Democratic primaries and won four terms on the state senate.

Still, as Moore geared up to run for her fourth term in 2020, she said she worried that there seemed to be a shortage of activism-minded young people stepping up to replace those like herself and Gomes, who died in 2020 following a car crash. Once again, a Black leader in Bridgeport was there to reassure her, she said.

After church, I was talking to Pastor (Anthony) Bennett at Mt. Aery, and I said, where are the young people? Moore said. And he looked at me and he said, Sister, dont give up. You have no idea how many young people look up to you.

Bennett, who has known Moore for more than 20 years, said the support and encouragement went both ways.

I am inspired by her tenacity, he said.

In the lead-up to her 2019 mayoral run, Bennett said, he saw Moore struggle with unrealistic and sometimes contradictory expectations.

She fought against those in the community who said Shes not Black enough, Bennett said. The bar for people of color, particularly women, is so high. Others thought that, more than representing the people of part of Bridgeport and Trumbull as a senator, they had the expectation that she would be the representative of all Black people everywhere. No one else has those expectations.

Bennett said Moore had been a source of comfort to his family after the unexpected death of his daughter in 2019. And just a month later, the roles reversed as he and the church community propped up Moores spirits after a tough primary loss to Ganim.

That was the time she needed the affirmation of our community, he said. And she moved forward, and shes still fighting. Thats what inspires me about her  she perseveres.

And a little less than a year later, after a summer of pandemic and racial unrest, Moore watched Trumbull High students Chelsea Morton and Nheriessa Medwinter rally a crowd for racial justice and inclusive textbooks, and recount stories of being mocked for their hair and having Black role models denigrated by teachers. And Moore said she felt confident that the fight would be carried on.

I think the generation after me, they kind of got comfortable, but these young warriors will carry the movement, she said. They know what this is about.

Greater Bridgeport NAACP President the Rev. D. Stanley Lord said older generations watching the younger ones reach and surpass their own accomplishments was part of the natural progression.

When you look at the history of civil rights, its always been the younger generation doing the marching, and the older people sharing their wisdom, he said. Martin Luther King was 26 during the bus boycott and 34 at the march on Washington.

Morton, 16, a junior at Trumbull High School who spent much of the summer working with Moore, said she sees in herself many of the same characteristics that Moore displays.

I see that drive and determination to fight through adversity, she said. She never placed barriers on me because of my age. She created space for me and other Black women and men to find and use my voice and its an honor to be part of that legacy.

But even though Moore can now see those who will continue to fight for social change after her, she said she has no intentions of leaving the social justice stage any time soon.

Im going to keep going as long as I keep waking up every day, she said. Ill fight until I see real change.

CHICAGO, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new research report, the "Level Transmitter Market with COVID-19 Impact by Technology (Capacitance, Radar, Ultrasonic, Differential Pressure, Magnetostrictive, Radiometric), Industry (Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Water & Wastewater, Power), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is expected to grow from USD 3.1 billion in 2020 to USD 3.5 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 2.6%. The growth of the market is attributed to a high focus on industrial automation and optimum utilization of resources, increased regulatory emphasis on industrial safety, growing demand for level transmitters in pharmaceuticals and food & beverages, development of wireless level transmitters.

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Oil & Gas Industry to hold the largest share of the level transmitter market during the forecast period

Oil and gas are among the key end-user industries of level transmitters. With technological advancements, the demand for fossil fuels has increased all across the world. Level sensors experience demand from a variety of process industries. In the oil and gas industry, they are used for monitoring the presence of toxins, such as methanol, isopropanol, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2-butoxyethanol), ethylene glycol (1,2-ethanediol), hydrotreated light petroleum distillates, and sodium hydroxide (Caustic soda), in water.

Level transmitter market for non-contact type to grow at highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025

Non-contact transmitters facilitate level measurement without touching the media. These transmitters are the best choice for measuring the level of corrosive media, such as acids and oxidizers. The most widely used non-contact type level sensing technologies are ultrasonic, radar, and laser, among others. These level transmitters are suitable for moist, dusty, and vaporous environments and conditions where the temperature keeps on fluctuating. Moreover, non-contact level transmitters offer numerous monitoring, control, communications, setup, and diagnostic capabilities. Non-contact level transmitters have been widely adopted in process industries as they are easy-to-use, highly accurate, and require low maintenance.

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The level transmitter market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025

The rapid urbanization and industrialization are increasing the demand for level transmitter in the region. However, COVID-19 is a global health emergency and an economic crisis, which has impacted the level transmitter market in 2020 adversely. These end-users are non-operational due to stringent measures, which include lockdown, restrictions on foreign trade, and a halt in the supply of non-essential products and services taken by several governments across the world as precautionary measures for the safety of people. There is also a huge supply-demand gap due to the decline in global demand.

Moreover, the need to meet the demand of the growing population in this region, along with increasing industrialization in emerging countries, is fueling the growth of the process industries in the region. Japan and china are major markets for level transmitter in APAC.

Endress+Hauser (Switzerland), VEGA (Germany), Emerson Electric (US), Siemens (Germany), and KROHNE (Germany) ABB (Switzerland), Honeywell (US), Yokogawa (Japan), AMETEK (US), Magnetrol (US), Schneider Electric (France) are among a few major players in the level transmitter market.

Related Reports:

Tank Level Monitoring System Market by Technology (Float & Tape Gauging, Pressure Level Monitoring, Ultrasonic Level Monitoring, Capacitance Level Monitoring, Radar-Based Level Monitoring), Application, & Geography - Global Forecast to 2025

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The British government is planning to end the COVID-19 lockdown in March after cabinet members agreed that waiting until the summer when most people will have been vaccinated would lead to yet more economic misery, British media reported Sunday.

British ministers are drawing up a timetable to scale back restrictions despite a government advisory committee, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), calling for delays, the Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Previously, the British cabinet has been split between those who want to open up the economy as quickly as possible and those who are more cautious and want to follow the advisory committee's advice.

Under the plans, areas will be put into lower tiers once their death rate has fallen and the number of 50-70 year olds being admitted to hospital has fallen, according to the Sunday Times newspaper.

That age group spends the most time in hospital battling the virus. A blueprint for the end of the lockdown is expected to be looked at later this week which will take into account the latest infection rates, deaths and hospitalizations, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the British government believes that the biggest threat to the plan to end the lockdown as early as the beginning of March are mutant strains, which could be resistant to current vaccines, entering Britain.

Ministers have ordered plans to be drawn up for a fresh crackdown at Britain's borders to stop new variants of the coronavirus undermining the vaccination effort, according to local media reports.

Britain's coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, is estimated at between 1.2 and 1.3, compared with last week's one and 1.4, the SAGE said Friday.

If the R number is above one, it means the number of cases will increase exponentially.

Britain will close all travel corridors to the country from 0400 GMT on Monday in a bid to keep out new coronavirus variants.

The new restrictions will be imposed after Britain on Thursday banned arrivals from South America, Portugal and some other countries over fears about a strain of the virus detected in Brazil. The new rules will be in place until at least Feb. 15.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.
BarcelonaThe Catalan government has only collected 8,000 fines - 4.7% - out of the 170,000 that the police handed out during the first state of alarm between 14 March and 21 June. Despite the fact that half a year has passed since the end of that period, just over half of the fines, some 90,000, have been processed so far. The Department of Home Affairs claims there are still a few months before the bulk of the offences prescribe, but there are doubts that they will all be punished. Since June the management of the fines for breaking the restrictions against covid-19 has been taken over by the Department of Health, which, consulted by the ARA, has not given any balance of how many have been processed and collected in the second and third wave.

April 4, 1968, was one of the best days of Shelby Jacobs life. It was also one of the worst.

Early that morning, the now-85-year-old hidden figure of NASAs space program proved the success of a camera system hed adapted for use on the Apollo 6 spacecraft. But that now-famous slow-motion film footage, which was among the first to show the curvature of the Earth from space, was overshadowed that evening by the assassination of Jacobs longtime hero, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fifty-three years later, the Oceanside retiree often reflects on how the inspiring Baptist preacher  whose memory will be celebrated today on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday  influenced his life.

During his 40-year career in aeronautical engineering, Jacobs practiced Kings nonviolent philosophy in the face of sometimes withering hostility and racism. That approach didnt endear Jacobs to his more defiant Black colleagues, but he believes his slow climb into the upper management ranks at Rockwell International proved that, with patience, Black progress is possible.

I was devastated when Dr. King was killed. He was a person who aimed so much to do the right thing, Jacobs said. Like him, I believe that finesse is always better than brute force. I avoided being an angry Negro. I made the choice to be temperamentally suited to the job so that I could embrace the good people that could help me be a success.

Last year, for the second time in his life, Jacobs witnessed the dawn of a new Civil Rights era. He supported the overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, and he opposed the acts of violence that occurred. Jacobs believes society would be better off by following Kings teachings, like the words: Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.

I think the future for Black progress is promising. I have guarded optimism, Jacobs said. In my lifetime, progress for Blacks has been three steps forward and two steps back. But the net gain is one foot. We have the tendency to offset progress. But my life is evidence that progress is possible.

Jacobs was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 27, 1937, to parents who were menial workers, despite his mothers college degree. When he was 8 years old, his family rode in the back seat of a Greyhound bus to California in search of a better life.

They settled in Val Verde, a small all-Black community near Newhall. During its heydey in the 1930s, Val Verde was called the " Black Palm Springs because it was one of the few spots in Los Angeles County where Black families could swim every day. At most of L.A.s segregated public swimming pools, Blacks could only visit one day a week.

People talk about the Jim Crow laws only being in the South, but racism was just as strong here. It just wasnt as blatant, Jacobs said. The difference was in the South they had signs telling Blacks where the could go and in California it was just understood.

Jacobs said Blacks made up close to zero percent of his class at William S. Hart High School in Newhall, but he also stood out in other ways. He excelled in math, was a three-sport varsity athlete and senior class president.

One of his Hart High classmates was Nedra Briton, a White woman who died in 2011. Britons granddaughter, Leah Mativa of Lake Elsinore, said Jacobs always helped her grandmother with her geometry homework and he left a strong impression on everyone he met.

She always talked about his character, what a good man he was, and how he remained so positive despite all the struggles he had to face. His success meant so much to her, said Mativa, who asked Jacobs two years ago if he would allow her to call him grandfather, a request he happily accepted.

After high school, Jacobs took an aptitude test that showed a high proficiency for math and science, which earned him a scholarship to UC Los Angeles. His plan was to study mechanical engineering, but his high school principal tried to convince him otherwise.

He told me there are no black engineers so you should take a trade (course). But that didnt cause even a ripple with me ... What that principal taught me wasnt about racism but about succeeding against the odds, Jacobs said.

A year into his studies at UCLA, Jacobs was forced to drop out and get a job to support his struggling family. He continued his engineering studies at a community college but never earned his diploma. Then in 1958, the year NASA was born, he got a job with the Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation, a space contractor in Canoga Park. At the time, just eight of Rocketdynes 5,000 engineers were Black.

Jacobs credits his career breakthrough in the segregated 1950s to blind faith, an innate proficiency for numbers and the space race with Russia, which forced government contractors to open jobs previously reserved for White men to qualified women and people of color.

These new workers became known as the hidden figures of the space program, who Jacobs said were frequently discriminated against, perpetually underpaid and mostly underused. But many made significant contributions to the space program, including Jacobs who worked on the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs and spent the last 15 years of his career as a top executive at Rockwell in Downey. On the 50th anniversary of NASA in 2008, the space agency recognized Jacobs as one of 21 Unsung Heroes of the space program.

Jacobs described his life at Rockwell as rewarding, but difficult. He cautiously avoided provoking his white co-workers and faced resentment from his Black co-workers, who called him an Uncle Tom for not fighting back.

If I demanded equality, it would have stunted my growth. I spent all of my life on that tightrope, he said. I was a can-do guy and a team player. I felt an obligation to participate in activism but I couldnt let it dominate my life. I felt pressure from Blacks and was threatening to whites. I called my career a solo trip.

Jacobs first became aware of Kings civil rights work in 1955 when King helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama. Ten years later, Jacobs heeded Kings call for volunteers to help register Black voters in Alabama. For two weeks in the summer of 1965, he and 19 other mostly white men from L.A. canvassed the streets of Mobile, Ala., signing up voters and trying to avoid physical attacks from angry mobs.

It was also in 1965 that Jacobs began working on the camera system that would make him a star during the unmanned Apollo 6 mission three years later. As the Apollo mission wound down at the end of the 1960s, Rockwell started making layoffs, but Jacobs survived the purge.

Jacobs finished his Rockwell career working on the Space Shuttle program, where he was project manager of the external tank disconnect systems. He retired in 1996 and moved with his then-wife, Diane, and their daughter, Shelley, to Oceanside. In 2011, Diane died of cancer.

Widowed at 76, Jacobs wasnt sure how to start over and meet people. He joined an online dating service and in May 2013 met Elizabeth Portilla, who was also newly widowed. They married in December 2014. Since the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in 2019, the couple have traveled frequently around the country to multiple events celebrating NASA achievements as well as its hidden figures and hes been featured in multiple documentaries, TV interviews and articles.

One of Jacobs proudest moments was in January 2019 when an exhibit about his groundbreaking career, titled Impossible Dream, was dedicated at the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey. That was especially moving, Jacobs said, because in all the years he worked for Rockwell in Downey, he never was able to buy a home in the city due to discriminatory lending practices.

Among the many awards and mementos that decorate Jacobs home in Oceanside is a framed photo of King delivering his I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. One of the lines in that speech has been one of Jacobs guiding principle for nearly 60 years.

He said I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, Jacobs said. That was always my dream, too.

___

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University students are doing work placements to increase their chances of getting full-time work in a very competitive labour market.

Youth unemployment in November stood at 15.6 per cent, a level more than double the overall jobless rate of 6.8 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.

During the past year, the proportion of Australians aged 15 to 24 without a job has climbed by 4.1 percentage points as Covid shutdowns interfered with many career prospects.

With competition getting fiercer for jobs Callum Watts, as a 22-year-old student, found work in his chosen field as he completed his civil engineering degree at the University of Queensland.

University students are doing work placements to increase their chances of getting full-time work in a very competitive labour market. Pictured is graduate engineer Callum Watts

For eight months, during his final year at university in 2018, he did agency work as a labourer on residential and industrial building sites across Brisbane and Logan, which led to him becoming an undergraduate engineer.

'Agency work definitely provided me a stepping stone into my chosen field,' he said.

'Through that experience, it was so easy to get along with the guys and it really helped me get on track and get into what I really wanted to do.'

Mr Watts, now 24, said that 'hands-on' experience gave him an advantage over other engineering graduates.

'Agency work definitely put my foot in the door. I don't think I'd be in the same position as I am now if it wasn't for agency work,' he said.

'It put me ahead, I believe.'

He graduated in July 2018 with a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Civil Engineering, shortly after being permanently hired as a project engineer.

Construction engineer jobs often offer jobs with six-figure salaries with a full-time position in Melbourne being advertised with a pay range of $90,000 to $120,000.

With competition getting fiercer for jobs Callum Watts, 22, found work in his chosen field as he completed his civil engineering degree at the University of Queensland

The Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association of Australia and New Zealand said agency work meant an employer could trial a university student in a range of positions without having to permanently have them on their payroll.

'Agency work allows an employee to trial a variety of occupations and business types to see what they like and for employers who are not yet ready to commit to a permanent position,' its chief executive Charles Cameron said.

Mr Cameron recommended employers try a work placement as the economy recovered from the 2020 Covid recession.

'It's a great way to slowly get your business back on track,' he said.

'Agency Work is a pathway into permanent work, post COVID, especially for young workers who are looking for an opportunity.'
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 07:24:14|Editor: huaxia

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A woman walks past a refrigerated trailer serving as a temporary morgue in New York, the United States, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

-- It took the United States 304 days to reach 12 million COVID-19 cases, and only 59 days to have the second 12 million cases.



-- Political polarization and a rejection of science have stymied the U.S. ability to control the COVID-19 pandemic, a New York Times article said.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 confirmed cases topped 24 million, with total deaths approaching 400,000 on Monday, two days ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

The country recorded over 24.04 million cases and more than 398,000 deaths as of 5:00 p.m. Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Just a little more than halfway into January, the United States has added a staggering 3.9 million new COVID-19 cases and more than 51,000 virus-related deaths, said a report by CNN on Monday.

The level of transmission in the United States is "screaming," Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN Sunday night.

It took the United States 304 days to reach 12 million COVID-19 cases, according to JHU data. It took the nation only 59 days to have the second 12 million cases.

The United States, which makes up 4 percent of the world's population, accounts for about 20 percent of global COVID-19 deaths.

A worker assists a man at a vaccination center in New York, the United States, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

According to the latest projections of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 16,200 to 29,600 new deaths will likely be reported in the week ending Feb. 6. A total of 440,000 to 477,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date.

"This is a staggering and mind-numbing number," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, said of the surging U.S. COVID-19 cases and deaths in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"Yet, we still have to cope with nonsensical debates about individual freedoms and mask-wearing," Gupta said.

"A vacuum of leadership, coupled with incompetency in the country to take early action to prevent the spread of the virus even after the COVID-19 virus had been identified" has all contributed to the U.S. failure, Sarwar A. Kashmeri, an international relations analyst at Norwich University, told Xinhua.

Political polarization and a rejection of science have stymied the U.S. ability to control the COVID-19 pandemic, said a New York Times article on Sunday.

"That has been clearest and most damaging at the federal level, where Mr. Trump claimed that the virus would 'disappear,' clashed with his top scientists and, in a pivotal failure, abdicated responsibility for a pandemic that required a national effort to defeat it, handing key decisions over to states under the assumption that they would take on the fight and get the country back to business," said the article titled "One Year, 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths: How the U.S. Guaranteed Its Own Failure."

People wearing face masks are seen near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"But governors and local officials who were left in charge of the crisis squandered the little momentum the country had as they sidelined health experts, ignored warnings from their own advisers and, in some cases, stocked their advisory committees with more business representatives than doctors," it said.

Though vaccinations are underway in the United States, containing the pandemic is one of the gravest national challenges Biden's new team faces as it takes office on Jan. 20.

Biden hopes to administer 100 million doses of two-stage coronavirus vaccines in his first 100 days. Biden also plans to sign an executive order requiring masks on federal property and during interstate travel and is urging all Americans to wear face coverings for 100 days.

"In the United States, there has been a great deal of misinformation and confusion about COVID-19," John Manzella, editor-in-chief of The Manzella Report, told Xinhua.

"As a result, many Americans still do not understand the importance of wearing a mask or social distancing -- a problem that very likely has resulted in higher COVID casualties," he said.

The rollout of vaccines for COVID-19 has been slower than expected in the country. The Donald Trump administration planned to inject 20 million Americans by the end of 2020. However, only about 12.28 million doses have been administered as of Jan. 15, according to the U.S. CDC. 
One of the nations largest grocery chains, Albertsons, announced this month that it would replace many of its staff delivery drivers with independent contractors working for the delivery service DoorDash. Those contractors will not receive important labor protections that have been provided to the full-time employees they will be replacing.

For years, companies and legislators have debated whether so-called gig workers like those who drive cars for Uber or deliver groceries for DoorDash should be entitled to benefits like a minimum wage and unemployment insurance. But in the wake of a California ballot proposition passed in November and a rule just released by the Trump administration, it appears that the erosion of labor protections is advancing aggressively.

When the gig economy sprang up during the Obama years, it seemed novel. Companies like Uber used software to offer assignments to people on call who set their own hours. One major caveat: As independent contractors, these workers wouldnt get traditional wage protections, workers compensation, health insurance or unemployment benefits. But that didnt stop the quick expansion of the gig economy.

In 2019, California legislators sought to improve life for gig-company workers, passing a law that required companies to treat app-deployed workers as employees. In response, the companies spent $200 million promoting Proposition 22, a state ballot initiative that affirmed gig companies classification of their workers as contractors while enshrining limited protections.
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Kerala: Caught in Chinese net, Kerala seafood exporters lose crores, seek govt help

by Manoj Viswanathan

January 18,2021 | Source: The New Indian Express

China's suspension of the import of Indian seafood products has added to the woes of exporters in Kerala already hit by the Covid pandemic. According to the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), China has rejected Indian fish consignments alleging detection of Covid traces in them during the past two months. The move followed Indias ban on 267 Chinese mobile apps in the aftermath of the border standoff, said SEAI Kerala chapter president Alex K Ninan.



It has been a tough time for the seafood export sector after the restrictions on export due to Covid restrictions. The Chinese companies have been rejecting our consignments for the past two months. The allegations of Covid traces in consignments are just excuses. We feel it is a reaction to the ban on Chinese apps. Exporters in Gujarat alone have incurred a loss of Rs 1,200 crore due to the rejection and the non-payment of dues, he said. Sources said many exporters in Kerala are on the brink of bankruptcy due to issues including Covid restrictions, blockade of consignments in Colombo Transhipment Port and the China standoff.



Chinese market alone accounts for around 25% of Keralas seafood exports. The export to Europe too has been affected due to the stringent restrictions triggered by the second wave of Covid-19. There has been a decline in exports to the USA as well. Though South Asian countries are open, the companies are being forced to reduce the price due to the slump in market, said Alex. Seafood products from Kerala, particularly Indian shrimp and ribbon fish, are in high demand in China. However, the companies are not keen to import Indian products due to the deterioration in relationship between the two countries, he said.



Many export firms are in deep crisis. The banks are sending recovery notices. We need government support to tide over the crisis, but there has not been any response to the representation given to the Union government, said Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) Kerala chapter president Alex K Ninan. Meanwhile, All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association has written to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention to revive the sector. According to general secretary Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal, the livelihood of the fishing community has been severely affected due to Covid restrictions. The fishermen and boat workers have been pushed to penury as they could venture into the sea only for 45 days in 2020, he said.
Mumbai, Jan 18 (UNI) Caplin Point Laboratories said that its subsidiary Caplin Steriles has entered into a strategic partnership with JAMP Pharma Group for six injectable products to be filed shortly in Canada. Some of these products have already been filed by Caplin Steriles in the USA.



Commenting on the transaction, Mr C C Paarthipan, Chairman of Caplin Point Laboratories Limited, said, "We have targeted Canada as one of our key expansion areas in Regulated Markets and we are excited to work with JAMP, one of the fastest growing companies in Canada. We are confident that we will be adding more products to this partnership in due course."



Louis Pilon, JAMP Pharma Group's CEO added "We are very pleased and excited to enter into this partnership with Caplin Point Laboratories Limited. This partnership will allow us to continue our mission to provide more affordable options to Canadian patients, as well as our retail and institutional partners. We certainly hope to collaborate on more products with our new partner in the coming years."



UNI JS SB 1223
Going: Centrica's CFO Johnathan Ford

The finance boss of British Gas owner Centrica has stepped down due to 'personal reasons' after only seven months in the job.

Chief financial officer Johnathan Ford will leave the company at the end of the month and will be replaced by Kate Ringrose, the group's financial controller.

His abrupt resignation comes as Centrica is in the middle of a turnaround plan launched amid the coronavirus pandemic and after losing millions of customers in recent years to competitors.

Ford had joined the company in June, when Centrica announced it would cut 5,000 jobs, or about 20 per cent of its global workforce as part of the restructuring.

In April, Centrica canceled its dividend for 2019 to preserve cash as it warned of an increase in non-payments by customers amid the pandemic.

Last week, Centrica said the turnaround plan remained on track and that the outflow of customers switching to competitors had slowed down in the last six months.

Ford said he was 'disappointed' he could not see the turnaround through to its conclusion.

Chief executive Chris O'Shea said he was 'very sorry' to see Ford going but said he was 'delighted' to have Ringrose on board, who 'brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of finance roles across Centrica'.

Turnaround plan: British Gas owner Centrica announced it would cut 5,000 jobs in June

Ringrose, who has been working for Centrica for 16 years, said: 'I am honoured to have been appointed as Centrica Group Chief Financial Officer.

'While there remains a lot to achieve to complete the turnaround of the Company, I have seen first-hand that we have the people, capabilities and market positions to do so.'

Centrica has been in a battle with unions over its plans to 'fire and rehire' workers.

Centrica shares fell 1.8 per cent to 49.73p in morning trading on Monday.
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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Bosses of companies which make dangerous products used to build homes face jail in moves to stop a repeat of the Grenfell fire to be announced today.

A tough new body is being set up by the Government to police the industry with the power to prosecute those who try to cheat housing safety laws.

The Construction Products Regulator (CPR) will employ a squad of safety enforcers tasked with tracking down dangerous materials and putting rogue bosses who profit from them in the dock.

Those in charge of companies which make dangerous products used to build homes face jail in moves ot repeat the Grenfell disaster

43,000 to make flat safe A media planner fears she will go bankrupt if she is forced to pay 43,000 to make her building safe. Cathryn Mchale, 34, bought her one-bedroom flat in Leeds for 127,000 three years ago. She had been thinking about moving, but called it off when a safety check found her block of flats had flammable cladding. Miss Mchale said: Now my flat is worthless and I cant move out. She added: Everyone saw what happened at Grenfell so its pretty terrifying to know that a fire like that could happen here. Advertisement

It follows public outrage at evidence heard by the inquiry into the Grenfell tower block fire which killed 72 people in Kensington, west London, in 2017. It has heard how firms that made cladding and insulation blamed for fuelling the fire showed scant regard for safety  and were able to rig safety tests.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick believes the Grenfell building safety test scandal is Britains version of the VW emissions affair.

In 2015 German car giant Volkswagen was accused of fitting devices on new cars to cheat clean air laws. It was claimed they could detect when vehicles were being tested, allowing the engine to falsify noxious fumes blamed for thousands of deaths.

It has cost VW 26billion in fines and led to criminal charges against company bosses.

Mr Jenrick hopes the new measures will stop the construction industry making dangerous products and avoiding safety checks.

They will all have to pass a strict test enforced by the new regulator  and those who try to avoid it will be punished.

Mr Jenrick will also announce an investigation into how products used at Grenfell got round safety checks. The inquiry was told that a boss of Kingspan, which made insulation used in the flats, said customers worried about the safety of its product could go **** themselves. The executive also said people asking questions were mistaking him for someone who gives a damn.

A former Kingspan employee said he became embroiled in a deliberate and calculated deceit to fabricate test results.

An ex-employee of French firm Arconic, which supplied cladding used at Grenfell, sent an email before the disaster saying material used by the company was unsuitable for use on building facades. The CPR will have the power to ban the sale of any construction material it considers unsafe and bring criminal charges against bosses who defy the rules. All building products will have to be approved by the CPR.

A number of people have come forward with their stories around dangerous buildings, including Cathryn Mchale (far left)

A Government source said: The dishonest methods used to get round safety checks in the construction industry must stop. Flouting these regulations will be treated as a serious criminal matter with appropriate punishments. The Grenfell inquiry has revealed some manufacturers have put lives at risk by gaming the system, putting falsely advertised products on the market and refusing to take responsibility when caught in the act. We are putting an end to this.

The CPR will take over product safety tests from the independent Building Research Establishment (BRE), which has been lambasted by lawyers for bereaved Grenfell families and survivors. They told the inquiry the disaster was the result of an uncaring and under-regulated building industry.

The lawyers claimed that the BRE was manipulated by ruthless and criminal manufacturers, adding: The testing and certification bodies provided no such protection but reinforced the dangerous and dishonest culture within the industry.

They were far too close to those whom they were supposed to be overseeing and far too willing to accept their misleading claims.

Homeowners still face massive bills, MPs warn

By Miles Dilworth, Money Mail Reporter

Leaseholders still face paying tens of thousands of pounds to fix unsafe homes unless ministers add to plans for a levy on building firms, MPs have warned.

The Mail revealed yesterday that Britains biggest developers face paying 2billion over ten years as part of measures to end the building safety scandal. The move would force firms to atone for building tens of thousands of dangerous homes.

However, hundreds of thousands of leaseholders still face an ongoing nightmare as the Mail continues to campaign for action to end the cladding scandal.

They face bills of up to 115,000 to replace dangerous cladding similar to that found on Grenfell Tower in Kensington, west London, where an inferno killed 72 people in 2017.

The Government has set aside 1.6billion to fund repairs, but MPs estimate the total cost will be closer to 15billion. The 2billion levy would sit on top of the current fund  but leaseholders are liable to pay the rest.

Clive Betts, chairman of the housing select committee, welcomed the levy, but stressed: The money is not sufficient. He said: There is going to be an ongoing row now about where the rest of the money comes from. If leaseholders arent going to have to pay, then either the Government or the industry is.
A man who was allegedly using a high-tech drone to film a horse racing meeting at Punchestown Racecourse ended up being arrested by gardai for breaching coronavirus regulations.

The incident unfolded this afternoon when gardai observed two English nationals in the vicinity of the Co Kildare racecourse after they were alerted to the situation by a complaint from a member of the public.

While one man left when he was directed to do so by officers from Naas garda station, the arrested man was allegedly very uncooperative and was detained when he refused to leave the area.

He is due to appear before Naas District Court on Tuesday morning.

Sources told Independent.ie that the two men who gardai encountered yesterday are understood to travel around Ireland where they film race meetings on drones.

There were seven races at Punchestown on Monday with the meeting starting just after 1pm and ending at 4.15pm.

Like all sporting events the event happened behind closed doors because of the pandemic.

Gardai announced details of the mans arrest in a statement.

Gardai in Naas who were responding to a complaint, have today, Monday 18th January, 2021, arrested one male in the vicinity of Punchestown Racecourse.

This male had been one of two persons who had been deemed to have breached the 5km travel restriction imposed as part of the measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19, a spokeswoman said.

While the other person complied with the direction, this male was arrested for refusing to comply.

Following receipt of a direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions, the arrested male has been charged and is due to appear before Naas District Court on Tuesday morning, she added.
Mumbai: The Mumbai Crime branch on Monday busted a baby trafficking racket in the city arrested a total of nine people.

The newborn babies were being sold between Rs 60,000 to Rs 3 lakh, a crime branch officer told media, reported ANI.

One woman doctor who ran a private clinic has also been arrested in connection with this case.

The arrested persons, includes seven woman, were produced before court and they were all sent to custody till January 21.

The gang has sold four babies in the last six months though the police suspects the number could be higher, according to preliminary investigation, The Times of India reported.

They have been booked under the Indian Penal Code sections of human trafficking and the Juvenile Justice Act.

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Chinese netizens are calling for strict punishment and more measures to be taken to protect ancient buildings after a video showing people sell parts of ancient houses built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) went viral on Chinese social media on Sunday. According to the video released by Kankan News, due to expensive restoration costs, many locals in Huangshan City, East China's Anhui Province, who lived in Ming and Qing houses have sold their homes to land agents in order to move into better residences. However, the land agents have been selling parts of these purchased homes to rich collectors and businessmen who use the parts as decorations for their hotels, scenic spots or private clubs. Since many of the old buildings in Huangshan were built using a mortise and tenon technique instead of being nailed together, they can be disassembled and assembled repeatedly, which makes it it possible to move entire houses to other provinces or even other countries. "They are like furniture that can be delivered to anywhere in the world," said one local businessman in the video, adding that an old house with good wooden material can sell more than 5 million yuan ($771, 510). However, according to the Protection of Ancient Houses in Anhui Province regulation, civil buildings with historical value built before 1911 cannot be disposed of privately, and owners and residents of those ancient dwellings must abide by relevant national laws and regulations. The existence of this dark industry chain has angered many Chinese netizens, with many criticizing the local government "for having done nothing." "I couldn't believe it when I read the news! Those buildings are all cultural treasures, but how can there be such an industrial chain? It would be a big crime if they were sold overseas," one Chinese netizen commented on Sina Weibo. "Selling old dwellings is illegal," Shen Binti, a lawyer based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday. According to Shen, increasing punitive measures might be an effective way to prevent such acts. "China has been paying attention to protecting the traditional culture in recent years. Cultural promotion and education for local residents about the law are also very important," said Shen. The video shows a warehouse with piles of wood and wooden structures. The owner is heard saying that if they are not disassembled, they may be recognized as cultural relics. Tong Xingsheng, an expert in ancient building restoration based in Beijing, told the Global Times that China's long history means it has countless ancient buildings, which require more professional heritage experts in each province and region to help take care of them. He emphasized that it is important that cultural relic identification rules be established as soon as possible. He added that Beijing is a global tourist spot mainly due to its ancient historical buildings and traditional culture. "The demolition and relocation of ancient buildings obscures history, which is a big issue related to cultural identity and cultural security."
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A lawsuit filed by an oil and gas operator in Eddy County against two men who were electrocuted last year in an accident on the companys well pad was dismissed by Eddy County District Judge Jane Schuler Gray earlier this month.

Nicholas Gerbich, 28, and Storm Hutchins, 24, were killed when a forklift they were using to move pipe at the job site collided with nearby power lines, fatally sending electricity into both of their bodies.

The tank battery the men were working at on March 4, 2020, was in Eddy County near the junction of South Country Road and U.S. Highway 285.

The incident led to the job site being closed during the ongoing investigation and COG Operating LLC sued the two men and the subcontractor they were employed by, RT Trucking, for damage to property.

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But when the case was filed, neither of the deceased had a personal representative that could be served, Schuler Gray ruled, and the court had no jurisdiction on the matter.

She dismissed the case against the two men, but not against RT Trucking and Sunbelt Rentals, which provided the forklift, or Deans Inc., which installed the power lines.

Personal representatives were appointed by the families of the deceased after COG filed its suit to sue the company for the wrongful death of the men.

But Schuler Gray deemed those subsequent representatives could not be served retroactively after the personal death case was filed, nor could the deceased themselves.

It is this courts opinion that personal representatives appointed for the purpose of bringing the wrongful death suit are not the proper parties to be served in an action such as this, said Schuler Grays decision.

Even though family members and wrongful death personal representatives were personally served, such service on an individual who is not a proper party to this action does not serve to give this court jurisdiction over the deceased persons or their estates.

And of course, a deceased individual cannot be made party to an action, so the naming of the two deceased herein is a nullity.

In COGs case, it alleged the men and the companies that employed them and owned the equipment were negligent in inadequately training the workers, providing faulty equipment that lacked warning labels, and defectively installed the power lines close to the work site, the suit said.

Hutchins and Gerberich had a duty to use due care in the work that they performed on COG Operatings property, said COGs suit. The acts and omissions of Hutchins and Gerbich were the cause of the damages incurred by COG Operating, and judgment should be awarded to COG Operating accordingly.

Dick Blenden, an attorney representing the families of the deceased said the men were sent to the job site under hazardous conditions as it was rainy and wet at the scene, which could have conducted electricity.

He said the men were also not at fault for the location of the power lines adjacent to the tank battery.

Because burns were found on Gerbichs feet and waist, Blenden argued he was receiving electrical current before the incident that killed both men when Hutchins tried to pull Gerbich out of the forklift.

It was wet. He obviously started getting some electrical charge and started hollering or something, Blenden said. When he did, Hutchins grabbed him to pull him out and they both got killed.

The company jumps in and sues both of the dead guys. There was nobody to serve, therefore the court had no jurisdiction over anybody.

The wrongful death case filed against the company was ongoing in Santa Fe District Court, where the deceaseds personal representatives live, Blenden said.

Blenden said the trial in Santa Fe will include expert testimony showing the mens deaths were due to negligence in the location of the powerlines and sending them to work in dangerous conditions.

We think its ridiculous, he said of COGs case. Theyre trying to prejudice a jury by saying our guys were at fault. Ive never seen anything like this.

Roxanne Lara, another attorney for the deceased, said suing the dead men was disrespectful but that the judges ruling was based on the law and requirements for bringing such a suit that were unmet by COG.

Them filing a lawsuit against them 18 days after their death was pretty disrespectful to their families, she said. But the dismissal came from the rule of law. The law has certain requirements as its clear that COG didnt follow these.

Sometimes the application of the law makes you think the right is being done. Sometimes it doesnt. In this case, it did.
Huawei to Establish Biggest-Ever Overseas Flagship Store in Riyadh

Ding Yi / Jan 18, 2021 05:03 PM / Business & Tech

Chinese tech giant Huawei plans to set up a flagship store in Riyadh in an effort to grow the influence of its digital products and services in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom expands access to internet services, Reuters reported on Friday, citing the countrys investment ministry.

Huawei has signed a leasing agreement with Saudi Arabias Kaden Investment for the store which will be the largest Huawei store outside its home market, the Ministry of Investment said in a statement, without providing details on the opening date.

The news comes against the backdrop of the Middle Eastern country aiming to increase the percentage of its population who is able to enjoy internet services to 82.6% in 2022 from 73.2% in 2017, the statement added.

In October last year, Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence to help Saudi Arabia strengthen its capabilities in artificial intelligence technology, Xinhua reported. The partnership is a part of Saudi Arabias broader efforts to transform its economy from one driven by oil exports to one powered by technology.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Huawei Plans to Put Its Harmony OS on 200 Million Devices by 2021
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Ford Motor Company (China) will recall 5,234 Edge vehicles from the Chinese market, according to the country's top quality watchdog.

The recall, set to begin on Feb. 22, 2021, will involve imported Edge SUVs manufactured between Nov. 1 and Dec. 23, 2014, read a statement on the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation.

The automaker said the support bracket for the SUV's front-drive axle half shaft could crack and fail in long-term use, according to the statement.

The failed bracket could result in the loss of motive power while driving. The vehicle could also lose parking function which can cause unintended movement, read the statement.

Dealers will replace the link shaft bracket free of charge for the recalled vehicles, it read.

Alec Baldwin appeared to leave Twitter on Monday amid the fall-out from wife Hilaria's on-going scandal in which she was accused of faking her Spanish heritage and accent.

The 62-year-old SNL actor posted a tweet at 9:45am saying: 'Twitter is like a party where everyone is screaming. Not much of a party. Goodbye for now.'

The Academy Award-nominee's departure from the social media site is the latest episode in the unfolding scandal around his wife and mother of their five children, Hilaria, who has been accused of faking her Spanish heritage when she was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

The 30-Rock star previously defended his 36-year-old wife saying in a video in December where he called Twitter is 'a lot of s***'.

Baldwin, who previously won an Emmy for his portrayal of President Donald Trump on SNL, added: 'You have to kind of hack your way through the debris of Twitter. Twitter is just a vast orchard of cr**.'

On January 3 Hilaria Baldwins sister-in-law Chynna Phillips defended her in a YouTube video Tuesday saying: 'It's an awkward and embarrassing time for her'.

Alec Baldwin said he was leaving Twitter 'for now', calling the website 'a party where everyone is screaming' in the aftermath of his wife Hilaria's scandal where she was accused of faking her Spanish heritage

The SNL star has defended his wife over the last month, claiming things are posted online that are 'untrue'.

A tweet on December 21 sparked the whole scandal, in which the poster accused Hilaria of faking her heritage when she grew up in the US

The online frenzy began on December 21 when a woman tweeted: 'You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin's commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person.'

In the next few days several videos of Hilaria's past TV appearances resurfaced showing her commitment to a Spanish accent, including one in 2015 where she seemingly forgot the English word for 'cucumber'.

A video of Alec on The Late Show in 2013 emerged days after in which he impersonated his wife's 'Spanish' accent, telling David Letterman: 'My wife is from Spain.'

And Hilaria herself indicated in one 2020 interview that she moved from Spain to the US when she was 19 to attend New York University.

After the accusations she 'faked' her Spanish heritage, Hilaria Baldwin, who has five children with her husband, pictured on Instagram, later confessed that her real name is Hillary and she was actually born in Boston, not Majorca

Internet sleuths were quick to uncover details about Hilaria's parents, Dr Kathryn Hayward and David Thomas, pictured, who worked in the US for years before retiring to Majorca in 2011

Hilaria's biography on her agency's speakers site stated that she was born on the island of Majorca and raised in Boston, without specifying a timeline for her upbringing.

Her agency later removed that reference and simply listed her professional work history after.

While Hilaria has long described her mother as Spanish, records revealed that Hayward is in fact a fourth-generation Massachusetts resident.

She was was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas to Dr Kathryn Hayward and David Thomas, who worked as professors in the US for years before retiring to Majorca in 2011, according to Page Six.

She attended $64,900-a-year The Cambridge School of Weston in Massachusetts.

Several former classmates came forward to confirm that Hilaria was in fact raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by professor parents without a hint of a foreign accent.

Majorcan friends of her parents, who moved to the Spanish island in 2011, said last month that she speaks to them in English.

In January it was revealed that in 2009 she took two attempts to fill out her W9 tax form, dithering between two names, before filling in the name she was born with.

Days after the scandal erupted Hilaria posted a rambling seven-minute video to Instagram in which she said: 'Yes, I am a white girl. I am a white girl.'

She added: 'Let's be very clear that Europe has a lot of white people in there and my family is white. Ethnically, I am a mix of many, many, many things. Culturally, I grew up with two cultures so it's really as simple as that.'

Her video sparked a flurry of memes with some jokingly comparing her to Rachel Dolezal and Jessica Krug.

Krug, a professor of African American history at George Washington University, pretended to be black her entire career; Dolezal, a former NAACP leader, was unmasked as a white woman in 2015.

Hilaria later told the New York Times of the scandal: 'There is not something I'm doing wrong, and I think there is a difference between hiding and creating a boundary.

'I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since,' she told the paper. 'For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like its not enough.'

When the original poster of the Tweet was asked what she would like to say to Hilaria, she replied: 'I would say she should say sorry to all the immigrants and English second language learners and moms of color who are actually mistaken for their children's nannies'.

Baldwin and Hilaria are parents to five children - daughter Carmen, seven, and sons Rafael, five, Leonardo, four, Romeo, two, and Eduardo, four months.
A local healthcare worker push back story has been politely ignored by local media but deserves attention by TKC readers who want a more complete view of the news scene.



Check-it . . .

Coffee County in Kansas has roughly 8,500 residents, but they won't be getting their COVID-19 shots from the county health department's four nurses. Department chief Lindsay Payer and her staffers have opted out of giving the injections because they have doubts about the safety of the Moderna vaccine, which the county is offering, local TV station WIBW reported.
The Bachelor vet Carly Waddell has revealed she will be passing down her engagement ring to daughter Bella following her separation from husband Evan Bass.

In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Carly asked her daughter to decide which one of the dresses she wore on The Bachelor to save or throwaway.

After trying on the violet frock she wore getting engaged to Evan - which Bella determined was a keeper - Carly told her daughter she planned on giving her the engagement ring.

'One day you're gonna get it': The Bachelor vet Carly Waddell plans on passing down her engagement ring to daughter Bella following her split from husband Evan Bass

Though it was not the original Neil Lane ring Evan proposed with in 2016, the gift was still incredibly significant.

'I got a ring when I got this dress  well, actually, it's a different one because I returned that one and switched it  but one day you're gonna get it,' Carly told her toddler.

'I'm gonna give that ring to you. Isn't that cool? I don't need it anymore.'

Bachelor Nation fans were certainly in for a treat watching Carly try on a range of memorable looks worn on The Bachelor and Bachelor In Paradise.

Happier times: Waddell accepted a proposal from Evan Bass on Bachelor In Paradise in 2016

Aww: Waddell shares daughter Bella and son Charlie with her ex

Fashion police! Waddell asked her daughter to determine which one of the dresses she wanted to keep or throwaway

Bella was tasked with determining which ones to keep or throwaway by flashing a signs drawn with an unhappy or smiling face for her mother.

Understandably, Carly was hopeful her daughter would want to throw out the engagement dress.

'Is it bad that I just not want her to like this one?' she asked the camera with a chuckle. 'I actually got this on Aruba, when I was working on a cruise ship.'

Bella gave the look her seal of approval, smiling from ear-to-ear at the sight of her mother while flashing the happy sign.

'You like it?' Carly asked her daughter, who nodded.

'I just not want her to like this one': Understandably, Carly was hopeful her daughter would want to throw out the engagement dress

It's a keeper! Bella beamed with joy at the sight of the engagement dress

Carly and Evan became engaged on Bachelor In Paradise in 2016, and were married a year later in Mexico.

They share daughter Bella and one-year-old son Charles 'Charlie' Wolfe.

The couple announced they had made the 'difficult decision' to go their separate ways in mid-December.

'We have made the difficult decision to separate. We will always cherish our time together and continue to have the utmost respect for one another as we focus on what's best for the future of our family,' they said in a statement, obtained by People.

'We greatly appreciate everyone's love and support and kindly ask that you please respect our family's privacy as we navigate through this.'
MSU to Host Virtual MLK Day Celebration Today

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MURRAY - Murray State University will be hosting a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration virtually this morning.The event, which is being presented by Murray State University's Office of Multicultural Initiatives, Student Leadership & Inclusive Excellence, will kick off at 10:30 a.m.This year's theme is titled, Living the Dream: Committing to a Better Community and World. The event will feature Dr. Kevin D. Woodgett, Senior Chair for the Health Coalition of Delaware County and Senior Pastor of the Church of the Living God of Muncie, Indiana.Murray State's Black Student Council and the Dr. Marvin D. Mills Sr. Emerging Scholars Institute, will host the event. The Office of Multicultural Initiatives, Student Leadership & Inclusive Excellence, President's Office, Office of the Provost, Division of Student Affairs, the City of Murray Human Rights Commission and the United Way of Murray-Calloway County will be co-sponsoring the event.Visit the link below for more information, or call 270-809-6836.On the Net:
National Guard soldiers are seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 14, 2021. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Up to 25,000 National Guard members have been authorized for the city to ensure the security of Wednesday's inauguration, transforming the city into what some U.S. media called "a war zone."

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Sunday expressed concern about possible attacks on the city's residential area as President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration approached.

"I'm not only concerned about other state capitols. I'm also concerned about other parts of Washington, D.C.," Bowser said during an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press.

National Guard soldiers are seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 14, 2021. U.S. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The mayor said what has been widely reported by the press was the lockdown on the federal grounds in the city, but the residential area in the nation's capital was also under threat.

Should an attack do happen to harm D.C. residents, Bowser said there is a plan in place to respond. "Our police department, working with our federal law enforcement partners and the United States army, quite frankly, also has a plan to pivot if we have any attacks in our neighborhoods," she said.

National Guard soldiers are seen inside the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 14, 2021. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

A man from the neighboring state of Virginia, identified as 31-year-old Wesley Allen Beeler, was arrested Friday in downtown D.C. for carrying a pistol without license, possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of unregistered ammunition. He was released Saturday on personal recognizance, saying after the release that he made "an honest mistake."

Up to 25,000 National Guard members have been authorized for the city to ensure the security of Wednesday's inauguration, transforming the city into what some U.S. media called "a war zone."
They made their relationship Instagram official on Saturday, sharing a loved-up snap of them locking lips.

And Demi Sims and Francesca Farago couldn't keep their hands off each other on Sunday as they were spotted at a grocery store together in Mexico.

The TOWIE star, 24, and her American girlfriend, 27, both cut a casual figure as they shared a hug while picking up supplies during their romantic vacation in Tulum.

Love: Demi Sims and Francesca Farago couldn't keep their hands off each other on Sunday as they were spotted at a grocery store in Mexico after recently confirming their romance

Demi showcased her slender pins in mini shorts which she teamed with colourful Nike trainers and a black tee.

She styled her highlighted tresses in a straight hairdo and rocked a gold necklace as the placed her arm around Francesca.

The Too Hot To Handle beauty displayed her pert cleavage in a cropped vest while sporting Adidas jogging bottoms and grey patterned trainers.

She let her natural beauty shine through with minimal make-up and she draped a Dior handbag over her shoulder while purchasing numerous goods in the store.

Romance is in the air! The TOWIE star, 24, and her American girlfriend, 27, cut a casual figure as they shared a hug while picking up supplies during their romantic vacation in Tulum

It comes after the duo posted two stunning images of them kissing over the weekend, confirming their romance.

Both of the blonde beauties looked sensational as they gazed into each other's eyes and rocked stunning beach ensembles from PrettyLittleThing.

Demi looked every inch the besotted girlfriend as she smiled at her new love while rocking a khaki bikini and cream shirt shrugged over her arms.

The reality star wore her long locks down and poker straight, with one section at the front braided into a stylish braid.

Blossoming relationship: It comes after the duo posted two stunning images of them kissing over the weekend, confirming their relationship

Francesca also ensured to command attention as she shared a kiss with her British partner and flashed a glimpse of underboob in a tiny black bikini.

She also opted for some accessories as she soaked up Demi's attention in a skimpy beach skirt as well as pair of sunglasses resting on her small top.

Soon after sharing the two sizzling images, Demi was flooded with delighted comments from her fellow reality star pals.

She also received a sweet message from her ex-girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson, who shot to fame on Love Island.

Loved-up pair: Both of the blonde beauties looked sensational as they gazed into each other's eyes and rocked stunning beach ensembles from PrettyLittleThing

Support: Soon after sharing the two sizzling images, Demi was flooded with delighted comments from her fellow reality star pals including her ex Megan Barton Hanson

Megan, 26, penned 'cuties' along with a fire emoji.

Demi also shared a slew of other loved-up snaps to her Instagram Story including one of a huge teddy bear and bouquet of roses on her bed.

Sharing a short clip of the romantic treat, which also included her favourite champagne, Demi penned: 'I feel so lucky. Thankyou baby @FrancescaFarago'.

Francesca first received attention for her role in the Netflix original series Too Hot to Handle, which premiered last year in April.

Former flames: Demi and Megan, 26, were in a relationship after they struck up a romance on E4's show Celebs Go Dating (pictured on the series)

Smitten: Francesca also shared the same kissing snap to her own Instagram page, with Demi commenting: 'LOML' [love of my life] and she responded: 'my baby,' with a heart emoji

Inspired by an episode of the hit sitcom Seinfeld, the show places 14 contestants together in a Mexican luxury resort, and in order to win $100,000, none of the cast members are allowed to have sex or any other intimate contact with one another.

She was one of the contestants that made it to the final episode and then she began dating her co-contestant Harry Jowsey.

The two split up shortly after the show's finale, but reconciled and became engaged during the show's reunion special taped eight months later; Francesca later announced that they broke off the relationship.

Demi has previously dated Leonie McSorley, with them last being seen out together in October, and having confirmed their romance in July.
Kamala Harris's memoir opens with a moving family scene. It is the night of Trump's election, also the night Harris was elected senator for California, and she and her family are gathered for a celebratory meal. Eventually though, the evening becomes one where the group is gathered around the TV watching in horror as the knowledge of Trump's victory unfolds ("didn't share a single chip", she says of the bag of Doritos she made her way through).

At one point in the evening, Harris's nine-year-old godson approaches the now Vice-President Elect. Tears brimming in his eyes, he asks her to reassure him that "that man" can't win.

Consoling him, Harris says to the small child, "you know how sometimes superheroes are facing a big challenge because a villain is coming for them? What do they do?"

"They fight back," the child replies.

"That's right," Harris tells him, "so that's what we're going to do." It was, she writes, a "battle for the soul of our nation".

Originally published in early 2019, the very existence of this book (its paperback was recently published), when announced, was taken by some as a signal of her political intentions, confirmation that she intended to attempt to run in the 2020 presidential election. This is very much the political memoir of someone setting out on the most important part of their career, rather than looking back on it. As such, it lacks the unfettered frankness that a retrospective can enjoy. This is someone setting out their stall, shaping a narrative, with the voters to whom they wish to appeal firmly in their mind's eye.

As a result, at times, Harris gets in the way of her own eventful back story, when her writing becomes heavy-handed in its efforts to show how her life experience has shaped her into someone worthy of high office. She is, we don't need to be convinced.

From the off, Harris states that The Truths We Hold is not intended to be a "policy platform, much less a 50-point plan". It is rather "a collection of ideas and viewpoints and stories, from my life and from the lives of the many people I've met along the way".

It is when Harris gets personal that her writing is most engaging, and most effective in capturing the strength of her own personality. In particular, when she writes about her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and her role as a stepmother ("Momala", her two stepchildren call her) and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, that the book really comes alive. On such terra firma, Harris entirely forgets the need to link events in her life to her worth as a political candidate, and simply tells the story.

And a fascinating story it is.

The lawyer who would go on to be the first woman of colour from her state to be elected senator, the second in the nation's history, and to have risen higher in America's leadership than any previously, Kamala Harris (pronounced comma-la, she points out) was born in Oakland, California in 1964. Her father immigrated to the United States from Jamaica, becoming a teacher of economics at Stanford University. Her mother was born in southern India. A gifted student, Shyamala Gopalan travelled to America, where she knew no one, to a graduate programme at Berkeley at the age of 19, for a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology; she would later become a breast cancer researcher.

Kamala's parents met at Berkeley, where both were involved in the civil rights movement. Unfortunately, their marriage did not last, and they split up when the eldest of their two daughters was five.

Her father remained part of the girls' lives, but it was their mother who oversaw their upbringing. Her proud daughter writes "she was extraordinary." Barely more than five foot tall, Kamala recalls that it felt more like she was six foot two.

Her mother made them feel like they could do anything, instilling in her daughters an awareness of the importance of political activism and civic leadership. Despite her parents' break-up, this was a happy childhood, in a close-knit community, where emphasis was placed on working hard, supporting your neighbours, and providing a future for your children.

During the death throes of the Trump administration, there was a certain comfort to be found in reading articles summing up the CVs of various Biden appointees, and the wealth of experience on show. At times, this book is in part an extended version of this exercise; the difference in the professional depth of experience with social issues that Harris has compared to the restrictive, tunnel visioned conservatism of Pence is staggering. Kamala has, on occasion, been accused of somewhat reshaping the narrative of her time as a prosecutor in order to meet the requirements of the liberal voters to whom she now wishes to appeal. Wherever you stand on the assertions of punitive behaviour which have been levelled at Harris, it's thrilling to read evidence from someone whose entire life and career has been one of engagement with societal well-being.

The story opens with Kamala beginning an internship in the district attorney's office in California. She explains her unexpected decision to become a prosecutor in terms of wanting to be on the front lines of criminal justice reform, to "protect the vulnerable", she writes.

She, a child of protesters, wanted to be on the inside, sitting at the table where the decisions were being made. She went on, of course, to become district attorney of San Francisco, then attorney general and later United States senator for California.

"I knew I represented something much bigger than my own experience," Harris writes at one point. "I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," she famously said upon her election.

Like all good memoirs, it is when Kamala manages to allow her reader to find the universal in her personal story that The Truths We Hold is most compelling.
She is currently enjoying a summer vacation in Queensland's Noosa.

And on Monday, Married At First Sight star Natasha Spencer had her very own Baywatch moment at the beach.

Clad in a skimpy red bikini, the newly-blonde stunner, 26, absolutely sizzled as she ran out of the ocean.

Scroll down for video

Red hot!! MAFS star Natasha Spencer had her very own Baywatch moment on Monday as she showed off her bombshell new look in a tiny string bikini during her Noosa getaway

Natasha looked like she was having the time of her life and smiled widely in her cheeky two-piece.

The star's ample cleavage was on full display in the triangle-cut string bikini as she made large strides through the shallow water.

Natasha held on to a pair of aviator sunglasses and her long, wet locks swayed in the breeze.

Happy girl! The star's ample cleavage was on full display in the triangle-cut string bikini as she made large strides through the shallow water

Looks familiar: Pamela Anderson's slow-motion sprint in the opening credits of the show Baywatch is world famous. Pictured: Pamela Anderson in Baywatch

She later retreated to a patch of white sand to dry off in the sunshine on her towel.

Laying on her stomach, Natasha showed off her pert derriere in the G-string bottoms as she scrolled through her phone to check Instagram.

She later posted a short boomerang clip, captioning it: 'I just don't know whether to go home or stay in Noosa. It's time to go - covid.'

Cheeky! Laying on her stomach, Natasha showed off her pert derriere in the G-string bottoms as she used her phone to check Instagram

'I just don't know whether to go home or stay in Noosa': Natasha shared a steamy boomerang clip in her bikini on the day as she contemplated her return to Sydney

Natasha, who was 'married' to Mikey Pembroke on MAFS, recently documented her hair transformation ahead of starting 2021.

The financial analyst, 27, swapped her glossy brunette hair for a longer, blonde style, in December.

The star will not be appearing in MAFS' upcoming two-part reunion special and recently slammed several stars from the franchise for participating in the mini-series.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The lead prosecutor for President Donald Trumps historic second impeachment began building his case for conviction at trial, asserting on Sunday that Trumps incitement of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol was the most dangerous crime ever committed by a president against the United States. A Senate trial could begin as soon as this week, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., did not say when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will send the single article of impeachment against Trump  for incitement of insurrection  to the Senate, which will trigger the beginning of the trial. But Raskin said it should be coming up soon as Pelosi organizes the formal transfer.

The House voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday, one week after the violent insurrection that interrupted the official count of electoral votes, ransacked the Capitol and left Congress deeply shaken. Before the mob overpowered police and entered the building, Trump told them to fight like hell against the certification of Bidens election win.

Were going to be able to tell the story of this attack on America and all of the events that led up to it, Raskin said. This president set out to dismantle and overturn the election results from the 2020 presidential election. He was perfectly clear about that.

Democrats and the incoming administration are facing the challenge of reckoning with the Capitol attack at the same time that Biden takes office and tries to move the country forward. They say the Congress can do both, balancing a trial with confirmations of the new presidents Cabinet and consideration of his legislative priorities.

Raskin said Congress cannot establish a precedent where we just want to let bygones be bygones just because Trump has left office.

Yet its clear that Democrats do not want the Senate trial to dominate Bidens opening days. Pelosi on Friday said that Democrats intend to move quickly on Bidens $1.9 trillion COVID aid and economic recovery package to speed up vaccinations and send Americans relief, calling it matter of complete urgency.

Ron Klain, Bidens incoming White House chief of staff, said he hopes Senate leaders, on a bipartisan basis, find a way to move forward on all of their responsibilities. This impeachment trial is one of them, but getting people into the government and getting action on coronavirus is another one of those responsibilities.

It is unclear how many Senate Republicans  if any  would vote to convict Trump. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is telling his caucus that their decision on whether to convict the outgoing president will be a vote of conscience. His stance, first reported by Business Insider, means the GOP leadership team will not work to hold senators in line one way or the other.

McConnell is open to considering impeachment, but said he is undecided on how he would vote. He continues to hold great sway in his party, even though convening the trial this week could be among his last acts as majority leader as Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate with the seating of two new Democratic senators from Georgia.

For Republican senators, the trial will be perhaps a final test of their loyalty to the defeated president and his legions of supporters in their states back home. It will force a further reevaluation of their relationship with Trump, who lost not only the White House but majority control of the Senate, and a broader discussion about the future of the Republican Party as he leaves office.

Some GOP senators are already standing by Trump, despite their criticism of his behavior. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the presidents most loyal allies, said impeachment was a bad, rushed, emotional move that puts the presidency at risk and will cause further division.

He said he hopes every Senate Republican rejects impeachment. Please do not justify and legitimize what the House did, Graham said.

A handful of Republican senators have suggested they will consider conviction. Two of them, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, have said he should resign. Murkowski said the House responded appropriately with impeachment and she will consider the trial arguments.

No president has ever been convicted in the Senate, and it would take a two-thirds vote against Trump, a high hurdle. But conviction is not out of the realm of possibility, especially as corporations and wealthy political donors distance themselves from Trumps brand of politics and the Republicans who stood by his attempts to overturn the election.

Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal attorney, was spotted at the White House Saturday and told ABC he was likely going to join Trumps impeachment defense team. He suggested he would continue to spread baseless claims of election fraud on the Senate floor.

Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley moved to distance Trump from Giulianis comments, tweeting: President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy, known as the impeachment hoax. We will keep you informed.

There was not widespread fraud in the election, as has been confirmed by a range of election officials and by William Barr, who stepped down as attorney general last month. Nearly all of the legal challenges put forth by Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges.

Trump is the only president to be twice impeached, and the first to be prosecuted as he leaves the White House, an ever-more-extraordinary end to his tenure. A precedent set by the Senate in the 1800s established that a trial can proceed even after a federal official leaves office. Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted last year to acquit.

Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in the 232-197 impeachment vote on Wednesday, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.

When his second trial does begin, House impeachment managers say they will be making the case that Trumps incendiary rhetoric hours before the attack on the Capitol was not isolated, but directly intended to interrupt the electoral count as part of his escalating campaign to overturn the November election.

A Capitol Police officer died from injuries suffered in the attack, and police shot and killed a woman. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.

Raskin and Klain were on CNNs State of the Union, and Graham appeared on Fox News Channels Sunday Morning Futures.
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A teenager who is accused of torching a Boston Police Department cruiser after a protest in May following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was caught trying to board an international flight from New York last week, authorities said.

Boston police detectives assigned to Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollinss office traveled to a juvenile detention center in New York last Friday to take the teen into custody on an outstanding warrant stemming from the events that unfolded in Downtown Boston on May 31 last year, the citys police department said in a statement.

At the time he was detained, the department said, the juvenile, previously identified as a 15-year-old Framingham boy, was trying to board a one-way, international flight when authorities discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest.

The warrant had been issued out of the Juvenile Division of Boston Municipal Court on charges of arson of a motor vehicle and inciting a riot, according to the departments statement.

The suspect had previously been arrested on June 11 by members of the Boston Police Departments Fire Investigation Unit and the Framingham Police Department. He was later released from law enforcement custody, the statement said.

The juvenile is expected to be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court at a later date, according to police.

The May 31 protest was one of numerous demonstrations organized around the world in response to the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed Black man who died after a white Minneapolis policeman kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, is being tried for murder.

On the night of the protest, two Boston police officers responded to a call for assistance and parked their cruiser on Tremont Street around 9:25 p.m. Authorities said multiple individuals then broke the cruisers windows and set it on fire, destroying the car.

Following the protest, which remained largely peaceful during the day, violence erupted at nighttime. Several police officers and bystanders were injured, and some businesses and monuments were left damaged, according to officials. Fifty-three people were arrested.

In December, a Boston police sergeant was placed on leave and an investigation was launched after body camera footage came to light that appears to show officers acting aggressively toward protesters during the May 31 demonstration.

The camera footage, first reported by the online news outlet The Appeal, shows officers pushing and pepper-spraying demonstrators. One officer is heard talking about hitting protesters with a police vehicle.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh described the videos as difficult to watch and noted he hopes to get answers from the investigation, The Associated Press reported.

We never want to see police officers using more force than necessary, even when tensions are high, the mayor said in a statement.

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The death has occurred of Thomas (Tommy) O'Grady, Ballinagarde, Ballyneety.

Peacefully, at University Hospital, Limerick. Predeceased by his wife Moira Punch and brother Desmond. Very deeply regretted by his son Leonard, daughter Bridget, daughter-in-law Tara, son-in-law Fiachra, sister Betty, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbours and friends.

May He Rest in Peace

A private Requiem Mass, for family only, will take place, on Tuesday (January 19th) at 12.30pm in St. Patrick's Church, Knockea. Funeral afterwards to Shannon Crematorium.

For those would like to pay their respects by means of standing in a guard of honour, the funeral cortege will pass the family home, in Ballinagarde, Ballyneety, after Mass on Tuesday.

In compliance with the current HSE guidelines, the funeral will be limited to 10 people. Please ensure social distancing and public health advice is adhered to.

Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross' Funeral Directors, Ballyneety, Co. Limerick.

The death has occurred of Josephine Murphy (nee Lynch), Galtee Drive, O`Malley Park and late of Kileely.

Josephine, died (peacefully) at University Hospital, Limerick. Beloved wife of Joe and much loved mother of Majella, Elesha, Sinead, Martin, Joseph and the late Mark. Sadly missed by her family, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, sister Margaret, nephews, nieces, extended family and many friends.

May She Rest in Peace

For those would like to pay their respects by means of standing in a guard of honour, the funeral cortege will depart Josephine's residence on Wednesday (January 20th) at 10.40am approx, enroute to the Holy Family Church, Southill, to arrive for a private Requiem Mass at 11.00am, for family only. Mass will be live streamed (link to follow) funeral afterwards to Mount St. Oliver Cemetery.

House strictly private please

Please follow Government guidelines with regards to public gatherings and social distancing.

Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross' Funeral Directors, Lower Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick.

The death has occurred of Dan Keane, South East London and late of Upper Athea, Athea.

Peacefully at his residence on 14th January 2021. Predeceased by his parents Maureen & Con Keane. Sadly missed by his family, wife Lyn, son Dan, daughters Hazel, Ellen, Stefanie & Finnoula, grand-daughter Keeley, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers Jack & Connie, sisters Breda, Ellen, Siobhan, & Sinead, nephews, nieces, cousins, other relatives, kind neighbours and a very large circle of friends.

Rest in Peace

A private family funeral & cremation will take place in London at a later date.

Please feel free to leave a message in the Condolence Book on rip.ie or send Mass Cards and letters of sympathy to Kellys Undertakers.

Ar dheis De go raibh a Anam dilis

The death has occurred of Michael Harding, Lisnakella, Oola.

Michael Harding (affectionally known as Dam) passed away suddenly at home. Mike will be sadly missed by his loving wife Peggie, daughters Mary ODwyer (Cappawhite) and Michelle Barron (Lisnakella), his loving brother John, grandchildren Tracey, Emma, Brian, Amy, Michelle and Grainne and his loving great grandchild Ciaran, sons-in-law Martin and Tom, sister-in-law Rayleen, niece Lee and nephew Simon in England, his brothers-in-law and their wives.

Mike will be very sadly missed, a great husband, Dad, Grandad and great grandad. He was our rock. Rest in peace.

Private Funeral Mass for immediate family only will take place on Tuesday, Mikes funeral cortege will travel via his home in Lisnakella, by Ayle, Ballyhane and Toem on route for burial in Doon cemetery (arriving at 1 pm. approx)

Please adhere to Government Guidelines re Covid-19.

Mike's Requiem Mass will be streamed live at: http://funeralslive.ie/michael-harding

Please see link on rip.ie for online condolence book.

The death has occurred of Tom Hammersley, Cliggin, Doon.

Peacefully, at St. Michaels Nursing Home, Caherconlish, predeceased by his sister Mary Hogan and brother Paddy. Sadly missed by his loving nephew Pat Hogan, niece Ann Marie (Maher), relatives, neighbours and friends. Rest in peace.

Arriving for Requiem Mass tomorrow Monday 18th January in St. Patricks Church Doon at 11.30 oc followed by burial in Doon cemetery.

Please adhere to Government Guidelines re Covid-19.

Toms Requiem Mass will be streamed live at https://doonparish.ie/webcam/

Please see rip.ie for online condolence book.

The death has occurred of Joseph (Joe) Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Place, Rosbrien.

Peacefully, at University Hospital Limerick. Beloved husband of Nuala and loving father of Dean and the late Debbie. Sadly missed by his wife, son, brothers, sisters, extended family and friends.

May He Rest in Peace

For those would like to pay their respects by means of standing in a guard of honour, the funeral cortege will depart Joe's residence on Tuesday (January 19th) at 10.30am approx, en route to Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Childers Road, to arrive for Requiem Mass at 11.00am, Mass will be live streamed (To view click here) funeral afterwards to Mount St. Oliver Cemetery.

House strictly private please.

Please follow Government guidelines with regards to public gatherings and social distancing.

Family flowers only.Donations, if desired, to a Charity of your choice.

Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross' Funeral Directors, Lower Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick.

The death has occurred of Fr. Donal O.S.M. Cahill, Henry Street and Servite Priory, Salford, Manchester.

In the tender and loving care of the staff of Riverbrook Nursing Home, Castleconnell. Beloved son of the late Frank and Rose Cahill and brother of the late Frank. Sadly missed by his devoted sister, Eithne, niece and partner, Davina and Patrick and grandniece Emily. Deeply regretted by his loving sisters, Rita and Gerdie, sister-in-law, Aveen, brother-in-law, Sean, nieces, nephews, extended family, friends, and the Servite Community.

In ar gcroithe go deo.

Requiem Mass for family will take place on Tuesday (19th January) at 11.30am in St. Josephs Church, O Connell Avenue with burial afterwards in Mount St. Lawrence Cemetery.

In the interests of public health, attendance at Requiem Mass will be restricted to accord with government guidelines and in line with social distancing protocols. Mass Cards and messages of sympathy can be sent to Thompsons, Thomas Street, Limerick
Ghanaian actor, John Dumelo has questioned the whereabouts of the COVID-19 Tracker that was launched by the government with features for contact tracing and symptoms tracking.



The app is supposed to be on IOS and android devices.



The actors question follows the surge in Ghanas COVID-19 cases.



In a tweet on Monday, 18 January 2020, Mr Dumelo asked: What happened to the COVID-19 tracker app?



Speaking at the launch of GH COVID-19 Tracker (an app to track COVID-19 cases in Ghana) in Accra on Monday, 13 April 2020, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, stated that the gathering and availability of data has played a significant role in Ghana's battle against COVID-19 so far.



"Identifying suspected cases, testing and tracing contacts of confirmed cases and treating them have become the most effective way of tackling the virus around the world, and with nearly 40,000 tests conducted so far, Ghana is ranked among the top 20 countries in the world as far as per capita testing of COVID-19 is concerned."



The Vice-President, who is the Chairman of Ghana's COVID-19 Daily Monitoring Team, noted that the governments reliance on data of cases have become Ghana's biggest weapon in the fight against the Coronavirus.



"Data is our most powerful weapon in the fight against COVID-19. You cannot fight what you cannot see," said Dr Bawumia.



On the GH COVID-19 Tracker app, Dr Bawumia said the app will significantly boost governments main strategy in combating the virus, which he labelled as "the three T" strategy of testing, tracing contacts and treatment.



"Our focus has been on tracing, testing, treatment, as well as observing social distancing and these have been made possible through data, and this COVID-19 Tracker will significantly help.



With the launch of the GH COVID-19 tracker app, Ghana's COVID-19 team has a mobile app with rapid response features for contact tracing and symptoms tracking, which will ultimately lead to more testing - a development the Vice President described as a great step.



The COVID-19 Tracker App, through the common platform of mobile networks, is able to trace contacts of persons infected by the virus, show where they have been in recent time, through various telephone-related data, and link such people to health professionals for urgent action to be taken.



The app, through same telephone-related data, is also able to report contacts which are, or have recently been to COVID-19 hit countries, as well as track whether individuals required to self-quarantine, are indeed doing so.



Countries like China, South Korea and the United States are using this concept of crowd sourcing from phone data to manage and track persons affected by the pandemic and offer health care.

Source: twitter/classfmonline









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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It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it's our trusted partner in so many ways.

Now it has found its way into the once exclusively-human domain of love and relationships. With AI-systems as matchmakers, in the coming decades it may become common to date a personalized avatar.

This was explored in the 2014 movie "Her," in which a writer living in near-future Los Angeles develops affection for an AI system. The sci-fi film won an Academy Award for depicting what seemed like a highly unconventional love story.

In reality, we've already started down this road.

Delving into the human psyche

The online dating industrty is worth more than US$4 billion and there are a growing number of players in this market. Dominating it is the Match Group, which owns OkCupid, Match, Tinder and 45 other dating-related businesses.

Match and its competitors have accumulated a rich trove of personal data, which AI can analyze to predict how we choose partners.

The industry is majorly embracing AI. For instance, Match has an AI-enabled chatbot named "Lara" who guides people through the process of romance, offering suggestions based on up to 50 personal factors.

Tinder co-founder and CEO Sean Rad outlines his vision of AI being a simplifier: a smart filter that serves up what it knows a person is interested in.

Dating website eHarmony has used AI that analyzes people's chat and sends suggestions about how to make the next move. Happn uses AI to "rank" profiles and show those it predicts a user might prefer.

Loveflutter's AI takes the guesswork out of moving the relationship along, such as by suggesting a restaurant both parties could visit. And Badoo uses facial recognition to suggest a partner that may look like a celebrity crush.

Dating platforms are using AI to analyze all the finer details. From the results, they can identify a greater number of potential matches for a user.

They could also potentially examine a person's public posts on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get a sense of their attitudes and interests.

This would circumvent bias in how people represent themselves on matchmaking questionnaires. Research has shown inaccuracies in self-reported attributes are the main reason online dating isn't successful.

While the sheer amount of data on the web is too much for a person to process, it's all grist to the mill for a smart matchmaking AI.

Shoveling your data into the dating sandbox

As more user data is generated on the internet (especially on social media), AI will be able to make increasingly accurate predictions. Big players such as Match.com would be well-placed for this as they already have access to large pools of data.

And where there is AI there will often be its technological sibling, virtual reality (VR). As both evolve simultaneously, we'll likely see versions of VR in which would-be daters can "practice" in simulated environments to avoid slipping up on a real date.

This isn't a far stretch considering "virtual girlfriends", which are supposed to help people practice dating, have already existed for some years and are maturing as a technology. A growing number of offerings point to a significant degree of interest in them.

With enough user data, future AI could eventually create a fully-customized partner for you in virtual realityone that checks all your "boxes". Controversially, the next step would be to experience an avatar as a physical entity.

It could inhabit a life-like android and become a combined interactive companion and sex partner. Such advanced androids don't exist yet, but they could one day.

Proponents of companion robots argue this technology helps meet a legitimate need for more intimacy across societyespecially for the elderly, widowed and people with disabilities.

Meanwhile, critics warn of the inherent risks of objectification, racism and dehumanizationparticularly of women, but also men.

Using tech to save us from the problems of tech?

Another problematic consequence may be rising numbers of socially reclusive people who substitute technology for real human interaction. In Japan, this phenomenon (called "hikikomori") is quite prevalent.

At the same time, Japan has also experienced a severe decline in birth rates for decades. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research predicts the population will fall from 127 million to about 88 million by 2065.

Concerned by the declining birth rate, the Japanese government last month announced it would pour two billion yen (about A$25,000,000) into an AI-based matchmaking system.

AI as a facilitator, not a replacement

The debate on digital and robotic "love" is highly polarized, much like most major debates in the history of technology. Usually, consensus is reached somewhere in the middle.

But in this debate, it seems the technology is advancing faster than we are approaching a consensus.

Generally, the most constructive relationship a person can have with technology is one in which the person is in control, and the technology helps enhance their experiences. For technology to be in control is dehumanizing.

Humans have leveraged new technologies for millenia. Just as we learned how to use fire without burning down cities, so too we will have to learn the risks and rewards accompanying future tech.

Explore further Dating apps use artificial intelligence to help search for love

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
People in Amsterdam took to the streets to protest against the Dutch government for imposing lockdown. According to reports by AP, the Dutch police had to use water cannons on hundreds of people as the situation worsened. The Amsterdam police said that the riot police took action to disperse the crowd as people were not adhering to social distancing norms.

Protests in Amsterdam

Because of the danger to public health, it is important that everybody sticks to the measures in force. The demonstrators are not doing that, said the municipality. The protests took place when the ministers were meeting in The Hague to discuss options to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The options also included imposing a curfew for the first time since the pandemic began.

Read: UK Citizens Barred From Entering Netherlands, Germany For Non-essential Travel

Museumplein, Amsterdam - Protest against the lockdown pic.twitter.com/n7yyZnGJT7  Happy Harry (@HappyHarryMedia) January 17, 2021

Netherlands had imposed various other measures as well to curb the spread of the virus. More than a dozen British nationals were barred from entering the Netherlands from January 1 and UK citizens living in Spain were also prohibited from boarding flights because Britain is no longer exempted from the COVID-19-related restrictions on non-essential travel outside of the European Union (EU) since Brexit. As per The Guardian report, a Dutch border spokesperson confirmed on January 4 that nearly 13 UK citizens had been sent back from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport since January 1 because their trips were not essential and they were now subjected to third-country coronavirus regulations.

Read: Dutch Officials Confiscate Ham Sandwiches From UK Drivers Under Post-Brexit Rules

The Dutch border spokesperson confirmed the news after reports emerged that British nationals living in Spain were also barred from boarding the flights in the UK because the airline declared the pre-Brexit residency documents invalid. As per reports, many others were refused to enter Germany. Only a few selected nations with low COVID-19 cases are exempt from the EU regulations of suspending non-essential visitors outside the 27-nation-bloc and the EU Economic Area. Since the UKs transition period ended with the EU on December 31, Britain has been removed from the list.

Read: Mass Testing Starts In Dutch Municipality

Also Read: Dutch New Year Tradition Gets 2021 Makeover

(Image Credits: Twitter/@HappyHarryMedia)
on Monday vented out its anger against outgoing US Secretary of State calling him "Mr. Liar" and dismissed as "conspiracies and lies" the allegations by the State Department that the COVID-19 may have emerged from Wuhan's bio-lab and had links to the Chinese military.

China, which faced global criticism after the virus became a pandemic claiming over two million lives, has been vehemently asserting that the has emerged in several places in the world, while it only reported it first.

But Beijing is more resentful of outgoing US President Donald Trump and Pompeo for alleging that the virus may have emerged from the premier Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which researches Zoonotic diseases.

A latest document issued by the US State department reinforcing its previous allegation that the virus may have emerged from the WIV, coinciding with the visit of a WHO inquiry team of scientists to Wuhan has further riled Beijing.

Reacting angrily to the US document, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here on Monday that "the statement and the list are full of conspiracies and lies, which are consistent with certain US officials who have dealt with the pandemic in a passive way and constantly shifted the blame to The list is another US-made list of lies".

The US document said "for more than a year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic's origin, choosing instead to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation".

"The US government does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus - known as SARS-CoV-2 - was transmitted initially to humans. We have not determined whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China," it said.

"The virus could have emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals, spreading in a pattern consistent with a natural epidemic," it said.

"Alternatively, a laboratory accident could resemble a natural outbreak if the initial exposure included only a few individuals and was compounded by asymptomatic infection. Scientists in have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure," it said.

"The US government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.

"This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli's public claim that there was zero infection' among the WIV's staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses," it said.

Significantly, has honoured Shi who has earned the moniker of 'Bat Woman' for her passionate research into bats and viruses as an "advanced worker of the Chinese Academy of Sciences".

The honour coincides with the arrival of the WHO team which is expected to visit the WIV.

Shi now has alleged in the official media here that mink, not the bat or pangolin could be a possible host of the origin of the novel coronavirus, and called on the world to probe samples from more susceptible animals to determine when the virus moved to humans.

The state department document also alleged that "for many years the United States has publicly raised concerns about China's past biological weapons work, which Beijing has neither documented nor demonstrably eliminated, despite its clear obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention".

Pompeo's latest tweets against China on a host of issues, including its political system, official media, Beijing's response to COVID-19, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, "fully showed that some US politicians ignored public safety and lives, go against science and are obsessed with making propaganda about conspiracies and spreading 'the political virus'," Hua said.

"This is also the final madness staged by Pompeo, this Mr. Liar," she said.

"What I want to emphasise is if the US truly respects science and facts, it should open the Fort Detrick laboratory and make questions about its over 200 overseas labs open to the public, while inviting WHO experts to look into the origins and answer the community's suspicions," she 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.)
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport yesterday as he returned to his home country for the first time since he was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and airlifted to Germany for treatment.

Prison officials later confirmed that Mr Navalny would be detained for 48 hours until a court ruled on his possible arrest.

Some five months after he fell into a coma on a plane from Siberia to Moscow, Mr Navalny returned to Russia to defy the Kremlin's threats to jail him under one of several active criminal cases widely regarded as politically motivated.

After he got off the plane at Moscow's main airport yesterday, Mr Navalny told reporters that he was "absolutely happy" to be back home, which he described as "the best day in my life in the past five months".

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"I'm not afraid and none of us should be afraid," he said moments before he was detained by officers at passport control and not seen since. His wife came out to the media scrum later this evening but refused to comment.

Kira Yarmysh, Mr Navalny's spokesman, said neither the politician nor his lawyer were given any document sanctioning the detention.

Russian authorities raised the stakes ahead of Mr Navalny's arrival by announcing a new criminal investigation against him, while prison authorities said earlier this month that they had issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of failing to report to his probation officer at the end of December as his suspended sentence ran out.

The Kremlin's efforts to disrupt a possible hero's welcome for Mr Navalny were obvious yesterday as his plane was abruptly diverted to another Moscow airport that was shut down for an hour for no apparent reason. Security was tightened at Vnukovo airport and authorities warned Mr Navalny's supporters of fines and detentions for "unsanctioned gatherings" at the terminal.

Konstantin Kotov, an opposition activist who was the first person in Russia to serve time in prison over repeated violations of a new law on public assembly, was among those waiting to see Mr Navalny.

"Alexei is a fearless person," he said. "He is literally flying into prison, and I think citizens of Russia can at least come out and show their support despite the intimidation and threats from authorities."

Mr Kotov was himself detained by the police shortly after.

Read More

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

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Red deer shelter in the shade of a tree in Richmond Park, London on Oct. 5, 2018. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

London Dog Walker Fined 600 for Deer Attack in Royal Park

A dog walker has been fined 602 ($815) over a fatal attack by his Red Setter on a deer in one of Londons Royal Parkswhere they are protected by law.

Such attacks have increased during the pandemic, according to authorities, due to lockdown-type measures. Greater numbers of people are visiting parks for exercise and socialising, and restrictions have fueled a rise in dog ownership and novice owners.

The incident took place on the morning of Oct. 1 in Richmond Park, where, as in all eight of Londons Royal Parks, it is illegal for dogs to chase the deer.

According to the police, the doe was hit by a car as it tried to fleet the dog, breaking its leg. It was later put down by a gamekeeper due to its injuries.

The dog owner, Franck Hiribarne, himself reported the incident to park authorities.

He pleaded guilty to causing/permitting an animal he was in charge of to injure another animal in a Royal Park.

Hiribarne said he normally let his dog, Alfie, off the lead after entering the park if there were no deer around for at least 200 metres (about 220 yards).

With no deer in sight as he returned, he let the Red Setter off the lead.

All of a sudden, I and Alfie came across a lone small deer sitting hidden in the long grass in an open area about 150 metres away from the road and both the deer and Alfie were startled by each other, he said, according to the Met Police.

The deer sprang up and started to run and Alfie got spooked and ran after the deer. I called Alfie back repeatedly and used my dog whistle too, but Alfie was too distracted by the deer and continued to chase it and did not respond, he said.

I was genuinely shocked and sorry for what had happened, and since then I have refrained completely from letting Alfie off leash in any park.

The Met police released video footage taken by a passing cyclist. A Red Setter can be seen in the footage running up to a sitting deer and appears to bite it before backing off a little. Other passersby then try to intervene.

A dog walker has pleaded guilty to a park regulation offence after his dog attacked a red deer in #RichmondPark on 01/10/2020. He appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates court on 15/01/21 and was fined a total of 602. Some viewers may find the footage distressing pic.twitter.com/r1SQGKnF1S  Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) January 18, 2021

According to the police, the witnesses described the dog as relentless, biting the deer from behind and dragging it backwards.

There are around 630 deer in Richmond Park, where they have roamed alongside people since 1637.

Park authorities frequently warn visitors not to get too close to the deer in the autumnnot to protect the deer but to protect themselves. During rutting season, the stags can become aggressive and attack people.

In 2018, a young girl was taken to the hospital after being gored by a stag in one of Londons royal parks when the family group strayed too close to take pictures.

Police say that during the pandemic the number of dog attacks in the eight Royal Parks has increased with many more dog walkers and novice owners.

Sadly, this was the fourth deer that died over the last year as a result of dog chases in Bushy and Richmond Parks, Simon Richards, park manager for Richmond Park said. Weve had 58 incidents of dogs chasing deer reported to us since March 2020, and its completely unacceptable.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The global COVID-19 vaccination drive gained pace Sunday as Brazil gave its first injections and India pushed on with its massive campaign, while European authorities sought to allay concerns about delays in supplies.

Brazil's health regulator gave the green light for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and China's CoronaVac to be used as the Latin American giant suffers a devastating second wave of the coronavirus.

Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old intensive care nurse in Sao Paulo became the first person in Brazil to receive the Chinese CoronaVac jab after the Anvisa watchdog's highly anticipated ruling.

Growing concerns over different strains of the virus have meanwhile prompted governments to tighten curbs in a bid to stem a global death toll that has already surpassed two million.

Good start in India

India's vaccination drive got off to a successful start on Saturday with more than 224,000 people receiving their first jabs and just three people hospitalized after side effects, the health ministry said Sunday.

The government plans to immunise some 300 million people out of its population of 1.3 billion by Julyequivalent to almost the entire US population.

In Europe, both France and Russia were gearing up for a key week in the vaccine effort.

Russia starts mass immunisations on Monday using its homegrown Sputnik V vaccine, while the French government is hoping to overcome fierce criticism of a sluggish rollout as it begins inoculating the over-75s.

Across the European Union there have been concerns that delays in the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could further slow a campaign which critics have condemned as less agile than in the United States or Britain, a recently-departed EU member.

US drugmaker Pfizer said it was working to "significantly" scale up production at its plant in Belgium in the second quarter.

After a short delay, deliveries should be back to the original schedule to the EU from January 25.

"There's a dip," France's Europe minister Clement Beaune told Franceinfo radio.

"But it's better that it happens now when we have stockpiles than when the wider vaccination campaign starts."

Biden eyes 100 million doses

Joe Biden's goal of seeing 100 million vaccine doses injected within his first 100 days in office is meanwhile "absolutely" achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci said, days before he is to become the new president's chief advisor on COVID-19.

"The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, there's no doubt about it," Fauci told NBC's "Meet the Press".

Biden has unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to revive the economy of the country worst-hit by the virus, which has killed more than 397,000 people in the US.

In Israel, the prison service said it would begin vaccinating all inmates, following an outcry over an announcement from Public Security Minister Amir Ohana that Palestinian prisoners would be the last to get inoculated.

Israel has given at least one vaccine dose to more than two million of its citizens, a pace widely described as the world's fastest per capita.

Spain has begun administering second doses to people who had already received the first at the end of December, mostly nursing home residents and care staff.

And in Norway, where 13 frail elderly people died after a first vaccine injection, the Medicines Agency said there was no cause for alarm after suggestions last week that the deaths could be linked to side effects.

"It is quite clear that these vaccines present very little risk, with the minimal exception of the most fragile patients," agency official Steinar Madsen told public broadcaster NRK.

100 arrested in Amsterdam

Until vaccination is widespread, countries across the globe are still having to rely on lockdowns, curfews and social distancing to control the spread of the virusparticularly as new variants proliferate.

On Sunday a Belgian elderly care home said that a British strain of the coronavirus, which several studies suggest is up to 70 percent more contagious, had been detected in 111 residents and staff. Three residents have died.

Fears over the strain were cited as the justification for Austria's decision to extend its third national lockdown by another two weeks until February 8.

After months of restrictions resentment is growing in some quarters, with around 100 people arrested Sunday at an anti-lockdown protest in Amsterdam.

Police used water cannon to clear the demonstrators, some of whom threw stones at the officers, Amsterdam city hall said in a statement.

Switzerland and Italy are tightening their restrictions from Monday and Britain will require all arrivals to quarantine and show negative tests. Oman meanwhile said it will close its land borders for up to two weeks.

In the world of sports, Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said the Grand Slam tournament will still begin next month, even as 72 players are now confined to their Melbourne hotel rooms for 14 days after coming into contact with COVID-19 cases on their inbound flights.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Taking a big decision on Monday, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha has suspended BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni over his alleged meeting with leaders of political parties. They have also formed a committee which will take further action on Chaduni. The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha also said that Chaduni will not be included in the team of farmer leaders that will hold the 10th round of meeting with farmers on January 19. Gurnam Singh Chaduni, on January 17, met with leaders of the opposition parties - Congress, AAP, Shiromani Akali Dal and some independent leaders, in Delhi to garner support for the farmer movement.

READ | BKU issues threat ahead of Republic Day: 'Will put officials under house arrest if stopped

READ | 'Farmers forced to agitate as Opposition in country is weak,' says BKU's Rakesh Tikait

Clash in Haryana CM's meet

Haryana CM ML Khattar, on Sunday, lashed out Bharat Kisan Union (BKU) leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni alleging that he had tried to instigate the farmers, leading to clashes between farmers and police in Haryana's Karnal. Khattar said that Congress and Communist parties had hijacked the protests, stating that farmers had been defamed by them. Khattar cancelled his Kisan Mahapanchayat programme in Karnal after farmers vandalised the venue - uprooting tents, breaking the stage, tearing down posters and flinging chairs. The farmers also attempted to enter the helipad where Khattar was to land but were stopped by 1500 police officers deployed there. The police resorted to lathi-charging, using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the farmers, who then proceeded to the venue and clashed with 2000 BJP supporters as they vanadlised the venue. BJP and JJP leaders have faced angry protests by farmers outside their residences.

On 7 January, addressing the protesting farmers via Facebook, BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni told farmers to protest strongly against the Mahapanchayat saying, "Stage such a big protest there (at Karnal) that he cannot hold the Mahapanchayat there. To prepare for it all my Karnal and Panipat brothers and sisters must assemble at Gharaunda toll plaza and follow the instructions of our committee members. This BJP government is calling us for talks on one side and holding Kisan Panchayats on the other side, which is an attempt to fool us. We must oppose this strongly."

READ | Haryana CM Khattar Holds BKU Leader Responsible For Vandalism At Karnal Mahapanchayat

READ | BKU's Rakesh Tikait reacts to SC staying farm laws; 'will proceed with Jan 26 rally'
A new study shows a link between bad technology and higher stress levels of employees.

Researchers from American computer company Dell Technologies led the study. Dell partnered with neuroscience company EMOTIV on the study.

The research involved experiments in which brainwaves were measured as people were put through a series of bad technology experiences. The experiments involved adults of many ages with different levels of computer skills.

Subjects were tested with simple computer problems, like troubled sign-in operations. Others dealt with slow-speed connections to the internet. Still others experienced system crashes.

The moment people started using bad technology, we saw a doubling of their levels of stress, said Olivier Oullier, president of EMOTIV. I was a bit surprised by that, because you rarely see those levels going so high, he told Reuters news agency.

The experiments showed that technology-related stress had a lasting effect, Oullier added. People dont relax back into calmness quickly. It takes a long time.

In addition to tech failures affecting the mental health of employees, the problems can also affect a companys business, the research found.

For example, bad problems can reduce productivity, especially that of younger workers. The research showed a thirty percent production drop among study subjects under age 40.

Bad experiences affect you regardless of computer literacy, said Cile Montgomery, who leads customer experience efforts for Dell. But young people seem to be even more impacted, because they expect technology to work.

As stressful as the tech problems were for those in the study, Oullier said, such effects were likely to be even more severe in the real world. He said the subjects knew they were involved in an experiment so they may not have been as personally affected by the results.

Oullier also said the continuing coronavirus crisis has sharply increased stress levels around the world. So real tech problems drive up those already high stress levels.

Another issue is that many employees are working remotely and this can also add to tech difficulties. In an office, computer support helpers are usually available to help workers solve tech problems. But working from a kitchen or home office, employees are often on their own.

When youre stuck at home and all you have is a computer provided by your employer, you might not have access to tech support, Oullier said. Thats why its so important when youre remote, to have technology that works.

Here are some specific findings of the study:

The amount of work an employee can get done in a day can increase as much as 37 percent when effective technology is used, along with supporting software and services.

Using good technology can save employees 23 minutes per hour.

And on average, bad tech was found to interfere with employee performance by up to 30 percent.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters and Dell Technologies reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Technology Problems Linked to Higher Stress Levels in Workers Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_________________________________________________

Words in This Story

stress  n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.

a bit  n. a small amount

relax  v. to become happy and comfortable because nothing is worrying you

regardless  adv. without paying attention to the present situation

literacy  n. having a good amount of knowledge or understanding about a subject

impact  n. to affect someone or something

remote  adj. far away, from a distance

access  n. the ability to use or take part in something

specific  adj. clearly and exactly presented or stated : precise or exact
GATINEAU, QC, Jan. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to appointing highly qualified candidates to best serve the interests of Canadians.

Today, the Minister of Labour, Filomena Tassi, announced the appointments of Candace DiCresce, Kurt Dieckmann, Cheryl Paynter, and Daniel G. Strand as Governors representing employers and provincial and territorial governments at the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) for terms of four years.

The CCOHS does important work to support industries, employers and workers in improving health and safety programs. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCOHS has developed a series of tools and resources, such as pandemic guidance tip sheets, and made them available for free on their website to support industries, employers and workers during the pandemic.

The pandemic tip sheets offer guidance for employers and workers in higher-risk and essential occupations and industries. The CCOHS has also provided an online space, Pandemic Info Share, to enable businesses and organizations to share their pandemic-related good practices and resources.

Quote

"I wish to congratulate the four new Governors representing employers and provinces and territories who have been appointed to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. They will bring a wealth of expertise, knowledge and experience to help keep Canadian workers safe and healthy in the workplace. The Government of Canada is looking forward to their contributions to occupational health and safety."

 Minister of Labour, Filomena Tassi

Quick Facts

The CCOHS, located in Hamilton, Ontario , was created in 1978 to promote the total well-being of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, management systems and solutions that support workplace health and safety.

, was created in 1978 to promote the total well-being of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, management systems and solutions that support workplace health and safety. Governed by a tripartite council representing the federal, provincial and territorial governments, employers and workers, the CCOHS provides Canadians with unbiased and relevant information that supports responsible decision-making on health and safety issues in the workplace.

On September 10, 2020 , new funding of $2.5 million over two years was announced for the CCOHS to help them to continue providing valuable occupational health and safety guidance to Canadian workers and businesses.

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Biographies  Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety appointments

Candace DiCresce  Governor representing employers

Ms. DiCresce has been working as a Senior Director with Rogers Communications for the past eight years, where she provides strategic direction for the integrated safety and well-being program. Prior to this, over the span of her nearly 25-year career, Ms. DiCresce held positions with responsibility for safety, occupational hygiene, environmental management and sustainability at the Toronto Transit Commission, at the global life sciences firm MDS, and in a consulting capacity at Deloitte.

Ms. DiCresce is a current Chair of the Safety and Compliance Workgroup in collaboration with The Internet & Television Association. Ms. DiCresce is also an Ontario Registered Professional Engineer.

Ms. DiCresce has been appointed for a term of four years, effective December 11, 2020.

Kurt Dieckmann  Governor representing Yukon

Mr. Dieckmann is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board, which provides compensation, service and support to workers injured on the job, and promotes workplace safety through training, inspection, compliance and investigations. During his 20 years with the board, Mr. Dieckmann has introduced innovative programs and services that dramatically improved safety and return to work culture in Yukon. Mr. Dieckmann has also directed policy, legislation, and regulation development of the Workers' Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Mr. Dieckmann has been the Director of the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada Board of Directors since 2015 and is currently serving a two-year term as Chair. He is also an executive sponsor of the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada's National Work Injury/Disease Statistics Program committee.

Mr. Dieckmann has been appointed for a term of four years, effective December 11, 2020.

Cheryl Paynter  Governor representing Prince Edward Island

Ms. Paynter is Chief Executive Officer of the Workers Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island, which promotes safe workplaces and protects employers and injured workers through a sustainable accident insurance program. In her role since 2019, she has led a team of professionals in delivering workplace injury and illness insurance, liability protection, and occupational health and safety services to Island workers and employers alike. Prior to this, Ms. Paynter was Chief Executive Officer and Secretary to the Board for Tourism Prince Edward Island, where she led a team in marketing, product development, investment, and regulatory affairs from 2015 to 2019.

Ms. Paynter is currently an Executive Board Member of the Community Foundation of Prince Edward Island. She is also Past President and Honorary Life Member of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Paynter has been appointed for a term of four years, effective December 11, 2020.

Daniel G. Strand  Governor representing British Columbia

Mr. Strand is the Director of Prevention Field Services in the Prevention Services division at WorkSafeBC. Prevention Services has a mandate to engage employers and workers to reduce risk and keep workplaces healthy and safe through education, consultation and enforcement in the Province of British Columbia.

In his role since 2015, Mr. Strand has led the development and successful implementation of internally focused employee-centric programs for occupational and psychological health and safety, lifelong learning, and mentoring, along with a robust employee engagement response strategy. Prior to this, Mr. Strand was the Manager of Health and Safety at the Vancouver International Airport Authority from 2007 to 2015.

From 2009 to 2010, Mr. Strand was President of the Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists. He was Director for the Western Provinces at the Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists from 2007 to 2009.

Mr. Strand has been appointed for a term of four years, effective December 11, 2020.

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Lars Wessman, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Labour, Filomena Tassi, 613-854-3920, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]

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Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain, heavy at times late. Low 53F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
UTICA, N.Y. -- New York State distribution centers are running out of convalescent plasma daily and are struggling to maintain sufficient stock levels, according to MVHS hospital officials.



The Blood Bank at the St. Luke's Campus in Utica is reporting their supply of convalescent plasma is critically low. Therefore, they need recovered COVID-19 individuals to donate immediately. According to a press release, MVHS is preparing for a surge in patients and they will need as many donations as they can get!

The St. Luke's Campus is seeing significant delays in certain types of plasma, AB and B types. They are back-ordered at least a week and a half at this time. Due to this, there is a significant delay in treatments that necessitate convalescent plasma transfusions. The inevitable has occurred, and now all available blood types are now listed as critically low.

More information on how to donate convalescent plasma, can be found by clicking here.



*If you are fully recovered from COVID-19 and ready to help other patients, please fill out the American Red Cross form found in the link above.

*Once your initial eligibility is confirmed, the ARC will contact you via phone within 1-3 business days to schedule your donation.

*They may provide your information to a non-Red Cross donor center for qualification and scheduling if your address is closer to that center.

It is recommended that you also download the American Red Cross app. This allows you to see not only where the nearest donation site to you is, but you can schedule an appointment through the app. It also shows you your test results (everyone gets a Covid Antibody test performed) and keeps track of how many donations you have made, along with many other features.

The American Red Cross is reaching out to other states to supplement their supply, however, there is limited convalescent plasma available nationwide.
The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has received a total of 81 reports of suspected side effects associated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as of January 11.

It comes as another eight Covid-19-related deaths and 2,121 more cases have been confirmed this evening by the Department of Health.

Speaking about the suspected side effects, Chief Executive of the HPRA, Dr. Lorraine Nolan, said that all reports were generally consistent with those typically observed with other vaccines and included events of a mild to moderate nature which resolved or were resolving at the time of reporting.

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She said the most frequently reported side effects were abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, joint pain and pains in the arms, some experience of dizziness, headache, itching and a rash, adding that all of these are consistent with the known and anticipated side effects as emerged during the clinical trials.

She added: While the relatively mild effects described are of course uncomfortable for those who experience them, they do pass quickly and generally do not require any medical treatment.

Safety monitoring of all medicines, including vaccines, is central to the remit of the HPRA and we intend to publish a regular update of the number and nature of reports regarding suspected side effects with Covid-19 vaccines, as the vaccination roll-out continues.

All eight of the deaths reported today in connection with the coronavirus occurred in January.

The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 49-93 years.

There are no newly reported deaths in healthcare workers and there are no newly reported deaths in a young person under the age of 30.

This brings the total number of coronavirus fatalities in the country to 2,616 and there have now been 174,813 coronavirus cases recorded in Ireland to date.

Of the cases notified today:

992 are men / 1,117 are women

58% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 39 years old

753 in Dublin, 236 in Cork, 142 in Wexford, 126 in Kildare, 109 in Limerick and the remaining 755 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,975 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 200 are in ICU. There were 102 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, CMO Dr Tony Holohan warned that all ages are being admitted to ICU due to Covid-19.

Speaking about todays figures, he said: This third wave of the pandemic has seen higher level of hospitalisations across all age groups.

There are now more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic.

The risk that this disease poses to the individual who is infected has not changed.

What has changed is that we are experiencing a much greater level of community transmission and as a result we are seeing higher numbers of people with severe illness who require hospitalisation or admission to intensive care and higher numbers of mortality.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the numbers being hospitalised and admitted to ICU is expected to peak within the next week or two.

Dr Holohan said: We are seeing people of all ages being admitted to hospital and being taken into intensive care units.

"The levels of infection are such that your chances of transmitting or getting Covid-19 are very high, and we know that a proportion of those cases will lead to serious illness and mortality.

There is no group who should feel the public health advice does not apply to them.

He also urged employers to facilitate their employees working from home.

As we look forward to the week ahead, consider your choices and make the right ones. Do not go into work tomorrow if you can work from home. If you are an employer, facilitate remote working for your employees.

Meanwhile, Mr Donnelly warned on RTEs This Week that the numbers in ICU will continue to rise and the situation will get worse before it gets better.

However, he said the number of patients being hospitalised with Covid-19 is expected to peak within the next week or two, in what has been the third wave of the pandemic here.

He said that new modelling in the past few days from Professor Philip Nolan, who heads a team tracking Covid-19, suggests that this week, or potentially next week, the hospitalisations and the number of patients in ICU should peak.
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - Billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong was sent back to prison on Monday after a South Korean court handed him a two and a half-year sentence for his involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive protests and ousted South Koreas then-president.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong arrives at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. South Korean court sentences Lee to 2 and a half years in prison over corruption case. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of - Billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong was sent back to prison on Monday after a South Korean court handed him a two and a half-year sentence for his involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive protests and ousted South Koreas then-president.

In a much-anticipated retrial, the Seoul High Court found Lee guilty of bribing then-President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates. The deal helped strengthen his control over the countrys largest business group.

Lees lawyers had portrayed him as a victim of presidential power abuse and described the 2015 deal as part of normal business activity.

Wearing a mask and black suit and tie, Lee was taken into custody following the ruling. He didnt answer questions by reporters upon his arrival at the court.

Injae Lee, an attorney who leads Lee Jae-yongs defence team, expressed regret over the courts decision, saying that the essence of the case is that a former president abused power to infringe upon the freedom and property rights of a private company.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is questioned by reporters upon his arrival at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. South Korean court sentences Lee to 2 and a half years in prison over corruption case. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

He didnt specifically say whether there would be an appeal. Samsung didnt issue a statement over the ruling.

Lee Jae-yong helms the Samsung group in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the worlds largest makers of computer chips and smartphones.

In September last year, prosecutors separately indicted Lee on charges of stock price manipulation, breach of trust and auditing violations related to the 2015 merger.

It isnt immediately clear what his prison term would mean for Samsung. Samsung didnt show much signs of trouble during the previous time Lee spent in jail in 2017 and 2018, and prison terms have never really stopped South Korean corporate leaders from relaying their management decisions from behind bars.

Samsung is coming off a robust business year, with its dual strength in parts and finished products enabling it to benefit from the coronavirus pandemic and the prolonged trade war between United States and China.

Samsungs semiconductor business rebounded sharply after a sluggish 2019, driven by robust demand for PCs and servers as virus outbreaks forced millions of people to stay and work at home.

The Trump administrations sanctions against Chinas Huawei Technologies have meanwhile hindered one of Samsungs biggest rivals in smartphones, smartphone chips and telecommunications equipment.

Samsung Electronics said earlier this month that its operating profit for the last quarter likely rose by 26% from the same period a year earlier to 9 trillion won ($8.1 billion). The company will release its finalized earnings later this month.

Lee, 52, was originally sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for offering 8.6 billion won ($7 million) in bribes to Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil. But he was freed after 11 months in February 2018 after the Seoul High Court reduced his term to 2 1/2 years and suspended his sentence, overturning key convictions and reducing the amount of his bribes.

The Supreme Court last week confirmed a 20-year prison sentence for Park, who was convicted of colluding with Choi to take millions of dollars in bribes and extortion money from some of the countrys largest business groups, including Samsung, while she was in office from 2013 to 2016.

The ruling meant that Park, who also has a separate conviction for illegally meddling in her partys candidate nominations ahead of 2016 parliamentary elections, could potentially serve 22 years behind bars until 2039, when she would be 87.

Choi is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

In a news conference Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he has no immediate plans to grant presidential pardons to Park and another imprisoned former president, Lee Myung-bak, whos serving a 17-year term for corruption.

Conservative politicians and some members of Moons liberal party have endorsed the idea of pardoning the former presidents for the sake of national unity as the countrys deeply split electorate approaches presidential elections in March 2022.
She made headlines earlier this month when she accused popular Instagram account Celeb Spellcheck of 'bullying' influencers by correcting their typos.

But Love Island Australia star Tayla Damir has apparently since changed her opinion on the importance of spelling and grammar.

The model and WAG, 23, told the Shameless podcast on Monday she takes pleasure in correcting poorly spelled messages sent by online trolls.

Pot, kettle, black? Love Island's Tayla Damir has complained about people with bad spelling, just weeks after accusing an Instagram account of 'bullying' her by correcting her own typos

'I don't usually respond [to trolls], but the ones that have so many spelling errors, I feel like it's my human duty just to tell them,' she said.

'If you're going to send me a hate message, at least spell "you're" right!'

Tayla said she'd received a 'horribly spelled hate message' the night before the interview, but chose not to retaliate.

'If you're going to send me a hate message, at least spell "you're" right!' The model and WAG, 23, said she takes pleasure in correcting poorly spelled messages sent by online trolls

'So, I had just corrected all their spelling, and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and my dad was like, "Don't respond to them, Tayla,"' she said.

Unsurprisingly, Tayla's remarks caught the attention of Celeb Spellcheck, who had called her out earlier this month for misspelling the word 'tournament'.

At the time, Tayla hit back at the popular Instagram account by penning a lengthy rant in which she accused the anonymous admin of 'opening up the door for bullies'.

Hypocritical: Tayla's remarks caught the attention of Celeb Spellcheck, who had called her out earlier this month for misspelling the word 'tournament'

But it was a case of sweet revenge for Celeb Spellcheck, who reposted Tayla's rant as well as a clip from her Shameless podcast interview on Monday.

'A few weeks ago, Tayla posted this in response to being featured on this page. I didn't respond, but made the decision not to feature her again as she obviously didn't appreciate it,' Celeb Spellcheck wrote.

'Swipe to listen to her hypocritically saying it's her "human duty" to correct other people's spelling.'

Oops! Celeb Spellcheck completed the caption in a snarky fashion by pointing out that Tayla had also mistakenly used the term 'wave link' instead of 'wave length' in her Instagram rant

Celeb Spellcheck completed the caption in a typically snarky fashion by pointing out that Tayla had also mistakenly used the term 'wave link' instead of 'wave length' in her Instagram rant.

'Guess she's not on the same "wave link" anymore!' they wrote.

Tayla was left mortified on January 1 after Celeb Spellcheck reposted one of her recent Instagram posts in which she misspelled the word 'tournament'.

The post that spelled disaster: Tayla was left mortified on January 1 after Celeb Spellcheck reposted one of her recent Instagram posts in which she misspelled the word 'tournament'. Pictured with her boyfriend, AFL player Nathan Broad

Caught out: Celeb Spellcheck shared the image, adding the snarky caption, 'Nothing's fine I'm torn' - referencing the lyrics from the Natalie Imbruglia song Torn

The image showed Tayla and her boyfriend, AFL player Nathan Broad, posing in matching pyjamas on New Year's Day, alongside the caption: 'Beer pong tornament [sic].'

Celeb Spellcheck shared the image, adding the snarky caption, 'Nothing's fine I'm torn' - referencing the lyrics from the Natalie Imbruglia song Torn.

Tayla promptly retaliated, writing a lengthy rant on Instagram about cyber bullying and encouraging fans to think twice about following pages like Celeb Spellcheck.

'I am all for a bit of a laugh and fun, but this account opens the door for straight up bullying,' she wrote.

The former Miss Universe WA finalist also defended her spelling mistake, explaining that she is 'slightly dyslexic'.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 18.01.2021:

1. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touched upon the Karabakh issue at a press conference Monday on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2020.

According to him, Moscow has never discussed the issue of including Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] as part of Russia.

As for the status of Karabakh, this issue was not mentioned in the November 9 agreement; this was done knowingly, Lavrov added.

The FM also referred to the Armenia-Azerbaijan talks and noted that the issue of POWs has indeed been discussed and it is part of the agreement signed on the night of November 9-10.

2. Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has proposed to President Armen Sarkissian to dismiss health minister Arsen Torosyan;

The information was confirmed to Armenian News-NEWS.am by the information department of the President's Office.

It was proposed to appoint Deputy Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan as the new minister.

Armenia ombudsman has addressed a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the matter of having the captives returned from Azerbaijan and protection of their rights.

"The letter states, among other things, that the return or release of [Armenian] captives should be considered solely within the framework of human rights or the humanitarian process. The letter applies to both servicemen and civilians. The return of captives must be ensured immediately after the cessation of hostilities," Arman Tatoyan wrote on Facebook.

3. The regular sessions of the National Assembly of Armenia were underway Monday.

There were 46 matters on the agenda.

Meanwhile, the Armenian parliament majority faction blocks the draft statement demanding PM Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

A total of 76 MPs were against the inclusion of this draft in the NA agenda, 37 were in favor, and one lawmaker abstained.

The opposition Prosperous Armenia faction supported the initiative.

Parliament did not also include in the agenda the draft decision on the legality of the statement signed on November 9, 2020, by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and President of Russia Vladimir Putin prepared by the Bright Armenia party.

4. American Armenian Jeff Marootian has joined President-elect Joe Biden administration as Special Assistant to the President for Climate and Science Agency Personnel, The Armenian Report noted.

Marootian left his post as director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to join the climate team in the Biden/Harris administration.

Another American Armenian official Ike Hajinazarian has been appointed head of the White House regional communications department in the Biden administration.

By the way, Joe Biden's inauguration is scheduled for January 20.

5. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who is being treated for COVID-19 at a London hospital, will be discharged from this medical institution in the coming days.

The President, however, will continue his treatment at home under medical supervision; he needs bed rest.

After recovering and receiving the respective permission from the doctors, the President will return to Armenia; but until then, he will continue to work remotely.
Baby Gourmet is present in Canada and US

Hero Group, the Switzerland-based baby-food manufacturer, has acquired Baby Gourmet, a privately-owned peer in Canada producing organic products.

Located in Calgary, Alberta, Baby Gourmet was founded by sisters Jennifer Carlson and Jill Vos in 2005 and offers organic baby cereals, fruit and vegetable purees, meals and plant-based snacks under its namesake brand. The company introduced its Slammers Snacks brand of pouches to the US in 2014.

Miss Carlson, the CEO of Baby Gourmet, said: "After 15 years of building Canada's leading organic baby-food brand, Jill and I are thrilled to launch our next phase of growth with Hero. With our shared values, Hero is the perfect home for Baby Gourmet; a place where we can continue to develop our beloved, mission-driven brand."

The financial terms linked to the transaction were not disclosed. The two sisters will continue to lead Baby Gourmet and will remain shareholders in the company.

Hero Group manufactures infant formula and baby foods, as well as health snacks such as nut and cereal bars, and natural spreads like jams.

Rob Versloot, the CEO of Lenzburg-based Hero Group, said: "We are extremely pleased to have positively concluded the acquisition of Baby Gourmet and to have found a strategic partnership model with the founders to continue their entrepreneurial success story. The baby-food market is our largest category, where we are keen on further increasing our footprint."

Last summer, Hero Group formed an organic baby-food venture in Italy with Angelini Holding named MadreNatura to market 27 products under the brand Hero Solo. And in 2018, it entered a strategic partnership with Goodforgrowth in Germany, also in baby foods.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns B3 rating to Mongolian Mortgage Corporation's proposed senior unsecured debt

Global Credit Research - 18 Jan 2021

Hong Kong, January 18, 2021 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a B3 rating to Mongolian Mortgage Corporation HFC LLC's (MIK) proposed USD-denominated senior unsecured debt. The final amounts and terms of the debt will depend on market conditions and on the result of a cash tender offer.

The proposed senior unsecured debt is guaranteed by MIK's parent company, MIK Holding JSC.

The proceeds will be used to finance MIK's cash tender offer to repurchase its outstanding senior unsecured debt maturing in January 2022, to repay any remaining outstanding debt and for general corporate purposes.

The rating on the securities is subject to the receipt of final documentation, the terms and conditions of which are not expected to change in any material way from the draft documents that Moody's has reviewed. Should issuance conditions and/or final documentation deviate from the original ones submitted and reviewed by the rating agency, Moody's will assess the impact that these differences may have on the ratings and act accordingly.

The entity-level outlook on MIK remains negative.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The B3 rating is in line with MIK's long-term foreign currency issuer rating, as the senior unsecured bonds will constitute a direct, general, unsubordinated, unconditional and unsecured obligation of the issuer. The bonds will be redeemable at principal on maturity.

On 14 January, in addition to issuance of the new senior unsecured debt, MIK also announced a tender offer on its $300 million 9.75% senior unsecured notes maturing in January 2022 at 102% of the debt's principal, in addition to accrued interest.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING

WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING UP

Given that MIK's B3 ratings are the same as Mongolia's sovereign issuer rating, an upgrade of the company's ratings is unlikely. Moody's could change the outlook on MIK to stable from negative if (1) the outlook on the sovereign rating is changed to stable from negative, (2) the banking system's operating environment remains broadly stable, and (3) the company maintains sound financial metrics.

Story continues

WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATING DOWN

Moody's could downgrade MIK's ratings if (1) its standalone assessment is lowered, (2) the risks in Mongolia's banking system rise materially, and/or (3) the sovereign rating is downgraded. Moody's could lower MIK's standalone assessment if (1) the company's liquidity profile relative to its foreign currency debt servicing weakens substantially, and/or (2) the asset quality of Mongolia's mortgage loans deteriorate materially.

The principal methodology used in this rating was Finance Companies Methodology published in November 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1187099. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Mongolian Mortgage Corporation HFC LLC (MIK) is a wholly owned subsidiary of MIK Holding JSC, which is headquartered in Ulaanbaatar. MIK Holding JSC's consolidated assets totaled MNT4.18 trillion ($1.5 billion) as of 31 December 2019.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

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South Koreas president urged the incoming Biden administration to build upon the achievements and learn from the failures of President Donald Trumps diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

A dovish liberal and the son of northern war refugees, Moon Jae-in had lobbied hard to help set up Mr Trumps three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but their diplomacy stalemated over disagreements over easing crippling US-led sanctions for the Norths disarmament.

Mr Biden has accused Mr Trump of chasing the spectacle of summits rather than meaningful curbs on the Norths nuclear capabilities.

North Korea has a history of staging weapons tests and other provocations to test new US presidents, and Mr Kim vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons programme in recent political speeches that were seen as aimed at pressuring the incoming Biden administration.

Expand Close President Donald Trump and leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, at Capella, Singapore (Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp President Donald Trump and leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, at Capella, Singapore (Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/PA)

The South Korean leader has been desperate to keep alive a positive atmosphere for dialogue in the face of Mr Kims vows to further expand a nuclear and missile programme that threatens Asian US allies and the US homeland.

And while Mr Moon acknowledged that Mr Biden is likely to try a different approach than Mr Trump, he stressed that Mr Biden could still learn from Mr Trumps successes and failures in dealing with North Korea.

During a mostly virtual news conference in Seoul, Mr Moon claimed that Mr Kim still had a clear willingness to denuclearis if Washington and Pyongyang could find mutually agreeable steps to decrease the nuclear threat and ensure the Norths security.

Most experts see Mr Kims recent comments as further evidence he will maintain his weapons programme to ensure his regimes survival.

When asked about the Norths efforts to increase its ballistic capacity to strike targets throughout South Korea, including US bases there, Mr Moon said the South could sufficiently cope with such threats with its missile defence systems and other military assets.

The start of the Biden administration provides a new opportunity to start over talks between North Korea and the United States and also between South and North Korea, which have stalled amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations, Mr Moon said.

The North Korean efforts to expand its nuclear program and acquire more weapons systems are all because we have not succeeded yet in reaching an agreement over denuclearisation and establishing peace.

These are problems that could all be solved by success in dialogue, he said.

During an eight-day congress of North Koreas Workers Party that ended last week, Mr Kim described the United States as his countrys foremost principal enemy.

He did not entirely rule out talks, but he said the fate of bilateral relations would depend on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.

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The erosion in inter-Korean relations have been a major setback to Mr Moon, who met Mr Kim three times in 2018 while expressing ambitions to reboot inter-Korean economic engagement when possible, voicing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects.

Mr Moon said the South would continue to seek ways to improve relations with the North within the boundary of sanctions, such as pursuing humanitarian assistance and joint anti-virus efforts against Covid-19.

But Mr Kim during the ruling party congress already described such offers as inessential while slamming South Korea for its own efforts to strengthen defence capabilities and continuing annual military exercises with the United States, which were downsized under Trump to create space for diplomacy.

Experts say Pyongyang is pressuring Seoul to break away from Washington by halting their joint drills and to defy sanctions and restart inter-Korean economic cooperation.

During Mr Trumps first summit with Kim in June 2018, they pledged to improve bilateral relations and issued vague aspirational vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

But the negotiations faltered after their second meeting in February 2019 when the Americans rejected the North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantling of an ageing nuclear reactor, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

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Mr Moon said that Mr Trump and Mr Kims agreement in their first meeting was still relevant and the Biden administration should take lessons from the failures of their second meeting,

The declaration in Singapore under the Trump administration was a very important declaration for denuclearisation and building peace in the Korean Peninsula, Mr Moon said.

Of course, its very lamentable that the (content of the) declaration remains theoretical because of the failures to back it up with concrete agreements, he said.

But if we start over from the Singapore declaration and revive talks over concrete steps, its possible that diplomacy between North Korea and the United States and between South and North Korea would gain pace again.

Mr Moon said he hopes to meet Mr Biden as soon as possible and that South Korean officials were actively communicating with their American counterparts to ensure that the North Korea issue remains a priority for the new US government, which inherits a horrendous coronavirus outbreak and domestic political turmoil.
New Delhi: The seventh instalment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme has been released, but there are millions of farmers who have not yet not received their money.

While several farmers have their Payment Response Pending, several others have their payments failed. The major reason for payment failure is the incorrect registration of a certain important information like Aadhaar number or account number.

If you think, you have provided incorrect Aadhaar number, you can correct it by visiting PM Farmer's website online. Follow the steps given below.

1. Go to PM Kisan website pmkisan.gov.in.

2. You will see a link above 'Farmers Corner', click this link

3. You will see a link 'Aadhaar edit', click on it.

4. A page will open where you can check your Aadhaar number and correct the information.

Additionally, if the bank account details are wrong, you can correct it. However, for this you will have to contact your agriculture department office or Lekhpal. You can get it corrected by going there.

It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 released over Rs 18,000 crore to more than nine crore farmer families under the 'Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi' (PM-KISAN).

With the push of a button, Modi enabled the transfer of money to the farmers. The PM released the instalment of Rs 2,000 to every farmer on the birth anniversary of former prime minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which is every year celebrated as "Good Governance Day" by the ruling party.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme was launched by PM Modi in 2019. The Scheme aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

PM-KISAN Scheme for only Small and Marginal Farmers' families?

In the beginning when the PM-KISAN Scheme was launched (February, 2019), its benefits were admissible only to Small & marginal Farmers' families, with combined landholding upto 2 hectare. The Scheme was later on revised in June 2019 and extended to all farmer families irrespective of the size of their landholdings

The Central Government had notified a decision to extend the benefit of Rs 6,000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.

Who are excluded from the PM-KISAN Scheme?

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Those excluded from the PM-KISAN include institutional land holders, farmer families holding constitutional posts, serving or retired officers and employees of State or Central government as well as Public Sector Undetakings and Government Autonomous bodies. Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year are also not eligible for the benefits.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 is now receiving Android 11 in the US

Last week Samsung started sending out the update to One UI 3.0 based on Android 11 to Galaxy Z Fold2 units in Germany, as well as the company's home market of South Korea.

One week later, the update has crossed the pond, and reached the shores of the US. Verizon is the first carrier to release the new software for its Galaxy Z Fold2 units.

The update arrives over-the-air of course, and should take a few days to get to all units out there in the wild. Once you install it you'll have build F916USQU1CTLL.

If you're interested in learning more about One UI 3.0, don't miss our mini review of Samsung's latest Android skin.

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Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. The SC bench listed the matter for 15 March

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is taking all efforts to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines from the United Kingdom, but the process is being delayed to some legal issues involved in the matter.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing on 15 March, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought some time to file a report on the status of extradition of Mallya.

At the outset, Mehta shared a letter of the Ministry of External Affairs official Devesh Uttam written to him on the status of extradition of Mallya from the United Kingdom.

The solicitor general stated that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has raised the issue of extradition with the UK government and the Centre is taking all serious efforts to extradite Mallya.

He said that the government is trying its best but the status remains the same and from the political executive level to administrative level, the matter is being looked into repeatedly.

The bench took the letter on record.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on 18 April, 2017.

The letter submitted by the law officer stated that the Ministry of External Affairs has been informed by the UK government that there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya can be extradited.

It said, Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential and you will understand that Her Majestys government cannot provide any more details. We also cannot estimate how long this issue will take to resolve. Her Majestys government fully understands the importance of this case to the government of India. I can reassure that Her Majestys government is seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible.

The letter further stated, The government of India has been making consistent efforts for early extradition of Vijay Mallya. In November 2020, Foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla raised this issue with Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary who informed that UKs legal complexities were preventing the quick extradition of Vijay Mallya.

It further said, In December 2020, the external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar raised the issue with the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under-Secretary of Home. UKs response remains the same.

On 2 November, last year, the top court had asked the Centre to file a status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the UK on extradition of Mallya to India.

The Centre had on 5 October told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate secret legal process in the UK, which is judicial and confidential in nature is resolved.

The top court had also refused to accept the plea of advocate EC Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case.

The Centre had in October, last year said it is not aware of the secret on-going proceedings against Mallya in the UK as the government of India is not party to the process.

On 31 August, last year the top court had directed Mallya to appear before it on 5 October, 2020, while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring $40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

When the top court had asked Mehta about the time-frame for the conclusion of proceeding pending in the UK, he had said they have no information about it from the London High Commission.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its affidavit filed earlier in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said that the pending legal issue in the UK is outside and apart from the extradition process and is confidential and cannot be disclosed.

The top court had in October, 2020 asked Mallya''s lawyer to apprise the apex court by 2 November, last year what kind of "secret" proceedings are going on to extradite him.

The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from 9 February 2017 till the dismissal of his appeal against extradition in the UK on 14 May, last year and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.

The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallyas surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallyas extradition may take place.

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- S3 International is excited to announce that effective today, it has changed its name and brand to S3 AeroDefense. The new name emphasizes not only growth but the long-term vision  to continue to be a trusted partner in the Aerospace and Defense market. This announcement coincides with the celebration of 15 years in business. While the name has changed, the service that both customers and partners alike have come to trust and expect remains the cornerstone of S3's business. Along with this change, S3 redesigned its company logo and developed a new website which can be accessed at www.s3aerodefense.com.

"We are focused on providing superior support to the military aerospace and defense market with the highest quality parts and services. We are very excited about the introduction of our new company name, S3 AeroDefense, because it allows us to better represent our business to our military and defense customers," said Aksel Sidem, President, S3 AeroDefense.

S3 AeroDefense strategically utilizes manufacturer direct partnership to mitigate long turnaround times and introduce an expansive array of product options to their customer base. Currently, S3 is partnered with these leading aerospace companies: Amfuel, Arrowhead Products, CEF Industries, Collins Aerospace, Donaldson Filtration Systems, Eaton Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, Moog, Tactair Fluid Controls, Textron Aerospace, and The Protective Group. S3 is an expert in developing niche product line distribution management and continues to build on an award-winning partnership portfolio.

About S3 AeroDefense:

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, S3 AeroDefense is a recognized Worldwide leader in providing aircraft spares, component repair services and supply chain solutions to Military Aircraft Operators. Since its inception in 2005, S3 has been focused on quality, innovation and dedication to exceptional customer support. With a focus on OEM strategic distribution, S3 is the trusted solution provider to Customers and OEMs.

Additional information about the company can be found at: www.s3aerodefense.com

SOURCE S3 AeroDefense

Related Links

https://www.s3aerodefense.com


Anyone with a lick of sense could foretell that Joe Biden's promise of free amnesty and U.S. citizenship would be just the thing to trigger a huge border surge, which is what's happening.

Here's what happened in Guatemala, according to these tweet videos from The Hill:

Video shows migrants break through Guatemala's border security lines today, entering Guatemalan territory through the El Florido Border Post and failing to comply with immigration and health requirements. pic.twitter.com/fQIKZYi7ix  The Hill (@thehill) January 17, 2021

YESTERDAY: Dramatic video shows people from the Honduran migrant caravan pushing past border control to cross into Guatemala. pic.twitter.com/lATvwr4O0P  The Hill (@thehill) January 17, 2021

A vast caravan of about 7,000 is pushing up through Central America and set to course through Mexico, making its way for the U.S. border in time for Biden's inauguration. Border officials have been warning for weeks about the surge.

Which might just present Biden with a public relations problem, at least as he sees it, and explain his preposterous bid to talk them out of it.

According to Breitbart News, citing NBC:

NBC News reports that a senior Biden transition team member warned the newest caravan of Honduran migrants not to come to the U.S. at this time. The official reportedly advised that if they come they will not be allowed to enter the U.S.  for now. The situation at the border isnt going to be transformed overnight, the unnamed transition official told NBC News. Theres help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey.

Translation: They don't want an instant border crisis with thousands of people surging across the U.S. southern border, at least while the cameras are on and the global community is watching Biden closely.

Which would explain the promise to the unvetted foreigners that "help" will be "on the way." It's a curious echo of Barack Obama's mic-caught promise to Russia's then-president, Dmitri Medvedev, that he'd be glad to give him what he wants, but wait till after the election -- when he'd have "more flexibility."

Maybe the migrants will wait, depending on how close they are to the levers of power in Washington now. But it seems farfetched, given that the people organizing it, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, same ones who triggered the mess in Tijuana a couple years ago and got themselves arrested, are whipping up the mobs to move forward.

There's a striking entitlement mentality among the caravan migrants and their organizers, in fact. According to Karen Townsend at Hot Air, citing Pueblo Sin Fronteras:

We recognize the importance of the incoming Government of the United States having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers, which presents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and a migration management that respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility, the statement said.  We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments.

Based on their point of view, Biden owes them.

Which suggests that Biden's foolish move to offer zero deportations, amnesty, and an open border is unlikely to dissuade the incoming border surgers to go by Joe's timing. Biden rang a dinner triangle for the migrants, making illegal immigration and pushing through police barriers more profitable than emigrating legally. They are very likely to put Biden to the test, showing just how ineffectual he is by surging through the border even against his pitiful please to stop.

After that, more migrants will see what happens and come, knowing that the risks outweigh the rewards.

Joe BIden meanwhile, as he tries to talk the border surgers to not surge, is basically trying to beat back a sea with a hammer. He will fail.

Image credit: The Hill, video screen shot, via shareable Twitter

Charleston, WV (25301)

Today

Thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with light rain possible. Low around 55F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Hospital healthcare workers reported higher rates of clinically significant mental health symptoms following initial Covid-19 pandemic peak Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hospital healthcare workers reported higher rates of clinically significant mental health symptoms following the initial COVID-19 pandemic peak in the UK, new research led by the University of Birmingham has revealed.

A study, published in BJPsych Open, found around a third of hospital healthcare workers reported clinically significant symptoms of anxiety (34.3%) and depression (31.2%), while almost a quarter (24.5%) reported clinically significant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

Over 2,600 healthcare workers employed by 10 NHS hospital trusts across the West Midlands took part in a survey between June 5th 2020 and July 31st 2020, in a study aimed at gauging the mental health consequences of the immediate aftermath of the initial COVID-19 pandemic peak in the UK.

The survey found:

Those with a history of mental health conditions had at least two-fold increased odds of clinically significant symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety.

Women, those with a history of physical illness, smokers, staff based on in-patient wards, emergency departments, and intensive therapy units, had an increased likelihood of clinically significant PTSD symptoms.

Younger participants, women, and those who had either themselves or a close family member or friend been admitted to hospital with COVID-19, were around 50% more likely to report anxiety symptoms.

There was an almost two-fold increase in odds of healthcare workers having symptoms of depression when they were based in an acute general hospital, compared with a mental health setting.

Smokers were 50% more likely to report symptoms of depression and PTSD, but not anxiety.

Those who reported adequate availability of personal protection equipment (PPE) and well-being support, and no 'morally uncomfortable' changes in working practices, were up to 50% less likely to have anxiety, depression or PTSD symptoms.

Doctors and nurses were 20% less likely to report anxiety or PTSD compared with other hospital healthcare workers.

Just over half (55%) of those surveyed reported that adequate PPE was available at their workplace, while 30.8% said this was not the case. The majority (78.2%) were aware of well-being measures implemented by their employer, however only 15.4% accessed any form of psychological support during the study period.

A third (33.1%) were redeployed as a result of the pandemic and 38.5% reported increased working hours. In addition, 51.2% reported 'morally uncomfortable' changes in the way they worked.

A total 720 (27.3%) were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the survey period, while 522 (19.8%) also reported a cohabitant had developed COVID-19. Also, 452 (17.1%) either themselves, or a close family member or friend, were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19.

The research team included Dr. Kasun Wanigasooriya, Professor Andrew Beggs, and Dr. Tariq Ismail.

First author Dr. Kasun Wanigasooriya, a Junior Doctor and a Ph.D. student at the University of Birmingham, said: "The pandemic has stretched the limits of healthcare systems to beyond capacity.

"Healthcare workers have been exposed to numerous stressors including a rapid escalation in workload; sudden changes in roles and responsibilities including critical decision-making; witnessing higher than the usual number of deaths; and contracting the virus themselves.

"It is essential that we ensure adequate access to both PPE and well-being support for all of our workforce on the frontline, particularly for those who may be at greater risk."

Author Professor Andrew Beggs, of the University of Birmingham, said: "Our findings show the vast majority of healthcare workers are aware of well-being support but very few access it.

"We hope that our research will highlight this important issue and will lead to more healthcare workers accessing the support they need."

Professor Neil Greenberg, from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "Experiences of 'moral injury," a term for distress as a result of violating one's moral principles, limited wellbeing support and lack of PPE are associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression and PTSD symptoms in hospital staff.

"These findings are concerning and must be addressed, especially during this current wave. Adverse symptoms not only have serious consequences for the workforce's mental health but can make it difficult to deliver high quality care.

"While more research is needed to understand the impact of the pandemic on the workforce's mental health, it's essential that all NHS staff can access evidence-based psychological support, and in cases of mental illness, the right psychiatric treatment when they need it."

There were 2,638 eligible participants who completed the survey, which collected self-reported data on 24 independent variables, including sociodemographic, lifestyle and employment factors, and impacts on professional and personal lives.

Explore further New study shows mental health of ICU staff should be immediate priority

More information: Kasun Wanigasooriya et al. Mental health symptoms in a cohort of hospital healthcare workers following the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, BJPsych Open (2020). Kasun Wanigasooriya et al. Mental health symptoms in a cohort of hospital healthcare workers following the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK,(2020). DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2020.150
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WandaVision has debuted on Disney+, and fans are excited to see what the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has in store for them.

While no ones been able to decipher the plot yet, its only a matter of time before all the episodes will be available. In the meantime, all fans can do is speculate on Wandas fate. Some fans think the possibility of her turning into a villain exists, and that wouldnt sit too well with some of them.

The MCU history of Wanda Maximoff and Vision

Much like in the pages of Marvel Comics, Wanda and Vision develop a romantic relationship during the MCU films. Their connection begins to blossom in Captain America: Civil War. When the Avengers ask Wanda to be kept under supervision at the Avengers headquarters, it is Vision who cooks for her and attempts to comfort her.

The next time we see the two heroes, its during Avengers: Infinity War. Theyre on the run in Germany where theyre nearly apprehended by members of Thanos Black Order. The couple is rescued by Captain America and several others. Its made clear that they are now in a relationship and in love. Tragically, by the films end, Wanda is forced to kill Vision to destroy one of the Infinity Stones.

Its all for naught, however, when Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse time, bring Vision back to life, only to kill him again. Wanda then perishes due to his snap.

Wanda returns in Avengers: Endgame and helps bring down Thanos, avenging the death of her partner. That will presumably lead to the events of WandaVision, the new series from Disney+.

How WandaVision will begin Marvels Phase Four

Elizabeth Olsen | Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

RELATED: WandaVision Director Matt Shakman Has an Interesting Connection to Growing Pains

Details on WandaVision are scarce, but we do know its modeled after classic sitcoms from various eras of TV. Theres also been speculation it will usher in the MCUs idea of multiverses, dovetailing into the events of Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness in which Scarlet Witch has confirmed to be in.

Previews for the show havent revealed much, but its clear that both Wanda and Vision will be featured prominently in what seems like an alternate reality (or potentially, realities).

With rumors circulating about the next Doctor Strange and Spider-Man films incorporating multiverses, this show appears ready to send seismic shockwaves through the MCU in how it sets the stage for the coming films in Phase Four.

Fans arent sure exactly where Wanda will end up when the shows run is complete.

Why some people are furious about rumors Wanda will become a villain

A Reddit thread of fans discussing Wandas potential fate on the show talked about whether shell become a villain. Its a role shes played before in the comics, and even in the MCU. In her MCU debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron, she and her brother Quicksilver were aligned with Ultron before joining the Avengers.

One fan doesnt believe it will happen, stating:

They wont, beside Wanda as a villain is a very misogynistic trope, matt shakman himself thinks thats lazy and [Kevin] Feige said this show is where we learn why wanda is called scarlet witch.

The MCU has done a good job making characters realistic and believable. While they have fantastic powers and abilities, theyre all grounded in some kind of realism. That also goes for their motivations.

Whether Wanda ends up as a villain or not, its certain shell have relatable plot lines that will make her a sympathetic character. Either way, shes grown into being a fan-favorite, and those fans definitely dont want to root against her when the show wraps up this season.
The power of cooperation is the only tool we have to emerge from the shadow of Covid-19, says the Chinese infectious disease expert

May 27, 2021 08:27 PM

Ulsan #1 began building the Ioniq 5 in December but so far all we've seen is teaser pics

Strong in the USA, Europe, Russia and the Pacific Rim, as well as South Korea of course, Hyundai Motor Group still under-achieves in China. Even with that giant market expanding for many months now, neither Kia nor Hyundai has been able to make much headway. Might a raft of new vehicles change things? This first of three features on HMG considers the Hyundai brand's global next generation models.

Cars

In production for six months now, the i20 will soon be joined by the first N version in the model's history. Announced to the media in October, the i20 N goes on sale in most markets, including European ones, during March or April. Powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo, outputs are 150 kW (204 PS) and 275 Nm. A six-speed manual gearbox is standard and drive goes to the front wheels only. As with other i20s, a mid-life facelift is due in 2023 and a successor in 2026.

China's Beijing Hyundai joint venture told the media about some of its future model plans in August last year. These mainly consist of local production for already launched Hyundai vehicles but one surprise was the statement that there would be not only a new Mistra but an EV variant. The launch of this 4,780 mm long sedan would take place before the end of 2021, the JV stated.

Prototypes of both petrol and electric models were revealed at the Guangzhou motor show in November. The piston-powered cars offer the choice of 1.8-litre normally aspirated and 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engines.

The previous Mistra - also known as Mingtu - sold well for a time but sales faded and the car went out of production in 2019. It was positioned between the Elantra and Sonata.

Ioniq = electric

Five months ago, Hyundai told us that many of its future electric models would be called Ioniq, starting with the Ioniq 5 which will be revealed very soon (see pic detail above).

Kia will also have a model based on the same bespoke architecture, which is called Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). The Ioniq 5 - formerly the NE project - will be the group's first model for E-GMP. There should also be a model for Genesis.

The Ioniq 5 will have angular lines, something Hyundai stated in September 2019 when revealing its 45 concept at the Frankfurt motor show. There was then a totally different take on how another future EVs might look in the form of the Prophecy, a concept announced in March 2020. This long, curvy car had been due to be revealed at that month's Geneva motor show before the event was cancelled.

There were reports out of Korea in October claiming that the Ioniq 5 will be 4,635 mm long and have a 72 kWh battery pack. However, in December came the news that a 'First Edition' would have a 58 kWh pack along with two motors and a maximum WLTP range of 450 km (280 miles). Combined power is said to be 230 kW. As for the more powerful variant, this is still said to be due for launch this year. It should be able to travel up to 550 km. Official information is awaited.

Expected to be called Ioniq 3, a 4.0-4.2 m long electric crossover due in 2022 or 2023 should be built not only in South Korea but also assembled at a plant which is under construction in Singapore. The factory was announced by Hyundai distributor Komoco Motors' executive chairman Teo Hock Seng speaking to the Straits Times in August 2020. The site is at Jurong on the west of the island city state. Hyundai is also expected to manufacture the Ioniq 5 there.

Meanwhile, sources report that the looks of the Ioniq 6, an electric car, will be heavily influenced by the Prophecy concept. The name, Ioniq 6, is as per Hyundai's August 2020 statement noting that each of the Ioniq sub-brand's future electric crossovers and SUVs would use an odd number while cars are to have an even one. The sales launch is expected to take place in 2022. The Ioniq 7, a large SUV, is set to arrive in 2024. The company should steadily fill out the 1-9 numbers with Ioniq 4 and possibly even Ioniq 8 sedans/hatchbacks potentially being added in or after 2025.

MPV

Beijing Hyundai is close to launching a special MPV/minivan for the Chinese market. The model name is said to be 'Custo' with this six/seven-seat vehicle set to share multiple components with the Sonata. The standard engine should be a turbo 2.0-litre and prototypes have been seen with sliding rear doors.

The long overdue next generation Starex is also due to be revealed later in 2021. The new model is codenamed US4. Eight, nine, 11 or 12-seater minivan variants should again feature in the range, and various names will exist worldwide ('Staria' is one such). As with the existing generation of the big van and MPV, the life cycle will likely exceed a decade.

Pick-ups

The Santa Cruz, a forthcoming crossover/pick-up mashup, was previewed by a concept of the same name revealed six years ago this month at the Detroit auto show. The production version, which will be aimed at the Honda Ridgeline, will use the same platform as the fifth generation Tucson. Build is due to commence in May.

There is still some uncertainty over the development code which was originally said to be TN before becoming NX4-OB. The next Tuscon is codenamed NX4.

Hyundai Motor America stated in November 2019 that US$410m would be spent expanding and adapting the Montgomery plant in Alabama ahead of the Santa Cruz going into production there "in 2021".

SUVs

AX1 is the code for a 3.6-3.8 m long crossover in the style of the Suzuki S-Presso. Mainly for the Indian market, it would be positioned between the smaller Santro and larger Venue. It could also be offered in relevant left-hand drive markets. Prototypes were most recently seen testing in January. Production will likely commence at year-end.

Hyundai Motor Europe announced in November that it would be adding another SUV to its line-up during the first half of 2021. Other than the fact that the name of this B segment model will be Bayon, no other details were divulged. The codename is in PLDB and the database is also being updated with further information (see link at end of this report). The Bayon can be thought of as the crossover version of the i20.

Hyundai announced initial details of the fourth generation Tucson in September (see link to PLDB for all details). Along with various other powertrains, there are HEV (hybrid) and PHEV (plug-in hybrid) variants. While there are two lengths and wheelbases for other Tucsons, it remains unclear whether this also applies to the HEV and PHEV.

The hybrid is powered by a 1.6-litre T-GDI (turbocharged gasoline direct injection) Smartstream engine and a 44.2 kW motor, with a 1.49 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery. It is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission and available with two-wheel or four-wheel drive. Combined power is 169 kW (230 PS).

As for the PHEV, Hyundai had only this to say in the preview information it released four months ago: "A plug-in hybrid version of the all-new Tucson with a 1.6-litre T-GDI engine and 265 PS will also be available to customers. More details will be revealed closer to the market launch in 2021".

In November, Hyundai Motor America noted that, "Tucson gasoline and hybrid models will begin availability for the U.S. market in spring 2021, with plug-in models available in summer 2021".

In December, Hyundai's Europe division made a further announcement about the PHEV's outputs. The motor produces 66.9 kW and 304 Nm, while the lithium polymer battery has a capacity of 13.8 kWh. Combined, the engine and motor produce 195 kW (265 PS) maximum power and 350 Nm maximum torque. All-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic transmission are standard. Sales in European markets will commence in the second quarter.

Hydrogen

HMG is expected to add a second Hyundai fuel cell model to supplement the Nexo. In June 2018, Hyundai told the media that it would enter into a partnership with Audi AG for such vehicles. Then in September 2019, Chung Euisun, the head of HMG, said he believes fuel cells will be a good match for future self-driving vehicles.

Hyundai had applied to trademark the word Neptune in relation to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in certain countries, water being the only tailpipe emission from such vehicles. At the moment it isn't known whether Neptune will or was to become an FCEV brand, a sub-brand or a model. The Hyundai HDC-6 Neptune, a Class 8 heavy truck concept powered by a fuel cell, was announced in October 2019.

In December, HMG revealed that it would use 'HTWO' as a new brand for Hyundai, Kia and Genesis fuel cell vehicles. The first Hyundai HTWO model is probably 1-3 years away.

Reports for many other manufacturers' future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.

Future platform intelligence

More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of GlobalData's Automotive Intelligence Center. That includes the many Hyundai vehicles not in this report.
As many as 26,000 parents were wrongly accused by the Dutch tax authorities of fraudulently claiming child allowance over several years from 2012, with as many as 10,000 families forced to repay tens of thousands of euros

The Dutch Cabinet collectively resigned amid an escalating scandal over child benefits which involves investigations into welfare payments that wrongly labelled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

In a nationally televised speech, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he had informed King Willem-Alexander of his decision and pledged that his government would continue work to compensate affected parents as quickly as possible and to battle the coronavirus .

The move is largely symbolic. Ruttes government will remain in a caretaker mode until a new coalition is formed after a 17 March election in the Netherlands.

We are of one mind that if the whole system has failed, we all must take responsibility, and that has led to the conclusion that I have just offered the king, the resignation of the entire Cabinet, Rutte said.

Not long after delivering his statement, Rutte got on his bicycle and rode to the king's palace in a forest in The Hague to formally inform the king. Dutch television showed him parking his bike at the bottom of steps leading into the palace and walking inside.

What is the child subsidies scandal?

As many as 26,000 parents were wrongly accused by the Dutch tax authorities of fraudulently claiming child allowance over several years from 2012, with as many as 10,000 families forced to repay tens of thousands of euros, in some cases leading to unemployment, bankruptcies and divorces, reported The Guardian.

As per the BBC, parents were branded as fraudsters over minor errors such as missing signatures on paperwork and erroneously forced to pay back tens of thousands of euros given by the government to offset the cost of childcare, with no means of redress.

According to Politico, authorities singled out 11,000 dual-nationality families for special scrutiny. Many families were forced to pay back tens of thousands of euros with no means of redress, plunging them into financial and personal hardship. In 2019, State Secretary of Finance Menno Snel from the social-liberal D66 party stepped down over his involvement in the scandal.

The government has in the past apologised for the tax offices methods and in March earmarked 500 million euros ($607 million) to compensate more than 20,000 parents.

The Cabinets resignation also came after a scathing parliamentary report, titled 'Unprecedented Injustice', was published last month, which concluded that fundamental principles of the rule of law had been violated.

The report said that the tax office policies violated fundamental principles of the rule of law and criticised the government for the way it provided information to parliament about the scandal.

Rutte expected to return as PM

The resignation brings to an end a decade in office for Rutte, although his party is expected to win the election, putting him first in line to begin talks to form the next government. If he succeeds in forming a new coalition, Rutte would most likely again become prime minister.

Geert Wilders, leader of the largest Opposition party in the Dutch Parliament, said it was the right decision for the government to quit.

Innocent people have been criminalised, their lives destroyed and parliament was informed about it inaccurately and incompletely, he tweeted.

On Thursday, the leader of the Opposition Labor Party stepped down because he was minister of social affairs in a coalition led by Rutte when the countrys tax office implemented a tough policy of tracking down fraud with child welfare.

A sitting minister, Eric Wiebes, who also was linked to the scandal, said Friday he was resigning with immediate effect and would not be part of the caretaker administration.

How did the government react to the scandal?

In a written reaction, the government pledged to reform the welfare system as a result of the scandal and to quickly pay affected parents 30,000 euros ($36,300) and expand existing compensation schemes.

Everything is aimed at offering the parents and their children a new start in life, the government said.

One of the parents waited near parliament as the Cabinet met and said she wanted it to resign.

It's important for me because it is the government acknowledging we have made a mistake and we are taking responsibility because it's quite something that happened to us, Janet Ramesar told The Associated Press.

Rutte plans to lead his conservative Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy into the March election, and polls suggest it will win the most seats. That would put Rutte, who has been in office for a decade at the head of three different coalitions, first in line to attempt to form the next ruling coalition.

But he said that it was up to voters at the election to decide on his future, noting that he took ultimate responsibility for failings within his government.

The buck stops here, he said.

The Netherlands is the third European country thrown into political uncertainty this week in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. In Estonia, the government resigned over a corruption scandal, while Italian premier Giuseppe Contes governing coalition is at risk of collapse after a small partner party withdrew its support.

With inputs from AP


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First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on January 21, 1966



Too many exits for star in his last five-act drama

CANBERRA, Thursday.  "In short, I am tired." These could have been the words of an overworked clerk after a hard day at the office.

But the confession of weariness came from the lips of Sir Robert Menzies after a hard 16 years as Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies holds last press conference in Canberra on 20 January 1966. Credit:Stuart MacGladrie

He was tired, he was slowing down. He had not had a real holiday in those 16 years. The accumulated wear and tear - even speeches had become a burden to the flawless orator.
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Third time's a charm, as the saying goes, and it seems that's certainly true for Virgin Orbit.

Richard Branson's private space firm successfully tested its air-launched rocket this weekend, following two failed attempts last year.

The rocket, called LauncherOne, reached space for the first time on Sunday, delivering 10 Nasa satellites to orbit and achieving a key milestone for the company.

Previous launches were aborted in May 2020 due to engine trouble, and in December due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

The rocket, called LauncherOne, reached space for the first time on Sunday, delivering ten Nasa satellites to orbit and achieving a key milestone for the company

THE LAUNCH During the test flight, LauncherOne was dropped mid-air from the underside of a modified Boeing 747 nicknamed Cosmic Girl some 35,000 feet over the Pacific at 11:39 am PT (19:39 GMT). Having been dropped, the rocket lit its NewtonThree engine to boost itself out of Earth's atmosphere, demonstrating its first successful trek to space. Roughly two hours after its Cosmic Girl carrier craft took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California, the rocket successfully placed 10 tiny satellites in orbit for Nasa. Advertisement

During the test flight, LauncherOne was dropped mid-air from the underside of a modified Boeing 747 nicknamed Cosmic Girl some 35,000 feet over the Pacific at 11:39 am PT (19:39 GMT), before lighting its NewtonThree engine to boost itself out of Earth's atmosphere, demonstrating its first successful journey into space.

'According to telemetry, LauncherOne has reached orbit!' the company announced on Twitter during the test mission, dubbed Launch Demo 2.

'In both a literal and figurative sense, this is miles beyond how far we reached in our first Launch Demo.'

Roughly two hours after its Cosmic Girl carrier craft took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California, the rocket successfully placed 10 tiny satellites in orbit for NASA, the company said on Twitter.

The rocket, a 70-foot launcher tailored for carrying small satellites to space, aimed to place the 10 tiny satellites into orbit for NASA roughly two hours into the mission, though Virgin Orbit had not confirmed whether they were deployed as planned.

After the satellites were deployed, the rocket performed a deorbit burn to safely and destructively reenter Earths atmosphere.

The flight was in honour of Eve Branson, Sir Richard's mother, who sadly passed away this month.

Virgin Orbit explained: 'We flew today in honor of Eve Branson, matriarch of the family and one of our most ardent supporters, who passed away just this month.

'Her name is flying among the stars today. Thanks for everything, Eve.'

Following the successful launch, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Orbit, described the feat as 'inspiring.'

He said: 'Virgin Orbit has achieved something that many thought impossible. It was so inspiring to see our specially adapted Virgin Atlantic 747, Cosmic Girl, send the Virgin LauncherOne rocket soaring into orbit.

The rocket, a 70-foot launcher tailored for carrying small satellites to space, aimed to place the 10 tiny satellites into orbit for NASA roughly two hours into the mission, though Virgin Orbit had not confirmed whether they were deployed as planned

Following the successful launch, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Orbit, described the feat as 'inspiring'

During the test flight, LauncherOne was dropped mid-air from the underside of a modified Boeing 747 nicknamed Cosmic Girl some 35,000 feet over the Pacific at 11:39 am PT (19:39 GMT), before lighting its NewtonThree engine to boost itself out of Earth's atmosphere, demonstrating its first successful trek to space

'This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit.

'I can't wait to see the incredible missions Dan and the team will launch to change the world for good.'

The successful test and clean payload deployment was a needed double-win for Virgin Orbit, which last year failed its attempt to reach space when LauncherOne's main engine shut down prematurely moments after releasing from its carrier aircraft.

At cruising altitude around 35,000 feet, Virgin Orbit's chief pilot hits the Big Red Button that releases the rocket from the pylon

Cosmic Girl has multiple launch locations across the globe from which she can take off, with the first few missions flying out of the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California

The flight was in honour of Richard Branson's mother, Eve Branson, who sadly passed away this month. Her name was printed on the side of the rocket

The shortened mission generated key test data for the company, it said.

Sunday's test also thrusts Virgin Orbit into an increasingly competitive commercial space race, offering a unique 'air-launch' method of sending satellites to orbit alongside rivals such as Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace, which have designed small-launch systems to inject smaller satellites into orbit and meet growing demand.

Virgin executives say high-altitude launches allow satellites to be placed in their intended orbit more efficiently and also minimise weather-related cancellations compared to more traditional rockets launched vertically from a ground pad.

Virgin Orbit's government services subsidiary VOX Space LLC is selling launches using the system to the U.S. military, with a first mission slated for October under a $35 million US Space Force contract for three missions.
Healthcare workers in the national capital are taking into consideration the experience of their colleagues and scouring newspapers and the Internet for information on possible side-effects before going for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Also, many have chosen not to tell their "worried" family members about taking the jab.

Jay Mahawer, a 24-year-old nursing staff at Moolchand Medcity in Southeast Delhi, said he read about the vaccine and its side effects on the Internet.

"There have been reports of reaction (adverse events) following vaccination. So, there was a little bit of anxiety," he said.

Mahawer said he made up his mind only after he read about AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria taking the shot.

"I experienced dizziness for a few minutes after taking the vaccine. My family was already scared. So, I have not told them yet. I am feeling fine now," he said.

His colleague, Ritik Bhati, 24, said he felt "completely okay" after taking the jab.

"There is nothing to fear. I haven't experienced any side effects yet... I had also talked to a few people who were vaccinated on Saturday about their experiences," he said.

Bhati, who hails from Rajasthan's Alwar, also did not inform his parents about taking the vaccine.

"They are a bit scared, my siblings are aware of it though," he said.

At Medeor Hospital in Qutub Institutional Area, Anuja Mehta, a 23-year-old staff nurse, also spoke to her colleagues who took the vaccine before taking her first jab.

"My parents were worried. They asked me to wait for some time, but I was feeling good about the vaccine as those who have already taken it had shared their experiences with us," she said.

Mohammad Raheel, manager (patient care) at Medeor, who took his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Monday morning, said people are a bit scared because there have been a few cases of side effects.

"I also counseled a few people who were undecided about it," he said.

In Delhi, 4,319 healthcare workers  53.3 percent of those registered  got the shots on Saturday, the first day of the world''s largest vaccination drive against the pandemic.

Experts say people adopting a wait and watch approach for the initial few days, lack of communication and glitches in CoWin app are the major reasons why many people did not get the jabs on the first day.

There is a little bit of apprehension (about the vaccine). Also, people in India adopt a "wait and watch" approach in important matters, be it purchasing a new car or an appliance People consider the experiences of others before taking a call, B L Sherwal, the Medical Director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, said.

In his hospital, 45 people got the jabs on Saturday.

There is a need for creating more awareness and building confidence among people. No major vaccine-related side effects were reported on Saturday, which is going to encourage others to take the shots, he said.

An AIIMS security guard had developed an allergic reaction after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. He was kept under observation of doctors at the hospital and later discharged.

A total of 51 cases of minor reactions such as rashes, swelling at the injection site or fever were reported in the city on the first day, according to officials.

Sherwal said 53 percent turnout should be considered normal. Since people are voluntarily taking the jabs, many times they skip it if there is some important work, he said.

It took a lot of effort for 20 years to eradicate polio. There was resistance. Similar efforts will be needed in the case of COVID-19 immunization campaign, he added.

Suresh Kumar, the medical director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said technical glitches in CoWin app could be a reason why many people could not take the shots on the launch day.

Only 32 people were given the jabs at LNJP hospital on Saturday.

India's drugs regulator has approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.
rupee

Budget 2021 is a crucial one for the government on the back of an unusual year. While, India has come out well in this crisis and the economy is beginning to display budding confidence, the governments focus in this budget will be to bring the pandemic-impacted economy back on track.

The life insurance industry undertakes one of the important functions of providing social security to the people of India. The offerings provide life cover as well as options of long-term savings and capital formation with an objective of meeting milestone-based future financial needs.

The importance of a safety net, in the form of insurance cover gained immense prominence in 2020. This need for adequate life insurance will leapfrog in 2021. In view of the same, the life insurance industry as well as the policy holders are expecting that measures should be announced to encourage long-term savings and capital formation.

Secure retirement by bringing parity across all pension products: A large population use pension products offered by life insurers to have regular income post-retirement to lead a comfortable life. With increasing life expectancy, uncertainty in economy, turbulent markets and rampant job losses, pension solutions offered by life insurance companies can help individuals build secured, long-term savings for various life goals and retirement needs.

From a social security standpoint, both pension products offered by life insurers and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) serve the same cause of building corpus for retirement income. While, investment in NPS offers additional tax deductions of Rs 50,000 under Section 80CCD, a life insurers pension plans do not enjoy this benefit. Bringing parity between products offered by life insurers and the NPS will provide uniform treatment to all pension products and will offer simplicity to customers.

Reduction in GST on life insurance solutions: A majority of policyholders lack adequate insurance cover. Besides being underpenetrated, people are severely underinsured. Lowering the rate of GST, especially for term plans, will make life insurance solutions more cost-effective and will boost its adoption among customers. This rate cut will further encourage people to opt for adequate insurance and hedge various financial risks appropriately.

Introduction of separate deduction for first-time buyers and women: Individuals have realised the importance of having a life cover, especially in the past one year. This trend needs to be encouraged among the younger population so that they start early, plan for their finances and secure their future. A separate deduction of Rs 50,000 for first-time life insurance buyers and an additional capping of Rs 50,000 for someone purchasing a pure protection (term) plan will put the sector on fast track and bring more people under the ambit of life insurance. Another important move would be to encourage women to insure their lives and savings. Extra tax benefit for women policyholders will be a significant step towards the same.

Independent section for all insurance premiums: The pandemic has increased the need for having insurance cover, both life and health. Introduction of an independent section where deduction of up to Rs 5 lakh can be provided for life and health insurance premiums taken together will encourage more people to opt for insurance as per their personal needs. Alternatively, a rebate of 30 percent (restricted to Rs 150,000) of the insurance premium paid can be made available from tax payable on the total income. Moreover, these deduction/rebate for insurance premium should be available to all, irrespective of the taxation regime opted by taxpayers.

Re-introduction of Section 10(10D): These limits were existing before the amendment by the Finance Act 2012. The Section should be made available if sum assured is five times the annual premium. This will immensely benefit policyholders above 45 years of age or suffering from lifestyle-related diseases. This set is currently paying extra premium and are denied exemption benefit for maturity proceeds.

This year there is a need to announce changes keeping pace with the fast-changing external environment. These reforms, if implemented, will help people increase savings and secure themselves and their families adequately.

Besides, it will give a boost to the insurance sector.
Indoor Dining Can Resume in Southern Illinois

By West Kentucky Star Staff

SPRINGFIELD - Southern Illinois bars and restaurants can immediately resume indoor dining after state COVID rules were relaxed over the weekend.Illinois Department of Health officials announced on Twitter Saturday that southern Illinois has met the metrics to relax COVID mitigation rules to Tier 1. This comes after Region 5 had just been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 rules on Friday.Part of the required metrics was to reduce the region's test positivity rate to 8 per cent for three consecutive days. IDPH metrics posted daily show that southern Illinois fell to 8% positivity by January 11, and by Sunday was at 6.3%.On Sunday, Region 2 in north central Illinois joined southern Illinois as the only portions of the state where indoor dining can resume after it was shut down 75 days ago. Tier 2 rules will continue for northwest Illinois, and even stricter Tier 3 regulations are still in place for Chicago and the central regions of the state.Under Tier 1 rules, indoor service will be limited to lesser of 25 percent capacity or 25 people per room. No more than four people will be allowed at a table.Bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m. and may reopen no earlier than 6 a.m. the following day.In other Tier 1 restrictions, meetings, social events and gatherings like weddings, funerals, and potlucks are limited to 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity, whichever is less.On the Net:
ANSAmed - Weekly diary from January 18 to January 24

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 18 - The following are the main events of interest scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area between January 18 and January 24: MONDAY JANUARY 18 BRUSSELS - EU, videoconference meeting of the Eurogroup.



PARIS - 20th anniversary of the recognition by France of the Armenian genocide in 1915 in Turkey.



PARIS - Anti-Covid vaccination campaign for people over 75 kicks off.



ATHENS - Stores and hairdressers reopen gradually.



ORAN (Algeria) - Verdict in the trial against human rights activist Kaddour Chouicha, his wife, and 12 other activists.



TUESDAY JANUARY 19 BRUSSELS - EU, Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in videoconference.



PARIS - Appeals trial against former French minister Georges Tron who is accused of sexual abuse (until February 12).



WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 LJUBLJANA - Vote of no confidence against the right-wing government of Premier Janez Jansa.



AMMAN - Airports resume all their activities.



THURSDAY JANUARY 21 BRUSSELS - EU, videoconference of members of the European Council.



FRIDAY JANUARY 22 No major events scheduled SATURDAY JANUARY 23 TRIPOLI -The term expires for foreign troops and mercenaries to leave Libya.



SUNDAY JANUARY 24 LISBON - Presidential elections. (ANSA).




Like most of us, Amanda Gorman has been cooped up in her West Los Angeles apartment binge-watching The Great British Baking Show because of the pandemic. Unlike most of us, she got some very exciting news recently via Zoom: Shed been handpicked to read a poem at President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration.

The incoming first lady, Jill Biden, was a fan of her work, and convinced the inaugural committee Gorman would be a perfect fit.

Gorman, all of 22, became the youth poet laureate of Los Angeles at age 16 in 2014 and the first national youth poet laureate three years later. Come Wednesday, she will be the youngest poet to recite her work at a presidential inauguration, following in the considerably more experienced footsteps of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.

Her precocious path was paved with both opportunities and challenges, an early passion for language and the diverse influences of her native city. Gorman grew up near Westchester but spent the bulk of her time around the New Roads School, a socioeconomically diverse private school in Santa Monica. Her mother, Joan Wicks, teaches middle school in Watts. Shuttling among the neighborhoods gave Gorman a window onto the deep inequities that divide ZIP codes.

Having a mom who is a teacher had a huge impact on me, said Gorman, who witnessed her ability to empower young people through language. Long before she began reading her own poetry aloud in grand spaces for grand occasions  from July 4th to the inauguration of a new president of Harvard University  Gorman was falling in love, simultaneously, with the written and spoken word.

Her relationship with poetry dates at least to the third grade, when her teacher read Ray Bradburys Dandelion Wine to the class. She cant recall what metaphor caught her attention, but she remembers that it reverberated inside her.

Gorman still keeps a childrens version of Jane Eyre that she bought at a dollar store, the artifact of a habit that racked up late fees at several L.A. libraries. Once a book becomes a part of her, she has a hard time giving it back.

My friends will be, like, Youd love this book. Let me lend it to you, she said. And Im, like, Listen to me: Dont.

Her first foray into public speaking came even earlier: a second-grade monologue in the voice of Chief Osceola of Floridas Seminole tribe.

Im sure anyone who saw it was kind of aghast at this 15-pound Black girl who was pretending to die on stage as a Native American chief, she said. But I think it was important in my development because I really wanted to do justice to the story and bring it to life. It was the first time that I really leaned into the performance of text.

Gorman is a lot better at it now, but still working on her confidence as a public speaker. In fact, like her predecessor Angelou and the president-elect, she grapples with a speech impediment.

All writers, she said, experience anxiety about the quality of their work. But for me, there was this other echelon of pressure, which is: Can I say that which needs to be said? Gorman has labored to perfect sounds most people take for granted. The R has been a particular challenge. The girl who would grow up to perform in front of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai struggled for years not to say poetwy.

But I dont look at my disability as a weakness, said Gorman. Its made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be. When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.

Whereas Angelou had strangers at the supermarket inquiring about her progress in the run-up to her reading at Bill Clintons inauguration, Gorman has written her poem in pandemic-induced solitude. But the enormity of the task was not lost on her. While writing The Hill We Climb  which should take about six minutes to read  the poet listened to music that helped put her in a historic and epic mind-set, including soundtracks from The Crown, Lincoln, Darkest Hour and Hamilton.

Gorman also wrote her poem while watching pro-Trump extremists storm the U.S. Capitol, a scene she found jarring and violating but not surprising. I think wed seen the signs and symptoms for a while, she said.

The attack on Congress made its way into her work  not as a rupture but as a harsh fact of our history. I wasnt trying to write something in which those events were painted as an irregularity or different from an America that I know, said Gorman. America is messy. Its still in its early development of all that we can become. And I have to recognize that in the poem. I cant ignore that or erase it. And so, I crafted an inaugural poem that recognizes these scars and these wounds. Hopefully, it will move us toward healing them.

Gorman, who majored in sociology at Harvard, has spoken up in public forums about a broad range of issues, including racism and police brutality; abortion bans in the U.S.; and the incarceration of migrant children. She is also the first person to announce her intention to run for president in 2036, the first election cycle in which shell be old enough to do so. Seeing Vice President-elect Kamala Harris poised to take office has reinvigorated her plans.

Theres no denying that a victory for her is a victory for all of us who would like to see ourselves represented as women of color in office, she said. It makes it more imaginable. Once little girls can see it, little girls can be it. Because they can be anything that they want, but that representation to make the dream exist in the first place is huge  even for me.

When shes not watching cooking shows, Gorman copes with isolation by reading books to prepare her for that future. She picked up former President Obamas A Promised Land the day it came out. Shes also reading Michel-Rolph Trouillots Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, which interrogates long-standing historical narratives from the Haitian Revolution to the Alamo.

In September, Gorman will release Change Sings, the first of two childrens books. The poet says she was driven by the desire to publish a book in which kids could see themselves represented as change-makers in history, rather than just observers. It will be illustrated by Loren Long, who created the art in Obamas Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.

On occasion, Gorman ventures beyond her apartment to a hill overlooking Los Angeles. Looking out at the landscape, shes marveled that growing up, I was surrounded by so many colors and so many tongues and so many ways of thinking. And its very rare that you can have so many of those things in one place.

I miss and love everything, she added. Everywhere Ive been and everywhere I have not. Once things are safe, Im going to spend as much time as I can reabsorbing the city.

Despite her many accomplishments, Gorman has yet to obtain a drivers license. But shes not too worried about it. Her twin sister, she said, will likely drag me to Disneyland once its safe, so maybe she can just drive me around.

___

(c)2021 the Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Chairman of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament Dacian Ciolos is calling the detention of Alexei Navalny a 'coward gesture' of the regime led by Vladimir Putin, calling on the European Parliament for an urgent debate, according to AGERPRES.

"Getting Alexei Navalny arrested is a coward gesture of the regime led by Vladimir Putin that cannot go without consequences. I have called for an urgent debate on this outrageous case in the European Parliament because more than solidarity is needed at the moment. Navalny himself exposed a few weeks ago, after his own investigation, the criminals who poisoned him and who walk freely in Russia while he is under arrest. That is unacceptable," Ciolos wrote on Facebook.

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Sunday on Twitter that detaining the Russian opposition leader was "unacceptable."

"Detaining the Russian opposition leader Navalny on his return to Russia after he recovered from Novichok poisoning is unacceptable. Repression against the opposition, just because it is opposition, is purely undemocratic," the Romanian diplomat wrote.

On Sunday evening, Navalny was detained at the passport checkpoint at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Although he knew he could be arrested upon arrival in Russia, he returned from Berlin, where he had been hospitalised since August last year after being poisoned with neurotoxic agent Novichok. The Russian Penitentiary Authority (FSIN) confirmed the arrest.

European Council President Charles Michel has called on the Russian authorities to release Navalny immediately, Reuters reports.
Bigg Boss 13 was a huge hit and the credit goes to the contestants of that season. Ever since Bigg Boss 13 ended, the contestants have been busy with their projects and attending events. Recently, Asim Riaz, Bigg Boss 13's first runner-up, was seen in Kolkata. The model-actor was mobbed by thousands of fans in the city of joy. He also shared a video in which he was seen thanking his fans for their love and support.

At the event, the actor also spoke about mental health. Asim said that Fame and wealth are just temporary and what matters is mental health, which is real wealth.

The ex-Bigg Boss contestant was quoted by a leading daily as saying, "Fame, wealth - you may accumulate everything, but they are all temporary. What matters is your mental health - which is the real wealth. And I work out every day, gym every day for my mental health. Fitness is a combination of both mental and physical well-being. It is a process and without mental health, physical fitness doesn't count."

About his visit, the actor said, "All these people who have gathered here today motivate me and they are the reason that I do what I do. It is a beautiful feeling and I am glad that I have some space in the hearts of the people of Kolkata."

Meanwhile, his fans are trending 'Asim Riaz In Kolkata' on Twitter. They have been sharing pictures and videos from his Kolkata visit.

Also Read: Bigg Boss 14: Eijaz Khan Is Out Of The BB House Due To Prior Work Commitment, Devoleena To Replace Him

Also Read: Bigg Boss 14: Salman Khan Slams Sonali Phogat For Abusing & Threatening Rubina; Schools Abhinav Again
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President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Abubakar Fikpo as the acting Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

This was disclosed by the presidents spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on his official twitter page, Monday.

President Muhammadu Buhari has formally conveyed to the Hon. Minister of State, Labour and Employment, @fkeyamo, SAN, his approval of the nomination of Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo as the Acting Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment..  Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) January 18, 2021

Mr Shehu said: President Muhammadu Buhari has formally conveyed to the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, his approval of the nomination of Abubakar Fikpo, as the acting director-general of the National Directorate of Employment, pending the appointment of a substantive director-general for the agency.

Last month, the president relieved the former DG of the agency of his appointment and directed the minister to nominate an acting DG to superintendent over the agency pending the appointment of a substantive DG.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the president had approved the sack of Nasiru Ladan as the Director-General of NDE on December 7, 2020. No reason was given.

Clashes

In July 2020, the federal government, through the NDE, formally launched the Special Public Works programme which was designed to create employment for 774,000 persons across the country.

Mr Ladan, the ousted DG, had reportedly clashed with Mr Keyamo, who supervises the NDE over the implementation of the programme.

This was also after repeated clashes between Mr Keyamo and the National Assembly over the modalities for the implementation of the scheme.

Prior to his appointment, Mr Fikpo was the zonal director at the NDE North-west zonal office in Kaduna.

He hails from Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State and holds a bachelors degree of science in statistics from the University of Maiduguri and also a masters degree of science in statistics from the University of Ibadan.
Dr Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Volta Regional Director, in-Charge of Public Health, says the Region has recorded a total of 37 cases of COVID-19 pandemic in the past two weeks with one death.



He said Ho has 19 cases, South Tongu eight cases, Hohoe five cases, North Tongu two cases while Ketu South and Ketu North have one case each.



Dr Djokoto in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said out of the 37 new cases recorded, 33 were mild while four were moderately ill, and were being taken care of at the treatment centres.



He said they had begun contact tracing of all the cases to ensure that people who came into contact with them were identified, tested, and "if necessary quarantined until they are negative."



Dr Djokoto said the Region, since the inception of the outbreak of the pandemic in the country, had recorded a total of 807 cases, with 758 recoveries and 13 deaths.



The Deputy Director said the recent spike in the cases was as a result of citizens' relaxation in adherence to the safety protocols, disclosing that the Region had no active case about a month ago.



He lamented the total disregard for the safety and preventive protocols in some parts of the Region as people went about without their masks on and not observing social distancing.



Dr Djokoto admonished citizens to continue to observe the laid down safety and preventive measures to stem the spread of the disease as "we are beginning to see a trend where young people without any underlying health conditions dying from COVID-19."



He said health facilities were equipped to enable nurses and doctors to respond timely and effectively to the cases with routine surveillance also ongoing in all Municipal and District Assemblies as well as the borders.



Dr Djokoto said the Region currently had treatment centres in Ho, Battor, Hohoe, Aflao, and Adidome and Intensive Care Unit to deal with the situation.



He called on all to adhere to the protocols of hand hygiene, wearing of masks, and social distancing as a collective effort required to ensure that the recent trend was reversed to avoid any imposition of social restrictions.

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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Monday, January 18, 2021

When our plane touched down at Rhine-Main Air Base near the city of Frankfurt, Germany, the first thing I noticed outside my window seat was a multitude of vertical cranes, moving in every direction, lifting and swinging massive steel beams and lumber. It was November, 1966 and Germany was still rebuilding its heavily bombed cities after WWII. My husband, Army 2nd Lieutenant David R. Crocker, Jr., and I were headed for his first duty station in the mountain village of Wildflecken, the little wild place. The next four hours of travel by car would take us through thick pine forests over roads packed with snow to a remote training area within three miles of the 5K zone  the border of what was then East Germany. The cranes had not arrived in Wildflecken, yet. It had been a German Army Post in WWII and a stopping place for trains transporting displaced people from Poland during the war.

This long-ago adventure in Germany came to mind as I did a mental inventory of the uncertain times in my life and how I lived them relative to how I am experiencing the uncertainties of the pandemic today. Back then in 1966, at age nineteen, and newly married, the longest I had ever been away from my family of origin was a week at Camp Aldersgate for Methodist youth in nearby Rhode Island when I was fourteen.

When I departed for Germany, I didnt realize, or perhaps I couldnt comprehend, that the extent of my communication with my family would be limited to snail mail and a yearly phone call  unless there was a dire emergency. As with this pandemic, the reality of isolation and distance from loved ones was revealed to me over time.

Back in that 1966 November, the excitement of arriving in a foreign country obliterated any nostalgia about missing Thanksgiving  and soon Christmas  with my family back in Old Mystic, CT. And, because of uncertainty about what direction the war in Vietnam would take, and when my husband would receive his orders to go, our future seemed like a road with unreadable signposts.

When we finally arrived in Wildflecken in the evening of our first day, I didnt know that there was not yet a place for us to live because the military post was bursting at the seams with soldiers training in mountain snow for the jungle in SE Asia. We lived temporarily in a room in the ancient BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters), a building that had housed Nazi officers during WWII, while we waited for our household goods and car to arrive sometime in the next two months. Within a week, I became an official bachelor at the BOQ when my husband was sent off to an even more remote training area for two weeks. But there was no pleasure associated with the role  just the incentive to get out and see what was outside the walls of the gloomy building.

Like many people who have started walking during our uncertain time today, I wandered the snowy roads of Wildflecken in cold, diesel fuel scented air without understanding where, and if, I should go to find other people. And, finally, after five years of studying the lyrical sounds of French and Spanish in school, I was immersed in a language with gruff sharp consonants and interesting  but long  convoluted words whose translation needed at least a sentence. My Weltanschauung, the world from my viewpoint, had been transformed.

Author, Arundhati Roy, writes that the pandemic we are experiencing today is a portal and historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different, she suggests. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice, our data banks and dead ideas Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world.

My German winter would become two winters before we returned to the U.S. in 1968. The original uncertainties would dissolve into new and even more challenging uncertainties until I accepted, with certainty, that this is life  one portal after another.
Representatives for President Donald Trump look over ballots during the presidential recount vote for Dane County in Madison, Wis., on Nov. 20, 2020. (Andy Manis/Getty Images)

Saving America and Election Integrity: Part 3

Commentary

This is the third essay in a five-part series.

The Article of Impeachment against President Donald Trump complains more about his asserting the 2020 election was corrupt than about other (supposedly) incendiary language. Taken in context, impeachment seems to be part of a wider campaign to divert attention away from election irregularities and to marginalize anyone who cares about them.

This diversionary tactic must not be successful. Corruption of elections is a much greater threat to the republic than a few hundred rioters entering the Capitol, as bad as that was. At a time when key constitutional curbs on the federal government have been disabled, free and fair elections are particularly vital.

This essay is part of a series outlining four simple but crucial goals for the next two years. My last essay discussed the need to educate state lawmakers about the special functions the Constitution delegates to them. This column explains why they must exercise two of those functions to reform federal election procedures.

Lets start with the Constitution. It has three provisions relevant here.

The first is sometimes called the Elections Clause, but because the Constitution has several election clauses, a better name is the Times, Places, and Manner Clause (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1).

The Times, Places, and Manner Clause states:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

In 2010, I explained this language in detail in a scholarly article (pdf) later cited in a dissent by Chief Justice John Roberts. In a nutshell:

The clause empowers states to regulate the details of congressional elections, including drawing districts; setting registration, voting, and counting procedures; deciding whether there will be run-offs; and fixing the day for voting.

It grants this authority to the entire law-making apparatus of the state not just the legislature per se. This includes the governors signing-and-vetoing and any authority reserved to the people by initiative and referendum.

Congress may override state laws regulating congressional elections.

Next, the Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 2) gives state legislatures power over presidential electors. It says:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors 

With one important limitation (explained below), the Supreme Court tells us this power is plenary (complete). The legislature may choose electors itself. It may prescribe how the people elect them. It may even dictate how electors vote. The legislature doesnt share this authority with anyonenot even the governor.

The third constitutional provision limits somewhat the legislatures power in presidential elections. Its called the Same Day or Presidential Vote Clause (Article II, Section 1, Clause 4). It reads:

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

In 2020, the congressionally selected Time for chusing the Electors was Nov. 3. The day on which the electors voted was Dec. 14.

With that background, lets examine the 2020 presidential election.

The liberal media claim any problems were minor and couldnt have affected the results. But they started making this claim just a few days after the election, well before any serious investigation was possible.

Furthermore, the claim rests heavily on self-serving statements by the very election officials ultimately responsible for screw-ups. It also relies on dismissal of the challengers judicial cases, although nearly all were dismissed for procedural reasons, not because their allegations were wrong. Andas explained belowtheres just too much evidence to the contrary for the media assertions to be credible.

There was one huge election irregularity no one is discussing, but which was undeniable: States throughout the country ignored both the Constitutions Same Day Clause and federal law in carrying out the 2020 popular vote.

The law required each state to conduct balloting on Nov. 3. But many states adopted mail-in voting systems allowing people to cast ballots over periods of weeks. Moreover, those periods were not uniform across the country.

Not surprisingly, the election was marred by problems of the very sort the Constitutions framers inserted the Same Day Clause to prevent: Some people voted in more than one state. Others voted from different addresses within a state. Handling procedures changed over time. And so forth.

There is further evidence the election was compromised in at least six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Biden carried all of them, although all except Nevada have Republican legislatures. The margin in each state was narrow. If Trump had carried any three, he would have won a majority in the Electoral College. (There also is evidence of problems in North Carolina, but they were insufficient to prevent Trump from winning that state.)

A few state legislative committees have heard testimony on alleged irregularities. Some of this testimony likely will be disproved, but thats the nature of an investigation. Even so, much of it looks very strong.

Consider Georgia. Last month, the Election Law Subcommittee of the state senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony and accepted sworn statements. The subcommittee did not investigate Dominion voting-machine conspiracy theories. But the evidence the committee did collect is disturbing enough. The chairmans summary (pdf) reads in part:

The November 3, 2020 General Election (the Election) was chaotic and any reported results must be viewed as untrustworthy. The Subcommittee took evidence from witnesses and received affidavits sworn under oath. The Subcommittee heard evidence that proper protocols were not used to ensure chain of custody of the ballots throughout the Election, after the opening of ballots prior to the Election, and during the recounts. The Subcommittee heard testimony that it was possible or even likely that large numbers of fraudulent ballots were introduced into the pool  There was a lack of enforcement of the law, sloppy handling of the ballots by those counting, deliberate covering-up of voting numbers by workers, lack of following the process during the recount, unsafe handling of military ballots, and insecure data such as on laptops and flash drives.  [O]ther times  ballots were counted more than once. A great deal of testimony supported evidence of a coordinated effort to prevent a transparent process of observing the counting of ballots during the absentee ballot opening period and on Election Night.

Some testimony revealed only sloppy procedures. But there also was evidence of deliberate fraud. One example:

At the State Farm Arena recount on November 14, Susan Voyleswho has 20 years experience managing election precincts in Fulton County [Atlanta]reviewed a stack of 110 absentee ballots [ballots are normally placed in stacks of 100] and noticed they were pristine. They had not been folded, and they did not appear worn as though voters and election workers had handled them. Each ballot was bubbled in with exactly the same marking, which showed a small crescent of white in the bubble. It appeared as though one ballot had been marked and then reproduced over 100 times. In addition, one of these ballots bore the distinctive ink markings of having been pulled from a printer too soon. Almost all of these ballots were votes for Vice President Biden; only two were for President Trump. In her 20 years of election experience, Voyles had never seen any ballots like these.

For the survival of the republic, we cannot sweep such evidence under the rug. During their sessions this year, the legislatures of the contested states must investigate more thoroughly (1) whether there were irregularities in their states, (2) if so, their nature and extent, and (3) how to ensure they dont happen again.

The findings and solutions will vary from state to state. But one reform is absolutely mandatory everywhereas well as compelled in presidential elections by the Constitution and federal law.

That reform is to end promiscuous use of mail-in ballots. There is no reason most people cannot go to the polls and vote in person. When you add in our colonial experience, Americans have done so for 400 years.

Justifiable absentees should vote only on the legally designated Election Day, either by mailing their ballot so that its post-marked on that day, or by voting by proxy or electronically.

Next time: How state legislatures can prevent big-city corruption from poisoning statewide presidential elections.

Robert G. Natelson, a retired constitutional law professor and senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, had a long career as a political activist and observer. In 2000, he ran second in a five-candidate field in the bipartisan primary for governor of Montana. He is the author of The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Oslo: Norway on Saturday announced obligatory testing for coronavirus infection on the border for all travellers.

"The government introduces obligatory testing on the border for all arrivals who come from countries with an unfavourable epidemiological situation. Testing at entry points will be introduced from 05:00 p.m. local time [16:00 GMT] on Monday, January 18," the government said in a statement.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

Health Minister Bent Hoie said that those, who refuse testing without a proper reason, will be fined and will be required to spend quarantine in a special hotel, Sputnik reported.

As of now, Norway had a rule which makes it mandatory for everyone to undergo a test within 24 hours before arrival. However, now with the new ruling, this procedure will be carried out at airports, sea terminals or land border checkpoints.

Norway has so far confirmed over 58,000 cases of COVID-19 and 517 fatalities.

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The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The action - likely the last against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump - is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat. The notices came amid a flurry of U.S. ...
Press Release

18 January 2021

COVID-19 has had a major impact on tourism, causing a 70% drop in international tourist arrivals from January - August in 2020.

Several countries have closed their borders completely.

The pandemic has ignited debated about the future of the industry.

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The COVID-19 pandemic brought the global tourism industry to a screeching halt in 2020. With vaccines starting to be rolled out, there is hope international travel can resume soon, but exactly when  and how  is the million-dollar question.

Before COVID-19, there was much concern about whether tourism had grown too big for our planet. There were calls to scale back tourism, make it more environmentally sustainable and help over-touristed locations become more resilient to crises.

Have you read?

However, with almost no international travel in 2020, we now have the opposite problem. The pandemic caused a 70% drop in international tourist arrivals globally from January to August, compared to the same period last year.

Destinations reliant on international tourists have been the hardest hit. Many are in developing countries, where tourism is a major export earner. For example, according to the World Bank, tourism makes up nearly 15% of Thailand's GDP, which is why it recently started allowing select foreign tourists to return for extended stays.

We believe in experts. We believe knowledge must inform decisions.

But attempts to reboot international travel on a wider scale have so far failed due to successive waves of COVID-19.

Photo: World Economic Forum

As a more transmissible and harder-to-control coronavirus variant has emerged in the UK and South Africa in recent days, dozens of countries have announced they would close their doors to travellers from both nations. Some countries, like Japan and Israel, have gone a step farther, banning all foreign nationals from entering.

Even before this, travel bubbles and corridors between countries have been proposed, but few have managed to take root.

The recently-announced trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New Zealand is one of the few options for international travel in the pipeline.

With borders closed, many countries have put a focus on attracting domestic tourists instead. This has helped maintain economic stability in countries such as China and Japan.

Hopes for a swift recovery of international travel are now pinned on a silver bullet: the rapid and widespread distribution of a vaccine.

Beyond this, we believe getting people back in the air again will be shaped by three key issues.

1) What travel regulations will prove effective?

Travel health requirements may soon start to resemble the past. In the 1970s, having appropriate vaccinations and health clearances was essential for travel to and from many countries. Coronavirus vaccinations will likely become similarly standard for international flights.

This should be rapidly adopted by all countries, and could even be applied more broadly - in hotels, for example.

However, any vaccination regime will need governments to pass strong laws and regulations. Digital travel passes and vaccination passports may be one solution, but in order to work, these will require standardisation across borders.

One solution may be the CommonPass, a new digital health passport that looks to be a trustworthy model for validating people's COVID-free status consistently across the globe.

Other health measures will also remain vital, including mandatory in-flight masks, pre-departure and arrival testing, mandatory quarantining and social distancing. If vaccination uptake in destinations is low, these measures will become even more important.

Touchless travel should also become standard at most airports through the use of biometric technology. And passengers should expect temperature screening and reduced in-flight services to be the new norm.

Lengthy quarantine periods are one of the biggest obstacles to restarting international tourism  few people can afford 14 days in a quarantine hotel on top of their holiday.

There are potential alternatives being tested. Before the new COVID variant emerged, British Airways and American Airlines had piloted a voluntary testing program for some passengers as a way of avoiding the mandatory 14-day quarantine period in the UK.

The British government also implemented its new "test and release" policy in mid-December, which could shorten the quarantine period to five days for international arrivals.

2) How will airlines restart their businesses?

The International Air Transport Association expects the airline industry won't reach pre-pandemic levels again until at least 2024.

This means any tourism restart is going to require restoring transportation infrastructure and networks, especially for aviation and cruising.

Many planes are now parked in deserts in the US and Australia. They will need to be retrieved and thoroughly serviced before recommencing flights. Crews will have to be rehired or retrained.

But it's not as simple as just getting planes back in the air. A more formidable challenge for airlines will be reestablishing air routes while ensuring their ongoing viability.

As airlines slowly build up these networks again, travellers will have to put up with less frequent connections, longer journeys and drawn out stopovers.

There is some encouraging news, though. In the US, domestic airfares have dropped, and though international flight schedules have been drastically reduced, low demand has kept some prices down.

Smaller and more nimble airlines should perform better. And expect smaller and more efficient aircraft to also become more common. Demand for long-haul flights may remain low for some time.

Airports, meanwhile, will require temporary or permanent reconfigurations to handle new public heath screening and testing arrangements  providing yet another possible frustration for travellers.

Cruise ships and port terminals will face similar requirements, as will hotels and other accommodation providers.

3) Will traveller confidence return?

For leisure travellers, the lingering fear of coronavirus infections will be the most formidable obstacle to overcome.

The Thanksgiving holiday in the US and Golden Week in China suggest the appetite for travel remains robust. Some analysts also anticipate leisure travel will likely recover faster than business travel.

However, it remains to be seen whether travellers will have a high appetite for risk, or how quickly they'll adapt to new safety protocols.

The key to bringing traveller confidence back again will be standardising safety and sanitation measures throughout the global travel supply chain. One idea is a "Safe Travels" stamp once companies have complied with health and hygiene protocols.

How we can build back better

COVID-19 has prompted much reflection about our relationship with the planet.

Advocates for more sustainable tourism are hoping the coming years will lead to a rethink of international travel, with more innovation and a renewed commitment to addressing climate change and crisis management.

However, the likely reality is that destinations will be desperate for economic recovery and will compete vigorously for tourism dollars when borders reopen.

So, if consumer behaviour trends are anything to go by, the new normal might not be too dissimilar from the old. It's doubtful, for example, that we would tolerate flying less when travel is proven safe again. This doesn't bode well for the planet.

If international travel is going to "build back better", communities, governments and the global tourism industry must come up with a transformative plan that is workable and helps drive traveller behaviour change and decarbonisation.

The pandemic has given us a chance for a reset  we should make the most of the opportunity.

Written by

Joseph M. Cheer, Lecturer, Researcher & Consultant, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University,

Colin Michael Hall, Professor in Tourism and Marketing, University of Canterbury

Jarkko Saarinen, Professor of Human Geography (Tourism Studies), University of Oulu

This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
She recently confirmed her romance with Too Hot To Handle star Francesca Farago, sharing a loved-up snap of them locking lips.

So it's little wonder that Demi Sims had a big smile on her face as she posed for a bikini-clad Instagram snap on Monday.

The TOWIE star, 24, showcased her taut midriff in a tiny taupe two-piece as she made the most of the fine weather during her Mexico holiday.

Beach babe: Demi Sims had a big smile on her face as she posed for a bikini-clad Instagram snap on Monday

Demi looked confident as she displayed her trim physique in the beach wear, which she teamed with matching bottoms and a pale green shirt draped on her arms.

The reality star wore her ombre locks loose over her shoulders, while she added a glam palette of make-up.

It comes after Demi and Francesca, 27, made their relationship Instagram official on Saturday as Demi posted two stunning images of them putting on a very cosy display.

Both of the blonde beauties looked sensational as they gazed into each others eyes and rocked stunning beach ensembles from PrettyLittleThing.

Loved-up: The TOWIE star, 24, recently confirmed her romance with Too Hot To Handle star Francesca Farago, 27, sharing a loved-up snap of them locking lips

Demi looked every inch the besotted girl-friend as she smiled at her new love while rocking a khaki bikini and cream shirt draped over her arms.

The reality star wore her long locks down and poker straight, with one section at the front braided into a stylish braid.

Francesca also ensured to command attention as she shared a kiss with her British partner and flashed a glimpse of underboob in a tiny black bikini.

She also opted for some accessories as the pair soaked up each others attention in a semi-sheer beach skirt as well as pair of sunglasses resting on her small top.

Holiday style: Demi looked confident as she displayed her trim physique in the beach wear, which she teamed with matching bottoms and a pale green shirt draped on her arms

Romance: It comes after Demi and Francesca made their relationship Instagram official on Saturday as Demi posted two stunning images of them putting on a very cosy display

Soon after sharing the two sizzling images, Demi was flooded with delighted comments from her fellow reality star pals.

She also received a sweet message from her ex-girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson, who shot to fame on Love Island.

Megan penned 'cuties' along with a fire emoji.

Support: Demi's ex Megan Barton Hanson quickly commented on the sizzling snap, penning 'cuties' along with a fire emoji

Former flames: Demi and Megan were in a relationship after they struck up a romance on E4's show Celebs Go Dating (pictured on the series)

Smitten: Francesca also shared the same kissing snap to her own Instagram page, with Demi commenting 'LOML' [love of my life]

Demi has also shared a slew of other loved-up snaps to her Instagram Stories during recent hours, including one of a huge teddy bear and bouquet of roses on her bed.

Sharing a short clip of the romantic treat, which also included her favourite champagne, Demi penned: 'I feel so lucky. Thankyou baby @FrancescaFarago'.

The duo also shared a few kisses while partying on Friday night, with Demi smooching with her partner while wearing a black top and chunky chain necklace.

The PDA continued through to Saturday where the beauties posed for another Instagram Stories update while working on their tans at the beach.

Pucker up! Demi and Francesca also locked lips as they partied the night away on Friday

How romantic! The TOWIE star also thanked her new love for leaving a huge teddy, flowers and champagne on her bed

Francesca first received attention for her role in the Netflix original series Too Hot to Handle, which premiered its first season earlier in April.

Inspired by an episode of the hit sitcom Seinfeld, the show places 14 contestants together in a Mexican luxury resort, and in order to win $100,000, none of the cast members are allowed to have sex or any other intimate contact with one another.

She was one of the contestants that made it to the final episode without breaking the show's rules, and began dating her co-contestant Harry Jowsey.

The two split up shortly after the show's finale, but reconciled and became engaged during the show's reunion special taped eight months later; Francesca later announced that they broke off the relationship.

Demi has previously dated Leonie McSorley, with them last being seen out together in October, and having confirmed their romance in July.

New love: The pair also put on a cosy display as they posed for some snaps on Stories

Before that, Demi was in a relationship with Megan Barton Hanson after they struck up a romance on E4's show, Celebs Go Dating.

But they later went their separate ways with Megan admitting that Demi made her question if she was actually gay or not as she said they had no 'sexual chemistry'.

Before jetting to Mexico, Demi and her fellow TOWIE star sister Frankie had been enjoying a trip to Dubai, keeping fans up-to-date with their travels with an array of glamorous snaps.

Reality stars have flocked to Dubai despite the consistent rules throughout the UK, advising against international travel, save for work or education.

Since then, Boris Johnson has plunged the UK into a lockdown - with those in Dubai still seemingly able to enjoy their travels however now facing isolation on their return home and a test before flying.
The Supreme Court on Monday left it to the Delhi Police to take a call on whether it would allow protesting farmers to enter the capital for a tractor rally on January 26.

Meanwhile, in a late night development, the 10th round of talks between protesting farmers and the Centre which was scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed by a day and will now be held on January 20. Refusing to go into the legality of the proposed march, the Bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, said the question of entering Delhi is a law and order matter and will be determined by the ...
Kamala Harris will resign from the Senate at noon as she prepares to be sworn into office as the nation's first female vice president.

'This is not goodbye,' she wrote in an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle. 'As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it.'

She noted she was prepared to cast tie-breaking votes in the chamber, which will be a 50 Democrat, 50 Republican split, but added she hoped senators would find 'common ground.'

'Since our nation's founding, only 268 tie-breaking votes have been cast by a Vice President. I intend to work tirelessly as your Vice President, including, if necessary, fulfilling this Constitutional duty. At the same time, it is my hope that rather than come to the point of a tie, the Senate will instead find common ground and do the work of the American people,' Harris noted.

Harris, a Democrat from California, was the only female Black senator in the upper chamber. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will appoint California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to her seat.

Padilla will be up for reelection in 2022.

Harris has formally submitted her resignation letter to Newsom, dating it effective at noon.

Kamala Harris will resign from the Senate at noon as she prepares to be sworn into office as the nation's first female vice president

On Wednesday, she will be sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first woman of color named to the high court. Harris will be the first black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office.

Harris also will use two bibles - one belonging to her hero, former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and the other belonging to Regina Shelton, a family friend who served as a second mother to Harris.

She won her Senate seat in November 2016 and was sworn in January 2017 becoming the first black woman from California to represent the state in the Senate.

Some activists encouraged Newsom to name a black woman as her replacement.

With the confluence of crises confronting President-elect Joe Biden's administration, and an evenly divided Senate in which she would deliver the tie-breaking vote, Harris is shaping up to be a central player in addressing everything from the coronavirus pandemic to criminal justice reform.

Symone Sanders, Harris' chief spokeswoman, said that while the vice president-elect's portfolio has not been fully defined yet, she has a hand in all aspects of Mr Biden's agenda.

'There are pieces that Biden may specifically ask her to champion, but outside of that she is at the table for everything, involved in everything, and giving input and feedback and being a supportive partner to him on all pieces,' she said.

People working closely with Harris on the transition resist the idea of siloing her into any specific issue early on, because the sheer number of challenges the Biden administration faces means it will be 'all hands on deck' during their early months.

They say she'll be involved in all four of the major priorities they have set out: turning around the economy, tackling Covid-19, and addressing climate change and racial justice.

'She has a voice in all of those. She has an opinion in all those areas.

'And it will probably get to a point where she is concentrating on some of the areas more specifically,' Sanders said.

'But right now, I think what we're faced with in this country is so big, it's all hands on deck.'

Harris has been closely involved with all of Biden's biggest decisions since winning the election in November, joining him for every one of his key meetings focused on Cabinet picks, the Covid-19 relief bill, security issues and more.

The two talk over the phone nearly every day, and she travels to Delaware sometimes multiple times a week for transition events and meetings.

Those involved in the transition say both have taken seriously Biden's insistence that he wants Harris to be the 'last voice in the room' on key decisions.

Biden is known to turn to Harris first during meetings to ask for her opinion or perspective on the matter at hand.

Biden and Harris knew each other prior to the 2020 presidential campaign in part through Harris' friendship with Biden's deceased son, Beau.

But they never worked closely together.

Since joining the ticket, and particularly since the election, Harris has made efforts to deepen their relationship and is in frequent contact with the president-elect, people close to Harris say.

That personal relationship, according to presidential historian Joel Goldstein, will be key to their success as working partners.

'The relationship of the vice president to the president is the most important relationship. Establishing mutual understanding and trust is really a key to a successful vice presidency,' Goldstein said.

Goldstein pointed to Biden and President Barack Obama's relationship as a potential model for the incoming team.

Biden and Obama were from similarly different backgrounds and generations and also entered the White House with a relatively fresh working relationship.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic nomination in August

But their relationship and mutual understanding grew throughout the presidency, and Obama trusted Biden with some of his administration's biggest endeavours, like the implementation of the 2009 Recovery Act and the troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Harris is said to be looking at Biden's vice presidency as a guide for her own.

But unlike Biden during his first term, Harris will face constant questions about her political future.

While Biden has skirted questions about whether he plans to run for reelection, at 78 he'll be the oldest president in history, leaving questions about whether he will retire at the end of his term.

That would make Harris the immediate frontrunner in any 2024 Democratic presidential primary.

Early in the vice presidential vetting process, her potential presidential ambitions gave some Biden allies pause.

But since her selection, Harris has proven a loyal partner to Biden, rarely if ever contradicting him publicly.

Still, California Representative Barbara Lee, who was the first Congressional Black Caucus member to endorse in the primary when she backed Harris, said the vice president-elect is not afraid to speak her mind.

'She's no shrinking violet,' Lee said.

'If she believes that one decision should be made versus another she's gonna weigh in and give her thoughts and opinions.'

Biden has a personal affection for the work of diplomacy and deep relationships with global leaders that Harris cannot match.

But aides say she will be deeply involved in the administration's diplomatic priorities simply because of the sheer amount of issues that will take up Biden's time.

She may also be given a particular aspect of the administration's coronavirus response to oversee.

One of her main priorities early on is certain to be the passage of the 1.9 trillion dollar U.S. coronavirus relief bill that Biden announced on Thursday.

Those working with Harris on the transition say that while Biden will be intimately involved with ushering the package through the Senate because of his longstanding relationships with longer-serving politicians, Harris knows the newer members and can help build fresh relationships in Congress.

The first few months of the Biden administration will be focused on Covid-19 and the economy.

But Harris is certain to face scrutiny  and pressure  from advocates to ensure the perspectives of black and brown Americans are reflected in those policies and the Biden White House's priorities.

Kamala Harris will be sworn into office at noon on Wednesday as vice president with her husband Doug Emhoff becoming second gentleman

As vice president, Kamala Harris will cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate which will be 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans

Leah Daughtry, a former chief of staff at the Democratic National Committee, said Harris will make a difference simply by being in the room.

'The fact that Kamala Harris is a black woman, is a woman of Indian ancestry, is a woman, automatically makes her different from every other vice president this country has ever seen,' she said.

'That combination of experiences brings a set of values and lived experiences into a room where they have not previously existed.

'And that can only be good for this American democracy.'

But as South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn put it: 'There will be a lot of weight on those shoulders.'
Pupils at two Limerick schools are celebrating after they were voted the county winners in the prestigious Someone Like Me national art competition.

Knockainey National School and St Josephs National School, Ballybrown will now join 46 other schools at the national awards ceremony which will take place virtually next week.

The competition, which is organised by the National Disability Authority, attracted more than 1,500 entries from national schools across the length and breadth of the country.

Now in its fifth year, Someone Like Me aims to foster more positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities by highlighting the similarities that exist between all people.

During the last school term of 2020 teachers and their pupils right across Ireland worked through special lesson plans which challenged them to respond artistically and creatively to the theme of Someone Like Me, while, at the same time, appreciating and respecting similarities and differences in people, developing a shared understanding of how we should treat others in a caring, sensitive and inclusive way, and promoting a sense of belonging and connectedness.

The judges were particularly impressed with the submissions from pupils and teachers at Knockainey NS (junior category) and and St Josephs NS (senior category) based on their insightful and inspirational responses to the theme.

Congratulating both schools on their success, Minister of State with special responsibility for disability, Anne Rabbitte said she was hugely encouraged by the growing interest in the competition, particularly given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the added public health requirements placed on teachers and pupils.

"We are exceptionally pleased with the response to this years competition. 2020 was a difficult year for everyone, not least teachers and their pupils. Despite the challenges of living in the midst of a global pandemic, primary school teachers and pupils have demonstrated their commitment to helping to build a more inclusive society by dedicating important classroom time to work through the specially created lesson plans and create their competition entries, she said.

I would like to pay tribute to the National Disability Authority for adapting this years competition to ensure that Covid-19 did not prevent pupils taking part, and teachers for continuing to use the cross-curriculum lesson plans as part of their classroom teaching. While I know it will be an anxious wait for the pupils and teachers to hear which of the 48 county winners will be awarded the national title, we must remember that every entry is a winning entry when it comes to nurturing a positive understanding of, and attitude towards, disability," she added.

Knockainey NS and St Josephs NS will now go on to compete with 46 other schools from around the country for the overall national Someone Like Me award which will be announced at an online ceremony on Thursday, January 28.

The competition, which offers a range of prizes up to the value of 750, was open to all primary school pupils from junior infants to sixth class and more than 1,500 entries were received from individual pupils, class groups and whole schools right across Ireland.

Entries ranged from posters and collages to large sculptural installations and multi-media.

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Chinese agents raid homeschool run by persecuted megachurch

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A large group of police officers and other government officials raided a house where children from a heavily persecuted megachurch were being homeschooled in Chengdu, China, the church said on social media, pleading for Christians worldwide to pray for them.

Police officers, education bureau officials, national security officers and urban management officers on Thursday morning raided a home where homeschooled children of Early Rain Covenant Church were playing together, the 5,000-member church said in a Facebook post.

The police are now raiding the home. There are a large number of police officers outside and inside of brother Liang Huali and Sister Shu Qiongs home, and they are currently removing brother Liangs personal belongings. Please pray! the church wrote.

In December 2018, police shuttered the church, broke down the doors of church members and leaders homes and arrested more than 100 people. Police have continued to harass ERCC members since then, according to a report from China Aid.

ERCCs Pastor Wang Yi was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations.

China has more than 60 million Christians, at least half of whom worship in unregistered or illegal underground churches. The country is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USAs World Watch List.

On Dec. 30, dozens of officials in Taiyuan city, the capital of Shanxi province, raided Xuncheng Church, which was planted by ERCC and meets at the home of preacher An Yankui, confiscated Christian books, and detained the preacher and five members during a Bible study, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

The officials cordoned off the church members who were studying the Bible, confiscated their choir robes and books, and apprehended the preacher and five women, ICC said.

Officials released the five female detainees around midnight on New Years Eve, but An was held in administrative detention for 15 days.

Xuncheng, which was targeted possibly due to its association with the ERCC, was earlier raided on Nov. 15 and received a disbandment notice from the police.

Last April, several members of the church were arrested by the Public Security Bureau for participating in an online Easter worship service on Zoom and ordered to cease all religious activity.

A supporter of ERCC shared on Twitter at the time: Since 8:30 a.m., some security officials have entered these Christian families homes and pretended to be chatting with them casually. At 9:30 a.m., the worship began, and they were also invited to participate. Once they realized that the sermon was from ERCCs imprisoned pastor Wang Yi, they immediately shut it down.

A November 2020 report from the Pew Research Center showed that restrictions on religion in China had risen to a record level. Researchers found that China continued to have the highest score on the Government Restrictions Index out of all 198 countries and territories in the study.

In addition to ERCC, the Chinese Communist Party has forced a number of well-known churches to shut down, including Rongguili Church in Guangzhou and Xunsiding Church in Xiamen.

China has also been labeled by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Remember the movie OMG: Oh My God! starring none other than Akshay Kumar? Well, every single day, we're seeing Akshay become the opposite of the message he gave in the movie, especially after his recent video.

 Grazing Goat Pictures

The actor shared a video online yesterday urging people to donate to the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and it has completely divided people. He said, "A temple is being built in Ayodhya for Lord Shri Ram. It's our turn now. Some of us should be the vaanars, some the gilheris, and make contributions as per our capacity to this historical cause. I will be the one to begin. I am sure you will join me too so that the generations will be inspired to follow the life lessons taught by Lord Ram."



                   ...      l     ,       l    pic.twitter.com/5SvzgfBVCf  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 17, 2021

On one hand, some of his followers are glad he's taking the first step in donating and inspiring people, but on the other hand, people are saying, "Akshay, there's people that are dying".

But, not only that but people have also found an old clip of Akshay saying something very important and extremely relevant right now. In an interview with ABP News, he can be seen questioning why so much money and resources are wasted in temples when it can be used to help people.

True Words pic.twitter.com/VgkqpgFnE4  Puneet Sharma -   -   (@PuneetVuneet) January 17, 2021

He said, "Why are you wasting so much milk and oil on God? Where is it written that God wants milk and coconuts? On the other hand, you are saying farmers are dying because of hunger. I go to temples and see so much waste lying around. I believe that the best way to get God's attention is to do good and help other people."

It's hard to believe that the words spoken in both the videos shared above are by the same man, it's really hard to understand when Akshay took a complete turn from his beliefs. Moreover, it's funny how he mentioned farmers back then but hasn't spoken up about them now, when it's needed more than ever.

Even Hansal Mehta agrees with the old Akshay Kumar.

                 Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) January 17, 2021

Akshay Kumar Priorities:



Donating money for:

PM Cares Fund

Ram Mandir



Donating money for:

hospital construction

recusing migrants

PPE kits

ration to poor  Siddharth Setia (@ethicalsid) January 17, 2021

Ram sethu..  Meena Das Narayan (@MeenaDasNarayan) January 17, 2021

Akshay Kumar is "khiladi" in playing with sentiments of Hindus. He is donating to Ram Mandir to promote his movie Ram Setu.



Where was his Hindu faith when he made #LaxmiBomb movie which openly promoted love_j!h@d pic.twitter.com/YmhMm65bWL  I Oppose Conversion (@IOpposeConvrsn) January 17, 2021

.@ShriRamTeerth should refuse to take donation from Akshay Kumar and ask him to Karsewa for atleast one week.  Facts (@BefittingFacts) January 17, 2021

He is the same person who was asking people not to go to Maa Vaishno Devi, instead donate the money which is to be spent on the trip.



Look at him now

   https://t.co/66Oj09eAvp   (@muZZafuKKa) January 17, 2021

there all doublebollywood ...there only got lucky and money nothing else... Fools of India  mrinal Mittal (@mrinalsignodia) January 17, 2021

I don't understand mindset of this person.. Now he asking people to contribute for mandir...  Swati (@SwatiWP) January 18, 2021

Even Vinod Kapri called him out.Nothing when it's actually important.Makes sense.Oops.Sounds fair.He's changed so much.Hmm.Exactly.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on Sunday expressed concern about possible attacks on the city's residential area as President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration approached.

"I'm not only concerned about other state capitols. I'm also concerned about other parts of Washington, DC," Bowser said during an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press, Xinhua news agency reported.

The mayor said what has been widely reported by the press was the lockdown on the federal grounds in the city, but the residential area in the nation's capital was also under threat.

Should an attack do happen to harm DC residents, Bowser said there is a plan in place to respond. "Our police department, working with our federal law enforcement partners and the United States army, quite frankly, also has a plan to pivot if we have any attacks in our neighborhoods," she said.

A man from the neighboring state of Virginia, identified as 31-year-old Wesley Allen Beeler, was arrested Friday in downtown DC for carrying a pistol without license, possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of unregistered ammunition. He was released Saturday on personal recognizance, saying after the release that he made "an honest mistake".

Up to 25,000 National Guard members have been authorized for the city to ensure the security of Wednesday's inauguration, transforming the city into what some US media called "a war zone".

--IANS

int/

(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.)
Well isn't this coming Biden administration special?

Joe Biden has gotten word out that he intends to use his pen and phone to cut dead the Keystone XL pipeline, kicking off his presidency by annoying Canada.

According to CBC Canada:

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday. A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president's team with U.S. stakeholders. The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" appear on a list of executive actions supposedly scheduled for Day 1 of Biden's presidency. The list shown to stakeholders is a lengthier version of a list already reported in the media based on a memo released publicly over the weekend by Biden's chief of staff Ronald Klain. That publicly reported memo from Klain did not mention Keystone XL, but cautioned that the memo was not a complete list of planned actions.

Nice detail there about Biden omitting that planned executive action in the publicly circulated memo. Apparently he didn't want the adoring media, or the Americans set to lose their jobs, or the Canadians -- to see it right away.

The Canadians, though, have gotten wind of it, their not-so-adoring press has printed it and they're enraged:

A Canadian official tells me scrapping #Keystone project is a punch in the face to Canada, adding PM Trudeau raised the issue on his congratulatory call with Biden, who said they would discuss further after Inauguration .....  Richard Madan (@RichardMadan) January 18, 2021

Whoa.

And after spending $1.5 billion to develop the pipeline, which runs through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska, according to the Canadian CBC map linked here, Canadians are threatening lawsuits.

CBC reports:

On Sunday, [Alberta Premier Jason] Kenney said in a statement posted to social media that he's deeply concerned that Biden may repeal the pipeline's presidential permit. "Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship and undermine U.S. national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future," Kenney said. Kenney said should the U.S. repeal the permit, "Alberta will work with TC Energy to use all legal avenues available to protect its interest in the project."

And it shouldn't be a surprise - they threatened lawsuits earlier. According to Canada's Global News:

Billions of dollars in lawsuits will likely result if Joe Biden is elected U.S. president this November and carries out a threat to cancel the presidential permit allowing operation of the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian observers say. The promised action by the leading U.S. Democratic Party candidate, confirmed by his campaign office on Monday, would also deprive U.S. Gulf Coast refineries of a fresh supply of vital Canadian heavy oil, leaving them dependent on imports from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, they add.

Which is a heckuva sorry picture, alienating Canada in order to make America more oil-dependent on Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. What a tradeoff. What a priority. What diplomacy. And didn't Joe Biden promise to patch up relations with America's friends? What kind of 'friends' punch their friends in the face?

Biden of course, is doing this, because he means to put his campaign donors, in the billionaire green lobby, first.

It gets worse. American jobs will be lost, too -- some 42,000 of them, direct and indirect of the project, according to CNN Business of all places. With the flick of Joe's pen, 40,000 American workers are going to lose their jobs. As Biden has said of coal miners he means to put out of business: Learn to code.

Way to go, Joe, alienating the Canadians already and not even sworn in as president. As former all-purpose swamp thing Bob Gates has observed: Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades. So much for those 47 years of experience. Biden gets it wrong every time and alienating a close neighbor and ally like Canada, just as he's annoyed Mexico and Brazil, is amateur hour.

Image credit: Flappiefh, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0


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A new study has shown that the Apple Watch along with other wearable devices can detect COVID-19 even before the user gets a clue that they are infected. Other devices such as the Fitbit and Garmin were also found to have similar capabilities according to the report.

Smartwatches are now becoming health monitoring devices with many now having the ability to track blood oxygen levels. The blood oxygen level is a useful indicator of detecting symptoms of respiratory diseases.

 MensXP_Akshay Bhalla

However, a new report by Mount Sinai Health System in New York, has found smartwatches have the ability to continuously or frequently check the hear rate. The smartwatches are capable of detecting subtle changes in the wearers heartbeat as well. Such changes can warn users about diseases like COVID-19 seven days before any symptoms are felt or detected in testing. The study tracked over 300 health workers who were wearing Apple Watches between April 29 and September 29, 2020. It is worthy to point out that Apple was not involved in the study nor did it fund it.



The assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Rob Hirten said Our goal was to use tools to identify infections at the time of infection or before people knew they were sick. We already knew that heart rate variability markers change as inflammation develops in the body, and Covid is an incredibly inflammatory event. It allows us to predict that people are infected before they know it.

The study showed that changes in heart rate and the variation in time between heartbeats was different from users with COVID-19 compared to users who were not exposed to the disease. An elevated heart rate means that the persons nervous system is active and more resilient to stress. This is essentially important as more than half of COVID19 cases have been spread by asymptomatic carriers.

 MensXP_Akshay Bhalla

Since the user always has a smartwatch on their wrist and does not require any input from the wearer, it is relatively easier to detect COVID-19 as compared to the traditional test. Having said that, it is still prudent to get yourself tested in case you show symptoms as smartwatches are currently not foolproof.



It will be interesting to see if any of the smartwatches will have a feature in the near future that prompts the wearer about possible COVID-19 symptoms. The Apple Watch has been credited in the past for detecting heart diseases making it one of the most essential smartwatches to own today.

Sources: CBS
Karl Fitzsimons, of Sean O'Casey Avenue, Dublin 1 charged with criminal damage and public order offences.

A young man ripped a garda's stab vest as he violently resisted arrest after shouting at a passing patrol car on a city street.

Karl Fitzsimons (28) was being arrested for roaring threats at the officers when he caused the damage, a court heard.

Judge Bryan Smyth adjourned the case for compensation and a probation report.

Fitzsimons, of Sean O'Casey Avenue, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to garda obstruction, criminal damage and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.

Dublin District Court heard the accused was on North Great George's Street at 10pm on October 27 last year when he began shouting in the direction of a patrol car.

Chase

When the gardai stopped, he threatened them, became abusive and violently resisted arrest, ripping one officer's stab vest. The damage cost around 50.

In a foot chase, he threw broken glass from inside his jacket in the direction of the gardai.

The accused had mental health issues and worked in construction but was currently unemployed, his solicitor Roy O'Neill said.

He was "embarrassed and ashamed of his actions" and apologised to the gardai, Mr O'Neill said, asking the judge to leave Fitzsimons without convictions.

Judge Smyth said it was a "serious incident" and the accused would have to pay compensation for the damage and co-operate with the probation service.
New York, US (PANA) - The United Nations Secretary-General has voiced deep concerns over escalating violence in West Darfur and called on Sudanese authorities to expend all efforts to end the fighting and protect civilians
Namibia bans poultry imports from 10 countries in Europe because of bird flu

Namibia's Directorate of Veterinary Services said the country has suspended poultry imports from the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Ukraine, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom following bird flu outbreaks across Europe, Reuters reported.

Dr Albertina Shilongo, Namibia's Chief Veterinary Officer, said the suspension includes imports of live ostrich and raw ostrich products.

The Directorate of Veterinary Services said cooked poultry meat products for commercial purposes will be allowed for import into Namibia, but it must have a veterinary permit.

Namibia consumes 2,500 tonnes of chicken per month. Most of the chicken is imported, mostly from South Africa.

Europe has reported multiple bird flu outbreaks across the region, believed to be spread by migratory wild birds. Thousands of chickens, ducks, and other poultry birds have been culled to prevent the spread of the virus.

- Reuters
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Kapil Sibal

Senior Congress leader Kapil Saibal has said even a month after party chief Sonia Gandhi's promise, there was no clarity or response on how the partys internal elections would be held.

Gandhi had on December 19 met top party leaders and many from the 'Group of 23', who had written to her seeking sweeping reforms in the party.

I, unfortunately, was not there in the meeting because I was travelling. But I think that we had an open discussion. And obviously, the Congress president, who is at the moment guiding the party, said that there would be an election. Now, we are not clear what these elections are going to be, Sibal, who was one of leaders to call for the overhaul, told the Indian Express in an interview.

The Congress was thrown into a crisis in August 2020 when the 23 senior Congress leaders, including former chief ministers and Union ministers, wrote to Gandhi demanding a full time and effective leadership.

And since the meeting on December 19, were almost one month down the road.weve had no response on how and when this will happen. We hope that that response comes in the next few days because its very important for the Congress to revive itself as a political force in our country, Sibal said in the interview.

The former Union Minister said those who felt that the process of revival has started in the Congress should look at whats happening in the states.

There is a level of disenchantment. I can talk about Delhi several leaders have come to me and expressed grave concern about processes in Delhi and want the party to act swiftly. We are all die-hard Congressmenso that the Congress can be the force that it was, and shall be in times to come. But we havent yet got the kind of response that we were hoping, he said.

After deliberations that went on for seven hours, the Congress Working Committee that met days after the August letter had resolved that Gandhi would continue as the interim president until a session of All India Congress Committee (AICC) is called within six months.

Days later, Gandhi announced a new set of parliamentary party appointments that were seen as a snub to dissident letter-writers.
GAITHERSBURG, Md. and SUZHOU BIOBAY, China, Jan. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirnaomics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics against cancer and fibrotic diseases, today announced dose administration for the first patient in a Phase 2a clinical study of the company's lead drug candidate, STP705, for the treatment of cutaneous basal cell carcinoma.

The open label, dose escalation study is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intralesional injection of STP705 in adult patients with cutaneous basal cell carcinoma confirmed with biopsy samples. The objective is to determine the safe and effective recommended dose of STP705 for the treatment of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), as well as analysis of biomarkers common to BCC formation pathway including TGF-1 and COX-2. The trial is comprised of three dose escalation cohorts ranging from 30 g to 90 g with five patients in each group, and a total of 15 patients will be enrolled in the trial. Participants will receive injections of STP705 once a week for up to six weeks.

The primary endpoint of this trial is to evaluate patients for complete histological clearance of the tumor cells within the treated BCC lesion with secondary endpoints, evaluating subjects for investigational product treatment related adverse events, as well as serious adverse events, and cutaneous skin reactions.

"This marks another significant milestone as we continue to leverage our polypeptide nano-particle technology for siRNA drug delivery to advance our pipeline of oncology therapeutic candidates," said Patrick Lu, Ph.D., the founder, President and CEO of Sirnaomics. "We look forward to obtaining important clinical readouts in this trial and increasing the probability of success, while continuing to demonstrate our leadership in RNAi therapeutic development for skin cancers."

"This is an important study and milestone for Sirnaomics, the STP705 program, and potentially for patients with BCC, as it could offer an alternative to surgical excision of these lesions," said Michael Molyneaux M.D., Chief Medical Officer. "The company recognizes that there is a high unmet need for non-surgical treatments for various types of nonmelanoma skin cancers that reduce scarring and achieve high rates of histological clearance."

The Company expects to report initial clinical data from the trial in 2021.

Additional information about this clinical trial is available at clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier: NCT04669808.

About Basal Cell Carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a type of nonmelanoma skin cancer that occurs most often on areas that are exposed to the sun, such as head and neck. The most commonly found clinical feature of BCC is an elevated tumor with a pearly and translucent margin and telangiectasia. The color may vary widely from nearly normal skin color to erythematous to violaceous and may also be pigmented. BCC may also resemble noncancerous skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. The majority of these cancers occur on areas of skin that are regularly exposed to sunlight or other ultraviolet radiation. It is believed that development of BCC is linked closely to overexpression of TGF-1 and COX-2.

Surgery is the currently the most common treatment option for the treatment of nonmelanoma cancer. The various forms of surgical modalities carry significant cutaneous adverse events, risk of scar, infection and bleeding. Surgery can also have a significant recurrence rate. As a result, there is a high unmet need for an FDA approved local injection therapy that is safe and effective.

About STP705

Sirnaomics' leading product candidate, STP705, is a siRNA (small interfering RNA) therapeutic that takes advantage of a dual-targeted inhibitory property and polypeptide nanoparticle (PNP)-enhanced delivery to directly knock down both TGF-1 and COX-2 gene expression. The product candidate has received multiple IND approvals from both the US FDA and Chinese NMPA, including treatments of cholangiocarcinoma, nonmelanoma skin cancer and hypertrophic scar. STP705 has also received Orphan Drug Designation for treatment of cholangiocarcinoma and primary sclerosing cholangitis. Preclinical animal models using STP705 have demonstrated a dramatic improvement in T-cell penetration into tumors in the liver with single agent action as well as improvement in the efficacy of an anti-PD-L1 antibody checkpoint inhibitor in an HCC model. This effect may improve other immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacies in addition to those targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis.

About Sirnaomics, Inc.

Sirnaomics, Inc., a leading privately held biopharmaceutical company for discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou, China. The company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics to alleviate human suffering and advance patient care in areas of high unmet medical need. The guiding principles of the company are: Innovation, Global Vision with a Patient Centered focus. Members of the senior management team have a combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning clinical development, regulatory, financial and business management in both the USA and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors, corporate partnerships and government grants. Sirnaomics has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property with an enriched product pipeline. The therapeutic areas of focus include oncology, anti-fibrotic, anti-viral and metabolic therapeutics. Learn more at www.sirnaomics.com.

Contact:

Sirnaomics:

Michael Molyneaux, MD, MBA

Chief Medical Officer

Email: [email protected]

Investors:

Stephanie Carrington

Tel: +1 646 277 1282

Email : [email protected]

Media:

Mark Corbae

Tel: +1 203 682 8288

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sirnaomics, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sirnaomics.com


The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) is launching a petition against allowing inoculation in Hungary with a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine that has not been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the spokesman for the partys parliamentary group said at an online press conference on Saturday.

The government, Zoltan Varga said, has apparently decided on mass inoculation in Hungary using a Chinese vaccine that has not been scrutinised by the EMA and that has uncertain effectiveness.



This is obviously dangerous and irresponsible, he said, adding that the step not only puts human lives in danger but could undermine the already shaky confidence in coronavirus vaccines.



Varga said DK is launching an online petition on Saturday with the statement: I protest against the inoculation in Hungary with a Chinese vaccine that has not been reviewed by the European Medicines Agency.





MTI Photo: Zsolt Szigetvary
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2020-12-30

Maeci

On December 30 last, Minister Di Maio travelled to Kosovo to meet with Italian military personnel engaged in NATO's KFOR mission.

Active since June 1999 under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, KFOR ensures freedom of movement and a stable security environment to the benefit of the Kosovar population. The Italian contingent (with 512 military units) is the second largest one after the United States contingent.

The Minister met the Mission Commander, Italian Divisional General Franco Federici, who assumed command in November 2020.

During his stay in Pristina, Minister Di Maio also had a courtesy meeting with Foreign Minister Haradinaj-Stublla.
A tiny country town in southern Queensland has rallied behind the granddaughter of 'local heroes' as she prepares for a lifesaving double lung transplant.

Six-year-old Evie Smith, from Chinchilla in Queensland's Western Downs region, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, but her condition deteriorated in late 2019.

The then-five-year-old developed a lung infection that her body couldn't shake which caused irreversible damage to her lungs.

In October 2020, her parents Lee and Trent Smith were informed that her lungs were 'no longer viable', a friend of the family told Daily Mail Australia.

Little Evie Smith, six, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, but her condition deteriorated in late 2019

But the procedure itself is difficult and attributed to many complications, including the possibility that a body may 'reject' the new organs.

Evie will need to undergo the surgery in Melbourne, but her parents have been told this will not go ahead until 'the time is right'.

In the interim, the family will need to uproot their lives in Chinchilla to Brisbane to be closer to medical facilities.

As medical bills and costs associated with moving mount, residents in Pittsworth, a town about two hours south of Chinchilla with a population of just 3,294 people, have rallied to raise money for the family.

Evie's grandparents Barry and Deb Standing are 'pillars of the community' in the small town, and residents were devastated when they learned of the family's plight.

Evie will need to undergo the surgery in Melbourne, but her parents have been told this will not go ahead until 'the time is right'

Bridget Adams, who helped to establish fundraisers in the family's honour, said it was gut wrenching to learn Evie was so unwell and that Mr and Mrs Standing, who have 'done so much for their community' were struggling.

'Everyone loves them. They're local heroes and everyone just wanted to do what we could to help them,' she said.

'Evie is just a gorgeous little girl. She's spent too much time in hospital in her short life, and it's a terrible, terrible thing to be lumbered with.'

Ms Adams has helped to organise several separate events which will all take place this weekend to raise money for the family.

While Evie and her parents don't live in Pittsworth, they spend a good deal of time there and will attend the events this weekend so long as Evie's health allows it.

A border collie puppy also named Evie (pictured) will be auctioned off to help raise money for her medical expenses

For people who want to support the cause but aren't local, an online auction has been established with prizes that are 'exciting not just for country people'.

Some of the prizes on offer include holidays, helicopter rides, horse riding lessons, artworks and air conditioning units.

Other prizes on offer include offspring of award winning horses and a 400kg Red Angus Heifer.

A three-month-old border collie puppy, named Evie in honour of the little girl, is also up for grabs, and is bred from 'strong working dogs' with good natural instincts.

The town only began fundraising efforts in December, but Ms Adams said everyone in the community knew the importance of acting swiftly.

Bridget Adams, who helped to establish fundraisers in the family's honour, said Evie's grandparents Barry and Deb Standing were 'pillars of the community'

Evie has always been a 'sassy, happy little girl' according to her family, but has endured countless prolonged hospital stays, often spending weeks at a time away from her home

'That family will have to move to Brisbane very soon. There are other children involved... Country people are very ''can do'' sorts. We don't need meeting after meeting, we just get it done.'

Evie has always been a 'sassy, happy little girl' according to her family, but has endured countless prolonged hospital stays, often spending weeks at a time away from her home.

But it wasn't until late 2019 that her condition went from bad to worse.

'It's been devastating for the family because, for a CF child, she had 98 per cent lung function before this bug hit,' her grandmother explained.

'Both her mum and dad have been incredibly strong and Evie's always been a gutsy little girl - that has helped her keep fighting the fight.'

Friends of the family have also set up a GoFundMe page for anybody who wishes to donate.

Evie and her family (pictured) will move to Brisbane to be closer to her medical team as soon as possible
Bangkok: Indian shuttlers, including Olympic hopefuls P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, will hope to give a better account of themselves at Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 tournament, starting in Bangkok on Tuesday, after a lackluster show last week. The Indian players seemed to struggle with their fitness as none of them could cross the second round at the Yonex Thailand Open, the first event of the Asia leg.

Barring Kidambi Srikanth, it was the first tournament for the whole Indian contingent in nearly 10 months. If Olympic silver medallist Sindhu struggled to keep pace with her first-round opponent Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt, London Games bronze winner Saina simply ran out of steam against Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the second round.

Among others, world no 13 B Sai Praneeth looked a mismatch against Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen, while former world no 1 Srikanth and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap were either forced to withdraw or retire after suffering calf muscle pulls.

World champion Sindhu, a medal contender at Tokyo Games, has been training in London for the last two months and she will be itching to go deep in the draw when she opens against world no 12 Busanan, who had outlasted Saina last week. Saina, who recently recovered from Covid-19 and had to go through the ordeal of a false positive test last week, will however have an imposing task as she faces fourth seed and home favourite Ratchanok Intanon in the opening round.

Saina, who is currently world no 20, has an 11-5 head-to-head record against Inthanon, a former world champion but the Indian will have to play out of her skin against the Thai star, who had reached the quarterfinals last week.

In the men's singles, Praneeth will need to find his rhythm when he takes on Daren Liew of Malaysia, while world no 14 Srikanth, who had withdrawn from the second-round match after complaining of a calf muscle pull, faces Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin, an opponent he has beaten twice in the past.

Kashyap, who had retired in the decider against Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada last week, will face Denmark's world no 17 Rasmus Gemke. HS Prannoy will look to put behind last week's first-round loss when he takes on the formidable Indonesian Jonatan Christie, who is seeded sixth.

The Verma brothers will also have their task cut out as Sourabh is pitted against fifth seed Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the first round, while Sameer crosses swords with the speedy Malaysian Lee Zii Jia, seeded eighth.

The only silver lining from last week was the performance of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who looked impressive during their win over the South Korean combination of Lee Yong Dae and Kim Gi Jung in the opening round. The duo will open against fellow Indians Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, while Satwik and Ashwini Ponnapa, who had defeated sixth-seeded Indonesians Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emmanuelle Widjaja in a thrilling match just days ago, will take on the Danish pair of Niclas Nohr and Amalie Magelund.

Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy will meet the German pairing of Linda Efler and Isabel Herttrich in their opener.
All residents in Chalong to receive COVID vaccine free, including foreigners

PHUKET: Foreigners living in Chalong will be freely vaccinated COVID-19 once the national government has approved which vaccines may be used in Thailand, Chalong Mayor Samran Jindaphon has announced.

COVID-19Coronavirushealth

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Monday 18 January 2021, 04:12PM

Chalong Mayor Samran Jindaphon has confirmed that all people registered as living in Chalong will receive the COVID vaccine for free, including foreigners. Photo: Chalong Municipality

Mayor Samran explained to The Phuket News today (Jan 18) that Chalong Municipality has already set aside a budget of B20 million to source a vaccine once they become available.

Chalong Municipality must acquire any COVID-19 vaccine from the Ministry of Public Health, Mayor Samran admitted.

However, he added that he wanted there to be no bureaucratic delays in getting the vaccines to people living in Chalong.

People in Chalong getting fast access to good-quality vaccines is the main idea, so we have already set a budget of about B20mn, Mayror Samran told The Phuket News.

Now we are waiting for the Ministry of Public Health to confirm and announce a safe vaccine for people, he said.

I dont want to wait in the queue to get the vaccine budget. Chalong people deserve to receive vaccines. They do not need to pay, he added.

Mayor Samran confirmed that COVID vaccines obtained by Chalong Municipality will be freely available to all people registered as living in Chalong Subdistrict, regardless whether the resident is Thai or foreign.

There are about 20,000 to 30,000 people in Chalong. This includes everyone: Thais, migrant workers and other foreigners registered as living in Chalong, such as retirees and foreigners staying here for other reasons.

They will all receive the vaccine, Mayor Samran said.

Please do not be worried. Chalong Municipality already has the money in its budget. There is no need to ask for money from the Cabinet, Mayor Samran explained.

We will start the buying process immediately after the Ministry of Public Health approves the vaccine, he said.
The coronavirus pandemic delivered a lingering, and possibly permanent, hit to business travel that is likely to weigh on employment and economic growth in some communities for years.

Beyond the blows to airlines, hotels, travel agents and rental-car companies, the drop in business travel is rippling through whole ecosystems of related commerce, including airport shops, downtown bars and restaurants, construction companies building convention stages, entertainers, taxi drivers and aircraft-parts manufacturers.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

Domestic and international business travelers in the U.S. directly spent $334.2 billion in 2019, supporting 2.5 million jobs, according to the U.S. Travel Association. But when considering the follow-on effects, it estimates the economic output and jobs supported by business travel were roughly double those figures before the pandemic.

When a large convention or event is happening, the entire city is involved," said Tori Emerson Barnes, the associations head of public affairs and policy. The florist that provides the flowers, the dry cleaners that prepare the linens, the coffee shop that serves travelers. Whole downtown areas have been revitalized due to the meeting and events business, and theyve really struggled this past year."

When global restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19 were put into place last spring, businesses and road-warrior workers were forced to adjust, making sales calls and attending board meetings through videoconferences rather than on-site visits, and adapting to virtual training and networking instead of conference-center seminars.

Executives learned that remote work, to a degree, was more possible than they previously envisioned, which could lessen the need for some types of business travel in the future, even after vaccines conquer the coronavirus. And some companies stung by the pandemics economic effects may be slashing travel budgets to compensate for years of lower revenue.

Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Ed Bastian this past week said on an investor call that the airlines recent customer surveys forecast around 70% of pre-pandemic corporate travel will resume by 2023, including international trips.

In the near term, the travel business still faces painful adjustments. Perhaps by the end of 2021, our assessment is that domestic business could be in the range of down 50% to 60%" from the pre-pandemic level, Southwest Airlines Co. CEO Gary Kellysaid at an industry conference last month.

The job losses have already been severe. About one million travel-related jobs have been lost since February, according to the Labor Department, including more than 600,000 hotel positions and 120,000 airline and related staff. Also cut were thousands of positions in fields ranging from restaurants to aerospace manufacturing to convention-center operations.

Frank Culbertson, 62 years old, was laid off in March from his job as an event custodian at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. He said it was a well-paying job he enjoyed, building stages, arranging seating, cleaning and directing visitors at events ranging from the Grand Prix of Portland race to trade shows to country music concerts.

His last day of work was March 16, when Oregons Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, banned gatherings of more than 25 people. Most everyone assumed it would be two months, max," Mr. Culbertson said. Events arent expected to be scheduled at the center until the fall, and Mr. Culbertson said his union warned not to expect a return to the normal slate of events until 2023 or 2024.

The international convention business has just evaporated," he said.

To get by, Mr. Culbertson applied for food assistance and public health care offered by the state. He has been unable to find employment, outside of a few shifts cleaning the convention center when it served as a shelter for wildfire victims last year. That has curtailed his ability to spend at locally owned shops he liked to frequent.

I manage my money as carefully as possible because I dont know when my next job is coming," he said.

Meeting and event cancellations caused 70% of the convention centers workers to be laid off or have hours cut, according to its management.

The global pandemic brought an immediate closure to large-scale venues resulting in economic impacts at a scale never seen in our lifetime," said Craig Stroud, Oregon Convention Center executive director. When conventions and meetings resume, we will return to the generation of vast economic benefits for our region."

Travel industry executives and corporate leaders remain split on whenif everpre-pandemic levels of business travel will return. Some project a permanent decline, while others are more optimistic.

There will be different types of travelers, different reasons for people traveling, but I think business travel has got a very, very strong opportunity to return over the next two years," Deltas Mr. Bastian said.

Big U.S. airlines typically generated half their profit from the higher fares paid by business travelers, who accounted for less than one-fifth of their seats before the pandemic.

Joseph Palma, 41, said he was laid off in March from a customer-service representative job at a unit of Spains Eulen SA, working for American Airlines Group Inc. at Miami International Airport. After the $600 federal unemployment supplement expired at the end of July, he moved out of his apartment and into a small room. To save money, he limits trips to the grocery store and purchases bruised produce and food near expiration since it is less expensive.

He said he has applied for jobs at retailers, which are likely to pay less than the $17 an hour he earned at the airport, but he hasnt been called back. He said his feeling of despair rivals that of when Hurricane Andrew struck the city when he was child.

I thought Andrew was the end of the world, and I feel this way again," he said. There are no jobs for me in Miami."

Mr. Palmas challenge will be similar to that of other travel-industry workers. While jobs in airports and hotels tend to pay below-average wages, the pay is often better than at retailers and restaurants.

Mr. Palma was among 600 Eulen employees laid off in Miami last spring. Since then, 191 have been rehired, a company spokesman said. Employees were laid off due to contract cancellations or suspensions from the airlines, he said. As airline passenger traffic improved, the company started rehiring workers as needed, though a December bump in bookings hasnt carried through into the new year.

People who worked for the airline industry and major hotel chains had reasonably well-paying jobs, and good job security. You could have a career there," said Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago. Those folks who lost jobs could have a hard time getting back on that track."

Overseas air travel has been hardest hit, down almost 90% through November compared with 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association. Travel bans, quarantines and a broader economic slowdown have forced companies to adjust sales and marketing practices to reduce or eliminate in-person meetings, especially overseas.

Our teams have become very creative in how we continue very good sales work with our customers," said Rob Smith, CEO of Konecranes Oyj, the Finland-based maker of heavy lifting equipment for ports and factories. Rather than send four or five staff to a customer, the company is sending a local representative with colleagues joining remotely. Mr. Smith said he expected reduced business travel would be part of the new normal.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 19)  American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer assured they are working with health authorities in Norway to find out if the deaths there are really related to their COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNtech are aware of reported deaths following administration of BNT162b2, Pfizer said in a statement exclusively obtained by CNN Philippines.

The American drug maker added they are closely collaborating with the Norwegian Medicines Agency (NOMA) to gather all relevant information on the deaths of 23 elderly people in a nursing home, which occurred after getting inoculated with their manufactured COVID-19 vaccine.

NOMA confirms the number of incidents so far is not alarming, and in line with expectations. All reported deaths will be thoroughly evaluated by NOMA to determine if these incidents are related to the vaccine, the company said.

Pfizer also sent its condolences to the families of the 23 fatalities.

Following the deaths, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health updated its COVID-19 vaccination guide with more detailed advice on inoculating elderly people who are frail or terminally ill. The new guidance says doctors should evaluate each individual patient to determine whether the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of any potential side effects.

Of the 23 deaths, 13 have so far been assessed by the Norwegian Medicines Agency and the National Institute of Public Health, the Institute said in a statement on Friday.

The Norway elderly people deaths raised safety concerns on the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine, which generated a 95% efficacy rate in its Phase 3 clinical trials that is the highest among the vaccines produced worldwide.

Some countries like the United States and United Kingdom granted emergency use authorization to administer COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer among their citizens.

The Philippines granted an EUA to Pfizer last week, the first vaccine brand to get the authorization in the country. Following reports of the deaths in Norway allegedly due to its vaccine, Health Department spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said Pfizer has to send a report to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration so the regulatory agency can review if the inoculation caused the deaths.

Once we evaluate the report, FDA can decide on the EUA based on its conclusion. There is no sufficient evidence yet if the deaths were caused by the vaccine so we remain on status quo, Vergeire said in a briefing on Monday.

CNN Philippines correspondents Carolyn Bonquin and Tristan Nodalo contributed to this report.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this report. The Outlook is today's look ahead at the week's weather, its impact on the Berkshires and beyond. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com.
Patna, Jan 18 : Amid frequent incidents of crime in Bihar, the state police will soon be equipped with CCTV cameras to track and identify criminals as well as speed up investigations of criminal incidents and accidents.

Jitendra Kumar, ADG Bihar headquarters, told IANS that all the CCTV cameras will be based on "Pan, tilt zoom' functions having night vision ability.

"In the first phase we will install such cameras at every important intersection, roads, approach roads in the localities and borders of Patna district," Kumar said.

"The Bihar Home department has hired a company Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (Beltron) for surveys as well as installation of image capturing devices. The survey is nearly complete and the installation will start soon in Patna," Kumar added.

"We have been looking for the best quality CCTV cameras for prevention of crimes, collection of evidence and surveillance of history sheeters, notorious gangsters, street criminals, bail jumpers and proclaimed offenders. The Bihar police has a database of criminal elements, the CCTV will help us in nabbing them once they are seen on the streets and can be caught on camera even at night. The cameras will be linked to the control room and photographs taken by it would be matched with our database for identification. It will help increase prosecution rates as well," Kumar said.

For the last few months, Bihar police is facing criticism over a surge in crime cases in the state. The sensational Rupesh Kumar Singh murder case is one of them. He was gunned down on January 12 by some unknown assailants who have not been caught by the police till now.

According to a Patna police official, there were no CCTV cameras on the Bailey Road-Punaichak intersection. The CCTVs installed in the apartment block of the deceased Rupesh Singh, an Indigo Airlines manager, had stopped working.

As per the data, Patna district registered the highest number of cognisable crimes in the state with a staggering 23,595 cases of murder, kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, dacoity, rape, theft and burglary between January 2020 to October 2020. This includes 175 murders, 763 cases of rioting and 809 kidnapping cases under different police stations.

Besides criminal investigation, the top cop said the cameras would be linked with such hi-tech tools that they would detect violations of speed limits, jumping of signals and automatically generate challans against the vehicle's registered owner.

"With the help of digital cameras, telephone cables and database of the city's registered vehicles, a fully computerised system will be in place to take punitive action against violators," Kumar added.

According to a traffic police official, the CCTV cameras comprise of 360-degree PTZ (Pan, Tilt and Zoom) functions placed in a box-like structure and mounted on specific poles or at traffic signals. The cameras are connected to traffic signals and sensors placed below the surface just after the stop line.

"As soon as any vehicle jumps the signal, the cameras will start rolling. The cameras will take pictures of the violating vehicle. It will cover a wide range image to identify the type of vehicle and also have the facility to take telescopic images to identify the registration number of the vehicle," said a Patna traffic police official requesting anonymity.

"The images captured by these cameras will be transmitted via phone to the central office within two minutes for e-challan," he said.
The Ghana Association Of Private Schools has asked its members to be fully prepared before deciding to reopen schools though the government has asked that schools be reopened despite COVID-19 surge.



According to them, any school which desires to reopen should be able to insist on the necessary COVID-19 protocols and ensure a safe environment for learning.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, Mr. Kyei Baffour explained that though schools have been closed for a long period and might have gone broke as a result of that, they should not be compelled to reopen if they are not fully prepared for the reopening of their schools.



"Though we feel it is the right time for schools to be reopened, we should not also lose guard in protecting students who have been left in our care," he added.



The association is visiting all private schools to ensure that they comply with the various safety protocols.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has officially reopened schools in the country after he said it is safe to do so.



Addressing the nation on Sunday, January 3, he said, "So, from 15th January, our children in kindergarten, primary and Junior High, in both private and public schools, will be back in school. All SHS 1 students will start classes from 10th March, with all students embarking on a single-track academic calendar. Their seniors in SHS 2 and SHS 3 will, however, return to school from 18th January."



I must stress that SHS 3 students in all schools, like SHS 1 students, will no longer run the double-track system. The expansion of infrastructure at the various senior high schools, over the last three (3) years, has brought us to this favourable situation. However, the double-track system will still be applicable to SHS 2 students in schools that are employing it. Students in universities and other tertiary institutions are to be in school from Saturday, 9th January.



Prior to their return to school, Government, through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, will ensure that all institutions, public and private, are fumigated and disinfected. Schools and institutions, with their own hospitals and clinics, will be equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment, and have isolation centres to deal with any positive cases.



In this regard, various schools in the country have reopened.





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Hyderabad, Jan 18 : Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu, national general secretary Nara Lokesh and a host of other leaders commemorated the 25th death anniversary of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR on Monday.

Naidu paid tributes to the legendary actor at NTR Ghat near the Tank Bund and by the Necklace Road in Hyderabad on Monday morning.

The TDP supremo was also joined by Telangana TDP president L. Ramana and several other leaders.

"NTR gave a new definition to politics, filling light in crores of lives. NTR enabled the poor and downtrodden communities to share political power. He gave food security, ensured shelter and gave clothing with his welfare," said Naidu, as he paid his tributes to the legendary Telugu personality who hailed from Nimmakuru village in Krishna district near Gudivada town.

He said Rao proclaimed Telugu self-respect and glory to the entire world and highlighted that it has been 25 years since NTR left.

After paying respects to the former CM in Hyderabad, Naidu reached NTR Bhavan in Amaravati to pay tributes in Andhra Pradesh.

As Naidu alighted from his vehicle, TDP leaders and cadre chanted 'Jai Babu Jai Jai Babu' "Wherever Telugus are, today is a day to feel proud about. NTR fought for the self-respect of Telugus. It has been 25 years. Even though it has been 25 years, NTR will live in the hearts of Telugus forever," said Naidu in Amaravati.

He was accompanied by party senior leaders Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and TDP AP president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu among others.

NTR passed away on January 18th, 1996. In less than one year of establishing the regional party, TDP, in 1982, NTR swept the elections to rise to power in 1983.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
YEREVAN.  Two collector coinson the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Arno Babajanyan and the 675th birth anniversary of Grigor Tatevatsihave been issued, the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Arno Babajanyan (1921-1983) is a famous Armenian composer, pianist, Peoples Artist of the USSR (1970).

Babajanyan graduated from the Yerevan and the Moscow Conservatories. In 1950-1956 he taught at the Yerevan Conservatory. A celebrated piano virtuoso, Babajanyan was known for performing his own works. A. Khachatryan and S. Rachmaninoff had an influence on formation of Babajanyans creative style, which was mostly expressed in his early works: the piano concert (1944) and the violin concert (1949). The works Vagharshapat Dance, Prelude and Impromptu won the first prize at the 1st World Youth and Student Festival in Prague in 1947. The composers creative personality was obviously shown in the Heroic Ballad (1950) written for the piano and orchestra (USSR State Prize, 1951), then in the piano trio (1952).

Babajanyan composed in different styles - classical, pop, jazz. He was one of the prominent masters of song in the Soviet era. He wrote many lyrical songs, music for dramatic performances (W. Saroyans My hearts in the highlands) and movies (The first love song, co-author Gh. Saryan, On the path of thunder, The mechanics of happiness).

As one of much-loved composers of the Soviet people, Babajanyan holds a special place in the history of Armenian and Soviet music thanks to his unique natural talent, deep sensitivity and musical expression.

Obverse: a wedding couple, a treble clef, as well as a stylized rose and vinyl.

The coin is minted in the Lithuanian Mint.

Face value: AMD 1,000

Grigor Tatevatsi (1346-1409) is the thrice greatest archimandrite of the Armenian Church, philosopher, theologian, philologist, pedagogue, miniature painter, musician.

Tatevatsi studied in the theological seminary of the monastery of Tatev, was mentored by a great theologian-philosopher Hovhan Vorotnetsi, after whose death he headed the higher clerical schools of Tatev and Aprakounis and taught theology, philosophy, grammar, music theory and other subjects. He also lectured at the clerical schools of Metsopavank and Saghmosavank churches. In the meanwhile, he was dealing with national-ecclesiastical issues, confronting the Catholic preachers, i.e. unitarians, in his struggle to back the orthodox persuasions and independence of the Armenian Church.

Settled in Tatev in 1390, Tatevatsi brought around him people who came from Syunik and different parts of Armenia to study. He presented his pedagogical views in the work Constitution of Education, which was phenomenal to the medieval Armenian pedagogical literature. Under Tatevatsis governance the theological seminary of the monastery of Tatev became a university, reaching its peak of prosperity, turning into a center of science, culture, art, and spiritual life.

Tatevatsi wrote valuable theological, denominational and philosophical works. Most important of them are The Book of Inquiries and Voskeporiq encyclopedic works, which bring together the centuries-old achievements of the Armenian denominational thought, as well as The Winter Volume and The Summer Volume predicant books.

Tatevatsi rewrote and illustrated the Gospels, which are kept in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and Matenadaran named after Mesrop Mashtots.

The Armenian Apostolic Saint Church has ordained Grigor Tatevatsi a saint, and commemorates him on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday of Lent.

Obverse: the Tatev Monastery.

Reverse: the bas-relief of Tatevatsi on the wall of the Armenian Church of the Holy Transfiguration of the Armenian Diocese in New Nakhijevan and Russia (architect: Artak Ghulyan) in Moscow.

The coin is minted in the Lithuanian Mint.

Face value: AMD 1,000

Collector coins are made of precious metals and are issued to present to the society the national, international, historical and cultural, spiritual and other values of the country, to immortalize these values in the metal and to meet the demands of the numismatic market.

Like any other currency the collector coins have face value which makes them the means of payment. However, the face value of these coins is much lower that their cost price which includes the cost of the precious metal used for manufacturing of the coin, mintage and other expenses. Low face value and high cost price allow these coins to be considered as the items of collection and not the means of payment used in money circulation. The collector coins have also the sale price set by the Central Bank of Armenia.

As the items of collection the collector coins are issued in very restricted quantities and are not reissued.

Numismatists, collectors and all interested persons can buy the Armenian collector coins in the sales salon Numismatist which is in the building of the Central Bank of Armenia and is open for everyone.
Jenna Bush Hager has recalled how 'crushed' her grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, was when he lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton as an incumbent.

In an interview for Maria Shriver's The Sunday Paper, the Today host, 39, opened up about her late grandfather starting the tradition of the outgoing president leaving a letter for the incoming commander-in-chief on Inauguration Day, saying no one had to explain to her what a 'peaceful transition of power' was because she saw it firsthand.

'We just witnessed it and then we knew that our grandfather had left a note for President Clinton when he lost  and it was my grandfather that actually started that tradition,' said Jenna, who was a child at the time.

Looking back: Jenna Bush Hager, 39, has recalled how 'crushed' her grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, was after he lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton

Gracious: Bush wrote Clinton a letter and applauded him on his Inauguration day in 1993 (pictured). Bush's letter to his successor started a tradition for modern presidents

'We also knew how sad he was that hed lost. We were sitting there with him on election night and there was a point when all the adults became quieter and there was a shift that even children (we were 11, maybe) could feel,' she remembered.

'We knew how disappointed he was because he wanted to finish the job that he had started, and he felt crushed.'

Jenna said that despite his heartbreak, her grandfather also 'felt a huge responsibility to help Bill Clinton and his staff transition' that inspired the letter-writing tradition.

'He was such a gracious man that he created this tradition that continued up until point where the outgoing president leaves a note for the incoming president,' she explained.

Memory: Jenna said no one had to explain to her what a 'peaceful transition of power' was because she witnessed with her grandfather, who conceded on election night (pictured)

Different time: In his handwritten letter, Bush told Clinton he was 'rooting hard' for him. He left the message in the desk in the Oval Office for his successor to find

Bush, who delivered a concession speech one day after Clinton was projected to win the election, told the Democratic challenger that he would be 'rooting' for him.

Following in his footsteps, Clinton wrote a letter to his successor, Jenna's father George W. Bush, who did the same for Barack Obama.

Obama continued the tradition with President Donald Trump, but it's unclear if he will pen his own message to President-elect Joe Biden after spending 65 days refusing to concede and being impeached for inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Despite recent events, Jenna has faith that democracy will prevail and the country will return to peace.

'There are plenty of gracious leaders and this tradition of letter writing has gone on since 1992 and its something that weve seen time and time again,' she said. 'Im not worried about our democracy because [this election] is the exception. Our norm is grace. And I feel confident thats where were headed.'

Happy time: Jenna (center) said her grandfather's inauguration in January 1989 was one of her 'earliest memories,' but she 'never really knew the gravity of what was happening.'

Dynasty: Jenna later attended her father George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001 (picture)

Bush senior famously became good friends with Clinton, his political rival, and Jenna recalled how Clinton would call himself 'the fifth son and the black sheep of the family.'

'I think it spoke a lot about the humility of my grandpa that this person who had crushed his political dreams, ended his presidency after only four years, would become somebody who was a close confidant and friend,' she said.

With Biden's inauguration days away, Jenna reflected on her grandfather's inauguration, explaining that the event, which she attended when she was just seven years old, is her 'earliest memory'.

'My sister [Barbara] and I were little  we were in first grade  and we didnt quite understand the significance of it,' she said. 'We just saw somebody that we loved being sworn into office. We loved balloons and the parade.

'And were from Texas so even just to be in Washington when it was cold and beautiful and wintery  it was almost like living a dream.'

Heartwarming: Bush and Clinton (pictured in 2005) became close friends despite their political rivalry. Jenna recalled how Clinton would call himself ' the black sheep of the family'

All grown up: Jenna and her husband Henry Hager have three children: Mila, Poppy, and Hal. 'Im not worried about our democracy because [this election] is the exception,' she said

Jenna recalled that she and her twin sister Barbara were 'freezing' outside, so their mother, Laura Bush, let them return to the White House early before anyone else.

Florist Nancy Clarke took the girls to the floral shop and had them make bouquets for their grandparents' bedside. Nearly two decades later, she hired Clarke to do the flower arrangements when she married her husband Henry Hager.

Looking back on her childhood, Jenna explained that their grandfather was 'such a humble man' and always in the moment with them that they 'never really knew the gravity of what was happening.'

'His role as a grandfather, as a father, as a husbandhis family came before anything else,' she said. 'And in fact, when we got back to Texas, my sister thought all grandfathers had inaugurations (we were seven).

'She thought it was something our country just did to celebrate grandparents and I think that really speaks to his humility and the fact that he really put us as his family first.'
Khartoum has said it "will not accept the imposition of a fait accompli policy" in the dispute caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), referring to Ethiopia's intention to embark on the second filling of the dam's reservoir in July despite a lack of agreement with downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.

Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and the Sudanese higher committee for following up on the GERD developments held a meeting on Monday, where it was stated that risking the safety of 20 million Sudanese whose lives rely on the Blue Nile is unacceptable.

The meeting reiterated Sudans stance on the necessity of reaching a legally binding agreement on the rules for filling and operating the near-complete dam to preserve the interests of all three nations, Sudanese news agency SUNA reported.

Also, the meeting dealt with the potential hazards of Ethiopia's anticipated step to start the second filling of the dam in July without reaching an agreement.

The meeting highlighted the consequences of this step, if it happens, on the safety of the operation of the Sudanese Roseires Dam, which is located close to the GERD, and other water facilities in the country.

In a step that angered Sudan and Egypt, Addis Ababa declared last summer that it had achieved the first-year filling (4.9 billion cubic metres) during the rainy season flooding of the Blue Nile.

Days following the move by Ethiopia, Sudan announced that it had recorded a decline in water levels on the Blue Nile coming from Ethiopia.

Both downstream countries have repeatedly reiterated their rejection of taking any unilateral action without reaching a binding agreement.

Khartoum and Cairo have been in talks with Addis Ababa for a decade to reach a legally binding agreement on the filling and operating of the $4.8 billion mega-dam, which has been under construction on the Blue Nile since 2011.

The Sudanese remarks come almost two weeks after Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas sent a letter to the African Union (AU), the current mediator of the dam negotiations, expressing his countrys grave concerns over Addis Ababa's announcement that it would go on with the second filling of the GERD in the summer of 2021.

Monday's talks, attended by Sudan's cabinet members and directors of the General Intelligence Service and Military Intelligence, came a week after the latest round of GERD talks failed to resolve the differences between the three countries.

The talks tackled alternative options after the halt of the AU negotiations, according to SUNA.

The last round of negotiations came to a standstill over Sudans withdrawal due to its rejection of the methodology upon which the negotiations were held, calling for a bigger role by the experts assigned by the AU to reconcile opinions instead of the direct trilateral talks.

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Mirzapur, Jan 18 : After the web series 'Tandav', it is now 'Mirzapur' that is facing the heat.

A case was filed against the producer of the web series 'Mirzapur' and 'Amazon Prime' in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district on Monday.

According to the police reports, a case had been lodged by one Arvind Chaturvedi at the Kotwali police station.

The complainant has alleged that the 'Mirzapur' web series hurts religious, social and regional sentiments and damages social harmony.

It is alleged that religious feelings and beliefs have been greatly hurt by this series that focuses on abusive and illicit relationships.

The 'Mirzapur' series has been mired in controversies since its release last year.

Mirzapur's MP and Apna Dal national president, Anupriya Patel had also demanded an inquiry against it.

She had tweeted and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding an inquiry against the series.

Meanwhile, a team of four police officials have left for Mumbai where they will interrogate the makers of Tandav.

An FIR was lodged against the makers of the web series in Lucknow on Sunday night.
Burma Myanmar Says Thai Firm at Dawei SEZ Breached Contract

The Dawei SEZ management committees press conference in Naypyitaw on Jan. 18, 2021. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Management Committee says it lost confidence in the consortium led by a Thai construction company due to breaches of contract at the mega project in southern Myanmars Tanintharyi Region.

Last week, Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd. (ITD) announced that it received a notification of termination of its concession agreement to develop the initial phase of the SEZ from the management committee. The nine-project agreement included the construction of an industrial estate, a small port, liquefied natural gas terminal, power plants and telecommunications.

Deputy minister of electricity and energy Dr. Tun Naing, who also chairs the committee, told the media in Naypyitaw on Monday that the government lost confidence in the consortium after repeated delays, continuing breaches of financial obligations under the contracts and failure to confirm financial capacity to proceed with development.

We lost business opportunities due to the inability to implement the project on time. We also lost potential Thai investment, he said.

The long-delayed SEZ on the Andaman Sea aims to cross the isthmus by road into Thailand to the Gulf of Thailand, connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The SEZ lies on the Japanese-led Mekong Southern Economic Corridor, which aims to connect central Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand to Dawei.

The entire project stretches across 196-square-km and is expected to help firms currently transporting goods through the crowded Malacca Straits towards Singapore.

After its dismissal, ITD said it has prepared a letter challenging the committees allegations.

Dr. Tun Naing said any legal challenge will be met with strong evidence that the companies failed to fulfill their responsibilities.

We repeatedly informed the company it had not complied with the terms and conditions of the contract, he said.

The deputy minister said the committee is expecting to settle the issue smoothly through mutual understanding.

It is the second time an IDT agreement over Dawei SEZ broke down. Originally backed by the Thai government, ITD was granted a 75-year concession to develop the site and attract investment to the SEZ in 2008 under Myanmars former military junta. It was expected to complete the project in 2015. However, IDT withdrew from the agreement in 2013 due to financial constraints.

In 2015, Myanmar renegotiated with ITD and its related companies to develop up to 27 square km of the estimated US$1-billion initial phase of the SEZ. Myanmar officially granted the contract to the consortium led by ITD in August 2015 and March 2016.

According to the committee, ITD in 2018 sought to renegotiate the agreement while both sides worked on land-lease negotiations. In 2019, the committee put forward the revised terms for the development of the industrial zone.

The committee said the consortium was required to remedy outstanding issues and demonstrate its financial capacity to proceed with the redefined industrial projects. However, the committee said the company failed to carry out the tasks and address financial issues.

Originally, Myanmar and Thailand agreed to split the project into phases but they agreed in October 2019 to implement the projects at the same time and invite third-party investment.

In late November, Japan officially joined Myanmar and Thailand in investing in the full implementation of the project. Japan also launched plans to carry out an environmental impact assessment and feasibility study, including on the deep-sea port.

Dr. Tun Naing said Myanmar had not held discussions with any other developers after the termination of IDTs agreement and no plans have been made to call a new tender.

The deputy minister said the termination of the IDT contract did not affect collaboration with the Thai government at the Dawei SEZ.

Recently Myanmar, Thailand and Japan held meetings to discuss the Dawei development.

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Farmers' Protest: Farmers have constitutional right to take out tractor rally, says Union leaders

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Jan 18: Protesting union leaders on Monday said that farmers have a constitutional right to take out their tractor rally peacefully and asserted that thousands of people will participate in the proposed event on January 26.

The Supreme Court said on Monday that the Delhi Police is the first authority to decide the entry of protesting farmers into the national capital. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) Punjab general secretary Paramjit Singh said that farmers are not going to hold their rally on Rajpath and in other high-security areas, adding that they would only take out it on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi and that there will be no disruption in the official Republic Day parade. "We are stuck at the Delhi borders.

Farmers' Protest: Ghazipur, Chilla other key Delhi borders remain closed

We have not decided to sit at these borders ourselves, we have been stopped from entering Delhi. We will take out the rally peacefully without disrupting any law and order. We will exercise our constitutional right and we will definitely enter Delhi," Singh told reporters.

Another farmer leader Lakhbir Singh, who is vice president (Punjab) of All India Kisan Sabha, said that farmers will return to protest sites after taking out the tractor rally on the Outer Ring Road on January 26.

Delhi cops will decide on who can enter Delhi: Supreme Court on farmers' tractor parade

"We will not go to any place where there might be a government gathering, and all our tractors will have a national flag and the flags of our farmer unions," Lakhbir said.

Asked about their stand in case the Delhi Police does not give them permission for the tractor parade, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said that farmers have constitutional rights to hold the tractor rally peacefully.

"If the Delhi Police has some issues over law and order on Republic Day, they can sit with Sankyukt Kisan Morcha and tell about alternatives routes for the tractor rally. Thereafter, our farmers' committee will decide the same. But, it is very clear that their tractor rally will be taken out in the national capital on January 26," Ugrahan told reporters.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi borders since November 28, demanding a repeal of farm laws and legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops. While hearing a petition, the Supreme Court told the Centre that the proposed tractor rally by farmers on the Republic Day on January 26 is a matter of "law and order" and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

As part of diplomatic outreach, India to give COVID-19 vaccine to other countries in few weeks

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, while hearing the Centre's application seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor or trolley march or any other kind of protest which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of the Republic Day, said that police has all the authority to deal with the matter.

The tenth round of talks between the government and the protesting farmer unions is scheduled on January 19. On the same day, the Supreme Court-appointed committee to resolve the impasse will hold its first meeting.

The previous nine rounds of formal talks between the Centre and 41 farmer unions have failed to yield any concrete results to end the long-running protest at Delhi's borders as the latter have stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three acts.

The Supreme Court had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse. Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann, however, recused himself from the committee last week.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 15:10 [IST]
Russian penitentiary authorities urge to place Navalny in detention

 RAPSI

12:59 18/01/2021

MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI)  Russias Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) on Monday asked a court in Khimki, a town near Moscow, to put Alexey Navalny in detention, his attorney Vadim Kobzev told RAPSI.

On Sunday, the blogger was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport on his return from Germany based on the search warrant issued in late December.

In December 2014, he received a 3.5-year suspended sentence, a 500,000-ruble fine for embezzlement and 5-year probation after the sentence is served. In August 2017, probation was extended for a year.

In late December 2020, FSIN officials warned Navalny of the possible replacement of his suspended sentence with a real prison term because of breaching obligations imposed by court and evasion of the penitentiary control.

According to the penitentiary authorities, Navalny left a German hospital yet in September. However, he has failed to appear in a correctional inspection as necessary since then.

On August 20, a plane departed from Tomsk to Moscow with Navalny onboard urgently landed in Omsk after the blogger became heartily sick. He was taken to a hospital in coma. Later, he was transported to Berlin. Russian medics said no poison was found in his body.

Currently, the blogger is also a defendant in two other criminal cases: over fraud and defamation against war veteran Ignat Artemenko.








The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that Vijay Mallya's extradition has been raised at the highest political level, but the UK government has refused to share the details of the confidential proceedings delaying his extradition.

"In December 2020, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar raised the issue with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home. UK's response remained the same", said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit.

Tushar Mehta added that in November last year the foreign secretary of India raised the issue of Vijay Mallya extradition with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, who responded that the UK's legal complexities were preventing Mallay's quick extradition.

Tushar Mehta submitted that the Indian government has been informed that there is a further legal issue that needs to be resolved before Mallya can be extradited. "Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential, and you will understand that Her Majesty's government cannot provide any more details", said Mehta citing official response from the UK.

Tushar Mehta submitted before the bench that his extradition has been pursued at the highest level and sought adjournment on the matter. The top court has fixed the matter for further hearing on March 15.

On August 31, the Supreme Court had dismissed Vijay Mallya's plea seeking review of a 2017 judgment which held him guilty for contempt of court. The top court also sought Mallya's presence before the court on October 5.

The top court had held him guilty of contempt, as Vijay Mallya did not truthfully disclose the full account of his assets. In May 2017, the apex court held him guilty of contempt of court for transferring $40 million to his children, and ordered him to appear on July 10, 2017 to argue on the quantum of punishment.
Delhi schools for Classes 10, 12 re-open today

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: All schools in Delhi will reopen for classes 10, 12 from today. The circular says only schools outside the containment zones will be allowed to reopen and students, staff and teachers living in these areas will not be allowed to attend.

Delhi cautiously reopens schools for classes 10 & 12 | Oneindia News

"In order to conduct the activities pertaining to pre-board preparations and practical work, the head of government, aided and unaided recognised schools may call the students of classes 10 and 12 only to school with effect from January 18, 2021. However, the child should be called to school only with the consent of parents, following the enclosed standard operating procedure. Further, while the records of children coming to school be maintained, the same should not be used for attendance purposes as sending the child to school is completely optional for parents," the circular said.

Delhi principals welcome decision to open schools

The schools have been told not to hold or any assembly or physical outdoor activities. The principals have been asked to guide the children not to share books, stationary or copies.
Stella Maxwell recently rang in the new year from the snowy locale of Aspen.

But the Belgian-born model has since returned home to sunny California, where she's back into her routine.

She showed love for the Lakers and bundled up in a tan quilted jacket Sunday, as she stepped out with a friend to walk her dog through her neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Laker girl: Stella Maxwell showed love for the Lakers and bundled up in a tan quilted jacket Sunday, as she stepped out with a friend to walk her dog through her neighborhood in Los Angeles

The 30-year-old complemented her retro yellow Lakers t-shirt with distressed jeans and a pair of yellow trainers.

She finished the look with some thin oval sunglasses, gold hoop earrings and a silver chain necklace, while staying safe in a black face mask.

Maxwell gave an update on her quarantine to Advocate for her September/October cover: 'Before the pandemic I would think that working from home would be an amazing idea, just get up and get ready and shoot.

'But at this point, though, I have done so many shoots at home I can't wait to be back on location. I can't wait to travel and eat at restaurants and shoot with teams and hang out.'

Casual outing: The 30-year-old complemented her retro yellow Lakers t-shirt with distressed jeans and a pair of yellow trainers

A bit nippy: It comes after she rang in the new year from the snowy locale of Aspen, sharing a risque snap to Instagram

Working from home: Maxwell gave an update on her quarantine to Advocate for her September/October cover: 'I have done so many shoots at home I can't wait to be back on location. I can't wait to travel and eat at restaurants and shoot with teams and hang out'

Love life: The Victoria's Secret Angel also commented on some of her high-profile relationships, like Kristen Stewart, 30, with whom she was in an on-again, off-again relationship from 2018 to 2019, and Miley Cyrus, 28, whom she dated briefly in 2015

She added: 'Honestly, it was good to just pause and be calm for a bit. But at the same time, it's been both terrifying and sometimes just a lot to digest. You worry about your loved ones.

'You worry about yourself, your friends. And on top of that you have to keep managing your career and also your own expectations and dreams. I have been so lucky to have been quarantining with an amazing group of people.'

The Victoria's Secret Angel also commented on some of her high-profile relationships, like Kristen Stewart, 30, with whom she was in an on-again, off-again relationship from 2018 to 2019, and Miley Cyrus, 28, whom she dated briefly in 2015.

She said: 'I've always been fairly private about who I love and my personal life. I feel like everyone has enough in their own personal life to have to deal with knowing about mine too.'

Maxwell added: 'I believe when you are with someone, when you date someone, they are forever woven into the fabric of who you are. Sometimes relationships last for years, sometimes for days, sometimes for months. This is the nature of love between humans.'

Cincinnati, OH (45221)

Today

Rain early with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 47F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
An armed man living in the woods in Bucks County posted multiple messages on Facebook threatening death to Democrats including President elect-Joe Biden and Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Kris Kinseys posts, videos and photos threatening violence and death to Biden, Wolf, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their supporters got the attention of Elyria police in Ohio, troopers said.

The 61-year-old Kinsey previously lived in Elyria and was previously arrested by the Elyria police, according to media reports. After seeing the recent posts, they filed a warrant for Kinsey on a charge of making terroristic threats.

On Friday, state police went to a wooded area in the 700 block of Sunday Road in Durham Township, Bucks County, and found Kinsey living there, troopers said.

At the campsite, troopers said they found a semiautomatic handgun, marijuana and drug paraphernalia; Kinsey is prohibited from possessing firearms, state police said.

Kinsey was arrested and is being held in Bucks County prison, according to online records.

On Monday, state police filed their own charges against Kinsey, including possession of an instrument of a crime, making terroristic threats, persons not to possess firearms, possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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Press Release

18 January 2021

Bangkok, Thailand - Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand's leading hotel operator, expands its footprint in Southeast Asia, following the signing of Hotel Management Agreements (HMAs) for one resort in Khao Yai, Thailand, and two resorts in Vang Vieng, Laos, adding 304 keys to Centara's group portfolio.



In Laos, Centra by Centara Riverside Resort Vang Vieng (formerly Thavisouk Island Hotel) and Thavisouk Riverside Resort & Spa Vang Vieng, Centara Boutique Collection (formerly Thavisouk Riverside Hotel) are located on the opposite sides of the Nam Song River, connected by a private bridge linking the two properties. The two rebranded riverside properties are expected to open in Q4, 2021 following the completion of significant refurbishment programmes.



"We are delighted to be partnering with Thavisouk, and to draw on their wealth of local expertise and hospitality experience for Centara's expansion in this beautiful country. Our values of treating our guests and employees like family are closely aligned, and I am excited to offer new destinations for guests who seek authentic travel experiences surrounded by nature," said Thirayuth Chirathivat, CEO of Centara Hotels and Resorts.



Rooms at Thavisouk Riverside Resort & Spa Vang Vieng, Centara Boutique Collection, are housed in five low-rise buildings, ranging from 40 to 136 sqm. The resort also features a spa and riverside restaurant, looking out over the town's iconic karst rock formations.



On the opposite side of the river, the all-suite Centra by Centara Riverside Resort Vang Vieng offers one of the largest room sizes in the town, starting at a spacious 52 sqm for the one-bedroom standard, with larger one-bedroom corner suites measuring 55 sqm. The family-friendly resort features a rooftop restaurant, swimming pool, and meeting rooms ranging from 50 to 100 sqm for unique MICE events.



With the recent opening of the new Vientiane-Vang Vieng expressway in December 2020, Vang Vieng is located approximately just an hour drive from Luang Prabang.

"Signing this management agreement with Centara Hotels & Resorts represents a milestone for us. Since we started in 2002, we have grown alongside the destination to become the largest hotel operator in the city, and we are excited to leverage Centara's international reach to present Vang Vieng to a wider audience," said Bounsong Khammang, owner of Thavisouk Hotels & Resorts.

Based in Vang Vieng, Laos, Thavisouk Hotel & Resorts was founded nearly two decades ago with just 40 rooms; today, it is the biggest hospitality group in the city with more than 300 rooms.

Another new addition to the Centara Boutique Collection, Roukh Kiri Khao Yai Hotel is nestled within the lush and mountainous landscape Khao Yai National Park, one of Thailand's largest national parks just three hours from Bangkok. Featuring 12 contemporary barn-styled villas perched on a hill overlooking the valley, the intimate, luxurious resort combines contemporary living with the beautiful simplicity of the great outdoors. This is Centara's first hotel in the beautiful Khao Yai destination.

The HMA signings of Centra by Centara Riverside Resort Vang Vieng; Thavisouk Riverside Resort & Spa Vang Vieng, Centara Boutique Collection; and Roukh Kiri Khaoyai Hotel, Centara Boutique Collection, are the latest in the Centara Hotels and Resorts group's steady path of growth, and follows the group's seven other management deals signed in 2020 for resorts in Myanmar, Oman, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Fujitsu Highlights Higher Risk of Disinformation Attacks

Fujitsu Europe

News facts:

Disinformation campaigns intended to take advantage of  or spread  panic and fear in society will center on the effectiveness of Coronavirus vaccines

Fujitsu expects both businesses and individuals to be targeted, based on issues that impact a wide section of society  including mandatory vaccination, health passports, and lockdowns

Criminal gangs and nation-states are behind these attacks, in particular seeking to undermine disinformation countermeasures

Munich, January 14, 2021

 Fujitsu today highlights a profound risk of disinformation attacks intended to take advantage of  or spread  panic and fear in society. Cybercriminals are already focusing on the contentious issues of personal liberties around the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, such as requirements to wear a facemask, or the restriction of movement.

Just as cybercriminals have taken advantage of recent topical themes such as Brexit and elections, Fujitsu predicts that a campaign to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt around the effectiveness of Coronavirus vaccines is one new technique used in social engineering attacks. The most sophisticated of these attacks will play both sides against each other  leveraging individuals fundamental beliefs. This could cause a widespread breakdown in the trust of information sources and impact business brands caught up in the cross-fire.

According to Fujitsu, with many people longing to return to some kind of post-pandemic normality, both businesses and individuals will be targeted by disinformation campaigns focused on mandatory vaccination, health passports, mass immunity testing, and lockdowns. Fujitsus cybersecurity experts anticipate multi-vector attacks driven both by criminal gangs and nation-states, which will target countries already trying to defend against disinformation targeted campaigns.

Phishing is at the heart of disinformation attacks

Paul McEvatt, Head of Cyber Security Innovation at Fujitsu, comments: Phishing is at the heart of these attacks  the targeting of individuals based on their beliefs, or their circumstances, to socially engineer them into a compromised situation. People are more likely to fall for a phish when related to a topic they believe in or identify with. Today, the Coronavirus pandemic is a global issue and a highly-emotional one, too, especially since it involves personal liberties and factors such as restriction on movement. There has probably never been a bigger topic for a disinformation attack.

Throughout 2020, Fujitsu has tracked multiple examples of attempts to subvert society by exploiting both a problem and its solutions. In April, the UKs National Cyber Security Centre in the UK reported1 it had taken down 2,000 scams, including 471 fake online shops trying to trick people looking for coronavirus-related services, and a further 200 phishing sites. And in March 2020, security firm Check Point reported2 a spike in the registrations of domain names related to Zoom, with cybercriminals anticipating a jump in demand for online conferencing services and preparing to take advantage of rising demand by purchasing similar domains to use in credential phishing.

Extended work from home is making knowledge workers more vulnerable

Fujitsu observes that extended periods of working from home are making knowledge workers more vulnerable to falling for phishing attacks and recommends that organizations take three essential countermeasures:

1. Ensure that employees are empowered to deal with disinformation attacks. This is not just about training them to spot these but also making sure employees feel empowered to critically assess any email and report it quickly and without fear of recrimination.

2. Understand the threats. Threat Intelligence is a valuable part of any organization's defense as it allows security teams to understand potential threats and mitigate them before they become a risk.

3. Automate. Just looking at the scale and rapid pace of development of these threats shows us that 2021 will be an even busier year for security teams as they try to handle the volume of threats. Automating security processes gives security teams an advantage against these threats. It also lets them investigate real threats and richer context to ensure they know what they are dealing with.

Notes to editors:

1https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/public-urged-to-flag-covid-19-threats-new-campaign

2https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/03/30/covid-19-impact-cyber-criminals-target-zoom-domains/

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Date: January 14, 2021

City: Munich
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 16:05:26|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)

"I believe Pompeo is laying down these markers as a campaign platform for 2024," a former senior U.S. diplomat was quoted as saying.



BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Pompeo's last-minute actions on foreign policy will complicate Biden's plans for a new direction, according to a report by the Washington Post on Saturday.

While outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump and many of his top aides seem to have left the nation's business behind, largely disappearing from view in the days since Joe Biden's election was formalized and Trump-inspired violence erupted, "one corner of the administration has moved into overdrive," the report said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made near-daily announcements of major foreign policy actions, "many of which appear designed to cement Trump priorities and create roadblocks to new directions charted by the incoming Biden team," it said.

Among the barriers Pompeo put in place are hitting Cuba, Iran and Yemen's Houthi group on alleged terror grounds, and removing the long-standing restrictions on Washington's official contacts with Taiwan, according to the report.

"All of those changes can be undone. But each complicates the challenges Biden will face in putting his own stamp on policy," it said.

The report quoted a former senior U.S. diplomat as saying: "I'm inclined to believe this is heavily Pompeo-driven, as opposed to Trump thinking things up."

"I believe Pompeo is laying down these markers as a campaign platform for 2024," he said. 
Stacker consulted a variety of sources to highlight a contribution from each state toward civil rights in America, along with what led to that historical moment and the change it brought.
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Researchers in the Netherlands, the United States, and Belgium have presented early-stage clinical trial results demonstrating the safety and efficacy of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Phase 12a interim results show that the vaccine is safe and immunogenic in both younger and older adults after just a single dose, thereby supporting evaluation in phase 3 trials.

Those trial results are expected by the end of January 2021, at which point Johnson & Johnson hopes to apply for authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The vaccine is a recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector that encodes the full-length spike (S) protein found on the surface of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) - the agent that causes COVID-19. The S protein is the primary surface structure the virus uses to bind to and infect host cells.

Currently called by its experimental name  Ad26.COV2.S  the vaccine is being tested in a multicenter, placebo-controlled, phase 12a clinical trial that was initiated on July 22, 2020.

The trial is funded by Johnson & Johnson and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the Department of Health and Human Services. Representatives from Johnson & Johnson's vaccine arm  Janssen  designed and manufactured the vaccine, designed the trial, and conducted the analysis.

What did the study involve?

Healthy adults aged between 18 and 55 (cohort 1) and those aged 65 or older (cohort 3) were randomly assigned to receive the vaccine at a low dose (51010 viral particles [VPs] per mL) or high dose (11011 VPs/mL) or placebo either as a single-dose or two-dose regimen (separated by 56 days). Enrollment for cohort 2 was initiated in November 2020 to collect longer-term data comparing a single-dose and two-dose regimen, but it is the interim results for cohorts 1 and 3 that have now been reported.

Hanneke Schuitemaker from Janssen Vaccines and Prevention in Leiden, the Netherlands, and colleagues found that both the one-dose and two-dose regimens elicited effective antibody and T-cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 among all 805 participants.

All participants had neutralizing antibodies by day 57

As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, neutralizing antibodies were detected in 90% or more of all participants by day 29 following one dose of the vaccine and by day 57, this figure had reached 100%. A second vaccine dose boosted antibody titers by a factor of 2.6 to 2.9.

Furthermore, by day 14, the team had detected CD4+ T-cell responses in 76 to 83% of the participants in cohort 1 and in 60 to 67% of participants in cohort 3. The vaccine also induced robust CD8+ T-cell responses.

Following the first vaccine dose in both cohorts and following the second dose in cohort 1, the most frequently solicited adverse events were fatigue, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site.

Local and systemic reactions occurred either on the day of immunization or the following day and generally resolved within 24 hours.

A single-dose vaccine would have obvious advantages

The researchers say that while all ongoing phase 3 studies of other COVID-19 vaccines have assessed two-dose regimens, the findings show that just a single dose of Ad26.COV2.S elicited a robust humoral response in most vaccine recipients, irrespective of dosing size or participants' age.

"An efficacious single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has obvious logistic advantages over a two-dose vaccine, especially during a pandemic," writes Schuitemaker and colleagues.

Whether a second dose will provide additional efficacy or durability benefit is currently being studied in one of the phase 3 clinical trials.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that it anticipates being able to announce topline phase 3 data for its single-dose Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate by late January 2021, although the timing is approximate.

"If the single-dose vaccine is shown to be safe and effective, the company expects to submit an application for Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly afterwards, with other regulatory applications around the world to be made subsequently," the company adds.
Is a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, woman on the run with Nancy Pelosis laptop?

The FBI says thats a possibility, according to an affidavit newly filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

At the very least, that filing by FBI Special Agent Jonathan Lund states the feds have cause to charge Riley June Williams with violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot by a pro-Trump mob.

Lunds affidavit, filed late Sunday, tells a bizarre story. It includes claims by an ex-lover that Williams stole the laptop from the office of House Speaker Pelosi during the riot and tried, without success, to sell it to Russias foreign intelligence service.

According to the tipster, Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it, Lund wrote. This matter remains under investigation.

The FBI attached this photo to an arrest warrant for Riley Williams of Harrisburg in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The charges against Williams are based in part on a 32-minute video, Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story, that was created by ITV News, a British television network, and published on YouTube. Lund wrote that the video appears to show Williams participating in the riot inside the Capitol.

She has brown shoulder length hair and wears eyeglasses. She is wearing a black face mask below her chin, around her neck. She can be heard in the video repeatedly yelling, Upstairs, upstairs, upstairs, and can be seen physically directing other intruders to proceed up a staircase, the agent wrote. The video also shows a stream of intruders walking up a nearby staircase.

That staircase leads to Pelosis office, Lund said. He said surveillance video from cameras in the Capitol also show Williams inside the buildings Statutory Hall pointing and directing intruders during the melee. Other surveillance video shows her entering the Capitol with the mob, the agent said.

Lund said local law enforcement in Harrisburg contacted Williams mother on Jan. 11 in response to a suspicious person report. Williams mother said that report involved the same person who called the federal tip line with the claim that Williams had Pelosis computer, the agent wrote.

With the officers present, Williams mother placed a video-enabled cell phone call to her daughter, he said. When Williams answered she was wearing a brown jacket that appeared to be the same one surveillance cameras allegedly showed her wearing inside the Capitol during the riot, Lund wrote.

He said that on Jan. 16 Harrisburg officers said Williams mother told them a British news crew had come to her house the previous night asking to speak with her daughter, who was not at home. The mother acknowledged that her daughter was in photos the news crew showed her of the riot, Lund wrote.

Williams father, a Camp Hill resident who isnt named in the affidavit, told investigators he and his daughter drove to the Capitol together for the protest, but did not stay together, the affidavit states. The father said they later drove home together.

On Jan. 16, ITV posted another video on YouTube in which it identified Williams as a protester who stormed the Capitol, Lund wrote. He said that video showed Williams mother stating her daughter had taken a sudden interest in President Trumps politics and far right message boards.

It appears that Williams has fled, Lund wrote. According to local law enforcement officers in Harrisburg, Williams mother stated that that Williams packed a bag and left her home and told her mother she would be gone for a couple of weeks.

Williams did not provide her mother any information about her intended destination, he added. Sometime after January 6, 2021, Williams changed her telephone number and deleted what I believe were her social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Parler.

A warrant has been issued for her arrest based on Lunds affidavit.

Williams is the fifth Pennsylvanian charged to date with actually participating in the riot inside the Capitol building.

2021 begins with victories, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said following a groundbreaking ceremony for the Azersulfat LLC sulfuric acid production plant and Glassica CJSC glass container production plant and the inauguration of the Azerfloat CJSC thermoforming sheet glass plant at the Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park.

"It is no coincidence that I have come here at the beginning of the year. So 2021 begins with victories. Of course, my first visit to the regions was to Shusha, the dearest city for all of us. This has been extensively covered in the media. My second visit is to Sumgayit. I have been to Sumgayit perhaps 30 times in the last 17 years," he said in an interview to Azerbaijan Television.

"Every time I am here, the focus is on the launch of industrial enterprises, as well as the work is done on urban development, the solution of issues of concern for people. Today, Sumgayit is a beautiful city, both architecturally and ecologically  the air is clean, there is a beautiful boulevard, jobs are being created. More than 350 jobs have been created in these three enterprises alone, and most of the employees will be locals," Ilham Aliyev noted.

"By creating these enterprises, we are resolving both todays and future issues. Why not create all the production areas we need in Azerbaijan? Both foreign and local investors should simply have confidence in the future of our country, which has always been the case and still is. There should be a nice investment climate," the Azerbaijani president said.
An MP was forced to have most of her cervix surgically removed after delaying a smear test for four months.

Alex Davies-Jones, 31, was invited to her first routine screening in December 2015 but decided to put it off until she received a reminder in April the following year.

She was later diagnosed with CIN3  an abnormality in the cells that line the cervix  which has a high chance of becoming cancerous if left untreated.

Writing in the i newspaper, Miss Davies-Jones said she was left without the majority of her cervix and urged other women not to put off cervical screening.

The NHS advises women between the ages of 25 to 49 to have a smear test every three years and every five years for those aged 50 to 64.

After putting off her cervical smear for four months MP Alex Davies-Jones was diagnosed with CIN3 and had to have an operation which left the MP, pictured with husband Andrew and son Sullivan, with without much of her cervix

Regular screening helps to prevent cancer by taking a sample of cells from the cervix to check for certain types of high-risk viruses.

If found and detected early, the cells can be treated before they risk turning into cervical cancer.

Describing her experience, Miss Davies-Jones said she had used all the usual excuses to put off the screening by saying she was too busy, had no symptoms and couldnt get an appointment.

After being told by friends to book an appointment, she did so  thinking that the routine screening would just be five minutes of awkward conversation with the nurse at my local GP whilst taking my knickers off.

But Miss Davies-Jones said she was utterly terrified when her initial test results came back abnormal.

After undergoing a colposcopy and LLETZ treatment to burn off the abnormal cells from her cervix, the MP underwent a cold knife biopsy.

After her own experiences, the MP is now urging other women not to put off getting their cervical smears

She said: I didnt ever think that there could be a chance that my cells would be abnormal and that the next few months of my life would leave me terrified and constantly contemplating my own mortality.

The operation left the MP with without much of her cervix but she says her life was saved by medics.

Despite her treatment coming with the slightly increased risk of premature birth, Miss Davies-Jones gave birth to her son Sullivan in March 2019.

She became the Labour MP for Pontypridd, south Wales, in the 2019 General Election.

There are about 3,200 new cervical cancer cases each year in the UK, according to the charity Cancer Research.

The mother of one became the Labour MP for Pontypridd in 2019, several years after her diagnosis

In 2018, Public Health England said it was concerned after reports suggested that three million women in England had not had a smear test for at least three-and-a-half years.

After receiving the all-clear at her last screening in April 2018, Miss Davies-Jones said every time she gets an appointment letter her body freezes.

She said: I go quiet and I have a little cry thinking about what I previously went through all while being terrified it will happen again.

However, the MP, who also has two stepsons with husband Andrew, admits the situation could have been different if she had put off that initial appointment any longer.

Discussing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on cancer screening, Miss Davies-Jones acknowledged that some smear tests had been delayed and cancelled in a bid to ease pressure on the health service.

But she said that even during a global health pandemic, cervical cancer screening appointments were vital and could be life-saving.

She added: Cervical screening is one of the best ways to protect yourself from cervical cancer.

If youre in doubt please check when your last screening was, and if you do receive that all-important letter, dont delay in booking.
Kamala Harris to use Bible owned by first black Supreme Court justice at swearing-in ceremony

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When she takes the oath of office at her swearing-in ceremony Wednesday, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will use a Bible previously owned by the first black member of the Supreme Court, the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom she has described as one of her greatest heroes.

Harris will use two Bibles in the ceremony, one belonging to Regina Shelton, a family friend whom Harris viewed as a surrogate mother, and the other that Justice Marshall once owned, NPR reported, citing a transition official.

Last July, Harris tweeted, My childhood hero and inspiration, Thurgood Marshall, was born on this day in 1908. Our nation is stronger because of his powerful voice for civil rights and social justice.

In her memoir, The Truths We Hold, Harris wrote, Some of my greatest heroes were lawyers: Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, Constance Baker Motleygiants of the civil rights movement. I cared a lot about fairness, and I saw the law as a tool that can help make things fair.

She also wrote about going to the same school for her matriculation as Marshall did, which was Howard University: "I wanted to get off on the right foot. And what better place to do that, I thought, than at Thurgood Marshalls alma mater?

While taking the oath of office as both California attorney general and a U.S. senator, Harris had used Shelton's Bible.

She'll be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third female justice in U.S. Supreme Court history. Both Harris and Justice Sotomayor have served as prosecutors in California and New York, respectively.

In 2013, Sotomayor swore in President-elect Joe Biden as vice president.

Harris, who identifies as Baptist, will be the first black, South Asian and female vice president of the United States.

Abortion rights activists have praised Harris as a reproductive freedom champion, but she has faced criticism from social conservatives over her ties to abortion giant Planned Parenthood and her prosecution of pro-life activist and citizen journalist David Daleiden of the Center of Medical Progress.

Daleiden and his associate, Sandra Merritt, were prosecuted in 2016 over a series of undercover videos a year earlier that showed Planned Parenthood employees discussing the illegal sale of aborted baby body parts.
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(Natural News) The New Hampshire Commission to Study the Environmental and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology put together a study which found that wireless devices and the towers that power them are damaging to people, plants, animals and insects.

This damage is significant, by the way, altering the human body especially in ways that for many people result in serious chronic illness and a lifetime of pain and suffering.

Because 5G technology requires antennas to be placed much closer together than existing 4G and 3G technologies, the general public is being exposed to radiation at levels never before seen throughout human history.

The structure required to support 5G will place cell antenna ports close to your home and workplace, making it nearly impossible to avoid and raising your risk of excessive oxidative stress that may lead to anxiety, depression and Alzheimers, warns Dr. Joseph Mercola.

It is important to get involved in helping to prevent implementation of 5G by contacting your local lawmakers and signing local petitions, he adds. Consider taking steps in your home to reduce exposure.

If 5G was really just about faster speeds, fiber optics would have sufficed

As it turns out, the nationwide installation and activation of 5G towers has been taking place at warp speed all throughout the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Relentless lockdowns and stay at home orders have made it easier than ever for 5G purveyors to plaster the nation in new towers. With everyone distracted by the virus, regulators are fast-tracking approval for 5G installation just like they are for President Donald Trumps Operation Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccines.

Under the guise of bringing faster and more efficient internet to the millions of people who, thanks to the plandemic, are now working at home, those pushing 5G are blanketing our land with a technological death sentence.

According to Jonathon Adelstein, head of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, 5G is 4G on steroids. In truth, it is actually a whole new spectrum that operates at millimeter wavelengths, which unzip human DNA and allow for external tampering and manipulation of the human body.

Its not the faster speeds of 5G that are of concern to scientists but, rather, the distribution of wireless data when in most cases it could be routed more easily and less expensively over fiber optic cables, Dr. Mercola warns.

All but one commission member agreed that 5G threatens all life

After House Bill 522 was passed in New Hampshire, establishing a 5G investigatory task force, the commission formed came to the conclusion that 5G is fundamentally dangerous for pretty much all life.

Its 13 members, whose expertise ranges from epidemiology and occupational health to toxicology, physics, engineering, electromagnetics and the wireless industry itself, found that, according to the available science, 5G radiation is intrinsically unsafe.

There is mounting evidence that DNA damage can occur from radiation outside of the ionizing part of the spectrum, the commission members wrote in a report.

The Commission heard arguments on both sides of this issue with many now saying there are findings showing biological effects in this range. This argument gets amplified as millimeter waves within the microwave range are beginning to be utilized.

Their recommendation is to launch an independent review of the current RF standards of the electromagnetic radiation in the 300MHz to 300GHz microwave spectrum, the purpose being to identify all of the health risks associated with cellular communications.

Dr. Joel M. Moskowitz, PhD., from the University of California, Berkeley wrote in an article for Scientific American that because 5G will accompany 4G rather than replace it, there could also be synergistic effects from simultaneous exposures to both.

More of the latest news about the health dangers associated with 5G exposure can be found at 5Galert.news.

Sources for this article include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

NaturalNews.com
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The Palestinian prime minister on Monday called on the European Union to send observers to elections scheduled for later this year, specifically requesting EU monitors in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Friday signed a decree setting legislative elections for May 22 and a presidential vote on July 31, in what would be the first Palestinian polls in 15 years.

Ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting, prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called on the EU "to prepare a team of international observers to help us, mainly in the election process in Jerusalem".

Israel annexed east Jerusalem following the 1967 Six Day in a move never recognised by most of the international community, which considers the area occupied Palestinian territory.

Israel bans all activities of the Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, inside Jerusalem, a city labelled Israel's "undivided capital" by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There has been no indication that Israel would allow Palestinian election activity within east Jerusalem.

"We will formally ask Israel to allow our people in Jerusalem to participate in the elections," Shtayyeh stressed.

Brussels on Friday said it welcomed Abbas's election call and urged Israel to "facilitate the holding of these elections throughout the Palestinian territory", including east Jerusalem.

The Palestinian polls have been scheduled amid warming ties between Abbas's Fatah party, with controls the PA, and their long-standing rivals Hamas, the Islamist that hold power in Gaza.

The 2005 Palestinian presidential vote saw Abbas elected with 62 percent support to replace the late Yasser Arafat.

In the last Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas won an unexpected landslide.

The polls resulted in a brief unity government but it soon collapsed and in 2007, bloody clashes erupted in the Gaza Strip between the two principal Palestinian factions, with Hamas ultimately seizing control of Gaza.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that she would contest the upcoming West Bengal Assembly election from Nandigram, her former aide Suvendu Adhikari's bastion .

While addressing a rally at the assembly constituency on Monday, Banerjee expressed her desire to contest the West Bengal Assembly election from Nandigram seat.

Taking a dig at Suvendu Adhikari, who recently left TMC to join the BJP, Banerjee said it was "good some people have left the party".

"Some are moving from here to there. They will be fought by our local leaders, don't worry, these guys were not there when the Trinamool Congress was formed. It is good some people have left," she said.

Expressing her support for farmers she said the BJP wants to rob the farmers. "Nandigram showed the way, today farmers in Punjab are agitating [against the farm laws]. We are with the farmers...BJP must withdraw the three farm laws," she said.

In December 2020, TMC rebel leader Suvendu Adhikari tendered his resignation from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and joined the BJP. Adhikari was the sitting MLA of Nandigram constituency in Purba Medinipur district.

A day earlier, BJP MP Nisith Pramanik had said that Adhikari is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon.

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Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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A man in his 70s, surnamed Hu, in Huainan, East China's Anhui Province, was given a three-year suspended sentence for poisoning 22 pet dogs in his community, Legal Daily reported on Sunday.

Hu and his wife suffer from high blood pressure and heart disease and couldn't sleep because of the dog barking in their community at night. The court found that Hu mixed rat poison into the leftovers and placed them in his community's square in the community, causing the death of 22 dogs.

The People's Court of Datong district in Huainan sentenced Hu to three years in prison and suspended for three years for throwing dangerous substances in the poisoning dog case.

After the incident, Hu compensated 18 dogs' owners for economic losses totaling more than 50,000 yuan, and obtained their understanding.

The judge said Hu seriously endangered public safety by placing highly toxic chemicals in the residential square several times.

Although Hu only intended to poison the pet dogs in the community and did not intentionally injure people, children or other small animals in the community could have been poisoned by mistake. It brought great threat to the life, health and property safety of others. His behavior meets the definition of the crime of throwing dangerous substances, according to the court.

The judge also reminded dog owners to manage their pets well. They should walk their dogs on a leash and stop them from barking.
JAKARTA At least 78 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesias West Sulawesi province on Friday, the Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country.

In a statement, Basarnas confirmed 78 had died, 67 of whom were from the district of Mamuju and the rest from the district of Majene in West Sulawesi.

More than 740 people were injured and over 27,800 left their homes after the 6.2 magnitude quake, the countrys disaster mitigation agency separately (BNPB) said in a situation report. Some sought refuge in the mountains, while others went to cramped evacuation centers, witnesses said.

Locals ride a motorbike past a collapsed house following an earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi province, Indonesia, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Abriawan Abhe/Antara Foto via Reuters)

Police and military officers have been deployed to crack down on looting in several parts of the region, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said.

An emergency response status, intended to help rescue efforts, has also been put in place for two weeks, Raditya said.

Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesias meteorological, climatology, and geophysical agency (BMKG), has said that another quake in the region could potentially trigger a tsunami.

Straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2018, a devastating 7.5-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu, in Sulawesi, killing thousands.

Just two weeks into the new year, the worlds fourth-most populous country is battling several disasters.

People stand in line for aid assistance at the Manakarra stadium following an earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi province, Indonesia, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Sigid Kurniawan/Antara Foto via Reuters)

Floods in South Kalimantan and North Sulawesi have respectively killed at least 15 and five this month, while landslides in West Java province have killed at least 32, authorities said.

On Jan. 9, a Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into the Java Sea with 62 onboard.

East Javas Semeru mountain erupted late on Saturday, but there have been no reports of casualties or evacuations.

Dwikorita said extreme weather and other multi-dangers of hydrometeorology are forecast in the coming weeks.

By Stanley Widianto and Agustinus Beo Da Costa
Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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WALDPORT, Ore. (AP)  A Waldport, Oregon woman reported missing after she took her dogs for a walk was later found dead in the surf at the mouth of the Alsea River.

Lincoln County Sheriffs Office reported that Toni Goessman was reported missing by her husband about 5:17 p.m. Friday when one of the two dogs she had been walking returned to their home alone.

Her husband said Goessman frequently walked the dogs on the beach. He drove out to look for her but wasnt able to search on foot.

Searcher found Goessmans body at about 10:32 p.m. in the surf. Her other dog has not been found.
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2021

Martin Luther King, Jr.Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?

Jan. 17 , 2021 (EIRNS)The 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? was the fourth and last book written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated in 1968. This weekend, the world honors his historic leadership, on the 92nd anniversary of his birth on Jan. 15. Dr. King in his book, addressed the question: What creates grounds for hope, when we are caught in a time of crisis? His guidance comes through to us profoundly today.

This theme will be taken up Monday, Jan. 18 (14 p.m. ET,) in the special Schiller Institute international web conference, A More Perfect Union through the Coincidence of Opposites: Martin Luther King and the American Presidency. Participants include jurists from several nations, collaborating as a Commission on Truth in Elections; individuals from U.S. states, actively opposing the subversion of the elections process; and a keynote by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Dennis Speed, of the Schiller Institute and The LaRouche Organization, will introduce the event,  Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice EverywhereMartin Luther King and Todays Crisis in the American Presidency.

At present, there are multiple assaults underway, aimed at plunging the U.S. population and institutions into chaos. Look at just the most obvious.

First, with under three days to go before the inauguration of Joe Biden, the media are conducting fear-mongering 24-7, over the prospect of violence in Washington, D.C., state capitals, and other sites. Precautionary measures for public safety are one thing. But what is covered up, is that the Jan. 6th mob attack on the Capitol Building and Congress was a contrived, staged event, intended as rationalization for emergency police-state and surveillance measures in the aftermath, in the same way as Sept. 11, 2001 was used for the Patriot Act, and in the spirit of the 1933 Reichstag Fire.

Secondly, there is the bandwagon to conduct an impeachment later this week in the Senate against Donald Trump, who will be a private citizen by then. This morning, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the impeachment manager, discussed his trial plan on national television, which is madness on steroids. He intends to include not just the bogus impeachment article charge of inciting to insurrection, but to tell the story of this Presidents attack on America.

Thirdly, there is the push for racism and maximum social conflict. For example, American whiteness must be ended, was the theme sounded last week in a Washington Post guest column by Hillary Clinton, the has-been former Presidential Wall Street candidate, for whom the most extreme election illegalities were perpetrated in 2016. Her column, America, We Need To Do Some Soul Searching charged that, thanks to Trump, whiteness is valued at the expense of everything else.

Fourth, there is the mass shutdown of communications through social media, targeting the President of the United States and thousands of others. Among these, Twitter banned Trump forever as Jan. 8, cutting off access to 88 million people. Twitter founder, billionaire Jack Dorsey said about this, in a Jan. 14 video that came out: We are forced to act on this one account ... but we are going to go way beyond this after the inauguration....

There are more lines of chaos which could be enumerated. One thing is clear: These operations do not reflect an outbreak of coincidental dastardliness. They all trace back to serve the interests of the political/financial dictatorship plotting for terminal control of whats left of the world economy, via their green Great Reset power grab, and outright depopulation they know will ensue. Glenn Greenwald, investigative journalist, made a related point on this today, when he said on a Fox News interview, that the Big Tech censorship was not some unilateral power grab out of Silicon Valley. No. There are corporate and government networks behind this, acting through the major mediaCNN, New York Times and the rest, conducting a pressure campaign to make the censorship happen.

The immediate intended impact on the public of all these lines of chaos underway is Schrecklichkeitunreasoning fear. The message is: We are evil. We are all powerful. We are insane. We are attacking you. There is nothing you can do about it.

That is the message, not only to Americans, but before citizens all around the world. However, in the calm of reason, there is plenty we all can do about it. That is the grounds for hope. The Schiller Institute Jan. 18 conference will take up our tasks. Among the priorities, along with exposing the financial fascism nature of the enemy, is mobilizing to roll back the pandemic and famine.

The Schiller Institutes Jan. 18 conference invitation includes an excerpt from the speech given in Alabama on Jan. 19, 2004 by Lyndon LaRouche, at a prayer breakfast honoring Dr. King, by the Talladega County Democratic Party. LaRouche said: We do not face a new problem today, in one sense. We face the same problem, in principle, that Martin faced. And faced successfully. And I would propose, that in the lesson of Martin Luther King, and his life, there is something we can learn today, which brings him back to life, as if he were standing here, alive, today. Theres something special about his life, his development, which should be captured today by us, not only in addressing the problems of our nation, which are becoming terrible; but the problems of our relationship with the world as a whole.

The Jan. 18 invitation summarizes our situation today, calling for deliberation, and collaboration. The tragic events of Jan. 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol Building have overshadowed the condition that preceded thema long-gestating breakdown of public trust in the institutions of government, including the electoral process. This distrust is epidemic throughout the trans-Atlantic sector, and has created a strategic instability of concern to the whole world. The continuing failure to work with Russia, China, India and other nationsnations governed by ideas and in ways divergent from our ownto reverse the foolish economic conditions and failed policies that turned the COVID-19 threat into a global pandemic will, if not reversed, soon bring down each and every government of the trans-Atlantic world.

Attend the event liveand invite others and share it with them afterward. Spread the message of hope.
A native of Long Island, N.Y, and the son of Haitian immigrants with no evident ties to Louisiana or work experience here has vaulted into the leadership of the states second largest school district.

Sito Narcisse, 45, the incoming superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, though, has a last name that sounds like hes a local. He even grew up speaking Creole French and his first job as a French teacher at a high school in suburban Nashville.

Preston Castille, a Baton Rouge attorney and member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said he knew a lot of Narcisses growing up in St. Landry Parish.

I remember thinking, he must be from my neck of the woods, said Castille.

At a press conference Friday, held 16 hours after he was selected for the job, and after a plane flight from his home in Washington, D.C., Narcisse said hes checking to see if he might have any connections to Louisiana that hes not aware of.

I put out a call to my father, but he hasnt returned my call yet, said Narcisse.

+4 Superintendent finalists tout knack to 'turn around' schools; selection this week? The three finalists for East Baton Rouge Parish school superintendent all spent time as turnaround principals charged with improving the ope

Ties or not, Narcisse is definitely new to the local education world, and, for many, not in a welcome way.

The parish School Board appointed Narcisse, who serves as chief of secondary schools in D.C, to the superintendents job by a narrow 5-4 margin. They chose him over someone known by almost everyone in the local school world, Adam Smith.

Smith, a 24-year veteran of the parish school district, who was promoted to interim superintendent in October, is well liked and has risen through the ranks. He received fulsome praise all night.

I call him The Firefighter, because when theres a fire, hes the person you call to put it out," said former School Board member Jackie Mims.

"I cant imagine that there is a stronger leader in the school district to lead our students and our constituents," said current board member Connie Bernard.

By contrast, Narcisse had no one speak in person to sing his praises in person and his online cheering section was far outnumbered by people supporting Smith.

Narcisse will have to face down the inevitable skepticism of an outsider as he takes the reins in a school district that serves more than 40,000 students. That skepticism is even greater given how rarely the School Board has hired from within. The only inside hire since the mid-80s has been Charlotte Placide, who served as superintendent from 2004 to 2009. The next closest to an inside hire is Warren Drake, who spent most of his career in the school district. But Drake, who retired last July, made his name as superintendent of the top-rated Zachary school district and had been away from the school system for 13 years before he was made Baton Rouge superintendent in 2015.

Smith, beside his personal qualities, appealed to a desire for stability and continuity, especially after a tumultuous year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Im really not interested in a new t-shirt with a catchy slogan because somebody new comes in the guise of promising change and doing whats best for students, Daniel Edwards, principal of Wildwood Elementary, told the board Thursday.

Im not really interested in reading someones new 100-day plan, he continued, making promises to us, when so many before have come in before under that guise and left us as principals, teachers and staff members still doing the hard work that we are committed to doing each and every day.

So when the vote finally came near 9 p.m. Thursday and Smith lost, his supporters were shocked and crestfallen. The air was sucked completely out of the room.

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It didnt help that none of the five board members explained publicly why Narcisse deserved the job before voting him into the job.

The Advocate has since reached out to the five board members. Board members Jill Dyason and Evelyn Ware-Jackson did not respond to text and phone calls seeking comment.

Were loaded with people who have only EBR experience, and the world of education is changing, explained Board President Mike Gaudet. I just felt that it was time to bring in someone of quality but with approaches from other areas to our problems.

The problems we have in EBR are similar to the problems in urban districts across the country, Gaudet added. We are not that unique.

Board member Dadrius Lanus described Smith as an amazing leader who would have done well, but said he liked more what Narcisse had to say about what hed do to fix the districts 32 lowest performing schools, which have the label comprehensive intervention required.

For my entire time on the board, those schools have continued to be stagnant, said Lanus, who took office in January 2019.

I thought Sito Narcisse stood out a little more as to his ability to lead the organization and maybe his ability to bring the board together a bit, said board member Mark Bellue.

Narcisse had perhaps the most impressive resume of all 21 applicants. Before his current job, he served for three years chief of schools for Nashville, Tennessee, public school, which has about 85,000 students, as well as three years as associate superintendent in Prince Georges County, Maryland Public Schools, which has almost 130,000 students.

There was pretty strong praise for him everywhere hes been, said Bellue.

+4 Meet Baton Rouge's new school leader: Sito Narcisse makes first visit day after school board vote Just hours after winning the job, newly appointed East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Sito Narcisse flew in from Washington D.C. and went o

Most of the background research on Narcisse was done by Gaudet, who then shared what he found with other board members.

For instance, Gaudet discounted criticism that Narcisse is a serial job hopper  he hasnt spent more than three years in any one job. For instance, Gaudet counts Narcisses three years in Prince Georges County as of a piece with his three years in Nashville, noting that Narcisse was simply following a boss, Shawn Joseph, who was hired in 2016 by Nashville.

The superintendent thought enough to bring him along, Gaudet said.

Bellue, Gaudet and Lanus all said they werent absolutely sure they would vote for Narcisse until Thursday night.

My choice didnt come down until I heard all the interviews, Lanus said.

Gaudet admitted that he was leaning towards Narcisse, but said he listened to Smith, who finished his interview Thursday afternoon, in case Smith greatly exceeded his expectations.

Bellue said that in his discussions with fellow board members, they were torn between Narcisse and Smith up until late in the process. He contrasted that with the superintendent search held last summer where the supporters of eventual winner Leslie Brown of Fort Lauderdale and fellow finalist Nakia Towns of Chattanooga, were sharply divided. Brown won, also in a 5-4 vote, but only served for two months before resigning unexpectedly due to an unspecified medical condition.

Bellue said in the case of Narcisse his experience as an outsider likely gave him an edge.

If you have a strong candidate coming from outside, I think that couldve been a strong factor in tipping the scale, he said.
The Health Minister has demanded a full explanation after the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin gave 16 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to family members of its staff.

It happened on Friday, January 8, after 1,100 frontline staff as well as local GPs and community health workers were vaccinated at the hospital.

According to the hospital, the decision was taken so that no vaccine would go to waste, after workers and those it has been tasked with administering the first dose had got it.

The master of the Coombe, Professor Michael O'Connell, last night apologised that family members of employees were vaccinated.

The hospital would not give details about the family members who got the vaccine other than to say there were 16 of them  nine were over the age of 70 and seven were of varying age.

Read More

In a statement last night, it said that, at the time the vaccinations were given, the HSE booking system and portal was not live, as it came online the following morning Saturday 9, and so it was not possible to pre-book vaccinations and therefore be certain of the number of vaccinations required.

It is important to note that the HSE booking system and portal is now live, the statement added. The hospital said it worked throughout the day, reconstituting the vials and making vaccines available to frontline workers.

At the time, five vaccines were expected from each vial. However, throughout the day it was possible to get six doses out of most vials, and in some cases seven.

As a direct result of this operational efficiency, over 120 additional vaccines, over and above what had been anticipated, were made available, it said.

According to the hospital, the team there contacted the HSE to inform them of the additional available doses and actively sought out frontline workers to vaccinate.

Expand Close Apology: Professor Michael OConnell, master of the Coombe / Facebook

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The hospital followed government guidelines and focused on the two current priority groups, it said.

It would not be appropriate for the hospital to comment on the individuals involved, the statement said.

Last night, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said he had only just been made aware of the situation.

Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened.

Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets out a priority list for vaccination - and thats currently for frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long-term residential care facilities.

It does not include family members of healthcare workers, he said.

Mr Donnelly said he would be speaking with the chair of the Coombe board of management to seek a full account.

Prof OConnell said he regretted the decision.

The decision to use the vaccines that had already been made up was made to ensure that not a single reconstituted vaccine was wasted.

Had they not been used they would have been discarded. I was keenly aware of that and throughout the evening and from 9.30pm onward I personally made every effort to prioritise and identify additional frontline workers and followed all measures available to me at the time.

In hindsight as master, I deeply regret that family members of employees were vaccinated and for that I wholeheartedly apologise.

Meanwhile, staff at a private diagnostic clinic were vaccinated before public healthcare workers, it has emerged.

Vaccinations were given to employeees at the Affidea clinic in Dublin last week while nurses in Nenagh Hospital in Tipperary were forced to publicly plead for vaccines.

Affidea, which charges patients up to 100 for X-rays and 260 for MRIs, did not respond to a request for comment on why its staff were vaccinated before public healthcare workers. Labour leader Alan Kelly said it was scandalous that private hospital staff had been vaccinated ahead of public health workers.

The Health Minister said his vaccination plan did not distinguish between public and private healthcare workers.

Read More




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The Indian Navy, a branch of the Indian Armed Forces, has called for online applications from eligible unmarried male candidates for recruiting Twenty-Six (26) Officers under the 10+2 (B.Tech) Cadet Entry Scheme in the Indian Navy -Education, Executive and Technical Branches on a fulltime basis through a Course commencing on July 2021 at the Indian Naval Academy (INA) Ezhimala in Kerala, India. The online registration-cum-application process towards the same starts on January 29, 2021 onwards and closes on February 09, 2021.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Officers under the 10+2 (B.Tech) Cadet Entry Scheme Organisation Indian Navy Educational Qualification Passed Senior Secondary Examination (10+2 Pattern) or its equivalent in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) with minimum 70% marks (aggregate) and at least 50% marks in English (either in Class X or Class XII) Experience Freshers can apply Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Physical and Medical Fitness Job Location Ezhimala Salary Scale As per the Indian Navy norms Industry Indian Armed Forces Application Start Date January 29, 2021 Application End Date February 9, 2021

Indian Navy Recruitment 2021: Age And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 must be born between January 2, 2002 and July 1, 2004 with relaxation (upper age limit) for reserved categories as specified in the Indian Navy Notification 2021.

For details regarding application fee for Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021, refer to the official India Navy Notification 2021 given at the end of the article.

Also Read: UPPCL Recruitment 2021 For 21 Junior Engineer Trainee (Civil) Posts, Apply Online Before February 23

Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 Vacancy Details

Post Name No. Of Vacancies Executive & Technical Branch 21 Education Branch 05 Total 26

Indian Navy Recruitment 2021: Educational Criteria And Eligibility

Desirous candidates applying for Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 must have passed Senior Secondary Examination (10+2 Pattern) or its equivalent in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) with minimum 70% marks (aggregate) and at least 50% marks in English (either in Class X or Class XII) from a recognised Board detailed in the Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 Notification.

Candidates must have appeared for JEE (Main) -2020 (for B.E/B.Tech) exam and qualified/secured rank as published by NTA and meet the Physical and Medical Fitness criteria as specified in the Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 Notification.

Indian Navy Recruitment 2021: Selection And Pay

The selection of candidates to Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 will be done through Shortlisting and SSB Interview as notified in the Indian Navy Notification 2021.

Candidates selected to Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 will be paid an emolument as per the Indian Navy norms.

Also Read: Oil India Recruitment 2021 For 400 Apprentices Posts, Apply Online On NAPS Portal Before 3:30 PM Today

Indian Navy Recruitment 2021: How To Apply

Candidates applying for Indian Navy Officer Jobs 2021 through Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 must register online on the official Indian Navy website from January 29, 2021 onwards and submit their applications on or before February 09, 2021.

Download Indian Navy Recruitment 2021 Notification PDF for Officers under the 10+2 (B.Tech) Cadet Entry Scheme here
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The leitmotif of the most counter-intuitive finishing ever is simple: less is more. Skeletonisation, in which the movement is endowed with nothing more than the material required for it to actually work, is an age-old technique thats made a major comeback in the past 20 years.



N ot content with the challenges it sets itself in terms of materials and precision, contemporary watchmaking also seeks new exploits in the realm of finishings, such as skeletonisation. This decorative art form consists in hollowing out each component of the movement as much as possible, right to its functional tolerance limits. The delicate craft is all about pushing materials to near-breaking point. It demonstrates watchmakers amazing ability to put on a real, live performance in which the movements components are reduced to the absolute bare minimum, allowing the most intimate parts of the workings to be admired.

An age-old tradition

Mr Armin Strom has the honour of being the first to return this technique to the spotlight, back in the 1960s. Today, the brand named after him continues the work he began. Since 2006, when Mr Strom handed over to the pair who bought out the business, the Armin Strom name has become a benchmark in skeletonisation.

Tourbillon Skeleton Air (2014)  Armin Strom

Take me to the limit

Today, skeleton watches are commonplace. A distinction should however be drawn between those that are simply openworked (these have no dial, leaving the movement visible but devoid of any specific treatment) and genuine skeletonised watches, in which each component has been individually hollowed out. Achieving this is a genuine art form, and is mostly the preserve of established Manufactures: not only do they have the competent craftsman and materials needed, they also possess the technical capabilities required to determine the structural limits of the materials based on calculations and simulations.

Grande Seconde Skelet-One Ceramic (2018)  Jaquet Droz

One such firm is Breguet, which boasts a large number of such timepieces for seasoned collectors, particularly among the tourbillons in its Classique collection. Jaquet Droz, from the same group, presented a very daring version of its legendary Grande Seconde in 2018: the eminently contemporary and groundbreaking Skelet-One.

Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat Squelette 5395 (2019)  Breguet

Over at LVMH, the rebirth of the Octo in its Finissimo version was an opportunity for Bulgari to bring together extra-slimness and skeletonisation, as Piaget had in 2017 for the 60th anniversary of its Altiplano. In the same group, Zenith took a sportier approach with its Defy El Primero Double Tourbillon  and of course there was TAG Heuer with its Heuer 02 calibre, of which the brand went so far as to create an exact replica for its connected watch  right down to the skeletonisation.

Octo Finissimo Skeleton Ceramic (2019)  Bulgari

Of note among independent watchmakers, theres the spectacular approach of Hysek, specialists in extreme skeletonisation for 20 years, in particular for their ethereal IOs. Meanwhile the (late) RJ  Romain Jerome brand produced the Arraw Spider-Man, featuring suitably spiders web skeleton treatment.



Another pattern, another brand: Roger Dubuis. In 2005, the Manufacture released its first traditional skeleton movement, followed by its first contemporary skeleton models for women in 2008, and then in 2009 its iconic RD01SQ calibre, instantly recognisable thanks to its star-shaped astral skeleton motif. Roger Dubuis has now extended the skeleton principle beyond the movement, applying it to the case, flange, and hands as well.

*On the occasion of GMT Magazine and WorldTempus' 20th anniversary, we have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the last 20 years in watchmaking in The Millennium Watch Book, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. The Millennium Watch Book is available on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English.

Order now
BCSO

A deputy with the Bexar County Sheriffs Office was arrested and placed on unpaid leave after he was arrested early Sunday.

Maverick Mason Moreland, 35, was off duty when he allegedly assaulted a fellow off-duty deputy, whom he was dating, at the Happy Hut bar on West Avenue, the sheriffs office said in a news release. He was arrested around 12:37 a.m. by the San Antonio Police Department for assault family violence dating and criminal mischief.
A group of bartenders in Tennessee were left shocked after checking a customer's bill and discovering they had been left a $5,000 tip.

One happy customer added the massive tip onto their bill at the Preservation Pub in Knoxville, Tennessee, over the weekend on January 15.

Scott West, who owns the Market Square business, took to Facebook to share a message from Ashley Coleman, one of his bar staff after she discovered the $5,000 tip.

Bar staff at the Preservation Pub in Knoxville, Tennessee, were shocked to discover that one generous patron had left a $5,000 tip after their visit

The bar owner shared a picture of Ashley, who is seen wearing a face mask, holding up the receipt that was left by the customer which showed the large tip.

Alongside the picture, a message from Ashley read: 'Last night, Dave and I were working at Preservation Pub when one of our guests ordered a round for the bar, signed his tab and said, "Thank you so much- I wanted to make sure I took care of y'all."

'We didn't think anything of it until the end of the night, when we discovered that he left a $5,000 tip...

'Understandably, we were a bit taken aback. Dave and I are beyond grateful. COVID hasn't been kind to any of us but it's been especially difficult for those of us working in the service industry.

Scott West, who owns Preservation Pub, took to Facebook over the weekend to share his staff's gratitude at having received the enormous tip

'Smaller capacities and early curfews have had a devastating financial impact for the majority of us. So, cheers to you Good Samaritan, whoever you are, thank you so much for your generosity!'

Small business owners are among the people worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with many having to either close their doors or reduce capacity as well as having to deal with reduced footflow.

Last year, Governor bill Lee announced the Supplemental Employer Recovery Grant to help small businesses.

The $50million aid package was intended to help small businesses cover 'eligible direct expenses or costs incurred as a result of business interruptions' because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although wearing face masks isn't a mandatory requirement for people in Tennessee, the office of Governor, Bill Lee (pictured), has 'strongly encouraged' people to wear them in all public places

To date, Tennessee has reported more than 672,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 8,312 deaths.

At present, the Governor of Tennessee has declared a Level 3 - State of Emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Although wearing face masks isn't a mandatory requirement for people in Tennessee, the Governor's office has 'strongly encouraged' people to wear them in all public places.

However, 70 per cent of local states within Tennessee have enacted local mandatory face covering orders.

People were quick to praise the actions of the anonymous tipper, with one person saying that little acts of kindness like that help her keep 'faith in humanity'

This is also extended to whenever you are set to travel somewhere where you are likely to come into close contact with other people.

However, people have also been advised not to make children aged two-years-old and younger or people with breathing difficulties wear a face covering.

Restaurants and bars have also been given specific guidance to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

All tables should be spaced at least six feet apart and , if possible, booths should be spaced out to increase distance between separate dining parties.
UPDATE: Riley Williams was arrested late Monday evening in Pennsylvania. Read more here.

A Harrisburg woman charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol told her former romantic partner that she stole House Speaker Nancy Pelosis laptop with the intent of selling the device to Russias foreign intelligence services, federal authorities said Monday.

Riley June Williams, a 22-year-old employee of a home health care agency, was among dozens of people charged since Friday in the FBIs nationwide hunt for insurrectionists that participated in the attack.

Also charged Monday was a former Pennsylvania State Police cadet from Lehigh County, who surrendered to investigators Sunday after discovering he was wanted for attacking officers trying to keep the rioters at bay.

Williams story, though, has given investigators particular cause for concern given the possibility that the laptop she is accused of stealing could contain sensitive information and questions over whether she actually has the means to carry out her purported plan to send it to Russia.

In an affidavit filed late Sunday evening, agents said that her former partner contacted them several times last week after recognizing her in footage shot during the Capitol siege by the British network ITV.

Her ex also claimed to have seen video of Williams filching the laptop from Pelosis office and claimed she had bragged she intended to send it to a friend in Russia who would arrange for its transfer to the SVR, the Russian equivalent of the CIA.

That deal fell through, Williams ex told agents, according to charging documents in her case, and the laptop remains in her possession.

But by the time investigators tracked Williams down to the apartment she shares with her mother in Harrisburg on Saturday, she had already fled, the court filings state.

Williams mother told agents that a day earlier an ITV news crew showed up at her door, looking for her daughter after identifying her through online sleuthing.

In a segment that aired on the network Sunday, she confirmed for the reporters that her daughter was the woman seen in earlier footage they showed of the Capitol attack. In it, Williams was filmed directing other insurrectionists inside the Capitol rotunda toward a staircase leading to Pelosis office.

Dressed in a green T-shirt, glasses, and a brown coat with a zebra print bag slung over her shoulder, she can be seen shouting Up the Stairs! Go! as she pushes others onward.

But as that video began to spread online and people began to recognize her, Williams fled without saying where she was going, her mother told ITV.

Shes actually gone, she said. She took off not only because of that [video]. She figures if its out there, theyll [the FBI] come to her about it.

Williams mother described her daughter  an employee at the home health care agency Keystone Human Services  as an empathetic and loving person, who had taken a sudden interest in President Donald Trumps politics and far-right message boards over the last year.

She rarely talked politics, her mother insisted. Its all about wanting America to get the correct information, she said. Agents also interviewed Williams father, who lives in nearby Camp Hill, according to court records. He told them that he drove to Washington with his daughter to attend the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally, but maintained they had become separated during the day and he only caught up with her later that evening, when they met up to drive back to Harrisburg.

Williams purported role in the theft of Pelosis laptop remains under investigation, the FBI said. At the moment, she is charged only with unlawfully entering Capitol grounds and disorderly conduct  crimes punishable by up to a year in prison.

However, Pelosis chief of staff, Drew Hammill, confirmed on Twitter in the days after the attack that a laptop, primarily used for presentations, had been taken from a conference room in the House speakers office.

Williams whereabouts remained unclear Monday. Her mother told local law enforcement that she packed a bag, saying she would be gone for a couple of weeks. She also changed her phone number and deleted a number of social media accounts, the FBI said.

Her employer, Keystone Human Services, said in a statement that did not identify Williams by name that it was aware of accusations against one of its employees and that it was coordinating with law enforcement and taking appropriate action in response.

So far, federal authorities have charged more than 100 accused insurrectionists in the nearly two weeks since the riot, including four other Pennsylvania residents most of whom were turned in by friends or family members or implicated by photos and videos they posted online.

But Craig Bingert, the 29-year-old former State Police cadet from Lehigh County, told agents he proactively decided to give himself up after the FBI began circulating his photo online in an attempt to identify him.

The images, pulled from a Metropolitan Police officers body camera, show Bingert holding an American flag in one hand, while shoving a metal barrier with the other against officers struggling to keep him and the crowd of Trump supporters around him away from the Capitol building Jan. 6.

Other body cam footage, taken later that day, shows Bingert milling around the area, waving his flag, while the crowd around him chants F the police.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bingert, of Slatington, Pa., graduated from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 2013 with a degree in criminal justice and law enforcement administration.

He joined the Pennsylvania State Police training academy in 2015. But state police spokesperson Ryan Tarkowski said Monday that Bingert was separated from the department in less than a week and never became a state trooper.

Tarkowski declined to discuss the circumstances behind Bingerts sudden departure from the training facility.

Bingert is charged with obstructing police and could face up to five years in prison if convicted. Though his charging documents indicate he has an attorney who helped arrange for his surrender, they do not name the lawyer and it was not clear from court records who it might be.

Other Pennsylvania residents charged to date in the Capitol attack include Terry Brown, a retired code enforcement officer from Lebanon County, and Andrew Wrigley, a former Center City artist who recently moved to Jim Thorpe, Pa. Both men face charges including unlawfully entering the Capitol grounds.

The third man, Robert Sanford, a retired Chester firefighter, is accused of throwing a fire extinguisher that injured three Capitol Police officers during a melee on the buildings steps.

Read the Williams affidavit:

Read the Bingert affidavit:
A review of President Donald Trump's four years show that he really did put "America First," a report says.

Trump put "America First" as shown by his accomplishments that include "an unprecedented economic boom," "waves of deregulation," "improved fair and reciprocal trade," and "save millions of lives" during a pandemic, One America News Network reported.

OANN reported that Trump's administration paved the way for record lows in unemployment as millions of Americans gained jobs, especially since priority was given to not only American workers and families but also to minorities.

Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter of 2020 alone reveal exceeding expectations amist the pandemic with a growth rate of 7.4%, which is the "largest single quarter of economic growth on record and rougly twice the prior of 3.9% set in the first quarter of 1950" and making the annual rate at 33.1% as per published statistics in the White House website.

"With the historic third-quarter growth, the United States in a single quarter has now recovered two-thirds of the economic output lost due to the pandemic during the first half of the year (Figure 1). In the recovery from the 2008-09 recession, it took 4 times as long to regain the same share of lost economic output," the article in the White House website said.

In line with the unprecedented economic boom, OANN quoted Trump in saying, "We have seen African Americans way up and Hispanic-Americans way up and people have seen that. You know, I've said - with regard to the black community - I've done more than any other president with the exception of Abraham Lincoln."

OANN added that the deregulation provided American workers and businesses aid that positively affected the independence of US energy.

"We got you the biggest regulation cuts. There's no president that got anywhere near to the regulation cuts. It used to take 20 years to get a highway approved," Trump raised.

By improving fair and reciprocal trade, Trump ended the North American Free Trade Agreement that OANN cited as a "nightmare".

To this Ivanka Trump added via Twitter, "GOP Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 created the first National Paid Family Leave tax credit for ppl earning $72K or less."

"In 2019 POTUS secured 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave for the federal civilian workforce, ensuring the country's largest employer led by example," she continued in the same tweet.

GOP Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 created the first National Paid Family Leave tax credit for ppl earning $72K or less



In 2019 POTUS secured 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave for the federal civilian workforce, ensuring the countrys largest employer led by example pic.twitter.com/cpZzFVfIVj  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) January 17, 2021

Trump's Operation Warp Speed also made accomplishments no other American president has done since it "carried the nation on its way to recovery," as per OANN.

OANN also cited Grand Old Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel who tweeted, "Millions around the country are being vaccinated thanks to Operation Warp Speed!"

Meanwhile, the First Lady Melania Trump cited the Be Best project as an important aid the government has provided to its children.

"As the legacy of #BeBest comes to a close at the @WhiteHouse, we must continue to give a voice to our Nation's children & the issues that impact their lives. It's the values & spirit of the American people that inspired Be Best & it's those values that will carry on its mission," she said in her Twitter account last January 15.

OANN also reported that Trump provided choice and affordability to American healthcare, rebuilt military with a defense sending of $2 trillion, and fulfilled his promise to "secure American borders" by building the Texan border to prevent illegal immigrants.

Trump also kept America from wars by reaching out to North Korea for its denuclearization and undergoing "a historic peace agreement between Israel and Sudan," as published by the White House website.

PBS NewsHour reported last Sunday that Trump spent his last weekend as president in the White House and actually plans to leave Washington D.C. on the morning of former Vice President Joseph Biden's inauguration into the presidency on January 20. PBS also said the president plans to provide potential pardons to criminal executions and some changes in the immigration system.
A Laois TD is demanding immediate and proper pay for Irish student nurses and midwives.

Sinn Fein TD for Laois/Offaly, Brian Stanley, has called on the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly to quit delaying and pay student nurses and midwives now.

Throughout the pandemic, student nurses and midwives have been working bravely and tirelessly every day to protect our families and communities from Covid-19. Where students are needed to fill employment gaps they should be paid appropriately. There was a severe staffing crisis before the pandemic, and now it is even worse.

The way the Government has treated them has been nothing short of insulting. Its time to do the right thing and ensure they are paid properly. They deserve respect and must be protected from exploitation," he said.

A suggested payment of 100 a week "won't cut it".

The Minister for Health has suggested paying student nurses and midwives just 100 per week. This wont cut it. There should be no more empty promises or delays. This is a crisis. The review the Minister based this small sum on was conducted before the current crisis and recognised that, if the situation changed, that it would be appropriate to return to the March pay agreement.

Sinn Fein is bringing forward a motion in the Dail on Wednesday to make the Government pay student nurses and midwives now.

"Sinn Feins motion this week will ensure the March pay agreement returns. This is more important than ever, as the public health crisis worsens. The decision to pay student nurses and midwives lies with the Minister for Health but Minister Harris is also responsible for protecting students from exploitation.

The Government cannot keep trying to hide from this issue. Sinn Fein will stand up for student nurses and midwives to ensure they are treated fairly. The time to deliver is now. I am calling on all TDs from across all parties in Laois/Offaly to do the right thing and back this motion," Dep Stanley said.
On the second day of the vaccination drive in India, a total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine so far. The Union Health Ministry said that 447 cases of adverse events had been recorded following the immunisation.

Addressing a press briefing, the ministrys Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani said that out of the 447 adverse events, only three required hospitalisation.

Today being Sunday, only six states conducted vaccination drive and in 553 sessions, a total of 17,072 beneficiaries were vaccinated, he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

TOI

A total of 447 Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) have been reported on January 16 and 17, out of which only three required hospitalisation. Most of the AEFI reported so far are minor like fever, headache, nausea, he added.

UP ward boy dies after taking vaccine

A 46-year-old ward boy at the district hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district, one of the workers to receive a COVID jab, died a day later after complaining of breathlessness and unease.

Dr MC Garg, the chief medical officer, told TOI that the ward boy was given Covishield vaccine at about 12 noon on Saturday. The next day he suffered pain in the chest and breathlessness. He had worked the night shift after vaccination. The doctor added that they believe his death is due to any side effect of the vaccine.

PTI

Multiple reports suggested that at least 12 health workers who were administered vaccines on Saturday had to be hospitalised in Maharashtra, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the inoculation drive against Covid-19 on Saturday and stated that the two vaccines being deployed will ensure a decisive victory for India against the pandemic.
Police have issued an appeal to help find a missing teenager who was last seen on Friday.

Officers and family members say they are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of Teagan Ward (16).

She is described as approximately 5'2" tall, of slim to average build with light waist length brown hair with blonde highlights.

Teagan was last seen at approximately 2.15pm last Friday, January 15 in the Ballymena area.

She was wearing a dark grey Gym King tracksuit consisting of a crop jumper and jogging bottoms.

It is believed she may be in Ennis, Co Clare, in the Republic of Ireland.

Sergeant Michelle Adams has appealed to Teagan or anyone who knows of her whereabouts to contact police at Ballymena on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 871 15/01/21.

Laois woodlands and walking trails have never been more appreciated thanks to Covid-19 travel restrictions, and now amenities including Dysart Woods, Abbeyleix Bog and the River Barrow, are to get a funding boost.

Nine Laois projects will share in 160,000 of grants, announced this Monday morning January 18.

Laois Tourism and Recreation Signage Upgrade Programme (Phase 1): Upgrade and replacement of signage Countywide - 20,000.00

Corrigmeal Woodland Trail - Phase 2, Upgrade of trail and enhancement, Dysart, Portlaoise - 16,695.00

Killeshin Reservoir Trail Extension, Development of existing trail, Killeshin Village - 19,800.00

Mapboard installation at Outdoor Recreation facilities throughout County, Countywide trail promotion - 17,206.00

Slieve Bloom Way & Ancillary Loops, Maintenance and enhancement works, Slieve Blooms - 11,800.00

Borris in Ossory Walking Trail, Upgrade of existing trail, Borris in Ossory - 19,634.00

Conoboro Walking Trail, Signage and promotion, Rathdowney - 17,910.00

Abbeyleix Bog Walks, Repair/replacement of trail bog bridge and resurfacing of the trails, Abbeyleix - 18,000.00

River Walk to Lea Castle, Upgrade of existing trail, River Barrow, 19,980.00



Laois/Offaly TD, Charlie Flanagan welcomes the funding.

The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme has been crucial to the development of the recreation facilities enjoyed by growing numbers of locals and tourists in rural areas in recent years. These facilities are now more important than ever in light of the COVID19 emergency and I am delighted that the following nine projects in County Laois have been successful.

"The COVID situation has given people a renewed appreciation of the benefit of the outdoors to their wellbeing. Thankfully we have a wealth of natural beauty here in Laois as well as many excellent tracks and trails, thanks in no small part to the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme," Dep Flanagan said.

Minister of State in the Department of Finance, Deputy Sean Fleming has also welcomed the grants.

"Due to COVID19 there has been a major increase in people using our outdoor walking trails and other facilities. Using these outdoor amenities helps people keep healthy and physically fit and is also a benefit for peoples general wellbeing and mental health.

"This funding will have significant benefits for many people and all of these projects listed are to be delivered and in place during this year. I encourage everyone to use the many existing outdoor recreation facilties right across the County," Dep Fleming said.

Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture is Senator Pippa Hackett.

Outdoor recreation is vitally important to us during Covid and has the potential to improve our tourism economy in the long run. Im delighted to see Laois included in this phase of the funding, in particular the upkeep of Abbeyleix Bog Walks, which adds to our appreciation of the bog and the need to preserve it to reduce our carbon emissions," Senator Hackett said.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, announced almost 3.2 million in funding for 173 projects under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme.

The scheme provides funding for the development of new and existing outdoor recreational infrastructure in rural areas and is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development in partnership with Failte Ireland. The funding announced this morning, under Measure 1 of the Scheme, will support small-scale local projects with funding of up to 20,000 each.

Further announcements for medium and large scale projects under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme, with funding of up to 200,000 and 500,000 respectively for each project, will be made at a later stage.

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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
The jewel in Kilkenny's arts crown will be showcased to the nation on RTE tonight, Monday, January 18.

The Butler Gallery, in the heart of the city, opened last summer.

RTE's Nationwide programme will focus on 'Art and Artists' tonight, and along with the work of a Dublin artist in Ranelagh the show will visit the Butler Gallery.

Tune in to RTE One at 7pm, or on RTE+1 at 8pm.
Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou flaunted her impossible curves in a paid partnership with Lounge Underwear outside her Calabasas home last Saturday.

The 23-year-old influencer modeled the lingerie label's $65 cobalt-blue 'Charmed' balcony bra and thong.

On Sunday, Stassie was back at it with two sultry selfies, this time as brand ambassador for Fashion Nova.

'Baby blue': Anastasia 'Stassie' Karanikolaou flaunted her impossible curves in a paid partnership with Lounge Underwear outside her Calabasas home last Saturday

Welcome mat: The 23-year-old influencer modeled the lingerie label's $65 cobalt-blue 'Charmed' balcony bra and thong

Karanikolaou modeled the fast fashion company's $32.99 heather-grey 'Alexis Snatched' top and matching $29.99 'Serena Snatched' leggings.

The half-Greek vlogger - who boasts 13.3M social media followers - recently returned from a New Year's getaway to The Bahamas with Kelsey Calemine and Victoria Villaroel on January 11.

In the past, Stassie has admitted to having lip fillers and undergoing two breast augmentation surgeries.

Karanikolaou is best known as being best friends with Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner as far back as 2010.

'Booked and b****y': On Sunday, Stassie was back at it with two sultry selfies, this time as brand ambassador for Fashion Nova

Mirror, mirror: Karanikolaou modeled the fast fashion company's $32.99 heather-grey 'Alexis Snatched' top and matching $29.99 'Serena Snatched' leggings

'Day dreaming': The half-Greek vlogger recently returned from a New Year's getaway to The Bahamas with Kelsey Calemine and Victoria Villaroel on January 11 (pictured January 6)

In May 2019, the gal pals got matching 'Stormi' tattoos in honor of Kylie's two-year-old daughter Stormi Webster with eight-time Grammy-nominated rapper Travis Scott.

Stassie last made headlines for holding hands with To All the Boys heartthrob Noah Centineo outside a private LA Halloween party despite strict gathering guidelines due to the coronavirus.

COVID-19 is spiking nationwide, with 1.01M confirmed cases in Los Angeles leading to 13,848 deaths as of Monday - according to Johns Hopkins University.

It's unclear whether Karanikolaou and the Miami-born 24-year-old are still dating three months later.

'Date night': Stassie is best known as being best friends with Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner (R) as far back as 2010 (pictured October 25)

Permanent ink: In May 2019, the gal pals got matching 'Stormi' tattoos in honor of Kylie's two-year-old daughter Stormi Webster with eight-time Grammy-nominated rapper Travis Scott
Monday is a federal holiday with school districts and many public entities either closing for the day or curtailing services in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Katy ISD and Fort Bend ISD will both observing the day with no classes.

King was a Civil Rights Movement leader who led protestsracial discrimination in federal and state law. Along with Sept. 11, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national day of service, which urges people to do something in service to their communities.

To find service projects in the area go to https://tinyurl.com/yyt6x7cd.

There are a slew of area meetings in Fort Bend County and Katy this week, many of which have been moved from Monday to accommodate the holiday.

MLK food tribute

Chef Rey Darthards Treasures of Food YouTube cooking show is paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a special episode that celebrates the iconic civil rights leader through the lens of the favorite foods he enjoyed throughout his life.

The episode features special guests educator Carolyn White, Rice University School Mathematics Project, Director of Mathematics Programs; and Houston attorney Courtney White, who will join the Sugar Land chef as he prepares some of Dr. Kings favorite dishes and reflects on Kings journey.

In addition to being an essential part of the civil rights movement in the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a minister, husband, father, and a proud Southerner. Some of the foods he loved to eat and share, according to his family and friends, are many classic Southern dishes we all love, Rey said of the episode.

Go to https://tinyurl.com/yyomtqux to view the video.

Fort Bend ISD trustees

The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, in the event center of the James Reese Career and Technical Center, 12300 University Blvd. in Sugar Land.

Members of the public may view the live stream of the meeting at www.fortbendisd.com/January19LIVESTREAM.

The school board has little new business but a full consent agenda under four categories, including board governance; board goal 1; scalable systems; and 2014 bond program.

For more information go to www.fortbendisd.com.

Katy ISD trustees

The Katy ISD Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19. A livestream of the meeting will be available at https://tinyurl.com/y6e7spfp.

Among the items on the agenda are the possible naming of a principal for Rhoads Elementary School and the possible termination of a teacher at Opportunity Awareness Center.

Other items on the agenda include consideration of a contract for design services associated with the construction of Elementary School No. 44.

For more information go to www.katyisd.org.

Richmond City Council

The Richmond City Council is slated to meet at 4:30p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19. The meeting can be viewed via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/2240869784. The meeting ID is 224 086 9784.

The council has a full agenda including a slew of property and road projects. For more information go to www.richmondtx.gov.

Rosenberg City Council

The Rosenberg City Council is slated to meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19. The meeting can be watched on the Internet at www.rosenbergtx.gov/tv.

Among the items scheduled for the council to discuss is a contract with CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC, to replace and install LED lights for existing street lights.

For more information go to www.rosenbergtx.gov.

Stafford City Council

The regular meeting of the Stafford City Council will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20.

The council will discuss numerous zoning issues and several election-related issues. A possible special election on Feb. 20 as well as a general election on May 1.

For more information go to www.staffordtx.com.

Missouri City City Council

The Missouri City City Council is scheduled to meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, at City Hall Council Chamber, 1522 Texas Parkway in Missouri City.

A livestream of the meeting will be available at www.missouricitytx.gov/780/MCTV.

Among the new business before the council is considering issuing up to $21.4 million in general obligation bonds.

For more information go to www.missouricitytx.gov.

Sugar Land City Council

The Sugar Land City Council is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19.

To watch a livestream of the meeting go to https://tinyurl.com/yxnsafyn.

Among the items on the agenda is an amendment to the CARES Act funding for the city in the amount of $2 million. The additional stimulus funds will bring the citys total to $8,523,000 following the initial funding released in June 2020.

For more information go to www.sugarlandtx.gov.

Fulshear City Council

The Fulshear City Council is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, in Irene Stern Community Center, 6920 Katy Fulshear Road.

Among the items on the agenda under the consent agenda are numerous plat approvals, including several in Polo Rand and Jordan Ranch.

The only new business on the agenda is an ordinance calling for a municipal election to be held on Saturday, May 1.

For more information go to www.fulsheartexas.gov.

rkent@hcnonline.com
The Supreme Court on Monday, while hearing an injunction application filed by the Delhi police to top a proposed tractor rally by protesting farmers on the Republic Day in Delhi, adjourned the matter for day after and said it was for the Delhi police to decide on the law and order situation.

The apex court had earlier stayed the implementation of the farm laws on January 12 and had formed a committee to look over the matter. Meanwhile, the government is going to hold the 10th rounds of talks with the farmers unions on Tuesday.

Also read: LIVE Updates: Entry Into Capital to be Determined by Delhi Police, Says SC on Proposed Tractor Rally by Farmers

Here's a look at what the court said on Monday:

 The bench aid on Monday the the question of entry of farmers in Delhi on January 26 was a "a law and order situation that is to be determined by the police". The court said, "Delhi police can take a decision".

 When the attorney general pointed out that the entry of 5,000 people in Delhi could be illegal, the court said that they were at liberty to invoke powers under the law.

 The court said, "We have indicated to AG and SG that it's totally up to the police to decide who should enter and who should not," and asked, "Does the Union of Indian want police to be told that they have powers under the police act?"

 The court also said that the intervention of the court should not be misunderstood. "Law and order authorities should do their job. Court can't do that job."

 While Dushyant Dave had appeared on behalf of the farmers unions before the court, the SC said it will hear everyone on Wednesday.

 The court adjourned the matter till Wednesday, January 20, when it will again take up the petitions related to the farmers unions.
Huangshan in East China's Anhui province ranked among the top five Chinese cities with good air quality in 2020, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The proportion of days with good air quality in 337 prefecture-level cities reached 87.0 percent last year, up 5.0 percentage points from a year earlier, the ministry said in an annual air quality report.

The density of PM 2.5 in those cities fell 8.3 percent year on year to 33 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020.

The PM2.5 reading is a gauge monitoring airborne particles of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which can penetrate deep into lungs.

Haikou in Hainan province, Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region, Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, Xiamen in Fujian province and Huangshan were rated as the cities with best air quality among 168 major cities nationwide, according to the report.

In addition, Chizhou, also in Anhui province, ranked 9th in the country in terms of improvement in air quality.




During a meeting of the security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas, the sides reached an agreement on the restoration of gas supply in Maryinka, the Ukrainian delegation at the TCG said.

"Today a meeting of the subgroup on security took place [...] A positive result of the videoconference was the achievement of an agreement in principle on the restoration of gas supply to Maryinka, which was reached due to the active assistance of Head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, moderator of the working group on security issues of the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Yasar Halit Cevik," the delegation said in a statement on Facebook.

It is also noted that the main efforts of the Ukrainian delegation are aimed at maintaining a stable ceasefire and creating conditions for further transition to the following measures agreed upon at Paris summit: disengagement of forces and equipment, demining areas of the terrain, and the like.

"The Russian side insists on '[...] improving the coordination mechanism for preventing ceasefire violations.' Our delegation proposed to start such an improvement from the following topical issues: preventing ceasefire violations that lead to the death and injury of Ukrainian servicemen, in particular, on January 11, 2021; assistance in carrying out infrastructure and repair work on the contact line," the Ukrainian delegation said.

Thus, the above issues will be specified during the general meeting of the TCG on January 21.
A plea in the Delhi High Court has challenged the scheme of amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), contending that its shareholders have been "left in the lurch" and the Centre and the Reserve Bank have failed to protect their interests. The petition was listed before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on January 13, but was adjourned to February 19 after the bench was told that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has moved a plea in the Supreme Court to transfer all pleas against the amalgamation scheme to the Bombay High Court.

The petition in the Delhi High Court has been filed by lawyer Sudhir Kathpalia, who was also a shareholder in Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and lost his 20,000 shares in the company due to the amalgamation scheme. Kathpalia has sought quashing of the clause in the scheme which states that from the date of merger, "the entire amount of the paid-up share capital and reserves and surplus, including the balances in the share/securities premium account of the transferor bank, shall stand written off".

The petition has said that under the scheme, DBS was not required to give any shares to the LVB investors in return and they were "left in the lurch". The amalgamation scheme was approved by the RBI on November 25, 2020 and the merger took place on November 27, 2020.

The petition has contended that the Centre and RBI have failed to protect the interests of the shareholders. It has also claimed that DBS was chosen for the merger without inviting bids from other banks and financial institutions.

It has alleged that the "scheme of amalgamation was irregular, arbitrary, irrational, unreasonable, illegal and thus, void".

Also read: Wipro completes Rs 9,500-crore buyback programme
Vaccine Still Slow To Arrive In Rural Areas The COVID-19 vaccine distribution continues to roll out across the State of Texas. However, questions remain about the access to and availability of the vaccine, especially in rural areas.



Currently, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has only cleared those in categories 1A and 1B for eligibility to receive the vaccine.



First, let me be clear, the county government is not involved in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine," said Hill County Judge Justin Lewis in a press release last week. "We also have no say in who can receive the vaccine. DSHS establishes all those rules and works directly with service providers who have completed their authorization process to become a distribution point."



Lewis said that the latest information he had lists the Brookshires pharmacies in Hillsboro and Whitney, American Star Pharmacy inside Hill Regional Hospital and Eubank Drug in Whitney as approved distributors of the vaccine in Hill County.



Eight other pharmacies were in different stages of receiving authorization to provide the vaccine within the county, the judge said last week.



These providers are required to follow the state guidelines for distribution and can only give vaccines to individuals in category 1A or 1B as established by DSHS. If you are qualified to receive the vaccine based on the states criteria, you should contact your primary care physician or one of the private pharmacies receiving doses of the vaccine to determine when you could be scheduled for inoculation," Lewis said.



The DSHS website provides the following information on people who are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine under phases 1A and 1B.



Phase 1A - First Tier



 Paid and unpaid workers in hospital settings working directly with patients who are positive or at high risk for COVID-19. Such as, but not limited to, physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other support staff (custodial staff, etc.); additional clinical staff providing supporting laboratory, pharmacy, diagnostic and/or rehabilitation services; others having direct contact with patients or infectious materials



 Long-term care staff working directly with vulnerable residents, which includes direct care providers at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and state supported living centers; physicians, nurses, personal care assistants, custodial and food service staff



 EMS providers who engage in 9-1-1 emergency services like pre-hospital care and transport



 Home health care workers, including hospice care, who directly interface with vulnerable and high-risk patients



 Residents of long-term care facilities



Phase 1A - Second Tier



 Staff in outpatient care settings who interact with symptomatic patients. Such as, but not limited to:



 Physicians, nurses and other support staff (custodial staff, etc.)



 Clinical staff providing diagnostic, laboratory, and/or rehabilitation services



 Non 9-1-1 transport for routine care of health care workers in corrections and detention facilities



 Direct care staff in freestanding emergency medical care facilities and urgent care clinics



 Community pharmacy staff who may provide direct services to clients, including vaccination or testing for individuals who may have COVID-19



 Public health and emergency response staff directly involved in administration of COVID testing and vaccinations



 Last responders who provide mortuary or death services to decedents with COVID-19, which includes embalmers and funeral home workers who have direct contact with decedents, medical examiners and other medical certifiers who have direct contact with decedents



 School nurses who provide health care to students and teachers



Phase 1B



 People 65 years of age and older



 People 16 years of age and older with at least one chronic medical condition that puts them at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19, such as, but not limited to:



- Cancer



- Chronic kidney disease



- COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)



- Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies



- Solid organ transplantation



- Obesity and severe obesity (body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher)



- Pregnancy



- Sickle cell disease



- Type 2 diabetes mellitus



For additional information on the process and status of the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Texas, visit dshs.texas.gov/coro navirus/immunize/vaccine.aspx



As the focus in the fight against COVID-19 has shifted to the distribution of the vaccines, we are having some


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Kendra McCormick is a young homeless woman from Denver and an avid advocate for harm reduction and those living on the streets and using drugs.
By Jonathan Turley

January 17, 2021 " Information Clearing House " - Below is my column in USA Today on the upcoming Senate trial of President Donald Trump. The Hill recently my second column on why the best defense of Trump could be no defense  to skip the Senate trial and force a threshold vote on the constitutionality of the trial of an ex-president.

Here is my column:

With the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, the Congress is set for one of the most bizarre moments in constitutional history: the removal of someone who has already left office. The retroactive removal would be a testament to the timeliness of rage. While it is not without precedent, it is without logic.

The planned impeachment trial of Donald Trump after he leaves office would be our own version of the Cadaver Synod. In 897, Pope Stephen VI and his supporters continued to seethe over the action of Pope Formosus, who not only died in 896 but was followed by another pope, Boniface VI. After the brief rule of Boniface VI, Pope Stephen set about to even some scores. He pulled Formosus out of his tomb, propped him up in court, and convicted him of variety of violations of canon law. Formosus was then taken out, three fingers cut off, and eventually thrown in the Tiber River.

While some may be looking longingly at the Potomac for their own Cadaver Synod, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have stated that their primary interest is in the possible disqualification of Trump from holding future federal office. Disqualification however is an optional penalty that follows a conviction and removal. It may be added to the primary purpose of removal referenced in the Constitution. The Trump trial would convert this supplemental punishment into the primary purpose of the trial.

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This did happen before but that precedent is only slightly better than the Cadaver Synod. That case involved William Belknap who served as Secretary of War to President Ulysses S. Grant. Belknap resigned after allegations of corruption  just shortly before a House vote of impeachment. The Senate held a trial but acquitted him. Twenty nine of 66 voting senators disagreed in a threshold motion that Belknap was amenable to trial by impeachment . . . notwithstanding his resignation.

In fairness to the Democrats, I have long rejected the argument that there comes a point when it is too late to impeach a president while he is in office. As I said in both the Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings, the House is under a duty to impeach if it believes that a president has committed a high crime and misdemeanor. If that occurred on the last day of a term, it would still be warranted.

My objection to this second impeachment was that it proceeded without any deliberation of the traditional impeachment process. It was a snap impeachment, which is to the Constitution what Snapchat is to conversations. It reduces the process to a raw, brief and partisan vote. This could have been avoided. A hearing could have been held in a day to allow the language of the article to be amended and the implications of the impeachment considered. It would also have allowed for a formal demand for a response from the president.

Instead, the impeachment was pushed through on a partisan muscle vote with only ten Republicans supporting the single article. It was an ironic moment. In the last Trump impeachment, I chastised the Democrats for pushing through an impeachment on the slimmest record and the shortest time frame of any presidential impeachment. They insisted that there was no time for witnesses before the House Judiciary hearing, but later waited weeks to submit the articles to the Senate. Now they have outdone that record with an impeachment with no traditional record in a matter of a couple of days. The Senate will not sit until January 19th and any trial would likely occur after January 20th.

I have long wrestled with the notion of a retroactive impeachment trial. I can see the value of establishing that a president was not just accused but convicted of unconstitutional acts. There is also the value of disqualification of such an individual from future office. However, what was an intriguing academic puzzle is now a pressing constitutional concern.

The impeachment trial of a private citizen raises a host of constitutional and practical problems. For example, a president can rely on publicly-funded lawyers like the White House Counsel and can assert presidential privileges. After leaving office, an ex-president would not only pay for his own defense, but he will lose the ability to make privilege determinations. Indeed, many such assertions would be subject to the review of his successor, Joe Biden. It would be like Pope Stephen making determinations on critical evidence of Pope Formosus after pulling him out of the crypt.

The main issue however would be whether this is really an impeachment trial, as opposed to some curious constitutional post-mortem on a passed presidency. That question could face Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts if he has summoned for this role. A chief justice does not simply show up at anything deemed an impeachment trial. He must make an independent judgment over his carrying out a constitutional function. Even if he rules that this is a valid trial, that ruling could be rejected by the Senate in a motion to dismiss the article. In the Clinton impeachment, Democrats demanded such a threshold vote before a trial. Of course, since there is no president to try for impeachment, the Senate may not even ask Roberts to preside  a telling departure that only undermines the trial as a whole.

This impeachment should end with the Trump administration. I do not fault those who view the presidents conduct as impeachable. The speech was reckless and wrong. My primary objection was to the use of a snap impeachment and the language of the article of impeachment. That is now part of Trumps presidential legacy. The question is now what will be the troubling constitutional legacy left by the Senate in the trial of an ex-president.

In my view, a retroactive removal vote would combine with the use of a snap impeachment to fundamentally altering the role of impeachment in the United States. It would take a rush to judgment and turn it into a parade of constitutional horribles. Any party could retroactively impeach or remove a former president for the purpose of disqualifying him from office. Thus, if a party feared a one-term presidents possible run, they could hold use impeachment to eliminate the political threat. With the snap impeachment, it would be worse than creating a type of no confidence vote under our Constitution. After a non confidence vote in the United Kingdom, a former prime minister can still run again for office.

A conviction would also not bring the closure as many may hope. Such disqualification would be one of the few impeachment issues that could be challenged in court. Trump would have standing to sue for his right to run again and he could well win. He would then be more popular than ever with many citizens eager to defy the Washington establishment. There is another path. The Senate could end the trial with a threshold vote and let history and the voters be the final judge of Donald J. Trump.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAYs Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @JonathanTurley
The ELECTROSTAR commuter cars have each made around 900,000 trips and moved over 125 million passengers since starting service in 2010

Bombardier will maintain the Gautrain fleet until 2026 and continues to work with Black Economic Empowerment partners in South Africa

BERLIN, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Note to editors: To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/99e3af17-e1b7-4fef-99db-0191c3d9a9db

Global mobility technology leader Bombardier Transportation announced that its Gautrain commuter fleet in South Africa has successfully completed forty million kilometres in service since operations began in 2010. This is the equivalent of close to one million trips around the equator. Bombardier delivered this intercity rapid rail link as a complete turnkey system with a fleet of 24 four-car ELECTROSTAR trains (96 vehicles), the majority of which were assembled in South Africa, and the CITYFLO 250 train control system that provides smooth and safe travel for passengers at speeds of up to 160 km per hour. Bombardier has a contract for the maintenance of the system until 2026 and continues to work with its Black Economic Empowerment partners on this project.

This is one of the most visionary projects that we have ever been involved in Africa and Gautrain set a new global benchmark for an innovative rail system that benefits local communities and people, said Makgola Makololo, Managing Director South Africa at Bombardier Transportation. As Africas first world-class, modern rapid rail service, as well as being the first semi-high-speed train on the continent, the Gautrain has made a positive impact in the lives of millions of Gauteng residents. We are proud of our highly reliable commuter fleet having completed around 900,000 trips on the Gautrain network, the equivalent of close to one million trips around the equator.

She added, This achievement is thanks to the close collaboration between Bombardier, Gautrain Management Agency, Bombela Concession Company and Bombela Operating Company in successfully delivering and maintaining this project and creating thousands of direct and indirect local jobs during this exciting journey. Rail transport in Gauteng entered a new era with the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link and we are proud to provide a safe, efficient and reliable service to more than 125 million commuters and airport travellers since 2010.

The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link is an 80 km (50-mile) commuter rail system in Gauteng, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, Ekurhuleni and the OR Tambo International Airport. Today Bombardier employs around 125 local staff on the Gautrain project operating out of the purpose-built maintenance facility located at Midrand in Johannesburg.

About Bombardier Transportation in South Africa

Bombardier Transportation in South Africa operates a locomotive assembly site in Durban and a propulsion system manufacturing facility in Johannesburg with around 300 employees delivering locally manufactured BOMBARDIER TRAXX AFRICA locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail. Bombardier has maintenance depots across South Africa supporting various rail operators and it has been a significant contributor to job creation and economic growth in South Africa since 1985.

About Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is a global mobility solution provider leading the way with the rail industrys broadest portfolio. It covers the full spectrum of solutions, ranging from trains to sub-systems and signalling to complete turnkey transport systems, e-mobility technology and data-driven maintenance services. Combining technology and performance with empathy, Bombardier Transportation continuously breaks new ground in sustainable mobility by providing integrated solutions that create substantial benefits for operators, passengers and the environment. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Bombardier Transportation employs around 36,000 people and its products and services operate in over 60 countries.

About Bombardier

With over 52,000 employees across two business segments, Bombardier is a global leader in the transportation industry, creating innovative and game-changing planes and trains. Our products and services provide world-class transportation experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Bombardier has production and engineering sites in over 25 countries across the segments of Aviation and Transportation. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, Bombardier posted revenues of $15.8 billion US. News and information are available at bombardier.com or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier .

Notes to Editors

For news, related material and photos, visit our newsroom at http://www.rail.bombardier.com/en/newsroom.html. Please subscribe to our RSS Feed to receive press releases or follow Bombardier Transportation on Twitter @BombardierRail.

Bombardier, ELECTROSTAR and CITYFLO are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

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Harsh Mehta

+91 98208 02228

harsh.mehta@rail.bombardier.com

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You can also contact one of our worldwide contacts for specific press inquiries.
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America has a long history of racial prejudice and spoils of racism shaped by a history of different paths of accepting immigrants into America. As a nation, America remains dynamic, by definition and practice; in the process, it is shaped by the constant battle between its darkest impulses and better angels.

America, known for its oppressive influences of persons of black skin, in its dynamic manner allows for the affirmation of a black body into the American presidency, a move that amazingly results into a virtue of the American exceptionalism. First, in line with the societys changing spaces was the ascension of the presidency of Barack Obama, the son of a black immigrant from Kenya, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., who later became an American trained economist. Secondly, is Kamala Harris, the incoming Vice-President, the daughter of Donald Jasper Harris, a black immigrant from Jamaica, a known American trained economist.

A key to understanding this unique political marriage in America, is the fitting text of Jon Meacham, The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels. As a Psychologist, I reason more with the better side of America, in terms of inclusion which inspired this political marriage within the American presidency.

Obama in his own way responded to many known and unknown problems regarding Blacks historical struggles. Harris motivated by this political marriage will equally respond to the enduring racial challenges of blacks and other marginalized minority communities in America.

The better angels of America hopefully will embrace America with the spirit and practice of inclusiveness, diversity, opportunities, and equal access within the American economy.

In appreciation of this political marriage, improving lives through access to better health, education, jobs, and other opportunities will hopefully be attended to, and gain full advocacy.

This political marriage will hopefully mirror other changes in terms of more blacks putting further value on higher education, income attainment, interpersonal support, and community development.

Psychologically, this political marriage has not only brought good feeling to many American communities, but it has also allowed many to feel better about themselves. This political marriage reminds many in America that the old emotional wounds of racial discrimination and ethnic rejection can be partly healed through the strengths and connections from the unique political wedding. While this political marriage cannot be substituted for the observable highly supportive marriage between Barack and Michelle, and between Douglas and Kamala; America will forever be changed in a more encompassing manner.

John Egbeazien Oshodi, is a Florida Clinical/Forensic Psychologist, a Virtual Professor of Psychology of Leadership/Management at the ISCOM University; a Development Professor and International Liaison Consultant to African University of Benin, and the author of " A Glance at American Presidents in Black Life: George Washington to George W. Bush, A to Z & History of psychology in the Black experience: Perspectives then and now: a psychology in the perspective of the history of the Africans and people of African descent.
Add former Oswego Mayor John Sullivan to the list of New York residents who got the Covid-19 vaccine in Florida.

Sullivan, who was co-chair of the New York state Democratic Party in the 1990s, told the New York Post that he received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine down south before Gov. Andrew Cuomo opened up eligibility to residents over age 65.

I got the vaccine down here. I probably wouldnt have gotten it by now in New York, Sullivan, 73, said Sunday.

According to the Post, Sullivan is still a legal New York resident but was eligible for a shot in Florida, where hes been subleasing an apartment in St. Petersburg. The Florida Department of Health said it has no residency requirement for people to receive the vaccine in Florida, but began offering appointments to people 65 and older during the first week of January.

Sullivan said he got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week and is scheduled to receive the second on Feb. 3.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, was one of the first governors to offer the vaccine to people under age 75. Sullivan, who worked for Democratic governors Cuomo, David Peterson and Eliot Spitzer, said he thinks the Sunshine State is a leader in the nation in vaccinating seniors.

For as much as I disagree with Gov. DeSantis on other things, allowing senior citizens to get the vaccine right away was the right decision, Sullivan told the Post. He was right on. Whos dying out there? The people 65 and over.

New York opened up vaccine eligibility to people over age 65 Tuesday after receiving updated federal guidance, making about 7 million state residents now eligible. But New York is still only getting about 300,000 doses of the vaccine each week  and may have fewer this week due to reduced federal supplies -- and appointments at state-run sites are full until mid-April.

Cuomo spokesman Jack Sterne told the Post that New York state previously prioritized healthcare workers because of the science-based CDC recommendation and to make sure our hospital system doesnt get overwhelmed in the last leg of this pandemic.

But Sullivan isnt the only Upstate New York snowbird to get the Covid-19 vaccine in Florida. Phil and Roberta Rice, both retired schoolteachers living in Delmar, N.Y., said they got vaccinated near their second home in Naples, Fla., because they expected to wait months longer in New York.

I think more than anything else its peace of mind, Phil Rice, 73, said. The vaccine will make it much less likely that we will become ill and hopefully we may be able to spend a little more time with our family. But I dont think its going to mean we stop wearing masks and social distancing. I think well continue to do those things until more people have gotten the vaccine.

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By Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign and author of Always With Us?: What Jesus Really Said About the Poor. Originally published at TomDispatch.

2020 will go down as the deadliest year in American history, significantly due to the devastation delivered by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, count in nearly two trillion dollars in damage from climate events (many caused by, or heightened by, intensifying global warming), a surge of incidents of police violence inflicted on Black and Native peoples, and millions more Americans joining the ranks of the poor even as small numbers of billionaires soared ever further into the financial heavens. And its already obvious that 2021 is likely to prove another harrowing year.

In the first weeks of January alone, Covid-19 deaths have risen to unprecedented levels; record turnout elected Georgias first Black and Jewish Senators in a runoff where race-baiting, red-baiting, and voter suppression were still alive and well; and a racist, white nationalist mob swarmed the Capitol emboldened by the president, as well as senators, representatives, and other officials, in an attempt to subvert and possibly take down our democratic system. The January 6th attack on that building was by no means a singular event (in a country where local officials have in recent years been similarly threatened). It did, however, highlight dramatically the growing menace of illiberal and anti-democratic forces building in power. And one thing is guaranteed: its impact will hit the poor and people of color most strikingly. Social media and news reports suggest that, with an emboldened white supremacist movement on the rise, more such attacks are being planned.

Many have claimed that those rioters (and the presidents infamous base more generally) were all, in essence, poor, working-class white people. In reality, however, among those who have led such racist attacks are business leaders, executives, and multimillionaires. As author Sarah Smash writes, Poor uneducated whites are neither the base/majority nor the explanation for Trumpism: stories now abound of middle-class and even affluent white insurrectionists leading and joining the hateful charge at the U.S. Capitol.

Indeed, it would be better to take a more careful look at the rich and powerful, as the storming of the Capitol on January 6th once again exposes the Make America Great Again movement for the sort of fake populism that has, in these years, served elites all too richly. And the more we learn about that coordinated astroturf assault, the more the dark money that lay behind its origins all these years comes to light.

Questions Must Be Raised

Eleven months into the pandemic, we are living through the most unequal recession in modern American history. For the poor and precarious, this last year was a nightmare that dwarfed the 2007-2008 recession. Between March and October, nearly 67 million people lost work. This month alone about 20 million of them are collecting unemployment. By the end of 2020, one in five adults with children reported that, at times, they didnt have enough to eat, while one in five renters were behind on their payments and faced the threat of eviction during the winter months of a still rampant virus.

At the same time, the wealth of Americas 651 billionaires increased by more than $1 trillion to a total of about $4 trillion. At the start of 2020, Jeff Bezos was the only American with a net worth of more than $100 billion. By the end of the year, he was joined by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk  and just last week Elon Musk passed Bezos as the richest person in the world.

A look at the wealthiest of wealthy Americans reveals a cross-section of industry  from the leaders of tech companies like Amazon and Facebook to the top executives of financial institutions like Berkshire Hathaway and Quicken Loans to those heading retail giants like Walmart and Nike, all of which collectively employ millions of workers. At Amazon, where the median pay is about $35,000 a year, Bezos could have distributed the $71.4 billion he made in the last pandemic year to his own endangered workers and he would still have had well more than $100 billion left.

A recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness put it this way:

Never before has America seen such an accumulation of wealth in so few hands. As tens of millions of Americans suffer from the health and economic ravages of this pandemic, a few hundred billionaires add to their massive fortunes. Their profits are so immense that Americas billionaires could pay for a major Covid relief bill and still not lose a dime of their pre-virus riches.

This last point is especially damning since the first and largest Covid-19 relief bill, the CARES Act, handed out billions of dollars worth of benefits to the upper-middle-class, the rich, and corporations. Most of us will only remember the $1,200 checks that went to some of those in need, but the bill also included provisions that favored the already well-off, including higher corporate interest deductions, flexible corporate loss rules, increased charitable tax deductions, and big tax breaks for the super-rich. Other parts of the CARES Act like the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as significant allocations to universities and hospitals, gave generously to large corporations and the wealthiest of institutions.

Direct payments and other measures in that bill did help many everyday people for a short period of time and yet Senate Republicans stonewalled long after those benefits had expired. When they finally relented in December, Mitch McConnell, knowing full well all that he had secured for the rich in the spring, craftily shot down proposed $2,000 checks for individuals as socialism for the rich, even though they would have disproportionately benefited low-and-middle-income Americans. Now, as the Biden transition team lays the groundwork for another major relief bill, conservative Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already threatened that he would absolutely not vote for such $2,000 checks.

Of course, the acceleration of inequality and tepid policy solutions to poverty are hardly unique to the United States. This year, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded a 31% increase in wealth among the 500 richest people in the world, the largest single-year gain in the lists history. Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme projected that the long-term effects of Covid-19 could force 207 million more people across the globe into extreme poverty. That, in turn, would bring the official U.N. count of those making less than two dollars a day to more than a billion, or a little less than one-seventh of the worlds population  and, mind you, thats at the onset of a decade that promises escalating economic dislocation, mass migration, and climate crisis.

A World of Superfluous Wealth and Deadening Poverty

This week, President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office and inherit a crisis that demands bold action. He has already said that on day one he will commit his administration to confronting the pandemic, the recession, systemic racism, and climate change. Four months ago, during an event with the Poor Peoples Campaign, he also told an audience of more than a million people that together we can carry on Dr. Kings Poor Peoples Campaign, which is based on a simple, moral truth: that were all created in the image of God and everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. He concluded by promising that ending poverty will not just be an aspiration, it will be a theory of change to build a new economy that includes everyone.

For this to be possible, however, the Biden administration will need to reject the supremacy of austerity and the ideology of scarcity. It will instead have to invest in an economy that guarantees health care, housing, food, water, and decent work for all its citizens. This will, of course, require imagining the sort of restructuring of our society that would, no doubt, be the work of a generation or more. But it could at least begin with an honest accounting of the actual abundance so unequally hoarded in the bank accounts, stock, and real estate holdings of this countrys richest people and the coffers of the Pentagon and the industrial complex that engulfs it, followed naturally by a plan to share it all so much more fairly.

On the anniversary of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (who, had he not been assassinated, would have been 92 years old this January 15th), it is only fitting to share these still timely and prophetic words of his:

God has left enough (and to spare) in this world for all of his children to have the basic necessities of life, and God never intended for some of his children to live in inordinate superfluous wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty. And somehow, I believe that God made it all I believe firmly that the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. I dont think it belongs to Mr. Rockefeller. I dont think it belongs to Mr. Ford. I think the earth is the Lords, and since we didnt make these things by ourselves, we must share them with each other. And I think this is the only way we are going to solve the basic problems and the restructuring of our society which I think is so desperately needed.

Exchange Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos for Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Ford, and Kings words couldnt be more timely, could they?

Honoring Dr. King

After all, every January, students, workers, and community members sign up for service projects to celebrate Kings birthday. In fact, MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service, when people paint schools, clean up trash, serve lunch to the hungry, and so much more. Over the last few decades, the spirit of volunteerism has become inextricably linked in the American imagination to Kings life and this year will be no exception. Today, amid unprecedented social, political, economic, and health upheaval, and the need to mask and social distance, even President-elect Bidens inaugural committee is organizing a day of service.

In October 1983, as Congress considered the creation of MLK Day, Meldrim Thompson, Jr., the former Republican governor of New Hampshire, privately pleaded with President Ronald Reagan to veto any such legislation, calling Dr. King a man of immoral character with well established communist connections. Reagan (in what today would be true Trumpian fashion) replied, On the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality. Indeed, to them, the perception is reality.

Reagans noxious remarks remind us that Dr. King was once considered a profound threat to the established order. The reality of Dr. Kings radical life has over time been almost unrecognizably smoothed over into an image that, so many years later, even Reagan, even Trump, might applaud. By casting Dr. King as an apolitical champion of charity, however, Americans have whitewashed not just his legacy, but that of the Black freedom struggle he helped lead, which broke Jim Crow, thanks to the most militant kinds of organizing.

Through a wicked transmutation of history, those with the most money and power in society are now allowed to use his name as a bulwark against the collective action of poor and dispossessed people, propping themselves up instead. Today, with carefully excerpted texts like everyone can be great, because everyone can serve as proof, Kings words are all too often manipulated to sanctify a truly superficial response to the burning crises of systemic racism, poverty, homelessness, hunger, and so much more. Yet even a cursory glance at the historical record should remind us all that King represented an incendiary reality in terms of the America of his time (and, sadly, of ours, too) and that there was nothing corporate-friendly about his image.

Fifty-three years ago, in his sermon Where Do We Go from Here, he spoke clearly to the question of corporate service, charity, and the kind of truth-telling action he had committed his life to:

We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in lifes marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, Who owns the oil? You begin to ask the question, Who owns the iron ore? You begin to ask the question, Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world thats two-thirds water? These are the words that must be said.

On the anniversary of his birth, may others keep asking such questions and remind us, as the Biden era begins, that the Earth does not belong to Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or the white supremacists who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. The nation must have the moral courage to carry on the work of Reverend King. After all, the best hope of successfully navigating the crises of 2021 and beyond must involve Kings dream of building a multi-racial fusion movement to reconstruct society from the bottom up.

Copyright 2021 Liz Theoharis
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

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Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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(Newser)  The US Capitol complex temporarily locked down Monday during a rehearsal for President-elect Biden's inauguration after a fire in a homeless encampment about a mile away sent a plume of smoke into the air and caused security concerns, per the AP. But law enforcement officials said there was no threat to the public, and the fire wasn't believed to be a threat to the inauguration. The evacuation of some participants and the lockdown were ordered by the acting chief of Capitol Police in an abundance of caution, officials said. District of Columbia firefighters responded and put out the fire. Biden, who will be sworn into office on Wednesday morning, wasn't participating in the rehearsal.

story continues below

The scare comes amid ramped-up security after the Jan. 6 riot. The city center is essentially on lockdown, with streets blocked, high fencing installed, and tens of thousands of National Guard and other law enforcement officers stationed around the area. Participants were ushered from the West Front of the Capitol. Those who had gathered for a walk-through, including a military band, were directed to head indoors and moved in the direction of a secure location inside the Capitol complex. People involved in the rehearsal said security officials yelled, "This is not a drill." (The FBI is investigating whether a rioter who allegedly took a laptop from Nancy Pelosi's office planned to sell it to Russia.)
SUZHOU, China, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TenNor Therapeutics (Suzhou) Limited, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to research and development of differentiated products for the treatment of diseases associated with bacterial infections and dysbioses, announced today that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. As part of the agreement, the parties plan to utilize a multitargeting drug conjugation platform developed by TenNor to discover new therapies for the treatment of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) diseases. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC.

NTM are mycobacteria other than Mycobacteria tuberculosis and M. leprae. Over the last several years, the incidence of NTM associated pulmonary diseases has risen across the world. NTM can cause serious diseases in the lungs, particularly in patients with underlying pulmonary conditions or compromised immune systems. The treatment of NTM diseases requires a combination of multiple antibiotics administered for a duration of more than two years  often associated with poor treatment outcomes and side effects. As such, there is an urgent unmet medical need to discover and develop novel therapies for NTM diseases with potential to shorten the duration of treatment with a better safety and efficacy profile.

The collaboration builds on the scientific know-how and background intellectual property of TenNor associated with its multitargeting drug conjugation technology. The parties agree to collaborate and bring complementary expertise together to discover new treatment modalities for NTM diseases.

About TenNor Therapeutics

TenNor Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovery and development of differentiated products for the treatment of diseases associated with bacterial infections or dysbioses. The company possesses a strong development portfolio of differentiated products, targeting prosthetic joint infections, hepatic encephalopathy, irritable bowel syndrome  diarrhea and Helicobacter pylori infections, to address unmet medical needs in these disease areas. The Company is a resident of Johnson & Johnson Innovation  JLABS (JLABS @ Shanghai), a premier life science incubator program.

For more information, please go to: www.tennorx.com .

SOURCE TenNor Therapeutics Limited

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The Nigerian Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has assured parents and guardians of the safety of their children and war...





The Nigerian Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has assured parents and guardians of the safety of their children and wards as schools resume for the second term of the 2020/2021 session in Lagos State.

Chairman of Amuwo-Odofin Chapter of NAPPS, Mrs Ajoke Adeyemi, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

She said that the private schools had kept to the COVID-19 prevention protocols and guidelines to guard both the staff and students against contracting the virus.

All the measures taken during the first wave are still in place and I dont see any reasons for worries.

We also engaged the services of government-approved environmental pest control organisations last weekend, to fumigate all our schools in Amuwo-Odofin.

The Lagos State Quality Assurance team always go on random checks to ensure school owners comply, and they advise where necessary. The fear that they can come unannounced keeps us on our toes, she added.
Two giant radio galaxies found with the MeerKAT telescope. In the background is the sky as seen in optical light. Overlaid in red is the radio light from the enormous radio galaxies, as seen by MeerKAT. Left: MGTC J095959.63+024608.6. Right: MGTC J100016.84+015133.0. Credit: I. Heywood (Oxford/Rhodes/SARAO)Licence typeAttribution (CC BY 4.0)

Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa's powerful MeerKAT telescope. These galaxies are thought to be amongst the largest single objects in the Universe. The discovery has been published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .

Whereas normal radio galaxies are fairly common, only a few hundred of these have radio jets exceeding 700 kilo-parsecs in size, or around 22 times the size of the Milky Way. These truly enormous systems are dubbed 'giant radio galaxies."

Despite the scarcity of giant radio galaxies, the authors found two of these cosmic beasts in a remarkably small patch of sky.

Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, a Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town and lead author of the work, said: "We found these giant radio galaxies in a region of sky which is only about 4 times the area of the full Moon. Based on our current knowledge of the density of giant radio galaxies in the sky, the probability of finding two of them in this region is less than 0.0003 percent."

"This means that giant radio galaxies are probably far more common than we thought!"

Dr. Matthew Prescott, a Research Fellow at the University of the Western Cape and co-author of the work, said, "These two galaxies are special because they are amongst the largest giants known, and in the top 10 percent of all giant radio galaxies. They are more than 2 Mega-parsecs across, which is around 6.5 million light years or about 62 times the size of the Milky Way. Yet they are fainter than others of the same size."

"We suspect that many more galaxies like these should exist, because of the way we think galaxies grow and change over their lifetimes."

Why so few radio galaxies have such gigantic sizes remains something of a mystery. It is thought that the giants are the oldest radio galaxies, which have existed for long enough (several hundred million years) for their radio jets to grow outwards to these enormous sizes. If this is true, then many more giant radio galaxies should exist than are currently known.

The giant radio galaxies were spotted in new radio maps of the sky created by the MeerKAT International Gigahertz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) survey. It is one of the large survey projects underway with South Africa's impressive MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which is due to become fully operational in the mid-2020s.

Dr. Ian Heywood, a co-author at the University of Oxford, said "The MeerKAT telescope is the best of its kind in the world. We have managed to identify these giant radio galaxies for the first time because of MeerKAT's unprecedented sensitivity to faint and diffuse radio light."

Dr. Delhaize adds, "In the past, this population of galaxies has been hidden from our 'sight' by the technical limitations of radio telescopes. However, it is now being revealed thanks to the impressive capabilities of the new generation of telescopes."

Construction of the highly anticipated trans-continental SKA telescope is due to commence in South Africa and Australia in 2021, and continue until 2027. Science commissioning observations could begin as early as 2023, and it is hoped that the telescope will reveal larger populations of radio galaxies than ever before and revolutionize our understanding of galaxy evolution.
One particular community vaccination clinic reported up to 10 allergic reactions to the vaccine within a 24-hour period, considered an unusually high number.

California health officials are recommending a temporary halt to distribution of a particular lot of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine out of concern over allergic reactions.

More than 330,000 doses of the particular lot were distributed to 287 healthcare providers across California earlier this month, as reported by abc7.com.

One particular community vaccination clinic reported up to 10 allergic reactions to the vaccine within a 24-hour period, considered an unusually high number. State officials say the expected rate of reaction to similar vaccines is normally around 1 in 100,000.

Read alsoPfizer temporarily reduces COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Europe, Norway saysThe name and location of the clinic was not released, but the facility switched to a different lot of Moderna vaccines after closing for several hours. No other cluster of allergic reactions has been reported.

State officials are investigating what happened at the clinic and in the meantime State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan recommends that doses from Moderna lot 41L20A not be distributed for now.

"Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete," Pan said Sunday. "We will provide an update as we learn more."

More news reports

Reporting by UNIAN
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 02:04:28|Editor: huaxia

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) and his German counterpart Heiko Maas (L) hold a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkey on Jan. 18, 2021. Turkish and German foreign ministers on Monday discussed recent advances between Ankara and Brussels as tensions calm down in the Eastern Mediterranean due to Turkey's gas exploration activities in the disputed waters. (Xinhua)

ANKARA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and German foreign ministers on Monday discussed recent advances between Ankara and Brussels as tensions calm down in the Eastern Mediterranean due to Turkey's gas exploration activities in the disputed waters.

Turkey and the European Union have a positive atmosphere in relations since the bloc's summit last December, but Ankara wants to see concrete steps to enhance relations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a press conference with his visiting German counterpart Heiko Maas.

The dialogue between Turkey and the EU is getting better thanks also to constructive steps from Europe after the EU leaders' summit, he said, noting that Turkish and EU officials would have a series of meetings in the upcoming days.

He urged the EU to realize its promises to Turkey such as visa liberalization to enable free travels of Turks in the EU, upgrade of Customs Union deal between Ankara and Brussels, along with updating a migration agreement with the union dated back to 2016.

In December 2020, the EU leaders initiated punitive measures against Turkey due to its dispute with Greece and Cyprus over rights to offshore resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. Brussels decided to postpone the measures until March 2021.

"We wanted to make this visit because of many positive signals recently," Maas said on his part.

Germany wants the EU-Turkey relations "to improve and to deepen," the minister said, welcoming a decision to resume talks between Ankara and Athens in a bid to ease tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Press Release

January 18, 2021 PRIVILEGE SPEECH

"Giving a Voice to Victims of Financial Fraud and Cybertheft"

January 18, 2021

Session Hall, Senate of the Philippines Delivered by the Honorable Win Gatchalian, Senator of the 18th Congress: Mr. President, I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege, hoping to prevent others from having to experience the same hardships that I and many other Filipinos have suffered at the hands of scammers, fraudsters, and financial cyber-thieves targeting bank deposits and payment cards of innocent citizens. My story begins on January 5, 2021, one of our first days back in the office after the holiday break. While we were hard at work here at the Senate, some nefarious individuals somewhere out there were also hard at work to rack up more than one million pesos worth of unauthorized transactions on my Unionbank credit card. The fraud employed on my credit card was not high-tech by any means. It was a simple scam. What the criminals did was call Unionbank, the credit card issuer, and requested to have the cell phone number linked to my credit card changed. Thus, instead of the One Time Pin or OTP messages being sent to me on my cell phone, the OTPs were being sent to the phone number provided by the fraudsters. This allowed them to bypass the safety feature entirely and use my credit card without my knowledge. In the span of less than two hours, between the time I reported to the bank that suspicious activities were happening on my card and the time the bank cancelled my card, four transactions had already cleared on my card via FoodPanda. This allowed the criminals to make away with P1,076,880 worth of alcoholic beverages. As of today, the National Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies are still working to catch these cyberthieves. When I reported what happened to me on social media, Mr. President, it attracted significant attention among netizens and journalists alike. This case also caught the attention of people who had experienced similar instances of fraud. Unexpectedly, over the two weeks since my credit card fraud incident my office has become a sort of unofficial financial consumer protection desk. Almost one hundred informal complaints have been received by my office so far about a wide range of financial cybercrimes legally subsumed under the term "access device fraud" -- including phishing, unauthorized transfers and withdrawals from deposit accounts, and payment card theft. I will share a few of their stories, using pseudonyms for their protection. Albert* and his son Carlo* went to sleep on the evening of January 3 like any other night. By the time they had woken up the next day, however, cyber-thieves had completely changed their lives. It appears that just before midnight, cybercriminals began siphoning funds from various Metrobank accounts of their family-run business. Utilizing various fund transfer mechanisms and cardless ATM withdrawals, the thieves managed to steal P1.8 million from the various company accounts up until 5 A.M. Albert was shocked to discover 80 unread messages on his cell phone upon waking - all notifications from Metrobank confirming the various transactions carried out by the thieves. According to Albert and Carlo, the bank's fraud division has already told them that chances are slim they will be able to recover the missing funds. Mistulang akyat-bahay gang ang bumiktima sa mag-ama pero ang mas masakit ay ang katotohanang nanakaw ang pera nila sa kamay ng pinagkakatiwalaang bangko na nangakong kaagapay sa pagpapalago ng perang galing sa dugo't pawis nila. Financial cybercrimes are not limited to million-peso amounts. An unfortunate example of this is the story of Patricia*, who lost around P30,000 from unauthorized e-transfers from her Metrobank savings account to accounts of strangers in other banks. For Patricia, who is one of millions of Filipinos who lost their job because of the pandemic, that is a lot of money and a heartbreaking loss. Patricia told us that she and more than 270 other people have created a group chat because they all experienced similar losses from their respective accounts with the same bank. Patricia said that the bank has also informed them that it will be unable to return all of the money lost. One group that is particularly reliant on digital banking is the OFW community. Unfortunately for Joy*, an OFW currently deployed to the Middle East, fraudulent digital banking charges found on her BDO savings account with a certain bank resulted in her losing more than P60,000. That is her life savings we're talking about. According to Joy, her bank said the fraudulent charges were not "valid for reimbursement", meaning her life savings is gone for good. Again, these are only three out of almost one hundred stories shared to my office by distraught consumers over the past two weeks, not only with the banks named above but also with other household names such as BPI, Citibank, and HSBC. Despite the varying facts and circumstances of their cases, most of the people we spoke to said the same things: They want their money back. They no longer trust the banks that allowed their hard-earned money to be stolen. They hope the government can help them somehow. Hindi ko lubos maisip kung ano ang naramdaman nila matapos malamang naglahong parang bula ang perang pinag-iingatan nila para sa kinabukasan ng kanilang mga pamilya. Hanggang ngayon, Ginoong Pangulo, wala silang nakikitang aksiyon mula sa mga bangko para mapanagot man lang ang mga kawatang namantala sa kanila kahit na may "paper trail" kung saang bangko at kaninong pontio pilato nailipat ang ipon nila. Mr. President, additional data provided by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas indicate that the growing trend of financial consumer complaints is not something that we can ignore. The BSP Consumer Empowerment Group reported that during the first three quarters of 2020, the number of valid complaints processed grew by more than 63%, from 9,250 in 2019 to more than 15,000 between January and September of 2020. The CEG also reported a year-on-year growth rate in consumer complaints specifically relating to e-banking and credit card complaints during the same period of 40% and 45.6%, respectively. Take note that the 2020 figures do not yet include the spend-heavy Christmas months. It is not every day that a senator reports a million pesos worth of unauthorized transactions on his credit card. Unfortunately, Mr. President, the reports received by my office imply that the swift and deliberate action taken in investigating my financial consumer complaint is the exception, not the norm. It is evident that the desperate pleas of many of my fellow victims of access device fraud and financial cybercrimes have fallen upon deaf or uncaring ears. Mr. President, it is our solemn duty as elected representatives of the people to give voice to their concerns and ensure that their grievances are acted upon. As such, this representation seeks the assistance of the appropriate Senate committees in conducting a formal inquiry in aid of legislation into the state of financial consumer protections in the Philippines, specifically regarding access device fraud and other cybercrimes involving theft from the bank accounts and unauthorized use of payment cards. If the banks want to avoid listening to the complaints of the consumers who have entrusted them with their life savings, then we will call them here to the Senate and make them to listen. Very broadly, Mr. President, there are three main questions which I hope this Senate inquiry will answer. The first: How can we improve financial consumer protection through enhanced regulatory processes? In general, the regulation of banks is within the ambit of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The BSP's Manual of Regulation of Banks, however, takes a rather laissez-faire approach when it comes to financial consumer protection, with the respective Boards of the banks ultimately responsible for implementing consumer protection practices within their operations. This inquiry will be a good way to analyze and critique the current regulatory regime, with an eye towards also improving synergy and strengthening cooperation between the BSP, banks, and government agencies specializing in investigation, law enforcement, data privacy, and other applicable fields. Second: How can we hold individual banks and the banking sector as a whole accountable to the highest standard of diligence? The fiduciary nature of banks necessitates they be held to a higher standard of diligence than most other commercial entities. Unfortunately, some of the cases brought to our attention make it clear that there are banks have that failed to meet this standard of diligence. This negligence has sometimes led to the loss of the hard-earned money of consumers. This is something that must be remedied. Another cause for concern is that these failures have also led some of the fraud victims we spoke with to mistrust banks, refusing to deposit more money or even closing their accounts. Personally, I believe that a robust and secure banking system entrusted with high consumer confidence is critical to fostering inclusive growth as the Philippines economy transitions into a more financially mature regime. Payment cards and e-banking in general are also critical to facilitating contactless transactions during this unprecedented pandemic era. As such, ensuring that banks meet the high standard of consumer care required of them will be beneficial to the banks as well as consumers, because it will improve public confidence in the security of their physical and virtual vaults and safes. Last, but most importantly: How can we help victims of financial fraud and cybertheft recover their hard-earned money? In all honesty, this is one question to which we cannot promise an answer. However, we will do all we can to find solutions. It is heartbreaking to note that most of the complaints filed with my office came from low income to lower middle-income constituents. They are not powerful people with million-peso credit limits and the media power to have their cases immediately acted upon. They are working-class Filipinos whose thousand-peso losses from savings accounts could very well drive them and their families below the poverty line. Low-income, working-class financial consumers deserve the highest priority for protection and restitution. It is my sincere hope that this Senate inquiry will allow the voices of working-class financial consumers to finally be heard, loud and clear, by those who need to hear them. Paano pa natin mahihikayat ang mga tao na mag-impok sa bangko na naturingang mga institusyong nagsabing "you're in good hands" kung hindi naman pala nila kayang panindigan ang mga katagang ito? Sabi pa ng isa sa mga nangungunang bangko sa bansa, "we find ways". Sana nga ay maisagawa nila ito sa kanilang mga kliyente. "The future begins wth you" ika nga ng isa pang pinagkakatiwalaang bangko, pero mukhang sa puntong ito ay mukhang hindi kaaya-aya ang kinabukasang kinakaharap ng mga kawawang biktima. Thank you, Mr. President. I respectfully yield the floor.
Theres an image of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. thats seared into my mind. Eyes inviting and innocent, face relaxed, the casually dressed Dr. King reminds me of a cousin at a card party  he looks so young. When Dr. King elucidated his dream at the March on Washington in 1963, he was 34  younger than most Americans now, given the national median age of 38.

Despite his youth, or perhaps because of it, Dr. King understood the long view of history. He could not have foreseen a crowd brandishing guns and ransacking the Capitol, abetted by a failed president and right-wing digital media networks peddling debunked conspiracy theories. But he might have foreseen the Senate election victories of two youthful Southerners, Jon Ossoff, 33, and Raphael Warnock, 51, the latter a charismatic preacher and a successor to his pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Dr. King was a mobilizer of voters as much as he was an orator. To put voting rights at the forefront of the countrys consciousness, Dr. King helped launch a voter-registration drive in Selma, Ala., in early 1965. In many marches, over many weeks, Dr. King accompanied hundreds of Selmas Black residents to the county courthouse. During one voter registration trip, he and 250 demonstrators were hauled to jail by the segregationist sheriff. That very day, county officers arrested some 500 schoolchildren who were protesting discrimination.

When a 26-year-old Black civil rights activist, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was fatally shot during a march in nearby Marion, Ala., Dr. King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized a voting-rights march from Selma to the state Capitol in Montgomery. The hundreds of demonstrators, including Hosea Williams, 39, and John Lewis, 25, chairman of the S.N.C.C., were stopped as they left Selma, at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Alabama state troopers and local vigilantes attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas. Alongside others badly injured, Mr. Lewis (a future U.S. congressman) suffered a fractured skull during Bloody Sunday.
Additional 23 square kilometres staked to cover new anomalous copper target areas

Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition", "XTM" or the "Company") is pleased to report the results of a successful property-wide helicopter-supported, tree-top, biogeochemical survey completed over approximately 150 square kilometers of its 100% owned Wollaston Copper project in north central Saskatchewan. Transition has added an additional 23 square kilometres to cover significant areas of anomalous copper outlined by this survey. The project is located (Figure 1.) approximately 60 kilometres southwest along strike from the Janice Lake project, a sedimentary hosted copper project being aggressively explored by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) and Forum Energy Metals (Forum).

Transition CEO and President Scott McLean, P.Geo. stated, "This type of survey has never been applied at such a regional scale as a screening tool for large scale sedimentary-hosted copper deposits. When you are exploring for world class deposits on a district scale, approaches like biogeochem can be a cost effective tool to separate the wheat from the chaff. The experience our team gained with this approach has given us some powerful tools to help us quickly identify target areas where we should be focusing moving forward."

Discussion of Results

The survey included the collection and analysis of tree-top twigs from 637 trees at approximately 500 metre spacing, with infill sampling around several known base metal showings. The 663 ashed twig samples, including duplicates, of jack pine and black spruce were analyzed by ICP-MS1 and yielded copper (Cu) values from 88 parts per million (ppm) to 650 ppm. The survey was successful at confirming the presence of copper enrichment in samples collected over and proximal to historical showings, as well as delineating new anomalous trends and target areas for future investigation. The methodology behind the biogeochemical survey, along with a video showing how samples are collected, is available here.

The results highlight large and continuous zones exhibiting enriched copper signatures in vegetation on both the Fannon and Porcupine blocks associated with favourable rock types and structures for sediment hosted copper. On the Fannon block (Figure 2), vegetation samples defined trends around known showings, including an approximate 500 metres by 2 kilometres long trend of highly anomalous copper around the only drilled showing (the Flag Lake Showing) on the block, which was reported to have returned 10.82 metres grading 0.24% Cu and 7.4 metres grading 0.49% Cu.2 Additional copper anomalies were identified approximately 5 kilometres southwest of the Flag Lake Showing over an area approximately 5 by 3 kilometres.

On the Porcupine block (Figure 3), anomalous copper was returned from vegetation sampling in the vicinity of the Tosi showing where bedrock sampling by Transition returned grab samples containing values up to 0.44% Cu (see Transition news release dated November 17, 2020). In addition, the vegetation sampling on the Porcupine block highlighted elevated copper signatures, coincident with historical MMI3 Cu anomalies, associated with previously unexplored sedimentary horizons along an approximately 6 kilometre strike length inside the southwest boundary of the property. The identification of these anomalies led to the decision to stake an additional 23 square kilometres to expand the western boundary of the property (Figure 1 and Figure 3).

2021 AMEC Remote Roundup

The Company will be exhibiting at the virtual AME Roundup Project Generators Hub from January 18 to 22. Make sure to stop by our virtual booth to find out more about regarding Company projects and plans for the year ahead.

Next Steps

The Company is in the process of compiling historical geophysical data combined with new biogeochemical data in preparation for a 2021 field program to ground truth geology, geochemical, biogeochemical anomalies, and geophysically defined target areas.

About the Wollaston Copper Project

Transition now holds a 100% interest in approximately 175 square kilometres of mining claims covering about 50 kilometres of potential strike extent located along trend southwest of the Janice Lake Property (see Figure 1). The claims were staked to cover historical sediment hosted copper mineralization identified in the Fannon and Porcupine blocks, as well as lead-zinc mineralization identified at the Fable Lake.

Qualified Person

The technical elements of this press release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Thomas Hart, P.Geo. (PGO), a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. All analytical work was conducted at ALS Chemex Laboratories in North Vancouver, B.C. The ALS-Chemex quality system meets all requirements of International Standards ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and ISO 9001:2015. Historical drill results reported herein have not been verified by Transition as the historical drill core has not been located.

About Transition Metals Corp

Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into Canadian discoveries. The award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience in established, emerging and historic mining camps and actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, which often allows the company to acquire properties inexpensively. The team is rigorous in its fieldwork and combines traditional techniques with newer ones to help unearth compelling prospects and drill targets. Transition uses the project generator business model to acquire and advance multiple exploration projects simultaneously, thereby maximizing shareholder exposure to discovery and capital gain. Joint venture partners earn an interest in the projects by funding a portion of higher-risk drilling and exploration, allowing Transition to conserve capital and minimize shareholder's equity dilution. The Company has an expanding portfolio that currently includes more than 25 gold, copper, nickel and platinum projects across Canada.

Fig 1: Wollaston Project Location Map





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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/72268_eb0d534744d8397e_002full.jpg

Fig 2: Results of Fannon Block Biogeochemical Sampling





To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/72268_eb0d534744d8397e_003full.jpg

Fig 3: Results of Porcupine Block Biogeochemical Sampling





To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2766/72268_eb0d534744d8397e_004full.jpg

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Further information is available at www.transitionmetalscorp.com or by contacting:

Scott McLean

President and CEO

Transition Metals Corp.

Tel: (705) 669-1777

1 Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy

2 Government of Saskatchewan Mineral Assessment Database: Report 74A06-SW-01812

3 Mobile Metal Ions

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72268
A Lexus went off Route 24 in Massachusetts on Monday, leaving a man who was ejected from the car dead and a woman who was trapped inside the vehicle seriously injured, authorities said.

The car, a Lexus sport utility vehicle, went off the right side of Route 24 northbound near Route 139 in Stoughton shortly before 11 a.m. and rolled over multiple times, according to a statement from Massachusetts State Police.

Police said they have not determined if the man or woman was driving the vehicle.

The woman was trapped inside the car, rescued by first responders and driven by ambulance to Boston Medical Center. She suffered serious wounds in the rollover crash, the statement said.

The man inside the Lexus was ejected and taken to the same hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was later pronounced dead, according to state police.

The deceased victim was a 69-year-old Brockton man. The surviving victim, who remains at Boston Medical Center, is a 47-year-old Boston woman, according to state police.

The right northbound lane of Route 24 before Route 139 in Stoughton was closed as of around 12:45 p.m., as state police were investigating the scene, authorities noted.

No further information is available at this time, state police said.

Troopers on scene, rollover crash with serious injuries, Rt. 24 North prior to Rt. 139, Stoughton. Right lane of Rt. 24 NB closed at this time. MSP Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Crime Scene Services Section, and Troop H Detective Unit assisting patrols.  Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) January 18, 2021

Editors note: This story has been updated with the latest information from the Massachusetts State Police.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 01:43:55|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday strongly condemned Friday's attack against the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, which left one peacekeeper from Egypt killed and another one seriously injured.

In a press statement, the members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, as well as to Egypt and to the mission, known by its French acronym as MINUSMA. They wished a speedy and full recovery to the peacekeeper who was injured. They paid tribute to the peacekeepers who risk their lives.

The council members called on the transitional government of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. They underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. They stressed that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting attacks against MINUSMA peacekeepers constitutes a basis for sanctions designations pursuant to Security Council resolutions.

The council members reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice. They urged all states to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.

They expressed their concern about the security situation in Mali and the transnational dimension of the terrorist threat in the Sahel region. They urged the Malian parties to fully implement the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali without further delay. They noted that the full implementation of the agreement and the intensification of efforts to overcome asymmetric threats can contribute to improving the security situation across Mali. They underlined that the efforts of the joint military force of five Sahel countries to counter the activities of terrorist groups and other organized criminal groups will contribute to creating a more secure environment in the Sahel region.

The council members further stressed the importance of MINUSMA having the necessary capacities to fulfill its mandate and promote the safety and security of the UN peacekeepers. They reiterated their full support to the top UN envoy for Mali, MINUSMA and the other security presences in Mali and in the Sahel region and stressed that these heinous acts will not undermine their determination to continue to support the peace and reconciliation process in Mali. Enditem
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Black pastor who marched with MLK shares pains and joys of civil rights activism

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When the people marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they were happy, 82-year-old Rev. Bill Owens told The Christian Post on Monday. They thought about a future with freedom for children yet unborn, a future where black people could do anything.

When he was 18 years old in college at Tennessee State University, Owens marched with King. He was part of the civil rights movement from 1957 onward. And today, Owens leads the Coalition of African American Pastors, a national black-led organization dedicated to the propagation of biblical values.

At the start, he wasnt part of a centralized civil rights group. Spontaneously, he said thousands of African American college students organized marches, protests and sit-ins.

Well, most of it was just students. We were happy. There was no idea of any danger, people acting crazy. We were all marching in love and peace, he recalled. We were laughing with each other. It was almost a religious fervor. It was really like a religious fervor. We were happy, we knew we were bringing about change.

To take part in a civil rights march, Owens said he had to prove he could take violence without giving violence back. Before students could march, they would take a class. They would sit on a stool and other students would curse, hit and slap them. Their job was to not fight back.

We knew we were fighting for something. I think we were so involved and we were just ready for change. We knew the people who were hitting us were getting us ready to go, said Owens. We were willing. We knew we were preparing for something better.

Nashville wasnt as dangerous as other Southern cities, according to the longtime activist. However, he said racists burned down the house of an attorney working for the movement in the city.

The state of Tennessee put pressure Owenss university president Walter S. Davis, who in turn told his students to be cautious. Even so, the students werent afraid. They had bigger priorities, Owens remembers.

We wanted to see a change. Tennessee State was the only state school I could go to, and we wanted change, the father of six said. What would our children be like? How would they live? What would they be treated like?

In the late 1950s and the 1960s, the American civil rights movement wasnt about anger over injustice or fear of oppression, Owens said. It found hope and joy in making a better future that had once seemed impossible. People didnt feel discouraged, but happy, he assured.

[The civil rights movement] gave hope to black America, the pastor said. We looked at it different from the way our parents looked at it. Our parents looked at [racism as], This is the way it is in America. We looked at it differently. We can do this and were willing to pay the price for it. Our parents would caution us [to] be careful. My mother cautioned me to be careful. We were careful. We didnt have any fear. We didnt have any fear.

Owens wife, Betty, worried for him during the marches. Fortunately, Owens said he was never attacked during a march.

It was a different time, he said. All of the violence you see now and the dissension and the groups that oppose, it was a different climate.

Civil rights marchers met in churches and protested with strong support from the Church. People in the group knew each other and often had a strong sense of community, he said.

The courage Owens and others took from the civil rights movement had immediate results in their own lives, he contends.

The activist recalled one day when he came home to his house from college to find an old, white insurance collector talking with his mother. The man didnt take off his hat to respect Owens mother and called her by her first name, he recalled. Owens said that the self-respect he gained in the civil rights movement motivated him to confront the man.

Sir, would you take your hat off? She is not Charlotte to you. She is Mrs. Owens to you. And when you come here, dont ever come in with your hat on and dont ever call her by her first name. Dont get common with her, Owens detailed of the conversation.

He said the man obeyed his wishes.

Dr. King was the reason that the civil rights movement happened when it did and in the way it did, Owens believes.

We thought big, said Owens. Dr. King, in all he did, he inspired people. People were inspired that there could be change. I think it happened when it did because of Dr. King. When I look at the landscape, it took a Dr. King. We saw the sacrifice he made and he could speak.

Kings commitment to nonviolence made the civil rights movement effective and powerful, Owens asserted. It also saved lives on both sides.

[If we had been violent,] a lot of us would have been killed. And thats why Dr. King stood for peace. He stood for peace, stressed Owens. I dont know where [modern civil rights activists] got it that they had to be violent. We made changes. What changes are they making? Dr. King with his leadership turned this country around.

In later years, Owens talked with King, he said. King was very warm and friendly, even to strangers.

I think mostly what Dr. King did was listen to you. He wasnt giving lectures, but whatever you wanted to talk to him about he was there, he said.

Owens was in Memphis the day King died, April 4, 1968.

I was in Memphis downtown in my lawyers office when the news came that Dr. King had been shot, Owens told CP. They got it wrong. They said that a black man did it, but that was not true. A white gentleman stopped me and said, Did you hear that Dr. King was killed? I was shocked, absolute shock. Im sure you know that they had a riot in Memphis. We stayed at home because we didnt want to get involved. We were very angry.

Owens said he thinks about his time in the civil rights movement every day.

People dont have to sleep at segregated hotels, drink from different water fountains or eat at segregated restaurants anymore in the U.S.

In that sense, the movement succeeded. But in other ways, the African American community hasnt yet reached the dream King marched for.

I asked a friend of mine two or three years ago, what happened? I asked him, What happened with the civil rights movement? What has happened to our society? Why dont we have more black doctors? Why are black boys still going to prison? Owens remarked.

He argues that the way to Kings dream doesnt go through movements like Black Lives Matter. These movements lack the spirit of love that gave life to the movement of the 1960s, he said.

If I was sending my children off to college now, I would caution them right now to be very careful. So much is going on right now that is much worse than the civil rights movement. It doesnt have the light that the civil rights movement had, Owens believes.

We were doing what we were doing out of love and looking for the future of our children and the country.

Todays marchers arent happy, Owens argues.

Theres a difference between hate and love, he said. And when you preach love all the time, theres a big difference between the spirit of hate and love.

Ukraine and Hungary continue to work on a joint document that will help settle disputes in bilateral relations.

"We have repeatedly stated that Ukraine wishes to conclude a relevant bilateral agreement which would regulate this set of issues. It should be an agreement on parity, equality, mutually beneficial relations. The elaboration of such a document is underway. On behalf of the President, such a document was prepared by the Ukrainian side and handed over to the Hungarian side. We received their response and now the process is ongoing," Deputy Head of Presidents Office Ihor Zhovkva said in an interview with TSN.ua, Ukrinform reports.

He reminded that Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will arrive in Ukraine on January 27 to hold a number of official meetings at which the whole range of issues is expected to be discussed.

At the same time, Zhovkva stressed that the so-called "road map" for the settlement of controversial interstate issues will not be signed at the ministerial level.

"When the document is ready, we will see, maybe it will be signed at the level of heads of state, in this case  the Prime Minister of Hungary and the President of Ukraine," he explained.

At the same time, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine noted that the date of the visit of Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban to Kyiv has not been appointed yet.

As reported, Ukraine-Hungary relations deteriorated after the adoption of the Ukrainian law on education in September 2017. It envisages that teaching in the mother tongue in schools and classes of national minorities will take place only in primary school, which was previously possible in secondary schools and higher education establishments.

Hungary saw the law as an attack on the rights of the Hungarian minority.

Hungary announced that it will block Ukraine's further integration into the EU and NATO. In particular, Budapest stated that it would block the meetings of the Ukraine-NATO commission until the issue of the language of instruction for the Hungarian national minority in Zakarpattia region is resolved.

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Ice cream samples in China's Tianjin city were reportedly contaminated by COVID-19, reports say.

The Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. sent samples to the municipal center on Tuesday and Wednesday. Three samples tested positive for the coronavirus prompting authorities to seal all their storage goods as they investigate further the virus' origin, Sky News reported.

Out of the 4,836 boxes of ice cream suspected to be contaminated by the virus, 2,089 boxes were sealed.

"Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold," says the municipal government.

"It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas," reports The Associated Press.

Sky News also reports that "a total of 935 boxes of the ice cream, out of 2,747 boxes that entered the market, were in Tianjin and only 65 were sold to markets."

1,662 employees of the Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co.,Ltd. were ordered to undergo quarantine on top of the nucleic acid testing on Thursday. There were no signs, however, of coronavirus infection on the 700 employees. Test results for the remaining 962 people are yet to be determined.

The food company's ice cream uses milk powder imported from New Zealand and also whey powder from Ukraine

Dr. Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, believed that the cold temperature and the fat in the ice cream contributed to the survival of the virus. He, however, said that the public don't need to be alarmed.

"We probably don't need to panic that every bit of ice cream is suddenly going to be contaminated with coronavirus," Dr. Griffin told Sky News.

"It's likely this has come from a person, and without knowing the details, I think this is probably a one-off," he added.

Dr. Griffin also said that this could possibly be an issue in the production and hygiene at the factory.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that there is no clear evidence yet to suggest that "handling food or consuming food is associated with COVID-19," says the report of The Blaze.

"Coronaviruses, like the one that causes COVID-19, are thought to spread mostly person-to-person through respiratory droplets when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks," they explained

While it's still possible that one can contract the virus by touching the surface of the food packaging then unconsciously touching your face where the virus may gain entry through your eyes, nose, or mouth, CDC further explained that it's not the main way the virus spreads.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also agrees to CDC's assessment.

"Currently there is no evidence of food, food containers, or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19. Like other viruses, it is possible that the virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on surfaces or objects," they said.

For those concerned about possible contamination from food or its packaging, FDA advised hand washing before and after removing the packaging, same with the preparation and before eating. Frequently disinfecting and cleaning surfaces were highly recommended.
Vijay Mallya is wanted in India for defaulting on bank loans worth crores of rupees.

The United Kingdom government informed the Supreme Court of India on January 18 that beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya cannot be extradited unless the "confidential legal issue" is resolved.

Citing UK laws, the government clarified that unless the said legal issue is satisfied, extradition order to bring the liquor baron back to India will not come into effect, reported CNBC. According to the report, the Supreme Court will take up the case against Mallya on March 15.

Mallya is wanted back in India under charges of financial fraud. He defaulted on repayment of loans taken by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines from several Indian banks. In January 2019, a special Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) court had declared him a 'fugitive economic offender'.

He has been based in the United Kingdom since March 2016 and is currently on bail for an extradition warrant executed three years ago by the Scotland Yard.

Labelling the issue confidential, UK Govt has clarified that more details on it can't be divulged and that it cannot commit on the time required to solve it.

However, claiming to understand the significance of the case for India, the UK government said that it is seeking to deal with the issue at the earliest.
Tunde Balogun, a 200-level engineering student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in Ondo State, would visit the university campus after ten months of being at home.

The university, like other schools in Nigeria, has been shut since March 19, 2020, following governments directives that all schools nationwide be closed due to the deadly coronavirus in the country.

Few days after the closure of schools, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) began an indefinite strike over the federal governments decision to withhold the salaries of its members who defied the order of government to enrol on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPIS).

On July 13, 2020, the presidential task force on COVID-19 gave guidelines for the resumption of schools.

Asides from fumigation and disinfection of schools, the 52-page document also showed that where the two-metre rule cannot be reasonably applied, other risk mitigation strategies may be adopted such as alternative learning models for safe distancing like the use of shelter outdoors for the protection and safety of learners and teachers.

The federal government, through the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on October 2, 2020 eventually ordered the reopening of all schools in accordance with the guidelines given by the PTF.

Despite the announcement of resumption, universities could not resume because of unresolved ASUU strike that later came to an end on December 23, 2020.

By this time, the nation had already entered the second wave of the pandemic, recording more deaths. Again, schools were forced to close before Christmas and New Year break.

Resumption

The Federal Government last Thursday, however, gave the nod for schools to resume on Monday, January 18, following a consensus with governors, commissioners and others.

The spokesperson of the ministry of education, Ben Goong, said in a statement that protocols that must be put in place include compulsory wearing of face masks by all students, teachers and workers in all schools, temperature checks and provision of hand washing facilities at strategic locations in all schools.

Ensuring constant supply of water and sanitisers, enforcement of maintenance of social distancing and suspension of large gatherings such as assembly and visiting days, avoiding overcrowding, including limitations in class sizes and hostel occupancy, he said.

The ministry also advocated functional health clinics with facilities for isolation and transportation of suspected cases to medical facilities.

More so, adherence to all other non-pharmaceutical protocols, restrictions and containment measures as may be prescribed/ approved by the PTF from time to time.

But how prepared are universities?

Mr Balogun of FUTA told our correspondent that while he is happy to return to school, he is not so sure that resumption will not be detrimental.

Students have long stayed at home and we cannot continue to have education remain on the spot all the while. Other countries have moved on and Nigeria needs to learn from them. Im happy to have left home and returned to school, but the fear is how the school itself has prepared for the resumption. I cant tell this until we get to campus on Monday . The major challenge is that not every lecture theatre have water close to them, this then brings us to the question of how water would be gotten at all time, he said

The spokesperson of the institution, Adegbenro Adebanjo, could not be reached as of the time of filing this report.

His telephone number was not connecting and he is yet to respond to text messages.

Meanwhile, the management of Osun State University (UNIOSUN) told PREMIUM TIMES the school has developed mechanised sanitised machines and started virtual learning for courses being taken by many students.

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The Public Relations Officer of the university, Ademola Adesoji, also explained the distribution of nosemasks to students by the institution.

UNIOSUN is one of the state public universities that started virtual teaching long before COVID-19. Weve also developed mechanised sanitised machines and we are already distributing them to other universities. If we could do that, we should be good to go, he said. Before you enter any of our campuses, security operatives will sanitise you and we shared and would continue to share nose masks to all students. It is compulsory for them. It is a sin to be in the university without maintaining social distance.

Asked how the university plans to deal with the crowd of students taking general courses, he simply said: For us in UNIOSUN. We have switched them to virtual. We have no issue with that.

OAU, UNILORIN

When asked how the school hopes to meet up with the protocols ordered by the federal government despite incessant water scarcity at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, the university spokesperson, Abiodun Olanrewaju, told PREMIUM TIMES OAU is prepared.

The Senate of the university will meet on Tuesday as far as resumption is concerned and to determine the date of resumption. But I can tell you that we are prepared. Thats all for now, he said.

A final year Engineering student of OAU, Dunsi Olowolafe, however, suspects that the resumption of tertiary institutions raises a lot of questions about the integrity of the government.

How sure are we that resumption of students will not cause more harm than good? Thousands of people are coming from all parts of the country and many of these students and lecturers may have contact with COVID-19 victims without being aware. Rather than resumption on campus, a country like Nigeria should be talking about virtual learning, he opined.

The head of the public relations unit of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kunle Akogun, said the institution is ready to welcome students back on campus.

The University has put in place the adoption of virtual learning, by which lectures would be delivered and taken online. This started on January 11th and it has since been going on smoothly. Again, as the need to resume physical classes becomes imperative, we have adopted a phased system whereby the return of students to campus has been staggered into four phases. This is to ensure that we dont have a huge concentration of students on campus at any given time.

The university management has provided hand washing facilities in all students areas, such as lecture theatres, examination halls and places commonly frequented by staff and students on campus. Also, the Unilorin Coronavirus Prevention Committee has provided hand sanitisers at each hand-wash point. Each student should have at least five changeable face masks, and pocket sanitisers, among others.

Enforcement of the no-squatting policy in the university hostels will be strictly pursued to ensure the physical distancing policy of COVID-19 prevention. The University management will continue to support the University Health Services to ensure safe handling of emergency cases, he added.

Fear

Already, the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) campus has been shut down after three students and some officials tested positive for the coronavirus infection.

The spokesperson of the institution, Ademola Adekoya, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that the college has directed students to self-isolate for 14 days and if they develop any symptoms, they should present themselves for treatment.

The development also put academic activities on hold, while a communique containing modalities for school resumption will be circulated after the two weeks isolation period.

Mr Adekoya could not be reached on Sunday evening because his telephone number did not connect while filing this report.

There is also fear in University of Lagos (UNILAG) as some top university officials recently tested positive for the virus.

While the university had announced resumption, Olufadeke Akinleye, head of the media unit of the university said the institution would commence online classes instead.

A student of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Micheal Okoro, doubted the school was ready to receive students.

He wondered how students who live three to four in a room would stay together despite coming from various places through transportation system with zero social distancing.

School resumption will only mean cross fertilisation of coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Concerned groups, parents

ASUU had earlier raised concern over the directive of the government.

The lecturers said institutions are not safe while Nigeria is battling with the second wave of the pandemic.

The national chairman of the academic union, Biodun Ogunyemi, during an interview in Abuja last week said there were no safety measures in place in most facilities. He also expressed worry over the deaths of some professors due to COVID-19.

We have not seen government and university authorities taking concrete steps to access the level of safety for our members and for our students. In as much as we are ready to go back, we are ready to put in extra efforts but it appears that the government is not doing enough to address the two emergencies that we have  the emergency in the health sector as well as the emergency in the educational sector, he was quoted as saying by the Punch newspaper.

The professor also explained why virtual learning may be difficult in countries like Nigeria.

People are saying start virtual classes but we know that more than 60 per cent of our students will run into problems because they cannot afford data on their own and the wifi you are expected to see on campuses are not there. We have this limited capacity where the government should come in and ensure that the university environment is conducive for alternative models of teaching and learning.

More so, a group Education Right Campaign (ERC), in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday by its National Mobilisation Officer, Adaramoye Michael, said the approach of the federal government towards the question of how schools can be made safe for resumption of academic activities is far from reassuring.

A direct visitation by the ministry or any committee, including elected representatives of workers and students, so mandated to verify the situation on the ground in each campus before announcing resumption would have been more reassuring as it would at least show that the Ministry knows what it is doing.

As things stand now, there is nothing to show that the Ministry of Education can vouch for the safety of any school yet it has gone ahead to announce resumption date despite outcry by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

In a matter of life and death, words alone do not count but actual verification of real processes and measures to keep our schools safe. Unfortunately, all the minister of education can vouch for to open the school gates to hundreds of thousands of students and staffs are words of assurance from commissioners of education, state governors and proprietors  generally corrupt elements who cannot be trusted with the standard of our education let alone the health and lives of students and staff.

The group also advocated the provision of isolation centres in schools.

Meanwhile, Titilayo Adejumo, whose son is a final year student studying Physical Health Education in LASU told PREMIUM TIMES that releasing her son for studies is difficult but compulsory.

It was a difficult thing for me to allow my son, Quadri, to join his colleagues in school but I have no choice. The academic activities cannot be withdrawn or put on hold because I care too much for my son. I have given him enough sanitisers and face masks. Importantly, I will continue to pray for him, Mrs Adejumo said.

Another parent, Segun Ajomole, said the future of the students are of utmost importance and should not be allowed to remain stagnant.

I am scared but my son who got admitted into OAU since 2019 has not even received a single lecture. I understand that the federal government would not want to see people die so they must have been convinced that schools are safe before saying universities should resume. It is not too bad in the schools authorities adhere strictly to protocols, he said.
Protesting union leaders on Monday said that farmers have a constitutional right to take out their tractor rally peacefully and asserted that thousands of people will participate in the proposed event on January 26.

The Supreme Court said on Monday that the Delhi Police is the first authority to decide the entry of protesting farmers into the capital.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Paramjit Singh said that farmers are not going to hold their rally on Rajpath and in other high-security areas, adding that they would only take out it on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi and that there will be no disruption in the official Republic Day parade.

"We are stuck at the Delhi borders. We have not decided to sit at these borders ourselves, we have been stopped from entering Delhi. We will take out the rally peacefully without disrupting any law and order. We will exercise our constitutional right and we will definitely enter Delhi," Singh told PTI.

Another farmer leader Lakhbir Singh, who is vice president (Punjab) of All India Kisan Sabha, said that farmers will return to protest sites after taking out the tractor rally on the Outer Ring Road on January 26.

"We will not go to any place where there might be a government gathering, and all our tractors will have a flag and the flags of our farmer unions," Lakhbir said.

Asked about their stand in case the Delhi Police does not give them permission for the tractor parade, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said that farmers have constitutional rights to hold the tractor rally peacefully.

"If the Delhi Police has some issues over law and order on Republic Day, they can sit with Sankyukt Kisan Morcha and tell about alternatives routes for the tractor rally. Thereafter, our farmers' committee will decide the same. But, it is very clear that their tractor rally will be taken out in the capital on January 26," Ugrahan told PTI.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi borders since November 28, demanding a repeal of farm laws and legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops.

While hearing a petition, the Supreme Court told the Centre that the proposed tractor rally by farmers on the Republic Day on January 26 is a matter of "law and order" and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, while hearing the Centre's application seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor or trolley march or any other kind of protest which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of the Republic Day, said that police has all the authority to deal with the matter.

The tenth round of talks between the government and the protesting farmer unions is scheduled on January 19. On the same day, the Supreme Court-appointed committee to resolve the impasse will hold its first meeting.

The previous nine rounds of formal talks between the Centre and 41 farmer unions have failed to yield any concrete results to end the long-running protest at Delhi's borders as the latter have stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three acts.

The Supreme Court had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.

Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann, however, recused himself from the committee last 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.)


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A tenant has slammed a property company after being told she would be charged for leaving up a small coat rack as a gift for the next residents of her flat.

Hannah, from London, took to Twitter to share two emails between herself and a property management assistant at Grainger plc, one of the UK's largest professional landlords.

She asked if she would be able to leave up the hooks as a helpful gesture, because there are no others in the flat, but was told that she would have to 'make good the wall', or face being charged by the company.

The tweet racked up 1,500 likes and users quickly jumped to her defence, calling the company unnecessarily 'bureaucratic' and arguing that the next tenants are likely to 'anxiously put them up in the exact same place'.

A tenant has slammed a property company after being told she would be charged for leaving up a small coat rack (pictured) as a gift for the next residents of her flat

She asked if she would be able to leave up the hooks as a kind gesture, as there are no others in the flat, but was told that she would have to 'make good the wall', or face being charged

The email read: 'We have a coat rack affixed to one wall in the flat and we would like to leave it there as I don't think it will survive being moved, and I think it will be very useful for the next residents as there are no other hooks in the flat.

'Could you confirm whether or not we are permitted to leave the rack without charge?'

To which the manager responded: 'As the flat was recently refurbished you will unfortunately need to remove it and make good the wall.

'You may prefer for us to do it and recharge on deposit. However a cost is unknown at this point depending on who is available to do the work.'

Hannah, from London, (pictured) shared the emails between herself and a property management assistant at Grainger plc, one of the UK's largest professional landlords

Twitter users quickly criticised the property company, with one writing: 'There is no sense. Only money.'

Another said: 'It's the whole bureaucratic computer-says-no of the response. Just be a human and treat people as such. The rack looks good and improves the flat, the least she could do is speak with the landlord and confirm if it's OK.'

A third penned: 'Ahhh I hate this s**t. I've put up a few picture hooks in the flat and if we move out, what's the point in me filling them in and then the new tenants anxiously putting up more in the exact same place. Just let people have nice things and feel at home in accommodation ffs.'

Other renters quickly shared similar stories of being charged up to 90 for leaving behind bins or washing machines for other residents, while one was charged for leaving 'rain marks' on the window.

The tweet racked up 1.5K likes and users quickly jumped to her defence, calling the company unnecessarily 'bureaucratic'

Other renters quickly shared similar stories of being charged up to 90 for leaving behind bins or washing machines for other residents

One wrote: 'The same thing happened to me in my shared flat last year when we had bought a bin! We thought it would be most helpful for the next tenants to be left a nice, (clean) kitchen bin (as the only bin inside the house). But alas, our 'kindness' cost us 50.'

Another said: 'Years ago I bought a washing machine for an unfurnished flat, when the new tenants were viewing the flat they said they'd buy it off me. The estate agent knew this but insisted we had to take it out of the flat so it was 'how it was' and then the new tenants could put it back in.'

A spokesperson for Grainger plc said: 'Its important to us that our residents can make their place feel like home, which is why we are ok with them making a few cosmetic changes during their tenure.

'Our only request, which is detailed in our rental agreements which is normal practice, is that at the end of the tenancy, everything is put back to how it was originally. This provides the same opportunities for future residents to make their own home.'
India on Monday stepped up efforts to bolster trust in coronavirus vaccines after it was revealed that nearly a third of those invited to get jabs at the launch of a nationwide drive failed to turn up.

The government has begun one of the world's most ambitious vaccine programmes, aiming to innoculate 300 million of the 1.3 billion population by July.

In the first three days of the drive, which started Saturday, the government said 381,305 vaccinations were carried out.

In the capital New Delhi, only 53% of people came forward for jabs, according to a health official.

"These are initial days and we understand people are waiting to see how the procedure pans out and how other vaccines fare," said Suneela Garg, a member of the coronavirus task force for the capital.

"These numbers will go up as confidence is strengthened. And for that, we have to tackle misinformation."

The Hindu newspaper reported that in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the turnout was only 16%.

At a community health centre in Rohtak district in the northern state of Haryana, only 29 out of 100 people expected showed up, a doctor there told AFP.

"People are very scared. We can't force anyone to take the vaccine, it is voluntary," said the doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

With public doubt about the drugs spreading on social media, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan changed his Twitter profile header to say "VACCINES WORK".

"From the very beginning, we have warned people not to be worried about this misinformation that is being spread," Vardhan told media.

India has the world's second-largest number of coronavirus cases, almost 10.5 million.

It has so far approved two vaccines for use, one of which is yet to complete its clinical trials.

The government confirmed late Monday that two post-vaccination deaths have been reported.

One was a 52-year-old man who the health ministry said died Saturday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh from "cardiopulmonary disease" and not the jab.

A post-mortem was being conducted on a 43-year-old man in Karnataka state who suffered a heart attack.

The government said that over the first three days of vaccinations 580 people had reported adverse symptoms.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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The Indiana Jones movies had a quick and tangible effect on pop culture  inspiring spin-offs, comic books, and videogames. Under the guidance of Steven Spielberg, the franchise always had a high likelihood of success. Its popularity was bolstered by the starring talents of Harrison Ford and its strong on-screen debut in the form of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Still, despite this dream team, not everything went according to plan. Ford revealed that one of the films most iconic moments was not in the original script.

Raiders of the Lost Ark marked the beginning of Indiana Jones adventures

Though Raiders of the Lost Ark didnt hit the big screens until 1981, the earliest draft of the film was started by George Lucas in 1973. At the time, the leading mans name was Indiana Smith.

Despite this title having a lot less of a ring to it, award-winning director Steven Spielberg was still sold on Lucass pitch. All that was left to do was gather a star-studded cast that would sell movie-goers on a quest for the Ark of the Covenant.

Ford had previously been acquainted with Lucas on the set of Star Wars. Although for many people Ford would always be Han Solo, his acceptance of the Indiana Jones role meant that a new generation would come to know his famous face. The debut of his performance raked in $248.2 million, equivalent to about $797.8 million today, according to CBS News.

The publics adoration of Indiana Jones and his adventures led to many more movies. Less than three years after Raiders of the Lost Arks debut, a prequel was released in the form of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In the subsequent years, two sequels were made, with a third planned for 2022. Each premiere has been full of action and quotable moments but Ford revealed to fans that not all of these scenes were scripted.

Some of Fords scenes were directed by dysentery

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones facing a cobra snake in the Well of the Souls chamber. Initial theatrical release June 12, 1981. Screen capture. | CBS via Getty Images

RELATED: We Completely Missed This Raiders of the Lost Ark Easter Egg in Solo: A Star Wars Story

When Ford appeared on Reddit to participate in an Ask Me Anything session, users were ready to get all of their burning questions answered. What they probably werent expecting was the detailed insight into the bowel health of Ford during Lost Arks filming.

One fan referenced an iconic fight scene, in which Ford faces off with a swordsman and simply shoots him, as opposed to engaging in a more exhilarating battle. This humorous plot point was revealed by Ford to have been the result of pure necessity.

An Australian news source quotes him as saying: It was meant to be the ultimate duel between sword and whip. And I was suffering from dysentery, really, found it inconvenient to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Ford and Spielberg realized that the complex fight scene would take days to shoot  a timeframe that the ailing star was not feeling up to. When he suggested that Jones simply shoot his adversary, Spielberg readily agreed.

Ford is no stranger to improvisation

The Indiana Jones team may have expected some improvisation shenanigans from the films lead.

According to Slate, writer Lucas had witnessed a similar stunt on the set of Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back. When Princess Leia confessed her love to Fords Han Solo for the very first time, the actor replied, I know  a far cry from the scripted, I love you, too.

Between his heroic character portrayals and affinity for ad-lib, its clear Ford can keep both audience members and castmates on their toes. With the recent confirmation that Ford will be appearing in the thus far untitled fifth film, we can look forward to even more surprises from Indiana Jones.
Most people feel lucky if they can say they spent their career doing the one thing they really loved.

For Dr. William Edgar Thornton, three would be the charm.

Thornton, a retired astronaut, medical professor and inventor, died Jan. 11 at his Fair Oaks Ranch home, with his wife by his side. He was 91.

My father was an incredible man, said his son Simon Thornton, of Fair Oaks Ranch. He was an extremely caring father and set an example for his two sons.

The only child of William E. and Rosa B. Thornton, he was born April 14, 1929, in Faison, N.C. Thornton opened a radio repair shop when he was in high school and used the money he made to pay for courses at the University of North Carolina, his son said. The elder Thornton graduated in 1952 with a bachelors degree in physics.

After college, Thornton enlisted in the Air Force. He served as officer-in-charge of the USAF Instrumentation Laboratory at the Flight Test Air Proving Ground at Elgin AFB in Florida, his family said.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio engineering technician who helped pioneer the space program dies at 85

He developed the Radar Optic Firing Error Indicator, known as the Thornton Scorer, which was the first practical means of evaluating and maintaining the accuracy of interceptor aircraft, his family said.

Simon Thornton said his mother, Elizabeth Jennifer Fowler, of Newgate Street, England, met his father at the UNC hospital while she was there as part of an exchange with a London hospital. They married in 1958.

Thornton enrolled in medical school at UNC in 1959. After graduation in 1963, he returned to active duty and was sent to the USAF Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks AFB in San Antonio. He invented a mass measuring device to determine the weight of items in space, which is still in use, his family said.

As an astronaut, Thornton logged more than 313 hours in space aboard two missions: the STS-8 Challenger, Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 1983; and STS-51B Spacelab 3 Challenger, April 29-May 6, 1985, his family said. During his first mission, he conducted continuous first-time measurements on the human nervous system. His duties during the 1985 mission included managing the first first animal payload in manned flight, relatives said.

As an inventor, Thornton held more than 60 patents that cover various applications, from military weapons systems to the first real-time EKG computer analysis, his family said. His space-related patents include the shuttle treadmill for in-flight exercise and an improved waste collection system.

Thornton retired from NASA in May 1994 and became a clinical professor of cardiovascular physical diagnosis at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

As an octogenarian, Thornton wrote The Human Body and Weightlessness, a comprehensive textbook on the effects of spaceflight on the human body.

It took him five years to write it because he was a perfectionist, his son said. It was important for him to leave a legacy of insights.

On ExpressNews.com: Former San Antonio journalist demystified personal computers for millions with popular book

His hometown and family farm not far from his heart, Thornton helped rejuvenate many structures in Faison and the beloved farm.

He tried anything and everything he could for the town, Simon Thornton said.

His father also successfully reintroduced longleaf pine to the 120-acre farm, planting 8,000 trees, part of his desire to return the farmland to the forest of his youth, Simon Thornton said.

Thornton is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jennifer Thornton; sons Simon Thornton and wife, Mary Kay Thornton, and Dr. James Fallon Thornton and wife, Dr. Katina Thornton, both of Dallas; and nine grandchildren.

Well-wishers can leave condolences and view a video of Thorntons life on the website of Ebensberger-Fisher Funeral Home of Boerne, which is in charge of arrangements.

A graveside service to honor Thornton will be held at a later date in Faison, the family said.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
SPRINGFIELD  With Sundays formal resignation of state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the 48th Legislative District Committee is now accepting applications from those interested in being appointed to complete the two years remaining in Manars term.an

Manar left the post to accept a senior advisor position inside Gov. J.B. Pritzkers administration.

The 48th State Senate District includes a large section of central Illinois, stretching from the east side of Springfield to Decatur then heading south to include Christian and Montgomery counties as well as portions of Macoupin and Madison counties. A map of the district is online at http://senatorandymanar.com/48th-district/map.

People interested in being considered for the appointment are asked to submit a resume or biography, detailed statement describing their involvement within the Democratic Party, detailed statement regarding their electability and vision for the 48th State Senate District, and a headshot.

Applications must be submitted to il48senate@gmail.com by 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Applicants must be at least 21 years of age, a resident of the 48th State Senate District for at least two years and a Democrat.

The 48th Legislative District Committee will review all applications and contact finalists for in-person interviews on Jan. 30-31. Finalists will be notified of the time and location if selected.

The 48th Legislative District Committee plans to meet Saturday Feb. 6, 2021 to vote on appointment to complete Manars term. The time and location of the vote has not yet been determined.
President Trump is heading into his final days in office with the lowest approval ratings of his term, according to a set of new polls.

Why it matters: The polls indicate Trump has seen diminished support, even from his own party, in the wake of the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, with a majority of Americans favoring efforts in Congress to bar him from holding elected office again.

Driving the news: Trump's final approval rating in a CNN poll out Sunday is 34%, the lowest CNN's polling has recorded during his presidency.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll finds Trump leaving office with a 38% approval rating with 60% disapproval, matching his peak disapproval in the poll in August 2018.

finds Trump leaving office with a 38% approval rating with 60% disapproval, matching his peak disapproval in the poll in August 2018. A survey by Pew Research Center shows even lower approval, at 29%, down nine percentage points from the previous lowest of his presidency.

Zoom in: The Pew poll indicates President Trump has lost favor within his own party, with 60% of Republicans and Republican-leaning people approving of his job performance, down from 77% approved in August. The share of Trump's supporters who described his conduct as poor has doubled over the past two months, from 10% to 20%.

CNN's poll indicates Trump's approval rating has dropped 14 points among Republicans since October, but remains largely positive with 80% approving. Only 2% of Democrats approve how Trump is handling the presidency.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll indicates 7 in 10 Americans say Trump bears some responsibility for the attack at the Capitol. 56% said they support efforts to bar him from holding elected office again.

The other side: Joe Biden will start his presidency next week with relatively strong performance ratings, with 64% of voters expressing a positive opinion of Biden's conduct since he won the election, the Pew poll indicates.

Go deeper:

Methodology: The new CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS and surveyed 1,003 adults from January 9-14. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points.

The Pew report is drawn from 5,360 panelists who responded from January 8-12. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 5,360 respondents is +/- 1.9 percentage points.

This ABC News/Washington Post poll survey a sample of 1,002 adults from Jan. 10-13. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. Partisan divisions are 31-25-36%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.


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Posted Monday, January 18, 2021 6:45 am

The DNA evidence tying Eugene Young to a 2007 rape sat on a shelf in the Spokane Police Department's storage facility for more than a decade.

In February, Young is scheduled to stand trial for luring an acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance into a Spokane home, where he allegedly violently assaulted her and threatened to cut her with a knife if she attempted to resist. That charges were finally brought in Young's alleged assault is thanks to a new state requirement that police submit every sexual assault evidence kit in their possession for DNA testing, no matter how old the case.

In Young's case, his identity was unknown and police had exhausted all of their leads, although they never sent the evidence away for testing. The case went cold.

Amid a purge of untested evidence, Spokane police sent in a sample that was ultimately matched to Young in 2019. He was already sitting in prison for an unrelated crime.

In response to the statewide mandate, the Spokane Police Department has worked through the hundreds of sexual assault kits it holds in storage, submitting evidence for DNA testing in Washington State Patrol laboratories in hopes it could reveal the perpetrator of an unsolved sexual assault.

Now, the department has potential leads in at least 90 of what were once cold cases, but it does not have adequate resources to thoroughly investigate them.

The city will apply for a small grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs that, if awarded, will pay for a detective and sergeant to focus solely on the cold cases through June.

Still, officials acknowledge the $26,742 grant will only provide a cursory run through the cases, the complexity and age of which can make them difficult to prosecute.

Working through all of the cold cases, even if the funding were extended, would likely take a couple of years, according to police, as forensics labs continue to test backlogged evidence kits and let local police sort through the results.

So far, dozens of previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits collected in Spokane have returned DNA linked to a sample already logged in the federal government's DNA database, and that number is only expected to increase as more kits are tested in the coming months.

That development is the result of a cohesive, statewide effort to work through more than 10,000 previously unsubmitted sexual assault evidence kits  evidence taken from sexual assault victims that can be used to identify and prosecute their attacker  that has steadily evolved since 2015.

Sexual assault evidence kits

The collection of a sexual assault evidence kit, commonly called "rape kit," has two purposes: ensuring the immediate health of the patient is not in jeopardy and collecting potential evidence of the crime.

Even in the best situation, replete with trauma-informed care, the process can be "highly revictimizing" and not everyone chooses to undergo it, noted Jenn Davis Nielsen, a victim advocate who supervises Lutheran Community Services Northwest's Community Sexual Assault Program.

"People have this expectation that you're going to be doing something with this kit. You took samples in the most intimate parts of my body, and to know that it's just sitting on a shelf somewhere is just beyond upsetting," Davis Nielsen said.

Even before complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, sexual assault victims are not guaranteed an immediate room at a hospital emergency department. They may or may not be treated by a certified sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE. Lutheran Community Services has a part-time SANE, but that person isn't always available.

"It's not just a matter of the poking, prodding and how scary that exam can be. They're typically understaffed and you may or may not get a person who is trained in this," Davis Nielsen said.

If drugs or alcohol were involved in the assault, victims may still be under the influence. They may not have been able to eat since the assault took place. They might be placed on HIV-preventive medicine, be given an emergency contraception pill and tested for sexually transmitted illnesses.

Collection of the kit can last between two and four hours, longer if the nurse isn't well-trained in sexual assault examinations. It can include oral, anal and vaginal swabs, as well as a pelvic exam.

Emptying the backlog

Washington's effort to address the estimated 10,370 backlogged sexual assault kits began after an upswell in advocacy more than five years ago.

In 2015, the state legislature enacted a bill that requires police departments to submit kits within 30 days, as long as the victim consents. The legislature simultaneously provided funding to the Washington State Crime Lab to test the deluge of old kits.

In 2018, after receiving a $3 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, the state launched the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to inventory and test backlogged kits.

A 2019 law signed by Gov. Jay Inslee required that all backlogged sexual assault kits collected before the 2015 change also be submitted for testing.

The state has also lengthened the statute of limitations in certain sexual assault cases and ensured victims can track the testing status of their sexual assault kit, no longer leaving them in the dark.

As of the end of November, the state had received 10,311 previously unsubmitted kits and completed testing on 5,096 of them, according to the attorney general's office.

In Spokane, there were 1,579 untested kits dating back to the 1980s, about half of which have been tested.

Washington State Patrol has labs capable of testing sexual assault kits in Seattle, Marysville, Tacoma, Vancouver and Cheney. Kits taken before the passage of the 2015 law are outsourced to private labs for testing in order to meet the target of clearing the backlog before Dec. 1, and clearing the docket of more recent cases by December 2022.

The process of submitting a kit happens in two phases. First, the department files the paperwork associated with a kit. When the state lab is ready, it notifies the city to send out the physical kit for testing.

The city has filed paperwork on all of its rape kits, but not all have been accepted and tested, according to Spokane Police spokesperson Julie Humphreys.

Even when it comes to years-old cases, Humphreys said the term "backlog" is a "bit of a misnomer."

"It's not like we just haven't turned these in for years and years, it's just that it wasn't required until the Legislature changed and said you need to send in any sexual assault kit from all time," Humphreys said.

There are several reasons a kit may not have been submitted for testing, said Sgt. Glenn Bartlett, who supervised the department's Special Victims Unit from 2018 until Monday, when he took command of the Major Crimes Unit.

Each kit costs about $700 for local departments, the Seattle Times reported in 2017, forcing investigators to prioritize which cases could benefit the most from testing.

In some cases, survivors may have made clear they did not want to pursue charges. In others, the DNA evidence may not have been necessary to ensure a successful prosecution, he said.

According to the End the Backlog  a program founded by the nonprofit Joyful Heart Foundation that aims to do exactly what its name suggests  stereotyping, police bias and victim-blaming can also play a role in why a kit is not submitted.

"The backlog of untested rape kits represents the failure of the criminal justice system to take sexual assault seriously, prioritize the testing of rape kits, protect survivors, and hold offenders accountable," End the Backlog says.

It's not always clear whether a kit was submitted.

Ultimately, Bartlett is less interested in second-guessing the work of his predecessors than pursuing justice based on new results, whatever that entails.

The results

In Spokane, about 90 tests have identified DNA that matches samples already in the federal DNA database called the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.

CODIS contains DNA profiles that are either linked to a known offender or to a specific incident in which the perpetrator remains unidentified, WSP Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau spokesperson Mary Kellar said.

"A report of the match in CODIS will be provided to the law enforcement agency to notify them of the match, who will then use that as investigative information," Kellar said.

For investigators, a CODIS hit is not necessarily a surefire lead. There's a spectrum of possibilities in the returned results  most haven't resulted in a DNA match  but Bartlett is adamant that all of them deserve a fresh look.

In some cases, the department simply did not have the correct name of the suspect, but a CODIS hit can set things straight and help officers track down the perpetrator. Or the DNA may match a person who is not the named suspect, but who has a similar physical description.

If the DNA returned is that of a known consensual partner, Spokane Police Maj. Mike McNab noted it may not "speak to the issue of the crime"  essentially, that a rape could come down to a question of consent, not identity.

In Spokane, police hope to use the grant funding to perform a "triage" of the CODIS matches and determine which cases might be viable for prosecution, McNab said to the Spokane City Council's Public Safety and Community Health Committee this month.

With the department's current resources, screening every test result that comes back  they often come in bunches  is a challenge, Bartlett said. Each detective in the Special Victims Unit can be assigned more than 100 new cases in a year.

"By no means was this a comprehensive review of every one of these cases," Bartlett said. "It's a full-time job by itself, and I really don't want to impact or adversely affect any of our current cases (just) because we've got this additional work that comes forward."

Bartlett stressed that it's important the cases be reviewed by experienced, "victim-centered" investigators who understand what to look for, such as potential similarities and connections between unsolved crimes.

"Typically, these people that commit these crimes, this isn't a one-time deal, that's why we get CODIS matches," Bartlett said. "If someone is a predator, they're going to continue to offend."

Impact on survivors

Police realize not every case will result in a successful prosecution, but they are hoping to offer what McNab described as "some modicum of closure."

"There's a spectrum of closure that occurs, and what this sergeant will do is go through these cases and figure out which ones need to be investigated and which ones don't," McNab said.

Mark Kloehn has been a victim advocate at Lutheran Community Services for a decade and will partner with police as they reconnect with survivors of sexual assault. He'll often be accompanied by Walker, an oafish courthouse facility dog trained to help ease victims' tension.

"It's something that's easier for them to deal with and live with, just to know that we tried and that they were believed, and that we just didn't have the evidence, which can often be the case," Kloehn said.

McNab pledged to work with victim advocates to use a trauma-informed approach with people "when it's been a long time since they've heard about the case."

It's important survivors understand the legal process, but also know they will be supported regardless of the legal outcome or whether they decide to aid in the prosecution, Kloehn said.

In the years since their post-assault exams, many survivors try to carry on with their lives.

"A lot of them just stuff it down deep inside. Some of them get help, but a lot don't because there wasn't any follow-up," Davis Nielsen said.

Davis Nielsen recently worked with a survivor whose sexual assault kit was finally tested, resulting in a CODIS match. The assault took place eight years ago in a different state, but the person had since moved to the area.

"It rocked this person's world," Davis Nielsen said.

At the time of the assault, the person was homeless, struggling and treated poorly by law enforcement officers, who did not believe the victim. They didn't receive the support of a victim advocate or counseling.

Contacting the victim again was "reopening that scab, and it was pretty retraumatizing," Davis Nielsen said.

"Thankfully, having victim services present, we've been able to engage with this person and they've been wanting to engage with services ... it's an empowering decision, where often they are not empowered," Davis Nielsen said.

The department's commitment to a trauma-informed approach was lauded by Stephanie Widhalm, Children's Advocacy Center program director at Partners with Families and Children, which serves young adult victims of abuse and sexual assault.

Some of the victims police could contact about a new lead in their investigation may have been children when the assault took place, and could process their childhood experiences differently as an adult, Widhalm said. Some may have not received the support they needed as a child victim, and hearing from police could be traumatic .

"I think the best thing that we as a community can do for those that may have received that phone call from the (police) is no matter what choice they make, we support them 100%," Widhalm said. "When we think of sexual assault, one of the biggest impacts, really, is that loss of control, so any way that we can give that back to a survivor, the better."

Investigators have to approach survivors with care, Bartlett said, and aim to minimize harm. If the victim is still local, it's a conversation he tries to avoid having over the phone.

"Sometimes they just don't want to open up that wound again, and it's something we always have to be cognizant of," Bartlett said. "We're not sure what the best process is, to be honest with you, but we do think advocates should be there to offer resources."

"It may just be something simple as, 'We have this DNA profile, do you know this person?' Even that in itself is going to retraumatize them; to some degree, obviously, it's going to bring back those memories they've suppressed for years, sometimes decades," Bartlett said.

If evidence leads to new charges, the victim's involvement is likely far from over, and sometimes going through the criminal justice process is more traumatizing or as traumatizing as the initial event, Kloehn said.

Testifying at trial, Kloehn said, is a big ask, and "your name is going to get dragged through the mud."

"Everything you did leading up to what happened to you, how you reacted to it, what your life was like before that ... the defense attorney can use that against you," Kloehn said. "There's a spotlight put on victims in these crimes."

Resources

At the council meeting earlier this month, Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson asked McNab what happens when the grant funding runs out.

That, he answered, is a question for the state legislature.

"I would love to be able to keep this cold case unit going and be able to focus not only on sexual assault cold cases, but also homicide cold cases," McNab said.

Thus far, the backlog effort in Washington has relied on a patchwork of funding from the state Legislature and federal grants.

City Councilwoman Candace Mumm suggested the council could consider funding the cold case work itself.

Mumm noted the grant doesn't allow the city to actually hire a new detective or sergeant. It relies on paying existing personnel overtime to work the cases  which is expensive. She suggested the council keep the matter in mind when it budgets for the police department.

Funding the cold cases unit would be "a dollar saver, because we'd get on top of this and get ahead of it, so we're not having to use overtime hours, plus solving these cases more quickly, which is better for the victims and better for the community to put some of these folks away," Mumm said.

___

(c)2021 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)

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The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) has announced several additions and changes to its leadership team, with a focus to enhance and expand the support that faculty, students, and staff receive in pursuing their intellectual and creative passions.

Three new additions are being made to ORCA, including the hiring of two new assistant vice chancellors and an ORCA director who will oversee the team responsible for sponsored programs and research.

The changes follow the recommendations of a faculty ORCA Needs Assessment committee called together in the 2019-2020 by Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Sacha Kopp. The committee, chaired by Professor Neal Grandgenett from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, with faculty members representing all the colleges, Criss Library, and the Graduate School, recommended additional faculty and staff support in the office as well as increased representation from all the disciplines at UNO.

"The faculty greatly depend upon ORCA in supporting the research and creative activity mission of the UNO campus as operationalized by our great faculty and our host departments and colleges," said Professor Grandgenett, "The committee is appreciative that so many faculty and staff on campus thoughtfully contributed to these recommendations and that our collective recommendations were so rapidly and strategically moved upon."

All three will support the office under the leadership of Ken Bayles, Ph.D., who was officially been named Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activity last summer following completion of the review.

"The addition of our two new assistant vice chancellors and director will greatly broaden ORCAs reach into the diversity of activities conducted within the UNO campus and I am thrilled and honored to lead this great team," said Bayles.

"Im grateful to Prof. Grandgenett and all the faculty of the review committee," Kopp said, "with their initial report, as well as service as an ongoing advisory board for ORCA, we value direction from the faculty of the campus how ORCA can best serve everyone."

The UNO campus community is encouraged to contact ORCA at any time for advice, to answer questions, or provide information on new and exciting projects that the office can help support and promote. ORCA can be reached by email at unosponpro@unomaha.edu or by phone at 402.554.2286.

Emily Wright

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Social Sciences

Emily Wright, Ph.D., joins ORCA as the new Assistant Vice Chancellor for Social Sciences. Wright is a professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and also serves as associate director of the Nebraska Center for Justice Research and affiliate faculty member for the Women's and Gender Studies program at UNO. Wright, who has been at UNO since 2012, will continue in her faculty role in addition to serving as assistant vice chancellor.

Wright brings to the position a national reputation through her published and funded research in criminal justice, child welfare, and partner violence. She also has a long history of service to the university, including sitting on and chairing many thesis and dissertation committees, being a member of multiple journal editorial boards, and being an executive member of many professional boards.





Kristin Girten

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Arts and Humanities

Kristin Girten, Ph.D., joins ORCA as the new Assistant Vice Chancellor for Arts and Humanities. Her research focuses on the intersections between literature, philosophy, and science in the British Enlightenment and the twenty-first century, giving special emphasis to how women and other marginalized groups contribute to and feel the effects of such intersections. Girten, an associate professor of English since 2006, will be taking on the new role in addition to her responsibilities as a faculty member.

In joining ORCA, Girten will contribute her experience as a prolific scholar, publishing in a wide variety of journals, securing grant funding for projects across disciplines, community engagement efforts, and campus-wide service on multiple committees, review boards, faculty cohorts.

Girten and Wright will join Sara Myers, who has served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activity since 2016, in elevating ongoing projects, providing resources for new ideas, and serving as a facilitator to introduce new collaboration opportunities across colleges and units.





Tiffani Hix

Office of Research and Creative Activity Director

ORCA has also hired Tiffani Hix as Director of the Office of Research and Creative Activity, overseeing sponsored programs and grant contracting for the office.

Hix comes to UNO from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she has served as the Lead Research Business Services Specialist for the Office of Research and Economic Development since 2018. She has previous experience as a financial director and business manager in the Nebraska Department of Education and with UNL's University Libraries Dean's Office and Center for Virology.

Hix will work closely with faculty and staff to prepare and guide individuals through the grant funding process from pre-proposal steps through post-award nonfinancial functions. This will include funding from federal sources as well as local and community programs and partnerships.
Former megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiring in a $3.5 million fraud scheme, reports say.

Caldwell was a pastor of Windsor Village Church for 38 years, a Houston-based United Methodist church. UM News has reported that in addition to his six-year sentencing, the pastor will also get another year of supervised release. During his hearing on Jan. 13, U.S. District Court Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. fined Caldwell $125,000.

"This experience has brought me to the valley of disgrace and dishonor. I'm ashamed of my actions," Caldwell has told the judge.

Caldwell and Gregory Alan Smith, a Shreveport investment advisor, have pleaded guilty for selling Chinese bonds to the elderly and were sentenced on Wednesday at a federal court in Shreveport, Louisiana, Christianity Today has reported.

The church has expressed disappointment over Caldwell's sentencing through its personnel committee chairman, Floyd J. LeBlanc.

"We're very disappointed that Caldwell's contributions to society and his extraordinary efforts to make every victim whole resulted in [this] sentence. We look to God because we believe God has a final answer in everything."

Caldwell has pastored the predominantly Black church for almost four decades and has served as spiritual advisor to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The pastor presided the wedding of Bush's daughter, Jenna Bush and endorsed Obama for president.

LeBlanc has accused the advisor through a video posted in the church's Facebook page, pointing out that Caldwell was a victim in the scheme himself as he first invested in the bonds. He also said that the former pastor made up for his crimes through his generosity and desire to pay back the victims.

The pastor had paid back more than $4 million before he was sentenced, including more than $1 million before his indictment in 2018, his lawyers have confirmed through the evidence presented.

His lawyers have pleaded that Caldwell would be "confined to his home, rather than going to prison, citing his ongoing treatment for prostate cancer, as well his hypertension and the threat COVID-19 poses for those incarcerated with underlying conditions." Hicks deferred his prison report date to 22 June 2021. The judge has also agreed to recommend the pastor to serve his sentence in a low-security federal prison in Bastrop, Texas.

Caldwell studied in Carleton College in Minnesota, earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and worked as an investment banker in New York. Upon feeling that he was called to ministry, he studied at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology in Dallas and later appointed as a preacher.

He coupled his powerful preaching with community outreach focusing on housing, education and job training. The church has flourished into the largest in membership in the denomination. Caldwell has co-written the books "Entrepreneurial Faith" and "The Gospel of Good Success" and has also served on corporate and nonprofit boards. Windsor Village has celebrated his 30-year church leadership in 2012 and the city of Houston has even declared a "Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell Day".

The church of 16,000 members is now being led by his wife, Rev. Suzette Caldwell.

United Methodist Bishop Scott Jones has acknowledged Caldwell's "sincere expression of remorse" and offered his prayers.
Donald Trump launched a four-page personal tirade against James Comey in a draft of the his letter firing the FBI chief, it emerged Monday.

The unsent letter was examined by Robert Mueller's special counsel inquiry, but was never sent to Comey, who was fired in May 2017.

Parts of its contents were revealed by ABC News, who said it had been leaked by sources connected to the Mueller probe.

Under normal circumstances such a high-profile leak could lead to an investigation, but its contents were revealed 48 hours before Trump leaves office.

Trump in the end sent Comey a one-page letter of dismissal, with an accompanying one-page letter from then attorney general Jeff Sessions and a three-page memo from then deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

The original draft, which was written by aide Stephen Miller after extensive dictation from Trump and research by Miller, then repeatedly edited by the president himself, was quickly determined to be too dangerous 'to see the light of day' by White House lawyers, the Mueller report revealed.

Its contents reveal Trump's deep personal loathing of Comey, who Trump came to tweet about 218 times while in office.

'Your conduct has grown unpredictable and even erratic  including rambling and self-indulgent public performances that have baffled experts, citizens and law enforcement professionals alike  making it impossible for you to effectively lead this agency,' Trump wrote.

It told Comey he had spent 'too much time cultivating a public image, and not enough time getting your own house in order.'

And it mentioned Trump's obsession with leaks, at a time when reports of contacts between Trump's campaign and Russians were plaguing the White House, accusing Comey over overseeing 'rampant leaking.'

Four page tirade: Donald Trump drafted a bitter and personal letter of dismissal to fire James Comey in May 2017, bbut White House lawyers did not let it 'see the light of day'

Part of the probe: Robert Mueller examined the letter during his Russia probe but its contents have only come to light now

Wordsmith: Stephen Miller, Trump's hardline immigration adviser and speechwriter, wrote the letter and conducted some of the research himself

Trump accused the leaks of being used in 'partisan warfare,' a reference to what at the time were mounting Democratic calls for an investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

'You've shown a total inability to control leaks, both within and outside the agency,' he wrote.

'As a result, intelligence - real and fake - has been weaponized into an instrument of partisan warfare,' the letter said.

Leaks at the time were a constant theme in Trump's anger, with his own White House a constant source of them, particularly about the warfare between his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner on one hand and his adviser Steve Bannon on the other.

Trump sought to use Comey's decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton for her secret email server as part of his justification for firing him despite himself gaining from that decision.

Comey has made the recommendation in July 2016 when then attorney general Loretta Lynch said she would take his recommendation on whether to charge Clinton after she held secret talks with Bill Clinton on her government plane.

Comey called Clinton 'extremely careless' with the nation's secrets but recommended said he would not see a prosecution, something which Trump seized on.

In October 2016, after DailyMail.com revealed Anthony Weiner's underage sexting shame, the FBI reopened the Clinton probe and Comey disclosed that to Congress, a move which Clinton has blamed as one of the factors in her defeat.

The letter was drafted just after Comey testified to Congress about that decision.

Trump used the series of events to attack Comey, saying his evidence to Congress was a 'media circus full of unprofessional conjecture, bizarre legal theories, and irresponsible speculation'

It accused him of 'strange legal decisions and contradictory public statements,' and said he had 'sowed confusion' among his own staff.

And it claimed there was a 'a near-rebellion by many rank-and-file agents.'

That claim was similar to one later to be made by then White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a briefing to reporters, that agents had contacted her and told her they had no confidence in Comey.

But when she was questioned by the Muller probe, to whom lying was a federal crime, she withdrew the claim.

Reasoning: Trump used James Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe to justify firing him - even though Trump had benefited from it and the 2016 loser came to blame it as one of the factors in the defeat she acknowledged on November 9 2016

Trump's anger at Comey's testimony was more likely inspired by the then FBI director's confirmation to the House that there was an investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

But Trump accused Comey of 'a total lack of judgment and have left our country deeply divided and rightfully angry.'

'America needs an FBI director who inspires confidence across all layers of government, and who the public believes to be fair, impartial and beyond reproach,' Trump wrote.

'You have lost the confidence of the skilled professionals in your command, the congressional lawmakers with whom you work, and the general public whom you serve.'

The letter was far different from the one Trump sent firing Comey on May 9, 2017.

That letter was hand-delivered to FBI headquarters by Keith Schiller, Trump's bodyguard turned Oval Office aide who later left the White House.

Comey was on the other side of the country and learned about his firing from TV news alerts.

Trump was furious that Comey was flown back to Washington D.C. on an FBI executive jet.

The letter which was approved by White House lawyers to fire Comey was entirely different from the Stephen Miller-drafted tirade.

Including his signature, it was just 121 words and simply said 'you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau' and said: 'I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.'

It referred to a letter from Sessions telling the president the FBI needed 'a fresh start' and an analysis by Rosenstein which bases its reasoning for his dismissal on Comey holding a press conference to announce the outcome of the Clinton probe.the handling of the Clinton probe.

Mueller inspected both letters and mentioned in his report that the White House Counsel's office - then headed by Don McGahn - believed it 'shouldn't see the light of day.'

Mueller investigated Trump for possible obstruction of justice charges.

He did not recommend charges but said: 'If we had had confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so.'

Trump's war with Comey hardly ended with his dismissal. He pushed Republicans led by Lindsey Graham to investigate Comey, demanded he be criminally charged, called him a 'lier & leaker' and a'dirty cop' and retweeted abuse from acolytes such as podcaster Dan Bongino.

He demanded action by John Durham, made a special counsel by then AG Bill Barr to probe the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, and highlighted findings by Department of Justice Inspector General John Horowitz of errors in the handling of parts of the investigation to slam Comey.

He even tried to link Comey to his bogus election fraud claims, with his last tweet about him coming the day after Christmas when he wrote: 'Where the hell is the Durham Report? They spied on my campaign, colluded with Russia (and others), and got caught. Read the Horowitz Reports about Comey & McCabe. Even the Fake News @nytimes said 'bad'. They tried it all, and failed, so now they are trying to steal the election!'

Ironically Comey, promoting his most recent book, said that Trump should be pardoned rather than impeached or subject to federal prosecution.

Louise Igoe had always assumed she wanted to do Medicine. She decided that studying Science with a view to doing graduate entry Medicine was the ideal route for her.

Hailing from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Louise accepted an offer to study Science and chose the Biological, Biomedical and Biomolecular Science (BBB) stream in the common-entry Science course at UCD.

Fast-forward two years and Louise was having second thoughts: I just didnt enjoy the course and had realised that I didnt want to do Medicine afterwards.

With doubts creeping in and motivation becoming an issue, she was beginning to worry about her situation. Many students find themselves in Louises position and UCDs student adviser programme is one of the support facilities available to them helping with personal, social, and emotional issues.

During this challenging period, Louise received support and advice from her student adviser. She also explored other science modules available in the common entry course. One that she found herself drawn to was The History of Life on Earth, a module she had taken and which is a requirement for the Geology subject.

At the end of second year, Louise chose Geology as her final degree subject, representing a major change from her original preferred area as instead of studying the biology of cells in the human body, she would now be learning about the geological processes that formed the planet.

UCD Science has a common entry programme with 27 potential degree options available and the final choice of degree subject is at the end of second year, which gave Louise time to change her mind. Although she didn't set out with it as her plan, Louise was able to choose the Geology modules in first and second year that led to her finding her passion for the subject.

Now in final year, Louise has not looked back. Geology modules include Palaeontology (study of fossils), Global Environmental Change and Geological Mapping, which she particularly enjoys. The Geology class of 2021 has seven people in it which allows close bonds to form between the students.

Whats next for Louise? Shes considering a career in mining, palaeontology or alternatively the opportunity to continuing with post-graduate studies in UCD. Whatever she chooses, Louise has no regrets about changing paths after discovering her original choice of subject wasnt for her.
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LONDONBritain should not engage in free trade with countries that abuse human rights, but proposals that the countrys courts should decide whether genocide has been committed by trade partners is flawed, foreign minister Dominic Raab said.

Last week, Raab said Britain would introduce new rules for its companies to try to prevent goods linked to Chinas Xinjiang region entering their supply chains.

Some British lawmakers want to go further and are due to consider proposals passed in the upper house of parliament that would give courts the power to stop free-trade agreements with countries if they consider them to have committed genocide.

The bar is being set incredibly high, Raab told BBC television on Sunday. I mean, frankly, we shouldnt be engaged in free-trade negotiations with countries abusing human rights well below the level of genocide.

He said the proposals in parliament were problematic because Britains High Court did not have the resources to investigate allegations of genocide.

I think theres a second issue, which is really in relation to what we now know about whats going on in Xinjiang, the question is whether, in relation to any country that engaged in those human rights abuses, you engage in free-trade negotiations, he said.

We shouldnt really be delegating the political question of who you engage in free-trade negotiations with to the courts, Raab said. Thats something MPs (members of parliament) should hold government to account about and we absolutely embrace that.

Addressing parliament last week, Raab said there was evidence of forced labour among Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang after the United Nations estimated at least 1 million members of the minority among others were held in internment camps.

China denies the accusation. A foreign ministry spokesman denounced the accusations of abuse in Xinjiang as Western lies.

Britain is hoping to strike its own trade agreements with countries around the world following the expiry of a post-Brexit transition period for leaving the European Union.

By William Schomberg
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The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank's first child is due mid-February, Hello! Magazine has revealed.

Eugenie, 30, is pregnant with the Queen's ninth great-grandchild, which will be the first grandchild of Prince Andrew, 60, and Sarah Ferguson, 61.

According to Hello! Eugenie is now again 'nesting' at Frogmore Cottage, following reports she's moved back in with her parents at the nearby Royal Lodge over the Christmas break to prepare for her first child.

The royal announced her pregnancy in a Instagram post in September, with a photo of herself and her husband, holding a pair of teddy bear slippers, with the caption 'Jack and I are so excited for early 2021...'

Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank's first child is due mid-February, Hello! Magazine has revealed. Eugenie is pictured in Mayfair before Christmas

The Queen is also expecting a tenth great-grandchild as her granddaughter as Zara Tindall, who is married to England Rugby pro Mike Tindall, is pregnant with her third child.

Zara is already mother to Mia, who turned seven this week, and two-year-old Lena.

Eugenie has been spotted across London in sporting her baby bump in recent months.

She was pictured leaving her work at art gallery Hauser & Wirth in London's Mayfair, in a Maje dress with a blue Zara coat just before Christmas.

Jack and Eugenie, who wed in October 2018, were living at the three-bedroom Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace near Prince William and Kate Middleton until last year.

Jack and Eugenie, who wed in October 2018, were living at the three-bedroom Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace near Prince William and Kate Middleton until last year.

When Prince Harry moved to the US with wife Meghan Markle, he is believed to have handed the keys to Frogmore Cottage to his cousin Eugenie.

Last week, Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie claimed Eugenie and Jack have moved into her childhood home, the Royal Lodge in Windsor before Christmas after spending just six weeks at Harry and Meghan's former home.

Jack and Eugenie's baby will be the Queen's ninth great-grandchild and the first grandchild of her second son, Prince Andrew

He explained the couple spent the Christmas holiday at the Royal Lodge, where Eugenie and sister Beatrice, 32, grew up.

'So I imagine that's probably where they will remain up until much later in the year,' he added.

Speaking in an episode of Darlton Harris' podcast City Island last year, Sarah Ferguson confirmed that Jack and Eugenie had spent the first lockdown at the 21- acre, 30-room Windsor home she shares with ex-husband Prince Andrew.

'During this lockdown period I've really loved spending more time with Eugenie and Jack,'

'My daughter got married to Jack in, oh goodness, was it last October? No, it was October before, heavens!

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank married at St George's Chapel in Windsor in October 2018

'And so, of course once she's gone to get married, they live away. So, I haven't seen her so much and so now it's been a total joy to spend real quality time with her,' she explained.

The Royal Lodge is about five miles from Windsor Castle, where the Queen and Prince Philip have spent lockdown, while it's also just a few miles from Frogmore Cottage.

It was understood that Eugenie and her cousin Harry reached a 'private agreement' over Frogmore Cottage though it is not known how long it will last.

At the time of the move, Harry and Meghan, who currently reside in an 11million mansion in California, said they were 'delighted' to 'open up their home' while they were in the United States.

Frogmore Cottage was gifted to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, by the Queen ahead of their wedding in May 2018, and remains their UK residence.

Meghan and Harry spent 2.4million from the Sovereign Grant on renovations on Frogmore Cottage - an outlay of public money which became controversial after they quit as working royals in March.

However they have since paid the funds back.
Acquisition of Loser & Co GmbH solidifies Dental segment strategy

MONTREAL, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - The Medicom Group ("Medicom"), one of the world's leading manufacturers of surgical and respiratory masks and other infection control products, today announced the acquisition of European dental distributor Loser & Co GmbH ("Loser & Co"). Loser & Co is a leading, well-respected company that has been distributing a wide array of dental products from leading brands throughout Europe for nearly 30 years.

"This strategic acquisition allows Medicom to expand and solidify our position in Europe. We are excited that the team at Loser & Co will help significantly enhance our presence in the European dental market," said Ronald Reuben, CEO of Medicom. "We continue to focus on expanding our presence around the world to create value through both organic and acquisition-driven growth."

"Loser & Co has deep dental channel expertise, which offers Medicom a great opportunity to strengthen our market position in Europe and provide new insights to help in other parts of the world," states Ouriel Levy, Executive Vice President, Commercial and Global President, Dental. "This will create new synergies for the expansion of sales coverage across Europe and fill a gap in our global dental market strategy. The expanded team will provide us with the experience and focus that Medicom requires in the region."

Joachim Siegler, currently Loser & Co GmbH Managing Director, will manage the entire Medicom dental business in Europe as Managing Director, Medicom B.V., and will operate from the current Loser & Co location in Germany. He stated: "We are excited by the new possibilities offered as we join forces with Medicom, including access to the extensive line of quality Medicom manufactured PPE and infection control products such as masks, gowns, gloves and sterilization pouches. We are proud to be part of the expanded Medicom global team."

Medicom and Loser & Co will work together to ensure a seamless transition for customers and suppliers throughout the integration. There will be no immediate changes to ordering or service procedures for customers or vendors.

About Medicom

The Medicom Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of high-quality, single-use, preventive and infection control products for the medical, dental, industrial, animal health, laboratory, retail and health and wellness markets. Medicom distributes infection control products under the Medicom, Ritmed, Kolmi, Hopen and Ocean Pacific brands, as well as under the recently acquired Hedy brand. Medicom subsidiaries include Kolmi-Hopen in France, Medicom Asia in Hong Kong, United Medical Enterprise in the USA, KHM Engineering in Singapore and Medicom HealthPro Limited in the UK.

Medicom has extensive experience in responding to the demand for personal protective equipment in the event of a pandemic. Medicom was founded in 1988 in response to the urgent need for medical gloves for healthcare professionals during the global HIV crisis. Since then, the company has been a reliable supplier of infection control solutions during multiple epidemics, including avian flu, SARS, H1N1 and Ebola.

For more information about Medicom and their comprehensive portfolio of infection control solutions, including an extensive range of medical face masks, please visit Medicom.com, follow us on Twitter @MedicomNA or visit pages on Facebook or LinkedIn.

About Loser & Co GmbH

The Loser company has been representing leading manufacturers across the European dental market for over 30 years. The company philosophy is to offer top brands and products through a network of distribution partners, backed up by professional after-sales service and advice on use, regulations, guidelines and quality. With extensive knowledge of the market, an experienced sales staff, close cooperation with the dental trade and Universities, Loser's motto is 'Ofter mal was Gute', or 'More often something good'.

SOURCE AMD Medicom Inc.

Related Links

www.medicom.ca


KABUL  Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar had a telephone conversation with the UKs Minister for South Asia and the Commonwealth at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Lord Ahmad, today.

The two Ministers had a wide-ranging discussion on the ongoing peace talks in Doha and the UKs partnership with the Afghan Government.

Foreign Minister Atmar expressed Afghanistans appreciation for the UKs sacrifices in Afghanistan as well as its latest contributions at the Geneva Conference and its continued support to the Afghan Peace Process.

Minister Atmar expressed grave concern about the rising level of violence in Afghanistan and stressed the need for an urgent ceasefire and the important role of the UK government and the UKs Muslim scholars in promoting peace and denouncing violence in Afghanistan.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, while highlighting the importance of peace and the critical role of Muslim scholars, assured Minister Atmar of the UKs continued support to the Afghan peace process, including reducing violence and establishing a comprehensive ceasefire in the country.
Global insurer QBE has expanded its provision for COVID-19 losses by $US185 million ($240 million) after facing another defeat in the UK courts and being threatened by a local class action.

QBE told the market it would increase its COVID-19 allowance to $US785 million, up from $US600 million, after the UK courts delivered another blow to insurers battling potentially billions of dollars in business interruption claims.

Insurers may be on the hook for billions of dollars in business interruption claims. Credit:AP

QBEs share price sunk more than 5 per cent after it added an additional $US185 million risk margin to include the potential for Australian business interruption claims. Its shares closed down 5.72 per cent at $8.08.

The insurance industry was caught by surprise last year after it discovered the bulk of business interruption policies included pandemic exclusions that referenced an outdated Act of Parliament.

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Matt Hancock tonight revealed more than 4million Britons have now had a coronavirus vaccine, amid mounting claims that a 'postcode lottery' has left vulnerable people in certain areas unprotected.

With the successful roll-out of a Covid vaccine the only hope ministers have of being able to ease the lockdown restrictions this spring, the Health Secretary told the nation: 'Don't blow it now, we're on the route out.'

The Health Secretary also admitted supplies of the only two approved jabs, made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are being prioritised to areas lagging behind in the roll-out.

It comes after another 7million Britons were sent invite letters to receive their coronavirus jabs from today  but only in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have had it already.

Discussing Britain's growing Covid vaccine postcode lottery, Mr Hancock praised Slough for ensuring all of their care home residents have had their first dose. Newcastle-upon-Tyne has also achieved the feat.

But he said: 'What we're doing now is making sure that whilst they, of course, will be able to move onto the next group, we're prioritising the supply of the vaccine into those parts of the country that need to complete the over-80s.

'But we don't want to stop the areas that have effectively done that job already, we want them to carry on, but the priority of the vaccine is according to the JCVI prioritisation list. The critical thing is to make sure that everybody can get it, that we're putting more supply into the areas that have got more to do.'

Whitehall insiders believe the UK's vaccine rollout is going so well that the wider adult population may be covered by June rather than September, with around 280,000 doses currently being administered each day. Ten new mass vaccination centres opened today, to speed up the programme even further.

No10's vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi today insisted people in their 70s will only be offered jabs in areas where the 'majority' of over-80s have already had their first shot. That could mean people in areas such as London and Suffolk, where progress has been slower, will have to wait longer.

But the situation is mired in confusion as Mr Zahawi suggested a 'majority' means 90 per cent of the highest age bracket  whereas Downing Street pointed to more than half.

Matt Hancock tonight revealed more than 4million Britons have now had a coronavirus vaccine, amid mounting claims that a 'postcode lottery' has left vulnerable people in certain areas unprotected

With the successful roll-out of a Covid vaccine the only hope ministers have of being able to ease the lockdown restrictions this spring, the Health Secretary told the nation: 'Don't blow it now, we're on the route out'

NHS staff administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Totally Wicked Stadium, home of St Helens rugby club, one of the new mass vaccination centres opened today

John Mason, 82, receiving a Covid-19 vaccination from nurse Anie Santillan in the crypt of Blackburn Cathedral today

Boris Johnson was shown the vaccine quality control systems on a visit to Oxford Biomedica in Oxfordshire today

The Prime Minister toured a warehouse at the vaccine manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire today

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey complained this morning that in her constituency some individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly

Covid test chaos at airports: UK-bound passengers are blocked from boarding in US Several passengers have been refused permission to fly to Britain from the US today after their negative Covid results were 'not sufficient' because they were lateral flow tests - despite the Government insisting they should be accepted. There was also chaos for thousands arriving at Heathrow Airport as they were forced to wait for 90 minutes in 'chaotic' queues after all Britain's travel corridors were closed for the next four weeks from 4am this morning. Hannah Holland, 23, from Sheffield, was left in tears after she was barred from the American Airlines (AA) service from Philadelphia via Chicago's O'Hare airport due to land at London Heathrow this morning. She had a certificate proving a negative antigen lateral flow Covid test taken within 72 hours of departure - but AA staff at check in said it was not valid for travel to the UK despite being one of the types of tests approved by the UK government. Miss Holland was left sobbing and was not the only person denied permission to fly, according to The Independent. She said: 'It was the easiest thing in the world until I got to Chicago. It was only then that one attendant looked at my paper and said: 'That's not sufficient, you're not getting on this flight'. She kind of threw this list of Chicago testing centres to me and was like, 'Yeah, have a look at that, goodbye'.' Advertisement

NHS data shows the North East and Yorkshire made most headway in the first month of vaccinations, reaching 44 per cent of all over-80s by January 10  the most recent day figures are available for.

This was almost twice as fast as in the East of England and London, which only managed to immunise 27.9 per cent and 29.5 per cent of its most elderly residents, respectively.

NHS bosses do not publish a daily regional breakdown of how many over-80s have had a jab, meaning the true picture is currently a mystery.

Meanwhile, the eligibility of Britain's biggest ever inoculation drive is being expanded despite vaccines not yet having been distributed to all care homes.

Most residents and carers have already had their first shot in Newcastle, but in rural Suffolk the programme is struggling to speed up.

The PM defended the shift on a visit to Oxfordshire this afternoon, insisting that while the four most vulnerable groups remained the 'top priority' it was right to widen the scheme 'as more vaccine comes on stream'.

Asked if he was concerned about a postcode lottery, Mr Johnson said: 'I think actually the whole of the UK is going very well. And, overall, the pace of the rollout is very encouraging.'

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey voiced frustration today, saying 'something isn't right' and it was 'distressing and annoying' that individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly.

'Vaccinations started well in Suffolk Coastal in the last few days, but something isn't quite right as in some places, patients aged 70+ are being contacted for vaccination ahead of 80+/90+ year olds,' she tweeted.

Ms Coffey later said that she had been assured 'letters and messages will be going out today' to all over-80s who had not already been contacted.

Letters are being sent out in England inviting the next two priority groups for vaccinations. That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients.

In London vaccinations have been trailing behind the rest of the country, with Tory MPs voicing alarm that the supplies are being based on take-up of the flu vaccine last winter, which was low in the capital. Downing Street insists the supplies are being 'distributed equally'.

Drakeford under fire as he blames Pfizer vaccine limits for slower rollout in Wales Wales's First Minister Mark Drakeford came under fire from MPs today for deliberately slowing down the country's Covid vaccine roll-out. Mr Drakeford this morning admitted Wales isn't using up all of its doses of the Pfizer jab because it wants to make them last until the end of the month. He claimed the 'sensible' thing to do would be to ration supplies so the programme could work steadily until next month and so staff aren't 'standing around with nothing to do' if supplies run out. But MPs have slammed his plan as 'dangerous' and said the point of the programme is to protect elderly people from dying not to keep NHS staff busy. David Jones, MP for Clwyd West said the explanation was 'wholly incoherent'. Mark Harper, MP for the Forest of Dean on the Welsh border, said it was 'dangerous' and that people needed vaccines as soon as was possible. And Stephen Crabb, the MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said it was 'deeply, deeply frustrating'. The Government  including Mr Drakeford in the same interview  have blamed limited supply from manufacturers for slowing down the roll-out of vaccines, which it is hoped could bring an end to the UK's relentless cycle of lockdowns. Britain has so far immunised nearly 3.9million people  Wales has done the fewest in relation to its population size with a total of 126,375. Advertisement

Some 140 people a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn, if not before. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds.

Asked why fewer vaccines were being administered on weekends, Mr Hancock said people should look at weekly averages rather than data from an individual day.

He said: 'The vaccine delivery is absolutely delivering a full seven-day service and we are prepared to go 24/7.

'I wouldn't read too much into an individual day's data, I think the best thing to do is look at weekly averages and, as you say, you can see that going up, and up fast.'

Mr Hancock said vaccine supply was the 'rate-limiting factor'. He added: 'If you listen to voices on the ground in the NHS, you hear people saying 'give us more supply and we will jab it into more arms. We are shovelling it out as fast as we can.'

Mr Hancock has said there should be a 'national debate' on which groups should be prioritised for the vaccine once the over-50s have received the jab.

'After that it is essentially about protecting people as well as possible according to essentially a judgment who should come next,' he told a No 10 news conference.

'That is why I think we should have a debate about it. After that, it is really about protecting against transmission and making sure that we can get life back to normal as soon as possible.'

On another turbulent day of developments in the coronavirus crisis:

The Covid-19 mass vaccine programme will not have an impact on hospital admissions or death rates until 'well into February', national medical director for NHS England Stephen Powis warned today;

Ministers are facing a major Tory revolt over whether to extend the 20 a week uplift to Universal Credit during pandemic;

First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the slower rollout of the vaccination programme in Wales  saying the Pfizer vaccine could not be used all at once;

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will take a Downing Street press conference at 5pm this evening;

NHS figures revealed one in six Covid-19 patients in English NHS hospitals arrived without the virus but were infected there since September;

Another 671 deaths were recorded, the highest number for any Sunday of the pandemic so far, along with 38,598 new cases;

Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption sparked a row after telling stage 4 bowel cancer sufferer Deborah James on TV that her life was 'less valuable' than other people's;

All travellers arriving in Britain face being forced to quarantine in hotels under plans to further lock down the country's borders.

The Government last night announced that the first phase of the vaccine programme has made enough progress that those in their 70s and on the shielding list will be called up to get their jabs from today.

Hundreds of patients forced to rearrange their vaccine appointments after jabs failed to arrive Hundreds of disappointed patients were forced to rearrange their vaccine appointments after jabs failed to arrive at a new hub. Headcorn Aerodrome in Kent was set to begin inoculating elderly people in the Weald today. But the delivery never turned up - leading to GPs having to break the devastating news to the most vulnerable at the eleventh hour. A statement from Marden Medical Centre in Tonbridge said: 'We have been informed on Sunday evening 17th January that our patients booked for the Monday afternoon 18th will need to be rescheduled. 'This is due to a failure of supply and is a regrettable and not infrequent issue for those organisations contracted to give the vaccines. They will be contacting the many hundred elderly patients from the Weald area directly. 'We are very sorry for the stresses this will create. Please be patient with the team who are mostly volunteers with a problem beyond their control. 'Marden Medical Centre has no access to the booking system so please do not contact us with queries.' North Ridge Medical Practice in Hawkhurst also raised the alarm by saying: 'Due to stock not being delivered on time, the clinics scheduled for Monday 18th January 2021 has to be postponed for later in the week. You will get contacted to re-schedule. 'If you know of anyone over 80 booked for tomorrow please advise them not to attend there appointment.' Advertisement

But in some places medics still haven't got through to the over-90s, who are in the top priority group for the Covid vaccines. Matt Hancock last week revealed GPs leading Britain's great vaccination drive were forced to pause jabs to allow other parts of the country to catch up.

Newcastle's care homes saw all their residents get vaccinated against Covid by seven medical teams who made their way through the city in just two weeks.

Care home residents are top of the Government's priority list for vaccination because they face such a high chance of dying if they catch Covid-19.

Ministers pledged to get jabs to all of them  there are around 400,000 people living in homes across the UK  by the end of January.

The roll-out could not start immediately because the first vaccine to be approved, Pfizer's, had to be kept in specialist freezers so couldn't be transported in batches smaller than 1,000 to begin with.

But since the approval of Oxford and AstraZeneca's jab, which can be kept out of the fridge for almost an entire working day, the care home programme has sped up.

Leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, said: 'In less than two weeks we have protected the most vulnerable people in our communities, providing the residents and their families with a sense of reassurance and hope they have longed for.

'It is also relief for care home staff who have given so much during this pandemic, prioritising the health and care of the residents they work with.'

Public Health England data shows that the North East & Yorkshire  the region containing Newcastle  was furthest ahead with its vaccine programme by January 10.

This is the most recent data available and local figures are not yet available for areas smaller than regions.

It shows that the North East and Yorkshire had vaccinated 370,694 people by January 10.

Elderly people have been the priority since the vaccine programme started and data published by Public Health England shows exactly how many of them have been vaccinated.

PHE figures show that 43.8 per cent of over-80s in the North East & Yorkshire had received a Covid vaccine by January 10, compared to 27.9 per cent in the East of England.

In London the figure was 29.5 per cent, in the Midlands 33.4 per cent, in the South West 34.3 per cent, in the South East 34.8 per cent and in the North West 35.9 per cent.

Mr Johnson last week told MPs: 'There are parts of the country where they have done incredibly well in, for instance, vaccinating the over-80s.

'We are well over 50 per cent now in the North East and Yorkshire; less good in some other parts of the country.'

It is not clear whether some regions are vaccinating fewer people because they can't get enough supplies or because they aren't rolling them out quick enough.

Hailing the vaccine expansion today, Mr Johnson said it 'marks a significant milestone as we offer vaccinations to millions more people who are most at risk from Covid-19'.

The vaccination centre in Bournemouth officially opened today and is expected to give jabs to more than 9,000 a month

NHS staff administering the vaccine in St Helens today as the drive to innoculate the population steps up another gear

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi (left) was bullish about the September target for covering all adults in a round of interviews this morning. NHS England medical director Stephen Powis (right) today warned that vaccines will not have an impact on the death rate until 'well into' February

Nadhim Zahawi suggests key workers could be next in line for jab More than half a million police officers and teachers could jump the vaccine queue if they are given priority in phase two of the roll-out. Hundreds of thousands of shop workers could also be added to the list, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said yesterday. He said that people who come into close contact with the public 'through no fault of their own' should be considered for priority access. But any decision to give such a large number of people priority could be controversial, as it would leave others waiting much longer. Last night Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, called for a national debate on prioritisation. The decision will be taken by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. At present, they have just outlined 'phase one' of the roll-out, which covers everyone over 50, people with clinical vulnerabilities, care home residents and NHS and social care staff. That should be completed by early spring, and the JCVI are now deciding who should be top of the list in phase two. Yesterday Mr Zahawi told Times Radio: 'I think if teachers, police officers, shop workers, those who through no fault of their own, other than the work that they do, may come into contact with the viruses at much greater volume, [they should be] the top of the list.' Advertisement

'We have a long way to go and there will be challenges ahead  but together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus,' he said.

There are claims swirling that Mr Johnson wants all adults to get an initial jab by June. And Mr Zahawi backed the target to offer a first jab to everyone by September as 'achievable'.

However, he fuelled questions about the way in which people are getting access by confirming that over-70s are currently being offered first jabs in areas only where 'the majority' of over-80s have had their first shot. The speed of the process has varied widely in different areas.

'Anyone who is over 80 watching us this morning should not worry because we are making sure that those areas have vaccinated the majority of their over-80s,' Mr Zahawi told the BBC.

'And in some areas they've got to 90 per cent of their over-80s, that's where the letters are going out for the over-70s to invite them for their vaccinations.'

Downing Street said those aged over 70 would start to be offered vaccines in areas where the 'majority' of those in the older age category and higher up the priority list had already received their first jab - but refused to say what that meant.

A spokesman said: 'From today, those aged 70 and over will begin receiving invitation for vaccination, and it will be for them to book an appointment or come forward.

'Depending on where they are, the timing will be slightly different but the important point is that this allows areas that have already vaccinated a majority of those over 80, care home residents, frontline NHS and care home staff to keep the momentum up and to start giving it to further-at-risk people.'

Asked whether those in their 70s could expect to start receiving their vaccination this week, the spokesman said the jabs would start 'shortly'.

The PM's spokesman also insisted supplies were being 'distributed equally' across the country.

'In some areas where they have already vaccinated the majority of those four high-risk groups, we want to ensure we maintain momentum and continue to rollout the vaccine to more and more people who are at higher clinical risk  that's why we sent out the letter to the over-70s,' the spokesman said.

'The Prime Minister has stated clearly that we will ensure that everybody in the first four priority groups will receive a vaccination by February 15 and we've also said that care home residents will all have received it by the end of the month.'

But Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Coffey was among those expressing alarm at the situation, although she later said she had been reassured.

'I know it is both distressing and annoying when people hear that other cohorts of a lower priority (according to the JCVI) are being vaccinated ahead of our oldest and most vulnerable. On that point, every care home resident will be vaccinated by next Sunday,' she posted on Facebook.

'I am already in regular contact with the NHS and Ministers but will be following up with the local NHS to work out what is going on regarding contacting 80+ population (main route is by text and/or letter) and will be pressing for some local communication.'

Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant today, Mr Johnson appeared to dismiss demands from Tory MPs for an early 'road map' to show how lockdown will be eased.

And he warned when the loosening does come it will not be an 'open sesame' moment.

The PM told reporters: 'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well.

'It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we're not out of the woods yet.'

He said: 'We're going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we've achieved, that's the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we've had.

'It's only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax.

'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.'

Mr Zahawi laid out the timetable for easing the lockdown, although he warned there were 'caveats' about whether it could happen in early March.

PM risks wrath of Tories by dismissing calls for road map before Feb 15 Boris Johnson today appeared to dismiss demands from Tory MPs for an early 'road map' to show how lockdown will be eased. Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant today, the PM also warned when the loosening does come it will not be an 'open sesame' moment. After former chief whip Mark Harper led calls for an exit plan to be published immediately, Mr Johnson told reporters: 'I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well. 'It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we're not out of the woods yet.' He said: 'We're going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we've achieved, that's the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we've had. 'It's only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax. 'I'm afraid I've got to warn people it will be gradual, you can't just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I'm afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.' Advertisement

He told BBC Breakfast: 'If we take the mid-February target, two weeks after that you get your protection, pretty much, for the Pfizer/BioNTech, three weeks for the Oxford/AstraZeneca, you are protected.

'One of the things we don't know yet, and the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam is on record as saying 'look give me a couple of months and I'll tell you', is the impact of the vaccine on transmission rates ie on infecting people.

'So there are a number of caveats that stand in the way of us reopening the economy.

'It will be gradually, it will be probably through the tiered system but you're looking at that sort of period, two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts.'

He said there should be 'very clear evidence' by the second week in March that there had been a 'break in the correlation between infection rates and hospitalisation and obviously death'.

'There is some really good early data from Israel, where they have vaccinated 20 per cent of the over-60s and they are beginning to see, two weeks later, a marked reduction in the serious illness and death in that same cohort.

'So, two weeks after mid-February, we should be seeing a marked reduction in death and of course serious illness,' he said.

Mr Zahawi said 24-hour vaccinations will be piloted in London hospitals by the end of January - but he played down the usefulness of the idea in the first phase.

He told Sky News: 'We are going to pilot the 24-hour vaccination, the NHS is going to pilot that in hospitals in London and we will look at how we expand that.'

Pressed for when the pilots will start, he said: 'By the end of January, absolutely.'

But he said 8am-8pm vaccination 'works much more conveniently for those who are over 80 and then as you move down the age groups it becomes much more convenient for people to go late at night and in the early hours'.

Home Secretary Priti Patel today vowed tougher enforcement on lockdown-sceptic protests as she chatted to police officers in Westminster

Several passengers have been refused permission to fly to Britain from the US today after being told their negative Covid results were 'not sufficient'. Pictured, Heathrow Airport

Boris Johnson, pictured with his son Wilfred on Sunday, has promised the first four priority groups will all have received the jab by the middle of February

The new mass vaccination hub that has opened in the Olympic Office Centre in Wembley, London today

Priti Patel vows tougher action on lockdown-sceptic protests Home Secretary Priti Patel today vowed tougher enforcement on lockdown-sceptic protests. The Home Secretary warned people will be held responsible for their actions as she visited St Thomas's Hospital in central London, the scene of an anti-lockdown protest on New Year's Eve. Asked whether there would be tougher enforcement to target protesters she said: 'Absolutely, without hesitation. 'When you look at the pressures on the NHS  and we have been saying this for too long, quite frankly  the public need to take responsibility, act conscientiously, wear their masks, wear face coverings, follow the rules, follow the regulations. 'I can't emphasise that enough. 'The police will not hesitate, they are doing a fantastic job in terms of stopping the spread of the virus, making sure people comply, enforcing the coronavirus regulations but helping the NHS in particular save lives and to protect the NHS.' Advertisement

Meanwhile, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the slower rollout of the vaccination programme in Wales  saying the Pfizer vaccine could not be used all at once.

The Welsh Government has faced criticism in the past week for vaccinating fewer people in proportion to its population than the other home nations.

Statistically, Wales is behind the other nations of the UK in delivering the first dose of the vaccine per 100,000.

As of last week, 3,215 had received it in Wales, compared to 3,514 in Scotland, 4,005 in England and 4,828 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Drakeford dismissed the statistics as 'very marginal differences', and went on to explain that supplies of the Pfizer vaccine had to last until the beginning of February and would not be used all at once.

'There will be no point and certainly it will be logistically very damaging to try to use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do with for another month,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine you've got over the period that you've got it for so that your system can absorb it, they can go on working, that you don't have people standing around with nothing to do.

Mr Raab pledged yesterday that every over-18 will be offered a first jab by September  if not earlier.

And he said he was hopeful some lockdown restrictions could start to be lifted from March.

Ten new mass vaccination hubs will open today, including Blackburn Cathedral and Taunton Racecourse.

Ministers said the priority this week will still be to vaccinate the top two priority groups, made up of care home residents and staff, the over-80s, and NHS workers.

More than 3.8million have received their first vaccine dose so far. But NHS sites which have spare capacity will be allowed to offer jabs to those aged over 70 and those who are 'clinically extremely vulnerable'.

Boris Johnson has promised the first four priority groups will all have received the jab by the middle of February.

The PM said: 'Today is a significant milestone in our vaccination programme as we open it up to millions more who are most at risk from Covid-19. We are now delivering the vaccine at a rate of 140 jabs a minute and I want to thank everyone involved in this national effort.

'We have a long way to go and there will doubtless be challenges ahead  but by working together we are making huge progress in our fight against this virus.'

Mr Hancock added: 'Now that more than half of all over-80s have had their jab, we can begin vaccinating the next most vulnerable groups.

'Where an area has already reached the vast majority of groups one and two, they can now start opening up the programme to groups three and four.

'We are working day and night to make sure everyone who is 70 and over, our health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable are offered the vaccine by the middle of February and our NHS heroes are making huge strides in making this happen.' Mr Raab said yesterday it would be 'great' if the rollout could be faster amid reports that the target of offering everyone in the UK the jab could be met by June, but said the Government was working to the early autumn target.

'Our target is by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose. If we can do it faster than that, great, but that's the roadmap,' he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

Mr Raab said the Government hoped 88 per cent of those most at risk of dying from coronavirus would receive their first jab by the middle of February, with 99 per cent of those at greatest risk protected by the early spring.

He suggested lockdown restrictions could then be eased  with a possible return to the tiered system. 'I think it is fair to say it won't be a big bang, if you like, it will be done phased, possibly back through the tiered approach,' he told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if vaccine supplies are sufficient for someone to get their second dose within 12 weeks, he said 'we ought to' be able to deliver.

Sir Simon Stevens said staff were jabbing 'four times faster' than people are newly catching the virus.

He also predicted lockdown could be eased 'gradually' around spring and summer time. However, he said this would depend on the effect of new variants of coronavirus.

A new strain found in the UK that is more transmissible than previous types is rapidly spreading across the country, and variants found in Brazil and South Africa are also being viewed with concern by virologists in case they are more resistant to vaccines.

Covid was England's biggest killer in 2020 and accounted for one in eight deaths, official data reveals

Coronavirus was the leading cause of death in England last year and accounted for one in eight fatalities, official data has revealed.

An Office for National Statistics report published today found Covid-19 was responsible for 69,101 out of 569,770 total deaths in 2020 (12.1 per cent).

The figure is slightly lower than the 78,076 on the Government's dashboard because the ONS looks at cases where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate. The official tally counts people who died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus. Number 10's figure will also be higher because it includes deaths from this January.

Dementia and Alzheimer's were the second biggest killers in England in 2020, claiming 66,060 lives, while heart disease was behind 51,979 deaths. There were just 18,656 flu and pneumonia deaths last year, 40 per cent lower than average, which is thought to be the knock-on effect of social distancing measures.

The ONS report also found that in December, deaths from all causes were 25 per cent higher than the five-year average. Covid-19 was by far the biggest killer last month, claiming 10,973 lives. Covid killed more people than dementia, Alzheimer's and heart disease combined (9,646).

Meanwhile, an interactive map developed by the ONS shows how those in the poorest parts of the country have been two-and-a-half times more likely to fall victim to Covid-19 than those in the wealthiest areas.

Scientists say people in deprived neighbourhoods are at an increased risk because they often have poorer general health, are more likely to live in overcrowded and multi-generational households and rely on public transport.

The ONS said there were 52,676 deaths registered in England in December last year. This was 8,390 more deaths than in December 2019 and 10,594 (25.2 per cent) deaths more than the five-year average. Of the deaths registered in December 2020, 26,981 were males and 25,695 were females.

In Wales, there were 3,941 deaths, which was 851 more deaths than in December 2019 and 1,075 (37.5 per cent). more deaths than the five-year average for December. Of the deaths registered in December in Wales, there were 2,047 male deaths and 1,894 female deaths.

Coronavirus was the leading cause of death for the second consecutive month in both England (accounting for 20.8 per cent of all deaths registered in December) and in Wales (27.4 per cent of all deaths).

Dementia and Alzheimer's disease was the second leading cause of death in both countries, with Covid-19 accounting for more than double the second leading cause in England, 10,973, compared to 5,281, and more than triple in Wales, 1,081 compared to 346.

Yorkshire and The Humber was the English region with the highest mortality rate for deaths due to Covid-19 (320.5 deaths per 100,000 people), followed by the East Midlands (316). The South West had the lowest mortality rate, at 123.1.

In December in England, the death rate from Covid was two-and-a-half times greater in the most deprived areas at 391.6 per 100,000 compared to the most affluent places, where it was 152.3. There was a similar picture in Wales, where it was 560 per 100,000 in the poorest parts compared to 285.9 in the wealthiest.
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A year after the lockdown imposed in the Chinese city of Wuhan shocked the world, the tactic is turning out to be an enduring tool for quelling the coronavirus almost everywhere. When the first large-scale lockdown in modern times was implemented in China on Jan. 23 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was then deemed unproven and unthinkable, particularly by democratic governments who balked at the implications for human rights violations of limiting citizens freedom of movement on such a huge scale.

Yet almost 12 months on, the U. K. is in the midst of its third ...
ROME, JAN 18 - The Italian government crisis triggered by the defection of Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party must be resolved by confidence votes in parliament, Premier Giuseppe Conte told the Lower House ahead of the first one Monday. Appealing to centrist so-called 'constructors' who could replace IV, the premier called for the "limpid backing of liberals, popular party members and socialists". Conte said former premier Renzi - whom he blamed for a "grave act of irresponsibility - had "opened a crisis that must find in this forum its clarification with transparency with respect to the clear action which marked my mandate". Conte is seeking enough so-called 'constructors' to replace IV crucially in the Senate where he no longer has a majority and where he will face the second of the two confidence votes on Tuesday. "We need the widest possible consensus among willing forces," Conte said as he addressed the possible 'constructors' who could save his executive. Conte said the crisis had "dissipated energies in sterile polemics"; that it was "without any foundation", and that the government had improved the COVID Recovery Plan which Renzi had cited as the reason for his defection. He said the use of the European Stability Mechanism for health spending "doesn't come into it". The premier said the crisis had damaged the country, and "what has happened cannot be cancelled", effectively rebuffing Renzi's tentative overtures to do a U-turn and return to the administration he brought down. Conte said Italy "deserves a cohesive government" and called on lawmakers to now help it "turn the page". He said the Recovery Plan would be "a collective and shared effort". Conte said that his aim was to continue to bring about reform, "From the start I worked for the creation of the prospect of a board, courageous design for a new season of reform based on sustainability, social and territorial cohesion and the full development of the human person," Conte said as he appealed to the lawmakers to back his executive, "That vision is still present today". The premier also said the government would promoted a proportional electoral system, appealing to lawmakers in the small centrist groups he needs to replace IV. He also said he would "reinforce" the government team and would serve put the rest of the legislative term which ends in 2023. "We will build a government that is open to those who hold dear the country's state and fate", said the PM. Conte is appealing to parliament to keep his government alive after IV party triggered the crisis by pulling its support last week. The premier faces the first of two crunch confidence votes in the lower chamber, with an even stiffer test coming in the Senate on Tuesday if his executive survives in the House on Monday. He is set to appeal to so-called 'constructor' lawmakers from outside the ruling coalition to vote for the government and stop it collapsing in the middle of the COVID-10 pandemic. The two senior partners in the ruling coalition, the 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), have already rejected the idea of patching things up with ex-premier Renzi. But the PD has kept the door open to individual IV lawmakers and two have said that they will break ranks from the centrist group. The centre-right opposition has called for snap elections, arguing that, even if the government survives the confidence votes, if will be too weak to effectively rule the country. Life Senator and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre said she will defy medical advice and will be in Rome to vote for the government, describing the crisis as "incomprehensible". (ANSA).
[January 17, 2021] Yealink Announces New WH6x Series DECT Wireless HeadsetsUC Workstation Certified for Microsoft Teams: Redefine Your Workspace

XIAMEN, China, Jan. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yealink (Stock Code: 300628), a leading global unified communications (UC) solution provider today announced the release of the WH6x Series DECT Wireless HeadsetsUC Workstation that is Certified for Microsoft Teams. Deliver HD voice, designed for co-working and private spaces Teams meetings Yealink WH6x series provide a great audio quality through dereverberation, full-duplex features, noise-canceling microphone, and a speakerphone (only comes with the premium sets), users can hear and be heard clearly without distractions during Teams meetings. Besides, the series also offer plug and play experience with a dedicated Teamsbutton that allows you to interact with Teams app with just one touch.



Essential DECT Wireless Headsets for improving productivity Yealink Essential DECT Wireless Headsets WH62 & WH63, with the Yealink branded Busylight, providing a visual cue and indicator that help to reduce distractions and eliminate interruptions, ensure users to stay focused in Teams meetings. Plus, by Yealink Acoustic Shield Technology to block noise, increase voice clarity, the headsets also offer exceptional wearing comfort, long range wireless connection up to 160m and 14-hour talk time, allowing users to move around the office without losing their calls, which brings greater flexibility to daily communication.

Premium WH6x Series for intelligent, flexible and seamless business communications Yealink premium DECT Wireless Headsets WH66 & WH67 X UC Workstation give users the possibility and flexibility to connect devices, and manage communications from a single device, and also act as a hub that integrates a full-duplex speakerphone, fast charging wireless mobile phone dock, 4-inch touch console, and high speed USB hub which, together offer an incredible set of features allowing you to meet, connect and collaborate seamlessly and intelligently. "Yealink is committed to offer more reliable and flexible device choices to our customers. WH6x seriesUC Workstation is a powerful product for Microsoft Teams we created this year, aims to drive collaboration and boost productivity in co-working and private workspaces", said Alvin Liao, Vice President of Product at Yealink. "We will continue to bring more voice and video device solutions for Microsoft Teams to benefit more customers." "We hear from our customers that DECT wireless headsets can offer great advantages, especially around wireless reach, density and security", said Albert Kooiman, Senior Director of Microsoft Teams Devices Partner Engineering and Certification, "and I am sure that they will be very pleased to see that Yealink is expanding their portfolio of devices Certified for Microsoft Teams into this category." The newest Yealink WH6x series DECT wireless headsets optimize the voice device solutions for Microsoft Teams. In addition, Yealink offers high quality portfolio for Microsoft Teams including personal devices and shared devices. For more information about the products, please go to Yealink device solutions for Microsoft Teams page https://www.yealink.com/solution/microsoft, or contact a Yealink expert for Microsoft via UCinfo@yealink.com. The virtual product launch event will be showcasing on Jan. 18th, and explore more about Yealink new products for Microsoft Teams, please click here to register. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yealink-announces-new-wh6x-series-dect-wireless-headsetsOuc-workstation-certified-for-microsoft-teams-redefine-your-workspace-301209808.html SOURCE Yealink

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Duong "Calvin" Cao had served 17 years in prison on an attempted murder conviction when he went before the Louisiana pardon board in 2015 and received a favorable recommendation for early release because officials considered him rehabilitated.

That board decision left him one step away from freedom. All he needed was a signature from the governor.

Cao would wait another five years for the signature. During that time, he worked in the governor's mansion and at State Police headquarters  both coveted jobs reserved for the most trusted inmates  before a positive coronavirus diagnosis took him out of commission for over a month.

He recovered and was ultimately released from prison in September  one of 36 people whose sentences Gov. John Bel Edwards commuted last year, allowing them a chance at parole. All were convicted of violent crimes decades earlier and were deemed low risk to public safety.

Edwards, a Democratic governor who has championed criminal justice reform, granted more sentence commutations in 2020 than during his entire first term in office, when records show he awarded 34. Edwards took action quietly, granting the awards at a steady pace throughout the year.

Some of the recipients, including Cao, had received a favorable recommendation from the board under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who largely rejected the clemency process and granted just three commutations during his eight years in office.

Almost no one who applies for a commutation actually gets one. But they're the only possible relief mechanism for the thousands of people serving life and other decades-long sentences in Louisiana, which holds the highest incarceration rate in the country, in part due to harsh sentencing laws and "tough on crime" policies that many other states have rejected in recent years.

Edwards also granted 24 pardons in 2020. Those usually apply to people who have finished serving their sentences, often for more minor crimes, and have requested that the offense is removed from their record. Pardons are typically more common and easier to obtain than commutations.

While grateful for his freedom and committed to building a productive life in society, Cao is puzzled about the clemency process and the governor's recent decision, which ultimately shaved off about two years of his 30-year prison sentence. He wonders: "Why now? Where's the logic?"

Cao said he understands the political risks associated with granting clemency, but "when month after month becomes year after year of waiting  when the governor could release you to your family with just the stroke of a pen, but he chooses not to  you start to lose hope."

Many clemency cases move more quickly, but Edwards has not explained his thought process or the factors he weighs most heavily. In response to a request for comment last week, his office said only that he "takes this part of his job very seriously and considers each request separately, completely and deeply. He will continue to give each decision the time and concern that it deserves."

There are dozens more applications still sitting on his desk. Those are inmates who received favorable decisions from the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole, a panel of experts appointed by the governor who complete their own stringent review process of each case.

Edwards won reelection in 2019 despite Republican groups blasting him for supporting sentencing reform. He championed a package of reforms in 2017, which softened sentences for minor and nonviolent crimes but stopped short of expanding parole for people convicted of serious violent offenses.

The reforms were limited largely because of opposition from prosecutors and law enforcement leaders. Those groups often oppose clemency awards for similar reasons  because they believe in the importance of delivering definitive justice for victims and their families.

Edwards has pledged to continue pushing for criminal justice reform, though the coronavirus pandemic largely derailed the 2020 legislative session.

Prisoner rights advocates commended Edwards for increasing his use of clemency in 2020, though their calls for additional action became even more urgent amid the pandemic. Those demands were echoed across the nation as advocates asked governors to release medically vulnerable inmates and reduce state prison populations.

Edwards hasn't revealed whether health concerns factored into his decision to award more commutations, and experts say most governors ended up doing little to address the imminent spread of COVID-19 through state prisons. Louisiana officials created a special new board last spring to consider a select group of inmates for early parole during the pandemic, but that program was short lived and had a negligible impact on the prison population.

At least 32 state prisoners and five staff members have died from COVID-19 since the virus arrived in Louisiana last year, according to DOC data.

+2 Coronavirus hits Louisiana prisons: Medical director, head warden, first state inmate die The head warden and medical director of Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Avoyelles Parish have died from the coronavirus, state official

"Overall the response has been disappointing," said Kevin Ring, president of the national nonprofit FAMM. "But there's always this stigma associated with the clemency process, the potential for political ramifications. In general, we have zero tolerance for letting people out of prison early."

That wasn't always the case, Ring noted. Clemency used to be much more common, both in Louisiana and nationwide  before a few controversial cases were met with heated political backlash and negative media coverage, according to experts.

In Louisiana, former Gov. Edwin Edwards signed 945 commutations during his first two terms starting in 1972, then another 335 during his third term.

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The numbers have varied widely under subsequent administrations. Kathleen Blanco signed 129 commutations in the early 2000s, followed by Jindal's three. John Bel Edwards has now signed a total of 70 since he took office in 2016.

When Cao tested positive for coronavirus last spring, he was living at the Louisiana State Police Barracks near Zachary, which provides minimum security housing for inmates with a record of good behavior. In response to his illness, officials sent him to quarantine at Angola's Camp J, an old solitary confinement wing once used for disciplinary purposes that was closed in 2018 amid safety concerns.

Cao had spent time in Camp J over a decade ago as punishment for getting into fights. He said returning to those decrepit conditions felt like going back to square one, but this time he was also battling a serious illness.

When the state Department of Corrections started sending COVID-positive inmates to Camp J early on in the pandemic, a slew of prisoner rights groups criticized the move as inhumane.

In a letter dated May 8, dozens of advocates, attorneys and criminal justice experts implored Edwards to sign more commutations: "Your signature is the only barrier to freedom for these mothers, fathers, siblings, sons, daughters and friends."

The letter also referenced Cao by name, noting his COVID-19 diagnosis.

"He  is currently being held at Camp J in Angola, a substandard medical facility that puts patients far from access to ventilators or quality medical care," advocates wrote. "He contracted the virus in DOC custody, but he could have been granted commutation months ago. He needs your signature."

Cao received that signature two months later. By then, he had recovered from COVID and returned to the barracks.

+2 To limit coronavirus spread in prisons, Louisiana considers releasing some inmates After dozens of Louisiana state prisoners have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, state officials are starting to consider releasing s

Cao was sentenced to 30 years for attempted first-degree murder at age 19, when he shot a bystander accidentally during an altercation, according to his account. State law required him to serve 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Even after waiting five years for the governor's approval, Cao said receiving the signature gave him a new rush of optimism.

"Finally it happened," he said. "God has blessed me  the feeling everyone wants in prison. When you open that big yellow envelope and see that gold seal."

Cao was released in September after the parole board gave final approval, and he enrolled in the Louisiana Parole Project, a Baton Rouge nonprofit that provides support services and housing to people being released from prison after decades behind bars. He has since moved back to his hometown of Houma, where he's staying with his sister.

Being released from prison into the pandemic world of 2020 has been challenging, Cao said, especially because of the job market. He's struggling to find a decent job with a felony record despite the skills he acquired in prison, like carpentry, public speaking and inventory and warehouse operations.

In the meantime, he's working at his brother's convenience store. His relatives pooled their money and bought him a car. He's still getting used to his new iPhone.

"I'm behind the times, I'm in uncharted territory," he said.

He thinks often about the friends he left behind in prison, many of whom are similarly awaiting a signature. He wants to help them from the outside, to be their voice and advocate on their behalf, but the enormity of the task can be paralyzing.

Records show there are more than 100 Louisiana inmates who have received favorable decisions from the pardon board under Edwards but have not received his signature.

Advocates argue the commutation cases that make it past the pardon board have been thoroughly vetted by the expert panel, which collects all available data and records showing the inmate's accomplishments and disciplinary history in prison, solicits statements from their victims and uses algorithms to calculate their likelihood of committing another crime once released.

Kerry Myers, deputy director of the Louisiana Parole Project, cites research showing that people "age out" of crime, meaning their likelihood of getting rearrested decreases the older they get and the longer they spend behind bars.

"Punishment has diminishing returns when it ignores rehabilitation and risk  and the only remaining purpose is retribution," he said. "That's where the clemency process comes in."

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Prime Minister Florin Citu spoke on the phone today with his French counterpart Jean Castex, reiterating on the occasion the importance of French companies in the process of Romania's economic relaunch.

"I had my first conversation as Prime Minister with my French counterpart, Mr Jean Castex. I was pleased to see the continuity of the long-standing, multi-faceted successful bilateral relations between France and Romania. Apart from discussing pandemic developments and the vaccination process in the two countries, I reiterated the importance of French companies in the process of Romania's economic relaunch. Also, Premier Castex expressed the full support France will further provide Romania for all its projects abroad and not only," Citu wrote on his Facebook page.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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Against this backdrop, the popes action is significant. Francis explained that he was acting in response to a doctrinal development that has highlighted how certain ministries instituted by the church are based on the common condition of being baptized and the royal priesthood received in the sacrament of Baptism. So much for the notion that being an altar boy is a steppingstone to the priesthood or the idea that serving Mass is a manly activity.
Disused: the main entrance at the former Faughan Valley High School site in Drumahoe outside Derry

More than three quarters of a million pounds has been spent in the last five years on the upkeep of Northern Ireland's former school buildings, some of which have been out of use for decades.

Of the total 772,000 spent by the Education Authority on maintaining previous school properties, 234,000 alone has gone on the upkeep of the former Faughan Valley High School site, which has lain vacant for 13 years. The Education Authority is looking to sell off the site in the near future, and confirmed it is in negotiations with a potential purchaser. If any deal is completed it will drastically reduce outgoings on the upkeep of vacant and derelict properties.

Included in the figures are 50 buildings and plots of land which are no longer in educational use, though only three of those are currently listed for sale on the open market.

Three properties have remained in Education Authority hands for over half a century.

Causeway School in Bushmills, Co Antrim has remained vacant for 58 years; Tullybane Primary School in Clougmills for 52 years; and it's been 51 years since Tullygrawley Primary School in Ballymena was in educational use.

Sixteen other properties have been in the hands of the Education Authority for more than 10 years after closure, including the former Dromore Central Primary School, which has been closed for 14 years and cost 34,000 to maintain over the last five.

Land at the former Cavehill Primary School has been maintained for the past 39 years; the former Upper Buckna Primary School in Broughshane for 34 years; and the former Ravernette Primary School in Lisburn has been in Education Authority hands for 24 years.

Other high spends in the last five years include 143,000 on a site at Strabane/Liskey Road; 108,000 on the upkeep of land at the site of the old Orangefield High School in Belfast; 63,000 on Ebrington Primary School in Londonderry, which hasn't been operational for the past three years; and 60,000 at the vacant Knockbreda High School which has been listed as vacant for the last six years.

A spokesperson for the EA said that while it does seek to keep expenditure to a minimum, the majority of the money is spent on ensuring the buildings are safe.

"When an EA property becomes vacant, it may be put to alternative use, retained for a future educational use or disposed of in line with current guidance from Land and Property Services," a spokesperson said. "In all cases, we manage the expenditure on vacant properties by reducing all associated costs to a minimum while ensuring buildings are safe and secure.

"We are currently exploring development options with a potential purchaser for the former Faughan Valley High School site and buildings."

The figures, obtained in an Assembly question by SDLP MLA Colin McGrath, also revealed that the amount spent by the Education Authority on rates for school buildings has increased by almost 10m over the past five years and now stands at almost 50m a year across all district council areas.

Education Authority properties in Belfast account for the largest proportion of the rates bill, with 9.69m spent in the 2020-21 calendar year.
Tens of thousands of Americans donate clothing each year during the holiday season to benefit people in need. They do not expect their goodwill to get noticed by the press.

Rubenstein Public Relations thinks otherwise. It put out a press release to get some ink about its drive to donate coats and other winter items to benefit the Salvation Armys Greater New York division.

We are committed to supporting the city and region where we live and work and are pleased to play a small role in helping New Yorkers in need, said CEO Richard Rubenstein in the release.

Rubenstein Public Relations also recently delivered doughnuts to EMS workers at six stations throughout Manhattan to express gratitude for their daily sacrifices, according to the Jan. 16 release.

There is no word whether coffee accompanied those doughnuts.

Welcome to the powerhouse gang. Marina Maher Communications issued an over-the-top Jan. 15 release to announce three executive promotions and a new hire.

The headline thundered: Marina Maher Communications Appoints Powerhouse Group of Leaders Across Strategy, Creative and Business Transformation to Deepen Business Impact. Wow!

Good luck to MMCs new chief strategy officer Amy Inzanti; executive creative director James Ferber; group creative director, content innovation Brit Till; and managing director, business strategist Ivette Sanz Osso, who joined the Omnicom unit from Interpublics DeVries.

Much is expected of this powerhouse group of experts with highly coveted expertise, unmatched experience and a unique skillset and mindset.
Directed by Razneesh Razy Ghai, Dhaakad also stars Arjun Rampal and Divya Dutta in pivotal roles.

Kangana Ranaut's upcoming action film Dhaakad is going to have a theatrical release on 1 October. The actor shared a new poster to announce the film's release date. It also stars Arjun Rampal and Divya Dutta in pivotal roles.

Check out the poster here

The film is directed by Razneesh Razy Ghai, a noted ad filmmaker and produced by Sohail Maklai Productions and Asylum Films. The makers had unveiled the teaser of the movie in 2019.

Describing Dhaakad as a "one of a kind female-lead action film," Ranaut had said that if it is received well, there will be no looking back for women in Indian cinema.

"Dhaakad is not only a benchmark film for my career but will be a turning point for Indian cinema as well. Sohel and Razy are my friends, and we have been planning this project for some time. I cant wait to start work on this film," she had earlier said in a statement.

The teaser video clip for the film showed Ranaut wielding machine guns at an abandoned factory site. Touted as a high-octane action drama, Dhaakad was initially announced as a Diwali 2020 release, however, it took a set-back due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Meanwhile, Ranaut will be next seen in Thalaivi, a biopic on actor-turned-politician, J Jayalalithaa. Arvind Swami will also play a pivotal role in Thalaivi, which will release in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
National Guard members assisting with processing COVID-19 deaths, placing them into temporary storage at the medical examiner-coroner's office in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan 12, 2021. (Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP, File)

Coronavirus Deaths Rising in 30 US States Amid Winter Surge

NEW YORKCoronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold.

As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants are spreading.

Referring to new versions detected in Britain, South Africa, and Brazil, Cuomo said, Stop those people from coming here  Why are you allowing people to fly into this country and then its too late?

The U.S. government has already curbed travel from some of the places where the new variants are spreadingsuch as Britain and Braziland recently it announced that it would require proof of a negative COVID-19 test for anyone flying into the country.

But the new variant seen in Britain is already spreading in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) has warned that it will probably become the dominant version in the country by March. The CDC said the variant is about 50 percent more contagious than the virus that is causing the bulk of cases in the United States.

While the variant does not cause more severe illness, it can cause more hospitalizations and deaths simply because it spreads more easily. In Britain, it has aggravated a severe outbreak that has swamped hospitals, and it has been blamed for sharp leaps in cases in some other European countries.

As things stand, many U.S. states are already under tremendous strain. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths is rising in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and on Monday the U.S. death toll surpassed 398,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

One of the states hardest hit during the recent surge is Arizona, where the rolling average has risen over the past two weeks from about 90 deaths per day to about 160 per day on Jan. 17.

Rural Yuma Countyknown as the winter lettuce capital of the U.S.is now one of the states hot spots. Exhausted nurses there are now regularly sending COVID-19 patients on a long helicopter ride to hospitals in Phoenix when they dont have enough staff. The county has lagged on coronavirus testing in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods and just ran out of vaccines.

But some support is coming from military nurses and a new wave of free tests for farmworkers and the elderly in Yuma County.

Amid the surge, a vast effort is underway to get Americans vaccinated, but the campaign is off to an uneven start. According to the latest federal data, about 31.2 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, but only about 10.6 million people have received at least one dose.

In California, the most populous state, counties are pleading for more vaccines as the state tries to reduce a high rate of infection that has led to record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

Although the state last week said anyone age 65 and older can start receiving the vaccine, Los Angeles County and some others have said they dont have enough to inoculate so many people. They are concentrating on protecting health care workers and the most vulnerable elderly in care homes first.

On Monday, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District sent a letter asking for state and county authorization to provide vaccinations at schools for staff, local community membersand for students once a vaccine for children has been approved.

The death rate from COVID-19 in Los Angeles Countyan epicenter of the U.S. pandemicworks out to about one person every six minutes. On Sunday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District suspended some pollution-control limits on the number of cremations for at least 10 days in order to deal with a backlog of bodies at hospitals and funeral homes.

In other areas of the country, officials are working to ensure that people take the vaccine once theyre offered it amid concerns that many people are hesitant to take it. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, in a livestreamed event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, received a shot, and urged other Marylanders to do likewise.

Were all looking forward to the day we can take off and throw away our masks  when we can go out for a big celebration at our favorite crowded restaurant or bar with all our family and friends, Hogan said. The only way we are going to return to a sense of normalcy is by these COVID-19 vaccines.

In New York, Cuomo said the state, which has recorded more than 41,000 deaths, as in a footrace between the vaccination rate and the infection rate. He said federal authorities needed to improve their efforts to get vaccine doses distributed swiftly.

Similar challenges are surfacing worldwide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief on Monday lambasted drugmakers profits and vaccine inequalities, saying its not right that younger, healthier adults in some wealthy countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people or health care workers in poorer countries.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began WHOs executive board meeting by lamenting that one poor country received a mere 25 vaccine doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.

Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income countrynot 25 million, not 25,000just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure, Tedros said. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokeswoman identified it as Guinea.

Tedros nonetheless hailed the scientific achievement behind rolling out coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the pandemic erupted in China.

Vaccines are the shot in the arm we all need, literally and figuratively, Tedros said. But we now face the real danger that even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the worlds of the worlds haves and have-nots.

By David Crary
New Delhi: A delegation of All India Sajjadanashin Council (AISSC) comprising of 20 Sajjada Nasheens of prominent shrines (Dargahs) of India on Monday (January 18, 2021) met the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and discussed the current threats posed to peace and harmony in the country by the radical forces.

The delegation highlighted that shrines have always played a pivotal role in the promotion of peace and harmony throughout the world, especially in India and said that almost all the shrines across India are model National integration Centres.

The Chairman of AISSC Syed Naseeruddin Chisti requested the government to take measures to safeguard the rights, interests and privileges of Sajjada Nasheens.

On behalf of the Council, the AISSC Chairman also suggested creating an All India Dargah Board and also appointing a Minister of State for Dargah affairs.

The Chief Patron of the Council, who is also Spiritual Head of Ajmer, Dewan Sahab Dargah Ajmer Sharif, highlighted the fact that the radical forces are gaining strength because of the negligence of Sajjada Nasheens and Sufi culture.

Dewan Sahab requested NSA Ajit Doval to represent the feelings of AISSC at the highest level in the government for the sake of peace and prosperity in India and the Council unanimously offered its full support in the fight against all forms of radicalisation.

The AISSC requested Government of India to announce a National policy for the welfare and development of Dargahs in which the right of the Sajjadanashin must be protected.

NSA Doval appreciated the important role played by Muslims in nation-building and the pivotal role of Dargahs in promoting peace, communal harmony, love and brotherhood. He also assured to convey the issues discussed to the Government.

The Council through an official press release wished success, good health to all the citizens of the country on behalf of Dargahs on the occasion of India's Republic Day.

"AISSC has shown its wish to NSA for the overall development of the masses irrespective of religion, caste and creed," the release said.

It added, "The NSA patiently heard our views and assured us of fullest cooperation in safeguarding the interest of every citizen of India."
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Question Everything! Purpose and Intent of this website: 60 years on, Patrice Lumumbas assassination stands as a gruesome reminder of post-colonial brutality By Peter Bolton January 17, 2021 " Information Clearing House " - Exactly 60 years ago today, Congolese national liberation leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated. Those responsible were most likely troops of a rival government acting on behalf of the Congos former colonial master, which had retained a presence in the Central African country. But theres more to the assassination than initially meets the eye. There has been a gradual accumulation of credible evidence that the worlds post-WWII colonial superpower, the US, along with its sidekick the UK, played a hand in the events leading to Lumumbas assassination. The episode remains a bleak reminder of how the West continued to have a brutal role in the Global South, even after its former colonies gained independence. And this kind of self-interested meddling still continues to this very day. The Congos first democratic leader, elected then killed Lumumba was the Congos first democratically elected leader following the countrys independence from Belgium in 1960. He became prime minister after his party, the Congolese National Movement (MCN in its French initials), won the first democratic elections in its history. But though Lumumba was an immensely popular figure at home, he had already earned powerful enemies on the international stage. His decision to make contact with the Soviet Union certainly raised eyebrows. But it was his firmly stated desire to use the Congos resource wealth for the benefit of the countrys own people that attracted the most ire. And as an African nationalist and outspoken proponent of anti-colonialism, he was seen as a potential threat to Western interests throughout the continent. When Congos former colonial master Belgium, which still had troops in the country, backed a rival, pro-Western secessionist government, Lumumba was quickly arrested. Shortly after, on 17 January 1961, Lumumba was assassinated by a firing squad under Belgian command. The circumstances surrounding his death remained mysterious for decades. Belgium long denied involvement in his assassination, but eventually issued an official apology for its role in 2002. Evidence pointing to involvement of the US Subsequent revelations indicate that parties other than Belgium were involved in Lumumbas killing. In fact, theres evidence that the US shares partial responsibility for the events leading up to his death. No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Newsletter In 1975, a congressional committee admitted that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had plotted to eliminate Lumumba. This was due to fears that he might become Africas answer to Fidel Castro. Declassified US intelligence documents subsequently revealed that the leader of the rival Congolese government that had detained Lumumba received arms and financial support directly from the CIA. Though direct US involvement in the assassination has never been decisively proven, theres no doubt that there were multiple CIA plots to have him killed, including one that could have involved putting poison into his toothpaste. Its also undeniable that the US had a motive. It had long benefited from exploitation of the Congos resources and even used Congolese uranium in the bombs it dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the aftermath of Lumumbas death, the US made sure it secured its interests by providing the new Western-friendly government with generous paramilitary support. and the UK And theres evidence suggesting UK involvement as well. In 2013, a member of the House of Lords claimed that an MI6 officer based in the Congo at the time admitted to him that Lumumba was killed as part of a British intelligence-led Cold War operation. The MI6 officer was Daphne Park, and the peer made this claim in a letter to the London Review of Books. He wrote: I mentioned [to Park] the uproar surrounding Lumumbas abduction and murder, and recalled the theory that MI6 might have had something to do with it. We did, [Park] replied, I organised it. He added that Park implied the decision was predicated on control of the countrys natural resources and Lumumbas possible future alliance with the Soviet Union: We went on to discuss her contention that Lumumba would have handed over the whole lot [of the resources] to the Russians: the high-value Katangese uranium deposits as well as the diamonds and other important minerals largely located in the secessionist eastern state of Katanga. Today, Lumumba is remembered as both a national hero in the Congo and as an important martyr in the cause of Third World liberation throughout Africa and the wider Global South. His assassination remains a dark reminder that the Wests self-interested meddling in former colonies continued even after the granting of national independence. And sadly, this meddling continues right up to the present day. - " Source " - Post your comment below Registration is necessary to post comments. We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive language. Please be respectful of others. See also Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists By Patrice Lumumba - June 30, 1960 Transcript Men and women of the Congo, Victorious independence fighters, I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government. I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom. Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood. It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us. That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten. We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones. Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were "Negroes". Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as "tu", not because he was a friend, but because the polite "vous" was reserved for the white man? We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might. We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others. We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself. We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions were for the whites and the tumbledown huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for "Europeans"; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins. Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination? All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering. But we, who were elected by the votes of your representatives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we tell you that henceforth all that is finished with. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our beloved country's future is now in the hands of its own people. Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness. Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour. We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa. We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children. We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble. We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights. We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country. We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill. And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship. Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while remaining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made. Thus, both in the internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can. I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad. I ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking. Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country's prosperity. The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent. Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country. I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence. Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation! Long live independence and African unity! Long live the independent and sovereign Congo! Must Watch: Belgian Congo (Documentary): White King, Red Rubber, Black Death 500 Years is Long Enough! Human Depravity in the Congo DRC: How the CIA got Patrice Lumumba

Martin Luther King Jr. Day has become, for me, a day of personal meditation and reflection on todays political activism. The theme is always on the responsibilities of citizens to strengthen American democracy. This entails a patriotism that asks why We the People have yet to realize our fullest potential as a tolerant, inclusive, participatory democracy.

As a professor of political science for 49 years, I am, today, questioning how effective I have been as an exemplar of a person who comprehends the deep meaning of the words freedom, liberty and the commonwealth.

To fully understand these principles, I have, since graduate school, returned to the historian Richard Hofstadters writing on the paranoid aspect of American politics. Knowing the paranoia we, as a country, have faced throughout our history is necessary to enable us to transcend todays numerous unfounded and outlandish conspiracy theories and undemocratic movements.

As a professor at St. Marys University, founded by the Society of Mary, I have discovered a wonderful framework for reflecting on the deep meaning of democracy. The Marianist philosophy and pedagogy aims to educate for formation in faith; for service, justice and peace; and for adaptation and change.

Additionally, I rely upon the richness of Catholic social teaching, the Catholic intellectual tradition and papal encyclicals, beginning with Pope Leo XIIIs treatise, Rerum Novarum, in 1891 to todays writings by Pope Francis. These documents provide one with a background for understanding democracy holistically  that is, the interrelatedness of political, sociocultural, economic and ecological issues.

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It is important for students to have mentors who educate and train them in understanding the structural and institutional injustices that prevent our country from realizing democracy. And to organize movements to move the country closer to an ideal, an ideal which, in my view, cannot be attained through violent means. Young citizens must be trained in nonviolent civil resistance.

In order to have students understand this type of education and training, I am using MLK Day to reflect on the strategy, tactics and courage of the young African Americans who participated in the lunch counter sit-ins at the segregated Woolworths department store in Greensboro, N.C., as well as those who were Freedom Riders on buses driving through the segregated South.

King and the leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference educated the young activists to understand that civic engagement is participatory readiness for political engagement. This is critical as today the word civic is considered safe and nonthreatening to the establishment. The hesitancy to balance civic and political engagement illustrates a lack of equilibrium in our current vocabulary, reflecting an absence of any single, unified conception of what it means to participate in public life.

On this MLK Day, we need to understand that while the young activists in Greensboro and Freedom Riders were focused directly on making democracy meaningful for African Americans, they were indirectly strengthening democracy for all Americans.

Larry Hufford is a professor of political science and international relations at St. Marys University.
Ms. Fisher disputed the idea that her group is anti-vaccine. The organization does not make vaccine use recommendations and encourages everyone to become fully informed about the risks and complications of infectious diseases and vaccines, she said.

Del Bigtree, the founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, also objected to being described as anti-vaccination, saying his group opposes the distribution of products that are not properly safety-tested. He does not consider the Covid-19 vaccines safe, he said.

The loan allowed his organization, near Austin, Texas, to retain 10 jobs, he said.

We used the loan just as it was designed, Mr. Bigtree said.

Several of the groups have been penalized by Facebook for making misleading claims, according to Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman.

A page run by Dr. Tenpenny was removed in December for violating the sites policy on misinformation, Ms. Lever said. The National Vaccine Information Center and Childrens Health Defense are barred from advertising on Facebook. Both groups pages, along with the Facebook page for the Informed Consent Action Network, have been removed from Facebooks algorithmic recommendations system, which diminishes their visibility on the site.

The Paycheck Protection Program distributed $523 billion to more than five million small companies from April to August to help them endure the shutdowns and other economic shocks caused by the pandemic. So long as recipients use most of the money to pay workers and comply with other rules, the loans are eligible to be fully forgiven and paid off by the U.S. government.

Congress recently allocated $284 billion to restart the program, and hard-hit organizations  those whose sales have dropped by at least 25 percent since the pandemic took hold  are eligible for a second loan. Ms. Fisher said her group does not intend to apply for another loan.
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GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VII Ventures (pronounced 'Seven Ventures') has today confirmed its position as the lead investor in Jumbotail's Series B3 funding round. Jumbotail is an online wholesale marketplace and new retail platform for grocery and food items, based in India, serving more than 30,000 Kirana (mom & pop grocery) stores via its full stack e-commerce model. The $14.2 million Series B3 fundraise, which follows an $11 million Series B2 round in October 2020, will allow Jumbotail to scale its business to new geographies, expand its private label portfolio, partner with more FMCG brands and to grow its network of J24 modern convenience omnichannel grocery stores in partnership with mom & pop entrepreneurs.

With more than 95% of India's $450B food and grocery market flowing through over 12 million Kirana stores these stores are the tried-and-true economic engine of India. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, traditional supply chains serving these stores ground to a screeching halt. "Jumbotail's ecommerce marketplace and its highly resilient supply chain, built on a proprietary in-house technology platform, allowed the company to serve its customers every single day of the lockdown  thereby winning the trust of thousands of mom & pop retailers as well as that of hundreds of FMCG brands," said Ashish Jhina, Cofounder & COO of Jumbotail.

"The food and grocery industry is one that was completely upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, and yet Jumbotail has continued to grow and execute at extraordinary levels," said Chadi Hajjar, Managing Director at VII Ventures. "We believe in the company's vision and have been impressed by the rapid growth of their business in such a short time span. Jumbotail has huge potential and scalability for domestic and international growth, and we look forward to working with them in the next step of their journey."

Karthik Venkateswaran, Cofounder & CEO of Jumbotail said, "The VII Ventures team has shown great conviction, and a solid understanding of our business. The Fund's investment directors are successful entrepreneurs with deep experience in building and scaling businesses. We are excited to partner with them and learn from their expertise to help scale Jumbotail to the next level."

Jumbotail, founded in 2015 by Stanford Business School classmates, S.Karthik Venkateswaran, and Ashish Jhina, operates a food and grocery ecosystem consisting of an online marketplace that connects mom & pop grocery retailers (Kiranas) with FMCG brands and food manufacturers, a supply chain & logistics platform, a fintech platform for SME lending, and a retail platform that powers its J24 branded convenience grocery stores. The company has raised $40M prior to its current fundraise.

Hajjar continued: "At VII Ventures, we look for people, products and platforms that aim to harness technology to solve the world's biggest problems. Despite all of the disruption the world has seen over the last year, we are optimistic for the future. We have an excellent pipeline of opportunities that we believe will drive long-term growth and success. I feel confident that the firm will continue to grow and thrive in 2021, and I am excited about the chance we have to help world-changing companies move forward."

Notes to Editors

For all VII Ventures media enquiries, please contact Alan Morgan at Kendal Advisory. [email protected]. +44 (0)7871485975.

SOURCE VII Ventures

It still may be a half-dozen or more years before Joseph Noveratis nerves are rattled by up to 200 tram train horns a day alerting everyone and everything on the tracks ahead that it is coming down the line.

But Noverati, of Woodbury, is sounding the alarm now. He is warning neighbors and anyone who will listen that he thinks a cheaper, and yes quieter, alternative to the proposed light rail destined to connect Camden to Glassboro would better suit their needs.

He wants a new fleet of environmentally clean hydrogen-powered busses to connect the thriving residential growth communities sprouting from the former farmland of Gloucester County to transportation hubs in Camden.

Meanwhile, an 18-year effort to connect Glassboro  home to the boomtown that is Rowan University  to Camden with a $2 billion light-rail line continues to chug along as the not-so-little engine that could.

Hearings for a long-stalled environmental impact study for the project were held in November. Now NJ Transit, the Delaware River Port Authority and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who represents Gloucester and Camden counties and is a major backer of the effort, are pushing for engineering plans and federal money to complete the project within the next six years.

But Noverati and 1,700 others in a social media group he joined  Say No to GCL  hope to derail the project they think will be a public nuisance, too costly and environmentally dirty.

Im worried about property values and I think it will be detrimental to the environment, said Noverati, who bought his first home on Progress Avenue in Woodbury in 2019. Its like we dont have a say in where our tax dollars go for a train that is not going to benefit 98% of the people in the towns it runs through.

Believe it or not, the point man for the project hears him.

These are real concerns, Jeffrey Nash, the vice-chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, which is managing the development of the project for NJ Transit, said Thursday. People are concerned about noise and grade crossings. Those are real meaningful concerns that have to be addressed.

Nash, who is also a Camden County commissioner, said he listened to every minute of two virtual public hearing in November for the rollout of the environmental statement of how an 18-mile rail line can be fit into existing Conrail right of ways for what he thinks is a vital infrastructure initiative.

Everybody recognizes that South Jersey has drawn the short straw when it comes to rail transportation, he said. Thats the reason Route 42 is the third most congested traffic jam in the state of New Jersey and that includes traffic leading to and from the Lincoln Tunnel.

There are trains running already less than two blocks from Noveratis home. They run on existing Conrail freight line, part of tracks that have coursed through Woodbury and many other nearby towns for generations. The towns were often built and grew because there was a rail line.

The plan for the GCL is to run largely along existing tracks and right of ways concurrently with freight trains, separated by about 25 feet on separate tracks.

But 14 new stations also need to be built which calls for the acquisition of 142 properties in Gloucester County and 74 in Camden County along the route, including 55 in Glassboro and 30 in Camden.

A projected path of the Glassboro-Camden rail line.

There are better options, said Ryan Campbell, 32, a homeowner from Mantua who is also a member of the Say No to GCL group. Why are we paying for a diesel train when can have hydrogen busses?

Campbell said he is concerned about emissions from diesel engines and doubts enough riders will be attracted to the line to ease traffic on the I-295, Route 42, I-76 corridor.

These concerns are very real, Nash said. If residents feel these issues have to be addressed, the best way to address them is to have public forums to hear people and see if those concerns can be addressed. Sometimes you can resolve problems by listening and coming up with creative solutions to fix it.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission estimates Gloucester Countys population and employment will grow by 29% through 2045. Its the highest projected growth rate in the region.

You look to the north and they have a spider web of trains going to and from New York City, Nash said. Look at southeastern PA and you see a spiderweb of SEPTA rail going from the suburbs to Philadelphia. Look at South Jersey and you have a vein, PATCO, extending from Lindenwold to 16th and Locust and a seldom-used NJ Transit train going to Atlantic City. Even with the River Line, if you compared southeast PA and North Jersey it is an embarrassingly small sample size.

Approximately 30 NJ Transit bus lines operate in the region, including five routes that run parallel to all or part of the GCL corridor, serving the communities targeted by this project. But the I-295, Route 42, I-76 corridor, even with a nearly $1 billion bypass project that has been in construction for the past decade, remains clogged.

Noverati and Campbell are also worried that ridership projections of 16,000 daily by 2040 could be inaccurate in the wake of a post-COVID-19 pandemic.

The post-COVID world is not going to revert to everyone at home, Nash said. Thats just not practical.

Nash said the next step is for the GCL to seek federal money for engineering plans. He said the project has adhered to federal development guidelines which has accounted for how long it has taken to get to this stage.

The project has also received $200 million in design support from recent increases of tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.


[January 18, 2021] CES 2021 Taiwan's First Telerehab System Anticipates High Demand for Remote Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic

TAIPEI, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospitals and healthcare systems across the world are looking at telehealth strategies to connect with patients in remote locations. This trend has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. With heavy risks from in-person medical checkups, it is anticipated that virtual visits and remote patient monitoring tech will be the main drivers of growth in the telehealth market sector through the foreseeable future. LongGood, Taiwan's first rehabilitation software development company, was established long before the pandemic. The company developed its TeleRehabilitation system to help hospitals deliver rehabilitation training and monitor patient progress remotely using only one motion sensor per patient, which is deployed in patient homes. LongGood was selected by Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) as one of the 100 featured Taiwanese startups showcased at CES 2021. "We have developed rehabilitation training programs and physical fitness assessment tools that allow patients to receive high-quality intervention services anytime, anywhere. Our system is designed with medical professionals and has been used extensively in any medical centers and related institutions. It not only increases patients' motivation in training but also saves lots of time for both therapists and patients," said Ray Chen, CEO of LongGood.



Leveraging Cloud Technology to Its Advantage Combined with a cloud platform that generates real-time data, LongGood's rehabilitation system allows medical practitioners to monitor patients' training performances and arrange suitable training based on individual patient needs.

Using the LongGood platform, therapists can arrange personalized training remotely based on patient needs. LongGood Cloud provides over 100 gamified training programs that allow medical practitioners to design personalized training courses and assign these to the corresponding patients. Training results are visualized, allowing medical practitioners to easily track their patients' training progress. Furthermore, patients and their families are better able to understand the results of the interventions. LongGood systems also save time, as they allow medical practitioners to manage multiple cases more efficiently. The company also released "GaitBest," a gait analysis tool. "Different from portable or inch-by-inch gait analysis, LongGood provides a simple and fast solution. You only have to stand in front of the camera and walk forward for 5 meters. The system will immediately analyze the spatiotemporal parameters, saving lots of time," notes LongGood Product Manager Meng-Cheh Shih, who worked as a physical therapist prior to joining LongGood. Well Established in Taiwan Because LongGood is a pioneer in Taiwan, it has already gained the trust of many leading hospitals in the country. Their systems are used in many first-tier medical centers, including Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, and multiple Taipei District Health Center locations (Daan, Zhongshan, Datong, Wanhua), among others. Since its inception in 2011, LongGood has received many citations and awards, including the 2019 HQIC award, 2018 2 SNQ Award with Acute Stroke Patient treatment @TSGH, and 2016 Grant Recipient, Taiwan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, among others. LongGood has worked with DBS Bank, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and National Development Council (NDC). Years of Persistence in Rehabilitation Ray Chen is the engine driving the LongGood operation. Chen has over a decade of experience in the medical equipment industry. He founded LONGGOOD MEDITECH in 2011 to provide comprehensive rehabilitation training and assessment tools. Chen earned his MS in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering, and M.Eng in Biomedical and Medical Engineering from National Taiwan University. He was also a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. Prior to founding LongGood, he gained professional experience as a system manager of advanced imaging systems in a medical center and as a product manager in a medical device company. CES 2021 TTA-VR Pavilion: https://pse.is/3bk47k View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ces-2021-taiwans-first-telerehab-system-anticipates-high-demand-for-remote-healthcare-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-301209917.html SOURCE LongGood

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US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

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Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

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Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

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Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

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Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 20:42:30|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's express delivery giant SF Holding on Monday reported notable revenue growth in its core business in December 2020.

SF Holding last month saw its express delivery revenue rise 30.77 percent year on year to about 14.74 billion yuan (about 2.27 billion U.S. dollars), the company said in a report filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Its business volume increased 48.97 percent from a year earlier to about 870 million pieces of mail.

During the reporting period, its supply chain business revenue came in at 868 million yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 50.69 percent. Enditem
To light the path to a better world where all of us see ourselves in the faces of strangers.  Maxine Cohen, HMMSA Founding Director

The Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio will be offering a week of special programming to help Texas schools fulfill the educational mandates set by the state with the passage of Senate Bill 1828. The event will include virtual presentations each day of the week of Monday, January 25 thru Friday, January 29, 2021.

To register: https://www.hmmsa.org/thrw-2021

During Remembrance Week, educators around the state will be providing age-appropriate instruction for all their students about the Holocaust using materials created, or approved by, the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. The Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio is honored to have been selected by the TH&GC as a recommended resource for educators and source of educational materials for use during the Holocaust Remembrance Week.

The HMMSA will be offering twenty special topic presentations during the week along with a variety of teacher workshops and resources leading up to the event. The focus of the lectures will be on instilling in the students, educators, and general audience Elie Wiesels message that the opposite of love is not hate, its indifference.

The museum will be offering 2 live virtual presentations each day (January 25-29, 2021) through Zoom Webinar. All live presentations will be recorded and can also be viewed on our website. HMMSA will also be providing 2 prerecorded video presentations each day (January 25-29, 2021) on the website that will be available on-demand.

ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM OF SAN ANTONIO

To light the path to a better world where all of us see ourselves in the faces of strangers.  Maxine Cohen, HMMSA Founding Director

The Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio opened its doors to the public at its current location in May 2000 and is the only museum dedicated to Holocaust history and education in Southwest Texas. Each year, thousands of students, educators, and visitors experience the museum where they learn about the dangers of hatred, anger, and apathy.

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No 5| Hong Kong International Airport | Construction cost: $31.5 billion. (Image: Reuters)

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nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Shiv Kapoor

While we are inundated daily with news articles on COVID-19 infection rates across the world, one challenge with comparing infection rates across countries is not knowing how testing standards and accuracy vary by country.

For example, it is possible to get a false result if the swabs are not inserted far enough up the nose during an RT-PCR test. Also, there may be asymptomatic cases resulting in people never even testing. One way to get around this challenge is by looking at test data across countries administered by a single authority using the same standards for all.

The Hong Kong SAR government has imposed mandatory testing for all incoming passengers, whether or not they show symptoms or already have a negative result. With passengers arriving from multiple countries at Hong Kong airport, and a controlled system for testing, the Hong Kong Center for Health Protections data on infected arriving passengers provides a non-biased platform for comparisons.

I decided to study this as part of a research paper I am doing for my IB (International Baccalaureate) degree at the American Embassy School, New Delhi, using data sourced from the Hong Kong government, airport, news reports, and Fightradar24. The data covered approximately 5400 passenger flights that arrived in Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) in October and November 2020, from 36 countries on 52 different airlines and from 70 originating cities. Over this period, a total of 253 passengers tested positive on entry into the region.

In addition to testing all arriving passengers, Hong Kong required passengers arriving from or transiting through what they classified as high-risk countries, namely Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ukraine, to take RT-PCR tests within 72 hours prior to departure as well in the originating countries, and board only after the airline checked for the negative test result. Passengers from these countries are then required to take another test after landing.

The findings were very interesting. The analysis showed that every flight from Nepal and India carried COVID-positive cases, while half the fights from Turkey and a quarter of the flights from Germany and Qatar had positive cases. On average, a flight from Nepal had 10 positive cases, and from India, 4, despite passengers producing COVID-negative test results on departure. (See Table 1 for the 10 worst performing countries)

While the table above shows the 10 worst performers, several countries  including Taiwan, China, and Australia  had zero infected originating passengers. These countries are known to have contained COVID-19 more effectively.

Oddly, the US had just 4 infected passengers across 119 flights, performing much better than one might expect. However, this is likely a result of fewer passengers on each flight going through more reliable screening facilities available in the USA.

In terms of originating cities, Kathmandu plus all four Indian originating cities had at least one infected passenger on every flight. On average, flights from Mumbai and Chennai had 5 positive cases each, Delhi 4, and the sole Hyderabad flight had 1. Once again, this was after passengers submitted a COVID negative test result on departure. (See Table 2 below for the 20 worst performing cities.)

In terms of worst-performing airlines, Nepal Airlines, along with the three Indian airlines that operated flights to Hong Kong (Air India, Vistara, and SpiceJet), had infected passengers on all flights. Royal Flight Russia also earned this dubious distinction. Nepal Airlines had an average of 10 infected passengers per flight, Air India 5.5, Vistara 2.5, and Royal Flight and SpiceJet 1 each. Nepal Airlines and Air India also got banned by Hong Kong 3 times each in the Oct-Nov 2020 period, and Vistara once, for breaching acceptable thresholds of infected passengers on their flights.

It should be noted that Qatar Airways and SWISS (the 9th and 11th worst performer overall respectively) also managed to get banned once each during this period. Each ban was for 14 days (see Table 3 below).

What can we take away from all this?



Testing may not be very thorough or standardized in these countries, OR

Test results are falsified (this is a possibility; Dubai recently blacklisted several labs in India after seeing a pattern of negative test results from those labs for positive cases) OR

People caught the virus in the 72 hours after testing, or on the flight (less likely, as it typically takes 5 days for the virus to be detectable in tests)



Unsurprisingly, many of the worst performers came from some of the countries that are worst hit by COVID in absolute terms. Intriguingly, most of the countries, cities, and airlines that rank highest on the list also had their originating passengers tested within 72 hours of departure and tested negative. This suggests:

Another possible inference from the data is that asymptomatic or undiagnosed COVID cases in these countries may be much higher than the official numbers indicate, without people even realizing they have or had COVID. However, in India, the number of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths so far is relatively low compared to other countries. This could be because either the strain of COVID in India is less dangerous, or Indians have greater immunity due to the BCG vaccine and less sanitized living conditions leading to regular exposures to various viruses, etc. Who would have thought that these conditions might be a blessing in disguise?

Extrapolating the findings and relating it to air travel in India, the key learning is, there is a high likelihood of COVID-positive passengers, likely asymptomatic, on India flights, given there is no pre-flight testing requirement for domestic flights (and noting again the India-Hong Kong cases were found despite the fact all departing passengers from India were supposedly pre-tested and COVID-free).

This should not unduly alarm readers: modern aircraft cabins and air circulation and ventilation systems are safe and will not spread viruses. However one can still directly breathe in air from infected passengers nearby, just like on the ground, therefore one must not let ones guard down on flights and at airports  masks must always be properly worn covering both nose and mouth, and other COVID-safety norms must be followed at all times. As long as these precautions are taken, flying should be safe.

The author is Shiv Kapoor, a Grade 12 student at the American Embassy School, New Delhi. Shiv would like to acknowledge Danny Lee of the South China Morning Post for his assistance in obtaining raw data for the study.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
The Post and Courier Food section is checking in weekly with four downtown Charleston restaurants coping with the coronavirus pandemic and recovering from restrictions designed to contain it. For previous installments of the series, as well as more information about the four featured restaurants and their chosen strategies for success, click here.

Butcher & Bee: Working together

Even for people who feel comfortable eating in restaurants, meals have gotten a little lonelier since the start of a pandemic. Diners have to choose their companions from within compact social circles, and they cant sidle up to strangers at the bar after eating.

That sense of isolation isnt confined to the dining room. Especially in Charleston, where back-of-house crews tend to be as sociable as their guests out front, the forced hiatus of pop-ups, menu takeovers, visiting chef dinners and kitchen residencies has been felt acutely by restaurant employees.

But as COVID-era operations settle into more predictable rhythms, special events are creeping back on to restaurant calendars. Butcher & Bee, which has always prioritized collaboration, last week announced plans to host the creators of Rosalies Pizza every Wednesday, starting Feb. 10.

Butcher & Bee team members describe the six-week stint as another step toward normalcy.

Were giving them an opportunity to see what its like to run a restaurant, general manager Drisa Lamb says, adding that the arrangement isnt purely for Rosalies benefit: Their pizzas are fire.

Jeremy Williams and Leah Highfield launched their food truck just weeks before lockdown, which didnt stop them from serving Sicilian-style meatless pies in parking lots; by the fall, they were making regular appearances at breweries and in subdivisions, winning over fans with their organic crusts and vegan cheese.

The milk-free mozzarella coincides with what we do here, Lamb says, so the decision to give the couple access to Butcher & Bees ovens was a relatively easy one. The plan is for them to serve three of their pizzas, while Butcher & Bee will offer complementary menu items, such as appetizers and dessert.

We dont open the doors without whipped feta, chef Rick Ohlemacher says, making his co-workers laugh.

Williams and Highfield are just two of many Charleston area food entrepreneurs who used the weirdness of 2020 to their advantage, cultivating a loyal following of eaters willing to look beyond restaurants for culinary thrills.

While Butcher & Bee chief of staff Tara Pate says we havent seen a bunch of inquiries coming in from up-and-comers yet, she isnt ruling out more collaborations with breakout stars: Its nice to have company again.

Harold's Cabin: Doing the math

When The Post and Courier last checked in with Harolds Cabin owner John Schumacher, he had just taken his first COVID test. The results are now in, and hes fine.

At least, he tested negative for the coronavirus. But he didnt shut down his westside restaurant for his health: He continues to worry about COVIDs toll on the community, particularly as last weeks vaccination updates morphed into what looked like an endless chain of hitches and glitches.

Granted, it is the largest vaccination project in our countrys history, and will take some time to coordinate, but Im not holding my breath it will happen anytime soon, he says of the effort to vaccinate 3.5 million South Carolinians, given the low side of 70 percent herd immunity.

As of Friday, South Carolina had administered 146,219 vaccine doses.

In Schumachers mind, thats nowhere near enough. But he hasnt settled on a percentage which would represent the tipping point for reopening.

And even if he could target a certain vaccination total and positivity rate which would signify safer operating conditions, he still cant answer the critical question: When will most customers feel comfortable going out to dine?

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Vintage Lounge: Staving off the dry of January

At Vintage Lounge, owner Nathan Wheeler tunes his by-the-glass list to the weather, so dark and chilly January brings a selection of full-bodied reds.

For many trendsters, though, January means its time to experiment with sobriety.

Dry January already had detractors, with some addiction experts arguing it put alcohol abusers at risk of relapse and didnt offer the support associated with successful recovery. Other arguments against the practice werent so high-minded: Please do not act as if this is some amazing feat of moral superiority, a Grub Street writer instructed, begging social media users to stop bragging about their minor demonstration of willpower.

But that was before the pandemic put bars and restaurants in a financially precarious position. Now those annual flings with wellness represent the loss of much-needed revenue.

As Vintage Lounges near-neighbor Proof recently joked on Instagram, The governor has cancelled sober January. They are working on rescheduling this event for next year.

Charleston Grill took a different approach, announcing last Friday via Instagram that patrons could Resolve to enjoy a night out without all the guilt. Our bar menu features non-alcoholic wine.

Wheeler says he hasnt seen increased demand for mocktails at Vintage Lounge, nor do the wine bars sales appear to have taken a hit from the buzz around a booze-free month. Perhaps like him, Vintages customers respond to the cold of winter by seeking out a glass of wine and a cozy place to drink it.

Chasing Sage: Sushi Saturday

From the day that the Chasing Sage team premiered its rotating pop-up program with a Korean menu called We Got Seoul, it hasnt tried to hide its fondness for wordplay. Its members like puns and rhymes and adore alliteration. Thats why when they decided to serve sushi once a week, they scheduled it for Saturday.

Owner Walter Edward says theyre glad they did. The first Sushi Saturday was one of their highest-grossing nights yet.

When you get ramen, its mellow and comforting, Edward says of their current menu staple. Sushi is more of a thing: People are wanting to be more extravagant.

In other words, its the perfect fit for an evening associated with special meals and celebrations.

Still, general manager Max Clarke says customers didnt abandon ramen just because he was slicing hamachi and treating it with the juice of local satsumas hed pickled: I wondered if it would cannibalize, but it didnt seem to do that.

Clarke is Chasing Sages resident sushi chef, having opened two sushi restaurants in San Diego. When he first moved to Charleston, he spent a few months in the kitchen at O-Ku.

Its a skill thats in high demand and short supply, says Clarke, whos also trained in sake service.

Owner Cindy Edward admits shes not the one driving up demand: Shes never acquired a taste for seafood (although she gamely sampled the pickled sardines that Walter Edward ordered for them on an early date, before theyd had a frank conversation about food preferences.)

But she tried Clarkes sushi and pronounced it really, really good.

According to the Chasing Sage team, customers had the same reaction. The only complaint they heard was from fellow food-and-beverage professionals who work weekends: Theyd like to see the restaurant switch to Sushi Monday.
Two editors of a Manipuri news portal, called The Frontier Manipur, were arrested on Sunday on charges of sedition under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over an article criticizing the states militancy movement.

The two arrested were identified as Frontier Manipur executive editor Paojel Chaoba and editor-in-chief Dhiren Sadokpam. The two journalists have been charged under IPC Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 505(b) (causing alarm to induce offense against the state), and 34 (common intention), as well as the UAPAs Section 39 (supporting terror organization).

According to The Indian Express, the article titled Revolutionary journey in a mess,, was written by one M Joy Luwang and was published on January 8. The FIR registered by the Manipur Police named Luwang and the editors as the perpetrators.

His article clearly expressed sympathy and support to the ideologies and activities of the armed revolutionary groups and outrightly called the rule of law of the Union and State government as colonial law, the FIR by the police read.

Also read: Shocked by JNU Mob Attack, Students Across India Protest; No Arrests Yet But Police Say 'Probing Vital Clues'

However, this is not the first time as several other cases of arrests have been reported from the land of Manipur.

In 2020, Jawaharlal Nehru University research scholar Mohammad Chingiz Khan and Gauhati University assistant professor Mohammad Imtiyaj Khan were charged with sedition after a translation of their old opinion article on issues faced by Manipuri Muslims appeared in a local newspaper.

In late 2018, Kishorchandra Wangkhem (39), was detained for four-and-a-half months under NSA for allegedly derogatory comments against the BJP government in the state and CM N Biren Singh.
YOU cant produce an Irish cookery programme about seafood and not travel to the Rebel County.

Sure enough, Neven Maguire pitches up in Cork in the next episode of his seven-part series Nevens Irish Seafood Trails on RTE1 on Wednesday at 8.30pm.

The chefs first stop is Glengarriff Harbour, where he joins local guide Brian ORourke for a boat tour of Bantry Bay and see a 60- strong seal colony, an eagle, and a pod of friendly dolphins who swim alongside the boat.

A calm day at sea is ideal for on-deck cooking and Neven is joined by chef Eddie Attwell, of the Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff, who shares his recipe for Gin and Blackcurrant Cured Pollock.

The Eccles Hotel dates back to 1745, but Eddie is renowned for being contemporary and innovative using many ingredients he has grown or foraged himself.

Neven then travels south-east to Long Strand Beach, home of The Fish Basket, a fish and chip shop, where he meets owner Peter Shanahan. Here he samples the Fish Baskets signature dish the Sharing Box comprising crispy battered hake, lemon sole, calamari, prawns and chips.

Theres also time to enjoy Peters Fish Tacos. The Fish Baskets ingredients are all locally sourced and fresh.

Neven continues his tour of West Cork as he travels to Union Hall to see how hard our fishing crews work and take a trip on board a trawler.

Although only 22 years old, skipper Charlie Deasy runs a 40ft trawler where he and his crew work long hours in often turbulent sea conditions.

Seven miles out to sea, Neven chats to Charlie as his crew lands a catch of megrims, monkfish and white sole and grades them by hand.

Back in Union Hall, Neven visits Glenmar Shellfish, one of Irelands largest fish processors. He sees the megrims from his trawler trip being expertly hand-filleted ready to be sold.

Nevens recipe this week is versatile and can be cooked using haddock, whiting or hake. He makes Steamed Haddock in Tomato Sauce with Chorizo and Cannellini Beans.

On a similar vein, Cornwall: This Fishing Life returns for a second series on BBC2 on Monday at 9pm.

It starts in the popular tourist resort of Newquay as restrictions begin to ease after the coronavirus lockdown.

It is not a moment too soon for the towns fishermen, most of whom have been tied up for months, and with lost time to catch up on, and livelihoods on the line, the fleet is steaming into a summer like no other.
Six local projects which encourage locals and visitors to get active and get outdoors are to share over 110,000 in funding under investment announced today, Monday, by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys.

The funding has been welcomed by a number of local public representatives including Fine Gael TD, John Paul Phelan and Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Andrew Mc Guinness.

The scheme provides funding for the development, promotion and maintenance of outdoor amenities such as trails, walkways, cycleways and blueways.

Announcing the Kilkenny projects, Deputy Phelan said they would encourage even more people to get out, get active and stay healthy. In Kilkenny, projects to be grant aided include:

- 13,500 for Woodstock

- 20,000 for the Brandon Hill Loop Walk

- 20,000 for the Freshford Loop Walk

- Just under 20,00 for Cois Beatha Riverside Loop Walk

- 20,000 for Kilmacoliver Loop Walk and finally,

- 20,000 for Gattabawn Loop Walk

The funding announced today, under Measure 1 of the Scheme, will support small-scale local projects with funding of up to 20,000 each. It is being announced in partnership with Failte Ireland, who are co-funding the projects in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development. This is a very good news day for all of these communities in a time when we so need good news," Deputy Phelan said.

Meanwhile Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Andrew McGuinness also welcomed the announcement.

"I am delighted to welcome this funding for Kilkenny announced by the Minister and Failte Ireland today as part of the national allocation for 'recreational amenities.

"The lockdown has really shown us how important outdoor physical amenities are for out physical and mental health and I welcome this positive news today."

Also welcoming the news, Deputy John McGuinness said, "supporting communities throughout the county with funding for outdoor activities is vital under our current circumstances and so this comes as positive news that will benefit those local communities greatly."
Ukrainian counterintelligence reported threats from Russia at all times, said Minister for Veterans Affairs Yulia Laputina.

"There was an attempt to secede Crimea. But then, when the blitzkrieg again failed, Russia began to use different, as they say now, hybrid methods. This is the destruction of the financial resources of Crimea, operations were carried out to withdraw, including, through fake advice notes, of all assets of Crimean enterprises in Russia. In addition, there was a general process in the post-Soviet space of criminalization of business, criminal connections with local authorities. Russia used this to penetrate there controlled, including criminals and fighters, to destabilize internal Crimean processes," Laputina said in an interview with Radio Liberty on Saturday, commenting on the situation in the 90s.

According to her, the Security Service then realized that this was a systemic operation of the Russian special services against Ukraine.

In this connection, an operational-investigative group was created in the SBU, which for a long time carried out measures to end actions against the sovereignty of Ukraine.

"During the times of all leaders, Ukrainian counterintelligence wrote analytical documents that were based on certain operational data and analytical information about threats. And one of them, and this is approximately 2008-2009, about what was happening in Crimea. And the first conclusion of our operational and analytical work was that there is a real threat of secession of Crimea. Unfortunately, it happened the way that there was a change of power to a pro-Russian course, and no one paid attention to it. And we even developed proposals on how to neutralize these actions of the Russian special services. A lot of things concerned not only physical influence, but influence on mentality," she added.

At the same time, Laputina complained that then her group was disbanded.

Laputina began her service in the ranks of the SBU in 1992. She worked in the anti-terrorist center of the SBU "Alpha." In 2010-2012, she worked as Deputy Head of the Special Operations Center "A" of SBU.

On December 18, 2020, she was appointed Minister of Veterans Affairs.
SAN FRANCISCO  The Bay Area struck a hard bargain with its tech workers.

Rent was astronomical. Taxes were high. Your neighbors didnt like you. If you lived in San Francisco, you might have commuted an hour south to your job at Apple or Google or Facebook. Or if your office was in the city, maybe it was in a neighborhood with too much street crime, open drug use and $5 coffees.

But it was worth it. Living in the epicenter of a boom that was changing the world was what mattered. The city gave its workers a choice of interesting jobs and a chance at the brass ring.

That is, until the pandemic. Remote work offered a chance at residing for a few months in towns where life felt easier. Tech workers and their bosses realized they might not need all the perks and after-work schmooze events. But maybe they needed elbow room and a yard for the new puppy. A place to put the Peloton. A top public school.

They fled. They fled to tropical beach towns. They fled to more affordable places like Georgia. They fled to states without income taxes like Texas and Florida.

Thats where the story of the Bay Areas latest tech era is ending for a growing crowd of tech workers and their companies. They have suddenly movable jobs and money in the bank  money that will go plenty further somewhere else.

But where? The No. 1 pick for people leaving San Francisco is Austin, Texas, with other winners including Seattle, New York and Chicago, according to moveBuddha, a site that compiles data on moving. Some cities have set up recruiting programs to lure them to new homes. Miamis mayor has been inviting tech people to move there in his Twitter posts.

I talked to more than two dozen tech executives and workers who have left San Francisco for other parts of the country over the past year, like a young entrepreneur who moved home to Georgia and another who has created a community in Puerto Rico. Here are some of their stories.

Ah, the Normal Life

I miss San Francisco. I miss the life I had there, said John Gardner, 35, the founder and CEO of Kickoff, a remote personal training startup, who packed his things into storage and left in a camper van to wander America. But right now its just like: What else can God and the world and government come up with to make the place less livable?

A couple of months later, Gardner wrote: Greetings from sunny Miami Beach! This is about the 40th place Ive set up a temporary headquarters for Kickoff.

Remote personal training happens to coincide well with remote life, but he said his startups growth this past year was also due to his leaving the tech bubble and immersing himself in more normal communities, a few days at a time.

Lucas Foglia/NYT

The biggest tech companies arent going anywhere, and tech stocks are still soaring. Apples flying-saucer-shaped campus is not going to zoom away. Google is still absorbing ever more office space in San Jose and San Francisco. New founders are still coming to town.

But the migration from the Bay Area appears real. Residential rents in San Francisco are down 27% from a year ago, and the office vacancy rate has spiked to 16.7%, a number not seen in a decade.

Though prices had dropped only slightly, Zillow reported more homes for sale in San Francisco than a year ago. For more than a month last year, 90% of the searches involving San Francisco on moveBuddha were for people moving out.

Twitter, Yelp, Airbnb and Dropbox have tried to sublease some of their San Francisco office space. Pinterest, which has one of the most iconic offices in town, paid $90 million to break a lease for a site where it planned to expand. And companies like Twitter and Facebook have announced work from home forever plans.

Moving into a $1.3 million house that we saw only on video for 20 minutes and said yes, wrote Mike Rothermel, a designer at Cisco who moved from the Bay Area to Boulder, Colorado, with his wife last summer. Its a mansion compared to SF for the same money.

The amount of room they have felt surreal after various Bay Area apartments. He told me they have so much counter space, they can keep appliances like the food processor in the kitchen itself.

Lucas Foglia/NYT

And then the people around them  neighbors  started doing something strange. They brought cinnamon rolls and handwritten welcome notes.

Wait, No Income Tax?

Were selling our house and moving out of SF. Where should we go and why? Justin Kan, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Twitch, asked on Twitter in August.

Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of software company Palantir, which moved from Silicon Valley to Denver, wrote back: Come to Austin with us. Growing tech ecosystem and Texas is the best place to make a stand together for a free society.

Also: no state income taxes.

Austin, population 1 million and the Texas city most would say is closest in spirit to the Bay Area, has long had a healthy tech industry. Computer giant Dell is based nearby. The University of Texas is one of the top public colleges in the country. And the music scene is eclectic and creative.

Now the local tech industry is rapidly expanding. Apple is opening a $1 billion, 133-acre campus. Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook have all either expanded their footprints in Austin or have plans to. Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and one of the two richest men in the world, said he had moved to Texas. Startup investor money is arriving, too: The investors at 8VC and Breyer Capital opened Austin offices last year.

Some of the favorite gurus of tech workers are already there, like Tim Ferriss, life-hacker, who left for Austin in 2017, and Ryan Holiday, whose writing about stoicism is influential among the startup set.

Sahin Boydas, the founder of a remote-work startup who had lived in San Francisco and its suburbs over the last decade, saw all of that. He looked at his wife and two young children, working and learning from home while crammed into a Cupertino rental that had seen better days. Much of the late summer, the air was full of smoke from wildfires. For days, electricity would go in and out at his house.

You start to feel stupid, said Boydas, who is 37. I can understand the 1% rich people, the very top investors and entrepreneurs, they can be happy there.

So he and his family moved to Austin. For the same price as their three-bedroom apartment in Cupertino, they have a five-bedroom home on an acre of land. For the first time, Boydas has outdoor space. He just acquired two rabbits for his children. Sure, its (very) hot, but hes ready for it.

Were going to get a cat and a dog, he said. We could never do that before.

And its not just the cost of rent that is lower  the water bill is lower; the trash bill is lower; the cost of a family dinner at a restaurant has fallen significantly. Boydas said he hadnt even known about the taxes.

I run payroll for myself, and when I saw zero, I called the accountant like theres an error  theres no tax line here, he said. And they were like, Yeah theres no tax.

Nevermind the Mosquitoes

Ok guys hear me out, what if we move Silicon Valley to Miami, tweeted Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund, which invests in startups.

The mayor of Miami wrote back last month: How can I help?

Now there is a very vocal Miami faction, led by a few venture capital influencers, trying to tweet the citys startup world into existence.

The San Francisco exodus means the talent and money of newly remote tech workers are up for grabs. And its not just the mayor of Miami trying to lure them in.

Topeka, Kansas, started Choose Topeka, which will reimburse new workers $10,000 for the first year of rent or $15,000 if they buy a home. Tulsa, Oklahoma, will pay you $10,000 to move there. The nation of Estonia has a new residency program just for digital nomads.

A program in Savannah, Georgia, will reimburse remote workers $2,000 for the move there, and the city has created various social activities to introduce the newcomers to one another and to locals.

We try to make the transition easy, said Jennifer Bonnett, vice president of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Savannah Economic Development Authority, whose program started in June.

Keyan Karimi, 29 and a startup investor, took Savannahs invitation to move there (though he didnt ask for the reimbursement).

Seeing the inequality of billionaires in San Franciscos wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood and the homeless camps down the hill ground on him. So Karimi went home to his parents house in Atlanta to ride out some of the pandemic. Then he detected something strange. The city he thought was boring had gotten pretty interesting. Or maybe he had just never noticed before.

Stephen B. Morton/NYT

I had no idea how much was going on here. I was sort of myopic, he said, pausing and correcting himself: No, I was arrogant.

Karimi started looking at Zillow and studying the Southern cities he had ignored. He likes old houses and wants to fix one up. Savannah has a lot of those. So just a few months after leaving his $4,000-a-month one-bedroom in San Francisco, hes working with the local business development group to put together a maritime innovation center in Savannah to invest in and guide shipping and logistics startups. He bought one of those old houses.

Savannah has one of the largest ports in the country. No one knows that, Karimi said. I figure we can do something with that.

The only downside is mosquitoes, he said. I get eaten alive.

There are 33,000 members in the Facebook group Leaving California and 51,000 in its sister group, Life After California. People post pictures of moving trucks and links to Zillow listings in new cities.

The founder of both groups, Terry Gilliam, is planning to take members on a house-hunting road trip through eastern Tennessee this spring with stops in popular post-San Francisco destinations. One tour will be Chattanooga, Knoxville and Johnson City.

When people decide to leave San Francisco, they usually dont know where they want to go, they just want to go, Gilliam said.

Gilliam, who met his wife when they worked at a Bay Area Chilis restaurant, said she wouldnt let the family move yet. And so the Pied Piper of the California-bashing Facebook community is still in Fremont, on the eastern end of Silicon Valley.

The Gangs All ... Here Now

People always get pissed at me when they hear birds in my Zoom, said Ed Zaydelman, a longtime leader in San Franciscos Burning Man community (and former New York City club promoter), who is forming an entrepreneur community in Costa Rica. And I say, Come join. 

If San Francisco of the 2010s proved anything, its the power of proximity. Entrepreneurs could find a dozen startup pitch competitions every week within walking distance. If they left a big tech company, there were startups eager to hire, and if a startup failed, there was always another.

They could live jammed into a rambling Victorian with fellow nerds who  thanks to the popularity of polyamory  were having a lot of sex. More money was made faster in the Bay Area by fewer people than at any other time in American history.

No one leaving the city is arguing that a culture of innovation is going to spring up over Zoom. So some are trying to recreate it. They are getting into property development, building luxury tiny-home compounds and taking over big, funky houses in old resort towns.

All these people want to do is this live-on-the-land stuff, but its not as easy as people think, Zaydelman said.

He calls his new development company Nookleo, and he is building five tiny-home communities for remote workers. The little houses cost between $30,000 and $40,000. Each compound has four to six homes, a small organic farm, a yoga deck, a swimming pool and a kitchen clubhouse. Two clusters are already underway in Costa Rica, with Mexico and Portugal next.

In Puerto Rico, Gillian Morris, founder of travel app Hitlist, is also recruiting. Her San Francisco breaking point came after her roommate was attacked on their street, and she did a sort of gut check of herself over whether the street scenes and feeling of danger were worth the high rent. She moved to San Juan in 2019, even though it also has a crime problem. But now she lives in a huge house in the middle of the city.

I have 12 people leaving San Francisco over the next three months to join a co-living community I set up, she said. Its amazing here.

And for the Baja-leaning, there is Bear Kittay, a co-founder of Good Money, an online banking platform. Now Kittay, another longtime fixture of the Burning Man festival turned developer, is building a property for the new digital nomads.

The things that make this city ill are not within my control to change, he said of San Francisco. A lot of people are choosing to go to places where theres opportunity, and maybe its a place that is more conservative and there can be an integration of dialogue. Or a place where they can live closer to nature. Thats what were doing.

Nikil Viswanathan, who co-founded blockchain startup Alchemy, recently fled San Francisco. He said that there was no reason anymore for him or his colleagues to be there, and that he had always wanted to live on the beach. So now he does, in San Diego.

But the expats still find one another. Not long ago, he stumbled on a cluster at a party.

I knew it was an SF crew because when I walked in because they had the full dual monitor with the ergonomic keyboard on a standing desk, Viswanathan said, adding that conversation revolved around the lower cost of living. One of the SF guys was like: I just had a burrito for $6. It was amazing.

John Francis Peters/NYT

The last burrito he had in San Francisco cost $15.

They Wont Necessarily Be Missed

Longtime Bay Area residents may well say good riddance to people like Viswanathan. People who distrusted the young newcomers from the start will say this change is a good thing. Hasnt this steep growth in wealth and population in a tiny geography always seemed unsustainable?

These tech workers came like a whirlwind. Virtually every community from San Jose in the south to Marin County in the north has fought the rise of new housing for the arrivals of the last decade. Maybe spreading the tech talent around America is smart.

Locals have also seen this play before. Moving trucks come to take a generation of tech ambition away, and a few years later moving trucks return with new dreamers and new ambitions.

After the dot-com bust in 2001, there were fallow years before the latest, long-lasting boom  just as there were fallow years after the PC industry consolidated a decade earlier. That led to the dot-com boom. It is the circle of life in the Bay Area.

And those who are staying are digging in. When 12 friends left, it felt like powerlessness, said Diana Helmuth, a 32-year-old writer and marketer in Oakland. Like these forces were too big. The forces of the world felt too big.

Now, though, she is hardening toward those who say life is better somewhere else and were in town only for a job. I say, Great, goodbye, have a great time somewhere else.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Members of President Donald Trumps failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president's grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the Save America Rally on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trumps 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be on site during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

The riot at the Capitol, incited by Trumps comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. The president told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

A week after the rally, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice. But the political and legal fallout may stretch well beyond Trump, who will exit the White House on Wednesday before Democrat Joe Biden takes the oath of office. Trump had refused for nearly two months to accept his loss in the 2020 election to the former vice president.

Women for America First, which applied for and received the Park Service permit, did not respond to messages seeking comment about how the event was financed and about the Trump campaigns involvement. The rally drew tens of thousands of people.

In a statement, the presidents reelection campaign said it did not organize, operate or finance the event. No campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally, according to the statement. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.

At least one was working for the Trump campaign this month. Megan Powers was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event, and her LinkedIn profile says she was the Trump campaign's director of operations into January 2021. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The APs review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles, removed tweets that referenced the rally and blocked a reporter who asked questions.

Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is named as a VIP Advisor on an attachment to the permit that Women for America First provided to the agency. Between mid-March and mid-November, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. paid Wren $20,000 a month, according to Federal Election Commission records. During the campaign, she was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the presidents reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to organize credentials for VIP attendees, according to Kimberly Fletcher, the president of one of those groups, Moms for America.

Wren retweeted messages about the event ahead of time, but a cache of her account on Google shows at least eight of those tweets disappeared from her timeline. She apparently removed some herself, and others were sent from accounts that Twitter suspended.

One of the messages Wren retweeted was from Stop the Steal, another group identified as a rally participant on a website promoting the event. The Jan. 2 message thanked Republican senators who said they would vote to overturn Bidens election victory, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas. She also retweeted a Jan. 1 message from the president promoting the event, as well as promotional messages from one of the presidents son, Eric Trump, and Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist and a spokesperson for Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Wren did not return messages seeking comment, and locked her Twitter account after the AP reached out to her last Monday to ask her about her involvement in the Trump rally and the tweets she had removed. Several days later, she blocked the AP reporter.

Maggie Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, is listed on the permit attachment as the VIP Lead. She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. FEC records show Maggie Mulvaney was earning $5,000 every two weeks from Trumps reelection campaign, with the most recent payment reported on Nov. 13.

Maggie Mulvaney had taken down her Twitter account as of last Monday, although it reappeared after an AP reporter asked her about the accounts removal. On Sunday, the same day the AP published this report, she blocked that AP reporter on Twitter.

Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on Jan. 6, including one from the president that urged support for the Capitol Police. Trump's Twitter account has been suspended, but the message could be seen in a cache of her Twitter account captured by Google. She also retweeted a message from her uncle, urging Trump to address the nation.

Maggie Mulvaney did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The insurrection at the Capitol prompted Mick Mulvaney to quit his position as Trumps special envoy to Northern Ireland. He told CNBC a day after the assault that remaining in the post would prompt people to say Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government.

The leaders of Women for America First arent new to politics

Amy Kremer, listed as the groups president on records filed with Virginias state corporation commission, is one of the founding mothers of the modern day tea party movement, according to her website. Her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, is the organizations treasurer, according to the records.

The IRS granted Women for America First tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization a year ago, with the exemption retroactive to February 2019. The AP requested that the group provide any tax records it may have filed since then, but received no response.

In a statement issued the same day rioters attacked the Capitol, Amy Kremer denounced the assault and said it was instigated after the rally by a handful of bad actors, while seeming to blame Democrats and news organizations for the riot.

Unfortunately, for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool, she said. They were wrong. It is not.

The AP reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 unrest or who, going maskless during the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee.

The review found the crowd was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, off-duty police, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals.

Videos posted on social media in the days following the Capitol attack shows that thousands of people stormed the Capitol. A Capitol Police officer died after he was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher as rioters descended on the building and many other officers were injured. A woman from California was shot to death by Capitol Police and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos.

Trumps incendiary remarks at the Jan. 6 rally culminated a two-day series of events in Washington, organized by a coalition of the presidents supporters who echoed his baseless accusations that the election had been stolen from him. A website, MarchtoSaveAmerica.com, sprung up to promote the pro-Trump events and alerted followers, At 1 PM, we protest at US Capitol. The website has been deactivated.

Another website, TrumpMarch.com shows a fist-raised Trump pictured on the front of a red, white and blue tour bus emblazoned with the words, Powered by Women for America First. The logo for the bedding company My Pillow is also prominent. Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow, is an ardent Trump supporter whos falsely claimed Trump didnt lose the election to Biden and will serve another four-year term as president.

To demand transparency & protect election integrity, the web page reads. Details of the DC PROTEST will be coming soon, it adds, and also lists a series of bus stops between Dec. 27 and Jan. 6 where Trump backers can Join the caravan or show your support.

Kimberly Fletcher, the Moms for America president, said she wasnt aware the Trump campaign had a role in the rally at the Ellipse until around New Year's Day. While she didnt work directly with the campaign, Fletcher did notice a shift in who was involved in the rally and who would be speaking.

When I got there and I saw the size of the stage and everything, Im like, Wow, we couldnt possibly have afforded that, she said. It was a big stage. It was a very professional stage. I dont know who was in the background or who put it together or anything.

In addition to the large stage, the rally on the Ellipse featured a sophisticated sound system and at least three Jumbotron-style screens projecting the president's image to the crowd. Videos posted online show Trump and his family in a nearby private tent watching the rally on several monitors as music blared in the background.

Moms for America held a more modest Save the Republic rally on Jan. 5 near the U.S. Capitol, an event that drew about 500 people and cost between $13,000 to $14,000, according to Fletcher.

Justin Caporale is listed on the Women for America First paperwork as the events project manager. Hes identified as a partner with Event Strategies Inc., a management and production company. Caporale, formerly a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, was on the Trump campaign payroll for most of 2020, according to the FEC records, and he most recently was being paid $7,500 every two weeks. Caporale didnt respond to requests for comment.

Tim Unes, the founder and president of Event Strategies, was the stage manager for the Jan. 6 rally, according to the permit paperwork. Unes has longstanding ties to Trump, a connection he highlights on his companys website. Trumps presidential campaign paid Event Strategies $1.3 million in 2020 for audio visual services, according to the campaign finance records. The company declined to comment for this story.

Another person with close ties to the Trump administration, Hannah Salem, was the rallys operations manager for logistics and communications, according to the permit paperwork. In 2017, she took a hiatus from the consulting firm she founded and spent three years as senior White House press aide, executing the media strategy for President Trumps most high-profile events, according to her company bio and LinkedIn profile.

Last week, within minutes of an AP reporter sending her a LinkedIn message asking about her involvement in and understanding of what happened on Jan. 6, Salem blocked the reporter and did not respond to questions.
Contributing columnist Jose Gaspar is a news anchor/reporter for Telemundo Bakersfield and KGET. Email him at elcompa29@gmail.com. The views expressed here are his own.
Mumbai, Jan 19 : After a two-day break, the Covid-19 vaccination drive will resume for four days all over Maharashtra starting Tuesday, officials said here on Monday.

Halted owing to glitches in the CoWIN app for January 17-18, the campaign will be taken up simultaneously at 285 centres in the state, besides nine in Mumbai, as per the schedule already announced.

This has been possible with a fully digital registration process for the vaccination programme amid optimism that there will not be any more technical issues, said a BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) health department official.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday reviewed the upcoming phase of vaccination with all Divisional Commissioners, Collectors, Zilla Parishads and other officials, two days after the drive was launched in the state on January 16.

He urged the concerned officials to get any glitches in the app rectified by the Centre at the earliest and speed up the vaccination process for the big phase resuming on Tuesday.

Thackeray also urged health workers and frontline warriors to get vaccinated and help spread a positive message to the masses.

However, in case anyone develops adverse reactions or side-effects, they must be treated on priority and those with serious symptoms must be given extra care, he said.

More than 100 health workers are likely to be vaccinated daily at all the vaccination centres in the state, informed Principal Secretary (Health) Pradeep Vyas.
BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- "I cannot help thinking how wonderful it would be if an exquisite Swiss army knife could be made for our world affairs. When there is a problem, we can use the knife to fix it."

When Chinese President Xi Jinping presented that analogy in his keynote speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2017, the world was facing a fork in the road between multilateralism and isolationism, openness and protectionism.

Xi, in the speech, also elaborated on his vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, pointing to the direction in which China was determined to work with the rest of the international community to forge a more prosperous future for all.

Four years later, Xi's penetrating vision is more relevant for today's highly interconnected and deeply troubled world. The gravity of choosing between the notion of a shared future and the zero-sum Cold-War mentality has grown all the more apparent. And the world's need for a multi-functional tool to tackle daunting global problems has turned ever more urgent.

The revelation of the COVID-19 pandemic is as clear as it is compelling. In face of the attack by an unknown virus, the inevitable reality that the fate of all countries on this planet is bundled together can speak for itself.

A real Swiss knife demands true craftsmanship to make. To forge such an instrument of common good for humanity's better and shared future, the world should come together in the first place.

As pressing problems like the pandemic, climate change and terrorism are global in nature, turning inward and hiding behind ideological entrenchment will only allow the deadly pathogen to kill more people, melting glacier to vanish at a faster pace and terrorists to stage more attacks against innocent civilians.

Therefore, nations of the world should foster even stronger networks of partnership for the long-term security and general welfare of the people on this planet.

Pursuing win-win cooperation instead of zero-sum confrontation is equally essential.

In this age of globalization, no country can either preserve or promote its own interests without considering those of others. Win-win cooperation for shared benefits is the only viable solution.

To be more specific, dialogue and consultations between different countries can avoid conflicts; dynamic global free trade without barriers can spur economic growth; exuberant cultural exchanges can bridge misunderstandings; low-carbon and green growth can re-balance the relationship between the environment and the human society.

Democratizing international relations and improving global governance is also imperative.

Modern history has witnessed mankind's progressive pursuit for a fair and equitable international order. That relentless odyssey has been coded in the texts of the Peace of Westphalia, the Geneva Convention, and the landmark UN Charter.

To carry this task forward, countries around the world, big or small, should manage global affairs collectively and write the world's rules of the road together so as to avoid the dominance of the globe by just one or several major powers.

Over the years, to turn the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind into reality, China is not only an advocate, but also a practitioner.

It has been a keeper of the spirit of international solidarity. To beat the roaring outbreak, China cares about more than itself. It has provided anti-pandemic aid to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations, and sent medical expert teams to 34 countries, the largest humanitarian operation China has carried out since 1949.

China has also been a champion for shared benefits and win-win cooperation. Its flagship Belt and Road Initiative has over the years brought real benefits like jobs to people and investment for economies in those countries.

In addition, China has long been a staunch supporter for multilateralism and the international system with the UN at its core.

It is the largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It has eliminated extreme poverty across the country, well implementing the top goal in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda ahead of time.

China has also pledged to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, a boldly responsible move to curb global warming.

In some ways, a multi-functional Swiss army knife solution mirrors the complexity of the problems it is designed for. As the world is undergoing transformations rarely seen in a century, the human race needs to have such a tool in its hand.

By rallying global solidarity, stimulating cooperation and revamping global governance, China's vision to build a community with a shared future for mankind will be proved equal to the convoluted tests of the times.
For the second time in two weeks, hundreds of health-care workers received vaccine appointment reminders with the wrong address, forcing the provincial government to back-pedal from the error and put the private company responsible on training wheels, according to internal emails from one of the top officials overseeing Manitobas vaccine rollout.

For the second time in two weeks, hundreds of health-care workers received vaccine appointment reminders with the wrong address, forcing the provincial government to back-pedal from the error and put the private company responsible "on training wheels," according to internal emails from one of the top officials overseeing Manitobas vaccine rollout.

The day before the provinces Brandon Keystone Centre COVID-19 vaccination clinic was set to open, government staff and senior communications advisers were discussing how to manage the repeat mistake, which saw 558 incorrect text messages go out to health-care workers, directing them to the Winnipeg RBC Convention Centre address instead of the clinic in Brandon.

The same thing happened when the convention centre clinic opened in early January; hundreds of health-care workers whod booked appointments there received texts directing them to a closed clinic instead. Emails obtained by the Opposition show the government pins the blame for both incidents on a contracted company, PetalMD.

"What, if any, are the consequences for this repeat error? Some kind of contractual penalty? Credit applied to whatever government is paying for the service? Reassignment of the person responsible for the error? Or are we just shrugging our shoulders and using the Britney Spears response of Oops! I did it again," wrote Blake Robert, the provinces director of media relations and issues management, questioning how the government should respond to what he described as "inevitable media questions" about the mix-up.

In response, senior civil servant Paul Beauregard wrote the province will start double checking the reminders before theyre sent out.

"We are now creating processes where we are checking PetalMDs work. This is the same organization used by over 37,000 doctors across Canada. They are the largest, most reputable player in the space. They have now done this to us  twice. We are going to put them on training wheels," Beauregard wrote.

Beauregard, Treasury Board secretary and adviser to Progressive Conservative Premier Brian Pallister, is stepping down from his Treasury Board duties but staying on to oversee the provinces pandemic response. He copied a member of the NDP on the email chain, which is how the party obtained them, said NDP leader Wab Kinew. "Another mistake," Kinew said Sunday.

Corrected reminder messages were sent out shortly afterward, a provincial spokesperson confirmed Sunday. But Kinew said the mistake is about more than sending health-care workers in the wrong direction. He said the NDP has questions about the contract to PetalMD, a Quebec City-based company with offices in Montreal, Regina and Paris that designs cloud-based apps for medical scheduling and billing. The province disclosed in November a $436,400 contract with PetalMD that appears to be untendered, Kinew said.

"To me this mistake, it kind of wraps up all the flaws that the PCs have been making throughout the pandemic in one move. Its got the poor planning, the lack of attention to detail, and the focus on privatizing at the expense of quality," Kinew said.

A representative of PetalMD couldnt be reached for comment Sunday.

In a statement, a provincial spokesperson confirmed the incorrect messages went out Saturday, and wrote that "the human error was quickly addressed by a follow-up text. Government is conducting a review to ensure the service provider is held accountable and that the mistake does not occur again. People with appointments are asked to keep them as scheduled."

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Manitoba doctors want to administer the COVID-19 vaccines, and theyre calling on the province to be more transparent about immunization plans and find ways to help inform hesitant patients about vaccines.

Manitoba doctors want to administer the COVID-19 vaccines, and theyre calling on the province to be more transparent about immunization plans and find ways to help inform hesitant patients about vaccines.

Nearly half  49 per cent  of more than 500 doctors surveyed in the province say theyre willing to help vaccinate Manitobans outside of their regular practice, and 58 per cent would like to offer the vaccine in their offices when theres enough supply, according to the survey being released Monday by Doctors Manitoba. Ninety per cent of doctors who responded to the survey said they would feel comfortable getting vaccinated themselves, and 92 per cent would recommend it to their patients.

Doctors have been involved in administering vaccines at personal care homes, but theres no process for them to sign on to work at the provinces immunization clinics at this point in the provinces vaccine rollout. Doctors Manitoba wants that to change, saying doctors are open to helping out.

The survey results shaped five recommendations the organization, which represents more than 3,000 doctors across the province, is putting forward to the provincial government. They want those planning Manitobas COVID-19 vaccine rollout to work with doctors and accept their expertise in adminstering and determining eligibility for the vaccines, as well as creating a plan for delivering the shots within doctors offices, and making sure patients have the information they need about vaccine safety and effectiveness.

The survey comes less than three months after more than 200 doctors signed open letters that were critical of the provincial governments pandemic response and called for tighter public-health restrictions. Since then, Doctors Manitoba has had "constructive" conversations with newly appointed Health Minister Heather Stefanson and hope to work more closely together, said Doctors Manitoba President Dr. Cory Baillie.

"Doctors want to have a meaningful role in the vaccine rollout and want (it to be known) that theyre eager to work in collaboration with government to make that happen," he said.

Baillie said the survey shows doctors support the vaccines but want more public health information and fact sheets that they can give to patients who have questions about it. They also want the province to lay out its detailed plan for vaccine eligibility, which so far extends only to health-care workers, personal care home residents and residents of Indigenous communities, with an indication that vulnerable seniors and other front-line workers will follow. Manitoba should consider the UKs model of releasing a detailed eligibility list, he said.

"There is a lot of anxiety amongst Manitobans about, where am I in the queue, when is my turn going to be? I think if there was greater transparency (indicating) not necessarily the date but in what order different groups of the population would be eligible to get their vaccine, I think that would ease some of those concerns," he said.

Doctors Manitoba polled its members about the vaccine rollout over four weeks from December to January, hearing back from 507 doctors, most of whom are family physicians in the Winnipeg area.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Amid reports that China has made constructions in Arunachal Pradesh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said in a statement that India has kept a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads and bridges.

The MEA said in a statement, "We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India. China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years."

"In response, our Government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much needed connectivity to the local population along the border," the statement said.

Also read: Indian Army Has Shown Immense Grit to Match Chinese Aggression in Eastern Ladakh: Top Commander

The statement said that the government "keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India's security and takes all the necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity".

The reports had said that China had made constructions in an area that has been long disputed and conflict ridden.

The MEA said, "The Government remains committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along the border areas for the improvement of livelihood of its citizens, including in Arunachal Pradesh."

India and China have, meanwhile, have been embroiled in a border dispute in eastern Ladhakh as well. On January 12 it was reported that China has relocated up to 10,000 troops from its training facilities located around 80-100 km from the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh but there was no reduction in its deployment in frontline areas in the region, people familiar with the developments said.

They said the withdrawal of troops from training facilities located in the depth areas may have taken place due to the harsh winter, adding it does not have any impact on their operational deployment in any of the areas along the LAC.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the three European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, namely the UK, France and Germany, have done "nothing" to protect the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"E3 leaders-who rely on signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOA-have done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA," Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on American foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, reports Xinhua news agency.

The remarks by Zarif followed the European trio's (E3) earlier statement about Iran's plan to produce uranium metal-based fuel which, they said, might have military implications.

"We strongly urge Iran to halt this activity, and return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments without further delay if it is serious about preserving the deal," the had statement said.

Zarif on Sunday added that the "JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3".

Following the US exit from the in 2018 and imposition of sanctions against the Islamic republic, Iran urged the UK, France and Germany to "implement their obligations" to protect Iran's interests under the JCPOA.

As a result of the US' unilateral exit, Iran has surpassed JCPOA-stipulated limits on its uranium enrichment level and on its stockpiles of heavy water and low-enriched uranium.

Iran has also lifted JCPOA limitations on its nuclear research and development activities.

On January 4, the Islamic Republic launched 20 per cent uranium enrichment process as part of the country's Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions which was approved by the parliament in December 2020.

--IANS

ksk/

(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 tenth round of talks between the government and representatives of protesting farmers on controversial new farm laws was on Monday pushed back by a day to January 20, with the Centre saying both sides want to resolve the stalemate at the earliest but it was getting delayed due to involvement of people of other ideologies. Asserting that the new farm laws are in the interest of the farming community, the government said obstacles do come whenever good things or measures are taken and it is taking longer to resolve the issue as farmers' leaders want a solution their own way.

"The government's ministerial meeting with farmers unions will be held on January 20 at 2 pm at Vigyan Bhawan, instead of January 19," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed panel to resolve the crisis is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.

The previous rounds of talks between the government and farmers have failed to reach any concrete results, as protesting unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the new laws, but the government has refused to do so. Speaking to PTI, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said: "It is different when farmers talk to us directly. When leaders get involved, then it becomes difficult. There could have been early solution had the discussions were held with farmers directly." Since people of different ideologies have entered into the protest, they want a solution in their own way, he said.

"Both sides want a solution, but they have different points of view and hence it is taking more time. But a definite solution will emerge," he noted. Separately, the Supreme Court told the Centre on Monday that the proposed tractor rally on the Republic Day by protesting farmers is a "law and order" matter and Delhi Police is the first authority to decide who should be allowed to enter the national capital.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are protesting for nearly two-months at various Delhi borders against the three farm laws enacted by the central government in September 2020. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while addressing a virtual event, reiterated that the three farm laws will be beneficial for farmers.

"These laws were expected earlier but the previous government could not implement because of pressure. It was the Modi government that took a bold step and brought these laws passed in Parliament... Whenever a good thing happens, there are obstacles," Tomar said. On eve of the tenth round of meeting, a delegation of farmers representing over 270 farmer producer organizations from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Odisha met Rupala and appealed not to repeal the laws.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhury was also present in the meeting. "We support the new laws. We don't want the government to repeal them," Narendra Tomar of Gwalior-based Chambal Agro FPO said after the meeting.

SC-appointed Panel's Meet

The Supreme Court-appointed committee on the three new farm laws is scheduled to hold its first meeting with members on Tuesday at Pusa campus in New Delhi, its member Anil Ghanwat said.

"We are going to meet tomorrow (January 18). Only members will meet to discuss the terms of reference and decide the future course of action," Ghanwat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra), told PTI before boarding a flight to Delhi.

The Supreme Court had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws, against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for over 50 days now, till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse. Bhartiya Kisan Union President Bhupinder Singh Mann, however, recused himself from the committee last week.

Apart from Ghanwat, agri-economists Ashok Gulati and Pramod Kumar Joshi are the other members of the panel. The panel will hear views of farmers across the country, both who support and oppose the new farm laws, and submit a report within two months to the apex court.

(With PTI inputs)
The Siem Reap Provincial Court has concluded an investigation into rape charges and sent to trial a case against prominent activist monk Luon Sovath, who left the country after he was charged.

The court announced on January 12 that it had formally charged Luon Sovath with rape charges from a case filed last year, as well as an unrelated defamation charge from 2016. The rape charges were linked to videos posted on Facebook by an account called Srey Da Chi-Kraeng where Sovath allegedly had intimate conversations with a Siem Reap woman.

Yin Sreng, a Siem Reap court spokesperson, confirmed that the court had concluded the investigation but a trial date had not been scheduled.

The alleged videos were released in May last year and allegedly were of Luon Sovath having salacious conversations with a woman and her three daughters. The account was created shortly before the allegations were posted and did not publish any other posts.

Luon Sovath immediately claimed it was a fake account. Tim Ratha, a Siem Reap resident who was allegedly one of the voices in the video, said the account was impersonating her and denied having any sexual relations with the monk.

The Siem Reap Monk Council proceeded to defrock Luon Sovath in early June and the monk left the country and is seeking asylum while in Switzerland.

Sovath again denied the allegations and said the charges were politically motivated and aimed at killing his reputation.

I can't accept the unethical and inhuman accusations to kill [me]. It is wrong and they set up evidence and fake information, he said.

Duong Thavry, a deputy police chief in charge of anti-human trafficking in Siem Reap, said authorities had spoken to all three sisters about the accusations against the activist monk, after which one of them made the rape allegation.

She wanted to sue. We didn't force her, Duong Thavry said. Previously, she didn't want to sue because she wanted to keep it confidential. She wanted to hide it.

According to Article 239 of the Cambodian Criminal Code, a person can be imprisoned for five to ten years for rape, and up to 15 years if the crime was committed under aggravating circumstances.

Soeng Senkaruna, a spokesman for human rights group ADHOC, said there was no credible evidence, such as the Facebook videos, to accuse Luon Sovath, especially because the woman allegedly in the videos had denied the accusations.

The charges should be dropped, he said.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of another rights group, Licadho, said there were irregularities and doubts cast over the investigation in Luon Sovaths case.

If the [defamation] offense happened in 2016, why not take action in 2016? Why wait to take action in 2020? he said.

carterdayne/iStockBy KENNEDY BELL, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) -- Cheering crowds with hundreds of thousands of people packed shoulder-to-shoulder.



Glamorous galas, luncheons, balls and a parade.



Inaugurations are usually a jubilant celebration of the peaceful transfer of power in the world's oldest democracy.



But not this year.



In the wake of the violent and deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be unlike any other in American history.



Here's what to know:



Unprecedented security and pandemic precautions



An unprecedented level of security is being marshaled for the 59th swearing-in ceremony as law enforcement is on high alert for further possible attacks and unrest.



Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked public officials to discourage spectators from attending the inauguration in an effort to prevent violence during the event.



Thousands of National Guard troops will be in place around the 7-foot non-scalable fence surrounding the U.S Capitol, which is topped with razor wire. The National Parks service will also implement a temporary public closure of the National Mall from Jan. 15 through Jan. 21.



Clearly we are in uncharted waters, Bowser said during a press conference Wednesday.



No Trump and Harris makes history



That is not to mention the fact that for the first time in more than 100 years, the outgoing president, Donald Trump, will not be attending the inauguration, a move that Biden said is "good."



Trump plans to leave Washington the morning of the inauguration in a "military-like" sendoff from Joint Base Andrews, from which he will head to Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida.



Outgoing presidents generally greet the incoming president and then ride together to the Capitol for the ceremony. Only three presidents did not attend the inauguration of their successor -- John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson.



Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to subvert the results of the election to keep Trump in power but took 68 days to call his successor, Kamala Harris, will be there.



Harris is set to make history when she is sworn in as the first woman of color to be vice president.



What to watch and how



With the extensive security measures put in place and the need to avoid large crowds to stem the spread of the coronavirus, most Americans will experience the historical ceremony virtually. Here is how you can watch the inauguration on Jan. 20:

ABC News will provide wall-to-wall coverage of Inauguration Day, Wednesday, Jan. 20, starting at 7 a.m. ET

ABC News Live will also provide live coverage beginning at 9 a.m. ET. You can stream ABC News Live via the ABC News App, Hulu, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV and Roku TV.

The Biden campaign and the Presidential inaugural Committee will also livestream Inauguration Day online.

Ahead of Inauguration Day, there is a National Day of Service planned on Jan. 18 along with a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, followed by a nationwide COVID-19 memorial the next day.



On Jan. 20, the ceremony will feature musical performances from Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez. Lady Gaga, who worked with Biden on a campaign against sexual assault when he was vice president, will sing the national anthem.



Members of the clergy who are close to the Biden family will deliver the invocation benediction and Andrea Hall, the president of the International Association of Firefighters, which has long supported Biden, will recite the Pledge of Allegiance.



Following Biden's inaugural address, there will be a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery with other first families. Then there will be a virtual parade that will air featuring performances from across the U.S.



At 8 p.m. EST ABC News will present, The Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. - An ABC News Special, that will provide reporting on the historic moments from the day.



Then, at 8:30 p.m. EST ABC will air Celebrating America, the primetime special previously announced by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, including performances from Bon Jovi and Demi Lovato among others. The event will be hosted by Tom Hanks.



Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
A Los Angeles judge granted director Steven Spielberg's request for permanent protection from an alleged stalker.

Sarah Char, 48, is ordered to stay 100 yards away from the Oscar winner and his family for the next three years, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ on Monday.

The outlet had previously reported that Spielberg, 74, first got a temporary order protection after authorities alerted him to the fact that Char had attempted to purchase a gun with the intention of killing him.

Safer: A Los Angeles judge granted director Steven Spielberg's request for permanent protection from an alleged stalker, TMZ reported on Monday

Steven and his wife Kate Capshaw can sleep a bit easier now that his alleged stalker has been banned from 'harassing, intimidating or threatening' the ET director.

The outlet added that the order of protection also prohibits Char from impersonating the award-winner.

Char must keep away from the workplace and home of Spielberg, Capshaw and their daughter and is not allowed to contact or tag him in social media posts, TMZ reported.

Spielberg first sought protection from Char in December after he claimed police had informed him that Char had attempted to buy a gun in order to kill him.

Protected: Sarah Char, 48, is ordered to stay 100 yards away from the Oscar winner and his family for the next three years and cannot contact him on social media or impersonate him (Pictured with Kate Capshaw in 2018)

The filmmaker also reported receiving a direct message on Twitter from Char reading: 'If I have to personally MURDER people for stealing my IPs I WILL. Get me?'

The filing documents also claimed that Char had previously been arrested for harassment, making threats and stalking, though it was unclear if he was her sole target.

Spielberg, meanwhile is busier than ever with nearly a dozen new projects in the works - mostly serving as a producer or executive producer - but a handful of which he is directing.

Steven's remake of the classic movie-musical West Side Story has wrapped production and is slated for a December 2021 release.

He's also producing new installments of some of his more famous flicks like Gremlins 3, Jurassic World: Dominion, Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2 and another Indiana Jones.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18, 2021 Plant Power Restaurant Group has announced the appointment of Edmund Har as its new Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Har was the former Director of Finance for the W Hotel in San Diego and Senior Finance Director for Paradigm Investment Group, one of the largest franchisees in the Hardees fast-food restaurant system.

Simultaneously focusing on operating efficiencies and growth initiatives, Har has deep experience securing a profitable bottom line for private equity backed companies like Plant Power Fast Food. Har served with the US Department of Energy's Restaurant Subcommittee to provide critical data for energy usage demands of retail QSR boxes which subsequently led to the development of sustainable best practices.

Co-Founder and Co-CEO Jeffrey Harris said that the Company has been on a search for the right CFO for over a year. "We knew that we needed a strong CFO at the helm to guide us through the process of regional and then national expansion. Ed has an amazing skill set, which obviously includes his tremendous experience in QSR, but it's his passion for the brand that really set him apart."

States Edmund: "I wanted to be part of building a company that was really making a difference in the world and when I found these guys, I knew that this was it. They've built an impressive business for sure, but it's their intention to offer something truly revolutionary in the fast-food space that inspired me. I'm thrilled to be part of the team."

Har received his Bachelors of Arts in Economics from UC Santa Barbara and a Master of Business Administration from UC Irvine where he currently serves as a board member.

UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH

Harris shared that the company achieved 2020 brand-wide retail net sales of $14.5 million, representing a 52% increase over the previous year and 1216% growth since the end of their first year in 2016.

ABOUT PLANT POWER FAST FOOD

Headquartered in San Diego, California, The Plant Power Restaurant Group, LLC (parent company of Plant Power Fast Food) is a privately held company whose goal is proliferating convenient, sustainable and healthier plant-based and non-GMO fast food options without sacrificing taste and satisfaction. The company was founded by Mitch Wallis, Zach Vouga and Jeffrey Harris. Visit plantpowerfastfood.com for locations, hours and menu items. @plantpowerfastfood

LOGO

LOCATION AND FOOD PHOTOS

EDMUND HEADSHOT

Contact:

Jim Amos, Scout 22

T: (818) 216-9122

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Plant Power Fast Food
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked traders at market centres, commercial transport operators and public sector workers to conduct their activities with strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.



"The wearing of masks in these places is mandatory. Regulatory agencies will undertake random checks to ensure conformity with COVID-19 rules. Should any facility or institution fail to comply with these directives, its activities will be immediately prohibited, and appropriate sanctions applied, " he said.



President Akufo-Addo said this in his 22nd update on measures taken against the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.



He said severe punishments existed for persons who broke the law on the mandatory wearing of masks, saying, " Should anyone be arrested by the security agencies disregarding this directive, that person will be dealt with strictly in accordance with law.



The President has, therefore, directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, to ensure the rigorous enforcement of the law on mask wearing at all public places and in public transport.



He asked the Police, with support from other security agencies to close all night clubs, pubs, cinemas and beaches operating in defiance of the law.



President Akufo-Addo stated the commitment of government to ensuring the safety of the citizenry and called for responsible lifestyles.



He said government had fumigated schools and provided personal protective equipment to pupils and students to ensure their safety in school.



The President said all Senior High Schools has also been mapped with health facilities for eventualities and called for support from all.



He asked pupils and students to put their frustrations behind and be self-disciplined with strict adherence to the safety protocols.



President Akufo-Addo said though Ghana would not want to go back to the days of partial lockdowns, which had negative impacts on the economy and culture of citizens, he would have no option but to re-impose lockdown restrictions if the number of active cases continued to increase at the current rate.



He said in the past two weeks, Ghana had recorded an upsurge in the number of active cases, from a little over 900 to 1,924.



"Our COVID-19 treatment centres have gone from having zero patients to now being full because of the upsurge in infections," he said.



The President expressed worry that the country was recording averagely, 200 new cases of COVID infections daily, which had contributed to a rising number of patients requiring hospitalisation and intensive care.



" The number of severe cases, which stood at 18 a week ago, has increased sharply to 120, Two weeks ago, there was no critical case, we now have 33 in our treatment facilities," he lamented.



President Akufo-Addo said available statistics to the Ghana Health Service indicated that a considerable number of persons who were severely ill were, surprisingly, relatively youthful persons, with no previous underlying health conditions.



He said the number of confirmed COVID-19 death had increased from 338 persons to 352 within a period of two weeks.



The President said a recent genomic sequencing undertaken by scientists had detected that some passengers who arrived in Ghana tested positive for the new variants of COVID-19.



He said the passengers had all been isolated and that work was still ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population.



Coronaviruses are said to be a large group of viruses that are common among animals.



In rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, meaning, they can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.



They are said to be the cause of dangerous diseases with incubation period between 4-6 days.



Signs and symptoms are: fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, and possibly a headache.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The event is designed to address the end of the Russian occupation of the peninsula.

Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President's Office Ihor Zhovkva says a summit to launch the Crimean Platform on efforts to end Russia's occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula is scheduled for August 23, 2021; foreign leaders are expected to participate.

"The date of the Crimean [Platform] Summit has already been set, that is August 23, 2021. The President's Office and the Foreign Ministry are jointly working on invitations for world leaders, as well as on a respective concept, the summit's agenda, and organizational aspects," he told the Ukrainian TSN TV news service, as reported by the President's Office on January 18.

Read alsoTurkish Foreign Minister confirms support for setting up Crimean PlatformZhovkva noted that the Crimean Platform Summit is designed to make decisions addressing the end of the Russian occupation of the peninsula.

"We don't hold the summit for the sake of the summit. We don't need to hold the summit and then forget this subject. Therefore, a declaration should obviously follow along, which is even more important, with coordinated international tools for the end of the occupation of Crimea and protection of Ukrainians there," he said.

The official added that the event would be linked with the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, which is marked on August 24.

During telephone conversations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invites foreign leaders to take part in the events, he said.

"We hope for a broad international presence on those two days," Zhovkva added.

Crimean Platform to end Russian occupation of the peninsula

On September 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who participated in the general debate of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, called on partners to join an international platform for the end of the Russian occupation of Crimea.

In December, Zelensky announced that the creation of the Crimean platform had already been backed by Europe and North America.

The platform will operate at several levels. The first, the highest one, is the political level, which will involve heads of state and government. The second level is that of top diplomats and defense chiefs, the third is the inter-parliamentary level, and the fourth will involve non-governmental experts. An expert network will be created to enhance the effectiveness of government action, as well as engaging additional intellectual resources in the platform's work.

Russian occupation of Crimea

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia.

On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin.

The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced.

Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.

Reporting by UNIAN
As the UK continues in its third national lockdown, with children home schooling while many parents attempt to work from home, broadband provider Community Fibre has announced that it is providing a free full fibre 50Mbps internet connection to what it calls vulnerable households.

The London broadband company will provide the free service for 12 months after installation, with it says 'no strings attached'. At the end of the free period, households can choose to pay to keep the service or cancel it completely, by returning the router.



In formulating the offer Community Fibre has partnered with 30 of the largest landlords in London - including local authorities and housing associations - to identify the vulnerable households eligible for its offer. The company already provides homes in 18 London boroughs with fibre connectivity and many of these will be eligible to take advantage of this offer if they are classified as vulnerable by their landlords or local councils.



Our mission is to bring better broadband to London communities and we always look for opportunities to give back to those we serve," said Community Fibre CEO Graeme Oxby. "It is critical to enable those who are home schooling but struggling with slow connections or no connection to benefit from fast, reliable full-fibre broadband to help as many children as possible to continue their education and prepare their future.

Peter Butler, business development manager of social housing provider Origin Housing, added: "Many of our families have been struggling with home schooling due to poor connectivity. The offer from Community Fibre, to provide free and fast 100% full-fibre connections, demonstrates the company's willingness to help the families that are most in need. It is a sign of the strength of the partnership we have built with Community Fibre and we would encourage other London landlords to grant them the wayleave agreement to upgrade to a full-fibre broadband network at their own properties."

The offer is available immediately for eligible households in all the London boroughs served by Community Fibre. In areas not currently served by Community Fibre, landlords will be required to grant wayleaves, so that Community Fibres full-fibre network can be installed for eligible residents at no cost. In November, Community Fibre launched the capitals first 3 Gigabit home broadband service, available initially across 12 London boroughs.
The incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that at least one new strain of COVID-19 has shown resistance to antibodies, but assured vaccines are still effective against new variants.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be the next head of the CDC, made the comments during a Sunday interview on CBS Face the Nation.

In a more grim prognosis, Walensky said she expects the US to reach a staggering 500,000 virus-related deaths by mid-February and warned of 'dark weeks ahead'. Currently the nation's total stands just shy of 398,000.

A number of new strains of coronavirus have arisen over the past few weeks, including in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and even in the US.

Concern has subsequently stirred that current treatments and vaccines may be ineffective in dealing with the new strains, however Walensky said any such fears are currently unfounded.

Weve known for a long time that viruses mutate, not just the coronavirus but any virus, she said. So far, the one from the U.K. looks like it is more transmissible.

We don't have any information whether it evades our vaccines, Walensky continued. We have indication that it likely does not.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be the next head of the CDC, made the comments during a Sunday interview on CBS Face the Nation

A nursing home staff member receives the COVID-19 vaccine at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on Friday

The expert promised that further studies are underway to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine on the new strains.

Walensky also spoke in reference to a report which claimed the new South Africa strain of COVID-19 is resistant to antibody therapies.

The doctor confirmed to Fox that she had heard similar things about the antibodies used in treatments like the Regeneron therapy which was used to treat President Trump.

I think there is concern about not just the South African and Brazilian strains but that other future strains might have resistance to those antibodies, Walensky said. Not taking off all efficacy, but decreasing efficacy.

Walensky affirmed that she believed the best way to handle any potential issues regarding mutations is to identify them as early as possible. She also called on Biden to ensure the public health systems have the resources needed to be adequately prepared.

The main concern, she said, would be that a lack of investment and preparation for such a development could dramatically delay the re-opening of public schools  one of Bidens mayor goals for his first few months in office.

The new UK variant of the virus has been found to be far more transmissible than the original strain.

CDC experts have warned that the super-COVID strain could become dominant in the US by March, triggering massive surges in coronavirus cases.

Already, at least 96 people in 16 states have detected cases of the highly contagious B117 variant, according to DailyMail.com tracking.

In a more grim prognosis, Walensky said she expects the US to reach a staggering 500,000 virus-related deaths by mid-February and warned of 'dark weeks ahead'

Already, at least 96 people in 16 states have detected cases of the highly contagious B117 variant, according to DailyMail.com tracking

The CDC declined to predict just how many more cases and deaths the variant will lead to in the US.

But it is thought to be up to twice as infectious, and 'a higher rate of transmission will lead to more cases, increasing the number of persons overall who need clinical care, exacerbating the burden on an already strained health care system, and resulting in more deaths,' they wrote in a Friday report.

The US also now has three homegrown variants of its own.

All three are suspected to be more infectious than currently more common variants, and one is virtually identical to the UK variant.

Utah and Illinois each reported their first cases of the UK variant on Friday.

California, meanwhile, has emerged as a cluster for the UK variant, with a total of 34 case. Florida also has at least 22 cases of the mutant strain.

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the US has recorded more than 23.93 million cases of coronavirus and 397,574 deaths.

Walensky also Sunday offered a grim prediction that the US will reach 500,000 deaths by mid-February.

She noted the nation has reached nearly 4,000 deaths a day and almost 400,000 coronavirus deaths in total.

'By the middle of February we expect half a million deaths in this country,' she said.

Walensky emphasized that those numbers do not account for the 'tens of thousands' of people who recovered from COVID-19 but have an 'uncharacterized syndrome.'

She also said the US has not yet seen 'the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel,' which the incoming director said will lead to 'high rates of hospitalizations and deaths thereafter.'

'I think we still have some dark weeks ahead,' she said.
Bella Thorne is one suave lady when it comes to marketing her brand of pop culture in 2021.

And over the weekend the Dirty Sexy Money star was back at it again when she shared some racy photos and videos of herself decked out in several sexy ensembles

The flurry of posts began when she posed in black lingerie for a photoshoot that's a celebration of winter.

Scroll down to video

Revealing: Bella Thorne, 23, shared some racy photos taken outdoors on a snow-filled deck

The Florida native, 23, raised her right arm as she licked her lips in one snap that was taken on an outdoors deck in the chilly snow.

She had her fiery-red tresses styled long past her shoulders with some soft curls and a part on the slight left.

The Midnight Sun star also struck a more happy and playful tone when she flashed a big smile in a second shot taken on the deck in the same revealing outfit, along with layers of rhinestone jewelry.

For this one, small flakes of snow could be seen falling on her near naked body.

Winter wonderland: The Famous In Love actress celebrated winter by striking some seductive poses in black lingerie

Good day sunshine: As her Sunday went on, Thorne followed-up with a close-up look at her face and the caption: 'Fresh face good morning'

See there! The actress revealed her desire to an acne scar removed by her dermatologist

As the day went on, Thorne followed-up with a close-up look at her face and the caption: 'Fresh face good morning.'

The red-headed siren had her red hair pushed back into a ponytail to giver her fans a good look at her skin.

'So excited to go see @simonourianmd1 for a crazy acne scar lazer,' she added in a reference to seeing her dermatologist in the near future.

'U can't really see them but I can and in different lighting u can see them.'

Dress up time: Several hours later, Thorne changed into an all-white outfit and then shot a few selfie videos of herself seemingly from inside her bedroom with the caption: 'Studio vibes'

Revealing: The cropped top not only showed off her toned midriff, but also gave more than a hint of her cleavage by having the laces loosened

Several hours later, Thorne changed into an all-white outfit and then shot a few selfie videos of herself seemingly from inside her bedroom.

The cropped top not only showed off her toned midriff, but also gave more than a hint of her cleavage by having the laces loosened.

'Studio vibes,' she wrote across the top of the first clip that also showed off her skin-tight pants.

After dropping a number of sexy poses, Thorne turned to showcase her derriere and added the caption: 'Ready.'

In another clip, The Babysitter star moved the camera up-close to her face with the tag: @sabirshapiro.

Seductive: Thorne declared to be 'Ready' when she showcase her derriere in another clip

Vixen: The multi-media personality pulled her red tresses to right side in the clip

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NEW ORLEANS  A Louisiana man charged in the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol had discussed returning to Washington around the presidential inauguration and bringing rifles, ammunition and body armor, federal authorities said in court records.

A criminal complaint says Cody Connell of Vivian, Louisiana, was arrested Saturday on charges including violent entry of Capitol grounds and obstruction law enforcement.

Connell posted photos and videos of himself and another man identified by the FBI as his cousin, Daniel Page Adams, outside the Capitol the day of the siege Jan. 6, said an affidavit by FBI agent Michael Sahadi Jr.

In a screen capture of an apparent Facebook exchange, Connell posted: I have more videos of us breaching the Capitol but not gonna post them. We will be back and it will be a lot worse than yesterday!

A witness told authorities that Connell had discussed with at least two other people returning to Washington in the coming week  which includes President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration Wednesday  possibly first buying long-rifle firearms, ammunition and body armor to bring with them, the affidavit said.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip



................................................................

The same witness told authorities Connell explained that he was not returning to Louisiana unless he was in a body bag, according to the agents affidavit.

Adams was arrested Saturday in Texas on similar charges as those brought against Connell.

It was not immediately known if either Connell or Adams had attorneys representing them.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 16:25:16|Editor: huaxia

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Tourists shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, Oct. 5, 2020. China's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan (15.42 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold as it posted a 2.3 percent year-on-year expansion to 101.5986 trillion yuan in 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan (15.42 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold in 2020, official data showed Monday.

The country, which saw its GDP increase 2.3 percent year on year to 101.5986 trillion yuan last year, is expected to be the only major economy to post growth in the pandemic-ravaged year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The hard-earned achievement marked a new economic milestone for the Chinese economy after the country's GDP per capita exceeded 10,000 U.S. dollars in 2019 for the first time in history.

The advance also came as the world's second-largest economy won a decisive victory in poverty eradication last year while making historic achievements in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

"These achievements show that China's economic, scientific and comprehensive strengths have leapt by another big step," said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS.

Growing from 10 trillion yuan 20 years ago, China's economy is now likely to account for around 17 percent of the global economy, Ning told a press conference, attributing the growth to progress in fields including grain production, industrial production, high-speed railway construction and 5G technologies.

In 2020, China's per capita disposable income rose 2.1 percent to 32,189 yuan, basically keeping pace with the GDP increase, according to NBS data. Meanwhile, a total of 11.86 million new urban jobs were created in 2020, completing 131.8 percent of the target set for the whole year.

Noting that China remains the largest developing country in the world, Ning said the country's GDP per capita is still lower than the global average and has a gap with that of major developed countries.

Crossing the 100-trillion-yuan threshold is also of significance for China in its pursuit of fully building a modern socialist country, the country's second centenary goal, according to Ning.

Looking forward, China is expecting its per capita GDP to reach the level of moderately developed countries by 2035, according to the Communist Party of China leadership's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and long-range goals.

The World Bank Group said earlier this month that it expects China's economy to expand by 7.9 percent this year, while the global economy is on track to grow by 4 percent. Enditem
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  The San Juan City government is now in talks with local cold chain companies for the storage of COVID-19 vaccines.

San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora told CNN Philippines' The Final Word that securing a cold storage facility is important for the local vaccination program for the city's over 50,000 residents after they secured 100,000 doses from the UK-based pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca last week.

Zamora revealed the national government told the Metro Manila Council that each local government unit in the region will be allocated COVID-19 vaccine doses made by US drugmaker Pfizer, which requires around negative 70 degrees Celsius temperature for its storage.

"We do not plan to build or buy any cold storage facility because we are only a small city. What we are doing is we are coordinating with companies that we can rent from," said Zamora.

The San Juan City mayor assured his residents they are now coming up with the vaccine priority list so they will be prepared once the vaccines arrive in the city. Vaccine education and information drive is also being implemented in the city to make residents feel safe on getting inoculated by the vaccine.

"I have volunteered to be the first to get vaccinated here in San Juan. I have to set an example to everyone because if the mayor is frightened, then the vaccine has a problem, declared Zamora, who is ready to get vaccinated by either AstraZeneca or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Zamora also emphasized the city government will discuss budget allocation for future immunization efforts to their residents in sustaining a possible herd immunity in the area.
France Introduces New Rules to Protect Players

Published January 18, 2021 by Mike P

In France, all gambling operators must devise plans with tools and objectives to improve player safety and protect minors from harm.

In January 2021, it has emerged that the French government has informed the European Commission that new rules are being introduced to protect players. LAutorite Nationale des Jeux (ANJ)  Frances national gambling authority  has informed all of the countrys licensed operators that they must present an action plan to facilitate safer gambling for players.

Once the plans have been presented, the ANJ will embark upon a review process. After concluding the process, the ANJ shall inform the respective operators if they have provided an acceptable plan. If a plan is not deemed satisfactory, an operator will be expected to respond to the recommendation given by the ANJ.

Deadlines for Plans

In the French gambling industry, there are two companies that operate as monopolies. These are Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), a horse racing operator, and La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), which is a lottery brand. According to the ANJ, each operator has given a deadline of 30 September 2021 to submit their respective plans.

Comparatively, online gambling operators have been given a more lenient deadline of 30 November 2021, while land-based casinos, gaming halls, and trackside racing outfits will not have to make their submissions until 31 December 2021. Notably, there will be a separate plan that is required on 31 November to explain marketing strategies.

Plan Requirements

When evaluating the plans, the ANJ is keen for operators to account for the prevention of underage gambling and excessive wagering. The plans are expected to be based on the most recent financial year and to focus efforts on implementing player protection measures next year.

Moving forward, French operators will be expected to provide tools for players to control their gaming. For starters, there will be deposit limits as well as time restrictions. Addictiveness must also be a concern and operators can score their objectives with the aid of the Assessment Tool to Measure and Evaluate the Risk Potential of Gambling Products (ASTERIG).



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Upgrading its offensive capability as Australia orders the US Boeing AH-64 Guardian attack gunship beefed up with new goodies. Getting the apache's improved variant means that China will have its hands full of a helicopter meant to seek and destroy, emphasizing destruction.

Offensive firepower is the emphasis of the Australian Military in choosing the war-proven Apache gunship. Activities of China requires harder hitting and technologically superior equipment, which the Chinese lack.

Helicopters operated by the Australian forces are 22 Eurocopter Tiger helicopters Armed Reconnaissance (ARH) units. They are currently inadequate as threats increase in the Indo-China region, more replacements are needed, reported Eurasian Times.

Sources say that Canberra will get 29 of the updated Apache gunships to keep an offensive power. Extra likes spares, sensors, systems for communication, necessary training, and support from the United States, costing $3.1 billion.

However, the sale is still in the works, and confirmation is needed from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). The agency approves such purchases as Foreign Military Sales (FMS).

According to the Australian Government that said choosing the equipment depends on how familiar Australian military services are with military equipment selected. Getting the ARH Tiger and learning how to operate the helicopter and similar rotary-wing military vehicles have prompted a more advanced US attack gunship.

Tiger gunships are not sufficient for Australia's needs in armed defense and offense needs. Getting the best US attack systems like Updated AH-64 beefs up everything.

Minister Reynolds said that the acquisition of the advanced US armored gunships would deliver in the Government's vision to max out defensive capabilities. Australia orders these AH-64 Guardian Helicopters as excellent weapons to beef up forces.

Also read: US Navy MH-60R Seahawk Equipped with Magnetic Anomaly Detectors Will be Submarine Hunters

Advanced AH-64E Gunship

The new model AH-64E, also called the "'Apache Guardian," is the latest gunship series line that is the most successful US military helicopter until now. Many units have been sold to US allies with strict agreements to be stolen by countries like China.

Beijing was able to get their hands on a working UH-60 Black Hawk and reverse-engineered it. Much of Chinese military technology is stolen and not homegrown. No Chinese attack helicopter can come close to the Guardian Apache.

The first flight is done in 1975, completing the introduction to service in the US Army in April 1986. It became the trusted attack helicopter with constant improvement of its systems. It has fought in Operation Desert Storm and subsequent conflicts, including the most recent. It became well known as a partner to the A-10 Warthog.

In December 2019, the AH-64 stood as overwatch to safeguard Marine who secured the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iran. Armed men suspected to have Iranian support were thwarted with heavy aerial help from American Guardians.

The Indian Air Force uses the Guardian against the People's Liberation Army in Easter Ladakh, and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has been covered by media a lot. PLA is none too happy having advanced US gunships to worry about, relying on missiles to defend against Guardians since the gunship's cannon can slaughter Chinese armor.

US AH-64 Guardian Helicopters are different from apache's, having better engines, operating drones, and better landing gear. More upgrades like faster flight speed, climb and loaded with more weapons, which is why Australia orders them. Another extra is they are used for naval use too.

Related article: India Navy Gets Latest P-8I Submarine Hunters Aircraft to Boost its Anti-Submarine Warfare

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Dissident republican terrorists in Fermanagh said last night they were planning more attacks on security forces.

The threat, made by the Continuity IRA, came after the PSNI said they could find "no evidence" any shots had been fired at a police helicopter over Newtownbutler on Thursday.

The terrorists claimed they had fired nine shots at the aircraft during a security alert in the Wattlebridge Road area.

Last night the PSNI's Fermanagh and Omagh District Commander, Superintendent Alywn Barton, said: "At this time, we have no evidence that a police helicopter was shot at on Thursday morning (January14) in this area."

But in a statement from the 'South Fermanagh brigade CIRA', the group reiterated its claim that it had attempted to shoot down a police helicopter - and warned that they were plotting further attacks.

The terrorists said they had been waiting to carry out an ambush on police personnel who attended a hoax bomb warning call for the Wattlebridge Road.

"More operations are planned for the weeks and months ahead," they said in a statement to media.

Calling on local people to be on their guard, Mr Barton said last night: "I want to reiterate my condemnation of this claim by violent dissident republicans and repeat the comments I made on Friday.

"I unequivocally condemn the actions of those who attempt to damage our communities with their criminal actions and claims, and who seek to disrupt policing and the daily lives of law-abiding citizens.

"We continue to work closely with the local community and our enquiries continue and I want to continue to appeal to members of the public living in, or travelling through the area to be vigilant.

"Do not touch any suspicious objects and report any suspicious activity or object to us immediately on 999."

Meanwhile in Derry, police issued a warning over suspect devices which they said may have been planted in the Ballyarnett area of the city near the border.

The police issued the warning after receiving reports earlier in the week that devices had been left near homes in the Cornshell Fields/Racecourse Road area.

The Area Commander, Chief Superintendent Darrin Jones, said: "I am appealing to the public to stay vigilant and, if anyone comes across anything suspicious, call police immediately."

SDLP Councillor Angela Dobbin said she was concerned for local children.

"What I would be worried about is what if children come across these things?" she told the Belfast Telegraph.

"Children are automatically inquisitive.

"There was a security alert in the middle of the week - but there's none now.

"That's what I don't understand.

"It's probably an elaborate hoax - but would you want to take that chance?"

Army bomb experts have been called out to assist police search regiments were called out 229 times between August 1, 2018 and July 31 2019 according to the most recent available government figures.
Some mediums report hearing voices in their head at a young age. (Stock, Getty Images)

Scientists may have uncovered why some people believe they can communicate with the dead in macabre new research.

While there is no evidence supporting clairvoyance, many claim they can hear, feel or even talk to lost loved ones.

To better understand the root of these beliefs, scientists from Durham University had 65 clairaudient spiritualist mediums  who claim to hear spirits  and 143 members of the general population complete a survey.

Results reveal the self-professed mediums were more likely to have a proclivity for absorption  defined as becoming immersed in mental or imaginative activities  or experience altered states of consciousness.

Read more: What its like to be a medium

They were also more likely to have heard voices in their head as children.

People may look for meaning behind these voices or proclivity for absorption, leading them to think they are having a supernatural experience, according to the scientists.

The Fox sisters (pictured) are considered the originators of spiritualism. In 1848, siblings Maggie and Kate reported hearing 'rappings' and 'knocks' that they interpreted as a spirit communicating with them within their upstate New York home. (Supplied: Durham University)

Our findings say a lot about learning and yearning, said lead author Dr Adam Powell.

For our participants, the tenets of spiritualism seem to make sense of both extraordinary childhood experiences as well as the frequent auditory phenomena they experience as practising mediums.

Read more: Psychic-medium shares his secrets

But all of those experiences may result more from having certain tendencies or early abilities than from simply believing in the possibility of contacting the dead if one tries hard enough.

Watch: Business booming for psychics amid pandemic

The survey was completed by members of the Spiritualists National Union, an organisation made up of more than 11,000 individuals via its training college, churches and centres.

Spiritualism is considered a religious movement based on the idea human souls continue to exist after death and communicate with the living through a medium or psychic.

Clairaudient spiritualist mediums differ from other members in that they claim to hear spirits, rather than seeing or feeling them.

Story continues

The results of the survey  published in the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture  found more than two in five (44%) of the mediums claimed to hear dead people every day, while a third (33%) reported doing so within the last 24 hours.

Read more: Psychic-medium helped mother heal after death of her son

Nearly four in five (79%) said hearing the dead was part of their everyday life, taking place both when they were alone and when they were working as a medium or attending a spiritualist church.

Almost two-thirds (65%) said the spirits mainly spoke to them from inside their head, however, 31% claimed the voices also came from the outside.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mediums were much more likely to believe in the paranormal than the general public.

They were also less likely to care about what others thought of them and more prone to unusual hallucination-like experiences.

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The mediums reported first hearing the dead at an average age of 21.

Just under one in five (18%), however, reported having the experiences for as long as they could remember.

Communicating with the dead does not therefore appear to be the result of a medium giving into societal pressure, learning the behaviour or strongly believing in the paranormal, according to the scientists.

These individuals may instead be uniquely predisposed to absorption and are more likely to report unusual auditory experiences occurring early in life.

For many of these individuals, spiritualist beliefs are embraced because they align meaningfully with those unique personal experiences, wrote the scientists.

Co-author Dr Peter Moseley added: Spiritualists tend to report unusual auditory experiences which are positive, start early in life and which they are often then able to control.

Understanding how these develop is important because it could help us understand more about distressing or non-controllable experiences of hearing voices too.

Watch: Home exorcist cleans house before you sell it
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You can transform your living room into the jail cell where sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself using the new augmented reality app CrimeDoor.

The app includes the 'Jeffrey Epstein Experience' that lets skeptics explore areas of the Metropolitan Correctional Center to find evidence of the case and come to a conclusion about Epstein's cause of death.

The experience begins in the autopsy room with Epstein's dead body laying on a table and further ahead is a jail cell littered with orange blankets and a pair of shoes.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 for sexually abusing dozens of young girls and later killed himself while awaiting trial.

Scroll down for video

CrimeDoor uses doors in your home as a 'portal' that leads to different areas of a crime scene. It has rolled out the 'Jeffery Epstein Experience' that lets users investigate the scene at the Metropolitan Correctional Center

Epstein made headlines on July 6, 2019 when he was taken into custody for sexual abuse of young girls and pimping them out to his rich and powerful friends from his Manhattan townhouse and waterfront Florida mansion.

He died on August 10 while awaiting trial in his jail cell at New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center at the age of 66. Bed sheets were found around his neck and his death was ruled a suicide.

Although medical examiners ruled Epstein's death a suicide, CrimeDoor seems to give conspiracy theorists an opportunity to see for themselves, according to the Daily Beast.

The app uses your real world to overlay AR images and uses doors as 'portals' into different rooms of a crime scene.

The first door opens into the examination room where Epstein's body is laying on a medical table.

Users can walk around the examination room and Epstein's body to look at evidence.

The app also displays directions on where to move and look next.

The first door opens into the examination room where Epstein's body is laying on a medical table. Users can walk around the examination room and Epstein's body to look at evidence. After users investigate Epstein's corpse, they can move on to his jail cell that is littered with blankets and other items

After users investigate Epstein's corpse, they can move on to his jail cell that is littered with blankets and other items including a note left on a table and shoes mixed in with blankets on the floor.

All of the items shown in the different rooms are evidence that has been available to the public.

The blankets are key to the investigation in CrimeDoor, as Epstein's former cellmate, Bill Mersey, said 'he recalled hearing bed sheets being teared up in the middle of the night.'

Paul Holes, a former cold case investigator known involvement with the Golden State Killer case, and a paid sponsor of the app, is not sold on the official findings, said: 'I have some concerns about the orientation of that ligature mark, as it appears to be very horizontal, versus vertical if he were hanging.'

Epstein made headlines on July 6, 2019 when he was taken into custody for sexual abuse of young girls and pimping them out to his rich and powerful friends from his Manhattan townhouse and waterfront Florida mansion. He died on August 10 while awaiting trial in his jail cell at New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center

'Oftentimes you'll see that it will have an upward slant to it, and it looks more akin to more of a manual ligature strangulation than possibly a hanging.

'However, I need to know more. I can't just rely on that. It's just a red flag.'

CrimeDoor touts its self as a news organization, as it aims to partner with media companies to make AR experiences for crime stories.

Some of the upcoming doors include Tupac, Biggie and Nipsey Hussle that are set to be released early February.
Michigans dogs, cats, bunnies and hamsters wont likely soon be getting high on marijuana edibles prescribed by their veterinarian, but a new law opens the door to the possibility of that potentially awkward discussion.

While medical marijuana has been legal for Michigan humans since 2008, prior to the passage of House Bill 5085, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed on Dec. 29, veterinarians say the cross-wiring of state and federal laws related to marijuana barred them from even talking about treatments with increasingly curious pet owners.

The new law, which takes effect in April, untangles things a bit, but still doesnt allow veterinarians to directly prescribe marijuana or other cannabis-related medicine. It does allow consultation.

The legislation really addresses two very distinct treatment possibilities: CBD, or cannabidiol, a compound derived from the cannabis plant that doesnt have psychoactive properties; and THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the marijuana compound that gets one high.

The federal government legalized CBD for human consumption in 2018, and while Michigan legalized marijuana for adult, recreational use in 2018, it remains banned federally.

CBD products for pets have become a popular option for treating various ailments. However, the overwhelming majority of veterinarians discourage treating pets with anything containing significant amounts of THC.

Weve found (CBD) to be helpful for anxiety, arthritis and the general well being of animals, said Dr. Jeff Powers, who operates multiple veterinary clinics in northwest Michigan and sits on professional boards looking into cannabis treatment. A lot of clients are already trying these products. The problem is a lot of it is being used without veterinary guidance, so they may be (improperly) dosing their pets.

Powers is a big believer in the therapeutic value of CBD products for humans and animals, so much so that hes started farming and processing hemp cannabis for CBD product lines he sells.

In most cases, Powers said there are existing, conventional veterinary medications to treat the same ailments as CBD, but sometimes owners prefer natural remedies. There are other cases in which traditional medications prove ineffective or cause adverse reactions in animals, Powers said.

Because CBD was designated illegal marijuana by the federal government until 2018, theres still not a lot of data regarding its effectiveness and safety for animal consumption.

Prior to passage of the new law, the recommendation from a legal standpoint was simply to decline to discuss it with owners, said Dr. Christian Ast, an 18-year veterinarian at Plaza Veterinary Hospital in Farmington. Its a difficult spot because it meant you werent able to inform owners about how to use the products safely.

Asked whether CBD products are generally safe, Ast said: Im going to defer on that one.

The reason Im cautious about answering that is because it all comes down to the quality of the product and those products are very poorly regulated, he said. If people are choosing to buy them, they are relying on the reputation of the company.

He said CBD products frequently test positive for contaminants and dont contain the levels of CBD that they often claim.

John P Buchweitz, an associate professor and veterinary toxicologist with the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, believes the new law will promote useful conversations and further study of cannabis-based pet treatments, where as previously, most pet owner information came from a Google search or word of mouth.

I think its important that we have a good, common-sense medical approach from a veterinarian, he said. These (CBD) products are available, but theyre just not going to receive the FDA blessing as something that has been controlled in the manufacturing process.

Buchweitz has only seen the negative impacts of THC on pets, usually when they unintentionally, for instance, eat a batch of infused brownies, a trend that veterinarians say initially increased with the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state.

Generally speaking, unlike the general human population, there is no recognized therapeutic benefit for the use of marijuana with pets, Buchweitz said. The psychoactive properties are more likely to present more concerns for the pet and its owners than is wanted.

Additionally, he said, when animals consume THC in edible form -- butter, baked goods or candy -- they may contain other ingredients that could be equally if not more detrimental to the animals health.

More on MLive:

Marijuana-infused drinks on way to Michigan

Marijuana and Muslim religion clash in Hamtramck

Michigan stands to gain more than $1B as recreational marijuana shops open

Medical marijuana blazed a trail for cannabis in Michigan. Now, recreational takes the lead.

Michigan marijuana industry changed, but thriving amid coronavirus pandemic
An academic who pursued a senior colleague for a romantic relationship then blamed him when she lost her job has lost her tribunal claim.

Psychologist Ruxandra Anghel and Dr David Westley dated briefly but called it off because he wanted to reconcile with his wife, a tribunal heard.

But despite him telling her several times that they could only have a professional relationship, she continued trying to persuade him to give her a chance, the panel heard.

On one evening she texted him, saying: 'I'm coming over at yours later. Get a nice bottle of wine. There will be no talking.'

When he asked her if she was being serious, she replied: 'I don't make such jokes. It is not my style. I'm a grown woman. I expressed my desire. I was hoping for a more elegant response.'

Ms Anghel was left 'heartbroken' by Dr Westley, the employment tribunal was told.

And when she was made redundant from her role at London's Middlesex University, she made a complaint against him, suggesting he had been instrumental in her departure.

An employment tribunal has now dismissed her claims that Dr Westley - now the head of the university's psychology department - had tried to develop a 'work with benefits' relationship with her.

And it ruled he had played no part in her losing her job.

Ruxandra Anghel (pictured) and Dr David Westley dated briefly but called it off because he wanted to reconcile with his wife

A Middlesex University spokesperson said: 'Middlesex is pleased that the allegation of unfair dismissal against the University was not upheld at an Employment Tribunal held in October 2020. Our staff who were involved in this case have been fully exonerated.'

The hearing in Watford was told that Ms Anghel had been employed by the university's Department of Psychology as a graduate academic assistant in 2014 after achieving a first class degree in the subject.

As part of that role she found herself working with Dr Westley - who had taught her as an undergraduate - on a scheme to help support students' well being.

In March 2015, following a social occasion with colleagues, they went for a drink on their own and kissed, the tribunal heard.

Although the hearing was told Ms Anghel was open to a romantic relationship, Dr Westley told her a week later he had only just separated from his wife and was not certain the marriage was over.

But in April the couple started 'dating' and on one occasion went back to her home, where he cut short an intimate encounter, the panel heard.

Ms Anghel was left 'heartbroken' by Dr Westley (pictured), the employment tribunal was told

'They ended up lying on top of the bed together,' the tribunal heard. '(Ms Anghel) unbuttoned Dr Westley's shirt, but he did not remove it. (She) removed her dress.

'Shortly after (her) dress was removed, Dr Westley decided that he did not want to go any further and he decided to go home, which is what he did.

'Their intimacy went no further, either on this night, or on any later occasion.'

The panel - headed by employment judge Patrick Quill - was told that in July 2015, the couple agreed not to carry on with their relationship. However, that October Ms Anghel emailed him, asking him to reconsider.

'My wish for myself right now is to settle down and start a family,' she wrote. 'Of course, the only way to have that is by starting a relationship.

'There are a few gentlemen who are interested in having that with me, but giving the friendship and feelings I built for you in the past four years, in my heart I was hoping that it would be you.'

Dr Westley replied to say that even if his marriage was not salvageable he did not feel he would be able to commit to a serious relationship for 'quite a while'.

'I'm sorry if I had implied anything else was the case - l have tried to explain this in the past but perhaps I hadn't been as clear as I thought,' he wrote.

Ms Anghel and Dr Westley continued to work together and in 2016 she was promoted to a more senior role.

In June 2017 - a month after he told her he regretted that their only communication was now professional - she texted him the 'there will be no talking' message.

And in November following an argument over a reference he had written her she told him she was considering leaving the university because he had 'broken her heart'.

That month she sent him a 'closure' email.

'In the email, (she) sought to suggest that she was pulling away from Dr Westley and that he believed that he would be upset,' the tribunal judgement said.

'However, our finding is that it was Dr Westley who had made clear that he did not wish to have a romantic or sexual relationship and it was (she) who was upset by that stance.

An employment tribunal has now dismissed her claims that Dr Westley - now the head of the London's Middlesex University's (pictured) psychology department - had tried to develop a 'work with benefits' relationship with her. And it ruled he had played no part in her losing her job

'In the email, (she) referred to having various fabulous memories of Dr Westley and stated she had enjoyed their first kiss.

'She mentioned a more recent occasion on which they had had juice and a cigarette, and he had waited with her at the bus stop. She said that that had been beautiful.'

The following year Ms Anghel's contract at the university was not renewed as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

She launched a formal grievance, claiming that Dr Westley's behaviour had been inappropriate and accusing him of harassing her.

However, the university dismissed the allegations along with any suggestion he had been involved in her losing her job.

And the tribunal agreed, finding her claims of sex discrimination and unfair dismissal to be unwarranted.

It ruled that the romantic contact the couple had in 2015 was consensual and that afterwards Dr Westley had never sought to rekindle the relationship, despite her claims to the contrary.
Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers, over the weekend killed a Deputy Registrar of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo St...





Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers, over the weekend killed a Deputy Registrar of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Dr Amos Arijesuyo.

The Deputy Registrar who was returning to Akure from Ibadan, Oyo State capital to Akure, the Ondo State capital was attacked by bandits operating on the Ilesa-Akure highway.

Arijesuyo, who worked at the Guidance and Counselling unit of the Students Affairs Department of the University, was said to have been attacked alongside his driver and one other unidentified person at Iwaraja Area of Ilesa- Akure highway in Osun State.

Arijesuyo who is also a senior Pastor at CAC, Glory of God , FUTA Akure, was said to have died in the hospital from gunshots wound hours after the attack.

Meanwhile, FUTA, on Monday condemned the killing of the Deputy Registrar.

According to the institution in a statement signed by the Universitys Head of Media and Protocols of FUTA, Adegbenro Adebanjo, Dr Arijesuyos death is a big loss to FUTA, the academic community in Nigeria and beyond.

It is a death that should not have happened in the first place. It is the hope of the management, staff and students of FUTA that security agencies will go after the evil men who carried out the dastardly act and make them face the full weight of the law and just recompense for their heinous crime.
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New CDC requirements for travelers entering the US: show proof of a negative Covid-19 test. What you need to know.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed the requirements for travelers entering the United States. As of Tuesday, January 26, all air passengers - ages two and older - must show proof of a negative Covid-19 test.

The new rule includes US citizens and legal permanent residents.

In a statement on their website, the CDC stated: If you plan to travel internationally, get tested before you travel by air into the United States (US), or be prepared to show proof of a recent positive viral test and a letter from your healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel.

The rule impacts US residents who are currently abroad or had plans to go abroad and return January 26 or later as well as international travelers who are scheduled to fly to the United States.

What Covid-19 test is considered acceptable?

Travelers must have a viral test. PCR and antigen tests both qualify.

How far in advance can I get tested before entering the country?

No more than three days before your flight. If you are flying on a connecting flight into the US, a valid test is one taken no more than three days before your flight departs to the United States.

Layover between connections can't be longer than 24 hours. If your flight is delayed past the three-day window, you must take another test to board your flight.

If traveling internationally now and come back after January 26?

It doesn't matter when you left. If you are returning to the US on or after January 26, you will have to be tested and show proof of being Covid-19 negative before being allowed to board.

I'm visiting a US territory; do I need to get tested?

No. The CDC says US territories and possessions of the US are exempt.

Who checks test results at the airport?

Proof of a negative result must be presented to the airline prior to boarding. You'll likely be asked for negative result documentation by the first airline employee you have contact with.

Anyone not providing will be prevented from boarding, according to the CDC.

The new rule may prevent checking in online for your flight to the US.

Does the rule apply for travelers on private planes?

Yes. Order applies to commercial and private flights, according to the CDC.

What kind of documentation do I need to show?

The CDC is requiring fliers to have a paper or electronic copy of their negative test results.

I already had Covid-19. What kind of documentation do I need?

You will need both proof that you tested positive in the past three months and a letter from your doctor saying you're cleared for travel.

If you recovered from the virus more than three months before traveling, you will need to retest and show proof of negative results before boarding.

I've gotten the Covid-19 vaccine. Do I still need to test?

Yes.

Will airlines allow passengers to change their flights so that they can enter the US before the testing requirements goes in effect?

Yes, but varies by airlines.

Delta, is waiving the fare difference through February 9 if they rebook their trip to begin on or before January 25.

American Airlines and United Airlines are also waiving the fare difference.

American will allow rebooking at no charge to customers who have flights scheduled from January 12 to February 9, if they're departing from and arriving into the destinations on their original ticket. Caveat. Trips must start on or before January 25.

My test result came back positive. Now what?

You should self-isolate and delay travel if symptoms develop or a predeparture test result is positive until you recover from Covid-19.

For the entire new CDC regulation, click here.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) has taken note of videos of school fights being circulated on social media since the commencement of the school year. Based on this disturbing trend of misconduct and abuse, the police force would again like to inform the public, especially students, parents, and guardians, of a ministerial decree issued by Honorable Minister of Justice Ms. Anna Richardson on November 16th2020.

With the issuance of this ministerial decree, the Honorable Minister of Justice has given directives to the Police Force of Sint Maarten to repressively act against misconduct by students and the community at large.

The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) will like to emphasize that the infractions taken up in the decree will be thoroughly enforced in the districts and areas mentioned in the ministerial decree. Some of the infractions mentioned in the decree are:

 That there should be NO loitering by children or adults in the school districts.

 Fighting and any other types of criminal activities will NOT be tolerated. This includes assault, assault with a weapon, possession of illegal weapons, possession of illicit substances, group fights, threatening, and disorderly conduct that disturbs the peace, among others.

Over the past years, we have strengthened our efforts to prevent misconduct and abuse while working with partners in our response to this type of behavior by putting the victims first.

Based on the fact that fights and related criminal activities are becoming more violent with a high frequency, a rising number of teenagers are actually being arrested for their in/out of school misbehavior and are being brought to court for their role(s) in criminal activity.

The top priorities of the police force are to provide victims with assistance, ensure swift and victim-centered investigations and establish safe and accessible reporting channels. It is evident that repressive actions alone will not lead to long-term solutions. The Police Force will be engaging in more preventive measures, especially at the community level. The Youth and Morals Department and the community officers are committed to working closely with communities and partners to end such abuses and to establish a safe environment for victims.

As an immediate preventative action, the Police Force is requesting the cooperation of parents with the following;

 Talk to your child(ren).

 Make sure that the child(ren) are picked up on time to avoid them loitering around.

 Check their bags often to make sure they are not carrying any illegal items to school.



Tips for students on how to avoid a fight:

 One way to cope with a bully is to ignore him or her. If someone is teasing you, just walk away.

 Remain calm.

 Make it clear that you have no desire to fight.

 Tell your parents or the school principal.

The Police Force of Sint Maarten is encouraging all victims of these types of crimes to come forward and make an official complaint at the Detective Department. We would also like to ask anyone with knowledge about any type of misconduct to report these to the police or to provide us with any visual material that can help to further investigate these acts.

Anyone who has information that can help the Police Department suppress these types of infractions should immediately contact the detectives via phone at 1-721-542-2222 ext. 203/204/205, the anonymous tip line # 9300 or persons with information can also send a private message via our Facebook Page - Police Force of Sint Maarten  Korps Politie Sint Maarten or website https://www.policesxm.sx/24/7.

The Police Force (KPSM) is once again are reminding students about the zero-tolerance policy when it comes to school and gang fights and we are also pleading with all parents and the community to get involved in trying to alleviate this rapidly growing problem. Parents of students involved in these fights should also be reminded they are also partly responsible for the behavior attributed to their minor children. The Police Force is urging the community at large to motivate our youngsters to be Up Standers and not bystanders: Dont cheer it on!!!!

CLICK here to read MB on school fights.
Promising Safety Profile and 90% Reduction in Virus Infectivity Reported for Key Capital COVID-19 Oral Pill Therapeutic Vaccine

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / KEY CAPITAL CORPORATION (OTC PINK:KCPC) is pleased to advise that current independent laboratory testing of its partnered Immunitor COVID-19 patented oral pill vaccine in an ongoing university study is providing promising early support for safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

The preliminary tests conducted by a leading Asian research institute have shown safety and a 90% reduction on virus infectivity in mammalian cells following exposure to the active vaccine. This laboratory testing highlights the vaccine methodology and ability to inactivate and/or prevent viral infection and its potential for oral mucosal administration.

As varied injectable vaccines are being rushed into the major global markets, the virus continues to mutate and daily infections, hospitalizations, and deaths increase. Key Capital believes its COVID-19 oral pill therapeutic vaccine can potentially meet the pandemic challenges by being able to offer a much-needed therapeutic treatment option, as well as a highly efficient mass vaccination alternative.

Key Capital Corporation:

The Company's focus is on further development of its oral pill therapeutic vaccines within its Territory through its Key Biotec and Immunitor partnering; particularly on advancing the highly-promising FDA Orphan Drug Designated V5 liver cancer candidate.

Additionally, due to the unprecedented urgent global need for a simple, affordable, and easily mass distributable COVID-19 treatment and vaccine, the Company continues to explore the opportunity of securing funding partners, as well as other options.

For further information see: https://keybiotec.com and https://keycapitalcorp.com

For all inquiries please contact: Key Capital at +1 (646) 401-0177, or Peter Boonen, Chairman, at peter@keycapitalcorp.com

References:

https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_coronavirus_hospitalizations

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/opdlisting/oopd/detailedIndex.cfm?cfgridkey=457714

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28443252/

Disclaimer: Statements made in this press release that express the Company or management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations, or predictions of future events, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "will" and similar expressions are intended to further identify such forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Those statements are based on many assumptions and are subject to many known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual activities, results or performance to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in such forward-looking statements. The Company cannot guarantee future financial results, levels of activity, performance or achievements and investors should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Key Capital Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624615/Key-Capital-COVID-19-Oral-Pill-Vaccine-Records-90-Reduction-in-Virus-Infectivity-in-Early-Study
"Today's event signals the Black clergy's continued resolve to create a strong, sustainable and concerted effort on the national and local level to combat the devastation that COVID-19 has inflicted on the Black community. Testing, preventative health measures and vaccine education are major keys to saving lives and stopping the destruction this virus leaves in its wake," said civil rights leader and President of National Action Network (NAN) Rev. Al Sharpton.

The Conclave convened over 100 Black clergy, America's leading public health officials, nonprofit leaders and corporate leaders for panels and Q&As on COVID-19 in the Black community. The Conclave also briefed leaders on the Choose Healthy Life Action Plan announced in November  a sustainable, scalable and transferable approach to address health disparities by providing services such as COVID testing and vaccine education in five major US cities. Choose Healthy Life previously hosted a Black Clergy Summit in December, featuring Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"I want to thank Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Butts and Debra Fraser-Howze, my old and dear good friend, for giving me the opportunity to be here with you," said Dr. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, responding to a question from Rev. Horace Sheffield. "Putting vaccines aside for a moment, if you have symptoms, there is the possibility that you are in fact infected. You should get tested, assume you're infected and do the social distancing until you get a result."

A historic partnership with the Black church, medical and public health experts and United Way of New York City along with respective local agencies, the Action Plan will aim to build greater access to COVID-19 testing, vaccine awareness and preventative health education. Working in collaboration with implementation partner the United Way of New York City and affiliated local agencies, the Action Plan will initially launch in five cities  New York, N.Y., Newark, N.J., Detroit, Mich., Atlanta, Ga. and Washington, D.C. The program aims to expand to additional cities throughout the year and also to expand its scope to address broadly racial health disparities.

"The Choose Healthy Life Action Plan will provide support to Black neighborhoods across the U.S. to begin addressing health disparities in a way that hasn't yet been done  through the Black church, a sacred institution that has been a bastion of trust for Black communities for centuries," said Rev. Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

This Action Plan is being led by the Choose Healthy Life National Black Clergy Health Leadership Council, co-chaired by Rev. Sharpton (National Action Network, New York, N.Y.) and Rev. Butts (Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York, N.Y.), and includes council members Rev. Jacques DeGraff (Canaan Baptist Church of Christ, New York, N.Y.); Rev. David Jefferson (Metropolitan Baptist Church, Newark, N.J.); Rev. Horace Sheffield (New Destiny Christian Fellowship, Detroit, Mich.); Rev. Frank Tucker (First Baptist Church, Washington D.C.); and Rev. Raphael Warnock (Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Ga.). The Council has among its medical advisors, Dr. Louis Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Tom Frieden and former U.S. Congresswoman Dr. Donna Christensen.

"I'm grateful for your prayers and know that the work that we have tried to do from the outside we will continue to do on the inside to translate our protests into public policy, our activism, advocacy and agitation into legislation. I'm grateful to be a part of this Choose Healthy Life work on COVID-19. I'm grateful that I've been a part of this effort from its inception, as we're focused on longstanding disparities in healthcare," said Senator-Elect Rev. Warnock.

High-profile panelists and speakers from the public health community included Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, co-chair of President-Elect Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board, Dr. Nancy Messionier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, and Dr. Tom Frieden, former Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) director and president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, among others.

"I'm deeply honored to work with Black clergy and the Choose Healthy Life initiative to promote services to the most vulnerable affected by the pandemic. It's important to be even more vigilant as the vaccine is rolled out and ensure that we limit the spread through increased mask use, minimizing indoor contacts with people outside our household, testing and community education. The 3Ws remain central: Wear a mask, Watch your distance, and Wash your hands," said Dr. Frieden.

"United Way of New York City is honored to partner with Choose Healthy Life and continue our commitment to address disparities in communities of color  namely health disparities through wider COVID-19 testing and public health education," said Sheena Wright, president and CEO of United Way of New York City.

Funding support for Choose Healthy Life has been made possible through grants from founding sponsors, Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the Quest Diagnostics Foundation and Resolve to Save Lives.

"We are proud to work together with Choose Healthy Life and the Black clergy members to help stop the disproportionate devastation of COVID-19 in the Black community," said Steve Rusckowski, Chairman, CEO and President of Quest Diagnostics. "Testing and education are critical to addressing health disparities in underserved communities, which is the mission of our company's Quest for Health Equity initiative."

Academy Award-winning actor and director Sean Penn, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Board of Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), also addressed the Conclave.

"The access to COVID-19 testing and the equitable distribution of the vaccine are the focus of CORE's current mission," said Sean Penn, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Board of Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE). "We are paying attention to hospital capacity with patients and health care workers, who are coming here in Los Angeles largely from the Black and Brown community and largely from multigenerational housing; there is a cultural demand and a scientific demand, as well as a moral and human prerogative, to address this quickly. We've seen the importance of trusted messengers within communities of color, and Choose Healthy Life is a vital initiative."

Penn's organization CORE is currently committed to an integrated approach for the COVID-19 relief effort across the United States, which is inclusive of distributing vaccines, streamlining testing with results returned within 48 hours, comprehensive and timely contact tracing programs, and supported quarantine and isolation services that provide shelter, food, and wage replacement. The organization has been operating free COVID-19 testing sites across the United States since March, with a focus on serving vulnerable and underserved communities, targeting low-income groups, communities of color, first responders, and essential workers, and is currently expanding access to vaccines across the country to ensure safe and equitable distribution of the vaccine.

The successful model behind the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan was initially created and developed by Debra Fraser-Howze, founder of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, to successfully combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Black community.

"As in past crises, our churches and clergy are instrumental in leading the Black community through this current health crisis. Today's Conclave and the Action Plan's efforts throughout the year will help stifle COVID-19's rampage in the Black community so we can finally heal and move forward," said Fraser-Howze, who advised two U.S. Presidents as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS from 1998 to 2003.

To learn more about Choose Healthy Life, please click here .

About Choose Healthy Life

Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan is a program developed by D. Fraser Associates (DFA) based on the DFA Choose Healthy Life Standard  a sustainable, scalable and transferable approach to public health. The highly successful Standard was created by Debra Fraser-Howze, principal at DFA and founder of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, to address the AIDS epidemic. It is centered around the Black church  the oldest and most trusted institutions in the Black community. Partnering with the United Way agencies, local health departments and community-based organizations, churches receive the necessary resources, training and support to make available health services to the region's most vulnerable individuals. The Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan has been made possible through the support of founding partner Quest Diagnostics , the Quest Diagnostics Foundation and from Resolve to Save Lives , a global health initiative focused on helping advance scalable, proven strategies to prevent and address epidemics. To learn more, visit: www.ChooseHealthyLife.org

About United Way of New York City

United Way of New York City (UWNYC) fights for the self-sufficiency of every low-income New Yorker by taking on the toughest challenges and creating new solutions to old problems. We win by helping families shift from barely surviving to thriving. We unite by mobilizing the best ideas, relevant data, internal and external experts, and resourcesfrom money to manpower. UWNYC maximizes impact by coordinating and aligning organizations, companies, local government, and New Yorkers to help families eliminate tough choices and live better while making ends meet. To learn more, visit: www.unitedwaynyc.org .

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest Diagnostics annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our 47,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com .

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives , an initiative of Vital Strategies , aims to prevent at least 100 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and epidemics. Through its Prevent Epidemics program, Resolve to Save Lives has rapidly leveraged existing networks to partner with cities, counties and states in the United States and countries throughout Africa and beyond to combat COVID-19. Resolve is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global health organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

SOURCE Choose Healthy Life; Quest Diagnostics
SUV

Before that happens, though, theres the question of backing all the promises, from the mind-blowing GMC Hummer EV to the new Chevrolet Bolt EUV or the upcoming BET truck , with production locations. And, if the automaker wants to be successful everywhere, even the commercial business side needs a lot of cash.General Motors is looking to cover that area, as well. Its autonomous unit, Cruise, has proposed the Origin for passenger rides, while the recently revealed BrightDrop EV600 should cover electric delivery van needs. And the company just pledged almost $800 million (one billion Canadian dollars) to make the latter a real contender in the logistics and parcel delivery sectors.After it reaches a final agreement with Unifor and the pledged support from the authorities gets confirmed, GM is going to source the BrightDrop EV600 from the companys CAMI manufacturing facility in Ingersoll, Ontario. The investment will be used to create Canadas first large-scale electric delivery vehicles manufacturing plant, as it plans to deliver the first units of the BrightDrop EV600 sometime before the end of the year.Of course, in order to adhere to the proposed timing, work on the transformation needs to kick off immediately, and while thats great news for the local workforce, it also means that over the next two years the unit should wind down the current production of the third-generation Chevy Equinox compact crossoverMost likely, the Equinox wont survive the CAMI transformation, but the model is probably safe  thanks to continued manufacturing in China, Mexico, and Argentina. Meanwhile, Canada has been the target of a sustained round of GM investments, supporting both product manufacturing, renewable energy generation, and the expansion of its Canadian Technology Center.
Did a woman who the FBI believes stole a laptop or hard drive from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office have plans to sell it off to Russian officials?

The thorny tale places 20-year-old Riley Williams of Pennsylvania at the center of what, if true, could pose to be a large national security breach. That said, the FBI repeatedly stated that the situation remains "under investigation."

According to a copy of an affidavit obtained by Politico filed Sunday by an FBI agent, a witness allegedly saw a video of Williams "taking a laptop computer or hard drive from Speaker Pelosi's office" on Jan. 6.

She then "intended to send the computer" to an individual in Russia, who would then end up selling it to SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence agency.

The witness, identified by the FBI as Williams' "former romantic partner," tipped them off repeatedly following the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, D.C. after they saw her in multiple YouTube videos inside Pelosi's office.

Williams was recorded in a video published by ITV News, a British news outlet, reportedly "directing other intruders to proceed up a staircase" that led to Pelosi's office.

After the events of Jan. 6, the report said that she drove home with her father, who accompanied her to the riots  but split up once in D.C.

The outlet published a video Saturday seemingly confirming Williams' presence at the riots, and asked her mother about her whereabouts. Williams' mother told officers that she has not seen her daughter since the siege took place. (ITV did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.)

"It appears that [Williams] has fled," the report concluded. "[She] did not provide her mother any inforamtion about her intended destination."

It also seems as if she changed her phone number and deleted her social media presence entirely, the agent confirmed.
Mispronounce Wyoming's new senator's name and you might be rewarded with a treat
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Russias flagship crude grade, Urals, has seen higher demand from European refiners, with prices rising accordingly, since Saudi Arabia announced a surprise additional production cut at the start of this month.

Just two out of 48 Urals cargoes loading from Russias Baltic ports this month are not sold yet, traders told Bloomberg on Monday.

The higher demand of Urals cargoes has resulted in a $1-a-barrel increase in the price of the grade in northwest Europe since Christmas, according to traders who spoke to Bloomberg. Urals went for a $0.70-a-barrel discount to Dated Brent on Friday, up by nearly $1 per barrel since touching an eight-month-low before Christmas.

In general, traders tell Bloomberg, the market has become busier since Saudi Arabia caught the market by surprise in the first week of January when it said after the end of the OPEC+ ministerial meeting that it would unilaterally cut 1 million bpd off its crude oil production for the next two months.

The Saudis also raised the official selling prices (OSPs) of their oil for Asia for February, lifting the price of the flagship Arab Light grade by $0.70 a barrel to a premium of $1 per barrel against the Middle East benchmark, the Oman/Dubai average.

The surprise Saudi announcement and the higher prices from the Kingdom have prompted Asian refiners to source oil from elsewhere, and North Sea cargoes seem to have benefited from the Saudi production cut.

Refiners in Asia are scrambling to secure supplies from Europe, with record purchases of North Sea cargoes in one day. According to Reuters, seven crude oil cargoes from the North Sea were bought and sold during a trading window on January 7 alone, and this, according to an oil trading source, was a daily record for North Sea cargoes traded in one day in recent history. Typically, one or two cargoes of 600,000 barrels of crude each are being traded on a normal day in normal circumstances, according to Reuters.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon, center, speaks after paying a visit to the May 18 National Cemetery in Gwangju, Monday. His visit to the southwestern city was part of his efforts to ease anger and regain trust from citizens who were unhappy with Lee's proposal to pardon imprisoned former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak. Both his supporters and critics gathered at the cemetery to hold demonstrations. / Yonhap
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be among the global leaders who will address the virtual Davos Agenda Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to be held later in January.

This year, WEF will host its physical annual meeting in Singapore, as opposed to the Swiss ski town of Davos, and in May instead of January. However, the economic organisation will organise a five-day online event named Davos Agenda Summit in January, around the same time it usually hosts the Davos Summit every year.

The Davos Agenda Summit will be held from January 25-29, with several heads of state scheduled to deliver special addresses and engage with business leaders.

The WEF informed that the heads of state or government who have confirmed their participation include President Xi Jinping, PM Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, South Korea President Moon Jae-in, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong. Indian union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan will also participate in the virtual event.

More than 1,000 leaders from WEF's member and partner organisations will represent the private sector during the summit. Indian corporate leaders including Mukesh Ambani, Sanjiv Bajaj, Shyam Sunder Bhartia, Hari S Bhartia, Ajay Khanna, Jayadev Galla, Dipali Goenka, Ajit Gulabchand, Shobana Kamineni, Hemant Kanoria, Neeraj Kanwar, Onkar S Kanwar, Vikram Khemka, Grandhi Kiran Kumar, S P Lohia, Anand Mahindra, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Rajan Bharti Mittal, Pawan Munjal, Salil S Parekh, Jai Shroff, Sumant Sinha and Vaishali Sinha will also attend the Davos Agenda Summit.

Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and International Monetary Fund Chief Christina Christine Lagarde will also be a part of Davos Agenda.

The WEF's Davos 2020 summit was the last major global event to happend before the entire world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As economies try to get back on track in 2021, the theme for WEF's upcoming summit will be 'A Crucial Year to Rebuild Trust'.

The Davos Agenda Summit will also mark the launch of WEF's 'Great Reset Initiative' and begin the preparation of the special Annual Meeting in May later this year. During the virtual event in January, heads of state and government and international organisations will speak their mind on the current state of the world, as well as engage in dialogue with business leaders.

WEF noted that industry leaders and public figures will discuss how to advance and accelerate public-private collaboration on critical issues such as COVID-19 vaccination, job creation and climate change, among others.

WEF will organise its annual meeting for this from May 13-16 in Singapore; the high-profile congregation of world's who's who will return to Davos in 2022.

More than 1,500 business, government and civil society leaders from over 70 countries will set the agenda for a critical year ahead and discuss how to catalyse impact in the rapidly advancing Fourth Industrial Revolution, it added.

The conclusions from the Davos Agenda week will feed into task forces working on global issues for the upcoming Special Annual Meeting in Singapore, the WEF said.

"In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to reset priorities and the urgency to reform systems have been growing stronger around the world," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF.

"Rebuilding trust and increasing global cooperation are crucial to fostering innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery. This unique meeting will be an opportunity for leaders to outline their vision and address the most important issues of our time, such as the need to accelerate job creation and to protect the environment," he added.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that no institution or individual alone can address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges of our complex, interdependent world.

The pandemic has accelerated systemic changes that were apparent before its inception. The fault lines that emerged in 2020 now appear as critical crossroads in 2021. The Davos Agenda will help leaders choose innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery over the next year, WEF added.

Special addresses from G20 heads of state and government and international organisations will provide crucial insights into a range of important issues in the year ahead, the organisation said.

New York, Jan 18 : On January 20, presidential pooches Champ and Major Biden will mark the return of First Pets to the White House after four years of outgoing President Donald Trumps pet-free reign. A cat is also said to be in the running to join the furry sidekicks.

German shepherds Major and Champ will be rolling in with the Bidens as they move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day. Major is 2, Champ 12.

"He thinks he's Secret Service, and he is," President-elect Joe Biden likes to say about Champ, a Washington insider by now.

The Bidens got Champ from a Pennsylvania breeder in late 2008, post-election.

The new pup was named Champ on Christmas Day, after the word Biden's father used to help his son recover from hard knocks while growing up.

Major joined the Biden family in 2018, 10 years after Champ. He was rescued with the help of the Delaware Humane Association (DHA) and will be the first shelter dog to be called "First Dog".

Major got an early shot at the spotlight when his playdate with Biden ended with his master suffering a hairline fracture on his right foot.

Champ's a veteran at headline hunting. When Biden was Vice President, he used to hand out Champ soft toys to kids he met as part of his official tours.

Before Biden, Barack Obama was the most recent president to have pets on campus.

Obama rewarded his children with two Portuguese water dogs Bo and Sunny, after his inauguration. Bo was a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.

Presidential pooches have done more than just good PR for their famous masters. Former President George Bush's English Springer Spaniel Millie is the author of a dogobiography called "Millie's Book".

President Harry Truman famously said that, "if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog".

Many Presidents have taken him up on that advice.

The first President Bush once said: "There is nothing like the unconditional love of a dog to help you get through the rough spots." Before 2017, every single first family for over 100 years had an animal member.

Trump was one of only four Presidents who left the First Pet slot vacant.

On this, Vice President Mike Pence broke with Trump.

The Pences had a rabbit and a cat at the start of term and added two puppies and a beehive during their stint at One Observatory Circle - the new home of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
WhatsApp rolled out its new privacy policy at the beginning of this year which led to quite a bit of backlash. WhatsApps new agreement is aimed at the upcoming changes to its platform that will allow better interaction between businesses and users. Existing WhatsApp users are not very comfortable with this change which has led to them looking for WhatsApp alternatives. If youve been wondering about jumping ships then check out a roundup of the best WhatsApp alternatives below.

WhatsApp did announce that it will delay the implementation of its new privacy policy by three months following the backlash. However, thats not good enough to stop the exodus of users leaving its platform over privacy concerns. No wonder then WhatsApp alternatives have seen a huge influx of users.

Read: Whats the Issue With WhatsApps New Privacy Policy?

Even apart from the privacy viewpoint, there are plenty of other messaging apps that are more feature-rich and secure than WhatsApp. Check out some of the best WhatsApp alternatives that you can try below.

Best and Free WhatsApp Alternatives

1. Telegram

Telegram is one of the leaders among other secure messaging apps, and as of January 2021, has reached 500 million monthly active users. Cloud Chat is the default messaging method and does not provide e2e encryption. All chats are stored on Telegrams servers and are backed up to an in-built cloud backup.

While Telegram does not offer e2e encryption by default, they offer Secret Chats. Secret Chats can only be read on the device from which the message was sent and the device that received it. Even using the same accounts, it is not possible to read the messages on any other device. You can also send self-destructing messages that automatically disappear after a predefined time.

Take a look at all the major Telegram features below:

Groups with up to 200,000 members

Self-destructing and schedule messages

The size limit for sharing files on Telegram is 1.5 GB

Supports voice and video call on Android and iOS devices

No data has been shared among third-parties or any governments to date

Cross-platform availability

 Download  Telegram

2. Signal

Signal, once a niche messaging service for the privacy-minded, is currently the most downloaded app in the United States, unseating perennially popular social media and gaming apps. Other mainstream Signal features that WhatsApp users dont have include view-once media messages, encrypted profiles, an incognito keyboard switch for Android to keep Gboard from sending your typing history back to Google, and backups that dont default to unencrypted storage in Google Drive or iCloud. Below are some noteworthy Signal features:

Supports self-destructing messages

Note to Self to share your own thoughts and ideas without creating single-member groups

Relay calls to hide IP address

Signal uses a back-end user-facing encryption service

Open-source Signal Protocol to implement end-to-end encryption

Signal also encrypts your metadata offering multiple levels of security

Available on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac

 Download  Signal

3.Viber

Viber is another popular messaging and VoIP app that really stands toe-to-toe with WhatsApp when it comes to features. Firstly, the app offers end-to-end encryption in calls, messages, and shared media. Furthermore, the messages saved in multiple devices are also encrypted, which brings us to the fact that the messaging apps packs in multi-device support, which WhatsApp lacks.

The messaging functions include support for stickers, file sharing, last seen, voice & video messages, public accounts, backup to Google Drive, and more. There is also a sticker store and Viber games, which are basically games you can play inside Viber.

Voice and video calls

Group chats and calls

Stickers and gif support

End-to-end encryption

Desktop support

 Download  Viber

4. Threema

Threema  a Swiss-based company offers a chat messenger that is designed for both consumers and businesses. Unlike other free apps, Threema is a paid service and clearly puts its revenue model in front of you so that your data is never at stake. You dont need to use your phone number to create an account that offers complete anonymity if you desire. Along with being E2E encrypted, your chats can be hidden and locked away with a pin for each contact. You can even verify every contacts authenticity by scanning their QR code. No wonder why its getting popular in the enterprise sector.

E2E encryption

Private chat

Contact verification

$3 per month for personal use and $1.58 per user per month for business use

 Download  Threema

5. Keybase

Keybase is another open-source secure chat application that is great for users who want to communicate securely. Since this is an open-source app, theres no private company that is looking at all your data. On top of that, the data is end-to-end encrypted so at no point in time, the message is exposed to strangers.

At first glance, you might mistake the app for Slack but dig deeper and you will find the benefits of using Keybase over the rivals. Users arent even allowed to take screenshots of the app. Messages, media, and file transfers are protected in such a way that even Keybase cant read your messages. Because Keybase is built on top of public-key identifiers, you can use the app anonymously as well.

Privacy at heart

Open-source software

Available on all major platforms

 Download  Keybase

The end decision of which messaging app you will switch to from WhatsApp will depend on the preferences of your friend and family members. After all, whats the use of all the privacy and security features if only a small portion of your contacts are using the app in the first place. Which app are you going to use in favor of WhatsApp? Sound off in the comments section below.
Lucknow, Jan 18 : Lucknow, for the first time, will be holding a Jaggery Festival (Gur Mahotsav) for the very first time sometime next month.

According to the government spokesman, the 'Gur Mahotsav' ' will be showcasing the branding of jaggery and its related products.

Progressive sugarcane farmers from every corner of the state will be invited and it is expected that many specialist producers of the agriculture and food processing sector will also visit the festival and share their knowledge.

The 'Gur Mahotsav' was scheduled to take place last year but due to the Corona pandemic, it was postponed.

The sugar industry and sugarcane development department has started gearing up for this huge event.

Additional Chief Secretary, sugarcane development department, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, recently held a meeting in this regard to discuss the format and purpose of the Gur Mahotsav.

"The Gur Mahotsav" will have stalls of jaggery chocolates, sweets, candies, and kheer.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Sugarcane Research Institute have jointly prepared chocolate and other products from jaggery in different flavours.

This event, which will be held in Lucknow, will not only benefit Ayodhya and towns adjacent to it but will also promote sugarcane farmers of Avadh and Purvanchal regions.

They may use sugarcane crops for this diversified endeavour to make jaggery and increase their income.

According to experts, this natural sweetening food has enormous health benefits. Apart from its medicinal properties, Gur is a rich source of energy, and has many nutrients including iron, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A and B in sufficient amounts.

Malnutrition can also be treated by fortifying jaggery with vitamins according to the needs.

Interestingly, jaggery is the ODOP (One district , one product) product of Muzaffarnagar and Ayodhya and the Gur festival has already been organised in Muzaffarnagar.

Muzaffarnagar has over a hundred range of jaggery processed products and these products will be displayed in the Gur Mahotsav. Farmers who will visit the event will be made aware of them. Also, the interested farmers will be given training in this regard later.

The Yogi Adityanath government is constantly trying to ensure branding of agro-based products.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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China's trade war with Australia is failing as its economic growth accelerates to the fastest pace since before the pandemic.

Australia's biggest trading partner grew by 6.5 per cent in the December quarter, compared with the same three-month period in late 2019.

This was the strongest year-on-year economic increase in two years, fuelling more Chinese demand for Australian iron ore to make steel despite a diplomatic standoff.

As this occurred, China's demand for Australian goods fell last year, but by far less than its demand for English and Canadian goods.

CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said China, the world's second biggest economy, had avoided sinking into recession - a rare feat last year.

'China's V-shaped economic recovery is complete with economic growth at pre-pandemic levels in the December quarter,' he said.

Scroll down for video

China, Australia's biggest trading partner, grew by 6.5 per cent in the December quarter, compared with the same three-month period in late 2019. This was the strongest year-on-year increase in two years. Pictured are shoppers in Beijing on January 16, 2020

The Chinese government's National Bureau of Statistics predictably gave the credit to its authoritarian President Xi Jinping.

'Under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, all regions and departments adhered to the general working guideline of making progress,' it said.

Nonetheless, China's economic growth pace in calendar 2020, of just 2.3 per cent compared with 2019, was the weakest since 1976, the year Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong died.

Despite containing an earlier outbreak in Wuhan, 20million Chinese residents are still in lockdown with outbreaks in the Hebei, Heilongjiang and Shannxi provinces and the autonomous region of Guangxi.

Oxford Economics lead economist Tommy Wu said the economic risk was low to Chinese economic growth during the first quarter of 2021.

'Following new restrictions announced due to Covid-19 outbreaks in two provinces, it is possible that reduced confidence and travel during the Chinese New Year holidays hamper Q1 growth,' he said.

The Chinese government's National Bureau of Statistics predictably gave the credit to its authoritarian President Xi Jinping

'But for now, we think that the risk of major economic impact is low, given Chinas track record in containing Covid.'

China's trade war against Australia's wine, barley, coal, timber, beef, lobster and lamb producers appeared to have done little to dent its imports of Australian goods in 2020, with iron ore still needed to make steel.

China's appetite for imports from Australia fell by 4.9 per cent in November, on a year-on-year basis by value, the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China revealed on Friday.

That number was only slightly steeper than the 4.7 per cent fall in demand for imports from New Zealand and significantly less than the 18 per cent plunge in imports from the UK and the 22.2 per cent plummet in imports from Canada.

This occurred despite 80 per cent tariffs imposed on Australian barley in May and 212 per cent import taxes levied on Australian wine in November.
Donald Trump's campaign press secretary Hogan Gidley says the president can't denounce the Capitol riots because he doesn't have access to social media.

Gidley also told Fox News on Sunday that Trump's election fraud claims came from 'attorneys and advisers' and the president 'doesn't make these things up'.

'The media are trying to have it both ways,' Gidley said, referring to calls for Trump to criticize the violent siege while he is banned from Twitter.

Scroll down for video

Donald Trump's campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley insists the president can't denounce the Capitol riots because he has been de-platformed by social media. Gidley also told Fox News on Sunday that Trump's election fraud claims came from 'attorneys and advisers' and the president 'doesn't make these things up'

'On the one hand, [media says] he should be censored by big tech and not be allowed to talk,' he added.

'He also shouldn't say anything because it's divisive. And then when he doesn't say anything and can't say anything because the platform have removed him, they say, "Where's the president? Why aren't we hearing from him?" The whole thing is disingenuous.'

Discussing voter fraud claims that have been central to Trump's fury since his election loss, Gidley said Trump is 'getting that information from advisers who are telling him they have evidence of certain things. So hes going to come out and say "heres what I know" or "heres what Ive been told." The President doesnt make these things up

Gidley has been tweeting in the days since Trump's Twitter account was permanently suspended.

His Twitter feed is one of the few remaining social medial outlets Trump can use to get his message out - though Gidley must be careful not to share a message worded directly from the president, or his account would likely be shut down for aiding 'ban evasion'.

On Saturday he refuted reports that Rudy Giuliani was part of the president's impeachment defense team and called the trial a 'hoax' and a 'disgraceful attack on our constitution'.

As president, Trump has the ability to hold a press conference from the West Wing and has been using pre-recorded videos to share messages with the American people in the final days of his administration.

Last week, Gidley said: 'The most masculine person I think to ever hold the White House is the president of the United States.'

Fox News' Bill Hemmer asked Gidley if Trump was feeling 'emasculated' because his Twitter and other social media accounts had been suspended.

'Look, I wouldn't say emasculated,' Gidley began.

'The media are trying to have it both ways,' Gidley said, referring to calls for Trump to criticize the violence siege while he is banned from Twitter. He is pictured with the president in June 2019

After touting Trump's masculinity, Gidley attacked Twitter and Facebook's decision to ban the president.'

Gidley was also asked by Hemmer how Trump planned to communicate with the public in his post-presidency.

'That remains to be seen. As I said, you can absolutely censor us. You can't silence us. And well see how the president reacts, and we'll see what Twitter and Facebook decide to do with his accounts,' Gidley answered.

'There are obviously a lot of options out there. Whether he ends up creating his own entity, well wait and see, but the president of the United States most assuredly is going to be able to communicate with his followers and the American people one way or the other,' Gidley added.

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
St. Lukes University Health Network on Monday offered up two success stories of an investigational COVID-19 treatment.

The network says it infused 500 people in outpatient settings with the monoclonal antibodies treatment, helping to keep its hospitals from becoming overwhelmed during the current ongoing surge of coronavirus infections.

St. Lukes announced last November the treatment would be available at its Easton Campus, the former Easton Hospital in Wilson Borough, and quickly added a second infusion center at St. Lukes Warren Campus in Phillipsburg.

Monoclonal antibodies in a treatment called bamlanivimab developed by Eli Lilly and Co. are being administered under an emergency use authorization issued last Nov. 9 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Eli Lilly last month announced the sale of 650,000 additional doses to the federal government for $812.5 million, bringing the total doses purchased by the government for distribution to 950,000. Additional treatments from Brii Biosciences are being studied for safety and efficacy, the National Institutes of Health says.

The experimental drugs are similar to a treatment President Donald Trump received after contracting the COVID-19 illness last October.

The treatment works by blocking the virus attachment and entry into human cells. Infusion has been found to be particularly effective in preventing the need for hospitalization in select, higher-risk patients including those who are 65 years of age or older and whose infection, identified early, does not yet require supplemental oxygen, St. Lukes says.

Eli Lilly says its treatment is given in a single dose through a vein for at least an hour.

Joe Kitchell, of Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, is among the 500 patients to receive the treatment from St. Lukes, the network said in a news release Monday.

The 52-year-old part-time paramedic in New Jersey came down with COVID-19 symptoms including fever, cough, headache and body aches on Christmas Day and tested positive two days later.

Within a week, Kitchell received an infusion of the Eli Lilly monoclonal antibodies at St. Lukes Easton Campus. He was feeling better by the next morning -- his headache gone and feeling increased energy, but still with a slight cough (he has asthma), St. Lukes says.

I feel great, he is quoted as having said recently, and lucky to have gotten the treatment.

Kitchell is back to transporting patients, including scores critically ill with COVID-19, and grateful to St. Lukes and his web of professional medical connections that encouraged him to try the treatment and arranged for his infusion.

I think its a great treatment and give St. Lukes a lot of credit for opening infusion centers in the community, he stated in the St. Lukes release.

The release also shares the experience of Wilda Cortez-Sanchez, of Allentown, who was back to cooking and cleaning just a few days after having her treatment with the Eli Lilly antibody at St. Lukes Easton in early January. Her fever was gone and her energy, smell and taste and appetite had returned.

I feel very good. The virus is gone, stated Cortez-Sanchez, whose mother and husband also contracted the illness, too.

Her primary care physician, Dr. Pavel Terreros, had referred her to the hospitals infusion center for the treatment, like he has with more than 20 of his other patients from his downtown Allentown office, according to the St. Lukes release.

Everyone who had the infusion improved within 24-48 hours after treatment and no one was hospitalized, Terreros stated. Its really working.

Stated St. Lukes infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Ender, who helps run the COVID-19 treatment programs at SLUHN: Monoclonal antibodies are an important outpatient therapy that we know has benefit in keeping people out of the hospital.

Lehigh Valley Health Network last week said that amid efforts to get local residents immunized against COVID-19, coronavirus-specific hospitalizations are running double their peak in April.

LVHN said that amid high rates of hospitalizations, it urges residents to wear a mask, social distance and wash hands frequently, in addition to getting the vaccine as it becomes available.

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

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.


Tens of thousands of ethnic Kazakhs in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been sent to "reeducation camps" along with hundreds of thousands of others from that western province after being rounded up by China because they are Muslims.



Serikzhan Bilash is one of the people who helped bring this great injustice to light by exposing the suffering of ethnic Kazakhs at the camps in Xinjiang.



An ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang who moved to neighboring Kazakhstan in 2000, Bilash received Kazakh citizenship in 2011 under the "oralman" program, which was designed in 1991 to entice ethnic Kazakhs abroad to resettle in sparsely inhabited Kazakhstan.



In 2017, Bilash founded the Atajurt Eriktileri (Volunteers of the Fatherland) organization to keep track of ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs in Xinjiang as Beijing began implementing its latest and by far harshest campaign against perceived separatists, who were overwhelmingly Chinese Muslims.



But China is a major investor in and trade partner of Kazakhstan.



That brought the 46-year-old Bilash and his work into conflict with Kazakh authorities, and he was arrested and charged with inciting ethnic hatred in March 2019.

But amid an international outcry and quite a lot of rumbling from inside Kazakhstan -- where many people wondered why the government would try to silence someone defending ethnic Kazakhs against Chinese repression -- Bilash was convicted in August 2019 but given a fine and released from custody in exchange for promising to cease his activism for seven years.



But the pressure on Bilash, his family, and associates was massive and did not stop.



So, in late summer 2020, Bilash and his family began their journey to Turkey, where they have been since September 10.



He recently spoke with RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, to explain why he chose to leave.



"In April 2020, two charges were filed against me [in Kazakhstan] -- desecration of the state flag and inciting hatred," he said.



Bilash attempted to register Atajurt Eriktileri in Kazakhstan, but after his court case in 2019, Kazakh authorities registered another group called Atajurt Eriktileri, which was a phony splinter group made up of members who took a soft stance against China.



Bilash then founded a group called Naghyz (the Real) Atajurt.



Bilash told Azattyq that the desecration of the state flag charge stems from comments he made about a court case involving Saltanat Kusmankyzy, a Kazakh woman working for a Chinese company in Kazakhstan who was convicted of embezzlement in January 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Kusmankyzy's lawyer Ayman Umarova, who is also one of Bilash's lawyers, said the court refused to accept her client's evidence, which would have cleared her of the charge.



Bilash said his comments about Kusmankyzy's case were taken out of context and bizarrely presented as disrespecting the Kazakh flag.



Bilash said police conducted a linguistic analysis of the comments that showed nothing Bilash said amounted to denigrating the flag.

'A Heavy Blow'



Bilash said one of the people behind the inciting hatred charge was Erbol Dauletbek, the leader of the Atajurt Eriktileri group registered instead of Bilash's group. Bilash said Dauletbek is trying to gain the rights to Bilash's Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights channel on YouTube.



RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, asked Dauletbek about the claim but he denied filing any legal complaints against Bilash.



Keeping the YouTube channel is part of the reason Bilash went to Turkey. Bilash officially registered the popular channel in 2013.



"There were not any mass arrests in China thenand there was not even an organization called Atajurt," Bilash said.

He added that Kazakh police started coming to the apartment of Galym Rakizhan, the editor of the video for the Atajurt YouTube channel, and threatened the owner, who finally told Rakizhan he must leave despite having lived there for many years.



Bilash then signed over the YouTube channel to Turkish citizen Babisalem Okitan, who is also a member of Naghyz Atajurt and now in charge of programming for the channel.



Bilash said he has no plans to seek asylum in Turkey and intends to return to Kazakhstan. But he noted that cannot happen until he is cleared of charges there and the pressure against him, his family, and his organization ceases.



"On August 18, 2020, a court ruled that I was involved with the activities of an unregistered illegal organization and was fined[the equivalent of $333]. Several members of Naghyz Atajurt Eriktileri were also fined," he said. "That was a heavy blow for us."



"Any time I drove, [the police] stopped me without fail," Bilash said. "Day and night there are people and vehicles outside my house. My relatives and my wife's relatives have all been questioned."

'Branded A Terrorist'



Bilash said he was also put on a blacklist in Kazakhstan.



Bilash said Kazakh authorities have branded him a terrorist and, when his mother died and he went to the notary to sign over her property to his father, he was told it was not possible.



"It turns out that on their network I was shown to be a terrorist, I have a screenshot of it from the computer at the notary public," Bilash explained.



He added that his bank accounts in Kazakhstan have been frozen and his car was impounded.



Bilash also recounted seven meetings he had in 2019 while he was under house arrest in Nur-Sultan and Almaty with a person named Maksat Iskakov, a representative that Bilash said was sent by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.



According to Bilash, at one of those meetings, Iskakov told him, "In September [2019], Mr. Toqaev is going to China and your sentence [and conviction] will be a present to the Chinese president."

Iskakov advised him to cooperate with Kazakh officials and agree to the deal whereby he would be fined and cease his activism for seven years.



"My goals were not to challenge Kazakh authorities, I wanted to defend the rights of Kazakhs and other Turkic-speaking peoples who were abused in China," Bilash said in explaining why he agreed to the deal.



Bilash also assured: "I am not a dangerous person to the authorities of Kazakhstan, I am not an opposition figure, not an opponent."



Bilash said he hoped Turkish authorities will register Naghyz Atajurt. If that happens, Bilash said the group will then seek recognition as a human rights defender from international organizations.



Azattyq sent a copy of Bilash's interview to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration seeking comment but there had been no response as of the time this report was issued.
Allied Services Hospice nurses, aides and social workers have adopted patients pets when the patients were no longer able to care for them.

Most of the time, pets of hospice patients go to family and friends, but occasionally theyre left without a home.

To make sure the animals are as well cared for as their owners, Allied Services Hospice is now offering the Pet Peace of Mind program to assist with finding homes for the furry friends of patients nearing the end of their lives.

We do have patients that have pets who theyve had  for many years and theyre more concerned about the well-being and future of these pets than they are about themselves, said Laura Marion, assistant vice president of Allied Services Hospice and Palliative Care.

Pet Peace of Mind, based in Salem, Oregon, educates hospice, home health, hospital and palliative care organizations about the importance of pets in the lives of their patients and helps them support those pets in practical ways, according to the programs website. They also help hospices establish local programs to train volunteers to help patients with their pet care needs.

Allied is not currently using volunteers because of pandemic restrictions, so they will work with local animal rescues to take in the pets and keep them out of shelters, said Megan Cerco, volunteer coordinator for Allied Services Hospice.

Cerco said when patients are admitted to hospice, nurses, aides and social workers typically discuss a plan for their pets. Once they receive authorization from the patient to be part of the program, the pet will be referred through Allied to an appropriate local rescue, Cerco said.

We think its a really unique program that helps us continue to just build a real complete program that encompasses all facets of the patients life, said Marion.

Pets are a vital part of peoples lives and you know the peace of mind, which speaks to the name, of knowing that your pet is going to be in a safe home and well cared for is a true part of what hospice is all about delivering.

In the future, with support from its trained volunteers, Allied hopes to grow the program to include assistance with day-to-day pet care needs like walking and feeding so patients and their pets can stay together longer, Cerco said.

For details about the program or to sign up for future volunteer opportunities, contact Cerco at MCerco@allied-services.org or visit www.alliedservices.org/services/hospice-palliative-care.
The situation in hospitals is stark with people of all ages being admitted to intensive care units (ICU) due to Covid-19, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned.

And Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the number being hospitalised and admitted to ICU is expected to peak within the next week or two.

The latest figures show there are 1,928 patients in hospital with the virus.

Deaths

There were 2,944 new cases of Covid-19 reported yesterday as well as 13 deaths, all of which occurred this month.

It came after 60 deaths were reported on Saturday as well as 3,231 new cases.

Of the cases notified yesterday: 1,065 cases were in Dublin, 306 were in Cork, 181 were in Galway, 180 were in Kildare, 160 were in Limerick and the remaining were spread across all other counties.

Dr Holohan said: "We are seeing people of all ages being admitted to hospital and being taken into intensive care units.

"The levels of infection are such that your chances of transmitting or getting Covid-19 are very high, and we know that a proportion of those cases will lead to serious illness and mortality.

"There is no group who should feel the public health advice does not apply to them."

He also urged employers to facilitate their employees working from home.

"As we look forward to the week ahead, consider your choices and make the right ones. Do not go into work tomorrow if you can work from home. If you are an employer, facilitate remote working for your employees."

Meanwhile, Mr Donnelly warned on RTE's This Week that the numbers in ICU will continue to rise and "the situation will get worse before it gets better".

However, he said the number of patients being hospitalised with Covid-19 is expected to peak within the next week or two, in what has been the third wave of the pandemic here.

He said that new modelling in the past few days from Professor Philip Nolan, who heads a team tracking Covid-19, suggests that this week, or potentially next week, "the hospitalisations and the number of patients in ICU should peak". Mr Donnelly said there are currently 195 patients in critical care.

Surge

"The number in ICU is going to continue to rise. We know it's going to get worse before it gets better. We have surge capacity of 350 critical care beds."

He said there are 40 to 50 critical care beds available under the deal in place with private hospitals.

"The focus right now is on making sure we have the beds, most importantly we have the staff. There has been a lot of work done since the first wave.

"PPE is fine. The number of ventilators if you remember back in March was a very serious concern, oxygen is fine."
There is a total disregard for the Covid-19 Safety Protocols in some main markets in Accra.



The government announced the safety protocols of hand washing, use of hand sanitisers and social distancing to help curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.



Mr Shaibu Abdulai, a resident and patron of the Nima Market in an interview with GNA, said he believed that the Coronavirus disease had gone.



He said although they had been hearing of the emergence of new cases in the country, they were yet to see people suffering from the disease, hence the non-compliance to the safety guidelines.



Mr Shaibu said the non-enforcement of the laws that compelled people to wear nose mask was another reason individuals not to follow the protocols.



He called on the government to enforce the laws to ensure people obeyed the safety protocols to halt the spread of the virus.



Mr Adam Bayomsi, an Okada Rider, said he was not wearing a nose mask because there was no coronavirus in the country.



He said the nationwide lockdown had affected the Okada business and called on government to support them to revamp their businesses.



Mr Abdul-Waris Yahaya, a provision store owner at the Nima market, said most of the people who purchased products from him did not wear nose mask.



He said most of them believe that the disease was no longer in the country, adding that it was the main reason for people to disobey the safety protocols.



Mr Mohammed Tanko, a Trotro Driver at Tema Station, said he always put on a nose mask but most of the passengers did not.



He said he used hand sanitiser as there were no Veronica buckets readily available as was the case during the initial stages of the pandemic in the county.



Mr Tanko said government needed to intensify education for individuals to follow the Covid-19 safety protocols.



Meanwhile, the adherence of the Covid-19 safety guidelines in most of the business offices has seen a massive decline.



Most of the Veronica buckets that were placed at various strategic points are no longer there.

GNA

Total disregard for Covid-19 Safety Protocols at various Markets

By Abdulai Haruna



Accra, Jan. 17, GNA - There is a total disregard for the Covid-19 Safety Protocols in some main markets in Accra.



The government announced the safety protocols of hand washing, use of hand sanitisers and social distancing to help curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.



Mr Shaibu Abdulai, a resident and patron of the Nima Market in an interview with GNA, said he believed that the Coronavirus disease had gone.



He said although they had been hearing of the emergence of new cases in the country, they were yet to see people suffering from the disease, hence the non-compliance to the safety guidelines.



Mr Shaibu said the non-enforcement of the laws that compelled people to wear nose mask was another reason individuals not to follow the protocols.



He called on the government to enforce the laws to ensure people obeyed the safety protocols to halt the spread of the virus.



Mr Adam Bayomsi, an Okada Rider, said he was not wearing a nose mask because there was no coronavirus in the country.



He said the nationwide lockdown had affected the Okada business and called on government to support them to revamp their businesses.



Mr Abdul-Waris Yahaya, a provision store owner at the Nima market, said most of the people who purchased products from him did not wear nose mask.



He said most of them believe that the disease was no longer in the country, adding that it was the main reason for people to disobey the safety protocols.



Mr Mohammed Tanko, a Trotro Driver at Tema Station, said he always put on a nose mask but most of the passengers did not.



He said he used hand sanitiser as there were no Veronica buckets readily available as was the case during the initial stages of the pandemic in the county.



Mr Tanko said government needed to intensify education for individuals to follow the Covid-19 safety protocols.



Meanwhile, the adherence of the Covid-19 safety guidelines in most of the business offices has seen a massive decline.



Most of the Veronica buckets that were placed at various strategic points are no longer there.

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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Downing Street has insisted it is 'not the right and proper moment' to decide if a 20-a-week Universal Credit increase should be kept in place after Boris Johnson told Tory MPs to abstain on a crunch Labour vote tonight.

The Government rolled-out the extra cash last year to help families through the coronavirus pandemic but the policy is due to expire in April.

The Prime Minister's Press Secretary, Allegra Stratton, said at lunchtime that a firm decision has not yet been taken on whether the increased payments will be extended.

She said Chancellor Rishi Sunak will 'come forward when he thinks the time is right' to deliver a final verdict, with ministers having hinted that moment will be the Budget on March 3.

Labour will try to force a symbolic vote on keeping the payments this evening after holding an opposition day debate on the matter.

But Downing Street has labelled the move a 'political stunt', with Mr Johnson telling Conservative MPs to abstain.

The PM has claimed Sir Keir Starmer is 'playing politics' and accused Labour 'trolls' of 'intimidating and threatening' Tory MPs on the issue.

Mr Johnson said similar votes in the past had been 'misrepresented' by Labour and he did not want to risk that happening again.

However, a number of Tory MPs are still expected to rebel and vote with Labour.

Mr Sunak is said to be at the centre of a Cabinet row on whether to extend the payments.

The Chancellor reportedly wants to scrap the increase because he believes that if it remains in place there is a risk it could become permanent at a cost to the Treasury of approximately 6billion per year.

Tory MPs have demanded Mr Sunak keep the extra payments until the UK is clear of the Covid-19 crisis while Cabinet ministers, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, are also urging him to look at extending the policy.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly facing a Cabinet row over whether to extend a 20-a-week increase in Universal Credit payments

Boris Johnson has instructed Tory MPs to abstain when Labour forces votes on Universal Credit and free school meals today

Boris Johnson compares Labour 'trolls' to Trump supporters 'inciting hatred' as he accuses them of 'intimidating and threatening' Tory MPs over Universal Credit vote Boris Johnson has accused Labour 'trolls' of 'intimidating and threatening' Tory MPs on the crunch issues of Universal Credit and free school meals. Labour is set to force symbolic votes on the two issues in the House of Commons this evening but Mr Johnson has instructed his Conservative MPs to abstain. He reportedly said similar votes in the past had been 'misrepresented' and he did not want to risk that happening again. Labour will hold opposition day debates in a bid to force the Government to keep a 20-a-week increase in Universal Credit in place and to demand the extension of the free school meals programme. The votes that follow the debates are not binding but Mr Johnson has told Tory MPs that he is wary of what could happen if his colleagues were to vote against the motions. According to The Sun, Mr Johnson told Tory MPs in a WhatsApp message sent yesterday that he knew many would be 'thirsting to give battle' to Labour. He continued: 'But after the shameful way in which they used their army of momentum trolls last time to misrepresent the outcome and to lie about its meaning and frankly to intimidate and threaten colleagues - especially female colleagues - I have decided not to give them that opportunity.' Mr Johnson accused Labour of 'playing politics' and of 'inciting the worst kind of hatred and bullying (of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic)'. Advertisement

Ms Stratton sought at lunchtime to explain Mr Johnson's decision to tell Tory MPs to abstain on today's vote.

She said: 'He is asking people to abstain because today is not the right and proper moment for the Government to be talking about Universal Credit and the 20 uplift.

'We have always said, the Chancellor has said repeatedly, that he will be coming back to the House in due course with his decision on what should be done with the 20 uplift that is due to end at the end of March.'

Asked why the Government does not simply make a decision now, Ms Stratton said: 'The Chancellor is constantly filtering the latest up to date information on the economic and health context.

'That is what he has been doing throughout the pandemic. He has always said he and the Prime Minister will do whatever it takes. That remains true.

'He is monitoring that data and will come forward when he thinks the time is right.'

She added: 'We haven't said whether or not we will continue [with the uplift]. The Chancellor will be coming forward in due course.'

Mr Johnson would not be drawn on whether the policy will be extended, telling the BBC during a visit this afternoon: I think you have heard me say that we will want to support people throughout the pandemic.

We want to make sure that people dont suffer as a result of the economic consequences of the pandemic.

When you look at what the Government has done to provide 280billion worth of support, the furlough scheme, the bounce back loans, colossal investment, probably more than most other comparable countries.

I dont think you could fault the Government for supporting people. We will continue to do that.

Sir Keir labelled Mr Johnson's decision to tell Tory MPs to abstain 'pathetic'.

He told ITV's Lorraine: 'If he's going to call it a stunt, he should probably come with me to a food distribution centre to see these families this morning and explain to them what is a lifeline to them is a stunt, because it certainly isn't from their point of view.

'I actually think in their heart of hearts, quite a lot of Tory MPs know that cutting this money to people who desperately need it in the middle of a pandemic is the wrong thing to do, they know that, they probably want to vote with us but because of the tribal way we do politics, they can't.

'The Prime Minister's now saying in answer to the question: 'Do you think this uplift should stay or not?' he's saying: 'I don't want to say yes and I don't want to say no, so we're going to abstain'. He's got no view on whether it should stay or not  that's pretty pathetic.'

The Times reported that Mr Sunak, Mr Johnson and Ms Coffey met on Friday to look at alternatives to the Universal Credit uplift but no decisions have been made.

One option which is said to be under consideration is to replace the increased payments with a one-off payment of 500. The uplift is currently worth more than 1,000 a year.

A final decision is not expected to be announced until Mr Sunak delivers the Budget on March 3.

A Whitehall source suggested Mr Sunak will be isolated in the Cabinet if he does try to scrap the extra payments, telling Politico: 'The Chancellor is about to find himself on his own. Read the room Rishi.'

But allies of the Chancellor have pointed to the cost of keeping the policy as they argued it cannot continue indefinitely.

One Tory official said: 'As conservatives, we know that work is the best way out of poverty. It's time we reminded ourselves of that.'

However, Labour has highlighted that many Universal Credit claimants are already in work.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: '2.2m recipients of UC are *working* & 70% of children in poverty are in working families. The problem is poverty pay.'

The Government is under pressure from its own backbenches to keep the extra 20-a-week payments in place.

The Northern Research Group, which consists of 65 Tory MPs from the north of England, north Wales and Scotland, has called for the payments to be kept until lockdown restrictions have been lifted.

Speaking on behalf of the NRG, Conservative MP John Stevenson said: 'The 1,000 uplift to universal credit has been a real life-saver for people throughout this pandemic.

'To end it now would be devastating for the 6million individuals and families who are already struggling to stay afloat.

'Equally, replacing the current system with a 500 one-off-payment which is half the amount people have been receiving and would exclude the estimated 800,000 people expected to become unemployed in the second quarter of 2021 after the job retention scheme stops will not be sufficient.

'It would see many people falling through the gaps and would damage our economic recovery.

'That is why the NRG are once again calling on the Chancellor to extend the Universal Credit uplift until restrictions are lifted, to ensure that individuals and families who have been worst affected by this pandemic are supported through our recovery with the security they need.'

Mr Johnson has accused Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of 'playing politics' on the issue of Universal Credit

Tory former work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb said he intends to vote with Labour, arguing that withdrawing the increase 'will cause hardship to families'.

Mr Crabb told the BBC it will be the first time he has rebelled against the Tory party whip.

'I just feel very, very strongly that the current Treasury plan, which is to withdraw that additional amount of money at the end of March, will cause hardship to families, there's no question about that,' he said.

Senior Tory backbencher Robert Halfon, who chairs the Education Select Committee, said Universal Credit has been 'invaluable for millions of people during the lockdown'.

'Depending on what the Government says later, I am most likely to vote for the Labour motion unless the Government makes it absolutely clear it will be extending,' he told the BBC.

Labour will hold the opposition day debate this afternoon in a bid to force the Government to keep the payments and to demand the extension of the free school meals programme.

The votes that follow the debates are non-binding but Mr Johnson has told Tory MPs to abstain because he is wary of what could happen if they vote against the motions.

According to The Sun, Mr Johnson told Tory MPs in a WhatsApp message sent yesterday that he knew many would be 'thirsting to give battle' to Labour.

He continued: 'But after the shameful way in which they used their army of momentum trolls last time to misrepresent the outcome and to lie about its meaning and frankly to intimidate and threaten colleagues - especially female colleagues - I have decided not to give them that opportunity.'

Mr Johnson accused Labour of 'playing politics' and of 'inciting the worst kind of hatred and bullying (of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic)'.
Small groups of right-wing protesters  some of them carrying rifles  gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday, outnumbered by National Guard troops and police brought in to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol. As darkness fell, there were no reports of any clashes.

People walk across the quiet Legislative Plaza in front of the State Capitol Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn. The FBI warned of the potential for armed protests at the nation's Capitol and all 50 state capitol buildings beginning this weekend. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Small groups of right-wing protesters  some of them carrying rifles  gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday, outnumbered by National Guard troops and police brought in to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol. As darkness fell, there were no reports of any clashes.

Security was stepped up in recent days after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

Crowds of only a dozen or two demonstrated at some boarded-up, cordoned-off statehouses, while the streets in many other capital cities remained empty. Some protesters said they were there to back President Donald Trump. Others said they had instead come to voice their support for gun rights or decry government overreach.

"I dont trust the results of the election," said Michigan protester Martin Szelag, a 67-year-old semi-retired window salesman from Dearborn Heights. He wore a sign around his neck that read, in part, "We will support Joe Biden as our President if you can convince us he won legally. Show us the proof! Then the healing can begin."

As the day wore on with no bloodshed around the U.S., a sense of relief spread among officials, though they were not ready to let their guard down.

The heavy law enforcement presence may have kept turnout down. In the past few days, some extremists had warned others against falling into what they called a law enforcement trap.

Washington State Patrol spokesman Chris Loftis said he hoped the apparently peaceful day reflected some soul-searching among Americans.

Christina Janowitz of Guilderland, N.Y., from the group "All Of Us' holds a flag while counter-protesting a Trump rally ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at the New York State Capitol Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

"I would love to say that its because weve all taken a sober look in the mirror and have decided that we are a more unified people than certain moments in time would indicate," he said.

The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when far-right Trump supporters galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen from him overran the police and bashed their way into the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

The attack left a Capitol police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested over the insurrection.

Dozens of courts, election officials and Trumps own attorney general have all said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the presidential race.

On Sunday, some statehouses were surrounded by new security fences, their windows were boarded up, and extra officers were on patrol. Legislatures generally were not in session over the weekend.

Tall fences also surrounded the U.S. Capitol. The National Mall was closed to the public, and the mayor of Washington asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the city in the coming days. U.S. defence officials told The Associated Press those troops would be vetted by the FBI to ward off any threat of an insider attack on the inauguration.

The roughly 20 protesters who showed up at Michigans Capitol, including some who were armed, were significantly outnumbered by law enforcement officers and members of the media. Tensions have been running high in the state since authorities foiled a plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year.

At the Ohio Statehouse, about two dozen people, including several carrying long guns, protested outside under the watchful eyes of state troopers before dispersing as it began to snow.

A man stands outside the state capitol wearing a Trump hat with an American flag in Lansing, Mich., Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Kathy Sherman, who was wearing a visor with "Trump" printed on it, said she supports the president but distanced herself from the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.

"Im here to support the right to voice a political view or opinion without fear of censorship, harassment or the threat of losing my job or being physically assaulted," she said.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said he was pleased with the outcome but stressed that authorities "continue to have concerns for potential violence in the coming days, which is why I intend to maintain security levels at the Statehouse as we approach the presidential inauguration."

Utah's new governor, Republican Spencer Cox, shared photos on his Twitter account showing him with what appeared to be hundreds of National Guard troops and law enforcement officers standing behind him, all wearing masks. Cox called the quiet protests a best-case scenario and said many "agitating groups" had cancelled their plans for the day.

At Oregon's Capitol, fewer than a dozen men wearing military-style outfits, black ski masks and helmets stood nearby with semiautomatic weapons slung across their bodies. Some had upside-down American flags and signs reading such things as "Disarm the government."

At the Texas Capitol, Ben Hawk walked with about a dozen demonstrators up to the locked gates carrying a bullhorn and an AR-15 rifle hanging at the side of his camouflage pants. He condemned the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and said he did not support Trump.

"All we came down here to do today was to discuss, gather, network and hang out. And it got blown and twisted completely out of proportion," Hawk said.

At Nevada's Capitol, where demonstrators supporting Trump have flocked most weekends in recent months, all was quiet except for a lone protester with a sign.

"Trump Lost. Be Adults. Go Home," it read.

More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. Several governors declared states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Biden's inauguration.

Some legislatures also cancelled sessions or pared back their work for the coming week.

Even before the violence at the Capitol, some statehouses had been the target of vandals and angry protesters during the past year.

Last spring, armed protesters entered the Michigan Capitol to object to coronavirus lockdowns. People angry over the death of George Floyd under a Minneapolis police officer's knee vandalized capitols in several states, including Colorado, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

Last last month, crowds in Oregon forced their way into the Capitol in Salem to protest its closure to the public during a special legislative session on coronavirus measures.

Amid the potential for violence in the coming days, the building's first-floor windows were boarded up and the National Guard was brought in.

"The state capitol has become a fortress," said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat. "I never thought Id see that. It breaks my heart."

Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio; Gillian Flaccus in Salem, Oregon; Mike Householder and David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada; Marc Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) speaks to reporters as he arrives to the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 20, 2020 in Washington. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)

Sen. Josh Hawleys Florida Fundraiser Canceled by Loews Hotels Over Capitol Breach

Loews Hotels Group has pulled out of a planned February fundraiser in Florida for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) saying its opposed to all who supported and incited the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol building.

In light of recent events we have informed the host of this event that it will no longer be held at our hotel in Orlando or at any Loews Hotel for that matter, Sarah Murov, a spokesperson for the luxury hotel chain, said in a statement on Saturday. Loews Hotels & Co is horrified and opposed to the January 6th events at the Capitol and all who supported and incited those actions.

The freshman Republican senator from Missouri supported an Electoral College challenge before rioters and hundreds of protesters breached the Capitol building, disrupting debates in both the House and Senate as lawmakers were forced to shelter in place or evacuate, and police and security attempted to seize back control.

Some critics have said that President Donald Trump, during a lunchtime Jan. 6 rally near the Capitol, incited violencedespite the president saying that the protesters should protest peacefully and patriotically.

Acts of violence and lawlessness transpired as a minority of protesters holding Trump flags decided to unlawfully enter the Capitol building while the majority of protesters rallied outside, most in a peaceful manner. It is unclear who instigated the breach of the building.

News of the upcoming fundraisers cancellation came after Florida attorney Daniel Uhlfelder posted a flyer for the event on Twitter Saturday, calling Hawley a traitor and asking Loews Hotels why it was backing him.

Hawleys fundraising event had been planned for the weekend of Feb. 12 at the hotel chains Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando, hosted by Hawley-affiliated political committee, Fighting for Missouri.

Hawley, who is facing waning support from longtime backers and donors, was the first senator to announce a challenge to the Electoral College results, and his challenge continued even after the Jan. 6 breach.

Abiding by federal law, Hawley objected to electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania, pointing to alleged election irregularities and moves by election officials to change election processes during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic in contravention to state Constitutions.

Hallmark Cards last week asked Hawley to return employee donations following the Capitol breach, saying that it abhors violence of any kind.

Hallmark believes the peaceful transition of power is part of the bedrock of our democratic system, Hallmark spokeswoman JiaoJiao Shen said in a statement, the Kansas City Star reported. The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall do not reflect our companys values. As a result, HALLPAC requested Sens. Hawley and Marshall to return all HALLPAC campaign contributions.

The company said its employees donated $7,000 to Hawley and $5,000 to his colleague Marshall during the last two years through its PAC.

Separately, Missouri-based health care IT firm Cerner Corp. said that it will suspend contributions to any candidate or official who took part in or incited violence last week in Washington, D.C, without directly naming Hawley.

Cerners political action committee has donated $10,000 to a Hawley-sponsored PAC over the past two years, according to The Associated Press.

Publishing company Simon & Schuster meanwhile said that it had canceled a contract for Hawleys book over his decision to object to electoral votes during the joint session of Congress. The freshman senator later said he plans to sue the New York-based company over the Orwellian move.

In a statement Saturday, Hawleys office said the senator was undeterred by the backlash.

If these corporations dont want conservatives to speak, they should just be honest about it. But to equate leading a debate on the floor of the Senate with inciting violence is a lie, and its dangerous.

I will not be deterred from representing my constituents and I will not bow to left wing corporate pressure, he said.

Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch next:

Coordinated Involvement at the Capitol on Jan. 6?
EAST LANSING  Michigan State has postponed a third straight game as its number of positive COVID-19 cases continues to climb.

The Spartans had three more members of its program test positive for the virus on Sunday and Monday: freshman walk-on guard Davis Smith and two unidentified staff members, Tom Izzo announced early Monday afternoon.

Those results led Michigan State to cancel its scheduled Saturday game against Illinois.

Izzo said the team hopes to continue individual and small group workouts in the coming days, per medical recommendations. The Spartans havent had a full practice since Wednesday, but isnt on a shutdown or pause.

As of right now theyll be no shutdown here, Izzo said. I cant even call it a pause. We had to postpone a couple of games for the safety and wellbeing of our players and of the players on the other team.

The Spartans have now had six COVID-19 cases among their players and staff emerge in a span of nine days.

Michigan State canceled its last two games, on Thursday at Iowa and Sunday at home against Indiana, after three Spartans players tested positive in a span of five days. The last of those three was on Wednesday, when Joshua Langford tested positive shortly before the team was due to travel to Iowa. That result forced the cancellation both games.

Mady Sissoko and Steven Izzo previously tested positive for the virus. Izzo said Steven, his son, was showing symptoms as of Monday morning but that Sissoko had been nearly asymptomatic.

Michigan State had gone three straight days with no new positives since Langfords positive result and had hoped to resume practicing on Monday, but is now back in limbo after its three new cases.

My guys have done an unbelievable job, and I want to make sure I state that, Izzo said. They want to play, they want to play with six guys. Hell wed play with four on six guys if we could.
Drugs found by Calloway County Sheriff's Department deputies after a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon, January 17th. 34-year-old Andrew J. Collins was charged with second offense trafficking in marijuana, a Class D felony. PHOTO:Calloway County Sheriff's Department, courtesy

Murray Man Arrested on Felony Drug Charge

By West Kentucky Star Staff

CALLOWAY COUNTY - A Murray man was arrested Sunday afternoon charged with felony drug trafficking.Deputies with the Calloway County Sheriff's Department stopped a vehicle on Hollyhock Drive for a traffic violation.During the stop, they found numerous baggies of marijuana, along with THC in liquid and wax form.The driver, 34-year-old Andrew J. Collins was charged with second offense trafficking in marijuana, a Class D felony.

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New Delhi, Jan 19 : The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Monday said that the meeting between a group of ministers and farmer unions scheduled for January 19 has been postponed to January 20.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. here at Vigyan Bhawan. It would be the 10th round of talks between Centre and the representatives of the agitating farmers who are on streets along the borders of Delhi since almost two months, demanding withdrawal of the newly passed farm laws passed by the Central government.

In a letter to the representatives of the protesting farmers, Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said the scheduled meeting of a Group of Ministers with agitating farmer organisations for January 19 has been postponed to January 20 due to some unavoidable reasons.

Stating in the letter that the meeting would be held on January 20, the farmers' leaders have been requested to attend the meet.

With a view to improve the agriculture and allied sectors, the Central government implemented the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.

Though the Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of these laws and set up an expert committee to resolve the issue, the Central government has kept open the channel of dialogue with the farmers' unions.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is leading the negotiations on behalf of the government, has repeatedly reiterated that whatever provisions would be appropriate in the interests of the farmers of the country, the Narendra Modi-led government would consider including them in the new farm laws.

The protesting farmers are adamant on repealing the three Union farm laws and demanding a legal guarantee for procurement of crops at the Minimum Support Price.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A Wylie man arrested over the weekend for going inside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 told his family he went there "to protect the country" and threatened to shoot his children if they turned him in, authorities say.

Guy Reffitt took his gun with him when they "stormed the Capitol" and recorded some of the events on his Go Pro camera that he was wearing on his helmet, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Reffitt was arrested Saturday at his Wylie home and faces federal charges of obstruction of justice and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. Wylie is about 55 miles northeast of Fort Worth.

The Wylie man, who is a member of "Texas Freedom Force," a militia extremist group, remained in federal custody on Monday.

FBI agents tracked down Reffitt through a news video, showing a man outside the U.S. Capitol building using a water bottle to flush out his eyes after apparently being pepper-sprayed.

Reffitt is among several people who the FBI have arrested in the past few days in Texas and across the country and accused them of the violent intrusion.

One of them, Air Force veteran Larry Brock Jr. of Grapevine, told The New Yorker that President Donald Trump's loss in the presidential election in November was fraudulent, a position that is not supported by evidence.

On Jan. 6, a joint session of the United States Congress convened to certify the vote count of the Electoral College declaring President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.

At about 2 p.m. on that day, Trump supporters forced their way through and over barricades and officers of the U.S. Capitol to get inside of the building, according to the affidavit.

FBI agents executed a search warrant on Reffitt's home on Saturday at a time when he was home along with his wife and young daughter. His adult son arrived at the home when FBI agents were there.

Refitt's son told FBI agents that he was home on Jan. 8 when his father arrived home along with another man, and that his father said he had been at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

On Jan. 11, Reffitt commented to his son that he had to "erase everything" because the FBI was now watching him. Reffitt also told his son that if he crossed the line and reported him to police, that would put the family in jeopardy and Reffitt would have no option but to do his duty to protect the country and "do what he had to do," according to the complaint.

His son asked, "Are you threatening us?"

Reffitt answered, "Don't put words in my mouth," according to the complaint.

After that threat, Reffitt caught his daughter using her phone and told her that if she was recording him, meaning putting him on social media, that she had crossed the line and betrayed the family. He threatened to "put a bullet through" his daughter's phone, the complaint says.

Reffitt's son told FBI agents his father had a Smith & Wesson pistol and an AR-15 rifle.

In another threat, Reffitt told his son and daughter, "If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors ... traitors get shot," according to the complaint.

His wife told FBI agents that she did not believe Reffitt would act on his words, and she, her daughter and son did not feel threatened, but they were "disturbed" by Reffitt's "extreme" statements.

She "had words" with Reffitt and he did not regret or take anything back when he talked about traitors, according to the federal complaint.

__

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Irish hauliers travelling to France may soon be expected to produce a negative Covid-19 test when they arrive.

The Government is putting in place plans for a new testing regime for hauliers leaving Ireland in expectation that French authorities will demand negative tests results.

Hauliers traveling from Britain to France are already required to provide clear tests due to the new strain of the virus which emerged in the south of England before Christmas.

As the strain is now prevalent here, the Department of Transport is making contingency plans in expectation that similar rules will soon be introduced for drivers travelling from Ireland.

Read More

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan is waiting for clarity from French authorities but planning is underway to set up new testing centres for hauliers in Ireland.

Talks are on-going between the HSE and Transport Infrastructure Ireland about how to introduce a testing regime for those transporting goods to France.

Mr Ryans officials are also speaking to their counterparts in France.

It is expected the French authorities will accept the less accurate antigen tests which means testing hauliers will not put an additional strain on the HSEs national test centres.

The haulier test centres will be set up near ports rather than inside them due to existing traffic pressure.

We need these routes so we are making contingency plans to meet the French concerns, a Government source said.
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A 26-year-old mother of Folaha in Tongatapu in Tonga has been arrested and charged with assault and bodily harm, in relation to the alleged abuse of a three-year-old child.

The alleged incident came to light after a post was widely circulated on social media on Friday, 15 January 2021.

Police were informed of a viral post on Facebook last Friday that allegedly shows the mother abusing her child.

Police Commissioner, Tevita Vailea directed a police investigation which resulted in the child being removed to a safer place and the mother was arrested.

Every child has the right to feel safe and no child should know what its like to be abused.

Tonga Police has dedicated a domestic violence unit, to work closely with Women and Childrens centres to help victims of abuse.

Tonga Police has a zero-tolerance to any forms of domestic violence and is committed to a future where no woman or child is being violently abused.

The accused is remanded in police custody to appear in the Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Tongan Police Media





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File image: A healthcare worker performs a trial run of COVID-19 vaccine delivery system in New Delhi, India. (Image: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

At least three states that administered Bharat Biotechs Covaxin on January 16 have said that beneficiaries were reluctant to sign the consent form, according to a report by The Economic Times. This resulted in less than 50 percent strike rate  Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Telangana  on the first day of what is being called as the worlds largest COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

The issue was raised by the states in the coordination meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan later on January 16.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the coronavirus pandemic

Tamil Nadu was able to administer just 99 Covaxin doses out of the planned 600 on the first day of the vaccination drive. The following day, it had administered 90 more doses till 2.00 pm, the report suggests.

All 11 states, which agreed to administer Covaxin doses, have dedicated six vaccination centres as part of the drive. All of these centres are restricted to government hospitals.

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

However, the news report suggests that beneficiaries in Rajasthan saw hesitation. The state administered 314 Covaxin doses out of the planned 600. No adverse event was reported from the vaccine in the state. Rajasthans National Health Mission director Naresh Thakral told the newspaper that translating the consent form to Hindi may have helped.

COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: All you need to know about manufacturing and pricing

This comes at a time when some experts and politicians have raised concerns regarding the efficacy of Covaxin, which is currently under phase-3 clinical trials.

Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was granted restricted emergency use approval under the clinical trial mode. This means that people who receive the doses will have to sign a three-page informed consent form, and will also be monitored for any serious side effects. This was the first such approval given to a vaccine in India.

Read: What is informed consent form for Covaxin, what information is sought and other questions answered

A total of 2.24 lakh beneficiaries were inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine so far in India. Of these, a total of 447 adverse events were reported following immunisation (AEFI), the Union Health Ministry said on day two of the nationwide vaccination drive on January 17.

Besides Covaxin, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had also approved Covishield produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
"We're so grateful that we still can celebrate and learn peaceful solution from Dr. King," Murray said.

Other parts of the celebration included a performance by the Genesee Street Voices Community Chorus and Dillon Davis-Trinado of the Apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus Christ reciting King's iconic "I have a dream" speech.

At one point, a video call between Auburn Mayor Mike Quill, each city councilor, city officials and Dillon Davis-Trinado was shown. Quill said the city was proud to honor King while noting it was sad "that we're all confined due to COVID." He added that he is looking forward to next year's event.

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Councilor Terry Cuddy praised King and referenced the riot in the U.S. Capitol Building earlier this month.

"The injustices and prejudices of his time are the injustices and prejudices of our time. ... His mission, and now more than ever, his message of equality, equity, civil rights, workers' rights and human rights need to be upheld and defended," Cuddy said.

Davis-Trinado acknowledged the effort that went into making the online celebration of King possible.
Representatives from Masterise Homes (Tran Quoc Hoai and Nguyen Huong Lien back left; Jason Turnbull front left) and from Marriott International (Justin Malcolm second from right, Scott Hodgetts right, and Ha Quoc Minh front right) joined honoured guests Alexander Tatsis from the US Consulate General (third from left) and Mary Tarnowka from AmCham (fourth from left)

The branded residences experience, as seen in many developed real estate markets, offers tremendous opportunities in Vietnam amidst rising demand for alternative residential products that offer the next level of luxury living.

The joint effort of the two entities  each bringing their impressive experience and expansive expertise in property development and hospitality management  is expected to bring a new ultra-luxury residential product concept of branded residences to Vietnam, elevating and changing the local landscape of residences to truly global luxury standards.

The partnership also underscores Masterise Homes position as Vietnams leading real estate player, reflecting its 6-year transformation to becoming a reputable world-class property developer.

The agreement is expected to deliver unparalleled luxury living in Vietnam, and is set to allow Masterise Homes to extend its development expertise into Vietnams fast-growing luxury real estate market, leveraging Marriott Internationals global brands such as Marriott, JW Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton to introduce urban branded residences to the Vietnamese property market.

Masterise Homes has been building renowned properties in Vietnam, and we have solidified our position as an industry leader given our focus on building the real estate ecosystem with premier international standards, said Jason Turnbull, deputy managing director cum CFO of Masterise Homes. Our collaboration with Marriott International is another feather in our cap and, given their global standing, further highlights our capabilities to deliver the best living experiences with world-class standards to our residents.

Rajeev Menon, president for Asia-Pacific (excluding China) at Marriott International, took part from Singapore

Vietnams growth throughout the years has been very impressive, remarked Rajeev Menon, president of Asia-Pacific (excluding China) at Marriott International. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Materise Homes to realise their vision of building premium communities in Vietnam, and are excited about growing our branded residence footprint in the region.

Marriott International is one of the worlds leading hoteliers. Since its first hotel opened in 1957, the company now encompasses a portfolio of over 7,500 properties spanning 132 countries and territories. While premium brands like Marriott offer sophisticated spaces and experiences for upscale customers, luxury brands such as JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton provide exceptional bespoke services and amenities that define a new era of luxury.

Our development will be associated with some of the most renowned brands in Marriott Internationals portfolio, such as Marriott, JW Marriott and The Ritz Carlton  which will be the first residences of these brands in Vietnam, added Turnbull. Their design, development, management, and operation standards will follow the same requirements of any branded residence that carries the same brand around the globe, offering global citizens a privilege to experience world-class ultra-luxury living that is similar to a 5-star JW Marriott branded residence in London or a Ritz Carlton in New York.

The projects that are currently in the planning stage are located in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and will take the lead in introducing the urban branded residences concept in Vietnam. The branded residences experience, as seen in many developed real estate markets, offers tremendous opportunities in Vietnam amidst rising demand for alternative residential products that offer the next level of luxury living.

Grand Marina Saigon is the first highly-anticipated project, and situated at a one-of-a-kind location in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. Its site is the last remaining large plot of developable land at the northern bank of the river within District 1, with a unique waterfront and historical background. The development is a large-scale, mixed-use complex with residential, office and commercial features. It is expected to be Marriott Internationals largest branded residence project in the world, and the companys first foray into Vietnams highly vibrant branded residential market segment.

The development will also position Masterise Homes as one of the largest real estate players in Ho Chi Minh City, supporting Marriott Internationals global portfolio of properties. The complex, envisioned to be ultra-luxe, is set to be a highly exclusive and dynamic community and economic hub at the heart of both Ho Chi Minh City, attracting Vietnams tastemakers as well as international high-net-worth individuals.

About Masterise Homes

Masterise Homes is the member of Masterise Group that manages and develops all residential real estate brands of the group. With its philosophy of customer centricity, Masterise Homes relentlessly applies world-class standards in its developments. Masterise is committed to delivering unrivalled quality in all products and services for the ultimate in customer experience, contributing to the community and promoting sustainability, in Vietnam and beyond.

About branded residences

The concept of a branded residence can be traced as far back as the 1920s where the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue of New York pioneered the idea of serviced apartments for purchase alongside its successful hotel business. Since this time, branded residences have consistently grown in popularity around the world on the back of a growing, globally mobile, high net-worth population.

According to Savills World Research 2019, there are more than 420 branded residence schemes globally. Marriott International is the worlds biggest player in the branded residences sector. With 100 branded residences across 25 countries, Marriott International brands represent one in every four operational projects globally. The company leverages 15 of its 30 leading brands for branded residential projects, with Marriott, JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and W accounting for nearly 70 per cent of todays operational developments.

Marriott Internationals extensive brand portfolio means it can offer a brand appropriate for every location and project type, in which a branded residence in New York, Shanghai, or Bangkok will have the same exact quality standard as a branded residence in Vietnam.

Branded residences offer many advantages in a crowded global marketplace for luxury property. Globally-mobile, brand conscious wealthy individuals are attracted by brand name, quality design, security, and the level of service branded residences offer. Luxury brands have proved appealing to the affluent, by whom they are viewed as a mark of success.

While branded residences generally attract a price premium compared to a non-branded property, the value and benefits that owners enjoy often outweighs it. Wealthy individuals are also attracted to the trophy status of a branded residential product as it provides the kudos of being associated with the internationally recognised brand. Their appeal makes branded residences a community of like-minded individuals with common values and share a similar level of affluence. Their limited supply also means they are more exclusive  a value highly appreciated by the affluent elites.
A leak that forced the shutdown of an oil pipeline in Libya has reduced its recovering oil production by as much as 200,000 bpd, Bloomberg reports, noting the challenges the country faces in ramping up its oil output. The pipeline carries oil from two fields operated by Waha Oil to the Es Sider oil port.

Libyas crude oil production rebounded from less than 100,000 bpd in early September to over 1.2 million bpd by November as eastern government-affiliated forces lifted an eight-month oil port blockade that had stifled Libyas oil industry.

The National Oil Corporation also had plans to boost production further to at least 1.7 million bpd, its chairman Mustafa Sanalla told the Wall Street Journal in November. These developments interfered with the hopes of Libyas fellow OPEC members of higher prices thanks to the deep OPEC+ production cuts agreed earlier in the year.

Analysts, however, have dismissed the worry that Libyan oil would offset the cuts, noting that the situation in the North African country remained quite fragile politically, which meant heightened uncertainty about the future of its oil production.

Indeed, just last week, members of the Petroleum Facilities Guarda group that has also taken part in internal squabbles between the east and the westdelayed the loading of at least one crude oil cargo and threatened to blockade the port of Hariga unless their salary demands are met. Related: The Miraculous Material Transforming Energy Storage

This is the latest in a long string of export disruptions caused by the PFG, which at one point used to control all the oil ports and hold off exports until the eastern-affiliated Libyan national Army wrestled control of the facilities from them and handed it to the NOC.

Now the state oil company is facing a whole other problem resulting from the negligence of transport facilities. The company said the pipeline that had to be shut down could no longer continue to operate due to the large number of leaks, and its worn out, and blamed it on lack of state funding for its regional subsidiaries.

What happened with Waha today happens daily with other companies that suffer from a budget shortage. They are also under the threat of having to reduce their production and to even halt it completely.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Tel Aviv, Jan 18 : Israeli flag carrier, El Al has announced that it will resume domestic flights between the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv and the Red Sea resort city of Eilat.

This is the only domestic regular flight route in Israel, on which El Al stopped flying in November 2013 for security reasons, reports Xinhua news agency.

Since then, only Israir and Arkia airlines have been operating on the route from Tel Aviv to Israel's southernmost city.

El Al thus announced that it will temporarily resume flights on the Tel Aviv-Eilat route, as soon as the ongoing full Covid-19 lockdown in Israel ends.

The company said in a statement issued on Sunday that "the flights will allow to enjoy a warm vacation in Eilat while showing support for local tourism industry and strengthening the city and its airport amid the coronavirus crisis".
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(Natural News) We have all heard the main-stream narrative going around that the violence and unrest at the capitol were caused by only Trump supporters.

(Article by Ulysses S. Tennyson republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)

Now, MLive, a Michigan news site is reporting that one 25-year-old man who came from Grand Rapids, MI, and was arrested at or near the Capitol building was Not a Trumpster.

According to his stepfather, Andrew Hanselman:

He is not a Trumpster, the stepfather said. Not a MAGA (Make America Great Again) personWere totally flabbergasted as to the charges, he said.

In fact, the 25-year-old appears to have been raised in an anti-Trump household:

For the past four years, there has been a dark cloud over our country, said Hanselman

But, of course, there is more to this story. According to the Detroit Free Press:

Logan Grimes is a social justice activist who participated in Black Lives Matter, is transgender, and believes many groups have faced injustice since Trumps election, his father said.

Hanselman explains:

The biological father, who also spoke out to the Detroit Free Press, also admits he is not a Trump supporter.

Were a very progressive liberal family  if theres any reason my son was even present, its because of his stand against what a lot of those folks who did horrible things yesterday (believe)  and Im still sick to my stomach (from) when I saw it on TV last night.

Robert Grimes, 54, of Cadillac says his son is not a supporter of President Donald Trump and should not be associated with those Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building. His son keeps an eye on groups such as the Proud Boys and was there to protest the Trump faction, he said.

He also seems to somehow blame Donald Trump for the actions of his son, which took him from Grand Rapids to Washington, DC:

Now thanks to that man that I just despise, Donald Trump  who I did not vote for and did everything I could to make sure he would finally leave office  has served me up one last injustice by making sure my son got arrested so he could stick his pride out, he said.

Further information about this manor 5 other men from Michigan who were arrested at or near the capitol building, is not being released until their arraignment is confirmed. However, their charges are mostly related to violating the impromptu 6:00 PM curfew manifested by Mayor Bowser that night, as well as one for unlawful entry, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The more we find out about the unrest at the capitol, the more clear it is that the chaos may have been orchestrated by forces beyond those of Trump supporters.

Should Mayor Muriel Bowser be arrested for inciting violence in DC? She created a BLM mural on the DC streets and created an entire road devoted to BLM. Now it is being found that more and more BLM and Antifa supporters were involved in the chaos at the nations Capitol. In fact, as the evidence continues to come out, more and more of it suggests that anti-Trump activists may have played a pivotal (and perhaps majority) role in the chaos.

Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com

Hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans have been trying to get an appointment for a coronavirus vaccine since Wednesday, after Gov. Phil Murphy opened up access to the vaccine to more than 4 million additional people based on expanded federal guidelines.

The announcement last week led to a crush of calls and online attempts to get an appointment. Many were unable to find one and many others said they had to hunt around and spend a lot of time before they were able to book a slot.

If you are eligible, you can sign up directly with vaccine providers.

These can be found on a list provided by the state Department of Health, said Donna Leusner, a health department spokeswoman.

Those locations include county and municipal sites, individual hospitals, pharmacies and ShopRite locations.

The state list of vaccination locations is a list of facilities that have received vaccine, Leusner said. Vaccine supply is limited so individuals may not be able to get appointment right away.

The list includes telephone numbers and websites for those that have online registrations.

You must have an appointment, said Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. Facilities will not accept walk-ups, she said.

People should sign up for any registration site they want to get vaccine, Leusner said. We will get to everyone.

You can also go through the states pre-registration system, called the New Jersey Vaccine Scheduling System (NJVSS), but it does not automatically make an appointment, officials said.

When you pre-register, you will eventually receive a notification about when youre eligible to schedule an appointment, Gov. Phil Murphy said last week. The state will then provide a link where you can select a vaccine location and then you can set an appointment. State officials on Friday didnt say how long it could take to get an appointment through the state system.

More than 1.5 million people had pre-registered on the state site as of Friday, Murphy said. As of Friday, 66,000 had received notification they were eligible to sign up for an appointment, and of those, 10,371 had booked an appointment through the state site, officials said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

But not all vaccine administrators are linked to the state site, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Friday. Some vaccine sites are connected to the states system while others, like hospitals, have their own registration systems, she said.

Its a little clunkier than we would like, she said.

The state said eventually there will be more than 250 sites offering vaccines, however, the state has not released information on how many of those sites are linked to the states registration system. And many people have said they have booked by going directly to a vaccine administrator, including hospitals, county locations, clinics and retail providers.

But at least one provider listed on the states site, Inspira Health, is only accepting appointments through the state site, spokesman Paul Simon said.

Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill and Inspira Medical Center Vineland are not accepting phone appointments at its two vaccine locations, he said. The two locations received 1,600 vaccine requests on Thursday alone, he said.

Any member of the general public who is currently eligible to receive the vaccine will need to register and then sign up (pick a date and time) through the state website, covidvaccine.nj.gov, Simon said.

You can also turn to four of the states six mega-sites.

The open locations are the Moorestown Mall in Burlington County, Rowan College of South Jersey in Gloucester County, the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Middlesex County and Rockaway Townsquare in Morris County. Two additional sites will open later in East Rutherford and Atlantic City.

Each of the mega-sites requests people register through the locations online registration systems. Walk-ins are not accepted.

Many sites across the state dont have enough vaccine supply to meet demand, so some have paused their reservation systems and will only make more dates available when they get more doses.

State officials said as of now, the state expects to get another 100,000 doses a week, and they hope those numbers will increase in the weeks and months to come. Persichilli said last week that the state could handle 470,000 weekly vaccinations if the federal government could supply the doses.

Right now, those eligible for a vaccine include those 65 an older and people from age 16 to 64 with certain some underlying medical conditions that the CDC lists as putting people at increased risk of severe illness if they infected are with the virus: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Down Syndrome, heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies, those in an immunocompromised state from solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and Type 2 diabetes.

Severe illness from COVID-19 is defined by the CDC as needing hospitalization, admission to the ICU, intubation or mechanical ventilation.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

NJ Advance Media reporter Avalon Zoppo contributed to this report.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 58F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 41F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
A South Korean court will sentence Samsung Electronics Co Ltd heir Jay Y. Lee on a bribery charge on Monday, a ruling likely to have ramifications for his leadership of the tech giant as well as South Korea's views toward big business.

If Lee is jailed, he will be sidelined from major decision making at Samsung Electronics as it strives to overtake competitors, and will be diverted from overseeing the process of inheritance from his father, who died in October, crucial to keeping control of Samsung.

If Lee remains free, he will be able to devote himself to both while likely facing strong backlash claiming the South Korean legal process shows undue leniency to chaebol, or family-run conglomerates, criticised for wielding too much power amid lapses in governance.

Lee, 52, was convicted of bribing an associate of former President Park Geun-hye and jailed for five years in 2017. He denied wrongdoing, the sentence was reduced and suspended on appeal, and he was released after serving a year.

The Supreme Court then sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, which will rule on it, and the sentencing, on Monday.

Under South Korean law, a jail term of three years or less can be suspended; for longer sentences, the person must serve out the term barring a presidential pardon.

Prosecutors have called for a nine-year jail term.

If imprisoned, the year Lee already served in detention will count toward the sentence, as it is the same case.

Monday's sentencing can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

"In a case sent back by the Supreme Court, there is a narrower range of options for the judges' bench... but it's also true that the Supreme Court can't really touch the final court's sentencing no matter what it is," said Rha Seung-chul, a lawyer not connected with the case.

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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A Washington nonprofit group sued Apple in federal court Sunday, demanding that it remove Telegram, a chat and social media app, from its app store for not cracking down on violent, extremist conversation in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The suit amounts to a pressure tactic to get Apple to act against Telegram as it already has against Parler, a social media site that swelled with calls for violence and insurrection before the Capitol siege, according to researchers. Apple and Google have booted Parler from their app stores because of its lax moderation policies, and Amazon Web Services withdrew support as well, disabling Parler last week on the same grounds. Telegram offers public groups that anyone with the app can join and closed, private chat rooms.

The Coalition for a Safer Web, a nonpartisan group that advocates for technologies and policies to remove extremist content from social media, filed the suit The coalition's president, Marc Ginsberg, is a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco. It complained about Telegram's role in hosting white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other hateful content, and argued in the lawsuit that such content puts Telegram in violation of Apple's terms of service for its App Store.

A similar suit is planned against Google, said the coalition's attorney Keith Altman.

"Telegram stands out by itself as the superspreader [of hateful speech], even compared to Parler," Ginsberg said in an interview.

Ginsberg, who is Jewish, says in the suit that Telegram's anti-Semitic content puts him in peril and that his ownership of an iPhone gives him standing to sue Apple in federal court to require that the company enforce its terms of service barring hate speech and incitement to violence on apps carried by the App Store.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the California business code, and it seeks unspecified compensatory damages and an injunction requiring Apple to remove Telegram from its App Store.

Apple spokesman Fred Sainz did not immediately respond to a request for comment; neither did Mike Ravdonikas, a spokesman for Telegram.

The siege of the Capitol was widely discussed and instigated on social media and messaging apps, including Parler and Telegram. Supporters of President Donald Trump also celebrated the attack as it happened and called for more in the days leading to Wednesday's inauguration. Suing Apple gives the coalition a way to seek action against Telegram, which, as a service based overseas, may be difficult to reach from U.S. courts.

Telegram, which says it operates from Dubai, was developed by Russian Internet entrepreneur Pavel Durov. The app is popular with people who want to keep their communications shielded from autocratic regimes and others seeking online privacy. Durov has clashed with the Russian government over censorship and encryption.

Telegram also has a reputation for being the go-to app of terrorism and hate groups. For years, it was used by Islamic State militants to communicate and spread propaganda, until European police worked with Telegram to take down accounts associated with the group in 2019.

The company has resisted calls to do the same for right-wing accounts that post racist and anti-Semitic messages. Telegram took down some prominent public groups that were calling for violence, but many other feeds remain active on the service. Some police officials have said the migration from Parler to Telegram has made it harder for them to monitor extremists and prepare for potential attacks.

The prospects for the suit's success are unclear. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives online platforms broad immunity from responsibility for most of the content that they host.

Daphne Keller, who researches platform regulation at Stanford University's law school, called the lawsuit a long shot, but an interesting one. She said it bears similarity to suits that seek to force platforms to reverse their decisions to remove apps and social media accounts. "This flips the script," she said, by seeking to force Apple to remove an app.

But the lawsuit may face insurmountable barriers because Apple's terms of service are broad, giving the company leeway on how it treats apps, she said. Aside from Section 230, Apple's decision to keep Telegram on its platform is protected by the company's right to free speech.

Apple does not require apps such as Telegram rid their service of inappropriate content. Rather, they must have a "method for filtering" it out and a way for users to report it. They also must provide contact information and have the ability to block "abusive" users from the service.

Apple is vague about the methods of content moderation that are required. In the past, Apple has allowed apps to exist even when their customers complained about content. In 2019, when The Washington Post found reports of unwanted sexual content, racism and bullying on chat apps - some of them used by children - Apple allowed the apps to remain on the store because, it said, they used content moderation and other safeguards.

When Apple removed Parler from the App Store, it said in a letter provided to The Post that Parler's content moderation policies were not good enough. "While there is no perfect system to prevent all dangerous or hateful user content, apps are required to have robust content moderation plans in place to proactively and effectively address these issues," Apple told Parler.

Google also removed Parler from its app store, saying it had warned Parler about its lax moderation before making the decision to suspend it.

Ginsberg sent a letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook in July, calling on him to address white-nationalist, anti-Semitic and violent speech on Telegram and to "hold TELEGRAM's financial feet to the fire."

He wrote, "Because of the increasing prevalence of Russian and Eastern-European anti-Semitic extremist neo-Nazi groups utilizing TELEGRAM, CSW commenced an in-depth research investigation earlier this year into its role. Our research revealed serious instances whereby TELEGRAM's end-to-end encryption service was enabling."

Ginsberg said he got no reply to the letter.
The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) announced on Monday the launch of a new round of its annual Export IT programme to support IT companies in the domestic market in response to the COVID-19 challenges.

Throughout the past two years, ITIDA has granted IT export incentives on proceeds of value-added exports.

The action aims at supporting local IT companies to develop their resources, enhance competitiveness, and reduce export overheads, ITIDA said in a statement.

ITIDAs CEO Amr Mahfouz said the export incentive package aims to encourage local companies to boost exports, secure their position in existing markets, and increase market penetration capabilities.

Mahfouz added that the approved stimulus comes as part of ITIDAs relief plan to curb the economic impact of COVID-19 and to ensure more aid for small businesses and local IT companies.

The programme accepts local ICT companies with more than 50 percent of Egyptian ownership, headquartered in Egypt, exporting ICT services, IT-enabled services such as call centre services, consultation, and training services related to the IT industry. ITIDA has excluded the Egyptian IT startup companies that were founded in 2016 or later from headquartered in Egypt condition," Mahfouz clarified.

According to the programmes terms and conditions, approved companies receive direct cash incentives up to 10 percent, and with a maximum limit of 20 percent of value-added exports based on the company size (micro, small, medium, or large), with a maximum amount of EGP 2.5 million for each company or EGP 3 million for companies operating in or have branches in one of the new tech parks.

The programme offers additional incentives to companies exporting e-commerce, e-gaming, e-health, or e-Design services.

Further incentives are granted to companies operating in new tech parks, the new entrants to the programme, and the companies operating in governorates other than Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria.

In another move to encourage exports of emerging technologies such as artificial intillegence (AI), data science, and robotic process automation (RPA), ITIDA announced that it exceptionally accepts medium companies with annual revenues exceeding EGP 50 million that export such services or have succeeded in penetrating new markets.

These companies will get the full export support on the total value-added of their exports and not only on the growth of its value-added, according to Mahfouz.

Through the Export IT programme, ITIDA aims to further increase the growing volume of Egyptian IT exports which recorded $4.1 billion in 2020, up from $3.6 billion in 2019.

In the previous 10 rounds of the programme, ITIDA granted more than EGP 400 million of export incentives, boosting the growth of more than 200 local IT companies, according to ITIDA.

Despite the challenges imposed by pandemic in 2020, Egypts ICT sector has managed to make strides where it achieved a growth rate of 15.2 percent; the highest growing sector in the country for the second consecutive year, with revenues of EGP 108 billion, up from EGP 93.5 billion in 2018/2019.

The sectors contribution to GDP increased to 4.4 percent in FY2019/2020, up from 3.8 percent in FY2018/2019.

Short link:


Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen on board a plane before the departure for the Russian capital Moscow at an airport in Berlin on Jan. 17, 2021. (Polina Ivanova/Reuters)

UK Demands Release of Putin Critic Alexei Navalny

The UK government on Monday joined international calls for Russia to release opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who was detained on Sunday.

Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was detained on arrival at a Moscow airport after he flew home to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned last summer.

Navalny could be jailed for three-and-a-half years for allegedly flouting the terms of a suspended prison sentence.

It is appalling that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.

Rather than persecuting Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya are seen on board a plane before the departure for the Russian capital Moscow at an airport in Berlin on Jan. 17, 2021. (Maria Vasilyeva/Reuters)

The United States and the European Union have already demanded Navalnys release.

The U.S. Department of State said it strongly condemns Russias decision to arrest Navalny and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.

The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, an independent judiciary, and the ability to exercise their basic human rights of speech and assembly without fear of retribution.

We urge the Russian government to provide a level playing field for all political parties and candidates seeking to compete in the electoral process, said the State Department.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned Navalnys detention and said the Russian authorities must immediately release him and ensure his safety.

She said the EU continues to expect a thorough and independent investigation on the attack on Alexei Navalnys life and will monitor the situation closely.

In a case that drew wide international attention, Navalny was poisoned last summer by what German military tests showed was a Novichok nerve agent, a version of events the Kremlin rejects.

Navalny says Putin was behind his poisoning. The Kremlin denies involvement, saying it has seen no evidence that he was poisoned, and that he was free to return to Russia.

The Moscow prison service (FSIN) said in a statement that Navalny had been detained due to the alleged violation of a suspended prison sentence for embezzlement, a 2014 case Navalny says was trumped up.

FSIN said he would be held in custody until a court hearing later this month that will rule whether to convert his suspended sentence into a real jail term.

Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL pipeline project as one of his first acts in office, and perhaps as soon as his first day, according to a source familiar with his thinking.

President Donald Trump had made building the pipeline a central promise of his presidential campaign. Biden, who will be inaugurated on Wednesday, was vice president in the Obama administration when it rejected the project as contrary to its efforts to combat climate change.

The words 'Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit' appear on a list of executive actions likely scheduled for the first day of Biden's presidency, according to an earlier report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC).

Joe Biden is planning to cancel the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL pipeline project, according to a source

Biden had earlier vowed to scrap the oil pipeline's presidential permit if he became president.

Canada's ambassador to the United States said she would continue to promote a project that she said fit with both countries' environmental plans.

'There is no better partner for the U.S. on climate action than Canada as we work together for green transition,' Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a statement.

The project, which would move oil from the province of Alberta to Nebraska, had been slowed by legal issues in the United States.

It also faced opposition from environmentalists seeking to check the expansion of Canada's oil sands by opposing new pipelines to move its crude to refineries.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Twitter that cancellation would eliminate jobs, weaken U.S.-Canada relations and undermine American national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports.

TC Energy Corp., which operates the pipeline, said it would achieve net zero emissions by 2023 when it enters service. The company also pledged to use only renewable energy sources by 2030 in a bid to win Biden's support.

Biden had earlier vowed to scrap the oil pipeline's presidential permit if he became president. Piping to be used for the pipeline is pictured stacked at a storage yard near Cushing, Oklahoma

Construction is well under way in Canada, with the international border crossing complete. In the United States, TC has started construction on pump stations in each of the states the line will pass through, but legal setbacks cost it much of the 2020 construction season.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama axed the project in 2015, saying Canada would reap most of the economic benefits, while the project would add to greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump issued a presidential permit in 2017 that allowed the line to move forward, and several environmental groups sued the U.S. government.
NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Credit Suisse is pleased to announce an initial commitment of USD 1.2 million to establish the Credit Suisse Scholars Program, an ongoing endowment with UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to fund scholarships for students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) based in North Carolina.

This pledge reflects Credit Suisse's ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. It also builds on the bank's long-standing relationship with North Carolina and the people and families of the Raleigh Community, where Credit Suisse established a presence over 15 years ago.

Eric Varvel, CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings USA (Inc.), said, "Part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion is to ensure we hold ourselves accountable for creating equitable access to opportunity. One way to do this is by expanding the pipeline of underrepresented talent. The scholarships we will provide for HBCU students will help them complete their degrees and better position them for competitive opportunities."

"This is an incredibly generous gift from Credit Suisse to North Carolina residents," said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, UNCF's president and CEO. "We know that African American communities are disproportionately impacted by the lack of resources needed to go to college. Recognizing that need, Credit Suisse is providing a pathway for successful applicants to continue on their journey to attain a college degree."

About Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse is one of the world's leading financial services providers. Our strategy builds on Credit Suisse's core strengths: its position as a leading wealth manager, its specialist investment banking capabilities and its strong presence in our home market of Switzerland. We seek to follow a balanced approach to wealth management, aiming to capitalize on both the large pool of wealth within mature markets as well as the significant growth in wealth in Asia Pacific and other emerging markets, while also serving key developed markets with an emphasis on Switzerland. Credit Suisse employs approximately 48,800 people. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com

About UNCF

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students' education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically Black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20% of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized trademark, A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF.

Media Contacts

Anna Christensen, Credit Suisse, telephone: +1 212 538 4748, [email protected]

Monique LeNoir, UNCF, telephone: +1 202 810 0231, [email protected]

SOURCE Credit Suisse

Related Links

http://www.credit-suisse.com



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Re: USA blacklists Xiaomi, will India follow suit? Quote: 2000rpm Originally Posted by What will people do if Google services stop working on Xiaomi !?



So Xiaomi devices may come with Android but without Google Play Services or as they are called in tech word, GApps.



One can easily side load GApps with an active internet connection & couple of taps.



Android is open source, so even at this stage of complete

Huawei ban, there is nothing stopping them using Android OS and they do. It's a different story that they have their own ambition to develop their own Linux based mobile OS, but the ban only stops them using Google Services AKA GApps (Play store n stuff)



Looking at history of Xiaomi, they are already well placed compared to Huawei. Xiaomi already have a well developed app store. That's already well integrated with their MiUi (Xiaomi Android OS). They already have well established Mi Account (singing in n such stuff)



Matter of fact, Xiaomi themself can easily turn off & move away from GApps. Which Huawei at the time of their ban didn't have.



Please note, even with the Huawei ban, public aren't banned using Huawei devices, nor they are banned in side loading GApps. Rather, its Google as a company can't supply & support Huawei so officially Huawei can't put GApps in their devices. But there aren't any ban or technical limitations on general public for using a Huawei device or installing a custom rom / GApps on that device.



So it's not a big deal to see Xiaomi having the ban. Indians are techy enough to understand "side loading" & master of Juggad when it comes to cheaper stuff.



Thanks. Xiaomi is very open to having Custom ROMs so even if there is a ban, that's for Xiaomi not on components that makes up a Xiaomi Device.So Xiaomi devices may come with Android but without Google Play Services or as they are called in tech word, GApps.One can easily side load GApps with an active internet connection & couple of taps.Android is open source, so even at this stage of completeHuawei ban, there is nothing stopping them using Android OS and they do. It's a different story that they have their own ambition to develop their own Linux based mobile OS, but the ban only stops them using Google Services AKA GApps (Play store n stuff)Looking at history of Xiaomi, they are already well placed compared to Huawei. Xiaomi already have a well developed app store. That's already well integrated with their MiUi (Xiaomi Android OS). They already have well established Mi Account (singing in n such stuff)Matter of fact, Xiaomi themself can easily turn off & move away from GApps. Which Huawei at the time of their ban didn't have.Please note, even with the Huawei ban, public aren't banned using Huawei devices, nor they are banned in side loading GApps. Rather, its Google as a company can't supply & support Huawei so officially Huawei can't put GApps in their devices. But there aren't any ban or technical limitations on general public for using a Huawei device or installing a custom rom / GApps on that device.So it's not a big deal to see Xiaomi having the ban. Indians are techy enough to understand "side loading" & master of Juggad when it comes to cheaper stuff.Thanks.
Miranda Hart has revealed she's taking a break from her career and social media following the death of her beloved dog Peggy last week.

In an emotional tribute shared to Instagram and Twitter on Sunday, the comedian, 48, detailed the 'excruciating sadness' of losing her 'loyal, loving best friend', who inspired her 2016 memoir Peggy and Me.

The actress bought the shih tzu/bichon frise cross puppy in 2007 and previously credited her pet for curing a past heartbreak.

Tragic: Miranda Hart has revealed she's taking a break from her career and social media following the death of her beloved dog Peggy last week

Alongside a series of heartwarming throwback images, the Miranda star said on her Instagram page: 'Last week I said goodbye to my beautiful, darling dog Peggy.

'I share because I shared her with you when I wrote Peggy and Me and many of you took her to your hearts.

'I have always been amused by and grateful for the pictures and gifts she was showered with. She used a blanket a fan gave her in Australia until the end.'

The media personality went on to reflect on how Peggy was a favourite among fans, sharing: 'She was recognised more than once in public when friends walked her.

'I will miss you': In an emotional tribute shared on Sunday, the comedian, 48, detailed the 'excruciating sadness' of losing her 'best friend', who inspired her 2016 memoir Peggy and Me

Long-time companion: The actress bought the shih tzu/bichon frise cross puppy in 2007 and previously credited her pet for curing a past heartbreak

'I am Peggy's owner!' The dynamic duo pictured with pop icon Kylie Minogue during an appearance on Jonathan Ross in 2016

'Once when I was walking her and the woman looked at me said 'oh my goodness... is that Peggy, I can't believe it'.

'And then looked at me again, when I thought I might be showered in a compliment, and she just said suspiciously 'how come you get to walk her?' I proudly and with a lot of internal giggles said ''I am Peggy's owner''!'

The award-winning writer reflected on her grief as she explained: 'Fellow dog owners will know the excruciating sadness of losing your loyal, loving best friend. The pain mirrors the unique joy, connection, comfort and love they bring.

'And Peggy was my absolute rock and source of all those things. Their uncompromising, unconditional loving presence is such an incredible gift. Enjoy your dogs as much as you can. They are great teachers.'

Memory lane: The Miranda star uploaded a series of heartwarming throwback images to her page

'She was recognised more than once in public!' The media personality went on to reflect on how Peggy was a favourite among fans

The Hyperdrive star, who boasts a career which spans over two decades in the industry, ended her post by announcing she's taking a step back from work.

Miranda added: 'I'm using this time to take some time away from work / posting to write and rest and see what the new chapter will be.

'Take very good gentle care of yourselves, please thank you please. Love oo. Peggy - you were always by my side and always on my side. I will miss you everyday. #peggyandme.' (sic)

The thespian later shared the link to her post on Twitter, alongside the tweet: 'It explains why I will be taking some time away after saying goodbye to my darling dog.

'You were always by my side': The Hyperdrive star, who boasts a career which spans over two decades in the industry, ended her post by announcing she's taking a step back from work

Leading comedian: Miranda is best known for her roles in her eponymous sitcom (pictured in 2014) and BBC's Call the Midwife

'Peggy - you were always by my side and always on my side and I will miss you everyday. X' (sic)

In September 2016, Miranda revealed how a bad relationship breakup left her devastated  until Peggy came into her life.

The Call The Midwife star, who rarely speaks about her personal life, was left 'lonely, isolated and depressed' after her split, but pulled through thanks to her pooch.

In an extract from her book Peggy And Me, the Devon native said she believed she'd never love again.

She said: 'When Peggy appeared in my life Id just ended a long-term relationship and the Hart heart was not in the best shape.

'And I thought perhaps this dog is going to turn it all around. I realised its better to be single than to be in a relationship with someone who doesnt give kind, loving and trusting approval. I had a being who loved me. It didnt matter that it was just a dog.

'Owning Peggy was the only thing that qualified me as any sort of adult; without her, despite being a year or two into my 30s, I felt little more than an overgrown sixth former to whom someone had randomly and inadvisably given a job.'
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.


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The disruption caused by covid-19 has left a deep scar on India s remittances inflow. Indias secondary income receipts, which mainly represents remittances, fell by around 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q2FY21, according to official data.

At the end of the September quarter, remittances to India stood at $1.8 billion. For the first half of FY21, the decline was to the tune of 6.7% y-o-y.

This fall is not surprising considering that the World Bank predicted remittances to see a historic decline of 20% in 2020 to $445 billion. Uncertainties related to global employment opportunities and the resurgence of the virus could hinder the revival of remittances.

Tanvee Gupta Jain, chief India economist at UBS Securities India Pvt. Ltd, said she expects improvement in remittances to India in FY22. However, she cautioned of some near-term downside risks. The biggest uncertainty is the evolution of the pandemic, the implementation and effectiveness of vaccines and the impact on global growth. There is also a risk of disruption to labour markets being deeper than earlier envisaged, thus affecting employment and/or incomes of migrant workers and hence remittance flows to India," she said.

However, despite some favourable factors such as rising crude oil prices and a depreciating rupee, economists foresee only a gradual recovery in Indias remittances in fiscal year 2022.

The correlation between changes in remittances and oil prices over 1983-2020 stands at more than 76%, according to an analysis by JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd. For India, a lions share of around 55% comes from the Middle East, followed by the US, and Canada. The ongoing recovery in crude oil prices bodes well for the economic outlook of the middle eastern countries. From its 2020 low of $19.33 per barrel, Brent crude oil prices have significantly improved to $56 per barrel.

Further, the correlation between remittances and exchange rate (a depreciating rupee) is as high as 87%, showed JM Financial research.

The Indian rupee depreciated by more than 2% against the US dollar in 2020.

This tends to have a positive impact on inward remittances as overseas workers are likely to remit more, taking advantage of the weaker rupee. Some companies on the other hand, could slow the pace of remittance inflows as they may delay the conversion because of foreign exchange risk (if they expect the rupee to depreciate further)," said Sok Yin Yong, fixed income analyst Asia, Julius Baer.

In 2019, India led in the receipt of remittances, receiving around $83 billion, showed the World Bank data. Remittances have been a key source of income for many Southeast Asian nations. For net-importers such as India, higher remittances aid in partially offsetting the deteriorating trade goods deficit and stabilizing the current account deficit.

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Golden apple snails have decimated rice fields in Quang Nam Province for weeks, to the dismay of local farmers.

Tran May sits by his rice field with the golden apple snails in his hand, January 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Linh.

Despite trying out both powder-based and liquid pesticides, Tran May, 70, is still met by scores of newborn golden apple snails.

May lives in Nghia Thuong Commune of Tu Nghia District, where the snails have been wreaking havoc across fields and irrigation canals for weeks.

"The snails appeared around 20 days ago and weve been trying different pesticides to get rid of them and stop their spread, but with little result," he said.

May has spent VND500,000 (over $20) on pesticides, along with five days recultivating young rice plants destroyed by the snails in their 1,500-square-meter rice field.

Most rice fields in the neighborhood suffer the same problem, with farmers trying in vain to catch the snails to feed their chickens and ducks.

Excessive pesticide use has left a chemical odor in the air, with packaging lying strewn along canals.

"If I caught some today, others would simply take their place," another farmer in Nghia Thuong Commune said.

She said the snails have attacked not only the rice plants but her chili crop too.

Originating from South America, the golden apple snail was imported to Vietnam from 1985 to 1988 with the intention of raising it for human consumption.

Not long after, the snails had spread to most freshwater ecosystems across the country, threatening wetland rice and vegetable crops, among others. The Global Invasive Species Program lists golden apple snail as one of the world's 100 worst invasive alien species.

Golden apple snails can live up to six months in drought condition and rapidly multiply within reach of water. They could lay eggs at a speed of 200-300 in about three hours. This species often feeds on young rice plants or young shoots right after sowing up until the crops are 30 days old.

Young golden apple snails after destroying a rice field in Tu Nghia District of Quang Nam Province, January 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Linh.

Farmers blame the prolonged and historic flooding that had ravaged the central region last October and November for the excess of golden apple snails this year.

Le Thanh Tra, from the Agricultural Service Center of Tu Nghia District, said golden apple snails have appeared in almost every commune.

But he warned farmers to limit the use of chemicals to get rid of the pest, instead suggesting the use of water spinach and breadfruit fiber along with bamboo steaks to lure and capture the animals.

According to Quang Ngai Plant Protection Department, farmers across the province have cultivated rice on a total area of 40,000 hectares (almost 99,000 acres) for the winter-spring crop and so far, 500 hectares have been damaged by the snails. Tu Nghia District has been hit hardest with 215 hectares destroyed.

Pham Ba, head of the department, said it has provided guideline on how to safely get rid of the snails, either chemically or manually.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
For the government, the health and career prospects are of primary concern, Sabitha Indra Reddy said.  DC Image

HYDERABAD: Parents of school children have to produce consent letters if their children are attending physical classes from February 1, when schools reopen for students from ninth standard onwards.

Education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy was speaking to the media after a meeting with officials here on Monday. She made it clear that the Covid protocol should be followed by all students and teachers.

With classes to resume physically, all precautions and sanitisation works have to be accomplished by January 25, the officials were told.

Although minimum attendance was not compulsory for this academic year, those attending classes physically must submit consent letters from their parents. The Minister reminded the them of the Chief Ministers appeal to private schools to only collect tuition fees, and exempt all other fees.

The minister said, For the government, the health and career prospects are of primary concern. Meanwhile, for students below ninth standard, virtual classes will continue.
A leader of a city campaign to quell gun violence in Baltimore who was widely recognized for canvassing streets prone to gang wars with words of reconciliation was shot and killed on Sunday, the authorities said.

Dante Barksdale, an outreach coordinator for the citys Safe Streets program, was found at about 11:17 a.m. with a gunshot wound to his head near the Douglass Homes, a public housing complex in the southeastern part of Baltimore, the police said.

He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died a short time later, officials said.

Mr. Barksdale, 46, went by the nickname Tater and was a nephew of Nathan Barksdale, the now-deceased narcotics trafficker known as Bodie who was an inspiration for the character Avon Barksdale in the HBO crime series The Wire. Dante Barksdale drew upon his time in prison for selling drugs and his experience growing up in the projects for his outreach work.

His death jolted community leaders, who recognized Mr. Barksdale on Sunday for his work to defuse gang violence.
Regnery Publishing, a conservative publishing house, said Monday that it had picked up a book by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, after Simon & Schuster ended its contract to publish it in the wake of the assault on the Capitol.

Mr. Hawley had come under criticism for challenging the results of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory and was accused of helping incite the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. His book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, is scheduled to be published this spring, Regnery said.

Thomas Spence, the president and publisher of Regnery, said in a statement that the publishing house was proud to stand with Mr. Hawley. The warning in his book about censorship obviously couldnt be more urgent, Mr. Spence said. His companys statement said that Simon & Schuster had made Mr. Hawley a victim of cancel culture.

Most major publishers, including Simon & Schuster, one of the Big Five book publishers in the United States, publish books across the political spectrum. But Simon & Schuster said it called off its plan to publish Mr. Hawleys book after the Capitol attack.
She recently returned to the UK after paying a 4,500 fine in Barbados for trying to flee the country despite her boyfriend testing positive for Covid.

And Zara Holland appeared to be getting back to business as she helped out at her family's workplace in Hull on Wednesday.

The Love Island star, 25, stepped out without a face mask as she carried boxes from the building and took a selection of hoodies inside.

Back to work: Zara Holland went without a face mask as she got back to business at her family's workplace on Wednesday after being fined for breaching Covid rules in Barbados

Zara looked busy as she ran in and out of the distribution centre for her shop Mimi Boutique while cutting a casual figure in grey leggings and a sweatshirt.

The former Miss Great Britain, who returned home to the UK last week, went make-up free and tied her blonde locks back into a messy ponytail as she worked.

At one point the former reality star was seen rushing back inside with a coffee cup in hand as well as moving merchandise around on another run.

Government guidelines say that face masks should be worn at storage distribution centres, as well as factories, plants and warehouses.

No covering: Zara was seen carrying cardboard and bin bags out of the workplace

Zara, who was not donning a mask, told The Sun: 'Only my mum and I work part-time in that part of the building. Anyone else seen entering or leaving is nothing to do with the boutique. It is not open to the public.'

While an onlooker said: 'Surely after what she has just been through in Barbados she would make sure she was wearing her mask at every opportunity.'

Zara and her partner Elliot Love, 30, were arrested at the island's airport and faced a jail sentence of up to a year, before both being let off with fines.

The reality TV personality has since been reunited with her partner, after he returned to the UK this week after paying his own fine and testing negative for Covid.

Back and forth: She toted some hoodies inside and cut a casual figure herself as she went makeup-free for the outing

Zara was believed to have returned home without him last week, when she was seen sat alone before boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight to Manchester at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

Meanwhile, Love was forced to stay in the island's mosquito-ridden Paragon Isolation Centre until he was clear of the virus and had to pay a heavy fine to the country.

Following the offence Love managed to escape jail and received a reduced fine after his lawyer argued he was a 'simple guy', who owned a small demolition company and worked for 450-a week.

Love was fined 1,400 less than his famous girlfriend - despite him being prepared to get on a packed holiday jet while infected with the virus.

Couple: Zara and her partner Elliot Love, 30, were arrested at Barbados' airport and faced a jail sentence of up to a year, before both being let off with fines

In a rush: Zara looked busy as she ran in and out of the distribution centre for her shop Mimi Boutique

Quick pick up: She carried a coffee cup on one of her trips across the warehouse's yard

Zara was ordered to pay a heftier fine before fleeing the country due to her compliance in the offence, despite not testing positive herself.

She then jetted back to Britain, just hours after she was ordered to pay her fine or go to jail for nine months for breaching the island's tough Covid rules.

One fellow traveller said: 'She was sitting well away from everyone else and trying to keep a very low profile. To say she looked sheepish is an understatement.

'We were shocked to see her because we know her boyfriend is still being detained while he battles Covid. I'm amazed she's left him behind.'

Love had to test negative twice for the virus over the space of five days before he was allowed out of the military base which has been turned into a Covid quarantine centre.

Holland, of North Ferriby, East Yorks, could have been jailed for up to a year but the magistrate instead imposed the fine, which many on social media condemned as a let off. The fine was paid immediately by her lawyer meaning she was free to leave.

Just family: 'Only my mum and I work part-time in that part of the building...It is not open to the public,' Zara told The Sun

A guest who had been staying at the luxury Hilton hotel, where Holland holed up after her arrest, spotted the former beauty queen scurrying out of the 350-a-night hotel several hours after she left court.

Andrew Pilgrim QC, Holland's lawyer, told MailOnline: 'Zara left Barbados last night. The fine has been paid and she was free to go.'

While a family friend added: 'Zara has gone home. She left last night by plane.'

At court, the shaken TV star had blamed her actions on a 'foolish error' and breathed a sigh of relief when she escaped with a fine of 4,417 [B$12,000].

She had pleaded guilty to leaving the Sugar Bay hotel on December 29 while she was under quarantine.

Chief magistrate Ian Weekes admonished her for breaking the nation's tough rules that have prevented the holiday island being overrun by the virus.

Loaded down: She piled up the cardboard outside the door

Back home: Zara returned to the UK last week after her court appearance in Barbados

Focusing on work: She was seen hanging some garments inside the distribution centre

'We cannot tolerate that you breached the quarantine protocol, he said. 'You had been told to stay at your hotel and you should have done that.'

Mr Pilgrim blamed her 'lapse' on a 'foolish error,' telling the court she had two negative tests and became extremely nervous about her and Love's status in Barbados, which is why she decided to try and leave the island.

Love had already tested positive for Covid when the pair bought return flights to the UK.

Mr Pilgrim told the court Holland was involved in a lot of charity work in the UK, including helping children with cancer, and also helped with transportation for people in need.

He said she had the utmost respect for the people of Barbados and had been holidaying on the island twice a year for the last six years.

Holland remained silent when she left court but stood beside Mr Pilgrim as he spoke on her behalf.

In court: The shaken reality star blamed her actions on a 'foolish error' and breathed a sigh of relief when she escaped with a fine of GBP 4,417 [B$12,000]. Holland was warned she would be jailed for nine months if she didn't pay within seven days

He said: 'We accepted the decision of the court. Miss Holland wants to express her sincere apologies to the entire nation of Barbados.'

Love tested positive for Covid after arriving on the island last Sunday.

The couple were given red wristbands and told to remain in their room at the 300-a-night Sugar Bay until they were taken to a quarantine centre on the north of the island.

Instead, they booked would have been a British Airways flight back to the UK packed with fellow British holiday makers, cut off their wristbands and took a taxi to the airport where, according to a local source, their names raised some red flags with airport officials because of their short turnaround time in the country.

They were arrested as they made their way to departures after surveillance cameras captured the pair entering public bathrooms and exiting wearing different clothing.

Last week Jamaican tourist Dean George Scott, 49, admitted in court to leaving quarantine to 'buy Fanta' and other snacks after arriving on the holiday island at the beginning of December. He was jailed for six months.


WASHINGTON  A 63-year-old woman from Stratford was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police after she drove up to an inauguration checkpoint in Washington, D.C., and falsely identified herself as a police officer and as a member of the presidents cabinet, according to a police report.

Linda MaGovern, 63, of Stratford also failed to obey a law enforcement official and fled from an official, according to a police report.

Her arrest came as security was tightened in Washington, D.C., as violence was continued violence was feared in the days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. On Jan. 6, rioters stormed the Capitol, with dozens of protesters arrests and President Donald Trump impeached in connection with the violent attack.

The incident began at 8:45 a.m. Saturday when MaGovern approached Capitol Police officers at a checkpoint near Columbus Circle, which is about a half-mile from the U.S. Capitol, the police report said.

She showed them a military police challenge coin and told them she was a part of law enforcement and a presidential cabinet member, the report said.

Officers repeatedly told the Stratford woman to park her car, and she eventually did, the police report said. But when an officer asked to see her drivers license, she drove off, the police report said.

MaGovern drove northbound on Columbus Circle before she was stopped in front of Union Station and arrested, the arrest report said.

She was sent to United Medical Center in Washington to undergo an evaluation after her arrest, according to police.

A military police challenge coin is a keepsake often service members and law enforcement personnel.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Mr. Nafeis 47-second video this month of the chaos at El Husseineya Central Hospital, about two and a half hours northeast of Cairo, went viral on social media.

As outrage grew, the government denied that the hospital had run out of oxygen.

An official statement issued the following day concluded that the four who died had suffered from complications and denied that the deaths had any connection to an oxygen shortage. Security officers interrogated Mr. Nafei, and officials blamed him for violating rules barring visitation and filming inside hospitals.

A New York Times investigation, however, found otherwise.

Witnesses, including medical staff and relatives of patients, said in interviews that the oxygen pressure had fallen to precipitously low levels. At least three patients, they said, and possibly a fourth, had died of oxygen deprivation. A close analysis of the video by doctors in Egypt and the United States confirmed that the chaotic scene in the I.C.U. indicated an interruption in the oxygen supply.

The fatal oxygen shortage was the end result of a cascade of problems at the hospital, our investigation found. By the time patients were suffocating in the I.C.U., a relief delivery of oxygen that had been ordered was already hours late and a backup oxygen system had failed.

Were not going to bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is OK, a doctor at the hospital said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared arrest. The whole world can admit theres a problem, but not us.
An enormous Eastern brown snake has been discovered lurking at the base of a family's sliding doors.





The deadly reptile, the second most venomous snake in the world, was found outside a home in Reesville on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.





A Queensland family discovered the enormous Eastern brown snake (pictured, above) outside their Reesville home.

The Eastern brown snake is known for being bad-tempered, aggressive and fast moving.

Easter browns prefer to live in populated areas and are most commonly discovered by Aussie's in their sheds or houses during Spring and Summer months.

The poisonous snake was enjoying the sun when it was found coiled in between the sliding doors leading into the family home (pictured, above)

The increased rainfall during Australia's wet summer, created by a La Nina weather event, has created the perfect environment for Aussie snakes, providing dense grasslands for the active serpents.

The venom of the Eastern brown snake is the second most toxic of land snakes worldwide and can cause paralysis if not treated in time.

More than 3,000 Australians are bitten by snakes each year, with up to 100 venomous species Australia-wide.

While one online commentator praised the reptile, calling the snake 'a beautiful beast' other commenters were less impressed, saying they would 'burn the house down'.

EASTERN BROWN SNAKES The Eastern brown snake is one of the most venomous snakes in Australia, becoming particularly active in hot summer months. Australia is home to over 100 species of venomous snakes These snake bites can cause moderate to severe symptoms Aussies are urged to treat every snakebite seriously to avoid fatalities and to always seek medical attention Source: St John Victoria Advertisement
Murray Rothbard quotes on libertarianism, economics, and freedom By Alex Horsman

War is mass murder. Conscription is slavery. Taxation is robbery. Renowned Austrian school economist. Founder and former leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. Passionate historical revisionist. Arguably the preeminent libertarian thinker of the 20th century. Whenever you see the colors black and yellow laid side by side, the first man who comes to your mind should be Murray Newton Rothbard. And needless to say, when you read Murray Rothbard quotes you should pay attention. Rothbard was born in 1926 to Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia. He received his PhD in economics at Columbia University, noting that he was nearly the only student at the school who didnt espouse extreme leftist ideologies. Rothbard was an active member of Mises seminars at New York University School of Business where he was also paid to write Man, Economy, and State, a textbook based on Ludwig von Mises Human Action which the author himself soundly approved of. Following the collapse of the Volker Fund which had permitted him to work from home, Rothbard taught at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute from 1966 until 1986. He derided the school as Marxist and ultimately found better circumstances at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he worked until his death in 1995. Rothbard founded the Center for Libertarian Studies, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He also co-founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Let us briefly summarize the theories of a man who wrote over one dozen books and spent a lifetime teaching. Rothbard believed in studying economics through the lens of praxeology rather than econometrics, treating it like a set of fixed principles rather than a phenomenon only to be studied after the fact. Rothbard was a font of criticism for modern, mainstream economics, dismissing Adam Smiths work as the root of Marxism and Milton Friedman as a pernicious establishmentarian. He was also a fierce opponent of egalitarianism, insisting that implementation of so unnatural a doctrine would inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. Rothbard coined the term anarcho-capitalism to describe his philosophy which favored self-ownership, private property, and the free market, as well as the abolishment of the states monopoly of force. Rothbards views on womens suffrage wont get his face put on a postage stamp anytime soon, and his support for a powerful police force that would administer instant punishment for crimes including vagrancy wouldnt merit charitable treatment by CNN if he proclaimed it today. Rothbard was a staunch opponent of aggressive foreign policy, arguing that WWII in particular created an untenable military-industrial complex and state monopoly on capitalism. To Rothbard, the only justifiable American wars were the Revolution and the Civil War  but the latter only on the Confederate side. Rothbard asserted that historical revisionism was necessary to unroot narratives which gave undue favor to the state, that judiciary authority violated natural rights, that the eye for an eye system of retribution was only a half measure, and that the action of every man must only be attributed to his free will. Not content to sit in an ivory tower, Rothbard vocally supported politicians including Strom Thurmond, Ron Paul, George H. W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Pat Buchanan throughout his lifetime. Rothbard Quotes Libertarianism holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal. The libertarian creed, finally, offers the fulfillment of the best of the American past along with the promise of a far better future. Even more than conservatives  libertarians are squarely in the great classical liberal tradition that built the United States and bestowed on us the American heritage of individual liberty, a peaceful foreign policy, minimal government, and a free-market economy. I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual. No action can be virtuous unless it is freely chosen. To be moral, an act must be free. Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the States inhabitants, or subjects. There is one good thing about Marx: he was not a Keynesian. While liberals are in favor of any sexual activity engaged in by two consenting adults, when these consenting adults engage in trade or exchange, the liberals step in to harass, cripple, restrict, or prohibit that trade. And yet both the consenting sexual activity and the trade are similar expressions of liberty in action. It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a dismal science. But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance. It is the state that is robbing all classes, rich and poor, black and white alike; it is the state that is ripping us all off; it is the state that is the common enemy of mankind. I frankly dont see anything wrong with greed. I think that the people who are always attacking greed would be more consistent with their position if they refused their next salary increase. I dont see even the most Left-Wing scholar in this country scornfully burning his salary check. It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus. It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support. Whenever someone starts talking about fair competition or indeed, about fairness in general, it is time to keep a sharp eye on your wallet, for it is about to be picked. And, indeed, what is the State anyway but organized banditry? What is taxation but theft on a gigantic, unchecked, scale? What is war but mass murder on a scale impossible by private police forces? What is conscription but mass enslavement? Can anyone envision a private police force getting away with a tiny fraction of what States get away with, and do habitually, year after year, century after century? Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism. Not only are they compatible, but you cant really have one without the other. True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism Libertarians make no exceptions to the golden rule and provide no moral loophole, no double standard, for government. We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely  those against private citizens or those against itself? Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State. The State has never been created by a social contract; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation. Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion. Alex Horsman is a writer for the Libertasbella blog where this originally appeared. Home
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has promised to be impartial as far as his new role is concerned.



There are fears that as a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alban Bagbin and the NDC caucus can team up to frustrate the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).



However, during sitting on Friday, 15th January, 2020, the Speaker said:



Much has been said of the fact that I come to this position from a long career as a politician and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); one of the two parties represented in this House. But as far as I am concerned that fact is of no consequence to my new role as Speaker...



Hon Members, this concern is needless, as it is based on an incorrect view of what this Parliaments role is and indeed what its role has been in the Fourth Republic. Regardless of which party has the upper hand in the House, it would be wrong to see Parliaments role as either obstructing or rubberstamping Governments agenda....



Hon Members, I intend to live by the Oath I swore on the occasion of my election to this office, to respect, obey and abide by the will of the House. I am fully committed to being fair and impartial. But I am also fully committed to being firm. Members must also in reciprocity, respect and abide by my rulings and instructions. When in disagreement, the Standing Orders of the House, has the answer. I will apply the authority of the House as symbolized by the Mace, to protect and defend the prerogatives, privileges and immunities of Parliament, members and staff as provided under the laws of the country".



Read full address below



Hon Members,



I would like, first and foremost, to express my gratitude, once again, to all of you for your support in electing me as Speaker of the 8th Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, in accordance with Article 95, clauses (1) and (3) of the Constitution and Orders 8 and 9 of the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana. As I pledged to you and the Nation on the occasion of my election as Speaker, I am fully committed to serving this House and this Country faithfully and conscientiously as the Speaker for Members of Parliament and indeed all Ghanaians.



SPECIAL WELCOME TO FIRST-TIME MEMBERS



Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate each and every one of you, once again, on being elected or re-elected as a Member of the eight Parliament of the Fourth Republic. I am particularly delighted to welcome the one hundred and twenty-seven fresh hands, who are assuming your seats as Members of this House for the first time. You have now earned the privilege to be addressed in this Chamber as Honorable. And honorable you must be.





Whatever may have been your inspiration for choosing to embark on this path, I would like you to know that the position you now occupy as a Member of Parliament is a position of leadership, of honor, of privilege, of trust, and, above all, of service. Your constituents have reposed in you, as in the rest of your colleagues, an enormous amount of confidence and trust in electing you to represent them and their interests in this House of the People of Ghana. You have a reciprocal responsibility and obligation to serve them and the Nation with honor, and integrity. Remember at all times, that you lead your people best by serving them with respect, with humility, and with diligence.



My office, together with the Office of the Clerk of Parliament and the Parliamentary Service as a whole, stands ready to assist you with a range of services and resources, including training, necessary to make your transition into your new role as smooth as possible. I am also confident that you will find among your returning colleagues many who are able and willing to help you navigate and learn the ropes here as quickly as you can, so that you can contribute effectively to the business of this House and make an impact within the shortest possible time.



Ultimately, responsibility for having a successful career in this House rests with you. Remember that, this House is a house of rules and procedures. Thus, knowledge and, with time, mastery, of the rules and procedures that govern the business and proceedings of this House will be indispensable to your success as a Member, as well as make my job as Speaker, all the more effective. May your career in this House be as long and as productive as mine has been.



MEMBERS WHO BECOME MINISTERS



Honourable Members, by the dictates of the Constitution of the Fourth Republic, some of you will, in due course, be nominated and, with the approval of this House, appointed by the President to positions in his Administration as Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State. During my 28-year career as a Member of Parliament, I had the opportunity to serve as a Minister of State in different capacities. This so-called hybrid feature of our Constitutional system means, in effect, that a certain number of you will, at any given time, be under a duty to serve three Masters: Constituency, Parliament and the President.



Hon Members, you are well aware, of the Biblical injunction to not serve two masters, lest you become devoted to one and despise the other. (Matthew 6:24). In your situation, it is even worse. You are enjoined to serve three masters. Needless to say, our experience has shown that, in the case of Members who double as Ministers, the master that is often sacrificed and left holding the shorter end of the stick is Parliament. Members who are appointed to Ministerial office generally prioritize their Executive Branch roles over their Parliamentary roles. Scholars and students of governance have observed and noted the myriad ways in which this arrangement has served to unbalance the relationship between the Executive and Parliament and affected adversely the ability of Parliament and of MPs to carry out faithfully their representative, oversight, deliberative, and legislative roles.



Until we reform this constitutional arrangement to improve the countrys governance, however, I believe all parties or players implicated in this arrangement, namely the President, Parliament itself, and those Members appointed as Ministers, have each a responsibility to take steps to minimize the negative impact of this arrangement on the business, mandate, and performance of the House. As a former Member of this House, with a parliamentary career as long and as old as this 4th Republic, one thing I do know for sure is that drawing a large number of Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State from the Membership of Parliament is unhelpful to the business of Parliament and also weakens Parliaments ability to perform its proper role in the promotion of good governance.



Be that as it may, Members appointed to serve as Ministers or Deputy Ministers must understand that, you are Members of Parliament, first and foremost. In fact, in most or nearly all cases, you will have earned your appointment as Minister of State on account of your position or standing as a Member of Parliament. It behooves such Members, therefore, to continue to take your Parliamentary roles and responsibilities seriously. Indeed, the anecdotal evidence suggests that, among Members who double as Ministers, those who strive to balance their responsibilities to both Branches of Government, as difficult as that may be, tend to have more successful and longer careers on both sides.



WHAT THE PEOPLE OF GHANA EXPECT OF THE 8th PARLIAMENT



Hon Members, in the General Elections of December 7, 2020, out of which this 8th Parliament has emerged, the People of Ghana sent a loud and clear message to the political class when they voted to deny both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) single-party control of the Legislative Branch. The score of 137 for NPP and 137 for NDC, with one Independent, the decision of no Majority Party and no Minority Party, in Parliament, is a call for us to chart a new path, to embark on new ways of transacting Parliamentary business, which you know or ought to know, is the business of the people. I urge the leadership of both sides of the House to put their heads together to smoothen out any bottlenecks or challenges that may impede the conduct of business in the House.



The message which these results convey, I believe, may be summed up in the common expression enough is enough. Or to put it differently, No more business as usual.



I believe that the People of Ghana, in voting as they did in the last elections, have signaled their frustration with and disapproval of the Party First mindset and the associated unbridled partisanship and partisan polarization that have taken root in our politics and are giving our option of multi-party democracy a bad name. I would like to believe also that the first indication that this message may have begun to sink is the very fact of my election as Speaker of Parliament, despite not being the nominee or preference of those Members whose partys flagbearer has been declared by the Chair of the Electoral Commission as President-elect. I am sincerely grateful for the bipartisan approval of my speakership of this Parliament by you. God richly bless you all.



Hon Members, the People of Ghana would like us to prioritize the needs and concerns of the Country and of all Ghanaians above our own private or parochial interest or the narrow interest of one or the other political party. The People of Ghana are growing tired of politics as usual; of seeing their elected and appointed officials treat their political parties and political party identities as if those were bigger and more important than our common citizenship and as if those artificial identities were ends in themselves, as opposed to a means to the ultimate end, namely the collective progress and development of the country. The People of Ghana are demanding sound and effective solutions to their everyday problems, needs, frustrations, anxieties, and fears. The youth in particular wants to be inspired, motivated and given hope for a better future of unlimited opportunities. They want this country to grow and to prosper; to realize and live up to its full potential; to use its bountiful resources to deliver opportunity and generate prosperity and hope for its peoples. And they are entitled to no less.



In case we are at a loss as to what this means for the substance of the work we must do here in this House, you and I would do well to refer to the Directive Principles of State Policy, contained in Chapter Six of the Constitution. The Directive Principles of State Policy stands as a constant reminder to us of what duty Parliament, and Members owe, individually and collectively, to our dear Country and its People. In swearing fidelity to the Constitution, as we did on the occasion of our respective assumptions of office, what we undertook to do, at a minimum, is to use the public power, the privilege, and the associated opportunities and resources entrusted to us in ways and for purposes that would bring us closer as a Nation to realizing the ambitions, goals, principles, and policies we have set for ourselves in Chapter Six of the Constitution.



I entreat all of you, Hon Members of this august body, to make the Directive Principles of State Policy your primary guide to action in the discharge of the responsibilities and roles of your office. Together with the provisions of Chapter Five of the Constitution, including, notably, the provisions on economic rights, educational rights, cultural rights, womens rights, childrens rights, rights of disabled persons, and rights of the sick, contained in Articles 24 through to 30 of the Constitution. The Directive Principles of State Policy are, in essence, our own domestic version of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) whose realization we have committed ourselves internationally. Those ambitions, goals, principles and policies are the barometer by which we must measure our service and performance in this House.



In addressing the issue of what the people of Ghana expect of this Parliament, I would be remiss if I did not express my deepest regret, both as a former Member of this Parliament and a citizen of this great Nation, at the rather unruly behavior and commotion that took place on the floor of this House last week, including the presence of armed soldiers on the floor, and the breaches of the sanctity of a vote, that would otherwise attract severe punishment in connection with the election of the Speaker of the 8th Parliament. It was, to put it mildly, despicable conduct unbecoming of people of honor. What makes it worse is the total absence of justification or reasonable excuse. As Speaker, I would like to believe that the spectacle of that historic day would not be repeated. Certainly not on my watch. I take a strong exception to such conduct and behavior and urge Leadership to take a serious view of it and take the necessary measures to restore the lost dignity of the august House. It is at variance with the message of the 2020 general elections.



THE CORE MANDATE AND MISSION OF PARLIAMENT: NEITHER OBSTRUCTIONIST NOR A RUBBER STAMP



Hon Members, the outcome of the recent General Elections implore us to re-dedicate ourselves to the true and core mandate and mission of Parliament. There appears to be some amount of confusion and misunderstanding as to what the appropriate role of Parliament is in our constitutional system. Much of this, is as a result of the two-party structure and composition of the House, within the context of our winner-take-all politics.



Because of this, whenever Parliament is dominated by the same party that holds the Presidency and forms the Government, the common perception and expectation is that Parliament will automatically support the Governments agenda, without regard to its merits. In short, we have come to assume that Government is entitled to have its way in Parliament. And because this has been the Ghanaian publics perception of how Parliament has conducted itself under various Administrations in the Fourth Republic, this current development of a House in which neither Party has a secure or dominating Majority, in other words, no Majority Party and no Minority Party, and of a Speaker who is not beholden to or endorsed by the President, is causing many of our citizens both in and out of Government, including in this House, a great deal of consternation. To them, if Government is not guaranteed its way in a Parliament, then such a Parliament can only be obstructionist.



Hon Members, this concern is needless, as it is based on an incorrect view of what this Parliaments role is and indeed what its role has been in the Fourth Republic. Regardless of which party has the upper hand in the House, it would be wrong to see Parliaments role as either obstructing or rubberstamping Governments agenda. Parliament cannot discharge any one of its core mandatesdeliberative, legislative, financial control, oversight, and representationalby being either obstructionist or a rubberstamp. As the foremost accountability institution in our constitutional system, Parliaments role is to check-and-balance the Executive, not to obstruct or rubberstamp the Executives agenda. Parliament does its job, as it must, when it questions, investigates, reviews, and scrutinizes the Executive, its bills, its nominations, and its proposed agreements, and then proceeds to approve, to amend, or to reject them, as the case may be.



As one who comes to the Speakership with the longest record of previous service as a Member of this House, I can recount instances of Parliament playing precisely this role and, thereby, helping to improve the quality of our Nations governance. Even in the First Parliament, when the NPPs boycott of the 1992 Parliamentary Elections left the House with no real Opposition party, bills proposed by the Executive were not accorded routine, rubber-stamp treatment; they were subjected to close review, scrutiny, and modification, where necessary. A case in point is the bill that later became the law criminalizing Causing Financial Loss to the State. When it was introduced in the First Parliament, the bill as drafted had no mens rea requirement; it would have made causing financial loss to the State a strict liability offence. I recall, and the Hansard record will show, that the amendment to add the word willfully to the law came from the floor of the House. With its almost total control of the House, the dominant Party at the time, could have simply rubberstamped the bill; it did not. I also recall that Parliament has had occasion in the past to decline to approve certain nominations of the President. A case in point was the refusal of the House to consider and to approve the nomination of a Court of appeal Judge to be appointed as Justice of the Supreme Court. As long as it is done in good faith and with transparent justification, such cases cannot be called rubber-stamping or obstructionist. As Speaker, I will not yield to pressure from any quarter to allow this august House to be turned into a rubber stamp or an obstructer.



IMPARTIALITY OF THE SPEAKER



Let me also say a few words about the office of Speaker as envisioned under our Constitution. While past practice might lead some to think otherwise, the truth of the matter is that, the Speakership is not a partisan-political office. Regardless of which party nominated or voted to elect him or her, and regardless of his or her previous political background, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana occupies a nonpartisan, impartial office. There is no NPP Speaker or NDC Speaker; there is only a Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana.



Unlike my counterpart in the American House of Representatives, the Ghanaian Speaker is not a Member of the House. The Ghanaian Speaker presides over but does not participate in proceedings of the House; and he or she has no vote, not even a casting vote, in matters before the House. In fact, the Speakership in Ghana is designed to be even more impartial and more apolitical than the Speaker of the House of Commons in Westminster. It is indeed to ensure that the Speaker remains impartial in presiding over the affairs of this House and Parliament that his election is done by secret ballot.



The independence and impartiality of the Speaker is particularly evident from one line in the Speakers Oath. That line is not found in the Presidential Oath, the Oath of Vice-President, the Oath for Ministers of State and Cabinet, or the Oath of a Member of Parliament. That line reads: And I will do right to all manner of persons in accordance with the Constitution and the laws and conventions of Parliament without fear or favor, affection or ill will. That last phrase, without fear or favor, affection or ill will, defines the office of Speaker as an impartial, nonpartisan office. I assure you I dont take this Oath lightly at all. The only other Oaths in the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Fourth Republic in which you find this same language are the Judicial Oath and the Oath of the Auditor-General. This is because, like the Speaker, these offices too are meant to be nonpartisan, impartial, and independent.



Hon Members, much has been made of the fact that I come to this position from a long career as a politician and member of the National Democratic Congress, one of the two parties represented in this House. As far as I am concerned, that fact is of no consequence to my new role as Speaker. In fact, it is not a novelty in this House. I myself have worked harmoniously with Speakers of diverse political backgrounds, including on one occasion supporting the nomination for re-election as Speaker of the 4th Republic, a well-known figure of the New Patriotic Party.



But more importantly, as I have made clear, the office I now occupy is an impartial, independent, and apolitical office, akin, in that regard, to the position of a Justice or Chief Justice. Just as a person with a known party affiliation like myself could be appointed to the Supreme Court, so it is with the Speakership. What matters, above all, is that, once appointed as a Chief Justice or Justice or elected as a Speaker, that person, regardless of his political past, must conduct himself or herself in accordance with the requirements and ethics of his or her new office and, as expressed in the Oath of that office, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will.



Hon Members, I intend to live by the Oath I swore on the occasion of my election to this office, to respect, obey and abide by the will of the House. I am fully committed to being fair and impartial. But I am also fully committed to being firm. Members must also in reciprocity, respect and abide by my rulings and instructions. When in disagreement, the Standing Orders of the House, has the answer. I will apply the authority of the House as symbolized by the Mace, to protect and defend the prerogatives, privileges and immunities of Parliament, members and staff as provided under the laws of the country.



Let me at this juncture, acknowledge the many contributions made by my predecessors, in whose shoes I walk today. The Rt. Hon Justice Daniel Francis Annan laid a solid foundation to anchor the growth and development of parliamentary law, practice and procedure in the Fourth Republican Parliament.



I acknowledge with great appreciation and respect the contributions of Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, Rt Hon Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes, Rt. Hon. Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, Rt. Hon. Edward Kobla Doe Adjaho and Rt Hon. Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye. I have worked with all these Speakers as a leader and a member of the Parliamentary Service Board, and I can attest to the tireless efforts each and every one of them made to consolidate, strengthen the Institution of Parliament and to build the capacity of members and staff of Parliament. I pledge to build on these achievements and to widen and deepen the frontiers of parliamentary governance even further.



Hon Members, some critical laws could not be passed by the previous Parliaments and these have gone into abeyance with the dissolution of the 7th Parliament. Draft Legislations such as the Affirmative Action Bill, Spousal Rights Bill, Standing Orders of the House which has been pending before the House since 2002, the Budget Bill, International Business and Agreements Bill, etc. calls fo0r urgent action. I call on the responsible sponsoring government agencies or Institutions to resubmit these Bills to the House early for consideration. In particular, I call on Parliament to expedt5ioiusly deal with the review of the Standing Orders of the House. I vision a bipartisan, inclusive, participatory, responsive, efficient and effective Parliament. The eight Parliament will have to work to earn the respect of the people of Ghana and to restore the image and dignity of the Institution. There is nothing more noble and satisfying than to render service to the people.



I would like to end by echoing the words of President Akufo-Addo, when he delivered his Message on the State of the Nation on the dissolution of the 7th Parliament (and I quote): The good people of Ghana have spoken and given Parliament almost equal strength on both sides of the House; we have no choice but to work with the consequences of the desires of the People. The House would have to be more accommodating of each others views and, probably, devise new ways of conducting its affairs.



I fully subscribe to that view. No more, no less. Cooperation, dialogue, accommodation, and consensus building must guide this Parliament in the conduct of its business. We must work together for the betterment of Ghana and Ghanaians. That I believe is the demand of Ghanaians and the loud and clear message of the 2020 general elections. That is the message in the votes of 136 in favor of Rt Hon. Aaron Mike Oquaye, as to 138 for Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, with one spoilt ballot, which propelled me to this high office of Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana. The battle is always the Lords. Glory be to the Most High God.



I thank you for the patience and attention.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Rishi Sunak has warned keeping the 20 a week boost to universal credit will cost the same as a 5p hike in fuel duty as six Tories revolt over the policy.

The Chancellor has been resisting growing pressure to extend the higher payments brought in during the pandemic, suggesting other 'drastic measures' will be needed to foot the bill.

He is said to have told restive MPs that the 6billion costs of the benefit increase - worth more than 1,000 a year to families - is equivalent to a penny on the basic rate of income tax, or a 5p rise in fuel duty.

However, Mr Sunak appears increasingly isolated with Boris Johnson hinting yesterday that he supports an extension beyond the current end date of April.

Six Tories backed a Labour motion last night calling for the higher rate of UC to stay in place, despite Mr Johnson pleading with MPs to abstain.

The Opposition Day Debate was not binding on the Government, but underlined the divisions over the policy.

Rishi Sunak (right) appears increasingly isolated on universal credit with Boris Johnson (left) hinting yesterday that he supports an extension of the 20 a week increase beyond the current end date of April

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey is rumoured to support and extension

The PM, Chancellor and Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey held a meeting last Friday to discuss what to do about the 20 weekly rise after it is scheduled to end.

The options included extending the benefit, introducing a one-off payment of 500 to families, or tapering off the support.

Mr Sunak brought in the increase throughout the pandemic at a cost of 6billion. He said it was a time-limited measure.

But as its expiry on March 31 approaches, he and the PM are under pressure from Tory MPs, including Ms Coffey and many who won 'red wall' seats from Labour.

Moving to stem a possible rebellion yesterday, Mr Johnson refused to say what will happen to the rise.

He told reporters: 'What we have said is we will put our arms around the whole of the country throughout the pandemic.

'We have already done 280billion worth of support and we will keep all measures under constant review.' It had been thought that he was in favour of a one-off payment to replace the regular weekly increase, but he appeared to be moving towards an extension yesterday.

Government sources said a decision would have to be made before the Budget in March, but was unlikely to come this week. The final decision will rest with the Prime Minister.

Signalling Mr Sunak's resistance to the move, a senior Tory told The Sun: 'We have spent nearly 300billion so far in this pandemic to help support families through this crisis. As a former Conservative PM once said, there is no magic money tree.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer yesterday called Mr Johnson 'pathetic' for telling Tory MPs to abstain in last night's vote.

Following tonight's vote, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer took a swipe at the Conservatives, saying in a Tweet: 'They didn't even show up'

The motion - to keep the extra cash given last year to help families through the coronavirus pandemic - received 278 votes in favour with no votes against. Pictured: The vote count is read out in the Commons tonight

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds (pictured left) said it would be a 'profound mistake' to scrap the 20-a-week increase but Minister for Welfare Delivery Will Quince argued the Government needed to wait before making a final decision

But the Prime Minister's press secretary, Allegra Stratton, accused Labour of pulling a 'political stunt', adding: 'We haven't made a decision. We know it [the hike] runs out at the end of March, we know that households want to know what is coming next and he [Mr Sunak] is going to come forward with more information shortly.'

Mr Johnson told Conservatives in a WhatsApp message to miss the vote as he accused Labour of 'playing politics' with 'legislatively vacuous opposition debates'.

However, former work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb told MPs he would rebel to back the Opposition for the first time ever, warning that ending the increase 'will cause hardship to families'.

The Prime Minister also faced pressure from the 65 Conservative MPs in the Northern Research Group (NRG), who said ending the increase would be 'devastating'.

Simon Fell, a member of the group, said: 'I'm glad to stand with my colleagues in the Northern Research Group when we say that now is not the time to consider any reduction in the uplift in Universal Credit.'

Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the education committee, said Universal Credit has been 'invaluable for millions of people during the lockdown'. In the event, Mr Halfon, Mr Crabb and fellow Tory MPs Peter Aldous, Jason McCartney, Anne Marie Morris and Matthew Offord voted with Labour.

The Government temporarily increased the benefit to help families through the Covid crisis, but the uplift is due to expire at the end of March, potentially hitting the incomes of six million families.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 05:30:32|Editor: huaxia

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Terezinha da Conceicao, 80, receives a dose of China's COVID-19 vaccine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan. 18, 2021. Brazil launched its mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus disease simultaneously in each state starting 5:00 p.m. Monday local time, Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello said. The initial plan was to begin nationwide vaccination on Wednesday, but the date was moved up in response to the request of state governors, said Pazuello. (Brazilian National News Agency/Handout via Xinhua)



BRASILIA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Brazil launched its mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus disease simultaneously in each state starting 5:00 p.m. Monday local time, Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello said.

The initial plan was to begin nationwide vaccination on Wednesday, but the date was moved up in response to the request of state governors, said Pazuello.

"The governors asked that as soon as (the vaccines) arrive in the states, they have the freedom to begin vaccination," Pazuello said.

As of Monday afternoon, all states were expected to have received their doses of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Chinese laboratory Sinovac in collaboration with the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo.

Brazil was distributing around 6 million doses, with over 4.6 million distributed by the federal government and 1.3 million by the local government of Sao Paulo.

Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) on Sunday authorized the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine, as well as the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine against COVID-19.

Immediately following Anvisa's authorization, the government of Sao Paulo, the epicenter of Brazil's COVID-19 outbreak, applied the first CoronaVac vaccine. Enditem
Most of nearly 500 local journalists who will cover the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam starting next week began to be tested for COVID-19 in Hanoi on Monday.

Delegates, guests, organizing staff, and journalists, among others, are required to pass coronavirus tests to engage in the Congress, according to regulations.

Authorities have issued a press pass to 474 journalists coming from 191 news agencies and newspapers throughout the country, the Partys Central Propaganda Department said.

Over 350 of the journalists who are based in Hanoi were tested for the novel coronavirus on Monday afternoon.

They will be retested on January 23.

Journalists from other provinces and cities will be tested in accordance with plans drawn up by delegations of Party members in their respective localities.

Vietnam has also granted press passes to 63 reporters and editors from 26 foreign news agencies who are based in the country, the Central Propaganda Department said.

Ninety-nine other reporters and editors from 84 international press agencies and newspapers have registered to report on the 13th National Party Congress, the department added.

Foreign journalists will have to be tested for COVID-19, with coordination by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be permitted to cover the Congress on the ground.

The Communist Party of Vietnam convenes a grand congress every five years to select a new leadership.

The 13th Party National Congress is scheduled to take place from January 25 to February 2.

A total of 1,587 delegates who represent over 5.1 million Party members will attend the Congress, Hoang Binh Quan, head of the Central Commission for External Relations, said on Monday.

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(ISRAEL21c) On January 3, three Lhanghal sisters from northeast India  Rut, 28; Dina, 21; and Avigail, 13  immigrated to Israel, the land their ancestors were forced to leave 27 centuries ago.

The remarkable story begins in 722 BCE, when the Assyrian Empire conquered and deported the nine tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, which had split from the southern kingdom of Judea 200 years earlier.

Menashe (Manasseh) was the largest of these so-called Lost Tribes. They wandered through Central Asia and the Far East for centuries, eventually settling in the villages of Manipur and Mizoram along the borders of Burma (now Myanmar) and Bangladesh.

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Isolated from the world, the Bnei Menashe (children of Manasseh) continued practicing biblical Judaism and dreaming of their return for 2,700 years.

In the 1970s and possibly earlier, letters began reaching Israels prime ministers from a group of Indians claiming Jewish heritage. The leaders had their hands full with building and defending a nation, and the letters were ignored.

Still, they kept arriving. And in the spring of 1997, a crumpled envelope from India landed on the desk of Michael Freund, a young New York immigrant working in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus communications office.

Freund tells ISRAEL21c that the letter was a very emotional appeal from people saying they were descendants of the tribe of Menashe and they wanted to come home.

My initial reaction was, This is nuts. I didnt believe there could be a lost tribe of our brethren somewhere in northeastern India. But there was something sincere and heartfelt about the letter and I chose to answer it.

That act changed Freunds life and the lives of thousands of Bnei Menashe in Mizoram and Manipur.

There are now nearly 4,500 Bnei Menashe in Israel, including those born here.

The Lhanghal sisters were in the latest group to arrive, shortly after another 252 community members landed in Israel in December.

The remaining more than 6,000 hope to join them, with the aid of the Israeli government and Freunds Shavei Israel nonprofit organization. Shavei means returnees.

Sincerity and commitment

In the mid-1980s, Bnei Menashe leaders connected with Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, founder of an organization dedicated to finding descendants of the Lost Tribes.

Once he was convinced of their Jewish origins, Avichail introduced the Bnei Menashe to contemporary Orthodox Jewish practice and to holidays such as Hanukkah, which commemorates events during the Second Temple period, long after their ancestors were exiled.

Avichail and others helped a few Bnei Menashe families immigrate to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s. And then the letter arrived on Freunds desk.

When he arrived for his first visit to a Bnei Menashe community, Freund saw people streaming to the simple bamboo synagogue in the center of the village. It was time for mincha, the afternoon prayer service.

So I joined the community for mincha and I never forgot the power of that experience. If you closed your eyes and listened to them reciting the prayers, you could easily imagine you were standing in Jerusalem, says Freund.

I was very touched by their sincerity and commitment to Judaism and to the Jewish people. I saw they really wanted to live as Jews and make Israel their home.

Freund organized the first large group immigration in 1998 and formally established Shavei Israel in 2002. The task he faced was not, and is not, simple.

Under Israels the Law of Return, anyone with a Jewish grandparent has the right to immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship. The Bnei Menashe do not fall under that category, he explains.

So Shavei Israel works with the Israeli government and the Chief Rabbinate to obtain permission to bring groups here and have them undergo a formal conversion process. Only then do they receive citizenship and immigration benefits.

Supported by donations, Shavei Israel pays air fare and transportation costs while the government covers most other expenses for the new arrivals.

Ethiopian-born attorney and journalist Penina Tamano-Shata, the current Minister of Aliyah (Immigration) and Integration, has played a leading role in enabling more Bnei Menashe to immigrate.

We were never lost

Thank God, there are 4,500 Bnei Menashe in the Holy Land fulfilling the dreams of their forefathers, says Tzvi Khaute, Shavei Israels community coordinator for the Bnei Menashe in Israel and India.

The former high school economics teacher from Manipur made aliyah, that is, immigrated to Israel, in 2000.

In India, Khaute helped set up educational centers where potential immigrants delve into Jewish texts, learn basic Hebrew and prepare for life in Israel. He works with various government ministries to meet the needs of immigrants from babies to elders.

After 27 centuries in exile, coming home is a big challenge but everyone is happy to be living in this lucky generation that was able to make aliyah, Khaute tells ISRAEL21c.

My children are even luckier because they were born here and are completely integrated into Israeli society. They always say to me, Dad, you are Bnei Menashe Indian and we are Bnei Menashe Israeli.

My parents came, too. It was hard to leave behind their friends and their home, but they want to live here and be buried here, says Khaute.

In our eyes, we were never lost. We knew who we were and always wanted to come home and reconnect with our roots.

Successful immigration

New arrivals live temporarily in Shavei Israels absorption center near Netanya before moving to places such as Nof HaGalil, Maalot, Acre, Tiberias and Migdal HaEmek in the Galilee up north, and Sderot down south.

Historically, half the tribe of Menashe lived in the Galilee and the other half on the eastern side of the Jordan River in a region including todays Golan Heights.

They all have a strong sense of return, spiritually and geographically speaking, says Freund.

Like every immigrant group, they face challenges and difficulties, and some succeed better than others. Overall its been a big success.

Shavei Israel arranges language and professional training programs. Its very important for them to put food on the table through their own hard work, Freund says.

Many Bnei Menashe work in high-tech factories in the North. Others have become nurses, dental hygienists, social workers and rabbis. Some of the young generation serve in elite IDF units and others are studying in universities.

The group that came in December included Obed Hrangchal, a prize-winning MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter who hopes to join the IDF and represent Israel in international competitions.

The Bnei Menashe have shown themselves to be committed Zionists who work hard and do their military service in the IDF because they feel a strong sense of attachment and want to contribute to Israels defense and prosperity, says Freund.

They are really a blessing for Israel. A Jew is not measured by the shape of his eyes or color of his skin but by whats in his heart and soul.
NEW DELHI : Moody's Analytics on Monday said India, along with China, would take lead in the Covid-19 vaccine distribution in the Asia-Pacific region.

India launched its vaccination programme on January 16 after the drug regulator DCGI earlier this month approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech's indigenously developed Covaxin, for restricted emergency use in the country.

Moody's Analytics said the Indian government plans to inoculate nearly 300 million high-priority people, including health workers, the elderly, and those with higher comorbidities by August.

"This is an important development. As India is the second most-impacted country in the world, after the US, the need for local immunisation is paramount to contain the significant socioeconomic costs," Moody's Analytics added.

The country's success in advancing on this front will eventually soften the severity of the pandemic within the region, it said.

As the largest producer of vaccines in the world with 60% of the global share, India is well-positioned to contribute to mass vaccine production and distribution needs of other countries in addition to meeting its domestic requirements, said Moody's Analytics in its report titled 'Asia's vaccine update- A step-up in momentum'.

"With exports of the COVID-19 vaccines expected to begin soon, India (along with China) looks set to take the lead in driving the region's distribution efforts in the months ahead," it added.

Moody's Analytics said another pivotal change was Indonesia's formal approval of China's Sinovac vaccine for emergency use, becoming the first country outside China to do so.

"This is a significant development and could open the door for other Asian economies to follow suit," it added.

Separately, the Philippines has also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. The country has one of the highest number of daily COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia and has been suffering from a protracted first wave of the virus since last spring.

"The Philippines will receive the first batch of vaccines through the COVAX facility, while the government negotiates a bilateral deal with Pfizer.

"COVAX plays a crucial role in providing vaccines for lower-income countries and will smoothen some of the uneven post-pandemic recovery in the region," it added.

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Islamabad: Gunmen shot dead two female Afghan judges working for the Supreme Court in an ambush in the country's capital on Sunday, officials said, an attack that the top US envoy in Kabul blamed on the Taliban.

Violence has surged across Afghanistan in recent months despite ongoing peace talks between the Taliban and government  especially in Kabul, where a new trend of targeted killings aimed at high-profile figures has sown fear.

The spate of almost daily unclaimed killings is thought to be largely the work of the Taliban, possibly part of a chilling new campaign to silence liberal voices ahead of any power-sharing negotiations.

Many of the attacks appear aimed at removing advocates of a liberal society at odds with the conservative religious creed espoused by the militants. The killings are suspected of being a concerted effort to cow ideological opponents ahead of any talks to find a political settlement.

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The Indian stock market continues trading in the red with Sensex down 330.78 points or 0.67 percent at 48703.89, and the Nifty falling 115.30 points or 0.8 percent at 14318.40.

The metal space was down over 3 percent and was the underperforming sector on media reports that China is considering allowing some stranded Australian coal cargoes amid ban on coal imports from Australia.

The top losers included Jindal Steel & Power which was down over 5 percent followed by Tata Steel which shed 4 percent. The other losers included JSW Steel, SAIL, Vedanta, Hindalco Industries, Hindustan Copper and Coal India.

The shipments that could be cleared are those that arrived before a ban on Australian coal went into effect, Bloomberg report quoted a person familiar with the situation.

"Deliberations are at an initial stage and any decision would need the approval of more senior Chinese leaders, the person said. The broader prohibition on Australian coal remains in place, and ideally the cargoes would be resold to buyers in other countries," the person was quoted as saying.

The most active metal stock in terms of volume included SAIl where 6,01,76,634 shares were traded.

Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Group, says metal sector will continue to be in a good space as commodity prices rise. With the result season just having started, investors will keep an eye on expectations and if the Budget stands to benefit any of the stocks in any manner.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
[January 18, 2021] Immedis Recognized as the 'Most Innovative Technology Company' in Ireland at the Global Brands Magazine 'Technology' Awards 2020

LONDON, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Immedis was awarded the Most Innovative Technology Company - Ireland 2020 in the Ireland by Global Brands Magazine during the 2020 Technology Awards Program. Immedis was selected by the jury and emerged as a winner for its accomplishments amongst several competitors. The Global Brand Awards is an annual event held by Global Brands Magazine (GBM), an international publication headquartered in the UK. The award aims to recognize global brands achieving excellence in performance across a broad range of sectors while keeping its readers updated on key trends surrounding the branding world. Immedis was evaluated based on customer service, satisfaction, innovation and consistent growth and quality of service. Ruairi Kelleher, CEO of Immedis commented: "We are delighted to be recognized for our contribution in the highly competitive technology space. One f our core values in Immedis is Innovation, it is part of who we are and why we exist. We work incredibly hard to deliver consistent innovation to our customers and to their employees. We invest extensive resources in developing our platform and our payroll processes  always working to improve the customer and employee experience. Thanks to Global Brand Magazine for recognizing so many people's work."



About Immedis





Immedis is the global leader in consolidated global payroll solutions. Processing payroll in over 150 countries, the Immedis Platform provides a unified view of global payroll operations, real-time data analytics, and advanced reporting capability, while ensuring legislative compliance and data security. Immedis' deep integration capabilities with HCM and finance providers, dramatically simplifies multi-country payroll obligations. Immedis was founded and is majority owned by the Clune Technology Group . About Global Brands Magazine (UK) Global Brands Magazine (GBM) has been on the forefront, bringing news, views and opinions on brands that are shaping the future of their industry. The UK-based magazine provides its readers with the latest news and information on 'best-in-class' brands across the globe. Each year, GBM develops a series of awards for companies that stood out having a unique vision, exceptional service, innovative solutions and consumer-centric products, among their industry leaders. About Global Brand Awards: Global Brand Awards honours brands for their excellence in performance and rewards companies across different sectors for the quality of their services. The Brand Awards highlight accomplishments of organizations that have performed remarkably well in the field of Finance, Education, Hospitality, Automobiles, Lifestyle, Education, Real Estate, Technology and several more. The GBM Brand Awards recognize key players who make progress toward excellence by providing a platform to acknowledge their efforts. In addition, GBM strives to create awareness concerning the significance of such organizations and reward them for their notable efforts with the ultimate global recognition. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/immedis-recognized-as-the-most-innovative-technology-company-in-ireland-at-the-global-brands-magazine-technology-awards-2020-301210047.html SOURCE Global Brands Publications Limited

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Virginia National Guard soldiers march at the U.S. Capitol on their way to their guard posts on January 16, 2021, in Washington, D.C. After last week's riots at the U.S. Capitol Building, the FBI has warned of additional threats in the nation's capital and in all 50 states. According to reports, as many as 25,000 National Guard soldiers will be guarding the city as preparations are made for the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th U.S. president. Credit: Getty Images

Rudo Robinson has a message for you, courtesy of his 10 years running one of the fastest-growing private security firms in the country: Unless you work in the security industry, stay secure at home on Wednesday if you live in a city that has been threatened by President Donald Trump's supporters.

That's especially true in Washington, D.C. Business closures are rampant throughout the nation's capital this week, in anticipation of potential trouble on Wednesday, the day of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. In a video released by the White House on January 13, Trump condemned the prior week's violence and asked for calm. But caution still prevails. Roads and Metro stations are closed, along with a number of hotels and all Airbnb locations. Approximately 21,000 National Guard troops have been called in to assist with security, which involves barricades and fences throughout the downtown district. Last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser requested that all residents avoid downtown Washington entirely.

For small-business owners in D.C. who are used to finding a way to participate in the political process--in a city very familiar with protests--this is new and scary. Their mantra this week, which they recommend to small-business owners in state capitals or other major cities that could be targeted by insurrectionists on Wednesday: Better safe than sorry.

Robinson, the CEO of Fort Washington, Maryland-based Trust Security & Fire Watch, fully embraces that mantra. As security personnel, he'll be physically present at Trust's Washington office on Wednesday--but he recommends that most others just stay home. He's less concerned about anyone who lives or works downtown, he says, since law enforcement is pulling out all the stops to seal off Capitol Hill from troublemakers. Instead, he's worried about the rest of the city, where significantly more small businesses operate--because when rioters are deterred from their destination, they tend to unleash their energy elsewhere.

Retail storefronts should board up on Tuesday evening, Robinson says. Apartment buildings, hotels, and construction sites should consider hiring overnight security for the week, and 24/7 security specifically for Wednesday. Everyone else should work from home, simply for logistical reasons: With the city so locked down, you're not going to be able to commute effectively. "The city itself is prepared," Robinson says. "But plenty of businesses aren't making the proper investments to protect themselves and their property." He also understands why they aren't doing that: "With the economy, some people just can't afford to."

Taking it personally

Sasha Carter, co-owner of Red Derby, a bar 3.5 miles northwest of Capitol Hill, is heeding Robinson's advice. Like many food and hospitality businesses in Washington, Red Derby initially planned on Inauguration Day as a bonus--a neighborhood party, Carter says, with "wonderful celebrations" and record sales. But on Wednesday, Red Derby will be closed. "It's really sad," Carter says. "But our safety is No. 1 right now."

Instead, through Tuesday, Carter is selling SOS take-home packages of beers and shots, intentionally curated with names like Senate, The Corruption, El Silencio, and Redemption. The bar could use a big sales day right about now: Sales are down 85 percent compared with pre-Covid, and its staff reduced to three people, from 30. "What's one more day closed going to do, at this point?" Carter asks. "It actually makes this decision easier, because we're so far gone and so far in the hole."

David Simnick is also staying home. The co-founder and CEO of soapmaker Soapbox, a three-time Inc. 5000 honoree based in D.C., was evacuated from his office when the Trump-inspired mob breached the Capitol building on January 6. Simnick took it personally: He's a former congressional intern who used to give tours of the Capitol, and going back to his office on January 7 was his own personal form of counterprotest against the mobs. But he's closing his office to all employees on Wednesday, and potentially extending that closure, depending on how the day unfolds.

It's a precautionary move: Like Robinson, Simnick says he's less concerned about the safety of downtown Washington's businesses, given the prevalence of law enforcement. "What I'm concerned about is all the state capitals that don't have the resources or the spotlight on them right now to do the same," he says.

Mark Wahlberg spent 14 days quarantining at a private property in Byron Bay last month after arriving in Australia from the U.S.

And the 49-year-old actor revealed on Monday he was initially skeptical about the country's strict rules on self-isolation for international travellers.

'At first I was like, "Oh my God, you have to quarantine for 14 whole days?" But then I got it,' he told The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

Quarantine: Mark Wahlberg has revealed he was initially skeptical about Australia's strict quarantine rules during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pictured on February 27, 2020, in California

Mark said he respected the rules because they keep Australia safe and open.

'That's why people don't really have to wear masks, restaurants are open, gyms are open... I went and visited an F45,' he revealed.

'You guys really handled it well. I really take my hat off to Australia and how they handled the pandemic.'

The Hollywood star also revealed he 'was able to complete a secret project' during his visit and said it 'will be coming out soon'.

Rules: 'At first I was like, "Oh my God, you have to quarantine for 14 whole days?" But then I got it,' he told The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday. 'That's why people don't really have to wear masks, restaurants are open, gyms are open... I went and visited an F45'

Mark and his entourage were spotted arriving in Sydney via private jet last month.

Footage showed the Patriots Day star emerging from the plane flanked by security guards holding umbrellas.

After arriving in the country, he flew directly to Byron Bay before making his way to a $2,500-per-night property to quarantine.

Arrival: Mark and his entourage were spotted arriving in Sydney via private jet last month

He was granted permission by authorities to skip the usual hotel quarantine and allowed to self-isolate at the private estate instead.

The countryside retreat featured 24/7 security - including two NSW Police officers, who ensured Mark was safe at all times and followed protocol.

The former rapper is believed to have travelled to Australia to film an advert for online betting agency Ladbrokes.

Trump proclaims National Sanctity of Human Life Day ahead of White House departure

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Ahead of his departure from the White House Wednesday, President Donald Trump Sunday issued a presidential proclamation recognizing this Friday as National Sanctity of Human Life Day.

This year marks the fourth year in a row that Trump has recognized National Sanctity of Human Life Day in January. Jan. 22 marks the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling making abortion a national right.

The president used the proclamation to speak out against the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, tout his administrations accomplishments on behalf of the pro-life movement and call on the American people to respect the sanctity of life.

He began by declaring that [e]very human life is a gift to the world.

On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we celebrate the wonder of human existence and renew our resolve to build a culture of life where every person of every age is protected, valued and cherished, the proclamation reads.

Trump described Roe as a constitutionally flawed ruling that overturned State laws that banned abortion. The proclamation claims that the ruling has resulted in the loss of more than 50 million innocent lives.

The proclamation praises the activism of the pro-life movement and its advocates, who support policy initiatives that restrict the legality of abortion.

Strong mothers, courageous students, and incredible community members and people of faith are leading a powerful movement to awaken Americas conscience and restore the belief that every life is worthy of respect, protection, and care, Trump stated.

The president cited the devotion of countless pro-life pioneers as the reason why the rate of abortions has steadily decreased.

Today, more than three out of every four Americans support restrictions on abortion, the proclamation asserted without citing a source.

The president devoted a substantial portion of his proclamation to outlining his pro-life record.

Since the beginning, my Administration has been dedicated to lifting up every American, and that starts with protecting the rights of the most vulnerable in our society  the unborn, the document states.

He specifically referenced his reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which bans the use of taxpayer funds for nongovernmental organizations that promote abortion. He also mentioned his appointment of more than 200 judges to the federal judiciary as well as his administrations efforts to improve our Nations adoption and foster care system, secure more funding for Down syndrome research, and expand health services for single mothers.

At the United Nations, I made clear that global bureaucrats have no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that protect innocent life, he added. Just a few months ago, our Nation also joined 32 other countries in signing the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which bolsters global efforts to provide better healthcare to women, protect all human life, and strengthen families.

Additionally, Trump boasted about how he was the first president in history to attend the March for Life last year.

Trump also criticized Democratic politicians who fought against legislation that would have banned most abortions past 20 weeks of gestation.

However, some in Washington are fighting to keep the United States among a small handful of nations  including North Korea and China  that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, Trump contended. I join with countless others who believe this is morally and fundamentally wrong, and today, I renew my call on the Congress to pass legislation prohibiting late-term abortion.

Given the narrow Democratic majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and the fact Democrat Joe Biden is slated to replace him in the White House, Trumps call for pro-life legislation will likely go unanswered for the time being.

Biden has vowed to codify Roe into law. Meanwhile, Democrats have called for the elimination of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of taxpayer dollars to cover elective abortions. Biden had for years supported the Hyde Amendment but reversed his position in 2019 amid criticism from other Democratic politicians.

We resolve to defend the lives of every innocent and unborn child, each of whom can bring unbelievable love, joy, beauty and grace into our Nation and the entire world, Trump concluded. I call on the Congress to join me in protecting and defending the dignity of every human life, including those not yet born.

The annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. is typically held each year to coincide with the anniversary of Roe. With the inauguration this week, the march for this year was slated for next Friday. However, leaders announced last week that the 2021 march is canceled and will be replaced by a virtual rally.
The UK-India Tech Hub has partnered with SHEROES to launch the Women Go Digital programme. The programme offers access to digital tools and skills, mentorship and community to women looking to transform their entrepreneurial and professional outcomes.

The Women Go Digital programme is offered for free to 100 selected candidates who demonstrate ambition and the willingness to learn new skills to grow, set up and scale their enterprises through advanced digital skills. Spread over a period of two months, Women Go Digital participants will have access to training and expertise delivered by well-known digital professionals and experts from India and the UK, via live-sessions, mentorship and community engagement. The programme covers a wide range of topics from how to take ones business online and build a digital brand, to mastering online payments, social media marketing and personal branding.

Interested candidates can submit applications here.The last date to apply is January 22, 2021, 5 PM. To know more about the programme, click here or write to care@sheroes.in

Commenting on the opportunity, Sairee Chahal, Founder-CEO of SHEROES, said, The SHEROES platform has built a comprehensive ecosystem to help women entrepreneurs build skills and grow their businesses. It has triggered the growth of new women entrepreneurs at various levels. Digital skilling, financial literacy, mentorship, have been core to this journey, and we are now excited to support more women entrepreneurs via Women Go Digital. I encourage aspiring entrepreneurs with a clear vision for their business blueprint to also apply. This is a phenomenal learning and growth opportunity for 100 ambitious women.

Karen McLuskie, Head of UK-India Tech Partnerships, British High Commission, New Delhi, shares, Women have played a phenomenal role in the evolution of digital, technology, AI, Machine Learning and product development. Opportunities like Women Go Digital bring more women into the ambit of digital transformation, through a firm commitment made towards investing in themselves. The UK-Tech India Hub is excited to collaborate with SHEROES to make this ambitious project, a reality, a first of many to come.

Encouraging women to apply to this programme, Anubhav Jain, Country Director - UK-India Tech Hub comments, Having been in the technology space for almost two decades, I have been passionate about trying to bridge the gender gap within the organisations I have established. With this programme of the UK India Tech Hub in association with SHEROES, we are working towards igniting the catalytical change required to drive a larger movement across the nation. We would like to welcome others in this initiative and assist in making this a reality.

According to a report by the Mckinsey Global Institute, India is the second-fastest digital adopter among the top 17 digital economies, with digital set to power 65 million jobs by 2025. Women entrepreneurs will play a key role in boosting the GDP and accelerating growth to 9 to 10%. Programmes like Women Go Digital are designed to bridge the skills gap, by equipping women entrepreneurs with the tools to compete in an increasingly digitally-connected world.
More contagious COVID variant found in 15 US states

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While more than 23.5 million people in the U.S. have been infected with COVID-19 and over 392,000 of them have died, a variant of the novel coronavirus that's even more contagious has been found in at least 15 states and might lead to a further rise in the number of cases and deaths, according to health officials.

I want to stress that we are deeply concerned that this strain is more transmissible and can accelerate outbreaks in the U.S. in the coming weeks, The New York Times quoted Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying. Were sounding the alarm and urging people to realize the pandemic is not over and in no way is it time to throw in the towel.

At least 88 cases of the variant of the coronavirus, known as B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain have been found in 15 U.S. states, as of early Saturday, according to the CDC.

At least 40 cases have been detected in California; 22 in Florida; five each in Colorado and Minnesota; four in New York; two each in Texas, Maryland and Connecticut; and one each in Utah, New Mexico, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia, a CDC map shows.

Experts say the containment of these new variants would require an expansion of testing and genomic sequencing, contact tracing, social distancing, mask-wearing, and other efforts to limit the spread of the virus.

On Thursday, a team of experts, led by the World Health Organization, arrived in Chinas Wuhan city to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus.

The experts will stay in Wuhan for about a month and Chinese authorities will arrange for them to visit the Huanan food market, local scientific research institutes, and hospitals, according to The Epoch Times.

WHO is just a figurehead in my eyes  a tool, to put it bluntly, a local resident, identified as Zhang Hai, whose father died of COVID-19 last year, was quoted as saying. It is now looking for the source of the virus, and the first anniversary of the outbreak has passed, and all (evidence) is gone.

Zhang filed a suit at the Wuhan Intermediate Peoples Court last June, alleging that the governments decision to cover up information about the outbreak was behind his fathers death.

Seeking compensation of roughly $286,730 from Chinese authorities, he argued that the Wuhan city government, Hubei provincial government, and General Hospital of Central Theater Command in Wuhan were responsible.

The Wuhan municipal court rejected the case, and Zhang filed a second lawsuit two months later at the Higher Peoples Court in Hubei Province, which rejected his case. In October, he filed a civil complaint to the Supreme Court in Beijing and is awaiting a response.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar accused China of severely limiting outside access to information about the coronavirus.

Lets consider when and how the United States became aware of the virus, Azar said during a speech at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. We learned about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, China, on December 30 (2019), not through that countrys official channels, as required under the International Health Regulations, but through media monitoring that we do, as well as through a notification from Taiwans Economic and Cultural Office here in the United States.

On Friday night, the U.S. State Department said there was reason to believe that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology might have been infected with COVID-19 in the autumn of 2019, but China didnt allow a transparent investigation.

The [Chinese Communist Party] has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology], including those who were ill in the fall of 2019, the State Department said. Any credible inquiry into the origin of the virus must include interviews with these researchers and a full accounting of their previously unreported illness.

Meanwhile, Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, the maker of one of two coronavirus vaccines approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, said this week he believes the virus could be around forever.

We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever, he said during a panel discussion at the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, according to a CNBC report.

Kristian Andersen, an infectious diseases expert at Scripps Research Institute, told Stat News in a report Thursday, Im very, very concerned that weve now gone from a virus that we could control to a virus that we really cant unless we do something very dramatic.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday (January 18, 2021) said that a media trial violates the programme code under Cable TV Network Regulation Act. It also said that a media trial during an ongoing investigation of any case does impact the investigation. This was in context to the death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

"Trial by media in criminal cases would obstruct the administration of Justice," ruled the court amid the investigation of SSR death.

It further observed that the Press Council of India (PCI) guidelines must be followed by electronic media in suicide cases until some new guidelines are framed.

"So long as the regulatory authorities do not frame some guidelines for covering cases of deaths by suicide, the TV and electronic media must follow the guidelines issued by Press Council of India," the court observed.

The court said that the regime of self-regulation by TV channels (through associations) doesn't have any legal sanctity and that the criticism of Mumbai Police by TV channels was unfair.

"We do not want to impose any restrictions on covering SSR probe by CBI but media will have to follow guidelines and exercise self-regulation," it added.

"The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting abdicated its functions," the Bombay High Court said.

The bench also said that media must avoid character assassination of the accused, victim, probe officer. It also said that the media must avoid interviewing witnesses, probe officer, accused, victim family etc in such cases.

"Pronouncing guilt or innocence of any person, accused, victim etc be avoided by media. Predicting future course of action in a given case, be avoided," stated the Bombay High Court.
Two weeks before he allegedly killed a man who was out walking his dog in Brewerytown, a suspect in the slaying  who had two previous robbery convictions  was released on dramatically lowered bail in an armed kidnapping and an assault case, court records show.

Police said Sunday that they had arrested Davis L. Josephus, 20, in the slaying of 25-year-old Milan Loncar, who was shot Wednesday night while walking his dog about a block from his home.

 READ MORE: Arrests made in Brewerytown fatal shooting of 25-year-old man who was walking his dog

On Dec. 29, Josephus posted $20,000 bail on charges of motor vehicle theft and kidnapping, and $12,000 on charges including aggravated assault on a prison guard. Those sums had been reduced from originally amounts of $100,000 and $200,000, respectively.

Loncar, a Wayne native who graduated from Temple University in 2019, was shot just before 7 p.m. Wednesday on Jefferson Street near 31st, according to police.

He had been approached by two men, one of whom pointed a gun at him, and then both started reaching toward his pants pockets before Loncar was shot once in the chest, police said.

He was still clutching his dogs leash when officers found his body.

About an hour and a half later, Highway Patrol Officers stopped a car at B Street and Indiana Avenue in Kensington in connection with a carjacking from the day before.

 READ MORE: He was the kindest person in the entire world. This is so screwed up, sister of slain dog walker says

Four men fled the vehicle, but officers captured the driver. The driver was later identified through surveillance video as Josephus, who lives just two streets away from Loncar on the 1400 block of North Hollywood Street.

Josephus was charged with murder and related offenses. A second man, described as a person of interest, has also been identified in the killing, police said.

District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement Sunday night, saying his office opposed the bail reductions before the judges, yet the bail was cut over our objections.

His spokesperson, Jane Roh, in a separate interview, said she could not immediately say whether the office took the step of appealing the bail reductions to Common Pleas Court. The court record does not reflect any such appeals.

The charges are only the most recent accusation against Josephus, who before last week had been arrested five times since January 2019.

 READ MORE: Man, 25, walking dog fatally shot in Brewerytown

Police arrested Josephus on Feb. 19 of last year, on charges of kidnapping for ransom, robbery, car theft, firearms violations and other charges  11 counts in all  from a case the previous July.

Few details of the alleged offense were immediately available, but Roh said the victim was an Uber driver. Bail of $100,000 was set the day after his arrest, court records show.

Josephus did not post bail and remained behind bars for most of 2020.

Court action on his case was repeatedly delayed due to pandemic-related courthouse closures, but also because authorities werent ready to proceed, records show. In one instance, a witness was not in court; in another, officials failed to bring Josephus to court from jail.

In response to a motion from Josephus court-appointed defense lawyer, identified in records as James Richard Lloyd III, Senior Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni lowered his bail to $20,000. She did so after the eighth time authorities scheduled and then failed to hold a preliminary hearing in his case.

Josephus posted the required 10% of that sum  $2,000  bail on Dec. 29, two weeks before the Jan. 13 slaying.

Meanwhile, while still in jail, Josephus was charged in September with aggravated assault and with aggravated harassment, with his bail set at $200,000, records show. Roh said he had attacked and threatened a prison guard.

Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden granted a motion from Josephus lawyer in that case, an unidentified lawyer with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, to reduce his bail on those charges to $12,000.

Josephus also posted 10% of that sum  $1,200  on Dec. 29.

Before those arrests, Josephus had been charged with committing two robberies in 2019  one on Jan. 9 of that year, another on Oct. 1, court records show.

The details of the cases were not immediately available on Sunday night, but records show he pleaded guilty to both cases on Jan. 29, 2020, receiving a sentence of six to 12 months in jail, plus two years of probation.

(Photo : Screenshot From PlayStation Official YouTube Channel) How to Get 'Resident Evil' Closed Beta Testing: Free Avatar on PlayStation Store

Capcom is currently giving out a free "Resident Evil Village" avatar available on the PlayStation Store for both the PS4 and PS5 users. After only recently announcing the upcoming and exciting "Resident Evil showcase, Capcom has decided that users should get a free avatar on the players PlayStation Store for both the PS5 and PS4 that can be downloaded with a simple redemption code.

'Resident evil' showcase

According to an article by Screen Rant, the upcoming "Resident Evil" showcase is expected to go live this January 21 on Thursday along with What's Good Games' very own Brittany Brombacher currently set to host the upcoming digital event. Capcom is expected to unveil a brand new trailer as well as showing off the very first-look gameplay of the upcoming "Resident Evil Village".

The publisher is also expected to throw out a number of other surprises that are in store for next week's online showcase as well. In celebration of the popular horror franchise's 25 anniversary, Capcom is said to run a closed beta testing for the unannounced "Resident Evil" which is a multiplayer game. It is also expected to receive more details during the event. Fans will be given the opportunity to sign up for a chance that they can join the beta by simply registering on the "Resident Evil" website.

Here's how to play 'Resident Evil' multiplayer closed beta

1. Applicants have to be over 18

2. Applicants have to have access to the Capcom ID that is linked to the RE Ambassador

3. Applicants have to link a Twitter account

4. Applicants have to go to the official "Resident Evil" website

5. Applicants have to sign this form

There's also reportedly a number of other surprises that Capcom is rolling out. For an unknown time frame, PS5 and PS4 users will be able to log into the official PlayStation Store in order to receive a free avatar of a particular enigmatic vampire lady. In order to avail this free avatar, use this code:

LEJH-M8N9-E5XF

The code was found on Reddit and since it is unlimited, just about anyone with their own PSN account will be able to simply sign in and grab their own avatar for personal use. There is still no official deadline to when the code can be used which is why gamers will have to move fast as it might suddenly disappear.

Read Also: Resident Evil 2 Guide: How To Open The Special Weapons Case

'Resident Evil' announcement

Nobody currently knows what the unannounced upcoming "Resident Evil" multiplayer experience will bring gamers. Capcom's last exploration of the whole online multiplayer came with a previous series in the form of the "Resident Evil Resistance" game which was a certain mode that was bundled with the "Resident Evil 3" remake of last year.

To please a lot of fans, "Resident Evil" has also enjoyed resurgence within the last few years. Its main return to the forefront started with 2017's launch of the "Resident Evil 7". This marked the major departure from the whole series while players were placed in the familiar first-person perspective once again.

Related Article: 'Resident Evil 3' May Come to Nintendo Switch Soon as Cloud Version Logo Was Spotted

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian Buenconsejo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Heres what happened in the market around the time the US government sent people $600 (497) earlier this month. Penny share volume mushroomed. A company that sounds like a word Elon Musk tweeted rose 1,100pc. Tesla added $130bn (107.6bn), IPOs doubled and options trading exploded.

Coincidence? Maybe  though a lot of people doubt it. They cant help noticing how tiny traders with money to spend keep turning up in the vicinity of almost every market spectacle these days. Now, more federal aid may be on the way and Wall Street pros are bracing for what comes next.

If the additional $1,400 (1,160) goes to the same income levels it did before, we are highly likely to see additional speculation in stocks, which could continue to inflate an already-existing bubble, Peter Cecchini, founder and chief strategist of AlphaOmega Advisors, said in an interview. If it goes to people with below-average incomes, Mr Cecchini said, speculation will be less likely.

Read More

That may be, but data suggest anyone who gets the boost is more likely to put it in the market than those who dont. Across all income groups, recipients traded roughly 30pc more in the first 10 days of January than at the start of December, data from Envestnet Yodlee show. Trading among those with annual incomes of less than $75,000 (62,000) who received payments jumped 53pc.

President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled a $1.9trn (1.57trn) relief plan  a lifeline to states and cities. More than 150 million Americans would be eligible for a $1,400 direct payment, on top of the $600 payments approved in December.

The sums would be hitting bank accounts at a time of full-blown mania in the market. Volume in penny stocks regularly tops 40bn shares a day lately, up six-fold from a year ago, with day traders venturing off-exchanges and into the speculative over-the-counter markets. The options market saw the second-busiest day ever for bullish equity calls this week.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs data show that a basket of retail-favoured stocks has surged 10pc since the end of December, beating both the S&P 500 and returns on hedge-fund favourites by more than nine percentage points.

Nobody is saying more stimulus isnt needed. Friday brought a stark reminder of the pandemics economic toll, with data showing US retail sales posted a surprise 0.7pc contraction in December. A day earlier, jobless claims data showed 965,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the past week  the biggest increase since March.

Given the number of Americans eligible to receive the payments, some of the $1,400 cheques will inevitably land in the pockets of people who will either save it or invest it, rather than spend it on essentials. Such was the case with 23-year-old Ava Frankel of Boston, who works in the financial services sector.

I told my friends, if youre going to spend your stimulus cheque on shoes, you might as well just put it in Robinhood instead, Ms Frankel said in an interview. The $600 cheque was just something extra I didnt need so I just threw it in the stock market.

Ms Frankel latched on to a trend thats become emblematic of the euphoria in markets: special purpose acquisition companies. She put the entirety of her stimulus payment into Churchill Capital Corp IV, a blank-cheque company said to be in talks with electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors.

Should she receive a $1,400 cheque, Ms Frankel said, shed considering using that to trade, too, depending on whats going on in markets.

I would love to see a pullback in the tech sector because I would like to add to my positions in the tech names, Ms Frankel said.

If a portion of the millions of Americans set to receive

payments do the same, the total could inflate the bubble some say is already being formed, said Logan Capital Management.

If there is a bubble being created within the financial markets to some degree, those cheques do add to it because I think theyre going to chase performance, said managing director Chris OKeefe.

It used to be you added money to the economy and people went out and bought things  cars and furniture  now it seems to amplify whats going on in the financial markets.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a celebration of the civil rights leaders contributions and to honor his legacy.

The day is celebrated on the third Monday in January. This year that is Jan. 18.

Kings birthday is Jan. 15, 1929.

According to thekingcenter.org, the day should be celebrated with community service - a day on, not a day off.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his nonviolent campaign against racism.

He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., by James Earl Ray.

Heres a rundown of what we were able to determine regarding whats closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 18. Keep in mind that some of these places are not open to the public because of COVID-19 but employees are working.

Banks: Most are closed.

Capital Area Transit: Will operate on a regular schedule.

County offices: Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York county offices and courts are closed. Perry County offices and courts are open.

Federal courts: The Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Harrisburg are closed.

Libraries: Dauphin County Library System is closed. Hershey Public Library, Cumberland County Library System and Middletown Public Library are open.

Liquor stores: Stores that are normally open on Mondays will be open regular hours.

Municipal government: If you have municipal business to attend to, call first. Those closed for the holiday include Carlisle, Hampden Twp., Harrisburg, Silver Spring Twp., Susquehanna Twp., Middletown, Camp Hill, Lower Paxton Twp. Hummelstown is open.

PA Media Group: PennLive/Patriot-News business offices are closed.

Parking in Harrisburg: Free.

PennDOT: Pa. Department of Transportation Driver License and Photo License Centers statewide will be closed Jan. 16 and 18.

Post office: The U.S. Postal Service is closed. No mail will be delivered except for priority mail express. Self-service 24-hour kiosks are available locally in Mechanicsburg at 702 E. Simpson St., in Susquehanna Twp. at 1425 Crooked Hill Road and in Lower Paxton Twp. at 5901 Jonestown Road.

Public schools: Most closed for students including Camp Hill, Carlisle, Central Dauphin, Derry Twp., East Pennsboro, Greenwood, Halifax, Harrisburg, Lower Dauphin, Mechanicsburg, Millersburg, Newport, Northern York, Palmyra, Susquehanna Township, Susquenita, Upper Dauphin, West Perry and West Shore.

rabbittransit: Will operate on a regular schedule.

Retail stores, supermarkets: open.

State government: closed

Trash collection: Most trash haulers do not observe the holiday and will collect on normal schedules. However, municipal collections may be affected.
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President Donald Trump is leaving office with nearly 400,000 Americans dead of the coronavirus, nearly 13 million unemployed  and the lowest approval rating of his entire presidency.

Trump's 34 per cent is the lowest approval rating of his term in the final Gallup poll of his tenure  which featured previous dips during the clash in Charlottesville in 2017, arrests of associates in the Russia probe, and Trump's threats to rain 'fire and fury' upon North Korea.

The president, who soaked up polling information even as he regularly blasted public polls that partnered with major media organizations, never cracked 50 per cent. He is the only president not to do so since Gallup started measuring presidential job approval in 1938 under F.D.R.

President Donald Trump is leaving office with just 34 per cent approval in the final Gallup poll of his term

Trump's polling has been generally consistent throughout his presidency, with mild lifts and mild downturns  with a base group of supporters sticking with him through his first impeachment and the Mueller probe.

It was only after the election that Trump suffered a steep decline, during a period where he lost the election, refused to accept the results, claimed the election was 'rigged,' and spoke to supporters who went on to storm the Capitol. The House made him the first president to be impeached twice when it voted an article charging him with 'incitement of insurrection.'

The poll was conducted January 4 through January 15, a period that includes the Capitol riots.

It all coincided with a 12-point post-election drop. Most presidents enjoy a bump after being defeated at the polls.

The other exceptions are Jimmy Carter, whose approval dropped 3 per cent during the lame duck period, and Harry Truman, whose approval held at 32 per cent. Trump in now rated positively by many historians.

Trump's approval rating has been remarkably consistent  but never topped 50 per cent

A LOT TO UNPACK: A moving truck is parked outside Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Trump's approval dipped around Charlottesville, arrests of associates in the Russia probe, and the post-election period

Trump supporters stream into and out of Nancy Pelosi's office in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during a riot and steal her sign. They laugh and hold up photos of the broken nameplate as a trophy. At left is a man identified as Robert Keith Packer, 56, of Virginia, wearing a 'Camp Auschwitz" T-shirt

Graffiti on a boarded up restaurant was changed from 'Trump won' to 'Trump lost' on January 16, 2021 in Washington: the Republican president will be leaving office with the lowest approval rating of his one-term, at just 34 percent

Trump suffered a dip in approval during the clash at Charlottesville, but his numbers were remarkably stable

Trump's record 41 percent average approval was 4 points lower than Harry Truman's

Trump and Richard Nixon are the only ones to score their worst rating in their final Gallup poll.

His average approval during his presidency was 41 per cent, a record low that is worse than Truman's by 4 points.

The data inside the poll provide a snapshot into how polarizing a president Trump has been. His disapproval among Democrats shattered records - his average of just 7 per cent Democratic approval was six points lower than the previous low, 13 per cent under Barack Obama. Prior presidents got at least 20 per cent approval from the opposition.

His support from his own party was also a record, with an average of 88 per cent.

Trump will leave the White House this week with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, with just 34 percent of Americans supporting the job he has done, a Gallup poll showed Monday.

Gallup noted that Trump's average approval rating during his one-term presidency was 41 percent, four points lower than any of his predecessors since the polling group has been gathering data.

Trump's job approval had dipped to 35 percent in previous polls, most notably after he failing to condemn a violent gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The last poll of the Trump presidency was taken on the week of January 4-11, which covered the storming of the US Capitol building by Trump supporters trying to overturn the certification of the election won by Joe Biden, whose victory Trump has consistently denied.

His all-time high rating was in early 2020, when he was facing an impeachment in the Senate on charges of trying to push Ukraine into helping him smear Biden and during the early stages of the pandemic, when Americans believed he was responding well to the virus that has now killed 398,000 people in the country.
The bacterial species Neisseria gonorrhoeae, pathogen of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea, forms large colonies within a few hours, which consist of several thousand cells. Credit: Nicolas Biais / Brooklyn College

It can be observed every time you take a shower: Small droplets of water join together to form larger and larger dropsuntil they are so heavy that they run down the wall. Scientists call this daily-life phenomenon coalescencewhich surprisingly also provides the key to understanding how bacteria form colonies. Researchers at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg (FAU), the Max-Planck-Zentrum fur Physik und Medizin (MPZPM) in Erlangen and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden (MPI-PKS) have now succeeded in developing a statistical model to describe the formation, dynamics and mechanics of such cell assemblies. They have published their results in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

When bacteria conquer new territories, one of their first tasks is to join together and form microscopic colonies. Within these communities, the microorganisms are better protected against forces, antibiotics and other negative influences than single individualsand thus more dangerous for humans and other organisms. This also applies to gonococci (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), which form spherical cell clusters on human (mucus) skin within hours, consisting of several thousand single-celled organisms. These structures are the actual pathogenic units, the cause of the world's second most common sexually transmitted disease, gonorrhea.

Like many other bacteria, N. gonorrhoeae has long, mobile, thread-like extensions. They use these pili to cling to surfaces and move around. The appendages also interact with each other and actively link together to form colonies. Seen under the microscope, this process resembles the coalescence of water droplets.

Researchers from Erlangen and Dresden have now succeeded in describing this behaviour of N. gonorrhoeae mathematically. Credit: Hui-Shun Kuan / FAU

Cell extensions significantly determine the properties of bacterial colonies

In a joint project led by postdoc Dr. Hui-Shun Kuan (FAU), former Ph.D. student Wolfram Ponisch (now a postdoc at the University of Cambridge), Professor Frank Julicher (MPI-PKS) and Professor Vasily Zaburdaev, holder of the Chair of Mathematics in the Life Sciences at FAU and member of the Scientific Board of the MPZPM, have developed a theory to describe these processes using methods from statistical physics. As the starting point of their model, they use the forces exerted between the bacteria via the pili. In this way, they succeeded in mathematically reconstructing the development of colonies. The process is analogous to the condensation of a liquid or the separation of two phases, such as water and oil. When the number of microbes per unit area exceeds a certain limit, they spontaneously join together and form a dense drop surrounded by only a few individual cells.

These cell droplets are viscoelastic: They react elastically to rapid deformation and move like a viscous fluid over longer periods of time. The respective behavior they exhibit depends on whether the network of interwoven pili has enough time to rearrange itself. The researchers' model shows the central role these thread-like projections play in the for-mation of colonies and how they determine their mechanical properties.

The findings can be generalized and also used to describe the mechanics and dynamics of dense cell assemblies such as solid tumors or tissue. The theory can thus help doctors to identify potential targets to slow down or even stop the formation of bacterial colonies or tumors with new active substances.

Explore further Fractal patterns in growing bacterial colonies

More information: Hui-Shun Kuan, Wolfram Ponisch, Frank Julicher, and Vasily Zaburdaev, "Continuum Theory of Active Phase Separation in Cellular Aggregates", Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 018102 (2021), Journal information: Physical Review Letters Hui-Shun Kuan, Wolfram Ponisch, Frank Julicher, and Vasily Zaburdaev, "Continuum Theory of Active Phase Separation in Cellular Aggregates",126, 018102 (2021), doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.018102

Americans are honoring the memory of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today.

King, born Jan. 15, 1929, led a non-violent resistance movement that brought about massive changes in American culture and paved the way for the end of segregation and expansion of human rights.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39. His legacy is celebrated each year with the holiday named in his honor. MLK Day is a federal holiday, though it was not made official until 18 years after his assassination.

The following leaders are visible on the front row, wearing leis: John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ralph Bunche. Brown Chapel AME Church and the George Washington Carver Homes are behind them. Sylvan Street was later renamed Martin Luther King Street. Alabama Media GroupAlabama Media Group

Here are some of the best quotes from and about Martin Luther King for MLK Day 2021:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

King traveled around Alabama the week before the 1966 May primaries to encourage voter participation in the upcoming election. His tour was mentioned in an article ('King Criticizes Panthers') on page 67 of the Birmingham News on April 27, 1966. Alabama Media GroupAlabama Media Group

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young sitting behind the podium during a meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1967.

So even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., delivers his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in the auditorium of Oslo University in Norway on Dec. 10, 1964. King, the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace prize, is recognized for his leadership in the American civil rights movement and for advocating non violence. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Weve learned to fly the air like birds. Weve learned to swim the seas like fish. And yet we havent learned to walk the earth like brothers and sisters.

Martin Luther King Jr., center, and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, third from left, share a laugh outside court in Decatur, Ga., Oct. 25, 1960. Others are unidentified. Andrew Young is seen at center, facing right. (AP Photo)AP

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. "

Freedom must ring from every mountainside. And yes, let it ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let it ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let it ring from the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let it ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

Unseen Civil Rights photos 63-3720 May 10, 1963 Kingwalker Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker announce an agreement with Birmingham businesses to desegregate certain sevices and jobs in the city. The leaders met with the media inside the courtyard of the A.G. Gaston Motel to make the announcement. Tom Self photo. 63-3720 Tom Self News conference at Gaston Motel 35mm May 10, 1963 ML King and Wyatt Tee Walker Black and White scan bnbn

Faith is taking the first step even when you dont see the whole staircase.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character  that is the goal of true education.

** FILE ** In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington, D.C. Just 45 years since Martin Luther King declared his dream for a colorblind America, the Democratic presidential nomination is within the grasp of a black candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.AP

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is pictured walking across the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. at approximately the spot where he was shot by a hidden assassin. This picture was made, April 3, 1968, the day before the shooting, shortly after King arrived in Memphis. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly )ASSOCIATED PRESS

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

FILE - This Oct. 24, 1966 file photo shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. Martin Luther Kings children are quarreling over who owns his Nobel Peace Prize and his Bible. Malcolm Xs heirs are suing to block a book deal to publicize his post-Mecca diary, an agreement brokered by one of their siblings. The fight over Rosa Parks estate has her valuable mementos stuck in a New York City warehouse. (AP Photo, File) AP

The time is always ripe to do right.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

FILE - This June 25, 1966, file photo shows James Meredith, right, speaks with Dr. Martin Luther King after they met on U.S. 51 near Tougaloo, Miss. Dr. King had led a column of civil rights marchers from Tougaloo College to greet Meredith's marchers walking in from Canton. "Walk Against Fear: James Meredith," scheduled to air Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, on the Smithsonian Channel, examines the life of a U.S. Air Force veteran-turn-human rights agitator whose admission into the University of Mississippi forced President John F. Kennedy to send federal troops into the state to quell a white supremacy uprising. (AP Photo, File)AP

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

If you cant fly then run, if you cant run then walk, if you cant walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. got a big kiss from his wife in 1956 after Circuit Court Judge Eugene Carter found him guilty of a conspiracy to boycott Montgomery city buses. King was the first of 90 Negroes tried in the racial bus boycott. The judge fined him $500 and suspended the fine pending appeal.

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.

Martin Luther King gets first aid in Harlem store after he was stabbed in 1958. Friends wrap finger, leave weapon sticking in chest. (Removal of weapon might have caused fatal hemorrhage)

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Everybody can be great  because anybody can serve. You dont have to have a college degree to serve. You dont have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Here are more vintage images and stories of Alabamas past .
(Newser)  Rebekah Jones, the Florida data scientist who was fired, then had her home raided, after she claimed the state was manipulating its COVID numbers, said she would turn herself in to authorities on Sunday night. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a warrant for Jones' arrest, and the former Florida Department of Health employee said she would surrender to show she's ready for a fight, USA Today reports. NBC News reports it's not clear what charge or charges Jones is facing, but she posted a series of tweets Sunday indicating that the charge bears no relation to the raid on her house last month, the Hill reports. That raid was carried out to determine whether Jones was connected to a message sent out via the state's emergency management system in November; it called on all civil servants to act as whistleblowers on the state's coronavirus response.

story continues below

"FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to 'speak out' on any of the devices they took - the entire basis for the raid on my home in Dec. The warrant was based on a lie. We argued this in court just last week. This should be victory," Jones tweeted. "However, police did find documents I received/downloaded from sources in the state, or something of that nature... it isn't clear at this point what exactly they're saying I had that I shouldn't have had, but an agent confirmed it has nothing to do with the subject of the warrant. The raid was based on a lie. Still, the state has issued a warrant for my arrest - even though the 'crime' is not related to the warrant, the scope of the warrant, and they didn't wait for a third party to review confidential information on my computers. The new allegation was issued the day after a Tallahassee judge told police that if they're not investigating a crime, they had to return my equipment." (Read more Rebekah Jones stories.)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Today, nearly 60 years removed from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's speech during the March on Washington, countless barriers remain between his dream and America's reality. Earlier this month, our country received a stark reminder that America remains a place in which, as King said, too many 'are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.'

"In calls for unity following the attack at the Capitol, in a willingness to dismiss the blatant injustice inherent in the police's lack of response to right-wing militants, we see painful parallels between the America in which King lived and the present day.

"But we would be remiss to let the evil of this moment overshadow that which is good and right in our time: those who mobilized and organized voters in Georgia, those who overcame voter suppression and the threat of COVID-19 to cast a ballot in November, those working tirelessly to serve in the midst of a pandemic.

"As Dr. King said, 'Social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.' This ethosone that fuels all who work toward a more equitable, more inclusive Americais what drives Demos as we pursue structural democracy reform, fight for an economic recovery that centers the needs of Black and brown people, and work to hold accountable all those who stand in the way of creating an America that lives up to its full potential."

Media Contact:

Colleen Roache [email protected]

Shanae Bass [email protected]

(For media interviews with K. Sabeel Rahman please contact Colleen Roache and Shanae Bass)

About Demos

Demos is a dynamic "think-and-do" tank that powers the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. Through cutting-edge policy research, inspiring litigation and deep relationships with grassroots organizations, Demos champions solutions that will create a democracy and economy rooted in racial equity.

SOURCE Demos
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

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Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

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ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

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Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

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Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

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Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

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Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

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Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

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Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

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Now Open

18 January 2021

The opening marks the first Grand Hyatt branded hotel in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the opening of Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabiathe first Grand Hyatt hotel in the Kingdom. The 368-room luxury hotel including 54 residential units is situated in the commercial and retail heart of Al Khobar with a connecting bridge to Al Rashid Mall. Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences is the sixth Hyatt-branded hotel in Saudi Arabia, and the fifth hotel under the Grand Hyatt brand in the Middle East, making it an important milestone in Hyatt's growth strategy in the region. Reflecting a bold and vibrant design, the hotel offers an ideal destination for both business and leisure guests to celebrate moments that matter, both big and small.

As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in the world, Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences realizes the government's Vision 2030, which strives to attract international travelers into the region. Located in the city's business and leisure hub, the property brings grand gestures and elevated, luxury accommodations.

The hotel will open in phases, beginning today with 120 guestrooms and 20 residences. Highlights of this first phase include the opening of the all-day dining facilities, the lobby lounge, banquet halls, fitness center and spa. The remaining guestrooms as well as the restaurants Rosalie and Sakana House are expected to open in a second phase in February 2021. The third and final phase will see the opening of the remaining residences, slated for March 2021.

Guestrooms

Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences features 368 contemporary guest rooms, including 45 spacious suites and 54 residences, with ample daylight, bespoke premier interiors and mesmerizing views across the city. Guests can enjoy the comforts of home, including a flat-screen TV, complimentary high-speed internet access, a work desk, a Hyatt Grand Bed and elegant bathrooms. All suites include exclusive access to the Grand Club Lounge, which provides a refined and relaxing ambiance with personal services and culinary highlights throughout the day. Further, guests looking for more space are invited to do so in the 1,485-square-foot (138-square-meter) Diplomat Suite, featuring a separate living room, dining area and kitchenette.

Dining

Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences invites guests to discover impressive restaurants featuring a choice of captivating Arabian, European and Asian infused dining concepts. From authentically depicted settings, striking decor with eye-catching art pieces, to theatrical experiences delivered through open kitchen displays, Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences boasts a variety of different dining outlets.

Asmahan,

the hotel's signature restaurant offering traditional Levantine cuisine with added flair and locally sourced ingredients, showcases the best regional flavors and is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

the hotel's signature restaurant offering traditional Levantine cuisine with added flair and locally sourced ingredients, showcases the best regional flavors and is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Rosalie, a luxuriously stylish French patisserie delighting diners with intricate selections of freshly baked bread, croissants and cakes, along with a glorious choice of sandwiches, coffees and teas, is available for dine-in and takeaway. Located next to the mall entrance, the venue is the perfect post-shopping-spree destination.

a luxuriously stylish French patisserie delighting diners with intricate selections of freshly baked bread, croissants and cakes, along with a glorious choice of sandwiches, coffees and teas, is available for dine-in and takeaway. Located next to the mall entrance, the venue is the perfect post-shopping-spree destination. Sakana House, an artisanal steak and seafood restaurant influenced by Pan Asian culinary tradition, features tantalizing flavors from across the region.

an artisanal steak and seafood restaurant influenced by Pan Asian culinary tradition, features tantalizing flavors from across the region. Grandeur, surrounded by stately architecture and art pieces, is the lobby lounge and serves as a 24-hour hub for movers and shakers to enjoy a business meeting or casual gathering, offering a selection of light meals and beverages including freshly brewed rich Arabic coffee, teas and the taste of local dates.

Meetings

The striking architecture and design of Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences sets the perfect scene for extraordinary meetings, events, conferences and weddings illuminated by natural daylight on 25,000 square feet (2,300 square meters) of event space. The Grand Ballroom, with more than 11,000 square feet (1,050 square meters) of space, is one of the largest and most remarkable in the city with a capacity for up to 1,400 guests. A team of talented event planners and catering services are available to assist with every bespoke occasion.

Wellbeing

Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences features Nirvana Spa, a premier fitness and wellness destination for personalized facials, massage and body treatments, offering a luxurious and relaxed setting with six treatment rooms for women and four for men. Nirvana Spa is also a fully equipped fitness center complete with the latest weights and cardio equipment, as well as complimentary infused water, fruits and cold towels. The space offers an exhilarating dip in two separate lap pools featuring mood lights, relaxation beds and a snack bar. Additionally, guests can unwind in the whirlpool bath, sauna, steam room and Moroccan bath. A squash court is also available.

Grand Hyatt Al Khobar Hotel and Residences will join an existing portfolio of five hotels in Saudi Arabia including Park Hyatt Jeddah - Marina, Club and Spa, Jabal Omar Hyatt Regency Makkah, Hyatt Regency Riyadh Olaya, Hyatt Place Riyadh Al Sulaimania, and Hyatt House Jeddah Sari Street.

Guided by its purpose of care, Hyatt's multi-layered Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment further enhances its operational guidance and resources around colleague and guest safety and peace of mind. More information on Hyatt's commitment can be found here: hyatt.com/care-and-cleanliness.
Story Highlights Last job approval rating of 34% is his lowest

Averages 41% job approval, four points lower than any other president

Approval ratings of Trump most politically polarized by wide margin

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As President Donald Trump prepares to leave the White House, 34% of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president, the worst evaluation of his presidency. His 41% average approval rating throughout his presidency is four points lower than for any of his predecessors in Gallup's polling era. Trump's ratings showed a record 81-percentage-point average gap between Republicans and Democrats -- 11 points wider than the prior record.

Trump Leaves on a Personal Low Note

The 34% job approval rating for Trump in Gallup's Jan. 4-15 poll is one point lower than his prior lowest single rating, registered on several occasions in late 2017. The first of these came in August 2017, as Trump was facing intense criticism over his unvarnished threats against North Korean aggression and his response to deadly violence by a white nationalist at a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Between October and December of that year, his approval fell to 35% on three separate occasions as Justice Department officials charged several of Trump's 2016 campaign figures with crimes in the Russia investigation, including former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to officials in the investigation in December 2017.

Trump's approval high point was 49%, achieved on several occasions in early 2020 spanning the time between the Senate trial in his first impeachment and the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic, when Americans were giving him high marks for his response to it.

His support fell below 40% in two June 2020 polls amid racial justice protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police and growing displeasure with his handling of the pandemic. By the time of the 2020 election in which he sought a second term, his support had recovered somewhat, and 46% approved of the job Trump was doing.

Line graph. Full trend on Donald Trump's job approval rating as president. Trump began his presidency with a 45% job approval rating. By the end of 2017 he registered several 35% readings. In mid-2018 that improved briefly to 45%, but was 38% at the time of the 2018 midterm elections. He registered several 49% readings in early 2020 before falling to 39% in May 2020. He ended his presidency with 34% approval.

Trump is the only president not to register a 50% job approval rating at any point in his presidency since Gallup began measuring presidential job approval in 1938. Likewise, he is the only president who did not have a honeymoon period of above-average ratings upon taking office. His initial 45% job approval rating proved to be his high point for his first year as president.

However, public support for Trump did improve modestly in each year of his presidency, averaging 38% his first year, 40% his second year, 42% his third year and 43% his last year.

But any positive momentum the president enjoyed was erased after the election. Trump's refusal to concede the election and his attempts to overturn the results, the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill, a U.S. surge in coronavirus cases and deaths, and his second impeachment contributed to a postelection erosion in support for him.

The total 12-point drop in approval for Trump after the election is especially notable in that most departing presidents -- including two who were defeated for a second term -- enjoyed increases in job approval ratings between the time of the election to choose their successor and his inauguration. On average, "lame duck presidents" before Trump saw a seven-point increase in job approval. Jimmy Carter is the only other president whose approval ratings declined during the transition period.

Changes in Presidential Job Approval During Lame-Duck Period Presidents who left office on Inauguration Day, shown in chronological order Years Final pre-election

approval rating Final approval rating

as president Change % % pct. pts. Truman 1952-1953 32 32 0 Eisenhower 1960-1961 58 59 +1 Johnson 1968-1969 42 49 +7 Ford 1976-1977 45 53 +8 Carter 1980-1981 37 34 -3 Reagan 1988-1989 51 63 +12 G.H.W. Bush 1992-1993 34 56 +22 Clinton 2000-2001 57 66 +9 G.W. Bush 2008-2009 25 34 +9 Obama 2016-2017 56 59 +3 Trump 2020-2021 46 34 -12 Note: Kennedy (assassination) and Nixon (resignation) did not have lame-duck periods. Kennedy had a 58% job approval rating in a Nov. 8-13, 1963, poll, the last taken before he was killed on Nov. 22, 1963. Nixon had a 24% job approval rating in an Aug. 2-5, 1974, poll, the last taken before he resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. Gallup

Though many presidents left office with weak job approval ratings, Trump is the second, along with Richard Nixon, to register his personal low rating in the final measurement of his presidency. Nixon resigned his office amid the Watergate scandal.

Record-Low Average Job Approval; Most Extreme Party Polarization

Trump is departing office having averaged 41% job approval during his four years in office, lower than any other president in Gallup polling history by four points. Harry Truman and Carter had the previous lowest presidency averages. Nixon, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush and Barack Obama also averaged less than 50% approval. John Kennedy had the highest average approval rating. The average across all presidents is 53%.

Presidential Job Approval Averages Years Average % approve Kennedy 1961-1963 70.1 Eisenhower 1953-1961 65.0 G.H.W. Bush 1989-1993 60.9 Clinton 1993-2001 55.1 Johnson 1963-1969 55.1 Reagan 1981-1989 52.8 G.W. Bush 2001-2009 49.4 Nixon 1969-1974 49.0 Obama 2009-2017 47.9 Ford 1974-1977 47.2 Carter 1977-1981 45.5 Truman 1945-1953 45.4 Trump 2017-2021 41.1 Figures are the average Gallup job approval ratings for presidents throughout their time in office. Gallup

A major reason Trump's ratings were historically low is because of the extreme polarization in his approval. In the Jan. 4-15 poll, 4% of Democrats, 30% of independents and 82% of Republicans approve of Trump's performance.

Throughout his presidency, an average of 7% of Democrats approved of the job Trump was doing, while 88% of Republicans did so. The 81-point average gap in Democratic-Republican ratings of Trump exceeds the prior record for party polarization, under Obama, by 11 points. George W. Bush's ratings differed by 61 points on average between party groups, while all other presidents' party gaps were 55 points or lower. No president before Ronald Reagan had as much as a 50-point gap in partisan approval ratings.

Average Presidential Job Approval Ratings, by Party Presidents shown in chronological order Party Republicans Independents Democrats Party gap % % % pct. pts. Eisenhower Rep 88 68 49 39 Kennedy Dem 49 66 84 35 Johnson Dem 44 53 71 27 Nixon Rep 75 48 34 41 Ford Rep 68 49 37 31 Carter Dem 30 42 57 27 Reagan Rep 83 54 31 52 G.H.W. Bush Rep 82 57 44 38 Clinton Dem 27 53 82 55 G.W. Bush Rep 84 44 23 61 Obama Dem 13 44 83 70 Trump Rep 88 37 7 81 Note: Gallup does not have complete party data for Truman Gallup

Trump's 7% rating among Democrats is by a significant margin the lowest for a president among supporters of the opposition party. Obama's 13% average approval among Republicans was the prior low. All other presidents before Obama had at least a 20% average rating among opposition party supporters, with Dwight Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and George H.W. Bush all above 40%.

At the same time, no president has had a higher average job approval rating during his term among his own party's supporters than Trump has. Republicans' average 88% approval of Trump ties Eisenhower's as the highest own-party approval score, though most presidents had better-than 80% approval among their fellow partisans.

Trump's last year in office also set a new standard for polarization in a single year in office, with an average 85-point gap between Republicans' (91%) and Democrats' (6%) ratings of him during his fourth year in the White House. Trump's term now includes the first-, second-, third- and seventh-most polarized years in office.

In Gallup's final survey before Election Day 2020, 92 points separated Republicans' (95%) and Democrats' (3%) approval of Trump, the most ever in a single measurement.

In addition to extreme party polarization, Trump's job approval ratings were historically low because political independents were significantly less likely to support him than any other president. Trump averaged 37% job approval among independents throughout his term, five points lower than Carter (42%) and seven points lower than George W. Bush (44%) and Obama (44%).

Bottom Line

Trump leaves office as the least-positively evaluated president in the Gallup polling era, based on the average of his approval ratings. He also just received his personal low approval rating, thanks largely to a sharp decline in public support during a lame-duck period marked by controversy, which could overshadow his accomplishments.

His final job approval rating of 34% is not the lowest among presidents, however, as that distinction goes to Harry Truman's 32% rating, while Trump is tied with Carter and George W. Bush for the second-lowest.

The significance of Trump's final rating could be more important than his average, as the former is the one that is often most predictive of how presidents are regarded historically.

Perhaps more than anything, Trump's public support will be remembered for its sharp degree of party polarization. His Republican base remained solidly behind him throughout. At no point in his presidency did less than 77% of Republicans approve of him. The low-water marks for other recent GOP presidents were significantly lower -- 67% for Reagan, 57% for George H.W. Bush and 55% for George W. Bush.

But more than any other president, Trump struggled to appeal beyond his base. That made it extremely challenging for him to win a second term, especially considering that fewer than one in three U.S. adults identify as Republicans and more independents lean to the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. As such, all of his job approval ratings were below the historical average, and none reached 50%.

Explore President Trump's approval ratings and compare them with those of past presidents in the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center.

View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.
WINCHESTER  Winchester schools will continue remote learning for a second week because of COVID-19 cases and quarantines, according to school administrators.

It is expected in-person classes will resume Jan. 25.
A health care professional prepares a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021. Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the drugmaker in exchange for the continued flow of its COVID-19 vaccine. Critics say the deal is raising major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide between wealthy countries and poorer populations, including Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who face long waits to be inoculated. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

After sprinting ahead in the race to inoculate its population against the coronavirus, Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the international drug giant in exchange for the continued flow of its hard-to-get vaccine.

Proponents say the deal could allow Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide that enables wealthy countries to stockpile vaccines as poorer populations, including Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, have to wait longer to be inoculated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuwho is stumping ahead of the country's March elections as Israel's vaccinator-in-chiefsaid earlier this month that he reached the deal with Pfizer's chief executive to speed up vaccine deliveries to Israel.

"Israel will be a global model state," he said. "Israel will share with Pfizer and with the entire world the statistical data that will help develop strategies for defeating the coronavirus."

Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told The Associated Press the government will turn over data to "see how it influences, first of all, the level of the disease in Israel, the possibility to open the economy, different aspects of social life, and whether there are any effects of the vaccination."

Pfizer's vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, has received emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union's regulatory agency and is believed to provide up to 95% protection against COVID-19. But much remains unknown, including its long-term protection and whether it can prevent transmission of the virus.

Israel, home to some 9.3 million people, is considered an ideal place for studying these questions. Its mandatory universal health care is provided by four publicly funded HMOs with meticulously digitized medical records. This centralized system has helped Israel administer more than 2 million doses of the vaccine in under a month. Israel has also purchased doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Israelis receive the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in Netanya, Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021. Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the drugmaker in exchange for the continued flow of its COVID-19 vaccine. Critics say the deal is raising major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide between wealthy countries and poorer populations, including Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who face long waits to be inoculated. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The inoculation blitz is a matter of national pride. It also is at the center of Netanyahu's reelection campaign as he seeks to deflect attention from his ongoing corruption trial, Israel's deep economic crisis and the latest virus surge.

The Health Ministry has recorded over 551,000 cases since the beginning of the pandemic and more than 4,000 deaths. Israeli officials say they aim to have most of the country vaccinated by the end of March, just around election day.

But the exact quid pro quo between Israel and Pfizer is unclear, appealed to drugmakers and wealthier countries to "stop making bilateral deals," saying they hurt a U.N.-backed effort to widen access. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not single out any countries or companies.

Last week, Dr. Siddhartha Datta, WHO Europe's program manager for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization, said the agency is trying to collect "disaggregated" databased on age, gender, local area, employment and other factorsand reporting on any safety issues as the vaccines are deployed.

Israel had already announced the acquisition of millions of vaccine doses before the Pfizer deal was announced. It's unclear how the quantity or pace of deliveries has changed, or whether the vaccines have been diverted from other countries.

The arrangement has drawn attention to the unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor nations. A recent estimate from the International Rescue Committee said that the WHO's global COVAX campaign is likely to vaccinate only 20% of the world's lower-income countries by the end of 2021.

"This is a shady, under-the-table deal that preferences certain countries over others without any transparency," said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University in Washington. "In the end, it's going to be low- and middle-income countries that are going to be left behind."

An Israeli man receives the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a private nursing home in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the drugmaker in exchange for the continued flow of its COVID-19 vaccine. Critics say the deal is raising major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide between wealthy countries and poorer populations, including Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who face long waits to be inoculated. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, head of the school of public health at Israel's Ben Gurion University and an adviser to the government on coronavirus policy, said the deal has raised troubling concerns about the deepening disparity of vaccination efforts.

"In order to eradicate COVID-19 or at least control it in an efficient manner, we need to see the global picture," Davidovitch said.

That disparity is particularly striking in the case of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who live under varying degrees of Israeli control and have yet to receive any vaccines.

While vaccinating its own Arab citizens and Palestinian residents of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Israel says it is not responsible for inoculating the Palestinians. Edelstein said Israel will consider helping once it takes care of its own citizens.

But the Palestinians and major human rights groups say Israel remains an occupying power and is responsible for providing them vaccines. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently accused Israel of "racism" but has not publicly requested vaccines.

With tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians working in Israel and its West Bank settlements, experts say Israel should share vaccines on ethical and practical grounds.

"I truly think that we need to see how we get the vaccine for the Palestinian Authority," said Davidovitch, acting chairman of Israel's association of public health professionals. "We are talking about it with the minister of health, and I really hope that soon this thing will be solved."

An Israeli woman receives the second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a private nursing home, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the drugmaker in exchange for the continued flow of its COVID-19 vaccine. Critics say the deal is raising major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide between wealthy countries and poorer populations, including Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who face long waits to be inoculated. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

It's also uncertain exactly what information is being shared with Pfizer. According to the redacted agreement, "no identifiable health information" shall be shared, and the research is to be published in a recognized medical journal.

It said Israel will provide weekly data to Pfizer about various age and demographic groups. The objective, it said, is to "analyze epidemiological data arising from the product rollout, to determine whether herd immunity is achieved after reaching a certain percentage of vaccination coverage in Israel."

The data, it added, is "aimed at helping end the global COVID-19 pandemic for the benefit of all patients inside and outside of Israel."

Privacy Israel, an advocacy group that had petitioned the government to disclose the deal, welcomed its release but said certain questions remained unanswered, mostly about the handling and security of private information. It also blacked out certain details, such as key dates and the names of officials involved. Still, it said there is a "little more certainty" about sharing information with a global corporation.

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, an expert in digital privacy at the Israel Democracy Institute, questioned the ethics of a deal that could bring millions in profits to Pfizer. She also said sharing large quantities of information could still potentially put individuals' privacy at risk, even if it's supposedly made anonymous.

"If, God forbid, the data set is going to be hacked, then the risk is going to be yours," she said, referring to Israeli citizens.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 infections dropped to 1,069 Sunday, the lowest it has been since Nov. 7, according to a Journal analysis.

And hospitalizations dropped to 612, the lowest they have been since Nov. 15.

The news comes as New Mexico continues its effort to vaccinate the most vulnerable people in the state.

Were making excellent progress rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine statewide, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tweeted.

Still, state officials reported 22 additional deaths from COVID-19 Sunday as New Mexico edges closer to 3,000 virus-related deaths and the U.S. closes in on 400,000 deaths since the pandemic began. The 22 new deaths bring New Mexicos total to 2,932.

Those whose deaths were reported Sunday include eight people from Bernalillo County, four from San Juan County and three from Dona Ana County. Nora Meyers Sackett, a spokeswoman for the Governors Office, said in a news release that 12 of the deceased had been hospitalized and that eight had underlying conditions. Five lived in nursing homes.

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The deceased ranged in age from their 40s (two women from San Juan and Bernalillo counties) to their 90s (two women from Lea and Dona Ana counties).

State officials reported 751 new infections, bringing the total to 163,637. Bernalillo County had the most, with 173, followed by Dona Ana, with 106, and San Juan, with 66.
A MOTORIST who was caught drink-driving twice in the same year has been disqualified for six years.

Dale Ryan, 25, of Boskill, Caherconlish was prosecuted before Limerick District Court following a detection during the early hours of November 1, 2018.

Inspector Liam Wallace said the defendant was arrested after gardai stopped a car at College Court Drive, Castletroy after it was observed swerving over and back and crossing over the centre white line.

Mr Ryan was arrested at around 4am and taken to Henry Street garda station where he provided a breath sample which confirmed he was considerably over the legal alcohol limit.

Insp Wallace told Judge Colin Daly, president of the district court, that Mr Ryan had been caught drink-driving in Tipperary earlier in 2018 and that he was subsequently fined and banned from driving for three years.

Solicitor Edel Ryan said her client had not been convicted of the first offence when the incident in Castletroy occurred and was not disqualified at the time.

She said Mr Ryan had gone off the rails for a time after both his mother and his girlfriend were diagnosed with serious illnesses.

Judge Daly was told the defendant, who travelled to Australia following the incident in Castletroy, accepts there was no reasonable excuse for his behaviour.

He has a young child now and he apologises to the court and to gardai, said Ms Ryan.

Imposing sentence, Judge Daly said he was of the view the offence in Castletroy was at the upper end of the scale.

You were a danger to yourself and others, he said as he addressed Mr Ryan who is not currently working.

To put anybody elses life at risk is quite shocking, he added commenting that it was clear the defendant did not learn anything first time round.

The judge imposed fines totalling 450 and disqualified Mr Ryan from driving for six years.

He also imposed a two month prison sentence which he suspended for two years on condition that the defendant stays out of trouble and completes an alcohol awareness programme.

After Ms Ryan said her client had lost his driving licence and was unable to produce it for endorsement, Judge Daly said that was not in the hands of gardai.
On Tuesday, January 19, Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) President Sandy Holloway, Vice President Kira Orange Jones, and Secretary-Treasurer Ashley Ellis will be sworn in by Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice John L. Weimer as Board officers for 2021. The Chief Justices participation in the virtual installation ceremony underscores the growing partnership between BESE and Louisianas highest court to promote awareness and understanding of the legal justice system in K-12 classrooms.

The installation is scheduled for 8:30 a.m., prior to the start of BESEs regular January meetings in Baton Rouge and will be streamed live through the websites of BESE (https://bese.louisiana.gov) and the Louisiana Supreme Court (https://livestream.lasc.org).

It is a true honor for our leadership team to be sworn-in by our new Chief Justice, said Holloway. I am excited about the work BESE will undertake in 2021 to expand literacy, improve accountability, and conduct a comprehensive review of academic standards in social studies. As we work to build standards that equip students to be informed, responsible citizens, we also embrace the opportunity to collaborate with the court system to enrich civics learning experiences and help ensure positive outcomes for our children.

Chief Justice Weimer, himself a former teacher of law and ethics at Nicholls State University, commented, It has always been important to me as a judge to get out into the community, to encourage personal responsibility and respect for the law, describe how our judicial system functions, and extol the benefits of treating all people with dignity and respect. Through this partnership between the Louisiana Supreme Court and BESE, we look forward to having our states judges continue their involvement in the Louisiana Center for Law and Civics Educations Judges in the Classroom program to share lessons on the law and civic education in our schools, and the Adult Civics Education (ACE) program to reach out to adults in local communities. These initiatives, combined with others such as the Dont Let This Be You program spearheaded by my colleague, Justice Scott Crichton, can be achieved either in-person or through a web meeting, given any limitations which might be in place due to the pandemic. Judges and teachers share the commonality of being public servants, touching lives in a positive manner and, in most cases, using two-way communications for achieving successful outcomes; combining resources is monumental in affecting those we serve. It is my hope that through this collaboration we will be effective in influencing young minds by equipping them with additional tools for a brighter future.

In 2001, then-Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Benjamin Jones, in his role as president of the Louisiana District Judges Association (LDJA), gained overwhelming support for the Judges in the Classroom program. Judges developed materials to assist judge/teacher partners in designing their lesson plans to fit class levels, topics of interest, and learning objectives. Chief Justice Weimer plans to further implement and enhance the program by encouraging judges to visit public schools in their districts while welcoming student visits to their courtrooms. In his first act as Chief Justice on January 1, 2021, he communicated by letter to all judges, encouraging them to become active teachers.

In addition to establishing statewide, academic standards for social studies in K-12 education, BESE is active on the Louisiana Commission on Civic Education, established by the state legislature to educate students of the importance of citizen involvement in a representative democracy, and to promote collaboration among organizations in the state that conduct civic education programs.


Earn your Associate of Applied Business in Business IT (BIT) degree online from the University of Cincinnati. This program can be completed fully online, with curriculum customized to fit your schedule, interests and how quickly you want to complete your degree. Application deadline July 1, 2021. Learn More 

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the U.S. and worldwide. Americans consume 400 million cups per day, making the U.S. the world's leading consumer of coffee.

E-commerce and coffee go hand-in-hand. As the market grows -- and becomes more competitive -- coffee companies are coming up with more creative ways to get their products to online consumers.

The E-Commerce Times recently spoke with coffee and e-commerce experts to get their views on what's involved in successful online coffee sales.

"Selling coffee online was very popular even before the pandemic hit, which, of course, increased demand for all goods online," Murry Ivanoff, cofounder and CEO of Metrilo, told the E-Commerce Times. His company is an analytics, CRM and email marketing platform provider. "Coffee connoisseurs are really serious about their passion and very proactive in their search for interesting blends."

Specialty coffee sales are increasing by 20 percent annually and account for nearly 8 percent of the $18 billion U.S. coffee market. Because selection in local stores can often be limited, e-commerce allows consumers to find specialty coffee products that they might not otherwise have access to.

"Since coffee in the supermarket has never been anything special, specialized online stores filled the niche easily," explained Ivanoff. "Coffee lovers do make an effort to discover new flavors and suppliers, so reaching them online is not hard. In addition, coffee is a regularly-bought product and one that's easy to ship, making it perfect for online sales."

With the pandemic prompting people to stay home rather than go out to cafes and restaurants, online coffee sales have helped to fill the gap.

"One of the most striking changes in consumer behavior we have seen since the pandemic started is the desire to improve the 'at home' experience," Craig Ross, vice president of sales for e-commerce platform provider TrueCommerce Nexternal, explained to the E-Commerce Times.

"While we have seen this across many industries, for many people one of the easiest and most cost-effective way to improve their experience at home is to start their day with a great cup of coffee. Additionally, many coffee roasters had seen their B2B business sales decline due to the pandemic, so selling directly to the end customer at their home was a natural evolution," noted Ross.

Creative Strategies

As with any other e-commerce endeavor, successful online coffee sales rely on creative strategies to attract and retain customers.

"Our mission is to help our customers discover great coffees," Matthew Berk, CEO of Bean Box, told the E-Commerce Times. "What sets us apart from other services is our coffee-tasting boxes and expert curation, and sourcing some of the best coffees in the world from our network of over three dozen specialty coffee roasters."

Bean Box's unique approach allows the company to curate the coffee experience of their customers -- an educational service that's not typically available in the local supermarket.

"We're neither a coffee roaster nor a dropshipper, which allows us to curate multiple coffees from multiple origins and roasters within the same product," explained Berk. "Our primary format is the sampler box, containing multiple coffees, and not the bag, and this format helps our customers learn about and discover what they like."

Successful coffee e-commerce companies must also harness the power of new technologies to achieve their mission.

"What we've built is a platform that connects an otherwise fragmented local supply chain of amazing coffee with a nationwide network of coffee lovers, using expert curation, data and personalization, and frictionless commerce," said Berk.

"In any given week, we'll curate, source, receive, package, and fulfill thousands and thousands of pounds of fresh coffee, and this requires not just end-to-end control of our supply, but the software to manage it all. Software and operations allow us to control for the experience, and to make sure that there's no friction when our customers need coffee, whether they order online, via text message, or on our app," he explained.

Many of the technologies and design strategies used by other types of e-commerce companies can be tailored to the specific needs of coffee companies and consumers.

"A simple and easy-to-use online store that acts as an extension of a merchant's brand is an absolute requirement now," explained Ross. "If a merchant's online store is slow, clunky, looks detached from the brand, or is otherwise difficult to use, customers simply won't invest their efforts to place an order. They will simply go to Amazon instead.

"In addition to online store technology, it is a given that merchants need to have compelling product content and imagery. Plus, customers really respond to peer reviews. Be sure to have a system that captures and solicits reviews of customers who have purchased. Coffee needs to be fresh, so it has the additional requirement that customers want to pick a preferred delivery date when they order."

Coffee's E-Commerce Evolution

Consumers have grown accustomed to having access to a wide variety of coffees online, and they'll likely continue to expect these kinds of offerings even when the pandemic is over.

"Coffee sold online is definitely staying," said Ivanoff. "The target customers just love the easiness of buying high-grade coffee as directly from farms as possible. As for marketing, branding and design are more and more important to grab the attention as competition grows. The brand story also has to be something wow. The people behind the brand need to be knowledgeable in order to add value -- and sales can easily be automated with subscriptions. Coffee is a great product for monthly subscriptions."

Subscriptions will, most likely, be an important part of the future e-commerce coffee market.

"Like wine, it's all about the tasting experience," explained Berk. "Our customers are always keen to try new coffees, especially those with compelling stories, or which are rare or unusual. While the rest of the market is focused on selling 12-ounce bags, we've built our product set and operations on the single-serve pouch, which allows our customers to experience two, four, eight, or even 16 different coffees with a single delivery. Once a customer discovers a coffee they love, we can also send them larger bags."

With the growth of online coffee sales, specialty coffees will likely continue to grow in popularity, as well.

"The future of coffee in the U.S. is specialty coffee, and the future of specialty coffee is the at-home experience, as opposed to retail," predicted Berk. "Where others are chasing wildly after the idea of becoming the 'Amazon of Coffee', emphasizing variety for its own sake, and in the process replicating what we call the 'chaos of the supermarket', we're razor-focused on building unique at-home coffee experiences that are thoughtfully curated and make the stories behind the coffees relevant to the consumer. For us, that's the future: ever more thoughtful, unique, and difficult-to-approximate at-home coffee experiences."

Coffee consumers have increasingly become coffee connoisseurs, and the e-commerce world must continue to adapt to serve their evolving tastes and curiosity.

"We are now at a new normal for e-commerce and coffee," said Ross. "Customers expect to be able to buy directly from the roasters now, and that is not going to change. The best coffee marketers understand that online they need to not only sell coffee but tell the story of the coffee they are offering. When they do this well, coffee merchants are no longer limited to their local markets, and find that they can expand their reach to new customers across the country."

Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and is the author of Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys, published by ECT News Network in May 2020. Email Vivian.



You might've started baking bread during the pandemic, but one Canadian used the lockdown to invent propeller-powered ice skates.

With the device strapped to his back, Brydon Gibson can coast across the iced-over Ottawa River at speeds of up to 25 mph.

The gas-powered contraption is powered by a weed whacker engine, but has few safety features and no real brakes.

The only way Gibson can stop himself is with a kill switch he describes as 'finicky.'

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Currently, the pack requires a second person to start the propeller by hand, 'like they did on the old planes.' Gibson's friend Paolo Campanaro has helped him launch and also tested out the pack himself

Gibson was puttering around with some weed-trimmer motors last year, 'and I figured strapping one on my back and making skating a little bit lazier would [be] a good idea,' he told the CBC.

Attaching a 15-inch propeller to a crude wooden frame, he used the brake handle and cable from a 10-speed bike to fashion a throttle, then added straps from a dollar store backpack.

The 13-pound device doesn't have proper brakes, just a kill switch Gibson describes as 'finicky.'

'I was actually getting a little scared at one point because I was going a little too fast,' he said.

To build his crude 'jet pack,' Gibson attached a 15-inch propeller to the motor from a weed-trimmer. He used the brake handle and cable from a 10-speed bike to fashion a throttle

'There's no cage [around the propeller], there's no anything,' he added. 'This is just a prototype. Eventually maybe I'll add some safety, but not right now.'

Gibson has always been a tinkerer, starting with remote-controlled boats and airplanes.

He's since graduated to more sophisticated machinery, including an electric-propulsion device he constructed in his parents' basement and even a homemade hovercraft.

'Ever since I was a kid  I've been taking apart things I found on the side of the road, making a mess of my parents' basement, spreading electronics everywhere.'

The contraption has no brakes, Gibson said, just a 'finicky' kill switch. 'There's no cage [around the propeller], there's no anything,' he told the CBC. 'Eventually maybe I'll add some safety, but not right now.'

Gibson glides over the iced-over Ottawa River. An avid inventor, he's also fashioned an electric-propulsion device and a homemade hovercraft

Though he's avoided major catastrophes with his creations, Gibson admits, 'it's kind of gotten me into some rough scenarios. I've almost lost a finger.'

His passions led him to major in computer systems engineering at Ottawa's Carleton University.

After graduation Gibson got a job with Blackberry QNX, which focuses on autonomous driving technology.

Like many, he's been working from home during lockdown with limited options for socializing.

'Spare time with COVID, [and] not seeing anyone?' he said. 'I'm doing this instead.'

After graduating with a degree in computer systems engineering from Ottawa's Carleton University, Gibson got a job with a company that specializes in autonomous driving technology

Right now his skates are pretty low-tech, but he says he'd to soup them up a lot.

'Bigger propeller, more thrust, more speed, more fun,' he told the CBC.

Gibson also needs to address the system's biggest design flaw: It requires a second person to start it off.

'When it's strapped to your back you can't reach the propeller to start it,' he explains. 'You just spin the propeller by hand the old fashioned way, like they did on the old planes.'

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a....jetpack? At 7:45, we'll meet Brydon Gibson, an inventor who has created a gadget to reach super speeds while he's skating. @HallieCBC brings us the story. #ldnont pic.twitter.com/CaZUZbHTtY  CBCLondonMorning (@LondonMorning) January 18, 2021

So far, he's gotten his mother, sister and friend Paolo Campanaro to try out the device, too.

'Ever since I met him, he's always had these crazy inventions going on,' Campanaro, who's operated as Gibson's 'wing man' on test flights, said. 'He's my genius friend.'

The 21-year-old compares using the pack to 'skating without doing any work.'

'It's kind of nice to not have to use any leg muscles while you're going down the river pretty fast. It's just a unique invention we can all have a blast on.'
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Schools across the country are being re-opened in a staggered manner after remaining closed for months in view of coronavirus pandemic. Students since March 2020 have been attending online classes. However, with the reopening of schools, students have been asking if the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will hold online exams as the pandemic continues.

The students of classes 9 and 11 have to been asking the same. Recently, the board has ruled out the option of conducting online examinations for either class.

According to India TV, CBSE Controller of Examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj has said that "in school education, in addition to the assessment of the knowledge of the subjects, other aspects like thinking skill, writing skill, etc. of the students are also assessed. As of now, in the online examination, assessment of above-said aspects is not possible".

India TV reported quoting him as saying, "Also, the facility of conduct of online examination is not uniformly available across the country. Further, there are a large number of students who were not able to use the online platform. In this scenario, the conduct of online examination is not synchronized with the assessment policy in the school education and hence, conducts of online examination for classes-IX and XI is not possible as of now.

The Union Education Ministry has already announced that board exams for Classes 10 and 12 will be conducted from May 4 to June 10, even though the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is yet to release an examination date-sheet.

On Monday, balloons, flowers, sanitisers and smiling faces welcomed class 10 and 12 students in schools in the national capital as they returned to campuses after over 10 months. The students who were elated to be able to attend the first offline class of the academic session wore masks and queued up outside schools maintaining social distance.

Schools reopened on Monday after over 10 months of being closed in view of coronavirus pandemic. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it was an emotional moment to see children back in school. "Seeing kids back in school after a long time is an emotional moment for me. Schools have reopened today after leaving behind a very difficult time. We are hopeful that soon, everything will be normal and all students will be able to come to schools and meet their teachers and friends," he tweeted.

Pragati Diwan, an excited class 12 student said, "it was optional to come but I was sure I have to. It is the last year of my school life and I haven't come to school even one day," said Pragati Diwan, an excited class 12 student. For another student at Geeta Bal Bharti School, the feeling was similar to that of attending the first day at school. "It does not feel like I am coming to school after ten months, it feels like I have come to school for the first time. I am looking forward to the preparations for board exams here," she said.

Prince, a student at Delhi government school, said, "The online classes were a great help for theoretical subjects but the practical subjects were a challenge. I am glad to be back at school so the practical concepts will be easily brushed up before the board exams". The school put up posters of "welcome back" in corridors where teachers stood with sanitisers and checked the temperature of each student before letting them in.

Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Mandawali decorated the premises with balloons and the teachers showered flower petals on students, welcoming them. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also visited a school in Chirag Enclave on Monday to assess the readiness of schools to welcome class 10 and 12 students.

"Felt really good to meet children in schools after a long time. They are still adjusting to being back in school with safety norms but are extremely happy to meet their friends. The teachers are also overjoyed to meet students, saying it has filled an empty space in their life," Sisodia said

Calling students in different slots, shorter school hours, frequent sanitisation and staggered entry and exit are among the plans of various schools in the national capital as they gear to welcome class 10 and 12 students on Monday for the first time in the academic session.

The schools are reopening in Delhi after 10 months, after being shut last year to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, and they have been instructed by the Directorate of Education (DoE) to follow all COVID-19 guidelines when classroom studies resume.

The Delhi government has allowed all schools outside COVID-19 containment zones here to reopen for classes 10 and 12 from January 18 in view of board exams. However, it made clear that physical attendance is not compulsory and students will attend schools only with the consent of parents.

Allowing 15 students at a time in a classroom, placing handwashing consoles and sanitisers in corridors, volunteers to ensure social distancing is maintained, temperature checks and medical facilities on standby if any student is not feeling well, are among various other initiatives planned by schools.

Schools are also working out plans to ensure that students who choose not to come to campus, do not miss out anything. Over 3 lakh students have registered from the Delhi region for the Class 10 CBSE board exam, while over 2.5 lakh candidates have registered for the Class 12 exam. The Delhi government has suggested that schools conduct pre-board exams for Class 12 from March 20 to April 15 and Class 10 pre-board exams from April 1 to April 15.
WASHINGTON - During the chaos at the Capitol, overwhelmed police officers confronted and combated a frenzied sea of rioters who transformed the seat of democracy into a battlefield. Now police chiefs across the country are confronting the uncomfortable reality that members in their own ranks were among the mob that faced off against other law enforcement officers.

At least 13 off-duty law enforcement officials are suspected of taking part in the riot, a tally that could grow as investigators continue to pore over footage and records to identify participants. Police leaders are turning in their own to the FBI and taking the striking step of reminding officers in their departments that criminal misconduct could push them off the force and behind bars.

The reckoning within police departments comes as plans for new demonstrations this weekend and on Inauguration Day are solidifying, with authorities warning of the potential for violence in state capitals. Participants are expected to protest election results that made Joe Biden president-elect.

"We are making clear that they have First Amendment rights like all Americans," said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who on Thursday accepted the resignation of an 18-year veteran in his department due to his involvement in the riot, which followed a rally at which President Donald Trump urged his supporters to not accept his defeat. "However, engaging in activity that crosses the line into criminal conduct will not be tolerated."

The revelation that officers participated in the chaos was the latest hit for law enforcement's reputation, coming on the heels of a year in which police violence spurred nationwide protests and activists called for cutting police funding. As photographs and videos of some off-duty officers at the riot emerged on social media, some residents back home felt betrayed, while police officials worried about a black eye for the entire profession's credibility.

Acevedo, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said the behavior is so egregious that it is often fellow officers who are alerting police chiefs and others to their colleagues' participation in last week's mob attack on the Capitol.

It marks a notable break in the so-called "blue wall of silence," an aspect of police culture that encourages officers to turn a blind eye to misconduct by fellow officers. Craig Futterman, who directs the University of Chicago Law Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, said the Capitol riot was different.

"The 'Code of Silence' is fundamentally about loyalty to your fellow officer and that 'no one understands what we're going through but us,' " Futterman said. By contrast, there's something "fundamentally anti-police" about storming the Capitol, he said.

That fellow police officers were the target of much of the mob's brutality is another important factor that may have prompted whistleblowing. U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick was among the five people killed as a result of the riot. Dozens of other police officers were injured.

While some officers have said they were merely at the rally, rather than participating in the riot, others were found to have gone farther.

In Rocky Mount, Va., the presence of two officers in the riot, which included displays of the Confederate battle flag, came to light after a colleague and another city official leaked photos of them inside the Capitol during the riot to an area activist. The president of the local Black Lives Matter chapter posted them on her Facebook page and one of the officers quickly defended himself and threatened future violence.

"A legitimate republic stands on 4 boxes," Officer Thomas Robertson, 47, wrote in response on his Facebook page. "The soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box and then the cartridge box. We just moved to step 3. Step 4 will not be pretty...I've spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. Im about to become part of one, and a very effective one."

Robertson and fellow officer Jacob Fracker, 27, were both arrested Wednesday by the FBI and are so far the only law enforcement officers facing federal charges, which include one count each of "knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority" and one count each of "violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds."

A Washington Post analysis shows that at least 29 current and former officers attended the Jan. 6 rally, with some proceeding to the Capitol, according to a review of officers' social media accounts, FBI reports and news reports.

Of those, at least 13 officers are under investigation for possible participation in the rioting, as well more than a dozen Capitol Police officers who may have assisted the mob that seized the Capitol.

The officers - and at least one police chief - came from tiny departments with less than a handful of officers to large agencies with thousands on their force.

Reports of police among the rioters at the Capitol has police leaders worried about erosion of the public's trust in law enforcement.

"It creates an issue where the public has a hard time believing that the . . . decisions they make off duty do not impact their choices and decisions they make while on duty," said Andrew Walsh, a deputy chief with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. That force is investigating reports that "employees" may have been at the Capitol, he said.

Since the start of his presidency, Trump styled himself as a champion of law enforcement who would restore to policing a level of respect, freedom and power he perceived to have been diminished under President Barack Obama.

Even before Trump declared himself the "law and order candidate" at a 2016 campaign event, he portrayed use of force against racial justice protesters and suspects in police custody as virtuous: As a candidate, he offered to pay the legal fees of his supporters who assaulted protesters disrupting his rallies. Not long after taking office in 2017, he told a crowd of police not to worry about injuring the people they arrest.

In the four years of Trump's administration, he has reversed police reform efforts and curbed the use of "pattern and practice" investigations into police departments for civil rights violations - something that had been a staple of the Obama-era Justice Department and is expected to resume under Biden. Police were keen to return the favor when Trump ran for a second term with many police unions enthusiastically offering their endorsement.

Dennis Kenney, a former police officer and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said he was "not too terribly surprised" police were among those at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the riot, citing what he called "some pretty strident" police union support for Trump and "an authoritarian sort of regime."

Police unions and policing groups backed Trump in the 2020 election, with the head of the National Association of Police Organizations last summer deeming him "the most pro-law enforcement president we've ever had."

However, union leaders said they are shocked by how some of their members appeared to cross the line at the Capitol. They also said officers who breached the Capitol should not expect their unions' support in their legal battles.

"We took an oath to protect the constitution and the rule of law," said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. "When people decide they are going to violate that - they are alone."

Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said he had joked with Acevedo about how absurd it would be for any of the department's 5,300 officers to be involved in the mob that stormed the Capitol.

He said the resignation of 48-year-old Tam Pham, after having been identified as having been at the Capitol, has not changed how he is communicating with his members. Griffith believes the line some officers crossed is so bright, it doesn't need to be explained to the rest of the force. Attempts to reach Pham were not successful.

"We took an oath to uphold the law, not violate it," Griffith said. "You have to have common sense and walk away. Think about it. There are [Capitol] officers being beaten. How, as an officer, do you not help out? How do you not understand that you shouldn't be there?"

David Ellis, the police chief in Troy, N.H., attended the Trump rally. As he approached the Capitol and saw the mob was pushing past the Capitol Police, he understood he needed to turn away, he said.

As he boarded a charter bus at Union Station with the rioting underway, he gave an interview to New York magazine, saying the violence was "not going to solve a thing" and characterized the way the Capitol Police were being treated as "ridiculous." He defended going to the rally, saying, "There's a lot of Trump supporters that are awesome people. Like me."

Ellis's small department has three full-time officers, including him. Richard Thackston, chairman of the Troy Board of Selectmen, has defended Ellis. But the blowback on town officials was immediate and fierce. More than 100 people sent emails and voice-mail messages threatening violence. Troy Town Hall is now closed indefinitely.

"They are saying we are members of the Klan. They are calling us Nazis. They are saying we should be taken to a firing squad," Thackston said. "There is a line for us. I don't think we tell people they cannot attend rallies. They have First Amendment rights."

Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said for years police chiefs have wrestled with racist, white supremacist and violent rhetoric that some officers post on social media.

In those instances, Wexler said disciplinary action may be taken since such actions are often considered "conduct unbecoming an officer." It tarnishes the credibility of the officer, making it difficult for them to testify in their own criminal cases, impairing their ability to fulfill their job duties.

"This is an evolution, a big leap from the difficult waters that police departments have waded through in recent years as officers take to social media to express their political and sometimes racist views," Wexler said. "What happened at the Capitol the other day is new territory. Going from freedom of speech to participating in a riot where a police officer dies, that takes it to a new level."

Brian Levin, a former police officer and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in California, said white supremacy and far-right-wing groups are successfully recruiting local law enforcement officers. They also encourage their young members to enter law enforcement, he said.

"We are encountering a new insurgency, as far-right extremists become more active, as their connections to mainstream politics becomes attenuated, but police agencies have yet to adapt to this new threat which directly impacts their ranks and also national security," he said.

People living in the communities where the officers work, who have forged relationships with them, say they are disappointed and hurt.

Bridgette Craighead saved videos of her dancing with Robertson, the Rocky Mount officer, at a Black Lives Matter event she organized in her Virginia hometown over the summer. She said she also became close to Officer Fracker.

She was proud of the relationship they forged.

"I thought we would be an example for the rest of the world," Craighead said. "When we left our last protest, they told us they loved us. They escorted us home. Now I feel betrayed."

On Jan. 9, three days after the riot, Craighead received a copy of a photo of Robertson and Fracker posing inside the Capitol during the siege. They were standing in front of a statute of Revolutionary War General John Stark, who is know for a toast he once wrote - "Live free or die." Fracker is holding his middle finger up to the camera.

She quickly posted it on her Facebook page. The next day, the two officers were placed on paid leave and the FBI was notified, according to a joint statement by Police Chief Ken Criner and Town Manager C. James Ervin. Criner and Ervin did not return calls seeking additional comment.

In response to Craighead's post, Robertson, who, according to local news reports is an Army veteran who received sniper training and served in Iraq, said he did not see a conflict or disparity between supporting local Black protesters and his protest that involved a breach of the Capitol.

"I can protest for what I believe in and still support your protest fro [sic] what you believe in," he wrote. "Just saying...after all, I fought for the right to do it."

Fracker, who military.com said previously served as a Marine, also defended himself on Facebook, saying he believed he did nothing wrong.

"Lol to anyone who's possibly concerned about the picture of me going around," he wrote. "Sorry I hate freedom? Not like I did anything illegal, way too much to lost [sic] to go there, but y'all do what you feel you need to do."

Three days later, Fracker and Robertson were arrested by the FBI.

- - -

The Washington Post's Julie Tate and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.
Ben Stiller was already a big name when Zoolander premiered in 2001. But the film has become one of his most successful movies of all time. The saga of Derek Zoolander is still a fan favorite to this day, almost 20 years later.

Stiller has a gift for comedy, and in Zoolander, it shows. But it may surprise fans to learn that one of the funniest lines in the movie wasnt written into the script. It happened when Stiller had his own Zoolander moment, and forgot his lines, making him seem as ditzy as his character.

But why male models? one of the funniest lines in Zoolander

Ben Stiller wearing a headband in a scene from the film Zoolander, 2001. | Paramount Pictures/Getty Images

RELATED: Meet the Parents 20 Years Later: How Much is the Cast Worth Today?

In the movie, Derek Zoolander, a successful male model, uncovers an evil plot. One of the biggest names in fashion, Mugatu, is plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

He is going to use male models, specifically Zoolander, to do it. Derek learns the truth about how Mugatu is controlling the minds of male models from a hand model played by David Duchovny. They meet late at night, and Duchovny lays out Mugatus evil plot. Zoolander asks: But why male models?

Duchovnys character explains that male models are in top physical shape, and trained to obey orders. Derek listens to the entire speech, and even flashes back on his own experiences as a male model.

Then, at the end of Duchovnys explanation, Derek asks again But why male models? again, as if hes forgotten everything he just heard. Duchovny looks totally confused, and it turns out the look was genuine.

Ben Stiller wasnt supposed to repeat the line

Maybe Stiller was using the method acting technique when this scene of Zoolander was filmed. Forgetting what he was supposed to say seems exactly like something Derek Zoolander himself would do.

The line wasnt supposed to be repeated. Stiller just forgot his line, and so repeated again, But why male models?

Duchovnys look of confusion was genuine, because Stiller was going off script. But the line worked so well, and was so in-character for Derek Zoolander, that the director decided to keep it. The line has become a standout in a movie full of great lines, which is saying something.

Zoolander is known for its meme-ability

There are a lot of great lines that have come out of Zoolander. People still reference Derek Zoolanders signature looks, like Blue Steel. Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell, has one of the most quoted and memeified lines in the movie.

Hes the only one in the movie who acknowledges what the audience is all thinking, that Derek Zoolanders looks all look the same. When no one else seems to see it, he says I feel like Im taking crazy pills!

The line is often repeated or used online as a meme, but it might not be the most quoted line in the film. That honor probably goes to one of Stillers. Derek Zoolander is trying to use his fame for good by building a school.

When hes shown an architectural model of what the building will look like, hes incensed. He says What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they cant even fit inside the building?

The comedy of the scene is amplified by the name Derek has picked for his school: Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Cant Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too. The line has actually become part of cultural vernacular in the US.

People generally refer to small things as for ants, and theres even a group on Reddit dedicated to looking at smaller versions of little things and asking if theyre for ants, referencing the iconic line.

Alec Baldwin has said he dreamed Donald Trump was on trial for sedition with a 'noose made of recycled Covid masks' hanging outside the court.

The actor, 62, who plays the president on Saturday Night Live, tweeted Friday: 'I had a dream Trump was on trial for sedition. And outside the courthouse, a noose was hung from a makeshift scaffold. The noose was made of recycled Covid masks.'

Baldwin has previously compared the president to Hitler and in November called for Trump to be 'buried in a Nazi graveyard' with 'a swastika on his grave'.

The House voted Wednesday 232-197 to impeach Trump for a second time for 'incitement of insurrection,' exactly a week after the MAGA mob stormed Capitol Hill.

Speaking Tuesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president must be charged because of the 'seditious attack' on the Capitol by his supporters.

Though most of the charges brought so far have been misdemeanors, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said the Justice Department was considering bringing sedition charges against some of the rioters, effectively accusing them of attempting to overthrow or defeat the government.

Alec Baldwin has said he dreamed Donald Trump was on trial for sedition with a 'noose made of recycled Covid masks' hanging outside the court

The actor, 62, who plays the president on Saturday Night Live, tweeted Friday: 'I had a dream Trump was on trial for sedition. And outside the courthouse, a noose was hung from a makeshift scaffold. The noose was made of recycled Covid masks'

Alec has been an outspoken critic of Trump throughout his presidency. In February the actor told the public to wake up before the president's 'fascist thinking' becomes the new normal.

In April Alec tweeted: 'Trump has reached for, and nearly gained, a control of the federal govt unrivaled by other Presidents. He fired huge numbers of govt professionals. He steamrolled the Congress, whenever possible. And now this. If you vote for Trump again, you are mentally ill.'

In February Baldwin tweeted: 'It's official. The United States government is as lawless as the malignant dictatorships we've hated in our foreign policy since WWII.'

'Remember that fascistic thinking takes hold when a standard of living is threatened consistently. People think that things are changing, and downward for most Americans. And that this will become the new normal. They are wholly directed by $,' he added.

'You wonder how Hitler took control of a once great country. For those of you too young to recall the War or its aftermath, simply watch how this GOP-controlled Senate behaves,' he said.

'Their sniveling fealty and lack of courage. And you begin to get it,' he added.

It was this week reported that Baldwin his wife Hilaria are 'living in separate houses' so that the actor can quarantine away from his family amid 'concerns about COVID'.

The SNL star is said to be staying at a rented house in Amagansett in the wake of ongoing scandal over the yoga teacher's fake Spanish heritage.

A source told Page Six that he rented a second home in the Hamptons so that he can quarantine away from his family while he continues to travel into the city for work.

It is unclear why that decision has only just been taken given that the couple had been residing together both in the Hamptons and in their Manhattan apartment as recently as the beginning of January.

Hilaria - real name Hillary Hayward-Thomas - has been accused of faking her European background.

It was this week reported that Baldwin his wife Hilaria are 'living in separate houses' so that the actor can quarantine away from his family amid 'concerns about COVID'. The couple are parents to five children - daughter Carmen, seven, and sons Rafael, five, Leonardo, four, Romeo, two, and Eduardo, four months

Alec and Hilaria were last pictured together on January 2, when they were seen enjoying a stroll on the grounds of their East Hamptons estate alongside their kids and the family's two nannies.

It was reported at the time that Alec had been doing his best to keep his wife's spirits up in the wake of the furious controversy that erupted following a viral Twitter thread that made accusations about how Hilaria had been misrepresenting her background for years.

Posted by an anonymous user, the tweets began, 'You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin's commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person.'

It was liked 20,000 times and led to dozens of people finding examples of Baldwin using a Spanish accent, a jarring contrast to her childhood in Boston where she was known as Hillary and considered white by her classmates.

The actor, 62, who plays the president on Saturday Night Live, tweeted: 'Bury Trump in a Nazi graveyard and put a swastika on his grave.' He added: 'The majority of Americans made the right choice. Trump is a maniac'

Baldwin has previously compared the president to Hitler and in February told the public to wake up before the president's 'fascist thinking' becomes the new normal

Several videos of Hilaria's past TV appearances resurfaced showing her commitment to a Spanish accent, including one Today show segment during which she seemingly forgot the English word for 'cucumber'.

A number of Hilaria's former classmates also came forward to confirm that she was in fact raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by professor parents - and did not have a hint of a Spanish accent during her childhood and teen years.

'I went to high school with her. Genuinely lovely person, I recall, but fully a white girl from Cambridge,' one wrote.

Alec leapt to his wife's defense in the wake of the claims, taking a thinly-veiled swipe at her critics on Twitter in the week after the thread was first posted.

'You have to kind of hack your way through the debris of Twitter,' he wrote. 'Twitter is just a vast orchard of cr**. There's things that have been said lately about people that I love, that I care about deeply, which are ridiculous. I mean, just ridiculous.'

The couple are parents to five children - daughter Carmen, seven, and sons Rafael, five, Leonardo, four, Romeo, two, and Eduardo, four months.

Baldwin has joked he would be glad to lose his SNL role playing Trump, pictured, tweeting: 'I don't believe I've ever been this overjoyed to lose a job before!'

Baldwin has already joked he would be glad to lose his SNL role playing Trump, tweeting: 'I don't believe I've ever been this overjoyed to lose a job before!'

And in January Baldwin blasted Trump supports for what he described as the 'colossal destruction of everything that matters' in the USA in a lengthy Twitter rant.

'The desecration of those ideals and the near moral collapse of this country falls squarely in the lap of Trump's supporters... as opposed to Trump himself, who is merely what psychology labels the 'objective negative function,'' he said.

'Like fire, floods and earthquakes, it destroys, and only destroys, by its very nature. Without prejudice. It is Trump voters, particularly those who would re-elect him who bear the blame. For the undeniable and colossal destruction of everything that matters to us as Americans that cannot be merely monetized,' he continued.
Hollywood star Steve Martin has shared his experience of getting the coronavirus vaccine.

"Good news/Bad news. Good news: I just got vaccinated! Bad news: I got it because I'm 75. Ha!," Martin tweeted on Sunday, reports etonline.com.

He shared that his experience was "smooth as silk".

Good news/Bad news. Good news: I just got vaccinated! Bad news: I got it because Im 75. Ha! The operation in NYC was smooth as silk (sorry about the cliche @BCDreyer!) and hosted to perfection by the US Army and National Guard. Thank you all, and thank you science. Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) January 17, 2021

"The operation in NYC was smooth as silk (sorry about the cliche @BCDreyer!) and hosted to perfection by the US Army and National Guard. Thank you all, and thank you science," he added.

Martin, a New York resident, also shared how he got the vaccine after a fan said they could not "find a place for my 83 year old mother in law who lives in NYC".

"I signed up ON line through an NYC dot gov website (sorry I don't have the exact site), and waited IN line at the Javits Center," Martin replied.

The actor claimed that the vaccine hasn't had any side effects yet. "Right now, I'm having no fide resects," he quipped.

One of my heroes is safe. Makes me rest a bit easier. https://t.co/RteWW3xAor Travis Williams (@filmtrav606) January 17, 2021

So this is how far behind we are in Canada. They are vaccinating the older general population in the US. @JustinTrudeau @nshealth @StrangRobert https://t.co/1DVE4Wooy4 Darryl Murphy (@DarrylMurphy78) January 17, 2021

I'm going to tell my grandkids that the I survived the Great Pandemic of 2020 by getting vaccinated on the same day as Steve Martin. https://t.co/iPxejwfNdf Vaibhavi (@Vaibhavi_A) January 17, 2021

This isn't the first time Martin has tweeted about Covid. In September, he joked about making sure fans can still recognise him under his mask. He wore a giant "Steve Martin" sign on his head with an arrow pointing down at him.

"I always wear a mask when I go outside. But something about it was leaving me anxious and unsettled. I thought about the problem, addressed it, and here is the solution," he tweeted.

(With inputs from IANS)
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

An Italian centenarian has become one of the oldest people in the world to get a COVID-19 vaccine, months after she survived a coronavirus infection, her retirement home said.

Fatima Negrini, who is due to turn 109 on June 3, received the jab on Monday along with other residents of the Anni Azzurri San Faustino care home in Milan, a spokesman told AFP.

"The arrival of the vaccine for her and all guests and staff... represents a moment of great happiness and a first step towards a return to peaceful everyday life inside the facility," said Matteo Tessarollo.

When Negrini shook off the virus last year, the Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted her as saying: "God forgot about me."

Italy began coronavirus vaccinations on December 27 and has since inoculated 1.15 million people.

On Monday, a vaccine was also given to Sami Modiano, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor from Rome, according to regional president and leader of the centre-left Democratic Party Nicola Zingaretti.

Posting a picture of Modiano getting the jab on Twitter, Zingaretti called it "an image of trust and hope for everybody".

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
Deputy Chief Minister on Monday ruled out scrapping of nursery admission process this year in view of the pandemic.

"As of now, there is no plan to scrap nursery this year. We are late this year in issuing notification but it will happen," he told reporters.

Usually, the process to enter children in nursery in around 1,700 schools in Delhi begins in the last week of November. The Directorate of Education (DoE) releases guidelines and schools are asked to furnish required information, following which the application process is rolled out usually in December. However, there has been no development on it this year.

Delhi government officials had earlier said that a proposal to scrap nursery is being considered as the schools have been closed since nine months due to COVID-19 and will remain closed till a vaccine is available, a whole year of online learning for small children seems unviable.

"The government has decided that schools will not reopen in Delhi till a vaccine is available. Even if they reopen, pre-primary students will be the last ones to start going to school. So, its unviable to enrol them for a year of online learning," an official had said last month.

"However, no final decision has been taken in this regard and any move will be planned in consultation with schools only," the official had added.

However, school principals were opposed to the idea.

Sisodia, who is also the Education minister of Delhi, reiterated that schools will not reopen till a vaccine is available for public.

Sisodia's comments come on a day schools reopened for class 10 and 12 students in view of preparation of board exams.

"We will wait for the vaccine to be made available to public at large and then a decision on reopening of schools for remaining classes will be taken," he said.

Schools have been closed since March last year in view of the pandemic.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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ALTON  With the presidential inauguration happening on Wednesday, some are concerned that a protest similar to what happened at Washington D.C. could happen in Alton.

Alton Mayor Brant Walker said that, so far, the office has not received any direct threats regarding the inauguration. But he noted police will be more vigilant this week.

Since Ive been in office, Alton has always peacefully expressed their opinions, Walker said. So Im hoping that is what we will expect come inauguration day.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday activated 250 members of the Illinois National Guard for state buildings in Springfield in response to warnings issued this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding threats to state capital cities in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Henry Haupt, a spokesperson for the Illinois Secretary of State, said no permits were requested or issued for potential demonstrations, but Capitol Police, along with other law enforcement agencies, are fully aware of possible marches on state capitols.

State officials said the National Guard will not interfere with peaceful protestors exercising their 1st Amendment rights. The soldiers will aide local authorities in enforcing street closures and designated perimeters.

As with recent previous deployments, the Illinois State Police will work side by side with the Illinois National Guard and our local partners to execute our mission of protecting the democratic process, said ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly.

Prior to his appointment to the post in 2019, Kelly was states attorney in St. Clair County.

Some have suggested that the attack in D.C. will cause many after effects. Dean C. Alexander, Professor of Law Enforcement and Director of the Homeland Security Research Program at Western Illinois University in Macomb, said that there is some discussion of individuals that might decide to travel to the Capitol.

Theyre thinking nationally, but theyre acting locally, Alexander said.

In an article for Security Magazine, Alexander made note that some people may mimic terror targets and the means of attack, irrespective of ideology.

One should recognize that radicals may undertake their attacks in areas outside their geographical bases, Alexander said.

Despite this concern, Alexander said there needs to be delineation between protest activities that are legal and those activities that are illegal.

You cant punish someone based on ideology, Alexander said. However, if people act in contravention to the law, then its another issue.

Alexander also is the author of the book, Family Terror Networks, published in March 2019. He has two articles talking about terrorism and extremism in Security Magazine and Police1; botrh were written a few weeks prior to the event in D.C.
People visit the consumer goods exhibition area during the third China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Renzi)

-- Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

-- The vision has gradually transformed into a consensus shared by countries around the world amid growing global challenges.

-- As a firm proponent and practitioner of multilateralism, China has all along taken concrete actions to turn the vision into reality via win-win cooperation.

BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Pulling together to build a community with shared future for mankind, a historic and philosophical concept presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has gradually transformed into a consensus amid growing challenges worldwide.

Four years ago, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Xi called for building such a community while expounding his vision of humanity's future.

The Chinese leader championed a world of lasting peace, common security for all and common prosperity, as well as an open, inclusive, and clean world. His vision was applauded more than 30 times by the audience in his 47-minute speech.

Four years on, in the shadow of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, with worldwide political and socio-economic challenges, Xi's concept has proven to be "the only future for humanity on this planet," as Peter Thomson, president of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, said.

A China-Europe freight train carrying medical supplies bound for Madrid of Spain departs from the city of Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 5, 2020. (Photo by Lyu Bin/Xinhua)

THE ANSWER

The novel coronavirus has infected close to 100 million people across the globe, taking over 2 million lives. The pandemic has not only exerted extreme pressure on public health systems worldwide, but also disrupted the normal political and economic order.

Amid the global crisis, hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism loom over the world, which further threatens a post-pandemic future for humankind.

To unite or to separate? To open up or to exclude? To cooperate or to confront? The world is in a historic crossroads.

In his speech delivered at the Palace of Nations on Jan. 18, 2017, Xi listed such priorities as partnership, security, growth and inter-civilization exchanges in building a community of a shared future for humankind.

Roy Van Den Hurk (1st L), general manager of product with New Zealand dairy company TheLand, attends a cooperation signing ceremony during the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

Since 2013, when the Chinese president first presented the concept during a visit to Russia, Xi has enriched the concept to include building a shared future with neighboring countries, with Asia-Pacific partners, with African countries, with Latin American countries, and building a maritime shared future, as well as a shared future in cyberspace.

With the pandemic still raging, Xi put forward the proposal of jointly building a community of common health for humankind, calling for active engagement in jointly battling the pandemic and enhancing global public health governance.

China has initiated the largest global humanitarian efforts in its history, providing anti-epidemic aid to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations, and sending 36 medical expert teams to 34 countries.

"Coronavirus is a global crisis that no country is immune from. It has proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice to win the battle," said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

Staff members of South Korean enterprises wait to check in for a flight to Tianjin, China, at Incheon International Airport, South Korea, May 10, 2020. (NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua)

"China's commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind is one of the most beautiful philosophical concepts, and a magnificent Chinese initiative for the peace and well-being of peoples in history of humanity," said Pierre Picquart, a French expert on China at the University of Paris VIII.

CONCRETE ACTION

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the world economy and added to its instability and uncertainty, China took innovative approaches to establish "fast tracks" and "green lanes" to ensure a smooth flow of personnel and goods and keep industrial and supply chains stable and open.

With containment protocols in place, China hosted a series of global trade events as scheduled including the 2020 China International Fair For Trade in Services in Beijing, the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, and the 17th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, among others.

"This demonstrated China's sincere desire to share its market opportunities with the world to tide over difficulties," said Chen Fengying, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Photo taken on Nov. 28, 2020 shows a Pakistani exhibition area of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo at Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

The CIIE provided growth opportunities for Roy van den Hurk, a New Zealand dairy company manager.

Joining the over 3,600 companies from over 150 countries and regions, it was the third consecutive year for Hurk's company Theland to participate in the CIIE, with the previous two resulting in increased product sales.

"I felt completely safe while at CIIE, and in fact I feel completely safe in Shanghai as well," said Hurk. "We are also very confident of the China market for many years to come." The company has already signed a three-year long-term participation memorandum with the organizers to secure a booth place at the next CIIE.

In his Geneva speech, Xi welcomed other countries "aboard the fast train of China's development." The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an important platform proposed by Xi in 2013, has been part of that drive.

Workers walk on a continuous beam at the construction site of the China-built Jakarta-Bandung high-speed-railway in Bekasi, West Java province, Indonesia, Aug. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, BRI cooperation continues to bear fruit. In the first eight months of 2020, China's trade with Belt and Road partners reached 5.86 trillion yuan (about 896 billion U.S. dollars), and Chinese companies increased their non-financial direct investment in partner countries by more than 30 percent year on year.

The China-Europe freight train service network, a land transportation artery like a modern railway version of camel caravans across Eurasia, saw 10,180 trips made as of Nov. 5, 2020. Nearly 8 million parcels of medical supplies have been delivered via the network last year.

For Pakistani President Arif Alvi, the BRI has profoundly interpreted the true meaning of cooperation, peace and development and reflected the universal aspirations of people around the world.

NEW POSSIBILITY

No country in the world can enjoy absolute security while others remain in turmoil, Xi said at the Palace of Nations.

Visitors try a virtual reality (VR) product in the cultural services exhibition area of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Xi delivered speeches at a series of United Nations high-level meetings marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the 193-nation body.

The Chinese president called on all countries to abandon a zero-sum mentality and promote universal security, in line with his Geneva speech.

Green and low-carbon development and a coexistence between humanity and nature has long been a part of Xi's global vision.

China has announced that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. China has also pledged to lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 15, 2020 shows a solar thermal electricity project in Gonghe County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Hainan in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

China has not only made achievements in its own green development, but also shared its experience with other countries, said Nasser Bouchiba, president of the Africa-China Cooperation Association for Development in Morocco.

"A just cause should be pursued for the common good," Xi has quoted this Chinese proverb in many speeches. Traditional Chinese culture advocates "harmony in diversity" and upholds "the beauty of each civilization," which has become a gene deeply rooted in the vision of building a shared future for humankind.

However, major changes unseen in a century have given rise to profound changes in the international order. Some countries started to advocate the fallacy of a "clash of civilizations," "racial superiority" and "putting one's own country first" in an attempt to foster prejudice, estrangement and hatred.

Over the past four years, Xi has pointed out on many international occasions that diversity of human civilizations not only defines our world, but also drives humanity's progress. Civilizations are enriched by exchanges and mutual learning. "Only through mutual respect, mutual learning and harmonious coexistence can the world maintain its diversity and thrive," Xi said.

Martin Jacques, a senior fellow of politics and international studies at Cambridge University, said China has carried out unprecedented work at home and abroad and offered "a new possibility" to the world.
President Akufo-Addo has disclosed that Ghana has detected a new variant of the coronavirus.



Speaking in his 22nd address to the nation on COVID-19, the President said: "Recent genomic sequencing undertaken by our scientists have established that some arriving passengers tested positive for new variants of COVID-19".



He further indicated that "these passengers have all been isolated" and "work is ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population".



Meanwhile, Ghana's active cases continue to surge with a current record of 1924 and 352 deaths.



According to the President, "detailed investigations of the cases indicate that, apart from arriving passengers at our airport who tested positive, infected persons have recent histories of attending parties, weddings, end of year office programmes, family get-togethers, and funerals. At these gatherings, most of them abandoned the use of the masks, and were engaged in actions that led to them contracting the virus".



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The Apostle Paul wrote the most books of any New Testament author. He was spiritually profound and intellectually brilliant. This means that his writings are filled with deep wisdom and understanding, but they can also be a bit difficult to grasp at times. One of his puzzling phrases is found in Romans 12:1 where he says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. What is a living sacrifice? That is not a common phrase in 21st-century Western society.

The temptation may be for us to just skip over that part and keep reading. However, if we do that, we miss a very important point about what the life and attitude of a Christian should look like. As with many things in Scripture, the concept of a living sacrifice is one that requires some intentional digging to fully understand. But if we do, we may find a new way of looking at our lives.

What Is the Context of Romans 12:1?

Romans could be considered Pauls most thorough explanation of redemptive history. He starts with the sinfulness of mankind and Gods judgment of both Jews and Gentiles alike. He then introduces Christ as the solution to humanitys sin problem. Because of this, believers live in freedom from sin and peace with God. He then addresses Gods sovereignty over salvation and the future of the Jews. The beginning of Chapter 12 acts as a hinge on which Paul pivots his discussion from theology to how we should live our lives in light of it. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 12 are meant to be the heart attitude behind the commands Paul gives in chapters 12 through 14.

What Does Living Sacrifice Mean?

So, what exactly does the phrase living sacrifice mean?

We know from other places in Scripture that it cannot refer to a sacrifice that covers or atones for sin. We are told in numerous places that all the sins of the saints have been atoned for by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 9:12; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:24-25, 5:9). Therefore, there is nothing for us to make up, in a sense. In addition, Paul openly condemns the idea of works-based salvation (Gal. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:9-10).

Now that we have established what it cannot mean, lets go to the text and look for clues as to what Paul means by the phrase living sacrifice. If we look at the end of verse 1, we see that Paul describes being a living sacrifice as spiritual worship. The word for worship here can also mean ministry or service. This gives us a good starting place for understanding sacrifice in a New Testament context.

One way to understand sacrifice in the New Testament is as a service or offering to God. We see this idea in Philippians 4:18 when Paul describes a gift he received from the Philippian church as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul is not saying that they literally made an offering to God in an Old Testament sense. Rather, by serving Paul and meeting his needs, the Philippians served the cause of God, which was acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.

If this is the case, what effectsif anydo these sacrifices have on our relationship with God? The very fact that Paul tells his readers to offer their lives as an offering or service to the Lord would indicate that doing so is important. One reason could be that such sacrifices win the Lords approval because we are living as he calls us to live (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). This does not mean that we earn Gods love or favor; we receive that as a result of salvation through Jesus.

Rather, we might think of it as a father watching his small child. The child shares his toys with his sister, obeys his fathers warning not to touch the light socket, and colors his father a picture that would confound even the most expressionistic of artists. All these things please the heart of the father. He does not love his son more because of his behavior, but he is delighted by his simple expressions of love and respect.

This is how living our lives as sacrifices affect our relationship with God. Just like the father in the illustration, God is already committed to those of us who are in Christ. When we live our lives in service to God, we are simply returning love and respect to the one who has already given us everything. May we never try to earn what the Lord has already given us by grace (1 John 4:10).

What Are the Qualities of a Living Sacrifice?

Naturally, our next question may be, How do I live my life as an offering or service to God? As with all biblical commands, we should begin with the attitude of our hearts. Without the right motives, our good deeds are nothing more than filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6).

The Lord graciously gives us examples of how we ought to be motivated in his Apostles. The Apostle Paul, who wrote the command for believers to present themselves as living sacrifices, understood that his life did not belong to him. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul says this, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. In a spiritual sense, Pauls old self and the life he lived for himself died with Christ. His life now is given to him by Jesus. Therefore, Paul lives every day through faith in the life-giving power of Jesus.

What does that kind of dependence and indebtedness do to a person? Paul tells us in Romans 1:1. He describes himself as a servant of Christ Jesusset apart for the gospel of God. The Greek word translated servant more accurately means slave. Paul is not the only apostle to think of himself as a slave of Christ. Peter also in his second epistle introduces himself as Jesus Christs servant. Servants and slaves do not live for themselves but do whatever their master wishes. Though it may offend our modern sensibilities to think of ourselves and other believers as slaves of Christ, this is the right way of thinking. We have been bought with an immeasurable price: the blood of the Son of God himself. Through the shedding of his blood, we have been raised to new life. It is only right that we would live our lives in complete service and devotion to the One who saved us.

Through this lens, we can look at how to act as living sacrifices. After encouraging his readers to make themselves living sacrifices, Paul expounds upon what he means in verse 2. From this verse, we can discern three basic elements of a living sacrifice:

1) Not conformed to the ideals of the world

2) Transformed by an inward renewal that works outward

3) Able to discern the will of God

First, we are told that a living sacrifice is not conformed to what the world looks like. This means that a believer who desires to live as an offering to God rejects whatever he/she sees in the world that does not line up with Scripture. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul describes how humanity turned from God and refused to acknowledge him as Lord. Therefore, he gave them over to their foolish ways of thinking. From there, people became more and more depraved, running further and further from Gods ways. As followers of Christ, we must have the courage to reject ideas and practices that are contrary to what God has said is right. People will see that we are disciples of Christ when we oppose things that grieve the heart of God.

Second, a living sacrifice is to be inwardly transformed and renewed, which will work its way out into actions. Salvation is not clean yourself up, get your life together, then Jesus will love you. Quite the opposite. Salvation is God forgiving us, reaching down into the filth of our hearts, and transforming us into new creatures who love him and want to do his will. Rather than focusing on doing and saying all the right things, we should be focused on the renewal of our hearts. This will change how we think, how we feel, and how we behave. Inward change naturally works its way outward. Jesus said, You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean (Matt. 23:26). In order to change our behavior, we must invest time and energy into renewing our minds and hearts through prayer and time in Gods word.

Finally, Paul tells us that a person who is committed to being a living sacrifice will be able to discern the will of God by testing. The word that the ESV translates as testing can also be translated to discern, examine, or approve. Basically, he is saying that as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and we grow in our understanding of who God is, we will develop the ability to test a situation and determine if the direction we want to go lines up with Gods desire for our lives. This is an incredible promise! We do not have to guess Gods will for our lives and just hope we dont screw up. If we prayerfully seek his wisdom, he will give us the ability to see his will. This may not look like an angel coming to us in a dream or an audible voice saying, Take the job. But God will guide us as we navigate trying to live our lives in service to him.

How Can We Be Living Sacrifices to God?

Pauls encouragement to the Romans (and us) is no easy calling. To be a living sacrifice means to live every minute of every day as an offering and service to the Lord. It radically goes against our culture of self-promotion and making our own dreams come true. It means laying down our own ambitions, dreams, gifts, and fears, and telling God, Do whatever you want with me. I am your servant. Armed with that mindset, we must be ready to reject things that do not line up with Gods word, devote ourselves to having our minds renewed, and to learn how to discern the will of God for our lives.

How do we even begin such a process? The answer is simple: look to Jesus. Jesus not only saves us from our sins and brings us into the presence of the Father, but he lived a perfect life for us to emulate. Jesus demonstrated what it means to be a living sacrifice. He was God in the flesh, yet he humbled himself and lived to serve others (Matt. 20:28; Phil. 2:6-7). He called out sin and rejected the ideals of the culture around him (Matt 23:3-36; Mark 7:5-13, Mark 10:5-9). His mind was in complete harmony with that of the Father (John 10:30). He knew the will of God and always acted on it (John 14:10).

Jesus set a perfect example for us, and he is always ready to forgive us when we fail to live up to that example. We will mess up at times, but Jesus will always be right there to give us grace. We can take great comfort in this as we work toward living every moment of our lives as offerings to God.

Pray and ask God to help you change your mindset from what you want to what he wants. Ask him to show you his will and give you the strength to act on it. Most of all, pray that he will help you to fall in love with the heart of Jesus. The more we love Jesus, the more we will desire to be like him.

Photo credit: Daniel Reche/Pixabay

Rylie Fine is a freelance writer and editor. She is passionate about the Bible and seeks to equip other believers to study it for themselves. Rylie lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, Evan.

This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.

"Be Still and Know that I Am God"

"Pray Without Ceasing"

"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made"

"All Things Work Together for Good"

"Do Not Fear"
The disruption due to covid has opened up new avenues for pan-India firms to pursue consolidation in the diagnostics industry. Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, for instance, has seized the opportunity to strengthen its presence in south India through a large acquisition. The companys board has approved the acquisition of Dr Ganesans Hitech Diagnostic Centre Pvt. Ltd in a cash and stock deal.

The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in three months, aims to strengthen Metropoliss presence in Chennai and Bengaluru, in particular.

Metropolis remains the market leader in Chennai, while Hitech is the second-largest. The latter, however, leads in non-Chennai markets in Tamil Nadu, apart from a sizeable presence in Bengaluru. The Hitech acquisition will bring 31 laboratories including three NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration) accredited laboratories, and 68 collection centres to the Metropolis fold. Analysts say that once the deal is completed, Metropoliss market share in Chennai will increase to 30%.

View Full Image on the firm footing

Hitechs financial performance has gained momentum during the past nine months. It had clocked revenue of 83.3 crore in FY20 (up 21% year-on-year) with an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margin similar to Metropolis. In the first nine months of FY21, as per management estimates, Hitech is expected to report revenue growth of more than 50% and higher Ebitda margin, partly aided by the current pandemic situation.

With this acquisition, Metropolis is also hoping to make gains in the B2C (business to consumer) segment. The company had been targeting B2C revenue contribution of 65% in key cities, higher than the B2C contribution of 58% in H1FY21. On a pro forma basis, the deal adds 10% to Metropoliss FY20 revenue/Ebitda, analysts say. However, cash consideration for the acquisition will be 511 crore, in addition to new equity shares.

Of the cash consideration, 60% is to be funded through debt. Keeping in mind the debt-servicing costs, the benefits of the acquisition may be limited in the first few years. Analysts at IIFL Securities Ltd said that they expect the deal to be only marginally EPS-accretive in the first year of closing (though accretion will also depend on amortization related to goodwill/intangibles, the quantum of which is unknown yet). Benefits of the acquisition will, however, be significantly higher if and when the debt reduces.

The Metropolis stock saw intra-day gains of over 5% on Monday.

The outlook for the company remains strong. As patient footfall at doctors clinics and hospitals is improving, it will aid non-covid revenues even as higher covid testing and antibody testing is expected to drive earnings growth further.

Nevertheless, the stock is trading at about 50 times FY22 estimated earnings and is certainly not cheap.

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In this century, "soft power" is often said to have replaced "hard power": that is, the power of enormous influence over the lives of millions has replaced tanks and guns. For example, Sweden's power no longer lies with its military policies, which once commanded so much of northern Europe: Swedish power is now invested in Ikea, Volvo and Spotify.

Poland enjoyed some prestige from producing a Polish Pope, but its soft power today reposes in the fact that it is the world's fourth-largest exporter of video games, after China, Japan and Hong Kong. The Polish CD Projekt Red is the industry's leader.

Communism is no longer fashionable, so the power of China's Communist regime is seldom admired, but it reaches a lot of soft power through the two billion users who download personalised videos via the Chinese-owned TikTok.

Neutral little Switzerland's soft power resides in the vast amount of money and gold deposited in its vaults.

Music and sport exercise global soft power. More people probably know about the Irish famine and the infamous Charles Trevelyan via The Fields of Athenry than through any history book.

Sportsmen and women have always had soft power: from Muhammad Ali to Sir Lewis Hamilton, men of colour have championed their people through the reach of their sporting achievements.

"Influencers" like the Kardashians have created soft power for themselves - and for others in their wake. I've been astonished by how many young women attract hefty revenues through the simple procedure of recommending cosmetics via their websites. More power to their elbow.

But, surely, we must acknowledge that the mistress, the queen and the empress of contemporary soft power is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.

Like her or critique her, the global-reach soft power that she has achieved over the space of a few short years is amazing. The lady has built a soft-power empire.

Her half-sister Samantha's book, The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister, published this week, may not present a flattering picture of Meghan, but it is unlikely to detract from her power. It may even add to Meghan's stock, under the Barnum principle that "any publicity is good publicity".

Think about it: in the summer of 2016, Meghan Markle, a leading actress in a middle-ranking TV series, meets Prince Harry, a lost soul never at ease with his station in life.

Less than two years later, they are married at Windsor with the full pomp and ceremony of the Church of England, Meghan's previous divorce notwithstanding (and a fast-track reception into the Anglican Church effected). Nice house bestowed on couple and marriage is followed by birth of a son.

And then, in late 2019, the Sussexes decamp to Canada and subsequently California, where they settle down to fashioning their new life. What a smart career move that turned out to be.

Last year, the couple clinched a deal with Netflix worth a reported $100m. I say "the couple", but few doubt that the business acumen is Meghan's, as well as the pitch, the concept and the imagination.

It was announced they would use the deal for "inspirational family programming" that "informs but also gives hope".

Deft touch: there's a global audience for that. Then, towards the end of 2020, came the Sussexes' deal with the aforementioned Spotify, for a reported $25m. They now have their own broadcast outlet, Archewell Audio - named after their toddler son, Archie, who has made a first appearance via Spotify podcasting.

There have been some grumblings that, at a time when the revenue of professional musicians has dwindled to the most meagre returns, the Sussex deal seems disproportionate.

On the other hand, Meghan and Harry have pledged to do all sorts of good deeds for charity and have hired "a fleet of staff" to help promote wellness, mental health care and women's causes. They're absolutely on the hot-button topics.

There are critical mutterings in Britain - among royals and among the populace, where the couple's popularity has fallen - but from Meghan's viewpoint, she is living a richly fulfilling life.

She has her man (Harry's already talking Californian like his neighbour Gwyneth Paltrow, telling us to imagine that we are all little raindrops), she has her son and she has created, from her own bold initiatives, a business empire worth millions of dollars.

But it's not just the money. Meghan's soft power can command almost any global celebrity to her side, from Oprah Winfrey to Elton John and Gloria Steinem, matriarch of American feminism.

Anything Meghan endorses will gain favour. It is reasonable to suppose that the doors of the Biden-Harris White House will be open to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Sure, people will say jealous things, but that's the price of success. When one or other of his grandparents departs this world - Philip will be 100 this year; Elizabeth, 95 - Harry will wish to return for the ceremonial adieux and there may be all kinds of mixed feelings.

But you have to hand it to Duchess Meghan: she has moved the chess pieces on the board of life brilliantly and deserves to be acknowledged as the very epitome of soft power.
A patient of the Covid ward in Cork University Hospital (CUH) has urged the public to increase their vigilance after she found it so difficult to breathe that she thought she was going to suffocate.

Emma O'Sullivan, aged 49, said that the word "frontline" doesn't even begin to cover the efforts made by staff to stabilise Covid patients who present at the hospital.

Having spent a week in hospital Emma has called on the public to stay at home in order to reduce virus numbers.

"With my breathing I thought I was going to suffocate. They gave me oxygen and it was like giving me life,"

Ms O'Sullivan said. "I am only 49 and there is a 90-year-old across from me and with their breathing I don't know if they are going to survive or not.

"There was a woman next to me last night who is heading for ICU now. People have no idea how bad it is."

Emma joined the Neil Prendeville show, on Cork's Red FM, from her bed in the hospital where she thanked the doctors and nurses for giving her her life back after she was transferred onsite from her home in Bandon.

Emma says that staff have made trojan efforts to save lives.

"I have never met nicer people (than since I came in here). The smile and the cheer and the nourishing food. The ICU doctor comes down and he encourages me every day."

"I have been put on oxygen and it has been reduced with the hope that I will be home in West Cork soon. It is unbelievable what they have done for me.

"My sense of taste went. I couldn't eat and I was forcing a cracker and water down. The ambulance driver came and he said 'you are drowning'. I had Covid pneumonia.

"The staff are coming out of everywhere. There were two nurses here the other night and they have spent 20 years in theatre."

The childcare worker, who owns her own business, said that she wouldn't hear any criticism of CUH.

"You can tell or reassure any person out there who has a grandmother in here that they are keeping them alive if they can.

"The old people  they bathe them, they wrap them in their arms. My heart is jumping out of my chest (from all they have done.) Emma said she was missing her husband and children. She added that she had to fight for her life after contracting Covid whilst appealing to the public to stay safe.

"I didn't know the day or the hour. I was in a room isolated. The staff have supported, helped me and nourished me and they have done it for everyone in the hospital. There are people of all ages here.

"I am on the B side of the hospital and the A side in ICU is worse. What is in the other side of the hospital? This is a call of gratitude."
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Vaccinations against COVID-19 infection almost doubled in the last week as the pace of inoculation picked up after the holidays.

As of Wednesday, more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians had received at least the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, according to the state Department of Health. Almost all were frontline health care workers, or residents and staff of long-term care centers, including nursing homes, the departments top priority. In local counties, Carbon has had 2,188 people vaccinated; Luzerne, 10,864; and Schuylkill, 4,632.

The availability of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines has raised a number of questions and left many wondering when or whether they should get vaccinated.

Here are some answers here:

Q: When can I get vaccinated against COVID-19?

A: A lot depends on vaccine supply, but state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine has repeatedly said mass vaccination for the general public probably wont happen until late spring or early summer. Health care workers, first responders, people in nursing homes and other long-term care centers are still up first, though Levine said last week that she expects the next vaccination phase to begin soon.

You can find a full priority list for vaccination along with the states vaccination plan at www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Vaccine.aspx.

Q: Is there a waiting list or somewhere the general public can sign up for the vaccine?

A: No, mainly because state health officials have no idea when mass vaccination will happen.

Q: Where will vaccines for the public be available?

A: State officials expect that to happen at a variety of places, including mass inoculations sites whose locations they will announce.

Q: Do I have to get vaccinated?

A: Generally, no, though your employer may require you to get a vaccination. However, health officials urge everyone to get vaccinated because its the surest way to slow the virus spread.

Q: How many shots do I need?

A: The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots. The second Pfizer shot comes 21 days later, the Moderna, 28 days. Other vaccines in development may require only one shot.

Q: Is the vaccine dangerous? What are the side effects? Can I get COVID-19 from the vaccine?

No, you cant get COVID-19 from the vaccine because, unlike other vaccines, live virus is not used in making it. However, the body needs a few weeks to build immunization after a vaccination. Until that happens, a vaccinated person could get infected and get sick, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.

The vaccine is widely considered safe. The most typical side effects are pain and swelling in the arm where you got the shot, fever, chills, tiredness and aches in the rest of your body, according to the CDC.

Moderna says its vaccine can also produce nausea and vomiting.

Most side effects dont last more than a day or two.

A few patients among the hundreds of thousands vaccinated have reported allergic reactions. One Florida doctor who advocated vaccination died two weeks after his, but authorities are still investigating if his death is vaccine-related. There have been no widespread reports of deaths or severe symptoms.

Q: If I had COVID-19, am I immune from the virus?

A: Maybe, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which also says experts dont know how long this protection lasts. The department says the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 far outweighs any benefits of natural immunity. The vaccine protects you by creating an antibody response without (you) having to experience sickness.

Q: If I had COVID-19 and recovered, should I still get the vaccine?

A: Yes. The CDC says you should because of the severe health risks associated with COVID-19 and because reinfection is possible.

Q: How much will a vaccine cost?

A: It shouldnt cost anything. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed by Congress last March says any authorized COVID-19 is considered a preventive health service so private health insurers must cover their entire cost with no charge to the person receiving the vaccine. Medicaid and Medicare cover vaccinations full cost.

Systems can charge a fee for administering the vaccine, but insurers are required to pay for that, too.

For uninsured patients, vaccination providers can seek reimbursement from the federal government.

Q: Will I need a prescription to get vaccinated?

A: No.

Q: Do I have to keep wearing masks and social distancing after getting the vaccine?

A: Wearing masks remains mandatory in public places. Someone who had the vaccine may still get the virus and spread it. The end of wearing masks will happen when enough people get the vaccine, officials say. That may take most of this year.

Q: Should children get vaccinated?

A: Yes, but so far neither the Moderna nor the Pfizer vaccine is approved for children under 16 years old. Pfizers is approved for 16 and older, Modernas for 18 and older. Both companies say theyre conducting trials with children, who are generally less susceptible to severe COVID-19 symptoms anyway.

Q: Ive heard COVID-19 mutated and some people came down with the variant. Will the vaccines work against the variant?

A: Its hard to know for sure because the variant is so new. Pennsylvania had only one reported variant case as of Jan. 11.

Pfizer says its preliminary study shows its vaccine will work against the variant.

Moderna is still studying that.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Monday said he has received a death threat and got a police complaint lodged in the matter.

Sharing the copy of the police complaint on Twitter, Singh said he will not get intimidated by such threats.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader urged the to take cognizance of the matter and initiate action.

A senior police officer said at around 7 pm on Monday, a complaint was received at the North Avenue police station from Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, regarding threats being given to him over the phone.

"A non-cognizable report under section 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered," the officer said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Victorian border will finally been opened to millions of Sydneysiders on Monday night.

The changes announced by the Victorian government on Monday morning come into effect at 6pm.

Ten local government areas across Sydney remain off limits as red zones, which means they can't cross the Victorian border without an exemption, exception or essential worker permit.

Those red zone areas include Blacktown, Burwood, Canada Bay, Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Inner West, Liverpool Parramatta and Strathfield, where recent coronavirus cases have been recorded.

The other 25 local government areas across Sydney will be declared as 'orange zones', which means those coming from those areas can enter Victoria but must have a permit.

They must also get tested within 72 hours of entering Victoria and isolate until they return a negative result.

Residents from some parts of Sydney can enter Victoria with a valid permit from 6pm Monday. Pictured are interstate travellers arriving at Melbourne Airport earlier in January

Ten Sydney local government areas (pictured) remain 'red zones' but will be reviewed by the Victorian government on a daily basis

Among the new orange zones are Sydney's northern beaches, where an outbreak emerged a week before Christmas, sending 270,000 residents into lockdown.

'Travellers from other areas of Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains and Wollongong will no longer require an exemption permit and can enter Victoria, as long as they have not been in a currently listed red zone in the past 14 days,' the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Local government areas in NSWs border bubble will also become green zones, where travellers from these areas will not be required to get tested.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Monday he had texted his NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian of the changes, a day after she blasted him for not reopening the borders sooner.

Thousand of Sydneysiders can fly into Victoria if they have a valid permit and must get tested within 72 hours of crossing the border. Pictured are recent travellers at Sydney Airport

Victoria will declare regional NSW as a green zone from Monday night, which means those crossing the border don't need to get tested. Pictured is border checkpoint in Mallacoota

Blacklisted regions The following Sydney local government areas remain 'red zones' City of Blacktown Burwood Canada Bay City Canterbury-Bankstown Cumberland Fairfield City Inner West Liverpool City Parramatta City Strathfield Municipality Advertisement

He added the ten LGAs across Sydney that remain red zones will be reviewed on a daily basis.

'I think it will be unlikely that all ten would flip to orange at the same time,' Mr Andrews told reporters.

'They will be designated red for not a moment longer than they need to be.

'And we won't wait for all ten to be orange. It may be that some of them come off in a few days. Others may take longer. I know that that is frustrating and challenging not to be able to provide a definite answer on that.'

It comes as NSW recorded no new locally-acquired coronavirus cases on Monday while Victoria recorded zero community transmissions for a 12 consecutive day.

A day earlier, Ms Berejiklian slammed Mr Andrews for not reopening the border sooner.

'He's not been in touch with me at all but I also say that should have occurred quite a while back because we don't have a hot spot in New South Wales,' Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Sunday.

'We are, of course, dealing with a result of an outbreak from a month ago, but I think everybody would agree that closing a border of such significance is a really big deal and I stress that we waited until Victoria had in excess of - I think it was 180 cases they had the day after we announced the border closure.'

Victoria's border restrictions will be eased further on Monday night when they reopen to travellers coming from 25 of Sydney's 35 LGA. Pictured is a border checkpoint at Albury

'Just to put things into perspective, those decisions are difficult ones, they affect a lot of people and I would just ask people to really think about those decisions before they're taken.'

Meanwhile, Australians have been warned the the nation's borders will probably remain closed for most of 2021.

Health Department Secretary Professor Brendan Murphy says that 'substantial border restrictions' will continue throughout 2021 and quarantine of returned Australians will be in place for 'some time'.

A new 'traffic light' system has been introduced for anyone looking to cross the Victorian borders. Pictured is a motorist passing through a border checkpoint in Mallacoota in the state's East Gippsland region
Vaccinations

According to the Bloomberg Vaccination Tracker, more than 42,2m vaccines have been administered as at 17th January.

This figure is likely to be higher, with numbers from China, a number of EU member states, and other parts of the world yet to be updated.

By doses administered, the U.S leads the way, having administered 14.31m doses, as at 17th January.

As at 13th January, China had administered 10 million doses as the government looks to prevent another wave of the pandemic.

While the EU sits behind China, with 5.27m doses administered, the UK ranks 4th, with 4.31m doses administered.

Vaccination Rates

When looking at vaccination rates, however, it is a different story.

China had a vaccination rate of just 0.71 per 100 people, with the EU having a vaccination rate of 1.19 per 100.

It was slightly better for the U.S after the weekend, with the vaccination rate rising to 4.36 per 100.

This number remains particularly low, however, when considering the continued rise in new cases and related deaths. For incoming president Joe Biden, the bigger concern, however, will be the fact that only 46% of doses distributed have been administered.

Biden has pledged the vaccination of 100 million in 100 days. A greater vaccination drive is going to be need to, not only meet the pledge, but to bring the pandemic under control.

New strains of the virus have contributed to the pickup in infection rates.

The good news is, however, that the vaccination rate is well above 2.44 doses per 100 as at 12th January.

Global Numbers

Leading the charge geographically, by vaccination rate, continues to be Israel.

As at 17th January, Israel had reported a vaccination rate of 25.91 per 100 people.

The U.A.E was narrowing the gap, with the vaccination rate climbing from 15.50 to 17.52 per 100 as at 17th January.

From the UK, the governments vaccination drive was reflected in the latest figures. As at 17th January, the vaccination rate stood at 6.45 doses per 100 people. This was up from 5.51 doses per 100 as at 15th January.

Story continues

By contrast, the EU continued to fall well behind the U.S and the UK.

As at 17th January, the EU had a vaccination rate of 1.19 per 100.

Amongst the 4 worst affected member states, Italy continued to lead the way with a vaccination rate of 1.90 doses per 100 as at 17th January. This was up from 1.66 as at 15th January.

17th January figures for Spain, Germany, and France were not yet available.

France continued to disappoint, however, with a vaccination rate of just 0.65 per 100 as at 16th January.

The latest figures from Germany and Spain were somewhat better.

As at 16th January, Germany had a vaccination rate of 1.26 per 100, with Spain a vaccination rate of 1.65 as at 15th January.

When considering the ongoing lockdown measures and continued rise in new cases, however, more is going to be needed.

For a full breakdown of vaccination rates by country, please visit Bloomberg Vaccination Tracker page here.

The Latest COVID-19 Numbers

At the time of writing, there were a total of 95,480,678 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,039,607 related deaths.

By geography, the U.S had reported 24,482,050 cases and 407,202 COVID-19 related deaths.

India reporting 10,572,672 cases, with Brazil reporting 8,488,099 cases.

Sitting behind Russia (3,568,209) remained the UK (3,395,959).

France (2,910,989), Italy (2,381,277), Spain (2,252,164), and Germany (2,050,099) reported a combined 9,594,529 cases.

Looking Ahead

This morning, we saw 4th quarter GDP numbers from China fail to support demand for riskier assets. In spite of upbeat numbers, a recent pickup in new COVID-19 cases in China muted the effect of the numbers.

This was in spite of the ongoing vaccination drive across the country.

With vaccination rates at the lower end for China and other major economies, the continued rise in new COVID-19 cases is likely to slow any economic recovery.

Fiscal and monetary policy support may be in place but without an easing of lockdown measures, consumption will likely continue to wane.

Last week, December retail sales figures from the U.S fell further. This was in spite of the government holding off reintroducing a nationwide lockdown.

As governments look to ramp up vaccination rates, vaccine supply will soon become a focal point.

For the EU, in particular, approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine is likely to be key. At the time of writing, however, the EMA is not due to review the vaccine until 29th January.

This means that the EU would likely continue to see a reduced supply of COVID-19 vaccines until mid to late February.

Extended lockdown measures across France, Germany, and Italy in particular would also question the ECBs growth forecast for 2021

India and Brazil

For Brazil, which has seen a spike in new COVID-19 cases as a result of new strains, Anvisa approved both the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines.

Two medical centers in the country are reportedly set to manufacture the vaccines to meet national demand.

India, which ranks ahead of Brazil in terms of total COVID-19 cases, is also on a vaccination drive. The government reportedly delivered millions of doses of approved vaccines across the country in just a matter of days.

Alongside Brazil, India is using the AstraZeneca vaccine. In addition, India is also administering its very own Covaxin vaccine.

As at 17th January, India had a vaccination rate of just 0.02 per 100. At the time of writing, there were no figures available from Brazil.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Shocking new footage captured inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot shows a timid police officer sharing friendly interactions with a group of MAGA insurrectionists that viewers online have called an example of white privilege at its best.

Veteran war correspondent, Luke Mogelson, captured the video on the day hundreds of rioters, including 'QAnon Shaman' Jake Angeli, stormed the legislature following President Donald Trump's remarks at the Save America rally in Washington, DC.

The clip begins with a jovial Angeli walking into the Senate wing, greeting a group of fellow rioters with a member of US Capitol PD following closely behind him.

The self-dubbed shaman, seen clutching a US flag, is heard saying: Hey!  Glad to see you guys. You guys are f***ing patriots. Look at this guy, Hes got, covered in blood. God Bless you.

A man in a red hat and camouflage jacket is seen sitting on the floor, slumped against a wall as he speaks into a cell phone.

The officer, not visible in shot, is then heard warmly asking the man: Are you good sir? Do you need medical attention?

Scroll down for video

The clip begins with a jovial Angeli walking into the Senate Chamber, greeting a group of fellow rioters with a member of US Capitol PD following closely behind him

The officer (right) is heard asking one of the rioters, who was seen sitting on the floor, if he needs medical attention

The officer then nonchalantly inquires: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?

The man responds, Im good, thank you, and continues his conversation on the phone, in which hes heard saying he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet.

In the meantime, Angeli is seen climbing up onto a stage and rummaging around in the desk of Vice President Mike Pence.

The officer then tentatively inquires: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?

The man on the floor then calls out, We will. Ive been makin sure they aint disrespecting the place.

Okay, the officer replies. I just wanna let you guys know, this is like the sacredest place.

The officer watches on as Angeli asks if another man could take his photo at the Vice Presidents desk, because Mike Pence is a f***ing traitor.

The officer makes a half-hearted gesture towards Angeli as if to encourage him to get down from the stage, but the motion is ignored and the officer makes no further attempt to move him.

As one protester tells the officer, you should be stopping us, the cop appears to disagree.

One, two, three, four five the officer says as he gestures to the protesters inside the room. One, he then says pointing to himself, telling them hes outnumbered 5-1 and therefore cant stop them.

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

A man sitting on the floor who appeared to be injured (above) was asked by the officer, 'You good sir?'

As one protester tells the officer, you should be stopping us, the cop appears to disagree, telling them he's outnumbered 5-1, proceeding to point to the rioters around the room

The same officer (left) is seen standing with Angeli inside the Capitol elsewhere during the riot

WHAT IS QANON? QAnon is the debunked extreme right wing conspiracy theory that claims Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Trump and are running a global child sex trafficking ring. Origins: QAnon started on fringe website 4chan, where a poster calling themselves Q left messages claiming to be a senior federal official and purporting to reveal a 'deep state' cabal intent on bringing down Donald Trump. Q grew out of the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy that top Democrats were involved in pedophilia and cannibalism from the basement of a Washington D.C. restaurant, but quickly picked up steam with 'Q' leaving 'clues' and claims that Trump was going to bring down the deep state. Whenever the conspiracies turn out to not be true, followers rationalize that the inaccuracies are part of Qs larger plan. Who is Q?: There may now be multiple people posing as Q on the anonymous 4chan boards. Advertisement

While other protesters call out they believe hes doing the right thing and obeying his oath, the officer adds: Im just making sure you guys dont do anything else. Now that youve done that [taken a photograph] can I get you guys to walk out this room please?

While the group respond yes sir, Angeli remains on stage leaving a note of the desk of Mike Pence.

I feel like youre pushing the line, the officer calls out.

Come on man, one rioter says. We love you, we love the cops.

The footage then cuts and shows more protesters have filled into the chamber.

The group, led by Angeli, then conduct a prayer from Pences desk, in which he thanks the police for allowing them into the building to send a message to all the tyrants, communists and the globalists, to show this is our nation and not theirs.

The note Angeli left on Pences desk was later revealed to read: Its only a matter of time. Justice is coming.

The 33-year-old, of Arizona, has since been arrested in relation to his part in the riot, and has been charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.

Prosecutors have accused the mob who stormed the Capitol of intending to capture and assassinate elected officials.

They also argued that Angeli should not be released on bond, because he has become a symbol of the siege and allegedly admitted he had intentions to return to DC for Bidens inauguration.

Angeli was then denied release on Friday, with Arizona Magistrate Judge Deborah Fine citing him to be a flight risk, posing a risk to obstructing justice and a danger to the community.

The decision came after federal prosecutors submitted a detailed court filing late Thursday saying Angeli, the 33-year-old Arizona QAnon supporter, had told federal authorities he was 'glad' he sat in Mike Pence's chair on the Senate dais.

The court documents revealed that he spewed QAnon conspiracy theories and said he was 'glad' because he believes the Vice President 'is a child-trafficking traitor'.

QAnon is the debunked extreme right wing conspiracy theory that claims Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Donald Trump and are running a global child sex trafficking ring.

The officer watches on as Angeli asks another man to take his photo at the Vice Presidents desk, because Mike Pence is a f***ing traitor'

Angeli (pictured left with Rudy Giuliani, and right in court) has since been arrested in relation to his part in the riot, and has been charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds

Angeli was then denied release on Friday, with Arizona Magistrate Judge Deborah Fine citing him to be a flight risk, posing a risk to obstructing justice and a danger to the community'

The note Angeli left on Pences desk was later revealed to read: Its only a matter of time. Justice is coming'

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

First published by the New Yorker on Sunday, the footage of Angeli came as part of a 12-minute clip captured by Mogelson documenting how a horde of Trump supporters violently forced their way into the Capitol on January 6.

Other segments of the video show protesters smashing glass windows, rummaging through lawmakers' desks and mockingly posing for photos in Nancy Pelosi's chair.

At the start of the clip, the rioters are seen destroying property and climbing through a window at the Capitol building.

Several people are then seen confronting officers upon entry. One man is heard yelling at police: 'You're outnumbered! There's a f**king million of us out there! And we are listening to Trump, you're boss.'

They then marched upstairs yelling: 'Treason, treason, treason!'

'You're afraid of Antifa? Well guess what? America showed up,' the men yelled as they walked through the halls of the Capitol.

Moments later, they entered the Senate chamber.

'Where the f**k is Nancy?' one rioter questioned as they walked through the empty chamber.

Shocking new video taken inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot shows the moment a MAGA mob rifled through paperwork in the Senate chamber

Veteran war correspondent, Luke Mogelson, captured the video on the day dozens of rioters, including 'QAnon Shaman' Jake Angeli (pictured, writing a note), stormed the building following President Donald Trump's remarks at the Save America rally in Washington, DC

Several MAGA rioters are seen reading out loud and taking pictures of documents in the Senate chamber

In the clip, several people are seen taking photos of the documents that were secured inside binders in the chamber.

'There's gotta be something in here we can f**king use against these scumbags,' one man is heard telling another.

Toward the end of the video, a large mob is seen throwing equipment onto a pile and setting it on fire.

'Star making a list put all those names down and we start hunting them down one by one,' a man is heard yelling.

One said: 'Traitors get guillotine!'

'We are at war,' another yelled.

More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by Trump supporters at the Capitol, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed.

Charges from the January 6 riot range from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession.

Some of those arrests include Robert Sanford, 55, a retired Pennsylvania firefighter, who allegedly threw a fire extinguisher that hit three Capitol Police officers during the violent siege.

He was charged with assault of a police officer, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, civil disorder and unlawfully entering the Capitol. His lawyer said he was a Trump supporter who got caught up in the mob mentality.

Angeli is seen chanting inside the Senate chamber on January 6 as a photographer captures his image

The men are seen wearing MAGA hats, bulletproof vests and other gear as they stormed the Capitol

Aaron Mostofsky (right) who is the son of a New York Supreme Court judge, was also arrested and charged in connection to the violent insurrection at the US Capitol

Retired Air Force Lt Col Larry Rendall Brock Jr (pictured), of Texas, is a former fighter pilot who was photographed on the Senate floor wearing a military style helmet and body armor and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs

Richard Barnett, 60, of Arkansas was photographed sitting with his boots on a desk in Pelosi's office during the January 6 riot.

He was ordered Friday to be brought to Washington, where he faces charges of unlawfully entering a restricted area with a lethal weapon - a stun gun. Barnett is also charged with disorderly conduct and theft of public property.

Retired Air Force Lt Col Larry Rendall Brock Jr, of Texas, is a former fighter pilot who was photographed on the Senate floor wearing a military style helmet and body armor and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs.

He is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Robert Keith Packer, 56, of Virginia caused an uproar on social media after being seen in the Capitol wearing a sweatshirt bearing the name 'Camp Auschwitz,' a reference to the Nazi concentration camp where about 1.1 million people were killed during World War II.

He was charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and unlawfully entering a restricted building.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies continue to search for the identities of several other individuals who were photographed rioting in the Capitol.
Google Streetview / Contributed Photo

NEWTOWN  Police have closed a stretch of Wasserman Way after a driver crashed into a pole Monday morning, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The collision was reported by the DOT shortly before 7 a.m.
Brazil's health regulator, Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), has declined to approve the Russia-developed Sputnik V for emergency use because of some missing data.

Russian News Agency TASS reported that the application filed in Brazil did not comply with the country's minimum criteria for emergency approval and was missing data.

Brazil's Anvisa wanted to see more safety data about the Sputnik V vaccine before considering it for emergency use.

Documents about drug maker Uniao Quimica's application for emergency use of Sputnik V had missing data particularly, the lack of "permission for third phase of clinical trials" and "dealing with the advanced production methods," Anvisa said.

Decision on Sputnik V Could Have Been Given in 3 Days

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) first contacted Anvisa in December requesting permission to conduct the third stage of the clinical trials in Brazil, said a report from ANI News.

Based on its previous experience in reviewing applications, Anvisa said the process could have taken three days, or 72 hours if there had been enough information on the vaccine.

Related Story: Brazil OKs 2 Million AstraZeneca Vaccine Imports from India, Not Yet Approved for Use

The RDIF assured that it could provide the additional information demanded by Anvisa, said a report from Reuters.

"Such requests from regulators were standard procedure and do not mean the registration bid has been rejected," RDIF said in a statement obtained by Mint.

The RDIF also said a form of legislation, which is going through the Brazilian Senate, could allow the use of vaccines approved by other countries once approved.

Anvisa has already mentioned that any application for emergency use authorizations in vaccines must show that the shot can deliver long-term safety and had high efficacy levels among recipients.

Uniao Quimica, RDIF to Supply 10 Million Doses of Sputnik V in First Quarter

On Wednesday, vaccine developers said Uniao Quimica and the RDIF agreed with the Brazilian government to provide 10 million doses of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.

By Friday, it would put forward its request for emergency use of the said number of vaccines with the hope to get first deliveries going this month.

TASS quoted a statement from Uniao Quimica, saying it believes with more cases of the virus rising in Brazil and the rest of the world, "the state and business must take all efforts to fight it."

This includes "taking measures of emergency and exceptional nature" as the pandemic gave rise to an urgent need and high level of importance. The company has already received cellular material to be used in the production of the vaccine.

The Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Russia for domestic use, even though the trials have yet to be completed there.

It has already been registered in other countries such as Serbia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Algeria, Venezuela, Paraguay, and by the Palestinian authorities. Two more countries are expected to register the vaccine next week.

Read also: Brazil's Fiocruz to Seek Regulatory Approval for Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine

In Brazil, two vaccines had been given emergency use approval so far: the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac and the AstraZeneca/Oxford's coronavirus vaccine, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The rollout of the said shots started on Sunday, minutes after approval from regulators.
Lord Darroch, the former UK ambassador to the US, said it will be a 'stretch' to agree a trade deal with the US in Joe Biden's first term

The UK's former ambassador to the US has warned it will be a 'stretch' for Britain to agree a trade deal with the Joe Biden White House during the new President's first term.

Kim Darroch said the UK may 'strike it lucky' and get an accord on the books by 2024 but he has doubts that will happen because Mr Biden has made clear trade deals will not be an initial priority.

Lord Darroch, who was forced to quit in 2019 after frank diplomatic cables referring to current President Donald Trump were leaked, said Mr Biden may not want to engage on trade negotiations during his first two years in office.

He also warned the US could prioritise talks on larger trade deals, for example with the European Union.

Brexiteers view a free trade deal with the US as one of the major prizes of splitting from Brussels.

Many had hoped Boris Johnson would be able to strike a swift pact with Donald Trump before the US presidential election in November but talks stalled and have now been paused.

Speaking ahead of Mr Biden's inauguration on Wednesday, Lord Darroch told the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday programme: 'Biden has said in the last few weeks that doing trade deals is not a priority for him for at least the first part of his presidency, and my guess is that certainly covers the next 12 months, it may cover the next 24 months.

Lord Darroch said Mr Biden may not want to engage on trade talks with Boris Johnson during the first two year's of his time in the White House

'When he comes to do one, there are two much bigger trade deals that he could potentially do, rather than a deal with a medium-sized country of 65 million people.

'One is he could resume the talks that never finished in (Barack) Obama's time on an EU-US free trade deal and the other is that he could take America into the transpacific partnership, which is potentially a huge advantage for America and would start to counter Chinese influence in that region.

'So, honestly, I have my doubts about whether a UK deal will be a priority.

'I think it's a stretch to imagine it actually happening in a Biden first term, but we might strike it lucky, we'll see.'

Mr Biden briefly touched on the prospect of a UK-US trade deal in the run-up to last year's presidential election, tweeting in September that Brexit must not jeopardise the Northern Ireland peace process.

The 77-year-old, who has Irish roots, wrote: 'We can't allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit.

'Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.'
[January 18, 2021] Idera, Inc. Acquires apilayer

Idera, Inc., parent company of global B2B software productivity brands, today announced the acquisition of apilayer Data Products GmbH, a leading provider of off-the-shelf, cloud-based API products. apilayer will join Idera's Developer Tools business unit that includes Embarcadero, LANSA, Sencha, Whole Tomato, Froala and FusionCharts. apilayer is the leading provider of off-the-shelf, cloud-based API products built to help developers and businesses around the world operate quickly and effectively in various industries. The company's products include APIs for IP geolocation (ipstack), weather forecasts (weatherstack), financial markets (marketstack), currencies (currencylayer, fixer), flight tracking (aviationstack) and more. Today, organizations of all sizes struggle to support complex digital transformations and exploding demand for connectivity and real-time data. apilayer addresses this demand with highly reliable, scalable, outsourced APIs that can be configured fast and require minimal maintenance. apilayer's products serve more than 500,000 customers ranging from individual developers and startups to large enterprises, including Amazon, Apple (News - Alert) , Slack, Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Zendesk and many others. "apilayer has built a diversified product portfolio with many popular brands, all united by common positioning as reliable, easy-to-use, and low-cost solutions for API onnectivity," said Atanas Popov, Idera's general manager of Developer Tools. "This acquisition expands Idera's developer reach into a large and fast-growing segment, and serves as a platform for continued expansion of Idera's API management and tool capabilities."



"APIs play an integral role in nearly every modern organization, and apilayer offers a growing range of data-driven services that customers love for their simplicity and performance," said Paul Zehetmayr, CEO and Co-Founder of apilayer. "With apilayer joining the Idera family, we see great potential to expand its reach globally and establish an ecosystem to be leveraged by developers in virtually any industry." To learn more about apilayer, visit: https://apilayer.com/

PEAK Technology Partners served as the exclusive M&A advisor to apilayer. About Idera, Inc. Idera, Inc. delivers B2B software productivity tools that enable technical users to do more with less, faster. Idera, Inc. brands span three divisions-Database Tools, Developer Tools, and Testing Tools-with products evangelized by millions of community members and more than 50,000 customers worldwide, including some of the world's largest healthcare, financial services, retail, and technology companies. To learn more, visit: https://www.ideracorp.com/. About apilayer Data Products GmbH Founded by brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr in Vienna, apilayer is used by the world's most innovative companies to gain efficiency by automating data connectivity using straightforward API interfaces. The apilayer team has made it their core mission to rethink how business processes are integrated and to build data-driven tools for developers that allow high levels of automation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005080/en/

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Irvine, Calif. -- Future climate change will cause a regionally uneven shifting of the tropical rain belt - a narrow band of heavy precipitation near the equator - according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions. This development may threaten food security for billions of people.

In a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the interdisciplinary team of environmental engineers, Earth system scientists and data science experts stressed that not all parts of the tropics will be affected equally. For instance, the rain belt will move north in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere but will move south in areas in the Western Hemisphere.

According to the study, a northward shift of the tropical rain belt over the eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean will result in future increases of drought stress in southeastern Africa and Madagascar, in addition to intensified flooding in southern India. A southward creeping of the rain belt over the eastern Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean will cause greater drought stress in Central America.

"Our work shows that climate change will cause the position of Earth's tropical rain belt to move in opposite directions in two longitudinal sectors that cover almost two thirds of the globe, a process that will have cascading effects on water availability and food production around the world," said lead author Antonios Mamalakis, who recently received a Ph.D. in civil & environmental engineering in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.

The team made the assessment by examining computer simulations from 27 state-of-the-art climate models and measuring the tropical rain belt's response to a future scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise through the end of the current century.

Mamalakis said the sweeping shift detected in his work was disguised in previous modelling studies that provided a global average of the influence of climate change on the tropical rain belt. Only by isolating the response in the Eastern and Western Hemisphere zones was his team able to highlight the drastic alterations to come over future decades.

Co-author James Randerson, UCI's Ralph J. & Carol M. Cicerone Chair in Earth System Science, explained that climate change causes the atmosphere to heat up by different amounts over Asia and the North Atlantic Ocean.

"In Asia, projected reductions in aerosol emissions, glacier melting in the Himalayas and loss of snow cover in northern areas brought on by climate change will cause the atmosphere to heat up faster than in other regions," he said. "We know that the rain belt shifts toward this heating, and that its northward movement in the Eastern Hemisphere is consistent with these expected impacts of climate change."

He added that the weakening of the Gulf Stream current and deep-water formation in the North Atlantic is likely to have the opposite effect, causing a southward shift in the tropical rain belt across the Western Hemisphere.

"The complexity of the Earth system is daunting, with dependencies and feedback loops across many processes and scales," said corresponding author Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, UCI Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering. "This study combines the engineering approach of system's thinking with data analytics and climate science to reveal subtle and previously unrecognized manifestations of global warming on regional precipitation dynamics and extremes."

Foufoula-Georgiou said that a next step is to translate those changes to impacts on the ground, in terms of flooding, droughts, infrastructure and ecosystem change to guide adaptation, policy and management.

###

Other collaborators of this study, which was funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation, included Jin-Yi Yu, Gudrun Magnusdottir and Michael Pritchard and Padhraic Smyth at UCI; Paul Levine at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Sungduk Yu at Yale University.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www. uci. edu .

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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The power of cooperation is the only tool we have to emerge from the shadow of Covid-19, says the Chinese infectious disease expert

May 27, 2021 08:27 PM
The working conditions of China's e-commerce industry have come under tight scrutiny after two workers were speculated to have died from overworking and a third one set himself on fire reportedly in protest against unpaid wages.

The former two were employees from Pinduoduo, an online platform known for selling fresh produce at low prices. Online accounts claimed that they had been subjected to 'long working hours' and 'excessive pressure'.

The third individual was a driver for Eleme, an online food delivery service owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. He allegedly doused gasoline and set himself on fire while shouting that he wanted his 'blood money back'.

China has seen a fresh wave of public outrage over e-commerce workers' dire working condition. A driver for Eleme, an online food delivery service owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, doused gasoline and set himself on fire (pictured left) while another delivery worker died on the job (pictured right) while delivering food in Beijing on December 21

China's internet industries already were known for long, demanding days. With millions of families confined at home, demand surged and employees delivered tons of vegetables, rice, meat, diapers and other supplies, often aboard scooters that exposed them to sub-freezing winter cold.

For white-collar workers in the technology industry, pay is better than in some industries but employees are often expected to work 12 hours a day or more.

The human cost caught public attention after a 22-year-old Pinduoduo employee surnamed Zhang in Urumqi collapsed while walking home from work with colleagues after finishing her shift at 1.30am on December 29. She was pronounced dead at the hospital six hours later.

Within less than two weeks, Ms Zhang's tragedy was followed by another worker surnamed Tan who committed suicide after taking leave from the firm to return to his hometown.

The deaths of two Pinduoduo workers raised an outcry on social media, with many people suspecting that they were a result of overwork due to the tech sector's so-called '996' working culture, in which employees often work from 9am to 9pm six days a week.

Companies sometimes pay huge bonuses to some employees, enticing them to work more overtime.

Renewed concerns over dire working conditions for delivery drivers also came to the forefront when a video circulated on Chinese social media showing a Eleme delivery driver setting himself on fire to protest unpaid wages (pictured). He is now in stable condition, officials say

Mr Liu, a driver for an online food delivery service owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, doused gasoline and set himself on fire while shouting that he wanted his 'blood money back'

One user condemned: 'They overworked too much because of "996". The company doesn't treat workers like humans.'

Another comment read: '[They] must be under so much work pressure that led to a mental breakdown. To work with "996" without feeling depressed, you need an extremely strong mind.'

Their deaths also sparked criticism from state media outlets. In an indication of high-level concern, the official Xinhua News Agency called for shorter work hours, describing long hours of overtime at the expense of employees' health as an 'illegal' operation.

Pinduoduo, China's third-largest e-commerce firm, released statements saying it was providing assistance and support to the families of the two employees who died. Shanghai authorities also are reviewing working hours, contracts and other conditions at the company.

Onlookers can be seen in the viral footage snuffing the flames with fire extinguishers and rushed Mr Liu to a hospital, where he is being treated for third-degree burns on his body

A food delivery worker wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus prepares to deliver foods for his customers outside a restaurant in Beijing on Thursday

Renewed concerns over dire working conditions for delivery drivers also came to the forefront when a video circulated on Chinese social media showing a Eleme delivery driver setting himself on fire to protest unpaid wages.

In a video widely circulated online, 48-year-old delivery driver Liu Jin poured gasoline and set himself on fire outside a distribution station for Eleme in the eastern city of Taizhou on January 11, shouting that he wanted his money.

Others snuffed the flames and rushed him to a hospital, where he is being treated for third-degree burns on his body.

He is said to be in stable condition, according to a Friday statement by local authorities who are investigating the matter.

Separately, a 43-year-old Eleme driver collapsed on the job and died while delivering food in late December, reports said. It remains unclear if his death had been caused by overworking.

A 22-year-old Pinduoduo (file photo) employee surnamed Zhang in Urumqi collapsed while walking home from work with colleagues after finishing her shift at 1.30am on December 29

The company said in a statement that it will give 600,000 yuan ($92,700) to the driver's family and raised its insurance coverage for drivers to that level.

Its statement said Eleme 'had not done enough in terms of accidental death insurance, and needs to do more.'

The controversy around e-commerce workers is a blow to the image of internet industries that are transforming China's economy and generating new jobs. They have made some of the founders among the world's wealthiest entrepreneurs.

During the heights of the pandemic, the fortunes of the biggest, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, swelled as online consumer spending boomed.

The issue has also cast a spotlight on the working conditions of delivery drivers, who are under heavy pressure to get orders to customers quickly and at times make less than 10 yuan (1.14) per delivery.

A food delivery worker wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus rides on a street in Beijing on Thursday. The issue has cast a spotlight on the working conditions of delivery drivers, who are under heavy pressure to get orders to customers quickly

If they fail to meet deadlines, fines imposed can range from as little as one yuan (0.11) to as much as 500 yuan (56.86) if a customer lodges a complaint.

As part of the gig economy, such delivery workers often do not get the benefits provided to full-time employees, such as social or medical insurance.

Since there are many people willing to work under those conditions, it is hard for employees to negotiate better pay and conditions.

Last August, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) - the only trade union allowed to legally exist in communist-ruled China - said that 6.5million delivery workers had joined it since 2018.

However, the worker rights group China Labor Bulletin, which tracks labor relations in China, says little has been done to improve workers' ability to win better treatment from companies. The union provides only skills training, legal assistance and some medical benefits.
An Iranian man and woman have been arrested after allegedly trying to import 250 kilograms of methamphetamine through overseas cargo before processing it in a suburban warehouse.

Police arrested Hamed Yarmohammadi, 30, and Niusha Ojaghfaghihi, 26, in Sydney on January 8 and 9.

The Australian Border Force had detected 100 kilograms of methamphetamine in a shipment of bench tops from Iran in December.

Police allege it was taken to a warehouse in Lakemba, south-west Sydney, where it was processed.

An Iranian man and woman have been arrested after allegedly trying to import 250 kilograms of methamphetamine through overseas cargo before processing it in a suburban warehouse (pictured, inside the Lakemba warehouse)

Police allege the shipment was taken to a warehouse in Lakemba, south-west Sydney, where it was processed

Officers claim the shipment was destined for Endeavour Hills, in Melbourne.

It's alleged more shipments, including 30 kilograms of drugs hidden in chandeliers, were also designated for Sydney and Melbourne.

Police carried out further raids in Blacktown, Merrylands and Doonside homes and expect to make further arrests.

The street value of the seized drugs is estimated to be $187 million.

Yarmohammadi and Ojaghfaghihi were charged with importing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs.

They were refused bail and will front Sydney Central Local Court and the Supreme Court of NSW later this week.

Acting Commander of Investigations at AFP Eastern Command Geoff Turner said authorities were 'vigilant for syndicates'.

'Australians are among the highest per capita users of methamphetamines and that means we have to be ever vigilant for syndicates that seek to exploit this devastating drug to line their own pockets,' he said.

It's alleged more shipments, including 30 kilograms of drugs hidden in chandeliers, were also designated for Sydney and Melbourne
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A 50 wristband created by a British health technology firm is helping people track the wellbeing of their friends, family and employees in lockdown.

Moodbeam features two buttons that the wearer simply has to press throughout the day depending on their mood  yellow for happy and blue for unhappy.

This is logged alongside both sleep and activity and is available for other people to view on an associated app.

It means users can view the moods of their loved ones during lockdown on their smartphone and know when to check in with them with a quick message.

Companies could also buy the wristbands in bulk for their employees while they're working from home and may feel isolated.

Scroll down for video

Moodbeam lets users quite literally 'see how they feel' on an app that links up with the wristband. Wearers just need to press the blue button on the band if they're feeling down and yellow if they're feeling OK

Moodbeam has been created by a Hull-based firm of the same name that formed in 2016, although its solution has become especially relevant as a way to trigger connections during the pandemic and improve mental health.

Experts have already warned of serious mental health issues proliferating around the UK during the third national lockdown.

UK charity Mind also recently revealed its pandemic support page has seen its highest number of visitors since April  when the country was in the grips of the first wave of coronavirus.

'Knowing how you're feeling at any one time can be powerful, especially when set against the backdrop of work, rest and play,' Moodbeam says on its website.

'The simple act of pressing a button provides deeper insight into what's going on in the mind of the wearer, be it you or someone you care about who has chosen to share how they're feeling with you.'

The app presents this information in a clear and understandable way 'providing a unique insight into the emotional wellbeing of the wearer'.

Family members can keep track of how their loved ones are doing during the pandemic with a quick look at the app

Moodbeam says: 'With each button press, your mood is logged alongside both sleep and activity. The simple app presents this information in a clear and understandable way providing a unique insight into the emotional wellbeing of the wearer'

Moodbeam may, for example, let someone keep up to date on the wellbeing of a parent who lives hundreds of miles away that they haven't seen in nearly a year due to the government's lockdown.

But it could also provide a new solution for professionals  managers could give their team the option to wear a wristband to create an in-app community of workers looking out for each other.

Managers could view an online dashboard to keep tabs on their workers' mental health, due the current inability to check-in physically with staff.

'Businesses are trying to get on top of staying connected with staff working from home,' Moodbeam co-founder Christina Colmer McHugh told the BBC.

'Here they can ask 500 members: "You OK?" without picking up the phone.'

The app, for both iOS and Android, lets users explore patterns and trends throughout the day, add notes, compare sleep and activity against mood, set mood prompts, as well as choose to share your mood profile with others.

The silicone band, meanwhile, is tough and water resistant, meaning it can be worn while working, walking or showering.

It doesn't have to be worn around the wrist  it can also be clipped onto work lanyards.

The app is also intended to offer a personal guide of when we feel happy and when we don't. Moodbeam says: 'Gain deeper insight into how you feel, and do more of what makes you happy'

The firm was originally founded by Colmer McHugh when her seven-year-old daughter was going through a tough time at school.

She was left wondering what it would be like to know how her daughter was feeling when she wasn't with her  and realised this was an experience shared by thousands of other parents.

'It was developed to allow me to get closer to the thoughts and feelings of my daughter as she suffered with anxiety at a young age,' said Colmer McHugh.

'There was nothing like this on the market, so it became my mission to create it.

'We all know that the hardest thing to do when feeling low can be to admit it, so having visual sight of how my daughter was feeling without her having to do that openly acted as a conversation opener  and really helped us to support her fully.'

Moodbeam was launched in 2016 and went on to win the Innovation Partnership Award at the Barclays Entrepreneur Awards in 2019, but since the pandemic it's been optimised for businesses.

UK mental health charity Brave Mind is one of the organisations using Moodbeam for its own staff.

'One member of the team was in an uncomfortable place, struggling with a huge workload, and disillusioned with what was going on,' Brave Mind trustee Paddy Burtt told the BBC.

'It's not something he would have flagged up, and we wouldn't have known about it unless we had seen the data.'

The firm is also working with national framework provider Pagabo to roll out use of the devices on construction sites for staff.

The device is also being used by GP surgeries to support clinical and non-clinical teams and the Mintridge Foundation, a charity dedicated to enhancing life skills in young people.

The domestic manufacture of the Tejas Mk 1-A is a signpost of enormous value, although it has been more than three decades in the making.  PTI

In a historic decision, the Cabinet Committee on Security on January 13 approved the countrys largest-ever indigenous defence deal when it cleared the procurement of 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk 1-A  ten of which are to be trainers  for the Indian armed forces from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at an approximate cost of `47,000 crore, closing the circle that began with the commissioning of the LCA project in the 1980s.

The first rollout is expected in 2023-24, and then on 16 aircraft are to be manufactured every year on present reckoning. To start with, the indigenous content is to be 50 per cent, to be stepped up to 60 per cent within a short timeframe. HAL would be outsourcing the job to more than 550 domestic vendors.

This gives us an idea of the technological and economic spinoffs of the LCA programme for the Indian economy as a whole, going beyond the military aspect of acquiring a fighter jet at home which is billed as the workhorse of the future for the Indian Air Force, filling the gap left by the hoary MiG-21s of Soviet manufacture, which have been phased out.

If high-level efficiency is ensured in the production of the Tejas Mk 1-A by HAL, the country will make valuable savings of foreign exchange spent on importing costly fighter jets from Western sources. Whats more, in time, the Tejas will be ready for export too. Some countries are said to have evinced an interest. The realisation of sale will, of course, depend on a host of political, strategic and economic considerations, and the prospect of readying the fighter for export will potentially add to Indias strategic muscle and offer a certain latitude in dealing with the world.

The Tejas Mk1-A  a fourth-generation fighter  is a single-engine, lightweight, highly agile, all-weather, multi-role fighter aircraft capable of air-to-air refuelling. It has Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile capability, and updated avionics and flight control software. The good news is that the LCA Mk-2 version with a bigger engine is in its design stage and is expected to be ready for trials next year. As of 2019, the IAF is committed to procuring 324 Tejas MK1-A fighters of different variants. That signifies the workhorse role visualised for this sophisticated fighter.

The domestic manufacture of the Tejas Mk 1-A is a signpost of enormous value, although it has been more than three decades in the making, starting from the conception stage when the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) was set up in 1984. The ADA designed Tejas in collaboration with Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) of HAL.

To find true liberation from imports in the strategic sphere of fighter aircraft manufacture, it is now crucial to look at the propulsion aspect for upgrade. Indias LCA is fitted with the GEF-404 engine. In the wake of the 1998 nuclear test, the United States had held up the supply of these engines.

It is therefore important to return special focus to the development of the indigenous Kaveri engine, which has been in the works for decades. To achieve cent per cent indigenous content, radars and avionics will also need to be manufactured domestically. Only a country that can grow its own food and has the ability to defend itself can ultimately avoid being at anyones beck and call.
A general view of pedestrians crossing the bridge with the Yarra River and CBD in the background on November 06, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Melbourne Workers Set to Return to City Offices

Melbourne workers are expected to return to city offices in droves on January 18, with new research showing most feel safe and ready after being home-bound for nine months.

Private workplaces in Victoria are able to return to 50 percent capacity from Monday, with public service offices permitted to ramp up to 25 percent.

Our message to workers returning to the city is that weve missed you, welcome back, Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said in a statement.

A Roy Morgan survey of 503 city workers from late November to mid-December shows almost two-thirds were either willing to return to their central Melbourne workplaces (44 percent) or had already (15 percent).

The most commonly cited factors making workers feel safe to return were COVID-safe plans and adherence to health measures.

Nearly 60 percent of people surveyed wanted to return to the workplace for improved health and wellbeing, while 53 percent were motivated by the improved productivity of the office environment.

The survey, commissioned on behalf of the City of Melbourne, found only 10 percent of respondents were not willing to return to the office at all.

Our research shows that while many people have embraced greater flexibility and convenience working from home, they dont want to live at work, Capp said

Victorias staged return-to-work plan was delayed a week to allow health authorities to mop up the Black Rock cluster, seeded by Sydneys northern beaches outbreak.

Mask rules also ease to pre-Christmas levels from Monday, making them mandatory in limited settings including supermarkets, large indoor retail areas, public transport, hospitals and airports.

Callum Godde in Melbourne
(ANSA) - TRENTO, DEC 30 - An Ethiopian woman who has become a symbol of integration in Italy has been killed by an aide for money.

Agitu Gudeta, 42, was allegedly murdered by assistant Adams Suleimani, a 32-year-old Ghanaian, who has confessed to the crime.

He was arrested by police overnight.

Gudeta had become a prominent member of the local community in the northern region of Trentino.

She was allegedly raped while she was dying, police said Suleimani had also confessed. (ANSA).


Bareilly : , Jan 18 (IANS) Pamphlets, urging people of a particular community against taking anti-coronavirus vaccine shots and spreading rumours about their ingredients, surfaced in the Bareilly district after which the police lodged an FIR against unknown persons.

The pamphlets, found in the Rajendra Nagar locality on Sunday, appealed to a particular community to avoid taking the vaccines.

Superintendent of Police (City) Ravindra Singh said the pamphlets were immediately seized and an FIR was lodged in the Prem Nagar police station against unknown persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for mischief mongering and trying to whip up communal passions.

The SP said the police vigil has been stepped up across the city, particularly in sensitive areas, to maintain peace and arrest the culprits.

Districts that are communally sensitive, have also been asked to remain on alert on the vaccine issue and pre-empt any move to create tension.

It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had cautioned on Saturday that "Some selfish people with vested interests were spreading rumours about the corona vaccine." He had said, "There is a need to avoid any kind of rumour and people should wait for their turn."
UTICA, N.Y. -- The Mohawk Valley Frontiers Club will hold its annual celebration today honoring the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The 37th annual event will be live-streamed today, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. via two virtual platforms: YouTube or Facebook

You can log on to either platform to join the festivities.

The keynote speaker will be President of Utica College, Dr. Laura Casamento.

Receiving special recognition at the event are two local activists who have long served our community:

 The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award will be presented to Reverend Sharon Baugh of Hope Chapel AME Zion of Utica.

 Friends of the Frontiers Award will be given to Michelle Truett of 484 Designs

Additional Scholastic Academic Student Awards will be presented to the following deserving students:

*Kerry Campbell, NewHartford High School

*Widad Ibrahim, Thomas R. Proctor High School

*Na'Jaia Engram,Thomas R. Proctor High School

*Theodore Issiah-Leon Allah, Rome Free Academy

The Mohawk Valley Frontiers Club is a civic service organization, established in 1971 in Oneida County. The men and woman whom are members of this dedicated organization, live by their motto of "Service", each and every day.

You can help support the important work of our organization with a tax-free donation online and reference MLK, or mail a check to P.O. Box 712, Utica, NY 13503.
The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

Whats happening

Historians will face a daunting task in trying to assess Donald Trumps presidency, which even the savviest of news consumers have struggled to follow.

It was clear from the very beginning that Trump would be a different kind of president than the U.S. had ever seen. By his second month in office, he had already signed his Muslim ban and seen his national security adviser resign in scandal, harbingers of the racial division and legal disputes that would be enduring themes throughout his time in office.

His first three years contained a number of controversies that, on their own, would have been the defining events of most previous presidencies  the Russia investigation, a trade war with China, family separation, the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Along the way, Trump showed a unique ability to dominate the daily news cycle.

Then came 2020, which brought a world-altering pandemic and resulting economic collapse, nationwide racial justice protests and the most contentious presidential election in memory. Volumes could be written about just the past two weeks  which have featured a violent insurrection, a historic second impeachment and two of the most important Senate elections in modern history.

Why theres debate

While there are many controversies that will be remembered from Trumps presidency, the moment that will define his legacy is the assault on Congress by a violent mob of his supporters earlier this month, many say. The deadly insurrection, they argue, was the culmination of so many things that were quintessentially Trump  his disdain for the truth, the threat he posed to democracy and the deep divides between Americans he stoked. To others, the Trump administrations botched response to the coronavirus, which will lead to the deaths of more than 400,000 Americans on his watch, will be the enduring memory of his tenure.

Story continues

Those with a more sympathetic view argue that Trump will be remembered for the way he harnessed the anger of everyday Americans, who had become fed up with political elites and the mainstream media. His supporters will also point to the booming economy he oversaw until the pandemic struck and the hundreds of conservative judges  including three Supreme Court justices  he appointed.

Others say its too early to know what Trumps legacy will be. For most of his tenure, Trumps signature brand of politics appeared destined to take over the Republican Party long after hed left office. That may still happen. But backlash against Trump may have also sparked a much more progressive direction for the country.

Whats next

Trump will leave Washington on Wednesday morning and will not attend Joe Bidens inauguration. His post-presidency plans are still unknown. The prospects of another presidential run in 2024 will hinge on whether the Senate votes to convict him for inciting the Capitol riot and bar him from holding future office at the end of its impeachment trial, which could start as soon as this week.

Perspectives

Historians will view Trump as a unique threat to American democracy

The sight of a violent mob inspired by President Trump smashing its way into the Capitol was more than just a shocking spectacle. It also highlighted one of the most dangerous parts of Mr. Trumps legacy: the disbelief in democracy that has metastasized among many of his supporters.  Trip Gabriel, New York Times

Whatever positive things he might have been remembered for were erased by the Capitol mob

A politician has to work hard to destroy a legacy and a future in a single day. President Donald J. Trump managed it.  Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal

Trumps failures on the coronavirus pandemic will stain his legacy

A historian has to always account for the possibility that 50 years later a president would look better in some ways than he did to his own generation. That having been said, Donald Trump is not going to change the record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die.  MSNBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss

Trumpism will continue to thrive without him

I do know what the future should hold for this country. That is to say, a policy of Trumpism without Trump. ... Who knows what happened to him, but his program worked for the first years of his regime, and it will work again without him.  R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., American Spectator

Theres no easy solution for the false reality that many Trump supporters believe in

The nations truth problem goes far beyond a Trump problem. It is a long-term problem for the United States that millions of citizens have fallen deep down a conspiracy rabbit hole. I dont know how to fix this.  Daniel Dale, CNN

Racial tensions that Trump inflamed will take many years to calm

Mr Trump did not invent Americas social fractures, least of all the racial ones that are as old as the republic. But no recent president has done more to widen them.  Editorial, Financial Times

Trump shifted the political focus away from elites to the working class

I believe the instinct that a significant amount of forgotten men and women were being inadequately considered by both political parties is a lasting legacy of this president, and beyond the political instinct involved, there is tremendous merit to revisiting the policy portfolio that addresses how the working class is treated in our country.  David L. Bahnsen, National Review

Trump will be remembered for the suffering he inflicted on vulnerable people

The Trump era will be remembered for many things, including corruption and extremism. For many people, it will also be remembered as a time of immense pain  a time when the nations highest power, a man purportedly the president to all Americans, turned his aim on them.  Multiple authors, HuffPost

The Capitol attack put an end to Trumpism

By encouraging this act of terror on our capital, Trumps legacy is destroyed. The cranks, grifters and opportunists who promoted his unhinged conspiracies are discredited. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.s hopes of political careers are over. Officeholders and party bosses who fanned the flames in order to claim the Trump mantle are disgraced.  Jon Gabriel, Arizona Republic

Americas democracy is much less stable thanks to Trumps influence

The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents.  Robert Reich, Guardian

Trump will be remembered as the worst president ever

Donald Trump is quite likely to assume the title as the worst president in American history.  Joseph J. Ellis, Los Angeles Times

His impact on the federal judiciary will endure for a generation

Both backers and critics of Trump agreed that he remade the federal judiciary  a change that will impact America for decades.  John Fund, Fox News

Its too early to assess Trumps legacy

While historians agree that Trump was a singular figure in the office, it will be decades before the consequences of his tenure are fully known.  Jonathan Lemire, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville, Associated Press

Is there a topic youd like to see covered in The 360? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com.

Read more 360s

Cover thumbnail photo: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday performed the 'bhoomi poojan' of Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II and Surat Metro Rail Project via video conferencing. "Today is a landmark day for two of Gujarat`s leading urban centres. The Bhoomi Poojan of Surat Metro and Phase-2 of the Ahmedabad Metro would take place at 10:30 am," the Prime Minister tweeted informing about the event earlier in the day.

The two Metro projects will provide an environment-friendly 'Mass Rapid Transit System' (MRTS) to Ahmedabad and Surat. The online event was also attended by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Union home minister Amit Shah, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

"Ahmedabad and Surat are receiving very important gifts today. Metro will further strengthen the connectivity in two major business centres of the country - Ahmedabad and Surat," PM Modi said during the event.

"The most important thing about these two metro projects is that these will benefit our cities for many years to come. Before 2014 only 200km of Metro line could become functional over the last 12-15 years. However, now the total Metro network in the country is 400km," Modi informed.

As per an official release, the Metro Projects will provide an environment friendly 'Mass Rapid Transit System' to these cities. Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II is 28.25 Kilometres long with two corridors. Corridor-1 is 22.8 Kilometres long and is from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir.

Corridor-2 is 5.4 Kilometres long and is from GNLU to GIFT City. The total completion cost of the Phase-II project is Rs 5,384 crores.Surat Metro Rail Project is 40.35 Kilometres long and comprises two corridors. Corridor-1 is 21.61 Kilometres long and is from Sarthana to Dream City. Corridor-2 is 18.74 Kilometres long and is from Bhesan to Saroli. The total completion cost of the project Rs 12,020 crores.

"Earlier, there was no coordination in public transport planning. Various cities had different Metro projects which were not in confluence with other cities. But now we are working on developing interconnected public transport systems," PM Modi added.
With Phu Quoc district in Kien Giang province poised to become Vietnams first island city from March 1, following its official recognition as a new city, lets discover this new important national landmark.

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Known as Pearl Island, Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam and also the largest of the 22 making up the group of Phu Quoc islands.

Located 120 km from Rach Gia city and 45 km from Ha Tien city, Phu Quoc district boasts a long coastline with many pristine beaches. Promising fishing grounds and deep-sea waters have potential for developing the fishing industry and seaports.

A master plan to build Phu Quoc by 2020 was approved under Prime Ministerial Decision No 1197 in 2005 to effectively exploit its potential. After 15 years of construction and development, Phu Quoc district has posted high and stable economic growth. It is now home to 320 projects with total registered capital of more than 14.7 billion USD.

It has become a popular destination for foreign and domestic tourists.

Phu Quoc district was recognised by the Prime Minister as a Grade II city in 2014.

In 2006, the Kien Giang coastal and marine biosphere reserve, which includes Phu Quoc district, was recognised by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve.

In December 2020, the National Assembly Standing Committee passed a resolution establishing Phu Quoc city from March 1, becoming the first island city in Vietnam.

Phu Quoc city will have a population of over 179,000 people, with nine commune-level administrative units, including the two wards of Duong ong and An Thoi and seven communes.

It will be developed in two phases. Phase 1 focuses on building a city to quickly meet the basic criteria of a Grade 1 urban area. In the second phase, Phu Quoc city will be developed into a regional integrated centre.

By 2025, it strives to achieve total fishery output of 201,000 tons per year, with State budget revenue increasing 11.7% each year on average. It also aims to welcome 10 million tourists, up 15% per year, 4 million of which will be foreigners. The rate of poor households is to be under 1%.

Phu Quoc city is developing a strategy to maintain sovereignty over seas and islands, developing its economy in close association with ensuring Vietnams security and defence and territorial integrity./.VNA

Bright future ahead for Phu Quoc City: official Huynh Quang Hung, chairman of Phu Quoc City Peoples Committee, talks to the Vietnam News Agency on the establishment of Phu Quoc City  the countrys first island city.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump stands as a singular figure in American history for his willingness to entertain conspiracy theories from the Oval Office, and none has been more damaging or far reaching than his unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. One out of every three Americans believes that there was widespread fraud in the last presidential election, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, despite no evidence to support that view. Two in three Republicans believe so.

The social conditions that brought so many people to believe the falsehoods Trump has told about the election and a litany of other issues took root decades before he became a political figure and will extend far beyond the four years of his administration, according to scholars of disinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

"What's unique about Donald Trump is that he took advantage of this widespread distrust of government and media to say 'everyone is lying to you except for me.' We have never had a president so devoted to spreading disinformation and trying to overturn an election," said Kathryn Olmsted, a historian at the University of California at Davis. "The people who stormed the Capitol are absolutely convinced that the election was stolen. They're not being opportunistic; they really believe this. And all of the social science shows that if someone really believes a conspiracy theory, it is just about impossible to change their minds."

Among the most extreme in their views about the election outcome are believers of the QAnon conspiracy, who imagine Trump as a messianic savior battling the forces of a government "deep state" that worships Satan and traffics children. Their large numbers on Jan. 6, when rioters stormed the Capitol, was a stark example of how communities that form in fringe spaces on the internet can tangibly affect the nation's political discourse.

The rise of QAnon and similar groups can be traced to the decades-long erosion in trust of social institutions like the news media and government, said Ethan Zuckerman, a scholar of the internet at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He described it as the culmination of decades of anti-government rhetoric dating to the Reagan era and beyond, exacerbated by flash points like the Iraq War and the financial crisis.

"Every time we minimize QAnon as stupid and obviously wrong, we're doing ourselves a disservice because we're making it harder to understand. It's much more akin to a cult, and not only weak people fall for cults," he said.

Zuckerman said that banning Trump from Twitter and other social media platforms was a "reasonable and necessary" step toward preventing more anti-government violence in the coming weeks and months. But he warned that it could have unintended consequences in the long run. In the past, people who are "deplatformed" often move to darker corners of the internet. The communities there are smaller, but also more radical.

Experts said that addressing the supply of disinformation alone does not temper susceptibility to it.

The unfounded belief in widespread election fraud is a symptom of a broader openness to conspiratorial thinking that is born of human psychology, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. People want to believe information that already aligns with their world view, and when presented with it, they often do not give it rigorous scrutiny. She and other experts in human communication and information sharing, including neuroscientists, say that people can be primed to believe false information simply by hearing it repeated several times.

In this time of heavily partisan news consumption, people are subjected to few reality tests.

"What Trump did was take tactics of deception and played to confirmation biases that were already circulating in our culture, and embodied them in somebody who is president of the United States. He didn't change what was available, but he changed its accessibility," said Jamieson, who co-founded FactCheck.org. "That crazed content has always been there. But it becomes dangerous when it is legitimized and when it has the power of the state behind it."

Once people fall into "an alternative universe" of conspiratorial thinking, it is very difficult to break out of that logic, she said. That is because part of the premise of their world view is that the official "custodians of knowledge" themselves cannot be trusted. People who believe deeply in conspiracy theories are in many cases already inoculated from evidence and fact checks.

"Our goal needs to be to prevent any more people from falling into conspiracy world views. If people are in that world, they are largely unpersuadable," she said.

Conspiracy theories have been a fact of life in the United States since the colonial era, said Olmsted, the historian at UC Davis. Before the 20th century, such beliefs were most often focused on marginalized minority groups, including Catholics and Jews. As the United States became bigger and more powerful, particularly during World War I and in the years following it, conspiratorial thinking became more centered on the government itself. That was at times reinforced by real schemes and coverups by people in government, like attempts to control wartime speech with the Sedition Act of 1918, Watergate, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, the Church Committee report on U.S. intelligence abuses, not to mention a drumbeat of falsehoods about the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

But the internet, she said, has changed how easily false beliefs can spread, and social media has also created a profit system by which bad faith actors can even make money by spreading conspiracy theories. Often, it is people who feel victimized in some way or another who most ardently believe in conspiracy theories, said Olmsted. Recent political history has shown just how relative those perceptions of victimhood can be; many of Trump's most aggrieved supporters and deep-state truthers are affluent and White. They have felt like victims even while wielding immense political power.

Nonetheless, it is very difficult to quantify conspiratorial thinking, and not all scholars agree about whether more people believe in disinformation today than in previous historical eras.

Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, rejects the notion that belief in conspiracy theories and misinformation has become more common or widespread in recent years. He has polled the tendency for people in the United States to believe in conspiracy theories since 2012, he said, and has found the overall trend lines to be very stable. Post-election accusations of cheating themselves are not new, he said, and polling he conducted about election fraud over the previous three presidential elections has also been consistent. What is different, Uscinski said, is that now conversations about conspiracy theories are on social media where they can be shared and studied.

"Conspiracy theories are for losers. Who complains after a game or an election? Well, the losers, usually," he said. "These feelings are going to be out there after every election. Tens of millions of Americans will feel cheated and normally nothing comes of it.

"The Trump part is not normal. Trump has mobilized this form of thinking" for political gain, Uscinski added. And Trump's amplification of falsehoods has shown how extreme susceptibility to conspiracies can become a big social problem.

"We have to turn the focus away from the specific theories themselves and toward the people who believe them. Because it's the psychological antecedent - it's being predisposed to accept that really matters," he added. "We're really only dealing with a small number of people who believe in the craziest conspiracies. And we have to make these distinctions because policymakers are talking about censoring the internet and regulating social media."

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what makes some people more susceptible to conspiracy theories than others, Uscinski said.

For now, there is little reason to believe that Trump's removal from popular social media sites and his leaving office will tamp down the political fury among those most convinced the election featured widespread fraud, said Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. For many who stormed the Capitol, or considered doing so, the outcome of the events of Jan. 6 were "a win because they demonstrated strength," she said.

In the long run, she said she would like to see social media accounts with large followings become subject to public interest regulations. She warned about technology companies clamoring for influence in the Biden administration, which could undercut regulatory efforts by inculcating their corporate interests into the proposed solutions.

One way to try to reach common understanding with people who resist fact checks on their false beliefs is to appeal to common understanding about how proof works, said Jamieson. That involves presenting "converging evidence" - facts from various sources with disparate interests that could not all be in on the conspiracy.

But when challenged with evidence, the boundaries of conspiracy theories often shift and can become even more grandiose, said Jamieson, citing a feature of QAnon's evolution. Already, people on message boards and on social media who sympathize with Trump have claimed that the mob that stormed the Capitol did not consist of Trump supporters but rather people pretending to be Trump supporters.

"The cleverness of the conspirators will always trump the available evidence," she said.

Zuckerman and Olmsted both noted that conspiratorial thinking and susceptibility to disinformation is not historically unique to conservatives. But today, part of what has made claims of widespread election fraud so potent is the amplification by right-wing media like Fox News and high-profile conservative politicians who are acting disingenuously, experts said.

They have a crucial role to play in helping to create a consensus around the election results.

"There have been countless fact-checking and other efforts designed to rid social media of misinformation. They're not going to work until the [Republican] Party and the major ideological amplifiers start explicitly renouncing these points of view," said Zuckerman. But "a majority of Republican representatives voted to overturn a democratic election. Until there are consequences for perpetuating those falsehoods, don't count on changes to the media to solve this problem."

Part of the tragedy of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which was rooted in part in an effort to overturn the Pennsylvania presidential election results, is that many Pennsylvania state lawmakers helped President Donald Trump foment the lie that the state vote was rigged.

Trump began doing so months before the Nov. 3 election, when it became obvious, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that millions of Pennsylvanians would take advantage of a new state law allowing them to vote by mail. About 2.6 million voters did so.

County election directors of both parties recognized the tsunami. They begged the Legislature to allow precanvassing of mailed ballots prior to Election Day to ensure that their staffs would be able to count the votes on election night.

Legislative Republicans, loyal to the would-be dictator in the White House, declined to do so.

As Election Day approached, it became obvious that voters in predominantly Democratic areas had embraced mail voting more so than voters in predominantly Republican areas. It was clear that Trump would receive a higher percentage of the votes cast in person on Election Day, than of the mailed ballots  which could not all be counted on Election Day because of the lawmakers determination to accommodate Trumps narrative.

Sure enough, as the vote count dragged through the week, Trump whined long and loudly that Democrats were finding votes, when in fact the election offices simply were catching up to the vast number of mailed ballots that they had received by Election Day.

Now, with Trumps ploy a clear but costly failure, state lawmakers who participated in it should listen to a new proposal from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. It calls for the state to allow early processing of mailed ballots to ensure that they are counted on Election Day, thus defusing bogus claims of fraud.

The election is over. Trump lost. His acolytes in the state Legislature should let him go and turn their attention to ensuring fair and efficient elections.
The first time I came to work in the United States Senate was not as a United States senator but as an intern.

A college sophomore, I believed the Senate was a place to turn activism into action. I went to work as a summer intern for my home-state senator, Alan Cranston, in the very same office I returned to more than 30 years later.

Serving as your senator has been an honor.

The past four years have tested us as a nation. Even before I was sworn in we knew that foreign adversaries had interfered in the 2016 election. Soon thereafter, families were being separated at the border, and our work to combat climate change was being dismantled. Since then, three Supreme Court nominees have come before the Senate Judiciary committee on which I have sat. Wildfires have ravaged our state, racial injustice continues to plague our nation, and COVID-19 plagues the world.

This month, we witnessed something I thought I would never see in the United States: A mob breached the U.S. Capitol, trying to thwart the certification of the 2020 election results. The violence made clear that we have two systems of justice  one that failed to restrain the rioters on Jan. 6 and another that released tear gas on nonviolent demonstrators last summer.

These have not been easy times by any stretch.

I am proud that, through it all, my office has maintained its focus, working tirelessly for the people of California.

We have taken on critical issues facing Californians and all Americans: rising rent costs, devastating hunger, unjust cash bail, economic insecurity, maternal health care, among others. Sens. Cory Booker, Tim Scott and I passed anti-lynching legislation through the Senate. And just in December, with Sens. Mark Warner and Booker, we passed legislation that will provide much-needed capital to communities of color and low-income communities during the pandemic.

From helping seniors navigate the Medicare system to helping veterans get the benefits they are owed, from securing funding for families to rebuild after the wildfires to working to get small businesses what they need to stay afloat  my team heard you, we saw you and we fought for you. Thank you, California, for that privilege. Know that Alex Padilla will carry on this work.

And this is not goodbye.

As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it.

As senator-turned-Vice-President Walter Mondale once pointed out, the vice presidency is the only office in our government that belongs to both the executive branch and the legislative branch. A responsibility made greater with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

Since our nations founding, only 268 tie-breaking votes have been cast by a vice president. I intend to work tirelessly as your vice president, including, if necessary, fulfilling this constitutional duty. At the same time, it is my hope that rather than come to the point of a tie, the Senate will instead find common ground and do the work of the American people.

Just a year before I interned in the Senate, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was made a federal holiday. The legislation did not sail through Congress by any means. There was a heated debate and a fair amount of grandstanding. In the end, the Democratic-led House passed the bill, the Republican-controlled Senate did the same, and the Republican president signed it into law.

Now, we have the pastor from the very church Dr. King preached in  the 11th Black senator since Reconstruction, out of nearly 2,000 senators total  about to be sworn in. And with him, the first Jewish senator from the Deep South since the 19th century.

Change is possible. For that, I am grateful and ready to get to work.

Thus, as I leave the United States Senate, this is not goodbye. This is hello.

Kamala D. Harris is vice president-elect of the United States.
Davos Agenda , online event of World Economic Forum 's yearly congregation of the rich and powerful of the world at Davos, is scheduled to be held between January 25 and 29. Every year, the event is held around the same time in the Swiss ski resort.

The decision to host the event online comes amidst the Covid 19 pandemic situation, as the World Economic Forum writes in its statement, the pandemic has accelerated systemic changes that were apparent before its inception. The fault lines that emerged in 2020 now appear as critical crossroads in 2021.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

However, WEF will host its physical annual meeting in May in Singapore.

Key themes for discussion

Content is split across 7 key themes that allow you to explore the diverse topics addressed during the meeting. They are likely - How to save the planet (revolves around Covid 19, climate change), Fairer economic (financial and monetary systems of different countries), Tech for good (Big data and other tech disruptions), Society and future of work (Remote work culture, gender parity), better businesses, healthy future and beyond geo-politics.

The 'Davos Agenda' will also mark the launch of WEF's 'Great Reset Initiative' and begin the preparation of the special Annual Meeting during spring.

Who will attend

The online summit will also see several heads of state and government deliver special addresses and engage in dialogue with business leaders at the start of a "crucial year to rebuild trust".

Those who have already registered for the event also include former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

Several union ministers including Narendra Singh Tomar, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan along with top business leaders such as Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra, Sanjiv Bajaj, Shyam Sunder Bhartia, Hari S Bhartia, Ajay Khanna, Jayadev Galla, Dipali Goenka, Sunil Mittal and others will participate in a five-day online Davos Agenda summit later this month.

How to follow:

WEF earlier this month released a guide on how to follow Davos Agenda on our digital channels. In the statement, it wrote, "It is essential for leaders from all walks of life to work together virtually for a more inclusive, cohesive and sustainable future as soon as possible in 2021."

Twitter

The official meeting hashtag is #DavosAgenda. Follow tweets on this hashtag to keep up with everything going on in the meeting. WEF will be live-tweeting key sessions, posting Fleets, and updating you on sessions.

Facebook

Follow wef.ch/facebook page for daily updates, livestreamed sessions, and video highlights from the event

Linkedin

Top stories, highlights and more will be uploaded to the wef.ch/linkedin page.

Instagram

Key photographs, reels, stories and quizzes from the event will be featured on wef.ch/instagram

YouTube

Livestreamed sessions and video roundups will be uploaded to the YouTube channel: wef.ch/youtube

Podcast

Subscribe to The Great Reset for daily coverage.

TikTok

Follow the account on TikTok: wef.ch/tiktok

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(Newser)  President Trump's pardoning spree will continue until pretty near the bitter end, sources say. Three people familiar with the matter tell CNN that the POTUS will issue somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 pardons and commutations on Tuesday, his last full day in office. He has until noon on Wednesday, Inauguration Day, to grant clemency. Aides don't currently expect that list to include himself, members of his family, or his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, though they warn that could change; all of the above had been speculated as possibilities. Rather, CNN says the list will include "white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others." Sources tell the Washington Post the names are largely expected to be "uncontroversial." Trump granted clemency to 49 people in the week before Christmas; the total number of his presidency so far is 94, mostly friends and allies.

story continues below

Not many specific names are being reported, other than Dr. Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach, Fla., who is jailed on health care fraud convictions. He is seen as "wealthy and influential" in South Florida, CNN says, and sources say that's a common theme in the list: "Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him," one says. Julian Assange is not expected to be on the list, and it's not clear whether Steve Bannon will be. Trump met with daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other aides at the White House on Sunday to discuss the list, which is seen as fluid and could change before it's finalized. As for why he isn't likely to pardon himself, a source tells Reuters there's a concern that could make him look guilty regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. (Read more President Trump stories.)
She was "sentenced" to 13 years' imprisonment in March 2020.

Museum organizations of Ukraine and Poland are seeking OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ann Linde's support in facilitating the release of Olena Pekh, an art scholar and research fellow at the Horlivka Museum of Fine Arts, who has been held captive in Russia-occupied Donbas since August 2018.

The Ukrainian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Ukraine) and ICOM Poland have issued a corresponding statement on January 18.

Read alsoUkraine finalizes prisoner swap list

Pekh was captured in the Russian-occupied town of Horlivka on August 9, 2018.

She left the occupied territory for the city of Odesa in 2014 with her underage daughter, but had to make regular trips back to Horlivka since 2016 to help her mother, who required medical assistance and care because of her deteriorating health.

Russia-controlled militants seized Pekh during a trip, accusing her of "treason" and "espionage." "While in custody, she had been brutally tortured, and tried to commit suicide to put an end to torture," the statement said.

In March 2020, she was "sentenced" to 13 years' imprisonment based on the testimony received under duress. She is currently in Penal Colony No. 127 in the town of Snizhne.

"There is no doubt that all 'accusations' against her are absurd," the statement says. "In reality, Mrs. Pekh is a hostage. The practice of taking civilians hostage to exert further pressure on Ukraine or to demand ransom from the relatives is widespread on the occupied territory, where no legal norms apply, and where there's no recourse to justice. Human rights advocates, journalists and former detainees have often drawn attention to this fact."

The Ukrainian authorities are reportedly taking the necessary steps to get Pekh released; she is on the list of detainees for swaps. "Unfortunately, the releases planned for 2020 didn't happen," the statement said.

The Russian side has failed to fulfill the obligations that it accepted, and refused to give representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the prisoners.

In this connection, the museum organizations ask Chair Linde to use the resources at the OSCE's disposal to ensure Olena Pekh's release. "We would be very grateful if you used your influence to persuade the Russian side to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Mrs. Pekh and other prisoners as soon as possible. Additionally, we would like to ask you to raise this question at the next session of the Trilateral Contact Group through the OSCE's representatives," the statement said.

Other related news reports

Reporting by UNIAN
Posted Monday, January 18, 2021 6:55 am

A proposed bill in the Washington State Senate would give cities a tool to fund affordable housing construction by taxing vacation rentals listed on sites such as Airbnb and VRBO.

Introduced by Sen. Liz Lovelett, an Anacortes Democrat, SB 5012 would allow municipalities to levy an additional tax of up to 10 percent on "internet-based" short-term rental bookings. The tax would be paid by consumers at the time of purchase.

The revenue must be used to fund capital and operating costs of affordable housing programs.

A fiscal note attached to the bill projects that if every municipality imposed the tax at the highest rate, it could generate $31.4 million, or roughly one-third of what the state spent in 2019 on the Housing Trust Fund, the primary funding mechanism for constructing affordable housing. (Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed to increase spending for affordable housing to $220 million in his 2021 budget.)

The bill would not create the tax, just allow local governments to do so if they choose.

Lovelett, who was appointed to the state senate and subsequently won election in 2019, was previously a member of the Anacortes City Council. She recalls that the city wanted to create a similar tax on vacation rentals, but lacked the authority to do so. (Cities and counties in Washington do not have "inherent taxing authority" unless the state legislature gives it to them.)

At a hearing for the bill on Wednesday, Lovelett argued that in areas where seasonal tourism brings an influx of demand for vacation rentals  such as Anacortes and the San Juan Islands  landlords are increasingly converting apartments to short-term vacation rentals, taking housing away from residents in an already tight market.

"While working on the affordable housing strategic plan for our jurisdiction, we realized that one of the things that was severely exacerbating our rental shortages was the fact that we now had a whole host of internet-based rentals that used to be out there on the market," Lovelett said.

Skagit and Whatcom counties both have a vacancy rate of half of 1 percent, the lowest in the state, according to data from the University of Washington's Center for Real Estate Research.

Lovelett described the tax as intending to balance out the effects of tourism on localities, similar to how an impact fee accounts for the additional costs that development incurs on cities.

"I look at this as being a simple option for local governments to be able to start bringing in money at the local level," Lovelett said. "Much like the lodging tax that is collected in order to promote tourism, this is going to be collected to offset the challenges that it provides to the rental markets in any local jurisdiction."

Because it's an opt-in tax, local governments can choose how high to set it, she added.

Several taxes already apply to both hotels and short-term rentals, although it was only in 2019 that the state legislature passed HB 1798, which clarified that short-term rental operators must pay them too. Previously, individual cities like Seattle, Bellingham, and Spokane had passed their own short-term rental laws, although the Department of Revenue (DOR) may have been collecting taxes as early as 2015, according to the DOR website.

In addition to the state's 6.5% sales tax and any local sales taxes, municipalities have the option to levy an additional 2% tax on lodging, known as the "hotel/motel tax." and most choose to.

That revenue, however, must be spent on government activities related to tourism.

Like hotels, short-term rental operators also have to pay business and occupation taxes, unless they're small enough to be exempt. According to the DOR's website, property owners who owe less than $841 in B&O taxes per year can use the small business tax credit.

HB 1798 also required short-term rental operators to obtain a business license from the Department of Revenue (DOR) and buy liability insurance.

The bill was backed by the Washington Hospitality Association and the sponsor, Rep. Cindy Ryu, a Democrat from Shoreline, said at the time that the bill was meant to "even the playing field" between Airbnb operators and hotels.

At the hearing on Wednesday, operators of short-term rentals argued that the new tax, if enacted by cities, would tip the scales in favor of hotels.

Don Mackenzie rents the basement of his Seattle residence part-time and his family owns a second cabin in Chelan County that they operate as a short-term rental. He said the tax singles out "small-scale entrepreneurs" like himself, putting him at a disadvantage compared to large corporate hotel chains.

In Seattle, a special convention center tax pushes the total rate up to 15.7% for both short-term rentals and hotels.

Other property owners testified that even if their vacation homes were on the long-term market, they wouldn't be affordable.

But housing advocates from across the state praised the bill, which they said would give municipalities more options to fund the creation of much-needed affordable housing. They were joined by local officials and residents of the San Juan Islands, who placed part of the blame for the region's housing shortage on the vacation rental industry.

Jamie Stephens, chair of the San Juan County Council, described the short-term rental industry as "contributing to the problem" by taking units off the market. Just days before, Stephens voted, along with his two fellow council members, to enact a six-month moratorium on issuing permits for vacation rentals. He added that creating a funding mechanism for affordable housing is thetop priority in the county's housing plan.

"I support this tax because the activity that is fueling the problem is now providing resources to help mitigate the problem," said Lisa Byers, the executive director of the Opal Community Land Trust in San Juan County and a member of a local group that advocated for the moratorium.

Research on the "Airbnb effect" tends to focus on major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, where data does show that an increase in Airbnb listings pushes rental prices up and removes units from the long-term rental market, decreasing supply.

However, there's much less data on smaller communities such as Anacortes and the San Juan Islands. And in cities with negligible tourism industries, it's not clear how significant of an effect short-term rentals have on housing prices or supply.

A 2017 study from researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California collected data from Airbnb, Zillow, and the U.S. Census Bureau between 2012-2016.

Using zip codes from across the country, the study found that a 10% increase in Airbnb listings caused rental prices to increase by .4% and house sale prices to increase by .7%.

___

(c)2021 The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.)

Visit The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.) at www.theolympian.com

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Mark Joseph Andal, 18, a college student, takes part in an online class through a smartphone at a forest hut where there is internet connection, following the suspension of physical classes during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Mabalanoy, San Juan, Batangas, Philippines October 15, 2020. Andal has taken a part-time job in construction to purchase a smartphone for virtual classes and has also built a forest shelter to capture an internet signal. When the signal fades, Andal picks up his plastic chair to move to another spot, and if it rains, he holds the phone in one hand and an umbrella in the other. "We're not rich, and finishing school is my only way to repay my parents for raising me." REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
(@fidahassanain)

The Prime Minister says that he has already exposed Modi government-Indian media nexus at the platform of UNGA.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Jan 18th, 2021) Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that WhatsApp chat of Indian journalist exposed unholy nexus between Modi government and India media.

The Prime Minister said that he had already exposed the nefarious design and Modi governments war mongering against Pakistan.

Taking to Twitter, PM said that this nexus led to a dangerous military adventurism to win an election in utter disregard for the consequences of destabilizing the entire region. He stated that Pakistan averted a larger crisis by a responsible, measured response to Balakot but Modi government continues to turn India into a rogue state.

The PM said that Indian sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan, its abuses in IIOJK and a 15-year long Indian global disinformation campaign against Pakistan stand exposed and now Indias own media has revealed the dirty nexus that is pushing the nuclearized region to the brink of a conflict it could not afford.

The PM said that his government would continue to expose Indias belligerent designs towards Pakistan and Modi governments fascism. He also asked International community to stop India from its reckless, militarist agenda before the Modi governments brinkmanship pushes the region into a conflict it cannot control.

On Feb 16, 2021, Indian media reported that former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Chief Executive Partho Dasupta and journalist Arnab Goswami WhatsaApp chat exposed Modi government over Pulwama attack that left 40 Indian soldiers dead.

Arnab Goswami is the Editor-in-Chief of Republic tv.

According to the leaked WhatsApp chat, Goswami told Partho Dasupta that something bigger than the normal strike was going to happen.

Bigger than a normal strike, Goswami had said in the chat that took place on February 23, 2019.

Partho Dasgupta, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Broadcast Audience Research Council which measures television ratings, in a purported WhatsApp chat on February 23, 2019.

After three days of the chat, Indian Air Force carried out a strike targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in the Pakistani town of Balakot three days later on February 26, 2019. The attack, it was said, was a response to an attack on February 14, 2019 in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel. An explosive-laden car driven by a suicide bomber rammed the car into the bus carrying 40 personnel of Central Reserve Police Force Personnel.

Scroll in reported that according to the transcript, on February 23, 2019, Goswami texted Dasgupta saying: On another note something big will happen.

After a few messages on other matters, Dasgupta asked, Dawood?, referring to the notorious gangster who is wanted in several cases.

The conversation continued:

Arnab Goswami: No sir Pakistan. Something major will be done this time.

Partho Dasgupta: Good.

Partho Dasgupta: Its good for big man in this season.

Partho Dasgupta: He will sweep polls then.

Partho Dasgupta: Strike? Or bigger

Arnab Goswami: Bigger than a normal strike. And also on the same time something major on Kashmir. On Pakistan the government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated. Exact words used.

Image showing transcript of the purported chat between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta.

The chats also reveal instances of Dasgupta asking Goswami to reach out to the government on his behalf. In one such exchange on April 4, 2019, the former ratings agency chief asks Goswami if he can stall the Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indias proposal to make BARCs viewing data public. Dasgupta asks Goswami for some action from a certain AS. In reply, Goswami says he could do what Dasgupta asked for.

Republic Day 2021: No chief guest, shorter parade and age cap

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: The Republic Day this year will be of shorter duration. The marching contingent will be smaller and the cultural performances will be fewer.

The number of spectators too be reduced at Rajpath on January 26. The overall traditional character of the parade would however be maintained despite the restrictions. A contingent of the Bangladesh armed forces will take part in the parade in view of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1971 war of liberation.

The parade will begin from Vijay Chowk. However this year it would culminate at the National Stadium instead of ending at the Red Fort. This means that the parade which normally covers 8.2 kilometres will only 3.3 kilometres this year.

Ayodhya mosque project to start off on Republic Day

round 25,000 spectators will be allowed to witness the parade as compared to the average of 1.3 lakh people every year. There would be no permit for elders with Co-morbidities and children below the age of 15.

With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelling his visit to India on Republic Day, this may be for the first time in five and half decades that there would be no chief guest at the parade.

Johnson, who had initially accepted the offer cancelled his visit owing to the new strain of the COVID-19 virus in the United Kingdom.

The last time that the Republic Day did not have a chief guest was in 1966, the Indira Gandhi was sworn in as the prime minister following the death of Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The years 1952 and 1953 too did not have a chief guest during the Republic Day parade.

India has decided to go ahead with the Republic Day celebrations without a chief guest. The decision was taken after UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson decided to cancel his visit due to the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The Republic Day this year will be of shorter duration. The marching contingent will be smaller and the cultural performances will be fewer.

The number of spectators too be reduced at Rajpath on January 26. The overall traditional character of the parade would however be maintained despite the restrictions. A contingent of the Bangladesh armed forces will take part in the parade in view of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1971 war of liberation.

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

The parade will begin from Vijay Chowk. However this year it would culminate at the National Stadium instead of ending at the Red Fort. This means that the parade which normally covers 8.2 kilometres will only 3.3 kilometres this year.

Won't call off tractor rally on Republic Day: Protesting Farmers

Around 25,000 spectators will be allowed to witness the parade as compared to the average of 1.3 lakh people every year. There would be no permit for elders with Co-morbidities and children below the age of 15.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 10:56 [IST]

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Wall Street may be facing an uncomfortable four years after President-elect Joe Biden's team confirmed on Monday it planned to nominate two consumer champions to lead top financial agencies, signaling a tougher stance on the industry than many had anticipated.

Gary Gensler will serve as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra will head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Progressives see the agencies as critical to advancing policy priorities on climate change and social justice.

Wall Street-friendly Republicans on Monday criticized Biden for bowing to leftists, warning the picks would be divisive.

'The Biden team is pandering to members of the far-left,' Patrick McHenry, lead Republican on the House of Representatives finance panel said of Chopra, while warning Gensler should 'resist pressure to commandeer our securities disclosure regime to try to fix non-economic issues or social problems.'

Tougher direction: Gary Gensler's agenda at the SEC is likely to include new corporate disclosures on climate change and political spending. He is strongly backed by Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren

Progressive picks: Republicans accused Joe Biden of 'pandering' to the left of his party

The chair of the derivatives regulator from 2009 to 2014, Gensler implemented new swaps trading rules created by Congress after the financial crisis, developing a reputation as a tough operator willing to stand up to powerful Wall Street interests.

Chopra helped set up the CFPB after the crisis and served as its first student loan ombudsman. At the FTC, he campaigned for tougher rules for big tech companies on consumer privacy and competition, and for stricter enforcement penalties.

With Republicans appearing to have a good chance to maintain control of the Senate following the Nov. 3 election, financial executives had hoped Biden would pursue more moderate picks.

But Democratic victories in two Georgia run-off elections earlier this month mean Democrats will have effective control of the chamber once Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn in on Wednesday.

Those wins also mean anti-Wall Street firebrand Sherrod Brown will lead the powerful Senate Banking Committee. He has said he plans to try to repeal Wall Street-friendly rules introduced by President Donald Trump's regulators.

On Monday, Brown hailed Chopra as a 'bold' choice who would ensure the CFPB 'plays a leading role in combating racial inequities in our financial system,' while Gensler would 'hold bad actors accountable' and put 'working families first.'

Banking crackdown: Rohit Chopra (left), who is the pick to head the CFPB, was praised by Sherrod Brown (right), who will chair the Senate banking committee and is expected to hold high-profile hearings on Wall Street

Gensler is expected to pursue new corporate disclosures on climate change related-risks, political spending, and the composition and treatment of company workforces, and to complete post-crisis executive compensation curbs, among other rules.

Chopra is expected to review payday lending and debt-collection rules, which influential consumer groups say won't protect Americans. They also hope he will stamp out exorbitant lending rates and abusive debt-collection practices, address the student debt burden and gaps in minorities' access to credit.

'The CFPB has an incredibly important job to do, including stopping financial rip-offs,' said Lisa Donner, executive director at Americans for Financial Reform, a think tank. 'It also has an urgent role to play in helping families survive and recover from the pandemic-induced economic crisis.'

Biden, though, will first have to fire Kathy Kraninger, the current CFPB director, a power he will have thanks to a ruling last year by the Supreme Court which said the CFPB director served at the president's will.

But Richard Hunt, chief executive of the Consumer Bankers Association, rejected the idea that Biden should automatically use that power.

'CBA does not believe it is in the best interest of consumers to have a new Director with each change in Administration. This whip-saw effect will stifle innovation and prevent consistent regulations,' Hunt said in an usually forceful statement.
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The bhoomi poojan for Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II (AMRP) and Surat Metro Rail Project will be performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video conferencing today.





Today is a landmark day for two of Gujarats leading urban centres. The Bhoomi Poojan of Surat Metro and Phase-2 of the Ahmedabad Metro would take place at 10:30 AM. https://t.co/4hs4EGm84ppic.twitter.com/tNEbgdCvmS  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 18, 2021

The project will provide an environment friendly 'Mass Rapid Transit System' to these cities. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Union Housing & Urban Affairs Minister and Gujarat Governor will be present on the occasion.

PM Modi inaugurated the Phase-I of the AMRP last year. AMRP Phase-II has two corridors with 28.25 Km long stretch. Corridor-1 is 22.8km long and stretches from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir. Corridor-2 is 5.4km long and stretches from GNLU to GIFT City. The total completion cost of Phase-II project is Rs 5,384 crore.

The first phase cost around Rs 10,773 crore, funding for which came from Japan through its funding agency JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). The central and Gujarat governments contributed Rs 1,990 crore each for the project.

Surat Metro Rail Project has two corridors, with a stretch of 40.35km. The construction of the first phase will begin in June next year and it is expected to complete in four years.

Phase-I will have two routes, one between Sarthana and Dream City, a distance of 21.61 km with 14 elevated stations, while the other will be from Bhesan to Saroli, a distance of 18.74 km with 18 elevated stations.

For the Surat Metro Project, the government approved Rs 12020.32 crore in February last year. The project is required to finish in five years, the government said.

Also read: Bird flu outbreak: Centre asks states to reconsider ban on poultry sale
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

An Otero County commissioner who said there could be blood running out of the U.S. Capitol building on Inauguration Day was arrested Sunday in Washington, D.C., for his alleged role in the riots at the Capitol earlier this month.

FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said Couy Griffin, 47, was detained Sunday afternoon by U.S. Capitol Police, who then notified the FBI. Griffin had a warrant for his arrest on a charge of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

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The charge stems from his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riots. It was not clear Sunday evening if Griffin had an attorney.

Griffins alleged involvement in the riots prompted calls over the weekend for his resignation.

A seven-page affidavit for an arrest warrant filed in federal court Friday says FBI agents used videos of Griffin posted on the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page as well as other public statements he made about the riot and the inauguration to bring the charge against him.

According to the affidavit, the FBI received a tip that Griffin was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and posted videos on Facebook in which he said he planned to return to Washington on Jan. 20 and put a flag on House Speaker Nancy Pelosis desk.

Agents later saw a video posted on the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page in which Griffin says he climbed up on top of the Capitol building and  had a first row seat, the complaint says. He went on to say in the video that he will return to the Capitol on Jan. 20 and that theres gonna (sic) be blood running out of that building.

Agents interviewed Griffin on Jan. 11, and he said he and a videographer went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to protest the 2020 presidential election results. He said he and the videographer remained on the Capitol steps and never entered the building.

Griffin told agents that he hoped the Jan. 20 protests would be peaceful. But he also said he hopes a change in leadership can be accomplished without a single shot being fired, but noted that there was no option thats off the table for the sake of freedom,  the affidavit says.

Agents also interviewed the videographer, who is not facing charges. He said that as people were passing barriers, he and Griffin climbed up to the outside deck of the Capitol, which he acknowledged was a restricted area, and remained there for about an hour and a half. He said they left when they started to smell pepper spray.

Agents referenced a Jan. 14 Otero County Commission meeting, during which Griffin spoke for 17 minutes about his actions at the Capitol as well as his plan to return to the Capitol with at least two guns.

Griffin has been at the center of controversy before for saying the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat and saying that some Black athletes should go back to Africa.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas had called for Griffin to resign from the Otero County Commission before the FBI confirmed Griffins arrest. Balderas sent a letter to Griffin on Saturday and shared it with news media Sunday.

Balderas told Griffin that his recent participation in the violent insurrectionist attack on the United States Capitol  is a direct violation of your sworn oath of office, and a danger to our society, Your incendiary comments from the steps of the Capitol and your calls to incite violence against the foundation of our nations democracy cannot be tolerated from an elected official. He also said that Griffin had been accused of using public money to advance (his) personal profile, using his platform as a commissioner to spread racism and making threatening remarks to political opponents.

Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Marg Elliston also called for Griffins resignation Sunday.

While our country has struggled to come together and address the challenges that are affecting all Americans, Couy Griffin has spewed conspiracy theories, threatened violence, and now taken part in a direct attack on our democracy, Elliston said in a statement. He has no business representing any New Mexican, and leaders across the political spectrum must immediately disavow his support and call for his resignation. His actions are disgraceful and should not be tolerated as part of New Mexico politics.

Read the criminal complaint:

Federal criminal complaint against Couy Griffin by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd
That release could not be found.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a media conference at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in said Monday that South Korea will seek dialogue with Japan to find a solution to Tokyo's wartime sexual slavery amid renewed tensions following a recent court ruling on the thorny issue.



During his New Year's press conference, Moon also renewed his call for a diplomatic solution to the issue of Japan's colonial-era forced labor, while stressing his two-track approach separating historical issues from efforts to forge "future-oriented" bilateral ties.



His remarks came amid growing concerns that relations between Seoul and Tokyo could deteriorate to a new low, as the historical issues stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule came to the fore with no plausible solutions in sight.



"Based on the agreement, (South Korea) will hold consultations with Japan to find a solution that victims would agree to," Moon said, referring to the 2015 government-to-government deal to address the sexual slavery issue.







Cinemas were allowed to resume operations from mid-October with 50% capacity. But PVR Ltds third quarter results show that this has barely moved the needle for the firm.

For the December quarter, consolidated revenues for the company declined by 95% vis-a-vis last years corresponding quarter to 45 crore. This is similar to the show in the September quarter, when revenues had declined 95.8%. Analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd estimate that even though cinemas opened with permissions for 50% occupancy, actual occupancy levels were only around 1% in Q3. Blame it on poor content. In a classic chicken-and-egg situation, producers are waiting for occupancy levels to rise before releasing movies in theatres, while occupancy levels are low because there isnt compelling content to visit theatres.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

Quite surprisingly, revenue was similar sequentially despite progressive reopening of theatres from mid-October versus complete shutdown in the September quarter. Limited content availability seems to be the primary reason (note that 2QFY21 benefited from movie distribution revenues)," analysts from JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd said in a report on 15 January. While cinemas were shut in Q2, PVR earned income from movie distribution, through the sale and distribution of movie rights by subsidiary PVR Pictures.

View Full Image Box office woes

While revenues remained abysmally low, costs made a comeback, with theatres now open. Monthly fixed expenses, including rent and common area maintenance, for Q3 stood at 52.7 crore, higher by as much as 60% sequentially.

PVR reported a loss of 125 crore in Q3 at the Ebitda level, according to analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities, compared to losses of 92.7 crore in Q2. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and is adjusted for Indian Accounting Standard (Ind-AS) 116 lease accounting.

Costs remained much lower on a year-on-year basis, which means PVR has managed to negotiate with landlords for lower rents. However, costs are higher compared to where they were when theatres were shut. And revenues arent showing signs of a strong comeback.

Further, debt has increased sequentially. Consolidated net debt rose to 1,127 crore as on 31 December from 902 crore as on 30 September. Meanwhile, the company has a reasonable liquidity cushion. IIFL Securities Ltd estimates that the present cash position can support cash burn for five months (at current occupancy levels).

The near-term outlook remains tough. Investors should watch how movie content releases are shaping up. True, the better-than-expected response to the recently released Tamil movie, Master, is encouraging. But much more is needed for investors to breathe easy.

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NUR-SULTAN -- A Kazakh prison guard at a detention center in the capital has been charged with abuse of authority over the beating of a jailed political activist.

Lawyer Gulshat Amantaeva told RFE/RL on January 18 that the charge against the guard, who had beaten her client, Asqar Qaiyrbek, earlier this month, wasn't severe enough and that he should have been charged with torture.

Qaiyrbek was sentenced to two months in prison in December after a court found him guilty of having links with the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement that is labeled an extremist organization and banned in the Central Asian state.

According to Amantaeva, two medical examinations held after the attack revealed that Qaiyrbek sustained serious injuries.

Maksim Kalashev of the Nur-Sultan city police department confirmed to RFE/RL that a probe had been launched into Qaiyrbek's beating, but declined to give any details.

Qaiyrbek is a well-known rights activist.

He has been sentenced to jail terms between five and 15 days several times in the past for taking part in unsanctioned rallies in the capital, including ones organized by the DVK.

Several activists have been sentenced to prison terms and freedom limitations in Kazakhstan in recent months for involvement in the DVK's activities, including taking part in unsanctioned, DVK-organized rallies.

DVK was established by an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government, fugitive tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov, who resides in France and regularly organizes unsanctioned anti-government rallies via the Internet.

The movement was officially labeled as extremist and banned in Kazakhstan in March 2018.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Memphis City Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris joined with members of Teamsters Local 667 today to celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor 1968 sanitation striker Elmore Nickleberry.

"Our brothers and sisters in Local 667 stand on the shoulders of the giants like Brother Nickleberry," said Local 667 President James Jones. "Their fight for respect changed the course of history for working families of color."

While traditionally the Teamsters have led a march downtown every year to continue the fight for workers' dignity, this year due to COVID-19, the tradition was moved to an online webinar event to protect the safety of members and allies.

"Every day we fight for working folks but today we honor the men and women who led the way. Today we honor Martin Luther King Jr., Elmore Nickleberry and every 1968 sanitation striker who sacrificed their lives to lead the fight for worker justice," said Local 667 Vice President Herman Lewis.

Joining the Teamsters on the webinar were Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Memphis City Mayor Jim Strickland and former U.S. Senate Candidate Marquita Bradshaw.

"We must never forget that Dr. King was assassinated here in Memphis, while joining with union members in their fight for Black workers' most basic worker rights. The fight continues and today we honor the brave men and women who led the way," Jones said.

Teamsters Local 667 represents workers in a wide variety of industries throughout the Greater Memphis Area.

Contact:

Matt Brown, (901) 603-8003

[email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local 667
Pastor Brian Gibson and Dr. Janet lead (L) are in the interview with The Epoch Times in the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington D.C. on Dec. 12, 2020. (screenshot of NTD's video)

First Amendment in Danger, Constitution Is Next: Pastor Brian Gibson

Religious freedom advocate Pastor Brian Gibson warned that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is in danger, and once the First Amendment collapses, the U.S. Constitution will fall like Dominos.

Whenever you watch the church being shut down, you watch the freedom of speech being taken away, you watch the censorship, you watch the ability to assemble together being threatened in the name of COVID. The Constitution has no COVID clause. And so the first thing thats listed there in the Constitution is the freedom of religion. And if it falls, and the First [Amendment] falls, the rest of the Constitution falls like a domino, Gibson told NTDs Focus Talk.

Last year, Gibsons church in Owensboro, Kentucky, was ordered to shut down. The Health Department told the pastor that if he ran a drive-thru Easter egg giveaway, they would close his church.

Gibson has multiple churches in Texas and Kentucky. He started Peaceably Gather to help organize churches and faith leaders together to reopen during COVID-19 pandemic-related shutdown measures across the country. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

He calls on people of various faiths to stand up for freedom of religion in the country.

So it doesnt matter if theyre Jewish, it doesnt matter if theyre Buddhist, it doesnt matter what their religion is. They got to stand up and they have to speak. Because if they can take away the freedom of religion, Im telling you, theyre coming to a neighborhood near you next, he told host Jenny Chang.

He also warned about far-left influence in the education system.

I think America needs to wake up on who has the mind of your children. Because if you can shape the mind of a child, you can shape the mind of the future of our nation.

We have to first start with our children. Its so important, the pastor stressed.

Gibson said he believes that those on the far-left that have promoted cancel culture are not actually the majority, but have amplified their voice to intimidate moderates. Even quite a few left-wingers in America dont want to see the freedom of speech leave. But theyre so scared of speaking up and speaking out, he said.

He said Big Techs censorship of prominent accounts, including President Donald Trumps, is Big Tech operating the Marxist playbook and the silence of free speech in America.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media companies permanently removed Trump from their platforms, claiming he incited violence during a speech he gave on Jan. 6 before a small group of protestors breached the Capitol.

Gibson said Trumps speech on Jan. 6 was very peaceful, but that the far-left weaponized it. He called it hypocritical that Big Tech de-platformed Trump for his speech, while the Chinese Communist Party leaders and CCP Ayatollah of Iran can still make posts on Twitter.

I believe its time for America to take away [Section 230] from them, to use the RICO statutes, and also the monopoly laws that we have, and to take Big Tech, and to push back against this. the pastor said.

Charlotte Cuthbertson and Jenny Chang contributed to this report.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) issued a letter on Sunday calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is the future majority leader, to dismiss the article of impeachment of the House against President Donald Trump. He called the effort an "unconstitutional" act of revenge that will hamper the process of "national healing."

Graham: Trump's Impeachment Will Hinder National Healing

The senator's letter depicts the most recent effort by Republicans to question the ethics and legality of Democrats' plan to conduct a Senate impeachment trial for Trump following his leave from office.

Graham is prompting Schumer to hold a vote to dismiss the impeachment article passed by the House the previous week.

He wrote in a letter addressed to Schumer on Sunday that the New York Democrat is pursuing "vengeance and political retaliation" in his first act as majority leader rather than beginning "national healing."

According to Graham, "While the Vice President and Senate Republicans rejected unconstitutional actions, you seek to force upon the Senate, what would itself be but one more unconstitutional action in this disgraceful saga-the impeachment trial of a former president."

The House approved last week a resolution calling for Trump's impeachment for allegedly provoking protesters to hold a siege at the US Capitol on January 6. Both of the House members representing the Pee Dee, Democrat Jim Clyburn, and Republican Tom Rice voted in favor of a second impeachment, reported SCNOW.

According to Graham in the letter, "As you said, the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol will live in infamy in United States history. Those who were complicit in this attack will be held accountable. And the Congress can be proud that it returned to business that same day to fulfill its constitutional duty and certify Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States."

Also Read: Biden's Stimulus Plan to Benefit the Unemployed, Students, Low Wage Earners, Students

Graham stated that if the Senate does not dismiss the impeachment article against the incumbent president, national healing could be "indefinitely" delayed.

He added the impeachment of a president no longer in office would possibly eternally divide the United States, reported The Denver Gazette.

Also, according to the top Trump ally, "We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great nation if we do otherwise." He added their duty to the people they represent is clear and that history will judge them unfavorably if they do not rise to the occasion of this significant moment in history, reported Politico.

In the January 6 siege at the Capitol Hills, supporters of the sitting president attempted to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. There were five recorded fatalities.

But Democrats contend that holding Trump accountable for his role in inciting the riot at Washington, DC - and possibly barring him from holding office again - is an important component of restoring democratic norms and stability in the United States.

Graham counters that the Senate already fulfilled its role to defend the election when virtually all of them rejected Trump's calls to overturn the presidential election results during Congress' certification of Biden's victory.

Related Article: Tearful Pelosi: Congress Members Who Were Accomplices to Capitol Siege May Be Prosecuted

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Authorities here are investigating a case in which 23 Malawian border jumpers disappeared from Beitbridge Police Station while awaiting transportation to Harare pending deportation to their country.

Two of the immigrants are reported to have tested positive for Covid-19. The border jumpers are Ousmane Austin (27), Yamaya Saidi (26), Sumati Jamali (18), Hake Idrasl (23), Hajira Joe (23), Edward Master (18), Fatima Mark (27), Musa James (27), Bernard Chimenya (25), Dennis Bwala (18), Gladys Shucha (24), Enock Halwa (24), Juiro Ajalu (18), Frank Mayazi (28), Blessings Wiseman (21), and Witness Mdala (21).

The others are Erison Lestah (24), Lejabo Mbewe (23), Fulani Witness (30), Adam Musa (22), Mark Musa (20), Madson Mwinjiro (37) and Matola Yusuf (19).

It is reported that the border jumpers were busted by the police as they sought to illegally leave the country on Monday morning at around 4 AM.

The group had allegedly entered the country illegally and were in transit to South Africa when they were arrested on a footpath near the old border post offices.

A security source said following their arrest they were charged for exit by evasion under the immigration Act.

They were taken to court and appeared before Miss Vavariro Nhau who warned, cautioned and released them to immigration authorities for further management.

Arrangements were then made to keep them at Beitbridge Police Station pending transportation to Harare.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) sponsored their transportation under the regional facility for stranded migrants, said the source.

The official said when a Zupco bus arrived in Beitbridge on Thursday, it was discovered that all the migrants had absconded.

The police officer commanding Beitbridge, Chief Superintendent Tichaona Nyongo, and the Assistant Regional Immigration officer in charge of Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube could not be reached for comment.

Last year two Malawian border jumpers who tested positive to Covid-19 escaped from isolation.

One of the escapees was intercepted by security agents as he sought transport to Malawi at the closed Dulivadzimu Long-distance Bus Terminus.

His accomplice was not found. Chronicle
KYODO NEWS - Jan 18, 2021 - 12:05 | All, Japan, Feature

Japan's vending machines are known for their ubiquity -- scattered throughout the country on city blocks, in train stations, as well as near-desolate areas in the countryside.

Most sell beverages, but eggs, apples, hamburgers, and even fish stock are available, too. In a pinch, you can also get shirts, underwear, ties, and now, surgical masks. What else could one want?

The answer, in a country concerned with its shrinking population and keen to encourage more births, appears to be babies' diapers and formula, now beginning to show up in machines in a number of locations nationwide.

In Hokkaido, central and local government bodies have gotten involved in pushing vending machine sales of such items, targeting rest stops on highways.

At Hana-road Eniwa, for instance, a roadside station located along a national highway in Eniwa, where there is a 24-hour "baby corner," a vending machine dispenses disposable diapers, baby wet wipes, and canned liquid formula that can easily be transferred to a baby's bottle.

The Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau, local municipalities, and Hokkaido Coca-Cola Bottling Co. joined hands on the initiative in 2019. So far, such vending machines are available at 11 roadside stations on Japan's northernmost island.

"When we thought about what could be done to help people, we came up with the idea of supporting child-rearing with vending machines with Hokkaido Coca-Cola, with which we had formed a tie-up in the event of disasters," said a person in charge at the regional development bureau, an arm of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The Tokyo metropolitan region, Shizuoka in central Japan, and Fukuoka on the southwestern island of Kyushu are some of the other spots where such vending machines have appeared.

DyDo Drinco Inc., along with Secom Medical System Co., and Daio Paper Corp., began installing disposable diaper vending machines in October 2019. Paper diapers and wet wipes are sold for 240 yen ($2.30) each. Starting with a roadside station in Itako, Ibaraki Prefecture, there are now around 100 units from Tohoku, northeastern Japan, to Kyushu in the south, the companies said.

Related coverage:

Cooled masks sold in vending machines prove hit amid virus epidemic

Pizza vending machine attracts crowds in Hiroshima

Diaper vending machines are installed by each business operator, and there are no data available that summarize the exact locations or number of units nationwide.

The seed for the idea of buying diapers from a machine as easily as a can of coffee took a while to germinate.

At a workshop held in 2016 by Comachiplus, a nonprofit corporation in Yokohama that supports child care, a father talked about how helpful it would be to have vending machines dispense diapers. He lamented the trouble of having to pack a bag full of items, especially bulky diapers, whenever going out of the house.

After hearing these remarks at the workshop, officials concerned at Tokyo Kirin Beverage Service Co. and Kao Corp. spent one year through trial and error developing the first vending machine in Japan to sell disposable diapers.

Those vending machines have medium- and large-sized diapers with plastic bags and wet wipes. They also sell drinks alongside, with mothers asked in a questionnaire their preferences -- a majority went for beverages with no caffeine and juices.

A portion of sales from the two firms' diaper vending machines will be donated to the "Welcome Baby Project" they launched together with Comachiplus in hopes of encouraging more childbirths.

"When babies are born, mothers usually become confined to the home. If there are vending machines (that support baby care), they feel at ease about going out. We want to create a society where people don't feel isolated," said the project coordinator Yoshimi Sato, 44.
This Monday night, RTE Investigates follows the lives of rough sleepers and homeless hostel users, examining the challenges they face and the difficulties in getting off the streets in a powerful new RTE One TV documentary.



There were 56 homeless deaths in the first 11 months of 2020.

In the lead up to Christmas, RTE Investigates documented the lives of people sleeping rough in Dublin City. The programme also examines the role of emergency hostels as a response to the problem, revealing how some cant get into the hostels while others believe the streets are safer.



The number of rough sleepers in Dublin fluctuates. The most recent count by Simon found 139 people sleeping rough in the city over one week in November. Those that are sleeping rough are supposed to be able to get an emergency hostel bed by ringing a freephone number operated by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE)  these beds are for those in crisis. Rough sleepers from outside County Dublin being denied access to an emergency hostel bed in the city has caused some controversy.



On December 7 last, Minister for Housing Darragh OBrien told the nation on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland that nobody is being denied a hostel bed. Days later RTE Investigates filmed with homeless people who tried ringing the DRHE looking for a bed for that night to be told they couldn't help them. That they would need to contact their former local authority, despite being on the streets in Dublin on a winter's nights during the pandemic.



There were 75 beds empty the night one of the homeless men called the freephone number, but he was told he could not access a bed.



In the programme, Minister for Housing Darragh OBrien offers his apologies and says this should not have happened. The DRHE said it looks at everybody on a case by case basis and use their maximum discretion. The DRHE also pointed out is not responsible for providing homeless accommodation for everybody in the country.



Hostels remain a key and a costly component of the State's response to homelessness. In 2016, the DRHE spent almost 10 million on private emergency hostels. By 2019 this spend had shot up to almost 22 million.



At any one time there are roughly 3,000 homeless people availing of emergency hostel beds in Dublin. Some are well run and safe, but there are concerns about others.

Inspections of hostels are being carried out since February 2019. These are done by the local authority and not by an independent third party. RTE Investigates tried to access the records through Freedom of Information but were refused.



In an interview with RTE Investigates for the programme, Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien said: "Where they can be made public, they should be. I havent, and I dont have any difficulty with that. I think we need to make sure that we, that our standards are the best they possibly can be."



RTE Investigates undertook a detailed survey on the streets of the capital, in association with Amarach Research, to try to understand the challenges faced by people who don't have a secure home. They spoke in confidence with 80 people who either sleep rough or use emergency hostels. Some had been living this way for months, some for years.

48% of those surveyed were not addicted to drugs before becoming homeless. However, after becoming homeless, 50% of those people became addicted to hard drugs despite never previously having a drug problem.

Among the younger age groups the rate of addiction is even higher. For 18 to 34-year olds, 71% turned to drugs, despite no previous history of drug addiction. Heroin and alcohol were the most common drugs followed by cannabis, prescription drugs, crack cocaine and cocaine.

Of those who did not have mental health issues prior to being homeless, 58% went on to develop mental health issues while on the streets.

"Its shocking. Very often we look at people who are homeless and we see the drug addiction they have and we think that thats the cause of their homelessness, but in actual fact many of the problems that people who are homeless have are consequences of their homelessness and just the sheer misery and the sheer mental pressure of living in circumstances where you have no home and the security that should go with a home," says Mike Allen of Focus Ireland.

Dans story

Dan Orlovs has contended with more than most 20-year olds. At the age of 10, able to say little more than his name and age in English, he moved to Ireland with his mother. At 15 years of age he became homeless. Dan and his mother became estranged. For the next four years he slept on friends couches, before ending up living on the streets of Dublin in July 2020.

Nothing could have prepared him for his first night sleeping rough in a doorway close to Store Street Garda Station in Dublins north inner-city.

At the start  the first two to three weeks in Dublin  I wouldnt beg, Dan told RTE Investigates.

Then, three weeks in, I said to myself: Im sleeping in a doorway. Im not washing myself. Its no harm. And then I started begging.

Dan had smoked cannabis before, but he started smoking heroin for the first time soon after he began sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin, partly because it dulled the pain of an abscess in his mouth. But taking drugs also helps him while away the days on the streets. He is far from alone in becoming addicted to heroin only after becoming homeless.

One of my biggest fears is that my addiction is going to get worse in a couple of months. My biggest fear is whats going to happen the next three months if I dont start doing something tomorrow, Dan told RTE Investigates in October.

Dans aspirations are modest. All he wants is a home, his own bed, a job and something to look forward to every day, he said.



Near the end of October, Dan decided to stop using heroin completely  going cold turkey. When youre coming down off heroin, you can go to a doctor and get prescribed methadone, but then youre hooked on meth. But with cold turkey, youre fighting the sickness yourself, Dan said.

Fever, diarrhoea and body aches are just some of the symptoms of heroin withdrawal. Managing this when on the streets without access to a bed or the basics of a toilet, shower or heat is very difficult.

But because his last registered address was in Kildare, Dan is refused a bed in a Dublin hostel. To be helped out by us, you need to have some local connection to Dublin. We are not allowed to help people from Kildare, an operator tells him on the phone.

Amid his withdrawal from heroin, Dan concluded that securing a hostel in Kildare was his best option and travelled back to the county. Despite the temptations and trying to go cold turkey, Dan continues to try and improve his situation. In December, more than a month after first entering the Kildare hostel, Dan secured a temporary Christmas job.

But living in a hostel is difficult for those trying to hold down a job. Dans hostel is in the middle of the country. The hostel provides a shuttle bus, but because of Dans work timetable he cannot avail of the service. Sometimes he can get a lift from hostel staff, but some mornings he must make the 90-minute journey to his job on foot. I had to leave at five oclock in the morning. At that time, there are no buses going,

Six weeks after RTE Investigates first met Dan, he is still struggling with his heroin addiction. But he is currently working with hostel staff with a view to securing a place of his own through the Governments Housing First Programme.

Watch RTE Investigates: Stuck in the Rough this Monday at 9.35pm on RTE One and RTE Player.




In the words and world of Vincent Doyle, everything turns on one sentence, posited early in his new book. "When I found out who I was," he writes, "like Truman, I wanted out."

Yet while Truman Burbank, "star" of the 1998 movie The Truman Show, lived in an entirely fake world, Vincent's was hyper-real, maybe a little surreal.

He had discovered, as an adult, that his father was the man he had known to be his godfather, and a different type of father at that: the Rev. John J Doyle, a Catholic priest.

As he writes in his book, entitled Our Fathers - A Phenomenon of Children of Catholic Priests and Religious and the first of its kind, the penny dropping made perfect sense once he considered the depth of the bond they had shared.

"Why did this priest mean so much to me, and why did I mean so much to him? Nobody else seemed to matter that much to him, and he was different with me than he was with others? We had our private communication.

"We customarily put our thumb up toward one another, indicating being best buds. He smiled so lovingly at me, and we spoke daily. Whilst I willingly accepted this happiness, it similarly made no sense? It became increasingly difficult when he died, as the grief customarily associated with a boy who is not a son did not match that which I felt internally."

So when Vincent said he "wanted out", it wasn't an escape from a terrible secret, or from the fact that his father had been a priest - it was from the silence that accompanies it.

Vincent has told this story before. In a revealing piece with the Boston Globe back in 2017, he outlined in some detail the circumstances of the big reveal, and how it altered his life.

So anyone expecting his book - long in gestation - to be a straight-up autobiography is looking in the wrong place.

"I never saw the point of an autobiography," he says, having revealed that he's watching his sausages brown in a nifty device he bought in Lidl.

When someone asked him a while back was he going to be telling his life story in stereo his response was "oh God, that is so trashy".

So instead, it is the story of how the revelation at the centre of his life sparked him into action, namely founding Coping International, which seeks to help the children born of religious around the world, and a journey that has taken him from the Longford of his youth and his current surrounds in Co Roscommon to the Vatican.

As he puts it in the book: "The 'Im the only one mentality', referring to children who believe they are the only priests child in the world is so strong, it convinces people almost beyond belief, that they are the only one. Nothing could be further from the truth."

His death in 1995 hit me hard, for it was the grief of a child for his father.

The story of how he came to discover the true identity of his father does bear retelling.

"I first found out about my own paternity in 2011, on the evening of what would have been my fathers 72nd birthday, it was a Thursday," he writes.

"I knew him only as JJ, he was my godfather, and I loved him with a love only a son could have, for his father. Whilst I went along with the godfather role as a child openly, I internally suspected there was more to our closeness than met the eye.

"His death in 1995 hit me hard, for it was the grief of a child for his father."

That day he found himself leafing through a 40-year-old folder of poems, including Aer Lingus Jet, Saint Bridgit which fell on the floor, "a poem written by the priest whose memory sat nestled in the back of my mind".

"Reading the poem slowly, I felt something internally crack, a recognition, an awareness, and I knew ... he was my father, wasnt he?

He recalls how "a tear escaped my mothers eye, and the sense of relief that overcame me was like a prisoners first breath of fresh, free air".

I have never been silenced by anyone wearing a collar," he says. Instead, the negative response was from "people I knew - it surprised me.

He almost cheerfully admits that when he made his own discovery, he was "naive" about its impact on others. He was happy to tell people about it, but some weren't receptive to hearing it.

"I have never been silenced by anyone wearing a collar," he says. Instead, the negative response was from "people I knew - it surprised me."

Vincent Doyle.

"We live in an Irish society that allegedly expounds human rights and that has never been truer than in the last couple of years in Ireland, yet why is it that people like me are expected to 'behave ourselves'? I didn't realise there was any stigma until it was put to me.

"I was speaking to a woman about this yesterday - when you find out you are the child of a priest you immediately appreciate there is a default silence around your existence. A systemic, institutional silence around your existence."

This is what Vincent has been striving to change - and in a way that some people might find surprising.

He speaks of an "innate" interest in the Church from a young age, something he "couldn't put his finger on". He switched from studying languages at Dublin City University to Theology at Maynooth University - the same college where his father had studied.

In the book he says his father had guided him on this path and says "Maynooth was never about attaining a piece of paper for me. Maynooth was and remains to be, a reconnection with some interior part of me, a role I could not fathom."

What it also gave him was a firm theological grounding, which - alongside his subsequent qualification as a psychotherapist - has set him up perfectly for his role in Coping International.

Theology is the lingua franca he shares with the Church. He grounds his arguments in the language of canon law. It means he is working with the Church and the hierarchy in Rome and elsewhere, to address the issues felt by the "children of the ordained" (the term he prefers to "children of priests").

"It is the appeal to reason in theology that is penetrating this," he says, although he adds: "I am not very big on diplomacy, the politics of the church - I have zero time for this."

But as a religious person, someone steeped in faith, he does have time for the Church, and it seems it has time for him.

The book highlights the support Coping International has received from the Irish Bishops, and in particular, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

If priests fathered only one in every 10 who have logged onto the site, this equates to more than 15,000 children of priests seeking help, information, and affirmation globally, and rising.

In a complete reversal of the old ways of omerta, Vincent seems to have been pushing an open door with the Catholic hierarchy in this country, the papal nuncio, and increasingly with those in Rome.

In June 2014, by arrangement, he had a few minutes with Pope Francis, telling him "Soy el hijo de un sacerdote Irlandes - I'm the son of an Irish priest.

By the following December copinginternational.com was launched and since then more than 150,000 unique visitors have logged on.

According to Vincent, "if priests fathered only one in every 10 who have logged onto the site, this equates to more than 15,000 children of priests seeking help, information, and affirmation globally, and rising.

"Even if only 0.5% of the unique visitors to Coping are the child of a priest, as it stands, thats over 7,500 children of priests, many of whom believe, 'Im the only one.'"

He says the building of that relationship of trust, then the backing of Irish bishops "really moved things on", although he has some strong words regarding what he sees as the complete lack of support from the government, including successive Ministers in different portfolios.

He argues that this enables any continuing stigma and is also at odds with the United Nations' recognition of the need to address the issue.

Yet despite the huge leaps forward, the Church also has work to do, and Vincent comes up with some practical solutions, rooted in theology.

It means addressing 'Silentium', the process of silencing the child of an ordained person or religious, and "The Moral Argument", described as "the unceasing and unyielding claim that a priest or religious must leave priesthood, ministry, in every case, if he becomes a parent", something Vincent believes is a form of coercive control.

Other Latin terms, Viri Probati and Parens, can, he says, "heal this wound for children moving forward", while he adds: "The Catholic Church needs married priests, not only because there is a shortage of priests, but because there is a shortage of good priests who are good fathers. Thus, the Catholic Church must enable, not disable, these priests and religious, assisting them in becoming good and responsible parents."

Vincent Doyle's book 'Our Fathers, A Phenomenon of Children of Catholic Priests and Religions'.

As he writes in the book: "Being connected to children of priests globally, the fact that married priests and unmarried priests do the same work, as has been confirmed by the Catholic Church."

It led him towards "a twofold solution": "Firstly, to allow men to remain in ministry - if they are parents - in certain circumstances, as opposed to fostering unemployment. Secondly, looking into the long-term, married clergy, Viri Probati..."

Of course, his own hugely positive relationship in life with the man he later discovered was his father is not a universal experience.

He writes of "the stories of rape" elsewhere in the world and refers to a set of twins fathered by a priest banished to South Africa and now living in a wendy house; of children of priests enduring a "sense of distractedness" in their lives which hampers them going forward.

"The child of the priest grows suspicious over time since no secret is absolute," he writes.

"I have seen this process occur time and time again, with people that have presented to Coping. The mothers fear of the paternity being discovered promotes anxiety within her.

"Anxiety and fear encourage distractedness, absent-mindedness, or preoccupation on behalf of the mother. It is the disharmony that surrounds the mother where suspicion grows on behalf of the child. This encourages the child to seek out the root of this prolonged disharmony. For him, it's about transparency, accountability, and practical solutions to improve the lives of those affected, including through therapy and counselling."

He says he was lucky in that his was a positive experience. There's a pause. "Saying that I still lament the fact that I wasn't able to call him my father and that does hurt me. I think there is something very wrong with the faith if it disallows the children to look at their fathers with admiration."

It all begs the question: what would his father have thought of the path he has taken with all this? Not just uncovering the story, but embracing it to the extent that he is now working with others all around the world?

"My dad was a chilled-out kind of a guy," he says. "I don't think he would have done what I have done, I was quite forceful."

It is all still a work in progress. He thinks again and says: "What my dad would say is the ends and the means must be in tandem."
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A prosecution witness on Monday narrated to the Federal High Court in Lagos how funds belonging to the Nigeria Air Force were diverted under the watch of Adesola Amosu as then Chief of Air Staff.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Mr Amosu alongside Jacobs Adigun, and Gbadebo Owodunni on amended 13 counts of fraud involving the diversion of N21 billion belonging NAF.

While Mr Adigun was an Air Vice Marshal and NAF Chief of Accounts and Budget, Mr Owodunni was an Air Commodore and former NAF Director of Finance and Budget.

Testimony

Testifying as the first prosecution witness in the case on Monday, Okechukwu Akubue, an EFCC operative, narrated how public funds meant for NAF were traced to the defendants.

Mr Akubue, who was led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Suleiman Suleiman, noted that EFCC had in 2015 received an intelligence on the alleged fraud.

He identified Exhibit A3 before the court as the bank statement of the NAF Special Emergency Operations Account domiciled in Zenith Bank.

He said Messrs Adigun and Owodunni were the signatories to the account as indicated by the bank mandate.

The witness, who said the bank statement was part of the responses to the letters of investigation sent to several financial institutions by the EFCC, added that the transaction of April 8, 2014, appearing on the bank statement, was an inflow of N1billion from one NAF account domiciled in Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank).

He said, The account, where the money came from, is also one of the accounts under investigation.

One of the disbursements from the N1 billion is the sum of N16, 980,000 on April 17, 2014 to a firm known as Delcon Installers Limited.

We did further investigation of the company and we gathered that the money was not used to procure services for NAF.

Mr Akubue said a transaction on August 28, 2014, a credit sum of N1 billion came from NIMASA.

He explained further EFCCs investigating team also came across a Memorandum of Understanding, between NIMASA and NAF for the protection of Nigerias waterways, which prompted the credit of N1 billion from NIMASA to NAF.

In our investigation, we came across a debit of N4,801,549 withdrawn on September 2, 2014 from this inflow, into the account of Hebron Housing and Property, Mr Akubue said.

He said the company was linked to the second defendant by way of ownership and was used to purchase assets on behalf of the defendants.

The trial began in June 2016 before Idris Mohammed, who has now been elevated to the Court of Appeal.

The case was later reassigned to a new judge, Chukwujekwu Aneke.

The defendants pleaded not guilty when they were re-arraigned in November 2018.

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The case was adjourned till January 19.

In the Biden era, could we finally see the passage of a federal privacy law? So far, the indicators look good.Americans' interest in expanded privacy rights is bipartisan, enthusiastic and growing, and the expectation that both states and the federal government will be responsive to this interest is at an all-time high."The general election really indicated a huge desire among consumers for greater privacy protections," said Pollyanna Sanderson, policy counsel with the Future of Privacy Forum , one of the many organizations lobbying for stronger protections. In 2020, there was a groundswell of privacy-related policies that passed with overwhelming support in legislatures throughout the country, she said.These included bills like Michigan's Search Warrant for Electronic Data Amendment , which passed with an 89 percent majority, or a Massachusetts bill that gives consumers new protections for their vehicle data , and which 75 percent of state residents voted in favor of. The recent measure to strengthen the California Consumer Privacy Act via creation of the Privacy Protection Agency, a new compliance-oriented entity, also passed with much support.Yet despite overwhelming public interest, there has been little federal leadership on the issue. The perpetual failure of a national privacy bill to materialize has left the responsibility of protecting consumer data to the states, which have had their own struggles with meeting that need."In the states, we've seen a huge acceleration in understanding and interest in how privacy works in a technical sense and a willingness to do more," said Sanderson. Indeed, in recent years, states like Washington and New York have taken after California in attempting to craft their own state privacy laws  a trend that is growing."Nearly half of states introduced privacy bills in the first half of 2020. That was all put on hold because of COVID. But you're likely to see a resurgence of interest in those bills as the vaccine begins to get rolled out and the world returns to business as usual," said Sanderson.Public concerns surrounding privacy were accelerated by COVID-19, which ushered in a new generation of technologies that collect and store consumer data (remote learning, contact tracing, telework applications, etc.). All of these things "really put the spotlight on the need for comprehensive privacy legislation," which could "increase trust in the adoption of socially beneficial technologies and create clearer rules of the road for companies," said Sanderson.With the incoming Biden administration, the federal government may be well positioned to finally preside over a robust privacy agenda."The Biden team doesn't really have a huge learning curve. Lots of the folks who are involved were also involved in the Obama Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. And they're coming back into the room and they can pick up where they left off," said Sanderson.Indeed, for a presidency that was itself rocked by spying scandals, the Obama administration took concrete steps to increase voter confidence in government's respect for personal privacy by establishing a permanent Federal Privacy Council and issuing a Privacy Bill of Rights , designed to create a framework for federal privacy regulation. With Biden's arrival, a similar approach and tone are expected.Vice President Kamala Harris, too, has some experience with ensuring consumer protections, having pushed for a number of data privacy initiatives during her tenure as California attorney general. Harris was AG at the time of the passage of the California Online Privacy Protection Act , one of the first laws in the country that forced companies to publicly specify if and how they collect personal data from Web users. She also created a Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit within her office, as the result of a number of high-profile data breaches in California at the time.If all of this seems daunting to companies, it shouldn't. By now, industry ought to be ready for (and receptive to) a federal privacy bill, as the alternative  a patchwork of state privacy laws  is much less appealing."Many of the largest businesses have already had to build technical mechanisms to comply with [existing privacy laws like] the CCPA or the GDPR if they have an international presence or operate in California. If they've already done such a huge lift, then it doesn't seem like it would be so out of range for them to comply with a national standard," Sanderson offered.The pressure for a clarifying set of regulations isn't just domestic but international as well, said Sanderson. As global data flows between allied countries have continually become ensnarled in legal debates stemming from confusion over American policy, the call for a better system has gotten louder. America's "sectoral" approach , where regulation varies by industry, is quite different from a more typical "omnibus" approach adopted by other countries, where privacy regulations are consistent across the private sector."The sectoral approach to privacy is really confusing to a lot of countries abroad because it's just so complex and there are also huge gaps that are emerging, because as technology evolves, some of those sectoral laws are just not covering it," she said. "On the international stage, there is a growing consensus on the need for the U.S. to have a coherent policy on the issue of privacy to demonstrate the U.S.'s values to the world on privacy.""So many different countries around the world are now enacting comprehensive privacy laws," Sanderson said. "In order for the U.S. to continue to be a leader in this space, I think having a comprehensive privacy law is really valuable."Government TechnologyGoverning
Iran claims has claimed that the new EU sanctions imposed on Faisal Mikdad, 'block the path to peace' reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed..

Iran on Saturday said European Union sanctions against Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad were unconstructive and risk exacerbating the countrys crisis.

The EU added the recently appointed minister to its sanctions blacklist on Friday, taking the number of officials and allies of Syrias President Bashar al-Assad under asset freezes and travel bans to 289.

Such an act will only lead to further divergence resulting in increased mistrust between Brussels and Damascus, Irans foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.

In a situation where Syrias crisis requires a political solution, sanctioning (Mikdad) means nothing by blocking the path to peace, he added, calling on the EU to reconsider its unreasonable and unconstructive action.

Mikdad replaced Assad stalwart Walid Muallem after the veteran top diplomat died in November.

Brussels began slapping sanctions on the Syrian authorities in 2011 over the repression of anti-government protests.

Iran has been a staunch supporter of Assad in the civil war that has ravaged the country since then.

Mikdad travelled to Tehran in early December, in the top diplomats first visit abroad.

Syrias conflict has killed more than 387,000 people and displaced more than half of the countrys pre-war population.

The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.


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[January 18, 2021] MFine Raises $16m From New & Existing Investors Led by Heritas Capital as Adoption of Digital Health Soars in India Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

SINGAPORE and BENGALURU, India, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- India's leading Digital Health startup MFine has raised $16m in a new funding round led by Heritas Capital with participation from Singapore-based family office of Y'S Investment Pte Ltd. Existing MFine investors including SBI Investment, SBI Ven Capital, BEENEXT and Alteria Capital have also followed-on in the round. The oversubscribed round wraps up a strong year for MFine with the company achieving 10x growth amidst exponential adoption of telemedicine and digital health in India in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent lockdown measures and the release of Telemedicine Guidelines by Government of India have led to the widespread adoption of telemedicine in India. A new standard for digital health services including health IDs, personal health records, Digi Doctor and a health facility registry has also been announced in August 2020 under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) to support universal health coverage for India's citizens. With over 4,000 doctors including some of India's top doctors from 600 reputed hospitals covering 35 specialties on the platform, MFine provides users with on-demand access to quality medical care even as COVID-19 hindered delivery of routine healthcare to chronic patients from remote locations. Since COVID-19, more than one million users have utilized MFine's platform to teleconsult with doctors on chronic conditions such as diabetes and arthritis and acute illnesses including viral infections, and for varying services including diagnostics, health checks, radiology and e-pharmacy. "The year 2020 has been very significant for us. During the pandemic, with the introduction of strict lockdowns and social distancing measures, we found ourselves in a unique position to help millions of people with access to essential healthcare services. We are seeing incredible traction on the provider and consumer side. Our vision of digital health as a solution to scale quality healthcare delivery has been accelerated by 2 years. The entire ecosystem is now on an accelerated transformation with the Indian government also introducing the National Health Stack. India is on the cusp of redefining healthcare delivery and we are actively engaged in shaping and leveraging this big shift," said Prasad Kompalli, Co-founder & CEO of MFine.



In 2020 MFine expanded its geographical coverage beyond physical boundaries of the cities to serve people from over 1,000 towns in India and launched several new services such as AI-based self-assessment of various health conditions, long term care programs for chronic conditions and membership to offer benefits on all the services for its direct consumers and also corporates. "MFine has developed a compelling solution that has proven to be highly impactful during this pandemic to ensure continued and trusted access to quality and affordable healthcare services. We believe that MFine's collaborative partnership model with hospitals and doctors powered by the application of AI will enable smart optimization of limited healthcare resources to address unmet needs throughout India and beyond," said Chik Wai Chiew, CEO & Executive Director of Heritas Capital.

"This is a great example of how mobile connectivity and advances in technology can aid in providing primary health care to millions of people. We see huge potential MFine's state-of-the-art AI and mobile technology platform and its ability to scale beyond India as COVID-19 has accelerated the use of telemedicine and digital health in India and other regions in SEA," Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director & Chairman of SBI Investment. "MFine has pioneered the access to top-class, trusted medical care in India. Despite 2020 being a difficult operating year, the MFine team has demonstrated its strong execution capability to add new capability, launch new offerings, accelerate traction while achieving strong economics. We are excited to continue backing the MFine team to create a large, world class healthcare company with deep positive impact," said Teruhide Sato, Founder & Managing Partner of BEENEXT. The COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged global funding activity in digital health in 2020. In 2020, telemedicine was the top-funded category and led VC funding activity with $4.3 billion, a 139 % YoY increase compared to $1.8 billion in 2019. Global venture capital funding in digital health came to $14.8 billion, a 66% increase compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, according to Mercom Capital's annual report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the digital health sector for 2020. With this fresh funding, MFine plans to reinforce its leading position in delivering an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare service across India, and aims to be one of the largest virtual hospitals in the world with services across primary care, secondary care and chronic care management in collaboration with its trusted partners. MFine will deploy the funds towards tripling its investments in AI, mobile engineering and device integration; expanding its hospital network across the country; scaling the recently launched services which include delivering medicines, preventive health screenings and diagnostic tests. The company will also initiate Series C fund raising in the coming months. About MFine MFine is an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare platform that provides its users access to virtual consultations and connected care programmes from the country's top hospitals. The app-based mhealth platform partners with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors. MFine users can consult doctors from their preferred hospitals via chat or video to get prescriptions and/or routine care. Users can also book routine lab tests, medicine delivery and access comprehensive health packages. MFine was founded in December 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli who were later joined by Ajit Narayanan and Arjun Choudhary . For more details, please visit: https://www.mfine.co/. About Heritas Capital Heritas Capital is a Singapore-based private equity and venture capital investment firm that invests in fast-growing companies across the healthcare, education and technology sectors. Guided by our investment philosophy, "Invest with Purpose, Impact Across Generations", Heritas Capital backs innovative companies to become emerging champions and drive inclusive growth that improves the lives of local communities while delivering sustainable returns to investors. SOURCE MFine

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By Hao Yunfu

QUITO, Jan. 18 -- The Command of Ecuadorian Army held an award ceremony at the Ecuadorian army's War College on January 16, 2020. Four military doctors from the 15th batch of the Chinese PLA's medical team to Ecuador, Liao Junning, Zhou Bin, Zhang Hui and Liu Huan, were awarded the Medal of Honor -- "Star of the Armed Forces", in recognition of their contributions to consolidating the friendship between the two countries and the two militaries and to improving the level of medical treatment and training medical personnel in Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian army commander spoke highly of the outstanding performance of the Chinese military medical team during their work in Ecuador. These military doctors were deeply appreciated for risking their lives to assist Ecuador in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated the Chinese military doctors' extraordinary dedication and professionalism.

Liao Junning, commanding officer of the Chinese medical team, said at the award ceremony that the Chinese medical members have witnessed the heroic fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by the Ecuadorian people and military. It was a great honor for the Chinese medical team to overcome all kinds of difficulties and actively participate in their battle against the pandemic.

The Chief of Staff of the Army and other high-ranking Ecuadorian general officers, as well as the defense attache of the Chinese Embassy in Ecuador Tu Fachao, also attended the ceremony.

The 15th batch of the Chinese PLA's medical team to Ecuador will head back to China on February 1 after a 14-month foreign aid mission.
El presidente de Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, durante la comparecencia de este lunes. (Photo: Ismael Herrero / Agencia EFE)

El Consejo de Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha ha acordado este lunes que el toque de queda se aplique desde las 22.00 horas, el cierre perimetral de todos los municipios de la region, excepto para ir a trabajar, la docencia o actividades esenciales; y el cierre de bares, restaurantes y cafeterias, tanto dentro como fuera del establecimiento, y las grandes superficies excepto aquellas tiendas que vendan productos esenciales.

El presidente de la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page, ha informado en una rueda de prensa de estas medidas y en la que ha aseverado que no tenemos mas remedio, no hay alternativa, no tenemos otra opcion, ante el incremento de casos de coronavirus.

Garcia-Page ha subrayado que estas medidas se aplicaran, en principio, por un plazo de diez dias, y ha confiado en que den resultado que se traduzca en un menor numero de contagios, pues ha subrayado que en las zonas donde se han aplicado ya, como en la Gerencia de Atencion Integrada de Manzanares, han conllevado un menor numero de casos.

El presidente de Castilla-La Mancha ha justificado la adopcion de estas medidas en la necesidad de combatir la espiral de contagios que se ha producido a raia de las fiestas navidenas y ha subrayado que entre todos, tenemos la responsabilidad de acatar decisiones que tienen que llevarnos a salvar vidas.

Ni son decisiones faciles ni son bonitas. Son amargas, ha reconocido el presidente castellanomanchego que, sin embargo, ha afirmado que lo ultimo que se podria perdonar seria no adoptar medidas para frenar la expansion de la Covid-19 que han demostrado su eficacia.

Ni son decisiones faciles ni son bonitas. Son amargas

Las medidas, una a una

El consejero de Sanidad, Jesus Fernandez Sanz, ha sido el encargado de detallar las medidas que se adoptan desde este lune...

Este articulo aparecio originalmente en El HuffPost y ha sido actualizado.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A recent university graduate has won the US$1,000,000 Thimaar Grand Prize of the Ithmaar Bank.

The Thimaar Grand Prize draw was held remotely at the Banks headquarters in Seef district and was coordinated and supervised by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (MOICT), as well as external auditors BDO Bahrain and the Banks own internal auditors.

I am thrilled to win the grand prize of Thimaar, which will surely change my life, said Bahraini Amna Al Ahmed. I received a phone call from the Bank informing me that I won US$1 million. I honestly couldnt believe it- this is a big surprise for me, she said. I would like to thank the Bank for offering us so many chances of winning such valuable prizes. I will continue to save more and will also encourage my friends and family to open a Thimaar account, especially now that the account can be easily opened from the comfort of their mobile phones through the Banks mobile application, she said.

On behalf of all of us at Ithmaar Bank, we congratulate Amna Al Ahmed and her family, and all the other Thimaar winners, said Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Abdul Rahim.

The Thimaar scheme, now in its eleventh year, is not only designed to encourage responsible financial behaviour by making saving more rewarding, the prizes also have life-changing potential, he said.

Thimaar, Arabic for fruits or harvest, is a prize-based saving account that Ithmaar Bank introduced to help encourage its customers to save.

In 2020, the bank announced it distributed more than US$26 million in prizes to almost 29,000 customers, in the ten years since it launched Thimaar.

This years Thimaar prizes include many more surprises, which will be revealed soon. The winners list is available on www.ithmaarbank.com/thimaar
Even as the rollout of vaccines all over the world brings a glimmer of hope that the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may end in the near future, new variants continue to emerge, some with the potential to escape vaccine-induced or therapeutic antibodies. Now, a new preprint research paper published on the bioRxiv* server describes a new American variant that may have become the dominant strain in the USA.

New regional variants arise over the course of a pandemic in part due to lockdowns, which restrict the population movement over a period of time. Another factor is the occurrence of multiple mutations at the same time. Epidemiologic surveillance of an infectious outbreak may involve genomic sequencing, which can allow new variants to be identified early in the course of the disease.

This method allowed the detection of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant, which arose early last year, but has now become very common in the USA. Called 20C-US by the researchers in the current study, it is part of the B.1.2 lineage.

Finding the new variant

The first isolation of this variant was towards the end of May 2020. Early on, it showed the presence of five mutations, which led to five changes in amino acid sequence. The affected genes are involved in virion maturation and release, viral protein processing, conservation of the RNA genome, and translation of viral proteins. It later acquired a pair of new mutations. One of these is the Q677H mutation in the spike protein adjacent to the spike cleavage site.

The researchers sequenced viral samples from Illinois and traced the emergence of a dominant strain within the 20C clade. The five defining mutations were then identified, namely, N1653D and R2613C in ORF (open reading frame) 1b, G172V in ORF3a, and P67S and P199L in the nucleocapsid (N) gene. The N gene mutation simultaneously introduced a stop codon mutation into ORF14.

Random samples were then sequenced from the national pool, showing that this variant made up a large proportion of genomes for most U.S. states, increasing over time, especially since July 2020. In the two months of November and December 2020, this strain makes up half of all sequenced isolates from the U.S.. However, it makes up only a minute proportion of sequences from other countries, including those as near the U.S. as Mexico and as far away as Australia and Poland.

Location of select 20C-US mutations on the three-dimensional structure of their respective proteins. (A) Structure of nsp14 is shown in orange cartoon and the N138 amino acid in cyan spheres (PDB 5C8S). (B) Structure of nsp16 is shown in green cartoon and the R216 amino acid in purple spheres (PDB 6YZ1). The neighboring glutamate residue and the structured water molecule that it is predicted to hydrogen bond with are shown as green sticks and a red dot sphere, respectively. An S-adenosyl-methionine analog is shown as a space filling model in the nsp16 active site. (C) The structure of nsp5 is shown in yellow cartoon and the L89 amino acid in blue spheres (PDB 7KHP). A nearby phenylalanine available for increased hydrophobic packing is shown as orange sticks. (D) Structure of the trimeric spike protein with one monomer shown as a blue cartoon and the other two shown as gray cartoons (PDB 7JJI). The position of the Q77 amino acid is shown in spheres. Additional important mutations of the spike protein described previously are also shown: the 69-70 amino acid deletion in cyan spheres, the N501 amino acid in red spheres, the E484 amino acid in orange spheres, and the D614 amino acid in magenta spheres.

Emergence of 20C-US

The researchers now searched for all genomes from the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database, which had the five defining mutations of the 20C-US variant. Two additional mutations were needed for this lineage, namely, ORF8:S24L and ORF1a:L3352F. The latter pair were first seen in March and April 2020 from Minnesota and Louisiana. This then gave way to five new sequences containing the first defining 20C-US mutation, namely, ORF3a:G172V, early in April.

Subsequently, several sequences from late May-early June showed the remaining four defining mutations, which seem to have either occurred simultaneously or in very rapid succession. These genomes were mostly from Texas. Following this, the new isolate appears to grow in prevalence across the country.

Strangely, however, the earliest isolate containing all five mutations was from Spain, having been obtained from a 90-year-old woman in Spain. This sequence has another mutation at all. It is very rare for mutations to reverse over time and improbable that all four mutations would arise in two different places in the same virus. The only other place where the same combination has been found was Australia, on June 24, 2020. Thus, either the Spanish or the Texan genomes could be the earliest acquisition of the four novel mutations.

Characterization of recent mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 variant 20C-US. (A-B) Phylogenetic reconstruction and geographic visualization (during the 2-month interval of Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020) of all SARS-CoV-2 variant 20C-US genomes (4683) in the GISAID database (as of Jan. 4, 2021). The ORF1a:M2606I mutant genotype is colored to distinguish it from all other genetic variants within the 20C-US tree. (C-D) Phylogenetic reconstruction and geographic visualization (during the 2-month interval of Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020) for all SARS-CoV-2 variant 20C-US genomes (4683) in the GISAID database (as of Jan. 4, 2021). The S:Q677H mutant genotype is distinguished from all genetic other variants within the 20C-US tree. (E) Plot depicting the rise in percentage of 20C-US, 20C-US possessing ORF1a:M2606I, and 20C-US possessing S:Q677H genomes for all U.S. SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the GISAID database during the indicated months (as of Jan. 4, 2021). (F) Percentage of 20C-US genomes that possess the ORF1a:M2606I mutation or the percentage of ORF1a:M2606I mutants that also possess the S:Q677H mutation versus time.

Recently acquired mutations

The researchers then searched GISAID for more recent mutations in this variant, using as a stem the three defining mutations N1653D in ORF1b, G172V in ORF3a, and P67S in the N gene, along with either N:P199L or any mutations at position 2613 in ORF1b. They found over 4,600 sequences, which were phylogenetically arranged to yield a clear branch beginning at two new mutations appearing together. One was 1C4805T, a synonymous nucleotide-level mutation, and a non-synonymous ORF1a: M2606I, which first occurred together in late June 2020, in Wisconsin and Illinois. It is then observed extensively over the eastern and Midwestern USA. About half the U.S. sequences now contain the ORF1a:M2606I mutation.

In mid-August, the ORF1a:M2606I branch produced another branch containing the mutation Q677H in the spike gene, which rapidly expanded to 10% of the parent branch's genomes. While this mutation has often been observed in multiple viral lineages, it has never been part of an expanding or established branch until it was seen in this branch, perhaps because of other compensating mutations or amino acid residues in the rest of the protein. Thus, it is found in only 0.27% of global genomes, but it makes up almost 4.8% of genomes within the 20C-US lineage, indicating an 18-fold increase in prevalence. It is mainly found in the upper Midwest, namely, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Further, close temporal tracking of the ORF1a:M2606I vs. the whole 20C-US genome number shows that the former shows a slowing in growth, perhaps because it has somewhat lower fitness than the latter. However, the S:Q677H mutation may have compensatory effects. While this cannot be authoritatively established at this time due to the paucity of data, further sequencing will help uncover how these two mutations interact and their effect on viral survival.

Impact of mutations

The ORF1b:N1653D and ORF1b:R2613C both affect proteins that are essential for RNA genome and transcript integrity, nsp14 and nsp16, respectively. These could alter the mutation rates and efficiency of translation as well.

The parental ORF1a:L3352F mutation in 20C-US is in nsp5 could perhaps improve protein stability, while the relatively new ORF1a:M2606I mutation affects nsp3. This is within the C-terminal domain and is involved in anchoring the viral replication transcription complex (RTC) to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane so that nsp3 can interact with other cytosolic proteins.

ORF3a: G172V is within a protein that is involved in multiple aspects of the viral life cycle at the membrane surface, as well as modulating the host cell's innate immune response and apoptosis. This mutation is within a domain that transports materials to the cell membrane and modulates interactions with viral or cellular factors.

The Q677H mutation in the spike protein, next in position to the furin cleavage site, is thought to increase the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2. This enzyme promotes the cleavage of the spike protein, which is essential for efficient viral entry into cells. The mutated residue is in a similar site to D614G, the globally dominant genome sequence.

What are the implications?

The researchers plotted the prevalence of 20C-US genomes in the USA up to December, arriving at the prediction that this would be the most common variant in the country by this point. However, it continues to make up a much larger proportion of the total infections in central and Midwest USA compared to the Northeast and Western seaboard states.

Interestingly, the increase in this strain's dominance is synchronous with the start of the second wave of COVID-19. This cannot be explained by a large-scale increase or change in population mobility patterns, whether for shopping, recreation, pharmacy, or transit station use. In fact, workplace visits increased only a little. Without these explanations to account for this variant's expansion, it seems that this trend will continue.

Further study is required to follow up on the fate of the Q677H mutation, which may be involved in viral entry. Tracing this mutation with the M2606I would help understand how this virus is evolving and how its phylogeny affects real-time outcomes of the pandemic.

On the available (admittedly scanty) evidence, it is possible that the 20C-US may be more transmissible but less virulent, a fitness advantage that could allow extensive but quiet spread.

The 20C-US variant is one of several that have rapidly acquired multiple mutations, such as the U.K. 501Y.V1 and South African 501Y.V2 strains. The researchers say this event may have caused a sudden increase in fitness, allowing it to outcompete circulating strains, just as with the D614G mutation earlier.

"The ongoing evolution of 20C-US, as well as other dominant region-specific variants emerging around the world, should continue to be monitored with genomic, epidemiologic, and experimental studies to understand viral evolution and predict future outcomes of the pandemic," said the researchers.

They caution, "Unless successful vaccination efforts can be greatly accelerated, we predict the emergence of dominant novel variants in parts of the world that are relatively isolated from other global regions, possibly including Brazil, New Zealand, the African west coast, and Japan."

Surveillance will help update vaccine development and predict major potentially dangerous shifts in viral fitness, hopefully in time to take successful countermeasures.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Brazilian professional mixed martial artist Charles Oliveira is hoping to be the one UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov faces next.

UFC president Dana White revealed how his meeting with Nurmagomedov went on the broadcast of UFC Fight Island 7 yesterday. While Nurmagomedov didnt outright say if he was going to return or not, he did mention that if a lightweight impressed him, he could return.

And Oliveira was notably one name to have impressed him already following his win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 256 last month.

"Hes (Khabib Nurmagomedov) accomplished everything he wanted to  set out to accomplish," White said. He thought that (Charles) Oliveira looked really good in his last fight against Tony Ferguson. So next Saturday, we got the (Conor) McGregor, (Dustin) Poirier fight, and (Michael) Chandler and (Dan) Hooker on there (UFC 257).

Oliveira was naturally pleased to hear that as he sent a message to Nurmagomedov on social media soon after.

"Thank you @TeamKhabib. All due respect, I delivered, and I feel ready to challenge you for the gold. Lets go! I hope to see you soon," he wrote on Twitter.
Queueing was the order of the day at Heathrow (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Passengers arriving to the UK on the first morning new quarantine rules came into force faced queues of more than an hour as official checks were made at the border.

Some of the earliest arrivals into Londons Heathrow airport said they had been met with substantial lines at passport control and one couple complained they had felt unsafe due to what they described as poor social distancing.

A ban on quarantine-free travel into the UK came into force at 4am in a bid to keep out new coronavirus strains  such as those which have been discovered in Brazil and South Africa.

The new rules mean arrivals from every destination are required to self-isolate for 10 days, or receive a negative result from a coronavirus test taken at least five days after they enter the UK.

Passengers flying in from overseas now also have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test before setting off.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday that checks at the border would be strengthened as the new measures came into place.

But Andy Hart from London, who arrived into Terminal 5 with his partner on Monday morning from Nairobi, said he was shocked and disappointed to see the queues at passport control.

The Coffy app chief executive said: We felt unsafe. We felt that even though everyone was masked they were far too close together.

It took an hour and 10 minutes.

Ive been flying 30 times a year for 20 years. I mean, once or twice have I ever seen it (airport queues) like this.

How can this happen during Covid times?

His partner, who did not wish to be named, said there should have been better staffing.

There were a couple of people in our queue whose tests may have been outside the required 72 hours so that was causing a lot of grief and discussion Passenger Richard Bradley

She said: They knew today was going to be the switchover, so from 4am new rules came into effect.

How come they didnt have extra staff on standby?

Richard Bradley also arrived from Nairobi with his son Joseph after a Christmas break with family.

Mr Bradley, who works in media and was returning to his home in Oxford, described the queue at passport control as pretty substantial, saying it took around an hour and a half to come through.

He said there was a triple check of peoples passports, proof of a negative Covid-19 test and their passenger locator form.

He said: There were a couple of people in our queue whose tests may have been outside the required 72 hours so that was causing a lot of grief and discussion.

Expand Close Some passengers were queueing for up to an hour (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA / Facebook

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Asked if those people were held back he replied: There was a lot of discussion going on. I dont know what happened.

He described social distancing in the queue as approximate but added: I think people are pretty mindful of not standing too close to each other.

Bella Danquah, from London, said the rules on the 10-day isolation period could be made clearer for new arrivals.

The 34-year-old consultant who flew in from Accra in Ghana, said: They just need to be clearer when people come in because not everybody is going to look at the (Government) website.

I went on the website because BA (British Airways) told me to.

She said officials should also tell passengers when they were going through passport control.
The traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) has arrived early for soldiers and islanders on Truong Sa district as ships are crossing rough seas to carry Tet gifts and supplies from all parts of the country to the locality.

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Packs of goods sent to the island district include commodities, gifts from businesses, specialties of many localities in order to bring a Tet atmosphere to soldiers and islanders.

Besides Tet gifts to Truong Sa, the ships also brought new soldiers, cadres who will welcome the lunar new year on the island. For them, it is an honor and a proud as they can contribute to safeguarding the sacred sea of the country.

Four vessels of the Naval Region 4 Command left Cam Ranh port for Truong Sa island district of Khanh Hoa province, bringing goods, necessities and Tet gifts to soldiers and islanders there.

The supplies bring traditional Tet atmosphere and are of great encouragement for naval soldiers and islanders to overcome difficulties to safeguard the national territory./.VNA
Saif Ali Khan On Embracing Parenthood Again With Wife Kareena Kapoor Khan

The actor told GQ magazine that he is quite excited to welcome a new member to their family. Saif was quoted as saying, "I'm excited about being a father again. I love children, I love the idea of having their warmth and happiness at home. I have older children, who I have different relationships with because they are more mature and at different stages in their lives, but I am very happy to welcome another tiny tot home before we get old."

With Respect To Work, Saif Ali Khan Has Four Big Releases Under Way

Speaking about the same, Saif told the magazine, "I feel like I'd fallen off something and was in a bit of a hole, and I have really climbed my way out of it. I've worked very hard, and I am hoping that these things give me the result that pushes me higher. At the end of this year, I want to have a nice glass of wine at the New Year, take a deep sigh and say, okay, it's gone pretty well!"

Saif Ali Khan On Making His Debut On Social Media

While Saif Ali Khan's actress-wife Kareena Kapoor Khan has been taking the internet by storm since her debut on Instagram, Saif Ali Khan is still apprehensive about joining social media. On being asked about his plans of making his social media debut, the actor said, "I don't know. Who knows? It's not something I think about. I find it too much of a distraction, and I distract myself in other ways. I read. I play the guitar. But who knows, maybe one day I will, but it is not on my agenda!"
Dozens of cases of the South African coronavirus variant have already been spotted in Britain, it was revealed today.

The Covid-19 Genomics Consortium UK (COG-UK) said 54 Brits have tested positive for the variant so far, with the first case spotted in October last year.

It's likely that there have been far more than the number reported because COG-UK only analyses 10 per cent of random positive coronavirus samples.

The South African strain  called B.1.351  is thought to be at least 60 per cent more infectious than regular Covid and even more transmissible than the Kent variant. It also has key mutations on its spike protein which open the door to it being resistant to vaccines or natural immunity.

But scientists studying the variant say they've not found any evidence yet that it will make the current wave of vaccines less potent.

In a bid to keep out other worrying variants cropping up around the world, including strains in Brazil which have similar mutations, the UK has closed its borders to anyone who has not tested negative within 72 hours of travelling.

The Government is determined not to let potentially-vaccine resistant variants hamper its immunisation drive, which is on track to give a dose to the 14million most vulnerable Brits by mid-February

At least three major coronavirus variants have been spotted in Britain in recent months  from Kent, South Africa and Brazil  and they appear to be evolving to spread faster and to evade some parts of the immune system, although scientists do not yet think any have yet got so far as to slip past the vaccines completely

The most cases of the South African variant - called B.1.351 - have been detected in the UK and South Africa. But scientists say the UK has found so many because it sequences many samples

The report from COG-UK also revealed thefirst cases were spotted back in October last year

In their 41-page report, COG-UK said tests had already been carried out on the South African variant which established some of its mutations did not lessen the effectiveness of the vaccine.

But they added that not all of the mutations were checked that are found on the rapidly spreading strains in the UK and South Africa.

In a scientific study published as a pre-print on medRxiv, the scientists describe the genetic make-up and spread of the South African strain.

Dr Christina Pagel, a member of Independent SAGE and a researcher at University College London, said: 'What you dont want is to get to September and suddenly youve got a new variant... and you have to start from scratch'

'This lineage emerged in South Africa after the first epidemic wave in a severely affected metropolitan area, Nelson Mandela Bay, located on the coast of the Eastern Cape Province,' they wrote.

'This lineage spread rapidly, becoming within weeks the dominant lineage in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces.'

They added: 'While the full significance of the mutations is yet to be determined, the genomic data, showing the rapid displacement of other lineages, suggest that this lineage may be associated with increased transmissibility.'

It comes after Dr Christina Pagel, who is part of the Independent SAGE group, which has been highly critical of the Government's pandemic response, told The Times: 'We know that this virus does mutate and it mutates in ways that can potentially evade the vaccine.

'Once we start vaccinating, we really want to vaccinate everybody before it starts to have the opportunity to mutate because then youre much more protected...'

'What you dont want is to get to September and suddenly youve got a new variant  whether we've imported it from somewhere else or weve grown our own variant  and then you've vaccinated 40million people and you have to start from scratch.

'I just can't imagine anything worse. So that's why I think you actually want to go for suppression now.'

Coronavirus, like all pathogens, is constantly evolving as it spreads. But most of these changes make no difference to the virus or the way it behaves.

COG-UK said today over 700 individual mutations have been spotted so far in the coronavirus in Britain.

But rarely the bug will mutate in a way that gives it an evolutionary advantage - such as being able to spread easier or reinfect people who have previously caught and beat an older version of the virus.

There have been at least two reports of nurses in Brazil becoming reinfected with new strains there, despite having natural immunity from the first wave in spring.

Even though reinfection has not been proven on a large scale, the UK Government is keen not to take the chance and has introduced sweeping travel restrictions for anyone entering the country.

Dr Pagel has warned that letting the virus spread too much during the vaccine roll-out will give it more opportunities to mutate.

UK records 37,535 more Covid cases and 599 deaths as infections drop again Britain today recorded 37,535 more cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours and 599 deaths as the second wave continues to slow down. Today's infections are down almost a fifth on the 46,169 recorded last Monday and third from the figure a fortnight ago, when the country posted 58,784 new cases. Deaths are up slightly on the 529 recorded a week ago, but fatalities lag by a few weeks behind infections due to the time it takes between catching and falling seriously ill with the virus. It means the effects of the lockdown on January 4 might not be felt in the death figures until next week. In another glimmer of hope, Boris Johnson today revealed 4million people have now been vaccinated and vowed that life would be 'very different by spring'. Ministers have pledged to inoculate Britain's 13million most vulnerable residents by February 15, in the aim of easing the endless cycle of restrictions. Meanwhile, London's devastating winter wave of coronavirus appears to have passed its peak, as official data shows infections were falling in all 32 boroughs last week and deaths and hospital admissions have begun to plateau. Advertisement

Vaccines have been developed to create immune responses to target the spike proteins of the virus.

Mutations that occur on the spike may make the protein unrecognisable to the immune system, and therefore allow the disease to slip past.

Some scientists have warned that giving people half-doses of vaccines  which the UK is doing to stretch its limited supplies to cover more people  could expose the virus to low levels of the immune cells that are supposed to destroy it.

If this happens often and the viruses find they can get past the weak immune response, scientists fear this could lead to a version of the virus that can keep spreading even in vaccinated people.

Professor Chris Whitty admitted this month: 'That is a real worry but quite a small real worry within the system.'

'The general view was the size of the increase of the risk is sufficiently small that, measured against this ability to double the number of people who actually are vaccinated, the public health arguments are really strongly for doing what we have decided to do.'

He added: 'Clearly, if we had infinite vaccine we might have taken different approaches, but we dont.

'At this point in time, for the next three to four months, the number of vaccines we have available is going to constrain our ability to get through the 25 to 30 million people we must do.

'Whilst this is such a fast-moving virus at this time, our view was very strongly, on the balance of risk, the benefits to the UK for us at this point in the epidemic were in favour of doing this.'

The coronavirus is expected to mutate eventually in a way that will make vaccines less effective, but scientists aren't yet sure when or how drastic this will be.

It could mean that people will be vaccinated every year, as with flu.

NHS England medical director, Professor Stephen Powis said that it was likely that there may need to be 'frequent, maybe annual' vaccination programmes to deal with new variants of Covid-19.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'The early signs are that the vaccines will be perfectly adequate for that new strain.

'Other strains of the virus will emerge  thats what happens with viruses, they mutate.

'Every year flu is a little bit different and we adapt our flu vaccines each year to cope with that.

'I think its perfectly possible that over time the Covid vaccine will need to be adapted from year to year to deal with new strains.

'The good news is that were using new technology with these new vaccines and that can be done very quickly.

'So yes it is likely that there may have to be frequent, maybe annual  like flu vaccine programmes, which will deal with these new variants, but its a bit too early to be absolutely sure yet.'
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, quickly reversing his predecessors approval of a project to move oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person familiar with Mr. Bidens plans for his first days in office.

Environmentalists have long targeted the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline as both a contributor to climate change and a physical symbol of the countrys unwillingness to move away from an oil-based economy. Many Republicans, including President Trump, argued the pipeline would create jobs and help local economies.

In late-2015, former President Barack Obama rejected the permit for the project, arguing it would undermine American leadership on the transition to sustainable fuels. Mr. Trumps administration reversed that decision in early 2017, giving a green light for construction of the project to begin.

Construction has hit other economic and legal roadblocks since then, but environmentalists were pleased when Mr. Biden said during the presidential campaign that he intended to once again cancel the permit.
2021-01-10

Maeci

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Saturday met Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio, over discussions focused on activating the two countries cooperation and regional developments.

Safadi and Di Maio stressed their countries keenness on pushing forward cooperation in various fields, according to a ministry statement, with the two top diplomats agreeing on forming a follow-up team from the two ministries to identify specific areas for cooperation and set the necessary programmes to be implemented as soon as possible.

The two sides have given priority to food security and agriculture.

Discussions also referred to the Italian Development Assistance Programme for 2021-2023, as well as the draft framework agreement on it, under which Italy will provide Jordan with 235 million euros as grants and soft loans, with the sectors that will receive support to be identified, the statement said, pointing out that the framework agreement will be signed in the near future.

The two top officials also reviewed efforts exerted about regional crises, the foremost of which the Palestinian cause, as well as Syrian and Libyan crises and counterterrorism.

Safadi emphasised the centrality of the Palestinian cause, calling for scaling up efforts to relaunch serious negotiations to reach the two-state solution. He warned against Israeli unlawful measures, mainly settlement, annexation of lands, demolition of houses that undermine the two-state solution and all opportunities for a just and comprehensive peace.

The two sides also emphasised the necessity of underpinning Iraqs efforts to maintain its stability and sovereignty over its territories.

In joint press remarks, Safadi welcomed the Italian official, who is visiting the Kingdom for the first time, expressing thanks for Italys assistance and support to the Kingdoms economic development programmes.

Safadi also valued Italys supportive stance to the two-state solution, highlighting the European countrys efforts aimed at moving the peace process forward.

Highlighting the role of UNRWA in providing support for more than five million refugees, Safadi called for scaling up efforts towards bridging the refugee agency's deficit.

The Italian official reiterated his countrys commitment to supporting the Kingdom, highlighting the support made in 2020 during the Brussels Conference, expressing appreciation of the Kingdoms modest policies and its vital regional role, notably Ammans anti-terrorism efforts.

Jordan has set an example in coexistence, he said, pointing out that Jordan is an essential partner for Italy.

Di Maio also highlighted the two countries common stances over the regional issues, including the peace process and the two-state solution, pointing out that the recent normalisation agreements signed with Israel, which have been welcomed by Italy, are not an alternative to peace that must be achieved.

Iraq is one of the priorities of Italys foreign policy, he added.

On the Libyan issue, he affirmed his countrys support to the outcomes of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.
Chambliss Center for Children and Tennessee-based nonprofit organization Isaiah 117 House celebrated the kick-off of the first Isaiah 117 House in Hamilton County on Sunday.

Isaiah 117 House, located in the states of Tennessee and Indiana, serves to provide a warm, comforting environment for children awaiting a foster placement. Children who are removed from their homes out of concern for their welfare are typically taken to the Department of Childrens Services Offices to await foster placement. This wait can be several hours to several days. Isaiah 117 House provide an alternative calming home environment where these children can instead be brought to wait a place that is safe with friendly and loving volunteers who provide clean clothes, smiles, toys, food, and more. This space allows children to receive the reassurance and care they need while case workers identify a good foster placement, said officials.

On removal day, if there is not an Isaiah 117 House present, [children] will go to a cubical or a conference room, and they will sit and await placement, said Founder and CEO of Isaiah 117 House Ronda Paulson during the event. These children need baths; they need possessions; these children need loveWhat if, on removal day, when a child is experiencing the most traumatic day of their life, they dont go to a cubical or a conference room  they go to a home?

During the kick-off event, Ms. Paulson shared her story as a foster parent that led to forming Isaiah 117 House. Katie Harbison, president of Chambliss Center for Children, then spoke about the vision of the Isaiah 117 House on the campus of Chambliss Center for Children.

We are here for the best interest of the children in our community, said Ms. Harbison as she addressed the in-person guests and those watching the live stream. We already do foster care. We already do Transitional Living for those who have aged out of foster care, and this is that piece where we have not been involved in the lives of those children  removal day. We are thrilled that this is going to complete that continuum of care and service to children, and I think it fits right in with what were already doing. We look forward to walking this journey with you to the first Isaiah 117 House in Hamilton County.

The Isaiah 117 House at Chambliss Center for Children will be located on the Chambliss Center for Children Campus. Renovations of the current Mary Rhoda Porter Administrative Building, which will serve as the Isaiah 117 House, as well as a secondary building for relocating administrative offices, will be underway by end of 2021.
Post when: May 19 2021 18:37:06 on:

PHUKET XTRA - May 19 || Brought to you by @PVC Phuket All foreigners now allowed to register for vaccine |:| Flight passengers without documents refused boarding |:| Pushed back: school to start June 14? |:| COVID could force release of 50k inmates |:| Thailand COVID update Hosted by: JP Mestanza || #Phuket 1- Vaccination registration opens for foreigners in all Phuket businesses MORE: Phuket mass vaccination resumes with goal to inject 14,000 people per day 2- Flight passengers to Phuket without documents to be refused boarding 3- Pushed back: School to start on June 14 instead 4- Govt considers releasing 50,000 inmates as COVID hits prisons MORE: 29 COVID deaths, over 3,000 new cases nationwide Phuket COVID update
A Texas man who was arrested in connection to the riot at the Capitol earlier this month allegedly threatened to shoot his children if they became 'traitors' and turned him in to the FBI.

According to an affidavit obtained by Dallas News, Guy Reffitt, 48, told his family that he went to Washington, DC, to 'to protect the country,' that he brought a gun with him, and that he 'stormed the Capitol'.

When he returned home, he allegedly told his son not to report him to investigators or he would 'do what he had to do'.

Guy Reffitt (pictured at the Capitol), 48, of Texas, who was arrested in connection to the riot at the Capitol earlier this month, allegedly threatened to shoot his children if they became 'traitors' and turned him in to the FBI

Reffitt's wife told officials that Reffit (pictured in blue with a helmet at the Capitol) was arguing about the incident with his son and daughter when he told them: 'If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors. ... Traitors get shot'

While his wife said she didn't believe that Reffitt (pictured at the Capitol) act on his words, she said that their family felt 'disturbed' by his comments

In addition, Reffitt reportedly told his daughter that if she betrayed him and the family that he would 'put a bullet through' her phone.

According to Dallas News, Reffitt's wife told officials that Reffit was arguing about the incident with his son and daughter when he told them: 'If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors. ... Traitors get shot.'

While his wife said she didn't believe that Reffitt would act on his words, she said that their family felt 'disturbed' by his comments.

Images from that day show Reffitt wearing a helmet with a camera fastened to the front of it. He's also seen in the images wearing a blue jacket and what appears to be a bulletproof vest.

During a search of his home, authorities found an AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol along with other firearms.

According to Dallas News, he told authorities that he had driven to the Capitol with the Smith & Wesson pistol but had disassembled the firearm to comply with local laws in Washington.

More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by Trump supporters at the Capitol, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed

Charges from the January 6 riot range from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession. Rioters are seen clashing with police during the incident

He also admitted to being at the Capitol the day of the riot but claimed that he never entered the building.

Reffitt has been charged with obstruction of justice and unlawful entry, the FBI said.

Another Texas man, Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, was arrested and charged last week in connection with making threats regarding the riots at the Capitol.

According to an affidavit, Smocks traveled to DC on January 5 and used a Parler social media account under the name 'ColonelTPerez' or '@Colonel007,' to post threats on January 6 and 7 regarding the riots.

'The threats included that he and others would return to the Capitol on January 19 carrying weapons and massing in numbers so large that no army could match them,' a statement from the Justice Department says.

Smocks threatened that he and others would 'hunt these cowards down like the traitors that each of them are'.

He has been charged with knowingly and willfully transmitting threats in interstate commerce.

More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by Trump supporters at the Capitol, where a Capitol police officer and four others were killed.

Charges from the January 6 riot range from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession.
The United States has voiced concern over the Russian governments expanding repression of civil society.

On December 28, the Russian Ministry of Justice added five individuals, including prominent human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, to a list of so-called foreign agents. The four others were journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya; newspaper editor Denis Kamalyagin; website journalist Sergei Markelov; and artist and rights activist Daria Apakhonchich. Savitskaya, Markelov, and Kamalyagin have been contributors to the Russian service of RFE/RL, whose parent agency is the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

The move by the Russian government marked the first time individuals, as opposed to organizations, were put on the Justice Ministrys registry, which subjects them to enhanced bureaucratic scrutiny, reporting requirements, financial audits and harsh penalties if they fail to comply with the laws draconian requirements.

Russia first passed a law in 2012 which allowed it to label foreign-funded NGOs and foreign-funded rights groups that it viewed as engaging in political activity as foreign agents. The law was later expanded to include media outlets and independent journalists.

On December 31, 2020, President Vladimir Putin signed off on additional legislation that broadens the parameters under which a person or entity can be officially deemed "a foreign agent and increases penalties, including possible prison time, for individuals or organizations labeled foreign agents who fail to inform official entities about their status or refuse to report their activities. Amnesty International has called the legislation a new witch hunt of civil society groups and human rights defenders standing up for justice and dignity.

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown said in a tweet that by its designation of the five individuals as media foreign agents the Russian government is intensifying repression of its civil societyin a threat against independent media.

Deputy Spokesperson Brown also noted that Russia is adopting a series of new laws that significantly expand the governments power to further restrict freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, providing additional means to suppress uncomfortable facts and silence dissenting voice.

Changes to the foreign agents law are particularly troubling,he added, allowing authorities to selectively apply onerous registration and labeling requirements, veto an organizations activities, and imprison those found in violation. We call on Russia to respect its citizens rights.
HARTFORD  Hundreds of law enforcement officers with tactical weapons and armored vehicles closed-down the citys streets on Sunday, effectively discouraging more than a handful of demonstrators at the State Capitol on a day when the nation was on-edge for a possible backlash against President Donald Trumps reelection defeat.

News reporters and photographers outnumbered members of the public, a few of whom stayed well behind the metal barriers ringing the Capitol in what was initially feared would be a day of confrontation before the inauguration on Wednesday, even as more rioters who invaded the nations Capitol on Jan. 6 were arrested around the country.

Instead, at noon, when the #StoptheSteal moment was supposed to flame up, Joanne Iovino, an anti-fascist from Hartford, and a teenaged a gun-rights advocate from Norwich who is not old enough to vote, shared the Capitols sloping east lawn, as the anticipated protest failed to materialize.

Waving a copy of a Revolutionary War flag, a 17-year-old home-schooler who said his name was Duncan Lemp, journeyed with his grandfather Don, a retired long-haul trucker, to the Capitol to make his voice known on guns, COVID restrictions and police brutality.

Im here to protest three main points, but the whole system, from top to bottom, said Lemp, who supported Trump in 2016 but changed his mind after the president opposed so-called bump stocks, a simple mechanism to make rifles fire faster.

I think we have to open this economy up, Iovino said near the metal fencing set up around the perimeter of the 143-year-old Capitol, which was patrolled by State Capitol Police. Local Hartford police were set up around every nearby intersection and in the adjacent Bushnell Park, rerouting traffic away from the Capitol.

Tactical vehicles in desert camouflage were parked a couple blocks away, between the Legislative Office Building and the Gov. William A. ONeill Armory. Hundreds of State Police who reported for duty between 8 and 9 a.m. were kept in reserve in the Legislative Office Building, which is separated from the Capitol by an exist ramp off Interstate 84. The Connecticut National Guard was also on alert, after 300 members were dispatched to Washington in advance of Wednesdays inauguration.

Joe Biden definitely won, Lemp said near the east entrance of the circular Capitol driveway, closed in recent days by more metal barriers. I think there was fraud. A lot of fraud, but I think he still won. Trumps legal team failed in dozens of challenges to the election around the country, but little to no actual fraud was found in Bidens victory.

Iovino, 47 and disabled, said she and several friends were also at the Capitol on Saturday, when only a few cars in a Trump flag-waving Make America Great Again procession drove by.

I guess maybe they heard I was coming, Iovino quipped when asked about the lack of a response to a call on social media to protest Bidens victory. We are out here because we really thought there was something saying that there might be 2,000 Trump supporters out here, and we are out here to make a very clear statement against fascism.

Carrying a homemade anti-MAGA sign, Iovino said that without opposition, a Trump rally might shift the nations political discourse to the right, which is not beneficial for anybody except for the top 1 percent of the wealthiest people. So we are out here as anti-fascists. If someone had stood up against Hitler in the beginning, things might not have happened the way they happened. We dont want this country being pushed further and further and further to the right, or well end up with another Confederacy and another Nazi Germany.

The State Capitol is itself a monument to the Civil War. On top of a massive stone plinth at the Capitol Avenue entrance to the 1878 building, is a artillery piece that was used to bombard the city of Petersburg, Va., in 1864 and 1865. The battle was the site of action by Connecticuts Black troops in late June 1864.

At about 12:30 p.m., when it became clear that the crowds were not coming, Brian Foley, assistant to the commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, told reporters that the high-profile security procedures had helped.

Certainly part of the planning was transparency, Foley said during an impromptu news conference on top of the garage of the Legislative Office Building. I dont believe that you can over-prepare for this type situation. Id much rather be here next Friday telling you guys that we over-prepared, as opposed to saying that we under-prepared.

The bans of Trump and his supporters on social media also helped, he said. Certainly law enforcement lost an arm of their intelligence gathering, Foley said. Just an arm, a big one, but they have other ways of doing it. There is a whole other side of the web to look at and a lot of other things going on.

Connecticut law enforcement received many tips, as well, he said.

We didnt want to antagonize and we dont want to fight and we didnt want to pick a fight with anybody, Foley said. And we dont want to arrest anybody. So if the day ends and the week ends peacefully, bravo again for the state of Connecticut in the way they have handled everything. Hopefully, Connecticut will be a leader in peacefulness.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Ankara  The appointment of Brett McGurk as Middle East coordinator on President-elect Biden's National Security Council has already set alarm bells ringing in Turkey.

Why it matters: McGurk, who served as counter-ISIS envoy under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, is considered a staunch critic of the Turkish governments policies in the Middle East and an outspoken advocate of America's partnership with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to defeat ISIS.

The SDF is seen by Turkey as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Flashback: In 2017, the Turkish government called for McGurk to be removed from his post over his close ties with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

In 2019, McGurk suggested Turkey might have been sheltering ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In the same year, after a fiery speech from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, McGurk tweeted: Erdogan called on Muslims to 'unite against the west' at the very moment Turkey is hosting U.S.-designated-terrorist Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Istanbul."

McGurk was also very critical of Turkeys plans to establish a safe zone in Syria, claiming it would effectively extend Turkish border 30 kilometers into Syria, including areas of Christians, Kurds and other vulnerable minorities.

What theyre saying: A critical op-ed by academic Talha Abdulrazaq was published on the website of Turkey's state-run TRT World network on Jan. 9, arguing that the appointment of McGurk meant more terror to fight terror." Abdulrazaq described McGurk as the mastermind behind the arming of the Syrian Kurds.

In the name of fighting ISIS, McGurk was the architect behind eschewing state-actors and long-time NATO allies such as Turkey in favor of using terrorists to fight other terrorists in Syria, it reads.

What to watch: McGurk will be responsible for coordinating U.S. policies not only in Syria, but also in Iran, Iraq and Libya  all of which are of importance to Turkey.

However, the Syrian battleground has changed a lot since McGurk left his post in Dec. 2018, with Turkey's area of influence expanding and America's narrowing.

The bottom line: McGurk will have to find ways to work with Turkey.
Hollywood star Steve Martin has thanked science after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

The comic, 75, had the jab in New York City.

He wrote on Twitter: Good news/Bad news. Good news: I just got vaccinated!

Bad news: I got it because Im 75. Ha!

The operation in NYC was smooth as silk (sorry about the cliche ) and hosted to perfection by the US Army and National Guard.

Thank you all, and thank you science.

Good news/Bad news. Good news: I just got vaccinated! Bad news: I got it because Iam 75. Ha! The operation in NYC was smooth as silk (sorry about the clichA @BCDreyer!) and hosted to perfection by the US Army and National Guard. Thank you all, and thank you science.  Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) January 17, 2021

Asked how he received the vaccine, the star of The Jerk said: I signed up online through an NYC dot gov website (sorry I dont have the exact site), and waited IN line.

Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough and Sir Tom Jones are among the UK stars who have received the vaccine.

Other prominent names to have had the jab include actor Sir Ian McKellen, Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith and entertainer Lionel Blair, who are all in their eighties.
STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. 3 more bodies of fallen servicemen have been found during the search operations in the battle zones, in particular in Jabrayil and Vorotan (Kubatlu) sections, official of the State Emergency Service of Artsakh Hunan Tadevosyan told Armenpress.

2 of the bodies were found in Jabrayil. They have not been identified, for that purpose forensic examination will be conducted. The other dead serviceman has been identified by a person who accompanied the search group.

So far, a total of 1238 bodies of fallen servicemen and civilians have been found during the search operations.

Today, the search operations are being conducted in Fizuli, Hadrut and Jabrayil directions, he said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
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Vietnams Ministry of Health confirmed two imported COVID-19 cases and 22 recovered patients on Monday, with zero local infections having been detected for one and a half months.

One of the new patients is a 59-year-old Costa Rican expert who entered Vietnam on Saturday.

He was quarantined upon arriving at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on board flight KE394.

The expert tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and is now isolated for treatment in the Vietnamese capital.

The other patient is a Vietnamese repatriate who touched down at Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang aboard flight VN431 from the U.S., with transit time in South Korea, on January 13.

He was sent to quarantine upon landing before being diagnosed with the respiratory disease on January 17.

The patient is being treated at the Da Nang Hospital for Lung Diseases.

Three passengers on his flight had been confirmed as coronavirus cases prior to his diagnosis.

The health ministry also announced 22 recoveries on Monday.

Vietnam has reported 1,539 COVID-19 patients as of Monday night, with 1,402 having recovered and 35 virus-related deaths, the ministry said.

The country has detected no local transmission since December 2.

The government began barring entry to foreign nationals on March 22 but it allows foreign experts, skilled workers, investors, and diplomats to enter the country on a case-by-case basis, subject to mandatory quarantine.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
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A relative of a witness who gave key testimony against a garda killer from Northern Ireland has been arrested over a plot to intimidate members of his own family, it has emerged

A relative of a witness who gave key testimony against a garda killer from Northern Ireland has been arrested over a plot to intimidate members of his own family, it has emerged.

Detectives investigating a campaign of witness intimidation during the trial of south Armagh man Aaron Brady for the murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe made the latest "significant" arrest in Dublin over a week ago.

The suspect is a convicted criminal and is related to a witness whose testimony was key in securing Brady's conviction of the garda's murder.

The man, who has served prison sentences for violent attacks on innocent people, was enlisted by other criminals to try and "dissuade" the witness from giving evidence against the garda killer, it is understood. Detectives believe the man was paid to try to convince his relative not to give evidence.

Sources say the suspect is accused of first trying a "softly softly" approach to convince the man not to give testimony.

But when this was unsuccessful, he became involved in a campaign of intimidation against his relative and other members of the family, it is understood.

"This is a significant arrest. This man was enlisted to try and convince and later intimidate Daniel Cahill and members of his family, which are indeed his own relatives, not to give evidence. These attempts ultimately failed," according to a senior security source.

The trial was the longest-running in the history of the Irish State and continued amid an orchestrated effort to interfere with key witnesses.

Brady (29) was convicted of Detective Garda Donohoe's murder last August and is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum 40-year prison term for capital murder.

The Crossmaglen man is among eight people now arrested as part of the garda inquiry into witness intimidation and perverting the course of justice. Gardai are hoping to bring a number of charges in relation to the campaign, including perverting the course of justice and using a mobile phone behind bars.

Four people with key testimony refused to come to court, but Brady was still convicted after two witnesses testified they heard him admit Ali Bracken to shooting a garda in Ireland.

In early November, Brady was arrested in his Portlaoise Prison cell and quizzed in relation to the intimidation of witnesses.

Brady has appealed against his murder conviction.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 21:27:09|Editor: huaxia

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Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), speaks while attending a conference on Taiwan affairs in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held in Beijing on Sunday and Monday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang has called for efforts to promote peaceful and integrated development across the Taiwan Strait and to continue to advance progress toward the peaceful reunification of China.

Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks at a conference on Taiwan affairs held in Beijing on Sunday and Monday.

He stressed the importance of implementing the Taiwan affairs work arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and upholding the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus.

Wang also underscored the importance of resolutely opposing and deterring any "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external interference.

While affirming the progress made in the work on Taiwan affairs in 2020, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 response, Wang warned that the cross-Strait situation would remain complicated and grave in 2021.

Wang reiterated that "we will never allow any person or any force, in any form, to separate Taiwan from the motherland."

He also stressed the need to support Taiwan's businesspeople and enterprises in seizing the opportunities of the motherland's new development pattern, and the need to continuously improve the institutional arrangements, policies and measures that ensure the well-being of Taiwan compatriots and achieve equal treatment. Enditem
Keeping aside all the controversies, Kangana Ranaut is one of the few actresses in Bollywood who has never failed to impress us when it comes to picking up content belonging to different genres. Now, the Queen actress is all set to dabble with the action genre in her upcoming spy thriller Dhaakad.

Kangana took to her Twitter page to introduce us to her character Agent Agni from the film. The actress tweeted, "She is fearless and Fiery! She is Agent Agni  India's first female led action thriller, #Dhaakad releasing in theatres on 1st October 2021!"

In the poster, Kangana's character is seen going on a killing spree, with dead bodies lying behind her.

Speaking about Dhaakad, the actress will be seen essaying the role of an officer in this film which revolves around child trafficking and crimes against women. Kangana had earlier told ANI, "My film Dhakad is a spy thriller where I am playing the role of an officer. Our film Dhakad is based on child trafficking and exploitation of women."

Kangana Ranaut is currently shooting for Dhaakad in Bhopal. The makers have roped in Tetsuo Nagata, an award-winning Japanese cinematographer based in France, along with highly acclaimed international crew to make this Kangana starrer a 'world-class spy thriller'.

Earlier, the Tanu Weds Manu actress had said that Dhaakad will be a 'turning point' for Indian cinema, as it is a 'one-of-a-kind female-led action film' being made on a lavish scale. "If it is received well, there will be no looking back for women in Indian cinema," she was quoted as saying.

Helmed by Razneesh Ghai, Dhaakad also stars Arjun Rampal and Divya Dutta in pivotal roles. The film is slated for a theatrical release on October 1, 2021.

ALSO READ: Kangana Ranaut Reveals The Most Awful Thing About Being An Actor Besides 'Nepotism And Movie Mafia'

ALSO READ: Shashi Tharoor To Kangana Ranaut: I Would Like All Indian Women To Be As Empowered As You
Canberra, Jan 18 : A poll published on Monday revealed that 76 per cent of Australians have called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to rebuke a lawmaker over disinformation regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

The poll published by the think tank Australia Institute found that 76 per cent of Australians agreed that Morrison "has a responsibility to clearly and publicly criticize" members of his governing Liberal National Party coalition who spread misinformation about the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

It comes after government MP Craig Kelly shared posts on social media earlier in January likening mask mandates for children to child abuse.

"Forcing children to wear masks is causing massive physical & psychological harm - that can only be defined as child abuse," he wrote.

The poll found that disapproval of Kelly was strong across party lines with 77 per cent of coalition voters agreeing that he should be censured.

In the wake of the post the peak body for doctors, the Australian Medical Association (AMA), called on Morrison to publicly condemn Kelly and others who were "torching the foundation of community health and science"/ "Hopefully we can get the leaders being very strong and clear in their advice and strong about supporting science," AMA Vice President Chris Moy said.

The Australia Institute also found that 56 percent of voters agreed that Morrison should criticise or condemn outgoing US President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the January 6 Capitol Hill riots in Washington D.C.

Morrison condemned participants in the riots for the "terribly distressing" scenes but has not addressed Trump's role.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The building block of life - carbon By Robert T. Smith





Hide your carbon! Certain environmental groups and politicians are looking to control your energy supply and with it many of your daily activities. The rationale for these controls is the belief that man has changed the global temperature as a result of the use of carbon-based fossil fuels. Carbon is the sixth most abundant element. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with many other compounds and the basic elements of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Hydrocarbons are organic compounds formed from various lengths or chains of carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons are most prolifically associated with crude oil and natural gas. As we all know from our grade school science classes, coal, crude oil, and natural gas were formed when long ago carbon-based organic matter was buried within the earth, the original carbon sequestration scheme. If scientists were to attempt to invent an abundant, concentrated, user-friendly source of energy, they could do no better than to invent coal, crude oil, and natural gas. What a happy coincidence that these raw materials are prevalent within our reach in the earth's crust. The use of coal, crude oil, and natural gas enhance our daily lives, make them easier, provide energy and products that extend our lives, or mitigate other issues that arise as a result of modern life. There is virtually no activity that man engages in that doesn't in some manner involve the use of these carbon energy sources. Movement of people, raw materials and finished goods; energy to power, light, cool, or heat our homes, offices, grocery stores and factories; energy to propagate crops and animals, to power our technologies. This doesn't even consider the vast multitude of products and by-products directly derived from these carbon-based sources. Everything from fertilizers, to shampoo additives and industrial chemicals; and the plasticizers, waxes, pharmaceuticals, gases, and fuels and oils made possible from refining crude oil and the condensates associated with natural gas. While there are other sources of energy currently in use, meeting the world's energy demand now and into the foreseeable future is contingent upon the beneficial use of these carbon sources. As a matter of cost and benefit, the vast majority of the increasing global energy demands will be met with carbon / hydrocarbon sources, especially in developing countries and heavily populated developed countries like China and India, regardless of how environmental groups feel about this subject. With the exception of nuclear energy, the non-carbon-based energy sources are currently boutique sources of energy, trendy and expensive. Selecting an all of the above source of energy seems the most prudent at this time. Forced selection of the boutique energy choices at this point will cause significant economic hardship, especially to the poorest among us. Direct increased cost of home energy and indirect cost of, for example, food that requires refrigeration at the store. Carbon is the building block of life for plants and animals. When the advocates of carbon pollution throw about large carbon dioxide emission numbers, just remember each of us humans exhale approximately 0.3 to 0.5 tons of carbon dioxide each year, not to mention other similarly-respiring critters. Our exhaled carbon dioxide is used by plants for growth and in return these plants provide us a source of oxygen to breathe and food to eat, or feed for tasty animals first before we consume them. What mortal could conceive of developing such an ingenious, natural process. It is likely that the big number spin of carbon dioxide emissions from our use of carbon-based sources provided by the purveyors of global warming is to frighten, not to inform. It is hard for many to conceive that a gas could be emitted in a quantity of tons per year, and that is likely why the large numbers are used, to appear overwhelming and frightening. Scientifically known facts are that the atmosphere is comprised of approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 0.04% carbon dioxide, with the remaining various trace gases. Logically considered then is that the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is a very small proportion of the gases present in the atmosphere. Human activity accounts for less than 4% of global carbon dioxide emissions. That is 4% of the 0.04% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to NASA, water vapor is unequivocally by far the most abundant contributor to the greenhouse effect. Tagging carbon dioxide as the contaminant of concern, while ignoring water vapor, as well as the many other natural trends of the earths heating and cooling is necessary to have control over carbon and coincidentally (?) all our activities. Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country.

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[January 17, 2021] Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival Drives Forward with Vision to Digitalize Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5th Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival kicked off on the morning of January 12 with this year's focus on chip design and fintech to explore how urban digitalization in Shanghai empowers the integrated circuit (IC) industry through financial innovation. Lv Ming, President of Shanghai Lingang Group, discussed how Caohejing Hi-Tech Park has taken the lead in developing the digital economy by utilizing the well-developed electronic information industry. In the process, Caohejing Hi-Tech Park brought together many leading enterprises in integrated circuits, AI technology, cloud computing, big data and internet-related service industries to promote integrative development. With the aim of forming industrial clusters and building an industrial ecology, it is now one of the largest hubs of the digital economy in Shanghai as well as a hub of innovation, service, headquarters and flow-based open economy. The carnival also marked the ceebratory launch ceremony for the 10th anniversary of Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone.



The 2020 Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Science and Technology Innovation Index Map was also published and unveiled at the opening ceremony of the 5th Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival. This event coincided with the release of the 4th issue of the park's innovation index report series. Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival in Shanghai Plays Host to First FinTech Competition

The first FinTech competition of the Caohejing Hi-Tech Carnival was held on January 13. The competition was hosted by the Shanghai Lingang Economic Development (Group) Co., Ltd., and organized by the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Development Corporation and the Shanghai Lingang Economic Development Group Asset Management Co., Ltd, and supported by Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd. Liu Wei, Vice President of Lingang Group said: "In the era of the digital economy, digital technology and FinTech will support China's digital economy". Lingang Group understands that many micro, small and medium-sized technological enterprises are facing difficulties such as obtaining financing and the high cost of financing. Innovative financial technology can bring new solutions to corporate financing problems. In the afternoon, the final pitch began. The nine participating enterprises of MagicTrade Tech, Onchain Tech, NINGTON, Korange, HEXINFO, AlphaInsight, Meridian, FANHAN INFO, and JINGZHI Netword Technology successfully entered the final stage. All the winners were decided through pitches and on-the-spot questions from judges. The winner was JINGZHI Netword Technology, second prize was Onchain Tech, FANHAN INFO, and HEXINFO, and third prize was MagicTrade Tech, NINGTON, Korange, AlphaInsight, and Meridian SOURCE Caohejing Hi-Tech Park

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Imphal, Jan 19 : A day after detaining two Manipur editors on sedition charges after the publication of an article "supporting revolutionary ideology" in their online news portal, the police on Monday released the duo after they admitted that the write-up was published due to oversight, the police said.

The police said that Paojel Chaoba, Executive Editor of The Frontier Manipur, and Dhiren Sadokpam, Editor-in-chief of the online news portal, were detained on Sunday under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.

The suo-motu police action was followed by the publication of an article -- "Revolutionary journey in a mess" -- written by one M. Joy Luwang on January 8, criticising the "revolutionary groups" of Manipur for moving away from their original cause.

The police said that the two editors were detained as part of the probe over the publication of the write-up.

"We have released the detainees after they admitted in writing that the source of the article was unverified and it was published due to oversight and such mistakes would not recur," a police officer told IANS over phone.

The officer, on condition of anonymity, said that the write-up had openly "endorsed revolutionary ideologies and activities and expressed dismay over the deteriorating character of armed revolutionaries of Manipur in the past many years".

A delegation of All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and Editors' Guild Manipur had met Chief Minister N. Biren Singh earlier on Monday, demanding the release of the two scribes.
A dog-walker for a stroll along a beach with his partner and two pets was stunned when a huge chunk of cliff face crumbled away before his eyes.

Lee Chamberlain, 33, and his partner Luke Tappenden, 28, had been enjoying their walk yesterday with dogs Jess and Mia when they noticed rocks tumbling near them.

But moments later, huge chunks of the cliff face fell away just feet from where the dogs had been playing - crumbling into shingle as it cascaded into a huge heap on the beach.

Quick-thinking Lee had his phone ready and caught the incident on video.

Lee, who walks his dogs on Naze beach in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, often, said: It was quite a shock.

Couple Lee Chamberlain and Luke Tappenden had been walking their dogs, Jess and Mia, near the site moments before the cliff came away

You do get quite a lot of cliff erosion down on the beach, but its very rare to see it actually happening before your eyes.

Just a few minutes before, I had actually said to my partners father, wouldnt it be cool to see it happen?

Then we could see a few bits that had obviously fallen recently, and it was a bit windy and I thought, That looks like it could go any minute.

I quickly got my camera out and then the next second it all started to crumble. It wasnt a huge amount, but it was enough to cause a shock.

Lee added: I was a little bit nervous, because our dogs had just been near there.

They were stunned as a huge chunk fell to the ground, close to where their dogs had been playing moments before

But as soon as we realised it looked a bit wobbly, we called them back over to us and put them on their leads.

We had been walking quite close to the cliff - but we managed to get well back in time, so we were out of harms way.

Lee said that he had shared the footage on Facebook to help anyone who might be studying the erosion along Naze beach.

He said: Quite a lot of the cliff is coming away in places, and I know theres been a lot of concern about Naze Tower, which is just a bit further along from where we were.

I thought Id share it because it might help people who are looking into this.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The compulsory collection of DNA being undertaken in some parts of the world is not just unethical, but risks affecting people's willingness to donate biological samples and thus contribute to the advancement of medical knowledge and the development of new treatments, says a paper published in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

Citing abuses being carried out in China, Thailand, and on the US/Mexico border, the authors1 call on scientific journals to reexamine all published papers based on databases that do not meet accepted standards of ethical approval, and demand an end to collaborations between academic institutions worldwide and those in countries carrying out unethical DNA collections. They also advocate that companies making equipment used in DNA analysis should stop sales to the institutions involved in ethically tainted genetic research.

While journals ask that studies submitted to them should have ethical approval, they may fail to recognize that some ethics committees do not abide by expected ethical standards. Citing the compulsory collection of DNA samples from ordinary people being carried out by the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang province as part of a program of surveillance and control, the authors say: "It appears that almost half of over a thousand articles describing forensic genetics studies in Chinese populations have at least one co-author from the Chinese police, judiciary, or related institutions. It is impossible to carry out forensic population genetics research in China independently from the Chinese authorities. All this literature is thus potentially ethically tainted."

The paper calls on publishers to conduct a mass reassessment of the literature and to require further information on consent and ethical approvals, in addition to considering whether the studies fulfill the basic ethical requirements for non-maleficence, beneficence, justice, and veracity. "Such an assessment would be important if, in the future, any doubt arises about the data and the uses to which they may be put."

Companies should reconsider their position too, says the paper. Thermo Fisher Scientific has decided to stop sales of equipment to Xinjiang police forces, but such action by one company alone is insufficient to tackle the problem. "The only effective way would seem to be to stop sales to police and judiciary forces across China of products used in the identification of humans by means of molecular genetics. Other Western suppliers, such as Promega and QIAGEN, should follow suit."

The example of Kuwait is encouraging, say the authors. In 2015, the Kuwaiti government became the first in the world to introduce a law requiring the compulsory collection of DNA samples from all citizens, residents, and visitors to the country. Such a measure was introduced purportedly to discourage terrorism, but many suspected that it could lead to genetic discrimination against some vulnerable minorities. The following year, after an international campaign against the measure, the law was dropped.

"While China, the U.S., and Thailand are very different countries from Kuwait, both in their size and their leadership, the Kuwaiti example gives us reason to hope that international pressure may have an effect. We are concerned that the growing public awareness of abusive DNA collections will have a detrimental effect on the image of genetics in the wider world," say the authors.

"In this time of COVID-19, Chinese science is increasingly under scrutiny from all quarters. The country's reaction to the pandemic has been widely praised. It is surely not in their interest to damage their standing in the scientific world by continuing with what are clearly unethical and discriminatory practices," they conclude.

Explore further Lack of awareness of the sensitivity of DNA data

More information: ESHG warns against misuses of genetic tests and biobanks for discrimination purposes, European Journal of Human Genetics (2021). ESHG warns against misuses of genetic tests and biobanks for discrimination purposes,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41431-020-00786-6
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President-elect Joe Bidens goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans during his first 100 days in office got a seal of approval from the countrys top infectious disease expert on Sunday.

The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, theres no doubt about it, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBCs Meet the Press.

He also voiced approval for steps Biden has outlined. The president-elect promised Friday to boost vaccine production and distribution as the coronavirus outbreak continues to rage.

What the president-elect is going to do is where need be, Fauci said.

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................................................................

Since last month, the U.S. has been using vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna. Fauci said he expects drugs made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca to get federal approval soon.

Were weeks away, not months away, he said.

He also chalked up surprising revelations that the federal government doesnt have a stockpile of vaccines for use in second doses to a misunderstanding.

Fauci said hed been informed that feds initially held back some doses as Americans received their first of two shots, but stopped doing so when it became clear that the cadence of the flow of doses was really going to be consistent and reliable.

The doc also warned of new strains of COVID-19 emerging around the globe.

People need to realize theres more than one mutant strain, he said. Theres one from the U.K. thats essentially dominated. Thats the one that is actually is seen in the United States. Theres another more ominous one thats in South Africa and Brazil.

The thing we really want to look at carefully is that does that mutation lessen the impact of the vaccine? Fauci continued. And if it does  then were going to have to make some modifications.

___

(c)2021 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 18, 2021 -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Hydrogen Aircraft Market by Passenger Capacity (Less than 100, 100-200, and More than 200), Range (Short Haul, Medium Haul, and Long Haul), and Application (Passenger Aircraft and Cargo Aircraft): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20302040." According to the report, the global hydrogen aircraft industry is estimated at $27.68 billion in 2030 and is anticipated to hit $174.02 billion by 2040, registering a CAGR of 20.20% from 2030 to 2040.

Download Report Sample (255 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/9108

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities-

Rising air passenger traffic across the globe, high suitability of hydrogen as aviation fuel, and reduced GHG emissions fuel the growth of the global hydrogen aircraft market. On the other hand, high costs associated with the production & handling of hydrogen and huge investments required for the approval and certification of hydrogen based aircrafts impede the growth to certain extent. However, proactive government initiatives toward hydrogen powered aircrafts and growth in infrastructural development for hydrogen across the globe are projected to pave the way for lucrative opportunities in the industry.

COVID-19 scenario-

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to worldwide lockdown and this, in turn, affected the manufacturing facilities of hydrogen aircrafts to a significant extent.

Also, the pandemic happened to force the governments across the globe to put more emphasis on medical services, due to which, the countries are directing most of the capital in the healthcare industry which is bowling over the investments in the hydrogen aircraft sector.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Hydrogen Aircraft Market Request Here!

The less than 100 segment to dominate by 2040-

Based on passenger capacity, the less than 100 segment is expected to contribute to more than three-fourths of the global hydrogen aircraft market share in 2030, and would lead the trail by 2040. Initially the hydrogen aircrafts can occupy less than 100 passengers. This factor drives the segment growth. The 101-200 segment, on the other hand, would manifest the fastest CAGR of 22.30% during the forecast period, owing to higher feasibility and ROI associated with more number of passengers, in regards with the available hydrogen aircraft technologies.

The short haul segment to maintain the dominant share-

Based on range, the short haul segment is anticipated to account for nearly half of the global hydrogen aircraft market revenue in 2030, and would rule the roost by the end of 2040, due to the fact that they are the simplest in design and first-enters in the hydrogen aircraft market space. Simultaneously, the medium haul segment would exhibit the fastest CAGR of 21.10% by 2040, owing to the increasing demand and viability for medium haul flights.

Interested to Procure The Data? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/9108

Europe, followed by North America, is expected to garner the major share in 2030 

Based on geography, Europe, followed by North America, is expected to garner the major share in 2030, holding more than half of the global hydrogen aircraft market. This is because the major countries in the region such as UK, Germany, France, and Spain have invested extensively to shove the development for hydrogen-fuelled aircraft. The market across Asia-Pacific, however, would register the fastest CAGR of 22.80% throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to the fact that China and Japan are one of the biggest manufacturing hubs across the world.

Key players in the industry-

AeroDelft

AEROVIRONMENT, INC.

Airbus S.A.S.

Alaka'i Technologies

HES Energy Systems

Pipistrel d.o.o

PJSC Tupolev

The Boeing Company

Urban Aeronautics Ltd

ZeroAvia, Inc.

Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/9108

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Marmorstein: You might soon be living in a million dollar home  unfortunately
New Delhi/Guwahati, Jan 18 : A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested an Indian Railways Engineering Service officer and two others in an alleged graft case of Rs one crore, the agency on Monday continued its action as it arrested two more people taking the total arrests in the case to five, officials said.

The CBI arrested 1985-batch officer Mahendra Singh Chauhan, who was posted as Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)/Construction in North East Frontier Railways in Assam's Maligaon in one of the biggest traps in the history of the agency on Sunday from Guwahati. The agency sleuths also arrested Inra Singh, a private person and Bhupendra Rawat, an employee of the private company ABCI Infrastructures on Sunday from Dehradun, while exchanging the alleged bribe amount.

The fresh arrests came after the CBI registered a case against Chauhan, Hem Chand Borah, Deputy Chief Engineer, Laxmi Kant Verma, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEN) and Pawan Baid, Director, ABCI Infrastructures Pvt Ltd, Rawat, Singh and other unknown persons under relevant sections of IPC and PC Act.

A CBI official in Delhi said that the agency on Monday arrested two more persons in connection with the case. The arrested people have been identified as Borah and Verma, from Assam's Guwahati.

The arrest were made after the CBI busted a racket on the allegations that some senior public functionaries of North Eastern Frontier Railways were involved in corrupt practices with private contractors for ongoing projects in the North Eastern Frontier Railways. They all are being brought to Delhi on transit remand, the official said.

The official said that during searches, sums of Rs 18.5 lakh and Rs 6.5 lakh have been recovered from the premises of Borah and Verma, respectively.

He said that a total amount of Rs 2.39 crore has been recovered during the searches in the last two days, which includes the alleged bribe amount of Rs one crore. The CBI had on Sunday also recovered Rs 60 lakh from Dehradun and Rs 54 lakh from Guwahati premises of CAO.

The official said that besides cash, there has been recovery of jewellery and documents related to property from these locations.

He said agency sleuths carried out searches at over 26 locations in Delhi, Uttrakhand, Assam, Tripura and West Bengal since Sunday which are still going on.

The official said the accused were abusing their official positions for obtaining illegal gratification.

The FIR stated that that Baid was in contact with Chauhan over various ongoing projects in NFR region.

It stated that that on Chauhan's demand, Baid through his employee got bribe of Rs one crore delivered to Singh, who is Chauhan's relative at Dehradun through Rawat.

"Singh and Rawat were allegedly caught while exchanging the bribe money and the bribe of Rs one crore was recovered," the official said.
Albany, NY  New York officials are confident that a holiday coronavirus surge in the past two months, which sent coronavirus hospitalizations to their highest levels since the early pandemic, may be nearing an end.

But a bigger threat looms, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned on Monday.

Theres been talk of the latest coronavirus spike -- which coincided with cold weather and the holiday season -- being the much-dreaded second wave that was widely documented during the flu pandemic a century ago.

Thats not true, Cuomo said.

A second wave isnt a new surge in infections, but a new strain of the virus itself, the governor said.

There are at least three separate new variants on the horizon, the governor said: ones originating in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

Its too early to tell if any of those variants will strike New York state in a big way. But they are all considered more infectious than the strain that hit the United States earlier this year, Cuomo said.

Any of these strains could be a second wave, the governor said.

During the 1918-1919 avian flu pandemic, the second wave killed far more people than the first wave did.

The most is known about the U.K. variant: while not considered more deadly among those infected, its considered much more easily spread. U.S. officials have projected it will become the dominant variant here by March.

The solution now? Either test -- or ban -- people from travelling to the U.S. from concerning locations, Cuomo argued. That was the strategy used during the early pandemic against travelers from China.

If you know theres a UK strain, theres a south African strain, a Brazilian strain, why dont you stop those people from coming here? Cuomo asked, later adding: We must test all international travelers now.

As for the holiday surge, state statistics show that Covid-19 hospital admissions are growing at their slowest pace since late October. The increase statewide is now at 32 new patients a day, down from an increase of 165 new patients a day in the week around Christmas.

The percentage of positive tests is also going down after its holiday surge. The state average is now 6.4% positive among those tested, down from over 8% around Christmas.

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

Onondaga County slashing Covid-19 vaccine shots by 75% this week as supply dwindles

We are back! CNY orange zone restaurants take to social media to announce reopenings

Covid cases decline slowly in Onondaga County; Lets just not go backwards

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
President-elect Joe Biden plans to address a joint session of Congress in February to press for his aggressive $1.9 trillion pandemic relief proposal. But in the meantime, the course of the pandemic and its economic fallout continue to make the argument for him.

His aggression probably stems from his experience, as vice president, as the point man for President Barack Obamas $900 billion-plus plan in 2009 to provide economic relief from the global financial crisis.

Obama wanted to keep the amount under $1 trillion, which even now is a cringe-inducing threshold. But its clear now that the slow pace of that recovery was due partially to the federal relief package being too small and limited in scope.

Biden wants to jump-start a more rapid recovery, beginning with $400 billion to defeat the coronavirus, including for more effective vaccine distribution and development of more vaccines. That is fundamental to recovery.

Meanwhile, Americans filed more than 1 million new unemployment claims over the last week and the death toll approached 400,000.

Other parts of the proposal include more than $1 trillion in direct relief to families, including increased unemployment insurance benefits; and $440 billion for aid to communities and businesses, including $350 billion in emergency funding to state and local governments to avoid major local and state tax increase and ensure the continued delivery of important services.

Congressional Republicans, who oversaw a $1.7 trillion deficit increase through top-weighted tax reductions before the pandemic, might rediscover their aversion to deficits now that they are not in the majority.

But the case for Bidens proposal is even more obvious than that political maneuvering. Congress should ensure that the stimulus is sufficient to get the economy back up to speed as quickly as possible.
The bodies of three sailors from the Arvin bulk carrier, which sank off the coast of Turkey on Sunday, have been discovered as of Monday morning, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said citing information provided by Turkey.

"According to Turkish authorities, as of 10:00 on January 18, six crewmembers have been rescued (five citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Russia), and the bodies of three deceased sailors were found (their identification is ongoing)," the ministry said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

The rescued crewmembers have been hospitalized in the city of Bartin, and the search and rescue operation is continuing.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey and several consular workers have arrived in Bartin to provide the Ukrainians with consular assistance and coordinate collaboration with the relevant Turkish agencies. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and embassy to Turkey have taken the incident under special control.

The Ukrainian embassy to Turkey said later the Ukrainians rescued from the sunken vessel had been discharged from the hospital.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported earlier that the Arvin (IMO 8874316, sailing under the flag of Palau) sank near the coast of Turkey's Bartin province on January 17. Tentative findings indicate that the wreck might have been caused by a heavy storm. The vessel had 12 crewmembers on board, among them ten Ukrainian citizens, it said. The Ukrainian company Arvin Shipping LTD has been named as the vessel's owner.

The Russian Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot) has said there were two Russian citizens onboard the bulker.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 00:51:07|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo confirmed on Monday France's position in support for the rights of Palestinian people and finding a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, the National News Agency reported.

Grillo reiterated her assertion "on the importance to provide a decent life for Palestinian refugees and to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in cooperation with European partners to enable it to fulfill its duties and responsibilities."

Grillo's remarks came during her meeting with Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour who briefed Grillo on the difficult living conditions for Palestinians in Lebanon.

Dabbour valued France's "consistent stances in supporting the Palestinian cause in all international forums," stressing that "(Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas will hold an international peace conference."

The two officials agreed to continue cooperation, coordination and development of the relationship between the Palestinian and French missions. Enditem
Louisiana parents filed a federal lawsuit this week after their autistic teen son died. This was after the teenager was put into handcuffs by deputies, shackled him, and sat on him for more than nine minutes.

Eric Parsa died on Jan. 19 last year in a parking lot of the Westgate Shopping Center in Metairie.

Parsa's parents filed a lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The lawsuit was filed against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and seven of its deputies, according to an NBC News report.

"Never did we ever think that our 16-year-old son with special needs would die in front of our eyes and in the hands of law enforcement," Parsa's mother, Donna Lou, was quoted on a report.

Related story: Shooting Death of 13-Year-Old Andy Lopez and a Brief History of Police Brutality Against the Latino Population





Incident at the Laser Tag Center

Parsa's parents said they were at a laser tag center with Eric when he began having a meltdown in the parking lost of the Westgate mall, as stated under the suit.

Eric started slapping himself in the head. He was described as obese, non-verbal, and severely autistic.

Eric then slapped his father and bit him, which caused the man to bleed. The family was then asked by the manager at the laser tag center if they needed police assistance. The family agreed, under the suit that was filed.

Jefferson Parish Deputy Chad Pitfield was the first to respond to the incident. When Pitfield arrived at the scene, the physical altercation between Eric and his father had already ended.

However, the teen started slapping himself again and his father after the deputy's arrival. Eric also slapped the deputy as Pitfield turned away.

The suit stated that Pitfield responded to that by taking Eric to the ground.

"Deputy Pitfield then stated that E.P. bit his leg. Pitfield responded by hitting E.P. with a single strike...towards the head area," according to the lawsuit.

Donna Lou and Daren's lawyers said that the deputies were briefed that Eric had autism.

Eric was allegedly pinned down to the parking lot ground for a total of nine minutes and six seconds during which there were severe clear and distinct chances that Eric was secured, calm, and not actively resisting.

One of Eric's parents' lawyers, William Most, said that the deputies should have taken the weight off of Eric's back, according to a People report.

Most added that they should have rolled Eric on his side to ensure that he could continue to breathe.

The lawsuit added that the teenager had not gone limp and he had urinated himself, when the deputies decided to turn him over.

Meanwhile, Donna Lou, who was a doctor, tried to help resuscitate her son. She was, however, reportedly told to stay back and let the officers do their job.

The family said the cops used unreasonable and excessive force that directly caused their son's death.

Meanwhile, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office denounced the lawsuit. They said that it contained malicious and false claims about the deputies who tried to help that day, according to a TMZ report.

The Sheriff's Office further said that they will fight the lawsuit in court.

Related story: Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin Charged With George Floyd's Killing Released on Bond




Gandhinagar, Jan 18 : While carrying out the the virtual ground breaking ceremonies of the the Surat Metro project and the second phase of Ahmedabad Metro project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that due to lack of modern vision and any metro policy in previous governments, works of only 225 kilometre Metro network were operational, while the present government's modern vision had helped complete more than 450 km of Metro line and work was in progress in more than 1000 km in 27 cities.

PM Modi said, "The difference between the work of previous governments and our government is clearly seen. In the 10 to 12 years of previous governments, only 225 kilometres of Metro line were operational, while in 6 years of our government, more than 450 kilometres of Metro line in 27 cities is operational. There was a time in the country when there was no modern thinking, no policy even for Metro. There was no uniformity between various Metros being developed across the country and there was no coordination with other modes of transport in the cities." "Now, we are approaching Metro work with an integrated approach, where the other modes of transport like bus and railways will work in unison with the Metro in an integrated approach. The National Common Mobility Card launched in Ahmedabad is another feature which will help in this integration in the future. We are working with not only looking at the current requirements but the requirements 10 years later," said Modi.

The Prime Minister virtually carried out the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Surat Metro which consists of 40.35 km Metro line consisting of two corridors, between Sarthana and DreamCity and Bhesan and Saroli lines. He also carried out the groundbreaking ceremony of the second phase of Ahmedabad Metro, which also comprises two corridors, one from Motera to Mahatma Mandir and the second from Gujarat National law University (GNLU) to GIFT City.

The PM said that Surat and Ahmedabad are cities which will strengthen Atma Nirbharta (self-reliance). "Earlier, two decades back, Surat was known more for disasters such as plague, rather than its development. Now, Surat is the fourth rapidly developing city in the world. 40% of the man-made fabric production in the country comes from Surat and about 30% of man-made fibre is also from Surat. Today, Surat is the second cleanest city in the country. All this has been possible due to better planning. Earlier, 20% of the population lived in huts and shanties, now due to affordable housing schemes only 6% live in shanties. Surat is the best example of Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat, where aspiring people from across the country have made it home," added the PM.

Similarly, the PM said that Gandhinagar's image has also transformed in recent years. "Gandhinagar, earlier had the image of a town of Government employees and retired persons...It could not even be called a city. Now, we have seen transformation of its image in recent years and we see youth everywhere nowadays. Today, Gandhinagar is known for the IIT Gandhinagar, GNLU, the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU),Indian Institute of Teachers Education, the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication and Technology, the National Institute of Design , Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG) ... Company campuses have increased here, raising employment. New modern infra projects have livened up Gandhinagar and in a way made it a dream City," the PM added.

"Today India is taking decisions with confidence. It is not only doing things bigger but also better. India is coming out with the largest affordable housing program and the biggest healthcare services. More than six thousand villages will be connected to the internet shortly," the PM further said.

The PM talked about a program which was rarely discussed and that was the Pragati program. "n the Pragati meetings, I discuss with the government and administration officials, in detail about all the various projects which have been stalled, lingering on for decades. Projects worth 13 lakh crore have been discussed, where we are trying to solve the glitches," added the PM.

The Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II is 28.25 Kms long with two corridors. Corridor-1 is 22.8 Kms long and is from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir. Corridor-2 is 5.4 Kms long and is from GNLU to GIFT City. The total completion cost of Phase-II project is Rs 5,384 crores.

The Surat Metro Rail Project is 40.35 kms long and comprises two corridors. Corridor-1 is 21.61 kms long and is from Sarthana to Dream City. Corridor-2 is 18.74 kms long and is from Bhesan to Saroli. The total completion cost of the Surat Metro project is Rs 12,020 crores.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
1 |tv| An Saol Beo

A look at efforts to reintroduce eagles to Ireland. So far it's had mixed success, with several birds breeding, but others poisoned.

Monday, TG4, 7.30pm

2 |literature | An Evening With Donal Ryan

Cork County Council library service hosts a Zoom 'meet the author' event with the much-loved Tipperary writer.

Free tickets via eventbrite.ie; Wednesday, 7.30pm

3 |streamed music| Aslan, Paul Brady & Tolu Makay

The latest episode Aiken Promotions's performances from Vicar Street features an eclectic trio.

Thursday, 9pm, free via www.youtube.com/aikenpromotions

4 |Netlix| Fate: The Winx Saga

Curiosity around this young adult drama has been raised by the fact that it was filmed at Kilruddery House and other locations in Wicklow.

Netflix, from Friday

5 |classical music| Midwinter Festival Goldberg

Music For Galway presents online performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations. It begins with Malcolm Proud at his home in Kilkenny playing the original version for harpsichord.

Friday, 8pm, www.musicforgalway.ie, 12
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Action News Now spoke with Lt. Colonel Jonathan Shiroma, Director of Public Affairs for the National Guard units in the state of California on Saturday.

Lt. Col. Shiroma said none of the National Guard from the far North State will be heading out to protect the US Capitol or the California State Capitol. He confirmed that units from the National Guard armories in Redding and Chico have not been called upon at this time, but are staying ready if they are called upon. Redding and Chico supports engineering units, which were not required for the current safety and security effort.

Shiroma said units from the Bay Area and Moreno Valley are supporting the protection of the US Capitol. They are among more than 300 soldiers who have or are deploying. They belong to the 115th Regional Support Group headquartered in Roseville and a 100 Troup Command headquartered in Moreno Valley.

The California Air National Guard provided two C-130 aircraft to transport the troops to the nation's capitol.

In addition, Action News Now was told that the main effort of California National Guard troops in Washington with be providing civil support operations. Some other troops will provide chemical-biological agent detection services on-site, and three religious support teams are making the trip. In addition, five service members trained in explosive ordnance detection have been activated.

The California State Capitol building in Sacramento and the surrounding area is being protected by more than a thousand National Guard members.

Lt. Col. Shiroma told Action News Now that the CHP and CAL OES are organizing the safety and security efforts in Sacramento. He explained that the National Guard always supports the other agencies, and does not work as a lead agency for such incidents.

---

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - Police and National Guard troops are standing sentry at newly fortified statehouses as groups of armed demonstrators gather.

The increased security at state capitols ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration comes as authorities work to deter a repeat of the recent riot that overran the U.S. Capitol.

A few protesters gathered in some cities Sunday, including some carrying large guns. But streets remained empty around many other capitols.

Some protestors supported President Donald Trump, but others expressed general anti-government sentiments.

Though the FBI had warned of the potential for armed protests at capitol buildings, there were no immediate reports of violence Sunday.
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MORE than 50 people who funded for their repatriation from South Africa arrived yesterday amidst failure to observe Covid-19 regulations. H-Metro witnessed the arrival at High Glen Road Port where there was no observance of social distancing as well as adherence to other measures.

Although most of them had their face masks up, their relatives and some who were receiving groceries failed to observe social distancing. 

There was commotion and it took more than two hours for the returnees to leave the port ahead of the 3pm close of business time as bus crews delayed in distributing parcels to their respective recipients.

High Glen Port manager Joshua Machekera confirmed the delay saying the buses had to undergo all Covid-19 restriction processes at police check points forcing the crew not to be on time.

As road port authorities we are observing Covid-19 regulations and we complied with government directive to close for 30 days, said Machekera.

Today we opened for the arrival of the self-funded repatriation Zimbabweans from South Africa who arrived just after 2pm.

Our bus crew has been facing challenges in clearing the arrivals and those who are collecting their parcels and this caused the delay to close the port in time for the 3pm close of business deadline.

The bus was delayed from the border and on the way due to Covid-19 guidelines needed for them to undergo and pass through all the check points.

They arrived safely and we have allowed all of them to leave the port to their respective homes for safety and to join the nation in observing national lockdown restrictions, said Machekera.

Pirate taxi drivers and trolley operators recorded brisk business forcing a number of people to gather at the port, a situation not expected considering the spike in positive Covid-19 cases and deaths. H Metro
In 2016 developers broke ground on Napa Creek Village, a 48-unit multi-family residential eco-village with one- and two-story, green, net-zero electricity homes.

Thriving Communities and partner Healthy Buildings Cos. were the developers of the first-of-its-kind project in Napa.

Yet more than four years later, the project remains unfinished. Construction has stopped. Chain link fence surrounds the parcel located at 2614 First St. Lawsuits have been filed. Napa Creek Village is scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction at the end of January. The estimated sale price was $11.9 million.

In 2016, the Napa Valley Register reported that the project received unanimous approval from the Napa City Council and the Planning Commission.

At the time, the project was said to become the greenest multifamily project in the U.S.

Napa Creek Village was to feature eight affordable homes restricted to low-income families. The balance of the homes were to be offered as workforce and market-rate homes. This project would have been the first multifamily complex in Napa to have gray water systems in each unit, said the release.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 18, 2021) - Nicola Mining Inc. (TSXV: NIM) (the "Company" or "Nicola") is pleased to provide a 2021 exploration outline at its wholly-owned New Craigmont Copper Project, located near Merritt, BC, and 33 km south of the Highland Valley Copper porphyry district.

In 2020, the Company filed for a multi-year area-based ("MYAB") exploration permit that would allow it to move forward on a five-year exploration plan. Additional to the MYAB application, the Company continues to actively integrate historic data into its geological models. The ongoing desktop work is expected to improve the quality and accuracy of the "target development" and "target confirmation" stages of its exploration pipeline approach.

The 2021 program ("2021 Program") includes up to 21 drill holes (8520 metres1), five new trenches and the reactivation of 6 historic trenches.

Diamond drilling will focus on testing the contact aureole between the Guichon Creek Batholith and the Nicola Group along an extensive alteration corridor in areas displaying an anomalous magnetic response, interpreted to be semi-massive magnetite-chalcopyrite mineralization. The 2021 season will comprise of two phases of drilling, with the second phase contingent on the results of phase one. A trenching program is aimed at developing three target areas where copper occurrences have been observed but not drill tested. Favorable results these trenches may be followed up by a small drill program to test the depth extent of mineralization encountered at surface.

PHASE ONE

Drilling Exploration:

The first phase of drilling is designed to test four target areas (Figure 1), with the best results being followed up in phase two.



Target "A" A magnetic anomaly along strike to the east of the Craigmont Open Pit. Semi-massive magnetite-chalcopyrite skarn outcrops east of the Open Pit. The target is located at a depth of ~200m, adjacent to historic underground mine workings. Two 200 m long diamond drill holes will test this magnetic bulb near a diorite plug.

Target "B" Magnetic Vector Inversion modelling of airborne magnetic data suggests a magnetic body with approximate dimensions of 700 m west, 50 m north, and is located ~300 m below surface. Holes THU-002 (85.92m @ 1.11% Cu) and NC-2018-03 (100.6m @ 1.33% Cu) drilled by Nicola intersected a magnetic anomaly that warrants additional testing. These show strong correlation with the magnetic vector inversions 2 , the magnetic susceptibility, and the occurrence of magnetite-chalcopyrite-actinolite-epidote skarn. This area is interpreted to be the right-lateral (i.e., northward) displacement of the Craigmont Skarn (toward the Embayment zone). Three 500m diamond drill holes aim to test this magnetic zone eastward, toward the Craigmont Open Pit.

Target "C" A 700 m long diamond drill hole will test magnetic anomaly interpreted as a pipe-like body connected to a deeper magnetic body hosted in Nicola Group near the Guichon Lake Batholith contact.

Target "D" A series of short 100m diamond drill holes are will test beneath the "CAS" showing, a magnetite-chalcopyrite breccia hosted by diorite identified during the 2017 geological mapping campaign. This target lies on the southeast trending corridor of high magnetic intensity with the "MARB" showing on the northwestern margin.







Figure 1: Map of drilling Targets, with the UTM grid (meters). The topmost panel is the interpreted lithology, the middle panel is the alteration and bottom most panel is the anomalous magnetics from magnetic vector inversion. For legend of each panel see figure 2.

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4873/72245_1d29f19c341ffa9b_001full.jpg





Figure 2: Legend for Figure 1

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4873/72245_1d29f19c341ffa9b_002full.jpg

PHASE TWO

The second phase of drilling is contingent on the results of Phase One drilling, whereby the best intercepts are followed by drilling with approximately 100m spacing.

Scientific and Technical Information

Kevin Wells, P.Geo, a consulting geologist to the Company, is the independent qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About Nicola Mining

Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. The fully-permitted mill can process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and flotation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, a high-grade silver property, and an active gravel pit that is located adjacent to its milling operations.

About New Craigmont Property

In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to consolidate ownership of the New Craigmont Project (the "Property") and has been actively conducting mineral exploration since. The Property is a wholly-owned copper property with an active mine permit (M-68), located 33 km south of the world-class Highland Valley porphyry district. The property is located adjacent to the southern end of the Guichon Creek Batholith, which hosts the Highland Valley copper deposits.

There are currently no mineral resource estimates on the Property. Historical "non-NI 43-101" resource calculations are recorded in internal memos and geological reports for Placer Development Ltd.

For further details on the Property, see the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Thule Copper- Iron Property, Southern British Columbia, Canada", filed on May 8, 2013 on Sedar at www.sedar.com .

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Peter Espig"

Peter Espig

CEO & Director

For additional information

Contact: Peter Espig

Phone: (778) 385-1213

Email: info@nicolamining.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

1 Number of holes and metres drilled is dependant on both capital and results of initial holes

2 The physical principle behind Magnetization Vector Inversion is that magnetic material in the Earth is affected by the presence of the Earth's geomagnetic field.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/72245
They've been hard at work filming upcoming movie Across The River And Into The Trees.

And Liev Schreiber and Matilda de Angelis, 25, transformed into their WW2 character as they donned 1940s-inspired costumes while filming in Venice on Monday.

While shooting scenes in the Italian city, the actor, 53, was seen falling over as he walked along a street before being joined by The Undoing star, 25, for a stroll.

Filming: The Undoing's Matilda de Angelis exuded 1940s style as she enjoyed a stroll with co-star Liev Schreiber while filming Across The River And Into The Trees in Venice on Monday

Maya exuded glamour in a chic peach coat which boasted a structured neckline and was paired with some white trousers.

Her costume was completed by a brown belt and brogue shoes, while the brunette beauty's locks were styled into loose waves.

Liev, who is playing a terminally ill middle-aged U.S. serviceman, also looked smart in his green trousers and jacket as well as leather boots and complementary gloves.

While shooting one scene, the star appeared to have some dark marks on his trousers, suggesting he had filmed a few takes of the scene already.

Quick break: The actress, 25, donned a body warmer inbetween takes and appeared to be pointing out something interesting to Liev

As he worked on the film, Liev sported a glint of sweat across his brow, showing how hard his character was working to make it along the road.

He appeared to be concentrating intensely as he stumbled along the street and fell to the ground before pushing himself back up.

A cameraman could be seen following the actor during the take, with another man walking alongside while donning a face mask.

In the film, Liev's character Colonel Richard Cantwell falls in love with an 18-year-old Italian contessa called Renata.

Bit chilly? Matilda looked cold as she walked along the street with her coat open

Work in progress: The duo have been seen filming their latest project throughout January

Renata is played by Italian actress Matilda De Angelis who can be seen on the HBO mini-series The Undoing with Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman.

Set in post WW2 Venice, US Army Col. Cantwell, haunted by the war, is a hero who faces news of his illness with stoic disregard.

Determined to spend a weekend in quiet solitude, he commandeers a military driver to facilitate a visit to some of his old haunts in Venice.

In costume: Liev transformed into his terminally ill U.S. serviceman character he donned a smart military uniform while filming in Venice

On the ground: The actor, 53, was spotted on the floor and trying to push himself back up while shooting footage for Across the River and into the Trees

Struggling: Liev seemed to be stumbling as he acted out the scene and was followed by a cameraman

Reaching out: He looked unsteady on his feet during the scene

As Cantwell's plans begin to unravel, a chance encounter with a remarkable young woman begins to re kindle in him the hope of renewal.

Based on the last full-length novel by Hemingway, the movie captures a fleeting moment of immortality where time stands still.

Four years ago The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Pierce Brosnan would play the lead role with his GoldenEye director Martin Campbell at the helm.

However the current director is Spanish filmmaker Paula Ortiz and this September it emerged in Deadline that Liev was to play the colonel.

Down he goes: Liev pushed himself back up from the floor

Getting up: The actor was closely followed by crew as he regained his balance in the scene

Smart: Liev's costume included a light jacket and smart trousers as well as leather gloves

Liev has been spending time in the picturesque city with his 27-year-old girlfriend Taylor Neisen, with whom he has been seen enjoying romantic outings.

The couple have been going strong ever since they started dating in 2017, following his divorce from Naomi Watts.

Screen star Liev was married to the actress, 52, for 11 years and the couple share two children Sasha, 13, and Kai, 11.

They split in September 2016 and have been very verbal in remaining friends in the years following their break-up.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-19 04:49:25|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday that Lebanon is under "unannounced sanctions and siege" due to its commitment to its national interests and its wealth in land and sea, the National News Agency reported.

Berri's remarks came, in a speech delivered through video, at the International Parliamentary Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada, hosted by the Iranian capital Tehran.

Berri indicated that Lebanon is suffering from a multi-level crisis that is the most dangerous in its modern history, not to mention an undeclared blockade due to its support and commitment to the resistance and its sovereignty rights.

Berri renewed Lebanon's commitment to its sovereign rights over its land, borders, and wealth resources.

Moreover, the speaker warned about the "deterioration of the health situation in the Gaza Strip due to the spread of the coronavirus under unjust blockade" and called on the international community to secure vaccines for Gaza. Enditem
State-owned company Paks II. Zrt., responsible for the expansion of the Paks NPP with new nuclear power plant units ordered two safety analyses for 125 million forints from a nuclear research institute in 2015, citing investigative news site Atlatszo.

Atlatszo filed a freedom of information request for these documents but Paks II. Zrt refused to release them on the grounds of national security interest and intellectual property.



Atlatszo is suing the state-owned company for the analyses that they believe are of public interest: one is about the spreading of activity related to a major accident, the other on the possible initial technological disruptions of the new blocks.



The idea was first raised in 2007 to build two new nuclear power plant units in Paks, in addition to the existing ones. Parliament gave its consent in 2009, and in 2012 the state-owned Magyar Villamos Muvek established Paks II. Zrt.



In 2014 the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban and Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a contract for the construction of the new units.



According to this document, the Russian state-owned company, Rosatom will build the Paks 2 nuclear power plant, and the Russian state will provide Hungary with a loan of EUR 10 billion for the project with a total cost of EUR 12.5 billion.



The construction of the new nuclear power plant units is not considered a good idea by everyone, and not only because of the expensive Russian loan or the Hungarian governments secrecy related to the investment, but also because of certain safety concerns. In 2017 we published a report comissioned by Paks II. Zrt., summarising the results of geological research.



This document revealed that in Paks, underneath the already existing nuclear plant and the planned extension there is a tectonic fault line which is considered to be active.



The report states that traces of earthquakes less than a hundred thousand years old were found in the vicinity, near the surface. For this reason, the site location may not comply with the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency, yet a permit was granted.



Recently we discovered that two further, important safety studies were ordered by Paks II. Zrt. about the new nuclear blocks:

An analysis of the spread of activity related to a major accident

Probabilistic security analyses



The contracts for both studies were won by Nuklearis Biztonsagi Kutatointezet Kft. (NUBIKI), for 59 million HUF and 66 million HUF. The first paper models what happens during and after an accident at a nuclear power plant, or following small or large leaks.



According to the tender description the second one examines possible initial technological problems  e.g. refrigerant loss malfunctions, service system failures  with the new blocks.



Atlatszo is convinced that all risks related to the extension of the nuclear plant should be made public, so they filed a freedom of information request for these two analyses.



The state-owned company first extended the deadline for replying by 15 days, claiming that the documents are still being examined.



Later they told them that the two security analyses cannot be considered as information of public interest for reasons of national security and the right to intellectual property.



Atlatszo does not agree with Paks II. Zrt.s argument, therefore they are going to court for the documents.



It cannot, of course, be ruled out that the documents may contain information or conclusions which justify restricting public access to certain parts of the analyses in order to guarantee the the safe operation and the protection of the power plant.



Yet this is clearly not a sufficient reason for keeping the whole documents and the security issues detailed in them a secret. Also, the copyright of the authors and the rights to use of Paks II. Zrt. cannot in themselves override the accessibility of data of public interest.



Written by Katalin Erdelyi, translated by Gabriella Horn. Hungarian version.





MTI Photo: Tamas Soki

Gold-equivalent production of 18,398 ounces; a 10% increase from Q4 Fiscal Year 2020.

Continuing brownfield and greenfield exploration at Orovalle, Spain .

Fieldwork exploration in progress at Taguas, Argentina .

Quality Assurance Testing Planning for the Oxides Stockpile Project (OSP) at EMIPA, Bolivia .

TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX: ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") announced today operational results for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 ("Q1 2021").

Juan Gavidia, CEO of Orvana Minerals stated: "The Company has started fiscal 2021 with a strong first quarter, both at the operational and exploration levels. Orvana remains on target to deliver on our production guidance, plus, more strategically, advancing exploration and developmental initiatives at our three business units in Spain, Argentina and Bolivia."

OroValle

Quarterly 14,127 ounces of gold production, 5% higher than previous quarter due to higher throughput, partially off-set by lower ore grade.

Copper production was 2.0 million pounds, 15% higher than previous quarter.

Lidia Project Exploration Program commenced on schedule.

Permitting for Ortosa Godan is in progress. Drilling expected to start in March 2021 .

Taguas

Fieldwork exploration campaign completed in December 2020 , including new access points, geological mapping and soil and rock sampling.

, including new access points, geological mapping and soil and rock sampling. Preparations are underway for a drilling campaign to start in February 2021 .

. A new Mineral Resource Estimate is being updated in compliance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101, by Geosim Services Inc, an independent consulting firm, by February 2021 .

EMIPA

As a result of latest metallurgical testing showing positive results for the Oxides Stockpile Project (OSP), a pilot program is being developed, with final conclusions expected in late fiscal 2021.

New reprocessing and interpretation of historical geological data was completed in December 2020 . Areas of interest will be subject to non-drilling exploration fieldwork during the next three quarters of fiscal 2021. The goal is to develop drilling targets for fiscal 2022 within the most prospective areas of the Don Mario Complex.

Production Results





















Q1 2021



Q4 2020

Q1 2020

El

Valle Don

Mario Total El

Valle Don

Mario Total El

Valle Don

Mario Total



















Ore milled (tones) 180,380 - 180,380 166,047 - 166,047 155,662 64,875 220,537 Gold Equivalent (oz) 18,398 - 18,398 16,742 - 16,742 15,654 2,132 17,786 Gold

















Grade (g/t) 2.60 - 2.60 2.70 - 2.70 2.98 1.07 2.42 Recovery (%) 93.6 - 93.6 93.3 - 93.3 92.20 84.4 92.2 Production (oz) 14,127 - 14,127 13,422 - 13,422 13,722 2,093 15,815 Copper

















Grade (%) 0.63 - 0.63 0.58 - 0.58 0.36 - 0.36 Recovery (%) 81.6 - 81.6 83.4 - 83.4 71.5 - 71.5 Production (K lbs) 2,044 - 2,044 1,780 - 1,780 892 - 892

ABOUT ORVANA - Orvana is a multi-mine gold-copper-silver company. Orvana's assets consist of the producing El Valle and Carles gold-copper-silver mines in northern Spain, and the Don Mario gold-silver property in Bolivia, currently in care and maintenance. Orvana is in the process of closing the acquisition of Taguas, Argentina. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements made herein constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates", "intends" or "anticipates" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things: Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates including specifically, but not limited to in the case of Don Mario, the processing of the mineral stockpiles and the reprocessing of the tailings material; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; any measures taken by the Company to prevent and/or mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases at or near the Company's mines and support the sustainability of its business including through the development of crisis management plans, increasing stock levels for key supplies, monitoring of guidance from the medical community, and engagement with local communities and authorities; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions (including the completion of the acquisition of Taguas); future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements; and mine development plans. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include the effect of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases on the Company's operations, workforce and supply chain, fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume long-term operations at the Carles Mine; the Company's ability to successfully implement a sulphidization circuit and ancillary facilities to process the current oxides stockpiles at Don Mario; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's disclosures. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made herein with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Orvana Minerals Corp.

Related Links

www.orvana.com


The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
As Inauguration Day fast-approaches, police have arrested two more individuals near security checkpoints in Washington, D.C., as the security is heightened over concerns regarding the potential violence.

On Sunday, police arrested a 22-year-old man from Virginia while carrying a firearm with three high-capacity magazines and 37 rounds of unregistered ammunition near Capitol Hill.

Based on the Metropolitan Police Department, the individual who was identified as Guy Berry of Gordonsville, Virginia, was walking in the 200 Blk in Massachusetts Avenue NE carrying a Glock 22, which is clearly visible in a holster.

According to NPR, the police report mentioned that the officers who stopped him concluded that he could not carry a handgun in D.C.

The police shared that the Virginia man remained in custody as of Sunday early afternoon and was arrested for carrying a pistol without having a license and possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device and unregistered ammunition.

A voicemail message left a phone number that was listed for Berry was not immediately returned.

On the other hand, a woman who claimed to be a law enforcement officer said that she was a cabinet member, was stopped at an inauguration checkpoint on Saturday. The United States Capitol Police stated that they had arrested her for impersonating an officer and failure to obey and fleeing from law enforcement.

In an email sent by the Metropolitan Police Department to the news agency, the MPD has identified the woman as 63-year-old Linda McGovern, a resident of Stratford, Connecticut.

Based on the police report, the woman approached a security checkpoint close to Union Station at around 8:45 a.m. in her vehicle.

McGovern displayed a round metallic object later, which was later identified as Military Police Challenge Coin. She continued to claim that she was a Cabinet member and a law enforcement officer at the checkpoint.

The report also mentioned that the officers asked McGovern to put her vehicle in park three times, and she complied, but she fled northbound when she was asked for her driver's license, NBC News reported.

USCP mentioned in a press release that their officers questioned the suspect, but she drove off in the vehicle and was stopped again at 50 Massachusetts Avenue.

Read also: Census Bureau Says, Citizenship Data Will Not Be Available Soon

After her arrest, the police have shared that McGovern was transported to the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program in D.C. for initial evaluation before being processed at the headquarters of USCP and taken to the D.C. jail, Washington Post reported.

Moreover, when reached by phone, the husband of the suspect, Keith McGovern, declined to give any comment regarding the said issue.

Following the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and ahead of the presidential inauguration on Wednesday, a total of three individuals have been arrested in areas near the security checkpoints.

On the other hand, a truck driver was arrested near the Capitol with a loaded handgun and hundreds of ammunition rounds.

Related article: Tearful Pelosi: Congress Members Who Were Accomplices to Capitol Siege May Be Prosecuted

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster threatened to use his executive powers to force the state's major hospitals to give more COVID-19 vaccines after most have administered just two-thirds or less of their doses.

McMaster acknowledged Monday that the state's frantic effort to vaccinate against COVID-19 "is not going as fast as we would like" and said hospital vaccine "shelves ought to be empty." Major hospitals had 78,500 unused doses as of Monday.

Right now we have doses that have not been given that are sitting on the shelf, McMaster said. That ends. That is over. Were not doing that any more ... even if I have to order ending elective surgeries in some hospitals to free up staff to give those shots.

S.C. hospitals lost revenue and laid off employees after volunteering to pause elective surgeries in the first weeks after the pandemic struck in the state in March. Many resumed within two months.

The governor, speaking to the media at Spartanburg Medical Center and Lexington Medical Center during a daylong tour of the hospitals' vaccination operations, expressed confidence that the necessary follow up booster doses would arrive in time.

This despite dire concerns by the medical community leading up to this week that while there is ample capability to administer shots rapidly, there is no sure sign there will be enough supply from the federal government to meet demand.

"Predictable supply continues to be the thing that limits the ability to go faster, not staffing, Lexington Medical Center CEO Tod Augsburger said.

On Jan. 11, the Midlands hospital received 950 doses, compared to 3,000 doses the week before.

"The more were confident in our ability, then we can book more appointments," Augsburger said. "So we just have to make sure we keep getting the vaccine."

Lexington Medical Center gave out roughly 700 doses Monday and has 8,500 appointments booked over the next two weeks. The hospital has administered 60 percent of the doses it has received to date  less than the 65 percent statewide average for major hospitals and providers, according to the latest S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control data.

Among other major providers, the Medical University of South Carolina has administered 58 percent of the state-highest 41,925 doses it has received.

Four hospitals have given half or less of their supply.

A pair of Myrtle Beach-area hospitals, Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital and Grand Strand Medical Center, also are below the state average in administering vaccines at 37 percent and 50 percent, respectively. AnMed Health Medical Center in Anderson has given half of its doses, while Columbia's Providence Health has administered 43 percent.

All doses sent to South Carolina so far are scheduled to be given, Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC's interim public health director, told reporters Monday.

Hospitals, the chief providers of the vaccine, have asked for far greater doses at the same time DHEC expanded eligibility to those age 70 and older, and appointments are booked up well into the spring.

DHEC reported last week that the federal government's distribution would keep South Carolina's allotment at levels that are essentially static. The state had been receiving 63,000 to 64,000 doses per week.

Prisma Health, the largest provider in the state, had hoped to administer 50,000 does alone this week, Saria Saccocio, who is helping lead the system's vaccine task force, said on Friday.

Still, McMaster rested on hope that the current two vaccine companies  Pfizer and Moderna  are producing at a higher speed, and that by March, he said, other companies' products should start coming in.

The vaccines are only effective when a second, follow-up dose is administered a few weeks after the first.

McMaster said that "miscommunication" caused providers to hold some doses back thinking they might be needed for the follow-up amid shortages.

We made it clear just recently to all concerned, hospitals in particular, that that shipment, that first dose, those are the first doses," he said. "You dont hold those back.

"Those shelves ought to be empty," he said. "The day the next shipment arrives, the old shipment ought to be in somebody's arm."

Prisma on Monday opened two large-scale vaccination centers, one in Greenville at the old Kmart building and another in Columbia near Williams-Brice Stadium.

Spartanburg Regional has given out about 7,500 vaccines so far, equivalent to 93 percent of its total allocation. It is set to open its large-scale facility at the University of South Carolina-Upstate on Wednesday, chief medical officer Dr. Chris Lombardozzi told The Post and Courier after Monday's news briefing.

If we can give out 5,000 to 10,000 vaccines a week, that would be fantastic," he said. "Were ready. Were just waiting. Its a very fluid situation."

S.C. Hospital Association did not have a comment Monday on the governor's threat, a spokesman said.

In another show of frustration Monday, lawmakers announced they would convene a special committee tasked with reviewing DHEC's handling of vaccine distribution. The seven-member House committee will meet Thursday, according to House Speaker Jay Lucas.

"We know that South Carolina is not alone in experiencing widespread frustration with the administering of vaccines, but it is apparent that as a state we are moving at an unacceptable pace," said Rep. Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, who chairs the Legislative Oversight Committee.

Beyond vaccine supply increasing, McMaster held on to hope that warmer weather might abate a crisis of hospitals running out of space as COVID-19 cases reach record levels.

The state saw close to 3,000 new cases on Monday, according to DHEC, which is triple the daily cases reported at the height of the summertime surge.

The state saw a spike in the summer when people went indoors for air-conditioning, he said, then cases dropped in the fall and again surged to current levels as people gathered inside from the cold.

The governor said "we see the light at the end of the tunnel" and encouraged preventative measures such as wearing masks and social distancing throughout the vaccination process.

Good weather helps us," he said. "The main thing thats going to get us through the next few trying weeks is our measures we all know."
FLINT, MI -- A reward is being offered to try and find out the person responsible for the shooting death of a Flint man shot and killed back in May.

Officers with the Flint Police Department responded to a reported double shooting at 1:15 a.m. May 17, 2020 in the 100 block of East Moore Street near Martin Luther King and West Stewart avenues.

Thats where police found Isaan Meeks, 20, deceased at the scene, while a teenage woman suffered gunshot wounds that caused critical injuries, police said.

Related: Man dead, teen girl injured in Flint shooting

The woman received treatment for her injuries at Hurley Medical Center, police said, and has not been identified. No suspect information has been made available since the May shooting took place.

An investigation into the double shooting continues by the Flint Police Detective Bureau.

Anyone with information about the homicide can report an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422-JAIL (5245), on the P3Tips mobile app, or online at CrimeStoppersofFlint.com.

Residents can also call Flint police Detective Terry Lewis at 810-237-6800 with any information they may have about the fatal shooting incident.

A $2,500 cash reward is being offered for tips that lead to a felony arrest of the suspected shooter, according to Crime Stoppers of Flint and Genesee County.

Read more from MLive:

Police maintain high state of awareness at Michigan Capitol through Bidens inauguration

Mother seriously injured, 4-year-old daughter recovering after sledding into tree in Ottawa County

Battle Creek man, 28, dies in crash

Woman, 18, shot at Montcalm County home has died

Two Judes Barbershops, Bibles for Missions Thrift Store broken into overnight in Ottawa County

Kalamazoo SWAT team arrests two after 6-hour standoff
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Classrooms in some schools in the state can reopen starting Monday, allowing those students face-to-face learning for the first time this semester.

In-person schooling was temporarily suspended by the state earlier this month for two weeks after the winter holidays to try to prevent a feared increase in COVID-19 cases. While small groups of students with disabilities were still allowed, schools that had been offering other in-person classes had to shut their doors and teach remotely during that time.

Secretary of Education Ryan Stewart called it a prudent measure.

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We are, by doing it, positioning ourselves to be better able to expand in-person learning hopefully here in the near future, he said.

In the meantime, schools are now able to restart the schedules they had in place before the pause, including schools that had a mix of in-person and remote lessons.

Stewart said there are robust precautions required of schools to create an environment where students and educators can come safely back.

PED was unable to provide the Journal with a count of how many schools in the state will be reopening in-person classes.

Previously, about 60 public schools had been doing hybrid learning and four districts with 100 students or fewer were given the OK to do full, in-person learning in groupings of five students per teacher, according to PED documents.

Ready to get back

Corona Public Schools is among those few districts able to have all grades back on campus, because there are only 60 K-12 students. The district is about 100 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

Travis Lightfoot, superintendent of the district, was eager to get back to campus Monday, both as an administrator and as a father. Im ready to get back and get the kids back.  I miss the kids, he said.

During the two-week pause, Lightfoot  like so many other parents in the state  juggled working from home and helping his own daughters with their schoolwork.

His wife, a special education teacher in the district, worked from school to offer instruction to a few kids during the shutdown. So, Lightfoot took on the at-home learning, which he admits is difficult even for a superintendent.

Its just as hard as any other parent, he said. Ive taught many subjects and substituted for many different content areas and grade levels throughout my (22) years as superintendent, but teaching my own children is a bit of a different situation, he said.

After doing remote learning earlier in the school year, the overwhelming majority of Corona Public Schools families said they wanted to get back on campus and this time around is no different  even for Lightfoots daughters.

My kids are tired of their dad being their teacher, he said.

Precautions, virus fear

Some schools, including in Rio Rancho Public Schools, will be returning on Tuesday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday.

Like Lightfoot, first grade teacher Billie Helean at Stapleton Elementary in Rio Rancho said shes ready to get back to the hybrid model. But she has mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, she is excited. Teaching fully online is much more taxing, she said, and she prefers teaching the way she intended to when she got her degree  at the front of the classroom.

On the other hand, she said, its exhausting having to be constantly aware of the precautions, and theres fear about catching the virus.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of schools in the state are still doing remote learning or offering small group lessons only for younger students or students in special education.

APS staying remote

Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education made the call late last year to continue remote learning for all students until Bernalillo County is in the green status, meaning its reached public health thresholds, for two weeks, which the county hasnt done per the latest state Department of Health data. The districts announcement said remote learning would continue until at least this week but its looking like itll be much longer than that as Bernalillo County isnt close to meeting the standards.

DOH says counties in the green need to have a new COVID-19 case incidence rate of no greater than eight cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the most recent two-week period, and an average percent of positive COVID-19 test results over the most recent 14-day period less than or equal to 5%.

Monica Armenta, a spokeswoman for APS, said special education small groups are still planned to continue this week.

The APS strategy aligns with PED guidance that says additional elementary schools cannot initiate hybrid mode until the districts county meets the green requirements. Meanwhile, a target opening date for middle and high schools has not been set, according to PED.

Vaccines and hope

The district is hopeful the infection rate will begin to drop now that the holiday season has passed. Our greatest hope is the declining infection rate and introduction of the coronavirus vaccine will significantly minimize the risk of in-person learning so schools can reopen, Armenta wrote in a comment to the Journal.

DOH announced this month that school employees who cant work remotely are among the next in line to get the vaccine. But that update isnt loosening any school requirements or expediting timelines for now.

We dont have a threshold for vaccination tied to any of the school reopening eligibility decisions, Stewart said.

However, its making PED officials optimistic as they look at ways to expand school openings.

I think that theres a light at the end of this tunnel, Stewart said.
Banerjee, hitting out at Adhikari and other TMC leaders who jumped ship to the BJP, said she will not allow them to 'sell out' the state

Nandigram: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee kicked off the Trinamool Congress campaign for the assembly elections on Monday, announcing that she will contest the polls from Nandigram - a political gambit aimed at the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari who won the seat in 2016 as a TMC candidate, while also retroceding to the land movement that catapulted her to power.

Addressing a rally, Banerjee said she is not worried about those jumping to other parties as when TMC was formed none of them were there, in a reference to the party leaders, including Adhikari, who have joined the BJP.

Banerjee said these leaders left the party to protect the money "they have looted" in the last few years.

"I have always started my campaign for the assembly polls from Nandigram. It is a lucky place for me. So this time, I feel that I should contest the assembly polls from here. I would request our state party president Subrata Bakshi to approve my name from this seat," Banerjee said.

Bakshi, who was on the podium, swiftly accepted the request.

The agitation in Nandigram in the Purba Medinipur district over land acquisition in the late 2000s catapulted Banerjee to power in 2011, ending the 34 years of Left rule. However, Adhikari after switching over to the BJP has been alleging that the chief minister has forgotten the people of the area that helped her get to the top post.

Banerjee is at present the MLA from Bhawanipore in south Kolkata. "If possible, I will contest from both Bhawanipore and Nandigram. In case, I am unable to contest from Bhawanipore, someone else would contest," she said.

Banerjee said she would never allow "some people" to sell out Bengal to the BJP.

"Those who have left the part, have my best wishes. Let them become president and vice president of the country. But don't you dare to sell out Bengal to the BJP. As long as I am alive, I won't allow them to sell out my state to the BJP," she said.

The assembly elections in the state are likely in April-May.
Investigations editor

Larry Parnass, investigations editor, joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and CommonWealth Magazine.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 23:32:26|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reported two new cases of COVID-19 infection on Monday, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 1,539 with 35 deaths, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new cases included a Vietnamese citizen and a foreign expert who recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival.

The ministry also announced that 22 more patients have been given the all-clear, raising the total cured cases in the country to 1,402 as of Monday.

Meanwhile, nearly 18,000 people are being quarantined and monitored, the ministry said.

The country has gone through 48 consecutive days without any new COVID-19 cases in the community, according to the ministry. Enditem
The HSE has written to nursing homes highlighting possible risks to frail, elderly people from the vaccine and stating some people may not be suitable vaccine candidates.

The letter, signed by HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, was circulated on Sunday to nursing homes and some homes forwarded the letter to families.

It refers to an update on Friday from the Norwegian Medicines Agency and the Norwegian National Institute of Public Health following the deaths of 23 people, of which 13 have been assessed.

It states: The reports suggest that common adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines such as fever and nausea may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some very frail elderly individuals.

It refers to the comfort and dignity typically part of palliative care, and stresses the need for individual decisions to be taken for each resident.

The letter states:  given that the benefit from vaccination only begins about 10 -14 days following the first dose and full protection is not achieved until 7-14 days following the second dose of vaccine currently in use, it is not appropriate to vaccinate people if their expected duration of life is less than that for the vaccines to take effect.

The HSE letter highlights the need to delay the jab for anyone who has a fever or other temporary illness.

Email sent by nursing homes this morning. @Sineadmcgar @MlMcNamaraTD @tadhgdaly1 @paulreiddublin @MaryButlerTD

It is most important that correct decisions are made for our family members. There has been to much devastation already in our nursing homes pic.twitter.com/0no2vlH7FH  Care Champions (@CareChampions2) January 18, 2021

Majella Beatty, from the Care Champions advocacy group, said: It is very worrying for families to get this, they are worried about what to do now. They are worried too to open their mouth in case they are labelled as anti-vaxxers and that is not the case.

Ms Beatty said there needs to be better communication around which underlying health conditions could make the vaccine risky for some people.

She called on the HSE to support nursing homes with enough staff to allow for proper communication with families and residents.
International

Iran warns US to stop illegal actions against diplomats on American soil

TEHRAN, JAN 17 (IANS) | Publish Date: 1/17/2021 12:37:04 PM IST

Iran has warned the US to stop illegal actions taken against its diplomats on American soil, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh confirmed.

Iran has officially warned the US that it will sue it before the International Court of Justice if it does not stop its illegal actions against Iranian diplomats in international organisations, Xinhua news agency quoted Khatibzadeh as saying on Saturday.

The spokesman noted that an official warning has been delivered to US authorities through the Foreign Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

Washington should refrain from taking illegal action against Iranian representatives before international organisations such as the UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that have their siege on American soil, Khatibzadeh stated.

For a long time, he carried on, the US government has been creating illegal constraints for Iranian diplomats and their families, disrupting their work and that of other countries.

Despite its commitment as host to several international organisations, Khatibzadeh went on to say, Washington has never been a proper host, and has consistently harassed diplomats, their families, and children coming from countries it has problems with.

Also on Saturday, the Iranian Presidents Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi slammed the latest sanctions imposed by Washington against Tehran as a mere show and a sign of the evil nature of the outgoing American President Donald Trumps administration.

The recent US sanctions, while nothing more than a show, are another sign of the evil (nature) of Trumps criminal administration - a bankrupt government that even in its final days cannot put aside its hostility towards Iranians, Vaezi said in a social media post.

He added in the post that it is surprising that, despite their deep brazen enmity, US officials still claim that they stand by the Iranian people.
Two people were arrested in connection to an aggravated burglary in a Cork home yesterday, in which the intruders doused the place in petrol.

At around 5am on Sunday, two people were reported to have forcibly entered a home in Skibbereen and then threatened the three people present inside.

The home was then drenched in petrol and all of the occupants of the house were threatened with a knife throughout the incident.

Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported and no property was reported as stolen.

After some enquiries, gardai later arrested a man in his twenties and woman in her forties in connection to the incident.

Read More

Both of them were detained at Bantry Garda Station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1984.

Later, both were charged and they are now due to appear before Bandon District Court at 10.30am on Monday, January 18.
Mumbai: Akshay Kumar urged his fans to contribute towards the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, after the nationwide drive to collect donations kicked off on Friday.

Kumar took to Twitter and shared a video, writing that he has donated his share for the construction.

"It is a matter of great pleasure that the construction of our grand temple of Shri Ram has begun in Ayodhya... Now it is our turn to contribute. I have started, hope you will join too. Jai Siyaram," the actor wrote.

In the video, the 53-year-old actor said people should contribute what they feel comfortable with and take part in building the "historic, grand temple."

"I have started, now I am sure you will join me too. So that the coming generations keep getting inspired to follow the life, path and message of lord Ram," he added.
Hoboken officials hope to transform the northwestern section of the city into a residential and commercial hub with hundreds of new apartments and a new light rail station, according to the draft of a redevelopment plan released last week.

The 16-block portion of the city includes remnants of industrial Hoboken  a section that Mayor Ravi Bhalla has described as having great potential for becoming a public gathering space.

The city hopes to welcome new cultural amenities, public facilities such as a school or library and a 71,000-square-foot linear park in addition to apartments, office buildings and hotels.

While the northwestern corner of Hoboken is on the opposite end of the city from the PATH station, a new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stop at either 15th Street or 17th Street would connect residents to the rest of the city and its neighbors to the north and south, according to the draft version of the North End Redevelopment Plan.

Fifteenth Street would also become a commercial corridor and extend all the way to the waterfront with a connecting promenade for two blocks on Clinton Street.

We are excited to move forward with plans to revitalize an area of town that will provide a number of community benefits to our city, Bhalla said in a news release. Once adopted, I look forward to continuing our discussion with New Jersey Transit for the installation of a new light rail station at 15th Street, that will provide a critical mass transit connectivity for our current and future residents, and transportation hubs.

The 80-page draft was released about a year after Bhalla highlighted the previously neglected public space  which includes warehouses, lots, and dilapidated buildings  during his 2020 State of the City address.

The redevelopment area stretches from 14th Street to 17th Street, extending from the light rail tracks in the west to Park Avenue. The area is estimated to be able to accommodate about 1,000 new residential units, according to the city.

One corner is currently home to a North Hudson Sewerage Authority facility and a PSE&G substation, which will remain in place.

New buildings would top out below the Palisade cliffs, the city said, with the tallest potential building reaching 140 feet, according to the plan. Most buildings would be between five and seven stories.

The plan requires the addition of one new parking space for every two dwelling units or hotel rooms.

A rendering of a proposed pedestrian plaza on Clinton Street included in Hoboken's North End Redevelopment Plan draft.Courtesy of the City of Hoboken

The city will require developers to provide the city with community benefits, including public art and the development of a new 15th Street corridor. Developers may also negotiate with the city to gain extra square footage or height in exchange for a public service such as 5% more affordable units or a new elementary school, according to the draft.

The new light rail stop would require a commitment from the state, which operates NJ Transit. Bhalla and NJ Transit representatives met last year to discuss the potential project. The redevelopment plan draft also calls for a plaza next to any future light rail stop that may include limited parking and a passenger drop-off area.

Developers and business owners have begun investing in the northwestern section of Hoboken in recent years. Luxury apartment buildings are peppered throughout and attractions including Pilsener Haus Biergarten and the Gravity Vault rock climbing gym draw some visitors to the area. Local bookstore Little City Books even opened its second location there.

Still, industrial buildings, parking lots and utilities dominate the area north of 14th Street.

A Jan. 27 City Council meeting will include a public presentation on the redevelopment plan.
I have been a Methodist all my life. I was baptized on Jan. 14, 1945, attended Sunday school at Cortland First Methodist nursery department and the beginner departments, participating in Childrens Day by memorizing and speaking poems and singing with the members of my classes. When we moved to Port Byron, our church home was at the First Methodist Church on Church Street (where Frederick Douglass spoke). I attended Sunday school and church and sang in the choir and led the junior choir, and was an officer in Methodist Youth Fellowship. We were married in Camden Methodist Church (and recently celebrated our 59th anniversary) and have attended First Methodist Church in Syracuse (where our son Mark was baptized), Camillus Methodist Church (where our son Scott was baptized), Conquest Methodist Church (daughter Kris baptism time) and Countryside United Methodist Church (where our daughter Becky was baptized). There have been many changes and challenges throughout the 75 years I have been associated with the Methodists.
The last time I checked, this was the USA. A free country. A country where, when mobs of thugs were destroying Minneapolis, Portland, Kenosha, and other cities, the media reacted in horror at the suggestion that a few National Guard troops might help return calm for the residents trying to live peacefully in their homes, do business as much as possible in the circumstances, and stay afloat during a pandemic. As Portlands Mayor Ted Wheeler said when offered federal troops to quell the violence, This is not the America we want. The very idea is repugnant!

Now, I am seeing pictures of Washington DC preparing to inaugurate Biden to the Presidency, while 25,000 armed troops are parading around, dividing the city into zones, barricading it, and walling it. Guns bristling from Coast Guard ships in the Potomac. Its chilling!

I also saw pictures of a mass of armed SWAT guarding Governor Newsoms home in Sacramento. Against what, exactly?

What dont I know here? I feel just a tad queasy, worried because this response is so far out of character for our country, and so over-the-top compared to anything that has happened  the incursion into the Capitol was small beer compared to the riots in many other cities all last summer. Theres also been virtually no coverage of who was involved in the January 6th events, other than seeing some BLM/Antifa types that were indeed involved freed without bail.

Oh, and Ashli Babbitt died, and we saw a cufflink-clad arm that held out a gun and shot her in the throat. Because, you know, giving us information thats accurate about what and who, all of whom have no doubt been identified because of CCTV, wont fit the narrative of the evil, violent right-wing insurrection the Democrats so carefully constructed, perhaps as an excuse to mass troops at a wartime level in our Capital.

Imagine this: Imagine Trump being inaugurated and arming the city as is currently being done. Imagine how very loudly the media would be screaming about it. How Democrat congresspeople would be freaking out and railing against him. Yet when this is being done for Biden, all we hear is a resounding silence!

Perhaps its because I sat uncomfortably through the movie 1984 last night, the grim set-piece with John Hurt and Richard Burton. Perhaps because Im just a normal, white-bread conservative (well, I actually prefer a good sourdough made without any dough conditioners, thank you), but Im hearing big klaxon alarm bells in my head right now. I have a premonition of harm coming to this country on Wednesday, of loss of life from trigger-happy, nervous troops that are themselves, perhaps, unclear as to their purpose, or who is in charge.

So, Im asking you who are closer to the fray, please ask some questions! Ease my mind! Do some real reporting. Dont leave it to construction workers walking to their job, taking video, and posting it.

IMAGE: National Guard Troops in DC. Rumble screengrab.
Despite COVID-19, the response to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)s 2021 housing scheme offering 1,350 flats for sale in the national capital has been extremely good with the authority receiving as many as 8,500 applications since its launch on January 2, a top DDA official told Moneycontrol.

The response to the scheme has been extremely good with over 46,000 applicants registered and over 8,500 applications received until now. In fact, the number of applications received in each category is more than the number of flats offered which will ensure that there is a 100 percent offtake, Anurag Jain, DDA Vice-Chairman, told Moneycontrol.

DDA is offering 1,350 flats for sale in the national capital under the housing scheme. The flats on offer are located at Dwarka, Jasola, Manglapuri, Rohini and Vasant Kunj localities of the national capital.

Applications will remain active until February 16, 2021.

Under the scheme, a total of 254 HIG (Higher Income Group) flats are on offer out of which majority are located in Jasola Pocket 9B. In the 3-BHK category of HIG, units in Jasola, Pocket 9B are available in the price range of Rs 1.97 crore to 2.14 crore. Thirteen flats are on offer in Vasant Kunj in the price range of Rs 1.43 crore to Rs 1.72 crore.

As many as 352 MIG (Middle Income Group) flats on offer are located in Dwarka Sector 19-B, 348 in Dwarka Sector 16, and 4 in Vasant Kunj.

As many as 276 EWS flats in Dwarkas Manglapuri, among others are on sale.

There are a total of 254 flats under the HIG category that are on offer but there are no penthouses, Jain said.

On whether all flats are ready-to-move-in, Jain said, majority of flats are likely to be completed by March 31, 2021. This excludes flats in Dwarka, Sector 16 B which are likely to be completed by September 30, 2021.

The demand letter, in this case. would be issued three months prior to the likely date of possession, Jain told Moneycontrol.

As many as 145 flats are from the earlier housing scheme.

Applicants for flats under the scheme have to deposit application money under different categories. For EWS units, the amount is Rs 25,000; for LIG it is Rs 1 lakh and for middle-income group (MIG) and higher income group (HIG) units it is Rs 2 lakh.

Of the 2,382 applicants who have paid up the booking amount, 511 have paid the amount for the EWS category, 368 for LIG category and 1,503 for the MIG and HIG category, the DDA spokesperson said.

The scheme is linked to the credit-linked subsidy scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana  Housing for All (Urban).

It launched online through the newly developed AWAAS software of DDA.

With the new AWAAS software, applicants are able to complete all the formalities for the application, payment, and possession online and visit DDA only for the process of execution of conveyance deed.

The total cost of the flats includes land premium, cost of construction and 20 percent surcharge on land premium and cost of construction in respect of HIG flats at Vasant Kunj and 10 percent surcharge on land premium and cost of construction in respect of HIG flats at Jasola and MIG flats at Dwarka, according to the information shared in the brochure of the scheme.

The cost of the unit is to be deposited within 90 days from the date of issue of demand-cum-allotment letter. This will be issued online, the brochure said.

The digitally signed possession letter will be issued online and the allottee will have to upload self-attested copies of the requisite documents.

After issuance of the possession letter, the allottee can reserve a date for physical possession through online mode only, it said, adding even the date of execution of conveyance deed will be reserved by the allottee through the online mode.

Since a number of concessions are being offered under the EWS category, the allottees in this category will not be permitted to sell or transfer, or otherwise part with the possession of the flat in any manner for a period of five years from the delivery of possession, it said.

The last DDA Housing Scheme was launched in March 2019, offering nearly 18,000 flats under four categories. These included 488 (HIG), 1,555 (MIG), 8,383 (LIG) and 7,496 (EWS).
She previously described her romance with the writer as 'a bit of unexpected magic in [her] life', following her split from filmmaker Tim Burton.

And Helena Bonham Carter looked as as happy as ever with boyfriend Rye Dag Holmboe as they enjoyed a low-key walk around London's Primrose Hill on Monday.

The Crown star, 54, bundled up in a red and grey tartan jacket and gripped the arm of her smartly-dressed partner, 32, as they strolled.

All smiles: Helen Bonham Carter looked as as happy as ever with boyfriend Rye Dag Holmboe as they enjoyed a low-key walk around London's Primrose Hill on Monday

Keeping warm in the cool January weather, Helena teamed her jacket with a long colourful scarf, loose-fitting black trousers and wedged trainers.

The actress went make-up free for the outing while she swept her brunette tresses into an unkept up do.

She also wore a red face mask beneath her chin and carried a shopping bag from clothing boutique Anna.

The pair appeared very relaxed in each other's company as they chatted and giggled during the outing.

Winter style: The Crown star, 54, bundled up in a red and grey tartan jacket and gripped the arm of her smartly-dressed partner, 32, as they strolled

After meeting the writer at a wedding over two years ago, Helena gushed in late 2019 that their romance has been 'a bit of unexpected magic in my life'.

Helena shares son Billy, 17, and 13-year-old daughter Nell with her ex Tim, 62.

The Cinderella star had a famously unconventional 13-year relationship with director Tim, which ended in 2014.

On finally moving on from Tim, the Enid star  who previously dated Irish actor Kenneth Branagh between 1994 and 1999  admitted she grew tired of 'grieving' their relationship, and now leads a 'happy' life with her new boyfriend.

Out and about: Keeping warm in the cool January weather, Helena teamed her jacket with a long colourful scarf, loose-fitting black trousers and wedged trainers

Casual look: The actress went make-up free for the outing while she swept her brunette tresses into an unkept up do

Happy couple: The pair appeared very relaxed in each other's company as they chatted and giggled during the outing

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar UK, the thespian shared: 'You break up, you grieve, you get bored of grieving. And then you finally move on.

'I'm very happy with someone else. It's been a bit of unexpected magic in my life.'

On the professional front, Helena won rave reviews for her role as Princess Margaret on seasons three and four of The Crown.

Helena recently told how she believes the Netflix series has a 'moral responsibility' to remind viewers they are not watching a documentary.

She told The Crown: The Official Podcast: 'It is dramatised.

'I do feel very strongly because I think we have a moral responsibility to say hang on guys, it's not a drama doc, we're making a drama. They are different entities.'
Life with Covid has never been sweet  but not for lack of trying.

The nation has fallen back in love with jam and marmalade, buying millions of extra jars as times got tough.

Sales of preserves and spreads soared by 120million  a rise of 22 per cent  during lockdown, figures have revealed. That's about 75million more jars sold in 2020 than in previous years.

The nation has fallen back in love with jam and marmalade, buying millions of extra jars as times got tough (file photo)

Peanut butter was the biggest winner, in terms of growth in demand, followed by jam, honey, chocolate spread, yeast spread, marmalade and curd.

It's thought to be down to workers having more time at the breakfast table as they cancel their commute, as well as a rise in home baking.

Peanut butter was the biggest winner, in terms of growth in demand, followed by jam, honey, chocolate spread, yeast spread, marmalade and curd

Trade magazine The Grocer, reporting on the figures from analysts Kantar, said: 'At last, something to toast!... Breakfast has been reborn.

'Commuters who once ate the most important meal of the day en-route to the 6.20am to Charing Cross can now take more time over their breakfast before starting a day's work at home.'

Kantar analyst Robert Willis told The Grocer that sales were up across the board and purchase frequency has risen.

'We have also seen an influx of shoppers into the category, with increased basket sizes and higher average prices also contributing to the total growth figure,' he said.

As well as the breakfast boom, the spreads have benefited from the lockdown increase in home baking and scratch cooking, says the study.

That peanut butter is growing fastest of all gives a clue to what is going on, according to Kantar.

'Peanut butter is on-trend for health-conscious consumers who are creating plant-based recipes or looking to add natural nutrition to dishes,' said Bryan Martins, marketing director at Wessanen UK, owner of Britain's bestselling peanut butter Whole Earth.

Brands also report growing sale of larger tubs of spreads as shoppers stock up.

Whole Earth says sales of its 1kg tubs are up 28 per cent year on year while Pip & Nut reports 50 per cent growth for the format.
Most people feel lucky if they can say they spent their career doing the one thing they really loved.

For Dr. William Edgar Thornton, three would be the charm.

Thornton, a retired astronaut, medical professor and inventor, died Jan. 11 at his Fair Oaks Ranch home, with his wife by his side. He was 91.

My father was an incredible man, said his son Simon Thornton, of Fair Oaks Ranch. He was an extremely caring father and set an example for his two sons.

The only child of William E. and Rosa B. Thornton, he was born April 14, 1929, in Faison, N.C. Thornton opened a radio repair shop when he was in high school and used the money he made to pay for courses at the University of North Carolina, his son said. The elder Thornton graduated in 1952 with a bachelors degree in physics.

After college, Thornton enlisted in the Air Force. He served as officer-in-charge of the USAF Instrumentation Laboratory at the Flight Test Air Proving Ground at Elgin AFB in Florida, his family said.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio engineering technician who helped pioneer the space program dies at 85

He developed the Radar Optic Firing Error Indicator, known as the Thornton Scorer, which was the first practical means of evaluating and maintaining the accuracy of interceptor aircraft, his family said.

Simon Thornton said his mother, Elizabeth Jennifer Fowler, of Newgate Street, England, met his father at the UNC hospital while she was there as part of an exchange with a London hospital. They married in 1958.

Thornton enrolled in medical school at UNC in 1959. After graduation in 1963, he returned to active duty and was sent to the USAF Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks AFB in San Antonio. He invented a mass measuring device to determine the weight of items in space, which is still in use, his family said.

As an astronaut, Thornton logged more than 313 hours in space aboard two missions: the STS-8 Challenger, Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 1983; and STS-51B Spacelab 3 Challenger, April 29-May 6, 1985, his family said. During his first mission, he conducted continuous first-time measurements on the human nervous system. His duties during the 1985 mission included managing the first first animal payload in manned flight, relatives said.

As an inventor, Thornton held more than 60 patents that cover various applications, from military weapons systems to the first real-time EKG computer analysis, his family said. His space-related patents include the shuttle treadmill for in-flight exercise and an improved waste collection system.

Thornton retired from NASA in May 1994 and became a clinical professor of cardiovascular physical diagnosis at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

As an octogenarian, Thornton wrote The Human Body and Weightlessness, a comprehensive textbook on the effects of spaceflight on the human body.

It took him five years to write it because he was a perfectionist, his son said. It was important for him to leave a legacy of insights.

On ExpressNews.com: Former San Antonio journalist demystified personal computers for millions with popular book

His hometown and family farm not far from his heart, Thornton helped rejuvenate many structures in Faison and the beloved farm.

He tried anything and everything he could for the town, Simon Thornton said.

His father also successfully reintroduced longleaf pine to the 120-acre farm, planting 8,000 trees, part of his desire to return the farmland to the forest of his youth, Simon Thornton said.

Thornton is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jennifer Thornton; sons Simon Thornton and wife, Mary Kay Thornton, and Dr. James Fallon Thornton and wife, Dr. Katina Thornton, both of Dallas; and nine grandchildren.

Well-wishers can leave condolences and view a video of Thorntons life on the website of Ebensberger-Fisher Funeral Home of Boerne, which is in charge of arrangements.

A graveside service to honor Thornton will be held at a later date in Faison, the family said.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Pres. Donald Trump is expected to announce clemency on Monday or Tuesday to more than 100 people in his final hours in the White House.

Trump To Pardon More Than 100 People

Pres. Donald Trump is now preparing to pardon or commute the sentences of more than 100 people before he leaves the White House. According to two persons familiar with the discussions, Pres. Trump is expected to announce the clemency on Monday or Tuesday.

According to The Washington Post, Trump met his son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump, and other aides on Sunday. They spend the day reviewing a significant amount of a long list of pardon requests.

According to multiple people involved in the discussion, they also talked about the lingering questions of the appeals and said that Pres. Trump was personally engaged with the details of specific cases. Trump has told advisers for weeks that he wants to be liberal with pardons before leaving the White House.

Meanwhile, the White House Counsel's Office told some candidates for clemency that no pardons could be granted that were not finalized by Friday. After it, the president's last-minute weekend review and preliminary decisions to grant numerous pardons and commutations began to spread.

Read also: Trump to Pardon a Very Important Person

Some Persons Who Received Clemency Under Trump Administration

Pres. Trump has granted clemency to 94 people including 49 that he issued a week before Christmas. It can be remembered that most of those who received clemency were either his friends or political allies.

Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and longtime confidant Roger Stone, who have been convicted in the special counsel investigation, were given clemency. Trump also pardoned Michael T. Flynn who had briefly served as Trump's first national security adviser.

It can be recounted that Flynn was later accused of lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in Trump's 2016 election win.

Other familiar persons who received pardon was Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law, including three Republican former members of Congress, and four military contractors who are involved in the killing of unarmed civilians in Iraq.

Moreover, it was found out that there were around 14,000 people who filed petitions for pardon and commutations of sentences. Both Republicans and Democrats have been criticized by the criminal justice advocates for years for backlogs that left thousands of rehabilitated people seeking pardon and clemency.

Read also: Judge Dismisses Michael Flynn Case, but Says Pardon Does Not Make Him Innocent

Who Will Receive Clemency Before Trump Leaves the White House?

White House spokesman Judd Deere declined to give any comments about Presidential clemency. He said that his office does not discuss pardons. On the other hand, people familiar with the discussion said that pardon and clemency will be uncontroversial.

It is also not clear if Trump will grant clemency to his former campaign adviser Stephen K. Bannon or his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani. Bannon was charged last year with defrauding donors to a private fundraising effort for the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.


Tankers carrying oil from Iran to Syria have been intercepted in the Red Sea and delayed shipments of oil to Syria, the Prime Minister of Syria, Hussein Arnous, was quoted as saying.

According to the prime minister of the conflict-ravaged Syria, as many as seven oil tankers en route to Syria have been intercepted in what he called "terrorist attacks." Two of the oil tankers have been delayed for more than a month in the Red Sea before loading, Reuters reported, citing state media which carried Arnous' words.

The tanker delays have exacerbated fuel shortages in Syria, which will be looking to import more crude to meet its fuel demand, the prime minister said.

Maritime security company Dryad Global said on Sunday that "Syrian Prime Minister says two tankers heading from #Iran to #Syria were "targeted" in Red Sea."

Quote-tweeting this, TankerTrackers.com said that "They both made it just fine to Syria even though they took a lengthy pit-stop at the Iranian purported "spy ship", SAVIZ. One of them has delivered a million barrels of Iranian oil to the Baniyas refinery while the other one carrying equal amount, is keeping 30,905 m distance."

Western sanctions on Syria and the U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil exports have made Iranian shipments to Syria more difficult in recent years. Syria, which has become increasingly dependent on imports of crude after the conflict in the country started in 2011, has relied on imports from Iran to cover its needs.

"We have become dependent on imported oil and we have used up foreign currency in large amounts to pay for petroleum products," Reuters quoted Arnous as saying in Parliament.

Most of Syria's oil is in the northeast of the country, which is under the control of a Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of opposition formation Syrian Democratic Forces, which has enjoyed U.S. support through the prolonged conflict.

According to Arnous, Syria now pumps just 20,000 bpd of oil, while around 400,000 bpd has been lost from oil fields in northeastern Syria.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Artistic rendition of the exoplanet WASP-107b and its star, WASP-107. Some of the star's light streams through the exoplanet's extended gas layer. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, M. Kornmesser.

The core mass of the giant exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than what was thought necessary to build up the immense gas envelope surrounding giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, astronomers at Universite de Montreal have found.

This intriguing discovery by Ph.D. student Caroline Piaulet of UdeM's Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) suggests that gas-giant planets form a lot more easily than previously believed.

Piaulet is part of the groundbreaking research team of UdeM astrophysics professor Bjorn Benneke that in 2019 announced the first detection of water on an exoplanet located in its star's habitable zone.

Published today in the Astronomical Journal with colleagues in Canada, the U.S., Germany and Japan, the new analysis of WASP-107b's internal structure "has big implications," said Benneke.

"This work addresses the very foundations of how giant planets can form and grow," he said. "It provides concrete proof that massive accretion of a gas envelope can be triggered for cores that are much less massive than previously thought."

As big as Jupiter but 10 times lighter

WASP-107b was first detected in 2017 around WASP-107, a star about 212 light years from Earth in the Virgo constellation. The planet is very close to its starover 16 times closer than the Earth is to the Sun. As big as Jupiter but 10 times lighter, WASP-107b is one of the least dense exoplanets known: a type that astrophysicists have dubbed "super-puff" or "cotton-candy" planets.

Piaulet and her team first used observations of WASP-107b obtained at the Keck Observatory in Hawai'i to assess its mass more accurately. They used the radial velocity method, which allows scientists to determine a planet's mass by observing the wobbling motion of its host star due to the planet's gravitational pull. They concluded that the mass of WASP-107b is about one tenth that of Jupiter, or about 30 times that of Earth.

The team then did an analysis to determine the planet's most likely internal structure. They came to a surprising conclusion: with such a low density, the planet must have a solid core of no more than four times the mass of the Earth. This means that more than 85 percent of its mass is included in the thick layer of gas that surrounds this core. By comparison, Neptune, which has a similar mass to WASP-107b, only has 5 to 15 percent of its total mass in its gas layer.

"We had a lot of questions about WASP-107b," said Piaulet. "How could a planet of such low density form? And how did it keep its huge layer of gas from escaping, especially given the planet's close proximity to its star?

"This motivated us to do a thorough analysis to determine its formation history."

A gas giant in the making

Planets form in the disc of dust and gas that surrounds a young star called a protoplanetary disc. Classical models of gas-giant planet formation are based on Jupiter and Saturn. In these, a solid core at least 10 times more massive than the Earth is needed to accumulate a large amount of gas before the disc dissipates.

Without a massive core, gas-giant planets were not thought able to cross the critical threshold necessary to build up and retain their large gas envelopes.

How then do explain the existence of WASP-107b, which has a much less massive core? McGill University professor and iREx member Eve Lee, a world-renowned expert on super-puff planets like WASP-107b, has several hypotheses.

"For WASP-107b, the most plausible scenario is that the planet formed far away from the star, where the gas in the disc is cold enough that gas accretion can occur very quickly," she said. "The planet was later able to migrate to its current position, either through interactions with the disc or with other planets in the system."

Discovery of a second planet, WASP-107c

The Keck observations of the WASP-107 system cover a much longer period of time than previous studies have, allowing the UdeM-led research team to make an additional discovery: the existence of a second planet, WASP-107c, with a mass of about one-third that of Jupiter, considerably more than WASP-107b's.

WASP-107c is also much farther from the central star; it takes three years to complete one orbit around it, compared to only 5.7 days for WASP-107b. Also interesting: the eccentricity of this second planet is high, meaning its trajectory around its star is more oval than circular.

"WASP-107c has in some respects kept the memory of what happened in its system," said Piaulet. "Its great eccentricity hints at a rather chaotic past, with interactions between the planets which could have led to significant displacements, like the one suspected for WASP-107b."

Several more questions

Beyond its formation history, there are still many mysteries surrounding WASP-107b. Studies of the planet's atmosphere with the Hubble Space Telescope published in 2018 revealed one surprise: it contains very little methane.

"That's strange, because for this type of planet, methane should be abundant," said Piaulet. "We're now reanalysing Hubble's observations with the new mass of the planet to see how it will affect the results, and to examine what mechanisms might explain the destruction of methane."

The young researcher plans to continue studying WASP-107b, hopefully with the James Webb Space Telescope set to launch in 2021, which will provide a much more precise idea of the composition of the planet's atmosphere.

"Exoplanets like WASP-107b that have no analogue in our Solar System allow us to better understand the mechanisms of planet formation in general and the resulting variety of exoplanets," she said. "It motivates us to study them in great detail."

"WASP-107b's density is even lower: a case study for the physics of gas envelope accretion and orbital migration," by Caroline Piaulet et al., was posted today in the Astronomical Journal.

Explore further Three new gas giant exoplanets discovered by SuperWASP-South

More information: "WASP-107b's density is even lower: a case study for the physics of gas envelope accretion and orbital migration," Astronomical Journal (2021). Journal information: Astronomical Journal "WASP-107b's density is even lower: a case study for the physics of gas envelope accretion and orbital migration,"(2021). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/abcd3c
Williams College Tightens COVID-19 Restrictions Ahead of Spring Term

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Williams College students will be required to provide proof of a recent negative test for COVID-19 before they can return and be tested by the college for the start of the spring semester.

On Friday, Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom issued a campuswide email that begins to lay out the restrictions the college will have in place as it begins its second academic term during the pandemic.

The bottom line: students will face tighter restrictions due to the nature of the winter season, the current spread of the novel coronavirus nationwide and the increase in the number of students planning to be on campus.

"This message is intentionally sobering," Sandstrom wrote. "Because fall term went well, we have the sense that many students are now thinking spring will be similar or even easier. The very high number of students planning to study on campus in spring seems to support this.

"We absolutely do want everyone to have a good term, and are doing everything in our power to make it happen. But that also includes an obligation to give you a realistic sense of the challenges, so that you have enough information to decide for yourself if an on-campus spring is the right option for you."

According to her email, between 300 and 350 more students have decided that a return to the North Berkshire campus is the right choice for them.

That alone creates logistical problems, starting with dorm room assignments.

Sandstrom informed returning students who were not on campus in the fall that they will have less of a choice where they will be living this spring.

"[We] will have to weave your room assignments around students who are already assigned rooms from last fall," she wrote. "You may even be assigned to a pod of people whom you do not (yet) know well."

And once on campus, the students can expect fewer opportunities to socialize.

Sandstrom noted that the first couple of months of the "spring" semester actually take place in winter, and there will be fewer chances for outdoor gathering than students enjoyed in August, September and October.

And indoor gatherings will have an added restriction. Unlike the fall, students living on campus will not be able to visit off-campus houses, including those on Spring Street or other streets that were considered part of "campus" for quarantine purposes in the fall.

As they did in the fall, students will be required to receive two negative COVID-19 tests on campus (in addition to the pre-arrival test) before they are released from isolation in a dorm room, a process that takes about five days.

Students again will be able to sign up for appointment times for the initial COVID-19 test during the Feb. 10-14 arrival period, and if they miss their appointment, they will need to find a hotel room while waiting for another appointment slot.

Even as the college prepares its students for their return next month, it is reserving the option of delaying that return if COVID-19 case counts and local hospital capacity warrant.

Sandstrom said she and Williams President Maud Mandel will announce by the end of January whether the spring semester will start will all remote classes.

In the meantime, Sandstrom mentioned twice in Friday's 2,000-word email that it is not too late for the students who already chose to study on campus to switch back to remote learning.

"If, after considering carefully, you want to switch to remote study or a personal leave, please complete this enrollment status form as soon as possible," the email concludes. "And you can always contact the deans if you need help with specific questions.

"Thank you in advance for approaching this decision with care. I wish you happiness and health over the next several weeks."
Narendra went to the opponent team players court, and while caught, he fell down. He rose from the fall, walked two steps and then fell down again. (Representative DC Photo)

Kadapa: A youth died in the ring during a district-level kabaddi competition held at a model school in Gangayapalli village in Valluru Mandal, police said on Sunday. He was M. Narendra (28) from Kondapeta village of the Chennur Mandal.

The incident occurred at the second session of the kabaddi post-lunch, the play being in the finals. He went to the opponent team players court, and while caught, he fell down. He rose from the fall, walked two steps and then fell down again. The co-players and the staff there gave him first-aid and he was immediately shifted to the Kadapa Government General Hospital RIMS. Doctors there confirmed that he was already dead.

Police said Narendra had completed his Master in Commerce. His parents were in the dhobi profession. He was having a brother and two sisters.

Kamalapuram MLA Pochamreddy Ravindranath Reddy said he was shocked to hear the news and got in touch with the local officials and leaders for providing necessary support and assistance to the family. The family members rushed to the hospital and were confused as he wasn't sick. The police said they would investigate the matter.
(Newser)  A Russian judge on Monday ordered Alexei Navalny to be remanded in custody for 30 days, per the AP. The ruling concluded an hourslong court hearing set up at a police precinct where the politician was held since his arrest at a Moscow airport Sunday. Navalny flew to Russia from Germany, where he'd spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. He was detained at passport control at the Sheremetyevo airport after flying in Sunday evening from Berlin, where he was treated following the poisoning in August. Navalny's arrest prompted a wave of criticism from US and European officials, adding to existing tension between Russia and the West. He was being held at a police precinct outside Moscow, and the hearing into whether Navalny should remain in custody was hastily set up at the precinct itself.

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"It is impossible what is happening over here," Navalny said in video from the improvised courtroom, posted on his page in the messaging app Telegram. "It is lawlessness of the highest degree." President-elect Joe Biden's pick for national security adviser called on Russian authorities to free Navalny. "Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable," Jake Sullivan tweeted. The outgoing secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the US "strongly condemns" the arrest. Navalny's detention was widely expected because Russia's prisons service said he'd violated probation terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction. The service said it would seek to have Navalny serve his 3.5-year sentence behind bars.

(Read more Alexei Navalny stories.)
Dhaka, Jan 19 : Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen is set to visit India on January 27 to finalise Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Dhaka trip in March.

Modi is likely to arrive in Dhaka on March 26 this year on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Bangladesh's independence.

Momen will also attend a foreign office consultation meeting in New Delhi during his visit on January 27-29.

The Bangladesh Foreign Secretary will also hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart Harsh Vardhan Shringla, focusing on the issues like connectivity, information technology and ways to expedite line of credit, added the officials of Bangladesh foreign affairs seeking anonymity.

Water sharing of trans-border rivers including the Teesta and unsettled land border-related issues are also expected to be discussed.

The decision of his visit has primarily been revealed through a joint statement, issued immediately after the December 17 virtual meeting between Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina and Modi.
'Bhabanipur is my younger sister': Mamata Banerjee may contest from two constituencies

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

Kolkata, Jan 18: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has on Monday announced that she will contest the upcoming Bengal election from Nandigram, the epicenter of a farmers' movement that propelled her to power in the state 10 years ago.

The announcement is significant as Nandigram is the constituency of her former close aide Suvendu Adhikari, who had recently quit the TMC and joined the BJP.

In the last election, Banerjee had contested from Bhabanipur in Kolkata.

Addressing the Nandigram rally, Mamata Banerjee said, "I want to request Subrata Bakshi [TMC general secretary], it is my wish, I will not neglect Bhabanipur, I will give good candidate [for Bhabanipur] but I want my name in Nandigram. Due to my love for Nandigram, I could not control my emotions".

"Nandigram is my big sister, Bhabanipur is my younger sister...I will fight from both if possible. In case I am unable to contest from Bhabanipore, someone else would contest."

Mamata Banerjee, during the rally, went on to take a dig at Suvendu Adhikari, who recently left TMC to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying it was "good some people have left [TMC]".

"Some are moving from here to there. They will be fought by our local leaders, don't worry, these guys were not there when the Trinamool Congress was formed. It is good some people have left," Mamata Banerjee said.

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Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 17:09 [IST]
Kolkata, Jan 18 : Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that she will contest the upcoming Assembly election from Nandigram, its MLA and newly joined BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari hit back at Mamata saying that he will defeat the Trinamool chief with at least a half lakh margin or quit politics.

"If I cannot defeat her with half lakh votes in Nandigram I will quit politics. She only remembers Nandigram when election time comes," Suvendu said here.

Earlier in the day, Mamata announced at a rally in Nandigram -- the Assembly constituency represented by rebel Trinamool leader Suvendu Adhikari who joined the BJP in Bengal last month -- that she will contest from that seat.

She also added that Nandigram is lucky for her.

"I will contest from Nandigram. It's lucky for me," the TMC supremo said.

Nandigram came into the political spotlight in 2007 after 14 villagers were killed in police firing for protesting against a proposed SEZ project, cleared by the then Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government in Bengal.

"The Trinamool Congress is no more a political party now. It has become a private limited company," Suvendu said.

He said that hiring a political strategist from Bihar proved that the BJP has an advantage in the upcoming polls in the state.

BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh, however, dubbed Mamata's announcement as a tactical move as the West Bengal CM is unsure about her win from Bhawanipore seat.

"Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is not confident about her win from Bhawanipore so she is looking for a safe seat. She is testing the waters in Nandigram for that. No matter where Trinamool leaders go, we will defeat them," said Ghosh.
President Donald Trump is seen on a screen as his supporters cheer during a rally on the National Mall in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Trump Lawyer Ousted as Law School Professor

A lawyer who represented the Trump campaign in a legal challenge to the Pennsylvania election results was forced out of his post last week as a law professor at Chapman University in California for representing President Donald Trump as a client.

But what especially earned the ire of left-wing activists at the famous conservative legal scholars school was that John C. Eastman spoke alongside the president at the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally in Washington. Violence began at the U.S. Capitol during certification of the presidential election results while the rally was still going on at the other end of the Washington Mall. There is no evidence that Eastman, or Trump, did anything unlawful by speaking at the rally.

Nevertheless, Chapman University President Daniele Struppa promptly denounced Eastman for engaging in constitutionally protected free speech. Struppa accused Eastman in a Jan. 8 statement of playing a role in the tragic events in Washington, D.C., that jeopardized our democracy.

Eastmans actions are in direct opposition to the values and beliefs of our institution. He has now put Chapman in the position of being publicly disparaged for the actions of a single faculty member, and for what many call my failure to punish and fire him, Struppa wrote.

Struppa also said, This week has also demonstrated that this country has a great deal of work to do for social justice and equity.

Lisa Leitz, a professor of peace studies at Chapman, was one of 169 faculty members who signed an open letter addressed to the university demanding Eastman be fired. She told a local media outlet that Eastmans appearance at the rally and his Trump campaign activities have damaged the university.

It associates us with a racist insurrection against the U.S. democracy, and it undermines the credibility of every faculty member, she said.

On Jan. 13, Struppa announced that a settlement had been reached with Eastman and that he would be leaving his post effective immediately.

Struppa wrote that Eastmans departure closes this challenging chapter for Chapman and provides the most immediate and certain path forward for both the Chapman community and Dr. Eastman.

Chapman and Dr. Eastman have agreed not to engage in legal actions of any kind, including any claim of defamation that may currently exist, as both parties move forward, he wrote.

The university is not able to comment further on the specifics of confidential personnel matters and will make no further statements on this matter.

In a statement the next day, Eastman accused members of the universitys board of trustees of publishing false, defamatory statements about me without even the courtesy of contacting me beforehand to discuss.

Had they bothered to discuss the matter with me, they could have learned that every statement I have made is backed up with documentary and/or expert evidence, and solidly grounded in law, Eastman wrote.

Eastmans lawsuit that drew political heat was one of several legal challenges to election results in multiple states brought by Trumps campaign and Trump supporters. With just over a week before Inauguration Day, the Supreme Court on Jan. 11 threw out a number of requests for expedited consideration of the claims. The case, known as Trump v. Boockvar, is still pending in the high court.

John Eastman, an attorney representing President Donald Trump, speaks to NTD, on Dec. 15, 2020. (Screenshot via NTD)

Intimidation

Intimidating lawyers has become an important weapon in the lefts arsenal in the Trump era.

For example, the Lincoln Project, a super PAC founded by Republicans opposed to Trump, has targeted lawyers for harassment for providing legal services to the Trump campaign.

In November, it pledged to spend a minimum of $500,000 on advertising attacking the law firms of Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris and Arthur for representing Trump and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, a legal publication reported.

These firms are architecting Donald Trumps unwarranted and dangerous attacks on our democracy.  Their employees should resign in protest, the group wrote in a tweet.

The Lincoln Project doxxed the lawyers of both firms on Twitter, posting their LinkedIn pages and the names and contact information of attorneys helping Trump.

On Jan. 3, the Lincoln Project urged Twitter users to call attorney Cleta Mitchells Milwaukee home office because she was on the conference call with Trump when he threatened & pressured [Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger] to overturn the will of Georgia voters.

How does that make you feel? Tell them, the tweet states.

In fact, Trump didnt demand that Raffensperger, a Republican, tamper with election results or threaten him. A leaked recording of the Jan. 2 telephone call revealed that Trump merely informed the state official of how many votes he needed to secure Georgias electoral votes.

I just want to find 11,780 votes, Trump said on the legally privileged call that was an attempt to settle ongoing litigation.

Despite an absence of evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, a constitutional requirement for impeachment, on Jan. 13 Democrats rammed through an article of impeachment based on the phone call, approving it 232197 in the U.S. House of Representatives without the customary committee hearings.

Mitchell was forced out from her law firm, Foley and Lardner, where she was a partner.

The New York State Bar Association is considering disbarring Trump lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Democrats have also said they may press to have pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood disciplined.

Contacted by The Epoch Times, Eastman commented briefly.

I cant talk about the agreement other than what is in my statement and the Universitys statement, he said.

But yesI think there are reprisals.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect name for the construction company Roxanne Rivera-Wiest founded and owned prior to launching GovBizTech. It has since been corrected.

With several decades of small business ownership and government contracting experience under her belt, Roxanne Rivera-Wiest is now using that expertise to help business owners.

At the helm of GovBizTech Consultants, which launched in late 2019, Rivera-Wiest provides consultation services to businesses owned by members of underserved groups in an effort to get those companies certified to work with the federal government.

I started thinking about how I could give back to my community, to New Mexico, because I have had such wonderful opportunities in business, she said. And I knew that there was a niche that needed to be filled.

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Prior to launching GovBizTech, Rivera-Wiest founded and owned PMR Construction Services, Inc. During that time she became a certified 8(a) contractor and garnered several awards from the Small Business Administration. The 8(a) Business Development Program is designed to assist small disadvantaged businesses in gaining access to economic opportunities through government contracts.

Rivera-Wiest says there was a lack of privately owned business consulting companies for minority owned businesses after business consultant Anna Muller closed NEDA Business Consultants several years ago.

In fact, Rivera-Wiest was a client of Mullers, whose firm specialized in helping 8(a) businesses become certified to receive government contracts.

Muller died in October.

Rivera-Wiest said she wants her new endeavor to help grow New Mexican small businesses so those businesses can compete for federal contracts and help the economy recover.

My goal is to be able to help certify as many minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned and Native American-owned businesses that we can so that we can be fairly representative along with the other states in the country, she said.

Rivera-Wiest says 2021 could be an important opportunity for minority-business owners in New Mexico with the upcoming influx of stimulus funds and programs intended to kickstart the economy.

In 2021, there are a lot more opportunities for not only infrastructure projects to play a key role in economic recovery, but also selling goods and services to the federal government because the federal government is actually the largest purchaser of services and goods in the entire world, she said.

According to Rivera-Wiest, New Mexico has fewer than 100 8(a)-certified businesses, which means that potentially eligible small businesses are missing out on lucrative government contracts.

She said that the low number may be due to business owners not knowing about the program, or being put off by the onerous paperwork required for the designation.

But, Rivera-Wiest said she hopes to see more businesses in New Mexico achieve the 8a certification whether that happens through her consulting firm or through government initiatives.

In December, the City of Albuquerque announced the opening of the Minority Business Development Center, which will help minority business owners with certifications, bidding processes, training, consultation and other services.
Denton, TX (76205)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early then periods of showers late. Low near 65F. SSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early then periods of showers late. Low near 65F. SSW winds shifting to NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
A North Side church with a predominantly Hispanic congregation was targeted by vandals over the weekend, its spiritual leader said Monday.

The damage to Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 610 Avalon St., was discovered after threats were posted online about attacks against places of worship nationwide. The Rev. Luis Ivan Echandia said Sunday's incident was no accident.

"This is a hate crime," Echandia said. "It is not a coincidence that we were advised of possible attacks and then had this."

Echandia said he has been with the church, of about 100 members, since 2018. He believes the vandalism occurred between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

San Antonio police were called to the church Sunday afternoon and took a report. Services for Gethsemane Lutheran, which are now virtual because of the pandemic, were not affected and continued.

The church sustained damage to its grounds and building, and Echandia noted a ladder had been torn apart. Tire tracks destroyed the landscaping and steps into the church were damaged.

On Saturday, leadership within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Southwestern Texas Synod informed Echandia and other congregations that threats of violence have been made leading to Wednesdays inauguration of Joe Biden. While no official warning from FBI has been issued, church leaders said there is chatter among white supremacy groups about plans to attack liberal activists and churches on Jan. 17 and 20, a letter from the Southwestern Texas Synod said.

Because Gethsemanes services are currently virtual, Echandia said he is not worried about his congregation, but he believes what happened to their church on Sunday is a sign of the times in America.

Im not sure how much the damages will cost, but the money isnt whats important. What is important is that this was a message of hate against our community, Echandia said.
Patrice Evra and his model fiancee Margaux Alexandra have made the surprise announcement they're expecting a baby boy.

The Manchester United legend, 39, and his stunning Danish partner, 26, have revealed that they're set to welcome their bundle of joy into the world in April.

Dad-to-be Patrice said: 'We are really excited about 2021, especially with the arrival of our little prince. We can't wait to see his face and what he will look like  and discovering his personality... if he will be more like myself or Margaux!'

Surprise! Patrice Evra and his model fiancee Margaux Alexandra have made the surprise announcement they're expecting a baby boy

Margaux added: 'Everyone has been so happy for us and supportive. I don't think our family was surprised, they know we are both family people and it was the natural step for me and Patrice. He is the fruit of our love.

'We are looking forward to the future. We cannot wait to meet this little person and to find out who he is going to grow into. I'm hoping he will be a lot like his dad.'

And while the news has come as a surprise to fans and loved ones alike, Margaux has revealed that she was prompted to take a pregnancy test after former French national team captain Patrice confidently told her she was with child.

Margaux explained: 'We were on the plane coming home, Patrice looked at me and said, "You are pregnant with a boy!" He put his headphones back on and kept watching the movie that was on.

Bundle of joy: The Manchester United legend, 39, and his stunning Danish partner have revealed that they're set to welcome their bundle of joy into the world in April

'I took a test a couple of weeks after, which confirmed the happy news. Patrice has a sixth sense!'

In a fun-filled set of photographs taken by Elisabeth Hoff, the lovebirds are seen playfully posing with one another as Margaux unveils her growing baby bump.

Donning matching grey loungewear, as well as distressed jeans, the couple are seen hugging and sharing tender kisses as they focus attention on their baby-to-be.

Patrice and Margaux have confirmed that the birth will be in Denmark, in order for the couple to be close to friends and family.

Heartwarming shoot: In a fun-filled set of photographs taken by Elisabeth Hoff, the lovebirds are seen posing with one another as Margaux unveils her growing baby bump

The couple have excitedly embraced the positive outlook the joyous news has afforded them, particularly after a deeply challenging year.

'Every year I hope and think positively,' said Patrice. 'I always say life is a challenge, you have to transform the negativity into positivity. 2020 was a challenging year and your freedom is really important.

'I know with COVID that a lot of people are feeling trapped and restricted. So I would say make sure you enjoy simple things in life.

'The advice I would give for 2021 is the advice I give myself everyday when I wake in the morning. Stay positive. Stay happy.

Family first: Patrice and Margaux have confirmed that the birth will be in Denmark, in order for the couple to be close to friends and family

'Those are just words but you have to put them in practice. You have to feel grateful and blessed to be here.

'Be grateful for your health when you wake up in the morning. You never know what's waiting for you around the corner, that should make you feel excited! For me, this news has made me even more excited for what's to come.'

The baby will be the first for Margaux and the third for Patrice, who shares son Lenny and daughter Maona with his estranged wife Sandra.

Margaux's modelling career has seen her feature in numerous brand campaigns including shoots for Harrods, SpaceNK, Topshop, Nails.INC and Very, both in her native Denmark and internationally.
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Q&A: Do I need to have proof of a negative Covid-19 test when I arrive in Britain - and what standards must it meet? What are the new rules for UK arrivals? All of the travel corridors were scrapped from today, so arrivals from every destination will need to self-isolate for ten days, or receive a negative result from a Covid-19 test taken at least five days after they enter the UK. Do I need to get a negative test when I arrive in the UK? Yes, all arrivals into England - including British citizens - must test negative for Covid-19 up to 72 hours before leaving the country of departure. Your test will also be checked by the airline before you board a plane abroad. What will you have to present at the UK border? Border Force officials are carrying out spot checks on those arriving by air, land or sea - but they have today been checking all arrivals, according to passengers. Your Covid-19 negative test results must be presented in either English, French or Spanish. Translations are not accepted, and you must provide the original certificate. The test result must be provided either as a physical printed document or via email or text message, which can be shown on a mobile phone. This must include: your name, matching it on your travel documents

your date of birth or age

the result of the test

the date the test sample was collected or received by the test provider

the name of the test provider and their contact details

the name of the test device Anyone arriving without a test result that includes all of the above information will be committing a criminal offence which could see them receive a 500 fine. What test must you have? The test must meet standards of 97% specificity and 80% sensitivity at viral loads above 100,000 copies/ml. The Government says this could include tests such as: a nucleic acid test, including a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or derivative technologies, including loop-mediated isothermal amplification (Lamp) tests

an antigen test, such as a test from a lateral flow device. Will you have to prove your test meets requirements? Yes. The Government says it is your responsibility to ensure a test meets minimum standards for sensitivity, specificity and viral load details - so you must check with your test provider that it meets those requirements. You may need proof in the form of a letter from a test provider detailing its specificity and sensitivity levels. What is the difference between the tests? PCR tests, nasal and throat swab tests normally take between 12 and 48 hours to return results. Lamp tests can return results in two hours, and lateral flow tests can generate results in less than 30 minutes. Whichever test it is must meet the required performance standards listed by the Government. Border Force agents will check that the information required is present on the notification. Provided the test meets the set criteria, then it will be accepted. If it does not, you could be fined - even with a negative test result. What are the concerns over lateral flow tests? There are fears that lateral flow tests might not be as reliable as PCR tests. But Innova makes a lateral flow test which has a sensitivity of more than 95 per cent for high viral loads - meeting UK Government requirements. A trial of one lateral flow test used by the Government found that it detected 79 per cent of cases when administered by a trained professional but only 40 per cent if someone is self-swabbing. This is significantly lower than the more expensive but slower PCR tests which detect 70 to 99 per cent of positive cases. Passengers are responsible for ensuring their test meets requirements and may be asked to provide proof. Is there a specific list of accepted tests? No. The Government does not provide a list of approved providers or tests worldwide. The passenger has to check that the test that they use meets the standards. What is the penalty if you don't have a valid test result? New arrivals who flout the rules will face a minimum 500 fine while their flight operator will also be fined. Separately, arrivals into England who do not self-isolate can face fines between 1,000 and 10,000. What are the exemptions? It applies to arrivals who began their journeys in every country of the world, with the following exceptions: Ireland

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Isle of Man

Jersey

Guernsey

Ascension

Falkland Islands

St Helena There will also be an exemption until 4am on January 21 for people who began their journey in: Antigua and Barbuda

St Lucia

Barbados There are also limited exemptions for the likes of hauliers, young children and train crew members. Which countries are subject to travel bans? Travel to and from all of South America, Portugal and Cape Verde was banned from 4am last Friday. British and Irish nationals as well as people with residency rights will be exempt, but will have to self-isolate for ten days with their household on returning from any countries on the banned list. A similar ban was put into place for South Africa on December 23 last year, after another new variant was identified by scientists. On January 9, the rules were also applied to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Angola, Seychelles and Mauritius. Are there any differences for the US? There are no specific differences for travellers arriving from the US, although it is understood some airlines are placing their own requirements on passengers. The US Embassy in the UK states: 'The test must be a viral test (NAAT or antigen test) to determine if you are currently infected with Covid-19. Travellers should avoid the antibody tests which look for prior infection.' Advertisement

Thousands of airline passengers arriving in Britain from across the world faced delays of up to 90 minutes to get through passport control today as Border Force agents demanded proof they did not have Covid-19 - despite all those flying into the UK already having to prove their negative test result when boarding abroad.

New rules came into force at 4am today requiring arrivals to prove they were negative for coronavirus with a test that meets performance standards of 97 per cent specificity and 80 per cent sensitivity at high viral loads.

This is most likely to be a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which tend to take 12 to 48 hours for the results to come back and were used by every passenger spoken to MailOnline arriving at UK airports today.

However passengers could also use a cheaper and quicker lateral flow test  although these have been criticised for being less accurate especially when self-administered and so could fail to meet requirements.

A trial of one lateral flow test used by the Government found that it detected 79 per cent of cases when administered by a trained professional but only 40 per cent if someone is self-swabbing. This is significantly lower than the more expensive but slower PCR tests which detect 70 to 99 per cent of positive cases. Rapid tests are more accurate for those with high viral loads.

However, the UK has spent more than 1billion on lateral flow tests and is offering them to councils for self-tests in schools, universities, care homes and in critical firms.

Ministers would face embarrassment if lateral flow tests were not allowed for UK arrivals, but these are being discouraged by some airlines and foreign governments.

Simon Clarke, an expert in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said: 'There seems little point in employing tests which are unable to accurately identify someone who has not yet developed a high viral load.

'I would have thought that the whole point was to pick up people who have the virus but don't yet know it, given as there was already a flight ban on people with symptoms. It seems that these (lateral flow) tests may only be accurate for people who are likely to be exhibiting symptoms and could lead people into a false sense of security.'

Today, Border Force staff were ignoring guidelines for 'spot checks' and instead chose to ask every person for proof they don't have Covid-19, leading to concerns over social distancing as queues built up.

Travellers described 'chaotic' scenes in arrivals at London Heathrow Airport as border workers checked all negative test certificates and quarantine locator forms despite all airlines not allowing anyone to get on a plane to Britain without seeing them at check-in first.

New rules requiring arrivals to take a negative test up to 72 hours before departure and self-isolate for up to ten days after entering the UK came into effect today as travel corridors offering exemptions were scrapped. The move is part of the Government's attempts to prevent new strains of Covid-19 entering the UK.

Passengers arriving to the UK were asked to provide three pieces of information after being called forward to a Border Force official in the immigration control hall.

First, passengers had their passports checked by officials. Next they were asked to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test, of which most people had downloaded the result to their mobile phone.

Finally, they had to hand over a completed UK government locator form, which is completed online and contains the address where visitors and returning UK nationals will isolate for 10 days.

Spanish student Enrique Vasquez arrived today to Heathrow on a flight from Madrid. He said: 'When I arrived, I had to show three documents to the border force officers  my passport, a negative Covid test result from when I took my PCR test in Madrid less than 72 hours before my departure. I also had to give them the locator form telling them at which address I will be isolating at for the next ten days.'

Coffy app chief executive Andy Hart, from London, who arrived at Heathrow's Terminal Five from Nairobi with his partner, said he was 'shocked and disappointed' to see the queues at passport control - and fears the delays could lead to the spread of coronavirus.

He said: 'We felt unsafe. We felt that, even though everyone was masked, they were far too close together. I've been flying 30 times a year for 20 years. I mean, once or twice have I ever seen it (airport queues) like this. How can this happen during Covid times?'

The Department for Transport has recommended 'spot checks' for proof from people flying into the UK - but UK Border Force workers were checking the vast majority of people on the first day of new testing rules, with several people getting 500 fines this morning. The Home Office has been asked for the latest figure.

Staff at Terminal Two handed out bottles of water to passengers waiting over an hour and a half to clear immigration, leaving suitcases piling up in arrivals.

Richard Bradley also arrived from Nairobi with his son Joseph after a Christmas break with family. Mr Bradley, who was returning to his home in Oxford, said there was a 'triple check' of people's passports, proof of a negative Covid-19 test, and their passenger locator form, taking 90 minutes to get through the 'pretty substantial' queue at passport control.

He said: 'There were a couple of people in our queue whose tests may have been outside the required 72 hours so that was causing a lot of grief and discussion.'

Home Office sources disputed that delays had lasted 90 minutes. One Whitehall source told MailOnline: 'People knew these checks would be made, they are being done as speedily as possible. They are in place to protect people, I think the vast majority of people would accept that.'

New rules requiring arrivals to take a negative coronavirus test up to 72 hours before departure and self-isolate for up to 10 days after entering the UK came into effect at 4am this morning as travel corridors offering exemptions were scrapped until February 15.

It came as a small number of passengers were refused permission to fly to Britain from the US with American Airlines today after claiming their negative Covid results were rejected because they were lateral flow tests - despite the UK Government insisting they should be accepted if they meet certain standards. MailOnline has asked the airline why they stopped people flying and if their tests were up to scratch.

The chaos at airports came as:

Over five million more Britons will be invited to receive a Covid-19 jab from today including many of the UK's over-70s;

NHS figures revealed one in six Covid-19 patients in English NHS hospitals arrived without the virus but were infected there since September;

Another 671 deaths were recorded, the highest number for any Sunday of the pandemic so far, along with 38,598 new cases.

One passenger, arriving back after a 48 hr business trip to Dubai, said it had taken 90 minutes from landing to get through immigration as suitcases piled up in arrivals.

The 34-year-old from Brighton told MailOnline: 'There are long queues, but that shows they are doing it properly'. Katrina Wilson, also arriving on the overnight Emirates flight, was less than impressed with the long wait. 'I just thought it could have been handled better' she said: 'It was quite chaotic'.

The new rules came into force at 4am with all air corridors scrapped and every arrival facing ten days quarantine or five days if they have another's test and produce a negative result.

It came as all travellers into the UK face being forced to stay in hotels under plans to further lock down Britain's borders from today until February 15 amid calls for enforced quarantine.

There were huge queues in arrivals at London Heathrow Airport today as new rules demanding a negative Covid test came i

Suitcases piled up in arrivals at London Heathrow Airport this morning as passengers faced long delays to enter the UK

A passenger in full personal protective equipment stands in the arrivals hall of Terminal Five at London Heathrow today

Student Dana Swidan, 26, from Palestine, shows her negative PCR Covid test result after arriving at Glasgow Airport today

Some said that the conditions at London Heathrow today made them feel 'unsafe' because they were so close to strangers

Hannah Holland, 23, from Sheffield, was left in tears after she was barred from the American Airlines (AA) service from Philadelphia via Chicago's O'Hare airport due to land at London Heathrow this morning.

She had a certificate proving a negative antigen lateral flow Covid test taken within 72 hours of departure - but AA staff at check in, who have a list of approved tests on its website, said it was not valid for travel to the UK despite being one of the types of tests approved by the UK government.

Miss Holland was left sobbing and was not the only person denied permission to fly, according to The Independent. She said: 'I was boarding in Philadelphia where they checked my Covid test papers.

They said: 'That's absolutely fine, no problem, go through to your flight. It was the easiest thing in the world until I got to Chicago. It was only then that one attendant looked at my paper and said: 'That's not sufficient, you're not getting on this flight'. She kind of threw this list of Chicago testing centres to me and was like, 'Yeah, have a look at that, goodbye'.'

Her father added: 'A British AA staff member was telling everyone with a rapid antigen Covid test that they weren't valid. My daughter was in tears begging her to let her on the plane.'

Miss Holland has not said what test she took, but the Government has been clear that 'an antigen test, such as a test from a lateral flow device' should be accepted by airlines, but adds the passenger must 'ensure the test meets the minimum standards for sensitivity, specificity and viral load details'.

A family arrive at Terminal Five of Heathrow today where anyone over the age of 11 must have a negative Covid test

The first passengers arrive into Britain at London Heathrow Airport this morning after the new rules came in

The result must meet those standards and the letter must also be in English and contain the passenger's name, matching their passport, as well as their date of birth, date of test, test device and contact details for the tester.

Question marks over lateral flow tests that give results in 15 minutes - but Government insists they are safe to fly on Lateral flow tests are only accurate at diagnosing coronavirus when administered by trained professionals, studies have repeatedly shown. The tests, which give results in as little as 15 minutes, use swabs of the nose or throat. Samples are then mixed in a testing liquid and put into a plastic cassette which can detect the presence or absence of coronavirus and then produce an image of a line, the same way as a pregnancy test, to indicate whether it is positive or negative. The Department of Health and NHS are instructing people to use the tests on themselves, despite manufacturers of some kits saying they shouldn't be used as DIY swabs. Both the swabbing procedure and the use of the test cassette can easily be done wrong and affect the accuracy of the test. If the swab isn't done for long enough, or deep enough into the nose or throat, it may not pick up fragments of virus. Medical professionals are also able to use nasopharyngeal swabs, which go right to the back of the nostril, whereas this is not advised for people who test themselves. And if the sample isn't properly inserted into the cassette the result might be wrong, or people may misread the display when it produces a result. SELF-TESTING CUT ACCURACY FROM 79% TO 58% A University of Oxford and Public Health England evaluation of the Innova lateral flow test, which is being widely used in the UK, found its sensitivity - the proportion of positive cases it detected - fell from 79 per cent to 58 per cent when it was used by untrained members of the public instead of lab experts. Based on this evaluation, officials pushed ahead and used it for a real-world self-testing trial. PILOT IN LIVERPOOL FOUND FEWER THAN HALF OF POSITIVES When the same Innova test was trialled on members of the public in Liverpool - with people taking their own swabs and trained military staff operating the tests - the swabs picked up just 40 per cent of positive cases. In the study the rapid tests detected 891 positive results, compared to lab-based PCR swabs that found 2,829 positives in the same group. This means 1,938 people got a wrong negative result from the rapid test. The study didn't compare this to professionally done rapid tests, but the manufacturer Innova claims its test is 95 per cent sensitive in lab conditions. ...BUT TESTING DONE BY MEDICS IN SLOVAKIA 'REDUCED INFECTIONS' Despite rapid lateral flow tests getting bad press, officials in Slovakia used them on 5.2million people - almost the entire population of 5.5m - in a trial that a study later estimated to have cut the country's infection rate by 60 per cent. The tests used were between 70 and 90 per cent accurate and all the swabs and evaluations were carried out by trained medical workers. They used deep nasopharyngeal swabs, that go to the back of the nose, whereas self-testing generally relies on a swab of only the nostril. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine researchers said that the scheme successfully weeded out coronavirus cases that wouldn't have been found otherwise, slashing the number of cases by over half in a week during a lockdown. HOW RAPID TESTS ARE DIFFERENT TO LAB-BASED PCR SWABS Lateral flow tests are an alternative to the gold standard PCR test - known scientifically as polymerase chain reaction testing - which is more expensive and more labour-intensive but more accurate. PCR tests also use a swab but this is then processed using high-tech laboratory equipment to analyse the genetic sequence of the sample to see if any of it matches the genes of coronavirus. This is a much more long-winded and expensive process, involving multiple types of trained staff, and the analysis process can take hours, with the whole process from swab to someone receiving their result taking days. It is significantly more accurate, however. In ideal conditions the tests are almost 100 per cent accurate at spotting the virus, although this may be more like 70 per cent in the real world. Advertisement

MailOnline has contacted the airlines and the Department for Transport to confirm if these were one-off mistakes by check-in staff or a major breakdown of the UK's new travel restrictions to keep new strains of coronavirus out of the UK.

Arrivals to the UK must prove they have a negative PCR or antigen test.

Both involve swabs taken from the nose and throat with the PCR accepted as being the most accurate.

The antigen test or lateral flow test produces results in less than an hour while the PCR involves laboratory testing that can take up to 48 hours.

The Government website says both PCR and Lateral Flow tests are acceptable for entry to the UK.

Only Emirates appears to have ruled out lateral flow tests and is demanding that passengers must have a negative COVID19 PCR test taken no more than 96 hours before departure and present the certificate at checkin.

At Heathrow Terminal Two, Nanna Lund Nielsen, 24, said many people were agitated having to queue up to show their negative PCR result and locator form.

She said: 'Some people are not very happy with the wait. It was getting very hot in the immigration hall and they were giving out water. I don't think people expected to wait so long.'

Lund Nielsen, who arrived from the Danish capital Copenhagen, said she had a PCR test 48 hours before flying. She planned to quarantine at her home on the Isle of Wight for 10 days.

Her PCR test was free in Copenhagen.

Elliot Sommer, who arrived on the same flight from Denmark at Terminal Two, said he took two PCR tests to be on the safe side.

'I wanted to make sure that I could get the flight. The tests were free so it was no problem, ' he said.

Mr Sommer said he would now self isolate at his London home rather than take part in the test to release scheme available on the ground floor of the terminal.

Many said they had multiple tests before taking a flight.

Laine Careza, who had been visiting family in Kenya, said she was reassured that everyone now arriving in the UK was not carrying the virus.

She said: 'In Kenya at the borders there are lots of checks. It is good now they are doing it here'.

The E gates usually used by travellers to speed through immigration control were closed as all arrivals had their entry forms personally checked.

Joe Johnson, who arrived from Delhi, India, said he was asked to show his negative PCR fit to fly certificate and a locator form.

He said: ' The checks were very thorough. Everyone had to produce the PCR test result and the locator for on. Some people had not filled out the form and went to the back of the queue'.

Airlines had insisted on proof of the negative PCR test before any passenger could board. Photos taken inside the immigration hall at Terminal Two show long lines of passengers waiting to be seen.

The delays were so long that baggage had been removed from the carousels and placed alongside until they could be collected.

At Manchester Airport, Lucy Baalmann, 20, was banned from flying home to St Louis in the US on Air France and Delta via Paris after having the wrong test.

She took a lateral flow test, which gives the result in 30 minutes, but she was told she to have the PCR test, which delivers a result more slowly, but is seen as more accurate.

Ms Baalmann, a student, then had to go and get a PCR test at the airport for 79. She said: 'It's a real pain but at least I get to spend a bit more time with my boyfriend in Liverpool.

'I couldn't believe when I was told I had the wrong test. I could not fly and will now leave on Wednesday. I'll get the results in 90 minutes. It's all very confusing.'

A DfT spokesman told MailOnline: 'Passengers travelling to the UK must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test which meets the performance standards set out by the Government in the guidance published on gov.uk.

'The type of test could include a PCR test or antigen test, including a lateral flow test. Anyone who cannot provide the necessary documentation may not be allowed to board their flight.'

The new rules came into force at 4am with all air corridors scrapped and every arrival facing 10 days quarantine or five days if they have another's test and produce a negative result.

Travel corridors were a lifeline for the travel industry when they were introduced in summer 2020, as struggling firms saw a spike in bookings for destinations added to the list.

Karen Dee, chief executive of trade body the Airport Operators Association, supported the decision to remove them but stressed the need for 'a clear pathway out'.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We've had the worst year in the entire history of our industry so the sooner we can get flying again safer, the better.'

Arrivals at London Stansted Airport today where some were held up because their coronavirus test results were not in English

Water was handed out to people because of the delays at Terminal 2 today as customs officials checked paperwork

Luggage stacks up at conveyor belts as travellers held up at arrivals were unable to collect luggage at the usual speed

People queue for COVID-19 tests at a testing centre, as tighter rules for international travellers start, at terminal 2 of Heathrow

Testing is in place for arrivals and departures at Heathrow, but there are concerns rules requiring passengers to provide a negative Covid result could cause confusion at check-in desks abroad

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the loss of travel corridors will not have a 'significant impact' on his airline in the short term as flight numbers were already limited due to the pandemic.

How to get a Covid test in popular destinations with UK tourists SPAIN Spain has banned British tourists from flying there but those already in the country can fly back home. If they test positive they will have to quarantine at their hotel or holiday accommodation for 14 days. The country has embarked on a large increase in its PRC and antigen testing, which now stand at 180,000 a week. A (Transcription-Mediated Amplification (TMA) test takes two hours to show results and costs about 60  compared to 100 for a PCR. FRANCE France banned British tourists on December 20 following the emergency of the new strain of coronavirus. French citizens and truck drivers can enter but only with a negative PCR test from the last 72 hours. People in France can search through a map at sante.gouv.fr site to find a test centre near them, including whether they offer PCR or antigen tests. The tests cost 54 but are reimbursed for those on the French health system. ITALY Entry into Italy is only allowed for residents or those with 'absolute necessity', declared in writing. The country offers PCR tests (called 'un tampone' in Italian, or a 'swab') and antigen tests (called 'tampone rapido' in Italian, or a 'fast swab'). Italy is thought to have encouraged Britain to adopt the rapid tests after becoming the first country to hugely invest in them last year. Those looking to get an urgent PCR test can call the 1500 number for help and the tests are free because they are considered emergency procedures. USA British nationals cannot enter the US if they have been in the UK, Ireland, Schengen zone, Iran, Brazil or China within the previous 14 days The test of choice in the US is a PCR, which can be turned around in 12 hours - although there are concerns that these are not accurate enough. There are calls for more rapid antigen tests, which can be turned around in 15 minutes and cost $5 each, compared to PCRs which are about $100 each. IRELAND Anyone arriving in Ireland from Great Britain must have a negative PCR test taken up to 72 hours prior to arrival. In Ireland, normal tests are carried out at drive-in centres and take 15 minutes, while private tests are also available. One firm offers a PCR test costing 129 with results in up to two working days, while a LAMP test costs up to 199 for a five-hour turnaround. In Northern Ireland, there is a walk-in testing facility at Belfast International Airport providing 99 PCR tests - with results available the following day. MALDIVES Resorts in the Maldives can arrange for guests to have a PCR test for a fee, but this costs up to $150. People are advised to book it at least four days before departure, although this would then be out of date by the time they arrive back in the UK. Visitors can also have a antigen test called a BinaxNOW Ag Card which can deliver results within 15 minutes. Advertisement

He told Today that the minimum number of days arrivals must wait to take a negative test releasing them from quarantine could be reduced from five days to three days.

'We know that there's a big difference between people's willingness to sacrifice to go and travel if you have to quarantine for 10 days or 14 days, down to five days or even three days,' he said.

'So it's really, really important that, as part of the plan for recovery, the Government also has the plan to unwind these restrictions that are in place.'

The Department for Transport announced on Monday that high-value business travellers, performing arts professionals and journalists have lost their exemption from travel restrictions.

Other people who must now abide by the rules include those working in 'high-end' television production and film, ornamental horticulture, advertising and the National Lottery.

Aircraft crew, hauliers, offshore oil and gas workers and people involved in elite sport are among those whose exemptions remain.

It comes after variants emerged in South Africa and Brazil, with scientific advisers warning more are likely to develop and could be imported from around the world.

The Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies called for a change in quarantine rules in a report on Friday, saying the existing system of 'in effect, voluntary self-isolation' should be replaced as 'a matter of urgency'.

Instead 'a managed isolation system' would ensure 'the full period of isolation is completed'. The report said new strains highlighted 'international travel as a gaping hole in the UK's response to the pandemic'. The Independent SAGE group does not officially advise the Government and is separate from its advisers.

Travellers are allowed to use public transport or taxis after arriving into the UK. They are then supposed to quarantine for up to ten days, but the vast majority are not thought to have faced any checks.

Foreign passengers were held up at passport control when they flew in to Stansted airport today because their coronavirus test results were not in English.

The new rules requiring anyone arriving in the UK to have a negative result from a test within the previous 72 hours came in to force at 4am.

Early morning flights appeared to be only a third full with many passengers reporting that they had a row of three seats to themselves.

Many passengers said that border control checks appeared far more thorough than usual, although it did not appear to cause any delays.

But some passengers got caught out by the requirement that test results had to be in English, Spanish or French.

One German passenger Antonius Maslaki, 31, who arrived from Frankfurt on a Ryanair flight said: 'I had read the requirement so I knew to get my test in English. The language requirement was one of the bullet points

'As I was coming through passport control, I saw about 20 people stuck because their test results were in the wrong language. It was very frustrating for them. They were just being told to wait.

'I don't know what was happening to them. The border control did not really know what to do with them.'

Mr Maslaki who lives in London and works as a credit manager said he paid 80 euros for his test on Friday and got his negative result ten hours later, allowing him to travel back to the UK after spending Christmas and New Year with his family.

He added: 'There are lots of places doing tests in Germany. It is a new business area for private companies.

'The whole process was not too much of a problem for me. I will be isolating in my flat in London for ten days but I would have had to do that any way.'

German student Arne Wysny, 25, said he had been allowed to board his flight from Cologne even though he had only received a result from a test which he took last Thursday  more than 72 hours after it was taken.

He had taken a second test on Friday, but was still awaiting his result from it when the plane took off.

Mr Wysny who is studying global affairs at King's College, London, said the negative result from his test on Friday came through by email a few minutes before the plane, touched down, allowing him to enter the UK.

Lucy Baalmann and Rahwel Qabir both travelled through Manchester Airport today as the new rules came in

Boris Johnson, pictured with his son Wilfred on Sunday, has promised the first four priority groups will all have received the jab by the middle of February

He said he had faced difficulties trying to organise a last minute test in Germany due to some laboratories being closed over the weekend.

Mr Wysny said: 'It was more challenging than I thought it would be, but it was manageable. I ended up going to a doctor's surgery in the end. It all went smoothly in the end.'

WHICH LATERAL FLOW TESTS DOES THE UK GOVERNMENT USE? There are currently three lateral flow test devices on the Government's approved list. They are: SD Biosensor Standard Q Antigen Test Manufacturer: SD Biosensor When tested: August Claimed accuracy: 95.5% Real-world accuracy: Thought to be around 70% - source Price: Unknown SD Biosensor's rapid coronavirus test Innova Tried & Tested Antigen Test Manufacturer: Innova Tried & Tested When tested: August Claimed accuracy: 99% Real-world accuracy: 'At least 50 per cent', according to Dept Health Price: 8.69 per test (bulk order) Innova's rapid coronavirus test Healgen Rapid Covid-19 Antigen Test Manufacturer: Healgen When tested: September Claimed accuracy: 97.3% Real-world accuracy: Unknown Price: Unknown Healgen's rapid coronavirus test Advertisement

Italian script supervisor Giulia Patane, 35, who works in the film industry flew in from Milan said she had splashed out on two separate tests costing a total of 150 euros to ensure she could fly in to the UK.

Miss Patane who had been visiting her family since December, and had arrived in the UK to start another film contract.

She said: 'I spent 100 euros on a test on Friday and while I was waiting for my result, I got another rapid one for 50 euros which came back negative straight away.

'I am going to be isolating for ten days in an airbnb flat. It is just something that I have to do. I am getting used to it now.

'I was previously working for five months on a film in Northern Ireland where we were not allowed to go anywhere or see anyone, and I was tested three times a week. Then I went back to Italy and I was stuck inside with my parents for weeks.'

Yorkshire-born musician Joel Hunter, 46, who lives in Berlin and is travelling back to the UK for work, said he thought the new rules were 'pretty straightforward'.

He said: 'I got my test on Friday and I got the result yesterday afternoon. Testing is really accessible n Germany. There are lots of companies doing private testing. I just googled the nearest site, booked and went along. It cost 65 with the result guaranteed within 48 hours.

'But the authorities were paying much more attention after we landed. There were checks on our paperwork and test results and passport before we got to passport control.

'Then when we got to the control, I panicked because there was a long single file queue. They were examining everything, but it didn't take long. A month ago nobody was paying any attention when I came through.'

Anna Hamer, 26, a student from New Zealand who lives in north London said: 'It was certainly more thorough than usual coming through the airport. But it was super easy for me to get a test, so it is no problem.'

Another German passenger from Cologne who only gave his name as Sam said: 'It was all nice and smooth'.

But a handful of passengers trying to leave Stansted ran into problems and missed their flights

Russian phd student Oleg, 25, who was flying to Venice said he had gone to Heathrow on Saturday to get his 79 test and got his negative result in 90 minutes.

He said he arrived at Stansted on a train at 5.45am and waited more than an hour in a Ryanair check in queue, before running to the gate and being told he was too late for his 7.20am flight.

German neuroscientist Angelique Lamaze, 38, who had been in the UK for the weekend for an essential family matter was unable to board her Ryanair flight back to Cologne.

She said she had a negative test before leaving Cologne on Friday  but was caught out by a new rule in Germany which insists that anyone arriving on a flight has to have a coronavirus test, not more than 48 hours previously.

It meant she was unable to board her flight, and was left having to hastily arrange a test at Stansted before booking another flight.

The Sunday Times reported that a fresh quarantine crackdown, if introduced, could use GPS and facial-recognition technology to check people don't leave self-isolation.

From 4am passengers have to hand over a negative Covid-19 test certificate to check-in staff before flying to the UK.

Guidance on the Government website states it must meet standards on 'specificity and sensitivity' of 90 per cent and 87 per cent respectively.

Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline: 'There's likely to be some very bumpy days ahead where travellers coming in will face some confusion over their tests.

'Airline staff are not medical experts and I expect there will be some confusion over whether the Covid test certificates meet the specifity and sensitivity requirements that the Government has set out.

'I'd advise to anyone arriving in Britain is before they pack their bags, to check the Government website and make sure they get the right test before flying out.

Lockdown is set to be 'gradually lifted' from March when all over-70s are vaccinated: Five million more will be offered jab from TODAY The brutal lockdown is on track to be loosened in England from the beginning of March amid rising hopes that target of vaccinating all adults by September could be beaten by months. Another five million people will be invited to receive a jab from today, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning - and he also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March. He said the restrictions could be taken away 'gradually' from 'two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts'. Mr Zahawi also insisted that second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case. The comments came as letters started going out to people in England in the next two priority groups. That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients. However, there are concerns about a postcode lottery for access, as when people get called will depend on local progress vaccinating the first categories - which varies widely across the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday that the nation was 'nearly on the home straight' as 50 per cent of all over-80s in England have been vaccinated. Some 140 a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds. Advertisement

The Government has pointed out PCR, LAMP and lateral-flow tests are all acceptable methods.

Officials have been told to prepare to use facial-recognition and GPS technology in order to ensure people stay in isolation when they arrive in the country.

Passengers are being asked to complete online passenger locator forms to tell officials where they are staying after arriving in the UK.

But MPs have heard just one in 10 of the forms are checked by Border Force, while police officers told to visit addresses for potential breaches of quarantine simply walk away if no one answers - with no follow up investigation.

Since the start of the pandemic, millions of people have flown in to the UK, but just 247 fines have been handed out to people flouting quarantine rules.

MP David Morris told The Sun : 'We are past the stage of being able to trust people to isolate if the system is not being policed.

'We should ramp up the fines or follow Australia's lead and take travellers straight to secure hotels.'

The Department for Transport has said today's measures will come alongside increased enforcement, both at the border and across the country.

Border Force is expected to increase the number of spot checks carried out on passengers arriving in the country.

Visitors will have to pay for the hotel stays themselves under the proposed plans.

Civil servants were told to study New Zealand's policy of 'directed isolation', reported the Sunday Times .

Arrivals are charged with stay at an airport hotel and forced to remain in isolation for two weeks in the country.

In Australia, travellers are charged between 1,500 and 2,500 for isolation hotel stays of between 14 and 24 days.

Civil servants also discussed Poland's 'enhanced isolation' system, in which people are contacted daily and told to send a picture of themselves where they are isolating.

The pictures are cross-referenced using GPS data and facial-recognition software and are visited by police within 20 minutes if they fail to comply.

Officials discussed the ideas at a meeting on Thursday and it is understood the technology would be confined to new arrivals, not anyone ordered to self-isolate in the UK.

The current regime announced on Friday in the UK means people arriving will still have to isolate for 10 days even if they have had a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours - or five if they have another negative result during that period.

The ban will be backed by tougher spot checks and will stay in place until at least February 15 as ministers and scientists work out how to manage the threat posed by mutations of the virus.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'People should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary and it is an offence to arrive into England without proof of a negative Covid test or a completed Passenger Locator Form.

'We have also increased Border Force spot checks on arrival, with passengers subject to an immediate fine of 500 for failing to comply with the new rules.

'Despite these measures, the vast majority of passengers have been moving through the UK border in good time.'

** Have you faced issues with your Covid test when arriving in the UK today? Email: tips@dailymail.com **

Nearly 30,000 fined for flouting: Cops eject Sainsbury's shopper for refusing to wear mask while officers find four friends in crashed car after 50-mile trip beauty spot... in latest rule-breachers snared in Covid crackdown

A woman filmed herself being kicked out of Sainsbury's for refusing to wear a face covering or provide proof of a medical exemption - as four people were fined for driving 50 miles to 'look at the snow' before crashing.

Footage filmed at the supermarket shows the unnamed shopper arguing with two officers and claiming they could not ask her to show proof of her 'disability'.

She asked them 'are you doctors?' before producing a sheet of paper printed at home that she wrongly believed proved her point and saying 'I'll be taking you to court'.

The female officer replied 'see you in court then' as she and her colleague led the woman out into the car park.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, officers stopped four people from different households who travelled to a Peak District beauty spot to enjoy the wintery scenes before sliding off the road during the journey.

Derbyshire Constabulary said the BMW driver lost control of the car and rolled on its side near Bamford, in the Peak District, Derbyshire after travelling from St Helens in Merseyside.

The force said: 'The four vehicle occupants were from different households. Is this essential? No. All were issued with Covid 19 tickets.' No one was injured.

The most recent figures showed police officers in England have now handed out 28,744 fines since the start of lockdown in March, with 80% going to flouters aged between 18 and 39.

In the video, a female officer (pictured) said 'see you in court then' as she and a colleague led her out into the car park

On Saturday, officers stopped four people from different households who travelled to a Peak District beauty spot to enjoy the wintery scenes before sliding off the road during the journey

Lockdown law: Police CAN fine you or ask you to leave The self-proclaimed anti-masker in the Sainsbury's video claimed police were not allowed to ask her 'disability' so could not force her to leave. The gov.uk website says police can take measures if members of the public do not comply with the face covering law without a valid exemption'. On the same page it also says - according to the law - those with an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering do not 'routinely need to show any written evidence of this'. However, guidance on enforcement puts an onus on people claiming a medical exemption to prove this when challenged by police, meaning that officers can ask them to leave or fine them if they fail to do so. Advertisement

The footage from Sainsbury's follows a clampdown which has seen supermarkets banning everyone without a face covering unless they can show they are medically exempt.

Despite apparently not having evidence of an exemption, the woman in the footage brandishes a piece of paper which she claims shows she doesn't need to provide any.

The female police officer replies that she doesn't need to see something she has printed out at home.

The officers then explain the store manager does not want to serve her, before marching her out of the supermarket.

On the way out, the woman says that she is being discriminated against, that the officers are liable of a fine of up to 9,000, and that she will be taking them to court.

The female police officer simply replies that she looks forward to seeing her there.

The woman then asks to record their badge numbers, which the officers calmly agree to, before finally walking away.

Although there is no legal requirement for people to carry a badge to prove they are medically exempt, police are entitled to ask for proof and can ask someone to leave or fine them if this isn't provided.

The latest evidence of lockdown flouting comes as a senior police officer criticised the government for its approach to enforcing lockdown rules, saying that ministers had been giving 'damaging' mixed messages.

Martin Hewitt, the head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said working with government had been 'pretty challenging' and 'at times tense and difficult'.

Footage shows the unnamed shopper arguing with Kent Police officers (pictured) and claiming they could not ask her to show proof of her 'disability'

Martin Hewitt, the head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said working with government had been 'pretty challenging' and 'at times tense and difficult'

In a speech to the London College of Policing in December, he said: 'We've pushed really hard, not always successfully, to get consistent messaging and management of expectations out of government,' he said.

'It's been very damaging to our efforts where you've got different government ministers saying different things, answering questions and giving a slightly different perception.'

How ministers added to confusion over the lockdown rules May 10 (Sunday) - Number 10 says the lockdown is being eased but people will not be allowed to meet more than one person from outside their household outdoors. 11 (Monday) - Dominic Raab says people can meet their parents in the park, contradicting No10's stance. Later that day - No10 reiterates that you can only meet one person outside. --- Nov 2 - Michael Gove tells constituents they will be allowed to play golf and tennis during lockdown. 2 - He apologises and confirms he was wrong. 2 - Robert Jenrick says Gove was wrong to say people could still play golf and tennis, but then himself wrongly suggests you can meet with your family outside even if you do not live with them. Advertisement

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Robert Jenrick have all been forced to admit to getting the rules wrong in TV interviews.

NPCC chief Martin Hewitt criticised the government in a speech he gave before the third national lockdown.

He referred to the 'challenge' of enforcing different rules as they constantly changed with the course of the pandemic.

He said the police had asked the government to make these changes 'as clear and unambiguous as they could be' but had sometimes delayed enforcing new rules until they had the specific guidance.

'On some occasions, we did not start policing a new regulation, until we had got the guidance out,' he explained.

The police chief also spoke of the need for all enforcement not to be 'lumped' onto officers.

'Local authorities have enforcement powers, licencing authorities have enforcement powers, the people who run shops, pubs and restaurants all have a responsibility that the regulations are followed,' he said.

Mr Hewitt said the relationship between police and ministers had been 'pretty challenging throughout'.

In November, communities secretary Mr Jenrick wrongly suggested families could go for walks outdoors, while Mr Gove incorrectly stated that people could play golf and tennis.

Meanwhile, in September Mr Johnson admitted he 'misspoke' when explaining rules for the North East lockdown.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'We have a strong relationship with the NPCC, and police chiefs around the country, and have been in constant contact with them throughout.

'We have worked in conjunction with them to ensure the guidance is clear in a necessarily fast moving and complex environment.'

MailOnline has contacted Kent Police for comment on the Sainsbury's video. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed.

A student who embarked on a lockdown-breaching 150-mile journey 'for a change of scenery' had his car (pictured) seized after he stopped in the middle lane of the M62 when police pulled him over

Further recent examples of lockdown flouting include a gender reveal party, a 100-mile trip to McDonald's and an illegal boozing session inside a shed.

Police in Swansea were called to a gender reveal party in Townhill on Sunday which was attended by a number of households.

On the same day, police issued four fixed penalty notices to people at an address in the Mount Pleasant area of the city who had met to watch a football match.

On Saturday, eight people were fined after they were caught meeting at a shed converted into a bar.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a man was fined 200 for travelling more than 100 miles for a late night McDonalds.

The 34-year-old had previously received a warning from the police and was stopped on Estcourt Street in Devizes.

Another student had his car seized after embarking on a lockdown-breaching 150-mile journey 'for a change of scenery'.

The driver - who had only a provisional licence - travelled from Preston, Lancashire, to Sheffield to pick up a friend before the pair set off to Liverpool.

They were spotted going 88mph in the third lane of the M62.

He slowed down when he noticed a North West Motorway Police traffic car behind him - but stayed in the third lane for two junctions.

The driver eventually ground to a halt in the middle of the M62 - which the force said 'certainly caused a panic moment'.

Once the car pulled into the hard shoulder, police found it had two bald tyres - when the rubber of a tyre is so worn down it has little tread left.

The man - who has not been named - was reported for excess speed, inconsiderate driving, having two bald tyres, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and for breaching Covid restrictions, the force said.

Under the rules of England's third nation-wide lockdown, Britons are only allowed to travel outside of their local area for essential reasons.

These include travelling for work or for medical care.

Police also wrote the driver up for having no insurance, as any policy he had would have been invalidated by his escapades, and his car was seized.
Authorities said Davis had been trying to move a filing cabinet out of the business, which possibly was under construction. A large wooden board was holding up an opening in the wall, but the opening was not a door or garage, according to police. As Davis tried to navigate the cabinet through the opening, the board or framing dislodged and was knocked over, striking Davis and pinning him under the large object, officials said.
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French oil major Total SE will acquire a 20 percent stake in Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL).

In a press release, the Gautam Adani-backed company said that Adani Promoter Group will sell 20 percent minority stake in AGEL to the French energy company.

"The investment in AGEL is another step in the strategic alliance between Adani Group and TOTAL, across various businesses and companies of the Adani Group, covering investments in LNG terminals, gas utility business, and renewable assets across India," the company said in the press release.

This is not the first time the French major had invested in an Adani company. In 2018, Total had acquired a 37.4 percent stake in Adani Gas Limited and 50 percent stake in its subsidiary Dhamra LNG project.

Speaking on the occasion, Adani Group Chairman, Gautam Adani, said, "We are delighted to deepen our strategic alliance with TOTAL, a global energy major, and welcome them as a significant shareholder in Adani Green Energy Limited. We have a shared vision of developing renewable power at affordable prices to enable a sustainable energy transformation in India. We look forward to working together towards delivering Indias vision for 450 GW renewable energy by 2030."

"Our entry into AGEL is a major milestone in our strategy in the renewable energy business in India put in place by both parties, which began with our first joint venture 2.3GW of renewable capacity. Given the size of the market, India is the right place to put into action/to deploy our energy transition strategy based on two pillars: renewables and natural gas," Patrick Pouyanne, Total SE CEO said.

At 11:30 hrs, AGEL was down 1.56 percent, or Rs 14.75, to Rs 933 on the NSE
DES MOINES, Iowa  Fareway has donated nearly $315,000 to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign.

The money and more than 100 pallets of toys were collected at Fareways 124 locations between November 27 and Christmas Eve 2020.

During these challenging times, we couldnt be more proud to partner with the U.S. Marine Corps, helping to spread joy to thousands of children this past holiday season, says Fareway President and CEO Reynolds W. Cramer. We are so appreciative of our generous customers for going above and beyond to provide more in monetary and toy donations than ever before.

The U.S. Marine Corps says it served 23,121 children with its 2020 Toys for Tots campaign, collecting over 26,000 toys, books, and stocking stuffers.

"We cannot thank everyone enough for the outstanding amount of support and dedication to making the 2020 Toys for Tots campaign a success. I believe it is safe to say that COVID-19 presented significant obstacles to this year's campaign, but nonetheless, we had remarkable individuals on our side that were determined to bring joy to children during this holiday season, says U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Nicholas Garofalo. We are sincerely grateful for Fareway's contribution yet again this year. As always, Fareway did an outstanding job of bringing the community together by providing us with resources and brilliant, talented individuals who were ready to make a difference through helping struggling families this Christmas. We are humbled and proud to be a part of such a great community.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN) today announced that it has completed a focused analysis of the topline co-primary and key secondary data from its Phase 2/3 clinical trial of troriluzole as a symptomatic treatment in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Additional secondary and exploratory efficacy analyses and biomarker data including neurofilament light chain (NfL), neurogranin, tau and amyloid are still pending and expected in the coming months.

Troriluzole did not statistically differentiate from placebo at 48 weeks on the study's prespecified co-primary endpoints on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale 11 (ADAS-cog) and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) in study participants with mild-to-moderate AD. Troriluzole also did not differentiate from placebo on the key secondary measure of hippocampal volume assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the overall population.

A subgroup analysis consisting only of mild AD patients did, however, reveal that troriluzole exhibited a nonsignificant numerical difference of a potential benefit at week 48 on both the ADAS-cog and hippocampal volumetric MRI. Troriluzole treated participants with mild AD (n=48) had a mean deformation change from baseline hippocampal volume of -1.1% versus -1.6% for placebo treated (n=49) participants [difference -0.5%, p-value = 0.2] at week 48. Although the numerical effects on the ADAS-cog and hippocampal MRI measured in mild AD patients suggests a potential biologic effect of troriluzole in patients with early stage disease, additional analyses and biomarker data will be informative and help determine whether any further study in early AD is warranted. Full study results, including additional secondary and exploratory outcomes, biomarker, and subgroup analyses, are expected in the coming months and will be presented at an upcoming scientific meeting.

Vlad Coric, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Biohaven commented "Alzheimer's is a devastating disease and we must continue to advance the science to improve treatment outcomes for the many patients who are in need. Our goal was to efficiently assess whether troriluzole could benefit patients relatively late in the disease process with mild-to-moderate AD. This study was well-conducted but unfortunately it is clear from this preliminary analysis that troriluzole is not efficacious as a symptomatic treatment in a mixed population of patients with mild and moderate AD. We are awaiting additional biomarker data and other secondary analyses that will help inform whether troriluzole may provide benefit in early AD as a disease modifying agent. We would like to thank the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) at the University of California, San Diego for its leadership in AD research and for their collaboration with the Biohaven R&D team to complete this trial. The ability to efficiently assess drug candidates for AD is essential to advancing the field. Biohaven remains deeply committed to developing novel medicines for people suffering from devastating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases."

With regard to safety and tolerability, treatment with troriluzole at a dose of 280 mg once daily was relatively well tolerated and demonstrated a safety profile consistent with previous studies of troriluzole. Biohaven is planning to amend the ongoing long-term extension study of troriluzole in AD for mild AD patients to be able to continue treatment in order to gather additional clinical and biomarker data.

Howard Feldman MD, Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Director of the ADCS, added, "Successfully undertaking this trial during the COVID-19 pandemic has required a remarkable commitment of our participants, research site staff and Principal Investigators for which we express our gratitude. We look forward to completing our analysis of the full dataset including all the clinical measures as well as the biomarker data to understand if further investigation of troriluzole in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease is warranted."

Irfan Qureshi, M.D., Vice President of Neurology at Biohaven, stated "We are extremely grateful to the community of patients and researchers who participated in this program and sincerely appreciate all that they have done to see this study through to completion. The topline data we released today only represent the early analyses that are available and multiple analyses including important biomarker data are expected in the near term. Additional planned analysis of the clinical outcome scales and biomarkers will help to inform our long-term development plans for troriluzole in AD."

About Biohaven

Biohaven is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of innovative, best-in-class therapies to improve the lives of patients with debilitating neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, including rare disorders. Biohaven's neuroinnovation portfolio includes FDA-approved NURTEC ODT (rimegepant) for the acute treatment of migraine and a broad pipeline of late-stage product candidates across three distinct mechanistic platforms: CGRP receptor antagonism for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine; glutamate modulation with troriluzole for spinocerebellar ataxia and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and MPO inhibition for multiple system atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. More information about Biohaven is available at www.biohavenpharma.com.

About the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at UC San Diego

The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study is an academic research organization located at UC San Diego which is dedicated to developing treatments for those at risk or affected by Alzheimer's disease. For upwards of 30 years, with funding from the National Institute on Aging, it has been a field leader in progressing potential new treatments through innovation in clinical trials with design, methods, and analytics. It has a trials coordinating center in San Diego and a network of participating sites across the United States.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements that are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management. The use of certain words, including the "believe" and "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company may not actually achieve the plans and objectives disclosed in the forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements, including uncertainties relating to the future clinical success of troriluzole. Additional important factors to be considered in connection with forward-looking statements are described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2020 and Biohaven's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 9, 2020. The forward-looking statements are made as of this date and Biohaven does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

For further information, contact:

Dr. Vlad Coric

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd.

Related Links

http://biohavenpharma.com


Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
In 2019, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority declared 14,207 south Mumbai buildings dilapidated. However, the residents  many of whom have been living in these decrepit houses for decades  refused to move to transit accommodations for MHADA to initiate redevelopment procedures. They seemed to have accepted that the fear of living in a run-down establishment is more palatable than the crippling anxiety of moving to temporary housing, never to return to their generational homes, like scores of tenants who continue to languish in transit camps after over 30 years of moving out. In Jarjar Ghar, Dilapidated Houses, the state of constant impermanence in Indias most expensive city and Mumbaikars who negotiate the reality of living under the traditional pagadi-kiraydar system find representation. With the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 freezing the rent of all buildings constructed before at 1965 at extremely low amounts, these establishments were never repaired by the owners due to their unprofitability. Now, years later, the tenants are faced with the decision to either move into a safer home while the building goes into redevelopment, or continue paying a monthly charge as low as Rs 125. Most have chosen the latter.

Above: Views from inside a 200-year-old south Mumbai building on the verge on collapse, where residents must use the community toilet while holding an umbrella. Jarjar Ghar first found some form in 2017 when its editor and director, Geetanjali Gurlhosur, was tracking a story about the residents of a couple of south Mumbai buildings on the verge of collapse. Even though the story never saw the light of the day, the generational stories, images of the dark passageways of old, decrepit buildings and the unchanging situation persisted. Three years later, she sent in an application for the Nagari Short Film Competition 2020, organised by the Charles Correa Foundation, wherein the idea would come to life within the theme of 'Urban Housing (In)adequacy'.

Shot entirely during the ongoing pandemic, the six-minute documentary captures vignettes of buildings as old as 200 years, crumbling on the outside but bustling within. Creating a film during the pandemic, the makers recall, was as interesting as it was challenging. While a minor budget did not allow for much comfort at a time when the city's lifeline  the Mumbai Local  wasn't fully functioning, the involvement of multiple stakeholders in the conversation demanded a nuanced, inclusive take on the metropolitan malady at hand. "There are so many things to address here apart from the lack of safe, secure and affordable housing  the history of the pagadi-kiraydar system, rehabilitation policies, the role of housing agencies like MHADA, the role of owners and builders, transit camps and religious and caste-based nuances within the microcosms of the buildings. You can't do justice to every person and every story. There's always something that is left out," recounts Gurlhosur.

Above: An old photograph of one of the families living in the building tells a distinct tale of time and nostalgia, which perhaps also ties the tenants to their home spiritually. However, it all started coming together with the tenants opening up on their shared housing woes. "Although most of the residents were quite welcoming and warm, we had to be careful around the elderly and keep some distance. This was challenging because as seen in the film, the spaces are very small and tight. Prateek, our sound recordist Aditya, and I barely fit inside these spaces together with our equipment. Yet this did not make the interactions awkward or uncomfortable for anyone." Interestingly, the proximity between the camera and the subject barely makes it evident that the film was shot under minimum contact. These spaces are so small that family members can't self-isolate themselves if they get infected, which is the first thing that struck me when we went to shoot. Despite the risk, the residents were so warm and offered us food and tea every time we visited that it was overwhelming, adds award-winning cinematographer Prateek Pamecha.

In the night it makes sounds. Its coming down, this building. Yes, I can hear it. I wake up and sit up in the middle of the night and pray to God, Mother, save me!: an elderly woman exclaims in the opening sequence. Jarjar Ghar not only brings to the fore the possessiveness that residents have for their rented generational homes in Mumbai, but it also speaks to the fears of temporariness in a bustling metropolis. And seeing as they were surrounded by people who have a staunch allegiance to their home, the filming process gave the makers a fresh perspective on what it means to belong. The privileged like us have begun to associate 'home' with the people we love and care about whereas we take for granted the security and safety of the actual houses we live in. My interactions with the tenants reminded me that having a solid roof over your head and having ownership of that roof are rights still at risk in cities like Mumbai, reveals Gurlhosur.

Above: 'If the premises are not vacated, it may cause injury/death to the occupier,' reads one of the many eviction notices sent to the tenants. However, moving out of their dilapidated home will make them refugees in their own city. Apart from bureaucratic red tape, the coronavirus pandemic has further impeded the rehabilitation process by rendering evacuation and construction more difficult. Therefore, the tenants continue to live in their rented homes, with the promise of a safe home beginning to seem like a pipe dream. This is also when the makers realised that social distancing was a privilege, too, like spaces and safety, for those with the means to access them. The makers reveal that while the shoot was underway, officials from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) discussed repairs and rehabilitation with the tenants. Even though the general updates on the process have been awfully slow, the tenants are still holding out hope. The idea that Mumbaikars have about the city's 'spirit' is that it never dies despite recurring disasters," observes Gurlhosur. Hence, the way I wanted to tell the story was to wake people up from their slumber and show that people want their lives to be changed, that they are waiting for their lives to be changed. ***  All images courtesy of Geetanjali Gurlhosur
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Correcting Injustice, Inc. announces the addition of Mr. Frank Amodeo as Senior Advisor to lead its 2021 initiatives in criminal justice reform and creation of The Redemption Path Documents.

Since 2012, Frank Amodeo has provided legal assistance to federal prisoners, advising more than 5,000 inmates, including assisting over 1,800 individuals with their post-conviction litigation. His straightforward approach has proved successful at all levels of federal court, including at the Supreme Court. Mr. Amodeo's innovative legal theories focus on correcting inequities and improper applications of the law, and have expanded and changed how it is interpreted both administratively and judicially. With his return to community in 2020, Mr. Amodeo will now serve as a senior advisor on public policy matters for Correcting Injustice, Inc., and is a subject matter expert frequently called upon to provide understanding and solutions on topics as they relate to the criminal justice system.

The Redemption Path Documents will be designed as a guide to encourage the initiation of reforms both in the prosecution and punishment of crime. The changes that will be proposed and lobbied for come from Mr. Amodeo's years of practice and interaction with the criminal justice system to encourage changes both in practice and statute to provide a more efficient, effective and fairer criminal justice system.

"The conditions in federal prisons and the legal path that defendants are forced to take to get there are riddled with inequities, and then deliver inmates into deplorable living conditions," Amodeo said in a recent interview. "It's a combination of factors that will require comprehensive justice reform at every level. We are not suggesting that the system let violent offenders out of prison, nor are we saying that criminals shouldn't be held accountable. We are asking for changes based in fairness and compassion for basic human rights applied equally regardless of race or financial status."

About Correcting Injustice, Inc.

Correcting Injustice provides education to attorneys, defendants, victims, inmates and their families, as well as the community so that they may better understand and navigate the criminal justice system. This mission runs parallel to initiating and speaking on reforms and solutions needed in national public policy and within the justice system itself at all levels. www.CorrectingInjustice.com

For more information:

Kenneth Tyndall

[email protected]

Phone: (321) 961-9007

SOURCE Correcting Injustice, Inc.
Laois has been ranked near the bottom of a new 'liveability' list in Ireland, despite the county's clear growth in population.

An Irish survey has compared the 26 counties in the State under four criteria; house price, sunshine, proximity to a city and natural amenity.

They put poor Laois in fifth last position out of the 26 counties, with an overall score of 39 points, level with Westmeath, Monaghan and Cavan. Their top scoring county in Ireland was Waterford, with Offaly bottom of the list.

Laois was in 17th place for houseprices, up in 11th place for sunshine, in 18th place for 'proximity to a city' and down to 20th place for natural amenities. Neighbours Kildare got a zero for natural amenities.

Full list at bottom of story.

It was compiled by a father and son team on their own website www.Bluejayliveability.com to help inform people who are thinking of moving house.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the move to remote working, enabling people to avoid lengthy commutes to work. This has spurred an interest in relocating away from large cities. However, for those looking to move to a location outside of a global city there is a lack of useful comparative information to help make the decision to move.

"This Index addresses this issue by assessing the liveability of the whole of the Republic of Ireland on a county by county basis. The counties are scored on parameters that influence peoples decision to relocate to a particular place. These include property prices, climate, natural amenities and proximity to a city.

"In order to assess counties for their natural amenities we developed a unique method of ranking the natural amenity of a particular area using the percentage of each area covered by water and mountains and attributed as urban.

"The counties were then given an overall ranking based on an average of the scores for each of the four parameters"
Studies currently underway to ascertain need for COVID-19 booster shot: Centre

COVAX Joint Statement: Covid surge resulted in shorfall of 190 million doses by June in India

Global supply of Covax hit due to pandemic in India: US agency

Reports of Moradabad ward boy dying after getting Covid vaccine are fake: Health Ministry

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Jan 17: A 46-year-old health worker died a day after receiving the coronavirus vaccination. However, the Health Ministry said on Monday that the news was "fake". While Mahipal's family is blaming the death on vaccination, the authorities cited an autopsy report to say that he suffered from a cardiac disease.

Mahipal, working as ward boy in the surgical ward of the state-run Deendayal Upadhya hospital in Moradabad, died on Sunday night.

A high-level inquiry was being ordered, Moradabad District Magistrate Rakesh Singh said.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Milind Chandra Garg, however, said that the cause of death was a cardiac problem.

"Deceased Mahipal's heart was found enlarged and it had blood clots according to postmortem report," he said.

"It appears that Mahipal was suffering from a cardiac disease," he said.

The report of the postmortem, conducted by three doctors, said the death was caused by "cardio-pulmonary disease" and there is "no relation with corona vaccine".

The CMO trashed suggestions of any type of side effect of the vaccination, though he admitted that some employees were suffering from fever after taking the shots.

His comments came against the backdrop of Mahipal's son Vishal that his father called him to hospital as he was feeling difficulty in breathing.

"My father was suffering from cough but after vaccination he had fever and felt heaviness in breathing. On Sunday he was admitted in the government hospital where he expired at night," he said.

The CMO maintained that some of those who were vaccinated "were facing general problems but not like Mahipal".

But, Mahipal's family members claimed that he was never had any cardiac problem and he was quite healthy except for the fever and cough.

"My father was not suffering from corona even when he performed his duty properly during the pandemic," his son said.

The Moradabad district magistrate said that the vaccination is fully safe and no side effects were reported.

"The case of Mahipal is exceptional and a high-level medical inquiry will be ordered," he said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 16:37 [IST]
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Gun rights activists have converged near Virginia's State Capitol building Monday for an annual Second Amendment rally, despite heightened security measures ahead of Inauguration Day.

The demonstration is taking place just 110 miles south of Washington DC, where President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in Wednesday, and so far members of the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys and the Black Panthers have made an appearance despite the State Capitol being fenced off, streets shut down, and heavy police presence.

The rally, known as 'Lobby Day', is an annual event in Virginia where citizens take to the steps of the State Capitol on the first Monday after the General Assembly convenes for its annual legislative session to raise their concerns.

Gun rights group the Virginia Citizens Defense League always brings a thousands of participants to the event to petition state lawmakers to loosen gun curbs.

This year's event falls at an especially tense time this year, weeks after the January 6 Capitol seige that left five people dead.

Authorities are now on alert in Richmond, especially following a year in which anti-racist and white nationalist demonstrators clashed across the United States, and as strident Trump supporters cling to hope he can remain in power.

Gun rights activists have converged on the Virginia state capital on Monday for the annual gun rights 'Lobby Day' rally, despite heightened security measures across the country ahead of Inauguration Day. A view of one pro-gun activist walking through the streets around Richmond's Virginia State Capital carrying an assault rifle and a blue and pink Transgender Pride flag and a US Army flag above

A view of a gun activist carrying the US Army flag and Transgender Pride flag above in the empty streets of Richmond ahead of the state capital Lobby Day pro-gun rally

Members of the Boogaloo Boys pictured above with other gun rights rights activists near the State House on Monday. Boogaloo members are often identified by their attire of Hawaiian shirts and military fatigues

A member of the 'boogaloo boys' pictured with other gun rights activists in front of the State House on Monday in Richmond, Virginia. Boogaloo is a far-right, anti-government extremist movement made up of pro-gun and anti-government groups

Gun rights activists pictured in heavy military garb pictured in front of the State House on Monday. Last year pro-gun group Virginia Citizens Defense League brought over 20,000 people to the rally to the event

Armed Black activists in all-black uniforms pictured protesting outside the Virginia State Capitol with weapons on Monday

A caravan rally was held where cars drove near the Capitol to express their support for the Second Amendment. Usually a large rally of thousands descends upon the Capitol steps, but it was canceled this year due to the pandemic. This truck carried pro-gun flags and this man held a sign saying 'Guns Save Lives' during Monday's caravan

This year's Lobby Day will be different from the years prior. This year a perimeter of barricades and police officers block protester access to the steps of the State House. Heavy police presence pictured above at Richmond Virginia's State Capitol

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is planning to bring four caravans of people from across the commonwealth with them.

The nonprofit said they have caravans leaving from Fairfax, Hampton, Emporia and Staunton. Last year the group brought over 20,000 to the event, as per WRIC.

Those orange buses were seen rolling into Richmond after noon. One bus was emblazoned with the phrase: 'Owning a gun is not a crimelets keep it that way.'

This year due to coronavirus restrictions all permitted events for Lobby Day have been cancelled but a car parade for gun rights will unfold downtown.

The House of Delegates will meet virtually for this year's legislative session but the Virginia State Senate will meet in person at a Science Museum event center for greater social distancing. The State Capitol is completely closed to the public through Thursday.

A small caravan of about 10 vehicles drove past the museum shortly before the Senate convened Monday, but the lawmakers inside couldn't see the parade of cars.

Arriving by the bus load: A view of the Virginia Citizens Defense League's bus bringing in gun rights advocates from across the state to the Capitol for Lobby Day

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, walks through a gun rights rally near the Capitol in Richmond, Virginia on Monday

Members of the Proud Boys gather outside the Virginia State Capitol on Lobby Day, wearing their uniform polos and carrying their black and yellow flag

Members of the Proud Boys pictured walking past police officers near the Virginia State Capitol on Monday

Members of the boogaloo boys raise their fists in front of the State House during Monday's gun activist event

This armed person carried an insignia associated with the Boogaloo Movement attends a protest outside the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Monday

A group of black gun activists pictured above in Richmond, Virginia on Monday

Members of the Black Panthers joing other gun rights advocates in front of the State House on Monday in Richmond, Virginia

A member of the Boogaloo Boys pictured crading a gun during the Lobby Day gathering on Monday in Richmond, Virginia

An armed man marches with a group to the Virginia State Capitol on Lobby Day, a day traditionally set aside for the public to lobby lawmakers, in Richmond, Virginia on Monday

A sign resminds people that carrying firearms specifically near the Capitol Square is a violation of a city ordinance. The ordinance was passed last year after Lobby Day 2020 saw 20,000 Second Amendment supporters flock to the Capitol square

WHAT IS THE BOOGALOO MOVEMENT? Boogaloo is a far-right, anti-government extremist movement. The heavily armed participants linked to the group say they're preparing for a second Civil War. It got its name from the panned 1984 movie 'Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo' and uses the title as a code word for a second Civil War. Other derivations of 'boogaloo' are 'big igloo' or 'big luau.' Followers are easy to spot with their trademark Hawaiian shirts and high-powered rifles and tactical gear. The movement is made up of pro-gun and anti-government groups. Participants mostly organize on Facebook but have attended recent events like the COVID-19 lockdown protests and demonstrations of George Floyd's death. Facebook earlier this month moved to limit the movements exposure on its platform by no longer recommending user groups associated with the term 'boogaloo' to members of similar associations. Advertisement

Richmond Police have asked people to stay away from the downtown area on Monday.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said the heightened security was to keep Lobby Day demonstrators peaceful and protections will be in place through Thursday.

Gov. Ralph Northam said the Virginia National Guard is also on standby to assist law enforcement if necessary.

Nationwide pro-Trump demonstrations scheduled for Sunday largely fizzled after the FBI issued warnings and several states deployed the National Guard.

'Were showing up to remind them that were still here,' a gun rights activist, who identified himself only as Trevor, said outside the Virginia statehouse on Sunday evening, walking the perimeter to help plan the protest.

Lobby Day always falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday honoring the civil rights leader assassinated in 1968.

On Monday a slew of controversial groups gathered at Richmond including the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys, the Black Panthers, and Trump supporters. Other liberal groups could make an appearance as well.

Boogaloo Boys also walked the perimeter of the statehouse on Sunday, striking poses with semiautomatic rifles for photographers.

Philip Van Cleave, leader of the defense league, said demonstrators would come from as far away as New York and Texas.

The group says it plans to petition state lawmakers to loosen gun curbs, as it has done during many Lobby Days in the past.

'Weve been doing this for 25 years,' Van Cleve added.

'Weve never had a single problem. No arrests, nothing.'

The gathering comes after the FBI issued a serious warning last week that all 50 state capitals over the few weeks are at risk for attacks similar to the insurrection that unfolded on January 6 at the US Capitol.

A view of gun rights activists walking in Richmond ahead of the Lobby Day pro gun rally above. This man wears a sweater that reads 'North Shore Gun Club'

Blocked off: Last yearthe rally drew thousands who swarmed in front of the Capitol. This year non-scalable fences, metal barricades and police presence block off access to the building

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said the heightened security was to keep Lobby Day demonstrators peaceful and protections will be in place through Thursday. Gov. Ralph Northam said the Virginia National Guard is also on standby to assist law enforcement if necessary

Armed second amendment supporters a carry mock up of Gov. Ralph Northam with the sign 'Northam The Infringer' on 9th Street near CapitolS quare on Monday

Members of the Boogaloo Boys join other gun advocates in front of the State House on Monday

A line of Boogaloo Boys pictured standing in a line in heavy military garb and Hawaiian floral shirts and face masks

A view of different groups of gun activists raising a fist together near the Richmond Capitol building on Monday

Members of a pro-gun group called the New Black Panther Party of Virginia stand with their weapons near the state Capitol Monday

A man pictured handing out stickers that say 'Guns Save Lives' as Second Amendment supporters carry signs to support passing cars part of the gun rights caravan

Members of pro-gun group called the Last Sons of Liberty stand with their weapons near the State Capitol on Monday

This year due to coronavirus restrictions all permitted events for Lobby Day have been cancelled but a car parade for gun rights will unfold downtown. The House of Delegates will meet virtually but the Virginia State Senate will meet in person at the State House

Police on bikes pictured at Richmond's Virginia State Capitol building on Monday

A view of a police officer standing next to a fence around Richmond's State Capitol building Monday

Boogaloo boys also walked the perimeter of the statehouse on Sunday, striking poses with semiautomatic rifles for photographers
Bishop Fabio Fabene: new Secretary of Causes of Saints (Synod2018)

Pope Francis appoints Bishop Fabio Fabene as the new Secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

By Vatican News staff writer

On Monday, Pope Francis named a new Secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

Bishop Fabio Fabene, the titular bishop of Montefiascone, had served since 8 February 2014 as the Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops.

Brief biography

He was born in Rome, Italy, on 12 March 1959. Bishop Fabene attended the Minor Seminary in the then-diocese of Montefiascone, then completed his theological studies at the Pontifical Regional Seminary in Viterbo. He was ordained a priest for the same diocese on 26 May 1984.

He later received his doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Lateran University.

He served as the parish priest of St. Maria del Giglio in Montefiascone, holding the position of Episcopal Chancellor from 1984 to 1998, and also taught Canon Law at the Viterbo Theological Institute.

From 1 January 1998 on, he worked at the Congregation for Bishops, where he served as Office Head as of 24 April 2010. He also served as Substitute of the Secretariat of the College of Cardinals.

Since 1996, he has been External Judge of the Court of First Instance for marriage annulment cases in the Lazio Region, at the Ordinary Court of the Diocese of Rome.

He was appointed Prelate of Honor of His Holiness on 11 January 2012.

Bishop Fabene is the author of several articles for journals of Canon Law, biographies on Cardinal Barbarigo and Mons. Luigi Boccadoro, and books on the ministry of both Italian clergymen.
Donations Pour in as People of Myanmar Dig Deep to Help Cover Cost of Vaccine
European property developers are working with Vietnam's Ministry of Construction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the residential property sector.

Representatives of the German Development Co-operation-GIZ Vietnam and the Ministry of Constructions Housing and Real Estate Market Management Bureau (HREM) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).  Photo courtesy GIZ-Vietnam

The German Development Co-operation-GIZ Vietnam and the Ministry of Constructions Housing and Real Estate Market Management Bureau (HREM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for co-operation on the joint development of the Vietnam Green Housing Programme (VGHP) under the implementation of the Programme for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (PEEB) in Vietnam.

The MoU focuses on enabling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation.

GIZ said the VGHP, which is supported through the GIZ Programme for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (PEEB) in Vietnam, aims to benefit the mid-income housing market by targeting the low-cost commercial housing segment.

Under the partnership, GIZ and HREM will develop and implement the Vietnam Green Housing Programme. A particular focus of the programme is improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions in the affordable housing market as per Vietnams commitment in its Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Through the Vietnam Green Housing Programme, the partnership aims to motivate private housing developers to move into the market for energy-efficient and green buildings, and stimulate local commercial banks to develop green financing products for both housing developers and homebuyers, as well as green equipment and material suppliers in the low-cost commercial housing segment.

In Vietnam, the total production value of the construction sector reached VND358.6 trillion (US$15.6 billion), contributing 5.94 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019.

As an emerging economy, Vietnam is expected to see a dramatic increase in demand for spacious and comfortable residential property due to the rapid growth of the middle class with approximately 50 million square meters of housing added in 2019.

As the potential for GHG emissions reduction through energy efficiency in the construction sector is enormous, this cooperative endeavour will contribute to Vietnams aim of reducing GHG emissions, said Kia Fariborz, Chief Technical Advisor of the Support Programme for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (SIPA).

Deputy Director General of HREM, Ha Quang Hung highly appreciated the initiative for integrating PEEBs goal of energy efficiency and low emissions with the Governments goal of low-cost commercial housing development.

According to calculations, within 10 years after reaching the target, apartment buildings will save about 6.3 billion kWh (kilowatts per hour) of electricity, equivalent to VND15.8 trillion ($687 million). This is a significant cost saving that will benefit the homebuyers if they use energy efficiently in the apartment. In addition, in the short term, the programme will create a plentiful supply of low-cost commercial housing, thereby facilitating the peoples access to affordable housing.

The PEEB is a joint initiative between Germany and France that combines consulting, financial resources, and technical expertise from GIZ, French Development Agency (AFD), and Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) to help partner countries increase energy efficiency in buildings. The PEEB aims to minimise energy demand in buildings at reasonable incremental costs, promote green investment in energy efficient buildings, and facilitate access to green financing from international and local financial institutions.

In Vietnam, the PEEB focuses on green housing programs and large-scale commercial buildings. VNS

Renewable energy to become a trend According to experts, the dominant energy technology in the future will be energy storage devices, solar panels, clean hydrogen and wind energy.
KYODO NEWS - Jan 18, 2021 - 22:33 | World, All

South Korean President Moon Jae In said Monday that he views possible sales of Japanese companies' assets to compensate groups of South Koreans over wartime labor as "undesirable" for bilateral ties.

Moon's remarks come as plaintiffs who won damages suits against two Japanese companies in South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 over forced labor during World War II are seeking asset sales through the country's courts.

Bilateral ties have sunk to the lowest point in decades following the rulings, and they could be further strained after a Seoul court earlier this month ordered the Japanese government to pay damages to former "comfort women."

The Japanese government, which takes the position that a 1965 bilateral agreement settled all claims related to its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, has criticized the rulings in both cases.

At Monday's New Year press conference in Seoul, Moon said he felt "a bit perplexed" by the Jan. 8 comfort women ruling as it came amid efforts between the two countries to solve other ongoing issues, such as export controls and compensation for wartime labor.

The president said he acknowledges that a deal struck by Seoul and Tokyo in 2015 to solve the issue of comfort women is an "official one between the governments" and that he will explore solutions based on the deal.

Moon also said that the priority is to find a diplomatic solution and that South Korea and Japan would seek to come up with one that is also satisfactory to the plaintiffs.

"The two governments will discuss a way that the plaintiffs can agree on, and the South Korean government will persuade them to the maximum extent. I believe that we can steadily solve the problem in that way," he said.

The term comfort women is a euphemism for women, many of whom were Korean, forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.

Related coverage:

New South Korea envoy eyes "political solutions" to issues with Japan

Japan urges South Korea to take action over "comfort women" ruling

South Korea likely to confirm ex-comfort women's win next week

The two countries struck the deal in 2015 to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the longstanding dispute. As part of the deal, the Japanese government paid 1 billion yen. The funds were distributed through a foundation to former comfort women and the families of those who died.

However, the Moon government dissolved the foundation in 2019 after concluding that the deal failed to properly reflect the women's wishes.

The Japanese government declined to be involved in the comfort women lawsuit, citing sovereign immunity under international law that allows a state to be shielded against the jurisdiction of foreign courts.

But the Seoul Central District Court, in its ruling, brushed aside the argument and determined that the Japanese government committed "intentional, systematic and wide-ranging criminal acts against humanity."

It was the first such ruling in South Korea. The ruling is expected to become final at the end of Jan. 22 as the Japanese government does not plan to appeal it.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Onondaga County will give 75% fewer Covid-19 vaccines this week because its supply of the vaccine has been slashed.

County Executive Ryan McMahon tweeted today that New York will receive 50,000 fewer doses of vaccine from the federal government this week than last week.

This impacted Onondaga County, as instead of receiving 3,600 doses (what we received last week) we will be receiving 900 doses this week, McMahon said. We have enough supply for a one-day clinic.

McMahon said if you already made an appointment, youll get your shot.

This just means there will be limited new vaccine appointments for the next week, he tweeted.

At the same time, the county will have additional appointments on Tuesday. And once more vaccine starts flowing, the county will be able to deliver thousands of doses each week, McMahon said.

Theres no word from the state on whether the supply has been cut for the New York State Fairgrounds vaccination site, which kicked off last week.

Other counties are being affected by the vaccine shortfall. Oneida County is suspending its Covid-19 vaccinations on Thursday because its allotment from the state has shrunk, County Executive Anthony Picente said today. Erie County has canceled more than 3,600 appointments this week, according to The Buffalo News.

Onondaga County also reported today that the number of people in intensive care because of the coronavirus has dropped to 36, the lowest in more than a month, according to county data.

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It doesnt appear Jefferson County will get enough doses of COVID-19 vaccine to start mass innoculations this coming week. But officials across Southeast Texas are using the extra time to determine the best way to do so when the time comes.

Beaumont Public Health Director Sherry Ulmer said her department has had a state-approved plan for mass vaccinations for years. In fact that plan was used to vaccinate Hurricane Katrina evacuees when they were sheltering at Ford Park, and more recently when the department had to draw a number of blood specimens for a tuberculosis contact evacuation.

Were accustomed to doing mass vaccinations. So, were pulled that plan, she said. We know this is going to be huge and last longer than were accustomed to, but were building off of that plan.

However, as every situation is different, the health department has had to make slight changes to the plan to incorporate COVID-19-specific provisions.

Related: Beaumont lawmaker tests positive for COVID-19

Those tweaks have included laying out a floorplan that allows for social distancing and a space for vaccinated individuals to be monitored for 15 minutes for any side effects before going home. The department already has received a number of calls from nurses volunteering to conduct the clinic as well as state funding to hire contract help if necessary. In Beaumont, she said the Civic Center likely would be a good candidate to host such an operation.

Ulmer said the Beaumont Public Health Department also is working with the citys IT department to set up an online registration system to decrease the number of extra phone calls each day, and to avoid large lines for vaccines as has been seen in other locations.

Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said the planning group, which also includes the Port Arthur Public Health Department and other nearby counties, is evaluating potential sites that could accommodate such a large operation.

Branick, who previously suggested Ford Park as a potential site, said locations are being evaluated based on accessibility, covers, refrigeration capabilities and internet access.

Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox

As a part of that, Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel said the group is discussing whether to keep the vaccinations at one site or to set up each week in different parts of Southeast Texas.

I like that better, because that way people from the northern areas wouldnt have to drive all the way to Jefferson County, he said.

While it doesnt appear the region will get enough vaccines to put this plan in motion next week, McDaniel said hes been told Hardin and other counties in northern Southeast Texas are expected to get more doses later this month.

But the goal in doing this, in working together, is to get more vaccines to Southeast Texas, he said.

Ulmer said she understands its frustrating for area residents to watch other regions get a large number of vaccines while Southeast Texas seems to have been passed over. But her department, along with the rest of Southeast Texas, continues to apply to receive more doses the next week.

We want the public to know we feel their same frustration, she said.

Related: Vaccines to stimulus checks: Heres whats in Bidens plan

Amid lags in the states reporting of vaccine availability and conflicting information regarding whos next up to be vaccinated, rumors have swirled regarding clinics beginning to vaccinate groups that havent yet been included in the states tiered vaccine system.

Most recently in Southeast Texas, false information spread on social media and prompted a number of educators to call the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in the hopes of getting a vaccine, despite no availability for that group.

Vaccinations have not been opened to educators at this time, as we are following direct orders from the CDC and the state government, said Angie Hebert, a spokesperson for the center. Any vaccinations out of that order would be improper, and we stand ready to vaccinate any phase that is dictated to us by our government to ensure those who would like a vaccination get one.

When the next phases open up, educators and other groups will hear from the hospital.

If anyone would like more information about our vaccination program, we are reaching out to qualified groups, Hebert said. We are asking that the public or any other groups not reach out to our hospital directly. If they qualify, we will reach out to them. 

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com
The reopening of public and private schools in Nigeria have continued to generate criticisms. The federal government had ordered sch...

The reopening of public and private schools in Nigeria have continued to generate criticisms.

The federal government had ordered schools to reopen on January 18 across the country, despite rising cases of COVID-19.

Though the Ministry of Education has promised to monitor resumption and compliance with COVID-19 protocols, some parents have kicked against the move.

Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of aviation speaking on the development described the reopening of schools by Buhari as irresponsible.

According to him, it is not right for schools to reopen at a time when the second wave of COVID-19 is ravaging the land.

On his Twitter page, he wrote: One of the most irresponsible things that Buhari has done is to re-open schools despite the spike in COVID-19 deaths and the vicious and virulent second wave that is ravaging the land.

Other nations that are experiencing a second wave have refused to open schools. Why are we different? He queried
Williams College Announces Tenure for Eight Faculty Members

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Board of Trustees of Williams College voted to promote eight faculty to the position of associate professor with tenure.

Promotions will take effect July 1, 2021, for Jeremy Cone, psychology; Christine DeLucia, history; Matthew Gibson, economics; Lama Nassif, comparative literature; Christina Simko, sociology; Owen Thompson, economics; Emily Vasiliauskas, English; and Zachary Wadsworth, music.

Jeremy Cone, psychology

Cone is a social psychologist whose research explores how attitudes are formed unconsciously. His research has demonstrated that these implicit evaluations are far less indelible than was once believed, challenging conventional thinking in this field. He has published widely in top journals, such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, including a number of works co-authored with his students. He has given talks and presentations in the U.S. and abroad, and he was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition, where he spoke about the nature of gossip and its connection to believability and its role in implicit impression revision. Cone earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Before joining the faculty at Williams, he was a post-doctoral associate at Yale University. He currently serves on the Faculty Steering Committee.

Christine DeLucia, history

DeLucia's areas of interest include early American history, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and material culture. Her first book, Memory Lands: King Philip's War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast (Yale University Press, 2018), received the New England American Studies Association's Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians book award, among others. She has published widely in top journals, including the Journal of American History, William and Mary Quarterly, Early American Studies, Los Angeles Review of Books. She recently held a fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago to work on her second book, a study of Native American, African American, and colonial relationships in the Northeast in the period before, during, and after the American Revolution. DeLucia earned her Ph.D. from Yale University. Before coming to Williams, she taught at Mount Holyoke College. At Williams, she has taught the seminars From Wampum to Phillis Wheatley: Communications in Early America and The Afterlives of Objects: Telling American Histories through Material Culture and Museums. She currently serves on the Committee on Diversity and Community.

Matthew Gibson, economics

Gibson's research looks at how people use their time, the use of economic incentives to mitigate air pollution, and the impact of climate change. At Williams since 2015, he teaches courses on econometrics and on various topics in environmental economics, including the economics of climate change. With a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, he was a visiting researcher at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, and he is currently a research affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics. His work has been widely published in journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, among others. Gibson has served on various campus committees, including the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee, Women in Economic Research Organizing Committee, and the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility.

Lama Nassif, comparative literature

Nassif is an applied linguist who specializes in sociolinguistics and language pedagogy. Her research addresses how attention and anxiety play a role in the learning of a second language, specifically Arabic. At Williams since 2016, she teaches Arabic language courses as well as courses on Arabic cinema and media. Before coming to Williams, she taught at Middlebury College and the University of Texas at Austin, where she received her Ph.D. Her research has been published widely in books and journals, including the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and the Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics. A member of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and the Middle East Studies Association, among others, she has participated in numerous panels, workshops, and presentations both in the U.S. and abroad. She has served as a member of the Committee on Diversity and Community.

Christina Simko, sociology

Simko is a sociologist whose interests include cultural, historical, and political sociology, as well as collective memory and social theory. Her debut book, The Politics of Consolation: Memory and the Meaning of September 11 (Oxford University Press, 2015), examines the collective memory of 9/11. The book won an honorable mention for the American Sociological Association's Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book in the Sociology of Culture. She has also published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Sociological Theory, Society, and Poetics, among others. At Williams since 2015, her courses include Invitation to Sociology, Memory and Forgetting, Social Theory, and Stories We Tell. She currently serves on the college's Faculty Compensation Committee. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where she was a postdoctoral fellow at the university's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Owen Thompson, economics

Thompson is a labor economist whose research focuses on addressing central questions about poverty, intergenerational inequality, and mobility. With a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he teaches courses on microeconomics, the economics of race, and labor economics and policy. Prior to coming to Williams in 2018, he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to teaching at Williams, he is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an affiliate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty. He has served on a number of committees at Williams, and he is currently a member of the Honor and Discipline Committee. His research has been published in numerous journals, including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Human Resources, and the Journal of Political Economy, among others.

Emily Vasiliauskas, English

Vasiliauskas teaches courses that range from Shakespeare to the English Renaissance to modern poetry. Her articles and essays have been published in Studies in Philology, Politics and Aesthetics in European Baroque and Classicist Tragedy, Politics and Aesthetics in European Baroque and Classicist Tragedy, and The Cambridge Quarterly. She is currently working on a manuscript titled The Skull in the Mirror: Aesthetics in the Age of Shakespeare, in which she argues that art is a distinctive category of human activity. She earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Herbert H. Lehman Fellowship and the Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences Fellowship. At Williams since 2015, she has served on the Faculty Steering Committee and is a member of numerous professional organizations.

Zachary Wadsworth, music

Wadsworth is an award-winning composer whose pieces include compositions for large ensembles, solo instruments, and chorus. With a doctorate from Cornell University, he teaches courses on music composition, music theory, music history, and media studies. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. Before coming to Williams in 2015, he taught at the University of Calgary. In addition to his published and recorded compositions, his work was nominated for a JUNO Award for Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral in 2020 and he won Outstanding Choral Recording for Canada's National Choral Awards in 2018. He has performed at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Opera Center, Bargemusic, the National Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall. He is currently a composer-in-residence at Chor Leoni (Vancouver, BC, Canada) and the Staunton (Virginia) Music Festival.
Agitating farmer unions on Sunday remained firm on holding a tractor rally on the Republic Day and vowed to continue their stir till the agri laws are repealed, even as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged them to discuss alternatives to scrapping the legislation at the next meeting scheduled for January 19.

"We are prepared to sit in protest till May 2024... Our demand is that the three laws be taken back and the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP," Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters in Nagpur. The statement indicating little change in the unions' stand came ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on Monday on the issue of agri bills and ongoing protests on Delhi's borders for over 50 days.

The top court would also hear on Monday a plea of the central government, filed though the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march or any other kind of protest by farmers "which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations" of Republic Day on January 26.

Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border protest site, union leader Yogendra Yadav said, "We will carry out a tractor parade on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi on Republic Day. The parade will be very peaceful."

"There will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade. The farmers will put up the national flag on their tractors," he said. Stressing that the farmer unions should give up their stubborn stand after the apex court's stay on the laws on January 12, Agriculture Minister Tomar said they should come for a clause by clause discussion on Tuesday.

"Now that the Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of these laws, then there is no question of being stubborn," Tomar told reporters before leaving for his home constituency of Morena in Madhya Pradesh. The government wants farmer leaders to come for a clause by clause discussion at the next meeting on January 19. Except for the demand of repealing the laws, the government is ready to consider "seriously and with an open heart" other alternatives, he said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah too reached out, saying the Narendra Modi government is dedicated to farmers and the three central farm laws would ensure a manifold hike in their earnings.

Since coming to power, the Modi government had increased the budget for the farm sector and also the minimum support price (MSP) for various crops, he said at an event in Bagalkote district in Karnataka. "I want to say that if there is any big priority of the Narendra Modi government it is to double the farmers' income," he said.

The apex is also likely to take up the issue of a member recusing himself from the panel appointed by it to end the impasse between the agitating farmer unions and central government and may appoint another person in his place.

The committee has received the terms of reference and will begin its work from January 21, its member Anil Ghanwat said. "We are meeting on January 19 at the Pusa campus. Only members will meet to decide the future course of action," Ghanwat, President of Shetkari Sanghatana (Maharashtra), told PTI.

"One of the four members has backed out of the committee. If the apex court does not appoint a new member, the existing members will continue," he said. Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann had recused himself from the committee last week. Apart from Ghanwat, agri-economists Ashok Gulati and Pramod Kumar Joshi are the other panel members.

On Saturday, farmer union, Bhartiya Kisan Union Lokshakti, filed an affidavit requesting the top court to remove the remaining three members of the committee and select people who can do the job "on the basis of mutual harmony".

The farmers' body said the principle of natural justice is going to be violated as those appointed to the four-member committee "have already supported these laws". It has also sought dismissal of a plea of the central government, filed though the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march on January 26.

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, BKU leader Tikait noted that they had welcomed the SC's stay on the implementation of the farm laws, but said the committee formed by the apex court has members who "supported" the farm bills.

"We do not want to go before the committee formed by the court. The government has also said that the government and farmers will find a solution on this issue," he said. Dismissing allegations that the protest was being fuelled by "rich farmers", Tikait said people from villages and various outfits have joined the agitation.

"This is an ideological revolution that started from Delhi and will not fail. Farmers from villages do not want us to return until the three farm bills are taken back," he said. "The government is adamant on its stance of not withdrawing the bills and this agitation will continue for long," Tikait added.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi against the three laws -- the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.

Asked about the government holding parallel talks with protesting farmer unions after the setting up of the SC panel, its member Ghanwat said, "We have no issue if a solution is found and the protests end from either (efforts of) our panel or from the government's separate talks with the protesting farmer unions."

"Let (Government) them continue the discussion, we have been given a duty and we will focus on that," he added. So far, the government has held nine rounds of formal talks with 41 farmer unions but has failed to break the logjam as the latter have stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three Acts.

In the last meeting, the Centre had suggested that the unions constitute their own informal group to prepare a concrete proposal on the three farm laws for further discussion at their next meeting on January 19 to end the long-running protest at various Delhi borders.

Meanwhile, farmer union leader Darshan Pal Singh alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is filing cases against those who are part of the protest or supporting it. "All farmer unions condemn this," Pal said, referring to the NIA summons reportedly issued to a farmer union leader in a case related to the banned Sikhs For Justice outfit.

Asked about the issue, Tikait said, "Those who want to be part of the agitation must be ready for court cases, imprisonment and sealing of property." He said the farmers had to start the agitation as the opposition parties were weak. The Congress also alleged that the NIA is now being used against farmers and said they will not be cowed down by their notices.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala questioned the government's intention behind sending notices to farmers from agencies meant to probe terrorists.

Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers' income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislation would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and "mandi" (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Also read: COVID-19 vaccination Day 2: 2.25 lakh inoculated; 447 adverse events reported
Santa Coloma de GramenetThis Monday Catalonia will only receive about 30,000 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, half the doses to which the pharmacist and the Health Ministry committed themselves for each week. Specifically, 28,400 will arrive. The Health Department already expected the new shipment of vaccines to be significantly smaller than the previous two, which were 60,000 each, as the company announced on Friday that it would limit deliveries in Europe to make improvements in production capacity. Hours after Pfizer's announcement, at dusk, the Spanish government also warned that Spain would only receive 56% of the expected doses (67% if you count that you can get six doses out of each vial) and that this decision, which was not made by the executive, would reduce the forecasts and shipments of the regional executives.
Nuclear fusion,solar fuels, floating offshore nuclear plants, and microwave beaming. These are some of the esoteric and rather outrageous renewable energy ideas that scientists have proposed to help break our over-reliance on fossil fuels. Some like nuclear fusion are much further ahead than others after scientists last year kicked off the five-year assembly phase of the massive International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest fusion reactor, in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France.

And now you can add harvesting energy from black holes to that list as we kick-start missions to colonize Mars and other planets.

Fifty years ago, British mathematical physicist, Roger Penrose, proposed a seemingly absurd idea of how an alien society (or future humans) could harvest energy from a rotating black hole by dropping an object just outside its sphere of influence, also known as the ergosphere, where it could gain negative energy. Since then, nobody was able to verify the viability of this seemingly bizarre idea--that is, until last year when the University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy provided a nice proof of concept that demonstrates how the idea just might work.

Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could release energy through quantum mechanical emission, while Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek proposed electromagnetic torque as the main agent of energy extraction.

And now a new Columbia study has come up with yet another interesting idea to harvest black holes: Reconnection of magnetic field lines.

According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, rotating black holes possess enormous amounts of energy that might be available to be tapped.

Magnetic reconnection

Black holes have captured the imagination of astrophysicists ever since the first one was discovered in 1971--and for good reason. After all, they are some of the strangest and most fascinating objects in outer space.

Black holes represent the end-stage of the lifecycle of stars so massive that, once it's gone supernova, the core can no longer withstand its own gravity and collapses totally into a singularity--a single one-dimensional point of infinite density. This singularity sits inside a region called the event horizon--the point at which the gravity around the black hole is so strong, not even light-speed is sufficient to achieve escape velocity. Related: U.S. Shale Is Gaining Influence Over Oil Markets

Physicists Luca Comisso from Columbia University and Felipe Asenjo from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile say they have discovered a new way to harvest black holes by breaking and rejoining magnetic field lines near the event horizon. The scientists say that their theory shows that disconnecting and reconnecting magnetic field lines in just the right way can accelerate plasma particles surrounding the black hole to negative energies, thus allowing large amounts of energy to be extracted from the black hole.

Why it might work

Comisso and Asenjo's magnetic reconnection theory is built on the premise that reconnecting magnetic fields accelerates plasma particles in two different directions. The plasma flow that is pushed against the black hole's spin can escape the clutches of its super-powerful gravitational pull and release energy if the plasma particles swallowed by the black hole have negative energy.

Comisso has likened the process to a person losing weight by eating candy with negative calories, pointing out that black holes lose energy when they feast on negative-energy particles. The scientists say this can happen in a black hole's ergosphere, a region where the spacetime continuum is rotating so fast that every object spins in the same direction as the black hole. Magnetic reconnection in the ergosphere is so extreme that plasma particles are accelerated to velocities approaching the speed of light.

Asenjo, professor of physics at the Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, has explained that the high relative velocity between the captured and escaping plasma streams could allow massive amounts of energy to be extracted from the black hole.

Indeed, the researchers say that the process of plasma energization can reach an efficiency of 150%, with the efficiency exceeding 100% because black holes leak energy, which can be picked up for free by the plasma escaping from the black hole.

Holy grail of endless energy?

While this might sound like the stuff of science fiction, the process of harvesting energy from black holes as envisioned by Comisso and Asenjo is an ongoing process in a large number of black holes and is actually responsible for black hole flares--energy bursts powerful enough that the radiation can frequently be detected from Earth.

However, the scientists have conceded that it could be thousands or even millions of years before humans could figure out how to survive in the vicinity of black holes without needing to rely on energy from a nearby star.

Which is just as well, considering that our sun is about to make our planet a literal living hell 1-2 billion years from now.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], January 18 (ANI/NewsVoir): Incuspaze, a chain of premium coworking, and managed office space provider with a PAN India presence has announced the launch of their first centre in Vadodara in Alembic City and second in Gujarat. Currently, Incuspaze is present in 10 cities across 25 locations. The new centre in Vadodara is spread across an area of 50,000 sq. feet encompassing 1000 seats which will be rolled out in 2 phases. In the first phase, the company will go live with 500 seats along with dedicated private offices, meeting rooms, and conference rooms.

The pandemic has pushed people across the world to work remotely, whether from home or from coworking spaces. Many companies are even looking at using coworking spaces as their satellite offices to save on infrastructural and operational cost while keeping hygiene and wellness at priority. While there's enough study to show that remote working makes people more effective and constructive, there's also growing evidence that it is affecting their creativity, especially when their social circle has dissolved.

On the launch of Vadodara Centre Sanjay Chatrath, Managing Partner - India, Incuspaze said, "Last year was a major setback for commercial real estate industry as a whole, and coworking was not immune to it. But going against these odds we recently launched our first centre in Gujarat in Ahmedabad at Vijay Cross Road and were thrilled to see the response of Gujarat market where corporates are looking out for more flexible offices post-COVID."

Chatrath further added, "In Vadodara, we've collaborated with Alembic group to reshape and uplift the entire workspace ecosystem and to meet the rising demand of corporates for flexible offices. With this, we are on track to add 5 lakh sq. ft. by the end of 2021 in Gujarat. We are already in discussion with multiple asset owners for further expansion in Vadodara and Ahmedabad and new spaces in key cities like Surat and Rajkot."

Tier II cities in India are emerging markets and experiencing surge in demand for coworking spaces due to rising number of home-grown start-ups and corporates shifting to "work-near-home" ideology.

While talking about the Collaboration, Udit Amin, Director, Alembic Real Estate, said, "We are happy and proud to have Incuspaze in Alembic City. They underscore our Park's position as a preferred location for leading corporations within Vadodara and drive our commitment to providing integrated end-to-end business space solutions to companies. This collaboration is a highly synergistic one that aligns with our promise to create a landmark tech park, offering smart services for our clients."

Amin added, "The outlook on modern flexible workspaces is quite bright and encouraging. We believe the demand for co-working and managed office spaces will improve further as it enhances employee engagement and community experience for companies. We look forward to a lasting partnership with Incuspaze, and wish them the very best."

Post-pandemic, Corporates are consolidating their real estate and seeking to have more versatile space with less risk and minimum investment while giving the flexibility to employees to work near home. With Incuspaze's multi-city presence and offerings they will be able to leverage on cost and flexibility to meet their new business needs while reducing their operational cost by 30-40% at the same time.

The segment of flexible workspaces will continue to grow and will contribute approx. 25% of the overall commercial real estate demand in 2021. In contributing to this Incuspaze is all set to launch two new centres - Kochi, which is already 50 per cent leased out and Trivandrum, at Aspinwall House. Apart from this, they have also signed 3 new centres in Delhi/NCR spread across 2 lac sq. ft. combined launching by end of January 2021.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)




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SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Reply has signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services to develop industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Automotive, Retail, Energy, and Telco customers. Through the agreement, the Reply Group of companies will work with organizations of virtually all sizes and allow them to deliver consistent improvements on their business processes using advanced AWS technologies. Andy Isherwood, Managing Director EMEA, Amazon Web Services, said: 'Through this new agreement, Reply's existing customers are set to benefit from the added investment that both our organisations will make. For new customers, it gives them an AWS Premier Consulting Partner they can turn to with deep expertise in AWS and the ability to help their organization accelerate innovation and digital transformation.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Donald Trumps standing army of QAnons, white supremacists and horned creatures who desecrated the US Capitol lived up to their sometime reputation as deplorables. Or at least gullible types who dont get enough sunlight.

They are also victims.

Trump supporters at the riot at the US Capitol. Credit:AP

In fact its hard to think of a constituency more abused by the psychopathic conman who at the time of writing is still President of the United States than his most loyal supporters. And a hollowed-out Republican Party has at best acquiesced in their radicalisation; only 10 of their lawmakers in the House of Representatives were prepared to defend truth in voting to impeach Trump for inciting insurrection  197 voted nay.

The partys predicament should galvanise the Coalition to weed out the Trumpians in their midst before they strangle conservatisms soul in Australia too.
THE United States has dropped its bid to extradite a Dublin computer hacker for the theft of $2m in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after his conviction here, the High Court was told today.

With the withdrawal of the extradition request, Conor Freeman is no longer facing a maximum possible sentence of 108 years in prison after a sentence of two years and 11 months was imposed on him here.

Siobhan Ni Chulachain, for the Attorney General, told High Court judge Mr Justice Paul Burns today that Freeman was already serving a sentence in Ireland that arose from the same offences and had not lodged any appeal.

Freeman (21), of Glenageary Court, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, was jailed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in November for just under three years, after pleading guilty to knowingly engaging in the possession of the proceeds of crime  namely 142.75682712 Bitcoin.

Ms Ni Chulachain told Mr Justice Burns that she was handing a US diplomatic note into the court confirming the formal withdrawal of Freemans extradition warrant of May 20, 2019.

Ms Ni Chulachain said that because Freeman had been convicted and sentenced in the interim and that no appeal had been filed on either his or the DPPs behalf, the US no longer sought his surrender.

The surrender of Freeman, who appeared by video-link from Mountjoy Prison, had been sought on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and four counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft in 2018.

Had he been convicted in the US, Freeman was facing a maximum of 108 years in prison.

Mr Paul Carroll SC, defending Freeman, had previously told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court there was an expectation that, because of his clients co-operation with authorities in Ireland and the US, the extradition request would be withdrawn.

Freeman, who was described in that court as a loner, had pleaded guilty to stealing $100,000 in cryptocurrency from Darran Marble on May 15, 2018, stealing cryptocurrencies with an approximate value of $1,921,335, from Seth Sharpiro on May 16, 2018, and stealing cryptocurrencies with an approximate value of $167,622.22 from Micheal Templeman on May 18, 2018.

Furthermore, Freeman entered guilty pleas to three counts of dishonestly operating a computer to make a gain on dates between May 15 and May 18, 2018. He had no previous convictions.

Passing sentence, Judge Martin Nolan said the crime involved guile and deception and a custodial sentence was warranted despite the mitigation in order to punish the accused, to deter him and to deter others.

The judge said there was almost perfect mitigation in the case and the mitigating factors included Freemans guilty plea, his co-operation, his youth and the fact he had no previous convictions.

Judge Nolan sentenced Freeman to three years imprisonment but reduced the sentence to two years and 11 months imprisonment to give him credit for time he has already spent in custody.

Freeman was identified by US Homeland Security as having taken part in the thefts and five of Freemans co-accused are before the courts in the United States.

In May 2019, Freeman was arrested at his home in Dun Laoghaire on foot of a warrant issued by US authorities. Following his arrest, Freeman handed over what remained of his share from the theft to gardai, which, due to the increase in value of Bitcoin in the intervening period, was then worth over $2m.

US authorities had alleged that members of an online group calling itself The Community conspired to hack numerous targets with the objective of stealing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, between February 2018 and May 2018.

According to the extradition warrant issued by the US Department of Justice, authorities identified four attacks, in which Freeman allegedly participated, that resulted in the theft of cryptocurrency valued at $2,187,977.

The warrant stated that Freeman and five others were indicted by a grand jury in the eastern district of Michigan on charges of conspiracy to commit wire-fraud, aiding and abetting wire-fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft on April 18, 2019.

Members of the The Community allegedly specialised in a technique called SIM Hijacking or SIM Swapping, according to the warrant. This technique involves stealing identities by compromising a targets mobile phone provider or gaining control of the targets mobile phone number, it adds.

Once these individuals controlled a targets mobile phone number, they leveraged it to compromise the targets email and other online accounts, with the goal of eventually gaining control and stealing the targets cryptocurrency, the warrant states.

In May 2018, a member of The Community involved in these attacks was arrested in Michigan. This individual co-operated with US authorities, who gained access to his computers, including records of online chats between this subject and others.

Review of the chats revealed an individual identifying himself as Conor, who allegedly played a significant role in numerous attacks by The Community, the warrant stated.

Investigations revealed that Conor was Conor Freeman, which was substantiated by linking IP addresses used by Conor to an Irish mobile phone and residential internet service providers.

The first five counts that Freeman had been sought for carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison per count while the final four counts carried a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, consecutive to the underlying felony.
Nearly two million vaccines are locked up in different storage in California remain unused while the COVID-19 death rate in the state continues to spike.

Skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in California

California remains the state in the country with the highest number of COVID-19 infections and the second state with the highest death toll. According to Worldometers, California has recorded more than 2.9 million COVID-19 infections with over 33,000 deaths.

While the number of infections and the death toll continues to increase in the state, nearly two million vaccines are locked up in different cold storage across the state remain unused.

According to a report in ABC News, more Californians are now dying due to COVID-19. The state has recorded 525 deaths every day. Despite this, vaccine distribution in the different counties in California which are heavily impacted remains very low.

In another report in San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Clara County asked for 100,000 doses to ramp up vaccine distribution but the state offered only a fraction of that amount: 6,000 doses.

The report also noted that California has among the lower rates of vaccine administration in the country, with only 38% of the 3.1 million doses delivered to the state actually being given so far. This means that close to 2 million doses are apparently stored in freezers and awaiting recipients.

Read also: Los Angeles Becomes First County in US to Reach 1 Million COVID-19 Cases

Method of vaccine distribution in California

The slow distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the different counties in California could be associated with the state's method.

With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in California, the state is expected to have a faster distribution of vaccines.

According to a Daily Wire, here is how the state distributes the vaccines:

The state has 58 local health departments and three city health departments. Sometimes the local health department schedules vaccine appointments but private providers also offer vaccines.

According to the California Department of Public Health, they do not ever possess the vaccines. Instead, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses are sent to the county health departments and large health care providers.

Additionally, the counties and big health systems vaccine order from the state, but these requests will be transferred to the federal government.

It is also the federal government that decides how many doses will be distributed in the states. After it, they will direct the manufacturers to deliver the doses to the state.

However, the state has provided little transparency about the number of doses delivered to and administered by each provider.

That makes it difficult to pinpoint where exactly the unused doses are. This also means that some counties are unaware of how many vaccines the private providers have obtained.

There should be an efficient way to distribute the vaccines in the different counties in California most especially in Los Angeles which has already reached more than one million infections.

Public health officials are also worried because their hospitals are almost at full capacity and the only way to stop this situation is to increase vaccination.


In early 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the United States, impacting the lives of all Americans. In response, Congress passed a massive health and economic relief bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).

The CARES Act included $150 billion in direct aid to state and local governments. Money that was intended to help support state governments as they responded to the healthcare and financial hardships faced by citizens.

Thus far, Alabama has missed the mark in using CARES funds to provide direct assistance to struggling Alabamians in an effective and timely manner, choosing instead to feed government and provide narrowly targeted aid to private organizations. With the CARES Act state spending deadline extended through 2021, the state should use the more than $270 million left to help its people, not further grow government.

The passage of the CARES Act put an additional $1.8 billion in Alabamas government coffers overnight. The money flowed from the federal government to states immediately because there was an imminent need for aid. Because of state-mandated business shutdowns, unemployment was on the rise and many Alabamians were struggling.

But instead of quickly distributing aid to citizens, lawmakers began weeks of arguing over who could spend the money and how it should be spent. Regardless of the need for immediate action, the state legislature remained absent until May 4, 2020. Eventually, Governor Ivey and the legislature reached an agreement on how the $1.8 billion in funds would be distributed. Despite the legislatures constitutionally mandated power of the purse, lawmakers ceded control of the funds to the governor who identified 10 purposes that the money could be used for.

This was the first of several missteps.

With nearly total control of CARES Act funding, Governor Ivey was still unable to quickly send relief to businesses and citizens. The state spent almost nothing until August 2020, when about $200 million was released from the states Coronavirus Relief Fund. Alabamas unemployment rate peaked near 14 percent in April. By August the rate was under 6 percent, not back down to the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5 percent, but steadily improving. State relief spending came too late to help Alabamians when they needed it most.

Through the end of 2020, Alabamas CARES Act spending rapidly increased, totaling $1.35 billion. But as spending ramped up, far too little of it made it back to citizens. As of January 1, 2021, two days after the original CARES spending deadline, just 23.7 percent ($313.2 million) had been distributed to the private sector. Much of that spending came in the form of $15,000 grants to businesses, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations.

While many organizations faced hardships because of the pandemic, small grants will not significantly help most of them. The grants were poorly targeted. The application deadline was less than two weeks after the grant programs were announced and awards were made on a first come first served basis with the state having sole power to pick the winners and losers.

Of the remaining funds spent in 2020, some went to legitimate purposes, such as healthcare providers, increased COVID-19 testing, and to enhance remote learning capabilities for Alabama students.

However, far too much of the money went back to state government. Nearly 30 percent went towards reimbursing state government for expenses claimed to be related to the pandemic. The legislature, which hasnt met since mid-May, made nearly $1 million in equipment purchases that were reimbursed with CARES Act funds.

The state used another $300 million to replenish Alabamas depleted Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. When added to the nearly $400 million in funds used to reimburse state agencies, 52 percent of CARES Act funding went back to state government in 2020.

Using CARES Act funding to provide unemployment benefits to citizens who remain without work directly because of the pandemic is acceptable. But if the governor and state health officer had not forced businesses to close, unemployment likely would not have risen as sharply, and the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund would not have become depleted as quickly.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem chose not to shut down state businesses. As a result, unemployment increases were not as dramatic, rising to an 11 percent peak in April. By November 2020, South Dakotas unemployment rate was lower than it was last March.

If Alabama had kept all businesses operating, the impacts to the states unemployment rate could have been lessened. Governor Ivey has since said that it was a mistake to allow businesses deemed essential, such as all state government jobs, to remain open while shuttering those that state officials considered non-essential.

Nothing can be done to change how nearly $1.5 billion in CARES Act funding has already been spent by the state. It should have been spent faster and more effectively, but that doesnt mean that all is lost.

Over $270 million remains in the states coronavirus relief fund. The governor and legislature must work together to ensure that money is used in a way that will have the greatest impact on all Alabamians. The Alabama Policy Institute has long supported using CARES Act funding to provides an extended sales tax holiday to citizens. Not only would a sales tax holiday positively impact individual bottom lines, but it would also help local businesses as they continue to recover from the pandemic.

No matter how the state chooses to use the rest of its CARES money, it should directly help the people, not further feed government.

Justin Bogie serves as the Alabama Policy Institutes Senior Director of Fiscal Policy. API is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to free markets, limited government, and strong families, learn more at alabamapolicy.org.
Agartala: Congress has called for a 12-hour state-bandh on January 19 to protest an attack on state party chief Pijush Kanti Biswas`s vehicle, which they alleged was done by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers. The attack allegedly took place in front of Police at Bisalghar in Sepahijala District on Sunday.

Congress also appealed to all the opposition parties, BJP ally IPFT and BJP MLAs protesting against to support the bandh. "It was a murder attempt. We don`t support violence and are protesting peacefully. People are supporting our bandh," a Congress worker said.

Congress workers had gathered outside a party office in Agartala today amid heavy security.

Senior party leader and spokesperson Harekrishna Bhowmik addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan here alleged that the attack was organised by the BJP Yuva Morcha State President Nabadal Banik under the instigation of the state chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

"Biswas Ji, also a renowned lawyer at the High Court of Tripura, had in advance informed the senior police officials about the program and even got personal guards and police escort. But, in front of them, the attack took place in which he and three other people sustained injuries," alleged Bhowmik.

Three others who were injured along with Biswas who had some head injuries and rushed to Bishalghar Hospital for treatment. A case has been registered with the Bishalghar Police Station.
A young mother has revealed how a Deliveroo courier delivered a box of doughnuts but then helped himself to her expensive trainers which she left on the front doorstep as part of her efforts to make her home Covid safe.

Alessia Leo, 28, had ordered a box of 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts last Saturday to her home in Worcester Park, Surrey, for herself and her twin boys, Luciano and Santino, two.

The alleged theft was captured on video in which a man clutching a box approaches the front door, picks up a pair of trainers and briefly examines them before putting them out of sight.

He then rings the front doorbell, hands the box over, saying 'thank you' and 'goodbye' before turning around and picking them up from where he had put them as he makes his way into the night.

Alessia Leo, 28, ordered a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts last to her home in Worcester Park, Surrey, last weekend for herself and her twin boys, Luciano and Santino, two, when the odd encounter took place

The Deliveroo driver appears to pick up the pair of trainers from outside Ms Leo's home, moving them elsewhere before ringing her doorbell

Ms Leo, who is an NHS 111 advisor, said that she only realised that her trainers had gone missing after opening the front door 30 minutes after the delivery.

After searching for them she then checked her video doorbell only to discover what had happened to them.

She said: 'I was shocked and disgusted. The doughnuts cost me 14 and then I had to pay a Deliveroo charge for getting them delivered but I didn't expect to be the victim of a theft. The Krispy Kremes were delicious but they have cost me a lot of money.

'Sadly, these kinds of things are increasingly happening because so many more people are ordering food to their homes because of the lockdown.'

She added: 'I'm a single mum and these trainers cost me more than 100, which is quite a lot of money to me. I live in a very quiet cul-de-sac and all the neighbours know each other so I was sure it wasn't any of them who would have stolen them.'

Ms Leo said that she leaves all shoes on her front doorstep over concerns about bringing coronavirus germs into her home as one of her twins, Santino, suffers from an immune system deficiency.

The Deliveroo driver was seen on Alessia's doorbell camera picking up her trainers which were outside her front door before placing them away from her house

The delivery driver rings the bell and hands over the box of Krispy Kreme and saying 'thank you' and 'goodbye'

She said: 'I've been taking lots of precautions because of Santino's condition and since the start of the pandemic leave all outside shoes at the front doorstep.

'What also worries me is that the Deliveroo man did not have any gloves on and was not wearing his mask properly. I think the company need to make sure that all their couriers are doing their job within Covid guidelines and not stealing from customers.

'It makes you wonder what kind of people they are employing and the type of people who are coming to our homes to deliver food.

'Because people are not going out as much and restaurants and cafes are closed, the food delivery business has really taken off, but the companies need to do a lot more to tackle any problems with their staff.'

Since uncovering the video, Ms Leo has contacted Deliveroo but is still waiting to hear back from the company.

Deliveroo has also been contacted for comment by MailOnline.
Northwood University, in partnership with Western International College, has announced the establishment of its new International Program Center in the RAKEZ Academic Zone in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Northwood University is set to strengthen their international presence through its bachelor of business administration degree program offerings.

Opening in spring 2021, the International Program Center will attract a diverse set of students from Asia, Europe and Africa, in addition to students already residing in the UAE. Students can choose to study one of four business programs with majors in management, marketing, finance, or hospitality and receive a bachelors degree upon completion.

The United States has maintained friendly relations with the UAE for decades, and it is a safe place to travel and study, which makes it such an attractive higher education location, said Dr. Mamiko Reeves, assistant vice president and dean of International Programs at Northwood University. The UAE is becoming a center for international education, and Northwood is the first American university to establish a presence in the RAKEZ Academic Zone. We are truly delighted with this partnership which expands our global footprint.

The UAE borders Saudi Arabia and Oman and consists of seven emirates. The RAKEZ Academic Zone is one of the specialized zones of the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ), which is dedicated to attracting and supporting qualified educational institutions and service providers that are committed to delivering market-driven, educational, training and professional development services. Currently, it is home to 10 international universities.

Establishing an international partnership in the UAE advances our beliefs about entrepreneurialism and the free-enterprise society to even more students and nations, said Northwood President, Kent MacDonald. Theres much to learn and leverage in our global economy and together with WINC and the RAKEZ Academic Zone, we are excited to introduce more students to Northwood values and ideas. Students will experience the same level of quality education that we offer at our main campus, particularly the experiential learning that our curricula bring to the educational landscape.

We are glad to welcome yet another renowned institution to our growing family of qualified education providers in the RAKEZ Academic Zone ecosystem. Northwood University is ranked as a Best Value Business School in the state of Michigan, USA, and we are confident that their offerings will add value to our goal of further elevating the standard of education here in Ras Al Khaimah, the UAE and the broader Gulf region, said Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of RAKEZ. But of course, our work does not end here. You can expect to see us entering more strategic partnerships with credible institutions that support more students and professionals in their advancement.

This will be the fifth Northwood University International Program Center, with others located in Sri Lanka, China, and Switzerland. Northwood also has international affiliations with many educational institutions including those located in Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the Philippines. To learn more about Northwood Universitys international programming, go to international.northwood.edu.

-- Processed by Mitchell Kukulka, Mitchell.Kukulka@mdn.net
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 18:09:41|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tensions swelled in the Arab world 10 years ago in the name of "Arab Spring," and the region has since undergone major changes, though many countries were still reeling from a heavy blow from the movement.

After the wave of anti-government protests and violence, some countries in the region have slid into civil wars, with unrest and scourges largely hurting ordinary people, while some others are still struggling with political divisions, ongoing violence as well as a weak economy.

In Syria, a scholar told Xinhua that the war and destruction in the country have become a major disaster for his homeland and his own life.

"On the economic level, there has been a sharp decline of the Syrian economy as we witnessed a steep plunge in the value of the Syrian pound as well as the economic and investment situation in general," said Mohammad Al-Omari, a Syrian researcher and writer.

Instead of supporting Syria's development, the U.S. government has abused its power to impose a series of economic sanctions on Syria, even when the country is trying to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

"On the social level, we have found that there is a change in the Syrian demography as a result of the war and some foreign interference in the fragmenting Syria," he added.

Al-Omari criticized Washington's policies for heavily worsening the situation in the country. "The United States has hindered the political solutions to the crisis through supporting the Syrian opposition groups outside Syria to not reach a solution with the Syrian state," he noted.

In Libya, some citizens said that they suffered significant difficulties in their lives after the widespread chaos started in 2011. Libyan citizen Amin Ahmad said major changes have happened after that year in terms of economy and living conditions in the North African country.

"Young people do not have big roles in major institutions. Young people have no jobs and no income. The living situation is difficult and does not serve the young people's ambitions in terms of education and capacity building," he said.

The Mediterranean country has been ripped apart by years-long conflicts and civil wars, with youth unemployment rate remaining at an extremely high level and millions of people being forced to leave their homes.

In Tunisia, "the revolution did not achieve what we had desired," Ayten Laama, a Tunisian correspondent, told Xinhua. According to figures from the World Bank, the country's gross domestic product has decreased to 38.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, a roughly 15 percent fall compared to that in the year of 2011.

"The number of unemployed people by August 2020 is nearly 750,000, and the purchasing power of Tunisian citizens is 50 percent less than that in 2010," Laama said. "It's a sad thing that made our view of the future blurry." Enditem
A travelling salesman in China has been linked to 102 COVID-19 infections after giving public lectures while carrying the virus without showing symptoms.

The man, who has been dubbed a 'super-spreader', had held the talks at health salons popular with elderly citizens before the cluster infections erupted in the north-eastern province of Jilin, state media reported.

China reported more than 100 new COVID-19 cases for the sixth consecutive day on Monday. Rising infections in the northeast are fuelling concern of another wave when hundreds of millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

China's National Health Commission reported 109 new COVID-19 cases for Sunday, unchanged from the day earlier. The above picture a worker sprays disinfectant to sanitise the public area of a residential community on January 15 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province

Tough new control in Gongzhuling, a city of around 1million residents in Jilin Province in the northeast, brings the total number of people under lockdown to more than 29million.

According to the Global Times newspaper, at least 11 regions in the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin have imposed lockdown measures and introduced extensive testing programmes to combat fresh outbreaks.

Most Jilin cases have been traced back to an individual known by his surname Lin.

Officials said that Mr Lin, born in 1976, had travelled to and from neighbouring Heilongjiang Province, the site of a previous cluster of infections.

Mr Lin was recorded as one of the seven asymptomatic cases - people infected with the virus but not yet showing symptoms - by the Jilin Provincial Health Commission on January 13.

A so-called coronavirus 'super-spreader' has been linked to 102 infections after giving public lectures while carrying the virus without showing symptoms. Pictured, workers in protective suits prepare to spray disinfectant in Shijiazhuang's Gaocheng district on January 15

At least 11 regions in the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin have imposed lockdown measures and introduced extensive testing programmes to combat fresh outbreaks. Two medical workers are pictured walking on the street of Harbin, Heilongjiang, on January 15

According to Xinhua, Mr Lin had held lectures in two health parlours in Gongzhuling and Tonghua before the cluster infections emerged in the two cities, as well as a third Jilin city called Songyuan.

The majority of the infected people did not display symptoms, and many of them were senior citizens over the age of 60, said Xinhua, which dubbed Mr Lin's health lectures 'super-spreading events'.

Super-spreading is known to occur in care homes, hospitals and religious places - but the scientists say other unusual events can lead to clusters of cases.

China's National Health Commission reported 109 new COVID-19 cases for Sunday, unchanged from the day earlier. Of the 93 local infections, 54 were in Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.

Hebei authorities vowed to punish lockdown violations, including the illegal staging of weddings or funerals, the Xinhua news agency said.

Jilin province also reported a record 30 new cases, underscoring the risk of new clusters emerging.

Daily increases in infections remain a fraction of what China saw at the height of the outbreak in early 2020, but officials are concerned infections could spread rapidly during the Lunar New Year holiday. A man is pictured undergoing a COVID-19 test in Shijiazhuang on January 16

Despite travel restrictions, the China Railway Corporation expects about 296million passenger trips during the Lunar New Year break. Pictured, security staff checks cabin crew and travellers' temperature and QR codes at an airport in Harbin, Heilongjiang, on January 15

China has two domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines and more in trials. Its vaccination programme started in July for emergency use and more than 10million doses have been given.

Daily increases in infections remain a fraction of what China saw at the height of the outbreak in early 2020, but officials are concerned infections could spread rapidly during the Lunar New Year holiday in less than a month.

Despite travel restrictions, the China Railway Corporation expects about 296million passenger trips during the Lunar New Year break, compared with 410million in 2019.

Shanghai is one of many cities providing financial incentives for migrant workers not to travel home.

The manufacturing hub of Yiwu on the east coast is also introducing subsidies, including rent reductions, to encourage workers to stay put during the holiday. Tianjin, home to 15million people, said employees would get a one-off payment of 300 yuan (34) if they stay in the city.

Millions were lining up in subzero temperatures to receive a second round of coronavirus tests in Hebei Province. This picture shows residents wait to be tested in Shijiazhuang on Tuesday

Women wearing face masks ride on a motorcycle during rush hour in Wuhan on Wednesday

Cainiao, the delivery arm of Alibaba, also said it would provide more than 200million yuan in subsidies to ensure that 'people move less, goods move more' during the holiday.

Statistics bureau chief Ning Jizhe said the overall economic impact of the COVID-19 resurgence remained controllable.

But though Xinhua warned local governments not to 'cry wolf', many have been introducing new curbs.

Beijing, which reported two new local infections, now requires travellers from abroad to undergo health monitoring for seven additional days following 21 days of medical observation.

The city of Gongzhuling said it was 'strictly forbidden' for anyone to go out unless they are scheduled for a COVID-19 test at a designated site.

Xinhua said the new clusters were caused by social activities in rural areas and a lack of awareness at the grassroots level, creating 'hotbeds' for rapid spread.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China is 89,336, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,635.

The data excludes cases from Macau and Hong Kong, which are Chinese cities but report new cases independently, and self-ruled Taiwan which China claims as its own.

World Health Organization (WHO) representatives said on Friday that its investigation team in China had begun discussions with counterparts there via video conference as they remained in quarantine.
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Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
One-quarter of new apartment owners in Seoul's eye-wateringly expensive Gangnam area have their registered residence outside Seoul, which suggests they are either speculators or absentee landlords or both.

The government has rolled out an endless string of draconian measures to curb real-estate speculation, but the rich seem unfazed.

In the Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa districts in southern Seoul that make up greater Gangnam, it has become practically impossible to get a home loan and property taxes are sky-high. But demand has actually increased.

Flush with cash due to rising property values in areas outside of Seoul, more and more people in the provinces seem to be buying themselves a nest egg in the capital.


Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
ROME, N.Y. (UPDATED)  Rome police were called to a home on Third Street last week, where officers say a resident was cooking a canine carcass outside on a makeshift grill.

Police had received an animal cruelty complaint on Wednesday, Jan. 13, and responded to the residence around 4 p.m.

Officers say the resident was cooperative with police, claiming the animal was a coyote, not a domestic dog. It is currently open hunting season for coyotes in New York, which runs from Oct. 1 to March 28. However, a small game hunting license is required.

Due to its condition, police were unable to tell what type of animal it was.

Animal Control was called in to assist, and seized the animal. The investigation was then turned over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

The carcass was sent to Cornell University to be tested to see if they could determine the animals species and cause of death. CNY SPCA Chief Investigator William Pulaski says it could take at least a month to get the test results.

Slaughtering domesticated animals for food is a violation of Section 96-E of the Agriculture & Markets Law, which states:

"It shall be unlawful for any slaughterhouse, abattoir or other place or establishment, or for any person, to slaughter or butcher domesticated dog (canis familiaris) or domesticated cat (felis catus or domesticus) to create food, meat or meat products for human or animal consumption."

Individuals can face civil penalties, including a fine of up to $1,000 for first violations, and up to $25,000 for subsequent violations.

Animal Control did search a list of lost dogs in the area from the past 12 months, and did not find any domestic dogs matching the size and weight of this animal.

The investigation into this case is ongoing.


Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami has responded to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's direct and official statement on him and Republic. Read here:

"It is interesting to see the Pakistan government conspiracy against Republic come out in the open now. Imran Khan, the ISI appointed puppet of a terrorist state, has been releasing statements against my network and me and has also made the Pakistan foreign ministry do the same.

Let's be clear about some facts here. Indias intention to hit back at Pakistan after the Pulwama attack was an officially stated position. There was no doubt in any nationalist Indian's mind that we would hit back. Which we did.

Imran Khan tried to deny Balakot but later had to acknowledge it. There was nothing false-flag about Balakot, it was a direct and necessary response to Pakistani terrorism.

What shocks me is the calibration between the Vadra Congress and anti-Republic media, to assist the Pakistani narrative. Every Indian wanted revenge for the Pulwama terrorist attack, so for some in the Indian media to question why Republic expected the same is shameless opportunism. Only, it hurts national interest, when the anti-Republic channels become force multipliers for the ISI and Imran Khan.

Republic has and will single-handedly destroy the Pakistan government narrative. Imran Khan is on the edge because he cannot handle the truth. He's looking shaky and expects his apologists in India to come to his rescue.

What has become obvious now is a Pakistan hand in the conspiracy against Republic. Republic is the inconvenient hurdle in their designs against India. If the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan have come out in support of the malicious police action against the Republic, then nothing much is left to be said.

There is now overwhelming public support that we are receiving. Every minute there are messages, and calls in our newsrooms. To all those contacting us with their messages of support, a big hug, and thank you. We will fight this together and win this together!

Satyameva Jayate. Bharat Mata ki Jai. Jai Hind!"
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The arrest was as swift as it was brazen: carted off into custody as soon as he touched down on Russian soil, Alexei Navalnys fate rests once more with his nemesis, Vladimir Putin.

So was it an act of supreme courage, or foolhardiness, that led him back into the bears grasp?

Navalny now faces the possibility of serving three and a half years behind bars for violating parole on trumped up charges of fraud and money-laundering.

The reason he violated that parole, of course, was because he was fighting for his life after agents of the FSB security service  the main heir to the Soviet Unions feared secret police, the KGB  tried to poison him with the novichok nerve agent.

The operation was botched and, thanks to brilliant work by German doctors, Navalny survived and the plot was exposed.

The arrest was as swift as it was brazen: carted off into custody as soon as he touched down on Russian soil. Pictured: Alexei Navalny with his wife Yulia at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday where he was arrested after returning to Russia from Germany

Alexei Navalnys fate rests once more with his nemesis, Vladimir Putin (pictured)

On the face of it, then, Navalnys return to Russsia is reckless indeed. After all, he and his beloved wife Yulia could have stayed in safety in Germany, a country which had taken them to its heart after he was flown there for treatment following the attempt on his life.

So why did he risk his safety and liberty once more? The explanation is simple: exile spells irrelevance.

Navalny knows that his presence in Russia, even in a prison cell, highlights the fragility of Putins grip on power.

The huge police operation surrounding his return shows he is right. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is prepared to incur big political costs now to forestall an even bigger risk later: Navalny on the loose, lambasting the regime for its greed and misrule.

Navalny now faces the possibility of serving three and a half years behind bars for violating parole on trumped up charges of fraud and money-laundering

It knows as well as anyone that the charge on which Navalny has been arrested doesnt hold water. But the Kremlin is banking on the fact that, with the pandemic distracting our decision-makers and the US in disarray after the storming of the Capitol, it has little to lose on the international stage by flouting so brazenly the democratic norms relating to human rights.

Indeed, the Covid pandemic appears to have had the effect of making it open season on the worlds most sinister strongmen to wage war on their enemies within.

China, of course, is one of the main offenders. Not only is it stamping on any signs of dissent in Hong Kong via its malevolent new security law, but waging what amounts to a campaign of cultural genocide against its Muslim Uighur minority.

Nor are the Cold War powers the only offenders; tin-pot dictators from Venezuela to Zimbabwe seem to be operating virtually unchecked as the democratic powers take their eye off the ball.

Appeasers may throw up their arms and ask: what can we do against those who have contempt for democracy and the rule of law?

But the fact is we do have the power to crack down on dirty money and the Western bankers, lawyers and accountants who handle it. To deal with Putin we could impose visa bans on all the people involved in Navalnys persecution.

But the bleak truth is that we are in disarray. While we flounder, our foes make hay. And brave people like Alexei Navalny pay the price.
(Natural News) Standing in brave opposition to the political establishment on Wednesday, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado blasted the Democrats for impeaching President Donald Trump over political violence at the Capitol when many of them, including Kamala Harris, helped bail out the left-wing rioters that destroyed America back in the summer in honor of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Boebert asked Nancy Pelosi why her party felt that it was okay to encourage and normalize violence between the end of May through Jan. 5, only to switch the narrative on Jan. 6 following the false flag siege at the Capitol building.

Wheres the accountability for the left after encouraging and normalizing violence? Boebert stated. Rather than helping American people in this time, we start impeachments that further divide our country. I call bull crap.

Truth be told, the lefts goading of political violence extends back years, as all throughout the Obama years it was considered both acceptable and virtuous to destroy property, assault people, and engage in domestic terrorism to fight systemic racism. Now, it is suddenly not okay to protest a fraudulent election, as the Democrats apparently consider a mostly peaceful protest to be insurrection.

The hypocrisy is disgusting, tweeted a Trump supporter named David Leatherwood. Democrat leaders have been inciting, enabling, and applauding political violence for (at least) the past four years. Dont apologize to these people, they are absolute monsters.

To keep up with the latest news about hypocritical Democrats and their newfound concern for the enforcement of law and order  but only when Republicans get out of line  be sure to check out Trump.news.

Imagine the outrage if Republicans set up a bailout fund for the Capitol protesters?

Back when Kamala Harris and her allies announced the establishment of bail funds for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa rioters, the mainstream media called her brave and bold. Now, we can only imagine what the response would be if Republicans set up a bailout fund for the Capitol protesters.

Not only did Harris set up a bail fund for leftist agitators, she also called for more protest violence to end the type of racism that leads to criminals like George Floyd, who actually died from a fentanyl overdose, getting arrested for criminal behavior.

Harris also called for supporters of a child rapist to post bail so he could get back out on the streets to engage in even more pedophilia  so stunning and brave!

Meanwhile, the left is honed in on persecuting anyone who was spotted in our nations capital on Jan. 6, regardless of whether they actually invaded the Capitol building or not. Merely supporting President Trump while opposing fraudulent elections is now considered by the left to be treason.

Rep. Kat Cammack, another member of Congress who voiced opposition to Trumps second impeachment, tweeted that if only Pelosi had cared as much about helping struggling Americans as she does about punishing the president for trying to salvage free and fair elections, then the country would not have had to wait six months for a piddly $600 relief check from the Treasury.

Democrats have had articles of impeachment pre-written for every possible situation, wrote one Twitter user in response to Cammacks tweet.

She doesnt care about the people that put her there, wrote another about Pelosi. She is driven by vengeance and she thinks she is bigger than life. Power got to her head. At 80 years old you would expect someone to be wiser and more compassionate. God only knows when you get older you need to reflect.

Was $600 and at least we got rid of Trump enough to pay everyones rent? joked yet another.

Sources for this article include:

100percentfedup.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
New South Wales reported zero locally-acquired cases of coronavirus on Monday.

Eight new cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to 8pm last night and there were 8,773 tests conducted in the state.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian previously urged more people to get tested after six new cases were discovered in the state on Sunday.

She urged more testing especially in areas where there have been recent cases such as Auburn, Berala, western Sydney, south-west Sydney, the Northern Beaches and Wollongong.

Zero new locally acquired Covid cases were reported in NSW on Monday while eight were found in hotel quarantine (pictured: Nail Technician Lily Nguyen is seen wearing a mask and face shield at the Depot Nail Bar in Sydney)

Queensland has given NSW 10 days to track down the sources of any unlinked Covid cases or risk a prolonged border closure.

The Sunshine State also reported zero new local Covid cases on Monday.

Under Queensland's border rules a declared hotspot must have 28 consecutive days without any unlinked cases before the quarantine restrictions for travellers is eased.

The hotspot declaration for Sydney is to be reviewed by Queensland's Chief Health Officer at the end of the month.

The six cases in Sydney from Sunday have been linked to the Berala bottle shop cluster and further contact tracing is underway.

A renewed testing push was sparked after six new cases were recorded in the state on Sunday (pictured is a woman in Sydney's Circular Quay on Thursday)

As of Monday there are 97 active Covid cases in the state being treated by NSW Health.

Dr Jeremy McAnulty from NSW Health said testing numbers had dropped from 12,764 tests reported on Saturday to 8,773 on Sunday which was of concern.

'NSW Health renews calls for people to get tested if they are experiencing even the mildest of symptoms and self-isolate until a negative result is received,' he said on Monday.

Alerts were also issued on Sunday about a Centrelink, a hospital and medical centre in western Sydney attended by infected cases last week, along with several train routes.

Western Sydney train alerts Warwick Farm to Auburn: January 14, 2:20 - 2:56pm Auburn to Warwick Farm: January 14, 8:27 - 8:58pm Auburn to Warwick Farm, January 15, 1:44 - 2:16pm Warwick Farm to Auburn, January 15, 10:40 - 11:12am Warwick Farm to Auburn, January 15, 4:28 - 4:58pm Advertisement

'It's really important to note that through households, it's really easy to spread the virus, as we have seen, so in one household, we had six people get the virus,' Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday.

'What is really important is to make sure that given we are towards the tail end of this particular outbreak, there haven't been other super-seeding events, we want to keep it that way.'

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant added: ' It is critical that we get those testing rates up very high so that we can detect these unrecognised chains of transmission.

'The areas I'm particularly calling out for testing are in Bankstown, Lidcombe, Auburn, Berala and Wentworthville.

'So my plea applies to everyone across the state but particularly in those local government areas as we're trying to mop up any last chains of transmission.

New public health alerts have also been issued for a western Sydney venue and additional public transport routes.

Concord Repatriation General Hospital is on high alert after an infected employee worked in the cardiology and radiology wards 'while potentially infectious' on January 12, 13 and 14.

Dr Chant stressed that the employee's role involves minimal patient contact and they wore a face mask during their shifts.

Anyone who attended Centrelink at Auburn on January 14 in the afternoon should get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result occurs.

Those who travelled on train services between Warwick Farm and Auburn on January 14 and 15 have also been given the same health directions.

It comes after days without a locally transmitted infection.

All people who were in the dental, physio and imaging waiting room of the Wentworthville Medical and Dental Clinic between 11.30am and 1.15pm on Friday are now considered close contacts.

'(They) must immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days regardless of the result,' NSW Health said on Saturday afternoon.

'Anyone who was in other areas of the clinic at that time should monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate and get tested if they appear.'

Anyone who visited Centrelink in Auburn (pictured) on January 14 between 3 and 4:15pm has been urged to monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they appear

Anyone was in the dental, physio and imaging waiting room at Wentworthville Medical and Dental Clinic (pictured) between 11.30am and 1.15pm on Friday has been ordered to isolate for 14 days, regardless of the test result

NSW has flagged the possibility of loosening restrictions on Greater Sydney next week but one of the conditions is high testing rates.

It comes as Victoria recorded no community transmissions for an 11th day in the row on Sunday.

The seven new cases recorded in Victoria were all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

Victoria is watching Sydney closely, as it considers moving parts of the city from 'red' to 'orange' in its traffic-light permit system.

A public health warning has also gone out for the Auburn to Warwick Farm train between 8:27 to 8:58, and 1:44 to 2:16pm on January 14 and 15 respectively

Travellers from orange zones still need to self-quarantine for 14 days but don't need to apply for an exemption to enter Victoria.

'There are clearly some local government areas within Greater Sydney that have now gone a number of days of cases without transmission,' the state's chief health Officer Brett Sutton said.

'I will look very intensively at the epidemiology across Greater Sydney over the next couple of days.'

Actor Abhishek Bajaj, who made his Bollywood debut in Student Of The Year 2, will be seen in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, and he says he had a lot of fun working with lead actor Ayushmann Khurranna of the film. Image Source: IANS News

Actor Abhishek Bajaj, who made his Bollywood debut in Student Of The Year 2, will be seen in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, and he says he had a lot of fun working with lead actor Ayushmann Khurranna of the film. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Jan 18 : Actor Abhishek Bajaj, who made his Bollywood debut in Student Of The Year 2, will be seen in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, and he says he had a lot of fun working with lead actor Ayushmann Khurranna of the film.

"I had fun working with Ayushmann. He is such a talented artiste and very humble as a person. I am really looking forward to the movie's release," Abhishek, who will be seen playing a negative role in the film, said.

Abhishek is known for his work in the television shows "Dil Deke Dekho", "Parvarish" and "Meri Bhabhi".

On Abhishek's role, a source in the unit said: "His character will be seen as a rival to Ayushmann in the film. Both the actor bonded over their Punjabi background while shooting. Since they couldn't exercise in gyms due to the pandemic, they enjoyed working out together on the set with Punjabi songs playing in the background. Ayushmann's trainer often guided Abhishek."
Kathmandu, Jan 18 : Nepal's Health Ministry has confirmed the detection of cases of the new coronavirus variant, which was first discovered in the UK late last year.

Three people whose samples were sent to Hong Kong for testing via gene sequencing have been confirmed to have contracted the mutated varian.

A 28-year-old woman and two men aged 32 and 67, were found to have been infected.

The woman and the 32-year-old man have already tested negative, while the 67-year-old, although still infected, is asymptomatic, the Ministry said.

Six people who had recently returned from the UK had tested positive for Covid-19 and it was suspected that the three whose samples s-gene target had come out negative were carrying the new variant.

The Nepal government, upon verification of the presence of the new variant, has urged people to adopt safety measures until a vaccine is available.

Nepal has so far reported 267,322 confirmed coronavirus ases and 1,959 deaths.
Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration will seek "additional information, both from the company, but also from the Norwegian medical regulator," Hunt said on Sunday.

Sydney, Jan 18 (IANS) Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said that the country is seeking urgent information on the deaths of 29 elderly Norwegian patients following their immunization with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19.

Australia has an agreement for 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

According to a report in Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), the Norwegian Medicines Agency (NOMA) said they could not rule out the possibility that vaccination side effects including fever and nausea had contributed to the deaths, but noted the country was vaccinating elderly people with serious underlying diseases.

"Therefore it is expected that deaths close to the time of vaccination may occur," the agency said in a statement.

Norway has expressed increasing concern about the safety of the Pfizer vaccine on elderly people with serious underlying health conditions.

The Federal Government is taking extreme caution with the Pfizer vaccine after the death of 29 elderly patients in Norway.

Pfizer said the company was monitoring and reviewing all reports of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine.

"Overall, there were no safety signals of concern identified in our clinical trials, including no signal of serious allergic reactions associated with the vaccine," the company said in a statement.

Doctors in Norway have been asked to conduct more thorough evaluations of very frail elderly patients in line to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, following the reported deaths, the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported.

--IANS

vc/rs
Legendary Offaly hurler Brian Whelahan supports the Iconic Newspapers petition to accelerate vaccine roll out via our local and trusted pharmacies.

"I think this petition is a good idea and I hope it achieves the result it deserves," said the famous sportsman.

"I do believe that getting our pharmacists and GPs onboard with the vaccine rollout across the country is the best way forward during this very difficult and troubling time.

"Enabling our pharmacists to administer the vaccine in their outlets would be a major benefit to local communities.

"I think the concerns and issues which people have in regards to receiving the Covid vaccine will be greatly eased when they know that their own pharmacist will be the person performing this procedure (obviously as long as all the necessary PPE is supplied and that all safety measures and protocols are in place)."

Many consider Brian to be the most accomplished hurler in the history of Offaly hurling. 49 years of age, Brian played at wing-back for Birr and Offaly, winning 12 Offaly titles, seven Leinster titles and four All Ireland titles. Blessed with a very high skill level, he also had an excellent ability to read games and possessed a big-match temperament.

You can sign the petition by clicking on the link below
Selected Ian from LA to be her first kiss after online application process

M'Lynn Martin, from San Diego, California, took to TikTok to share the video

A woman has documented her very first kiss online, at the age of 24, after creating an online application form for candidates and taking a Covid-19 test before travelling to meet her date.

M'Lynn Martin, from San Diego, California, took to TikTok to share the video talking her followers through the virtual love story, which ended with her meeting up with Ian, from Los Angeles, to share a kiss.

She sais she had been flooded with applicants from 'all over the place', but chose Ian because his was the best - although she didn't reveal what he'd said to win her over.

However, social media fans were very supportive of the move before begging the pair to start dating.

M'Lynn began her video by scrolling through the virtual applications as she narrated the story.

The document included questions such as asking the applicant to describe their current relationship with M'Lynn, what they would like it to look like in the future and why they wanted to be her first kiss.

It also required an answer for what kind of kissing experience they were looking for with the options being 'a session' with no time limit, a few minutes of kissing or just one or two kisses to get M'Lynn 'past the first kiss stage'.

M'Lynn said: 'Last month I created an application where people could apply to be my first kiss because I was 24 and I had never had my first kiss before.

'I decided to post it to the internet and my friends, family and TikTok went nuts. People started applying from all over the place.

'I picked a stranger named Ian because he by far had the best application. And he is also the younger brother of one of my college professors which is just so funny that I had to choose him.'

M'Lynn Martin, from San Diego, California, took to TikTok to share the bizarre video after creating an online application form for candidates to be her 'first kiss'

M'Lynn shared a collection of videos as she walked into the coronavirus testing centre (pictured) before showing the document confirming the result

She continued: 'This week we both got COVID tested, passed with negative results and got ready to kiss!'

M'Lynn shared a collection of videos as she walked into the coronavirus testing centre before showing the document confirming the result.

The TikTok, which has since been viewed more than one million times, then cut to a clip of her brushing her teeth ahead of the pair meeting.

She showed off her outfit before the video jumped to show her sitting in the front seat of a car with her date, Ian, who had travelled almost two hours to meet her.

The pair leaned in for the kiss as the clip faded to black.

And other social media users were quick to comment on the events as they begged for the couple to start dating.

One wrote: 'Girl that was the cutest video I have seen today!! Wish you guys luck.'

Another added: 'Soooo what's the next move?? Any feelings?? Lol.'

And another simply commented: 'You better lock that down.'

M'Lynn later took to Instagram with a photo alongside Ian with a caption that read: 'Ian said Im a 10/10 kisser and the back of my hand has really been doing me justice for the last 14 years.'

M'Lynn later took to Instagram with a photo alongside Ian but she is yet to give followers an update on the status of their new-found relationship

Other social media users were quick to comment on the events as they begged for the couple to start dating

She has since given FEMAIL an insight into why she chose 25-year-old Ian's application.

M'Lynn said: 'His application was awesome! The first thing that caught my eye is that listed Harry Styles Instagram account as his finsta handle, and I loved that he likes Harry Styles.

'The bulk of his application lay in question, Why do you want to be MLynns first kiss? He responded to that question by commending my confidence and sense of humor, but then he went on to talk about how much fun kissing can be if done well.

'While reading his application, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would have an enjoyable experience. His application alone reassured me of that.

'He also linked a Spotify playlist that he had curated specifically for intimate moments like kissing, and the playlist was amazing. I even spotted a few of my favorite artists on the playlist'!

'In the application I asked for some character references from friends and/or people whom applicants had previously kissed, just to make sure they werent bad people and were verified good kissers.

'Ian listed his very first girlfriend and one of his best friends, who both confirmed with me over Instagram that he is a wonderful human and a great kisser.

'The detail that really sealed the deal for me though was when he listed Zendaya as one of his references simply because shes the love of his life, and I was completely sold because shes the love of my life too.'

Speaking about the pair's new-found friendship, she continued: 'As far as my relationship status with Ian goes, we agreed prior to the kiss that since we were total strangers, we are at least committed to being intentional friends now.

'Were definitely not dating since weve literally only ever hung out one time, but there is obviously a degree of mutual attraction, and we connect really well together.

'So were just going to keep living our lives and being ourselves and I guess the rest will unfold however it may.'
Sydney, Jan 18 : Fighting the Australian government over its news media bargaining code, Google has announced it providing businesses and users with a combined $53 billion in benefits every year in the country.

The Google's '2020 Economic Impact Report' said that 1.3 million businesses receive $39 billion in benefits through increased revenues, millions of connections with customers and greater efficiencies, saving time and money.

"Consumers receive $14 billion in benefits via productivity, convenience and access to information," Mel Silva, VP, Google Australia & New Zealand, said in a statement late on Sunday.

The company said Search saves users almost 5 days a year and drivers save 5.6 hours per year using Google Maps.

"Australian app developers earned $639 million through Google Play reaching one billion users globally. Sixty per cent go to small to medium businesses while 90 per cent of benefits go to non-technology industries," the report mentioned.

The report is another example why Google's presence in Australia is beneficial for the businesses as the company claims it makes less money from news content -- $10 million (Australian) in revenue in 2019.

The bargaining code, according to the Austalian government, is necessary to address the fundamental bargaining power imbalances between news media businesses and major digital platforms.

For Google, it's "unfair and unworkable".

"As our report demonstrates, there are now more than 1.3 million businesses in Australia using Google's free tools and services-to reach new customers, advertise effectively where they couldn't before and make use of new digital skills," Silva said.

Google's products also provided $14 billion in annual benefits to consumers through increased productivity, convenience and improved access to information.

Flagging lack of transparency around the algorithms that Google and Facebook use to display ads and news, Australia's consumer watchdog in December said that the tech giants need to be monitored closely so that they do not abuse their power.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recommended a mechanism for monitoring how the major tech companies rank and display ads and news content.

In a report, the ACCC argued that the dominance of platforms like Facebook and Google -- who derive a vast majority of their revenue from advertising -- demands increased regulatory oversight.
An attempt appears to have been made to somehow insert a question mark into the fateful events of February 2019 almost two years on; specifically on whether one needed to be let in on some form of secret information detrimental to national security to estimate that India was going to hit Pakistan back hard for the dastardly Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF Jawans were martyred. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government have unleashed an official attack on Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief in this regard, and Congress leaders, members of the Tukde gang and anti-Republic media appeared only too happy to dive in as force multipliers of the Pakistani narrative. Amid this, Republic, joined by numerous people around the country and online have raised a simple argument - did anyone ever doubt whether Indian forces would give Pakistan a befitting reply and avenge the Pulwama terror attack?

That a military option or some form of strike was being mulled after the Prime Minister gave the forces a free-hand to choose the manner of their reply appears to have been reported by many prominent news outlets in the same window of time.

1: TIMES OF INDIA SPOKE ABOUT PRECISION STRIKES ON FEB 16, 2019

The article said, "The military options, short of going to war, could range from 'shallow' ground-based attacks and occupation of some height along the LoC to restricted but precision airstrikes against 'non-state targets' in PoK, senior military officers said. There is growing agreement in the security establishment that carefully-calibrated airborne strikes are among the most viable and effective options to teach a lesson to Pakistan, with the ground-based 'surgical strikes' of September 2016 having somewhat lost their element of surprise."

2: INDIA TODAY ARTICLE STATED 'ATTACK IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME ON FEB 23, 2019

"As India ratchets up its diplomatic offensive to globally isolate Pakistan, withdrawing the Most Favoured Nation status and building up a case for a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, which would make it increasingly difficult for Pakistans struggling economy to raise loans, it is also preparing for a military option. Retribution for the attack is only a matter of time, army officials say. There are several reasons to suggest that this may be so."

Evidence 3: FIRSTPOST DELIBERATED AIR STRIKES IN PoK ON FEB 17, 2019

As the above stories demonstrate, it was but obvious that India would reply, and this was also evident from the fact that Pakistan was prepared for some form of attack, as revealed by its hapless Defence Minister following the IAF's attack wherein he cited the night-time and the sheer speed of India's strike as reasons for being able to do nothing about it.

Arnab Goswami's response to Imran Khan

After Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan launched an official attack on Arnab, Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief responded:

"It is interesting to see the Pakistani govt conspiracy against Republic come out in open now. Imran Khan - the ISI appointed puppet of a terrorist state - has been releasing statements against republic media network and me and has also made Pakistani foreign ministry do the same.

Let's be clear about some facts here. Indias intention to hit back at Pakistan after the Pulwama attack was an officially stated position of Government of India. There was no doubt in any nationalist Indian's mind that we would hit back. Which is exactly what we did and we are proud of it. Imran Khan on the contrary tried to deny Balakot but later had to acknowledge it. There was nothing false-flag about Balakot, it was a direct, legitimate and necessary response to Pakistani terrorism in Pulwama.

What shocks me today, however, is the open calibration between Vadra Congress & anti-Republic media to help govt of Pakistan and assist Pak and ISI. Every Indian wanted revenge for Pulwama, so for some in Indian media to question why Republic expected the same is shameless opportunism. People of India should never forget this shameless opportunism. It only hurts national interest. And when anti-Republic channels become force multipliers for the ISI & Imran Khan, we appeal to the anti-Republic channels to not officially joined hands with the ISI. Republic has and will single-handedly destroy the Pakistan government narrative.

Imran Khan is on the edge, because he cannot handle the truth. He's looking shaky, and expects his apologists in India to come to his rescue. I am horrified that anti-Republic channel have joined hands with ISI, people of India will never forgive them. What has become obvious now is a Pakistan hand in the conspiracy against Republic. Republic is the inconvenient hurdle in their (Pakistan's) designs against India. If the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan have come out in support of the malicious Mumbai police action against Republic, then everything is said and nothing much is left to be said.

People of India understand this. There's now overwhelming public support that we are receiving. Every minute there are messages & calls in our newsrooms. People of India are supporting us against Pakistan. To all those contacting us with messages of support, a big hug & thank you. We will fight this together."
Ugandas President Yoweri Museveni has dismissed claims that the just-concluded presidential elections, in which he won a sixth term in office, was rigged in his favour.



He warned the opposition that any attempt to disrupt social order will be dealt with decisively.



In a speech that had no kind words for western nations, foreign media an unnamed neighbour and Ugandan opposition, Mr Museveni said intimidation will not be tolerated in Uganda.



In an address to the nation from his Rwakitura home, Western Uganda, Mr Museveni, who was declared the winner of the Thursday presidential election, said he is ready for dialogue with the opposition but only if they choose a non-violent path.



If you are a friend we can engage but we dont want intimidation, he said warning that attempts to disrupt peace will be met decisively.



Mr Museveni received 5.8 million votes, representing 58.6 per cent of the total vote cast to retain the seat he has held since January 1986.



Accept outcome



The electoral commission asked all the other contestants to accept the outcome.



Musician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP) garnered 3.4 million votes, translating to 34 per cent of the vote.



Mr Wine has rejected the outcome of the vote, describing the results as announced by the electoral commission as fake.



I congratulate the people of Uganda for coming out in large numbers to vote but they must avoid violence, the President said, declaring that Ugandas match into the future is unstoppable.



He, however, reserved his harshest criticism to western nations which he accused of interfering in Ugandas internal affairs, something he described as immoral.



Foreign interference will not be tolerated, he said, singling out western nations.



When I talk about foreign interference I am not referring to China, India or Arabs states, I am referring to a mzungu because of their history of giving lectures to Africa, he said, using a Kiswahili term that refers to a white man.



He also talked of a regional country he accused of meddling in the affairs of his country. The country has been sending agents to meddle, he said.



Of course we have counteracted with their action but these meddlers from the region must stop.

Source: BBC









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Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) Executives in the Akatsi South Constituency in the Volta Region have called for the removal of Mr Leo Nelson Adzidogah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the area.



They accused the MCE of championing divisions and sidelining some current and old Executives as well as elders of the party.



The three aggrieved constituency Executives in an eight-page petition to the top hierarchy of the party appealed to President Akufo-Addo to nominate a different person to occupy the position of MCE.



The Executives seeking the removal of the MCE are Mr Patrick Xormenyo Agboyibor, Deputy Constituency Secretary, Mr Mensah Kadzaku, Constituency Youth Organiser, and Mrs Veronica Sakpaku, Constituency Women organiser.



They argued, among other issues, the failure of the MCE, who was the 2020 Parliamentary candidate of the NPP, in meeting all executives to discuss ways to distribute resources and logistics during the campaign season.



They alleged diversion of party logistics from their intended purposes led to the party recording low Presidential results from the Constituency.



They also said the MCE had formed a strong cabal with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Constituency by giving government contracts, protocols and scholarships to members of the NDC to the neglect of their party supporters.



"The MCE only focuses on fighting his enemies rather than fostering unity among the rank and file of party supporters," it added.



The MCE, Mr Adzidogah, when contacted by the GNA dismissed the allegations levelled against him by some of the executives and said a full report would soon be made available.

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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Streets department crews in Hazleton are trimming trees, shrubs and bushes that are extending into alleys and courts.

The city is asking residents to make sure their trees and shrubbery are pruned correctly or they will be trimmed by the Department of Public Works, said Gary Perna, the mayors executive assistant.

Crews have been trimming during a break in the weather and work will continue to ensure branches and limbs are not extending into alleys and courts and subsequently damaging vehicles.

Its anything that basically hangs out and can brush against a vehicle, Perna said. Especially on the courts, where only one car can go down at a time. If only one car goes down and it hits a car mirror, then it is hitting our vehicles.

Perna said the city wants to prevent scenarios where limbs damage plows and fire apparatus.
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The buoyant effect of Long Thanh International Airport on land prices can already be felt in surrounding areas (Illustration image: Phu My district)

In Dong Nai, land prices soared from VND12-14 million ($520-610) per square metre in 2019 to VND22 million ($955) in 2020. In some places in Long Thanh district, prices even went as high as VND100 million ($4,350) per sq.m.

Land plots in Long Thanh are now traded anywhere from VND18 to 40 million ($780-1,740) per sq.m, with land plots located along National Highway 51, linking Vung Tau city and Dong Nai, offered for VND50-60 million ($2,170-2,610)  prices equivalent to some areas of Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Airports Corporation of Vietnam, Long Thanh International Airport covers an area of 5,000 hectares with plans to develop it into an airport city  a city within the fences of a large airport, including the airport facilities (terminals, apron, and runways) and airport-related businesses such as air cargo, logistics, offices, retail, and hotels.

With the airport development, Phu My area is becoming more attractive for real estate traders as it is only 20 minutes away. In addition, this place includes the Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport, one of 20 largest seaports in the world, along with nine industrial parks.

Speaking at the airport ground-breaking ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, and other cities and provinces in the southeastern and western regions to create plans to develop synchronous infrastructure connecting to the airport. They include three expressway projects (Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay, Ben Luc-Long Thanh, and Bien Hoa-Vung Tau), and the North-South and Thu Thiem-Long Thanh International Airport railway projects. The PM also asked these cities and provinces to develop urban and tourism areas.

According to the prime minister, once the airport comes into commercial operation, it will open up opportunities for Dong Nai and surrounding areas, promoting the socioeconomic development of the southeastern and western regions.

After administering shots to over 4,300 healthcare workers on the opening day, COVID-19 vaccination teams across the national capital started to give vaccines to more medical staff at various hospitals on Monday. Officials said that the vaccination drive started at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital at 10 am.

The immunisation drive in Delhi was formally kicked off on Saturday by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from the LNJP Hospital, the state-run facility which offered yeoman service during the pandemic last year. The exercise was carried out at 81 sites,with nearly an even split of government and private hospitals, including six central government facilities  AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and two ESI hospitals.

The rest 75 centres, spanning all 11 districts of Delhi, include Delhi government-run facilities, such as LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, DDU Hospital, BSA Hospital, Delhi State Cancer Institute, ILBS Hospital; and private facilities, such as Max Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. In Delhi, a total of 4,319 healthcare workers  53.3 per cent of those registered  got the vaccine shots on the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday.

Some people did not turn up for coronavirus vaccination at the last moment, he said, adding that the government cannot ask anyone to compulsorily take the jab. He also said that the number of vaccination centres in Delhi will be increased from 81 to 175 soon.

Jain noted that a similar trend was observed across the country, with around 50 per cent of those registered getting the jabs on the first day. The vaccine will be administered on four scheduled days of the week  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It will not be given on Sunday, and two others days of the week, when other regular vaccination work will be carried out.

So, January 18 is the first working day of the week, since the mega exercise was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the country. Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield is being administered at 75 centres, while Bharat Biotech-made Covaxin doses given at the remaining six facilities.

The city government has received in total 2.74 lakh doses of the vaccine so far from the Centre, which would be sufficient to cater to 1.2 lakh healthcare workers, Kejriwal had earlier said. "Every person will receive two doses, and the Centre has given 10 per cent extra in stock, in case of any mishappening, like damage of vials. There are a total of 2.4 lakh healthcare workers in Delhi who have registered for vaccination, and more doses are expected to arrive soon," he said.

One "severe" and 51 "minor" cases of AEFI (adverse events following immunisation) were reported among health workers who were administered the coronavirus vaccine in Delhi on Saturday, according to official figures. An AIIMS security guard had developed an allergic reaction after receiving the vaccine. He was kept under observation of doctors, an official had said on Saturday.

"His current status is not known 51 others were discharged after some time," Jain said.

.
WASHINGTON - North America's perennial pipeline debate erupted anew Monday as president-elect Joe Biden's Day 1 plan to kill off the Keystone XL project cast a pall over hopes for a fresh start to the Canada-U. S. relationship.

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In this April 13, 2020, photo provided by TC Energy, construction contractors for TC Energy are seen installing a section of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline at the U.S.-Canada border north of Glasgow, Mont. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-TC Energy via AP

WASHINGTON - North America's perennial pipeline debate erupted anew Monday as president-elect Joe Biden's Day 1 plan to kill off the Keystone XL project cast a pall over hopes for a fresh start to the Canada-U. S. relationship.

Critics cheered and champions fumed at word Biden's first day in the White House would likely end  for now  Canada's enduring, politically fraught plan to send more than 800,000 added barrels a day of bitumen to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Those in Washington who cultivate and monitor the at-times-fragile ties between the two countries wondered about what the decision might portend.

It likely points to the return of a more familiar cross-border dynamic, said Eric Miller, a Canada-U. S. expert and president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.

"We can take from it that, as a going-in proposition, the Biden administration is probably not going to be inclined to work with Canada on things that Canada wants, but it will be happy to work with Canada on things that it wants," Miller said.

"To some extent, this is a return to form, where Canada often finds itself in a position where it has to fight hard to get changes made."

A hard fight, including in court if needed, is exactly what Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is promising.

"The United States government owes Canada the respect to at least sit down with us and talk about this vital project in the broader context," said Kenney, whose government gave the project a $1.5-billion infusion last year.

"Surely the relationship between Canada and the United States is worth at least having that discussion."

Biden's plan is outlined in transition documents seen by The Canadian Press. They suggest he intends to sign an executive order on inauguration day to rescind the presidential permit for the US$8-billion expansion, reissued in 2019 by President Donald Trump.

The decision is less surprising than the timing. Biden's campaign had already promised to block the project, but making it a symbolic Day 1 move  an effort to satisfy the combative progressive wing of the Democrats  carries a particular sting.

"I wish Biden's team had bided their time, if you will, and given us 30 days to try and work through," said Gordon Giffin, who was U.S. ambassador to Canada during Bill Clinton's second term in the White House.

In a late bid to win favour with Biden, pipeline owner TC Energy Corp. confirmed Sunday an ambitious plan to spend US$1.7 billion on a solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline to ensure it is zero-emission by 2030.

Canada's pitch to the Biden team has for months framed Keystone XL as a vastly different, more environmentally friendly project than the version President Barack Obama rejected in 2015 after slow-walking it throughout his two terms in office.

"They may have reached the same conclusion, but I think it would have been worth hearing out the case to be made," Giffin said.

In terms of Canada-U. S. relations, the decision comes as no surprise and ought not overshadow the post-Trump potential for other cross-border collaborations, said Maryscott Greenwood, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council.

"The atmosphere will be one of collaboration and decorum instead of aggressiveness and tariffs and retaliation," Greenwood said.

Former ambassador Bruce Heyman, who was U.S. envoy to Canada for the last three years of Obama's tenure, favoured an early, decisive move over a long, drawn-out debate.

"Sitting on it doesn't make it better for anyone," he said, citing the strong ties that followed the 2015 decision between the Liberals and the Obama White House.

"I think it clears the decks for the kinds of things that we need to tackle right away," such as the pandemic and its economic aftermath, Heyman added.

Veterans of the 12-year fight against Keystone XL, all too aware of the project's knack for resurrection, refused Monday to declare victory.

"I won't fully believe it until I see a signature on the executive order," said Jane Kleeb, a Nebraska political activist whose name is synonymous with U.S. environmental opposition to the project.

That signature, said Kleeb, should be seen in both countries as a final tipping point in the ongoing global debate about the dangers of fossil fuels, and not as an excuse to retrench and rehash old arguments.

"I understand where Alberta is coming from," she said. "If you were to come and tell me that (Nebraska) couldn't grow corn anymore, it would be a problem in our state.

"But I also think that at some point, our entire country and nation and all of our allies need to start realizing that building new fossil-fuel pipelines, building new fossil-fuel projects, just can't be on the agenda right now."

Business associations north of the border, like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, promptly warned of strained bilateral relations and a missed opportunity to energize economic recovery efforts in both countries.

Others fretted about the looming threat of Buy American, Biden's promise to prioritize U.S.-based workers, manufacturers and suppliers in the coming effort to get pandemic-weary Americans back to work.

"Excluding each other from our respective government procurement markets could seriously hurt our precarious economic recovery," said Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was keeping out of the fray Monday. His political foes were not.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole urged Trudeau to open a channel with Biden in order to change his mind. Green Leader Annamie Paul accused the Liberals of pushing a pro-pipeline agenda while paying lip service to climate change.

And NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh urged the government to let the project perish and to avoid backing Kenney's promised legal fight.

"I dont think that's a good use of our time. Thats not a good use of our resources," Singh said. "We should be finding ways to create good jobs for these workers that are long-lasting and help us fight the climate crisis."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2021.
Beat pandemic boredom by getting into birding  an inexpensive way to enjoy wildlife | Wildlife Matters
A Colorado snowboarder narrowly escaped with his life when an avalanche hurtled down the mountain he was on.

Maurice Kervin, 25, was snowboarding at No Name Peak near Loveland Pass in Summit County when he suddenly turned around to find a deluge of snow quickly coming down behind him.

Kervin, an experienced back country skier but amateur snowboarder from Denver, had only just begun his descent down the mountain when he triggered the avalanche.

Maurice Kervin, 25, was snowboarding down Colorado mountain near Denver

Cracks appeared in the snow and within moments an avalanche occurred

The drama was caught on camera as Kervin came down the slope

He managed to capture the entire heart-stopping experience on video.

'I was in awe of how big it was, and very thankful that I was alive, honestly, or not buried, not fatally injured,' Kervin told CNN. 'The magnitude of it was definitely enough to bury you, mangle you or possibly kill you. It was very intense.'

Kervin said how he knew something was wrong after he suddenly saw 'shooting cracks' breaking out in the snow beneath him.

'The snow is breaking into blocks, essentially, and it looks like shooting cracks or spider webs in front of you in the snow as it like breaks apart,' he said.

Kervin is an experienced skier having been on the slopes since he as a little boy but he admits that he is an amateur when it comes to snowboarding

Video footage shows enormous cracks appearing in the snow and then the ice breaking up

Blocks of snow began tumbling down the mountain as the avalanche gathered pace

As the snow started to drag him under, Kervin deployed his avalanche airbag contained in his backpack in order to keep him on top of the snow.

In an avalanche, larger objects rise to the surface, while smaller objects sink to the bottom.

The airbag system incorporated into his backpack sees a large balloon inflate at the pull of a cord.

It is designed to make the person wearing it larger so that they naturally rise to the surface of the snow and prevent the person wearing it from being buried.

'I dropped my ax and my camera that was in my back hand and pulled my airbag, which helped me float above the snow,' Kervin said. 'I was able to get my feet above the snow after going off a small cliff and able to float on top of the snow until I came to a stop.'

'I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm clean. I'm safe. I'm safe,' Kervin can be heard saying in the video.

Video footage perfectly captures the moment when the snow began to break up

Kervin was uninjured but believes he was carried around 1,000 feet by the snow

Kervin went up the mountain with a friend and had believed that it was safe conditions to do so

Kervin believes he tumbled around 1,000 feet as the snow made its way down the mountain.

He admits that he knew conditions on the slopes were risky but along with a friend he had checked conditions and felt it was safe enough for them to make their downhill run.

'I'm not going to condone anybody trying to go do what I did. That's my own personal choice. Be safe in the backcountry and understand risk assessment and where you stand.

'As anybody who has ever been caught in an avalanche might say, we thought that we were in the clear and so we decided that it was a go, and it clearly wasn't,' he said.

Over the last decade, around 27 people have died in avalanches each year in the U.S., with 23 people killed in 2020 alone.

Kervin is pictured performing a jump on his snowboard in a picture from his Instagram page


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Guwahati, Jan 18 : Ahead of the declaration of Assembly polls in five states, an Election Commission (EC) team headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora arrived in Guwahati on Monday to review the preparations for the Assam Assembly elections.

The election officials said that from Guwahati, the EC panel would go to Kolkata on Wednesday to hold similar review meetings for the West Bengal Assembly elections. Assembly elections are expected to take place in Assan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in April-May.

Arora, along with election commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar and accompanied by senior officials, arrived in Guwahati on Monday evening.

A senior Assam election official said that the full EC team during its three-day stay in Guwahati would hold a series of meetings with the political parties, police nodal officers, election related regulatory agencies, district election and police officers, state home secretary and other senior officials.

The EC team would also hold meetings with Assam Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, and Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade.

A six-member team of the Election Commission led by Director General Dharmendra Sharma had held held several meetings with senior Assam government officials last week to review the preparedness for the Assembly polls.

"Sharma had asked the officials to take specific steps, including training and selection of different categories of officials, identification and categorisation of polling stations for the smooth conduct of the elections," the official said.

The five-year term of the 126-member Assam Assembly would expire on May 31.

According the official, the EC team would go to Kolkata on Wednesday and during its three-day stay there, it would hold several meetings with the political parties and senior officials, including Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary H.K. Dwivedi and Director General of Police (DGP) Virendra.

Last week, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain had reviewed the preparations for holding Assembly elections in West Bengal. He had reportedly voiced concerns over the law and order situation in the state.

West Bengal has witnessed political turmoil and frequent clashes between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the past couple of years. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar too has made adverse comments on the law and order situation on numerous occasions.

The state and the central authorities have also engaged in bitter tussles after BJP President J.P. Nadda's convoy was attacked last month, allegedly by the supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress, in South 24 Parganas district when the saffron party chief was heading to attend a rally.
Commercialization of rapid COVID-19 PCR test

Clinical validation of transdermal and sublingual drug formulations

Psychedelic API production, drug formulation and clinical integration

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2021 / XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE:XPHY / OTCQB:XPHYF / FSE:4XT) ("XPhyto" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its business strategy and milestones for 2021. The Company is on the cusp of transformational change as product development programs advance from the laboratory to the clinic. As a bioscience accelerator at the leading-edge of the life science industry, XPhyto will target growth through commercialization of existing products and focused investment in impact driven innovation with the potential for extreme value creation.

The Company will continue to leverage its scientific expertise and operations in Europe and North America for product development and optimization while it plans to add significant commercial experience in the fields of manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales. Following a successful business year 2020, XPhyto is well positioned to execute on important core milestones in all business divisions, which include the commercialization of infectious disease diagnostics, the clinical validation of transdermal and sublingual drug formulations and continued investment and development in psychedelic medicine.

Diagnostics

XPhyto's lead diagnostic product is an accurate, rapid and highly portable PCR diagnostic test system which is secured under an exclusive global commercialization agreement from its German development partner, 3a-diagnostics GmbH ("3a"). PCR testing has emerged as the only internationally recognized standard for COVID-19 testing, which is expected to play a critical role in expediting the revitalization of many industries, particularly domestic and international travel. Successful validation of the PCR system was achieved in Q4 2020 and the Company is confident that European commercial (CE-IVD) approval will be achieved in Q1 2021. XPhyto is in discussions to secure manufacturing and distribution partners in Europe and the Middle East in anticipation of pending commercial approval and product launch in Q1 2021.

In addition to COVID-19 products, XPhyto and its partner 3a, are developing and commercializing a portfolio of low-cost oral biosensors. The Company's lead biosensor product is an oral health screening test for the detection of peri-implantitis. There is a significant clinical need for the early detection of infection associated with dental implants prior to the onset of irreversible tissue and bone damage. The company is targeting late 2021 for European commercial approval and product launch for several biosensor screening tests.

Drug Formulations and Delivery

XPhyto's drug formulation business is focused on neurological indications with significant market demand and the potential for meaningful patient impact. In 2020, XPhyto's German subsidiary, Vektor Pharma TF GmbH ("Vektor"), a leader in the development of transdermal and sublingual drug formulations reported significant advancements in four therapeutic development programs. Vektor also successfully developed a sublingual drug formulation on contract for a major generic drug manufacturer and distributor.

In 2021, the Company plans to complete human pilot studies on its four lead therapeutic products: 1) Rotigotine transdermal patch for Parkinson's disease; 2) CBD oral/sublingual strip for treatment resistant Epilepsy; 3) THC oral/sublingual strip for anorexia/nausea; and 4) CBD:THC (1:1) oral/sublingual strip for Multiple Sclerosis associated spasticity. The Company is currently in ongoing discussions with multiple potential commercial partners, licensors and distributors and will be reviewing monetization opportunities on a continued basis.

Psychedelics

Psychedelic compounds are a highly promising new class of active pharmaceutical ingredient ("API") with strong potential for the treatment of mental health related medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and trauma-related stress disorder. Psychedelics could provide a major improvement over currently available therapeutics for a global market with unmet medical need.

XPhyto has entered into two psychedelic agreements: first, for the development of industrial scale biotechnology processes for the production of psilocybin, and second, for research and development related to multiple psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, MDMA, DMT, among others.

In 2021, XPhyto will continue to advance and expand its programs focused on the industrial scale production of psychedelic API, in addition to launching new programs for the development of psychedelic drug formulations, particularly sublingual and transdermal therapeutics, as well as the integration of these therapeutic products into established clinical care programs for mental health related indications.

"2020 was a very productive year for XPhyto. We made significant progress in all areas of our business," said Hugh Rogers, CEO & Director of XPhyto. "We have ambitious milestones for 2021 with multiple product launches on the horizon, multiple clinical drug programs underway, and an aggressive commitment to psychedelic medicine. I am extremely confident that our team can execute on the Company's business plan for 2021."

The Company will provide more detailed plans for each of its diagnostics, drug formulation, and psychedelic businesses in the coming weeks as well as specific updates as they arise.

The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

About XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.

XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. is a bioscience accelerator focused on next-generation drug delivery, diagnostic, and new active pharmaceutical ingredient investment opportunities, including: precision transdermal and oral dissolvable drug formulations; rapid, low-cost infectious disease and oral health screening tests; and standardization of emerging active pharmaceutical ingredients for neurological applications, including psychedelic compounds and cannabinoids. The Company has research and development operations in North America and Europe, with an operational focus in Germany, and is currently focused on regulatory approval and commercialization of medical products for European markets.

XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.:

Hugh Rogers, CEO and Director

Investor Inquiries:

Mr. Knox Henderson

T: 604-551-2360

E: info@xphyto.com

Media Inquiries:

MC Services AG

Julia Hofmann, Andreas Jungfer

T: +49 89 210 228 0

E: xphyto@mc-services.eu

Forward looking statements

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "develop", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "potential", "propose" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and in this release include the statement regarding the Company's goal of building a successful diagnostic, drug delivery, and medical cannabis company. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including: that the Company may not succeed in developing a commercial product; that the sale of products may not be a viable business; that the Company may be unable to scale its business; product liability risks; product regulatory risk; general economic conditions; adverse industry events; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; currency risks; competition; international risks; and other risks beyond the Company's control. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE: XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624624/XPhyto-Announces-Business-Strategy-and-Milestones-For-2021-Innovation-to-Impact


Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries plans to embed its ecommerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months, financial daily Mint reported on Monday, as the Indian conglomerate looks to ramp up its retail and grocery business in the country. Reliance, which has been trying to move away from its mainstay oil and energy business, had last year raised about $26 billion from investors like Google and Facebook for its digital and retail arms as it takes on Amazon.com Inc and Walmart-backed Flipkart in India. The move to integrate JioMart with WhatsApp will allow hundreds of ...
The Covid-19 death toll now stands at 440, with the deaths of 15 more people yesterday.

The Ministry of Health reported the deaths in its daily update yesterday evening.

One of the new deaths occurred in Tobago. The Tobago Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development disclosed that the patient was a 38-year-old male with co-morbidities.
DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Pet Wearables Market Size, Market Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2020 To 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The study covers the comparative analysis of different segments for the years 2019 & 2028. The report also provides a prolific view on market dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. In addition, the report covers a section providing production and pricing trends in some of the major markets.



Pet wearables are primarily smart trackers and monitors embedded into small gadgets that can be worn by pets. Pet wearables are widely used across the world for applications such as pet tracking, health monitoring, and emergency notifications. Pet wearables make use of various technologies including global positioning systems (GPS), radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors (proximity sensors, accelerometers, temperature and pressure sensors, heart rate monitors, etc.), Bluetooth, and cellular connections, among others. Thereby, with the incorporation of several technologies, pet wearable manufacturers are able to offer a wide array of applications to their consumers.



One of the major factors driving the growth in the pet wearables market is the technological advancements in communication and sensor technologies. The increasing popularity of wearable technology for humans has paved the way for various wearable products for pets. In addition, with decreasing costs for various sensors, pet wearable manufacturers have been able to incorporate numerous features and functions into singular products at affordable prices.



Other technological factors resulting in higher adoption of pet wearable technology include growing demand for smart connected homes. Consumers from most of the developed markets in the North America and Europe region demand interconnectivity between various home systems enabling the inclusion of pet monitoring and feeding systems. In addition, an increasing number of people are spending more time at home with their pets during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in increasing expenditure towards overall pet products.



With decreasing costs of various sensors coupled with increasing demand for pet health monitoring solutions, the sensors segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period from 2020 to 2028. The usage of various types of sensors enables pet owners to monitor and track numerous health aspects of their pets and gain useful insights pertaining to their fitness and physical wellbeing. Thereby, pet wearables are expected to witness the growing incorporation of sensors in the following years.



In 2019, North America represented the largest market for pet wearables, in terms of revenue. The demand for pet wearables technology in the region is primarily supported by the higher adoption of sophisticated technology in the region. Furthermore, the region is also home to some of the leading manufacturers and providers of pet wearable technology across the world. Europe followed North America in the overall pet wearables market globally in 2019. Factors such as higher technological awareness coupled with the rising trends for smart homes have fuelled the demand for pet wearables in the region.



The Asia Pacific region held the third position in the overall pet wearables market across the world. Factors such as lower local innovations and late adoption among consumers in the region have resulted in the lower revenue share from the Asia Pacific regions. However, with rising disposable incomes and the increasing availability of advanced products, the region is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period from 2020 to 2028.



Some of the leading countries in the region driving the market growth in the following years include China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, among others.



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1 Preface

1.1 Report Description

1.2 Research Scope

1.3 Market Segmentation

1.4 Research Methodology



Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Market Snapshot: Global Pet Wearables Market

2.2 Global Pet Wearables Market, By Technology

2.3 Global Pet Wearables Market, By Product

2.4 Global Pet Wearables Market, By Geography



Chapter 3 Market Dynamics

3.1 Product Insights and Market Overview

3.1.1 Global Pet Wearables Market Revenue and Growth, 2018 - 2028, (US$ Mn) (Y-o-Y %)

3.2 Key Market Trends and Future Outlook

3.3 Market Drivers

3.4 Market Growth Inhibitors

3.4.1 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints

3.5 Attractive Investment Proposition

3.6 Competitive Analysis

3.6.1 Market Positioning of Key Vendors

3.6.2 Key Strategies adopted by the Leading Players



Chapter 4 Global Pet Wearables Market Analysis, By Technology

4.1 Market Analysis

4.2 GPS

4.3 RFID

4.4 Sensors

4.5 Others (Bluetooth, Cellular, etc.)



Chapter 5 Global Pet Wearables Market Analysis, By Product

5.1 Market Analysis

5.2 Smart Tags

5.3 Smart Collars

5.4 Smart Vests



Chapter 6 North America Pet Wearables Market Analysis



Chapter 7 Europe Pet Wearables Market Analysis



Chapter 8 Asia Pacific Pet Wearables Market Analysis



Chapter 9 Rest of the World (RoW) Pet Wearables Market Analysis



Chapter 10 Company Profiles

10.1 FitBark

10.2 Loc8tor Ltd.

10.3 PetPace Ltd.

10.4 Whistle Labs Inc.

10.5 Pitpatpet Ltd.

10.6 DOGSTAR LIFE

10.7 Fetch (GoPro, Inc.)

10.8 INUPATHY, Inc.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/68qeiz

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

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Mohammad Atif and Asim Sattar outside the Belfast Multi Cultural centre after the racist attack

Staff at a multicultural community group whose food bank was torched in a racist attack say they have been overwhelmed by generous donations.

Thousands of people have pledged nearly 60,000 to help the group smash fundraising targets following the blaze at its south Belfast centre on Thursday night.

Donations have flooded in from across Northern Ireland and beyond, Muhammad Atif, secretary of the Belfast Multi-Cultural Resource Association, said.

"It's unbelievable...it is good to show a really nice picture of the people of Northern Ireland," said Mr Atif.

Multiple targets were passed over the weekend, with an initial 10,000 goal raised in hours.

"The community, and all over the world, America, the rest of Ireland, are sending money - it is unbelievable," Mr Atif added.

"We have also received hundreds of messages of support from every corner of Northern Ireland."

Approximately 50 firefighters battled the blaze after the alarm was raised around 8.30pm. The centre, operating as a food and clothes bank for those in need, was seriously damaged.

Amnesty International's Northern Ireland director. Patrick Corrigan, who set up the JustGiving page, said the response had been "overwhelming" and represented "a bouquet of love" for the association and its volunteers.

Read More

The initial 10,000 target was passed within two hours of the page going live on Friday evening. A revised 20,000 target was passed soon afterwards, with a third target of 30,000 reached on Saturday morning.

As of Sunday evening, just over 55,000 was donated. Mr Atif added: "We are really thankful to all the people. This will help us get on our feet very soon.

Businesses and other charities have offered space to the association, the secretary said, adding that the work of the organisation will continue otherwise as its dozen volunteers have been working from home offering advice, guidance and support.

The Executive has also promised help, Mr Atif said.

In a joint statement on Friday, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill described the attack on the centre as "despicable".

Management and volunteers will meet early this week to make short term decisions, including where to relocate.

The centre was targeted previously, including in September when the windows of four cars were smashed. That was also classified as a hate crime, Mr Atif said.

"We are asking them to stop doing what they are doing," he said. "Donegall Pass is our community and I cannot see people from here not being with us. I believe and hope they are supporting us."

He added: "We are here to help regardless of which religion you are, what community you come from. We do not ask any questions. We are just here to help."

South Belfast MP Claire Hanna contrasted the fundraising response with the mindset of those who targeted the centre.

"A handful of racist goons who can't accept difference attack a thoroughly decent and engaged community group and Foodbank, and our diverse community responds by raising thousands of pounds in a matter of hours. That's South Belfast," she said.
MPV

Dacia, the Romanian automaker with historic links to Renault, has taken Europe by storm ever since it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the French automaker. The small Sandero (especially its rugged Stepway version) and the affordable (yet off-road-ready) Dacia Duster have become incredibly popular, even though many said these cheap cars will never sell.Now the company is looking to push forward a revamped business strategy that will see Dacia and Lada form a single unit. Although both brands will remain firmly separate, they are supposed to share many technologies to further drive down the costs, while Renault will be pushing them towards a truly global international expansion.In theory, that's all great, but one needs to support the talk with bankable products  and this is where the new Bigster Concept slots in for Dacias future expansion ambitions. Its a preview of the model that will eventually come forward (perhaps with seven seats to make up for the loss of the Lodgy) as a larger sibling to the best-selling Duster And Dacia is also going to enter the compact segment for the first time ever, a clear signal that Renault is prepared to push the Romanian brand from its affordable corner and into true mainstream. Spanish publication motor.es has already proceeded to imagine the possible production series outcome for the Bigster (if Dacia keeps the name and doesnt go with the rumored Grand Duster).Their creation is opting for a touch of subtlety, as the CGI doesnt stray too far away from the concepts design, which has already garnered positive reactions. Instead, we see them dropping some of the exotic features; the Bigster now comes with the Sanderos headlights, regular door handles, and the grille or the possible new logo arent lit up anymore.Unfortunately, theres still no official word about the interior, and the publication didnt bother to rework the rear either. We do like, however, the idea of housing the LED daytime lights into the vertical slots.
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As part of its commitment to ensuring access to affordable broadband connectivity in Africas underserved populations, Tizeti, which describes itself as West Africas pioneer solar-based internet service provider, is rolling out its LTE network in Nigerias Edo State.

With this move, says the company, millions of people in Edo State in Southern Nigeria previously outside the broadband envelope can now take advantage of high-speed broadband internet.

The company says it has been building brand-new, solar-powered, 4G-capable towers in Edo, starting with the capital Benin City, which leverages Edo States fibre network built by some of Tizetis partners, MainOne and Facebook.

The chief executive officer of Tizeti, Kendall Ananyi, said: Edo State has a large population of vibrant, young people and a high number of higher institutions, which provides a foundation for a robust and thriving ecosystem to enable digital leadership.

He added that the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, is implementing reforms in investment promotion and has shown determination to build a robust technology ecosystem in the state, with an agenda that prioritizes ICT-compliant pedagogy in primary schools, improves digital skills for students and graduates, and revamps technical education to increase productivity.

This has created a perfect environment for us to roll out our low-cost broadband service, starting in Edo State, but with plans to expand across the country over the next few months, he concluded.

Given the size of the student population, cost is important. The 4,000 naira (about $8) monthly cost, with a one-off installation cost of 4,000 naira, makes the plan affordable, the company says, especially to undergraduate students.

Tizeti currently has 1.7 million unique users, with broadband services that include a new Skype-like personal and business enterprise communications service  WiFiCall.ng  and access to video streaming sites and services.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjees decision to contest the upcoming polls from the Nandigram assembly constituency seat has not surprised many. The seat was earlier held by former Trinamool heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari till December last year, when he resigned from the assembly and switched to the BJP.

Addressing a huge public rally at Tekhali in Nandigram, Banerjee said, Nandigram is close to my heart. I can forget my name but I cannot forget Nandigram. Considering the emotional attachment I have with the people of Nandigram, today I am announcing that I wish to contest the upcoming poll from Nandigram.

While the BJP has alleged that its the TMC chiefs political nervousness that pressed her to contest from two seats  Bhawanipore in South Kolkata, the seat she won in the 2011 bypolls and in 2016, and Nandigram, many experts see a pragmatic political design behind her decision.

Also read: Mamata Banerjee to Contest Bengal Polls from Nandigram in Challenge to Turncoat Suvendu Adhikari

A political commentator, who did not wish to be named, said that it was Banerjee's way of telling the people, especially the BJP, that despite an exodus from her party and setbacks, she was confidence of taking on the saffron party anywhere and everywhere in the state.

Its a deft political move from Mamata as it would confine the energy of BJPs new warhorse Suvendu Adhikari and his family to the Nandigarm seat, the expert said. Adhikari won the seat in 2016 by defeating Abdul Kadir Sheikh of the Left Front-Congress alliance.

The Adhikari family wields considerable influence in Purba Medinipur and neighbouring districts including Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Bankura. The area has a total of 63 assembly seats, critical for any party that wants to enter the state secretariat.

Also read: Mamata Faces Nandigram Test Before 2021 Polls as TMC Leader Suspended for Corruption Shows Strength

This would also help Trinamool fill in for the lack of a strong face in the area. The party has no credible face in both East and West Medinipur, the districts accounting for over 30 assembly seats. Further, it may help TMC in denting BJPs in rural strongholds, the areas that majorly helped the saffron party shore up its vote share from just over 10% in 2016 Assembly polls to over 40% in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Mamatas Nandigram move is also a signal of her return to the grass roots and street politics that she is known for, another Bengal watcher argues. "Remember, it was the Nandigram land agitation of 2007 which propelled TMC to power in Bengal," he said.

Besides, her decision also sends a very strong message to defectors-in-waiting  she will do whatever it takes to win the battle of Bengal and will not let her core voter-base split. One could also not miss the hallmark of Prashant Kishores electioneering style in Mamatas move.
A Christian astronaut said that seeing the sunrise from the International Space Station reminds him of Psalm 30.

Victor Glover, a forty-four-year-old astronaut said seeing the sunrise from the International Space Station reminds him of the scripture in Psalm 30. Through Twitter and Instagram posts this week, Glover said the sunrise makes him look back on the word in the Bible that says after the darkness of the night will come the light of the morning.

"Took these photos today, I love sunrises and sunsets. Can you see the bands of color?" Glover posted on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. "They remind me of the scripture in Psalm 30, 'weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' It seems darkest just before sunrise. I wish you all love and light. Goodnight from the @iss," Glover added, according to Christian Headlines.

Glover is one of the seven men and women who flew as part of the space station's Expedition 64. He was also the first black astronaut to fly and live for a long term mission in space.

Teaching a Bible class in a Houston, Texas, Church of Christ congregation where he, Dionna his wife for 18 years, and their four kids regularly attend, Glover surfaced the news last year with what he carried with him to space. He brought with him communion cups and a Bible intending to continue his worship and devotion time in space.

In November, Glover was one among the four chosen to launch the SpaceX rocket aboard to the space station. SpaceX rocket is only NASA/SpaceX's second manned mission in history. In Resilience, SpaceX Crew Dragon the 44-year old astronaut was a pilot and second-in-command. SpaceX Crew Dragon's capsule Resilience is the first commercially developed space vehicle certified by NASA and the FAA.

"I will probably continue in what we've been doing: virtual service, virtual giving, reading my Bible, and praying," Glover said in an interview, Christian Headlines reported.

He said that his trip outside planet Earth allowed him to focus and re-focus on things that matter most. He added that God assigned him a few really important things: his life, his wife, his family, and the family they grew in the International Space Station.

The Navy F/A-18 carrier pilot and legislative aide to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz shared how he begins with all his flights. He said before he goes and gets into an airplane to go on a flight, he says a prayer and thinks about his family.

During the interview, Glover honored several black people who served the people during their lifetime. He wore a sweatshirt with the names of former black leaders such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., poet Maya Angelou, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, educator George Washington Carver, and Mohammad Ali.

"God doesn't really have to have a concern for my patriotism, but I am an American," Glover said. "And we are blessed to be born in America," he added.

He further explained that everyone should understand the legacy everyone is part of. He added that he believes that works are to do in terms of making sure that a complete and entire whole story is told.
Struck poor by COVID, Phuket man tries to sell eye on Facebook

PHUKET: A man who has been severely affected by the COVID-19 fallout took to social media in desperation last week offering to sell one of his eyes.

CoronavirusCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Monday 18 January 2021, 05:54PM

Mr Taweep Mee Phan who took to Facebook out of desperation offering to sell one of his eyes. Photo: Chalong Municipality

Mr Taweep Mee Phan, 57, from Chalong posted on his Facebook account last Friday (Jan 15) that he was willing to sell his left eye to raise much needed funds to support his family.

Mr Taweep was a bus driver for a Chinese tour company for 15 years before losing his job last February when tourists numbers visiting the island dried up.

Out of desperation he took to social media with the startling offer.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, there were no tourists and I had to stop driving which meant I lost the means to provide income support for my family, Mr Taweep posted.

What I want and need now is a fulltime job to bring income in to help my family.

I am willing to do whatever job is available, he added.

If someone needs eyes, I am ready to sell one of mine.

I know that it is illegal but I need to get money in order to take care of my grandchildren, to enable them to study and to look after myself during my final years in my hometown.

Chalong Mayor Samran Jindaphol visited Mr Taweep yesterday (Jan 17) after receiving a call from Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong alerting him to the desperate situation and the subsequent post on Facebook.

Mr Taweep posted on social media out of desperation after not being able to provide income and support his family for so long, Mayor Samran said.

I reassured him that he did not have to sell one of his eyes and that we will help, he added.

Mayor Samran confirmed that Mr Taweep was initially given rice to help the burden and that he later managed to secure him work at a private company.

Mr Taweep later took to Facebook to express his sincere thanks to Mayor Samran for his help and for securing him a job.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart he posted.
DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostics and Therapeutics Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics market has been witnessing a CAGR of 6.7%.



The key factors propelling the growth of this market are the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases like dementia, increasing pipeline drug development, investment in biomarkers for drug development, and increasing sophisticated diagnostics for early detection.



Alzheimer's disease is one of the most prevalent types of dementia that occurs worldwide. According to the Alzheimer's net, there are nearly 50 million people that have Alzheimer's or related dementia. The development of clinical diagnostics and therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative conditions is becoming very important. So, certain biomarkers that may improve the accuracy of the diagnosis are used.



Investing in biomarkers for drug development and early detection of AD acts as a major driver, and it fuels the growth of the Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics market, globally.



Key Market Trends



Cholinesterase Inhibitors are Expected to Hold the Highest Market Share in the Therapeutics Segment



Cholinesterase inhibitors are believed to have the largest market size, and they are expected to witness a high CAGR, during the forecast period. Cholinesterase inhibitors are used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. These cholinesterase inhibitors are approved by the US FDA. Most physicians and perhaps most patients consider cholinergic drugs.



Donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine are the generic names of cholinesterase inhibitors, which are likely to be the first-line pharmacotherapy choice for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. These drugs have somewhat different pharmacological properties, but all of them work by the same mechanism, which involves inhibiting the breakdown of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter associated with memory, by blocking the enzyme acetylcholinesterase.



Several clinical trials are ongoing on cholinesterase inhibitors to increase drug efficacy and decrease adverse effects. Hence, owing to the developments, the cholinesterase inhibitor drugs market is expected to grow during the forecast period.



North America Dominates the Market and is Expected to do Same in the Forecast Period



North America currently dominates the market for Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics, and it is expected to continue its stronghold for a few more years. The United States holds the largest share of the global Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics market. According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, as of 2017.



The United States is considered to be the global leader in Alzheimer's disease intervention and management. America has a large pool of biopharmaceutical companies, which cumulatively have 85 drugs for combating Alzheimer's disease in various stages of the pipeline. Hence, the market is expected to register a healthy CAGR over the forecast period.



Competitive Landscape



The Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics market is moderately competitive and consists of several major players. With technological advancements and product innovation, mid-size to smaller companies are increasing their market presence, by introducing new technologies with better results.



Companies, like F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Novartis AG, Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., and Eli Lily & Co., hold a substantial market share in the Alzheimer's disease diagnostics and therapeutics market.



Key Topics Covered:



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Deliverables

1.2 Study Assumptions

1.3 Scope of the Study



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Market Drivers

4.2.1 Use of Biomarkers in Diagnosis and Drug Development

4.2.2 Large Number of Drugs in Pipeline

4.2.3 Emerging Novel Diagnostic Technologies

4.3 Market Restraints

4.3.1 High Failure Rates of Late-stage Drugs

4.3.2 Lack of Surrogate Markers and Challenges in Early Diagnosis

4.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.4.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.4 Threat of Substitute Products and Services

4.4.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry



5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Therapeutics

5.1.1 Cholinesterase Inhibitors

5.1.2 NMDA Receptor Antagonists

5.1.3 Other Therapeutics

5.2 By Diagnostics

5.2.1 Brain Imaging

5.2.2 CFS Test for Alzheimer's Disease

5.3 Geography



6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles

6.1.1 F. Hoffmann-La Roche

6.1.2 Novartis AG

6.1.3 Merck & Co. Inc.

6.1.4 Pfizer Inc.

6.1.5 Eisai Co. Ltd

6.1.6 Biogen Inc

6.1.7 Johnson & Johnson

6.1.8 Eli Lilly & Company

6.1.9 Lupin Limited

6.1.10 Allergan PLC



7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/d33hf0

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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Lawrence A. Deiman, a US Air Force veteran and information technology professional currently living in the Phoenix East Valley of the great state of Arizona with Abby, his pure white Siberian husky with piercing blue eyes, has completed his new book Incident at the Historical Museum: a riveting tale that keeps the pages turning until the stunning conclusion.

The author writes, This is a story about two friends, Jason and Trevor, who met in college. They became friends and, very quickly, best friends. After college, Jason starts working in security, and thanks to a boss that totally destroys him at his job, decides to go out on his own so that cant happen again, a decision that almost gets himself killed. Trevor decrypts encoded messages from foreign powers for the FBI, CIA, and other government agencies. After realizing his potential, he lands his dream job and prepares himself for this new exciting career.

Jason falls in love with a high-priced hooker and eventually wants to marry her, not knowing her occupation. Trevor goes to work in his new career and falls for someone that ends up dead. He is distraught and fights to find answers to why his newfound love died, as well as whats going on at the historical museum that somehow has complicated his life and career. He helps Jason in a tangled web of deceit that he gets dragged into and ends up saving Jasons life. Trevor, after searching for answers to his friends murder, gets mixed up in a drug operation that could get him killed in the end. Thanks to a great relationship with the local police, Trevor gets to play cop with some heavy hitters and discovers a lot of secrets that completely surprise him. This story has sex, drugs, mystery, intrigue, and murder. Enjoy!

Published by Page Publishing, Lawrence A. Deimans entertaining tale is an excellent choice for avid crime fiction readers.

Readers who wish to experience this engrossing work can purchase Incident at the Historical Museum at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing understands that authors should be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and the like. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
New Delhi: In shocking news from Haryana, a father has been arrested for repeatedly raping his minor daughter for over 7 years and also impregnating her several times.

The 17-year old girl has alleged that her father had been repeatedly sexually assaulting her and that she received death threats from him whenever she protested, according to a report by The Times of India.

The complaint filed at a police station in Hisar further said that the father impregnated the girl multiple times and forced her to undergo abortions. The girl said that her father also molested her 11-year old sister.

The Hisar police has now registered a case against the accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376(2)(n) (repeated rape), 376(2) f (rape by guardian), 354-A(1) (explicit sexual overtures), 313 (causing miscarriage without womans consent), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). The police has also booked him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The police is now interrogating the accused.

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Farmers who are protesting at Delhi borders for the past 55 days say they will go ahead with their proposed tractor rally on Republic Day. The farmers' unions have assured that they will hold a peaceful parade on the outer ring road in the national capital and added that there will be no disruption on the Republic Day parade. Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, the joint coordination committee of as many as 40 farmers' outfits, has decided to go ahead with the proposed 'Kisan Tractor March' on January 26.

Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border, union leader Yogendra Yadav said, "We will carry out a tractor parade on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi on Republic Day. The parade will be very peaceful. There will be no disruption of the Republic Day parade. The farmers will put up the national flag on their tractors."

Another farmer leader said the aim of the proposed tractor rally is not to disrupt January 26 parade. "Each tractor will bear the national flag and the flag of farmer union concerned. No political party flag will be put on the tractors. Those not able to reach New Delhi will organise the tractor march in their villages," the farmer leaders said.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, in a statement, said, "The vehicles in the parade will consist of tableaus and floats that will reflect the agricultural reality of different states in addition to showcasing of historical regional and other movements".

All eyes are now on the Supreme Court, which will hear a petition by the Delhi Police, seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor march.

The National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Sunday summoned over two dozen protesters in a case related to an organisation called Sikhs for Justice, which advocates Sikh secessionism and is allegedly aiding the protesters. Farmers have labelled the NIA notice as "harassment" by the government.

The Centre and farmers' unions have held nine rounds of talks but no concrete results have come out so far. The tenth round of talks is scheduled for January 19. On the same day, the SC-appointed committee will also hold its first meeting. The SC on January 11 had stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.

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The sanctions will go into effect on Tuesday.

The United States has informed the German government that it plans to sanction Russian vessel "Fortuna," which is involved in construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and its owner KVT-RUS, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday.

U.S. government officials informed Berlin and other European allies on Monday that the sanctions would go into effect on Tuesday, the newspaper added, without citing sources, Reuters reported.

Read also Swiss insurance firm quits Nord Stream 2 on sanctions anxiety  media Nord Stream 2: Background

The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction and operation of two gas pipeline branches with a total throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It should connect Russia's Ust-Lug and Germany's Greifswald. This new pipeline bypassing Ukraine is to be built next to the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

The construction of the pipeline was expected to be completed before the end of 2019.

The pipeline will be 1,220 km long. The project is being implemented by Russia's Gazprom in alliance with European companies  ENGIE, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper, and Wintershall. Ukraine stands against the construction of Nord Stream 2 as it will most likely lose its status of a gas transit country, while its potential revenue losses are estimated at US$3 billion annually. The project is also highly criticized by the U.S., Poland, and the Baltic States.

According to media reports, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden intends to do his best to prevent the construction of Nord Stream 2.

On November 4, 2020, the media reported that Congress wants to expand sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream.

On December 4, 2020, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he doubted that the U.S. position on Nord Stream 2 would change after Joe Biden's inauguration.

On December 6, 2020, United States Charge d'Affaires to Germany Robin Quinville called on the EU and Germany to declare a moratorium on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

On December 9, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the 2021 NDAA with expanded restrictions against the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

On January 7, 2021, the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania government approved the creation of the Mecklenburg Climate Protection Fund whose main objective is to help complete the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline by bypassing U.S. sanctions.

On January 13, it was reported the U.S. State Department this month told European companies which it suspects are helping to build Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that they face the risk of sanctions.

Reporting by UNIAN
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump will leave Washington next Wednesday morning, ahead of President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration, according to a person familiar with the planning who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been made public.
When President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated Pennsylvanias Capitol building in October 1906, he said, This is the handsomest building I ever saw. For 80 years after its construction in Harrisburg the Capitol stood as the tallest structure between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The seat of Pennsylvanias government still inspires all those who walk under its majestic dome modeled after Michelangelos design for St. Peters Basilica.

News that Governor Tom Wolf has ordered our State Capitol closed for several days should give all Pennsylvanians pause. The decision is understandable, but also heartbreaking. It comes in the wake of the treasonous attack on our nations Capitol in Washington and in anticipation of more possible violence tied to the inauguration of Pennsylvanias native son, Joe Biden.

As the leader of an organization called The Pennsylvania Society, founded seven years prior to Roosevelts visit to Harrisburg that day, and which maintains a centuries-long commitment to civility, the news hit particularly hard  for me and for our thousands of members across the Commonwealth and around the world.

 READ MORE: Gov. Tom Wolf orders the state Capitol closed next week in a bid to thwart possible unrest

Yes, the Capitol complex has been restricted to visitors recently due to the pandemic, but the very idea that its doors will be ordered closed, shuttered even if only for several days, says so much about where we are today as a nation. It says so much about how we treat one another and the democratic institutions of government we hold dear.

With no affiliation to any particular political party, The Pennsylvania Society exists for the sole purpose of celebrating service to the Commonwealth with an abiding respect for one another. Its a notion that dates back even further, to our founder William Penn, who sought to establish a land that would be governed by just laws and tolerant of all who live here.

Tolerance has certainly been in short supply of late. As has civility. Among Teddy Roosevelts most famous quotes is, Speak softly and carry a big stick  you will go far. But most dont know the next sentence from that quote: If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble.

My hope is, as we usher in a new administration this week in Washington, we use this as a time to remember there is so much more that binds us together as Pennsylvanians and Americans than what separates us. You can see it on the very walls of our State Capitol. Architect Joseph Huston blended various Renaissance styles with motifs featuring Pennsylvanias achievements in labor, industry and history, making our remarkable Capitol uniquely American.

In the 115 years since, Pennsylvanians have come together at critical times to advance our society in their own meaningful ways. Among them are Jonas Salk, who helped to create the first polio vaccine, and Fred Rogers who created a neighborhood that made millions of children feel special. Talk about a man who understood the power of civility! Its one reason Pittsburghs Mr. Rogers was the recipient of The Pennsylvania Society Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement in 1990.

Our State Capitol is a blend of concrete, steel, tile, brick and glass. Like Pennsylvania itself its sum is greater than its parts. Some of our parts are broken right now. Lets embrace this moment, invite more civility back into our lives, and work to ensure this is the last time our beautiful Capitol is ever forced to close.

Edward J. Sheehan, Jr. is President of The Pennsylvania Society and serves as the President and CEO of Pennsylvania headquartered Concurrent Technologies Corporation. Learn more at www.PASociety.com.
Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Sunday the importance of using the largest possible percentage of local components in the country's efforts to manufacture electric vehicles during a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and other officials on Sunday.

El-Sisi reviewed during the meeting the national project to locally manufacture electric vehicles, urging officials to make sure all factors required for the success of this project are provided, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said.

He also directed the completion of the various components related to the project, including the charging stations.

Last year, Egypt announced plans to locally produce electric vehicles in cooperation with China.

In press remarks last July, Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik said the country plans to annually produce 25,000 electric cars, manufactured by Egypts El-Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Co., in cooperation with Chinas state-owned automobile manufacturer Dongfeng.

The meeting, which was attended by Tawfik, discussed various industrial and commercial issues related to the project, including the need to attract foreign investments and choose the most suitable car models fitting the requirements of the Egyptian market.

The president affirmed the need for the project to include partnerships within the private sector, which is experienced in the automobile industry, especially those working with electricity.

Assistant to the President for National and Strategic Projects Sherif Ismail, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, and Minister of Trade and Industry Niveen Gamea attended the meeting.

Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Ahmed Morsy and Chairman of the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation Abdel Moneim El-Terras also took part in the meeting.

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Republicans Introduce Bill to Help Fortify Federal Election Integrity

House Republicans introduced a bill that they say will help each state create baseline protections against election irregularities and voter fraud during presidential elections.

The Save Democracy Act aims to close loopholes that prevent secure and fair general elections by strengthening voter registration verifications, narrowing rules for when and how mail-in ballots can be accepted, and mandating observers from each party is allowed to be present during polling and vote counting.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill, led his caucus to introduce the legislation addressing the concerns of voters across the country.

Chairman Banks said in a press statement, This bill will restore the publics trust that their vote is counted and their voice is heard.

The Pew Research Center published a survey in November 2020 in which they surveyed 11,818 American adults, 10,399 of whom said they voted in the presidential election, about the integrity of the Nov. 3 election.

The survey showed only 5 percent of Trump voters thought the election was administered well compared to 64 percent of Biden voters, illustrating the divide between the two parties. When asked if they were very confident that their votes were counted accurately, only 35 percent of Trump voters agreed versus 82 percent of Biden voters.

President Donald Trump and his legal team have alleged wide-spread voter fraud and have sought to have many legal challenges heard in court, most recently on Jan. 11 the Supreme Court threw out a batch of requests by President Donald Trumps campaign and Trump supporters for expedited consideration of legal challenges to election results in multiple states.

The Supreme Court, as is its custom, didnt explain why it dismissed the emergency applications seeking to fast-track the lawsuits. There were no noted dissents from any of the nine justices.

Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) said in a separate press statement on Sunday: Our first legislative priority is intended to reestablish faith in the integrity of our elections. If we dont work to ensure our citizens have confidence in our election process then this body is not addressing a major reason for division in our country.

The Save Democracy Act will ensure that voter registration systems are not automatic but require citizenship verifications. The bill would prohibit states from sending out unrequested absentee ballots and it would not allow anyone other than a voter or cohabitant to bring in a ballot.

The legislation would also mandate that absentee and mail-in ballots are received no later than election day, counted immediately upon being received and totals disclosed only after polls close.

In addition, the bill would mandate that observers from each party be present during polling and counting of votes.

The GOP bill is not the first to try to address the integrity of elections. A bipartisan bill introduced by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), called the Securing Americas Elections Act of 2019, addressed a key concern about electronic voting machines. The legislation addressed this by mandating that all electronic votes have a paper backup, making it possible to audit at a later date.

This bill requires voting systems for federal elections to produce paper ballots that the voter may inspect and verify before the vote is cast and counted, the bills summary reads. The bill also requires the paper ballot to be suitable for manual audits, prescribes approved methods for such audits, and directs the Department of Homeland Security and the Election Assistance Commission to report on the desirability of using open-source software in voting systems.

Gabbard told Dave Rubin in a recent interview that election integrity needs to be a non-partisan issue for the sake of upholding the U.S. Constitution and needs to be done in a peaceful way, within American institutions, and without violence.

If all of these people in Congress, Democrat and Republican, had taken that issue seriously and passed that legislation, those who are now saying Hey, we have to stand up for the integrity, why didnt you do something about it before?

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.
Belgium on Monday prepared to fight the spread of the British variant of the coronavirus after outbreak reports in schools and retirement homes of the strain believed to be more infectious.

Carl Decaluwe, the governor of West Flanders, which includes the postcard city of Bruges, said he had ordered a massive wave of testing in several schools.

The measures came after about two-thirds of the residents of a retirement home in the town of Houthulst and one third of the staff were infected, a statement said.

Three people died, the De Groene Verte home said.

In all about 130 people tested positive with the British strain, the town's mayor told AFP, with the country now seriously considering tougher restrictions on travel in and out of the country.

An outbreak was also reported in a small town near the port city of Antwerp, where two pupils from a primary school in Edegem were infected with the British variant.

"We have promised and guaranteed that we will not make people feel guilty," the town's mayor Koen Metsu told VTM news.

"But it is effectively the case that if everyone had followed the quarantine rules after returning from a trip, we could have avoided this."

Non-essential travel abroad remains strongly discouraged in Belgium.

But the cross-roads country of 11 million people is tucked between France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands with thousands of people crossing the border everyday.

Reports said the government could decide by the end of the week to reduce the maximum length of stay to avoid testing and quarantine from the current 48 hours to 16 hours or shorter.

Belgium has recorded 678,839 cases of the coronavirus and 20,435 deaths, making it the most bereaved country in the world in terms of population.

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As a decidedly local newspaper, we dont often opine on national affairs. However, with the end of Donald Trumps four-year reign of error and Joe Bidens inauguration as our nations 46th president, we find ourselves in a unique moment. Like so many of our readers, we cannot let this moment pass without stating unequivocally where we stand.

After the shocking  if altogether predictable  violent and seditious final weeks of Trumps presidency, the impulses for unity and a return to normalcy run deep across America. These impulses are understandable, but they ring hollow  and they will never take hold  if America does not first undergo the equally necessary processes of accounting and reckoning. By that we mean a thorough investigation and vigorous prosecutions of all persons, in and out of government, who encouraged, incited, enabled and supported Trumps Jan. 6 putsch.

There can be no healing without those two predicates. Pope Paul VI famously said, If you want peace, work for justice. If we want America to heal, to unite, to return to normal, we must first restore our national norms  especially that of holding wrongdoers accountable. Its not about revenge or retribution; its about justice and restoring faith in our democratic institutions. Its about healing.

The chaos of the last four years has taken an enormous toll on us all. Ironically, as leaders of Donald Trumps Republican Party abandoned their principles and violated their oaths of office in the reckless pursuit of gaining and holding on to power, they inflicted the greatest harm on the GOP itself. In just four years, Republicans have lost not only the White House but also both houses of Congress. Worse, the GOP has become infested with violent white supremacists, wacko conspiracy theorists and fanatic theocrats.

Commentary: The Insurrection of 2021 The Trump-incited insurrection on Jan. 6 has shaken us all to the core, even though it was entirely foreseeable. To those who say, This is no

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney put it best when he admonished Republican charlatans in Congress who sought to overturn the Electoral College vote  literally as the Jan. 6 insurrection unfolded  telling them, The best way we can show respect for the voters who were upset is by telling them the truth. The truth that Romney referenced is that Joe Biden won the election, period. Heres another truth: For the Republican Party to recover, it must purge itself of its most unhinged and irresponsible members, top to bottom, including  especially  those elected to serve in the U.S. House and Senate. Mere denunciations wont suffice.

We need a healing process at the local level as well. Its well past time that we all come to terms with what Black, trans and poor New Orleanians have known for some time: The old normal wasnt so great for everybody. Rather than yearning for a return to a time when only some of us felt safe in our homes and welcome on our streets, we should instead use this moment to begin the hard but necessary process of accounting and reckoning how we as a city have treated those who have been marginalized in the past.

A more equitable, just society in which all citizens feel at ease isnt a radical notion. In a city and nation that cherish liberty and justice, accounting and reckoning  as preludes to peace and unity  should be defining traits.


Nureca Ltd, which owns the Dr Trust brand, has received capital markets watchdog Sebi's go ahead to raise Rs 100 crore through an initial public offering.

The IPO comprises issuance of equity shares worth Rs 100 crore, a draft red herring prospectus filed with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed.

The company, which had filed its preliminary papers with Sebi in November, obtained its observations on January 11, an update with the capital markets regulator showed on Monday.

Sebi's observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues like initial public offer (IPO), follow-on public offer (FPO) and rights issue.

As per the draft papers, proceeds of the issue will be used for funding incremental working capital requirements of the company and general corporate purposes.

Further, through listing, the company expects to enhance its visibility and brand image among existing and potential customers and creation of a public market for equity shares in India.

ITI Capital is the sole book running lead manager to the issue. The equity shares will be listed on BSE and NSE.

Nureca is engaged in the business of home healthcare and wellness products and enables customers with tools to help them monitor chronic ailments and other diseases.

The company sells its products through online channel partners such as e-commerce players, distributors and retailers. It also sells products through its own website.

Also read: Three key issues Budget 2021 should focus on

Also watch: Budget 2021: Where can the govt raise resources from?
The Nagol is Back! VTOs guide to this years Nagol, plus where to stay and play in south, central and north Pentecost.
The Bombay High Court today delivered its judgement in the PIL's that were filed against media trial being held in the death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The two-member bench, in its judgement, stated that it had come to a conclusion that there indeed was a media trial that violated the program code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act. It also named Republic TV and Times Now, stating that the reporting of two news channels against Mumbai police were "prima facie contemptuous".

It also issued guidelines to the media regarding reporting on matters of death and suicide cases.

"There should be no reconstruction of the crime scene and there should be no leaking of any "sensitive information," said the judgement.

It suggested that the investigative agency may appoint an officer to provide credible information as the agency deems fit, to answer queries of journalists. But it also stated that investigative agencies are under no obligation to disclose sensitive information.

Bombay HC also said that in death by suicide, to depict the victim as weak would create aspersions on the investigation. "Trial by media leads to interference and obstruction of justice and clearly amounts to contempt", observed the court.

The judgement also stated that guidelines issued by the Press Council of India should be followed including those from the print media.

The court delivered its judgement after a bunch of PIL's were filed stating that a media trial was being conducted by various channels during the death probe in the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput case. One of the PIL's were filed by 8 Ex IPS officers from Maharashtra.
Beijing Must Allow WHO a Full, Transparent Investigation Into Virus Origin: US Lawmaker

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is calling on Beijing to be transparent with a team of investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) who are currently in China to study the origin of the CCP virus.

As we reach the grim milestone of two million COVID-19 related deaths [globally], the Chinese Communist Party, sadly, continues to block efforts to determine the origins of this deadly disease, stated McCaul in a Jan. 17 press release.

After months of painstaking negotiations, Beijing finally agreed to allow international experts to visit China to investigate the origin of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The planned trip to China hit a snag in early January, after the WHO publicly criticized Beijing for delaying the experts visit.

It was a rare public rebuke for the WHO, which parroted Chinas claims about the virus outbreak during much of 2020. For example, in early January last year, it repeated Beijings claim that there was no risk of human-to-human transmission.

According to Chinas foreign ministry, a group of 13 international experts arrived in Wuhan, the city where the virus originated, on Jan. 14. The team subsequently checked into a local hotel that was converted into a quarantine center.

McCaul warned: If we are going to try to stop future pandemics like this one from killing millions, the CCP must be fully transparent and allow an outside, unbiased and thorough investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

He added: And if they refuse, the WHO must publicly and forcefully condemn their actions. Failure to do so on both parts will only cause a further loss of life.

While it remains to be seen whether Chinese authorities will grant unfettered access to these international experts once their mandatory quarantine period comes to an end, Beijing has stepped up online censorship in the face of the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in northern China.

In northern Chinas Jilin Province, a superspreader, a 45-year-old man surnamed Lin, infected at least 143 people in the province, Chinese state-run media reported on Jan. 17.

Radio Free Asia reported on Jan. 13 that several Chinese netizens, located in provinces including Hebei, Jilin, and Jiangxi, were punished by local police for their online comments about COVID-19.

For example, a man surnamed Han in Handan city in Hebei was given 10-day administrative detention and fined 500 yuan ($77). Local police claimed that his online comment was a rumor. He wrote on Chinese social media WeChat on Jan. 6 that there was a suspected patient living in a village in Handan.

On Jan. 18, Weiquanwang, a Chinese website devoted to news about human rights activists, reported on its website that Chinese authorities recently began to scrub the internet of articles about Chinese whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, as the one-year anniversary of his death drew near.

Li, an ophthalmologist, was one of several Chinese doctors who first warned of an unknown pneumonia outbreak on Chinese social media on Dec. 30, 2019. After his online warning went viral, he was summoned to a local police station on Jan. 3 and reprimanded for rumor-mongering.

A month later, on Feb. 7 last year, Li died after contracting the virus himself while unknowingly treating an infected patient.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a tweet on Jan. 16, called on people to search the words Li Wenliang online.

CCP disappeared the doctors who knew. CCP still refuses to let the world in to see what it wrought. CCP lied about where the virus came from, Pompeo added.
FP Trending

Hike messaging app or Hike Sticker Chat has been shelved citing inability to compete with foreign messaging apps. The free cross-platform instant messaging application was launched in 2012 and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal announced earlier this month that they will be drawing the curtains soon. In a tweet made on 6 January, Mittal said: Today were announcing that we will be sunsetting StickerChat in Jan21. We thank you all for giving us your trust. We wouldnt be here without you. He added that the firm was being reimagined as Vibe and Rush which will have Hikes special emojis and its name: Vibe by Hike.

2/ First off  HikeLand. Last month I spoke about 30K new friendships are being formed every month on HikeLand. In 2021, we're going to double down. However in a new avatar.https://t.co/iaJkLEG5M2  Kavin Bharti Mittal (@kavinbm) January 6, 2021

While Vibe will be an approval-only community, Rush is going to be a bite-sized gaming service. It is to be noted here that Vibe by Hike was previously known as HikeLand.

A few days later, Mittal declared that India wont have its own messenger. His comments come while the entire country was erupting over the new privacy policy of WhatsApp, a messaging app used by the majority of Indians. After the news of its privacy policy spread, people have been urging everyone to shift to other apps like Telegram and Signal. This backlash ultimately led WhatsApp to delay their new policy by three months.

Mittal also wrote that global companies like Telegram and Signal were too strong and unless India bans foreign firms, it is difficult for homegrown apps like Hike to make an impact. He opined that both Signal and Telegram were better than Facebook-owned companies (WhatsApp) as entities.

India wont have its own messenger. Global network effects are too strong (unless India bans Western companies)@telegram UX, Groups better than @signalapp Both are very good. As entities they have the right incentives (more aligned with consumers) unlike FB products.  Kavin Bharti Mittal (@kavinbm) January 10, 2021

Now the app Hike Sticker Chat is no longer available to download from both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. While no clarity has been given behind the closing down of the app, users of Hike Messenger can get their conversations and data downloaded from within the app itself.
But the court heard on Monday that forensic officer Kate Outteridge had identified a positive DNA match from one sample to another man, who was 23 at the time. He was the "minor contributor" in that sample, she said.

A police summary released by Melbourne Magistrates Court says police believe there is extremely strong evidence, based on forensic testing conducted in recent years, that DNA samples show Mr Tsalkos was the offender. Mr Tsalkos, now 59, was 25 at the time.

Police allege Theodoros Tsalkos raped two sex workers, then aged 15 and 16, in Elwood and Balaclava after picking them up in St Kilda in a red Holden Torana on May 7, 1987. The friends began as sex workers four days earlier.

A magistrate has allowed an alleged rape victim to be asked how many sexual partners she had, during a hearing for a man accused of attacking her and another teenager while posing as an undercover police officer 33 years ago.

Ms Outteridge told the court it was not her role to determine whether he could have been the offender, but instead to pass information on to investigating police. No details were given about a police investigation into the other man.

Testing of a piece of fabric taken from clothing worn by one of the complainants also showed the presence of DNA evidence from at least two other people, Ms Outerridge said.

She said the samples were analysed for DNA evidence in 2012, 2018, and last year, but could not say when they were first kept in a freezer after they were taken from the girls in 1987. There was potential that DNA evidence could degrade if samples were not kept in a freezer, she said.

Defence lawyer Martin Kozlowski earlier told the court the case against his client was "very much an identity case". He was granted permission to question one of the complainants about how many men she had sex with before the alleged rapes. The other complainant died in the years afterwards.

Strict rules are in place in sex assault court cases regarding a complainant's sexual history, but Mr Kozlowski applied to question the surviving woman about how many men she had sex with because of the relevance to the case.
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. At no point during the decades of negotiations was an issue of cutting off Armenia and Karabakh (Artsakh) from one another voiced, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference when asked by an Azerbaijani news outlet why Armenian officials are visiting Karabakh without Bakus permission, and what is Moscows stance in this regard.

In all agreements, first of all in the [2020] November 9 statement, the sides consent is recorded on ensuring communication between Armenia and Karabakh through the Lachin corridor, which is under the control of the Russian peacekeepers. No one ever rejected Armenias communication with Karabakh. The issue of cutting off Armenia and Karabakh from one another was never voiced during the negotiations that continued for decades. And that is why the Lachin corridor, as a concept, was not rejected by anyone. And just like in the past, it is subject of consent of the sides, including the consent of our Azerbaijani neighbors. And just like this, a reliable and permanent communication will be established between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhijevan. This is stipulated in the trilateral statement. If we agree  and everyone does agree  that a communication between the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia must exist, I do not see reasons for obstructing the contacts in that level, Lavrov said.

Government officials of Armenia are involved in the process of providing humanitarian aid to Nagorno Karabakh, which doesnt get any negative reaction from Azerbaijan, and according to Lavrov it would be strange if it were otherwise.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Moscow, Jan 18 : Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained upon his arrival in Moscow from Germany, where he received medical treatment after he was allegedly poisoned last year.

In a statement on Sundat, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said its officers detained Navalny at the Sheremetyevo International Airport for his "systematic violations of the conditions of the probationary period", Xinhua news agency reported.

The opposition figure on probation was put on a wanted list on December 29, 2020 and he will remain in detention until a court ruling, the service said.

Meanwhile, top European Union (EU) officials expressed concerns over Navalny's detention, TASS News Agency reported.

"The detainment of Alexey Navalny upon arrival in Moscow is unacceptable. I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him," European Council President Charles Michel stated on Twitter.

"We ask the Russian authorities for his immediate release. We are ready to invite him to the European Parliament," European Parliament President David Sassoli said in a tweet.

"Russian authorities must respect Alexei Navalny's rights and release him immediately. Politicization of the judiciary is unacceptable," the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell echoed.

The issue will be discussed at an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on January 25 and at the European Parliament's session that begins on Monday, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also called for the opposition figure's immediate release.

In a statement, Pompeo said the "detention is the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities".

"We urge the Russian government to provide a level playing field for all political parties and candidates seeking to compete in the electoral process. Alexei Navalny is not the problem. We demand his immediate and unconditional release," Pompeo added.

Navalny, a harsh Kremlin critic, fell into a coma on a flight from the Russian city of Tomsk to Moscow on August 20, 2020.

He was then transferred to a Berlin hospital with suspected poisoning symptoms.

In early September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have repeatedly denied the accusations and demanded solid evidence from Germany.

If President Donald Trump doesnt want Senate Republicans to join Democrats in voting to convict him in his upcoming second impeachment trial then he better make sure his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani isnt involved in his defense. That was the message veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove espoused Sunday in which he made clear that Giulianis involvement would only increase the chance of a conviction. The warning comes amid reports that Trump is having trouble finding lawyers who will defend him as those who represented him in the first trial arent apparently interested in participating in the sequel.

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In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Rove said that it was clear every Republican senator needs to take this seriously. Ultimately, he said, its all going to boil down to what the presidents defense is. Giuliani charted a very bad course, noting comments that the presidents attorney said claiming Trump couldnt have incited the riots at the Capitol because his baseless claims of voter fraud were true. That defense isnt going to work considering the voter fraud claims have been rejected by over 50 courts with judges appointed by President Trump, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, and I think even one Reagan justice.

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Karl Rove says Rudy Giuliani's impeachment defense that "the attack on the Capitol and the attempt to end [Congress] certifying the election was justified" because their false election claims are true "raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction" pic.twitter.com/hf4JeerOFB  Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 17, 2021

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So if Giuliani pushes forward that message more Republicans are likely to join Democrats in voting for a conviction. Because essentially that argument is, this was justified, the attack on the Capitol and the attempt to end the congressional hearing on certifying the election was justified because all these charges are true. And frankly, they arent, Rove, who served as deputy chief of staff in George W. Bushs White House, said. I think it really boils down to whats the defense that the president is going to make, he added. And if its Rudy Giulianis defense, I think it raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction. Ten Republican lawmakers joined all the Democrats in the House of Representatives last week to vote in favor of impeaching Trump.

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Rove made his feelings known amid some apparent disagreements between Giuliani and Trumps team about whether the presidents personal lawyer will be involved in the Senate trial. Giuliani told ABC News without hesitating that he was part of the presidents defense team. The former mayor claimed there are different opinion about how Trump should be defended but as far as he was concerned the key would be to argue the validity of the voter fraud allegations. They basically claimed that anytime [Trump] says voter fraud, voter fraudor I do, or anybody elsewere inciting to violence; that those words are fighting words because its totally untrue, he said. Well, if you can prove that its true, or at least true enough so its a legitimate viewpoint, then they are no longer fighting words.

Shortly after the ABC News story was published, Hogan Gidley, who was Trumps reelection campaign press secretary, published a tweet that appeared to contradict Giuliani. President Trump has not yet made a determination as to which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the disgraceful attack on our Constitution and democracy, he said.
NEW DELHI : Pune-based Serum Institute of Indias (SII) Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which recently got Indian drug regulators nod for use in covid-19 vaccination drive in India, may also get a green signal for global use from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The global public health agency has indicated that it is looking forward to SIIs full data sets for rapid assessment to consider it for emergency use globally. We look forward to Serum Institute of India submitting full data sets for rapid assessment so WHO can determine whether we can recommend their AstraZeneca vaccine for international use," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO during a press conference on Monday.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

The WHO on December 31st 2020, listed the Comirnaty covid-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from the global health agency since the covid-19 outbreak. The WHOs Emergency Use Listing (EUL) opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine. It also enables UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organization to procure the vaccine for distribution to countries in need.

AstraZeneca has said that it is engaging with governments, multilateral organisations and other partners around the world for broad and equitable access to the vaccine without profit for the duration of the pandemic. We have moved at pace during 2020 to build more than a dozen regional supply chains. The vaccine can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (two-eight degrees Celsius/ 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months and administered within existing healthcare settings," Gagan Singh, Managing Director  AstraZeneca India told Mint.

Following the first authorisation for the vaccine by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 29 December 2020, oxford university-AstraZeneca vaccine has now seen approvals granted for emergency use in India as well as Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Morocco for the active immunisation of adults age 18 years or older.

AstraZeneca has already submitted a substantial data package to support a conditional marketing authorisation for its covid-19 vaccine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as part of an ongoing rolling review process and will continue to work closely with the EMA to seek approval in the coming weeks," said Singh.

AstraZeneca is also seeking Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization for an accelerated pathway to vaccine availability in low-income countries during this health crisis and has ongoing rolling reviews with many other regulatory authorities around the world," he added.

The Indian drug regulator reviewed the data generated from the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford clinical trial from the UK and Brazil before giving approval to the vaccine for use. The interim data for safety and immunogenicity of all participants from the SII's Phase 2/3 bridging trial in India was also reviewed.

Currently, SII has produced 50 million doses of Covishield. The pharmaceutical companys capacity is 60-70 million doses per month, which will be increased further up to 100 million a month by February 2021. The Indian government on Monday signed a deal with SII to procure 11 million shots of the vaccine at 200 per dose.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 16:45:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among "defeated armies" who are retreating, has been laying mines in foreign policy before time is called on his "ideologically driven term," a Canadian independent journalist wrote recently.

"The mines slow pursuit, they may inflict casualties on the victors, and they give the losers something purposeful to do amid panic and despair," said Gwynne Dyer in an opinion piece published Friday on Hamilton Spectator, a Canadian news outlet.

The article came as Pompeo had taken a series of diplomatic moves in his final days in office, including lifting restrictions on official contacts with China's Taiwan region, designating Yemen's Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization, putting Cuba back on the list of "state sponsor of terrorism," and calling Iran currently the main home of the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

Pompeo, with his "scorched-earth" policy, is "setting slow-burning fires in plain sight," and "a European foreign minister recently described him as a 'political pyromaniac,'" the writer said. Enditem
The United States plans to sanction a Russian vessel as it seeks to stop the completion of a controversial natural gas export pipeline to Europe.



The administration of outgoing President Donald Trump told government officials in Berlin and other European capitals on January 18 that the sanctions on the Fortuna ship would go into effect the following day under existing legislation known as CAATSA.



The sanctions would punish any European company that helps Fortuna complete the Nord Stream 2 project, which is designed to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic seabed.



The United States opposes the project, claiming it would strengthen the Kremlins grip on the European energy market while undermining Ukraines security and economy.



The pipeline would reroute natural gas destined for Europe around Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of billions of dollars in annual transit fees.



The German government expressed disappointment over the U.S. decision.



"We're taking note of the announcement with regret," an Economy Ministry spokesman in Berlin said.



The United States in December 2019 passed legislation sanctioning any vessel building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, forcing Swiss-based AllSeas to forgo its work on the project with more than 90 percent completed.



Russia is now seeking to finish the project with its own ships, prompting the United States to impose a wider array of sanctions.



The new sanctions will take effect one day before Trump leaves office.



President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to take a tougher stance on Russia than his predecessor, has expressed opposition to the pipeline in the past.



However, he has said he will seek to improve relations with European allies, including Germany.

Based on reporting by Handelsblatt and Reuters
Prime Minister Shri is scheduled to perform the Bhoomi Poojan of Rail Project Phase-II and Surat Project on Monday via video conferencing.

"Today is a landmark day for two of Gujarat's leading urban centres. The Bhoomi Poojan of Surat Metro and Phase-2 of the would take place at 10:30 am," Prime Minister tweeted informing about the event.

As per an official release, the Metro Projects will provide an environment friendly 'Mass Rapid Transit System' to these cities

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri will also be present on the occasion.

Rail Project Phase-II is 28.25 Kilometres long with two corridors. Corridor-1 is 22.8 Kilometres long and is from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir. Corridor-2 is 5.4 Kilometres long and is from GNLU to GIFT City. The total completion cost of the Phase-II project is Rs 5,384 crores.

Surat Project is 40.35 Kilometres long and comprises two corridors. Corridor-1 is 21.61 Kilometres long and is from Sarthana to Dream City. Corridor-2 is 18.74 Kilometres long and is from Bhesan to Saroli. The total completion cost of the project Rs 12,020 crores.

(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.)
Over the clatter of a hovering helicopter and the ear-piercing explosions of stun grenades, I yelled to US Marine Corps General John Kelly: I guess the President has seen this kind of thing quite often?

General Kelly, an old friend, growled back: First time. He likes parades.

We were standing in the grounds of Chequers, the Prime Ministers country residence, watching a Special Forces hostage-rescue demonstration, halfway through Donald Trumps first official visit to the UK.

I was serving as both Cabinet Secretary and Theresa Mays national security adviser. Both sides of my job meant I was in a state of heightened tension while the most mercurial American president in history was on our territory.

With Donald Trump leaving the White House and Brexit done, it is time for Britain to shine

Lord Sedwill was told how much Donald Trump likes parades during his visit to the UK when he met with Theresa May

It was the morning after a sumptuous dinner at Blenheim Palace, an evening designed to be on a grand scale to impress a visiting American president. But instead of smiles, there were horrified expressions on the face of Downing Street colleagues as we read an interview in which Mr Trump rubbished Mrs Mays tactics in her Brexit negotiations with the European Union, blundering unapologetically into the most sensitive issue in British politics.

To her credit, Mrs May met this with her customary sang-froid, and elicited the only apology anyone could remember from a briefly sheepish Mr Trump.

But he wasnt finished. That afternoon, during a briefing on national security threats, he bluntly challenged me as I talked about the Russian states reckless use of novichok to try to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury.

Two days later, he upended a Nato summit by threatening Americas commitment to the alliance if the Europeans failed to spend more on defence, a threat General Kelly spent the rest of the trip trying to erase.

The whole European visit provided a stark example of Mr Trumps capriciousness with allies, behaviour which culminated in attacking his loyal vice-president this month during the assault he incited on the US Capitol.

There is relief in Western capitals that normal diplomatic relationships will be restored once Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president tomorrow. Those of us who regard ourselves as close American allies have badly missed US leadership over the past four years.

Based on my time working for Boris Johnson in Downing Street, I believe those who have said he would have preferred a second Trump term are mistaken. That would not have been to the benefit of British or European security, to transatlantic trade, let alone the environmental agenda to which the Prime Minister is so committed.

Joe Bidens administration will reset priorities more in line with those of his former boss, Barack Obama

Mr Bidens administration will reset priorities much more in line with those of his former boss, Barack Obama. He will re-engage with democracies and global institutions  such as the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation  that Mr Trump despised and disrupted. He will revive arms control negotiations with Iran and Russia, and rejoin the Paris treaty, which is crucial to the prospects for this years climate change conference in Glasgow.

But it would be wrong to regard the past four years as an alternative reality from which we will soon emerge blinking into the sunlight. Much will not change. Like all American presidents, Mr Biden will focus on domestic issues in his early months, principally on controlling the Covid pandemic while trying to restore harmony and dignity to American politics. And global events wont let up. China dominates the foreign policy agenda in Washington DC as never before.

The incoming national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has prioritised US solidarity with allies standing up to Chinese bullying of neighbours in the Asia Pacific region. Examples of this recently have been Chinas clampdown in Hong Kong and its punitive sanctions against Australia in retaliation for that country doing no more than protecting their own interests.

Meanwhile, the Biden team is deeply unhappy that the EU rushed through a new investment agreement with Beijing late last month. Might President Biden or a future president take at face value EU talk of strategic autonomy outside of the traditional Nato umbrella, and leave them, and us in Britain, to handle the threats to European security ourselves?

As Mr Trumps first defence secretary, Jim Mattis, put it, Americans cannot care more than Europeans about European security. Despite repeated demands from Washington, the EUs defence expenditure is only half Britains rate and a third of Americas, fragmented across 27 countries, despite an ever-growing threat in our own neighbourhood from Russia and instability to Europes south and east. We need our continental partners to invest more in effective security and defence.

My views about how to deal with Putins Russia were reinforced by my experience of the Salisbury poisoning. From the beginning we treated it as a terrorist attack, and moved with an unprecedented speed once it became clear it was a Russian state action.

We slapped targeted financial sanctions on Russians close to Putin, and expelled the 23 agents we knew to be working covertly in London for their foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU  sending a signal to Moscow that we knew what they were up to and that they werent as good as they thought at hiding it.

I also made a point of meeting my counterpart in the Kremlin to reinforce face to face the message that there could be no repeat of that attack, and certainly not on British territory. When you confront, you must also communicate.

We must be ever vigilant about Russia, even as its economic power diminishes, but the challenge of China is of a different order. Bluntly, the West needs to find a better path than lurching between Project Kowtow and the Evil Empire, between conciliating China and confronting them.

The arguments for a hardline approach have certainly strengthened as the uber-confident President Xi has launched the Belt and Road Initiative to extend Chinese influence worldwide, asserted Chinas core interests to bully their neighbourhood, cracked down at home and exploited the Covid crisis.

Meanwhile, as the 21st centurys workshop of the world, the Chinese economy is the engine of global economic growth, with Chinese companies competing both above and below the belt, investing more in both research and development and industrial espionage than any competitor.

Before I worked in Downing Street, I served in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember an incident in the 1990s in Iraq when I was part of a team searching for evidence of Saddam Husseins chemical weapons at one of the presidential palaces.

A fervent young guard thrust a gun in my face with a shaking hand. What scared me most in that moment was how scared and inexperienced he was. I felt he might shoot me even without intending to do so. That thought has never left me; that it is possible to blunder into conflict through fear and misunderstanding, rather than as part of an evil-doers grand plan.

Diplomacy isnt just about talking to your friends. We need a consistent, coherent and comprehensive allied consensus in a new relationship with China. We must contest their behaviour when it disrupts global security, breaks international trade rules, breaches our own anti-slavery measures  particularly in relation to goods we believe have been made by forced Uighur labour  or violates the human rights of the people of Hong Kong.

But we must also cooperate with them on climate change and the other big environmental challenges. And we must ensure our companies can compete fairly in their markets as we allow theirs to compete in ours.

You could call it detente, but with Chinese characteristics.

Our timely leadership of the G7 gives the UK the opportunity to shape a new consensus. For all the talk of growing Chinese hegemony, we must not forget that America, Britain, and the EU, allied with other advanced democracies such as Japan, Canada, South Korea and Australia, still account for two-thirds of the global economy. And our values are shared by people across the world.

The key is for the western democracies to put the frictions of the past few years behind us, remember that what unites us far outweighs our differences, and recognise that if we present a united front we can ensure our values and interests prevail in the 21st century just as they did in the 20th.

With Brexit accomplished and the Biden administration ready to re-engage, this is the moment for Global Britain to step up to that challenge.

The Tamil Nadu Finance Minister today urged the Union to take more initiatives not just to support the States, but to ensure a sustained revival of the economy. He also suggested that no abrupt fiscal correction should be attempted during 2021-22.

Ahead of the Union Budget, Tamil Nadu also suggested that the borrowing limit by States should be up to 5 per cent of GDP, called for continuation of discussions on the compensation mechanism and devolving further taxation powers on States, extension of the period under the tax loss carry forward (TLCF) scheme for auto industry and some relaxations for construction industry.

In his speech at the pre-Union Budget 2021-22 meeting, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister said while the States recognise Centre's initiatives, much more needs to be done not just to support the States, but to ensure sustained revival of the economy and to protect the vulnerable sections of the population.

ALSO READ: LTCG exemption, clarity on dividend taxation top markets' Budget wish list

He added, permission has been accorded for additional borrowings of up to 2 per cent of GDP. While the early signs of economic revival are apparent, the finances of the State Governments will take more time to recover.

Hence, no abrupt fiscal correction should be attempted during 2021-22. The transition back to fiscal targets should be a gradual glide path over two to three years, he said adding that borrowing of upto 5 per cent of GDP should be permitted to all State Governments in 2021-22 as well to enable States to sustain expenditure on capital works and on Covid-19 prevention measures.

The possibility of using all measures to support growth, including the escape clause in the FRBM Act to permit the RBI to subscribe to the Central Governments loans, should be explicitly placed on the table for consideration. This will engender confidence that the government will do what it takes to sustain growth, and thereby build the virtuous cycle, said Panneerselvam.

He added, the State Governments will need to have their revenues protected, particularly in these difficult times. Alternatives, including continuance of the compensation mechanism and devolving further taxation powers on States will have to be discussed in the GST Council in order to ensure that States are not put to hardship in 2022-23.

He urged the Union Finance Minister to address this very crucial issue with the urgency that it warrants and to ensure that the interests of the States are not affected.

The levy of cesses and surcharges by the Central Government deprives the States of their legitimate share of the Centres tax revenue. Collections by way of cesses and surcharges have increased substantially as a proportion of the Gross Tax revenue of the Centre in recent years. All such cesses and surcharges should be merged into the basic rate of tax, so that the States also receive their due share from the additional revenue, said the State Finance Minister, while urging the Center to release the arrears pertaining to the 14th Finance Commission grants at the earliest.

At present Rs 19,591.63 crore including pending GST compensation claims, arrears related to 13th and 14th Finance Commission grants to Local bodies, and pending grants for programmes is due to Tamil Nadu.

He asked the Finance Minister to reconsider the issue and remove the amendment introduced in the Finance Act, 2013 through the Finance Act to be presented in the Parliament with the Union Budget for 2021-22 and to restore the status quo ante.

ALSO READ: Budget Byte: How GST collections and share of central scheme alter spending

Large international automobile companies have made substantial investments in India and specifically in Tamil Nadu. They have requested an extension of the period under the tax loss carry forward (TLCF) scheme. At present, under the Income Tax Act, losses can be carried forward up to 8 years and adjusted against future profits. Internationally this period is 20 years or even longer.

An extension of at least five years, especially in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, would definitely enhance Indias competitiveness in attracting and retaining foreign investments, said Panneerselvam.

The Government of India must urgently step into bring down raw material costs including by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on imported raw materials, imposing a ban on export of such raw materials and ease the terms of payment with the National Small Industries Corporation for such raw materials.

Since the construction industry is a prime mover with considerable employment potential, the option of levy of GST at 5 per cent without ITC and at 12 per cent with ITC may be provided to builders, he said.
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SACRAMENTO  Threats of a violent assault on the state Capitol building by supporters of President Trump were met Sunday by a huge police presence backed by 1,000 California National Guard troops, standing by on the first of four days of tension leading up to Wednesdays presidential inauguration.

Responding to FBI warnings that statehouses nationwide could be the next battleground, authorities surrounded the Capitol grounds with a 6-foot chain-link fence and had enough armed protection to fight off a small army of insurrectionists.

But the insurrectionists never arrived. For much of the day, the only political presence of any kind was supplied by Christian Alvarado, who stood in front of the Capitol with an American flag and a yellow mask scrawled with E Pluribus Unum to show his support for lawmakers, police and the National Guard troops who were protecting the building.

Saddened by the images of the Jan. 6 pro-Trump insurrection in Washington, D.C., Alvarado, 25, a computer science graduate student from Sacramento, said he stood in front of the state Capitol for five hours Saturday and planned to do the same Sunday. He said he would return on inauguration day if his class schedule allowed it.

We are one nation, no matter who you are and what you believe, Alvarado said. We are different people, but we come together as one.

The counterprotest by Alvarez met a total of one sign-carrying Trump supporter, Frank Unger of Sacramento, carrying a sign demanding that President-elect Joe Biden go to jail for crimes he said had to with his son Hunter Bidens laptop.

Unger said he wasnt surprised by the lack of crowds after Trump released a video Wednesday condemning violence. Im here basically to support free speech, Unger said. The mass media may try to censor us, but there are still 75 million people who voted for Trump.

There were at least two of them in Sacramento on Sunday, counting Steven Bourasa, who said he regularly joined weekly Stop the Steal rallies in downtown Sacramento throughout the fall. Bourasa said many of his conservative friends were hesitant to come out Sunday after seeing an anonymous flier that announced an armed protest.

We felt it was kind of a setup, he said. So, as you can see, none of my friends are here today.

Bourasa said he wasnt sure who would be behind a setup, but he similarly thought the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 had been a planned operation that Trump supporters had merely gotten swept into in the moment.

The president did not encourage any kind of rioting or violence, he said.

Bourasa said he planned to return to the state Capitol on inauguration day and expected more Trump supporters would, too.

Bourasa said he was spooked by a Biden presidency and was still hopeful that Trump would take office for a second term. If it took invoking martial law, Bourasa said, then Im supportive. Im hoping for an 11th-hour surprise.

But law enforcement has had enough surprises and has stepped up security nationwide after the FBI warned of the potential for armed protests in Washington and at all 50 state capitol buildings ahead of Bidens inauguration.

On Sunday, tall fences also surrounded the U.S. Capitol. The National Mall was closed to the public, and the mayor of Washington asked people not to visit. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The security measures were intended to safeguard seats of government from the type of violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when far-right Trump supporters galvanized by his false claims that the election had been stolen stormed the building while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

The attack left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead. More than 125 people have been arrested on charges related to the insurrection.

In the aftermath, more than a third of governors called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. Several governors declared states of emergency, and others closed their capitols to the public until after Bidens inauguration.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called out the California National Guard last week. On an unseasonably hot Sunday afternoon, dozens of Sacramento police officers rested in vans while groups of Guard troops chatted under shade trees. A sniper watched pedestrians pass the Capitol from the top floor of a parking garage across the street.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governors Office of Emergency Services, said it was premature to say whether the Guard would stay on duty at the Capitol. However, we are optimistic that the relative quiet thus far demonstrates that the actions taken by the administration have been effective and that the state remains well positioned to support safety and security surrounding the inauguration, he said.

Officials in a few state capitals elsewhere reported crowds numbering in the dozens, but streets in many other places remained empty. There were no reports of clashes.

At Nevadas Capitol in Carson City, where demonstrators supporting Trump have flocked most weekends in recent months, all was quiet except for a lone protester with a sign.

Trump Lost. Be Adults. Go Home, it read.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alexei Koseff, Dustin Gardiner and Sam Whiting are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com, dgardiner@sfchronicle.com, swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff, @dustingardiner, @SamWhitingSF
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The first 5nm chipset from MediaTek may be a year away. The company is expected to unveil the Dimensity 1200 and 1100 this Wednesday, but they are fabbed on a 6nm node. According to a roadmap by leakster Digital Chat Station, the 6nm chips will be used by Oppo and vivo first (though Redmi execs have been dropping hints as well).

The next major release will be in the first quarter of next year when MediaTek will introduce the MediaTek 2000 chipset (5nm). Oppo and vivo are again lined up to use this chip, but Honor is expected to be a customer as well (the post-Kirin era will start soon with the Honor V40, powered by Dimensity 1000+).

The Dimensity 2000 may become the first chipset in the family to adopt the high-performance Cortex-X core. The X2, specifically, plus big Cortex-A79 CPU cores and Mali-G79 GPU cores. All three are yet to be announced by ARM (note: the Dimensity 1200 CPU is reportedly based on the Cortex-A78 core).

The A79 is presumably the Matterhorn core, which is scheduled to be unveiled this year. Expect a small performance bump over the A78 (but a massive 2.5x increase over an old core like the A73). The Matterhorn will also have hardware to detect memory safety violations and thats all we know about it so far.

The next architecture after that is Makalu, which should be 30% faster than the A78. Its not clear if this will be the X2 core  probably not as its not expected to be mass produced until 2023. The one interesting thing we know about Makalu is that it will drop 32-bit support and will run 64-bit software exclusively.

We may hear more about MediaTeks plans for the future during the event on Wednesday. And even if theres no mention of the Dimensity 2000, the 1200 and friends will be on stage.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
Supplier News

18 January 2021

Last week saw the launch of NewDog PR, a strategic PR business for hotels, with a focus on the investment arm of the sector.

NewDog PR was founded by hotel sector enthusiasts Katherine Doggrell and Emily Newman, driven by a need for clear, gripping PR in a market rapidly moving into the mainstream for investors.

The group launched with clients including: PnK People, Watson Farley & Williams, Magnuson Hotels, bestselling author Daniel Fryer and Resources for Leisure Assets.

Doggrell made the not-unheard of leap from journalism into PR and was most-recently EMEA editor-in-chief at Questex Hospitality. She has written for publications as diverse as the Financial Times, the Guardian, Q, Mojo and Business 2.0 and is the author of Checking Out: What the Rise of the Sharing Economy Means for the Future of the Hotel Industry, published by Bloomsbury.

Newman is communication specialist having worked with brands, events, professional services, media and not-for-profit organisations. She greatly enjoys capturing and developing a human and engaging tone of voice, creating zero-waste content strategies and working with sector and business media to deliver quality content.

Newman said: "The last few months have shown us the power of communication. We've seen examples of triumph: honest and human tones, engaging and spirited language and collective and community minded approaches. We've also seen the dreadful, poorly timed, off pitch and insensitive.

"New roads lead to NewDog and an opportunity to help those in the hotel sector deliver their clear message relevantly and accurately. And I firmly believe we can do all this without uttering the word 'solution', which would make life complete."

Doggrell added: "The hotel sector is becoming an essential part of every portfolio and the pandemic has seen innovation flourish. Hotels used to wow guests with the latest technology and remarkable service and that spirit is with us again.

"It's a thrill to be able to tell the stories of some of the companies driving change in a market which is proving its worth to investor and consumers."

NewDog, which is based in the UK and France, is working with companies across the hotel stack and is eager to talk anyone who feels they have a tale to tell.

Contact NewDog on:

California's state epidemiologist is urging a halt to more than 300,000 coronavirus vaccinations using a Moderna vaccine version because some people received medical treatment for possible severe allergic reactions.

Dr. Erica S. Pan on Sunday recommended providers stop using lot 41L20A of the Moderna vaccine pending completion of an investigation by state officials, Moderna, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the federal Food and Drug Administration.

``Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory,`` Pan said in a statement.

She said more than 330,000 doses from the lot arrived in California between Jan. 5 and Jan. 12 and were distributed to 287 providers.

Fewer than 10 people, who all received the vaccine at the same community site, needed medical attention over a 24-hour period, Pan said. No other similar clusters were found.

Pan did not specify the number of cases involved or where they occurred.

However, six San Diego health care workers had allergic reactions to vaccines they received at a mass vaccination center on Jan. 14. The site was temporarily closed and is now using other vaccines, KTGV-TV reported.

The CDC has said the vaccine can cause side effects for a few days that include fever, chills, headache, swelling or tiredness, ``which are normal signs that your body is building protection.``

However, severe reactions are extremely rare. Pan said in a vaccine similar to Moderna, the rate of anaphylaxis _ in which an immune system reaction can block breathing and cause blood pressure to drop _ was about 1 in 100,000.

The announcement came as California counties continue to plead for more COVID-19 vaccine as the state tries to reduce its rate of infection, which has led to record numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

California, with a population of 40 million, has received about 3.5 million vaccine doses and has only administered about a third of them, according to the CDC.

So far. the state has vaccinated just 2,468 people per 100,000 residents, a rate that falls well below the national average, according to the federal data.

Although Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week said anyone age 65 and older would be eligible to start receiving the vaccine, Los Angeles County and some others have said they do not have enough doses to vaccinate so many people and are concentrating on inoculating health care workers and the most vulnerable elderly living in care homes first.

On Monday, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District sent a letter to state and county public health officials asking for authorization to provide COVID-19 vaccinations at schools for staff, local community members and for students once a vaccine for children has been approved.

``Doing so will help reopen schools as soon as possible, and in the safest way possible,'' Superintendent Austin Beutner wrote.

California is nearing 3 million coronavirus cases and more than 33,600 people have died since the start of the pandemic last year, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The death rate from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County _ the nation's most populous and an epicenter of the state pandemic _ works out to about one person every six minutes.

On Sunday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District suspended some pollution-control limits on the number of cremations for at least 10 days in order to deal with a backlog of bodies at hospitals and funeral homes.

``The current rate of death is more than double that of pre-pandemic years,`` the agency said.

California has had about 500 deaths and 40,000 new cases daily for the past two weeks. Although hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions remained on a slight downward trend, officials have warned that could reverse when the full impact from transmissions during Christmas and New Year's Eve gatherings is felt.

``As case numbers continue to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase,'' the state Department of Public Health said in a statement Sunday.

Adding to concerns, California is experiencing new, possibly more transmissible forms of COVID-19.

The state health department announced Sunday that an L452R variant of the virus is increasingly showing up in genetic sequencing of COVID-19 test samples from several counties.

The variant was first identified last year in California and in other states and countries but has been identified more frequently since November and in several large outbreaks in Northern California's Santa Clara County, the department said.

Overall, the variant has been found in at least a dozen counties. In some places. testing has found the variant in a quarter of the samples sequenced, said Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

However, not all test samples receive genetic sequencing to identify variants so its frequency wasn't immediately clear.

However, health officials said it was linked to a Christmas-time outbreak at Kaiser Permanente San Jose that infected at least 89 staff members and patients, killing a receptionist. The outbreak has been blamed on an employee who visited the hospital emergency room wearing an air-powered inflatable Christmas tree costume.

The variant is different from another mutation, B117, that was first reported in the United Kingdom and appears to spread much more easily, although it doesn't appear to make people sicker.

That variant has already shown up in San Diego County and Los Angeles County announced over the weekend that it had detected its first case.

Short link:


(Newser)  On Saturday, a memo from incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain to senior staff laid out dozens of executive orders that President-elect Biden is expected to sign within the first few days of his term. Not listed among them, per Politico: a plan to pull the permit for TC Energy's 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canada to the Midwest. On Sunday, however, sources told CBC News that Biden not only wants to do just that, but that he'll do so on Inauguration Day. The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" were reportedly seen in a briefing note listing Biden's first-day activities. The move would reverse one of President Trump's very first actions in office, when, just days after entering the White House, he issued an executive order to reboot pipeline construction that had been halted by the Obama administration.

story continues below

Canada had been pleased with the Trump administration's push to keep the $8 billion pipeline going, and after Biden won the election in November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned him to try to keep him on board. The project had become a sore spot among members of the Indigenous community, among others, who noted the disruption the pipeline would cause to their land, as well as with environmentalists who worried about the effect of leaks. Those critics are now hailing what looks to be one of the first big moves on Biden's ample to-do list, despite TC Energy's attempts to woo him with some overhauls, including a vow to use only renewable energy, per the Wall Street Journal. "President-elect Biden is showing courage and empathy to the farmers, ranchers, and tribal nations who have dealt with an ongoing threat that disrupted their lives for over a decade," Jane Kleeb, founder of the grassroots Bold Nebraska group, tells Politico. (Read more President-elect Biden stories.)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 20:12:53|Editor: huaxia

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BANGUI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic on Monday confirmed the re-election of President Faustin-Archange Touadera.

According to final results announced by the Constitutional Court, Touadera won his second term with 53.16 percent of the Dec. 27 balloting.

On Jan. 4, authorities announced preliminary results of the vote, saying Touadera won 53.92 percent, but his opponents demanded that the Constitutional Court cancel the ballot, claiming "massive fraud" and low voter turnout.

The poll was held under threats from armed groups, which formed a new alliance, known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change, and launched attacks in the provinces, vowing to "march on Bangui," the capital.

The government accused former president Francois Bozize of instigating the unrest to attempt a coup. Enditem
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Rodrigo denies stalking and was bailed on condition he does not contact her

Alexander Rodrigo, 33, is accused of stalking socialite Honor Weatherall (pictured) in person and on social media between January and August last year

A wealthy businessman's daughter told a court how she felt in 'grave danger' after being stalked for eight months.

Alexander Rodrigo, 33, is accused of stalking Honor Weatherall in person and on social media between January and August last year.

Ms Weatherall's extended family control the conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited, which owns the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and several other ventures.

Her father Percy Weatherall was managing director of the company until 2006.

Priya Varma, prosecuting, told Westminster magistrates court: 'Some of the contact occurs through social media and some of it is contact in person, some contact occurs in London and some in Scotland.'

In a statement, Ms Weatherall said: 'Each incident has had a profound effect on me. I'm usually a confident, headstrong person. I was left terrified and almost helpless.

'In London he approached me outside my flat. I felt fear and shock and just wanted to end the interaction as soon as possible.

'The whole experience has made me change the way I live my life.

'A total stranger persistently and forcefully writing you messages, following you, taking photos of your home and potentially putting you in grave danger will affect the way you live your life.

'I fear being on my own. I feel the need to let another person know where I will be and how long I will be gone for.

According to the charge, Rodrigo's (pictured at court today) conduct amounted to stalking and caused Ms Weatherall 'serious alarm or distress'. It is alleged he made contact with her in London and as well as in Scotland

Ms Weatherall's extended family control the conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited, which owns the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and several other ventures

'My parents will vouch that for the fact that in the two and a half months I was at home I was not feeling myself.

'I'm usually an incredibly independent person and now I feel incredible dependent on them.

'The idea I was the one to make the alteration to my life due to the horrific actions of another human being with no understanding of his true impact felt very unfair.

'I had to close off my social accounts.'

The prosecutor said Ms Weatherall is 'not always resident in the UK' so would need to testify by a video-link.

Rodrigo's lawyer Moira McFarlane replied: 'She's not supposed to go anywhere during the lockdown.

'Unless she has a job that takes her abroad I would want to know the details. She'll only be seeing me and I don't think I'm that scary.

Rodrigo, of Longridge Road, Kensington, denies stalking Ms Weatherall and was bailed condition he does not contact Ms Weatherall, or her parents Clara and Percy, ahead of his trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 2 August

'She of course could have her parents with her.

'Often how people perceive things can be portrayed on their face so when I'm challenging how they feel about it that should be done face to face if possible.'

Magistrate Andrew Chitolie refused the request for a videolink and asked for the age of the alleged victim.

The prosecutor replied she was 23 but Rodrigo interrupted from the dock, saying: '24'.

Rodrigo, of Longridge Road, Kensington, appeared in the dock wearing a cream jumper, brown corduroy trousers and a green Barbour jacket.

He denies stalking Ms Weatherall between 26 January 2020 and 4 August 2020.

According to the charge his conduct amounted to stalking and caused Ms Weatherall 'serious alarm or distress, which had a substantial adverse effect on her usual day-to-day activities when you knew or ought to have known that your course of conduct would cause alarm or distress to her on each occasion in that you sent many communications and attended her residences many times'.

Rodrigo was bailed condition he does not contact Ms Weatherall, or her parents Clara and Percy, ahead of his trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 2 August.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18) Chinese company Sinovac Biotech remained mum on the cost of its COVID-19 vaccine, but noted that the Philippines was given "a very good pricing for the procurement of the product.

Im not in a position to discuss this confidential information at this moment, Sinovac Biotech General Manager Helen Yang told CNN Philippines The Source on Monday when asked about the cost of the vaccine. But I will be assuring you that this is a very good pricing that we provided to Philippines.

Several lawmakers and netizens have raised questions and concerns about the cost of Sinovacs coronavirus vaccine, as local officials earlier refused to disclose its price citing the non-disclosure agreement with China.

READ: Costs of COVID-19 vaccines should not be kept confidential, Sotto says

But Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed in a radio interview on Sunday that the product is priced near 650 per dose  or 1,300 for the complete two doses.

While Yang did not reveal the cost, she assured the public that Sinovacs vaccine is not one of the most expensive ones in the market, adding that their pricing is reasonable.

Definitely were not on the highest, expensive ones because I think it is the mission for Sinovac to provide the vaccine at an affordable price, she said. It [the price] is reasonable, I believe.

The Philippine government earlier announced it has closed the deal to purchase 25 million vaccine doses from Sinovac, with the initial 50,000-dose batch  seen to accommodate healthcare workers  set to arrive by February.

However, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez clarified the deal is not yet final and that the government can still opt out from the agreement, since the vaccine has yet to gain local regulatory approval. Yang also said that a binding, definitive agreement between Sinovac and the Philippine government still has to be discussed further.

The Chinese firm has applied for the vaccine's emergency use in the Philippines, but its application has not yet been reviewed pending its submission of the crucial phase 3 clinical trial results.
Biden did worse than Hillary Clinton with evangelicals in 2020, poll shows

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Joe Biden fared worse in getting white evangelical Christian voter support than the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, according to an Election Day poll sponsored by a conservative Christian grassroots organization.

The Faith & Freedom Coalition analyzed trends among evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics in the 2020 election and presented the findings on Wednesday.

According to an election survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for FFC, 81% of self-identified white evangelicals voted for President Donald Trump, while 14% voted for Biden.

Trumps 81% of the evangelical vote tied his 2016 total, while Biden won the lowest share of the self-identified white evangelical vote ever received by a Democratic presidential nominee, stated FFC in a statement after the conference, labeling it a record turnout of evangelicals.

The post-election survey commissioned by FFC and conducted by Public Opinion Strategies also found that 31% of the electorate self-identified as conservative Christians, and these voters cast 87% of their ballots for Trump and only 11% for Biden.

FFC founder and Chairman Ralph Reed told The Christian Post that despite the Democratic candidates extensive outreach, he believes evangelicals mostly rejected Biden because they are driven by principles, values and specific public policy positions, not partisanship or personality.

Reed contrasted the pro-life actions of the Trump administration with Bidens pro-choice record, including his recent decision to oppose the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of elective abortions, after years of supporting it.

Look at the other issues, said Reed. Religious freedom. When the Little Sisters of the Poor decision was announced by the Supreme Court, Joe Biden released a statement and said if he were elected president, he would re-impose those regulations  regulations that by a 7-2 margin, the Supreme Court had just ruled were unconstitutional.

Biden's 14% among white evangelicals in the Public Opinion Strategies poll comes as Clinton received 16% of white evangelical support in 2016 exit polls.

Issue after issue, he was the most hard-left nominee they had ever nominated, on issues that burn in the hearts and give meaning to the souls of tens of millions of people of faith and Donald Trump took positions that they believed advanced the moral good," Reed stressed.

Reed conceded that while they threw some money at serious evangelical outreach, it not only didnt work, they actually did worse than Hillary Clinton did.

As part of his remarks at the conference, Reed touted the success of the coalition's get out the vote campaign, calling it the most ambitious, effective grassroots voter education get-out-the-vote effort directed to voters of faith.

We knocked on 5,226,247 doors. That is five times what we did four years ago, said Reed. This all took place basically within 75 days of the election.

We made over 10 million get-out-the-vote calls, we placed digital ads for at least 50.2 million evangelical Christian voters on their Facebook page or other digital sites that they were on  we also sent out tens of millions of get-out-the-vote text messages that included a link to our voter guide.

Reed noted that evangelical voters comprised 27% of the electorate, which was a 1% increase from the 2016 election, saying that the evangelical vote went from approximately 35.6 million in 2016 to approximately 43.2 million in 2020.

The findings of the FFC report contrast with other analyses of exit polls, including a report by The New York Times, which placed white evangelical and born-again voter support for the president at 76%, or a drop of 4% compared to 2016, and 23% for Biden.

When asked by a reporter about the exit polls, Reed said he believes it was not as accurate as ours as they did extensive survey work, especially in battleground states.

We know what share that vote was in every battleground state, he replied. And we know from surveys that we conducted what percentage of them said they were going to vote for Donald Trump.

The math doesnt add up, he added, citing their research about the high percentage of reported evangelical support for Trump. You cant be at 76% nationally when youre in the mid-80s in every state.

As part of his presidential campaign, Biden made a concerted effort to reach out to faith communities, especially evangelical Christians, in contrast to Clinton in 2016.

Josh Dickson, an evangelical Christian and National Faith Engagement director for the Biden campaign, told CP in an earlier interview that there would be more evangelical outreach in 2020.

"We have evangelical leaders who will be supporting the vice president publicly. We are doing listening sessions with evangelical leaders to hear from them, said Dickson in comments published Aug. 4.

"We're hearing from people; we're engaging people, we're developing relationships. We are going to be including evangelical voices in our 'Believers for Biden' events, and we are also going to be launching 'Evangelicals for Biden.'"

For his part, Biden also penned a column for CP published Oct. 28 in which he argued that loving God and loving others was at the very foundation of my faith.

We are called, as Christians, to serve rather than be served, and a Biden-Harris administration will embody that foundational value, wrote Biden.

We will be servants of the people and continue the important work weve started to build a robust, diverse, and inclusive coalition that deeply values the contributions of people of faith.

We dont always have to agree on everything, but our country has to find a way to come together  to overcome the spirit of division and the hateful words that have defined too much of our public life for the last four years, he added.

FFC's poll came as final results for the presidential election, as well as several legislative races to determine which party controls Congress, were still pending.
Margi Petitt-Ewan and Tom Gibbon Engel & Volkers offers a superior suite of user friendly tools that enable us to significantly enhance what we can offer our clients.

Engel & Volkers Florida today announced Margi Petitt-Ewan and Tom Gibbon, of the Margi & Tom Team have joined Engel & Volkers Jacksonville, one of several franchised-brokerages in Northeast Florida, from Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners.

Margi and Tom make a wonderful addition to our talented team of real estate professionals, said Corey Hasting, License Partner of Engel & Volkers Jacksonville. Our real estate advisors are highly-trained, dedicated to their profession and truly understand our clients special needs in the high-end real estate market. I am confident they will feel right at home in our shop and will push us to even greater heights.

Petit-Ewan and Gibbon have co-led the Margi & Tom Team at Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners since 2012, where they consistently ranked among the top performers. The pair will now be based out of the Engel & Volkers Jacksonville Beach shop, located at 758 3rd Street South. Together, they transacted more than $40,000,000 in production in 2020, contributing to their career volume of $366,963,570. They specialize in luxury homes, relocation, first-time home buyers and planned unit development within the communities of Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Mayport, Neptune Beach, Ponte Vedra and the greater Jacksonville areas.

We are very excited to kick off the new year by joining Engel & Volkers Jacksonville, said Petitt-Ewan. Engel & Volkers offers a superior suite of user friendly tools that enable us to significantly enhance what we can offer our clients. Were looking forward to achieving our most successful year of business in 2021 and beyond.

Petitt-Ewan began her real estate career in 2001, after a brief retirement from her 20-year career in sales and marketing with Xerox. Gibbon is an Army veteran, who transitioned to civilian life in high level corporate management positions that required him to travel around the world. In 2005, Gibbon made the switch from corporate America to real estate. The pair teamed up on various projects before officially partnering fulltime in 2010.

Engel & Volkers has maintained a presence in the Northeast Florida market since Hasting, who left Keller Williams Realty to start his own company, obtained the rights to Engel & Volkers Jacksonville Beach in April of 2018. Since then, he also obtained the rights to Engel & Volkers Jacksonville, located at 160 Shops Blvd, Suite 10. Prior to starting his own brokerage with Engel & Volkers, Hasting was a top producer with Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners, where consistently ranked among the top 50 residential real estate agents in the region. Hasting has grown his team at both locations to over 50 full-time advisors. Engel & Volkers Jacksonville is already on track to surpass its goal of $500,000,000 in volume and more than 1,000 closed transactions.

###

Press contact:

Linzee Werkmeister, Junior Vice President, Marketing & Franchise Support

Email: Linzee.Werkmeister(at)evrealestate.com

Tel: (239) 348-9000

About Engel & Volkers:

Engel & Volkers is a global luxury real estate brand. Founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1977, Engel & Volkers draws on its rich European history to deliver a fresh approach to luxury real estate in the Americas with a focus on creating a bespoke, white-glove concierge client experience at every stage of the home buying or selling process for todays savvy homeowner. Engel & Volkers currently operates approximately 225 shop locations with more than 4,000 real estate advisors in the Americas, contributing to the brands global network of over 13,000 real estate professionals in more than 34 countries, offering both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of luxury services, including real estate, yachting and aviation. Committed to exceptional service, Engel & Volkers supports its advisors with an array of premium quality business services; marketing programs and platforms; as well as access to its global network of real estate professionals, property listings and market data. Each brokerage is independently owned and operated. For more information, visit evrealestate.com.

About Engel & Volkers Florida:

Engel & Volkers Florida is the Master License Partner of the global luxury real estate brand Engel & Volkers in the state of Florida. Recognized for uniquely recruiting, training and equipping some of the top professionals in the real estate industry, Engel & Volkers Floridas exclusive franchise model positions its license partners at the top of the premium market to gain market share and support their bottom line. The company represents franchise locations in: 30A Beaches, Amelia Island, Belleair, Boca Raton, Bonita Springs-Estero, Cape Coral, Clermont, Delray Beach, Destin, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers Downtown, Gainesville, Islamorada, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Jupiter, Madeira Beach, Marco Island, Melbourne Beachside, Melbourne Central, Melbourne Downtown, Miami Coconut Grove, Olde Naples, Orlando Downtown, Orlando-Winter Park, Palm Beach, Palm Coast, South Tampa, St. Augustine, St. Pete, St. Pete Beach, Stuart, Wellington, and Windermere.

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The Conversation

Its hard to care about bootprints sunk in soil 238,900 miles away as humanity suffers the combined burden of an unforgiving virus and a political unease. But how humans treat those bootprints and the historic lunar landing sites upon which they are found will speak volumes about who we humans are and who we seek to become.

On Dec. 31, the One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act became law. As far as laws go, its pretty benign. It requires companies that are working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on lunar missions to agree to be bound by otherwise unenforceable guidelines intended to protect American landing sites on the Moon. Thats a pretty small pool of affected entities. However, it is also the first law enacted by any nation that recognizes the existence of human heritage in outer space. Thats important because it reaffirms our human commitment to protecting our history  as we do on Earth with sites like the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, which is protected through instruments like the World Heritage Convention  while also acknowledging that the human species is expanding into space.

I am a lawyer who focuses on space issues that seek to ensure the peaceful and sustainable exploration and use of space. I believe that people can achieve world peace through space. To do so, we must recognize landing sites on the Moon and other celestial bodies as the universal human achievements they are, built on the research and dreams of scientists and engineers spanning centuries on this globe. I believe that the One Small Step Act, enacted in a divisive political environment, demonstrates that space and preservation truly are nonpartisan, even unifying principles.

The Moon is getting crowded, fast

It is only a matter of decades, perhaps just years, before we see a continuous human presence on the Moon.

While it would be nice to think that a human community on the Moon would be a collaborative, multinational utopia  albeit located in what Buzz Aldrin famously described as a magnificent desolation  the fact is people are once again racing one another to reach our lunar neighbour.

The US Artemis project, which includes a goal of sending the first woman to the Moon in 2024, is the most ambitious mission. Russia has reinvigorated its Luna program, setting the stage to put cosmonauts on the Moon in the 2030s. However, in a race once reserved for superpowers, there are now multiple nations and multiple private companies with a stake.

India is planning to send a rover to the Moon this year. China, which in December implemented the first successful lunar return mission since 1976, has announced multiple lunar landings in the coming years, with Chinese media reporting plans for a crewed mission to the Moon within the decade. South Korea and Japan are also building lunar landers and probes.

Such private companies as Astrobotic, Masten Space Systems and Intuitive Machines are working to support NASA missions. Other companies, such as ispace, Blue Moon and SpaceX, while also supporting NASA missions, are preparing to offer private missions, including for tourism. How are all these different entities going to work around one another?

Space is not lawless. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, now ratified by 110 nations, including all of the current spacefaring countries, offers guiding principles supporting the concept of space as the province of all humankind. The treaty explicitly indicates that all countries and, by implication, their nationals have the freedom to explore and free access to all areas of the Moon.

Thats right. Everyone has the freedom to roam wherever they want  over Neil Armstrongs bootprint, close to sensitive scientific experiments or right up to a mining operation. There is no concept of property on the Moon. The only restriction on this freedom is the remonstration, found in Article IX of the treaty, that all activities on the Moon must be carried out with due regard to the corresponding interests of all others and the requirement that you consult with others if you might cause harmful interference.

What does that mean? From a legal standpoint, no one knows.

Outstanding universal value

It can reasonably be argued that interfering with an experiment or a lunar mining operation would be harmful, cause quantifiable damage and thus violate the treaty.

But what about a derelict spacecraft, like the Eagle, the Apollo 11 lunar lander? Do we really want to rely on due regard to prevent the intentional or inadvertent destruction of this inspiring piece of history? This object memorializes the work of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who worked to put a human on the Moon, the astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in this quest to reach the stars, and the quiet heroes, like Katherine Johnson, who fueled the math that made it so.

The lunar landing sites  from Luna 2, the first human-made object to impact the Moon, to each of the crewed Apollo missions, to Chang-e 4, which deployed the first rover on the far side of the Moon  in particular, bear witness to humanitys greatest technological achievement thus far. They symbolize all we have accomplished as a species and hold such promise for the future.

The One Small Step Act is true to its name. Its a small step. It applies only to companies that are working with NASA; it pertains only to U.S. lunar landing sites; it implements outdated and untested recommendations to protect historic lunar sites implemented by NASA in 2011. However, it offers significant breakthroughs. It is the first legislation from any nation to recognize an off-Earth site as having outstanding universal value to humanity, language taken from the unanimously ratified World Heritage Convention.

The act also encourages the development of best practices to protect human heritage in space by evolving the concepts of due regard and harmful interference  an evolution that will also guide how nations and companies work around one another. As small a step as it may be, recognizing and protecting historic sites is the first step to developing a peaceful, sustainable and successful lunar governance model.

The bootprints are not protected  yet. There is a long way to go toward an enforceable multilateral/universal agreement to manage the protection, preservation or memorialization of all human heritage in space, but the One Small Step law should give us all hope for the future in space and here on Earth. NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites.

Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Professor of Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
When we solve the issue related to missing persons, we will have a picture of how many prisoners of war there are. This is what Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly of Armenia Andranik Kocharyan told reporters today.

The issue of prisoners of war needs to be solved confidentially. To release a list of names means to put the lives of prisoners of war at risk and allow charlatans to disturb the process, he said, adding that he believes there will be a list soon.

Touching upon the statements by the President of Azerbaijan and the Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises, Kocharyan urged the reporters to not worry. Aliyev likes to make belligerent statements. The current realities are such that the security system and the presence of Russias armed forces wont allow for those statements to turn into a reality, he said.

Kocharyan also touched upon the document stating that Speaker of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan is an agent of the National Security Service and said he is concerned about the fact that there are people who have access to the confidential documents of the National Security Service.
If you were in San Antonio on New Years Eve, its almost certain you heard or saw the barrage of loud fireworks that lit up the skyline, scaring people and pets and triggering those with PTSD.

Despite being illegal within city limits, the hours-long aerial displays that were seemingly everywhere only garnered a handful of complaints and citations.

The San Antonio Police Department issued one citation and 21 warnings for fireworks use on New Years Eve. The Bexar County Fire Marshals Office issued 2 citations, 3 warnings, and fielded 18 calls via their temporary fireworks hot line.

A lack of citations could be traced to the citys decision not to set up a fireworks hotline for New Years Eve. The city also did not set up a hotline for the Fourth of July, citing staffing and proximity concerns regarding the coronavirus.

Instead, residents were advised to report illegal fireworks to SAPDs non-emergency line. Police prioritized its response based on risk assessment and the current demand for calls.

Related: SAPD issued only 1 citation for New Year's Eve fireworks

This year, as officers responded to reports in the city, the majority of callers either were not present when the officer arrived or refused to further speak with police. Officers were also dispatched to patrol different locations in which officers found no suspected violator.

Last year, SAPD fielded nearly 1,000 calls about fireworks activity but no citations were given. In 2018, only one ticket was written. There were four citations in 2017, two in 2016 and one in 2015.

The raucous, citywide New Years Eve celebration also did not cause a spike in calls to a hotline for veterans experiencing mental health crises.

A doctor with South Texas Veterans Health Care System credited the lack of calls to the therapy veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome have received to manage their stress ahead of potential triggers.

The patients who were in treatment are doing well, said Dr. William Elder, PTSD Clinical Team Director at the hospital. So our patients tend to not call or experience a spike in symptoms.

Elder said Veterans Affairs clinicians help veterans cope with nights that may trigger PTSD like the Fourth of July by easing them into the stimulus. For example, a veteran may start off by watching video of a fireworks show with the sound off.

On ExpressNews.com: FAQ: When and where Texans can get the COVID vaccine

The sound is slowly added as the veteran is able to cope with the potential trigger and realize that there is no immediate danger.

When the feared outcome doesnt happen and the brain learns its safe, it stops signaling danger and we learn that we can tolerate these situations when nothing happens to us, he said.

Jose Ivan Perez, 34, was shot by a sniper while he was deployed as a U.S. Marine in Iraq in 2007. Since his return, the disabled veteran has put in the work to learn exactly what his triggers are and how to cope with being in certain crowds.

He purposefully chose to live in a subdivision in Marion, where there is plenty of space to avoid the thud of a car door or the revving of a motorcycle.

I've learned to really desensitize myself. Literally putting yourself in the situation and talking yourself through it, Perez said, sharing the steps hes taken with a clinician. What calms you down is saying Youre fine. You're OK.

Perez is now an athlete with Project Comfort, a non-profit that supports wounded or ill veterans and their families. He works to support others as a personal trainer.

Elder said he invites the veterans he works with to leave a note on his wall with something they would have wanted to know on their first day of therapy.

Many say that the hardest part of treatment is the first sentence.

Theres a common theme, which is how hard it is at first but how quickly it gets easy, he said.

From there, veterans develop a strong bond with their clinicians and learn techniques to regulate their emotions in a situation that would otherwise trigger PTSD.

This increases confidence that they can handle these strong emotions and not be sent out of orbit, he said.

Even though treatment exists for veterans to cope with a night full of triggers, Elder encourages people to remain considerate of veterans who live in their neighborhood.

He urges people to get to know the veteran next door and ask if they are OK with fireworks being used in the area.

I think if you approach your neighbors they would be so grateful for your thoughtfulness and kindness that you would end up making a new friendship even if they say no to fireworks, Elder said. They are trained in safety, often have medical knowledge, and they are used to being in a community of mutual responsibility and safety.

Veterans or their loved ones in need of assistance with PTSD or other mental episodes may call the Veteran Crisis Line at 800-273-8255, then press 1 to be connected to staff.

The crisis line may be reached via text at 838-255 or online at www.mentalhealth.va.gov.
Come February, there will be a new brewer at the helm of Southerleigh's brewing operations.

Les Locke, who helped open Southerleigh in 2014 as head brewer, is leaving San Antonio with his girlfriend Briana Hinojosa in the coming weeks.

"This is her dream job, and it was one of those job ads that you come across that you can't pass on," Locke said.

Hinojosa, who holds a biochemistry degree and currently works as a lab technician for Alamo Beer Co., will join SingleCut Beersmith near Cooperstown, New York.

Locke's tightlipped about his job prospects, but says he'll stick with brewing while in upstate New York.

"I'm looking into breweries in the area, which will help round out my experience in brewing. It'd be really cool being able to get into a large brewery, producing a lot of beer with different equipment," Locke said.

His brewing journey began at 19, while Locke was stationed in Hawaii. "It was illegal to buy beer, but not make it," he said.

After a dozen years in the Marine Corp, Texas native Locke found his way back home to a blossoming beer scene. He joined Branchline Brewing, and later Southerleigh after Branchline folded following financial woes.

Locke helped organize San Antonio Beer Week, a week-long celebration of all things beer in the city, first as a founding member and leaves it as a board member.

At Southerleigh, Locke was able to try his hand with classic styles, and a few funky styles like a tomato gose that made for a delicious michelada.

He'll leave the brewery in the hands of JC Norris, per chef-owner Jeff Balfour.

We are very happy for Les and wish him all the luck in his move and new endeavors," Balfour said in a statement to MySA.com. "We are excited by the foundation that was started and couldnt be happier about the bright future that our new Head Brewer JC Norris will bring. We have great things to come in 2021.
Hudson, NY (12534)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing later in the day. High 56F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 43F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.

Shimla:

The 34-ward Shimla Municipal Corporation went to polls on Friday. A moderate polling of 57.80 per cent was recorded in the elections.

Polling started on a moderate rate and picked up as the day advanced but slowed down in the last leg due to heavy rains.

The Nabha ward, reserve for Scheduled Caste women, and Shanti Bihar ward recorded heaviest polling at 66 per cent, while Benmur ward, reserved for women, recorded lowest polling at 47 per cent.

Over 52,000 out of the total 91,000 electorate exercised their franchise, election officials said.

The polling started at 8.00 AM and 14 per cent votes were cast by 10.00 AM. Polling percentage went up to 33 per cent in the afternoon. It further increased to 47 per cent at 2.00 PM and the overall polling at the end stood at 57.8 per cent.

65 per cent polling was recorded in Totu ward followed by Kaithu (63 per cent), Upper Dhalli (62 per cent), among others.

The polling was peaceful and barring an incident of some snag in voting machine in Tara Hall booth. No other incident was reported from any other booth.

Also read: Presidential Elections 2017: BJP panel meets Sonia Gandhi, Yechury, Advani, but takes no names; final pick likely on June 20

There was a complaint of snag in the electronic voting machine (EVM) in Kaithu ward, but was found incorrect by officials.

The complaints of fault in the machine were found to be wrong, Shimla Deputy Commissioner Rohan Chand Thakur, who is also the returning officer for the polls, said.

The counting of votes would be taken up tomorrow and two centres have been set up for 34 wards.

50 per cent (17) seats have been reserved for women including three for SC woman and three seats are reserved for SC men.

The number of wards was increased from 25 in 2012 polls to 34 this time and the post of Mayor, who would elected by indirect votes has been reserved for SC woman.

The elections were not held on party symbols but all the three major contenders the Congress, BJP and CPI(M) declared the list of party-backed candidates.

Top leaders of Congress and the BJP, including the chief minister Virbhadra Singh, Union minister J P Nadda and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, joined the campaign and held road shows.

Also read: Presidential poll will act as catalyst to unite parties against BJP: JDU

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A medical worker inoculates a man with a COVID-19 vaccine at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing, on Jan. 15, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Food Prices Skyrocket as CCP Virus Outbreak Spreads to More Regions

Chinese authorities locked down more cities on Jan. 18 in an effort to curb the spread of the CCP virus. Several others were upgraded from medium- to high-risk for virus spreadmeaning residents were required to take nucleic acid tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Meanwhile, food prices have skyrocketed, especially in cities under lockdown. Prices were at least 50 percent higher than in cities not under strict quarantine policies.

Tight Control

On Jan. 18, Xinle city in Hebei Province announced that all supermarkets, grocery stores, and shops must close. Residents wouldnt be allowed to leave their homes.

The city has a population of about 517,000.

Local authorities didnt explain the reason for the lockdown, nor announce new COVID-19 cases.

One local said in an online post on social media platform Weibo that a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak escalated quickly, causing the city to go under lockdown. The netizen added that many medical staff and patients at the Xinle Chinese Medicine Hospital were infected, but authorities hadnt announced them.

The Epoch Times couldnt independently verify the information; the netizens post was shortly removed from the internet.

An employee at a hotel near the hospital told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in a Jan. 18 phone interview that his facility was serving medical staff who had arrived from other cities to assist in treating local COVID-19 patients.

An employee at another local hotel said his venue had been converted into a quarantine center several days ago, and that no hotels in the city were currently open to the public.

People line up outside a hospital to get COVID-19 tests in Beijing, on Jan. 14, 2021. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces havent announced new infections in recent days. But Mr. Lei, who lives in Shaanxi, said local authorities forcibly quarantined many locals who were suspected of carrying the virus.

Lei added that residents were required to take COVID-19 tests several times, while authorities prohibited people from buying medicine for treating colds and coughs unless they presented a negative COVID-19 test result.

One test costs 120 yuan ($18.48). You have to pay by yourself, Lei said.

A villager living in Gaoliying, Shunyi district of Beijing, similarly said that anyone who presented symptoms similar to COVID-19 would get taken away and quarantined by authorities.

She said she didnt know about the overall outbreak situation in the city, as she can only get information published by state media.

Food Prices

Cabbage is widely available in the winter and is generally the cheapest vegetablecosting about 20 cents yuan (about $0.03) per pound. Since December 2020, the price of cabbage had increased dramatically. It cost about four yuan (about $0.62) per pound in many major cities.

The price of eggs has also gone up from 2 to 4 yuan ($0.31$0.62) per pound to 5 to 8 yuan ($0.77$1.23) per pound.

State-run media reported that prices have skyrocketed due to a bout of extremely cold weather, which made it more costly to plant leafy greens; quarantine policies that have made transportation more difficult and expensive; and increased demand, as people wanted to stock up on food for the Lunar New Year holiday on Feb. 12.

On Weibo, Chinese netizens complained of price gouging, as some supermarkets changed their price tags at least twice per day.

Propaganda

With the New Year holiday approaching, Chinese media began publishing articles promoting the benefit of staying in ones current city and not visiting family in ones hometownusually a part of the holiday tradition.

At least 29 Chinese provincial governments have issued travel advisories telling residents to stay in their current homes for the New Year.

In some locales, authorities hung banners with messages to discourage social gatherings.

If you visit here and there, you are not a filial child. You would transmit the virus to your parents and be a person without any moral standard, one banner read.

In one video posted by state-run media Wisdom Changsha on Jan. 16, a female COVID-19 patient in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei Province, was shamed for working two jobs.

The video claimed that by working two jobsshe worked full time at a local hospital and taught students at a tutoring school to make extra incomeshe was spreading the virus to more people. The video called her hateful.

After public uproar, on Jan. 17, the media outlet posted an apology and fired the reporters and editors who took part in producing the video.

On Jan. 18, news related to the woman was deleted from the Chinese internet.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  A Florida woman fired from her job as a COVID-19 data curator said shell surrender to authorities Sunday amid an investigation of allegations that she had hacked into the states emergency response system.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Rebekah Jones, a Syracuse University alumna, has been under investigation since early November after someone illegally accessed the states emergency alert health system, warning employees to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You dont have to be a part of this. Be a hero.

Federal authorities raided her home in December, seizing her computers and other data equipment.

Jones, who has been highly critical of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on social media and questioned the validity of the states COVID data, said in a Twitter statement Saturday that she would surrender shortly.

In the tweet she said that to protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that Im ready to fight whatever they throw at me, Im turning myself into police in Florida Sunday night. The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.

Its unclear what exact charge she might face. Jones said on Twitter that the warrant was based on a lie and noted a state agent told her the arrest warrant is unrelated to the December raid.

FDLE, the states top crime-fighting agency, confirmed Saturday there is an active warrant for her arrest, but an agency spokeswoman said they could not provide additional details until Jones surrendered.

The agency also confirmed it had analyzed forensic evidence that was within the scope of the December search warrant, according to an email statement to The Associated Press. It did not elaborate on the evidence.

Jones, who earned a dual bachelors degree in geography and journalism at SU in 2012, was fired from her post in May after she raised questions about Floridas COVID-19 data. She had been reprimanded several times and was ultimately fired for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the information, state records show.

FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to speak out on any of the devices they took ... However, police did find documents I received/downloaded from sources in the state, or something of that nature, she said in a series of Twitter statements.

DeSantis has defended the states handling of the case. After the December raid, Jones filed a complaint in Leon County Circuit Court alleging state police violated her rights to free speech and due process.
On Tuesday, January 19, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Political Parties' Ratings, COVID-19 Vaccination" with the participation of political expert, director of the company Robotic Television Systems Anton Sokolov (8/5a Reitarska Street). The press conference will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. More info by phone: (095) 178 9787.
24/7 vaccinations not ruled out for Wales amid call for vaccine army

This article is old - Published: Monday, Jan 18th, 2021

The first minister has said that offering coronavirus vaccines 24 hours a day, seven days a week has not been ruled out for Wales.

Currently vaccines are being carried out at 100 GP surgeries across Wales, along with the opening of mass vaccination centres.

A vaccine trial is underway at a north Wales pharmacy and further GP surgeries will be offering vaccination in the coming weeks.

14 mobile units, run by community nurses, will also be taking the vaccine to care homes and text message appointment reminders will be introduced.





Last week the Welsh Government unveiled its mass vaccination plan which aims to offer 2.5m adults throughout Wales a coronavirus vaccine by September, depending on further advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Over 126,000 vaccines have been administered so far in Wales, with the Welsh Government planning on vaccinating all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff by mid-February, along with everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable being offered vaccination.

By the Spring the aim for vaccination to have been offered to all the other phase one priority groups. This is everyone over 50 and everyone who is at-risk because they have an underlying health condition.

However there have been growing calls for the Welsh Government to increase the number of vaccines being administered, with Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Andrew Davies MS suggesting that a vaccine army to enable Wales to have 24/7 vaccinations is needed to help ramp the process up further.

Asked on Friday if there are plans to administer vaccine 24/7, Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government hasnt closed its minds to doing so in the future, but that it would not appropriate at this time.

He said: In these early stages, when we are focusing on people who are getting on in age, who are physically vulnerable, who live in care homes, were trying to offer the vaccine at a times of the day and in places that are convenient for them and match those needs are

In the future as we move into further age groups, and the patterns of supply of the vaccine increases, we havent closed our minds to doing things on around the clock basis where that would be necessary.

But at the moment, it wouldnt be the most effective way of using the supply of vaccine we have, the supply of our workers that we have to deliver it and the nature of the population that were serving.
At 11:00 on Monday, 18 January 2021, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis will participate, via videoconference, in an informal meeting of the EU General Affairs Council (GAC). The main item on the agenda is preparation for the European Council meeting of 21 January, which is being convened to coordinate the response to the pandemic. The GAC agenda also includes a presentation of the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency, the Conference on the Future of Europe, and other topics.


Photo: Twitter

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Monday acknowledged errors in fighting the unprecedented pandemic, but in a speech aimed at preserving his second mandate, he told lawmakers his government can hold its head high.

Conte was fighting for his political life after he lost his coalition majority with the defection of Cabinet ministers belonging to former Premier Matteo Renzis tiny but key Italia Viva (Italy Alive) party. Renzi has faced harsh criticism for the power play during a pandemic. But with billions of European Union pandemic funds expected to flow into the country, he has defended the move as necessary to prevent Conte from amassing too much power.

Did we always take the best decisions? Everyone can make their evaluations, Conte told the lower house. For my part, I can say the government worked with the utmost care and attention for the delicate balances, including constitutional ones," aware of the heavy implications for ordinary Italians.

If I can speak in the name of the whole government, with head high, it is not out of the arrogance of someone who believes not to have made errors, Conte said. It is out of awareness of how the whole government put all of its physical and mental energy into best protecting the nation.

He expressed perplexity at the political crisis for which he saw no plausible basis at a moment when the pandemic is still in full course.

Conte addressed the lower house on Monday, to be followed by the Senate on Tuesday. Each speech will be followed by a voice vote that is tantamount to a confidence vote. The Senate vote, where Renzis party has 18 members, is expected to be decisive.

As Conte wrapped up his nearly hour-long discussion, some lawmakers held up: Conte Resign signs. He got a standing ovation from much of the rest of the house, however.

Conte, a lawyer by training hailed for his mediation skills, was tapped by Italy's 5-Star Movement to run the government after the indecisive 2018 election led to a governing coalition of the 5-Stars with a right-wing group led by League party leader Matteo Salvini.

That government fell when Salvini, then interior minister, mounted a failed power grab. Conte was able to form a new government with the support of the left-wing Democratic Party, which then included Renzi. Renzi later defected from the party he once ran, giving himself the ability to shake up the government by yanking loyal ministers.

While Conte enjoyed broad support during the first phase of the pandemic, which overwhelmed Italy first in the West after emerging in China, he has come under criticism for making decisions and policy without consulting Parliament. Renzi acted after Conte unveiled a plan to manage the EU recovery funds himself, which was widely seen as accumulating too much power.
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NSW Australian of the Year Shane Fitzsimmons has put forward the radical idea of a new Indigenous version of the national anthem to be learnt and sung by all.

The idea came in his Australia Day address at the Conservatorium of Music on Monday as he prepared the state for commemoration on January 26 of "a very different Australia Day".

Shane Fitzsimmons delivers his address at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on Monday. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Last month, 16-year-old Wiradjuri woman Olivia Fox sang a dual national anthem before Australia played Argentina in a rugby Test at Bankwest Stadium. Ms Fox sang a verse in the Dharug language and then the English version. Wallabies players also learned the Dharug verse and sang along.

Mr Fitzsimmons, the former commissioner for the NSW Rural Fire Service said at Monday's event attended by the Governor of NSW Margaret Beazley and Premier Gladys Berejiklian, that he had in recent months heard the national anthem sung in a local Aboriginal language "and it's beautiful".
The All Saints' administration is strongly refuting claims being circulated in a Whatsapp message that all patients and staff at the Gordon Home for Senior Citizens have contracted COVID-19 and that an elderly person died from the virus. However they confirm that unfortunately a number of persons, both staff and patients, have tested positive for the pathogen.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 41F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.

Geojit's report on Agri Picks

Imports of black pepper into India are likely to have risen 40.9% on month to 2,310.3 tn in December as domestic traders stepped up purchases due to lower prices in Vietnam, trade sources. Traders are likely to export around 50,000 tn wheat to Myanmar at $210-$220 per tn, free on board, market sources said. The shipment will depart from Kandla port in a few days, they added. Madhya Pradesh has procured over 3.9 mln tn of key kharif crops jowar, bajra, and paddy harvested so far in 2020-21 (Jul-Jun) under the price support scheme, a state farm department official said The US Climate Prediction Centre sees 55% chances of neutral El Nino-Southern Oscillation conditions over east-central Pacific Ocean emerging in Apr-Jun, the agency said in its latest update.

For all commodities report, click here

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Like its counterparts in every province across Canada, Ontarios Doug Ford-led Conservative government is doing everything it can to keep schools open as the COVID-19 pandemic rages out of control.

Despite widespread demands by public health experts, teachers and parents to close schools as infections surged in November and December, the Ford government insisted on keeping them open. Finally, confronting the imminent threat of the collapse of the health care system, Ford decided to delay the reopening of schools following the holiday break.

Special needs students returned to class on January 4 and 11, and elementary school students in the provinces northern regions returned January 11. Areas of the province with high rates of infection are being ordered to resume in-person learning on January 25 and February 10.

This homicidal policy is putting the lives of educators, students and their families at risk. Under conditions in which the provinces intensive care units are overflowing with COVID-19 patients, the increase in infections that will inevitably result from reopening schools will lead to mass death. This is of no concern to the political establishment, whose overriding priority is to return students to the classroom so that parents can go back to work to generate profits for big business.

The World Socialist Web Site recently received a letter from a secondary school teacher from Hamilton, Ontario, who described the ruinous impact of the governments handling of the pandemic and the teacher unions feckless response. The letter was prompted by Premier Doug Fords December 22 proposal for secondary schools to shift to online learning throughout January.

* * *

A familiar pattern has developed between the pro-austerity/education-attacking Ontario government on the one hand, and the feckless union leadership of the OSSTF (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation) on the other. The former changes the working conditions for tens of thousands of educators seemingly on a whim and without any thought or consultations, while the latter follows up with empty rhetoric that only highlights the unions impotence and abject failure to protect workers from a constant barrage of cuts and changes to working conditions.

In the end, classroom teachers have been left to deal with the fallout with no help or support either from the Ontario government, or their unions. The result is a demoralized, isolated and exhausted education sector. The disrespect towards educators comes from both directions it seems.

The December 22 OSSTF statement on the shutdown of schools illustrates this pattern all too clearly. Although the Ford government is appropriately providing emergency childcare for many essential frontline workers, it has left educators out in the cold. While educators are clearly providing a critical service to the province, and while (Education) Minister Lecce has imposed various stipulations on the amount of time they must spend providing live, synchronous instruction, no thought appears to have been given to those teachers and education workers who have their own children at home during the school closure period. This simply continues a pattern of disrespect for educators that we have seen since this government took office. Despite the governments disregard for the realities of the classroom, and despite giving teachers and education workers virtually no time to prepare for this shift to full virtual education, our members will continue to do their utmost to provide the best learning environment possible for the students they serve, the union wrote.

An empty classroom (Pixabay.com)

Translation for Ontarios high school teachers: The right-wing Conservative government of Doug Ford is going to change your working conditions yet again, and the OSSTF leadership is not going to do anything about it. You will just have to do your best. For special education teachers the situation is even more tenuous. Responding to OSSTF President Harvey Bischofs December 22 tweet, a special education teacher asked, How are special education classes still required to be open in a full province lockdown and especially with the close contacts in this setting? This seems like a serious equity and safety issue.

A response to this question has not yet been issued.

Perhaps what is most shocking is how little pushback the union has given in the face of the Ford governments relentless attacks on public education since the beginning of the pandemic response. In union meeting after union meeting at the branch level since the start of the school year in September, there has been a dearth of information for the union membership of OSSTF on constantly changing work conditions. No one knows anything. We are always waiting for information. One minute we are teaching online, the next we shift to a hybrid model. Then another Doug Ford diktat comes down telling us we are going to teach live in class to students and to an online audience AT THE SAME TIME!!! And where is our union? Literally silent on the matter. We have entered a madhouse where educators constantly must change delivery methods with no thought of how we are supposed to do this. Education in Ontario has turned into a three-ring circus with the Ontario Government and the OSSTF telling teachers to walk the high-wire one minute, and the flying trapeze the nextwith no safety net below us!

I have been an educator in Ontario for over twenty years. As the year 2020 ends, the state of education in Ontario is not good. COVID-19 has made my workplace unrecognizable from how it was even a year ago. Teachers are feeling like a giant bobo doll, constantly being knocked around by the Ford government, and getting nothing but hollow rhetoric, positive psychology, and empty platitudes from the OSSTF. We are adaptable. We are resilient. We are all in this together, we are told. Empirical evidence suggests otherwise. What is emerging among educators, not just in Ontario or Canada but throughout the world, is the realization that educators must rely on our biggest asset and resourcethat is ourselves!

Harvey Bischof is correct. Frontline education workers are not respected. But that lack of respect comes from our own union leadership that has been as derelict in its advocacy for its own membership as the Conservative Government has been malicious. The development of rank-and-file teacher committees organized by teachers independent of our union leadership will become a necessity in getting the respect that educators deserve. OSSTF is on notice.

Planet will not be the same after COVID-19: PM Modi

PM Modi launches Ahmedabad, Surat Metro Rail projects

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II and the Surat Metro Rail Project via video-conferencing.

PM Modi said that the business opportunities will grow in Ahmedabad Surat with the help of the Metro and it would fulfil the future requirements of both the cities. He also said that Surat is the 2nd major city in Gujarat after Ahmedabad to be connected to modern public transport systems like the Metro.

Surat is the fourth fastest growing city in the world and it perfectly showcase the undying spirit of the city, PM Modi also said

The PM also said that the new airport is coming up in Dholera, while the Ahmedabad bullet train project is on track. This shows that Gujarat has transformed in the last two decades.

Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, access to water is provided to 10 lakh households and we will soon achieve the target of availing water supply to every household in Gujarat, the PM also said.

The PM had earlier said that today is a landmark day for two of Gujarat's leading urban centres. The Bhoomi Poojan of Surat Metro and Phase-2 of the Ahmedabad Metro would take place at 10:30 AM.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Saturday said the metro projects will provide an environment-friendly mass rapid transit system to the two cities in Gujarat.

The Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II is 28.25 km long with two corridors. The 22.8-km-long corridor-I is from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir, while the 5.4-km-long corridor-II is from GNLU to GIFT City. The total completion cost of the Phase-II project is  5,384 crore, a statement issued by the PMO said.

Farmer Protest: SC 'entry of farmers into Delhi on Republic Day to be decided by Delhi police'

The Surat Metro Rail Project is 40.35 km long and comprises two corridors. The 21.61-km-long corridor-I is from Sarthana to Dream City, while the 18.74-km-long corridor-II is from Bhesan to Saroli. The total completion cost of the project is  12,020 crore, the PMO said.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 04:24:25|Editor: huaxia

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Workers prepare fruits and vegetables to be delivered to local residents in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, on Jan. 16, 2021. (Photo by Taher Abu Hamdan/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Since the early hours in the morning, Wassim Al-Ali starts his day by riding his bicycle to deliver daily necessities from the markets to local residents in his home village Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.

Al-Ali, who is in his 30's, even made rain-proof modifications to his bike as he has been using it on a daily basis to secure the villagers' needs while under the lockdown imposed by the Lebanese government in hope to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a routine day, al-Ali, a farmer, usually works from 6 a.m. in the morning until 5 p.m. in the evening, delivering goods for local residents to meet their urgent needs during the home quarantine.

He receives the delivery orders via the "WhatsApp" on his cell phone, charging 2,000 Lebanese pounds (1.3 U.S. dollars) for each delivery within the village, and 7,000 pounds for any delivery to surrounding villages.

"It is a way to secure some income when the work in my field has been slow," al-Ali told Xinhua.

Jihad Hamid, who rides a small car to deliver the goods in the town Marjeyoun in southeast Lebanon, never expected to become a delivery man one day for local residents to purchase their needs ranging from fruits, vegetables, meats, canned goods, and cleaning detergents.

Hamid, who used to work as a salesman in a sweets shop, now finds himself free to do some deliveries and earn additional income to make ends meet for his family.

"Sometimes, I am too busy that I am not able to meet all people's requests," he told Xinhua, while looking at the lists in his hands.

Tamer Al-Ali, a 20-year-old worker in the delivery service in Khiam, southern Lebanon, told Xinhua that the delivery service, which was previously limited to major cities and commercial centers, has expanded rapidly to the countryside and villages during the quarantine time.

Zuhair Harfouche, the owner of a vegetable and fruit shop in the town of Hasbaya, southeast Lebanon, allows his employees to drive his four small cars to provide delivery services in the town, with only 2,000 pounds added to the charge for each bill.

Delivery services in Lebanon have become more popular over the past few years allowing businesses to reach a wider range of customers throughout the country.

Big companies usually use professional courier services to deliver their goods and services.

However, simpler and cheaper delivery services are more popular among the housewives in villages who can use the help of their neighbors and people in the nearby towns to secure their needs, especially during the lockdown.

Lebanon started its third nationwide lockdown on Jan. 7, which will last for 25 fives until Feb. 1, to stem the spike in COVID-19 infections.

Lebanon registered on Sunday 3,654 new COVID-19 infections, bringing its total number of cases to 252,812, while its death toll from the virus increased by 40 to 1,906.
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, pictured in the 1980s, was one of the richest king pins in the world, until his death by police shoot out in 1993

Around 100 hippos descended from four illegally imported into Colombia by the drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s are overrunning Colombia's water-ways and poisoning wildlife with their toxic urine, sparking calls for a cull.

The drug lord and head of the Medellin Cartel was once the seventh richest man in the world worth an estimated $59billion in today's money, controlling over 80% of the cocaine shipped to the US.

With his ill-gotten gains he liked to buy exotic animals for his private zoo, including four hippos that he kept outside his mansion in Doradal, a town outside the city of Medellin.

But after the 44-year-old's death by police shoot-out in 1993 four of the animals escaped, establishing the largest hippo herd outside Africa.

Now, dozens of the descendants of the original three females and one male roam the wetlands north of Bogota, causing untold damage to local wildlife with their 'toxic' urine and feces.

By 2040 the invasive population could swell to almost 1,500 individuals, making their environmental impact irreversible and their numbers impossible to control, a new study has claimed.

A local shines a flashlight on one of the wild hippos. They are considered an unofficial mascot by the town who have resisted attempts to cull the beasts who are destroying the local wildlife

He used his great wealth to buy exotic animals for his private zoo. But after his death four hippos escaped into the wild and multiplied, with a herd of around 100 now. Locals put signs up warning about the presence of the animals

David Echeverri Lopez, a researcher at the regional environmental agency Cornare who led the 2013 sterilization effort, told The Washington Post that Colombia is a 'hippos paradise' with the animals spending hours grazing and basking in the Magdalena River, with no large predators to keep numbers down.

He said: 'Ive worked for many years to understand the problem and find solutions, but the problem keeps happening over and over again. The only thing that changes is the number of hippos.'

Escobar's former pleasure palace has been turned into a crumbling zoo called Hacienda Napoles, where a few of the recaptured hippos are housed and visited by tourists

Attempts to kill the animals have been met with resistance by locals who see the hippos as unofficial mascots.

In 2018, resident Claudia Patricia Camacho told the news program Noticias Caracol: 'The hippopotamus is the town pet. You could say that he now takes to the street as if they were his own.'

Gift shops in nearby Puerto Triunfo sell hippo keychains and T-shirts.

At Hacienda Napoles, the zoo opened on Escobar's former pleasure palace and private zoo, a few of the recaptured animals attract tourists, whilst their wild cousins occasionally plod into town.

In 2013 a judge issued a ruling making it illegal to kill hippos in the country, sparking the start of the sterilization campaign.

But Echeverri Lopez said that sterilization of the 4,000lb animals is difficult to do and going too slowly, with the team managing only one a year, whilst the population grows by about 10%.

Last year a rancher was bitten and thrown in the air during a surprise attack, breaking his hip, leg and a few ribs.

Echeverri Lopez said: 'These are animals who have turned themselves into an emblem for a whole community of people. Its not possible to just take them away.'

The theme park is in Doradel, a town outside of Medellin. These hippos are pictured at the park in 2020, while their wild cousins are now the biggest wild herd outside of Africa

Other scientists have raised concern that the invasive group are killing local wildlife with their poisonous urine and feces.

Jonathan Shurin, an ecologist at the University of California at San Diego who has worked with Echeverri to evaluate the hippos environmental impacts, said: 'We saw oxygen levels that were getting to levels where you would expect to see fish start to go belly up.'

Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez, a Colombian ecologist working at the University of Quintana Roo in Mexico, said that the hippos threatened native species including the giant, guinea-pig-like capybaras that feed on the grasses and fruits now consumed by hippos, as well as endangered Antillean manatees.

Castelblanco-Martinez said the only 'efficient strategy to deal with the invasion' is the 'extraction' of 30 hippos a year.

The U.S. nonprofit Animal Balance is collecting donations to help pay for this effort.

In September 2020, the nephew of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar said that he found a plastic bag with $18million of cash hidden in the wall at one of his uncle's houses.

Nicolas Escobar said he had a 'vision' which showed him where to look for the money in the apartment in Medellin, Colombia.

Nicolas (pictured) said he had a 'vision' which showed him where to look for the money in the apartment in Medellin, Colombia

Escobar, who died in a shootout with police in 1993, was said to be the seventh richest person in the world at the peak of his powers. Pictured: the Pablo Escobar neighborhood in Medellin

Rumors of Escobar's hidden fortunes have been circulating for years since his death.

The 'King of Cocaine' reportedly hid millions in his many properties across Colombia.

He amassed an estimated net worth of US $30billion by the time of his death, equivalent to $59billion today.

During his time at the helm of the Medellin Cartel he controlled over 80 per cent of the cocaine shipped to the US.
Parlers website reappeared online on Saturday with a brief post from its chief executive officer, John Matze, indicating that the social media platform, which is popular among conservative Americans, could soon return for download on digital stores.

Mr Matzes note on Parlers official website read: Hello world, is this thing on? Parlers app was removed from the app stores of both Google and Apple, two major smartphone operating systems, to prevent escalation of violence in the wake of the Capitol riots.

Amazon had also suspended Parler from its web hosting service due to which the website had gone offline. Subsequently, Parler had sued Amazon claiming that Amazon Web Services had breached their contractual agreement and violated antitrust laws by shutting down its account.

Mr Matzes message was just above a note that said, now seems like the right time to remind you all  both lovers and haters  why we started this platform.

We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both, the note said.

The message from Parler on its official page said that it will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!

The app is yet to return on app stores for download but Apples CEO, Tim Cook, told Fox News that Parler could be back if they get their moderation together.

Parler, which positioned itself as an alternative to Twitter, has become popular among followers of right-wing ideology, including followers of Donald Trump, due to aggressive scrutiny of messages by other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, Mr Trump had himself considered creating an account on Parler under the pseudonym Person X.

After the riots, Parler was also accused of unknowingly exposing the location data of rioters at the Capitol who uploaded videos on it.

Additional reporting by agencies

Khalsa Aid, the United Kingdom-based international non-profit humanitarian organization run by Indian origins took to social media on Monday and announced that they have been officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Canadian MP Tim Uppal, Mayor of Brampton Patrick Brown, and the MPP for Brampton South, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria.

READ | British Sikh Charity Helps Feed Truckers Stranded By Coronavirus Variant

While announcing their nomination, the humanitarian organization stated, "We are deeply humbled by this nomination. Everything we do is thanks to our amazing teams and volunteers all around the globe. We are grateful for this historical nomination."

READ | Khalsa Aid Sets Up 'Kisan Mall' At Tikri Border To Provide Farmers Free-of-cost Essentials

Canadian Parliamentarians nominate Khalsa Aide for Nobel Peace Prize

House of Commons of Canada, while nominating Khalsa Aid, wrote to the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairperson Berit Reiss-Andersen saying, "As the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Mill Woods in the Parliament of Canada, I am honored to nominate Khalsa Aid for the Nobel Peace Prize, with support from the Honourable Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, Member of Provincial Parliament for Brampton South and Mayor of Brampton, His Worship Patrick Brown. Khalsa Aid is an international NGO with the aim to provide humanitarian aid in disaster areas and civil conflict zones around the world."

READ | Nobel Peace Prize 2020: Will Donald Trump Win This Year Against Greta Thunberg, WHO?

They added, "Khalsa Aid became the first-ever cross-border international humanitarian aid organization based on the Sikh principle of 'recognizing the whole human race as one'. Founded by Ravinder (Ravi) Singh, who was struck by the plight of the refugees in Kosovo in 1999, the charity has been providing support around the world to victims of natural and man-made disasters such as floods, earthquakes, famine, and war for over 20 years. They have been able to provide crucial aid to millions of people around the world"

In December last year, the Khalsa Aid had set up a 'Kisan Mall' at the Tikri border to provide items of daily use for free of cost to protesting farmers. The racks were stocked with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soaps, oil, shampoo, vaseline, combs, mufflers, heating pads, knee caps, thermal suits, shawls, and blankets, among other things.

READ | Leaders Like UKs Johnson Who Wooed Trump Face Tricky Reset
(Newser)  Some 25,000 National Guard troops are flooding into Washington, DC, to provide extra security for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesdayand the federal government is working to ensure none of the troops represent a potential threat. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity tell the Washington Post that the FBI is working with the Army to vet the incoming troops amid fears of an "insider attack." "We're continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy tells the AP. He says the Army, which already reviews members for connections to extremist groups, has been providing Guard members with additional training on identifying possible insider threats.

story continues below

McCarthy says the vetting process hasn't identified any threats from within the military so far. He says numerous service members attended President Trump's rally before the Jan. 6 riot, but its not clear how many of them actually stormed the Capitol. The Army says it is also working with the Secret Service to determine which service members will require additional background checks, the Post reports. "There is no place for extremism in the military and we will investigate each report individually and take appropriate action," the Army said in a statement. "The Army is committed to working closely with the FBI as they identify people who participated in the violent attack on the Capitol to determine if the individuals have any connection to the Army." (Read more Biden inauguration stories.)

A Mexican woman previously sued the administrators of Houston Immigration Detention Center on grounds of rape claims on the premises in 2018. The case was later on dismissed after confessing that she lied with aim of acquiring a visa.

The woman was referred to as Jane Doe as she used a pseudonym in court documents. She had lived in Texas illegally for 10 years, according to a Daily Wire report.

The woman reportedly spent two years in prison after she was convicted of causing injury to a child and was transferred to the Houston Processing Center because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had put a detainer on her after her release from prison.

Woman asked for monetary compensation

For two months, Jane was in the Center and claimed that she was raped that night she has to be deported.

In 2020, she filed a lawsuit against company contractor of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run the Houston Processing Center, which is the CoreCivic Inc.

Jane said that she was raped in a dark room at the facility after being taken by guards, adding that there two other women in the room during the assault.

As part of the compensation, she asked for monetary damages and sought a visa to remain in the United States.

In the lawsuit, Jane further claimed that she was also impregnated in the Houston facility, where she was detained for two months.

It was filed last month and Jane's lawyers widely publicized the lawsuit, according to a Houston Chronicle report.

Related story: Hysterectomies Performed on Immigrant Women in US Without Consent, Whistleblower Says





False Accusations

A transcript of a phone interview with a Harris County Sheriff's Office investigation and an ICE special agent shows Jane confessing that she lied to acquire a visa to stay in the United States.

The agents informed Jane that the found and interrogated the other women in the facility, who said they were not raped nor witnessed any sexual assault.

However, Jane continued to say that she was raped and then later admitted that it did not happened at the CoreCivic facility.

Jane continued to say that she was raped in Nuevo Laredo, which was on the Mexican side of the Texas border. The raped happened just after she was deported.

"It indeed happened, but not there in the cells. It was here in Mexico," Jane Doe was quoted on a report.

Jane added that she did not know who was the father of the child as she was raped by three strangers.

Steven Owen, vice president of communications for the company, said that Jane's false claims have caused and continue to cause CoreCivic significant harm.

Sexual Abuse in Detention Centers

Meanwhile, allegation of sexual abuse in immigrant detention centers continued to spread, such as the case in El Paso, wherein inmates were sexually assaulted and harassed in a pattern and practice, according to a Texas advocacy group that filed a complaint.

The filing claims that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility managed by ICE. The abuse often happens in areas in the detention center that is not visible to security cameras, according to last year's report of Texas Tribune.

One immigrant woman said that guards forcibly kissed her and touched intimate part of her body. The woman then faced deportation.

Related story: New ICE Rules on Foreign Students Receive Backlash from Politician, Academics


Anthony Field seemed a little hoarse during an interview on the Today show on Monday while celebrating The Wiggles' 30th anniversary.

The Blue Wiggle, 57, was discussing the group's milestone alongside Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins when his voice became croaky.

'I can't believe [it's been 30 years]. I was 27 when we started, so doing the maths, 57! I didn't think I will still be Wiggling,' he said, sounding gravelly.

Is everything okay? Anthony Field (right, with Emma Watkins) seemed a little hoarse during an interview on the Today show on Monday while celebrating The Wiggles' 30th anniversary

Anthony also revealed why the children's group remains so successful after three decades.

'I think the secret is just keeping it fun,' he said.

'Thinking about what children enjoy and, you know, colourful, all the things we have always done, and hopefully writing songs that annoy the parents for a long time.'

Chat: The Blue Wiggle, 57, was discussing the group's milestone alongside Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins when his voice became croaky. Pictured: The Wiggles in November 2019

Anthony joined the group in 1979 alongside now-retired members Murray Cook, Greg Page and Jeff Fatt.

The trio were replaced by 'Yellow Wiggle' Emma, 'Purple Wiggle' Lachlan Gillespie and 'Red Wiggle' Simon Pryce.

The band's anniversary comes after it was announced that Murray will be returning to the stage on January 23 after undergoing open-heart surgery in December.

Career: Anthony joined the group in 1979 alongside retired members Murray Cook, Greg Page and Jeff Fatt

The 60-year-old, who retired from The Wiggles in 2012, will perform with his band The Soul Movers in Marrickville, in Sydney's inner-west.

'I'm really looking forward to it. It's a little bit daunting but I'm thrilled to get on stage and see the crowd,' Murray told The Sunday Telegraph.

He was released from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney last month after undergoing surgery in which a faulty aortic valve was replaced.
Meanwhile, in Portugal, a petition calling for a re-dub with actors of color has garnered more than 17,000 signatures. The Times adds that white actors voice Black characters in many other European dubs of Soul. A cursory glance at the films dubbing credits confirms this, although there are exceptions: in France, for instance, Joe is voiced by the well-known Black actor Omar Sy.

In June, as American society reckoned with its racism in the wake of George Floyds killing, white voice artists stepped away from characters of color on a number of high-profile animated series. Apologies and/or resignations came from the cast and creators of Big Mouth, Central Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bojack Horseman. A heated debate promptly ensued about the ethics of voicing a character of another race.

This debate has been had elsewhere. A recent feature in Vulture (written  full disclosure  by me) pointed to similar controversies that erupted in France and Brazil in the past. But each country comes with its own demographics, discourse around race, and practices in the voice acting industry. For example, a common defence of the status quo is that the country in question has too few actors of color to cover all non-white roles.

Moreover, dubbing artists have traditionally kept a low profile  after all, a good translation is supposed to be invisible. For the Vulture article, I spoke to Thomas Wolfert, CEO of the Berlin studio TV+Synchron (which records the German dub of Big Mouth). Dubbing often stays under the radar, he told me, and if people talk about it, it is because something went wrong there.

All these factors have complicated efforts to discuss the role of race in dubs (as opposed to the original American voice cast). But if the reaction to Soul is anything to go by, that may be starting to change.
Indian auto market leader Maruti Suzuki has increased the prices on account of higher input costs. The prices have been raised up to Rs 34,000 across models and ranges. The new rates have come into effect from Monday.

"This is to inform you that the company is increasing the price for select models owing to increase in various input costs. The price change varies across models and ranges up to Rs 34,000 (Ex-Showroom - Delhi). The new prices are effective from today i.e. 18th January 2021," Maruti Suzuki said in a regulatory filing.

Maruti Suzuki did not specify the quantum of price hike of individual models, nor listed the models that will be affected due to the price hike.

The price hike from Maruti Suzuki comes days after competitor Mahindra & Mahindra announced to increase prices of its passenger and commericalby 1.9 per cent. The price hike had led to an increase of Rs 4,500 - Rs 40,000, depending upon the model and variant.

Last month, Skoda had annouced that it will increase prices across its entire product range from January 1. The Czech auto manufacturer had said that it will increase prices by up to 2.5 per cent due to increase in production costs.

German auto major Volkswagen had also increased prices of its hatchback Polo and mid-sized sedan Vento in India by up to 2.5 per cent from January.

Other automobile manufacturers, including Nissan, Renault India, Honda Cars, Ford India, Isuzu, BMW India, Audi India and Hero MotoCorp, have also announced plans to hike prices from January due to increased input costs.

Auto industry in India has been facing a dearth of demand for a long time. The crisis was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. While demand returned during the festive season this year, bringing some relief to the troubled sector, manufacturers are still worried about demand waning in coming days.

ALSO READ: Mahindra increases price for personal, commercial vehicles by 1.9%

ALSO READ: Skoda India to increase car prices from January 1

ALSO READ: Volkswagen to raise prices of Polo, Vento in India by 2.5%

ALSO READ: Honda to raise car prices from January
(File Image: PTI)

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) was the first finance company that was referred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the National Company Law Tribunal. This happened in November 2019. It was admitted a month later, in December that year. After a year, a resolution for DHFL seems to be in sight.

After a close contest between Piramal Group and Oaktree, Piramals have emerged as the winner post the voting by lenders. Though Oaktree had the highest overall bid, Piramals won the race as it offered a higher cash component and had an upper hand over Oaktree on a slew of aspects.

Has DHFL bidding saga come to an end already?

After the voting, what remains now is largely a technicality. The CoC (committee of creditors) will meet again and approve Piramals bid which will be then cleared by the NCLT.

But it is unlikely that the process will get over with this. Oaktree, one of the contenders of DHFL, is likely to move to court challenging the lenders decision, according to banking industry sources. If this happens, the process of settlement for creditors is likely to get delayed further.

At the end of the whole process, what will DHFLs lenders and investors get from the whole process?

As per the plan submitted by the lenders, they will have to take about 65-70 percent haircut on their exposure to DHFL. In other words, this means they can recover one-third of what they lent to DHFL.

Major creditors to DHFL include the State Bank of India (SBI), which has an exposure of around Rs 10,000 crore to DHFL. Others include Bank of India--around Rs 4,125 crore, Canara Bank with Rs 2,681 crore, NHB (Rs 2,434 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 2,378 crore), Syndicate Bank (Rs 2,229 crore), and Bank of Baroda (Rs 2,075 crore). Further, Indian Bank has an exposure of Rs 1,552 crore, Central Bank Rs 1,389 crore, IDBI Bank Rs 999 crore, and HDFC Bank Rs 361 crore. These figures may have changed by now to account for accrued interest.

What about other investors such as NCD holders and FD holders in DHFL?

They too will have to take a huge haircut. The finer details are yet to come. According to 63 Moons Technologies, one of the NonConvertible Debentures (NCD) holders of DHFL with Rs 200 crore exposure, the total exposure of NCD and FD holders to DHFL is around Rs 45,000 crore. The NCD/FD holders will have to take a major haircut.

As for DHFLs home loan borrowers, nothing much changes post the take over the company by Piramals. Their relation as home loan borrowers will continue in a normal course.

How did banks end up in the DHFL mess?

As this writer explained in an earlier column, the script is the same as in the case of any large corporate loan. At one point, DHFL was a big name in the pure-play mortgage business. The story is, in some way, similar to the Kingfisher-Vijay Mallya case. Banks lent to Mallya just on the basis of his name, not the airlines cash flows. Similarly, DHFLs promoter Kapil Wadhawan was a name bank that wouldnt dare to ignore in a tight competitive loan market. Bank officers used to queue up before Wadhawans office.

How did DHFL fail?

DHFLs business was booming and some analysts even secretly called it the next HDFC. But the glory was short-lived. Towards late 2018, DHFL began showing signs of liquidity crunch. Post the IL&FS mayhem, rumours of defaults by the mortgage lender began to float around. In July-August, 2019, DHFL defaulted on a series of payments. And all hell broke loose.

The crisis, a result of years of mismanagement and dangerous over-leveraging by Wadhawans, weighed DHFL down. Liquidity became scarce. When the mess deepened, the RBI superseded the board on November 20, 2019, and later pushed the firm to the NCLT for insolvency resolution 10 days later. The company was admitted for IBC proceeding on December 3, 2019. The writing on the wall was clear.

But as they say, something is better than nothing. DHFLs creditors and investors were, perhaps, running the risk of losing their entire money in the absence of resolution. Now they stand to get at least something.

(Banking Central is a weekly column that keeps a close watch and connects the dots about the sector's most important events for readers.)
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Black Christian leaders on impact of 2020 racial protests, riots on Americas future

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Americans are divided on whether racial tensions will improve in the United States as 2020 has been a year of protests and social unrest following high-profile officer-involved deaths of African Americans. Church leaders are also unsure of the impact the protests will have.

A recent Pew Research Center study suggests that Americans are almost equally divided on whether the increased nationwide focus and attention on racial inequality will lead to positive changes for African Americans or lead to major changes in laws to address inequality.

The data report released in early October is based on surveys conducted from Sept. 8 to Sept. 13 with over 10,093 respondents. It found that about half (51%) think there will not be major policy changes that will address racial inequality.

Church leaders also differ in opinion on the impact of recent media focus, protests, activism and riots. Some are hoping the last few months will catalyze improvement. However, others are unsure.

Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, told The Christian Post that racism still exists today.

He cited a Yale School of Medicine study that suggests that as early as preschool, teachers of all races can display prejudices against African-American children. The effects of this can harm children long-term, he warned.

Owens also pointed to personal experience as he once took his son out of a private school, saying the teacher treated him unfairly because of his race.

Theres a lot of racism. Sometimes people call it racism when its really not, he explained. But racism is real. Its very subtle now. Its not like it was when I was growing up. Now they smile and its still racism.

In college, Owens marched for civil rights alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. However, he feels that modern protests are different as 2020 has also been marred by several violent riots.

The jurys out. Since I marched with Dr. King, my whole mindset on it has changed, the pastor said. When we marched, we were instructed what to do. You had to go to class. You were set on a stool and people would curse, hit and slap you. If you couldnt take it without fighting back, you couldnt go march. What we see now is the opposite of that.

Some protesters today believe in hurting people and destroying property, Owens claimed.

Black people would have been destroyed if they did what they are doing now, he continued. Dr. King would turn over in his grave if he saw what young people are doing now. He put his life on the line. Most civil rights leaders didnt expect to live.

The Rev. Anthony Evans, president of National Black Church Initiative, a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino churches that seek to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing and the environment," told CP that he has a different understanding of the recent protests.

He said hoping a few months of protests will change the African-American experience is silly.

African Americans have been under this racial violence cloud for the last 400 years, he said. We are dealing with a [generation] of young whites who are far more progressive than their mothers and fathers. But whos in a position to change things is their mothers and fathers, who refuse to change things.

Evans maintained that America isnt over racism because powerful white people have constructed society to their own benefit.

To undo racial inequalities, Americans must change peoples perceptions of African Americans, the rules of the economy and the law, Evans stressed. Young white people must fix the problem, he said, because they will have the power. He contended that whether young white people will fix the issues once they are in their parents position is anyones guess.

The racial composition of the workplace is a good place to start, he said. If you have a project, put a black woman in charge. If you look at any project committee, its always headed by a white woman. Because shes a minority? Thats the biggest joke in the book.

White people dont care about the problem of racism, he asserted. Until they face pressure and violence so disruptive that they cant ignore it, they will look the other way.

Violence and looting in any context is wrong, but when violence and looting comes out of a deep sense of frustration and racial inequity, those who commit these crimes are suffering from racial PTSD, he said. When they loot and riot, we dont lose hundreds of lives. They had to burn some stuff to get some attention.

Evans said he works with NBCI to build bridges between the African American and white American churches. But if Trump gets a second term, it will change American race relations forever, he believes.

A Trump win will tell African Americans that white Americans will never reconcile their racial differences with them because this president believes the way to lead is to divide, Evans argued. Race relations in the future will be nearly impossible.

Although Trump boasts of his administration's achievements aimed at helping black communities, such as restoring funding for historically black colleges and universities and creating opportunity zones to foster inner-city business development, Evans believes that Trump stokes racial division.

Race will trump all of those variables, Evans said. We have been used as a scapegoat before by white politicians.

National Association of Evangelicals Vice President for Government Relations Galen Carey, who is white, told CP that the last several months have exposed racial injustices that society needs to fix.

NAE has worked to pursue racial justice with its For the Health of the Nation initiative.

I think the events of the last several months have definitely shown a spotlight on racial injustices that still exist in our society, Carey said. That spotlight is welcome and needed. Its a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.

Carey stressed that violence wont make that process any faster.

Violence is not the way of Jesus, Carey assured. Violence or hatred is not a strategy for social progress. Its clearly been shown that when African Americans have stood up in nonviolent ways, they affected the conscience of the nation profoundly.

The Pew report suggests many Americans think the best solutions to racial inequalities are diversity training, redrawing school boundaries and limiting police to handling serious and violent crimes. Owens said he doesnt know if these solutions will work. But he said he knows one solution that does end racism.

Keep trying. Keep trying with the people you know. Do it with your friends, people on the job. Be honest and put nobody down in the process, Owens said. If a person has a belief for a lifetime you cant change them by hurting them. But you can change them by honest dialogue. Think about where we were 50 years ago and where we are now.

As a missionary kid in the Philippines, Carey said he learned what its like to be a minority. However, he said he doesnt know what its like to be a despised minority.

Its very different from people [whose ancestors] were brought here as slaves, Carey said. In a society that is built around the presumption of white superiority, its totally different.

To improve race relations, people should narrow the economic gap between African Americans and Caucasian Americans, Carey said.

Americans should discuss how best to do so, but there are many options, Carey added. White people could give African Americans money through government reparations, investment in education or simply giving money to the descendants of slaves.

Its one step removed from a white person going into an African-American community and handing out money, which is problematic, he said. But it also has a Christian witness involved.

Carey said he lives in a multiracial community and sees reasons for hope in the increased number of multiethnic churches. At its root, spiritual issues cause racism, he said. After people shift their heart attitudes about race, the government can restructure society to be less racist.

If youre living in a society that is racially unjust, its inevitable were participating in some way in that, he said. So theres definitely a structural dimension to our attitudes.
ROSEVILLE, Calif. - Governors in many states have called out the National Guard, declared states of emergency, and closed state capitol buildings over concerns about violence ahead of next weeks presidential inauguration.

Action News Now anchor Linda Watkins-Bennett talked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento Field Office, Sean Ragan, to find out more about what is happening at the California State Capitol and in Northern California to be prepared for the days ahead.

The FBI Sacramento Field Office covers 34 counties from Oregon to Kern County. It is located in Roseville, California.

Please watch the entirety of the interview between Special Field Agent Ragan and Linda Watkins Bennett in the video posted in this article.

The two discussed the safety of the California State Capitol and federal buildings and offices in the North State and talked about how several different arms of local, regional, state, and federal law enforcement are working together for safety and security. He described his office in Roseville as a command post for law enforcement officers.

Participating agencies include the FBI, CHP, CAL OES, the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office, the Sacramento Police Department, and the National Guard.

Ragan also shared how the Washington Field Office is working with his and other FBI Field Offices to follow leads and tips that have been received since the assault on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.

He discussed how law enforcement staff are vetted, and explained that this vetting occurs throughout their careers, not just when they first apply for their positions.

The public is our partner in all of this, Special Field Agent Ragan said. If they could please continue to provide information, any concerns they have, threats they're hearing about -- anything they see that's suspicious or might lead to violence or criminal activity.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Ragan said they rely on such information and gave this tip number and webpage link. The phone number to report a tip is (916) 746-7000. CLICK HERE to visit the FBI tip webpage. He said tips can be submitted anonymously.

When asked if he had anything to add, Special Agent Ragan said, "We want everyone to know they have a right to free speech, to express themselves verbally and in writing, the right to express ideas, political ideology, anything other than threatening someone directly.

It's when people cross that line and start wanting violence to promote ideas and ideology ... that's when it crosses away from protected rights to being criminality and a criminal violation, he explained. "At that point, citizens are going to be investigated by authorities," he explained.

Please watch the entire video interview attached to this article to hear the full interview with FBI Special Field Agent in Charge Sean Ragan.
International travellers to Australia surged before Christmas but economists warn businesses will suffer unless the government boosts population growth by moving quarantine facilities outside capital cities and attracting talented migrants.

More than 35,000 people, largely returning citizens, arrived from overseas in December, up 18 per cent on the previous month, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.

Deloitte Access Economics is forecasting Australia's borders will be open as soon as mid-2022 assuming a successful vaccine rollout in line with the government's plans. Credit:Rob Homer

It was the highest number of monthly arrivals since border restrictions began in April but still down 98 per cent on the same time in 2019, ABS director of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.

"We are continuing to see steady month-on-month increases in arrivals," she said, adding the December rise coincided with the opening up of one-way travel with New Zealand and a lift in travel caps.


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NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global electric motor market is projected to reach a value of over $195.2 billion by 2030, rising from $118.2 billion in 2019, progressing at a 4.8% CAGR during 20202030, according to P&S Intelligence.

The market is growing due to the:

Increasing sales of electric vehicles

Rising government efforts for encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles

The increasing government efforts for enhancing the adoption of electric vehicles is a key driving factor of the electric motor market . Governments of several countries are offering tax incentives and subsidies on the purchase of electric vehicles and are implementing strict emission laws on traditional ICE vehicles. For example, China has been providing a subsidy of over $10,000 per EV since 2017. Similarly, the Indian government is also aiming to have a considerable EV fleet by 2030, for which the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 was launched in 2012.

Get the sample copy of this report @ https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/electric-motor-market/report-sample

On the basis of output power, the integral horsepower division is expected to register the higher CAGR of 6.5% during 20202030. The output power of integral-HP motors is 1 or more HP, owing to which, their demand is rising from the commercial and industrial sectors. In terms of applications, the motor vehicle category held the major share of the electric motor market in the past. The demand for electric vehicles is growing in order to reduce the rate of environmental degradation and implementation of strict emission-control laws.

Browse report overview with COVID-19 impact analysis on Electric Motor Market Research Report: By Motor Type (AC Motor, DC Motor, Hermetic Motor), Output Power (Fractional Horsepower, Integral Horsepower), Application (Motor Vehicle, Industrial Machinery, HVAC Equipment, Transportation, Household) - Global Industry Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030 @ https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/electric-motor-market

When motor type is taken into consideration, the AC division is predicted to witness the higher CAGR in the years to come. These motors can operate a higher voltages, thereby resulting in the reduction in the size of wire. Other than this, these motors also offer higher torque and speed. It is further easier to maintain AC motors, thereby making them the popular choice over direct current motors. It is predicted that the production of EVs will rise post the current pandemic situation, which will further result in the increasing sales of AC motors.

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region held the major share of the electric motor market in the past, and is further predicted to register the highest CAGR in the years to come as well. With China at the leading position, APAC is the largest producer of electric vehicles in the world. The production of these vehicles in further increasing in countries such as India, where the FAME scheme is offering a number of benefits to people who purchase EVs. This is predicted to drive the regional domain in the near future.

Make enquiry about this report @ https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=electric-motor-market

Some of the key players operating in the domain are Toshiba Corporation, Siemens AG, Emerson Electric Co., DENSO Corporation, Wolong Holding Group Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Johnson Electric Holdings Limited, Robert Bosch GmbH, ABB Ltd., AMETEK Inc., Franklin Electric Co. Inc., Regal Beloit Corporation, Nidec Corporation, WEG Industries, Mitsuba Corporation, and Rockwell Automation Inc.

Browse More Reports

Stepper Motor Market

The Asia-Pacific region held the largest revenue share in 2019 in the stepper motor market, and it is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period.

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/stepper-motor-market

Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market

Asia-Pacific would witness the highest value CAGR in the commercial refrigeration equipment market during the forecast period. This is attributed to the booming population and increasing purchasing power in the region.

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/commercial-refrigeration-equipment-market

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.

Contact:

Prajneesh Kumar

P&S Intelligence

Contact: +1-347-960-6455

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com

SOURCE P&S Intelligence
BALTIMORE, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 59th Presidential Inauguration and Swearing in Ceremony is expected to take place on January 20. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris plan to take their oaths of office at the U.S. Capitol. According to a statement from the presidential inaugural committee, "The ceremony's footprint will be extremely limited, and the parade that follows will be reimagined." This is an effort to keep both the incoming administration as well as the general public safe.

For the past year, the COVID-19 health crisis has been at the forefront of our nation's attention and will remain a prominent focus of the incoming administration. When the President of the United States gets sick, headlines are written and the world pays attention. Regardless of whether the nation's leader is involved in a minor accident or stricken with a major illness, his health can affect the operation of the entire nation and impact political events around the world. Presidents receive the finest health care available when ill or injured, but sometimes it's not enough.

The William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History of the American Urological Association (AUA), located in Linthicum, MD, put together a retrospective exhibit called Chief Complaints: Health of the American President. It outlines the medical ailments and the recommended treatments of U.S. Presidents throughout history  many of which were urological.

Thomas Jefferson , our nation's third president, suffered from headaches and gastrointestinal problems thought to be cured with a cold bath and going to bed early. He also was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate and was taught to self-catheterize to alleviate his symptoms.

, our nation's third president, suffered from headaches and gastrointestinal problems thought to be cured with a cold bath and going to bed early. He also was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate and was taught to self-catheterize to alleviate his symptoms. William Henry Harrison , the nation's ninth president and first president to die in office, contracted a cold during his inauguration ceremony which developed into pneumonia. Among the many failed treatments were: camphor, brandy, crude petroleum and leeches. He served only 32 days in office.

, the nation's ninth president and first president to die in office, contracted a cold during his inauguration ceremony which developed into pneumonia. Among the many failed treatments were: camphor, brandy, crude petroleum and leeches. He served only 32 days in office. James Polk , the 11 th US president suffered from painful bladder stones starting at the age of 17. He eventually had a procedure to remove the stones called a lithotomy. The operation was performed while he was awake with brandy given as the only sedative. While successful in removing the stones, the operation is thought to have rendered him sterile.

, the 11 US president suffered from painful bladder stones starting at the age of 17. He eventually had a procedure to remove the stones called a lithotomy. The operation was performed while he was awake with brandy given as the only sedative. While successful in removing the stones, the operation is thought to have rendered him sterile. In the 1960's, Ronald Regan was diagnosed with prostate stones after a series of urinary tract infections. In 1987, he also underwent surgery to alleviate an enlarged prostate. No cancer was found.

"As we look at selected stories of American presidents' illnesses, we see significant changes in medical practices throughout our nation's history ranging from the invention of improved diagnostic tools to the discovery of antibiotics," says Dr. Ronald Rabinowitz, AUA Historian. "Medical museums such as the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History preserve many unique and timeless artifacts that reflect the humans who devised them and the society in which they existed." Although closed to the public during the pandemic, visitors can view exhibits, collections and even the gift shop online: AUAnet.org/Museum.

The Didusch Center encompasses a rich and varied collection of drawings, photographs and instruments of historical importance to urology, many displayed in urological exhibits. The center also houses a library devoted to urological and early medical texts and the AUA archives.

The public can virtually view the entire Chief Complaints: Health of the American President exhibit for free.

About the American Urological Association: Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology and has nearly 24,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

Media Contact:

Teri Arnold, Corporate Communications and Media Relations Manager

Cell: 757-272-7002, [email protected]

SOURCE American Urological Association

Related Links

www.auanet.org




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People with diabetes and obesity should be prioritised for early Covid-19 vaccination, according to both metabolic doctors and Diabetes Ireland.

The Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) said that diabetes and obesity have emerged as significant underlying risk factors for developing severe illness from Covid-19, and these patients should also be prioritised for continuity of treatment during the pandemic.

IrSPEN spokesperson and Obesity Specialist at St Vincents University Hospital Professor Carel le Roux said: Intensive care units (ICUs) are currently filling up with many younger patients who have underlying diabetes and obesity and have contracted Covid-19.

People with more severe obesity and more severe type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at most risk. These patients are now not being ventilated as quickly as in the first wave because we understand that the reason their oxygen levels become so low has as much to do with their underlying condition, rather than the coronavirus being the sole cause.

Diabetes and obesity cause inflammation of small blood vessels around the lungs and other organs and this is then exaggerated by Covid-19.

This understanding highlights the importance of continuity of existing treatments for patients with diabetes and obesity as a part of managing the impact of the virus. It also highlights the importance of vaccinating this cohort of patients to minimise hospitalisation, he said.

Diabetes Ireland advocacy research manager Dr Anna Clarke said: We now know that the worse the control of diabetes, the higher the risk of serious complications from Covid-19. Medical research over the past 10 months shows the importance of people with diabetes and obesity continuing to take their medications and attend appointments, even if these are virtual.

St Vincents University Hospital consultant surgeon and IrSPEN member Professor Helen Heneghan said: The consensus amongst metabolic doctors who specialise in treating these conditions is that these patients should be prioritised both for vaccination and continuity of care.

Many patients with diabetes and obesity have had their treatments postponed or deprioritised within hospital care in recent months. The relationship between these conditions and the development of severe illness from Covid-19 means we should continue to treat patients.

Dr Mick Crotty, a Dublin based GP, added: Our thinking about the virus has changed from it causing a disease of the inside of the lung towards considering it as a disease that reduces blood flow immediately outside the lungs, thus reducing oxygen transport. The virus accelerates underlying complications of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

The Covid-19 pandemic has alerted us to the vulnerability of patients with diabetes and obesity, who should be prioritised for vaccination. We should redouble efforts to help these patients through the Covid-19 pandemic, and doing so would benefit hospitalisation and mortality rates.

More than a million people in Ireland have obesity and more than 200,000 have diabetes. See also www.irspen.ie

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari , on Monday, inaugurated Road Safety Month where he highlighted the Central Government's commitment towards safety.

"Till now, we have been observing National Road Safety Week. But from today, we will observe National Road Safety Month. 70% of deaths are in the age group of 18-45 years," Nitin Gadkari said.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

Gadkari also said that there is a need to save lives in the country where 415 people are dying every day due to road accidents.

"If we wait till 2030, 6-7 lakhs more people will die. So, we've made a commitment that before 2025, road accidents and deaths due to it will be brought down by 50% with help of people's participation," Gadkari added.

In 2020, the Central Government had participated in a conference in Sweden, where a vision was conceptualised - to have zero road fatalities in India by 2030, he said.

"We had promised to reduce such fatalities by 50%. Tamil Nadu has done it, with a success rate of 53%.," Gadkari stated.

Providing details of his ministry about an increased target of per day roads construction, Gadkari said, "We have achieved the target of constructing 30 kilometres of road, I believe that by the end of March, perhaps we will achieve the target of constructing 40 kilometres of road per day."

"World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank) approved two projects worth 7,000 crore each. We'll receive approval from finance ministry soon. So, we'll spend 14,000 crore to improve black spots - death traps - on roads," the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways added.

The event at Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister VK Singh and chief executive officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant.

Globally India is one of the worst-hit nations when it comes to road accidents. As per a PTI report, India accounts for about 5 lakh road accidents annually, one of the highest in the world, in which about 1.5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh become crippled.

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Loading In the past it has been revealed large companies, such as the resource giants in WA, have made individual donations under the threshold  adding up to larger sums  which were not declared by the political parties but by the companies themselves. Labor's bill was not prioritised by the government and lapsed when Parliament was prorogued in December, despite being introduced to the upper house in August. University of Notre Dame associate professor Martin Drum said there was not a willingness from the parliament to open the books on political parties. "Publication is the key measure of transparency," he said.

"For the life of me I can't determine how they [government] left it so late in the term, it got caught up in so much legislation that didn't make it, in introducing it so late it didn't give it much of a chance." Annual returns published by the WAEC in December showed Labor received more than $3 million of dark money in 2019-20, the Liberals got $2.4 million and the Greens had $1.2 million. The Greens said more than $1 million of the money not declared by the party was actually returns from the Australian Tax Office and the AEC following the federal election. Greens WA Leader Alison Xamon said her party supported reform which went further than what Labor promised at the last election.

Loading "We are going to this election with some strong positions around this, including banning corporate donations," she said. "We have seen how corporate donations have certainly sullied the perception of the way the decision-making is occurring, if not impacted on the way decisions are being made. "The fact that developers can buy their way to a meeting with a minister but a community group affected by adverse decisions cannot is disgraceful. "Nobody is buying access to a minister for scintillating conversation ... they buy access to a minister because they are hoping to receive a favourable outcome."

Ms Xamon wants to see an end to the government's leadership forums  known as Labor business roundtables  where companies pay for access to ministers and said there should also be a ban on donations from third party entities such as the 500 Club. A real-time disclosure regime  like the one introduced in Queensland, a state which has banned developer donations  would also be workable in WA, according to Ms Xamon. A Labor spokeswoman said the government remained committed to improving transparency around political donations. She said the Liberal party had been against the law changes and slowed down the process by recommending the legislation be reviewed by a parliamentary committee. "By the time the committee reported back in November, 2020, there were minimal sitting days left to progress it," the spokeswoman said.

Non-goverment politicians such as the Greens argue there had been enough time to pass the legislation but Labor did not make it a enough of a priority. Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup said a lack of changes to the system was a broken promise from Labor. In opposition, Labor campaigned on gold-standard openness and transparency  in fact, the Premier said transparency must come first, openness must come first," he said. But this has been one of the most deceptive and secretive governments in WA history. We want reforms that harmonise WAs electoral donations law with the federal donations system, which includes bans on foreign donations.

Greens donor and Crown at the top for disclosed donations in 2019-20 Former Greens convenor Chilla Bulbeck was the largest individual donor in 2019-20 after she gave the party $106,301.81. The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Union handed over $202,344 to Labor while United Voice WA, which has been rebranded to the United Workers Union, provided $191,774 as the largest pair of union donors. Crown entities donated $81,105 across the WA divisions of Labor and the Liberals, which continues an ongoing trend for the casino organisation to give money to both major parties. Anti-laundering efforts by Crown were put under the microscope during an inquiry in New South Wales last year, which dragged into it the practices at the Burswood casino.

Crown has recently altered its rules at its Perth and Melbourne operations so gamblers can only make deposits from personal bank accounts rather than businesses or trusts. A final report from the inquiry is due on February 1 but Gaming and Wagering Commission WA is waiting to see the recommendations before it decides on whether there should be a review of the Perth casino. Perth Trades Hall, which runs the Labor business roundtables, declared income from resources entites such as Woodside, FMG, and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, from the past financial year.
File-This Nov. 10, 2020, file photo shows Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks with reporters in Nashville, Tenn. Lee has tweeted that his wife has mild symptoms of COVID-19 after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Republican governor said Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, that he has tested negative for the virus but will be quarantined at the Governors Residence out of an abundance of caution. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) PHOTO:AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File

TN Governor Faces Criticism for Approach to Virus

By The Associated Press

NASHVILLE - As Tennessee has fueled one of the nations worst COVID-19 surges for weeks, Gov. Bill Lees approach hasnt strayed much from how he and several fellow Republican governors battling similar spikes have long approached the virus.He's resisted restricting public behavior and focused on keeping businesses open.The approach has dismayed public health leaders and Democratic lawmakers who argue Tennessee wouldnt consistently be among the worst states in the country battling COVID-19 if Lee had taken more forceful actions.Lee has rejected claims he hasnt done enough.He says decisions about masks are best left to local jurisdictions.
When my parents and older brother left their home in Kashmir in the middle of the night in 1990, I was just a small foetus in my mother's womb.

To escape genocide at the hands of armed Islamists backed by Pakistan in Kashmir, hundreds and thousands of Kashmiri Pandit Hindus -- the indigenous minority community of Kashmir -- fled in trucks, vans and whatever means of transport they could find.

Like others, my father and mother left behind home, work, friends, heritage and also, all their emotions for a place where they had both grown up, as they hopped on to a truck. A two-year-old son and a tiny bag of clothes were all that my father was carrying when they left. Mother was carrying me in her womb.

Back home in Anantnag, a town and district of south Kashmir, where he was born, raised and where he married my mother, my father owned a small business: a shop which sold newspapers, magazines and comics and rented out video cassette movies.

Jammu, the southern part of the state, was almost alien to Pandits. The people, culture and climate in the plains of Jammu, were nothing like what it was for Pandits in Kashmir valley, their native abode and homeland of their ancestors for more than 5,000 years.

After arriving in Jammu, my parents shared a tent in a refugee camp in Muthi with an aunt's family because my father was yet to be allotted a tent by the government. Only after I was born that my parents were granted a tent in the Mishriwala refugee camp at the outskirts of Jammu town.

The tents could neither bear the blistering summer heat nor the blustery monsoons. Though I was an infant, I remember one monsoon night when a windstorm hit the tents, the entire camp was razed to the ground. I watched hordes of people running to find shelter in the nearby camps: women, like my mother, carrying toddlers and men carrying whatever essentials they could. Next morning, after the storm was over, we returned to the camp. Our home -- the tent in the refugee camp -- was completely destroyed.

I remember the image of hopelessness and helplessness on my father's face as he looked around at the wreckage across the camp. The next day, my father gathered all his will and strength, and decided to make a makeshift hut -- a hovel but strong enough to resist monsoon rains and windstorms. So he climbed on to every tree he could find around the camp and collected wood.

It took him three days to build the shack with his bare hands and a few tools he had borrowed. Once the shanty was up, I saw other refugees dropping by, patting my father's back for his will and strength. Like him everyone in the camp had lost everything. Like him, they all wanted to rebuild their life and provide for their families. It was my father's small moment of pride.

Throughout our days in the camp, my father struggled to find work. The exodus had turned his life upside down. In his 20s, he was married with two children and the sole earner of his family. There was barely any bread and butter.

When I was about five years old, my father after trying his hand at several menial jobs, decided to sell cheap watches on trains. One night when he returned home, tears were rolling down his eyes. After some prodding by my mother, we got to know that his suitcase full of watches had been stolen from him. Both cried the entire night.

As a kid, I couldn't fathom their reasons but with time, I began understanding their sense of loss. Along with his means of feeding us, my father had been ripped off of his dignity.

I grew up in the refugee camp believing that poverty and lack of basics -- food, clothes, shelter, electricity, medicines -- was the normal way of life. This was because everyone around us was in the same state of existence.

Like the rest of the refugee children, I played in dirt and mud, without any toys. The things that children eat, drink and play with in normal circumstances, I got to know about, almost in my adulthood.

Mother often, with a wry smile and tears in her eyes, recalls how I assumed as a kid that humans live only in tents and shacks because that is all I had seen in my childhood. The first time my father bought jam for us, I believed we had suddenly become rich.

Once my aunt and her husband who lived in a rented house, were to visit us in the camp. Just an hour before they were to arrive, Mother sent away my brother and I, to play for the whole day and specifically told us not to return till the evening. We were happy and thrilled because we were never allowed to go out and play for so long.

Years later, my mother sobbingly revealed that she had sent us away because my brother and I did not have any proper clothes on us. We were in torn undershirts and showed signs of malnutrition. She did not want her sister and the rest of the family to know.

After almost a decade in refugee camps, father had managed to run a small business again. So he decided to move out of the camp. He built a small house and sent us to college, while slogging day and night.

Thirty one years after the exodus, father and mother look old and fatigued. They do not want to talk about their youth, entirely spent in struggle. Whenever returning to Kashmir is the subject of our conversations, it feels like rubbing salt on their own wounds. But someday, hopefully, they and I will get to live together in Kashmir with dignity and some amount of healing.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said it might be good to start with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris if all politicians linked to riots would be removed from office.

In an interview with Fox Business on Saturday, Mike Huckabee commented on the January 6 Capitol protests that took five people's lives, including a Capitol police officer.

He acknowledged that President Donald Trump's words before the riot were not well chosen but added that this should also apply to other politicians like Kamala Harris.

Mike Huckabee cited Harris' actions for Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters where she raised funds to get them out of jail on bail.

"Politicians say reckless things all the time," he said, adding that if Trump can be impeached for his words, "then we'd better impeach Kamala Harris for saying the things she did last summer about the rioters and looters."

Related story: Only 8% of Republicans Support Trump Impeachment: Poll

For Mike Huckabee, Harris' actions meant that the rioters could go back to rioting, The Daily Caller reported. "Everybody should have a turn," he noted.

The report added that Kamala Harris did support the BLM protesters by raising money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund and bailed them out with contributions from staffers of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Mike Huckabee Believes Capitol Rioters Should Be Charged

Mike Huckabee said Trump's actions on the day electoral votes were about to get certified did not "serve the country's interest very well," reported Western Journal.

He also disagreed with the way Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject the election results. He said Pence was right, and Trump was "totally off the mark" in digging into what Pence's powers as VP held. However, it was not enough to warrant an impeachment.

Mike Huckabee also pointed out that rioting wasn't right regardless if it was conducted by the left or right, a Fox News article read.

Even though the former governor is "happy to see" there is prosecution awaiting the Capitol rioters, he also wants the same penalties to be extended for the BLM protesters who participated in destruction last summer.

"It shouldn't be a left or right thing, this is a right or wrong thing," he noted. Mike Huckabee also said Trump's impeachment clouded four years of "amazing accomplishments" under the administration.

Trump's impeachment was voted on in the House last week, but it's unclear when the Senate's trial could take place.

Read Also: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene To File Impeachment Articles Against Biden

Georgia's GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green earlier said she would propose Biden's impeachment on his first full day in office.

Kamala Harris to Resign Senate Seat on Monday

Kamala Harris is expected to resign from her Senate position on Monday or two days before inauguration day.

The decision has been confirmed by her aides and relayed to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Giving way for him to appoint another Democrat, Alex Padilla, as the new secretary of state, reported CBS San Francisco.

Kamala Harris' plans for the VP swearing-in ceremony were released on Saturday.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court's first Latina justice, will be swearing in Kamala Harris, the first Black, South Asian, and female vice president of the U.S.
Addressing the first meeting in 2021 of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR) held on January 15 in online form, the ASEAN leader noted that 2020 was a year of difficulties and challenges brought about by COVID-19 pandemic and highlighted the special position of the CPR in ASEAN activities in Jakarta.

Under the leadership of the Vietnam mission to ASEAN, the CPR worked effectively in coordination with other ASEAN mechanisms and the ASEAN Secretariat in fulfilling tasks in 2020, contributing to strengthening inter-sectorial and inter-pillar cooperation and coordination in the building of the ASEAN Community, expanding the blocs collaboration with partners and improving the capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat, he said.

In 2021 when COVID-19 pandemic is developing complicatedly, he held that Bruneis choosing the theme of We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper for its ASEAN Chairmanship Year is a suitable choice.

Along with promoting ASEAN Community building, one of the major tasks of Brunei in the year is reconstructing the region through the implementation of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) as well as initiatives approved by ASEAN leaders in 2020, he said.

Ambassador Tran Duc Binh, head of the Vietnam permanent mission to the ASEAN, thanked representatives of countries to the ASEAN for their support and effective collaboration in 2020 while Vietnam served as ASEAN Chair.

He expressed his belief that Brunei, as the Chair of CPR in 2021, will successfully complete tasks for 2021.

Vietnam will continue to work closely with the Brunei mission and the CPR as a whole to realise priorities and initiatives in 2021 during the ASEAN Chairmanship Year of Brunei, he pledged.
The fight for womens rights beyond #MeToo By Mariz Tadros, exclusively for the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka View(s): View(s):

BRIGHTON  For most people, the #MeToo movement has become synonymous with campaigns against sexual harassment. The movement  which went viral in October 2017  undoubtedly mobilised women and spurred positive change. But its prominence in media coverage and political discussions of sexual harassment has also been problematic, overshadowing activism for womens rights in other parts of the world that predates the emergence of #MeToo.

In many countries, social movements had already been taking on sexual harassment and abuse for decades. Many of them, including campaigns like #MeshBasita in Lebanon, HarassMap in Egypt, and the Shefarers in the Philippines, emerged long before the rise of #MeToo, or were overshadowed by it.

A new publication by the Institute of Development Studies brings together reports on womens rights activism in countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Uganda. The authors cover a wide spectrum of experiences, from well-defined and visible collective action to activism that happens behind the scenes in order to safeguard womens lives.

There is evidence that focusing on the #MeToo movement has in some ways impeded the worldwide struggle for womens rights, particularly in the Global South. Some activists report that #MeToo has exacerbated existing prejudices with ultranationalists and religious extremists vilifying the movement as a malign Western import. They claim either that local women are not interested in such causes, or that sexual harassment has been fabricated by the West to destroy family values.

Consider Lebanon. In August 2017, reports Menaal Munshey, when #MeshBasita (Its not OK) was launched on Lebanese social media, the government, private businesses, and NGOs engaged with the campaign. Then #MeToo happened. Subsequently, organisers experienced a backlash, including reactions like, Why are you guys talking about it? and, This is an American thing, a European thing.

Laws against sexual harassment do exist in many of these places. But much of the legislation is dysfunctional, with women still not getting the accountability and justice they deserve. In Pakistan, for example, every workplace is now required to establish sexual-harassment inquiry procedures, including a committee to hear complaints. But research among female Pakistani politicians reveals that despite the legislation and the existence of Pakistans own #MeToo movement, #MainBhi, these requirements have yet to be implemented in their own workplaces (including national and provincial assemblies, local government, and political parties).

And the struggle for womens rights is not confined to physical spaces. In the past few years, online abuse has increased rapidly. This can take many forms, including revenge porn (sharing real or photoshopped nude or intimate images of women without their permission, for blackmail or shaming purposes). People worldwide now own smartphones and can capture, alter, and put these types of images online in minutes.

Shame and embarrassment frequently stop women and girls from reporting crimes against them, even when they are protected by existing laws. Women in all countries share these feelings, but the situation is particularly severe for women marginalised by extreme inequality and subject to norms and values that hold them responsible for anything that can tarnish their reputation. Many never speak up, terrified of being blamed by others and ostracised by their families.

Clearly, #MeToo doesnt begin to capture the story of how women and men in diverse contexts mobilise against sexual harassment. Yes, collective action against sexual harassment did coalesce around the #MeToo campaign, and in some places it has undoubtedly energised existing movements. But if it hadnt happened in the West, earlier campaigns in other countries  whether Egypt, India, or South Africa  might have been the spark that inspired solidarity.

It is important to recognise diverse global movements and campaigns for womens rights and to see them as sources of knowledge and inspiration. Learning from the hard-won successes of womens rights activists worldwide can aid us in understanding and overcoming the obstacles women and men everywhere face in their struggle to address sexual harassment.

It would of course be counterproductive to pit voices and perspectives from the Global South against those from the West. Instead, the goal should be to amplify voices, experiences, and insights from around the world to create learning opportunities and, ultimately, to establish the conditions for greater cooperation. Sexual harassment and abuse problems are universal problems. Only through global solidarity can we hope to overcome them.

Mariz Tadros is Professor of Politics and Development at the Institute of Development Studies and co-editor of Collective Action for Accountability on Sexual Harassment: Global Perspectives.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021.

www.project-syndicate.org

Q

I had planned to go to Ireland on 21 December. However, the prime minister announced the additional travel restrictions and my flight was cancelled the day before. I booked through a company called DiscoverCars. They say that as it was less than 48 hours before travel I was not entitled to a refund. With Covid, do I have any rights?

Bernie S

A Riga in Latvia is a beautiful city and I strongly recommend that you visit the capital when coronavirus restrictions are eased. I mention this because that is also the location of DiscoverCars. As a UK citizen travelling to Ireland, booking through a Latvian intermediary would not be my automatic first choice. I am afraid that as soon as you get embroiled in the tangle of far-flung middlemen who like to compete for your hard-earned money, there is a strong chance that if anything goes awry you will be out of pocket.
Over 400 cases of adverse event following immunisation were reported in two days after India had commenced the "world's largest vaccination drive" on 16 January, the health ministry said on Sunday. Around 2.24 lakh healthcare and frontline workers were inoculated in the first two days of the inoculation drive.

"447 cases of AEFI (Adverse event following immunization) reported on 16th and 17th January, only three required hospitalisation," the health ministry stated on Saturday. Any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunisation and does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine, is known as AEFI, according to World Health Organisation (WHO).

Of these, one has been discharged from Northern Railway Hospital Delhi within 24 hours; one has been discharged from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi; and one is under observation in AIIMS Rishikesh and is being monitored," said Manohar Agnani, additional secretary, ministry of health and family welfare.

Protocols are in place for reporting, immediate case management at vaccination session site, transportation and hospitalization and further care of such cases. Protocols are also in place for systematic investigation and causality assessment of serious AEFIs," he said.

A worker in All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) was admitted to a hospital as he developed an allergic reaction after getting Covaxin shot on Saturday.

"An All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi security guard has developed an allergic reaction after receiving COVID-19 vaccination here on Saturday. He is kept under observation of doctors at the hospital," an AIIMS official said.

He was discharged later.

At least 17,072 beneficiaries received COVID-19 vaccine on the second day of nationwide inoculation drive. A total of 553 sessions were held in six States  Andhra Pradesh (308), Arunachal Pradesh (14), Karnataka (64), Kerala (1), Manipur (1) and Tamil Nadu (165).

India has vaccinated the highest number of persons on first day under its COVID-19 vaccination program, the worlds largest such exercise. This is much higher than many other countries such as USA, the UK and France. Total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till today as per the provisional report," said Agnani.

States/UTs have been advised to plan covid-19 vaccination sessions four days in a week to minimize disruption of the Routine Health Services. Some states have already publicized their weekly vaccination days," said Agnani.

The union health ministry also had a meeting with all states on Sunday to review the progress of the vaccination drive.

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University of Vermont Economics professor Stephanie Seguino is co-author of the new study that shows widespread racial bias persists among Vermont police departments after examining more than 800,000 vehicular stops over five years. Credit: Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist

New research examining more than 800,000 traffic stops in Vermont over the course of five years substantiates the term "driving while Black and Brown."

Compared to white drivers, Black and Latinx drivers in Vermont are more likely to be stopped, ticketed, arrested, and searched. But they are less likely to be found with contraband than white drivers. The report finds evidence not only of racial disparities but also racial bias in policing. What's more, a number of these gaps widened over the years examined in the report. With such comprehensive data encompassing the state of Vermont, the authors also found that Vermont police stop cars at a rate of 255 per 1,000 residents, which is more than three times higher than the national average of 86 stops per 1,000 residents.

The report "Trends in Racial Disparities in Vermont Traffic Stops, 2014-19"led by University of Vermont Economics professor and Gund Fellow Stephanie Seguino with Cornell University's Nancy Brooks and data analyst Pat Autiliois a comprehensive review of racial disparities in the state's vehicular stops, tickets, arrests, searches, and contraband. As well, it analyzes the impact of 2018 legalization of cannabispreviously considered contrabandon these numbers.

Using data from 79 law enforcement agencies across the state, the report builds on Seguino and Brooks' past studies of traffic stops to include 50 more agencies and additional years of data. The authors first reported in 2017 that in 2015, for every white driver arrested, nearly two Black drivers were arrested. That statistic has remained roughly the same into 2019.

This study also provides a breakdown of the data by agency, revealing wide variation across those 79 agencies and regions.

For example, on average, Black drivers are about 3.5 times more likely and Hispanics 3.9 times more likely to be searched during a stop than white drivers. But, in Brattleboro, Black drivers are almost 9 times more likely to be searched than white drivers; in Shelburne, 4.4 times greater; in South Burlington; 3.9 times greater; in Vergennes, 3.8 times greater; in Burlington, 3.6 times greater; and in Rutland, 3.45 times greater. This compares to Stowe, where Black drivers are less likely to be searched than white drivers.

The study finds that legalization of cannabis did little to narrow the Black and Latinx search rate disparities with white drivers. Even after legalization in 2018, Black drivers are 3 times as likely to be searched as white drivers, and Latinx drivers, 2.6 times more likely.

The researchers note there is a consistent issue with the quality of traffic stop data: some agencies don't always comply with the requirement to report the driver's race during a stop. "In fact," Autilio notes, "in more than a dozen agencies, the percentage of reports that exclude the driver's race is double the percentage of reports that indicate a BIPOC driver."

"This is concerning because the purpose of the legislation requiring agencies to collect data on traffic stops is to identify and track racial disparities in traffic policing," Brooks says. In a small state with few BIPOC communities, "just a small number of stops missing race of the driver can undermine the quality of the data and the ability to detect racial disparities."

Previous years' reports have been shared with Vermont's law enforcement officials, spurring racial bias training in some agencies and disputes in others. Seguino was recently unanimously appointed to the Burlington Police Commission for her work and expertise.

"Though this work is challenging, not the least because of the resistance of some law enforcement agencies to acknowledging these troubling racial disparities, we believe it important to continue to provide solid evidence on which to assess racial bias in policing," Seguino said. Brooks added, "Our hope is that our analysis is useful to law enforcement agencies committed to bias free policing. And we hope community members find these data helpful in holding their local law enforcement agencies accountable."

More information: The report, "Trends in Racial Disparities in Vermont Traffic Stops, 2014-19," along with individual large law enforcement agency reports, is available online: The report, "Trends in Racial Disparities in Vermont Traffic Stops, 2014-19," along with individual large law enforcement agency reports, is available online: www.uvm.edu/cas/economics/prof  es/stephanie-seguino
The withdrawal of the Russian Federation from the Treaty on Open Skies is another example of the implementation of the foreign policy course aimed at destroying the European security architecture, destroying international arms control systems and undermining fundamental norms and principles of international law, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine said.

"Russia grossly violated the Treaty on Open Skies during 2009-2020, in particular, by reducing the area of its application through the occupation of parts of the territory of Ukraine and Georgia," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said the Treaty on Open Skies is an important legally binding agreement in the field of arms control, which ensures the implementation of observation flights over each other's territory.

"In 2015-2020 alone, Ukraine carried out 50 observation flights, including 53 observation missions on its territory, in particular, on December 5 to December 7, 2018, the U.S. emergency mission as part of the United States multinational observer team of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Romania with the purpose to study the situation as a result of an armed attack by the naval and air forces of the Russian Federation on a ship-and-boat group of the Ukrainian Navy in the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The Treaty on Open Skies was signed on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki (Finland) by 27 CSCE member states (since 1995  the OSCE). The Treaty entered into force on January 1, 2002. Its members are currently 33 states: Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Greece, Georgia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Ukraine, France, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Croatia. The treaty provides for the establishment of an open skies regime  observing the observation of flights of participants over the territory with each other, monitoring the activities of the state, monitoring the situation.

Due to long-term violations of the treaty by Russia, on November 22, 2020, the United States was forced to withdraw from the Treaty. On January 15, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the beginning of the procedure for the withdrawal of Russia from the Treaty on Open Skies.
By Antoinette Gaboton-Moss

Despite the enduring chronicles of voter intimidation, poll closures and voter purging, there is a strength and resilience that is undeniable. Six years before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. graced the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Standing before 25,000 civil rights activists, Dr. King boldly asserted, The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition.

History is replete with disenfranchised voters and those brutalized and killed for exercising their rights. WW II veteran Maceo Snipes died because he cast a ballot in the 1946 Democratic primary because he believed in the power of democracy. The blood of the martyrs for Black freedom cries from the red clay of America for the reality of democracy. The hallowed cries and sacrifice were duly honored by Black voters who demanded to be heard and refused to be denied.

Rev. Raphael Warnocks election as Georgias first Black United States senator represents the fruit of democracy and the harvest of the sacrifices of known and unknown organizers who registered people to vote and encouraged Black Georgians to exercise their right. As a consequence, the power of the Black ballot turned the Senate and U.S. presidential elections blue like the rolling rivers of the Chattahoochee River on the border of red Alabama and blue Georgia. Dr. King died fighting for justice and spoke against the rolling tides of injustice in the South to suppress the Black vote.

The paradox of American democracy is celebrating the voting rights of U.S. citizens while denying the wrong of suppressing Black voters. White supremacists, segregationists, Dixiecrats and white elites have attempted to disenfranchise Black voters from the end of the Reconstruction Era to recent elections in an attempt to deny Black voices of democracy and curtail Black progress. Frederick Douglass said, If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Without question, there are other connections and significant voices in the struggle  hidden and unhidden figures  whose actions ring with the harmonies of liberty. It is important to acknowledge the work of Black women who courageously organized to help Biden win the presidential election, and for Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff to win the U.S. Senate runoffs. Their efforts helped our nation make progress toward Dr. Kings vision of American democracy.

Dr. Kings legacy regarding the Civil Rights Era is connected to the legacies of Ella Baker, Dorothy Height, and Diane Nash and extends to the political activism of Fannie Lou Hamer who was brutally beaten for registering people to vote. Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown, Aimee Allison, among other Black women, continue Dr. Kings legacy of grassroots mobilization, fighting against voter suppression, stressing the importance of civic engagement, and working to build a more equitable society where people can flourish grounded in love and justice.

In sharp contrast, the insurrection at the Capitol does not reflect the ideas of democracy but instead the duplicity of democracy and racialized hypocrisy in carrying out the rule of law. Subsequently, the insurrection was tyrannical, racially motivated, and repeated the cycle of white violence toward Black political activism and democratic progress from Reconstruction to the backlash of the Obama presidency. The scene at the Capitol was the antithesis of Dr. Kings beloved community  hateful, violent and immoral.

The victory of the incoming president was ushered in by the Black vote. The celebration of Warnock on the streets of Atlanta and for Black people walking on red clay roads of rural Georgia are the epitome of Kings Dream that a state sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. As Warnock said, Georgia was bluer on election day and America was better because the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody elses cotton went to the polls and picked her son to be a United States Senator.

Antoinette Gaboton-Moss is the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Highland Park and the founder and executive director of Black Community Watchline.

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[January 18, 2021] CUPE: Province Must Provide Direction, Support for Students and Staff Working in Schools During COVID Shutdown

Even in the current emergency shutdown in Ontario, thousands of students continue to go to school and continue to be supported by education workers. To protect everyone's health and safety, the union that represents 55,000 education workers is calling on the provincial government to implement some straightforward measures that will lower the risks of spreading COVID-19. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has drawn up a list of simple, low-cost ways to reduce hazards for everyone who spends their days in brick-and-mortar schools. Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), outlined the measures that the union wants in place in schools that have students attending class: Mandatory screening: Active and enhanced screening should be applied to everyone entering schools. Screening should include temperature checks for anyone coming through school doors and written attestation should be required from parents to confirm that their children don't have symptoms of COVID-19 and haven't been exposed to it. Improving air qualit: Better ventilation is crucial for reducing the spread of COVID, but many older schools have outdated HVAC systems and many newer schools don't have windows that open. To mitigate the dangers, air purifiers should be put in every school room that is occupied during the shutdown, even if this means moving equipment from one school to another.



Reducing mobility of staff: Student cohorts may be smaller, but the education workers who support them still move from class to class as part of their job. This is dangerous and defeats the purpose of keeping the same group of children together throughout the school day. Smaller cohorts should the workers. Clarify who should still be in school: Among the very few groups of people who should be in schools during the emergency shutdown are students with high special needs; students whose homes lack internet connectivity; and the workers who support them. The Ministry of Education must clarify which workers are required in schools and enforce stay-at-home orders for everyone else.

Review students' IEPs: Many education workers are in schools and providing direct support to students who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs). These plans should be reviewed with an eye to safety and risk assessment to make sure that the right safety protocols are in place to keep everyone safe and healthy. "The services provided by frontline educators workers are vital and CUPE members will always be on site as long as there are students in school to support," said Walton. "But the provincial government can't ignore their concerns about health and safety, especially since both are tied directly to stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the community." MU:gb/cope491 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005405/en/

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Across UK, students returning home may have caused 9,400 secondary COVID-19 infections.

"With the potential movement of over 1 million UK students for the Christmas vacation, even a modest 1% infection level (meaning 10 in 1,000 students are infected, perhaps many of them without symptoms at the time of travel) would equate to 9,400 new secondary household cases across the country," says Professor Harper.As the study does not consider transmission to the students' wider home communities or include the journey home - which may give rise to a larger number of cases, particularly if public transport is taken - the numbers are a lower bound on the likely impact of transmissions and new cases.However, although the indicative levels of secondary infections are potentially very large, multiple strategies can be adopted to help reduce the number of students taking Covid-19 home, the authors say.These include strongly advising students not to mix in the days leading up to departure, implementing staggered departure times and facilitating mass testing of students before they head home.The authors have provided computer code and an online app (http://bit.ly/Secondary_infections_app) to allow anyone to rerun and adapt the simulations."The code and app are quick to run with a focus on accessibility so that a user can rapidly change the input probabilities to suit their data, thereby generating their own results based on localised parameters," the authors say.Their results have been presented to the Welsh Government and have informed policy in relation to the two-week firebreak in Wales in October/November and for the forthcoming vacation. The data has also been communicated across the governments of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.Source: Eurekalert
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  An Omaha man who has served five stints in prison is now charged with attempted murder, child abuse and other counts after police say he repeatedly hanged and choked his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter until the child lost consciousness.
As the United States continues to grapple with racial injustices of the 21st century, advocates say theres a crucial need for a new generation of skilled attorneys dedicated to serving Black communities in the South.

But students have needed to take on more and more debt to pay for their studies in recent years as a result of the skyrocketing cost of law school, making it more difficult for hopeful change-makers to pursue lower-paying law fields, such as civil and human rights.

A new scholarship program aims to help.

The Marshall-Motley Scholars Program, announced Monday by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is designed to remove the financial and professional barriers that often discourage students from pursuing civil rights law as a future career path.

The program, made possible by a $40 million investment from an anonymous donor, will support 50 aspiring lawyers over the next five years by providing full law school scholarship for tuition, room and board. This assistance will effectively allow students to graduate debt-free from law school, eliminating the financial barrier that can discourage students from pursuing a career in racial justice.

Scholarship participants will also participate in summer internships early on in their studies. After graduation, theyll take part in a two-year fellowship at a national or regional civil rights organization with a racial justice law practice in the South.

In return, scholars must commit to practicing civil rights law with the pursuit of racial justice in one of 18 Southern states for at least eight years after finishing their fellowship.

The program was named after two civil rights legends: Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley. Marshall worked as LDF's founder and was the first Black Supreme Court justice, while Motley served as a former LDF attorney and was the first Black woman to become a federal judge.

The Marshall-Motley Scholars Program will not only honor the transformative civil rights legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Constance Baker Motley, but also build a framework to ensure new and sustainable generations of civil rights warriors have a commitment to further racial equity and justice in the South," Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said in a statement.

Offering full scholarships and covering other costs associated with law school and requiring students to complete trainings, internships and postgraduate work "will introduce a new cohort of energized and dedicated legal minds to create real progress in the region," Benjamin said.

The American Bar Association has estimated that the cost of a private law school education has grown by more than 175 percent since the 1980s.

Making things harder: The association has also found that lawyers of color on average graduate with $25,000 to $40,000 more in student debt than their White peers.

Jino Ray, director of the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program and former law student, knows this struggle well.

"I had to figure out how to navigate the pipeline on my own and incurred a lot of debt in doing that," Ray said.

Ray, who was born in rural Cairo, Ga., said he saw "how deeply systemic racism is ingrained as part of American life."

But he's also seen how recent events, including the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, have brought some of these issues to the forefront of many Americans' minds.

"The events have shifted the energy and caused the nation to rise up, and so you have a very collaborative approach to ending inequality and racism in the United States," Ray said. "So I think that this program, being committed to supporting and developing the next wave of civil rights lawyers in the South, that's really critical."

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund invested heavily in the creation of Black law firms in the South.

"If we look at the value of that investment ... to be able to replicate that kind of impact on this scale with 50 new scholars who are going into the South, LDF is really deepening its long-standing presence in the South," Ray said.

The launch of the new scholarship, which coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, comes as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding.

Incoming first-year law students from across the country are eligible to apply for the scholarship program, Ray said. They can attend the school of their choosing, as long as it's accredited by the American Bar Association.

Candidates should already have an interest in pursuing a career in civil rights, and need to have "strong ties" to improving outcomes for marginalized communities in the South.

The application deadline is Feb. 16. To learn more about MMSP and/or apply, go to MarshallMotleyScholars.org.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The FBI raided the home of a 20-year-old Bay Terrace man who they allege live-streamed himself while taking part in the riots at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Nicolas Moncada was arrested before dawn on Monday morning at his home on Taunton Street, according to neighbors and a law enforcement source.

Moncada will make his initial court appearance virtually on Tuesday before a Brooklyn federal magistrate judge, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York.

For those still thinking of employing violence to interfere with our nations laws and institutions, our message is simple  dont do it, said William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director in charge at the FBI New York office.

On Jan. 8, the FBI received information from the Office of Public Safety at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan that Moncada was identified by several students and faculty members who saw the suspects social-media posts of himself allegedly participating in the riots, according to the complaint from the FBI.

At the time of his arrest, Moncada was not a student at FIT.

Our records indicate that Nicolas Moncada is not currently enrolled as a student at FIT and has not been since May 2020, said a statement from FIT. He has not earned an FIT degree and was majoring in illustration. FIT did cooperate with government authorities after learning about Mr. Moncadas social media posts from members of the college community.

The FIT Office of Public Safety provided FBI New York with screen shots of social media posts purportedly made by Moncada on Instagram accounts the_ideological_way and idwalkaway and the Twitter account ideologicalway.

The posts include selfies and/or first-person video of rioting and unlawful entry in the U.S. Capitol complex, the complaint alleges.

Authorities included this photo in the complaint against Moncado, which they allege shows blood on the steps of the Capitol building.

FBI New York executed search warrants, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, on both the Facebook and Twitter accounts believed to be owned and used by Moncada.

The FBI confirmed the veracity of the screen shots, authorities say.

Law enforcement officers allege that Moncada posted on or around Jan. 6 on his Instagram account a video showing the scaffolding maintained outside of the U.S. Capitol and law enforcement officers standing on the steps of that building.

In a separate video, Moncada posted what appears to be blood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, according to the FBI complaint.

The suspect posted on his Instagram account a photograph of himself inside the Capitol, authorities allege. He captioned the picture, Outside Pelosis office, in an apparent reference to the Office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the complaint alleges.

Also on Jan. 6, the defendant allegedly posted on Instagram a video taken inside the Capitol that he captioned, Nothing to see here Instagram! The video shows rioters screaming at the U.S. Capitol Police Officers, authorities say.

The video has been deleted from the suspects Instagram account, according to the FBI.

In response to the video, an individual asked Moncada what is going on and the suspect responded in the comment, Storming the Capitol Building, the complaint alleges.

Another individual asked, Where is this ??! regarding the video and Moncada allegedly responded, Capitol Building where Senate & House are conducting Electoral Vote Count.

Authorities included this image in the complaint against Moncado.

LAWYER: NO VIOLENCE

Mr. Moncada was taken into custody this morning by the FBI and has been charged with various sections of the United States Code for trespassing inside a restricted building and trying to disrupt or impeded the conduct of government business, as well as, trespassing on the floor of various government rooms including the House of Congress, the lobby adjacent to the floor and the Rayburn Room of the House of Congress, said the defendants attorney, Mario Gallucci.

I do not believe he is being charged with committing any acts of violence. Mr. Moncada continues to deny any participation in the effort to overthrow the government, and he looks forward to defending his good name.

FROM THE BLOCK

A horde of media members gathered on Taunton Street on Monday afternoon  hours after the FBI, NYPD and other law enforcement officials arrested Moncada. Neighbors described to the media the ordeal, in which Moncada was led out in handcuffs and law enforcement stayed to search the home.

I saw a multitude of police force coming and I sort of surmised what it was, said neighbor Vin Cigna. It was like a scene out of a police rampage. I saw FBI, ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], U.S. Marshals, NYPD. It looked like they were looking for a terrorist. It was very alarming.

Another neighbor, Jay Sachs, explained he went to get his car at 6:30 a.m. to drive his daughter to work when he saw, from a distance, Moncada being led out of his home in handcuffs. Law enforcement remained at the home, before wrapping up around 9:30 a.m., he added.

Hes a good kid His mom is upset, hes an only child. His grandma is upset too. They didnt expect this, Sachs said.

Cigna said hes known Moncada since he was born and was very surprised to hear the news he was arrested.

It was a publicity stunt to show the world that, This is what were doing, Cigna said. This is an innocent kid. It was overkill. I dont think hes doing very well at all. I think hes scared. I think hes alarmed and hes not doing well.

When the Advance/SILive.com approached Moncadas home on Monday, Moncadas mother said she wasnt taking any more questions and said: I just want my son home, thats it.

ADIC Sweeney's statement following Nicolas Moncada's arrest for his role in the riot and assault on the Capitol building:



"For those still thinking of employing violence to interfere with our Nation's laws and institutions, our message is simple - don't do it."



Full statement: pic.twitter.com/kH9G7EN5Mi  FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) January 18, 2021

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

On his social media pages, Moncada describes himself as an indie journalist, commentator, artist and liberty loving liberal libertarian.

He also recently appeared on a livestream with another YouTuber on Saturday, in which he spoke about his experience at the Capitol earlier this month.

It was quite the exhilarating experience to say the least, Moncada said in the YouTube livestream video. It is definitely not a day that Im ever going to forget, especially because I have so much video of it. I didnt even release all of it I am not releasing it for the main reason that Im still scared of the FBI. Im still scared of the FBI. I want to keep my profile as thin as possible for the time being.

He continued that the riot was a way to hold our representatives to account.

I went into the building and I was like, Holy s--- man, Im inside the f------ Capitol building. Im like, Im having fun now. Its like you get in there and you kind of lose yourself a bit and if you subscribe to the theories that all these people are pedophiles, youre going to break a few windows when youre in there. Its like what do you have to lose by putting your feet up on Nancy Pelosis desk? Moncada said in the YouTube video.

He was also in attendance at at least one of the protests organized at Macs Public House, which made national news when the Grant City pub battled against coronavirus restrictions to keep the bar open despite orders from the Sheriffs Office to close.
Listen to article

Some unknown gunmen have killed another Catholic priest, Father John Gbakaan in Niger State.

Prior to his death, the priest was the Dean of the newly created Lapai Deanery and was also in charge of St. Anthony's Parish Gulu in Lapai local government area of the state.

A close colleague of the deceased and priest in charge of St. Theresa Catholic Parish Madala, Father John Jatau confirmed this to Channels Television via telephone conversation on Sunday.

He said Father Gbakaan alongside his brother and another priest Thursday travelled to Makurdi in Benue state where he went to see his mother.

It was on his way back, that he and his brother were attacked by gunmen along Lambata-Lapai road. The incident took place at about 9 pm after Father Gbakaan had dropped Father Jatua at Suleja.

The attackers were said to have descended on the priest with machetes, hacking his body beyond recognition.

Father Jatau said the body of the priest was found the following day, Saturday, tied to a tree in a bush, after some vigilante members in the area raised alarm.

The Toyota Venza vehicle in which the priest was traveling was also found in the bush.

Meanwhile, the brother of the deceased was abducted and yet to be found.

According to Father Jatau, the gunmen on Saturday put a call to the Catholic Diocese in Minna, demanding for the sum of Thirty Million Naira, but later in the course of negotiation dropped the ransom to Five Million Naira.

As at the time of filing this report, negotiations were said to be ongoing, while the body of the slain priest has been deposited at the IBB Specialist Hospital mortuary in Minna.

Efforts to get the side of the police on the matter proved abortive as neither Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abiodun Wasiu nor the Commissioner could be reached.

The Bishop of the Minna Catholic Community, His Lordship, Bishop Martin Ozuokwu could also not be reached on phone.

The killing of Father Gbakaan brings to two the number of Christian clerics killed in recent times since the renewed banditry attacks in Niger State.

In December 2020, a Christian clergy with the Evangelical Church of West Africa was killed at Chukuba village in Shiroro local government area by gunmen who invaded his farm while he was harvesting his produce.

Channels Television
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Motorola Nio Design Tipped Via Leaked Hand-On Images; To Flaunt Dual-Slefie Camera Module News oi-Sandeep Sarkar

Amongst the several upcoming Motorola smartphones is the Moto Nio. The device is said to be a premium offering by the Lenovo-backed brand. It recently paid a visit to Geekbench where the database revealed the processor details along with the benchmark scores and has also been certified by a couple of platforms. Now, the real-life images have shown up online hinting at the key design elements. The leaked images were initially shared on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.

Motorola Nio Design Leaked Online

The leaked set of Motorola Nio's live images has been first reported by Nils Ahrensmeir on Voice. The images show the device sporting a dual-selfie camera setup packed at the top-left corner. The display is surrounded by slim bezels. The chin is slightly thick compared to the rest of the bezels.

Moving to the rear, there are four cameras placed in a square-array. The LED flash is right below the camera sensors. The camera sensor mentioned is 64MP. Also, an 'Audio Zoom' inscribing is seen right next to the camera sensor. The smartphone is seen with a reflective whitish-shade.

As per the report, this is the 'Sky' color variant. The company will be launching another color variant called Beryl. This shade is said to be a mixture of green/blue color. The leaked image suggests the device will be accommodating the power key along with the volume rockers on the right spine.

The power key will integrate the fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication. While the placement of the USB Type-C port and the 3.5mm headphone jack is unknown, they could be positioned at the bottom. Previous leaks suggest that the device will ship with an FHD+ display with 1080 x 2520 pixels resolution. The panel size is currently undisclosed.

The Motorola Nio is expected to ship with the Snapdragon 865 processor. The unit will have 5G network support as well. It is speculated to get its power from a 5,000 mAh battery. There will be 20W fast charging support as well.

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The U.S. economy is struggling as we mark the end of the fourth and final year of President Donald Trumps term, and he has sustained little of what he promised on the campaign trail.

Four years ago, I began writing annual assessments of how well the president fulfilled his economic promises. But all hes done is prove that no matter who is president, the occupant of the White House is largely powerless when it comes to managing free markets.

Perhaps more than any president before him, Trump swore he could deliver astronomical growth rates in gross domestic product, unprecedentedly low rates of unemployment and a return to an American industrial economy that only ever existed in his imagination.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Americans oppose racial discrimination, but do little about it

Last year, Trump had plenty to crow about. The unemployment rate was extremely low and labor force participation rate was historically high. The economy was humming along respectably, if short of Trumps promised growth rates, which were mathematically impossible.

Then the new coronavirus reached American shores.

The national shutdown. The sheltering-in-place. More than 20 million people lost their jobs and economic activity skidded. While we may debate how Trump responded, no one can blame him for COVID-19s spread.

Based on the benchmarks Trump set for himself four years ago, the nation bids him farewell far worse off than when he took office. The economy shed 9.4 million jobs last year, many of which take years to recover.

Unemployment rose in December to 6.7 percent, two percentage points higher than last year as COVID-19 cases surged, according to the Labor Department. More than 4 million Americans have stopped looking for work, according to the latest labor force participation rate.

Many of those who have dropped out are remaining at home to care for children or elderly relatives due to the pandemic. While some will eventually look for jobs outside the home again once a vaccine is available, many will struggle because competition for available jobs will be fierce after mass layoffs.

Unemployed people cut back on their spending, which hurts economic growth. Analysts estimate the U.S. gross domestic producta broad measure of economic activity that tracks the nations output of goods and services will shrink by 4 percent in 2020, once all the numbers are in.

That compares with Trumps promise of 6 percent growth when he took office.

Trump also promised to renegotiate trade deals, get tough on our foreign competition and eliminate the trade deficit. He kept the first two promises but failed miserably on the third.

The U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, a slight update to NAFTA, will go down as Trumps signature achievement. He convinced Mexico to improve labor and environmental laws and got Canada to expand its markets, both big improvements. But he made little progress on other trade agreements.

The U.S. trade deficit, meanwhile, has grown dramatically over the last year and set a record for the Trump presidency at $68.1 billion in November 2020, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Trumps tariffs did not boost exports, but they did tax the American people.

Republicans like to brag about Trumps 2017 tax cuts, but for most American families, whatever cash they saved on income taxes ended up paying Trumps tariffs on foreign goods they purchased, according to the Tax Policy Center. But that was before COVID-19.

Since then, the tax cuts and tariffs have only exacerbated the Coronavirus Recession. The tax cuts were already running up a $1 trillion-a-year federal budget deficit, making the governments emergency spending an even greater burden on future generations who will have to pay the national debt.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Businesses and markets see nothing to fear in attack on the Capitol

Conservative economists insisted that by putting more money into the economy, the tax cuts would boost corporate investment and lead to higher wages. But the coronavirus forced a change in plans. Most companies used their extra cash to pay dividends and buy back stocks instead.

The tariffs, meanwhile, made foreign made goods more expensive for consumers. The result was a horrible year for low- and middle-income Americans and a skyrocketing stock market that benefited the wealthy.

Honestly, though, Trump was following an incumbent presidents playbook by stoking the economy to win reelection. He had no idea COVID was coming. Thats why most economists agree presidents have little influence over Americas diversified, globalized and rather free-wheeling economy.

Four years after he took power, Trump can no longer claim he left the American economy better than he found it. But neither should we pile all the blame on him. No one should want an economy that a president could so easily influence, because odds are, they would mess it up.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
Nurses were forced to plead with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly for vaccines

Staff at a private diagnostic clinic were vaccinated before public healthcare workers, it has emerged.

Vaccinations were given to staff working in Affidea clinic in Dublin last week while nurses in Nenagh Hospital in Tipperary were force to publicly plead with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly for vaccines.

Affidea, which charges patients up to 100 for X-rays and 260 for MRIs, did not respond to a request for comment on why their staff were vaccinated before public healthcare workers.

Scandalous

Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has said it is "scandalous" that private hospital staff have been vaccinated ahead of public healthcare workers.

Yesterday, Mr Donnelly finally broke his silence on the controversy saying his vaccination plan does not distinguish between private and public healthcare workers.

"The schedule is that frontline healthcare workers who are patient-facing are being prioritised," he said on Newstalk.

It emerged last week that staff in the exclusive Hermitage Medical Centre and Beacon Hospital had been vaccinated while other public healthcare workers were still waiting for jabs.

Some staff in the private Bon Secours hospital group were also vaccinated last week.

Yesterday, Dr Stephen Frohlich, head of intensive care at the Beacon Hospital, said almost 300 of their staff have been vaccinated.

"The Beacon is an acute hospital. We see 60 to 70 patients a day in the emergency department," he said.

"We are dealing with at least 100 surgeries a day on both public and private patients.

"It is only right for those patients who are coming in for surgery that the staff have been vaccinated.

Last week, in a video posted online, clinical nurse manager at Nenagh Hospital Louise Morgan Walsh asked why staff at the public hospital were being "left out" while staff at private hospitals got vaccinated.

"We are so angry, we are scared, we are afraid, we can see our co-workers going down with Covid and becoming very ill," she said.
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A booth was set up for visitors to register to vote and to sign up for membership with the Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP at The Common in Pittsfield last July. Berkshire County's branch of the NAACP is hosting its annual Freedom Fund Awards event virtually at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Merely 17,000 health workers received coronavirus vaccine on Day 2 of the vaccination drive in six states.

On the launch day of the vaccination, 2,07,229 beneficiaries had received the jabs -- the highest number of people vaccinated in any country on Day 1, according to the Health Ministry.

The six states where the vaccination drive was carried out on Sunday are Andhra Pradesh (308 sessions), Arunachal Pradesh (14 sessions), Karnataka (64 sessions), Kerala (one session), Manipur (one session) and Tamil Nadu (165 sessions).

Therefore, a total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till January 17, out of which 447 beneficiaries faced adverse reactions.

DELHI:

Around 50 per cent of intended beneficiaries have taken the jab in Delhi. On Day 1 of the vaccination drive, a total of 4,319 (53 per cent) health workers against a target of 8,117 were administered the vaccines at 81 centres across the national capital.

The Delhi government said it will take measures to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccines. The AAP government said it is also planning to increase vaccination centres from 81 to 175 soon.

ASSAM:

In Assam, 6,500 beneficiaries were supposed to be vaccinated on the first day of the inoculation drive but 3,528 turned up.

According to the National Health Mission Director of the state S Lakshmanan, "Many of the beneficiaries did not turn up while many others, whose names were not on the list for the first day, came to the selected sites". The state has received 2,21,500 doses so far -- 2,01,500 Covishield and 20,000 Covaxin.

ANDHRA PRADESH:

As per the AP's health department, 32,149 people got vaccinated against the target of 58,803 in two days. Only 13,041 healthcare workers got the COVID-19 vaccine administered across the state against the targeted 27,233 on Sunday.

East Godavari topped the list with 1,959 beneficiaries getting vaccinated and Krishna was at the bottom with 485.

UTTAR PRADESH:

In UP, a total of 20,076 healthcare workers got their first jab on Saturday. Health officials will be vaccinated on January 22.

TAMIL NADU:

A total of 6,156 beneficiaries have received jabs against coronavirus in two days. The state health department informed that 2,847 beneficiaries received Covishield and 183 Covaxin on Sunday.

Whereas, 3,027 people were administered Covishield and 99 Covaxin on the opening day of the vaccination drive.

ODISHA:

On Day 1 of the vaccination, around 81 per cent of people were administered coronavirus vaccine in Odisha.

As per the state health department, of the total 16,314 people targeted to receive the jabs, 13,292 frontline workers took the vaccine on the first day.

NAGALAND:

Around 621 frontline healthcare workers of Nagaland were vaccinated for COVID-19 on January 16. Though the administration had taken a target of vaccinating 900 people on the first day of the vaccination drive, many people did not turn up at the designated centres.

RAJASTHAN:

In Rajasthan, 12,258 health workers were administered the vaccine against a set target of 16,613 on Saturday.

KERALA:

The first day of the COVID-19 vaccine drive in Kerala saw 8,062 health workers getting inoculated and no side effects being reported. The vaccination was carried out at 133 designated centres.

WEST BENGAL:

Around 15,707 people were administered the first dose of the anti-COVID 19 vaccine out of the scheduled 21,000 beneficiaries in West Bengal on opening day. Besides, the state reported 14 AEFI (Adverse event following immunisation) cases.

One nurse was hospitalised after she lost consciousness post administration of Covishield.

MADHYA PRADESH:

A total of 9,564 persons had received the jab at 150 centres across Madhya Pradesh on Day 1, and eight cases of minor Adverse Event Following Immunisation (side effects) were reported.

In the first phase of the drive, 4.17 lakh persons will be administered the vaccine in MP. Of these, about 57,000 healthcare workers will receive the vaccine in the first week.

KARNATAKA:

On day 1 of the vaccination, around 62 per cent of beneficiaries were administered COVID-19 vaccine. The state government said, 21,658 people were earmarked for vaccination on the first day, and only 13,408 got vaccinated.

UTTARAKHAND:

The state health department informed that a total of 2,226 healthcare workers were administered the vaccine on the opening day, which is 70 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries registered through the Co-WIN portal.

HIMACHAL PRADESH:

In Himachal, 1,536 healthcare workers were vaccinated on Day 1 against the target of 2,499.

CHANDIGARH:

As many as 5,592 healthcare workers out of expected 9,135 beneficiaries received the shots on the launch day of vaccination.

GOA:

As many as 426 of the 700 health workers scheduled to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Goa were inoculated on the first day of the nationwide drive.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra government suspended the COVID-19 vaccination drive on Saturday evening and Sunday owing to problems with the Co-WIN app. The state will re-start the vaccination on Monday, January 18.

The state government had planned inoculation of 28,500 health workers on the first day but only 18,425 beneficiaries received the shots.

The vaccination drive will be carried out four days a week in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

However, in Andhra Pradesh, the vaccination drive will take place six days a week, and five days a week in Mizoram.

It will be carried out three days a week in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nagaland and Odisha, and two days a week in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.(With agencies input)

Also read: Mukesh Ambani's JioMart to be available on WhatsApp in next six months

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Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
A sprawling series of barbed-wire barricades surround the U.S. Capitol, and so many members of the National Guard are camped out inside theyre sleeping on floors.

While bracing for the possibility of more violence in Washington and beyond, Democrats are urging swift confirmation of President-elect Joe Bidens national security team.

Theres one obvious problem, however: Before the storming of the Capitol that left five dead and a nation aghast and on edge, Alejandro Mayorkas, Bidens choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was facing one of the toughest confirmation fights of any Biden nominee. And concerns about him among Republicans have not dissipated along with the tear gas.

(Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the incoming presidents choice for defense secretary, also faces confirmation hurdles, though some opposition comes from Democrats concerned about maintaining civilian leadership at the Pentagon.)

Democrats want to fast-track both confirmations, stressing the need to fill a leadership vacuum at key national security agencies. Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf was one of several Trump administration officials who resigned in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters. Pete Gaynor, the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a Trump appointee who is well-liked across the aisle, is now in charge at DHS, but Biden is eager to have his own team in place.

With the nation still coming to grips with the violence inside the Capitol and the GOP divided over Trumps subsequent impeachment, its unclear whether Senate Republicans have the stomach to battle controversial Cabinet nominations.

It wont take long to find out. Sens. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who will chair the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in the new Congress, along with Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who will serve as the panels ranking member, set Mayorkas confirmation hearing for Tuesday, one day before Bidens inauguration.

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, publicly thanked Senate Republicans for scheduling hearings.

We need to move quickly to get the right people in these agencies, and to make sure were keeping this country safe, and that were ready for whatever threats might come, Klain said during a Washington Post interview Friday that was live-streamed.

Mayorkas track records indicates that he has both the pedigree and the desire to lead a reversal of Trumps immigration policies, which Biden has promised. A Cuban-born naturalized citizen, Mayorkas knows the agency well, having served as deputy DHS secretary and the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Obama administration.

In that post, he developed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protected immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children from being deported and allowed them to work legally.

We must bring to an immediate end the inhuman and unjust treatment of immigrants, Mayorkas said in recent remarks to the American Business Immigration Coalition. There is no more powerful and heartbreaking example of that inhumanity than the separation of children from their parents.

Mayorkas background seems perfectly aligned with Bidens promise of a major immigration reset, but his previous tenure at DHS is both a blessing and a curse.

In 2013, every Republican, including several centrists who have regularly broken with Trump, voted against Mayorkas nomination to be deputy DHS secretary. Those Republicans include Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Portman, who will serve as the top Republican on the Homeland Security panel.

The blanket GOP opposition stemmed from an inspector general investigation into the EB-5 visa program USCIS administered, which found Mayorkas improperly intervened to help business interests, including some with ties to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Hillary Clintons brother, and Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor and Democratic National Committee chairman.

Among the entities that received special treatment to obtain the visas, according to the IG report, were investors in a hotel and casino project in Las Vegas being pushed by Reid, and an investor proposal to fund electric car manufacturing, which involved a company whose board chairman was McAuliffe. The IG investigation also implicated Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clintons brother, because he ran an investment firm that directed funds to the electric car manufacturing effort.

Mayorkas was only able to win confirmation to the DHS post in 2013 because a month earlier Reid changed Senate rules to allow a simple majority to end debate on nominations, not the 60-vote threshold confirmations previously had to overcome.

The final IG investigation into the allegations found that Mayorkas created an appearance of favoritism and special access at the UCIS when he was director there from 2009 to 2013, and it noted that investigators were surprised by the number of whistleblowers who came forward to complain about him. In addition, officials and staff also cited his unprofessional management style.

During the course of our review, we found that a number of staff members described Mr. Mayorkas communication and management style as very aggressive.  One staff member said Mr. Mayorkas was full of emotion, impulsive, volatile, and tenacious, the IG report stated. Another high-ranking USCIS official told us that employees were afraid to speak up in the meetings because if they had a different view, Mr. Mayorkas would cut them up, take them apart, or put them in their place.

A source familiar with the complaints told RealClearPolitics that several officials at DHS were stunned by Bidens decision to nominate Mayorkas considering the IGs findings and also because he was known for yelling at staff and berating those who disagreed with him. This source also voiced concern that some whistleblowers who filed complaints against Mayorkas remain at DHS and could face retribution from him.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who first publicly raised complaints about Mayorkas tenure at UCIS, will likely oppose his nomination again, and hes not mincing words.

For years, including during Mr. Mayorkas tenure at DHS, the EB-5 program was susceptible to fraud and abuse. But rather than fixing those issues, the IG found that Mr. Mayorkas gave preferential treatment to some visa applicants over others, Grassley told RCP in a statement. The IG noted that this favoritism prompted an unusually broad array of whistleblower complaints.

That brand of leadership isnt good for agency culture or the security of our nation.

Other Republicans have been even harsher. In November, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton accused Mayorkas of selling green cards to Chinese nationals on behalf of rich Democratic donors.

Think about that, Cotton said on Fox & Friends.  That is disqualifying to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

The visa scandal isnt the only baggage in Mayorkas background that Republicans are expected to bring up during Tuesdays hearing. The nominee, along with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Bidens choice for Health and Human Services secretary, were key figures in a scandal involving President Bill Clintons early release of a convicted cocaine trafficker in 2001.

Becerra and Mayorkas were among several prominent Democratic figures in Los Angeles at the time who reached out to the Clinton White House about commuting the sentence of Carlos Vignali Jr., whose father, Horatio, was a wealthy entrepreneur and major Democratic door.

Vignali Jr. was convicted in 1994 of involvement in a drug ring that shipped hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Los Angeles to Minnesota, where it was converted to crack and sold on the streets. Media reports at the time characterized the prosecution as the largest drug case in Minnesota state history.

Clinton commuted Vignalis sentence on his last day in office. The move drew intense scrutiny and prompted a 2002 investigation by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform because the commutation was provided over objections from the Justice Departments pardon office, and Vignali was freed while several of his black co-defendants remained in jail.

A group of well-connected Democrats had close ties to Vignalis father, including Becerra, then a U.S. congressman, and Mayorkas, then the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. Vignalis father also paid $200,000 to Hillary Clintons other brother, Hugh Rodham, to help obtain Vignalis release. The Clintons said they didnt realize Hugh Rodham had been paid for his role until press reports uncovered it; they then called on him to return the money.

Mayorkas said his role amounted to one phone call to the White House, and that he never requested Vignali receive a commutation, only that his case be carefully considered. Shortly after Clintons commutation, Mayorkas issued a statement calling his phone call to the White House a mistake.

Mayorkas reiterated that regret during sworn testimony before the Senate in 2009 when he was nominated by Obama to lead UCIS. At the time, Mayorkas overcame his role in the scandal to be confirmed in a unanimous vote, but that was before the IGs findings in the EB-5 scandal.
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I am very excited to join the A2 Global team...With our worldwide footprint and our smart and passionate employees, I am confident that we will continue to invest in opportunities that will provide the best service and experience for our customers and suppliers.- Anthony Andriano, CFO of A2 Global

A2 Global Electronics + Solutions, a global leader in the electronic component distribution and supply chain services industry, announced today the appointment of Anthony Andriano as its new Chief Financial Officer and the promotion of Jesper Romell as its new President.

Mr. Andriano joins A2 Global with over 20 years of strategic financial and business leadership experience. His most recent role was the President of TotalTrax, Inc, a private equity-backed Internet of Things (IoT) company, where he led the company through its successful transformation into a complete software solution. Prior, Mr. Andriano served as CFO of Converge and led its successful integration into Arrow Electronics.

Additionally, Mr. Andriano has spent over 12 years in senior financial leadership roles at Arrow Electronics, including Zeus, Americas Components, and several years in the Asia Pacific region. He also spent several years at the international accounting firm KPMG and started his career on Wall Street with Merrill Lynch.

I am very excited to join the A2 Global team, said Andriano. Having leadership roles in similar business situations and industries, I believe the potential for growth and value creation at A2 Global is tremendous. With our worldwide footprint and our smart and passionate employees, I am confident that we will continue to invest in opportunities that will provide the best service and experience for our customers and suppliers.

Previously serving as A2 Globals Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, Mr. Romell recently moved into the new role of President of A2 Global. With over 25 years of experience in the global electronics distribution industry, one of his most notable roles was serving as General Manager of APAC and EMEA regions at Converge, where he drove international expansion.

Mr. Romell implemented strategic change and increased the global footprint in sales, purchasing, and operations departments as the CEO of Velocity Electronics. Additionally, his most recent role was Senior Director of APAC and EMEA regions at Arrow S-Tech, leading an international team responsible for driving strategy and business development for Arrows Sustainable Technology Solutions division.

We are delighted to welcome Anthony into our organization and to promote Jesper as President, said Frank Cavallaro, CEO of A2 Global Electronics + Solutions. Anthony has the proven ability to successfully lead large-scale transformation, drive continuous improvement, enhance profitability, and produce results  all qualities that make him an invaluable addition to the A2 Global team as well as a great benefit to our customers and vendors.

Jespers 25+ years of experience in the global electronics distribution space positions him as an ideal candidate to serve as our organizations President. Throughout his career at A2 Global, Jesper has demonstrated a strong ability to lead and inspire others and has proven to deliver customer value, said Cavallaro.

About A2 Global Electronics + Solutions:

The next generation of America II and Advanced MP Technology, A2 Global has been in the electronic component distribution and supply chain services industry for over 40 years. Headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, USA, A2 Global Electronics has global offices and logistics centers in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia and provides customers with easy, fair, and uncomplicated electronic component distribution and supply chain solutions.

Visit a2globalelectronics.com to learn more.

Media Contact:

Kristofer Strong

Marketing Director

1-800-767-2637

press@a2globalelectronics.com
Five years ago, in an influential case involving limits around donations to political parties, the High Court of Australia proffered a convincing assessment of how money can drive powerful outcomes.

[A]lthough there might be favours without payment and payment without favours, the basic human tendency towards reciprocity means that payments all too readily tend to result in favours, the court said in McCloy.

Mining companies, which rely heavily on government contracts, are huge political donors. Credit:Peter Braig

That phrase all too readily potently underscores just how vigorously this nation needs to guard against donors  corporates and individuals alike  who might seek to game politics for their own benefit.

Donors gain preferential access to politicians, and that garners them a degree of influence. Access and influence alone do not amount to corruption, but the point at which money comes to drive the decision-making is, as the High Court said, not always easy to discern.
I teared up when I saw the message.

Guess who just got vaccinated! my mother wrote in a group text to me and my two sisters.

I know she will need a second dose, but this means its really happening: After nearly a year, I might be able to finally stop worrying, daily, that my mother, who has pre-existing conditions, who works in healthcare, might get sick and die from this monster of a virus.

Soon, I can finally stop yelling at her about going in to her office. Or to the grocery store.

Soon, my stepfather can finally stop playing warden, doing all he can to keep her at home.

Soon, I can give her a real hug, not the just-for-half-a-second, heads far apart, masked ones weve indulged only a few times. You dont realize how important hugging your mother is until you cant do it properly anymore.

And I dont think I truly realized the depth of my fear until I felt the depth of my relief.

Im not alone. As the vaccine rollout has begun in earnest there are others are hopeful about the light at the end of the tunnel. For them. For their loved ones. The coming-soon relief of the terrible anxieties weve all harbored.

Have you really checked in on the weight of worry youve been carrying? My coworker Amy Z. Quinn describes it perfectly  a baseline level of existential dread over trying to keep her family safe.

Like, every time I go out of the house, am I going to come home and bring death with me? she says.

Who knew this would be our collective 2020?

Now, knowing that her mother and husband, who are both over 65 with health concerns, can get vaccinated, its a different anxiety, she explains.

Its, Oh my god, what if they get sick before we can get an appointment, she says. I think I will cry like a baby when they get those shots.

The rush for appointments is the latest COVID-19 challenge. Since the first day New Jersey residents could make appointments, so many have tried and been unsuccessful  and continue to refresh websites. I know their frustration.

And its easy to forget theres a mental health toll for all of us living through a pandemic, no matter our brave faces. Were in survival mode. Were carrying it all.

Were starting to realize how omnipresent the fear has been for the past 10-plus months, says Dr. Anthony Tasso, deputy director of psychology and counseling at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Its been off the radar for many people just how dreadful this entire experience has been  worrying about elderly family members, those with preexisting conditions or just those who arent taking the greatest level of precautions. That worry has been solid and steady for most people, and now that the vaccine is here, the renewed optimism is creeping in, as it should.

Optimism. Remember that?

Francia Castillo, a practice administrator for a doctors office in Scotch Plains, says she wasnt so concerned about contracting the virus at work, but more so at home, with her 18- and 20-year-old children and her husband who is a police officer.

She says she was very excited when she found out she could get the vaccine, as were the people in her office.

We were desperately waiting for that email, Castillo says. I felt relieved. And I felt very lucky that I am healthcare and that I was able to get the vaccine before everybody else. You have no idea how many people we have, especially our elderly patients, calling our office every day about the vaccine.

On Facebook, I asked friends how they felt after getting the vaccine or after their loved ones received it.

Relief is an understatement, said one.

Another friend, who has worked throughout the pandemic, said he always assumed it was a matter of time before he got COVID-19, even though he always wore his mask. He gets his first dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.

The relief I feel about this is indescribable, his girlfriend added.

Still, we arent out of the woods just yet. Any doctor will tell you that.

A vaccinated person should still be careful because there is that small 5 percent possibility they are still susceptible, says Dr. Carl S. Goldstein, clinical professor of medicine at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson medical school. The demonstrated protection afforded by these vaccines is terrific, but not absolute.

He says, like the flu vaccine, the expectation is that if a vaccinated person were to get COVID-19 it should be milder, and the vaccine should provide a substantial reduction in more serious issues that might require hospitalization. But the vaccinated may still spread the disease, especially if they are infected and asymptomatic.

So for public health reasons, its important to wear a mask still, Goldstein says.

On Thursday, after an hour wait on the phone, I got through to Summit Medical Group for my father, who just turned 77 and is on oxygen. I was caller 29 and then 12 and then next in line. When the receptionist picked up, I braced for rejection.

Im sure everyone before me had the same question, but can I book an appointment for a vaccine? I asked tentatively.

Her response  Whats your fathers birthday? and then, hows February 8th?  had me over the moon. My dad was amazed. And grateful.

Hows that for a birthday present? I said.

Later that day, the group sent out a message to all their patients telling them there were no more appointments and to please stop calling. My dad forwarded it to me.

We got lucky, I replied.

Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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BRITT, Iowa - A North Iowa woman is being recognized by Governor Kim Reynolds as a prime example of Iowans' hard work during the pandemic.

A master seamstress, Blanche Chizek started making cloth masks initially for her family, using material she had in storage. But soon, word about her beautifully designed masks would spread around town.

"People started saying, 'well Blanche, can you make us 5 or 10 or whatever?' And I said yes."

The amount of masks she would make grew, giving them to churches and the local hospital, all at no cost. To cut down on ear irritation, Chizek used cotton and polyester t-shirts in place of the elastic to make them more comfortable to wear.

"I bought a lot of material, but I also have had people call and say, 'Blanche, I have some material.'"

This past Tuesday, Blanche's work would be recognized by the Governor during her Condition of the State address, and would be in attendance during the address at the Statehouse. Despite the recognition, she remains humble, even if she's become a local celebrity of sorts.

"Wednesday morning, I never got away that phone. People were congratulating me...I feel honored."

Hospitals across Northern Ireland will come under intense pressure across the next seven days, the regions health minister has said.

Robin Swann was speaking as a GP warned that medical staff are facing pressures unlike any other they have faced before amid the pandemic.

There were 823 individuals in hospitals in the region with Covid-19 on Monday, 65 of whom were being treated in intensive care.

Unfortunately when we saw the number of positive cases two-three weeks ago, we knew this was what was in front of us, Mr Swann told the BBC.

Our worst-case scenario has us modelling up to 1,200 inpatients, and that's a serious pressure, but then also in the week to ten days that follow the additional pressures then that come on our ICU beds Robin Swann

We know that the next seven days is when we will see that real intense pressure coming on our inpatients and our intensive care units.

Our worst-case scenario has us modelling up to 1,200 inpatients, and thats a serious pressure, but then also in the week to ten days that follow the additional pressures then that come on our ICU beds.

Mr Swann said there are surge plans for ICU to accommodate up to nearly 200 ICU beds.

That comes at a stretch, that comes with putting our staff under severe pressure in ICU units, he said, adding that would see specialist nurse/patient ratios go from 1:1 to 1:2-1:3.

Thats not something we want to do but its something that we have modelled and built into that surge capacity.

Today, we have 144 ICU beds across our system stood up and staffed, and that looks after not just Covid patients but also other patients who need ICU support.

Dr Tom Black, head of the British Medical Association (BMA) in the region, said staff are doing their best, but many doctors feel they are unable to give care to the standard they would want.

On Monday, the Department of Health said a further 19 people who previously tested positive for coronavirus had died in Northern Ireland.

Another 640 individuals have tested positive for the virus.

Some 146,733 coronavirus vaccinations had been administered in Northern Ireland by Monday.

LATEST #COVID19 VACCINE UPDATE FOR NI:



146,733 vaccines have been administered, of which 125,717 were first doses and 21,016 were second doses. pic.twitter.com/mrTpJqu1RN  Department of Health (@healthdpt) January 18, 2021

This includes 125,717 first doses of the jab and 20,016 second doses.

Monday also saw the holding of a Coroners Court in Northern Irelands Nightingale venue for facilitating courts and tribunals.

The inquest was the first hearing of any kind to take place at Belfasts International Convention Centre (ICC) at the Waterfront Hall since it became a Nightingale venue earlier this month.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said the move is a significant milestone in efforts to ensure that courts and tribunals can continue to operate safely and effectively during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill said there has been no resolution with the Irish government over data sharing around travellers.

Last week, Ms ONeill and First Minister Arlene Foster criticised Irish leaders for failing to share information on travellers arriving on the island during the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister Long today welcomed the holding of a Coroneras Court in Northern Irelandas Nightingale venue for facilitating courts & tribunals.



The inquest was the first hearing of any kind to take place at @BelfastICC since it became a Nightingale venue.



 https://t.co/5sMPCr8VIS pic.twitter.com/9aY8Yi2Zw1  Justice NI (@Justice_NI) January 18, 2021

The Executive is seeking access data on passenger locator forms filled out by people arriving in the Irish Republic who may travel on to Northern Ireland.

Mrs Foster and Ms ONeill indicated on Thursday that they planned to raise the matter directly with Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

The matter is set to be discussed on Wednesday at the meeting which will involve Mrs Foster, Ms ONeill, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and the Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.

We have raised this issue on every occasion we have had opportunity to raise the issue, and I think it is really regrettable there hasnt been a resolution as of yet, Ms ONeill told MLAs.

I hope that perhaps Wednesdays meeting will allow some opportunity for there to be a way forward.

We believe the (legal) issues have been resolved, so I dont see any barrier now in terms of information being shared.

I think a conversation at the highest level of government is the way to resolve these things. There is a political solution to the issue of travel and I hope that can be found.
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Shares of India's third-largest software services provider, HCL Technologies, gained in early trade on January 18 post company's December quarter earnings.

On January 15, the company reported a 26.7 percent jump in consolidated profit for the quarter ended December 2020 at Rs 3,982 crore versus Rs 3,142 crore in the previous quarter.

Consolidated revenue for the quarter increased by 3.8 percent to Rs 19,302 crore, driven by broad-based growth in segments and geographies. Revenue stood at Rs 18,594 crore in the September quarter.

Dollar revenue during December quarter stood at $2,617 million, up from $2,507 million in the second quarter of FY21.

Also Read - HCL Tech Q3 result: Profit jumps nearly 27% to Rs 3,982 crore; firm raises CC growth guidance

Here is what brokerages have to say about the stock and the company post-December quarter earnings:

ICICIdirect

We believe HCL Tech is in a sweet spot to capture demand traction in the cloud and cloud-related services considering its strength in IMS business & partnership with hyperscalers. In addition, better capital allocation and a healthy margin trajectory make us positive on the stock from a long-term perspective. Hence, we maintain buy on the stock with a target price of Rs 1150 (18x PE on FY23E EPS) (previous target was Rs 1105).

Dolat Capital

Given the strong performance, encouraging commentary, we upgrade our revenue growth estimates by 1-2% over FY21E-FY23E. We up our OPM estimates by 80bps/16bps/10bps for FY21E/FY22E/FY23E given the guidance upgrade and some sustainable cost saving in margins. These factors have led to EPS upgrade of about 4% for FY22/23E. Bigger upgrade in FY21E is skewed by lower ETR (tax reversal led).

We believe HCL Tech and other Tier-I IT companies would continue to deliver strong revenue momentum over next 5-6 quarters (translating into double-digit revenue growth in FY22E) and thus would sustain current valuations of 25x-30x which implies over 2x-3x on PEG basis. We currently value HCLT at 20x (from 18times) on FY23E Earnings of Rs 57 (earlier Rs 55) with a target price of Rs 1,140 per share (from Rs 990) and maintain our buy rating on the stock.

Sharekhan

We have raised earnings estimates for FY2021E/ FY2022E/FY2023E, to factor in strong all-around Q3 results, strong deal wins, robust deal pipeline and improving spends on digital transformation. We believe HCL Techs capabilities in infrastructure and application are expected to support its growth in strong cloud adoption environment.

We believe HCL Tech would return to the industry-level growth trajectory in the next few years on the back of capabilities in digital foundation, consistent deal wins and traction for its products portfolio. We maintain our buy rating on the stock with a revised price target of Rs 1,250.

Prabhudas Lilladher

We believe HCLs unique capabilities in Mode 2 (digital & cloud) and Mode 3 (Products & platforms) should see accelerated growth from increasing demand for hybrid cloud adoption and large digital transformation deals. We have slightly increased our estimates (avg:0.7%) for FY22/23 led by strong revenue growth trajectory & consistent margin performance.

We value HCLT at 20X on Mar-23 EPS of Rs 58 to arrive at a changed target price of Rs 1160 (Earlier: Rs 1152). HCLT is trading at valuations of 18.2/17.1 X for FY22/23 at Rs 54.3/58 respectively.

Motilal Oswal

Given its deep capabilities in the IMS space and strategic partnerships, investments in Cloud, and Digital capabilities, we expect HCL Tech to emerge stronger on the back of an expected increase in enterprise demand for these services. The stock is currently trading at a modest ~ 15x FY23E earnings, which offers a margin of safety. Our target price is based on 20x FY23E EPS (a 20% discount to TCS). Maintain buy.

CLSA

The software business gains traction with a strong deal pipeline. It has reported healthy revenue & margin beats in Q3. The company expects the order book to scale further after a 13% YoY jump in Q3. The operating leverage in mode 2 & 3 business gives a structural margin defence.

We maintain a buy rating and raise the target to Rs 1,180 from Rs 1,120 and increase FY22/23 EPS estimates by 3%.

Credit Suisse

Research house Credit Suisse has kept outperform rating and raised the target to Rs 1,325 per share.

The outlook on demand environment remains positive with scope for further re-rating. The FY21-23 earnings estimates raised by 5-9% and also raised P/ E multiple to 22.5x from 18.5x. The slower-than-expected growth & a sharp rupee appreciation are the key risks, reported CNBC-TV18.

At 09:23 hrs HCL Technologies was quoting at Rs 994.20, up Rs 4.40, or 0.44 percent on the BSE.

The share touched its 52-week high Rs 1,073.55 and 52-week low Rs 375.50 on 13 January, 2021 and 19 March, 2020, respectively.

Currently, it is trading 7.39 percent below its 52-week high and 164.77 percent above its 52-week low.
To get a two-thirds majority of every voting senator Democrats need at least 17 Republicans, assuming all Democrats vote to convict. None of the 50-member GOP caucus has said they will vote to convict. Here are some of those in play.

COULD VOTE TO CONVICT

Mitt Romney (Utah)

Voted to convict before and slammed Trump's actions after riot

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

Said Trump should quit over the riot. Already survived a primary defeat

Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Publicly OKed his caucus voting guilty and says he is genuinely undecided

Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

Not running again and already condemned Trump's conduct

Richard Burr (North Carolina)

Not running and said Trump 'bears responsibility'

Ben Sasse (Nebraska)

Targeted before by Trump, slammed GOP leaders for violence already

Susan Collins (Maine)

Moderate who said when she acquitted first time Trump had 'learned a lesson'

John Thune (South Dakota)

Number two in the Senate caucus, already target of Trump demand for a primary

Roy Blunt (Missouri)

Called riot 'darkest stain' and 'unpardonable.' State GOP establishment is furious at Josh Hawley

Richard Shelby (Alabama)

At 86 considered unlikely to run again. Called riot 'dark day'

Rob Portman (Ohio)

Called attack 'assault on democracy.' Up in 2022, never a Trump loyalist

UNCLEAR

James Inhofe (Oklahoma)

Apologized to black voters for planning to overturn election

Chuck Grassley (Iowa)

Oldest GOP senator at 87 and unclear if he plans to run again

Kevin Cramer (North Dakota)

Said Trump voters 'want my head off' for not overturning election

Mike Lee (Utah)

Legal conservative, represents state where Trump wasn't personally popular

Thom Tillis (North Carolina)

Not up for election until 2026 in purple state

Marco Rubio (Florida)

Up in 2022 and could face Ivanka; convicting her father might help

Mike Braun (Indiana)

Friend of Mike Pence, could be moved by calls for him to 'hang'

LEANING TO NO

John Cornyn (Texas)

Not personally loyal to Trump but also called trial 'bad idea'

Joni Ernst (Iowa)

Says she doubts trial is constitutional but will listen to arguments

FIRM NO

Tom Cotton (Arkansas)

Called trial unconstitutional

Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)

Says impeaching will destroy GOP
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
In suburban Ho Chi Minh City, a one-legged man and his able-bodied wife have been through thick and thin together for almost five decades now.

Nguyen The Ngoc, who also goes by the nickname 'Teo the crippled,' had lived a lonely, poverty-stricken life until he met his wife during the early 1970s in the midst of a war-ravaged Vietnam.

The elderly couple have stuck together even through rough patches to prove that if they can make it through the storms, there is nothing that will get in their way.

Ngoc, 70, and his 65-year-old wifes love, which has thrived and endured the test of time after nearly 50 years, is not only heart-warming but also inspirational.

Crawling toward love

Ngoc's mother passed away when he was only seven months old.

Ten years later, he lost his father to the American war in Vietnam, and was raised by his paternal grandmother in Binh Chanh Commune.

Tragedy again struck as he came down with polio when he turned three, leaving him walking with a limp since.

The boy, his grandmother and aunts eked out a meager living by peddling boiled corncobs to make it through the war.

As he reached adulthood, Ngoc found a job at a pig slaughterhouse.

Fate, however, had its own plan.

The young man had his disabled leg broken in a road accident and was admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

I was then worried sick about who would care for my grandmother if something wrong happened to me, Ngoc recalled, adding at the same time he was grateful to be still better off than those writhing in agony on the hospital floor from appalling combat-related wounds.

Among the seriously injured patients was a man lying on a stretch nearby whose arm was almost severed when a bomb exploded.

Ngoc offered his own hospital bed to the man, with him making do with the floor.

The kind-hearted man was dealt blow after blow as he got his already-malfunctioning leg amputated after suffering post-accident complications including necrosis.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

It was during his two-month hospitalization that Ngoc met the love of his life, Gai.

The then-17-year-old girl turned out to be the younger sister of the injured man who Ngoc offered his bed to.

Touched by the young mans optimism and willingness to help out despite his own plight, Gai gradually grew fond of him without even realizing it.

At first, I just planned to help him around the house and look after his elderly grandmother," Gai shared.

"But I was head over heels in love with him in no time at all.

Nguyen The Ngoc, or Teo, and his long-time wife in their love nest,' built nearly 50 years ago in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Hoang Tung / Tuoi Tre

I was embarrassed at first, but she was infatuated with me," Ngoc said jokingly.

"What else could I do? So, I crawled toward her.

As her feelings deepened, the girl, originally from Ho Chi Minh City's outlying district of Cu Chi, insisted on marrying the physically challenged man and was lucky to get her familys approval.

In 1973, two years before the war drew to an end, the couple tied the knot with only a cozy, private home reception.

Gais arrival glorified Ngocs life that would be otherwise confined to solitude and poverty.

The newly-weds settled down in Binh Chanh, where Ngoc grew up. The area was overgrown with weeds and dotted with deserted mounds back then.

He earned his living with different jobs, including lottery ticket peddling and construction material sales before switching to bike fixing and parking to provide for their five children.

In the darkest of times, there were days when the couple went with very little food and saved the meager portions for their children to keep them full.

Gai even worked as a xe om (motorbike taxi) driver to supplement her husbands income.

Despite living in poverty back then, Ngoc and Gai are happy about their big family.

Soon after our marriage, our two sons and three daughters came along. Ive never thought I would be so happy blessed with such a cozy family, Ngoc shared.

Tragically though, his two sons later died of illnesses, one by one.

Cute old-timers abiding love

Many years on, the couple still shower their other half with love and affection and keep the romance going in their relationship.

Shes my nugget of gold,' Ngoc shared, lovingly referring to his wife of nearly 50 years whom he holds dear.

"Were always in passionate love, since our youthful years until now.

With their childrens financial support, this pair of old cuties now enjoy a more comfortable life, but Ngoc still sticks to his bike fixing job for an extra income.

Every afternoon, Ngoc travels several kilometers on his wheelchair with his wife biking alongside to Go Den, a locality in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, for exercise.

It all comes down to showing each other how much they value their lifelong love.

Sometimes after he lashed out at me, I stomped off for half a day," Gai shared of their love story as if they were newly-weds.

"By the time I returned home, he was already tearfully leaving every nook and cranny unturned for me.

Gai devotedly takes good care of her disabled husband without feeling ashamed of him," said Dam Vu Tri, Ngocs long-time friend.

"When things go sour, especially during Ngocs hospitalization, shes always there for him.

We really admire their lifelong bond, theyve supported each other through the bad.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A Lehigh Valley man was part of a group that tried to force its way past police and into the Capitol during the deadly insurrection early this month, the FBI said.

Five people including a U.S. Capitol police officer were killed in the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 and dozens of others were injured. Multiple arrests have been made since, and the FBI has released a slew of photos trying to identify other people involved.

On Saturday the FBI released photos of Craig Bingert in an attempt to identify him. Bingerts attorney contacted FBI agents Sunday in Philadelphia to say he had identified himself as one of the suspects sought and offered for Bingert to turn to himself in, court records say.

Bingert, of Washington Township, Lehigh County, is charged with impeding or attempting to impede law enforcement officers performing official duties during a civil disorder.

The FBI said Bingert was recorded on a Metropolitan police officers body camera in Washington, D.C., and he was wearing a military camouflage/ military style jacket and a hoodie underneath the jacket, as well as a blue skull cap with the words America visible.

Agents said a man in the crowd yelled, among other things, to push them out of there, referring to law enforcement on the other side of the police barricade.

The man counts down and Bingert is one of the people in the crowd that pushes the barricade, and later tries to lift it up, court papers say.

At one point, Bingert turns around, faces the crowd and begins waving the flag, as the crowd yells and chants, including F*** the police, court records say.

Calls for comment to numbers listed for Bingert did not go through.

Bingert is one of a group of people from around Pennsylvania who are facing charges following the insurrection.

A Carbon County man was arrested Friday after authorities said they found Facebook posts and selfies of him inside the Capitol that day.

At the protest in DC. I went inside the capitol building and got tear gassed, Andrew Wrigley reportedly wrote.

In addition, federal authorities are looking for Riley June Williams, of Harrisburg, after her former romantic partner says she took a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office during the riot at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, The Associated Press reports.

And in New Jersey, a naval contractor accused of being a white supremacist and nazi sympathizer is facing multiple charges after he told an informant he participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, entered the building and encouraged other rioters to advance on the building, according to a criminal complaint reported on by nj.com.

ARRESTED: Craig Bingert, of Pennsylvania, a man who whose picture the FBI plastered on a wanted poster. He turned himself in for his role in the Capitol riot. Videos shows him pushing a barricade toward police, & later waving the Americans flag while yelling F*ck the police. pic.twitter.com/ubAh0RFw1E  David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 18, 2021

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
A police officer who bombarded up to a dozen women with shocking pornographic selfies and smutty messages has been barred from ever serving as an officer again.

Detective Constable Damien Cotgreave sent hundreds of obscene and graphic text messages to the women while on duty.

A disciplinary panel heard even bunked off work for two hours to visit one woman at her home and give her an intimate back massage under her clothes.

On other occasions he sent the unnamed women pornographic selfies of himself taken while he was on duty.

In one he took a lewd photo of himself in a crown court toilet while he was attending a drugs trial.

Detective Constable Damien Cotgreave has been barred from ever serving as a police officer again after bombarded up to a dozen women with shocking pornographic selfies and smutty messages.

Today 18 out of 20 charges of gross misconduct charges for behaviour between December 2019 to February 2020 were proven.

The officer could have been sacked by Sussex Police but the panel was told Mr Cotgreave had already resigned from the force. Instead they barred him from ever serving as an officer again.

He is the third officer from the same police station to face allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the last month.

In December, charges of gross misconduct were proven against Sergeant Rob Adams after he put the face of a female colleague on a pornographic image of a naked woman.

The week before charges of gross misconduct were also proven after Detective Sergeant Paul Elrick was also found to have pinged a ruler across the bottom of a female colleague.

Cotgreave is the third officer from the same police station to face allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the last month. Pictured: In December, gross misconduct charges were proven against Sergeant Rob Adams after he put the face of a female colleague on a pornographic image of a naked woman

The hearing was told DC Cotgreave joined Sussex Police in 2013 and was a respected officer working in a unit tackling organised crime and drugs based in Hastings police station.

The married officer, 45, also worked as a drugs expert witness and attended several drugs trials.

Over a two month period the officer contacted 12 women - members of the public - on social media while on duty.

He often sexted them, asking about their sexual preferences and whether they enjoyed oral sex.

The married officer also sent explicit pornographic selfies to at least six women while on duty.

Louise Ravenscroft, representing the force, said his behaviour while on duty was a clear breach of his duties and responsibilities as a police officer and amounted to gross misconduct.

She said: 'Mr Cotgreave clearly engaged in sexualised conversations and in sending sexual images and videos.'

She said that on January 24 last year while on duty the officer had left work to visit a woman at home.

Charges of gross misconduct were also proven against Detective Sergeant Paul Elrick who was found to have pinged a ruler across the bottom of a female colleague

While at her house he massaged her back under her clothing causing her to later question the nature of their relationship

He replied: 'We're good friends. I was just stroking your back because I know it feels nice. You mean the world to me and I just want you to feel safe and secure in my arms.'

While on duty the detective also repeatedly texted one women who suffered from serious mental health problems.

Miss Ravenscroft said that during one exchange of messages between the pair it became clear the woman appeared to have taken an overdose.

But she said even though the woman tells the detective she had taken some pills he failed to act and summon help.

She told him: 'I've taken more pills because I give no f***s. No-one can do anything. I don't even trust the police anymore now.'

On another occasion the 45-year-old detective texted an 18-year-old woman and told her he was a police officer.

Knowing she was 18, he asked her how many sexual partners she had been and asked the age of the oldest she had been with or would want to be with.

On a separate occasion he sexted another women, who suffered from cerebral palsy, asking her about her sexual preferences.

Miss Ravenscroft said: 'The officer specifically asks her sexualised questions regarding her sexual preferences and whether she would be interested in a particular sexual persuasion. There is an exchange of photographs and messages during this exchange.

'It is quite clear from the behaviour that the conduct of Mr Cotgreave was sexually motivated, with members of the public and carried out while on duty.'

Barring him from ever serving as an officer again, Nicola Talbot-Hadley, chair of the panel, said that although no-one came to any harm as a result and the messages were exchanged between consenting adults his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.

She said: 'Any misconduct involving sexual impropriety undermines public trust in the profession and is particularly serious.'

Plans for factory workers to wear social distancing 'dog collars' that go off like an alarm if people stand too close to each other have caused an outcry in France.

Worn around the neck or tied around the waist, the 'badges' would make a loud 85-decibel sound and possibly vibrate or light up if the two-metre distance is not observed.

Swedish company Essity, which makes hygiene products and has around 2,500 employees in France, is said to be planning to introduce the gadgets - which it claims would make contact-tracing easier in case of an outbreak at the plant.

But a French union has condemned the plans as an 'attack on individual liberties' which 'infantilises' the factory workers, and said the tags won't improve contact tracing because they do not track wearer's locations and all data is anonymous.

A social distancing 'badge' like this one shown by French broadcaster RMC could be used to keep factory workers 2m apart - but the proposal has been condemned by a trade union

 Une entreprise souhaite equiper ses salaries d'un boitier qui sonne si deux personnes sont trop proches l'une de l'autre pic.twitter.com/1NDQ3yvqJ5  RMC (@RMCinfo) January 14, 2021

The company, which makes products including tissues, nappies and hand sanitisers, defended the proposal by saying it was meant to ensure employee safety.

The devices would not be used to pinpoint people's location and it would be inactive in the toilets and the canteen, the firm's management said, according to RMC.

Company health inspectors would be able to 'alert potential contacts more quickly and exhaustively' in case of an outbreak, the firm claimed.

But Christine Duguet, a delegate of the CFDT union, cast doubt on that claim by saying the company had insisted the devices would be anonymous and only distinguishable by a serial number.

The union issued a statement describing the devices as 'intrusive and infantilising' and comparing them to 'collars' used to 'discourage dogs from barking'.

Describing the badges as an 'attack on individual liberties', Duguet said the devices would likely 'end up in the bin or stay in their boxes, it's nonsense'.

Duguet added that the contraptions were 'anxiety-inducing' and said there were no known cases of infection among the workers.

She also voiced fears that the company would seek to keep the system in place for 'security' even once the coronavirus pandemic is over.

Essity said that exact details were still to be worked out, with one report saying that the device might be configured only to vibrate rather than emit light or sound.

The devices could be used at a French factory operated by Swedish company Essity, which makes hygiene products including tissues and nappies

The gadget's Belgian manufacturers, Phi Data, reportedly said that 90 or 95 per cent of the workforce would need to wear the devices for them to be effective.

Phi Data also advertises a similar product where employees would have an electronic tag that they themselves could activate to alert their colleagues to danger.

One factory which could be affected is a plant in Chatellerault, in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine where around 1,200 people are in hospital with Covid-19.

Around 160 of these are in intensive care, with the number of seriously ill patients ticking up again across France after falling during a November lockdown.

France has already brought forward a nationwide curfew from 8pm to 6pm in order to stem the gradually rising infection numbers.

From today, anyone travelling to France from outside the EU will have to show a negative test result and self-isolate for a week upon arrival.

'These measures were necessary given the situation,' prime minister Jean Castex said in a speech.

'While worsening, it remains relatively better than many countries around us, but I took them because the context, notably with the evolution of the virus, means we have to have utmost vigilance.'

The government has also been criticised for the sluggish pace of France's vaccine rollout, which has so far been one of the slowest in the EU.

Only 422,000 vaccine doses had been handed out as of Sunday, compared to more than a million in Germany and Italy and more than four million in Britain.
MIDDLETOWN  The city is experiencing an increase in requests for medical services from neighboring towns, which a local EMS transport agency official attributes to call volume, requests for multiple ambulances, and travel to emergency facilities outside of town.

Middletown has contracted with Hunters Ambulance, at 594 Washington St., for some time, according to Middletown Fire Department Chief/EMS Director Robert Kronenberger. Those services are in the process of being transferred to Hartford Healthcare, according to Hunters Chief Operating Officer David Lowell.

There are three fire companies in Middletown: the main station, with locations on Main Street and Cross Street; Westfield Volunteer Fire on East Street in the north part of the city; and South Fire District on Randolph Road. Each is responsible for various sections of the city.

In the last two weeks, Kronenberger said, his company needed mutual aid six times from Cromwell and Durham, something he hasnt seen happen in a very long time.

This is something we really have to monitor, he said. Im going to be watching this closely.

The need for multiple ambulances at accident scenes, for example, as well as occasions when patients are taken to hospitals outside of town are driving the rise in the need for assistance for neighboring towns, Lowell said.

Recently, within a span of 40 minutes, Hunters received seven 911 requests for emergency ambulance response in Middletown, Lowell said. Four were made within a four-minute span, and six were fulfilled by his units. The sixth one was sent to Cromwell EMS as a mutual aid partner, Lowell said. They responded and were subsequently canceled en route.

The pandemic is not one of the contributing factors to the issue, he said.

Middletown is in the process of trying to secure a primary service agreement so it can decide which agencies to work with, Kronenberger said. The city, at this point, does not want to get into ambulance transport, but we want a little bit more control over who supplies service to the city, he said.

Kronenberger has not seen delays in ambulance response times in Middletown, he said.

There is a tiered system of duties set up in Middletown, Kronenberger said.

[Middlesex] Hospital supplies our paramedic service, the fire department supplies the EMT service, and Hunters provides the transport, he said.

When you call 911, the dispatch will go through a series of questions for you. How you respond to those questions will dictate what level of response you get, Kronenberger said. That could mean just an ambulance; an ambulance along with the fire department; or , fire crews and paramedic, depending on the severity of the incident, he said.

The query process, known as emergency medical dispatch, is a nationwide standard that most communications centers use, Kronenberger said.

At South Fire, as with fire services across Connecticut and the nation, the volume of coronavirus calls has caused a strain, Chief Michael Howley said. As our numbers increase, and people get sick, these services are getting stretched, he said. We understand it, and the need to prepare for it.

Hospitals around the state are diverting emergency vehicles at various times depending on the influx of people positive for the coronavirus, Howley said. It happens once in a while. With COVID, its now showing up more and more. Its not just here. Its all over the place.

City leaders recently began discussing the issue, Howley said. He and other fire officials anticipated a bump in the need for ambulance services after the first of the year  following the holidays, Howley said, and now its coming to its peak.

Once COVID cases decline and the rate of vaccine distribution increases, the transportation situation should ease, Howley said. Its a citywide conversation. We need to be aware.
The U.S. military has released footage of a B-52 bomber being refueled in flight over the Middle East. America has repeatedly sent the heavy bombers over the region amid tensions with Iran.

In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over its unraveled nuclear accord, which he has said the United States could reenter.

President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018, setting off months of escalating incidents between with Iran.

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DC Pedestrians View Inaugural Lockdown With Sadness and Dismay

WASHINGTONVery few cars were seen on the streets in the center of Washington, D.C., on the morning of Jan. 17, and only a few pedestrians, runners, and bikers were around. Street and Metro rail closures, ordered in preparation for the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, kept the city streets mostly empty.

Those who ventured out were taken aback by what they saw.

A policeman gives directions to a pedestrian near the LEnfant Plaza metro station in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

It feels like a military state or just like living in extra lockdown, said Brian Broderick, a Washington resident who was walking his dog near the Smithsonian on Jan. 17.

He added that the security fences that had been erected reflected the divisions in society and, in some way, also influence and reinforce those divisions.

Its really tragic that we cant find ways to engage in politics more civilly than this.  All these fences, all of this equipment and gear to protect us from each other is pretty pathetic.  Even if you totally hate each other and disagree, you should be able to do it in the public square.

Washington resident Brian Broderick in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Brian Phelan lives in the state of Maryland, about 40 minutes away from the nations capital. He said he made the trip to see the insurrection fortification with his own eyes: This is not a smooth transition. It shouldnt be like this in a change of power. Im disappointed that they have to lock down our capital for this.

The entire National Mall is fenced in. Taken outside the Smithsonian Metro stop in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Phelan identifies himself as an independent. I probably would have voted for Trump this year if there wasnt an epic failure on the COVID-19, which I believe there was. But I voted Democrat this year. He wants President-elect Joe Bidens priorities to be COVID-19 and the economy.

Brian Phelan in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

I think this is hard for all Americans, however you voted. I think this is really hard, said Lorraine Torres from northern Virginia. Like Phelan, shes local and wanted to see the city for herself. She believes the lockdown is necessary but finds it overwhelming and upsetting.

I dont think its representative of our country in the normal time. So I had to see it. No, I dont think COVID has anything to do with it [the lockdown].

Lorraine Torres from northern Virginia believes the lockdown is necessary but finds it overwhelming and upsetting in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Megan Marie Randall, a first-time tourist from Texas, was frustrated to know she couldnt visit the Lincoln Memorial. She described the city as a maze of fences and a military camp. She said it was depressing and sad to see the city like this.

Randall shared her feeling upon arriving in the city: When you go to a funeral, and youre trying to get over the fact that you just lost somebody that you absolutely loved and appreciated, but at the same time, youre trying to be strong for your children, youre trying to be strong for everybody. Youre standing there, and everybody keeps hugging you, but you keep trying to quit crying and get stronger. Its that feeling, that sadness that comes over your body, and that overwhelming despair of wanting that back. And its just so incredibly deep and depressing. Thats what I felt when I arrived.

Megan Marie Randall, a first-time tourist from Texas, described the city as a maze of fences and a military camp, in Washington on Jan. 17, 2021. (Terri Wu / The Epoch Times)

She added, We just need to come together as one and support each other and really start listening to one another. She wants life to go back to the way it was before COVID-19.

A Trump supporter who drove five hours from Connecticut and arrived in Washington on Jan. 17 said: American patriots need to continue to be proud. We need to continue to support Donald Trump. He declined to share his name. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)
The on Monday directed the administrators of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operation (PMC) Bank to decide afresh about the applications of depositors seeking money for the medical and educational emergencies.

The court also directed the petitioner to submit the list of depositors before administrators, which included medical and educational emergencies within three weeks.

The Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said, "We direct the depositors to approach the administrators of giving the need in detail, for which they would require the money. Administrator to decide within two weeks. They would inform the decision through an affidavit."

After these directions, the court slated the matter for February 26.

"We have something in our mind while petition sought issuance of direction to RBI to make a mechanism in this regards," the Bench said.

The direction of the High Court came on Monday during the hearing of an interim application in an ongoing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by activist Bejon Kumar Mishra through Counsel Shashank Deo Sudhi who was seeking inclusion of all financial emergencies arising out of the necessity from education expenses, marriage expenses and other genuine financial needs.

Meanwhile, the Counsel of RBI objected that existing guidelines does not permit educational emergency.

However, the court directed the petitioner to represent on both emergencies and administrator will decide the same.

Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India while opposing the plea, through an affidavit stated that the withdrawal limit set is based on the present liquidity position of the bank and its ability to pay its depositors. The is not in a position, financially, to pay all its depositors an amount upto Rs 5 lakh at this juncture, owing to constrained liquidity, it said.

However, RBI had also informed the court that the had invited Expression of Interest (Eol) from eligible investors for investment/equity participation for its reconstruction. The last date for submission of Eol was December 15, 2020. The PMC bank has informed RBI that in response to Eol, four proposals have been received. These proposals are being examined by the bank with regard to their viability and feasibility taking into account the best interest of the depositors. To undertake this process, the PMC Bank would need some more time, the RBI reply said.

The RBI's reply had also stated that criminal proceedings are underway against the Promoters of HDIL Group and ex-Chairman of PMC Bank and they are under judicial custody.

The PMC Bank has informed on its part having initiated actions under available legal frameworks under SARFAESI, Arbitration and NCLT proceedings.

The main plea had also sought directions to the PMC Bank, Reserve Bank of India and others to set up a court-monitored SIT for transparent investigation in a time-bound manner. It claimed that the investigation is being dragged, which is resulting in a situation of complete helplessness and uncertainty towards the hard-earned money of innocent depositors.

Claiming that several people have lost their lives under the stressful financial circumstances in the PMC matter, the application also sought directions to appropriately compensate the families of deceased depositors who have lost their lives under the stressful financial situation including direction of releasing the total deposited amount to those families immediately without any further delay.

In September 2019, the RBI had capped the withdrawal limit and restricted the activities of the PMC Bank after an alleged fraud of Rs 4,355 crore came to light.

The Enforcement Directorate had later seized and identified movable and immovable assets worth more than Rs 3,830 crore owned by HDIL in connection with the case.
Singapore on Monday started its COVID-19 vaccination exercise, covering 37,000 frontline workers in the aviation and maritime sectors, which employ large number of foreign workers, as a new coronavirus cluster was reported in the last 24 hours. During a visit to one of the vaccination centres at the Changi Airport Terminal 4, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said about 13,000 workers from the two sectors were scheduled to be vaccinated this week under the Sea-Air Vaccination Exercise.

On Monday, about 2,000 workers from the aviation sector will receive the vaccine, while about 1,000 maritime workers will be vaccinated at the Raffles City Convention Centre in the central business district here. Priority will be given to the 20,000 frontline workers who may come into contact with travellers from high-risk countries, the Channel News Asia reported, citing the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).

"These include pilots, cabin crew, airport and aircraft cleaners, security screeners, passenger service agents, baggage handlers and cargo handlers," said the CAAS. "You all know that the aviation industry is decimated by COVID-19, but we must have the determination that when the crisis passes, Singapore will be an aviation hub of the region and the world again," said Ong, adding, "Singapore Airlines can be the first vaccinated international airline in the world." Singapore reported 14 COVID-19 cases on Monday, two of which were local and 12 imported.

The Health Ministry said there was no new case in the foreign workers' dormitories which were the main clusters during the peak of COVID-19 infection last year. All the COVID-19 clusters, or disease spreading points due to crowding, were cleared last year. On Sunday, the Ministry of Health (MoH) reported two new community cases of COVID-19 linked to a police para-veterinarian who had earlier tested positive, forming Singapore's latest virus cluster.

Twenty-five police dogs who had interacted with the para-veterinarian have tested negative for the coronavirus, according to a report by Channel News Asia. The new cases are a police administrative officer who works with the para-vet at the Police K-9 (dog) unit, and a family member of the officer. The para-vet's wife was also reported to have the disease on January 16.

As of Monday, Singapore has reported a total of 59,127 COVID-19 cases and 29 related deaths. As of Sunday, 58,846 virus patients have fully recovered and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Its nearly two months since turbulence erupted around China Huarong Asset Management Co.At the end of March, its 4% perpetual dollar bond was trading at 102 cents on the dollar as investors figured the January execution of former chairman Lai Xiaomin for bribery put a line under past wayward behavior. But the failure of the company to release 2020 results by a March 31 deadline, and a subsequent report by mainland media Caixin that the firm will restructure, sparked weeks of turmoil. The same bond is now at 57 cents.The heart of the matter is whether the central government will rescue a state-owned company thats integral to the smooth running of the financial system. While there are signs Beijing wants to ensure China Huarong can repay its debts on time, uncertainty prevails.Heres a look at the key events for China Huarong:May 27Liang Qiang, who currently heads another bad-debt manager, is on track to become president of China Huarong, reports Bloomberg News.May 24China Huarong dollar bonds climb after the managing editor of Caixin Media wrote in an opinion piece that the asset manager is nowhere near defaulting on its more than $20 billion of offshore notes.May 21Some of China Huarongs thinly traded onshore bonds slump after having held up better than the companys dollar-denominated notes, signaling broadening concern about the firms financial health. May 18China Huarong has transferred funds to repay a $300 million note maturing May 20, Bloomberg News reports, the first dollar bond to come due since the delayed 2020 results. Prices for the firms dollar bonds slump earlier in the day after the New York Times reports China is planning an overhaul that would inflict significant losses on both domestic and foreign China Huarong bondholders.May 17The company has reached funding agreements with state-owned banks to ensure it can repay debt through at least the end of August, by which time China Huarong aims to have completed its 2020 financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News report. That as at least two of its onshore bonds see big price declines in recent days, worrying some investors.May 13The firm says its prepared to make future bond payments and has seen no change in the level of government support, seeking to ease investor concerns after a local media report that regulators balked at China Hurarongs restructuring plan.May 6The company says it transferred funds to pay five offshore bond coupons due the following day, its latest move to meet debt obligations amid persistent doubts about its financial health.April 30China Huarong breaks its silence, with an executive telling media it is prepared to make its bond payments and state backing remains intact. The official also says the weeks rating downgrades have no factual basis and are too pessimistic.April 29Moodys Investor Service downgrades China Huarong by one notch to Baa1, adding the firm remains on watch for further downgrade. The cut reflects the companys weakened funding ability due to market volatility and increased uncertainty over its future, according to the statement.April 27China Huarong units repay bonds maturing that day. The S$600 million ($450 million) bond was repaid with funds provided by Chinas biggest state-owned bank, according to a Bloomberg News report.April 26Fitch Ratings downgrades China Huarong by three notches to BBB while dropping the companys perpetual bonds into junk territory. The lack of transparency over government support for the firm may hamper its ability to refinance debt in offshore markets, Fitch said.April 25China Huarong says it wont meet an April 30 deadline to file its 2020 report with Hong Kongs stock exchange because auditors needed more time to finalize a transaction the company first flagged on April 1. Securities and asset-management units said in the days before that they wouldnt release 2020 results by months end.April 22The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission asks lenders to extend China Huarongs upcoming loans by at least six months, according to REDD, citing two bankers from large Chinese commercial lenders.April 21China is considering a plan that would see its central bank assume more than 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) of China Huarong assets to help clean up the firms balance sheet, according to a Bloomberg News report. Peer China Cinda Asset Management Co. was said to be planning the sale of perpetual bonds in the second quarter.April 20China Huarongs key offshore financing unit says it returned to profitability in the first quarter and laid a solid foundation for transformation. Reorg Research reports that regulators are considering options including a debt restructuring of the unit, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd.April 19Huarong Securities Co. says it wired funds to repay a 2.5 billion yuan local note.April 16The CBIRC says China Huarongs operations are normal and that the firm has ample liquidity. These are the first official comments about the companys troubles. Reuters reports Chinese banks have been asked not to withhold loans to Huarong.April 13Fitch and Moodys both put the company on watch for downgrade. The finance ministry, which owns a majority of Huarong, is considering the transfer of its stake to a unit of the countrys sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg News reports. Chinese officials signal they want failing local government financing vehicles to restructure or go bust if debts cant be repaid.April 9China Huarong says it has been making debt payments on time and its operations are normal. Bloomberg reports the company intends to keep Huarong International as part of a potential overhaul that would avoid the need of a debt restructuring or government recapitalization. S&P Global Ratings puts China Huarongs credit ratings on watch for possible downgrade.April 8China Huarong is preparing to offload non-core and loss-making units as part of a broad plan to revive profitability that would avoid the need for a debt restructuring or government recapitalization, Bloomberg News reports.April 6Selling gains steam in China Huarongs dollar bonds, following a holiday in China. Huarong Securities says there has been no major change to its operations, in response to a price plunge for its 3 billion yuan local bond.April 1China Huarong announces a delay in releasing 2020 results, saying its auditor is unable to finalize a transaction. Stock trading is suspended and spreads jump on the firms dollar bonds while China Huarong tells investors its business is running as usual. Caixin reports the company submitted restructuring and other major reform plans to government officials and shareholders.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

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Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. Hot. High 91F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

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She's been tipped as the favourite to host A Current Affair when Tracey Grimshaw decides to leave.

And on Monday, an insider claimed pregnant Sylvia Jeffreys, who is expecting her second child with Peter Stefanovic in April will never go back to working on the Today show because of the early hours.

'Sylvia will never consider going back to Today - she's a mum now and those early mornings are not even up for consideration,' the 'source' allegedly told Woman's Day.

'She wants the plum role at ACA': An insider has confirmed pregnant Sylvia Jeffreys (pictured), is tipped to host A Current Affair when Tracey Grimshaw, 60, decides to leave

'She's made it clear she wants the plum role at ACA.'

The insider added that the Nine Network were trying to get Tracey, 60, to do 'more specialised reporting' instead.

'They've made no secret they want Sylvia in that chair - she's young, fresh, popular and well respected,' the source added.

The 34-year-old is currently hosting Today Extra alongside David Campbell.

'They've made no secret they want Sylvia in that chair': The insider added that the Nine Network were trying to get Tracey (pictured) to do 'more specialised reporting' instead

And she returned to work at Channel Nine's A Current Affair this month.

'Starting the working year at the @acurrentaffair9 desk. See you at 7pm,' Sylvia captioned a post to her Instagram to mark the moment on January 2.

Sylvia was moved from Nine's low-rating morning show Today to a prime time slot with A Current Affair in 2019.

Why she moved from Today? Sylvia was moved from Nine's low-rating morning show Today to a prime time slot with A Current Affair in 2019

Sylvia has reportedly made a big impression with the network's executives since becoming a reporter for the program.

An insider told Woman's Day in 2019 she was heavily favoured to replace Tracy when she decided to leave the show.

The news came after Sylvia filled in for a couple of nights for TV veteran when she was absent from the show for two weeks.

A Nine spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that 'we reject the claims made in the magazine story.'

'They are claims without foundation and are completely false,' the spokesman said.
An enterprise security strategy should be like a weather report: subject to frequent updates. Allowing a security plan to fall out of sync with current and emerging threats, as well as evolving enterprise technologies and interests, can open the door to financial and reputational catastrophes.

Many elements contribute to a comprehensive security strategy and just as many factors can break or outdate a once-formidable security blueprint. "People, process, and technology are the key areas," says Greg Carrico, senior cybersecurity manager at business and technology consulting firm Capgemini North America. "Companies that don't maintain a pulse on current events, process automation, review cycles and current technical skillsets may continue to struggle with the protection of their most critical items without even realizing that threat actors have set their proverbial sights on them."

Indicators of an ineffective security strategy

The best security plans are crisp, relevant, and easily understood by everyone across the entire enterprise. "Your strategy needs to be feasible, acceptable, suitable, affordable, and understandable," says Brigadier General (retired) Gregory J. Touhill, the first federal CISO and currently an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. "As a military commander, I knew our strategy was outdated or ineffective when my troops couldnt articulate it to me," he says. "When the troops dont know your strategy, or how they are contributing to it, that is a major alarm bell."

An obvious sign of an outdated security strategy is an overall lack of relevance. "To ensure that critical security resources are helping to meet key strategic objectives, it's imperative for the security strategy to be directly aligned to the core components in an organization's business strategy," says Brennan P. Baybeck, an Oracle vice president and CISO for customer services.
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Kendallville, IN (46755)

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Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High near 50F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

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New Delhi, Jan 18 : A 42-year-old spiritual practitioner has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Kerala High Court order, which denied the release of his 21-year-old live-in partner from the custody of her parents.

The plea filed by spiritual practitioner Kailas Natarajan through advocate A. Karthik said: "The court has recorded the statement of the detenue wherein she had clearly stated that she was under illegal custody and has been subjected to physical violence and had expressed her intention to go with the petitioner, who is her spiritual live-in partner and acharya." The petitioner had filed a habeas corpus plea before the high court stating that his live-in partner was forcefully taken away by her parents on October 26 last year against her will.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran denied to pass any interim order.

"What is the evidence on record that you are a spiritual guru and you are her guru too." the bench asked senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner.

Sankaranarayanan argued that the high court had made an inquiry into his antecedents, which goes against the spirit of the verdict passed by the top court in the Hadiya case. The Chief Justice replied that the court is not discussing the Hadiya case here, reiterating that what is the proof that the petitioner is her spiritual guru.

"The detenue, a competent adult and a well-educated woman, is the spiritual live-in partner and yoga shishya of the petitioner. The detenue has been put in illegal confinement by her parents and her relatives (Respondents 3-5) since 26.10.2020," said the plea.

The petitioner argued that the high court erred in calling for an enquiry into his antecedents and they can have no bearing on the outcome of a habeas corpus petition. "The petitioner is only a person who informs the court that a person is under illegal detention. Thereafter, it is the duty of the court along with the law enforcement agencies to find out whether there has been an illegal detention and to remedy it," said the plea.

After a brief hearing, the top court let the high court proceed with the matter, and the bench will take it up next week. "We want to see what the high court does," said the Chief Justice.
Salma Hayek is celebrating a new social media achievement - garnering 17M followers on Instagram.

On Sunday the 54-year-old Mexican-American celebrated the accomplishment as she treated her fans to a photoshoot, while posing in a plunging green dress.

Sending a multilingual message to her Insta-community with snaps from her tropical vacation she wrote, '17 million, millones, milioni, milhoes...!!,' while hashtagging 'love, grateful, 17, green.'

17M: Salma Hayek, 54, flashes her famous curves in a plunging green dress as she celebrates 17M followers on Instagram while on a tropical vacation

Showing off her famous curves in the slinky green number that hugged her body in all the right places, Salma threw up her arms to paint a picture of strength.

Her outfit was adorned with a pearl necklace and some pearl drop earrings, as she softly smiled with a full face of makeup.

Leaning into the island life she wore her brown locks down in beachy curls while posing against a sea of trees.

Killer curves: The plunging green dress hugged her body in all the right places as she showed off her elegant vacation ensemble

She continued to celebrate as she carved the word 'Seventeen,' into the sand.

The enormous following perhaps boosted by her January 13 Instagram post, where she shook like a dog in a textured bikini, the video garnered over 4M views.

The actress got her big break in Desperado before becoming an Academy Award nominee for her portrayal of Frida Kahlo in the 2002 film.

Putting on a memorable performance as a snake-dancing vampire stripper in Quentin Tarantino's From Dusk Till Dawn - which will have its 25th anniversary this coming Tuesday - she shared in an interview that she almost lost the role due to her fear of snakes.

Island life: The Mexican-American actress celebrated the achievement with a photoshoot while leaning into Island life

Celebratory sand scripture: She carved the word 'Seventeen' into the sand as she celebrated the magnitude of her accomplishment

'Quentin told me, "Oh, by the way, you're dancing with a snake." I said, "I can't do that, I can't do that, It's my greatest fear,"' prompting him to almost give the role to Madonna.

Telling Hayek, 'Madonna will do it, I already talked to her, and she's willing to dance with the snake,' lit a fire under her to face the fear.

A notorious sex symbol and a Hollywood vet, her new movie Bliss alongside Owen Wilson is set for release on Amazon Prime Video on February 5.
"As we experience a growing demand across a number of industries, AMT's field services, tooling manufacturing and other machining capabilities allows us to expand our capacity," said Michael Potter, President and CEO of Bender CCP. "Our customers look to us as a one stop shop and, with AMT onboard, we offer more robust services."

"Our hydropower business has grown drastically in the last 10 years," said Randy Potter, President and CEO of Unico Mechanical. "AMT brings the deep field expertise necessary for the complex large-scale hydropower projects we handle such as the Hoover Dam, California Water Resources and Pacific Gas & Electric. We're excited to have the AMT team on board."

AMT's President Terry Forg explained "Joining the Bender CCP and Unico team is a natural next step for AMT. It provides a great opportunity to bring our in-place and turbine repair expertise to larger-scale projects in the western region, and to bring Bender and Unico's broader service set to our power generation customer base. "

About Unico Mechanical and Bender CCP

Unico Mechanical and Bender CCP are one of the leading full-service providers of engineering services, machine shop and in-place field machine repair services in the western region. With decades of experience across several industries including energy, hydropower, ship repair and others, we are one of the only companies that can handle large-scale complex projects in machining, grinding, balancing, equipment overhauls, repairs and restoration. To learn more, visit www.benderccp.com, www.unicomechanical.com.

SOURCE Bender CCP
Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
A stalemate between the Northern Ireland Executive and Westminster is continuing over a compensation scheme for injured Troubles victims.

Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy said the London government should fund the payments because the legislation was passed at Westminster.

It has been estimated the payments could cost 800 million.

Announcing the draft budget for 2021/22 to the Assembly on Monday, Mr Murphy said Secretary of State Brandon Lewis has yet to provide funding for the scheme.

I hope that the Secretary of State will meet with Executive ministers to discuss how the significant costs involved, which the Justice Minister has estimated may be as much as 800 million, will be funded Conor Murphy

Mr Murphy also said that Mr Lewis refused to meet First Minister Arlene Foster, Deputy First Minister Michelle Lewis, Justice Minister Naomi Long or himself over the matter.

The Executive is fully committed to delivering these payments and in line with the British Governments own Statement of Funding Policy, it is the responsibility of the British Government to provide the necessary funding, he told MLAs.

I hope that the Secretary of State will meet with Executive ministers to discuss how the significant costs involved, which the Justice Minister has estimated may be as much as 800 million, will be funded.

Stormonts department of justice was designated to administer the scheme last September.

It is anticipated it will open for applications in March.

A UK Government spokesperson said: The Secretary of State has been consistent in his support for the Victims Payment Scheme.

He has always been clear that the devolved funding settlement means that the Executive is funded through the block grant, together with its own revenue-raising capabilities, to deliver its statutory responsibilities, including this scheme.
In one of the largest commercial office space deals in India during recent times, real estate major DLFs rental arm pre-leased 7.7 lakh sq ft of office space to Standard Chartered GBS to set-up its largest office establishment at DLF Downtown located in Taramani, Chennai. The realtor is developing the Taramani project with a total investment of Rs 5,000 crore. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Godrej Fund Management, the real estate private equity arm of the Godrej Group, has announced the first close of its Rs 3,700-crore office development platform, GBTC II in partnership with Netherlands-based APG Asset Management N.V., the cornerstone investor in the platform.

Under this programme, GFM will have the ability to develop Class-A office assets that will be valued in excess of Rs 11,000 crore on completion and the total value of office assets including those from previous funds will take the portfolio value on completion to over Rs 22,000 crore. GFM has fully invested the previously raised capital under GBTC I and Godrej Office Fund I, the company said.

GBTC is a club-style office investment strategy that invests in developing world-class office buildings in prime locations across the leading office markets in India. The platform currently has a strong investment pipeline and aims to deploy the newly-raised capital within 12 months.

This is the third India focused office venture and 5th overall, sponsored by GFM.

We are pleased to partner with APG on our second build to core platform. Our Group has a strong conviction in Indias premium office sector and we believe the current dislocation in markets provides attractive capital deployment opportunities. The addition of this platform brings significant scale to our overall strategy and will open up strategic avenues for value maximization in the future, Karan Bolaria, managing director and CEO, Godrej Fund Management.

Graeme Torre, Managing Director, APG Asset Management Asia, said, We are looking forward to another successful partnership with Godrej. The build-to-core strategy for Indian offices aligns very well with our broader investment aspirations for our pension fund clients and our desire to invest alongside partners who offer best-in-class execution capabilities.
A prominent pastor of an unofficial Protestant "house church" in Beijing has been denied his state pension, with officials citing a criminal conviction linked to his faith activities, RFA has learned.



House church elder Xu Yonghai, who just turned 60, was turned away by a Beijing municipal government service center after he went there to claim his first pension payments.



Xu, formerly head of the Beijing Sheng'ai Protestant Family Church Fellowship, should have received his first payments this month, but instead was denied the money, with officials citing his "criminal record."



Xu stood trial on charges of "leaking state secrets overseas" in 2004 after he campaigned online on behalf of jailed Chinese Christians, and has repeatedly been placed under shorter-term detention by police in the years since.



"What am I supposed to do now? I don't have any money to live on, nor to get medical treatment if I need it," he said.



"A lot of my income from employment during [my working] years was given over to the the state, to my employer, to contribute to my pension," Xu said. "That money should be mine, and now they've taken it away from me."



"The court only stripped me of my political rights [when I was sentenced] back then; it didn't confiscate any of my property," Xu said.



Beijing-based housing rights activist Ni Yulan, who is also a church elder, said she has also been denied her state pension.



"After Pastor Xu was arrested, his wife was later transferred to [a different job]. She then resigned and later found another employer," Ni said.



"Now they rely on his wifes salary alone to get by," she said. "You can only get a retirement pension if those in power say so."



Scene when a house church in the northern province of Shanxi Taiyuan was raided by the police, and pastors and volunteers were taken away. Crackdown on Chinese Christians

The denial of Xu's pension comes amid an ongoing crackdown on Chinese Christians under ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.



Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan last week raided a homeschooling group run by former members of the banned Early Rain Covenant Church in the provincial capital, Chengdu.



"At 7:00 , a large group of police officers, education bureau officials, national security officers, and urban management officers surrounded a home where homeschooled children of Early Rain Covenant Church were playing together," the church said in a post on its Facebook page on Jan. 14.



"The police are now raiding the home. There are a large number of police officers outside and inside of brother Liang Huali and Sister Shu Qiongs home, and they are currently removing brother Liangs personal belongings. Please pray!," it said.



A Protestant church member who gave only a surname, Zhang, said Shu and Liang had been occupying a sub-divided apartment in Chengdu, and the children had gone there to play during homeschooling amid coronavirus pandemic restrictions currently in place in the city.



"They took away many of Brother Liangs personal belongings and brought him to the police station," Zhang said. "They didn't released them until the same evening, and slapped [Liang] in the face."



According to the U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid, a large number of Liang's books were taken away by the police, along with Shu Qiong's laptop. Dozens of boxes of books stored in Liang's house by another Christian from the church were also seized.



Police also detained church member Ailun.



Local police have stepped up surveillance of churches ahead of Lunar New Year in February, and some church members have a security detail outside their front door.



Officials around the country have banned gatherings amid a second wave of COVID-19 cases in a number of northern cities.



Ban on gatherings

Pastor Zhan Gang of the Jiaozhou Bay Church in the eastern province of Shandong said the ban has already been publicized there.



"We have stopped worshiping ahead of the Spring Festival. They have stopped everywhere," Zhan said. "There is no timeframe for when we can start again."



"The government is using the pandemic to suppress the growth of religious activity," he said.



Earlier this month, Wang Haifeng of the Beijing Municipal Commission for Ethnic and Religious Affairs, told a news conference that the city authorities were shuttering 155 religious venues in the city as part of pandemic restrictions.



A pastor of a house church in Beijing's Fengtai district who gave only the surname Li said churches there had been told to stop gathering, too.



"The (CCP-approved) Three-Self Patriotic Association churches here in Beijing were notified two weeks ago that gatherings are no longer allowed," Li said.



"People are being encouraged to report any gatherings ... so all we can do is move them online," he said.



The CCP under Xi Jinping regards Christianity as a dangerous foreign import, with party documents warning against the "infiltration of Western hostile forces" in the form of religion.



The ruling party embraces atheism, yet exercises tight controls over any form of religious practice among its citizens.



China is home to an estimated 68 million Protestants, of whom 23 million worship in state-affiliated churches under the aegis of the Three-Self Patriotic Association, and some nine million Catholics, the majority of whom are in state-sponsored organizations.



Reported by Gao Feng and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
As three cars of tourists make their way into the heritage crafts village of Raghurajpur in Odisha's Puri district which is famous worldwide for its 'Pattachitra' art, the villagers display anxious looks.

Sitting in the foyers of their houses which are artistically painted, they look up curiously at the visitors in the car before passing a smile. Some turn back to carefully paint the 'Pattachitra' while some welcome the visitors with folded hands.

In the middle of the village which has houses in two rows facing each other, is the house of Bhagaban Swain, a 65-year-old retired school teacher. The four walls of the medium sized room are packed with shelves displaying the ancient Pattachitra paintings beside various other forms on wooden and stone carved pieces.

Bhagaban Swain's son Shibanarayan Swain, 23 is doing MCA from Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar and takes pride in displaying the art forms like Patta painting, Tasser painting and palm leaf engraving that has been the tradition for not only his family but the approximately 160 houses in the village. His mother Sakhi too has mastered the art with perfection.

"This is my ancestral work, though I am doing MCA, I will make sure I take the art forward and bring more acknowledgement and pride to Raghurajpur village. I have mastered the art from my father and uncle Biswanath Swain who was a national awardee in palm leaf engraving. My professional degree would help me to take the art to another level," Shibanarayan Swain says as he carefully picks up a Pattachitra painting from the shelves.

There are others in the village too who are professional degree holders but have continued with the traditional art form.

"There are many professionally qualified people in the village. They take pride in the art for the village. A man in the village is a chartered accountant, one is a supply inspector and another a traffic officer," Shibanarayan said.

A few metres away from the Swain house in the opposite lane, separated by a temple, a young girl Pragya Vernita Das stands with her younger brother. She has beautifully displayed the various miniatures of deities and temples on the door.

"I am doing graduation but I have learnt the art at an early age. I will continue to balance studies with the art form. Even if I decide to do a job one day I will make sure that I keep finding time to do Pattachitra and other art forms our village Raghurajpur is famous for," Pragya said with a smile.

A few steps ahead, five boys are seen cheering one who is playing a mobile game. A loud roar is heard, an indication the player Joyant Maharana has won.

"Me and my brother Chandan have learnt the village art from our parents. It is our duty to take the art forward and make Raghurajpur famous at the international front," said Joyant.

The tourism department of the state also has a development programme for the heritage village.

"We also have plans to develop the village Raghurajpur in near future as the village has much tourist and the traders' footfall from across the world. We would ensure better coordination between the villagers and the visitors," said Vishal K. Dev, commissioner-cum-secretary, Department of Tourism, Odisha.

Patta means cloth and Chitra means paintings, so Pattachitra is essentially a painting on a piece of cloth. The popular forms of Pattachitra are the paintings on cloth depicting scenes from mythology and epics, the Tassar cloth Pattachitra are also popular worldwide.

The Pattachitra etched on dried palm leaves are picked up as souvenirs, also the paper mache masks and paintings on coconut. Apart from these, artists also engage in making miniature temples and deities and toys of stone and wood with paintings on them.

Davis L. Josephus, 20, (pictured) was arrested over the killing of Milan Loncar on Wednesday

A man accused of killing a dog walker in botched robbery in Philadelphia last week was released on bail just two weeks before the slaying, it emerged today - after his kidnapping trial was delayed eight times.

The delays that led a judge to lower Davis L. Josephus's bail have been blamed on a combination of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic and prosecution blunders.

Josephus, 20, was this weekend arrested over the killing of 25-year-old graduate student Milan Loncar who was shot on Wednesday night while walking his dog about a block from his Breweryton, Philadelphia home.

The murder appears to have been committed during a robbery and CCTV shows two men holding the victim at gunpoint before the killing.

Josephus had posted $20,000 bail on December 29 on charges of motor theft and kidnapping, and $12,000 on charges including aggravated assault on a prison guard, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

He had been arrested in February 2020 for allegedly kidnapping an Uber driver and remained in jail since that date. But he was released last month on the lower bail - that had been dramatically reduced from $300,000 - after his trial date was delayed eight times, the paper said.

Josephus's lawyer was able to ask for the lower bail because of the delays to the trial, which were caused by prosecutors repeatedly failing to have their case prepared and delays and closures across the court system caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Before his February 2020 arrest, Josephus had been arrested five times over the preceding year.

He now stands accused of murdering Loncar, a Temple graduate, as he tried to rob him. Loncar was shot dead just before 7pm local time on Wednesday after being approached by the two men, one of them armed, who were caught on video.

Milan Loncar was walking his dachshund-chihuahua mix dog named Roo on Wednesday at about 7pm when he was shot dead just one block from his home in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia. He is pictured with his girlfriend Olivia Gorski

Surveillance video caught the moment when Milan Locar, 25, was stopped by two men who rifled through his pockets and then shot him in the chest

The shooting suspects are seen here as they walk down the street together (left), before separating briefly to surround Loncar (right) as he walks his dog

DAVIS JOSEPHUS' RAP SHEET: March 2015: David was charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and simple assault. He was found to be an adjudicated delinquent on the assault charge, which is the same as a guilty verdict. January 2019: He was charged with robbery and conspiracy. His bail was set at $20,000. The charges were later dropped but refiled by the DA in August. His bail was revoked the following month. October 2019: He pleaded guilty to both of the charges above and was sentenced to between 6 to 12 months in prison with two years probation. He bail was reinstated. January 2020: He pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy in a separate robbery case from October 2019. He was given them same sentence but the judge ruled he could serve both sentences concurrently. February 2020: He was arrested over a carjacking and charged with robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle, kidnapping for ransom and conspiracy related to an incident in July 2019. The victim was believed to be an Uber drive. This time his bail was set at $100,000. He remained in prison for the majority of 2020. September 2020: He was charged with assault for attacking a prison guard or inmate. October 2020: During his assault hearing, his bail was reduced from $200,000 to $12,000. He only had to post $1,200 to get out. December 2020: His bail in the carjacking was then reduced from $100,000 to $20,000. He only had to pay $2,000 to get out. He was able to pay his bond for the carjacking and jail assault cases and was released. Advertisement

Police said one of the men pointed a gun at Loncar then both reached for his pants pockets before he was shot once in the chest. Surveillance footage captured the deadly encounter.

Loncar was still holding the leash of his dachshund-chihuahua mix dog named Roo when officers found his body.

Later that evening, officers apprehended the driver of a vehicle stopped in connection with a carjacking from the day before.

Four other men fled the vehicle and the captured driver was later identified as Josephus, who lives just two streets away from Loncar.

He was charged with murder and related offenses, according to The Inquirer. Police said a second man has been identified in the killing and is considered a person of interest.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement on Sunday night that his office had opposed the reductions in Josephus' bail before the judges but that the sums had been slashed 'over our objections'.

In a separate interview, Krasner's spokesperson Jane Roh said she could not say whether the office appealed the bail reductions but the court record from the Common Pleas Court does not show any such appeals, according to The Inquirer.

Josephus has a long rap sheet, having been arrested five times since January 2019, prior to the most recent accusations.

In February 2020 he was arrested on 11 counts including charges of kidnapping for ransom, robbery, car theft, firearms violations and other charges relating to a case from the previous summer.

Roh said the victim in the alleged offense was an Uber driver and court records show that bail of $100,000 had been set the day after Josephus' arrest.

He did not post bail and remained behind bars for most of 2020.

Pandemic-related courthouse closures caused repeated delays to Josephus' case but, according to The Inquirer, records also show that authorities were not ready to proceed.

The paper reported that on one occasion a witness was not in court while on another, officials did not bring Josephus to court from jail.

Judge Teresa Carr Deni lowered Josephus' bail to $20,000 following a motion from his court-appointed defense lawyer James Richard Llyod III.

Milan Loncar was a 25-year-old Temple University graduate

Police took two men into custody on Saturday in connection with the murder

The reduction came after the eighth time authorities scheduled a preliminary hearing in his case only for it to not take place.

Josephus posted $2,000 - the required 10% of his bail  on December 29, two weeks before Loncar's January 13 killing.

While still in jail in September last year, Josephus was charged aggravated harassment and had his bail set at $200,000. Roh said he had attacked and threatened a prison guard.

A motion from the unidentified Defender Association of Philadelphia lawyer in that case was granted by Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden and Josephus' bail was reduced to $12,000.

On December 29, he posted the required 10% of that sum.

Prior to those arrests, Josephus had been charged with committing two robberies in 2019, court records show.

He pleaded guilty to both charges in January 2020 and received a six-12-month jail sentence plus two years probation.

As of Monday, Loncar's family had raised more than $57,600 on GoFundMe offering a reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the suspects.

Loncar's mother told WPVI-TV that she was 'shaking' when she heard the news that two men had been detained.

It came after his girlfriend called him her 'soulmate' as she broke down in tears during his vigil on Friday night.

Family and friends gathered at the site where Loncar was killed, illuminating a portrait of him with the light of their cellphones, while also playing music and singing for him.

'He was my soulmate, and I don't think I have a plan anymore without him,' Loncar's girlfriend, Olivia Gorski, said at his vigil, fighting tears while being comforted by his mother, Amy Lounsberry.

Gorski had been planning to move in with Loncar next month.

Olivia Gorski called her slain boyfriend, Milan Loncar, 25, her 'soulmate.' He was fatally shot Wednesday night while walking his dog a block from his home

Gorski (far right) is pictured at Loncar's vigil Friday night, alongside his sister, Jelena Loncar, 27 (left) and mother, Amy Lounsberry (center). Jelena is holding Loncar's dog, Roo

The vigil was held at the spot where Loncar was fatally shot. Friends and family gathered to light up his portrait with their cell phones and sing songs in his memory (pictured)

While speaking with 6ABC, Lounsberry, said of her son and Gorski, 'We might've had a wedding.'

'There would have been a wedding,' Gorski replied, definitively.

Loncar's sister, Jelena Loncar, 27, said of the man who shot her brother, 'You've taken so much from us, you've hurt the neighborhood. It's not just one life.'

'You've ruined hundreds of lives that you don't even know,' Gorski added.

Loncar had graduated from Temple in 2019 after majoring in engineering and had been working for a construction management company for about a year.

Lounsberry told the Philadelphia Inquirer 'everything was coming together' for 'a beloved sweet boy just starting his life'.

Police released the surveillance video from Wednesday night's incident in an attempt to help identify the suspects.

The video shows two suspects walking down the sidewalk then splitting up to corral Loncar as they approach him, stopping him in his tracks.

One of the suspects can be seen pulling out what appears to be a gun and holding it at chest level to stop Loncar. The suspect then seems to reach for Loncar's pockets.

Police said that a shot was then fired and that the suspects ran from the scene.

Loncar's mother shared that she would be holding a memorial on Friday, writing: 'I want to stand tonight where my son fell and I'm hoping some of you will stand with me in remembrance'

Lounsberry has shared a series of heartbreaking posts and spoken about his life in interviews with local news outlets.

'He is so missed and we are trying to pull together and get everybody through,' she told 6 ABC. 'He was going to move in with his girlfriend in March, he had graduated and had his first job and was just starting out.

'I don't know why they did it, I can't understand. They didn't get any money, did they need it so badly, were they trying to show off?

'I was so proud of him and everybody that he worked with, everybody he knew, they all said how he was doing so well. Everybody loved him.'

Lounsberry wrote on Facebook on Friday: 'I want to stand tonight where my son fell and I'm hoping some of you will stand with me in remembrance. I will be at 31st and Jefferson between 6:56, the time of the shots fired radio call, to 730 when he was declared dead.'

She then thanked people for attending, writing: 'Thank you all for coming tonight, it was so nice to have all of your support. I know we're all shocked and hurting but we were together tonight.'

Police said that Loncar used his cell phone to call for help after he was shot and was found in the street injured, while still holding the dog's leash, CBS Philadelphia reported.

Loncar was declared dead at the hospital at about 7.30pm.

Police believe that Loncar was killed in an attempted robbery.

Family members told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Loncar's house keys and cell phone were found at the scene. He didn't have his wallet on him - he'd left it at home.

Loncar's sister Jelena Loncar, 27, lives near her brother. She said she first learned about the shooting through an alert on the Citizen App as she was driving home from dinner with her mother.

At the time, she wasn't aware of who had been shot.

Lounsberry has shared a series of heartbreaking posts and spoken about his life in interviews with local news outlets

Jelena (left with Loncar) said that she heard about a shooting through a neighborhood app and called her brother, but he didn't answer, leaving her to fear the worst

She said that she called Loncar, who didn't answer his phone, leading her to fear the worst, she told CBS Philadelphia.

Jelena's roommate, Arshiya Luthra, 26, then went to the scene, described Loncar and then realized he had been the person who had been shot when police brought her Loncar's dog, Luthra told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jelena described her brother as being 'the kindest person in the entire world' and that he was 'selfless, constantly smiling.'

His uncle, Nikola Loncar, 66, told the newspaper that Loncar 'was very polite. I don't think he would ever fight anybody.'

Police released surveillance footage showing multiple angles of the suspects approaching and stopping Loncar.

Surveillance footage also showed the suspects as they ran away.

Police are asking for the public's help in providing details about the incident, which they are calling an apparent robbery.

Anyone with details about the shooting is asked to contact the homicide unit at 215-686-3334 or the police tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477) or email tips@phillypolice.com.
Word is out today that Joe Biden plans to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One in office. Leaving aside potential legal difficulties (I can imagine that, depending on the exact status of the permit, Trans-Canada may have a strong case for damages before the U.S. Federal Court of Claims), this is pure symbolism, as it will not reduce the amount of oil consumed in the U.S. by a single barrel. Well likely still get nearly as much Canadian oil without the pipeline, though it will have to be shipped by more expensive and more risky rail transport. Whatdo environmentalists think Saudi oil is low-carbon or something?

And I guess all that criticism of how Trump is heedless about the interests of our allies was bunk. Canada is not just our leading foreign oil supplier; I know that the Obama Administrations treatment of Keystone ten years ago was a major irritant to the Canadian government, which, being Canadian, was too polite to complain about publicly. So now were going to pick a diplomatic fight with our friendliest neighborand one whose liberal government wants the pipeline.

Politico reports:

Keystone XL was one of the few issues on which Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed. The Liberal government had planned to continue to advocate for the pipeline. During a congratulatory call with Biden on Nov. 9, Trudeau told the incoming president he looked forward to joining forces to fight climate change while co-operating on energy projects like the Keystone XL.

I dont want want to hear another word about how Trump antagonized our European allies.

Chaser:

Im hoping some reporter will ask Biden if he still favors clean coal, but I wont hold my breath.
Doctors have stopped providing life-support treatment to a middle-aged Catholic man who had been at the centre of a legal dispute after falling into a coma, lawyers say

Doctors have stopped providing life-support treatment to a middle-aged Catholic man who had been at the centre of a legal dispute after falling into a coma, lawyers say.

A judge based in London ruled that ending life-support treatment was in the man's best interests a month ago, at a hearing in the Court of Protection, after his wife said he would not want to be a burden and should be allowed to die.

The man's mother, sisters and niece, who are being supported by pro-life group the Christian Legal Centre, disagreed and said that, because of his Catholic beliefs, he would not have wanted his life to be terminated if it could be preserved.

His niece failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges in London to overturn Mr Justice Cohen's decision and failed to persuade judges at the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. Appeal judges had said that litigation should end.

Lawyers involved in the case said yesterday that treatment had been withdrawn.

Mr Justice Cohen has ruled that the man, who lives in the West Country but comes from Poland, cannot be named.

Bosses at the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust have responsibility for the man's care and had asked Mr Justice Cohen to rule that ending life-support treatment would be lawful.

Mr Justice Cohen, who also hears cases in the Family Division of the High Court, heard that the man had fallen into a coma several weeks ago after suffering brain damage.

Specialists treating the man said his condition would never improve significantly,
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
- High demand from end-use industries due to its benefits such as excellent tensile strength that increases durability & reliability drives the growth of the global steel grating market

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Steel Grating Market by Material Type (Stainless Steel Grating, Carbon Steel Grating, and Aluminum Steel Grating), Surface Type (Plain Steel Grating and Serrated Steel Grating), Fabrication (Welded Steel Grating, Swage Locked Grating, Press Locked Grating, Riveted Grating, and Close Mesh Steel Grating), Application (Stair Treads, Walkways, Platforms, Security Fence, Drainage Covers, Trench Covers, and Others), and End-Use Industry (Food Processing, Pharmaceuticals, Cement, Steel, Chemical, Papermaking, Oil & Gas, Electric Power, Mining, Marine, Wastewater Treatment, Civil Engineering, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027." According to the report, the global steel grating industry generated $182.2 billion in 2019, and is expected to garner $261.2 billion by 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 4.7% from 2020 to 2027.

Prime determinants of growth

High demand from end-use industries due to its benefits such as excellent tensile strength that increases durability & reliability and technological advancements drive the growth of the global steel grating market. However, carbon emissions generated during the production and ease in availability and advantages of FRP grating hinder the market growth. On the other hand, various customizations offered by market players for grating products present new opportunities in the coming years.

Request PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/3229

COVID-19 Scenario

Manufacturing activity has taken a toll due to the lockdown imposed by governments in many countries. The shortage of raw materials has been occurred due to disrupted supply chain. In addition, non-availability or less availability of workers is another hindrance due to which manufacturing activities came to halt.

The demand from the end-use industries such as oil & gas, construction, electric power, and mining reduced considerably due to discontinuation in operations during the lockdown. However, demand is expected to grow during the post-lockdown period.

The carbon steel grating segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on material type, the carbon steel grating segment accounted for the largest market share in terms of revenue, contributing to nearly three-fourths of the global steel grating market in 2019, and will maintain its lead position during the forecast period. This is due to the growth of the construction industry in the developing economies and its utilization in trench and drainage covers to drain water and block wastes. However, the stainless steel grating segment is estimated to witness the fastest CAGR of 6.7% from 2020 to 2027. This is attributed to increase in demand from chemical manufacturers across the countries of Europe and the Asia-Pacific region for the resistance provided by this material type to chemical and corrosive environments.

Get Detailed COVID-19 Impact Analysis on the Steel Grating Market @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/3229?reqfor=covid

The oil & gas segment to continue its leadership status by 2027

Based on end-use industry, the oil & gas segment contributed to the highest share in 2019, accounting for more than one-tenth of the global steel grating market, and is expected to continue its leadership status by 2027. This is attributed to rise in offshore oil & gas exploration activities from major oil-producing companies of the U.S., China, and Latin America. However, the pharmaceuticals segment is estimated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period, owing to increase in investments in building new manufacturing facilities and utilize steel grating to build platform, floor, corridor channel, and stair treads in the plants.

Asia-Pacific to offer lucrative opportunities, North America to grow steadily

Based on region, Asia-Pacific held the largest share in 2019, contributing to more than one-third of the global steel grating market, and will continue its dominance in terms of revenue during the forecast period. Moreover, this region is projected to manifest the largest CAGR of 6.0% from 2020 to 2027. This is attributed to presence of oil refineries, pharmaceutical, and chemical manufacturing facilities in the region. However, North America is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period.

Leading market players

Nucor Corporation

Valmont Industries

Sinosteel Corporation

Alabama Metal Industries, Corporation (AMICO)

Anping Enzar Metal Products Co. Ltd.

Ohio Gratings

P&R Metals

Lionweld Kennedy

Interstate Gratings

Litchgitter GmbH

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Tom Hallberg covers a little bit of everything, from skiing to long-form feature stories. A Teton Valley, Idaho, transplant by way of Portland and Bend, Oregon, he spends his time outside work writing fiction, splitboarding and climbing.
ALBANY  A Capital Region man was arrested Saturday night for his participation in the storming of the U.S. Capitol, the FBI Albany office announced.

Brandon Fellows, a 2012 Niskayuna High School graduate who has a Schenectady address on his driver's license, was charged with violent entry of restricted grounds for his role in the siege at the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the Electoral College results Jan. 6. Fellows has bragged about his role in the violence on his social media accounts, according to court filings, as well as to members of the media.

Did I think I was going to get in trouble? Fellows said to Bloomberg News. Uh, no.

Fellows is one of many who have been taken into custody after the events of Jan. 6. The FBI has arrested more than 100 individuals and has more than 200 case files open. And while Fellows is the first known arrest of a person from the Capital Region, he is not the first upstater arrested, as a Rochester man and a Syracuse man have each been apprehended and charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol.

Round Lake resident Sharon Pineo resigned from the Malta Zoning Board last week after a photograph showed her being led from the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 by police with her hands behind her back. There has been no evidence Pineo faces criminal charges.

Fellows, who Bloomberg reported lives in a converted school bus in the Capital Region, has not been shy about his participation in the insurrection that has led to five deaths. He posted videos on his Snapchat account throughout the afternoon of January 6, including one showing him smoking a joint with his feet on the desk of Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, as well as posting an image of him atop a police motorcycle.

He appeared in the videos and pictures of others, including one where he said "Hey there. My name is Brandon Fellows from Albany, New York," according to court records. He posted on his Facebook that "I saw the fear" of the government of the protesters because "many of us had guns at our hotel rooms and vehicles... we just weren't pissed enough to kill police or military. But we will fight them and make them retreat."

And Fellows also posted on his Tik Tok account, saying, "I will be posting more photos so long as the FBI doesn't come get me," according to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI. The complaint says there's no evidence at this time that Fellows directly participated in the theft or vandalism that occurred.

Do you think Im going to go to federal prison? I was told federal prison is not fun," Fellows said to Bloomberg News last week. He then posted a video on his Instagram account Saturday, eating at a restaurant, where he says "this is my last meal before going to prison.

He told Bloomberg that his profile on the dating app Bumble, however, has been blowing up ever since his participation in the insurrection against the U.S. government.

His first court date is set for Tuesday afternoon in the Northern District of New York.
Eskoms latest system status report has shown that there is a high likelihood of load-shedding for the next three months with severe electricity shortages expected.

As part of its system status report, Eskom published its maintenance plan and the planned risk level of outages.

As there is the potential for further outages, it also provided a likely risk scenario includes an additional 2,000MW of outages on the base plan.

According to Eskoms three-month outlook, the likely scenario is an average of 16,200MW of outages until April.

Eskom divided its risk level into four categories:

Green  Adequate generation to meet demand and reserves.

Yellow  Smaller than 1,000MW possibly short to meet reserves.

Orange  1,001MW to 2,000MW definitely short to meet reserves and possibly demand.

Red  Over 2,001MW short to meet demand and reserves.

The outlook between 11 January 2021 and 12 April 2021 shows that the likely risk scenario is in the red every week over this period.

Energy expert Chris Yelland warned that the forecast is only for three months, and that the situation can extend well beyond April.

He added that there is nothing that Eskom is currently doing which will significantly alter the situation which it finds itself in.

There is nothing Eskom can do other than working hard on maintenance and bringing Medupi and Kusile to completion, Yelland said.

Professor Anton Eberhard from the University of Cape Town described the situation as code red for the next three months.

He added that he does not understand the governments lack of concern regarding this issue.

Power cuts will cripple South Africas post COVID-19 economic recovery. Load-shedding cannot be the new norm, he said.

Eberhard said Eskom cannot solve South Africas power crisis alone and pleaded for regulatory reform to make it easier for companies and municipalities to generate their own power.

The average age of Eskoms current power fleet is nearly 40 years, of which 11,000MW is set to be decommissioned by 2030.

With R480 billion in debt, Eskom cannot finance new capacity and the government doesnt have the money to help.

South Africa is now reliant on private investment for new power, Eberhard said.

The table below shows the three-month outlook for load-shedding in South Africa.

The government dragging its feet

Minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe has been in office for just under two years but has yet to conclude a single government backed contract for new power.

The IRP mandated 5th round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Independent Power Project Programme has been stalled since 2015, Eberhard said.

Instead of implementing the least-cost options in the Integrated Energy Plan, Mantashe has created irrelevant diversions through punting expensive nuclear and coal options which have no chance of solving South Africas power crisis in the next decade.

South Africas energy minister has initiated an emergency power programme which was supposed to deliver power in months, but which is now stretching into years, he said.

Every month of delay in launching a new auction for power as specified in South Africas least-cost electricity plan means another month of load-shedding.

According to Eberhard there is huge frustration among electricity users with the regulatory impediments in South Africas power sector.

He argues electricity users should have the freedom to invest in their own power solutions amidst the energy crisis in South Africa.

Minister Mantashe thinks everything is fine, but everything is patently not fine. The lights are going off and well continue to see crippling load-shedding until there are bold regulatory and structural reforms, Eberhard said.

Yelland echoed Eberhards views, saying the governments planned procurement of new generation capacity is not going to provide alleviation to the shortage within the nest two to three years.

South African households and businesses will therefore have to take responsibility for their own energy futures.

To do this effectively and quickly, the government needs to reduce the regulatory burden and red tape involved with the registration and licensing of self-generation, Yelland said.

The government should also remove the restrictions around private power generation being fed back into the grid.

Thirteen years of load-shedding in South Africa

South Africa first experienced load-shedding in November 2007 with rolling blackouts leaving the country in the dark.

The government was quick to promise long-term solutions, which included the construction of two mega coal-fired power stations  Medupi and Kusile.

These two power stations promised enough additional power to solve South Africas electricity crisis but delays in completing these stations and design problems dogged these projects.

Medupi and Kusile, which were originally expected to be completed by 2015, are still not completed or operating at capacity.

Yelland said Medupi and Kusile has become the Achilles heel of Eskom.

They are a big part of the cause of Eskoms debt which makes the power utility financially unsustainable, he said.

The ongoing problems and Eskom and delays in bringing Medupi and Kusile online has resulted in continued load-shedding for thirteen years.

Apart from a lull between 2009 and 2012, and then again between 2016 and 2017, South Africa experienced rolling blackouts every year between 2007 and 2021.

What is of particular concern is that load-shedding has been getting worse over the years.

Load-shedding increased both in terms of the number of days and MWh shed over the last few years.

In 2018, for example, South Africa experienced 15 days of load-shedding during which 812,205MWh were shed.

This increased to 36 days and 494,759MWh in 2019 and to 52 days and over 1,260,000MWh in 2020.

The tables below provide an overview of the number of days of load-shedding and the amount of power shed since 2007.

Year Load-shedding (number of days) 2007 13 2008 44 2009 0 2010 0 2011 0 2012 0 2013 3 2014 17 2015 103 2016 0 2017 0 2018 15 2019 30 2020 52
A commercial airplane flies past Burj Khalifa as it starts landing at Dubai international airport in the United Arab Emirates

Dubai-based airline Emirates on Monday launched a coronavirus vaccination programme for its staff based in the UAE, seeking to bolster the tourism sector.

"The inoculation drive began this morning, with priority being placed on its frontline aviation workforce, including cabin crew, flight deck and other operationally focused roles," it said in a statement.

It has made available the Pfizer-BioNTech and China's Sinopharm jabs.

Operations to inoculate staff will run for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, "to ensure as many essential aviation workers as possible can get the vaccine", the airline said.

The UAE capital Abu Dhabi began vaccinations in mid-December after approving Sinopharm, while Dubai began later that month using the jab developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

The UAE has so far recorded more than 253,000 COVID-19 cases, including 745 deaths.

According to health officials, it has already inoculated over 1.8 million of its approximately 10 million population.

As much of the world tightens lockdowns to stem the spread of the virus, Dubai reopened its doors for tourism in July last year.

Abu Dhabi, which with large oil reserves is less dependent on tourism, has taken a more conservative approach, generally requiring quarantine on arrival.

With a negative PCR test in their home countriesand possibly another upon arrival, depending on the place of departuretourists can freely enter Dubai, where winter temperatures average 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit).

Tourism has long been an economic mainstay of Dubai, which welcomed more than 16 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic struck.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2021 AFP
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is taking all efforts to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines from United Kingdom, but the process is being delayed to some legal issues involved in the matter.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing on March 15, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought some time to file report on the status of extradition of Mallya.

At the outset, Mehta shared a letter of the Ministry of External Affairs' official Devesh Uttam written to him on the status of extradition of Mallya from the United Kingdom.

The solicitor general stated that Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has raised the issue of extradition with the UK government and the Centre is taking all serious efforts to extradite Mallya.

He said that government is trying its best but status remains the same and from political executive level to administrative level the matter is being looked into repeatedly.

The bench took the letter on record.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

The letter submitted by the law officer stated that, the Ministry of External Affairs has been informed by the UK government that there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya can be extradited .

It said, Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential and you will understand that Her Majesty's government cannot provide any more details. We also cannot estimate how long this issue will take to resolve. Her Majesty's government fully understands the importance of this case to the government of India. I can reassure that Her Majesty's government is seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible .

The letter further stated, The government of India has been making consistent efforts for early extradition of Vijay Mallya. In November 2020, Foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla raised this issue with Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary who informed that UK's legal complexities were preventing the quick extradition of Vijay Mallya .

It further said, In December 2020, the external affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar raised the issue with the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home. UK's response remains the same .

On November 2, last year, the top court had asked the Centre to file status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the UK on extradition of Mallya to India.

The Centre had on October 5 told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate secret legal process in the UK, which is judicial and confidential in nature is resolved .

The top court had also refused to accept the plea of advocate E C Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case.

The Centre had in October, last year said it is not aware of the secret on-going proceedings against Mallya in the UK as the government of India is not party to the process.

On August 31, last year the top court had directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5, 2020, while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

When the top court had asked Mehta about the time-frame for conclusion of proceeding pending in the UK, he had said they have no information about it from the London High Commission.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its affidavit filed earlier in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said that the pending legal issue in the UK is outside and apart from the extradition process and is confidential and cannot be disclosed .

The top court had in October, 2020 asked Mallya's lawyer to apprise the apex court by November 2, last year what kind of "secret" proceedings are going on to extradite him.

The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from February 9, 2017 till dismissal of his appeal against extradition in UK on May 14, last year and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.

The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallya's surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallya's extradition may take place.

Also Read:CIC asks CBI to cite rules under which lookout circulars were issued against Mallya
New Delhi, Jan 18 : The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to share its policy for declaring public holidays. The observation was made by the top court during hearing of a plea by Sikh organisation All India Shiromani Singh Sabha seeking uniform and non-arbitrary policy for declaring public holidays, contrary to whims and fancies of various political groups.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran queried Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, "The petition is raising question, there are no guidelines for declaring public holidays. Tell us what is your policy. This is something every institution has to ask." Mehta submitted that he will get back to the top court in the matter.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing All India Shiromani Singh Sabha, urged the bench to issue notice in the matter. "Issue notice returnable after 10 days," said the top court in its order.

The plea, filed through advocate Durga Dutt, sought promotion and development of Sikh religious and cultural ethos. The plea said the important birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh who is a religious icon for the Sikh community, so far has not been declared a public holiday across the country which has deeply aggrieved the Sikh organisation.

The petitioner contended that the birth anniversary of the tenth Sikh Guru should be allowed to be celebrated as 'Prakash Parv' throughout the country to instil a sense of patriotism, nationalism and brotherhood among the people.

"The petitioner submits that such a recognition by way of declaration of gazette/public holiday would foster the spirit of unity, integrity and fraternity among the people of India and inspire the general populace to follow the high ideals of patriotism, nationalism and brotherhood among the people," said the plea, citing that Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world with 25.8 million followers.

The petitioner said Guru Gobind Singh stood against injustice and his teachings transcend time and will remain relevant in all times to come. The petitioner also cited the casual response of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, on its representation, saying that at present there is no proposal for declaring 'Prakash Parv' as a gazetted public holiday.

The organisation has made the Centre as well as all state governments and Union Territories as parties to the plea. The plea argued that holidays in countries like New Zealand, UK and USA, are governed by legislation. However, in India there is no Public Holidays Act, except the Weekly Holidays Act, 1942, which provided for weekly holidays. The petitioner contended that in most cases holidays were declared by the executive at the behest of political groups, which is usually to appease a particular section of society.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - U.S. Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham says he plans to resign with the change in presidential administrations.

Dillingham had been facing criticism over efforts to produce citizenship data to comply with an order from President Donald Trump.

Dillingham said in a statement Monday that he would resign on Wednesday, the day President-elect Joseph Biden takes office.

The Census Bureau is in the middle of crunching the numbers for the 2020 census.

Democratic lawmakers last week called on Dillingham to resign after a watchdog agency said he had set a deadline that pressured statisticians to produce a report on the number of people in the U.S. illegally.
Nearly half of people in the UK have antisemitic views, according to a poll.

Forty-five per cent of British adults agreed with at least one of six antisemitic tropes put to them by researchers at YouGov and Kings College London.

These included idea that Jews control the media, chase money, or talk about the Holocaust just to further their political agenda.

Twelve per cent of those polled agreed with four or more of the statements, found the research, commissioned annually by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Eleven per cent of respondents stated they believe Jews have too much power in the media, and 8 per cent agreed Jewish people talk about the Holocaust just to further their political agenda.

But the proportion of British adults harbouring antisemitic opinions has been steadily dropping for years, a trend which continued in the latest survey.

The proportion of British Jews who feel they have a future in the UK also rose from 53 to 66 per cent. However, those who avoid displaying visible signs of their Jewish identity due to fears of antisemitism sits at 44 per cent, the highest figure recorded since 2016.

Only 20 per cent of British Jews say authorities are doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.

An overwhelming 78 per cent believing that politicians do not do enough to protect the UKs Jewish community.

British Jews stated they believe all political parties are more complicit in antisemitism now than they have been before.

Recommended Deliveroo driver who refused to deliver to Jewish customers is jailed

Gideon Falter, chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: Appallingly, almost half of British Jews now conceal visible signs of Judaism in public due to antisemitism  a record figure in our polling.

Though this years Antisemitism Barometer shows improving confidence amongst British Jews, no modern, liberal nation should be proud when almost a fifth of its Jews feel unwelcome and nearly half conceal their Judaism in public. We need firm action against antisemitism, not just in politics, but also in arenas that have long been problematic, such as universities and social media.

The British government has been at pains to downplay the January 6 coup attempt by outgoing US President Donald Trump, sections of the military intelligence complex and their fascist supporters.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to be repeatedly pressed before criticising Trump for encouraging people to storm the Capitol and casting doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election. Home Secretary Priti Patel said Trump's failure to condemn that violence was completely wrong, while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab referred only to the shocking events on Capitol Hill.

In contrast to their muted response to the fascist dangers in the heart of world imperialism, and the command centre of nuclear war, Tory cabinet ministers have focussed on denouncing China as the imminent threat to democratic rights.

British aircraft carriers HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth moored at Portsmouth harbour, November 2020 (credit: WSWS)

On Monday, Johnson used a world environmental summit to denounce Chinese demented medicine for the Covid-19 pandemic. The following day, Raab accused China of human rights abuses on an industrial scale against Uighur Muslims. Stating that Britain had a moral duty to defend democracy, he announced new export controls on British firms and called on the United Nations to lead an investigation into allegations of forced labour.

There is good reason for the British political establishment to divert attention from events in Washington. Like their Republican and Democrat counterparts, they do not want any examination of the fascist conspiracy because they have had a hand in building it up.

For four decades, the US and UK have been in the forefront of a social counter-revolution against the working class that has spanned Tory and Labour, Republican and Democrat administrations. That is why the UKs ruling elite have been enthusiastic backers of Trump, with Johnson previously calling for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Labour Party has been just as muted in its response to the attempted coup, with party leader Sir Keir Starmer also omitting any mention of Trump in his condemnation of the horrendous scenes in Washington.

Cross-party support for herd immunity, which has seen Britain record among the highest deaths from COVID-19 per capita, flows from the drive to extract the maximum surplus value from the working class, irrespective of the human cost. Such levels of exploitation and the accompanying social misery are incompatible with democracy. The corollary of this is the ratcheting up of nationalism, militarism, and war in a bid to direct social tensions outwards.

As the WSWS has analysed, the Covid-19 has acted as an accelerant on the accumulated contradictions of global capitalism including exacerbating tensions and conflicts between the imperialist powers and the escalating war threats against Russia and especially China. In its 2020 Fifth Congress resolution, the Socialist Equality Party (UK) explained, As in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Britain continues to play the role of an agent provocateur for the US, witnessed in its utilising of the still unexplained Skripal poisonings against Russia and leveraging of its former colonial role in Hong Kong as a catspaw against China. Sooner rather than later, British imperialism will have no choice other than to try and resolve its desperate plight in an explosion of military violence.

The Trump administration had ramped up the Obamas administrations pivot to Asia, aimed at encircling and menacing China, and this was given renewed urgency by the pandemic. In July, Mike Pompeo, Trumps Secretary of State, raised the stakes in this reckless and dangerous confrontation, demanding the UK and Europe toe the line and support Washingtons aggressive stance.

Although the major corporations have by no means abandoned their aims of developing economic relations with China, the British governments public posture is ferociously anti-Chinese and cuts across all such plans. The government had already abandoned its previous talk of establishing a new golden age in Beijing-London relations post-Brexit and had banned Huawei from the rollout of the UKs 5G network in response to US sanctions.

After Pompeos remarks, it went further, utilising the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong to declare a clear and serious breach of the 1985 UK-China agreement over the terms of the return of the former British colony to Beijing in 1997. Subsequently, the same Conservative administration that framed its support for Brexit on the noxious basis of curbing immigration announced it would extend British residency rights to almost three million of Hong Kongs citizens.

This has been the precursor for measures, including but by no means limited to, financial sanctions, piloted by right-wing lobby groups and think-tanks such as the Henry Jackson Society, which calls for the UKs decoupling from China, and the newly formed China Research group led by Tory MPs Tom Tugendhat and Neil OBrien.

In November, the Foreign Affairs Select Committeechaired by Tugendhatclaimed to have found alarming evidence of Chinese interference on UK campuses. A stream of black propaganda followed, alleging mass infiltration of UK firms by the Chinese Communist Party, and even lurid tales of honey traps by beautiful Chinese women  feared to be bedding UK officials to steal secrets. The Huawei ban was brought forward by six years, to September 2021.

This campaign has nothing to do with the democratic rights of the Uighurs or Hong Kong residents. British imperialism has a long and bloody history in China, from the 1839 first Opium War, in which it seized Hong Kong and became a byword for colonial domination, oppression and social misery.

Rather, the calculation is that, whether under Trump or Biden, Washington will continue to step up its anti-China policy and the UK must position itself as a major ally. Labour shares this approach, with Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy condemning the government for going ahead with Chinese investment without regard for [the] consequences for national security for too long.

The UK is setting itself against not only Beijing but the European Union (EU), especially Germany. In January, the EU struck an investment agreement with China, against Washingtons demands.

Against this, London has become the base of efforts to thwart any bucking of US diktats.

This was underscored by the statement by Nathan Law, one of the leaders of the Hong Kong protests, in the Guardian, December 21, announcing he had filed for political asylum in the UK.

Law is among the many petty-bourgeois opposition figures in Hong Kong whose claim to be concerned with democratic rights is belied by their close relations with Washington. Hostile to the Chinese working class settling accounts with the Stalinist pro-capitalist regime, Law has repeatedly called on the US to intervene against Beijing over its suppression in Hong Kong and met with Pompeo in London in July, directly after the latters provocative speech.

In his article, Law warned that Beijing was building alliances with the EU so as to position itself as a an alternative to US unilateralism

In the US, adopting an assertive approach to China and positioning it as one of the countrys greatest enemies is a bipartisan consensus now. This is not the case in the UK and EU; that consensus needs to be built. This is the reason why I boarded a plane destined for London.

Boris Johnsons Tory government is reformulating the 1351 Treason Act to criminalise those deemed to have allegiance to a foreign power or organisation, matching similar moves in Australia, and has licensed criminal actions by British forces in its Overseas Operations Bill, on which Labour abstained to allow through.

The dangers are underscored by Londons invite to India, South Korea, and Australia to the G7 summit meeting this year to consolidate the US-led alliance against China. This follows a hiking of UK military spending by an additional 16.5 billion and the deployment of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the next months to the South China Seas as part of US-Japanese nuclear-armed military exercises.

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Marmorstein: You might soon be living in a million dollar home  unfortunately
Mamata Banerjee expands Bengal Cabinet, 43 TMC leaders sworn in as ministers: Full List here

All 77 BJP MLAs in Bengal to have central security cover

BJPs tally in West Bengal assembly down to 75

Preparations underway for Shah's public rally in Bengal on Jan 30

India

oi-Deepika S

Kolkata, Jan 18: Preparations for Union Home Minister Amit Shah''s public meeting at Thakurnagar, the base of the Matua community, on January 30 began on Monday with senior BJP leaders visiting the area to oversee arrangements, party sources said.

Shah, who is scheduled to arrive in West Bengal on a two-day visit in the run-up to the assembly elections, will address a public meeting at Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas district, where the Matua sect holds sway in several constituencies.

TMC to return to power in West Bengal: C-Voter opinion poll

BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and other senior leaders held a meeting with local MP Santanu Thakur, who is a member of the sect''s leading family, they said.

The leaders also discussed arrangements for Shah''s meeting, the sources said.

Assembly elections are due in the state in April-May.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 21:59 [IST]




Haiti - FLASH : TPS and DACA, access to permanent residence under Joe Biden...





In an interview with the Spanish American network Univision, Vice President Kamala Harris said "[...] We have an immigration bill that we will bring forward as part of our priorities and that will create an avenue for people to become American citizens [...]" assuring that she and President Joe Biden, planned to send the proposal for immigration reform to Congress as soon as possible https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32485-haiti-flash-joe-biden-wants-to-reform-immigration-in-his-first-100-days.html



People living in the United States under "Temporary Protective Status" (TPS) including nearly 60,000 Haitians and those under "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) will have a direct residence pass for legal permanent, explained Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.



"We will improve the whole process for getting a green card and we will make sure we give people a period of time so that they can apply for residency while they are managing their citizenship."



According to the Vice-Presidency, this reform will also include measures to speed up asylum requests at the border and an increase in the number of judges in charge of these cases so that they can decide on cases quickly. However, Kamala Harris did not provide any details on the modus operandi and limited himself to saying that wait times for residency and citizenship will be accelerated from 13 years to 8 years.



No date on which this reform will be sent to Congress has been mentioned, Harris said the immigration reform bill is expected within the first 100 days of his administration.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32485-haiti-flash-joe-biden-wants-to-reform-immigration-in-his-first-100-days.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  The pilot study on saliva COVID-19 testing by the Philippine Red Cross yielded encouraging results, which could mean a cheaper and non-invasive alternative to swab tests, said the organization's chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon.

Gordon told CNN Philippines' News.PH on Monday that the complete report cannot be disclosed yet, but said the results of the trial run show promise.

"I cannot give you the results, because this has got to go through the DOH (Department of Health)... But the results are quite good. Very good," he said.

The PRC has forwarded the data to the DOH after conducting saliva tests on 1,000 frontliners. Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the results will be presented to laboratory experts. Once approval from the DOH is secured, saliva testing could officially be accepted as a COVID-19 test in the country.

Out of the 1,000 individuals tested for the pilot run, Gordon said 17 positive cases were detected through the saliva tests, while nine were detected through the swab tests.

"So, mas maraming nakuhang positive yung saliva test kaysa doon sa swab test [So, more positive samples were detected through the saliva tests compared to the swab tests]," he said.

"It only shows that mukhang mas maraming sample ang nakukuha sa saliva test [it seems saliva tests could get more samples]... Dito pag saliva [In saliva tests], you just spit on the tube, on the vial, and you get a lot of sample. That may be better for everyone," he added.

Gordon said a saliva test would cost around 2,000, but this could still be lowered if "a lot more people" will be tested.

He also explained it still uses the gold standard RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) technique, but will do away with an additional step required for swab tests.

"We're still going to use the PCR (machines) that were provided for us by China  that's Sansure. Ang mawawala lang 'yung isang step, 'yung RNA, 'yung malaking machine. Di na gagamitin 'yun," he said, adding that this contributes to the lower cost of saliva testing.

Earlier, Dr. Michael Tee of the PRC noted that the validation study done by the organization is specific to the Sansure machine, which not every laboratory has. Those with other machines may require another validation study, he said.

Besides being a cheaper alternative, Gordon said saliva tests have a faster turnaround time. Results could be available in as quickly as three hours, but he said it might take five to six hours should there be a large number of people availing of the service. This is in comparison to swab test results, which would take at least a day to be released.
The White Helmets receive a contract to make PPE, flights between Aleppo and Beirut resume, wanted refugee arrested in Greece and more coronavirus cases reported. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend.

1. Syrias Nobel Prize-nominated White Helmets have received more than 1 million dollars in funding to produce lifesaving personal protective equipment (PPE), Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported. The Syrian Civil Defense, was awarded 1.6 million Canadian dollars for local production of eight million face masks and other forms of PPE. The funding was awarded by the Humanitarian Grand Challenge, an initiative sponsored by the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands.

2. Syrian Air conducted its first flight in a decade between the northern city of Aleppo and Lebanons capital Beirut early Friday, resuming a round-trip route thats been halted since Syrias conflict began in 2011. Precautionary measures against the coronavirus were in place, with passengers required to show PCR tests that were taken less than three days before the flight, according to SANA.

3. Greek authorities have arrested a 37-year-old Syrian asylum seeker wanted in the Netherlands for suspected terrorism offences, a police official said on Friday. The man, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, arrived on the island of Samos from Turkey on Oct. 4, 2018, and was later transferred to a migrant facility near Thessaloniki where he was arrested on Wednesday under an international arrest warrant issued by Dutch authorities, according to the official. Two earlier applications for asylum in Greece had been rejected, he added.

4. The Health Ministry announced that 92 new coronavirus cases were registered in the country, and 69 patients infected with the virus have recovered while seven others have passed away. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country reached 12,942, of which 6,474 recovered and 824 passed away, SANA reported.

5. One person was killed and six others were wounded on Sunday when an explosive device on a vehicle transporting bread to a town in the northern countryside of Aleppo Governorate was detonated, Al-Masdar reported. According to local reports, a 39-year-old man was killed and a woman and her child were among the wounded in what appears to be a targeted attack near a popular market inside the town located near the city of Azaz along the Turkish border. Local reports said that the explosive device was planted on a Suzuki truck that was used to transport bread to the area.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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ST. PAUL, Minn.  A COVID-19 vaccine pilot program will provide shots to adults 65 and older, pre-k through 12th grade educators, school staff and child care workers.

Nine pilot sites will launch this week, including one in Rochester, to serve as the foundation of mass vaccination clinics once the federal government increases the vaccine supply.

We are building for the future and doing what we can to get more shots to Minnesotans right now, says Governor Tim Walz. By beginning to serve those age 65 and older, educators and child care workers, we are immunizing for impact. Its a step in the right direction on this long road to recovery. The federal government has been giving mixed messages on vaccine availability and guidance, and we need them to step up and get more vaccine to the state. When they do, we will be ready. The end of this pandemic is closer today than it was yesterday.

In consultation with state officials, healthcare providers are developing systems to let their 65-or-older patients know when they can start making appointments for a vaccine. Providers will contact patients with this information  Minnesotans should not contact their providers directly right now.

Educators and childcare workers care for the mental and emotional well-being of our children, and we know that childcare workers are disproportionately women of color, who have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. We owe it to them to support their health and safety, says Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. By making them available to our teachers, school personnel, and childcare providers, we will provide peace of mind as they do their vital jobs.

Pilot sites will begin offering vaccines on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. The Minnesota Department of Health will provide more information and will make appointment scheduling available on mn.gov/vaccine at approximately noon on Tuesday.

The pilot sites are in:

Anoka

Brooklyn Center

Fergus Falls

Marshall

Mountain Iron

North Mankato

Rochester

St. Cloud

Thief River Falls

State Representative Nels Pierson, R-Rochester, issued the following statement about the new Rochester COVID-19 vaccine pilot site:

"This pilot site will be critical to keeping vulnerable Minnesotans safe and helping our community, our businesses, and our schools reopen and help life get back to normal," Pierson said. "We have the greatest health care system in the world here in our backyard, and it's encouraging to see that our aging Minnesotans, teachers, and childcare providers will have options available in Rochester. I hope folks will remain patient as we work to distribute the vaccine to these individuals, and eventually every Minnesotan who wants it."

State Representative Duane Quam, R-Byron, issued the following statement:

"Rochester and Olmstead County are leading the way for vaccine distribution with more than 10 percent of the county already vaccinated. I'm grateful that Rochester was among the nine sites selected so we can keep making progress helping our higher-risk neighbors, teachers, and childcare providers. I will continue to share information about this pilot site, and other vaccine opportunities for Minnesotans who wish to receive it as it becomes available."

The Minnesota Department of Health on Monday reported 194,462 people, or 3.5% of the state population, has received first doses and that 38,025 have received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Public health facilities in the Greater Accra Region are running out of Viral Transport Medium (VTM) and swab kits used for COVID-19 test.



This is as a result of the increasing number of people rushing to the facilities for voluntary tests, with the countrys case count going up.



Checks by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) indicate that people who voluntarily go to the Korle- Bu Teaching Hospital and the Ga South Municipal Hospital for COVID-19 test are referred to private health facilities or asked to come another time due to the shortage of the kits.



A health worker at the Korle- Bu Teaching Hospital who spoke to the GNA on condition of anonymity, said in the past few days, the Facility received many requests for COVID-19 test, but testing kits were inadequate.



"What is happening now is that when the people come for testing, we ask them to go and come back later, and this is risky because some may not come back again," the source said.



The source described the situation as dire, saying, we, workers here dont even have the kits to use for ourselves. We are all at risk.



A Senior Nurse at the Ga South Municipal Hospital said the Facility was almost overwhelmed by requests for COVID-19 tests after the yuletide and called for support from stakeholders to contain the spread of the virus.



Requests are coming everyday but we dont have the swab kits. Francis, a staff, was just referred to a private facility an hour ago, the Nurse said.



Mr Emanuel Gyasi-Qauo, a trader, who suspected he had contracted the virus told the GNA that when he visited the GSMH on Friday to test for COVID-19, he was asked to come back later.



He said he had lost the sense of taste and smell, felt uncomfortable, and wanted to know his status in time but turned away.



"I couldn't wait to be called by the GSMH because I was not given any specific date, my only option was to get tested in a private facility and the results was delivered to me after four hours," he said.



Meanwhile, GNA has gathered that some private facilities had taken advantage of the medical emergency and doing brisk business.



 It is expensive ooo...My in-law and my son went for the test at a private facility and they paid between GH350 and GH400, a Senior Journalist told the GNA.



When GNA contacted the Ghana Health Service, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, Director of Public Health, said the Service was not aware of the shortages.



He said his checks with the national reference laboratory showed that the kits had been distributed to all health facilities across the country.



"The situation now is that with the introduction of the COVID-19 walk-in test, the facilities are using more than expected," he said.



The Director of Public Health said he had as a result of the increased walk-in test directed that the COVID-19 test kits, which were distributed earlier, be redistributed to ensure that kits, which were not urgently needed at some regional hospitals were brought to facilities in Accra, where the demand was high.



Commenting on contact tracing, he said GHS was facing some challenges and explained that, previously, the test was solely handled by the Service, now with the introduction of testing in private health facilities, we are unable to do it effectively."



Dr Asiedu-Bekoe said the Service was putting in place measures to ensure that, private laboratories collaborated with the Service to address gabs in tracing contact.



He said while GHS and frontline health workers were doing their best to contain the virus, it was important for the public to strictly observe the COVID-19 safety protocols.



Dr. Asiedu-Bekoe appealed to the public to wash hands regularly with soap under running water before touching the mouth, nose and eyes.



He underscored the need for everyone to observe physical distancing, wear nose mask at all times, and disinfect objects and surfaces regularly.



Coronaviruses are said to be a large group of viruses that are common among animals.



In rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, meaning, they can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.



They are said to be the cause of dangerous diseases with incubation period between 4-6 days.



Signs and symptoms are :fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, and possibly a headache.



According to the Ghana Health Service, the countrys COVID-19 active cases had increased to 1,261, with 193 new cases recorded by first week of January, 2021.



As at Saturday, January 16th, Ghana recorded 56,981 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1,404 active cases, 175 new cases, 341 deaths and 55, 236 recoveries/discharges.

Source: GNA









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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18)  Malacanang on Monday said the public should wait for President Rodrigo Duterte's decision on whether he will get the first vaccine shot against the COVID-19. This, as Vice President Leni Robredo earlier said the move could boost Filipinos' confidence in vaccines.

"'Yan po ay sinasangguni naman na... Hayaan po natin siyang magdesisyon," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told a briefing when asked for the Palace's reaction to Robredo's statement.

[Translation: The matter is being discussed already... Let's let him decide.]

On Saturday, Robredo said vaccinating Duterte first will help strengthen public trust in the government's vaccination program against the coronavirus. Of 2,400 Filipino adults surveyed by Pulse Asia last November 23 to December 2, 47% said they were not willing to get vaccinated due to safety concerns.

Roque stressed the national government did not really expect to earn the confidence of Filipinos when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, saying many are on a wait-and-see mode before they opt to get vaccinated.

But he said the government is "in no rush" since only 50,000 to 100,000 doses are expected to arrive in the Philippines next month.

In August last year, Duterte himself offered to be the first person to receive a COVID-19 vaccine from Russia to prove its effectiveness.

When asked what vaccine is recommended for the President, infectious diseases expert Rontgene Solante, who was also present during the briefing, said all three vaccinesPfizer, Moderna, and AstraZenecaare "safe to be given regardless of age."

Roque stressed Duterte's own vaccination plan is "solely between him and his doctor."

The top priority sectors of the vaccination program include the 'poorest of the poor', and the police and military, Duterte previously said.

The government received a public uproar following the unauthorized vaccination of the Presidential Security Group.

Duterte earlier this month ordered the PSG not to attend any congressional hearing on the controversy.
Scientists have discovered a new coronavirus variant in California as the state continues to struggle with a rising number of cases and deaths.

The strain was first seen in Denmark but does not appear to be a more infectious one in the European country that was linked to minks and led to 17 million of the animals being culled in November.

This new variant, known as L452R, dates back to samples as early as May in The Golden State.

It has been linked to multiple outbreaks in Santa Clara County, including one in a Kaiser Permanante emergency room that sickened more than 90 and led to one death.

It remains unclear whether the new variant is more contagious or just becoming more easily identifiable as laboratories perform genome sequencing.

The variant is also different from the highly infectious one first identified the UK that has recently been sweeping the nation.

The UK's strain, B 1.1.7., has been identified in 18 states, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of federal and state data.

As public health officials caution that this will soon become the dominant strain in the U.S., Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says the warning should be a 'clarion call' for Americans to get vaccinated

A new coronavirus variant has been identified in California and has been linked to large outbreaks in Santa Clara. Pictured: Registered nurse Merri Lynn Anderson (right_ tends to her patient in a COVID-19 unit at S. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, January 7

Known as L452R, it has been linked to large outbreaks in Santa Clara and seen in more than a dozen counties including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Pictured: Nurses wearing PPE in a COVID-19 unit at Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital is Los Angeles, January 6

As of Monday, the new variant has identified in Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Dan Diego, San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties.

'This virus continues to mutate and adapt, and we cannot let down our guard,' said Dr Sara Cody, director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, in a statement.

Cody did confirm that variant was identified in an outbreak in a Kaiser Permanente emergency room in San Jose that led to more than 90 people and patients infected and death.

An inflatable Christmas costume may have helped spread the virus.

The new California variant has three mutations on the spike protein, Dr Charles Chiu, a virologist at UC San Francisco, told The New York Times.

It was first detected in Denmark in March in California in May.

Chiu said, in December 2020, the new variant was present in 3.8 percent of genome samples that were sequenced. By January, it was in 25.2 percent.

He told The Times that although there is no evidence that the virus is more contagious, 'there are worrisome signs that this variant may be highly transmissible.'

The two vaccines currently on the market, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both target the spike protein to train the immune system to recognize the virus.

Chiu said researchers are currently studying whether or not the the virus will affect performance of either vaccine.

The vaccine rollout, overall, has been moving at a sluggish pace.

So far, just 12.2 million people have been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This is far short of the 20 million people the Trump administration had hoped to vaccinate by the end of 2020.

Dr Anthony Fauci says the new variants should be a 'clarion call' to force Americans to be vaccinated. Pictured; Fauci on Meet the Press on Sunday

What's more, as state stockpiles have been running low, so has the federal one.

On Friday, The Washington Post revealed that when the HHS announced the federal government's vaccine stockpile would be released, this was in spite of the fact that there was no stock pile at the time.

Meanwhile, Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also spoke to danger of new mutations in the U.S.

He told NBC's Meet the Press that although more research has shown that new variants are not more deadly, the fact that they are more transmissible will result in an increased number of infections.

This will lead to already overwhelmed hospital systems across the U.S. experiencing even more strain.

'When you have a variant that is really very, very different, in the sense that it's more contagious, it tells you to do two things,' Fauci said.

'One, double down on the public health measures we've been talking about all the time. Be very compulsive, as the president-elect says, at least for the first 100 days and maybe more, everybody wear a mask, keep the distance, avoid congregate settings.'

The other important thing, he adds is to get vaccinated.

'The easiest way to evade this negative effect of these new isolates is to - when the vaccine becomes available, people should get vaccinated,' Fauci said.

'If there was ever a clarion call for people to put aside vaccine hesitancy, if we can get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, we'd be in very good shape.'
Posted Monday, January 18, 2021 6:42 am

OLYMPIA  On one side of an 8-foot-tall chain-link fence Sunday stretched a line of Washington Army National Guard soldiers. They were armed, helmeted and outfitted with face shields that quickly could be lowered to face a threat.

A solitary protester  66-year-old Navy veteran John Hess from Centralia  stood on the other side of the fence at about noon. He held a sign that declared "Stop the Steal," and branded President-elect Joe Biden a "traitor, liar, thief."

The quiet start in Olympia to inauguration week protests may be a lull before more angry days of demonstrations by extremist supporters of President Donald Trump, who on Jan. 6 stunned the nation as they stormed the U.S. Capitol. But the scant turnout here  and in other state capitals  also appears to reflect a new wariness as some call, at least temporarily, for a lower profile amid the massive mobilization of National Guard troops.

"There is a lot of rhetoric online. People do their comments and people yell and scream about how the war is started and the time for talk is over," said Joey Gibson, founder of the Patriot Prayer group that has organized many rallies around Western Washington, in a Jan. 7 social media post. "Right now, we need to be very cautious in how we move forward."

Gibson in weeks past has promoted, through his social media accounts, protests and rallies in Salem and Olympia. The only event he now notes for the week is a Tuesday protest over COVID-19 restrictions in Lewis County's Napavine.

Law enforcement officials in Washington and other states also are scanning social media to anticipate what threats they might face this week as well as the months ahead, when troops are no longer mobilized and the kinds of threats may change.

Passions on the far right could continue to be inflamed during a volatile winter when Trump may be the focal point of an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. Law enforcement officials and others who track the far right have said that some of the most militant could opt to move from online chatter about insurrection to trying to plan violent actions against buildings, politicians or other targets.

"'Our sense is that this [the attack on the U.S. Capitol] has been some sort of page-turning event," said Chris Loftis, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol. "There are substantive divisions in our country that will probably manifest in more security concerns than we have had in the past."

In Olympia, the massing of National Guard soldiers and State Patrol troopers is a sobering show of force.

The scene Sunday offered a stark contrast to a Jan. 6 statehouse rally when several hundred Trump supporters, some of them armed, assembled in front of the Capitol for a "Stop the Steal" rally. On that day, a few trooper vehicles circled around the perimeter of the rally, but there was no visible uniformed law enforcement on the Capitol steps or lawn where protesters gathered. Only after protesters trespassed on the grounds of the governor's mansion did State Patrol and other county and city law-enforcement officers respond.

By Jan. 11, as the Legislature briefly convened, the Capitol campus had been closed, and Loftis, in an afternoon briefing with reporters, said "We are already working on a number of very specific threats."

Since then, Loftis said the FBI has informed the State Patrol that "there are no explicit threats," but rather specific groups and individuals that are being monitored.

"Our hope is we can get back to some sort of normalcy," Loftis said.

The current mobilization in Olympia is a costly undertaking to sustain, but it's still unclear when it will be ramped down. Loftis said it was "another calm day" but the full mobilization will continue at least through Wednesday.

State Patrol troopers drawn from all over the state have been called to stand watch. They are joined by some 600 members of the Washington National Guard, who are staying in hotels or motels. The National Guard is conducting a high number of missions, with 400 members who went this past weekend to Washington, D.C., and another 800 supporting COVID-19 work in the state, according to Karina Shagreen, communication director for the Washington State Military Department.

On Sunday, Hess, the sole protester, ended up being the star attraction for the reporters who gathered by the Capitol campus. He said what occurs next will depend on what happens as Democrats take power.

"If jobs keep getting lost, and people keep getting banned by social media companies," he said, "you're going to see something happen. There will be a pushback."

___

(c)2021 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Goya Awards, Spains equivalent of the Oscars, have announced the nominations for their 35th edition. The awards, which recognize achievements in Spanish filmmaking, will be presented in a live-streamed ceremony on Saturday, March 6.

In the animated feature category, the sole nominee is Turu, the Wacky Hen (La gallina Turuleca)  a shoo-in if ever we saw one. Inspired by a famous song in the Latin world, the cg family film tells the story of a hen who befriends an old woman and discovers she can speak human language. It is directed by Victor Monigote and Eduardo Gondell; the producers are Spains Tandem Films, Gloriamundi Producciones, and A Fonsagrada Producions, and Argentinas Pampa Films and Sono Film.

Many past winners in this category have had U.S. releases, among them Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, Another Day of Life, and Bunuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles. For now, Turu has no U.S. distributor. In Spain, it has grossed 719,151 (USD$870,000), according to the website Taquilla Espana. Its lack of competition at the Goyas may be due to Covid disruptions: nominees have to have been released in Spain in 2020, although (exceptionally) home releases counted this year.
Haley Jo Hess (right) and her brother Kameron Willis pose with her hog, Riblets. Hess, who has shown animals at the Pennsylvania Farm Show for nine years, was selected to receive a scholarship from the Farm Show Scholarship Foundation on Tuesday.
TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Funeral arrangements have been announced for Chief Meteorologist Emeritus Dick Rice who died during the weekend at the age of 80.

Per his request, a private family graveside service will be held at Lee Memorial Park in Verona.

Dick Rice joined WTVA in the late 1970s.

Longtime weatherman Dick Rice died at the age of 80. Longtime weatherman Dick Rice died at the age of 80.

Dick Rice (center) learned meteorology while serving in the U.S. Navy. Dick Rice (center) learned meteorology while serving in the U.S. Navy. Dick Rice joined WTVA in the late 1970s.

Friends may visit Holland Funeral Directors in Tupelo Tuesday afternoon from noon to 5 p.m. to pay their respects by signing a register book and watching videos of Rice's life.

Rice joined WTVA in 1979 and stepped away from his day-to-day duties in 2011.

Related - Chief meteorologist emeritus Dick Rice passes away at age 80

Open this link to read his full obituary, provided by Holland Funeral Directors.
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Natural Gas

Natural gas futures price slumped to Rs 191.80 per mmBtu on January 18 as participants increased their short positions as seen by the open interest. Natural gas price had declined 1.27 percent last week on the MCX.

The commodity extended decline after a gap down open and was trading near days low in the afternoon session.

The number of rigs drilling natural gas in the US rose by 1 at 85 rigs for the week to January 15, said Baker Hughes in a weekly report. The rigs count rose for the second straight week.

Kshitij Purohit, Product Manager, Currency & Commodities, CapitalVia Global Research Limited said, During last week, natural gas prices attempted to rebound a little, but gave back losses close to the $2.8 range. We havent developed a shooting star entirely, but it definitely implies something similar.

We are entering the warmer time of year that would usually allow demand for for natural gas to decline. As we roll into the spring, the market is likely to go looking towards the $2.25 level, possibly the $2 level underneath, Purohit noted.

MCX iCOMDEX Natural Gas Index was down 76.08 points, or 3.10 percent to 2,380.87.

In the futures market, natural gas for January delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 199.20 and an intraday low of Rs 190.90 per mmBtu on MCX. So far in the current series, natural gas has touched a low of Rs 167.40 and a high of Rs 255.90.

Natural gas delivery for January slides Rs 7.80, or 3.91 percent, to Rs 191.80 per mmBtu at 15:00 hours IST with a business turnover of 10,798 lots.

Natural gas delivery for February slipped Rs 6.10, or 3.10 percent, to Rs 190.90 per mmBtu with a business volume of 2,414 lots.

The value of January and Februarys contracts traded so far is Rs 1,249.64 crore and Rs 73.24 crore, respectively.

Geojit Financial Services Limited said, Intraday movement will be on the downside as long as price stay below Rs 200. The price needs to break Rs 208 to reverse the current sentiments.

At 09:33 (GMT), the natural gas price tanked 4.68 percent quoting at $2.60 per mmBtu in New York.

For all commodities-related news, click here

: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
The Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has invited businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky for questioning as a witness, who, together with Skyrizon, the subsidiary of the Chinese Beijing Xinwei Technology Group, is seeking approval for the purchase of PJSC Motor Sich by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

"As a conscientious citizen, I will arrive at the specified address on the very first of the listed days  namely, January 19, 2021," Yaroslavsky said in a statement on the website of the DCH group.

According to him, in accordance with the emails received by DCH on January 16, this is about criminal proceedings (No. 2201700000000272) launched in 2017 on the investigation of transactions for the sale and purchase of a controlling stake in Motor Sich.

"I am very perplexed by some articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, according to which the SBU is going to receive my testimony: Article 14 Preparation for crime, Article 111 High treason, Article 113 Sabotage," Yaroslavsky said.

In his opinion, people who do not allow its shareholders to enter the enterprise and do not convene a general meeting of shareholders could tell law enforcement officers much more about the Motor Sich case. According to the businessman, this was the reason for the dismissal of almost 10,000 workers.

"As well as those who are involved in unjustified arrests of shares, making unjust decisions and sabotaging the issuance of permits. True, I think it would make sense to summon all of them not as witnesses," Yaroslavsky added.

He said that Motor Sich shares are in DCH's investment portfolio, and the group plans to develop the enterprise.

According to him, the current situation with the Zaporizhia enterprise is very similar to the events that unfolded in 2016 at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, which DCH acquired and tried to bring out of downtime.

"Some representatives of the SBU also tried to incriminate the management of the plant with sabotage and treason. History judged us: production has been restored, the high-tech business park Ecopolis HTZ is being created around it, and all the accusations burst like soap bubbles," Yaroslavsky said.

He expressed regret that five years later, business intimidation and pressure on investors are again taking place under the new president of Ukraine, the government and the parliamentary corps.

"Nevertheless, I will fulfill my civic duty and will inform the SBU officers of my opinion on the questions that will be asked to me," the businessman said, adding: if I knew about Ukraine's treason and other crimes, I would have come to the Security Service myself, without waiting for a call.
Dato Madani Sahari, the CEO of Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii)

In this latest guest article written exclusively for just-auto, Dato Madani Sahari, the CEO of Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii), considers supply chain issues in the context of the industry's high-tech transformation.

There is an old saying within the manufacturing sector of the automotive industry and I paraphrase: A car that is missing one bolt is not a car. It precisely states the importance of every single detail of the value chain that makes up a vehicle.

Naturally, from the perspective of the common end user - these details are, and rightly so, not the worry of the masses. Vehicle design is commonly romanticised by its exterior or interior aesthetics, as well as the drivetrain and all the bells and whistles.

There is little mainstream discussion on - literally - the nuts and bolts of the industry. They are the humdrum components that fasten vehicles and their sub-systems together, along with thousands of components such as seats, instrument panels, steering, lamps, head-linings and many more.

These components, which may be of little interest to many, are part of a wide network of parts and components manufactured in Malaysia. The companies making them were responsible for RM13.1 billion of automotive components exported by Malaysia in 2019; it's a big contribution to the country's GDP and so vital to the country's economy.

Malaysia's component manufacturers also supply components to vehicle assemblers operating within Malaysia, adding value to both national and non-national brands. Such confidence from international brands in our local suppliers is an achievement we perhaps could highlight more. There are about 27 OEMs currently operating in Malaysia, and almost 700 parts and components manufacturers.

As the global industry approaches new crossroads in electrification and connected mobility, the issues surrounding the automotive vendor community's transition to next generation vehicles are often overlooked as vehicles take center stage above parts and components.

While it is perhaps easier to speak about stepping up design and manufacturing, the key issue to be faced is the transition to various next generation products, with materials and processes that traditionally are not part of the internal combustion (ICE) vehicle.

A transition towards electrification requires changes beyond batteries and electric motors.

A transition towards electrification requires changes beyond batteries and electric motors. For example, while the structure of EVs are similar to ICE-based vehicles, the stronger demand for light-weighting may render traditional steel presswork outfits (one of the most common processes in traditional vehicle manufacturing), obsolete.

Renewed investments (either within existing companies, or new companies) in advanced technologies become vital to transition into the future, particularly when Malaysia has developed an automotive workforce with the unique skills in both design and manufacturing of vehicles.

One of the key directions of the National Automotive Policy 2020 (NAP2020) is to guide the development of critical components and systems for NxGVs (Next Generation Vehicles), MaaS (Mobility as a service) and Industry 4.0, including systems and components within Autonomous, Automated and Connected Vehicles (AACVs), smart manufacturing, light-weight material technology as well as hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles. Customised incentives will be offered more comprehensively to incentivize a broader technology penetration that includes EEVs, NxGVs, critical components and testing centers.

These begin with technologies needed in Level 1 and Level 2 autonomous vehicles - such as big data management systems, advanced materials, LiDAR, battery packs and cybersecurity, before focusing on more advanced technologies such as nano-materials, machine learning, V2X communication modules and ultra-fast charging at the end of the development cycle.

To supplement these developments, MARii together with the government and the industry has already begun the establishment of the Electric Vehicle Interoperability Centre (EVIC)  a shared test center for the development of EVs and EV-related products and systems.

An Autonomous Vehicle Test Bed (AVTB) is also in the works to facilitate testing autonomous vehicles and also as a platform for all businesses in the mobility ecosystem to collectively design and validate their products in a single location, in collaboration with all members that contribute to the design pool for autonomous driving.

Through MARii, the government has also embarked on specific programmes and facilities to support the development of next generation parts and component manufacturers, through its Design Center, Academy of Technology, and the recently launched MARii Simulation & Analysis Center (MARSAC), completing an ecosystem that enables cloud-based product design capabilities and real-time data analysis to accelerate high-value design, cost optimisation and talent development for more automotive and mobility component manufacturers based in the country.

As a nation, Malaysia is facing its final, exciting yet most challenging stage in its goals to move from being a middle-income to an advanced nation. With that, it has risen above its previous commodity-based image and seeks to brave new frontiers of digitalisation and technology, pushed by its multi-tier industry foundation.

The writer is the chief executive officer of Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Insititute (MARii).
TICKERS: TUSK; BTKRF; 0NB

Source: Streetwise Reports (1/18/21)

Black Tusk aims to find out if adjacent gold mineralization continues onto its property.



Black Tusk Resources Inc. (TUSK:CSE; BTKRF:OTCMKTS; 0NB:FSE) is about to start its first drill programa initial 3,000-meter programat two of its projects, McKenzie East and Lorraine, both located in the Val-d'Or district in Quebec.

Val-d'Or, literally "Valley of Gold," has seen gold mining since the 1920s; Agnico Eagle Mines, Bonterra Resources, El Dorado Gold, Yamana Gold, QMX Gold and Monarch Goldwhich is being acquired by Yamana Goldall have operations there. The Canadian Malartic Mine, Canada's largest mine and a 50-50 joint venture between Yamana Gold and Agnico Eagle, is located not far from McKenzie East.

The lion's share of Black Tusk's inaugural drill program is expected to take place at its flagship project, McKenzie East, a 1,676-hectare property that borders Monarch Gold's McKenzie Break project.

In preparation, over the last year Black Tusk has conducted rock and MMI soil sampling at the projectgrab samples have returned assays as high as 241.8 grams per tonne gold (g/t) and 107.2 g/t goldfollowed by a drone magnetometer survey and OreVision 3D induced polarization surveys. "This work has given us the first targets that we will be drilling, five or six holes, with some going as deep as 400 and 500 meters," Black Tusk CEO Richard Penn told Streetwise Reports.

Black Tusk wants to find out if Monarch's adjacent McKenzie Break deposit continues onto Black Tusk's side of the border. "Monarch's McKenzie Break has a proven resource and they have been hitting some incredible numbers. It's been coming up on trend with what we're seeing in all the sampling that we've done," said Roman Rubin, Black Tusk's CFO and a director of the company.

"What we want to do is prove up that the same deposit as Monarch's is on our ground; Monarch actually expanded its land package to touch ours. By drilling, we are looking to see if that resource is actually much bigger and is underneath us as well," Rubin explained.

Geologist Dr. Mathieu Piche, a director of Black Tusk who has also done work for both Monarch and a company on the other side of Black Tusk's property, "believes that the same trend on those two properties carries through our property. Hopefully we can prove that we are right in the middle," Rubin said.

Yamana's CA$200 million takeover of Monarch was "one of the biggest acquisitions in Val-d'Or in 2020, if not the largest," Rubin explained.

Black Tusk expects to start its McKenzie East drill program with about five or six holes, and expand the program based on the assay results. "We are funded to do a lot more that these first holes," Rubin said. The company expects it will take around two months for the lab to deliver the assay results.

The company will also conduct some drilling at its Lorraine property, also located in Val-d-Or, southwest of McKenzie East. "The holes at Lorraine will be shallower, about 100 meters deep, because the deposit is closer to surface, and we expect to begin with around five holes. The area has platinum group metals, copper and gold," Penn said.

Black Tusk is fully funded for the drill program, having around CA$2.5 million in its treasury.

"For investors interested in exploration, this is the time to get into a company like Black Tusk," Penn concluded.

The company is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol TUSK and has approximately 138 million shares outstanding.

[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Black Tusk Resources Please click here for more information.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Black Tusk Resources, a company mentioned in this article.
He spent much of the first lockdown in Dublin where he became a huge hit with the locals, but this time around Matt Damon is on the other side of the world after joining the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder.

The 50-year-old actor has arrived in Sydney, Australia where he will quarantine for two weeks before production begins on the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster.

In a statement to local media, Matt said: "I'm so excited that my family and I will be able to call Australia home for the next few months.

"Australian film crews are world-renowned for their professionalism and are a joy to work with so the 14 days of quarantine will be well worth it."

Damon will join an all-star ensemble including Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Tessa Thompson and Dave Bautista although his part in the movie has not been disclosed.

The 'Ford v Ferrari' star had a cameo role in the movie's predecessor 'Thor: Ragnarok' as an actor who plays villain Loki in an Asgardian stage play.

The new flick is being directed by Taika Waititi who previously suggested that sparks could fly between Hemsworth's Thor and Portman's returning Jane Foster after declaring that the film is "very romantic".

The 45-year-old filmmaker said: "I think it's going to be really good. We've been writing the script off and on for a year and I'm just, actually this week, doing another pass on it.

"It is so insane and it's also very romantic. I'm into romances now. I want to make romance. I want to make something that I've never done or cared for. I would like to attack something like that."

'Thor: Love and Thunder' is set for release in 2022 and Taika explained that he was grateful that the coronavirus pandemic had given him time to perfect the script for the film.

He said: "There are a few positive things I can take away. One of them is that a lot of these films, and films in general, are rushed or you don't have as much time as you'd want to have on the script and things like that."

Father-of-four Matt decided to go ahead with plans to come to Ireland last year despite the fact that movie The Last Duels shoot here had been postponed because of the coronavirus crisis.

Matt and his family arrived in Ireland in early March and left on May 28 before returning again in August.

The actor arrived just before lockdown in Ireland and managed to pop in to several stores and coffee shops in Dalkey. He was famously pictured with a Supervalu bag when he posed for a snap by the sea with fans.
They are being processed by Border Force and their cases dealt with by immigration officials

The migrants had come in onboard a ship from Zeebrugge in Belgium

Six men and three woman claiming to be Eritrean nationals were found inside

Nine suspected illegal immigrants were found hidden inside a shipping container at Teesport on Saturday night, authorities have confirmed.

A large scale emergency services operation was seen heading to the river just after 8pm on Saturday.

Border Force officers - alongside the ambulance service - responded, after a call for assistance from Tees Harbour Police.

Six males and three females, who claimed to be Eritrean nationals, were found inside a dockside container, which had come from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Nine suspected illegal immigrants were found hidden inside a shipping container at Teesport on Saturday night, authorities have confirmed

The individuals were processed by Border Force and their cases will be dealt with in accordance with immigration rules, the Home Office said.

Several ambulance vehicles were also seen entering the area.

The ambulance service sent several resources but found that nobody required hospital treatment.

A North East Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'We got a call from the police to assist at the Tees Dock at 8.23pm.

Six males and three females, who claimed to be Eritrean nationals, were found inside a dockside container in Teesport, North Yorks, which had come in from Zeebrugge in Belgium

'Our initial response involved four hazardous area response vehicles, one paramedic ambulance and an officer carrying out observations.

'There were no casualties and no conveyance to hospital.'

It's understood Cleveland Police were also called to the scene. They declined to comment on the incident.

A spokesperson for the port's operator PD Ports said: 'We can confirm that, following an incident at Tees Dock this evening involving Border Force and Harbour Police, an ambulance was despatched as a precaution.

'No treatment was required by any party and the incident has now been dealt with.'
Rescuers drill a new channel at the explosion site of a gold mine in Qixia City, east Chinas Shandong Province (Wang Kai/Xinhua via AP)

Twelve out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in a gold mine are alive, Chinese state media said, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety.

The Xinhua News Agency said on Monday a note passed through a rescue shaft on Sunday night reported the fate of the other 10 remains unknown.

The handwritten note said four of the workers were injured and that the condition of others was deteriorating because of a lack of fresh air and an influx of water.

Expand Close In this photo released by Chinas Xinhua News Agency, rescuers drill a new channel at the explosion site of a gold mine in Qixia City, east Chinas Shandong Province, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in the gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety. (Wang Kai/Xinhua via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp In this photo released by Chinas Xinhua News Agency, rescuers drill a new channel at the explosion site of a gold mine in Qixia City, east Chinas Shandong Province, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Chinese state media say 12 out of 22 workers trapped for a week by an explosion in the gold mine are alive, as hundreds of rescuers seek to bring them to safety. (Wang Kai/Xinhua via AP)

The mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under the city of Yantai in Shandong province, had been under construction at the time of the blast, which occurred on January 10.

More than 300 workers are seeking to clear obstructions while drilling a new shaft to reach the chambers where the workers were trapped and expel dangerous fumes.

Keep on with the rescue efforts. We have hope, thank you, read the note, written in pencil on notebook paper and posted on Xinhuas official website.

Two accidents in the south-western megacity of Chongqing last year killed 39 miners, prompting the central government to order another safety overhaul.
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A vagina-scented candle from Gwyneth Paltrow's goop shop exploded into flames in a woman's living room causing an 'inferno'.

Jody Thompson, 50, from Kilburn in north London won the 69 candle as part of an online quiz.

However, she claims that on lighting the wick, a 50cm flame flew out of the glass jar.

The media consultant told The Sun: 'The candle exploded and emitted huge flames, with bits flying everywhere.

Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina-scented candle exploded into flames in a woman's living room causing an 'inferno' (the candle is pictured damaged after the incident)

Jody Thompson, 50, from Kilburn in north London won the 69 candle as part of an online quiz. Pictured is Gwyneth Paltrow who sells the candle on her goop online store

'I've never seen anything like it. The whole thing was ablaze and it was too hot to touch. There was an inferno in the room.'

'We eventually got it under control and threw it out the front door.

'It could have burned the place down. It was scary at the time, but funny looking back that Gwyneth's vagina candle exploded in my living room.'

Sharing a picture of the damaged candle after the incident on her Instagram, Jody wrote: 'Yeah, thanks Gwynnie, stuff your flaming vagina... #narrowlyavoideddisaster #scentedcandlenightmares #gwynethpaltrowalmostkilledme.'

Gwyneth, 48, listed the 69 candle, which she has cheekily named 'This Smells Like My Vagina', for sale in her online goop shop last year and revealed that the geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar scented candle, originally started as a joke.

Jody (pictured) was shocked to find that once she had lit the product a 50cm flame flew out of the glass jar

Gwyneth, 48, listed the 69 candle, which she has cheekily named 'This Smells Like My Vagina', for sale in her online goop shop last year

According to the product's description: 'This candle started as a joke between perfumer Douglas Little and GPthe two were working on a fragrance, and she blurted out, 'Uhhh..this smells like a vagina'but evolved into a funny, gorgeous, sexy, and beautifully unexpected scent.

'(That turned out to be perfect as a candlewe did a test run at an In goop Health, and it sold out within hours.)

'It's a blend of geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with Damask rose and ambrette seed that puts us in mind of fantasy, seduction, and a sophisticated warmth.'

Sharing a picture of the damaged candle after the incident on her Instagram, Jody wrote: 'Yeah, thanks Gwynnie, stuff your flaming vagina...'

A Goop spokesperson said: 'We're in touch with the woman to see if she followed the specific fire safety instructions included with the candle, such as trimming the wick and not burning it for more than two hours.

'At goop, we vet the products we sell and make customer safety a priority, so we've alerted the manufacturer to the woman's issue and have also reached out to her to send her some goop products to help pass the days in quarantine.'

Gwyneth - who founded the website in 2008 -is no stranger to sparking controversy on her lifestyle website by previously advising readers to purchase a $15,000 24k gold vibrator and vaginal jade eggs.

She has also turned her attention to the world of BDSM and, last year, sold a nude underwear set alongside a black whip (currently on sale for $72), which promised to fulfill consumers 'fantasies'.

The lingerie set's product description read: 'Handmade in England, this saddle leather bra is what BDSM fantasies are made of.'
The dramatic situation faced by migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the humanitarian emergency represented by thousands stranded in harsh winter conditions has brought once again the Balkan route under the spotlight. The route was taken by over one million refugees during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis. Despite the official closure of borders, the flow of migrants along that route has never stopped and has significantly increased over the past few months.

Thousands have travelled to the area from central Asia and the Middle East to try to reach western Europe through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.

The critical point on such a long route, which is difficult to travel and full of dangers, has become over the past few months northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is one of the countries with fewer means in the region. It is also more problematic from a political and social standpoint. Out of some 8-9,000 migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in part hosted in camps and hosting facilities, at least 3,000 are located in the country's northwestern tip, right next to the border with Croatia. The border is very hard to cross due to strict controls by Croatian police, which has been repeatedly accused by several sources of brutal pushbacks, abuse and violence against refugees.

The situation in that border area has become increasingly dramatic with the arrival of winter, with thousands of migrants exposed to freezing temperatures, snow, ice and mud. They are forced to sleep in the open in woods or in makeshift shelters, without warm clothes and adequate shoes, assisted as much as possible by the Red Cross and humanitarian organizations.

Local populations are also hostile, considering the refugees as a threat to their security and to public order. In Bihac and Velika Kladusa residents have organized several demonstrations against migrants, backed by local mayors who say that they don't want their cities to be transformed into refugee camps. Such hostility was particularly strong when about one thousand refugees had to be relocated from the Lipa camp, near Bihac, after a fire on December 23 destroyed the facility. The refugees, who were left without shelter, were denied accommodation in Bihac and Bradina (south of Sarajevo) due to the residents' protests and remained stranded for a long time on the buses that were supposed to relocate them. They were subsequently allowed to return to Lipa, where the Bosnian army set up new tents. This temporary solution was organized ahead of the renovation of Lipa, which will be necessary to make the facility suitable to host residents during the winter.

The solution came after the European Union raised its voice, urging Bosnian authorities to intervene to host the refugees, avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe whose effective danger was also denounced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Catholic charity Caritas and several NGOs that mobilized to raise funds.

The EU for its part has called on Bosnian leaders to play their part after saying it has provided the Balkan country with some 90 million euros for the migrant crisis. But Serbian-Bosnian leader Milorad Dodik, who is the rotating president of the tripartite Bosnian presidency, in a harsh phone call with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said most of the EU aid went to international organizations and not to Bosnian institutions. And he stressed that no hosting center will be created on the territory of the Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serbian entity, claiming that the migrant crisis is a problem of the European Union of which Bosnia-Herzegovina, however, intends to become a member. (ANSAmed).
Union Agriculture Minister on Monday hoped that protesting farmer unions will discuss alternatives other than the repeal of the new farm laws in the tenth round of talks and appealed to them not to go ahead with their tractor rally on Republic Day in Delhi.

The crucial tenth round of meeting with 41 farm unions is scheduled for Tuesday. The talks have failed to yield any concrete results as the agitating unions have stuck to their main demand for repealing the agri laws and the government has ruled out any such step.

Speaking to reporters here, Tomar said: "Tomorrow, there is a meeting. I am hopeful that farmers' unions will discuss alternatives (other than the repeal of the laws) so that we can reach a solution."



The current stalemate continues because no discussion is happening on provisions of the laws from unions' side, he said.

Reiterating that new agri-laws are in the interest of the farming community, the minister said there is opposition in some states.

"We had nine rounds of talks so far. I have always said that farmers' unions should discuss the provisions of the laws. The government is discussing and wants to discuss with an open heart if they point out any problem with provisions of the laws," he said.

The minister also said that the central government is fully committed to farmers. The Modi government has rolled out several agri-schemes in the last six years to improve farmers' plight and make farming profitable.

On protesting farmers' plan to hold a tractor rally in Delhi on Republic Day, Tomar said, "I want to appeal to farmers that January 26 is our Republic Day and the country has got independence after much sacrifice



"Ensuring that the dignity of the Republic day is not affected is the responsibility of farmers also. I hope they will reconsider their decision."Protesting union leaders on Monday said in the capital that farmers have a constitutional right to take out their tractor rally peacefully and asserted that thousands of people will participate in the proposed event on January 26.

(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.)
Researchers have identified regions in the genetic makeup of chickens that are linked to resistance to Campylobacter - the leading bacterial cause of food poisoning.

Data obtained in the study informs the extent to which parts of the genetic code can be linked to the prevalence of Campylobacter in the chicken gut.

A study led by researchers from the Roslin Institute, alongside poultry breeding company Aviagen, investigated the genetic make-up of 3,000 chickens bred for meat.

This was achieved by looking for variation at specific positions in the chickens genome and their association with numbers of Campylobacter in the gut of the birds.

Scientists combined this with analyses of the expression of genes in chickens that were resistant or susceptible to colonisation by the bacteria.

All the birds were naturally exposed to Campylobacter present in their environment, which mimics how they are exposed on a commercial farm.

Campylobacter infections are common in people, who can develop diarrhoea and severe complications after handling or eating contaminated chicken meat.

Each year, it is estimated that more than 500,000 people in the UK are infected, costing the country approximately 50 million.

Professor Mark Stevens, of the Roslin Institute said: "Here, we looked for regions of the chicken genome that are associated with resistance to the bacterium.

"Our data indicates that there is low genetic basis for resistance to Campylobacter colonisation and also show that non-genetic factors play a more significant role in carriage of Campylobacter in chickens.

"In addition, the regions of the genome associated to resistance to colonisation were highly prevalent in the chicken line studied."

Dr Richard Bailey, of Aviagen said results showed that whilst there were genetic factors that influence Campylobacter colonisation, these factors played a minor role.

"It is crucial to characterise and understand the role of the non-genetic and environmental factors to further reduce Campylobacter levels in poultry," he said.
Today Wednesday July 13 th 2016 , D 'Jais and the belmar tourism commission presents the annual New Jersey Sandcastle... Posted by Big Moe Taxi Services on Wednesday, July 13, 2016

When the party was over for Jersey Shore club-goers, the night was just starting for Mohammed Khater.

Better known as Moe Cabbie, Khater would pick up partiers ready to call it a night, and keep the party going in the back of his cab. More than just a safe ride home, Khater tricked out the back of his car with party lights and DJed for his passengers.

But this summer, the party will have to find another way home. Khater, 38, was fatally wounded Saturday at a Brick Township home; a 14-year-old has been charged with murder in his death.

Its easy to sum him up. He just was a great guy who tried to give everyone you know, he catered to the nightclub business, Tom Sueta, the general manager at The Headliner Club in Neptune, told NJ Advance Media.

The Headliner was one of Khaters main pick-up spots, where he would act as a sober designated driver after a long night of partying with his Big Moe Taxi Service. Not just a safe ride home, Khater wanted the ride home to be an extension of the club and viewed himself as an entertainer.

Going to The Headliner night club or the Oasis day club get a fun ride with Big Moe Cabbie by calling or texting 7325005004 and your first drink is on us courtesy of Tom Sueta #EROCK Posted by Big Moe Taxi Services on Saturday, June 24, 2017

He had a loyal following. People would wait to take Moes taxi rather than someone elses, Sueta said. Khater also made frequent pick-ups at Belmar mainstays, like Djais and Bar Anticipation.

Belmar Mayor Mark Walsifer said Khater was a familiar face in the Belmar Police Department, where he would stop in yearly to renew his taxi license.

He was a friendly, hardworking, dependable man. People really enjoyed riding in his unique cab. It is a sad and tragic ending to a friend of Belmar, Walsifer said.

He was all about helping people so they wouldnt drive. Ive seen him in other places where he would pick people up, walking down the street. He had a very big heart, just a great guy, Tom said.

Its a big loss for the Jersey Shore community, especially for the bars and night clubs, Sueta said.

Funeral services for Kater were planned for Monday afternoon, according to his Facebook page.

The juvenile was charged with murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and is being held at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center, according to a joint statement from Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer and Brick Township Chief of Police James Riccio.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

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ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

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European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

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Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

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Yves here. One thing to keep in mind when reading this post on fire sales in times of industry or overall economic distress: in normal times, most acquisitions fail (as in delivered a poor return on capital for the buyer) due to overpaying for the company. And that in turn is the result of how efficient the process of selling public and decent-sized private companies has become. Lots of bidders results in higher prices.

One of the results of overpayment is squeezing hard, perhaps harder than initially planned, to wring out costs. While the authors point out that job losses are greater in fire sales than in conventional acquisitions, they look to be on a par with headcount cuts in troubled businesses.

By Jean-Marie Meier, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Texas at Dallas and Henri Servaes, Richard Brealey Professor of Corporate Governance and Professor of Finance, London Business School; CEPR Research Fellow. Originally published at VoxEU

Governments and central banks worldwide have reacted to COVID-19 with unparalleled emergency measures, including bailouts. One key objective of these emergency measures was to prevent fire sales and the externalities associated with them. Based on 31 years of data on fire sales of real assets, this column documents that there is an underappreciated bright side to fire sales in the form of gains to buyers. Furthermore, the negative externalities of fire sales for customers or suppliers, for instance, appear limited. These findings indicate that the welfare losses associated with fire sales are smaller than previously thought, thereby raising doubts about the merits of bailouts to prevent them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on economies around the world (Baldwin and Weder di Mauro 2020). Many governments and central banks responded with similarly unprecedented emergency measures. For instance, in the US, the federal government legislated $1.8 trillion in bailout funds for the private sector, while the Federal Reserve reacted with around a dozen emergency initiatives (Meier and Smith 2020). One of the policy objectives behind these bailouts and other emergency measures was to avoid fire sales, and the externalities associated with them. Despite these emergency programmes, there has been an increase in bankruptcy filings by large publicly listed US firms according to the UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database. Therefore, it seems reasonable to project that these bankruptcies will lead to an increase in fire sales over the next several months and years.

Starting with Pulvino (1998), a body of academic work on fire sales has emerged. Besides the losses for the seller in fire sales, other articles have documented the externalities of fire sales. For example, these externalities can affect the employees of the fire sale firm, or the suppliers and customers of the distressed firm (Goolsbee and Krueger 2015).

The Bright Side of Fire Sales

What is often underappreciated, however, is the magnitude of the gains that occur in sales of distressed assets. From a theoretical perspective, it is not clear whether buyers gain. While there can be a redistribution of wealth from the seller to the buyer, the sellers loss can also reflect an inefficient reallocation to a buyer that cannot use the assets as effectively as the seller, while buyers that can use the assets more productively are sidelined because they do not have the resources to fund the acquisition.

We examine 31 years of data on fire sales of real assets and find that buyers experience large gains at the expense of sellers (Meier and Servaes 2019, 2020). Since the gains of buyers in fire sales are often underappreciated, ignoring them can overstate the overall costs of fire sales. As a result, the need for bailouts as a tool to prevent fire sales can be exaggerated. Our findings have important implications for the debate about whether bailouts should be used as a tool to prevent fire sales, especially since bailouts also impose costs on society. For example, bailouts could induce moral hazard and the bailout process could be distorted because of political connections.

We measure the gains for buyers of distressed assets by analysing almost 22,000 completed takeovers from 1982 to 2012  including acquisitions of entire companies as well as corporate sales of assets or divisions. We limit the data set to acquisitions by US-publicly traded companies. We define fire sales as transactions where the seller is bankrupt, where the transaction is part of a liquidation plan, or where the seller is in a debt restructuring that imposes a loss on the creditors. The common theme of these three criteria is that the seller has lost some  or all  control of management decision-making to a bankruptcy court or to creditors, who are unlikely to get as high a price for the distressed assets as the sellers management might have. Based on these criteria, we find 428 fire-sale acquisitions.

To value the effect of the M&A announcement on the buyer we use abnormal returnsthe difference between the stock performance of a company making an acquisition over the three-day period surrounding the announcement of the transaction compared with the performance of the stock market as a whole. We then compare the abnormal returns of buyers in fire sales with the abnormal returns of buyers in regular acquisitions, and the results are remarkable: the returns for fire-sale acquisitions are about two percentage points higher than for other acquisitions.

As one might expect, sellers lose substantially in fire sales relative to regular acquisitions. But once one value-weights the gains to buyers and the losses to sellers using the corresponding sizes of acquirers and sellers as weights, the returns of the combined firm in a fire sale are similar to the returns in regular acquisitions. Thus, the loss to the seller in a fire sale is a wealth transfer to the buyer.

The Mechanisms Behind the Buyer Returns in Fire Sales

Next, we ask why abnormal returns are higher in fire sale acquisitions than in regular transactions. We find that the returns to buyers in fire sales are higher when there is less competition for the sellers assets. In addition, buyers in fire sales gain more when the sellers industry (or the M&A market in the industry) experiences low liquidity, is financially constrained, or the entire economy is in recession. Moreover, returns are higher for buyers in fire sales when the sellers assets are easily deployable across industries.

The common theme behind these findings is that they affect the relative bargaining power of the buyer and seller. The more bargaining power on the buyers side in a fire sale, the larger the buyers gains in these transactions, suggesting that the underlying mechanism behind our results is the weak bargaining position of the seller in fire sales. Many of these elements will also be particularly relevant during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also contribute to a recent literature on the changing nature of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For this analysis, we only use a sub-sample of transactions that all involve acquisitions and asset purchases out of bankruptcy. To measure creditor control, which reduces the sellers bargaining power, we use the presence of debtor-in-possession financing and key employee retention plans. Bankruptcy asset purchases with creditor control yield higher abnormal returns for buyers than bankruptcy purchases without creditor control. This is evidence that the weak bargaining position of the seller in fire sales drives buyers gains.

Real Effects and Externalities of Fire Sales

Finally, we study the real effects associated with fire sales. Fire sales do not yield better accounting performance for the buyers after the takeovers. We also do not find that fire sales are more or less successful based on news reports in the years after the transaction. This indicates that buyer returns are not due to a higher-quality match between buyers and sellers or the revelation of good news about buyers. Instead, these results support our argument that buyers purchase assets at a low price.

Importantly, we also investigate the externalities of fire sales. We find no difference between fire sales and regular transactions in the stock price response of the distressed sellers competitors, its customers, or its suppliers. While we find a decline in employment relative to regular acquisitions, the employment losses in fire sales are similar to the employment losses in bankruptcy restructurings that are not accompanied by asset sales. Therefore, we conclude that the externalities of fire sales for other stakeholders are limited.

Conclusion

We investigate a large number of stakeholders that could be negatively affected by a fire sale but find little evidence for negative externalities. The main effect of fire sales is a wealth transfer from the seller to the buyer. Thus, from a welfare perspective, the costs associated with fire sales of corporate assets are much lower than previously thought based on an analysis of seller costs only. From a policy perspective, these findings indicate that the merits of bailouts as a response to the potential losses associated with fire sales are limited, especially given the moral hazard and the other distortions caused by these bailouts.

We recognise that the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is unparalleled since the WWII and the Great Depression, and hence, some emergency measures and bailouts were likely necessary to prevent a meltdown of economic activity. However, one difference between the current crisis and the Global Crisis is the apparent lack of fire sales of struggling companies or investments into such companies at fire-sale prices. Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, for instance, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in September 2008 and $3 billion in General Electric in October 2008, while Warren Buffetts firm has not undertaken any major investments during the COVID-19 crisis (Financial Times 2020). Our results therefore suggest that, at least at the margin, fire sales would have been an effective alternative to bailouts, especially for large bailouts such as for the airlines in the US.

See original post for references
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
For weeks, the long-term care facility where Linda Green works as a nurse looked to her like a battlefield hospital, swathed in plastic drapes separating the ill from the uninfected. The coronavirus ripped through the western Maryland facility like wildfire at the end of 2020, deepening Green's fear that she, at 73, might bring the virus home to her husband, who is 84.

Then she received a coronavirus shot. It felt like any other vaccination, leaving her with mild upper arm soreness but no other physical side effects. The emotional effects, however, were remarkable. Even thinking of the vaccine, Green said two weeks after receiving the Moderna shot, makes her practically "cry with relief" as she pictures a brighter future for herself and those she cares for.

"Now, when I go in and I'm putting on my N95, I think, 'This may only be for a few more weeks,' " said Green, though she expects even after that to continue wearing a surgical mask around residents, who have also been vaccinated. "We won't have to wear face shields, and ah, it will be so nice."

One month after a New York nurse received the first U.S. vaccination, the hope inspired by the vaccines' swift development and approval has given way in many quarters nationally to the distressing reality of a slow and sometimes calamitous rollout. But for some health-care workers who have been vaccinated after toiling for nearly a year under exhausting, dangerous and sometimes terrifying conditions, the dominant feeling, they say, is profound and enduring relief, even amid a surge of covid-19 cases.

In interviews, health-care workers described a surprising new sense of levity and energy as they go about work that, in many places, continues to be overwhelming. Some spoke of an elation and a confidence that they can now offer better care. Many said the vaccine had renewed their optimism after months during which depression and burnout in their field soared and the virus killed an estimated 3,000 people in their ranks.

"Sometimes, I feel like I walk around with a biohazard sign on me," said Danielle Gonzalez, 39, an intensive care unit nurse in Eugene, Ore. After one dose of vaccine, she said, she already feels like a small load has been lifted. After she gets her second, she expects, "I will feel less contagious . . . It'll be nice not to be patient zero."

In 2020, her work became more stressful than she ever imagined, Gonzalez said. The tiresome donning and doffing of personal protective equipment that looks like a spacesuit. The inability to respond as quickly as usual to patient alarms. The anxiety that any newly admitted patient may test positive for the coronavirus.

The vaccine, Gonzalez said, feels like an unseen additional layer of PPE - one that makes the prospect of once again hugging her parents, both of whom are over 65, feel more real. Before the pandemic, she had dinner with them once a week. They're the kind of parents who always hug her the same way: "Like they haven't seen me in forever," Gonzalez said. "And I cannot wait."

For Jane Tucker, the first dose has already been liberating: She stopped wearing a stifling N95 mask for her entire shifts at the Colorado Springs hospital where she works as a women's health nurse. Now, she sticks with a surgical mask for most of her shift, strapping on the more confining N95 only when interacting with patients who test positive for the virus.

Before the coronavirus hit, Tucker, 45, rarely wore any sort of mask. After, although only some of her patients have the virus, Tucker opted to wear an N95 all day - removing it only when outside or alone in a break room, going hours without drinking water - because she so feared exposing her two children, who have autoimmune diseases. She worried about close contact with colleagues, who she knew were not as careful as she was outside work. She covered her hair. She sometimes wore goggles.

"It feels like kind of a war type of situation," Tucker said. "You're putting on all your armor and trying to avoid this enemy that is really frightening and silent."

Even then, Tucker said she constantly worried her PPE wasn't enough. She had what she called "phantom covid symptoms," worrying that every cough or sore throat was a sign she'd been infected. She prides herself on being the sort of nurse who sits on the bed, chatting with patients. But she found herself shortening visits, knowing each passing minute increased her exposure.

Tucker knows the vaccine doesn't offer 100 percent protection. Still, having gotten it has felt surprisingly freeing.

"I feel totally more optimistic, feeling more like it's not this personal threat," Tucker said. "I feel like, if things became really bad again, I would be happy to volunteer to help. It kind of changes my mind-set about my personal risks. It empowers me to be able to give better care to my patients."

Mary Brock broke into tears of joy when she was vaccinated Dec. 29. Sobbing, she texted her family to share her happiness. She gets choked up talking about it even now.

None of her 32 years as a nurse practitioner had been as difficult as 2020. For most of it, Brock was the sole provider at an urgent care clinic in Hartford, Conn., seeing 40 to 50 patients a day. Most came for coronavirus tests, and some days, 40 percent tested positive. Brock, 52, said she relied on a donated N95 mask, hoping it protected her when entire families of coronavirus-positive patients crammed in an exam room.

The anxiety was so encompassing that on her days off, Brock sometimes could not get out of bed. Last month, she took a new job in a hospital where she doesn't treat coronavirus patients. That helped enormously, she said - but getting the vaccine took her relief to a new level.

"I'm scheduled for my second dose, and I'm like, 'Oh man, it's going to feel so good,' " Brock said. "I haven't been to the dentist because I was such a risky patient. I haven't gotten my hair cut because I didn't want to put anybody at risk. I'm looking forward to a couple weeks after my second vaccine to do all that stuff again."

For Carmen Hazera, 64, a respiratory therapist who treats coronavirus patients in the Tampa Bay region, the relief of being vaccinated is mixed with wariness about how much protection she will get from the shot. She's not making plans yet or changing her routines. But Hazera, who felt a year ago like she was winding down her career, is staying on the job.

The past year has been grueling and scary. On one shift, she was sprayed with blood and secretions while suctioning the lungs of a terribly ill ICU patient. The sadness and hopelessness in the units where she works only seem to be growing, she said.

"I'll feel better," after the second dose, Hazera said. "It's awful to even contemplate not having it, but so much of the world won't have it for a long time."

Green, the long-term care nurse, is focusing for now on those in her world who have received the vaccine - not just herself, but the residents of the facility where she works.

Visitors were prohibited last spring, and the residents' lifelines to humanity - the staff - have been garbed in alien protective gear. Green said she felt deeply sad that despite precautions, the virus made its way to a population that had been so cut off from the outside.

"You can see the decline that happens with social isolation in elderly people. You can't say they're dying from covid, but they're definitely not thriving," Green said. "I would tell the residents that could understand . . . 'Guess what? When we get that vaccine, our doors can open, and you can have family with you again.' "

Green has also informed her 11-year-old granddaughter, whom she hasn't hugged since last year, that she can plan a family vacation. The girl has already made a five-day itinerary for a trip to Longboat Key, Fla. They are tentatively penciling in the trip for June, if it seems safe then.

"This is how we're coping - looking to the future," Green said. "We're trying to hope."
Jet charter and aircraft management firm RAI Jets, based at KAZO, is considering plans to expand staff and hangar space in 2021. We have been able to service businesses, even those with in-house aviation departments, who expanded their use of jet charter to include not only the typical top tier employees but the next tier employees as well.

RAI Jets, LLC, a part 135 operator headquartered at Kalamazoo Battle Creek International Airport (KAZO) that offers jet charter service as well as aircraft management, has announced an expansion in staff and looks to add assets in 2021.

Although the pandemic initially stalled our business and raises our operating costs, it has inadvertently opened new inroads for us also, said Becky Bakeman, president of RAI Jets. We have been able to service businesses, even those with in-house aviation departments, who expanded their use of jet charter for business to include not only the typical top tier employees but the next tier employees as well. Businesses came to us for the scheduling convenience of jet charter but found the safety of our limited capacity and upgraded COVID-19 safety protocols to be a bonus!

Bakeman also said that personal travelers who had been curious about jet charter took the plunge and booked with RAI Jets, spurred on by safety concerns from the pandemic. In response, RAI has added another pilot to their roster of nine, as well as another maintenance technician.

RAI Jets is also considering additional jet acquisitions to their fleet in 2021 and scouting locations for a potential third hangar. The company currently maintains their original 10,000 square foot hangar at Kirsch Municipal Airport in Sturgis, Michigan (KIRS) and their current 24,000 square feet of hangar space (with 6,000 square feet of office space) at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek (KAZO).

We are grateful that our service has been found important to our prospective customers in these hard times, said Bakeman, but like most Americans, we are looking forward to a brighter 2021.

About RAI Jets

RAI Jets LLC is a Kalamazoo, MI-based aviation specialist featuring aircraft management, jet charter and aircraft maintenance services. The family-owned company officially opened in 2009, preceded by more than two decades of generational experience in aviation. For individuals and businesses, the Part 135 operator offers customized, jet charter for business or leisure, as well as turnkey management and aircraft maintenance for jet owners. RAI Jets operates its own fleet of aircraft for charter and offers jet owners (personal and corporate) with the option to offset operating costs by adding their aircraft to RAI Jets FAA approved Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate. RAI Jets also offers aircraft acquisition service and hangar space. For more information visit FlyRAI.com or call (800) 247-2834.




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The rapid expansion in the use of cloud technologies to support remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored that the U.S. government's increasingly high rate of cloud adoption will likely be sustained for the next several years.

In fact, 2020 was a "historic year" for federal cloud migration, according to Alex Rossino, senior principal research analyst at Deltek. Federal spending on cloud technology reached $6.8 billion in the 2020 federal fiscal year, more than double the level of 2017.

"I think that the federal market turned a corner in fiscal 2018 with the publication of the 'Cloud Smart' guidance. After that agencies began rapidly accelerating the migration of systems and use of SaaS capabilities. COVID-19 only added fuel to that fire," Rossino told the E-Commerce Times.

"Cloud Smart" is a Trump administration initiative to modernize information technology and generate cloud migration at federal agencies with an emphasis on security issues, technology procurement, and workforce improvement. The COVID-19 spurt in cloud usage also reflected a more trusting attitude toward the technology by federal purchasing officials who may have had some lingering concerns about cloud migration.

"COVID-19 quickly and unexpectedly rendered criticisms and concerns over IT modernization and cloud migrations largely irrelevant," said Juliana Vida chief technical advisor for the public sector at Splunk.

Those concerns focused on data security and lack of visibility into application performance and availability, she noted in a Web posting during a high point of COVID-19 contagion earlier this year. Agencies that had migrated to the cloud "demonstrated better abilities and agility to deal with the crisis, than those who were still on legacy systems," Vida noted.

Growth in Long-Term Cloud Spending

The short-term boost from the pandemic is just one factor supporting long-term cloud adoption at the federal level. Annual federal spending on cloud computing will grow from the $6.8 billion level in 2020 to $7.3 billion in 2021 and to $7.8 billion in 2022, according to Deltek's analysis

"Faced with aging information technology infrastructure that is increasingly unsecure, and urged by Congress and the White House to control spending while leveraging emerging technologies, federal agencies are turning to commercial cloud solutions as the best method of modernizing their environments," observed Rossino.

For fiscal 2021, which began on October 1, 2020, federal civilian agencies aim to spend $4.5 billion on cloud technologies, while Defense Department cloud spending will reach $2.1 billion. Intelligence agencies are budgeting $621 million for cloud investments in fiscal 2021.

Deltek's projections are based on detailed data gathering from various federal sources to supplement Office of Management and Budget figures which may not completely reflect all levels of cloud spending. For example, Deltek includes historic trends and cloud activities associated with data center and enterprise IT activities to develop its projections.

Within that context, cloud spending in the federal defense sector will grow by $65 million between 2021 and 2022 to a total of $2.2 billion. During that period, cloud spending by the U.S. Army will increase from $346 million to $380 million; from $921 million to $942 million for the U.S. Air Force, and from $563 million to $59 million for other defense agencies. U.S. Navy spending for cloud will decrease from $306 million in 2021 to $286 million in 2022.

Civilian sector cloud spending will reach $4.8 billion in fiscal 2022, a gain of $325 billion over 2021. The top civilian agency for cloud investments will be Veterans Affairs, where cloud spending will grow from $947 milllion to $962 million between 2021 and 2022. The next two highest civilian agencies will be the Department of Homeland Security with cloud investment growing from $602 million to $662 million between 2021 and 2022, and the Department of Commerce where cloud spending will grow from $488 million to $517 million.

Within the Defense Department there has been a decided turn to engage commercial cloud resources. The department's "in-house" spending for cloud in fiscal 2021 will amount to $41 million, while commercial cloud investments will reach $214 million, Deltek reported. "After years of planning, the Department of Defense appears to be firming up its commitment to commercial cloud, estimating that $300-million of its planned fiscal 2021 cloud budget will be spent with commercial providers," said Rossino.

The Deltek analysis noted several key factors related to the future development of cloud technology at the federal level:

As a Service: Spending on Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) will continue to grow across government, but investments for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) appears to be leveling off in the market-leading civilian sector. This suggests many agencies may have already contracted sufficient commercial cloud infrastructure, but still require modernized SaaS capabilities.

Spending on Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) will continue to grow across government, but investments for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) appears to be leveling off in the market-leading civilian sector. This suggests many agencies may have already contracted sufficient commercial cloud infrastructure, but still require modernized SaaS capabilities. Security: The growing number of FedRAMP compliant offerings is providing agencies with more secure choices. FedRAMP is the federal program which certifies security levels of cloud products. The General Services Administration (GSA) also accelerated its certification process so agencies can use GSA desired solutions.

The growing number of FedRAMP compliant offerings is providing agencies with more secure choices. FedRAMP is the federal program which certifies security levels of cloud products. The General Services Administration (GSA) also accelerated its certification process so agencies can use GSA desired solutions. Data Drivers: A growing focus on sound data management practices is helping agencies understand how to leverage cloud to their advantage.

Cloud Now an Essential IT Tool

Dan Tucker, vice-president at Booz Allen Hamilton, sees several factors driving increased federal investments in cloud technology -- almost to the point where cloud migration is no longer optional but is absolutely necessary. Cloud technology is just one of several IT modernization tools that will be needed in the future, along with improved data management, he notes.

"Certainly there's a requirement for public sector innovation and a need to accelerate the pace of addressing mission needs we haven't seen in generations. In the world of a global pandemic, the priorities have shifted and we're seeing necessity become either the mother of invention or the mother of adoption," Tucker said in an interview with Meritalk, an organization advocating federal IT modernization.

Tucker agreed that increased FedRAMP certifications have facilitated cloud adoption. He also noted that the availability of "low code" and "no code" SaaS platforms which reduce programming tasks are contributing to cloud migration.

"So, it likely stands that the expansion of accredited cloud service providers (CSPs), native services, combined with the proliferation of repeatable cloud engineering patterns, and the evolving landscape of managed SaaS providers will continue to accelerate the adoption of cloud" at the federal level, Tucker told the E-Commerce Times.

"There will be a continued need for cloud migration and cloud native development services across the federal landscape, with potential for more significant acceleration in the defense and intelligence communities," he said.

Small and Niche Providers Could Benefit

Federal cloud deployments will continue to feature major commercial offerings, but growing federal investment in cloud technology should benefit smaller players as well.

"I do see increased business opportunities for smaller companies with cloud-based offerings," Tucker noted. While the major CSPs are "continuously bringing their own services and tooling to market, they are also seeking to develop partnerships to bring the industry leading service options and technologies to their current and prospective customers," he said.

"This may show up as offering in their marketplace, a third-party platform with native integration capabilities, or some sort of strategic partnership which makes it easier or cheaper to procure the niche capability. At the end of the day, the CSPs make the revenue based on data storage and compute charges, so anything that they can do which results in keeping customers on their infrastructure will be seen as a return on investment, " Tucker explained.

"Small businesses must maintain good business relationships with large cloud providers and engineering firms because agencies are still more inclined to award cloud contracts to large businesses," noted Deltek's Rossino.

Federal government spending overall is currently subject to a "continuing resolution" in lieu of fiscal 2021 appropriations. But that is likely to be a speed bump in the overall upward trend of cloud investments, according to Deniece Peterson, director of federal market analysis at Deltek.

Investments in the technology have garnered strong bipartisan support in Congress. The upward "trajectory" of federal cloud spending will continue, "given its importance to modernization and the additional 'clout' it gained during the pandemic response," she said.

John K. Higgins has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2009. His main areas of focus are U.S. government technology issues such as IT contracting, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud technology, big data and e-commerce regulation. As a freelance journalist and career business writer, he has written for numerous publications, including The Corps Report and Business Week. Email John.


The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
[January 18, 2021] THB places the first risk with Global Health Risk Facility through Syndicate 1796

THB, the specialist insurance and reinsurance broker, today reveals it has placed the first risk with the newly launched Global Health Risk Facility (GHRF), a public-private collaboration developed by insurtech Parsyl to help protect and support the global distribution of critical health commodities including existing and newly-emerging vaccines. Working closely with Phil Mason, Managing Partner of Armfield, Harrison & Thomas, LLC (AHT), a US retail broker specialising in international aid and development organisations, THB was engaged to put in place insurance for the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) a supply chain solutions provider internationally recognised for its role in saving lives through stronger public health supply chains. PFSCM procures and delivers over $300 million worth of medicines, diagnostics, and medical supplies to more than 80 low- and middle-income countries every year. THB brought PFSCM together with the GHRF - an alliance of insurance and technology partners providing comprehensive and data-driven cargo insurance and risk mitigation services for the storage and transit of life-saving medical supplies - including temperature-sensitive Covid-19 vaccines. The facility is anchored by the new Syndicate 1796 at Lloyd's, led by Ascot as the managing agent and developed by Parsyl, which uses technology to affordably collect and analyse data across the entire supply chain to ensure medicines and vaccines remain safe and effective from the laboratory to use in the field. Phil Mason, Managing Partner of AHT explained: "Supply chain insurance and risk management is mission critical for PFSCM. I trusted the cargo team at THB to find the right solution. Parsyl's blend of insurance and technology promises the efficiencies we are seeking. We're excited to be part of the placement of the first policy in this new Syndicate." Chris McGill (News - Alert) , Head of Cargo at Ascot Group and Active Underwriter for Syndicate 1796 added: "This new Syndicate is a game-changer for healthcare in the developing world where, without the right data, insuring these vital products simply doesn't happen. It's been immensely satisfying to combine the expertise of colleagues throughout insurance and technology to establish this important operation." Victoria Zak, Director of Insurance, Parsyl said: "We're incredibly proud that PFSCM, a proven leader in supply chain innovation for international development, has chosen to obtain insurance coverage from the GHRF. It shows that the critical components of quality monitoring and data collection add incredible value to clients, insurers, and ultimately all recipients of vaccines around the world. Erin Seidner, CFO of PFSCM agreed: "We all know that 2021 will bring the additional challenge of distributing a new vaccine, adding to the pressures on supply chains, particularly cargo options for cold chain and frozen shipments. It's reassuring to know that we now have this specialist insurance facility enabling us to continue our vital work with confidence." Toby Kayll, MD of THB Marine, said: "We're very proud to place the first risk on the Global Health Risk Facility via Syndicate 1796. This is such a great exampe of the insurance market working collaboratively and making use of technology to address an issue with real-time human impact."



ENDS Notes to editors:

THB Group is a specialist (re)insurance and risk management group, having at its core a Lloyd's broking business (Thompson Heath & Bond Limited), providing services to clients worldwide. THB was named Broker of the Year at the Insurance Insider Honours Awards 2019. THB is part of Amwins Group, Inc., a global specialty insurance distributor with some 5,400 employees across more than 100 office locations worldwide. AmWINS handles some $17billion in premium and is ranked the largest wholesale insurance broker in the U.S. by Business Insurance magazine. For further information on THB, please visit www.thbgroup.com. Amwins offers expertise across a diversified mix of property and casualty (P&C) and group benefits insurance products, and also provides value-added services to support these products, including product development, underwriting, premium and claims administration and actuarial services. For further information on Amwins, please visit www.amwins.com. PFSCM (Partnership for Supply Chain Management) specialises in prevention, diagnostic and treatment products for COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, reproductive health, family planning, and maternal and child health. Since its inception in 2005, PFSCM has delivered $6.8 billion in health products in over 45,000 shipments to over 100 countries. For further information on PFSCM, please visit www.pfscm.org. Ascot Group is a Bermuda-domiciled specialty insurance and reinsurance business founded in 2001 with four operating divisions: Ascot Underwriting, the Managing Agency for Syndicate 1414 at Lloyd's; Ascot Bermuda, which writes excess insurance and reinsurance as well as managing the Group's alternative capital vehicles; Ascot U.S., a specialty insurance provider to middle market customers through retail and wholesale brokers in the United States, and; Ethos Specialty, a New York headquartered Managing General Underwriter (MGU) which provides underwriting and insurance services to third parties. Ascot Group is owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the largest pension plan in Canada with over C$400 billion in invested assets and representing the retirement contributions of over 20 million Canadians. CPPIB is rated 'AAA' by S&P and Moody's. For further information on Ascot, please visit www.ascotgroup.com/lloyds. Parsyl is a supply chain data platform and cargo insurer for shippers of sensitive goods. Parsyl's combined IoT and software solution helps shippers understand, mitigate and insure risks to goods as they move through the supply chain, both in transit and storage. Parsyl is an approved Coverholder with Lloyd's of London. Syndicate 1796 was developed by Parsyl and serves as the anchor of the Global Health Risk Facility, the world's dedicated risk facility for Covid-19 related transit and storage risks. It is the first public-private syndicate created to address a global health emergency in the history of Lloyd's. The Syndicate has been given the number '1796' in honour of the year physician Edward Jenner carried out his first experiments in what would become the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine and the only disease the world has ever eradicated through vaccination. The GHRF is open to all brokers with eligible business. For more policy details visit www.parsyl.com/ghrf/. AHT, a Baldwin Risk Partner, is an insurance brokerage and consulting firm offering property and casualty, employee benefits, retirement, personal and international services for a wide range of industries - boasting national recognition for its practices in areas including technology, manufacturing, government contracting and non-profits. AHT has been honoured with more than 60 industry awards, including being ranked one of the "100 Largest Brokers of U.S. Business", named one of the "Best Places to Work in Insurance" by Business Insurance, named to the "Top 25 Insurance Brokers and Agents" list by Washington Business Journal and a Washington Post "Top Workplace" for consecutive years. For further information on AHT, please visit www.ahtins.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210118005023/en/

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The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Ghana will benefit from a new terrestrial 24-hour Channel, dubbed the Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (MTA) Ghana, to spread the true and peaceful teachings of Islam.



The new MTA Ghana channel will be housed in the Wahab Adam Studio in Ghana, which was completed in 2017 and named in honour of the late Ameer and Missionary In-charge.



The world-wide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph) of the Messiah and Mahdi, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad virtually launched the channel after the Friday Sermon from his base in the United Kingdom.



The launch of MTA Ghana marks yet another significant landmark in the development of MTA International, the parent channel.



The launch was followed by a silent prayer led by His Holiness in thanks to God Almighty.



MTA Ghana Channel is on the digital platform and will be available to view without the need of a satellite dish and can also be accessed through a normal aerial.



The main areas of coverage will be Greater Accra and Central Regions, Kumasi and its surrounding areas, Tamale and Wa.



Programmes for the channel will be produced from the Wahab Adam studios in English and various Ghanaian languages, including Twi, Hausa and others in the training and teaching of Ahmadi Muslims.



Maulana Muhammad Noor Bin Salih, the Ameer and Missionary In-charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Ghana, in his address, urged the nation to see this new channel as medium for moral and spiritual reformation.



He also said "we are in the technological era and everyone is required to take positive advantage of it."



He called on members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to recognise the grace of God and what their duty should be in delivering the true, peaceful and loving message of Islam to the nation.



The launch was followed by the first live programme on the new terrestrial channel from Wahab Adam Studios Ghana featuring Quran Recitation, local and foreign Poems and studio discussion.



MTA Ghana will broadcast all the programmes of the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community such as his weekly Friday Sermon and other addresses.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video

Loading "In the seven years since the 'Argus came under its present ownership, the directors have spared neither money nor energy in trying to re-establish the paper on a sound business basis. Rising Costs "Continuing rising costs, particularly for paper, have outweighed all the improvements the directors have been able to make in revenue. The current losses of operation are too heavy to be carried any longer with no prospect of improvement." First published in The Age on February 2, 1957

Thoughts on the impermanence of human institutions That the life of the institutions which the individual creates is equally impermanent is not always so readily recognised despite the overwhelming evidence to that effect scattered throughout history and not least the history of our own times. Loading In the heyday of Roman pride and power a member of the august Senate might have been pardoned had he thought, as doubtless some of them did, that finality had been reached in the evolution of instruments of government and that nothing could disturb, let alone destroy, a body consisting of men whose accumulated experience made it the quintessence of wisdom and authority. But listen to the sonorous voice of the historian Gibbon, writing of a time not so very long afterwards. "The fate of the Roman Senate suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitudes of human affairs After a period of 13 centuries the institution of Romulus expired and, if the Roman nobles still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be found of a public council or of constitutional order. Ascend 600 years and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman Senate!"

One may well wonder whether a Gibbon of the future may not feel moved to write about some aspects of our present day age in much the same terms, though probably sentiment will be considered too dangerous weapon for use by an historian. At this moment anyway there is little temptation to believe in the permanence of human institutions and It is only the rashest of prophets who could commit himself with any confidence to a delineation of things to come. Loading It Is a very long way from the Roman Senate to a daily newspaper but the passing of the Melbourne 'Argus into the limbo of vanished institutions must have moved many to thoughts not unlike mine. In anything like their present form newspapers are not so very old an accompaniment of our daily lives. But they have become so familiar a part of them that they might have been there for ever and, so far at any rate, it doesn't look as if the combined forces of radio and television were likely to make them any less essential to our happiness. Affection for a Newspaper

One develops an entirely irrational affection for one's particular paper, not necessarily because one likes or agrees with it but just because one knows where everything is and can find it with no trouble. How irritating it is when away from home, abroad or in another State, to be compelled to rely upon a stranger who looks different, is dressed differently and talks in a different accent! You start the day feeling all wrong and what a relief it is to get back again to the old rag with all its hideous defects! Loading I was not myself an "Argus" man of recent years, and even if I had been, I could hardly confess it in these surroundings. But a great many people were and they have my sincere sympathy in the ordeal that confronts them of getting accustomed to some other daily mentor with its comics in an unfamiliar spot, its crossword puzzle in a foreign language and its angle on Grace Kelly obtuse instead of acute. They will survive, no doubt, but there are difficult days in prospect for them. More seriously, however, it is always sad to see a landmark disappear and the "Argus" has been a landmark in Melbourne since the place was just a village.
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NEW APPOINTMENTS AT EURONEXT

Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Oslo and Paris  18 January 2021  Euronext today announced that Delphine dAmarzit has been appointed by the Supervisory Board of Euronext N.V. as CEO of Euronext Paris and member of the Managing Board of Euronext N.V., subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, starting from 15 March 2021. Delphine dAmarzit joins from Orange Bank where, as Deputy CEO, she was responsible for the oversight of the Operations, Credit, Finance, Risk and Compliance functions. Delphine dAmarzit holds an extensive knowledge of European and French capital markets, notably having held senior positions within the French Treasury Department for several years with responsibilities for capital markets development, European financial regulation, and corporate financing. From 2007 to 2009, she was also in charge of financial and economic affairs at the office of the Prime Minister where she participated in the definition of the public response to the financial crisis, rescue package and recovery plans and coordinated the action on all matters related to economic reform and financial services.

Euronext today also announced that Anthony Attia has been appointed as Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade. In his new capacity, Anthony Attia will oversee Euronexts Equity, Debt and Fund listing franchise and the Corporate Services business, as well as Clearing, Custody and Settlement activities at Group level. He will be instrumental in the expected integration of the Borsa Italiana Group activities1. In order to fully focus on his expanded Group-level strategic and business responsibilities, Anthony Attia will be handing over his position as CEO of Euronext Paris and member of the Managing Board of Euronext N.V. Anthony Attia will remain a member of the Operating Committee and the Extended Managing Board of Euronext N.V.

Delphine dAmarzit said: I am delighted to join Euronext at a turning point in its growth journey. I look forward to supporting the Group strategy within the Managing Board and to working with the Euronext Paris teams to further enhance the strong relationship with the French ecosystem and beyond.

Anthony Attia, Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade at Euronext, said: I am pleased to hand over the stewardship of Euronext Paris to Delphine dAmarzit, whose experience will be critical in continuing to deliver best-in-class services to the Paris financial ecosystem. I now look forward to leading our expanded post-trade franchise and supporting the growth of Euronext Primary Markets and Corporate Services activities as the Group embarks on the next steps in its strategic ambition.

Stephane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext N.V., said: Euronext is opening a new chapter in its growth journey with the contemplated acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group1, and the successful recent expansion into new geographies and activities. As a result, Euronext must adjust its organisation to fit its ambition to build the leading pan-European market infrastructure and cement the scalability of its unique federal model. I am pleased to welcome Delphine dAmarzit in her position on the Managing Board and as CEO of Euronext Paris. Under her leadership, building on her strong experience with capital markets and infrastructure in France, we shall continue to deliver the best services to our clients and ecosystem in Paris. I would like to thank Anthony Attia for his critical contribution in transforming Euronext Paris since the IPO of Euronext in 2014 while also delivering on Euronext ambitions. His energy and dedication to Euronexts ambitions have been critical to the success of the Group over the past few years. I look forward to continuing to work with him as he leads the transformation of our listing and post-trade offerings.

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Media - mediateam@euronext.com

Aurelie Cohen +33 1 70 48 24 45

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About Euronext

Euronext is the leading pan-European market infrastructure, connecting local economies to global capital markets, to accelerate innovation and sustainable growth. It operates regulated exchanges in Belgium, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway and Portugal. With close to 1,500 listed issuers worth 4.5 trillion in market capitalisation as of end December 2020, it has an unmatched blue chip franchise and a strong diverse domestic and international client base. Euronext operates regulated and transparent equity and derivatives markets and is the largest centre for debt and funds listings in the world. Its total product offering includes Equities, FX, Exchange Traded Funds, Warrants & Certificates, Bonds, Derivatives, Commodities and Indices. Euronext also leverages its expertise in running markets by providing technology and managed services to third parties. In addition to its main regulated market, it also operates Euronext Growth and Euronext Access, simplifying access to listing for SMEs. Euronext provides custody and settlement services through central securities depositories in Denmark, Norway and Portugal.

For the latest news, follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/euronext) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/euronext).

Disclaimer

This press release is for information purposes only: it is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and is provided as is, without representation or warranty of any kind. While all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content, Euronext does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Euronext will not be held liable for any loss or damages of any nature ensuing from using, trusting or acting on information provided. No information set out or referred to in this publication may be regarded as creating any right or obligation. The creation of rights and obligations in respect of financial products that are traded on the exchanges operated by Euronexts subsidiaries shall depend solely on the applicable rules of the market operator. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Euronext. This press release speaks only as of this date. Euronext refers to Euronext N.V. and its affiliates. Information regarding trademarks and intellectual property rights of Euronext is available at www.euronext.com/terms-use .

 2021, Euronext N.V. - All rights reserved.

The Euronext Group processes your personal data in order to provide you with information about Euronext (the "Purpose"). With regard to the processing of these personal data, Euronext will comply with its obligations under the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR), and any applicable national laws, rules and regulations implementing the GDPR as provided in its privacy statement available at: https://www.euronext.com/en/privacy-policy .

In accordance with the applicable legislation you have rights as regard to the processing of your personal data:

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, for any request regarding the processing of your data or if you want to unsubscribe to this press release, please use our data subject request form https://connect2.euronext.com/form/data-subjects-rights-request or email our Data Protection Officer at dpo@euronext.com .





APPENDIX





Biographies





Delphine dAmarzit

Delphine dAmarzit joined from Orange Bank, the mobile bank of Orange, one of the worlds leading telecommunications operators, where she was deputy CEO since June 2016, with direct supervision over Operations, Credit, Finance, Risk and Compliance. In her position, Delphine dAmarzit was key in shaping the new, disruptive digital retail banking offer and in making it grow from its first to its millionth client. Prior to that, she held various positions in the public sector, notably within the French Treasury Department, the Office of the Minister of the Economy and Finance and the Office of the Prime Minister. Delphine dAmarzits areas of responsibilities included European financial regulation, capital markets development as well as economic and financial affairs. She notably participated in the definition of the public response to the financial crisis, rescue package and recovery plans and coordinated the government action on all matters related to economic reform and financial services. Delphine dAmarzit is also non-executive Director of Thales SA since May 2018.

She began her career in the public sector in 1993, at the Inspection Generale des Finances, before joining the French Treasury Department.

Delphine dAmarzit is a graduate of the Institut dEtudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) and of the Ecole Nationale dAdministration. She also holds a Masters degree in Corporate Law from University Pantheon-Sorbonne.

Anthony Attia

Anthony Attia has been the CEO of Euronext Paris since 2014, while at the same time serving as Global Head of Listing and Post Trade for the Group. As CEO of Euronext Paris, he led the continued improvement of the relationships with the French ecosystem, clients and regulators, and developed Euronexts equity listing franchise by growing Euronexts pan-European SME and Tech initiatives. In addition, he led the development of Euronexts state-of-the-art proprietary trading plaform, Optiq. From 2009 to 2013, based in New York, he served as Senior Vice-President and Chief of Staff at NYSE Euronext. Areas of responsibilities included strategy, technology and integration.

Anthony Attia began his career at the Paris Stock Exchange in 1997. Since the creation of Euronext in 2000, he has held a number of group-level senior executive responsibilities such as European market operations, market structure, strategy, mergers and integration and trading platform design.

He is a member of the Board and Audit Committee of LCH SA, a member of the Board of Euroclear Holding, a director of Euronext Dublin and the Vice-President of FESE, the Federation of European Exchanges. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Liquidshare. In 2020, he was recognised by Business Insider as one of 100 people transforming business, driving change and innovation in their companies and across industries.

He holds an Engineering degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics and Finance.









1On 9 October 2020, Euronext announced that it has entered into a binding agreement with London Stock Exchange Group plc and London Stock Exchange Group Holdings (Italy) Limited to acquire 100% of the entire issued share capital of London Stock Exchange Group Holdings Italia SPA, the holding company of the Borsa Italiana Group. The transaction is subject to various regulatory approvals.

For further information, please refer to www.euronext.com/investor-relations/financial-calendar/acquisition-borsa-italiana-group







Attachment
An IndiGo flight flying from Surat to Kolkata has made an emergency landing at the Bhopal airport after it was diverted mid-air due to a technical reason. The flight landed safely at the airport with 172 passengers onboard, said Bhopal airport director.

As per a statement issued by IndiGo airlines, the flight was diverted to Bhopal as a precaution after the pilot felt a momentary foul odour. The aircraft is currently under inspection at Bhopal. The passengers accommodated on another aircraft.

"An IndiGo flight, which was going from Surat to Kolkata, was diverted to Bhopal & made an emergency landing due to technical reason today. The flight landed safely at the airport with 172 passengers onboard," the Bhopal airport director said.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari label former party TMC "tika chor"

Trinamool Congress turncoat Suvendu Adhikari labelled West Bengals ruling party tika chor (vaccine thief) after two TMC leaders from Burdwan received COVID-19 shots that were meant for healthcare and frontline workers.

Lashing out at the Trinamool Congress over TMC MLAs Rabindranath Chatterjee and Subhash Mondal getting vaccinated out of turn, Adhikari wrote on Twitter: Frontline healthcare worker or frontline politician? The kings of cut money @AITCofficial are leaving nothing behind! Instead of following the national policy of vaccinating healthcare workers first, #TikaChorTMC is stealing #CovidVaccines from those who need it the most.

BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya also attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the issue and tweeted: First, they stole ration meant for the poor, then they stole money meant for post-Amphan reconstruction, now they are snatching away priority COVID vaccines sent by Modi government for frontline health workers! Only Pishis party has this rare distinction.

Meanwhile, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said: The vaccines sent by the Central government are for healthcare staffers, police personnel and other frontline workers who are serving the society in the pandemic situation. Nearly 3.5 crore vials were dispatched by the Centre across the country. These doses are not meant for political leaders.

TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee has responded to the jibes saying: It is election time. The BJPs only agenda is to carry out personal attacks. It is the Centre that is not adequately supplying COVID vaccines to West Bengal. It is keeping control over the supplies. If needed, the state government will bear the cost of administering the vaccine to every person in the state.

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

With PTI inputs.
Top companies covered are Curtis Wright Corporation (The U.S.), Thales Group (France), Rheinmetall AG (Germany), Lockheed Martin Corporation (The U.S.), L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (The U.S.), BAE Systems (The U.K), Oshkosh Corporation (The U.S.), Saab AB (Sweden), Raytheon Technologies Corporation (The U.S.), Leonardo S.p.A (Italy), General Dynamics Corporation (The U.S.), and other players covered in Military Vetronics Market research report

Pune, India, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global military vetronics market size is projected to reach USD 8.22 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.68% during the forecast period. Development of autonomous combat systems for military vehicles will ensure multi-dimensional growth of this market, observes Fortune Business Insights in its report, titled Military Vetronics Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Product Type (Communication & Navigation Systems, Power System, Display System, C4 Systems, and Others), By Platform (Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Armored Amphibious Vehicles, Light Protected Vehicles, Special Purpose Vehicles, and Others), By Application (OEM and Aftermarket), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027. Battlefield environments are rapidly changing and modern warfare strategies require a heavy infusion of smart technologies to enhance alertness and augment the capabilities of the armed forces. In view of these evolving dynamics, defense agencies are conducting intense research to develop new technologies and equip combat vehicles with smart tools.

For example, the Army Research Laboratory Artificial Intelligence for Maneuver and Mobility (AIMM) program under the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command aims to create AI-enabled vehicles that can serve robotic partners to ground troops, boosting their strength and combat capacities. The incorporation of next-generation technologies such as AI in defense systems will open new doors of innovation in the military vetronics domain.

Story continues





List of Top Companies Covered in the Global Military Vetronics Market are:

Curtis Wright Corporation (The U.S.)

Thales Group (France)

Rheinmetall AG (Germany)

Lockheed Martin Corporation (The U.S.)

L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (The U.S.)

BAE Systems (The U.K)

Oshkosh Corporation (The U.S.)

Saab AB (Sweden)

Raytheon Technologies Corporation (The U.S.)

Leonardo S.p.A (Italy)

General Dynamics Corporation (The U.S.)





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The report states that the market value stood at USD 6.48 billion in 2019 and offers the following:

Careful segmentation of the market and detailed analysis of each segment;

Unparalleled insights into market drivers, trends, and challenges;

A comprehensive evaluation of the regional dynamics of the market; and

In-depth research into the key players profiles and their preferred strategies.





Restraining Factor

Economic Fallout of COVID-19 to Lead to Defense Cuts in Several Countries

The global economic crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced countries to reprioritize their spending. According to the World Bank, the world economy could shrink by 8% in 2020, if financial crises in major economies continue to intensify. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that output from the Eurozone could decline by 10.2% in 2020, with recovery expected to begin towards the end of 2022. These projections have spelled serious for defense sectors in most of the major economies. In India, for example, the Indian Finance Ministry instructed ministries to cut their expenditures and experts believe that defense cuts could go as low as 40% in 2020. Moreover, the nationwide lockdown between March and May 2020 led to an estimated loss of USD 3 billion for Indian defense companies. In the UK, the government has suspended budget announcement for 2021 and has undertaken an Integrated Security and Defense Review to rethink spending priorities, which are likely to lead to defense budget cuts. The military vetronics market growth is likely to suffer in this scenario.





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Regional Insights

North America Market to Gain Momentum Powered by High Defense Spending by the US

In 2019, North America led the military vetronics market share with a market size of USD 2.22 billion and is expected to continue its impressive performance during the forecast period. This is primarily attributable to the massive military expenditure of the US. The country is also making heavy investments in developing and procuring advanced military technologies, which will further drive the regional market.

In Asia Pacific, China and India are shaping the market dynamics as both countries have steadily expanded their military budgets over the past few decades. Furthermore, the constant threat of terrorist activities and increasing cross-border animosity among countries is also supporting the adoption of advanced defense technologies in the region.





Competitive Landscape

Key Players to Focus on Engaging with Government Defense Agencies

Competition in this market is characterized by the deepening engagement between government defense agencies and private defense companies. The main reason behind these public-private collaborations is that private companies provide the necessary technologies, while government agencies provide the required financial support, creating an exciting dynamic in the defense sector.





Key Industry Developments:

August 2020: Melbourne-based defense integrator, Tectonica, bagged a USD 25 million contract from the Australian Defense Ministry to build situational awareness systems for the countrys new fleet of Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicles. The vehicles are being built by Rheinmetall Defence in Queensland.

June 2020: Indias Ministry of Defence cleared the procurement of 156 BMP 2 Infantry Vehicles for the Indian Army to modernize the existing infantry combat vehicle fleet of the Army. The total cost of the project is estimated to be INR 1,100crore.





Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/military-vetronics-market-104062





Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Key Industry Developments Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships Latest technological Advancements Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis



Quantitative Insights- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Military Vetronics Market

Global Military Vetronics Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Product Type Communication System and Navigation System Power System Display System C4 System Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Platform Unmanned Ground Vehicles Main Battle Tanks and other Armored Vehicles Light Protected Vehicles Special Purpose Vehicles Amphibious Vehicles Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Application OEM Aftermarket Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region North America Europe Asia pacific Rest of the world

Impact of COVID-19 on Global Military Vetronics Market Steps Taken by Industry/Companies/Governments to Overcome the Impact Key Developments in The Industry in Response To COVID-19 Pandemic Potential Opportunities Due to COVID-19 Outbreak



TOC Continued!





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Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is questioned by reporters upon his arrival at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. AP



Samsung Group is once again facing turmoil as its de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, was again imprisoned in a bribery case, sparking worries that uncertainties may further increase over business and investment plans by the global tech behemoth in the post-pandemic era.



A Seoul court on Monday sentenced Samsung heir Lee to 2 1/2 years in prison in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye and ordered him returned to prison.



The Seoul High Court gave Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., the prison term for bribing Park and her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to win government support for a smooth father-to-son transfer of managerial power at Samsung, the country's top conglomerate. Park was later impeached and ousted from the presidency for corruption and abuse of power.



He was sentenced to five years in prison but was freed in 2018 after the Seoul High Court reduced the sentence to 2 1/2 years, suspended for four years.



The Supreme Court, however, in 2019 overturned the previous court ruling and sent it back to the Seoul High Court for review.



Samsung has been thrown into full emergency mode as Lee's signature drive, "New Samsung," may fall apart amid its efforts to overcome uncertainties caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.



Industry observers said Lee's absence is likely to delay or stop Samsung's key business decisions, such as merger and acquisition (MA) deals, as foreign rivals prepare for new opportunities in the post-pandemic era.



Lee's incarceration comes at a time when the group's crown jewel, Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker, is facing challenges from its rivals.



SK hynix Inc., the No. 2 player in the memory sector, recently announced a deal to acquire Intel Corp.'s NAND business to catch up to Samsung Electronics.



In the smartphone business, Apple Inc. has been sharply increasing sales of its first 5G smartphone, the iPhone 12, to dethrone its South Korean competitor.



According to market researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung Electronics had a market share of 19.5 percent in terms of smartphone shipments last year, which was the first time since 2011 that its market share dropped below 20 percent.






People close to President Donald Trump have been able to pocket tens of thousands of dollars from convicts seeking pardons from President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported. The efforts to obtain pardons from the outgoing president have only grown more feverish recently after it became clear Trump had no way to challenge his loss to President-elect Joe Biden. Those who have managed to turn pardon-lobbying into a lucrative business are selling their ability to get the ear of the president who is known to care little about protocol.

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Axios later reported that at least 10 federal criminals have hired lobbyists since the November election to try to secure a pardon before Trump leaves the White House. But thats not saying much because the campaigning and lobbying for pardons usually takes place behind closed doors and not necessarily through registered lobbyists. Still, the number is double what it was in the last days of President Barack Obamas administration. Lobbyists have been focusing their efforts on the White House rather than the Justice Department, as is usually the way official bids for pardons are handled. Trump is widely expected to issue lots of pardons in his final days. Theres nothing illegal about getting paid to lobby for a pardon and theres no evidence anyone has offered to pay Trump directly, which could be considered bribery.

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Former U.S. attorney Brett Tolman has charged tens of thousands of dollars for his efforts to seek pardons for several people. Trumps former attorney John Dowd has also pocketed tens of thousands of dollars from a wealthy felon and advising him and other potential clients to leverage Mr. Trumps grievances about the justice system, reports the New York Times. A former top adviser to Trumps campaign was paid $50,000 to help obtain a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former CIA intelligence officer who was convicted of disclosing classified information in 2012. The former adviser would get a $50,000 bonus if the pardon was granted, according to a written agreement.

In one of the most explosive bits of the Times story, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal attorney, said the former mayor could help get a pardon but it would cost $2 million. I laughed. Two million bucksare you out of your mind? Kiriakou said. Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldnt spend it to recover a $700,000 pension. Giuliani denies that ever happened.

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Russia wants to close the issue of the prisoners of war: the return of POWs must be organized with all for all principle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference.

He reminded that the issue of POWs is a part of the agreements signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, and this issue has been discussed during the telephone conversations of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Azerbaijani President.

The issue of POWs was part of lasting discussions when the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan arrived in Moscow on January 11. Initially, Armenians had more problems connected with the issue of POWs. Firstly, the sides needed to form the list of persons who have been declared as missing. Azerbaijan has given such lists, and they were not so much, and everyone has been returned, although not immediately. Other problems from the Azerbaijani side connected with the missing in action, the POWs, detained persons, have not emerged, the Russian FM said.

According to him, the lists from the Armenian side have not been immediately and completely provided.

But now the most important issue is the one which emerged in Hadrut in December. Armenian servicemen have been sent there, most of them have been captured, a total of 62 soldiers. The Azerbaijani side has announced that as these people have been transported to that region after the cessation of fire, they should be viewed in a separate procedure. We, I and President Putin, in any case, propose to continue discussing this issue in order to close it and be guided by the all for all principle, he added.

The Russian foreign minister stated that he has talked with the Armenian FM aimed at clarifying the final lists of POWs, however, it turned out that the number of POWs is much more than that 62.

At the moment the military of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are checking the lists name by name to understand where that people are, Lavrov said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Leading politicians and diplomats called for the immediate release of Alexei Navalny last night after the Russian opposition figure was detained by security forces minutes after landing back in Moscow.

The United States, the European Union, several EU governments, Canada and a senior aide to US President-elect Joe Biden called for him to be freed, with some in the EU urging new sanctions against Moscow.

Navalny and his wife Yulia flew into Russia yesterday from Berlin for the first time since he was left fighting for life having been poisoned with the chemical weapon Noivchok five months ago.

The Kremlin had ordered Navalny to return saying his continued stay in Germany, where were was flown in a coma in August, breached a suspended jail sentence against him. The warned him he risked detention on landing.

But after Navalny was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport last night, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led the condemnation of Moscow.

The outgoing U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has said the U.S. 'strongly condemns' the decision to arrest Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

Pompeo called his detention 'the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities.'

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (green coat) was arrested by Russian authorities just minutes after landing in Moscow with wife Yulia (front of frame in mask)

Pompeo, who serves in the out-going Trump administration, said the US 'strongly condemns' he decision to arrest Navalny and called his detention 'the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities.'

Pompeo added on Twitter: 'Deeply troubled by Russia's decision to arrest Aleksey Navalny.

'Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor see the need to commit violence against or wrongfully detain, political opponents.'

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's pick for national security adviser called on Russian authorities to free Navalny.

'Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,' Jake Sullivan said in a tweet.

A statement from the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: 'We are deeply concerned by the detention on 17 January of Alexei Navalny.

'Instead of persecuting the victim of this terrible crime, the Russian authorities should investigate how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.'

Navalny's allies have pointed the finger at Russian president Vladimir Putin (pictured) after the opposition leader fell ill, but the Kremlin has dismissed the claims

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, demanded Navalny's immediate release.

And EU member Lithuania said on Sunday it would ask tBrussels to swiftly impose new sanctions on Russia, something Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said he wanted discussed.

Human rights groups joined the calls, with Amnesty International saying Navalny had become a prisoner of conscience and accusing Russian authorities of waging 'a relentless campaign' to silence him.

European Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter that Navalny's detention was 'unacceptable', while the French foreign ministry said the arrest caused 'very strong concern'.

'Mr Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,' Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan tweeted.

But unrepentant Kremlin officials bit back overnight.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova took aim at foreign leaders in a Facebook post - telling them to 'respect international law' and 'deal with the problems in your own country'.

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Despite New Zealands fabricated reputation as a haven from the global coronavirus pandemic, its isolation facilities are now housing the highly-transmissible UK variant of COVID-19 and another strain associated with South Africa.

Twenty-eight new COVID-19 cases arrived in four days last week. An earlier spike of 35 cases up to January 11 included people who had arrived from India, the UK, Zimbabwe, Austria, Russia, Poland, Ukraine and the US. Nineteen cases are from a group of 190 international mariners who arrived from Singapore and the UAE early this month.

As of January 17, the total number of active cases is 82, from a total of 1,900. Almost a quarter of live cases are the UK variant, with that number expected to sharply increase. At least 19 cases in official isolation are linked to this variant, which is believed to be up to 70 percent more infectious than the previous strain.

A nurse holds a phone while a COVID-19 patient speaks with his family from an intensive care unit. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

The Ministry of Health reported the first case of the South African variant on January 10, although it had arrived at the border on December 26. While less is known about this strain, it is considered more transmissible than the original but less so than the UK variant.

The surge in more infectious strains echoes the situation in Australia where Brisbane, the third largest city, recently enforced a three-day emergency lockdown after a cleaner contracted the UK COVID-19 variant from inside the hotel quarantine system. Repeated failures to implement basic preventive measures have seen multiple clusters erupting from quarantine hotels into the general population.

While no community cases have been reported in New Zealand since November, health experts have expressed alarm about the arrival of the new variants. Auckland University microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles warned that the new strains would spread like wildfire. Wiles told the New Zealand Herald the UK variant has a founder effect. That is, a mutant takes off not because it is more infectious, but because it is the one that people who are infectious have. According to reports from Britain, much younger patients are becoming very ill very fast.

Epidemiologist Michael Baker also warned of an increased risk of community transmission. As soon as you have a variant thats more infectious it means those with it are more likely to infect people on the flight to New Zealand, more likely to infect other people in managed isolation and the staff that work there, he said.

This underscores the global nature of the virus, which cannot be contained within national borders. According to Baker the strain, which has now been reported in over 50 countries, was always going to make it to New Zealand. This new variant will become dominant all over the world over the next couple of weeks and months because its more infectious, Baker said.

Modelling expert Shaun Hendy declared that a new community outbreak would need a level 4 lockdown to bring it under control. Level 3 was effective back in August ... but I think if you take into account the extra infectiousness of these new variants, level 3 is probably not strong enough, Hendy said. Epidemiologist Nick Wilson told Radio NZ the government should consider banning flights from certain countries and look at fast-tracking vaccinations for border control workers.

From this week, people arriving from America and the UK have to show they have tested negative less than 72 hours before departing. While the Labour-Greens government has tightened international travel restrictions, it insists the protocols governing managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities do not need to be upgraded.

However, a crisis already exists over the inadequate supply of facilities for new arrivals. Existing MIQ hotels have a combined operational capacity of 4,500 rooms. In the next 14 days, 4,299 of these rooms will be full with 5,627 people, but the government has no plans to establish new facilities.

A Christchurch-based MIQ worker told Stuff on Saturday that an outbreak could happen at any time, due to inadequate measures to prevent the more contagious strains getting into the community. Workers at the facility highlighted control gaps such as a lack of social distancing, the possible spread of the virus through a hotels ventilation system and inadequate contact tracing and testing for staff.

Nurses have previously raised concerns about staff shortages. A Ministry of Health audit in October admitted shortages and roster problems in MIQ facilities. The ministry said the matters have since been addressed, but health care professionals working at border facilities have publicly disagreed.

Nursing trade unions have sat on the growing crisis. Nurses Society director David Wills said the union surveyed members working in MIQ facilities last month, and 44 percent had experienced inadequate staffing. A NZ Nurses Organisation spokesperson said members raised concerns before Christmas, which the union had dealt with on an individual basis.

The Unite union, which covers hotel workers, has lauded union-controlled health and safety committees for working closely with government departments at some MIQ sites. Unite spokesman Gerard Hehir said any COVID outbreaks to date were the result of procedures not being followedin other words, the fault of workers.

The unions have played the key role in buttressing the Labour-led government and enforcing the continuation of work under increasingly dire conditions. As with previous complaints about lack of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), the unions have organised no industrial campaign or strike action to fight the staff shortages and overwork.

There is growing anger among workers. Last year primary health care nurses began taking strike action for pay parity with their District Health Board (DHB) counterparts, following widespread strikes over pay and conditions in 2018-19, which the unions sold out.

As elsewhere globally, Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns government has responded to the health emergency by prioritising financial considerations. Returning citizens are now charged a $3,000 upfront fee to secure a place in an MIQ facility. Thousands of citizens, along with displaced migrant workers and foreign students with residency visas, have been tossed into limbo.

The wider public health system remains ill-equipped to deal with a new COVID-19 surge. A $4 billion cash injection following the COVID-19 lockdown last March failed to address the crisis in the system, which is falling apart. Underfunded and resourced for decades, the countrys 20 DHBs are millions of dollars in the red. Health Minister Andrew Little has promised to reform the health bureaucracy, but has not promised any more money.
Over 140,000 been allocated for outdoor recreational amenities in Offaly.

The funding was announced today by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys.

The projects to benefit in Offaly are as follows:

Slieve Bloom Way & ancillaries (Cadamstown & Kinnitty) - Small scale upkeep of the Slieve Bloom Way & ancillary loops - 18,000

Offaly Way & ancillaries (Kilcormac & Lough Boora) - Small scale upkeep and repair of the Offaly Way and ancillary loops at Kilcormac and Lough Boora Discovery Park - 18,000



Grand Canal Greenway - Promotions and marketing - 17,343



Trail counters - Installation of four footfall counters at trail heads - Cadamstown, Kilcormac, Monicknew, Kinnitty - 20,000

Killaun Bog Boardwalk - Upgrade of boardwalk - Kinnity Road to Birr - 20,000

Ormond Way, Breifne, Beara Way - Trail maintenance - Gorraun through Brickanagh, Emmel, Knockaspur, Rathenny, Brownstown, Ballaghveny to Rath - 13,140

Offaly LDC - Lusmagh Heritage and Amenity Walk - Development and enhancement of walk - Lusmagh National School 14,220

Offaly LDC - St Cormacs Heritage Walk - Development and enhancement of walk - St Cormac Holy Well Carpark

19,962.00

Minister Pippa Hacckett has welcomed the funding. The Offaly Senator said, "outdoor recreation is vitally important to us during Covid and has the potential to improve our tourism economy in the long run. Im delighted to see Offaly included in this phase of the funding, in particular the upgrade to Killaun Bog Boardwalk of 20,000. It will add to our appreciation of the bog and the need to preserve it to reduce our carbon emissions.

The funding announced today, under Measure 1 of the Scheme, will support small-scale local projects with funding of up to 20,000 each.

It is being announced in partnership with Failte Ireland, who are co-funding the projects in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Further announcements in respect of medium and large scale projects under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme, with funding of up to 200,000 and 500,000 respectively for each project, will be made at a later stage.




On the occasion of the 176th anniversary of the first arrival of Indian immigrant labourers to these shores, I intend to comment briefly, through a couple of letters to the press, on the current status of Indo-Trinidadians after their presence here for over a century and a half. They may be regarded as ethnic-focused, divisive and contentious, or may be deemed irrelevant and inconsequential in these times.
Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence says she has thought about marriage and children with her Indonesian girlfriend who she met while behind bars.

Lawrence, 43, first met Agus Erna Wijayanti, 40, at Kerobokan jail in 2012 before the pair became inmates at Bangli jail in 2014.

Erna had been in and out of jail, serving sentences for the possession of methamphetamine.

Lawrence had been serving a 20-year-sentence after she, and eight other Australians, were arrested trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Bali in 2005.

The inmates struck up a romantic relationship, catching the attention of the media that reported Erna spoiled Lawrence 'like a child'.

Erna has since returned to Java, in Indonesia, while Lawrence was given a reduction on her sentence for 'good behaviour' and deported back to Australia in 2018.

The pair have remained in close contact, speaking to each other every day.

Lawrence says she has entertained the idea of getting married, according to New Idea.

Lawrence, 43, first met Agus Erna Wijayanti, 40, at Kerobokan jail in 2012 before the pair became inmates at Bangli jail in 2014

Lawrence had been serving a 20-year-sentence after she, and eight other Australians, were arrested trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Bali in 2005 (pictured, Lawrence at the Denpasar District Court in 2005)

'I never grew up fantasising about a big white wedding - I would definitely be in a tuxedo,' Lawrence said.

'Maybe one day we will marry; we haven't really spoken about it lately as Covid has put a lot of things on hold.'

Lawrence went on to say she 'would definitely consider' starting a small family with Erna, saying that she was a constant source of support during her time in jail.

'We gave each other endless support through the good and rough times,' she said.

Lawrence previously told media she had been struggling to find 'normality' after spending 13 years locked up in Bali's notorious Kerobokan and Negara prisons.

'I don't currently work. I am dealing with both mental and physical health issues. But I like to think one day I will be able to get back into the workforce and find normality again,' she said.

Lawrence compared coronavirus lockdown to her time behind bars, but said she feels for the remaining men still locked up in Bali.

'Isolation life for me was actually very similar to being in prison, in the way that I had to distance myself form my parents,' she said.

Five of the nine members remain in squalid Balinese prisons, while Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died from cancer in 2018.

Masterminds Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015 on Nusa Kambangan or 'Prison Island'.

Lawrence has pleaded for the remaining five prisoners to have their sentences reduced.

She said staying locked up was 'like a death sentence' for the remaining five.

Erna and Lawrence have remained in close contact, speaking to each other every day, since their release

Lawrence went on to say she 'would definitely consider' starting a small family with Erna, saying that she was a constant source of support during her time in jail (pictured, Lawrence at a press conference in Canberra in 2020)

'We all did something stupid, we all regret it, but everybody deserves a second chance,' Lawrence said in February 2020.

'If this doesn't happen, they have got no hope, they'll lose hope and the end will be devastating.'

Lawrence served her sentence in Bangli jail after being convicted of attempting to smuggle 2.6kg of heroin into Australia through Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport on April 17, 2005.

The drugs were found strapped to her body - and the bodies of three other drug mules - after the Australian Federal Police tipped off Indonesian authorities.

Meanwhile, a high-profile religious minister is calling on the Australian Government to bring the remaining members of the smuggling ring back to Australia.

Tim Harris, a bishop from Townsville, has called on the government to step in, saying languishing in a Balinese prison won't help the surviving five men get their lives back on track.

Lawrence was given a reduction on her sentence for 'good behaviour' and deported back to Australia in 2018 (pictured, Lawrence at a holding cell at Denpasar Court in 2006)

Mr Harris said the Indonesian prison, which houses Scott Rush, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen has inhumanely rough conditions.

'[There is an] open toilet and a number of people in the room. I don't know how they've kept going. You've got to say this is torture with no end in sight,' he told New Idea this week.

Mr Harris, who has campaigned for the group since their arrest, said Rush's parents are desperate to bring their son home so he can at the very least serve the remainder of his sentence in an Australian prison.

'I think our justice system must be able to deal with it in a sensible way. They can't give up on these men, and need to try and get them back on track,' he said.

Left to right: Myuran Sukumaran, Scott Rush, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Renae Lawrence, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Andrew Chan

Lawrence previously told media she had been struggling to find 'normality' after spending 13 years locked up in Bali's notorious Kerobokan and Negara prisons (pictured, Lawrence at Denpasar prison in 2005)

In December last year, Rush vowed to become an anti-drugs campaigner in an emotional letter pleading for his life sentence to be reduced.

In the letter written from his prison cell in east Bali's Karangasem, the Queenslander said he is committed to turning his life around.

'I sincerely apologise to the government and citizens of Indonesia for the shameful impact my action caused to the country of Indonesia and its people,' the letter read.

The 34-year-old said he would like to become an 'anti-drugs ambassador' to make a positive contribution to society.

The impassioned letter came after photos were leaked in 2014 which appeared to show Rush smoking crack cocaine in Kerobokan Prison.

An unnamed source at the time claimed Rush regularly took meth, heroin and cocaine in the jail, which was 'like a supermarket' for drugs.

In December last year, Scott Rush (right) vowed to become an anti-drugs campaigner in an emotional letter pleading for his life sentence to be reduced

Ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Andrew Chan (right) recruited six men and one woman aged between 19 and 30 years old and strapped heroin to their bodies in April 2005

Rush - whose death sentence was commuted to a life sentence in 2011 - moved to Karangasem jail in Bali's east in early 2014.

He reportedly asked for the transfer because he was getting beaten up over a $5000 drug debt.

During the 2005 thwarted drug plot, ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan recruited six men and one woman aged between 19 and 30 years old and strapped heroin to their bodies.

Lawrence, Stephens, Rush, Chen, Norman, Czugaj and Nguyen were arrested in a hotel and at Denapasar airport.

Chan and Sukumaran were executed in April 2015 by firing squad at Nusa Kambangan prison.

Rush, Stephens, Norman, Czugaj and Chen are all serving life sentences.
TRUMBULL  A well-known Bridgeport city employee and property owner is under scrutiny for hosting a massive party at his Trumbull home over the weekend that he confirmed drew local police.

Daniel Pizarro, who currently works for Bridgeports housing code office, said Sunday afternoon that he celebrated his 48th birthday the night before with a 300-plus bash at his Huntington Turnpike home.

The cops came and we was very respectful, Pizarro said by phone. They just wanted us to minimize the crowd, which we did. ... I had to turn off the lights, tell people they had to leave the party. It was almost 1 in the morning anyways. They already had a good time.

Footage of the party posted on Pizarros Instagram account on social media shows a packed, mask-less crowd drinking and dancing in his home, Pizarro included.

Health experts and elected officials have for months during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged people to wear masks and remain six-feet apart when in close proximity with others both in public and in private to stop the illness spread. And Gov. Ned Lamont has also issued an executive order limiting private indoor and outdoor gatherings to 10 people as part of his COVID-19 health and safety recommendations.

Pizarro said he also had a large tent at his event.

He said he thought Lamonts COVID orders only applied to restaurants and stuff like that, not residential.

While businesses face a $10,000 state fine for violating coronavirus health/safety rules, according to an executive order Lamont issued Sept. 15, private hosts could be charged $500 with guests penalized $250.

Max Reiss, the governors communications director, did not wish to comment Sunday on the Pizarro case, but said: Even though vaccines are starting to roll out, were continuing to see significant community (virus) spread all over the state and its incumbent upon everyone to keep wearing masks, keep washing their hands, keep their distance, and limit attending large gatherings.

Spokespeople from the Trumbull Police Department and the Connecticut Department of Public Health could not be immediately reached for comment.

If theres a fine, Ill pay a fine, Pizarro said. I got the money.

As previously reported, Pizarro has been buying up some downtown Bridgeport properties and owns around 30 mostly multi-family homes in the city with a total appraised value of $5.78 million.

He also earns $81,000 annually as a non-union, politically appointed project coordinator with the citys housing code office. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim hired Pizarro in 2016 after the latter campaigned for him in 2015. At one time the two were very close, with Pizarro often seen in public with Ganim.

Pizarro said he and Ganim are still friendly but that the latter did not attend Saturdays birthday party.

Asked if he was at all concerned about being exposed to or exposing others to coronavirus at his party, Pizarro said no.

Im not worrying about it, Pizarro said. Those that came, everybody knows COVID exists. (That) theres a pandemic. ... But they choose to come and not worry about that. Me, myself, frankly Im not worried.

But City Hall is.

Rowena White, Ganims communications director, in an email said: It has come to the attention of city officials that a couple of employees were involved in a private gathering that took place in a neighboring town over the weekend. Any employee at this event must quarantine for (an) appropriate time and test negative for COVID-19 prior to returning to work in order to protect the welfare of other staff members.

In November the city reduced the amount of personnel working in municipal buildings because of a spike in coronavirus infections among staff.

At that time Janene Hawkins, Ganims chief administrative officer, in a memorandum scolded workers for not taking enough personal responsibility during the pandemic. She wrote that generally these employees that are testing positive are contracting COVID outside the workplace and have jeopardized the safety and well-being of the entire workforce.

We are all in this together and, simply put, our lives are depending on each of us to do our part to ensure the safety of everyone, Hawkins had concluded.

During his interview earlier Sunday, Pizarro said, If Janene requests for me to stay home or not work for two weeks, I dont have a problem with that. Ill comply.
JACKSON, MI -- When Jackson Public Schools reopens a building that hasnt housed elementary students in nearly three decades, it will have a new name honoring late civil rights activist and Congressman John R. Lewis.

Jackson Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved changing the name of Lincoln Elementary School, which is in the process of a $9-million renovation that will bring 350 students back into the building in fall 2021.

Trustee Erin White led a committee to seek community input on renaming of the former Lincoln Elementary building in November. A community-wide survey was conducted through Dec. 31, with 57 submissions for name recommendations.

The name change will take effect immediately.

We are proud to have had community and JPS stakeholder support involved in the process of determining a name that the JPS Board of Education could come to a unanimous decision on, White said in a news release. I am very pleased that Jackson will now be able to share in the legacy of John R. Lewis.

The building, located at 154 W. Clark St., is under renovation as part of the districts 2018 bond plan. It is slated to open in fall of 2021 as a Y5-5 elementary school building.

When it opens, it will pay tribute to the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress. Lewis died of cancer in July 2020. He was 80 years old.

Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest impact on the movement.

He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march on March 7, 1965 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Lewis participated in the 55th anniversary march in Selma in March of this year.

At age 25 -- walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat -- Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality forced the countrys attention on racial oppression in the South.

Lincoln Elementary School, built in 1953 and named after former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, has been vacant for approximately eight years, since Community Action Agency moved Head Start operations from the facility to various buildings throughout the district, Giannetti said. It has not been used as an elementary school building since 1992.

An $86.7-million bond passed by voters in 2018 provided the opportunity to reopen the vacant school building. Renovations include tearing down and rebuilding approximately 70% of its footprint, which had deteriorated and fallen out of code. The rest of the building is being renovated.

Superintendent Jeff Beal said being able to reopen the elementary building after 30 years creates hope and optimism for the future.

The Board felt the renaming process was a good way to get the community thinking about this location again and build positive energy around the program, Beal said. With all the great submissions, the Board unanimously selected John R. Lewis Elementary School.

Congressman Lewis once said, I am very hopeful. I am very optimistic about the future, and we at Jackson Public Schools are hopeful and optimistic about the children that will get their starts at John R. Lewis Elementary School and the tremendous impact this location will have to bring our community together.

Lincoln is one of several district buildings being renovated or remodeled via bond funding, including Jackson High School and Dibble, Bennett and Hunt elementary schools. Cascades Elementary has been torn down and is in the process of being completely rebuilt.

When JPS began planning for the bond vote, the idea of reopening Lincoln was considered as a way of bringing students from the south side of the city back into the district. That, along with the closing of McCulloch Academy in 2017, paved the way for the renovations to begin once the bond was passed.

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Pretoria (South Africa) 09 January 2021 (SPS)- The President of the South African ruling party, ANC, H.E. Cyril Ramaphosa, affirmed that the Saharawi freedom must remain a priority for Africa, Yesterday in the statement of the ANC National Executive Committee on the occasion of the 109th anniversary of the ANC.

President Ramaphosa affirmed ANC commitment to meeting the aspirations of the AUs Agenda 2063 of an integrated, united, prosperous and peaceful continent, considering that to advance African unity and solidarity the struggle of the Saharawi people for independence and self-determination should remain a priority for the continent.

He further considered that silencing the guns on our continent will require commitment from all African leaders and the cooperation of the international community. (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)

BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday had an interview with media after concluding his trips to Myanmar, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Last January, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Myanmar and reached an important consensus with Myanmar on building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, giving new meaning to the millennia-old "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, Wang said in the interview.

The choice of Myanmar as the first stop of this year's first visits to the surrounding areas aims to fully implement the outcomes of Xi's visit and make solid progress in building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, Wang said.

Noting Myanmar's new government is about to be established, Wang said his visit also sends a clear message that China is willing to deepen communication and strengthen coordination with Myanmar, and will support the smooth administration of Myanmar's new government.

The two sides, Wang added, have reached a consensus in principle on the action plan of building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future and formulated a series of concrete ideas and measures for all-round cooperation between the two countries in the next stage.

On building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, Wang emphasized that fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic with solidarity is the community's priority task, constructing the economic corridor is the community's important practice, supporting each other's core concerns is the community's prominent feature and promoting regional cooperation is the community's responsibility.

Asked about his expectations for China-Indonesia cooperation in the post-pandemic era, Wang said China and Indonesia are both large developing countries and important emerging economies.

Against the backdrop of profound changes in a century and global pandemic, the cooperation between the two countries has strategic significance and world influence, Wang said.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Xi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo have had three phone conversations, exchanging strategic views on fighting the pandemic and developing cooperation, Wang said, adding that the purpose of his visit is to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and determine the path of deepening cooperation.

The two sides, Wang said, have agreed to set up "three models" for emerging major countries and South-South cooperation, namely a model of vaccine cooperation, a model of joint construction of the Belt and Road and a model of safeguarding multilateralism.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Brunei and the 30th anniversary of the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) dialogue relations.

Asked about ties between China and Brunei, Wang said the double 30th anniversaries coupled with Brunei's assumption of the rotating chair of ASEAN provided a crucial opportunity for the two countries to deepen cooperation comprehensively.

Under the strategic guidance of the heads of state from both countries, China and Brunei are steadily pushing forward major projects cooperation, such as the Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd's oil refinery and petrochemical project as well as the Brunei-Guangxi Economic Corridor project, with the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative being the main line, and have expanded mutual benefit and converged interests and brought tangible benefits to the two peoples, Wang said.

In the face of COVID-19, both countries have achieved significant results in their joint response to the pandemic and have realized positive economic growth, he said.

On the occasion of the double 30th anniversaries, Wang said China and Brunei have agreed to deepen regional cooperation, expressing his hope that Brunei could give play to the role of the ASEAN chairmanship, push China-ASEAN relations to a new level, and guide East Asia cooperation to focus on East Asia, development and regional integration.

Recalling his trip to the Philippines, Wang said China and the Philippines are friendly neighbors, and enjoy a long tradition of helping each other.

In the face of the pandemic, both countries have offered support to each other in the first place, demonstrating friendship and brotherhood, he said, adding that China has announced to donate a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines and encourages Chinese companies to seek vaccine cooperation with the Philippine side.

According to Wang, China and the Philippines announced during the visit the launch of a fast passage for necessary personnel exchanges between the two sides, signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation, and the Bank of China Manila was officially established as the renminbi (RMB) Clearing Bank of the Philippines, providing impetus for economic recovery and boosting confidence of both sides.

He added that China will continue to participate in the Philippines' "Build, Build, Build" program and actively advance bilateral cooperation on major projects to lay a better foundation for the long-term development of the Philippines.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the China-ASEAN dialogue relations, the visits aim to seize the opportunity together with the leadership of the four countries and the ASEAN secretary-general to forge a higher level of strategic partnership between China and ASEAN and build a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future, said Wang.

At present, the regional and international situation has entered a period of turbulence and change. Both China and ASEAN countries believe that to ensure lasting peace and prosperity in East Asia, real multilateralism must be supported and practiced. At the same time, the countries should also be on guard against all kinds of pseudo-multilateralism, Wang said.
Drugmakers are racing to develop a new generation of Covid-19 medicines to make them easier to give to patients and to stay ahead of virus mutations that could make some current drugs less effective.

The drugs, known as monoclonal antibodies, are lab-engineered versions of antibodies that simulate the bodys natural immune response to viruses. They are considered among the most promising for preventing infected patients from developing severe or fatal symptoms and keeping them out of the hospital. After catching Covid-19, President Trump was treated with one of the drugs and credited it with his speedy recovery. Doctors say the drugs will continue to be important treatments for the foreseeable future as vaccines become more widely available.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

When the first generation of drugs were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November to treat patients not yet sick enough to be hospitalized, public health officials worried that there wouldnt be enough to go around. But those concerns have given way to frustration that the medicines are going unused because of challenges in administering the drugs, which can require about an hour of preparation time before the patient arrives, an hour-long infusion and one hour of monitoring to ensure patients dont suffer allergic reactions.

To reduce the logistical burden and help get patients treated sooner, researchers are working on new antibody drugs that can be given with quick jabs in the arm, similar to flu shots. They would enable patients to get treated quickly after being diagnosed with Covid-19, said Michel C. Nussenzweig, an immunologist and professor at Rockefeller University in New York.

That changes everything because you can go get that shot at CVS and go get that shot at your doctors office," said Dr. Nussenzweig, whose lab developed an antibody combination that recently began initial Phase 1 safety studies. Intravenous administration is a headache. Its just a cumbersome thing to do."

AstraZeneca PLCs experimental drug, a cocktail of two antibodies, is among the most advanced injection formulations, and the company expects to have data from a Phase 3 treatment study in the second quarter.

AstraZeneca is talking with large pharmacy chains about allowing patients to come in for a rapid Covid-19 test and, if they are positive, to get the antibody shots within the same day or hour.

We want it to be same day, same location," said Mark Esser, vice president for microbial sciences. You get them in, you give them a shot, and they are on their way."

Another challenge is the emergence of coronavirus variants thought to be driving a surge of infections in the U.K. and South Africa, though they are not yet believed to be widespread in the U.S. It is well known that the more people are infected by a virus, the more likely it is to mutate. Some scientists said it appears that the U.K. and South African variants developed as a way for the virus to evade the immune response, which raises the potential for antibody drugs to be less effective.

You really dont want to give a virus a chance to reproduce in so many peopleits asking for trouble," said Dennis Burton, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research Institute.

The South African variant appears to be resistant to a drug made by Eli Lilly & Co., the first to be authorized in the U.S. by the FDA, making it less effective in patients infected by that variant, a company spokeswoman said. The second drug cleared by the FDA, from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., should still be effective, because it is a cocktail of two distinct antibodies and only one of them is affected by the South African variant, said Jesse Bloom, a biologist and associate professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Weve pursued the cocktail strategy from the beginning so that if a variant ever arises youre still going to have a functional drug," said Christos Kyratsous, Regeneron vice president of research for infectious diseases and viral vector technologies.

Lillys drug, bamlanivimab, is fully effective against the U.K. variant in lab tests conducted by the company, the spokeswoman said. Independent scientists said they havent been able to verify the drugs effectiveness because Lilly hasnt published the antibodys genetic sequence.

Regenerons drug appears to be effective against the U.K. variant, according to the company and Dr. Bloom. The company is also working on additional cocktail combinations to address any future mutations that do become resistant to its cocktail.

Anticipating the risk of resistant virus mutations, researchers are working on broadly neutralizing" antibodies that could be effective against many different coronavirus variants.

Virus-fighting antibody drugs are typically modeled on antibodies derived from the immune cells of recovered patients, but Covid-19 patient samples were in short supply early last year. As an alternative, Adimab LLC, a privately held antibody developer, received from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases a patient sample from an earlier coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.

The viruses are genetically similar, and there are certain structural elements common to both viruses. A team led by Laura Walker, Adimabs deputy director of antibody sciences, found an antibody from the sample that it thinks will be effective against new variants of the current coronavirus and any future SARS-like coronaviruses.

We havent identified any resistant strains to our antibody yet," Dr. Walker said.

Adimab spun out the drug into a new company, Adagio Therapeutics Inc., and raised $130 million in venture capital from investors including Polaris Partners and Alphabet Inc.s GV, formerly Google Ventures. Adagio plans to start clinical trials this month and could seek authorization as soon the third quarter.

Partners Vir Biotechnology Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC took a similar approach and are testing an antibody drug modeled on a 2003 SARS survivor that is designed to remain effective even as new virus variants emerge. The companies expect results from a Phase 3 study as soon as this month that, if positive, could be used to seek regulatory authorization.

Virs antibody can recruit other immune cells to attack the virus after it has infected cells, while most antibody drugs only block the virus from entering new cells, said Vir Chief Executive George Scangos. Virs treatment trials are testing an IV infusion formulation, but the company is working on making the drug available as a shot, he said.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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Sr. Software Engineer - Reminders Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Software and Services Summary

Posted: Jan 17, 2021 Role Number: 200215898 Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Are you interested in building the next generation of iOS apps? The Reminders team at Apple is looking for talented iOS App developers to join a small team of highly skilled engineers to build world class applications across all of Apple's platforms. As a member of our team, you'll be responsible for building features for upcoming releases, prototyping new feature concepts, and making sure our users always have a phenomenal experience. Key Qualifications Strong grasp of Swift and/or Objective-C design patterns

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Excellent oral and written communication skills Description This position requires deep knowledge of Core Data, SQL, and CloudKit. You must be comfortable with rapidly evolving requirements, and have excellent interpersonal skills. Throughout the process, you will work collaboratively with our world-class team of engineers, partner with designers, and coordinate with other teams at Apple including the iOS, macOS, and watchOS teams. This position requires a self-motivated engineer with strong technical and communication skills to handle responsibilities including: Implementing new features Prototyping new ideas to help with initial feature definition Communicating ideas to the Apple design team and other cross functional teams Participating in architecture and code reviews Exploring new frameworks and technologies and how they can aid in implementing new features Building internal tools as needed to help ship high quality software Education & Experience



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Two dozen Indian sailors stranded on ships carrying Australian coal will reach land for the first time in seven months on Monday night, as scores of others remain in limbo in Chinese waters.

The Jag Anand had been stuck off the Chinese port of Caofeidian since June but a breakthrough last week after months of lobbying from the Indian government, unions and the ship's owner, Great Eastern Shipping, saw the vessel and its 23 crew members granted passage to Japan.

The Jag Anand crew.

The sailors had been trapped in the middle of a trade dispute between Australia and China which has seen up to $4 billion in Australian coal imports blocked and Chinese importers refuse to sell their product elsewhere at reduced prices. China has slapped import restrictions on key Australian exports after multiple disputes over the coronavirus, national security and human rights.

"Our seafarers who were discharging their professional duties were caught in a political war between Australia and China," said Abdulgani Serang, the general secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India.
Lawyers for election technology company Dominion Voting Systems have warned prominent Trump ally and MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell of "imminent" litigation over "false and conspiratorial" claims that the firm somehow rigged the 2020 election against President Donald Trump, demanding in letters late last year and earlier this month that Lindell make a public apology.

More than 150 people - including Kelli Ward, the staunchly pro-Trump chair of the Arizona GOP - were sent cease-and-desist notices and warnings to preserve documents in a recent wave of letters to those who provided affidavits in election lawsuits, according to Hamilton Place Strategies, a communications firm representing Dominion that shared copies of letters and a list of recipients on Monday. Dominion also sent a follow-up retraction demand to Rudy Giuliani, the Trump lawyer at the forefront of the president's fruitless efforts to overturn the election in court.

Lindell, a major Republican donor who has touted his relationship with the president, has made frequent appearances on right-wing media to promote baseless claims - rejected by court after court in an election now certified for Biden - of a rigged election. Last week, The Washington Post's Jabin Botsford photographed parts of Lindell's notes as he went to meet with Trump, capturing phrases such as "election issues" and "martial law if necessary."

He told The Post that the notes were written by a lawyer whom he refused to identify.

Lindell said Monday that he welcomes a lawsuit. "Could they do it tomorrow? Could they do it today?" he told a reporter. He suggested that a lawsuit would help him show "the American people" the evidence supporting his claims, but he shared only a copy of a post alleging foreign hacking that appears to no longer be online.

Ward did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

In a Jan. 8 letter to Lindell shared with The Post, lawyers for Dominion wrote to emphasize their December demand for retraction of falsehoods, accusing Lindell of conducting a "smear campaign" and "leverag[ing] your significant social media following to inflict the maximum amount of damage to Dominion's good name and business operations."

"Despite your repeated promises - not to mention your considerable and costly efforts to bankroll a so-called investigation into Dominion - you have failed to identify a scintilla of credible evidence that even suggests that Dominion is somehow involved in a global conspiracy to harvest millions of votes in favor of President-elect Biden," the letter states. "Of course, this is because no such evidence exists."

The letter noted Dominion's newly filed defamation lawsuit against attorney Sidney Powell seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages for spreading "wild" allegations of a fantastical scheme to steal the 2020 election from Trump. For weeks, Powell had claimed that Dominion was established with communist money in Venezuela to enable ballot-stuffing and other vote manipulation, and that those abilities were harnessed to rig the election for Joe Biden.

"We are sending you hardcopies of the complaint and exhibits under separate cover so that there is absolutely no doubt at a future date about what was known to you at this juncture," Dominion's counsel wrote in their recent letter to Lindell, after referencing the Powell lawsuit. "Conduct yourself accordingly."

Voting companies' legal pushback and demands for retractions have forced acknowledgment of fault from some purveyors of the election fraud claims fanned for months by Trump and his allies.

Last month, for instance, Fox News aired a segment debunking misinformation about election software company Smartmatic, after the firm sent a 20-page legal demand letter. And Giuliani and Powell disappeared from Fox cable news shows where they were once frequent guests, The Post's Jeremy Barr found.

The conservative blog American Thinker published a retraction of accusations against Dominion last week, apologizing for a "grave error" and for "abandoning" journalistic principles.

"These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact," the retraction stated. "Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims."
Donald Trump will leave office with his approval rating at an all-time low, according to a new poll.

The storming of Capitol Hill and his refusal to accept that Joe Biden won the election has caused considerable damage to the US presidents reputation, a poll by Pew Research has found.

His approval rating has slumped to 29pc  a fall of nine points since last August. Ominously for Mr Trump, who is said to be planning to run for the White House in 2024, his rating among Republicans has plummeted even more spectacularly.

According to the poll, which was taken on Friday, only 60pc of Republicans approve of his job performance  a 17-point drop.

The disenchantment among rank-and-file Republicans is mirrored in Washington with a rift widening between Trump loyalists, who are especially strong in the House of Representatives, and mainstream members of the party.

It was a gulf which was laid bare when Congress met to confirm the results of the election.

In the lower house, the overwhelming majority of Republicans voted to oppose the ratification of the result. In the Senate, only a handful, led by former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, did so.

Mr Trump is now likely to complete his term in the White House with Mike Pence, the vice-president, refusing to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, and an impeachment hearing due to begin after Mr Biden takes office.

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The polarisation of the moderate and insurgent conservative wings of the Republican party has been widened by the election to the lower house of supporters of the QAnon movement which believes in a raft of conspiracy theories.

Over the weekend, Nebraska senator Ben Sasse launched a withering attack on QAnon in an op-ed in The Atlantic, accusing it of destroying the party from within.

In the short term, the rift is most likely to manifest itself when the Senate considers whether to impeach Mr Trump for a second time.

With the exception of former presidential candidate and Utah senator Mitt Romney, the Republican ranks previously held firm and refused to convict Mr Trump. More are expected to break rank this time, with Mr Romney likely to be joined by several others, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate is reportedly undecided on whether to back impeachment.

South Carolina senator and presidential ally Lindsey Graham said he resolutely opposes impeachment, which, if passed, would prevent Mr Trump from running for office in the future.

The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great nation if we do otherwise, he said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 22:07:44|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya Airways is considering adding new cargo flights to China as Sino-Africa trade grows, an official said on Monday.

Dick Murianki, Director of Kenya Airways Cargo told Xinhua in Nairobi that the airline has been experiencing increased demand for air freight between China and the African countries that it operates in.

"We currently fly into Guangzhou but we are looking at going into other cities. Shanghai looks interesting but we have not yet made a decision," Murianki made the remarks when the Kenyan airline signed a cooperation agreement with the Kenya fresh produce exporters.

The national flag carrier said that it currently operates one cargo and two passenger flights per week between the two countries.

Murianki said that by flying to more Chinese cities, it will be able to diversify the variety of goods brought into the continent as each city produces a different product.

Murianki said that it typically ferries goods from South, East and West Africa to China through Nairobi as a regional aviation hub.

He noted that currently, Africa is importing a lot of items related to the prevention of COVID-19 such as personal protective equipment (PPE) from China.

"Now people are also importing machines to produce PPEs as well as general merchandise that is brought to Nairobi for onward distribution to other African countries," he added.

Murianki noted that the airline exports from Africa seafood such as lobster and crabs as well as flowers to the Asian nation.

"We are able to bring more Chinese goods to Africa per flight because it is mostly dry cargo which means we can also use passenger planes for the freight compared to exports to China which consist of wet cargo," he revealed. Enditem
The nursing home at the Good Samaritan Society in Simla in Elbert County is where the National Guardsman that caught the more contagious strain of the COVID virus was working. It is still unclear as to if this was where he caught it.

Simla is a very small, quiet rural town that is about an hour east of Colorado Springs on U.S. 24.
Representative image

Consulting and outsourcing services provider Accenture Plc said on Monday it would extend home working for its employees in Italy beyond the coronavirus emergency.

The pandemic has caused a rapid shift in working habits worldwide, with many major companies repeatedly extending the home working policies put in place last year as infections show no sign of abating and both workers and employers experience benefits.

Accenture's 17,000 Italy-based workers will be able to work remotely three days a week, up from two pre-pandemic, it said in a statement, rising to five in case of special health needs.

Currently 98% of its workforce is working from home, although staff have been able to do so to some degree since 2009, the group added.

"For years we've been moving towards a more elastic and digital business environment and these past months have shown us how (this) can become a new standard," Head of Human Resources in Italy Anna Nozza said.

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

With this shift in mind, Accenture said it would start rethinking the layout of its offices and press on with its 2019 plan of refurbishing its spaces in Italy, at a total investment of 360 million euros ($434.41 million).

Last week Unilever said office workers would be largely working from home during the first three months of the year and would then move to a hybrid model splitting their time between the office and home.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has announced the ongoing negotiations on the supply of COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine with six manufacturers.

"We are negotiating with six vaccine manufacturers, which today have two stages of clinical trials, are undergoing a third, are registered in other countries and with the World Health Organization as an official and legalized vaccine," Shmyhal said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, today there is an opportunity to choose from three vaccines, and most likely, in the first batches that will arrive in Ukraine, there will be just three different vaccines.

The head of government stressed that all of them will definitely be licensed in Ukraine, and will be approved by WHO and in other countries, that is, the vaccines with a confirmed percentage of effectiveness.

According to him, the Ministry of Health has signed a non-disclosure agreement with almost everyone, which does not give the right to publicly discuss some details.

"But we are participants in the global COVAX initiative, and also appealed to all our partners about the need to supply the first batches of vaccine as soon as possible. Now I can say that these negotiations have yielded results - Ukraine will have a vaccine no later than February," Shmyhal said.

He is convinced that vaccination against COVID-19 in Ukraine on a commercial basis will take place in parallel with state vaccination.

"As soon as vaccines are registered in Ukraine under the accelerated procedure, commercial enterprises will immediately have the opportunity to import these vaccines to Ukraine. Further, this is a question for such companies, they also negotiate and conclude contracts. I am convinced that these will be parallel processes with state vaccination," said Shmyhal, answering the question when Ukrainians will have the opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19 on a commercial basis.

As for the results of checks on possible clandestine vaccination against COVID-19, the prime minister said that law enforcement agencies had opened criminal proceedings, and appropriate investigative actions are underway.

"Separately, I gave an order to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on the basis of which the relevant actions are taken. All the necessary documents have been signed to conduct an inspection of the enterprise specified in the information materials. But since this is a criminal proceeding, I will not disclose any data in advance," he added.

As reported, on January 16, deputy head of the Servant of the People faction Yevhenia Kravchuk, after a meeting of the faction with Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov, said that the first stage of vaccination of Ukrainians against the coronavirus disease COVID-19 could begin, approximately, in mid-February 2021.
The rhetoric surrounding the Jan. 6 attack in Washington, D.C., has been a source of much debate. Was it a protest? Mob violence? Terrorism? Judging by what occurred, and the publicly demonstrated preparation for it, we not only witnessed the first breaching of the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812  we also witnessed an act of domestic terrorism, according to the definition of terrorism provided by the Global Terrorism Database at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

The importance of designating this assault on the Capitol as domestic terrorism is becoming more apparent in the aftermath and investigations of the attack. By qualifying the event as mob violence, officials present an argument of a spontaneous, anarchic disorder that was not premeditated and had little direction.

 READ MORE: The violence and conspiracy theories Trump fueled will threaten America long after he leaves | Trudy Rubin

Yet, the preparation and online rhetoric of various groups and individuals indicate that this assault on the Capitol Building was planned. Moreover, the argument of mob violence places President Donald Trump as a scapegoat, suggesting that he primarily shoulders responsibility for inspiring this violent behavior.

While President Trump may have served as an inspiration and is responsible for encouraging it, this event was planned before his Jan. 6 rally. The argument for mob violence also suggests that the removal of Trump, whether through the 25th Amendment, an impeachment, or democratic transition, will resolve the problem that truly inspired the violence. Unfortunately, this is untrue. The problem is unlikely to go away, but rather escalate to levels unseen previously in our history.

The U.S. suffers from a significant problem that lawmakers have been dangerously hesitant to come to terms with. Its a serious problem with extremist groups. However, its not foreign-born or Islamic-based extremist groups, as have previously been central to U.S. discussions around terrorism. We have a problem with domestic extremism.

In truth, we live in a democracy with freedoms and liberties that allow for the existence of extremist thoughts and public expression of them, and we cannot change that. People are permitted to express their viewpoints and assemble to protest if they desire. Its a hallmark of U.S. democracy.

But the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol clearly demonstrated what it looks like when extremism turns to domestic terrorism. The problem of domestic extremism in the U.S. is that our intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies have been late to determine a solution to this issue.

Back in May 2019, the FBI finally admitted that domestic extremism and growing conspiracy theories from domestic groups and sources would likely be a future source of inspiration for violence. The solutions to resolve these issues cannot be reactive, but rather proactive in countering extremism.

The problem is that deradicalization and countering violent extremism programs suffer from an erroneous focus or lack of funding. Prior to the Trump administration, these programs were designed for a different target: Islamic fundamentalism in American society. Rather than embracing a need to change these programs, the Trump administration shut down programs to counter violent extremism.

Now, in the aftermath of the assault of the U.S. Capitol, we need to clarify what this event truly was and how we will resolve this problem. The assault was premeditated and fits all the elements of domestic terrorism.

 READ MORE: From irregardless to insurrection: Parsing the language of the Capitol breach | Angry Grammarian

While we can use either the term terrorism or domestic terrorism, the qualifier of domestic indicates that the threat is homegrown. The FBI disaggregates the term terrorism into international vs. domestic terrorism to indicate where the source originates.

However, as The Inquirers Angry Grammarian columnist noted, the U.S. government and society has a serious problem with asserting that white individuals who are extremists and commit terrorism are terrorists. Instead, our government relies on the designations of criminal and hate crimes. For example, why did the U.S. government and judicial system not prosecute Dylann Storm Roof, who murdered nine African Americans at a Charleston, S.C., church in June 2015, for domestic terrorism rather than hate crimes, murder, and weapons charges?

The importance of the domestic terrorism distinction lies in what we will do next. The end of Donald Trumps presidency does not resolve this issue. We must recognize the extent of extremism, and our deradicalization and countering violent extremism programs must be recommenced and changed to address the real problem we have in American society.

Jeremy Backstrom, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Widener Universitys department of political science and international relations.
Closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High 'impacts our entire town'

The Washington County Board of Education held a public hearing on the closing of Hancock Middle-Senior High School; the crowd pleaded against it.
He says investors are under pressure in Ukraine.

President of Ukrainian privately-owned conglomerate DCH, businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky says the Central Investigation Department of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine has summoned him for questioning on January 19-22 as a witness in the case related to Ukraine's aerospace giant Motor Sich.

Read alsoChina's Skyrizon, Ukraine's DCH Group reapply to AMCU to have stake purchase in Motor Sich approved"It is a case of PJSC Motor Sich shares of which belong to the DCH investment portfolio and which DCH is planning to develop," he said in a statement published on DCH's website on January 18.

Yaroslavsky assured that he would arrive at the indicated address on the very first of the listed days, that is January 19, 2021.

"At the same time, I am greatly perplexed by the articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, according to which the SBU will receive my testimony, i.e. Article 14 'Criminal Offense Preparation,' Article 111 'High Treason,' and Article 113 'Subversive activity,'" he said.

"In PJSC Motor Sich's case, those who do not allow its shareholders to enter the enterprise and do not convene a general meeting of shareholders could give more information. Those whose actions led to the dismissal of almost 10,000 workers, destroying their families' livelihood. As well as those involved in unjustified seizure of shares, making unjust decisions, and sabotaging permits' issuance. I believe it would make sense to call all of them but not as witnesses," he summed up.

With regard to the summons for questioning, Yaroslavsky noted the intimidation of businesses and pressure on investors.

Reporting by UNIAN
(Natural News) Could the 5G rollout be an annihilation event for our planet? Thats what International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space Spokesperson Claire Edwards told investigative reporter Lucas Alexander in an eye-opening and in-depth interview on the dangers of 5G for Age of Truth TV.

Edwards is an author, researcher and former United Nations editor with a masters degree in intercultural competence. She said that one thing that sets 5G apart from 4G is how it will be everywhere we turn. While 4G might come from an antenna that you can see off in the distance, 5G uses thousands of mini-antennas that form beams that do not weaken across distances the way 4G does, which means it is far more powerful  and far more devastating.

According to Edwards, 5G will be coming at us from so many angles that it will be impossible to escape, with sources including smart meters, LED streetlights and cabinets on the street. There will be 5G antennas placed in neighborhoods just a few houses apart, right outside of peoples bedrooms and living rooms. It will be coming out from beneath manhole covers, she said, which means that it will be radiating people who walk over them, which is particularly risky for babies.

We also know that there will be thousands of 5G satellites in space. SpaceX has already asked for permission to put tens of thousands of 5G satellites in the Earths orbit, and civil aircraft will also be used to beam 5G down. In other words, you wont be able to avoid exposure, at least to some degree.

5G changes the brain

When Lucas asked Edwards about the health effects of 5G, one interesting thing she mentioned was suicide. She said that after 25 years of cell phone use, we have the highest suicide rate seen since World War II. This, she said, is because electromagnetic radiation changes the brain and causes depression. We are also seeing children aged nine and ten whose brains resemble those of senile elderly people in scans.

Unfortunately, these health effects are largely being ignored by the powerful telecommunications industry, which Edwards says is estimated to be worth roughly $17 trillion. The mainstream media appears to be in their pocket, with many major outlets dismissing these concerns. Le Monde, for example, one of the main French newspapers, has attacked anti-5G appeals; it is partly owned by a French billionaire who also owns telecommunication firms. The New York Times has a partnership with Verizon, and the list goes on.

Race for 5G really an attempt to roll it out before the world notices the dangers

She also shared her theory that the race for 5G and the extremely fast rollout is not a question of trying to beat other countries to the punch. Instead, she says telecoms wanted to roll it out before people realized the dangers and had the time to organize and stop it from taking place. After all, once its there, it is really difficult to take it away.

How are you going to take down 53,000 satellites once they are up?, she asked, before going on to compare 5G to the mind control program HAARP (the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program).

The whole point about 5G is that it affects your brain. I mean, not only does it affect your body, but it affects your brain and therefore it affects your judgment. It can also be used for mind control because its very closely associated with HAARP. It has many of the same characteristics as far as I can see 

Is 5G a depopulation tool?

When asked if the aim of 5G is to kill the population, she had an interesting answer: Well, you know, people say, Is it a weapon? Well, you know, if you have a technology which is potentially going to annihilate everything on Earth, do we need to decide whether its a weapon or not? I mean, the only difference between it being a weapon and not a weapon is just intention.

Although she said she cannot say if it is intended to depopulate the planet, she believes it certainly has the potential to do so. Thats why she is trying so hard to stop the rollout through the International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space. You can read the appeal and sign it by visiting The 5G Space Appeal.

Sources for this article include:

GlobalResearch.ca

5GSpaceAppeal.org
Indian smart accessories manufacturer Ambrane, has announced the launch of two new truly wireless earbuds called the NeoBuds 11 and NeoBuds 22. Both of them feature Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity for an immersive audio experience and they support voice assistants.

The NeoBuds 11 has Active noise cancellation (ANC) built-in, which will help reduce loud ambient noise when listening to music. The earbuds are IPX4 rated, making them sweat resistant and ideal for working out in the gym. They feature touch controls and have support for the Google Assistant and Siri.

Battery life is rated at 4 hours of continuous listening time and up to 12 hours with the included charging case. The case also has a LED digital display to show the battery life left on both the earbuds and the case itself.

The NeoBuds 22 also utilize Bluetooth 5.0 for its connectivity, and has a multi-function button with voice assistant support. Battery life is rated at 4 hours, which can be extended to 14 hours with the included charging case.

The Ambrane NeoBuds 11 and NeoBuds 22 both are priced at Rs. 2499 and will be available on their online store and in retail stores across India.
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The best outcome for Sullivans Islands accreted land would be for it to be preserved in its natural state so long as natural forces let it be.

I appreciate that land more than ever as a former island resident, chairman of its first Tree Committee, co-chair of the ad hoc committee that developed the first ordinance to permit some limited trimming in the accreted land and a member of the Town Council that granted added trimming,

When it was originally built on as a military installation, Sullivans Island was little more than a bare, low-lying sand spit. What stabilized its sand, with more trapped later by the jetties, were trees and shrubs whose roots dug in, raising and securing the land.

For any fragile barrier island to be able to add stable land above sea level is a rare advantage.

In an intensely developing East Cooper area, with increasingly frequent and intense storms and rising sea levels, 90-plus acres of protected and permanently conserved natural green space is a gift.

The town has made considerable concessions to front beach homeowners since the original conservation easement.

As land preserved in a public trust, any decision on how to protect and manage the accreted land should have the input and agreement of all town property owners by referendum, not just Town Council.

It is dedicated land, not for private advantage, but for public and natural benefit, protected forever as town green space.

ALYS ANNE WIEDEKE

Little Smith Road

Wadmalaw Island

Sheriff's moves worrying

I read with interest three recent articles on the beginning of Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Grazianos tenure.

I came away with serious concerns about the direction she appears to be taking the department.

On her second day in office, two senior commanders were ousted and that purging was already happening because people were already leaving the agency.

In the next breath, she pointed to her initiative to diversify senior staff.

Well, I certainly hope that Sheriff Graziano knows what shes doing by encouraging the purging of long-term employees for the benefit of diversity.

Based on my own executive experience, Im not a fan of forcing employees out of an organization without giving them an opportunity to make appropriate course changes.

Having said that, if diversity means upgrading the department in terms of skills, experience, attitude and direction, so be it.

But if diversity is undertaken only for diversitys sake, then she is on the wrong track.

We need the best and brightest on the team, regardless of gender, color of skin or sexual preference.

Sheriff Graziano also has ended the departments partnership with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Lets hope shes not moving Charleston County toward the slippery slope of sanctuary city status. With all of that in mind, Im not encouraged by what Ive seen to date.

BRUCE CORNER

Reserve Drive

Pawleys Island

Graziano is right

The agreement between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Charleston County Sheriffs Office is a voluntary agreement that deputizes local law enforcement to enforce federal laws. It is not a law, statute, rule or regulation. And it does not make communities safer; it terrorizes Latino communities and it engenders racial profiling.

At its height in 2019, the average daily population of immigrant persons with ICE holds at Al Cannon Detention Center was close to 25% versus a little over 75% of the local (non-immigrant) population, according to the Charleston County annual report.

This percentage was much lower than 25% four years prior. The numbers in this report dont differentiate between immigrants sitting in jail solely on ICE holds for being immigrants living in the U.S. without status (undocumented immigrants) and those immigrants who have pending criminal charges that can range from municipal, city or magistrate level to criminal court offenses who happen to be undocumented.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, living in this country while undocumented on its own is generally not a crime.

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So, does it make our communities safer to have a 287(g) agreement in place? It does not.

Based on the numbers in the 2019 report, undocumented immigrants are less likely to be detained in jail for criminal offenses.

Do we need to participate in the agreement? No.

What we need is to foster trust and confidence within all people of color, whether born in this country or elsewhere, that law enforcement is here to protect, regardless of status or the color of our skin.

KARLA MARTINEZ

Meeting Street

Charleston

Defend democracy

On July Fourth a couple of summers ago at a vacation spot, I heard a mayor in the public square read aloud the Declaration of Independence.

A red-hatted Trump supporter tried to interrupt the reading, screaming, Traitor! Liberal commie! (He obviously did not recognize our Declaration of Independence.)

And thus we have the current insurgence against our U.S. government.

While this kind of ignorance is worrying enough, it is horrifying that a majority of well-educated Republicans in Congress still support Donald Trump in his attacks on our Constitution and our democracy.

I pray that those Republicans who still support Trump will have a change of heart and can learn about our Constitution.

If we dont stand up now to defend out constitutional democracy, our grandchildren will end up living in an autocratic plutocracy.

God bless America and save her.

MARY HAMILL

Telfair Way

Charleston

Fast and French

Since 1984, I have been a customer of Fast and French on Broad Street. In recent years, my daughter and I have met there for lunch.

We noticed very few patrons indoors, quite a change from previous visits. A fear of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on this employee-owned establishment.

To survive and continue to serve the public, the restaurant opened a tasteful outdoor seating area behind the restaurant on property owned by Charleston County.

For reasons beyond imagination, the Charleston County administrator has unilaterally decided to end the agreement that permitted the use of the space, which allowed this landmark business to survive during the pandemic.

New leadership has come to Charleston County Council.

Perhaps members can reverse this decision that has caused extreme hardship on this wonderful, job-creating and tax-paying small business.

King Street is littered with closed stores and restaurants.

Let us hope that County Council can give Fast and French the access needed to resume outdoor dining for the public.

BUD FERILLO

Laurens Street

Columbia
Over 30,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in the last 24 hours, of whom 1,075 received the booster dose, the total number of those vaccinated reaching 235,239, informs the National Committee for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities against COVID-19 (CNCAV).

According to data made available to CNCAV on Monday by the National Institute of Public Health, through the application of the National Electronic Register of Vaccinations application (RENV), 30,237 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in the last 24 hours, of whom 1,075 were vaccinated with the booster dose.

The total number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer vaccine, as of December 27, 2020, reached 235,239, of whom 1,951 people were vaccinated with the booster dose.

In the last 24 hours, there were 45 common and minor side effects, of which 14 were local; 31 general reactions.

The total number of side effects recorded at the level of vaccination centers, starting with December 27, 2020, is 809 common and minor adverse reactions, of which: 302 local reactions with pain at the injection site; 507 general reactions (fever, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, asthenia, urticaria allergies).

According to CNCAV, four adverse reactions are under investigation.
Zara is selling stylish trousers that look remarkably similar to a designer pair from an Australian fashion label seven times the price.

The Spanish retailer's $59.95 'Darted High Waist' pants are a clever dupe of the $420 'Luis' style from Camilla and Marc, a Sydney headquartered clothing brand founded in 2003 by brother and sister Marc Freeman and Camilla Freeman-Topper.

Both trousers sit high on the waist, hang straight but neatly and taper in at the ankles, a flattering cut that makes legs appear longer.

The most obvious difference is the pockets stitched on either side of the cheaper pants, while the more expensive style has none.

Scroll down for video

Splurge or save (seven times over): A woman wears the $420 'Luis' trousers from Sydney label Camilla and Marc (left) and Canberra stylist 'This is Genevieve' wears Zara's $59.95 'Darted High Waist' pants (right)

Some of Australia's top stylists have been raving about the Zara version on Instagram since they hit shelves nationwide at the start of summer.

Canberra fashion blogger 'This is Genevieve' sent hundreds rushing to buy the trousers with a recent outfit photo, which saw her pair them with a black crop top, strappy tortoise shell heels and a Kmart clutch bag.

'Gorgeous pair of pants,' one woman replied.

'Those trousers are amazing on you,' another added, while a third said: 'So chic.'

Australia's top stylists have been raving about the Zara version (pictured) since they hit shelves nationwide at the start of summer

The most obvious difference is the pockets stitched on either side of the cheaper pants, while the more expensive style (pictured) has none

It's the latest in a long line of budget-friendly dupes to catch attention on social media, following a $6 Kmart bag that is a perfect copy of an iconic accessory a staggering 370 times the price.

The Australian discount store's $6 'Mini Ring Crossbody' is a near-perfect dupe of the iconic 'Nile' bag from French luxury fashion house Chloe, which is crafted in Italy from leather and suede and costs an eye-watering $2,220.

Both bags have a gold 'bracelet' that can be looped over the wrist or used as a handle and a detachable shoulder strap for hands-free carrying, along with similar fold-over flaps that clip closed at the front.

Differences emerge where Chloe's couture design is marked with intricate stitching and a stamp of the brand's eponymous logo, while Kmart's is bare and without detail.

Kmart's $6 'Mini Ring Crossbody' (left) and its inspiration, the iconic 'Nile' bracelet bag from French luxury fashion house Chloe (right) which costs a whopping $2,220

Can you believe it's Kmart? This $20 tote has just hit the shelves at the Australian discount store, and fashionistas are raving about its similarity to a designer style 43 times the price

The luxury alternative is this iconic 'Basket Bag' from Spanish fashion house Loewe, which is handwoven from palm and premium calf leather and costs an eye-watering $855

And it's not the first time the retailer has released a bargain dupe of a designer bag.

Shoppers have been stripping the shelves of a $20 wicker tote that bears striking similarity to the best-selling 'Basket Bag' from Spanish heritage label Loewe, which is handwoven from palm and calf leather and costs $855 for the equivalent size.

Both bags have tan handles and a large patch emblazoned across the front, though Loewe's design is stamped with the brand's logo while Kmart's is bare.

Demand for the budget-friendly imitation has soared since Sydney fashion blogger Dani slung it over her shoulder in an Instagram photo uploaded on Wednesday.

'The $20 tote you didn't know you needed from Kmart Australia,' the influencer, who posts as 'Luxe and Lemonade', wrote in the caption.
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Jan 18, 2021 - 20:53 | World, All

As China likely became the only major country to achieve positive economic growth in 2020 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, fears are mounting that Japan will lag further behind the world's second-largest economy in digital technology.

Some foreign affairs experts have adopted an optimistic view on China's rise in the digital field, saying it would provide commercial opportunities for Japanese companies, many of which have been bolstering their business relations with Chinese firms.

Others, however, have warned that unless Japan makes serious efforts to promote its own digital competency as a national strategy, the world's third-biggest economy could be swallowed up by China's more influential platform in the not-so-distant future.

Although Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to make digitalization a top policy priority since he took office in September, he has yet to yield visible results as he has been compelled to concentrate on taking steps to contain the virus crisis.

China's economy is expected to "gain momentum in 2021 with domestic demand bouncing back from the coronavirus shock," probably allowing the Communist-led nation to spend "huge money" for developing digital technology, a diplomatic source in Beijing said.

In contrast, Japan's economy "may not recover sharply," as the virus has rapidly spread in the past few months at home, forcing Suga's government to issue a state of emergency for several regions to restrict economic activities on a mass scale there, he said.

The increase in new infections peaked in China in late February 2020 on the back of the country's hardline "zero corona" policy approach, but Japan's request-based "with corona" policy has apparently failed to curb the virus outbreak so far.

While Japan might struggle to prop up its virus-hit economy this year, China is set to try to strengthen its digital infrastructure and capitalize on it as one of the drivers to expand its exports, a key engine of economic growth, the source said.

"Even now, Japan cannot hold a candle to China in terms of digital technology. If Japan cannot catch up, the course of its digital transformation could be dominated by China," he added.

Related coverage:

China likely becomes only major economy to achieve growth in 2020

China mulls bolstering control of rare earths as national strategy

China begins 2nd round of mass testing in infected city near Beijing

China registered 2.3 percent year-on-year economic growth in 2020, government data showed Monday, as the International Monetary Fund has projected Japan, the United States and the eurozone would have experienced a contraction last year.

During the October-December period, China's gross domestic product grew 6.5 percent from the previous year, posting the third straight quarter of expansion, after shrinking 6.8 percent in the first three months of 2020.

With the broader economy recuperating, China has reportedly planned to invest 10 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) for five years through 2025 in development of digital-related technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G network and quantum computers.

Large-scale quantum computers could theoretically solve certain problems faster than conventional ones, putting today's commonly used encryption systems that protect digital information in jeopardy.

China's quantum computer technology has "come close to" that of U.S. internet giant Google LLC, a front-runner in the field, said former Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Kazumasa Iwata, currently president of the Japan Center for Economic Research.

As the pandemic has highlighted the importance of "non-contact" activities including telemedicine and online education, China may also accelerate provision of its digital services to other nations, said Yoshino Tamai, a senior economist at the Mizuho Research Institute.

In early 2020, the Chinese government introduced a health code system that can confirm whether a person has a high risk of infection. The leadership of President Xi Jinping has been attempting to pitch the technology to the world.

The system assigns residents multicolor QR codes to register where they went and whether they had contact with infected patients. With a green light shown on their smartphones, they are permitted onto trains and expressways, and into shops and office buildings.

Moreover, China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, has already begun the trials of its digital currency in specific areas since mid-2020, paving the way for its becoming the first country to establish a national electronic payment system.

Central banks in Japan, the United States and Europe have been vigilant of China's lead in issuing a digital currency, as it could threaten the long-standing position of the U.S. dollar as an international reserve currency, analysts say.

Japan, meanwhile, has been clearly been one lap behind China in the digital field.

For example, when cash handouts, aimed at cushioning the virus impact, started to be offered in May last year, online applications were launched. But the inconvenience of the proceedings prompted many local governments to only accept mail-in applications.

Until recently, hospitals in some prefectures are believed to have reported new coronavirus cases to municipal authorities by fax after completing paperwork by hand.

In 2020, Japan ranked 27th in digital technology competitiveness among 63 economies, while China placed 16th in the global ranking released by the International Institute for Management Development, a business education school in Switzerland.

"Only China can bring the virus under control and maintain a high economic growth rate in 2021," Yukio Noguchi, an adviser to Waseda University Institute for Business and Finance in Tokyo, said in a twitter post.

China's advance in state-of-the art technologies "might continue," Noguchi said, adding democratic nations would have to challenge it down the road.
Scott Morrison still refuses to condemn Donald Trump for the deadly riot at the US Capitol by the defeated president's supporters.

Mr Trump last week made history as the only US president to be impeached twice and is due to face a Senate trial to decide if he will be convicted of inciting an insurrection.

The prime minister said the January 7 riot - which led to the deaths of five people - was deeply distressing.

'It was disappointing, very disappointing, that things were allowed to get to that stage,' he told 2GB radio on Monday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference following a national cabinet meeting at Parliament House in Canberra on January 8

Pictured: On January 6, pro-Trump supporters and far-right forces flooded Washington DC to protest Trump's election loss

'The things that were said that had encouraged others to come to the Capitol and engage in that way, were incredibly disappointing, very disappointing.'

'America is very important to Australia and very important to this part of the world, and it's important we see them come together in that way and we'll be doing everything we can to support that and encourage that outcome.'

Mr Morrison said he spoke to Joe Biden soon after he 'clearly won' the election and was unlikely to do so again until after the incoming president's inauguration this week.

'America's going through a very terrible time at the moment but (we are) looking forward to the country uniting and moving on from these terrible last few months and particularly these last few weeks.'

Last week, Mr Morrison stopped short of criticising Donald Trump for inciting the angry mob while expressing his hope for a 'peaceful transition' of power in the US.

President Donald Trump speaks at the 'Stop The Steal' Rally on January 6 in Washington DC

'The riots and protests that we've seen in Washington DC have been terribly distressing,' Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra on January 14.

'I'm pleased that the Senate has been able to recommence their proceedings and we hope for a peaceful and stable transition of government to the new administration elected by the American people.'

When asked whether he had an opinion on whether Trump was partly responsible for inciting his followers to storm the building, Mr Morrison refused to comment.

He pointed out that Trump told his supporters so go home peacefully.

'I hope that's what people are doing,' he said.

'I feel terribly for what is happening there, I really do It's heartbreaking to see what is happening there.'

Supporters of Donald Trump participate in a 'Stop the Steal' protest outside of the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6

Two days earlier, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack was heavily criticised for saying 'all lives matter' as he refused to apologise for comparing last week's raid on the US Capitol with the protests last year.

He said Trump supporters' raid on the Capitol as politicians met to affirm Joe Biden's election win was 'unfortunate' and 'similar to those race riots that we saw around the country last year', adding that Trump should not be banned from Twitter.

Michael McCormack has been heavily criticised for saying 'all lives matter'

Human Rights group Amnesty International said comparing a violent raid on the Capitol that killed five to the mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter movement was 'deeply offensive' and asked Mr McCormack to withdraw the comment.

But the acting Prime Minister refused to apologise and sparked further outrage by saying the controversial phrase 'all lives matter', which is used by far right groups to diminish the struggles faced by black and Indigenous communities.

'I appreciate that there are a lot of people out there who are being a bit bleeding heart about this and who are confecting outrage, but they should know those lives matter too. All lives matter. People shouldn't have to go to a protest and lose their lives,' Mr McCormack told the ABC.

If Mr Trump is convicted on the impeachment charges he could be disqualified from seeking another run for the presidency in 2024.

Mr Biden will be inaugurated as 46th US president in Washington DC early Thursday morning, Australian time.
Peru cement market expands 12% YoY in December

ICR Newsroom By 18 January 2021

Domestic dispatches in Peru increased 12 per cent YoY from 0.979Mt in December 2019 to 1.098Mt in December 2020, according to the countrys cement association, Asocem.



Cement production advanced 18 per cent YoY in December 2020 as Asocem members produced 1.077Mt of cement. Output in December 2019 was 0.916Mt.



Cement exports in December 2020 fell 36 per cent YoY to 12,000t from 19,000t in December 2019, but clinker exports surged from 33,000t in December 2019 to 105,000t in December 2020.



Cement imports declined 17 per cent YoY to 81,000t in December 2020 from 98,000t in December 2019. Clinker imports advanced from 44,000t in December 2019 to 154,000t one year later.



Full-year 2020

Cement dispatches in Peru declined 17 per cent to 9.669Mt in 2020 from 11.583Mt in 2019.



Cement output by Asocem members in 2020 fell 14 per cent YoY to 9.14Mt from 10.574Mt in 2019.



Cement and clinker exports fell by 28 and 56 per cent YoY, respectively, in 2020. Cement exports reached 143,000t (2019: 198,000t) while clinker exports were down to 310,000t (2019: 709,000t).



Cement imports declined by seven per cent to 719,000t in 2020 from 772,000t in 2019. Clinker imports more than tripled from 44,000t in 2019 to 154,000t in 2020.







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Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Sunday about "more ominous" strains of COVID-19 that emerged in other parts of the world.

Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said U.S. researchers are looking "very carefully" at more ominous strains in addition to another highly contagious COVID-19 strain first found in the U.K., reported New York Post.

He also assured that officials are taking the "more ominous" strains from South Africa and Brazil "very seriously."

Fauci said he did not want people to panic over the emergence of COVID-19 mutations but wanted the public to stay aware that there is now more than one mutation of the virus, and it comes with threats.

"People need to realize there's more than one mutant strain," Fauci told NBC anchor Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press."

'More Ominous' Strains of COVID-19 May Not Be More Virulent

So far, studies have found that the new strains aren't more virulent. Meaning they don't make people more sick or more likely to die because of it.

However, he said more cases emerge also means more hospitalizations that could damage the country's health care system during this time of crisis.

Read also: Johnson & Johnson's Single-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Signs of Promise

Fauci observed that the mutation might have caused or contributed to a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases across the U.S., reported Daily Wire.

Talking to The Washington Post, he stressed that the effects were likely brought by the mutant being "more easily transmissible" compared to before.

COVID-19 cases in the country have dramatically gone down in the country since April. But have recently risen, similar to what's been occurring in the U.K.

In comparing the COVID-19 situation in both regions, he said: "the slope of our curve, which is very steep, it looks a bit like the curve in the U.K."

Mutation's Impact on COVID-19 Vaccine Still Unknown

Fauci reiterated that studies are still ongoing on whether the changes in the virus affect the vaccines' efficacy or whether they will be resistant to the shots on the market.

He assured that if research finds the lessened impact of the vaccine, researchers will "make some modifications" to the vaccine, reported Massachusetts Live.

Recent studies on the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine showed that its vaccine effectively protected people against both the U.K. and South Africa strains.

The Brazil strain is similar to the South African mutation first detected in October, and it has since spread to 20 countries.

Reports claim it can prevent antibodies from protecting someone against the virus along with one more mutation and the same set of mutations with the U.K. strain.

Related story: Doctors Warn of COVID-19's Permanent Symptom

Japanese officials first found this mutated variant of COVID-19 in four travelers from Brazil. Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases still needs to look into how infectious the strain may be and whether it has immunity against the vaccines.

Direct flights from South Africa have been banned in the U.K., and there were also similar bans for travelers from South America, Portugal, and Cape Verde.
A 40-year-old man, Taofeeq Adepoju has been arraigned before an Osogbo Magistrates Court for allegedly defrauding 186 persons. The accused ...





A 40-year-old man, Taofeeq Adepoju has been arraigned before an Osogbo Magistrates Court for allegedly defrauding 186 persons.

The accused person was alleged to have defrauded people to the tune of over N45, 293, 916.

Adepoju allegedly committed the offence between the year 2012 and July 2015 in Osogbo.

Police prosecutor, ASP Abiodun Fagboyinbo told the court that the accused person conspired with bank officials, standing as a middle man to acquire a loan for 186 persons, knowing it was a false pretence and with intent to defraud.

The 186 persons defrauded on the pretence of repaying the loan secured for them are staff of Irepodun Local Government Area of Osun state.

The accused person who is facing a four-count charge pleaded not guilty to the allegations slammed against him.

The offence committed contravened Sections 422, S. 419, and 516 of the criminal code Cap 34 Vol. 2, Laws of Osun state of Nigeria, 2002.

Defence counsel, S.P Ogundari, prayed the court to grant his client bail in the most liberal terms.

In her ruling magistrate, Modupe Awodele granted the accused person bail of 10 million Naira.

The magistrate said the accused person must provide two sureties, that are civil servants not below level 15.

She thereafter adjourned the case till February 9, 2021.
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- During the first ten months of 2020, US importation of overseas softwood lumber was 39% higher than during the same period in 2019. By year-end, 2020's import volume will likely be close to 4.7 million m3, the highest level in 15 years.

The importance of overseas lumber supply has increased in recent years as the supply from Canada has dwindled. Despite record-high lumber prices in the US in 2020, Canadian lumber shipments to its southern neighbor have fallen for the fourth consecutive year. A reduction in the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) in the province of British Columbia has reduced production volumes in that region by over a third in just five years.

The United States' favorable market conditions have historically attracted lumber from overseas, with the all-time high being close to seven million m3 in 2005 (see chart). Europe has been the dominant provider of lumber from outside North America for much of the past two decades, a position that remained true during 2020.

Although overseas volumes have not reached the same levels in 2020 as in 2005, Europe's share of the total imports reached a record high of 13% in 2020 (read more in the WRQ Trade Snapshots). The current market share is substantially higher than the 20 year average of only seven percent.

A majority of the overseas imports in 2020 have originated from Europe. Sawmills from this region have steadily expanded their sales to the US over the past three years. In 2020, they will probably ship close to 3.3 million m3, up from 2.1 million m3 in the previous year. Germany is, by far, the largest European supplier, followed by Sweden and Austria. Although these three countries account for a majority of the volume from the continent, most European exporting countries have a presence in the US market. It has been somewhat surprising that Russia and Finland, the world's largest and fourth-largest lumber-exporting countries, have been conspicuously "missing-in-action," together accounting for less than four percent of overseas lumber supply to the US in 2020.

With the prospects of continued reductions in timber harvests in Western Canada, lumber produced in British Columbia will likely play a diminishing role in the US lumber market in the future. Consequently, the US softwood lumber demand will increasingly be met by expanded supply from the US South, Eastern Canada, and overseas.

Contact:

Wood Resources International LLC

Hakan Ekstrom

info@woodprices.com

www.woodprices.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/wood-resources-international-llc/r/the-us-is-increasingly-dependent-on-overseas-lumber-supply-as-canadian-softwood-lumber-production-co,c3266538

SOURCE Wood Resources International LLC
When people look back on Martin Luther King Jr. and his decisive role in the civil rights movement on the day his life is commemorated, they often recall the march on Selma, his imprisonment in a Birmingham jail cell and the I Have a Dream Speech in the nations capital.

But a little known chapter of his life, working as a farm laborer in central Connecticut as a teenager, may soon be gaining more attention.

His time in Connecticut while a college student has merited scant mention from biographers and historians, but King himself said he forged strong memories of his summer job working on a tobacco farm in Simsbury.

The farm work that the civil-rights pioneer carried out for extra money is also gaining greater recognition this year when a memorial to his time in Connecticut is dedicated Monday.

King was among a group of young Black men recruited to work in the tobacco fields around Simsbury during the summers of 1944 and 1947, cultivating the particular tobacco leaf used to wrap cigars for the the Cullman Bros. company.

He was a young college student at the time  he enrolled at Morehouse College in 1944 after passing the entrance exam at age 15  and joined other striving young men from the South for a trip to the North, away from the draconian race laws that marked their upbringings.

The young men from the Historically Black Colleges like Morehouse were valued by the tobacco company for their reliability and industry, and they earned money for tuition and board at their schools, historians have written. They also gained new experiences, as well as the friendship of like-minded peers.

North vs. South

For King, the time he spent in Connecticut  worshiping at a church in Simsbury, enjoying a meal in Hartford  were something of a revelation after the intensely segregated world of his native Georgia.

To his mother, the young student wrote about a trip to Hartford: Yesterday we didnt work so we went to Hartford we really had a nice time there. I never thought that a person of my race could eat anywhere but we  ate in one of the finest restaurants in Hartford. And we went to the largest shows there. It is really a large city, he wrote in 1944. King later gave a speech at the University of Hartford in 1959 on the Future of Integration.

In his autobiography, King later wrote, After that summer in Connecticut (in 1944), it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation. It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow (racially restricted) car at the nations capital in order to continue the trip to Atlanta. ... The first time I was seated behind a curtain in a dining car, I felt as if the curtain had been dropped on my selfhood. I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self respect.

As he expressed in his autobiography, his early experiences in Connecticut had a deep influence on him.

King was able to imagine a world that could be broader than the narrow constricted space he saw in Atlanta, said Jeffrey Ogbar, professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music at the University of Connecticut. To be able to walk into an establishment and get service, that was for him, his personal development, very important. It provided the opportunity to imagine greater freedom.

Elaine Lang, former president of the Simsbury Historical Society who researched Kings time in Connecticut, said King was especially struck by an invitation to attend a local church.

Dr. King wrote in his letters, the treatment struck him. Being invited to First Church in Simsbury  he was asked to join the choir  it struck him quite remarkably. He went to an excursion to eat in Hartford, and he marveled that they walked in the same door and were waited on like any other customer. It proved to be kind of an awakening, to what things could be, she said.

The assemblage of Black college students working in the tobacco fields also forged bonds that carried into the Civil Rights era. Lang found a newsletter with a commentary written from another student in the period, describing how the college students engaged in discussions about the second-class status that Blacks were accorded. It was also during this time that King resolved to become a minister.

A group of young Black college men meeting in the South would have been incredibly dangerous, Lang said, The experience these young men had, coming up and working here, provided the opportunity for a lot of them to meet each other, and meet safely.

But it would be a mistake, Lang noted, to presume that central Connecticut was especially advanced or progressive in regard to the treatment of African Americans, and that restrictions were not in place.

By todays standards, were they great? Obviously not, she said.

The Jim Crow restrictions that dominated the South were far more rigid than in Northern states like Connecticut, but there were informal bans on Blacks at many hotels and restaurants across New England and indignities were routine, she said.

When the Black attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was defending a Black man on trial in Bridgeport in 1940, for instance, he was only allowed to eat lunch at the Stratfield Hotel restaurant because his white colleague was the hotels lawyer.

Black travelers in Connecticut in the 1940s often relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book to find restaurants, hotels and gas stations that did business with Blacks  many establishments were off-limits. Educational and housing opportunities for African Americans were extremely limited during the period, as well.

New memorial in CT

Kings sojourn in Connecticut is receiving new attention and a permanent marker, thanks to a memorial organized by young people in Simsbury. It is to be unveiled Monday on the grounds of the Simsbury Free Library.

The project began in 2010, when a group of students from Simsbury High School set out on a mission to research Kings time in the area, under the guidance of a history teacher, Richard Curtiss. Students at the Simsbury High School have kept the project ongoing, and working with a local architect, they raised $150,000 and designed the memorial.

Tara Willerup, executive director of the Simsbury Free Library and an adviser to the memorial project, said the students settled on a design that connected North with South, and conveyed a sense of freedom and openness. Glass panels describe Kings life and goals. The students felt a special connection to the young Martin Luther King, she said, as he stood on the edge of adulthood in their town, contemplating what role he might play in the struggle for liberation.

The glass panels are not closed in by walls, they open to the environment, open to the public, Willerup said, Theyve got granite, which is the native stone of Georgia, and brownstone, which is the native stone of Connecticut, so the foundation, the bedrock, is of the two communities, how they met together here. It was a student-led program, they did all the work, the fundraising. They learned as they went.

The MLK in CT group is expecting to live-stream the drive-by dedication from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday at www.mlkinct.com.

Lang, the local-history researcher, said she hoped the labor that King carried out in the tobacco fields and barns in her town, overlooked in the history books for decades, will bear fruit for generations to come, yielding a vision of a better and more just society. It was an insight that King came to develop in the farm camps where he spent hot summer nights after days of heavy lifting.

We can live and work and worship together, that people of all races could work together, she said. We can bear that in mind, and its a testament to the power of small acts of respect and dignity.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com

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After a brief scare and reprieve in December, the Glendale post office is poised to close for good Feb. 20, according to the U.S. Postal Service. The 86 village box holders will have to pick up their mail at the main post office in Stockbridge.
Lucknow, Jan 18 : BJP President J.P. Nadda will arrive in Lucknow on January 21 on a two-day visit.

During his visit, Nadda will interact with the state leadership and also members of the government.

BJP sources said that the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle could also be discussed during the party chief's visit.

Speculation in this regard has intensified after the recent joining of former bureaucrat Arvind Sharma, who joined the BJP in UP, and is the party's candidate for the Legislative Council elections.

Arvind Sharma has taken voluntary retirement from administrative service. He is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ukraine will not oppose the process of transforming the so-called military peacekeeping mission into a civilian police mission under the auspices of an international organization to settle the Transnistrian conflict in Moldova and will do everything possible to facilitate it.

"Ukraine will never oppose the process of transforming the so-called military peacekeeping mission into a civilian police mission under the auspices of one or another international organization," Deputy Head of Presidents Office Ihor Zhovkva said in an interview with TSN.ua, Ukrinform reports.

Zhovkva stressed that Ukraine has a similar situation in the occupied Donbas and Ukraine is working here with the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

"We can say that the same mission may be deployed in Moldova, perhaps, from other organizations. Ukraine will always facilitate this process. Let me remind you that Ukraine is a mediator in the 5+2 format and is ready to actively fulfill its role. Unfortunately, the 5+2 format has slowed down over the past two years," the deputy head of Presidents Office said.

He stressed that if the current peacekeeping mission is started to be withdrawn and replaced with a police mission, Ukraine will never interfere in this process but will only provide appropriate assistance.

When asked about the readiness to provide a "green corridor" for such a purpose and adopt a decision by the Verkhovna Rada, Zhovkva replied: "Therefore, such a decision of the Verkhovna Rada will be made."

"We do not want another outbreak on our southwestern borders. Therefore, we will contribute in every way. Moldova has to do its part, and Ukraine will be a reliable mediator and partner here," the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine added.

At the same time, he recalled that the Transnistria conflict settlement was discussed during Maia Sandu's official visit to Kyiv on January 12 and Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed Ukraine's stance on support for Moldova's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

Earlier, President of Moldova Maia Sandu called for reforming the Transnistrian peacekeeping mission and turning it into a civilian one along with the withdrawal of Russian troops.

The 5+2 format for settlement of the conflict in Transnistria includes the Republic of Moldova and Transdniestria as the sides, the OSCE, Russian Federation, and Ukraine as the mediators, and the European Union and the United States as the observers.

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The Kandhi Kissan Sangharsh Committee (KKSC) on Sunday invited BJP leader and veteran actress Hema Malini to Punjab "to explain to them the benefits of the three farm laws" after her statement that "farmers did not know want they want" .

The farmers' body, protesting against the Centre's contentious reforms, said it would also bear the expenses for Malini's travel and stay at a five star hotel for a week, the Indian Express reported.

The Mathura MP had said a week back that thousands of protesting farmers were "instigated" against farm laws and they "did not know" what was wrong with the new laws.

"It is good that the Supreme Court has stayed the laws. This will hopefully calm the situation. Farmers are not willing to come to a consensus even after so many talks. They do not even know what they want and what is the problem with the farm laws. This means that they are doing this because someone asked them to do it," she had told the news agency ANI.

KKSC chairman Bhupinder Singh Ghumman, patron, Avtar Singh Bhikhowal and vice-chairman Jarnail Singh Garhdiwal said in a letter that Malini was respected in Punjab as a sister-in-law, a position equal to being a mother. "You yourself had said during the election campaign that you are the daughter-in-law of Punjab," the letter stated.

Hema Malini is married to actor Dharmendra who hails from Punjab. Their son, Sunny Deol, is an MP from Gurdaspur.

Your statement has hurt every Punjabi when around 100 farmers have lost their lives at the borders of Delhi in the past 51 days while protesting to get genuine price for their crop. The farmers grow the grains with hard work. He cant just sell it at throw away price as he has no right to seek even minimum support price, the letter read.

You are saying that we (farmers) dont know what we want so please come to Punjab and make us understand what we should do so that farmers do not have to sacrifice their lives while protesting in Delhi, it added.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the state of Indiana, and with vaccine distribution barely begun, state legislative leaders decided the first order of business in 2021 would be proposing bills in both the Republican-controlled House and Senate granting immunity from COVID-19 liability related lawsuits to businesses, schools, and health care providers.

Similar liability legislation has been pushed for at the national level by Republicans in Congress. If such a measure is passed in Indiana, it will serve as a blueprint for other states, which are also seeking to protect corporations that have kept workers on the job under unsafe conditions throughout the pandemic, contributing to the 24.4 million confirmed infections and nearly 400,000 deaths nationwide.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (Image Credit: Flickr/govholcomb Public Domain)

The proposed bills in Indiana would prevent individuals from claiming that they were infected with or exposed to COVID-19 and are entitled to monetary damages as a result. Indicative of the importance of these liability protections to the business interests in the state, one or both proposals are to be fast tracked to Republican Governor Eric Holcomb, who has already verbally endorsed the liability shield, by the end of January or beginning of February for his approval, rather than the normal late-April timeline.

Senate Bill 1so named because Republican senators consider it the most important legislation of the yearexempts any individual or entity from COVID-19 liability, barring clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct. The shield would be retroactive to March 1, 2020, five days before the first confirmed COVID-19 infection in the state and would run through the end of the year 2024. In the House, Bill 1002, if enacted, would provide similar liability protections to individuals and entities, with additional shields for health care organizations.

Other proposals relating to COVID-19 are expected before the bill-filing deadlines in each chamber, including measures to limit the authority of the governor and local public health officers to implement lockdowns and close restaurants and bars. Additionally, Republican State Senator Dennis Kruse has filed Senate Bill 74 which would prevent businesses from requiring their workers to receive any vaccines, including for COVID-19.

Republican State Senator Mark Messmer, sponsor of Senate Bill 1 and the Senate Republican floor leader said, many Hoosier businesses, especially small businesses, are already struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and these costly accusations could very well put a reputable company out of business. This priority, even though no such lawsuits have yet been filed against any businesses or organizations, but with 8,936 Indiana residents who have lost their lives to the virus since March of last year, shows exactly whose interests the state legislators represent.

Further clarifying that the true concern of the state government was to protect the ability of businesses to generate profit at the expense of workers lives, Senator Messmer continued, I dont anticipate a large number of cases like this, but its important we prepare and protect factories, local shops, restaurants, houses of worship and other organizations so Hoosiers can maintain their jobs and our economy can continue to recover.

To talk of protecting factories and other businessesmeaning protecting profit marginsduring a pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 375,000 people in the US, with nearly 9,000 of them in Indiana, instead of workers lives is obscene.

As of Saturday, January 17, 2021, there were 3,228 new positive cases in the state and 24 new deaths. The statewide 7-day positivity rate sits at 13.8 percent, compared to the 11.7 percent at the end of April 2020 after close to two months of lockdown measures had been in place. Now, despite these grim statistics, as the new year begins and a new state government convenes, there is no talk of implementing even the most basic protections for workers, much less a return to the limited lockdowns of last spring. Nor is there any action being taken to improve the distribution of the new COVID-19 vaccine throughout the state, which remains the purview of the for-profit health care networks.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, workplaces such as auto factories, warehouses, food processing plants and offices have been identified as the prime vectors for infection. As the WSWS has reported previously, the virus has run rampant in such facilities as the Faurecia Gladstone plant in Columbus, Indiana, and the FCA factory in Kokomo, turning these workplaces into veritable deathtraps for the employees forced to work there.

The immediate priority should be to shut down all schools and non-essential production, with full compensation to all workers who must stay home and continue only essential production under the most stringent safety precautions. Of course, such actions are unthinkable to the ruling class, as they would directly threaten the profits generated by the exploitation of the working class.

Instead, the focus of the capitalist politicians who serve the ruling class is on eliminating even the possibility that a business could be held liable for one of its workers being infected on the job. And though the push behind these proposed bills comes from Republican senators, the Democrats in both houses have put forth paltry to nonexistent resistance.

House Democratic leader Phil GiaQuinta of Fort Wayne insisted that any new liability protection law be written tightly so that it only applies to COVID-19. GiaQuinta assured state business leaders that he has their interests at heart by adding, of course we want to make sure that we are helping our small businesses as well as holding those bad actors accountable.

Workers of Indiana should pay close attention to these developments. Neither capitalist party can be trusted to act in their interest. The WSWS and the Socialist Equality Party urge all workers to form rank-and-file committees at their workplaces, through which to fight independently against both the ruling class, their union lackeys and political stooges, and establish democratic control over production and take action to save lives and put an end to the pandemic.
80%

Website mailchi.in uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery and Boostrap. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 172815 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 48401 bytes (47.27 kb uncompressed) and 10179 bytes (9.94 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-01-18, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
US continues to face very serious problems in trade and economic relations with China

Armenia 1st President: There is a risk of civil war

Scenes of apprehension of Azerbaijani who attacked Armenian in Moscow disseminated on the Internet

Germany, France, Netherlands urge tech giants to test start-up purchases

Armenia 1st President: There has never been such rough dialogue between Armenian and Azeri leaders as there is now

California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development opening office in Yerevan

US Department of State issues statement on detention of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces

Armenia 1st President says Aliyev is certain that Pashinyan won't win elections and is trying to get all that he can

UN calls for $ 95 million in aid to Palestinians

Twitter is concerned about safety of its employees in India

Artsakh hero: Impotent and perhaps also treacherous authorities of Armenia need to be removed from power immediately

France MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to show maximum restraint

Azerbaijani attacks Russia citizen of Armenian descent in Moscow

Armenia acting MOD provides President with information about capture of Armenian servicemen

Lithuania MFA urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to go to de-escalation of situation and pull out troops

Russian Deputy FM, EU Special Representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia acting FM resigns

Acting Deputy FM: Armenia reserves itself the right to take necessary steps to protect its territorial integrity

China speaks on dark history of US intelligence in connection with Biden's order

Netanyahu slams hypocritical and deceitful moralizing statements of French FM

Turkish authorities issues new arrest warrant for mafia after his scandalous revelations of Erdogan's entourage

EU-Armenia Subcommittee on Justice, Freedom and Security holds 11th Meeting

Armenia acting PM deletes statement on Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers "being intertwined" from Facebook post

6 Armenian soldiers captured: situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border is tense, May 27 digest

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff deputy chief explains difficulties with settlement of border with Azerbaijan

UN: Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during 11-day war with Hamas

Nikol Pashinyan presents plan for resolving border situation

Dollar gains value in Armenia

Opposition party leader: Armenia Security Council to convene session with heads of parliamentary factions this evening

His Holiness Karekin II receives newly appointed UK Ambassador to Armenia

Greece and Turkey FMs to meet in Athens

Armenia acting PM says he will present plan for peaceful solution to border situation very soon

Armenia Parliament Speaker sends letters to counterparts of partnering legislatures

Zarif: Iran welcomes willingness of leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to ease tension

Armenia acting Deputy MOD on news about soldiers being ordered to not open fire

ANCA calls on US Congress to block financing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces

Armenia to allocate lands in Syunik Province to Russian border guards

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff deputy chief: We can destroy all Azerbaijani soldiers who invaded territory

Armenian advocates file lawsuit against Nikol Pashinyan

Army general staff deputy chief: About 1,000 Azerbaijan soldiers are illegally in Armenia

Army general staff: Armed forces can capture Azerbaijani soldiers who marched into Armenia

Armenia legislature approves several amendments to laws

Armenian opposition MP: Villages mentioned by ruling bloc's deputy are Armenia's buffer zone

Armenia Gegharkunik Province villager to acting PM: Over 50% of our pastures are now under Azerbaijan control

Armenia Kotayk Province has new governor

Armenia parliament majority leader meets with US ambassador, discusses border situation

NEWS.AM BREAKING: 6 Armenian soldiers are captured by Azerbaijan military in early morning

European Council head says process of implementing sanctions against Belarus is launched

Armenia acting MOD leaves for Moscow

Armenia President, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces discuss current situation on border

Armenia acting PM to residents of borderline village: If we cede our border, Azerbaijanis will get more excited

Armenia MOD not confirming reports about Azerbaijan firing shots at Tavush Province

Ex-President Kocharyan meets with Yerevan residents, "Armenia" bloc members (PHOTOS)

Armenia petitions to European Court to ensure fundamental human rights of 6 soldiers captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia acting premier: We need to unite in this situation

Serj Tankian makes statement on Azerbaijans displayed horrific racism

Man detained in US for intending to commit attempt on Biden

Armenia defense ministry: Azerbaijan MOD continues disseminating disinformation

Erdogan to visit Baku and Shushi

Two Armenia legislature committees to hold closed joint meeting regarding tense situation on Azerbaijan border

Holy Etchmiadzin on capture of Armenia soldiers: Such behavior of Azerbaijan authorities is strongly condemnable

Gegharkunik Province village border area situation very tense, says Armenia enlarged community leader

Armenia opposition MP: Shots are heard Gegharkunik Province

Armenian National Congress party electoral list is announced

Armenia MFA: Azerbaijan leadership bears responsibility for consequences of actions by its armed forces

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in parliament demands convening Security Council special session

140 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Acting premier: Our servicemen were abducted from Armenia territory

Armenia MOD announces names of 6 Armenian servicemen captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

Armenia parliament majority leader to CSTO: Our international partners do not call it like it is

Armenia parliament manages to have quorum in 2nd attempt

World oil prices falling

Newspaper: Armenia acting PM Pashinyan popularity rating consistently drops over the past week

Newspaper: Russia peacekeepers commander does not return from Azerbaijan with encouraging news for Armenia

MOD: 6 Armenia soldiers are surrounded, captured by Azerbaijan military early morning

William Shakespeare, 1st man in world to get approved coronavirus vaccine, dies aged 81

Spain Congress of Deputies committee accepts pro-Armenian motion

Ex-PM comments on double-digit growth in Armenia economy

Facebook calls Russia, Iran leading purveyors of disinformation

Erdogan says meeting with Biden will mark 'start of new era' in relations with Washington

Armenia acting Deputy PM on creation of third high-voltage electric communication line with Iran

Vladimir Zaynetdinov: CSTO has taken note of application submitted by Armenia acting PM

Armenia's Pashinyan says addressing UN Security Council not ruled out

Armenia acting FM: International pressure on Azerbaijan is growing

Netanyahu tells Blinken that Israel is against reopening US consulate for Palestinians

23 political parties and 4 alliances apply to Armenia Central Electoral Commission ahead of snap parliamentary elections

Instagram launches ability to hide likes

Iran FM on solutions to problems in the region, territorial integrity

Bloomberg: Support for Erdogan's ruling party hits record low

Inter-agency commission sums up reports on implementation of roadmap for EU-Armenia CEPA

Armenian acting PM on CSTO and Russia and their duties as Armenia's allies

Slovakia allows use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Armenia acting PM on situation in Syunik Province: CSTO still hasn't clearly expressed its position

Armenia's Pashinyan: It's very rarely that Baku made provocations in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces on its own

Armenia acting PM: There will be no demarcation of borders until Azerbaijani troops are pulled out of territory

Record-setting number of political parties register to run in snap parliamentary elections in Armenia

Blinken describes Egypt as a "real and effective partner"

Armenia's Pashinyan slams opposition again

Yerevan court ends trial over Armenia 3rd President's nephew Hayk Sargsyan

Armenia President expresses condolences on passing away of Catholicos-Patriarch Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Mars has reported Covid-linked growth in pet food sales

Mars is to spend US$145m to expand its pet food facility in Fort Smith in the US state of Arkansas.

The company said the move will create more than 120 new jobs.

Mars, which owns pet food brands including Pedigree and Whiskas, said it is responding to increased demand for pet products seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US giant said its research had shown more than 11 million households in the US welcomed a new pet this past year, which has contributed to growth in the wet pet food category.

Expansion work at the facility will begin this month and is scheduled for completion next year. Mars will add more than 200,000 sq ft and two additional production lines, increasing production capacity by more than 40%.

Ikdeep Singh, regional president of Mars's pet care business in North America, said: "The investment in our Fort Smith manufacturing facility enables us to continue to serve the ever-growing needs of pets and pet parents and represents our commitment to our associates and this community."

The Fort Smith facility opened in 2009 and Mars said it has invested more than $420m in the site to date. It added further expansion is planned for the future.

Mars also revealed in "early 2021" it will be announcing new products in the wet food category, including Sheba Bistro cat food, a line of new "chef-inspired entrees" and new offerings from the Cesar brand.

There are 14 Mars pet care sites in the US.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Mars is planning to invest in pet-food manufacturing in China.
Wayne Gillard polishes up his 1981 DeLorean DMC 12, one of only six in Australia and up for auction at a novelty auction, seen in this 15 July 2004 file photo in Melbourne. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Virus Prompts Hike in Used Car Prices

The COVID-19 pandemic has been good news for Australias second-hand car market with prices jumping 35 percent last year.

Moodys Analytics says the increase was fuelled by limited supplies of new vehicles, fewer trade-ins and increased demand.

Australian used-vehicle prices experienced a year unlike any before, it said in its analysis released on Jan. 18.

This incredible jump in prices is made more improbable because it happened as the nation endured numerous lockdown orders, devastating job losses and the first recession in a generation.

The company said the pandemics impact on prices threw out relationships between traditional economic indicators, including unemployment.

It said fears about the virus also caused people to shun public transport while the number of vehicles available for sale was reduced with lease contracts on many vehicles pushed out as people drove less.

Sales of second-hand vehicles at auction fell about 20 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, largely because of a lack of stock.

Moodys said demand across the used-car sector was now thought to have peaked with prices likely to fall in the first half of 2021, with some people anticipating a return to public transport as the roll-out of a vaccine suggested an end to the pandemic was in sight.

But the company said exactly how the fall in prices would play out remained to be seen with the market never before experiencing such a sharp rise.

A lack of precedent is driving considerable uncertainty about how prices will wind downslow and steady or steep and sudden, it said.

Tim Dornin in Adelaide
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
The Daily Beast

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaA federal construction contractor that worked for several U.S. agencies bribed a State Department worker to commit corporate espionage and steer contracts worth more than $100 million to his company in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash, federal investigators allege in a newly-unsealed search warrant affidavit.Iranian-born May Salehi, who was assigned to the State Departments division of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), had a security clearance and a mountain of debt, according to the document. To get out of her financial hole, special agents working for the State Departments Inspector General believe Salehi, 65, illegally helped steer what might have amounted to more than $100 million in State business to a Washington, D.C.-based company as part of a multifaceted fraud scheme that spanned several years and at least half a dozen countries.Salehi began working for the State Department in 1996, according to her LinkedIn profile. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Salehi is still employed there. She does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and did not respond to a message seeking comment. No arrests have yet been made, according to the affidavit.The origins of the case can be traced back to 2014, when Montage, Inc. of Chevy Chase, Maryland, won a $26.1 million State contract to renovate the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria. But the project went two years over deadline, and nearly bankrupted the firm, the affidavit states. Thats when something strange happened: Instead of avoiding State Department projects following the Nigeria debacle, the affidavit says Montage transformed its business model so that it relied almost exclusively on State Department projects thereafterindeed, the exact type of overseas, complex, U.S. embassy/consulate project that Montage had just been nearly decimated by.Over the next three years, Montage mysteriously won six major contracts with the State Department to build U.S. embassies or consulates overseas. This seemingly counterintuitive development can be explained by the existence of a State Department insider who had an illegal relationship with Montage, according to the affidavit. From that point on, roughly 95 percent of Montages revenue came exclusively from State Department contracts$106.5 million of $111.4 million to datenearly double what it had taken in previously.Whos the Mole?In September 2020, State Department agents raided Montages offices on suspicion of, among other things, bank fraud, money laundering, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. There, they seized numerous documents, nearly 40 computers, several cell phones, and a 96-terabyte server.One office was the D.C. headquarters Montage lists publicly as its primary place of business. The second was what investigators describe in the warrant as the companys secret office suite in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The space was purchased through a shell company and had a sign by the door identifying it as the American Society for Addictive Medicine.There, agents encountered Montage founder and principal Sina Moayedi. In the affidavit, Special Agent Christopher Swenson states he told Moayedi that if he happened to have information about a Government insider, that it would be something we would be very interested to hear.Moayedis demeanor and expression changed immediately, as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with me, stating in substance, I think I understand what youre asking: You want to know if Im paying someone in the State Department? the agent recalled.Investigators suspected Moayedi had forged business licenses and credentials for Montage employees he said would be working on government projects. A resume he submitted to the State Department for a project manager on one job claimed the employee had years of full-time complex work in the construction field in various capacities. However, the affidavit states the person had actually sold meat as a door-to-door salesman, was a landscaper, and built swimming pools for several years during the same time period.Agents interviewed two unnamed Montage executives, who blamed the companys troubles on its former CFO, claiming he had embezzled money from the firm. But when they visited the ex-CFO at his home in Maryland, a different story emerged.During the interview, Swenson read the former CFO an email in which a Montage bookkeeper painted him as an alcoholic, and said he had mental health problems. The CFO had covered up his alleged theft by creating an entire phony universe of Quickbooks, payroll, receivables, payables and bank account statements, the bookkeeper claimed in the message, and said the CFO took payroll under assumed names.Upon learning that he was being set up as Montages fall guy, the former CFO turned on Moayedi, describing him as a master forger who electronically altered bank balances, forged resumes, and kept at least four sets of books that Moayedi not only used to dupe lenders but also to significantly reduce his own personal tax burden.Thats when the CFO dropped a bombshell. He told agents that Moayedi had cultivated a career employee at the State Department and paid this person bribes in exchange for intelligence regarding Government contracts, the affidavit states. The CFO didnt remember the State Department insiders name, but recalled that she was a female Iranian friend of Moayedis whom he met through a community group relating to Iranian heritage.The CFO told agents that he had met the insider at a pre-bid conference for a State Department project in Slovenia a few years back. She had also helped Moayedi and Montage win a State Department contract in the Caribbean in exchange for a $60,000 kickback, the CFO said. To hide the transaction, the CFO claimed Moayedi cut a check which the CFO cashed and provided to a middleman, who passed the cash to the corrupt State Department employee. To further obfuscate the truth, the insider was told to give the middleman a $2,000 Persian rug in exchange for the cash in case anyone asked about it.Follow the MoneyA search of State Department travel records identified the insider as May Salehi, an engineer in the State Departments OBO Project Development and Coordination Division. Passport records confirmed that Salehi, who lived less than a mile from Montages secret office, was in fact born in Iran.Salehis position requires a security clearance, so investigators analyzed her official paperwork for clues. One red flag involved Salehis 2007 divorce, which took place shortly after she secured a $1.5 million mortgage for a home in Great Falls, Virginia. The mortgage payments on the house ran approximately $10,000 a monthexceeding Salehis gross salary at the time of $9,333 a month. Another detail that raised agents suspicions was a Porsche Boxster convertible Salehi purchased in 2014, paying off $15,000 of a 60-month, $25,000 loan in a lump-sum the following year. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia A review of phone records found that Salehi had significant, sudden telephonic contacts with Moayedi in the precise period that Montages fortunes suddenly changed, the affidavit says. Financial records subpoenaed by investigators turned up numerous transactions, each worth tens of thousands of dollars, including one with a memo line that read, Final payment for Annas house.Investigators then dug into Salehis State Department email account. They found that Salehi likely knew of Montage and Moayedi (in her professional capacity) by 2006, as Montage was bidding State Department projects at that time in New Delhi, India and Abuja, Nigeria, the affidavit says, noting that agents found at least one official document in her email archive listing Sina Moayedi as Montages point of contact. She had also forwarded numerous internal State project documents from her work email to her personal email, all of which pertained to contracts Montage later won. Many of them were sent at odd intervals, furthering investigators suspicions.In particular, forwarding trip reports so long after the conclusion of the trip itself tends to negate any suggestion that Salehi was merely taking her work home with her, and therefore forwarded these emails for the purpose of finishing up State Department business from home, states the affidavit. On the other hand, transferring these documents from her State Department account to Salehi Personal Email Account-1 would have certain benefits for someone engaged in selling Government information. For example, such transfers would allow Salehi to print hard copies for later dissemination without any State Department oversight.A review of Salehis search history on her State Department computer revealed further evidence against her. According to the affidavit, Salehi searched for SCI clearance, herb for anxiety, Kratom herb for anxiety, Montage construction company litigations, what is litigation, YouTube videos about litigation, and Shiva Hamidinia, who was Montages longtime legal counsel. Investigators subpoenaed cell phone records from a Montage employee and found a text from Moayedi that said: Nela please conf call me 1/2 through your meeting with Shiva and May. Agents also discovered Salehis contact info within Moayedis cell phone contacts and his Telegram, Skype, and iCloud accounts.The feds now want to seize further documents they believe will bolster the governments case against Salehi.[A]mong the materials we are requesting permission to seize are Salehis tax-related documents and filings, which are likely to contain either (implicit) admissions of her having received bribe payments, or false statements in an attempt to conceal the bribery scheme, just as she appears to have done in her State Department financial disclosure forms, the affidavit says. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Investigators asked a judge to let them search Salehi herself, including any and all clothing and personal belongings, backpacks, briefcases, purses, bags, and electronic devices that are within Salehis immediate vicinity and control, wherever Salehi is located within the federal judicial district of the District of Columbia.According to court filings, agents executed two warrants at 6:12 a.m. on May 20 and seized Salehis Apple Watch, three iPhones, a Macbook Pro, a micro SD card, a Dell laptop, an iPad, and a letter-size manila folder with a gray folder inside.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Wall Street has slowly begun asking for more disclosure of political donations -- although not every big institutional investor votes consistently for more transparency.

Thats the conclusion of a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Political Accountability, which found that many Wall Street investment firms voted for shareholder proposals surrounding political donations during the 2020 proxy voting season, which ended in June 2020.

But Malvern-based Vanguard and BlackRock have not been among them, according to the centers December study.

Of 69 large investment firms polled, 30 voted for political spending disclosure resolutions every time, while eight failed to support a single resolution. Forty of the 69 investors increased voting support for transparency from 2019 to 2020, while eight decreased voting support.

Since 2018, 31 of these investment fund firms increased their support for the political disclosure resolution while just nine decreased their support.

The surge in support for disclosure reflects large investors recognition of the risks of political spending in todays hyper-polarized environment, particularly in an election year, said CPA president Bruce Freed.

Investors understand this should be the norm for companies, he added.

In light of last weeks insurrection on Capitol Hill, Corporate America and Wall Street firms including Vanguard and BlackRock paused political action committee donations to lawmakers. Blue chip companies have also severed ties with legislators who voted against President-elect Joe Bidens victory.

Still, some Wall Street firms have moved more slowly than others in supporting CPAs resolutions on political donations.

Despite nearly all other large investors moving towards increasing support for election-related transparency, BlackRock and Vanguard have stayed on the sidelines when their enormous voting power could curb risk for shareholders while strengthening democracy, Freed said.

In response, Vanguard spokeswoman Alyssa Thornton issued this statement: As an investment manager, Vanguard stewards the assets of 30 million clients with a wide range of personal beliefs. Vanguardand the Vanguard fundsdo not hold or espouse particular political points of view. Through engagement with company boards Vanguards Investment Stewardship team encourages thorough and effective oversight of any political spending and lobbying activity, with careful consideration for alignment with stated business strategy and the long-term risks any activities may present. Proxy voting proposals regarding political spending are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, prioritizing the long-term financial materiality to a funds investors.

As of the end of 2020, Vanguard said, it paused all political donations.

And last week, the $6 trillion asset manager reiterated that recent events in the U.S. political landscape have raised new questions about the potential risks associated with corporate political activity, and the Vanguard Funds will take that into consideration in our case-by-case analysis, in the same manner in which we integrate other market developments and new data, the Vanguard spokeswoman said in the statement.

BlackRock and Vanguard do not retain ISS, Glass Lewis or other outside proxy advisors.

We use a variety of resources to help inform our overall analysis. Importantly, we do not vote in lockstep with recommendations from proxy advisors, the Vanguard spokesperson said.

Smaller firms like Philadelphia-based Friends Fiduciary Corp. have long supported shareholder resolutions regarding transparency in corporate political contributions.

We urge laggards like Vanguard to reconsider their votes against oversight and disclosure, particularly because the reputational risks to companies have become even more clear with a number of politicians either directly or indirectly fomenting division resulting in the riots at the Capitol, said Kate Monahan, shareholder engagement manager at the Quaker-affiliated Friends Fiduciary.

Money & Politics

Lobbying and political spending resolutions typically call on public companies to enhance disclosures of political expenditures on elections and lobbying, including payments to lobbyists at the state and federal levels, payments to trade associations used for lobbying, and payments for grassroots activities aimed at influencing policymakers.

While companies are required to disclose direct federal lobbying expenditures, state disclosure policies vary widely and companies often use trade associations to influence public policy indirectly. Membership in and payments to these trade associations can be a significant contradiction between a companys behavior and its goals, according to Majority Action think tank.

BlackRock disputed the centers conclusions, claiming it has forward-looking goals for more transparency.

In the firms 2021 Stewardship Expectations, BlackRock said it will now seek confirmation from companies, through engagement or disclosure, that their corporate political activities are consistent with their public statements on material and strategic policy issues. Moreover, we expect companies to monitor the positions taken by trade associations of which they are active members on such issues for consistency on major policy positions and to provide an explanation where inconsistencies exist.

In the report, BlackRock said it asked for enhanced disclosure of political activities, including at Cintas and Origin, two public companies.

CPA worked with Proxy Insight to examine the 69 investors votes across the 2018-2020 proxy seasons.

The 69 investors identified were those in the Proxy Insight database that cast votes on at least five CPA model-resolutions in each of the last three proxy seasons and were among the 100 largest investors by global assets under management.

Other notable findings: In 2019, only 14 of the 69 investors supported 100% of shareholder resolutions; in 2020, that number rose to 30 investors.

Only eight investors failed to support a single political spending disclosure resolution in 2020 compared with 13 groups in 2019 and 12 in 2018.

A full copy of the study is on CPAs website: politicalaccountability.net/reports/cpa-reports.
Cebu Pacific, the Philippines largest national flag carrier, brings back its 25-kg free baggage allowance promo exclusively for travellers from Dubai to Manila, for new bookings beginning January 18 until June 30, as an early anniversary treat for everyone.

All travellers, including UAE-based overseas Filipino workers (OFW), flying from Dubai to Manila with pre-purchased baggage allowance of 40 kg will be receiving additional 25kg baggage allowance, free-of-charge. Passengers may purchase prepaid baggage allowance via the airlines booking portal during initial or manage booking up to two hours before departure, and the extra 25kg will automatically be added to the booking without any additional charges. If purchasing via an agent, the free 25kg still applies.

With this special promo, Filipino residents from the UAE who are planning to visit the Philippines will now be able to bring home more items and gifts for their loved ones without having to worry about paying extra fees.

As we turn 25, we want to especially thank the UAE market for their support throughout these years through this special baggage promo. Dubai continues to be one of our largest international markets, and we want its residents to be able to enjoy not only our trademark low fares, but even get the best experience with CEB through this promo, said Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing & Customer Experience.

Cebu Pacific has been operating in Dubai since October 2013, in line with its promise to fly wherever the Filipinos are. At present, Cebu flies from Dubai to Manila daily.

For guests with connecting flights to other domestic destinations via Cebu Pacific, the additional 25 kg will be carried over up to their next flight, given that their flight itineraries were booked under one reference number only.

The airline earlier announced extended flexible options for passengers traveling until March 31, 2021. These options include Unlimited Rebooking and a Travel Fund valid for two years. Everyone may conveniently manage their bookings online and choose their preferred option through the Cebu Pacific website. - TradeArabia News Service
The Grand Duchy is the first country in Europe to have banned the use of the controversial herbicide, but farmers will have to learn to do without it.

Since 1 January 2021, Luxembourg is the only EU country to have banned glyphosate. All plant protection products based on this controversial molecule are now banned in the Grand Duchy, in accordance with the coalition agreement dating from 2018.

This is a decisive step towards a sustainable approach that meets the ambitions of modern and environmentally friendly use of pesticides, stated the Minister for Agriculture Romain Schneider. Numerous scientific articles have highlighted harmful effects on the environment, particularly on certain insects and indirectly on the birds that feed on them, as well as on the health of people exposed to spraying, especially farmers and the rural population.

The ban has been well received by public opinion, but it raises many questions among agriculturers, who fear a disruption of competition with neighbouring countries.

Perplexed farmers

Josiane Willems, director of the 'Centrale paysanne luxembourgeoise', the country's main agricultural union, stresses the lack of alternatives to glyphosate. According to her, farmers will have to go back to mechanical weeding, which poses other problems.

There were some projects last year to come to an alternative, but they do not have the results yet. Even if it was not in favour of the ban, the union is not going to fight the decision.

In fact, more than 60% of the country's farms had already given up glyphosate on their own. At the end of 2019, the government introduced a compensation system for the 1,000 farms operating in the country. The basic funds are 30 euros per hectare for agricultural land and 50 euros per hectare for vineyards, amounts that the union would like to see continued in 2021.

This will obviously pose problems for farmers.

Valid and viable alternatives will have to be found, explains Josiane Willems. The union is going to ask for compensation for the additional costs of not using glyphosate, she adds. The withdrawal of glyphosate is indeed a challenge for the sector, and the remedy should not be worse than the disease, as glyphosate is used to prevent soil overturning, which is harmful to the climate.

Further ban on the rails



The CFL, who used glyphosate to weed the railway tracks, is also looking for solutions. Weeding is a safety imperative: vegetation could retain water and deform the rails. Alternatives such as treatment with hot water, high-voltage electricity or fire are being studied in neighbouring countries. But so far no really conclusive results have been obtained. In France, the SNCF spills between 35 and 38 tonnes of glyphosate a year, making it the biggest user in the country, with 0.4% of the total.

The railway group has been searching for alternatives to glyphosate since 2016, with the prospect of a ban on the product. The head of vegetation control at SNCF Reseau, Jean-Pierre Pujols, announced that an alternative to the herbicide had been planned. He adds that the SNCF will start using this new mixture in 2021, and generalise it in 2022.

It is a product composed of more than 95% pelargonic acid, a biocontrol product (using natural products) and a synthetic molecule from the sulphonylurea family.

But on the Luxembourgish side the choice has not been made yet. The CFL simply stated in a press release that, in accordance with the law, they will no longer use the pesticide.

Luxembourg as a pioneer for the EU?

In any case, Luxembourg hopes to produce a significant leverage effect throughout the European Union. The licence to use glyphosate in the EU runs until 15 December 2022 and its future is under debate in many countries.

France had also planned to ban glyphosate in 2020, but to no avail. President Emmanuel Macron admitted that he had failed to keep his promise. He states that he had not changed his mind about this objective, but has not managed to achieve it, as it is a collective failure. In November 2017, the head of state had announced his commitment to the ban on Twitter.

In January 2019 already, Emmanuel Macron had warned that France would not be able to do completely without glyphosate within three years. It simply would not be feasible and it would kill the agriculture.

Macron then added that the failure comes from a distortion in pace with other European countries. When fighting pesticides, it should be done on a European level, he believes. The battle cannot be won alone if others do not participate, he insisted.

In the meantime, Luxembourg is on its own.
In this file photo taken on April 2, 2016, a convoy of Sudanese security forces are deployed during a rally in al-Geneina, the capital of the West Darfur state. Ongoing clashes in Sudan's restive Darfur have killed at least 83 people. AFP



The death toll from tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan's West Darfur province climbed to at least 83, including women and children, a doctor's union and aid worker said, as sporadic violence continued Sunday.



The ruling sovereign council met Sunday and said security forces would be deployed to the area.



The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the people in the Krinding camp and other areas Saturday.



Among the dead was a U.S. citizen. Saeed Baraka, 36, from Atlanta, had arrived in Sudan less than two months ago to visit his family in Darfur, his wife, Safiya Mohammed, told The Associated Press over the phone.



The father of three children rushed to relieve a neighbor amid the clashes in the Jabal village in West Darfur, when he was shot in his head Saturday, his brother-in-law Juma Salih said.



Baraka's wife said the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum phoned her to offer condolences. The embassy did not return phone calls and emails from AP seeking comment.



The violence led to local authorities imposing a round-the-clock curfew on the entire province. Besides the 83 killed, at least 160 others were wounded, according to Sudan's doctors' committee in West Darfur. It said there were troops among the wounded.



It said clashes subsided by midday on Sunday and the security situation started to improve.



The committee is part of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded a popular uprising that eventually led to the military's ouster of longtime autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.



The clashes pose a challenge to efforts by Sudan's transitional government to end decades-long rebellions in areas like Darfur, where most people live in camps for the displaced and refugees.



Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy and is being ruled by a joint military-civilian government.



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ''is deeply concerned'' about the violence and ''calls on the Sudanese authorities to expend all efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring an end to the fighting,'' his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.



The bout of violence came two weeks after the U.N. Security Council ended the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force's mandate in the region. The UNAMID force, established in 2007, is expected to complete its withdrawal by June 30.



It also puts into question the transitional government's ability to stabilize the conflict-ravaged Darfur region.



Salah Saleh, a physician and former medical director at the main hospital in Genena, said clashes renewed Sunday morning at the Abu Zar camp for internally displaced people, south of the provincial capital.



He said most of the victims were shot dead, or suffered gunshot wounds.



Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur, said there were overnight attacks on Krinding. He shared footage showing properties burned to the ground, and wounded people on stretchers and in hospital beds.



Authorities in West Darfur imposed a curfew beginning Saturday that includes the closing of all markets and a ban on public gatherings. The central government in Khartoum also said Saturday a high-ranking delegation, chaired by the country's top prosecutor, was heading to the province to help re-establish order.



A database by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, showed that inter-communal violence across Darfur region doubled in the second half of 2020, with at least 28 incidents compared to 15 between July and December 2019.



West Darfur province experienced a ''significant increase'' of violence last year, with half of the 40 incidents reported in the entire Darfur region, OCHA said Sunday. (AP)


The FBI said it is investigating claims that a woman stole a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office with the possible goal of selling the device to Russias foreign intelligence service. The claim, which is still under investigation, was part of an affidavit that describes the criminal case against Riley June Williams, a woman from Pennsylvania who was seen in footage of the Capitol riot. A former romantic partner of Williams told investigators that the suspect stole a laptop from Pelosis office and intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russias foreign intelligence service, according to the affidavit. The former romantic partner went on to say that the transfer of the computer device to Russia fell through for unknown reasons and Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it.

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Video from the day of the Capitol insurrection shows Williams appearing to direct fellow rioters up a staircase. That staircase leads to Pelosis office. Its not clear if Williams did actually steal a laptop from Pelosis office. She isnt being officially accused of theft and is facing charges of entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct, like many of those who took part in the riot. The unnamed previous romantic partner claimed theres video showing her taking the computer or hard drive. And shortly after the riot, Drew Hammill, the speakers chief of staff, tweeted that a laptop that was only used for presentations was stolen from a conference room.

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A laptop from a conference room was stolen. It was a laptop that was only used for presentations. https://t.co/S7YGPnLaWy  Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 8, 2021

For now it doesnt seem like law enforcement has been able to detain Williams. It appears that Williams has fled, reads the affidavit. Williams mother told local law enforcement that her daughter packed a bag and left her home and said she would be gone for a couple of weeks. She appears to have changed her number and deleted her social media accounts.
Paris, January 18th, 2021 - Ipsos is pleased to announce the acquisition of Fistnet d.o.o, the Croatian-based company who engineered the digital audience measurement platform "Dotmetrics".

This acquisition seals a longstanding and fruitful collaboration between Ipsos and Fistnet in the Adria region, where Dotmetrics has seen great success in measuring and reporting digital audiences. With new enhancements, the platform has been deployed by Ipsos for Iris solution, becoming in 2021 the official source for Online Audience Measurement adopted by UKOM1.

Founded in 2012, Fistnet comprises Big Data audience measurement experts and software engineers. With the Dotmetrics platform, the company has been at the forefront of digital audience measurement, seamlessly tracking and reporting internet traffic to participating websites and apps with improved accuracy of device identification over other methods. Facing a range of forces making identification of devices increasingly complex, Fistnet has been able to stay ahead in a constantly changing environment.

Fistnet have also developed a powerful reporting engine and dashboard. Directly connected to multiple data sources, it allows clients fast and flexible analysis of the data.

Didier Truchot, Ipsos' CEO & Chairman commented: "At Ipsos we are proud to work with Fistnet's pool of talented and experienced site-centric technologists, software engineers and modelling experts. Together, we will accelerate the development of our advanced web and mobile measurement solutions".

Tomislav Fistric, CEO Fistnet, stated "We are happy to become part of the Ipsos family, which we already know and love. With Ipsos, we will create incremental value for clients by combining the experience and footprint of Ipsos with Dotmetrics' expertise"

Liz Landy, Audience Measurement Global Service Line Leader said: "The integration of Fistnet allows Ipsos to continually adapt to the changing demands of site-centric data collection, manipulation and reporting".

ABOUT ISPOS

Ipsos is the third largest market research company in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.

Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 business solutions are based on primary data coming from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques.

"Game Changers" - our tagline - summarizes our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our world of rapid change.

Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and

is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).

ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP www.ipsos.com









1 https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/ipsos-named-ukom-research-supplier-2021







Attachment
As more COVID-19 vaccination hubs roll out across Houston, a promising antibody treatment is helping patients recover more rapidly and steer clear of extensive hospital stays.

The treatment is a viable option for high-risk COVID-19 positive patients who have just begun experiencing mild to moderate symptoms, according to Houston Methodist doctor Howard Huang.

"If you do this earlier, it helps reduce the viral load," Huang told Chron. "What we're doing is helping people from becoming sicker. Were trying to use these therapies to prevent from hospitalization."

HOW TO GET VACCINE: Here's where you can get vaccinated in Texas

More than 1,100 patients have received the monoclonal therapy at Houston Methodist since Thanksgiving, resulting in significantly fewer hospitalizations for those who have received the treatment. Approximately 50-70 patients receive the antibody regimen per day at Houston Methodist.

"If there's one, the sooner you get the infusion, the better, within 10 days," Huang said.

The infusion procedure is relatively easy and quick, according to Huang, taking less than 3 hours at Houston Methodist. The infusion is a similar process to having an IV.

"Some people feel better very quickly, while others don't. Some do take longer to recover," Huang said.

The monoclonal antibody therapy was touted after President Trump boasted of a quick recovery from COVID-19 due to the treatment.

"Time is of the essence. If they're experiencing symptoms, they need to get it soon," Huang added.

Huang warned that if you're having respiratory distress or low oxygen, then it's time to head to the hospital.

"If you're having other symptoms like headaches, that's the time to look for infusions. Don't wait until you can't breathe."

The antibody therapy is covered by some insurances, Houston Methodist confirmed.
Richa Chadha is one of Bollywood's leading ladies who never shy away from speaking their mind. The actress is currently awaiting the release of her upcoming film, Subhash Kapoor's Madam Chief Minister. In a recent interaction, Richa opened up about her decision to work with the director who was accused of sexual misconduct by Geetika Tyagi in 2014.

Richa, who is a fierce advocate of #MeToo India, recalled her recent defamation suit against Payal Ghosh during an interview and shared that she still stands by the #MeToo movement as before. Speaking about working with Subhash Kapoor, the actress said that she doesn't believe in social media trials, and won't judge anybody till the court passes a judgement.

A Mid-day report quoted Richa as saying, "I came out of a court case [the defamation suit against Payal Ghosh] only a few months ago. I stand by the #MeToo movement. But at the same time, I don't believe in social media trials. Unlike other [accusations] that were brought to light on Twitter, this case is subjudice. We must respect the law of the land and the court's verdict. Till the court passes a verdict, I won't judge anybody."

In the same interview, the actress also spoke about the controversy around the poster of Madam Chief Minister. Richa who had earlier issued an apology about the poster row, said that the criticism was premature.

"I understand their hatred [towards the poster], but I think the criticism was premature; the filmmakers changed the poster the very next day, as soon as they realised there has been a mistake from their end. This is a learning experience for us. Sometimes, I feel people are harder on women and actors, and I will maintain it in this case because [the umbrage] was misdirected. I was surprised that I was attacked because actors don't control the making of poster," the tabloid quoted her as saying.

For the unversed, the controversial poster, in which Richa's character is shown holding a broom in her hand, received flak from netizens for apparently showing the Dalit community in a stereotypical way.

Speaking about Madam Chief Minister, the film tells an empowering story of a woman who battles casteism and sexism to carve her own place in the world of politics. The social drama is slated to release in theatrical screens on January 22, 2021.

ALSO READ: Richa Chadha On Receiving Flak For Madam Chief Minister Poster: Our Heart Is In The Right Place

ALSO READ: Richa Chadha Reveals Why She Refused To Chop Her Hair For Madam Chief Minister
The mayor of a borough in Bergen County says hes absolutely disgusted but not surprised by the sight of an apparent noose that was left hanging from a tree.

Local police and the countys prosecutors office are investigating after the rope was found dangling in front of a home in Fair Lawn, according to Mayor Kurt Peluso.

How do I feel about a noose hanging from a tree of a home in Fair Lawn? Absolutely disgusted, but not surprised, Peluso said in a statement.

The noose was found by a resident on Saturday night and Peluso posted a photo to his Facebook page on Sunday. To protect the privacy of the homeowners, the mayor did not disclose the location.

The mayor told NorthJersey.com that chatter on social media indicated the rope may have been left by a utility company. But he said he spoke with representatives from Verizon and PSE&G and they told him it wasnt them, according to the report.

Peluso said in the past year members of the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist organization, have marched in Fair Lawn and that people of color have been treated differently when they spoke at council meetings.

When I speak up against (occurrences) Im anti this and that, Peluso said in his statement.

I know these events do not represent the majority of Fair Lawn, Peluso said. There are some that want to see us fail, and go backwards instead of forward, they will not win. We will be better tomorrow than we are today.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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[January 18, 2021]

Canada Delivers Support for the Minerals and Metals Sector

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 18, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada's minerals and metals industry is primed to supply the critical elements for the global transition to a clean and digital economy, and the Government of Canada is ensuring it remains competitive.

Today, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., announced support for three projects to open more doors for Indigenous peoples to participate in exploration and mining activities and deploy the green mining technologies that are transforming the industry. The Minister made the announcement during his virtual participation at the 2021 Association Mineral Exploration (AME) Remote Roundup. The Minister's Parliamentary Secretary, Paul Lefebvre, also participated in the event.

The funding includes $50,000 to the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers, for two projects. The first project aims to raise awareness of Economic Development Officers working in Indigenous communities throughout the country to increase their knowledge of the mining sector and opportunities that generate community benefits. The second project will help build understanding of the mining cycle, from early exploration through production and mine closure and site reclamation, within Indigenous communities in Western Canada, to increase their capacity to participate in the sector.

A third investment of $50,000 to Mississauga-based Mining Suppliers Trade Association helped increase collaboration and spur new innovation partnerships to accelerate the deployment of clean technologies in mining.

During AME Roundup, Parliamentary Seretary Lefebvre also highlighted that the renewed $35-million Targeted Geoscience Initiative is now accepting proposals for two-year projects, with grants of up to $50,000 per year. The grants will fund research that enhances our understanding of the geological context around Canada's mineral deposits and improves mineral exploration effectiveness. The Targeted Geoscience Initiative, which provides geological knowledge for more effective targeting of buried mineral deposits, was renewed in 2020.







These investments underscore the government's commitment to support the mining sector under the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan, by advancing the participation of Indigenous peoples, enhancing geoscience knowledge and developing our geological resources in a responsible way.

Quotes

"Indigenous people and communities are leaders in Canada's clean-growth future. By working together with them, we're getting good projects off the ground, and great results."

Seamus O'Regan Jr.

Canada's Minister of Natural Resources

Related Information

Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan

Action Plan 2020: Introducing the pan-Canadian Initiatives March 2020

Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers

Mining Suppliers Trade Association

Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals Program

Targeted Geoscience Initiative

Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan)

SOURCE Natural Resources Canada
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Inside a meeting room at the American Legion Post 33 in Beaumont, the walls are filled with portraits of past commanders.

The black and white photos dating back to the first commander in 1919 show hair and clothing styles that have varied through the decades, but one unifying element ties the images together  they are all men, and they are all white.

That visual timeline is about to change.

In July 2020, the posts roughly 100 active members unanimously elected Belinda Richard, a Black woman, to the position of post commander.

The significance in timing  as the country elected its first woman to the office of vice president of the United States  isnt lost on Richard or fellow female veterans, such as Jonetta Andrepont, Richards co-founder of B.O.O.T.S. (Bringing Out Our Troop Sisters) Post 33, a female veteran support group.

Ladies, we have arrived at the American Legion, Andrepont said, reflecting on Richards election, and being the only woman post commander at the 2020 American Legion conference.

Its an enormous feat considering the history of this post, Richard said, looking over the wall of photos. All these men, all these men, and now me.

In a predominantly mens world, weve shown women can, and we did, she said. So here we are. Its an overwhelming feeling that we can do it.

Like many fellow female veterans, it isnt the first time Richard has had to prove herself in a male-dominated world.

While serving in the U.S. Navy from 2001 to 2007, Richard, now 39, worked as an electrician, a small boat operator and later a security officer.

None of her jobs were considered typical for a female military member by those outside the military and perhaps some inside.

Being a woman in the military, you have to look at the fact that its a male-dominated field, and as a woman, you have to work harder to prove you belong in that theater.

For so long, women have been pushed to the wayside because we have ovaries and a uterus, and thats not right. But thats also our superpower, Richard said.

We also have strength, dedication, passion and compassion. If you can birth a baby, you also have to incubate it, then nurture and care for it to adulthood and beyond. Its not that a man cant do those things, but it is expected of women.

But we can not only do that, we can go outside the home and make money, get an education, work and still come home and take care of the family, Richard said. Were a pretty big deal.

Were just as capable to do our jobs. Gone are the times of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. We are as capable and sometimes better. We may be smaller in body stature, but we have big brains  big brains and big compassion, Richard said.

Were doing things people dont expect us to do  like succeed.

Its something she acknowledges wasnt expected of her.

You dont expect a little girl from Opelousas, Louisiana, can become commander of a Post 33, and here we are  in the midst of all this history. This is the beginning of the new norm and what we can be, Richard said.

Andrepont can relate.

In her service with the Navy, she worked as an aircraft mechanic, overseeing a crew that serviced planes.

Transitioning to civilian life, especially as a military woman, has presented challenges.

Anytime a woman is in charge, as Andrepont has been in civilian life, and particularly with her military background, there are challenges.

Those challenges will likely extend to command leadership at the post, but Richard is ready to make the difference she aspires to in her newest leadership role.

I dont make decisions. Im here to make sure everything runs smoothly and to enforce policy, and Im the tie-breaker in votes among members, but its run by the members, Richard said.

Richard doesnt see her historic appointment as one driven by current sociopolitical climate.

I think it was more along the lines of Is she qualified? Does she want this? Can she do this? she said.

As a commander, a goal is to make sure we are equally represented across the board. We just need the opportunity and the resources. The goal is to have more women veterans in the post. We know that they are underrepresented in healthcare, politics and legally. We want to make sure they are afforded all the resources they need to exist and to be successful, Richard said.

Ive got a great committee, and all the members, both men and women, are amazing, she said.

There is added pressure, but I feel confident that I have the support and backing from my team, so it takes that pressure off, Richard said.

Richard knows she is not just breaking a barrier for future female veterans, but acting as a role model for young men and women  her 5 sons, aged 2 to 10, among them.

They know Mommy was in the Navy, and whenever they see a big ship at the port, they ask if I was on it. I tell them, I wasnt on that ship, but I was on one like it, Richard said.

They are too young to fully understand the meaning of her position now, but its history in the making for them, she said. As they get older and understand what this means, theyll get the significance. Im leading by example.

They will grow up seeing a woman in a position of strength as simply normal.

That wont be due solely to her role as post commander, but of that as a December 2020 graduate of Lamars masters program in counseling and psychology as she moves forward in her life path.

Theres no limit to what I can do, Richard said.

kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com
At least 13 Israelis have experienced facial paralysis after being administered the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, a month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported similar issues but said they werent linked to the jab.

Israel has been hailed for its speedy and efficient mass inoculation program, which has vaccinated a staggering 20% of the countrys population since the drive began at the end of December.

For a handful of Israelis, however, the initiative has led to some unexpected health scares. At least 13 people have reported mild facial paralysis after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, Israeli outlet Ynet reported, citing the Health Ministry, adding that officials believe the number of such cases could be higher.

"For at least 28 hours I walked around with it [facial paralysis]," one person who had the side effect told Ynet, adding, "I can't say it was completely gone afterwards, but other than that I had no other pains, except a minor pain where the injection was, but there was nothing beyond that."

The unnamed individual noted, though, that the unpleasant reaction was something rare and stressed that it was important people get vaccinated. However, he conceded that he was undecided about receiving a second dose of the vaccine.

Israels Health Ministry has said it is safe to administer the second shot, provided the facial paralysis passes and there are no lingering, long-term effects from the first jab. But some Israeli medical experts have chosen to ignore this advisory.
BUTLER COUNTY  Deep underground, beneath the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, sit racks of computer equipment that store a treasure trove of information from government records to corporate documents to master recordings of legendary artists.

Resting in a former limestone mine, its one of the nations most secure data centers and storage facilities. Few people inside Pennsylvania and outside it know this place exists. Thats the way the owner, Iron Mountain, likes it.

The reason people use this place is because we dont talk about this place, said Chris Miller, Iron Mountains infrastructure manager.

Its location isnt widely advertised. A visit to the mine revealed the business doesnt even marks its identity on a sign along the heavily treed rural road that runs past it. In fact, the only hint its even there is a nearby yellow road sign that states, plant entrance.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the facility, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a federal student loan servicer and state grant administrator, discovered it and found it to be an ideal location to house its data center.

So it is there, tucked deep inside a 1,200-acre mine where sensitive information is kept about millions of student loan borrowers and state grant recipients that PHEAA serves.

The Underground

Miners created the cave by exploding 3,000 sticks of dynamite nightly over the course of five decades.They abandoned it in the 1950s when surfacing mining became a cheaper alternative to unearth the limestone.

Soon after, the mine was converted into a storage facility, storing paper records. In more recent years, it became a place to house data centers, including many of those belonging to government agencies and private companies.

The mine is like a small underground city. It has its own fire brigade with trained firefighters, security, streets, a speed limit (10 mph), traffic signs, street names, pedestrian walkways and addresses assigned to its thousands of tenants that occupy its 16-foot-high corridors.

William Ford, Iron Mountains operations manager, thinks of it more like a shopping center that rents out space to stores.

Were that owner that sells power and cooling and square footage to a customer and then we build to suit their needs with custom security, he said.

Some of its tenants have very unique needs, he said. Some demand high levels of security and privacy for their equipment; others not as much.

Were able to accommodate whatever a customer needs or wants to [meet] their compliance requirements, Ford said.

Iron Mountain can turn a rugged area of the mine left in the state the miners left it into a functioning data center complete with flooring, ceiling, power and a cooling system within 20 months' time. He said that timeline can be shortened to as little as eight months in those areas where Iron Mountain has done some pre-construction work.

Suitable for data storage

What makes this maze of underground tunnels ideally suited to house sensitive data center equipment and records is the slate that rests above its limestone walls. It works as a roof to keep water out, keeping it nice and dry inside.

Whats more, the mine sits in an area where the risk of earthquakes and tornados is low.

Because data centers depend on redundancy to ensure the technology keeps running and no servers go offline, Iron Mountain has power sources on top of power sources to provide tenants that assurance. For cooling, it relies on water from 35 acres of flooded mine to keep the temperature of the electronic components inside the data centers at optimal levels.

The deeper you go into the mine, the cooler it gets. The area of the mine where PHEAAs data center is located has temperatures in the mid-50s; other areas are kept much colder, subzero in fact. That is where film, microfilm and microfiche are stored.

Ozzy Osbourne once said finding out his album was stored inside Iron Mountain was kind of creepy but good.

They stay preserved much better in cold temperatures and avoid the vinegar effect, a chemical reaction that causes the film to get brittle, shrink and take on a pungent vinegar-like smell, Miller said.

The mine also has a studio capable of digitizing libraries of master film and sound recordings of movies and music stored there. He said making copies in the same facility where they are stored avoids the risks of having the originals getting lost or damaged in shipping.

Plus, having those masters housed there created a memorable moment Miller found worthy of sharing. He said it once brought rock star Ozzy Osbourne and his son Jack to the mine to film a part of an episode for their World Detour series. The episode showed Osbournes reaction listening to the master of Crazy Train that he said was recorded in 1980 in the back of truck.

He said finding out his album was stored there inside of the mine was kind of creepy but good.

Working in the mine

Some of the limestone walls throughout the developed sections of the mine are painted in brilliant glossy colors, but most of them are shiny white to help brighten areas where lights are mounted above.

Electric vehicles are used to travel throughout the expansive mine. Some gas-powered ones are permitted too, but the number of those is limited to help with air quality that is kept fresh with about a half million cubic feet of air pumped into the facility every minute.

On a typical day, some 2,000 people enter the mine daily to work. That number, though, has declined significantly since the pandemic began and many started working remotely, Ford said.

Most tenants, including PHEAA, rarely have any employees setting foot inside their space. Instead they rely on Iron Mountain employees to address issues that arise requiring human intervention.

A lot of the employees will take their lunch and go out and walk in the parking lot if its a nice day. They just want to see daylight. William Ford, Iron Mountains operations manager

Iron Mountain, which has its corporate office inside the mine, has 300 employees on site daily. They work in split shifts around the clock, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and states rules on essential business operation, to service customer needs and monitor the power and cooling systems to ensure uninterrupted service.

While underground, workers have access to restrooms and eating areas. They can keep tabs on the weather outside through a weather cam and weather reports on the power and temperature monitoring screens located throughout the mine.

But working underground can leaves some yearning for fresh air.

A lot of the employees will take their lunch and go out and walk in the parking lot if its a nice day, Ford said. They just want to see daylight.

Location, location

Finding a new home and moving the technology that stores more than 12 million student loan account holders' information is not a pick-up-and-go process.

It was years in the making.

PHEAAs data center had been housed in the same location in a building next to its Harrisburg headquarters since 1986.

At that time, the facility probably was considered state of the art, said Michael Hendler, its vice president of infrastructure and operations.

But obviously technology changes very quickly and it really became pretty aged, he said. So we clearly needed to move.

Once the decision was made to move, Hendler said the agency considered building its own data center but that proved to be far too costly. So they looked into migrating to leased space in a facility that is a pre-built data center space that houses multiple customers.

Once the decision was made to go the leasing route, they had to find a place that the high level of security that the federal government requires of its student loan servicers.

Leasing space inside Iron Mountain costs PHEAA $653,000 annually, a $194,000 savings from its former location.

It considered above-ground more traditional facilities located outside Pennsylvania but they were more costly and didnt have as high a security profile as Iron Mountain, Hendler said.

So finding a facility that met its needs inside the state drove us here, he said.

PHEAA entered into a three-year contract with Iron Mountain that expires in July 2022. Leasing space in the mine costs the agency $653,000 annually. For comparison, agency spokesman Keith New said PHEAA had been spending $847,000 a year to cover its building lease, utilities and security at its former data center location, resulting in a $194,000 savings.

The contract with Iron Mountain allows PHEAA to reduce its data centers footprint inside the mine if equipment becomes outdated and can be removed, which Hendler pointed out would increase the savings even more.

Making the move

Nine trips, the help of 83 people, and a rented mainframe to store data while equipment taken off-line is what it took to move PHEAAs data center to the mine located nearly four hours away.

But before the first piece of equipment was placed there, Hendler had worked with Iron Mountain to map out precisely where each component would be placed. That way they could be sure power and cooling sources would be available exactly where it was needed inside the locked caged walls that surround its data center.

It took a years worth of planning to prepare for the move, custom design the space to meet the agencys needs, and keep the computer outage to a minimum to avoid inconveniencing account holders any longer than necessary.

When we first started this project, it looked like the outage was going to be somewhere around a week and obviously, that was not an acceptable answer, Hendler said. Through a lot of careful planning, we got it down to a weekend.

That meant shutting down the equipment on Friday. Unplugging and removing miles of cabling attached to 1,500 virtual servers, an IBM mainframe and all of the agencys production systems that house the voluminous amounts of the student data the agency stores.

Then there was the task of loading it all on trucks, carting it across the state, unloading it at Iron Mountain and plugging everything back in  between a Friday and a Monday.

Making it even trickier is each component had to be powered back up in a specific order, Hendler said. After that, the components went through an eight-hour validation cycle to make sure everything worked properly.

Timing is everything

As if this orchestrating the complicated move and having a narrow window of time to do it wasnt challenging enough, it was when it happened that made it even trickier - the weekend of March 13.

Hendler said despite all the months of planning, the only hiccup he had anticipated was the potential for a springtime snowstorm that could leave the truckloads of PHEAAs equipment stranded on the highway.

Fortunately, the weather wasnt an issue. The pandemic was.

It was around that time that the coronavirus was making national news and one week after the first presumed cases of the coronavirus had been reported in Pennsylvania.

It was building that weekend we moved, Hendler said. We actually separated into multiple rooms more than we had planned for and did the social distancing thing. We swabbed the tables with Purell and had people coming through sanitizing regularly at headquarters.

In hindsight, Hendler said hes glad they made the move the weekend of March 13 because it was only days later when Gov. Tom Wolf brought the state to a standstill with his stay-at-home and business closure orders.

Had this migration gone another few weeks, it would have been difficult, Hendler said. So it was good timing.

Keeping watch

Overhead cameras strategically aimed over PHEAAs data center inside the mine allow security officers back at the agencys headquarters in Harrisburg to monitor all activity around its equipment.

But that security component is on top of the near-Fort Knox-level security Iron Mountain itself provides. Hendler said the level of security surrounding its data center at the mine far and away exceeds what the U.S. Department of Education requires of its federal student loan servicers.

Not just anybody can walk into the mine. All visits must be prearranged at least 48 hours in advance. Only people 18 or older are allowed to enter the mine. Visitors must produce an ID that is kept at the security desk to gain entry. Armed guards stationed around the clock man the mines entrance. Anyone who enters must pass through an airport-style security checkpoint. Additionally, a temperature reader was added due to concerns about COVID-19.

Once inside the mine, multiple checkpoints are located along its corridors requiring a badge swipe and punching in a PIN. That restricts access to only those with business in a particular area. Some doors also control access by requiring a biometric screening, such as a fingerprint scan, or have a two-factor security setup that requires two people to enter their data at the same time to gain entry.

Standing in the part of the mine near PHEAAs data center, Miller said, By the time you get to here, youve been through three factor or three challenges of your badge. Any customer who doesnt have anything in this area doesnt get access.

All that should provide assurance to student loan borrowers and grant recipients that the personal information PHEAA has on file is safe and secure and as New, PHEAAs spokesman, noted just happens to sit uniquely under 225 feet of Pennsylvania limestone.
On Monday, in an unprecedented and extraordinary action, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday unleashed an attack on Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief as part of his continued denial of the Pakistan hand in the Pulwama terror attack and the terrorist casualties in Pakistan's JeM training camp at Balakot when the IAF launched precision air-strikes in retaliation. This comes a day after the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan met and colluded to put out a statement against Arnab Goswami and against Republic TV.

In a befitting and strong response to Imran Khan's false claims, Arnab Goswami has said that there was nothing false-flag about Balakot, as Imran Khan himself has admitted it. He has expressed his shock on the calibration between Congress and anti-Republic media with Pakistan's narrative.

Arnab Goswami's statement

Arnab Goswami said, "It is interesting to see the Pakistani govt conspiracy against Republic come out in open now. Imran Khan - the ISI appointed puppet of a terrorist state - has been releasing statements against Republic Media Network and me and has also made Pakistani Foreign Ministry do the same.

Let's be clear about some facts here. Indias intention to hit back at Pakistan after the Pulwama attack was an officially stated position of Government of India. There was no doubt in any nationalist Indian's mind that we would hit back. Which is exactly what we did and we are proud of it. Imran Khan on the contrary tried to deny Balakot but later had to acknowledge it. There was nothing false-flag about Balakot, it was a direct, legitimate and necessary response to Pakistani terrorism in Pulwama.

What shocks me today, however, is the open calibration between Vadra Congress & anti-Republic media to help govt of Pakistan and assist Pak and ISI. Every Indian wanted revenge for Pulwama, so for some in Indian media to question why Republic expected the same is shameless opportunism. People of India should never forget this shameless opportunism. It only hurts national interest. And when anti-Republic channels become force multipliers for the ISI & Imran Khan, we appeal to the anti-Republic channels to not officially joined hands with the ISI. Republic has and will single-handedly destroy the Pakistan government narrative.

Imran Khan is on the edge, because he cannot handle the truth. He's looking shaky, and expects his apologists in India to come to his rescue. I am horrified that anti-Republic channel have joined hands with ISI, people of India will never forgive them. What has become obvious now is a Pakistan hand in the conspiracy against Republic. Republic is the inconvenient hurdle in their (Pakistan's) designs against India. If the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan have come out in support of the malicious police action against Republic, then everything is said and nothing much is left to be said.

People of India understand this. There's now overwhelming public support that we are receiving. Every minute there are messages & calls in our newsrooms. People of India are supporting us against Pakistan. To all those contacting us with messages of support, a big hug & thank you. We will fight this together."

Earlier, in a statement, Republic Media Network rejected the allegations of the Government of Pakistan against Arnab Goswami. The statement asserted that Arnab Goswami has over a decade and a half, as Indias leading Television journalist exposed, every sinister design, and evil intention of the Government of Pakistan and the ISI. The statement said, "Arnab Goswami personally, and the Republic Media network was the first to expose Pakistan, after the Pulwama attack. Mr. Goswami and the Republic Media Network through investigative reports, sting operations, hard-hitting, and factual exposes brought before the entire world the reality of Pakistans sponsorship, support, and patronage to terrorist groups. The Republic Media Network had also produced proof of the Balakot strike on 6 March 2019 which had deeply embarrassed the Pakistan state machinery and its intelligence apparatus. The statement of the Government of Pakistan against Indias leading news network -- the Republic Media Network is proof of the deep-conspiracy of anti-India and anti-national forces against Republic Media Network and its Editor-in-Chief Mr. Arnab Goswami."
Canada's ambassador to the United States said on Sunday that while the two countries have shared vision on many issues, President-elect Joe Biden's economic policy is slightly more protectionist than what Canada would like.

While Ottawa has been quick to embrace of Biden in an effort to turn the page on the Donald Trump era, the incoming US administration's "Buy America" policy is worrying to Canada.

"I do think that he's been pretty clear around some of the aspects of his economic policy that is a little more protectionist than we would want to see," Ambassador Kirsten Hillman told Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Biden's economic program promises a $400 billion investment in US-made goods and says "when we spend taxpayer money, we should buy American products".

This could harm Canada because its economy is highly dependent on United States, which takes 75 per cent of all Canadian goods exports.

Other than that, the two countries have a common agenda on many other policies, Hillman said.

"We are both focusing on, first and foremost, combating Covid, ensuring the safety and health of our citizens, respecting science...There's a lot of alignment on climate policy...So, I mean, the list is long of policy coordination," she added.

Mired in a long-running diplomatic dispute with China and weighing a possible snap election this year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has much riding on his ties with Biden.

Hillman said Trudeau and Biden have a very warm and good relationship. "So that is definitely going to be an asset."




London, January 18, 2021

CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI) brand Iveco Defence Vehicles has been awarded a frame contract by the German Army for the supply of up to 1,048 military Trakker trucks, to be delivered from 2021 to 2028.

The project will start with an initial fixed batch of 224 8x8 militarized vehicles from the Trakker range, supplied in five different configurations, and prepared for 20" ISO container transport. Vehicle configurations include those equipped with hydraulic cranes and winch systems. This frame contract represents another significant milestone in the German Army's GTF-family of vehicles.

All vehicles comply with EURO 6 emissions standards (compatible with single fuel operation) and will be supplied with a protected cab, which offers among best-in-class levels of ballistic, mine, NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) and IED (improvised explosive device) protection. These cabs also provide users with a high level of crew comfort and are designed to accommodate a variety of modern military communication and command systems.

Iveco Defence Vehicles has already delivered some 2,000 vehicles from its wide product range to the German Army, including a variety of protected customized versions, which have already been extensively fielded in operational theatres.

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A journalist, persecuted on fabricated charges, was arrested on 17 January as he fled Iran to escape a jail sentence, and now fears being handed over to the Iranian authorities. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) urges the Turkish authorities not to extradite him and provide him with urgent protection.

A court in Teheran sentenced Mohammad Mosaed on 25 August to four years and nine months in prison and banned him from any journalistic activity for two years, ordering the confiscation of his communication devices for allegedly "colluding against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the system."

Mosaed works as a freelance economic journalist reporting on corruption, among other issues. He has written for newspapers Shargh and Hamshahri and the weekly magazine Chelcheragh.

He was first arrested in November 2019 in relation to posts he published criticizing the Internet shutdown in Iran at the time.

On 22 February, agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) summoned Mosaed, questioning him on his social media activity. He was forced to delete his Telegram channel and deactivate his Twitter account.

Mosaed has also published posts criticizing the Iranian government for its handling of the Coronavirus outbreak and denouncing the nomination of hardliner candidates for parliamentary elections.

He was arrested by the Turkish police in Van on 17 January after fleeing Iran when he was summoned by the authorities to begin serving his jail sentence. The arrest took place while he was suffering ill-health due to due to freezing weather, and had been taken to a hospital.

The IFJ said: "The process of deporting Mosaed to Iran has started and could happen any time now. He faces a great risk of arrest and torture in Iran if deported and we are truly concerned about his fate if it happens. Our colleague was just doing his job. We find the accusations against him completely unfounded and urge the Turkish authorities to keep him safe and refuse his extradition. The IFJ once more calls on Iranian authorities to stop their persecution of journalists immediately and drop all charges against Mosaed".




The Capitol Hill, the complex comprising of and its buildings, was briefly put under lockdown on Monday due to "an external security treat", local police said after a fire was reported a few blocks away.

"All buildings within the Capitol Complex: External security threat, no entry or exit is permitted, stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seek cover," Police said in a message, sending a security scare.

The lockdown was later lifted.

The American capital has been put under heightened security with the deployment of nearly 25,000 National Guards to prevent repeat of January 6 incident when thousands of supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Hill disrupting the constitutional process of certification of electoral college votes by a joint session of the

Five people died in the violence that followed. Lawmakers were forced to take shelter at safe places.

In days after that an unprecedented level of security has been placed in entire Washington DC. The FBI and other intelligence agencies have received reports of armed violence in the city.

The entire city has now been converted into a garrison city with thousands of armed national guards being placed in the nook and corners of the city and eight feet high iron barricade around key places including Capitol Hill and the White House.

Police said that the message of lockdown was due to an "external security threat located under the bridge on I-295 at First and F Streets SE." The lockdown was later lifted.

Local media reports said that there was a fire a few blocks away from the Capitol Hill resulting in the security message.

Personnel participating in rehearsal of the inauguration were evacuated as abundance of caution. President-elect Joe Biden is slated to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20.
Teresa Giudice rang in the new year with her new boyfriend. The RHONJ star is said to be head over heels in love with Luis Ruelas. She made their love Instagram official just before Christmas and sources now claim Giudice and Ruelas are thinking about moving in together.

Teresa Giudice | Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank

Teresa Giudice debuts her new boyfriend on Instagram

Giudice has been happily publicizing her relationship with Ruelas as of late. Hes her first serious relationship since divorcing her husband of 20-years, Joe. Giudice and Ruelas got cozy during the holidays, spending Christmas 2020 together, along with Giudices four daughters.

Things between the two must be serious enough for Giudice to introduce Ruelas to her girls. A source previously told Page Six that the couple initially were planning to take things slow and did not know if theyd spend Christmas together.

Source: YouTube

Related: Has There Been Infidelity in Joe and Teresa Giudices Marriage?

Giudice shared a photo of Ruelas kissing her on her cheek in the kitchen of her New Jersey mansion. Just three days before Christmas, she posted a solo picture of her and Ruelas with the caption, The BEST thing that came out of 2020, along with two heart emojis. She also shared a picture of the two in front of her Christmas tree dressed in black tie.

It turns out her family are fans of Ruelas. Giudices sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, shared a couples photo with her and her husband beside Ruelas and Giudice. She captioned the picture, We havent been able to post a couples pic in a while. Merry Christmas, she wrote with a kissy face emoji.

Teresa Giudice and her boyfriend are reportedly considering moving in together

Christmas must have been merry as OK! Magazine reports Giudice and Ruelas are considering moving in together, despite the couple slow-walking things in the beginning.

As for why theres a change of heart for Giudice, the source says Giudice is already smitten for Ruelas and has the support of her loved ones.

The whole family loves him, an insider told the publication. Even her kids enjoy having him around, not just because hes a great guy but because they can see how happy he makes their mom.

Source: YouTube

Related: RHONJ: Two of Its Stars Reveal Their Recent Plastic Surgery Procedures

Ruelas has two sons of his own. Us Weekly reports Ruelas runs a digital media company that focuses on giving back to several charities in his community. One of his sons has autism, sparking Ruelas to donate to a variety of causes dedicated to autism research.

Luis is everything shes looking for  hes financially stable, hes sweet and generous and romantic, and with two kids of his own, he gets along great with her four girls, a source tells OK!.

Teresa Giudices ex-husband has also moved on

Joe Giudice is currently living in Italy following his deportation due to his federal bankruptcy charges. He revealed to Wendy Williams during an appearance on her talk show that hes casually dating a lawyer.

According to Radar Online, Joes girlfriends name is Daniela Fittipaldi. A source told the publication, They have been together since the summer. Theyre doing great. She was with Joes family for Thanksgiving dinner.

Joe and Teresa arent bitter about their split or wither of them dating new people. They remain friendly and publicly support each other, even sharing loving messages to one another on Instagram.
As part of pre-Budget deliberations, Finance Minister on Monday held a meeting with state finance ministers who suggested steps to revive growth and boost revenue collection against the backdrop of COVID-19 crisis.

The Finance Ministry in a statement said the meeting was held through video conference and was attended by chief ministers, deputy chief ministers, finance ministers, ministers and senior officers from the states and Union Territories and the Union Government.

Sitharaman highlighted the importance of this meeting as a sign of cooperative federalism and indicated the manner in which the Union Government was strongly supportive of States/Union Territories (with Legislature) fight against the pandemic.

Most participants thanked the Union Finance Minister for financially supporting their States/Union Territories during the worst months of pandemic, by enhancing borrowing limits and providing back to back loans to States, the statement said.

The participants also gave numerous suggestions to the Union Finance Minister for inclusion in the Budget Speech, it said.

According to sources, state ministers expressed their suggestions on growth, investment, resource requirement and fiscal policy.

"Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman holds Pre-Budget meeting for upcoming Budget 2021-22 with Finance Ministers of all States and Union Territories (with legislature) through video conferencing in New Delhi today," the Finance Ministry said in a tweet after the meeting.

Along with the Finance Minister, Finance Secretary A B Pandey, Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj, Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian and senior officers were also present.

Last month, the Finance Minister chaired a series of pre-budget meetings for Budget 2021-22, from December 14-23. A host of suggestions concerning fiscal policy, taxation and green growth among others were received from various stakeholders during the customary pre-budget meetings convened by the Finance Ministry through video conferencing.

More than 170 invitees representing nine stakeholder groups participated in 15 virtual meetings chaired by the Finance Minister. The meeting with state finance ministers is 16th meeting.

This is the first time in the history of Budget-making exercise that such consultation meetings were held in virtual mode due to the COVID-19 crisis.

(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.)
Some of the cash seized by gardai in Coolock on Saturday

Gardai have seized more than 1m in cash during searches of two premises in Dublin yesterday.

The money was discovered by officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), assisted by the Garda Dog Unit, in an operation targeting suspected criminal activities of an organised crime group.

A garda spokesman said the two premises - in North Dublin and Dublin city centre - were searched in the course of the operation and a number of vehicles were seized.

"In the course of a search of one vehicle, a concealment of cash was discovered. The vehicle and its content remain subject of examination," the spokesman said.

"However, the amount seized is believed to exceed 1m. Investigations are continuing."

Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll, head of Organised and Serious Crime (OSC), said: "We continue to target those causing most harm in our community.

"This seizure of a significant quantity of cash will, we believe, contribute to the disruption and potential ultimate dismantling of particular organised crime groups that we continue to target, building on earlier success achieved, in recent years".

An operation was also carried out in the Coolock area yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation targeting a Dublin-based drugs gang.

Recovered

Gardai attached to the GNDOCB searched a house and car in the area on Saturday which led to 117,000 in cash and a Rolex being recovered.

A 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of money-laundering offences and is currently being held at Coolock garda station.

It is understood the man is a licensed taxi driver who may have been used to hold the cash for an organised crime group. "This individual is suspected of being used as a 'gilly' to hold the cash and at this stage there is nothing to suggest that he was involved at any higher level," one source said.

Mr O'Driscoll said the seizure is the latest success against the crime gangs.

"We continue to target those causing most harm in our community," he said.

"This seizure of a significant quantity of cash will, we believe, contribute to the disruption and potential ultimate dismantling of particular organised crime groups that we continue to target, building on earlier success achieved, in recent years."
Courtesy Mitayah DonerlsonBy KATIE KINDELAN, ABC News

(NEW YORK) -- Kasen Donerlson is being called a "miracle baby" after surviving both COVID-19 and a liver transplant, all before his first birthday.



"It's been very, very stressful," Kasen's mom, Mitayah Donerlson, told ABC News' Good Morning America. "But his recovery right now is going so sweet and so smooth that I cant ask for anything more."



Kasen of Syracuse, New York, was born on Jan. 14, 2020, weighing a healthy 8 pounds, according to Donerlson. He spent a few days in the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) due to breathing issues and jaundice that Donerlson said doctors told her would improve as he got older.



When Kasen's health did not improve, Donerlson said she sought further evaluations for her son. Around two months after his birth, the infant was diagnosed with a severe case of biliary atresia, a condition in which bile ducts in and around the liver are scarred and blocked, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).



Just a few days after his diagnosis, Kasen underwent an emergency surgery to repair his bile ducts. But the surgery proved unsuccessful, according to Donerlson, who soon learned that her son would need a liver transplant.



"We had endless hospital visits and we would be there for five or seven or 10 days because of the severity of the disease and the complications that Kasen was having," said Donerlson, adding that Kasen had to be placed on a feeding tube. "He would have fevers that wouldnt come down."



Donerlson, who also cares for her 4-year-old son and 5-year-old niece, was able to get Kasen onto the transplant waiting list at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, about a five-hour drive from the family's Syracuse home.



In November, as Kasen was waiting for a liver to become available, Donerlson said she, her significant other, her niece and Kasen all tested positive for COVID-19.



"On Nov. 21 he woke up that morning and was extremely hot. His body was like touching a stove," said Donerlson. "I just cried because I knew the hospital was going to admit us, but I didnt know they were going to tell us that he was COVID-positive."



Kasen spent around three days in the hospital but his only complication was a fever, according to Donerlson, who, along with her family members, did not suffer any complications from COVID-19.



Just two weeks later, in early December, Donerlson got the call she had been waiting months for -- that a liver was available for Kasen.



"All I could do was cry. They were mommy tears and tears of joy. I was just so happy," said Donerlson. "I always knew he was going to get a transplant -- that was my faith -- but to finally get that call and get that message that the surgery was scheduled and to have that relief from the burden on my shoulders dropped, it felt so good."



She added: "Im smiling from ear to ear right now because I can literally see that moment and feel that moment again."



When Kasen underwent the transplant in early January, he weighed only about 10 pounds more than his birth weight, according to Dr. George Mazariegos, chief of Pediatric Transplantation at UPMC Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh.



"He was more the weight of a 3-month-old and that is all because of the severity of his condition," said Mazariegos, who added that Kasen received part of a liver from a young adult who died. "We were able to use the left portion of the liver which was the perfect size for a baby of Kasens size."



Donerlson said she noticed an immediate difference in Kasen after the nearly 10-hour transplant procedure.



"His eyes have always been greenish and yellowish, his entire life, and he woke up from surgery with clear eyes," she said. "I was overjoyed by seeing that."



After spending much of his first life sick and hospitalized, Kasen is expected to have a long, normal and healthy life with his new liver, according to Maraziegos.



He celebrated his first birthday in the hospital on Jan. 14 and is already gaining weight. He was described by Donerlson as more alert and "perkier" post-transplant.

"What Im looking forward to is Kasen walking and talking," said Donerlson. "Im so excited for him to get those skills and for my family to bond back together as we were before all the ups and downs and the hospital visits."



She said she is also grateful to the donor whose liver Kasen received, and to all people who volunteer to donate their organs, both living and deceased.



"They made a way for Kasen, a way for my baby, to have a second chance at life, a life that he was not promised to see," said Donerlson. "Im just thankful for them."



Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
The billionaire Perich family are among about a dozen landowners near Sydneys second airport to have avoided the state government acquiring their land for an $11 billion metro rail line after a decision was made last year to tunnel under farmland instead of crossing it.

A "cabinet in confidence" report shows Sydney Metro, which is delivering the rail project, was preparing to acquire about five hectares from the Perichs at Bringelly in western Sydney.

The report, which detailed a strategy for acquiring land, had recommended that entering a "dialogue" with one of the Perichs' companies "should be treated as a priority".

Major earthworks are under way at the site of Western Sydney Airport. Credit:Brook Mitchell

The five hectares initially eyed for acquisition is a fraction of a large Perich property abutting the site of a train station planned at Bringelly, around which a city centre will be developed over the coming decades.
Ford India is planning to shut down its Chennai plant for a week due to semi-conductor shortage. Production at Ford's Gujarat plant will also be affected due to a shortage of semi-conductors.

Ford is trying to streamline supplies but there are serious supply chain challenges. Production will be impacted in February and March and Q4 as a whole.

Production may be adjusted in line with the shortage, sources said.

The issue of semi-conductors' shortage is affecting the entire automotive sector and is expected to continue for at least the first half of 2021.

"In Chennai, we have pulled ahead a down week to this week due to a supplier part shortage connected to the global semiconductor shortage. We are working closely with suppliers to address production constraints tied to the global semiconductor shortage and working to prioritize key vehicle lines for production, making the most of our semiconductor allocation," Ford India said in a statement.

The auto industry is using more semi-conductors than ever before while producing new vehicles with electronic features such as Bluetooth connectivity and driver assist, navigation and hybrid electric systems. Semiconductors are typically silicon chips that perform control and memory functions in products ranging from computers and cellphones to vehicles and microwave ovens.
A border dispute between the three parties, one having a land in survey number 80 of Hafeezpet (Greater Golkonda Estates) and two others in survey number 97 of Kondapur (Kolla Madhava Reddy and V Satyanarayana Rao) landed before the High Court two years ago.  DC Image

Hyderabad: Showing scant respect to a directive from the Supreme Court of India, the Ranga Reddy district administration has been sleeping over holding survey of some parcels of land situated in the controversial survey number 80 of Hafeezpet in the city.

The apex court had on December 16 last year directed the collector of Ranga Reddy district to undertake a survey as early as possible, and complete it in four weeks. In the order, the SC refused to interfere with a February 2019 order of the Telangana High Court, directing the district collector to conduct a survey to settle a border dispute between Hafeezpet and Kondapur within three months.

The inaction of the revenue authorities drew attention in the wake of the recent property dispute involving former Andhra Pradesh minister Bhooma Akhilapriya in the same survey number 80.

The revenue authorities inaction to resolve land disputes, or at least honouring the verdicts of honourable courts, including the Supreme Court, is leading law and order problems. It is this inaction on part of the district administration that has led to a spurt in land grabs and related crimes in the city, a senior police official said.

Take this specific case of three parties engaged in border disputes, he said, adding that the revenue department can easily resolve the fight by conducting a survey, as per court orders.

A border dispute between the three parties, one having a land in survey number 80 of Hafeezpet (Greater Golkonda Estates) and two others in survey number 97 of Kondapur (Kolla Madhava Reddy and V Satyanarayana Rao) landed before the High Court two years ago.

The division bench comprising Justices M. S. Ramachandra Rao and T. Amarnath Goud did not agree with the Telangana State governments contention that it owned land in survey number 80, which is part of CS No. 14 of 1958, which is pending before the court.

The Bench referred to both the High Court and Supreme Court dismissing the states plea several times against the inclusion of survey number 80 in CS 14 of 1958 and an application for condonation of delay of 38 years in challenging the inclusion. The Court observed, it is not open to Telangana State to set up any claim to land in Hafeezpet village.

Referring to the apprehensions of the two parties, Madhava Reddy and Satyanarayana Rao, that the Greater Golkonda Estates might grab land under the guise of a survey, the Court Bench observed that the latters land falls in survey number 80 of Hafeezpet and not in survey number 97 of Kondapur. It is necessary to conduct a survey and demarcate land in both these surveys, which are part of different villages  Hafeezpet and Kondapur, it observed.

The Court also observed and chided that government for becoming a vexatious litigant in land matters.
LONDON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The British government is planning to end the COVID-19 lockdown in March after cabinet members agreed that waiting until the summer when most people will have been vaccinated would lead to yet more economic misery, British media reported Sunday.

British ministers are drawing up a timetable to scale back restrictions despite a government advisory committee, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), calling for delays, the Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Previously, the British cabinet has been split between those who want to open up the economy as quickly as possible and those who are more cautious and want to follow the advisory committee's advice.

Under the plans, areas will be put into lower tiers once their death rate has fallen and the number of 50-70 year olds being admitted to hospital has fallen, according to the Sunday Times newspaper.

That age group spends the most time in hospital battling the virus. A blueprint for the end of the lockdown is expected to be looked at later this week which will take into account the latest infection rates, deaths and hospitalizations, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the British government believes that the biggest threat to the plan to end the lockdown as early as the beginning of March are mutant strains, which could be resistant to current vaccines, entering Britain.

Ministers have ordered plans to be drawn up for a fresh crackdown at Britain's borders to stop new variants of the coronavirus undermining the vaccination effort, according to local media reports.

Britain's coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, is estimated at between 1.2 and 1.3, compared with last week's one and 1.4, the SAGE said Friday.

If the R number is above one, it means the number of cases will increase exponentially.

Britain will close all travel corridors to the country from 0400 GMT on Monday in a bid to keep out new coronavirus variants.

The new restrictions will be imposed after Britain on Thursday banned arrivals from South America, Portugal and some other countries over fears about a strain of the virus detected in Brazil. The new rules will be in place until at least Feb. 15.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.

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18 January 2021

Type Event Proceeding



On the latest episode of The Signpost Series webinars, which took place on Friday, 15 January, Mark Gibson, Teagasc ConnectEd was joined by guest speaker Dale Crammond, Climate Change and Bioenergy Policy Division, Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) to discuss AgClimatise - A roadmap to Climate Neutrality for Irish Agriculture.



Dale's presentation was followed by a Q&A session which was facilitated by Pat Murphy, Head of Environment KT, Teagasc.

View presentation below

Ag Climatise - A roadmap to Climate Neutrality for Irish Agriculture (PDF)

Dale Crammond, Climate Change and Bioenergy Policy Division, Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM)

View webinar recording below

Find out more about the series here: Sustainable Agriculture Webinars
Less than a fortnight to go before the FY21 budget presentation, the state of Indian economy does not look good, notwithstanding the hypes around "faster than expected", V or K-shaped recovery or "a never before budget". For any such change to happen, India needs a drastic course correction that may be easier said than done in a top-down polity.

Here is first what the First Advance Estimates of National Income, released on January 7, 2021, indicate about the growth prospects beyond FY21.

Both demand and investment are down and out

The following graph uses the National Accounts Statistics (NAS) 2020 and the First Advance Estimates of National Income (AE1) 2020-21 to map the growth trends in three key financial expenditure components of the GDP - private final consumption expenditure (PFCE), government final consumption expenditure (GFCE) and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) - along with that of the GDP (all at constant prices).

What the graph shows is that private consumption (PFCE) and investment (GFCF), the two constituting 87-89% of the total expenditure GDP in FY19 and FY20, will touch a new low in FY21 with their growth rates plunging to minus 9.5% and minus 14.5%.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 58: The untold story of India's services sector

In itself, this plunge wouldn't be a big worry had their growth been better in earlier fiscals. Growth in private consumption had fallen from 8.1% in FY17 to 5.3% in FY20 (PE). Similarly, growth in investment had fallen from 8.5% in FY17 to minus 2.8% in FY20(PE).

These trends show that a dramatic reversal is unlikely in the short run, and since they contribute 87-89% to the GDP, a quick reversal in GDP growth is not likely either.

The two GDP components to register positive growth in FY21 are government expenditure (GFCE) and net exports. The latter is not something to cheer about.

As for government expenditure (both Centre and states), the optimistic projection in growth seems to run counter to Q1 and Q2 data of FY21, which have already been released. The Q2 data (released in November 2020), had shown a 25% fall compared to Q1 of FY21, which was shocking since by the time Q2 started (July, August and September) the unlocking was already a month old.

The central government's total spending in the first six months (Q1 and Q2) of FY21 was less than that of FY20 - Rs 14.8 lakh crore of FY21 against Rs 14.9 lakh crore of FY20 - according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). Capital expenditure was consistently lower in the three months of Q2 of FY21 against Q2 of FY20. (For more read " Rebooting Economy 47: Do India's fiscal numbers suggest a quick turn-around? ")

How would the growth in GFCE turn a highplus 5.8% in FY21 is a mystery.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 57: When and how will industry take India to next level of growth?

What a positive growth in government expenditure (GFCE), however, means is that only one engine is working, as should have been anticipated because a recessionary trend had already set in before the pandemic hit. That is what prompted eminent economists like Abhijit Mukherjee and Raghutam Rajan to repeatedly ask the government to increase fiscal spending, which was ignored.

The AatmaNirbhar Bharat packages did the reverse. It had very little fiscal spending or government expenditure (1-2% by most estimates), the rest being credit and credit guarantee schemes. Going by the growth estimates for investment (GFCF) in FY21 (minus 14.5%) the AatmaNirbhar Bharat failed to kick-in credit intake, as had been forewarned. It was a typical supply side solution to a demand side problem.

The RBI's monthly bank credit to non-food sector shows how much it has steadily gone down in the past two years. The government would have known this very well since this high-frequency data is available on fortnightly basis too.

Investment is directly linked to demand. The finance ministry had warned about demand slowed down way back on May 1, 2019 with its Monthly Economic Report for March 2019.

The untimely and unplanned lockdown rendered millions jobless and shut millions of businesses, particularly small businesses, drastically reducing income and consequently, demand in the economy. Despite the slump, as shown in the graph, in private consumption, it would still be accounting for 56% of the GDP in FY21.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 56: Why India should follow agricultural development-led industrialisation growth model

Unless jobs are restored and small businesses restart, demand/consumption is unlikely to revive or drive growth. The key bottleneck in this is that the government has no idea how many lost jobs and businesses shut. It did not, and has not, collected the requisite information and hence, the budget will be designed in a complete information vacuum.

Since the credit and credit guarantee schemes have failed to generate demand, the obvious way to go forward is direct cash support to the poor who lost jobs and their small businesses due to the cumulative impact of the lockdown, demonetisation and GST.

Imports tumble, fall below exports for third time since 1970-71

The only component of the expenditure GDP left out so far is net export (export minus import), and for good reason.

India's trade balance (export minus import) has been negative, plunging to lower depths with each passing year since 1970s for which the RBI provides data. There were two exceptions to this, one in 1972-73 and 1976-77. The following graph maps the trend.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 55: Farmer producer organisations best bet for small, marginal farmers

The estimates for FY21 show a third positive balance.

The question that needs to be asked is why this would happen.

The following graph, using the First Advance Estimates on National Income data, gives the answer.

Imports will plunge below exports in FY21.

Why this is not a good news

Firstly, a fall in imports re-emphasises weakening of domestic demand.

Secondly, imports constitute 32.5% of India's exported goods and services (called 'import intensity of exports') for the whole economy, and 51% for manufacturing goods. A fall in imports is, therefore, counter-productive and would eliminate the possibility of export-led growth that China and other developed countries have seen. (For more read "Rebooting Economy 47: Do India's fiscal numbers suggest a quick turn-around?")

The import-substitution policy embodied in AatmaNirbhar Bharat will take India further down this path, which is why all economists, including the government' loudest cheerleader Arvind Panagariya, have opposed this failed policy of 1960s and 1970s.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 54: Will bypassing APMC-based procurement improve farmers' income, ensure food security?

Why was this policy adopted then?

The short answer is to ensure assured businesses for domestic companies and protect them from outside competition, as was the case in 1960s and 1970s. That policy ended in a failure and there is no reason why the same wouldn't happen again. Former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has argued that India needs exports for growth since the domestic market is not big enough to provide a big enough lift. (For more read " Rebooting Economy 45: What is AatmaNirbhar Bharat and where will it take India? ")

Agriculture isn't big or powerful enough to drive India's growth

The following graph maps the growth in three sectors of the Indian economy.

Notice, the only positive growth in FY21 is seen in agriculture (plus 3.4%). Industry and services are expected to plunge to minus 8.5% and minus 9.2%, respectively.

Notice also how the growth in agriculture has fluctuated the most (dropped to zero or near zero in FY13, FY15 and FY16) because it is weather-dependent.

Agriculture can't drive India's growth.

Its average annual growth is 3.3% during FY13 and FY20; its contribution to the GDP fell below 15% since FY19 and its average annual contribution to the GDP growth is 10.3% during FY12 and FY20.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 53: Why crop insurance is losing traction in India

The estimates for FY21 further show that, three out of two components of industry, 'mining and quarrying' and 'manufacturing' will have minus 12.4% and minus 9.4% growth. That manufacturing is in trouble is evident from high-frequency data on industrial production (IIP), particularly those relating to the core sector. Lack of demand has lowered industrial production and capacity utilisation for years now. In fact, manufacturing growth was 0.03% in FY20 (PE) when the GDP growth was 4.2%. (For more read " Reality check: Corporate tax cut unlikely to increase investment or employment ")

In services, all four components are expected to register negative growth - ranging from minus 0.8% to minus 21.4%. The AatmaNirbhar Bharat packages ignored the services in providing fiscal support. If it gets no support, it is unlikely to jump back to 5% growth that it had recorded in FY20. (For more read " Rebooting Economy 58: The untold story of India's services sector ")

Also Read: Rebooting Economy 52: The unfinished agenda of land reforms nobody talks about

How will India regain its growth momentum?

The answer is obvious and known for long: Direct cash support to the poor to revive consumption demand and higher fiscal spending to kick-start the investment cycle.

Enough has been written and said by leading economists of the world to debunk the neoliberal idea of 'fiscal austerity', which is more about politics and less about economics, for India to be trapped forever in the face of grave economic crisis. (For more read " Coronavirus Lockdown XVII: The economics behind India's Rs 21 lakh crore package " & " Deconstructing Neoliberalism II: How neoliberal ideas can wreak havoc on economies ")

The other obvious answer is to reverse the import substitution policy that embodies the AatmaNirbhar Bharat. Only then will the next budget truly be "a never before" one.

Also read: Rebooting Economy 51: Where is India's vision, plan for sustained agriculture growth and farmers' welfare?
Bay of Plenty

You will be operating the Roller and also required to help out the team hands on. You will be working around Tauranga, for...



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(Natural News) When it comes to Twitters long-term censorship agenda, axing the account of President Donald Trump, along with those of many of his supporters, was only just the beginning.

In order to bridge the political and social divide in the United States, Twitters plan is to cancel all conservatives who draw attention to election fraud, for instance. Only accounts that accept Joe Biden as president will be allowed, as this will promote unity.

Back in the summer, Twitter unleashed the fact checkers to provide damage control against offensive Trump tweets that were revealing too much truth for public consumption.

For months, Twitter had routinely affixed exclamation point warnings about Trumps tweets, citing them as false or misinformation. After the false flag siege at the U.S. Capitol, however, Twitter axed Trumps account entirely.

Since that time, Twitter has pulled the accounts of tens of thousands of other people who support Trump, or who are not okay with the fraudulent 2020 election. Only Twitter-approved speech is allowed from now on, and anything that questions the official narrative will be in violation of Twitters terms of service.

We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and its going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few months, and go on beyond the inauguration, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was caught revealing during a now-leaked call.

So, the focus is certainly on this account [@realDonaldTrump] and how it ties to real world violence, Dorsey added. But also, we need to think much longer term around how these dynamics play out over time. I dont believe this is going away anytime soon.

More up-to-the-minute news about the fraudulent 2020 election can be found at Trump.news.

Dorsey admits that Twitter foments violence  time to ban it!

Another interesting admission by Dorsey during the leaked call has to do with the division in this county, which Dorsey says is showing on the Twitter platform every single day.

Twitter users, which tend to be far-left and very low IQ, have been railing against the truth for years. They dwell on Twitter because the platform welcomes them with open arms and encourages them to radicalize, often violently.

All throughout the summer, for instance, Twitter was a haven for Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa terrorists who plotted the next place to loot. They would routinely upload incriminating video footage of themselves burning buildings to the ground and terrorizing people, all with Twitters blessing.

Talking about election fraud, though, is not allowed on Twitter, which has created its own system of division concerning free speech and the First Amendment.

If you believe that white people are evil and America needs to be burned to the ground to end systemic racism, this is acceptable under Twitters terms of service. However, if you believe that free and fair elections are important, then you are in violation of Twitters terms of service and will be quickly banned.

There you have it, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, recorded by one of his own employees, an insider whistleblower at Twitter, recorded saying this is going to be much bigger than just one account, stated James OKeefe, head of Project Veritas, in a statement.

They may be private companies, but they have more power than all three branches of government, he added.

Meanwhile, Dorsey tweeted to his own personal account that his decision to ban President Trump is not a cause to celebrate or feel pride.

 we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter, Dorsey added.

Sources for this article include:

ProjectVeritas.com

NaturalNews.com

WashingtonTimes.com
Enter the robot. The robotic equipments software uses the information generated by the scan to create a personalized preoperative plan for the surgery. With the surgical plan in place, the surgeon uses the robotic arm to insert each end of the artificial hip joint exactly where it should go to maximize anatomical function. The robot moves within a predefined area, minimizing the possibility of surgical deviance from the preprogrammed plan while still allowing the surgeon to make adjustments during the surgery if needed.

Once the robot comes into the field, it acts as a navigator and co-pilot, Dr. Meere said. The surgeon is still in command but needs to expose less tissue and is more confident because the robot knows exactly where the cutting instruments are and where the boundaries of the safe cutting zones lie.

If the surgeon should drift from the safe zone, the robot issues an alert, comparable to the lane-departure warning in modern cars, and shuts off. In this way, Dr. Meere said, the robot minimizes the risk of inadvertent damage to bone or surrounding tissues. It also relieves the surgeons stress when operating on complex cases.

A critical factor in successful hip replacement is making sure the leg that is attached to the new hip matches the length of the other leg. Robotic-assisted surgery is reported to be five times more accurate in matching leg length than is conventional surgery. It is also better at inserting the new hip joint at the proper angle.

Before the surgical wound is closed, the surgeon can tell whether the joint is properly aligned and the leg lengths are even, which results in a more stable joint.

Robotic surgery is where things are going, Dr. Douglas B. Unis, orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, told me. It more accurately reconstructs the patients anatomy and results in better mechanical function. Off-the-shelf implants and the carpentry tools used to prepare bone are not good business or clinical models. Its becoming more economical and practical to design customized implants, he said, than it is to customize the patients bones to fit an existing implant.

Not only have surgical techniques used in hip replacements improved. So has anesthesia, which now usually relies on a combination of treatments like a regional spinal block and peripheral nerve block together with a pain-relief cocktail that is injected directly into the local wound, Dr. Meere said.
RICHMOND, Va. - The pro-gun caravan that was supposed to send thousands of vehicles pouring into Virginia's capital on Monday turned out to be a sporadic affair, as clusters of flag-bedecked cars and trucks were slowed by the humbling force of traffic lights.

"We were hoping it would have a continuous flow, like a funeral procession," gun rights advocate Kevin Hulbert said, standing on a street corner with several supporters holding "Don't Tread on Me" flags.

Instead, groups of pro-gun vehicles passed intermittently along Broad Street, too few in number to dominate traffic and separated from one another by the need to stop for red lights. A day officials had feared could descend into anti-government violence settled into something stranger, as a sideshow of heavily armed protest groups held competing news conferences outside Capitol Square before throngs of media and an even greater number of police.

The Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday is traditionally known as Lobby Day in Richmond, a time for citizens to visit their lawmakers soon after the General Assembly begins its annual session.

In recent years, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) has dominated the day with a pro-gun agenda - last year bringing some 20,000 activists to Richmond, including militarylike armed groups from all over the country.

This year's event was converted into a vehicle caravan, partly in response to the restrictions against public gatherings to halt the spread of the coronavirus but also because gun control groups snapped up the public event permits before the VCDL could register.

Officials feared the gun caravan would attract extremists bent on mayhem in the wake of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol and amid threats of violence and demonstrations at state capitols across the country. Downtown streets were closed off and blocked by dump trucks; metal barricades ringed the elegant Virginia Capitol building, its windows boarded up; and hundreds of police officers filled the area. National Guard troops were on standby.

"Uneventful," state Public Safety Secretary Brian Moran said by text message as events wound down. "A few armed pedestrians but no issues so far."

Outside the Science Museum of Virginia, where the state Senate convened at noon in a large room that allows social distancing, the first part of the caravan passed just after midday. The slogan "Guns Save Lives" was plastered onto cars and pickup trucks, along with images of assault-style weapons on fluttering flags. Some drivers leaned on their horns.

"It's not last year, but it's still a statement," said one man holding a roll of orange VCDL stickers who refused to give his name, citing the recent social unrest.

At the Virginia Capitol early Monday, media initially far outnumbered protesters. Over the course of a chilly morning, small groups of extravagantly armed people began showing up on the street outside the barricades. Often it was hard to tell what they were advocating.

One group of five men in military garb and carrying assault-style rifles said they were just buddies who like guns - and like to kiss one another, as two kept demonstrating for reporters who eagerly snapped photos.

At one point, a colorfully dressed squad of self-styled "boogaloo boys" - extremists who have called for race war and like to wear tropical shirts - held court with reporters just uphill from a cluster of dark-clad men holding Proud Boys banners.

In the most tense moment of the morning, someone yelled out: "Proud Boys go home!"

"Say it to my face," one of the Proud Boys responded, and began running into the crowd to find his detractor.

He didn't find him, and peace returned quickly - under the watchful eyes of scores of city and capitol police.

Though signs around town said it was illegal to carry weapons under new city ordinances, the protesters ignored them, and police made no issue of it.

"We're not going to comply with unconstitutional city ordinances," said Mike Dunn, 20, who pointed out that the high-capacity long rifle he was carrying was in violation. Dunn leads a Virginia group he says is affiliated with the boogaloo movement.

He said the group would not provoke violence but was prepared for it. "You should always expect violence," Dunn said. He said the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump this month was wrong but only because it was carried out for a misguided purpose.

"Making government fear you is definitely the right thing to do all the time," he said. "The wrong reason is doing it for another tyrant - Trump."

By early afternoon, with the VCDL caravans passing a few blocks away, a group of about 20 Black Panthers showed up and stood in formation near the Virginia Capitol. Many held weapons.

They glared pointedly away from a group of Proud Boys across the street. The Proud Boys have been connected with white supremacist beliefs, but those in Richmond on Monday insisted that they were not racists.

Walking past the Black Panthers, one Proud Boy called out, "Hey, God bless you guys."

Later, as the Black Panthers marched around a city block, the boogaloo boys raised their fists in what they said was solidarity. The Panthers didn't respond. But one member, asked about the significance of the day, said: "It's Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. That's what it is."

Across town, at the massive statue of Robert E. Lee that Gov. Ralph Northam, D, has ordered removed, Black Lives Matter supporters held a cookout in honor of King. Police prevented vehicles from accessing the streets around the statue, which has become the focal point of the city's social justice demonstrations.
(Natural News) Because of the increasing popularity of the Situation Update podcast, information came my way that lays out a path for justified optimism on whats coming in the days ahead.

Update: The failed declass waypoint on Monday now turns the outcome more negative than what is described in this article. Trumps team had promised to declassify a foot-high stack of documents on Monday, and that has failed, possibly indicating Trumps plan has been thwarted. This is a dynamic, ever-changing chess game / battlefield, and new information and events occur daily. Prepare for all outcomes, including worst-case outcomes, just in case the white hats fail.

As I say in the podcast, I now know what Lin Wood knows. This statement does not in any way imply that Lin Wood is the source of this information, because he isnt. Its just that Lin Woods unfettered optimism now makes total sense to me.

As Scott Kesterson recently said in his Bards FM podcast, the DC military encampment is actually a holding facility for enemies of America, and it will soon host military tribunals.

Once that happens, the radical Left will engage in Chinese weapons-augmented kinetic attacks on the US Capitol. These are not attacks by Chinese troops, but rather by radicalized Leftists  long since radicalized by the left-wing media  wielding weapons which have been smuggled into the United States by the CCP. Those weapons include:

Full-auto drop-in trigger upgrades for AR-15 and AK-47 rifles. (Some of these shipments have already been interdicted by Customs and Border Protection, as we have previously covered. See one press release from the CBP here.)

RPGs (Rocket-Propelled Grenades, used by enemy forces to attack fortified positions or armored vehicles.)

60mm mortars, allowing attacking enemy forces to theoretically strike the Capitol Building or White House through indirect fire from range. These are known in the modern military as M224 mortars, which reportedly have a range of several thousand meters.

Rifle suppressors, which allow more covert operations by enemy forces.

Club-K concealed rockets and missile systems, hidden on standard shipping containers and boasting ranges of a few miles to 100+ miles, depending on the weapon.

In todays Situation Update, I warn that if these missile systems are deployed, their most likely targets will be US power grid infrastructure and military installations. China may even attempt to detonate an EMP weapon over North America to take down the national power grid. Just in case this happens, be prepared to survive in a grid-down scenario (and pray it doesnt happen).

As early as 2016, China was showing off its Club-K shipping container missile and rocket systems, which conceal remotely fired weapons in standard 40 ft. shipping containers:

These systems, which receive targeting and activation commands via satellite, may also be deployed from the surface containers of large shipping vessels, launching from several hundred miles offshore:

According to scattered sources who are emailing eyewitness reports from across America, many shipping containers are mysteriously appearing in locations across America where they previously were never seen. Note that these missile systems can be fired from containers sitting in parking lots, or still attached to transport trucks or rail systems.

This may explain why Patriot missile batteries are reportedly being spotted in Georgia and Tennessee, and Patriot missiles are now widely known to be deployed in the DC area.

Patriot missiles are ground-to-air defensive missile systems. They are deployed when the military anticipates incoming missiles or aircraft-based attacks.

Notably, patriot protesters do not possess jet fighters or cruise missiles. This indicates that Chris Miller at the DoD is anticipating a sophisticated attack on DC, including air-to-ground weapons of some sort, possibly including missiles or rockets as shown above.

And why would such an attack be unleashed against DC? Because DC is being turned into a detainment / holding encampment to hold all the thousands of traitors who committed treason against the United States. Thus, the now 40,000+ troops, F-16 fighter jets, Stryker vehicles, Patriot missiles and everything else is actually in place to defend DC against a kinetic overthrow attempt by the shock troops of the radical Left, who are augmented by CCP weapons.

Heres what a patriot missile battery looks like:

We are also getting reports that US Marines (full-time soldiers) are being deployed to the DC area, which means this has moved way beyond National Guard troops (weekend warriors).

Listen to the full podcast here to learn more details about this current situation. And pray for America:

Brighteon.com/d3a3792e-8d5d-4990-868a-87566077c09c

Hear each days new podcast at Brighteon.com:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport

You can also download the daily MP3 files from the top of the home page at NaturalNews.com.
UK Foreign Secretary claims EU trade agreement is great deal for fishermen, as firms complain of costs and delays

by Andrew Woodcock

January 18,2021 | Source: The Independent

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has denied betraying the UKs fishermen, insisting that the Brexit trade agreement signed by Boris Johnson was a great deal for the industry.



Mr Raab was speaking amid howls of outrage from fishing companies, who say that the additional red tape and delay caused by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement has led to them losing huge sums from consignments unable to reach European export markets.



And the Scottish Fishermens Federation (SFF) has described the deal as desperately poor, leaving many businesses fearing for their survival amid reports of an 80 per cent collapse in the prices they can charge for their catch.



But confronted with fishermens angry comments during an interview with the BBCs Andrew Marr, Mr Raab said: I think this is a great deal for the fishing industry, both short term and long term.



We get control over our fisheries back  full control as an independent coastal state  there is an immediate 15 per cent uplift in our access to fisheries for the UK sector in the first year. That rises to two-thirds in the five-year transition period, then we have annual negotiations.



Marr read out comments from Jamie McMillan, managing director of Loch Fyne Langoustines, who said: We have no sales to the EU, our biggest market for live shellfish, in the last two weeks. If we go another week without that, we are finished.



And Marr confronted Mr Raab with the comment of Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland, who said: Some businesses, which may have been run by families for generations, are now days away from collapse as a result of the agreement.



Mr Raab dismissed the difficulties faced by fishing businesses as teething problems and said he was not convinced that the thickets of Brexit paperwork and delays were the result of the agreement.



The agreement we have struck, both short term and medium term and long term, will create huge sustainable opportunities, he claimed.



Of course, weve always said as we leave the transition period with a deal  but even more if we hadnt had a deal  there will be some teething problems.



Were very focused on working with all of the different sectors, including the fishing industry, to resolve any of these teething problems.



Mr Raab said that the government was investing 100m into the fishing industry to enable it to grasp the additional opportunities which ministers believe will be available as a result of Brexit.



Despite warnings from industry figures of companies being on the brink of closure, Mr Raab said: The fishing industry is going to want to increase its capacity to take advantage of those increased stocks.



Thats why were putting in 100 million to shore up, to strengthen, the fishing industry right across the whole of the UK, to make sure that this really important opportunity of leaving the EU and leaving the transition period can be properly grasped.



Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, responded: Brexit might be a game to the likes of Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson but for thousands of people in Scotland this is their business and their livelihood on the line.



Fishermen are telling the PM that his deal did not do any of the things he claimed for it, let alone what he had promised. The harder the Tories spin, the angrier fishing communities get.



The government needs to start listening to the people who know what they are talking about and start to clean up the mess that the prime minister has created.



In a letter to Mr Johnson last week, SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald accused the prime minister of misleading the public about the agreement and giving the industry the worst of both worlds.



You and your government have spun a line about a 25 per cent uplift in quota for the UK, but you know this is not true, and your deal does not deliver that, Ms Macdonald wrote.



The prime ministers stated approach, known as zonal attachment, would have secured British boats up to 90 per cent of the catch in UK waters for important stocks such as herring. Instead, the deal actually means the UK share of the herring catch is just 32.2 per cent, she said.



This can hardly be claimed as a resounding success, Ms Macdonald wrote.



This industry now finds itself in the worst of both worlds. Your deal leaves us with shares that not only fall very far short of zonal attachment, but in many cases fail to bridge the gap compared to historic catches, and with no ability to leverage more fish from the EU, as they have full access to our waters.

 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade.
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Enterprise blockchain solutions provider DLT Labs on Sunday said it plans to hire 600 people this year and set up a Centre of Excellence at Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) in Uttar Pradesh.

The company will sign an agreement with AKTU (formerly known as Uttar Pradesh Technical University) to bridge and foster knowledge of AKTU students, a statement said.

"As part of the MoU, the University will provide the physical infrastructure and DLT Labs will bring in enterprise Blockchain expertise and Cloud Infrastructure," it added.

Also Read | Churn in Indias internet economy

DLT Labs has also committed to spend up to 1 crore towards the CoE.

"We envision a strong momentum of growth in coming years and will be further building up our presence in the state, and are looking to hire 600 people this year," DLT Labs founder and Chief Technology Officer Neeraj Srivastava said.

Srivastava completed his course in engineering from AKG Engineering College, Ghaziabad (AKTU) and founded DLT Labs in 2017 along with his partners Ajay Singh and Umesh Singh Kushwaha.

DLT Labs has more than 400 people across India, Canada, Japan, Singapore and the US.

"As we grow, we are committed to collaborate and work with AKTU University further. We also look forward to work with UP government on building smart cities using blockchain technology," Srivastava said.

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People with diabetes and obesity should be prioritised for early COVID-19 vaccination, according to both Metabolic Doctors and Diabetes Ireland.

The Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) said that diabetes and obesity have emerged as significant underlying risk factors for developing severe illness from COVID-19  and these patients should also be prioritised for continuity of treatment during the pandemic.

IrSPEN spokesperson and Obesity Specialist at St Vincents University Hospital Professor Carel le Roux said: Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are currently filling up with many younger patients who have underlying diabetes and obesity and have contracted COVID-19.

People with more severe obesity and more severe type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at most risk. These patients are now not being ventilated as quickly as in the first wave, because we understand that the reason their oxygen levels become so low has as much to do with their underlying condition, rather than the coronavirus being the sole cause

Diabetes and obesity cause inflammation of small blood vessels around the lungs and other organs  and this is then exaggerated by COVID-19.

This understanding highlights the importance of continuity of existing treatments for patients with diabetes and obesity as a part of managing the impact of the virus. It also highlights the importance of vaccinating this cohort of patients to minimise hospitalisation, he said.

Diabetes Ireland Advocacy Research Manager Dr Anna Clarke said: We now know that the worse the control of diabetes, the higher the risk of serious complications from COVID-19. Medical research over the past 10 months shows the importance of people with diabetes and obesity continuing to take their medications and attend appointments, even if these are virtual.

St. Vincents University Hospital Consultant Surgeon and IrSPEN member Professor Helen Heneghan said: The consensus amongst Metabolic Doctors who specialise in treating these conditions is that these patients should be prioritised both for vaccination  and continuity of care.

Many patients with diabetes and obesity have had their treatments postponed or deprioritised within hospital care in recent months. The relationship between these conditions and the development of severe illness from COVID-19 means we should continue to treat patients.

Dr Mick Crotty, a Dublin based GP, added: Our thinking about the virus has changed from it causing a disease of the inside of the lung towards considering it as a disease that reduces blood flow immediately outside the lungs, thus reducing oxygen transport. The virus accelerates underlying complications of diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has alerted us to the vulnerability of patients with diabetes and obesity who should be prioritised for vaccination. We should redouble efforts to help these patients through the COVID-19 pandemic, and doing so would benefit hospitalisation and mortality rates.

More than a million people in Ireland have obesity and more than 200,000 have diabetes. See also www.irspen.ie

Also read: 154,000 in funding announced for Leitrim walkways
Source: Xinhua| 2021-01-18 14:03:24|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday strongly condemned the so-called "sanctions" announced by the United States on six officials of the central authorities and the HKSAR government.

The U.S. action wantonly damaged the rule of law and the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong and blatantly provoked the Chinese government and the Chinese people safeguarding national interests, a spokesperson of the liaison office said in a statement.

The spokesperson said the hegemonic move of the United States, based on lies and filled with bias and double standards, is bound to be futile.

The so-called "sanctions" came after the Hong Kong police arrested 53 people on suspicion of breaching the national security law in the HKSAR and local laws on Jan. 6.

After the national security law took effect in Hong Kong, the suspects, ignoring warnings from the HKSAR government, still organized the so-called "primary election" with the goal of paralyzing the HKSAR government, the spokesperson said.

The U.S. side repeatedly smeared the national security law and the "one country, two systems" principle and imposed the so-called "sanctions," which seriously violated the international law and basic norms of international relations, the spokesperson said.

National security is the cornerstone of Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability and those opposing China and messing up Hong Kong will definitely be cracked down under the national security law, which meets the needs of safeguarding national security, the rule of law, the interests of the entire society, and the well-being of common residents in Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.

The liaison office firmly supports the swift and strong response of the HKSAR government and the police to the so-called U.S. sanctions and firmly supports their unwavering commitment to safeguarding national security and Hong Kong's safety, the spokesperson said.

Hong Kong has returned to peace since the national security law was implemented more than six months ago, the spokesperson said.

The fact shows only by comprehensively and strictly implementing the national security law, will national security, Hong Kong's stability, people's peaceful lives and the "one country, two systems" principle be guaranteed, the spokesperson said.

The so-called sanctions and threats by politicians, no matter from which country, can neither shake the strong will of the Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests nor stop the historical trend of Hong Kong returning to peace and China's development, the spokesperson said. Enditem
West Bank: girl 'hurt by extremist settlers' Wafa news agency says mother also injured, home damaged

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 18 - A Palestinian 11-year-old girl, Hala al-Qat, was wounded on Sunday after a group of extremist settlers threw stones at her when she was close to home in the West Bank village of Madama, south of Nablus, official Palestinian news agency Wafa said. The agency said the girl is in a hospital in Nablus in a state of shock.



Her father Mashur said the attack was perpetrated by some 20 youths who also wounded his wife and damaged the windows of their home.



The man said he believes the attackers hailed from the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, just three km away. So far, the Israeli army has not commented the episode. However, over the past week attacks carried out by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians have been reported by several sources in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli defense officials have expressed concern for the violence. (ANSAmed).




To the Editor:

Re On Work: Are You Sure You Want to Go Back to the Office?, by Anne Helen Petersen (Sunday Review, Dec. 27):

When Ms. Petersen states firmly that people dont really want to get back to the office, even when it becomes safe to do so, she is speaking from a position of privilege. Remote working suits people who are established, have power and have a home to work in, but many people simply do not have these advantages.

I have worked with students who live in conditions where even doing a piece of homework is impossible at home. How on earth are they meant to enter into a field of work that presumes that they will be able to afford a room, internet, heating and quiet? How can they compete with wealthier colleagues who have all those things?

Bullying, too, is easier under remote working conditions: It is easier to over-delegate to people when you cant actually see them and when you know that they arent visible to others. Remote and flexible working, while absolutely necessary during Covid-19 for safety reasons, should not be advocated when it is safe to return on the false argument that it will benefit everyone.

Varsha Shah

Middlesex, England

The Inhumanity of Evictions
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More people could be protected from life-threatening rabies thanks to an agile approach to dog vaccination using smart phone technology to spot areas of low vaccination coverage in real time.

Vets used a smart phone app to help them halve the time it takes to complete dog vaccination programmes in the Malawian city of Blantyre.

The custom-made app lets them quickly spot areas with low inoculation rates in real time, allowing them to jab more dogs more quickly, and with fewer staff.

Rabies is a potentially fatal disease passed on to humans primarily through dog bites. It is responsible for some 60,000 deaths worldwide each year, 40 per cent of which are children. It places a huge financial burden on some of the world's poorest countries.

Researchers predict that more than one million people globally will die from rabies between 2020 and 2035 if dog vaccination rates - coupled with treatment immediately following a bite - do not increase.

Current mass vaccination programmes include door-to-door visits, which ensure high uptake, but are costly and time consuming. Drop-in centres are more efficient, but do not treat as many dogs, and can be difficult for owners to reach.

Research showed that distance from drop-in centres was the biggest reason why owners did not get their dog vaccinated,

To overcome this, vets led by the University of Edinburgh and the charity Mission Rabies applied their data-driven approach using the app developed with the World Veterinary Service. The app allows the team to record data on vaccinations and access GPS locations.

The team increased the numbers of drop-in centres within around 800 metres of owners' homes from 44 to 77 - a distance that their research indicated most owners were willing to walk.

In areas with low uptake, they used 'roaming'- vaccine stations quickly set up to serve localised areas with low vaccine coverage, such as at the end of a street. The vets also engaged with local communities and media to raise awareness of the scheme.

They targeted 70 per cent of the city's dog population - around 35,000 animals - and vaccinated them in 11 days, compared with 20 days using the previous approach. The scheme needed 904 staff-days, as opposed to 1719.

Researchers say the findings have the potential to not only benefit urban dog populations, but also farmers whose livestock is at risk of infection from dogs.

Lead researcher Dr Stella Mazeri, veterinary epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: "Delivering vaccinations to at risk populations in a highly efficient manner is a major societal challenge. Attempts to eliminate rabies remain under funded despite knowing that dog vaccination is a highly effective way to reduce the disease burden in both humans and dogs. We are pleased to see that the real time interrogation of data has allowed us to improve the efficiency of vaccination clinics."

Luke Gamble, CEO of Mission Rabies, said, "This research provides an important piece of the puzzle in powering forward strategies to eliminate canine transmitted rabies. Practically, this paper steers how we better implement campaigns to efficiently vaccinate hundreds of thousands of dogs against rabies in challenging environments - and this is turn, prevents the deaths of thousands of children around the world each year. The amazing support of the University of Edinburgh in this field of research - is genuinely saving lives."

###
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A sign for the National Security Agency (NSA), US Cyber Command and Central Security Service, near the visitor's entrance to the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Md., on Feb. 14, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

NSA Moving Forward With Hiring Michael Ellis as Top Lawyer: Spokesperson

The National Security Agency (NSA) is moving to place a former Republican political operative, Michael Ellis, as its top lawyer, according to a spokesperson.

Mr. Ellis accepted his final job offer yesterday afternoon, an NSA spokesperson told numerous news outlets on Jan. 17 in confirming the development. NSA is moving forward with his employment.

The NSA and Department of Defense (DOD) didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

The General Counsel of the Department of Defense is the sole selection authority for the position of General Counsel of the National Security Agencyas well as all other senior career DOD General Counsel positions, according to a statement from the Department of Defense to The Hill, CNN, the Washington Examiner, and other outlets. The Director of the NSA does not select or approve of candidates for the position of the NSA General Counsel.

Once a candidate is selected through the merit system, given an offer and meets the requirements to be entered into the position, if that entry does not happen, it exposes the Department, Agency, and senior leadership to claims for a violation of the merit system principles and processes that are designed to protect the participants in such selections, the DOD statement added.

To be clear, congressional or media interest in a particular hiring action are not justification under the merit system principles and process to delay placing a selected qualified individual in a position.

When Elliss selection was announced in November 2020, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) requested that the DODs inspector general conduct a review.

The combination of timing, comparative lack of experience of the candidate, the reported qualifications of the other finalists, and press accounts of White House involvement create a perception that political influence or considerations may have played an undue role in a merit-based civil service selection process, the senators wrote in a letter at the time.

Ellis joined the White House in 2017 and later became an attorney for the National Security Council in 2019. Some news outlets described him as a loyalist to President Donald Trump.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says he opposes the NSAs hiring of Ellis as its top lawyer. He told CBS News on Jan. 17 that the move is part of the Trump administrations effort to embed people in the civil service who are political and partisan actors.
Five workers at a salmon processing plant have been fired and charged after allegedly stealing 250 tonnes of fish worth $4 million.

An internal audit found that 600 kilograms of salmon went unaccounted for every day at the Huon Aquaculture plant in Ingleburn, south-west Sydney, between June and December 2020.

The company contacted police who launched an investigation into the matter.

They believe the five workers deliberately mislabelled premium salmon pieces as waste before selling them or trading them for other products.

An internal audit found that 600 kilograms of salmon went unaccounted for every day at the Huon Aquaculture plant in Ingleburn, south-west Sydney, between June and December 2020

A 30 and 31-year-old woman employee were issued with Future Court Attendance Notices for larceny as clerk or servant.

They have been ordered to front Campbelltown Local Court on February 22.

A 32-year-old man, from Minto, was also charged with stealing between $5,000 and $15,000 worth of property as a clerk or servant.

A 49-year-old man, from Cabramatta, was charged with stealing more than $15,000 worth of property as a clerk or servant.

The pair are on strict conditional bail and will front Campbelltown Local Court on Monday.

A 30-year-old man, from Belmore, has also been charged with stealing more than $15,000 worth of property as a clerk or servant.

He will front Campbelltown Local Court on February 1.
After introducing his economic recovery plan at McGregor Industries Inc. in early July, now President-elect Joe Biden, Virginia McGregor and her husband Robert had a conversation in the conference room of the Dunmore metal works facility.

First thanking Biden for saying such wonderful things about his native Scranton, Virginia McGregor then thanked him for speaking so openly about his Catholic faith  a faith they share.

He said: Why wouldnt I?  McGregor recalled.  Its part of who I am. 

Biden then drew from his wallet a rosary ring, which McGregor described as well-worn and well-loved.

On Wednesday, Biden will become just the second Catholic and the first since John F. Kennedy to ascend to the presidency. A product of his Irish Catholic upbringing in Scrantons Green Ridge section and later Delaware, Bidens faith is deep and foundational, enduring the test of personal tragedies while informing his worldview, several local Catholics said.

My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion, Biden wrote in his 2007 book Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.

While Bidens policy positions dont always align with church teaching, former Scranton Mayor Jim Connors contends his deep faith is manifest in his willingness to serve others and his loyalty to friends, family, community and country. Those values of loyalty and service were instilled in many working-class Irish Catholic households in the Scranton of Bidens and Connors boyhoods, he said.

Its strong and its real, and it cant be denied, Connors, a Biden delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, said of the president-elects faith. And, thats going to carry him through the next four years. ... Its in his heart and in his spirit.

Biden spent his boyhood years at 2446 N. Washington Ave., where he was raised by his parents and grandparents. He attended St. Pauls School as part of his Catholic education, and the family worshipped at St. Pauls Church, which at the time was located in the school building, Bidens longtime friend and former classmate Tom Bell recalled.

You didnt miss too many Masses, said Bell, who also attended St. Pauls school and church. In those years, if you didnt get to Mass a little ahead of time, you didnt get a seat because everybody went to church. Everybody did.

Bidens Catholic faith was shaped in that religious environment and in his home, where he was taught to treat others with dignity, love God, love thy neighbor and oppose abuses of power in all forms, Biden told the Rev. Matt Malone, S.J., editor-in-chief of America Media, in a 2015 interview. He described those as being among the principles of his faith, describing faith as a gift.

Biden also addressed his stance on abortion in that interview, a controversial issue that divides Catholics and voters in general. During the prelude to the 2008 election, the Most Rev. Joseph F. Martino, then bishop of Scranton, reiterated warnings he would deny Holy Communion to Catholic public officials, including Biden, that support abortion rights. The wedge issue likely motivated many Catholic voters, who, according to the Associated Press, split almost evenly in supporting Biden or President Donald Trump in the November election.

While Biden told Malone hes prepared to accept as a matter of faith that the moment of conception is human life and being, he said hes not prepared to impose a precise view that is born out of my faith on other people.

Diocese of Scranton officials declined to discuss Biden and his faith with the newspaper.

Those who did speak to Bidens faith characterized it in similar ways.

McGregors daughter, Grace McGregor Kramer, grew up and still lives on North Washington Avenue. She was baptized and married at St. Pauls Church, where she said joys are multiplied and sorrows divided among the parish community  a community she believes shaped Bidens faith and informed his values during his formative years.

Really the churchs teaching of family, of community, of service to others is something Joe Biden lives every day, said Kramer, who also served as a Biden delegate.

Bell described Bidens Catholic faith as earnest and authentic.

Joe always comes back to it, Bell said. Hes not going to church because he likes it. Hes going to church because he truly believes it.

Biden has cited his faith as a source of comfort and strength in times of personal tragedy. He lost his first wife Neilia and his infant daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 automobile collision shortly before his swearing-in as a first-term senator. His eldest son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015.

That Biden continued in public life despite those devastating events speaks to the strength of his faith and underscores his commitment to public service, Connors said.

Lauding Bidens ability to connect with people grieving personal losses, Sen. Bob Casey, a fellow Catholic and Scranton native, said the president-elects profound understanding of loss gives him a leadership ability most public officials either never have or never fully understand. That empathy resonates with a lot of people suffering now, including those who lost loved ones to COVID-19, he said.

Bidens weathering the tempests of tragedy also demonstrates how much faith can sustain you and how much family and community can sustain you, Kramer said.

Casey expressed a similar sentiment, referencing Sirach 6:14.

Its that old line from the scriptures. ... A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who has found one has found a treasure,  Casey said. I think as much as its about having faithful friends in your life  and I think Joe Biden would agree thats also important  I think faith itself can almost be like that faithful friend that can be a shelter when times are difficult. And, I have no doubt that in (Bidens) case his faith was nurtured and developed and inspired by his family and by the religious in his life.
Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford was warned today 'people will die' after he said the country was deliberately slowing down the country's Covid vaccine roll-out.

Mr Drakeford this morning admitted Wales isn't using up all of its doses of the Pfizer jab because it wants to make them last until the end of the month.

He claimed the 'sensible' thing to do would be to ration supplies so the programme could work steadily until next month and so staff aren't 'standing around with nothing to do' if supplies run out.

But MPs have slammed his plan as 'dangerous' and said the point of the programme is to protect elderly people from dying not to keep NHS staff busy.

Welsh Tory leader Paul Davies said: 'You'd have thought from a government's perspective they would've wanted to distribute the vaccines as soon as possible. I was flabbergasted by his comments.

'This is a matter of life and death, and that's why it's so crucial now that they get these vaccines out to people as soon as possible.

'To suggest that vaccines should be rolled out over a period of time so that vaccinators are not standing around with nothing to do is absolutely preposterous.

'If we don't get the vaccines out as soon as possible, and into people's arms as soon as possible, then unfortunately more people are going to die.'



David Jones, MP for Clwyd West said the explanation was 'wholly incoherent'. Mark Harper, MP for the Forest of Dean on the Welsh border, said it was 'dangerous' and that people needed vaccines as soon as was possible. And Stephen Crabb, the MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said it was 'deeply, deeply frustrating'.

The Government  including Mr Drakeford in the same interview  have blamed limited supply from manufacturers for slowing down the roll-out of vaccines, which it is hoped could bring an end to the UK's relentless cycle of lockdowns.

Britain has so far immunised nearly 3.9million people  Wales has done the fewest in relation to its population size with a total of 126,375.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said the batch of Pfizer coronavirus vaccines the country has must last until February so is being used up more slowly than the Oxford jab, sparking fury from Conservative MPs in Wales

A woman is pictured getting a coronavirus vaccination at a medical centre in Cardiff

FEARS OF POSTCODE LOTTERY ACCESS TO JABS IN ENGLAND Boris Johnson is facing a backlash over a 'postcode lottery' in vaccinations today as millions of 70-somethings are offered jabs - even though some older people have yet to get theirs. Another five million people are being invited to receive their first dose, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning, and also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March. However, he also risked fuelling fears about a lack of fairness by confirming that people in their 70s will only be offered jabs in areas where 'the majority' of over-80s have already had their first shot. That could disadvantage areas such as London and Suffolk, where progress has been slower. Meanwhile, all care home residents and most of their carers have already had their first shot in Newcastle, but the NHS-led programme in rural Suffolk is struggling to speed up. And a GP surgery in Kent has had to pause its vaccination because of supply problems. Cabinet minister Therese Coffey complained this morning that in her constituency some individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly. 'Vaccinations started well in Suffolk Coastal in the last few days, but something isn't quite right as in some places, patients aged 70+ are being contacted for vaccination ahead of 80+/90+ year olds,' she tweeted. 'Am following up with local NHS.' Mr Zahawi also had to reassure the public that all second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case. The wrangling came as letters started going out to people in England in the next two priority groups. That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients. In London vaccinations have been trailing behind the rest of the country, with Tory MPs voicing alarm that the supplies were being based on take-up of the flu vaccine last winter. Advertisement

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Mr Drakeford said: 'We're using all the Oxford vaccine that we're getting as we get it.

'The Pfizer vaccine that we have has to last us until the beginning of February. We won't get another delivery of that until the very end of January or, probably, the beginning of February.

'There will be no point and, certainly, it will be logistically very damaging to try to use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do with for another month.

'The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine you've got over the period that you've got it for so that your system can absorb it, they can go on working, that you don't have people standing around with nothing to do.

'We will use all the vaccine we have in the time that we have it for and, as more comes on track, we will use all of that as well.

'We will vaccinate all four priority groups by the middle of February, alongside everywhere else in the UK.'

Labour MP Mr Drakeford's comments immediately sparked a backlash from Conservative MPs who said it was the wrong way to go about the programme.

Lockdown rules across the UK are likely to stay in place until all of the 13.9million people in the four most vulnerable categories have been vaccinated against Covid.

Key to bringing them to an end and preventing the tide of deaths is vaccinating the population as quickly as is physically possible.

Ministers have come under intense scrutiny over how the roll-out could be sped up, with the issue  nationally, at least  boiling down to how fast the manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca can get the doses delivered.

But it is now emerging that the infrastructure in some parts of the UK is slowing down how quickly the jabs can be used up.

Statistically, Wales is behind the other nations of the UK in delivering the first dose of the vaccine per 100,000.

As of last week, 3,215 per 100,000 had received it in Wales, compared to 3,514 in Scotland, 4,005 in England and 4,828 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Drakeford dismissed the statistics as 'very marginal differences'.

On Mr Drakeford's willful slowing down of the programme, MP David Jones said: 'Mr Drakeford on [Radio 4] still refusing to deploy the Pfizer vaccine as quickly as possible, and giving a wholly incoherent explanation for the delay. Unbelievable.'

In an earlier tweet on Friday Mr Jones had said: 'Mr Drakeford does understand, I suppose, that in a pandemic a vaccine is actually supposed to be used? Its not meant to be saved up for a rainy day.'

Stephen Crabb said in a BBC interview: '[Constituents] hear in UK media that around 50 per cent of over-80s have now been vaccinated in England, but we are nowhere near that rate in Wales because of the decision the Welsh Government took to prioritise vaccinations of frontline NHS and social care staff, and really to make the over-80s a second order priority.

'We're now, today, hearing the First Minister of Wales has got this sort of go-slow strategy to try and evenly spread out the vaccination doses.

'He said that the vaccination programme isn't a sprint  well many, many people in Wales will be gobsmacked by that because this thing is absolutely a sprint.

'The faster we get the most vulnerable people vaccinated, the more lives that will be saved and the faster we can get out of these awful lockdown restrictions.'

Wale's shadow health minister and MP for Senedd, Andrew R.T. Davies said: 'Whether intended or not, this outburst of honesty from the First Minister tells the Welsh people all they need to know.

'The Welsh Labour Government is failing to deliver its vaccine programme.

'His shocking doubling-down on his decision to delay deployment of Pfizer vaccine supplies is dangerous, and makes no clinical sense whatsoever.

'We need to get these vaccinations into people's arms ASAP. Lives and livelihoods across Wales are at stake.'
As the market leader, Marco's became the first national pizza delivery brand to offer crustless pizza. The Marco's Pizza Bowl line allows consumers to enjoy its delicious pizza while following a higher-protein, lower-carb diet. The Build-Your-Own Pizza Bowl product joins its crustless pizza siblings, the Specialty Pizza Bowls , which come in three varieties: Deluxe, All Meat and Garden.

Marco's Build-Your-Own-Pizza Bowls is a different way for consumers to enjoy Marco's quality pizza, but without the crust. Marco's gives pizza lovers permission to eat pizza with a fork, allowing customers to pick and choose their own ingredient combinations.

"Our customers loved our Specialty Pizza Bowls and told us they now want to make their own creations," said Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tussing. "Whether it's our signature Old World Pepperoni, freshly sliced Roma tomatoes, or our high-quality Italian sausage, we're providing a different, more customized way for pizza lovers and their families to experience our premium ingredients," said Tussing.

"Adapting to consumer trends is part of our DNA and this carb-cutting alternative proved to be a bold and refreshing move in our category, so we leaned in. No one can match our original sauce, signature cheese and high-quality toppings baked into a delicious, crustless pizza experience," said Senior Director of Culinary Innovation Andy Dismore.

To celebrate the launch of its Build-Your-Own-Pizza Bowls, Marco's unveils a new Pizza Bowl spot, which is slated to run on national cable TV starting this week.

For more information about Marco's Pizza and to find your nearest location, please visit www.marcos.com or download our mobile app available on the App Store or Google Play.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA

Marco's Pizza is America's Most Loved and Most Trusted Pizza Brand, according to the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study. Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is one of the fastest-growing pizza companies in the United States. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives by making authentic Italian quality pizza with fresh ingredients. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate over 1,000 stores in 34 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked No. 2 in the Pizza category on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2020 "Franchise 500" ranking, and No. 6 in the Largest Pizza Chain category on Restaurant Business' 2020 "Top 500 Chains" ranking. Other recent accolades include ranking No. 4 in Forbes 2019 "Best Franchises to Buy" Small/Medium Investment and ranking five consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 200" ranking.

SOURCE Marco's Pizza

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Before becoming impossible to control, scientists have warned that Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' need to face the same fate as their late owner as they are already taking over the marshlands of Colombia.

In the next two decades, the population of the 'cocaine hippos' could reach dangerous numbers due to the fact that the rapidly-breeding beasts have now grown to become the largest invasive species on the planet.

Based on the report of the Telegraph, the so-called 'cocaine hippos' were illegally imported and transported to the country by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, who was a Colombian drug lord and the founder of the Medellin Cartel.

Escobar who was dubbed "The King of Cocaine," was the wealthiest criminal in history, and shot dead by authorities in 1993.

Ecologist, Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez shared to the news outlet that nobody likes the idea of shooting the cocaine hippo. However, the public should have to accept that no other strategy is going to work.

After the death of the notorious drug lord, authorities took control of his 7,000-acre estate, which includes a personal zoo.

Despite the move done by authorities wherein most of the animals found their new home at zoos elsewhere, four among the 'cocaine hippos' have escaped.

Based on the report by the Telegraph, without having any real predator in the Colombian soil, there are somehow between 80 to 100 descendants of the former pet of Escobar that are terrorizing the lakes and rivers of the country.

Based on the projection of the scientists, by 2024, the hippo population could surge to 1,500.

According to The New York Post, the hippos pose a threat to the natural wildlife since their urine and feces are toxic, which is potentially sickening not only to other species in the area but also to humans as well.

Government environmentalist, David Echeverri Lopez, shared that they are currently racing to castrate the critters before they take over.

He also mentioned that these hippos can have become part of their local identity, however, time is already running out.

Read also: COVID-19: South Africa Variant Virus and What to Know About This Strain

Moreover, others fear that there is no other option but to slaughter them.

Castelblaco-Martinez also shared that the relocation option might have been possible 30 years ago when there were only four hippos that will be transported out of the area.

She also added that the castration could also have been effective, only if the officials had provided sufficient resources for the program early on, but as of the moment, a cull is the only option.

ECOLOGICAL THREAT

According to a number of experts, if the situation is not brought under control, the problem could affect other animal species as humans who are living in the vicinity.

Some researchers last year found out that hippos brought diversity to the ecosystem.

The team of scientists which include experts coming from the University of Sussex shared that the hippos are a replacement for giant llamas and a mammal called a notoungulate, which is both extinct, The Sun reported.

Related article: Ancient Oceans Not Susceptible to Climate Change; Human Activities Have Done Many Damages

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There were more pedestrians pounding the pavement in Melbourne's central business district during morning peak hour on Monday than during any start to the working week since the first COVID-19 lockdown last year.

City of Melbourne data showed 380 pedestrians trudged past Southern Cross Station on Collins Street between 8am and 9am on Monday, the highest count for that time of the week since late March.

Victorians are trickling back into offices. Credit:Joe Armao

But there was still far less foot traffic in the area compared to a typical Monday morning in 2019, when an average of 3800 pedestrians walked through the area, almost 10 times more than Monday's figure.

The data for the Flinders Street Station underpass showed a similar trend. There were 807 pedestrians recorded at the site between 8am and 9am on Monday, which is the location's highest Monday morning total since the start of the first lockdown, but nowhere near the average of 3685 for the same period in 2019.
Last June, when New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced restaurants could offer outdoor dining  three months after indoor dining was shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic  Princeton officials sprang into action.

Like many other municipalities across the state, officials quickly passed an ordinance waiving fees and relaxing requirements for restaurants offering outdoor dining. And Witherspoon Street, a major thoroughfare in downtown Princeton, was temporarily converted into a one-way road to support additional tables and chairs.

People really loved it, Princeton Councilwoman Michelle Pirone Lambros told NJ Advance Media, adding that many restaurants were regularly fully booked and residents enjoyed dining outside.

Everyones kinda asking, Whats next, Pirone Lambros, who helped spearhead the outdoor dining in town, said. How can we do this on a regular basis?

And the answer is: Soon.

At a meeting in late December, the township council unanimously passed an ordinance establishing Witherspoon Street as a permanent, flexible northbound one-way roadway.

The street may be completely closed to cars during weekends, or seasonally  like during the summer  but those decisions will be made in the future, Councilwoman Mia Sacks said.

Princeton officials, like those in other towns across the state, are re-evaluating their downtowns and other public areas, in light of a pandemic that has largely reshaped how the public and local officials view outdoor space.

The community really fell in love with it

Sacks said Witherspoon Street required work prior to COVID, but the combination of the upcoming repairs and the success of outdoor dining led to reconceptualizing the space.

But there has been talk in Princeton for a long time of expanding our public spaces to allow for more, to prioritize humans, people, as opposed to cars, Sacks told NJ Advance Media. This was a temporary arrangement, but the community really fell in love with it.

Municipal engineer Deanna Stockton drafted the ordinance, which the public weighed in on during the meeting. Residents largely supported the change (an online petition garnered more than 1,000 signatures), with some arguing it didnt go far enough  they wished to see a completely pedestrian street, closed to vehicles.

A pedestrian pushes the button to cross at the intersection of Nassau Street, left, and Washington Road, right, in Princeton. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Probably once every 25 years we get the opportunity to do a major reconstruction project on our roadways, and Witherspoon Street has been sorely in need of it, Stockton said during a phone interview.

Like Mia said, we really wanted to reimagine the street, she added, not just for vehicles but also for pedestrians and other uses.

Parking crunch

However, a few business owners, both on Witherspoon Street and nearby, expressed concerns over parking, traffic, and the impacts on their businesses.

Sacks said the council had a traffic study completed and although the pandemic has resulted in decreased car volume, they utilized data with more typical figures. (She also said no parking spots will be lost, since some spots will be gained on adjacent Nassau Street and other places.)

Witherspoon Street will also have its sidewalks replaced and road repaved, Stockton said. The engineer and planning departments also identified storm and sanitary sewer work underneath the street that needs to be updated.

Weve also seen with these more frequent and flashier storms that weve been experiencing flooding in the area that didnt typically occur, Stockton said. So we are trying to build a more resilient area that can capture more of that stormwater, so that it isnt impacting people and the businesses downtown.

Because the street intersects with Nassau Street  which Route 27, a state highway, runs along  Stockston said the township will be submitting a permit application with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for approval.

They will also be seeking approval from both the township and states historic preservation commissions, since Witherspoon Street is in a historic district. Stockton anticipates construction will start in the beginning of 2022.

A recent ordinance has made Witherspoon Street in Princeton one way, permanently. It had been temporarily shifted to one way because of COVID-19.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Sam Bunting, a resident who writes content for the Walkable Princeton blog, a local advocacy site, said he believes the street change will make the downtown area a more attractive place.

Personally I look at what happened in Somerville and its been a great success, Bunting told NJ Advance Media. Residents really like the pedestrianized space, and businesses are finding it adds to the amount of trade that theyre seeing.

Bunting pointed to when the town pedestrianized Division Street in 2012 and made it permanent the year after as an example. Princeton advocates see it as a model, he said, since vacancies reportedly decreased over time as a result.

Somerville is also considering reclaiming its Main Street under its jurisdiction, instead of state authority, so it can close the street to vehicles for events and other uses, according to TAPintoSomerville.

I think we do absolutely want to prioritize our public spaces, Sacks said, (and) making the downtown an experience, making it a destination, not just a path through for cars.

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Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Vice President Mike Pence delivers a valedictory speech to service members at Lemoore Naval Air Station, Calif., on Jan. 16, 2021. (Department of Defense photo)

Pence: Proud of No New Wars Under Trump Administration

Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday that he is proud the Trump administration didnt get America into a new war.

Im proud to report with just a few days left in our Administration, our Administration is the first in decades that did not get America into a new war, Pence stated on Twitter. Thats Peace through Strength.

White House stated in October that President Donald Trump is the first American leader since Ronald Reagan not to start a war.

Instead, he has rebuilt our military, restored American sovereignty, and renewed the peace through strength foreign policy that helped the United States win the Cold War, the statement continues.

Trump pledged to take the peace through strength approach even before he came into the White House.

In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump stressed during the campaign trail that peace through strength would always be at the center of his future foreign policy if hes elected.

The White House recently released a statement titled Trump Administration Accomplishments. The statement boasted the colossal rebuilding of the military, including created the sixth branch, the Space Force. The statement also detailed how the Trump Administration advanced peace through strength, by withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal, conducting maximum sanctions on Iran and North Korea, bolstering peace in the Balkans, and measures to confront the Chinese Communist Party, among other things.

The closest the Trump administration came to war was in January 2020 when Iran fired missiles at two Iraqi military bases that host American forces in retaliation to the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, a major general of the Iran military.

Trump chose to impose more sanctions on Iran instead of military attacks, avoiding a possible war.

Not only did Trump not start any new wars, but he has also long called to bring U.S. troops back home. Trump reduced troops in Afghanistan and Iraq down to 2,500 last week.

Pence made similar remarks when he and his family visited Naval Air Station Lemoore in California on Jan. 16.

History teaches that weakness arouses evil, and our history has proven that a strong America deters it, Pence said. Our administration has always understood that if you want peace, prepare for war. With that renewed American strength, weve defended this nation and Americas vital national interests around the world.

Pence and his family visited Fort Drum, an army base in upstate New York, on Jan. 17 in what was likely his final official appearance.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

According to current studies, the COVID-19 disease which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus comprises at least five different variants. These differ in how the immune system responds to the infection. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the University of Bonn, together with other experts from Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, present these findings in the scientific journal Genome Medicine. Their results may help to improve the treatment of the disease.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 can manifest in different ways: Many of those affected do not even seem to notice the presence of the virus in their bodies. In other cases, the effects can include flu-like symptoms and neurological disorders to severe and even life-threatening pneumonia. "The classification of COVID-19 into mild and severe courses falls short. The disease is much more diverse, and for each affected person, one certainly would want a therapy that is tailored to fit. What helps one person may be ineffective for another," said Dr. Anna Aschenbrenner, a scientist of the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn and the DZNE's Systems Medicine division. "In this respect, it is obvious to want to understand what underlies these differences. If we can pin them down to scientific criteria and categorize patients accordingly, this increases the chances of effective treatment. We therefore took a look at the immune system. Because many studies are indicating that its response to infection with SARS-CoV-2 plays a crucial role in the course of COVID-19," said Aschenbrenner, who is a member of the "ImmunoSensation2" Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn.

International Cooperation

In light of this, a team led by Anna Aschenbrenner, along with colleagues in Germany and abroad, analyzed the blood of people with and without COVID-19. The samples came from a total of 95 people distributed among Bonn, Athens and Nijmegen. The research was done in collaboration with the "German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative" (DeCOI) - a network of German universities and research institutions. In Bonn, the DZNE and the University of Bonn were involved, as well as the University Hospital. Partners abroad were the Attikon University Hospital as well as the Sotiria Hospital in Athens, Greece, and the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

For each patient, the so-called transcriptome of the immune cells in the blood was determined. This requires the analysis of large amounts of data using bioinformatics methods. Based on the molecular fingerprint generated in this way, the researchers were able to identify which genes within the immune cells were switched on or off. Such signatures of gene activityknown as "expression patterns"provide information about the condition of cells and thus about their properties and functions, which can change depending on the situation.

Interestingly, the picture obtained in this way was largely determined by the family of "neutrophils," which are the most abundant of the so-called white blood cells and quite up front in the reaction chain of the immune response. These cells are thus mobilized very early to defend against infections. They act upon the formation of antibodies and, moreover, on other cells that contribute to immunity.

Five Manifestations

"First of all, it is important to note that the expression patterns of immune cells in people with COVID-19 differ fundamentally from those in healthy individuals. The gene activity we can detect in the blood is strongly altered. But there are also striking differences among patients. On this basis, we have identified five different groups. We refer to them as molecular phenotypes," said Dr. Thomas Ulas, an expert in bioinformatics at the DZNE. "Two of them represent severe disease courses. The others have more moderate symptoms." The classification was based solely on transcriptome data. Only in retrospect, molecular phenotypes were matched to registered clinical courses.

COVID-19 Is Different

The researchers used their findings to compare COVID-19 with other diseases and also with data from healthy individuals. For this purpose, they were able to draw on data from the "Rhineland Study"a population study conducted by the DZNE in the Bonn areaas well as on data from scientific databases. For the comparison, a large spectrum of diseases was considered: including viral infections such as influenza, infections with HIV and Zika, bacterial infections such as tuberculosis and bacterial sepsis, and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. "All five COVID-19 phenotypes are different from the other diseases we studied," Ulas said, summing up the findings. "Apparently, COVID-19 has a unique biology that is reflected in the gene activity of immune cells in the blood. Insofar, expression analysis could be used to diagnose COVID-19. This would be an alternative or complement to current methods."

Searching for Drugs

The scientists also searched for potential drugs against COVID-19. For this, they drew on the effects registered in databases of around 900 approved drugs on the expression patterns of cells. "We calculated which pharmaceuticals could counteract the altered gene activity profiles of the individual COVID-19 phenotypes," said Aschenbrenner. On this basis, drug candidates for therapy were identified. "Already in April of last year, we calculated a potential efficacy for example for dexamethasone and baricitinib in one of the patient groups with severe course that we identified. These types of analyses, it must be clearly stated, are not treatment recommendations. They do, however, very much provide starting points for therapy development, which then need to be tested in appropriate trials. In the case of dexamethasone and baricitinib, our predictions turned out to be correct. This is an indication of the strength of our approach of using blood transcriptomes to better characterize and classify patients."

Explore further COVID-19: Immune system gone astray

More information: undefined undefined et al. Disease severity-specific neutrophil signatures in blood transcriptomes stratify COVID-19 patients, Genome Medicine (2021). Journal information: Genome Medicine undefined undefined et al. Disease severity-specific neutrophil signatures in blood transcriptomes stratify COVID-19 patients,(2021). DOI: 10.1186/s13073-020-00823-5
- Certified for Microsoft Teams, with Premium microphone for Open Office and a dedicated Teams button to activate Teams by one touch, creating the most seamless Teams experience.A - Featuring Yealink's acoustic shield technology, with a two-microphone noise canceling and voice transmitting. - Ringer for call reminder. - All-in-one design, combining a full-duplex speakerphone, USB hub, wireless charging stand (Optional) and a 4-inch console together with built-in Bluetooth allowing you to connect, manage and control devices and calls, providing more possibilities and convenience for collaboration. XIAMEN, China, Jan. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yealink (Stock Code: 300628), a leading global unified communications (UC) solution provider today announced the release of the WH6x Series DECT Wireless HeadsetsA-UC Workstation that is Certified for Microsoft Teams. Deliver HD voice, designed for co-working and private spaces Teams meetings Yealink WH6x series provide a great audio quality through dereverberation, full-duplex features, noise-canceling microphone, and a speakerphone (only comes with the premium sets), users can hear and be heard clearly without distractions during Teams meetings. Besides, the series also offerA plug and play experience with a dedicated Teams button that allows you to interact with Teams app with just one touch. Essential DECT Wireless Headsets for improving productivity Yealink Essential DECT Wireless Headsets WH62 & WH63, with the Yealink branded Busylight, providing a visual cue and indicator that help to reduce distractions and eliminate interruptions, ensure users to stay focused in Teams meetings. Plus, by Yealink Acoustic Shield Technology to block noise, increase voice clarity, the headsets also offer exceptional wearing comfort, long range wireless connection up to 160m and 14-hour talk time, allowing users to move around the office without losing their calls, which brings greater flexibility to daily communication. Premium WH6x Series for intelligent, flexible and seamless business communications Yealink premium DECT Wireless Headsets WH66 & WH67 X UC Workstation give users the possibility and flexibility to connect devices, and manage communications from a single device, and also act as a hub that integrates a full-duplex speakerphone, fast charging wireless mobile phone dock, 4-inch touch console, and high speed USB hub which, together offer an incredible set of features allowing you to meet, connect and collaborate seamlessly and intelligently. "Yealink is committed to offer more reliable and flexible device choices to our customers. WH6x seriesA-UC Workstation is a powerful product for Microsoft Teams we created this year, aims to drive collaboration and boost productivity in co-working and private workspaces",A said Alvin Liao, Vice President of Product at Yealink. "We will continue to bring more voice and video device solutionsA for Microsoft Teams to benefit more customers." "We hear from our customers that DECT wireless headsets can offer great advantages, especially around wireless reach, density and security", said Albert Kooiman, Senior Director of Microsoft Teams Devices Partner Engineering and Certification, "and I am sure that they will be very pleased to see that Yealink is expanding their portfolio of devices Certified for Microsoft Teams into this category." The newest Yealink WH6x series DECT wireless headsets optimize the voice device solutions for Microsoft Teams. In addition, Yealink offers high quality portfolio for Microsoft Teams including personal devices and shared devices. For more information about the products, please go to Yealink device solutions for Microsoft Teams page https://www.yealink.com/solution/microsoft, or contact a Yealink expert for Microsoft via UCinfo@yealink.com. The virtual product launch event will be showcasing on Jan. 18th, and explore more about Yealink new products for Microsoft Teams, please click here to register. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1421210/Yealink_1.jpg
Around 60,000 workers have already been supported since the programme launched

Myanmar's garment workers will have access to more financial help after the European Union (EU) doubled its funding to the country's Myan Ku 'Quick Assistance Fund'.

The fund was extended last week to help garment workers during the Covid-19 crisis, considering the economic fallout the pandemic has caused.

Support has been doubled to EUR10m (US$12m) as the EU commits to further help the tens of thousands of mostly unemployed women migrant workers in the sector. Around 60,000 workers have already been supported since the programme launched.

Myan Ku was set up in April 2020 by the European Union as a rapid response measure to alleviate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on predominantly female garment workers in Myanmar who lost their jobs due to the crisis.

Last year, the fund disbursed 108,320 total cash assistance payments to garment factory workers from every state and region of Myanmar. Around 84% of beneficiaries were women, and the greatest support went to those who were pregnant and to those workers who received little or no severance pay.

The mobile money platform Wave Money distributed 99.9% of cash payments and agreed to cancel transaction fees to support the Myan Ku Covid response effort.

The extension phase of the EU Myan Ku Fund is planned to operate from January 2021 until February 2022. Financial support for laid-off factory workers is still a key feature but is pivoting even further in the direction of assistance to unemployed pregnant workers and unemployed workers with young children under the age of ten.

Migrant workers and workers willing to complete skills training programmes will also be supported. The scope of expert nutritional support services is also expanding, with 2,000 women targeted to receive maternal counselling and direct nutritional support from the project's doctors.

The average payment size per beneficiary per month was MMK75,000 (US$56) in 2020, with the payment range varying from MKK25,000 up to MKK125,000. Recipients often indicated this was the only income they received during critical points in the pandemic, such as during the first national lockdown in April and during the second lockdown in September and October 2020.

"Myan Ku will continue to come in support to the most vulnerable, mainly pregnant workers and workers with young children and migrant workers," said EU Ambassador, Ranieri Sabatucci. "But as we are entering a recovery phase, the programme will also aim at getting more workers back to work by supporting unemployed workers to complete skills training programmes and to match-make unemployed workers with factories for jobs."
A White House spokesman declined to comment. Legal scholars and some pardon lawyers shudder at the prospect of such moves, as well as the specter of Trump's friends and allies offering to pursue pardons for others in exchange for cash. "This kind of off-books influence peddling, special-privilege system denies consideration to the hundreds of ordinary people who have obediently lined up as required by Justice Department rules, and is a basic violation of the long-standing effort to make this process at least look fair," said Margaret Love, who ran the department's clemency process from 1990 until 1997 as the US pardon attorney. Long-time Trump associate Roger Stone jailed after the Russia probe received a Trump pardon last year. Credit:AP There are few historical parallels. Perhaps the closest occurred in the final hours of Bill Clinton's administration when he issued 170 pardons and commutations, some of which went to people who paid six-figure sums to his family and associates. But even Clinton, who was seen as flouting protocols, mostly rewarded people who had gone through an intensive Justice Department review process intended to identify and vet the most deserving recipients from among thousands of clemency applications.

Trump has shunned that process more than any recent president, creating an ad hoc system in the White House that Kushner has had significant influence over, and has relied on input from an informal network of outside advisers, including Tolman, the lobbyst. That system favours pardon-seekers who have connections to Trump or his team, or who pay someone who does, said pardon lawyers who have worked for years through the department system. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Few regulations or disclosure requirements govern presidential clemency grants or lobbying for them, particularly by lawyers, and there is nothing illegal about Trump associates being paid to lobby for clemency. Any explicit offers of payment to the President in return could be investigated as possible violations of bribery laws; no evidence has emerged that Trump was offered money in exchange for a pardon. Some, who used resources or connections to try to get to Trump, say clemency should be granted to more people, independent of their clout. "The criminal justice system is badly broken, badly flawed," said former senator Tim Hutchinson, a Republican who served in Congress from 1993 to 2003.

He has paid Tolman at least $US10,000 since late last year to lobby the White House and Congress for a pardon for his son Jeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state legislator who pleaded guilty in 2019 to accepting bribes and tax fraud, according to a lobbying disclosure filed this month. Hutchinson said the money was only for lobbying and acknowledged that Tolman may have performed legal services not reflected in the disclosure. While Hutchinson said he was happy with Tolman, he added, "There is a lot of people deserving of mercy, and I hope the President has a wide net in his approach to pardons and clemency." Also pardoned: Corn, a Thanksgiving turkey receives clemency from US President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump, last year. Credit:AP Tolman, who did not respond to requests for comment, is a former US attorney in Utah appointed by President George W Bush. He was a leading supporter of legislation overhauling sentencing laws championed by Trump and Kushner and was invited to the White House signing ceremony in December 2018. Since then, Tolman has emerged as a prominent advocate for clemency requests, with his firm's website highlighting a White House statement crediting him with helping secure pardons or commutations for three people, including Kushner's father, a wealthy real estate developer who was convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering and campaign finance violations. The White House has also credited Tolman with helping less well-connected offenders win clemency. There are no public records indicating Tolman was paid for those efforts, and Tolman wrote on Twitter on Friday that he has "represented many to get clemency. Some have been paying clients, many have been pro bono. I'm proud of my team's clemency work."

He filed paperwork this month indicating he was paid $US20,000 in the last three months of last year to seek a commutation for Dina Wein Reis, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Reis, who was released from prison in 2014, did not respond to requests for comment. Loading A filing this month revealed that Tolman was paid $US22,500 by an Arizona man named Brian Anderson who had retained him in September to seek clemency for Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and distributing narcotics on the internet. One of the lobbyists closest to Trump and his administration, Matt Schlapp, who was tapped by Trump last month to sit on the trust fund board for the Library of Congress, has been lobbying for weeks for a pardon for Parker Petit, a major Republican donor known as Pete who was the Georgia finance chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign and was convicted of securities fraud in November. Another lobbyist who has advertised his connections to Trump, Mark Cowan, was part of a team hired after the election to seek clemency for Nickie Lum Davis, who pleaded guilty in August for her role in a covert campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.

Weeks after stepping down as the President's lawyer in 2018, Dowd began marketing himself as a potential conduit for pardons. Dowd told prospective clients he could help them receive pardons because of his access to Trump and top aides like Kushner. John Dowd resigned in March 2018 as President Donald Trump's lead lawyer int he Russia probe. Credit:John Marshall Mantel/The New York Times Dowd, who as the President's lawyer had dangled a pardon to stop Trump's former national security adviser from cooperating with investigators, had continued to informally advise Trump. He told would-be clients and their representatives that the President was likely to look favorably on petitioners who were investigated by federal prosecutors in Manhattan or tarnished by perceived leaks from the FBI. At the time, Trump was seeking to undermine those groups because they were investigating his conduct. After leaving the Trump legal team, Dowd began representing William Walters, a wealthy sports gambler in Las Vegas convicted of insider trading. Around that time, Dowd told Walters and others that he would soon obtain a pardon for his client using his access to the White House and because Walters had been investigated by prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI. Walters paid Dowd tens of thousands of dollars, but a pardon has yet to materialise.

Dowd denied that he had boasted to anyone about his ability to obtain pardons and declined to answer questions. A former Trump campaign adviser, Karen Giorno, also had access to people around the President, having run Trump's campaign in Florida during the 2016 primary and remaining on board during the general election. She met in 2018 with Kiriakou, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to illegally disclosing the name of a CIA officer involved in the waterboarding of an American detainee. Although the name was never publicly disclosed, Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison. In the meeting, at the Washington office of his lawyer, Kiriakou said he had been wronged by the government and was seeking a pardon so he could carry a handgun and receive his pension. Giorno was accompanied by Trump's former director of advance, George Gigicos. Both said they had direct lines to the President, Kiriakou said. "I wanted to believe them," he said.

Giorno disputed this account, saying neither she nor Gigicos bragged about their presidential access. She said Gigicos was not involved in her effort, which she said was motivated by a feeling that "it was unfair what happened" to Kiriakou. In July 2018, Giorno signed an agreement with Kiriakou, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, "to seek a full pardon from President Donald Trump of his conviction" for $US50,000 and promised another $5US0,000 as a bonus if she secured a pardon. Loading Giorno said she never spoke to Trump directly about Kiriakou and did not lobby anyone in his administration for a pardon. Rather, she said that in meetings with senior administration officials, she tried "to connect the dots" between the people and techniques involved in Kiriakou's prosecution and those involved in the special counsel investigation then dogging Trump's presidency. Kiriakou said he also broached his quest for a pardon during a meeting last year with Giuliani and his associates on another subject at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which involved substantial alcohol.

When Giuliani went to the bathroom at one point, one of his confidants turned to Kiriakou and suggested that Giuliani could help. But "it's going to cost $US2 million  he's going to want two million bucks," Kiriakou recalled the associate saying. "I laughed. Two million bucks  are you out of your mind?" Kiriakou said. "Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldn't spend it to recover a $US700,000 pension." Kiriakou said he did not pursue the arrangement, but he shared the anecdote at a party last northern fall. A friend, a Transportation Security Administration whistleblower and former air marshal named Robert MacLean, became alarmed and feared Giuliani might be selling pardons. Without telling Kiriakou, MacLean filed a report with the FBI. "I felt duty-bound to report it," MacLean said.

Adventurers, bliss seekers and discerning travellers will delight in the news that spectacular stays on the UAEs largest natural island are once again within reach as Anantara announces the reopening of its Sir Bani Yas Island Resorts from February 1.

Lush landscapes, archaeological marvels and exotic wildlife await just 25 minutes from the mainland, and three unique resorts welcome guests with signature hospitality for unforgettable journeys.

As one of the top resorts in the Middle East, Anantara Sir Bani Yas Resorts combine beach retreats with natural wonders, world-class service and opulent accommodation, alluring the perfect balance of off-grid island getaway, five-star luxury and once-in-a-lifetime experiences in this singular setting. Noted by Venetian explorers as early as 1590 for the pearls found in its waters, Sir Bani Yas Island has always been a treasure trove of history and heritage, and culture vultures will revel in fascinating tours of archaeological sites including a 7th-Century monastery. Alongside cultural preservation comes a focus on sustainability and conservation. A Royal Nature Reserve since 1971, the island is home to over 11,000 animals from 30 different endangered species and Anantara guests have the unique chance to glimpse blackbuck antelope and Arabian oryx as well as giraffe, ostrich and cheetah in their natural environment.

Like its wild inhabitants, the safety and wellbeing of the islands guests are paramount, with all three resorts Go Safe certified by Abu Dhabi Local Authorities and Anantaras Stay with Peace of Mind programme firmly in place. From February 1, guests will once again be spoiled for choice between a family-friendly resort or the unparalleled privacy and safety of totally secluded luxury villas.

Anantara Al Sahel Villa Resort offers guests the chance to get rooted in the natural world. Nestled in the Arabian Wildlife Park, an oasis of African-lodge-style villas is surrounded by a lush landscape. Excursions into the park include nature walks and drives, while a unique Spa Cabana in the Savannah experience promises utter bliss. Savannah Grill and Savannah Lounge serve up delicious delicacies from all over Africa, and vibrant Boma Nights bring the bush culture alive through music and al fresco cookery.

Palatial beachfront villas in a pearl fishing village hideaway await at Anantara Al Yamm Villa Resort on the islands eastern shore. This perfect retreat for two offers indulgent romance with couples spa treatments in a private cabana on the beach or through thrills and adventure in the islands scenic heartland. At Olio and Olio Lounge, Italian delicacies and drinks are served in a laid back atmosphere with dazzling ocean views.

Desert Islands Resort & Spa by Anantara welcomes families with modern amenities, elegant traditional touches and culinary adventures. Gourmet seafood entices at Amwaj, international buffet breakfasts await at The Palm and Al Shams serves bites and delights by the pool. Meanwhile, on the tranquil beachfront, Anantara Spa welcomes guests with timeless relaxation experiences, from the ancient rituals of Arabia, to age-old eastern health practices, performed by experts using natural products. Guests at all three of the islands Anantara resorts are invited to discover the spa delights available in each location.

For true free reign of the island and all its wonder, a complete buyout option is available. With the world-class amenities, expert guides and luxury accommodation of all three Anantara resorts at their disposal, buyout guests experience Sir Bani Yas Island with no limits, for a truly unforgettable experience. - TradeArabia News Service
UK demands China grant UN access to Xinjiang over abuses

WORLD: Britains government yesterday (Jan 17) pressed China to allow UN rights inspectors to visit Xinjiang after raising anew allegations of appalling human rights abuses against the Uighur minority people.

Chinese

By AFP

Monday 18 January 2021, 01:41PM

The Chinese flag is seen behind razor wire at a housing compound in Yangisar, south of Kashgar, in Chinas western Xinjiang region. Photo: AFP file.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week introduced import controls on firms that may have sourced goods from the region in northwest China using forced labour from the mainly Muslim Uighur community.

Speaking on the BBC, he decried reports of slave labour effectively, forced sterilisation, appalling human rights abuses.

Whether or not it amounts to genocide has to be determined by a court. The bar has been set incredibly high, Raab said.

And frankly we shouldnt be engaged in free-trade negotiations with countries abusing human rights well below the limit of genocide, he added, implicitly attacking the European Union for securing an investment pact with China last month.

Raabs government opposes efforts underway in parliament to give UK courts the power to declare a genocide in Xinjiang, which would bar the government from proceeding with any free-trade agreement with China.

But Raab told Sky News that he supported the spirit of the proposal, and demanded that China show more transparency over Xinjiang, where experts say at least one million Uighurs have been detained in recent years in political re-education camps.

What China says is this is all lies cooked up by the West, and Britain a leading member amongst them, the foreign secretary said.

What we say is if you dispute the allegations and the claims and the reports, theres a simple way to clear this up: allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit and access and see these sites.

China warned Britain to stop meddling in its internal affairs after the imposition of the import controls, which were followed by similar measures from Canada.

Western countries have also been at loggerheads with Beijing over Hong Kong, a former British colony.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson told lawmakers last week that despite the need for vigilance, particularly about threats to national infrastructure and data from cyberspace, bilateral ties could be maintained.

Speaking frankly and calling out human rights abuses should not stop us from having a productive relationship, where that is possible, he said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis defiant statement about President Trump that all roads lead to Russia is especially ironic now coming with only two days before the Biden Inauguration. Federal authorities charged a Trump supporter for stealing Pelosis laptop, and she is suspected of planning to sell it to Russias foreign intelligence services.

In an affidavit filed late Sunday evening, agents of the FBI asserted that they received a tip from a former romantic partner of Riley June Williams, 22, who recognized her in footage shot during the insurrectionist attack caught by British television network ITV. Williams former lover reported to federal authorities that having seen other video of the event, saw Williams pocketing the computer from Pelosis Capitol building office conference room.

Williams former romantic partner apparently told investigators that Williams had said she intended to send it to a friend in Russia who would arrange the transfer to the SVR, the Russian equivalent of the CIA.

According to the affidavit submitted to obtain a warrant for her arrest, Williams former partner told FBI agents that the plan to sell it to Russias SVR has fallen through, and the laptop remains in her possession. William is apparently aware of the all-points bulletin and warrant for her arrest, so by the time investigators tracked Williams down to the apartment she shares with her mother in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she had already fled, according to the court affidavit.

Williams mother told FBI agents investigating her that the day before their showing up at the apartment, a United Kingdom ITV news crew showed up at her door looking for her daughter.

In a segment that aired on that network Sunday, Williams mother confirmed for those reporters that her daughter was the woman seen in earlier footage of the Capitol attack, directing other insurrectionists inside the Capitol rotunda toward a staircase lading to Pelosis office.

Riley June Williams was dressed on January 6, 2021, in a green T-shirt, glasses and a brown coat with a zebra print bag slung over her shoulder. Agents identified Williams shouting, Up the stairs! Go! repeatedly as she pushes rioters onward.

According to the ITV interview, as people began to recognize her in the insurrection videos at our nations Capitol, she fled without saying where she was going. Her mother said.

Shes actually gone.

She took off not only because of that [video].

She figures if its out there, theyll [the FBI] come to her about it.

Williams mother tried to defend her daughter as a very empathetic and loving person who had taken a sudden interest in President Donald Trumps politics and far-right message boards in recent months.

Her mother also insisted, Williams rarely talked about her politics.

Its all about wanting America to get the correct information, she said.

According to the FBI affidavit filed in court, Williams drove to Washington on January 6 with her father, a Camp Hill resident, to attend the Stop the Steal rally but split up during the day. They reunited after police had cleared the Capitol that evening and drove back to Harrisburg the same day.

Williams alleged role in the theft of Pelosis laptop remains under investigation. At the moment, she is charged only with unlawfully entering Capitol grounds and disorderly conduct. The problem for Williams is Pelosis chief of staff, Drew Hammill, confirmed on Twitter in the days after the attack that a laptop, primarily used for presentations, had been stolen from a conference room in the House speakers office.

According to the latest count, FBI agents and law enforcement have charged more than 152 accused rioters in the nearly two weeks since the Capitol attack, including three other Pennsylvania residents.

They include Terry Brown, a retired code enforcement officer from Lebanon County, and Andrew Wrigley, a former Center City artist who recently moved to Jim Thorpe, Pa. Both men face charges, including unlawfully entering the Capitol grounds.

The third man, Robert Sanford, a retired Chester firefighter, is accused of throwing a fire extinguisher that injured three Capitol Police officers during a melee on the buildings steps and led to one police officers death.

If the allegation that Riley June Williams attempted in any way to sell or transfer Pelosis laptop to Russian Intelligence, she could face trial for treason and a death sentence. Williams is not accused of theft at this moment. She is only charged with violent entry or disorderly conduct and entering the Capitols restricted space, the same charges faced by many who took part in the siege that day.

Suppose Robert Sanford is convicted in the Capitol police officers death due to his throwing the fire extinguisher. In that case, he could face manslaughter, 2nd degree murder charges, and a myriad of other charges that would effectively put him in jail for the balance of his life.

FBI Reports Woman Intended To Ship Pelosis Office Computer To Russia